Travels In The United States Of America; Commencing In The Year 1793, And Ending In 1797. With The Author's Journals Of His Two Voyages Across The Atlantic By William Priest
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The Captain Informed Us, There Was A Sort Of
Plague In That City, Which Carries Off Great Numbers, And That Ten
Thousand Of The Inhabitants Had Fled To The Country, To Avoid The
Infection.
_Sept. 24th_.
- Soundings at 60 fathom: lay to all night.
_Sept. 25th_. - Woke with the cry of "Land." At 10 A.M. we took a
pilot on board: he informed us the disorder at Philadelphia is the yellow
fever, imported in a french schooner from the West Indies; some of the
passengers of this vessel died of this fatal disorder, at a lodging-house
in Water-street, and communicated the infection to the family. It is now
spreading rapidly through the city, in all directions. The faculty, so far
from being able to cure this disorder, have, in several instances, fallen
victims to it's fury. Within this few days, a Dr. Rush has discovered this
disorder is _not_ the yellow fever of the West Indies and has applied
an opposite mode of cure by copious bleedings, mercurial medicines, &c.
with some success. What is truly extraordinary, the infection does not
affect _people of colour!_
_Sept. 28th._ - Came to an anchor off Glocester Point, five miles
below Philadelphia: the vessel proceeds no further at present, as all
intercourse with the city is cut off, and business at a stand.
_October 1st_.
Brought my baggage on shore, and arrived, at four in the afternoon, at
Woodbury, the county town of Glocester, in the state of West Jersey. With
some difficulty I procured a lodging within half a mile of the town.
Woodbury consists of about fifty well built houses, chiefly inhabited by
quakers, and other dissenters of the most rigid kind; so very primitive
are they in their appearance, that a barber cannot make a living among
them.
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