THE HESSIANS IN PHILADELPHIA.1

A GERMAN OFFICER'S IMPRESSION OF OUR CITY.

FROM THE CORRESPONDENCE OF PROFESSOR SCHLÖZER OF GÖTTINGEN, VOL. III. P. 149.

TRANSLATED BY MISS HELEN BELL.

AT PHILADELPHIA on the NECK, Jan. 18, 1778.

I received on November 4, your short letter of the 25th of May, directed to "Lieut. H in New York, or to Captain Hat Philadelphia.”

My present opinions of America differ very much from those which I expressed in my former letters. It is true that I could not now picture to myself an earthly paradise without thinking of a great part of the Jerseys and Long Island, but not of Pennsylvania! If the Honorable Count Penn should surrender to me the whole country for my patent, on condition that I should live here during my life, I would scarcely accept it. And this is the promised land, the land flowing with milk and honey, which so many before us have praised! You know already that as every North American province has an especial existence, and is governed according to its own principles, it must therefore be judged as differently. The packet boat goes to-morrow, and with it these few and hasty observations on the country and climate.

Among 100 persons, not merely in Philadelphia, but also throughout the whole neighborhood, not one has a healthy color, the cause of which is the unhealthy air and the bad water. Assuredly this is not a consequence of the latitude,

The writer of this letter was Captain John Heinrichs (Henrichs), of the Hessian Yager Corps. He was several times wounded during his service in America, most severely at the capture of Fort Washington, where a ball penetrated his breast. In 1784, he entered the infantry. He soon passed over to the service of Prussia, was ennobled, and advanced to the rank of Lieutenant General. He died in 1834. (See German Auxiliaries, by Von Eelking.) His corps was stationed in the southern part of the city, probably on the road to Gray's Ferry.

for Pennsylvania lies in one of the healthiest degrees, but the woods, morasses, and mountains, which partly confine the air, and partly poison it, make the country unhealthy. Nothing is more common here than a fever once a year, then eruptious, the itch, etc. Nowhere have I seen so many mad people as here. Only yesterday, as I was dining with a Gentleman, a third person came into the room, and he whispered in my ear: Take care, this gentleman is a madman. Frequently the people are cured, but almost all have a quiet madness, a derangement of mind which proceeds from sluggish, not active blood. One cause, perhaps, is that no food here has as much nourishment as with us. The milk is not half so rich, the bread gives little nourishment. There is a noticeable difference in the quality of the produce which is brought to market in Philadelphia, from the Jerseys and from Pennsylvania.

The cold in winter and the heat in summer are quite moderate, but the thunderstorms in summer, and the damp reeking air in spring and autumn, are unendurable. In summer, mists fall and wet everything, and then in the afternoon there is a thunderstorm. And in winter, when the trees are frosted in the morning, it rains in the afternoon. Such phenomena are common occurrences here.

Like the products of the earth, animals too are only halfdeveloped. A hare, a partridge, a peacock, etc., is only halfgrown. Wild game tastes like ordinary meat. One of the few good consequences of this war is, that more forests will be destroyed, and the air will become purer. A man from this city, by the name of Hamilton,' alone lost 1500 acres of woodlands, which was cut down for the hospital, and he had sufficient patriotism to remark recently in company, that it was good for the country.

The fertility of the ground is so great, that it can be planted and harvested twice a year; but the corn itself is not as good as ours. The greater part of America is rich in minerals, particularly the tract where we operated last summer, on the Elk River, Brandywine Creek, Valley Hills, and 2 Probably 150 acres.

William Hamilton, of the Woodlands.

on the Schuylkill. There is plenty of wood here; I burn seven kinds of firs, besides the varieties of sassafras, cedar, and walnut, in my chimney place and in the watch fires. Besides, the land yields corn, wheat, oats, flax, hemp, Indian corn, potatoes (which are not so good as those from Holland, although this is their native land), turnips, and garden stuff of all kinds, though not so well grown as with us. The tree fruits also are not unlike. The vine cannot ripen on account of the before-mentioned mists. Pears are scarce, and apples seldom have a good flavor.

You have doubtless heard, from the newspapers, of the defences, which cut up this country to such a degree, that cavalry cannot manœuvre even on the plains. The defences, which are wooden enclosures of the fields, are only on account of the cattle, for every one turns out his cattle, horses, sheep, cows, etc., without a herdsman. As soon as a field is harvested, the farmer turns his cattle into it, and into each in turn, so that almost every field has its own enclosure. This costs a great deal, but an old German farmer, two miles from Philadelphia, assured me that it would do him more harm to lose a foot of land by a hedge and ditch. A still more important reason why there are no hedges is, that they do not thrive here at all. The thorn cannot grow on account of a certain insect, the name of which I have forgotten, and the willow does not grow everywhere. Last week I saw at Hollanders' Creek, a newly planted hedge of willows.

Hogs are quite as good here as the best in Holstein, for there is good mast for them in the woods, and they feed there the whole year. There are plenty of Guinea-fowls, but not so many as in the Jerseys and Long Island. Turkeys belong to the wild animals, and are in all the woods in flocks like partridges. There are plenty of sheep, but as the farmer drives them into the wood, he loses the wool; however, he sells the skin for 18s. York money. Ducks and geese are as common and as good as ours, but no better. You cannot conceive of the superabundant swarms of flies here. Hares, woodcock, partridges, etc., are very abundant,

There are still bears

but they are not half so large as ours. and wolves in Tolpahaky,' thirty-six miles from Philadelphia, whence they are brought to Philadelphia; the leg of a bear is a great delicacy.

There is no scarcity of snakes. The great blacksnake has been near the Schuylkill lately, quite near our quarters. A countryman, cutting wood, was chased by one quite recently, but a neighbor killed it with a stick. There is nothing, however, more terrible than the big rattlesnake, which is from twelve to sixteen feet long, and which, as it is believed here, kills by its glance, A countryman in my quarters lost a relative of his in this way, some years ago. He had gone hunting, and seeing a bear standing still, aimed at and shot it; scarcely had he reached the bear, when he too was obliged to stand motionless, remained thus awhile, fell and died; all this was caused by a rattlesnake, which was perched in a high tree. The nearest ones to Philadelphia are in Tolpahaky,' and there were some also between Elk Ferry and Head of the Elk, where we encamped three days. So much for the country. I will write of the people, their civilization, etc., in my next letter.

Perhaps the reason why the domestic animals are not half so good as ours, is, because they are left out, winter and summer, in the open air.

I wrote before, that no white glass is made in America, but a manufactory was established at Mannheim, in Pennsylvania, two years before the war. But it thrives as poorly as the manufacture of china, and all other arts and manufactures, because the price of labor is so high.

Would you like to know where I live? Turn to Burnaby's Description of his Travels: "From here to the city, the whole way was lined with country houses, pleasure gardens,and fruitful orchards." Among these "country houses, pleasure gardens, and orchards," the highly esteemed Yäger Corps have their winter quarters, and where he says "on the Schuylkill," there I mount guard to-morrow. It seems to me as if this sketch were plainer than many an engineer could draw it.

Tulpehocken-more nearly sixty-six miles.

PITTSBURG AND UNIONTOWN, PENNSYLVANIA, IN 1782-83.

LETTERS FROM EPHRAIM DOUGLASS TO GEN. JAMES IRVINE.

FROM THE IRVINE PAPERS IN THE HISTORICAL SOCIETY.

We cannot better preface the first of the letters here printed than by referring the reader to that very interesting book entitled, " An Historical Account of the Expedition against Sandusky, under Col. Wm. Crawford, in 1782," by C. W. Butterfield. In it will be found accounts of the destruction of Hanna's Town (July 13, 1782), sketches of Slover and Dr. Knight, and the story of their sufferings and escape. The letter was written shortly after the unfortunate termination of Crawford's expedition, at a time when the whole western border of our State was open to the inroads of the savages. The letter from Uniontown will be entertaining to the residents of Fayette County, and to all interested in the history of the western section of the State.

MY DEAR GENERAL:

PITTSBURG, 26th July, 1782.

To assert that I feel as sensibly whatever affects your health as you do yourself were too extravagant to gain belief, but that I feel whatever the sympathetic heart of a sincere friend can suffer from the distresses of one to whom it is powerfully attached I will not hesitate to assert, and much less blush to own; but I hope you were prophetic when you bid me expect you would be well before your letter reached me. My own health is as usual, neither to be boasted of nor much to be pitied. My greatest misfortune is the want of something to employ the restless, active mind -even the savage consolation of wandering thro' the lonesome but hospitable woods is denied me by the frequency of the Indians' visits to this wretched country; for tho' I have nothing but the regret of parting with my valuable friends, and the common and natural aversion we all have to death, to bid me dread it, I am unwilling to risque the possibility of becoming a prisoner and the probable subject of their horrid executions, when unattended by the alluring prospect