Sept. 21st.—­Wind S. with rain.  Caught four dolphins, which afforded us a most delicious repast:  in the paunch of one was found a dodon, or globe-fish; the sailors call it a parrot-fish, from its having a beak exactly resembling that bird.—­At 9 A.M. spoke with the Queen Charlotte of London, bound to Bristol, out ten days from Baltimore; the captain’s account of the longitude 67.  Our joy in being so near the land was of short continuance; for, in one hour after, we spoke with the Union, eight days from Philadelphia.  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.

Oct. 13th.—­Spent the last ten days in shooting, and rambling about the woods.  The face of the country is exactly that of an immense forest, entirely covered with wood, except the plantation cleared by the settlers.  The land sandy, and by no means of a good quality; the chief produce maize, or indian corn.  I counted the increase of one stalk with three ears; the amount of the grains were upward of one thousand two hundred.