COUNT CASTIGLIONI, CHEVALIER OF THE ORDER OF ST. STEPHEN, P. M.

1786.

IN the diary of George Washington for the year 1785 appear these entries: “Sunday, December 25.—Count Castiglioni came here to dinner. December 29.—Count Castiglioni went away after breakfast on his tour to the southward.”

This was Count Luigi Castiglioni, who had landed at Boston in May, and after going through New England and a part of Canada, had come to New York, whence, on the 27th of November, he had set out for the South, reaching Alexandria December 24th, and spending Christmas at Mount Vernon. Count Castiglioni was a man of science, Chevalier of the Order of St. Stephen, P. M., member of the Philosophical Society of Philadelphia, and also member of the Patriotical Society of Milan, Patrician of Milan. The book written by him, Viaggio negli Stati Uniti, is particularly descriptive of the useful plants to be found in this country, with a view to their introduction into Europe, either for the farm and the kitchen garden or for practical inclusion in the materia medica. This book and that of Dr. Schoepf, 1783-1784, give an excellent statement as to the natural history, the methods of agriculture, milling, mining, etc., of that period in the history of the fourteen States.

“Alexandria,” says Count Castiglioni, “numbers 300 houses and possibly 3,000 inhabitants. At times, although the latitude is only 38 degrees 45 minutes, the cold is so great that the Potowmack may be ridden and driven over. Such freezing weather is never of long duration, and many winters the river is not frozen at all. This newly established town has already received the name and the privileges of a city, and as soon as the Potowmack is made navigable will become one of the most flourishing of the trading towns of Virginia.

“When I was there the plan for the improvement of the navigation (suggested by General Washington) was beginning to be put into effect. Near Alexandria brick and tiles are made at a reasonable price, the soil thereabouts being a soft, viscous clay. They make lime there from the oyster shells, which are found in extraordinary banks. The people have two theories about these great shell banks, one being that they are due to successive inundations of the sea, the other that the aborigines assembled them, either for burial mounds or for some other religious purpose.

“The morning of the 25th of December I left Alexandria and went to Mount Vernon. There I spent four memorable days. General Washington is perhaps fifty-seven years of age, a man large and strong of build, of a majestic but kindly bearing, and, notwithstanding the fatigues of war, appears not yet to be aging. This celebrated man, who began and so happily carried through the American war, seems, as it were, to have been formed by nature to free this country of European rule and to inaugurate an epoch in the history of mankind. Bred to arms, he has not neglected the study of politics, and there is probably no one in America who has a better knowledge of the present condition of the United States or more sincerely desires their welfare. May Heaven spare him many years for the good of his country, for an example to it and to Europe.

“Leaving Mount Vernon December 29th, in the morning, I went by Colchester, a little place on the River Ochoquan, Dumfries, where there are several warehouses for tobacco; Aquaja (only a few houses), and fourteen miles beyond came to Falmouth, on the Rappahannock, whence it is the custom to ferry down to Fredericksburg, on the opposite bank. Fredericksburg, like Alexandria, is by law styled a city, and carries on a heavy trade in tobacco. From Fredericksburg many plantations are seen, larger and smaller. The large houses are generally built with a porch, and the outbuildings ranged at either side. The tobacco exhausts a cleared field in three years, and no attempt is made to manure, the cattle being kept at large in the woods. Two acres in tobacco bring about two hogsheads, or maybe 3,000 pounds. One thousand pounds (a hogshead) fetches from 27 to 39 shillings Virginia money the hundred.“The following day I traveled thirty miles through a district where much tobacco is raised, and much peach brandy and persimmon beer is made. The peach flourishes so in Virginia that often when a tract of land is cleared the peach trees take possession of the whole area, nothing being done for the propagation of them except letting in the sun on the ground. The persimmon is gathered from a sort of Guayakana in the woods. The fruit would be very good to eat but for the skin, which has an unpleasantness in the taste. In the evening I came to Richmond, now the capital of Virginia, a town which has grown rapidly, and numbers some 4,000 inhabitants, and 400 houses. The town is built on two hills, separated by a brook, over which is thrown a wooden bridge, with side ways for foot passengers. The trade of the place consists largely in tobacco, and there is much competition from the other markets at Alexandria and Petersburg. When I was there a well had just been dug to the depth of seventy feet on one of the hills, which rise one above another from the James, here a river foaming among great rocks. I visited the spot. The earth removed smelled of sulphur, and had the look of rotted wood, ash gray, but turning white on exposure to the air. There were found at the bottom of this well, bedded in the earth described, many bones, some larger than the bones of cattle, and also remains of the aboriginal Indians, stone implements, etc., proof that these tribes had been in possession of the land many centuries before.

“January 6th [1786] I passed on to Petersburg, through Osborne’s. Blandford, Pocahontas and Petersburg are now incorporated under the name Petersburg. Great quantity of tobacco is brought to Petersburg, even from the North Carolina country, and is there exported to Europe as James River tobacco, which is the best sort.

“A mile from the town lives Colonel Banister, a nephew[H] of the famous John Banister, who gave up his place as professor of botany and librarian at the University of Oxford, and settling in this part of Virginia, at great pains and with rare judgment collected and described a number of the scarcest plants. From Colonel Banister’s I went, on the 9th, to Kingston, a rich plantation belonging to Captain Walker, in the county of Dinwiddie. The following day I visited Dr. Greenway, by birth an Englishman, and an amateur of botany.[I] I examined his collection with true pleasure, and the next day came again, since Dr. Greenway had given me leave to transscribe from his notes; I have included this material in my descriptions of American plants, relative to the medicinal practices of the aborigines. Five miles from Kingston the traveler passes the River Nottoway. The few Indians remaining of the tribe of that name live near Southampton Courthouse, forty miles distant.

“Having come from Kingston along this road, by the Nottoway and Hiksford (a wooden bridge leads over the Meherrin), thirteen miles beyond the Meherrin, I entered the State of North Carolina on the parallel thirty-six degrees thirty minutes. In this and other parts of Virginia, as also in both the Carolinas, there is found a very noxious serpent called by the inhabitants the Moquisson.“Returning from Georgia and the Carolinas, after I had passed the River Dan [May 11, 1786] three miles from the North Carolina line, I came to the plantation of Mr. W——. In the evening prayers were read, but after the first verse the announcement was made that it was bed time, and we had better disperse. The next day I reached Colonel Coles’s, having come forty miles through Paintonborough and by a bridge over Banister River. I had met Colonel Coles at Richmond, and was received by him with great cordiality. When he heard that I was on my way to Philadelphia he gave me a letter to his brother, Colonel John Coles, who has a place on that road, near Charlottesville. I examined with pleasure, at Colonel Coles’s (on Staunton River) several artificial meadows of clover and rye grass, or wild rye, and also the Colonel’s stud.

“I crossed the Staunton in a boat the morning of the 14th. Here I left the main road and traveled twenty miles through a rough country. The next day, after passing Johns’ Ordinary, I came to Buckingham Courthouse, situated on a high hill, at the foot of which runs the Appomattox.

“I spent the night at Mr. Patteson’s, who has a fine plantation near, and the following day reached James River, twenty miles beyond. A mile from the river a high wind began to blow and the sky was suddenly covered with black clouds.

“Thunder and lightning followed, and the rain and hail came down in streams. The horses were frightened and would not go on. When we reached the bank the storm had almost passed. We called to the ferryman, who was standing in his door on the other side, but he moved not a foot until the rain had entirely ceased, and then gave as excuse that he had not seen us. While we were waiting a large serpent came out of the river onto the banks. I killed it, and found it to be not unlike what they call in Lombardy the smiroldo. On the other side of the river, in a group of houses, stands the building in which the court of Albemarle County was formerly held. I dried my clothes here, ate dinner, and kept on four miles to Eniscotty, the residence of Colonel John Coles, who received me hospitably as his brother. The situation, at the top of a hill, is such that the leaves fall later there, and appear earlier in the spring, than in the country adjacent. The calicanthus grows well, with such an exposure; the hill is called in the neighborhood the Green Hill, which, indeed, in situation and fertility may be compared with the foothills of Monte di Brianza. The mulberry and the vine should flourish here.

“May 18th I left Eniscotty. I crossed the Blue Ridge by the road through Rockfish Gap, which is not comparable, either in steepness or in length, to the roads over the Apennines, much less those over the Alps. Thick fog, followed by rain, compelled me to spend the day at a house on the divide, the proprietor of which told me much regarding the fertility of the lands in that region and the customs of the inhabitants. He informed me that many people from the lower country stayed at his house on their way to the springs in the Alleghany Mountains. Having crossed the Blue Mountains and the South River, I came to Stantown the morning of the 23d. Here I was enabled to see a mocking-bird. These birds are often kept in cages, and are bought by the English at extravagant prices. They are very scarce to the north, and have many times fetched three to four guineas at Boston. About Stantown tobacco is only beginning to be cultivated. They raise wheat, Turkish corn [Indian corn] and hemp. Heavy rains kept me at Stantown until the 27th, and prevented me seeing the extraordinary Natural Bridge.

“At Middle River, a small stream usually fordable the year through, I found several travelers waiting for an opportunity to cross. I put up at a house nearby, and as often as the rain permitted went out, like the Egyptians, to measure with a rod the rise or fall of the waters.

“The morning of the 29th the good man of the house advised me that I might now cross. A crowd of people were at the bank to see us make the attempt. My servant stripped himself and ventured in (on horseback) with the carriage. He had hardly left the bank when the force of the stream swept him down and overturned the calesche. I called to him from where I was standing that his only hope was to let the horse go, and swim; he kept by the horse, and managed to save both it and himself. I resolved never again, in the matter of ferrying a swollen stream, to trust to the advice of these wild pioneers. The next morning I was able to cross, and at the North River was taken over in a flat canoe, the horses swimming at the side.

“The following day, having passed Smith Creek, a dangerous stream, I came into a new road, full of roots and bad from the rain besides. The wheels of the calesche, which had already been many times repaired, broke into a hundred pieces, and at the first smithy I determined to abandon the vehicle and continue the journey on horseback. Beyond the Shenadore, which we crossed in a canoe, the horses swimming behind, we fell into a marshy and rocky road, which leads over Mill Creek and Stony Creek. Keeping on, through a country of many delightful prospects, between the Blue and the Alleghany Mountains, we passed through Millerstown, the county seat of the county of Shenadore, Stowerstown, Newtown, and arrived at Winchester.

“Winchester, for commerce, is one of the most important towns of Virginia. The number of the houses is about 200. The traffic is in wheat, flour and hemp, sold at Baltimore and Philadelphia, whence European manufactures are brought and expedited further beyond the mountains. The water at Winchester—limestone—has a strong effect on first being used. The 18th of June I left Winchester and spent that night at Weathers-don-Marsh, called also Charletown, and from there, on the following day, passed the Blue Ridge for the second time at Harper’s Ferry.”

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