The following morning we all embarked again for Baltimore; and on the passage a Yankee diverted the company by producing a favourite cat that he had stolen from the landlord, (who had refused him a pack of cards) and making the poor animal eat a yard or more of tobacco. His method was ingenious. He placed the cat over a chair, and confining forcibly her feet, untwisted a roll of tobacco; the cat in the agony of pain snapped at any thing that was offered her, and the Mountebank Traveller ministered his tobacco.

We dined again on the water. Among the passengers was a pretty, modest, blushing maiden of fifteen, whose manners were not inelegant; but it is somewhat curious that whenever she wanted the salt, or mustard, she begged some one to shove it to her.

Pool's Island is half way to Baltimore, which we passed about noon: but in the evening we got round Fell's Point, and at eight secured our vessel at Bowly's Wharf; having Federal-Hill on our opposite side.

It was the opinion of the ancient philosophers that nature endowed man with language to express his wants; but this notion has been exploded by the more enlightened moderns; for it is an observation founded on every day's experience, that no man is so likely to get his wants redressed as he who keeps them secret; the disclosure of poverty exciting only the insolence of contempt.

The true use of speech, therefore, is not to

express our wants but to conceal them; and in conformity with this maxim, I kept it a profound secret, on my landing at Baltimore, that I had very little money left in my pocket. I accompanied with affected gaiety a young fellow to the city of Strasburgb, who told me he always lodged there, and extolled the house for its convenience of accommodation, and the landlord for the suavity of his manners.

Mr. Wyant received us with a smile of welcome, and supper being ready, ushered us into a room, where twenty guests were sitting at table, who appeared to be mutes; for no man uttered a syllable, but each seemed by his looks to have just come out from the cave of Trophonius.

During my sojournment at Baltimore, a cheese of no ordinary dimensions was landed from a vessel to be transported to Washington. It was a present from the farmers' wives and daughters of Cheshire, in Massachusetts, to the President of the United States; and was entrusted to the pious care of one Mr. Leland, a Baptist Minister, who is said to have smoked his pipe in solemn silence the whole of his travels both by land and by

water.

I know not the weight of the "greatest cheese "in the world," but it was I believe equal in circumference to the hindmost wheel of a waggon. Its extraordinary dimensions induced some wicked wag of a federalist to call it the Mammoth

Y

Cheese; and by this name it is known throughout the States of the Union.

The curiosity of the inhabitants of Baltimore was universally excited; men, women, and children flocked to see the Mammoth Cheese. The - taverns were deserted; the gravy soup cooled on

the table, and the cats unrebuked revelled on the custards and cream. Even grey-bearded shop-keepers neglected their counters, and participated in the Mammoth infatuation.

The cheese was drawn in a waggon to the city of Washington by four horses richly caparisoned, which were furnished the pious Mr. Leland, by the Republicans of Baltimore; and the President of the United States received the present with every polite acknowledgment, and invited the Republican Members of the Senate and House of Representatives to tender it the bomage of their respects, and the respects of their bomage.

I had advertised in the Baltimore Paper for the place of domestic Tutor, and one morning, while I was standing before the door of the city of Strasburgh, the bar-keeper brought me a note very carefully sealed. I eagerly took it from his hand, impressed with an idea that it was sent me by some opulent merchant who wanted an instructor for his children; and already was I delighting my fancy with the rewards of knowledge, when on opening the note it produced what Rabelais

calls the most gloomy of all moments, the payment of a landlord's reckoning.

❝ SIR,

-£3 14s. 8d. John Kellen."

"According to the custom of the house, Mr. "Wyant has requested me to send in your bill. "To eight days board, at 9s. 4d.—— "I am, for Mr. Wyant, I called Mr. Wyant into a private room. He obeyed the summons with a true German smile. Wait, Sir, said I, a few days. He started back, rolling wildly his eyes. "Mine Got!" cried he, "if I wait a few days, how can I go to market?"? I will give you, said I, my note of hand. Note of hand! cried he. Mine Got! I have a drawer full of notes of hand. Well, said I, pray leave your damnable face and I will pay you the cash to-morrow.

I had been informed that Mr. Burr was at the Federal City; and the Federal City, as one of our Travellers in America solemnly remarks, is only forty-three miles from Baltimore. I was determined, therefore, to give him a missive by the post; and my missive was a la Quin.

Sir, I am at Baltimore.

The next mail brought me a letter from Mr. Burr, which dissipated the clouds that obscured the horizon of my life. He did not make answer, like Quin's correspondent, Stay there, and be d-d; but in a letter breathing kindness, and protestations of friendship, desired me to send

him the estimate of the expences of my late travels, which he proposed immediately to reimburse.

I retired to my room, and computed, with diplomatic accuracy, my unavoidable expences on the road, from the day I crossed the Hudson till I descended the Treasury-stairs at the Imperial City. The answer of the Vice-President will evince that he did not think himself overcharged.

DEAR SIR,

You Men of Letters are the worst calculators in the world. I am persuaded I only discharge a just debt, when I enclose double your amount. Accept the assurances of my regard,

AARON BURR.

At this letter my pride took alarm. It produced from me an answer, and a restitution of half the bills.

SIR,

As I cannot possibly descend from the respectability of a Creditor to the degradation, if I may be allowed the expression, of an Eleemosynarist; I decline receiving more than half of what you remitted me.

I am,

With profound respect, &c. Being proffered a situation in a part of Virginia I had not visited, and having it in my power to

journey at my leisure by the friendship of the