Footnotes to Long Island History
Hamilton’s Area Tour
August 6, 1953
by
Thomas R. Bayles
(Note: The
following story was found in a book written in longhand of my father’s,
Richard M. Bayles. The original manuscript of the trip of Dr. Alexander
Hamilton by horseback from Annapolis, Md., to Maine and return in 1744
has an interesting history. It reminded in obscurity for over 150
years, and in 1907 was purchased from a London book dealer by William K.
Bixby of St. Louis, who published a deluxe private edition of 487 signed
copies, which are now collectors’ items. In 1948 the complete
manuscript was published in a book entitled “Gentlemen’s Progress,” by
the Institute of Early American History and Culture of Williamsburg,
Va. The following account tells of his travels through Long Island.)
Part I
“We arrived
att Huntington att eight oclock att night, where we put up one Flat’s
att the sign of the Half Moon and Heart. This Flat is an Irishman. We
had no sooner sat down when there came in a band of the town politicians
in short jackets and trousers, being curious to know who them strangers
were who had newly arrived in town. Among the rest was a fellow with a
worsted cap and great black fists. They stiled him a doctor. Flat told
me he had been a shoemaker in town and was a notable fellow att his
trade, but happening two years ago to cure an old woman of a pestilent
mortal disease, he thereby acquired the character of a physitian, was
applied to from all quarters, and finding the practice of physick a more
profitable business than cobling, he laid aside his awls and leather,
got himself some gallipots, and instead of cobling of soals, fell to
cobling of human bodies.
“At supper
our landlord was very merry and very much given to rhiming. There were
three buxom girls in this house who served us att supper, to whom Mr.
Parker made strenuous courtship.”
“Wednesday,
July 11. We, left Huntington att half an hour after six in the morning,
and after riding five miles stonny road, we breakfasted att a house upon
the road att the Sign of Bacchus. Then proceeding ten or eleven miles
farther we forded Smithtown river, otherwise called by the Indians
Missaque. We baited our horses att a tavern where there was a deaf
landlady. After half an hour’s rest we mounted horse again and rid some
miles thro’ some very barren, unequal, and stonny land. We saw the
mouth of Smithtown river running into the Sound thro some broken sandy
beaches about eight miles to our left hand N.N.W., and about 24 miles
farther to the northward, the coast of New England, or the province of
Connecticut.
“We arrived
at a scattered town called Brookhaven, or by the Indians, Setoquet,
about tow oclock afternoon and dined att one Buchanan’s there.
Brookhaven (Setauket was then called Brookhaven) is a small scattered
village standing upon barren, rocky land near the sea. In this town is
a small windmill for sawing of plank, and a wooden church with small
steeple. (Probably Caroline Episcopal church). Att about 50 miles
distance from this town eastward is a settlement of Indians upon a sandy
point which makes the south fork of the Island and runs out a long
narrow promontory into the sea almost as far as Block Island (Montauk
Point.)
“While we
were att Buchanan’s an old fellow named Smith called att the house. He
said he was a traveling to York to get a license from the Governour to
go a privateering, and swore he would not be under any commander but
would be chief man himself. He showed us several antick tricks such as
jumping half a foot high upon his bum without touching the floor with
any other part of his body. Then he turned and did the same upon his
belly. Then he stood upright upon his head. He told us he was 75 years
old and swore damn his old shoes if any man in America could do the
like. He asked me whence I came and whither I went. I answered him I
came from Calliphurnia and was going to Lathern Land. He swore damn his
old shoes again if he had not been a sailor all his life long and yet
never had heard of such places. Mr. Parker made him believe he was a
captain of a privateer, and for a mug of syder made him engage to go on
board of him upon Friday next, promising to make him his leutenant, for
nothing else would satisfy the old fellow. Att last he wanted to borrow
a little advance money of Parker, which when he found he could not
obtain, he drank up his syder and swore he would not go.
“We took
horse again att half an hour after 5 oclock, and had scarce got half a
mile from Brookhaven when we lost our way but were directed right again
by a man whom we met. After riding ten miles thro’ woods and marshes in
which we were pestered with muscettoes, we arrived att eight oclock at
night att one Brewster’s. (Pfeiffer’s store, Middle Island.) where we
put up all night and in this house we could get nothing either to eat or
drink and so were obliged to go to bed fasting or supperless. I was
conducted upstairs to a large chamber. The people in this house seemed
quiet savage and rude.”
“Thursday,
July 12. When I waked this morning I found two beds in the room besides
that in which I lay, in one of which lay two great hulking fellows with
long black beards, having their own hair and not so much as half a night
cap between them both. I took them for weavers, not only from their
greasy appearance, but because I observed a weaver’s loom at each side
of the room. In the other bed was a raw boned boy, who with the two
lubbers, huddled on their clothes and went reeling downstairs making as
much noise as three horses.
“We set out
from this desolate place att 6 oclock and rid 16 miles thro very barren
wasteland. Hew we passed thro a plain of 6 or 8 miles long where there
was nothing but oak brush or bushes two foot high, very thick, and
thinly scattered over the plain were severall old naked pines at about
two or three hundred feet distance one from another. In all this way we
met not one living soul nor saw any house but one in ruins. Some of the
inhabitnants call this place the Desert of Arabia. We breakfasted at
one Fanning’s. (Riverhead.) Near his house stands. the county court
house, a decayed wooden building, and close by his door runs a small
rivulet into an arm of the sea about twenty miles distance which makes
the eastern end of Long Island called the Fork.
Part II
“July 12,
1744. this day was rainy, but we took horse and rid 10 miles farther to
one Hubbard’s where we rested half an hour, then proceeded eight miles
farther to the town of Southold, near which the road is level, firm and
pleasant, and in the neighborhood are a good many windmills. The houses
are pritty think along the road here. We put up at one Mrs. More’s in
Southold. In her house appeared nothing but industry. She and her
granddaughters were busied in carding and spinning of wool. We ordered
some eggs for dinner and some chickens. Mrs. More asked us if we would
have bacon fried with our eggs and we told her no. After dinner we went
to inquire for a boat across the Sound.
“While we
were att supper there came in a pedlar with his pack along with one
Doctor Hull, a practioner of physick in the town. We were told that
this doctor was very much of a gentleman and a man of great learning.
The pedlar went to show him some linen by candlelight and told him he
would be upon honour with him and recommend to him the best of his
wares, and as to the price he would let him know the highest and lowest
att one word. There passed some learned conversation between this
pedlar and doctor in which the doctor made it plain that the lawyers,
clergy and doctors tricked the rest of mankind out of the best part of
their substance and made them pay well for doing of nothing. We left
this company att 9 oclock at night and went upstairs to bed, all in one
chamber.
Oyster Pond (Orient)
“Friday
July 13. We took horse after six in the morning and rid 5 or 6 miles
close by the Sound till we came to one Brown’s who was to give us
passage in his boat. Then we proceeded 7 miles farther and stopped att
one King’s to wait the tide, when Brown’s boat was to fall down the
river and take us in. The family att King’s were all busy in preparing
dinner, the provision for which consisted chiefly in garden stuff.
“Here we
saw some handsome country girls, one of whom wore a perpetual smile on
her face and prepared the chocolate for our breakfast. She presently
captivated Parker, who was apt to take flame on all occasions. After
breakfast for pastime we read Quevedo’s Visions and att one oclock dined
with the family upon fat pork and green pease. Att two oclock we
observed the boat falling down the river, and having provided ourselves
with a store of bread and cheese and some rum and sugar in case of being
detained upon the water, that part of the Sound which we had to cross
being 18 miles broad, we put our horses on board 10 minutes before three
and set sail with a fair wind from the Oyster Pond.
“Att three oclock we
passed the Gutt, a rapid current betwixt the main of Long Island and
Shelter Island caused by the tides. Att a quarter after three we
cleared Shelter Island, larboard, upon our weather bow. Gardiner’s
Island bore east by north, starboard, about three leagues’ distance.
This island is in the possession of one man and takes its name from
him. It had been a prey to French privateers in Queen Anne’s war, who
used to land upon it and plunder the family and tenants of their stock
and provisions, the island lying very bleak upon the ocean just att the
easternmost entry of the Sound betwixt Long Island and the main of
Connecticut.
“We arrived
in the harbour att New London att half an hour after six and put up att
Duchand’s att the sign of the Anchor. The town of New London is
irregularly built along the water side, in it one Presbyterian meeting
house and one church. It is just such another desolate expensive town
as Annapolis in Maryland, the houses being mostly wood.
“The
inhabitants were allarmed this night att a sloop that appeared to be
rowing up the river into the harbour, they having heard a little before
the firing of guns out in the Sound, and seen one vessel as they thought
give chase to another. A shot was fired from the country station sloop
in the harbour which whistled through her rigging, and she struck and
made answer that it was Capt. Trueman from Antegua. Then the people’s
fears were over for they imagined it was old Morpang, the French rover,
who in former times used to plunder these parts when he wanted
provision.”