The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1868-09-30
BALTIMORE AND THE CHESAPEAKE:
A STEAM OYSTERMAN TO POLICE
THE CHESAPEAKE,

of old times 'the Mother Of Waters" or Chesa- |
pcake, has resumed in recent days almost the
relative commercial Importance that it had two |
centuries ago. Explored by John Smith before
any her bay in the present United States and
30 accurately explored that with that naviga. |
TORS maps you may steer along all the Jagged
borders OF it now, and up the many rivers, it
was popuous with sails when the Delaware was
still virgin aud had been theatre of naval
warfare before Swede or Dutchman or Quaker
had made your "River of the South" an sn-
chorage.
The Chesapeake i'm Old Times.
In the reigDs of the Stusrts, and in the time OF
The Ell glsh Commonwealth, the Chesapeake
vas a sort of colonial ocean, where a complete
drama OF empire was enacted. The fleets OF
Raleigh, Drake and of most of the great navl-
gators, were overhauled here. The little green
island that you see TO the right of the bridge
/ over the Susquehanna, at Havre-de- Grace, was
! with the fertile island OF Kent, on the Eastern
4 Shore, the foothold of Virginia in Maryland
her Fortress Monroe, so to speak, whence she
held the Calverts in check. There was then no
Baltimore, the theatre of action being much
4 further down the bay, around Annapolis, st.
Mary's river, Accomac, and south of the
Potomac. In the Revolution Baltimore was of
80 little consequence that the feet OF Howe,
bound for Philadelphia, sailed straight past
her. But before this parts of the Chesapeake
were probably more actively nayigated than
now. Along the Eastern Shore, where scarcely
steamboat ever goes nowadays-say in
Accomac-the Governor (Berkley) sought refuge
from rebellion five years before Penns feet
arrived off Chester. jamestown had finished
its history, and expired in the flames, five years
before Philadelphia was founded. That history
of jamestown, you must remember, was nearly
as long, and covered as many Administrations,
as this of the United States; for we have been a
nation only nineteen years more than James
| town was city.
In this history of jamestown everything that
marks the life of nation happened. The first
stock operation, corresponding to our recent oil
fever, was that of 16Os when, upon the basis of
1 enthusiastic companies organized in England,
everybody on the Chesapeake went gold.miniug
Then there was the matrimonial market, where
women we're worth their weight in tobacco.
Then the slave trade, whose first cargo was an
chored in the Chesapeake the very year that the
/ first aboitionists got off the MayHower. Then
there was the first overland expedition, when
John Smith, trying to get to the Pacific Ocean
by way of the Chckahominy, stuck in the mud
like Mcclellan within sight of Richmond, and
fanked out through his watch crystal. In the
year 1920 nearly thirteen hundred emigrants
arrived in the Chesapeake, as many as have
probably arrived in 1868. The size of the bay
you can begin to comprehend whan you recol
lect that Smith sailed 5000 miles within it and
Its rivers. And the Delaware river was named
by a Governor of the Chesapeake seventY-one
years before Pennsylvania had an owner. You
can't compare grey hairs with this part of the
world. Our Virginia forefathers had cheated
/ three generations of Indians at thimble.rig and
threecard monte before a broad brimmed hat
appeared in Kensington under the treaty tree.
Revive to yourselves the picture of the Chesa-
peake in those days-vessels arriving from
England with imported bricks, said bricks
landed carefully by darkeys; the first hod.
carriers sending them up the sides of great
houses such as still remain along the CheSa-
peake. Other vessels come to with discharges
of cannon, and proceed to land church plate
old port wine foxhoupds, sheep of certain
breeds Then lot of whaling vessels come in,
and set up an oil factory, while they harpoon
whales i'll Elk river and in the Gunpowder.
Finally, pirate ducks in between the capes,
chased by frigate, and burie, Spanish specie
in sacks at Big Bethel, where General Butler
| afterwards foundit Packets are running "every
which way" from the Pocomoke, the Patuxent,
the Mattapony, to jamestown, to st. Mary's, to
Hampton, to Norfolk. That was the sort OF
Chesapeake that we used to have before we were
born. In those days came the grandmother OF
Washington over with her prayerbook.
The Chesapeake i'm 1865.
See, now, the Chesapeake, in 1868. A steamer
clears the long lobes of the bay every ten days
for Bremen or Liverpool. For the frat time il
hundred and fifty years. direct immigration
from Europe to the shores of the Cheapeake has
been resumed. New towns are actually being
founded. They are to make city OF Yves
Point, up the river York. Norfolk is doing
better trade than it did at any time before tht
war. The Chesapeake is being lahked on boil
sides with railroads. which will reach from
Point Lookout to Point Deposit, and frou
4 Elkton to Cape Charles. The Chesapeake an'
| Ohio Railroad is to be completed, as it ha
already been consolidated, and will be the Ba
timore and Ohio'S big rival. Down every necI
of the old Eastern Shore a railroad is bein
laid, and Baltimore, in self-dsfenSe, must rul
ferries TO the termni of these. Fro1
Crisfeld TO Norfolk the Chesapeake
ferried by five ocean steamers, as from Bait
more to Norfolk by the old Bay line
one of the most profitable inland marine cou
panies in the world. On the waters of tn
Chesapeake and tributaries there run, accordlr
to the best authority, one hundred and fort
steam vessels, not including Government boat,
Towns and settlements are springiIg up on bot
sides OF the bay. On the Eastern Shore, aon,
there are these new towns, Just called int