Title: Editorial Note
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To:

“To morrow morning we set out upon our tour into Silesia, where you shall accompany us if you please,” John Quincy Adams wrote to his brother Thomas Boylston Adams on 16 July (above). So began a fourteen-week journey by John Quincy and Louisa Catherine Adams through what is now southern Poland and southern Germany. John Quincy promised to chronicle the trip in a series of letters, adding that should the first one prove “tiresome” Thomas Boylston should reseal it and send it to Abigail Adams, whose “mother’s heart will fill it with all the interest of which it may be destitute in itself” (No. I, below). It was a good time for the Adamses to travel. John Quincy had little diplomatic business to attend to after the successful negotiation of the Prussian-American Treaty of Amity and Commerce of 1799. He hoped some of the information conveyed in his letters might prove valuable to the U.S. government: “I presume those parts of them, which relate to commerce & the manufactures will meet the eye, & as far as proper the attention of the President” (No. III, below). Rather than a boon to diplomacy, the tour proved a rare hiatus from public life, one he called “a period during which I have lived in a blissful ignorance of politics, & news” (JQA to William Vans Murray, 15 Sept. 1800, LbC, APM Reel 134). The trip was also intended to benefit the health of Louisa Catherine, who had suffered a fourth miscarriage a few months earlier. John Quincy told his father-in-law, Joshua Johnson, that they traded the unhealthy Berlin summer for “a long and fatiguing journey, though into a country calculated by the variety of entertainment which it would afford to amuse

the mind, to make the time seem short, and to turn weariness itself into pleasure” (10 Dec., below). Louisa Catherine, once again pregnant, gamely undertook some of the more arduous excursions, even as she experienced bouts of illness. After indisposition kept her from a sunrise ascent of the Giant’s Head mountain, John Quincy voiced his surprised pleasure when on the descent “who should we meet but Louisa, whose headache had left her as the day advanced, & who after coming so far had determined not to return & leave the most important object upon our tour unseen” (No. IV, below). The single letter from Louisa to her father printed here is her only extant correspondence during the trip. She provides her perspective on cities and towns visited, calling one “old and dirty” but describing another as “the most romantic and beautiful spot I ever beheld” (No. VIII, below). John Quincy s Silesia series comprises 28 letters in two sets: seventeen written while he traveled and eleven composed after his return to Berlin. Daily events of the trip are narrated in the letters from the road, which are numbered 1 to 17 and span the dates 20 July to 24 September; eight of them are printed here. In writing these John Quincy often referred to a travel account by Johann Friedrich Zöllner, whom he had met in Berlin in February: Briefe über Schlesien, Krakau, Wieliczka, und die Grafschaft Glatz auf einer Reise im Jahr 1791, 2 vols., Berlin, 1792–1793, a copy of which with Charles Francis Adams’ bookplate is in John Quincy’s library at the Adams National Historical Park. He resumed the Silesia series from his desk in Berlin on 20 December 1800 and completed it on 17 March 1801, writing letters numbered 19 to 29, a single example of which is printed here. This second group details the history, economy, culture, and literature of Silesia. Much of the information is drawn from Karl Ludwig von Klober und Hellscheborn, Von Schlesien vor und seit dem Jar MDCCXXXX, 2 vols., Freiburg, 1785, also with Charles Francis’ bookplate at the Adams National Historical Park. Between the two sets of correspondence, on 3 December John Quincy wrote a letter to his brother numbered 18, but as it is primarily on other subjects the editors chose to print it at its date, below. The letters John Quincy and Louisa Catherine wrote from Silesia provide a portrait of the people and places of central Europe at the dawn of the nineteenth century. Although the region in the summer of 1800 had not entirely escaped recent political, social, and economic upheaval, it was near the end of a period of relative stability. The Adamses explored a land still entrenched in a feudal past, a way of life the Napoleonic Wars and industrialization would soon sweep away. The lives of inhabitants of all socioeconomic classes were a favorite subject, described in portraits of peasants, soldiers, innkeepers, mountain guides, artisans, and merchants. They also commented at length on the natural world, using the language of the sublime and picturesque in writing about mountains and waterfalls in vivid detail. The sunrise from the Giant’s Head is one example, with John Quincy describing “the borders of the horison at the east gradually reddening” before “the great luminary arose in all his glory from the low cloud” (No. IV, below). The Adamses’ servants, Tilly Whitcomb and Elizabeth

Epps, accompanied them on their excursions and also made occasional appearances in the letters. John Quincy’s secretary, Thomas Welsh Jr., remained in Berlin while the Adamses traveled, and the minister sent his letters to Welsh, who copied them into Letterbook No. 10 before sending them on to Thomas Boylston in the United States. Thomas Boylston then offered his older brother’s letters for publication to friend Joseph Dennie Jr., who sought material for his upcoming Philadelphia literary magazine, the Port Folio. Thomas Boylston informed John Quincy of his plan in a 26 October letter, not found, and wrote again on 6 December that he would go ahead and provide Dennie with “copious extracts” of the letters (below). John Quincy responded on 27 December that he had no objection to their publication, although he added, “There will undoubtedly be some passages in the letters not proper for publication, & I can safely depend upon your discretion for omitting them” (LbC, APM Reel 134). William Vans Murray wrote a letter to John Quincy while he was still on tour suggesting that the letters be published, advice that prompted him to continue the series after his return to Berlin. In his response, John Quincy made it clear that he too had mulled publication, but he demurred. After receiving the first numbers of the Port Folio he again asserted that the letters were intended as private: “Their publication was no plan of mine— I wrote them to my brother for the amusement & information of my most intimate relations, without an idea, that they would ever be printed— My brother allowed them to be published, without waiting for my consent, but presuming justly upon my approbation” (Murray to JQA, 10 Oct. 1800, Adams Papers; JQA to Murray, 30 Oct.; 17 March 1801; 7 April, LbC’s, APM Reel 134). Dennie published the letters in the Port Folio in an anonymous series titled “Journal of a Tour through Silesia.” The author was an exceptional travel writer, Dennie told his readers in the first issue: “It will be obvious to every intelligent reader that it has been made by no vulgar traveller, but by a man of genius and observation” (Port Folio, 1:1 [3 Jan. 1801]). John Quincy wrote to Thomas Boylston on 21 March 1801 (Adams Papers) that while he was “truly gratified by the terms of approbation with which he introduces the Silesian letters,” Dennie should refrain from praise in future issues. The letters appeared in 44 of the first 45 weekly issues dated 3 January to 7 November 1801, with thirteen letters appearing in single issues, fourteen serialized in two installments, and one split between three. Dennie numbered the published installments from I to XLIV. None of the recipient’s copies of the Silesia letters have been found. The letterbook transcriptions are presented here for the first time, providing the full letters without redactions of personal information, sensitive political opinions, and accounts of current events in Europe that were excised from the printed version and are described in the notes below. While the redacted material is not voluminous, it is of significant interest, including John Quincy’s comments on Abigail’s anticipated reaction to the letters, his suggestion that nuns in a Silesian convent feared that Louisa

Catherine and Elizabeth Epps were “turkish men in disguise,” his description of a weaver’s recognition of the name Adams, and his statement that “every american patriot” ought to favor greater economic independence for the United States (Nos. I, II, and III, all below). Readers should keep in mind that Welsh was an imperfect copyist, with misspellings attributable to him rather than John Quincy. John Quincy’s Diary for the period, D/JQA/24, APM Reel 27, should also be consulted. In addition to their publication in the Port Folio, an unauthorized edition of the Silesia letters was published in London in 1804 as John Quincy Adams, Letters on Silesia, Written during a Tour through that Country in the Years 1800, 1801, the first book that attributed authorship to him. A review in the Edinburgh Review criticized the “son of the American president” for a work that displayed a “want of originality.” John Quincy expressed misgivings about the London publication, writing in his Diary that he had spoken too freely about public figures in Europe who could read the letters. German and French translations followed that also credited John Quincy as the author: Briefe über Schlesien: Geschrieben auf einer in dem Jahre 1800 durch dieses Land unternommenen Reise, transl. Friedrich Gotthelf Friese, Breslau, 1805, and Lettres sur la Silésie: Écrites en 1800 et 1801, durant le cours d’un voyage fait dans cette province, transl. J. Dupuy, Paris, 1807. The Silesia letters of John Quincy and Louisa Catherine Adams offer insight into their lives during a rare period away from the demands of diplomacy and court life. The correspondence, too, provides an invaluable view of a region on the cusp of cultural transformation as chronicled by erudite travelers with an eye for telling detail (JQA to Joseph Pitcairn, 29 July 1800, OCHP:Joseph Pitcairn Letters; JQA to Welsh, 6 Aug., LbC, APM Reel 134; Kirsten Belgum, “The Culture of Borrowing: Transnational Influence in Travel Writing around 1800,” Studies in Travel Writing, 19:19, 26 [2015]; Walter J. Morris, “John Quincy Adams’s German Library, with a Catalog of His German Books,” Amer. Philos. Soc., Procs.American Philosophical Society, Proceedings, 118:328, 330 [13 Sept. 1974]; D/JQA/27, 13 Feb. 1800, 20 Sept. 1804, APM Reel 30; Linda K. Kerber and Walter J. Morris, “Politics and Literature: The Adams Family and the Port Folio,” WMQ, 23:454, 458–459 [July 1966]; S. D. Stirk, “John Quincy Adams’s Letters on Silesia,” NEQNew England Quarterly., 9:485–499 [Sept. 1936]; Edinburgh Review, 5:180, 181 [Oct. 1804]).


Title: John Quincy Adams to Thomas Boylston Adams, 20 July 1800
From: Adams, John Quincy
To: Adams, Thomas Boylston

							No: 1.
							Frankfort on the Oder. 20. July. 1800.

						As I have bespoke your company, upon our journey into Silesia, I begin this letter at our first resting station from Berlin— Hitherto we have indeed seen little more than the usual Brandenburg sands, &

perhaps you will find our tour as tiresome as we have found it ourselves— I cannot promise you an amusing journey, though I hope it will prove so to us; & if at the sight of this my first letter on this occasion, you think it looks too long, & appears likely to prove tiresome, seal it up, unread, & send it to Quincy, where a mother’s heart will fill it with all the interest of which it may be destitute in itself—Will give life to the narrative, & spirit to every remark.— My letters to you on this tour will be in the form & serve as the substitute of a journal— They will of course be fragments written at different times & places, nay perhaps in different humours— Therefore make up your account, to receive patiently all my tediousness, or as I said before, bestow it all upon my mother, to whom in that case you may consider all my future letters untill we return to Berlin, & numbered in a series from this, as addressed.
						On Thursday the 17th: instt. we left Berlin just after three in the morning, & arrived here at about nine the same evening— The distance is ten German miles & a quarter, which you know is a very long day’s journey in this country— In the course of a few years it will be an easy journey of eight hours; for the present king, who has the very laudable ambition of improving the roads through his dominions, is now making a turn pike road like that to Potsdam, the whole way hither; as yet not more than one German mile of it is finished, & the rest of the way, is like that which on every side surrounds the Tadmor of modern times— As we approach within a few miles of Frankfort, the country becomes somewhat more hilly, & of course more variagated & pleasant than round Berlin; but we could peceive little difference in the downy softness of the ground beneath us, or in the needles of the pines within our view— Part of the country is cultivated as much as it is succeptible of cultivation, & here & there we could see scattered spires of wheat, rye, barley & oaths, shoot from the sands, like the hairs upon a head almost bald— We came through few villages, & those few had a miserable appearance— A meagre composition of mud & thatch composed the cottages, in which a ragged & pallid race of beggars reside; yet we must be unjust & confess that we passed by one nobleman’ seat, which had the appearance of a handsome & comfortable house.
						We arrived here just in time to see the last dregs of an annual fair, such as you have often seen in the towns of Holland, & as you know are customary in those of Germany— But we hear great complaints against the minister Struensee, for having ruined the value of the fair, by prohibiting the sale of foreign wollen manufactures, which

have heretofore been the most essential articles of sale at this fair— This prohibition is for the sake of encouraging the manufactures of this country; a principle, which the government pursues on all possible occasions— They are not converts to the opinions of Adam Smith, & the french oeconomists concerning the balance of trade, & always catch with delight at any thing, which can prevent money from going out the country. Of this disposition we have seen a notable instance in the attempts lately made here for producing sugar from beets, of which I believe you heard something while you were here, & about which much has been said & done since then. At one time we were assured beyond all question, that one mile square of beets would furnish sugar for the whole Prussian dominions— The question was submitted to a committee of the Academy of Sciences, who after long examination & deliberation reported, that in truth, sugar, & even brandy, could be produced from beets, & in process of time might be raised in great quantities; but that for the present it would be expedient to continue the use of sugars & brandies such as had been in use hitherto— Since this report we have heard little, or nothing of beet sugar.
						This is an old Town, pleasantly situated, & containing about twelve thousand inhabitants, of which a quarter part are Jews— It is therefore distinguished by those peculiarities, which mark all European towns, where a large proportion of Israelites reside, & to express which I suppose resort must be had to the Hebrew language— The english at least is inadequate to it; for the word filth conveys an idea of spotless purity in comparison to the jewish nastiness— The garrison of the town consits of one regiment— There is likewise an University here, & by the introduction of a letter from Berlin we have become acquainted with two of the professors— The number of the students is less than two hundred; & of them, one hundred & fifty are students of Law, ten or fifteen of Divinity, & not more than two, or three, of medicine— The library, the museum, & the botanical garden, the professors tell me, are all so miserable that they are ashamed to show them.
						The banks of the Oder on one side are bordered with small hills, upon which at small distances, are little summer houses with vineyards at which during summer, many inhabitants of the town reside— On the other side the land is flat, & the river is restrained from overflowing only by a large dyke, which has been built since the year 1785— At that time the river broke down the smaller dyke, which had untill then existed, & overflowed the country to a

considerable extent— Prince Leopold of Brunswick, a brother of the present reigning duke, was then colonel of the regiment in garrison here, & lost his life in attempting to save some of the people, whom the inundation was carrying away— You have probably seen prints of this melancholy accident, & there is an account of it in the last editions of Moore’s travels. (I mean his first work.) There is a small monument erected in honor of the prince, upon the spot where the body was found. It was done by the free masons of this place; of which society he was a member— But there is nothing remarkable in it— There is likewise in the burying ground a little monument, or rather tombstone, to Kleest, one of the most celebrated German poets, whom his countrymen call their Thomson— He was an officer in the service of Frederic the second, & was killed at the battle of Cunersdorf, a village distant only a couple of miles from this place.
						Just at the gate of the town, there is a spring of mineral water, at which a bathing house has been built with accommodations for lodgers— This bath has been considerably frequented for some years past; & the physicians of the town say that the waters are as good as those of Freyenwalde. I am willing to believe them as good as Toplitz; for my faith in mineral waters in general was not much edified by the success of our tour there last summer.

							22. July—

						Still at Frankfurt— We had left Berlin, without being fully aware of the precise nature of the journey we had undertaken, & had not thought of taking with us furs, & winter cloathing for a tour in the dog days— But one of the professors, whose acquaintance we have made here, has formerly gone the same journey, and from his representations, we have been induced to send back to Berlin for thick cloathing, & this circumstance has prolonged our stay here, a couple of days more than we at first intended— Yesterday we took a ride of three, or four miles to the country seat of a Mr de Schöning, the Landrath of the circle— The functions of his Office are to collect the territorial taxes within a certain district called a circle, which is a subdivision of the province— You know the importance & extent of this title of Rath, or councillor, in the constitutions of the German states— It is a general name designating every officer in all the subordinate parts of the administration; & sometimes a mere honorary title, which Frederic the second by way of joke once granted to a person, upon condition, that he should never presume to give any council— For the principle upon which the name is founded is, that

the person holding the title gives the king occasionally, council; & the first part of it usually designates the particular department in which he gives it—
						Mr Schöning & his lady received us with great kindness & hospitality— From the neighbouring of their house, & on our return we had the pleasure of agreable prospects of the town, the river & the country beyond it; though this has not much variety, nor any thing remarkably striking.
						Not far beyond Mr Schöning’ house is a canal, joining the Oder to the Spree, by means of which a water communication is established between the Baltic & the North Sea; there is likewise a similar canal between the Oder & the Vistula.— Frederic the second made several of these junctions of rivers during his reign, & some had been made by his predecessors. Their benefit in facilitating the intercourse between the several parts of Germany, & of all with Poland would be still greater than it is, if it were not counteracted by that mutual jealousy, which bars the passages between the dominions of neighbouring & rival princes—
						At a distance of about two German miles from this, resides Count Finkenstein of Madlitz, a son of the venerable old Minister of State, who died last winter; & whose lady & daughters you have seen at Berlin— He was formerly President of the judicial tribunal at Cüstrin, but was dimissed by Frederic the second, on the occasion of the Miller Arnold’s famous law suit—An instance in which the great king from mere love of justice, committed the greatest injustice, that ever cast a shade upon his character— His anxiety upon that occasion to prove to the world that his in his courts of justice, the beggar should be upon the same footing of right as the prince, made him forget that in substantial justice the maxim ought to bear alike upon both sides, & that the prince should obtain his right as much as the begger— Count Finkenstein, & several other judges of the court at Cüstrin, together with the high chancellor Fürst, were all dismissed from their places for doing their duty, & persisting in it, contrary to the will of the king, who substituting his ideas of natural equity in the place of prescriptions of positive law, treated them with the utmost severity, for conduct, which ought to have received his fullest approbation.— Since that time Count Finkenstein has lived upon this estate of his, cultivating his farm, & in the converse of the Muses; we have not had time & opportunity during our stay here to visit him; he & his family being at this time absent from his seat; but we are told that no lands in the province are in so

flourishing a condition as his; & as he unites the pursuits of literature with those of farming, he has published a translation of Theocritus in German verse— We propose to continue our Journey this day as far as Crossen—
						Your’s—


Title: John Quincy Adams to Thomas Boylston Adams, 26 July 1800
From: Adams, John Quincy
To: Adams, Thomas Boylston

							No: 3.
							Bunzlau. 26. July. 1800.

						Yesterday morning early we took our departure from Freystadt, & came to this place; a distance of eight german miles; five of which are in single stage from Sprotau here— The face of the country has visibly & greatly improved as we came along; & although we still had to wade through miles of sands more, or less deep, we were frequently relieved by patches of good roads, & by beautiful fields of wheat, rye, barley, oats, & especially flax, which appeared in a highly flourishing condition. As it happens to be just now harvest time, we passed many groups of reapers; a sight of which would have afforded us more satisfaction, had we not known, that they were far from gathering the bounties of the season for themselves, & had they not by frequently soliciting our charity proved the wretchedness of their condition— We had travelled through Saxony, a part of the march, & a corner of Bohemia last year at this time, & then too had met many a company of reapers— We had seen several last week, as we came from Berlin; but we had never seen them beg— Since we entered Silesia, yesterday & the day before, certainly more than twenty times, as we passed by troops of peasants of both sexes, who were gathering the harvest, a woman from among them, & sometimes two, or three ran from the fields to our carriage, with a little bunch of flowers, tied up with some ears of the grain they were gathering, which they threw into the carriage at the windows, by way

of begging for a dreyer, or half a grosh— The reason of this is, because the condition of the peasant in Silesia is much worse than in the electorate— For although personal servitude exists alike in both provinces, yet the serf in the March is never obliged to labour for his Lord, more days than there are— In Silesia, he is often obliged to furnish ten days in a week. Judge then after the man & his wife have both labored five days in seven for the lord, what sort of subsistance they can earn in the remaining two, (one of which is a sunday) for themselves.
						This so little travelling through this country, that unless post horses are bespoken before hand, they must be waited for, untill they can be brought in by some peasant from the fields. Thus we were obliged to stop yesterday three hours at Sprotau, & to employ the time went round the town to see whatever of remarkable it contained— It is a small place with about two thousand inhabitants, one third of whom are catholics— It stands upon the Bober a small branch of the Oder, which likewise runs through this town, but is too small to be navigable, & only serves at Sprotau, to give motion to a number of corn mills & fulling mills, which we saw fully employed. The manufactory of broad cloth is likewise carried on at Sprotau, at Freystadt & indeed in all the towns in this part of Silesia, though in none of them excepting Goldberg, to so great an extent as at Grünberg.
						In Sprotau there is a convent of nuns, dedicated to St: Mary Magdalen, who not being so liberal in their open intercourse with our sex as their great patroness, could not be visited by me. But Louisa went to see them— It seems they were not so well acquainted with, or so highly reverent of the name of Adams, as the worthy magistrates of Freystadt; for being informed we were Americans, they took it for granted we were Turks, & were under no small apprehension least Louisa, & Epps should be turkish men in disguise. The old ladies, for they are all declining far into the vale of years, began to tremble for their chastity, knowing it to be a thing for which the turks have very little respect— You, who know how much my wife & her maid look like Turkish ravishers, will perhaps be suspicious, that the alarms of the pious sisterhood are wont to be in the inverted proportion to the dangers that may threaten their most precious jewel.
						We went over the catholic church, which joins upon the nunnery, & is alike dedicated to Mary Magdelen. Of the pictures hung round

the church, & the alter pieces, those, which represent here were alone tolerable. There was an immage, modeled upon the famous one of our Lady at Loretto, which Buonaparte took the liberty of sending to Paris, about four years ago— The most remarkable thing I met in the church was a paper posted up, on the inner side of a confessional; written in Latin, & containing a list of the sins to which the ordinary priest was forbidden to grant absolution, as being expressly reserved for the consideration of the holy father himself— I expected to have found at least some heinous crimes upon the list, but unless the murder of a priest may be considered of that denomination, there was not one. The offences were—burying an heretic in holy ground—reading the books of the heretics, without a special licence—refusing to pay tithes—& about a dozen others all of the same stamp—all having some reference to the papal authority— Observe particularly, that the unpardonable crime of reading heretical books is expressed in terms so vague & comprehensive (libros hereticorum) that they may be construed by the priest to mean almost any books he pleases— And this paper is publickly posted in a country where the catholics themselves are but a tolerated sect, the subjects of a protestant sovereign. It is possible indeed that the restraints of the romish church upon its followers may be more rigorous & more public in such a country, than where its authority is unquestioned & unopposed— Silesia was originally under the Austrian government, a catholic province; at this time, about one half of its inhabitants still adhere to that religion, & although the steady maxims of the prussian Government, & still more the revolutions of time & opinions have powerfully operated to introduce a spirit of mutual forbearance, if not of harmony, there is perhaps no part of Europe, where the root of bitterness between the two parties is yet so deep, & cleaves with such stubbornness to the ground as here— The catholics hate the protestants the more, for their having now the secure & unlimited liberty in their worship; & the protestants envy the catholics the priviledges they still retain, which the Prussian government has bound itself to preserve. Mr Zölner, who has published his tour through Silesia, made in the year 1791, & from whom I draw much of the information I give you, says, that it is common here for a catholic to exhibit, before a Lutheran judge, a complaint against another catholic, for calling him a Lutheran, & requiring satisfaction for what he considers as the blackest slander that could be cast upon him.

						About halfway between Sprotau, & this place we first came in sight of the mountains towards which we are travelling, & from which we are still about forty of our miles distant.

							Hirschberg. 27. July. Sunday.

						Before I give you an account of our journey hither, I must say something of what we saw yesterday at Bunzlau, & which I had not time to tell you, before we continued our journey.
						The principal manufactory of Bunzlau, is in pottery; particularly of those brown coffee pots & milk pots, of which you have seen many at the inns of Berlin & through the electorate— Of these potters there are at Bunzlau, each of whom employs six or eight workmen— We saw them make several large pots such as are commonly used to hold butter— From a cubic mass of clay, about a foot thick, they form in about five minutes, the pot, by merely moulding it with the hand, while it whirls round upon a sort of circular bench placed before the workman— We could not however stay long to see them, for they work in the same room, where the Ovens are heated to bake the pots, & its warmth was to us intolerable— In the yard of this pottery, there is a pot of prodigious size, made about half a century ago, which contains nearly fifty bushels— It is about twelve feet high; is hooped like a barrel, which it resembles in form, & is kept in a house built on purpose for it— The Germans appear to have a particular predilection for things of an uncommon dimensions in their kind; the tuns of Heidelberg & Königstein, & this pot serve as examples to show how much size enters into their ideas of the sublime.
						But the greatest curiosities at Bunzlau, are two mechanical genius’s by the name of Jacob, & of Hüttig, a carpenter, & a weaver, who are next door neighbours to each other— The first has made a machine, in which by the means of certain clock work a number of puppets about six inches high, are made to move upon a kind of stage, so as to represent in several successive scenes the passion of Jesus Christ— The first exibits him in the garden at prayer, while the three apostles are sleeping at a distance. In the last he is shewn dead, in the sepulchre, guarded by two roman soldiers— The intervening scenes represent the treachery of Judas; the examination of Jesus before Caiaphas, the dialogue between Pilate & the jews, concerning him; the denial of Peter, the scourging & the crucifixion— It is all accompanied by a mournful dirge of music, & the maker, by way of explanation repeats the passages of scripture, which relates the events

he has undertaken to show— I never saw a stronger proof how powerful the impression of objects, which are brought immediately home to the senses is— I have heard & read more than one eloquent sermon, upon the passion, but I confess, none of their most labored efforts at the pathetic, ever touched my heart with one half the force of this puppet show— The traitor’s kiss, the blow struck by the high priest’s servant, the scourging, the nailing to the cross, the spunge of vinegar, every indignity offered, & every pain inflicted, occasioned a sensation when thus made perceptible to the eye, which I had never felt at mere description; & when we rose to come away, Louisa’s eyes were full of tears.
						Hüttig the weaver, with an equal, or superior mechanical genius, has applied it in a different manner, & devoted it to geographical, astronomical, & historical pursuits— In the intervals of his leasure from the common weaver’s work, which affords him subsistance, he has become a very learned man— The walls of his rooms are covered with maps & drawings of his own representing, here the course of the Oder, with all the towns & villages, through which it runs; there the mountains of Switzerland, & those of Silesia, over both of which, he has travelled in person— In one room he has two large tables, one raised above the other—on one of them he has ranged all the towns & remarkable places of Germany, & on the other of all Europe; they are placed according to their respective geographical bearings. The names of the towns are written on a small square piece of paper, & fixed in a slit on the top of a peg, which is stuck into the table. The remarkable mountains are shewn by small pyramidical black stones, & little white pyramids are stationed at all the spots, which have been distinguished by any great battle, or other remarkable incident— The man himself in explaining his work, shews abundance of learning relative to the antient names of places, & the former inhabitants of countries to which he points; & amused us with anecdotes of various kinds connected with the lands he has marked out. Thus in shewing us the Alps, he pointed to the spots over which the french army of reserve so lately passed, & where Buonaparte so fortunately escaped being taken by an austrian officer, & then he gave us a short comment of his own upon the character & extraordinary good fortune of the first consul. In a second room he has a large machine representing the copernican system of the universe; it is made so that the whole firmament of fixed stars moves round our solar system once in every twenty four hours, & thus always exhibits the stars in the exact position relative to our earth, in which they

really stand. Internally he has stationed all the planets, which belong to our system, with several satellites, & all the comets that have been observed during the last three centuries. In a third room he has another machine, exhibiting in different parts the various phases of the moon, & those of Jupiter’s satellites— The apparent motion of the sun round the earth, & the real motion of the earth round the sun.
						In his garret he has another work, upon which he is yet occupied, & which being his last labor seems to be that in which he takes the most delight. Upon a very large table similar to that in the first room, he has inlaid a number of thin plates of wood formed so as to represent a projection of the earth upon Mercator’s plan. All the intervals between the plates of wood designate that portion of the world, which is covered with water. He has used a number of very small ropes of different colours drawn over the surface in such a manner as to describe the tracks of all the celebrated circumnavigators of the globe. The colours of the ropes distinguish the several voyages from each other. To three of these great adventurers, who he thinks claim especial preeminence above the rest Columbus, Anson & Cook, he has shewn a special honor by three little models of ships, bearing their names, which are placed upon the surface of his ocean, in some spot of their respective courses— The names of all the other voyagers, & the times at which their voyages, were performed, are marked by papers fixed at the points of their departure. Such is the imperfect description I can give you from a short view of the labours of this really curious man— He must be nearly, or quite seventy years old, & has all his life time been of an infirm constitution. But his taste for the sciences he told was hereditary in his family, & had been common to them all, from his great grandfather down to himself. His dress & appearance were those of a common weaver; but his countenance expressive at once of meditation & ingenuity; his eyes at once full of enthusiastic fire, & amiable good nature, was a model upon which Lavater might expatiate with exultation— He enquired who we were; & was as much transported at the names of American, & of Adams, as the magistrates of Freystadt— At these frequent & spontaneous expressions of respect shewn to our name, I hope neither you nor I shall feel any improper pride; at least our filial affection may be allowed to rejoyce at them. The honest & ingenious weaver, on our taking leave, made us smile by exclaiming, that now, if he could but have a traveller from Africa, come to see his works, he could boast of having had visitors from all the four quarters of the globe. Yours.


Title: John Quincy Adams to Thomas Boylston Adams, 3 August 1800
From: Adams, John Quincy
To: Adams, Thomas Boylston

							No: 6.
							Schreibershau. 3. August. 1800—

						At the close of my last letter I left you, in a cool refreshing shade, in the view of the Kockelfall, from which we proceeded the same evening to this inn— It was, as you may suppose a fatiguing day; though not so much so, as one or two we have gone through since, & several, which still await us— This village in one respect resembles

an American country, more than any other spot I have seen in Europe. It contains about 350 houses, & 1600 inhabitants, but they are scattered over an extent of several miles square, & the houses are all strey’d about in spots at an hundred rods & more from each other— The german travellers, who visit the place, all speak of the arrangement as of something extraordinary; though to me it appeared perfectly familiar, from having been so much used to it in our own country—

							Hirschberg. 5. August.

						I had only written thus far when I was called away to perform our last & most important labour upon the present excursion; from which we returned here yesterday— After six most fatiguing days in immediate succession we propose spending a few days in this pleasant town to rest ourselves, in which I shall have time to bring up the arrears of my narrative with you.
						We had been obliged to take one of the common post chaises of the country, to go to Schreibershau the roads being such that our own carriage was not suitable for them. Even the post chaise could not answer the purpose of our travels beyond that place, & for the remainder of our excursions we could use no other carriage than a peasent’s cart, without springs, or seats; instead of which however we had a couple of boards fixed across the cart, & covered with straw; which upon the whole was really, or was thought better than sitting on the bottom of the cart itself.
						Thus equiped we left Schreibershau between 5 & 6, in the morning of the 31st: & rode untill noon, over some of the worst roads it has ever been my lot to meet, to see the glass houses on the borders of Bohemia. There are two, one on the Silesian, the other on the Bohemian side of the boundaries, & about two english miles distant from each other— We saw them both— The mere glass house is much the same on both sides; excepting that the Bohemian is larger, & makes a great variety of articles— The principal things we saw made, were vials, bottles, tumblers, wineglasses coffee pots, & a sort of glass wire used upon lustres— I believe the proprietors of these works are not fond of having strangers come to inspect them, & they have some reason for such an aversion— In five or six instances, & at both the houses, the particular workman, whom we stopped to look at, failed in the article he was making, evidently because we were looking upon him; whether because his attention

was involuntarily drawn from his work to the spectators, or because the conciousness of being looked at, excited the ambition of appearing to do the work with perfect ease, & occasioned failure from carelessness, or by a contrary effect raised that unusual anxiety to do well, which defeats its own purpose, I shall not determine, but such was the fact— The Bohemian was much superior in quality, & about 50 percent cheaper than that of their neighbours— They have likewise in the same village, & belonging to the same manufactory, glass cutters, grinders, & gilders, so that the whole process is completed on the spot. At the Silesian works they barely blow the glass. Much of the Bohemian glass is handsome, & if they would but consult the english work in the same article to improve the elegance of their forms, it would be difficult to distinguish between them— As it is, the immense difference between the prices of Bohemian, & of english glass, even making every allowance for the necessary difference in the price of transportation, convinces me that an advantageous trade in this article too, might be carried on between our country & Bohemia, & I hope it will one day. You will perhaps think I recur too frequently to this idea; but I confess one of the chief objects of the present tour, was to obtain information respecting the manufactures of these countries, with this special view— To diminish the commercial dependence of our country upon G. Britain ought in my opinion to be one of the favorite objects of every american patriot, & in addressing these letters to you, I presume those parts of them, which relate to commerce & the manufactures will meet the eye, & as far as is proper the attention of the President.
						After spending about four hours in looking over all these works, we returned to Schreibershau, by the same road we had travelled in the morning, & reached that place at about ten at night— I suppose the distance not more than ten english miles, but the road is so mountanous, & rocky, that the cart could scarcely for a quarter of a mile on the way proceed upon a quicker pace, than a walk.— The hills were partly covered with, & had been partly stripped of their woods, chiefly birch & pine, used as well at the glass works, as at the manufactory of vitriol— Much of the wood is heaped, ready cut & split, along by the sides of the road, & much of it lies in the beds where all the streams run, to be floated down, when the season shall shewll their currents sufficiently for the purpose.
						Both in returning, & going we stopped at a peasant’s hut, where

we found excellent brown bread, water, milk, & butter & tolerably cheese— These articles are found in their utmost perfection in every part of the mountains, even where you can get nothing else.

								1. August. Friday.

						In making the usual excursions upon these mountains, it is necessary to be accompanied by a guide; for an acquaintance with all the places to be visited, towards some of which not so much as a foot path conducts, is a sort of profession; & in all professions some one person following it, will always be more eminent than all the rest, so here, Siegmund Seidler, junr: originally a poor shoemaker of Schreibershau, is the most widely celebrated of all the guides upon the Giant mountains. Zöllner, who published his tour hither, which he made in 1791, the next year, first brought forward in the lists of fame, this indefatigable leader, who has been celebrated by all the German tourists on this route since that time— So far superior is he deemed to all his brother trudges, that our friend the professor at Frankfurt, who had been before us here, advised us, if Seidler should happen upon our arrival at Scheibershau, to be out, with other company, rather to wait four, or five days untill his return, than to take any other guide— By good luck for us, he came home this morning at two o’clock from having attended another company, & from this day we engage him.
						To make an easy day’s work, we determined to content ourselves this day with visiting the Zacken fall. At noon we left our inn, & after riding two hours in the cart, & walking an hour more, we reached the spot. As we rode along, about twenty women & children gathered round us to beg, who followed us all the rest of the way to the fall, & a great part of it back. The situation of this fall is as wild & romantic, as that of the Kockel, & it is three times as high—that is, nearly 150 feet. It seems here, as in many other places in this neighbourhood as if some violent convulsion of Nature had riven the rocks, & made these formidable chasms, which yawn from so many of the elevations. At this place you stand upon one side of the cleft & see the water dask down from the other; upon a level with yourself; between you & the stream is an abrupt precipice, which seems the more profound, for being so narrow; per= about an hundred yards— With the help of a ladder I descended to the bottom, & walked partly over the rocks, & partly over the billets of wood lying in the bed of the stream to the spot from which the water falls— We likewise went round by a winding foot path on the top, to

the spot from which the streams launches itself— From these three several positions the views are altogether different, & neither of them should be admitted. We returned as we went, & reached our inn at about 6. in the evening—
						It is the fashion among the German travellers, who perform this tour, to make long & laboured descriptions of these two water falls, & at our inn at Schreibershau, a book like that of the Kÿnast is kept, in which all, who visit them, may insert their names— This book we found full of bombastic exclamations at the grandeur of the two cataracts; but the extreme scantiness of the sheet, or rather wire of water that falls, makes them utterly unworthy of that name, & fully justifies the lines written by some frenchman, who appears to have amused himself at the expence of all the fustian exclaimers at these spectacles— His lines are the only good ones found in the book.

							Oh! qu’il est joli, qu’il est beau!
							Pour un coeur tendre, & sincere,
							De voir couler des gouttes d’eau
							D’un rocher, dans la riviere.

								2. August. Saturday.

						This day was devoted to the view of the Schneegruben, or Snow pits, considered as among the greatest curiosities of the mountains, & likewise to visit the source & the fall of the Eble.
						At 7 in the morning, we took to the cart, & after jolting over the rocks up hill for two hours came to the place beyond which no carriage can proceed— We had procured an armed chair & a couple of men at Schriebershau, for the purpose of carrying Louisa part of the way, but she made little use of them— It would astonish you, as it does me, to see how she supports the fatigues of this journey, which is considered as so much beyond the strenght even of the strongest women, that our guide, who has followed this business these twelve years, assured me he had never conducted but one lady before upon this tour— From the time when we left the cart, we ascended for about an hour a stepp, of which you can form an idea, when I tell you that it was throughout, about equal to the steepest part of Beacon hill in Boston. We then came to a peasant’s, here called a Baude, (pronounce it, in english, bouder) of which there are many upon the mountains, & of which, as they & their inhabitants have several distinguishing peculiarities, I shall say something more in a future letter— After resting an hour & taking some refreshment at

this, which is known by the name of the Silesian baude, we recommenced our ascent, & after toiling, & panting half an hour longer reached, what is called the back of the Riesengebirge, that is the summit of the whole range; though single rocks & hills upon them rise yet much higher— On this back, we found a boundary stone between Bohemia, & Silesia; for the limits of the two provinces run all along upon this summit— We had however another half hour’s walk, chiefly ascending though less steep than before; when instantly a precipice nearly fifteen hundred feet deep opened its gastly jaws before us— A sort of isthmus, or tongue of land however allowed us to proceed about an hundred rods further, untill we could fix ourselves against the side of a rock, & look over into the tremendous depth— We had then the precipice on both sides of us, & it passes by the respective names of the great & the small snowpit— They are so called because generally the snow at the bottom remains unmelted the whole round, although this has not been the case for the last two summers, & at present they contain no snow at all— We were now elevated more than 4000 feet above the level of the sea; beyond the jaws of the precepice, somewhat higher than ourselves, was the summit of a mountain called the great wheel, or the great storm cap— Just beneath our feet was the dreadful precipice, at the bottom of which lofty pines slanting downwards upon the still descending mountain, scarcely appeared to us of the height of a lady’s needle; while beyond the foot of the mountains our eyes ranged to an almost immeasurable distance over hills & dales, corn fields & pastures, cities & villages, untill they were lost in the grey vapours, that bordered the far extended region— The weather, which is here almost always cold, even when the regions below are melting with heat, was so unusually mild that we had no occasion to take our cloaks, while we sat about an hour & enjoyed the prospects around us— At the snow pits, as at the falls, there is every appearance, as if the immense masses of granite, of which these mountains consist, had been split & shivered by some great natural convulsion— The basaltic rocks, which rise in irregular pyramidical shafts from the bottom of the pits, to the hight of five hundred feet furnish materials for the controversy between the natural philosophers, whether it is a marine, or volcanic production— Louisa from this spot returned to the Silesian baude, while I took an hour & a half more, to visit the source, & the fall of the Elbe, which required about a mile of descent on the Bohemian side. As there was no path leading towards it, & part of the way was not only

very steep, but between low bushes & shrubs, in which the feet might easily get entangled, this was the most disagreable part of this days journey— The fall of the Elbe is higher than either of those on the Silesian side, being about 250 feet; but has the same disadvantage of extremely penurious waters; a disadvantage, which though much less in the Spring of the year, than at present, must always be considerable, owing to the extremity of the falls, to the sources of their streams— In returning from this fall we saw two, or three of the eleven springs, from which according to some of the German writers, the Elbe, derives its name, as well as its waters. Yours—


Title: John Quincy Adams to Thomas Boylston Adams, 7 August 1800
From: Adams, John Quincy
To: Adams, Thomas Boylston

						No: 8.
						Hirschberg. 7. August. 1800.4. August. Monday.

					The reason, which induces travellers, who purpose a visit to the Riesenkoppe, to pass the night before at the Hempel’s baude is, that they may ascend the mountain in the morning early enough to see the sun rise, from its summit— Such was our own intention; but

when we rose at two o’clock in the morning, Louisa, found herself suffering so severe a headache, that she was obliged to give up the idea of going with us; & I set out accompanied only by Whitcomb & our guide— We had at first a steep & painful ascent for about twenty minutes; then a gentle sloping downwards & a plain for a quarter of an hour, untill we came to the immediate foot of the particular hill, which bears the name of the giant’s head— The darkness of the night had been gradually dispersing, & the borders of the horison at the east gradually reddening from the moment when we left the baude, so that I was apprehensive the Queen of day, as Zöllner on a similar occasion calls him, would show his glowing face before we should reach the summit, & to avoid this disappointment doubled the usual pace of ascent, & in another quarter of an hour stood at the door of the chapel on the top of the mountain— About ten minutes after, the great luminary arose in all his glory from the low cloud, which bordered the horison, for although the weather was remarkably fine for this region, the sky was not perfectly clear, & a murky vapour hung upon the atmosphere, which intercepted a part of the immense extent of territory, which would otherwise have been within the compass of our vision. I had heard so much of the apparent magnitude of the sun’s disk, when seen rising from this spot, that when I came to see it, I found it less striking than I imagined. It appears to me about the size of a large coach wheel, but the same effect may at any time be produced to a much greater degree by looking at it through a telescope.
					The prospect from this spot is of course more extensive, than from any other point upon these mountains, & its grander is augmented by the circumstance that the eye can range freely, bounded only by the horizon, on every side. The spectator has but to turn on his heel, & all Silesia, all Saxony, all Bohemia, pass in an instant before his view— It is therefore truly sublime, but it has the defect usually attendant upon sublimity, of being indistinct, & in some sort chaotic— The lovel of beautiful objects must content himself with a smaller elevation— A Painter at Hirschberg, by the name of Rheinhart, who is employed by the academy of Sciences at Berlin, to paint views of the most remarkable spots in this province, observed to me, that from the highest mountains there was nothing picturesque, nothing that he could employ as a subject for any one of his paintings— When on the Schneekoppe, I felt the force of this remark, for when the eye embraces at once such an extent of

objects it perceives only great masses; whereas all the pleasure that painting can afford is by the accurate representation of details.
					The proper Giant’s head is of a conical form, & the surface of the summit is not more I think than an hundred yards in diameter— Its perpendicular elevation is about 600 feet, & the path by which it is ascended forms nearly a regular angle of about 45 degrees— The ascent would indeed be too steep to be practicable, but that when the chapel on the top was built in the year 1668, a flight of stone steps was made to help in mounting to it, of which a sufficient part remains to give no small assistance. The mountain itself appears to be a solid rock of granite, upon which there is no appearance of vegetation, unless a kind of red moss, resembling rust upon iron, which grows on the loose stones, that cover it on every side may be so called— These loose stones, part of which are of granite, & part of a species of white flint, are in such abundance that they wholly conceal the side of the mountain itself— On one side of the path as you approach the top, a precipice of about 1500 feet opens, by the side of which you continue to mount; it ends at the bottom in a narrow vale of perhaps a mile in extent along the course of which are scatter’d a number of peasant’s huts— Here too it looks as if the body of the mountain had been riven at a single stroke, & the rocks which stand on either side correspond in such a manner as to resemble the teeth of a saw— Opposite the summit to the westward, is a mountain somewhat lower, called the little koppe, from the foot of which is a sloping grass plot, that goes by the name of Rubenzall’s pleasure garden— Other remarkable spots within the view, are called his meadow, his pulpit, his grounds &c. The whole neighbourhood is full of his name— I asked our guide to tell me honestly whether he had ever seen him; but he thought I was joking him, & said that he had not only never seen him, but had never believed in him— That the Silesians had never given credit to the stories about him; all of which had been believed & circulated by the Bohemians alone— I suppose a Bohemian guide would have assured me, that it was merely a Silesian superstition, which his countrymen had always derided.
					The chapel at the summit, is a small round building, partly of laths, partly of stone, & not more than twelve, or fifteen feet in diameter; it was built by a Count Schafgotch, whose descendent still owns the whole range of these mountains, & is the richest subject in Silesia— The number of his vassals is said to be upwards of

35000— The chapel is dedicated to St: Laurence, & the Cistercian monks at Warmbrunn, are obliged to perform the mass in it, on the Saint’s day, & upon four other feasts days annually.
					After passing about an hour & a half upon this spot, we thought it time to descend once more to the habitable world regions of the earth; but when we had got about half way from the bottom of the mount to the baude, who should we meet but Louisa, whose headache had left her as the day advanced, & who after coming so far had determined not to return & leave the most important object upon our tour unseen— I turned back of course, & went up the second time with her— It was now about 8 o’clock in the morning, & the sun had risen so high as partly to disperse the vapours, which had streightened the view at my first ascent— The mountain now appeared familiar to me as an old acquaintance, & the temperature of the air upon it was so uncommonly mild, that we might have dispensed with putting on our cloaks— It has so happened that the three, or four days we have been upon the mountains’ have proved to be among the warmest of the year; & excepting the few minutes before sunrise this morning, the cold has in no one instance been troublesome, in scarcely any perceptible degree to us— We had indeed taken the precaution to be very warmly clad, & as were advised have never been without thick cloaks to put on whenever the occasion should require.
					Sentiments of devotion, I have always found the first to take possession of the mind, on ascending lofty mountains— At the summit of Giant’s head, my first thought was turned to the supreme creator of the universe, who gave existence to that immensity of objects expanded before my view— The transition from this idea, to that of my relation, as an immortal soul, with the author of nature, was natural & immediate— From this to the recollection of my country, my parents, & friends, there was but a single & a sudden step— On returning to the hut where we had lodged, I wrote the following lines in the book.

						From lands, beyond the vast atlantic tide,
						Celestial freedom’s most beloved abode,
						Panting, I climb’d the mountain’s craggy side,
						And view’d the wondrous works of Nature’ God.
						Where yonder summit, peering to the skies,
						Beholds the earth beneath it with disdain,

						O’er all the regions round I cast my eyes,
						And anxious, sought my native home—in vain.
						As, to that native home, which still infolds
						Those youthful friendships, to my soul so dear,
						Still, you, my parents, in its bosom holds,
						My fancy flew, I felt the starting tear.
						Then, in the rustling of the morning wind,
						Methought I heard a Spirit whisper fair,
						“Pilgrim, forbear— Still upwards raise thy mind,
						Look to the skies—thy native home is there.”

					But as you will probably think these lines of too melancholy, or even too gloomy a cast, task, the lines written by my immediate predecesser in the book, which may perhaps restore the tone to your spirits—

						Es ist alles eitel!
						Ausser nur drey stück allein,
						Hübsche mädchen, guter wein,
						And ein volles beutel.
						Hab ich die, so bin ich froh,
						Und sprich auch mit Salomo,
						Es ist alles eitel!

					Upon taking our departure from the baude, we thought the charges of the land lady rather extravagant, & upon asking her in the mildest manner, how they came to amount so high, she flew into one of the most violent passions that ever deformed an individual of the softer sex, & stormed in a manner that a Fury might have taken lessons from her— Our guide afterwards told us, that the reason why we found her so ill natured was because her husband had yesterday given her a severe flogging, & she had not yet recovered from the ruffling of her disposition— Simple! virtuous! happy partriarchs!
					At no inconsiderable distance from this hut are two lakes, or ponds, the water of which is deep & clear, & which contain some fish— We visited one of them as we returned to the place, at which we had left our cart. This spot we reached at about 11 in the morning, & proceeding immediately thence, through Warmbrunn arrived again at Hirschberg at 3 in the afternoon.
					You have now an account, probably more circumstancial than you would have wished of our excusions upon the Giant mountains,

which, although in point of elevation they cannot stand a comparison with those of Switzerland, & much less with those of South America, still yield an ample compensation of pleasure, for the toil & trouble of ascending them. There are travellers, who think to give themselves an air of courage & importance, by representing parts of this tour as dangerous— But in truth with common prudence & precaution, there is no more danger than in walking the streets of any city— The roads have indeed been within the last month somewhat mended upon the expectation that the queen, who in the course of ten days is expected at Warmbrunn will be disposed to make the tour of the mountains— They have been made less inconvenient, but there was really no danger to remove.
					There are two remarkable changes in the face of the country, as you ascend— From the bottom of the mountains about half way up, the ground is covered with tall, majestic trees, chiefly pines, & firs, which gradually dwindle in size & height, untill in the middle region they can no longer be called trees; but shrink to a shrub of an extraordinary kind, which I believe is commonly called, dwarf pine. It goes here by the name of knee wood, in allusion to the height, which it seldom exceeds— The stem is sometimes about the size of a man’s leg, & it spreads round its branches, something in the shape of a large lustre, so as to be at least fifty feet in circumference— This bush grows up as high as what is called the kamm, or back of the whole range of mountains, & the bounderies between the two provinces are shown by a narrow lane cut between these bushes all along the ridge. The region above this consits entirely of the naked rock, without a trace of any kind of vegitation.
					We have had repeated opportunity to observe the sentiments of national aversion & rivalry between the neighbouring Bohemians & Silesians. At the Bohemian glass works, one of the men, who shew’d us some of their best specimens of cut glass, boastingly said to us— “You have seen nothing like this in Silesia—” And upon our return, a glass merchant at Warmbrunn shew’d us a large wine glass, with a landscape cut upon it, very beautifully executed, though done more than a century ago— “You saw nothing like this at the glass works in Bohemia”—said he— But the story I have related concerning the old dispute, respecting the source of the Elbe you will perceive that these neighbourly jealousies are of a more antient date, than the period when the two provinces belonged to different & rival sovereigns. Your’s—


Title: John Quincy Adams to Thomas Boylston Adams, 16 August 1800
From: Adams, John Quincy
To: Adams, Thomas Boylston

							No. 11.
							Waldenberg. 16. August. 1800. Saturday.

						From the cloister at Grussau (the day before yesterday) we returned to dine with Mr Ruck at Landeshut— It was a formal dinner of thirty persons according to the fashion of the country; we sat down soon after one, & rose from table just before six. The whole of this time is employed in eating; for the ladies & gentlemen rose together, & there was little wine drunk. But as only one dish is served at a time, & in a dinner of three courses, every dish must be handed round to every guest, the intervals between the dishes are of course very long; the usual time of sitting on such occasions, we are told is about seven hours, but it was here abridged out of complaisance to us. After dinner we walked in the garden, & coffee was served in an arbour where we sat some time, & conversed. As evening came on, the company sat down to cards, & played untill eleven, when a cold collation was served in another room. We were now permitted as strangers to return to our inn, but the rest of the company continued at their cards & the collation untill half past twelve. This is the usual course of a great dinner, in Silesia. The company consisted of the principal linen merchants, & the lutheran clergy of the place. Among them I found men of agreable manners, & of considerable information; but none of them spoke any other language than German— In general, throughout Silesia, speaking french is considered as an affectation of high life, & a sort of ridicule is cast upon it; so that many, who are well versed in the language, scruple at speaking it even with a stranger— For myself I like this so much the better. It forces me to make a trial of my

strength in German, & affords me some help in the acquisition of this language.
						Yesterday morning we went to see the Lutheran church at Landeshut. The church is built exactly upon the same model as that of Hirschberg, though not so large, nor like that decorated with paintings. The library is small & consists chiefly of theological books— Its principal curiosity is a manuscript volume containing original letters from persons of distinguished name in the sixteenth & seventeenth centuries. Among the rest are a few from Luther, & many from his friend & assistant Melancthon.
						The number of catholics & of evangelics, throughout Silesia, is nearly equal. But in all the manufacturing parts of the province the proportion of the catholics is much smaller—scarcely of one to ten. The arch bishop of Breslau is the only catholic prelate in the province, though before the Prussian conquest, the abbots of the great cloisters at Grüssau, & Leubus, & perhaps others, were members of the states. There are no lutheran bishops; but the ecclesiastical concerns are under the superintendency of a consistory at Breslau, subordinate to the Minister of Justice at Berlin, who presides over the whole ecclesiastical department. The salaries of the lutheran clergy are very low, none of them amounting to two hundred prussian dollars a year.
						After viewing Mr Ruck’s bleachery, which differs little from those we had seen before, we came yesterday afternoon, three german miles from Landeshut to this town; the country still continues to be enchantingly beautiful, & the roads excellent, though very hilly. When we had come about two thirds of the way, we passed through the little town of Gottesburg, & before almost every house saw women, boys & girls industriously employed in knitting worsted stockings, of which that is the principal manufacturing place. Thus upon almost every mile of our passage we behold industry, with a different, & always with an useful occupation. But it is always a great alloy to the satisfaction we receive from this prospect, that it is accompanied with that of wretchedness. The poor people, who are thus continually toiling can scarcely earn a sufficiency for their bare subsistence, & are subjected to various heavy impositions. The linen manufactories in particular, which raise large fortunes to the merchants, who export them from the cities, scarcely give bread to the peasants, who do all the valuable part of the work.
						Here at Waldenberg, the inn, where we lodge, is as usual situated in the ring, or public square, which I described to you in my last

letter, & this being a market day, we had all the forenoon a croud of peasants under our windows, each of them, with one, or two pieces of linen in a bag, standing & waiting for a purchaser. The merchant offers his price, & if it is agreed to, marks it upon the piece of linen, which the peasant then carries to the purchaser’s store, & receives his money. But it is said that the merchant often marks the linen with the price he offers, even when the seller refuses to let it go at so low a rate, & as the peasant cannot efface immediately the mark of the chalk, he scarcely ever obtains from a subsequent purchaser any more than he sees has been offered for the piece before. Thus the price is made dependant in a great degree upon the will of the purchaser, & the peasant, who feels himself by the iniquitous constitution of human society, a degraded being, subdued alike in soul & body, has neither the spirit to resent, nor the right to claim redress against this abominable imposition. We walked called up this morning one of those peasants, from our windows, & asked him the price of the piece of linen he had under his arm. He said six dollars— It was doubtless at least a dollar more than any of the merchants would have given him; but I was disposed to see what would be the effect of giving him his own price, & told him we would take it. He no sooner saw what accomodating traders he had to trade with, than he began to extol the excellency of his linen, & to urge me to give him more, than he had asked— This I refused, & though the poor fellow had certainly sold his goods higher than he had expected, I am afraid he went away rather regretting that he had not demanded more, than pleased that he had got so much.
						We have this day visited the coal mines, which are within an english mile of the town— A subterraneus canal, the entrance into which reminds one of the poetical descent of epic heroes to the infernal regions, conducts one to the spot where the miners draw the coal. You go down in a boat, flat bottom’d, about a yard wide, & ten feet long. The canal is not more than four wide, & equally deep, & over it is an arch about as high, hew’d in many places through the solid rock. It is nearly an english mile long, & strikes deeper & deeper under ground, untill the surface of the earth over head is more than 150 feet above you. The boat is pushed along through the canal, by two men, one standing at each end, who with a short stick in the hand press it against the sides of the arch that goes over the canal. After you have advanced about two thirds of the way, you come to lanes, which open on one side, & lead two or three hundred yards to the places, where the coal is cut out from the side

of the mine; but we could not see the miners at work this day, because they were employed in exercises for a solemn procession, which is intended in compliment to the queen, who is expected here the next week. This water communication from the surface of the earth to the bottom of the mine, which so prodigiously facilitates the transportation of the coal from its original dungeon to the regions of day, is an english contrivance, very recently, & very reluctantly adopted here— The further we go, & the more we see, the greater reason we have to be convinced that England is the country, where genius & science has been the most successfully applied to the improvement of the arts & manufactures.

								17. August. Sunday.

						Before we left Berlin, we had heard a great deal of Silesian hospitality, & from our reception & treatment from the moment, when we entered the province, you will judge how amply this character is deserv’d. We have had occasion to see more of it this day— Mr Töpfer, the burgomaster of the town, to whom we had a letter of introduction, invited us this morning to breakfast with him & family, at Altwasser, a bathing place about an english mile out of the town; at which he has a country house, & according to the custom of the country, sent his carriage to take us there— It is a charming spot in a valley surrounded by hills, & in a situation, which probably contributes more than the waters to restore health to the visitors of the place. The taste of the water resembles that of Selzer water, but contains not so large a quantity of fixed air— Mr Töpfer I find, as well as all the other great linen merchants of the mountain towns, has made the experiment of opening a trade directly with America, & like all the rest, he is not satisfied with the success of his undertaking— The brothers Bollman, two of whom were here personally about two years ago, & a Mr Thun, another german merchant settled at Philadelphia, procured linens to be sent them to a very large amount, for which they have not yet made their payments. The returns they have made were chiefly in sugar, in coffee, & in bills payable in England, upon all which great loss has been sustained by the great failures last winter at Hamburg, & by the very low course of exchange upon London. Mr Töpfer asked me if I could recommend any mercantile houses to him, in New York, Philadelphia, or Baltimore, as perfectly sure houses to whom he could safely consign linens, & the same question has been asked me by other merchants in these towns; but I have ventured only to

name Mr Smith at Boston, & that without knowing whether it would be agreable to him. I will thank you to send me one, or two names of merchants in each of those towns, who do business upon consignments, & who enjoy the most firmly established credit. But let them be genuine, solid merchants, whose credit is founded upon their character for honesty, & not, as is too common in our country, upon the extravagent extent of their enterprizes— I shall likewise be obliged to you to make enquires what was the situation in point of pecuniary circumstances, of Mr Gillon of South Carolina, when he died. For he owed about £4000. sterling to Mr Hasenclever, who never could obtain the payment of it in his lifetime, & whose daughter has been equally unsuccessful in her applications for it since his decease.
						This afternoon we went to Furstenstein, the seat of Count Hochberg, who has very large possessions in this part of the country, & to whom in particular the town of Waldenberg belongs. The seat is about a German mile distant from the town, situated in one of those beautiful & romantic spots, which are still as delightful to us to see, as I am afraid it is by this time tedious for you to hear of them— On the summit of an hill near the house, in which the count resides, are the ruins of an old castle, which have been partly rebuilt by him, & which for that reason scarcely look so venerable as those of the Kynast, & of Lähnhaus— This place however is so remarkable for picturesque beauty, that it is visited at all times by strangers, as one of the principal objects of curiosity in the province— At present it is doubly interesting— The day after tomorrow, the queen is expected to arrive at Furstenberg, where she purposes to spend a couple of days— For her reception, the Count is preparing an entertainment suitable to the character of his ancient castle— On the same hill, & just below the draw bridge over the moat, which is still supposed to surround the building, the ground is measured out, & enclosed, where a carousel is to be held in honor of the great visitor— Sixteen knights, all in the costume of the feudal times, are to issue from the walls of the old castle, to go & meet the queen upon her approach, & escort her to the spot, where the exercises of arms, or rather of horsemanship are to be performed— The evening is to close with a masked ball— This afternoon, a preparatory representation (for it cannot strictly be called a rehearsal) of the whole ceremony was given, & it was necessary for us, in order to get a sight of the exhibition on Tuesday, to pay our respects previously to the Count & Countess, we took the opportunity at the same time to

see this trial, of which we had doubtless a much better view, than we shall have amidst the immense crouds of people, who will throng to the real show— The count & countess received & treated us with a courteousness, worthy of the real age of chivalry.

								Tuesday morning. 19. August.

						Yesterday we took a ride in one of the common post chaises of the country to Adersback in Bohemia, which is between 3 & 4 german miles from this place. The roads have lately repaired for the accomodation of the queen, but they are still not such as we could travel with our own carriage. We passed through the small town of Friedland on our way, just beyond which are the boundaries between the two provinces. Adersback itself is a small village of no importance, but what makes it remarkable, is that near it, begins an immense range of rocks, which extend more than three german miles, & which have thrown together & loosened from each other in a manner the most extraordinary of any thing I ever beheld. Imagine to yourself a city of the first magnitude, all the buildings of which were from 150 to 400 feet high. Suppose this city to have been destroyed by fire, or by an earthquake, & to have left only fragments of the walls of its houses standing; & all the streets, lanes & houses alleys still passable; you will then have the most accurate idea of I can give you of this truly wonderful sport of nature. Many of the rocks hang together in large masses, but many of them stand singly, like one side of a house’s wall, & upon bases so excessively small in proportion to their weight, that they seem to bid defiance to the laws of gravitation. Many of them are thrown into shapes, which bear more or less resemblance to various other objects, of which the names are given for the sake of distinction. Thus there is the inverted sugar loaf, the priest, the pulpit, the kettle drums, the gallows, the chimney the bridge (which I think must resemble the natural bridge described by Mr Jefferson in his notes on Virginia) the church steeple &c— In the margin you have an outline of the inverted sugar loaf— In one place there is a water fall, about as high as the Zackerlefall, & at present nearly as copious. There is likewise an echo, not superior to that of the Kÿnast—


Title: John Quincy Adams to Thomas Boylston Adams, 20 August 1800
From: Adams, John Quincy
To: Adams, Thomas Boylston

							No: 12.
							Waldenberg. 20. August. 1800.

						The shortness of my paper, & of my time yesterday abridged my discription of the natural ruins at Adersback, one of the most curious objects we have yet viewed upon this journey. As I was closing my letter, the king & queen passed under our windows, on their way to Furstenstein. There, a double entertainment combining the fashionable amusements of antient & modern times, a carousel & a masquerade was prepared for them.
						The carousel was in a style of great splendour & magnificence. The sixteen knights, the herald and the bannerest were clad, not in

armour, but in the fashionable full dress of the age of Charles the fifth & Francis the first. The ceremonies were performed with rigorous accuracy according to the usages of chivalry. The exercises of the knights were in themselves nothing at all. The highest proof of skill was to take a ring, from the hand of a statue, with the point of the spear, upon an horse in full gallop. Even this, very few of them succeeded in doing. At any riding amphitheatre in Europe, or America, may be seen for half a crown the same things performed with infinitely more skill & address, but the close adherence to the forms usual in the times when knighthood was its glory; the pomp & solemnity of the representation; the contrast between the grandeur of the spectacle, & the old ruin’d walls, the relics of five centuries, & between the romantic wildness of the extensive prospect around, & the crowded thousands, who were present to see the show, all contributed to produce a pleasing effect. The four most successful knights received medals of different value proportioned to the degree of the prize they obtained. The queen hung the medals upon their necks. It was expected that after the names of the victors had been proclaimed, & the herald had thrice called out to ask, if any knight were yet disposed to dispute the prizes adjudged a strange would appear & enter the lists to renew the contest for the first medal, but this expectation was disappointed.
						The masked ball was given in the house, where the count now resides, an elegant & richly furnished modern building, which was illuminated upon the occasion. There were scarcely any masks in character, & no attempt was made by those, that were, to support them. Upon the whole it was very dull. The principal company consisted of the knights, who had performed at the carousel & their ladies; three quarters of these to say the least were dissatisfied at the issue of the day, in which as is very common on such occasions, the race was not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong; for it so happened that the very best riders of the company failed in obtaining any one of the prizes. Thus the countenances in shade, & the multitude of black dominos, with unmeaning, or hideous masks, gave the whole rather the appearance of a funeral procession, than of an high festivity. We stayed not more than half an hour, & a little after midnight returned to our inn at Waldenberg.

							Schweidnitz. 21. August. Thursday.

						Yesterday afternoon we came from Waldenberg, three german miles, to this town. About half way between the two places we

descended from the hill upon which Fürstenstein is situated, & leaving the small town of Freyberg at our left hand, enterred upon a very extensive plain, which admirably contrasts with those mountanous regions, where we have so agreably passed about four weeks. The mountain towns properly so called are five, from four of them, Hirschberg, Schmiedeberg, Landeshut, & Waldenberg, my last letters to you are dated. Upon our return we hope to see the fifth, which is Greiffenberg, & is situated just upon the borders of Saxony. We have now gone through the most interesting part of our journey. The mountain towns & the mountains themselves, with their inhabitants, have a peculiar character, distinct even from that of the rest of Silesia, & much more so from the other Prussian provinces. Their distance from the sea & even from all inland navigation, secludes them from that great & continual intercourse with the rest of the world, which according to Yorick’s happy illustration, effaces the appropriate stamp, at the same time that it gives the highest polish to human characters. Accordingly we find something original & characteristic in almost every individual we meet— As their country is seldom visited by strangers, their hospitality is cordial, warm, confiding, & carried sometimes so far as would be troublesome, if gratitude could admit any thing to be troublesome, which proceeds from such good intentions. The habitual industry so general among them preserves them from that excessive poverty, & those vices, which are prevalent in some countries still more favored by nature, though even here the comfort of the great mass of the people is so much inferior to what their industry deserves, that humanity cannot contemplate their condition without a sigh of compassion. Yet they have a priviledge very unusual in the prussian dominions; a great & valuable priviledge, the worth of which they fully know, & in which they take a proper pride. It is that of having no soldiers quartered upon them; no troops in garrison. This circumstance alone would be sufficient to produce an immense difference between the character of the people here, & that of their less fortunate fellow subjects. Instead of that perpetual, unvaried & disgusting view of Idleness, & misery & vice, with the uniform on the back, & the gun in the hand, it is truly refreshing to the soul, to see towns & villages, & I might almost say the very mountain wilds teeming with active & useful labour. In consequence of this exemption too, that reverence for the military character, which the policy of the state has rendered necessary in Prussia, extends not here. To go through the exercises of a review is not considered as the most exalted of all mortal

accomplishments; nor is an epaulette the golden image before which all the people must prostrate themselves in sign of worship. The badges of monarchy being thus remote, & the nobility, who reside in the province having generally their houses in the country, the manners of the people in the towns have more of a republican, than a monarchical cast, & the general equality among the citizens gives them a social turn, which I have seldom seen in other parts of Germany. In every one of the towns we found some institution, of an assembly where the citizens in confortable circumstances, with their families, meet once a week, or oftener to enjoy the pleasures of conversation & social amusements.
						Yet however interesting the sight of this country may be to a traveller passing through it, at this season of the year, its attractions are counterbalanced by too many inconveniences to make it an inviting place for a permanent residence. We have had ample occasion to convince ourselves that the representations of the prussian travellers in these regions, who make Saturnian times roll round again, to bless this land with innocence & happiness, are greatly exagerated to say the least. Those passions, which in the more closely accumulated societies of mankind, contribute to make human life miserable, being here confined to a narrower sphere, & applied to smaller objects are still active to make it uncomfortable. The climate is at least by ten degrees of latitude more rigorous, than that of the same parallel upon level ground. Those mountain tops, where we were regaled with refreshing breezes, are almost the whole year round swept with chilling blasts. Those trees, which now wave their verdure over the brows of the hills, three quarters of the year stretch forth their leafless branches, as if to implore the mercy of an unrelenting sky. Those fields, which now seem to exult under the burden of their fertility, six months of the twelve lie bleaching under a thick crust of snow. The transitions from heat to cold even at the fairest season, are so great, so frequent & sudden, as often to prove pernicious to the health; & scarcely any of the fruits of temperate regions here enjoy enough of the genial warmth of the sun to attain maturity. If one were to give full credit to Zöllner, the most moderate of the Prussian tourists in Silesia, one would suppose beggary to be a thing unheard of on the Silesian side of the mountains, but that the instant you set your foot into Bohemia, they swarmed round you by thousands— The superior condition of the Silesians is indeed very clearly & even strongly marked in this particular, as the beggars are certainly more numerous on the

Bohemian side. But even on the other, we were not fortunate enough to pass a single day without meeting more than one beggar, & the train of women & children, who followed us to the Zackenfall, gasping for a dryer, was as numerous, as that which pursued us among the ruins of Adersbach.
						The accomodations for travellers upon the mountains themselves, are very miserable, but in the towns, the inns are rather above the average of public houses in Germany. Almost every where we found good butter, bread, coffee, milk & water. The water indeed which trickles down the sides of the mountains in ten thousand streams, which you pass at almost every tenth step you take, is so clear & cool, that some self controul is necessary to avoid drinking it while you are sweating under the toil of the ascent. The mountaneers however take no precautions of this kind, but freely drink from the brooks at the very moment when they are in the profusest perspiration. If I were a Physician I should perhaps enquire whether the goitres, of which we have heard so much upon the mountains of Switzerland, & which are by no means uncommon upon these, are not partly imputable to this carelessness.
						Just on this side of Freyberg upon our ride hither, we stopped & I went down into a lime pit, which was close by the side of the road. Its depth might be about 120 feet. At the same place there was formerly a quarry of marble, which is now exhausted. We saw one furnace, in which they were burning lime stone; it was in the open air; like a deep kettle sunk into the ground, upon which they lay alternately a layer of coal, & a layer of stone, which they keep thus continually burning, the whole summer through. At the bottom of the pit, were small ponds of water, which some of the workmen were employed in pumping out. There was a mashine on the top, like those used under the Adelphi buildings, to answer the same purpose. We saw one large block of the marble, which was formerly drawn from the quarry. It was a bluish stone, with a very small mixture of white; apparantly a marble of the most ordinary kind. The works have been carried on about thirty years.
						Schweidnitz is a large & handsomely built town, containing about six thousand inhabitants with a garrison usually of about two thousand men. It is chiefly remarable as one of the three fortresses, (Silberberg & Glatz, are the two others) upon which the fate of Silesia, in the wars between Austria & Prussia, must always depend. But as the place is situated in the midst of a large plain, & has not even a navigable river running before it the place is far from strong,

& mere art has never yet contrived a fortification, which is not capable to subdue. Schweidnitz therefore has never been able to stand a long siege, & in the seven years war, was four times taken & retaken. The catholics in the town are in the proportion of one, to four protestants. There are four cloisters, but like most of the Silesian convents they are almost entirely without monks, or nuns; excepting one of the order of St: Ursula, where seven & twenty poor sisters bewail their virginity, & of which my wife can give a better account than I can, as the good nuns according to the rules of their order hold the male sex too much in abomination to admit any of us publickly within their walls.
						I am sorry to say that Sweidnitz is not yet ashamed to enjoy the priviledge of suffering no jews within the town. The occasion, which gave rise to this ridiculous & barbarous regulation is represented in a picture, which yet disgraces the catholic church in the town— under which is a german inscription relating the story after the catholic fashion. It relates that about the year 1450, certain jews obtained possesion of a consecrated host, which they treated with contempt & indignity—which the picture further explains by representing two of the jews as stabbing the wafer with daggers, & the wafer of course as streaming with blood— For this offence ten jews & seven of their wives were burnt at the stake, & the town was formally priviledged never again to be contaminated with the presence of a jew.
						This catholic church was first built by Bolko, the little, the last duke of Schweidnitz, & the same pious personage, whose gradations of greatness were so accurately measured upon the inscription at Grussau. It has gone through various adventures, & a singular succession of proprietors, & finally belonged to the jesuits untill the abolition of their order in 1775. It has highest steeple in all Silesia, from which there is an extensive & beautiful prospect of the wide plains, which surround the town, to the distant mountains, which look like a wall round the horizon.
						The lutheran church was one of the three, which were stipulated to be built in Silesia, by the treaty of Westphalia; the priviledge was granted upon condition that the fabric should only be of wood & plaister, which gives it on the outside the appearance of a barn. But as a compensation for this external restraint the Lutherans indulged themselves by ornamenting more profusely the inside of the church, & it is sufficiently spacious to contain a congregation of five

thousand persons. It assembles nearly that number in their devotions almost every sunday, to this day.— In general, we find the churches very well filled on Sunday, in every town, which have had an opportunity to visit at that time.
						This morning the queen passed through this town on her way to Glatz. She was received with much ceremony, & a procession of twelve pretty maidens clad in white, went with an address to her & some small presents. We have spent the day here partly for the purpose of letting her majesty get so far before us, as not to deprive us of lodging place at the inns, & of post horses on the roads.
						Your’s,


Title: Louisa Catherine Johnson to Joshua Johnson, 5 September 1800
From: Johnson, Louisa Catherine
To: Johnson, Joshua

						Hirshberg Sept. 5th. 1800

					As I have been rather unwell lately from the fatigue of my journey I have neglected my journal so much I scarcely know how to continue it however as my journey is nearly at an end I must at least give some account of the latter part of it though as usual my beloved father I am fearful you will find it exceedingly tedious—
					I believe my last letter was dated at Breslau though my journal had only reached as far as Glatz 26 August Mr. A. went to see a mountain called the Heuscheuer but I was too much fatigued to accompany him therefore staid at Glatz he returned on the 27th. and then delivered a letter to the governor of Glatz who is an old general turned of 70 years of age he recieved him very civilly and the next morning a little after eight o’clock sent his carriage for us to see the troops march into town from Neyse these troops had been to Neyse to be reviewed by the King— After this we went with the governor to see the fortress which he insisted upon shewing us himself this is one of the strongest fortresses in the king of Prussia’s dominions the fortress is situated on a very high hill which overlooks the whole province of Glatz and the town which is very small old and dirty is built exactly at the bottom of the Hill we dined at the governors and I was of course presented to his lady you who know the coldness of my manners to strangers will be a little surprized at that this lady was so prepossed in my favor from in the short time I staid that she cried very much when I took my leave I do not mention this from any vain motive but in hopes that you may think me much improved—
					We left Glatz immediately after dinner and returned to Frankenstein were we passed the night the 29 28th we went to Silberberg a remarkable strong fortress and much more beautifully situated than

the fortress at Glatz. Silberberg was entirely made by Frederic the 2d who is generally called the great Frederic the weather was very bad as it rained the whole time of our stay we found upon entering the town that we were expected the governor of Glatz having sent forward to announce our arrival to the commandant who had prepared a dinner for us which he insisted upon our staying to partake of as soon as dinner was over we took our leave of the good old commandant and returned to frankenstein and immediately proceeded to Breslau where we arrived the 29th. we staid here five days but I saw nothing remarkable excepting the town itself which is very old and strongly fortified it is full of old monasteries and churches most of which have been built between five and six hundred years—
					We left Breslau the third of September and slept at a small town called   and the next night arrived at Hirshberg we staid here only two days during which time I was very unwell and glad to rest a little the 7th we continued our route and arrivd late at night at Flinsberg a small bathing place situated in the most romantic and beautiful spot I ever beheld we however had not time to stay here and pursued our route through Greisenberg another of the mountain towns as they are called which are celebrated for large manufactories of linnen we staid only to change horses and went on to the next stage a small town in Saxony called Lauban where the post master endeavored as much as possible to impose on us and was most excessively abusive at about nine o’clock we arrived at Görlitz a considerable large town celebrated for very extensive large broad cloth manufactories but the cloths did not appear to me to be better than those made in Silesia as I still continued poorly Mr. A. left me at Gorlitz and went to Hernnhuth one of the largest establishments of Moravians in Germany it is a small town inhabitted entirely by people of this sect who live in a very simple manner they have a large shop in which they sell every thing you can think of made entirely by the society this is very interresting to see and I regretted very much not being able to go but the road was so bad and I was so ill I did not dare to go venture I can say very little about this society The next morning we continued our journey towards Dresden where we arrived on the 10th we propose staying here a few days and then go on to Leipsic where if we can procure a lodging we intend to stay a month or more my journal is therefore at an end and my letters will of course not be so frequent I shall for the future continue to write to my Sisters and Tom as I used to do I am extremely anxious to hear from you my beloved father it is a long long

time since I had that pleasure and my anxiety is still encreased by the account which I recieved from Mrs. Hewlett of a violent illness which you had suffered she mentioned your recovery but I shall not be satisfied untill I hear from mama or yourself
					Mr. A. unites with me in duty to yourself and Mama and love to Tom and my Sisters with a kiss for little Johnson who I desire may be taught to know that he has an aunt who will love him most affectionately and believe me with the most ardent prayers for your health and happiness your affectionate and dutiful child

						L. C. Adams