Page:Notes on the State of Virginia (1802).djvu/14



HE following Notes were written in Virginia, in the year 1781, and ſomewhat corrected and enlarged in the Winter of 1782, in anſwer to Queries propoſed to the author, by a foreigner of diſtinction, then reſiding among us. The ſubjects are all treated imperfectly; ſome ſcarcely touched on. To apologize for this by developing the circumſtances of the time and place of their compoſition, would be to open wounds which have already bled enough. To theſe circumſtances ſome of their imperfections may with truth be aſcribed; the great maſs to the want of information, and want of talents in the writer. He had a few copies printed, which he gave among his friends: and a tranſlation of them has been lately publiſhed in France, but with ſuch alterations as the laws of the preſs in that country rendered neceſſary. They are now offered to the public in their original form and language.