3

chandise of various kinds are transported to Baltimore from the
interior of Pennsylvania and New York. The Potomac offers a
medium of communication with Virginia and North Carolina,
and the Choptank, Elk, Pocomoke and several other rivers, serve
to convey many valuable commodities from the Eastern Shore of
Maryland, and afford a market in that section of the state for
the manufactures and imports of Baltimore. For further infor-
mation on this subject we refer the reader to chapter ix.

Besides the water communication just spoken of, the trade of
Baltimore carried on with the back country by means of rail-
roads and turnpikes, is very considerable. In our present divi-
sion, we mention this fact only to show the advantages of our
location in this respect; as our City thereby becomes the mart of
a large and wealthy district, which the progress of internal im-
provement continues to make more and more extensive. See
chapter ix.

On the whole, the geographical situation of Baltimore com-
bines every requisite to health and prosperity, and we are happy
to add that there exists among her citizens a spirit of enterprize
and patriotism sufficient to develope and improve the benefits she
has received from the hand of nature.

Chapter II.—History.

The early history of Baltimore presents rather an unpromising
aspect, when we consider the unexampled growth and the rapid
increase in commerce and manufactures for which the subsequent
annals of this city are particularly remarkable. For nearly one
hundred years after the formation of the county, the progress of
improvement was exceedingly slow, and there were few indica-
tions of that prosperity which, at no distant period, was to elevate
Baltimore into the first rank of American cities.

The county of Baltimore was formed in the year 1659, and
just seventy years after, the legislature passed an act for erect-
ing a town, to be called Baltimore Town, on the north side of
Patapsco river; for which purpose sixty acres of land were desig-
nated and accordingly laid out into the same number oi' lots.
From this time to 1758 the place continued, to be a very inconsi-
derable village, and as late as 1792 the population was only
13,503. The war of the revolution, during its continuance,
doubtless had a malign effect on the growth of the town, as we
find that after that great struggle was over, it began to make
rapid advances towards prosperity. Much of this effect may
also be ascribed to the removal of the old government and the
establishment of a new one. Baltimore became the county town
in 1798, previously to which time the courts had been held at
Joppa, a small village then lying about twenty-five miles from