"After several days had elapsed and I was through selling my goods, except for those things for which there was no market, I happened to talk to some sailors who said there was a large sloop in the harbor that was ready to sail to New York. I had heard many good things about that country and I wanted to visit it. I went with the sailors to their ship and they told me the sloop for New York was still in the harbor. I decided to stay the night on the sailor's ship and I would go see the captain of the sloop in the morning. I rose early but the sloop was already under sail. Then I had to stay in Yorktown until another opportunity presented itself. Nothing came up in twelve days."
"I heard good things about Pennsylvania so I looked for a ship going there. I found one but before it could leave for Pennsylvania the warships commanded that it go to Carolina to fetch some salted pork. I decided to walk to Pennsylvania even though it was summer and very hot. For four days I walked and then I got lost. I stopped at a house to ask the way and two men there took me for an escaped servant. They took me to a justice of the peace. He asked for my passport and I explained that I had only come and was not familiar with the customs. He asked many questions about the captain and the ship and I had a hard time to answer as my English was not good."
"The justice of the peace released me but said that I should get a passport. He was also surprised that I was traveling alone on foot in the summer. It was a long way back to Williamsburg to get a passport so I decided to go on for as far as I could. That night I stayed with a Hollander and, the next day being a Sunday, I stayed that day with him. He said that I could hardly go through Maryland without a passport. I remembered there was an English minister I had met whose parish was on the Rappahannock River. This was not very far away so on Monday I set out to find him. I did find him and explained my problem to him and asked for a letter of recommendation that I could take to a justice of the peace. At first he was reluctant because he did not know me well but he agreed to say that he had seen me arrive from England as a free passenger. He told me where I could find a justice of the peace. It was very hot and I grew weak but I saw some people and I tried to get them. But I could not manage to crawl over a fence and I fell backwards. The people thought I was drunk. But they came to see what was the matter and saw that I had fainted. They took me into the house and revived me. That evening I went on a little farther." [Michel was now approaching the Rappahannock River.]
"The country was very isolated and the road was nothing but a trail. I saw hardly any people. Finally I found a house and I stopped there where an Englishman and a Frenchman were keeping house together. They told me I had gone far astray. They told me the right way to go and gave me some food. They also took me across the Rappahannock River. With another day's journey, I lodged with a man who lived on the Potomac River. He strongly advised me not to cross the Potomac because I would be in Maryland and I would be put in jail without a passport."
We gratefully acknowledge the work of John Blankenbaker who published over 2,500 Germanna History Notes via the Germanna-L@rootsweb.com email list from 1997 to 2008. We are equally thankful to George Durman (Sgt. George) for hosting the list and republishing the notes via rootsweb.com.