Sept. 29th.—­The theatre closed at the request of the committee of health, the fever gaining ground rapidly, and the inhabitants quitting the town as fast as possible.

October the 2d.

The committee of health published their list of deaths, which they mean to continue every 24 hours.  Died since the 1st of August 344 persons.  The next day a violent cold and penetrating N.W. wind set in, with uncommon severity, which has entirely stopped the infection.

Oct. 14th.—­The late cold weather has completely destroyed the yellow fever.  The inhabitants are returned, and trade is restored to its usual course.

Yours, sincerely, &c.

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Baltimore and the Point[Footnote:  Or Fell’s Point, the name given to a small but well-situated town about a mile lower down the bay.] may be considered but as one town, as the interval that parts them is already laid out for building.

There is not perhaps on the face of the earth so many excellent situations for a sea-port as in this vicinity; and yet they have fixed on the very spot where the town should not be.

Baltimore, by being built so far from the bay of Chesapeak, has not depth of water for a vessel of two hundred tons, nearer than the Point.  The lower part of the town is a dead flat, intersected with canals and docks, filled with stagnated water from the Basin:  owing to this circumstance the town is unhealthy at certain seasons, and subject, in the fall, to musquitoes:  these inconveniences might have been avoided by building the town a mile lower, on either side the bay.

But there is a much better situation for a town and port on an inlet from the Patapsico, west of the town, round a point, which runs about W.N.W. where I have marked No. 10.

On this spot is water for a vessel of eight hundred tons burden, sufficiently fresh to exclude the worms, and at the same time a current strong enough to prevent stagnation.  A bay perfectly secure from the N.W. and other dangerous winds, a gradual rise of ground consisting of a fine dry gravel to build upon; in short, every natural advantage.  This was the original situation designed for the town; but the proprietor was concerned in a wharf in this neighbourhood, and fearing the new town would injure his business, positively refused his consent to the proposals made him on this occasion, and by that means, lost one of the first estates perhaps ever offered to an individual.

I was in this bay, on a fishing party, a few days ago, with one of his descendants, who was lamenting the infatuation of his ancestor.  This gentleman was so kind as to point out and explain the foregoing particulars.

You will naturally inquire how the town came to be built in it’s present situation?  The governor of the province was proprietor of most of the land.  Is not that a sufficient reason.