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JOURNAL OF ANDRÉ MICHAUX

On the 15ᵗʰ of July 1793, I took leave of Citizen Genet, Minister of the Republic of France to the United States[1] and started from Philadelphia on the same date at ten o'clock at night to avoid the great heat, and to travel by Moonlight. The 16th, being in company with . . . humeau and . . . Leblanc,[2] we journeyed 40 miles.

The 17th, passed by Lancaster and made 35 Miles.

The 18th, passed by Carlisle . . . Miles and slept at Chipesbourg [Shippensburg].

The 19th we slept at Strasbourg . . . Miles.

Sunday the 20th, we started from Strasbourg, a small town situate at the foot of the Mountains; one of our horses having fallen sick we traveled only 21 Miles; observed Magnolia acuminata, Azalea octandra, Kalmia


  1. Edmond Charles Genet (Genest) was born at Versailles about 1765. His father was a diplomat who was interested in English literature, and who welcomed the American coterie in Paris to his home. Henrietta Genet, later Madame Campan, was first lady of honor to Queen Marie Antoinette; her brother was chosen at the early age of twenty-four, secretary—later, chargé d'affaires—to the French embassy at St. Petersburg. His dispatches thence were of so republican a tone, that in 1792 he was commissioned minister of the new French republic, to Holland; but late in the same year was chosen for the mission to the United States, where he arrived April 8, 1793. His career in America is well known. After his commission was revoked, Genet became a naturalized American citizen, married a daughter of Governor Clinton of New York, and died at Jamaica, Long Island, in 1834.—Ed.
  2. Humeau and Le Blanc appear to have been agents of Genet, assisting in this revolutionary movement. Nothing is known of the former. Le Blanc was a citizen of New Orleans, well-affected to the French revolutionary cause. He was to have been made mayor of New Orleans, when that city should fall into the hands of the revolutionists. See American Historical Association Report, 1896, pp. 1049, 1050.—Ed.