SCHOEPF'S
TRAVELS IN THE
CONFEDERATION
MORRISON
E
164
S363
3
A 1,009,018
Travels in the Confederation

ARTES
1837
SCIENTIA
VERITAS
LIBRARY
OF THE
UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN
E-PLURIBUS-UKUM
STUEBORA
SI QUAERIS PENINSULAM AMOENAME
CIRCUMSPICE
!
די
!
E
164
536
•
.
Travels
in the Confederation
[1783-1784]
FROM THE GERMAN OF
JOHANN DAVID SCHOEPF
TRANSLATEd and Edited
BY
ALFRED J. MORRISON
PENNSYLVANIA, MARYLAND, VIRGINIA, THE CAROLINAS,
EAST FLORIDA, THE BAHAMAS
PHILADELPHIA
WILLIAM J. CAMPBELL
1911
COPYRIGHT, 1911,
BY
ALFRED J. MORRISON
The Lord Baltimore Press
BALTIMORE, MD., U. S. A.
Reise
durch einige der mittlern und füdlichen
vereinigten
nordamerikaniſchen Staaten
nach Ost-Florida und den Bahaina - Inseln
unternommen in den Jahren 1783 und 1784
Johann
10.17
David
Sch i p f
d. A. W. D. Hochfürftl. Brandenb. Onolzb. und' Culmb. Hof: und
Militär - Medikus, Landphyſikus, des Mediz. Colleg. zu Bayreuth Rath
und der Gesellschaft naturforschender Freynde zu Berlin Mitgliede.

Zweyter Theil.
Erlangen
ben Johann Jacob Palm. 1788.
не
W
Preface
HAT I have already observed in the Preface
to the first part, regarding the occasion.
and the purpose of my journey through
North America, I must repeat here. In the circum-
stances I was unwilling, and unable, to set before my-
self a complete description of observables in America.
Moreover, it should be borne in mind that the journey
through Virginia, North and South Carolina, fell in
the winter months, unfavorable for investigations in
natural history or in œconomical subjects, and there
was no alternative. I shall hope, therefore, that the
reader will pardon me if I do not gratify his wish for
pleasing information on all manner of subjects. I
bring these Travels to an end with my arrival in Eng-
land. The numerous accounts of that kingdom and
of other countries touched by me on my journey home
would render mine superfluous.
Bayreuth, October, 1788
223201
FRAGMENT
EINES SCHREIBENS
ÜBER
KLIMA UND WITTERUNG
IN
NORDAMERIKA.
-See, Appendix.
Journey from Philadelphia to Charleston
J
lenspinania
T was towards the end of November when with
the purpose of visiting the southern colonies, I
left Philadelphia for the second time. I had in-
tended making the journey thence by sea, in one of the
regular packet-boats to Charleston; and it was not so
much the commonly disagreeable and often tedious
voyage at this late season of the year, as the advice of
several estimable men and their representations of the
manifold advantages, the great pleasure and instruction
to be had from a land-journey that determined me in
this course. I concluded therefore to take the so-called
'back road' from Philadelphia, by Lancaster and
thence along the mountains through Virginia to North
Carolina, on which route I could hope to find much that
was remarkable. But the roads of those parts getting
worse with the approach of winter, I was obliged to
leave them and travel along the coast. And unfortu-
nately, at this dead season, I did not find the hoped-for
compensation for the long way which, in the spring or
the summer, must have afforded at every step useful
and pleasant entertainment.
Going from Philadelphia one passes the Schuylkill,
at the middle ferry, by a floating bridge consisting of
great logs joined together by cramp-irons. In order
that the bridge may rise and fall with the ebb and flow
of the water, there have been fixed at suitable distances
2
TRAVELS IN THE CONFEDERATION
stout iron turning-joints in the longitudinal timbers.
The banks of this pleasant stream, particularly on the
west side, are finely distinguished by steep and bare
rock-walls. The rock is granite, but feldspar is for the
most part absent. The surface-covering is the com-
mon reddish, sandy clay earth; but a few miles farther
on the rock is covered merely by a clayey slate, and
here and there appeared fragments of a blueish black,
dense species of stone, called here 'blue stone.' Hav-
ing followed for some II miles the straight western
road to Lancaster, the gradually increasing elevation
of the land begins to be noticeable from time to time.
But here I turned off from the main road, to the right,
passed Gulf-mill at a narrow gap between two high
rocks, apparently divided apart by force, and after a
few miles came again to the Schuylkill and along it to
Swedes-ford. There met us many wagons, loaded
with lime, the staple of this region. A mountainous
tract, containing limestone and marble, extends hither
from Whitemarsh, Chesnut-hill, and Plymouth, and
these are the nearest places from which Philadelphia
may be supplied with lime. The lime-burning here is
commonly managed not in walled furnaces but in
square pits, sometimes but not always lined with fire-
proof stone. In burning the lime, for various reasons
dead wood or dry logs are preferred, rather than green,
and it is estimated that 15 cords of wood are needed
to burn 5-600 bushels of lime. The wood is bought on
the stump, and 5 shillings Pensyl. Current (% of a
Spanish dollar) the cord is regarded as dear. Accord-
ing to the price of the wood, and the cost of cutting
and hauling, a bushel of burnt lime can be sold at 8
to 13 pence Pensylv. Current. Most of it is brought
PENSYLVANIA
3
to the city, but the people of the region use a great
deal of it on their lands. Being near a good market,
and their lands having long been worked, they find
this manner of improving their fields very convenient.
Ordinary upland, they find, will not take more than 15-
20 bushels to the acre, but their fat clayey low-grounds
more than twice that much.
About Swedes-Ford there are very considerable
marble-quarries. The limestone hills just now men-
tioned are on the east side of the river, and close by
the bank break off steep and rough; the western bank
on the other hand is low. The total breadth of this
limestone tract, which cuts the stream in an eastern
and north-eastern direction, is from one to two miles,
and maybe more. Most of the marble is got high up
in the mountain where it shows itself in thick beds,
falling away to the east at an angle of perhaps 80
degrees. These strata resting one upon another almost
perpendicularly are very clearly distinguished by divers
rifts and clefts as well as by the changed colors. This
can scarcely have been their original bearing; rather it
is likely that they have suffered a powerful alteration
of their bed. This marble is not the finest, does not
take the best polish, and scales under the chisel. In
color it is chiefly white and grey, diversly mixed.
On the low hills to the west of the river, made up
likewise of limestone rock, loose quartz-fragments are
found in great quantity, frequently set off with fine
crystals. These occur especially on Mr. Rambo's land,
which is throughout based on the limestone. This ob-
servation, that crystals are very generally if not always
found on limestone soil, I have confirmed in many other
parts of America.
4
TRAVELS IN THE CONFEDERATION
The Schuylkill is here commonly not so deep but
one may ride through; hence, and from some Swedish.
families who settled the region, comes the name
Swedes-Ford. The descendants of those Swedes still
live upon the scattered farms of their ancestors. They
have a church of their own in the neighborhood, and
the pastor of the Swedish congregation at Philadelphia
holds service there once in three weeks, but in the
English language. These Swedes were never numer-
ous here; separated from their countrymen and going
about and marrying with the English and Germans,
they have almost lost the use of their mother-tongue,
many of them hardly knowing how to express them-
selves in it, and using the English speech altogether.
This would now be the case with most of the Germans
in America, were it not for their vastly greater num-
bers, constantly replenished from Europe, having
helped to keep up the language.
Between Swedes-Ford and Valley-Forge there are to
be seen many pits for burning lime; but on the surface.
along that road only common quartz and sandstone.
The height, at the foot of which lies Valley-Forge, was
overstrewn with a quantity of hard, slatey, sand-stones,
in which here and there appeared little blackish points
of what seemed to be shorl. The opposite hill consisted
almost entirely of a brown rotten iron-ore mixed with
mica. This otherwise very insignificant hollow be-
came known to the world from General Washington's
keeping his winter-quarters there in 1778. The works
and buildings at the forge were burned down during
the war. The ore which was smelted and worked here
comes from a valley near-by.
The hills, over which the road lay from here, still
PENSYLVANIA
5
10
seemed to be made up for the most part of a brown
iron-mould, or of an earth similar to this. In one of
the valleys there was limestone. But this whole region,
far around, cannot boast of any particularly fertile soil;
but little grain is raised, and there is a lack of meadows,
the narrow low-grounds along the Schuylkill excepted,
which is the sole good land of the region. But the
country is so much the more productive in iron-ore,
which has been the occasion of setting up a good many
forges and furnaces. The forests are everywhere thin
and of young growth; for what with the lack of a
systematic forest-economy here, the many iron-works
could not but ravage the woods, and to their own hurt.
The better land is used for farming, and the worse,
where timber is left standing, produces a slow and
poor growth. Moreover the game which at one time
was very plentiful in this region has in great part been
frightened off, and there is little to be seen except a
few pheasants (Tetrao Umbellus & Cupido L.), par-
tridges (Tetrao virginianus L.), squirrels, and hares.
Everybody having full liberty to shoot, as much as he
can or cares to, the larger game is extirpated in the
farmed and settled parts, and has taken a last refuge in
the wild mountain country. The people who live in
and among these hills seem not to be the most pros-
perous and their dwellings are not the best. But they
are not forgotten in the tax-levies; an ordinary house,
e. g., with 100 acres of land, paid this year 20 Pd.
Pensylv. Current. The owner, a German, would there-
fore rather live somewhere else, but he expressed a
singular dislike for the famed Kentucky country on
the Ohio, whither several of his friends were trying
to persuade him to withdraw. He had heard that in
6
TRAVELS IN THE CONFEDERATION
Kentucky there is no real winter; and where there is
no winter, he argued, people must work year in, year
out, and that was not his fancy; winter, with a warm
stove and sluggish days, being indispensable to his
happiness.
Coventry, another forge 15 miles from Valley-Forge,
belongs to a Mr. Pott. On the road thither iron-mould
is still to be seen, at times soft, at times hard, and
divers other species of rock, scaly sand-stones, quartz,
and breccia cemented with sand and iron; and a
gneissic rock especially. The forge at Coventry stands.
in a narrow valley, running east and west. There are
three hearths and three hammers. The hammers lie
parallel with the shaft, the trunnions of which catch
the helve at a little distance behind the hammer, and
thus raise it with less power.
The bellows are of wood, and consist of two cylindri-
cal casks, fitting closely the one into the other, and
moving up and down between four wooden posts.
The wind goes first through a leathern conduit, into
an iron pipe, and so to the hearth. These simple
bellows have the advantage that they may be set up
without trouble or expense, need few repairs, and
should last well. The best bar-iron is at this time sold
here at 38 shillings Pensyl. Current the hundredweight,
or about 5 pence the pound. Here, as everywhere, the
assertion is made that American iron is in no way in-
ferior to the best European. Mr. Pott, the owner of
the forge, was absent, but we were received by his
family with particular courtesy and our wants met with
an obliging readiness which is too often not the case,
even at a dear reckoning, in the so-called public-houses.
Five miles farther, over barren, stony, woody, and
PENSYLVANIA
7
unsettled hills, we came to Warwick Mine-holes, which
in this district, are very famous iron-mines. The ore
lies here, (as very generally in America), heaped up
in hills and shallow beneath the surface-mould. The
surface of these hills is an iron-bearing sand; next,
there lies a brown ochre-earth with little iron-stones
intermixed, beneath which is a bed, of no great depth,
of coarse, red-brown ore, commonly soft; farther down,
a whiteish clayey stratum, still somewhat mixed with
iron-bearing earth. The greatest depth they have
reached is no more than 20 feet, a sufficient store being
found above. Any knowledge of mining is superfluous
here, where there is neither shaft nor gallery to be
driven, all work being at the surface or in great, wide
trenches or pits.
From here we missed the prescribed road, and came
through untravelled woods and hills to the house of a
Quaker where we were compelled to stop for some re-
freshments, which were not denied us; on the other
hand, we lent the woman of the house a patient ear,
and received a circumstantial account of how her hus-
band during the war had, by a wise use of his post in
the Land-Office, got to himself a handsome estate,
seven plantations, and could now laugh at the world.
This he may do with the more reason, because he made
his purchases largely with paper-money, the no-value
of which he perceived at the right time, using to his
advantage the credulity of his patriotic fellow-country-
men. From this place we aimed to get once more into
the regular road to Lancaster, but made another little
detour to see Jones's Mine-holes, iron-mines very little
different from those just mentioned. Brown, sandy,
and soft iron-stone lies shallow beneath the surface,
8
TRAVELS IN THE CONFEDERATION
but is very productive; 3000 pounds of ore are said to
yield 2000 pounds of iron. Beneath and above the iron-
stone there is a bed of grey, soft, clayey earth which is
called by the workmen soapstone. The work is carried
on as mentioned above. That is to say, they dig here
or there deep and wide, open pits, and when these grow
inconvenient on account of depth, water, or other cir-
cumstances, they begin new ones. A mile from these
Holes we found Jones' Tavern, on the main road to
Lancaster. The Welsh Mountains here fall in with
sundry other ranges, and between there begins, or ends,
a considerable limestone valley,* which extends from
here, past Lancaster, York &c., to the Potowmack. In
these hills rise the Conestoga, French, and Brandy-
wine creeks, which flow in quite different directions.
Jones' Tavern stands in a corner of Berks county,
where this bounds on Chester county. The land-sur-
veyors, when they were making the boundaries of these
two counties some time ago, overlooked a tract of land
of perhaps 300 acres, which lies between the two and
now belongs to neither. The owner of this land does
not fail to take advantage of the oversight, and pays
no taxes, (nor did he during the war), it being un-
certain which county should tax him. Among these
mountains, especially towards Reading, there are many
other iron-mines, furnaces, and forges. On the road
hither from Philadelphia we saw hardly any living
creature, except a few crows, several wood-peckers
(Picus villosus, principalis &c. L.), a sitta, the snow-
*I mean by this a valley or hollow between mountain-
ranges of other rock-species, the valley itself filled with lime-
stone beds. Vid. Mineralog. Beyträge &c.
PENSYLVANIA
9
bird (Emberiza nivalis L.), and some partridges
(Tetrao virginianus L.). The weather was warm and
pleasant, but all the leaves had long fallen, and only
here and there stood a belated aster; all other plants
were slumbering.
The road to Lancaster lies through the fore-men-
tioned limestone valley, a fertile, varied, and well-
farmed region. Along the road indeed one sees for
the most part sorry cabins, for the better houses of the
well-to-do land-owners are all set a little off from the
road. This, and the custom of always leaving some
timber next the road, brings it about that travellers
think they are going through nothing but wilderness,
when all around there are plantations and dwellings
stuck away in the bush. On this road everybody I met
I addressed in German and they all answered me in the
same language. Very many Anabaptists live in these
parts; good, kind people, and sturdy subjects who here
as well as in Germany win the love of their neighbors
and the regard of the magistracy.
The limestone of this valley is the same coarse, black-
grey stone, as everywhere, and frequently comes to the
surface. This, as well as the middle valley and the
great limestone valley beyond that, showing fertile soil,
it may be asked: Does limestone soil always make
fertile land? And in what association? Or is it merely
the deeper situation of these valleys that gives them an
especial fertility?
The plantations and dwelling-houses in this region
being scattered, we passed through but one village, of
40-50 houses and a church, called New Holland, 13
miles this side Lancaster where we arrived in the
evening just before a heavy snow-storm. This storm
2
10
TRAVELS IN THE CONFEDERATION
raged with unusual severity along the coast of North
America, and was accompanied by several earth-
quakes,* plainly felt both at Philadelphia and New
York.
On this road I heard much complaining over the
burden of the taxes under the new form of government.
But if these are high they are not imposed arbitrarily.
Not the quantity of the land but its condition, quality,
cultivation, and productiveness, with the number of
cattle kept, make the standard for the impost. In every
Township sworn men are appointed to value property
and lay taxes proportionally. The farmer, if he be-
lieves himself unjustly assessed, has the liberty of mak-
ing counter-representations. The system being what
it is, there is apparently an unequal distribution of the
tax, with regard to the quantity of land owned by one
or another. The men who fix the imposts (Assizers),
have nothing to do with taking them up; for that pur-
pose Collectors are appointed, who are subject to
trouble and bad words enough before they can gather
the tax to deliver it to the Receivers for the County.
At present the clergy also must pay taxes, if they own
property in land, but the one-time custom has been
given over of taking a percentage of their incomes,
which was a sort of trades-tax.
Lancaster, of all the inland towns of America, is the
most considerable numbering already 900 houses and it
is hardly 80 years since the place was first established.
* In the Bay of New York there lay at the time the last
British ships ready for the return voyage, and there were not
wanting pious souls in America who looked upon the earth-
quake and the storm as a sign given upon the departure of
their enemies.
PENSYLVANIA
11
No stream is near-by which, giving an advantage of
trade, might have contributed to the rapid growth of
the town; the Susquehannah flows 10 miles to the
south, and the little Conestoga is 2 miles to the east.
Indeed the town originally was to have been placed on
the Susquehannah, and a timber court-house and jail
were actually built at Wright's Ferry; but Hamilton,
an esteemed lawyer, managed to change the site so that
the new town should rise on land belonging to him.
His family still owns the ground-rights, which yield
at least 1000 Pd. sterling a year. These ground-rents
are unequal, according as the several lots were taken
up earlier or later, or are situated in one or another
part of the town; for those lots secured at the first
settlement of the place pay the least, and as the town
grew the price was increased. The town is regularly
planned; the town-hall standing in the middle, where
the two chief streets cross, the good appearance of
which is thus greatly damaged. Not more than 50
English families live here, it is said; and thus the
English is by no means the prevailing language, but
it is the legalized language. The inhabitants carry on
farming, crafts, and trade. But their trade is not very
considerable, the town lying too near to Philadelphia
(73 miles). There is here a handsome Lutheran
church, and a Latin school.*
(
* Lancaster has now a college as well. Extract from a letter
from Philadelphia, 1787. For the behoof of the German
nation, which from one or another prejudice has hitherto
neglected (except at Philadelphia) to join with their Eng-
"lish fellow-citizens in any sort of educational establishment,
"the Assembly granted in the autumn of 1786 a patent and
10,000 acres of land for the setting-up of a college at Lan-
12
TRAVELS IN THE CONFEDERATION
The most important thing for me at Lancaster was
the very agreeable acquaintance which I had the pleas-
ure of making with the pastor of the Lutheran congre-
gation there, (and now Principal of the new college),
Mr. Heinrich Mühlenberg. This excellent man,
through his own diligence, has gained a very consider-
able knowledge of natural history and is unwearied in
the study of the animals, plants, and minerals of his
region. I have reason to regret that I came to know
him so late and only for a brief space: his acquaintance
would have been the more valuable to me, and his
memory will be all the more cherished by me, since
among native-born Americans he was the only amateur
of natural science I got to know and could question on
that subject. If among his countrymen there were.
many of his exemplary diligence and zeal after knowl-
edge, America would soon know better its own pro-
ductions, and natural history would be greatly enriched.
"C
caster. This college will bear the name of Dr. Franklin,
who has given to it largely. The German nation is greatly
'rejoiced over this institution. The enthusiasm and gen-
erosity with which they go about furthering every object
"having reference to their nation and their religion, cause it
'to be hoped that this college will within a few years be
"inferior to none of the oldest colleges in America, in wealth
'and public regard."-By a letter from Prof. Mühlenberg, of
the corporation, June 6th, 1787, it appears that this German
college has actually been established, with five teachers. Prof.
Mühlenberg is the Principal, Pastor Hendel Vice-Principal;
Pastor Melzhaimer, Professor of the German, Latin, and
Greek languages; Mr. Reichenbach, Prof. of the Mathematics;
and the English minister, Mr. Hutchins, teaches the English
language and Belles Lettres. (Vid., Allgem. Litt. Zeit. 1788,
No. 14)-The Assembly of Pensylvania has also recently de-
termined to establish a public school at Pittsburg.
PENSYLVANIA
13
The collection he has begun of domestic minerals is
indeed small as yet, but none the less remarkable, since
a better is nowhere to be found. Among its contents
are: Shorl, from the neighborhood of Lancaster,
sprinkled in quartz and sand-stones. Carnelians, and
other colored pebbles, from the Conestoga. Terebratu-
lites, from the Middletown region, which are taken by
the country-people to be petrified hickory-nuts. Beau-
tiful Lead-spar from Pequea Creek in Pensylvania;
the ton of this ore gave 1500 pounds of lead, and a few
ounces of silver besides; the superintendent of the mine
asked of the share-owners a 13th part of the outcome as
his proportion for services rendered, which being re-
fused he filled up the mine, and the work stopped. Pit-
coals and Slate of various quality, from the Susque-
hannah. Whet-stones and Touch-stones, of which
the gold-smiths make good use, from near-by Lan-
caster. Hog-stones, Smoke-topaz, fine crystals, cu-
bical marcasite, eight-sided crystalline iron-ore
(Minera ferri 8-edra. Cronst.), black chalk from this
region; Ringing-stone (Saxum tinnitans L.) from
Potts-grove; Soap-stones, and other related soft
stones, from the South Mountain; brown-flecked.
Marble, a porphyritic stone with shorl, divers clay
and marl-earths from the country round about, and
many other ores and stones, mention of which would
be tedious.
I got to know another worthy man of great good
sense in Mr. William Henry (Judge of the common
pleas). He showed me a tolerably pure rock-crystal,
of at least 5 pounds' weight, from this region; lead-ore
from the Juniata, which contains calamine as well; in
the flues beneath which the lead is melted zinc-flowers
14
TRAVELS IN THE CONFEDERATION
are deposited in great quantity. Among other curiosi-
ties, I took pleasure in examining a little machine of
which Mr. Henry is the inventor, ✈ and engaging in an
amicable dispute over the possibility of making such a
machine, designed to go against the wind. It is very
simple and fully accomplishes the effect desired. A
wing-wheel of tin, such as is used in the ventilators of
windows, has attached to its axle a six-inch, iron
spindle-tree, which rests on a frame making an acute
angle, or triangle, pointed towards the wing-wheel,
each bar fixed at the other end to a small, smooth
wheel; beneath the point of union of the bars there is
adjusted a larger wheel, double-toothed. On these
three wheels the machine rests and moves. On the
spindle, immediately behind the wing-wheel and just
above the double-toothed wheel, there is a double
screw-shaped groove-attachment, from which a thread
is so wound about the lower wheel that when the
spindle is set in motion by the wing-wheel the toothed
wheel must move forward. If, therefore, the wing-
wheel is revolved by the wind or by blowing with the
mouth, the whole machine moves directly against the
current and with a speed proportional to its strength.
But this machine is practicable only on a firm surface
into which the under toothed wheel may grip. How-
ever, Mr. Henry states that he is about putting to-
gether another machine which, if attached to a boat,
must bring it against the current of a stream, being
set in motion merely by the force of the current and of
the wind. But he will not publish this machine until
he has reason to expect some reward for his invention,
for he is sure that by means of it the difficult return-
passage on the Mississippi and the Ohio may be con-
PENSYLVANIA
15
siderably eased, to the advantage of his country. From
the plan of the first machine, however, it should not
be a hard matter to divine that of the second. I pass
over other experiments, magnetick and electrical,
which employ the leisure hours of Mr. Henry in a use-
ful and agreeable way, and show him to be a thinking
and self-examining man.
The very bad condition of the road and of the
weather, with other hindrances, prevented a visit to
Ephrata, the seat of a small religious body which lies
near to Lancaster almost unremarked, but by reason
of its distinct customs, opinions, and manner of life
deserves to be better known than it is in America, even
at a little distance from its sequestered retreat. The
account I set down here is borrowed, but is the most
complete I could obtain, and from the hand of a faith-
ful and attentive observer.
Ephrata or Dunkard-Town is a little village of mid-
dling size; stands in a small but so much the pleasanter
valley, by a small stream 15 miles from Lancaster.
Along with a part of the lands adjacent, it is the prop-
erty of a small society of people who call themselves
Dunkards or Dunkers, and are for the most part of
German descent. The place is triangular in shape and
in the middle there is a large orchard. The little brook
which runs through most of the village is a natural
protection on one side, just as on the other, a ditch
and dike planted with fruit-trees. They get the name
Dunkard, it is said, from their manner of baptizing
their new converts; that is to say, they dip (tunken or
tauchen) them in a stream, as is the custom also of
the Anabaptists, from which sect however they are
distinct. The founder of the sect was a German who,
16
TRAVELS IN THE CONFEDERATION
some 40 years ago, settled in the region where later
Ephrata was established, at that time for many miles
around thick wilderness. Alone and content he lived
here many years, and supplying his few wants by his
own industry, he could the more easily withdraw from
intercourse with the rest of the world. But by degrees.
the country grew more settled, and a good many Ger-
mans came to live there; several of these, moved by
the exemplary manner of life of this man and acting
on opinions similar to his, joined with him and founded
a society, which by the coming-in of new members.
soon became numerous. It was thus not a sect already
formed and removing hither from some other place;
it originated here where it still remains and has spread
no farther. But at present the society is in a decline,
and numbers hardly 200 members, a figure inconsider-
able in comparison to what it once was. Men and
women clothe themselves in summer in white linen,
and in winter in white woolen cloth. Their habit con-
sists of a long, wide, tunic reaching to the ankles and
girdled about the loins, and furnished with a cowl for
head-covering, for they wear no hats. Under this
tunic they wear a rough smock, and small-clothes.
The men let their beards grow long, but cut short the
hair of their heads. They are an industrious, amiable,
and inventive people, hospitable and beneficent. Their
especial food is plants and roots, for they abstain from
meat as detrimental to that expiatory continence which
Christians should practice. Their lean, pale look is
warrant that they do not indulge the body. Only when
they celebrate their love-feasts do they allow themselves
meat, mutton, that is; at such times the Brethren and
Sisters assemble in a large hall and eat in company.
#
PENSYLVANIA
17
Other pleasures, beyond the interchange of religious
exercises and domestic affairs, they know not. Twice
a day and as often at night, they meet for worship.
Only sick persons lie on beds; all others, on hard
boards with a block for pillow. Men and women live
in separate dwellings, and under different regulations.
The buildings for the Brethren and Sisters are of
timber, but spacious, and each supplied with dining-
hall and prayer-room, for mostly they keep apart at
their religious exercises. These buildings are divided
into cells, each large enough for one person; without
ornament, but neat and cleanly. Between Brethren and
Sisters there is no intercourse, except that demanded
by the tendance upon their common affairs; not even
by marriage. But if a couple desire to withdraw from
this regulation and enter into the state of matrimony,
they are then regarded no longer as full members of
the society nor is it permitted them to dwell any longer
among the unmarried, but they must go to Mount-
Sion, a mile from Ephrata, or into the neighborhood
round about, receiving from the common treasury
what they need for their setting-up. However, they
continue to wear the dress, are regarded as associates.
of the congregation, and give over to it their children
to be educated.
The chief religious principles of these Dunkers are
about as follows: that a future happiness is to be attained
only and solely by penance and outward mortification
of the body during this life; and that, as Christ through
his meritorious suffering worked the salvation of the
human race as a whole, so each individual man, by
fasting, temperance, renunciation of all that is super-
fluous in dress, pleasures, &c., must likewise gain his
18
TRAVELS IN THE CONFEDERATION
own salvation. Therefore humility, temperance, and
Christian virtues generally, are the chief topics of
their discourse. They believe and assert that a man
may gain more of beatifical merit than he is in need of
on his own account, and that accordingly the over-
plus of his good works may help another to win sal-
vation. They keep the sacraments of communion and
baptism; with them, grown persons only are baptized,
and by immersion. They deny the inheritance of sin,
and teach the freedom of the will. To them all force
is sin; even self-defence against danger and legal proc-
ess, no matter if occasion arises through falsehoods
or the taking-away of their property by force. They
celebrate the Jewish Sabbath; in their worship make
use of no forms, but pray and preach from immediate
impulse. They believe that the Savior preaches the
Gospel even to the dead, and that since his resurrec-
tion, the souls of the just are occupied in imparting his
teachings to such as have died without a knowledge of
them. They reject the eternity of the punishment of
Hell, and believe that the Jewish Sabbath, sabbatical
year, and jubilee-year are prefigurements of certain
periods which are to come after the great Day of Judg-
ment, and these passed, the souls of those who have
not entered at once into beatitude, gradually purified
and made free of their corruption, may be sooner or
later prepared to enter into eternal bliss.
Besides the large dwelling-houses mentioned, one
sees at Ephrata a good many smaller buildings, meant
chiefly for manufactures. For however monastical
their system and a few of their principles may seem to
be, they have no wish only to pray, and live fatly and
indolently, but it is their purpose to pray and work.
PENSYLVANIA
19
This same mode of thought inspires all other sects to
be found in America, and contributes to the forming
of useful citizens. All manner of crafts are carried on
at Ephrata, diligently and skilfully. There are here a
good oil-mill, a paper-mill, and a printing-press. +
Parchment, leather, woolen and linen cloth are fabri-
cated, and more than the society itself has need of.
The Sisters are engaged in the making of wax-lights,
artificial flowers, and other small works and embroid-
eries, suitable to them, which they sell to visiting
strangers.
Many years ago, on account of a schism in doctrine
and forms of worship, four or five of the Brethren
withdrew from the community and went to live apart
in a house of their own. Although these were no
longer in full association with the other Dunkers, they
held their rights to a share of the common income,
which in addition to that they made by their own in-
dustry, was sufficient for their support. They dis-
carded the long tunic, and wore shorter garments,
girded about, and hats. They were not looked upon
with contempt, for adopting forms of their own, but
were treated with the love and patience which are the
ground-principles of this community.
The approach of winter admitted of no long stay at
Lancaster; the two days we were there heavy snow
had fallen, and the cold winds made us uneasy whether
we should not find the crossing of the Susquehannah
difficult. From Lancaster it is 10 miles to Wright's
Ferry on that river, which is there some two miles.
wide, not deep to be sure, but full of reefs and little
islands, leaving but narrow passage-way for boats
going up and down or crossing, so that with high
20
TRAVELS IN THE CONFEDERATION
winds, strong currents, or ice, travellers are often de-
layed many days, and this would have been our case
had we come a day later. The whole road from Lan-
caster hither, and farther on to York, is over hilly
limestone land, or rather, through a broad, uneven
limestone valley formed, on the right, by the chain of
the South Mountain and its branches, of which the
Codorus Mountain is not the most inconsiderable, and
on the left, by the continuation of the Welsh Mount-
ains. The country is everywhere well settled and
farmed, indeed the county of Lancaster is generally
regarded as the most fertile in Pensylvania, yielding
20 and 30-fold. But at this season of the year the land
did not appear at its best. Twelve miles this side the
Susquehannah lies.
The
York in Pensylvania; a small town, regularly
planned, of perhaps 300 houses, and five several houses
of worship. The place was settled only 40 years ago,
and here also the Court-house stands at the middle,
where the main streets cross. The Codorus, a small
stream not navigable, runs through the town.
inhabitants are very largely Germans. What they need
of foreign, particularly the indispensable West Indian
goods, such as rum, sugar, mollasses, coffee &c., they
fetch from Baltimore in Maryland; not because that
city is nearer to them or offers a better market for their
flour, grain, and cattle, but on account of the disagree-
able and uncertain ferriage over the Susquehannah.
All manner of craftsmen and artificers are to be found
in this and other similar country-towns; especially, it
appears, are many wall and standing-clocks made here,
at least, in most of the houses along the road I saw
very well designed works, with the rubric of this place.
PENSYLVANIA
21
The following instance happened in this neighbor-
hood, and deserves mention as a contribution to such
history, and as proof of how often trifling occasions
bring the understanding, for a long time obscured, into
full and sound activity again. Michael Car, the son of
a farmer of this region, was in the war before the last
often in the field against the French and the Indians.
Misfortune in love was the cause of his becoming first
melancholy and then raving mad, and in this state he
passed several years in the Pensylvania Hospital at
Philadelphia. Growing somewhat quieter, he was
taken back to his parents, and for 20 years, in the
deepest crazyness, unfit for any work or society, he.
had been cared for as an object of pity by his friends.
By chance, during the last war, there came by his
home a recruiting-serjeant with drum-play and stand-
ard flying. He no sooner heard the old familiar mili-
tary music, than springing suddenly up he cast off his
rags, in all reasonableness asked for decent clothing,
and followed the serjeant. And from that moment he
had and kept the complete use of his understanding.
Wagons and horses meeting us on the road hither
were all in excellent order; Pensylvania has this ad-
vantage (as well as the back parts of Virginia and
Maryland) over the other provinces and those regions
nearer the coast, the want of inland navigation making
them more careful of their teams. They have here a
strong and large breed of horses, kept in good condi-
tion, and always looking sound and fit, whereas the
skeletons along the coast are thin to the point of col-
lapsing. The Pensylvania breed supplies fine and comely
coach-horses; but lacking steady work these strong
Pensylvania horses have not sufficient bottom for long
22
TRAVELS IN THE CONFEDERATION
journeys or unwonted exercise, and easily go gouty
and blind. They are especially subject to foundering, or
rather, it may be that all American horses are more so
than the European; but the fault certainly lies more in
the extremely careless and unfeeling management of
those who attend them than in the weaker constitution,
as it is claimed, of the animals themselves. The freight-
wagons of the Pensylvania farmers are strongly built;
the front and hind-wheels stand close together; the
body of the wagon slopes very much forward, so that
with the help of the very high front-wheels, the laden
wagon more easily gets over unevennesses in the road
and other obstacles. Generally all these wagons are
covered with a coarse cloth, stretched over hoops, and
on the journey serve their drivers for lodging. +
Leaving York, the Pidgeon-hills are seen to the.
right, which appear pretty high and belong to the
South Mountain; in their forests bears and wolves are
still found, and they often pay unpleasant visits to the
farms in the valley, through which the road continues
over limestone beds.
M'Callisterstown, 18 miles from York, a market-
town of about 200 houses, and perhaps 30 years old;
and 6 miles beyond, a large village, Peterlittle'stown,
are the last places in Pensylvania. The need of such
borough-towns, where shop-keepers and craftsmen
come together and supply the other scattered and
sporadick settlers with conveniences, clothing, utensils,
and articles of luxury, (giving these in exchange for
the products of their land and flocks) is felt most
where there are none; and the solitary farmer, too re-
mote from towns and markets, has a superfluity of
provisions but suffers for lack of many other neces-
PENSYLVANIA
23
saries, and must deny himself all manner of pleasures
which could be secured him in one way or another by
what goes to waste.* Thus for a long time, in Pen-
sylvania and in other provinces, the establishment of
such inland borough-towns has been an object of dil-
igent care, and it is with pleasure one observes from
their rapid increase that they are contributing greatly
to the well-being of the inhabitants. For this reason
I have observed all through which I have passed, and
so much the more, because there is nowhere to be had
a complete list of such places. These country-towns
of the farther regions have for the most part quite
the look of our German market-towns; the houses, ac-
cording to the taste of the inmates, are painted divers
colors, and the interior arrangement is very little dif-
ferent from the German, for most of the inhabitants.
are German. Here and there are Irish families, upon
whom the Germans, as better and more orderly econ-
omists, look down with a peculiar pride and arro-
gance. German tavern-keepers along the road have
"C
* However, something is to be said for these isolated and
scattered settlements, and all the advantages that mode of life
has always had are to be found here. Such an existence, con-
formable to nature and the ancient customs, has been finely
described by Möser. "The man living apart has privileges
which people elsewhere and now are again coming to see
the value of. About his house he has his lands and woods,
carries on his tillage as it pleases him, and in time of need
has always something at hand to tide him over. He is not
so much exposed to fire and pestilence, in time of war lies
remote, and in peace does not strive unduly after luxury,
that so the thief may not come his way. Distance from
neighbors and the village tap-house is besides assurance in
some measure against temptation, wrong desires, and oppor-
tunity for evil.” +
CC
((
CC
24
TRAVELS IN THE CONFEDERATION
been directing us on to other German taverns, but not
without reason, and it is pretty generally allowed that
these are the best houses; at least, if this may serve as
recommendation in any quarter, one finds in the Ger-
man houses everywhere a warm stove, good beer, and
at this season, wurst, hog-meat, and sauerkraut, all of
which they regard as national prerogatives.
Maryland.
The boundary between Pensylvania and Maryland is
shown by a broad line hewn through the woods.
Tonny-town, a county-town of perhaps 150 houses, was
the first place in this province. Thence the road led us
over Pipe Creek, which flows in a deep bed to the
Susquehannah, the land on both sides being excellent;
and farther on, we crossed the Monocasy, a small
stream, four miles from Fredericktown. We had come
now about IIO miles through this same limestone val-
ley, the beginning of which I remarked at Jones'
Tavern. The higher levels of this valley may be re-
garded as a continuous plain, in which the several hills
and irregularities are due merely to the streams cutting
obliquely across, their course lying from the mountains
to the sea. In this way every slope noticeable in this
valley falls away to the east or the south-east. These
lower spots afford most excellent meadow-lands, and
make the extensive cattle-industry of the region profit-
able. On the other hand, the soil of the higher land is
the same uniform reddish earth which in a dry season
makes the best road, and in wet weather, the worst.
Fredericktown. This was the second time my road
had brought me through this town. Bad weather occa-
sioned a stay of several days; but no more than the
first time I was there, had I the pleasure of the society
of gentlemen. The clergy, and a few others whose
acquaintance I sought, were absent now as before, and
the remaining German and other inhabitants are the
3
26
TRAVELS IN THE CONFEDERATION
most unmannerly people to be found far and wide. +
Here, as everywhere, there is much and loud complaint
over the scarcity of hard money and the publick im-
posts. Shopkeepers and craftsmen, who must pay cash
for their wares at Baltimore, give 15-20 per centum in-
terest on loans; for specie circulates and is accumulated
chiefly in the coast-cities, whence it is taken out in
quantity by the ships bringing in imported goods. Be-
fore the war 6 per centum was a high interest; it is no
wonder, therefore, if the people complain at the con-
tinually increasing price of foreign goods, when they
are burdened with these high rates of interest and at
the same time do not find so far a good market for their
produce, trade with the West Indies being prohibited.
The taxes in Maryland come to one and a half per
centum of all personalty and realty, and at this time
even household furniture is assessed. Many people
absolutely cannot pay taxes, and still more have no de-
sire to, until they are rigorously compelled, which re-
sort is not neglected. Husbandry and farm-products
are the same here as in the back parts of the neighbor-
ing Pensylvania and Virginia, that is to say, wheat,
corn, and cattle mainly. At one time hemp was raised
considerably; for the purpose old, well-dunged land
was chosen in preference to quite new land, on which,
elsewhere, it is sown. But this year Russian ships have
brought hemp and cordage to Baltimore cheaper than it
is to be had here.
Besides those occasions for suits at law everywhere
common, Maryland is blessed in addition with a very
particular ground of process, and this is the variation
of the magnetick needle, if it is not perhaps partly the
fault of the instrument or the unskilfulness of those
MARYLAND
27
who go about with it. Property in land, according to
its extent, is indicated in the deeds of sale, reckoning
from a certain tree, rock, or other object so many rods.
by one course of the compass, then again so many rods
by another course, continuing thus until the measure-
ment comes around to the first land-mark. After some
time, during which the needle has varied, the lines run
with it are not to be found again where they were, and
the differences between the new angles and the old
must, if the tracts of land are large, give all the more
considerable results: in this way it happens not seldom
that a survey new-made after a good many years cuts
off from the neighbor's plantation a piece of arable and
tilled land, giving him instead, at some other corner, a
piece of woods, it may be, or swamp land or other bar-
ren strip. And so arise discords, suits at laws, and
agreements, from all which the attorneys draw good
In other provinces the occasion of such misun-
derstandings is avoided through a fixed marking of the
lines by suitable land-marks, the boundaries of estates
not being governed by the variableness of the mag-
netick needle, which however might easily be corrected
by exact observations and calculations. The incon-
veniences of this system are felt and the necessary
changes will be made through statutory ordinances, if
the legal gentlemen, (as some people are apprehensive
they will) do not prevent it, seeking to keep open this
productive source of cases.
use.
The back road, which leads from Fredericktown be-
tween the South and North Mountain to Carolina, was
from all accounts not to be travelled at this season of
the year without great difficulty; so instead of taking
that road, as was our plan, we had to keep on this side
28
TRAVELS IN THE CONFEDERATION
the South Mountain. Thus, on the road to the Potow-
mack we had this mountain to the right, and to the left
another chain, of lower hills, which ended suddenly
near the river in a high, broken-off peak, visible far
around and from its shape called the Sugarloaf-Moun-
tain. The limestone valley mentioned above continues
between these two chains. A few miles before we
reached the banks of the Potowmack this valley be-
came more declivitous, and everywhere about in the
streams there appeared rounded stones and other evi-
dences that at one time the bed of the river had ex-
tended far beyond its present limits. The banks for
more than half a mile from the river consist of rich, fat,
black soil which, one year with another, returns many
fold what is entrusted to it, and without once being
dunged. Nowles-Ferry, where we were set across, is
much above the Falls of the Potowmack,* and the river
is therefore less rapid; the tide does not come this far
up, and the fish are only of the fresh-water kinds,
* I have already mentioned in the first part that it had been
taken into consideration in Virginia and Maryland how to
remove the obstacles this fall presents to navigation inland.
According to recent accounts this important enterprise is
already begun; and it is found that the difficulties to be over-
come are less serious than had at first been feared. The
apparently good progress of this business rejoices the land-
owners above the falls of the Potowmack. A private company
is carrying on the work, under the sanction of the government
and the direction of General Washington. For the additional
advancement of inland commerce, a road has been hewn out
53 miles long from the farthest navigable branch of the Potow-
mack to Morgans-town on the Monongahela. This was done
at the cost of the state of Virginia which in this way has
opened a very easy and convenient communication between
the inhabitants to the west and the east of the mountains.
MARYLAND
29
among which great, fat eels of 5-6 pounds' weight are
not seldom taken. Gold-perch and full-fish are likewise
caught here, and the taste of them is praised, but I have
not seen them. The river is here a mile wide, its banks
high, and (as well as a few small islands) set with
stately trees; what with the fine prospect towards the
distant mountains, at a better time of the year this must
be a splendid landscape. The breadth of Maryland in
this hinterland, from Tonnytown to the Potowmack,
which divides this province from the following, is 43
miles.
Virginia.
Leesburg is the first Virginia town on this road, a
place of few and insignificant wooden houses. From its
high, pleasant, and healthful situation the proposal has
been made to establish a Latin school here, and on the
door of the tavern there was a special notice recom-
mending the institution to the public which should
certainly give it support, there being everywhere in
America, outside the chief cities, a lack of suitable
schools and educational establishments. It is not al-
ways the custom to hang shields before taverns, but
they are easily to be identified by the great number of
miscellaneous papers and advertisements with which
the walls and doors of these publick houses are plais-
tered; generally, the more of such bills are to be seen
on a house, the better it will be found to be. In this
way the traveller is afforded a many-sided entertain-
ment, and can inform himself as to where the taxes
are heavy, where wives have run away, horses been
stolen, or the new Doctor has settled.
From the Potowmack to Leesburg (12 miles) and a
few miles farther, the surface is still limestone con-
tinued from the valley beyond the river, not reckoning
the broad flat of the old and present channel. The
limestone, where it comes to the surface on this side in
Virginia, is the same grey simplex often mentioned
above. Small, and very large, fragments of breccia
were to be seen, composed of rounded pebbles and
sand, bound together with lime. The soil between the
VIRGINIA
31
river and the Leesburg region had a good and fertile
look, containing a strong proportion of red, iron-bear-
ing clay, at times appearing by itself in hardened frag-
ments, which from the deep color might be taken for
blood-stone. Nearer towards Leesburg traces of lime-
stone were less frequent, and a red sand-stone was to be
seen. The chain of hills, to our left beyond the Potow-
mack, grew continually lower; we approached nearer
to this ridge 6 miles from Leesburg where it shows a
white, fine-grained, quartzose rock (Grindstone). In
this region we crossed Goose Creek, at this season
pretty wide, deep, and rapid. From several circum-
stances it appeared to me afterwards that going in a
southeasterly direction we had, without knowing it,
quite crossed the chain of hills, (now become still
lower), which as far as this marked the southern limit
of the Fredericktown limestone valley; for farther on
neither species of rock was to be seen, and we had to
go many miles through the common red clay, at that
time wet and viscous, a tedious and vexatious road.
Along this road it was matter of no little astonishment
to see so much waste or new-cleared land, having just
come from the very well settled and cultivated regions
of Pensylvania and Maryland. The reason does not.
lie in any worse quality of the land, which is scarcely
inferior to that beyond the Potowmack, but in the fact
that individuals own great and extensive tracts of land,
of which they will sell none, so as to leave their families
the more. All of them are very much disposed to let
land in parcels, they retaining possession and seeing
their land as much as possible worked and settled by
tenants; but tenants are not easily to be had, so long as
it is anywhere possible to buy land. This policy, which
32
TRAVELS IN THE CONFEDERATION
will certainly be advantageous to the posterity of such
rich and important families, has in the neighborhood of
New York and elsewhere stood much in the way of
cultivation and settlement, whereas the back parts of
Pensylvania, Maryland, and even a portion of Vir-
ginia, have been more rapidly settled, poor families
being able to get title to small tracts of land. The
smallest possession has for every man more charm than
the most imposing leasehold. In addition, the Vir-
ginians of the lower country are very easy and negligent
husbandmen. Much and very good land, which would
yield an abundant support to an industrious family, re-
mains unused when once a little exhausted, no
thought being given so far to dunging and other im-
provements. New land is taken up, the best to be
had, tobacco is grown on it 3-4 years, and then Indian
corn, so long as any will come. And in the end, if the
soil is thoroughly impoverished, they begin again with a
new piece and go through the rotation. Meantime wood
grows again on the old land, and on the new is at pains
to be cleared off; and all this to avoid dunging and all
the trouble involved in a more careful handling of their
cattle, if dung is to be had.
Although we had not yet come far into Virginia,
there was to be observed already a considerable differ-
ence in the arrangements of the plantations and the
character of the people on this side the Potowmack. A
plantation in Virginia, and also in the lower parts of
Maryland, ✦ has often more the appearance of a small
village, by reason of the many separate small buildings,
which taken all together would at times hardly go to
make a single roomy and commodious house. Here
are living-rooms, bed-chambers, guest-chambers, store-
:
VIRGINIA
33
rooms, kitchens, quarters for the slaves, and who knows
what else, commonly so many small, separate, badly
kept cabins of wood, without glass in the windows, of
the structure and solidity of a house of cards. This
plan is not so much the consequence of any particular
taste, as of necessity. In the settlement of a new plan-
tation there is concern for only the most indispensable.
buildings, and a hastily built block-house is all that is
needed at first; but by degrees, the family increasing
and more land brought into cultivation, greater con-
venience becomes an item. And thus are built grad-
ually a good many small houses and cabins, commonly
without the assistance of carpenters, patched together
by the people themselves and their negroes. This being
an easier method than to put together a large house all
at once, one often sees such little houses growing up
where there is neither material nor capital for bringing
them together in one solid house. In such cabins then,
about which all the evidences of negligence are to be
remarked, it is nothing extraordinary to see the lady of
the house, and women generally, clothed and adorned
with great fastidiousness; for the fair sex in America
cannot resist the propensity to make themselves fine,
even when remotely situated they must forego the
pleasure of being admired except by the casual travel-
ler. We had gone many miles through the woods, had
seen only a few wretched cabins, and arrived finally at
a house that had been indicated to us, which appeared
not greatly different from the rest, not a whole pane
in the windows, neither rum, nor whiskey, nor bread
to be had, a draughty, empty place; but in return we
had the altogether unexpected pleasure of making our
devoirs to several ladies dressed tastefully in silk and
34
TRAVELS IN THE CONFEDERATION
decked with plumes. But it must be observed that in
the love of display the fair of the southern provinces
go far beyond those of the northern, and that similar
phenomena in similar circumstances are not to be
looked-for in Pensylvania; as also, that the carelessness
of the men in their dress is quite as striking as the
vanity of the women.
Beyond Moore's Tavern and the Red House, (30
miles from Goose Creek), there again came in sight a
rather high range of hills, which lay now to our right
and kept a southwesterly direction. These were the
Bull-run-Mountains; between them and the South
Mountain there is limestone; but to the east of them,
none. This circumstance makes it probable that the
Bull-run-Mountains may be perhaps the continuation
of the low range which about Goose Creek only seemed
to disappear. In these mountains there are still many
deer. One which had been shot a few days before.
weighed about 190 pounds, and this was regarded as a
very unusual weight for these animals. In one of the
taverns where we shared the remains of a wild turkey-
cock, it was told us that without feathers and entrails
it had weighed 28 pounds, which is here quite as un-
common, but more to the south they weigh as much as
40 pounds at times. The woods, so far as could be
determined in their leafless condition, were made up of
the same varieties of trees as in the more northern re-
gions, in greatest measure at least. Our road getting
continually more to the east, hills were less to be seen,
and by degrees we drew nearer the tobacco country
proper. To be sure, tobacco of no bad quality is pro-
duced towards the west among the mountains; but the
profit from it is greatly diminished, because it must be
VIRGINIA
35
hauled over long and difficult roads to the places where
it can be received by the European ships. In this re-
gion a great quantity of tobacco had been ruined by a
frost in the month of August past, and it has been
learned that in the back parts of Carolina a similar
damage was done at the same time. This happens here
and there so much the more easily because many plan-
ters raise nothing but the Sweet-scented Tobacco,
which is a smaller and tenderer plant, but brings two
and a half shillings more in the hundred, or 25 shillings
Virgin. Current the hogshead.
ern.
We spent a night at a plantation where, according to
the custom here, travellers are lodged for a price, under
the style of 'Private Entertainment,' but no tavern is
kept. In the item of public houses Virginia and the
other southern provinces are worse off than the north-
The distinction between Private and Public En-
tertainment is to the advantage of the people who keep
the so-called Private houses, they avoiding in this way
the tax for permission to dispense rum and other drinks
and not being plagued with noisy drinking-parties.
Other public houses lacking, travellers are compelled
to seek out these and glad to find them. Here, one eats
with the family both thick and thin homany (a prepara-
tion of Indian corn), drinks water at pleasure, is not
free to demand and has no right to expect what he
wants, but pays quite as much as elsewhere, in houses
where he lives as he pleases, is better served, and not
obliged on coming and going to be very grateful for
the reception. On the other hand, it must be said for
these 'private houses' that in them one has to submit
to a general interrogation but once, on the part of the
family, whereas in the taverns every person coming in
36
TRAVELS IN THE CONFEDERATION
must be thoroughly answered, since there is no place
apart, where one may avoid curiosity or occupy himself
with his own affairs. Our host had a numerous family;
in order to provide for them, he wished to find a pur-
chaser for his land, which was in good order, with much
clean meadow. Hereabouts, an acre of land fetches.
from 25 to 50-60 shillings Virgin. Current; he would
sell his for 40 shillings cash money, and with the pro-
ceeds remove over the mountains to Kentucky, where
he could buy as much land as would give each of his
children a sufficient portion. For the people through-
out are set upon establishing their children in land-
estates which is difficult to manage in the older parts,
and hence the incessant migrations to the farther re-
gions. This was an extremely well-disposed and in-
dustrious family, which through an especial diligence
and attention produced and made ready almost all of
what they needed; for their land and their cattle af-
forded them the materials. They had flax, cotton, and
wool, which were woven into articles of clothing; hides
for shoes and other purposes. There was no lack of all
kinds of meat, and in drinks the orchard furnished a
sour cyder and whiskey, and a sweetish, not unpleas-
ant beer is made from the persimon (fruit of the
Diospyros). That is, the bruised fruit is made into a
dough with wheat-bran and baked, and this bread is
afterwards boiled and let ferment. This drink had
been made especially for the approaching Christmas
festivals. Next after tobacco, the most important crop is
maize, the chief nourishment of the family, the negroes,
and the large and small stock; for everything lives on
corn. Finally, tobacco pays for what they need besides,
contingencies and luxuries; tobacco pays the taxes,
VIRGINIA
37
gives the women their indispensable silks and laces,
procures other foreign wares, coffee, tea, sugar, drugs,
and everything which is not produced at home. Not-
withstanding tobacco is the especial source of the pros-
perity of these planters, maize is of no less importance
to them. Failure of this most general and essential
article of food* makes it necessary for the planter to
buy his corn, and he must often fetch it from a distance,
if he is not to let his slaves and cattle suffer; and so he
loses more than the profit from their labor on tobacco.
It is the very dry summers which especially damage
the maize.
From here we got out of the right road, but were not
aware of it because for as much as half a day, on a
great, broad road, nobody met us but a few simple
negroes whose geography seldom takes in more than
their master's plantation. We passed Cedar-run at a
place which might have been dangerous from many
deep holes, had we not been so fortunate as to hit by
chance upon the right ford, a narrow one. To set us
* Regarding maize, so important in American husbandry,
see Kalm's description, Maize in North America, its Culture
and Uses, Schwed. akadem. Abhandl. XIII-This is the grain
of the indolent.—Each stalk has commonly 2-3 ears, and each
ear 3-500 grains. It is a bad crop-year when the yield is not
200 for one. Two bushels of seed are enough to supply a
large household. The grain stands much untowardness of
weather. The leaves are eaten readily by cattle.-Maize alone
does not make good bread, but is mixed with wheat, rye, or
barley. Porridge and broth from maize are called by the
English Homany, by the French Sagamité, and by the Indians
Sapaan. From maize-groats and maple-sugar the Indians
prepare their Quitzera, a strength-food, which they use on
long journeys.
38
TRAVELS IN THE CONFEDERATION
into the road again people directed us through impass-
able woods and swamps, where we should have stuck
had not a good old man met us at the right time, and
taken the trouble to show us the way. There was no
tavern anywhere far and wide in the region, and he in-
dicated to us the plantation of a Captain B. H., whose
house, as he said, stands open to every traveller, and
the man himself is obliged to strangers if they will call
upon him. After a day of tedious and idle wandering-
about we finally reached this belauded house, which
stood on a very pleasant hill, with much open land about
it. The customary negro cabins and other farm-build-
ings formed together a little village in which the finer
and larger house of the Captain stood out well by con-
trast. We described our adventures to the Captain and
the necessity we were under of asking for refreshments
and a night's lodging, which he was willing for, but at
the same time remarking that his house was no tavern.
A reminder which we scarcely expected in a hospitable
house (as later he boasted his was known to be
throughout the country), and one not sustained by the
hay, maize-bread, water, and fish (of which they take
2000 at a catch) we and our horses were entertained
with.
A clear, warm, and lovely day seemed indeed to
promise well for the pleasant climate of this region;
but this same landscape, so agreeable on the 9th of De-
cember, ✦ was seen a few years ago covered with snow
on the 10th of June 1781, and in that year far to the
south there was snow a foot deep in the month of May
at Yellow-Cliffs in North Carolina. This changeable
weather is a hindrance to the growth of fruit-trees in
the region, where the warm spring tempts out the
VIRGINIA
39
blooms very early and late malicious frosts are often
very damaging.* In Virginia, therefore, cyder is not
so general a drink as in Maryland and Pensylvania.
Of the 4000 acres which the Captain owns, only a
very small part has been made tillable for he himself,
through his negroes, finds it impossible to work the
whole or put it to use. He has a few Lease-holders, †
and wished there were more of them, because with
them one may grow rich without work. He would
prefer Germans for tenants, but so long as land is to
be bought in the interior of America these will be wise
enough not to spend their sweat on any land that is not
their own, even if they must be content with very little.
* Late Spring-frosts, which in the middle and southern prov-
inces often come very unexpectedly, spoil the hopes of the
farmer commonly, and rob him of the fruit his full-blooming
trees had promised. Observant husbandmen have therefore
sought to obviate this unpleasant event, and not without suc-
cess, choosing for their orchards a northwestern exposure,
where the trees are visited by the more frequent and colder
winds blowing from that direction. In this way a too early
blooming is prevented, and the end is gained of having the
bloom appear after the greatest danger from sharp Spring-
frosts is past. Other farmers, if they have reason to fear a
frosty night, take the trouble to set a-fire great heaps of brush
or straw on the winter-side of their orchards, and it is said
that this precaution is of use in very many cases, and preserves
the blooms which in neighboring orchards, not so protected,
are quite killed—A similar device is made use of in Hungary
to keep off May-frosts from the vines.
†These lease-holders or tenants must gradually bring into
an arable condition the land they take over, giving for 100
acres about 1000 pd. tobacco. One acre of good new land
yields a hogshead of tobacco or 1000 pounds, the medium
worth of which is 10 guineas. The leases run for short terms
only, and are then renewed.
40
TRAVELS IN THE CONFEDERATION
For other reasons as well, the German and Irish ser-
vants brought over in such numbers have been long un-
willing to apprentice themselves in Virginia or Caro-
lina, nor have they cared to settle there if not pos-
sessed of considerable property and able to buy slaves
themselves. They are too proud to work with and
among the negroes who in Virginia and Carolina are
almost the only working people. For the Virginians as
such are an indolent, haughty people whose thoughts
and designs are directed solely towards paying the lord,
owning great tracts of land and numerous troops of
slaves. Any man whatever, if he can afford so much as
2-3 negroes, becomes ashamed of work and goes about
in idleness, supported by his slaves. Thus the intro-
duction of the negroes has been injurious to the moral
principles of the inhabitants of these provinces, has
made them sluggish and arrogant; and at times cruel,
because of the despotic power they have over their
slaves. Besides, the cultivation of the land merely by
negroes is not the most profitable, which the people
themselves see plainly enough and would like to get rid
of them, but what is to be done with them and where
are other working hands to be found?
By the grown-up banks of a small stream, on the
Captain's land, a narrow vein of copper-ore has been
discovered, which according to a test made at Phila-
delphia is said to yield 25-30 pounds in the hundred.
The work is very little advanced at present, the owner
intending to follow the circumspect method and have
his negroes, whenever they are not otherwise busy, dig
as much as possible (not a difficult matter, doubtless,
since the vein lies very shallow beneath the surface,
from all appearances), and then he will make arrange-
VIRGINIA
41
ments for smelting. This whole region is overlaid with
a firm red clay very similar to that in Jersey. In a well,
dug on the hill near the house, this same earth was
found to a depth of 50 feet, mixed with more or less.
sand. At another place near-by a fine, compact free-
stone occurs, of a reddish color, and quite similar to
that used about Reading and in Jersey for walling iron-
furnaces. The red soil, still prevailing here, disap-
peared after some miles of the road we followed to-
wards the east in order to get into the main road to
Fredericksburg, and afterwards there was sandy land,
not the flat country proper but hilly as yet and better
settled and tilled than the region from which we had
last come. The pitch-pine, (Pinus foliis ternis), which
farther back had been observed only here and there in
sandy places, and singly, now appeared in quantity,
composing whole forests which gave the country a
green look and with the help of a warm day, (69°
Fahrenh. the 10th of December), made the road a
pleasant one; at least more agreeable than the marshy
and leafless woods through which we had passed.
Crossing Acquia Creek we came by all manner of
roads to the Rappahannock, not without having gone
wrong at times; for the universal answer one gets, on
asking the way, is: Keep in the main road, or, Straight
on;—everybody knowing the roads in the parish and
thinking that even strangers must find it easy to keep in
the straight path which commonly is very crooked.
The Rappahannock, which is of less volume than the
James or the Potowmack, rises in the South Mountain;
and is not so navigable inland. A mile and a half above
Fredericksburg, at Falmouth, it makes a fall over the
granite line, and only from that point is navigable to
4
42
TRAVELS IN THE CONFEDERATION
its mouth in the Bay, a distance of 90 miles, but the
total length of the river is some 200 miles. At this
place it is perhaps half a mile wide, and at its mouth.
not more than 4 miles wide. However, ships of heavy
burthen cannot come all the way up to Fredericksburg.
Fredericksburg. This town of middling size stands
partly on the low bank of the river, and partly on the
heights immediately behind, which once composed the
bed of the stream. The public buildings of the town,
churches, market-house, court-house, lie at this time in
ruins, and for no other reason than that during the
war there was no use for them and they were neg-
lected; for no hostile troops came this way, who might
have destroyed them. The tobacco-warehouses here
had a great store on hands. Here and at Alexandria
the price of tobacco at the time was only 25 shillings
Virgin. Current the hundredweight. The European
ships were all out, the time when people must pay their
taxes was at hand, and the merchants were using the
opportunity to offer the lowest prices.
Above Falmouth, near the falls of the Rappahannock,
is one of the finest and most considerable iron-works in
North America. + More than 6-800 tons are worked
there yearly, it is said. Mr. Hunter is the owner. These
works are distinguished besides by a rolling and a slit-
ting-mill, and of this sort there are only two or three
in America, the former British government having pro-
hibited the setting up of mechanisms of that kind. The
rolling-mill is adapted for drawing iron-plate, that is to
say, the machine is such that between two smooth, steel
cylinders the plate is drawn with more rapidity, more
easily, and with greater uniformity than it is possible to
do under hammers. The slitting-mill is another in-
VIRGINIA
43
genious mechanism for splitting broad iron bars at a
stroke into many narrower bars, which is a much slower
process by the customary method under the hammer.
It was a regret to me to be informed of this remarkable
iron-works, only after it was too late; for not withstand-
ing my continued inquiries, I heard no mention of it in
this town. Generally in America it is difficult to get in-
formation about anything whatever. The curiosity of
the Americans is concerned only with matters of trade
and politics; everything else around them from custom
seems to them of no consequence, although they are al-
ways jabbering about the distant wonders of other
provinces.
The hills close about Fredericksburg and on the river
consisted chiefly of sand-stones of divers colors. Frag-
ments of fine granites also appeared, which species of
rock indeed makes up the ridge causing the falls of
the Rappahannock. These fragments were of quartz,
feldspar, and mica sprinkled now and again with shorl.
The banks of the stream, between here and the Bay, at
many places show whale-bones, shark-teeth, oyster and
other muscle-shells.
Winter-shad is the name they have for a fish which,
throughout the winter, appears in this and the other
rivers of Virginia, and is taken in great quantities in
nets. But it is said to be very different from the shad
proper (Clupea Alosa L.) which comes only in the
spring. I have not seen the fish.
Not far from Fredericksburg we had the honor of
breakfasting with an American General, whose dress.
was conspicuously party-colored; a large white hat, a
blue coat, a brown waistcoat, and green breeches
adorned his short, 'thick person. From here on, one
44
TRAVELS IN THE CONFEDERATION
passes through a tract of level and open country, in
which, however, some entertainment is afforded by the
sight of many country-seats embellished by very good,
large, and at times tastefully planned dwelling-houses.
Still more numerous and pleasant seats lie along the
beautiful banks of the Potowmack and the other rivers,
and therefore a journey by way of these rivers offers
far more of variety to the eye than the common roads
by land. The rich Virginians who, from their luxury
and love of display, have for many years been of evil
repute among their more frugal neighbors to the north,
prefer generally to live in the country rather than in
towns, and according to their circumstances and oppor-
tunities spare nothing in rendering their houses agree-
able both outside and in.
There appeared now and again extensive fields
seeded to wheat. Some years before the outbreak of
the war the cultivation of this grain had already been
undertaken with more enthusiasm in this region; that
is, after the profit from their tobacco had been greatly
lessened by the heavy duties imposed in England, and
besides, their lands, (even then exhausted), not pro-
ducing such large crops of tobacco, the profitable cul-
ture of wheat + gave the land a new and greater value.
Here, as in other parts of America, wheat is sown on
the last year's corn-fields; the old stalks not having
first been cleared off. A peculiar insect, called weevil,*
*In the American Philosoph. Transactions there are to be
found sundry articles treating of this injurious insect; but in
none of them is its species determined; the names Weevil and
Grub describe merely a worm or maggot which eats into other
bodies. Is this perhaps the Curculio granarius L., brought
over from Europe, or a related species?
VIRGINIA
45
often damages the wheat greatly, especially if the grain
lies long in the straw unthreshed; but in this case, it
is said, lime scattered in does the insect harm. Also,
the wheat-fields are fouled by faulty wheat and many
kinds of weeds (darnel, false grain, cheat); to obviate
this, it is recommended that the grain be soaked in a
strong salt-lye,-what floats is discarded, and the good
heavy grains are to be seeded, mixed with shell-lime.
Sundry butterflies were still to be seen at this late
time of the year. Of birds we observed none except a
few vultures and wood-peckers, the Motacilla Sialis,
Loxia Cardinalis, and the Virginia partridge (Tetrao
virginiana L.). It is said the partridge-hen lays 17-20
eggs, and all the hens belonging to one covey use the
same nest; the claim is made that now and then 2-300
eggs are found together. The cocks are distinguished
by white feathers on the throat and head, where the
hens have brown. We were astounded to meet on this
road two travelling journeymen, Germans, their lug-
gage slung behind quite in the German manner; they
were journeymen-tanners from Alsace, who had arrived
in the Chesapeak Bay in a French ship, and were now
to seek their fortune in this country. A traveller on foot
is in Virginia an uncommon spectacle; only negroes go
a-foot; gentlemen ride. But the whole country being
made up of gentlemen and their negroes, and almost no
other distinction obtaining, it is always something ex-
traordinary to meet a white foot-traveller. The tav-
erns, or ordinaries as they are called in Virginia, are
intended only for the reception of gentlemen, especially
in the lower country where very few teamsters come,
and they always take with them their provisions and
horse-fodder and lie in the bush. Along the chief
46
TRAVELS IN THE CONFEDERATION
roads these ordinaries are commodious enough, when
there are not too many guests at one time. Coffee,
ham, and eggs are commonly the sole entertainment.
Ham and hog's flesh are great delicacies to the Vir-
ginians, without which no landlord thinks he could do
business.
From Fredericksburg to Richmond we had 79 miles
to go; really the distance is not so much, but the bad
condition of the roads and the number of broken bridges
made detours necessary. The road for the first half of
the way was mainly through extensive woods again,
pitch-pine for the most part, but marshy spots were
numerous, full of holly, calamus, and the smooth win-
ter-berry. These swamps, which are often large, con-
tain good soil, and do not deserve to be so neglected, for
in most of them it would not be difficult to effect a
drainage. In these forests also many plantations lie
scattered about, which are not always to be remarked
from the road. The Pamunky and Mattapany are two
streams of the region, inconsiderable there, which rise
in the South Mountain and by their junction form the
York River. On the banks of the Pamunky lay several
French metal cannon, 24-pounders, with their names
inscribed, e. g. l'Advocat, le Démoniaque &c., and all
with the motto: Ultima ratio regum. They had been
brought there by water in the year 1781, as a pre-
cautionary measure, and being found by some of Corn-
wallis's troops, were spiked and rolled into the river,
out of which they are just now being fetched again.
Two miles from the Pamunky, we arrived at Hannover
Court-house. As once it was the custom in Europe, in
the furtherance of piety, to place tap-houses near re-
mote churches and chapels, so in America, to the ad-
VIRGINIA
47
vantagement of justice, the court-house is never with-
out a like convenience. Court-houses, where the
monthly and quarterly judicial assemblies for each
county are held, are placed by preference in the middle
of the county, and if there is no little town already
there, the court-house is built in the woods none the
less. On a very warm mid-day (18 Decemb.) we found
here a fine circle of ladies, silk-clad and tastefully
coiffured, sitting about the fire. This was not so ex-
traordinary in itself, but it was something new to me.
that several pretty vigorous young blacks, quite in their
natural state, should be tumbling about before the party
without giving scandal.
Hannovertown, a small place, on a creek which flows
into the York River, was the first and only market-
town on the road from Fredericksburg to Richmond.
Virginia (and in like manner the other southern
provinces), notwithstanding its great compass, has
in comparison with the northern provinces a less
number of villages or country-towns. On this and
other creeks which fall into York River, their banks.
covered with thick growth and for the greater part
of a firm, red, clayey earth, there are found whale-
bones and remains of crustaceous animals. The to-
bacco produced in this region is thought to be better
than that grown more to the north, and brings 5-6
Spanish dollars the hundred; it may be said that
the quality and price of this staple are in general higher
in the more southern districts.* Here and at other
* According to a contract of the year 1786 between the
Farmers General of France and Mr. Robert Morris, late
Treasurer General of the United States, the latter made him-
21
48
TRAVELS IN THE CONFEDERATION
places along the navigable creeks and rivers, the Eng-
lish factor is to be seen again, who supplies the planter,
in exchange for his tobacco and timber, with manu-
factured articles and other wares; but rich planters
also, here and there, have set up their own ware-
houses, whence their neighbors may get what they
need. Here too new land is always taken in for to-
bacco as soon as the old is impoverished, albeit the
people know and admit that old well-dunged land
would be quite as profitable; but the trouble of laying
down grass, and gathering feed for winter so as to
keep the cattle in stalls or folds to make dung, all this
they regard as more irksome than cutting down trees.
and rooting up stumps; preferring to let the cattle
wander about in the woods and swamps to seek a
meagre winter support. In this region also we saw for
the first time several mules, which are beginning to be
liked because they are so perfectly adapted for the
American œconomy, thriving with scant attention and
bad feed. These were hitched to large tobacco-hogs-
heads, which are drawn for miles over the bare and
level sand from the plantations to the ware-houses.
In order to reach Richmond we had to leave the
sandy flats and, approaching the granite line, got again
into the uneven, hilly country pre-adjacent, where oaks
and other leaf-trees were again to be found in the
self answerable to deliver tobacco in French ports at the fol-
lowing prices:
Best quality of James and York River,
the hundred
Potowmack and Rappahannock tobacco
Maryland tobacco
à 38 livres
à 36
à 34
VIRGINIA
49
woods, pines appearing only here and there in low and
sandy spots.
Richmond stands on the hilly banks of the James
River, over against the falls of this stream which is
here perhaps half a mile wide. The houses of this.
town, a short time since of little consequence, are
almost wholly of wood and scattered irregularly on two
heights, divided by the Shokoes, a small brook; the
number of them is not large * nor are they in them-
selves of a handsome appearance. What gives the
place fame and regard is the falls of the James River,
in addition to its being the seat of the Virginia govern-
ment.
The falls of the river were the first object of my
curiosity. The lower terminus of these is next the
town; but their whole breadth or extent is 7 miles up-
stream to Westham, a small place, and in this distance
the total perpendicular fall of the water is only 71 ft.,
according to an exact measurement said to have been
made. Hence the falls are of themselves inconsider-
able, and one looks in vain for high rock-walls over
which the water plunges straight down; but a vast
number of great and small fragments of rock fill the
bed of the river as far as the eye can see, and through
these the current, with foaming uproar, makes its way.
What with the help of devious banks and the forests on
both sides, the impression from a view of the whole is
great and pleasing. The noise of the falls, especially
at night, is heard not only throughout the town but,
before the wind, for several miles around. These falls
* Recently the number of the houses of Richmond was esti-
mated at 280, and that of the inhabitants at about 2000.
50
TRAVELS IN THE CONFEDERATION
are occasioned by the granite ledge, so often mentioned,
which runs along the eastern coast of North America
for the most of its extent, and gives rise to most of the
falls, to those at least found near the ocean. This gran-
ite line runs from north-east to south-west, a-slant the
bed of the river flowing from west to east. The rock-
mass is chiefly a true granite, made up in divers pro-
portions of feldspar, quartz, and mica; but quite as fre-
quently there are found large unmixed masses of these
single constituents. Especially, there occur now and
again great fragments consisting entirely of a beautiful
rose-colored feldspar which comes off in rhombs over
an inch in length. In the rock protruding from the
water very many giant-pots, or cavities, are to be seen,
of various diameters and depths, these hollow places are
within quite smooth and most of them larger below
than at the opening. Kalm and Bartram explain their
origin, in a very probable way, by the grinding of little
stones (almost always found inside) moved about cir-
cularly by the whirls of the current. Besides granite,
properly the rock species here, one finds also specimens
of all the more remote species, brought down by the
current, ground, and deposited.
The James River, up from its mouth in the Bay, is
one of the greatest and most beautiful of American
streams, and on account of the profitable tobacco-trade
which it facilitates and furthers, one of the richest.
It is navigable for large merchantmen as far up as three
miles below Richmond, that is, below the falls. The
tide comes up to the falls. From Westham on beyond
the falls only flat-boats and canoes may be navigated,
and that no farther than to another falls in the South
VIRGINIA
51
Mountain.* The James rises in the Alleghany Moun-
tains under the name of the Fluviana, and receives at
considerable addition from the South Mountain, in the
Riviana. Off to the side, below Richmond, there is an-
other little fall near Petersburg, over the same granite
ledge. Both of these falls are very advantageous for
the fishery; for by these obstacles in the channel the
fish coming up-stream are hindered in their progress,
crowd together in vast numbers, and become an easy
prey. Early in the spring, and at times even in Feb-
ruary and March, herring and shad appear, which are
seen in the Delaware and the Hudson not before the
middle of April and in all May; there are other fish
also common to these rivers and to those of Virginia.
The falls, incessantly churning the water and throw-
ing it up to the air, are thought to be the occasion of
the clouds, which are more frequent here, it is said,
than at other places where circumstances are dis-
similar; on this ground also it is claimed further that
Richmond is not so healthy as, from its situation in
other respects, it might well be supposed to be but is
very subject to autumn and intermittent fevers. But
these diseases being general along the coast the falls
of the river cannot be regarded as the especial occa-
* Recently there have been set on foot plans to remove the
obstacles to inland navigation in the James River, and to
establish a connection between it and the Great Kenhaway
river, to the west of the mountains, these two streams being
separated by a land-passage of only 23 miles. In this way an
easy communication will be opened between the James and
the Ohio. And General Washington has also proposed a
further connecting of the Potowmack and the James, (pre-
sumably by means of the Shannandore).
52
TRAVELS IN THE CONFEDERATION
sion, any more than the universal use of swine flesh,
which I remarked above; with more reason the cause
may be taken to be the swamps and the amount of
standing water in the country.
Richmond has not always had the honor, which fell
to it four years since, of being the seat of government
of the state of Virginia. Before the founding of Wil-
liamsburg, Jamestown, now in ruins, was the capital
of the province. But after the settlement of the in-
terior progressed more and more, it was found con-
venient to desert Williamsburg also and to establish the
seat of government at Richmond, 60 miles to the west.
Even now it is tedious enough for the delegates from
the more distant counties of this extensive province to
travel hither for the Assembly; for Virginia, what with
the land beyond the mountains (to which, next after
New York, it makes the largest claim), is of greater
compass than any of the United States, and numbers
72 counties.* But that part lying to the east of the
mountains is in itself of great extent, in length some
* Virginia, in the year 1783, included the following coun-
ties: Accomac, Amelia, Amherst, Albemarle, Augusta, Bed-
ford, Berkeley, Botetourt, Brunswick, Buckingham, Caroline,
Charles City, Charlotte, Chesterfield, Culpepper, Cumberland,
Dinwiddie, Elizabeth City, Essex, Fairfax, Farquier, Fluvan-
nah, Frederick, Gloucester, Goochland, Greenbrier, Hallifax,
Hampshire, Hannover, Henry, Henrico, James City, Kentucke,
King George, King and Queen, King William, Lancaster,
Loudon, Louisa, Lunenburg, Meklenburgh, Middlesex, Monan-
ghahela, Montgomery, Nansemond, New-Kent, Northampton,
Northumberland, Norfolk, Ohio, Orange, Pittsylvania, Pow-
hattan, Princess Anne, Prince Edward, Prince George, Prince
William, Richmond, Rockingham, Rockyridge, Shenandoah,
Southampton, Spotsylvania, Stafford, Sussex, Washington,
Warwick, Westmoreland, Isle of Wight, Williamsburgh, York.
VIRGINIA
53
*
250 miles from the upper Potowmack to the North Caro-
lina line, and from the coast to the foot of the moun-
tains 180 miles in breadth; and about 800 miles to the
extreme western limits on the Ohio. With this very ex-
tensive surface, the administration being as it is now,
there must arise many inconveniences to which the in-
habitants are exposed who live at a distance from the
seat of government and of the highest courts. For ex-
ample, if they are concerned in law-processes of con-
sequence, which must be tried before the General
Court sitting only at Richmond, they and their neces-
sary witnesses are obliged to travel a couple of hundred
miles; for it is not the custom in Virginia, as it is in
Pensylvania, New York, Carolina, and other provinces,
for the Judges to visit those counties assigned them
in order to pass upon cases, at law in the several coun-
ties, in this way sparing the subjects of the state long
journeys, waste of time, and expense by reason of
which many people are made shy of having recourse
to the law for injustice suffered, or a theft &c. Thus
I remember a case which a man in the upper part of
Virginia told regarding himself. A very valuable horse
had been stolen from him; he believed he knew who
the criminal was and could bring sufficient testimony
against him; but to travel 140 miles to Richmond with
the witnesses, besides the other expense, would have
doubled the amount of the loss sustained; he preferred
therefore to let the matter go. The county courts
proper have jurisdiction in trifling cases of debt and
* Besides the usual County Courts, which are held monthly
in every county, Virginia holds annually two General-Courts,
each for 24 days; two Courts of Appeal, each for 6 days; and
two High Courts of Chancery, each for 18 days.
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other litigation of small consequence. The Assembly
deputies from those counties lying on the Ohio and
Kentucky feel it burdensome to come 600 miles to this
place, although they draw their day-money allowances ;
how much more of a burden must it be to private
persons from that country, if their own affairs call
them to this one seat of justice and government? They
not only feel this, but are already talking of the neces-
sity of establishing a separate government for those
remote parts, or at least of having a Governor of their
own: as indeed is the case in the province of New
York, where besides one Governor at New York, on
account of the distance and for the better keeping of
order there is another at Albany, 160 miles from the
capital. From the present form of government and
the opinions prevailing, it seems highly probable that
if those frontier regions of Virginia once get a Gov-
ernor of their own, they will easily go a step farther
and undertake to be independent of eastern Virginia;
they think themselves warranted in some measure, be-
cause Nature itself has, by broad and impracticable
mountains, placed a barrier between the two regions.
Besides, their political and commercial interests will
after a time make this necessary-but the most impor-
tant item is that they hold themselves quite as much
warranted as any of the other provinces in asking and
asserting an independence, so soon as they feel them-
selves strong enough and find it to their profit to de-
clare independence.
The law-making power of the state of Virginia is
reposed in the Senate and the House of Delegates, or
Assembly. The members of the Assembly are new-
elected every year from among the qualified land-
VIRGINIA
55
holders, and those of the Senate every four years. The
executive power is in the hands of a Governor, elected
annually by the Assembly and the Senate, and a Privy
Council, elected by the same every three years. The
Assembly had just now come together for its half-
yearly winter session; a small frame building serves the
purpose, used also on occasion, with change of scene,
for balls and public banquets. It is said of the As-
sembly: It sits; but this is not a just expression, for
these members show themselves in every possible posi-
tion rather than that of sitting still, with dignity and
attention. An assembly of men whose object is the
serious and important one of making laws, should at
least observe a certain decorum, but independence
prevails even here. During the visits I made I saw
this estimable assembly quiet not 5 minutes together;
some are leaving, others coming in, most of them talk-
ing of insignificant or irrelevant matters, and to judge
from the indifference and heedlessness of most of their
faces it must be a trifling business to make laws. At
the open door of the hall stands a door-keeper, who is
almost incessantly and with a loud voice calling out for
one member after another. In the ante-room there is
a tumult quite as constant; here they amuse themselves
zealously with talk of horse-races, runaway negroes,
yesterday's play, politics, or it may be, with trafficking.
Nor must it be expected that this illustrious assembly
shall be seen dressed as in other countries etiquette, in
like circumstances, would demand. In the same clothes
in which one goes hunting or tends his tobacco-fields,
it is permissible to appear in the Senate or the Assem-
bly. There are displayed boots, trowsers, stockings,
and Indian leggings; great-coats, ordinary coats, and
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TRAVELS IN THE CONFEDERATION
short jackets, according to each man's caprice or com-
fort, and all equally honorable.
The pay of the Assembly-members was very recently
fixed at 18 Virginia shillings, or 3 Spanish dollars;
which means to the state a daily expenditure of 525
dollars, and their sittings at times last 4-6 weeks with-
out reckoning time spent in going and coming. For-
merly their pay was only 10 shillings a day. But dur-
ing the war, nothing but paper-money being in circu-
lation, the members preferred to take 50 pounds of
tobacco per diem rather than accept their own cur-
rency. The Governor has 1000 Pd. a year, and the
Speaker of the Assembly 500 Pd. However little the
members may forget themselves, they seem unwilling
to be mindful of others. On one of these days a bill
was brought in, to allow those officers who had been
returned to the Assembly at the instance of all the
Virginia troops, the sum of 3 dollars a day for ex-
penses, the amount to be charged on their long-stand-
ing salary account; this very reasonable proposal was
resisted by all the members present until General Law-
son + arose and explained with emphasis the necessity
and justice of the measure. As in all other public and
private societies there are certain men who lead the
debate, and think and speak for the rest, so it is also
in these Assemblies. Among the orators here is a cer-
tain Mr. Henry who appears to have the greatest in-
fluence over the House. He has a high-flown and bold
delivery, deals more in words than in reasons, and not
so long ago was a country schoolmaster. Men of this
stamp, either naturally eloquent or become so through
their occupation, as e. g. lawyers, invariably take the
most active and influential part in these Assemblies;
VIRGINIA
57
the other members, for the most part farmers without
clear and refined ideas, with little education or knowl-
edge of the world, are merely there to give their votes,
which are sought, whenever the House is divided into
parties, by the insinuations of agreeable manners and
in other ways.
When the opinion of the House is to be taken regard-
ing a question in debate, the Speaker calls first for the
Ayes and then the Noes, given together in a loud voice
by all the members present, and with a critical ear the
Speaker judges from the strength of the noise whether
the affirmative or the negative votes are in a majority.
But if the votes are so distributed that the ear cannot
plainly distinguish them, a 'division' of the House is
demanded, and the members form themselves into two
groups and are counted.
The revenues of this state were at the time estimated
at some 230,000 Pds. Current; arising from a levy of
2 per centum on property, a wheel-tax of 1 Pd. to the
pair of wheels, 10 shillings negro head-tax, a duty of
5 per centum on imported goods, (half of this amount
is allowed the Congress) &c. Of this the support of
the government takes away about 50,000 Pd.; 40,000
Pd. go towards the payment of the provincial troops.
and interest on the amount due them, and the rest is
applied chiefly to war debts and interest-accounts.
One may freely assert, and without approaching the
truth too nearly, that the government of this state (as
of most of the others) is in a weak and doubtful situa-
tion, and that its present constitution will not avail to
* Virginia in 1781 was assessed with an annual contribution
of 1,307,594 dollars to the general war-expenses.
5
58
TRAVELS IN THE CONFEDERATION
guard it against future disquiets and internal con-
fusions. The law-making power has not yet become
confirmed in that regard which it must have if it is to
be of use in its ordinances and regulations. Members
are spoken of, even in public companies, with expres-
sions unseemly and indecorous. Affairs in the Assem-
blies are conducted by a selfish and often mean party
spirit. At each new sitting laws made during that just
past are repealed and others draughted. Their laws.
are little read, and there is less concern as to the execu-
tion of them. Whoever cared to take the trouble of
collecting anecdotes would have manifold proof of
this. There is so much the less reason to doubt this
shortcoming of a government, when the most con-
sidered men in the state are not chary of saying what
they think to strangers. In a company the talk got on
the extravagant demands which the tavern-keepers,
(even under the eyes of the government at the capital),
are accustomed to exact from travellers, notwithstand-
ing all sorts of provisions are at a very low price.
"There are laws enough against the practice, re-
marked a man of high rank, and moderate prices are
fixed by statute, but the gentlemen whose duty it is
to see that the regulations are observed give them-
selves no more trouble than people generally do
"about laws and ordinances." As evidence of the very
mild, indulgent, lenient government, it was stated that
desertions among the Virginia troops have been very
numerous; that recruits have been constantly sent in
from the country to the army, but they generally come
home after the first few weeks. And although the
regiments were wanting men, although districts and
individuals were continually obliged to repeat their
"C
"C
(C
(C
VIRGINIA
59
assessments, so as to foot the costs of recruiting made
necessary by desertions, the authorities nevertheless
were so philanthropical as neither to punish nor send
back to the army those perfidious fugitives found
within their districts.
The entire commerce of Virginia has for long been
almost altogether in the hands of European houses
who have maintained their ware-houses and factors
here. Among the Virginians few have concerned
themselves in trade beyond the keeping of little shops
here and there, and throughout the whole province
there are still hardly any houses who would be dis-
posed, or in a position, to undertake large affairs.
And in all Virginia there is no commercial town which
in the extent of its business may be compared with
Philadelphia, New York, Boston, Baltimore, or Charles-
ton; the natural situation and activities of those
provinces bring together in their chief towns almost
the whole trade of the interior, whereas in Virginia
this is greatly distributed, owing to the numerous
navigable streams penetrating the country; and thus
in many small Virginia towns together there is hardly
as much business done as in a single one of the large
places mentioned, albeit the total value of Virginia ex-
ports exceeds in amount that of any of the other
provinces. So far the raw products of Virginia are
exported almost entirely through European ships and
seamen, these also bringing in European manufactures
and other articles of trade. For Virginia itself, beyond
little coasting-vessels and a few West India trading-
boats, likewise small, has no large shipping of its own
and few sailors. The tobacco-trade alone formerly
occupied several hundreds of English vessels, and some
60
TRAVELS IN THE CONFEDERATION
thousands of English seamen, and if only in that re-
spect, was an object of the greatest consequence to
Great Britain, which must now share the profits
with other nations. To be sure, many merchant ves-
sels are built in Virginia, but mainly for sale, and
these are known and well-regarded as good, fast-
sailing ships. Of the European merchants estab-
lished here before the outbreak of the disturbances,
and as British subjects compelled to leave during the
war, divers came in the spring and summer with car-
goes for Virginia, hoping to trade as before with their
old friends and acquaintances. The government of
Virginia, still full of bitter spleen, forbade them to
land and obliged them to go elsewhere with their
goods and seek other markets, which they soon found
and not far off. Virginia then began to suffer for
lack of European wares, and had to fetch, at a loss,
from Philadelphia and Baltimore the very same it had
at first prohibited. Besides, the ships of other
European nations, against which there was no ex-
ception taken, if they came into the Bay were unwilling
to be at the trouble of seeking purchasers for their
cargoes among the few merchants scattered here and
there, but preferred rather to go straight to one of
the fore-mentioned places, where they could reckon
upon a quicker sale. The Virginians moreover
thought to deal on long credit, which they and all their
neighbors have long been accustomed to at the hands
of British merchants; but neither French nor Dutch
were so agreeable as that, when the question was one
of borrowing, and if they were, had oftentimes cause
to rue their complaisance. Virginia needs and takes,
(and has always), more foreign articles than it can
VIRGINIA
61
pay for with its own produce, and so has been for a
long time indebted to the British merchants, whose
indulgence and confidence were almost without limit.
And now since this unrestricted credit is not to be
had from the merchants of other nations, the lack of
hard money is felt at this time more than ever before,
for equalizing the balance of the European trade which
is against Virginia. The money spread about the
country during the war is still a help; but as this be-
comes gradually exhausted, embarrassment will more
and more increase, unless new channels open for get-
ting gold and silver from the southern parts of
America, or unless the produce of the land is aug-
mented, as it may very well be, from the nature of the
soil.
The want of hard money is felt not only in com-
mercial affairs but also in the collection of the public
revenues, and the government has been obliged to pass.
an act proclaiming that tobacco, hemp, flour, grain,
and skins are to be accepted of the people in payment
of their taxes. For this purpose special magazines
have been established and inspectors appointed, where-
by the state is subject to additional expense. And the
government, having to set up as a merchant, and pay
the costs of ware-houses, inspectors &c., must there-
fore exact more of the citizen who cannot pay cash
money, or suffer loss itself.
Richmond has only one public sheet, issued twice a
week: + and so far as I know this is the only newspaper
in all Virginia. Nevertheless it is inferior in every re-
spect to the sorriest of the Philadelphia sheets, and in
comparison with these, seldom contains any articles of
importance; and in general this province is poor in
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TRAVELS IN THE CONFEDERATION
literary productions. Inquiring, I could hear only of a
Mr. Jefferson, + at this time a member of the Congress,
as the author of several excellent political brochures,
with the contents of which nobody seemed familiar.
The constitution of Virginia, indeed, mentions liberty
of the press as one of its cardinal principles; but at the
beginning of the Revolution there was a law of the
state forbidding anything whatever to be said or writ-
ten against independence. However, if little is written
in Virginia, there is all the more of speaking, for the
Virginians are very conversable. They boast that
among all the American colonies the English language
is with them preserved purest and most complete, and
one cannot altogether deny them.* But here and there
a few negroisms have crept in, and the salmagundy of
the English language has here been enriched even by
words of African origin, and some of these are re-
garded as really meritorious additions, e. g., the negro
expression 'toat,' to carry something on the shoulder,
for which there is no word in the English.
There is but one church at Richmond, one small
church, but spacious enough for all the pious souls of
the place and the region. If the Virginians themselves
did not freely and openly admit that zeal for religion,
and religion generally, is now very faint among them,
the fact might easily be divined from other circum-
stances. Considering the extent of the state, one sees
not only a smaller number of houses of worship than in
the other provinces, but what there are in a ruinous or
* But in general the dialects of the English speech in the
several American colonies are not so sharply distinct as those
of the sundry districts and counties of England itself.
VIRGINIA
63
ruined condition; and the clergy for the most part dead
or driven away and their places unfilled. Virginia
has long granted a full liberty of conscience, but there
were formerly in this state a smaller number of dis-
senters than in any other, and the English Church
could be regarded as very nearly dominant: but this
is no longer so, other sects having on the one hand
greatly increased in numbers, and on the other, the
English Church being compelled to give up many of
its one-time privileges. The warmer adherents of that
church, under the lead of a few ambitious members of
the clergy, have in Virginia also made fruitless at-
tempts to secure for the church its former legal pre-
eminence; the opinions of the public were very much
against this and the outcome was the thesis: that in a
republick no church nor its ministers should be pre-
ferred by the government above the rest, no matter
how great the number of members professing alle-
giance. +
No matter if special privileges are denied the
churchly order, and in general an equality of all ranks
is promoted and defended, the ladies here are not the
more inclined to part with any advantage of position
to which they fancy themselves entitled through the
offices held by their husbands. News of the definitive
treaty just arrived in America was the occasion at
Richmond of illuminations, fire-works, banquetings,
and finally, a ball, at which the honor of the first dance
fell by lot to the very honorable daughter of a very
honorable shoemaker. That the distinction should
have been awarded by lot was the cause of great dis-
pleasure to the ladies of the Governor's family and his
relatives, and the incident was the subject of every
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TRAVELS IN THE CONFEDERATION
conversation the next day, but the unanimous opinion
was that the lot should be valid as against any claims
of rank, and that no exception to the generally allowed
equality should be granted even the fair sex beyond
that due personal merit and accomplishment.
According to the principles of a general equality
was the behavior at our tavern, which in its arrange-
ments was very like an eastern caravansery. Mr. For-
micola, a Neapolitan by birth was the landlord here.
The entire house contained but two large rooms on
the ground-floor, and two of the same size above, the
apartments under the roof furnished with numerous
beds standing close together, both rooms and chambers
standing open to every person throughout the day.
Here, no less than in most of the other public-houses
in America, it is expected that rooms are to be used
only as places for sleeping, eating and drinking. The
whole day long, therefore, one is compelled to be
among all sorts of company and at night to sleep in
like manner; thus travellers, almost anywhere in
America, must renounce the pleasure of withdrawing
apart, (for their own convenience or their own affairs),
from the noisy, disturbing, or curious crowd, unless
it may be, that staying at one place for some time,
a private apartment is to be rented. The Assembly
meeting at this time was the occasion of a great gath-
ering of strangers and guests at Richmond, and every
evening our inn was very full. Generals, Colonels,
Captains, Senators, Assembly-men, Judges, Doctors,
Clerks, and crowds of Gentlemen, of every weight and
calibre and every hue of dress, sat all together about
the fire, drinking, smoking, singing, and talking
ribaldry. There is in this no great ground of com-
VIRGINIA
65
plaint, because such a company at other times may be
very agreeable, entertaining, and instructive; but the
indelicate custom of having so many beds together in
one room is the more surprising, since elsewhere in
America there is much store set by decorum and neat-
ness, which by such an arrangement as this must often
be dispensed with.
The coming together of so many gentlemen from all
parts of the province brought hither a great number of
very fine horses. One could almost fancy it was an
Arabian village; there were to be seen the whole day
long saddled horses at every turn, and a swarming of
riders in the few and muddy streets, for a horse must
be mounted, if only to fetch a prise of snuff from
across the way; but of coaches there were none, which
in the larger towns elsewhere jolt through all the
streets. Horses are a prime object with the Vir-
ginians; but they give their attention chiefly to racers
and hunters, of which indubitably they have the finest
in America, their custom formerly being to keep up
and improve the strain by imported English stallions.
and mares. The pedigree of their horses is carried out
with great exactitude. Virginia supplied the best and
finest horses to the American cavalry, and the Virginia
light horse was superior to every other in speed and
capacity. But the province has no good draught and
work-horses, and their teams, in the low country at
least, are in general extremely sorry. One sees every-
where little, thin animals, hitched to wagons made of
wood throughout, not the smallest bit of iron to be
found in the construction. A collar of pleated straw,
and a pair of rough leather traces, or perhaps of
twisted bark, make the entire harness. The numerous
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TRAVELS IN THE CONFEDERATION
streams and creeks are indeed in many places a sub-
stitute for land-carriage; but for the rest, the reason
lies merely in the great negligence with which the
Virginians, and all Americans, treat their horses as
well as their other useful animals, making it impossible
for them to show a better condition. With the ex-
ception of those horses upon which as racers a high
value is placed, all the others are let run about in the
fields for pasture, without giving them in the hardest
winter any protection against the inclemencies of the
weather (and this even in the more northern provinces,
Pensylvania, New York, Rhode Island), and many of
these poor beasts are actually forced to get what little
nourishment they can from under ice and snow. It
appears, however, that most of the horses in America
have not that delicacy of taste which causes European
horses to refuse bad and unclean feed. Here they de-
vour everything without distinction, the meanest hay
and even their own excreta. In the army horses have
many times been seen to eat salted meat, and in Canada
they as well as horned cattle are fed the winter through
on little frozen fishes.
On the south side of the James River, exactly oppo-
site Richmond, stands a small town called Manchester.
Between the two places the river is not wide, and in
crossing one scarcely observes whence the current
comes, the numerous rocks and small islands in and
about the falls seeming at a distance to make up one
continuous whole. A circumstance which it has been
proposed to make use of in the construction of a bridge
over the falls; for these rocks have an owner, who
bought in for a few hundred pounds the lower part of
the falls together with a narrow strip along either
VIRGINIA
67
bank, and he is now working at the project of a large
and fine bridge, which would be the first and only one
of the sort in America, if the projector can but secure
permission of the Assembly and the right to make of
this a toll-bridge. + At Manchester I visited Mr. Jacob
Rübsaamen, who at one time was engaged in mining
and forge-works in Jersey, but the war breaking out
set up a powder-mill in Virginia, the first in America.
The saltpetre requisite was got in the mountains, but
the sulphur was fetched from Europe; for although
sulphur-pyrites is found in great quantity and in many
places in America, experience proved that it would be
slower and more costly to smelt the sulphur out in this
way. The powder-mill, however, was unable to fur-
nish much material, and in the end was burnt by
British troops. Mr. Rübsaamen stated that here and
there in America traces of antimonium are found, and
that zinc is not rare, occurring oftenest in and about
lead-mines, especially at Chiswells mine, in Virginia.
Rich lead-ore is found in quantity, and at the surface
on the New and Greenbriar rivers; copper near the
Roanoke; iron-ore everywhere plentiful, among other
places, a very good ore 20 miles from here in the
county of Buckingham. There has been discovered a
bed of pit-coals 12 miles from here, on the south side
of the James River and above the falls, the occasion
of discovery being the uprooting of a tree by the wind.
The region is low, and it is probable that the bed
was formed from the plant-earth choked up behind the
falls. Four feet below the surface there is a white
clay-slate, next, a blacker clay-slate, and then the coals.
Trenches are dug straight down, and at 26-30 ft. the
bed is not yet gone through; these trenches soon filling
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TRAVELS IN THE CONFEDERATION
with water, new ones are continually opened up, al-
though this labor might be avoided. The coals, how-
ever, are not the best; all Richmond smells from them.
They are sold at the river for 1 shill. Virgin. Current
the bushel.
In the Virginia mountains are sundry warm and
cold mineral springs, which from their taste are made
up chiefly of sulphurous and vitriolate constituents.
They appear to contain little of other salts and little
fixed air, for no casting of bubbles or beads is to be
observed. The best known are the Augusta hot
Springs, in the county of that name. There are sev-
eral springs there, called the sweet, the acid, the warm,
and the hot springs. The sweet and hot springs are
said to show a warmth, the one of 80 and the other of
110-115 degrees Fahrenheit. At first the water is un-
pleasant to drink, but soon becomes tolerable. Sul-
phur-pyrites or marcasite being found everywhere in
the neighborhood, it is supposed the warmth of the
springs is so occasioned. In that region also beautiful
rock-crystals are found and amethysts. The Sulphur-
Springs on the Greenbriar are celebrated for curing
the itch and other skin-eruptions. Still another water
of the mountains is spoken of, which it is said takes
fire from a flame and is almost wholly consumed.*
The county of Augusta generally, which comprises a
part of the North-Mountain or Alleghany-Range,
seems to promise many natural curiosities; in the
* Probably the same of which there ran a story in certain
recent English papers, that a pistol shot sets it a-fire, and
being quite consumed it leaves behind a salty ash; the Vir-
ginia county of Fincastle is mentioned, but no precise observer
is given. +
VIRGINIA
69
country on Jackson's, the Fluvannah, and the Green-
briar rivers these mountains are said to have a ruder,
wilder, more fearsome look, and are likely higher than
anywhere farther north on the same chain; and I all
the more regretted that the lateness of the season
must prevent me from visiting that region; I should
likely have found there more compensation for my
pains than on the road to the Ohio. Of the county of
Augusta Stanton is the capital, a place by no means
inconsiderable, carrying on much trade with the farther
mountain-country. The town lies in the remarkable,
long, fertile, limestone valley which, between the North
and South Mountain, runs through the greatest part of
North America, and contains many other towns al-
ready mentioned, as, Lebanon, Carlisle, and Shippens-
burgh in Pensylvania, Winchester in Virginia, Hagars-
town in Maryland, &c. Stanton has no navigable
stream near it, but not far away rises the Shannan-
dore, which makes a very long course to the north,
and finally empties into the Potowmack. There is no
other river of those parts which has a direction so
different from the general. To the south of Stanton,
on an arm of the Staunton river or Roanoke, is the re-
markable Rock-bridge,* namely, where this stream has
dug out a subterranean way through the limestone. It
should be mentioned besides, that in the limestone
mountains of that region Cornua ammonis, it is
claimed, has been found, which has not been observed.
so far in the northern tracts of the range, in Maryland
and Pensylvania, that is to say, although it occurs fre-
* Vid., Beyträge zur mineralogischen Kenntniss des östlichen
Theils von Nordamerika, 102.
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TRAVELS IN THE CONFEDERATION
quently in Canada; and that a number of caves are
found there, among which there is one in the county of
Frederick, two miles from Fort Frederick, on the land
of Mr. George Mills, said to be the largest on the
continent. +
Two French commissioners, from what was for-
merly the French settlement on the Illinois, were at
Richmond to lay before the Assembly claims for sup-
plies furnished the American troops during the war
and the garrisons of the forts on the Wabash and the
Mississippi. From the dress and the behavior of these
gentlemen, + as well as from other information, good-
living and luxury seem to prevail in a high degree in
those distant and little known regions. Since the ces-
sion of that part of Louisiana to Great Britain, many
of the French colonists have removed to the west side
of the Mississippi and become subjects of Spain; but
many are still on this side, about the Illinois, where
several of their towns are of some consequence. They
send their produce down to New Orleans, and fetch
thence what they need; so far, as it appears, they have
lived quite within themselves, and have little concern
for what foreign power has the ruling of them. There
are many Germans among them, and new colonists are
continually coming in, people who do not find the Ohio
country to their taste. The region of the Illinois and
the Mississippi is much warmer, and of milder and
shorter winters, than those parts of the east coast of
North America lying under the same parallels. The
soil is fat and fertile, and a new colonist arriving in the
spring can, with a little scratching and seeding of the
level ground between the trees, be sure of harvest
enough of turnips, maize, and pumpkins, to keep him
VIRGINIA
71
during the first year. Wheat on this very wanton soil
does not do well at first, going too much to straw.
Pumpkins, a sort of gourds, serve as feed for their
cows as well, increasing the milk, and may be kept
until about Christmas.
Several days of bad weather delayed us in the prose-
cution of our journey. With the first glimpse of the
sun, we set out on the road to Williamsburg. The
hills, at the foot of which Richmond stands, seem to
be composed of sand and clay. Along deep roads, or
where streams cross, there were to be seen always the
following strata: sand, sand and clay, pebbles, and
other stones rounded by the water, of divers dimen-
sions and often in thick beds, and under these again
sand and clay. On the surface few stones were any
longer to be observed, and after the first 10 miles or
so those mentioned as buried beneath the surface ap-
peared no more, none to be seen unless on the banks of
brooks where they had been rolled down by the force
of the current. From here on, the country towards
the east, that is, towards the sea, grows continually a
flatter slope, covered merely with sand, and this has
given rise to the legend that in Virginia there are no
stones, true only of the most eastern parts. Those
stones, however, found buried at various depths, and
rounded, are proof that it cannot have been so very
short a time since this part of the world emerged from
the water.
On the James River, 6 miles below Richmond at a
little place called Warwick, there was formerly an
iron-works of some importance, which was destroyed
during the war. Farther down the river are Osborn's
and Bermuda Hundred, pleasant places, but small. A
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TRAVELS IN THE CONFEDERATION
more considerable trading-town is Petersbourgh, on
the south side of the James River and at the falls of the
Appamatox, which a few miles below the town flows.
into the James. Petersbourgh exports a great quantity
of tobacco and other produce, supplied not only by the
Virginia plantations round-about, but brought in even
from North Carolina. This town has a very unhealthy
situation; its inhabitants seldom reach a great age,
and have always to contend with intermittent fevers
and their grievous sequelae; but notwithstanding the
place is larger than Richmond, the number of houses.
being reckoned at 300. New settlers, however, are
continually coming in, tempted by the advantages of
the trade and shipping there, even if they must look
to exchange health for profits. Near to Petersbourgh,
and therefore on the south side of the James River
also, there are two other small towns, namely, Bland-
ford and Pocahunta. + But chiefly along the northern
and southern banks of the splendid James there lie
a great number of the finest and most fertile estates,
the sight of which we missed; for the common land-
road from Richmond to Williamsburg, past Bottom-
bridge, New Kent Court-house, Bird's &c., was mainly
through gloomy forest, only here and there tilled land
or a wretched cabin. And so, whoever will see Vir-
ginia in its greatest pomp must travel by stream.
The weather was propitious. Cool indeed, even
cold, in the morning and evening, but once the sun got
high there was summer, although it was the latter half
of December. But really the weather in Virginia is
quite as changeable as along the rest of the coast of
America. In the summer months, June, July, and
August the Fahrenheit thermometer often stands at
VIRGINIA
73
80-90-95 degrees, and this oppressive heat is accom-
panied by frequent sudden changes almost every day,
and dreadful thunder-storms. The severer winter
cold is commonly from January to the middle of
March, but the cold does not continue equal for long:
for the temperature of the air depending so much on
the winds prevailing, there are very pleasant warm
days in the middle of winter. The frequent and fear-
ful thunder-storms of the warmer season of the year
are regarded by the Virginians and not without
reason, as a contributory cause of the great fertility
of their lands throughout the most of that province.
Commonly heavy falls of rain follow these storms; but
if there is no rain-fall for a long time it appears as if
the low situation of the fore-country and the many
streams and swamps there form substitutes for the
water of the air. By reason of the numerous storms,
which rage especially here and in Carolina, but are
little sparing of the entire coast of North America, and
everywhere work great destruction, the people gen-
erally have spared neither cost nor trouble in protect-
ing their houses by electric conductors, that beneficent
discovery of the great Franklin. One fails to see them
almost nowhere in the great towns or on the larger
houses in the country.
Tobacco being the especial staple of this province, it
is a matter of careful attention on the part of the gov-
ernment; and here, as I observed also of Maryland,
the regulations are excellent for keeping this branch of
trade in esteem, and securing buyers against deception.
The James River tobacco is reckoned the best sort
which Virginia produces, and keeps its price pretty
well unchanged at 6 Span. dollars the hundred. For
6
74
TRAVELS IN THE CONFEDERATION
smoking one finds the coarse leaves of this tobacco
vastly stronger and pleasanter than those of northern
Virginia and Maryland which are milder and lighter
on the tongue. In Maryland the plants are let grow
until they have 8-10-12 or more leaves before they are
'topp'd,' that is, the tops are broken off so as to check
the upward growth; but in this region the rule is to
let the plants come to but 6, or at most 8 leaves, and
it is thought that better tobacco is thus obtained.
Here they raise much 'Sweetscented Tobacco,' which
requires a good, light soil, and from its stronger
quality should make particularly good snuff-tobacco.
'Long-green Tobacco' has great, fat, long leaves, and
does best on a strong soil. 'Kitefoot' is an agreeable,
lighter sort, and thrives on light, sandy soils. 'Va-
rinas' gets its name from Varina, the splendid estate
of a Mr. Randolph on James River. It is said that
the tobacco raised about Little Frederick, and called
'Frederick,' makes exceptionally good canaster. Other
varieties of this plant are the Oronooko Hudson,
Thickjoint, Thickset, Shoestring, and many more,
grown on divers kinds of soil, requiring different
treatment, and only the planters themselves being able
to distinguish between them. +
Cotton, (Gossypium herbaceum), is raised here and
there even in Maryland but is far oftener seen in this
more southern region. As yet none is exported, the
people themselves using all they produce. This is
an annual plant, and requires either good new land or
land well dunged. The seed planted not all coming
up, 6-8 grains, towards the first of May or earlier
(when night-frosts are supposed to be past), are
placed in little hills thrown up 3-4 feet apart. When
VIRGINIA
75
these come up, the weaker plants are pulled out, so as
to give the few remaining more nourishment. After
the plant has reached a height of a foot or a foot and a
half, earth must be newly heaped up about it, and all
foul growth weeded out; and continuing to grow
until there are four or five side-branches, the plants
are broken off at the top, and when these side-branches
have each put out four or five buds, the ends of the
branches themselves are broken off, so as not to let
them grow into long, barren stems; but in this item
there is not everywhere (especially in Carolina) the
same sort of careful attention. Moreover the suckers,
or young side-sprouts, must be nipped off. All this
done, the plants are let bloom, mature, and stand in the
field until there is opportunity to take them in, which
is often not until late in October. The blooms stand
only two days, white on the first, yellow on the second,
and then falling, after which comes a pod-fruit of the
size of a wallnut, and this finally opens. They have
two varieties of this plant, one with a rough, and the
other with a smooth seed, but there is no marked dif-
ference between the plants. Many people select care-
fully the smooth seed, and plant nothing else, the
wool from it admitting of easier separation, by means
of a hand-mill, between two wooden cylinders moving
lightly the one over the other. Ants often damage
the seed in the ground; and to keep them off, the seeds
are mixed with ashes, luke-warm water poured over,
and let stand over-night; in this way the seed swell a
little, and the ants, it said, do not then attack them.
The statement is made that even boiling-hot water
does not greatly injure the sprouting faculty of these
seeds, most of them coming up afterwards. Four
76
TRAVELS IN THE CONFEDERATION
!
pounds of raw seed give about I pound wool. The
wool, with the seed in, was formerly sold here and in
North Carolina at 4-6-8 pence the pound.
Cushaws, a sort of gourds, are raised in Virginia in
greater quantity and more generally than farther to
the north; they have them black, yellow, and white, and
use them for pot-herbs. Perhaps in no other country
are all kinds of gourds and melons so much used as in
America; in the summer and autumn one can not see
without amazement the great quantities of water and
other melons brought to market at New York and
Philadelphia, as well as eaten in the country or let lie
in the fields. The plant recommends itself because,
under the warm sun, it does well without much atten-
tion or care. For whatever needs more than a little
work without producing a great profit is not to the
American taste. And so the pleasure of a fine garden
is as yet scarcely known in Virginia. Perhaps a few
of the most considerable families have made attempts,
but commonly the people are satisfied with planting
cabbage and turnips in an enclosed space, which goes
by the name of a garden, and sticking among them
a few uncomely flowers. The Virginians are so much
the more at fault for neglecting a matter which might
add to the enjoyment of a residence in the country and
embellish their places, because their mild winters and
warm summers must certainly give them many ad-
vantages. In the spring they have pease, beans, and
other vegetables by the end of April, or at least, early
in May, 6 weeks or two months earlier than in New
York. With the passage of time they will indeed learn
to make a better use of the advantages of their country
than is the case among them at present. Bignonias ap-
VIRGINIA
77
pear here as large, strong trees. The Melia Azedarach
(Bead-tree) is frequently planted before the doors of
houses, and this originally East Indian tree stands the
winters right well. In sundry gardens there are tea
shrubs,* which succeed very well, and multiply easily.
Besides the Hibiscus Syriacus, the Babylonian willow,
the box-tree, the myrtle, and one or two other plants,
I was able at this season of the year to recognize noth-
ing by way of foreign growths which it had been at-
tempted to domesticate. And nevertheless in the Vir-
ginia climate many useful and pleasant plants might be
made to do extremely well; the domestic chesnut, the
round-leaved ash, the European wallnut tree, laurel-
cherry tree, the pomegranate, the bay tree, and many
others, would find a congenial home here. Of in-
digenous plants not one was to be seen in bloom; ever-
greens excepted, everything was leafless and hibernate;
and yet we were now below the 37 degree of latitude,
and thus 4 degrees to the south of Rome, round about
which, even at this time of the year, one can pluck
many sorts of flowers.
* Later information gives assurance that in several parts of
the United States the culture of the tea-shrub has been gone
about assiduously and with good hopes of success; chiefly for
the following reasons: China, like the American states, has a
surface extended to the west and northwest; and lies towards
the Southern Ocean precisely as the United States towards
the Atlantic; these two countries are in the same latitude,
and in both (and nowhere else) is the ginseng indigenous, and
this last circumstance especially argues so great a similarity
of soil and climate as to permit the hope that the tea-shrub
will very likely thrive under American skies, at least the ex-
periment should be a tempting one. And it should not be for-
gotten that sugar-cane, the basis of the whole West Indian
trade, was originally also a stranger from the East.
78
TRAVELS IN THE CONFEDERATION
Williamsburg. We arrived there in two days'
journey from Richmond. The distance is 63 miles.
The place lies in a pleasant, open plain, and even from
a distance commends itself to the traveller by a par-
ticularly cheerful and stately appearance, and the im-
pression is confirmed on entering the town. One may
count this among the handsomer towns of America,
even if not among the larger, the number of the houses
being only about 230. Of the honor which it once en-
joyed, of being the capital of Virginia and the seat
of its government, there remains to it now only the title
and the rank of a city. The houses stand at conven-
ient distances apart, have a good exterior, and on
account of the general white paint, a neat look. They
are commonly of but one story above the parterre, and
(except the public buildings) mainly timbered. The
straight, broad, high-street is almost a mile long; sev-
eral off-streets, running to the south and east, are
planned in the form of the letter W. The streets
are not paved, and thus are very tedious to the foot-
passenger during the hot summer, from the burning
sand and dust. All the public buildings are of brick,
and several of them comely. The east end of the high-
street is closed by the Capitol, or State-house, a large,
modern building where formerly the Assembly, the
Senate, the Privy Council, and the General Courts
were housed. It is spacious and well carried out, and
since at the time no better use can be devised for it, a
Latin school is to be there installed. Works of art be-
ing rare phenomena in this young country, I must not
fail to remark that in one of the lower rooms is a fine
statue, of white marble, erected to the memory of a
former Governor, Norborne Berkeley, Baron de Bote-
VIRGINIA
79
tourt. Exactly opposite this Capitol, at the west end
of the high-street, stands the College, in honor of the
royal founders called William & Mary-College. A
building of two storeys, but not so tasteful as the for-
mer. This college owes its origin to the zeal of a Mr.
James Blair, who opened a subscription to that end.
William and Maria endowed it with 2000 Pd. sterling
and 20,000 acres of land, together with the right of
purchasing and possessing lands to the value of 2000
Pd. annual rent, and appropriated for its use besides
the revenue of a tax of 1 penny in the pound on all
tobacco which should be exported from Virginia to
other colonies. Mr. Blair, who had himself given very
considerably to the College, was the first president and
held the office 50 years. He left legacies the design of
which was especially the setting up of an establishment
for the education of young Indians, and the work was
for some time carried on, but was at length given over
as not answering the purpose had in view. Experience
has indeed demonstrated that the Indian youth, on
whose instruction and moral up-bringing time and
pains have been spent, and apparently not without
good promise of shaping them into civilized subjects,
grasp nevertheless every opportunity of escaping from
restraint and oversight, and joyfully return again to
their inborn way of life, wild, rude, and careless, find-
ing in it vastly more attractions than in all the pleas-
ures and conveniences which cities can offer. I myself
knew a certain Montresor, a half-Indian, who had been
brought up in this College, but after he left it preferred
to rove about among the Indians doing nothing, rather
than follow a quiet life; many of this sort could be
named, for the European more easily adapts himself to
80
TRAVELS IN THE CONFEDERATION
the manners of the savages than they do to civilization.
Although this Indian establishment was abandoned as
fruitless, the college proper still goes on, where the
higher sciences are taught, and besides this there is at
the present time no other College in the southern
provinces. At this university there are now 7 Pro-
fessors, one for divinity, one for law, one for medicine,
and the others teach languages, philosophy, and the
mathematics. The Professor of Physic is Dr.
Maclurg, the author of an excellent treatise on the
gall. The number of those studying here is about 50.
Some of them live in commodious rooms in the Col-
lege, the others lodge and board in the town, paying
36-40 Pd. Virginia a year. The total annual expense of
a student can be met for 100 Pd. Virginia (333 Span.
dollars). Doctors in all the faculties are graduated;
but most of the students complete their training at the
English and Scottish universities, preferring to make
the highest degrees there.
Midway of the chief thoroughfare on the south side,
stands a little six-cornered building, surrounded by a
wall, which was formerly an arsenal; and over against
this is the Court-house. Both buildings stand a little
back from the street so as to form a Square, from
which one has a view of the most important buildings
and the finest part of the town. The palace of the one-
time Governors, also on the north side of the principal
street, lies in ruins; this was a large and handsome
building; but through the negligence of the American
troops quartered there after the siege of York was set
a-fire, although there are those who say it was done by
Loyalists. Williamsburg is now a poor place com-
pared with its former splendor. With the removal of
VIRGINIA
81
the government, merchants, advocates, and other con-
siderable residents took their departure as well, and the
town has lost half its population. The trade of this
place was never great, its distance from navigable
waters not being favorable to more active affairs which
thus became established in smaller towns. It lies be-
tween the James and York rivers, 7 miles from the one
and 12 from the other. The inhabitants of this town
and of all lower Virginia desire greatly that the seat.
of government should be brought back thither, and are
doing all they can to bring it about; and chiefly be-
cause they fear that besides the great loss they have
already suffered they may have to pay taxes for erect-
ing at Richmond the new public buildings necesary in
future. The merchants of the country round about
were accustomed formerly to assemble here every year,
to advise about commercial affairs and matters in the
furtherance of trade. + This also has come to an end.
Thus, like so many older ones in Europe, do cities in
this new world lament for the uncertain fate of a past
glory.
In the tavern here there is very good, but very dear
entertainment. Black cooks, butlers, chamber-maids,
made their bows with much dignity and modesty; were
neatly and modishly attired, and still spoke with en-
thusiasm of the politeness and the gallantry of the
French officers.
Provisions are very cheap; butchers' meat 2 pence;
hog meat 3 pence the pound; a turkey-cock 2 and a
half shillings; a turkey-hen 2 shillings; a dozen pullets
6 shillings.
York in Virginia, called also Little York, lay out of
our road indeed, but the excursion was warranted by
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TRAVELS IN THE CONFEDERATION
curiosity, to see this remarkable theatre of a decisive
military event, as well as by the wish to examine the
great shell-banks there, which are an object of cu-
riosity to every stranger. From Williamsburg the
road, 12 miles, lies over sand-flats and through woods
almost the whole way. Two and three-blade pines,
(Pinus foliis geminis, & Pinus foliis ternis. Gron.),
with a few Virginia juniper trees, almost entirely com-
pose the forests of this and the remaining lower coast
country. Leaf-wood is rare; but now and again we
saw a few holly-trees (Agrifolium vulgare Gron.), with
their pomp of red berries, the American thorn, the wax-
shrub, and the sour-berry (Calicarpa americana L.).
Half way on the road we passed a mill, of which the
race had laid bare a great shell-bank. Here lay in con-
fusion millions of muscle and cockle-shells, intermixed
with somewhat of sand and clay. These are not petri-
fied; on the contrary, many of them are in a soft,
weathered condition, many as well preserved as if just
come from the ocean, others broken and crushed.
Some of them, especially the thicker clam-shells, had
been touched by time in a very delicate way, skele-
toned, so to speak; their larger and stronger ribs or
veins, forming a net-work lengthwise and across, were
exposed, the interstitial filling of lime having been con-
sumed; one could thus discern the actual plan and
structure of a muscle-shell, not easily done otherwise.
A number of the muscle-shells lay fast locked, but
filled with shell-sand, or sand and clay, which had
taken on completely the figure of the matrix, and one
had only to let the mass harden to get a most beautiful
replica of the shell. In many cases, this core was al-
ready so much hardened as to admit of handling; and
VIRGINIA
83
with time and favorable circumstances it would en-
tirely harden, losing the matrix, which now and then
is soft enough to come away by rubbing. These shells,
however, are so tightly closed, and their edges entire,
that it is a matter of wonder how even water could
penetrate, not to speak of earthy particles, with which
they are so full-stuffed that it must certainly have re-
quired many years. Here also we came upon nature
at work making similar bawbles, counterfeit clams,
pectinites &c., from hard, red, iron-bearing clay-earth,
of which I had already seen a few at Philadelphia,
that had been found on James River upon sinking a
well. Strange it is that many, indeed most, of the
thick shelled muscles especially, were bored through
at one or another spot with a hole, exactly round,
smooth, and in diameter from 3-4 lines. That this has
not recently happened, is plain to see; but how did it
happen in the ocean whence the shell came? and what
other creature is the borer? I have never observed the
like in the fresh shells, similar in character, of oysters,
cockles, and the clams.
After a close examination it was found that the
muscles and shells accumulated here are of such
species only as are still to be seen almost everywhere
along the eastern coast of North America, even about
New York and Long Island. The following could be
plainly identified among the wrack:
Ostrea; the common American longish oyster.
Ostrea Pectines; Scollops and Cockles; with 18-20
ribs; of these two sorts are clearly distinct; one
with smooth and somewhat rounded veins, the
other with more deeply grooved, rough veins; and
still smaller ones with fewer veins.
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TRAVELS IN THE CONFEDERATION
Venus Mercenaria. (Clams.) Mya arenaria? (Pis-
sers.) Solenes, Anomiae, Mytili, Arcae, Patellae,
Lepas Balanus (Barnacles); Dentalia, smooth and
simplex, and others twisted, Serpulae; cockle-
shells, such as are to be found about Long Island;
remains of madrepores; large bone-fragments,
presumably of whales; with unrecognizable traces
of many other sorts of crustaceans.
This inland shell-bank, as much of it as has been
dug out here, is about 6 feet in depth, and lies beneath
a bed of sand at least 30 ft. deep, of a reddish color,
containing several strata of grey clay, but absolutely no
shells. So if these crustaceans lived at one time on the
strand, as their still extant relations * are accustomed
now to do, there was requisite a long space of time for
the heaping upon them of such a burden of sand; for
this mill stands in a flushed-out bottom much lower
than the general surface of this part of the continent,
which I have elsewhere described in its bearing and
connexion.†
*There is much similarity, it appears, between these Ameri-
can shell-banks and the shell-hills of Bohus, which Linnaeus
in his Westgothische Reise describes as miracles of that prov-
ince. These are on the main-land, in many places scarcely
more than 1/4 of a Swedish mile from the sea, but the accumu-
lations are found directly beneath the shallow black earth;
the shells (as is often the case here) are perfectly preserved,
clean and white, and consist, as these, of varieties still to be
seen on the coasts of Sweden, Norway, England, and France.
In Sweden these buried shells are used for lime-burning and
plaistering, and also for bettering the roads, which in this way
are made pretty firm.-These shells might be made use of for
this purpose in America as well.
† Vid., Beyträge zur mineralogischen Kenntniss des öst-
lichen Theils von Amerika. §. 8.
VIRGINIA
85
Similar phenomena are to be remarked also on the
high banks and in the sundry deep ravines of the
York river, the Indian name for which is the Pa-
munka. Here the walls perpendicularly cut, from the
river 30-40 ft. high, are more than half made up of
broken, crushed shells mixed with sand and clay; in
which however there are distinct horizontal layers, at
times of a redder color, at times yellower, and showing
most plainly at the foot of the banks. Of these layers
some are rather hard, and may be broken off as stones;
and it is not the lowermost, weighted down by the rest,
that are the hardest, but rather those in the middle,
lying above material looser and softer, and thus the
greater compactness must be due to the presence of.
other constituents.
The little place, Yorktown, of which the name has
been immortalized by the remarkable siege, lies in part
close by the river, or between the river and the deep
shell-banks I spoke of, but mostly (and the better
part) on the high river-bank itself. There is a pleas-
ant prospect over the river to Gloucester, and of a con-
siderable part of Chesapeak Bay. The inhabitants.
had not yet recovered from the disquiets of the war,
and many had not returned to their homes. Traces of
the devastation were still everywhere visible, and sev-
eral families were living at the time in the ruins of
buildings that had been shot to pieces. The ships sunk
in the river for the protection of the garrison were
still in their places, and it is thought not worth while
to be at the trouble of raising them, for there is every
reason to believe that after two years they will be
found so eaten by the worms, (which do much damage
in these waters), as to be no longer usable.
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TRAVELS IN THE CONFEDERATION
We returned the same day to Williamsburg, and on
the following morning took up our journey towards
the South. On the road to the James River, a mile
from Williamsburg, another shell-bank had been laid
bare at a mill site, beneath a covering of red sand and
clay 40-50 ft. deep. From the appearances here and
concordant phenomena observed later elsewhere, it is
plain enough that all these shell-banks lie at a fixed
depth beneath the upper stratum of sand and clay,
along the whole flat coast, but are exposed only at such
places where brooks and rivers, on their way to the sea,
have cut sufficiently deep into the great slope; which,
(were it not for these cuts effected by the water),
would appear as a continuous, uniform, and gently
declivitous plain.
Seven miles from Williamsburg we came to the
James River, leaving the high sand-flats as much as
half a mile from the river, and getting into deep, level,
low-grounds. The wind was high, and there was a
hesitation about setting us over the river, three miles
wide, which having no high banks or hills to break the
force of the wind is so much the more disturbed by
every puff, particularly when the current is met by the
in-coming tide. Hoping to see the wind laid, we re-
mained some time on the bank, for neither at the ferry
nor between it and the town is there any retreat to be
had at such a juncture, and the owner of the ferry is
quite unconcerned if, with untoward wind and
weather, the traveller finds shelter or not. We rode to
some houses in the neighborhood, to avoid returning to
the town and in order to be near by, should the wind
come better; but we were nowhere taken in, and were
not tempted to praise overmuch the far-sounded Vir-
VIRGINIA
87
ginia hospitality. They all said the trouble was Lord
Cornwallis; here he had burned the stable, there he
had pulled down the house, and again, stolen the beds.
And so, reluctantly and after much waiting and fruit-
less attempts, we had to go back to Williamsburg, and
on the next morning make our way to the ferry again.
The second time we came with the rising of the sun,
when the wind is generally calm; but Lord Cornwallis
served again as excuse for a long delay; he had ruined
the wharf and the tide was not yet high enough on the
flat shore to float off a boat laden with men and horses.
Not far below the ferry lies James Island, which at
one time was only a peninsula, but during a severe
storm with high water the river broke through the nar-
row tongue of land. There stands
Jamestown, or rather merely the rubbish of a town
so called; for notwithstanding it is described here and
there in the newer geographies as a place of 80-100
houses, one or two, and they ruinous, is all that the
town contains at present. This was the oldest town in
Virginia and the first seat of government. The famous
Captain John Smith established it in the year 1606,
choosing a spot where an Indian village had stood and
the ground thus somewhat made ready. This Indian
village was called Paspahoc, just as the James River
was formerly the Powhatan. Here was the first church
in North America built, of which as little trace re-
mains as of the general glory of the town, but it is
called a city none the less, forms a county of itself, and
under its ancient privilege returns a member to the
Assembly, the sole indweller of the town, + (who owns
besides the greatest part of the lands adjacent), self-
electing and self-elected.
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TRAVELS IN THE CONFEDERATION
On the south side of the river the banks rise not until
some distance from the present channel, and it could
easily be made out what had been the several limits of
the river-bed, originally very wide; indeed, this grada-
tion of channel may be observed in most of the rivers
of this region. On ascending the rise towards the up-
per sand-flats, a shell-bank was remarked, beneath a
covering of sandy clay and sand. The clay-bed was
distinct, in color and horizontal direction.
The land lying next the rivers and creeks is the dear-
est, and fetches 4-5-6 pounds the acre Virginia Cur-
rent;* not only because the soil is richest there and
most productive, and the situation more advantageous
for trade, but because those who are careless husband-
men may find an easy support by the profitable taking
of fish, oysters, and crabs. The land lying at a dis-
tance from the streams, higher, dryer, sandy, and
worse, descends in value to as little as 10 and 5 shill-
ings. The high, sandy land is, to be sure, not the most
fertile, but very little trouble is taken to give it any
improvement, even were there enough working hands;
for the American expects everything of Nature and
cares not to forestall her. I was told of a man who has
an extensive property on this side the river, and many
hundreds of negroes, who nevertheless find it difficult
to raise enough for themselves and their master. The
*The value of land in this region is comparatively not so
high as in the mountain districts. In the counties of Fred-
erick, Berkley, Shanandoah, Augusta &c., even 12 years ago,
an acre of the best land could be bought for 2-3 pounds, but
now for not less than 6-8-10 pounds. That region has been
long settled and is more thickly populated than the fore-
country.
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89
land, indeed, is sandy and thin; the negroes lazy and
thievish, the head of the family careless and easy; and
no thought is given to means of betterment and a saga-
cious use of many natural advantages, whether be-
cause not the custom or in appearance somewhat
tedious.
In these lower parts of Virginia little or no hay is
made; the dry sandy soil does not bring it willingly,
and they do not understand how to make use of their
marshes. Their horses, and such cows as are kept
about the house for milking, are fed on corn-fodder, as
long as the store lasts; and afterwards must shift for
themselves. Wheat, pease, and other straw is cast out
as useless; during the war, when Pensylvania and
Maryland teamsters came by with the army, the people
of this region made the important and new dicovery
that horses eat small-cut straw, and I was asked in all
seriousness whether our German horses condescend to
this sort of feed. Swine and cattle multiply prodig-
iously, but there is so little attention given to their
keep that besides what is fattened and salted for family
use or for sale, many head of cattle perish for lack of
suitable feed, given over to their fate in the woods and
swamps, where often there is abundant nourishment to
be had, (and quite as often very meagre), but the main.
dependence must be reeds and sedge throughout the
winter. The whole compass of the Virginian hus-
bandry consists in, first, raising a good supply of maize
for the planter's family, his negroes, and his cattle;
then, tobacco and a little wheat for keeping up appear-
ances; and, for the rest of the year, doing nothing
at all. If the corn crop fails, those who own many
negroes suffer great loss, or it may be, are in want
7
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TRAVELS IN THE CONFEDERATION
in the spring of the year, having spent their sub-
stance for drink while the winter was on. Should the
price of tobacco rise, everything else rises as well, corn,
hogs, &c., desire of gain tempting the planter to use
most of his land and labor for tobacco, neglecting the
necessaries.
Five miles from James River we passed Surry
Court-House, whither a great crowd of people was
hastening, (all of them mounted), because it was
court-day. Not far off, at a mill, there lay exposed
another shell-bank, beneath a deep bed of reddish sand,
in which the clay stratum was horizontal. To Nelson's
Ordinary (11 miles), and beyond (10 miles) to Smith-
field, or Isle of Wight Court-house, the road lies.
through a tract of pine-woods; plantations of good ap-
pearance were to be seen here and there, but very few;
however, we saw more churches on this road from
Williamsburg to Smithfield than in any other day's
journey in America, five, that is to say, including the
two at those places; the other three stood alone in the
forest.
Smithfield is a small place on the high bank of the
Pequia creek, which runs a devious course through
these flat regions to James River. Here at one time.
stood an Indian village, Capahowosick, which, together
with the lands adjacent, was presented by Powhattan,
a great Sachem of the Virginia Indians, to the fore-
mentioned Captain Smith, by reason of the tender love
cherished by Powhattan's daughter, the beautiful
Pokahunta, for that Englishman. From this Poka-
hunta descend two esteemed Virginia families, the
Randolphs and Bollings, who still possess considerable
estates on the Appamatox inherited from her, where
VIRGINIA
91
་
also a little town by the name of Pokahunta perpetuates
the memory of the princess. The coast is nearer here,
and one has passed the tobacco-country proper, the
plant not thriving on the poorer, sandy soils of the
region, but tobacco is brought hither from more dis-
tant parts; on the other hand, the extensive pine-
forests supply a different sort of produce, namely, tar,
pitch, and turpentine, which with salted hog-meat are
the most important articles for export of this place. A
barrel of tar, 31½ gallons, costs at this time 8-9 Virg.
shillings; a barrel of turpentine 18 shillings, and a
barrel of salted hog-meat, 220 pounds, 50 shillings.
At Smithfield we passed the evening in the agreeable
society of some gentlemen of the neighborhood. The
talk most of the time was of the great advantages
which the Virginia state has over all other states in all
the world, and the nation of Virginia over all other
nations. It was insisted that the noble Virginians
are the most polished nation' on God's earth, the
gentlemen of France perhaps alone excepted. Suffi-
cient proof was lacking for there was no one to contra-
dict or interrupt the series of conclusions by which the
affirmation was as naturally supported as that made by
the little Frenchman: that he was the handsomest man
under the moon. From the undeniable argument, that
in fertility, size, navigable streams &c. Virginia is
superior to the other American states, a number of
propositions followed to substantiate the claim that
in every respect Virginia is in advance of all other
states, all other parts of the world. Who in America
would dare count himself the equal of the noble Vir-
ginian? The poor New Englander who gains his
bread in the sweat of his brow? or the Pensylvanian,
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TRAVELS IN THE CONFEDERATION
who drudges like a negro and takes butter and cheese
to market? or the North Carolina pitch-boiler? or the
South Carolinian with his everlasting rice? Above all
these stands the Gentleman of Virginia, for he alone
has the finest horses, the finest dogs, the most negroes,
the most land, speaks the best English, makes the most
elegant bow, has the easy grace of a man of the world,
and is a baron on his estates, which yield him every-
thing and could yield still more! What country, what
nation in Europe can boast of such advantages as those
of Virginia?-Spain, perhaps, superstitious and slav-
ish? or tyrannical Great Britain? or groaning Italy,
under yoke and ban? or the soul-selling Germany? The
remaining barbaric northern nations, with their frigid
lands, (as little known as these) were all passed in re-
view and reckoned out of the account. In evidence of
an inborn higher morality it was brought out that dur-
ing the last, seven years' war, when neither civil nor
religious laws were adequately effective, no Virginian
had been guilty of murder; * for the shooting done by
their army in the high grass or creeping about in the
bush on their stomachs so as to surprise and kill British
soldiers, alone, unarmed and off their guard, this they
do not call murder. The great-mindedness of the Vir-
ginians was mentioned, but they did not speak of the
*The New Englanders, as also the Pensylvania Germans,
boast in a somewhat similar way, the former that in a space of
21 years, and the latter, that for 17 years, no one among them
has been guilty of death-penalty or has suffered it. This is
regarded as proof of the better and more careful upbringing
of the young which the Presbyterian New Englanders and the
German Lutherans give their children on religious principles,
and is ascribed also to their custom of putting children earlier
to work. But it may well be said of all America that the
VIRGINIA
93
cases, not rare, of mulattoes out of negresses by gen-
tlemen, who then sell their own children to others as
slaves. The hospitality of Virginia was boasted of,
but it was admitted that for fear of the small-pox, or
on the ground of other suspicions, their doors were
oftentimes closed on strangers; and indeed their much-
praised hospitality is by no means unrestricted, but is
confined to acquaintances and those who are recom-
mended. It seemed to be a contradiction when Mr.
Whitefield, our host, (still defending the hospitality of
his countrymen generally), confessed that travellers
often had to go 20 miles and more to reach his house,
after having knocked in vain at other doors. But it
appeared still more contradictory when this self-ex-
alting company began to describe the rude American
Indians, giving as the plainest proof of their barbarick
ideas that the proud Indians, belittling all other na-
tions, compared the whites, with no exception of the
noble Virginians, to white dogs' dung.
I have by no means put down all, and have added no
word to what was really brought forward in this even-
ing's conversation; but more would hardly have been
needed to confirm the observation which has generally
been made regarding the character of the Virginians.
"The Virginians are a cheerful, hospitable, and on the
death-penalty is very rare, the cause of which is not only the
better rearing, which one part of the country boasts of in
contrast to another, but is to be found as well in the milder
administration of justice, and particularly in the ease with
which every man may earn an honorable living by agriculture,
peaceably supporting himself and his family.-On Nantucket,
since the building of the town, that is, for more than a hun-
dred years, no one of the inhabitants has forfeited his life to
the law.
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TRAVELS IN THE CONFEDERATION
""
"whole a mannerly people; some of them have been
"taken to task for overmuch vanity and rodomontade,
"and this reproach is not altogether without reason,'
says Guthrie +—and the same is to be found in Burnaby
and other travellers, who all make use of the epithets,
'careless,' 'loitering about,' sociable,' 'caroussing,'
'proud,'' jealous,' 'boasting,' 'haughty,' &c., when
speaking of them. True it is, the gentlemen of prop-
erty (and they are many) live on their estates careless
and independent, if only they have paid their taxes and
can balance outgo and income. If no impulse to politi-
cal affairs rouses them from their inactivity, they spend
their days in idleness or in such pleasures as a country-
life affords. For if they do perhaps comfortably over-
see the sluggish work of their slaves, that cannot be
called work or effort. They pass the greatest part
of the summer on soft pallets, ✈ attended by one or
several negroes to ward off the flies, light pipes, and
proffer punch, sangry, toddy, or julap. But one should
not blame them hastily but consider, that the majority
of men everywhere, were there not other conditions.
and stimuli to prevent, would allow themselves the
same indulgences, if tempted by a climate inviting to
ease and offering an abundant support. Self-content,
the Virginian avoids all efforts of mind and body in-
volving anything beyond his pleasure. He reads, but
he does not study so as to make a display of learning,
possessing which, no title, rank, or lucrative office
would compensate him for his midnight toils. A resi-
dence at lonesome country-seats is favorable to the
muses, if these do indeed withdraw from the uproar of
cities and distracting surroundings, if they luxuriate,
philosophically calm, in the treasures of knowledge
VIRGINIA
95
elsewhere assembled, and so bring about production.
Such a life is unfavorable for kindling in young minds
a love for science, enthusiasm, and the spirit of emula-
tion. Thus the young people of Virginia follow after
their fathers, relations, and neighbors, and grow up
without much literary instruction, which they either
have small occasion for or hold to be superfluous. A
Virginia youth of 15 years is already such a man as
he will be at twice that age. At 15, his father gives
him a horse and a negro, with which he riots about the
country, attends every fox-hunt, horse-race, and cock-
fight, and does nothing else whatever; a wife is his
next and only care. A gentleman of Petersburg told
me that he would be sending his son to Edinburgh to
make a doctor of him, since he now doubted whether
he would ever marry and take over a plantation, his
age being already 21 years. However, one would be
very unreasonable if unwilling to admit that the Vir-
ginians on all occasions show clear and penetrating
powers of mind; only it is a pity that a taste for the
sciences is not yet so general among them as among
their neighbors farther north. Also it must be granted
that the Virginians have a rather superior look; they
are for the most part well-built, slender, and of an active
figure, their faces well-modelled, and one seldom sees.
among them crippled or deformed people, those ex-
cepted who have been maimed in the war or by acci-
dent. +
Rainy weather prevented our leaving Smithfield the
next forenoon; but we were unwilling to tarry longer
here, although we could scarcely reach the nearest
tavern, 20 miles off, without running the risk as night
fell, of going astray in the eternal woods. We were
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TRAVELS IN THE CONFEDERATION
told of a 'mighty hospitable man' living on the road;
and yesterday's praise of Virginia hospitality still re-
sounding in our ears, we were willing to try our for-
tune, rode 12 long miles through sand, marsh, and
forest to an arm of Nansemond Creek, and asked
politely for a night's lodging at the house recom-
mended. It was dark, a dismal, cheerless Christmas
Eve. After repeated inquiries as to where we had
come from, who had sent us, &c.; after as many re-
minders that this was no public house, but travellers
(who withstood repulse) were taken in gratis; and
after prolonged counsel between man and wife, we
were at last received, with an ill grace. The next
morning we took leave early and expeditiously. Not
far from the house we passed Everit's Bridge, named
for our host, who had built it by authority from the
Assembly so as to bring the road, which lay in a dif-
ferent direction, before his house and store. Although
he expected and got advantage from this change in the
road, he considered it no business of his to look after
the comfort of travellers.
Suffolk, on another small branch of Nansemond
Creek, was the next little town, 20 miles from Smithfield
and somewhat larger than that place. The town for-
merly drove a good trade in pitch, tar, timber, and
other products of this part of Virginia and the neigh-
boring North Carolina, of which the boundary line is
only 22 miles from here. Of the 100 low frame houses
the place had, but few are now standing; the others
were burned in May 1779 by a party of British troops
which made an expedition from New York to Virginia,
and finding no opposition, returned with a rich booty
in tobacco &c. The fine and deep sand in the streets is
VIRGINIA
97
very incommodious to foot-passengers; stones are not
to be had, for paving; and in order to get a little firm
ground before the houses they mix with the sand a
sufficient quantity of pitch and tar, and let it harden.
The Nansemond is navigable for small vessels as far
as this; a dilapidated wooden bridge and shallow water
prevent them going higher; a mile above it is possible
to wade the stream, which with its other branch falls
into James River about Hampton Road. Most of the
articles for export of these parts, tar, turpentine, pitch,
lumber, salted meat &c. go to the West Indies, whence
the shopkeepers and merchants here draw sugar, rum,
coffee &c, turning these over very profitably in ex-
change for the foresaid articles of produce. This
West Indian trade is carried on in small vessels,
shalops of 20-30-50 tons, and consequently no great
capital is necessary, the way being short, the fitting-out
not expensive, and commonly no more than 2 or 3
negroes, with one white man, being aboard. Salt, in
these times of slaughter, is indispensable and forms a
considerable article of trade, used in the preparation
of a domestic store of meat for winter, and in making
ready that intended for export. When the ships that
bring it from Toriola, Turk's Island, and other of the
West Indies, are past due, the price rises 3 and 4-fold,
to the great advantage of those shopkeepers who have
a supply. During the war, when shipping was so un-
certain, and great inconvenience was felt for lack of
salt, the attempt was made to prepare it on the sea-
coast, but the experiments in ponding the sea-water
and letting it crystallize did not turn out well on this
coast below the 36 and 37 degree of latitude, although
in Europe there are good results under the 46 and 47th
DorM
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TRAVELS IN THE CONFEDERATION
parallel. If the weather was not very unfavorable, or
the management very unskilful, no other cause for the
ill success of these attempts can be given, except the
many large streams which make the water of the
ocean less salty along the coast.
From York in Virginia to this place, and still far-
ther, it was to be clearly remarked that the southern
banks of all rivers and creeks passed by us were higher,
or rather steeper and rougher, than the opposite north-
ern banks, which are invariably of longer slopes and
more washed; for it cannot be said that the sand-flats
generally through which these streams flow are dis-
proportioned. May this be the effect of the storms,
coming more frequently from the North, North-east,
or North-west, and making a greater impression on
the side from whence they come? This is chiefly
observable where the creeks make a considerable bend.
Thirty miles from Suffolk, on the Elizabeth River
and near to its outlet in Chesapeak Bay, there stand on
either side the stream the towns Portsmouth and
Norfolk. The latter was at one time not only a very
handsome, but a very populous place, to which much
business was brought owing to its advantageous situa-
tion at the mouth of the Bay;* but the whole place,
soon after the beginning of the disturbance, was laid
* It is remarkable that the tide rises scarcely 2 feet at the
mouth of the Chesapeak, whereas at the mouth of the Dela-
ware it rises nearly 7 feet. If it is remembered that a similar
mass of water is driven against both, there is then less resist-
ance in Chesapeak Bay and more space for distribution than
at the mouth of the Delaware river, where damming must
take place. Thus there is a higher flood-tide at the mouth of
the Potowmack than at the mouth of the Chesapeak.
VIRGINIA
99
in ashes. Portsmouth suffered the same fate, in part.
But both places have hopes of coming up; it will be
some time, however, before Norfolk gathers again the
6000 inhabitants it is said to have had, including the
blacks, trade having meantime been diverted to other
channels. These towns lay out of our road, and I
mentioned them because of their neighborhood, they
having besides become well known from the history
of the war.
A famous region, by which the road from Suffolk to
Cunningham's passes, is the Dismal Swamp, also
called the Great Dismal Swamp to distinguish it from
the Alligator Dismal Swamp which lies not far away
in North Carolina, between the Albemarle and the
Pemtikoe Sound. This swamp is between Norfolk
and Suffolk, Edenton (which is 60 miles from Suf-
folk), and the sea-coast, and is a thick, boggy, im-
penetrable wilderness, in length 40-50 miles from north
to south, and 20-25 miles wide. In it are found most
of the North American beasts of prey and other wild
animals, bears, wolves, the tiger of these parts (Felis
concolor Schreb.), the lynx, opossums, raccoons, foxes,
squirrels, and who knows what besides-for few peo-
ple venture in, and fewer still know anything of what
is there except by hearsay. Serpents are rare in this
and other marshy regions. While the British gar-
risons were yet at Norfolk and Portsmouth, the Amer-
icans cut a foot-path through a part of this swamp, to
make a more secluded road for spies; that is to say,
trees were felled one before the other, over which the
passenger must spring and climb; whoever slipped his
footing, sank up to the neck in water and deep, fat
mire. However, small spots are to be found here and
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TRAVELS IN THE CONFEDERATION
there which are always dry, and these have often been
used as places of safety by runaway slaves, who have
lived many years in the swamp, despite all the snares
set for them by their masters, even if planters living
near-by, for they are chary of going in. So these
negro fugitives lived in security and plenty, building
themselves cabins, planting corn, raising hogs and fowls
which they stole from their neighbors, and naturally
the hunting was free where they were. In the midst
of this wilderness there is a great pond of fresh water,
said to be several miles in circumference and 2-3
fathoms deep. A company which under the name of
the Swamp Company owns the greatest part of the
lands adjoining the swamp and most of the swamp it-
self, had begun to make the bog tillable, chiefly for
rice-culture for which the region is especially well
suited. The war breaking out their enterprise came to
a stand (most of the negroes set at work there running
off or getting lost in some way), but the work would
have had very beneficial effects, removing in part the
dreadful cause of great sickness in the country round
about, and besides the very profitable culture of rice
would have opened a new branch of trade. + Great
numbers of cattle are raised in the surrounding
country, and the meat of the region is said to be
better than elsewhere, the cattle not pasturing on
dry sandy soil but feeding on sedge and reeds. Along
the side of the swamp where we passed, nothing in
comparison with the interior, our way was not smooth,
the roads full of mire and water through which our
horses pushed not without difficulty.
To the account of this and other swamps must with-
out doubt be laid the numerous fevers which weaken
VIRGINIA
101
the inhabitants of the country adjacent and give them
their cheerless, pale faces. Not long ago, according
to what the people said, a nervous fever had caused a
terrible devastation among the blacks and the other
inhabitants as well. The disease began with an ex-
traordinary weakness, accompanied by pains in the
head and back, and was often fatal within the first
12-24 hours. Those people who live on dry sandy
soils, at a distance from streams and swamps, are com-
monly more healthy, but even they are subject to au-
tumn sicknesses which are general almost throughout
the coast country. For the rest, the Virginians live
pretty regularly, take much exercise by riding, are
temperate in eating, and even in drink are not univer-
sally excessive. Their domestic drinks are a sour,
half-flat, cloudy cyder, persimon beer, apple and peach
whiskey; in lower Virginia as yet few or no attempts
have been made to brew beer in the regular way.
+
North Carolina.
A straight line, under 37° 37' north latitude, from the
Atlantic Ocean to the Mississippi, or from the 76th to
the 90th degree of west longitude, divides Virginia
from North Carolina. This boundary line has only
very recently been surveyed and fixed for the region to
the west. The length of the state of North Carolina
from east to west amounts thus to 720 miles; its
breadth, on the other hand, from the Virginia to the
South Carolina line, or from the above mentioned north
latitude to about 35° north latitude, reaches only some
IIO miles. But the boundary between North and
South Carolina, particularly its western part, has not
yet been settled, and is a matter of more or less dis-
pute.
At a recent adjustment of the boundary line between
Virginia and North Carolina, it was found that
the line struck immediately behind the house of a
man living on this road, dividing his lands so that
half lay in one state and half in the other. His
dwelling-house stood on the Virginia side; and it oc-
curred to him to build a new kitchen on the North
Carolina side, so placed that the roof-tree should lie
along the boundary. He desired to have the pleasure
of being able to say that he ate his meals every day in
Virginia which had been prepared for him in North
Carolina.
To the view, the landscape is quite the same, all
sand-flats and pine-forest as before; however, a few
NORTH CAROLINA
103
more oaks are all at once observable. The country
travelled through from Virginia, as well as that trav-
ersed before and what follows, must be imagined as a
continuous, measureless forest, an ocean of trees, in
which only here and there cultivated spots, what are
called plantations, of more or less extent are to be
seen. In the midst of the fields stands commonly a
house, better or worse; the kitchen and other mean
out-buildings are at a distance. In Virginia, on the
tobacco-plantations, the shelters for hanging and dry-
ing the tobacco stand somewhat farther off from the
house, as in South Carolina those used in the prepara-
tion of indigo. Neither plant being raised as yet in
this part of North Carolina, one misses these sub-
sidiary buildings, and there is nothing to see but a
few cabins for negroes and store-houses, which in
outward appearance are seldom much inferior to the
dwelling-house of the master. One comes upon such
plantations scattered about in these woods at various
distances, 3-6 miles, and often as much as 10-15-20
miles apart.
But it is the forests which supply the present in-
habitants of North Carolina not merely an occupation
and a support, but the means as well of an easier life
and often considerable estates. For the products of
these pine-woods as such, the convenience and small
expence of keeping numerous cattle in them, and the
pretty abundant stock of game even now, these have
for long formed the most important items in the ex-
port trade of the province, carried on chiefly with the
West Indies, where there is a near and ready market.
Through such a lonesome country, then, had we to
go from Suffolk to Edenton, 68 miles, or from the
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TRAVELS IN THE CONFEDERATION
boundary line 44. The tedium of the monotonous
woods and the dead winter-season was broken but sel-
dom by new objects, by no means peculiar to this
province, (since most of its natural productions are
common either to Virginia or South Carolina), but
offering for observation somewhat more frequently.
The Buzzard (Vultur Aura L.)* is, in the southern
provinces of America, a very common bird. It is the
size of a wild turkey, to which at a distance it is not
dissimilar in figure and color, so that new-comers have
often taken the one for the other. The color of the
body is a blackish brown; the bare and wrinkled fore-
head, and the nib, as far as the point, are red. The
eyes large, active, and brownish; before each eye is a
large, white callosity set with short bristles. The long-
cut nostrils stand wide open on both sides, and are not
divided; the pituitous skin of the nose is reddish, very
much folded, thick, and soft. From this distinct struc-
ture of the organ of smell, the assertion that the buz-
zard can scent carrion many miles, although not
proved is made likely enough. The tongue is fur-
rowed; its edge and the palate indented backwards.
Legs, feet, and talons are not so strong and muscular
as with others of the genus which take their prey alive.
The buzzard has no need of strength, nature having
assigned it dead bodies only, and it never or very rarely
ventures against living animals. It is content with
filth and carrion, the smell of which would otherwise,
in so warm a climate, be injurious. For this reason
the bird is nowhere molested, and is suffered to go un-
harmed even in populous towns; it is forbidden by law
* Buteo specie gallopavonis. Catesby, Carol. I. tab. 6.
NORTH CAROLINA
105
to kill it, and hence the buzzard is not coy. But if
wounded or deprived of its liberty, it manifests fear
and does not resist if handled; however, there is no
temptation to come near, since its atmosphere has an
odor of carrion, and its mouth is always full of regur-
gitated filth, which it seems to bring up out of fear
or distress. It is said they leave untouched the dead
bodies of men. They breed in holes in the rocks and
in hollow trees. In the woods they roost on the
branches of trees, and often one sees them together in
great numbers. The breadth of a pinion is commonly
from 5 and a half to 6 feet. We observed these birds
first along the James River; it does not appear that
they are found much farther north, but towards the
south they grow everywhere more numerous and are
met with in flocks.
Of passage-birds which at the onset of winter desert
the northern and middle provinces, some tarry in this
rather more temperate country; others continue far-
ther towards the south. Even wild ducks winter here,
and most of the water-fowls which in the spring and
summer are to be found on the northern lakes and
rivers. A sort of swan was mentioned, similar to the
European and said to frequent these rivers; none was
seen by me. Wild turkeys are not only numerous
here, but of a good weight.
The European bee, in most of the forests of
America but especially in the southern, has become
almost native. The bee was formerly not known to
the Americans who call it the European fly. It has
rapidly increased, what with the many hollow trees,
and the favorable climate furnishing rich pasture.
But little honey is gathered; the bears nose it out with
8
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TRAVELS IN THE CONFEDERATION
their fine sense of smell, clambering up such trees for
the store-if hunters wandering about the woods re-
mark this, they commonly take the skin of the bear and
the honey discovered by him.
People working in these forests during the summer
find the wood-louse (Ticks, Seed-ticks, Acarus ameri-
canus L.) a great plague, at many times and places
very numerous. Their bite causes great pain and
wicked boils; with their proboscis they bore deep into
the skin, and when they have become fast lodged,
must be quite probed out, if possible. During my
time in the northern provinces, little was heard of this
pest, but according to Kalm it was abundantly felt
there in the years 1748, 1749, and 1750, more so in-
deed than ever before.
James River passed, the parasitical plant commonly
called moss grew more and more frequent, and often
the largest trees were almost covered with it. This
strange plant at first sight appears very similar to
hanging garlands; it consists of thin, soft, woolly-
white, branching threads, which pend one to two or
more feet from the trunks and branches of trees. It
is the Tillandsia usneoides L. It is seen vastly oftener
on oaks and other deciduous trees than on pines; and
oftener and more luxuriant on dead trees than on
living. Whether the plant prefers dead trees, thriv-
ing better there, or whether its encroaching growth
kills the tree, I will not decide. If the outer, woolly
covering is stripped off, (more easily done with the
dry plant), black, pliant, strong threads are obtained,
which make good material for mattrasses, cushions.
&c, and the entire plant is very serviceable for pack-
ing breakable wares. The fresh plant has an insipid,
NORTH CAROLINA
107
rather sourish taste. Horses do not eat it willingly;
horned cattle tolerate it in winter, from hunger and lack
of something better; and in order to supply the cattle
keeping in the woods with this nourishment, the peo-
ple fell here and there such trees as are most abun-
dantly laden.
In the swamps, on the banks of the rivers, and in
other low spots that are overflowed, there flourish
everywhere an exceeding great quantity of canes or
reeds. The younger leaves and tender shoots of these
supply the cattle let run in the woods with the chief
part of their winter food. Thus the raising of cattle
is made extraordinarily easy to the planter, who has
little to spend on their keep until they are ready for
fattening. These canes are hardly found north of the
James and York rivers, but to the west, even beyond
the mountains, they are everywhere plentiful in such
places. They shoot up in close thickets, the canes
sending up sprigs or joints 8-10 inches long, and
measuring 1-2 inches through near the ground. Gen-
erally they are from 3 to 12 feet high, but now and
then much higher. I have seen no blooms, and there-
fore do not venture to say to what species * they be-
long.
Most of the North American indigenous wild ani-
mals are still to be found in these extensive and thinly
settled woods of the fore-country of North Carolina.
Wolves, bears, wild cats, the brown tyger or cuguar,
as well as the bison and the original, are often met
with in North and South Carolina even far to the east
of the mountains, whither they have been frightened.
* Probably Zizania aquatica L.
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TRAVELS IN THE CONFEDERATION
from the northern provinces by the greater number of
the inhabitants there. The Virginia deer, commonly
called the deer, (Cervus virginianus), of which I have
already made mention repeatedly, still ranges in these
parts in large herds. Now and again we saw many of
them pasturing together quite unconcerned. Their
size is a little less than that of our fallow deer. In
color they are throughout pale yellow or a very light
brown; but in very young animals the fallow verges
sharply into grey, flecked with white. But they are
taller and longer legged than the fallow deer, and
spring with backs bent. The horns are round at the
insertion, and only towards the ends a little flattened
or not at all; bent outward towards the forehead and
set with divers extremities. The export of their
skins is a considerable item yearly in this province.
A proof of the number of these animals is that one
man on the New river has been able to shoot 175 head
since the spring of this year, and simply for their pelts.
If one cannot or will not shoot for himself, the game
may be bought commonly for one or at most two Span-
ish dollars the head, which always gives more than a
hundredweight of venison.
With the most careless handling domestic cattle
have increased with the greatest rapidity. It is noth-
ing uncommon for one man to own 100 or more head
of horned cattle; some count their herds by the thou-
sand, all running loose in the woods and swamps. By
penning up the calves, and throwing out a little corn
every day to the dams, the milch cows have been ac-
customed to come up to the dwelling-house from time.
to time to be milked. For each farm, the black cattle,
sheep, and hogs are distinguished by special ear-
NORTH CAROLINA
109
1
marks; horses are branded. Each planter's own pecu-
liar mark is registered by law, and is thus a legitimate
proof of ownership, and extinguishment or falsification
of these marks is treated as felony. There is little
beef salted for export; what is salted is said not to
keep well, and to grow hard and lank. In general,
the beef is of no especial goodness in any of the
provinces south of Pensylvania and Maryland; the
cattle themselves small and thin. But live cattle are
exported to the West Indies from the coast country,
and large herds are driven up from the farther regions
to Pensylvania, and there fed for the Philadelphia
market. Out of the woods and thin as they are, one
head with another is sold to the cattle-handlers at 3
to 6 Spanish dollars; and to the owner, who has been
at so little trouble and expence, this is almost clear
gain. Their hogs likewise range throughout the year
in the woods. + Towards the coast in the pine forests,
the cones of the pitch-pine, larger than those of the
other sorts, are their favorite food; also they root up
the young sprouts of these pines and eat off the bark,
for which reason the pitch-pine does not spring up so
readily where it has once been taken off. Farther up
the country the hogs find better mast beneath the
numerous oaks, chesnuts, beech-trees, and chinqua-
pins. In winter the sows make themselves beds of
pine-twigs where they litter; the owner seeks them
out, brings them in nearer the house, gives them a
better bed of straw, and marks the pigs. Later, to
accustom them to the plantation, they are called up
several times a day and fed on corn-stalks. In the
autumn, after the maize-harvest, a number of hogs are
brought in from the woods and placed on feed. A
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TRAVELS IN THE CONFEDERATION
bushel of corn a week is allowed each head, for 5-6
weeks. The amount of corn made determines the
number of hogs to be fed. Fattened hogs reach 3 to
500 pounds' weight. Live hogs sell at 3-3½ Spanish
dollars the hundred. Nowhere on the whole continent
is the breeding of swine so considerable or so profit-
able as in North Carolina. Besides what is consumed
in the country, salted, exported, and lost in the woods,
there are annually 10-12000 head driven to South
Carolina or to Virginia. The North Carolinians there-
fore should not look a-skance, if their neighbors rally
them for being pork-makers, for when the talk gets on
their swine-breeding they themselves use the expres-
sion, 'We make pork.' But in these circumstances, a
hog costing them next to nothing except for what goes
into the fattening, the North Carolinians can send their
salted hog-meat to market at a third or a half cheaper
than their neighbors in the northern states where
harder winters and more restricted pasturage make the
maintenance dearer. On the other hand, there is a
difference in the quality, for the bacon of the Carolina
hogs is softer and does not keep so well. But it is not
very long since this part of the cattle trade has been
much followed-and doubtless it will be found to their
interest to make betterments.
Such a quantity of neat cattle, horses, and hogs
ranging about in the woods, many get from under the
eye of the owners, are either not marked, or run off
and are chased by predatory beasts into regions where
the marks are not known, or multiply in unsettled
parts of the country. All such cattle are called wild,
and are no man's property except his on whose land
they are found. But in certain parts there is a 'woods-
NORTH CAROLINA
111
right' so-called, according to which every plantation
has a fixed share of all wild herds thereabouts; and
this right, like any other property, can be transferred
or sold at will. Their hogs are especially apt to grow
wild, not answering calls and difficult to bring tame
again. But I could not precisely discover whether
these wild hogs and their progeny become like the
European wild hogs.
Edenton was the first town we came to in North
Carolina, and it is none of the worst, although con-
sisting of not more than 100 framed houses, all stand-
ing apart and surrounded with galleries or piazzas.
The place was once for a considerable time the capi-
tal of this province, and stands on the north side of
Albemarle Sound, which is here 13 miles wide and has
always been a furtherance to the trade of the town,
notwithstanding the harbor is very ordinary and ship-
ping in the entire Sound extremely difficult and
tedious. The road which ships must take coming in
from the sea by the navigable and best channels is as
much as 180 miles long, although the town itself is
not more than 35-40 miles from the sea in a direct line.
There would be a shorter passage if the Roanoke and
other inlets were navigable for vessels even of a
moderate tonnage. Coming in, vessels must first pass
the Occacock Bar, where at high tide there is no more
than 13 ft. water; and then there lies in the way
another bank, 2-3 miles wide, called the Swash, con-
sisting of firm sand, and at the highest tide giving a
depth of only 9 ft. Ships, therefore, often take 8-12
days entering and clearing the Sound, at times must
wait months for a favorable opportunity, and then are
subject to the very great inconvenience of lading and
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TRAVELS IN THE CONFEDERATION
unlading at a distance from the town by means of light-
ers. And when at last a ship is freighted and past all
obstacles, shortly after getting into the ocean the Gulf
Stream must be contended with, which in this latitude
approaches very near the main-land. In this way
various circumstances unite to hamper shipping and
make it difficult, but these notwithstanding are over-
come by patience in times of peace, and during a war
are made use of to the positive advantage of the place.
By reason of this especial and unfavorable situation of
the place, during the last war the trade here grew un-
commonly active and flourishing. It was certain that
no hostile vessels of any size could venture over the
Bar and the Swash. Thus most of the American
trading ships took refuge here, where they could take
in or put off cargoes in security; Philadelphia mer-
chants established themselves here; the Virginians
brought hither their tobacco by land-carriage, taking
in exchange West Indian or other wares, which at that
time were over-plentiful here. With this stimulus to
trade, Edenton found itself in such good circum-
stance that the inhabitants wished peace away, which
made their town be again deserted. At the time there
were lying in the harbor but three ships, top-sail vessels,
and in good condition, but many large and small craft
were there which at the outbreak of the war had run
in here and were now half gone to pieces. The worm
does little damage here, the water being only brackish.
It will be odds whether, without especial and serious
attention on the part of the government, Edenton will
ever come again into the trade it once had, for it ap-
pears that most of the vessels entering the Sound pass
by the town and go immediately to Hallifax and other
NORTH CAROLINA
113
small places lying on the rivers emptying into this
Sound.
It was hoped, but in vain, that Lord Cornwallis on
his march through North Carolina might come to
Edenton, which he at one time seemed to be approach-
ing. It would indeed have been an easy matter to lock
him up here, because on the land side, what with the
numerous swamps and creeks, there is only one prac-
ticable road for an army destined for Virginia, and
for crossing the Sound a great number of small boats
would have been necessary, since no large armed ves-
sels could have been used; in either case the loss of the
army would have been inevitable. But Lord Corn-
wallis knew the country quite as well as his enemies,
at that time fleeing before him.
At Edenton we were for the first time regaled with
the domestic tea universally known and beloved in
North Carolina. This is made from the leaves of the
Ilex Cassine L., a tolerably high and beautiful tree or
shrub, which growing abundantly in this sandy coun-
try is very ornamental with its evergreen leaves and
red berries; more to the north and even farther inland
it is rare. It is here generally called Japan, but has
this name in common with the South-Sea tea-tree
(Cassine Peragua L.), which likewise grows on the
Carolina coast, and is also greatly esteemed for tea.
The people here have a very high opinion of the good
qualities of the Japan; they not only make use of it
for breakfast instead of the common Bohea, but in
almost every kind of sickness as well. Near to the
coast, where the drinking-water is not altogether pure,
it is pretty generally the custom to boil the water with
these leaves. Such an infusion is not unpleasant, if it
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TRAVELS IN THE CONFEDERATION
is properly managed. There are those who in a slovenly
manner chop up the fresh leaves, the twigs, the wood,
and the bark all together; but this gives the water a
repulsive taste. More careful housekeepers have the
leaves, which may be gathered at any season of the
year, culled out in a cleanly way, and dried in an iron
kettle over a slow fire; they pound them a little in
a mortar, so as to keep them the better in glass bottles,
but before putting them up they let them evaporate a
while in the air. Prepared thus, the taste betters by
keeping, and not seldom a pound fetches one to one
and a half Spanish dollars. It is claimed here that at
one time this Japan-tea began to be much liked in
England, a pound bringing readily half a guinea; but
importing was forbidden, lest the sale of the Chinese
tea should be diminished.
All the good qualities of this tea, praised as they are,
cannot however prevent the sickliness of the inhabi-
tants, especially prevalent in the low, overflowed, and
swampy parts of this country, and giving the people
a pale, decayed, and prematurely old look. This is the
case not only about Edenton, but along the entire low-
lying coast, which this fall, from Virginia to South
Carolina, was visited with numerous fevers. Only
those living scattered in the deeper and dryer forests,*
and farther from large swamps, enjoyed at that time
(and commonly do enjoy) a somewhat more unshaken
state of health. The people themselves are apt to as-
* But according to Director Achard's experiments, (Chem.
Annal. 1786, 8, 108), the air of dry places, distant from
marshes, is not precisely the best.--Thus, for the more exact
explanation of the above remarks other circumstances and
causes are to be sought out, local and at the time unknown.
NORTH CAROLINA
115
cribe their better condition of health to the beneficent
effect of the pitch and tar odors they are almost con-
stantly inhaling, and they set particular store by the
volatile, balsamic exhalations from their pine-woods;
just as many take it to be an established fact that
standing water among pines, on account of the proper-
ties communicated by the rich heart-wood, is less sub-
ject to pollution and gives off exhalations less un-
healthful. However, it appears that where large
swamps are near by, the pitch and tar atmosphere is
not a protection generally against fevers and other
autumn sickness. At the same time, it is confirmed by
experience that swamps, so long as they are occupied
by trees and bush, are less injurious to the health of
people living round about than if naturally bare of
such growth, or when the fertile marshy soil is cleared
up for cultivation. The well known air-improving
property of plants makes this explicable and was the
ground of Dr. Franklin's advice that the forests in
Virginia and Carolina should be cut off with circum-
spection, way being given for the air to dry the rich
marsh land, but sufficient vegetation being left for the
purification of the air. Over the low, exposed, half-
dry swamps which almost encompass Albemarle
Sound, the unstirred hot air must all the more rapidly
grow corrupt, because ebb and flow are very insignifi-
cant here, and the cool winds which elsewhere accom-
pany these movements of the water are very largely
absent. In addition to the usual bilious and inter-
mittent fevers, there prevailed last fall a bad form of
quinsy, which carried off many people in these parts.
In so small a place as Edenton there were 9 bodies to
be buried in one day. The people here are too much
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TRAVELS IN THE CONFEDERATION
given to a belief that there is no way of avoiding fre-
quent sickness, and consequently they take little trouble
to be rid of their plagues, regarding it as matter of fact
that no physician can cure their 'fever and ague.'
They try a few doses of quinquina, and if this does not
help they give themselves up to the fever, hoping that
with the approach of winter they will grow sound.
It is remarkable that among the multitude of fevers,
the quartan should be extremely rare.
We lived in the same house with a doctor who, like
many country-doctors in America, had all his medi-
cines exposed in the window; his store was very re-
stricted, little besides tartar-emetick, flowers of anti-
mony, tartar, saltpetre, Peruvian bark, and a few other
mixtures of sorts. He complained of slow and small
pay. As yet there are no medical regulations in
America, and if any one thinks his doctor's charge too
high it is the custom to submit the matter to some
neighboring practicioner, or to several of them, who
allow or reduce the amount according to the circum-
stances or the degree of friendship or spite they have
for their colleague. But if injustice is done, the
charge can be very easily made good by an affidavit.
In Virginia as well as in Carolina there are in most
of the houses hand-mills by which the maize, for the
beloved homany, is ground small by the negroes. The
mill-stones used are for the most part shell-stones, and
having to be of a sufficient hardness are obtained only
in certain places. Those used here come mainly from
a place this side the falls of the Roanoke; at first sight
they seem not at all adapted for the purpose, the shells
weathered out having left large holes and flaws; but
the stones are hard and firm, the shells bound together
NORTH CAROLINA
117
by a fine sand-cement, in some places effervescing
under acids and in others striking fire on steel. Mill-
stones such as these last 20 years and more without
whetting, which would besides be superfluous, on ac-
count of the great unevenness due to the holes. They
are light, and therefore well suited for hand-mills, the
construction of which is very simple, as might be ex-
pected in an American apparatus. The mill consists
of a hollowed block, about 3 foot high and 2 in diam-
eter, in which the nether stone lies fixed, the upper,
even with the edge of the block, moving on an iron
spindle-tree fixed in the stone beneath, and adjustable
high or low by a wedge, according as the grinding is
to be coarse or fine. A pole 4-5 ft. long, shod with
iron at the lower end, is fixed at the top in a piece of
timber made fast above the mill; the lower end being
gripped to the upper stone by a hole in the edge, a
negro briskly turns it about, and grinds several bushels
of corn a day. A pair of these stones costs 5-6 Span-
ish dollars. Horse-mills are set up here and there
with larger stones, but the construction is almost as
simple.
Full four days we stayed at Edenton waiting to be
set over Albemarle Sound: the trouble was not wind
and weather, but the scurvy negligence of the man
who by permission of a high authority keeps the
ferry. He had allowed the negroes to go across the
Sound with the boat for a holiday, not at all solicitous
about travellers who might arrive in the mean time.
No people can be so greedy after holidays as the
whites and blacks here, and none with less reason, for
at no time do they work so as to need a long rest. It is
difficult to say which are the best creatures, the whites
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TRAVELS IN THE CONFEDERATION
here or their blacks, or which have been formed by the
others; but in either case the example is bad. The
white men are all the time complaining that the blacks
will not work, and they themselves do nothing. The
white men complain further that they cannot trust the
faithless blacks, and they set them a dubious model.
We lived at a regular tavern, where the legal charge
per day for 3 persons and 3 horses was 5 Spanish dol-
lars (12 fl. Rhenish), and for four long days we had
nothing but old geese, suckling pigs, and raw salad,
there being no vinegar to be had in the whole place.
Here was much a-do about nothing; half a dozen
negroes were running about the house all day, and
nothing was attended to, unless one saw to it himself.
Exterior courtesies increased with the latitude south;
the negroes make low bows, partly from imitation,
partly by order of their proud masters; the people in
the northern parts require nothing of the sort of their
negroes, they themselves having no such practices.
When at last on the fourth day the expected boat for
ferrying-over the horses arrived, the next morning
was fixed for the passage, and everything arranged;
but although we had now a right to hope for prompt
service for once, we found ourselves deceived again
when we came to the water-side at 8 o'clock. The
gentleman who kept the ferry was still sleeping quietly
in bed; we had to rouse him up, and then wait until
he had called together a dozen negroes who were to
look for two others whose business it was to tend the
boat, which they only now began to make ready; more
time lost. I mention this vexatious delay of purpose,
and should not forget to add that we had other similar
experiences. Travellers therefore must have a good
NORTH CAROLINA
119
supply of patience if they are not to be outdone at ex-
treme carelessness which may often mean hindrance
and loss to them, for there is no means of prevention
or of compensation. To be sure, we were informed
that we could bring action against the owner of the
ferry for the loss of time and the expence involved, and
might be certain of getting judgment; but we should
have had to wait for a court-day, which was not worth
the trouble.
*
In two hours we crossed the Sound, into which fall
many larger and smaller streams, of which the most
considerable are, the Roanoke, Chowan or Gouana
(3 miles broad at the mouth, but not of a long course
inland), Maherren, Blackwater, Nottoway, and others
of less consequence, which all contribute to render the
water of the Sound almost sweet. The Sound is con-
nected with the ocean by divers inlets, but the mouths
of these being all choked by bars are navigable
either not at all or for very small craft. Chief among
the fore-mentioned streams is the Roanoke. It rises in
the Blue Mountains in latitude 37, having several
sources (the heads of Roanoke), and keeps a south-
easterly direction. It is in that region that the Blue
Mountains begin to be markedly lower, and at only a
few miles' distance from the head-springs of the
Roanoke, another stream, the New River, takes its
rise, which has a course quite opposite to that of the
Roanoke, flowing north-west and falling into the Ohio
as the great Kanhawa. The Roanoke, at its entrance
* These sand-banks change position from time to time; the
channel is often quite filled in so as to be crossed a-foot, but
opens again after a space and gives free passage to larger or
smaller vessels.
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TRAVELS IN THE CONFEDERATION
into Albemarle Sound is 5-6 miles wide; thence it is
navigable for shalops to Hallifax, a small town but of
an active trade. Eight miles above that town, the falls
of the Roanoke prevent the farther passage of vessels;
about the falls the river is wider than at Hallifax itself,
and at one place plunges 15 ft. perpendicular. At one
time the river shot over there with such force that one
could pass dry beneath the water-arch made; but some
time since a rock was loosened, and this natural curi-
osity spoiled. On the whole, the falls of the Roanoke
are not of the splendor of those of James River, 100
miles away to the north. Not long ago a man came
down in his canoe too near to the falls, was dashed
over by the current and seen no more. + However, fish
attempt the leap, but if they fall short are flung against
the rocks and fall dead below. In the spring towards
the end of April or the beginning of May so vast a
number of fish crowd together below the falls that in
their confusion they do themselves injury and may
be killed with sticks. Rock-bass especially come up
the river in millions to spawn, and being checked at
the falls spring and tumble so that the water foams
with them. This commonly lasts for several days and
is called the Rock-fight.' Fishermen take good ad-
vantage of the opportunity.
*
Above the falls, the bed of the stream widens, the
river flows softly, and there is no obstacle to inland
navigation until the mountains are reached, where the
Little Yadkin and the Holston divide the waters of the
stream. But little use is made of this navigation.
Planters from the back parts prefer to haul their prod-
uce to James River where they find better markets.
Along the upper course of the Roanoke and its
NORTH CAROLINA
121
tributaries, there are great tracts of the best land,
garden-earth often to a depth of 6-8-10 feet. But
even in the lower country there are extensive tracts of
the richest soil along the rivers and creeks, and lying
quite unused. People prefer the higher, dryer, poor
land, because being without undergrowth, it is more
easily brought into tilth and needs no ditches for
draining. The bottoms would make most excellent
meadow-lands, or under different treatment might be
used for rice-culture, in which case every acre would
fetch 5-6 guineas. For such enterprises the North
Carolinians are as yet either not rich enough or too
slothful.
The first settlers having laid down no meadows, the
practice is followed to this day. And hence most of
the farmers, although they keep a number of cattle in
the woods, can hardly winter one milch cow at the
house, are commonly at a stand for milk and butter,
and must buy of the people farther inland, who keep
fewer cattle than they themselves. In other places,
along the rivers and coves, there are long stretches.
free of timber, and covered only with a rough swamp-
grass. As is proved in like instances in the northern
provinces, these might be easily brought into grass,
did not the people here balk at the trouble, even per-
suading themselves that their cattle will not do on any
other feed but what is to be had in the swamps and the
thin woods-pastures. The milk of cows pasturing in
the swamps is many times not palatable, and the bad
taste disappears only after the cows have been fed for
some days on corn and corn-fodder.
We landed on the south side of Albemarle Sound,
at the mouth of a small river on the low banks of
9
122
TRAVELS IN THE CONFEDERATION
which were assembled almost all the different and
beautiful ever-green plants which before we had met
with only here and there, and dispersed. The sight of
such a splendid green coppice in the depth of winter,
(it was the 31st of December), could not fail to be
pleasing. These ever-greens are oftener to be found
along the coast, where the weather on the whole is
milder than farther inland. The most conspicuous of
those we found together here were: Ilex Aquifolium
(Holly). Ilex Cassine (Carolinian Holly or Japan).
Prinos glaber (Winterberry). Myrica cerifera (Can-
dleberry-Myrtle). Laurus Borbonia (Bay-tree). Big-
nonia sempervirens? (Yellow-Jasmine). Smilax lau-
rifolia and other varieties of this species, which how-
ever do not hold their leaves so well as this. Prunus
lusitanica (Evergreen-Baytree). Kalmia latifolia &
angustifolia and divers Andromedae, which keep
their leaves longer here than in the northern regions.
Hopea tinctoria-used for dyeing yellow, the leaves
are boiled half an hour, and the stuff soaked a quar-
ter of an hour in the poured-off infusion, while hot;
the color comes a fine straw-yellow; cotton takes it
better than linen. Juniperus virginiana (Red Cedar).
Cupressus thyoides (White Cedar), which often grows
trunks 60-100 feet long, and 12-15 ft. in circumfer-
ence at the butt. But they reach this extraordinary
height only in fat swamp-land, and where they are
protected by other trees against violent winds which
their shallow roots do not easily withstand. Pinus
Taeda, and other varieties of the species.
But besides these shrubs and trees, commending
themselves to the eye by their enduring leaf, there are
many others both useful and beautiful. Cupressus
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123
disticha (Bald Cypress) is plentiful in these swamps.
Its seeds fall at this time of the year; each scale of the
seed-vessel has at the stud a little blister of fragrant,
clear resin, of which no use is made. The wood is
light and durable, and hence makes the best shingles
and boards. Callicarpa americana (Sourbush) was
still hanging full of its pale purple berries, which give
a bright purple color to cotton stuffs. A splendid tree,
very useful in ship-building, is the Ever-green Oak,
Quercus Phellos sempervirens; Marshall, Amer.
Grove-which begins to appear in this region, and
grows continually more abundant towards the south.
It is found also in the western country, on the Ohio
and the Mississippi. Other commoner trees, seen here
and everywhere, I need not mention. But the Melia
Azedarach, the Bead or Paternoster tree, deserves
notice. It is not indigenous, but thrives prodigiously
and belongs among the rapid growing trees. They
showed us one at Edenton, five years old and raised
from the seed, which measured 9 inches in diameter
and had made a shoot or sprig 11 ft. long, one year's
growth. +
From the Sound we went 15 miles to Squire
H's, who was a Justice of the Peace in his district.
Of what dignity is a North Carolina Justice in these
times the following incident will show, which hap-
pened immediately after our arrival. A young man
who rode up after us, offered his hand to another
whom he found here but it was not accepted, because
the latter fancied the man had injured him on some
former occasion. After a brief exchange of words
there was a challenge, and both young men, laying
aside their coats and shirts, hurriedly prepared them-
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TRAVELS IN THE CONFEDERATION
selves for a boxing-match, which took place on the
spot, in front of the house and in the presence of the
Justice of the Peace. Women, children, and blacks
gathered around, the women exclaiming at the con-
tempt shown for the officer's house. The Justice him-
self stepped forward with folded arms and tranquil
demeanor, and once, twice, three times bade the com-
batants keep the peace. The boxers paid no attention,
and the Justice having fulfilled his duty by thrice com-
manding the peace, withdrew with the same measured
step, and looked on in cold blood. Outraged at the dis-
obedience, the Justice's wife appeared and repeated the
commands of her husband, but was received with de-
rision. Finally the antagonists cooled, shook hands by
the fighting code, and each rode on his way. "By the
"law, must they not give obedience to your commands,
"I asked the Squire, and abstain from their squab-
'bling in your presence?" "They should," was the
answer. "Well! and could you not bring them into
court for their behavior, and have them punished?
I could," was the second laconic answer of the good-
natured Justice, who seemed to make far less of the
matter than his indignant wife, and was of the opinion.
that it was more in keeping with his official worth to
pass over an apparent slight, instead of taking the
proud revenge which an injured self-love might de-
mand. 33 miles farther, through desolate woods
again, and we arrived at
Washington on the Tar river, a new-settled little
place of perhaps 30 houses. The Tar river comes
*
* Higher up this river are several other small towns, as
Martinsburg, Tarburg &c. The latter is an inconsiderable
place of itself, but before the war there was every year brought
NORTH CAROLINA
125
from the mountains, is a mile wide here, and flows
into Pemticoe Sound at Bath-town. The entrance to
Pemticoe Sound is below Cape Hatteras through
Occacock Inlet, and therefore the same as that ships
must take bound for Albemarle Sound or into Neus-
River. The generally difficult and dangerous passage
into the rivers and bays of North Carolina, occasioned
by shoal-water, sand-banks, low islands and bars, is a
great hindrance to the trade of this province which on
that account was long neglected. The trade of Wash-
ington is as yet trifling; the chief occupation is the
building of small ships and vessels, which are put to-
gether entirely of pine timber and sold very cheap, but
they do not last long, this timber quickly rotting under
water, but lasting well above ground. Here, as well
as in most of the small towns of North and South
Carolina and Georgia, which are unable to carry on a
large trade of their own, the greater part of their
produce is taken out by the New Englanders who,
(like the Hollanders in Europe), have begun to be the
middlemen and freight-carriers of America. They
generally come to these southern parts in the autumn,
in small schooners and shalops, spend the winter either
at one place or at several, bring with them cyder,
cheese, apples, gingerbread, rum, sugar, iron-ware,
and trinkets which they exchange in small trade for
pelts, pitch, tar, and the like, returning in the spring.
The New Englanders are in general active and in-
dustrious seamen, full of enterprise. The whale-
in and sold there 7-8000 Pd. of English goods; not all paid
for at this time.
On the banks of the river as far as Martinsburg &c. there
are found various shell-banks, full of oyster and other shells.
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TRAVELS IN THE CONFEDERATION
fishery in which they are engaged, especially the in-
habitants of Nantucket, brings it about that they visit
the most distant seas and parts of America. They
follow their gainful pursuits, now on the coast of
Labrador, now among the West Indian islands-and
they have often cruised even to the Falkland islands.
But their somewhat more vigorous traffick, as it ap-
pears, with the inhabitants of North Carolina, besides
being due to the profits and advantages on both sides,
may be explicable further because of very many New
England emigrants having settled in North Carolina.
The nearer, so-called post-road to the South, for-
merly ran from Duckenfield, on the south side of
Albemarle Sound, straight to Bath-town, on the north
side of Pemticoe Sound (a distance of 45 miles)—but
the ferriage over the latter, 8-9 miles across, being
often long delayed by wind and weather or other hin-
drances, and Bath-town, a place of hardly a dozen.
houses, affording scant accommodations for travellers,
they preferred turning off to Washington and consid-
ered that by avoiding such obstacles they were repaid
for going the long road.
The space between the Albemarle and the Pemticoe
Sound is mainly filled by a swamp of great length and
compass. This also, from the unwholesomeness of its
neighborhood, is called Dismal Swamp. It bears be-
sides the name of Alligator or Crocodile Swamp, those
animals frequenting the region rather plentifully. It
is commonly said that the Alligator or American croco-
dile is found no farther north than the Neuse river,
but it is nothing rare to see them much to the north of
that, i. e., about Cape Henry in Virginia.
On the road from Edenton to Washington not a soul
NORTH CAROLINA
127
met us, and we saw but few dwellings; and quite as
lonesome were the 40 miles from Washington to New-
Bern. We passed Batchelor's Creek and Neuse River,
and for the last 18 miles saw not one house, but sheep,
swine, and black cattle enough, which roam the forest.
Beasts of prey have free booty among these herds:
multiplying fast and costing nothing, nobody has an
eye to them.
It is an advantage that now at mid-winter one has
almost the same prospect as that to be had in summer.
That is to say, the sparse, thin grass which grows
under the pines and on the dry sand turns as wilted
and brown from the heat as it is now yellow and sap-
less from the cool winter nights. Everywhere the
Stipa avenacea L. appeared to have the upper hand
here; a rough grass which is eaten by cattle only in the
spring while it is quite tender. On the dryer tracts.
there is absolutely no undergrowth or bush among the
lofty pines, and the trees standing by no means close,
one can see far between them. But at every brook,
or at any rather moister spot, there appear forthwith
beautiful thickets of evergreen bush, called indis-
criminately laurels, and such places consequently are
known as laurel-swamps.
The Yucca filamentosa L. was now often to be seen
in the woods. Its leaves can be cut into threads, thin
and strong, of which the people make use for various
household purposes.
The red bird and the blue bird (Loxia Cardinalis
and caerulea L.) frequently appeared hereabouts, and
other birds which winter in this region and only in
summer migrate to Pensylvania and New York.
Swallows come hither from the south the last of
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TRAVELS IN THE CONFEDERATION
March and early in April, and stay until late in No-
vember. At Charleston they are absent hardly longer
than from December to February. Regarding the
migrations and winter-home of the swallows, so long
a matter of uncertainty in Europe, it will soon be
possible to obtain more exact information from
America. +
New-Bern is situated on a point of land, where the
rivers Neus and Trent unite. The beds of these rivers
are very deep and flat and subject to frequent over-
flow. The region thus is not the healthiest nor its air
the purest, and almost every autumn brings sickness
which carries off many. Moreover, the mortality
among children in this and other parts of the south is
perhaps double what it would be for an equal number
of children in the northern states. The river Trent
has only a short course inland, but the Neus comes
down about 200 miles from the mountains, where it
rises near Mount Ararat, making a little fall 70-80
miles to the west of this place. The entrance for ships
coming in from the sea is impeded by the bars already
often mentioned; the passage is by Occacock Inlet, or
the same as that ships must take bound for Edenton,
lying much to the north. The town is small, not yet
rich, and the houses are all of timber. Its trade is re-
stricted entirely to the products of the forests and of
cattle-breeding. Formerly it was the seat of govern-
ment and for the last British governor, General Tryon,
there was a very genteel house built, the only one of
brick, on the banks of the Trent. This palace, for it
is honored with that much too splendid name, is at this
time almost in ruins; the inhabitants of the town took
away everything they could make use of, carpets, pan-
NORTH CAROLINA
129
nels of glass, locks, iron utensils, and the like, until
watchmen were finally installed to prevent the carry-
ing-off of the house itself. The state would be glad to
sell it, but there is nobody who thinks himself rich
enough to live in a brick house. The government of
North Carolina was at the outbreak of the war re-
moved to Brunswick, continuing there for some time;
during the war there was no fixed seat of government,
but at last the inland town of Hillsborough was
chosen, for the better convenience of the more popu-
lous back-country.
The state of North Carolina, to remedy the oppres-
sive lack of hard money, was obliged to have recourse
again last year to paper-money, and by an Act of
Assembly 17th May, 1783, 100,000 Pd. was struck off.
Other states, doubtless, will soon be compelled to fol-
low the example of North Carolina, for the gold and
silver which was brought into the country during the
war by the British and French armies, and by the very
profitable West Indian flour-trade, seems to be rapidly
disappearing in trade with Europe. In North Carolina
there is almost no hard money now to be had; not that
it has all been sent out of the country, but because of
the general dislike for the new paper-money, in con-
sequence of which everyone is disposed to keep what
coin he has as long as he can, and to get rid of the
paper he receives, or rather has forced upon him, as
quickly as possible, from the fear that this, by prece-
dent, will decline in value. Paper-money is every-
where taken squeamishly and unwillingly, and owes
any value it has to the extreme necessity. In the
middle parts of North Carolina, about Hallifax and on
the Roanoke, where the chief crop is tobacco which
130
TRAVELS IN THE CONFEDERATION
may be sold for cash money at Petersburg, they refuse
absolutely to give paper any currency. The paper
chosen for the new money being very fine and thin,
the people fancy (especially as from former examples
the guarantee seems to them uncertain) that such thin
paper was selected on purpose, so that a part of these
bills might be torn and destroyed before the time fixed.
for redemption, which would be so much gain for the
treasury. This mistrust is proof that the people have
not the highest regard for the government. A Gen-
eral was paying off North Carolina troops in paper-
money and they refusing to accept such bills as were
any way damaged, he tore and cut bits from the whole
supply, and dispensed these bills with the notification:
that if they would not take the torn, they should have
none of any sort.
A certain amount of this new paper-money comes
back to the State treasury in taxes, which must be set-
tled partly in paper-money and partly in certificates'
which during the war the state issued to the inhab-
itants for services rendered, supplies furnished &c.
Even those who have none of these certificates for
deliveries made by them, must make use of them for
paying a certain part of their taxes; a number of the
inhabitants are therefore obliged to buy these certifi-
cates from others for the purpose. They are readily
exchanged, not for paper-money, but for cash or
goods, at a fourth or a third of their face value; the
people's distrust of the government making them glad
to get free of the certificates as well as may be. The
government has reckoned on this exchange to dis-
tribute more evenly among the inhabitants the burden
of contributions to the war, and the sums coming in
NORTH CAROLINA
131
through such certificates are to be regarded as an
extraordinary impost, over and above the tax neces-
sary for meeting the state's expences, and so much the
less felt by the subject because until very recently the
certificates were looked upon as worth nothing what-
ever.
In addition, the paper-money being supported by
law, merchants and shop-keepers must take it, giving
in exchange for paper, goods that they are unable to
get elsewhere except for cash money. The amount of
the produce of the country, which the merchants take
in lieu of payment, is not sufficient to make good the
annual imports; and the people, disposed to idleness
and good-living, commonly buy more of the mer-
chants, and in advance, than their labor amounts to.
The merchants are therefore obliged, and it is their
custom, to sell on long credit, but they are in con-
sequence involved in continual processes at law and
suits for debt.*
The subjects are in debt to the state, the state to the
subjects, and these very generally among themselves.
The non-payment of these debts being due especially
to the lack of current coin or a valid substitute, the re-
newed introduction of paper-money was held to be
expedient. The assertion is made that the first call
for it came from very respectable citizens who were
*The planters in North Carolina are generally in debt to
the merchants; in South Carolina, on the contrary, where
products of greater value are raised, the merchants are oftener
in debt to the planters. In North Carolina there are consid-
erable land-holders, owning 2-300 negroes, who yet cannot
command enough cash to pay their taxes, and must sell
negroes or horses to get money. +
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TRAVELS IN THE CONFEDERATION
however greatly in debt, and that they were supported
by others who had claims on the state, but that the
people in general were against the measure. There-
fore, to place an amount as much as 100,000 Pd. the
more easily in circulation, and in order to make the
paper more acceptable and give the inhabitants time to
recover themselves and bring more order into their
affairs, a law was passed which made all legal claims
and actions in cases of debt of no effect for the space
of one year.
The taxes at this time in North Carolina amount,
under divers heads, to about 12 per centum of all
property. The land-tax in itself is very small, only 3
pence in the pound, and besides lands are assessed very
low, greatly under their true value, the valuation being
made by 9 sworn men (Assizers) in each county.
For example, the dry pine-land, or 'pine-barren,' is
fixed at a shilling the acre, and thus 20 acres of such
land pay 3 pence, and 100 acres only 15 pence. So
trifling a tax does not fall heavy even on those who
own great tracts of land, one man, for instance, in
North Carolina owning 50,000 acres, and many
20,000 to 10,000 acres ; * their practice being to keep
so much together as long as they can raise the taxes
without difficulty. Such extensive possessions as
these never being sufficiently cultivated or utilized, it
appears at once that an increase in the land-tax would
further industry and be an advantage to the country;
but the poorer part of the inhabitants resists any in-
crease, and if it was made, would rather withdraw to
* By the above valuation the land-tax on 10,000 acres pine-
land amounts to only 6 Pd. 5 shillings, about equal to 37 fl.
30 kr. Rhenish.
NORTH CAROLINA
133
other regions, where land is still to be had not taxed
at all or very little.
The manner of taking up land usual in North Caro-
lina was formerly as follows: a piece of land possessed
of no man, was sought out, and taken over as free-
hold either from the crown or the proprietors of the
province on payment of 20 Pd. for a thousand acres,
and a shilling a year ground-rent for every 100 acres.
One could, moreover, for I penny the acre annual
ground-rent, have the use of as much land anywhere.
as was desired.
The maintenance of the civil list of the state of
North Carolina is said to amount at this time to only
some 15000 pounds. North Carolina during the last
war set up at one time and another 10 regiments, each
commonly of but 300 men, and towards the end of the
war much less than 300. The number of the people
of this state was estimated by the Congress in Septem-
ber 1774 at 300,000 souls, among whom it was believed
were 75,000 arms-bearing men, but this estimate is
likely very much too high.*
The form of government of this state does not differ
materially from that of most of the others. The exec-
utive power is in the hands of the Governor and the
Council of State, who are elected annually by the
members of the Assembly. The Governor must own
property in land to the amount of at least 1000 Pd.,
* According to a later numbering of the people in the 13
provinces, published by the Congress since the Peace, only
200,000 souls are given for North Carolina.-Several American
almanacs for 1785 and 1786 still make a parade of the figures
for 1774, which exceed the last by at least half a million, in
the total population.
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TRAVELS IN THE CONFEDERATION
and must have lived five years in the province. The
Assembly, or the law-making power, is made up of
the Senate and the House of Commons; a Senator
must have lived a year in the province and own 300
acres, a member of the lower house at least 100 acres.
The members of both houses are elected annually; all
free inhabitants, who have lived a year in the country
and have paid their taxes, cast their votes at the elec-
tion for members of the lower house; but for a vote at
the election of Senators they are qualified by a free-
hold of 50 acres of land.
From New-Bern to Snead's Ferry on the Neus
river it is 53 miles, flat sandy land covered with pine-
forest. The sand, however, where it has not been dis-
turbed by wind, weather, or water, is generally over-
laid with an inch or more of good black earth; but if
the timber has been taken off, the land ploughed or in
any way touched, this black earth disappears rapidly.
Everywhere clay lies beneath the sand, often very little
below the surface, and could at small expence of
trouble be turned up for the betterment of the sand.
Approaching the sea-coast by this road, we observed
that in place of the fine, white, barren, sand, blacker
and mirier soil appeared now and then; really such
places were where large swamps had dried off, and
they deserved to be made more use of. Still nearer
the coast, the landscape is no longer so uniformly
flat as farther inland, but grows uneven and broken,
with ranges of very low sand-hills standing one be-
hind the other or pell mell. On the Neus river also
it was observable that the face of the country was
changed, the land losing its dead flatness; a broad and
high natural embankment followed the course of the
NORTH CAROLINA
135
river, and the land behind seemed lower than the sur-
face of the river itself. I make mention of this here
for the first time, although it is a circumstance often
to be remarked in other regions and along other rivers,
and a source of danger at times of sudden overflow;
at least, on the Roanoke, the Trent, and other rivers,
many cattle pasturing in these low woods are lost.
when there is a sudden rise of the water. These low-
lying tracts are filled with evergreen bush, and fine old
trunks which have a grey and ancient look, from the
long thick moss (Tillandsia usneoides) everywhere
pending. In these shadowed and not unamiable wilds a
rich harvest of the finest and rarest Carolinian plants
might be expected, allowed no chance by the dry and
burning sand; but at this season, alas, everything
was dead.
In the midst of the sandy levels and the forests.
there are here and there little lakes, often pretty deep,
and apparently with no outlet or supply from other
waters. In several of these, fish are said to be found,
coming from no one knows where. The same is true
also of South Carolina, where in deserted rice-planta-
tions rain-water assembles in large ponds, which have
no running water outlet, and yet fish are found in
them. The people believe that the seed of the fish
fall down with the rain, and the wild ducks and
numerous other water-fowl which visit these ponds are
not suspected.
At Snead's Ferry there is a free prospect over the
river and towards the open sea. Here, and for some
distance farther back, the vehement and continual roar
of the surf was to be heard, or the sound of the waves
breaking on the main-land, although the shore is 4-5
136
TRAVELS IN THE CONFEDERATION
12
·
miles away. The Neus, as well as the other rivers of
this country yield throughout the year an abundance
of fish, of one kind or another. Mullets (Mugil
Albula L.) come in the autumn with the first cold
nights, going up the river in great schools from the
sea to spawn. At that time many boats and shalops
are to be seen about the mouths of the rivers; with
little trouble they take a quantity of these fish, salt
them, and convey them to the West Indies. Mullets
are in the rivers throughout the winter. With them
come numerous schools of a sort of trouts, which are
a more delicate fish, for no sooner does a fresh north-
wester blow than they go quite numb, and may be
taken almost dead from the water.
A chain of small, low islands lies close in to the
main-land, along North and South Carolina, forming
a narrow, navigable sound. The soil immediately on
the coast is not altogether bad, in many places better
than that more inland, and many people are tempted
to live there, where in addition to farming they may
get a support and money by fishing. The shore, it
is said, is pretty well settled already; and it was
astonishing, after we had come the whole way from
New-Bern without meeting a soul, to be assured here
that by a few musket-shots and in an hour's time, 200
men might be brought together from the adjacent
country.
The alligator or American crocodile begins to be
more frequent in this region. But at this time of the
year none were to be seen, for they keep hidden in
their holes during the three winter months; only on
very warm days, it is said, are their tracks to be found
on the sand. There is ascribed to them a strong odor
NORTH CAROLINA
137
of musk. One has not much to fear from them, ex-
cept when bathing or swimming in the rivers. Their
increase is greatly checked by the fore-mentioned buz-
zards, which hunt out the alligator eggs in the sand
and eat them. They live chiefly on fish; but their
voraciousness tempts them to snap at anything that
comes in their way, and pieces of wood, leather, or
iron have been found in their maws.
Of serpents there are found in this and the neigh-
boring regions almost all the known species of North
America, and rather plentiful, but few of them are
venomous. They do not often resort to the great
swamps, because they find no good holes in the wet.
earth, and in winter would be in danger of freezing
or drowning under the ice, in their holes. A snake,
called the 'black runner,' was killed some time ago
and found to be 12 ft. long.
Our journey was favored with a series of clearer,
warm days.* Frogs were everywhere noisy in their
swamps; bees flew; bats fluttered of an evening;
black urchins gamboled naked in the open. This, in
the first week of January, was augury of an early
spring; however, scarcely a plant dares unfold until
the beginning of the month of March, when the spring
may really be said to open in this region. Spring-
frosts here fall at times even in April. But severely
*The same warm weather which we had in North Carolina
the 4th, 5th, and 6th of January, with south-west winds, was
observed at Philadelphia on the 6th and 7th. There as here
it was the effect of the southern wind, which reached the
northern parts later. Philadelphia newspapers stated that at
the time the thermometer rose 53 degrees within a short
space, and snow and ice suddenly melted off.
10
138
TRAVELS IN THE CONFEDERATION
cold winter-weather is nothing uncommon in this
uncertain climate, often holding for a good many days.
Three years ago the Neus river at New-Bern (in lati-
tude 35 south) was so hard frozen that men and
animals could cross on the ice.
The Iris verna L., called Violet here, the Viola
pedata and palmata, Gomphrena flava, Lupinus peren-
nis, Sanguinaria canadensis, Sarracenia lutea and pur-
purea, Cypripedium Calceolus, Azalea viscosa, Kalmia
latifolia, angustifolia, and glauca, and other plants
seem, from the partial accounts I had, to belong among
the first to appear in the spring, blooming towards the
end of February or the beginning of March. The re-
markable Dionæa Muscipula L. (Fly-trap) is at home
in this region, but seems to be known to very few of
the inhabitants. And besides it, there are many rare
plants to reward the pains of the future investigator.
In this thin sandy soil, corn is planted 6 ft. apart.
A bushel of seed therefore is enough for 10-12 acres
of land, yielding some 12-15 fold, and more on new
* The severity of the winters is often strangely different as
between regions north and south. Linnaeus observes of the
celebrated hard winters of 1739 and 1741, that in those years
in Norway, beyond the Alps, there was a very mild winter;
that in the years 1745 and 1746 when Sweden had a very
passable winter, there was at Montpellier, on the contrary,
severe cold; and that in the winter of 1735 and 1736, when
Sweden and Holland had very moderate weather, at New
York in America brandy froze in the cellars. It was likewise
with the winters 1779-80, and 1783-84, which were uncommonly
hard throughout the middle and southern colonies of North
America, but in Nova Scotia and Canada were as unusually
mild. Similarly opposite conditions have several times been
remarked as between the southern coasts of England and the
northern parts of Scotland.
NORTH CAROLINA
139
land. One and the same acre is cultivated many years
together, as long as it will bring anything whatever,
and without any dunging or fallowing; until the earth
is quite exhausted there is no taking in a new piece of
land, for it never suits their fancy to better the old by
dunging.
In North and South Carolina, besides corn, a small
kind of peas, called Indian peas, is very much raised.
They yield heavily and in good years produce 40-50
for one. They plant them the end of April or the first
of May and gather in October. The people here distill
a bad sort of brandy from potatoes (Convolvulus
Battatas L.).
The lack of salt and its dearness during the war,
when a bushel often cost one or two Spanish dollars,
brought it about that on the coast of North and South
Carolina they began to boil sea-water in pans. This
was done at the time with good success and great
profit, but is now given over since it can be had in
plenty and cheap from the West Indies. Since the
value of the wood may be counted as nothing, this
manner of preparing salt would still be profitable, if
the price of salt continued at no more than 3% of a
dollar, but this is not the case. No attempt has been
made to get salt from sea-water by evaporation in pits.
The expense for salt is considerable, and many vessels
are engaged in its conveyance. Besides that neces-
sary for pickling fish and meat, it is the custom in the
back parts and the country at a distance from the
coast to give the horses and black cattle a little salt
several times a week, as well with a view to the health
of the cattle as to accustom them to the house and the
plantation, and the cattle hanker after it. Near the
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TRAVELS IN THE CONFEDERATION
coast, however, even where the cattle cannot get to
salt-water, they are not so lickerish; and no salt is
given them, the people believing (but mistakenly) that
the air itself and the falling dews are laden with salt
evaporated from the sea.
Sweet water is found almost everywhere along the
coast at a slight depth. Even near the shore, if a pit
is dug with the hands in the sand, it soon fills with
water tolerably fresh. A few miles from the sea,
water is found in the clay-bed under the sand at a
depth of 2-4-6 feet. Also there are very good and
fresh natural springs in this low country; in the midst
of the swamps strong, pure springs are found, for
which commonly a way is opened by trees rotting out
and leaving holes.
That the greatest and most important part of the
immense forests of this fore-country consists of pine, I
have already several times mentioned. But it is pre-
cisely this wood that so much advantages the inhab-
itants, in which lies the compensation for their gen-
erally sterile soil; it is this that supplies them with
excellent timber for building and other purposes, and
with the opportunity for considerable gain from tur-
pentine, tar, pitch, resin, and turpentine-oil. There-
fore the pitch-pine is for North Carolina the tree most
important and profitable.
Turpentine, as is well known, is obtained by cut-
ting into the trunk. These cuts, which they call
'boxes' here, are made at first quite low, only 1 or 2
feet above the ground; in the following years they are
extended upwards, new ones being made above the
first; but there are no cuts made higher than 5-6 feet
above the ground, although it would be practicable to
NORTH CAROLINA
141
gather turpentine higher up, with the help of a small
ladder. The great quantity of the wood is the reason
why the trouble is not taken, new trees being worked
in preference. According to its strength, 2, 3, and 4
boxes are cut in one tree; this is done in mid-winter,
for in summer the wounding of the tree would be fatal.
The resinous sap, or turpentine, begins to flow in April
and continues until into the month of September.
Twice a month, and commonly in the new and full
moon, the outflow is 'dipped,' or scraped, from the
boxes, and as often the boxes are chopped a-fresh, or
' re-chip'd,' else dust or the hardened turpentine itself
would clog the openings of the sap-vessels and check
the flow. One man can readily care for 3000 boxes,
and that number is generally assigned one negro, the
negroes doing the most of this work. At the best and
warmest season one negro can easily fill 15-20 barrels
of turpentine a day. In rainy and cloudy weather the
outflow is less, and nothing is done. It is reckoned
that from 3000 boxes more than 100-120 barrels in
the average should be obtained in a summer. For
these 3000 boxes some 12-15 acres of forest should
suffice, according as the trees stand close or far apart,
and are strong or not. A barrel of turpentine, 32
gallons, is now worth 16 shillings or 2 Spanish
dollars.
Tar is coaled from the wood of this and other sorts
of pines; but old wind-falls and dead trunks of the
pitch-pine are greatly preferred, the pitch-pine being
the most resinous, and hence losing nothing if long ex-
posed to the air and weather, merely the watery sap
evaporating and the resinous part remaining behind.
This dead wood used for tar-burning is called 'light-
+
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TRAVELS IN THE CONFEDERATION
wood,' and the tar prepared from it is called 'dead tar'
to distinguish it from 'green tar' which is got from
freshly felled trees, already used some years for tur-
pentine. The green is preferred to the dead. Tar-
coaling is done in a pit lined with clay, in which the
wood is covered with earth and coaled by a slow fire;
the tar sweated out goes to the bottom and runs
through wooden pipes into casks more deeply buried. +
Tar-coaling is here a winter-business, and by the use
of wind-falls, dead trees, and those that have been
boxed for turpentine, the people make money almost
from nothing, since where this business is not carried
on, such wood rots useless in the forest. A middling
sized cart full of resin-wood, or so much as two thin
oxen can draw, yields a barrel, by the usual estimate,
or a cask of tar, worth 12 shillings or 1½ Spanish
dollars.
From the tar is burned pitch; either in great iron
cauldrons or, more commonly, in pits, 6 ft. deep and
four and a half across, and lined with clay if the soil
is not already clay. Such a pit can hold 50 or more
casks of tar. Three casks of tar give about 2 of pitch.
A cask of tar costing 12 shillings, and one of pitch 20
shillings, it follows that since 3 of the one make but
2 of the other, only 4 shillings are gained. But there
is besides a saving in casks, rated at 23-3 shillings
a-piece, and the pitch loses nothing in keeping, where-
as tar is a diminishing article.
Oil of turpentine is obtained by distillation of tur-
pentine, and the residue is common rosin. A cask of
turpentine gives some 3 gallons of turpentine-oil and
29 gallons go to rosin. A gallon of turpentine-oil
costs a half dollar, and a cask of rosin three dollars.
NORTH CAROLINA
143
All these works are carried on mainly by negro
slaves, and the profit arising is so much the greater
because no establishment is necessary beyond the
working hands themselves. It is here and there esti-
mated that each working negro, what with these and
other uses made of the forest, should bring in to his
master one to two hundred pounds current a year, but
this calculation may be perhaps too high.
Formerly one could buy 100 acres of this pine-forest
for 4-5 Pd. Current (about 24-30 fl. Rhenish). He
who took up I or 200 acres, generally had the use of
six to ten times as much more lying adjacent, there
being unalienated timber-land in plenty. At present,
the returns from lands sold being applied in the settle-
ment of the state debts, the price of 100 acres of tim-
ber-land is raised to 10-12 Pd.
The Pitch-pine, here so-called, which is greatly pre-
ferred for turpentine because most resinous, has three
very long needles in each case; the tree is of a tall
comely growth, and has long bare boughs upward-
bent, which, commonly at the extreme end, bear out-
standing tufts of needles. It appears more like Pinus
palustris Mill.* than Pinus Taeda L., since it grows
here almost entirely on barren, sandy soils, and is
found oftener towards the coast than farther inland.
The tree is not apparently weakened if turpentine is
drawn from it many years together, and it is even
thought that it merely grows the richer for these tap-
* Pinus palustris foliis ternis longissimis, Von Wangen-
heim's Beyträge, 73. Marshall's Amer. Grove, 100. The
former says, it seems to contain little of resinous parts; the
latter, that it is as resinous as any other kind,
144
TRAVELS IN THE CONFEDERATION
pings, and used finally as light-wood, yields the more
in tar and pitch.
Together with it, but in greater plenty farther in-
land, grows the Rosemary-Pine * so-called, which has
but two needles, and short ones; and yields vastly less
turpentine than the other, nor for so long a period.
The name Yellow-Pine is given in this country for the
most part to the rosemary-pine; but others hold that
this is a particular variety of the pitch-pine, distin-
guished by a thinner, smoother back, a softer, yellower
wood, somewhat shorter needles, a straighter and less.
branching growth, and that the variety may be dis-
cerned quite young and makes a better house-timber.
Others again give the name yellow-pine only to very
old pitch-pines, and believe that the tree makes no
good timber until then. It is difficult to get a clear
notion of the many names, varieties, and sub-varieties
of this region.
The products of these trees having long brought in
good returns to the province, there have always been
official inspectors appointed to look into the quality
and purity of the turpentine and give attestation. In
addition, the wood of these forests is made into boards,
shingles, cask-staves &c., dressed and exported, and to
this end there are already a good many saw-mills
established in the country. The means of gain, within
the reach of every owner of such a tract of wood-land,
being so manifold and so easy, it is certainly no hard
matter to grow rich in a short time, if it is regarded as
indifferent in what state one leaves the land to his
heirs.
* Pinus virginiana; Jersey-Pine; two-leaved Pitch-pine-
von Wangenheim's Beyträge, 74; Marshall's Amer. Gr., 102.
NORTH CAROLINA
145
From the Neus river to Wilmington on the Cape
Fear river it is 42 miles through forest and sand.
The many paths and roads inter-crossing these woods
often bring travellers to confusion. Here and there,
indeed, guide-posts are set up, but nothing is written
on them. Once we got quite out of the road and
might have gone heaven knows where, had not a gen-
tleman met us and set us in the road again. This was
the first human creature that for many days had met
us on this road. He had come a matter of 21 miles to
have a trifle made at a smith's, and tomorrow would
be going 19 miles farther to find a tailor-and was
riding on a saddle-cloth.
Wilmington stands close to the Cape Fear river,
and lower than the general sand-surface. There are
in the town perhaps 150 framed houses, but most of
them of good appearance. This was once for a good
while the capital of the province, and drove a con-
siderable trade with the West Indies and the northern
provinces; at the present time its trade is almost en-
tirely with Charleston. The harbor should be good;
but the entrance is difficult for larger vessels, from a
bar giving no more than 9-10 ft. water. Larger ships
must consequently first lighten cargo at Brunswick, a
little place 16 miles from here, lying nearer the mouth
of the river. Nine miles below Brunswick, on Cape Fear
so much dreaded by mariners, stands or rather stood,
Fort Johnson, erected long ago for covering the ap-
proach; both this and Brunswick are now almost
wholly demolished and deserted.
While on the road to Wilmington I heard mention
of a place by the name of Rocky-point, on the Cape
146
TRAVELS IN THE CONFEDERATION
Fear river. Merely the name must excite attention,
since from the general nature of this country, a rocky
point suggested something unlooked-for, something
strange. But at Wilmington I soon found the ex-
planation. This town is situated on the deep-cut banks
of the river; behind and around, the land lies higher,
the continuation, that is, of the general sand-surface,
here broken by hollows formed by the river and
several other smaller streams. Near to the town, and
hard by the water, there are apparent at the surface
several beds of shell-stone, many feet in thickness;
covered with a bed of white, pure sand in which no
strata were plainly to be observed. The shell-bed is
thus laid bare at the river-side, and consists of a stone
for the most part hard, here and there clearly stratified.
It is altogether made up of the same sorts of cockles
and shells as that mentioned at York in Virginia.
They are more or less crushed, particularly in the
deepest layers; higher up, a good many are to be seen
whole among those broken, and quite at the top they
are not so closely associated, but mixed with sand,
reddish clay, and, now and then, small rounded peb-
bles. In places where the harder rock has been ex-
posed to the air and the current, there are many hollow
spots among the shells and fragments, the sand or
other binding parts having been washed out. In the
middle of this rock-bank there appears a layer which
is distinct in hardness and purer whiteness, and might
almost be taken for white marble were it not for the
very small crevices among the shell-fragments, here
very small themselves. Now and again there were
plainly to be seen entire impressions of the flat sea-
star (Echinus Orbiculus L.).
NORTH CAROLINA
147
There grew on the rocks Acrostichum polypodioides
and Asplenium rhizophyllum L.
The day after our arrival we attended a public
auction held in front of the Court-house. House-
leases for a year were offered for sale, and very in-
different houses in the market street, because advanta-
geously placed for trade, were let for 60, 100, and
150 Pd. annual rent.
After this, negroes were let for 12 months to the
highest bidder, by public cry as well. A whole family,
man, wife, and 3 children, were hired out at 70 Pd. a
year; and others singly, at 25, 30, 35 Pd., according to
age, strength, capability, and usefulness. In North
Carolina it is reckoned in the average that a negro
should bring his master about 30 Pd. Current a year
(180 fl. Rhenish). In the West Indies the clear profit
which the labor of a negro brings his master, is esti-
mated at 25-30 guineas, and in Virginia, according to
the nature of the land, at 10-12-15 guineas a year.
The keep of a negro here does not come to a great
figure, since the daily ration is but a quart of maize,
and rarely a little meat or salted fish. Only those
negroes kept for house-service are better cared for.
Well-disposed masters clothe their negroes once a
year, and give them a suit of coarse woollen cloth, two
rough shirts, and a pair of shoes. But they who have
the largest droves keep them the worst, let them run
naked mostly or in rags, and accustom them as much
as possible to hunger, but exact of them steady work.
Whoever hires a negro, gives on the spot a bond for
the amount, to be paid at the end of the term, even
should the hired negro fall sick or run off in the mean-
time. The hirer must also pay the negro's head-tax,
148
TRAVELS IN THE CONFEDERATION
feed him and clothe him. Hence a negro is capital,
put out at a very high interest, but because of elope-
ment and death certainly very unstable.
Other negroes were sold and at divers prices, from
120 to 160 and 180 Pd., and thus at 4-5 to 6 times the
average annual hire. Their value is determined by
age, health, and capacity. A cooper, indispensable in
pitch and tar making, cost his purchaser 250 Pd., and
his 15-year old boy, bred to the same work, fetched
150 Pd. The father was put up first; his anxiety lest
his son fall to another purchaser and be separated
from him was more painful than his fear of getting
into the hands of a hard master. "Who buys me, he
was continually calling out, "must buy my son too,"
and it happened as he desired, for his purchaser, if not
from motives of humanity and pity, was for his own
advantage obliged so to do. An elderly man and his
wife were let go at 200 Pd. But these poor creatures
are not always so fortunate; often the husband is
snatched from his wife, the children from their
mother, if this better answers the purpose of buyer or
seller, and no heed is given the doleful prayers with
which they seek to prevent a separation.
One cannot without pity and sympathy see these
poor creatures exposed on a raised platform, to be
carefully examined and felt by buyers. Sorrow and
despair are discovered in their look, and they must
anxiously expect whether they are to fall to a hard-
hearted barbarian or a philanthropist. If negresses
are put up, scandalous and indecent questions and
jests are permitted. The auctioneer is at pains to en-
large upon the strength, beauty, health, capacity,
faithfulness, and sobriety of his wares, so as to obtain
NORTH CAROLINA
149
prices so much the higher. On the other hand the
negroes auctioned zealously contradict everything good
that is said about them; complain of their age, long-
standing misery or sickness, and declare that pur-
chasers will be selling themselves in buying them, that
they are worth no such high bids: because they know
well that the dearer their cost, the more work will be
required of them.
For the betterment of the condition of this class of
mankind especially the Quakers in America have for a
long time worked, but in vain. Only recently one of
them, a member of the Virginia Assembly, had cour-
age and philanthropy enough to make a public pro-
posal for freeing the negro slaves; but this time he did
not succeed.* However, while the Quakers have been
*“In Virginia the slavery of the negroes is now effectively
"annulled; no more black slaves may be imported; schools
"have been established for their instruction, and societies
"formed to protect them against the severities of their mas-
"ters. And in Pensylvania all negro slaves have been declared
free, born in the province since the Declaration of Inde-
'pendence.
For a good many years the spreading abroad of more fa-
vorable opinions regarding the negroes has been effected chiefly
by Anthony Benezet's A short Representation of the calami-
tous State of the enslaved Negroes in the British Dominions.
Philadelph. 1766. 8; and Dr Rush's Address to the Inhabitants
of the British Settlements in America upon Slave-keeping.
Philadelphia. 1773. 8. Both spoke out, and were for the
rights of humanity and freedom for the negroes;-shortly
other writings and articles followed, which supported and
made better known the position (at first criticized) of these
high-minded and philanthropical men. Since that time the
betterment of the condition of the negroes has been had con-
stantly in view,-and it appears now that the effects so long
desired are working.
150
TRAVELS IN THE CONFEDERATION
looking forward to a time when the civil powers
should give ear to their repeated philanthropical repre-
sentations, and by general ordinances entirely do away
with the thraldom of the Africans, individual members
of their society have held it a matter of conscience to
encourage others by example to so praiseworthy an
end. But their benevolent and noble purposes have
commonly been thwarted by the corrupt state of mind
prevalent among the negroes themselves, a result due
to nothing but their rude bringing-up and the absolute
neglect of their instruction. A rich old Quaker, who
lives near Richmond in Virginia, gave all his slaves
their freedom, but under the condition that they
should remain with him and work for very fair day's
wages. All of them solemnly promised, but as soon
as they had got their free papers, most of them left
him. Another rich Virginia Quaker set his negroes
free likewise, and gave each family a bit of land on
which they could support themselves, paying annual
rent like other tenants; this indeed they began to do,
but no longer feeling under strict oversight, and moral
and religious principles (of which they knew nothing)
not keeping them in order, to which they had pre-
viously been accustomed by force alone, the good
Quaker's designs were not carried out, and he soon
saw his lands and himself deserted of his free negroes.
One hears of many such instances, + cited to prove that
the negroes generally are incapable of making any
good use of freedom, and to support the quite un-
grounded opinion that they are destined by nature for
servitude. But as many examples might be given of
free negroes who live decently, orderly, and indus-
triously; and that so much may not be said of all of
NORTH CAROLINA
151
them, and certainly it may not, is to be explained solely
on the ground of the great and intentional neglect of
the education of their children; and the disposition to
indolence, thievery, and untruth laid to their charge is
the inevitable consequence of slavery. They are let
grow up like other cattle, and taught no rule but the
will of their master, have no motive to action other
than the whip. It is said that the negro is by nature
trifling, and can be accustomed to work only by com-
pulsion and rigid oversight, and hence, if left to him-
self, would be nothing but a useless member of the
community and a burden therein. It is very likely that
the African, blessed at home by kind Nature with
almost everything he needs for his support, has
brought with him thence no great inclination for
severe and painfully continuous labor; but no good
reason can be given why the negro, forcibly trans-
ferred to America, should do zealously and with pleas-
ure what the American planter himself does not like
to do why the one, in the sweat of his brow and on
very scant rations, should till the fields so that the
other may spend his days in peace and good-living.
"Were I to defend the rights of Europeans to make
"the negroes their slaves, says Montesquieu, I could
give only these reasons: The Europeans, having
driven out and exterminated the native Americans, are
compelled to bring the Africans under the yoke in
"order to till such great tracts of land. Sugar, indigo,
rice, &c. would be too dear if produced otherwise than
"by bondmen. These creatures are so black and their
noses are so flat, it is impossible to compassionate
“them. It is difficult of belief that a wise and good
"Creator should have placed a soul, much less a
66
152
TRAVELS IN THE CONFEDERATION
""
worthy soul, in such black, ugly bodies. The negroes
think beads of greater value than gold,—which
"plainly shows that they are unreasoning beings.*
"It is not possible we should regard these creatures.
as men, for so we make ourselves no Christians."
Montesquieu has here said everything that the de-
fenders of negro slavery are wont to say, whether
clearly or ambiguously.
The Cape Fear river divides at Wilmington into the
n. east branch and the n. west branch, which receive
the Deep river, Haw river, and many other streams.
The North-east branch, under different names, extends
far into the interior of the country, and is navigable by
boat to Cross Creek, 100 miles from here. The straight
road from Wilmington to South Carolina lies through
a swampy region; the war had left the bridges useless,
and we were obliged to go some miles up the North-
west Branch by boat, to avoid the swamp. The low
banks of the river were grown up on both sides with
reeds and canes; closest in were the smaller varieties
of evergreen bush, beyond which stood the higher
evergreen trees: magnolias, laurels, Hopea, Gordona
Lasianthus, and the like, their green a pleasant pros-
pect. Amongst this green grew splendid oaks, water-
* For the truth of the matter, not to be questioned without
valid grounds, "that the negroes, as regards their natural
capacities and powers of mind, are in no way inferior to the
"rest of the human species," See Prof. Blumenbach's re-
marks on the negro in Magazin zur Physik und Naturge-
schichte, IV, No. 3, 4.-An impartial, unprejudiced observer
might assemble among the American negro slaves, notwith-
standing their unfavorable situation, numerous instances in
support of this undeniable truth.
NORTH CAROLINA
153
shrubs, Tupalos, tulip-trees, and others, the Tillandsia
hanging in long filaments from their wide-spreading
branches, and a number of climbing plants woven
everywhere on trunk and limbs-but at the time, un-
fortunately, most of them were leafless and quite with-
out blooms. The morning of this passage it was bitter
cold, felt all the more because it was necessary to keep
very still in the little open boat. The negroes rowing
kept warm at their work, but none the less they had
brought along a few chips with which they studiously
kept up a little fire, of no use to them except for the
pleasure of seeing it burn. They love fire above
everything and take it with them whatever they are
about, in the field, in the woods, on the water, and
that too at the hottest time of the year. From the
plantation where we were landed, (and where for two
Spanish dollars cash we had bad tea, worse sugar, no
milk, tough beef, and little bread), we came 10 miles,
by a long labyrinthine woods-road, to Town Creek,
and thence 37 miles of uniform forest, past Lock-
wood's Folly and Shallot Bridge, to Murray's house at
the South Carolina line. The whole way from Wil-
mington we remarked scarcely 8 or 9 houses.
This road described, which took us through North
Carolina, runs near to the coast and is therefore called
the lower road. The country does not certainly ap-
pear to the best advantage here, but from the character
of this region one must not form an opinion of the
whole. Inwards from the sea-shore, for 80-100 miles,
the land is uniformly a sand-slope, as in Virginia,
South Carolina, and Georgia. The higher and more
barren parts of this surface are occupied by the im-
mense pine-forests, and called therefore 'dry pine
WorM
11
154
TRAVELS IN THE CONFEDERATION
ridges,' or 'pine barrens.' In the lower parts of the
forests everywhere are 'evergreen or laurel swamps,'
and along the rivers and brooks there are very gen-
erally 'cane-marshes,' among which must be counted
the 'savannahs,' very low tracts subject to overflow,
where only canes, rush, and sedge come up, but trees
and bush very rarely. Farther inland, especially above
the falls of the Roanoke, Tar, and Neus rivers, the
country has a different look, swelling into hills and
mountains; the valleys are well watered and rich in
grass; the soil is fatter and more productive; the air
wholesomer; oaks, walnuts, and other leaf-trees push
out the pines; and these parts are inferior in beauty
and fertility to none in America. The pleasant banks
of the Dan, the Yadkin, the Holston, and other rivers,
are set with numerous plantations and dwellings.
Pitch and tar-making are no longer followed, because
there are other kinds of trees there, and the soil being
better gives guaranty of heavier yields in tobacco,
hemp, wheat, and corn. In this part of the province
there are already many little country-towns, such as
Salisbury, Hillsborough, Campbellton, and others;
plans have been made and good sites chosen for many
new towns, and the country now once more at peace,
these will hasten to arise. The Moravian Brethren have
notable settlements at Bethania, Bethabara, and Salem,
and here too are distinguished above the other in-
habitants for their industry and diligence in agricul-
ture and the crafts. A service which is recognized by
most of their fellow-citizens but tempts very few of
them to imitation.
Among the inhabitants, particularly of the back
NORTH CAROLINA
155
country, are very many German families;* mainly
from the Palatinate and Salzburgers; the most of them
have gradually worked down from the more northern
provinces, and one may believe that they have every-
where found out the best lands.
Near to the mountains, and surrounded by European.
settlements, there are still a few families of Indians,
of the Catawba tribe; a district of 12 square miles is
made over to them, beyond which they are not to pass,
nor are they to be molested therein by their neighbors.
Among the mountain-ranges which extend through
North Carolina, continuations of the great North
American mountain-chain, the Tryon, Arrarat, Carra-
way, and Moravian mountains are especially distinct.
Beyond the mountains, to the west, the limits of
North Carolina reach to the Ohio and the Mississippi,
and there also many new settlements are gradually
establishing.
CC
* The Germans in North Carolina are for the most part of
the Lutheran faith. "From published accounts it is learned
that several Helmstadt Professors, at the instance of the
Evangelical minister in North Carolina, Mr. Adolph Nüss-
mann, have become associated in the preparation of a series
"of school-books for the German youth in that province.
"From the profits to be expected, they hope to pay the
passage to Charleston of 2-3 Evangelical ministers, furnished
with a good supply of books presented. It is their purpose
to put together seven books, arranged on a common plan,
of which the first has appeared, (Katechismus und Frage-
"buch, Leipzig 1787) Allg. Litt. Zeit. 1788, No. 8"-North
Carolina was most indifferently supplied with schools and
educational establishments; but after the Peace the govern-
ment was beginning already to give especial attention to educa-
tion and the furtherance of good public schools.
South Carolina.
We found no sort of reason to speak well of our
first tavern in South Carolina, either for comfort or
charges. For a little bacon and tea, a night's lodging,
corn and corn-fodder for our horses the hostess, to
make an even reckoning, asked for 3 horses and 3
riders, head for head a piastre, or 6 Spanish dollars in
all (14 fl. 24 kr. Rhenish). The night was very cold;
what with the rain of the day before, and the night's
snow, in the morning everything, earth and trees, was
covered with a thin coating of ice. We saw nothing
but sand and pine-woods for 16 miles, until we came
to a few cabins and then to the plantation of Mr.
Vareen. Notwithstanding we arrived here early, the
weather being bad as also the state of the road before
us, we were obliged to spend the rest of the day, hav-
ing 26 miles to ride before reaching the next human
habitation. At Mr. Vareen's we saw for the first time
the staple South Carolina dish, rice in place of bread;
for such use it is baked compact and dry, a pound of
rice to two pounds of water, so that it may be cut in
the dish. Customarily no other sort of bread is seen
in the country, and the inhabitants of these southern
provinces are so used to rice that now and then it is
served in this form in towns, and is preferred to
bread. For a change, small, thin cakes are baked,
either of rice alone or mixed with maize, and served
warm. For the people of the hither Carolinian
country rice is the most important food and for their
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157
negroes almost the only food. The lands of our host,
being dryer and sandier, were not suitable for the
culture of rice; therefore he occupies himself chiefly
with Indigo.
They have sundry varieties of indigo; but in this
flat, sandy region that which is best and most profitable
is called, to distinguish it from the other sorts, 'false
Guatimala or 'true Bahama.' It does well on soil of
a moderate fertility, but if circumstances allow, new
land is used or that previously dunged. A few pre-
pare the land for indigo by green manuring, that is,
they put on very thin seedings of oats or wheat, and
when nearly ripe turn in horses and cattle to eat it off
and firm it together.
The seed is planted after the first rainy weather in
March or April, in rows 12-2 ft. apart, the plant
growing almost that high. When towards the begin-
ning of July the lowermost leaves grow yellow and
begin to fall, and the blooms commence opening, the
plant is regarded as ripe for cutting, which is done a
second time about the end of August, and if it is a
warm fall a third cutting may be had towards the end
of September. In order that the work of cutting may
be done forehandedly, and not hurried on account of
the quantity to be handled at any one time, fields are
sown so as to come in at distinct intervals. The
plant should not grow over-ripe. Indigo-fields re-
quire much attention, and must be diligently kept
clean of caterpillars and weeds. Some 20 negroes
are necessary to look after a plantation of 50 acres of
indigo land and prepare the indigo, over and above
what must be done in raising what they themselves
and the planter's household need. In cutting and
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TRAVELS IN THE CONFEDERATION
gathering, the herb must be gingerly dealt with, so
that the blueish farina, which covers the leaves and is
said to add much to the richness and beauty of the
color, may not be rubbed off; nor should the plant
be bruised, for if so, its heavy juices spoil the delicacy
of the color, which must be got merely by fermenta-
tion of the unmangled plants steeped in water. To
this end, they are carefully placed in a vessel, the
steeper,' 10-15 ft. long and 4 ft. deep, the plants
lying 12-15 inches deep, over which water is poured;
according to the state of the weather; after 12-18
hours the plants begin to warm of themselves, swell-
ing and fermenting; the time of the greatest and most
complete fermentation must be carefully observed;
the method in use is to place a thin stick over the
mass which rises as it rises, but should the mass fall
below the point where the staff is propped at the sides.
of the vessel, it is then time to let off the water into
another vessel called the 'beater.' In this vessel the
water, charged with the color-particles thrown off in
the steeper by fermentation, is by a peculiar process
beaten until it begins to foam and rise over the sides,
which happens according to the warmth of the
weather in 25-30 minutes, more or less. To check a
too vehement overflow of the material a little oil is
poured on, which has an immediate quieting effect.
This beating of the water furthers the association of
the color-particles contained in a dissolved state; so as
not to miss the point of time when this begins to take
place, a few drops of the beaten water are at intervals
taken on the finger-nail, on a tin plate, or in a glass,
and so soon as a blue shimmer is observed, or blueish
particles show themselves, this process also must be
SOUTH CAROLINA
159
discontinued. There is then, with a gentle stirring a
proportionate quantity of lime-water poured on, which
brings about the precipitation of the indigo; when
this is fallen to the consistency of a thick broth, the
water standing above (now clear) is drawn off, and
the sediment put into bags and hung up, until the
moisture has largely come away. Finally this mass is
taken out of the bags, kneaded on boards and wooden
spades, divided into little cakes, and thoroughly dried,
regard being had to the morning and evening sun.
The preparation of indigo, which here and there is
carried on with certain variations, is on the whole a
chemical process requiring the most careful and exact
attention in all its parts, the essential depending al-
ways on the right use of the proper moment, at which
this or that should be done: The quality of the indigo.
is as much due to the exactness of its preparation as
to the nature of the plant, of the soil, and of the
weather. Hence indigo planters have not always
equally good fortune, and often lose by the unskilful-
ness, malice, or carelessness of their head-men and
workmen, much or the whole of a crop. The head-
men in this sort of work are commonly negroes, and
if they thoroughly understand the management of the
indigo, a great value is set upon them, and they often
fetch two or three times as much as they would ordi-
narily.
In the average it is expected that an acre of land
will yield 50 pounds of indigo, but very good land
60-70 pounds. Sundry marks determine the quality
of the indigo in the eyes of those skilled; its lighter or
darker, even and pure color, and the fineness of its
particles, are exterior indications by which the prac-
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TRAVELS IN THE CONFEDERATION
ticed eye fixes the value; besides, the best sort must
float in water and quite dissolve, and in the fire be
consumed entirely; the more it departs from these
peculiarities, the less good and genuine it is held to
be. After rice, indigo is the chief staple of Carolina,
and the yearly production and export reaches several
100,000 pounds' weight. Its cultivation may and will
increase, since there is no lack of suitable land, nor is
any great capital necessary for a first beginning. At
Charleston a pound at this time, according to its con-
dition, brings 3-5-7 shillings sterling; but neither in
quality nor in price is the South Carolina indigo equal
to that from the Mississippi, the West Indies, or
South America. Besides that mentioned as most
usually raised, the false Guatimala,' there is cultiva-
ted here and there in Carolina the French or His-
paniola Indigo, which however does not do so well,
because more susceptible to cold, and on account of its
deep roots demanding a fatter and richer soil. A
third sort is called wild Indigo (Amorpha fruticosa
L.); an indigenous growth, regarding the quality of
which opinion is not yet settled, but from its easier cul-
tivation and greater productivity this should be pref-
erable to both the others.
C
At Mr. Vareen's house I saw the skin of a female
red tiger or cuguar (Felis concolor Linn), which had
been brought down in the neighborhood a few days
before. The length of the stripped, and now some-
what shrunken, skin was over five foot from the muz-
zle to the beginning of the tail, the tail itself some-
what more than three foot long. The back, the sides,
and the head were uniformly fallow, nearly fawn-
colored, but the flanks and the belly whitish grey.
SOUTH CAROLINA
161
The individual hairs were of one color throughout.
The end of the tail verged somewhat on black, but the
rest of the tail was of the color of the body. A paw
had been preserved; the claws were crooked and very
strong, but there were no bony cases, (as with other
varieties of this species), into which they might be
withdrawn; they stood free, but so that they could be
out-stretched and bent upwards and backwards. Sev-
eral of the negroes ate of the flesh of the animal, and
found it not at all distasteful. The man who killed it
came almost upon it in the woods, before he observed
it; it fled before him from tree to tree, until he could
bring it down with his gun.
These animals are nowhere plentiful this side the
mountains, and are hardly to be met with except in
the most solitary forests of Virginia and Carolina.
They are everywhere regarded as timid, and it is
claimed that there are no instances where men have
been attacked by them. They venture very rarely into
settled parts; in the woods they find prey enough
among the tame and wild herds, for which they lurk
from among the trees.
Shortly before, a bear had been killed in this region,
no less than 7 ft. 4 in. in length, and weighing 500
pounds; evidence that predacious animals find abun-
dant nourishment here; bears in the northern provinces
do not reach this size.
Proceeding from the last-named plantation, after a
few miles of woods-road, one comes to the so-called
Long Bay or Beach. Here for 16 miles the common
highway runs very near the shore. Lonely and deso-
late as this part of the road is, without shade and with
no dwellings in sight, it is by no means a tedious road.
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TRAVELS IN THE CONFEDERATION
The number of shells washed up, sponges, corals, sea-
grasses and weeds, medusae, and many other ocean-
products which strew the beach, engage and excite the
attention of the traveller at every step. Circumstances
did not admit of our tarrying here at pleasure, how-
ever, we industriously collected whatever seemed to us
notable. This beach-road consisted for the most part
of shell-sand, coarse or fine, with very few, often no
quartz-grains. So far as the otherwise loose sand is
moistened by the play of the waves it forms an ex-
tremely smooth and firm surface, hardly showing
hoof-marks. At a distance of perhaps 30-50 paces
from the water, there runs parallel with it a line of low
sand-swells, 3-6 ft. high and averaging 8-10 ft. across.
Towards the sea these undulations were cut away
almost perpendicularly, but on the other side were
sloping and sparsely grown up with thin grass and bush.
These sand-swells which the ocean itself seems to have
set as its limit, were notwithstanding broken through
here and there, and the land lying immediately behind
was much ravaged as a result of occasional overflow.
The road leaving the beach, which extends far away
of a similar character, one again traverses gloomy and
lonesome woods to the neighborhood of the Waccama
or Waggomangh, and beyond, by a narrow tongue of
land between that river and the ocean, to Winguah
Bay. The Waggomangh is one of the rivers most
advantageous for these southern parts; it flows.
through a considerable tract of the interior country,
and is navigable for large freight-boats. Shortly be-
fore its entrance into the ocean, it unites with the Pedee
and the Black rivers, and they together make the
fore-mentioned Winguah Bay.
SOUTH CAROLINA
163
On this Bay lies Georgetown, that is, at the mouth
of the Black river. This place is said to have con-
tained formerly 200 houses, of which the greater part
were burned during the war by friends as well as foes.
The situation is convenient for shipping and trade,
and the town is therefore the depot of all the produce
raised by the plantations on the neighboring rivers.
It is the capital of the District of the same name, its
distance from Charleston being 65 miles. We saw
this town only from afar, having been landed several
miles below it, on crossing the Bay. Twelve miles
farther we had the North and South Santee to pass,
which in this region are separated merely by a low,
marshy island, half a mile wide but several miles long.
This island, like all swampy spots on the rivers, was
quite covered with evergreen bush, but a plant in
bloom was nowhere to be seen. Here stood the canes
already mentioned, and of an astonishing length; I saw
many of them 36-40 ft. high, and single shoots or
joints 10-12-15 inches long, and proportionately thick.
The Santee at its mouth is of a considerable breadth;
the rivers Catawba, Congaree, and Wateree unite with
it. The remainder of the road to Charleston was as
little remarkable as that which went before, the way
lying through barren, flat, sandy pine-forests, seldom
a house or a cabin to rejoice the eye, since everything
is crowded near to or on the rivers, or where there is
water. Finally, on the 14th of January, we reached
Bolton's Ferry, opposite Charleston, and were that
evening set over the Bay, three miles wide, to the city.
It was a pleasure to us to see our journey from Phila-
delphia hither now happily ended, for in the present
condition of the country, and at this dismal time of the
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TRAVELS IN THE CONFEDERATION
year, travelling was beginning to be very disagreeable
and inconvenient. However, the uniformity of the
regions we had traversed had this effect, that even on
first entering it, the agreeable and lively aspect of this
city made upon us the most pleasing and cheerful
impression.
Charleston is one of the finest of American cities;
Philadelphia excepted, it is inferior to none, and I
know not whether, from its vastly more cheerful and
pleasing plan, it may not deserve first place, even if it
is not the equal of Philadelphia in size and population.
The city contains a number of tasteful and elegant
buildings, which however are mostly of timber. This
circumstance is explained in part by the natural
scarceness of stone in, this region; but there seems no
reason why bricks might not be used here for building
quite as well as at Philadelphia and New York, since
nowhere are better materials to be had, or in greater
plenty. The number of the houses is estimated to be
about 1500. In the plan of the houses especial regard
is had to airy and cool rooms. Most of the houses
have spacious yards and gardens, and the kitchen is
always placed in a separate building, the custom
throughout the southern provinces, to avoid the heat
and the danger of fire. The chief streets are wide,
straight, and cross at right angles; but they are not
paved, and hence give rise to a double inconvenience,
in rainy and in dusty weather. The greatest length of
the city is little short of a mile.
Its situation is 32° 40′ n. latitude, and 83° 40′ w.
longitude, on a point of land between the Cowper and
the Ashley rivers, the spot where Captain Sayle landed
the first planters in the year 1669, settling there with
SOUTH CAROLINA
165
them because, for fear of the savages, they dared not
strike farther inland. A plan for the building of a
magnificent city was sketched and sent over by the
Lords Proprietors, to whom King Charles the Second
had assigned the province of Carolina, but so far this
has not been fully carried out.
Both the rivers named are navigable, but for trad-
ing-vessels only the Cowper as much as 20 miles above
the city. Merchant-men find commodious and safe
anchorage between the city and a little island in the
Cowper river. This part of the river is called the
Bay, and along this side of the city the shore is fur-
nished with excellent wharves of cabbage-trees. The
entrance to the harbor is made more difficult by a bar
which ships of more than 200 tons cannot pass without
lightening cargo. The advantageous site of the city
has not been neglected in its fortification; towards the
land side as well as at the south-western point there
have long been regular works of masonry, which dur-
ing the war were considerably increased and improved
both by the Americans and the English, but are now
again fallen to decay. On the landside the city has
but one approach, protected by a gate with several
walled defences of oyster-shells and lime. Among the
public buildings of the city the handsome State-house,
the Main-guard opposite, the Bourse, and the two
churches, St. Philipp and St. Michael, are conspicuous,
all designed after good plans. Two lines of framed
barracks, for the one-time English garrisons are not
at present made use of. The tower of St. Michael's
church is 190 feet high, and has long served as land-
mark for incoming ships. It was formerly painted.
white; the American Commodore Whipple hit upon
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TRAVELS IN THE CONFEDERATION
the idea of painting it black on the side towards the
sea whence it can be seen very far, so as to make it
invisible to British ships, whose visits were dreaded.
But the result so far from being that desired was di-
rectly the opposite, for in clear weather the black side
is far more distinct, and on gloomy, cloudy days it is
seen quite as far and appears, if anything, larger than
before.
There is a German Lutheran congregation here,
with its own church and minister, but it it not very
numerous.
The name of the city, since the last peace, has been
changed from Charlestown to Charleston, and at the
same time its rank, that of a Town until then, made
that of a City. By the English rule those towns only
are called cities which have a Bishop and are incor-
porated, or those which exercise their own granted
privileges under the presidency of a Mayor and other
officers and use a special city-seal. A bishop Charles-
ton has not, but the dignity of a Mayor, called Super-
intendent, has been given it under this elevation of
rank conferred by the Provincial Assembly.
The number of the inhabitants was formerly reck-
oned at 10-12000, of which half or probably two thirds
were blacks, but at present it is not possible to say
exactly what the number is, since no precise baptismal
or death lists are kept. The population, besides, has
considerably diminished both by voluntary emigration
and by the banishment of many of the most estimable
citizens of the royalist party. But certainly the num-
ber of the white inhabitants is greatly less than that
of the blacks, browns, and yellows to be seen here of
all shades. In winter the city is less active than in
SOUTH CAROLINA
167
summer.
About Christmas most of the families re-
tire to their country-seats, and spend there the greater
part of what remains of the winter. One reason for this
is that at that festival season the negroes are allowed
somewhat more liberty, and fearing they might use it
in a bad way, the proprietors deem it well to be pres-
ent themselves and at the same time look after the
progress of their plantation affairs. With the coming
of the sweltry summer days all that can hasten back
to town. The nearness of the sea and the cooler winds
blowing thence make summer in the city pleasanter
and wholesomer than farther inland among woods and
swamps.
The manners of the inhabitants of Charleston are as
different from those of the other North American
cities as are the products of their soil. The profitable
rice and indigo plantations are abundant sources of
wealth for many considerable families, who therefore
give themselves to the enjoyment of every pleasure
and convenience to which their warmer climate and
better circumstances invite them. Throughout, there
prevails here a finer manner of life, and on the whole.
there are more evidences of courtesy than in the north-
ern cities. I had already been told this at Phila-
delphia, and I found it to be the case; just as in gen-
eral on the way hither, the farther I travelled from
Pensylvania towards the southern country, there were
to be observed somewhat more pleasing manners
among the people, at least there was absent the un-
bearable curiosity of the common sort, which in the
more northern regions extends to shamelessness and
exhausts all patience. There is courtesy here, with-
out punctiliousness, stiffness, or formality. It has
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TRAVELS IN THE CONFEDERATION
long been nothing extraordinary for the richer in-
habitants to send their children of both sexes to
Europe for their education. The effect of this on
manners must be all the greater and more general
since there were neither domestic circumstances to
stand in the way nor particular religious principles, as
among the Presbyterians of New England or the
Quakers of Pensylvania, to check the enjoyment of
good-living. So luxury in Carolina has made the
greatest advance, and their manner of life, dress,
equipages, furniture, everything denotes a higher de-
gree of taste and love of show, and less frugality than
in the northern provinces. They had their own play-
house, in which itinerant companies from time to time
entertained the public, but it was burned some time
ago. A like misfortune overtook an elegant dancing-
hall. A French dancing master was the promoter of
this building; the necessary amount was advanced him
by the first minister of the town who not only had no
hesitation in a matter of furthering the pleasure of his
parishioners, but afterwards when the property fell to
him, the Frenchman being unable to return the loan,
made no scruple of receiving the rent; whereas in the
New England states the bare thought of such a thing
would have disgraced any minister. Pleasures of
every kind are known, loved, and enjoyed here.
There are publick concerts, at this time mainly under
the direction of German and English musicians left
behind by the army, for as yet few of the natives care
greatly for music or understand it. A liking for ex-
clusive private societies, Clubs so-called, prevails here
very generally. There are as many as 20 different
Clubs, and most of the residents are members of more
SOUTH CAROLINA
169
than one. These social unions give themselves strange
names at times, as: Mount Sion Society, Hell-fire
Club, Marine Anti-Britannic Society, Smoaking So-
ciety, and the like. All the games usual in England
are in vogue here. As regards dress, the English
taste is closely followed; also the clergy and civil
officers wear the garb customary in England. The
ladies bestow much attention upon their dress, and
spare no cost to obtain the newest modes from Europe.
Milliners and hair-dressers do well here and grow
rich.
Charleston, at sundry times and by opposite ele-
ments, has been threatened with complete destruction.
A great part of the town has several times gone up in
fire, and with a loss of considerable stores of mer-
chants' wares. Again, violent and lasting hurricanes
have seemed as if certain to destroy the place. The
low situation of the town exposes it, if north-east
storms hold somewhat long, to the danger of furious
overflow, these winds checking the northwestern
course of the gulf-stream flowing along the coast
from the Mexican gulf, and driving it and other
water of the ocean against the flat coast of Carolina.
From the same causes also the two rivers flowing by
the town are checked, and in a very brief space the
water often rises to an incredible height.
In the item of weather Carolina is subject to the
same changes as the rest of the eastern coast of North
America; warmth and cold, fair and rainy days are
the effects or consequences of the winds. The North-
west spreads cold over this southern region as over
all the coast besides. In January and February 1784,
the time of my stay at Charleston, the weather was
12
A
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almost regularly cyclical, as follows: North-east
winds brought cloudy weather and rain-until, com-
monly, the wind changed of a sudden to north-west,
and there was clear, dry weather; if the wind held in
this quarter or blew strong, there was more or less
cold.*
The north-wester is generally followed by
milder winds from the West, which gradually work
more around to the South, until finally the winds are
hardly perceptible from the South, or there is calm,
during which time the weather is fine and warm as a
rule, until the wind rises again from the east or the
north-east, the weather changing in a similar way.
This same succession of winds and weather holds
pretty well throughout eastern North America, if
there is no disturbance from extraordinary causes.
The north-east winds always rise first in those parts
most to the south, and show their effects later and
later in the more northern provinces. One may con-
vince himself of this by following every account given
in the publick prints of violent storms from that quar-
ter and the damage done shipping along the entire
coast; it will be found that a north-east storm is re-
marked earliest in Carolina or Virginia, then in Pen-
sylvania, next in New York, and often a day later, or
even more, in New England. + Towards the end of
January and in February we had this year mostly very
cold weather. The thermometer often fell to 24, 26,
*"For Carolina and Florida higher mountains would be of
“advantage and a protection against the cold north-west
"winds." Molina, Storia naturale del Chili.-For more re-
garding the state of the air, winds, and climate of South Caro-
lina, Vid. Chalmers, Account of the weather & diseases of
S. Carolina; Preface.
SOUTH CAROLINA
171
28, and almost every morning it was at least 32 by
Fahrenheit. But this was an extraordinarily cold
winter, of no common severity also in the higher mid-
dle provinces-on the other hand, the most northern
regions, as Nova Scotia and Canada, enjoyed a winter
quite as uncommonly mild. Here at Charleston there
was ice to be seen every morning on shallow water and
ponds, and in the houses. The poor negroes, who can
bear cold by no means well, crept about stiff and slug-
gish, whereas in the hottest weather, when the Euro-
pean is relaxed without strength, they are brisk and in-
dustrious. But of snow there was none; however in
the year 1776 it fell a foot deep, and lay nearly a week.
Chalmers, from 10 years' observations, gives the low-
est station of the quicksilver at 18 Fahrenh. and the
highest at 101 in the shade; but he mentions that the
quicksilver had once been known to fall as low as 10
Fahrenh.; certainly extraordinary for so southern a
place. Such cold and frosty days are rarer in cus-
tomary winters, and never hold long without a change
to warm days; at any rate, only the evenings and
mornings are so cold, the midday sun soon giving the
atmosphere a pleasant warmth. During these cold
days of January and February, in the neighborhood of
Charleston not an indigenous plant was to be seen in
bloom; for in this climate spring does not really come
before the middle of March or the beginning of April.
But in sundry gardens the following European plants
might be found greening and blooming :-Alsine
media-Lamium amplexicaule,-Leontodon Taraxa-
cum,-Rumex crispus & Acetosa, Poa annua,—Vi-
tica dioica and Sonchus arvensis. Of garden-flowers
there were blooming at this time narcissuses and jon-
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TRAVELS IN THE CONFEDERATION
quils. Also the orange-trees, which are everywhere
in the houses and in the open in gardens, seemed to be
standing the severe weather pretty well; they were
full of fruit and burgeons. But often they are frozen,
and this is not seldom the case even to the south, at
Pensacola in Florida. There it has been found at last
by experience that the best means of guarding these
trees against the injurious effect of great winter-cold
or northwest weather, is to take away the earth from
their roots at the approach of winter, exposing the
whole tree so that all its parts may be subject to the
same temperature. Not one tree died that was han-
dled thus; but those from which the earth had not
been removed from the roots cracked and died. A
palm-tree, 7-8 feet high, standing out in a garden,
suffered from this weather and its leaves hung slack.
Several other trees from warmer regions, such as
Croton sebiferum, Sapindus Saponaria &c, which
hitherto had withstood the cold well in the open, it was
feared would this time hardly escape damage. These
and other tender plants which Carolina has in common
with the West Indies, either naturally or from trans-
plantation, thrive only on the sea-coast where in com-
parison with the inland country milder and more tem-
perate weather prevails generally. Some 60-80 miles
inland from Charleston snow was seen to fall during
this time more than once. The variable winter-
weather often gives rise to inflammatory diseases
which at other times are less frequent in this region,
and require bleedings neither powerful nor often
repeated. Carolina is in the spring a paradise, in
the summer a hell, and in the autumn a hospital.
The more oppressive months are June, July, and
SOUTH CAROLINA
173
August, during which the Fahrenh. thermometer com-
monly stands anywhere from 70 to 90°, and not sel-
dom rises to 96 and more. The summer-heat, in itself,
is more overpowering on account of the calms usual
at that season and the little circulation of the air. To
be sure, few summer-days pass without violent thun-
der-storms to set the air in motion and for a short
time cooling it, but the pleasant effect is soon gone and
the oppressive, sweltry heat again has the upper
hand. At Augustine and along the whole of the east
coast of Florida there is vastly less cause to complain
of this still, heavy heat, although that region lies
nearer the sun. But the nature of that country, which
is low and extends in the form of a tongue of earth
into the West Indian waters, brings about a freer and
more refreshing passage of air from sea to sea, which
cannot be the case in the situation of Carolina. Besides,
there must be taken into the account the immeasurable
forests which cover the interior of the country, the up-
ward rise of the land from the coast inwards, and the
absence of large streams penetrating into the interior,
all which circumstances are unfavorable to movements
of the atmosphere.
Pleasant regions or diverting changes of prospect
are not to be found about Charleston; the whole land-
scape is flat and sandy; tracts next the sea and the
rivers are swampy. The greater part of the fore-
country is taken up in pine-forest. Of these pines the
following four varieties are the commonest.
1. The Pitch-pine.* It has 3 needles in each
sheath, always assembled tuft-wise at the extreme end
* Pinus palustris. Mill. Duroi, P't II, 49, No. 8. v. Wan-
genheim, Beyträge, 73.
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TRAVELS IN THE CONFEDERATION
of the branch, the rest of the twig being bare, if the
tree is mature. Young trees, two and three years old,
have needles 12-15 inches long, which stand upright
at the top of the trunk and give it a peculiar and
splendid appearance. If the trees are older the needles
are from 7-9 inches long, and each needle shows 3
sharp, slightly dented edges; the outer side is rounded,
the two inner sides are flat, so that the 3 needles fit
exactly together and form a long, thin, cylinder; they
are, for the rest, straight, or only a little twist, the
same breadth throughout, and but a little pointed at the
end. The young trees grow no side-branches until
they are 4-5 years old and 5-6 ft. high, retaining until
then their long, beautiful, upstanding tuft. The cones
of this variety are 6-8 inches long and glisten with the
plentiful resin they sweat out. Each scale has a rather
wide eye, with a small, sharp point in the middle. The
trunks grow tall and strong, and their bark is smooth.
2. The Loblolly-pine.* It has likewise 3 needles in
each sheath, and similar to those of the first, except
that each needle is somewhat twisted. In young sap-
lings the length of the needles is not more than 5-8
inches, in mature trees, not more than 4-6; but they
are not, as with the pitch-pine, found only at the ends
of the twigs, clothing them as a rule entirely. Also
the branches stand up more and are shorter, whereas
with the foregoing variety the half-naked boughs
spread more out and hang somewhat. Their cones.
are like the former, but shorter. The bark of the
trunk is rough.
3. The Birds-nest pine. This name has been given
it because all along the trunk a number of small, round,
* Pinus Tæda. Linn. v. Wangenheim, Beytr., 41.
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175
bushy sprouts break through the bark, and give the
tree a strange and, at the first glance, distinguishing
appearance. It is further peculiar for growing a great
number of small twigs on the south side, and none or
very few on the north side. There are two needles in
each sheath, not more than 2 to 4 inches long, half-
cylindrical, pointed, and slightly dented along the
edges. The cones are oval, seldom more than 2 inches
long, and each scale set with a small spine. The bark
is very rough and broken.
4. The Smooth-barked pine. It has 2 needles in
each sheath, from 3-5 inches long, of a structure like
the preceding. Their cones are also very small, and
commonly quite smooth, but are to be distinguished by
the very pleasant odor which is peculiar to them. The
bark of the lower trunk is somewhat rough, but higher
up grows smooth and white, retaining this character-
istic and color, by which the tree may be known,
throughout all the limbs, an appearance so unusual,
especially in the younger trees and branches, that
judging by it alone one would hardly suppose this to
be a variety of pine. These are the varieties of pine
observed by me near about Charleston, to be easily
and plainly recognized in loco by the descriptions
given. But a special work would be necessary clearly
and certainly to disintricate the sundry species and
varieties of North American pines and firs, they as it
seems, being much affected by climatic and local con-
ditions, and great confusion arising from the arbitrary,
indeterminate names given them. Properly to rectify.
such confusions would require time and an observa-
tion of the trees in all situations and circumstances.
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TRAVELS IN THE CONFEDERATION
In Carolina there are found almost all the varieties
of oak which appear elsewhere in North America; but
about Charleston and on the near-by islands the fol-
lowing are chiefly seen
The Willow-leaved Oak. Quercus Phellos Linn.,
the swamp-oak with the willow-leaf. Catesb.
I, 16.
It grows to be a strong and comely tree. It is not so
common in South Carolina as in North Carolina; it is
also found in the more northern provinces, but not
beyond Pensylvania, where however it is smaller and
holds its leaves only in mild winters, whereas here the
leaves are kept as a rule the winter through, although
some of them fall.
The Live-Oak. Quercus virginiana Mill. Quercus
Phellos. B foliis oblongatis non sinuatis. L.-
Cat. I. 17.
This splendid oak grows strong, tall, and handsome.
There is a certain difference as between the leaves of
young or old trees and limbs, which often gives them
the appearance of distinct varieties. The leaves of the
young trees, and of the young limbs of older trees, are
lance-shaped or oblong and are set with little points at
the edge.
The other leaves are similar to these in
shape, but blunted, the upper surface somewhat
wrinkled, the under, downy or white, quite curled at
the edges. The Catesbean figure is therefore not pre-
cisely exact, showing these leaves smooth, as it does,
when they are not. This difference as between the
leaves borne in mind, it will be found that the Linnean
character of the Quercus Ilex will also apply at times
to the young trees of this species of oak. In addition
there are sundry other variations; sub-varieties appear
SOUTH CAROLINA
177
with leaves exactly similar as to shape, but smooth and
shining on the surface and beneath merely silver-
colored, without the least down. The leaves are in-
variably strong and thick, and throughout the year
keep green and vigorous. This oak is not only an
ornament in the forest, but furnishes the most ex-
cellent and durable ship-timber. A ship built of it,
and hence called the 'Live Oak,' was 40 years and
more at sea, and was several times new-planked. This
oak is to be found most abundantly in Georgia, but
there as well as in the Carolinas only on the sea-coast
or not far from it; it grows 40-50 ft. tall.
The Highland Willow Oak.
milis. y. L., Catesb. I, 22.
Quercus Phellos hu
This grows in dry places and is not rare here; but
attains only a moderate size. The leaves are lance-
shaped, but shorter than those of the first willow-oak,
and are smooth on both surfaces; the leaves have
several in-cuts and points.
The Water-Oak. Quercus uliginosa Wangenheim.
Quercus folio non ferrato, in summitate quasi
triangulo. Cat. I, 20.
This oak is pretty common in the southern prov-
inces, as often to be met with as any other. It grows
preferably indeed in low, moist, and good soil, but not
exclusively, being found also in dry places. The
leaves approach in shape those of the common black
oak, but are smaller, of a thicker structure, and keep
green pretty well throughout the winter.
The other oaks found hereabouts are: the common
black oak, the red oak, the red water-oak, the white,
and the chestnut oak. Somewhat farther inland there
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TRAVELS IN THE CONFEDERATION
is the low or dwarf-oak, mentioned already more than
once; but of all these none remains green over winter.
Besides the pines and oaks here remarked, the woods
and open fields about Charleston are pranked with
many other fine evergreen plants, which with tem-
perate winter-weather keep up in some measure the
charm of a perennial spring. I have remarked the
following:
Ilex Aquifolium, Ilex Dahoon, and Ilex Cassine L.
All three sorts hold their leaves a lively green.
Olea Americana L. Ligustrum lauri folio &c.
Catesby I. 61. The leaves remain a bright green; as
also
Prinos glaber L.
Catesb. II. 57.
Cassine vera floridanorum &c.
Laurus indica and Borbonia L. Both, but especially
the latter, keep very beautiful, their trunks pretty high
and 2-3 feet through.
Kalmia latifolia, angustifolia, and prostrata L. The
first of these lasts the best.
Lonicera sempervirens L. ✦ does not remain entirely
green.
Smilax laurifolia and tamnoides L. lose a few of
their leaves, but keep most of them and of a good
appearance.
Bignonia sempervirens. Jasminum luteum Catesb.
I. 53, and another species, foliis conjugatis, continue
very beautiful if protected in the woods but otherwise
not so well.
Magnolia grandiflora, tripelata, and glauca L. Both
the latter continue only partly leaved, according to the
nature of the winter; but the first is literally evergreen,
and belongs among the trees of the first rank in this
SOUTH CAROLINA
179
region, as well for its considerable growth, (trunks
40-50 ft. high and more than 2 feet thick), as for its
magnificent, fragrant blooms, and its continually green
appearance.
Gordonia Lasianthus. Alcea floridana, Catesb. I,
44, here called Gardenia commonly-holds excellently
well.
Hopea tinctoria. Arbor lauri folio. Cat. I. 54.
Keeps its leaves green, but somewhat hanging, and
shifts them only at the blooming-season. The black
cattle in the woods browse most on the leaves and
young twigs of this and the Olea americana, although
both, and especially the latter, have a bitterish taste.
Pyrola maculata, Mitchella repens, Vinca lutea?
Cassine Peragua, Rhododendron maximum, Andro-
meda mariana, and Myrica cerifera, all keep very
beautiful.
Cactus opuntia shrivels a little; but Yucca gloriosa,
Yucca filamentosa, and Agave virginica continue full
of sap.
Orange-trees, planted in the gardens and in the
houses, are not originally indigenous, but they hold
their leaves although not very fresh. Twenty to thirty
miles from the coast they let fall the most or all of
their leaves in the winter, as is the case with the lemon-
tree even here. Orange-trees left to themselves and
gone half wild, arm themselves with long thorns, and
are used here and there as hedges.
Among the evergreen plants here, belong also the
cabbage-palm (Areca oleracea L.) and the small
dwarf-palm (Corypha minor?) both of which occur
only along the coast. +
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TRAVELS IN THE CONFEDERATION
Besides the plants noticed here, there are to be seen
many others which keep their leaves a part of the
winter, but more or less discolored or changed, and
therefore not to be counted among those mentioned.
With so fine a store of lasting plants, it would be
very easy to have the pleasure of a continual green in
the gardens, and to make famous winter-gardens.
Many of the European annual plants keep green and
in bloom throughout the winter, but in the heat of
summer die away, at which time the indigenous an-
nuals begin to shoot, and last through the hot season
into September. But gardening is not very much in
vogue and is generally left to ignorant negroes. Nor
is it very long since all cabbages, pot-herbs, colly-
flowers, and other garden-vegetables, were brought
from the Bermuda islands to the Charleston market.
A skilful English gardener, Mr. Squibb, had first to
show the inhabitants that they could abundantly supply
themselves if they would only make the necessary
changes in the culture of vegetables, which the nature
of the climate demanded. For these do not thrive so
well throughout the summer as in the spring and the
fall, and are to be kept in the open the winter through,
green and growing. Root-plants, as radishes and yel-
low and white turnips, hold their own and grow even
during the summer, but far less well than in the
spring and the fall.
Of fruit trees they have pears, apples, peaches,
plums, and cherries. Apples and peaches, which are
not particularly good, are ripe in June. These and
other transplanted fruits mature so rapidly that they
have not, it may be for that reason, so good a taste as
in the northern country. Most of these fruits bloom
SOUTH CAROLINA
181
twice a year; but seldom ripen the second time. The
fig-tree bears 3 and 4 times, in May and June, Sep-
tember and October. There are a few European olive-
trees, which do well and yield heavily, but they have
not yet learned how to conserve the fruit properly.
Wheat is sown in September and cut in June. Corn
is planted in April, and harvested in August.
Although the soil about Charleston, mainly a shell-
sand, promises little fertility, there is no lack of re-
markable instances showing the rapid progress of veg-
etation in the same. Warmth and moisture do what
the thin soil of itself could not. In a garden outside
the city there are pointed out many lemon-trees which
at the seige of 1780 were cut down to the ground, and
yet by February 1784 had shot up 12 ft. high and 3-4
inches thick. A Tallow-tree (Croton sebiferum L.)
which had met the same fate, has grown since to 15
ft. and more. The China-root, or 'Smilax China,'
here in one year runs out 40-50 feet, winding about
the trunks and branches of trees. Often in the woods
grape-vines are to be seen which strike their roots in
the earth, indeed, but above are slung about the top
of some high tree, otherwise swinging quite loose.
climbing shrub of this sort is the so-called 'Supple
Jack,' of which I have seen neither leaves nor blooms.
It grows a woody, pliant stem, one to two fingers
thick and 40-50-60 ft. long, which is often to be found
hung from the end of a strong limb, and it is not easily
to be guessed how it got there from the ground. I
measured a few vines of the Bignonia sempervirens,
which were also of the thickness of a thumb, and in
length 40 and 50 feet; these may be split without
difficulty from end to end.
A
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TRAVELS IN THE CONFEDERATION
Next to indigo, already touched upon, rice is the
chief staple of South Carolina. Only this province and
Georgia have hitherto cultivated rice on the large
scale; for although North Carolina and the southern
part of Virginia are in places well suited for this grain,
its culture has always been too much neglected there.
The greatest part of the rice grown in North America
is exported to the northern states of Europe. In the
three years 1768, 1769, and 1770 the total export of
rice from the southern colonies of North America
amounted annually to 140,000 casks which at an aver-
age price of 45 shillings sterl. the cask, brought in the
sum of 316,000 Pd. Sterl. Of that figure South Caro-
lina alone supplied about 110,000 casks.
The yearly profits from an acre (166 perches) of
rice-land may be counted at 8-12, even 14 Pd. Sterling,
according as the price is high or low. Hence the tak-
ing in of suitable new lands is zealously prosecuted.
Rice is raised so as to buy more negroes, and negroes
are bought so as to get more rice.
Now and then the charge is made that rice is in-
jurious to the eyes and weakens the sight. In so far
as this obtains of South Carolina, another reason
might be assigned, namely, the reflexion of the sun's
rays from the blinding white sand. This is confirmed
by numerous observations, many persons suffering
with their eyes who eat little or no rice, and the in-
habitants of other rice countries, where the soil is not.
the dazzling white sand, eating rice with none of these
supposed evil effects; whereas, according to Boer-
haave, the people of Arabia, Persia, and Egypt, on
account of the white sandy soil of those countries, are
subject to many complaints of the eyes. Crude rice
SOUTH CAROLINA
183
was at the time sold at 3 shill. sterl. the bushel, but the
husked at 12-14 shill. sterl.
Rice, indigo, and in the back parts, tobacco, have so
far chiefly engaged the attention of the inhabitants of
Carolina; but from the nature of the climate and the
situation of the country, it is to be expected that, popu-
lation and industry advancing, very many other val-
uable products may be raised here at a great profit.
The olive-tree, the carob-tree, the mastich, the almond,
saffron, liquorice, honey, silk, fine wool, and the like,
might, by indefatigable effort, be had of an especial
goodness and yielding a great profit.
In a country which of itself brings forth such a
quantity of wild vines as is the case almost through-
out North America, it might be naturally expected that
vine-culture would be carried on easily and profitably:
and yet this is not so, at least was not so. From the
first much wine has been drank in America, and much
money has gone out for it to foreign states. Whether
wine in general is a necessary article is not the ques-
tion here. Enough, that people in America find pleas-
ure in it, and greatly desire to partake of it. The
produce of North America would not be sufficient to
pay for its wine, if it became a universal drink. But
then there are many fruitful orchards which yield an
abundance of good apple and pear-wine; barley and
hops are raised, to brew beer; they distil whiskey, and
get rum cheap from the sugar-islands, or prepare it
from molasses fetched thence.
The sorts of wine, which were formerly best known.
and liked in America, came from Spain and Portugal,
on account of the trade-relations of those countries
with England; that is to say, red, and less often white,
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TRAVELS IN THE CONFEDERATION
Oporto or port-wine, and then Sherry, Lisbon, Ten-
eriffa, Fayal, and Madeira. Of the last named there
was a distinction made between the so-called 'New-
york and London quality,' according as the taste was
more suited to the one or the other of those cities.
Madeira-wine was more prized if it had passed the
ocean once or several times, especially if it came by
way of the West Indies for it betters by a voyage in
warm regions. Formerly French wines came rarely to
America, but because of that, so much the oftener
now. The considerable sums which were drawn from
America for wine, induced the English government re-
peatedly to set premiums on the raising of domestic
wines. Following these encouragements, attempts at
wine-culture were made in several provinces, and a
little wine produced for test here and there; the pur-
poses of the government were not fulfilled; beyond
these few trials, nothing was done, because the work
was not found profitable, seemed not to promise
greatly, and, as it appears, was not in any way to the
taste of the Americans.
A Mr. Andel,+ near Brunswick in Jersey, before
the war received a premium of 100 Pd. Sterl. for a pipe
of red wine produced on his land. He died soon after-
wards, and negligent heirs let the vineyard fall into
decay, because it demanded too much work. In South
Carolina, almost 40 years ago, there was offered by
Provincial Act a reward of 60 Pd. to any one exhibit-
ing a pipe of good, drinkable wine made in the coun-
try. A Frenchman settled near Orangebourg, en-
couraged by this, made a few tuns of very good wine,
and for several years together received his premium.
But so soon as the premiums were discontinued, he
SOUTH CAROLINA
185
gave up vine-culture, saying that he could find a better
use for his land. Another resident of South Carolina,
by the name of Thorpe, planted a vineyard 30 miles
from Charleston, under the oversight of a Portuguese,
whom he had brought in for the purpose. He also
received premiums on 3 pipes of wine; but after his
death his heirs likewise gave over any further at-
tempts, using the land in some other way. Later,
there were other attempts made, in a region called
Long Canes, 200 miles from Charleston, and good
samples of wine were produced. All those European
vines raised in and about towns, as at Philadelphia,
Newyork &c., do very well and bear many good
grapes. From all the circumstances it is sufficiently
clear that America might be a wine-country. But the
reason why vineyards have not been set and vine-cul-
ture taken up by the farmer generally is the great
labor which the tending of the vines requires, and the
time that must go by before there is a profit. The
American farmer has grown accustomed, after little
and easy work, to have in hand his immediate or yearly
gains; his wheat and his cattle do this for him; where-
as a vineyard, from its first establishment, hardly
yields a fair profit in 6-7 years. A number of insuffi-
cient reasons have been brought forward to show that
America is absolutely ill-suited for vine-culture, but
similar statements might be made of vine-countries.
elsewhere-just as in general the experiments above
described prove nothing more than that work, and pre-
liminary expence and oversight were dreaded. I will,
however, repeat here all the objections made to vine-
culture in America; these may be useful in supple-
menting and correcting the observations of others.
13
186
TRAVELS IN THE CONFEDERATION
Late frosts when the vines are in bloom, generally
speaking in the spring. In Pensylvania and New
York the wild grape-vine blooms about the end of
May or the beginning of June; and the tame, about
the same time. In May, and often in June, the nights
are at times cold. But the tame vine. it seems, meets
with no especial damage, blooms riotously almost
every year, and yields plenty of fruit. In Carolina,
grapes bloom a month earlier; but often, even in
April, there are very cold nights. The thermometer
often falls from 80 Fahr. to 40°. But on the whole
these frosts are not so common, and occur in other
vine-countries as well; in America they do not appear
to work any great harm to the vines.
The mildew-this they have in common with other
vine-countries.
The great number of insects and birds which are
harmful both to leaves and fruit. But this can be said
only of the least cultivated parts; about the towns
European grapes and vines suffer less, either from
insects or birds, and there are precautions that may be
taken against both. In Carolina there is a sort of
chafer-beetle, called the cock-chafer, which resorts
among the vines in May and June especially, and eats
off the leaves.
The frequent dews which, in the middle and south-
ern parts, fall in June and July, and are followed by
the rapid heating of a burning sun. The moisture
among the young grapes being greatly heated by the
sun's rays, the berries rot. Experiments have been
made at Charleston, to show the likelihood of this
opinion. In August water was dropped on cabbage
and other leaves, and allowed to evaporate in the burn-
SOUTH CAROLINA
187
ing sun; everywhere the leaf was touched by water,
it lost color and texture, as if blighted. The drops of
water had the effect of a burning-glass.
Further, the sudden changes of moisture into warm
air, and the severe storms and heavy rains which come
at a time when the grapes are about to ripen, cause
the berries to burst, spoil, and rot, and those still
sound become infected.
Finally, it is believed that the vines grow too much
to stalk, which tends to make incomplete grapes and
fewer; this is indeed the case with the wild American
vines, which have a heavy growth of branches, and
the grapes on that account are perhaps less juicy and
mild.
But all these alleged obstacles might be avoided, in
part by work and attention, and they will in part dis-
appear of themselves with the better and more gen-
eral cultivation of the land and the clearing off of the
forests.
Even if, for one or another reason, the fore-country
is not suited to vine-culture, it will certainly be found
later that the back parts may be very profitably used to
that end, whenever more industrious people become
settled there. The fertile hills deep in the interior, be-
yond the mountains, about Pittsburg and elsewhere,
seemed to me to be very well adapted for such use.
Also there were to be found in that country various
wild vines which bore fairly well-tasting grapes.
Here among these hills, of a rich soil throughout, and
sheltered from the cold winds, vineyards might be
readily set. The hills in the country of the Cherokees
also have been regarded as lying very well for vine-
yards; but the Indians are still in possession, and in
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TRAVELS IN THE CONFEDERATION
consequence no experiments have been made there.
The inhabitants of the new colonies at Kentucky will
likely give their attention and industry to this matter.
And probably it would not be fruitless to engraft
good European vines on the wild American, or to
improve these by cultivation; for they deserve atten-
tion and have been left quite out of the account in ex-
periments made hitherto.
In Bartram's garden at Philadelphia one may see a
good many sorts of American vines which the elder
Bartram had collected from sundry regions; they do
very well in this garden, and improve even under the
slight cultivation given them. The grapes became
larger, juicier, and thinner-skinned; and Bartram the
son claims that they bear vastly more fruit than the
common grape. Among them is the 'Cherokee
Grape,' said to be the best in America. From the leaf,
this appears to be most nearly related to the European,
or Vitis vinifera. Only in parts of Pensylvania and
New York are found the Vitis vulpina (Fox-Grape)
and Vitis Labrusca (Wild-Grape); these both make
stocks 4-6-8 inches in diameter, and 20, 30, to 40 ft.
long, slinging themselves about the branches and tops
of near-by trees. They especially prefer shaded,
moist, and rich spots, and are scarcely to be found on
dry hills. The berries of the fox-grape are the
largest, but of a sharp taste, however, the frost makes
them enjoyable for children, negroes, and others whose
palates are not very fastidious; they are a good deal
used for preserving with sugar. The grapes of the
other sort are if anything sourer still, but of both
kinds very passable fruit is now and then to be had.
About Baltimore and in the southern forests gen-
SOUTH CAROLINA
189
erally there are other wild grape-vines, in no way
inferior to these in size and length, of which the small,
blackish berries have a rather pleasant sour taste.*
Another species of grape-vine, small and very low, is
found along the sandy banks of the Ohio near Pitts-
burg, which likewise bears small, blackish grapes,
very good and eatable.
The Charleston market can by no means be called
equal to that of Philadelphia, either as regards the
plenty or the quality of provisions. Butcher's meat
here is neither fat, nor of a good taste, because they are
at no pains to fatten the cattle, which is slaughtered
direct from the thin pasture found in the woods and
swamps. In general the black cattle of the southern
colonies are not of the good and large sort to be seen
in the northern; they give themselves less trouble in
keeping up and feeding a good breed, because they
have a plenty of cattle. But of fowl-meat there is no
lack, and very good, because fed on rice and corn.
And there is plenty of venison; a doe, weighing 60-70
pounds, commonly brings 7-8 Span. dollars. Wild
ducks and other water-fowl are often brought in; they
are not all to be recommended for their taste; among
these are many sorts which America has in common
with Europe.
Garden-vegetables are gradually beginning to be
raised in more abundance, but a head of cabbage or
cole-wort still brings 6d. Sterl. Potatoes are brought
* I have tasted these grapes but have not seen the vines;
this is likely the Vitis vinifera Americana, Marshall, Americ.
Grove, p. 165; and, like the Cherokee grape-vine, a variety of
Vitis vinifera L., which however does not occur farther north.
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TRAVELS IN THE CONFEDERATION
in from the northern colonies and from Europe; they
are little raised here, but battatas (Convolv. Battat.)
and 'tan-yards' (Arum esculentum) in quantities,
and gourds, cashaws, squashes, melons, pease, and
beans of many sorts. And the nearness of the West
Indies brings to this town the manifold enjoyment of
the fruits of those regions. Finally, the rivers and
the ocean according to the season, yield a great abun-
dance of fish. But at this time of the year, there was
little to be seen but mullets (Mugil Albula L.).
In the item of fish, there are said to have been dis-
agreeable occurrences here, (although more rarely),
such as have been remarked here and there in other
regions of North America. That is to say, certain fish,
otherwise of sound and edible species, seem at times
from some unknown cause to have injurious, almost
poisonous properties. Several instances of this sort.
happened during my stay at Rhode Island, in the sum-
mer of 1779. In the family of a Jew, by the name of
Meyer, a sea-perch (Percae species) was got ready for
the table, this being commonly one of the best and
most gustable fishes of those waters. A short time
after the meal was over most of the family, but es-
pecially those who had eaten of the liver of the fish,
were seized with giddiness, head-ache, nausea, and
gripings, with some fever. A sort of rash appeared
on the skin, and the outer skin peeled. Emeticks were
given, and after a day or two the patients recovered.
The same thing happened, at another time, with a
German officer's mess, and from eating the same kind
of fish; the symptoms were milder because they had
eaten less, but in this case also those who had had any
SOUTH CAROLINA
191
of the liver were the most severely attacked. The in-
habitants of Rhode Island know of a good many such
instances. But every year thousands of this sort of
fish are eaten, being especially sought for on account
of their goodness, and no bad effects are experienced,
hence the people do not know what cause to assign
for these particular instances. The opinion is pretty
wide-spread that such fishes have fed on sea-plants
growing at the bottom of the ocean or on 'copper-
bottoms' along the shore. But this is nothing but an
opinion; for it is not at all known for certain that these
fish feed on sea-plants, or that the waters of that
region have copper-bearing bottoms. The likelihood is
that such fishes have sickened from some special
cause,* and that their livers in such circumstances
show especially injurious properties. That this organ
<<
"The particular food that fish get at particular seasons
"and places gives them at one time harmful properties which
at another they do not possess. There are coral-eating fish
in the East Indian waters which cause grievous effects if
caught and eaten at the season when they are beginning to
"work among the polyps hidden in the madrepores, and these
they are gluttonous after. This season is in January, Feb-
ruary, and March." This observation of Sonnerat's is con-
firmed by Meunier; the latter adds: that these polyps are of
the nature of several species of sea-nettles (Medusae, Holo-
thuriae &c.) which if taken in the hand, cause a burning on
the skin; hence it may easily be conjectured that the sharp
juices of these polyps infect such fish as eat them with a simi-
lar burning sharpness. Rozier, Sammlung, II, No. 22 & 23.
Of these medusae and holothuriae there are a number in
American waters, and it is deserving of more exact confirma-
tion whether they do not give rise to harmful changes in
fishes.
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TRAVELS IN THE CONFEDERATION
in many other fishes is susceptible of particular cor-
ruption, although the rest of the meat may be sound
and edible, is a fact confirmed by the pretty general
prejudice among sea-faring men against the livers of
most sorts of fish, for instance, the story of the liver
of a tetraodon on Cook's ship in the South Sea. And
it is worthy of remark besides that very generally,
after eating these unsound fish the skin is attacked,
and almost always a sort of rash with scaling follows,
and that this is also commonly the case after eating a
kind of unwholesome muscle found on the coast of
Holland.
The country about Charleston, and for many miles.
around, being quite bare of stones, what is needed
must be brought from a distance. Most often they
use for foundations, and even for entire houses, a
shell-sand stone from Bermuda. It consists altogether
of crushed shell-particles, as a rule no larger than
millet or poppy-seeds; it is white and friable, but ab-
sorbing moisture, grows firmer in the air and durable;
and this is furthered still more by giving it a coating
of sand and lime. These stones are brought hither in
pieces 18 inches long and 6 inches thick; 100 cost 12-
13 Span. dollars (à 4 sh. 6d. Sterl.). European ves-
sels, especially the Dutch at this time, bring in bricks
as ballast, and sell them at a profit. Near by Charles-
ton all the materials necessary for bricks might be
had, but so far nobody has gone about making them,
because they are to be had cheap enough, and the
workmen needed could be placed to better advantage
in some other way. The hilly and mountainous
country produces stone in plenty, and there are the
SOUTLI CAROLINA
193
most hopeful indications of other useful treasures of
the earth. Iron has already been found in quantity,
and lead also; but as yet there has been no particular
use made of them. Swamp-ore is abundantly found
in the rivers and drowned regions of the back country.
Of mineral springs only a sulphur water is known,
somewhere on the boundary of South Carolina.
Between Charleston and the ocean lie several islands
which help form the bay and the harbor. Those be-
come the best known during the last war are: Long,
Sullivan's, and James Islands. On James Island,
which is of considerable extent, there is placed Fort
Johnson, fo. the protection of the harbor; the irregular
works, of no particular strength or compass, are run
up of oyster-shells and lime. They were in part
blasted by the Americans themselves when they aban-
doned this fort in 1780, and storms and waves have
done for the rest. There were there at the time only
3 cannon, and a guard of a dozen invalids, to hail in-
and out-going ships, examine their passes, and make
signals to the town, whenever a vessel is sighted
coming in; for the fort standing on a high bank, there
is an open prospect to the city, 3 miles away, and also
out to sea. From the fort there extends along the
shore a long bank or wall of oyster and other shells,
cast up by the water. Next the fort it is at least 4-5
ft. high and almost as wide; farther off, it diminishes
by degrees. I could not learn whether beneath the
surface of the earth there are to be found shells or
their remains; for there is no occasion to dig deep,
unless for water, which is to be found at a slight
depth on this island and pretty good.
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TRAVELS IN THE CONFEDERATION
In the middle of February, one small plant ex-
cepted,* not a bloom was to be found on this island,
although in other winters (mild as this was severe)
one plant or another is at this season in bloom. I
looked about, to no purpose also, for the 'Cabbage-
tree,' which was once plentiful there, but now is as
good as exterminated, because everywhere cut down
during the war for fortifications and bulwarks. But
there are a few still left on Morris and other neigh-
boring islands, whither I had no occasion to go. The
trunks of this palm-tree are excellent for breast-
works; their fibre and whole structure being so soft
and flexible that no ball can go through, and besides
they do not split. They last but a few years exposed
to the air, and hence are for temporary use only. The
works on Sullivan's Island, which the English men-
of-war grew weary of firing upon at the first attack
upon Charleston in 1776, are built largely of these;
as also most of the works in the city on the Bay side.
* Houstonia pusilla-Radix fibrosa, tenuis. Caulis pollicaris,
acute tetragonus, setulis paucis (microscopio tantum observan-
dis) scaber, simplex vel subramosus, terminatus ramis duobus
et pedunculo intermedio, aut hoc tantum. Folia opposita,
petiolata, ovata, basi apiceque acuta, glabriuscula, margine re-
flexo ciliata. Petioli longitudine fere foliorum, membrana
laxa coadunati. Pedunculus terminalis, caule sæpe longior,
tetragonus, erectus. Flos longe minor, quam Houstoniæ cæru-
leæ, erectus. Calyx parvus, basi hemisphæricus, quadrifidus:
laciniis lanceolatis, acutis, erectis. Corolla infundibuliformis.
Tubus calyce duplo et quod excurrit longior, medio incrassa-
tus. Limbus tubo brevior, quadripartitus: laciniis ovatis,
acutis. Stamina 4 in medio tubi corollæ; Antheræ flavæ.
Germen compressum. Stigma bifidum. In habitus this is the
Houstonia cærulea, and the bloom is so similar I take it to be
a variety of Houstonia, although I have not seen the fruit.
SOUTH CAROLINA
195
There are many other uses for which this palm serves,
ropes, for instance, and nets made from the soft
threads of the leaves, and it is well-known that its top-
most point, green and conical, may be eaten, composed
as it is of soft undeveloped leaves; hence the name
cabbage-tree. Raw this substance tastes a little bitter,
something like an almond; boiled it is said to be like
a cabbage; but it is mostly put up in vinegar or used
as a salade.
Nowhere are buzzards to be seen in such numbers
as in and about the City of Charleston. Since they
live only on carrion, no harm is done them; they eat
up what sloth has not removed out of the way, and so
have a great part in maintaining cleanliness and keep-
ing off unwholesome vapors from dead beasts and
filth. Their sense of smell is keen, as also is their
sight; hence nothing goes unremarked of them, that
may serve as food, and one sees them everywhere in the
streets. There are those who believe that if a buzzard
lights upon a house in which an ill man lies, it is a
fatal sign for they imagine the bird has wind of the
corpse already.
The martins (Hirundo purpurea L. Cat. I, 51) ap-
peared here as early as the end of February whereas
in Pensylvania and York they seldom show themselves
before the beginning or the middle of April. The
people like to see them about their farms. In the
northern parts they set up little houses for them, before
the barns or on special poles elsewhere, in which they
nest; but here they are content to hang up a calabash
(bottle-gourd) on a tall pole, and in this the birds
take up residence, good protectors always against birds
of prey; as soon as they catch sight of one, they be-
!
196
TRAVELS IN THE CONFEDERATION
gin a noise and warn the chickens and other tame
fowls:
Of the Cherokees, who live to the west of South and
North Carolina, there came at this time a party, men,
women, and children, to Charleston, on affairs of their
nation. Two boys of 14-15 years gave in the street
an exhibition of their skill with the bow. At 16-18
paces they hardly ever missed copper pennies often set
up for them as reward by the spectators. Their
arrows were reeds, hardened by fire at the end or
half-burnt, the feather taken from the wild turkey.
The bows very simple, with a thong made of buffalo-
gut.
In South Carolina, on the river Wateree beyond.
Camden, there are still living a few families of the
Catawba tribe; they number about 70-80 warriors or
arms-bearing men. By treaty they are confined to a
district of 12 square miles as hunting-range, this lying
in the midst of a settled and farmed country. At the
present time they are living peaceably and quietly with
their neighbors; but before this territory, for which
they had shown a great preference, was given over to
them by an express statute, there had been incessant
conflict between them and the planters, and the plan-
ters were generally the aggressors, liking to hunt and
fish in the Indians' territory, and having their eye on
the land. Some 15 years ago these Catawbas, few as
they were, stood up in regular battle against the Caro-
linians, and fought with much order and determina-
tion. The Carolina militia, which had been called out,
could hardly be held in unbroken line by the most
vehement exhortations of their officers, and it was only
after a long and stubborn fight that the Catawbas gave
SOUTH CAROLINA
197
ground. A certain Williamson was in command. The
Indians had an especial dread of him, and according
to their custom of giving nick-names, called him 'The
Cow-driver.' After the event the Cherokees sent a
message to the Catawbas, "you have not fought like
“men!
To which they returned answer you may
"talk as your understanding is; but only wait until the
Cow-driver comes among you
""
The middle of February there opened at Charleston
the winter-session of the Assembly of South Carolina.
Any discreet man may be present at the sittings, and
no one can come away without instruction, and sel-
dom any without having been interested. Here speak
men without fear of man, without reserve, and with
manifest zeal for the best good of their father-land
and their fellow-citizens. The form of government
of the state of South Carolina, a few small particulars
excepted, is like that of the other states. The execu-
tive administration of the laws is in the hands of a
Governor, assisted by a Lieutenant-Governor and a
Privy Council, all these being chosen every other year
by the Assembly. The law-making power consists of
a Senate and a House of Representatives, elected every
two years by the people. The Governor, Lieutenant-
Governor, and members of the Privy Council must have
lived in the state, the first two ten years and the others
five years. Each of these must be possessed of estates
of at least 10,000 Pd. A Senator must be 30 years
old, have been a citizen of the state five years, and own
property worth 2000 Pd. in minimum. A representa-
tive in the Lower House must have lived 3 years in
the country and own besides property in a certain
amount. Eligibility for naming these members of the
198
TRAVELS IN THE CONFEDERATION
government is vested in every free white man, who
has lived a year in the state, and pays taxes equal in
amount to the land-tax on 50 acres. The various
parishes and counties of South Carolina return some
170 members to the Assembly, but the City of Charles-
ton alone sends 30. The latter figure is, to be sure,
vastly out of proportion, considering the number of
people in the city and the country; this was very well
known, but the larger number was chosen at the be-
ginning of the war so as to give more certainty of a
majority of votes for the war, the inhabitants of the
city, for reasons well known, being more inclined to
the war and its prosecution than were the country-
people. The members from the city are for the most
part attorneys, considerable merchants, and others, in-
telligent and well-informed; hence they are fluent, en-
terprising, and easily get the upper hand of the
representatives from the country, when it is a matter
of address and a little intrigue. The full number of
representatives is never together; the remoter and
poorer districts dread the expence of sending all their
representatives to Charleston. But those who do ap-
pear, if they have not courage or eloquence enough to
oppose matters which might seem to them undesirable
or burdensome at home, at least they know their in-
terests enough to refuse their assent at a vote. Thus
it is often matter of astonishment, that proposals fall
through, the possible use or necessity of which has
been urged by members from the city or the hither
districts with all the charms of eloquence, and no
representative from the hinterland has said anything
publicly in opposition. However, they are often a
SOUTH CAROLINA
199
little obstinate, or even a little suspicious and many a
time, in a good cause, it is necessary to influence them
by innocent subterfuge. But at times they have good
grounds for opposition; this was the case once during
this Assembly. It was proposed to increase the land-
tax, and to raise it equally over the entire state. Now
the rice and indigo-plantations of the fore-country
produced vastly greater returns than the wheat and
corn-fields of the interior-hence the owners of the
former would have felt the increase not at all or very
little, but to the latter it would have been an insupport-
able burden. So they demanded, and with all justice,
that the increase in the tax should be reckoned not
according to the land's extent, but by its quality and
yield.
The revenues of the state of South Carolina for the
year 1783 were from the following sources:
2½ per cent. tax on the proceeds of all merchants'
goods sold at public auction, and on other mer-
chandize thus sold, negroes, horses &c. The
amount of this tax was estimated at 10-12000 Pd.
Sterling.
2½ per cent. entrance-duty on all merchants' goods
brought into the country, not otherwise specially
listed or taxed. Last year the value of all mer-
chandize imported into Carolina is said to have
been 7-800,000 Pd; and so this duty might be
reckoned at 15-16000 Pd.
Extra entrance-duty on sundry specially fixed Euro-
pean and West Indian articles of trade.
I dollar, or 4 shill. 6d. Sterling, on every 100 acres
of land.
200
TRAVELS IN THE CONFEDERATION
I dollar head-tax on every negro, without distinc-
tion of age. Shortly before the war the number
of the negroes was counted at 93,000 head. This
number was diminished by the war; however, a
a considerable sum is thus raised.
A tax on capitals, as it were, a fixed per cent. of the
value of stocks in trade; and a species of trades-
tax for professional men.
The revenues from these taxes, which are consider-
able, were applied to the payment of debts and interest,
and to other needs of the state. The 22 per cent. en-
trance-duty was to be devoted to the Congress, and
although this was really collected in Carolina there
was at the time a hesitation whether to deliver the pro-
ceeds to the Congress, none of the other states having
so done, and several of them having flatly refused, not
even collecting the duty.
For the current year 1784 the Assembly has devised
'ways & means' to raise in taxes the sum of 104000
Pd. Sterling if it should be necessary; but provisionally
the assessment has been fixed at only 79400 Pd. The
tax on negroes was raised from one to two dollars,
and it was a question whether 3 dollars would not be
more advantageous; especially as the proportional in-
crease of the land-tax from 1 to 2 dollars the 100
acres was strongly opposed by the inhabitants of the
back country. These would have less to say against
an increased tax on negroes, because in that interior
region few or no negroes are used. The civil dis-
bursements of the state amount to about 40000 Pd.
Sterling. The Governor alone receives 1000 Pd.
salary, and the other servants of the state are paid in
proportion.
SOUTH CAROLINA
201
Besides these taxes coming into the State's treasury,
there were still other imposts for the maintenance of
the police, city-watchmen, lamps &c. For these pur-
poses especially the revenues were applied which arose
from such negroes as worked in the city. That is to
say, a licence-badge showing the negro's occupation
must be paid for by every master for his slaves or by
every free negro for himself. But this concerned only
those negroes who hired themselves out or were hired
out by their masters. For a butcher 40 shillings a year
was paid. For a carpenter, mason, farrier, goldsmith,
cartwright, house-painter, fisherman &c, 20 shillings
a year. For a tailor, tanner, harness-maker, tin-man
&c. 15 shillings. For a sea-man, cooper, shoemaker,
hatter, rope-maker &c. 10 shillings. For every other
hired negro, not specifically described,-5 shillings.
In explanation of this tax levied on hired negroes, one
must know that in Virginia, Carolina, Georgia, as well
as in the West Indies, this class of men are to their
owners an interest-bearing capital, and if the owners
have no use for them themselves, they hire them out
and live on their wages as is elsewhere the case with
horses let. The meanest negro, if he has no regular
trade and can carry on no fixed occupation, must earn
his keep in some heavy work or as day laborer, and
must give in to his owner a certain part of his wages.
He may have earned little or much, but he turns in at
the least a shilling sterling a day, and besides he must
feed and clothe himself. There are various condi-
tions, according to the good nature of the owner and
the skill of the negro; but in the average it may be
accepted that a hired negro is worth a yearly interest
of 15-20 per centum. Thus many idlers place their
14
202
TRAVELS IN THE CONFEDERATION
capital in negroes and, in the strict sense, are by them
supported, living careless on the bitter sweat of the
hired.
There is besides a poor-tax which last year was
fixed at 12 shillings in the pound of land-tax and
negro-tax. That is, whoever pays land-tax and negro-
tax to the amount of 5 Pd. sterling, must pay five
times 12 shillings, or 3 Pd. additional, to the poor-
fund; and a 'Batchelor's Tax,' or tax on unmarried
men more than 25 years old, was at the time about to
be imposed.
The laws of Carolina are mild, indulgent, equitable.
But this holds of all the other North American states;
everywhere the laws are apparently draughted by and
for none but upright citizens, and hence are often used
to good advantage by those whose designs are evil.
In order to effect a more rapid settlement of the state
and to hinder beginning planters as little as possible,
very easy debt laws were enacted. But these advan-
tages are enjoyed as well by persistent, malicious
debtors. A debtor in Carolina, so far from standing
in awe of his creditor, threatens him with the law
which, after suit is brought, allows the debtor a stay
first of 3, and then of 6 months. Thus a debtor who
puts off his creditor for years with stipulations, fine
speeches, and vain pretences, lets the creditor under-
stand, if he has resort to the law, that the law pro-
tects him and he means to withhold payment many
months, and then perhaps he may be able to make new
conditions. So it happens that credit is very dear.
Lands are offered for sale at 5-10-15 years' credit,
and fetch 3-4 and 5 times as much as if sold for cash
money (the scarcity of which is another cause of the
SOUTH CAROLINA
203
high credit). A negro who might have been had for
40 guineas down, was in my presence bid up to 150
Pd. sterling, at 7 years' credit with interest.
The English merchants being willing and able to
give longer and vastly greater credit than the French
and Dutch either can or will give, the result is that the
greater part of the trade of Carolina falls to Great
Britain and would, even was there not a general pref-
erence for English manufactures and a fixed belief
in their superior goodness.
Notwithstanding the material injury suffered by
South Carolina during the war, recovery is more rapid
there than in any of the other states; commerce is
almost as flourishing and as extended as before the
disquiets, and there is every reason to expect further
increase.
It is generally admitted, and is a matter of surprize
to every incoming European, that at Charleston finer
manners and a more tasteful mode of life are un-
mistakeably prevalent, and if there was need, the fact
might easily be proved by numerous observations.
And it is quite as certain that this refinement of man-
ners and taste has a positive influence on the opinions,
those whose characteristick this is showing on many
occasions nobility and magnanimity of thought and
conduct. The Assembly had appointed a committee to
examine the list of banished citizens and their confis-
cated property, in order to determine the degree of
their offences against the state, and so bring them
back again or continue their banishment. Even this
investigation was held behind open doors. The
opinions of the worthiest and most esteemed citizens.
and gentlemen of Charleston were to the effect that
204
TRAVELS IN THE CONFEDERATION
all, except those guilty of very serious offences against
the state, should be dealt with as gently as possible,
they being permitted to return on payment of 10-15-20
per centum of their property, and the sin of their
adherence to Great Britain forgiven them. Mr. Burke,
Mr. Hutson, Mr. Vanhorsh and many other high-
minded and estimable men used all their influence to
recommend indulgence, forgiveness, and gentle meas-
ures; they desired that only those who in their zeal for
the cause of the King had been plainly guilty of mur-
der, or of serious wrong committed in respect to mem-
bers of the American party, such as fire, devastation,
and the like, that only such offenders as these should
be deprived of all hope of returning to their homes-
and of more than a hundred and fifty on the black list
not more than 15 could have been so described. How-
ever, the magnanimous views of these many worthy
men were opposed by others, of the lower and rougher
class, with a veritably raging obstinacy; they breathed
nothing but the bitterness of vengeance, and would
hear of no forgiveness, although their grounds were
neither sufficient nor seemly. I was witness at another
time to a noble answer given in court by one of the
Judges to the plaintiff who hoped greatly to weaken
the argument of defendant by bringing out that he
had belonged to the King's party and deserved, like
many others, to be banished the country. Here be-
fore the court, answered the Judge, is no question of
Whig and Tory. Your adversary has not been ban-
ished; he has thus permission to live here; and in con-
sequence must have the same claims before the court
as you to an impartial examination and an unpreju-
diced decision.' Such opinions as these are all the
SOUTH CAROLINA
205
more commendable, held and openly expressed by up-
right men repeatedly, at a time when the blind zeal of
the people was still everywhere crying for vengeance,
holding it for a crime unpardonable to think in any
way different from the crowd.
The laws of South Carolina are no more favorable
than those of the other states to distinctions of rank.
But even if there are no class distinctions as such, it
is observable that many circumstances and conditions.
have almost that effect, certain members of society
being more nearly and closely associated, and to them
is tacitly ascribed more or less superiority. America
knows no nobility, rather hates the thought of such
a thing, and refuses any respect demanded by those
whose only claim is that of descent and birth. There
is however a class of citizens who by natural gifts,
useful acquirements, or wealth, are plainly enough
superior to the rest, know how to make themselves
influential and regarded in many situations and to
maintain their hold, and in many respects think and
act precisely as do the nobility in other countries.
At this time discontented officers were to be found
here in great numbers. The grounds of their dissatis-
faction were valid enough. Many of them had for
years devoted health and property to the service of
their country, and now saw themselves abandoned to
their fate. A Major of South Carolina troops assured
me that during the whole of the war he had received
no more than 70 Pd. pay in cash money, and that in
order to live conformably to his position he had been
obliged to sell many negroes, and even land, and as
circumstances were, at prices far below the real values.
For 2 and 3 years' service many officers had been paid
206
TRAVELS IN THE CONFEDERATION
not a bare shilling, and the settlement of their claims
by the state is as far off as ever. Therefore it should
not be a matter of surprize if one hears these men let
fall words and judgments not to be expected of those
who had, one might have supposed, been fighting out
of pure patriotism. Was it patriotism alone that put
arms in their hands, they would have ample cause to
be content and to regard themselves as richly repaid
in the self-satisfaction arising from the happy outcome
of their war. But besides the honor of being called
liberators of their country they desire pay, and loudly
grumble at being so put off. How superior then are
they to those whom they thought to dishonor with the
injurious name of hirelings? In their expressions of
ill-will, elicited by the withholding of their pay, they
swear that neither they nor any one else would ever
be so foolish again as to dedicate themselves to the ser-
vice of the state, fighting for empty promises, and that
if another war should break out after 10 or more
years it would be impossible to assemble another army,
since the small attention and gratitude given the first
would not so soon be forgotten. Moreover it is be-
lieved and affirmed pretty generally that the Ameri-
cans do not show a natural disposition for war and
pleasure in military service such as are to be remarked
in other nations. Love of softness and desire of riches
incline them more to the peaceful and monotonous
pursuits of agriculture and commerce. Nothing but a
positively hostile attack would in the future move
them to take up arms again. These opinions are
doubtless mistaken. America, as well as other na-
tions, has men enough who from natural disposition
take pleasure in war as war; this may be inferred in
SOUTH CAROLINA
207
part solely from the very general impulse to fist-
fights. However repulsive certain disadvantages and
difficulties inseparable from war may be, there is on
the other hand so much that is tempting and dazzling
that men will never cease to be attracted to the fame-
promising enterprises of war. Without being tedious
in this matter, I may mention a trifling circumstance,
how remarkable it was that those very officers who
complained with such bitterness of the losses their
military service had brought upon them, showed the
greatest pleasure in their military uniform, their
cockades, and their swords. Many who had gone into
trade, still retained the outward appearance of officers
and the title. Even older and serious persons showed
this preference. An esteemed lawyer here always ap-
peared in public in black velvet, but with a white cock-
ade to his hat, and a ribbon-knot on his sword, for he
had been a General, but was now again managing cases
at law. This liking for military show is everywhere a
temptation, but in America and among Americans is
all the more surprising, since there they profess on all
occasions a hatred for soldiers, or wish to appear as if
they hated them. It may be that from the difficulty of
recruiting the American army, inferences have been
drawn as to the disinclination of the people for mili-
tary service; the number of the people being every-
where still inconsiderable, the means of getting a com-
fortable support are easy, less tedious than what
may be expected from a soldier's life. But when once
the population has increased and there is a superfluity
of people it will be easy enough to bring soldiers to-
gether without any great compulsion.
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TRAVELS IN THE CONFEDERATION
Besides their complaint non numeratae pecuniae,
the officers of this state and of all the others were dis-
satisfied on the ground of the opposition shown by the
South Carolina government to the confirmation and
spread of the new order of the Cincinnati. For not
only did Mr. Aedanus Burke, one of the Chief Judges
of this state, busy himself to some purpose in a
pamphlet addressed to the people, showing that if it
was not the object of this Order, at least the certain
consequence would be the establishment of a race of
hereditary patricians or a nobility-but Governor
Guerard also, in his address to the Assembly, pro-
nounced with great vehemence and bitterness against
the Order, declaring it highly injurious and in direct
contravention of the laws, and of a republican system.
and manner of thought. It was not possible to check
the progress of the Order at large, although they
could impose certain restrictions on the South Carolina
officers.
The Order of the Cincinnati was established early
in the year 1783, and rapidly grew in numbers and
strength. The generals, brigadiers, all the American
officers are members of this society. They called.
themselves merely "the Society of the Cincinnati,"
and the Order consists of the Grand or General So-
ciety and subordinate State Societies established in
each of the several states and, if necessary, to be sub-
divided into Districts. Major General Baron von
Steuben was chosen as the first Grand Master, with
the title of President. The Provincial or State So-
cieties, as well as the General Society, had their Presi-
dent, Vice-President, Secretary, Treasurer, and Vice-
Treasurer. An annual correspondence was instituted,
SOUTH CAROLINA
209
by means of circular letters. The General Meeting of
the society is to be made up of officers named for the
occasion, and of representatives from the state socie-
ties, but no state may send more than five representa-
tives. The token of the Order is worn on a dark blue
ribbon, two fingers wide and edged with white; it is a
gold medallion with the figure of an eagle and inscrip-
tions relative to the time of the foundation and the
services of the Order in saving the country. The
name is taken from L. Quinctius Cincinnatus, a Roman
general who from the tillage of the land was called to
the dictatorship, but after having won laurels re-
nounced all posts of honor and returned to his farm-
economy. The purpose of the society, according to its
own outgivings, is nothing more than a union and
association of the generals and other officers (who
have served 3 years) in a society of friends for keep-
ing alive the memory of the Revolution and their own
common friendship. And this union is to be main-
tained so long as, 1) the original members themselves
or, 2) any of their male descendants are living, or,
should there be none of these, so long as, 3) any of
their collateral relatives remain, who might be held
worthy of being members and supporters of the so-
ciety. The members are to have an incessantly watch-
ful eye upon the inviolate maintenance of the rights
and liberties of man, for which they-(or their for-
bears)-fought and bled; further, they are to give
thought to the preservation and spread of concord and
the national glory in and among the several states; to
the preservation of brotherly affection and regard
among the officers; to beneficent assistance rendered
those officers and their families who by misfortune
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may be in need. Each member subscribes a monthly
sum towards the establishment of a fund for these
purposes; pious gifts also are accepted from other
patriots not of the society. Moreover, since at all
times there are to be found men in the several states
who are distinguished for their talents and love of
country and whose opinions may correspond to the
views of the Order, it is therefore stipulated that such
meritorious and worthy characters be received as
honorary members, but only as individuals; and with
the condition that the number of honorary members
shall not exceed the proportion of a fourth part of the
officers or their descendants.
The perpetuation of the Order through male heirs
and the arbitrary union of officers in a society which
by inheritance and merit should rank above the other
citizens of the state, these things could hardly fail to
be disquieting, since at all events the object seemed to
be the bringing-in of a distinction of class. It is a mat-
ter of wonder how in America, where no titles are
allowed and the citizens are forbidden to receive titles
from foreign states, how here an institution such as
this could be projected and go so long undenounced.*
America has been known hitherto as a land given
over to the business of commerce; but it will shortly
be seen that the sciences and the arts will make good
progress there. The war just ended has already
* After Mr. Burke's brief but manly protest had once
aroused the attention and the jealousy of the American states,
there was haste to check by adequate measures the confirma-
tion and spread of the Order. Several states declared all
members of this Order incapable of holding any office under
the government; it was pronounced an illegal institution, now
and always to be opposed. The Cincinnati were therefore
SOUTH CAROLINA
211
brought into activity sundry persons of consequence
and of such decided talents that in a measure America
has gained in the item of learning, although the war
itself interrupted for some time the cultivation of the
sciences. Before that period the sons of America, in-
clined to ease and quietude, could dispense with the
trouble of study, Europe supplying almost all the
men necessary in public office and affairs. During the
war itself the young men were occupied in other ways,
and since it was freedom that was being fought for,
the education of the young, and learned institutions,
could not engage the whole attention of the several
governments—and yet in those unquiet times various
measures were adopted for the furtherance of the
sciences. At Philadelphia, even before the peace, the
University was placed upon a better footing, and the
Philosophical Society was equipped with a new char-
ter which gave it renewed activity; and other states
besides, amid the tumult of arms made dispositions for
schools and educational establishments.
Since the time when America was settled by Euro-
peans, who brought with them arts and sciences, Amer-
ica itself has contributed little to the augmentation and
embellishment of what it has received. So far it can
boast of but one philosopher, one mathematician, and
one painter of recognized and emphatic reputation.*
I know not whether it can show one passable poet, but
obliged to give their institution a changed form; the article
touching heritable rank was omitted, with other items causing
suspicion, and it was promised that in future merely personal
friendship should be the bond of the society; however the
fixed meetings, the treasury and tokens of the Order were
kept as before.
* Namely, Franklin, Rittenhouse, and Peal.
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TRAVELS IN THE CONFEDERATION
among all the branches of knowledge there have
perhaps been most conspicuous a few good political
speakers and writers.* The former indifference to
learning was the more astonishing because the ease and
well-being in which so many Americans lived offered
them the best opportunity for scholarly pursuits. On
the whole, it must be candidly allowed that the in-
habitants of America in great part possess good
natural understandings, and manifest a better expres-
sion of their understanding than would people of
similar rank and occupations in Europe. To this
there have been contributory the slight effort in severe
work, and the ease with which a moderate livelihood
could be gained; the equality of class, and the great
disposition for clubs in which men of all occupations
and standing impart to one another openly and without
reserve their thoughts, acquirements, and opinions.
The general liberty of the press and of speech has
been of especial consequence; and finally, people of all
classes have been accustomed to read many useful
works of entertainment, newspapers, and journals, by
which much information has been spread abroad and
prejudice dissipated. These and other favorable cir-
cumstances taken together have diffused a general in-
telligence among the people at large and given them a
free use of a keen human understanding; but appar-
ently the effect has not been to arouse a diligence after
true learning. The American, unburdened by affairs.
and without anxieties, has regarded it as unsuitable to
devote himself zealously and painfully to the study of
the sciences, which brought him no income and were
* Dickinson, Payne, Jefferson, Burke, and others.
SOUTH CAROLINA
213
not exactly a delight to him. As pastime partly, and
partly as immediately useful and necessary in a form
of government participated in more or less by every-
one, the study of history has been the favorite of those
who have wished to signalize themselves by applicable
information. Thus has America, circumstances being
otherwise equally favorable, on account of its general
prosperity, (and consequent indolence), and the lack
of causes inciting to emulation, hitherto produced
fewer learned men than other countries, where never-
theless genius is oftener restrained by oppressive ob-
stacles or must overcome a multitude of rivals.
Geniuses are as much at home in America as in the
old world and in time they will measure themselves
with those of the old world.
But before a zeal for the sciences and thorough
scholarship becomes more general and America may
lay claim in this respect to an equal place with the old
world, this new world must first pass through sundry
stages of taste and refinement. For a considerable
time yet, as hitherto, a moderate share of learning may
måke and keep the Americans happy and content, and
they will long continue to draw the pleasure of a
literary entertainment from European authors.
However, since this part of the world has now com-
passed the goal of its desires, independence, it must in
the future find among its own citizens those learned
persons requisite for the maintenance of the structure
of the state and the good of the community. The
Revolution has opened a number of new sources of
esteem and honor, and broken divers new roads for
diligence; thus the citizens of the new states are chal-
lenged to the exercise of all knowledge. America will
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TRAVELS IN THE CONFEDERATION
have need from now on of soldiers, statesmen, divines,
physicians, and lawyers, all of whom must receive the
necessary preparation in schools and colleges. America
must have historians to preserve the deeds of its sons
for posterity; these must be instructed and clear-
sighted men if its councils are to be regarded and its
arms to have authority. It would be for so many
states as these a dishonor if they continued for long
willing to see foreigners instructing them in every
science, foreigners explaining the nature of their
country and investigating for them their natural curi-
osities. So many diverse and still little known regions.
offer objects enough, certainly, to tempt the diligent
student of nature. Their mountains and mineral veins
are little known as yet. The virtues of many plants
that promise much are untried. Why should the
American scholar, as he has hitherto done, rely solely
upon the observations of others, and not study the
natural phenomena of his own country? The plan
of government of these free states, and their liberty of
the press, opens a wide field for orators, for critics,
and for the study of man in general. Arts and
sciences hitherto have made a better progress and
found a more fruitful soil in the northern parts of
America. They had formerly, and still have, many
zealous followers among the New England Presby-
terians; Boston and Cambridge have always been able
to boast of many learned men. And a taste for music,
painting, and the humanities generally has long been
more widespread there. Next in process of time were
the Pensylvanians. So late as the year 1760, Burnaby
remarks that arts and sciences were yet in their in-
fancy among them, but he allows them a taste for
SOUTH CAROLINA
215
music and painting. In the southern provinces the
sciences have made the slowest advance. In Virginia
indeed there has been a College for many years at
Williamsburg; but the teaching formerly went for-
ward very drowsily. In the Carolinas so far there
have been only the most ordinary lower schools, and
no colleges for the instruction of the young. But now
the necessity for these is felt, and at this sitting of the
Assembly a proposal was made to establish an
Academy for the higher sciences. Many estimable
members supported this scheme with enthusiasm, but
they were unable to carry it through. The majority
of the votes were on the side of certain other members
whose opinion it was that the climate of Carolina is
unfavorable to study and that the best course is to
send young students to academies abroad. The cham-
pions of this opinion were not, like those who made
the proposal, learned men by profession; the absurdity
of their notion is too evident to need explication. It
has not been regarded as unsuitable or idle to instruct
their tender youth in the first principles of human
knowledge and of religion. If children in this warm
climate show a capacity to form ideas, according to
their age and powers, (which nobody denies), why
should not youths also, with maturer powers of soul
and of body, with bodies used in a measure, since
native, to the heat and its effects? It would have
gone ill with the sciences, if in warm countries opinion
had always been as it is in Carolina. Has not every
science flourished at one time or another in other parts
of the world where there has been exposure to quite
as burning a sun? And certainly it has not always
been the fault of the climate if scholarship in such
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TRAVELS IN THE CONFEDERATION
´countries has fallen into decay-political and religious
causes have worked more to that end. He who would
prove that it is difficult or impossible to gain ideas or
knowledge in Carolina, must also prove that it is
equally difficult or impossible to exercise there knowl-
edge acquired elsewhere. But nobody in Carolina,
even on the hottest summer day, hesitates to ask advice
of his physician or to expect a just verdict from the
Judge. Even if, what I willingly admit, the enervating
heat of the summer months proper is unfavorable to
protracted and deep reflection, it does not follow that
the hindrances of one or several months should form
an excuse for the whole year. The establishment of a
college at Williamsburg has not been found unfit
owing to the summer-heat, which can be little less
than that of Carolina.
However, to contribute somewhat to the encourage-
ment of the young, the Judges and the Superintendent
of Charleston have undertaken the instruction of a
few young persons, who under the eyes of these
meritorious men exercise themselves once in the week
in extempore speaking and in disputations upon all
manner of questions of law. Young men who wish to
be admitted to the bar have no other recourse but to
follow for several years the teachings of some lawyer,
and then they must occupy most of their time with
useless copying, and learn little more than the forms;
and so they become passable attorneys perhaps, but not
genuine lawyers. A reading-library here, which was
scattered during the war, has lately been re-established
with a gratifying enthusiasm.
The people of Charleston live rapidly, not willingly
letting go untasted any of the pleasures of this life.
SOUTH CAROLINA
217
Few of them therefore reach a great age. On the list
of banished royalists was an ancient of 70 years, who
had lived 40 years in Carolina. This was generally
allowed to be so rare a phenomenon that for his grey
age alone he was permitted to return, although there
were many complaints and complainants against him.
The numerous fevers which every summer and
autumn so generally prevail, sparing but few, are
enough in themselves to ruin by their repetition the
strongest constitutions; besides it is likely that the
rather free use of strong drinks, especially among
the working class, is greatly contributory to the short-
ening of life. Many of the residents here are attacked
almost every year by intermittent fevers, and others
escape them only by the quantity of China-bark which
they take as preventive. It has become almost the
mode to be always chewing China-bark during the
fever months, or at least to swallow daily several doses
of it. On the other hand contagious diseases are rare;
a pest or pest-like disease is as yet unknown in
America.* We Americans, says Franklin some-
"where, are all healthy and preserved from corrupting
maladies because our houses stand separate and are
(C
* Hydrophobia, as a consequence of the bite of mad dogs,
seems likewise to be unknown as yet in Carolina; at least it
had been observed by none of the physicians with whom I
talked; however it is stated by others that there have been
one or two cases in the country. According to Condamine this
grievous malady is also unknown in South America,-and in
the other parts of North America it is extremely rare.-More
circumstantial accounts of the diseases of this region are to
be found in Chalmers and in another publication, A short de-
scription of South Carolina, with an Account of the Air,
Weather & Diseases in Charlestown. London 1763. 8.
15
218
TRAVELS IN THE CONFEDERATION
all surrounded with trees." Under this zone, the
male sex is exposed to more, and more dangerous,
diseases than the female, or rather the men expose
themselves to disease, because they permit themselves.
vastly more extravagances of all sorts and give a freer
rein to their passions. Men therefore die frequently
in the bloom of their years and leave behind for others
young and rich widows. Most of them hasten their
death by the incautious use of spirituous drinks, in
which they seek refreshment and fortification against
the relaxing effect of the hot climate. Carolina would
be for many a toper a loved country; it is the doctrine
here that during the warm months one should think
and work little, and drink much. A very moderate.
and restricted use of fermented and spirituous drinks
in hot regions seems certainly to be of advantage as a
support to the natural powers. But unfortunately it is
both here and elsewhere in America the prevalent mis-
conception that a free use of such drinks in warm
weather prevents debility and cools the body by an
increased evaporation; whereas the effect is to aug-
ment the exterior burning heat of the sun by an un-
natural internal fire, to give rise to dangerous fevers
and inflammations, and through an immoderate sweat-
ing to consume the best juices of the body. Patriotic
physicians in America fulminate against this noxious.
custom, and it is to be wished that their philanthropical
representations may make an impression, and check
the fatal abuse of these drinks, beneficial in themselves
if employed with adequate restriction and prudence.
Dr. Rush of Philadelphia asserts that half of those.
diseases, the causes of which are sought in the warmth
SOUTH CAROLINA
219
of the weather, are rather to be explained by the misuse
of strong drinks, which at that season are gulped down
as strengtheners.
The expense for rum, or sugar-brandy, is through-
out America very considerable, but especially in the
southern parts where no domestic drinks are prepared.
The common drink among the people of the middle
and northern regions is cyder. The use of beer is
confined for the most part to the towns, and only in
Pensylvania and Maryland is good domestic beer to be
found in the country towns, where the inhabitants are
mainly Germans. But nowhere is there a lack of rum
and whiskey, or fruit brandy. Rum is in part brought
immediately from the West Indies, but it is also dis-
tilled in America, in New England especially, from
the molasses fetched from those islands; this sort is in
quality much inferior to that brought in direct. Im-
ports, to all of North America, of West Indian rum
alone are reckoned at nigh 3,000,000 gallons, proof,
(not to speak of the use of the rum made in the
country and of the domestic whiskey), of the great
consumption of this article, which is very little ex-
ported to other parts. This heavy consumption of
rum is occasioned: by its low price; by the want of
other drinks, for which rum and water are substitutes;
by custom and predilection, which alas are all too often
ruinous to the health; and finally by the prepossession
that in great heat, in great cold, and during severe
work, this heart-strengthener is indispensable.
The multifariousness of the drinks for which rum
gives occasion is great, and to enumerate them all a
long particularization would be necessary. I mention
220
TRAVELS IN THE CONFEDERATION
only the most current. A Dram—is a draught of rum
or other brandy; a Sling-equal parts of rum and
water; Grogg-water with a fourth, fifth, or sixth
part of rum; the commonest drink-Toddy-water
with rum and sugar; Punch-water, rum, sugar, and
lemon-juice; a Flipp-a warm drink of strong beer,
with rum and sugar; a Doctor-fresh-drawn milk with
rum; Egg-dram, Egg-toddy-yelk of eggs beaten up
with sugar and rum, and thinned with water to the
taste; &c. Add to this list, besides, the various do-
mestic and foreign brandies, domestic and foreign
beers, cyder, cyder-oil, and the numerous foreign
wines which are drank, also tea, coffee, and chocolate,
and it will be easily seen that in this country the most
hankering palate need be in no desperation for a
variety of drinks. The wines again admit of divers
other mixtures; from wine, sugar, water, and a little
nutmeg there proceeds Sangry; from wine and sugar
with fresh milk, the beloved Sillabub &c.
The condition of the Carolina negro-slaves is in
general harder and more troublous than that of their
northern brethren. On the rice-plantations, with
wretched food, they are allotted more work and more
tedious work; and the treatment which they experience.
at the hands of their overseers and owners is ca-
pricious and often tyrannical. In Carolina (and in no
other of the North American states) their severe
handling has already caused several uprisings among
them. There is less concern here as to their moral
betterment, education, and instruction, and South
Carolina appears little inclined to imitate the praise-
worthy and benevolent ordinances of its sister states.
SOUTH CAROLINA
221
in regard to the negro.* It is sufficient proof of the
bad situation in which these creatures find themselves
here that they do not multiply in the same proportion
as the white inhabitants, although the climate is more
natural to them and agrees with them better. Their
numbers must be continually kept up by fresh impor-
tations; to be sure, the constant taking up of new
land requires more and more working hands, and the
pretended necessity of bringing in additional slaves is
thus warranted in part; but close investigation makes
it certain that the increase of the blacks in the northern
states, where they are handled more gently, is vastly
more considerable. The gentlemen in the country
have among their negroes, as the Russian nobility
among their serfs, the most necessary handicraftsmen,
cobblers, tailors, carpenters, smiths, and the like, whose
work they command at the smallest possible price, or
for nothing almost. There is hardly any trade or craft
which has not been learned and is not carried on by
negroes, partly free, partly slave; the latter are hired
out by their owners for day's wages. Charleston
swarms with blacks, mulattoes, and mestizos; their
number greatly exceeds that of the whites, but they
are kept under strict order and discipline, and the
police has a watchful eye upon them.
There may
nowhere assemble together more than 7 male negro
slaves; their dances and other assemblies must stop at
10 o'clock in the evening; without permission of their
* At Charleston a company has been formed for carrying
on the slave-trade to the coast of Africa, and in the space of
two years since the peace-proposals, some 3000 blacks (to the
great vexation of the other states) have been openly brought
to this market and sold.
222
TRAVELS IN THE CONFEDERATION
owners none of them may sell beer or wine or brandy.
There are here many free negroes and mulattoes.
They get their freedom if by their own industry they
earn enough to buy themselves off, or their freedom is
given them at the death of their masters or in other
ways. Not all of them know how to use their free-
dom to their own advantage: many give themselves up
to idleness and dissipations which bring them finally to
crafty deceptions and thievery. They are besides ex-
traordinarily given to vanity, and love to adorn them-
selves as much as they can and to conduct themselves
importantly.
The feast of the Sunday is strictly observed at
Charleston. No shop may keep open; no sort of game
or music is permitted, and during the church service.
watchmen go about who lay hold upon any one idling
in the streets, (any not on urgent business or visiting
the sick), and compel him to turn aside into some
church or pay 2 shillings 4 pence; no slave may be re-
quired to work on this day.
The population in the back parts of South Carolina
has for some time been considerably increasing
through emigrations from the northern states.* The
most remote inhabitants, who in Pensylvania and Vir-
ginia are called 'Back-Wood-Men,' are here denomi-
* The rapid increase of the population in this state has in-
duced the government to establish a new town, called Co-
lumbia, 140 miles from Charleston, in the interior country,
whither the Assembly and the courts of justice are to be re-
moved towards the end of the year 1789. The public buildings
are already begun and town-lots were last April sold at public
auction for 20-21 Pd. Sterling.-Extract of a letter from
Charleston, 1787.
SOUTH CAROLINA
223
nated 'Crackers '—(from the noise, it said, which they
make with their whips when they come to town with
their teams)—people to whom the eulogy is not appli-
cable which I have given the residents of the capital.
South Carolina is not, like the other provinces
divided into Counties, but into Parishes and Districts.
Of these divisions there are at present 31; but they are
not all distinguished by determinate names.
The money-basis of this province was formerly very
different from that of the others; that is to say, a
shilling sterling was worth 7 shillings South Caro-
lina, and consequently the guinea, 7 Pd. 7 shill.; the
Spanish dollar 1 Pd. 12 shill. The paper-money made
by the state during the war was counted at this value.
But the British garrisons brought in the sterling basis
again, and this is still maintained, at least at the capital.
•
East-Florida
It was my purpose, before returning to Europe, to
visit at least a part of the West Indies, to which at this
time I was nearer than I might ever hope to be again.
The prohibition of trade which in consequence of a
resolution of the British Parliament forbade at the
time or at least restricted all traffick between the West
India islands and the United States of America, made
it difficult to get passage to those islands from
Charleston; for although an occasional vessel slipped
out hence bound thither it was only under the pretext
of sailing to other parts, and it was not adviseable to
risk a voyage in this way, which might involve loss of
time if not other inconvenience. There had been no
opportunity for some time of getting even to Provi-
dence, one of the nearest of the Bahamas. To accom-
plish my ends therefore I could do nothing but go the
roundabout way by St. Augustin in East Florida, hop-
ing to pass over from there under the wind to the
Islands or at least to the Bahamas. The spring was
gradually approaching in Carolina; I regretted being
unable to stay for its beauties.
On board a schooner of 25 tons I left the harbor of
Charleston at mid-day the 9th of March; at 4 o'clock
we passed the Bar without mishap and got out to sea
with a light wind from the north-west.* Our skipper
would not have it said of him that he fearfully hugged
* From Charleston, once outside the Bar, it is possible to
sail to Georgia between the mainland and the larger and
smaller islands along the coast, quite commodiously and safe
EAST-FLORIDA
225
the shore, like divers other similar small craft we had
in sight. Of conveniences on such small vessels there
are few or none; only fine weather and a short voyage
can make them bearable. Being out of sight of land,
but not more than 15-20 sea-miles distant, we were
entertained by the company of numerous water-fowl,
dolphins, and medusae.
We sailed along the coast of Georgia, seeing noth-
ing more of the land than the haze above it, or what
mariners call the 'loom of the land.' On the third day
(the 11th of March) we neared the coast of Florida,
and in the evening found ourselves opposite the river
St. John's, 30 miles north of Augustin. It was ebb-
tide and the water coming from the mouth of the river
could be remarked for several miles, by its muddy,
darker color; the greener, clearer water of the ocean
is set off in a line almost straight. This is the only
considerable river of East Florida, if it can be called
a river, for there is so little fall in its course that with
spring-tides and east winds its waters are salt almost
to their source, but often, under opposite circum-
stances, sweet out into the ocean; generally however
there is very little current at its mouth, and hardly any
motion is to be observed. The stream reaches deep
into the country, is ordinarily about an English mile.
against all dangers of the sea, even in little open boats; from
Georgia one can continue the voyage in a similar way to
Florida. This is called the inland-passage. Moreover, con-
siderable shalops can take this course, if in the bad season
they wish to avoid the ocean, putting in to land every night.
The voyage is indeed longer, from the many turns and the
uncertain winds, but it is safer. Also from South to North
Carolina there is for a good distance the same facility.
226
TRAVELS IN THE CONFEDERATION
·
wide, and winds southwards so that it flows within 14
miles to the west of Augustin. About its mouth, since
Carolina and Georgia were given up by the English,
many refugiés have settled and built an extensive
place, called also St. John's. A bar lies before the
mouth of the river, but there is 15-17 ft. water; larger
ships therefore run in here or into St. Mary's river,
(which marks the boundary between Georgia and
Florida), more easily and safely than anywhere else
in this colony.
After another unquiet night, during which a hollow
sea with calm flung our little schooner pitilessly from
one side to the other, a favorable wind brought us in
good time the next morning to the heights before
Augustin. On account of the very flat coast it is diffi-
cult to find the site of Augustin; ships are often at
a loss for several days. The night was warm, but the
morning cool and with a heavy dew on land. We
stood off and on before the bar, waiting for the pilot,
who had been signaled for and shortly came over the
so-called Swash and at 9 o'clock was on board.
Helped by the incoming tide and a fresh north-east
wind, the most favorable for entering craft, he carried
us well over this dreadful bar, which had caused our
young skipper many an anxious sigh all the way from
Charleston. The steersman on the other hand, quite
in the indifferent manner of an old sea-farer, had been
entertaining the small company on board with numer-
ous stories of ship-wreck and loss of life, always con-
cluding with the statement that the bar before us could
not be crossed without mortal danger, which was cer-
tainly no pleasant augury for those who were coming
to St. Augustin out of sheer curiosity. Among the
EAST-FLORIDA
227
bars, which are so common on the southern coasts of
North America, that before St. Augustin is unques-
tionably the most dangerous, because the shallowest
and at the same time exposed to the total force of the
ocean playing upon it. Ordinarily there are but 3,
often only 2 channels where it can be crossed, and
these at ebb-tide with only 4-4½ ft. of water, and at
high tide with not more than 8-9. These channels
which of themselves admit nothing but small and
light vessels, are besides narrow and crooked, and
what is worse they shift so generally after stormy
weather, on account of the quick-sand which forms
the bar, that a seaman, quite familiar with them, after
a brief absence from Augustin cannot without risk.
take the old course to which he had been used. The
pilots therefore, as often as they come out to bring in
a ship, must examine the passage anew. Nor will
they take a vessel in or out except at flood tide, and
the tide must not have reached its height; for in case
the vessel fares ill, the rising tide would float it again,
unless already broken by the heavy shocks, or those on
board might with the help of boards &c. swim off to
shore, which is about the only means of escape, since
boats can be of no use in the circumstances. It is in-
deed a fearful thing to hear the wild tumult of these
breaking seas and to behold them on all sides foaming
and tossing, and it is no comfort, when one's voyage is
ended but for a mile or two, to be then exposed to the
greatest danger of all, if the port, which is in plain
sight, is really to be made. It has become so common
at St. Augustine to see ships aground on this bar and
this coast generally, that disasters of the sort have
almost ceased to arouse sympathy or wonder. After
228
TRAVELS IN THE CONFEDERATION
the surrender of Charleston in 1782, within two days
no less than 16 vessels, bearing refugiés and their
effects, went to pieces here and many persons lost
their lives. In coming in and going out the 'seas'
are put to use, 3-4 waves commonly lifting the vessel
over the shallowest spots otherwise impassable. But
for this, keen attention, great skill, and good fortune
must all be united. The wave which is to raise the
ship must strike it full, and no other must come against
it, athwart for instance, at the same time, else the ship
is driven from the narrow channel on to a bank, and
soon knocked to pieces or laid over. A great quantity
of dismal remains of vessels protrude on all sides from
the sand and the water. Shortly before our arrival a
pilot who had served this bar for 20 years, went out
in stormy weather to meet a ship at the risk of his
life. The avaricious ship-master refused to promise.
the pilot his customary fee; who therefore returned
over the bar in his boat, which was capsized by the
seas and the worthy man went down with 4 negroes.
The skipper was hardly more fortunate; he stranded
on the bar, lost his ship, and barely got off with his
life. The Spaniards when they settled Augustin had
a regulation that as often as a ship approached the
Bar, to run in, a bell was rung; at this signal some of
the inhabitants must put off to the ship in boats, so as
to offer all possible assistance in case of mishap on the
Bar.
It was Spanish wariness to fix the capital of a
colony behind a sand-bank which cannot be crossed
except at great peril. Inside the bar there is at once
good anchorage. There had been lying here for five
weeks a brigantine bound for Nova Scotia, the vessel
EAST-FLORIDA
229
needing, to pass the bar, a depth of water only to be
had at the highest tides; but at such times the wind
is not always favorable for clearance.
St. Augustin is said to be one of the oldest towns
established by the Spaniards in North America. The
houses are built quite after the Spanish fashion, with
flat roofs and few windows; here and there the English
have houses with more windows, especially on the
street side. They also built the first chimneys, for the
Spanish formerly were content with no more than a
charcoal fire placed under a tapestry-hung table. The
town was planned for 4 chief streets running north
and south, but only two of them are conspicuously
built up, straight indeed but narrow. The best built
part of the town is at the northern end, towards the
fort. Almost every house has its little garden, of
which splendid lemon and orange trees are not the
least ornaments. The residence of the Governor, for
fear of the Indians, had been fortified by the Span-
iards with high walls, and the adjoining garden, with
bastions. At the south end and without the town,
what was once the Augustinian monastery (for the
Spanish in peopling a new-settled colony have first
regard to monasteries) has been converted by the
English into quarters for officers. Close by are large,
extensive, and well-planned barracks for the garrison.
The timber for this latter building was brought from
New York, as wise a course as fetching the pine flag-
staff on the fort from Norway through England to
Florida, where they know how to use the best wood
for scarcely anything but burning. This flag-staff is
said to have cost the government near 30 Pd. sterling,
and just outside the town there stand as fine or finer
230
TRAVELS IN THE CONFEDERATION
trees in plenty. A German baker gave us lodging,
and with the wife of a sometime Serjeant of the 60th
regiment we found board at a Spanish dollar a day.
There are several churches at Augustin, but almost
all of them in ruins. One near the north end of the
town, in a quarter where formerly certain Indian
families were more or less settled, to whose use and
edification the church was devoted. Of a German
church there stands now but one wall; and the Span-
ish cathedral church, of St. Augustinus, which was
also the principal church of the English garrison and
residents, is likewise on the point of falling in. The
Spaniards, on their reoccupation, will find enough to
do in purging and consecrating it, and in burning all
the heretics who lie buried thereabouts. Not far off
an association of negroes have a cabin, in which one
of their own countrymen, who has set himself up to be
their teacher, holds services. They are of the sect of
the Anabaptists.
There is a small, but well-kept and decorated chapel
belonging to the Minorcans who, after Florida fell to
Great Britain, were brought hither at the expense of
the government, for the peopling and better cultiva-
tion of the land. Although almost all of them left
their country in the extremest poverty, the greater part
have here risen to good circumstances through their
industry and frugality, qualities they are said to
possess in a high degree. Among these Minorcans the
men dress themselves after the English fashion, but
their wives retain their own peculiar head-dress and
their pleated braids. It was hoped the Minorcans.
would introduce into this province the culture of the
vine and of the silk-worm, but they have shown no
EAST-FLORIDA
231
great desire to engage in the grubbing of waste
lands, preferring to make a living in the town. They
form very nearly the greatest part of the inhabitants
of the place, the rest being a few Spanish still remain-
ing, with French, English, Americans, and-in what
part of the world are they not to be found?-Ger-
mans. After the relinquishment of Georgia and Caro-
lina the town and the surrounding country received a
considerable number of new inhabitants in the emi-
grant royalists, who however have found no continuing
place here, but must go farther if they do not wish to
be under the Spanish yoke. Round about the town
stand the hastily built cabins of these poor fugitives,
walled and thatched with palmetto (yucca) leaves.
The town lies under latitude 29° 50' north, on a
very narrow tongue of land formed by the North
River, the Bay, and St. Sebastian's Creek, behind the
town. The sole and narrow approach, on the north or
land-side, is covered by outworks as well as by Fort
St. John, which also fully protects the entrance to the
harbor. This fort is a high, regular quadrangle, en-
closing a spacious court, with 4 bastions, walled moats,
and large casemates. It is built wholly of the fine
shell-stone common here, which is also the material of
all the other stone houses of the town. This stone is
excellently adapted for fortification works, being not
entirely hard and receiving balls as well or better than
burnt bricks. Several holes are pointed out on the
east side, made by balls fired across the very wide bay,
at the time of General Oglethorpe's siege of Fisher's
Island. On the water-side the walls of the parapet are
5 ft. thick, and on the land-side 4 ft., and supplied with
64 cannon-ports.
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TRAVELS IN THE CONFEDERATION
Under British rule the town was further adorned
with a State-house, for the courts and assemblies, the
plan of which was handsome but never completely
carried out. This served at the same time for a play-
house; it is now half in ruins.
The Spaniards in Florida were at one time often
troublesome to the southern American colonies, show-
ing great hostility for example at the time when Gen-
eral Oglethorpe undertook to settle the neighboring
province of Georgia, which enterprise especially
aroused their jealousy. This General found it neces-
sary to make an expedition against Florida, and came
without hindrance as far as Augustin, but found that
he had missed the best time and was too weak to take
the place by force. In retaliation, the Spanish shortly
after made a landing at St. Simon's in Georgia, and at
a time when the new colony there was in no condition
to offer an adequate defence. General Oglethorpe
saved himself and the new colony by a happy strata-
gem. A Frenchman had deserted his small force and
gone over to the Spaniards, so much superior in
numbers and equipment. General Oglethorpe wrote
a letter and sent it to the deserter, but took pains to
contrive that it should fall into the hands of the Span-
ish commander. In this letter he asked the deserter
to give out among the Spaniards that the strength of
the English was very small. The trick had the desired
effect; the Spaniards put no more faith in the French-
man's true statements, and being apprehensive of a
dangerous situation withdrew the next day, without
bringing matters to an issue.
It is sufficiently well known that at the Peace of
Versailles, 1762, both East and West Florida were
EAST-FLORIDA
233
ceded by Spain to Great Britain; the latter power held
the possession of these provinces to be necessary as a
guaranty of all possible security to its other colonies
in America, north and south. As long as the Spanish
held Florida there was scarcely any thought given to
the tillage of the interior country. They maintained
the garrison at St. Augustin, merely to keep their hold
on the country, but without drawing the least profit
from it. For fear of the neighboring Indians, long
objects of especial hatred to the Spanish, no Spaniard
dared concern himself with agriculture at any distance.
from Augustin. The English had long-standing
claims upon Florida, on the ground of its discovery by
Sebastian Cabot before the country was known to the
Spanish. So soon as England came into possssion,
all necessary provisions were adopted for the settle-
ment and tillage of the country, and tempting offers
were made with those ends in view. Settlers began to
come in in numbers, from all parts of North America.
The southern situation of the country, however, gave
grounds for hoping that the culture of silk and of the
vine might be carried on to the greatest advantage.
To this end, a company of persons of means in Eng-
land spent great sums in bringing over a colony of
Greeks from the Archipelago, and of Minorcans
desirous of emigrating.* Dr. Turnbull who from a
* The government at that time also sent to Florida the
widely known and industrious collector, Bartram the elder,
to examine into that region. His journal has been published,
but against his will. Descriptions of the country have been
given by, William Roberts:-Account of the first discovery &
natural history of East-Florida. London 1763. 8, and Dr Will.
Storck,:-Description of Eastflorida. London 1769. 4—
16
234
TRAVELS IN THE CONFEDERATION
long residence at Smyrna had become familiar with
the dispositions and the habits of the Greeks, and him-
self had married a Greek woman, was especially active
in this enterprise. He brought together some 500
families of Greeks, or 1500 souls, from the Archi-
pelago, and took them to Florida. They were as-
signed land 70-80 miles to the south of Augustin, and
to the settlement was given the name New Smyrna.
This colony extended 7 English miles in length; that is
to say, there was built for each family a separate house
at determinate distances, with a suitable acreage
appurtenant.
The recruitment, maintenance, and transport of these
Greek families cost the undertakers great sums; but
the colonists were pledged to work the land 7-8 years
for the benefit of the undertakers, so as to recompense
them in a measure for the expence to which they had
been put. After that time each family was to have the
land, now worked and improved, on lease. It was not
found practicable at once to engage. largely in vine
and silk culture, which were the main objects of the
plan, such enterprises requiring a good many years
before any profit is to be expected from them. Atten-
tion must first be given to the necessary support of
these people and to the interests of the undertakers.
Maize and indigo were thus the first products had in
view, the land being once cleared. But the delicate
Greeks were no ways pleased with the unavoidable
hardships of subduing wild land. To be sure, for
making the work easier the company had provided for
negroes who were to be hired out among the Greeks;
but unluckily the first ship, bringing 500 negroes from
Africa, was wrecked on the coast of Florida and the
EAST-FLORIDA
235
whole number was lost. Notwithstanding, a great
tract of land had been cleared and the colony was be-
ginning to flourish and yield a profit to both the Greeks
and the undertakers when the disturbances between
England and the colonies broke out. Misunderstand-
ings arose between the Greeks and the undertakers,
some of the Greeks ran off from Smyrna to Augustin,
and the Governor of Florida, from the complaints
made to him, thought himself warranted in releasing
the whole of the Greek settlement from their obliga-
tions to the undertakers, and refused the undertakers
his assistance in bringing the Greek colonists to order
by force and compelling them, in accordance with their
agreement, to a continued working of the land appor-
tioned them. The Governor was the more inclined to
support the colonists in their outbreak, because he was
at a loss for troops, and many of the Greeks were will-
ing to be enlisted. Others resorted to the town, in-
tending to carry on trades and crafts whenever they
got liberty so to do; only a few remained at New
Smyrna, and the whole colony was as good as broken
up. Dr. Turnbull, who up to this time had lived among
the Greeks at Smyrna as director, and as a share-
holder suffered with the other undertakers a con-
siderable loss, afterwards retired in disgust to Charles-
ton, where I made his acquaintance. ✈ On the ground
of his experience he threatened to demand justice in
England of the Governor of Florida, Mr. Tonyn. The
vines and mulberry-trees, which had been set out by
the Greeks, thrived astoundingly. Finding that the
grapes, if they hung too near the earth and grew too
juicy, were apt to burst, Dr. Turnbull had the vines
236
TRAVELS IN THE CONFEDERATION
supported on high stakes, as is customary in Madeira,
and the fruit was greatly bettered.
Besides St. Augustin, St. John's is perhaps the only
place in East Florida deserving the name of town; for
Smyrna was more a rural colony, and the old Spanish
town of St. Marc de Apalache,* on the Mexican Gulf,
has almost gone to ruin. It lies 188 miles to the west
of Augustin and, as a place of trade with the Indians,
is inhabited and visited by a few merchants. There is
a small fort a few miles south of Augustin, on the
Matanza, where a few men keep guard, this river
being connected with the harbor; another small fort,
called Musa, stood four miles to the north of the town
but is now in ruins.
The remaining plantations are scattered singly and
sparsely about the country, but extend hardly more
than 60-70 miles west of the town. As far as this,
and still farther, the whole country is flat and sandy.
More inland and to the north it grows somewhat un-
evener and hilly, but without any elevations of con-
sequence; for the principal mountains of eastern North
America come to an end in Georgia. Compared with
that along the coast, the interior country is vastly
better and more fertile, the coast-land being chiefly a
loose, deep, white sand, grown up especially in pines
and palms. Now and again are found tracts known as
hammock-land. These are low places, covered with
* A company of Augustin merchants proposes, after the
change of establishment has been made, to carry on trade at
Apalache with the Florida Indians, who desire to have abso-
lutely no relations with the Spanish; they hope to get permis-
sion from the Spanish court.
EAST-FLORIDA
237
thick forests of tall evergreen oaks and other leaf-
woods, and bush; in their natural, wild condition these
tracts appear extraordinarily fat and fertile; trees and
shrubs stand so close together that they create warmth
and give protection against the sharp north winds, and
thus beautiful evergreen plants and other tender
growths find lodgment here. But no sooner is the
wood cut off than the thin layer of black earth dis-
appears before wind and rain, the sun burns up what
is left, and then the general white, dry sand remains.
Immediately behind Augustin the land rises somewhat
above the flat coast proper, but it is still a sand-plain.
But on the whole, West Florida is superior to East
Florida in the quality and fertility of the land; and
on that account many of the planters here have with-
drawn thither.
The Spanish had done little or nothing in Florida in
the way of tillage; therefore the British colonists who
came after found ample work in clearing off the for-
ests; but by making use of the forests, especially the
pine, they were able to repay themselves richly for
their trouble. Boards, pitch, tar, all manner of ship-
furnishings and building-materials were sold in great
quantity and at a great profit to the near-by West
Indies. It is these articles likely from which Great
Britain might expect the largest returns to be made by
this colony, if possession was continued. Florida, in
addition to the common pitch-pine, has a variety of
useful woods: cypress (Cupressus disticha), and ever-
green oaks in great perfection and plenty, red and white
cedar, sassafras, and farther to the south, towards
Cape Florida, there are found a rough species of
mahogany and other woods commercially useful.
238
TRAVELS IN THE CONFEDERATION
Here and there a beginning has been made in the
cultivation of rice, the quality of which has been irre-
proachable but the yields discouraging. The country
on the whole is not sloping enough and not sufficiently
supplied with fresh streams of water to make this crop
profitable. Indigo does better, which adapts itself to
a barren, dry soil; but there has been no great progress
made in its management. However, it is pretty gen-
erally accepted that 100 pounds indigo and more can
be produced by the work of a single negro slave,
which brings the profit from this article, reckoning the
pound at 5 shill. sterling, up to 25 Pd. Sterling, be-
sides what the hand must earn in addition.
On the Mosquito river a few attempts have been
made with sugar, but so far its culture has not been
found profitable or encouraging enough. The cold
north-west winds, which at times blow strongly here,
check the growth of this delicate plant, and if they do
not kill it, at least they cause the yield of sugar to be
not answerable to the labor expended; and this culture
therefore cannot be carried on so advantageously as in
the near-by West Indies. Cold winds and weather
are not uncommon here, notwithstanding the very
southern situation of the country. Mr. Bartram, who
in 1765 went through this newly won province by royal
commission, + remarks in his journal that on the 3rd of
January of that year there was such extraordinary cold
at St. Augustin that in one night the soil along the
streams was frozen an inch deep, and all the lemon
and banana trees were killed. At this time, in March,
we had a few such cool days that within doors a fire
was very agreeable. In the Governor's garden at-
tempts were made at divers times with pineapple and
EAST-FLORIDA
239
banana plants, but it was always found that most of
the winters (in temperature quite as uncertain as
throughout the rest of America) were too severe for
them.
In war-times Augustin was an advantageous and
safe port for the English privateers to slip into; here
they could with all ease lurk for the rich Spanish ships
coming from the Havannah through the Gulf of
Florida. In peace-times many little vessels are busy
looking out stranded ships along this dangerous coast,
as is the custom also of the inhabitants of the Bahama
islands. They have on board skilful divers, through
whose efforts considerable treasure in silver and other
commercial wares is fetched up not seldom from
sunken vessels. Of what is saved in this way from
wrecks, must be given in to the Governor. If one
living soul is found on board the unlucky vessel, all
that is saved falls to the actual owner, and only a cer-
tain portion, called 'salvage,' is paid these people.
Should there be none alive, the finders appropriate
everything, less the Governor's tithe, which is estima-
ted by them on the total value in no very definite
fashion.
The Spanish cannot promise themselves any great
advantage in receiving back the two Floridas. As
formerly, the neighboring Indians, the Musquitoes,
Cherokees, especially the Lower Creeks, who live on
the Apalichicola and Flint rivers and are the most
numerous of this region, will continue their im-
placable enemies, confining them quite to the garrison,
so that in all likelihood the settlement of the country,
now well begun, will be abandoned, and Augustin as
before will have none but soldiers and monks for in-
240
TRAVELS IN THE CONFEDERATION
habitants. After Pensacola in West Florida was taken
from the English, the Indians there showed great
hostility to the Spaniards and compelled them to keep
within their lines, and they have resolved to do the
same at Augustin. The Indians are thoroughly vexed
at the cession of the country to Spain. The Cow-
driver, an old warrior of the Cherokees, has even
assured Governor Tonyn that if the great man over
the water would give them large canoes and land
for hunting, most of the men of his nation would be
willing to withdraw with the Governor.
It does not at all appear that the Spanish are in any
haste to take possession of Augustin.* Nevertheless,
all the preparations are making for the transfer, and
ships are continually going out, with goods and pas-
sengers, to the West Indies or Nova Scotia. The un-
fortunate refugiés, who had fled hither from the
United States, are placed in the worst position. What
little property they could save, most of them have
fixed here in lands and houses, which they must now
again give up. For of all these residents few doubt-
less will be willing to exchange a mild British rule for
the Spanish yoke, even was there no question of re-
ligion. Only the fore-mentioned Minorcans, from
* The final delivery to Spain was not made until the autumn
of 1785.
The sum of 13000 Pd. sterling has been allowed by the
British Parliament, for losses suffered by the inhabitants of
East Florida, now ceded to Spain. But no such assistance
was given the inhabitants of West Florida which was con-
quered by Spain, whereas East Florida has been given over in
time of peace.-Hamb. polit. Jour. 1787. p. 580.
EAST-FLORIDA
241
religious affinity, seem for the most part inclined to
stay; and some of the Greeks also will likely remain.
The present condition of the province and the
temper of its inhabitants, mostly dissatisfied at the un-
avoidable change, rendered it unsafe to go far from
the town. The Governor himself gave a warning in
this regard. A few malefactors had taken advantage
of the confusions and disorder which the time and cir-
cumstances had caused among the inhabitants, (con-
ditions, however, chargeable to the authorities), and
were robbing on the roads and plundering houses
without let or hindrance. My excursions therefore
were confined to the region close about the town, from
which besides I dared not get far away, fearing to
miss the opportunity of a vessel bound for the Bahama
islands and lying ready.
All about the town the sandy soil was thickly set
with a low, creeping palm (Corypha minor L.?). The
stems trailed along the ground, the tops very little
raised above the sand but with comely, upright-stand-
ing leaves. From every old root there sprouted many
stems running in various directions, and striking out
fresh roots. Whole fields were covered with this
growth. Here and there appeared a few upstanding
trunks, of the thickness of a man's leg; from the leaf,
these seemed to be the same as the rest; but there
being no blooms at this time, no precise determination
could be made.
Near to the town there were also to be seen a few
trees of the fan-palm variety (Borassus flabellifer L.)
The cabbage-tree or cabbage-palm (Areca oleracea
L.) is likewise at home here, but about the town there
are few of them left. They had been cut down to get
242
TRAVELS IN THE CONFEDERATION
the cabbage, the undeveloped, tender, white leaves at
the top of the tree. This sort of palm grows tall. The
edible part is brought into the town by negroes and
sold at 6 pence to I shilling sterling.
In this southern region spring really begins hardly
before the middle of March. A few trees and shrubs.
begin then to show leaves; the evergreen oak, the
cassio-berry, and other winter-green plants let fall at
this time their last year's, but still green leaves, since
the new are then developing.
In the woods and swampy places there were bloom-
ing at the time, among smaller plants: Orontium aqua-
ticum, Drosera rotundifolia, Hypoxis erecta, Viola lan-
ceolata, palmata, and primulifolia, Rhexia virginica,
Hydrocotyle umbellata, Utricularia subulata and gibba
&c. All, plants which are found as well in the
provinces to the north, where however they come out
much later. Acorus Calamus was plentiful in the
swamps but not yet in bloom. On drier, sandy soils,
and protected by palm-bush or garden fences, were
found blooming: Jatropha urens, Houstonia caerulea,
Cistus canadensis, Veronica marilandica, Rhexia mari-
landica, Plantago virginica, Lobelia inflata, Antirr-
hinum canadense, Tradescantia virginica, Commelina
communis, Oxalis stricta, Veronica serpillifolia, Ver-
bena Aubletia, Argemone mexicana, Salvia urticifolia.
Among the smaller bush near the town several va-
rieties of the species Andromeda, Vaccinium, the
Myrica cerifera, Bignonia sempervirens, Rubus his-
pidus, Mespilus arbutifolia &c., were beginning to
develope blooms or were already blooming.
Prunus lusitanica, which is very common here,
showed sporadic masculine and hybridous blooms.
EAST-FLORIDA
243
Xanthoxylum Clava Herculis grows here to strong,
high trees. Ilex Cassine, Olea americana, Magnolia
grandiflora, and other trees seen in Carolina, are more
numerous here. Cactus Tuna is everywhere to be
found.
In place of other fences about gardens and fields,
the palmetto (Yucca gloriosa) is made use of here;
the tops being cut off and set out along little ridges of
earth take root easily and rapidly, grow tall and thick,
and with their stiff and prickly leaves make an im-
penetrable hedge. In addition, their beautiful blooms
offer a splendid prospect to the eye, and their sweetish,
mucilaginous fruit is said to be a mild purgative. The
orchards contain little besides lemon and orange trees.
The latter, the sweet as well as the sour, are thought
to be especially good, even better than the West In-
dian. But the sour are the most raised.
The ex-
pressed juice is sold at 1 Spanish dollar the gallon.
Of both sorts there are very strong and handsome
trees, yielding annually 3-4-500 oranges. I saw no
apple or pear trees, and only a few peach and plum
trees.
The Florida star-anis tree (Illicium floridanum L.)
is found in the neighborhood but is not so plentiful as
in West Florida.
In certain parts of Florida the culture of the
Sesamum orientale has been attempted, and the seed
found to be so heavy that a bushel, English measure,
gave more than 25 pounds of oil, not only pleasant to
the taste but valuable because it does not easily grow
rancid.
The few fish which during my short stay at Augus-
tin I observed in the market were: mullets, whitings,
244
TRAVELS IN THE CONFEDERATION
and drum-fish.* The whiting keeps on the bottom,
and bites only when the flood or the ebb is half over.
Fresh from the water its color is reddish, but changes
to divers other colors when the fish is dead or shortly
before.
The drum-fish gets its name from a grunting noise
it makes in some unknown way. In southern waters
it likes the neighborhood of ships, whence its music
may be heard, especially at night. Before leaving
Augustin, having to lie at anchor several nights, each
night we had a numerous company of them beneath
the ship, the bottom of which had recently been tal-
lowed, and it was the skipper's opinion that this was
the especial attraction to them. The noise they made
was unceasing, as if one was answering another from
different sides of the ship. It was a short, hollow
sound, like the dull grunting of a hog or the noise
made by the American bull-frog (Rana ocellata). As
soon as the flood-tide grew pretty strong, they became
quiet. Judging by the sound, it is rather improbable
it is made by their rubbing against the ship's bottom,
which is the commoner opinion. But what serves
them as a physical instrument would be worth looking
carefully into.
These waters contain, besides, almost all the fish
which appear in Carolina, and many of them are the
same as those found in the neighboring Bahamas; nor
is there any lack of alligators.
* Mullet, Mugil Albula L.-Whiting, Perca Alburnus L.
But is hardly to be classed with the Percae. Radii branchiar.
Numero variant. 3. 4. 5. Cirrhus brevis sub Mento. Labium
superius protractum. Striae obliquae vix discernendae. Habi-
tus a Percis diversus. Drum-fish. Labrus Croniis L.
EAST-FLORIDA
245
The Virginia deer is numerous in the woods, run-
ning in herds. In the item of quadrupeds Florida
seems to be no ways different from Carolina, the same
being found in both provinces. I had but uncertain
and insufficient accounts of one animal of the mouse-
species. Its size is said to be that of a strong rat, it
burrows in the earth, and has been often seen with
its jaws stuffed. It is found in the interior country,
and is likely an unknown variety of this species.
Among snakes almost all the Carolinian species are
known here—and, as is to be expected in a new-set-
tled country, they are in considerable numbers.
There is great plenty of birds of various kinds.
Many of the northern passage-birds winter here. In
the woods the little perroquets (Psittacus Carolinus)
are numerous. Red or Cardinal birds are often seen;
Spanish boats from the Havannah visit the coasts of
Florida to catch these birds, which they sell at
Havannah and elsewhere for 3-6 Spanish dollars
a-piece. In the swamps and along the seashore are
quantities of ducks and other water-fowl. The Alcedo
Alcyon, Ardea caerulea and americana L, and also the
Falco palumbarius were observed by me. On the
sand-banks along the coast and in the harbor sat great
troops of pelecans (Pelecanus Fiber L.), and other
water-birds. These pelecans fish commonly only in
the morning and the evening, sitting quiet the re-
mainder of the day. There were fewer buzzards to
be seen here than in Carolina.
The neat cattle of Florida are not the best, yet the
meat brought to market at Augustin is, if anything,
better than that of Charleston. No great attention is
given here to the keep of cattle. Of pastures there
246
TRAVELS IN THE CONFEDERATION
are none; cattle must either get their own feed from
the thin, sparse grass among the palms or in the
swamps, or a negro must every day cut in the swamps
a supply of reeds and coarse grass and bring it in to the
house, if for their milk the cows are kept up. In like
manner with horses. Corn-stalks and blades serve for
winter feed. In certain regions on the river St. John's,
it is said that no cow can live or keep sound much
longer than 12 months. The exact reason for this has
not been made out, but it is believed the trouble is due
to some injurious plant. Swine, demanding the least
care and attention, thrive here excellently well, feed-
ing on acorns and chestnuts and roots. At the Gover-
nor's farm was a Chinese hog (Sus Scrofa chinensis
L.) which by its short feet, hanging, dragging belly,
and softer bristles was distinct from the European
breed; it had been brought from the East Indies by a
ship returning thence.
The so-called North Beach is a peninsula to the
north of Augustin, extending 4-5 miles. The North
River divides it from the mainland; it is a dry, barren
sand, mostly covered with young evergreen oaks and
creeping palms. The sand along the shore has been
bleached by sun and water to such a dazzling white
that it is painful to the eye to look long upon it. It is
raised by the merest breath of wind and blown about
like snow. On the sea-side the waves have thrown up
a wall 6-9 ft. high, which looks to be an artificial wall
and runs from south to north. Behind this dike there
is low, broken land, in which many little bulwarks or
hills are to be distinguished, cutting across from east
to west, and making different divisions as it were.
Along the rivers and brooks, as far as the tide reaches
EAST-FLORIDA
247
inland, are found extensive oyster-beds, which here
and there at the ebb are quite exposed. At such times.
it may be seen that almost all of them are set upright,
in heaps one over another. Where trees stand close
to the water, or their roots are washed bare at the
edge of the stream, it happens frequently that oysters
are found thick set upon them; for it is indifferent to
the oyster what the nature is of the solid body to which
it fastens. They are so closely fixed one upon the
other, that the lowest and innermost cannot open with-
out setting the rest in motion. These creeks and salty
swamps are favorite haunts of raccoons, which there
feed on fish, crabs, and oysters.
The immediate ocean shore consists of quartz-sand,
mixed with shells broken very small; the surface, from
the incessant wash of the sea, is firm and smooth, like
a threshing-floor except for the slope. If, by length of
time and such a binding as the mixture likely gets
from the sea-water, the whole mass becomes hard, then
one has the so-called shell-stone which is at present dug
on Fisher's Island, and used in buildings.
This North Beach extends towards the south in a
long point, and where this ceases to appear above the
water the sands or shallow banks begin, giving rise to
the breakers among which the tedious entrance to the
harbor must be sought. But parallel with this point,
from south to north, there runs at a moderate distance
the northern point of Fisher's Island, (or Anastasia
Island with the Spanish), and between them is a chan-
nel of deep and quiet water. These points are so low
that from the town one can see out over the Bay,
across these points, the channel, and the breakers,
having an open view to the ocean on the east. How-
•
248
TRAVELS IN THE CONFEDERATION
ever, the breakers, incessantly moving, may be seen
from the town, the great, long, white, foaming waves
rising gradually from out the distance until, to the
south, they strike upon the shallowest spots and spring
high. With the tide and an east wind the water is
most disturbed and dreadful, and then the unbroken
roar may be heard at a great distance.
Augustin is very like a mouse-trap; once inside, and
it is difficult to arrive there, one is at a loss to know
if he can get out and how. Ships often lie 8-14 days.
before wind and weather admit of passing the bar.
On the 24th of March +-I went on board a sloop, and
it was not until the 29th of March that we had an op-
portunity of leaving the harbor. Our small vessel was
crammed with people and cattle, luggage and house-
hold furniture. Our two seamen were negroes; and
we carried a parcel of black women and children,
being sent to Providence to market. We lay at
anchor opposite the light-house, on Anastasia Island.
This is a solid, stone building, in the manner of an
ancient Moorish castle, with ports and battlements.
But of the tower the upper part is merely of wood,
and so decayed that it shakes with the slightest wind.
While we waited for wind and weather I visited the
island several times. Along the beach there is a very
fine, wide, and level promenade which, in appearance
and nature as here, is said to extend almost the whole
way to Cape Florida, of which the southern point is
called 300 miles from Augustin. The inhabitants foot
it along this beach to Mattanzas, Musquetoes, Cape
Canaveral, wherever they please, in all commodious-
ness; there is difficulty only at inlets and small streams
where there is no means of being set over (a planta-
EAST-FLORIDA
249
tion, say, or fisherman's cabin) and the passenger
cannot swim. Such a beach is a splendid sight-the
dazzling white sand makes the distant view like a field
of snow; the sand is very fine, so that a breath of wind
traces furrows in it, smooth and gently sloping to the
water; hard by the water like a threshing-floor; the
noise of the playing waves-everything contributes to
make the prospect agreeable, on one side a boundary
of beautiful green bush. The waves of the sea com-
monly come rolling in-shore in three gradations one
after another, each half a foot to I foot in height, and
seeming to be vertically defined. The last always ad-
vances with the strongest thrust. Few or no shells
are to be found on this beach. This cannot be said of
the dismal remains of ships. Without the least over-
statement I daresay that every 100 paces, almost, the
skeleton of a foundered ship, or its wreckage, may be
seen. Who could pass this way without emotion—if
one imagines to himself the terror so many souls must
have suffered here, and the lives that have been here.
lost. The estimate is that every fortnight, or every
month at least, a vessel is wrecked on this coast. I
saw several of these skeletons far off from the water,
at the highest part of the beach, and buried deep in
the sand. A very little more, and they would be
wholly covered. Should the sea withdraw after cen-
turies, it would be an astounding thing to come upon
the reliques of these ships, enclosed doubtless in the
hardened shell-stone, into which, as I have observed,
the sand of these shores gradually changes. On this
island one sees many places near the beach where the
shell-sandstone has been dug out for buildings. Ex-
posed to the air it hardens still more. The stone has
17
250
TRAVELS IN THE CONFEDERATION
a very fine appearance, and from small fragments one
can very nearly determine what varieties of shells en-
tered into the composition. In the quarries it is seen
that the stone is in layers. It is hardest at a depth;
but the uppermost couches are still so soft that they
may be rubbed to sand with the finger. This stone is
found here almost anywhere a few feet beneath the
surface; how far down it extends, nobody has in-
vestigated. In the light-house a well has been dug
through this shell-rock, and the water is very good at
a slight depth, although salt water is not 100 yards
distant. I could not learn whether anywhere farther
inland the same shell-stone is found. But if so, it lies
presumably deeper below the surface.
East Florida, as regards sickliness, has often been
judged with the same disfavor which experience at-
taches to the southern parts of North America gen-
erally; but without reason. Augustin itself is widely
known to be a healthy place, so that weaklings and
consumptives from the northern provinces resort
hither, and always to their advantage. The garrison
troops of the 60th regiment, who were formerly here,
gave further confirmation of this in their very small
sick-list. The situation of the town, so near the sea,
brings it during summer the refreshing sea-winds
which prevail between 8 and 9 of the morning, purify
the air, and temper the heat. But the same advantage
is enjoyed in a measure by the whole province of
East Florida, which is only a low point of land be-
tween the gulf and the Mexican Bay and hence the
passage of the cool morning winds over the entire
country, (not over 80 English miles in mean breadth),
is unchecked. And notwithstanding the land is pene-
EAST-FLORIDA
251
trated by many inlets and creeks, most of these are
filled with salt water, of which the exhalations are less
harmful. From the experience so far, the winter, on
account of sudden and violent north-west winds and
consequent catarrhal and inflammatory diseases, is the
most sickly season.
From Dr. Yates, the Provincial Secretary, I heard`
that the year before there died here a man with all
the symptoms of hydrophobia, who had been bitten by
a mad dog.
Voyage from St. Augustin to the Bahama
Islands
At last on the 29th of March the favorable and long
awaited moment arrived for leaving the harbor of St.
Augustin. In going out, the pilot chose the so-called
Swash, a channel lying in towards the North Beach.
Our vessel drew only 6 ft. of water and yet, in being
raised by the seas over the shallowest part of the bank,
it received three very jolting shocks, to the great per-
turbation of our skipper. So soon as we had passed
the Bar, the pumps were tried and everything ex-
amined, but it was found that these rude shakings-up
had not damaged the small vessel. With a moderate
north-west wind we set our course to the south-east,
and the next day (Tuesday the 30th March) found
ourselves betimes in the Gulf Stream. Sea-farers
know when they get into this mighty ocean-current,
partly by the distance gone, that is to say, if they have
come 70-80 miles from land, partly by the finer blue
color of the sea, which nearer in to the coast grows
greener. The Gulf Stream follows a course for the
most part directly north-east, and thus stands at vary-
ing distances from the curving coast of North
America. It is observable by mariners almost as far
as the latitude of the Newfoundland Banks; but the
more north it flows, the more it broadens and its force
diminishes, but it is of strength enough still to delay
ships making against the current unless they have
favoring winds to overcome its counter-effect. All
ST. AUGUSTIN TO BAHAMA ISLANDS 253
ships sailing from Europe to the southern parts of
North America must cut through this stream at one
place or another. With fresh east winds this is easily
managed; however, if the winds are but light, or
should there be calms when the ships come into this
current, they are by its force imperceptibly to them
drawn out of their true course or driven back or at
least held within the stream, from which they do not.
get free so soon as, from the strength of the wind
blowing, they judge they should. In this way errors
arise frequently in reckoning the course, and ship-
masters often find themselves mistaken when from
their observations they flatter themselves they are
already near the wished-for land. The Gulf Stream,
in the middle of the Atlantic ocean and farther north,
does not maintain one breadth, direction, and force;
for it is evident that the strength of powerful winds
and storms, even those at a distance and from opposite
directions, must work effects and fortuitous changes
in the ocean and in this current as well. In certain
circumstances the result is extremely tedious. During
the last war it has at times happened that ships bound
from New York for southern ports and seeking the
high sea in order to avoid hostile privateers, have
fallen into the strongest current of the Gulf Stream,
and wanting fresh and favorable winds have been
drawn away by the current's strength in a direction
quite opposite to that intended, and finally have been
glad to make the port again from which they sailed.
The origin of the Gulf Stream is to be found chiefly
in the east winds continually blowing between the
Tropicks, and in the swing of the earth from west to
east. These are the two causes, but especially the
254
TRAVELS IN THE CONFEDERATION
first, by which the water of the ocean is incessantly
driven among the West Indian islands through to the
Mexican Gulf and there heaped up. The water here
being opposed on all sides by the main-land, which
checks its further course to the west, and that nearest
the land being pressed upon heavily and continually by
what follows, there remains no outlet by which the
Mexican gulf can rid itself of the water ever accumu-
lating in it, except through the narrow channel be-
tween the eastern coast of Florida and the northern
Bahama islands, a channel in the average not above.
30 sea-miles wide. Since through this comparatively
narrow channel there must be emptied the great
quantity of water always forcing in, the current re-
ceives a considerable rapidity and strength which it
still shows high up in the western and northern
ocean.*
Springing from the same causes there are, among
others of the West India and Bahama islands, other
water-tows or currents, holding north, but less con-
*The effect of the Gulf Stream extends even to the most
northern parts of Europe, seen in foreign substances there
washed up. Vid. Hans Sloane, De fructibus Indicis qui solent
ad Orcadum littora adpellere. Phil. Trans. n. 222.—And Pen-
nant's account of the Molucca beans, so-called, in the Hebri-
des, or western Islands of Scotland. These are the seeds of
"the Mimosa scandens, Dolichos urens, Guilandina Bonduc,
'Bonducella &c., which grow in plenty on the banks of the
streams of Jamaica, and are carried down in the water to
the sea. By currents and the prevailing East wind they are
'brought into the Bay of Florida and thence into the North
American ocean. In the ocean for two thirds of the year
"west winds blow, which finally cast these seeds on the
shores of the Hebrides. At times, American turtles are
caught there; and a piece of the mast of the Tilbury ship of
("
ST. AUGUSTIN TO BAHAMA ISLANDS 255
siderable, changeable, and not so well known. These
are to be observed especially when by reason of strong
east winds, the customary channel cannot expedite all
the water. Against the Gulf Stream proper no ship
can prevail; hence none can make sail to the south be-
tween Florida and the Bahama islands. Only very
small craft can creep along, close in-shore where the
water is shallow and the force of the mid-current
imperceptible or quite absent.
On the high sea, or in the midst of the Atlantic
ocean, it is at times difficult to determine whether one
is or is not in the Gulf Stream. To settle this, it is
usual now and then to throw over-board some light
substance; if this, with calm or light north and east
winds, is carried nevertheless in a northwest course
from the ship, it is taken to be proof, though not
absolutely decisive, that the ship is in the current.
Recently Dr. Blagden, in the Philosoph. Transact., has
shown by thermometrical observations that the tem-
war has even been fished up on the Scottish coast, that vessel
'having been burned off Jamaica in the last war, and this is
"a further proof of the opinion stated above." Pennant's Voy-
age to the Hebrides 1772. Chester, 1774. p. 232, 233. Ver-
mischte Beyträge zur physikalischen Erdbeschreibung. Vi, no.
2.-The Gulf Stream should have been particularly mentioned
here as the chief means of the long voyage over seas of these
West Indian products.-Substances of like sort have been
found still farther north, on the coasts of Norway and of
northern Asia. Vid. Linnaeus, Amoen. acad. Vol. 7, p. 477.
The Gulf Stream proper does not indeed extend so far; but
where this ceases, other currents and winds act in furtherance.
It is however remarkable, and an eloquent proof of the power-
ful northwestern draught of the Gulf Stream, that no similar
products are cast on the North American coasts, notwithstand-
ing the nearness of the West Indies.
256
TRAVELS IN THE CONFEDERATION
perature of the water presents a means, if not wholly
positive, of determining this. The water of the Gulf
Stream flows fast, and nearly in a direct line, from
regions where there has been time enough for the hot
air and sun to give it a high degree of warmth, which
it in some measure retains throughout the greatest part
of its course, even in the winter months, and is thus
distinct from the waters of the rest of the ocean, from
many causes always less warmed in those parts to the
north of the Tropicks. If I remember aright, he
found the temperature of the water in the Gulf Stream
about 70 degrees Fahr., and that outside some 10 de-
grees and more less.
It is a remarkable assertion of sea-men, their obser-
vation that, if the wind is north-east and thus blowing
directly against it, the Gulf Stream flows but the
stronger and faster. 'One knot faster,' (i. e. one mile
in the hour faster), says our skipper, who knows these
parts thoroughly. The reason is likely that by north-
east winds the Trade wind between the Tropicks is
strengthened also, and consequently a greater amount
of water is driven into the Gulf and, with heightened
force, out through the channel.
For the rest, the movement of the water in the Gulf
Stream, if the wind sets from one or another northern
direction, is extremely irksome and difficult, casting
vessels pitilessly about. This is even a dangerous cir-
cumstance; for it happens not seldom that by the oppo-
site movements of the wind and the current, and the
extraordinarily violent 'cross-seas' thus arising, ships
are quite turned over, either sinking at once or driv-
ing forward 'on the beam-ends.' For this reason, es-
pecially in these parts where storms so often come up
ST. AUGUSTIN TO BAHAMA ISLANDS 257
suddenly, mariners have a not ungrounded fear of the
Gulf Stream, and are always glad when they have
passed it.
In the Gulf Stream of this region it is the common
tradition that no bottom is to be found with the lead;
the causes may be in part the strength of the current,
in part also the deeper washing-out of the sea-bottom
so occasioned, these explanations being the most prob-
able where the current is most narrowly restricted.
Towards midnight (31st March) the wind veered
to the north-west, and pretty soon was blowing hard;
we were obliged to close reef the main-sail. The wind
having laid, sprang up again from the south-east,
directly in our teeth; and remained so until the 3rd of
April, during which time we made but little way, not-
withstanding that while the wind was favorable we
had come a good part of our voyage, covering in one
night (before the n. w. mentioned) 115 English miles,
by our skipper's reckoning. The contrary wind kept
our little ship continually in violent motion. Between-
times there was calm; the 3rd of April, about seven
o'clock in the evening, a dreadful thunder-cloud rose
suddenly over us. In the greatest haste our few sails
were reefed. The storm passed over rapidly, sparing
us its worst fury. Such thunder-squalls are usually
very fearful in this region and often dangerous to
small vessels. They rage and blow for a quarter or
half an hour as if they would lift vessels out of the
water, falling so suddenly upon them that the neces-
sary measures of precaution cannot be gone about.
After the storm, the wind was quite laid, and then to
our gratification blew again from the north-west, so
258
TRAVELS IN THE CONFEDERATION
that we could make sail on our right course 6-8 knots
(or as many miles) in the hour.
Sunday, the 4th of April, in the morning at 10
o'clock, there could be discovered from the mast the
north-eastern end of the island of Abaco; in the after-
noon we drew nearer the island, sailing at some dis-
tance from it south-east. Our skipper spent almost
the whole afternoon at the mast-head, so as to deter-
mine the safest course. For in nearing the Bahama
islands, new dangers are met, numerous shallows and
sharp rocks surrounding them. It is then well to
make the voyage with a Providence captain, thoroughly
familiar with the region. Towards evening we were
still rounding the eastern point of Abaco, and lay-to
under the fore-sail. The wind still kept in the north-
west, but the next morning we found to our astonish-
ment that our little vessel had got far off from its
position of the day before, and almost against the wind
had been driven around the eastern point again. The
cause of this was one of those currents setting north-
west, which as I have mentioned are here and there
to be traced among the West Indian islands, but sub-
ject to many changes. When the waters of the Mex-
ican Gulf, besides their usual augmentation due to the
winds, are still further swelled by the streams risen
from the rains, and the surplus cannot be carried off
through the Gulf Stream, it happens then especially
that these currents among the islands (and particularly
the Bahamas) are observable more than common.
It was long before we could get a second time
around the point; the wind was blowing straight
towards it, and we had to work hard to come about.
A line of rock off Abaco runs straight with the length.
ST. AUGUSTIN TO BAHAMA ISLANDS 259
of the island; the channel between, perhaps half a
mile wide, is navigable for boats.
Abaco is the northernmost of all the Bahama is-
lands, of considerable length but of small breadth.
To the north of this island there are various groups,
in part small islands uninhabitable for lack of water,
partly mere rocks more or less emergent from the
water. Rocks of this character are in the West Indies
called Keys, and have besides distinguishing names,
as Man of War Keys, Guiana Keys &c. They are a
terror to sea-men. Abaco until recently had no in-
habitants; but now there are settled there many
families of North American refugiés, who have made
a beginning of two little towns, Carleton and Marsh's
Harbour. The island is fertile and it is hoped its new
residents will do well there, once they have gone
through with the hardships exacted in clearing and
preparing wild land. They have given them pro-
visions and other necessaries to supply them at first.
The numbers of fish swimming all about them are
alone sufficient to feed them, whenever they are ready
to engage in the catch.
Towards evening we lost sight of Abaco and after
3 hours came to Egg Island. It is small and unin-
habited, surrounded by reefs. Divers water-fowl, but
especially the Booby, haunt it in indescribable num-
bers; their eggs make good food and are industriously
fetched thence. Before night we had come within 6
miles of Providence, and the next morning (the 6th of
April) passed without mishap the Bar which lies at
the entrance of the harbor, and cast anchor close in to
the town. Here also passage into the harbor is not
the most agreeable; a chain of black, rugged, pointed
260
TRAVELS IN THE CONFEDERATION
rocks extending from Hog Island, and over which
mad, foaming seas eternally break, admit of no very
broad way, which must be followed with circum-
spection. Shortly after we came in, a large English
provision-ship, the David, had the misfortune to run
upon the rocks at the entrance, sinking immediately
thereafter in the harbor.
During this week of our passage hither from Florida
there were now and then a few circumstances to break
momentarily the killing tedium of a slow and com-
fortless voyage.
Turtles now and then,
Every evening young porpoises (Delphinus Pho-
caena L.) swam in tumbling schools about our little
vessel. If the sea was still and clear, one could ob-
serve them at some depth, and note the rapidity with
which they cut the waves. At times there followed
us one or more sharks. Grampuses (Delphinus Orca
L.) likewise might often be seen, but we got sight of
no other variety of whale, although divers of them
keep in these waters, where ships come from New
England even to take them.
and often floating sea-grass (Gulfweed, Fucus natans
L.), medusae, and holothuriae were observed. Man
of War birds (Pelecanus Aquilus L.)-Boatswains
(Lari Spec.-) Sheerwaters (Rhynchops nigra L.)
and many other sea-fowl were noticed, either poised
on the waves or in flight. The Tropick Bird
(Phaëthon aethereus L.) appeared at times, but always
high in the air. Boobies (Pelecanus Sula L.) were
met with in great numbers as we drew near the is-
lands, but no land as yet in sight.
Another sort of amusement was furnished us by
several among the negroes on board, native Africans.
ST. AUGUSTIN TO BAHAMA ISLANDS
261
One of them would often be entertaining his com-
rades with the music and songs of their country. The
instrument which he used for the purpose he called
Gambee; a notched bar of wood, one end of which he
placed against an empty cask, or some other hollow,
reverberant body, and the other against his breast. In
his right hand he held a small stick of wood, split
lengthwise into several clappers (something after the
fashion of a harlequin's mace); in his left hand also a
small thin wooden stick, unsplit. Beating and rub-
bing both of these, vigorously and in time, over the
notches of the first stick, he produced a hollow rattling
noise, accompanied by a song in the Guinea tongue.
At the first, his gestures and voice were altogether
quiet, soft, and slow; but gradually he raised his voice,
and began to grin and make wry faces, ending in such
a glowing enthusiasm that his mouth foamed and his
eyes rolled wildly about. The Guinea negroes are ex-
tremely fond of this rude, barbaric music, and sing
or hear their folk-songs sung never without the great-
est excitement; and they are at such times capable of
any enterprise. Hence in Jamaica, and elsewhere,
where there are many Guinea slaves, this sort of music
and song is forbidden for the same reason as the
ranz among the Swiss in service abroad.
Another musical instrument of the true negro is the
Banjah. Over a hollow calabash (Cucurb lagenaria
L.) is stretched a sheep-skin, the instrument length-
ened with a neck, strung with 4 strings, and made ac-
cordant. It gives out a rude sound; usually there is
some one besides to give an accompaniment with the
drum, or an iron pan, or empty cask, whatever may be
at hand. In America and on the islands they make use
262
TRAVELS IN THE CONFEDERATION
of this instrument greatly for the dance. Their
melodies are almost always the same, with little varia-
tion. The dancers, the musicians, and often even the
spectators, sing alternately. Their national dances
consist of wonderful leaps and a riotous bending and
twisting of the body.
The harbor of Providence is formed and protected
by a small island, called Hog Island, lying to the north.
There are thus two approaches to the harbor, one to
the east, and the other to the west; these are used by
ships according to the quarter whence they come or the
direction in which they are going.
The capital of the island of Providence, and at the
same time of all the other Bahama islands, is the little
town of Nassau, which hugs the hilly shore. The
houses are of wood, all lightly built and of simple con-
struction; according to the needs of the climate here,
attention has been given only to roof, shade, space, and
air. No chimneys are to be seen, and but few glass-
windows. The houses stand apart, surrounded by
trees, hedges, and gardens. Most of the houses have
besides the frame merely a plain covering of boards;
the best are boarded double, but even then the cover-
ing is light, and are tastefully decorated within. Any
of our light European summer-houses would serve as
a comfortable dwelling in Providence at all seasons.
There is but one tolerably regular street, or line of
houses, which runs next the water. At the eastern end
of the town there stands a square Fort, walled, of
which at this time a detachment of the 37th Regiment
forms the garrison. This covers the entrance to the
harbor on this side; as does the small Fort Montagu,
two miles from the town, the eastern entrance.
ST. AUGUSTIN TO BAHAMA ISLANDS 263
The Governor, at the present time Colonel Max-
well,* occupies a private house leased for him, which
has a fine situation on the ridge of a high hill, and
hence serves as a landmark to in-coming ships. The
Spanish Governor, while he was in possession after the
loss of these islands during the last war, had a wall
run about this residence, and planted cannon on the
garden-terraces leading up to the house; for a Span-
ish governor seems never to think himself safe, unless
begirt with cannon.
A church, a gaol, and an Assembly-house make up
the public buildings of the town. Under the splendid
name of Bourse there is frequented by the waterside
a building, quite open, furnished with a roof only,
where public sales are held of goods brought in, and
all notices and regulations are posted; here may be
found throughout the day buyers and sellers, ships'
captains, and other persons, of affairs or of none, who
come to hear or retail the news. There is no pavement
in the town, but none is needed, since the streets, like
the whole island, are almost wholly stone.
The inhabitants of the town of Nassau are a few
royal officials, divers merchants, shipbuilders and car-
penters, skippers, pilots, fishermen, and what laborers.
are needed, with several families who live on the re-
turns from their lands and the work of their slaves.
The real planters, but of lesser consequence, live near
to the town on their estates. To the east of the town,
along the waterside, are a good number of houses, for
the most part occupied by sailors and fishermen; and
* Since October 1787 his Excellency the Earl of Dunmore,
(the last British governor of Virginia—), has taken over the
government of the Bahama islands.
264
TRAVELS IN THE CONFEDERATION
several English miles farther on is a little village, to
which the name New-Guinea has been given, most of
its inhabitants being free negroes and mulattoes.
In the town itself, at this time, no quarters were to
be had, because all the houses were filled with refugiés
escaped from North America, and besides there were
many Americans present who had been banished the
states of Georgia and South Carolina, as of the royal
party, and were expecting here the result of their
trials or a permission to return. Half a mile from the
town, on the Whiteground so-called, a lodging was
found with a carpenter, who himself was a refugié
and had rented a house which was quite barn-like;
however it was a pleasant situation, by the water. One
of the largest and finest of Indian fig-trees (Ficus ben-
ghalensis L. Trew, Plant. sel. Tab. L.) stood close
before this dwelling. Not only its distinguished size
(for it shaded with its broad-flung branches a circle of
90-100 yards) but also its place in the history of this
island makes this tree honorable and famous. Black-
beard, one of the most illustrious of the pirates who
during the last century and at the beginning of this
had their seat in Providence, was accustomed to dis-
tribute his booty under this tree and to pass judgment
upon his fellows; after him it is still called Black-
beard's Tree. These fig-trees, of which there are a
good many on Providence and the other West Indian
islands, increase their compass by roots which hang
down from the branches of the tree like pleated
tresses, and when they touch the ground begin to form
a new trunk, conjoined thus with the old. In this
way where they are not disturbed they grow prodig-
iously, and the old trunk of such a tree, with its de-
ST. AUGUSTIN TO BAHAMA ISLANDS 265
scendants gathered round it, makes here and there
shaded arbors and covered ways of very great extent.
Its fruit is small and uncomely and is not enjoyed by
either man or beast, nor is its wood of any especial
u'se.
The rock of which the hills of this island and the rest
of the Bahamas consists (the same probably as that of
other West Indian islands *) is a limestone formed
from triturated shells and other hard products of the
sea. Such an origin is visible and unmistakable; in the
stones themselves fragments of many kinds of shells
are plainly enough to be seen; indeed, one even finds
in places high above the sea and at a distance from it,
whole pieces of what are certainly madrepores, mille-
pores, corals, or other lithophytes which are closely
incorporated in the rocky soil, associated with it in
such a way that there can be no doubt as to the origin.
From these stones lime is burned, but on account of
the quartzose sand particles here and there mxied in,
this is not always of the same good quality. These
stones are excellently suited for building; fresh from
the quarry they are so soft that with little difficulty any
form can be given them, and afterwards they take on
a considerable degree of hardness. They are besides
* The author of the Voyage d'un Suisse dans different.
Colon. de l'Amerique &c., says of Curaçao: Le sol y est très
inegal, maigre, sterile; à peine y trouve-t-on sept à huit pouces
de terre. Au dessous est une espéce de roc calcaire, formé
par des debris de corps marins petrifiés, au milieu desquels
j'ai vu plusieurs madrepores extrémement sains. + And Isert
(Reise nach Guinea und den Caribischen Inseln) mentions
the coast-hills of St. Christopher as made up of petrified
madrepores.
18
266
TRAVELS IN THE CONFEDERATION
valuable in works of defense, burying in themselves
what is fired against them, with no splitting.
The outer crust of all these rocks, where they are
exposed to the air in high and bare places, or on the
shore are washed by the water, is hard and a dirty
black in color; but beneath this crust the stone is
generally white, soft, fine-grained, and easily friable.
This looseness of structure is the occasion of a strange
hollowing and mining on the part of the waves play-
ing upon the rocky shore. In this way the shore is
given a sharp and jagged look, thousand-pointed and
knife-edged, and those unaccustomed pass over it with
pains and difficulty, but fishermen and others familiar
with these parts, resident here and often engaged on
the shore, run about easily, even barefoot, and seem not
to give any particular heed to their steps. If one strikes
upon these upstanding juts and points, they give out a
ringing sound.
The black outer crust and the numerous larger and
smaller holes, as if blown, observable among these
edges and jutted points, give to the mass an appear-
ance something like scoria, and one might easily go
wrong in looking for traces of volcanic fire where the
element active has been precisely of the contrary sort,
were it not that the inner appearance and character of
these rocks give the true indication.
The inhabitants compare these rocks to a honey-
comb, and call them 'honey comb'd rocks'; and in a
measure the whole island of Providence is made up of
such gibbous and hollowed rock. But one must confess
that it is nowhere easy to find a fertile rock. The
island is throughout covered thick with plants and
shrubs, the roots of which find their only nourishment
ST. AUGUSTIN TO BAHAMA ISLANDS 267
in the scarce soil among the holes, crevices, and hol-
lows of the rock. Nowhere on the whole island can
there be found a spot as much as a rood covered really
with earth except where it has been assembled by old
or actual swamps, or where low places along the shore
have been filled in with mere sand.
At a first view of this soil, everywhere rocky and
stony, or of the white and dazzling sand by the shore,
all notion of planting would seem to find contradiction,
and all hope of a harvest from any plant quite beyond
the possible; but with good treatment this rocky soil is
by no means unthankful. It would be damaging here
to carry too far the clearing of the bush; because rain
and wind would then soon destroy the good earth, and
the sun burn upon the bald rock; there having been
sad experience on the Barbadoes and the Cape Verd
islands of indiscreet clearing off of the woods. An
acre or piece of arable ground here has indeed a fear-
ful look, for there is to be seen hardly anything but
rock, full of larger or smaller pits and holes, contain-
ing a pretty strongly reddish earth. Neither trenching
nor plowing is therefore to be thought of-such spots
may only be broken with a sharp mattock; but what-
ever is sowed or planted certainly thrives. It is no
exaggeration to say that perhaps not the sixth, nor the
eighth part of the surface of the island is covered with
earth, the rest being naked rock. However, in the wild
state every spot is over-grown; the tree and plant
roots creep over the rocks and stones, forcing into
every cleft and hollow to find a lodging place and
nourishment. It is clear that the native shrubs find
merely a basis on the rock, and must draw their sup-
port chiefly from the air. On the coast there are to be
268
TRAVELS IN THE CONFEDERATION
sure large tracts free of rock; but its place is taken by
dry shell-sand in which the heat permits nothing to
grow.
This character of the surface makes the working of
the land somewhat difficult, and this may be the reason
why so many plantations on the island lie deserted
and so many houses are in ruins. The situation of this
island, and the number of other islands still uninhab-
ited but supplied with various kinds of timber, opened
to the settlers other less tedious and more lucrative
means of support than those to be had from the mo-
notonous and toilsome life of a planter. However, I
will mention here all the products which have been
essayed here.
Coffee does excellently; several large orchards full
of these trees are to be seen in and about the town;
they are growing well, bearing heavily, and the beans
are of the best taste. It is therefore a matter of sur-
prize that such plantations are not more general, since
the trees once set require little more attention. The
sole cause of this neglect is likely that some years must
pass before any profit is to be had from a plantation.
The Sugar-cane thrives here as well as in other of
the Bahamas where it has been tried. Several miles
from the town a plantation had been begun, a distillery
set up, and rum prepared; but the undertaker dying
the work was given over. Of the quality and growth
of the cane there can be no doubt, but the rocky nature
of the soil makes it impossible to devote sufficiently
large tracts to the culture; the work is therefore car-
ried on at too great cost and difficulty, and the sugar
cannot be got out at the same rate of outlay as that
holding in the other sugar islands near-by. On the
ST. AUGUSTIN TO BAHAMA ISLANDS
269
other inhabited Bahama islands the people raise just so
much sugar as will supply their household necessities;
they do no more than boil the juice of the cane to a
thick syrup.
Indigo may be seen here and there growing in gar-
dens, and about them where the seed has fallen by
chance and abundantly multiplied. The assertion is
made by those who know, that the finest and best in-
digo is believed to come from the planters here; but
large establishments for making it are not set up, on
account of the character of the water here, and the
lack of the quantity necessary for handling the indigo.
Cotton (Gossypium arboreum L.), the culture of
this shrub is extending, not so much on Providence as
on the other islands; experience having proved that
this crop is one of the best and surest rewards of the
planter's toil. It grows at all seasons, is not so de-
pendent on rain as other plants, and takes quick and
strong hold of the rocky soil.
Yams (Dioscorea alata L.) are raised everywhere in
plenty, partly for family use, and also (but in no great
bulk) for export to North America. The cut tubercles
are once a year set in the ground and increase ex-
traordinarily.
Maize yields but one harvest a year, the character
of the seasons not admitting of two plantings. It can-
not be put into the ground until the rainy season has
begun, in June or July that is, and thus does not
mature until November or December. So its growth
is no faster here than on the American continent
where the planting is in May and the harvest in Sep-
tember. The dryness of the other months does not.
permit of a second seeding. This is the only grain
270
TRAVELS IN THE CONFEDERATION
produced on this island, and the quantity raised is by
no means sufficient. America sends many cargoes
hither, to supply the lack.
The Tamarind (Tamarindus indica L.) has not be-
come indigenous here, but is planted now and then.
The trees are of a large and fine growth, with stout
trunks and wide-spreading branches. The leaves of
this tree, as is well known, fold up at night. The fruit
is borne in quantity, pods 4-5 inches long, of a hard but
brittle shell, brown in color. Within, between tough,
woody fibres, lies the very sour marrow which sur-
rounds the seed. The shells are husked, and the inner
parts set in earthern pots, between layers of brown
sugar, and thus expedited.
As yet, very little of consequence has been done in
wine-making; but it is said that the wild-grapes grow-
ing here are very like the grapes of Madeira, and that
some good wine has been expressed from them already.
Orange and lemon trees were at first transplanted by
Europeans but are now become quite native; almost
all the known species and varieties are to be met with
here. The best crop of oranges is gathered about
Christmas; the August crop does not yield such agree-
able fruit. The sweet oranges bear properly but once
a year; but the commoner sour oranges, and the bitter-
sweet, yield ripe fruit mostly throughout the year, how-
ever it is plucked in the greatest quantity at the time
mentioned. More rare are the 'soursoops,' (Pumpel-
mus, Citrus decumana L.*) The sort produced most
abundantly, and less known in Europe, is Limes, which
* Citrus fructu sphærico-octavo punctato lævi minori acido.
Brown, Nat. hist of Jamaica p. 308, n. I. Malus aurantia
fructu limonis pusillo acidissimo. Sloane, Voyage, II, p. 182.
ST. AUGUSTIN TO BAHAMA ISLANDS 271
are in general not much bigger than a dove's egg,
round, smooth, pale in color, with no smell, but of a
very sour taste. These limes are exported in great
quantity, from this and the other West Indian islands,
to all of North America, where they are preferred
greatly for punch, being juicier and sourer than
lemons. Also, the expressed juice is sent off in casks.
The trees bearing this fruit are but low and bushy and
commonly bend beneath the weight. Little or no
attention is given them, and in places where orchards.
have been set, there is to be seen now little but a wil-
derness of bush.
Ananas or Pine-apples. There are several varieties.
That more generally raised here seems to be the Ananas
aculentus fructu pyramidato, carne aurea T. Many
acres of land are every year set with this excellent
fruit; and many cargoes exported to all parts of
America and even to Europe. They are cut for export
when full matured but still green exteriorly. They
first begin to ripen early in May, but very little is
gathered for shipping before the end of May or the be-
ginning of June. If well and drily packed on board
ship, and so kept, they stand a voyage of four to six
weeks and more. The ship by which I returned to
England in June, had several thousand on board, and
brought them well-preserved to London, where ac-
cording to the size and beauty of the fruit the selling
price was 4-6-8 shillings sterling the piece. The pur-
chase price was 4-5 shillings sterling a dozen. They
are also conserved in sugar or brandy. Even the
peelings of this fruit give to rum a very pleasant taste.
But as early as the beginning of May a schooner was
clearing for America with a cargo of pine-apples and
272
TRAVELS IN THE CONFEDERATION
*
limes; at that time none of the earliest fruit was to be
seen in the town; but this vessel had collected a cargo
on the outlying islands, of the ripest fruit, or that
nearest ripe, so as to be the first off to America. In
exchange they take from North America and from
Europe fresh and salted meats, butter, rice, corn,
wheat &c., utensils and clothing of every description.
From these several products and the work of the
negroes those who own plantations draw considerable
returns. The statement is made that only from pine-
apples, yams, lemons, and coffee, a plantation (large
to be sure) has yielded a profit in one year of 2300
pieces of eight.
In a few gardens about the town divers European
vegetables are raised; but this can only be during the
rain months; during the rest of the year nothing of
the sort does well, owing to the great heat and the
dryness. But they have water-melons and some other
fruits almost throughout the year. The soil and the
weather being what they are, gardeners and planters
do not find here sufficient occupation or support; there-
fore they must look about for other ways to make a
living, and of these the most important are: the felling
of all kinds of wood; fishing; the catching of turtles;
and what is called wracking, seeking out and raising
those ships and cargoes which have had the ill luck to
founder or sink in the Bahama straights or among the
other islands.
Almost all the Bahama islands, such as are not mere
barren ledges or keys so-called, are thickly overgrown
with bush. Although most of the trees of these islands
are low and mean looking, there are found neverthe-
less on some of the larger islands strong, high trunks.
ST. AUGUSTIN TO BAHAMA ISLANDS 273
Every man can fell wood as it pleases him and
wherever he finds it; and this is a considerable source
of gain to most of the families here resident, who keep
their negroes constantly employed in this way, and
send them hither and yon on the business. One is
puzzled to see most of the white inhabitants of Provi-
dence living well and yet going about in idleness; but
they live by the sweat of their slaves. Wood-cutting
is gradually becoming more difficult and less lucrative.
On the islands lying next Providence the best wood is
already cut off, and thus there must be recourse to
islands lying farther away, or the woods must be more
deeply gone into; in either case the expedition of the
wood felled is made more burdensome. Besides, those
who have wood cut in this way, unless they own their
vessels and boats, must lose in getting the wood to
Providence for marketing; for the charge for freight
is, according to circumstances, ½-½ of the wood.
Mahogany is what they look for and cut oftenest.
But the Bahama islands yield no such large, thick
trunks as do others of the West Indies, especially
Cuba, whence boards of good length and breadth are
fetched. The logs taken from Providence are better
adapted for pillars, frames, and other less important
work. The mahogany wood which is sent to Europe.
from this and the other West India islands does by
no means come from one and the same variety of tree.
Besides the Swietenia Mahogany L.* Several kinds
of Mimosa and perhaps other related trees are mar-
keted under this name. Thus it happens that so many
different sorts of mahogany wood are found in mer-
* Catesb., Carol. II, p. 81. t. 81.
274
TRAVELS IN THE CONFEDERATION
chants' warehouses and in artists' work-rooms. An
uncommon sort is called here, from its color and coarse
wood-fibre, the Horse-flesh Mahogany.' Another
kind, paler in color, is the so-called Madeira wood, but
this also passes in Europe for mahogany. This is
more easily workable, and comes from the Cedrela
odorata L. In the woods near the town we were
shown several species of trees, under the name of
mahogany, but none of them was the Swietenia, which,
it seems, is hardly to be found any longer in the
neighborhood. In the West Indies much mahogany is
used in ship-building. At the time, a brigg was lying
here on the stocks, of which the lower part was made
entirely of mahogany. Mahogany lasts longer in the
water than any other wood, and it is not readily at-
tacked by worms; but from its heavier weight it may
be used only for the lower part of ships, the upper
part having to be of a lighter timber. Mahogany logs
sink of themselves in salt water.
The next species of wood which is cut and exported
in considerable quantity is Brasiletto (Caesalpina
brasiliensis L.*). Its trunks are small, unsightly, and
for the most part crooked. This wood does not grow
at all in Carolina, appearing first in the West Indies;
it may possibly be found on the point of Florida as
well. Catesby has been responsible for the error, in
his work which he calls History of Carolina where so
many subjects are included belonging to the Bahama
Islands, but not always referred to their place of
origin, and he has thus given occasion for regarding
divers trees and plants as products of Carolina, when
* Pseudo Santalum croceum. Catesb., Carol. II, t. 51.
ST. AUGUSTIN TO BAHAMA ISLANDS
275
they are not. This wood, as is known, is used for
dyeing.
Lignum Vitæ: under this name there is exported at
times Guaiacum officinale, at times Guaiacum sanc-
tum L., however, the last is greatly rarer than the
first. The trees are not very high and no thicker than
a man's arm or leg. Most of this wood sent from here
is, from its especial hardness, used in mechanical appa-
ratus. A great traffic in it is particularly furthered by
its use on ships, where the pulleys and blocks for the
rigging are made solely of this wood. Now and then
gum is gathered from the trunks. The medicinal use
of guaiaca wood + is well known; but in addition the
inner bark is employed here as an emetick. Some of
it is bruised or beaten in a mortar, cold water is
poured on, and the decoction let stand over-night. It
has a strong effect, and is a customary household
remedy in these parts. The shrub in bloom is of much
beauty.
Logwood or Campeachy-wood (Haematoxylon Cam-
pechianum L.) is not originally indigenous here. But
formerly many of the inhabitants going into Hon-
duras Bay to cut this wood there, they brought seeds
back with them and planted them here. This was done
with good result here and there, and it is considered
how so useful an article of trade may be further
spread. The export has not yet become an important
item.
White Cinnamon, Eluthera-bark, (wild cinnamon)
is produced by the Winterania Canella L. Catesb. II,
t. 50, which grows in abundance on several islands, but
especially on Eluthera; besides the quantity that goes
to Europe, many tons of this are sent to Curaçao and
276
TRAVELS IN THE CONFEDERATION
other Dutch colonies, where cinnamon-water, perhaps
also cinnamon-oil, is distilled from it.
Cascarilla Bark, Croton Cascarilla L. Catesb. II,
t. 46, is likewise gathered on sundry of the islands.
Under the name of Squills (also Sea-onions) a large
onion similar to the squilla is collected on the sandy
shore, dried, and sent to North America. The ap-
pearance of these is the same, and it is said their vir-
tues are quite the same as those possessed by the ordi-
nary Scilla maritima. At this time the plant was not
in flower, and I could not determine whether it is a
species of the Scilla, or (more likely) a Pancratium.
Fishing is a common employment of the poorer white
inhabitants as well as of many negroes; however, fish
are not always to be had when wanted. After a
profitable or heavy catch, the fishermen dispose them-
selves to drinking up their gains rather than to taking
thought of their own needs or those of the market.
There is no regular fish-market, but the fishermen send
what they catch from house to house, or one must go
to them. There is a great variety of fish. The finest
and most remarkable have been well described and
pictured by Catesby. The high, splendid, contrasting
colors with which most of the fishes of these and the
other West Indian waters are adorned, are certainly
very striking. The most glowing red, the purest blue,
green, and yellow are as common among them as such
high colors are rare among European fishes. Before
coming hither I was disposed to think that Catesby, in
the representations of his fishes, had done violence to
nature; but I became convinced of the contrary, and
of the truth of his colorings; the feathered inhabitants
of the South American forests are scarcely more
ST. AUGUSTIN TO BAHAMA ISLANDS 277
decorate with motly and pure colors than are these
dumb ocean-dwellers.
To give a list of the fishes occurring in the Bahama
waters would be merely to repeat the names of those
found in the other West Indian waters and in part also
(at least during summer) on the coast of the continent.
Of edible fishes there are a great number, but oppor-
tunity was lacking to see them all. Among others
there were mentioned the Rock fish, Cuckold fish, Jew
fish, Albecore, Rainbow, Sailor's Choice, Schoolmaster,
Blue fish, Mullets, Stingers, Squirrels, Ten Pounders,
Trumpet fish, and many others, good edible fish. A
few others appeared at our table; the Maggot fish
(Sparus Chrysops L.) Pudding fish (Sparus radia-
tus L.); a blue Tetrodon ;-the Murcäna; (Perca
chrysoptera L.)-the Suet fish (Ostracion triqueter
L.). Oldwife (Balistes Vetula L.)-the Turbot (Ba-
listes Monoceros L.) &c.
The most are of good taste; but of some there are un-
favorable opinions, they being held to be noxious; the
Barracuda-fish, for example, which in Cuba is reck-
oned among the best of fishes, is here regarded with
suspicion, thought to be not only unwholesome but
even poisonous. The belief already mentioned, that
fishes which frequent (imagined) copper-banks show
poisonous qualities, is prevalent here also. The ob-
servation is just, but the cause yet to be assigned.
Certain fishes at divers times excite in those eating
them pricking pains in the skin and transient erup-
tions. In order to avoid these fishes, it is advised here
to drop a piece of pure silver in the water in which
the fish is boiled, and this, if the fish is poisonous,
278
TRAVELS IN THE CONFEDERATION
should turn black. The proof may well be very un-
reliable.
I removed the tough skin from a turbot and hung
it up to dry; passing that way by chance at night I was
no little astonished at the fiery outline of my fish. All
the cartilaginous parts of the body and the spine, the
rays of the tail and fins gave forth a beautiful, clear,
phosphoric light. That phosphorus may be had from
rotten fish is well known and the luminosity of sea-
water has been thus explained. But as yet this skin
gave no signs of decay, and it was precisely the firmest
parts which were luminous, those that would likely be
the last to rot.
Nor is there any lack here of dangerous and noxious
predatory fishes; the shark is the terror of the Bahama
divers and swimmers. The West Indian waters, in
which such an unspeakable number of fishes live, sup-
port these voracious monsters in great plenty. Not
less astounding than true are the stories told of what
happened during the last war. They say that three
days before the battle between Lord Rodney and the
Comte de Grasse, whole schools of sharks followed
both fleets, and that the sea was so full of them and
they crowded so among the islands, that no one dared
bathe the least distance from shore. It is probable
that the number of corpses from time to time cast over-
board from two such large fleets was what tempted
these fishes of prey; for in that climate many men died
even before the battle, stricken by disease. But in the
battle itself this gruesome assemblage increased the
terror and made worse the fate of the French ship of
the line Caesar. When this ship was near sinking and
the crew hoping to save themselves or to be saved,
ST. AUGUSTIN TO BAHAMA ISLANDS 279
leaped into the sea, many of those ill-fated men were
devoured by the lurking and rapacious sharks, and it
is said often to have happened that one man was at-
tacked at the same time by two fish. All efforts to
rescue these desperate men were in vain, whose cries
of distress were heard with horror and pity amid the
incessant cannonading of the fleets.
The various whales, ice-whales, 'nursers' &c, which
frequent the region of the islands, are rarely or never
pursued by the inhabitants here; but the New Eng-
landers (the true American Dutchmen, balking at
nothing) come hither for the whaling, even as they
go to the African coast and as far as the Falkland
Islands, and, were other nations to allow them, they
would follow the whale into East Indian waters.
The Turtle-catch is a more lucrative pursuit, and
for these Islanders is an important branch of trade.
Three varieties of turtles are hunted, whether for
their flesh or their shells:
Testudo imbricata Hawksbill.
Testudo Myda—
Green Turtle. Testudo Caretta-Loggerhead.
The turtle-shells used by artists come solely from
the first kind. After the fleshy parts have been taken
out, the whole shell is placed over a slow fire of coals;
the heat separates the upper transparent sheets from
the bony armor.
The flesh of all three sorts is eaten here, as through-
out the West Indies, without distinction. But for
foreign markets chiefly none but the green turtles are
selected, and these during the summer months are ex-
ported to all parts of North America and Europe.
All these turtles are found properly nowhere but in
the warmer waters of the Atlantic ocean; but storms,
280
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The
the Gulf Stream, and other causes take individuals of
them at times far up into northern regions. The
turtles found among the Bahama islands and on the
coast of Florida are seldom so large as those met with
about Cuba, on the South American coasts, in the
Gulf of Mexico, in Campeachy and Honduras Bay,
and about the point of Catoche. Being more nu-
merous in these parts, the vessels engaged in the
traffick commonly seek them there; they must however
be on the watch so as not to be taken unawares by
the Spanish Guarda-costas, who deal rigorously with
all strange vessels approaching their shores.
Spanish themselves make little account of the turtle,
their chief concern being with smuggling, which the
turtle-catchers generally carry on as a part of their
business. The turtles are caught in several ways.
They are snooked especially in the months of May,
June, and July when they come a-shore in the even-
ing to lay their eggs in the sand. With this in view
towards evening several persons are put on shore
where they merely go up and down turning on their
backs such turtles as they happen upon. From this
position they cannot get upon their bellies again, and
they are so collected and taken on board.
When a
place is found where they have laid their eggs and
buried them in the sand, the eggs are taken along also,
serving as food to the ship's people. Commonly a
great number of the eggs are found together; en-
closed merely in a soft skinny shell, containing little
white.
Elsewhere at the mouths of creeks and narrow in-
lets, which the turtles are accustomed to frequent, nets
are laid, very spacious and knit of very weak threads.
ST. AUGUSTIN TO BAHAMA ISLANDS 281
However, even the largest turtles once involved, by
the head or only one of their feet, make no effort to
break loose, but stay quietly meshed until they are
fetched away.
At other times they are hunted in little open boats,
and caught by means of a very simple kedge-iron. An
iron punch 4-5 inches long, with a cord attached, is
fixed to the end of a wooden staff; with this, when they
swim to the surface of the water the turtles are grap-
pled with a peculiar fling, at a good distance even.
The iron punch sticks fast in the pliable shell, and the
turtle without any resistance is drawn in by the cord.
When one of these vessels has as many turtles as it
can lade, it returns with the cargo to Providence.
Here they are kept in special 'Turtle-Crawls,' built of
piles of a kind of laurel called stopper-wood (Laurus
Borbonia L.), and so placed near the wharves that they
can always be supplied with fresh water. The so-
called stopperwood is used for this purpose because
it is strong and lasts well under water. The turtles
to be sent on short voyages are placed on their backs
in the ship's hold, and given a bed of reeds or any-
thing to keep them from doing each other damage
when the ship moves. Arrived in port, they are at
once put into great casks and diligently supplied with
fresh sea water. On longer voyages, to Europe for
example, they must be kept in large hogsheads and
new water from the sea must be daily given them.
Commonly they eat nothing, at least very little, during
their captivity; hence they are always brought to port
much wasted; and many of them perish on the way,
particularly during heavy weather. However, the
shipmasters who take them out always carry store of a
19
282
TRAVELS IN THE CONFEDERATION
plant which grows on the rocky shores of this island,
and is said to serve as food for the turtles. This plant
is called here Samphire (Batis maritima L.?). Tur-
tles are found of an amazing size; I have seen some of
800 pounds and more. On Providence they form a
substitute for fresh butcher's meat, which is every-
where a great rarity here. Some of them are killed
every day, and sold by the pound weight at a very
moderate price.
Hunting out wrecked ships is finally one of the
most important trades of the Bahama islanders. Navi-
gation through the Gulf as well as among the islands
is very intricate and perilous on account of the numer-
ous hidden ledges and strong currents, and all manner
of vessels are continually meeting with disaster in this
region. Is a ship by any chance brought among the
Bahama islands and rocks, it is only by great good
fortune and skill that it can be got out again; one
unfamiliar with the region need not flatter himself
that he can compass it. The vessels engaged in this
so-called 'wracking * are but small; they remain out
many weeks, and examine every quarter where they
may hope to find lost ships, especially if shortly before
heavy storms have raged thereabouts. Each vessel
going out on such an enterprize must be furnished
with a pass from the Governor, in which he reserves
for himself and the king the customary fifth and tenth
part of the find. A part of the salary of the Governor
comes from these duties; but they are seldom rightly
settled, because the undertakers pay in the fixed pro-
* Some call it 'going a raking' from 'to rake,' searching
for something with diligence and care; others, 'going a
wracking,' from 'wrack,' a foundered ship.
ST. AUGUSTIN TO BAHAMA ISLANDS 283
portion on only so much as they please to reckon the
whole. In the pass the ship's people are warned: should
they find a stranded ship, to prevent no one from ren-
dering the unfortunates every timely assistance; for
the Bahama islanders are suspected, it is said, of mak-
ing bargains with the crews of lost ships, in the matter
of the salvage of ship and cargo, so that often from
selfish motives all other assistance has been repelled.
When a wrecker (I may be permitted for brevity to
use the expression) lights upon a foundered ship, and
but a single member of the crew is on board alive, the
owners are by that fact assured their right to the cargo
or what can be saved of it; the Bahama ship's people
rendering aid receive for their trouble, according to
the circumstances, a greater or lesser part of what is
saved, or an indemnity called salvage. But if they find
the ship wholly deserted or the crew all dead, every-
thing that can be saved or is saved belongs to the
finders. These hard and fast conditions, it is said,
often tempt those of inhuman dispositions (and such
people may well be of that character, living as they do
by the misfortunes of others), so that without much
scruple they put to death any persons found alone and
helpless on a stranded ship of great value, in order
that they themselves may have the right to lay claim
to the entire wreck. Such cases may indeed have
happened; but it would be difficult to fix upon recent
instances; and on the other hand it cannot be denied
that these wreckers swimming about save the lives of
many people who but for them would inevitably be
lost. How often have they not found many upon
naked, solitary rocks, men who having escaped one
mortal danger, for lack of food and drink now were
284
TRAVELS IN THE CONFEDERATION
brought face to face with a far slower and more tor-
menting death. These islanders everywhere find the
means of the meagerest living where nobody else
could find anything at all; at least they know how to
discover crabs and edible shell-fish on the barest rocks,
and to find sweet water here or there, so as to pre-
serve the lives of such unfortunates until further help
can be supplied them. On the sea-shore, at all events,
there are generally to be found some means of sup-
port. On most of these islands, especially the smaller
of them, it would be useless to look for fresh water.
But the inhabitants, if there is need, can supply the
lack. They dig, if only with their hands, in the sand
on the shore, and in this way get water somewhat
strained of the salt. Besides, they have recourse to the
trees. A parasitical plant (Tillandsia polystachya L.),
called here wild-pine,' grows on the branches and
trunks of divers trees. In the hollows between the
leaves of this plant rain-water is long kept; and from
this source travellers, or negroes working in the
woods, often refresh themselves. They have learned
it of the birds, accustomed from of old to resort to
these super-terrene springs.
Many times the finds made by these people are very
handsome, and it is known that divers families have in
this way come suddenly into great riches. Just now it
is related in Providence how such a boat got 60,000
piastres from a sunken Spanish vessel. This is gen-
erally believed to be the fact, although the finders
deny it so as not to be obliged to pay in the fifth and
the tenth.
They always have on board the most practiced
divers, who fetch up much costly merchandise and
ST. AUGUSTIN TO BAHAMA ISLANDS 285
many a jewel. It is the Bahama islands, next after the
Bermudas, which are the most famous in America ast
furnishing the best and most skilful divers. When
they sail about among the islands to look out sunken
wares, in order to see more clearly through the water
they make use of a square box at the bottom of which
is set a common pane of glass. This device serves
merely to prevent the rays of light coming from the
side, enabling the eye to catch more readily those
springing from the deep. I make scruple to mention
the depths to which it is said that some of these people
can see, because the claim appears to me improbable,
and I have not been present at any test of the kind.
In the wars carried on by England with Spain and
France the Bahamans have commonly been much ad-
vantaged, finding their greatest gains. They fit out
many large and small privateers, and through their
exact knowledge of the West Indian waters with all
their nooks and corners, have made great profits in
playing hide and seek with the enemy's ships, surpris-
ing them, and taking them in. Then there are many
ship-wrecks besides, and the crews of such vessels,
less concerned for their cargoes than for their own
liberty, often leave behind them much wealth which
they could easily save in times of peace, and all this in
consequence falls into the hands of the industrious
Bahamans.
The extraordinary clearness of the sea-water which
is observable everywhere about these and the other
West India islands, if there is no discoloration by
land-streams and the depth itself is not great, offers
very much in furtherance of this species of search.
By going out in a small boat among the little islands
286
TRAVELS IN THE CONFEDERATION
the rarest and most splendid sight is to be had. The
boat swims on a substance of crystalline fluidity in
which, as in the air, it seems to hang. Those un-
accustomed are like to grow giddy at the sight. Be-
low, on the pure white sand covering the bottom, one
can make out every detail, reptilia of a thousand forms,
sea-urchins and sea-stars, slugs, shell-fish and parti-
colored fishes; one floats above whole forests of stately
sea-plants, gorgoniae, corals, alcyoniae, flabellae, and
many sorts of shrubby spongious growths, their colors
not less delighting the eye, and as softly moved by the
waves back and forth as a flower-strewn field of the
earth. The eye is deceived in judging the depth at
which these objects are visible. Thinking to grasp
plants with the hand, it appears that they are hardly
to be reached by a rudder 6-8 and 10 ft. long.
Only among the islands lying more closely together,
and near about the larger islands, are these subma-
rine gardens to be found, at least they are only per-
ceptible to the eye where the bottom is no deeper than
can be reached by the rays of light; which is the case
up to 60 ft. and more. If these island groups are
imagined as individual mountains set in the bosom of
the ocean, then the shallow passages between the emer-
gent peaks are to be regarded as so many valleys over-
flowd by the sea. For the conditions in general are
quite otherwise. Near in to Providence Island, out-
side the harbor (and it is the same between the other
larger islands) no bottom is commonly to be had, a
very slight distance from the shore, at 100 fathoms
and over, and the sea above these depths has, a good
way off, a sinister and black appearance. The Bahama
islands are therefore rightly to be regarded as high
ST. AUGUSTIN TO BAHAMA ISLANDS 287
and steep points of rock emerging from the depths of
the sea. If, besides, the character of these rock-masses
is taken into consideration, broken as they are by nu-
merous holes and hollows (at least such is the appear-
ance above the surface) there might seem to be ground.
for the fear that the foundations of these islands may
be easily moved, and a subterranean convulsion may
bring about a dreadful destruction among them.
Happily, these islands seem to be safe from such a
calamity; at any rate not the least trace of an earth-
quake has as yet been felt here; even when, in the
other West India islands near-by or on the main-land,
earth-quakes have wrought extreme havoc. It is even
probable that the mineral material, necessary for the
production of subterranean fires or of expansive gases,
is lacking in the interior of these rocky islands; at
the least, not the smallest trace of any ore-bearing sub-
stance has thus far been found.
The fear that these islands might at some time sud-
denly disappear, seems to me therefore to be as little
grounded as the remark that they are everywhere ex-
posed to a destructive force, are palpably diminishing,
and that no least sign of a cognizable augmentation of
them is to be anywhere made out. For it is known
well enough that the western points of all the West
Indian islands are exactly the opposites of the eastern.
The latter, it is true, are steep and broken, undeniably
of a distorted look, since exposed to the incessant beat
of the ocean from the east; whereas the former, the
sea being quieter there, are flatter and, according to
the observations of ships' captains, rather increase
than diminish.
Providence Island has many caves and clefts, larger
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TRAVELS IN THE CONFEDERATION
and smaller. Most of these are by the sea or near it,
and doubtless owe their origin to the water. I have
heard of a very large cave at the western end of the
island, 10-12 miles from the town, of such a size that
a chaise may be driven into it. Here and there among
the hills in the middle of the island are many large,
deep holes 6-10 ft. and more across, and as much as
20-30 in depth. They contain no traces whatever of
volcanoes, as certain of the inhabitants have believed,
strata of the common rock being plainly observable in
them. In these caves dwelt the aboriginal Indians,
where often now Indian utensils and antiquities are to
be found. They are filling up gradually with plant-
earth, and at times trees grow in them, which although
high, barely show above the surface. Proof elsewhere
of the hollowed state of this and other of the islands is
furnished by the ponds and plashes found at a distance
from the sea and yet filled with salt water. These,
although quite surrounded by hills, and having no
visible land-connection with the sea, rise and fall with
the flood and ebb tides.
From the same cause there is observed a periodical
rise and fall of the water in the wells of the town dug
near the shore through the soft rock. That is to say,
the water in these shallow wells never stands higher
than the water in the harbor-the farther off from the
sea, the better. One can count on finding sweet water
everywhere, even on the higher hills, if digging is car-
ried down to the level of the sea-water, which is well
purified by the species of rock found here. At times
filters are made of these stones for the use of sea-
farers. These dug wells never go dry—and the water
of them keeps excellently on voyages.
ST. AUGUSTIN TO BAHAMA ISLANDS 289
The faculty of the rocks of these islands for absorb-
ing and holding moisture, makes it likely that in this
way they contribute to the nourishment and preserva-
tion of the plants growing upon them. There is abun-
dant proof that under their dry and blackish crust
these rocks show markedly moist when broken, and
that too in places where there is no water near; but
this is more plainly the case after a series of rainy
days. Fragments of rock, quite dry in appearance, on
being broken give out a faint odor of sulphur.
Of wild quadrupeds there are but two species,
properly only one, indigenous to these islands. The
Racoon is found only on Providence Island, of which
it is no more originally a native than the rats and mice
brought in by ships. From one or more tame pairs of
these droll beasts, brought over by the curious from
the main-land, and afterwards escaped by chance into
the woods, the race has amazingly increased, to the
great vexation and damage of the inhabitants, who
can scarcely protect their house-fowls from these
stealthy thieves.
On the other hand, the American marmot (Arc-
tomys Monax Schreb.) has been found from the first
on the larger of the Bahama islands. They call it
Rabbet here, a coney, but in North America the wood-
jack. It lives in holes in the cliffs, and hardly grows
to the size of a coney, at least those I saw on Provi-
dence were much smaller. Whoever has occasion to
compare these carefully with the North American will
find the two something different, in color as well as in
size. They are eaten both fresh, and salted and dried;
the negroes practice the latter method, when they catch
some of them on outlying islands and wish to save
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TRAVELS IN THE CONFEDERATION
them for the market. They can be tamed, and kept on
all kinds of roots, and bread and sugar. Of their
manner of life in the wild state I could learn nothing
precise; nor whether in this region as in North
America they spend a part of the year asleep. I should
hardly expect this in this climate, where there is never
any lack of food and there is no compulsion from
severe weather.
Cattle-breeding here is restricted merely to cows and
goats, kept for their milk, and a few sheep and swine.
Want of proper pasturage, and lack of water also,
(although there are dug wells and there might be more)
stand in the way of the cattle industry, a matter of lit-
tle concern, since slaughtered cattle are often brought
in from North America. From the competition brought
about by the sailors during the war, goats are sold
here at 20, 30, to 40 piastres. Of the hogs raised here
some have run off into the woods and multiply there;
these animals also, by chance or by means of wrecked
ships, have reached several of the islands as yet un-
settled, and lapsing into the wild there, are become
distinct from the tame sort, both in the color of their
flesh and its taste.
Besides numbers of domestic house-fowls of all
sorts, there are several kinds of wild fowl which serve
in part for food; wild geese and ducks, among others
the Bahama Duck (Anas bahamensis L.), the North
American Blue wing'd Tail and the whistling Duck.
The Booby (Pelecanus Sula L.), was it of a little
better taste would not be found so numerously. These
frequent some of the smaller islands in flocks of hun-
dreds, and build their nests close together of sand and
dried sea-plants. Their eggs are eaten, and are dili-
ST. AUGUSTIN TO BAHAMA ISLANDS 291
gently searched out by fishermen, but there is no
trouble involved, because these birds are so stupid that
they let themselves be handled on the nest and robbed
of their eggs. They lay throughout the year, except
in the month of May, only one egg, and as often as
this is removed they lay another. The Noddys
(Sterna stolida L.) commonly keep them company.
The splendid Flamingos (Phoenicopterus ruber L.)
promenade in series, with measured steps, on the sandy
shores of Abaco and other little frequented islands.
They are said to be good to eat, but the Spanish are
superstitious about eating them, and for the reveren-
tial reason that the flying flamingo, with its long out-
stretched neck and feet and its two wings, presents the
form of a crucifix floating in the air. The often men-
tioned fact that the flamingo takes its food from be-
hind, bending and twisting its neck, is without sub-
stantiation.
In the woods on Providence there are two kinds of
wild pigeons (Columba montana and leucocephala L.)
but they are continually being snared. Their favorite
food is a small, rather bitter fruit called the 'Pidgeon-
plumb.' Besides these I saw the Fringilla montana
and Ardea violacea L. The American mocking-bird,
and another sort of thrushes, green parrots and hum-
ming-birds, were met with also, but in general there
are few land-birds on these islands.
Food-supplies are to be had with less difficulty and
in greater quantity from the different classes of
amphibia, fishes, insects, and reptiles. It seems that
the inhabitants of these islands have left no living
thing in peace. The turtles, which in general must
take the place of fresh meats, I have already described.
292
TRAVELS IN THE CONFEDERATION
.
Then there are the Guanas (Lacerta Iguana L.) a
large sort of lizards, a very special tidbit. They are
found 1-2-3 ft. long, and weighing 10-12-15 pounds.
Their color is a dirty brown, the young being gen-
erally paler. The dented comb under the throat (gula
pendula, antice dentata) I have not observed here;
and I am almost of the opinion that on a closer ex-
amination the Bahama guanas may be found to be a
variety, as compared with those seen in the other West
Indies and in South America, showing however the
same characteristics and mode of life. The greatest
number of them at this time are found on Andros and
several other islands; they are already become scarce
on Providence. The negroes employ themselves in
catching them and sell them for 1-12-2 bits the
pound. They use for the purpose dogs specially
trained. The guana comes out of its holes to warm
itself in the sun, on rocks and by the shore; and there
the dogs look for them. They get away with great.
speed, attempting to hide in hollow trees or holes in
the rock. The dog follows them and stands yelping
until his master comes up and prepares to dig them out
or pull them forth by the tail. It is said that in these.
circumstances they can puff up their whole skin, which
hangs loose at best, so as to fix themselves the faster in
their holes and resist being pulled out. Certain it is
that when a guana is vexed the skin under the throat
swells sharply. But besides, they can cling anywhere
with their short, strong feet and claws. When the
negro has the beast out of its hole, with a crooked stick
he bears down on its jaws, which are armed with nu-
merous sharp, pointed teeth, and immediately sews
together the jaws with a strong needle and thread,
ST. AUGUSTIN TO BAHAMA ISLANDS 293
stitching several times through the nostrils and be-
neath the under jaw, and he also ties fast the fore and
hind feet. Their teeth, to be sure, are not large, but
are very sharp; at times they bite a man's hand, and
when they do, they hold so fast that skin and flesh
come away together. Bound like this they live many
weeks without food. They are very tenacious of life,
as are many animals of this class. A guana which I
wished to stuff still showed signs of consciousness,
after all its vitals had been taken out and it had been
quite bled. They climb up the highest trees, and make
their food preferably of fruits; they are said to like
especially the fruit of the sapadilla tree; they are also
good swimmers. Their flesh is not distasteful and
very white; it is similar to the meat of fish, and of
chickens.
The Lobster or Hummer of these parts (Cancer
Homarus L.) is at the first glance distinguishable from
the North American lobster, by its very long horns,
heavy and hard, which it carries instead of pincers,
and in addition, by its color. It grows almost as large
as the North American, and its flesh is white and hard,
but very pleasant. They prefer rocky bottoms, and in
the very clear water they can be seen crawling about
at a considerable depth; their course is forwards.
They are taken by means of a long stick pointed with
iron at the end, with which they are stuck under water.
By certain of the inhabitants the land-crabs also, the
blue crabs, the so-called 'soldiers,' and other kinds of
crabs as well, are eaten. The land-crab (Cancer ruri-
cola L.) seemed to me a very repulsive mess. They
stay in deep holes which they dig in the sand and the
bush near the shore-often some hundreds of yards
294
TRAVELS IN THE CONFEDERATION
from the water. During the day they keep hidden, but
in the evening they leave their holes and go out after
food. Their bodies are commonly 3-4 inches in the
square. It is puzzling how they dig their deep holes;
their claws do not seem constructed for the work.
Where they come beneath a garden or other planted
land, they do great damage, eating off the roots of the
plants. One of their claws, at times the right, again
the left, is always larger than the other; and these
they keep before them in a threatening and defensive
position; what they seize with them they do not readily
let go; but they do not hesitate to part with their claws
if held fast by them.
The Soldiers (Cancer Diogenes L.) are small slen-
der crabs, which live in remains of cockle-shells, and
they drag this dwelling of theirs everywhere about with
them. When they outgrow their dwelling they look
for another larger. On this account they keep near
the sea-shore, although they are found living farther
off, among holes in the rock and beneath heaps of
stones. Another sort of small crabs, quite distinct
from these, lives also in cockle-shells, but stays in the
water. Of both kinds the hinder-part, or tail, is cov-
ered with no hard shell, but is soft and flexible, so that
they may adapt themselves the better to the turns of
the cockle, getting a grip upon it and drawing it after
them. That one of their claws which is the longer lies
out before the entrance to their house, ready for de-
fence.
The Fidlers and Land-turtles (Cancer vocans L.)
are further varieties of very small crabs, which live in
the shore-sand. There are in general many different
ST. AUGUSTIN TO BAHAMA ISLANDS
295
4
sorts of cray-fish and crabs in these waters, and a
good many of them are used for food.
Also a few varieties of Echini (‘Sea-eggs '), several
sorts of larger cockles, ('Conchs' and 'Welks,'
Strombus Gigas and Turbo margaritaceus L.), are
eaten by the less fastidious of the inhabitants; a va-
riety of the lepas (Chiton squamosus L.?), which
everywhere clings fast to the rocks by the sea, is
pricked from the shell by the fishermen and negroes,
and eaten raw like oysters.
The chief foods then of the greater, and poorer, part
of these islanders are fish, amphibia, and crustacea,
materials in consequence of a slimy, tough nature. In
addition they consume much salted meat, brought in
from Europe and America. The practicioners here
attribute the commonest diseases, arising from stop-
pages of the bowels and cacochymy, to the foods in
use. There is mentioned in various English medical
authors an Arthritis bahamensis; but during my stay
I could not learn of any special kind of gout * peculiar
to these islanders, or appearing here oftener than else-
where. On the other hand it has been remarked that
during the past 7-8 years bilious diseases have been
more frequent and worse than formerly, notwithstand-
ing the manner of life has been the same, except that
during the American war the importation of fresh
foods, meats and fowls, had to be foregone.
* At least, no one on the islands could give me any light
as to this. But the explanation is to be found in the London
Philos. Transact. for 1675, where there is an account of poi-
sonous fishes met with in the Bahama waters, which if eaten
cause extremely violent pains, especially in the joints, persist-
ing several days and finally passing off with an itch.
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TRAVELS IN THE CONFEDERATION
In the Bahama islands the reckoning is by pieces of
eight, which is an imaginary coinage worth eight bits
so-called. The bits are in part an old round Spanish
coin, in part, small irregular pieces of silver, cornered,
and stamped with a cross. A Spanish dollar is worth
10½ such bits, or 4 sh. 8d. sterling-or 7 sh. 10½
pence Bahama money. These Spanish or Mexican
dollars are the Pezzi d'otto of the Spaniards. The
'bits' circulating in the Bahama islands are not worth
generally their value current. But a great quantity of
them being in the hands of the people, no attempt has
so far been made to establish a different basis, every-
body having much to lose. It is estimated that in these
islands there are current, of these double, single, and
half-bit pieces, some 2500 pounds' weight.
The prices at this time of wares most commonly ex-
ported hence were as follows:
Cascarilla bark-100 Pd.-3 p. of eight, or 10 sh. 6d.
sterl.
Canella alba-100 Pd.-3 p. of eight, or 10 sh. 6d.
sterl.
Gummi Guaiacum-100 Pd.-5 Pd. sterl.
Dried squills-100 Pd.-3 Pd. sterl.
An export duty, however of 14 the weight.
Ambra grisea. Of this an ounce, according to the
quality, costs one half to one Spanish dollar. But
as much again is exacted in duty; whoever ex-
ports it, then, pays one to two Spanish dollars the
ounce.
Cotton, the pound, 2 bits; or 150 Pd. 5 Pd. sterl.
Lignum vitae, the ton-about 8 Span. dollars.
Brasiletto, the ton-about 25 Span. dollars.
Campeachy-wood, the ton-about 25 Span. dollars.
ST. AUGUSTIN TO BAHAMA ISLANDS 297
Mahogany, in boards, 100 ft.-about 8 Span. dollars;
but the boards must be about a foot wide, and 3-4
in. thick.
Mahogany and Madeira, in blocks, the ton, 24 Span.
dollars.
Pineapples, the dozen, I piece of eight, I Span. dollar.
Limes, the thousand, according to the season, 1-2 Span.
dollars.
Oranges, the hundred, according to the season, I
Span. dollar.
Turtles, the pound, about 1 bit, or 5 pence sterl.
Turtle-shells, the pound, 10-12 bits.
Coffee, native growth, the pound, 2 bits.
Cedar posts, the piece, 12 ft. long and 3 inches in the
square, 3-4 bits.
The grey amber is found among the rocks on the
shore, but only by chance. Mr. Schwediauer has ex-
plained its origin in the Philosoph. Transactions with
great plausibility, showing that it is an excrement of
one or another sort of whales. Very recently a woman
found a large piece which the waves cast into her
hands as she was occupied by the shore; she did not
know what the substance was, and since it stank
strongly according to her sense, she threw it away.
Several years ago there was a man here who counter-
feited grey amber, making a great quantity from wax,
salt, pepper, and other things; selling a part for some
hundreds of pounds sterling, but the fraud was de-
tected in good time.
Now and then are to be seen lying on the shore
fragments of true pumice stone. Presumably these.
come from certain of the West India islands on which
there are volcanoes.
20
298
TRAVELS IN THE CONFEDERATION
On the rocky shores of one of the southern Bahama
islands there is found a great store of hardened bitu-
men. During the war this was used here at various
times for caulking ships, and it was found to answer
the purpose very well; it was even believed that by it
ships were kept freer of worms than by the common
pitch. But the latter now being again to be had cheap
enough from North America, the use of the other has
been discontinued. Similar earth-pitch occurs in other
of the West India islands, often of a softer nature, or
still viscous and pliable, and is known as Barbadoes
tar.
Ships' bottoms in the West India waters grow soon
foul, all manner of muscle-fish, cockles, and other
vermin attacking them, and hindering the passage of
the keel through the water, and besides, various kinds
of worms bore into the planks and help to rot them.
A ship which lay 6 months in the harbor of Havanah,
brought away a coating several inches thick of every
sort of vermin, which had fastened over the entire
bottom. There were small oysters, and the so-called
mangrove-oyster; Lepades, Actiniae, Ascidiae, Ne-
reides &c. To prevent this the Bahama buccaneers at
one time made use of a particular kind of ant-hills to
be found in the woods here; mixing the ashes of 40-50
or more of these ant-hills, burned, with the pitch and
tar they used to overlay their ships' bottoms. But
this being no longer the practice, I suppose the method
was not found to answer in keeping off the worm.
These ant-hills are of a conical shape; I have seen
them as much as four and a half feet high, and more
than two feet through. They consist of a very brittle,
ST. AUGUSTIN TO BAHAMA ISLANDS
299
brown substance, earthy or resinous-earthy.
ants are white.
The
Because of unfavorable winds I made a vain at-
tempt, in a boat specially hired, to visit the eastern
islands, particularly Exuma.
Another time I visited Rose Island, whither we
were four hours on the way from Providence, passing
many Keys as they are called, single rocks upstanding
bare and barren. These make a splendid and rare
spectacle, what with their picturesque look and the
mad tumult of the waves ceaselessly playing upon
them, foaming and springing high. These Keys are
almost all of them edged around with steep, sharp
rocks, so that a landing can seldom be made, and then
not without difficulty and danger. Shortly before sun-
set we approached Rose Island, through a narrow,
rocky bight where a steep wall must be climbed on
landing. The island is very small. A fisherman was
living among the rocks in a hut made of palmetto-
leaves, and he with his family compose the garrison of
the island. Truly an ocean hermitage; its only neigh-
bors black points of rock here and there dismally
emergent from the sea. The island is quite grown
over with bush, in the middle a spring of sweet water,
without which living here would be impossible. Night
coming on splinters of Torch-wood (Amyris sylva-
tica L.) served for lights. This torch-wood (light-
wood) is a slender tree, its wood very resinous, fat,
and black; its leaves are egg-shaped, pointed, always
3 and 3 together, and of a sharp taste, like pepper.
The wife and children of the fisherman were en-
gaged in boiling in a great iron kettle the fruit of a tree
which they call the Mastick-tree (Ximenia inermis
300
TRAVELS IN THE CONFEDERATION
L.). This tree also grows in plenty on the other is-
lands, and to a large size. Its fruit, improperly called
mastick-berries, is of the shape and size of a large
olive, smooth and yellow-green, and containing a hard,
smooth, egg-shaped kernel. To the taste it is rather
tough and clammy; it is not a pleasant food eaten raw
nor wholesome, it is said. But cooked it is used for
the table or preserved in sugar. For the latter pur-
pose it had been gathered and was preparing by this
family, for sale in the town at one and a half bits the
quart. To lighten the labor of gathering, it was their
practice to fell the tree. The wood of the mastick-
tree is especially good for pales and palisadoes, lasting
extraordinarily well; it is so hard and heavy that it
can scarcely be worked as long as it is green.
We slept the night on the ground, on a coverlet of
pleated palm-leaves. The entire hut, roof and walls,
was covered with palm-leaves; the noise among these
dry leaves made by the least wind is so like that of a
falling rain as to startle the unaccustomed from their
sleep, fearing they may get wetted. But the leaves
are so skilfully woven that if the work is done with
any diligence they keep out the heaviest rains. In
this way the poorer inhabitants of these islands build
their houses with little trouble and no expence, the
walls under these warm skies needing not to be very
thick. They have small care about supplies for winter,
the earth and the sea yielding one or another sort of
food throughout the year, and the climate calling for
few clothes, thus it costs them very little to satisfy the
essential wants of life, and they live as simply and
frugally as their more conspicuous neighbors do wan-
tonly and profusely. Their poverty does not keep
ST. AUGUSTIN TO BAHAMA ISLANDS 301
them from being heartily content. The so-called
planters work, all told, perhaps not more than two,
at most three months in the year. They fell some
wood, catch fish, sell what they raise-drink up their
gains and dance away the time, for not even the hot-
test weather can keep them from this diversion. They
are amiable, courteous, and according to their cir-
cumstances hospitable-but of severe work they know
nothing and do not want to know anything. Hence if
it is true that the harder and more tedious the life of
a country is, the less does its population increase, the
favorable circumstances of the Bahama islands must
show the opposite effect.
Even the blacks here take part in the general con-
tentment. They are everywhere of a better appear-
ance, breathing happiness; strong, well-fed, and of a
decent demeanor. Many of them are free, or if they
are slaves, by paying a small weekly sum they are left
undisturbed in the enjoyment of what they gain by
other work. Some of them own houses and planta-
tions, and others are even put in command of small
vessels. The slaves here never experience the inhu-
man and cruel treatment which draws so many sighs
from their brethren on the neighboring sugar-islands
or the rice plantations of the main-land.
Returning from Rose Island we saw a few other
small islands, and found them all to consist of the rock
which has been often mentioned above. Here and
there lay great rock-plates, split but still of bed and
strata formation; elsewhere in great disorder. More
than once, however, there were to be observed corals,
madrepores, and similar bodies in the substance of the
rocks. On Hog Island we saw, as a great curiosity,
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TRAVELS IN THE CONFEDERATION
certain places, of the extent of one or more acres of
land, quite clear of rocks and showing good, black,
rich earth. Although similar but smaller spots are to
be here and there found, no use can be made of them,
because they lie everywhere in the lowest situations
with no outlet, and none possible, for the rain-water
which accumulates in them. Otherwise such places
would be of endless value. On Hog Island these spots
are useless besides, because of the land-crabs which
destroy the roots of everything planted there by way
of experiment.
Salt is made on a few of the small outer islands, by
evaporation of the sea-water in open pits. Why this is
not done more, is a question. The greatest part of
North America is supplied with salt from Turks and
other small West India islands. It is a tradition here-
abouts that it never rains over the salt-pits,—a few
even go so far as to pretend that a rain-cloud divides
when it passes over salt-pits.
The winds of this region blow from March to Sep-
tember almost continually from the East, and are in
general, from the same causes as the Trade-wind,
fixed between the Tropicks, however the nearness of
the continent gives occasion now and then for brief
interruptions on the part of the West wind. Then
there are light South winds with alternating calms,
during which the greatest heat is felt. During the
winter months the winds are changeable from all
directions. The rainy season falls in May, June, and
July. The last of April and in May of this year the
leaves hung wilted and dry on the trees, from long
drought. There is seldom any dew at night. The
Bahama islands are not, as is often asserted, outside
ST. AUGUSTIN TO BAHAMA ISLANDS 303
the track of hurricanes; no longer than three years
ago they were exposed to the fury of one which did
much damage to shipping and houses. According to
the observations of a Mr. Rose, 93-96 Fahr. is the
highest point shown by the thermometer, and the low-
est is 45. On the whole, this is a desireable climate;
only some 2-3 hot months, and for the rest of the year
a continual spring, with an air clear and temperate.
Many sick and ailing persons therefore take refuge
here with good results.
Alligators are plentiful among these islands; but in
size they yield to those of the continent.
Divers other lizards, in part figured by Catesby, are
everywhere abundant. The finest of them is that with
the sky-blue tail (Lacerta striata L.). They are ex-
tremely swift and difficult to catch; their tail as brittle
as glass if one is quick enough to seize them by it, it
comes away in his hand for his pains. Another small
lizard was, sitting on a cactus, green, caught and put
in a box, brown, and again green after it was dead.
Still another, with a brilliant crop, hanging down long
and flat on the throat, was at first brown, and then
after death whitish, and later grey. On Rose Island
there is a lizard, some 6 inches long, called by the in-
habitants Guana-lizzard; it is of a greyish-brown
color, keeping by day near the water on the shore, but
not going into the water; when it runs it carries its
tail raised.
In shallow and rocky places along the shore are
found black and white sea-urchins (Echinus), divers
sea-stars (Asterias), sea-hares (Tethys), and two
species of wing-worms (Clio), the one with black
tiger-spots, the other without spots; both, when seized,
304
TRAVELS IN THE CONFEDERATION
give out a dark purple-red liquid. Among the many
nettles (Medusa) there was remarked one variety
green, and several rose-colored.
Unfortunately we could not lay hands on glasses
here or any other suitable vessels in which to preserve
such creatures for more careful examination; nor at the
time could any paper be had in Providence for putting
up plants.
Among insects the Chiggers (Pulex penetrans L.)
are no small plague to the inhabitants here. These are
not confined to the Bahamas, but are spread over all
the West India islands and the warmer parts of North
America as far as Carolina and even Virginia. This
vexatious animalcule lives in the sand and the floors of
dwelling-houses. It is difficult to avoid its lodgment in
the skin. It attacks oftenest the soles of the feet, and
other parts of the lower limbs, but does not spare
the rest of the body. One is scarcely aware of the
first approach, but after a short time the troublesome.
guest declares itself by a very disagreeable itching,
and at the spot where the chigger is, there is a little
rise of the skin, of the same color with it and at first
hardly perceptible, in the middle of which is a small
brown point denoting the site of the beast. Once quite
burrowed beneath the skin, it begins forthwith to lay
its eggs, which are enclosed in a peculiar white case;
the chigger is then found with the hinder part of its
body in this egg-sack, only the head, proboscis, and a
few fore-feet protruding, but the whole quite covered
by the skin. Such an egg-sack, partly from the num-
ber of eggs laid in it, partly from the increase of the
hatched brood, may grow to the size of a pea and
cause violent pain. If through carelessness, sloth,
ST. AUGUSTIN TO BAHAMA ISLANDS 305
lack of self-attention, this egg-sack is not removed in
time, the young chiggers mature, creep out, eat farther
on beneath the skin, make new nests, and rummage
through the whole foot. In so hot a climate, and where
there chance to be foul humours in the body, occasion
is thus given for vicious sores, severe inflammations,
and even gangrene, so that at times it has been neces-
sary to take off the limb. There is no sure preventive
against chiggers; people indeed who go much bare-
foot, afford them more of a field, but stockings and
shoes are no protection. Certain people are quite
free of this plague, even chiggers having their selec-
tive taste. Is one attacked by them, or apprehensive
of attack, he must have the soles of his feet exam-
ined daily, for that is the ground they choose first and
like best. The black women are very skilful in this
regard; with a needle or a sharp pointed knife they
carefully dig out the insect and the sack as well, when
this has been formed. There must be care taken to
bring out the whole sack, unbroken as far as possible;
for any eggs remaining behind set up pains and in-
flammation, and one must also be careful to see
whether mature eggs have been fully hatched. Usually
a little snuff-tobacco is sprinkled in the wound. A
European once had the conceit to take this western
pest back home with him as a curiosity alive in his
feet; but the incessant pain compelled the queer col-
lector to rid himself of his curiosities on the voyage.
On my return voyage, after we had been already a
week at sea, I observed a hard little swelling between
the index and the middle finger of my right hand,
without in the least suspecting that a chigger had
nested there; the continual itch and the considerably
306
TRAVELS IN THE CONFEDERATION
increased swelling started the supposition not until
many days later, and on examination a chigger-nest
was really found, with the flea infixed and at least 70-
80 eggs.
Centipeeds and ground-spiders, likewise dreaded,
did not come within my observation. Another pest
here is the little ants which crowd in by millions
wherever there are eatables, sugar and the like kept.
Finally, there are in the bush swarms of troublesome
midges and sand-flies.
The greatest part of the plants here are everlasting
and ever-green. Thus, if this group of islands is lack-
ing in properly arable soil, easy to work, the appear-
ance of things is none the less pleasant and cheerful.
The groves, cross cut by many paths and roads, form
a beautiful evergreen garden, where bloom and fruit
are continually alternating. Most of the indigenous
plants bloom twice a year; particularly during and
after the rainy season, in June and July, and in the
temperate Autumn months. The months of April and
May, the time of my visit, are dry and unfruitful
months, during which the flora here exhibits least its
beauties and rarities.
Here shrubs and trees are in great disproportion to
the more delicate, annual plants, of which there are
but very few. Moreover the leaves of most of these
shrubs and trees are of a firmer, parchment-like nature,
and their wood is dense and heavy. Although plants
of this character are better adapted for withstanding
great heat, nevertheless at the time of my visit, after
a persistent drought, shrubs of firm, laurel-like foliage
as well as those of a more delicate leafage, stood for
ST. AUGUSTIN TO BAHAMA ISLANDS
307
the most part wilted, if not refreshed now and then by
a dew at night.
Of the trees, either originally indigenous or trans-
planted, the following are to be set down, in addition
to those already mentioned, as remarkable or useful.
The Papaw or Melon-tree, Carica Papaya L.
(Trew: Ehret, Tab. VII), is planted for its fruit in
gardens and about plantations, the fruit, cooked be-
fore it is full ripe, making a not unpleasant dish. It is
believed here that if it is put with hard, tough meat,
the same grows softer and more digestible. The little
seeds have a sharp, aromatick taste. The trees are not
very tall, sparsely leaved, and of a white, spongy
wood.
The Guavas, Psidium pyriferum L. (Guiava, Trew:
Ehret. t. 43), and Psidium pomiferum L., are also
transplantations; they are indigenous to Hispaniola.
From their fruit confitures are made, as also from
that of the Mammee, Mammea americana L.
The Avogado-tree Laurus Persea L. On a deserted
plantation behind the town there are a few of these
trees, large and handsome. The pear-shaped fruit,
which ripens in September, is excellent of taste.
The Banana-tree, Musa paradisiaca L., is grown
abundantly in all gardens.
The common fig tree, Ficus Carica L., bears three
times a year, heavily, and good fruit, and deserves to
be more raised, for the fruit of the indigenous fig,
Ficus benghalensis L., is small, dry, and uneatable.
The pomegranate also yields well-tasting fruit.
Among the transplantions belong also, the Paternoster
tree, Melia Azedarach L.; the soap-tree, Sapindus Sa-
ponaria L.; Nerium Oleander, and Magnolia grandi-
308
TRAVELS IN THE CONFEDERATION
flora L. Further, the Silk-Cotton-Tree (Bombax pen-
tandrum L.) the seed-case of which yields a very fine,
light brown wool. The tree is comely, large and
strong; the branches of the one I saw, no doubt the
only one on the island, shaded a circuit of at least a
hundred yards. The Hura crepitans L. (Trew:
Ehret, t. 35) called the 'Sand-box' from the use
made of its seed-cases. The ripe, dry cases split with
a loud clack; the unripe are bored through and used
for strew-sand boxes, from their star-shaped openings
being very well suited to the purpose. The seeds, like
almonds in form and taste, are drastick. The fine
growth of the tree makes it a favorite for shading
walks, and the trunk yields excellent boards. Aeschy-
nomene grandiflora L., 'Chicken-peas,' a tree of very
rapid and tall growth, recommends itself by its large,
splendid blooms, and the seeds are good forage for
poultry.
The Cashew or Acajou, Anacardium occidentalis L.,
is met with on sundry plantations. The coco and the
date-palm have both been transplanted; they thrive
and bear much fruit. But the dates here are small and
of a harsh taste.
Among the indigenous palms the inhabitants dis-
tinguish four different varieties, naming them, accord-
ing to the use made of them, as follows:
'Great-Thatch' and
'Brittle-Thatch Palmetto,'-the leaves of which are
used in the roofs of their cabins.
Silver-Thatch,'-on account of the leaves being
supplied below with a silver-colored down. The
younger leaves are employed chiefly for making
the rough nets and tackle used by the fishermen
ST. AUGUSTIN TO BAHAMA ISLANDS
309
here. The top of the tree is eaten, as is also that
of the
'Cabbage tree,' or common cabbage palm. The soft
stem of this palm is eaten by hogs.
Of the first two I have seen neither blooms nor
fruit. Probably they are varieties yet indeterminate.
All of these grow by preference on the shore, making
here and there pleasant little forests; but palms reach
no great height here; at least one does not often find
them more than 12-15 feet high.
To be counted among the indigenous edible fruits.
are: the several varieties of the custard-apple, Annona
glabra, palustris, triloba, and muticata L., the Jamaica
or 'Wild Cherries,' Malpighia glabra and urens, which
bear pleasant, sourish berries, not unlike the cherry.
The Sapadilla, Achras Sapota L., a small, round, milky
fruit which, when well over-ripe is regarded by some
as an especial delicacy and is used for tarts. The
coco-plum, Chrysobalanus Icaco L. Saffrons, the
fruit of a shrub with oval leaves having a brownish
down beneath; in shape like cornil-berries, of a long
hard kernel, purple-colored or blue, and of a sweetish
sleek taste.
The 'Pidgeon-plums' (Cerasus latiore folio, fructu
racemoso purpureo majore. Catesb. II, tab. 94) sup-
ply the wild pidgeons, and the dry yellowish fruit of
the 'Hog-plum tree' (Spondias Mombin L.) serves as
food for the hogs.
The poisonous mancinella, (Hippomane Mancinella
L.) occurs on Andros Island. The mangle-tree,
Rhizophora Mangle L., grows everywhere along the
shores.
In the bush and the woods there are finally great
310
TRAVELS IN THE CONFEDERATION
numbers of varieties of splendid plants, of which at
this season but few were in flower. Certain of them
are peculiar to the Bahama islands, others are found
throughout the West Indies and in the warmer regions.
of the mainland. Not wishing to repeat all those
names of plants mentioned in my description above,
nor intending to give a complete list of the plants of
Providence (out of the question both from the brief-
ness of my stay and from other conditions as well), I
will indicate only a few of the more common plants
blooming in April and May:
Boerhaavia scandens.
Justicia spinosa.
Verbena lappulacea, curassavica and nodiflora.
Salvia serotina. The infusion is used in fevers.
Proserpinaca palustris.
Commelina communis.
Kyllingia monocephala.
Paspalum distichum.
Agrostis indica.
Agrostis tenacissima, Jacquin, Ic. tab. 16, collect. I,
p. 85.
Catesbæa spinosa.
Cissus sicyoides.
Cissus trifoliata.
(Almost smooth, and with no
marked wings on the stalks. Caterpillars in the
leaves.)
Fagara Pterota.
Rivina humilis and lævis.
Ilex cuneata.
Heliotropium parviflorum, curassavicum and gna-
phalodes.
Tournefortia volubilis.
ST. AUGUSTIN TO BAHAMA ISLANDS 311
Convolvuli spec. (Salve-leaf).
Ipomoea triloba, and other varieties.
Conocarpus erecta (Button-wood) and racemosa.
Psychotria asiatica.
Chiococca racemosa.
Scævola Lobelia.
Erithalis fruticosa.
Physalis curassavica.
Solanum verbascifolium, racemosum, bahamense.
Cordia Sebestena.
Ehretia tinifolia and Beureria.
Cestrum vespertinum.
Chrysophyllum Cainito.
Hedera quinquefolia.
Illecebrum vermiculatum.
Vinca lutea.
Plumeria rubra.
Echites umbellata, biflora and others.
.. Arbor jasmini folio, floribus albis, fructu
ovali, feminibus parvis nigris mucilagine involu-
tis. Catesb. I, t. 59. Seligm. Vög. 3, t. 18 (Seven
years' apple).
Asclepias curassavica, and others.
Turnera ulmifolia.
Xylophylla latifolia.
Tillandsia polystachya, lingulata and others.
Tradescantia virginica.
Pancratium caribæum?
Orontium aquaticum.
Achras salicifolia.
Bursera gummifera. Terebinthus major &c. Catesb.
I, t. 30.
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TRAVELS IN THE CONFEDERATION
Amyris sylvatica (Torch or Light-wood)—toxifera
(Poison-wood). Catesb. I, t. 40. Seligm. Vög.
2, t. 80.
Amyris Elemifera, and bijuga.
Ximenia inermis (Mastick-tree).
Coccoloba Uvifera.
Paullinia Seriana.
Cassytha filiformis.
Cassia emarginata, obtusifolia, occidentalis, biflora
(Pock-root), ligustrina (Wild Senna, purgative),
and others.
Poinciania pulcherrima.
Guilandina Bonducella (Nickers).
Melastoma discolor.
Banisteria angulosa.
Suriana maritima.
Euphorbia hyssopifolia?, heterophylla, and others.
Cactus Tuna.
Eugenia Pseudopsidium.
Sesuvium Portulacastrum.
Argemone mexicana.
Corchorus hirsutus.
Bignonia pentaphylla, and cærulea.
Lantana Camara and involucrata.
Capraria biflora.
Stemodia maritima.
Duranta Ellisia.
Cleome pentaphylla.
Sida crispa, and others.
Hibiscus tiliaceus.
Abrus precatorius.
Erythrina Corallodendron. Trew, t. 8.
ST. AUGUSTIN TO BAHAMA ISLANDS 313
Cytisus Cajan.
Hedysarum canescens.
Indigofera argentea.
Dolichos, sundry varieties.
Bidens nivea.
Ageratum conyzoides.
Amellus umbellatus?
Buphthalmum frutescens.
Serapias and Limodorum, sundry varieties.
Passiflora cuprea, rubra, Vespertilio, and others.
Helicteres jamaicensis, Jacquin.
Arum sagittæ folium.
Parthenium Hysterophorus.
Guettarda speciosa.
Croton Cascarilla, glabellum, argenteum.
Smilax, sundry varieties.
Juniperus bermudiana.
Andropogon repens. Gramen dactylon americanum
cruciatum, barbadensibus nostratibus Dutch-grass
dictum. Plukenet, Phyt. tab. 189, fig. 7, and tab.
245, fig. 1.
Clusia rosea, flava.
Gouana domingensis.
Mimosa circinalis, Cat. II, t. 97, pernambucana,
Unguis cati, farnesiana, arborea, glauca, and
others.
Pisonia aculeata.
Acrostichum aureum, polypodioides.
Asplenium rhizophyllum, marinum.
Polypodium phyllitidis, pubescens.
Adiantum clavatum.
Zamia pumila, Trew, t. 26.
21
314
TRAVELS IN THE CONFEDERATION
As regards the total number of the settled, unset-
tled, or uninhabitable Bahama islands there is so far
quite as little exact information as of their situation
and extent, with other of their characteristics worthy
to be known. Including all the keys, all the larger
and smaller islands, the number is reckoned at several
hundreds. There is moreover no accurate and reliable
chart of these islands; for that drawn by Captain
Romans + is said to be based more on the accounts of
others than on the author's own survey. Hence there
is still wanting a sure and fixed guide for sea-farers
among these labyrinthine islands, and the pilots, in-
dispensable to vessels both large and small, must in
finding navigable channels rely on their own knowl-
edge, often gained, alas, by insufficient experience,
trusting merely to their memory.
Providence Island itself is not yet thoroughly
known; its length is estimated at 25-30 miles, and its
breadth at 6-9. The other more important islands,
most of them settled in a fashion, are:
Harbour Island, Abaco, Long Island, Lucaya, An-
dros, Eleuthera, Mayaguana, Exuma, Ynagua, Great
Bahama &c. The most of these, certainly very many
of them, are narrow and long, running from north-
west to south and south-east. Providence lies more
east and west.
Cat Island, one of the smaller of the group, is re-
markable for being the first land of the West trodden
by Christopher Columbus on his voyage of discovery
in the year 1493; he gave it the name St. Salvadore.
Andros Island, it is said, is one of the most valuable
of the Bahamas; possessing much excellent land, ex-
ST. AUGUSTIN TO BAHAMA ISLANDS 315
tensive savannas, splendid store of useful woods, much
fresh water, many bights and bays affording good
landing-places and some of them stretching far in-
land.
The Bahama islands were discovered for the second
time, in the year 1607, by Captain William Sayle, who
established claim to them in the name of England. All
these islands were bestowed by the crown on the then
Proprietors of Carolina, the lords Albemarle, Craven,
Carteret, &c, who only resigned their rights to the
crown at the beginning of this century, after they had
found by experience that these islands, settled by tur-
bulent, stubborn people mostly living by piracy, were
under their government falling more and more into
decay. Throughout the preceding century these is-
lands, and especially Providence, were the resort of
men * who lived lawless carrying on piracy, which they
called buccaneering, in the West Indian waters and on
the coasts of the neighboring Spanish islands. They
refused all obedience to the governors sent out by the
Proprietors, and at times compelled them to with-
draw. In the War of Succession at the beginning of
this century, the Spaniards fell upon these islands,
destroyed and plundered everything, and took off the
greater part of the inhabitants captive; the remnant
hid themselves in the woods or were scattered else-
where. Shortly after this attack the proprietors gave
* Histoire des Pirates Anglois depuis leur établissement
dans l'isle de la Providence jusqu'à présent, avec la vie & les
avantures des deux femmes Pirates Marie Read & Anne
Bonny; traduit de l'anglois du Capitaine Charles Johnson.
Utrecht. 1725. 8°.
316
TRAVELS IN THE CONFEDERATION
over their right to the islands, which they were unable
to keep in order, make flourish, or protect from hostile
aggressions. In the year 1717, under George I,
Woodes Rogers was sent over to Providence with a
sufficient garrison, as the first royal governor. To
him the buccaneers found there gave themselves up,
in part of their own accord; the scattered inhabitants.
returned, and there were new-comers to join them-
and from that time order and quiet began on these
islands, the one-time sea-robbers becoming respected.
residents, consuming their gains in peace. At the
present time the affairs of these islands are adminis-
tered by a Governor, in the name of the King; but the
people of all these islands elect from among them-
selves an Assembly, consisting now of 21 members,
who meet annually and take into consideration the
business and the rights of the widely scattered people.
Providence, and with it all the Bahama islands, was
in the last war conquered by the Spanish in conjunc-
tion with the Americans. A fearfully large fleet was
directed against this small and, at that time, defence-
less island. The conquest therefore was no more
glorious than, during their possession, was the be-
haviour of the Spanish, who showed little of nobility or
largeness of mind. The re-conquest for England took
place in the year 1783. The Spanish governor, Don
Caracca, with a garrison of near 500 men, let himself
be surprised and frightened into a surrender by a
small and badly armed corps of 80 volunteers and 3
Indians, who had been collected with difficulty by the
enterprizing Major Devaux, partly in Florida, partly
on certain of the islands.
ST. AUGUSTIN TO BAHAMA ISLANDS 317
To return to Europe I seized the first opportunity
offering, and repaired on board the ship Hero, com-
manded by Captain Bryan, a Bermudan. It was a
small, light built, but fast-sailing ship, lying with its
cargo deep in the water; the cargo was made up of
mahogany, brasiletto, lignum vitae, pineapples (sev-
eral thousand), and live turtles. The turtles, all to-
gether 2400 pounds' weight, were distributed in 64
large hogsheads. These heavy casks, which were
filled with sea-water besides, crowded the deck and
made a very heavy load, increased by anchors, fire-
wood, the drinking-water for the voyage, and the like,
these having to lie out, there being no room for them
in the hold. In this way the little ship carried near
30 tons' weight on deck, and was 'top-heavy' as the
sea-term is, (heavier above than below) and this rash
lading had almost ruined us.
We left the harbor of Providence June 7th 1784,
had fair winds and weather the first week, passed the
Summer or Bermuda islands with no mischance, and
then held towards the coast of America so as to get
into the path of the west winds commoner there. This
region is famous for its many and sudden storms, or
as the saying is:
If the Bermudas let You pass
You'll get it at Cape Hatteras.
We found it a true proverb. On the 15th of
June while we were sailing with a light wind and a
fine sky between the Bermudas and Cape Hatteras, we
were hit by a squall so suddenly and with such fury
that all on board must regard our lucky escape as in
.the circumstances very extraordinary. The whole
318
TRAVELS IN THE CONFEDERATION
crew, quite familiar with the West Indies where they
had experienced many hurricanes, swore to a man that
they had never come through such a raging wind, ris-
ing so swiftly. To be sure it held on scarcely more than
12-15 minutes, but it struck the ship violently so that
it could hardly get through the water fast enough, and
the waves broke in streams over the peak. The masts
bent before the wind; the sails, which there had not
been time enough to take in, were torn on the instant
and the shreds went flapping with a fearful noise. To
lighten the weight on deck the turtle-casks were stove
in, fire-wood, many chests, and all sorts of baggage
were jettisoned. The sailors waded in water knee-
deep on deck, where everything was in apparent con-
fusion. Amid the deafening noise of the wind and
the waves, and the tumult of the ship's people work-
ing at an anxious tension, might be heard now suppli-
cations and sighs, now curses and imprecations. We
owed our escape first to the dispensation of Providence
and then to the firm spirit of the captain who suc-
ceeded, not without hard work and the assistance of
several strong men at the wheel, in keeping the little
ship straight before the wind; the first blow from the
side, or the first cross-sea, would inevitably from the
nature of the cargo have overturned and sunk us.
Hardly was the danger over, when everything was
forgotten, as is the sailor's way. We then spoke of
our fears; the sailors took to their grogg; making
sport of each other for their frightened looks and be-
havior, and setting at once to work repairing the much
damaged sails and tidying up the ship. We lost by
this chance a part of our store of fresh water, and
from then on the allowance was a quart and a half
ST. AUGUSTIN TO BAHAMA ISLANDS 319
(later a quart) to a man. And so we had but little
water, but what we had was very good; taken from
the dug wells of Providence above described, and
lasting throughout the voyage, clear, pure, and of the
best taste and smell.
The rest of the way no further mishap befel us;
on the 30th day after our sailing we got sight of Start
Point, at the entrance of the channel, and two days
later came safe into the Thames.
Appendix
[Prefix to Vol. II, 32 pp. "Fragment of a Treatise
on Climate and Weather in North America." Appear-
ing originally in Meusel's Hist. Literatur, 1781. Re-
published perhaps as a pamphlet enlarged, which has
been translated by Dr. J. R. Chadwick, Boston,
(Houghton), 1875. 8vo, 31 pp.
Climate and Dis-
eases of America. By Dr. Johann David Schoepff,
Surgeon of the Anspach-Bayreuth Troops in America.]
No. IV
Regarding the Establishment of the German College
at Lancaster in Pensylvania and of other Institutions
for the Education of Youth and the Furtherance of the
Sciences.
Petition and Act of 1786. [Vol. II, pp. 503-521.
From Gemeinnützige Philadelph. Correspondenz, No.
299. 1787.]
No. V
An die lieben Deutschen. Relative to the College at
Lancaster; signed A. M. with Answer signed Philo-
mathes.
[Vol. II, pp. 522-529. From Gemeinnützige Phila-
delph. Correspondenz, No. 304, No. 310, 1787.]
No. VI
Plan for the Establishment of Free Schools in Phila-
delphia. Plan of the Urania Academy, for the Better-
ment of Church-singing.
322
APPENDIX
[Vol. II, pp. 530-542. From Gemeinnützige Phila-
delph. Correspondenz, No. 310, 311, 1787.]
No. VII
To the Publick. Specifications relative to the me-
dallion to be given annually by the American Philo-
sophical Society.
[Vol. II, pp. 543-548. From Gemeinnützige Phila-
delph. Correspondenz, No. 294, 1786.]
No. VIII
Medicinal Waters, for drinking and bathing, at
Harrowgate, about four miles from Philadelphia near
the Frankfort Road. Advertisement of George Esterly.
[Vol. II, pp. 549-551. From Gemeinnützige Phila-
delph. Correspondenz, ✈ No. 265, 1786.]
Notes
[The reference in the text is by a +]
Preface The Preface to Vol. II, although short,
has not been given entire; it is mainly in regard to the
fragment of an article by Dr. Schoepf on the climate
of North America, which appears as a prefix to Vol.
II. The appendices, also omitted in this text, are ex-
plained, and apology is offered for including in Vol. I
the sketch map of North America, taken from Bailey's
Pocket Almanac, Philadelphia, 1785. Dr. Schoepf
states that his meteorological observations have been
confirmed by those of Williams, made at Cambridge
in New England with Mannheim instruments, and
published in Ephemerid. Societat. Meteorolog. Pala-
tinae anni 1785. This was Samuel Williams [1743-
1817], teacher of Count Rumford, and Hollis Pro-
fessor of Mathematics at Harvard, 1780-1788.
P. 5-With respect to the Western country, it is in-
teresting to observe the remark in the Freeman's
Journal for Dec. 31, 1783, that common funds from
public lands should serve as "a cement to bind the con-
federacy."
P. 14-See, Life of William Henry, of Lancaster,
Pennsylvania. By Francis Jordan, Jr. Lancaster,
1910. Chapter VI.
Simon Stevinus operated a wind-carriage as early
as 1600, on which Grotius, who was a passenger, made
an epigram.
324
NOTES
P. 19-The Preface of Chronicon Ephratense, signed
'Lamech and Agrippa,' is dated April 14, 1786. See,
translation by J. M. Hark, Lancaster, 1889.
P. 22—“There may be from 7000 to 8000 Dutch
Waggons with four Horses each, that from Time to
Time bring their Produce and Traffick to Philadelphia,
from 10 to 100 Miles Distance.”
Douglass, British Settlements. Boston, 1750, II,
333.
P. 23-The quotation is, perhaps, from Justus Möser
(1720-1794), “Patriotic Fancies," 1775.
P. 26-Dr. Schoepf, late of the allied troops from
Germany, could scarcely expect invariable courtesy on
the part of those Americans speaking his language.
P. 32-Cf. the Abbé Robin's New Travels, (Phila-
delphia) 1783-under Maryland.
P. 38-By this time news of the Peace should have
reached Virginia. Cf. Freeman's Journal, Dec. 3,
1783-"Last Sunday arrived the Lord Hyde Packet
from Falmouth, 47 days. From the English papers
brought we have extracted the following important
advices" [regarding the Definitive Treaty].
P. 42-See, Acts of Assembly (Virginia), 1777, p.
19, ch. XII—"James Hunter, near Fredericksburg,
hath erected and is now carrying on at considerable
expense and labour, many extensive factories, slitting,
plating and wire mills."
Cf. Jefferson's Notes, Sec. VI.
P. 44-See, Letter of Roger Atkinson, 1772,
Virginia Mag. of Hist. and Biog., XV, 345-" Sir, it
NOTES
325
is with great Pleasure I acq't you that we have now
got another staple of late years, as it were created,
viz.: Wheat, w'ch will I believe in a little time be equal
if not superior to Tob'o-is more certain & of w'ch we
shall in a few years make more in Virg'a than all the
Province of Pennsylvania put together, altho' it is
their staple commodity."
P. 56-Robert Lawson, of Prince Edward County,
Colonel 4th Virginia, 1777, and Brigadier General,
Virginia line, 1781. Cf. Calendar of Virginia State
Papers, Vols. I and II.
P. 61.-The Virginia Gazette & Weekly Advertiser.
There was a Virginia Gazette and Norfolk Intelli-
gencer as early as 1774, and there was a Virginia
Gazette and American Advertiser published at Rich-
mond in 1786, which was possibly the same as the
Weekly Advertiser. The old Virginia Gazette of
Williamsburg was merged with a Richmond paper
about 1799. The construction given the word 'Ga-
zette' is seen also in the name of a paper published at
Baltimore about 1800-Federal Gazette and Baltimore
General Advertiser.
P. 62-Jefferson's Notes on Virginia appeared at
Paris, 1784 (1st ed., dated 1782); 2nd edition, Paris,
1786; 1st English edition, London, 1787; 1st Ameri-
can, 1788 (Philadelphia, Pritchard and Hall).
P. 63-See, Separation of Church and State in
Virginia. By H. J. Eckenrode, Archivist. pp. 155.
Va. State Library Report, 1910.
P. 64-Formicola had come to Virginia with Lord
Dunmore, the last royal Governor; he had formerly
326
NOTES
been in Russia. Cf. Chastellux, Travels in North
America &c. Dublin, 1787. II, 154.
P. 67-The projector was John Mayo [1760-1818]
who after many difficulties succeeded. His daughter
married Gen. Winfield Scott.
P. 67-This mine of John Chiswell's was worked
as early as 1766. See, will of John Robinson, Virginia
Mag. of Hist. and Biog., XVII, 319.
Cf. Acts of Assembly (Virginia), 1776, p. 42.
Colonel Byrd mentions a Chiswell in 1732 (Prog-
ress to the Mines, p. 343 ff.) who was interested in
iron works near Fredericksburg.
Copper near the Roanoke "-The Virgilina Belt,
described by Colonel Byrd in 1733 (Journey to Eden),
see Bassett, Writings of Colonel William Byrd. New
York, 1901, 283-85.
P. 67-The Midlothian mines, once celebrated, the
history of which is not enough known, and would be
very difficult to determine.
P. 68-E. g., Gentleman's Magazine, Vol. 56, p. 801,
(1786). See, Note, Vol. I, p. 291.
P. 70-See, Jefferson's Notes, Sec. VI-Mineral
resources of Virginia.
P. 70-See, Jefferson's Notes, Sec. VI-Mineral
claimants are mentioned in the Senate Journals.
(Virginia) as present. Dec. 18th, 19th, and 22nd.
Names occurring are Elie Toutant Beauregard, son
of James Beauregard, Charles Gratiot, attorney, and
Savary de Valcoulon, agent of Coulougnac & Co. One
of these claims was for supplies furnished Col. John
Todd, in 1779.
NOTES
327
Cf. Albert Gallatin. By John Austin Stevens
[American Statesmen Series], Boston, 1891, pp. 19, 22.
"At Boston Gallatin made the acquaintance of a
French gentleman, one Savary de Valcoulon, who had
crossed the Atlantic to prosecute in person certain
claims against the State of Virginia for advances made
by his house in Lyons during the war. He accom-
panied Gallatin to New York, and together they trav-
elled to Philadelphia . . . . Soon after these plans
were completed [purchase of western lands] Savary
and Gallatin moved to Richmond, where they made
their residence. In February 1784, Gallatin returned
to Philadelphia.”
P. 72-Near Petersburg at this time lived Dr. James
Greenway, (grandfather of Gen. Winfield Scott), an
industrious botanist whose notes were very useful to
Castiglioni. The copy of Gronovius's Flora Virginica
in the Library of Congress was once Dr. Greenway's
and is copiously annotated in his handwriting.
In this neighborhood there had lived, a good many
years earlier, the distinguished botanist John Banister,
whose work is incorporated in Ray's Historia Plan-
torum, whom Ray calls eruditissimus vir et consum-
matissimus botanicus.'
Cf. Castiglioni, Viaggio negli Stati Uniti. I, 220-
221.
P. 74-The colony had an old inheritance of To-
bacco, which the state here and there yet finds difficult
-Cf. Oldmixon, The British Empire in America. 2nd
edition, London, 1741, (1st ed., 1708). Vol. I, p. 448,
"The Trade of this Colony, as well as that of Mary-
land, consists almost entirely of Tobacco; for tho' the
328
NOTES
Country would produce several extraordinary Com-
modities fit for Trade, yet the planters are so wholly
bent on planting Tobacco, that they seem to have laid
aside all Thoughts of other Improvements. This
Trade is brought to such Perfection, that the Virginia
Tobacco, especially the sweet-scented, which grows
on York River, is reckoned the best in the World, and
is what is generally vended in England for a home
consumption. The other Sorts, called Oranoac, and
that of Maryland, are hotter in the Mouth; but they
turn to as good an Account, being in demand in Hol-
land, Denmark, Sweden, and Germany.
P. 79.-This was the foundation of Robert Boyle,
the philosopher, called the Brafferton Foundation,
from an estate in England in which the funds were
invested.
Cf. Jefferson's Notes (ed. 1801, New York), p. 223.
66
P. 81-" Scotch merchants in Virginia before Revo-
lution used to have a meeting twice a year, to decide
on the rate of exchange, the price of tobacco and the
advances on the cost of their goods. This was the
substantial legislation of the Colony." Abstract of
conversation with Madison, in 1827, by J. Burton
Harrison. See, The Harrisons of Skimino. Edited
by Fairfax Harrison. Privately printed, 1910, p. 92.
P. 82-It is possible that at Princeton (see, Vol. I),
these shell-banks had been mentioned by General
Lincoln, among whose scientific papers is a description
of them.
P. 86-The first agricultural journal published in
Virginia (The Farmer's Register, Edmund Ruffin,
NOTES
329
Editor and Proprietor), bears the imprint, "Shell-
banks, Va. Published by the Proprietor. 1834."
P. 87-See, Smyth, Tour in the United States. Lon-
don, 1784, p. 15. "[Jamestown] once the metropolis
of Virginia and still possessing several privileges in
consequence thereof, one of which is sending a member
to the assembly, or parliament; who is now Champion
Traverse, esq. the proprietor of the whole town, and
almost all the land adjacent, and I believe there are no
more voters than himself."
P. 94-William Guthrie, New Geographical, His-
torical & Commercial Grammar, and present State of
the Several Kingdoms of the World &c. 2nd ed., 1777,
p. 670.
P. 94-Lying on a pallat &c is the manner of life
particularly attributed by Smyth (Tour in the United
States, I, 41) to the Virginia gentleman of fortune,
who, says Smyth, rose about nine o'clock; whereas a
man of the middling class "rises in the morning about
six o'clock; he then drinks a julap, made of rum, water,
and sugar, but very strong; then he walks, or more
generally rides, round his plantation, views all his
stock, and all his crop, breakfasts about ten o'clock, on
cold turkey, cold meat, fried homminy, toast and cyder,
ham, bread, and butter, tea, coffee, or chocolate, which
last, however, is seldom tasted but by the women."
P. 95—“ Virginia, although it is one of the Southern
provinces, produces, none the less, sounder and stronger
men, as well as horses. . . . It enjoys throughout the
year, above all other provinces, a temperate, uniform
weather, which imparts to animal bodies a greater de-
22
330
NOTES
gree of strength, and at the same time of activity."
Fragment eines Schreibens über Klima und Witterung
in Nordamerika, appearing as a Prefix to Volume II,
Schoepf's Reise, p. XXXI.
P. 100-See, Smyth, Tour in the United States, II,
238. "This swamp belongs to a company of proprie-
tors, who have begun to render it of advantage and
profit to them. They commenced with getting lumber,
cypress shingles, and boards, and with incredible labour
they have now formed several plantations therein,
which produce immense crops of Indian corn. They
have also cut a navigable canal, nine miles in length,
from the great lake, for the conveyance of their lumber
and produce."
P. 102-See, "An act for extending the boundary
line between Virginia and North Carolina," Hening,
IX, 561 [October 1778]—“ Beginning where Joshua
Fry and Peter Jefferson, commissioners from Virginia,
together with others from North Carolina, formerly
appointed to run the said line, ended their work, and if
that be found to be truly in the latitude of thirty six
degrees thirty minutes north, then to run from thence
due west to Tenasee river."
P. 109-See, American Husbandry, London, 1775, I,
337, "The two great circumstances which give the
farmers of North Carolina such a superiority over
those of most other colonies, are, first, the plenty of
land, and, secondly, the vast herds of cattle kept by the
planters. The want of ports, as I said, kept numbers
from settling here, and this made the land of less value,
consequently every settler got large grants; and, fall-
ing to the business of breeding cattle, their herds be-
NOTES
331
came so great, that the profit from them alone is ex-
ceeding great."
Cf. Smyth, Tour in the United States. London,
1784. II, 78-79.
P. 114—Achard, Franz Karl [1753-1821]. Founder
of the beet-sugar industry; from 1782 Director of the
Natural Philosophy section of the Academy of
Sciences, Berlin.
P. 120-John Banister, the Virginia botanist, lost
his life at the Roanoke Falls, in 1692. Cf. Goode,
Beginnings of Natural History in America [Smith-
sonian Institution Report, 1897, II], p. 385-386.
P. 123—“In the streets and suburbs of Wilmington
[North Carolina] the Pride-of-India tree (Melia aze-
darach) in very conspicuous, some of them twenty-five
years old, having survived many a severe frost, espe-
cially that of the autumn of the present year, the
severest since 1835."
Lyell, Second Visit to the United States of North
America. New York, 1855, I, 219.
P. 128-See also, John Lawson, History of Carolina,
containing the exact description and natural history of
that Country. London, 1714.
P. 131-There were very few planters (possibly but
one) in North Carolina at this time owning 200
negroes. See, Heads of Families 1790-North Caro-
lina, Bulletin, United States Census Bureau.
P. 142 This operation is described at length in
American Husbandry. London, 1775. I, 343-44. The
pipe ran from the depressed-centre floor to a barrel,
set in the ground some two feet away.
332
NOTES
P. 150-See, Munford, Virginia's Attitude toward
Slavery and Secession. New York, 1909, p. 105 ff.
P. 155-Pastor Adolph Nüssmann of St. Paul's
Church, Cabarrus County, North Carolina. See, Bern-
heim, History of the German Settlements and of the
Lutheran Church in North and South Carolina. Phila-
delphia, 1872, pp. 242, 257, 261.
P. 159-This was a short-lived industry on that soil
and its day was then nearly over. Other sources of
information are Smyth, Tour in the United States.
London, 1784, II, 56-64; American Husbandry, Lon-
don, 1775, I, 400-406; Castiglioni, Viaggio negli Stati
Uniti. Milan, 1790, I, 323-326; Virginia Almanac for
1759 " Mr. Thomas Mellichamp's Directions for
making Indico equal to the best French."
P. 170-Ratzel, in his sketch of Schoepf (Allgem.
deutsche Biogr.), calls attention to this item of obser-
vation-" Vielleicht ist er der erste, welcher auf die
regelmässige Drehung der Winde beim Uebergang
aus NO zu S und umgekehrt, dieselbe, deren Gesetz
Später Dove näher begründet, aufmerksam gemacht
hat." All that Dove's biographer claims for him is that
he correlated this shifting with the action of the ba-
rometer, and with moisture and temperature conditions.
However, see, note in Lewis Evans's Map of Pensil-
vania &c. (1749)—“ All our great storms begin to
Leeward: thus a NE storm shall be a day sooner in
Virginia than Boston." Cf. Phillips's Maps of
America, under "North America."
P. 173—At Charleston Dr. Schoepf put together his
Beyträge zur mineralogischen Kenntniss des östlichen
Theils von Nordamerika und seiner Gebürge, pp. 194.
NOTES
333
See Preface to that work, in which it appears that
Schoepf came upon a copy of Lewis Evans's Analysis
of a general map of the Middle British Colonies in
America (Philadelphia, 1755) after his journey over
the mountains. His views were confirmed by Evans.
Both Jefferys and Governor Pownall (Topographical
Description, 1776) made use of Evans.
P. 178-The Schoepfia (so named by Schreber in
honor of his pupil Schoepf) is described in Rees's
Encyclopaedia as nearly allied to the Lonicera.
P. 179-In the same year as Schoepf's Travels ap-
peared Thomas Walter's Flora Caroliniana. London,
1788-the Preface dated, "Carolinae Meridionalis ad
Ripas Fluvii Santee 30 Dec. 1787.”
P. 184-See, Transactions of the American Philo-
sophical Society, I, 117-198, "An Essay on the Culti-
vation of the Vine." By Edward Antill.
P. 208-Washington was the first Grand Master;
the Baron von Steuben presided at the meetings held
to organize the Society.
P. 210" Considerations on the Society or order of
Cincinnati; lately instituted by the major-generals,
brigadier-generals, and other officers of the American
army. Proving that it creates a race of hereditary
patricians or nobility. Interspersed with remarks on
its consequences to the freedom and happiness of the
republic. Addressed to the people of South Carolina,
and their representatives. By Cassius." Philadelphia,
1783. A Hartford edition also, perhaps of the same
year. To which Considerations there was a reply,
"Observations on a late pamphlet entitled 'Considera-
334
NOTES
tions &c. clearly evincing the innocence and propriety
of that honourable and respectable institution. In
answer to vague conjectures, false insinuations, & ill
founded objections." By an Obscure Individual. Phila-
delphia, 1783.
P. 214-See, Miller, Retrospect of the Eighteenth
Century. New York, 1803, II, 402-"The Sciences
of Chemistry, Natural History, and Medicine, have
long been, and continue to be, more successfully culti-
vated in the Middle and Southern than in the Eastern
States. The same reasons apply in this case that were
suggested with respect to Classic literature."
Dr. Miller's pages (II, 492-506) furnish perhaps.
the best contemporary opinion regarding the eighteenth
century college in America. Schoepf's enumeration
(Vol. I, p. 77) should be corrected-not Washington
College, Delaware, but Washington College, Mary-
land.
P. 235-Dr. Andrew Turnbull, a Scotchman, in-
terested with Sir William Duncan in this enterprise.
Cf. Fairbanks, History of Florida. Philadelphia,
1871, p. 216.
P. 238-John Bartram's Florida Journal was pub-
lished at London in 1766. William Bartram, his son,
had been living in North Carolina, in business there,
but joined his father in Florida, and being an observer
himself published his Travels in the Carolinas,
Georgia, and the Floridas at Philadelphia, 1791. John
Bartram had held the post of Botanist to the King
(George III).
P. 248—Schoepf's itinerary should be compared with
Smyth's and Castiglioni's. Smyth is sparing of dates,
NOTES
335
but it is likely he passed through the Floridas about
1774, coming from the west down the Ohio to New
Orleans. He went north from St. Augustine by land
to Virginia, taking much the same road as that fol-
lowed south to Charleston by Dr. Schoepf. Castiglioni,
early in 1786, passed from Richmond, Virginia, to
Augusta, Georgia, from New-Berne to Charleston over
Schoepf's route by Mr. Vareen's' and 'Lockwood's
Folly.' Returning Castiglioni took the back road.
P. 265—Voyage d'un Suisse dans différentes colonies
d'Amérique pendant la dernière guerre. Neuchatel,
1785, p. 95.
P. 275-The medicinal virtues of the wood
Guaiaco' have been long known indeed. See, Baer's
Catalogue no. 600 (Frankfurt a. M.), item 20-" Ein
clarer bericht wie man alte schaden, löcher und Bülen
heylen soll mit dem holtz Guaiaco &c.
4to, 6 leaves. Woodcut on title."
c. 1520, small
P. 314-Bernard Romans [1720-1784]:
1] Concise Natural History of East & West Florida.
New York, 1775.
2] The Compleat Pilot for the Gulf Passage. 1779.
['Identical with appendix to the Natural History of
the Floridas.']
P. 322-There is a file of the Phil. Gemeinnuz. Cor-
respondenz in the library of the Historical Society of
Pennsylvania. However, nos. 310 and 311 are miss-
ing.
1
Citations
American Husbandry:
Containing an Account of the Soil, Climate, Pro-
duction, and Agriculture of the British Colonies in
North America and the West-Indies. With observa-
tions on the advantages and disadvantages of settling
in them, conpared with Great Britain and Ireland. By
an American. In two volumes. London. Printed
for J. Bew in Pater-noster Row, 1775. [This work
is not cited by Dr. Schoepf, who doubtless used the
same materials, here and there, as the author. This
is an extraordinary book, a soil survey for America at
the beginning of the Revolution. The guess is haz-
arded that it was from the hand of Cluny, the author
of the famous American Traveller.]
Browne, Patrick, 1720-1790:
Civil and Natural History of Jamaica, 1756. He
left in MS 'A Catalogue of the Plants now growing in
the Sugar Islands.'
Catesby, Mark, F. R. S.:
The Natural History of Carolina, Florida, and the
Bahama Islands &c &c. Two volumes folio. London,
1731 and 1743 (Vol. II). [Catesby spent seven years
in Virginia, from 1712 to 1719, "having relations
there." His work was the most sumptuous of the
books on natural history produced during the first half
of the eighteenth century; the Latin names were sup-
plied by Dr. Sherrard. Catesby's Figures (Vol. I,
Birds; Vol. II, Fishes, Serpents &c) were repro-
338
CITATIONS
duced at Nürnberg in 1750 by Eisenberger and Lich-
tensteger. From 1749 to 1753 Johann Michael Selig-
mann brought out, at Nürnberg, Sammlung verschie-
dener und seltener Vögel &c, the legend of the
frontispiece being "Catesby und Edwards, Sammlung
seltener Vögel"; the translation was by Dr. Georg
Leonhard Huth. The work is based very largely on
Catesby, but many of the plates are signed by Edwards,
who had learned of Catesby. This was George Ed-
wards [1694-1773], whose History of Birds was pub-
lishing from 1743 to 1764].
Chalmers, Dr. Lionel :
Weather & Diseases of South Carolina. London,
1776. His most respectable and useful work,' an
Essay on Fevers. Charleston, 1767.
Gronovius: Flora Virginica. Leyden, 1762:
[From the Preface it appears that John Frederick
Gronovius, from descriptions and specimens sent him
by Dr. Clayton, had issued at Leyden a Flora Virginica
in two parts, 1739 and 1743. From additional speci-
mens and descriptions supplied by Clayton, and from
other material, the elder Gronovius at the time of hist
death was preparing a third Flora, possibly incorpo-
rating the earlier material. The son, Laurentius
Gronovius completed this manuscript and published
it in 1762, the edition usually cited. His list of
authorities includes Banister, John Bartram, Colden,
Collinson, Dudley, and John Mitchell (Johannis
Mitchell nova genera plantarum virginiensium exstant
in act. phys. med. acad. caes. Leopold. Vol. 8). An
outline map of Virginia, also furnished by Clayton,
is given with the text, the counties indicated by num-
CITATIONS
339
ber. Clayton was for some fifty years Clerk of the
Court of Gloucester county. Dr. Clayton died in 1773.
"He left behind him two volumes of manuscript, pre-
pared for the press, and a hortus siccus of folio size
with marginal notes and directions for the engraver.
As a practical botanist, Clayton was perhaps inferior
to no botanist of his time. His descriptions of plants
are in general so correct that it is scarcely possible to
remain in doubt concerning the precise species which
he described. This is especially the case in the latter
numbers which he transmitted to Gronovius." Jonathan
Stokes, M. D., in Rees's Encyclopaedia. Clayton's
manuscripts were burned in the fire which destroyed
the Court House of New Kent county during the
Revolution. The records have become so dim that he
is not mentioned in Johnston's Old Virginia Clerks.]
Isert, P. E.:
Reisen nach Guine und den caribäischen Inseln.
Berlin, 1788.
v. Jacquin, Nicolas Joseph:
1] Index Plantarum. Vienna, 1785. Jacquin was
Professor of Botany at Vienna, and was "early dis-
tinguished by the publication of his history of Ameri-
can plants" (Sir J. E. Smith in Rees's Encyclopaedia).
2] Selectarum Stirpium Americanarum Historia,
material from the West Indies.
Miller, Philip, 'Hortulanorum princeps,' 1691-1771:
1] The Gardener's Dictionary. London, 8th ed.,
1768.
2] Figures of the most beautiful, useful, and un-
common Plants described in the Gardener's Dictionary.
London, 1755-60.
340
CITATIONS
Plukenet, Leonard, 1642-1706:
Phytographia, sive Stirpium illustriorum & minus
cognitarum Icones, tabulis aeneis &c. London, c. 1691.
Rozier :
Sammlung brauchbarer Alhandlungen aus Roziers
Beobacht. über Natur und Kunst. Leipzig, 1775-76.
v. Schmidel, Kasimir Cristoph [1718-1792]:
I] Icones plantarum. Nürnberg, 1782.
2] Dissertationes botanici argumenti revisae. Er-
langen, 1784.
Seligmann, J. M.:
Sammlung verschiedener und seltener Vögel &c
Nürnberg, 1749 (adaptation of Edwards and Catesby).
Sloane, Sir Hans:
Voyage to the Islands of Madera, Barbadoes, Nieves,
St. Christopher's, and Jamaica, with the Natural His-
tory of the last. London, 1707-1725.
Sonnerat:
1] Reise nach Neu-Guine. Leipzig, 1777 [from the
English].
2] Reise nach Ostindien und China. Leipzig, 1783
[from the French].
Trew: Ehret:
Plantae Selectae quarum imagines ad exemplaria
naturalia Londini in hortis curiosorum nutrita manu
artificiosa doctaque pinxit Georgius Dionysius Ehret
Nominibus propriis notisque illustravit. D.
Christophorus Jacobus Trew. Nürnberg, 1750-1773.
Index
Abaco, 258, 259
Albemarle Sound, 117, 119
Alligator Swamp, 126
Amber, 297
American scholarship, 211 ff
Ananas (Pineapples), 271
Anastasia Island, 248
Andel (Antill), Mr., 184
Andros Island, 292, 314
Ant-hills, 298
Assizers, 10
Bahama-gout, 295
Ballast-bricks, 192
Banjah, 261
Barracuda-fish, 277
Bars, 227
Bartram, 188, 238
Batchelor's Tax, 202
Bathtown, 126
Bermuda Hundred, 71
Bermuda Islands, 317
Bird's-nest pine, 174
Blackbeard, 264
Black cattle, 109 ff
Blagden, Dr., 255
Blandford, 72
Bolton's Ferry, 163
Botetourt, Lord, 78
Brasiletto, 274
Brunswick, 145
Bryan, Captain, 317
Burke, Aedanus, 204, 210
Buzzards, 104, 195
Cabbage-trees, 194, 241, 243
Campbellton, 154
Car, Michael, 21
Caracca, Don, 316
Catawbas, 196
Catesby, Mark, 274, 276
Cat Island, 314
Cattle, 246
Caves, 288
Charleston, 164 ff
Charleston market, 189
Cherokees, 196
Chiggers, 304
China-bark, 217
Church disestablishment, 63
Cincinnati Society, 208 ff
Coffee, 268
Columbia, 222
Columbus, 314
Coral-seas, 286
Cotton, 74, 75, 269
Cornwallis, Lord, 87, 113
Coventry-forge, 6
Cowdriver, 197, 240
Crackers, 223
Debating-society, 216
Devaux, Major, 316
Dismal Swamp, 99
Divers, 285
Drum-fish, 244
Duckenfield, 126
Dunmore, Lord, 263
342
INDEX
Edenton, III
Egg Island, 259
Ephrata, 15 ff
Illinois, 70
Indigo, 157 ff, 238, 269
Inland passage, 225
Isle of Wight Court-house, 90
Falmouth, 42
Fishes, poisonous, 190
James Island, 193
Fisher's Island
(Anastasia),
231, 247
James River, 50
Jamestown, 87
Flamingoes, 291
Florida Indians, 239
Formicola's Tavern, 64
Fort Johnson, 145
Fort Matanza, 262
Franklin, Benjamin, 115
Fredericksburg, 42
Fredericktown, 25
Free-negroes, 150
Gambee, 261
Georgetown, 163
Greek colonists, 234 ff
Guaiaca wood, 275
Guanas, 292
Gulf-mill, 2
Gulf-stream, 272ff
Hamilton, Mr., 11
Hand-mills, 116
Hanover Court-house, 46
Hanovertown, 47
Hatteras, 317
Henry, Patrick, 56
Henry, William, 13, 14
Hillsborough, 129
Hog Island, 260, 262, 301
Honey Comb'd rocks, 266
Hunter's Iron-works, 42
Hutson, Mr., 204
Jefferson, Thomas, 62
Jones' Mine-holes, 7
Jones' Tavern, 8
Kentucky, 5
Keys, 259
Lancaster, 10 ff
Lawson, General, 56
Leesburg, 30
Leeward storms, 170
Lime-burning, 2
Limes, 270
Lizards, 303
Loblolly pine, 174
Lobsters, 293
Lockwood's Folly, 153.
Long Bay, 161
M'Callisterstown, 22
Maclurg, Dr., 80
Mahogany, 273
Manchester, 66
Marmot, 289
Mastick-tree, 299
Matanza, 236
Maxwell, Colonel, 263
Meyer, Mr., 190
Midlothian mine, 67
Mills, George, 70
Minerals (Virginia), 67 ff
INDEX
343
Minorcans, 230, 233 ff
Montresor, 79
Moravian settlements, 154
Mühlenberg, Heinrich, 12
Musa, 236
Nassau, 262
'Nation of Virginia,' 91 ff
Negroes, 147, 148
New-Bern, 128
New Englanders, 125
New Holland, 9
New Smyrna, 234
Norfolk, 98
North Beach, 246
Racoon, 289
Rambo, Mr., 3
Refugiés, 226, 228, 231, 240, 259
Rice, 182, 238
Richmond, 49 ff
Roanoke river, 119, 120
Rodney, Lord, 278
Rogers, Woodes, 316
Romans, Bernard, 314
Rose Island, 299
Rosemary pine, 144
Rubsaamen, Jacob, 67
Rum [and mixtures], 220
Rush, Dr. Benjamin, 218
Nüssmann, Pastor Adolph, 155 Saffrons, 309
Oaks, 176 ff
Oglethorpe, General, 231, 232
Oranges, 270
Osborn's [Warehouse], 71
Oysters, 247
Palatines, 155
Palms, 308
Pamunky river, 46
Paper-money, 129 ff
Pensacola, 240
Peterlittle'stown, 22
Petersburg, 72
Pidgeon-plums, 309
Pitch, 142
Pitch pine, 143, 173
Pokahunta, 90
Pork-making 110
Portsmouth, 98
Pott, Mr., 6
Providence, 248
Salisbury, 154
Salt-making, 139
Salt trade, 97
Salzburgers, 155
Sand-box, 308
Sayle, William, 164, 315
Schuylkill Bridge, 1
Schwediauer, Mr., 297
Sharks, 278
Shell-banks, 82 ff, 146
Slavery, 149, 220
Smithfield, 90
Smoothbarked pine, 175
Snead's Ferry, 134, 135
South Carolina Assembly, 197 #
Squibb, Mr., 180
Squills, 276
St. Augustin, 229 ff
St. John's 226, 236
St. Marc de Apalache, 236
St. Simon's, 232
Start Point, 319
Staunton, 69
344
INDEX
Strong drinks, 218
. Suffolk, 96
Sugar-cane, 268
Sullivan's Island, 193
Surry Court-house, 90
Surveyor's compasses, 27
Swash, The, 226
Swedes-ford, 2
Taneytown (Tonny-town), 25
Taverns, 35
Tar, 141
Tarred streets, 97
Tea, 113, 114
Tea-shrub, 77
Thames, 319
Thorpe, Mr., 185
Tobacco, 73, 74, 90
Tonyn, Governor, 235, 240
Torch wood, 299
Tryon, Governor, 128
Turbot, 278
Turk's Island, 97, 302
Turnbull, Dr., 233, 235
Turpentine, 140 ff
Turtles, 279 ff
Turtle-crawls, 281
Turk's Island, 97, 302.
Valley Forge, 4
Vanhorsh, Mr., 204
Vareen, Mr., 156, 160
Virginia Assembly, 55, 56
Virginia horses, 65
Viticulture, 183 ff
War-spirit, 206, 207
Warwick, 71
Warwick Mine-holes, 7
Washington (No. Carolina),
124
West Florida, 237
Westham, 50
Western Virginia, 53, 54
Whigs and Tories, 204
Whitefield, Mr., 93
Whipple, Commodore, 165
William and Mary College, 79
Williamsburg, 78
Wilmington, 145
Wind-carriage, 14
Winguah Bay, 162
Wright's Ferry, 11, 19
Wracking, 272, 282 ff
Wrecks, 249
Yates, Dr., 251
Yams, 269
Yellow pine, 144
York (Pennsylvania), 20
York (Virginia), 81, 85
The editor must tender his acknowledgments to the officials
of the Library of Congress, of the Historical Society of Penn-
sylvania, and to Dr. John Uri Lloyd, of Cincinnati.
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