companions; and we were desired to look out for racoons and opossums, but did not see any. The number and variety of the squirrels were almost incredible; I heard of several instances of from 2000 to 3000 being killed in a day in some of the large squirrel-hunts. I once observed a beautiful one perfectly white.

Although our route lay principally through the most barren tracts of Virginia and the Carolinas, I had the opportunity of seeing the clearing of land in almost every different stage. The process, I believe, is familiar to you, and I will not therefore describe it. You can have no idea, however, of the picture of desolation which is presented by a large tract of girdled trees, not only destitute of verdure, but entirely stripped of their bark; some black to the top, with fire which has been applied to them; some falling as you pass with a great crash; and others going by fragments to decay. The prodigious size of the pine trees thus deformed, and the absence of any thing to relieve the eye, which at that season could wander only over a leafless forest, added greatly to the effect. In passing through the pine barrens of the Carolinas, we saw many trees with little excavations in them, for the purpose of collecting the turpentine from them at particular seasons of the year. When the turpentine begins to flow, the owner of the woods divides them into little districts, which are confided to the charge of his slaves. A Negro has usually the care of from 3000 to 5000 trees. I was told that 3000 trees often produce about seventy-five barrels of turpentine annually;

and that the excavations are emptied five or six times in the season, which lasts from about May to September. We also saw the tar-pits, where the tar is extracted from the dead wood of the pine trees in a particular state. In the night we frequently passed parties "camping out" in the woods, by large fires; and occasionally saw trees, accidentally set on fire by their embers, gradually consuming like a torch. I forgot to say, in speaking of the clearing of land, that we had a striking instance of the rapidity with which a settlement is occasionally effected. The mail stage stopped for breakfast one morning at a very comfortable log-house. The land was cleared for about the space of an acre, and, in addition to the house, there were two out-houses; a stable, in which were the four mail horses; and a granary. Thirteen days previously this was the middle of a wood, and not a tree was cut down!

My companions were delighted with the frog concerts in the woods, and hailed them, as we do the cuckoo, as the harbinger of spring. I opened my window the first night, supposing these choristers were birds, and it was a night or two before I was undeceived. I have not thought them musical since I discovered my mistake.

In the course of our route from Petersburgh we have crossed many rivers and creeks, frequently by ferries in the middle of the night. In South Carolina we have passed through several large swamps, where the monotony of the pine barrens was relieved by a variety of beautiful green shrubs, among which the magnolia was most conspicu

ous. As we approached the coast, I saw great abundance of the vegetable drapery which covers the trees like a fine cobweb, or hangs from them like streamers. Its botanical name, I believe, is tellandria usneaoides. It is frequently said to mark the limits within which the yellow fever confines its ravages, but this is incorrect, for it is found every where within the tropics.

We saw the first rice plantation at Georgetown, about sixty miles from Charleston, and began to be shocked with the vacant looks and ragged appearance of many of the slaves we met. But, abating the painful sensations excited by the appearance of slavery, our first approach to this city was calculated to give us very favourable impressions, after our long monotonous ride through the pine barrens. On arriving at the ferry opposite Charleston, a little after sun-rise on a clear fresh morning, we crossed an extensive bay, from which we had a fine view of the open sea, and in which several ships were riding at anchor, loaded with rice and coffee, ready to sail for England with the first fair wind. Small boats of various kinds, sailing in every direction, gave animation to the scene; while the glittering spires increased our curiosity to see this metropolis of South Carolina, of which we had heard much. On entering the city, we seemed to be transported into a garden. Orange trees laden with ripe oranges, peach trees covered with blossoms, and flowering shrubs of a description which I had been accustomed to see only in hot houses, gave me impressions similar to those which I suppose

you experienced on visiting some of the cities on the Mediterranean. I had no sooner sat down to breakfast at the hotel, than I found one black slave at my elbow fanning away flies with a flapper, and three or four covering the table with a profusion of dishes. On sallying out after breakfast, I found the streets filled with well-dressed and genteel-looking people, and carriages driving about in every direction. But I must reserve a description of Charleston and its inhabitants till I have become better acquainted with them.

LETTER XII.

Charleston, South Carolina, 26th Feb. 1820.

I WROTE to you on the 19th inst. and soon afterwards received an invitation, which I gladly accepted, to accompany a gentleman to his rice plantation, about thirty miles distant. With the interesting character of this excellent and venerable friend, I have already made you acquainted. Descended from one of the old patrician families, who form as it were the nobility of Carolina, educated at one of our English public schools and universities, and enjoying a high reputation, acquired in arduous military and diplomatic situations, he would be regarded, I am persuaded, as second to a few in Europe, as a statesman, a scholar, and a gentleman. I took an early breakfast with him, at his handsome town-house, whence we proceeded to the ferry. After crossing the bay, we found the General's carriage waiting for

us, with a few periodical publications in it, and with led horses, in case we should wish to vary our mode of conveyance. We stopped at noon to rest the horses, and to take a little refreshment in the woods, and reached the plantation to a late dinner in the evening. The road lay through a pine barren, such as I have already described; and we scarcely passed a creature in the course of the day, except my friend's sister, an old lady, and her two nieces, who were on their way to Charleston, in a large family carriage and four, with a black servant on a mule behind, a negro woman and child on the footboard, and three or four baskets of country provisions, hanging from the axle-tree. They inquired how far they were from the spring, where we had been resting, and where they proposed to take their al fresco repast.

In the morning, I strolled out before breakfast into the plantation, and saw about twelve female slaves, from eighteen to twenty-eight years of age, threshing rice on a sort of clay floor, in the same manner as our farmers thresh wheat. It was extremely hot, and the employment seemed very laborious. After breakfast, the General took me over the plantation; and in the course of our walk we visited the little dwellings of the Negroes. These were generally grouped together round something like a farm-yard; and behind each of them was a little garden, which they cultivate on their own account. The huts themselves are not unlike a poor Irish cabin, with the addition of a chimney. The bedding of the Negroes consists simply of blankets, and their clothing is generally