where there was willing submission. It was as the submission to Joshua: "All that thou commandest us we will do, and whithersoever thou sendest us we will go.'

There are, I heard, 12,000 people at Columbia, but no police are seen, and people sleep with their doors and windows unbolted. There are no beggars. I questioned many negroes, and all were contented and happy. During the whole of my six months' stay in the South I never saw a beggar.

The High Street of Columbia is of great length and width, and at the east end of it is the new Capitol, not nearly finished; indeed, not roofed in: it is of white marble, and will be a very handsome building. I was told the architect is a German, to whom the State allows a salary of 4000 dollars per annum till it be finished, and now the work is stopped on account of the war (except the polishing of some beautiful Tennessee marble) he still receives it. In the court stands a curious and clever piece of ironwork, in the shape of a palmetto-tree, the emblem of South Carolina, of natural size, and till you touch it you would suppose it to be a real tree, with its sprouting stem and long, fibrous, pointed leaves. Under it, on an iron plate, are written the words: "Columbia, South Carolina, to her sons of the Palmetto State who fell in the war with Mexico, A. D. 1847."

CHAPTER XII.

Off to the Mountains.

ON Tuesday, the 16th September, according to the advice of Dr. Gibbs, instead of returning eastward to Conwayboro', 185 miles, I took the train to Greenville, South Carolina, 160 miles west, in order to ascend the mountains called the "Blue Ridge," part of the Alleghany range: there were crowds of people at the principal depôts. The Greenville and Columbia railroad joins the Blue Ridge railroad at Belton, and there are two branches, one to Laurenceville, one to Greenville. At one place, Williamstown, there are chalybeate springs: many refugees from Charleston were here. At one depôt, a negro, with whom I had had some conversation, got out; he had on a coat which much amused the passengers; it was of white cotton, and on the back were, not badly drawn, the Union eagle and stars and stripes, and Abraham Lincoln flooring Jefferson Davis. This

man had been taken prisoner in the first battle of Bull Run, 1861, and had escaped in the second on the 30th August, 1862. He said the Yankees told him he was free, but he had been bound to service for his food and clothing: several more were trying to get away from the Yankees. He was quite rejoiced when he arrived at his station, and was talking how he would surprise massa when he got home again. We reached Greenville about 4 P.M.: omnibuses and all kinds of vehicles were ready to take the passengers into the town, about a mile and a half. On the outside platform an elderly gentleman immediately opened a Richmond newspaper, and read with a fine clear voice the latest news to a crowd of people. I was told this was done here every afternoon, and is usual in many places. The rail approaching Greenville runs through a very pretty country, often over or along the Saleuda River, with its high wooded banks enclosing its winding stream.

The stage was to leave Greenville for Flat Rock, the mountain resort, at 1 A.M. In these journeys I often experienced the advantage of subjecting the body to the will, finding that if I lay down to sleep, determined to wake at a particular time, I did so ; thus avoiding the uncertainty of being "called" by others. Greenville is of considerable elevation, and

the night air was cool. Our vehicle was something between a stage-coach and diligence: the coachman drove four-in-hand in good style. There was only room for two passengers outside; the inside was fitted with three seats: the middle one for four, the two others for three each. Precious close packing it was, ten inside! One of the ten was an immense fat negro woman, the washerwoman of no less a person than the Secretary of the Treasury at Richmond, Mr. Menmenger, whose family were at Flat Rock. It was rather an uncomfortable proof of the greater freedom for the negroes in the South than in the North, where she would not have been tolerated. The mountain ascent was awful; the road of the roughest part of it was called "The Corkscrew." The coachman often begged the passengers to walk, and so ease his horses to get up the steep ascents. I was too weak to aid in this merciful work. We reached halfway-house and go: breakfast at 5 o'clock, and went on with fresh horses, and reached Flat Rock about 3 P.M. on the 17th September; a rather tedious forty miles. What wisdom there is in the Persians' expression for climate "Ab o howa," "water and air!" I drank of the sparkling fountains from the rocks, I breathed the fresh mountain air, and every mile I felt recovering health and strength. The stage went rolling on to Hender

sonville, the capital of Henderson, a county of North Carolina, wherein this charming refuge from the hot plains of the lowlands is situated; and it was to go on to Ashville, capital of Buncombe County, about thirty miles further north. I had not been long at the hotel kept by Mr. Farmer before my kind friend, Mr. Andrew Johnstone, drove up with his pretty grey horses and offered me his hospitality, which I gratefully accepted. The road was excellent, winding between rocks, wooded hills, along the sides of velldrained meadows, over streams, with villas in their little parks and grounds all the way for four mles. We met several carriages with ladies taking their evening drive; and on a curve we pulled up to greet a cavalcade of pretty girls and boys on beautiful horses and ponies. Three of the twelve were Nr. Johnstone's two daughters and son, bright with rosy cheeks and sparkling eyes; two more were daughters of Mr. Memmenger, Secretary of State, whose pretty mansion looked down upon us. All looked kinlly

on the

poor invalid stranger. The woods are beautiful: splendid oaks, with vines mysteriously risng from twenty to thirty feet to catch hold of the mighty branches, and large clusters of grapes were hanging from them. We drove some way along a stream which the early white settlers called "Muddy