150 NOTES ON AMERICA. 



trifle during my journey, I called for the purpose at one of the principal 

 stores in the place, where I saw a young man, slightly made and short in 

 stature, beating, with great violence, a much more powerful fellow, who 

 was stretched on the counter. The assailant was armed with what is 

 called a Baltimore bludgeon, or long thin cane, with a knob heavily 

 charged with lead. The prostrate person had evidently been taken by 

 surprise, and just as I entered was beginning to recover himself. As 

 soon as he perceived this, the young ruffian, who had hitherto had the 

 advantage, ran at full speed out of the shop, down the middle of the 

 broad street, the other following him with his unsheathed dirk uplifted in 

 his hand. He soon came up with the fugitive, and gave him a long gash 

 in the back, and, as he said, " shelled the corn off his cob in no time." 

 Many of the shopkeepers and others, stood at their doors or windows 

 and saw the whole affair, but no one interfered on either side except to 

 carry off the wounded boy. Whether he died or recovered I never 

 ascertained, but the wound which he received was a terrific one. 



A duel was fought not very long ago at Augusta, in Georgia, under 

 the following circumstances. Two foolish boys, neither of them nine- 

 teen years of age, had a violent quarrel at Gale College, in Connecticut ; 

 and upon their return to the south, their friends insisted upon the 

 dispute being settled by a duel. Accordingly, they both proceeded to 

 Augusta ; one attended by his guardian and uncle, the other by a friend 

 deputed by his father. After an interval of a fortnight, which was spent 

 in rifle-shooting at a mark, they met ; and the younger combatant was 

 killed by the first shot. The victor returned to Charleston where I 

 have repeatedly seen him. His father was connected with one of the 

 principal banking establishments in the city. I have always understood, 

 that the young men were not unwilling to forget and forgive what had 

 passed, but were urged forward by those who ought to have acted a far 

 different part. When it is recollected that the duel was fought many 

 weeks after the quarrel at college, and that the guardians of the boys 

 -employed this interval in stimulating their bad passions to the lust of a 

 murderous revenge, I think the annals of duelling may be searched in 

 vain for a record of greater atrocity than was furnished by the conduct 

 of these old ruffians. 



Although the notions and habits of the people of the southern and 

 slaveholding states, differ in most respects from their northern brethren, 

 there is one peculiarity of the American character which belongs equally 

 to both. I allude to the incessant restlessness and fondness for change 

 of abode. There seems to be a constant stream of emigrants from 

 Virginia and the Carolinas, to the more Southern and Western States, 

 principally, I think, to Alabama. The amazing fertility of the cotton 

 lands in that country, offers an irresistible temptation to the indolent 

 planter, who has neither energy nor capital sufficient to cultivate and 

 repair the more exhausted soil of the Atlantic States. He overlooks all 

 the miseries attendant upon the life of a new settler, in a country of fever, 

 swamps, vagabonds and squatters, in the fond anticipation of raising a 

 large crop of cotton. Hundreds of disappointed wretches with their 

 families, are annually swept away in that destructive climate. 



I have encountered many of these emigrating parties, and upon one 

 occasion, was indebted to their hospitality for a night's shelter. A fresh 

 or flood had swelled a brook which crossed the road on which I was 

 travelling, so much as to render it impassable. The village, where I 



