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 



