THE INLAND PASSAGE. 51 



which was an ever renewing delight to Mr. Green, 

 who, before we left, had established a personal bond 

 of admiration and friendship from every darkey 

 fisherman who brought his cargo there. We fed the 

 turkey buzzards, we ascertained that the fish about 

 Charleston were, in their various seasons, mostly 

 sheepshead, bass, the drum of North Carolina and 

 channel bass of Florida, Corvina Ocellata; sea-bass, 

 here called black fish, which are mostly caught by 

 the negroes outside the bar in their open boats; sea 

 trout, our weak fish; mullet, which they told us were 

 becoming scarce; blue fish which are never caught in 

 winter, and which also were diminishing in numbers; 

 black drum ; big porgees of four or five pounds; both 

 the salt and fresh water varieties of cat fish, which 

 were very abundant; whiting, our king fish, and their 

 finest table delicacy; angel fish, crevalle; fresh water 

 trout, our black bass, and shad, which begin their 

 run in January. 



All around Charleston the negroes seem to be in 

 possession of the country. They are pleasant, polite, 

 and lazy, arc content to do the old slave tasks even 

 when working for themselves, and will never consent 

 to do more when working for others at any price of 

 remuneration, as though if they worked too hard the 

 work would be exhausted and there would soon be 

 nothing more to do. They are paid fifty cents a 

 cord, for instance, to cut wood, and they stop 

 when they have cut one cord, although they are 

 through at one o'clock. They look more healthy 

 and happy than the whites throughout the entire 



