G28 TRANSPORTATION IX SOUTH CAUOLINA. 



passed thrice a week between Charleston and Augusta, two days and 

 niglits l)eing consumed in the journe}^ by the mail stages. The only 

 regular lines of stages running out of Charleston were those to Savannah, 

 Augusta, Columbia and Georgetown. Travelers who could not make use 

 of these or the steamboats, had to resort to private conveyances.* 



The natural advantages of the country for water communication, and 

 the enterprise with which they were improved and utilized, the money and 

 labor expended upon roads, bridges and ferries, failed to meet the needs of 

 the country, and to maintain the trade of the city. A magazine writer in 

 1831 says : " The rich inhabitants of the back country of South Carolina, 

 and of those parts of North Carolina and Georgia which trade with 

 Charleston, are obliged, at great expense, to transport their produce and 

 receive, in return, their supplies ; weeks, and not unfrequently months, 

 have elapsed before places not more distant, in a direct line, than one 

 hundred and twenty miles, could effect their communications, and then, 

 and at all times, with great expense, and at no time without great risk 

 of loss and great delay. 



The profits of the planter, or what ought to be his profits, are but too 

 often consumed in the expense of transportation ; and the merchant 

 finds it impossible to calculate, with that certainty which his operations 

 require, the time he may expect arrivals or hear of his shipments having 

 reached their points of destination. Capital which would otherwise be 

 active, is thus dormant a large portion of the time, and, consequently, 

 more of it is required than would suffice with more certain, rapid and 

 safe communication for the same amount of business. 



Our climate presents an obstacle of no small magnitude to trans- 

 portation, either for goods or for persons, at least during three months 

 in the year. The rivers are unhealthy, and often too low, the roads are 

 sandy, heavy and hot ; the laborers and the animals engaged in trans- 

 portation are with difficulty brOught to perform their task, and too often 

 sink Ijeneath it. 



The exports of Charleston amount to ten millions of dollars per annum, 

 whilst the direct foreign imports are scarcely' more than a tenth of that 

 amount. The merchants in the interior cannot postpone until the ftill their 

 supplies for the season, and as they cannot risk the approach to the city, 

 as early as is required in the summer to purchase them and have them 

 transported to their respective homes b}' the present tedious and expen- 

 _ _ ^ 



*0n the 15th May, 1815, Gen.Thos. Pinckney, with two ladies of his family, set out 

 from their plantation on theSantee, in their own carriage, and traveled to Boston. A 

 diary of the journey, in MS., is still extant. They reached Philadelphia on the 15th 

 June, havinu; traveled 1)92 miles in 31 days, including stoppages, to that jsoint. The 

 traveling expenses, including two weeks' stay in Philadelphia, amounted to §42l\ 



