ST. STEPHEN'S PARISH. 8 1 



sunrise, dine in the swamp on the fish they had 

 caught, and spend the rest of the day in hunting 

 deer. These hunting and fishing froHcs would last 

 about a week, and no consequences injurious to 

 health followed. 



After the year 1 790, when freshets in the river 

 became more frequent, the climate became more 

 sickly. The residents along the swamp suffered 

 severely from agues and fever, and it was observed 

 with surprise, and it still remains a mystery, that 

 overseers and negroes and others who lived entirely 

 in the swamp enjoyed more health than those who 

 lived on the uplands. Capt. James Sinkler, who 

 was a sagacious observer, was led from his observa- 

 tions to believe that a pine-land residence, even but 

 a short distance from the swamp, would secure its 

 occupants from fever. Acting on this notion, he 

 built a house for himself in the pine land, and in 

 June, 1793, retreated to it with a family, blacks and 

 whites included, of more than twenty persons. In 

 November, he returned to his plantation, having 

 passed the summer in the enjoyment of uninter- 

 rupted health. This experiment was immediately 

 imitated. PIneville was first settled in 1794, by 

 Capt. John Palmer, Peter Gaillard, John Cordes, 

 Philip Porcher, Samuel Porcher, and Peter Porcher. 

 The liability to fevers, which was a bar to the en- 

 joyment of happiness, being thus happily prevented, a 

 suffering people quickly became contented and happy. 



