CRAVEN COUNTY, SOUTH CAROLINA. 11/ 



had become, from the frequency, the greatness, and 

 the irregularity of the freshets in the river, ex- 

 tremely precarious ; and many a planter, the amount 

 of whose possessions would have ranked him among 

 the wealthy, saw in his wealth only an increase of 

 expense, and felt all the privations of poverty. In 

 the year 1794 cotton was first cultivated in St. John's 

 Parish by General Moultrie, and, in two years after, 

 it became the staple of the country. 



It had been observed that those persons who 

 lived in the pine lands were usually exempt from 

 those distressing autumnal intermittent fevers, which 

 are the bane of our country, and several gentlemen 

 determined to avail themselves of this fact for the 

 purpose of improving the social condition of the 

 country. Accordingly, in 1794, Capt. John Palmer, 

 Capt. Peter Gaillard, Mr. John Cordes, Mr. Samuel 

 Porcher, Mr. Peter Porcher, and Mr. Philip Por- 

 cher, built for themselves houses in the pine land, 

 near to each other, and thus laid the foundation of 

 Pineville, the oldest settlement of the kind in the 

 southern country. The experiment proved success- 

 ful, and in a few years it became the summer resi- 

 dence of the planters of St. Stephen's Parish, and 

 of those of upper and middle St. John's. 



Pineville is situated on a low-, fiat ridge, thickly 

 covered with pines, and dotted with small ponds and 

 savannahs. It lies two miles south of Santee 

 Swamp, and five miles from the river. Though the 



