r6o • HISTORICAL AND SOCIAL SKETCH OF 



visit every midsummer to the plantation of their 

 brother, Mr. PhiHp Porcher — a great inducement 

 then beine a retreat from the summer heat of the 

 city and the enjoyment of the luxuries of planta- 

 tion life at that season. This gentleman died on 

 his plantation, on Santee Swamp, in 1800, at the 

 advanced age of seventy. At one period of his life 

 he had lived in Charleston, but for several years he 

 resided entirely on his plantation ; and we have 

 often heard it said that, though within six miles 

 of the village, and having built houses there for 

 several of his children, he never saw Pineville. Mr. 

 Edward Thomas, who died at the age of ninety, is 

 said to have spent forty years without once quitting 

 his plantation. It becomes, therefore, an interesting 

 inquiry, what was the state of public health — what 

 advantage was gained by the settlement of Pine- 

 ville, and at what price ? 



The bane of this parish, like that of every portion 

 of America, south and west of the Hudson River, 

 was, and is, the intermittent fever of the autumnal 

 months. This, when of frequent occurrence, be- 

 comes habitual, is attended with enlargement of the 

 spleen, a tendency to dropsy, and a general prostra- 

 tion of the moral and intellectual, as well as of the 

 physical man. This disorder was, perhaps, not more 

 malignant in St. Stephen's than elsewhere ; but na- 

 ture had kindly furnished an asylum wherein the 

 ague-stricken patient might breathe in safety, re- 



