1836] 



FARMERS' REGISTER. 



507 



forks, which beibre the fresh was judged to be 

 richly worth £10,000 is not now rated at so many 

 hundreds. Fourleen negroes belonging to thai 

 estate were drowned, and only one house left 

 out of forty, which was sixty by forty feet. On 

 Elk ishmd, between 6 and 700 head of cattle, 

 hogs, horses, and sheep, have been lost; and neai* 

 a hundred liouses, besides, grain, tobacco, &c. 

 At Farrar's Island, which the highest Iresh never 

 before affected, above eighty acres of fine lund 

 are rendered lor ever incapable of culiivation. the 

 soil beinix srone, and in its stead ten or twelve leef 

 deep of sand, upon which, a layer of- stones is as if 

 paved. Many other is ands have l)een torn to 

 pieces, hills of sand thrown up, channels Ptopt, 

 and their courses altered, and, m short, the liice of' 

 nature changed. Old Joe, an honest and well- 

 known negro Icliow, at the !i\lls of James's River, 

 who is intimately acquainted with the remains of 

 an Indian nation that has resided there lor ages, 

 says, that he was shown by their old men the 

 marks of the greatest fresh handed down to them 

 by tradition ; and that, upon his carefully measur- 

 ing, it wanted near fifteen liiet of the late dreadful 

 one. A ship at Warwick sounded from the be- j 

 ginning of the perceivable increase of the river, 

 and found, that the fresh at its height was up- 

 wards of forty feet higher than the common tides. 

 The lessened value of the lands, less of stocks, 

 houses, tobacco, wheat and corn in houses, with 

 fencinir, and the crops on the ground, batHe all de- 

 scription. Byrd's, Shocko, Richmond, Rocky 

 Ridge, and Warwick, have suffered amazingly in 

 the loss of merchandise, and tobacco, besides 

 houses, &c. Between 5 and 6000 hogsiieads oj' 

 tobacco are gone from these places. The dis- 

 tresses of tha people in Albemarle, and those 

 parts of the country in the reach of the fresh, are 

 not ro be described ; most of them being without 

 bread to eat, or dwellings, and iheir stcc s gone. 

 Daily accounts are received of the loss ol ivhole 

 families, and hopses come floating down with peo- 

 ple on them, calling out lor help, though none can 

 be afforded. Upon the whole, it is believed that 

 history scarce affords an mstance of ecpial damage 

 being done to any country, it" the destruction of 

 lands, lost of property, &c. be included." — Vir- 

 ginia Gazette, June 8. 



'' Charledcwn, Sjuth CarcUna, June S. 

 "The uncommon quantity of rain that has fallen 

 during the cours-^ of (he last month, which is usu- 

 ally a dry one, has done incredil)le damage almost 

 throughout the province, but more especially to 

 the plantations upon the fresh wat r river swamps, 

 where the freshes have risen from fifteen to more 

 than thirty feet in twenty-lijur hours, totally de- 

 fitroyed the whole crops of a great nuniber of in- 

 dustrious poor (as well as' rich) irdiahilanis, 

 drowned a great quantity of cattle and hogs, and 

 put many people to the greatest difficulties ima- 

 ginable to save their lives, upon the tops of their 

 houses, trees, and little ridges of high land: in 

 short, the accounts from all quarters are very me- 

 lancholy. The first cutting of indico is entirely 

 gone ; hemp has suffered much ; and more than 

 a third of the crop of rice and corn is ihouyht to 

 be lost. The principal sufi'erers are on the Con- 

 garee, Santee, and Pedee, Wateree, antl Savan- 

 nah rivers. Many planters in Georgia are also 

 likely to sustain great losses by the late wet v. ea- 



ther. These accounts have Gccasior\ed the rise of 

 the price of rice to £3 per hundred, and of corn to 

 ■20s. per bushel. 



OPINIONS OF THE PllESE YTEKIAN CHUUCH 

 OF VIRGINIA ON SLAVERY, AND THE NORTH- 

 ERN EFFORTS FOR ITS ABOLITION. 



To U;e Editor of tl;e Fanners' Rogister. 



BpMr Sir — I send you an extract from the pro- 

 ceedings of the Synod of Virginia, respecting the 

 tiuiiiticism pf»pularly known under the name of 

 aboruijii. If you think it v.'orthy of a place in 

 your paper, please insert it and oblige your's, &.c. 

 Jl meuibcr if the Symd (if Virginia. 



"One thmg which presses with peculiar force on 

 the Presbyterian Church in the south, is the spirit 

 of abolition, as lately developed in some parts of 

 our country. This spirit, we believe, is entirely 

 contrary to the word of God. It is well known 

 that the Aposiies ministered and planted churches 

 in countries in which slavery abounded, and that 

 of a more agirravaled form than ours ; and yet maa- 

 ters and slaves were members of those churches, 

 and ecjually under the acknowledircd authority of 

 the same spiritual teachers. In this way the in- 

 spired A postles hail ihe subject of slavery fully be- 

 lijre them ; and they gave directions without any 

 appearance of reserve, Ibrthe mutual duties of the 

 relation; leaving the whole suliject of slavery to 

 the benign and gradual operation of the gospel. 

 'I'hese tacts shouKi convince us that the Apostolic 

 directions in the New Testament ought to form 

 the rules lor the govern.ment of our conduct in this 

 matter. If, aiier this, the master is criminal, it 

 cannot be' by sustaining-the relation of master, ac- 

 cording to ihe rules given by divine inspiration, 

 but by tr.C viula;ion of those rules. 



''There is, however, one passage of scripture 

 which not only shows the criminality of abolition 

 doctrines, but also so plaisily and fully prescribes 

 our duty in lelaiion to them, that we think it prop- 

 er to quote it at length. ' It is in first Timothy, vi: 

 1"—^. 'Let as many servants as are under the yoke, 

 count their own masters worthy of all honor, thai 

 the name of God and his doctrine be not blas- 

 phemed. And they that have believing masters, 

 let them not despise them, because they are 

 brethren ; but rather do them service, because 

 they are liiithful and beloved partakers of the ben- 

 efit. These things teach and exliort. If any man 

 teach otherwise, and consent not to wholesome 

 words, even the words of our Lord Jesus Christ, 

 and to tlie doctrine which is according to godliness, 

 he is proud, knowing nothing, but doting about 

 questions and strifes of woriis, wliereof cometh 

 envy, strife, railings, evil surmisings, perverse dis- 

 putings of men of corrupt minds, and destitute of 

 the truth supposing that gain is gouiiness ; yVom 

 such ivilhdraw Viyself.'' 



"Here, we think, it is as plain as words can make 

 any thing, thtit modern abolition principles and 

 spirit constitute the case of tliose men who teach 

 liiherwise \\v,\n the Apostle approves; and tbrni 

 the class from wliich he comiuandi'd Timothy to 

 witlidraw hiiusclf. The Apo,-tl.^"s teaching waa 

 That servants shoulil count their own masters wor- 

 thy of all, honor, and do service to believing mas- 

 tere, because they are faiUfvl and beloved, parta- 



