230 Memoir of the Life of Eli Whitney. 
fore him, and bid it out of his hands. If he looked to his extensive 
rice crops, cultivated on the estate of General Greene, as the means 
of raising money to extricate himself from the numerous embarrass- 
ments into which he had fallen, a severe drought came on and shriv- 
elled the crop, or floods of rain suddenly destroyed it. The mar- 
kets unexpectedly changed at the very moment of selling, and always 
to his disadvantage. Heavy rains likewise destroyed the cotton crops 
on which he had counted for thousands; and more than all, wicked 
and dishonest men, contrived to cheat him of his just rights, and 
thus his airy hopes were often frustrated, until at length, the specu- 
lations in Yazoo lands beguiled him into inextricable difficulties, and 
in the midst of all, and on the dawn of a brighter day, death step- 
ped in and dissolved the pageant that had so long been dancing be- 
fore his eyes. 
Mr. Whitney was now left alone, to contend singly against those 
difficulties which had for a series of years almost broken down the 
spirits of both the partners.. The light moreover which seemed t0 
be rising upon them from the favorable occurrences of the preceding 
year, proved but the twilight of prosperity, and a darker night seemed 
about to supervene. 
But the favorable issue of the affairs of Mr. Whitney, m South 
Carolina during the subsequent year, and the generous receipts thal 
he obtained from the avails of his contracts with North Carolina, 1 
lieved him from the embarrassments under which he had so ons 
groaned, and made him in some degree independent. Still, no small 
portion of the funds thus collected in North and South Carolina, wa 
expended in carrying on the fruitless, endless law suits in Georga- 
In the United States court, held in Georgia in December, 1807, 
_ Mr. Whitney obtained a most important decision, in @ suit brought 
against a trespasser of the name of Fort. It was on this trial that 
Judge Johnson gave his celebrated decision. It was in the follows 
words. Sage a 
“‘ Whitney, survivor of Be es 
Miller & Whitney, Cy nity sag 
The complainants, in this case, are proprietors of the 
ae vs. 
Arthur Fort. add F | 
he saw gin. ‘The use of which, is to detach the shor se ‘ 
