THE OOLOGJST. 



323 



:au idea of the hardships our traveler 

 experienced in his journey from Wash- 

 ington to Savannah. 



To a stranger the climate of Virginia 

 and the Carolina? was such that with- 

 out proper preventatives one was en- 

 dangered with that dreaded southern 

 disease, malaria fever, Wilson said the 

 inhabitants use brandy as a safe guard 

 ior this disease and so universal is the 

 pratice that the first thing you rind 

 them employed in after rising, is, prepar- 

 ing the usual morning's beverage, which 

 is the brandy toddy. He said it was 

 almost next to impossible to meet a 

 man whose lips were not parched and 

 blistered with drinking the poison. He 

 lodged one night at the house of a plant- 

 er, who informed him that nut of a fam- 

 ily of thirteen children only three sur- 

 vived all having been carried away 

 with the bilious fever. There were two 

 alternatives to the inhabitants; drink 

 brandy, or have the ague. Wilson 

 rather than form the habit of using the 

 poison decided to tale his chances. 

 He escaped the disease, and how he 

 remained in that latitude four months 

 without contracting the fever was a 

 wonder to himself aud to the inhabi- 

 tants. 



The accomodations our traveler re- 

 ceived while in this region were some- 

 what different from what they are now 

 and from what he was accustomed to 

 receive. The taverns iu the south were 

 shockiug substitutes for public houses 

 and were the most desolate and wretch- 

 ed places imaginable; bare, bleak and 

 dirty walls, with one or two broken 

 chairs and a bench, forming-all the fur- 

 niture of an apartment. The negroes 

 conducted everything; there being but 

 a single or a few white females in a # tav- 

 ern, and these seldom made their ap- 

 pearance. The males were unworthy 

 of the name and added to the unappe- 

 tizing flavor of the establishment a half 

 a dozen or more half clothed negroes 

 .surrounded you, glad of the opportunity 



of waiting on a stranger. These tav- 

 erns were elevated on props about 

 four or five feet from the ground 

 leaving a roomy retreat below for the 

 hogs of which each landlord or planter 

 would own a hundred or more. Wil- 

 son says every night the hogs came to 

 remlezous under the house and with 

 whose charming vocal performance the 

 wearied traveller is serenaded the 

 whole night long, till he is forced to 

 curse the hogs, the honse, and every- 

 thing about it. 



AtWashington,NorthCarolina he cros- 

 sed the Tar river and journeed to Wil- 

 mington, a distance of over a hundred 

 miles, and along the whole route there 

 were only three taverns, two of which 

 were closed, the laudlords having ,died 

 with fever. Later he writes from 

 Charleson; " the general features of 

 North Carolina, where I crossed it, are 

 immensesolitary pine savannas, through 

 which the road winds'' among stagnant 

 ponds, swarming with alligators; dark 

 sluggish creeks of the color of brandy 

 enormous cypress swamps, which to a 

 stranger, have a striking desolate and 

 ruinous appearance." Within the re- 

 cesses of these immense cypress swamps 

 lived many rare birds unknown to Wil- 

 son. He attempted to penetrate some 

 of the swamps in search of birds; but 

 was obliged to give up in despair, 

 however he found many birds on the 

 margins of these swamps unknown in 

 Pennsylvania. Remaining at Wilming- 

 ton a brief time he rode through soli- 

 tary pine savannas, and cypress 

 swamps as he had done before, some- 

 times thirty miles, without seeing a hut. 

 or a human being. All through South 

 Carolina he pursued a circuitous route 

 in- order that he might visit all the 

 planters. 



Wilson fared even better than his 

 horse for soon after he had left Wilming- 

 ton his faithful steed became exhaus- 

 ted by continual exertion and he was 

 obliged to exchange with a planter. 



