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A SECOND VISIT 



TO 



THE UNITED STATES, 



CHAPTER XX. 



Darien to Savannah. Black Baptist Church and Preacher. Negro Prayer. 

 Ne^ro Intelligence. Bribery of Irish Voters. Dirt Eaters. Railway 

 Expedition on Hand-Car. Geology of Georgia. Negroes more pro 

 gressive in Upper Country. Indifference of Georgians to Winter Cold. 

 Want of Elbow-Room in Pine-Barrens. 



Jan. 9, 1846. WHEN I had finished my geological exami 

 nation of the southern and maritime part of Georgia, near the 

 mouth of the Altamaha river, I determined to return northward 

 to Savannah, that I might resume my survey at the point where 

 I left off in 1842,* and study the tertiary and cretaceous strata 

 between the Savannah and Alabama rivers. 



On our way back from Hopeton to Darien, Mr. Couper and 

 his son accompanied us in a canoe, and we passed through the 

 General s Cut. a canal so called because, according to tradition, 

 Oglethorpe s soldiers cut it out with their swords in one day. 

 We met a great number of negroes paddling their canoes on their 

 way back from Darien, for it was Saturday, when they are gen 

 erally allowed a half holiday, and they had gone to sell on their 

 own account their poultry, eggs, and fish, and were bringing back 

 tobacco, clothes, and other articles of use or luxury. 



Having taken leave of our kind host, we waited some hours at 

 Darien for a steamer, which was to touch there on its way from 

 St. Augustine in Florida, and which conveyed us speedily to Sa- 

 * See &quot;Travels in North America,&quot; vol. i. pp. 155-174. 



