LIFE OF WILSON. Ixvii 



grasshopper so big that I took it for a bird ; settles upon trees and bushes. I 

 have kept a record of all the birds which I have seen or shot since I left home. 



" This journey v?ill be of much use to me, as I have formed acquaintance in 

 almost every place who are able to transmit me information. Great numbers 

 of our summer birds are already here ; and many are usually here all winter. 



" There is a Mr. Abbot here, who has resided in Georgia thirty-three years, 

 drawing insects and birds. I have been on several excursions with him. He 

 is a very good observer, and paints well. He has published, in London, one 

 large folio volume of the Lepidopterous Insects of Georgia. It is a very 

 splendid work. There is only one vessel here bound to New York ; she sails 

 some time next week, and I shall take my passage in her. I caught a fever 

 here by getting wet; I hope the sea air, and sea-sickness, will carry it off." 



" Savannah, March 8th, 1809. 

 " Dear Sir. 



" Having now visited all the towns within one hundred miles of the Atlantic, 

 from Maine to Georgia, and done as much for this bantling book of mine as 

 ever author did for any progeny of his brain, I now turn my wishful eye to- 

 wards home. There is a charm, a melody in this little word home, which only 

 those know, who have forsaken it to wander among strangers, exposed to dan- 

 gers, fatigues, insults and impositions, of a thousand nameless kinds. Perhaps 

 I feel the force of this idea rather more at present than usual, being indisposed 

 with a slight fever these three days, which a dose of sea-sickness will, I hope, 

 rid me of. The weather since my arrival in this place has been extremely 

 warm for the season. The wind generally southwest, and the thermometer 

 ranging between 75 and 82. To me it feels more intolerable than our sum- 

 mer heat in Philadelphia. The streets of Savannah are also mere beds of 

 burning sand, without even a foot pavement; and until one learns to traverse 

 them with both eyes and mouth shut, both are plentifully filled with showers 

 and whirlwinds of sand. I was longer detained in Charleston than I expected, 

 partly on account of the races, which occupied the minds of many I wished 

 to visit, to the exclusion of everything else. At nine they were in bed ; at 

 ten breakfasting — dressing at eleven — gone out at noon, and not visible again 

 until ten next morning. I met, however, with some excellent exceptions, among 

 the first ranks of society, and my work excited universal admiration. Dr. D. 

 introduced it very handsomely into the Courier. 



" The indolence, want of energy, and dissipation, of the wealthy part of the 

 community in that place, are truly contemptible. The superabundance of ne- 

 groes in the southern states has destroyed the activity of the whites. The 

 carpenter, bricklayer, and even the blacksmith, stand with their hands in their 

 pockets, overlooking their negroes. The planter orders his servant to tell the 

 overseer to see my horse fed and taken care of; the overseer sends another 

 negro to tell the driver to send one of his hands to do it. Before half of this 

 routine is gone through, I have myself unharnessed, rubbed down, and fed 

 my horse. Everything must be done through the agency of these slovenly 

 blacks. * * * These, however, are not one-tenth of the curses slavery has 

 brought on the southern states. Nothing has surprised me more than the 



