456 NORTH CAROLINA. 



land is fertile and good, producing at an average about thirty bushels 

 of corn to the acre ; though the Roanoke and Cape Fear are subject, 

 at certain seasons, to inundations, which destroy in a few days the 

 labour of the year. Near the sea coast are several large lakes, round 

 the margin of which, there are immense tracts of the most valuable 

 land, which produce, at an average, thirty bushels of wheat, and from 

 thirty to forty bushels of Indian corn, to the acre, without any aid 

 from manure. The western hilly parts of the state are fertile, and every 

 where watered by springs and rivulets. One hundred miles from 

 the sea, the country rises into hills and mountains, as in South Caro- 

 lina and Georgia. Tobacco, wheat, rye, barley, oats, hemp, and 

 flax, grow well in the back hilly country ; Indian corn, and pulse of 

 all kinds, in all parts. Cotton is much cultivated in the southern 

 parts of the state for exportation, and in all parts for domestic use. 

 It is planted yearly ; the stalk dies with the frost. The labour of 

 one man will produce 1000 pounds in the seeds, or 250 fit for manu- 

 facturing. RiGe of a superiour quality, and in great abundance, is 

 raised, lor exportation, near Wilmington. The large natural growth 

 of the plains in the low country is almost universally pitch pine, 

 which is a tall handsome tree, far superior to the pitch pine of the 

 northern states. The swamps abound with cypress, laurel, gum, and 

 bay trees. Some of these swamps are very extensive; that called 

 the Great Dismal covering 500 square miles, and containing several 

 small lakes. It is valuable only on account of the juniper trees, with 

 which it abounds. These are made into shingles, which are highly 

 esteemed for their durability. 



Population and militia. ..The number of inhabitants in North 

 Carolina, in 1790, was 393,751, of whom 100,571 were slaves; in 

 1801, 478,103, including 133,296 slaves; and in 1810, 563,526, in- 

 cluding 202,243 slaves. The increase of population from 1790 to 

 1810, was 85,523. The militia is 50,000. 



Character and manners of the inhabitants. ...The people of 

 North Carolina live in ease and plenty, and the more wealthy class in 

 a considerable degree of luxury and refinement. Poverty is here 

 almost an entire stranger; and the planters are the most hospitable 

 people that are to be met with, to all strangers, and especially to 

 such as, by accidents or misfortunes, are rendered incapable of pro- 

 viding for themselves. The general topics of conversation among 

 the men, when cards, the bottle, and occurrences of the day do not 

 intervene, are negroes, the prices of indigo, rice, tobacco, Sec. 



The North Carolinians are accused of being rather too deficient 

 in the virtues of temperance and industry ; and a strange and 

 very barbarous practice prevailed among the lower class of peo- 

 ple, before the revolution, in the back parts of Virginia, North and 

 South Carolina, and Georgia, called gouging :* but we have lately 

 been informed that it is now a rare thing to hear of such brutalities. 



* The delicate and entertaining' diversion, with propriety called gouging", is 

 thus described. When two boxers are wearied with fighting and bruising each 

 other, they come, as it is called, to close quarters, and each endeavours to twist 

 his forefingers hi the ear-locks of his antagonist. When these are fast clinched, 

 the thumbs are extended each way to the nose, and the eyes gently turned out of 

 the sockets. The victor for his espertness receives shouts of applause from the 

 sporting throng, while his poor eyeless antagonist is laughed at for his misfor* 

 tune But this practice is hardly more brutal than the boxing matches in Eng- 

 land, which to this day are patronised by the nobility aad gentry. 



