462 SOUTH CAROLINA. 



pomegranates, pears, and peaches : apples are scarce, and are im- 

 ported from the northern states; melons, especially water-melons, 

 are raised here in great perfection. 



In South Carolina vegetation is incredibly quick. The climate 

 and the soil have something in them so kindly, that the latter, when 

 left to itself, naturally throws out an immense quantity of flowers 

 and flowering shrubs. All the European plants arrive at a perfec- 

 tion here beyond that in which their native country affords them. 

 With proper culture and encouragement, silk, wine, and oil, might 

 be produced in tnis state. Wheat in the back parts yields a prodigi- 

 ous increase. 



From what we have observed, it appears that the vegetable pro- 

 ductions of this state are cotton, wheat, rice, Indian corn, barley, 

 oats, peas, beans, hemp, flax, tobacco, indigo, olives, oranges, cit- 

 ron, cypress, sassafras, oak, walnut, cassia, and pine trees ; white 

 mulberry trees for feeding silk-worms ; sarsaparilla, and pines, 

 which yield turpentine, rosin, tar, and pitch. There are other trees 

 besides these, that yield gums. 



The Carolinas produce prodigious quantities of honey, of which 

 they make excellent spirits, and mead as good as Malaga sack. The 

 three great staple commodities at present are cotton, rice, and the 

 produce of the pine. Nothing surprises an European more at first 

 sight than the size of the trees here, as well as in Virginia and other 

 American countries. Their trunks are often from fifty to seventy 

 feet high, without a branch or limb ; and frequently above thirty-six 

 feet in circumference. Of these trunks when hollowed, the people 

 of Charleston, as well as the Indians, make canoes, which serve to 

 transport provisions from place to place ; and some of them are so 

 large, that they will carry thirty or forty barrels of pitch, though 

 formed of one piece of timber. Of these are likewise made curious 

 pleasure boats. There is also a variety of medicinal roots : the 

 snake root, pink root, See. 



Animals.. ..The original Animals of this country do not differ much 

 from those of Virginia ; but in both the Carolinas they have a still 

 greater variety of beautiful birds. All the animals of Europe are 

 here in plenty ; black cattle are multiplied prodigiously ; to have 

 200 or 300 is very common, but some have 1000 or upwards. 



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

 Carolina, in 1790, was 249,073, including 107,094 slaves. In 1801, 

 according to the census then taken, they amounted to 345,591, in- 

 cluding 146,151 slaves; and in 1810, to 415,115, including 196,365 

 slaves. The militia may be stated at 30,000 men. 



Chief TOAVNs....The principal towns of South Carolina are, 

 Charleston, Georgetown, Columbia, Beaufort, Statesburgh, Pine- 

 ville, and Cambden. Charleston is by far tRe most considerable town 

 on the sea-coast for an extent of 600 miles. It is the metropolis of 

 South Carolina, and is admirably situate at the confluence of two 

 navigable rivers, one of which is navigable for ships twenty miles 

 above the town, and for boats and large canoes near forty. The har- 

 bour is good in every respect, but that of a bar, which hinders ves- 

 sels of more than 200 tons burden, laden, from entering. The for- 

 tifications, which were strong, are now demolished ; the streets are 

 well cut; the houses are large and well built; some of them are of 

 brick, and others of wood, but all of them handsome ; rent is ex- 

 tremely high. The streets are wide and straight, intersecting eaeh 



