lx LIFE OF 



" On the commons, near Charleston, I presided at a singular 

 feast. The company consisted of two hundred and thirty-seven 

 carrion crows (Vultur atratus), five or six dogs, and myself, though 

 I only kept order, and left the eating part entirely to the others. 

 I sat so near to the dead horse that my feet touched his, and yet, 

 at one time, I counted thirty-eight vultures on and within him, so 

 that hardly an inch of his flesh could be seen for them. 



" As far north as Wilmington, in North Carolina, I met with the 

 ivory-billed woodpecker. I killed two, and winged a male, who 

 alarmed the whole town of Wilmington, by screaming exactly like 

 a young child crying violently, so that everybody supposed I had a 

 baby under the apron of my chair, .till I took it out to prevent the 

 people from stopping me. This bird I confined in the room I was 

 to sleep in, and in less than half an hour he made his way through 

 the plaster, the lath, and partly through the weather boards, and 

 would have escaped if I had not accidentally come in." 



This journey is more fully described in another letter to Mr 

 Miller, the principal parts of which I shall insert, as too important 

 to be omitted, and carrying us regularly on in the line of his various 

 excursions. 



To Mr D. H. Miller. 



"Charleston, February 22, 1809. 



" Dear Sir, — I have passed through a considerable extent of 

 country since I wrote you last, and have met with a variety of 

 adventures, some of which may perhaps amuse you. Norfolk turned 

 out better than I expected : I left that place on one of the coldest 

 mornings I have experienced since I left Philadelphia. 



" I passed through a flat pine-covered country from Norfolk to 

 Suffolk, twenty-four miles distant, and lodged, on the way, in the 

 house of a planter, who informed me that every year, in August 

 and September, almost all his family were laid up with the bilious 

 fever ; that at one time forty of his people were sick, and that of 

 thirteen children, only three were living. Two of these, with their 

 mother, appeared likely not to' be long tenants of this world. 

 Thirty miles farther I came to a place on the river Nottoway, called 



