NORTH AMERICA. 
5* 
planned for our conduct, as a ladder whereby to 
mount to the fummit of terreftrial glory and hap- 
pinefs, and from whence we perhaps meditated our 
flight to heaven itfeif, at the very moment when we 
vainly imagine ourfelves to have attained its point 5 
fome unforefeen accident intervenes, and furprifes 
us ; the chain is violently fhaken, we quit our hold 
and fall : the well contrived fyfteni at once becomes 
a chaos ; every idea of happinefs recedes ; the fp! en- 
dour of glory darkens, and at length totally difap- 
pears ; every pleafing object is defaced, all is de- 
ranged, and the flattering fcene palles quite away $ 
a gloomy cloud pervades the underftanding, and 
when we fee our progrefs retarded, and our bed 
intentions fruftrated, we are apt to deviate from the 
admonitions and convictions of virtue, to fhut our 
eyes upon our guide and protector, doubt of his 
power, and defpair of his affiftance. But let us wait 
and rely on our God, who in due time will mine 
forth in brightnefs, diflipate the envious cloud, and 
reveal to us how finite and circumfcribed is human 
power, when afluming to itfeif independent wifdom. 
But, before I leave the river Alatamaha, we 
will proceed to give a further and more particular 
account of it. It has its fource in the Cherokee 
mountains, near the head of Tugilo, the great 
weft branch of Savanna, and, before it leaves 
them, is joined and augmented by innumerable 
rivulets; thence it dcfcends through the hilly 
country, with all its collateral branches, and winds 
rapidity arnongft the hills two hundred and fifty 
miles, and then enters the flat plain country, by 
the name of the Oakmulge : thence meandering an 
hundred and fifty miles, it is joined on the ea it fide 
by the Ocone, which likewife heads in the lower 
ridges of the mountains. After this confluence, 
E % having 
