LIFE OF WILSON. 
Ixiii 
in some chance places, I found it ultoj^ether impracticable. I coasted along 
their borders, however, in many places, and was surprised at the great profusion 
of evergreens, of numberless sorts ; and a variety of berries that I knew nothing 
of. Here I found multitudes of birds that never winter with us in Pennsyl- 
vania, living in abundance. Though the people told me that tlie alligators are 
so numerous as to destroy many of their pigs, calves, hogs, &c., yet I have 
never been enabled to get my eye on one, though I have been several times in 
search of them with my guu. In Georgia, they tell me, they are ten times 
more numerous; and I expect some sport among them. I saw a dog at the 
river Santeo, who swims across when he pleases, in defiance of these voracious 
animals ; when he hears them behind him, he wheels round, and attacks them, 
often seizing them by the snout.* They generally retreat, and he pursues his 
route again, serving every one that attacks him in the same manner.* He 
belongs to the boatman; and, when left behind, always takes to the water. 
" As to the character of the North Carolinians, were I to judge of it by the 
specimens which I met with in taverns, I should pronounce them to be the 
most ignorant, debased, indolent and dissipated portion of the union. But I 
became accjuainted with a few such noble exceptions, that, for their sakes, I am 
willing to believe they are all better than they seemed to be. 
" Wilmington contains about three thousand souls; and yet there is not one 
cultivated field within several miles of it. The whole country, on this side of 
the river, is a mass of sand, into which you sink up to the ankles ; and hardly 
a blade of grass is to be seen. All about is pine barrens. * * * * 
" From Wilmington I rode through solitary pine savannas, and cypress 
swamps, as before; sometimes thirty miles without seeing a hut, or human 
being. On arriving at the AVackamaw, Pedee, and ]31ack river, I made long 
zigzags among the rich nabobs, who live on their rice plantations, amidst large 
villages 5f negro huts. One of these gentlemen told me that he had '■^some- 
thing Letter than six hundred head of blaeJcs !" These excursions detained me 
greatly. The roads to the plantations were so long, so difficult to find, and so 
bad, and the hospitality of the planters was such, that I could scarcely get away 
again. I ought to have told you that the deep sands of South Carolina had so 
worn out my horse, that, with all my care, I found he would give up. Chance 
led me t(; the house of a planter, named V., about forty miles north of the 
river Wackamaw, where I proposed to bargain with him, and to give up my 
* This is an uncommon inst.ance of intrepidity in the canine race, and is worthy of 
record. It is well known that the allisatov is fond of dog-flesh ; and the dog appears to 
be instructed by instinct to avoid so dangerous an enemy, it being difficult to induce him 
to approach the haunts of the alligator, even when encouraged by the example of his 
master. A fine stout spaniel accompanied me to East Florida. Being one day engaged 
in wading tln-ough a pond, in pursuit of ducks, with my dog swimming behind me, appa- 
rently delighted with his employment, ho smelt an alligator : he immediately made to the 
shore, fled into the forest, and all my endeavors to prevail with him to return were inef- 
fectual. Ever after, when we approached that pond, he exhibited such evidences of 
apprehension, that I was fain to retire with him, lest his terror should again induce him to 
flee, where he would have, probably, been lost. 
