LIFE OF WILSON. 
Cl 
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 acquainted with a 
few such noble exceptions, that, for their sakes, I am willing to be- 
lieve 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 Wackamaw, Pe- 
dee, and Black river, I made long zigzags among the rich nabobs, 
who live on their rice plantations, amidst large villages of negro 
huts. One of these gentlemen told me that he had “ somethmg 
better than six hundred head of blacks 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 
to 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 young blood horse for another in exchange ; giving him 
at least as good a character as he deserved. He asked twenty dol- 
lars to boot, and / thirty. We parted, but I could perceive that 
companied me to East Florida, Being one day engaged in wading through a pond, in pursuit 
of ducks, with my dog swimming behind me, apparently delighted with his employment, he 
smelt an alligator : he immediately made to the shore, fled into the forest, and all my endeavours 
to prevail with him to return were ineffectual. Ever after, when we approaclied 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. 
2 C 
VOL. IX. 
