LIFE OF WILSON. xciii 
collected one hundred and twenty-five subscribers since leaving 
home.” 
Savannah, March 5, 1809. 
Dear Sir, 
“ I have now reached the neplus ultra of my peregrina- 
tions, and shall return home by the first opportunity. Whether 
this shall be by land or water, depends on circumstances; if 
the former, I shall go by Augusta, where I am told twelve or 
fifteen subscribers may be procured. These, however, would 
be insufficient to tempt me that way, for I doubt whether my 
funds would be sufficient to carry me through. 
“ The innkeepers in the southern states are like the vultures 
that hover about their cities; and treat their as the others 
do their carrion: are as glad to see them, and pick them as 
bare. The last letter I wrote you was on my arrival in 
Charleston. I found greater difficulties to surmount there than 
I had thought of. I solicited several people for a list of names, 
but that abject and disgraceful listlessness, and want of energy, 
which have unnerved the whites of all descriptions in these 
states, put me off from time to time, till at last I was obliged 
to walk the streets, and pick out those houses which, from 
their appearance, indicated wealth and taste in the occupants, 
and introduce myself. Neither M., Dr. R., nor any other 
that I applied to, gave me the least assistance, though they pro- 
mised, and knew I was a stranger. I was going on in this 
way, when the keeper of the library, a Scotsman, a good man, 
whose name had been mentioned to me, made me out a list 
from the directory; and among these I spent ten days. The 
extreme servility, and superabundance of negroes, have ruined 
the energy and activity of the white population. M. appears 
to be fast sinking into the same insipidity of character, with a 
pretty good sprinkling of rapacity. In Charleston, however, 
I met with some excellent exceptions, among the first ranks of 
society; and the work excited universal admiration. Dr. D. 
introduced it very handsomely into the Courier. On hearing 
of general Wilkinson’s arrival, I waited on him. He received 
