lxiv 
LIFE OF 
with an extraordinary kind of moss, ( Tillandsia usneoides ,) from 
two to ten feet long, in such quantities, that fifty men might con- 
ceal themselves in one tree. Nothing in this country struck me 
with such surprise as the prospect of several thousand acres of such 
timber, loaded, as it were, with many million tons of tow, waving 
in the wind. I attempted to penetrate several of these swamps 
with my gun, in search of something new ; but, except in some 
chance places, I found it altogether 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 1 found multitudes of birds, 
that never winter with us in Pennsylvania, living in abundance. 
Though the people told me the alligators were so numerous as to 
destroy many of their pigs, calves, dogs, &c. yet I have never been 
enabled to put my eye on one, though I have been several times 
in search of them with my gun. 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 Santee, 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, seizing any one that attacks him in the same manner. He 
belongs to the boatmen, 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 acquainted with 
a few such noble exceptions, that for their sakes I am willing to 
believe they are all better than they seem to be. 
“ Wilmington contains about 3000 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, Pedee, and 
