10 
vide against this state of idleness, there should be another pair of 
tread-wheels erected. The negroes entertain a strong fear of the 
tread-mills, and regard flogging as the lighter evil! Of about 
three hundred and sixty, who, since the erection of these tread¬ 
mills, have been employed upon them, only six have been sent 
back a second time. 
The poor-house, an old building raised by subscription, con¬ 
tains one hundred and sixty-six paupers. It will only admit such 
poor persons as are completely disabled. Those who can labour 
a little can obtain the employment they desire, and then receive 
good attendance and proper support. The sick were taken care 
of in a distinct infirmary, where each had a separate bed. The 
healthy slept upon the floor. I enquired why the sick were not 
provided with iron bedsteads in place of the wooden ones they 
occupied? and was informed that it was from apprehension of 
the prevailing severe thunder-storms. 
Connected with the Poor-house is a Magdalen Asylum, which 
provides shelter and care for thirty unfortunate beings. It struck 
me forcibly, as I saw under an open shed in the yard where the 
poor walked about, the dead cart, and close by it numbers of 
empty coffins piled up together, that the scene, might be very 
well introduced in a monastery of the order of La Trappe. 
A medical school is to be built not far from the poor-house. 
Until the completion of this structure, the students, one hun¬ 
dred and twenty in number, receive their instruction in a 
wooden building, in which there are arranged an amphitheatre, 
and a chemical laboratory. 
Dr. Tidyman and Mr. Lowndes had the politeness to show 
me a rice mill established a few years ago. This mill is the pro¬ 
perty of Mr. Lucas, who has fixed a similar one in the neighbour¬ 
hood of London. Rice is known as the staple article of produce 
of the lowlands in South Carolina, and yet there was no mill 
hitherto to free the rice from its husk, and to prepare it for use 
or export. This mill is situated near the river Ashley. The 
schooner that conveys the rice from the plantation, lies directly ' 
before it, a cart is taken on board the vessel filled with rice, and 
by means of an inclined plane drawn into the mill, where it 
is deposited. Hence the rice is drawn to the upper story, in 
which it is cleared of dust by a fan, and passed between two large 
mill-stones which frees the hull from the grain. It is then 
placed in a cylinder of bolting cloth. By this it is further 1 
cleaned from all the hull. Now it comes into the trough, where 
it is beaten by heavy hammers faced with tin, and by that means 
is completely cleaned. It is once more conveyed into a bolting 
cylinder, where, by another series of revolutions, it is freed from 
the slightest dust, and shook through a tube into the tierces placed 
