THEIR JEALOUSY OF THE NORTHERN PORTS. 185

Northern States, through which that trade is now almost entirely carried on, has been recently agitated in Augusta, as well as in Charleston, and is still indeed under discussion in most private circles, having already been the subject of a public convention. The planters and merchants of the interior, however, are not so eager on this subject as those of the seaports, because their interests are not so deeply involved. They dispose of their cotton to buyers here, or at the ports on the coast, and trouble themselves no further, as they find all the supplies they want in the stores of the towns at which their sales are made; but the ship-owners and merchants of the coast naturally look with jealousy on a state of things which leads to the importation of all their European supplies through the ports of the North. It is certain that three-fourths of the exports of America are from the South-western States; the cotton, rice, and tobacco of which, as well as flour, hemp, and rice, go to all the countries of Europe; yet the imports, in return for all this, come in by way of New York: so that when the imports of the whole United States amounted to 190 millions of dollars, the share of the importation that fell to the South-western States was only 20 millions. Georgia and South Carolina alone export to the value of about 24 millions, yet the united imports of both amount to only 4 millions; all the rest being imported first into New York and other northern ports, direct from Europe, and thence indirectly brought to the south, thus increasing the cost to the consumer.

The close of my labours at Augusta, was the delivery of a public address on the subject of Tempe

rance, in the Presbyterian Church, the largest in the city, on the evening of Sunday the 4th of March. It was very fully attended, and the impression appeared to be favourable, the inhabitants of this city being much in advance of those of Charleston and Savannah on this subject; for with a similar extent of population to Savannah, where there are 125 licensed spirit-dealers, there are in Augusta less than 50; and while much less spirits are consumed by the lower classes, much less wine is also drank by the higher.

On the whole, our visit to Augusta was very satisfactory. The city is handsome, the surrounding country picturesque, the resident families intelligent, hospitable, and agreeable; while everything indicates great present wealth and comfort, and promises great future opulence. It may be doubted whether there is any town in Great Britain, containing only a population of 5,000 whites, that has so much of wealth, industry, and enterprise, combined with such excellent public and private buildings, and means of education and improvement, as Augusta.

CHAP. XII.

Departure from Augusta for Warrenton-Badness of the road— -Snow; suffering from cold-Sparta-Milledgeville, legislative capital-Night journey to Macon; description of Macon; history and locality-Plan of the city and public buildings -Georgia Female College-Churches and sects - Hard-shell Baptists-Universalists-Culture of cotton lands-Employment of slave-labour-Comparative condition of domestic and field slaves-Great disadvantage of slavery to the planters-Morus multicaulis Periodical journals devoted to the silk questionPremiums offered for the production of silk-Incendiaries— Method of slaves taking revenge-Bowie-knife vengeance by a judge-Newspapers-Indian mounds-Country-people-History of Solomon Humphries, an opulent free-negro-Contrast with white slavery in English factories-Specimen of Georgian poetry and Georgian feeling-Scenery of the northern part of the State-Impressive sermon against the love of wealthWorking of the voluntary system.

ON Monday the 4th of March we left Augusta for Macon, on our way to Mobile and New Orleans, wishing to see the interior of Georgia and Alabama, and finish our examination of the Southern States before the approach of the hot weather. We had to set out at six o'clock, and go by a railroad from hence to Warrenton, a distance of about fifty miles. The cars were much inferior in their accommodation and fittings to those on the northern railroads, and our speed did not exceed fifteen miles in the hour. On reaching the end of the railroad at Warrenton, we had to take the stage-coach, and were fortunately able to engage the whole of it for our party, or to "charter" it, as the expression is here, keeping up

the maritime phraseology, by which the conductor is called the pilot," and the sound of "all aboard" announces that the engine may move on, as all the passengers are in the cars. Our fare by the rail. road, fifty miles, was 21⁄2 dollars each, or about ten shillings sterling; and for the whole stage, large enough for nine passengers, we paid 48 dollars, or about £10 sterling, for 75 miles; 45 from Warrenton to Milledgeville, and 30 from thence to Macon.

The weather was intensely cold; the branches of the trees on each side of our way being covered with frost, long icicles of three or four feet hanging from the rails and fences, at least an inch in diameter at the root; and before noon, the snow began to descend copiously. We were not sufficiently prepared for this extreme cold, and therefore suffered greatly, the coaches being open at the sides for summer use, and merely closed in with painted canvass, or oil-cloth, for winter, but so loosely as to let in the cold air in every part. We rode for the greater part of the way with the windows closed and curtains drawn, and even then longed for a supply of warmer clothing.

Our road lay almost wholly through dense pineforests; and the constant succession of these trees, with scarcely any other variety, made the way gloomy and monotonous. The road itself was the worst we had ever yet travelled over, it being formed apparently by the mere removal of the requisite number of trees to open a path through the forest, and then left without any kind of labour being employed, either to make the road solid in the first instance, or to keep it in repair. We were, accordingly, sometimes half up to the axletree in loose sand, sometimes

still deeper immersed in a running brook, or soft swamp, and occasionally so shaken and tossed from seat to roof, and side to side, from the pitching and rolling of the coach, that it seemed to me the motion was more violent and excessive than that of the smallest vessel in the heaviest sea. We were

all, in short, bruised and beaten by the blows we received from these sudden jolts and pitchings, so as to suffer severely; and this, added to the pinching cold, made our journey extremely disagreeable.

About two o'clock we reached the village of Sparta, there being also a Rome and an Athens in the same State; the former on the Etawah river in Floyd County, and the latter on the Big Sandy Creek, near Hermon, in Clark County, not far from the Land of Goshen, which is close to Edinburgh, Lincoln, Lisbon, Petersburgh, and Vienna, so strange are the juxtapositions of names on an American map. We halted at Sparta to dine; but the sight of the public table prepared for the passengers was so revolting, that, hungry as we were after our long and cold ride, early rising, and violent motion, we turned away in disgust from the table, and made our dinner in the coach on hard biscuits. There were three lines of coaches on this road, all leaving at the same hour, and arriving at the same time-the Mail line, the Telegraph line, and the People's line. The passengers from each of these took their seats at the table, and many of them appeared to dine as heartily as if they saw nothing unusual in the fare. But the dirty state of the room in which the table was laid, the filthy condition of the table-cloth, the coarse and broken plates, rusty knives and forks, and large