by the names of the Allegany and Appalachian mountains, terminate in this State, about fixty miles fouth of its northern boundary. From the foot of this mountain fpreads a wide-extended plain, of the richeft foil, and in a latitude and climate well adapted to the cultivation of most of the Eaft-India productions. · The rivers in this State are numerous, and fome of them of the ntmost importance. Savannah river divides this State from South-Carolina: its courfe is nearly from north-west to south-east. It is formed principally of two branches, known by the names of Tugulo and Keowee, which fpring from the mountains, and unite fifteen miles north-weft of the northern boundary of Wilkes county. It is navigable for large veffels up to Savannah, and for boats of one hundred feet keel as far as Augufta. After rising a fall just above this place, it is paffable for boats to the mouth of Tugulo river. After it takes the name of Savannah, at the confluence of the Tugulo and Keowee, it receives a number of tributary ftreams from the Georgia fide, the principal of which is Broad river, which rifes in the county of Franklin, and runs fouth-east through part of Wilkes county, and mingles with the Savannah at the town of Petersburgh, and might, with a trifling expenfe, be made boatable twenty-five or thirty miles through the best settlements in Wilkes county. Tybee bar, at the entrance of Savannah river, in lat. 31° 57', has fixteen feet water at half tide. Ogeechee river, about eighteen miles fouth of the Savannah, is a fmaller river, and nearly parallel with it in its course. Alatamaha,* about fixty miles fouth of Savannah river, has its fource in the Cherokee mountains, near the head of the Tuguio, the great weft branch of Savannah, and, before it leaves the mountains, is joined and augmented by innumerable rivulets; thence it defcends through the hilly country, with all its collateral branches, and winds rapidly amongst hills two hundred and fifty miles, and then enters the flat, plain country, by the name of the Oakmulge; thence meandering one hundred and fifty miles, it is joined on the eaft fide by the Ocone, which likewife heads in the lower ridges of mountains. After this confluence, having now gained a vast acquifition of waters, it affumes the name of Alatamaha, when it becomes a large majestic river, flowing with gentle windings through a vaft foreft, near one hundred miles, and enters the Atlantic by Pronounced Oltamawhaw, feveral feveral mouths. The north channel, or entrance, glides by the heights of Darien, on the east bank, about ten miles above the bar, and, running from thence with feveral turnings, enters the ocean between Sapello and Wolf iflands. The fouth channel, which is esteemed the largest and deepest, after its feparation from the north, defcends gently, winding by, M'Intofh's and Broughton islands ;; and lastly, by the west coast of St. Simon's ifland, enters the ocean, through St. Simon's found, between the fouth end of the island of that name, and the north end of Jekyl ifland. On the weft banks. of the fouth channel, ten or twelve miles above its mouth, and nearly oppofite Darien, are to be seen the remains of an ancient fort, or fortification; it is now a regular tetragon terrace, about four feet high, with bastions at each angle; the area may contain about an acre of ground, but the foffe which furrounded it is nearly filled up. There are large live oaks, pines and other trees, growing upon it and in the old fields adjoining. It is fuppofed to have been the work of the French or Spaniards. A large fwamp lies betwixt it and the river, and a confiderable creek runs clofe by the works, and enters the river through the fwamp, a fmall distance above Brough ton island. About feventy or eighty miles above the confluence of the Oakmulge and Ocone, the trading path from Augusta to the Creek nation croffes thefe fine rivers, which are there forty miles apart. On the eaft banks of the Oakmulge, this trading road runs nearly two miles through ancient Indian fields, which are called the Oakmulge fields; they are the rich low lands of the river. On the heights of these low grounds are yet vifible monuments or traces of an ancient town, fuch, as artificial mounts or terraces, fquares and banks, encircling confiderable areas. Their old fields and planting land extend up and down the river, fifteen or twenty miles from this fite. And, if we are to give credit to the account the Creeks give of themselves, this place is remarkable for being the firft town or fettle. ment, when they fat down, as they term it, or established themselves after their emigration from the weft, beyond the Miffiffippi, their original native country. 107 い Befides thefe, there is Turtle river, Little Sitilla, or St. Ille, Great Sitilla, Crooked river, and St. Mary's, which form a part of the fouthern boundary of the United States. St. Mary's river has its fource from a vaft lake, or rather marfh, called Ouaquaphenogaw, and flows through a vaft plain and pine foreft, about one hundred and fifty miles to the ocean, with which it communicates between VOL. III. the M m the points of Amelia and Talbert's iflands, latitude 30° 44', and is navigable for veffels of confiderable burthen for ninety miles. Its banks afford immenfe quantities of fine timber, fuited to the WeftIndia market. Along this river, every four or five miles, are bluffs convenient for vessels to haul to and load. The rivers in the middle and western parts of this State are, Apalachicola, which is formed by the Chatahouchee and Flint rivers, Mobile, Pascagoula and Pearl rivers. All these running fouthwardly, empty into the Gulph of Mexico. The forementioned rivers abound with a great variety of fish, among which are the mullet, whiting, fheepfhead, cat, rock, trout, drum, bass, brim, white, had, and fturgeon. The bays and lagoons are ftored with oysters and other shell fish, crabs, fhrimps, &c. The clams, in particular, are large, their meat white, tender and delicate. The shark and great black ftingray are infatiable cannibals, and very troublefome to the fishermen. The lake, or rather marfh, called Ouaquaphenogaw, lies between Flint and Oakmulge rivers, and is nearly three hundred miles in cir cumference. In wet seasons it appears like an inland fea, and has feveral large iflands of rich land; one of which the prefent generation of Creek Indians reprefent as the most blissful spot on earth. They fay it is inhabited by a peculiar race of Indians, whofe women are incomparably beautiful. They tell you also, that this terrestrial paradife has been seen by fome enterprising hunters, when in pursuit of their game, who, being loft in inextricable fwanups and bogs, and on the point of perifhing, were unexpectedly relieved by a company of beautiful women, whom they call daughters of the Sun, who kindly gave them fuch provifions as they had with them, confisting of fruit and corn cakes, and then enjoined them to fly for fafety to their own country, because their hufbands were fierce men, and cruel to ftrangers. They farther fay, that thefe hunters had a view of their fettlements, fituated on the elevated banks of an ifland, in a beautiful lake; but that in their endeavours to approach it, they were involved in perpetual labyrinths, and, like enchanted land, ftill as they imagined they had just gained it, it feemed to fly before them. They determined, at length, to quit the delufive purfuit, and with much difficulty effected a retreat. When they reported their adventures to their countrymen, the young warriors were inflamed with an irresistible defire to invade and conquer fo charming a country, but all their attempts had hitherto proved fruitless, they never being able able again to find the spot. They tell another story concerning this fequeftered country, which feems not improbable, which is, that the inhabitants are the pofterity of a fugitive remnant of the ancient Yamafes, who escaped mafficre after a bloody and decifive battle between them and the Creeks. It is certain, that the Creeks conquered and nearly exterminated that once powerful people, and it is probable, that they here found an afylum, remote and fecure from the fury of their proud conquerors. Befides the St. Mary; the rivers Sitilla, or St. Ille, and the beautiful Little St. Juan, which empties into the bay of Appalachi at St. Mark's, are faid to flow from this lake.* About fixteen miles from the mouth of Broad river, on its fouth fide, is what is called the Goofepond, a tract of about one hundred and eighty acres, covered with living water about two feet deep: it discharges into the river, and is fed by two fprings. SOIL, PRODUCTIONS, &c. The foil in this State and its fertility are various, according to fituation and different improvement. The iflands on the fea board, in their natural ftate, are covered with a plentiful growth of pine, oak and hiccory, live oak, an uncommonly hard and a very valuable wood, and fome red cedar. The foil is a mixture of fand and black mould, making what is commonly called a grey foil. A confiderable part of it, particularly that whereon grow the oak, hiccory and live oak, is very rich, and yields, on cultivation, good crops of indigo, cotton, corn and potatoes. These islands are furrounded by navigable creeks, between which and the main land is a large extent of falt marsh, fronting the whole State, not lefs, on an average, than four or five miles in breadth, interfected with creeks in various directions, admitting, through the whole, an inland navigation between the iflands and main land, from the north-east to the fouth-east corners of the State. The eaft fides of thefe iflands are, for the most part, clean, hard, fandy beaches, expofed to the wafh of the ocean. Between thefe iflands are the entrances of the rivers from the interior country, winding through the low falt marshes, and delivering their waters into the founds, which form capacious harbours of from three to eight miles over, and which communicate with each other by parallel falt creeks. The principal islands are, Skidaway, Waflaw, Offabaw, St. Catharine's, Sapelo, Frederica, Jekyl, Cumberland and Amelia. The foil of the main land, adjoining the marshes and creeks, is nearly of the fame quality with that of the islands, except that which borders on thofe rivers and creeks which ftretch far back into the country. On thefe, immediately after you leave the falts, begin the valuable rice fwainps, which, on cultivation, afford the prefent principal staple of commerce. Most of the rice lands lie on rivers, which, as far as the tide flows, are called tide lands; or on creeks and particular branches of water, flowing in fome deeper or lower parts of the lands, which are called inland fwamps, and extend back in the country from fifteen to twenty-five miles, beyond which very little rice is planted, though it will grow exceedingly well, as experiment has proved, one hundred and twenty miles back from the fea. The intermediate lands, between these creeks and rivers, are of an inferior quality, being of a grey foil, covered chiefly with pine, and a fort of wild grafs and finall reeds, which afford a large range of feeding ground for ftock both summer and winter. Here and there are interspersed oak and hiccory ridges, which are of a better foil, and produce good crops of corn and indigo; but these are very little elevated above the circumjacent lands. The lands adjoining the rivers, and, for an hundred miles in a direct line from the fea, continue a breadth from two to three or four miles, and wherever, in that distance, you find a piece of high land that extends to the bank of the river on one fide, you may expect to find the low or fwamp ground proportionably wide on the oppofite fide of the river. This feems to be an invariable rule till you come to that part where the river cuts the mountains. The foil between the rivers, after you leave the fea board and the edge of the fwamps, at the diftance of twenty or thirty miles, changes from a grey to a red colour, on which grows plenty of oak and hiccory, with a confiderable intermixture of pine. In fome places it is gravelly, but fertile, and fo continues for a number of miles, gradually deepening the reddish colour of the earth, till it changes into what is called the Mulatto foil, confifting of a black mould and red earth. The compofition is darker or lighter according as there is a larger or fmaller proportion of the black or red earth in it. The mulatto lands are generally ftrong, and yield large crops of wheat, tobacco, corn, &c. To this kind of land fucceeds by turns a foil nearly black and very rich, on which grow large quan |