TRAVELS, &C., &C.

CHAP. I

Departure from Bourdeaux.-Arrival at Charleston.Remarks upon the yellow fever.-A short description of the town of Charleston.— Observations upon several trees, natives of the old continent, reared in a botanic garden near the city.

CHARLESTON, in South Carolina, being the first place of my destination, I went to Bourdeaux as one of the ports of France that trades most with the southern parts of the United States, and where there are most commonly vessels from the different points of North America. I embarked the 24th of [2] September 1801, on board the John and Francis, commanded by the same captain with whom I returned to Europe several years ago. A fortnight after our departure we were overtaken by a calm, within sight of the Açorian Islands. Saint George's and Graciosa were those nearest to us, where we clearly distinguished a few houses, which appeared built with stone and chalk; and the rapid declivity of the land divided by hedges, which most likely separated the property of different occupiers. The major part of these islands abound with stupendous mountains, in various directions, and beyond which the summit of Pico, in a pyramidical form rises majestically above the clouds, which were then illumined

'The date given here is evidently wrong; the translation in Phillips's Voyages gives it as August 25, which corresponds with the arrival of Michaux in Charleston.-ED.

by the rays of the setting sun. A gentle breeze springing up, we soon lost sight of that charming prospect, and on the 9th of October following entered the Charleston roads, in company with two other vessels which had left Bourdeaux, the one eighteen days, and the other a month before

us.

The pleasure that we felt on discovering the shore was very soon abated. The pilot informed us that the yellow fever had made dreadful ravages at Charleston, and was still carrying off a great number of the inhabitants. This intelligence alarmed the [3] passengers, who were fourteen in number, the most of whom had either friends or relatives in the town. Every one was fearful of learning some disastrous news or other. The anchor was no sooner weighed than those who had never been accustomed to warm countries were escorted by their friends to the Isle of Sullivan. This island is situated about seven miles from Charleston. Its dry and parched-up soil is almost bereft of vegetation; but as it is exposed to the breeze of the open sea, the air is generally cool and pleasant. Within these few years, since that bilious and inflammatory disorder, commonly known by the name of the yellow fever, shows itself regularly every summer at Charleston, a great number of the inhabitants and planters, who took refuge in the town to escape the intermittent fevers which attack seven-tenths of those resident in the country, have built houses in that island, where they sojourn from the early part of July till the first frost, which usually takes place about the 15th of November. A few of the inhabitants keep boarding-houses, where they receive those who have no settled residence. It has been remarked that foreigners, newly arrived from Europe or the states of North America, and [4] who go

immediately to reside in this island, are exempt from the yellow fever.

However powerful these considerations were, they could not induce me to go and pass my time in such a dull and melancholy abode; upon which I refused the advice of my friends, and staid in the town. I had nearly been the victim of my obstinacy, having been, a few days after, attacked with the first symptoms of this dreadful malady, under which I laboured upward of a month.

The yellow fever varies every year according to the intenseness of the heat; at the same time the observation has not yet been forcible enough to point out the characteristic signs by which they can discover whether it will be more or less malignant in the summer. The natives are not so subject to it as foreigners, eight-tenths of whom died the year of my arrival; and whenever the former are attacked with it, it is always in a much less proportion.

It has been observed that during the months of July, August, September, and October, when this disorder is usually most prevalent, the persons who leave Charleston for a few days only, are, on their return to town, much more susceptible of catching it [5] than those who staid at home. The natives of Upper Carolina, two or three hundred miles distant, are as subject to it as foreigners; and those of the environs are not always exempt from it: whence it results that during one third of the year all communications are nearly cut off between the country and town, whither they go but very reluctantly, and seldom or ever sleep there. The supply of provisions at that time is only made by the negroes, who are never subject to the fever. On my return to Charleston in the month of October 1802, from my travels over the western part of the country, I did not meet, on the most populous road,

for the space of three hundred miles, a single traveller that was either going to town or returning from it; and in the houses where I stopped there was not a person who conceived his business of that importance to oblige him to go there while the season lasted.

From the 1st of November till the month of May the country affords a picture widely different; every thing resumes new life; trade is re-animated; the suspended communications re-commence; the roads are covered with waggons, bringing from all quarters the produce of the exterior; an immense number of carriages and singlehorse chaises roll rapidly [6] along, and keep up a continual correspondence between the city and the neighbouring plantations, where the owners spend the greatest part of the season. In short, the commercial activity renders Charleston just as lively as it is dull and melancholy in the summer.

It is generally thought at Charleston that the yellow fever which rages there, as well as at Savannah, every summer, is analogous to that which breaks out in the colonies, and that it is not contagious: but this opinion is not universally adopted in the northern cities. It is a fact, that whenever the disease is prevalent at New York and Philadelphia, the natives are as apt to contract it as foreigners, and that they remove as soon as they learn that their neighbours are attacked with it. Notwithstanding they have a very valuable advantage that is not to be found at Charleston, which is, that the country places bordering on Philadelphia and New York are pleasant and salubrious; and that at two or three miles' distance the inhabitants are in perfect safety, though even the disorder committed the greatest ravages in the above-mentioned towns.

I took the liberty to make this slight digression, for the

information of those who might have to go to the [7] southern parts of the United States that it is dangerous to arrive there in the months of July, August, September, and October. I conceived, like many others, that the using of every means necessary to prevent the effervescence of the blood was infallibly a preservative against this disorder; but every year it is proved by experience that those who have pursued that mode of living, which is certainly the best, are not all exempt from sharing the fate of those who confine themselves to any particular kind of regimen.

Charleston is situated at the conflux of the rivers Ashley and Cooper. The spot of ground that it occupies is about a mile in length. From the middle of the principal street the two rivers might be clearly seen, were it not for a public edifice built upon the banks of the Cooper, which intercepts the view. The most populous and commercial part of the town is situated along the Ashley. Several ill-constructed quays project into the river, to facilitate the 'trading vessels taking in their cargoes. These quays are formed with the trunks of palm trees fixed together, and laid out in squares one above the other. Experience has shown that the trunks of these trees, although of a very spungy nature, lie buried in the [8] water many years without decaying; upon which account they are generally preferred for these purposes to any other kind of wood in the country. The streets of Charleston are extremely wide, but not paved, consequently every time your foot slips from a kind of brick pavement before the doors, you are immerged nearly ancle-deep in sand. The rapid circulation of the carriages, which, proportionately speaking, are far more considerable here in number than in any other part of America, continually grinds this mov