On quitting Savannah, we sailed at first for more than sixty miles between low marshy grounds whence issued many rivulets, and which was covered by a vegetation the most rich and varied that it is possible to imagine. Among the tallest trees we observed four or five species of pines, nine of oak, tulip-trees, poplars, plantains, sassafras, &c., beneath which grew more than forty kinds of shrubs, of which the form, flower, foliage and perfume, constitute the delicacies of our most brilliant parterres. Beyond this plain, the soil rises rapidly about two hundred feet above the level of the sea, and presents at intervals fine table lands, on which are established rich cotton plantations.
As we approached Augusta, two steam-boats, crowded with a great many citizens of that town, came to meet us, and saluted General Lafayette with three cheers, and the discharge of artillery. We answered them by the patriotic air of Yankee Doodle, and by three rounds of our guns. They joining us we ascended the river together, each forcing the steam in rivalry of speed. There was something frightful in this contest; the three roaring vessels seemed to fly in the midst of black clouds of smoke, which prevented us from seeing each other. The Alatamaha was victorious, which produced a lively joy in our brave captain, who seemed to be a man who would blow up his vessel rather than be beaten on such an occasion.
The general, forced to adhere rigorously to his calculations for travelling, had at first resolved to pass but one day at Augusta; but it was impossible for him to resist the earnest solicitations of the inhabitants to remain two days, that the greater part of the preparations made for him should not become useless. He yielded, and the entertainments they gave him were so multiplied, that for the first time since the commencement of this prodigious journey, he suffered a fatigue which caused us a momentary inquietude.
Among the citizens who received the general on the wharf at Augusta, we again met our fellow-passenger in the Cadmus, Mr. King, a young lawyer much esteemed by his fellow citizens. This meeting was to us not only very agreeable, but also very useful; in leaving the river Savannah, our communications with the Atlantic would become more difficult; it was therefore important for us to transmit our despatches from Augusta, that our friends in Europe might once more have news from us before we should have entirely passed into the interior of the country; and Mr. King had the goodness to undertake to forward them after our departure, as well as some effects which we retrenched from our baggage, in order to lighten ourselves as much as possible, for we foresaw that we were going to travel the worst roads that we had yet encountered since leaving Washington.
The day after our arrival, the general was engaged to visit, on the other side of the Savannah river, a sort of prodigy, which proves to what extent good institutions favour the increase of population, the developement of industry, and the happiness of man. It is a village named Hamburg, composed of about a hundred houses, raised in the same day by a single proprietor, and all inhabited in less than two months by an active and industrious population. This village is not yet two years old, and its port is already filled with vessels, its wharves covered with merchandise, and its inhabitants assured of a constantly increasing prosperity. Hamburg being on the right bank of the Savannah, belongs to South Carolina.
On the 25th we left Augusta, which is well built and containing more than four thousand inhabitants, to visit Milledgeville, passing through Warrenton and Sparta. The general was very affectionately received in each of these small towns; but we found the roads every where in a bad condition, and so much broken up, that we were obliged to travel a part of the way on horseback. Happily the carriage in which the general rode, resisted all accidents, but it was near breaking down twenty times. The first day the jolts were so violent, that they occasioned General Lafayette a vomiting which at first alarmed us, but this entirely ceased after a good night passed at Warrenton.
We arrived on the 2d of March, on the banks of little river Oconee, near to which Milledgeville, the capital of Georgia, is built. This town, which, from the dispersion of its houses, and the multitude and extent of its beautiful gardens, rather resembles a fine village than a city, containing a population of two thousand five hundred souls, among whom General Lafayette was received as a father and friend. The citizens, conducted by their magistrates, came to receive him on the banks of the river, and the aids-de-camp of the governor conducted him with pomp to the state house, which claimed the honour of lodging him. The day was passed in the midst of honours and pleasures of every kind. After the official presentation in the state house, where the general was addressed by an American citizen of French descent, Mr. Jaillet, mayor of Milledgeville; after the visit which we made to the lodge of our masonic brethren, and the review of all the militia of the county, we dined with Governor Troup, who had assembled at his house all the public officers and principal citizens, with whom we spent the evening at the state house, where the ladies of the place had prepared a ball for General Lafayette; but at this ball there was neither possibility nor wish for any one to dance; each, anxious to entertain or hear the nation’s guest, kept near him, and seized with avidity the occasion to testify gratitude and attachment. Affected almost to tears with the kindness evinced towards him, the general completely forgot that Georgia was a new acquaintance. He also forgot, it seemed, that to-morrow we were to depart early in the morning, and that some hours of repose would be necessary, as he passed a great part of the night in conversing with his new friends.
Before continuing the narrative of the subsequent journey, which conducted us from the bosom of the most advanced civilization, into the centre of still savage tribes, the aboriginal children of America, I shall make some observations on the state of Georgia.
This state, situated between the 30th and 35th degrees of north latitude, and the 3d and 9th of longitude west from Washington, is bounded on the north by the state of Tennessee, to the north-east by South Carolina, to the south-east by the Atlantic ocean, to the south by Florida, and to the west by the state of Alabama. Its surface is 58,000 square miles, and its population 340,989 inhabitants, of which nearly 150,000 are slaves; a proportion truly alarming, and which will, some day, bring Georgia into an embarrassing situation, if its government does not adopt some measure to diminish the evil. Here, as in all the slave states, the blacks are goods and chattels, which are sold like any other property, and which may be inherited; but their introduction into the state as an object of commerce is severely prohibited. According to existing laws, a person who brings into the state a slave, which he sells or exposes to sale within the year immediately succeeding his introduction, is subjected to a penalty of one thousand dollars, and an imprisonment of five years in the state prison. The prejudices against the coloured race is very strong among the Georgians, and I have not remarked that they have made any great efforts for the abolition of slavery; the laws even interpose a barrier to gradual emancipation, for a proprietor cannot give liberty to his slave without the authority of the legislature. The ancient code of slavery introduced by the English, and which was a code of blood, is fallen into disuse, and has been supplied by some laws protective of the slaves. Thus, for example, whoever now designedly deprives a slave of life or limb, is condemned to the same punishment as if the crime had been committed on a white man, except in a case of insurrection; but we feel that this law is to be administered by judges who are themselves slave-holders, and under the influence of the same prejudices as their fellow citizens; thus may one say with truth, that if the slaves of Georgia do not perish under the whip of their master, as too often happens in the French colonies, it is owing solely to the naturally mild and humane dispositions of the Georgians, and not to the efficacy of the laws, which admit that a slave may accidentally die on receiving moderate correction, without the author of the infliction being guilty of murder.
Georgia, it is said, was that one of the ancient colonies in which the revolution obtained the fewest suffrages. The royal party, for a long time, preserved there a great influence, which, augmented by the presence of a numerous body of English, under the orders of Colonel Campbell, maintained the royal government until the end of the war; thus the patriots had more to suffer in Georgia than elsewhere.