New cords, green willies, like those which Samson bound,
And we, alas! shall have been shorn and weak,
On Folly's lap, if we yield up our freedom.
Mrs. S. J. Hale's Tragedy,
"Ormond Grovesnor." Act IV.
T was a brilliant, frosty morning when I left Camden to visit the scenes of some of the exploits of Marion and his partisan compatriots. Soon after crossing the Big Swift and Rafting Creeks, we reached the high hills of Santee, whereon General Greene encamped before and after the battle at the Eutaw Springs. They extend southward, in Sumter District, from the Kershaw line, twenty-two miles, parallel with the Wateree. They are immense sand hills, varying in width on the summit from one to five miles, and are remarkable for the salubrity of the atmosphere and for medicinal springs. Just at sunrise, while swiftly skirting the base of these hills, with the Wateree Swamp between us and the river on the west, we saw the sharp pencilings of the few scattered houses ol Statesburg against the glowing eastern sky.