June 22d set out from fort Charlotte in company with Mr. Whitfield, who was chief of our caravan. We travelled about twenty miles, and lodged at the farm of Mons. St. Pierre, a French gentleman, who received and entertained us with great politeness and hospitality. The mansion-house is situated on the top of a very high hill near the banks of the river Savanna, overlooking his very extensive and well cultivated plantations of Indian Corn (Zea) Rice, Wheat, Oats, Indigo, Convolvulus Batata, &c. these are rich low lands, lying very level betwixt these natural heights and the river; his gardens occupy the gentle descent on one side of the mount, and a very thriving vineyard, consisting of about five acres, is on the other side.
Next morning after breakfast we set off again, continuing nine or ten miles farther down the river, when we stopped at a plantation, the property of one of our companions, where we were joined by the rest of the company. After dining here we prepared to depart; and the gentleman of the house taking an affectionate leave of his wife and children, we sat off again, and proceeding six miles farther down the river, we crossed over into Georgia, taking a road which led us into the great trading path from Augusta to the Creek nation. As the soil, situation and productions of these parts, for several days journey, differ very little from the Northern districts of Georgia, already recited, when on the survey of the New Purchase, I apprehend it needless to enter again into a detail of particulars, since it would produce but little more than a recapitulation of that journey.
Early in the evening of the 27th we arrived at the Flat-rock, where we lodged. This is a common rendezvous or camping-place for traders and Indians. It is an expansive clean flat or horizontal rock, but a little above the surface of the ground, and near the banks of a delightful rivulet of excellent water, which is one of the head branches of Great Ogeche: in the loose rich soil verging round this rock, grew several very curious herbaceous plants, particularly one of singular elegance and beauty, which I take to be a species of Ipomea (Ipomea, caule erecto, ramoso, tripedali, sol. radicalibus, pinnatifidis, linearibus, humi-stratis, florib. incarnatis intus maculis coccineis adsperso). It grows erect, three feet high, with a strong stem, which is decorated with plumed or pinnatifid linear leaves, somewhat resembling those of the Delphinium or Ipomea quamoclit; from about one half its length upwards, it sends out on all sides, ascendent branches which divide again and again; these terminate with large tubular or funnel-formed flowers; their limbs equally divided into five segments; these beautiful flowers are of a perfect rose colour, elegantly besprinkled on the inside of their petals with crimson specks; the flowers are in great abundance, and together with the branches and delicately fine cut leaves, compose a conical spike or compound pannicle. I saw a species of this plant, if not the very same, growing on the sea-coast islands near St. Augustine. The blue flowered Malva and Delphinium were its associates about the Flat-rock.
There are extensive cane brakes or cane meadows spread abroad round about, which afford the most acceptable and nourishing food for cattle.
This evening two companies of Indian traders from Augusta arrived and encamped near us; and as they were bound to the Nation, we concluded to unite in company with them, they generously offering us their assistance, having many spare horses and others lightly loaded, several of ours by this time being jaded: this was a favourable opportunity of relief in case of necessity.
Next morning as soon as the horses were packed and in readiness, we decamped and set forward together.
I thought it worthy of taking notice of a singular method the traders make use of to reduce the wild young horses to their hard duty. When any one persists in refusing to receive his load, if threats, the discipline of the whip, and other common abuse prove insufficient, after being haltered, a pack-horseman catches the tip end of one of his ears betwixt his teeth and pinches it, when instantly the furious strong creature, trembling, stands perfectly still until he is loaded.
Our caravan consisting of about twenty men and sixty horses, we made a formidable appearance, having now little to apprehend from predatory bands or out-laws.
This day’s journey was for the most part over high gravelly ridges, and on the most elevated hills appeared emerging out of the earth, rocky cliffs of a dark reddish brown colour; their composition seemed to be a coarse, sandy, ferruginous concrete, but so firmly cemented as to constitute a perfect hard stone or rock, and appeared to be excavated or worn into cavities and furrows by the violence of the dashing billows and rapid currents of the ocean, which heretofore probably washed them; there were however strata or veins in these rocks, of a finer composition and compact consistence, and seemed ponderous, rich iron ore. A little depth below the sandy gravelly surface lies a stratum of very compact reddish yellow clay and fragments of ochre. The trees and shrubs common on these gravelly ridges are as follows, Diospyros, Quercus rubra, Q. nigra, Q. tinctoria or great Black Oak, Q. alba, Q. lobata, post White Oak, Q. incana, foliis ovalibus integerrimis subtus incanis, Pinus lutea, Pinus tæda, foliis geminatis et trinis, strobilo ovato brevi, cortice rimoso, Pinus palustris, foliis trinis longissimis, strobilo elongato, Cornus Florida, Andromeda arborea, Nyssa sylvatica, Juglans hickory, Prunus padus, &c. Of herbacaæ, Solidago, Eupatorium Sylphium, Rudbeckia, Gerardia, Asclepias, Agave Virginica, Eryngium, Thapsia, Euphorbia, Polymnia, &c.
In the course of this day’s journey we crossed two considerable rivulets, running swiftly over rocky beds. There is some very good land on the gradual descents of the ridges and their bottoms bordering on creeks, and very extensive grassy savannas and cane meadows always in view on one hand or the other. At evening we came to camp on the banks of a beautiful creek, a branch of Great Ogeche, called Rocky Comfort, where we found excellent accommodations, here being pleasant grassy open plains to spread our beds upon, environed with extensive cane meadows, affording the best of food for our quadrupeds.