Leaves Mobile on his return—proceeds with a company of traders for the Creek nation—his horse tires—is in great distress—meets a company of traders, of whom he purchases a fresh horse—Illicium groves—meets a company of emigrants from Georgia—great embarassment at a large creek swollen with late heavy rains—arrives at the banks of the Alabama—crosses it and arrives at Mucclasse—Indian marriage—serious reflections—perilous situation of the trader of Mucclasse—sets off for Otasse—describes the country contiguous to the Tallapoose river—plantations and towns—Coolome—Tuckabatche—crosses the river and arrives at Ottasse—rotunda and square—black drink—spiral fire—Sabbath or holy day to the Great Spirit—sets off with a company of traders for Georgia—Chehaw and Usseta, Creek towns on the Apalachucla river, almost join each other, yet the inhabitants speak two languages radically different—arrives at the Oakmulge—crosses the river in a portable leather boat—crosses the river Ocone—head branches of Great Ogeche—arrives at Augusta—takes leave of Augusta and his friends there, and proceeds for Savanna—list of Muscogulge towns and villages—conjectures concerning the rise of the Muscogulge confederacy.
Short excursion in the South of Georgia—makes collections—gathers seeds of two new and very curious shrubs.
Proceeds for Charleston—calls at a gentleman’s plantation—Adoe—Tannier—wild pigeons—Aster fruticosus—leaves Charleston, proceeds on his return home to Pennsylvania—crosses Cooper river, nine miles above the city—Long Bay—reefs of rocks—meets a gang of Negroes—passes the boundary-house—large savanna—Dionæa muscipula—old towns—Brunswick—the Clarendon or Cape Fear river—North West—Livingston’s creek—Wackamaw lake—Carver’s creek—Ashwood—various vegetable productions—cultivated vegetables—describes the face of the country on the banks of the North West and adjacent lands—strata of the earth or soil—rocks—petrifactions—ancient submarine productions &c.—leaves Ashwood, continues up the river—vast trunks of trees with their roots, stumps of limbs, with the bark on, turned into very hard stone—Rock-Fish creek—Cross Creeks—the rise, progress and present state of Cambelton—curious species of scandent Fern—Deep River—crosses Haw River—Meherren river in Virginia—Cucurbita lagenaria—curious species of Prinos—Alexandria—Georgetown—sudden fall of snow—extreme cold—crosses the river Susquehanna upon the ice—river Schuylkill—arrives at his father’s house, within three miles of Philadelphia.
[PART IV.]
Persons, character, and qualifications of the Aborigines—most perfect human figure—Muscogulge women—women of the Cherokees—arrogance of the Muscogulges, yet magnanimous and merciful to a vanquished enemy.
Government and civil society—constitution simply natural—the mico or king presides in the senate—elective—yet mysterious—the next man in dignity and power is the great war chief—entirely independent of the mico—his voice in council of the greatest weight concerning military affairs—the high priest a person of consequence, and maintains great influence in their constitution and councils of state—these Indians not idolaters—they adore the Great Spirit, the giver and taker away of the breath of life, with the most profound homage and purity—anecdote.