Waiting for the ferry boat to carry me over, I walked almost round the under side of the bluff, betwixt its steep wall and the water of the river, which glided rapidly under my feet. I came to the carcase of a calf, which the people told me had fallen down from the edge of the precipice above, being invited too far by grass and sweet herbs, which they say frequently happens at this place. In early times, the Carolinians had a fort, and kept a good garrison here as a frontier and Indian trading post, but Augusta superceding it, this place was dismantled, and since that time, which probably cannot exceed thirty years, the river hath so much encroached upon the Carolina shore, that its bed now lies where the site of the fort then was; indeed some told me that the opposite Georgia shore, where there is now a fine house and corn field, occupies the place.
The site of Augusta is perhaps the most delightful and eligible of any in Georgia for a city. An extensive level plain on the banks of a fine navigable river, which has its numerous sources in the Cherokee mountains, a fruitful and temperate region, whence after roving and winding about those fertile heights, they meander through a fertile hilly country, and one after another combine in forming the Tugilo and Broad rivers, and then the famous Savanna river; thence they continue near an hundred miles more, following its meanders and falls over the cataracts at Augusta, which cross the river at the upper end of the town. These falls are four or five feet perpendicular height in the summer season when the river is low. From these cataracts upwards, this river with all its tributaries, as Broad river, Little river, Tugilo, &c. is one continued rapid, with some short intervals of still water, navigable for canoes. But from Augusta downwards to the ocean, a distance of near three hundred miles by water, the Savanna uninterruptedly flows with a gentle meandring course, and is navigable for vessels of twenty or thirty tons burthen to Savanna, where ships of three hundred tons lie in a capacious and secure harbour.
Augusta thus seated at the head of navigation, and just below the conflux of several of its most considerable branches, without a competitor, commands the trade and commerce of vast fruitful regions above it, and from every side to a great distance; and I do not hesitate to pronounce as my opinion, will very soon become the metropolis of Georgia.[[47]]
I chose to take this route up Savanna river, in preference to the straight and shorter road from Charleston to the Cherokee country by fort Ninety Six, because by keeping near this great river, I had frequent opportunities of visiting its steep banks, vast swamps and low grounds, and had the advantage without great delay, or deviating from the main high road, of observing the various soils and situations of the countries through which this famous river pursues its course, and of examining the various productions, mineral, vegetable and animal; whereas had I pursued the great trading path by Ninety-Six, I should have been led over a high, dry, sandy and gravelly ridge, and a great part of the distance an old settled or resorted part of the country, and consequently void of the varieties of original or novel productions of nature.
Before I leave Augusta, I shall recite a curious phenomenon, which may furnish ample matter for philosophical discussion to the curious naturalists. On the Georgia side of the river, about fifteen miles below Silver Bluff, the high road crosses a ridge of high swelling hills of uncommon elevation, and perhaps seventy feet higher than the surface of the river. These hills, from three feet below the common vegetative surface, to the depth of twenty or thirty feet, are composed entirely of fossil oyster shells, internally of the colour and consistency of clear white marble; the shells are of an incredible magnitude, generally fifteen or twenty inches in length, from six to eight wide and two to four in thickness, and their hollows sufficient to receive an ordinary man’s foot; they appear all to have been opened before the period of petrefaction, a transmutation they seem evidently to have suffered; they are undoubtedly very ancient or perhaps antideluvian. The adjacent inhabitants burn them to lime for building, for which purpose they serve very well; and would undoubtedly afford an excellent manure when their lands require it, these hills being now remarkably fertile. The heaps of shells lie upon a stratum of yellowish sandy mould, of several feet in depth, upon a foundation of soft white rocks that has the outward appearance of free-stone, but on strict examination is really a testaceous concrete or composition of sand and pulverised sea shells; in short, this testaceous rock approaches near in quality and appearance to the Bahama or Bermudian white rock.
These hills are shaded with glorious Magnolia grandiflora, Morus rubra, Tilia, Quercus, Ulmus, Juglans, &c. with aromatic groves of fragrant Callicanthus Floridus, Rhododendron ferrugineum, Laurus Indica, &c. Æsculus pavia, Cornus Florida, Azalea coccinea, Philadelphus inodorous and others; but who would have expected to see the Dirca palustris and Dodecathean meadea grow in abundance in this hot climate! it is true they are seen in the rich and deep shaded vales, between the hills and North exposure; but they attain to a degree of magnitude and splendour never seen in Pennsylvania.
[46] Pinus palutstris, Linn. the long leaved Pitch Pine, or yellow Pine.
[47] A few years after the above remark, the seat of government was removed from Savanna to Augusta.
CHAPTER II.
After conferring with gentlemen in Augusta, conversant in Indian affairs, concerning my future travels in those distant, unexplored regions, and obtaining letters to their agents in the Indian territories, I set off, proceeding for Fort James Dartmouth, at the confluence of Broad River with Savanna, the road leading me near the banks of the river for the distance of near thirty miles, crossing two or three of its considerable branches, besides rivulets and smaller brooks. The surface of the land uneven, by means of ridges or chains of swelling hills and corresponding vales, with level downs; the soil a loose, greyish-brown loamy mould on the hills, but darker and more cohesive and humid in the vales and downs; this superficial, vegetative earth, covers a deep stratum of very tenacious yellowish clay: the downs afford grass and various herbage; the vales and hills, forest trees and shrubs of various tribes, i. e. Quercus tinctoria, Q. alba, Q. rubra, Q. lobata, Acer rubrum, A. Saccharinum, A. glaucum, Morus rubra, Gleditsia triacanthus, Juglans hickory, various species, Quercus phillos, Quer. dentata, s. hemispherica, Quercus aquatica, or Maryland Water Oak, Ulmus sylvatica, Liriodendron, Liquidambar, Diospyros, Cornus Florida, Prunus Indica, Prunus padus and Æsculus pavia; and near water courses in the vales, Stewartia malachodendron, Halesia, Æsculus sylvatica, Styrax, Carpinus, Magnolia acuminata, Mag. tripetala, Mag. auriculata, Azalea, &c. The rich humid lands in the vales bordering on creeks and bases of the hills, likewise produce various trees, shrubs and plants, as Cercis, Corylus, Ptelea, Evonimus, Philadelphus inodorous, Staphylea trifoliata, Chionanthus, Hamamelis, Callicarpa, Sambucus, Cornus alba, Viburnum dentatum, Spirea opulifolia, Cornus sanguinea, Cephalanthus, &c. and of herbaceæ a vast variety and abundance, as Verbesina, Rudbeckia, Phaseolus, Tripsacum, Aconitum napellus, Delphinium, Angelica lucida, Tradescantia, Trillium fessile, Trillium cernuum, Actæa, Chelone, Glycine apios, Convalliaria racemosa, Mediola, Carduus, Bidens frondosa, Arum triphyllum, Coreopsis alternifolia, Circæa, Commelina, Aster, Solidago, Eupatorium, Helianthus and Silphium, together with a variety of other tribes and species new to me. In the evening I arrived at Little river, and took up my quarters at a public house on its banks, near its confluence with the Savanna. This is a beautiful rapid water, about fifty yards over. On a branch of this river is situated the town of Wrightsborough.