[Columbia, now the seat of government for the state of South Carolina, is situated below the confluence of the Broad and Saluda Rivers. It is laid out on a regular plan, the streets intersecting each other at right angles. The buildings are erected at the distance of about three quarters of a mile from the Cangaree River, on a ridge of high land, three hundred feet above the level of the water. In 1808, Columbia contained about one hundred and fifty houses. Vineyards, cotton, and hemp-plantations are successfully cultivated in its vicinity; and oil-mills, rope walks, and some other manufactories have been established here.]
The distance from Columbia to Charleston is about a hundred and twenty miles; and, through the whole of this space, the road crosses an even country, sandy and dry during the summer, whilst in the autumn and winter, it is so covered with water that, in several places, for the space of eight or ten miles, the horses are up to their middle. Every two or three miles there were, by the side of the road, miserable log-houses, surrounded by little fields of Indian corn.
The extreme unwholesomeness of the climate is shown by the pale and livid countenances of the inhabitants, who, during the months of September and October, are almost all affected with tertian fevers. Very few persons take any remedy for this complaint: they merely wait the approach of the first frosts, which, if they live so long, generally effect a cure.
M. Michaux arrived at Charleston on the eighteenth of October, 1802, three months and a half after his departure from Philadelphia, having, in that time, travelled over a space of nearly eighteen hundred miles.
Eleventh Day's Instruction.
UNITED STATES CONTINUED.
A Description of Charleston, and of some places in the adjacent parts of
Carolina and Georgia.
Charleston is situated at the conflux of the rivers Ashley and Cooper. The ground that it occupies is about a mile in length. From the middle of the principal street the two rivers might be clearly seen, were it not for a public edifice, built upon the banks of the Cooper, which intercepts the view. The most populous and commercial part of the town is situated along the Ashley. Several ill-constructed quays project into the river, to facilitate the trading-vessels taking in their cargoes. These quays are formed of the trunks of palm-trees, fixed together, and laid out in squares, one above another. The streets of Charleston are wide, but not paved; consequently, every time the foot slips, from a kind of brick pavement before the doors, it is immersed, nearly ancle deep, in sand. The rapid and almost incessant motion of carriages grinds this moving sand, and pulverizes it in such a manner, that the most gentle wind fills the shops with it, and renders it very disagreeable to foot-passengers. The principal streets extend east and west between the two rivers, and others intersect these nearly at right angles.
From its exposure to the ocean, this place is subject to storms and inundations, which affect the security of its harbour. The town also has suffered much by fires. The last, in 1796, destroyed upwards of five hundred houses, and occasioned damage to the amount of £.300,000 sterling.