The Sun.
London, England, 1861-06-06 00:00:00

free, sometimes with disastrous consequences to
itself and to industry. But we will not make it
free. We cannot do so. We hold that slavery is
essential to our existence as producers of what
Europe requires ; nay more, we maintain it is in
the abstract right in principle ; and some of us go
so far as to maintain that the only proper form of
society, according to the law of God and the
exigencies of man, is that which has slavery as its
basis. As to the slave, he is happier far in his state
of servitude, more civilized and religious, than he is
or could be if free or in his native Africa.
I have already endeavoured to describe the por-
tion of the State through which I travelled, and the
aspect of Charlestown, and I will now proceed, at
the risk of making this letter longer than it should
be, to make a few observations on matters which
struck me during my visit to one or two of the
planters of the many who were kind enough to
give me invitations to their residences in the State.
Early one fine morning I started in a coasting
steamer to visit a plantation in the Pedee and
Maccamaw district, in the island coast of the State,
north of Charleston. The only source of uneasi-
ness in the minds of the party arose from the report
that the United States squadron was coming to block-
ade the port, which would have cut off our line of
retreat and compelled us to make a long detour and
a somewhat difficult journey by landing, seeing that
the roads are mere sand tracks, as the immense
number of rivers and creeks offers some excuse for
not improving the means of land communication.
Passing Sumter, on which men are busily engaged,
under the Confederate flag, in making good damages
and mounting guns, we put out a few miles to sea,
and with the low sandy shore, dotted with soldiers,
and guard-houses, and clumps of trees, on our left,
in a few hours pass the Santee river and enter an
estuary into which the Peedee and Maccamaw rivers
run a few miles fiiirther to the north-west. The arid,
barren, pine-covered sandhills which form the shores
of this estuary are guarded by rude batteries
mounted with heavy guns and manned by the State
troops, some of whom we can see strolling along
the beach, or, with arms glancing in the sunlight,
pacing up and down on their posts. On the left-
hand side there are said to be plantations, the sites
of which are marked by belts of trees, and after we
bad proceeded a few miles from the sea the steamer
ran alongside a jetty and a pier, which was crowded
by men in uniform waiting for the news and for
supplies of creature comforts. Ladies were canter-
ing along the fine hard beach, and some gigs and
taxcarts fully laden rolled along very much as one
sees them at Scarborough. The soldiers on the
pier were all gentlemen of the county. Some,
dressed in gray tunics and yellow facings, in high
felt hats and plumes and jack boots, would have
done no discredit in face, figure, and bearing to
the gayest cavaliers who ever thundered at the
heels of Prince Rupert. Their horses, full of Caro-
linan fire and mettle, stood picketed under the
trees along the margin of the beach. Among these
men who had been doing the duty of common
troopers in patrolling the seacoast were gentlemen
possessed of large estates and princely fortunes;
and one who stood among them was pointed out
to me as captain of a company for whose uses his
liberality provided unbounded daily libations of
champagne and the best luxuries which trench
ingenuity can safely imprison in those well-known
caskets with which Crimean warriors were not un-
acquainted at the close of the campaign. They
were eager for news, which was shouted out to them
by their friends in the steamer, and one was struck
by the intimate personal cordiality and familiar
acquaintance which existed among them. Three
heavy guns, mounted in an earthwork defended by
palisades, covered the beach and the landing-place,
and the garrison was to have been reinforced by a
regiment from Charleston, which, however, had not
got in readiness to go up on our steamer, owing to
some little difficulties between the volunteers,
their officers, and the Quartermaster• General's de-
partment.

I mention these particulars to give an idea of the
state of defence in which South Carolina holds
itself, for, unless Georgetown, which lies at the
head of this inlet, could be considered an object of
attack, one seeks in vain for any reason to induce
an enemy to make his appearance in this direction.
A march on Charleston by land would 1,0 au °Dor"'
tion of extreme difficulty, through a series of sand-
hills, alternating with marshes, water-courses, rivers,
and flooded ricefields. As to Georgetown, which we
have now reached, nothing can be said by way of
description more descriptive than the remark of its
inhabitants, that it was a finished town 100 years
ago. It is a dosy, sleepy, sandy, lifeless, strag-
gling village, with wooden houses drawn up in
right lines on the margins of great, straight, grass-
grown pathways, lined with trees, and known to
the natives as streets.
As the Nana approaches the tumbledown wharf
two or three citizens advance from the shade of
shaky sheds to welcome us, and a few country
vehicles and light phaetons are drawn forth from
the same shelter to receive the passengers, while
the negro boys and girls who have been playing
upon the bales of cotton and barrels of rice which
represent the trade of the place on the wharf,
take up commanding positions for the better ob-
servation of our proceedings. One or two small
yachts and coasting schooners are moored by the
banks of the broad full stream, the waters of
which we had previously crossed in our journey
from the dismal swamp. There is an air of quaint
simplicity and old-fashioned quiet about George-
town, refreshingly antagonistic to the bustle and
tumult of most American cities, and one can, with-
out much stretch of imagination, fancy the old
loyal burghers in cocked hats, smallswords, and
long square-cut sober suits, stalking solemnly down
its streets, rejoicing :in the progress of the city
which recalled the name of the King and the old
country, or hastening down to the river's side to
hear the tidings brought from home by the Bristol
barque that has just entered in the stream. Instead
thereof, however, there are tall, spare forms of
eager citizens bowed over their newspapers in the
shade before the bar-room, or the shuffling negro
delighting in the sunshine and kicking up the dust
in the centre of the road as he goes on his errand.
While waiting for our vehicle we enjoyed the hos-
pitality of one of our friends, who took us into :an
old-fashioned angular wooden mansion more than
a century old, still sound in every timber and testi-
' fying, in its quaint wainscotings and the rigid
framework of door and window, to the durability
of its cypress timbers and the preservative cha-
racter of the atmosphere. In early days it was the
crack house of the old settlement, and the resi-
dence of the founder of the female branch of the
family of our host, who now only makes it his
halting-place when passing to and fro between
Charleston and his plantation, leaving it the year
round in charge of an old servant. and her grand-
child. Rosetrees and flowering shrubs
in front,
before the porch and filledw en
theng
and the establishment gave One a good idea of a
London merchant's retreat about Chelsea a hun-
dred and fifty years ago.
At length we were ready for our
journey, and,
mounted in two light covered vehicles, proceeded
along the sandy track which, after a while, led us
tioleane*
cut,
deep in the bosom of the woods, where
sas only broken by the cry of a woodpecker,
the boom of a crane, or the sharp challenge of the
jay. For miles we passed through the shades of
this forest, meeting only two or three vehicles con-
taining female planterdom on little excursions of
pleasure or business, who smiled their welcome as
we passed. Not more than twice in a drive of
two hours did we come upon any settlement, or
get a view of any white man's plantation, and then
it was only when we had emerged from the wood
and got out upon the broad brown plains where
bunds and water-dykes and machinery for regulat-
ing the flooding of the land indicated the scenes of
labour. These settlements consisted of rows of
some ten or twelve quadrangular wooden sheds
supported upon bricks, so as to allow the air, the
children, and the chickens to play beneath ; some-
times with brickwork chimneys at the side, occa-
sionally with ruder contrivances of mud and wood-
work to serve the same purpose.
Arrived at a deep chocolate-coloured stream,
called Black River, full of fish and alligators,
Ise find a flat large
enough to accommodate
vehicles
auct pAtsengers, and propelled by two