Daily national Democrat., 1858-09-15
DAILY DEMOCRAT
The Cemetery of BOnnventurn. at Sa-
Vannah, Georgia.
FROM CHAs. MACKAY's TRANSATLANTIC
SKETCHES.


ment in Turkey and Egypt, and whose
courtesies at Savannah gratefully re-
member, declared that he often thought
he was looking at Egypt when he looked
at this portion of Georgia. There were
the same climate, the same atmosphere.
the same soil, the same cultivation, and
a river offering the same characteristics
as the Nile. But of all the scenery in
and about Savanna the Cemetery of Bo-
naventura is the most remarkable.
There is nothing like it in America, or
perhaps in the world. Its melancholy
loneliness, once seen, can never be for
gotten. Dull, indeed, most be the ina
gination and cold the fancy of any one
who could wander through it's weird and
fairy avenues without being deeply i'm
pressed with its solemnity, and appro-
priateness for the last resting place for
the dead. One melancholy enthusiast, a
clergyman, weary Of his life, disgusted
with the world, with brain weakened
by long brooding over disappointed
affection, happened in an evil moment to
stray into this place. He had often med
itated suicide, and the insane desire took
possession of his mind with more than
its usual intensity as he fingered in this
solemn and haunted spot. For days
and nights he wandered about it and
through it, and at last determined, in
his melancholy frenzy, that to die for
the satisfaction of being buried in that
place would be the supremest happi-
ness the world could offer. He wrote
his last sad wishes upon piece of pa
per, left it upon tomb, and leaped in
to the Savannah river. His body was
discovered some days afterwards; but.
alas for the vanity of human wishes!
his dying request was not complied
with; and it was decided by the author
tiles that he should be buried in the
city of Savannah. So he died, as he
had lived, in vain
And why is the cemetery of Bona
ventura SO eminently beautiful? Let
me try to describe it. The plaoo was
formerly the country seat of an early set
tier, named Tatnall, one of the founders
of the colony of Georgia. This gentle
man, though he came to forest land
where trees were considered a nuisance,
admired the park-like beauty around the
great country mansions of the nobility
and gentry in his native England, and,
while every one else in the colony was
cutting down trees, made himself busy
in planting them. Having built himself
house on the estate Of Bonaventura,
he planted an avenue of carriage drive
leading up to its porch, and the tree he
chose for the purpose was the evergreen
oak, next to the cypress and the mag
nolia, the noblest tree in the southern
States of America. In due time, long
after the good mans death, the trees
attained commanding hight; and from
their boughs there hung down the long
feathery festoons of the tillandsia, or
Spanish moss, that lends such melan-
choly beauty to all the southern land
scape. In the shadow of the wild wood
around this place the Tatnalls are bu-
ried; but the mansion-house, which
was Of wood-as nearly all the rural
dwellings are in Georgia and the Caro-
linas-having taken fire one Christmas
evening, when large party were as
sembled, and being utterly destroyed,
with the sole exception of the chimneys
and little brickwork, the then owner
took dislike to the place, and never
rebuilt the dwelling The estate was
ultimately sold, and now belongs to
Mr.. Wiltberger, the proprietor of the
Pulaski House, at Savannah, who, find
ing the tomb-stones of the Tatnalls and
Others in the ground, had portion set
aside for the purposes of public Gem
etery, Never was place so beauti-
fully adapted by nature for the object
The mournful avenue of live oak, and
the equally mournful glades that pierce
on every side into the profuse and tan
gled wilderness, are all hung with the
funeral drapery of the tillandsia. To
those who have never seen this peculiar
vegetation it may be difficult to convey
an adequate idea of its sadness and love
liness. 1t looks as if the very trees,
instinct with life, had veled themselves
like mourrers at a grave or as if the
fogs and vapor from the marshes had
been soldiied by some stroke of cleo
tricity, and hung from the green trees
in paIpable wreaths, swinging and sway
ing to every motion of the winds. Not
urlike the effect produced by the tat
tered banners hung from the roofs of
Gothic cathedrals as trophies of war in
the olden time, or to mark the last rest
ing-paces of knights and mobiles, is the
effect of these long streamers pendant
from the overarching boughs of the
forest. Many of them are so long as
to trail upon the ground from a hight
Of twenty or thirty feet, and many of
the same length, dropping from the
topmost branches of oak and cypress,
dangle in mid air. What adds to the
awe inspired by the remarkable beauty
of this parasitic plant is the alleged fact
that wherever it hourishes the yellow
fever is from time to time visitant.
1t grows plentifully on the shores of the
lower Mississippi from Cairo to New
Orleans and throughout all Louisiana,
Alabama, Mississippi, Tennessee, Geor-
ga and South Carolina. In North Car