Columbia, founded within these twenty years, is the seat of government for the state of South Carolina. {273} It is built about two hundred fathoms from the Catabaw River, upon an uniform spot of ground. The number of its houses does not exceed two hundred; they are almost all built of wood, and painted grey and yellow; and although there are very few of them more than two stories high, they have a very respectable appearance. The legislature, formed by the union of the delegates of different counties that send them in a number proportionate to their population, meet there annually on the first of December, and all the business is transacted in the same month; it then dissolves, and, except at that time, the town derives no particular advantage from being the seat of government.
The inhabitants of the upper country, who do not approve of sending their provisions to Charleston, stop at Columbia, where they dispose of them at several respectable shops established in the town.
The river Catabaw, about twenty fathoms broad, is only navigable during the winter; the rest of the year its navigation is stopped by large rocks that intercept {274} its course. They have been, nevertheless, at work for these several years past in forming a canal to facilitate the descent of the boats, but the work goes on very slowly for the want of hands, although the workmen are paid at the rate of a dollar per day.
Columbia is about a hundred and twenty miles from Charleston; for the whole of this space, and particularly from Orangeburgh, composed of twenty houses, 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
