away, remained, nearly all of whom were more or less seized with the prevailing disease. The negroes, with very few exceptions, escaped.
"Amidst the desolation and gloom pervading the deserted streets, there was a feature that showed our slaves in a favourable light. There were entire blocks of houses, which were either entirely deserted—the owners in many instances having, in their flight, forgotten to lock them up—or left in charge of the servants. A finer opportunity for plunder could not be desired by thieves; and yet the city was remarkable, during the time, for order and quietness. There were scarcely any robberies committed, and as regards fires, so common in the winter, none! Every householder, whose premises had escaped the fury of the late terrific storm, found them in the same condition he had left them. Had not the yellow fever scared away or killed those suspicious characters, whose existence is a problem, and who prowl about every city, I fear that our city might have been laid waste. Of the whole board of directors of five banks, three or four remained, and these at one time were sick. Several of the clerks were left, each in the possession of a single one. For several weeks it was difficult to get anything to eat; the bakers were either sick or dead. The markets closed, no countryman dared venture himself into the city with the usual supplies for the table, and the packets had discontinued their trips. I shall stop, otherwise I could fill a volume with the occurrences and incidents of the dismal period of the epidemic."
On most of the large rice plantations which I have seen in
this vicinity, there is a small chapel, which the negroes call
their prayer-house. The owner of one of these told me that,
having furnished the prayer-house with seats having a back-rail,
his negroes petitioned him to remove it, because it did
not leave them room enough to pray. It was explained to
me that it is their custom, in social worship, to work themselves
up to a great pitch of excitement, in which they yell
and cry aloud, and finally, shriek and leap up, clapping their
hands and dancing, as it is done at heathen festivals. The
back-rail they found to seriously impede this exercise.
Mr. X. told me that he had endeavoured, with but little success, to prevent this shouting and jumping of the negroes at their meetings on his plantation, from a conviction that there was not the slightest element of religious sentiment in it. He considered it to be engaged in more as an exciting
