A Discourse Concerning the Design'd Establishment of a New Colony to the South of Carolina/A Description of the Country
A Description of the Country.
IT lies about the 31st and 32d Degree of Northern Latitude, is bounded Eastward by the great Atlantick Sea, To the West by a Part of the Apalachian Mountains, and to the North and South by the two great Rivers, mention'd in the Grant.
In the Maps of North America it may be taken Notice of, how well this Country lies for Trade with all our Colonies, and in Regard to every other Prospect, which can make a Situation healthy, profitable, lovely, and inviting; Florida, of which it is a Part, receiv'd that Name from its delightful, florid, and agreeable Appearance.
It has been commonly observ'd, that gay Descriptions of new Countries raise a Doubt of their Sincerity. Men are apt to think the Picture drawn beyond the Life, to serve the Interest of the Representer: To shun the Prejudice of this Opinion, whatever shall be said upon the Subject here, is all extracted from our English Writers, who are very numerous, and universally agree, that Carolina, and especially in its Southern Bounds, is the most amiable Country of the Universe That Nature has not bless'd the World with any Tract, which can be preferable to it, that Paradise with all her Virgin Beauties, may be modestly suppos'd at most but equal to its Native Excellencies.
It lies in the same Latitude with Palestine Herself, That promis'd Canaan, which was pointed out by God's own Choice, to bless the Labours of a favourite People; It abounds with Rivers, Woods, and Meadows. Its gentle Hills are full of Mines, Lead, Copper, Iron, and even some of Silver; 'Tis beautiful with odorderous Plants, green all the Year, Pine, Cedar, Cypress, Oak, Elm, Ash, or Walnut, with innumerable other Sorts, both Fruit or Timber Trees grow every where so pleasantly that tho’ they meet at Top, and shade the Traveller, they are at the same Time, so distant in their Bodies, and so free from Underwood, or Bushes, that the Deer, and other Game, which feed in Droves along these Forests, may he often seen near half a MiLe between them.
The Air is healthy, and the Soil in general fruitful, and of infinite Variety; Vines, naturally flourishing upon the Hills, bear Grapes in most luxurant Plenty. They have every Growth, which we possess in England, and almost every Thing that England wants besides. The Orange, and the Limon thrive in the same common Orchard with the Apple, and the Pear-Tree, Plumbs, Peaches, Apricots, and Nectarins, bear from Stones in three Years growing. The Planters raise large Orchards of these Fruits to feed their Hogs with; Wheat Ears have been measur'd there seven Inches long, and they have Barly, Beans, Pease, Rice, and all our Grains, Roots, Herbs, and Flowers not to speak of Numbers of their own, which we can find no Names for; Beef, Mutton, Pork, Tame Poultry, Wild Fowl, Sea and River Fish, are all there Plentiful, and most at lower Rates, than in the cheapest Parts of Wales, or Scotland.
The many Lakes, and pretty Rivulets throughout the Province, breed a Multitude of Geese, and other Water Fowl; The Air is found so temperate, and the Seasons of the Year so very regular, that there is no Excess of Heat, or Cold, nor any sudden Alterations in the Weather; The River Banks are cover'd with a strange Variety of lovely Trees, which being always green, present a thousand Landskips to the Eye, so fine, and so diversified, that the Sight is entirely charm'd with them; the Ground lies sloping towards the Rivers, but, at a Distance rises gradually, and intermingles like Hills of Wood with fruitful Plains, all cover'd over with wild Flowers, and not a Tree to interrupt the Prospect: Nor is this tempting Country yet inhabited, except those Parts in the Possession of the English, unless by here and there a Tribe of wandering Indians, wild and ignorant, all artless, and uncultivated, as the Soil, which fosters them.