The Bays, Formed By The Current, Are Choked With Palmetto And Other Trees, And Teem With Alligators, Water-Snakes, And Freshwater Turtle, The Former Basking In The Sun In Conscious Security.

Overhead, pelicans, paroquets, and numberless other

"Strange bright birds on their starry wings, Bear the rich hues of all glorious things;"

while the gorgeous magnolia, in luxuriant bloom, and a thousand other evergreens, on shore, vie with voluptuous aquatic flowers to bewilder and delight the astonished traveller, accustomed hitherto only to the more unassuming productions of the sober north. Everything here was new, strange, and solemn. The gigantic trees, encircled by enormous vines, and heavily shrouded in grey funereal moss, mournfully waving in the breeze - the doleful night-cry of the death-bird and the whip-poor-will - the distant bugle of the advancing boats - the moan of the turbid current beneath - the silent and queenly moon above, appearing nearer, larger, and brighter than in our cooler latitudes - the sultry atmosphere - and most of all, perhaps, the sense of the near vicinity of death in this infected region - oppressed my spirit with an ominous feeling of solemnity and awe.

As we passed the plantations which here and there varied the scene, gangs of negroes could be seen at labour - their sturdy overseers, of ruffianly mien, prowling sulkily about, watching every motion of the bondsmen, whip in hand; which weapon they applied with the most wanton freedom, as if the poor sufferers were as destitute of physical sensation, as they themselves were of moral or humane feeling.

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