CAROLINA AND GEORGIA.

This article is extracted from SALMON’S Modern History, Vol.  III. page 770, 4th edition; where it is introduced in these words:  “The following pages are an answer from General OGLETHORPE to some inquiries made by the author, concerning the State of Carolina and Georgia.”

ACCOUNT OF CAROLINA AND GEORGIA.

Carolina is part of that territory which was originally discovered by Sir Sebastian Cabot.  The English now possess the sea-coast from the river St. John’s, in 30 degrees, 21 minutes north latitude.  Westward the King’s charter declares it to be bounded by the Pacific ocean.

Carolina is divided into North Carolina, South Carolina, and Georgia; the latter is a province which his Majesty has taken out of Carolina, and is the southern and western frontier of that province, lying between it and the French, Spaniards, and Indians.

The part of Carolina that is settled, is for the most part a flat country.  All, near the sea, is a range of islands, which breaks the fury of the ocean.  Within is generally low land for twenty or twenty-five miles, where the country begins to rise in gentle swellings.  At seventy or eighty miles from the sea, the hills grow higher, till they terminate in mountains.

The coast of Georgia is also defended from the rage of the sea by a range of islands.  Those islands are divided from the main by canals of salt water, navigable for the largest boats, and even for small sloops.  The lofty woods growing on each side of the canals, make very pleasant landscapes.  The land, at about seven or eight miles from the sea, is tolerably high; and the further you go westward, the more it rises, till at about one hundred and fifty miles distance from the sea, to the west, the Cherokee or Appallachean mountains begin, which are so high that the snow lies upon them all the year.

This ridge of mountains runs in a line from north to south, on the back of the English colonies of Carolina and Virginia; beginning at the great lakes of Canada, and extending south, it ends in the province of Georgia at about two hundred miles from the bay of Appallachee, which is part of the Gulf of Mexico.  There is a plain country from the foot of these mountains to that sea.

The face of the country is mostly covered with woods.  The banks of the rivers are in some places low, and form a kind of natural meadows, where the floods prevent trees from growing.  In other places, in the hollows, between the hillocks, the brooks and streams, being stopt by falls of trees, or other obstructions, the water is penned back.  These places are often covered with canes and thickets and are called, in the corrupted American dialect, swamps.  The sides of the hills are generally covered with oaks and hickory, or wild walnuts, cedar, sassafras, and the famous laurel tulip, which is esteemed one of the most beautiful