customers, although they would some time since have sold for double and triple that amount. Saw a large venomous Mocoson. Slept this night 68 miles from Columbia; a dreadful tempest, all night, almost equal to that of yesterday. I found my bed alive with bugs, fleas, and other vermin; rose at two, a. m., to shake myself, and enjoy a sort of respite from these creeping, tormenting bedfellows. On opening my window, I was annoyed by frogs innumerable, of two species; some loudly whistling or chattering, like English sparrows at pairing-time; others, bitterly lamenting, like thousands of chickens deserted by their mother hens; others, bellowing like cows in sorrow for weaning calves. This confusion from within and from without, from above and from below, spoiled my night's rest, and seemed to carry me back a few scores of centuries, {71} into Egyptian plagues. I was not a little pleased and surprised to find that none of my restless bedfellows accompanied me.
31st. I started at three this morning. Noticing during the preceding day, a large number of young naked negroes, male and female, all very healthy; I praised their appearance. A gentleman, standing by, seemed to enjoy and take that praise to himself. "They are mine, sir," said he, meaning that he had bred them. "I treat them well. When hungry, I feed them; when sick, I send for a doctor for them. My care over them is money well spent. As to clothing, you see they want none." We changed horses and stopped half an hour at Mrs. Chandler's mail-house. At eight o'clock, this evening, I once more found myself at the Planter's hotel, to sleep in a bed without a mosquito net, and to rise, growling at my old negro chamberlain and landlady. Saw, during the day, moss hanging in large ropy lengths from the forest trees down to the
