Having taken leave of Monsieur Pecquet, whose excellent dinners had enhanced him in the opinion of the Doctor, we on the 22nd of September, 1798, went on board, and bade adieu to Philadelphia, which was become a Golgotha.

The vessel having hauled out into the stream, we weighed with a fair wind, and shaped our course down the serpentine, but beautiful river of the Delaware. Our cabin was elegant, and the fare delicious. I observed the Doctor's eyes brighten at the first dinner we made on board, who expressed to me a hope that we might be a month on the passage, as he wished to eat out the money the captain had charged him.

The first night the man at the helm fell asleep, and the tide hove the vessel into a cornfield, opposite Wilmington; so that when we went upon deck in the morning, we found our situation quite pastoral. We floated again with the flood-tide, and at noon let go our anchor before Newcastle.

It took us two days to clear the Capes. The banks of the Delaware had been extolled to me as the most beautiful in the world; but I thought them inferior to those of the Thames.

We were now at sea, bounding on the waves of the Atlantic. Of our passengers the most agreeable was an old French gentleman from St. Domingo. Monsieur Lartigue, to the most

perfect good breeding joined great knowledge
of mankind, and at the age of sixty had lost
none of his natural gaiety. It was impossible
to be dejected in the company of such a man.
If
any person sung on board, he would imme-
diately begin capering; and when the rest
were silent, he never failed to sing himself.

Nothing very remarkable happened in our passage, unless it be worthy of record that one morning the captain suffered his fears to get the better of his reason and mistook a Virginian sloop for a French privateer; and another day the mate having caught a dolphin, Mr. Lartigue exclaimed, Il faut qu'il soit ragouti.

After a passage of five days we came to an anchor in Rebellion Roads, from which we could plainly discern the spires and houses of Charleston; and the following day we stood towards Fort Johnson, which no vessels are suffered to pass without being examined.

Here the Port Physician came on board, with orders for us to perform quarantine a fortnight, to the great joy of the Doctor, who had not yet eaten half of what he wished to eat on board. Monsieur Lartigue had abundantly stocked himself with confitures and wine; and I doubt not but the Doctor still remembers the poignancy of his preserved cherries, and the zest of his claret.

CHAP. II.

Projects at Charleston.-Solemnity the Mask of Ignorance.-Interview with a Planter and his Lady. The Erudition of a Professor.-A new and desirable Acquaintance-College Toils.A Journey on foot from Charleston to Coosohatchie.

I LANDED at Charleston with Doctor De Bow, who had clad himself in his black suit, and though a young man, wore a monstrous pair of spectacles on his nose. Adieu jollity! adieu laughter! the Doctor was without an acquaintance on a strange shore, and he had no other friend but his Solemnity to recommend him. It was to no purpose that I endeavoured to provoke him to laughter by my remarks; the Physician would not even relax his risible muscles into a smile.

The Doctor was right. In a few days he contrived to hire part of a house in Union-street; obtained credit for a considerable quantity of drugs; and only wanted a chariot to equal the best Physician in Charleston.

The Doctor was in possession of a voluble tongue; and I furnished him with a few Latin phrases, which he dealt out to his hearers with an air of profound learning. He gen

erally concluded his speeches with Nullius addictus jurare in verba magistri! *

Wishing for some daily pursuit, I advertised in one of the papers for the place of Tutor in a respectable family; not omitting to observe that the advertiser was the translator of Buonaparte's Campaign in Italy. The editor of the Gazette assured me of an hundred applications; and that early the next morning I should not be without some. His predictions were verified; for the following day, on calling at the office, I found a note left from a Planter who lived a mile from the town, desiring me to visit him that afternoon at his house. I went thither accordingly. Every thing indicated opulence and ease. Mr. H- received me with the insolence of prosperity. You are, said he, the person who advertised for the place of Tutor in a respectable family? I answered with a bow.

Planter. What, Sir, are your qualifications? Tutor. I am competently skilled, Sir, in the Latin and French languages, not unacquainted with Greek, conversant with Geography, and accustomed to composition in my vernacular idiom.

Planter. But if you possess all that there learning, how comes it you could not get into some College, or School.

Tutor. Why, Sir, it is found even in Col[*Horace, Epist, I, 1, 14]

leges that dunces triumph, and men of letters are disregarded by a general combination in favour of dulness.

Planter. Can you drive well, Sir?*

Tutor. Drive, Sir, did you say? I really do not comprehend you.

Planter. I mean, Sir, can you keep your scholars in order?

Tutor. Yes, Sir, if they are left entirely to my direction.

Planter. Ah! that would not be. Mrs. H—————, who is a woman of extensive learning, (she lost a fine opportunity once of learning French, and only a few years ago could write the best hand of any lady in Charleston,) Mrs. H- would superintend your management of the school.

Tutor. Mrs. H, Sir, would do me honour.

Planter. Mrs. H, Sir, is in the real sense of the word, a woman of literature; and her eldest daughter is a prodigy for her age. She could tell at nine years old whether a pudding was boiled enough; and, now, though only eleven, can repeat Pope's Ode on Solitude by heart. Ah! Pope was a pretty poet;

The term drive, requires some little note explanatory to the English reader. No man forgets his original trade. An Overseer on a Plantation, who preserves subordination among the negroes, is said to drive well; and Mr. H- having once been an Overseer himself, the phrase very naturally predominated in his mind.