interested in
discovering what crops could be most profitably raised there for export.
At that time rice was the one agricultural product, the others being
lumber, skins and naval stores.

Eliza, inheriting her father's love of farming, and having heard many
conversations on the subject, determined secretly after her father had
gone, to try some experiments herself and became much interested in
trying to raise indigo and ginger, with what results her letters
disclose. Little farmer that she was, her love of agriculture and of
nature then and always amounted to almost a passion, as it is easy to
see. Separated as she was from all her old friends, letters were a vital
medium of expressing to them what her new life held of work and play,
and the fragments which we can reprint here give a clear idea, not only
of the times in which she lived, but of Mistress Eliza herself.

To her brother George she writes, telling of the new country and life in
this fashion:--

I am now set down my Dear Brother to obey your
commands, and give you a short discription of the
part of the world which I now inhabit. So.
Carolina then, is a large and Extensive Country
near the Sea. Most of the settled parts of it is
upon a flat--the soil near Charles Town Sandy, but
farther distant clay and swamp land. It abounds
with fine navigable rivers and great quantities of
fine timber. The country at great distance, that
is to say about a hundred or a hundred and fifty
miles from Charles Town, very hilly. The soil in
general very fertile, and there is very few
European or American fruits or grain but what grow
here. The country abounds with wild fowl, Venison
and fish, Beaf, veal and mutton are here in much
greater perfection than in the Islands, tho' not
equal to that in England--but their pork exceeds
the wild, and indeed all the poultry is exceeding
good, and peaches, Nectrins and mellons of all
sorts extremely good, fine and in profusion, and
their Oranges exceed any I ever tasted in the West
Indies or from Spain or Portugal.

The people in general--hospitable and honest, and
the better sort and to these a polite gentile
behaviour. The poorer sort are the most indolent
people in the world