s, Daltha, Coosa, Morgan, Chissolm, Williams
Harbor, Kings, Cahoussue, Fording, Barnwell, Whale, Delos, Hall, Lemon,
Barrataria, Lopes, Hoy, Savage, Long, Round, and Jones Islands. These
are from one to ten miles in length, and usually a proportional half in
width. St. Helena is over twenty miles in extent, and could well support
an agricultural population of twenty thousand. Port Royal is next in
size, but, being of a more sandy formation, is not so fertile. These
islands are all of an alluvial formation,--the result of the action of
the rivers and the sea. There is no rock of any kind, not even a pebble
stone, to be found in the whole district.

The soil of these islands is composed mostly of a fine sandy loam, very
easily cultivated. In most of them are swamps and marshes, which serve
to furnish muck and other vegetable deposits for fertilizing; but the
idea of furnishing anything to aid the long over-worked soil seems to
these proprietors like returning to the slave some of the earnings taken
from him or his ancestors, and is seldom done till nature is at last
exhausted, and then it is allowed only a few years' repose. Situated
under the parallel of 32 deg., there is scarcely a product grown in our
country, of any value, that can not be produced here. Previous to the
Revolution the principal staple for market was indigo, and that raised
in this district always commanded the highest price. It was from the
proceeds of this plant that the planters were enabled for a long period
to purchase slaves and European and northern American productions. Soon
after the Revolution their attention was turned to cotton; but the
difficulty of separating it from the seed seemed to make it impossible
to furnish it in any profitable quantity, for so slow was the process
then followed that, with the utmost diligence, a negro could not, by
hand labor, clean over a few pounds per day. The genius of Whitney,
however, opened a new era to the cotton planters, who were much more
eager to avail themselves of his invention than to remunerate him. It
was soon perceived that the cotton raised on these islands was far
superior to that produced in the interior, which is still called Upland,
only to distinguish it from the 'Sea Island.' It was also noticed that
while the common variety produced a seed nearly green with a rough skin,
the seed of the islands soon became black with a smooth skin; the effect
entirely of location and climate, as it soon re