We soon reached the more populated
districts, without being molested by the Indians. Here they had
committed sad devastations; we saw many farms without occupants, the
holders having been either murdered by midnight assassins, or having
fled in alarm. Adjoining these habitations, we found line peach
orchards, teeming with fruit of the richest description, which lay in
bushels on the ground, and with which we regaled ourselves. Enclosed
maize fields overgrown with brambles, and cotton fields with the gins
and apparatus for packing the produce in bales for the market, presented
to the eye the very picture of desolation.
Owing to cross roads we were at one time completely at fault, and there
being no house in sight, I volunteered to ride off to the right and
endeavour to obtain the information we were in need of. After riding
about half-a-mile, I heard voices through a road-side coppice, which I
took to be those of field-hands at work; going farther on I dismounted,
and climbing the zigzag rail fence approached a negro at work in the
field.
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