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151 1795. "soil which yields very fine cotton, almost all kinds of corn, and abundance of live oak, which is of so much value in ship building.

   "In that part of Georgia which borders on West Florida, there are many fields of rice along the rivers; particularly on the banks, and between the two branches of the Mobile.   Oaks of every kind, hickories, sassafras, mulberry and chesnut trees,  grow here in the greatest possible perfection.   There are few live-oaks and scarcely any cypresses or cedars.  The white pine grows here only; the spruce-fir is seldom seen.   It is said that the three branches of the river Alatamaha, with the island of St Simon which lies facing them, form the best, deepest, & safest harbor in the American coast, below the Chesapeak.  Few of the United States are destined to greater prosperity than Georgia.    But there must be hands to work this gold-mine; and their labour must be rendered valuable by good order, by respect for the government, and a due administration of the land.   These objects will certainly be accomplished sometime or other, but in the present state of things, it is difficult to fix upon the period when it shall come to pass.  The inhabitants of the back country are more idle, drunken, and disorderly, than those who reside in the back parts of any of the United States.   It is only to the government that these vices can be imputed.  Land which  produces rice, and is furnished with the buildings requisiite for its cultivation, fetches, when in good condition, from sixty to sixty five Dollars; and that which is not so, sells at seven or eight dollars.