This, however, is only of late date. The prices that were charged, and the profits realized, here in the earlier months, and even years, of the occupation, seem fabulous. One man, for example, has accumulated what would be regarded a handsome fortune, even in New York, who had to work his passage down here as a deck hand. He was a bankrupt merchant, honest, but penniless. He believed the fall of these islands would open a field for handsome trade, and came down, as a sailor, to see for himself. Returning, he told his creditors what he had seen; and they had faith enough in him to make up for him a stock of goods, which he sold out immediately, at such profit as to enable him to make subsequent purchases on his own account. He has paid off every dollar of his indebtedness, and is a wealthy man. Numerous stories of the kind are told; and it may be safely concluded that whoever would endure the dirty work involved in following the army as trader, has had almost unlimited opportunities before him. Speculation now busies itself about something more permanent. In spite of the fact that vessels find it hard to ride at anchor near Hilton Head during a storm, every effort is to be made to stimulate on its site the growth of a city. A newspaper is already published, which dilates on the magnificence of its future, and rebukes everybody who doesn’t call the place Port Royal (the name generally given to the great sheet of water constituting at once its harbor, that of Bay Point, and of one or two other places farther in), rather than Hilton Head. An immense wooden hotel is up, and nearly ready for the furniture, which is all stored here in advance, ready for the shoal of visitors expected with the return of cool weather. A railroad is projected nearly due north to Branchville, a distance of seventy to eighty miles, where it would connect with the whole railroad system of the South, and make Beaufort and Hilton Head absolutely independent of Charleston and Savannah. “Charleston can never have the trade of this coast again, you know; the North hates it too much, and, in fact, the port never ought to be opened again; and if we can only get this railroad connection, our harbor is so much finer than any other on the coast, that we will inevitably have the greatest city south of Baltimore.” Boston capitalists are said to stand ready to advance the money for the railroad, but where, in the absence of State Government, to get the authority to build it, is the question; and General Gillmore tells me he was appealed to, the other day, to know if he couldn’t declare it a military necessity.