The State of Maryland lies next in succession southward; to the east and south, the waters of the Atlantic and the Potomac River wash its fertile shores. About 40,000 white men here held 60,000 of their negro brethren in toilsome slavery, and enriched themselves by the fruits of this unholy labor. Tobacco, large in quantity and good in quality, was the staple produce of the country. The capital, Annapolis, was beautifully situated on the banks of the Patuxent River. South of the River Potomac and west of Chesapeake Bay, the State of Virginia stretches inland to the Allegany Mountains. This rich province produced corn and every kind of fruit in abundance; the forests were of great extent and value, and supplied much good timber for exportation; flax, hemp, tar, and iron were also produced in some quantity, but, as in Maryland, the principal wealth of the country was in tobacco, cultivated by the labor of nearly 100,000 slaves. The white population numbered about 70,000. The magnificent Bay of Chesapeake extended through this territory for nearly 300 miles from south to north, and received many considerable streams at both sides. However, no commercial town of any great importance had grown up on the shores of these navigable waters. The Carolinas, bounded to the north by Virginia, extend along the Atlantic coast for upward of 400 miles, and stretch westward 300 miles into the interior of the vast continent. They are divided into two provinces, the North and the South; the first the more populous, richer in production, more advanced in commerce and prosperity. Here, as the tropics are approached, the sultry climate favors the cultivation of rice, indigo, and tobacco: great numbers of slaves labored in the fertile swamps, and beautiful but unhealthy valleys of these states, enriching the ruling race by their lives of unrequited toil. We do not find any exact record of the population at the time of which we treat, but that of both the Carolinas was probably not less than 260,000; of these more than one half were whites. Georgia, the most southern of the British settlements in America, skirts the Atlantic shore for about sixty miles, and includes the whole extent of the Western country to the Apalachian Mountains, nearly 300 miles away, widening gradually to 150 miles in breadth. To the south lay the Spanish limits, marked by the River Altamaha, and the deserted fort of San Augustin. At this time the province was thinly peopled, its resources little known, and its luxuriant savannas still wasted their exuberant fertility in rank vegetation and pestilential decay. The inhabitants, however, raised some quantities of rice and indigo, and had even made progress in the culture of silk. At Augusta, the second town in importance, situated 200 miles in the interior, a profitable fur trade was established with the Cherokees, and other comparatively civilized Indians.