CHARLESTON, the capital city of South Carolina, one of the United States of America, is situated on a tongue of land, formed by the confluence of the rivers Ashley and Cooper. These two streams, short in their course, but wide and navigable, unite immediately below the city, and form a spacious and convenient harbour, communicating with the ocean below Sullivan's island, which it leaves on the north, seven miles southward of Charleston. A sand-bank at the mouth of this harbour, extending flout shore to shore, is very dangerous to ves sels, particularly Nvheti the wind blows strung into the harbour. It is conipos•d of hard sand ; but has lour openings, by which vessels are navigated across it. The deepest of those openings has fourteen feet of water when the tide flows, and twelve feet when it has ebbed ; in spring tides it is covered to the depth of twenty feet. Immediately before this bank there is excellent ancho rage ground, of which, however, ships seldom venture to avail themselves, unless the wind be faint, and the billows moderate. From the sand-bank tip to Charles ton, the anchorage is good, and is best in the immediate vicinity of the town.
Charleston was founded in the year 1680, by the first g•oupe or colonists who emigrated from England to South Carolina. They had landed about the year 1670, near Port-Royal, from which they removed in the fol lowing year to the western banks of Ashley river. There they laid the foundation of a WWII, the site of which still retains the nanie of Old Charleston; but finding it inac cessible to large vessels, they renounced it for Oyster Point, where they founded the present city. In the con struction of the houses of Charleston, the first object of attention is to moderate the excessive heat. For this purpose, the windows are made open; the doors pass through both sides of the houses; the upper part of the house is sheltered by large galleries front the rays of the sun, and only the cooling north-east wind is admitted to blow through the rooms. In the formation of the streets, less attention has been paid to the peculiarities of cli mate and situation. The principal streets extend in a straight line from river to river, and thus open agreeable prospects to the cast and west. These streets are inter
sected by others nearly at right angles, dividing the town into a number of squares, which have dwelling houses in front, and olliee-houses and small gardens be hind. In general, however, they are most uncomfort ably narrow ; and the pernicious effects resulting from the want of a free circulation of air in that burning cli mate, are greatly increased by the slovenly negligence of the inhabitants. Cleanliness is not much attended to either in the houses or in the streets; and the burying grounds in the midst of the town frequently present the disgusting spectacle of carcases uninterred. Fortu nately the deficiency of the police is in some measure remedied by the voracity of the turkey buzzard, which devours the carcase before it has time to petrify ; and the inhabitants regard with a kind of veneration the useful bird, which thus saves them the trouble of being cleanly.
Fire, whose ravages, though dreadful at the time, often contribute essentially to the improvement of ill built towns, has been extremely useful in this respect to Charleston. At various times, whole streets have been burned to the ground; and have always been re placed by others more spacious and elegant. Several of the modern streets, too, are as wide as any in the world ; and experience will certainly teach the inhabitants the necessity of greater attention to their own comforts. The houses, though mean in their external appearance, are in general commodious and well furnished. Some of those recently built can even boast of a degree of ele gance. The most remarkable public buildings are an exchange, a state-house, an armoury, a poor-house, and an hospital for orphans.
The site of Charlc stun, though originally a me re quag mire, is now drier and more elevated than any odic r part of the low country of South Carolina. This sa lutary change has been effected, partly by draining, and partly by the accumulation of ofl'als and rubbish. Creeks and ponds have been converted into solid land, an(I af ford 110W firm and dry foundations for extensive streets.