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THE
WESTOVER MANUSCRIPTS:
CONTAINING
THE HISTORY OF THE DIVIDING LINE
BETWIXT VIRGINIA AND NORTH CAROLINA, ^t T^
A JOURNEY TO THE LAND OF EDE,N«5^kr^g<^733 ;
AND
A PROGRESS TO THE MINES.
WRITTEN FROM 1218 TO mii, AND N04V FIRST PUBLISUED.
BY WILLIAM BYRD,
OP WESTOVER.
PETERSBURG : I'RINTED BY EDMUND AND .IHLIAN ('. KUFKIN.
18dl
A'
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Entered, according to act of congress, in the year 1841, by Edmund Rdffin, in the Clerk's office of the District Court of the Eastern District of Virginia.
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EDITOR'S PREFACE.
The manuscripts of Col. William Byrd, of Westover, the father of the last proprietor of the same name, of different dates from 1728 to 1736, are con- tained in a large folio volume bound in parchment, which has been carefully preserved in his family, until recently placed in the hands of the editor. The whole is in the hand-writing of a copyist, but written evidently under the immediate direction of its author, as there are numerous corrections, inter- lineations, and more considerable additions, in his own hand-writing. The book was doubtless copied exactly from the author's earliest draught on loose sheets, which were afterwards destroyed, as useless. At any rate, this old volume is the only copy in existence. The Historical Society of Virginia obtained the consent of the proprietor of the manuscripts to have them copied, with a view to publication. But the operations of that society ceased before the publication had been commenced, and when only one of the seve- ral manuscripts had been copied. It was one of the latest acts of the last proprietor, George E. Harrison, Esq., of Brandon, to place at our disposal this highly valued work of his distinguished and talented ancestor, with per- mission to publish any portion, or the whole of the contents, provided the manuscript volume itself should be preserved uninjured, and afterwards re- stored to the owner. The better to secure the latter object, the copy of the part made for the use of the Historical Society, has also been placed in our hands by the directors.
The manuscripts offer abundant internal evidence that they were written merely for the amusement of the author, and for the perusal of his family and friends, and not with any view to their being printed. This adds much to their other and important value. For there prevails throughout, as in the private letters of an accomplished writer, a carelessness in the mode of ex- pression, and a manifest freedom from all restraint, W'hich together serve to render subjects pleasing and interesting, that, however worthy of consider- ation, would be dry and tedious if the writer had sought for the applause, or feared the censure, of the reading public. The author was a man "too proud to be vain," and who neither cared for, nor thougiit of seeking, public applause for his writings. The influence of that first feeling, and its results, naturally operated on his children and later descendants, to deter them also from pul)lishing the manuscripts; and this course, besides being in con- formity with the writer's intention, was perhaps deemed the more proper, because of his great freedom of expression, and of censure, often tinctured by his strong "church and state" principles and prejudices, and which might have given offence to some of the individuals or classes wiio were the sub- jects of his free remarks. But at this late time, there no longer remains, if there existed before, any reason f(>r withiiolding these interesting writings from the public. And there is no free expression of even the prejudiced and erroneous opinions of the writer, which, to an intelligcMit and liberal-minded reader, would now give offence. Col. Byrd was a true and worthy inheritor of the opinions and feelings of the old cavaliers of Nirj^inia ; and it is because from such a souri-e, as well as being designed at fust as private and I'onli- denlial, tli;il his writings sliouM he nou considtM'cd.
IV
PREFACE.
Col. William Byrd died where he had long lived, at his then beautifully decorated and princely mansion, Westover, on the north bank of James river; and which even at this late day exhibits admirable remains of his taste, and his magnificent sc^ of expenditure for its gratification. His body was buried in the garden, and his grave is covered by a monument of white marble, on which is the following inscription :
[on the north side.]
Here lieth
The Honorable William Byrd, Esq.,
Being born to one of the amplest fortunes in this country.
He was sent early to England for his education ;
Where, under the care and direction of Sir Robert Southwell,
And ever favoured with his particular instructions.
He made a happy proficiency in polite and various learning.
By the means of the same noble friend.
He was introduced to the acquaintance of many of the first persons of that age
For knowledge, wit, virtue, birth, or high station,
And particularly contracted a most intimate and bosom friendship
With the learned and illustrious Charles Boyle, Earl of Orrery.
He was called to the bar in the Middle Temple,
Studied for some time in the Low Countries,
Visited the court of France, And was chosen Fellow of the Royal Society.
[on the south side.]
Thus eminently fitted for the service and ornament of his country,
He was made receiver general of his majesty's revenues here,
Was thrice appointed public agent to the court and ministry of England,
And being thirty-seven years a member.
At last became president of the council of this colony.
To all this were added a great elegancy of taste and life, ?
The well-bred gentleman and polite companion,
The splendid economist and prudent father of a family,
With the constant enemy of all exorbitant power.
And hearty friend to the Uberties of his country.
Nat. Mar. 28, 1674. Mort. Aug. 26, 1744. An. eetat. 70.
HISTORY
THE DIVIDING LINE:
RUN IN THE YEAR 1728.
Before I enter upon the journal of the Ime between Virginia and North Carolina, it will be necessary to clear the way to it, by showing how the other British colonies on the Main have, one after another, been carved out of Virginia, by grants from his majesty's royal predecessors. All that part of the northern American continent now under the dominion of the king of Great Britain, and stretching quite as far as the cape of Florida, went at first under the general name of Virginia.
The only distinction, in those early days, was, that all the coast to the southward of Chesapeake bay was called South Virginia, and all to the northward of it. North Virginia.
The first settlement of this fine country was owing to that great ornament of the British nation, sir Walter Raleigh, who obtained a grant thereof from queen Elizabeth of ever-glorious memory, by letters patent, dated March the 25th, 1584.
But whether that gentleman ever made a voyage thither himself is uncer- tain ; because those who have favoured the public with an account of his life mention nothing of it. However, thus much may be depended on, that sir Walter invited sundry persons of distinction to share in his charter, and join their purses with his in the laudable project of fitting out a colony to Virginia.
Accordingly, two ships were sent away that very year, under the command of his good friends Amidas and Barlow, to take iiossession of the country in the name of his royal mistress, the queen of England.
These worthy commanders, for the advantage of the trade winds, shaped their course first to tl^e Charibbe islands, thence stretching away by the gulf of Florida, dropped anchor not far from Roanoke inlet. They ventured ashore near that place upon an island now called Colleton island, where they set up the arms of England, and claimed the adjacent country in right of their sovereign lady, the queen; and this ceremony being duly performed, they kindly invited the neighbouring Indians to tratfick with them.
These poor people at tir.st approached the English with icreat caution, hav- ing heard much of the treachery of thr Spaniards, and not knowing but these strangers might be as trcarliorous as they. But, ;it !(Migtli, discovorinir a kind of good nature in tlieir looks, they ventured to draw near, and barter their skins aiid furs for the bawblcs and trinkets of the l^nglish.
The.se first adventurers m.idc a very profitable voyage, raising at least a thousand per cent, upon tlieir cargo. Amongst other Indian commodities,
2 THE HISTORY OF
tliey brought over some of that bewitching vegetable, tobacco. And this be- ing tlie first that ever came to England, sir Walter thought he could do no less than make a present of some of the brightest of it to his royal mistress, for her own smoking. The queen graciously accepted of it, but finding her stomach sicken after two or three whiffs, it was presently whispered by the earl of Leicester's faction, that sir Walter had certainly poisoned her. But her majesty soon recovering her disorder, obliged the countess of Notting- ham and all her maids to smoke a whole pipe out amongst them.
As it happened some ages before to be the fashion to saunter to the Holy Land, and go upon other Quixote adventures, so it was now grown the hu- mour to take a trip to America. The Spaniards had lately discovered rich mines in their part of the West Indies, which made their maritime neigh- bours eager to do so too. This modish frenzy being still more inflamed by the charming account given of Virginia, by the first adventurers, made many fond of removing to such a paradise.
Happy was he, and still happier she, that could get themselves transported, fondly expecting their coarsest utensils, in that happy place, would be of massy silver.
This made it easy for the company to procure as many volunteers as they wanted for their new colony; but, like most other undertakers who have no assistance from the public, ttiey starved the design by too much frugality ; for, unwilling to launch out at first into too much expense, they shipped off but few people at a time, and those but scantily provided. The adventurers were, besides, idle and extravagant, and expected they might live without work in so plentiful a country.
These wretches were set ashore not far from Roanoke inlet, but by some fatal disagreement, or laziness, were either starved or cut to pieces by the Indians.
Several repeated misadventures of this kind did, for some time, allay the itch of sailing to this new world ; but the distemper broke out again about the year 1606. Then it happened that the earl of Southampton and several other persons, eminent for their quality and estates, were invited into the company, who applied themselves once more to people tlie then almost aban- doned colony. For tliis purpose they embarked about a hundred men, most of them reprobates of good families, and related to some of the company, who were men of quality and fortune.
The ships that carried them made a shift to find a more direct way to Vir- ginia, and ventured through the capes into the bay of Chesapeake. The same night they came to an anchor at the mouth of Powhatan, the same as James river, where they built a small fort at a place called Point Comfort.
This settlement stood its ground from that time forward in spite of all the blunders and disagreement of the first adventurers, and the many calamities that befel the colony afterwards.*
* The six "-611116111011 who were first named of the company by the crown, and who were empowered to choose an annual president from among tiiemselves, were always engaged in factions and quarrels, while the rest detested work more than famine. At this rate the colony must have come to nothing, had it not been for the vigilance and bravery of captain Smith, who struck a terror into all the Indians round about. This gentleman took some pains to persuade the men to plant Indian corn, but they looked upon all labour as a curse. They chose rather to depend upon the musty provisions that were sent from England : and when they failed they were foiced to take more pains to seek for wild Iruits in the woods, than they would have taken in tilling the ground. Besides, this exposed them to be knocked on the head by the Indians, and gave them fluxes info the bargain, which thinned the plantation very much. To supply this mortality, they were reinforced the year follow- ing with a greater number of people, amongst which were fewer gentlemen and more la- bourers, who, however, took care not to kill themselves with work.
THE DIVIDING LINE-
3
Tl)ese found tlie first adventurers in a very starving condition, but relieved their wants with the fresh supply they brought with them. From Kiquotan they extended tliemselves as tar as James-town, where, hke ti'ue English- men, they built a church that cost no more than fifty pounds, and a tavern that cost five hundred.
They had now made peace with the Indians, but there was one thing want- ing to make that peace lasting. The natives could, by no means, persuade themselves that the English were heartily their friends, so long as they dis- dained to intermarry with them. And, in earnest, had the English consulted their own security and the good of the colony — had they intended either to civilize or convert these gentiles, they would have brought their stomachs to embrace this prudent alliance.
The Indians are generally tall and well-proportioned, which may make full amends for the darkness of their complexions. Add to this, that they are healthy and strong, with constitutions untainted by lewdness, and not en- feebled by luxury. Besides, morals and all considered, I cannot think the Indians were much greater heathens than the first adventurers, who, had they been good Christians, would have had the charity to take this only method of converting the natives to Christianity. For, after all that can be said, a sprightly lover is the most prevailing missionary that can be sent amongst these, or any other infidels.
Besides, the poor Indians would have had less reason to complain that the English took away their land, if they had received it by way of portion with their daughters. Had such affinities been contracted in the begin- ning, how much bloodshed had been prevented, and how populous would the country have been, and, consequently, how considerable'? Nor would the shade of the skin have been any reproach at this day ; for if a Moor may be washed white in three generations, surely an Indian might have been blanched in two.
The French, for their parts, have not been so squeamish in Canada, who upon trial find abundance of attraction in the Indians. Their late grand monarch thought it not below even the dignity of a Frenchman to become one flesh with this people, and therefore ordered 100 livres for any of his sub- jects, man or woman, that would intermarry with a native.
By this piece of policy we find the French interest very much strengthened amongst the savages, and their religion, such as it is, propagated just as far . as their love. And I heartily wish this well-concerted scheme does not here- after give the French an advantage over his majesty's good subjects on the northern continent of America.
About the same time New England was pared off' from Virginia by letters patent, bearing date April the 10th, IGOS. Several gentiemon of the town and neighborhood of Plymouth obtained this grant, with the lord chief justice Pojiham at their head.
Their bounds were si^cified to extend from 38 to 4C) degrees of northern latitude, with a breadth of one hundred miles from the sea shore. The first fourteen year.s, this company encountered many difficulties, and lost many men, though far from being discouraged, they sent over numerous recruits of Presbyterians, every year, who for all that, had much ado to stand their ground, with all their fighting and praying.
But about the year l(')2(), a largo swarm of dissenters fled thither from the severities of their .stepmother, the clunch. These saints conceiving the same aversion to the copper comploxion ot the native.^:, with that of the first ad- venturers to Virginia, would, on no terms, contract alliances with them, afraid perhaps, like the .lews ol old, Icsl they nii;j;hl br drawn into idolatry by those strange women.
4 THE HISTORY OF
Whatever disgusted them I cannot say, but this false delicacy creating in the Indians a jealousy that the English were ill affected towards them, was the cause that many of them were cut off, and the rest exposed to various distresses.
This reinforcement was landed not far from cape Cod, where, for their greater security, they built a fort, and near it a small town, which, in honour of the proprietors, was called New Plymouth. But they still had many dis- couragements to struggle with, though, by being well supported from home, they by degrees triumphed over them all.
Their brethren, after this, flocked over so fast, that in a few years they ex- tended the settlement one hundred miles along the coast, including Rhode Island and Martha's Vineyard.
Thus the colony throve apace, and was thronged with large detachments of independents and presbyterians, who thought themselves persecuted at home.
Though these people may be ridiculed for some pharisaical particularities in their worship and behaviour, yet they were very useful subjects, as bemg frugal and industrious, giving no scandal or bad example, at least by any open and public vices. By which excellent qualities they had much the ad- vantage of the southern colony, who thought their being members of the established church sufficient to sanctify very loose and profligate morals. For this reason New England improved much faster than Virginia, and in seven or eight years New Plymouth, like Switzerland, seemed too narrow a territory for its inhabitants.
For this reason, several gentlemen of fortune purchased of the company that canton of New England now called Massachusetts colony. And king James confirmed the purchase by his royal charter, dated March the 4th, 1628. In less than two years after, above one thousand of the puritanical sect removed thither with considerable effects, and these were followed by such crowds, that a proclamation was issued in England, forbidding any more of his majesty's subjects to be shipped off. But this had the usual effect of things forbidden, and served only to make the wilful independents flock over the faster. And about this time it was that Messrs. Hampden and Pym, and (some say) Oliver Cromwell, to show how little they valued the king's authority, took a trip to New England.
In the year 1630, the famous city of Boston was built, in a commodious situation for trade and navigation, the same being on a peninsula at the bot- tom of Massachusetts bay.
This town is now the most considerable of any on the British continent, containing at least 8,000 houses and 40,000 inhabitants. The trade it drives, is very great to Europe, and to every part of the West Indies, having near 1,000 ships and lesser vessels belonging to it.
Although the extent of the Massachusetts colony reached near one hundred and ten miles in length, and half as much in breadth, yet many of its inhabit- ants, thinking they wanted elbow room, quitted their old seats in the year 1636, and formed two new colonies: that of Connecticut and New Haven. These king Charles II. erected into one government in 1664, and gave them many valuable privileges, and among the rest, that of choosing their own governors. The extent of these united colonies may be about seventy miles long and fifty broad.
Besides these several settlements, there sprang up still another, a little more northerly, called New Ha*^.pshire. But that consisting of no more than two counties, and not being in condition to support the charge of a distinct go- vernment, was glad to be incorporated with that of Massachusetts, but upon condition, however, of being named in all public acts, for fear of being quite lost and forgotten in the coalition.
THE DIVIDING LINE. 5
In like manner New Plymouth joined itself to Massachusetts, except only- Rhode Island, which, though of small extent, got itself erected into a sepa- rate government by a charter from king Charles II., soon after the restoration, and continues so to this day.
These governments all continued in possession of their respective rights and privileges till the year 1683, when that of Massachusetts was made void in England by a quo warranto.
In consequence of which the king was pleased to name sir Edmund Andros his first governor of that colony. This gentleman, it seems, ruled them with a rod of iron till the revolution, when they laid unhallowed hands upon him, and sent him prisoner to England.
This undutiful proceeding met with an easy forgiveness at that happy juncture. King William and his royal consort were not only pleased to over- look this indignity offered to their governor, but being made sensible how unfairly their charter had been taken away, most graciously granted them a new one.
By this some new franchises were given them, as an equivalent for those of coining money and electing a governor, which were taken away. How- ever, the other colonies of Connecticut and Rhode Island had the luck to remain in possession of their original charters, which to this day have never been called in question.
The next country dismembered from Virginia was New Scotland, claimed by the crown of England in virtue of the first discovery by Sebastian Cabot. By colour of this title, king James I. granted it to sir William Alexander by patent, dated September the 10th, 1621.
But this patentee never sending any colony thither, and the French believ- ing it very convenient for them, obtained a surrender of it from their good friend and ally, king Charles II., by the treaty of Breda. And, to show their gratitude, they stirred up the Indians soon after to annoy their neighliours of New England. Murders happened continually to his majesty's subjects by their means, till sir William Phipps took their town of Port Royal, in the year 1690. But as the English are better at taking than keeping strong places, the French retook it soon, and remained masters of ft till 1710, when general Nicholson wrested it, once more, out of their hands.
Afterwards the queen of Great Britain's right to it was recognized and confirmed by the treaty of Utrecht.
Another limb lopped off from Virginia was New York, which the Dutch seized very unfairly, on pretence of having purchased it from captain Hudson, the first discoverer. Nor was their way of taking possession of it a whit more justifiable than their pretended title. Their West India company tam- pered with some \\T)rthy English skippers (Svho had contracted with a swarm of English dissenters to transport them to Hudson river) by no means to land them there, but to carry them some leagues more northerly.
This Dut(>h finesse took exactly, and gave the company time soon after to seize Hudson river for themselves. 13ut sir Samuel Argall, then governor of Virginia, understanding how the king's subjects had been abused by these republicans, marched thither with a good force, and obliged them to renounce all pretensions to that country. The worst of it was, the knight depended on their parole to ship themselves for Brrzii, but took no measures to make this slippery people as good as tlieir word.
No sooner was the good governor retired, l)ut the honest Dutch began to build forts and strengtiien tiiemselves in their ill-gotten possessions; nor did any of the king's liege people take the trouble to drive these intruders thence. The civil war in Kngland, and the confiisions it brought forth, allowed no lei- sure for such distant considerations. Though it is strange (hfit (he protector, ^^ B
Q THE HISTORY OF
who neglected no occasion to mortify the Dutch, did not afterwards call them to account for this breach of faith. However, after the restoration, the king sent a squadron of his ships of war, under the command of sir Robert Carr, and reduced that province to his obedience.
Some time after, his majesty was pleased to grant that country to his royal highness, the duke of York, by letters patent, dated March the 12th, 1664. But to show the modesty of the Dutch to the life, though they had no shadow of right to New York, yet they demanded Surinam, a more valuable country, as an equivalent for it, and our able ministers at that time had the generosity to give it them.
But what wounded Virginia deepest was the cutting off Maiyland from it, by charter from king Charles I. to sir George Calvert'i afterwards lord Balti- more, bearing date the 20th of June, 1632. The truth of it is, it begat much speculation in those days, how it came about that a good protestant king should bestow so bountiful a grant upon a zealous Roman catholic. But it is probable it was one fatal instance amongst many other of his majesty's com- plaisance to the queen.
However that happened, it is certain this province afterwards proved a commodious retreat for persons of that communion. The memory of the gunpowder treason-plot was still fresh in every body's mind, and made Eng- land too hot for papists to live in, without danger of being burnt with the pope, every 5th of November; for which reason legions of them transplanted themselves to Maryland in order to be safe, as well from the insolence of the populace as the rigour of the government.
Not only the gunpowder treason, but every other plot, both pretended and real, that has been trumped up in England ever since, has helped to people his lordship's propriety. But what has proved most serviceable to it was the grand rebellion against king Charles L, when every thing that bore the least tokens of popery was sure to be demolished, and every man that professed it was in jeopardy of suffering the same kind of martyrdom the Romish priests do in Sweden.
Soon after the reduction of ISiew York, the duke was pleased to grant out of it all that tract of land included between Hudson and Delaware rivers, to the lord Berkley and sir George Carteret, by deed dated June the 24th, 1664. And when these grantees came to make partition of this territory, his lord- ship's moiety was called West Jersey, and that to sir George, East Jersey.
But before the date of this grant, the Swedes began to gain footing in part of that country ; though, after they saw the fate of New York, tliey were glad to submit to the king of England, on the easy terms of remaining in their possessions, and rendering a moderate quit-rent. Their posterity continue there to this day, and think their lot cast in a much fairer land than Dalicarlia.
The proprietors of New Jersey, finding more trouble than profit in their new dominions, made over their right to several other persons, who obtained a fresh grant from his royal highness, dated March the 14th, 1682.
Several of the grantees, being quakers and anabaptists, failed not to en- courage many of their own persuasion to remove to this peaceful region. Amongst them were a swarm of Scots quakers, who were not tolerated to exercise the gifts of the spirit in their own country.
Besides the hopes of being safe from persecution in this retreat, the new proprietors inveigled many over by this tempting account of the country: that it was a place free from those three great scourges of mankind, priests, lawyers, and physicians. Nor did they tell them a word of a lie, for the peo- ple were yet too poor to maintain these learned gentlemen, who, every where, love to be well paid for what they do ; and, like the Jews, cannot breathe in a climate where nothing is to be gotten.
THE DIVIDING LINE. 7
The Jerseys continued under the government of these proprietors till the year 1702, when they made a formal surrender of the dominion to the queen, reserving however the property of the soil to themselves. So soon as the bounds of New Jersey came to be distinctly laid off, it appeared there was still a narrow slip of land, lying betwixt that colony and Maryland. Of this, William Penn, a man of much worldly wisdom, and some eminence among the quakers, got early notice, and, by the credit he had with the duke of York, obtained a patent for it, dated March the 4th, 1680.
It was a little surprising to some people how a quaker should be so much in the good graces of a popish prince ; though, after all, it may be pretty well accounted for. This ingenious person had not been bred a quaker ; but, in his earlier days, had been a man of pleasure about the town. He had a beautiful form and very taking address, which made him successful with the ladies, and particularly with a mistress of the duke of Monmouth. By this gentlewoman he had a daughter, who had beauty enough to raise her to be a dutchess, and continued to be a toast full 30 years. But this amour had like to have brought our fine gentleman in danger of a duel, had he not dis- creetly sheltered himself under tliis peaceable persuasion. Besides, his father having been a fiag-officer in the navy, while the duke of York was lord high admiral, might recommend the son to his favour. This piece of secret history I thought proper to mention, to wipe off the suspicion of his having been popishly inclined.
This gentleman's first grant confined him within pretty narrow bounds, giving him only that portion of land which contains Buckingham, Philadel- phia and Chester counties. But to get these bounds a little extended, he pushed his interest still further with his royal highness, and obtained a fresh grant of the three lower counties, called Newcastle, Kent and Sussex, which still remained within the New York patent, and had been luckily left out of the grant of New Jersey. The six counties being thus incorporated, the pro- prietor dignified the whole with the name of Pennsylvania.
The quakers flocked over to this country in shoals, being averse to go to heaven the same way with the bishops. Amongst them were not a few of good substance, who went vigorously upon every kind of improvement ; and thus much I may truly say in their praise, that by diligence and frugality, for which this harmless sect is remarkable, and by having no vices but such as are private, they have in a few years made Pennsylvania a very fine country. The truth is, they have observed exact justice v/ith all the natives that border upon them ; they have purchased all their lands from the Indians ; and though they paid but a trifle for them, it has procured them the credit of being more righteous than their neighbours. They have likewise had the prudence to treat them kindly upon all occasions, which has saved them from many wars and massacres wherein the other colonies have been indiscreetly involved. The truth of it is, a people whose principles forbid them to draw the carnal sword, were in the right to give no provocation.
Both the French and Spaniards had, in the name of their respective mon- archs, long ago taken possession of that part of the northern continent that now goes by the name of Carolina ; but finding it produced neither gold nor silver, as they greedily expected, and meeting such returns from the Indians as their own cruelty and treachery deserved, they totally abandoned it. In this deserted condition that country lay for the space of ninety years, till king Charles II., finding it a derelict, granted it away to the earl of (""larendon and others, by his royal charter, dated March the 24(11. 1003. The boundary of that grant towards Virginia was a due west lino frnm Lurk island, (the same as Colleton i.sland,) lying in 'i6 degrees of north latitude, quite to the South sea.
8
THE HISTORY OF
But afterwards sir William Berkley, who was one of the grantees and at that time governor of Virginia, finding a territory of 31 miles in breadth between the inhabited part of Virginia and the above-mentioned boundary of Carolina, advised the lord Clarendon of it. And his lordship had interest enough with the king to obtain a second patent to include it, dated June the 30th,°1665.
This last grant describes the bounds between Virginia and Carolina in these words : " To run from the north end of Coratuck inlet, due west to Weyanoke creek, lying within or about the degree of thirty-six and thirty minutes of northern latitude, and from thence west, in a direct line, as far as the South sea." Without question, this boundary was well known at the time the charter was granted, but in a long course of years Weyanoke creek lost its name, so thaf it became a controversy where it lay. Some ancient persons in Virginia affirmed it was the same with Wicocon, and others again in Carolina were as positive it was Nottoway river.
In the mean time, the people on the frontiers entered for land, and took out patents by guess, either from the king or the lords proprietors. But the crown was like to be the loser by this uncertainty, because the terms both of taking up and seating land were easier much in Carolina. The yearly taxes to the public were likewise there less burthensome, which laid Virginia under a plain disadvantage.
This consideration put that government upon entering into mea.sures with North Carolina, to terminate the dispute, and settle a certain boundary be- tween the two colonies. All the difficulty was, to find out which was truly Weyanoke creek. The difference was too considerable to be given up by either side, there being a territory of fifteen miles betwixt the two streams in controversy.
However, till that matter could be adjusted, it was agreed on both sides, that no lands at all should be granted within the disputed bounds. Virginia observed this agreement punctually, but I am sorry I cannot say the same of North Carolina^ The great officers of that province were loath to lose the fees accruing from the grants of land, and so private interest got the better of public spirit ; and I wish that were the only place in the world where such politics are fashionable.
All the steps that were taken afterwards in that affair, will best appear by the report of the Virginia commissioners, recited in the order of council given at St. James', March the 1st, 1710, set down in the appendix.
It must be owned, the report of those gentlemen was severe upon the then commissioners of North Carolina, and particularly upon Mr. Moseley. I vnW not take it upon me to say with how much justice they said so many hard things, though it had been fairer play to have given the parties accused a copy of such representation, that they might have answered what they could for themselves.
But since that was not done, I must beg leave to say thus much in behalf of Mr. Moseley, that he was not much in the wTong to find fault with the quadrant produced by the surveyors of Virginia, because that instrument placed the mouth of Nottoway river in the latitude of 37 degrees ; whereas, by an accurate observation made since, it appears to lie in 36° 30' 30", so that there was an error of near 30 minutes, either in the instrument or in those who made use of it.
Besides, it is evident the mouth of Nottoway river agrees much better with the latitude, wherein the Carolina charter supposed Weyanoke creek, (namely, in or about 36^ 30',) than it does with Wicocon creek, which is about fifteen miles more southerly.
This being manifest, the intention of the king's grant will be pretty exactly
THE DIVIDING LINE. 9
answered, by a due west line drawn from T'oratuck inlet to the mouth oj Nottoway river, for which reason it is probable that was formerly called Weyanoke creek, and might change its name when the Nottoway Indians came to live upon it, which was since the date of the last Carolina charter.
The lieutenant governor of Virginia, at that time colonel Spotswood, searching into the bottom of this affair, made very equitable proposals to Mr. Eden, at that time governor of North Carolina, in order to put an end to this controversy. These, being formed into preliminaries, were signed by both governors, and transmitted to England, where they had the honour to be rati- fied by his late majesty and assented to by the lords proprietors of Carolina.
Accordingly an order was sent by the late king to Mr. Gooch, afterwards lieutenant governor of Virginia, to pursue those preliminaries exactly. In obedience thereunto, he was pleased to appoint three of the council of that colony to be commissioners on the part of Virginia, who, in conjunction with others to be named by the governor of North Carolina, were to settle the boundary between the two governments, upon the plai; of the above-men- tioned articles.
February, 1728. Two experienced surveyors were at the same time di- rected to wait upon the commissioners, Mr. Mayo, who made the accurate map of Barbadoes, and Mr. Irvin, the mathematic professor of William and Mary College. And because a good number of men were to go upon this expedition, a chaplain was appointed to attend them, and the rather because the people on the frontiers of North Carolina, who have no minister near them, might have an opportunity to get themselves and their children baptized.
Of these proceedings on our part, immediate notice was sent to sir Richard Everard, governor of North Carolina, who was desired to name commission- ers for that province, to meet those of Virginia at Coratuck inlet the spring following. Accordingly he appointed four members of the council of that province to take care of the interests of the lords proprietors. Of these, Mr. Moseley was to serve in a double capacity, both as commissioner and sur- veyor. For that reason there was but one other surveyor from thence, Mr. Swan. All the persons being thus agreed upon, they settled the time of meeting to be at Coratuck, March the 5th, 1728.
In the mean time, the requisite preparations were made for so long and tiresome a journey ; and because there was much work to be done and some danger from the Indians, in the uninhabited part of the country, it was neces- sary to provide a competent number of men. Accordingly, seventeen able hands were listed on the part of Virginia, who were most of them Indian traders and expert woodsmen.
Feb. 27th. These good men were ordered to come armed with a musket and a tomahawk, or large hatchet, and ]irovided with a sufficient quantity of ammunition. They likewise brought provisions of their own for ten days, after which time they were to be fiu-nished by the government. Their maiTh was appointed to be on the 27th of February, on which day one of the coni- missioners met them at their rendezvous, and proceeded with them as far as colonel Allen's. This gentleman is a great economist, and skilled in ail the arts of living well at an easy expense.
28th. They proceeded in good order through Surry county, as far as the widow Allen's, who had copied Solomon's complete housewife exactly. At this gentlewoman's house, the other two commissioners had appointed to join them, but were detained by some accident at Williamsburg, longer than their appointment.
29th. They pursued their march through the Isle of Wight, and observed a most dreadful havoc made by a late liurricnnc, which happened in .Antrusf, 1720. The vifdcnce of i( Imd ni)( reiiched .-liiovc a (juarler of a rni!(> in
10 THE HISTORY OF
breadth, but within tliat compass had levelled all before it. Both trees and houses were laid flat on the ground, and several things hurled to an incredi- ble distance. It is happy such violent gusts are confined to so narrow a channel, because they carry desolation wherever they go. In the evening they reached Mr. Godwin's, on the south branch of Nansemond river, where they were treated with abundance of primitive hospitality.
March 1st. This gentleman was so kind as to shorten their journey, by set- ting them over the river. They coasted the north-east side of the Dismal for several miles together, and found all the grounds bordering upon it very full of sloughs. The trees that grew near it looked very reverend, with the long moss that hung dangling from their branches. Both cattle and horses eat this moss greedily in winter when other provender is scarce, though it is apt to scour them at first. In that moist soil too grew abundance of that kind of myrtle which bears the candle-berries. There was likewise, here and there, a gall bush, which is a beautiful evergreen, and may be cut into any shape. It derives its name from its berries turning water black, like the galls of an oak. When this shrub is transplanted into gardens, it will not thrive without frequent watering.
The two other commissioners came up with them just at their journey's end, and that evening they arrived all together at Mr. Ci-aford's, who liv-es on the south branch of Elizabeth river, over against Norfolk. Here the com- missioners left the men with all the horses and heavy baggage, and crossed the river with their servants only, for fear of making a famine in the town.
Norfolk has most the air of a town of any in Virginia. There were then near 20 brigantines and sloops riding at the wharves, and oftentimes they have more. It has all the advantages of situation requisite for trade and navi- gation. There is a secure harbour for a good number of ships of any bur- then. Their river divides itself into three several branches, which are all navigable. The town is so near the sea, that its vessels may sail in and out in a few hours. Their trade is chiefly to the West Indies, whither they ex- port abundance of beef, pork, flour and lumber. The worst of it is, they contribute much towards debauching the country by importing abundance of rum, which, like gin in Great Britain, breaks the constitutions, vitiates the morals, and ruins the industry of most of the poor people of this country. This place is the mart for most of the commodities produced in the adjacent parts of North Carolina. They have a pretty deal of lumber from the bor- derers on the Dismal, who make bold with the king's land thereabouts, with- out the least ceremony. They not only maintain their stocks upon it, but get boards, shingles and other lumber out of it in great abundance.
The town is built on a level spot of ground upon Elizabeth river, the banks whereof are neither so high as to make the landing of goods troublesome, or so low as to be in danger of overflowing. The streets are straight, and adorned with several good houses, which increase every day. It is not a town of ordinaries and public houses, like most others in this country, but the inhabitants consist of merchants, ship-carpenters and other useful artisans, with sailors enough to manage their navigation. With all these conveni- ences, it lies under the two great disadvantages that most of the towns in Holland do, by having neither good air nor good water. The two cardi- nal virtues that make a place thrive, industry and frugality, are seen here in perfection; and so long as they can banish luxury and idleness, the town will remain in a happy and flourishing condition.
The method of building wharves here is after the following manner. They lay down long pine logs, that reach from the shore to the edge of the channel. These are bound fast together by cross pieces notched into them, according to the architecture of the loj^-houses in North Carolina. A wharf built thus
THE DIVIDING LINE. J|
will stand several years, in spite of the worm, which bites here very much, but may be soon repaired in a place where so many pines grow in the neigh- bourhood.
The commissioners endeavoured, in this town, to list three more men to serve as guides in that dirty part of the country, but found that these people knew just enough of that frightful place to avoid it. They had been told that those Netherlands were full of bogs, of marshes and swamps, not fit for human creatures to engage in, and this was reason enough for them not to hazard their persons. So they told us, flat and plain, that we might even dag- gle through the mire by ourselves for them.
The worst of it was, we could not learn from any body in this town, what route to take to Coratuck inlet ; till at last we had the fortune to meet with a borderer upon North Carolina, who made us a rough sketch of that part of the country. Thus, upon seeing how the land lay, we determined to march directly to Prescot landing upon North-west river, and proceed thence by water to the place where our line was to begin.
4th. In pursuance of this resolution we crossed the river this morning to Powder point, where we all took horse ; and the grandees of the town, with great courtesy, conducted us ten miles on our way, as far as the long bridge built over the south branch of the river. The parson of the parish, Mr. Marston, a painful apostle from the society, made one in this ceremonious cavalcade.
At the bridge, these gentlemen, wishing us a good deliverance, returned, and then a troop of light horse escorted us as far as Prescot landing, upon North-west river. Care had been taken beforehand to provide two periau- gas to lie ready at that place to transport us to Coratuck inlet. Our zeal was so great to get thither at the time appointed, that we hardly allowed ourselves leisure to eat, which in truth we had the less stomach to, by reason the din- ner was served up by the landlord, whose nose stood on such ticklish terms, that it was in danger of falling into the dish. We therefore made our repast very short, and then embarked with only the surveyors and nine chosen men,
leaving the rest at Mr, W n's to take care of the horses and baggage.
There we also left our chaplain, with the charitable intent, that the gentiles round about might have time and opportunity, if they pleased, of getting themselves and their children baptized.
We rowed down North-west river about 18 miles, as far as the mouth of it, where it empties itself into Albemarle sound. It was really a delightful sight, all the way, to see the banks of the river adorned with myrtle, laurel and bay trees, which preserve their verdure the year round, though it must be owned that these beautiful plants, sacred to Venus and Apollo, grow com- monly in a very dirty soil. Tlie river is, in most places, fifty or sixty yards wide, without spreading much wider at the mouth. It is remarkable it was never known to ebb and flow till the year 1713, when a violent storm ojXMied a new inlet, about five miles south of the old one ; since which convulsion, the old inlet is almost choked up by the shifting of the sand, and grows both narrower and shoalor every day.
It was dark before we could reach the mouth of the river, where our way- ward stars directed us to a miserable cottage. The landlord was lately re- moved, bag and baggage, from Maryland, through a strong antipathy he had to work and paying his debts. For want of our tent, we were obliged to. shelter ourselves in this wretched hovel, where we were almost devoured by vermin of various kinds. However, we were above comj:iJaining, being ail philosophers enough to improve such slender distresses into mirth and good humour.
5th. The day being now come, on which we had agreed to meet tlie com-
12 THE HISTORY OF
missioners of North Carolina, we embarked very early, which we could the easier do, having no temptation to stay where we were. We shaped our course along the south end of Knot's island, there being no passage open on the north. Further still to the southward of us, we discovered two smaller islands, that go by the names of Bell's and Church's isles. We also saw a small New England sloop riding in the sound, a little to the south of our course. She had come in at the new inlet, as all other vessels have done since the opening of it. This navigation is a little difficult, and fit only for vessels that draw no more than ten feet water. The trade hither is engrossed by the saints of New England, who carry off a great deal of tobacco, without troubling themselves with paying that impertinent duty of a penny a pound.
It was JList noon before we arrived at Coratuck inlet, which is now so shal- low that the breakers fly over it with a horrible sound, and at the same time afford a very wild prospect. On the north side of the inlet, the high land terminated in a bluff point, from which a spit of land extended itself towards the south-east, full half a mile. The inlet lies between that spit and another on the south of it, leaving an opening of not quite a mile, which at this day is not practicable for any vessel whatsoever. And as shallow as it now is, it continues to fill up more and more, both the wind and waves rolling in the sands from the eastern shoals.
Aljout two o'clock in the afternoon we were joined by two of the Carolina commissioners, attended by Mr. Swan, their surveyor. The other two were not quite so punctual, which was the more unlucky for us, because there could be no sport till they came. These gentlemen, it seems, had the Caro- lina commission in their keeping, notwithstanding which, they could not for- bear paying too much regard to a prov^erb — fashionable in their country — not to make more haste than good speed.
However, that we who were punctual might not spend our precious time unprofitably, we took the .several bearings of the coast. We also surveyed part of the adjacent high land, which had scarcely any trees growing upon it, but cedars. Among the shrubs, we were showed here and there a bush of Carolina tea called Japon, which is one species of the Phylarrea. This is an evergreen, the leaves whereof have some resemblance to tea, but differ very widely both in taste and flavour. We also found some few plants of the spired leaf silk grass, which is likewise an evergreen, bearing on a lofty stem a large cluster of flowers of a pale yellow. Of the leaves of this plant the people thereabouts twist very strong cordage.
A virtuoso might divert himself here very well, in picking up shells of va- rious hue and figure, and amongst the rest, that species of conch shell which the Indian peak is made of The extremities of these shells are blue and the rest white, so that peak of both these colours are drilled out of one and the same shell, serving the natives both for ornament and money, and are es- teemed by them far beyond gold and silver.
The cedars were of singular use to us in the absence of our tent, which we had left with the rest of the baggage for fear of overloading the periaugas. We made a circular hedge of the branches of this tree, wrought so close to- gether as to fence us against the cold winds. We then kindled a rousing fire in the centre of it, and lay round it, like so many knights templars. But, as comfortable as this lodging was, the surveyors turned out about two in the morning to try the variation by a meridian taken from the north star, and found it to be somewhat less than three degrees west.
The commissioners of the neighbouring colony came better provided for the belly than the business. They brought not above two men along with them that would put their hands to any thing but the kettle and the frying- pan. These spent so much of their industry that way, that they had as little spirit as inclination for work.
THE DIVIDING LINE. 13
6th. At noon, hiiving a perfect observation, we found the latitude of Cora- tuck inlet to be 36 degrees and 31 minutes.
Whilst we were busied about these necessary matters, our skipper rowed to an oyster bank just by, and loaded his periauga with oysters as savoury and well-tasted as those from Colchester or Walfleet, and had the advantage of them, too, by being much larger and fatter.
About three in the afternoon the two lag commissioners arrived, and after a. few decent excuses for making us wait, told us they were ready to enter upon business as soon as we pleased. The first step was to produce our respec- tive powers, and the commission from each governor was distinctly read, and copies of them interchangeably delivered.
It was observed b}'' our Carolina friends, that the latter part of the Vir- ginia commission had something in it a little too lordly and positive. In an- swer to which we told them it was necessary to make it thus peremptory, lest the present commissioners might go upon as fi'uitless an errand as their predecessors. The former commissioners were tied down to act in exact con- junction with those of Carolina, and so could not advance one step farther, or one jot faster, than they were pleased to permit them. The memory of that disappointment, therefore, induced the government of Virginia to give fuller powers to the present commissioners, by authorizing them to go on with the work by them.selves, in case those of Carolina should prove unreasonable, and refuse to join with them in carrying the business to exe- cution. And all this was done lest his majesty's gracious intention should be frustrated a second time.
After both commissions were considered, the first question was, where the dividing line was to begin. This begat a warm debate; the Virginia commissioners contending, with a great deal of reason, to begin at the end of the spit of sand, which was undoubtedly the north shore of Coratuck inlet. But those of Carolina insisted strenuously, that the point of high land ought rather to be the place of beginning, because that was fixed and certain, whereas the spit of sand was ever shifting, and did actually run out farther now than formerly. The contest lasted some hours, with great vehemence, neither party receding from their opinion that night. But next morning, Mr. Moselef , to convince us he was not that obstinate person he had been repre- sented, yielded to our reasons, and found means to bring over his colleagues.
Here we began already to reap the benefit of those peremptory words in our commission, which in truth added some weight to our reasons. Never- theless, because positive proof was made by the oaths of two credible wit- nesses, that the spit of sand had advanced 200 yards towards the inlet since the controversy first begaii, we were willing for peace' sake to make them that allowance. Accordingly we fixed our beginning about that distance north of the inlet, and tiiere ordered a cedar post to be driven deep into the sand for our beginning. AVhile we continued hero, we were told that on the south shore, not fir from the inlet, dwelt a marooner, that modestly called himself a hermit, though he forfeited that name by suflbring a wanton female to cohabit with him. llis habitation was a bower, covered with bark after the Indian fashion, which in that mild situation protected him pretty well from the weatiier. Like the ravens, he neither ploughed nor sowed, but sul)sisted chielly upon oysters, which his handmaid made a shift to gather from the ad- jacent rock.s. Sometimes, too, for change of diet, he sent her to drive up the neighbour's cows, to moisten their mouths with a little milk. But as for rai- ment, he depended mostly upon his length of beard, and %he upon her length of hair, part of which she brought decently forward, and the rest dangled behind quite down to her rump, like one of Herodotus' East Indian pigmies.
(•
J 4 THE HISTORY OF
Thus did these wretches live in a dirty state of nature, and were mere Adam* ites, innocence only excepted.
7th. This morning the surveyors began to run the dividing line from the cedar post we had driven into the sand, allowing near three degrees for the variation. Without making this just allowance, we should not have obeyed his majesty's order in running a due west line. It seems the former com- missioners had not been so exact, which gave our friends of Carolina but too just an exception to their proceedings. The line cut Dosier's island, consist- ing only of a flat sand, with here and there an humble shrub growing upon it. From thence it crossed over a narrow arm of the sound into Knot's island, and there split a plantation belonging to William Harding.
The day being far spent, we encamped in this man's pasture, though it lay very low, and the season now inclined people to aguish distempers. He suf- fered us to cut cedar branches for our enclosure, and other wood for firing, to correct the moist air and drive away the damps. Our landlady, in the days of her youth, it seems, had been a laundress in the Temple, and talked over her adventures in that station, with as much pleasure as an old soldier talks over his battles and distempers, and I believe with as many additions to the truth. ^ The soil is good in many places of this island, and the extent of it pretty large. It lies in the form of a wedge : the south end of it is several miles over, but towards the north it sharpens into a point. It is a plentiful place for stock, by reason of the wide marshes adjacent to it, and because of its warm situation. But the inhabitants pa}- a little dear for this convenience, by losing as much blood in the summer season by the infinite number of mosquitoes, as all their beef and pork can recruit in the winter.
The sheep are as large as in Lincolnshire, because they are never pinched by cold or hunger. The whole island was hitherto reckoned to lie in Vir- ginia, but now our line has given the greater part of it to Carolina. The principal freeholder here is Mr. White, who keeps open house for all travel- lers, that either debt or shipwreck happens to cast in his way.
8th. By break of day we sent away our largest periauga, with the bag- gage, round the south end of Knot's island, with orders to the men to wait for us in the mouth of North river. Soon after, we embarked ourselves on board the smaller vessel, with intent, if possible, to find a passage roi^d the north end of the island.
We found this navigation very difficult, by reason of the continued shoals, and often stuck fast aground; for though the sound spreads many miles, yet it is in most places extremely shallow, and requires a skilful pilot to steer even a canoe safe over it. It was almost as hard to keep our temper, as to keep the channel, in this provoking situation. But the most impatient amongst us stroked down their choler, and swallowed their curses, lest, if they suffered them to break out, they might sound like complaining, which was expressly forbidden, as the first step to sedition.
At a distance we descried several islands to the northward of us, the largest of which goes by the name of Cedar island. Our periauga stuck so often that we had a fair chance to be benighted in this wide water, which must certainly have been our fate, had we not luckily spied a canoe that was giving a foitune-teller a cast from Princess Anne county over to North Caro- lina. But, as conjurers are sometimes mistaken, the man mistrusted we were officers of justice in pursuit of a young wench he had carried off along with him. We gave the canoe chase for more than an hom% and when we came up with her, threatened to make them all prisoners unless they would direct us into the right channel. By the pilotage of these people we rowed up an arm of the sound, called the Back bay, till we came to the head of it. There
THE DIVIDING LINE.
15
we were stopped by a miry pocoson full lia'f a mile in breadth, through which we were obliged to daggle on foot, plunging now and then, though we picked our way, up to the knees in mud. At the end of this charming walk we gained the terra firma of Princess Anne county. In that dirty condition we were afterwards obliged to foot it two miles, as far as John Heath's plan- tation, where we expected to meet the surveyors and the men who waited upon them.
While we were performing this tedious voyage, they had carried the line through the firm land of Knot's island, where it was no more than half a mile wide. After that they traversed a large marsh, that was exceedingly miry, and extended to an arm of the Back bay. They crossed that water in a canoe, which we had ordered round for that purpose, and then waded over another marsh, that reached quite to the high land of Princess Anne. Both these marshes together make a breadth of five miles, in which the men frequently sank up to the middle, without muttering the least complaint. On the contrary, they turned all these disasters into merriment.
It was discovered, by this day's work, that Knot's island was improperly so called, being in truth no more than a peninsula. The north-west side of it is only divided from the main by the great marsh above-mentioned, which is seldom totally overflowed. Instead of that, it might, by the labour of a few trenches, be drained into firm meadow, capable of grazing as many cattle as Job, in his best estate, was master of In the miry condition in which it now lies, it feeds greht numbers in the winter, though, when the weatlier grows warm, they are driven thence by the mighty armies of mosquitoes, which are the plague of the lower part of Carolina, as much as the flies were formerly of Egypt, and some rabbins think those flies were no other than mosquitoes.
All the people in the neighbourhood flocked to John Heath's, to behold such rarities as they fancied us to be. The men left their beloved chimney cor- ners, the good women their spinning wheels, and some, of more curiosity than ordinary, rose out of their sick beds, to come and stare at us. They looked upon us as a troop of knights errant, who were running this great risk of our lives, as they imagined, for the public weal ; and some of the gravest of them questioned much whether we were not all criminals, con- demned to this dirty work for offences against the state. What puzzled them most was, what could make our men so very light-hearted under such intolerable drudgery. "Ye have little reason to be merry, my masters," said one of them, with a very solemn face, " 1 fancy the pocoson you must struggle with to-morrow will make you change your note, and try what metal you are made of Ye are, to be sure, the first of human race that ever had the boldness to attempt it, and I dare say will be the last. If, there- fore, you have any worldly goods to dispose of, my advice is that you make your wills this very night, for fear you die intestate to-morrow." But, alas! these frightful tales were so far from disheartening the men, that they served only to whet their resolution.
9th. The surveyors entered early upon their business this morning, and ran the line through Mr. Eyland's plantation, as far as the banks of North river. They passed over it in the periauga, and landed in Gibbs' marsh, which was a mile in breadth, and tolerably firm. They trudged through this marsh without much difficulty as far as the high land, which promised more fertility than any they had seen in these lower parts. But this firm land lasted not long befire they came upon the dreadful pocoson tliey had been threateneil with. JVor did they find it one jot belter than it had been jiainted to them. The beavers and otteis had rendered it quite impassable for any creature but themselves.
Our poor fellows had nuicli ado to dra>.^ their legs after them in this quag-
15 THE HISTORY OF
mire, but disdaining to be balked, they could hardly be persuaded from pressing forward by the surveyors, who found it absolutely necessary to make a traverse in the deepest place, to prevent their sticking fast in the mire, and becoming a certain prey to the turkey buzzards.
This horrible day's work ended two miles to the northward of Mr. Mer- chant's plantation, divided from North-west river by a narrow swamp, which is causewayed over. We took up our quarters in the open field, not far from the house, correcting, by a fire as large as a Roman funeral pile, the aguish exhalations arising fiom the sunken groimds that surrounded us.
The neck of land included betwixt North river and North-west river, with the adjacent marsh, belonged formerly to Governor Gibbs, but since his decease to Colonel Bladen, in right of his first lady, who was ]\Ir. Gibbs' daughter. It w-ould be a valuable tract of land in any country but North Carolina, where, for want of navigation and commerce, the best estate affords little more than a coarse subsistence.
10th. The sabbath happened very opportunel}' to give some ease to our jaded people, who rested religiously from every work, but that of cooking the kettle. We observed very few coi'n-fields in our walks, and those very small, which seemed the stranger to us, because we could see no other tokens of husbandry or improvement. But, upon further inquiry, we were given to understand people only made corn for themselvps and" not for their stocks, which know very well how to get their own living. Both cattle and hogs ramble into the neighbouring marshes and swamps, Ayhere they maintain themselves the whole winter long, and are not fetched home till the spring. Thus these indolent w^retches, during one half of the year, lose the advantage of the milk of their cattle, as well as their dung, and many of the poor crea- tures perish in the mire, into the bargain, by this ill management. Some, who pique themselves more upon industry than their neighbours, will, now and then, in compliment to their cattle, cut down a tree whose limbs are loaded with the moss afore-mentioned. The trouble would be too great to climb the tree in order to gather this provender, but the shortest way/ (which in this country is always counted the best) is to fell it, just like the lazy In- dians, who do the same by such trees as bear fruit, and so make one harvest for all. By this bad husbandry milk is so scarce, in the winter season, that were a big-bellied woman to long for it, she would lose her longing. And, in truth, I believe this is often the case, and at the same time a very good reason Avhy so many people in this province are marked w'ith a custard complexion. The only business here is raising of hogs, which is managed with the least trouble, and affords the diet they are most fond of The truth of it is, the inhabitants of North Carolina devour so much swine's flesh, that it fills them full of gross humours. For want too of a constant supply of salt, they are commonly obliged to eat it fresh, and that begets the highest taint of scurv^y. Thus, whenever a severe cold happens to constitutions thus vitiated, it is apt to improve into the yaws, called there very justly the country distemper. This has all the symptoms o( sT/philis, with this aggravation, that no prepara- tion of mercury will touch it. First it seizes the throat, next the palate, and lastly shows its spite to the poor nose, of which it is apt in a small time treacherously to undermine the foundation. This calamity is so common and familiar here, that it ceases to be a scandal, and in the disputes that happen about beauty, the noses have in some companies much ado to carry it. Nay, it is said that once, after three good pork years, a motion had like to have been ma<le in the house of burgesses, that a man with a nose should be inca- pable of holding any place of profit in the province ; which extraordinary mo- tion conld never have been intended without some hopes of a majority. Thus, considering the foul and pernicious effects of eating swine's flesh in
THE DIVIDING LINE. 17
a hot country, it was wisely forbidden and made an abomination to the Jews, who lived much in tlie same latitude with Carolina.
1 Ith. We ordered the surveyors early to their business, who were blessed with pretty dry grounds for three miles together. But they paid dear for it in the next two, consisting of one continued frightful pocoson, which no creatures but those of the amphibious kind ever had ventured into before. This filthy quagmire did in earnest put the men's courage to a trial, and though I cannot say it made them lose their patience, yet they lost their ' humour for joking. They kept their gravity like so many Spaniards, so that a man miffht then have taken his opportunity to plunge up to the chin, with- out dange'r of being laughed at. However, this unusual composure of coun- tenance could not fairly be called complaining. Their day's work ended at the mouth of Northern's creek, which empties itself into North-west river ; though we chose to quarter a little higher up the river, near Mossy point. This'we did for the convenience of an old house to shelter our persons and haccage from the rain, which threatened us hard. We judged the thing right, for^Uiere fell a heavy shower in the night, that drove the most hardy of us into the house. Though, indeed, our case was not much mended by retreat- ing thither, because that tenement having not long before been used as a pork store, the moisture of the air dissolved the salt that lay scattered on the floor, and made it as wet within doors as without. However, the swamps and marshes we were lately accustomed to had made such beavers and otters of us that nobody caught the least cold. We had encamped so early, that we found time in the evening to walk near half a mile into the woods. There we came upon a family of mulattoes that called themselves free, though by the shyness of the master of the house, who took care to keep least in sight, their freedom seemed a little doubtful. It is certain many slaves shelter themselves in this obscure part of the world, nor will any of their righteous neighbours discover them. On the contrary, they find their account in set- tling such fugitives on some out-of-the-way corner of their land, to raise stocks for a mean and inconsiderable share, well knowing their condition makes it necessary for them to submit to any terms. Nor were these worthy borderers content to shelter runaway slaves, but debtors and criminals have often met with the like indulgence. But if the government of North Carolina has encouraged tliis unneighbourly policy in order to increase their people, it is no more" than what ancient Rome did before them, which was made a city of refuge for all debtors and fugitives, and from that wretched beginning grew up in "time to be mistress of a great part of the world. And, consider- ing how fortune delights in bringing great things out of small, who knows but Carolina may, one time or other, come to be the seat of some other great empire ]
12th. Every thing had been so soaked with the rain, that we were obliged to lie by a good part of the morning and dry them. However, that time was not lost, because it gave the surveyors an opportunity of platting off their work and taking the course of the river. It likewise helped to recruit the spirits of the men, who had been a little -harassed with yesterday's inarch. Notwithstanding all this, we crossed the river before noon, and advanced our line tiiree miles. It was not possible to make more of it, by reason good part of the way was either marsh or pocoson. The line cut two or three plantations, leaving part of them in Virginia, and part of them in Carolina. This was a case that happened frequently, to the great inconvenience of the owners, who were therefore obliged to take out two patents and pay for a new survey in each government. In the evening, we took up our quarters in Mr. Ballance's pasture, a little above the bridge built over North-west river. There we discharged the two periaugas, which in truth had beon
IS
THE HISTORY OF
very serviceable in transporting us over the many waters in tliat dirty and difficult part of our business. Our landlord had a tolerable good house and clean furniture, and yet we could not be tempted to lodge in it. We chose rather to lie in the open field, for fear of growing too tender. A clear sky, spangled with stars, was our canopy, which being the last thing we saw be- foi-e we fell asleep, gave us magnificent dreams. The truth of it is, we took so much pleasure in that natural kind of lodging, that I think at the foot of the account mankind are great losers by the luxury of feather beds and warm apartments.
The curiosity of beholding so new and withal so sweet a method of en- camping, brought one of the senators of North Carolina to make us a mid- night visit. But he was so very clamorous in his commendations of it, that the sentinel, not seeing his quality, either through his habit or behaviour, had like to have treated him roughly. After excusing the un.seasonableness of his visit, and letting us know he was a parliament man, he swore he was so taken with our lodging, that he would set fire to his house as soon as he got home, and teach his wife and children to lie, like us, in the open field.
1.3th. Early this morning our chaplain repaired to us with the men we had left at Mr. Wilson's. We had sent for them the evening before to relieve those who had the labour-oar from Coratuck inlet. But to our great surprise, they petitioned not to be relieved, hoping to gain immortal reputation by be- ing the first of mankind that ventured through the great Dismal. But the rest being equally ambitious of the same honour, it was but fair to decide their pretensions by lot. After fortune had declared herself, those which she had excluded offered money to the happy persons to go in their stead. But Hercules would have as soon sold the glory of cleansing the Augean stables, which was pretty near the same sort of work. J\o sooner was the contro- versy at an end, but we sent those unfortunate fellows back to their quarters, whom chance had condemned to remain upon firm land and sleep in a whole skin. In the mean while the surveyors carried the line three miles, which was no contemptible day's work, considering how cruelly they were entan- gled with briers and gall bushes. The leaf of this last shrub bespeaks it to be of the alaternus family.
Our work ended within a quarter of a mile of the Dismal above-mentioned, where the ground began to be already full of sunken holes and slashes, which had, here and there, some few reeds growing in them. It is hardly credible how little the bordering inhabitants were acquainted with this mighty swamp, notwithstanding they had lived their whole lives within smell of it. Yet, as great strangers as they were to it, they pretended to be very exact in their account of its dimensions, and were positive it could not be above seven or eight miles wide, but knew no more of the matter than star-gazers know of the distance of the fixed stars. At the same time, they were simple enough to amuse our men with idle stories of the lions, panthers and alligators, they were like to encomiter in that dreadful place. In short, we saw plainly there was no intelligence of this terra incognita to be got, but from our own ex- perience. For that reason it was resolved to make the requisite dispositions to enter it next morning. We allotted every one of the surveyors for this painful enterprise, with twelve men to attend them. Fewer than that could not be employed in clearing the way, carrying the chain, marking the trees, and bearing the necessary bedding and provisions. Xor would the commis- sioners themselves have spared their persons on this occasion, but for fear of adding to the poor men's burthen, while they were certain they could add nothing to their resolution.
We quartered with our friend and fellow traveller, William Wilkins, who had been our faithful pilot to Coratuck, and lived about a mile from the place
THE DIVIDING LINE. 19
where the line ended. Every tiling lool^ed so very clean, and tlie Curnituir so neat, that we were tempted to lodge within doors. But the novelty of being shut up so close quite spoiled our rest, nor did we breathe so free by abundance, as when we lay in the open air.
14th. Before nine of the clock this morning, the provisions, bedding and other necessaries, were made up into packs for the men to carry on their shoulders into the Dismal. They were victualled for eight days at full allow- ance, nobody doubting but that would be abundantly sufficient to carry them ■through that inhospitable place ; nor indeed was it possible for the poor fel- lows to stagger under more. As it was, their loads weighed from 60 to 70 pounds, in just proportion to the strength of those who were to bear them. It would have been unconscionable to have saddled them with burthens heavier than that, when they were to lug them through a filthy bog, which was hardly practicable with no burthen at all. Besides this luggage at their backs, they were obliged to measure the distance, mark the trees, and clear the way for the surveyors every step they went. It was really a pleasure to see with how much cheerfulness they undertook, and with how much spirit they went through all this drudgery. For their greater safety, the commis- sioners took care to furnish them with Peruvian bark, rhubarb and hipocoa- canah, in case they might happen, in that wet journey, to be taken with fevers or fluxes. Although there was no need of example to inflame persons al- ready so cheerful, yet to enter the people with the better grace, the author and two more of the commissioners accompanied them half a mile into the Dismal. The skirts of it were thinly planted with dwarf reeds and gall bushes, but when we got into the Dismal itself, we found the reeds grew there much taller and closer, and, to mend the matter, were so interlaced with bamboo-briers, that there was no scufliing through them without the help of pioneers. At the same time, we found the ground moist and trembling under our feet like a quagmire, insomuch that it was an easy matter to run a ten- foot pole up to the head in it, without exerting any uncommon strength to do it. Two of the men, whose burthens were the least cumbersome, had orders to march before, with their tomahawks, and clear the way, in ordei* to make an opening for the surveyors. By their assistance we made a shifl; to push the line half a mile in three hours, and then reached a small piece of firm land, about 100 yards wide, standing up above the rest like an island. Here the people were glad to lay down their loads and take a little refreshment, while the happy man, whose lot it was to carry the jug of rum, began alrea- dy, like iEsop's bread-carriers, to find it grow a good deal lighter.
After reposing about an hour, the commissioners recommended vigour and constancy to their fellow-travellers, by whom they were answered with three cheerful huzzas, in token of obedience. This ceremony was no sooner over but they took up their burthens and attended the motion of the surveyors, •who, though they worked with all their might, could reach but one mile far- ther, the same obstacles still attending them which they had met with in the morning. However small this distance may seem to such as are used to travel at their ease, yet our poor men, who were obliged to work with an unwieldy load at their backs, had reason to think it a long way ; especially in a bog where they had no firm footing, but every step made a deep impres- sion, which was instantly filled with water. At the same time they were labouring with their hands to cut down the reeds, which were fen feet high, their legs were hampered with the briers. Besides, the weather happened to be warm, and the tallness of the reeds kept olF every friendly breeze from coming to refresh them. And, intieed, it was a little provoking to Iiear the wind whistling among the branches of the white cedars, which grew here and there amongst the reeds, and at the same time not to have the comfort to feel the least brt\nth of it.
20 '^"HE HISTORY OF
In the mean time the three commissioners returned out of the Dismal the same way tliey went in, and, having joined their brethren, proceeded that night as far as Mr. Wilson's. This worthy person lives within sight of the Dismal, in the skirts whereof his stocks range and maintain themselves all the winter, and yet he knew as little of it as he did of Terra Australis Incog- nita. He told us a Canterbury tale of a North Briton, whose curiosity spur- red him a long way into this great desert, as he called it, near twenty years ago, but he having no compass, nor seeing the sun for several days together, wandered about till he was almost famished ; but at last he bethought himself of a secret his countrymen make use of to pilot themselves in a dark day. He took a fat louse out of his collar, and exposed it to the open day on a piece of white paper, which he brought along with him for his journal. The poor insect, having no eye-lids, turned himself about till he found the darkest part of the heavens, and so made the best of his way towards the north. By this direction he steered himself safe out, and gave such a frightful ac- count of the monsters he saw, and the distresses he underwent, that no mor- tal since has been hardy enough to go upon the like dangerous discovery.
15th. The surveyors pursued their work with all diligence, but still found the soil of the Dismal so spongy that the water oozed up into every footstep they took. To their sorrow, too, they found the reeds and briers more firmly interwoven than they did the day before. But the greatest grievance was from large cypresses, which the wind had blown down and heaped upon one another. On the limbs of most of them grew sharp snags, pointing every way like so many pikes, that required nmch pains and caution to avoid. These trees being evergreens, and shooting their large tops very high, are easily overset by every gust of wind, because there is no firm earth to steady their roots. Thus many of them were laid prostrate, to the great encum- brance of the way. Such variety of difficulties made the business go on heavily, insomuch that, from morning till night, the line could advance no far- ther than one mile and thirty-one poles. Never was rum, that cordial of life, found more necessary than it was in this dirty place. It did not only recruit the people's spirits, now almost jaded with fatigue, but served to correct the badness of the water, and at the same time to resist the malignity of the air. Whenever the men wanted to drink, which was very often, they had nothing more to do but to make a hole, and the water bubbled up in a moment. But 'it was far from being either clear or well tasted, and had besides a physical effect, from the tincture it received from the roots of the shrubs and trees that grew in the neighbourhood.
While the surveyors were thus painfully employed, the commissioners dis- charged the long score they had with Mr. Wilson, for the men and horse.s which had been quartered upon him during our expedition to Coratuck. From thence we marched in good order along the east side of the Dismal, and passed the long bridge that lies over the south branch of Elizabeth river. At the end of 18 miles we reached Timothy Ivy's plantation, where we pitch- ed our tent for the first time, and were furnished with every thing the place afforded. We perceived the happy effects of industry in this family, in which every one looked tidy and clean, and carried in their countenances the cheer- ful marks of plenty. We saw no drones there, which are but too common, alas, in that part of the world. Though, in truth, the distemper of laziness seizes the men oftener much than the women. These last spin, weave and knit, all with their own hands, while their husbands, depending on the bounty of the climate, are slothful in every thing but getting of children, and in that only instance make themselves useful members of an infant colony.
There is but little wool in that province, though cotton grows very kindly, and, so far south, is seldom nipped by the frost. The good women mix this
THE DIVIDING LINE.
21
with their wool for their outer garments; though, for want of tlilling, that kind of manufacture is open and sleazy. Flax likewise thrives there ex- tremely, being perhaps as fine as any in the world, and I question not might, with a little care, be brought to rival that of Egypt; and yet the men are here so intolerably lazy, they seldom take the trouble to propagate it.
1 6th. The line was this day carried one mile and a half and sixteen poles. The soil continued soft and miry, but fuller of trees, especially white cedars, Many of these too were thrown down and piled in heaps, high enough for a good Muscovite fortification. The worst of it M^as, the poor fellows began now to be troubled with fluxes, occasioned by bad water and moist lodging: but chewing of rhubarb kept that malady within bounds.
In the mean time the commissioners decamped early in the morning, and made a march of twenty-five miles, as far as Mr. Andrew Mead's, who livesupon Nansemond river. They were no sooner got under the shelter of that hos- pitable roof, but it began to rain hai'd, and continued so to do great part of the night. This gave them much pain for their friends in tlie Dismal, whose sufferings spoiled their taste for the good cheer, wherewith they were enter- tained themselves. However, late that evening, these poor men had the for- tune to come upon another terra firma, which was the luckier for them, be- cause the lower ground, by the rain that fell, was made a fitter lodging for tadpoles than men. In our journey v/e remai-ked that the north side of this great swamp lies higlier than either the east or the west, nor were the ap- proaches to it so full of sunken grounds. We passed by no less than two quaker meeting houses, one of which had an awkward ornament on the west end of it, that seemed to ape a steeple. I must own I expected no such piece of foppery from a sect of so much outside simplicity. That peisuasion pre- vails much in the lower end of Nansemond county, (or want of niinisters to pilot the people a decenter way to heaven. The ill reputation of tobacco planted in those lower parishes makes the clergy unwilling to accept of them, unless it be such whose abilities are as mean as their pay. Thus, whether the churches be quite void or but indifTerently filled, the quakers will have an opportunity of gaining proselytes. It is a wonder no popish missionaries are sent from Maryland to labour in this neglected vineyard, who we know have zeal enough to traverse sea and land on the meritorious errand of making converts. Nor is it less strange that some wolf in sheep's clothing arrives not from New Engla)id to lead astray a flock that has no sheph.erd. People uninstructed in any religion are ready to embrace the first that oflpis. It is natural for helpless man to adore his Maker in some form or other, and were there any exception to this rule, I should suspect it to be among the Hotten- tots of the cape of Good Hope and of North Carolina.
There fell a great deal of rain in the night, accompanied with a strong wind. The fellow-feeling we had for the poor Disuialites, on account of this unkind weather, rendered the down we laid upon uneasy. Wo fancied them half-drowned in their wet lodging, with the trees blowing down about their ears. These were the gloomy images our fears suggested ; though it was so much uneasiness clear gain. They happened to come ofl' nuich better, by being luckily encamped on the dry piece of ground afitre-iuontioncvl.
'7th. They were, liowtwer, flu^'cd to kei>p the sabl)ath in spite of their teeth, contrary to the dispensation our good chaplain had given IIkmii. hi- deed, their short allowance^ of provision would have justified (heii" uiaking the best of their way, without distinction of days. It was certainl)' a work both f)f necessity and seM-iire.servatioix, to save themselves iVom starving. Nevertheless, the hard rain had made every thing so thoroughly wet. fliat it was quite ini|)o.ssible to do any business. Tiiey therefore made a virtue of what they could not help, and ("ontentedly rested in their dry situation.
D
22 THE HISTORY OF
Since the surveyors had entered the Dismal, they had laid eyes on no living' creature : neither bird nor beast, insect nor reptile came in view. Doubtless, the eternal shade that broods over this mighty bog, and hinders the sun- beams from blessing the ground, makes it an uncomfortable habitation for any thing that has life. Not so much as a Zealand frog could endure so aguish a situation. It had one beauty, however, that delighted the eye, though at the expense of all the other senses : the moisture of the soil pre- serves a continual verdure, and makes every plant an evergreen, but at the same time the foul damps ascend without ceasing, corrupt the air, and ren- der it unfit for respiration. Not even a turkey buzzard will venture to fly over it, no more than the Italian vultures will over the filthy lake Avernus, or the birds in the Holy Land, over the Salt sea, where Sodom and GomoiTab formerly stood.
In these sad circumstances, the kindest thing we could do for our suflTering friends was to give them a place in the Litany. Our chaplain, for his part, did his office, and rubbed us up with a seasonable semion. This was quite a new thing to our brethren of North Carolina, who live in a climate where no clergyman can breathe, any more than spiders in Ireland.
For want of men in holy orders, both the members of the councU and justices of the peace are empowered by the laws of that country to marry all those who will not take one another's word; but for the ceremony of christening their children, they trust that to chance. If a parson come in their way, they will crave a cast of his office, as they call it, else they are content their offspring should remain as arrant pagans as themselves. They account it among their greatest advantages that tliey are not priest-ridden, not remembering that the clergy is rarely guilty of bestriding such as have the misfortune to be poor. One thing may be said for the inhabitants of that province, that they are not troubled with any religious fumes, and have the least superstition of any people living. They do not know Sunday from any other day, any more than Robinson Crusoe did, which would give them a great advantage were they given to be industrious. But they keep so many sabbaths every week, that their disregard of the seventh day has no manner of cruelty in it, either to servants or cattle. It was with some difficulty we could make our people quit the good cheer they met with at this house, so it was late before we took our departure ; but to make us amends, our landlord was so good as to conduct us ten miles on our way, as far as the Cypress swamp, which drains itself into the Dismal. Eight miles beyond that we forded the waters of the Coropeak, which tend the same way as do many others on that side. In six miles more we reached the plantation of Mr. Thomas Spight, a grandee of North Carolina. We found the good man upon his crutches, being crippled with the gout in both his knees. Here we flat- tered ourselves we should by this time meet with good tidings of the survey- ors, but had reckoned, alas ! without our host : on the contrary, we were told the Dismal was at least thirty miles wide in that place. However, as nobody could say this on his own knowledge, we ordered guns to be fired and a drum to be beaten, but received no answer, unless it was from that prating nymph Echo, who, like a loquacious wife, will always have the last word, and some- times return three for one. It was indeed no wonder our signal was not heard at that time, by the people in the Dismal, because, in truth, they had not then penetrated one third of their way. They had that morning fallen to work with great vigour; and, finding the ground better than ordinary, drove on the line two miles and thij-ty-eight poles. This was reckoned an Herculean day's work, and yet they would not have stopped there, had not an impenetrable cedar thicket checked their industry. Our landlord had seated himself on the borders of this Dismal, for the advantage of the green
THE DIVIDING LINE. 23
food his cattle find there all winter, and for the rooting that supports his hogs. This, I own, is some convenience to his purse, for which his whole family pay- dear in their persons, for they are devoured by mosquitoes all the summer, and have agues every spring and fall, which corrupt all the juices of their bodies, give them a cadaverous complexion, and besides a lazy, creeping habit, which they never get rid of
We ordered several men to patrol on the edge of the Dismal, both towards the north and towards the south, and to fire guns at proper distances. This they performed very punctually, but could hear nothing in return, Hor gain any sort of intelligence. In the mean time whole flocks of women and child- ren flew hither to stare at us, with as much curiosity as if we had lately landed from Bantam or Morocco. Some borderers, too, had a great mind to know where the line would come out, being for the most part apprehensive lest their lands should be taken into Virginia. In that case they must have submitted to some sort of order and government ; whereas, in North Carolina, every one does what seems best in his own eyes. There were some good women that brought their children to be baptized, but brought no capons along with them to make the solemnity cheerful. In the mean time it was strange that none came to be married in such a multitude, if it had only been for the novelty of having their hands joined by one in holy orders. Yet so it was, that though our chaplain christened above a hundred, he did not marry so much as one couple during the whole expedition. But marriage is reckoned a lay contract in Carolina, as I said before, and a country justice can tie the fatal knot there, as fast as an archbishop. None of our visiters could, however, tell us any news of the surveyors, nor indeed was it possible any of them should at that time, they being still laboring in the midst of the Dismal. It seems they were able to carry the link this day no further than one mile and sixty-one poles, and that whole distance was through a miry cedar bog, where the gi'ound trembled under their feet most frightfully. In many places too their passage was retarded by a great number of fallen trees, that lay horsing upon one another. Though many circumstances concurred to make this an unwholesome situation, yet the poor men had no time to be sick, nor can one conceive a more calamitous case than it would have been to be laid up in that uncomfortable quagmire. Never were patients more tractable, or willing to take physic, than these honest fellows; but it was from a dread of laying Uieir bones in a bog that would soon spew them up again. That consideration also put tliem upon more caution about their lodging. They first covered the ground with square pieces of cypress bark, which now, in the spring, they'could easily slip off the tree for that purpose. On this they spread their bedding ; but unhappily the weight and warmth of their bodies made the water rise up l^etwixt the joints of the bark, to their great inconvenience. Thus they lay not only moist, but also exceedingly cold, be- cause their fires were continually going out. For no sooner was the trash upon the surface burnt away, but immediately the fire was extinguished by the moisture of the soil, insomuch that it was great part of the sentinel's busi- ness to rekindle it again in a fresh place, every quarter of an hour. Nor could they indeed do their duty hotter, because cold was the only enemy they had to guard against in a miserable morass, where nothing can inhabit.
20th. We could get no tidings yet of our brave adventurers, notwithstand- ing we despatched men to the likeliest stations to in(Hiire after them. They were still scuffling in the mire, and could not i>()ssil)ly f(»rward the line this whole day more than one mile and sixty-four chains, l-'.very step of this day's work was through a cedar bog, where tlic trees were somewhat smaller and grew more into a thicket. It was now a great misfortune to lli(> men to lind their provisions grow less as their labour grew greater: they were all lurctd
24 THE HISTORY OF
to come to short allowance, and consequently to work hard without filling their bellies. Tiiough this was very severe upon English stomachs, yet the people were so far from being discomfited at it, that they stUl kept up their good humour, and merrily told a young fellow in the company, who looked very plump and wholesome, that he must expect to go first to pot, if matters should come to extremity. This was only said by way of jest, yet it made him thoughtful in earnest. However, for the present he returned them a very civil answer, letting them know that, dead or alive, he should be glad to be useful to such worthy good friends. But, after all, this humorous saying had one very good effect, for that younker, who l^efore was a little inclined by his constitution to be lazy, grew on a sudden extremelj'^ industrious, that so there might be less occasion to carbonade him for the good of his fellow travellers. While our friends were thus embarrassed in the Dismal, the commissioners began to lie under great uneasiness for them. They knew very well their provisions must by this time begin to fall short, nor could they conceive any - likely means of a supply. At this time of the year both the cattle and hogs had forsaken the skirts of the Dismal, invited by the springing grass on the firm land. All our hopes were that Providence would cause some wild game to fall in their way, or else direct them to a wholesome vegetable for their l^bsistence. In short they were haunted with so many frights on this occa- sion, that they were in truth more uneasy than the persons whose case they lamented. We had several visiters from Edenton, in the afternoon, that came with Mr. Gale, who had prudently left us at Coratuck, to scuffle through that dirty country by ourselves. These gentlemen, having good noses, had smelled out, at thirty miles' distance, the precious liquor with which the liberality of our good friend Mr. Mead had just before supplied us. That generous per- son had judged very right, that we were now got out of the latitude of drink proper for men in affliction, and therefore was so good as to send his cart loaded with all sorts of refreshments, for which the commissioners returned him their thanks, and the chaplain his blessing.
21st. The surveyors and their attendants began now in good earnest to be alarmed with apprehensions of famine, nor could they forbear looking with some sort of appetite upon a dog v/hich had been the faithful companion of their travels. Their provisions were now near exhausted. They had this morning made the last distribution, that so each might husband his small pit- tance as he pleased. Now it was that the fresh coloured young man began to tremble every joint of him, having dreamed, the night before, that the In- dians were about to barbacue him over live coals. The prospect of famine determined ti.e people, at last, with one consent, to abandon the line for the present, which advanced but slowl)-, and make the best of their way to firm land. Accordingly they set off very early, and, by the help of the compass which they carried along with them, steered a direct westwardly course. They marched from morning till night, and computed their journey to amount to about four miles, Avhich was a great way, considering the difiiculties of the ground. It was all along a cedar swamp, so diity and perplexed, that if they had not travelled for their lives, they could not have reached so far. On their way they espied a turkey buzzard, that flew prodigiously high to get above the noisome exhalations that ascend from that filthy place. This they were willing to undenstand as a good omen, according to the superstition of the ancients, w^ho had great faith in the flight of vultures. However, after all this tedious journey, they could yet discover no end of their toil, which made them very pensive, especially after they had eaten the last morsel of their provisions. But to their unspeakable comfort, when all was hushed in the evening, they heard tlie cattle low, and the dogs bark, very distinctly, which, to men in that distress, was more delightful music than Faustina or FarineUi
THE DIVIDING LINE. 25
could have made. In the mean time the commissioners could get no news of them from any of their visiters, who assembled from every point of the compass. But the good landlord had visiters of another kind while we were there, that is to say, some industrious masters of sliips, that lay in Nansemond river. These worthy commanders came to bespeak tobacco from these parts to make up their loadings, in contempt of tlie Virginia law, which positively for- bade their taking in any made in North Carolina. Nor was this restraint at all unreasonable ; because they have no law in Carolina, either to mend the ' quality or lessen the quantity of tobacco, or so much as to prevent the turn- ing out of seconds, all which cases have been provided against by the laws of Virginia. Wherefore, there can be no reason why tlie inliabitants of that province should have the same advantage of shipping their tobacco in our parts, when they will by no means submit to the same restrictions that we do. 22d. Our patrol happened not to go far enough to the northward this morning, if they had, the people in the Dismal might have heard the report of their guns. For this reason they returned without any tidings, which threw us into a great though unnecessary perplexity. This was now the ninth day since they entered into that inhospitable swamp, and consequently we had reason to believe their provisions were quite spent. We knew they worked hard, and therefore would eat heartily, so long as they had wherewithal to recruit their spirits, not imagining the swamp so wide as they found it. Had we been able to guess where the line would come out, we would hav'e sent men to meet them with a fresh supply ;* but as we could know nothing of that, and as we had neither compass nor surveyor to guide a messenger on such an errand, we were unwilling to expose him to no purpose ; therefore, all we were able to do for them, in so great an extremity, was to recommend them to a merciful Providence. However long we might think the time, yet we were cautious of showing our uneasiness, for fear of mortifying our land- lord. He had done his best for us, and therefore we were unwilling he should think us dissatisfied with our entertainment. In the midst of our concern, we were most agreeably surprised, just after dinner, with the news that the Dis-- malites were all safe. These blessed tidings were brought to us by Mr. Swan,, the Carolina surveyor, who came to us in a very tattered condition. After very short salutations, we got about him as if he had been a Hottentot,, and; began to inquii'e into his adventures. He gave us a detail of their uncom- fortable voyage through the Dismal, and told us, particularly, they had pur- sued their journey early that morning, encouraged by the good omen of seeing- the crows fly over their heads ; that, after an hour's march over very rotten, ground, they, on a sudden, began to find themselves among tall i>iues, that grew in the water, which in many places was knee deep. This pine swamp,, into which that of Coropeak drained itself, extended near a mile in breadth ^ and though it was exceedingly wet, yet it was much harder at bottom than^ the rest of the swamp ; that about ten in the morning they recovered firm land, which they embraced with as much pleasure as shipwrecked wretches do the shore. After these honest adventurers had congratulated each other's, deliverance, their first inquiry was for a good hou.se, where they might satisfy the importunity of their stomachs. Their good genius directed them to Mr. Brinkley's, who dwells a little to the southward of the line. This man began immediately to be very incpiisitivc, but they declared they had no spirits to- answer questions, till alter diimer. •' But pray, gentlt>men," said he, " answer me one question at least: what shall we get for your dinner!" To which they replied, " No matter what, so it be but enough." He kindly supplied their wants as .soon as possible, and by the strength of that refreshment they made a «hift to come to us in tlie evening, to tell their own story. They all
26 THE HISTORY OF
looked very thin, and as ragged as the Gibeonite ambassadors did in the days of yore.
Our surveyors told us they had measured ten miles in the Dismal, and computed the distance they had marched since to amount to about five more, so tliey made the whole breadth to be fifteen miles in all.
23d. It was very reasonable that the surve)'ors, and the men who had been sharers in their fatigue, should now have a little rest. They were all, except one, in good health and good heart, blessed be God ! notwithstanding the dreadful hardships they had gone through. It was really a pleasure to see the cheerfulness wherewith they received tlie order to prepare to re-enter the Dismal on the Monday following, in order to continue the line from the place where they had left off measurmg, that so we might have the exact breadth of that dirty place. There were no more than two of them that could be persuaded to be relieved on this occasion, or suffer the other men to share the credit of that bold undertaking, neither would these have suffered it had not one of them been very lame, and the other much indisposed. By the de- scription the surveyors gave of the Dismal, we were convince 1 that nothing but the exceeding dry season we had been blessed with could have made the passing of it practicable. It is the source of no less than five .several rivers which discharge themselves southward into All^emarle sound, and of two that run northerly into Virginia. From thence it is easy to imagine that the soil must be thoroughly soaked with water, or else there must be plentiful stores of it under ground ; to supply so many rivers ; especially since there is no lake, or any considerable body of that element to be seen on the surface. The rivei-s that head in it from Virginia are the south branch of Nansemond, and the west branch of Elizabeth; and those from Carolina are North-west river. North river, Pasquotank, Little river, and Pequimons.
There is one remarkable part of the Dismal, lying to the south of the line, that has few or no trees growing on it, but contains a large tract of tall reeds. These being green all the year round, and wavering with every wind, have procured it the name of the Green sea. We are not yet acquainted with the precise extent of the Dismal, the whole having never been surveyed ; but it may be computed at a medium to be about thirty miles long and ten miles broad, though where the line crossed it, it was completely fifteen miles wide. But it seems to grow narrower towards the north, or at least does so in many places. The exhalations that continually rise from this vast body of mire and nastiness infect the air for many miles round, and render it very unwhole- some for the bordering inhabitants. It makes them liable to agues, pleurisies, and many other distempers, that kill abundance of people, and make the rest look no better than ghosts. It would require a great sum of money to drain it, but the public treasure could not be better bestowed, than to preserve the lives of his majesty's liege people, and at the same time render so great a tract of swamp very profitable, besides the advantage of making a channel to transport by water carriage goods from Albemarle sound into Nansemond and Elizabeth rivers, in Virginia.
24th. This beuig Sunday, we had a numerous congregation, which flocked to our quarters from all the adjacent country. The news that our surveyors were come out of the Dismal, increased the number very much, because it would give them an opportunity of guessing, at least, whereabouts the line would cut, whereby they might form some judgment whether they belonged to Virginia or Carolina. Those who had taken up land within the disputed bounds were in great pain lest it should be found to lie in Virginia ; because this being done contrary to an express order of that government, the patentees had great reason to fear they should in that case have lost their land. But
THE DIVIDING LINE. 27'
their apprehensions were now at an end, when they understood that all the territory which had been controverted was like to be left in Carolina. In the afternoon, those who were to re-enter the Dismal were furnished with the ne- cessary provisions, and ordered to repair the over-night to their landlord, Pe- ter Brinkley's, that they might be ready to begin their business early on Monday morning. Mr. Irvin was excused from the fatigue, in compliment to •his lungs ; but Mr. Mayo and Mr. Swan were robust enough to return upon that painful service, and, to do them justice, they went with great alacrity. The truth was, they now knew the worst of it ; and could guess pretty near at the time when they might hope to return to land again.
25th. The air was chilled this morning with a smart north-west wind, which favoured the DismaJites in their dirty march. They returned by the path they had made in coming out, and with great industry arrived in the evening at the spot where the line had been discontinued. After so long and laborious a journey, they were glad to repose themselves on their couches of cypress-bark, where their sleep was as sweet as it would have been on a bed of Finland down. In the mean time, we who stayed behind had nothing to do, but to make the best observations we could upon that part of the country. The soil of our landlord's plantation, though none of the best, seemed more fertile than any thereabouts, where the ground is near as sandy as the deserts of Africa, arid consequently barren. The road leading from thence to Eden- ton, being in distance about twenty-seven miles, lies upon a ridge called Sandy ridge, which is so wretchedly poor that it will not bring potatoes. The pines in this part of the country are of a different species from those that grow in Virginia: their bearded leaves are much longer and their cones much larger. Each cell contains a seed of the size and figure of a black-eye pea, which, shedding in November, is very good mast for hogs, and fattens them in a short time. The smallest of these pines are full of cones, which are eight or nine inches long, and each affords commonly sixty or seventy seeds. This kind of mast has the advantage of all other, by being more constant, and less liable to ])e nipped by the frost, or eaten by the caterpillars. The trees also abound more with turpentine, and consequently yield more tar, than either the yellow or the white pine; and for the same reason make more durable timber for building. The inhabitants hereabouts pick up knots of lightwood in abundance, which they burn into tar, and then carry it to Norfolk or Nansemond for a market. The tar made in this method is the less valuable, because it is said to burn the cordage, though it is full as good for all other uses, as that made in Sweden and Muscovy. Surely there is no place in the world where the inhabitants live with less labour than in North Carolina. It approaches nearer to the description of Lubberland than any other, by tlie great felicity of the climate, the easiness of raising provisions, and the slothfulness of the people. Indian corn is of so great increase, that a little pains will subsist a very large fiimily with bread, and then they may have meat without any pains at all, by the help of the low grounds, and the great variety of mast that grows on tlic high land. The men, for their parts, just like the Indians, impose all the work upon the poor women. They make their wives rise out of their beds early in the morning, at the same time that tiiey lie and snore, till the sun has risen one third of his course, and dispersed all the unwholesome damps. Then, after stretching and yawning fov half an hour, they light their pipes, and, under the protection of a cloud of smoke, venture out into the open air; though, if it happens to be never so little cold, they quickly return shivering into th(> chimney corner. When the weather is mild, they stand leaning with both their arms \ipon the corn-field fence, and gravely consider whether they had b(\st go and take a small heat at the hoe : but generally find reasons to put it ofV till another time. Thus they loiter
28 THE HISTORY OF
away their lives, like Solomon's sluggard, with their arms across, and at the winding up of the year scarcely have bread to eat. To speak the truth, it is a thorough aversion to labor that makes people file off to North Carolina, where plenty and a warm sun confirm them in their disposition to laziness for their whole lives.
26th. Since we were like to be confined to this place, till the people re- turned out of the Dismal, it was agreed that our chaplain might safely take a turn to Edenton, to preach the Gospel to the infidels there, and christen their children. He was accompanied thither by Mr. Little, one of the Caro- lina commissioners, who, to show his regard for the church, offered to treat him on the road with a fricassee of rum. They fried half a dozen rashers of very fat bacon in a pint of rum, both which being dished up together, served the company at once both for meat and drink. Most of the rum they get in this country comes from New England, and is so bad and unwholesome, that it is not improperly called " kill-devil." It is distilled there from foreign molasses, which, if skilfully managed, yields near gallon for gallon. Their molasses comes from the same country, and has the name of " long sugar" in Carolina, I suppose from the ropiness of it, and serves all the purposes of sugar, both in their eating and drinking. When they entertain their friends bountifully, they fail not to set before them a capacious bowl of Bombo, so called from the admiral of that name. This is a compound of rum and wa- ter in equal parts, made palatable with the said long sugar. As good humour begins to flow, and the bowl to ebb, they take care to replenish it with sheer rum, of which there always is a reserve under the table. But such generous doings happen only when that balsam of life is plenty; for they have often such melancholy times, that neither landgraves nor cassiques can procure one drop for their wives, when they lie in, or are troubled with the colic or vapours. Very few in this country have the industry to plant orchards, which, in a dearth of rum, might supply them with much better liquor. The truth is, there is one inconvenience that easily discourages lazy people from making this improvement : very often, in autumn, when the apples begin to ripen, they are visited with numerous flights of paroquets, that bite all the fruit to pieces in a moment, for the sake of the kernels. The havoc they make is sometimes so great, that whole orchards are laid waste in spite of all the noises that can be made, or mawkins that can be dressed up, to fright them away. These ravenous birds visit North Carolina only during the warm season, and so soon as the cold begins to come on, retire back towards the sun. They rarely venture so far north as Virginia, except in a very hot summer, when they visit the most southern parts of it. They are very beau- tiful ; but like some other pretty creatures, are apt to be loud and mischievous.
27th, Betwixt this and Edenton there are many whortleberry slashes, which afford a convenient harbour for wolves and foxes. The first of these wild Ijeasts is not so lai'ge and fierce as they are in other counti'ies more northerly. He will not attack a man in the keenest of his hunger, but run away from him, as from an animal more mischievous than himself The foxes are much bolder, and will sometimes not only make a stand, but like- wise assault any one that would balk them of their prey. The inhabitants hereabouts take the trouble to dig abundance of wolf-pits, so deep and per- pendicular, that when a wolf is once tempted into them, he can no more scramble out again, than a husband who has taken the leap can scram- ble out of matrimony. Most of the houses in this part of the country are log-houses, covered with pine or cypress shingles, three feet long, and one broad. They are hung upon laths with pegs, and their doors too turn upon wooden hinges, and have wooden locks to secure them, ao that the building is finished without nails or other iron work. They also set up their pale*
THE DIVIDING LINE. 29
witliout any nails at all, and indeed more securely than those that are nailed. There are three rails mortised into the posts, the lowest of which serves as a sill with a groove in the middle, big enough to receive the end of the pales : the middle part of the pale rests against the inside of the next rail, and the top of it is brought forward to the outside of the uppermost. Such wreath- ing of the pales in and out makes them stand firm, and much harder to unfix than when nailed in the ordinary way.
Within three or four miles of Edenton, the soil appears to be a little more fertile, though it is much cut with slashes, which seem all to have a tendency towards the Dismal. This town is situated on the north side of Albemarle sound, which is there about five miles over. A dirty slash runs all along the back of it, which in the summer is a foul annoyance, and furnishes abundance of that Carolina plague, mosquitoes. There may be forty or fifty houses, most of them small, and built without expense. A citizen here is counted extravagant, if he has ambition enough to aspire to a brick chimney. Justice herself is but indifferently lodged, the court-house having much the air of a common tobacco-house. 1 betieve this is the only metropolis in the Christian or Mahometan world, where there is neither church, chai^el, mosque, syna- gogue, or any other place of public worship of any sect or religion whatsc- ever. What little devotion there may happen to be is much more private than their vices. The people seem easy without a minister, as long as they are exempted from paying him. Sometimes the Society for propagating the Gospel has had the charity to send over missionaries to this country ; but unfortunately the priest has been too lewd for the people, or, which oftener happens, they too lewd for the priest. For these reasons these reverend gentlemen have always left their flocks as arrant heathen as they found them. Thus much however may be said for the inhabitants of Edenton, that not a soul has the least taint of hyprocrisy, or superstition, acting very frank- ly and above-board in all their excesses.
Provisions here are extremely cheap, and extremely good, so that people may live plentifully at a trifling expense. Nothing is dear but law, physic, and strong drink, which are alF bad in their kind, and the last they get with sj much difficulty, that they are never guilty of the sin of suffering it to sour upon their hands. Tlieir vanity generally lies not so much in having a hand- some dining-room, as a handsome house of office: in this kind of structure they are really extravagant They are rarely guilty of flattering or making any court to their governors, but treat them witii all the excesses of freedom and familiarity. They are of opinion their rulers would be apt to grow inso- lent, if they grew rich, and for that reason take care to keep them poorer, and' more dependent, if possible, than the saints in New England used to do their governors. They have very little corn, so they are forced to carry on their home traffic with paper money. This is the only cash that will tariy in the country, and for tliat reason the discount goes on increasing between that and real money, and will do so to the end of the chapter.
28th. Our time passed heavily in our quarters, where we were quite cloyed with the Carolina felicity of having nothing to do. It was really more insup- portable than the greatest fatigue, and made us even envy tlie drudgery of our friends in the Dismal. JJesides, though the men we had with us were kept in exact discipline, and behaved without reproach, yet our landlord began to be tired of them, fearing they would broeil a famine in his lamily. Indeed, so many keen stomachs made gn^at havoc anuuigst the l)eef and bacon which he had laid in for his .sununer provision, nor could he easily purchase more, at that time of the year, witli tlie money we paid him, l)e- cause people having no certain market seldom provide any more of these commodities than will barely supi)ly their own occasions. iiesidos the
5
30 THE HiSTOnY OF
weather was now grown too warm to lay In a fresh stock so late in the spring. These considerations abated somewhat of that cheerfulness with whicli he bade ns welcome in the beginning, and made him think tlie time quite as long as we did until the surveyors returned. While we were thus all hands uneasy, we were comforted with the news that this afternoon the line was finished through the Dismal. The messenger told us it had been the hard work of three days to measure the length of only live miles, and mark the trees as they passed along, and by the most exact survey they found the breadth of the Dismal in this place to be completely fifteen miles. How wide it may be in other parts, we can give no account, but believe it grows narrower towards the north ; possibly towards Albemarle sound it may be something broader, where so many rivers issue out of it. All we know for certain is, that from the place where the line entered the Dismal, to whei'e it came out, we found fhe road round that portion of it which belonged to Virginia to be about sixty-five miles. How great the distance may be from each of those points, round that part that falls within the bounds of Carolina, we had no certain information : though it is conjectured it cannot be so little as thirty miles. At which rate the whole circuit must be aboiit a hundred. What a mass of mud and dirt is treasured up within this filthy circumference, and what a quantity of water must perpetually drain into it from the rising ground that surrounds it on every side 1 Without taking the exact level of the Dismal, we may be sure that it declines towards the places where the several rivers take their rise, in order to carrying off the constant supplies of water. Were it not for such discharges, the whole swamp would long since have been converted into a lake. «Dn the other side this declension must be very gentle, else it would be laid perfectly dry by so many continual drains ; whereas, on the contrary, the ground seems every where to be thoroughly drenched even in the driest season of the year. The surveyors concluded this day's work with running twenty-five chains up into the firm land, where they waited further orders from the commissioners.
29th. This day the surveyors proceeded with the line no more than one mile and fifteen chains, being interrupted by a mill swamp, through which they made no difficulty of wading, in order to make their work more exact. Thus, like Norway mice, these worthy gentlemen went right forward, with- out suffering themselves to be turned out of the way by any obstacle whatever. We are told by some travellers, that those mice march in mighty armies, destroying all the fruits of the earth as they go along. But something peculiar to those obstinate little animals is, that nothing stops them in their career, and if a house happen to stand in their way, disdaining to go an inch about, they crawl up one side of it, and down the other : or if "they meet with any river, or other body of water, they are so determined, that they swim directly over it, without -\-arying one point from their course for the sake of any safety or convenience. The surveyors were also hindered some time by setting up posts in the great road, -to show the bounds between the two colonies..
Our chaplain returned to us in the evening from Edenton, in company with the Carolina commissioners. He had preached there in the court-house, for want of a consecrated place, and made no less than nineteen of father Hennepin's Christians.
By the permission of the Carolina commissioners, Mr. Swan was allowed to go home, as soon as the survey of the Dismal was finished ; he met with this indulgence for a reason that might very wtcII have excused his com.ing at all ; namely, that he was lately married. What remained of the drudgeiy for this season was left to Mr. Mosel.y, who had hitlicrto acted only in the eapadty of a commissioner. They offered to employ Mi-. Joseph Mayo as
THE DIVIDING LU'E. 3|
their surveyor in Mr. Swan's stead, but he thought it not proper to accept of it, because lie had liitherto acted as a volunteer in behalf of Vij'ginia, and did not care to change sides, though it might have been to his advantage.
30th. The line was advanced this day six miles and thirty-five chains, the woods being pretty clear, and interrupted with no swamp, or other wet ground. The land hereabout had all the marks of poverty, being for the most part sandy and full of pines'. This kind of ground, though unfit for ordinary tillage, will however bring cotton and pototoes in plenty, and consequently food and raiment to such as are easily contented, and, like the wild Irish, find more pleasure in laziness than luxury. It also makes a shift to produce Indian corn, rather by the felicity of the climate than by the fertility of the soil. They who aremore industrious than their neighbours may make what quantity ot tar they please, though indeed they are not always sure of a market for it. The method of burning tar in Sweden and Muscovy succeeds not well in this warmer part of the world. It seems they kill the pine trees, by barking them quite round at a certain height, which in those cold countries brings down the turpentine into the stump in a year's time. But experience has taught us that in warm climates the turpentine will not so easil}^ descend, but is either fixed in the upper parts of the tree, or fried out by the intense heat of the sun.
Care was taken to erect a post in every road that our line ran through, with Virginia carved on the north side of it, and Carolina on the south, that the bounds might every where appear. In the evening the surveyors took up their quarters at the house of one Mr. Parker, who, by the advantage of a better spot of land than ordinary, and a more industrious wife, lives com- fortably, and has a very neat plantation.
31st. It rained a little this morning, but this, happening again upon a Sunday, did not interrupt our business. However the surveyors made no scruple of protracting and plotting olf their work u[)on that good day, be- cause it was rather an anuisemcnt than a drudgery. Here the men feasted on the fat of the land, and Ijelieving the dirtiest part of their work was over, had a more than ordinary gaiety of heart. We christened two of oui- landlord's children, which might have i-emained infidels all their lives, had not we car- ried Christianity home to his own door. The truth of it is, oui- neighbours of North Carolina are not so zealous as to go nuich out of their way to procure this benefit for their children : otherwise, being so near Virginia, they might, without exceeding much trouble, make a journey to the next clergyman, upon so good an errand. And indeed should the neighbouring ministers, once in two or three years, vouchsafe to take a turn among these gentiles, to baptize them and their children, it would look a little apostolical, and they might hope to be recjuited for at hereafter, if that be not thought too long to tarry l()r their reward.
April 1st. The surveyors getting now upon better ground, quite disengaged from underwoods, pushed on the line almost twelve miles. They left Som- merton chapel near two miles to the nortiiwards; so that there was now no place of pul)lic worship left in the whole province of Korth Carolina.
Tlu; high land f)f North Carolina was l)arren, and covered with a deep sand; and the low grounds were wet and boggy, iiisonuu-h that several of our horses were mired, and gave us frequent opportunities t(> show our hor.semanshi|).
The line cut William Si)iglit's phuitation in two, leaving \\{i]c niorelhtn his dwelling house and orchard in Virginia. Sundry other plantations were split in the saiM(> unlucky manner, which made the owners accountable to both govcnnnents. \\ In revcr we passcil \\e constantly found the bordt^fra laid it to heart if their lauil was taken into Virginia : they chose much rather
S2
THE HISTORY OF
to belong to Carolina, where they pay no tribute, either to God or to Caesar. Another ^-eason was, that the government there is so loose, and the laws are so feebly executed, that, like those in the neighbourhood of Sidon formerly, every one does just what seems good in his own eyes. If the governor's hands have been weak in that province, under the authority of the lords pro- prietors, much weaker then were the hands of the magistrate, who, though he might have had virtue enough to endeavour to punish offenders, which very rarely happened, yet that virtue had been quite impotent, for want of ability to put it in execution. Besides, there might have been some danger, perhaps, in venturing to be so rigorous, for fear of undergoing the fate of an honest justice in Coratuck precinct. This bold magistrate, it seems, taking upon him to order a fellow to the stocks, for being disorderly in his drink, was, for his intemperate zeal, carried thither himself, and narrowly escaped being whipped by the rabble into the bargain.
This easy day's work carried the line to the banks of Somerton creek, that runs out of Chowan river, a little below the mouth of Nottoway.
2d. In less than a mile from Somerton creek the line was carried to Black- water, which is the name of the upper part of Chowan, running some miles above the mouth of Nottoway. It must be observed that Chowan, after taking a compass round the most beautiful part of North Carolina, empties itself into Albemarle sound, a few mDes above Edenton. The tide flows seven or eight miles higher than where the river changes its name, and is navigable thus h^igh for a^y small vessel. Our line intersected it exactly half a mile to the northward of Nottoway. However, in obedience to his majesty's com- mand, we directed the surveyors to come down the river as far as the mouth of Nottoway, in order to continue our true west line from thence. Thus we found the mouth of Nottoway to lie no more than half a minute farther to the northward than Mr. Lawson had formerly done. That gentleman's observa- tion, it seems, placed it in 36' 30', and our working made it out to be 36° 30^' — a very inconsiderable variance.
The surveyors crossed the river over against the middle of the mouth of Nottoway, where it was about eighty yards wide. From thence they ran the line about half a mile through a dirty pocoson, as far as an Indian field. Here we took up our lodging in a moist situation, having the pocoson above mentioned on one side of us, and a swamp on the other.
In this camp three of the Meherrin Indians made us a visit. They told us that the small remains of their nation had deserted their ancient town, situated near the mouth of the Meherrin river, for fear of the Catawbas, who had killed fourteen of their people the year before ; and the few that survived that cala- mity, had -taken refuge amongst the English, on the east side of Chowan. Though, if the complaint of these Indians were true, they are hardly used by our Carohna- friends. But they are the less to be pitied, because they have ever been reputed the most false and treacherous to the English of all the Indians in the neighbourhood.
Not far from the place where we lay, I observed a large oak which had been blown up by the roots, the body of which was shivered into perfect strings, and was, in truth, the most violent effects of lightning I ever saw.
But the most curious instance of that dreadful meteor happened at York, where a man was killed near a pine tree in which the lightning made a hole before it struck the man, and left an exact figure of the tree upon his breast, with all its branches, to the wonder of all that beheld it, in which I shall be more particular hereafter.
We made another trial of the variation in this place, and found it some minutes less than we had done at Coratuck inlet ; but so small a difference might easily happen through some defect in one or other of the obgervations, and, therefore, we altered not our compass for the matter.
THE DIVIDING LINE. 33
3d. By the advantage of clear woods, the Ihie was extended twelve miles and three quarters, as far as the banks of Meherrin. Though the mouth of this river lies fifteen miles below the mouth of Nottoway, yet it winds so much to the northward, that we came upon it, after running this small distance.
During the first seven miles, we observed the soil to be poor and sandy ; but as we approached Meherrin it grew better, though there it was cut to pieces by sundry miry branches, which discharge themselves into that river. Several of our horses plunged up to the saddle skirts, and were not dis- engaged without difficulty.
The latter part of our day's work was pretty laborious, because of the unevenness of the way, and because the low ground of the river was full of cypress snags, as sharp and dangerous to our horses as so many chevaux-de- frise. We found the whole distance from the mouth of Nottoway to Meherrin river, where our line intersected it, thirteen miles and a quarter.
It was hardly possible to find a level large enough on the banks of the river whereupon to pitch our tent. But though the situation was, on that account, not very convenient for us, yet it was fur our poor horses, by reason of the plenty of small reeds on which they fed voraciously. These reeds are green here all the year round, and will keep cattle in tolerable good plight during the winter. But whenever the hogs come where they are, they destroy them in a short time, by ploughing up their roots, of which, unluckily, they are very fond.
The river was in this place about as wide as the river Jordan, that is, forty yards, and would be navigable very high for flat bottom boats and canoes, if it were not choked up with large trees, brought down by every fresh. Though the banks were full twenty feet high from the surface of the water, yet we saw certain marks of their having been overflowed.
These narrow rivers that run high up into the country are subject to fre- quent inundations, when the waters are i'olled down with such violence as to carry all before them. The logs that are then floated, are very fatal to the bridges built over these rivers, which can hardly be contrived strong enough to stand against so much weight and violence joined together.
The Isle of Wight county begins about three miles to the east of Meherrin river, being divided from that of Nansemond only by a line of marked trees.
4th. The river was here hardly fordable, though the season had been very dry. The banks too were so steep that our horses were forced to climb like mules to get up them. Nevertheless we had the luck to recover the opposite shore without damage.
We halted for half an hour at Charles Anderson's, who lives on the western bank of the river, in order to christen one of his children. In the mean time, the surveyors extended the line two miles and thirty-nine chains, in which small distance Meherrin river was so serpentine, that they crossed it three times. Then we went on to Mr. Kinchin's, a man of figure and authority in North Carolina, who lives about a mile to the southward of the place where the surveyors left off. By the benefit of a little pains, and gooil management, this worthy magistrate lives in much afiluence. Amongst other in.stances of his industry, he had planted a good orchard, which is not connnon in that indolent climate; nor is it at all strange, that such improvident people, who take no thought for the morrow, should .save themselves the trouble to make improvements that will not pay them for several years to come. Though, if they could trust fiiturity for any thing, they certainly would for cider, which they arc so fond of, that they generally drink it before it has done working, lest the fermentation might unluckily turn it sour.
It is an observation, which rarely fails of being true, both in Virginia and Carolina, that those who take care to plant good orchards are, in their ge-
34
THE HISTORY OF
neral characters, industrious people. Tliis held good in our landlord, who had many houses built on his plantation, and every one kept in decent repair. His wife, too, was tidy, his furniture clean, his pewter bright, and nothuig seemed to be wanting to make his home comfortable.
Mr. Kinchin made us the compliment of his house, but because we were willing to be as little troublesome as possible, we ordered the tent to be pitched in his orchard, where the blossoms of the apple trees contributed not a little to the sweetness of our lodging.
5th. Because the spring was now pretty forward, and the rattlesnakes began to crawl out of their winter quarters, and might grow dangerous, both to the men and their horses, it was determined to proceed no farther with the line till the fall. Besides, the uncommon fatigue the people had undergone for near six weeks together, and the inclination they all had to visit their respective families, made a recess highly reasonable.
The surveyors were employed great part of the day, in forming a correct and elegant map of the line, from Coratuck inlet to the place where they left off. On casting up the account in the most accurate manner, they found the whole distance" we had run to amount to seventy three miles and thirteen chains. Of the map they made two fair copies, which agreeing exactly, were subscribed by the commissioners of both colonies, and one of them was deli- vered to those on tlie part of Virginia, and the other to those on the part of North Carolina.
6th. Thus we finished our spring campaign, and having taken leave of our Carolina friends, and agreed to meet them again the tenth of September following, at the same Mr. Kinchin's, in order to continue the line, we crossed Meherrin river near a quarter of a mile from the house. About ten miles from that we halted at Mr. Kindred's plantation, where we christened two children.
It happened that some of Isle of Wight militia were exercising in the adjoining pasture, and there were females enough attending that martial appearance to form a more invincible corps. Ten miles farther we passed Nottoway river at Bolton's ferry, and took up our lodgings about three miles from thence, at the house of Richard Parker, an honest planter, whose labours were rewarded with plenty, which, in this country, is the constant portion of the industrious.
7th. The next day being Sunday, we ordered notice to be sent to -all the neighbourhood that there would be a sermon at this place, and an opportunity of christening their children. But the likelihood of rain got the better of their devotion, and what, perhaps, might still be a stronger motive of their curiosity. In the morning we despatched a runner to the Nottoway town, to let the Indians know we "intended them a visit that evening, and our honest landlord was so kind as to be our pilot thither, being about four miles from his house. Accordingly in the afternoon we marched in good order to the town, where the female scouts, stationed on an eminence for that purpose, had no sooner spied us, but they gave notice of our approach to their fellow citizens by continual whoops and cries, which could not possibly have been more dis- mal at the sight of their most implacable enemies. This signal assembled all their great men, who received us in a body, and conducted us into the fort. This fort was a square piece of ground, inclosed with substantial pun- cheons, or strong palisades, about ten feet high, and leaning a little outwards, to make a scalade more difficult. Each side of the square might be about a hundred yards long, with loop-holes at proper distances, through which they may fire upon the enemy. Within this inclosure we found bark cabins sufficient to lodge all their people, in case they should be obliged to retire thither. These "cabins are no other but close arbours made of saplings, arched at the
THE DIVIDING LINE. 35
top, and covered so well with bark as to be proof against all weather. The fire is made in tlie middle, according to the Hibernian fashion, the smoke whereof finds no other vent but at the door, and so keeps the whole family warm, at the expense both of their eyes and complexion. The Indians have rfo standing furniture in their cabins but hurdles to repose tlieir persons upon, which they cover with mats and deer-skins. We were conducted to the best apartments in the fort, which just before had been made ready for our reception, and adorned with new mats, that were very sweet and clean; The young men had painted themselves in a hideous manner, not so much for ornament as terror. In that frightful equipage they entertained us with sundry war dances, wherein they endeavoured to look as formidable as possi- ble. The instrument they danced to was an Indian drum, that is, a large gourd with a skin braced tight over the mouth of it. The dancers all sang to the music, keeping exact time with their feet, while their heads and arms were screwed into a thousand menacing postures. Upon this occasion the ladies had arrayed themselves in all their finery. They were wrapped in their red and blue match coats, thrown so negligently about them, that their mahogany skins appeared in several parts, like the Lacedaemonian damsels of old. Their hair was braided with white and blue peak, and hung gracefully in a large roll upon their shoulders.
This peak consists of small cylinders cut out of a conch shell, drilled through and strung like beads. It serves them both for money and jewels, the blue being of much greater value than the white, for the same reason that Ethiopian mistresses in France are dearer than French, because they are more scarce. The women wear necklaces and bracelets of these pre- cious materials, when they have a mind to appear lovely. Though their complexions be a little sad-colouied, yet tlieir shapes are very strait and well proportioned. Their faces are seldom handsome, yet they have an air of innocence and bashfulness, that with a little less dirt would not fail to make them desirable. Such charms might have had their full effect upon men who had been so long deprived of female conversation, but that the whole winter's soil was so crusted on the skins of those dark angels, that it required a very strong appetite to approach them. The bear's oil, with which they anoint their persons all over, makes their skins soft, and at the same time protects them from every species q( vermin that use to be troublesome to other un- cleanly people. We were unluckily so many, that they could not well make us the compliment of bed-fellows, according to the Indian rules of hospitality, though a grave matron whispered one of the commissioners very civilly in the ear, that if her dauglitcr had been but one year older, she should have been at his devotion.
It is by no means a loss of reputation among the Indians, for damsels that are single to have intrigues with the men ; on the contrary, they account it an argument of superior merit to be liked by a great number of gallants. However, like the ladies that game, they are a little mercenary in their amours, and seldom bestow their favours out of stark love and kimlness. But after these women have once ap|iropriated their charms by niarriage, they are from thenceforth fiithful to their vows, and will hardly ever be tempted by an agreeable gallant, or be provoked by a brutal or even by a careless husband to go astray. The little work that is <lon(> among the Indians is done by the poor women, while the men arc quite idle, or at most employed only in the gentlemanly diversions of hunting and fishing. In this, as well a.s in thc'w wars, they use nothing but fire-arms, which they purchase of the English for skins. Hows and arrows are grown into disuse, except only amongst their boys. Nor i.s it ill policy, but on the contrary very prudent, thus to furuiHh thu Indians* with fue-arms, because it makes them tleitend
36
THE HISTORY OF
entirely upon the English, not only for their trade, but even for their subsist- ence. Besides, they were really able to do more mischief, while they made use of arrows, of which they would let silently fly several -in a minute with wonderful dexterity, whereas now they hardly ever discharge their fire-locks more than once, which they insidiously do from behind a tree, and theft retire as ninibly as the Dutch horse used to do now and tljen formerly in Flanders. We put the Indians to no expense, but only of a little corn for our horses, for which in gratitude we cheered their hearts with what rum we had left, which they love better than they do their wives and children. Though these Indians dwell among the English, and see in what plenty a little indus- try enables them to live, yet tlsey choose to continue in their stupid idleness, and to suffer all the inconveniences of dirt, cold and want, rather than to dis- turb their heads with care, or defile their hands with labour.
The whole number of people belonging to the Nottoway town, if you in- clude women and children, amount to about two hundred. These are the only Indians of any consequence now remaining within the limits of Virgi- nia. The rest are either removed, or dwindled to a very inconsiderable num- ber, either by destroying one another, or else by the small-pox and other dis- eases. Though nothing has been so fatal to them as their ungovernable passion for rum, with which, I am sorry to say it, they have been but too liberally supplied by the English that live near them. And here I must la- ment the bad success Mr. Boyle's charity has hitherto had towards convert- ing any of these poor heathens to Christianity. Many children of our neigh- bouring Indians have been brought up in the college of William and Mary. They have been taught to read and write, and have been carefully instructed in the principles of the Christian religion, till they came to be men. Yet after they returned home, instead of civilizing and converting the rest, they have imme- diately relapsed into infidelity and barljarism themselves.
And some of them too have made the worst use of the knowledge they acquired among the English, by employing it against their benefactors. Besides, as they unhappily forget all the good they learn, and remember the ill, they are apt to be more vicious and disorderly than the rest of their coun- trymen. I ought not to quit this subject without doing justice to the great prudence of colonel Spotswood in this affair. That gentleman was lieutenant governor of Virginia when Carolina was engaged in a bloody war with the Indians. At that critical time it was thought expedient to keep a watchful eye upon our tributary savages, who we knew had nothing to keep them to their duty but their fears. Then it was that he demanded of each nation a compe- tent number of their great men's children to be sent to the college, where they served as so many hostages for the good behaviour of the rest, and at the same time were themselves principled in the Christian religion. He also placed a school master among the Saponi Indians, at the salary of fifty pounds per annum, to instruct their children. The person that undertook that charitable work was Mr. Charles Griffin, a man of a good family, who, by the innocence of his life, and the sweetness of his temper, was perfectly well qualified for that pious undertaking. Besides, he had so much the secret of mixing pleasure with instruction, that he had not a scholar who did not love him affectionately. Such talents must needs have been blest with a proportionable success, had he not been unluckily removed to the college, by which he left the good work he had begun unfinished. In short, all the pains he had taken among the infi- dels had no other effect but to make them something cleanlier than other Indians are. The care colonel Spotswood took to tincture the Indian children with Christianity produced the following epigram, which was not published during his administration, for fear it might then have looked like flattery.
lore, ^
THE DIVIDING LINK. 37
Long has the furious priest assayed in rain,
With sword and faggot, infidels to gain, But now the milder soldier wisely tries By gentler methods to unveil their eyes. Wonders apart, he knew 'twere vain t'engage The fix'd preventions of misguided age. With fairer hopes he forms the Indian youth To early manners, probity and truth. The lion's whelp thus, on the Lybian shon Is tamed and gentled by the artful Moor, Not the grim sire, inured to blood before.
I am sorry I cannot give a better account of the state of the poor Indians with respect to Christianity, although a great deal of pains has been and still continues to be taken with them. For my part, I must be of opinion, as I hinted before, that there is but one way of converting these poor infidels, and reclaiming them from barbarity, and that is, charitably to intermarry with them, according to the modern policy of the most Christian king in Canada and Louisiana. Had the English done this at the first settlement of the colony, the infidelity of the Indians had been worn out at this day, with their dark complexions, and the country had swarmed with people more than it does with insects. It was certainly an unreasonable nicety, that prevented their entering into so good-natured an alliance. All nations of men have the same natural dignity, and we all know that very bright talents may be lodged under a very dark skin. The principal difierence between one people and another proceeds only from the different opportunities of improvement. The Indians by no means want understanding, and are in their figure tall and well-proportioned. Even their copper-coloured complexion would admit of blanching, if not in the first, at the farthest in the second generation. I may safely venture to say, the Indian women would have made altogether as honest wives for the first planters, as tlie damsels they used to purchase from aboard the ships. It is strange, therefore, that any good Christian should have refused a wholesome, straight bed-fellow, when he might have had so fair a portion with her, as the merit of saving her soul.
8th. We rested on our clean mats very comfortably, though alone, and the next morning went to the toilet of some of the Indian ladies, where, what with the charms of their persons and the smoke of their apartments, we were almost blinded. They oflered to give us silk-grass baskets of their own making, which we modestly refused, knowing that an Indian present, like that of a nun, is a liberality put out to interest, and a bribe placed to the greatest advantage. Our chaplain observed with concern, that the ruffles of some of our fellow travellers were a little discoloured with pochoon, where- with the good man had been told those ladies used to improve their invisible
charms.
About 10 o'clock we marched out of town in good order, and the war captains saluted us with a volley of small arms. From thence we proceeded over Black-water bridge to colonel Henry Harrison's, where we congratulated each other upon our return into Christendom.
Thus ended our progress for this season, which we may justly say was attended with all the success that could be expected. F.esides the punctual performance of what was committed to us, we had the i)lcasure to bring back every one of our company in perfect health. And this we mast ac- knowledge to be a singular blessing, considering the difficulties and dangers to which they had been exposed. We had reason to fear the many waters and sunken grounds, through which wo wen- ohligf^l to wade, might have
F
38 THE HISTORY OF
thrown the men into sundry acute distempers; especially the Dismal, where the soil was so full of water, and the air so full of damps, that nothing but a Dutchman could live in them. Indeed the foundation of all our success was the exceeding dry season. It rained during the whole journey but rarely, and then, as when Herod built his temple, only in the night or upon the sab- bath, when it was no hinderance at all to our progress.
September. The teath of September being thought a little too soon for the commissioners to meet, in order to proceed on the line, on account of snakes, it was agreed to put it off to the twentieth of the same month, of which due notice was sent to the Carohna commissioners.
Sept. 19. We, on the part of Virginia, that we might be sare to be punctual, arrived at Mr. Kinchin's, the place appointed, on the nineteenth, after a jour- ney of three days, in which nothing remarkable happened. We found three of the Carolina commissioners had taken possession of the house, having come thitlier by water from Edenton. By the great quantity of provisions the?e gentlemen brought, and the few men they had to eat them, we were afraid they intended to carry the line to the South sea. They had five hun- dred pounds of bacon and dried beef, and five hundred pounds of biscuit, and not above three or four men. The misfortune was, they forgot to provide horses to carry their good things, or else trusted to the uncertainty of hiring them here, which, considering the place, was leaving too much to that jilt, hazard. On our part we had taken better care, being completely furnished with every thing necessary for transporting our baggage and protj^isions. Indeed we brought no other provisions out with us but a thou- sand pounds of bread, and had faith enough to depend on Providence for our meat, being desirous to husband the public money as much as possible. We had no less than tv/enty men, besides the chaplain, the surveyors and all the servants, to be subsisted upon this bread. However, that it might hold out th» better, our men had been ordered to provide themselves at home with provision for ten days, in which time we judged we should get beyond the inhabitants, where forest game of all sorts was like to be plenty at that time of the year.
20th. This being the day appointed for our rendezvous, great part of it was spent in the careful fixing our baggage and assembling our men, who were ordered to meet us here. We took care to examine their arms, and made proof of the powder provided for the expedition. Our provision-horses had been hindered by the rain from coming up exactly at the day ; but this delay was the less disappointment, by reason of the ten days' subsistence the men had been directed to provide for themselves. Mr. Moseley did not join us till the afternoon, nor Mr. Swan till several days after.
Mr. Kinchin had unadvisedly sold the men a little brandy of his own making, whieh produced much disorder, causing some to be too choleric, and others too loving ; insomuch that a damsel, who assisted in the kitclien, had certainly suffered what the nuns call martyrdom, had she not capitulated a little too soon. This outrage would have called for some severe discipline, had she not bashfully withdrawn herself early in the morning, and so carried off the evidence.
21st. We despatched away the surveyors without loss of time, who, with all their diligence, could carry the line no farther than three miles and a hundred and seventy-six poles, by reason the low ground was one entire thicket. In that distance they crossed Meherrin river the fourth time. In the mean while the Virginia commissioners thought proper to conduct their baggage a farther way about, for the convenience of a clearer road.
The Carolina gentlemen did at length, more by fortune than forecast, hire a clumsy vehicle, something like a cart, to transport their effects as far as
THE DIVIDING LINE. 39
Roanoke. This wretched machine, at first setting out, met with a very rude choque, that broke a case-bottle of cherry brandy in so unlucky a manner that not one precious drop was saved. This melancholy beginning foreboded an unprosperous journey, and too quick a return, to the persons most imme- diately concerned.
In our way we crossed Fountain creek, which runs into Meherrin river, so called from the disaster of an unfortunate Indian trader v/ho had formerly been drowned in it, and, like Icarus, lej^ his name to that fatal stream. We took up our quarters on the plantation of John Hill, where we pitched our tent, with design to tarry till such time as the surveyors could work their way to us.
22d. This being Sunday, we had an opportunity of resting from our la- bours. The expectation of such a novelty as a sermon in these parts brought together a numerous congregation. When the sermon was over, our chaplain did his part towards making eleven of them Christians.
Several of our men had intermitting fevers, but were soon restored to their health again by proper remedies. Our chief medicine was dogwood bai-k, which we used, instead of that of Peru, with good success. Indeed, it was given in larger quantity, but then, to make the patients amends, they swallowed much fewer doses.
In the afternoon our provision horses arrived safe in the camp. They had met with very heavy rains, but, thank God, not a single biscuit received tl.e least damage thereby. We were furnished by the neighbours with very lean cheese and very fat mutton, upon which occasion it will not be improper to draw one conclusion, from the evidence of North Carolina, that shceji would thrive much better in the woods than in pasture land, provided a care- ful shepherd were employed to keep them from straying, and, by the help of dogs, to protect them also from the wolves.
23d. The surveyors came to us at night, though they had not brought the line so far as our camp, for which reason we thought it needless to go for- ward till they came up with us. Tiicy could run no more than four miles and five poles, because the ground was every where grown up with thick bushes. The soil here appeared to be very good, though much broken betwixt Foun- tain creek and Roanoke river. The line crossed Meherrhi river the fifth and last time, nor were our people sorry to part with a stream the meanders of which had given them so much trouble.
Our hunters brought us four wild turkeys, which at that season began to be fat and very delicious, especially the hens. These birds seem to be of the bustard kind, and fly heavily. Some of them are exceedingly large, and weigh upwards of forty pounds ; nay, some bold historians venture to say, upwards of fifty pounds. They run very fast, stretching forth their wings all the time, like the ostrich, by way of sails to quicken their speed. They roost commonly upon very high trees, standing near some river or creek, and are so stupified at the sight of fire, that if you make a blaze in the night near the place Avhere they roost, you may fire upon them several times successively, before they will dare to fly away. Their spurs are so sharp and strong, that the Indians used formerly to point their arrows with them, though now they point them with a sharp white stone. In the spring the turkey-cocks begin to gobble, wliich is the language wherein they make love.
It rained vciy hard in the night, with a violent storm of thunder and light- ning, which obliged us to trench in our tent all round, to carry olf the water that fell upon it.
24th. So soon as the men could dry their blankets, we sent out the survey- ors, who now meeting with more favourable grounds, advanced the line seven miles and eighty-two poles. However, the commissioners did not think proper to decamp that day, believing they might easily overtake the surveyors the
40 THE HISTORY OF
next. In the mean time they sent out some of their most expert gunners, who brought in four more wild turkeys.
This part of the country being very proper for raising cattle and hogs, we observed the inhabitants lived in great plenty without killing themselves with labour. I found near our camp some plants of that kind of rattle-snake root, called star-grass. The leaves shoot out circularly, and grow horizontally and near the ground. The root is in shape not unlike the rattle of that ser- pent, and is a strong antidote against the bite of it. It is very bitter, and wiiere it meets with any poison, works by violent sweats, but where it meets with none, has no sensible operation but that of putting the spirits into a great hurry, and so of promoting perspiration. The rattle-snake has an utter antipathy to this plant, insomuch that if you smear your hands with the juice of it, you ma;^ handle the viper safely. Thus much I can say on my own experience, that once in July, when these snakes are in their greatest vigour, I besmeared a dog's nose with the powder of this root, and made him tram- ple on a large snake several times, which, however, was so far from biting him, that it perfectly sickened at the dog's approach, and turned its head from him with the utmost aversion.
Our chaplain, to show his zeal, made an excursion of six mUes to christen two children, but without the least regard to the good cheer at these so- lemnities.
25th. The surveyors, taking the advantage of clear woods, pushed on the line seven miles and forty poles. In the mean time the commissioners marched with the baggage about twelve miles, and took up their quarters near the banks of the Beaver pond, (which is one branch of Fountain creek,) just by the place where the surveyors were to finish their day's work. In our march one of the men killed a small rattle-snake, which had no more than two rat- tles. Those vipers remain in vigour generally till towards the end of Sep- tember, or sometimes later, if the weather continue a little warm. On this consideration we had provided three several sorts of rattle-snake root, made up into proper doses, and ready for immediate use, in case any one of the men or their horses had been bitten. We crossed Fountain creek once more in our journey this day, and found the grounds very rich, notwithstanding they were broken and stony. iN'ear the place where we encamped the county of Brunswick is divided from the Isle of Wight. These counties run quite on the back of Surry and Prince George, and are laid out in very ir- regular figures. As a proof the land mended hereabouts, we found the plan- tations began to grow thicker by much than we had found them lower down.
26th. We hurried away the .surveyors without loss of time, who extended the line ten miles and a hundred and sixty poles, the grounds proving dry and free from under- woods. By the way the chain-carriers killed two more rattle-snakes, which I own was a Uttle ungrateful, because two or three of the men had strided over them without receiving any hurt ; though one of these vipers had made bold to strike at one of the baggage horses, as he went along, but by good luck his teeth only grazed on the hoof, without doing him any damage. However, these accidents were, I think, so many arguments that we had very good reason to defer our coming out till the 20th of September. We observed abundance of St. Andrew's cross in all the woods we passed through, which is the common remedy used by the Indian traders to cure their horses when they are bitten by rattle-snakes. It grows on a straight stem, about eighteen inches high, and bears a yellow flower on the top, that has an eye of black in the middle, with several pairs of narrow leaves shoot- ing out at right angles from the stock over against one another. This anti- dote grows providentially all over the woods, and upon all sorts of soil, that it may be every where at hand in case a disaster should happen, and may be had all the hot months while the snakes are dangerous.
THE DIVIDING LINE. 4 1
About four o'clock in the afternoon we took up our quarters upon Caban branch, which also discharges itself into Fountain creek. On our way we observed several meadows clothed with very rank grass, and branches full of tall reeds, in which cattle keep themselves fat good part of the winter. But hogs are as injurious to both as goats are said to be to vines, and for that rea- son it was not lawful to sacrifice them to Bacchus. We halted by the way to christen two children at a spring, where their mothers waylaid us for that good purpose.
27th. It was ten o'clock before the surveyors got to work, because some of the horses had straggled a great distance from the camp. Nevertheless, meeting with practicable woods, they advanced the line nine miles and a hun- dred and four poles. We crossed over Pea creek about four miles from our quarters, and, three miles farther, Lizard creek, both which empty their wa- ters into Roanoke river. Between these two creeks a poor man waited for us with five children to be baptized, and we halted till the ceremony was ended. The land seemed to be very good, by the largeness of the trees, though very stony. We proceeded as far as Pigeon-roost creek, which also runs into Roanoke, and there quartered. We had not the pleasure of the company of any of the Carolina commissioners in this day's march, except Mr. Moseley's, the rest tarrying behind to wait the coming up of their baggage cart, which they had now not seen nor heard (though the wheels made a dis- mal noise) for several days past. Indeed it was a very difficult undertaking to conduct a cart through such pathless and perplexed woods, and no wonder if its motion was a little planetary. We would have paid them the compli- ment of waiting for them, could we have done it at any other expense but that of the public.
In the stony grounds we rode over we found great quantity of the true ipo- coacanna, which in this part of the world is called Indian physic. This lias se- veral stalks growing up from the same root about a foot high, bearing a leaf resembling that of a strawberry. It is not so strong as that from Brazil, but has the same happy effects, if taken in somewhat a larger dose. It is an ex- cellent vomit, and generally cures intermitting fevers and bloody fluxes at once or twice taking. There is abundunce of it in the upper part of the country, where it delights most in a stony soil intermixed with black mould. 28th. Our surveyors got early to work, yet could forward the line but six miles and a hundred and twenty-one poles, because of the uneven grounds in the neighbourhood of Roanoke, which they crossed in this day's work. In that place the river is forty-nine poles wide, and rolls down a crystal stream of very sweet v.ater, insomuch that when there comes to be a great monarch in this part of the world, he will cause all the water for his own table to be brought from Roanoke, as the great kings of Persia did theirs from the Nile, and Choaspis, because the waters of those rivers were light, and not apt to corrupt.*
The great falls of Roanoke lie about twenty miles lower, to which a sloop of moderate burthen may come up. There are, besides those, many smaller falls above, though none that entirely intercept the passage of the river, as the great ones do, by a chain of rocks for eight miles together. The river forks about thirty-six miles higher, and both branches are pretty equal in breadth where they divide, though the .southern, now called the Dan, runs up the farthest. That to the north runs away near north-west, and is called the Staunton, and heads not far from the source of Appomattox river, while the
• The sanu' humour ])revails at (his day in tho kiiifjs of Denmark, who oider all the East India ships of that nation to call at tlif cape of Cood Hopr-. and take in a but ol wa- ter fiom a .spring on the Table Hill, and brin^' it to Coponliaj;'n, lor their majcsMcs' own drinking.
42 THE HISTORY OF
Dan stretches away pretty near west, and runs clear through the great mountains.
AVe did not follow the surveyors till towards noon, being detained in our camp to christen several more children. We were conducted a nearer way, by a famous woodsman, called Epaphroditus Bamton. This forester spends all his time in ranging the woods, and is said to make great havoc among the deer, and other inhabitants of the forest, not much wilder than himself
We proceeded to the canoe landing on Roanoke, where we passed the river with the baggage. But the horses were directed to a ford about a mile higher, called by the Indians Moni-seep, which signifies, in their jargon, shal- low water. This is the ford where the Indian traders used to cross with their horses, in their way to the Catawba nation. There are many rocks in the river thereabouts, on which grov.-s a kind of water grass, which the wOd geese are fond of, and resort to it in great numbers. We landed on the south ^side of Roanoke, at a plantation of Col. Alumford's, where, by that gentle- man's special directions, we met with sundry refreshments. Here we pitched our tent, for the benefit of the prospect, upon an eminence that overlooked a broad piece of low ground, very rich, though liable to be overflowed. By the way, one of our men killed another rattle-snake, with eleven rattles, hav- ing a large gray squirrel in his maw, the head of which was already digested, while the body remained still entire. The way these snakes catch their prey is thus : They ogle the poor little animal, till by force of the charm he falls down stupified and senseless on the ground. In that condition the snake ap- proaches, and moistens first one ear and then the other with his spawl, and after that the other parts of the head, to make all slippery. When that is done, he draws this member into his mouth, and after it, by slow degrees, all the rest of the body.
29th. This being Sunday, we had divine service and a sermon, at which several of the borderers assisted, and we concluded the duties of the day by christening five children. Our devotion being performed in the open field, like that of Mr. Whitfield's flocks, an unfortunate shower of rain had almost dispersed our congregation. About four in the afternoon the Carolina com- missioners made a shift to come up with us, whom we had left at Pigeon-roost creek the Friday before, waiting for their provisions. When their cart came up they prudently discharged it, and rather chose to hire two men to carry some part of theii" baggage. The rest they had been obliged to leave behind, in the crotch of an old tree, for want of proper conveniences to transport it any farther.
We found in the low ground several plants of the fern root, which is said to be much the strongest antidote yet discovered against the poison of the rattle-snake. The leaves of it resemble those of fern, from whence it obtained its name. Several stalks shoot from the same root, about six inches long, that lie mostly on the ground. It grows in a very rich soil, under the protection of some tall tree, that shades it from the meridian beams of the sun. The root has a faint spicy taste, and is preferred by the southern Indians to all other counter-poisons in tiiis country. But there is another sort preferred by the northern Indians, that they call Seneca rattle-snake root, to which wonder- ful virtues are ascribed in the cure of pleurisies, fevers, rheumatisms, and dropsies ; besides it being a powerful antidote against the venom of the rattle- snake.
In the evening the messenger we had sent to Christiana returned with five Saponi Indians." ^\'e could not entirely rely on the dexterity of our own men, which induced us to send for some of the Indians. We agreed with two of the most expert of them, upon reasonable terms, to hunt for us the remaining part of our expedition. But one of them falling sick soon after.
THE DIVIDIIVG LINE- 43
-are were content to take only the other, whose hunting name was Bear-skin. This Indian, either by his skill -or good Inck, supplied us ptentifully all the way with meat, seldom discharging his piece in vain. By his assistance, therefore, we were able to keep our men to their business, without suffering them to straggle about the woods, on pretence of furnishing us with neces- ■ary food.
30th. It had rained all night, and made every thing so wet, that our survey- ors could not get to their work before noon. They could therefore measure no more than four miles and two hundred and twenty poles, which, according to the best infi^rmation we could get, was near as high as the uppermost inhabitant at that time. We crossed the Indian trading path above-mentioned about a mile from our camp, and a mile beyond that forded Haw-tree creek. The woods we passed through had all the tokens of sterility, except a small poisoned field, on which grew no tree bigger than a slender sapling. The larger trees had been destroyed, either by fire or caterpillars, which is often the case in the upland woods, and the places where such desolation happens are called poisoned fields. We took up our quarters upon a branch of Great creek, where there was tolerable good grass for the poor horses. These poor ani- mals having now got beyond the latitude of corn, were obliged to shift as well as they could for themselves.
On oar way the men roused a bear, which being the first we had seen since we came out, the poor beast had many pursuers. Several persons con- tended for the credit of killing him : though he was so poor he was not worth the powder. This was some disappointment to our woodsmen, who commonly prefer the flesh of bears to every kind of venison. There is some- thing indeed peculiar to this animal, namely, tltat its fat is very firm, and may be eaten plentifully without rising in the stomach. 1 he paw (which, when stripped of the hair, looks like a human foot,) is accounted a delicious morsel by all who are not shocked at the ungracious resemblance it bears to a human foot.
October 1st. There was a white frost this morning on the ground, occa- sioned by a north-west wind, which stood our friend in dispersing all aguish damps, and making the air wholesome at the same time that it made it cold. Encouraged therefore by the weather, our surveyors got to work early, and by the benefit of clear woods, and level ground, drove the line twelve miles and twelve poles.
At a small distance from our camp we crossed Great creek, and about seven miles further Nut-bush creek, so called from the many hazel-trees grow- ing upon it. By good luck many branches of these creeks were full of reeds, to the great comfort of our horses. iVear five miles from thence we encamp- ed on a branch that runs into Nut-bush creek, where those reeds flourished more than ordinary. The land we marched over was for the most part broken and stony, and in some places covered over with thickets almost im- penetrable. At night the surveyors, taking advantage of a clear sky, made a third trial of the variation, and found it still something less than throe de- jjrees, so that it <!id not diminish by advancing towards the west, or by approaching the n -inntains, nor yet by increasing our distance from the sea ; but remained mucli the same we had found it at Coratuck inlet. One of our Indians killed a large fawn, which was very welcome, though, like Hudibras' horse, it had hardly flesh enoueh to cover its bones. In the low grounds the Carolina c<*ntlemen showed us another plant, which they said was used in their country to cure the bite of the rattle-snake. It put forth several leaves in figure like 3 heart, and was clouded so like the common Assa-rabacca, that I conceived it to be of that family.
5d. So loon as the horses could be found, we hurried away the surveyor*,
44 THE HISTORY OF
who advanced the line nine miles and two hundred and fifty-four poles. About three miles from the camp they crossed a large creek, which the Indians called Massamoni, signifying, in their language. Paint creek, because of the great quantity of red ochre found in its banks. This in every fresh tinges the water just as the same mineral did formerly, and to this day continues to tinge, the famous river Adonis, in Phoenicia, by which there hangs a celebrated fable. Three miles beyond that we passed another water with difficulty, called Ya- patsco, or Beaver creek. Those industrious animals had dammed up the wa- ter so high, that we had much ado to get over. It is hardly credible how much work of this kind they will do in the space of one night. They bite young saplings into proper lengths with their fore-teeth, which are exceeding strong and sharp, and afterwards drag them to the place where they mtend to stop the water. Then they know how to join timber and earth together with so much skill, that their work is able to resist the most violent flood that can happen. In this they are qualified to instruct their betters, it being cer- tain their dams will stand firm when the strongest that are made by men will be carried down the stream. We observed very broad low grounds upon this creek, with a growth of large trees, and all the other signs of fertility, but seemed subject to be every where overflowed in a fresh. The certain way to catch these sagacious animals is this : Squeeze all the juice out of the large pride of the beaver, and six drops out of the small pride. Powder the inward bark of sassafras, and mix it with this juice, then bait therewith a steel trap, and they will eagerly come to it, and be taken.
About three miles and a half further we came to the banks of another creek, called, in the Saponi language, Ohimpa-moni, signifying Jumping creek, from the frequent jumping of fish during the spring season.
Here we encamped, and by the time the horses were hobbled, our hunters brought us no less than a brace and a half of deer, which made great plenty, and consequently great content in our quarters. Some of our people had shot a great wild cat, which was that fatal moment making a comfortable meal upon a fox-squirrel, and an ambitious sportsman of our company claimed the merit of killing this monster aft;er it was dead. The wild cat is as big again as any household cat, and much the fiercest inhabitant of the woods. WheKever it is disabled, it will tear its own flesh for madness. Although a panther will run away from a man, a wild cat will only make a surly retreat, and now and then facing about, if he be too closely pursued; and will even pursue in his turn, if he observe the least sign of fear or even of caution in those that pretend to follow him. The flesh of this beast, as well as of the panther, is as white as veal, and altogether as sweet and delicious,
3d. We got to work early this morning, and carried the line eight miles and a hundred and sixty poles. We forded several runs of excellent water, and afterwards traversed a large level of high land full of lofty walnut, poplar, and white oak trees, which are certain proofs of a fruitful soil. This level was near two miles in length, and of an unknown breadth, quite out of danger of being overflowed, which Is a misfortune most of the low grounds are liable to in those parts. As we marched along we saw many buffalo tracks, and abundance of their dung very fresh, but could not have the pleasure of see- ing them. They either smelt us out, having that sense very quick, or else were alarmed at the noise that so many people must necessarily make in marching along. At the sight of a man they will snort and grunt, cock up their ridiculous short tails, and tear up the ground with a sort of timorous fury. These wild cattle hardly ever range alone, but herd together like those that are tame. They are seldom seen so far north as forty degrees of latitude, delighting much in canes and reeds, which grow generally more southerly.
We quartered on the banks of a creek that the inhabitants call Tewaho-
THE DIVIDING LINE.
45
niiny, or Tuskarooda creek, because one of that nation had been killed there- abouts, and his body thrown into the creek.
Oui" people had the fortune to kill a brace of does, one of which we pre- sented to the Carolina gentlemen, who were glad to partake of the bounty of Providence, at the same tin:ie that they sneered at us for depending upon it.
4th. We hurried away the surveyors about nine this morning, who extend- ed the line seven miles and a hundred and sixty poles, notwithstanding the ground was exceedingly uneven. At the distance of five miles we forded a stream to which we gave the name of Bluewing creek, because of the great number of those fowls that then frequented it. About two and a half miles beyond that, we came upon Sugar-tree creek, so called from the many trees of that kind that grow upon it. By tapping this tree, in the first warm wea- ther in February, one may get from twenty to forty gallons of liquor, very sweet to the taste and agreeable to the stomach. This may bo boiled into molasses first, and afterwards into very good sugar, allowing about ten gal- lons of the liquor to make a pound. There is no doubt, too, that a very fine spirit may be distilled from the molasses, at least as good as rum. The sugar tree delights only in rich ground, where it grows very tall, and by the soft- ness and sponginess of the wood should be a quick grower. Near this creek we discovered likewise several spice trees, the leaves of which are fragrant, and the berries they bear are black when dry, and of a hot taste, not much unlike pepper. The low grounds upon the creek are very wide, sometimes on one side, sometimes on the other ; though most commonly upon the oppo- site shore the high land advances close to the bank, only on the north side of the line it spreads itself into a great breadth of rich low ground on both sides the creek for four miles together, as far as this stream runs into Hico river, whereof I shall presently make mention. One of our men spied three buffa- loes, but his piece being loaded only with goose-shot, he was able to make no effectual impression on their thick hides ; however, this disappointment was made up by a brace of bucks, and as many wild turkeys, killed by the rest of the company. Thus Providence was very bountiful to our endeavours, never disappointing those that faithfully rely upon it, and j^ray heartily for their daily bread.
5th. This day we met with such uneven grounds, and thick underwoods, that with all our industry we were able to advance the line but four miles and three hundred and twelve poles. In this small distance it intersected a large stream four times, which our Indian at first mistook for the south branch of Roanoke river ; but, discovering his error soon after, he assured us it was a river called Ilicootomony, or Turkey-buzzard river, from the great number of those unsavoury birds that roost on the tall trees growing near its banks.
Early in the afternoon, to our very great surprise, the commissioners of Carolina acquainted us with their resolution to return home. This declara- tion of theirs seemed the more abrupt, because they had not been so kind as to prepare us, by the least hint, of their intention to desert us. We therefore let them understand they appeared to us to abandon the business they came about with too nuu-h precipitation, this being but the fifteenth day since we came out the last time. But, although we were to be so unhappy as to lose the a.ssistancc of their great abilities, yet we, who were concerned for Vir- ginia, determined, by the grace of God, not to do our work by halves, but, all deserted as we were like to be, should think it our duty to push the line (iui((> to the mountains ; and if their government should refuse to be bound by so much of the line as M-as run without their connuis.sionors, 3'et at least it wPtild bind Virginia, and stand as a direction how far his maji^sly's lands ex- tend to the southward. In short, these gentlemen weie positiv*", and the most wc could agree upon was to suliscrlbe plots of our work a.^ liir as wc hud
G
46 THE HISTORY OF
acted together ; though at the same time we insisted these plots should be gotten ready by Monday noon at farthest, when we on the part of Virginia intend- ed, if we were alive, to move forward without farther loss of time, the season being then too far advanced to admit of any unnecessary or complaisant de]a3''s. ,
6th. We lay still this day, being Sunday, on the bank of Hico river, and had only prayers, our chaplain not having spirits enough to preach. The gentlemen of Carolina assisted not at our public devotions, because they were taken up all the morning in making a formidable protest against our proceed- ing on the line without them. When the divine service was over, the surveyors set about making the plots of so much of the line as we had run this last campaign. Our pious friends of Carolina assisted in this work with some seeming scruple, pretending it was a violation of the sabbath, which we were the more surprised at, because it happened to be the first qualm of conscience they had ever been troubled with during the whole journey. They had made no bones of staying from prayers to hammer out an unnecessary protest, though divine service was no sooner over, but an unusual fit of godliness made them fancy that finishing the plots, which was now matter of necessity, was a profanation of the day. However, the expediency of losing no time, for us who thought it our duty to finish what we had undertaken, made such a labour pardonable.
In the afternoon, Mr. Fitzwilliam, one of the commissioners for Virginia, acquainted his colleagues it was his opinion, that by his majesty's order they could not proceed farther on the line, but in conjunction with the commission- ers of Carolina ; for which reason he intended to retire, the next morning, with those gentlemen. This looked a little odd in our brother commissioner ; though, in justice to him, as well as to our Carolina friends, they stuck by us as long as our good liquor lasted, and were so kind to us as to drink our good journey to the mountains in the last bottle we had left.
7th. The duplicates of the plots could not be drawn fair this day before noon, when they were countersigned by the commissioners of each govern- ment. Then those of Carolina delivered their protest, which was by this time licked into form, and signed by them all. And we have been so just to them as to set it down at full length in the Appendix, that their reasons for leaving us may appear in their fall strength. After having thus adjusted all our affairs with the Carolina commissioners, and kindly supplied them with bread to carry them back, which they hardly deserved at our hands, we took leave both of them and our colleague, Mr. Fitzwilliam. This gentleman had still a stronger reason for hurrying him back to Williamsburg, which was, that neither the general court might lose an able judge, nor himself a double salary, not despairing in the least but he should have the whole pay of com- missioner into the bargain, though he did not half the work. This, to be sure, was relying more on the interest of his friends than on the justice of his cause ; in which, however, he had the misfortune to miscarry, when it came to be fairly considered,
It was two o'clock in the afternoon before these arduous affairs could be despatched, and then, all forsaken as we were, we held on our course towards the west. But it was our misfortune to meet with so many thickets in this afternoon's work, that we could advance no further than two miles and two hundred and sixty poles. In this small distance we crossed the Hico the fifth time, and quartered near Buffalo creek, so named from the frequent tokens we discovered of that American behemoth. Here the bushes were so intole- rably thick, that we were obhged to cover the bread bags with our deer smtis, otherwise the joke of one of the Indians must have happened to us in good earnest, that in a few days we must cut up our house to make bags for our
THE DIVIDING LINE. 47
bread, and so be forced to expose our backs in compliment to our bellies. We computed we had then biscuit enough left to last us, with good management, seven weeks longer ; and this being our chief dependence, it imported us to be very careful bioth in the carriage and the distribution of it.
We had now no other drink but what Adam drank in Paradise, though to our comfort we found the water excellent, by the help of which we perceived our appetites to mend, our slumbers to sweeten, the stream of life to run cool and peaceably in our veins, and if ever we dreamed of women, they wei'e kind. Our men killed a very fat buck and several turkeys. These two kinds of meat boiled together, with the addition of a little rice or French barley, made excellent soup, and, what happens rarely in other good things, it never cloyed, no more than an engaging wife woul^ do, by being a constant dish. Our In- dian was very superstitious in this matter, and told us, with a face Ml of con- cern, that if we continued to boil venison and turkey together, we should for the future kill nothing, because the spirit that presided over the woods would drive all the game out of our sight. But we had the happiness to find this an idle superstition, and though his argument could not convince us, yet our repeat- ed experience at last, with much ado, convinced him. We observed abundance of colt's foot and maiden-hair in many places, and no where a larger quantity than here. They are both excellent pectoral plants, and seem to have greater virtues much in this part of the world than in more northern climates ; and I believe it may pass for a rule in botanies, that where any vegetable is planted by the hand of nature, it has more virtue than in places whereto it is trans- planted by the curiosity of man.
8th. Notwithstanding we hurried away the surveyors very early, yet the underwoods embarrassed them so much that they could with difficulty ad- vance the line four miles and twenty poles. Our clothes suffered extremely by the bushes, and it was really as much as both our hands could do to pre- serve our eyes in our hedds. Our poor hor.ses, too, could hardly drag their loads throOgh the saplings, which stood so close together that it was necessary for them todraw and carry at the same time. We quartered near a spring of very fine water, as soft as oil and as cold as ice, to make us amends for the want of wine. And our Indian knocked down a very fat doe, just time enough to hinder us from going supperless to bed. The heavy baggage could not come up with us, because of the excessive badness of the ways. This gave us no small uneasiness, but it went worse with the poor men that guarded it. They had nothing in the world with them but dry bread, nor durst they eat any of that, for fear of inflaming their thirst, in a place where they could find no water to quench it. This was, however, the better to be endured, because it was the first fast any one had kept during the whole jour- ney, and then, thanks to the gracious Guardian of the woods ! there was no more than a single meal lost to a few of the company. We were entertained this night with the yell of a whole family of wolves, in which we could dis- tinguish the treble, tenor and bass, very clearly. These beasts of prey kept pretty much upon our track, being tempted by the garbage of tlie creatures we killed every day ; for which we were serenaded witii their shrill pipes almost every night. This bea.st is not so untameable as the panther, but the Indians know how to gentle their wlielps, and use them about their cabins instead of dogs.
9th. The thickets were hereabouts so impenetrable, that we were obliged, at first setting off this morning, to order four pioneers to clear the way be- fore the surveyors. But, after about two miles of these rough woods, we had the pleasure to meet witii open grounds and not very uneven, by the help of which we were enabled to push the lino about six miles. The baggage that lay short of our camp last night came up about noon, and the men made
48
THE HISTORY OF
heavy complaints, that they had been lialf starved, like Tantalus, in the midst of plenty, for the reason above mentioned.
The soil we past over this day was generally very good, being clothed with large trees, of poplarj,hiqkory and oak. But another certain token of its fertility was, that wild angelica grew plentifully upon it. The root of this plant, being verj'- warm and aromatic, is coveted by woodsmen extreme- ly as a dry dram, that is, when rum, that cordial for all distresses, is wanting. Several deer came into our view as we marched along, but none into the pot, which made it necessaiy for us to sup on the fragments we had been so provident as to carry along with us. This being but a temperate repast, made some of our hungi-y fellows call the place we lodged at that night. Bread and Water Camp.
A great flock of cranes flew over our quarters, that were exceeding clamo- rous in their flight. They seem to steer their course towards the south (be- ing birds of passage) in quest of warmer weather. They only took this country in their way, being as rarely met with, in this part of the world, as a highwayman or a beggar. These birds travel generally in flocks, and when they roost they place sentinels upon some of the highest trees, which con- stantly stand upon one leg to keep themselves waking.*
Our Indian killed nothing all day but a mountain partridge, which a little resembled the common partridge in the plumage, but was near as large as a dunghill hen. These are very frequent towards the mountains, though we had the fortune to meet with very few. They are apt to be shy, and conse- quently the noise of so great a number of people might easily scare them away from our sight. We found what we conceived to be good limestone in several places, and a great quantity of blue slate.
10th. The day began very fortunately by killing a fat doe, and two brace of wild turkeys ; so the plenty of the morning made amends for the short commons over night. One of the new men we brought out with us the last time was unfortunately heard to wish himself at home, and for that .show of impatience was publicly reprimanded at the head of the men, who were all drawn up to witness his disgrace. He was asked how he came so soon to be tired of the company of so many brave fellows, and whether it was the danger or the fatigue of the journey that disheartened him] This public re- proof from thenceforward put an effectual stop to all complaints, and not a man amongst us after that pretended so much as to wish himself in Paradise. A small distance from our camp v,-e crossed a pleasant stream of water called Cocquade creek, and something more than a mile from thence our line intersected the south branch of Roanoke river the first time, which we called the Dan. It was about two hundred yards wide where we forded it, and when we came over to the west side, we found the banks lined with a forest of tall canes, that grew more than a furlong in depth. So that it cost us abundance of time and labour to cut a passage through them wide enough for our baggage. In the mean time we had leisure to take a full view of this charming river. The stream, which was perfectly clear, ran down about
* Nor are these birds IFie only animals that appoint scouts to keep the main body from being surprised. For the baboons, wh<»never they go upon any mischievous expedition, such as robbing an orchard, place sentinels to look out towards every point of the compass, and give notice of any danger. Then ranking themselves in one file, that reaches from the mountain where they harbour, to the orchard they intend to rob, some of them toss .the fruits from the trees to those that stand nearest, these throw them to the next, and so from one to the other, till the fruit is all secured in a few minutes out of harm's way. In the mean time, if any of the scouts should be careless at their posts, and suffer any surprise, they are torn to pieces without mercy. In case of danger these sentinels set up a fearful cry, upon which the rest take the alarm, and scour away to the moun- tains as fast as they can.
THE DIVIDING LINE. 49
two knots, or two miles, an hour, when the water was at the lowest. The bottom was covered with a coarse gravel, spangled very thick with a shining substance, that almost dazzled the eye, and the sand upon either shore sparkled with the same splendid particles. At first sight, the sunbeams giving a yellow cast to these spangles made us fancy them to be gold dust, and consequently that all our fortunes were made. Such hopes as these were the less extravagant, because several rivers lying mudi about the same latitude with this have formerly abounded with fragments of that tempting- metal. Witness the Tagus in Portugal, the Heber in Thrace, and the Pactolus in Lesser Asia ; not to mention the rivers on the Gold Coast in Africa, which lie in a more southern climate. But we soon found ourselves mistaken, and our gold dust dwindled into small flakes of isinglass. However, though this did not make the river so rich as we could wish, yet it made it exceed- ingly beautiful. We marched about two miles and a half beyond this river, as far as Cane creek, so called from a prodigious quantity of tall canes that fringed the banks of it. On the west side of this creek we marked out our quarters, and were glad to find our horses fond of the canes, though they scoured them smartly at first, and discoloured their dung. This beautiful ve- getable grows commonly from twelve to sixteen feet high, and some of them as thick as a man's wrist. Though these appeared large to us, yel they are no more than spires of grass, if compared to those which some curious tra- vellers tell us grow in the East Indies, one joint of which will make a brace of canoes, if sawed in two in the middle. Ours continue green through all the seasons during the space of six years, and the seventh shed their seed, wither away and die. The spring following they begin to shoot again, and reach their former stature the second or third year after. They grow so thick, and their roots lace together so firmly, that they are the best guard that can be of the river bank, which would otherwise be washed away by the frequent inundations that happen in this part of the world. They would also serve excellently well to plant on the borders of fish-ponds and canals, to secure their sides from falling in; though I fear tliey would not grow kindly in a cold countr}', being seldom seen here so northerly as thirty-eight degrees of latitude.
11th. At the distance of four miles and sixty poles from the place where we encamped, we came upon the river Dan a second time ; though it was not so wide in this place as where we crossed it first, being not above a iumdred and fifty yards over. The west shore continued to be covered with the canes above mentioned, but not to so great a breadth as before, and it is remarkable that these canes are much more frequent on the west side of the river than on the east, where they grow generally very scattering. It was still a beautiful stream, rolling down its limpid and murmuring waters among the rocks, which lay scattered here and there, to make up the variety of the prospect. It was about two miles from this river to the end of our day's work, which led us mostly over broken grounds and troublesome underwoods. Hereabout, from one of tlie highest hills, we made the first discovery of the mountains, on the north-west of our course. They seemed to lie off at a vast distance, and looked like ranges of blue clouds rising one above another. We encamped about two miles beyond the river, where we made good cheer upon a very fat buck, that luckily fell in our way. The Indian likewise shot a wild turkey, but confessed he would not bring it us, lost we should continue to provoke the guardian of the forest, by cooking the beasts of the field and the birds of the air together in one vessel. This inslance of Indian superstition, I confess, is countenanced in some measure by tiie Levitical law, which for- bade the mixing things of a dilferent nature together in the same field, or in the same garment, and why not then in the same kettle 1 But, after all, if the
50 THE HISTORY OF
jumbling of two sorts of flesh together be a sin, how intolerable an offence must it be to make a Spanish olla, that is, a hotchpotch of every kind of thing that is eatable ! And tiie good people of England would have a great deal to answer for, for beating up so many different ingredients into a pudding.
r2th. We were so cruelly entangled with bushes and grape-vines all day, that we could advance the line no farther than five miles and twenty-eight poles. The vines grow very thick in these woods, twining lovingly round the trees almost every where, especially to the saplings. This makes it evi- dent how natural both the soil and climate of this country are to vines, though I believe most to our own vines. The grapes we commonly met with were black, though there be two or three kinds of white grapes that grow wild. The black are very sweet, but small, because the strength of the vine spends itself in wood ; though without question a proper culture would make the same grapes bath larger and sweeter. But, with all these disadvantages, I have drunk to\n-able good wine pressed from them, though made without skill. There is then good reason to believe it might admit of great improve- ment, if riglitly managed. Our Indian killed a bear, two years old, that was feasting on these grapes. He was very fat, as they generally are in that sea- son of the year. In the fall, the flesh of this animal has a high relish, differ- ent from that of other creatures, though inclining nearest to that of pork, or rather of wild boar. A true woodsman prefers this sort of meat to that of the fattest venison, not only for the haul gout, but also because the fat of it is well tasted, and never rises in the stomach. Another proof of the goodness of this meat is, that it is less apt to corrupt than any other with which we are acquainted. As agreeable as such rich diet was to the men, yet we who were not accustomed to it, tasted it at first with some sort of squeamishness, that animal being of the dog kind ; though a little use soon reconciled us to this American venison. And that its being of the dog kind might give us the less disgust, we had the example of that ancient and polite people, the Chi- nese, who reckon dog's flesh too good for any under the quality of a manda- rin. This beast is in truth a very clean feeder, living, while the season lasts, upon acorns, chestnuts and chinquapins, wild honey and wild grapes. They are naturally not carnivorous, unless hunger constrain them to it, after the mast is all gone, and the product of the woods quite exhausted. They are not provident enough to lay up any hoard, like the squirrels, nor can they, after all, live very long upon licking their paws, as sir John Mandevil and some other travellers tell us, but are forced in the winter months to quit the mountains, and visit the inhabitants. Their errand is then to surprise a poor hog at a pinch to keep them from starving. And to show that they are not flesh-eaters by trade, they devour their prey very awkwardly. They do not kill it right out, and feast upon its blood and entrails, like other ravenous beasts, but having, after a fair pursuit, seized it with their paws, they begin first upon the rump, and so devour one collop after another, till they come to the vitals, the poor animal crying all the while, for several minutes together. However, in so doing, Bruin acts a little imprudently, because the dismal out- cry of the hog alarms the neighbourhood, and it is odds but he pays the for- feit with his life, before he can secure his retreat. But bears soon grow weary of this unnatural diet, and about January, when there is nothing to be gotten in the woods, they retire into some cave or hollow tree, where they sleep away two or three months very comfortably. But then they quit their holes in March, when the fish begin to run up the rivers, on which they are forced to keep Lent, till some fruit or berry comes in season. But bears are fondest of chestnuts, which grow plentifully towards the mountains, upon very large trees, where the soil happens to be rich. We were curious to know how it happened that many of the outward branches of those trees came to be broken
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off" in that solitary place, and were informed that the bears are so discreet as not to trust their unwieldy bodies on the smaller limbs of the tree, that would not bear their weight ; but after venturing as far as is safe, which they can judge to an inch, they bite off the end of the branch, which falling down, they are content to finish their repast upon the ground. In the same cautious manner they secure the acorns that grow on the weaker limbs of the oak. And it must be allowed that, in these "instances, a bear carries instinct a great way, and acts more reasonably than many of his betters, who indiscreetly venture upon frail projects that will not bear them.
loth. This being Sunday, we rested from our fatigue, and had leisure to re- flect on the signal mercies of Providence.
The great plenty of meat wherewith Bearskin furnished us in these lonely woods made us once more shorten the men's allowance of bread, from five to four pounds of biscuit a week. This was the moie necessary, because we knew not yet how long our business might require us to be out.
In the afternoon our hunters went forth, and returned triumphantly with three brace of wild turkeys. They told us they could see the mountains dis- tinctly from every eminence, though the atmosphere was so thick with smoke that they appeared at a greater distance than they really were.
In the evening we examined our friend Bearskin, concerning the religion of his country, and he explained it to us, without any of tjiat reserve towhich his nation is subject. He told us he believed there was one supreme God, who had several subaltern deities under him. And that this master God made the world a long time ago. That he told the sun, the moon, and stars, their business in the beginning, which they, with good looking after, have faithfully performed ever since. That the same Power that made all things at first has taken care to keep them in the same method and motion ever since. He be- lieved that God had formed many worlds before he formed this, but that those worlds either grew old and ruinous, or were destroyed for the dishonesty of the inhabitants. That God is very just and very good — ever well pleased with those men who possess those god-like qualities. That he takes good people into his safe protection, makes them very rich, fills their loellics plentifully, preserves them from sickness, and from being surprised or overcome by their enemies. But all such as tell lies, and cheat those they have dealings with, he never fails to punisii with sickness, poverty and hunger, and, after "all that, suffers them to be knocked on the head and scalped by those that fight against them. He believed that after death both good and bad people areconclucted by a strong guard into a great road, in which departed souls travel together for some time, till at a certain distance this road forks into two paths, the one extremely level, and the other stony and mountainous. Here the irood are parted from the bad by a flash of lightning, the first being hurried away to the right, the other to the left. The right hand road leads to a charming warm country, where the spring is everlasting, and every month is May ; and as the year is always in its youth, .so are the people, and particularly the wo- men are bright as stars, and never scold. That in this hapi^y climate there are deer, turkeys, elks, and buffiiloes innumerable, perpetually fit and gentle, while the trees are loaded with delicious fruit quite Ihrougliout the four sea- sons. That the soil brings forth corn spontaneously, without the curse of la- bour, and .so very wholesome, that none who have the happiness to eat of it are ever sick, grow old, or die. Near the entrance into this blessed land sits a venerable old man on a mat richly woven, who examines strictly all that are brought befijre him, and if they have behaved well, the guards are order- ed to ojion the crystal gate, and let them enter into the land of delight. The left hand path is very rugged and uneven, leading to a dark and barren coun- try, where it is always winter. The ground is the whole year round covered
52 THE HISTORY OF
with snow, and nothing is to be seen upon the trees but icicles. All the peo- ple are hungry, yet have not a morsel of any thing to eat, except a bitter kind of potato, that gives them the dry gripes, and fills their whole body with loathsome ulcers, that stink, and are insupportably painful. Here all the wo- men are old and ugly, having claws like a panther, with which they fly upon the men that .slight their passion. For it seems these haggard old furies are intolerably fond, and expect a vast deal 'of cherishing. They talk much, and exceedingly shrill, giving exquisite pain to the drum of the ear, which in that place of torment is so tender, that every sharp note wounds it to the quick. At the end of this path sits a dreadful old woman on a monstrous toad-stool, whose head is covered with rattle-snakes instead of tresses, with glaring white eyes, that strike a terror unspeakable into all that behold her. This hag pronounces sentence of woe upon all the miserable wretches that hold up their hands at her tribunal. After this they are delivered over to huge turkey-buzzards, like harpies, that fly away with them to the place above mentioned. Here, after they have been tormented a certain number of years, according to their several degrees of guilt, they are again driven back into this world, to try if they will mend their manners, and merit a place the next time in the regions of bliss. This was the substance of Bearskin's religion, and was as much to the purpose as could be expected from a mere state of nature, without one glimpse of revelation or philosophy. It contained, however, the three great articles of natural religion : the belief of a God ; the moral distinction betwixt good and evil; and the expectation of rewards and punishments in another world. Indeed, the Indian notion of a future happi- ness is a little gross and sensual, like Mahomet's paradise. But how can it be otherwise, in a people that are contented with Nature as they find her, and have no other lights but what they receive from purblind tradition 1
14th. There having been great signs of rain yesterday evening, we had taken our precautions in securing the bread, and trenching in our tent. The men had also stretched their blankets upon poles, pent-house fashion, against , the weather, so that nobody was taken unprepared. It began to fall heavily about three o'clock in the morning, and held not up till near noon. Every thing was so thoroughly soaked, that we laid aside all thoughts of decamping that day. This gave leisure to the most expert of our gunners to go and try their fortunes, and they succeeded so well, that they returned about noon with three fat deer, and four wild turkeys. Thus Providence took care of us, and however short the men might be in their bread, it is certain they had meat at full allowance. The cookery went on merrily all night long, to keep the damps from entering our pores ; and in truth the impressions of the air are much more powerful upon empty stomachs. In such a glut of provisions, a true woodsman, when he has nothing else to do, like our honest country- men the Indians, keeps eating on, to avoid the imputation of idleness ; though, in a scarcity, the Indian will fast with a much better grace than