96 TRAVELS IN THE CONFEDERATION 



told of a ' mighty hospitable man ' living on the road ; 

 and yesterday's praise of Virginia hospitality still re- 

 sounding in our ears, we were willing to try our for- 

 tune, rode 12 long miles through sand, marsh, and 

 forest to an arm of Nansemond Creek, and asked 

 politely for a night's lodging at the house recom- 

 mended. It was dark, a dismal, cheerless Christmas 

 Eve. After repeated inquiries as to where we had 

 come from, who had sent us, &c. ; after as many re- 

 minders that this was no public house, but travellers 

 (who withstood repulse) were taken in gratis; and 

 after prolonged counsel between man and wife, we 

 were at last received, with an ill grace. The next 

 morning we took leave early and expeditiously. Not 

 far from the house we passed Event's Bridge, named 

 for our host, who had built it by authority from the 

 Assembly so as to bring the road, which lay in a dif- 

 ferent direction, before his house and store. Although 

 he expected and got advantage from this change in the 

 road, he considered it no business of his to look after 

 the comfort of travellers. 



Suffolk, on another small branch of Nansemond 

 Creek, was the next little town, 20 miles from Smithfield 

 and somewhat larger than that place. The town for- 

 merly drove a good trade in pitch, tar, timber, and 

 other products of this part of Virginia and the neigh- 

 boring North Carolina, of which the boundary line is 

 only 22 miles from here. Of the 100 low frame houses 

 the place had, but few are now standing; the others 

 were burned in May 1779 by a party of British troops 

 which made an expedition from New York to Virginia, 

 and finding no opposition, returned with a rich booty 

 in tobacco &c. The fine and deep sand in the streets is 



