THE DIVIDING LINE. 13 



Gtli. At noon, hciving a perfect observation, we found the latitude of Cora- 

 tuck inlet to be 30 degrees and 31 minutes. 



Whilst we were Ijusied 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 tliose 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 

 i'ew 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 by 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 fruitless an errand as their 

 predecessors. Tlie 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 themselves, 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 w'ere 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. 

 Moseley, to convince us he was not that obstinate person he had been repre- 

 sented, yielded to our reasons, and found m.eans 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 began, we were willing for peace' sake to make them 

 that allowance. Accordingly we fixed our beginning about that distance 

 north of the inlet, and there ordered a cedar post to be driven deep into the 

 sand for our beginning. While we continued here, we were told that on the 

 south shore, not far from the inlet, dwelt a marooner, that modestly called 

 himself a hermit, though he forfeited that name by suffering a wanton female 

 to cohabit with him. His habitation was a bower, covered with bark after 

 the Indian fashion, which in that mild situation protected him pretty well from 

 the weather. Like the ravens, he neither ploughed nor sowed, but subsisted 

 chiefly upon oysters, which his handmaid made a shift to gather from the ad- 

 jacent rocks. 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 i-ai- 

 ment, he depended mostly upon his length of beard, and she 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. 



