THE DIVIDING LINE. 15 



we were stopped by a miry pocoson full ha!f a mile in breadth, through 

 which we were obliged to daggle on foot, plunging now and then, tiiough we 

 picked om- 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 reachet 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 great numbers in the winter, though, when the weather grows 

 warm, they are driven thence by the mighty armies of mosquitoes, which are 

 the plague of the lov/er 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, i-ose 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, " I fancy the pocoson you must 

 struggle with tc-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 before they came upon the dreadful pocoson they had been 

 threatened with. Nor did they find it one jot better than it had been painted 

 to them. The beavers and otters had reridered it quite impassable for any 

 creature but themselves. 



Our poor fellows had much ado to drag their legs after them in this quag- 



