596 



FARMERS' REGISTER. 



[No. 10 



dure, and makes every plnnt an ever-green, but 

 at ihe same time the ibul damps ascend without 

 ceasing, corrupt the air, and render it unfit lor re- 

 spiration. Not even a turi<ey-buzzard will venture 

 to fly over it, no more than the Ilaiian vultures 

 will over ihe fihhy Lalie Avernus, or the birds m 

 the Holy Land over the Suit Sea, vvhere.Sodom 

 and Gomorrah I'ornierly stood. 



In these sad circumstances, the kindest thing 

 we could do lor our sull'ering liMends, was to give 

 them a place m the litany. Our chafdain for his 

 part did his otlice, and rubbed us up with a sea- 

 sonable sermon. This was quite a new thing to 

 our brethren of North Carolina, who live in a cli- 

 mate where no clergyman can breathe, any more 

 tiian snakes in Ireland. 



For want ol'men in holy orders, both the mem- 

 bers of the councd, 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 lor 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 ofl'spring 

 should remain as arrant pagans as themselves. 

 They account it among their greatest advantages, 

 that they 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 trouhled 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 advan- 

 tage, were they given to be industrious. But they 

 have so many Sabbaths every weel<, that their 

 disregard ol' the seventh day has no manner of 

 cruelty in it, either to servants or cattle. 



18th. — It was with some difficulty we could 

 make our people quit the good cheer thej- met with 

 at this house, so it was kUe before we took our de- 

 parture ; 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 in- 

 to the Dismal. Eight miles beyond that, we 

 forded the waters of 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 flattered ourselves we should by this 

 time meet with good tidings of the surveyors, but 

 had reckoned alas! without our host ; on the con- 

 trary, we were told that the Dismal was at least 

 thirty miles wide in that place. However, as no- 

 body could say this on his own knowledge, we 

 ordered guns to be fired, and a drimi 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 sometimes 

 return three for one. 



It was indeed no wonder our signal was not 

 heard at that time by the people in the Dismal, be- 

 cause in truth they had not then penetrated one- 

 third of their way. They had that morning fal- 

 len to work with great vigor, and finding the 

 ground better than ordinary, drove on the line 2 

 miles and 38 poles. This was reckoned an Her- 

 culean day's work — and yet they would not have 



stopped there, had not an impenetrable cedar 

 thicket checked their industry. Our landlord had 

 seated himseh" on the borders of tins Dismal, lor 

 the adviintage of the green food his cattle find 

 there all winter, and lor the rooting that supports 

 his hogs. This I own is some convenience to his 

 purse, lor v/hich his whole liimily pay dear in 

 theirpersons ; for they are devoured bymoschetoes 

 all the summer, and have agues every spring and 

 fall, which corrupt all the juices of their bodies, 

 give them a cadaverous con'piexion, and besides, 

 a l-azy creeping habit, which they never get rid of. 



i9th. — We ordered several men to patrole 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, nor gain any sort 

 of intelligence. In the meantime whole flocks of 

 women and children flew hither to stare at us 

 whh as much curiosity, as it we had lately landed 

 from Bantam, or Morocco. 



Some borderers too had a great mind to know 

 where the line would come out, being lor the most 

 part apprehensive lest their lands should be taken 

 into Virginia. In that case they must have sub- 

 mitted 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 bap- 

 tized, 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 been only for the no- 

 velty of having their hands joined by one in holy 

 orders: yet so it was, that though our chaplain 

 christened above one hundred, he did not marry 

 so much as one couple during the whoL expedi- 

 tion. 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 arch- 

 bishop. 



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 line this day no fur- 

 ther than one mile and 51 poles— and that whole 

 distance was through a miry cedar bog, where 

 the ground trembled under their i'eet most fright- 

 fully. In many places too, their passage was re- 

 tarded 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. Ne- 

 ver were patients more tractable, or willing to take 

 physic, than these honest lellows ; but it was from 

 a dread of laying their bones in a bog, that would 

 soon spew them up again. That consideration 

 also put them upon more caution about their lodg- 

 ing. 



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 betwixt the joints of the bark, to 

 their great inconvenience. Tfms they lay not 

 only moist, but also exceedingly cold, because 



