272 • AVOYAGETOTHE 



Sunday iz. 



^ xiH ' ' I'^'ionth of Auguft. To fee their manner of living at that 

 V — -■— — ' fjafon of the year, one would think it a miracle that any 

 Auguii. of them efcaped with their lives. I found men, women, 

 and children, all huddled together in a clofe houfe near 

 a large lire, and entirely furrounded with ftinking fifh. 

 Round the houfe, for at leaft one hundred yards, and all 

 along the banks of a little creek that ran down by this 

 miferable dwelling, were flrewed ftinking fifh; and in 

 feveral places were beds of maggots a foot deep, and ten 

 or twelve feet in circumference: nay, the place had 

 really fuch a dreadfully ofFenfive fmell, that the young 

 Indian himfelf, though habituated to fuch wretched fcenes 

 from his earlieft infancy, having remained on board with 

 us a few days, could not bear it, but intreated me very 

 earneftly to leave the place, which I did, and returned to 

 the boat, accompanied by him and the reft of our party. 

 PofUbly the fmall-pox only raged during the warm wea- 

 ther, and the infection was deftroyed by the fetting in of 

 a fevere winter; but the fufferings of the poor Indians, 

 when the diforder was at its height, muft have been in- 

 conceivable, and no doubt the country was nearly depo- 

 pulated; for to this day it remains very thinly inha- 

 bited. 



A NUMBER of the Indians who vifited' us from the Eaft- 

 ward were marked with the fmall-pox, and one man who 

 had loft an eye gave me to underftand that he loft it by 

 that diforder ; but none of the natives from the Weftward 

 had the leaft traces of it. I cannot account for this cir- 

 cumftance any other way than by fuppofing that the vefTel 

 from which thele unfortunate people caught the infedion, 

 was in a harbour fomewhere about Cane Edgecombe; and 



perhaps 



