30 STATISTICAL ACCOUNT OF THE 



estate, and to harbour boats, &c. while they are loading or 

 discharging. ; 



The plantations along the river, as well as in the other parts 

 of the colonies, were surveyed and laid* out in grants, or al- 

 lotments, of five hundred acres, by the Dutch West India 

 Company. They are of an oblong form, the frontage being 

 one hundred roods, and the depth seven hundred and fifty ; 

 with a conditional grant of as much more behind the first, 

 when two thirds of that sliowld be cultivated. All the estates 

 on the river are now entitled to this, and many of them have 

 already carried their cultivation thirteen or fourteen hundred 

 roods from the banks of the river in a straight line with the 

 extended sides of the front dam, or ditch, thrown up to pre- 

 vent the water in spring tides from inundating the land. Two 

 side dams are likewise thrown up, and extend as far as the 

 cultivation, where they join a back dam: so that an estate is a 

 complete island within itself, and dammed on all sides. Every 

 plantation is therefore obliged to have a bridge on each side, 

 to permit the traveller to cross these trenches and canals, in pro- 

 secution of his journey. Like public roads, these bridges are 

 obliged to be kept in repair, and according to an act of the 

 court of police, to be painted white, that they may be seen 

 with more facility in a dark night. 



