26 
THE HISTORY OF 
looked very thin, and as ragged as the Gibeonite ambassadors did in the 
days of yore. 
Our surveyors told us they had measured ten miles in the Dismal, and 
computed the distance they had marched since to amount to about five more, 
so they made the whole breadth to be fifteen miles in all. 
23d. It was very reasonable that the surveyors, and the men who had been 
sharers in their fatigue, should now have a little rest. They were all, except 
one, in good health and good heart, blessed be God ! notwithstanding the 
dreadful hardships they had gone through. It was really a pleasure to see 
the cheerfulness wherewith they received the order to prepare to re-enter the 
Dismal on the Monday following, in order to continue the line from the place 
where they had left off measuring, that so we might have the exact breadth 
of that dirty place. There were no more than two of them that could be 
persuaded to be relieved on this occasion, or suffer the other men to share the 
credit of that bold undertaking, neither would these have suffered it had not 
one of them been very lame, and the other much indisposed. By the de- 
scription the surveyors gave of the Dismal, we were convince! that nothing 
but the exceeding dry season we had been blessed with could have made the 
passing of it practicable. It is the source of no less than five several rivers 
which discharge themselves southward into Albemarle sound, and of two that 
run northerly into Virginia. From thence it is easy to imagine that the soil 
must be thoroughly soaked with water, or else there must be plentiful stores 
of it under ground ; to supply so many rivers ; especially since there is no 
lake, or any considerable body of that element to be seen on the surface. 
The rivers that head in it from Virginia are the south branch of Nansemond, 
-and the west bxanch of Elizabeth ; and those from Carolina are North-west 
■river. North river, Pasquotank, Little river, and Pequimons. 
There is one remarkable part of the Dismal, lying to the south of the line, 
that has few or no trees growing on it, but contains a large tract of tall reeds. 
These being green all the year round, and wavering with every wind, have 
procured it the name of the Green sea. We are not yet acquainted with the 
precise extent of the Dismal, the whole having never been surveyed ; but it 
may be computed at a medium to be about thirty miles long and ten miles 
broad, though where the line crossed it, it was completely fifteen miles wide. 
But it seems to grow narrower towards the north, or at least does so in many 
places. The exhalations that continually rise from this vast body of mire and 
nastiness infect the air for many miles round, and render it very unwhole- 
some for the bordering inhabitants. It makes them liable to agues, pleurisies, 
and many other distempers, that kill abundance of people, and make the rest 
look no better than ghosts. It would require a great sum of money to drain 
it, but the public treasure could not be better bestowed, than to preserve the 
lives of his majesty's liege people, and at the same time render so great a 
tract of swamp very profitable, besides the advantage of making a channel 
to transport by water carriage goods from Albemarle sound into Nansemond 
and Elizabeth rivers, in Virginia. 
24th. This being Sunday, we had a numerous congregation, which flocked 
to our quarters from all the adjacent country. The news that our surveyors 
were come out of the Dismal, increased the number very much, because it 
would give them an opportunity of guessing, at least, whereabouts the line 
would cut, whereby they might form some judgment whether they belonged 
to Virginia or Carolina. Those who had taken up land within the disputed 
bounds were in great pain lest it should be found to lie in Virginia ; because 
this being done contrary to an express order of that government, the patentees 
had great reason to fear they should in that case have lost their land. But 
