18 
THE HISTORY OF 
very serviceable in transporting ns over the many waters in that dirty and 
difficult part of our business. Our landlord had a tolerable good house and 
clean furniture, and yet we could not be tempted to lodge in it. We chose 
rather to lie in the open field, for fear of growing too tender. A clear sky, 
spangled with stars, was our canopy, which being the last thing we saw be- 
fore we fell asleep, gave us magnificent dregms. The truth of it is, we took 
so much pleasure in that natural kind of lodging, that I think at the foot of 
the account mankind' are great losers by the luxury of feather beds and 
warm apartments. 
The curiosity of beholding so new and withal so sw’eet a method of en- 
camping, brought one of the senators of North Carolina to make us a mid- 
night visit. But he was so very clamorous in his commendations of it, that 
the sentinel, not seeing his quality, either through his habit or behaviour, had 
like to have treated him roughly. After excusing .the unseasonableness of 
his visit, and letting us know he was a parliament man, he swore he was so 
taken with our lodging, that he would set fire to his house as soon as he got 
home, and teach his wife and children to lie, like us, in the open field. 
13th. Early this morning our chaplain repaired to us with the men we had 
left at Mr. Wilson’s. We had sent fo,r tiiem the evening before to relieve 
those who had the labour-oar from Coratuck inlet. But to our great surprise, 
they petitioned not to be relieved, hoping to gain immortal reputation by be- 
ing the first of mankind that ventured through the great Dismal. But the 
rest being equally amffiitious of the same honour, it was but fair to decide 
their pretensions by lot. After fortune had declared herself, those which she 
had excluded offered money to the happy persons to go in their stead. But 
Hercules would have as soon sold the glory of cleansing the Augean stables, 
which was pretty near the same sort of work. No sooner was the contro- 
versy at an end, but we sent those unfortunate fellows back to their quarters, 
whom chance had condemned to remain upon firm land and sleep in a whole 
skin. In the meanwhile the surveyors carried the line Three miles, which 
was no contemptible day’s work, considering how cruelly they were entan- 
gled with briers and gall bushes. The leaf of this last shrub bespeaks it to 
be of the alaternus family. 
Our work ended within a quarter of a mile of the Dismal above-mentioned, 
where the ground began to be already full of sunken holes and slashes, which 
had, here and there, some few reeds growing in them. It is hardly credible 
how little the bordering inhabitants were acquainted with this mighty swamp, 
notwithstanding they had lived their whole lives within smell of if Yet, as 
great strangers as they were to it, they pretended to be very exact in their 
account of its dimensions, and were positive it could not be above seven or 
eight miles wide, but knew no more of the matter than star-gazers know of 
the distance of the fixed stars. At the same time, they were simple enough 
to amuse our men vrith idle stories of the lions, panthers and alligators, they 
were like to encounter in that dreadful place. In short, we saw plainly there 
was no intelligence of this terra incognita to be* got, but from our own ex- 
perience. For that reason it was resolved to make the requisite dispositions 
to enter it next morning. We allotted every one of the surveyors for this 
painful enterprise, with twelve men to attend them. Fewer than that could 
not be employed in clearing the way, carrying the chain, marking the trees, 
and bearing the necessary bedding and provisions. Nor would the commis- 
sioners themselves have spared their persons on this occasion, but for fear of 
adding to the poor men’s burthen, while they w^ere certain they could add 
nothing to their resolution. 
We quartered with our friend* and fellow traveller, William Wilkins, who 
had been our faithful pilot to Coratuck, and lived about a mile from the place 
