THE DIVIDING LINE. 
15 
we were stopped by a miry pocoson fall half a mile' in breadth, through 
which we were obliged to daggle on foot, plunging now and then, though we 
picked our w^y, up to the knees in mud. At the end of this charming walk 
we gained the terra firma of Princess Anne county. In that dirty condition 
we were afterwards obliged to foot it two miles, as far as John Heath’s plan- 
tation, where we expected to meet the surveyors and the men who waited 
upon them. 
While we w^ere performing ‘this tedious voyage, they had carried the line 
through the firm land of Knot’s island, where it was no more than half a 
mile wide. After that they traversed a large marsh, that was exceedingly 
miry, and extended to an arm of the Back bay. They crossed that water 
in a canoe, which w^e had ordered round for that purpose, and then w^aded 
over another marsh, that reached quite to the high land of Princess Anne. 
Both these marshes together make a breadth of five miles, in which the men 
frequently sank up to the middle, without muttering the least complaint. On 
the contrary, they turned all these disasters into merriment. 
It was discovered, by this day’s work, that Knot’s island was improperly 
so called, being in truth no more than a peninsula. The north-west side of 
it is only divided from the main by the great marsh above-mentioned, which 
is seldom totall)'’ overflowed. Instead of that, it might, by the labour of a 
few trenches, be drained into firm meadow, capable of grazing as many cattle 
as Job, in his best estate, was master of. In the miry condition in which it 
now lies, it feeds great numbers in the winter, though, wdien the w'eather grows 
warm, they are driven thence by tfte mighty armies of mosquitoes, which are 
the plague of the lower part of Carolina, as much as the flies were formerly 
of Egypt, and some rabbins think those flies wmre no other than mosquitoes. 
All the people in the neighbourhood flocked to John Heath’s, to behold such 
rarities as they fancied us to be. The men left their beloved chimney cor- 
ners, the good women their spinning wheels, and some, of more curiosity 
than ordinary, rose out of their sick beds^ to come and stare at us. They 
looked upon us as a troop of knights errant, who were running this great 
risk of our lives, as they imagined, for the public weal ; and some of the 
gravest of them questioned much whether v/e were not all criminals, con- 
demned to this dirty wmrk for oflences against the state. What puzzled 
them most was, what could make our men so very light-hearted under such 
intolerable drudgery. “Ye have little reason to be merry, my masters,” 
said one of them, with a very solemn face, “ I fancy the pocoson you must 
struggle with to-morrow will make you change your note, and try what 
metal you are made of Ye are, to be sure, the first of human race that 
ever had the boldness to attempt it, and I dare say will be the last. If, there- 
fore, you have any worldly goods to dispose of, my advice is that you make 
your wills tms very night, for fear you die intestate to-morrow.” But, alas! 
these frightful tales were so far from disheartening the men, that they served 
only to whet their resolution. 
9th. The surveyors entered early upon their business this morning, and 
ran the line through Mr. Eyland’s plantation, as far as the banks of North 
river. They passed over it in the periauga, and landed in Gibbs’ marsh, 
which was a mile in breadth, and tolerably firm. They trudged through this 
marsh without much difficulty as far as the high land, which promised more 
fertility than any they had seen in these lower parts. But this firm land 
lasted not long before they came upon the dreadful pocoson they had been 
threatened with. Nor did they find it one jot better than it had been painted 
to them. The beavers and otters had rendered it quite impassable for any 
creature but themselves. 
Our poor fellows had much ado to drag their legs after them in this quag- 
I 
