THE DIVIDING LINE. 
91 
not gone eight miles farther before our eyes were blessed with the sight of 
Sapponi chapel, which was the first house of prayer we had seen for more 
than two calendar months. About three miles beyond that, we passed over 
Stony creek, where one of those that guarded the baggage killed a polecat, 
upon which he made a comfortable repast. Those of his company were so 
squeamish they could not be persuaded at first to taste, as they said, of so un- 
savoury an animal ; but seeing the man smack his lips with more pleasure 
than usual, they ventured at last to be of his mess, and instead of finding the 
flesh rank and high-tasted, they owned it to be the sweetest morsel they had 
ever eaten in their lives. The ill savour of this little beast lies altogether in 
its urine, which nature has made so detestably ill-scented on purpose to fur- 
nish a helpless creature with something to defend itself. For as some brutes 
have horns and hoofs, and others are armed with claws, teeth and tusks for 
their defence ; and as some spit a sort of poison at their adversaries, like the 
paco ; and others dart quills at their pursuers, like the porcupine ; and as 
some have no weapons to help themselves but their tongues, and others none 
but their tails ; so the poor polecat’s safety lies altogether in the irresistible 
stench of its water ; insomuch that when it finds itself in danger from an 
enemy, it moistens its bushy tail plentifully with this liquid ammunition, and 
then, with great fury, sprinkles it like a shower of rain full into the eyes of 
its assailant, by which it gains time to make its escape. Nor is the polecat 
the only animal that defends itself by a stink. At the cape of Good Hope is 
a little beast, called a stinker, as big as a fox, and shaped like a ferret, which 
being pursued has no way to save itself but by ejecting its wind and excre- 
ments, and then such a stench ensues that none of its pursuers can possibly 
stand it. 
At the end of thirty good miles, we arrived in the evening at colonel Bol- 
ling’s, where first, from a primitive course of life, we began to relapse into 
luxury. This gentleman lives within hearing of the falls of Appomattox 
river, which are very noisy whenever a flood happens to roll a greater 
stream than ordinary over the rocks. The river is navigable for small craft 
as high as the falls, and at some distance from thence fetches a compass, and 
runs nearly parallel with James river almost as high as the mountains. While 
the commissioners fared sumptuously here, the poor chaplain and two sur- 
veyors, having stopped ten miles short at a poor planter’s house, in pity to 
their horses, made a St. Anthony’s meal, that is, they supped upon the 
pickings of what stuck in their teeth ever since breakfast. But to make 
them amends, the good man laid them in his own bed, where they all three 
nestled together in one cotton sheet and one of brown oznaburgs, made still . 
something browner by two months’ copious perspiration. But those worthy 
gentlemen were so alert in the morning after their light supper, that they 
came up with us before breakfast, and honestly paid their stomachs all they 
owed them. 
21st. We made no more than a Sabbath day’s journey from this to the 
next hospitable house, namely, that of our great benefactor, colonel Mumford. 
We had already been much befriended by this gentleman, who, besides send- 
ing orders to his overseers at Roanoke to let us want for nothing, had, in the 
beginning of our business, been so kind as to recommend most of the men 
to us who were the faithful partners of our fatigue. Although in most other 
achievements those who command are apt take all the honour to themselves 
of what perhaps was more owing to the vigour of those who were under 
them, yet I must be more just, and allow these brave fellows their full share 
of credit for the service we performed, and must declare, that it was in a 
great measure owing to their spirit and indefatigable industry that we over- 
