XCVlll 
LIFE OF WILSON. 
thirteen children, only three were living. Two of these, with their 
mother, appeared likely not to be long tenants of this world. Thir- 
ty miles farther, I came to a small place on the river Nottaway, 
called Jerusalem. Here I found the river swelled to such an ex- 
traordinary height, that the oldest inhabitant had never seen the 
like. After passing along the bridge, I was conveyed, in a boat 
termed a flat, a mile and three quarters through the woods, where 
the torrent sweeping along in many places rendered this sort of 
navigation rather disagreeable. I proceeded on my journey, pass- 
ing through solitary pine woods, perpetually interrupted by swamps, 
that covered the road with water two and three feet deep, frequent- 
ly half a mile at a time, looking like a long river or pond. These 
in the afternoon were surmountable; but the weather being exceed- 
ingly severe, they were covered every morning with a sheet of ice, 
from half an inch to an inch thick, that cut my horse’s legs and 
breast. After passing a bridge, I had many times to wade, and 
twice to swim my horse, to get to the shore. I attempted to cross 
the Roanoke at three different ferries, thirty-five miles apart, and 
at last succeeded at a place about fifteen miles below Halifax. A 
violent snow storm made the roads still more execrable. 
“The productions of these parts of North Carolina are hogs, 
turpentine, tar, and apple brandy. A tumbler of toddy is usually 
the morning’s beverage of the inhabitants, as soon as they get 
out of bed. So universal is the practice, that the first thing you 
find them engaged in, after rising, is preparing the brandy toddy. 
You can scarcely meet a man whose lips are not parched and chop- 
ped or blistered with drinking this poison. Those who do not 
drink it, they say, are sure of the ague. I, however, escaped. The 
pine woods have a singular appearance, every tree being stripped, 
on one or more sides, of the bark, for six or seven feet up. The 
turpentine covers these parts in thick masses. I saw the people, 
in different parts of the woods, mounted on benches, chopping 
down the sides of the trees, leaving a trough or box in the tree for 
