205 
trees, and bushes of the Portuguese laurel and holly; here and 
there were also magnolias, and large wild vines around the trees. 
This variety of vegetation must look very fine in the summer 
season, however I was told that at that time flies and mosquetos 
were very troublesome, and that there are also a great many 
snakes. This marsh is said to be full of bears, which, however, 
never attack men. In Suffolk, twenty-eight miles from Norfolk, 
a small place, having wooden houses, and situated in the middle 
of the forest, we took our dinner. The wheat bread became scarce 
by degrees, and in its place we had a sort of cakes made of In¬ 
dian corn. On the other side of Suffolk, we passed by a cotton 
plantation, the first I saw. It was already night when we passed 
the boundary and entered on the territory of North Carolina. We 
crossed the rivers Nottoway and Meherrin in bad and narrow 
ferry-boats, which were very dangerous, as the night was very 
dark. Candles and lamps seem to be here very scarce; for the 
few houses that we passed by were lighted with torches of pine: 
we took some of them to light our way. Our journeying was very 
unpleasant, on account of a rainy and very dark night. We 
alighted in Murfreesborough at a tolerably good inn. 
On the 3d of December, at two o’clock, A. M., we set out in 
dreadful rainy weather, which lasted all day, and travelled as far 
as Emerson’s tavern, seventy-five miles distant. The country 
still continued woody as yesterday, and in frequent marshy spots, 
presented to the eye a very pleasant variety by the evergreen 
trees and bushes. In some places the country was somewhat 
cultivated; that is, there were some plantations where cotton and 
Indian corn were raised. Such a plantation consists only of 
wooden buildings; in the middle is the house of the planter, with 
a piazza; on its right and left are log-houses for negro slaves, and 
barns for corn and cotton. Horses are kept in very spacious 
wooden stables; cows and pigs in the open air within an enclo¬ 
sure of worm fences. Only fattening beasts are kept in stables. 
In many plantations we saw cotton-gins, in which the seed is 
separated from the cotton by means of a cylindrical hackle. 
These mills are worked either by water or horses. The cotton 
cleaned from its seed is put into a large chest, pressed in, and 
packed up In the chest is a bag, which receives the cotton; the 
cover of the chest is moveable, and is pressed on the cotton by 
means of a screw turned by two horses; afterwards the cover is 
taken away, the bag closed, and the bale which it forms fasten¬ 
ed with ropes; such a bale weighs on an average three hundred 
pounds. This is a very troublesome work, and only two bales 
can be made in a day. If instead of that awkward machine, they 
would make use of Brahmah’s water press, a great deal of time, 
expense and power would be spared. The bagging made use of 
is wove in England. We crossed the Roanoke river in a rather 
