Description of the Dismal Swamp and a Proposal to Drain the Swamp #269855

Journey to the Land of Eden, A. D. 1733. A Progress to the Mines...in 1732. An Essay on bulk Tobacco. Miscellaneous Papers.<br><br>The Writings of "Colonel William Byrd of Westover in Virginia, Esq." Edited by John Spencer Bassett. Illustrated. New York, Doubleday, Page & Co., 1901. lxxxviii, 461 pages.<br><br>It was through the enterprise of Edmund Ruffin that the Westover Manuscripts were first given to the public, as the appendix to volume 9 of the Farmers' Register. This appendix was also issued separately, and is best known in the separate form; it is the first of the three editions listed.<br><br>In the History of the Dividing Line is the journal of the survey of the North Carolina boundary through the Dismal Swamp. This was written in 1728. The "Description of the Dismal, with the Proposal to drain it," as reprinted in this present volume, was written sometime between 1728 and 1737. This is determined by the author's suggestion of the Earl of Orkney, who died in 1737, as one who should be invited to encourage subscriptions to shares of the company. The text of this reprint is from the Farmers' Register, volume 4, pages 521 to 524.