[Sidenote] Of its insects.

Innumerable are the insects in Carolina, as might naturally be expected
from the heat of the climate. The bees are found in several places, and
they chuse the hollow trees for their habitation, but whether imported or
not is uncertain. The fire-fly, so called from its emitting sparks of
fire in the night, resembling flashes from the strokes of steel upon
flint, is a curious creature. About the beginning of summer, when these
insects are very numerous, they illuminate the woods, and strike a
stranger with astonishment. Millions of pestiferous gnats, called
Musketoes, are hatched during the summer, and swarm over the country in
such numbers, that, during the day, it requires no small trouble for the
inhabitants to defend themselves in every quarter against them; and,
during the night, gause pavilions are necessarily used, to exclude them
from their beds, without which it is impossible to enjoy undisturbed
repose. The sand-flies are also vexatious insects, and so minute, that
one would imagine it needless to provide any defence against them; yet,
wherever they bite, their poison occasions itching and painful
inflammations. Besides these, there are ticks, flies, wasps, and many
more insects which are very troublesome. To these plagues, with which
this country is cursed, we may also add the water wood-worms, which
infest the rivers as far as the salt-water flows, eat the bottoms of
vessels into the form of honey-combs, and prove extremely destructive to
shipping.

[Sidenote] A.D. 1682. Joseph Morton made governor.

About the year 1682, Governor West having incurred the displeasure of the
proprietors, Joseph Morton, who had lately been created a landgrave,
received a commission from Lord Craven, investing him with the government