{"newspaper_name": "The North-Carolina standard.", "edition": "01", "page": "p3", "byline": ""}
{"character_count": 2835, "word_count": 490, "ccnet_language_score": [0.9562000036239624], "ccnet_perplexity": [1330.0999755859375], "fasttext_language": ["en"]}
Alarming and destr~etire Fire in the Dismal
S'Oamp. The Portsmouth WAY Old Dominion
of the f4th instant says:


" For some two weeks a fire has been raging
in the Dismal Swamp-Innds, that is now progress
ing with unparalleled fury. That il MAY be
understood abroad we remark that for some six
weeks past we haYe had no rain in this section of
country, aud consequently, the spohgy fbrous soil
OF the Swamp has become dry, and iguites as
readily as tinder and burns with the fervency- of
peat Fhe FIRE desccnds a great depth in the soil
and completely covers the whole surface for miles
and miles with living fire. which consumes
every thing. Vast quantities of timber, shingles,
slaves, fences, Sc, have already been destroyed,
and our neighbours on the edge of the. Swamp
are IN great dismay: for fear Of their dwellings,
and plantations. 1t is worse than prairie fire
because the subtle element penetrates under the
earth, and rises at different points


While we write the atmosphere is filled with the
scent and smoke of the consuming Juniuer trees.
and the south and southwest horizon is canopied
and curtained with black clouds ofsmoke, save ever
and anon where it catches some extensive timber
and shiHg1e depot, when the forked and fery
volume rises above the mass, and illumes the
blackness, while night shows that ve1ume of red
flame and heat which reaches high up in the
heaven that almost makes one imagine that the
time so firmly relied on, and so ardcntly prayed
iol~ 10y IHo HflleIHe, HdS Inueeu come ne IRE
is now within some five or six miles of this town,
and curious feeling is exhibited by nearly all
our citizens; feVerish anxiety, and continual
inquiry of how the fire progresses meets us at ev
cry point. Numbers are moving towards the
scene of devastation, and fearfrI rumors are ever
and anon started that such and such plantations
have been destroyed. Negroes who have long
made the Swamp their dwelling place, bears,
snakes, &c, are leaving their strong holds and
Businesses, and seeking the high and solid earth,
looking for safety among those they have here
tofore hated and avoided"


A correspondent Of the Charleston Courier re-
lates the following in connection with. this fire.:


"One thing connected with this confagraton
may be a source Of some interest 10 your patrons.
An old negro man and woman, with one child ran
away from their master twenty six years ago, and
have never been heard from until Tuesday last,
when, being driven by lhe threatening flames, they
returned to their masters house & miles from Suf
folk, Va ACCOMPANIED by fifteen healthy children,
all of whom, excepting the eldest were born in
the eaverns of the Dismal Swamp: A large num-
Der of slaves have been forced, under similar cir
cumstances to return to their masters after an alb
sence often, fifteen and twenty Years.".