rop their burden of
sand at the entrance to the inlet, and finally the attempt was
abandoned. The great Atlantic had made the entrance, and the same force
had closed it, seemingly, forever, though small sloops still slipped in
and out over the bar until 1821, when it was entirely closed. So
necessary was an outlet to the sea to the people of the Albemarle
region, that the Assembly of 1786 passed an act providing for the
digging of a canal from Currituck Sound to the head of North River; from
thence vessels could go up North River and into Elizabeth River, and on
to Norfolk, and so to the sea. This proposed plan was not carried out
until many years later; for it was not until almost 1858 that the
Albemarle and Chesapeake Canal, following closely the route proposed in
1786, was dug, though long before that date the Dismal Swamp Canal had
been opened, and a flourishing traffic was carried on between Virginia
and Carolina waters.

A traveler in eastern Carolina, writing for _Harper's Magazine_ in 1858,
an account of his journeyings in the Albemarle region, gives a most
interesting description of his trip on the Albemarle and Chesapeake
Canal. The Calypso was the first steamer to go through the canal, and on
her maiden journey from Norfolk to Currituck County in 1858, she was
the observed of all observers. Furthermore, continues Mr. Bruce, the
writer of the article, who stopped at Currituck Courthouse for several
days, "We must say that for average culture, intelligence and physical
vigor, the people of this 'kingdom by the sea' will hold their own with
most other communities, North or South."

Currituck being the sea frontier of Albemarle, her waterways were
naturally of prime importance to the State; but other matters of as
great importance are found in reading the annals of this wind-blown,
wave-washed county. In religious affairs we find that she early begins
to make history. In 1708 Governor Glover wrote to the Bishop of London:
"Pasquotank and Currituck are now under the care of Rev. James Adams, to
their general satisfaction, to whom they have presented the small
provision of 30 pounds a year." In 1710 Rev. James Adams informed the
S.P.G.A. that he had been living for over a year in the home of a Mr.
Richard Saunderson, a former member of the Governor's Council, who had
made a will in which, after his own and his wife's death, he had left
considerable legacy for the encouragement of a minister in Currituck
Parish, w