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Title: The History of Virginia, in Four Parts
Author: Beverley, Robert, 1673-1722
Language: English
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Transcriber's note:
1. Text in italics is enclosed by underscores (_italics_).
2. Minor punctuation irregularities have been made consistent.
3. A list of corrections and other notes appears at the end of
this text.
THE HISTORY OF VIRGINIA, IN FOUR PARTS.
[Illustration]
I. THE HISTORY OF THE FIRST SETTLEMENT OF VIRGINIA, AND THE GOVERNMENT
THEREOF, TO THE YEAR 1706.
II. THE NATURAL PRODUCTIONS AND CONVENIENCES OF THE COUNTRY, SUITED
TO TRADE AND IMPROVEMENT.
III. THE NATIVE INDIANS, THEIR RELIGION, LAWS AND CUSTOMS, IN WAR AND
PEACE.
IV. THE PRESENT STATE OF THE COUNTRY, AS TO THE POLITY OF THE GOVERNMENT,
AND THE IMPROVEMENTS OF THE LAND THE 10TH OF JUNE 1720.
by
ROBERT BEVERLEY,
A native and inhabitant of the place.
Reprinted from the Author's Second Revised Edition, London, 1722.
With an Introduction by Charles Campbell,
Author of the Colonial History of Virginia.
J. W. Randolph,
121 Main Street, Richmond, Virginia.
1855.
Entered according to act of Congress, in the year 1855, by
J. W. Randolph,
In the Clerk's Office of the District Court in and for the Eastern
District of Virginia.
H. K. Ellyson's Steam Presses, Richmond, Va.
THE TABLE.
BOOK I.
CHAPTER I.
_History of the first attempts to settle Virginia, before the discovery
of Chesapeake bay._
PAGE.
§1. Sir Walter Raleigh obtains letters patent, for making discoveries
in America, 8
2. Two ships set out on the discovery, and arrive at Roanoke inlet, 9
Their account of the country, 9
Their account of the natives, 9
3. Queen Elizabeth names the country of Virginia, 10
4. Sir Richard Greenvile's voyage, 10
He plans the first colony, under command of Mr. Ralph Lane, 11
5. The discoveries and accidents of the first colony, 11
6. Their distress by want of provisions, 12
Sir Francis Drake visits them, 12
He gives them a ship and necessaries, 12
He takes them away with him, 12
7. Sir Walter Raleigh and Sir Richard Greenvile, their voyages, 13
The second settlement made, 13
8. Mr. John White's expedition, 13
The first Indian made a Christian there, 14
The first child born there of Christian parentage, 14
Third settlement, incorporated by the name of the city of Raleigh,
in Virginia, 14
Mr. White, their governor, sent home to solicit for supplies, 14
9. John White's second voyage; last attempts to carry them recruits, 14
His disappointment, 15
10. Capt. Gosnell's voyage to the coast of Cape Cod, 15
11. The Bristol voyages, 16
12. A London voyage, which discovered New York, 16
CHAPTER II.
_Discovery of Chesapeake bay by the corporation of London adventurers;
their colony at Jamestown, and proceedings during the government by
an elective president and council._
§13. The companies of London and Plymouth obtain charters, 18
14. Captain Smith first discovers the capes of Virginia, 19
15. He plants his first colony at Jamestown, 20
An account of Jamestown island, 20
16. He sends the ships home, retaining one hundred and eight men
to keep possession, 20
17. That colony's mismanagement, 21
Their misfortunes upon discovery of a supposed gold mine, 21
18. Their first supplies after settlement, 22
Their discoveries, and experiments in English grain, 22
An attempt of some to desert the colony, 22
19. The first Christian marriage in that colony, 23
They make three plantations more, 23
CHAPTER III.
_History of the colony after the change of their government, from
an elective president to a commissionated governor, until the
dissolution of the company._
§20. The company get a new grant, and the nomination of the governors
in themselves, 24
They send three governors in equal degree, 24
All three going in one ship, are shipwrecked at Bermudas, 24
They build there two small cedar vessels, 24
21. Captain Smith's return to England, 25
Mismanagements ruin the colony, 25
The first massacre and starving time, 25
The first occasion of the ill character of Virginia, 26
The five hundred men left by Captain Smith reduced to sixty in
six months time, 26
22. The three governors sail from Bermudas, and arrive at Virginia, 26
23. They take off the Christians that remained there, and design, by
way of Newfoundland, to return to England, 27
Lord Delaware arrives and turns them back, 27
24. Sir Thomas Dale arrives governor, with supplies, 27
25. Sir Thomas Gates arrives governor, 28
He plants out a new plantation, 28
26. Pocahontas made prisoner, and married to Mr. Rolfe, 28
27. Peace with the Indians, 28
28. Pocahontas brought to England by Sir Thomas Dale, 29
29. Captain Smith's petition to the queen in her behalf, 29
30. His visit to Pocahontas, 32
An Indian's account of the people of England, 32
31. Pocahontas' reception at court, and death, 33
32. Captain Yardley's government, 34
33. Governor Argall's good administration, 34
34. Powhatan's death, and successors, 34
Peace renewed by the successors, 34
35. Captain Argall's voyage from Virginia to New England, 35
36. He defeats the French northward of New England, 35
37. An account of those French, 36
38. He also defeats the French in Acadia, 36
39. His return to England, 36
Sir George Yardley, governor, 36
40. He resettles the deserted plantation, and held the first
assembly, 36
The method of that assembly, 37
41. The first negroes carried to Virginia, 37
42. Land apportioned to adventurers, 37
43. A salt work and iron work in Virginia, 38
44. Sir Francis Wyat made governor, 38
King James, his instructions in care of tobacco, 38
Captain Newport's plantation, 38
45. Inferior courts in each plantation, 39
Too much familiarity with the Indians, 39
46. The massacre by the Indians, anno 1622, 39
47. The discovery and prevention of it at Jamestown, 40
48. The occasion of the massacre, 41
49. A plot to destroy the Indians, 42
50. The discouraging effects of the massacre, 43
51. The corporation in England are the chief cause of misfortunes in
Virginia, 43
52. The company dissolved, and the colony taken into the king's
hands, 44
CHAPTER IV.
_History of the government, from the dissolution of the company to the
year 1707._
§53. King Charles First establishes the constitution of government, in
the methods appointed by the first assembly, 45
54. The ground of the ill settlement of Virginia, 45
55. Lord Baltimore in Virginia, 46
56. Lord Baltimore, proprietor of Maryland, 46
Maryland named from the queen, 46
57. Young Lord Baltimore seats Maryland, 46
Misfortune to Virginia, by making Maryland a distinct
government, 47
58. Great grants and defalcations from Virginia, 47
59. Governor Harvey sent prisoner to England, and by the king remanded
back governor again, 47
60. The last Indian massacre, 48
61. A character and account of Oppechancanough, the Indian emperor, 48
62. Sir William Berkeley made governor, 49
63. He takes Oppechancanough prisoner, 49
Oppechancanough's death, 50
64. A new peace with the Indians, but the country disturbed by the
troubles in England, 50
65. Virginia subdued by the protector, Cromwell, 50
66. He binds the plantations by an act of navigation, 51
67. His jealousy and change of governors in Virginia, 51
68. Upon the death of Matthews, the protector's governor, Sir William
Berkeley is chosen by the people, 52
69. He proclaims King Charles II before he was proclaimed in
England, 52
70. King Charles II renews Sir William Berkeley's commission, 52
71. Sir William Berkeley makes Colonel Morrison deputy governor,
and goes to England, 53
The king renews the act concerning the plantation, 53
72. The laws revised, 53
The church of England established by law, 53
73. Clergy provided for by law, 53
74. The public charge of the government sustained by law, 53
75. Encouragement of particular manufactures by law, 54
76. The instruction for all ships to enter at Jamestown, used
by law, 54
77. Indian affairs settled by law, 54
78. Jamestown encouraged by law, 54
79. Restraints upon sectaries in religion, 55
80. A plot to subvert the government, 55
81. The defeat of the plot, 55
82. An anniversary feast upon that occasion, 56
83. The king commands the building a fort at Jamestown, 56
84. A new restraint on the plantations by act of parliament, 56
85. Endeavors for a stint in planting tobacco, 56
86. Another endeavor at a stint defeated, 57
87. The king sent instructions to build forts, and confine the trade
to certain ports, 57
88. The disappointment of those ports, 58
89. Encouragement of manufactures enlarged, 58
90. An attempt to discovery the country backward, 59
Captain Batt's relation of that discovery, 59
91. Sir William Berkeley intends to prosecute that discovery
in person, 60
92. The grounds of Bacon's rebellion, 60
Four ingredients thereto, 61
93. First, the low price of tobacco, 61
Second, splitting the country into proprieties, 61
The country send agents, to complain of the propriety grants, 61
94. Third, new duties by act in England on the plantations, 62
95. Fourth, disturbances on the land frontiers by the Indians, 62
First, by the Indians on the head of the bay, 62
Second, by the Indians on their own frontiers, 63
96. The people rise against the Indians, 63
They choose Nathan Bacon, Jr., for their leader, 63
97. He heads them, and sends to the governor for a commission, 64
98. He begins his march without a commission, 64
The governor sends for him, 65
99. Bacon goes down in a sloop with forty of his men to the
governor, 65
100. Goes away in a huff, is pursued and brought back by governor, 65
101. Bacon steals privately out of town, and marches down to the
assembly with six hundred of his volunteers, 65
102. The governor, by advice of assembly, signs a commission to Mr.
Bacon to be general, 66
103. Bacon being marched away with his men is proclaimed rebel, 66
104. Bacon returns with his forces to Jamestown, 66
105. The governor flies to Accomac, 66
The people there begin to make terms with him, 67
106. Bacon holds a convention of gentlemen, 67
They propose to take an oath to him, 67
107. The forms of the oath, 67
108. The governor makes head against him, 69
General Bacon's death, 69
109. Bacon's followers surrender upon articles, 69
110. The agents compound with the proprietors, 69
111. A new charter to Virginia, 70
112. Soldiers arrive from England, 70
113. The dissolution by Bacon's rebellion, 70
114. Commissioners arrive in Virginia, and Sir William Berkeley returns
to England, 71
115. Herbert Jeffreys, esq., governor, concludes peace with Indians, 71
116. Sir Henry Chicheley, deputy governor, builds forts against
Indians, 71
The assembly prohibited the importation of tobacco, 72
117. Lord Colepepper, governor, 72
118. Lord Colepepper's first assembly, 72
He passes several obliging acts to the country, 72
119. He doubles the governor's salary, 72
120. He imposes the perquisite of ship money, 73
121. He, by proclamation, raises the value of Spanish coins, and
lowers it again, 73
122. Sir Henry Chicheley, deputy governor, 74
The plant cutting, 74
123. Lord Colepepper's second assembly, 75
He takes away appeals to the assembly, 75
124. His advantage thereby in the propriety of the Northern Neck, 76
125. He retrenches the new methods of court proceedings, 77
126. He dismantled the forts on the heads of rivers, and appointed
rangers in their stead, 77
127. Secretary Spencer, president, 77
128. Lord Effingham, governor, 77
Some of his extraordinary methods of getting money, 77
Complaints against him, 78
129. Duty on liquors first raised, 78
130. Court of Chancery by Lord Effingham, 78
131. Colonel Bacon, president, 79
The college designed, 79
132. Francis Nicholson, lieutenant governor, 79
He studies popularity, 79
The college proposed to him, 79
He refuses to call an assembly, 79
133. He grants a brief to the college, 79
134. The assembly address King William and Queen Mary for a college
charter, 80
The education intended by this college, 80
The assembly present the lieutenant governor, 80
His method of securing this present, 80
135. Their majesties grant the charter, 80
They grant liberally towards the building and endowing of it, 80
136. The lieutenant governor encourages towns and manufactures, 80
Gentlemen of the council complain of him and are misused, 81
He falls off from the encouragement of the towns and trade, 81
137. Edmund Andros, governor, 81
The town law suspended, 81
138. The project of a post office, 81
139. The college charter arrived, 81
The college further endowed, and the foundation laid, 82
140. Sir Edmund Andros encourages manufactures, and regulates
the secretary's office, 82
141. A child born in the old age of the parents, 83
142. Francis Nicholson, governor, 83
His and Colonel Quarrey's memorials against plantations, 84
143. His zeal for the church and college, 84
144. He removes the general court from Jamestown, 84
145. The taking of the pirate, 84
146. The sham bills of nine hundred pounds for New York, 86
147. Colonel Quarrey's unjust memorials, 87
148. Governor Nott arrived, 88
149. Revisal of the law finished, 88
150. Ports and towns again set on foot, 88
151. Slaves a real estate, 88
152. A house built for the governor, 88
Governor dies, and the college burnt, 88
153. Edmond Jennings, esq., president, 89
154. Alexander Spotswood, lieutenant governor, 89
BOOK II.
_Natural Productions and Conveniences of Virginia in its unimproved
state, before the English went thither._
CHAPTER I.
_Bounds and Coast of Virginia._
§1. Present bounds of Virginia, 90
2. Chesapeake bay, and the sea coast of Virginia, 91
3. What is meant by the word Virginia in this book, 91
CHAPTER II.
_Of the Waters._
§4. Conveniency of the bay and rivers, 93
5. Springs and fountains descending to the rivers, 93
6. Damage to vessels by the worm, 94
Ways of avoiding that damage, 94
CHAPTER III.
_Earths, and Soils._
§7. The soil in general, 96
River lands--lower, middle and upper, 96
8. Earths and clays, 98
Coal, slate and stone, and why not used, 98
9. Minerals therein, and iron mine formerly wrought upon, 98
Supposed gold mines lately discovered, 99
That this gold mine was the supreme seat of the Indian temples
formerly, 99
That their chief altar was there also, 99
Mr. Whitaker's account of a silver mine, 99
10. Hills in Virginia, 100
Springs in the high lands, 101
CHAPTER IV.
_Wild Fruits._
§11. Spontaneous fruits in general, 102
12. Stoned fruits, viz: cherries, plums and persimmons, 102
13. Berries, viz: mulberries, currants, hurts, cranberries,
raspberries and strawberries, 103
14. Of nuts, 104
15. Of grapes, 105
The report of some French vignerons formerly sent in thither, 107
16. Honey, and the sugar trees, 107
17. Myrtle tree, and myrtle wax, 108
Hops growing wild, 109
18. Great variety of seeds, plants and flowers, 109
Two snake roots, 109
Jamestown weed, 110
Some curious flowers, 111
19. Creeping vines bearing fruits, viz: melons, pompions, macocks,
gourds, maracocks, and cushaws, 112
20. Other fruits, roots and plants of the Indians, 114
Several sorts of Indian corn, 114
Of potatoes, 115
Tobacco, as it was ordered by the Indians, 116
CHAPTER V.
_Fish._
§21. Great plenty and variety of fish, 117
Vast shoals of herrings, shad, &c., 117
22. Continuality of the fishery, 118
The names of some of the best edible fish, 118
The names of some that are not eaten, 118
23. Indian children catching fish, 118
Several inventions of the Indians to take fish, 119
24. Fishing hawks and bald eagles, 121
Fish dropped in the orchard, 121
CHAPTER VI.
_Wild Fowl and Hunted Game._
§25. Wild Water Fowl, 123
26. Game in the marshes and watery grounds, 123
27. Game in the highlands and frontiers, 123
Of the Opossum, 124
28. Some Indian ways of hunting, 124
Fire hunting, 124
Their hunting quarters, 125
29. Conclusion, 126
BOOK III.
_Indians, their Religion, Laws and Customs, in War and Peace._
CHAPTER I.
_Persons of the Indians, and their Dress._
§1. Persons of the Indians, their color and shape, 127
2. The cut of their hair, and ornament of their head, 128
3. Of their vesture, 128
4. Garb peculiar to their priests and conjurors, 130
5. Of the women's dress, 131
CHAPTER II.
_Matrimony of the Indians, and Management of their Children._
§6. Conditions of their marriage, 133
7. Maidens, and the story of their prostitution, 133
8. Management of the young children, 134
CHAPTER III.
_Towns, Building and Fortification of the Indians._
§9. Towns and kingdoms of the Indians, 135
10. Manner of their building, 135
11. Their fuel, or firewood, 136
12. Their seats and lodging, 136
13. Their fortifications, 136
CHAPTER IV.
_Cookery and Food of the Indians._
§14. Their cookery, 138
15. Their several sorts of food, 139
16. Their times of eating, 140
17. Their drink, 140
18. Their ways of dining, 141
CHAPTER V.
_Traveling, Reception and entertainment of the Indians._
§19. Manner of their traveling, and provision they make for it, 142
Their way of concealing their course, 142
20. Manner of their reception of strangers, 143
The pipe of peace, 143
21. Their entertainment of honorable friends, 145
CHAPTER VI.
_Learning and Languages of the Indians._
§22. That they are without letters, 147
Their descriptions by hieroglyphics, 147
Heraldry and arms of the Indians, 147
23. That they have different languages, 148
Their general language, 148
CHAPTER VII.
_War and Peace of the Indians._
§24. Their consultations and war dances, 149
25. Their barbarity upon a victory, 149
26. Descent of the crown, 150
27. Their triumphs for victory, 150
28. Their treaties of peace, and ceremonies upon conclusion
of peace, 151
CHAPTER VIII.
_Religion, Worship and Superstitious Customs of the Indians._
§29. Their quioccassan and idol of worship, 152
30. Their notions of God, and worshiping the evil spirit, 155
31. Their pawwawing or conjurations, 157
32. Their huskanawing, 160
33. Reasons of this custom, 164
34. Their offerings and sacrifice, 165
35. Their set feasts, 165
36. Their account of time, 165
37. Their superstition and zealotry, 166
38. Their regard to the priests and magicians, 167
39. Places of their worship and sacrifice, 168
Their pawcorances or altar stones, 168
40. Their care of the bodies of their princes after death, 169
CHAPTER IX.
_Diseases and Cures of the Indians._
§41. Their diseases in general, and burning for cure, 171
Their sucking, scarifying and blistering, 171
Priests' secrecy in the virtues of plants, 171
Words wisoccan, wighsacan and woghsacan, 172
Their physic, and the method of it, 172
42. Their bagnios or baths, 172
Their oiling after sweating, 173
CHAPTER X.
_Sports and Pastimes of the Indians._
§43. Their sports and pastimes in general, 175
Their singing, 175
Their dancing, 175
A mask used among them, 176
Their musical instruments, 177
CHAPTER XI.
_Laws, and Authorities of the Indians among one another._
§44. Their laws in general, 178
Their severity and ill manners, 178
Their implacable resentments, 179
45. Their honors, preferments and authorities, 179
Authority of the priests and conjurers, 179
Servants or black boys, 179
CHAPTER XII.
_Treasure or Riches of the Indians._
§46. Indian money and goods, 180
CHAPTER XIII.
_Handicrafts of the Indians._
§47. Their lesser crafts, as making bows and arrows, 182
48. Their making canoes, 182
Their clearing woodland ground, 183
49. Account of the tributary Indians, 185
BOOK IV.
_Present State of Virginia._
PART I.
_Polity and Government._
CHAPTER I.
_Constitution of Government in Virginia._
§1. Constitution of government in general, 186
2. Governor, his authority and salary, 188
3. Council and their authority, 189
4. House of burgesses, 190
CHAPTER II.
_Sub-Divisions of Virginia._
§5. Division of the country, 192
6. Division of the country by necks of land, counties and parishes, 192
7. Division of the country by districts for trade by navigation, 194
CHAPTER III.
_Public Offices of Government._
§8. General officers as are immediately commissionated from the
throne, 196
Auditor, Receiver General and Secretary, 196
Salaries of those officers, 197
9. Other general officers, 197
Ecclesiastical commissary and country's treasurer, 197
10. Other public officers by commission, 197
Escheators, 197
Naval officers and collectors, 198
Clerks and sheriffs, 198
Surveyors of land and coroners, 199
11. Other officers without commission, 199
CHAPTER IV.
_Standing Revenues or Public Funds._
§12. Public funds in general, 200
13. Quit rent fund, 200
14. Funds for maintenance of the government, 201
15. Funds for extraordinary occasions, under the disposition of the
assembly, 201
16. Revenue granted by the act of assembly to the college, 202
17. Revenue raised by act of parliament in England from the trade
there, 202
CHAPTER V.
_Levies for Payment of the Public, County and Parish Debts._
§18. Several ways of raising money, 203
Titheables, 203
19. Public levy, 203
20. County levy, 204
21. Parish levy, 204
CHAPTER VI.
_Courts of Law in Virginia._
§22. Constitution of their courts, 205
23. Several sorts of courts among them, 206
24. General court in particular, and its jurisdiction, 206
25. Times of holding a general court, 206
26. Officers attending this court, 206
27. Trials by juries and empannelling grand juries, 207
28. Trial of criminals, 207
29. Time of suits, 208
30. Lawyers and pleadings, 208
31. County courts, 208
32. Orphans' courts, 209
CHAPTER VII.
_Church and Church Affairs._
§33. Parishes, 210
34. Churches and chapels in each parish, 210
35. Religion of the country, 210
36. Benefices of the clergy, 210
37. Disposition of parochial affairs, 211
38. Probates, administrations, and marriage licenses, 212
39. Induction of ministers, and precariousness of their livings, 213
CHAPTER VIII.
_Concerning the College._
§40. College endowments, 214
41. The college a corporation, 214
42. Governors and visitors of the college in perpetual succession, 215
43. College buildings, 215
44. Boys and schooling, 215
CHAPTER IX.
_Military Strength in Virginia._
§45. Forts and fortifications, 217
46. Listed militia, 217
47. Number of the militia, 217
48. Service of the militia, 218
49. Other particulars of the troops and companies, 218
CHAPTER X.
_Servants and Slaves._
§50. Distinction between a servant and a slave, 219
51. Work of their servants and slaves, 219
52. Laws in favor of servants, 220
CHAPTER XI.
_Provision for the Poor, and other Public Charitable Works._
§53. Legacy to the poor, 223
54. Parish methods in maintaining their poor, 223
55. Free schools, and schooling of children, 224
CHAPTER XII.
_Tenure of Lands and Grants._
§56. Tenure and patents of their lands, 225
57. Several ways of acquiring grants of land, 225
58. Rights to land, 225
59. Patents upon survey, 225
60. Grants of lapsed land, 226
61. Grants of escheat land, 227
CHAPTER XIII.
_Liberties and Naturalization of Aliens._
§62. Naturalizations, 228
63. French refugees at the Manican town, 228
CHAPTER XIV.
_Currency and Valuation of Coins._
§64. Coins current among them, what rates, and why carried from
among them to the neighboring plantations, 230
PART II.
_Husbandry and Improvements._
CHAPTER XV.
_People, Inhabitants of Virginia._
§65. First peopling of Virginia, 231
66. First accession of wives to Virginia, 231
67. Other ways by which the country was increased in people, 232
CHAPTER XVI.
_Buildings in Virginia._
§68. Public buildings, 234
69. Private buildings, 235
CHAPTER XVII.
_Edibles, Potables and Fuel._
§70. Cookery, 236
71. Flesh and fish, 236
72. Bread, 237
73. Their kitchen gardens, 237
74. Their drinks, 238
75. Their fuel, 238
CHAPTER XVIII.
_Clothing in Virginia._
§76. Clothing, 239
Slothfulness in handicrafts, 239
CHAPTER XIX.
_Temperature of the Climate, and the Inconveniences attending it._
§77. Natural temper and mixture of the air, 240
78. Climate and happy situation of the latitude, 240
79. Occasions of its ill character, 241
Rural pleasures, 241
80. Annoyances, or occasions of uneasiness, 243
Thunders, 243
Heat, 243
Troublesome insects, 243
81. Winters, 250
Sudden changes of the weather, 251
CHAPTER XX.
_Diseases incident to the Country._
§82. Diseases in general, 252
83. Seasoning, 253
84. Cachexia and yaws, 253
85. Gripes, 253
CHAPTER XXI.
_Recreations and Pastimes in Virginia._
§86. Diversions in general, 254
87. Deer-hunting, 254
88. Hare-hunting, 254
89. Vermin-hunting, 255
90. Taking wild turkies, 256
91. Fishing, 256
92. Small game, 256
93. Beaver, 256
94. Horse-hunting, 257
95. Hospitality, 258
CHAPTER XXII.
_Natural Product of Virginia, and the Advantages of Husbandry._
§96. Fruits, 259
97. Grain, 261
98. Linen, silk and cotton, 261
99. Bees and cattle, 262
100. Usefulness of the woods, 263
101. Indolence of the inhabitants, 263
THE PREFACE.
My first business in the world being among the public records of my
country, the active thoughts of my youth put me upon taking notes of the
general administration of the government; but with no other design, than
the gratification of my own inquisitive mind; these lay by me for many
years afterwards, obscure and secret, and would forever have done so,
had not the following accident produced them:
In the year 1703, my affairs calling me to England, I was soon after my
arrival, complimented by my bookseller with an intimation, that there
was prepared for printing a general account of all her majesty's
plantations in America, and his desire, that I would overlook it before
it was put to the press; I agreed to overlook that part of it which
related to Virginia.
Soon after this he brings me about six sheets of paper written, which
contained the account of Virginia and Carolina. This it seems was to
have answered a part of Mr. Oldmixion's British Empire in America. I
very innocently, (when I began to read,) placed pen and paper by me, and
made my observations upon the first page, but found it in the sequel so
very faulty, and an abridgement only of some accounts that had been
printed sixty or seventy years ago; in which also he had chosen the most
strange and untrue parts, and left out the more sincere and faithful, so
that I laid aside all thoughts of further observations, and gave it only
a reading; and my bookseller for answer, that the account was too faulty
and too imperfect to be mended; withal telling him, that seeing I had in
my junior days taken some notes of the government, which I then had with
me in England, I would make him an account of my own country, if I could
find time, while I staid in London. And this I should the rather
undertake in justice to so fine a country, because it has been so
misrepresented to the common people of England, as to make them believe
that the servants in Virginia are made to draw in cart and plow as
horses and oxen do in England, and that the country turns all people
black who go to live there, with other such prodigious phantasms.
Accordingly, before I left London, I gave him a short history of the
country, from the first settlement, with an account of its then state;
but I would not let him mingle it with Oldmixion's other account of the
plantations, because I took them to be all of a piece with those I had
seen of Virginia and Carolina, but desired mine to be printed by
itself. And this I take to be the only reason of that gentleman's
reflecting so severely upon me in his book, for I never saw him in my
life that I know of.
But concerning that work of his, I may with great truth say, that
(notwithstanding his boast of having the assistance of many original
papers and memorials that I had not the opportunity of) he nowhere
varies from the account that I gave, nor advances anything new of his
own, but he commits so many errors, and imposes so many falsities upon
the world, To instance some few out of the many:
Page 210, he says that they were near spent with cold, which is
impossible in that hot country.
Page 220, he says that Captain Weymouth, in 1605, entered Powhatan river
southward of the bay of Chesapeake;----whereas Powhatan river is now
called James river, and lies within the mouth of Chesapeake bay some
miles, on the west side of it; and Captain Weymouth's voyage was only to
Hudson's river, which is in New York, much northward of the capes of
Virginia.
Page 236, he jumbles the Potomac and eastern shore Indians as if they
lived together, and never quarrelled with the English; whereas the last
lived on the east side the great bay of Chesapeake, and the other on the
west. The eastern shore Indians never had any quarrel with the English,
but the Potomacs used many treacheries and enmities towards us, and
joined in the intended general massacre, but by a timely discovery were
prevented doing anything.
Page 245, he says that Morrison held an assembly, and procured that body
of laws to be made; whereas Morrison only made an abridgement of the
laws then in being, and compiled them into a regular body; and this he
did by direction of Sir William Berkeley, who, upon his going to
England, left Morrison his deputy governor.
Page 248, he says (viz: in Sir William Berkeley's time) the English
could send seven thousand men into the field, and have twice as many at
home; whereas at this day they cannot do that, and yet have three times
as many people in the country as they had then.
By page 251, he seems altogether ignorant of the situation of Virginia,
the head of the bay and New York, for he there says:
"When the Indians at the head of the bay traveled to New York, they
past, going and coming, by the frontiers of Virginia, and traded with
the Virginians, &c.;" whereas the head of the bay is in the common route
of the Indians traveling from New York to Virginia, and much about
halfway.
Page 255, he says Sir William Berkeley withdrew himself from his
government; whereas he went not out of it, for the counties of Accomac
and Northampton, to which he retired, when the rebels rose, were two
counties of his government, and only divided from the rest by the bay of
Chesapeake.
Page 266, he says, Dr. Thomas Bray went over to be president of the
college in Virginia; whereas he was sent to Maryland, as the bishop's
commissary there. And Mr. Blair, in the charter to the college, was made
president during life, and is still alive. He also says, that all that
was subscribed for the college came to nothing; whereas all the
subscriptions were in a short time paid in, and expended upon the
college, of which two or three stood suit, and were cast.
Page 269, he tells of camels brought by some Guiana ships to Virginia,
but had not then heard how they throve with us. I don't know how he
should, for there never was any such thing done.
Then his geography of the country is most absurd, notwithstanding the
wonderful care he pretends to have of the maps, and his expert knowledge
of the new surveys, (page 278) making almost as many faults as
descriptions. For instance:
Page 272, Prince George county, which lies all on the southside of James
river, he places on the north, and says that part of James City county,
and four of the parishes of it, lie on the southside of James river;
whereas not one inch of it has so done these sixty years.
Page 273, his account of Williamsburg is most romantic and untrue; and
so is his account of the college, page 302, 303.
Page 274, he makes Elizabeth and Warwick counties to lie upon York
river; whereas both of them lie upon James river, and neither of them
comes near York river.
Page 275, he places King William county above New Kent, and on both
sides Pamunkey river; whereas it lies side by side with New Kent, and
all on the north side Pamunkey river. He places King and Queen county
upon the south of New Kent, at the head of Chickahominy river, which he
says rises in it; whereas that county lies north of New Kent from head
to foot, and two large rivers and two entire counties are between the
head of Chickahominy and King & Queen. Essex, Richmond and Stafford
counties, are as much wrong placed.
He says that York and Rappahannock rivers issue out of low marshes, and
not from the mountains as the other rivers, which note he has taken from
some old maps; but is a false account from my own view, for I was with
our present governor at the head spring of both those rivers, and their
fountains are in the highest ridge of mountains.
Page 276, he says that the neck of land between Niccocomoco river and
the bay, is what goes by the name of the northern neck; whereas it is
not above the twentieth part of the northern neck, for that contains all
that track of land which is between Rappahannock and Potomac rivers.
How unfaithful and frontless must such an historian be, who can upon
guess work introduce such falsities for truth, and bottom them upon such
bold assertions? It would make a book larger than his own to expose his
errors, for even the most general offices of the government he
misrecites.
Page 298, he says the general court is called the quarter court, and is
held every quarter of a year; whereas it never was held but three times
a year, tho' it was called a quarter court. When he wrote, it was held
but twice a year, as I had wrote in my book, and has not been called a
quarter court these seventy-nine years. The county courts were never
limited in their jurisdiction to any summons, neither was the sheriff
ever a judge in them, as he would have it, but always a ministerial
officer to execute their process, &c.
The account that I have given in the following sheets is plain and true,
and if it be not written with so much judgment, or in so good a method
and style as I could wish, yet in the truth of it I rest fully
satisfied. In this edition I have also retrenched such particulars as
related only to private transactions, and characters in the historical
part, as being too diminutive to be transmitted to posterity, and set
down the succession of the governors, with the more general incidents of
their government, without reflection upon the private conduct of any
person.
INTRODUCTION.
The name of BEVERLEY has long been a familiar one in Virginia. It is
said that the family may be traced among the records of the town of
Beverley in England, as far back as to the time of King John. During the
reign of Henry VIII, one of the Beverleys was appointed by the Crown a
commissioner for enquiring into the state and condition of the northern
monasteries. The family received some grants of church property, and one
branch of them settled at Shelby, the other at Beverley, in Yorkshire.
In the time of Charles I, John Beverley of Beverley adhered to the cause
of royalty, and at the restoration his name appears in the list of those
upon whom it was intended to confer the order of the Royal Oak. Robert
Beverley of Beverley, the representative of the family, having sold his
possessions in that town, removed with a considerable fortune to
Virginia, where he purchased extensive tracts of land. He took up his
residence in the county of Middlesex. Elected clerk of the House of
Burgesses, he continued to hold that office until 1676, the year of
Bacon's rebellion, in suppressing which he rendered important services,
and by his loyal gallantry won the marked favor of the Governor, Sir
William Berkley. In 1682 the discontents of Virginia arose again almost
to the pitch of rebellion. Two sessions of the Assembly having been
spent in angry and fruitless disputes, between Lord Culpepper, the
Governor, and the House of Burgesses, in May of that year, the
malcontents in the counties of Gloucester, New Kent and Middlesex,
proceeded riotously to cut up the tobacco plants in the beds,
especially the sweet-scented, which was produced nowhere else.
Culpepper, the Governor, prevented further waste by patrols of horse.
The ringleaders were arrested, and some of them hanged upon a charge of
treason. A riot-act was also passed, making plant-cutting high treason,
the necessity of which act evinces the illegality of the execution of
these unfortunate plant-cutters. The vengeance of the government fell
heavily upon Major Robert Beverley, clerk of the House of Burgesses, as
the principal instigator of these disturbances. He had before incurred
the displeasure of the governor and council, by refusing to deliver up
to them copies of the legislative journal, without permission of the
Assembly. Thus by a firm adherence to his duty, he drew down upon
himself an unrelenting persecution.
In May, 1682, he was committed a prisoner on board the ship, the Duke of
York, lying in the Rappahannock river. Ralph Wormley, Matthew Kemp, and
Christopher Wormley, were directed to seize the records in Beverley's
possession, and to break open doors if necessary. Beverley was
afterwards transferred from the Duke of York to the ship Concord, and a
guard was set over him. Contriving however to escape from the custody of
the sheriff at York, the fugitive was retaken at his own house in
Middlesex county, and transported over to the county of Northampton, on
the Eastern Shore. Some months afterwards he applied by his attorney,
William Fitzhugh, for a writ of _habeas corpus_, which however was
refused. In a short time being again found at large, he was again
arrested, and remanded to Northampton. In 1683 new charges were brought
against him: 1st. That he had broken open letters addressed to the
Secretary's office; 2d. That he had made up the journal, and inserted
his Majesty's letter therein, notwithstanding it had been first
presented at the time of the prorogation; 3d. That in 1682 he had
refused to deliver copies of the journal to the governor and council,
saying "he might not do it without leave of his masters."
In May, 1684, Major Robert Beverley was found guilty of high
misdemeanors, but judgment being respited, and the prisoner asking
pardon on his bended knees, was released upon giving security for his
good behavior in the penalty of £2,000. The abject terms in which he now
sued for pardon, form a singular contrast to the constancy of his
former resistance, and the once gallant and loyal Beverley, the
strenuous partizan of Berkley, thus became the victim of that tyranny
which he had once so resolutely defended. He had not however lost the
esteem of his countrymen, for in 1685 he was again elected clerk of the
Assembly. This body strenuously resisted the negative power claimed by
the governor, and passed resolutions complaining strongly of his
tyranny. He negatived them, and prorogued the Assembly. James II,
indignant at these democratical proceedings, ordered their dissolution,
and attributing these disorders mainly to Robert Beverley, their clerk,
commanded that he should be incapable of holding any office, and that he
should be prosecuted, and that in future the appointment of their clerk
should be made by the governor.
In the spring of 1687 Robert Beverley died, the persecuted victim of an
oppressive government. Long a distinguished loyalist, he lived to become
a sort of patriot martyr. It is thus that in the circle of life extremes
meet. He married Catherine Hone of James City, and their children were
four sons: Peter, William, Harry, and Robert, (the historian,) and three
daughters, who married respectively, William Randolph, eldest son of
William Randolph of Turkey Island; Sir John Randolph, his brother, of
Williamsburg; and John Robinson. Peter Beverley was appointed clerk of
the Assembly in 1691.
In the preface to the first edition of his History of Virginia,
published at London 1705, Robert Beverley says of himself: "I am an
Indian, and don't pretend to be exact in my language." This intimation
may perhaps have been merely playful, but the full and minute account
that he has given of the Indians, shows that he took a peculiar interest
in that race.
In the preface to the second edition of his history, now republished, he
remarks: "My first business in this world being among the public records
of my country, the active thoughts of my youth put me upon taking notes
of the general administration of the government." He was probably a
deputy in his father's office, and perhaps also in that of his brother
Peter Beverley. This Peter Beverley was in 1714 promoted to the place
of speaker of the House of Burgesses, and he was subsequently treasurer
of the colony. Robert Beverley, the historian, was born in Virginia, and
educated in England. He married Ursula, daughter of William Byrd of
Westover, on the James river. She lies buried at Jamestown. John
Fontaine, son of a Huguenot refugee, having come over from England to
Virginia, visited Robert Beverley, the author of this work, in the year
1715, at his residence, near the head of the Mattapony. Here he
cultivated several varieties of the grape, native and French, in a
vineyard of about three acres, situated upon the side of a hill, from
which he made in that year four hundred gallons of wine. He went to very
considerable expense in this enterprise, having constructed vaults of a
wine press. But Fontaine comparing his method with that used in Spain,
deemed it erroneous, and that his vineyard was not rightly managed. The
home-made wine Fontaine drank heartily of, and found it good, but he was
satisfied by the flavor of it that Beverley did not understand how to
make it properly. Beverley lived comfortably, yet although wealthy, had
nothing in or about his house but what was actually necessary. He had
good beds, but no curtains, and instead of cane chairs used wooden
stools. He lived mainly within himself upon the products of his land. He
had laid a sort of wager with some of the neighboring planters, he
giving them one guinea in hand, and they promising to pay him each ten
guineas, if in seven years he should cultivate a vineyard that would
yield at one vintage seven hundred gallons of wine. Beverley thereupon
paid them down one hundred pounds, and Fontaine entertained no doubt but
that in the next year he would win the thousand guineas. Beverley owned
a large tract of land at the place of his residence. On Sunday Fontaine
accompanied him to his parish church, seven miles distant, where they
heard a good sermon from the Rev. M. De Latané, a Frenchman. A son of
Beverley accompanied Fontaine in some of his excursions in that
neighborhood. On the banks of the Rappahannock, about five miles below
the falls, (Fredericksburg,) Fontaine came upon a tract of three
thousand acres of land, which Beverley offered him at £7 10s. per
hundred acres, and Fontaine would have purchased it, had not Beverley
somewhat singularly insisted upon making a title for nine hundred and
ninety-nine years, instead of an absolute fee simple.
On the 20th of August, 1716, Alexander Spotswood, Governor of Virginia,
accompanied by John Fontaine, started from Williamsburg on his
expedition over the Appalachian mountains, as they were then called.
Having crossed the York river at the Brick House, they lodged that night
at Chelsea, the seat of Austin Moore, on the Mattapony river, in the
county of King William. On the following night they were hospitably
entertained by Robert Beverley at his residence. The governor left his
chaise there, and mounted his horse for the rest of the journey.
Beverley accompanied Spotswood in this exploration. On the 26th of
August Spotswood was joined by several gentlemen, two small companies of
rangers, and four Meherrin Indians. The gentlemen of the party appear to
have been Spotswood, Fontaine, Beverley, Austin Smith, Todd, Dr.
Robinson, Taylor, Mason, Brooke, and Captains Clouder and Smith. The
whole number of the party, including gentlemen, rangers, pioneers,
Indians and servants, was probably about fifty. They had with them a
large number of riding and pack-horses, an abundant supply of
provisions, and an extraordinary variety of liquors.
The camps were named respectively after the gentlemen of the expedition,
and the first one being that of the 29th of August, was named in honor
of our historian, Robert Beverley. Here "they made," as Fontaine records
in his diary, "great fires, supped and drank good punch." In the preface
to this edition of the work, (1722,) Beverley says in reference to this
Tramontane expedition, "I was with the present Governor (Spotswood) at
the head spring of both those rivers, (the York and the Rappahannock,)
and their fountains are in the highest range of mountains." Thus it
appears that the historian was one of the celebrated knights of the
golden horseshoe.
An Abridgement of the Laws of Virginia, published at London in 1722 is
ascribed to Robert Beverley. Filial indignation will naturally account
for the acrimony which in his history he exhibits towards Lord Culpepper
and Lord Howard of Effingham, who had so persecuted his father, the
clerk of the Assembly, and against Nicholson, who was Effingham's
deputy. In his second edition, when time had mitigated his animosities,
Beverley omitted some of his accusations against those governors.
The first edition of Beverley's History of Virginia appeared at London
in 1705. It was republished in French at Paris in 1707, and in the same
year an edition was issued at Amsterdam. The second English edition was
published in 1722 at London. The work is dedicated to the Right
Honorable Robert Harley, so celebrated both as a statesman and as the
patron of letters.
In the title page appear only the initials of the author's name, thus:
"R. B. Gent.," whence the blundering historian, Oldmixon, supposed his
name to be "Bullock," and in some German catalogues he received the
appellation of "Bird." Warden, an American writer, has repeated this
last misnomer. Beverley's work is divided into four parts, styled Books,
and the fourth book is again divided into two parts.
Of the history, Mr. Jefferson in his "Notes on Virginia" has remarked,
that it is "as concise and unsatisfactory as Stith is prolix and
tedious." This criticism, however, is only applicable to Beverley's
first book, which includes the civil history of the colony; the other
three books on "the present state of Virginia" being sufficiently full
and satisfactory. Brief as is the summary of history comprised in book
first, it was probably quite ample enough for the taste of the readers
of Beverley's day. His style of writing is easy, unsophisticated and
pleasing, his simplicity of remark sometimes amusing, and the whole work
breathes an earnest, downright, hearty, old-fashioned Virginia spirit.
His account of the internal affairs of the colony is faithful, and in
the main correct, but in regard to events occurring beyond the precincts
of Virginia, he is less reliable. The second book treats of the boundary
of Virginia, waters, earth and soil, natural products, fish, wild fowl
and hunted game. Book third gives a full and minute description of the
manners and customs of the Indians, illustrated by Gribelin's
engravings. The contents are the persons and dress of the Indians,
marriage and management of children, towns, buildings and
fortifications, cookery and food, travelling, reception and
entertainments, language, war and peace, religion, diseases and
remedies, sports and pastimes, laws and government, money, goods and
handicrafts. The fourth book relates to the government of the colony,
its sub-divisions, public offices, revenues, taxes, courts, the church,
the college of William and Mary, militia, servants and slaves, poor
laws, free schools, tenure and conveyance of lands, naturalization and
currency, the people, buildings, eatables, drinkables and fuel, climate,
diseases, recreations, natural productions, and the advantages of
improved husbandry. The closing paragraph is as follows: "Thus they
depend upon the liberality of Nature, without endeavoring to improve its
gifts by art or industry. They sponge upon the blessings of a warm sun
and a fruitful soil, and almost grudge the pains of gathering in the
bounties of the earth. I should be ashamed to publish this slothful
indolence of my countrymen, but that I hope it will rouse them out of
their lethargy, and excite them to make the most of all those happy
advantages which Nature has given them, and if it does this, I am sure
they will have the goodness to forgive me." Happily, at the present day,
Virginia has been aroused from her lethargy, and with energetic efforts
is developing her rich resources. It may be hoped that with these
material improvements a wider interest in the history of the past may be
diffused.
_Petersburg, May 30th, 1854._
HISTORY OF VIRGINIA.
BOOK I.
CHAPTER I.
SHEWING WHAT HAPPENED IN THE FIRST ATTEMPTS TO SETTLE VIRGINIA, BEFORE
THE DISCOVERY OF CHESAPEAKE BAY.
The learned and valiant Sir Walter Raleigh, having entertained some
deeper and more serious considerations upon the state of the earth than
most other men of his time, as may sufficiently appear by his
incomparable book, the History of the World, and having laid together
the many stories then in Europe concerning America, the native beauty,
riches, and value of that part of the world, and the immense profits the
Spaniards drew from a small settlement or two thereon made, resolved
upon an adventure for farther discoveries.
According to this purpose, in the year of our Lord 1583, he got several
men of great value and estate to join in an expedition of this nature,
and for their encouragement obtained letters patents from Queen
Elizabeth, bearing date the 25th of March, 1584, for turning their
discoveries to their own advantage.
§ 2. In April following they set out two small vessels under the command
of Capt. Philip Amidas and Capt. Arthur Barlow, who after a prosperous
voyage, anchored at the inlet by Roanoke, at present under the
government of North Carolina. They made good profit of the Indian truck,
which they bought for things of much inferior value, and returned. Being
overpleased with their profits, and finding all things there entirely
new and surprising, they gave a very advantageous account of matters, by
representing the country so delightful and desirable, so pleasant and
plentiful; the climate and air so temperate, sweet, and wholesome; the
woods and soil so charming and fruitful; and all other things so
agreeable, that paradise itself seemed to be there in its first native
lustre.
They gave particular accounts of the variety of good fruits, and some
whereof they had never seen the like before; especially, that there were
grapes in such abundance as was never known in the world. Stately tall
large oaks, and other timber; red cedar, cypress, pines, and other
evergreens and sweet woods, for tallness and largeness, exceeding all
they had ever heard of; wild fowl, fish, deer, and other game in such
plenty and variety, that no epicure could desire more than this new
world did seem naturally to afford.
And to make it yet more desirable, they reported the native Indians
(which were then the only inhabitants) so affable, kind, and
good-natured; so uncultivated in learning, trades, and fashions; so
innocent and ignorant of all manner of politics, tricks, and cunning;
and so desirous of the company of the English, that they seemed rather
to be like soft wax, ready to take an impression, than anyways likely to
oppose the settling of the English near them. They represented it as a
scene laid open for the good and gracious Queen Elizabeth to propagate
the gospel in and extend her dominions over; as if purposely reserved
for her majesty by a peculiar direction of providence, that had brought
all former adventures in this affair to nothing; and to give a further
taste of their discovery, they took with them in their return for
England, two men of the native Indians, named Wanchese and Manteo.
§ 3. Her majesty accordingly took the hint, and espoused the project as
far as her present engagements in war with Spain would let her; being so
well pleased with the account given, that as the greatest mark of honor
she could do the discoverer, she called the country by the name of
Virginia, as well for that it was first discovered in her reign, a
virgin queen, as it did still seem to retain the virgin purity and
plenty of the first creation, and the people their primitive innocence;
for they seemed not debauched nor corrupted with those pomps and
vanities which had depraved and enslaved the rest of mankind; neither
were their hands hardened by labor, nor their minds corrupted by the
desire of hoarding up treasure. They were without boundaries to their
land, without property in cattle, and seem to have escaped, or rather
not to have been concerned in the first curse, _of getting their bread
by the sweat of their brows_, for by their pleasure alone they supplied
all their necessities, namely, by fishing, fowling, and hunting; skins
being their only clothing, and these, too, five-sixths of the year
thrown by; living without labor, and only gathering the fruits of the
earth when ripe or fit for use; neither fearing present want, nor
solicitous for the future, but daily finding sufficient afresh for their
subsistence.
§ 4. This report was backed, nay, much advanced by the vast riches and
treasure mentioned in several merchants' letters from Mexico and Peru,
to their correspondents in Spain, which letters were taken with their
ships and treasure, by some of ours in her majesty's service, in
prosecution of the Spanish wars. This was encouragement enough for a new
adventure, and set people's invention at work till they had satisfied
themselves, and made sufficient essays for the farther discovery of the
country. Pursuant whereunto, Sir Richard Greenvile, the chief of Sir
Walter Raleigh's associates, having obtained seven sail of ships, well
laden with provision, arms, ammunition, and spare men to make a
settlement, set out in person with them early in the spring of the
succeeding year to make farther discoveries, taking back the two Indians
with him, and according to his wish, in the latter end of May, arrived
at the same place where the English had been the year before; there he
made a settlement, sowed beans and peas, which he saw come up and grow
to admiration while he staid, which was about two months, and having
made some little discoveries more in the sound to the southward, and got
some treasure in skins, furs, pearl, and other rarities in the country,
for things of inconsiderable value, he returned for England, leaving one
hundred and eight men upon Roanoke island, under the command of Mr.
Ralph Lane, to keep possession.
§ 5. As soon as Sir Richard Greenvile was gone, they, according to order
and their own inclination, set themselves earnestly about discovering
the country, and ranged about a little too indiscreetly up the rivers,
and into the land backward from the rivers, which gave the Indians a
jealousy of their meaning; for they cut off several stragglers of them,
and had laid designs to destroy the rest, but were happily prevented.
This put the English upon the precaution of keeping more within bounds,
and not venturing themselves too defenceless abroad, who till then had
depended too much upon the natives simplicity and innocence.
After the Indians had done this mischief, they never observed any real
faith towards those English; for being naturally suspicious and
revengeful themselves, they never thought the English could forgive
them; and so by this jealousy, caused by the cowardice of their nature,
they were continually doing mischief.
The English, notwithstanding all this, continued their discoveries, but
more carefully than they had done before, and kept the Indians in some
awe, by threatening them with the return of their companions again with
a greater supply of men and goods; and before the cold of the winter
became uneasy, they had extended their discoveries near an hundred miles
along the seacoast to the northward; but not reaching the southern cape
of Chesapeake bay in Virginia, they had as yet found no good harbor.
§ 6. In this condition they maintained their settlement all the winter,
and till August following; but were much distressed for want of
provisions, not having learned to gather food, as the Indians did, nor
having conveniences like them of taking fish and fowl; besides, being
now fallen out with the Indians, they feared to expose themselves to
their contempt and cruelty; because they had not received the supply
they talked of, and which had been expected in the spring.
All they could do under these distresses, and the despair of the
recruits promised them this year, was only to keep a good looking out to
seaward, if, perchance, they might find any means of escape, or recruit.
And to their great joy and satisfaction in August aforesaid, they
happened to espy and make themselves be seen to Sir Francis Drake's
fleet, consisting of twenty-three sail, who being sent by her majesty
upon the coast of America, in search of the Spanish treasures, had
orders from her majesty to take a view of this plantation, and see what
assistance and encouragement it wanted: Their first petition to him was
to grant them a fresh supply of men and provisions, with a small vessel,
and boats to attend them; that so if they should be put to distress for
want of relief, they might embark for England. This was as readily
granted by Sir Francis Drake, as asked by them; and a ship was appointed
them, which ship they began immediately to fit up, and supply
plentifully with all manner of stores for a long stay; but while they
were adoing this, a great storm arose, and drove that very ship (with
some others) from her anchor to sea, and so she was lost for that
occasion.
Sir Francis would have given them another ship, but this accident coming
on the back of so many hardships which they had undergone, daunted them,
and put them upon imagining that Providence was averse to their designs;
and now having given over for that year the expectation of their
promised supply from England, they consulted together, and agreed to
desire Sir Francis Drake to take them along with him, which he did.
Thus their first intention of settlement fell, after discovering many
things of the natural growth of the country, useful for the life of man,
and beneficial to trade, they having observed a vast variety of fish,
fowl and beasts; fruits, seeds, plants, roots, timber-trees, sweet-woods
and gums: They had likewise attained some little knowledge in the
language of the Indians, their religion, manners, and ways of
correspondence one with another, and been made sensible of their cunning
and treachery towards themselves.
§ 7. While these things were thus acting in America, the adventurers in
England were providing, though too tediously, to send them recruits. And
though it was late before they could dispatch them (for they met with
several disappointments, and had many squabbles among themselves);
however, at last they provided four good ships, with all manner of
recruits suitable for the colony, and Sir Walter Raleigh designed to go
in person with them.
Sir Walter got his ship ready first, and fearing the ill consequence of
a delay, and the discouragement it might be to those that were left to
make a settlement, he set sail by himself. And a fortnight after him Sir
Richard Greenvile sailed with the three other ships.
Sir Walter fell in with the land at Cape Hatteras, a little to the
southward of the place, where the one hundred and eight men had been
settled, and after search not finding them, he returned: However Sir
Richard, with his ships, found the place where he had left the men, but
entirely deserted, which was at first a great disheartening to him,
thinking them all destroyed, because he knew not that Sir Francis Drake
had been there and taken them off; but he was a little better satisfied
by Manteo's report, that they were not cut off by the Indians, though he
could give no good account what was become of them. However,
notwithstanding this seeming discouragement, he again left fifty men in
the same island of Roanoke, built them houses necessary, gave them two
years provision, and returned.
§ 8. The next summer, being Anno 1587, three ships more were sent, under
the command of Mr. John White, who himself was to settle there as
governor with more men, and some women, carrying also plentiful recruits
of provisions.
In the latter end of July they arrived at Roanoke aforesaid, where they
again encountered the uncomfortable news of the loss of these men also;
who (as they were informed by Manteo) were secretly set upon by the
Indians, some cut off, and the others fled, and not to be heard of, and
their place of habitation now all grown up with weeds. However, they
repaired the houses on Roanoke, and sat down there again.
The 13th of August they christened Manteo, and styled him Lord of
Dassamonpeak, an Indian nation so called, in reward of the fidelity he
had shewn to the English from the beginning, who being the first Indian
that was made a Christian in that part of the world, I thought it not
amiss to remember him.
On the same occasion also may be mentioned the first child there born of
Christian parentage, viz: a daughter of Mr. Ananias Dare. She was born
the 18th of the same August, upon Roanoke, and, after the name of the
country, was christened Virginia.
This seemed to be a settlement prosperously made, being carried on with
much zeal and unanimity among themselves. The form of government
consisted of a governor and twelve counselors, incorporated by the name
of governor and assistants, of the city of Raleigh, in Virginia.
Many nations of the Indians renewed their peace, and made firm leagues
with the corporation. The chief men of the English also were so far from
being disheartened at the former disappointments, that they disputed for
the liberty of remaining on the spot; and by mere constraint compelled
Mr. White, their governor, to return for England to negotiate the
business of their recruits and supply, as a man the most capable to
manage that affair, leaving at his departure one hundred and fifteen in
the corporation.
§ 9. It was above two years before Mr. White could obtain any grant of
supplies, and then in the latter end of the year 1589, he set out from
Plymouth with three ships, and sailed round by the Western and Caribbee
islands, they having hitherto not found any nearer way: for though they
were skilled in navigation, and understood the use of the globes, yet
did example so much prevail upon them, that they chose to sail a
thousand leagues about, rather than attempt a more direct passage.
Towards the middle of August, 1590, they arrived upon the coast, at Cape
Hatteras, and went to search upon Roanoke for the people; but found, by
letters on the trees, that they were removed to Croatan, one of the
islands forming the sound, and southward of Roanoke about twenty
leagues, but no sign of distress. Thither they designed to sail to them
in their ships; but a storm arising in the meanwhile, lay so hard upon
them that their cables broke; they lost three of their anchors, were
forced to sea, and so returned home, without ever going near those poor
people again for sixteen years following. And it is supposed that the
Indians, seeing them forsaken by their country, and unfurnished of their
expected supplies, cut them off, for to this day they were never more
heard of.
Thus, after all this vast expense and trouble, and the hazard and loss
of so many lives, Sir Walter Raleigh, the great projector and furtherer
of these discoveries and settlements, being under trouble, all thoughts
of farther prosecuting these designs lay dead for about twelve years
following.
§ 10. And then, in the year 1602, Captain Gosnell, who had made one in
the former adventures, furnished out a small bark from Dartmouth, and
set sail in her himself with thirty odd men, designing a more direct
course, and not to stand so far to the southward, nor pass by the
Caribbee Islands, as all former adventurers had done. He attained his
ends in that, but touched upon the coast of America, much to the
northward of any of the places where the former adventurers had landed,
for he fell first among the islands forming the northern side of
Massachusetts bay in New England; but not finding the conveniences that
harbor affords, set sail again southward, and, as he thought, clear of
land into the sea, but fell upon the Byte of Cape Cod.
Upon this coast, and a little to the southward, he spent some time in
trade with the Indians, and gave names to the islands of Martha's
Vineyard and Elizabeth's Isle, which retain the same to this day. Upon
Elizabeth's Isle he made an experiment of English grain, and found it
spring up and grow to admiration as it had done at Roanoke. Here also
his men built huts to shelter them in the night and bad weather, and
made good profit by their Indian traffic of furs, skins, &c. And as
their pleasure invited them, would visit the main, set receivers, and
save the gums and juices distilling from sweet woods, and try and
examine the lesser vegetables.
After a month's stay here, they returned for England, as well pleased
with the natural beauty and richness of the place they had viewed, as
they were with the treasure they had gathered in it: neither had they a
head, nor a finger that ached among them all the time.
§ 11. The noise of this short and most profitable of all the former
voyages, set the Bristol merchants to work also; who, early in the year
1603, sent two vessels in search of the same place and trade--which
vessels fell luckily in with the same land. They followed the same
methods Captain Gosnell had done, and having got a rich lading they
returned.
§ 12. In the year 1605, a voyage was made from London in a single ship,
with which they designed to fall in with the land about the latitude
39°, but the winds put her a little farther northward, and she fell upon
the eastern parts of Long Island, (as it is now called, but all went
then under the name of Virginia.) Here they trafficked with the Indians,
as the others had done before them; made short trials of the soil by
English grain, and found the Indians, as in all other places, very fair
and courteous at first, till they got more knowledge of the English, and
perhaps thought themselves overreached because one bought better
pennyworths than another, upon which, afterwards, they never failed to
take revenge as they found their opportunity or advantage. So this
company also returned with the ship, having ranged forty miles up
Connecticut river, and called the harbor where they rid Penticost
harbor, because of their arrival there on Whitsunday.
In all these latter voyages, they never so much as endeavored to come
near the place where the first settlement was attempted at Cape
Hatteras; neither had they any pity on those poor hundred and fifteen
souls settled there in 1587, of whom there had never since been any
account, no relief sent to them, nor so much as any enquiry made after
them, whether they were dead or alive, till about three years after
this, when Chesapeake bay in Virginia was settled, which hitherto had
never been seen by any Englishman. So strong was the desire of riches,
and so eager the pursuit of a rich trade, that all concern for the lives
of their fellow-christians, kindred, neighbors and countrymen, weighed
nothing in the comparison, though an enquiry might have been easily made
when they were so near them.
CHAPTER II.
CONTAINING AN ACCOUNT OF THE FIRST SETTLEMENT OF CHESAPEAKE BAY, IN
VIRGINIA, BY THE CORPORATION OF LONDON ADVENTURERS, AND THEIR
PROCEEDINGS DURING THEIR GOVERNMENT BY A PRESIDENT AND COUNCIL
ELECTIVE.
§ 13. The merchants of London, Bristol, Exeter, and Plymouth soon
perceived what great gains might be made of a trade this way, if it were
well managed and colonies could be rightly settled, which was
sufficiently evinced by the great profits some ships had made, which had
not met with ill accidents. Encouraged by this prospect, they joined
together in a petition to King James the First, shewing forth that it
would be too much for any single person to attempt the settling of
colonies, and to carry on so considerable a trade; they therefore prayed
his majesty to incorporate them, and enable them to raise a joint stock
for that purpose, and to countenance their undertaking.
His majesty did accordingly grant their petition, and by letters
patents, bearing date the 10th of April, 1606, did in one patent
incorporate them into two distinct colonies, to make two separate
companies, viz: "Sir Thomas Gates, Sir George Summers, knights; Mr.
Richard Hackluit, clerk, prebend of Westminster, and Edward Maria
Wingfield, esq., adventurers of the city of London, and such others as
should be joined unto them of that colony, which should be called the
first colony, with liberty to begin their first plantation and seat, at
any place upon the coast of Virginia where they should think fit and
convenient, between the degrees of thirty-four and forty-one of northern
latitude. And that they should extend their bounds from the said first
seat of their plantation and habitation fifty English miles along the
seacoast each way, and include all the lands within an hundred miles
directly over against the same seacoast, and also back into the main
land one hundred miles from the seacoast; and that no other should be
permitted or suffered to plant or inhabit behind or on the back of them
towards the main land, without the express license of the council of
that colony, thereunto in writing first had and obtained. And for the
second colony, Thomas Hanham, Rawleigh Gilbert, William Parker, and
George Popham, esquires, of the town of Plymouth, and all others who
should be joined to them of that colony, with liberty to begin their
first plantation and seat at any place upon the coast of Virginia where
they should think fit, between the degrees of thirty-eight and forty
five of northern latitude, with the like liberties and bounds as the
first colony; provided they did not seat within an hundred miles of
them."
§ 14. By virtue of this patent, Capt. John Smith was sent by the London
company, in December, 1606, on his voyage with three small ships, and a
commission was given to him, and to several other gentlemen, to
establish a colony, and to govern by a president, to be chosen annually,
and council, who should be invested with sufficient authorities and
powers. And now all things seemed to promise a plantation in good
earnest. Providence seemed likewise very favorable to them, for though
they designed only for that part of Virginia where the hundred and
fifteen were left, and where there is no security of harbor, yet, after
a tedious voyage of passing the old way again, between the Caribbee
islands and the main, he, with two of his vessels, luckily fell in with
Virginia itself, that part of the continent now so called, anchoring in
the mouth of the bay of Chesapeake; and the first place they landed upon
was the southern cape of that bay; this they named Cape Henry, and the
northern Cape Charles, in honor of the king's two eldest sons; and the
first great river they searched, whose Indian name was Powhatan, they
called James river, after the king's own name.
§ 15. Before they would make any settlement here, they made a full
search of James river, and then by an unanimous consent pitched upon a
peninsula about fifty miles up the river, which, besides the goodness of
the soil, was esteemed as most fit, and capable to be made a place both
of trade and security, two-thirds thereof being environed by the main
river, which affords good anchorage all along, and the other third by a
small narrow river, capable of receiving many vessels of an hundred ton,
quite up as high as till it meets within thirty yards of the main river
again, and where generally in spring tides it overflows into the main
river, by which means the land they chose to pitch their town upon has
obtained the name of an island. In this back river ships and small
vessels may ride lashed to one another, and moored ashore secure from
all wind and weather whatsoever.
The town, as well as the river, had the honor to be called by King
James' name. The whole island thus enclosed contains about two thousand
acres of high land, and several thousands of very good and firm marsh,
and is an extraordinary good pasture as any in that country.
By means of the narrow passage, this place was of great security to them
from the Indian enemy; and if they had then known of the biting of the
worm in the salts, they would have valued this place upon that account
also, as being free from that mischief.
§ 16. They were no sooner settled in all this happiness and security,
but they fell into jars and dissensions among themselves, by a greedy
grasping at the Indian treasure, envying and overreaching one another in
that trade.
After five weeks stay before this town, the ships returned home again,
leaving one hundred and eight men settled in the form of government
before spoken of.
After the ships were gone, the same sort of feuds and disorders
happened continually among them, to the unspeakable damage of the
plantation.
The Indians were the same there as in all other places, at first very
fair and friendly, though afterwards they gave great proofs of their
deceitfulness. However, by the help of the Indian provisions, the
English chiefly subsisted till the return of the ships the next year,
when two vessels were sent thither full freighted with men and
provisions for supply of the plantation, one of which only arrived
directly, and the other being beat off to the Caribbee islands, did not
arrive till the former was sailed again for England.
§ 17. In the interval of these ships returning from England, the English
had a very advantageous trade with the Indians, and might have made much
greater gains of it, and managed it both to the greater satisfaction of
the Indians, and the greater ease and security of themselves, if they
had been under any rule, or subject to any method in trade, and not left
at liberty to outvie or outbid one another, by which they not only cut
short their own profit, but created jealousies and disturbances among
the Indians, by letting one have a better bargain than another; for they
being unaccustomed to barter, such of them as had been hardest dealt by
in their commodities, thought themselves cheated and abused; and so
conceived a grudge against the English in general, making it a national
quarrel; and this seems to be the original cause of most of their
subsequent misfortunes by the Indians.
What also gave a greater interruption to this trade, was an object that
drew all their eyes and thoughts aside, even from taking the necessary
care for their preservation, and for the support of their lives, which
was this: They found in a neck of land, on the back of Jamestown island,
a fresh stream of water springing out of a small bank, which washed down
with it a yellow sort of dust isinglass, which being cleansed by the
fresh streaming of the water, lay shining in the bottom of that limpid
element, and stirred up in them an unseasonable and inordinate desire
after riches; for they taking all to be gold that glittered, run into
the utmost distraction, neglecting both the necessary defence of their
lives from the Indians, and the support of their bodies by securing of
provisions; absolutely relying, like Midas, upon the almighty power of
gold, thinking that where this was in plenty, nothing could be wanting;
but they soon grew sensible of their error, and found that if this
gilded dirt had been real gold, it could have been of no advantage to
them. For, by their negligence, they were reduced to an exceeding
scarcity of provisions, and that little they had was lost by the burning
of their town, while all hands were employed upon this imaginary golden
treasure; so that they were forced to live for some time upon the wild
fruits of the earth, and upon crabs, muscles, and such like, not having
a day's provision before-hand; as some of the laziest Indians, who have
no pleasure in exercise, and wont be at the pains to fish and hunt: And,
indeed, not so well as they neither; for by this careless neglecting of
their defence against the Indians, many of them were destroyed by that
cruel people, and the rest durst not venture abroad, but were forced to
be content with what fell just into their mouths.
§ 18. In this condition they were, when the first ship of the two before
mentioned came to their assistance, but their golden dreams overcame all
difficulties; they spoke not, nor thought of anything but gold, and that
was all the lading that most of them were willing to take care for;
accordingly they put into this ship all the yellow dirt they had
gathered, and what skins and furs they had trucked for, and filling her
up with cedar, sent her away.
After she was gone, the other ship arrived, which they stowed likewise
with this supposed gold dust, designing never to be poor again; filling
her up with cedar and clap-board.
Those two ships being thus dispatched, they made several discoveries in
James river and up Chesapeake bay, by the undertaking and management of
Captain John Smith; and the year 1608 was the first year in which they
gathered Indian corn of their own planting.
While these discoveries were making by Captain Smith, matters run again
into confusion in Jamestown, and several uneasy people, taking
advantage of his absence, attempted to desert the settlement, and run
away with the small vessel that was left to attend upon it; for Captain
Smith was the only man among them that could manage the discoveries with
success, and he was the only man, too, that could keep the settlement in
order. Thus the English continued to give themselves as much perplexity
by their own distraction as the Indians did by their watchfulness and
resentments.
§ 19. Anno 1609, John Laydon and Anna Burrows were married together, the
first Christian marriage in that part of the world; and the year
following the plantation was increased to near five hundred men.
This year Jamestown sent out people, and made two other settlements; one
at Nansemond in James river, above thirty miles below Jamestown, and the
other at Powhatan, six miles below the falls of James river, (which last
was bought of Powhatan for a certain quantity of copper,) each
settlement consisting of about a hundred and twenty men. Some small time
after another was made at Kiquotan by the mouth of James river.
CHAPTER III.
SHEWING WHAT HAPPENED AFTER THE ALTERATION OF THE GOVERNMENT FROM AN
ELECTIVE PRESIDENT TO A COMMISSIONATED GOVERNOR, UNTIL THE
DISSOLUTION OF THE COMPANY.
§ 20. In the meanwhile the treasurer, council and company of Virginia
adventurers in London, not finding that return and profit from the
adventurers they expected, and rightly judging that this disappointment,
as well as the idle quarrels in the colony, proceeded from a mismanage
of government, petitioned his majesty, and got a new patent with leave
to appoint a governor.
Upon this new grant they sent out nine ships, and plentiful supplies of
men and provisions, and made three joint commissioners or governors in
equal power, viz: Sir Thomas Gates, Sir George Summers, and Captain
Newport. They agreed to go all together in one ship.
This ship, on board of which the three governors had embarked, being
separated from the rest, was put to great distress in a severe storm;
and after three days and nights constant bailing and pumping, was at
last cast ashore at Bermudas, and there staved, but by good providence
the company was preserved.
Notwithstanding this shipwreck, and extremity they were put to, yet
could not this common misfortune make them agree. The best of it was,
they found plenty of provisions in that island, and no Indians to annoy
them. But still they quarrelled amongst themselves, and none more than
the two Knights; who made their parties, built each of them a cedar
vessel, one called the Patience, the other the Deliverance, and used
what they gathered of the furniture of the old ship for rigging; and
fish-oil, and hog's-grease, mixed with lime and ashes, instead of pitch
and tar: for they found great plenty of Spanish hogs in this island,
which are supposed to have swam ashore from some wrecks, and there
afterwards increased.
§. 21. While these things were acting in Bermuda, Capt. Smith being very
much burnt by the accidental firing of some gun-powder, as he was upon a
discovery in his boat, was forced for his cure sake, and the benefit of
a surgeon, to take his passage for England, in a ship that was then upon
the point of sailing.
Several of the nine ships that came out with the three governors
arrived, with many of the passengers; some of which, in their humors,
would not submit to the government there, pretending the new commission
destroyed the old one; that governors were appointed instead of a
president, and that they themselves were to be of the council, and so
would assume an independent power, inspiring the people with
disobedience; by which means they became frequently exposed in great
parties to the cruelty of the Indians; all sorts of discipline was laid
aside, and their necessary defence neglected; so that the Indians taking
advantage of those divisions, formed a stratagem to destroy them root
and branch; and, indeed, they did cut many of them off, by massacreing
whole companies at a time; so that all the out-settlements were
deserted, and the people that were not destroyed, took refuge in
Jamestown, except the small settlement at Kiquotan, where they had built
themselves a little fort, and called it Algernoon fort. And yet, for all
this, they continued their disorders, wasting their old provisions, and
neglecting to gather others; so that they who remained alive, were all
near famished, having brought themselves to that pass, that they durst
not stir from their own doors to gather the fruits of the earth, or the
crabs and muscles from the water-side: much less to hunt or catch wild
beasts, fish or fowl, which were found in great abundance there. They
continued in these scanty circumstances, till they were at last reduced
to such extremity, as to eat the very hides of their horses, and the
bodies of the Indians they had killed; and sometimes also upon a pinch
they would not disdain to dig them up again, to make a homely meal,
after they had been buried.
Thus, a few months indiscreet management brought such an infamy upon the
country, that to this day it cannot be wiped away. And the sicknesses
occasioned by this bad diet, or rather want of diet, are unjustly
remembered to the disadvantage of the country, as a fault in the
climate; which was only the foolishness and indiscretion of those who
assumed the power of governing. I call it assumed, because the new
commission mentioned, by which they pretended to be of the council, was
not in all this time arrived, but remained in Bermuda with the new
governors.
Here, I cannot but admire the care, labor, courage and understanding,
that Capt. John Smith showed in the time of his administration; who not
only founded, but also preserved all these settlements in good order,
while he was amongst them; and, without him, they had certainly all been
destroyed, either by famine, or the enemy long before; though the
country naturally afforded subsistence enough, even without any other
labor than that of gathering and preserving its spontaneous provisions.
For the first three years that Capt. Smith was with them, they never had
in that whole time, above six months English provisions. But as soon as
he had left them to themselves, all went to ruin; for the Indians had no
longer any fear for themselves, or friendship for the English. And six
months after this gentleman's departure, the 500 men that he had left
were reduced to threescore; and they, too, must of necessity, have
starved, if their relief had been delayed a week longer at sea.
§. 22. In the mean time, the three governors put to sea from Bermuda, in
their two small vessels, with their company, to the number of one
hundred and fifty, and in fourteen days, viz.: the 25th of May, 1610,
they arrived both together in Virginia, and went with their vessels up
to Jamestown, where they found the small remainder of the five hundred
men, in that melancholy way I just now hinted.
§. 23. Sir Thomas Gates, Sir George Summers, and Captain Newport, the
governors, were very compassionate of their condition, and called a
council, wherein they informed them, that they had but sixteen days
provision aboard; and therefore desired to know their opinion, whether
they would venture to sea under such a scarcity; or, if they resolved to
continue in the settlement, and take their fortunes, they would stay
likewise, and share the provisions among them; but desired that their
determination might be speedy. They soon came to the conclusion of
returning for England; but because their provisions were short, they
resolved to go by the banks of Newfoundland, in hopes of meeting with
some of the fishermen, (this being now the season,) and dividing
themselves among their ships, for the greater certainty of provision,
and for their better accommodation.
According to this resolution, they all went aboard, and fell down to Hog
Island, the 9th of June, at night, and the next morning to Mulberry
Island Point, which is eighteen miles below Jamestown, and thirty above
the mouth of the river; and there they spied a long boat, which the Lord
Delawarr (who was just arrived with three ships,) had sent before him up
the river sounding the channel. His lordship was made sole governor, and
was accompanied by several gentlemen of condition. He caused all the men
to return again to Jamestown; re-settled them with satisfaction, and
staid with them till March following; and then being very sick, he
returned for England, leaving about two hundred in the colony.
§. 24. On the 10th of May, 1611, Sir Thomas Dale being then made
governor, arrived with three ships, which brought supplies of men,
cattle and hogs. He found them growing again into the like disorders as
before, taking no care to plant corn, and wholly relying upon their
store, which then had but three months provision in it. He therefore
set them to work about corn, and though it was the middle of May before
they began to prepare the ground, yet they had an indifferent good crop.
§. 25. In August, the same year, Sir Thomas Gates arrived at Jamestown
with six ships more, and with a plentiful supply of hogs, cattle, fowls,
&c., with a good quantity of ammunition, and all other things necessary
for a new colony, and besides this, a reinforcement of three hundred and
fifty chosen men. In the beginning of September he settled a new town at
Arrabattuck, about fifty miles above Jamestown, paling in the neck above
two miles from the point, from one reach of the river to the other. Here
he built forts and sentry-boxes, and in honor of Henry Prince of Wales,
called it Henrico. And also run a palisade on the other side of the
river, at Coxendale, to secure their hogs.
§. 26. Anno 1612, two ships more arrived with supplies; and Capt.
Argall, who commanded one of them, being sent in her to Patowmeck to buy
corn, he there met with Pocahontas, the excellent daughter of Powhatan;
and having prevailed with her to come aboard to a treat, he detained her
prisoner, and carried her to Jamestown, designing to make peace with her
father by her release; but on the contrary, that prince resented the
affront very highly; and although he loved his daughter with all
imaginable tenderness, yet he would not be brought to terms by that
unhandsome treachery; till about two years after a marriage being
proposed between Mr. John Rolfe, an English gentleman, and this lady;
which Powhatan taking to be a sincere token of friendship, he vouchsafed
to consent to it, and to conclude a peace, though he would not come to
the wedding.
§. 27. Pocahontas being thus married in the year 1613, a firm peace was
concluded with her father. Both the English and Indians thought
themselves entirely secure and quiet. This brought in the Chickahominy
Indians also, though not out of any kindness or respect to the English,
but out of fear of being, by their assistance, brought under Powhatan's
absolute subjection, who used now and then to threaten and tyrannize
over them.
§. 28. Sir Thomas Dale returning for England, Anno 1610, took with him
Mr. Rolfe and his wife Pocahontas, who, upon the marriage, was
christened, and called Rebecca. He left Capt. George Yardly
deputy-governor during his absence, the country being then entirely at
peace; and arrived at Plymouth the 12th of June.
Capt. John Smith was at that time in England, and hearing of the arrival
of Pocahontas at Portsmouth, used all the means he could to express his
gratitude to her, as having formerly preserved his life by the hazard of
her own; for, when by the command of her father, Capt. Smith's head was
upon the block to have his brains knocked out, she saved his head by
laying hers close upon it. He was at that time suddenly to embark for
New England, and fearing he should sail before she got to London, he
made an humble petition to the Queen in her behalf, which I here choose
to give you in his own words, because it will save me the story at
large.
§. 29. Capt. Smith's petition to her Majesty, in behalf of Pocahontas,
daughter to the Indian Emperor, Powhatan.
To the most high and virtuous princess, Queen Anne, of Great
Britain:
Most admired madam--
The love I bear my God, my king, and country, hath so often
emboldened me in the worst of extreme dangers, that now honestly
doth constrain me to presume thus far beyond myself, to present
your majesty this short discourse. If ingratitude be a deadly
poison to all honest virtues, I must be guilty of that crime, if I
should omit any means to be thankful.
So it was,
That about ten years ago, being in Virginia, and taken prisoner
by the power of Powhatan, their chief king, I received from this
great savage exceeding great courtesy, especially from his son,
Nantaquaus; the manliest, comeliest, boldest spirit I ever saw in
a savage; and his sister Pocahontas, the king's most dear and
well-beloved daughter, being but a child of twelve or thirteen
years of age, whose compassionate pitiful heart of my desperate
estate gave me much cause to respect her. I being the first
Christian this proud king and his grim attendants ever saw, and
thus enthralled in their barbarous power; I cannot say I felt the
least occasion of want, that was in the power of those my mortal
foes to prevent, notwithstanding all their threats. After some six
weeks fatting amongst those savage courtiers, at the minute of my
execution, she hazarded the beating out of her own brains to save
mine, and not only that, but so prevailed with her father, that I
was safely conducted to Jamestown, where I found about eight and
thirty miserable, poor and sick creatures, to keep possession for
all those large territories of Virginia. Such was the weakness of
this poor commonwealth, as had not the savages fed us, we directly
had starved.
And this relief, most gracious queen, was commonly brought us by
this lady Pocahontas, notwithstanding all these passages, when
unconstant fortune turned our peace to war, this tender virgin
would still not spare to dare to visit us; and by her our jars
have been oft appeased, and our wants still supplied. Were it the
policy of her father thus to employ her, or the ordinance of God
thus to make her his instrument, or her extraordinary affection to
our nation, I know not: but of this I am sure, when her father,
with the utmost of his policy and power, sought to surprise me,
having but eighteen with me, the dark night could not affright her
from coming through the irksome woods, and, with watered eyes,
give me intelligence, with her best advice to escape his fury,
which had he known, he had surely slain her.
Jamestown, with her wild train, she as freely frequented as her
father's habitation; and during the time of two or three years,
she, next under God, was still the instrument to preserve this
colony from death, famine, and utter confusion, which if, in those
times, had once been dissolved, Virginia might have lain, as it
was at our first arrival, till this day. Since then, this business
having been turned and varied by many accidents from what I left
it, it is most certain, after a long and troublesome war, since my
departure, betwixt her father and our colony, all which time she
was not heard of, about two years after she herself was taken
prisoner, being so detained near two years longer, the colony by
that means was relieved, peace concluded, and at last, rejecting
her barbarous condition, she was married to an English gentleman,
with whom at this present she is in England. The first Christian
ever of that nation; the first Virginian ever spake English, or
had a child in marriage by an Englishman--a matter surely, if my
meaning be truly considered and well understood, worthy a prince's
information.
Thus, most gracious lady, I have related to your majesty, what at
your best leisure, our approved histories will recount to you at
large, as done in the time of your majesty's life; and however
this might be presented you from a more worthy pen, it cannot from
a more honest heart.
As yet, I never begged anything of the State; and it is my want of
ability, and her exceeding desert; your birth, means, and
authority; her birth, virtue, want and simplicity, doth make me
thus bold, humbly to beseech your majesty to take this knowledge
of her, though it be from one so unworthy to be the reporter as
myself; her husband's estate not being able to make her fit to
attend your majesty.
The most and least I can do, is to tell you this, and the rather
because of her being of so great a spirit, however her stature. If
she should not be well received, seeing this kingdom may rightly
have a kingdom by her means; her present love to us and
Christianity, might turn to such scorn and fury, as to divert all
this good to the worst of evil. Where finding that so great a
queen should do her more honor than she can imagine, for having
been kind to her subjects and servants, 'twould so ravish her with
content, as to endear her dearest blood, to effect that your
majesty and all the king's honest subjects most earnestly desire.
And so I humbly kiss your gracious hands, &c.
(Signed)
JOHN SMITH.
Dated June, 1616.
§. 30. This account was presented to her majesty, and graciously
received. But before Capt. Smith sailed for New England, the Indian
princess arrived at London, and her husband took lodgings for her at
Branford, to be a little out of the smoke of the city, whither Capt.
Smith, with some of his friends, went to see her and congratulate her
arrival, letting her know the address he had made to the queen in her
favor.
Till this lady arrived in England, she had all along been informed that
Captain Smith was dead, because he had been diverted from that colony by
making settlements in the second plantation, now called New England; for
which reason, when she saw him, she seemed to think herself much
affronted, for that they had dared to impose so gross an untruth upon
her, and at first sight of him turned away. It cost him a great deal of
intreaty, and some hours attendance, before she would do him the honor
to speak to him; but at last she was reconciled, and talked freely to
him. She put him in mind of her former kindnesses, and then upbraided
him for his forgetfulness of her, showing by her reproaches, that even a
state of nature teaches to abhor ingratitude.
She had in her retinue a Werowance, or great man of her own nation,
whose name was Uttamaccomack. This man had orders from Powhatan, to
count the people in England, and give him an account of their number.
Now the Indians having no letters among them, he at his going ashore,
provided a stick, in which he was to make a notch for every man he saw;
but this accomptant soon grew weary of that tedious exercise, and threw
his stick away: and at his return, being asked by his king, How many
people there were? He desired him to count the stars in the sky, the
leaves upon the trees, and the sand on the seashore, for so many people
(he said) were in England.
§. 31. Pocahontas had many honors done her by the queen upon account of
Captain Smith's story; and being introduced by the Lady Delawarr, she
was frequently admitted to wait on her majesty, and was publicly treated
as a prince's daughter; she was carried to many plays, balls, and other
public entertainments, and very respectfully received by all the ladies
about the court. Upon all which occasions, she behaved herself with so
much decency, and showed so much grandeur in her deportment, that she
made good the brightest part of the character Capt. Smith had given of
her. In the meanwhile, she gained the good opinion of everybody so much,
that the poor gentleman, her husband, had like to have been called to an
account, for presuming to marry a princess royal without the king's
consent; because it had been suggested that he had taken advantage of
her, being a prisoner, and forced her to marry him. But upon a more
perfect representation of the matter, his majesty was pleased at last to
declare himself satisfied. But had their true condition here been known,
that pother had been saved.
Everybody paid this young lady all imaginable respect; and it is
supposed, she would have sufficiently acknowledged those favors, had she
lived to return to her own country, by bringing the Indians to have a
kinder disposition towards the English. But upon her return she was
unfortunately taken ill at Gravesend, and died in a few days after,
giving great testimony all the time she lay sick, of her being a very
good Christian. She left issue one son, named Thomas Rolfe, whose
posterity is at this day in good repute in Virginia, and now hold lands
by descent from her.
§. 32. Captain Yardly made but a very ill governor, he let the buildings
and forts go to ruin; not regarding the security of the people against
the Indians, neglecting the corn, and applying all hands to plant
tobacco, which promised the most immediate gain. In this condition they
were when Capt. Samuel Argall was sent thither governor, Anno 1617, who
found the number of people reduced to little more than four hundred, of
which not above half were fit for labor. In the meanwhile the Indians
mixing among them, got experience daily in fire arms, and some of them
were instructed therein by the English themselves, and employed to hunt
and kill wild fowl for them. So great was their security upon this
marriage; but governor Argall not liking those methods, regulated them
on his arrival, and Capt. Yardly returned to England.
§. 33. Governor Argall made the colony flourish and increase
wonderfully, and kept them in great plenty and quiet. The next year,
viz.: Anno 1618, the Lord Delawarr was sent over again with two hundred
men more for the settlement, with other necessaries suitable: but
sailing by the Western Islands, they met with contrary winds, and great
sickness; so that about thirty of them died, among which the Lord
Delawarr was one. By which means the government there still continued in
the hands of Capt. Argall.
§. 34. Powhatan died in April the same year, leaving his second brother
Itopatin in possession of his empire, a prince far short of the parts of
Oppechancanough, who by some was said to be his elder brother, and then
king of Chickahomony; but he having debauched them from the allegiance
of Powhatan, was disinherited by him. This Oppechancanough was a cunning
and a brave prince, and soon grasped all the empire to himself. But at
first they jointly renewed the peace with the English, upon the
accession of Itopatin to the crown.
§. 35. Governor Argall flourishing thus under the blessings of peace and
plenty, and having no occasion of fear or disturbance from the Indians,
sought new occasions of encouraging the plantation. To that end, he
intended a coasting voyage to the northward, to view the places where
the English ships had so often laded; and if he missed them, to reach
the fisheries on the banks of Newfoundland, and so settle a trade and
correspondence either with the one or the other. In accomplishing
whereof, as he touched at Cape Cod, he was informed by the Indians, that
some white people like him were come to inhabit to the northward of
them, upon the coast of their neighboring nations. Capt. Argall not
having heard of any English plantation that way, was jealous that it
might be (as it proved,) the people of some other nation. And being very
zealous for the honor and benefit of England, he resolved to make search
according to the information he had received, and see who they were.
Accordingly he found the settlement, and a ship riding before it. This
belonged to some Frenchmen, who had fortified themselves upon a small
mount on the north of New England.
§. 36. His unexpected arrival so confounded the French, that they could
make no preparation for resistance on board their ship; which Captain
Argall drew so close to, that with his small arms he beat all the men
from the deck, so that they could not use their guns, their ship having
only a single deck. Among others, there were two Jesuits on board, one
of which being more bold than wise, with all that disadvantage,
endeavored to fire one of their cannon, and was shot dead for his pains.
Captain Argall having taken the ship, landed and went before the fort,
summoning it to surrender. The garrison asked time to advise; but that
being denied them, they stole privately away, and fled into the woods.
Upon this, Captain Argall entered the fort, and lodged there that night;
and the next day the French came to him, and surrendered themselves. It
seems the king of France had granted them a patent for this settlement,
but they gave it up to Captain Argall to be cancelled. He used them very
well, and suffered such as had a mind to return to France, to seek their
passage among the ships of the fishery; but obliged them to desert this
settlement. And those that were willing to go to Virginia, he took with
him.
§. 37. These people were under the conduct of two Jesuits, who upon
taking a pique against their governor in Acadia, named Biencourt, had
lately separated from a French settlement at Port Royal, lying in the
bay, upon the south-west part of Acadia.
§. 38. As Governor Argall was about to return to Virginia, father Biard,
the surviving Jesuit (out of malice to Biencourt,) told him of this
French settlement at Port Royal, and offered to pilot him to it; which
Governor Argall readily accepted of. With the same ease, he took that
settlement also; where the French had sowed and reaped, built barns,
mills, and other conveniences, which Captain Argall did no damage to;
but unsettled them, and obliged them to make a desertion from thence. He
gave these the same leave he had done the others, to dispose of
themselves; some whereof returned to France, and others went to settle
up the river of Canada. After this Governor Argall returned satisfied
with the provision and plunder he had got in those two settlements.
§. 39. The report of these exploits soon reached England; and whether
they were approved or no, being acted without particular direction, I
have not learned; but certain it is, that in April following there
arrived a small vessel, which did not stay for anything, but took on
board Governor Argall, and returned for England. He left Capt. Nathaniel
Powel deputy; and soon after Capt. Yardly being knighted, was sent
governor thither again.
§. 40. Very great supplies of cattle and other provisions were sent
there that year, and likewise 1000 or 1200 men. They resettled all their
old plantations that had been deserted, made additions to the number of
the council, and called an assembly of Burgesses from all parts of the
country, which were to be elected by the people in their several
plantations.
These burgesses met the governor and council at Jamestown in May, 1620,
and sat in consultation in the same house with them, as the method of
the Scots Parliament is, debating matters for the improvement and good
government of the country.
This was the first general assembly that was ever held there. I heartily
wish though they did not unite their houses again, they would, however,
unite their endeavors and affections for the good of the country.
§. 41. In August following, a Dutch man-of-war landed twenty negroes for
sale; which were the first of that kind that were carried into the
country.
§. 42. This year they bounded the corporations, (as they called them:)
But there does not remain among the records any one grant of these
corporations. There is entered a testimony of Governor Argall,
concerning the bounds of the corporation of James City, declaring his
knowledge thereof; and this is one of the new transcribed books of
record. But there is not to be found one word of the charter or patent
itself of this corporation.
Then also, they apportioned and laid our lands in several allotments,
viz.: to the company in several places, to the governor, to a college,
to glebes, and to several particular persons; many new settlements were
made in James and York rivers. The people knew their own property, and
having the encouragement of working for their own advantage, many became
very industrious, and began to vie one with another, in planting,
building, and other improvements. Two gentlemen went over as deputies to
the company, for the management of their lands, and those of the
college. All thoughts of danger from the Indians were laid aside.
Several great gifts were made to the church and college, and for the
bringing up young Indians at school. Forms were made, and rules
appointed for granting patents for land, upon the condition of
importing goods and persons to supply and increase the colony. And all
there then began think themselves the happiest people in the world.
§. 43. Thus Virginia continued to flourish and increase, great supplies
continually arriving, and new settlements being made all over the
country. A salt work was set up at Cape Charles, on the Eastern Shore;
and an iron work at Falling Creek, in James river, where they made proof
of good iron ore, and brought the whole work so near a perfection, that
they writ word to the company in London, that they did not doubt but to
finish the work, and have plentiful provision of iron for them by the
next Easter. At that time the fame of the plenty and riches, in which
the English lived there, was very great. And Sir George Yardly now had
all the appearance of making amends for the errors of his former
government. Nevertheless he let them run into the same sleepiness and
security as before, neglecting all thoughts of a necessary defence,
which laid the foundation of the following calamities.
§. 44. But the time of his government being near expired, Sir Francis
Wyat, then a young man, had a commission to succeed him. The people
began to grow numerous, thirteen hundred settling there that year; which
was the occasion of making so much tobacco, as to overstock the market.
Wherefore his majesty, out of pity to the country, sent his commands,
that they should not suffer their planters to make above one hundred
pounds of tobacco per man; for the market was so low, that he could not
afford to give them above three shillings the pound for it. He advised
them rather to turn their spare time towards providing corn and stock,
and towards the making of potash, or other manufactures.
It was October, 1621, that Sir Francis Wyat arrived governor, and in
November, Captain Newport arrived with fifty men, imported at his own
charge, besides passengers; and made a plantation on Newport's News,
naming it after himself. The governor made a review of all the
settlements, and suffered new ones to be made, even as far as Potomac
river. This ought to be observed of the Eastern Shore Indians, that they
never gave the English any trouble, but courted and befriended them from
first to last. Perhaps the English, by the time they came to settle
those parts, had considered how to rectify their former mismanagement,
and learned better methods of regulating their trade with the Indians,
and of treating them more kindly than at first.
§. 45. Anno 1622, inferior courts were first appointed by the general
assembly, under the name of county courts, for trial of minute causes;
the governor and council still remaining judges of the supreme court of
the colony. In the meantime, by the great increase of people, and the
long quiet they had enjoyed among the Indians, since the marriage of
Pocahontas, and the accession of Oppechancanough to the imperial crown,
all men were lulled into a fatal security, and became everywhere
familiar with the Indians, eating, drinking, and sleeping amongst them;
by which means they became perfectly acquainted with all our English
strength, and the use of our arms--knowing at all times, when and where
to find our people; whether at home, or in the woods; in bodies, or
disperst; in condition of defence, or indefensible. This exposing of
their weakness gave them occasion to think more contemptibly of them,
than otherwise, perhaps, they would have done; for which reason they
became more peevish, and more hardy to attempt anything against them.
§. 46. Thus upon the loss of one of their leading men, (a war captain,
as they call him,) who was likewise supposed to be justly killed,
Oppechancanough took affront, and in revenge laid the plot of a general
massacre of the English, to be executed on the 22d of March, 1622, a
little before noon, at a time when our men were all at work abroad in
their plantations, disperst and unarmed. This hellish contrivance was to
take effect upon all the several settlements at one and the same
instant, except on the Eastern Shore, whither this plot did not reach.
The Indians had been made so familiar with the English, as to borrow
their boats and canoes to cross the river in, when they went to consult
with their neighboring Indians upon this execrable conspiracy. And to
color their design the better, they brought presents of deer, turkies,
fish and fruits to the English the evening before. The very morning of
the massacre, they came freely and unarmed among them, eating with them,
and behaving themselves with the same freedom and friendship as
formerly, till the very minute they were to put their plot in execution.
Then they fell to work all at once everywhere, knocking the English
unawares on the head, some with their hatchets, which they call
tomahawks, others with the hoes and axes of the English themselves,
shooting at those who escaped the reach of their hands; sparing neither
age nor sex, but destroying man, woman, and child, according to their
cruel way of leaving none behind to bear resentment. But whatever was
not done by surprise that day, was left undone, and many that made early
resistance escaped.
By the account taken of the Christians murdered that morning, they were
found to be three hundred and forty-seven, most of them falling by their
own instruments, and working tools.
§. 47. The massacre had been much more general, had not this plot been
providentially discovered to the English some hours before the
execution. It happened thus:
Two Indians that used to be employed by the English to hunt for them,
happened to lie together, the night before the massacre, in an
Englishmen's house, where one of them was employed. The Indian that was
the guest fell to persuading the other to rise and kill his master,
telling him, that he would do the same by his own the next day.
Whereupon he discovered the whole plot that was designed to be executed
on the morrow. But the other, instead of entering into the plot, and
murdering his master, got up (under pretence of going to execute his
comrade's advice,) went into his master's chamber, and revealed to him
the whole story that he had been told. The master hereupon arose,
secured his own house, and before day got to Jamestown, which, together
with such plantations as could receive notice time enough, were saved by
this means; the rest, as they happened to be watchful in their defence,
also escaped; but such as were surprised, were massacred. Captain
Croshaw in his vessel at Potomac, had notice also given him by a young
Indian, by which means he came off untouched.
§. 48. The occasion upon which Oppechancanough took affront was this.
The war captain mentioned before to have been killed, was called
Nemattanow. He was an active Indian, a great warrior, and in much esteem
among them; so much, that they believed him to be invulnerable, and
immortal, because he had been in very many conflicts, and escaped
untouched from them all. He was also a very cunning fellow, and took
great pride in preserving and increasing this their superstition
concerning him, affecting everything that was odd and prodigious, to
work upon their admiration. For which purpose he would often dress
himself up with feathers after a fantastic manner, and by much use of
that ornament, obtained among the English the nickname of Jack of the
feather.
This Nemattanow coming to a private settlement of one Morgan, who had
several toys which he had a mind to, persuaded him to go to Pamunky to
dispose of them. He gave him hopes what mighty bargains he might meet
with there, and kindly offered him his assistance. At last Morgan
yielded to his persuasion; but was no more heard of; and it is believed,
that Nemattanow killed him by the way, and took away his treasure. For
within a few days this Nemattanow returned to the same house with
Morgan's cap upon his head; where he found two sturdy boys, who asked
for their master. He very frankly told them he was dead. But they,
knowing the cap again, suspected the villain had killed their master,
and would have had him before a justice of peace, but he refused to go,
and very insolently abused them. Whereupon they shot him down, and as
they were carrying him to the governor, he died.
As he was dying, he earnestly pressed the boys to promise him two
things. First, that they would not tell how he was killed; and,
secondly, that they would bury him among the English. So great was the
pride of this vain heathen, that he had no other thoughts at his death,
but the ambition of being esteemed after he was dead, as he had
endeavored to make them believe of him while he was alive, viz., that he
was invulnerable and immortal, though his increasing faintness convinced
himself of the falsity of both. He imagined, that being buried among the
English perhaps might conceal his death from his own nation, who might
think him translated to some happier country. Thus he pleased himself to
the last gasp with the boys' promises to carry on the delusion. This was
reckoned all the provocation given to that haughty and revengeful man
Oppechancanough, to act this bloody tragedy, and to take indefatigable
pains to engage in so horrid villainy all the kings and nations
bordering upon the English settlements, on the western shore of
Chesapeake.
§ 49. This gave the English a fair pretence of endeavoring the total
extirpation of the Indians, but more especially of Oppechancanough and
his nation. Accordingly, they set themselves about it, making use of the
Roman maxim, (faith is not to be kept with heretics) to obtain their
ends. For, after some months fruitless pursuit of them, who could too
dexterously hide themselves in the woods, the English pretended articles
of peace, giving them all manner of fair words and promises of oblivion.
They designed thereby (as their own letters now on record, and their own
actions thereupon prove) to draw the Indians back, and entice them to
plant their corn on their habitations nearest adjoining to the English,
and then to cut it up, when the summer should be too far spent to leave
them hopes of another crop that year, by which means they proposed to
bring them to want necessaries and starve. And the English did so far
accomplish their ends, as to bring the Indians to plant their corn at
their usual habitations, whereby they gained an opportunity of repaying
them some part of the debt in their own coin, for they fell suddenly
upon them, cut to pieces such of them as could not make their escape,
and afterwards totally destroyed their corn.
§ 50. Another effect of the massacre of the English, was the reducing
all their settlements again to six or seven in number, for their better
defence. Besides, it was such a disheartening to some good projects,
then just advancing, that to this day they have never been put in
execution, namely, the glasshouses in Jamestown, and the iron work at
Falling Creek, which has been already mentioned. The massacre fell so
hard upon this last place, that no soul was saved but a boy and a girl,
who with great difficulty hid themselves.
The superintendent of this iron work had also discovered a vein of lead
ore, which he kept private, and made use of it to furnish all the
neighbors with bullets and shot. But he being cut off with the rest, and
the secret not having been communicated, this lead mine could never
after be found, till Colonel Byrd, some few years ago, prevailed with an
Indian, under pretence of hunting, to give him a sign by dropping his
tomahawk at the place, (he not daring publicly to discover it, for fear
of being murdered.) The sign was accordingly given, and the company at
that time found several pieces of good lead ore upon the surface of the
ground, and marked the trees thereabouts. Notwithstanding which, I know
not by what witchcraft it happens, but no mortal to this day could ever
find that place again, though it be upon part of the Colonel's own
possessions. And so it rests, till time and thicker settlements discover
it.
§ 51. Thus, the company of adventurers having, by those frequent acts of
mismanagement, met with vast losses and misfortunes, many grew sick of
it and parted with their shares, and others came into their places, and
promoted the sending in fresh recruits of men and goods. But the chief
design of all parties concerned, was to fetch away the treasure from
thence, aiming more at sudden gain, than to form any regular colony, or
establish a settlement in such a manner as to make it a lasting
happiness to the country.
Several gentlemen went over upon their particular stocks, separate from
that of the company, with their own servants and goods, each designing
to obtain land from the government, as Captain Newport had done, or at
least to obtain patents, according to the regulations for granting lands
to adventurers. Others sought their grants of the company in London, and
obtained authorities and jurisdictions, as well as land, distinct from
the authority of the government, which was the foundation of great
disorder, and the occasion of their following misfortunes. Among others,
one Captain Martin, having made very considerable preparations towards a
settlement, obtained a suitable grant of land, and was made of the
council there. But he, grasping still at more, hankered after dominion,
as well as possession, and caused so many differences, that at last he
put all things into distraction, insomuch that the Indians, still
seeking revenge, took advantage of these dissensions, and fell foul
again on the English, gratifying their vengeance with new bloodshed.
§ 52. The fatal consequences of the company's maladministration cried so
loud, that king Charles the first, coming to the crown of England, had a
tender concern for the poor people that had been betrayed thither and
lost. Upon which consideration he dissolved the company in the year
1626, reducing the country and government into his own immediate
direction, appointing the governor and council himself, and ordering all
patents and processes to issue in his own name, reserving to himself a
quit-rent of two shillings for every hundred acres of land, and so _pro
rata_.
CHAPTER IV.
CONTAINING THE HISTORY OF THE GOVERNMENT FROM THE DISSOLUTION OF THE
COMPANY TO THE YEAR SEVENTEEN HUNDRED AND SEVEN.
§ 53. The country being thus taken into the king's hands, his majesty
was pleased to establish the constitution to be by a governor, council
and assembly, and to confirm the former methods and jurisdictions of the
several courts, as they had been appointed in the year 1620, and placed
the last resort in the assembly. He likewise confirmed the rules and
orders made by the first assembly for apportioning the land, and
granting patents to particular adventurers.
§ 54. This was a constitution according to their hearts desire, and
things seemed now to go on in a happy course for encouragement of the
colony. People flocked over thither apace; every one took up land by
patent to his liking; and, not minding anything but to be masters of
great tracts of land, they planted themselves separately on their
several plantations. Nor did they fear the Indians, but kept them at a
greater distance than formerly. And they for their part, seeing the
English so sensibly increase in number, were glad to keep their distance
and be peaceable.
This liberty of taking up land, and the ambition each man had of being
lord of a vast, though unimproved territory, together with the advantage
of the many rivers, which afford a commodious road for shipping at every
man's door, has made the country fall into such an unhappy settlement
and course of trade, that to this day they have not any one place of
cohabitation among them, that may reasonably bear the name of a town.
§ 55. The constitution being thus firmly established, and continuing its
course regularly for some time, people began to lay aside all fears of
any future misfortunes. Several gentlemen of condition went over with
their whole families--some for bettering their estates--others for
religion, and other reasons best known to themselves. Among those, the
noble Cæcilius Calvert, Lord Baltimore, a Roman Catholic, thought, for
the more quiet exercise of his religion, to retire, with his family,
into that new world. For this purpose he went to Virginia, to try how he
liked the place. But the people there looked upon him with an evil eye
on account of his religion, for which alone he sought this retreat, and
by their ill treatment discouraged him from settling in that country.
§ 56. Upon that provocation, his lordship resolved upon a farther
adventure. And finding land enough up the bay of Chesapeake, which was
likewise blessed with many brave rivers, and as yet altogether
uninhabited by the English, he began to think of making a new plantation
of his own. And for his more certain direction in obtaining a grant of
it, he undertook a journey northward, to discover the land up the bay,
and observe what might most conveniently square with his intent.
His lordship finding all things in this discovery according to his wish,
returned to England. And because the Virginia settlements at that time
reached no farther than the south side of Potomac river, his lordship
got a grant of the propriety of Maryland, bounding it to the south by
Potomac river, on the western shore; and by an east line from Point
Lookout, on the eastern shore; but died himself before he could embark
for the promised land.
Maryland had the honor to receive its name from queen Mary, royal
consort to king Charles the first.
§ 57. The old Lord Baltimore being thus taken off, and leaving his
designs unfinished, his son and heir, in the year 1633, obtained a
confirmation of the patent to himself, and went over in person to plant
his new colony.
By this unhappy accident, a country which nature had so well contrived
for one, became two separate governments. This produced a most unhappy
inconvenience to both; for, these two being the only countries under the
dominion of England that plant tobacco in any quantity, the ill
consequences to both is, that when one colony goes about to prohibit the
trash, or mend the staple of that commodity, to help the market, then
the other, to take advantage of that market, pours into England all they
can make, both good and bad, without distinction. This is very injurious
to the other colony, which had voluntarily suffered so great a
diminution in the quantity, to mend the quality; and this is notoriously
manifested from that incomparable Virginia law, appointing sworn agents
to examine their tobacco.
§ 58. Neither was this all the mischief that happened to Virginia upon
this grant; for the example of it had dreadful consequences, and was in
the end one of the occasions of another massacre by the Indians. For
this precedent of my Lord Baltimore's grant, which entrenched upon the
charters and hounds of Virginia, was hint enough for other courtiers,
(who never intended a settlement as my lord did) to find out something
of the same kind to make money of. This was the occasion of several very
large defalcations from Virginia within a few years afterwards, which
was forwarded and assisted by the contrivance of the Governor, Sir John
Harvey, insomuch that not only the land itself, quit-rents and all, but
the authorities and jurisdictions that belonged to that colony were
given away--nay, sometimes in those grants he included the very
settlements that had been before made.
§ 59. As this gentleman was irregular in this, so he was very unjust and
arbitrary in his other methods of government. He exacted with rigor the
fines and penalties, which the unwary assemblies of those times had
given chiefly to himself, and was so haughty and furious to the council,
and the best gentlemen of the country, that his tyranny grew at last
insupportable; so that in the year 1639, the council sent him a
prisoner to London, and with him two of their number, to maintain the
articles against him. This news being brought to king Charles the first,
his majesty was very much displeased; and, without hearing anything,
caused him to return governor again. But by the next shipping he was
graciously pleased to change him, and so made amends for this man's
maladministration, by sending the good and just Sir William Berkeley to
succeed him.
§ 60. While these things were transacting, there was so general a
dissatisfaction, occasioned by the oppressions of Sir John Harvey, and
the difficulties in getting him out, that the whole colony was in
confusion. The subtle Indians, who took all advantages, resented the
incroachments upon them by his grants. They saw the English uneasy and
disunited among themselves, and by the direction of Oppechancanough,
their king, laid the ground work of another massacre, wherein, by
surprise, they cut off near five hundred Christians more. But this
execution did not take so general effect as formerly, because the
Indians were not so frequently suffered to come among the inner
habitations of the English; and, therefore, the massacre fell severest
on the south side of James river, and on the heads of the other rivers,
but chiefly of York river, where this Oppechancanough kept the seat of
his government.
§ 61. Oppechancanough was a man of large stature, noble presence, and
extraordinary parts. Though he had no advantage of literature, (that
being nowhere to be found among the American Indians) yet he was
perfectly skilled in the art of governing his rude countrymen. He caused
all the Indians far and near to dread his name, and had them all
entirely in subjection.
This king in Smith's history is called brother to Powhatan, but by the
Indians he was not so esteemed. For they say he was a prince of a
foreign nation, and came to them a great way from the south west. And by
their accounts, we suppose him to have come from the Spanish Indians,
somewhere near Mexico, or the mines of Saint Barbe; but, be that matter
how it will, from that time till his captivity, there never was the
least truce between them and the English.
§ 62. Sir William Berkeley, upon his arrival, showed such an opposition
to the unjust grants made by Sir John Harvey, that very few of them took
effect; and such as did, were subjected to the settled conditions of the
other parts of the government, and made liable to the payment of the
full quit-rents. He encouraged the country in several essays of potash,
soap, salt, flax, hemp, silk and cotton. But the Indian war, ensuing
upon this last massacre, was a great obstruction to these good designs,
by requiring all the spare men to be employed in defence of the country.
§ 63. Oppechancanough, by his great age, and the fatigues of war, (in
which Sir William Berkeley followed him close) was now grown so
decrepid, that he was not able to walk alone, but was carried about by
his men wherever he had a mind to move. His flesh was all macerated, his
sinews slackened, and his eyelids became so heavy, that he could not
see, but as they were lifted up by his servants. In this low condition
he was, when Sir William Berkeley, hearing that he was at some distance
from his usual habitation, resolved at all adventures to seize his
person, which he happily effected. For with a party of horse he made a
speedy march, surprised him in his quarters, and brought him prisoner to
Jamestown, where, by the governor's command, he was treated with all the
respect and tenderness imaginable. Sir William had a mind to send him to
England, hoping to get reputation by presenting his majesty with a royal
captive, who at his pleasure, could call into the field ten times more
Indians, than Sir William Berkeley had English in his whole government.
Besides, he thought this ancient prince would be an instance of the
healthiness and long life of the natives of that country. However, he
could not preserve his life above a fortnight. For one of the soldiers,
resenting the calamities the colony had suffered by this prince's
means, basely shot him through the back, after he was made prisoner; of
which wound he died.
He continued brave to the last moment of his life, and showed not the
least dejection at his captivity. He heard one day a great noise of the
treading of people about him; upon which he caused his eyelids to be
lifted up, and finding that a crowd of people were let in to see him, he
called in high indignation for the governor, who being come,
Oppechancanough scornfully told him, that had it been his fortune to
take Sir William Berkeley prisoner, he should not meanly have exposed
him as a show to the people.
§ 64. After this, Sir William Berkeley made a new peace with the
Indians, which continued for a long time unviolated, insomuch that all
the thoughts of future injury from them were laid aside. But he himself
did not long enjoy the benefit of this profound peace; for the unhappy
troubles of king Charles the first increasing in England, proved a great
disturbance to him and to all the people. They, to prevent the infection
from reaching that country, made severe laws against the Puritans,
though there were as yet none among them. But all correspondence with
England was interrupted, supplies lessened, and trade obstructed. In a
word, all people were impatient to know what would be the event of so
much confusion.
§ 65. At last the king was traitorously beheaded in England, and Oliver
installed Protector. However his authority was not acknowledged in
Virginia for several years after, till they were forced to it by the
last necessity. For in the year 1651, by Cromwell's command, Captain
Dennis, with a squadron of men of war, arrived there from the Caribbee
islands, where they had been subduing Bardoes. The country at first held
out vigorously against him, and Sir William Berkeley, by the assistance
of such Dutch vessels as were then there, made a brave resistance. But
at last Dennis contrived a stratagem, which betrayed the country. He had
got a considerable parcel of goods aboard, which belonged to two of the
Council, and found a method of informing them of it. By this means they
were reduced to the dilemma, either of submitting or losing their goods.
This occasioned factions among them; so that at last, after the
surrender of all the other English plantations, Sir Wm. was forced to
submit to the usurper on the terms of a general pardon. However, it
ought to be remembered, to his praise, and to the immortal honor of that
colony, that it was the last of all the king's dominions that submitted
to the usurpation; and afterwards the first that cast it off, and he
never took any post or office under the usurper.
§ 66. Oliver had no sooner subdued the plantations, but he began to
contrive how to keep them under, that so they might never be able for
the time to come to give him farther trouble. To this end, he thought it
necessary to break off their correspondence with all other nations,
thereby to prevent their being furnished with arms, ammunition, and
other warlike provisions. According to this design, he contrived a
severe act of Parliament, whereby he prohibited the plantations from
receiving or exporting any European commodities, but what should be
carried to them by Englishmen, and in English built ships. They were
absolutely forbid corresponding with any nation or colony not subject to
the crown of England. Neither was any alien suffered to manage a trade
or factory in any of them. In all which things the plantations had been
till then indulged, for their encouragement.
§ 67. Notwithstanding this act of navigation, the Protector never
thought the plantations enough secured, but frequently changed their
governors, to prevent their intriguing with the people. So that, during
the time of the usurpation, they had no less than three governors there,
namely, Diggs, Bennet and Mathews.
§ 68. The strange arbitrary curbs he put upon the plantations,
exceedingly afflicted the people. He had the inhumanity to forbid them
all manner of trade and correspondence with other nations, at a time
when England itself was in distraction; and could neither take off
their commodities, nor supply them sufficiently with its own. Neither
had they ever been used to supply them with half the commodities they
expended, or to take off above half the tobacco they made. Such violent
proceedings made the people desperate, and inspired them with a desire
to use the last remedy, to relieve themselves from this lawless
usurpation. In a short time afterwards a fair opportunity happened; for
Governor Mathews died, and no person was substituted to succeed him in
the government. Whereupon the people applied themselves to Sir William
Berkeley, (who had continued all this time upon his own plantation in a
private capacity,) and unanimously chose him their governor again.
§ 69. Sir William Berkeley had all along retained an unshaken loyalty
for the royal family, and therefore generously told the people, that he
could not approve of the Protector's rule, and was resolved never to
serve anybody but the lawful heir to the crown; and that if he accepted
the government, it should be upon their solemn promise, after his
example, to venture their lives and fortunes for the king, who was then
in France.
This was no great obstacle to them, and therefore with an unanimous
voice they told him that they were ready to hazard all for the king. Now
this was actually before the king's return for England, and proceeded
from a brave principle of loyalty, for which they had no example. Sir
William Berkeley embraced their choice, and forthwith proclaimed Charles
the second king of England, Scotland, France, Ireland and Virginia, and
caused all process to be issued in his name. Thus his majesty was
actually king in Virginia, before he was so in England. But it pleased
God to restore him soon after to the throne of his ancestors; and so
that country escaped being chastised for throwing off the usurpation.
§ 70. Upon the king's restoration, he sent Sir William Berkeley a new
commission, with leave to return to England, and power to appoint a
deputy in his absence. For his majesty in his exile had received
intelligence of this gentleman's loyalty, and during that time had
renewed his commission.
§ 71. Upon this, Sir William Berkeley appointed Colonel Francis Morrison
Deputy Governor, and went for England to wait on his majesty, by whom he
was kindly received. At his return he carried his majesty's pressing
instructions for encouraging the people in husbandry and manufactures,
but more especially to promote silk and vineyards. There is a tradition,
that the king, in compliment to that colony, wore at his coronation a
robe made of the silk that was sent from thence. But this was all the
reward the country had for their loyalty; for the Parliament was pleased
to renew the act contrived by the usurper for discouraging the
plantations, with severer restraints and prohibitions by bonds,
securities, &c.
§ 72. During the time of Sir William Berkeley's absence, Colonel
Morrison had, according to his directions, revised the laws, and
compiled them into one body, ready to be confirmed by the assembly at
his return. By these laws, the church of England was confirmed the
established religion, the charge of the government sustained, trade and
manufactures were encouraged, a town projected, and all the Indian
affairs settled.
§ 73. The parishes were likewise regulated, competent allowances were
made to the ministers, to the value of about fourscore pounds a year,
besides glebes and perquisites, and the method of their preferment was
settled. Convenient churches and glebes were provided, and all necessary
parish officers instituted. Some steps were made also towards a free
school and college, and the poor were effectually provided for.
§ 74. For support of the government, the duty of two shillings per
hogshead on all tobaccos, and that of one shilling per ton port duty on
shipping, were made perpetual; and the collectors were obliged to
account for the same to the general assembly.
§ 75. For encouragement of manufactures, prizes were appointed for the
makers of the best pieces of linen cloth, and a reward of fifty pounds
of tobacco was given for each pound of silk. All persons were enjoined
to plant mulberry trees, for the food of the silk worm, according to the
number of acres of land they held. Tan houses were set up in each
county, at the county charge; and public encouragement was given to a
salt work on the eastern shore. A reward was appointed in proportion to
the tonnage of all sea vessels built there, and an exemption allowed
from all fees and duties payable by such shipping.
§ 76. The king had commanded, that all ships trading to Virginia should
go to Jamestown, and there enter before they broke bulk. But the
assembly, from the impracticableness of that command, excused all,
except the James river ships, from that order, and left the others in
the rivers they were bound to, to ride dispersed, as the commanders
pleased; by whose example the James river ships were no sooner entered
with the officer at Jamestown, but they also dispersed themselves to
unload, and trade all over the river. By this means the design of towns
was totally balked, and this order proved only an ease to the officer of
James river, and a means of creating a good place to him.
§ 77. Peace and commerce with the Indians was settled by law, and their
boundaries prescribed. Several other acts were made suiting the
necessity of the government; so that nothing then seemed to remain, but
the improvement of the country, and encouragement of those manufactures
the king had been pleased to recommend, together with such others as
should be found beneficial.
§ 78. Sir William Berkeley at his return gave sanction to this body of
laws, and being then again in full possession of his government, and at
perfect peace with the Indians, set all hands industriously to work in
making country improvements. He passed a new act for encouragement of
Jamestown, whereby several houses were built therein, at the charge of
several counties. However, the main ingredient for the advancement of
towns was still wanting, namely, the confinement of all shipping and
trade to them only, by defect of which all the other expedients availed
nothing, for most of the buildings were soon converted into houses of
entertainment.
§ 79. Anno 1663, divers sectaries in religion beginning to spread
themselves there, great restraints were laid upon them, under severe
penalties, to prevent their increase.
This made many of them fly to other colonies, and prevented abundance of
others from going over to seat themselves among them. And as the former
ill treatment of my Lord Baltimore kept many people away, and drove
others to Maryland, so the present severities towards the nonconformists
kept off many more, who went to the neighboring colonies.
§ 80. The rigorous circumscription of their trade, the persecutions of
the sectaries, and the little demand of tobacco, had like to have had
very fatal consequences. For, the poor people becoming thereby very
uneasy, their murmurings were watched and fed by several mutinous and
rebellious Oliverian soldiers that were sent thither as servants. These,
depending upon the discontented people of all sorts, formed a villainous
plot to destroy their masters, and afterwards to set up for themselves.
This plot was brought so near to perfection, that it was the very night
before the designed execution ere it was discovered; and then it came
out by the relenting of one of their accomplices, whose name was
Birkenhead. This man was servant to Mr. Smith of Purton, in Gloucester
county, near which place, viz. at Poplar Spring, the miscreants were to
meet the night following, and put in execution their horrid conspiracy.
§ 81. Upon this discovery by Birkenhead, notice was immediately sent to
the governor at Green Spring. And the method he took to prevent it was
by private orders, that some of the militia should meet before the time
at the place where the conspirators were to rendezvous, and seize them
as they came singly up to it. Which orders being happily executed, their
devilish plot was defeated. However, there were but a few taken; because
several of them making their escape, turned back such of their fellows
as they met on the road, and prevented most of them from coming up, or
from being discovered.
Four of these rogues were hanged. But Birkenhead was gratified with his
freedom, and a reward of two hundred pounds sterling.
§ 82. For the discovery and happy disappointment of this plot, an
anniversary thanksgiving was appointed on the 13th of September, the day
it was to have been put in execution. And it is great pity some other
days are not commemorated as well as that.
§ 83. The news of this plot being transmitted to king Charles the
second, his majesty sent his royal commands to build a fort at
Jamestown, for security of the governor, and to be a curb upon all such
traitorous attempts for the future. But the country, thinking the danger
over, only raised a battery of some small pieces of cannon.
§ 84. Another misfortune happened to the plantations this year, which
was a new act of parliament in England, laying a severer restraint upon
their supplies than formerly. By this act they could have no foreign
goods, which were not first landed in England, and carried directly from
thence to the plantations, the former restraint of importing them only
by Englishmen, in English built shipping, not being thought sufficient.
This was a misfortune that cut with a double edge; for, first, it
reduced their staple tobacco to a very low price; and, secondly, it
raised the value of European goods to what the merchants pleased to put
upon them.
§ 85. For this their assembly could think of no remedy, but to be even
with the merchants, and make their tobacco scarce by prohibiting the
planting of it for one year; and during that idle year to invite the
people to enter upon manufacturing flax and hemp. But Maryland not
concurring in this project, they were obliged in their own defence to
repeal the act of assembly again, and return to their old drudgery of
planting tobacco without profiting by it.
§ 86. The country thus missed of their remedy in the stint of tobacco,
which on the contrary multiplied exceedingly by the great increase of
servants. This, together with the above mentioned curbs on trade,
exasperated the people, because now they found themselves under a
necessity of exchanging their commodities with the merchants of England
at their own terms. The assembly therefore again attempted the stint of
tobacco, and passed another act against planting it for one year. And
Carolina and Maryland both agreed to it. But some accident hindering the
agent of Carolina from giving notice thereof to Maryland by the day
appointed, the governor of that province proclaimed the act void,
although every body there knew that Carolina had fully agreed to all
things required of them. But he took advantage of this nice punctilio,
because of the loss such a diminution would have been to his annual
income, and so all people relapsed again into the disease of planting
tobacco.
Virginia was more nettled at this ill usage from Maryland, than at her
former absolute denial; but were forced to take all patiently, and by
fair means get relief, if they could. They therefore appointed agents to
reassume the treaty, and submitted so low as to send them to Saint
Mary's, then the residence of the governor of Maryland, and the place
where the assemblies met. Yet all this condescension could not hold them
to their bargain. The governor said he had observed his part of the
agreement, and would not call an assembly any more upon that subject.
§ 87. In this manner two whole years were spent, and nothing could be
accomplished for their relief. In the mean while England was studious to
prevent their receiving supplies from any other country. To do that more
effectually, it was thought expedient to confine the trade of that
colony to one place. But that not being found practicable, because of
the many great rivers that divide their habitations, and the
extraordinary conveniences of each, his majesty sent directions to build
forts in the several rivers, and enjoined all the ships to ride under
those forts; and farther ordered, that those places only should be the
ports of trade.
§ 88. This instruction was punctually observed for a year, and
preparations were made for ports, by casting up breastworks in such
places as the assembly appointed, and the shipping did for that time
ride at those places. But the great fire and plague happening in London
immediately upon it, made their supplies that year very uncertain, and
the terror the people were in, lest the plague should be brought over
with the ships from London, prevented them from residing at those ports,
for fear of being all swept away at once. And so every body was left at
liberty again.
§ 89. Still no favor could be obtained for the tobacco trade, and the
English merchants afforded but a bare support of clothing for their
crops. The assembly were full enough of resentment, but overlooked their
right way of redress. All they could do was to cause looms and
workhouses to be set up in the several counties, at the county charge.
They renewed the rewards of silk, and put great penalties upon every
neglect of making flax and hemp. About this time they sustained some
damage by the Dutch war; for which reason they ordered the forts to be
rebuilt of brick. But having yet no true notion of the advantage of
towns, they did not oblige the ships to ride under them. Which thing
alone, well executed, would have answered all their desires.
§ 90. Sir William Berkeley, who was always contriving and industrious
for the good of the country, was not contented to set a useful example
at home, by the essays he made of potash, flax, hemp, silk, &c., but was
also resolved to make new discoveries abroad amongst the Indians.
For this end he employed a small company of about fourteen English, and
as many Indians, under the command of Captain Henry Batt, to go upon
such an adventure. They set out together from Appomattox, and in seven
days' march reached the foot of the mountains. The mountains they first
arrived at, were not extraordinary high or steep; but, after they had
passed the first ridge, they encountered others that seemed to reach the
clouds, and were so perpendicular and full of precipices, that sometimes
in a whole day's march, they could not travel three miles in a direct
line. In other places they found large level plains and fine savannas,
three or four miles wide, in which were an infinite quantity of turkies,
deer, elks and buffaloes, so gentle and undisturbed that they had no
fear at the appearance of the men, but would suffer them to come almost
within reach of their hands. There they also found grapes so
prodigiously large, that they seemed more like bullace than grapes. When
they traversed these mountains, they came to a fine level country again,
and discovered a rivulet that descended backwards. Down that stream they
travelled several days, till they came to old fields and cabins, where
the Indians had lately been, but were supposed to have fled at the
approach of Batt and his company. However, the captain followed the old
rule of leaving some toys in their cabins for them to find at their
return, by which they might know they were friends. Near to these cabins
were great marshes, where the Indians which Captain Batt had with him
made a halt, and would positively proceed no farther. They said, that
not far off from that place lived a nation of Indians, that made salt,
and sold it to their neighbors. That this was a great and powerful
people, which never suffered any strangers to return that had once
discovered their towns. Captain Batt used all the arguments he could to
get them forward, but in vain. And so, to please those timorous Indians,
the hopes of this discovery were frustrated, and the detachment was
forced to return. In this journey it is supposed that Batt never crossed
the great ridge of mountains, but kept up under it to the southward. For
of late years the Indian traders have discovered, on this side the
mountains, about five hundred miles to the southward, a river they call
Oukfuskie, full of broad sunken grounds and marshes, but falling into
the bay or great gulf between cape Florida and the mouth of the
Mississippi, which I suppose to be the river where Batt saw the Indian
cabins and marshes, but is gone to from Virginia without ever piercing
the high mountains, and only encountering the point of an elbow, which
they make a little to the southward of Virginia.
§ 91. Upon Captain Batt's report to Sir William Berkeley, he resolved to
make a journey himself, that so there might be no hinderance for want of
sufficient authority, as had been in the aforesaid expedition. To this
end he concerted matters for it, and had pitched upon his deputy
governor. The assembly also made an act to encourage it. But all these
preparations came to nothing, by the confusion which happened there soon
after by Bacon's rebellion. And since that, there has never been any
such discovery attempted from Virginia, when Governor Spotswood found a
passage over the great ridge of mountains, and went over them himself.
§ 92. The occasion of this rebellion is not easy to be discovered: but
'tis certain there were many things that concurred towards it. For it
cannot be imagined, that upon the instigation of two or three traders
only, who aimed at a monopoly of the Indian trade, as some pretend to
say, the whole country would have fallen into so much distraction; in
which people did not only hazard their necks by rebellion, but
endeavored to ruin a governor, whom they all entirely loved, and had
unanimously chosen; a gentleman who had devoted his whole life and
estate to the service of the country, and against whom in thirty-five
years experience there had never been one single complaint. Neither can
it be supposed, that upon so slight grounds, they would make choice of a
leader they hardly knew, to oppose a gentleman that had been so long and
so deservedly the darling of the people. So that in all probability
there was something else in the wind, without which the body of the
country had never been engaged in that insurrection.
Four things may be reckoned to have been the main ingredients towards
this intestine commotion, viz., First, The extreme low price of tobacco,
and the ill usage of the planters in the exchange of goods for it, which
the country, with all their earnest endeavors, could not remedy.
Secondly, The splitting the colony into proprieties, contrary to the
original charters; and the extravagant taxes they were forced to
undergo, to relieve themselves from those grants. Thirdly, The heavy
restraints and burdens laid upon their trade by act of Parliament in
England. Fourthly, The disturbance given by the Indians. Of all which in
their order.
§ 93. First, Of the low price of tobacco, and the disappointment of all
sort of remedy, I have spoken sufficiently before. Secondly, Of
splitting the country into proprieties.
King Charles the Second, to gratify some nobles about him, made two
great grants out of that country. These grants were not of the
uncultivated wood land only, but also of plantations, which for many
years had been seated and improved, under the encouragement of several
charters granted by his royal ancestors to that colony. Those grants
were distinguished by the names of the Northern and Southern grants of
Virginia, and the same men were concerned in both. They were kept
dormant some years after they were made, and in the year 1674 begun to
be put in execution. As soon as ever the country came to know this, they
remonstrated against them; and the assembly drew up an humble address to
his majesty, complaining of the said grants, as derogatory to the
previous charters and privileges granted to that colony, by his majesty
and his royal progenitors. They sent to England Mr. Secretary Ludwell
and Colonel Park, as their agents to address the king, to vacate those
grants. And the better to defray that charge, they laid a tax of fifty
pounds of tobacco per poll, for two years together, over and above all
other taxes, which was an excessive burden. They likewise laid
amercements of seventy, fifty, or thirty pounds of tobacco, as the cause
was on every law case tried throughout the country. Besides all this,
they applied the balance, remaining due upon account of the two shilling
per hogshead, and fort duties, to this use. Which taxes and amercements
fell heaviest on the poor people, the effect of whose labor would not
clothe their wives and children. This made them desperately uneasy,
especially when, after a whole year's patience under all these
pressures, they had no encouragement from their agents in England, to
hope for remedy; nor any certainty when they should be eased of those
heavy impositions.
§ 94. Thirdly, Upon the back of all these misfortunes came out the act
of 25 Car. II. for better securing the plantation trade. By this act
several duties were laid on the trade from one plantation to another.
This was a new hardship, and the rather, because the revenue arising by
this act was not applied to the use of the plantations wherein it was
raised: but given clear away; nay, in that country it seemed to be of no
other use, but to burden the trade, or create a good income to the
officers; for the collector had half, the comptroller a quarter, and the
remaining quarter was subdivided into salaries, till it was lost.
By the same act also very great duties were laid on the fisheries of the
plantations, if manufactured by the English inhabitants there; while the
people of England were absolutely free from all customs. Nay, though the
oil, blubber and whale bone, which were made by the inhabitants of the
plantations, were carried to England by Englishmen, and in English built
ships, yet it was held to a considerable duty, more than the inhabitants
of England paid.
§ 95. These were the afflictions that country labored under when the
fourth accident happened, viz., the disturbance offered by the Indians
to the frontiers.
This was occasioned, first, by the Indians on the head of the bay.
Secondly, by the Indians on their own frontiers.
First. The Indians at the head of the bay drove a constant trade with
the Dutch in Monadas, now called New York; and to carry on this, they
used to come every year by the frontiers of Virginia, to hunt and
purchase skins and furs of the Indians to the southward. This trade was
carried on peaceably while the Dutch held Monadas; and the Indians used
to call on the English in Virginia on their return, to whom they would
sell part of their furs, and with the rest go on to Monadas. But after
the English came to possess that place, and understood the advantages
the Virginians made by the trade of their Indians, they inspired them
with such a hatred to the inhabitants of Virginia that, instead of
coming peaceably to trade with them, as they had done for several years
before, they afterwards never came, but only to commit robberies and
murders upon the people.
Secondly. The Indians upon their own frontiers were likewise inspired
with ill thoughts of them. For their Indian merchants had lost a
considerable branch of their trade they knew not how; and apprehended
the consequences of Sir William Berkeley's intended discoveries,
(espoused by the assembly,) might take away the remaining part of their
profit. This made them very troublesome to the neighbor Indians; who on
their part, observing an unusual uneasiness in the English, and being
terrified by their rough usage, immediately suspected some wicked design
against their lives, and so fled to their remoter habitations. This
confirmed the English in the belief, that they had been the murderers,
till at last they provoked them to be so in earnest.
§ 96. This addition of mischief to minds already full of discontent,
made people ready to vent all their resentment against the poor Indians.
There was nothing to be got by tobacco; neither could they turn any
other manufacture to advantage; so that most of the poorer sort were
willing to quit their unprofitable employments, and go volunteers
against the Indians.
At first they flocked together tumultuously, running in troops from one
plantation to another without a head, till at last the seditious humor
of Colonel Nath. Bacon led him to be of the party. This gentleman had
been brought up at one of the Inns of court in England, and had a
moderate fortune. He was young, bold, active, of an inviting aspect, and
powerful elocution. In a word, he was every way qualified to head a
giddy and unthinking multitude. Before he had been three years in the
country, he was, for his extraordinary qualifications, made one of the
council, and in great honor and esteem among the people. For this reason
he no sooner gave countenance to this riotous mob, but they all
presently fixed their eyes upon him for their general, and accordingly
made their addresses to him. As soon as he found this, he harangued them
publicly. He aggravated the Indian mischiefs, complaining that they were
occasioned for want of a due regulation of their trade. He recounted
particularly the other grievances and pressures they lay under, and
pretended that he accepted of their command with no other intention but
to do them and the country service, in which he was willing to encounter
the greatest difficulties and dangers. He farther assured them he would
never lay down his arms till he had revenged their sufferings upon the
Indians, and redressed all their other grievances.
§ 97. By these insinuations he wrought his men into so perfect an
unanimity, that they were one and all at his devotion. He took care to
exasperate them to the utmost, by representing all their misfortunes.
After he had begun to muster them, he dispatched a messenger to the
governor, by whom he aggravated the mischiefs done by the Indians, and
desired a commission of general to go out against them. This gentleman
was in so great esteem at that time with the council, that the governor
did not think fit to give him a flat refusal; but sent him word he would
consult the council, and return him a farther answer.
§ 98. In the mean time Bacon was expeditious in his preparations, and
having all things in readiness, began his march, depending on the
authority the people had given him. He would not lose so much time as to
stay for his commission; but dispatched several messengers to the
governor to hasten it. On the other hand, the governor, instead of a
commission, sent positive orders to him to disperse his men and come
down in person to him, upon pain of being declared a rebel.
§ 99. This unexpected order was a great surprise to Bacon, and not a
little trouble to his men. However, he was resolved to prosecute his
first intentions, depending upon his strength and interest with the
people. Nevertheless, he intended to wait upon the governor, but not
altogether defenceless. Pursuant to this resolution, he took about forty
of his men down with him in a sloop to Jamestown, where the governor was
with his council.
§ 100. Matters did not succeed there to Mr. Bacon's satisfaction,
wherefore he expressed himself a little too freely. For which, being
suspended from the council, he went away again in a huff with his sloop
and followers. The governor filled a long boat with men, and pursued the
sloop so close, that Colonel Bacon moved into his boat to make more
haste. But the governor had sent up by land to the ships at Sandy Point,
where he was stopped and sent down again. Upon his return he was kindly
received by the governor, who, knowing he had gone a step beyond his
instructions in having suspended him, was glad to admit him again of the
council; after which he hoped all things might be pacified.
§ 101. Notwithstanding this; Colonel Bacon still insisted upon a
commission to be general of the volunteers, and to go out against the
Indians; from which the governor endeavored to dissuade him, but to no
purpose, because he had some secret project in view. He had the luck to
be countenanced in his importunities, by the news of fresh murder and
robberies committed by the Indians. However, not being able to
accomplish his ends by fair means, he stole privately out of town; and
having put himself at the head of six hundred volunteers, marched
directly to Jamestown, where the assembly was then sitting. He presented
himself before the assembly, and drew up his men in battalia before the
house wherein they sat. He urged to them his preparations; and alledged
that if the commission had not been delayed so long, the war against the
Indians might have been finished.
§ 102. The governor resented this insolent usage worst of all, and now
obstinately refused to grant him anything, offering his naked breast
against the presented arms of his followers. But the assembly, fearing
the fatal consequences of provoking a discontented multitude ready
armed, who had the governor, council and assembly entirely in their
power, addressed the governor to grant Bacon his request. They prepared
themselves the commission, constituting him general of the forces of
Virginia, and brought it to the governor to be signed.
With much reluctancy the governor signed it, and thereby put the power
of war and peace into Bacon's hands. Upon this he marched away
immediately, having gained his end, which was in effect a power to
secure a monopoly of the Indian trade to himself and his friends.
§ 103. As soon as General Bacon had marched to such a convenient
distance from Jamestown that the assembly thought they might deliberate
with safety, the governor, by their advice, issued a proclamation of
rebellion against him, commanding his followers to surrender him, and
forthwith disperse themselves, giving orders at the same time for
raising the militia of the country against him.
§ 104. The people being much exasperated, and General Bacon by his
address and eloquence having gained an absolute dominion over their
hearts, they unanimously resolved that not a hair of his head should be
touched, much less that they should surrender him as a rebel. Therefore
they kept to their arms, and instead of proceeding against the Indians
they marched back to Jamestown, directing their fury against such of
their friends and countrymen as should dare to oppose them.
§ 105. The governor seeing this, fled over the bay to Accomac, whither
he hoped the infection of Bacon's conspiracy had not reached. But
there, instead of that people's receiving him with open arms, in
remembrance of the former services he had done them, they began to make
terms with him for redress of their grievances, and for the ease and
liberty of trade against the acts of parliament. Thus Sir William, who
had been almost the idol of the people, was, by reason of their calamity
and jealousy, abandoned by all, except some few, who went over to him
from the western shore in sloops and boats, among which one Major Robert
Beverley was the most active and successful commander; so that it was
sometime before he could make head against Bacon, but left him to range
through the country at discretion.
§ 106. General Bacon at first held a convention, of such of the chief
gentlemen of the country as would come to him, especially of those about
Middle Plantation, who were near at hand. At this convention they made a
declaration to justify his unlawful proceedings, and obliged people to
take an oath of obedience to him as their general. Then, by their
advice, on pretence of the governor's abdication, he called an assembly,
by writs signed by himself and four others of the council.
The oath was word for word as follows:
"Whereas the country hath raised an army against our common enemy
the Indians, and the same under the command of General Bacon,
being upon the point to march forth against the said common enemy,
hath been diverted and necessitated to move to the suppressing of
forces, by evil disposed persons raised against the said General
Bacon, purposely to foment and stir up civil war among us, to the
ruin of this his majesty's country. And whereas it is notoriously
manifest, that Sir William Berkeley, knight, governor of the
country, assisted, counselled and abetted by those evil disposed
persons aforesaid, hath not only commanded, fomented and stirred
up the people to the said civil war, but failing therein, hath
withdrawn himself, to the great astonishment of the people, and
the unsettlement of the country. And whereas the said army,
raised by the country for the causes aforesaid, remain full of
dissatisfaction in the middle of the country, expecting attempts
from the said governor and the evil counsellers aforesaid. And
since no proper means have been found out for the settlement of
the distractions, and preventing the horrid outrages and murders
daily committed in many places of the country by the barbarous
enemy, it hath been thought fit by the said general, to call unto
him all such sober and discreet gentlemen as the present
circumstances of the country will admit, to the Middle Plantation,
to consult and advise of re-establishing the peace of the country.
So we, the said gentlemen, being this third of August, 1676,
accordingly met, do advise, resolve, declare and conclude, and for
ourselves do swear in manner following:
1st. That we will at all times join with the said general Bacon
and his army, against the common enemy in all points whatsoever.
2nd. That whereas certain persons have lately contrived and
designed the raising forces against the said general, and the army
under his command, thereby to beget a civil war, we will endeavor
the discovery and apprehending of all and every of those evil
disposed persons, and them secure, until farther order from the
general.
3rd. And whereas it is credibly reported, that the governor hath
informed the king's majesty that the said general, and the people
of the country in arms under his command, their aiders and
abettors, are rebellious, and removed from their allegiance; and
that upon such like information, he, the said governor, hath
advised and petitioned the king to send forces to reduce them, we
do farther declare and believe in our consciences, that it
consists with the welfare of this country, and with our allegiance
to his most sacred majesty, that we, the inhabitants of Virginia,
to the utmost of our power, do oppose and suppress all forces
whatsoever of that nature, until such time as the king be fully
informed of the state of the case, by such person or persons as
shall be sent from the said Nathaniel Bacon, in the behalf of the
people, and the determination thereof be remitted hither. And we
do swear, that we will him, the said general, and the army under
his command, aid and assist accordingly."
§ 108. By this time the governor had got together a small party to side
with him. These he furnished with sloops, arms and ammunition, under
command of Major Robert Beverley, in order to cross the bay and oppose
the malcontents. By this means there happened some skirmishes, in which
several were killed, and others taken prisoners. Thus they were going on
by a civil war to destroy one another, and lay waste their infant
country, when it pleased God, after some months' confusion, to put an
end to their misfortunes, as well as to Bacon's designs, by his natural
death. He died at Dr. Green's in Gloucester county. But where he was
buried was never yet discovered, though afterward there was great
inquiry made, with design to expose his bones to public infamy.
§ 109. In the meanwhile those disorders occasioned a general neglect of
husbandry, and a great destruction of the stocks of cattle, so that
people had a dreadful prospect of want and famine. But the malcontents
being thus disunited by the loss of their general, in whom they all
confided, they began to squabble among themselves, and every man's
business was, how to make the best terms he could for himself.
Lieutenant General Ingram, (whose true name was Johnson) and Major
General Walklate, surrendered, on condition of pardon for themselves and
their followers, though they were both forced to submit to an incapacity
of bearing office in that country for the future.
Peace being thus restored, Sir William Berkeley returned to his former
seat of government, and every man to his several habitation.
§ 110. While this intestine war was fomenting there, the agents of the
country in England could not succeed in their remonstrance against the
propriety grants, though they were told that those grants should be
revoked. But the news of their civil war reaching England about the same
time, the king would then proceed no farther in that matter. So the
agents thought it their best way to compound with the proprietors.
Accordingly they agreed with them for four hundred pounds a man, which
was paid. And so all the clamor against those grants ended; neither was
any more heard from them there till above a dozen years afterwards.
§ 111. But all those agents could obtain after their composition with
the lords, was merely the name of a new charter, granting only so much
of their former constitution as mentioned a residence of the governor or
deputy; a granting of escheat lands for two pounds of tobacco per acre,
composition; and that the lands should be held of the crown in the same
tenure as East Greenwich, that is, free and common soccage, and have
their immediate dependence on the crown.
§ 112. When this storm, occasioned by Bacon, was blown over, and all
things quiet again, Sir William Berkeley called an assembly, for
settling the affairs of the country, and for making reparation to such
as had been oppressed. After which a regiment of soldiers arrived from
England, which were sent to suppress the insurrection; but they, coming
after the business was over, had no occasion to exercise their courage.
However, they were kept on foot there about three years after, and in
the Lord Colepepper's time, paid off and disbanded.
§ 113. The confusion occasioned by the civil war, and the advantage the
Indians made of it in butchering the English upon all their frontiers,
caused such a desolation, and put the country so far back, that to the
year 1704 they had seated very little beyond the boundaries that were
then inhabited. At that time Jamestown was again burnt down to the
ground by Richard Laurence, one of Bacon's captains, who, when his own
men, that abhorred such barbarity, refused to obey his command, he
himself became the executioner, and fired the houses with his own
hands. This unhappy town did never after arrive to the perfection it
then had: and now it is almost deserted by removing in Governor
Nicholson's time the assembly and general court from thence to
Williamsburg, an inland place about seven miles from it.
§ 114. With the regiment above mentioned arrived commissioners, to
enquire into the occasion and authors of this rebellion; and Sir William
Berkeley came to England: where from the time of his arrival, his
sickness obliged him to keep his chamber till he died; so that he had no
opportunity of kissing the king's hand. But his majesty declared himself
well satisfied with his conduct in Virginia, and was very kind to him
during his sickness, often enquiring after his health, and commanding
him not to hazard it by too early an endeavor to come to court.
§ 115. Upon Sir William Berkeley's voyage to England, Herbert Jeffreys,
Esq., was appointed governor. He made formal articles of peace with the
Indians, and held an assembly at Middle Plantation, wherein they settled
and allowed a free trade with the Indians; but restrained it to certain
marts, to which the Indians should bring their commodities: and this
also to be under such certain rules as were by that assembly directed.
But this method was not agreeable to the Indians, who had never before
been under any regulation. They thought, that if all former usages were
not restored, the peace was not perfect; and therefore did not much rely
upon it, which made those new restrictions useless.
Governor Jeffreys his time was very short there, he being taken off by
death the year following.
§ 116. After him Sir Henry Chicheley was made deputy governor, in the
latter end of the year 1678. In his time the assembly, for the greater
terror of the Indians, built magazines at the heads of the four great
rivers, and furnished them with arms, ammunition and men in constant
service.
This assembly also prohibited the importation of tobacco, which
Carolina, and sometimes Maryland, were wont to send thither, in order to
its being shipped off for England. But in that, I think, Virginia
mistook her interest. For, had they permitted this custom to become
habitual, and thus engrossed the shipping, as would soon have happened,
they could easily have regulated the trade of tobacco at any time,
without the concurrence of those other colonies, and without submitting
to their perverse humors as formerly.
§ 117. The spring following, Thomas Lord Colepepper arrived there
governor, and carried with him some laws, which had been drawn up in
England, to be enacted in their assembly. And coming with the advantage
of restoring peace to a troubled nation, it was not difficult for him to
obtain whatever he pleased from the people. His influence too was the
greater by the power he had of pardoning those who had a hand in the
disorders committed in the late rebellion.
§ 118. In his first assembly he passed several acts very obliging to the
country, viz., First, an act of naturalization, whereby the power of
naturalizing foreigners was placed in the governor. Secondly, an act for
cohabitation and encouragement of trade and manufactures; whereby a
certain place in each county was appointed for a town, in which all
goods imported and exported were to be landed and shipped off, bought
and sold. Which act was kindly brought to nothing by the opposition of
the tobacco merchants of England. Thirdly, an act of general pardon and
oblivion, whereby all the transgressions and outrages committed in the
time of the late rebellion were entirely remitted; and reparation
allowed to people that should be evil spoken of on that account.
§ 119. By passing some laws that obliged the country, the Lord
Colepepper carried one that was very pleasing to himself, viz., the act
for raising a public revenue for the better support of the government.
By this he got the duties contained therein to be made perpetual; and
that the money, which before used to be accounted for to the assembly,
should be from thenceforth disposed of by his majesty's sole direction,
for the support of the government. When this was done, he obtained of
the king out of the said duties a salary of two thousand pounds per
annum, instead of one thousand, which was formerly allowed. Also one
hundred and sixty pounds per annum for house rent, besides all the usual
perquisites.
§ 120. In those submissive times his lordship reduced the greatest
perquisite of his place to a certainty, which before that was only
gratuitous; that is, instead of the masters of ships making presents of
liquors or provisions towards the governor's house keeping, as they were
wont to do, he demanded a certain sum of money, remitting that custom.
This rate has ever since been demanded of all commanders as a duty; and
is twenty shillings for each ship or vessel, under an hundred tons, and
thirty shillings for each ship upwards of that burden, to be paid every
voyage, or port clearing.
§ 121. This noble lord seemed to lament the unhappy state of the country
in relation to their coin. He was tenderly concerned that all their cash
should be drained away by the neighboring colonies, which had not set so
low an estimate upon it as Virginia; and therefore he proposed the
raising of it.
This was what the country had formerly desired, and the assembly was
about making a law for it: but his lordship stopped them, alledging it
was the king's prerogative, by virtue of which he would do it by
proclamation. This they did not approve of, well knowing, if that were
the case, his lordship and every other governor would at any time have
the same prerogative of altering it, and so people should never be at
any certainty; as they quickly after found from his own practice. For
his drift was only to make advantage of paying the soldiers; money for
that purpose being put into his lordship's hands, he provided light
pieces of eight, which he with this view had bought at a cheap rate.
When this contrivance was ripe for execution, he extended the royal
prerogative, and issued forth a proclamation for raising the value of
pieces of eight from five to six shillings; and as soon as they were
admitted current at that value, he produced an order for paying and
disbanding the soldiers. Then those poor fellows, and such as had
maintained them, were forced to take their pay in those light pieces of
eight, at six shillings. But his lordship soon after himself found the
inconvenience of that proclamation; for people began to pay their
duties, and their ship money in coin of that high estimate, which was
like to cut short both his lordship's perquisites; and so he was forced
to make use of the same prerogative, to reduce the money again to its
former standard.
§ 122. In less than a year the Lord Colepepper returned to England,
leaving Sir Henry Chicheley deputy governor.
The country being then settled again, made too much tobacco, or too much
trash tobacco, for the market; and the merchants would hardly allow the
planter any thing for it.
This occasioned much uneasiness again, and the people, from former
experience, despairing of succeeding in any agreement with the
neighboring governments, resolved a total destruction of the tobacco in
that country, especially of the sweet scented; because that was planted
no where else. In pursuance of which design, they contrived that all the
plants should be destroyed, while they were yet in the beds, and after
it was too late to sow more.
Accordingly the ringleaders in this project began with their own first,
and then went to cut up the plants of such of their neighbors as were
not willing to do it themselves. However, they had not resolution enough
to go through with their work.
This was adjudged sedition and felony. Several people were committed
upon it, and some condemned to be hanged. And afterwards the assembly
passed a law to make such proceedings felony for the future, (whatever
it was before,) provided the company kept together after warning by a
justice.
§ 123. After this accident of plant cutting, the Lord Colepepper
returned, and held his second assembly, in which he contrived to gain
another great advantage over the country. His lordship, in his first
voyage thither, perceiving how easily he could twist and manage the
people, conceived new hopes of retrieving the propriety of the Northern
Neck, as being so small a part of the colony. He conceived that while
the remainder escaped free, which was far the greater part, they would
not engage in the interest of the lesser number; especially considering
the discouragements they had met with before, in their former
solicitation: though all this while, and for many years afterwards, his
lordship did not pretend to lay public claim to any part of the
propriety.
It did not square with this project that appeals should be made to the
general assembly, as till then had been the custom. He feared the
burgesses would be too much in the interest of their countrymen, and
adjudge the inhabitants of the Northern Neck to have an equal liberty
and privilege in their estates with the rest of Virginia, as being
settled upon the same foot. In order therefore to make a better
pennyworth of those poor people, he studied to overturn this odious
method of appealing to the assembly, and to fix the last resort in
another court.
To bring this point about, his lordship contrived to blow up a
difference in the assembly between the council and the burgesses,
privately encouraging the burgesses to insist upon the privilege of
determining all appeals by themselves, exclusive of the council; because
they, having given their opinions before in the general court, were, for
that reason, unfit judges in appeals from themselves to the assembly.
This succeeded according to his wish, and the burgesses bit at the bait,
under the notion of privilege, never dreaming of the snake that lay in
the grass, nor considering the danger of altering an old constitution so
abruptly. Thus my lord gained his end; for he represented that quarrel
with so many aggravations, that he got an instruction from the king to
take away all appeals from the general court to the assembly, and cause
them to be made to himself in council, if the thing in demand was of
£300 value, otherwise no appeal from the general court.
§ 124. Of this his lordship made sufficient advantage; for in the
confusion that happened in the end of king James the Second's reign,
viz., in October 1688, he having got an assignment from the other
patentees, gained a favorable report from the king's council at law upon
his patent for the Northern Neck.
When he had succeeded in this, his lordship's next step was to engage
some noted inhabitant of the place to be on his side. Accordingly he
made use of his cousin Secretary Spencer, who lived in the said Neck,
and was esteemed as wise and great a man as any of the council. This
gentleman did but little in his lordship's service, and only gained some
few strays, that used to be claimed by the coroner, in behalf of the
king.
Upon the death of Mr. Secretary Spencer, he engaged another noted
gentleman, an old stander in that country, though not of the Northern
Neck, Col. Philip Ludwell, who was then in England. He went over with
this grant in the year 1690, and set up an office in the Neck, claiming
some escheats; but he likewise could make nothing of it. After him Col.
George Brent and Col. William Fitzhugh, that were noted lawyers and
inhabitants of the said Neck, were employed in that affair: but
succeeded no better than their predecessors. The people, in the mean
while, complained frequently to their assemblies, who at last made
another address to the king; but there being no agent in England to
prosecute it, that likewise miscarried. At last Colonel Richard Lee, one
of the council, a man of note and inhabitant of the Northern Neck,
privately made a composition with the proprietors themselves for his own
land. This broke the ice, and several were induced to follow so great an
example; so that by degrees, they were generally brought to pay their
quit-rents into the hands of the proprietors' agents. And now at last it
is managed for them by Col. Robert Carter, another of the council, and
the greatest freeholder in that proprietary.
§ 125. To return to my Lord Colepepper's government, I cannot omit a
useful thing which his lordship was pleased to do, with relation to
their courts of justice. It seems, nicety of pleading, with all the
juggle of Westminster Hall, was creeping into their courts. The clerks
began in some cases to enter the reasons with the judgments, pretending
to set precedents of inviolable form to be observed in all future
proceedings. This my lord found fault with, and retrenched all dilatory
pleas, as prejudicial to justice, keeping the courts close to the merits
of the cause, in order to bring it to a speedy determination, according
to the innocence of former times, and caused the judgments to be entered
up short, without the reason, alledging that their courts were not of so
great experience as to be able to make precedents to posterity; who
ought to be left at liberty to determine, according to the equity of the
controversy before them.
§ 126. In his time also were dismantled the forts built by Sir Henry
Chicheley at the heads of the rivers, and the forces there were
disbanded, as being too great a charge. The assembly appointed small
parties of light horse in their stead, to range by turns upon the
frontiers. These being chosen out of the neighboring inhabitants, might
afford to serve at easier rates, and yet do the business more
effectually; they were raised under the title or name of rangers.
§ 127. After this the Lord Colepepper returned again for England, his
second stay not being much longer than the first; and Sir Henry
Chicheley being dead, he proclaimed his kinsman, Mr. Secretary Spencer,
president, though he was not the eldest member of the council.
§ 128. The next year, being 1684, upon the Lord Colepepper's refusing to
return, Francis, Lord Howard of Effingham, was sent over governor. In
order to increase his perquisites, he imposed the charge of an annual
under seal of twenty shillings each for school masters; five pounds for
lawyers at the general court, and fifty shillings each lawyer at the
county courts. He also extorted an excessive fee for putting the seal to
all probates of wills, and letters of administration, even where the
estates of the deceased were of the meanest value. Neither could any be
favored with such administration, or probate, without paying that
extortion. If any body presumed to remonstrate against it, his
lordship's behavior towards that man was very severe. He kept several
persons in prison and under confinement, from court to court, without
bringing them to trial. Which proceedings, and many others, were so
oppressive, that complaints were made thereof to the king, and Colonel
Philip Ludwell was appointed agent to appear against him in England.
Whereupon the seal-money was taken off.
§ 129. During the first session of assembly in this noble lord's time,
the duty on liquors imported from the other English plantations, was
first imposed. It was then laid, on pretence of lessening the levy by
the poll, for payment of public taxes; but more especially for
rebuilding the State house, which had not been rebuilt since Laurence
burnt it in Bacon's time.
This duty was at first laid on wine and rum only, at the rate of three
pence per gallon, with an exemption of all such as should be imported in
the ships of Virginia owners. But the like duty has since been laid on
other liquors also, and is raised to four pence per gallon on wine and
rum, and one penny per gallon on beer, cider, lime-juice, &c.; and the
privilege of Virginia owners taken away, to the great discouragement of
their shipping and home trade.
§ 130. This lord, though he pretended to no great skill in legal
proceedings, yet he made great innovations in their courts, pretending
to follow the English forms. Thus he created a new court of chancery
distinct from the general court, who had ever before claimed that
jurisdiction. He erected himself into a lord chancellor, taking the
gentlemen of the council to sit with him as mere associates and
advisers, not having any vote in the causes before them. And that it
might have more the air of a new court, he would not so much as sit in
the State house, where all the other public business was dispatched, but
took the dining-room of a large house for that use. He likewise made
arbitrary tables of fees, peculiar to this high court. However, his
lordship not beginning this project very long before he left the
country, all these innovations came to an end upon his removal, and the
jurisdiction returned to the general court again, in the time of Colonel
Nathaniel Bacon, whom he left president.
§ 131. During that gentleman's presidency, which began Anno 1689, the
project of a college was first agreed upon. The contrivers drew up their
scheme, and presented it to the president and council. This was by them
approved, and referred to the next assembly. But Colonel Bacon's
administration being very short, and no assembly called all the while,
this pious design could proceed no farther.
§ 132. Anno 1690, Francis Nicholson, esq., being appointed lieutenant
governor under the Lord Effingham, arrived there. This gentleman
discoursed freely of country improvements, instituted public exercises,
and gave prizes to all those that should excel in the exercises of
riding, running, shooting, wrestling, and cudgeling. When the design of
a college was communicated to him, he promised it all imaginable
encouragement. The first thing desired of him in its behalf, was the
calling of an assembly, but this he could by no means agree to, being
under obligations to the Lord Effingham to stave off assemblies as long
he could, for fear there might be farther representations sent over
against his lordship, who was conscious to himself how uneasy the
country had been under his despotic administration.
§ 133. When that could not be obtained, then they proposed that a
subscription might pass through the colony, to try the humor of the
people in general, and see what voluntary contributions they could get
towards it. This he granted, and he himself, together with the council,
set a generous example to the other gentlemen of the country, so that
the subscriptions at last amounted to about two thousand five hundred
pounds, in which sum is included the generous benevolences of several
merchants of London.
§ 134. Anno 1691, an assembly being called, this design was moved to
them, and they espoused it heartily; and soon after made an address to
king William and queen Mary in its behalf, and sent the Rev. Mr. James
Blair their agent to England to solicit their majesties charter for it.
It was proposed that three things should be taught in this college,
viz., languages, divinity, and natural philosophy.
The assembly was so fond of Governor Nicholson at that time, that they
presented him with the sum of three hundred pounds, as a testimony of
their good disposition towards him. But he having an instruction to
receive no present from the country, they drew up an address to their
majesties, praying that he might have leave to accept it, which was
granted, and he gave one half thereof to the college.
§ 135. Their majesties were well pleased with that pious design of the
plantation, and granted a charter, according to the desire of Mr. Blair
their agent.
Their majesties were graciously pleased to give near two thousand pounds
sterling, the balance then due upon the account of quit-rents, towards
the founding the college; and towards the endowing of it, they allowed
twenty thousand acres of choice land, together with the revenue arising
by the penny per pound on tobacco exported from Virginia and Maryland to
the other plantations.
It was a great satisfaction to the archbishops and bishops, to see such
a nursery of religion founded in that new world, especially for that it
was begun in an episcopal way, and carried on wholly by zealous
conformists to the Church of England.
§ 136. In this first assembly, Lieutenant Governor Nicholson passed acts
for encouragement of the linen manufacture, and to promote the leather
trade by tanning, currying, and shoe making. He also in that session
passed a law for cohabitation, and improvement of trade.
Before the next assembly he tacked about, and was quite the reverse of
what he was in the first, as to cohabitation. Instead of encouraging
ports and towns, he spread abroad his dislike of them; and went among
the people finding fault with those things which he and the assembly had
unanimously agreed upon the preceding session. Such a violent change
there was in him, that it proceeded from some other cause than barely
the inconstancy of his temper. He had received directions from those
English merchants, who well knew that cohabitation would lessen their
consigned trade.
§ 137. In February, 1692, Sir Edmund Andros arrived governor. He began
his government with an assembly, which overthrew the good design of
ports and towns; but the groundwork of this proceeding was laid before
Sir Edmund's arrival. However this assembly proceeded no farther than to
suspend the law till their majesties' pleasure should be known. But it
seems the merchants in London were dissatisfied, and made public
complaints against it, which their majesties were pleased to hear; and
afterwards referred the law back to the assembly again, to consider if
it were suitable to the circumstances of the country, and to regulate it
accordingly. But the assembly did not then proceed any farther in it,
the people themselves being infected by the merchants' letters.
§ 138. At this session Mr. Neal's project for a post-office, and his
patent of post-master-general in those parts of America, were presented.
The assembly made an act to promote that design; but by reason of the
inconvenient distance of their habitations, and want of towns, this
project fell to nothing.
§ 139. With Sir Edmund Andros, was sent over the college charter; and
the subsequent assembly declared, that the subscriptions which had been
made to the college were due, and immediately demandable. They likewise
gave a duty on the exportation of skins and furs, for its more
plentiful endowment, and the foundation of the college was laid.
The subscription money did not come in with the same readiness with
which it had been underwritten. However there was enough given by their
majesties, and gathered from the people, to keep all hands at work and
carry on the building, the foundation whereof they then laid; and the
rest, upon suit, had judgment given against them.
§ 140. Sir Edmund Andros was a great encourager of manufactures. In his
time fulling-mills were set up by act of assembly. He also gave
particular marks of his favor towards the propagating of cotton, which
since his time has been much neglected. He was likewise a great lover of
method and dispatch in all sorts of business, which made him find fault
with the management of the secretary's office. And, indeed, with very
good reason; for from the time of Bacon's rebellion till then, there
never was any office in the world more negligently kept. Several patents
of land were entered blank upon record; many original patents, records
and deeds of land, with other matters of great consequence, were thrown
loose about the office, and suffered to be dirtied, torn, and eaten by
the moths and other insects. But upon this gentleman's accession to the
government, he immediately gave directions to reform all these
irregularities; he caused the loose and torn records of value to be
transcribed into new books, and ordered conveniences to be built within
the office for preserving the records from being lost and confounded as
before. He prescribed methods to keep the papers dry and clean, and to
reduce them into such order, as that any thing might be turned to
immediately. But all these conveniences were burnt soon after they were
finished, in October 1698, together with the office itself, and the
whole State House. But his diligence was so great in that affair, that
though his stay afterward in the country was very short, yet he caused
all the records and papers which had been saved from the fire to be
sorted again and registered in order, and indeed in much better order
than ever they had been before. In this condition he left them at his
quitting the government.
He made several offers to rebuild the State House in the same place; and
had his government continued but six months longer, 'tis probable he
would have effected it after such a manner as might have been least
burthensome to the people, designing the greatest part at his own cost.
§ 141. Sir Edmund Andros being upon a progress one summer, called at a
poor man's house in Stafford county for water. There came out to him an
ancient woman, and with her a lively brisk lad about twelve years old.
The lad was so ruddy and fair that his complexion gave the governor a
curiosity to ask some questions concerning him; and to his great
surprise was told that he was the son of that woman at 76 years of age.
His excellency, smiling at this improbability, enquired what sort of man
had been his father? To this the good woman made no reply, but instantly
ran and led her husband to the door, who was then above 100 years old.
He confirmed all that the woman had said about the lad, and,
notwithstanding his great age, was strong in his limbs and voice; but
had lost his sight. The woman for her part was without complaint, and
seemed to retain a vigor very uncommon at her years. Sir Edmund was so
well pleased with this extraordinary account, that, after having made
himself known to them, he offered to take care of the lad; but they
would by no means be persuaded to part with him. However, he gave them
20 pounds.
§ 142. In November 1698, Francis Nicholson, Esq., was removed from
Maryland, to be governor of Virginia. But he went not then with that
smoothness on his brow he had carried with him when he was appointed
lieutenant-governor. He talked then no more of improving of
manufactures, towns and trade. But instead of encouraging the
manufactures, he sent over inhuman memorials against them, opposite to
all reason. In one of these, he remonstrates, "that the tobacco of that
country often bears so low a price, that it would not yield clothes to
the people that make it;" and yet presently after, in the same memorial,
he recommends it to the parliament "to pass an act, forbidding the
plantations to make their own clothing;" which, in other words, is
desiring a charitable law, that the planters shall go naked. In a late
memorial concerted between him and his creature Col. Quarrey, 'tis most
humbly proposed, "that all the English colonies on the continent of
North America be reduced under one government, and under one Viceroy;
and that a standing army be there kept on foot to subdue the queen's
enemies;" surmising that they were intending to set up for themselves.
§ 143. He began his government with a shew of zeal for the church. In
the latter end of his time, one half of the intended building, that is
two sides of the square, was carried up and finished, in which were
allotted the public hall, the apartments and conveniences for several
masters and scholars, and the public offices for the domestics: the
masters and scholars were also settled in it, and it had its regular
visitations from the visitors and governors thereof.
§ 144. Soon after his accession to the government, he procured the
assembly and courts of judicature to be removed from Jamestown, where
there were good accommodations for people, to Middle Plantation, where
there were none. There he flattered himself with the fond imagination of
being the founder of a new city. He marked out the streets in many
places so as that they might represent the figure of a W, in memory of
his late majesty King William, after whose name the town was called
Williamsburg. There he procured a stately fabric to be erected, which he
placed opposite to the college, and graced it with the magnificent name
of the capitol.
§ 145. In the second year of this gentleman's government, there happened
an adventure very fortunate for him, which gave him much credit, and
that was the taking of a pirate within the capes of that country.
It fell out that several merchant ships were got ready, and fallen down
to Lynhaven bay, near the mouth of James river, in order for sailing. A
pirate being informed of this, and hearing that there was no man of war
there, except a sixth rate, ventured within the capes, and took several
of the merchant ships. But a small vessel happened to come down the bay,
and seeing an engagement between the pirate and a merchantman, made a
shift to get into the mouth of James river, where the Shoram, a fifth
rate man of war, was newly arrived. The sixth rate, commanded by Capt.
John Aldred, was then on the careen in Elizabeth river, in order for her
return to England.
The governor happened to be at that time at Kiquotan, sealing up his
letters, and Capt. Passenger, commander of the Shoram, was ashore, to
pay his respects to him. In the meanwhile news was brought that a pirate
was within the capes; upon which the captain was in haste to go aboard
his ship; but the governor stayed him a little, promising to go along
with him. The captain soon after asked his excuse, and went off, leaving
him another boat, if he pleased to follow. It was about one o'clock in
the afternoon when the news was brought; but 'twas within night before
his excellency went aboard, staying all that while ashore upon some
weighty occasions. At last he followed, and by break of day the man of
war was fairly out between the capes and the pirate; where, after ten
hours sharp engagement, the pirate was obliged to strike and surrender
upon the terms of being left to the king's mercy.
Now it happened that three men of this pirate's gang were not on board
their own ship at the time of the surrender, and so were not included in
the articles of capitulation, but were tried in that country. In summing
up the charge against them (the governor being present) the
attorney-general extolled his excellency's mighty courage and conduct,
as if the honor of taking the pirate had been due to him. Upon this,
Capt. Passenger took the freedom to interrupt Mr. Attorney in open
court, and said that he was commander of the Shoram; that the pirates
were his prisoners; and that no body had pretended to command in that
engagement but himself: he farther desired that the governor, who was
then present, would do him the justice to confess whether he had given
the least word of command all that day, or directed any one thing during
the whole fight. This, his excellency acknowledged, was true; and fairly
yielded the honor of that exploit to the captain.
§ 146. This governor likewise gained some reputation by another instance
of his management, whereby he let the world know the violent passion he
had to publish his own fame.
To get honor in New York, he had zealously recommended to the court of
England the necessity that Virginia should contribute a certain quota of
men, or else a sum of money, towards the building and maintaining a fort
at New York. The reason he gave for this, was, because New York was
their barrier, and as such, it was but justice they should help to
defend it. This was by order of his late majesty King William proposed
to the assembly; but upon the most solid reasons they humbly
remonstrated, "that neither the forts then in being, nor any other that
might be built in the province of New York, could in the least avail to
the defence and security of Virginia; for that either the French or the
northern Indians might invade that colony, and not come within an
hundred miles of any such fort." The truth of these objections are
obvious to any one that ever looked on the maps of that part of the
world. But the secret of the whole business in plain terms was this:
Those forts were necessary for New York, to enable that province to
engross the trade of the neighbor Indians, which Virginia had sometimes
shared in, when the Indians rambled to the southward.
Now the glory Col. Nicholson got in that affair was this: after he had
represented Virginia as republican and rebellious for not complying with
his proposal, he said publicly that New York should not want the 900
pounds, though he paid it out of his own pocket, and soon after took a
journey to that province.
When he arrived there, he blamed Virginia very much, but pretending
earnest desires to serve New York, gave his own bills of exchange for
900 pounds to the aforesaid use, but prudently took a defeasance from
the gentleman to whom they were given, specifying, "that till her
majesty should be graciously pleased to remit him the money out of the
quit rents of Virginia, those bills should never be made use of." This
was an admirable piece of sham generosity, and worthy of the great pains
he took to proclaim it. I myself have frequently heard him boast that he
gave this money out of his own pocket, and only depended on the queen's
bounty to repay him: though the money is not paid by him to this day.
§ 147. Neither was he contented to spread abroad this untruth there; but
he also foisted it into a memorial of Col. Quarry's to the council of
trade, in which are these words:
"As soon as Governor Nicholson found the assembly of Virginia would not
see their own interest, nor comply with her majesty's orders, he went
immediately to New York; and out of his great zeal to the queen's
service, and the security of her province, he gave his own bills for
900 pounds to answer the quota of Virginia, wholly depending on her
majesty's favor to reimburse him out of the revenues in that province.
"Certainly his excellency and Colonel Quarry, by whose joint wisdom and
sincerity this memorial was composed, must believe that the council of
trade have very imperfect intelligence how matters pass in that part of
the world, or else they would not presume to impose such a banter upon
them."
But this is nothing, if compared with some other passages of that unjust
representation, wherein they took upon them to describe the people of
"Virginia to be both numerous and rich, of republican notions and
principles such as ought to be corrected and lowered in time; and that
then, or never, was the time to maintain the queen's prerogatives, and
put a stop to those wrong, pernicious notions which were improving
daily, not only in Virginia but in all her majesty's other governments.
A frown now from her majesty will do more than an army hereafter," &c.
With those inhuman, false imputations, did those gentlemen afterwards
introduce the necessity of a standing army.
§ 148. Thus did this gentleman continue to rule till August 1705, when
Edward Nott, esq., arrived governor, and gave ease to the country by a
mild rule. His commission was to be governor-general, but part of his
salary was paid my Lord Orkney as chief. Governor Nott had the general
commission given him, because it was suggested that that method, viz:
the supreme title, would give the greater awe, and the better put the
country to rights.
§ 149. Governor Nott called an assembly the fall after his arrival, who
passed the general revisal of the laws, which had been too long in hand.
But that part of it which related to the church and clergy Mr.
Commissary could not be pleased in; wherefore that bill was dropt, and
so it lies at this day.
§ 150. This assembly also passed a new law for ports and towns,
grounding it only upon encouragements, according to her majesty's letter
to that purpose. But it seems this also could not please the Virginia
merchants in England, for they complained against it to the crown, and
so it was also suspended.
§ 151. This assembly also passed the law making slaves a real estate,
which made a great alteration in the nature of their estates, and
becomes a very good security for orphans whose parents happened to die
intestate.
§ 152. This assembly also voted a house to be built for the governor's
residence, and laid duties to raise the money for it. But his excellency
lived not to see much effected therein, being taken off by death in
August 1706. In the first year of his government the college was burnt
down to the ground.
§ 153. After this governor's death, their being no other nominated by
her majesty to succeed him, the government fell into the hands of Edmund
Jenings, Esq., the president, and the council, who held no assembly
during his time, neither did anything of note happen here. Only we heard
that Brigadier Robert Hunter received commission to be lieutenant-governor
under George, Earl of Orkney, the chief, and set out for Virginia, but was
taken prisoner into France.
§ 154. During Brigadier Hunter's confinement in France, a new commission
issued to Colonel Alexander Spotswood to be lieutenant-governor, who
arrived here in Anno 1710. He, to the extraordinary benefit of this
country, still continues governor, having improved it beyond
imagination. His conduct has produced wonders. But it would not become
me to affront his modesty by publishing those innumerable benefits of
his administration to his face; therefore I shall leave them to adorn
the brighter history of some abler penman.
BOOK II.
OF THE NATURAL PRODUCT AND CONVENIENCES OF VIRGINIA IN ITS UNIMPROVED
STATE, BEFORE THE ENGLISH WENT THITHER.
CHAPTER I.
OF THE BOUNDS AND COAST OF VIRGINIA.
§ 1. Virginia, as you have heard before, was a name at first given to
all the northern part of the continent of America; and when the original
grant was made, both to the first and second colonies, that is, to those
of Virginia and New England, they were both granted under the name of
Virginia. And afterwards, when grants for other new colonies were made
by particular names, those names for a long time served only to
distinguish them as so many parts of Virginia; and until the plantations
became more familiar to England, it was so continued. But in process of
time, the name of Virginia was lost to all except to that tract of land
lying along the bay of Chesapeake, and a little to the southward, in
which are included Virginia and Maryland; both which, in common
discourse, are still very often meant by the name of Virginia.
The least extent of bounds in any of the grants made to Virginia, since
it was settled, and which we find upon record there, is two hundred
miles north from Point Comfort, and two hundred miles south, winding
upon the sea coast to the eastward, and including all the land west and
northwest, from sea to sea, with the islands on both seas, within an
hundred miles of the main. But these extents, both on the north and
south, have been since abridged by the proprietary grants of Maryland on
the north, and Carolina on the south.
§ 2. The entrance into Virginia for shipping is by the mouth of
Chesapeake bay, which is indeed more like a river than a bay; for it
runs up into the land about two hundred miles, being everywhere near as
wide as it is at the mouth, and in many places much wider. The mouth
thereof is about seven leagues over, through which all ships pass to go
to Maryland.
The coast is a bold and even coast, with regular soundings, and is open
all the year round; so that, having the latitude, which also can hardly
be wanted upon a coast where so much clear weather is, any ship may go
in by soundings alone, by day or night, in summer or in winter, and need
not fear any disaster, if the mariners understand anything; for, let the
wind blow how it will, and chop about as suddenly as it pleases, any
master, though his ship be never so dull, has opportunity, (by the
evenness of the coast,) either of standing off and clearing the shore,
or else of running into safe harbor within the capes. A bolder and safer
coast is not known in the universe; to which conveniences, there is the
addition of good anchorage all along upon it, without the capes.
§ 3. Virginia, in the most restrained sense, distinct from Maryland, is
the spot to which I shall altogether confine this description; though
you may consider, at the same time, that there cannot be much difference
between this and Maryland, they being contiguous one to the other, lying
in the same bay, producing the same sort of commodities, and being
fallen into the same unhappy form of settlements, altogether upon
country seats, without towns. Virginia, thus considered, is bounded on
the south by North Carolina, on the north by Potomac river, which
divides it from Maryland, on the east by the main ocean, called the
Virginia seas, and on the west and northwest by the Californian sea,
whenever the settlements shall be extended so far, or now by the river
Mississippi.
This part of Virginia, now inhabited, if we consider the improvements in
the hands of the English, it cannot upon that score be commended; but if
we consider its natural aptitude to be improved, it may with justice be
accounted one of the finest countries in the world. Most of the natural
advantages of it, therefore, I shall endeavor to discover, and set in
their true light, together with its inconveniences, and afterwards
proceed to the improvements.
CHAPTER II.
OF THE WATERS.
§ 4. The largeness of the bay of Chesapeake, I have mentioned already.
From one end of it to the other, there is good anchorage, and so little
danger of a wreck, that many masters, who have never been there before,
venture up to the head of the bay, upon the slender knowledge of a
common sailor. But the experience of one voyage teaches any master to go
up afterwards without a pilot.
Besides this bay, the country is watered with four great rivers, viz:
James, York, Rappahannock, and Potomac rivers, all which are full of
convenient and safe harbors. There are also abundance of lesser rivers,
many of which are capable of receiving the biggest merchant ships, viz:
Elizabeth river, Nansemond, Chickahominy, Pocoson, Pamunkey, Mattapony,
(which two last are the two upper branches of York river,) North river,
Eastermost river, Corotoman, Wiccocomoco, Pocomoke, Chissenessick,
Pungotegue, and many others. But because they are so well described in
the large maps of Virginia, I shall forbear any farther description of
them.
These rivers are of such convenience, that for almost every half dozen
miles of their extent, there is a commodious and safe road for a whole
fleet, which gives opportunity to the masters of ships to lie up and
down straggling, according as they have made their acquaintance, riding
before that gentleman's door where they find the best reception, or
where 'tis most suitable to their business.
§ 5. These rivers are made up by the conflux of an infinite number of
crystal springs of cool and pleasant water, issuing everywhere out of
the banks and sides of the valleys. These springs flow so plentifully,
that they make the river water fresh fifty, threescore, and sometimes a
hundred miles below the flux and reflux of the tides, and sometimes
within thirty or forty miles of the bay itself. The conveniences of
these springs are so many, they are not to be numbered. I shall
therefore content myself to mention that one of supplying the country
elsewhere, except in the lowlands, with as many mills as they can find
work for; and some of these send forth such a glut of water, that in
less than a mile below the fountain head, they afford a stream
sufficient to supply a grist mill, of which there are several instances.
§ 6. The only mischief I know belonging to these rivers is, that in the
month of June annually, there rise up in the salts, vast beds of
seedling-worms, which enter the ships, sloops or boats wherever they
find the coat of pitch, tar, or lime worn off the timber, and by degrees
eat the plank into cells like those of a honey-comb. These worms
continue thus upon the surface of the water, from their rise in June
until the first great rains after the middle of July, but after that do
no fresh damage till the next summer season, and never penetrate farther
than the plank or timber they first fix upon.
The damage occasioned by these worms may be four several ways avoided.
1. By keeping the coat (of pitch, lime and tallow, or whatever
else it is) whole upon the bottom of the ship or vessel, for these
worms never fasten nor enter, but where the timber is naked.
2. By anchoring the large vessel in the strength of the tide,
during the worm season, and hauling the smaller ashore; for in the
current of a strong tide, the worm cannot fasten.
3. By burning and cleaning immediately after the worm season is
over; for then they are but just stuck into the plank, and have
not buried themselves in it; so that the least fire in the world
destroys them entirely, and prevents all damage that would
otherwise ensue from them.
4. By running up into the freshes with the ship or vessel during
the five or six weeks that the worm is thus above water; for they
never enter, nor do any damage in fresh water, or where it is not
very salt.
CHAPTER III.
OF THE EARTH AND SOILS.
§ 7. The soil is of such variety, according to the difference of
situation, that one part or other of it seems fitted to every sort of
plant that is requisite either for the benefit or pleasure of mankind.
And were it not for the high mountains to the northwest, which are
supposed to retain vast magazines of snow, and by that means cause the
wind from that quarter to descend a little too cold upon them, 'tis
believed that many of those delicious summer fruits, growing in the
hotter climates, might be kept there green all the winter without the
charge of housing, or any other care, than what is due to the natural
plants of the country, when transplanted into a garden. But as that
would be no considerable charge, any man that is curious might, with all
the ease imaginable, preserve as many of them as would gratify a
moderate luxury; and the summer affords genial heat enough to ripen them
to perfection.
There are three different kinds of land, according to the difference of
situation, either in the lower parts of the country, the middle, or that
on the heads of the rivers.
1. The land towards the mouth of the rivers is generally of a low,
moist, and fat mould, such as the heavier sort of grain delight
in: as rice, hemp, Indian corn, &c. This also is varied here and
there with veins of a cold, hungry, sandy soil, of the same
moisture, and very often lying under water. But this also has its
advantages; for on such land generally grow the huckleberries,
cranberries, chinkapins, &c. These low lands are, for the most
part, well stored with oaks, poplars, pines, cedars, cypress and
sweet gums; the trunks of which are often thirty, forty, fifty,
some sixty or seventy feet high, without a branch or limb. They
likewise produce great variety of evergreens, unknown to me by
name, besides the beauteous holly, sweet myrtle, cedar, and the
live oak, which for three quarters of the year is continually
dropping its acorns, and at the same time budding and bearing
others in their stead.
2. The land higher up the rivers, throughout the whole country, is
generally a level ground, with shallow valleys, full of streams
and pleasant springs of clear water, having interspersed here and
there among the large levels some small hills and extensive vales.
The mould in some places is black, fat, and thick laid; in others
looser, lighter and thin. The foundation of the mould is also
various; sometimes clay, then gravel and rocky stones, and
sometimes marl. The middle of the necks, or ridges between the
rivers, is generally poor, being either a light sand, or a white
or red clay, with a thin mould. Yet even these places are stored
with chestnuts, chinkapins, acorns of the shrub oak, and a reedy
grass in summer, very good for cattle. The rich lands lie next the
rivers and branches, and are stored with large oak, walnut,
hickory, ash, beech, poplar, and many other sorts of timber, of
surprising bigness.
3. The heads of the rivers afford a mixture of hills, valleys and
plains, some richer than others, whereof the fruit and timber
trees are also various. In some places lie great plats of low and
very rich ground, well timbered; in others, large spots of meadows
and savannahs, wherein are hundreds of acres without any tree at
all, but yields reeds and grass of incredible height; and in the
swamps and sunken grounds grow trees as vastly big as I believe
the world affords, and stand so close together, that the branches
or boughs of many of them lock into one another; but what lessens
their value is, that the greatest bulk of them are at some
distance from water-carriage. The land of these upper parts
affords greater variety of soil than any other, and as great
variety in the foundations of the soil or mould, of which good
judgment may be made by the plants and herbs that grow upon it.
The rivers and creeks do in many places form very fine large
marshes, which are a convenient support for their flocks and
herds.
§ 8. There is likewise found great variety of earths for physic,
cleansing, scouring, and making all sorts of potter's ware; such as
antimony, talk, yellow and red oker, fuller's-earth, pipe-clay, and
other fat and fine clays, marl, &c.; in a word, there are all kinds of
earth fit for use.
They have besides, in those upper parts, coal for firing, slate for
covering, and stones for building, and flat paving in vast quantities,
as likewise pebble stones. Nevertheless, it has been confidently
affirmed by many, who have been in Virginia, that there is not a stone
in all the country. If such travelers knew no better than they said, my
judgment of them is, that either they were people of extreme short
memories, or else of very narrow observation. For though generally the
lower parts are flat, and so free from stones, that people seldom shoe
their horses; yet in many places, and particularly near the falls of the
rivers, are found vast quantities of stone, fit for all kinds of uses.
However, as yet, there is seldom any use made of them, because commonly
wood is to be had at much less trouble; and as for coals, it is not
likely they should ever be used there in anything but forges and great
towns, if ever they happen to have any, for, in their country
plantations, the wood grows at every man's door so fast, that after it
has been cut down, it will in seven years time grow up again from seed,
to substantial fire-wood; and in eighteen or twenty years it will come
to be very good board timber.
§ 9. For mineral earths, it is believed they have great plenty and
variety, that country being in a good latitude, and having great
appearances of them. It has been proved, too, that they have both iron
and lead, as appears by what was said before concerning the iron works
set up at Falling creek in James river, where the iron proved reasonably
good; but before they got into the body of the mine, the people were cut
off in that fatal massacre, and the project has never been set on foot
since, till of late; but it has not had its full trial.
The golden mine, of which there was once so much noise, may, perhaps, be
found hereafter to be some good metal, when it comes to be fully
examined. But be that as it will, the stones that are found near it, in
great plenty, are valuable, their lustre approaching nearer to that of
the diamond than those of Bristol or Kerry. There is no other fault in
them but their softness, which the weather hardens, when they have been
sometime exposed to it, they being found under the surface of the earth.
This place has now plantations on it.
This I take to be the place in Purchase's fourth book of his pilgrim,
called Uttamussack, where was formerly the principal temple of the
country, and the metropolitan seat of the priests in Powhatan's time.
There stood the three great houses, near sixty feet in length, which he
reports to have been filled with the images of their gods; there were
likewise preserved the bodies of their kings. These houses they counted
so holy, that none but their priests and kings durst go into them, the
common people not presuming, without their particular direction, to
approach the place.
There also was their great Pawcorance, or altar stone, which, the
Indians tell us, was a solid crystal, of between three and four feet
cube, upon which, in their greatest solemnities, they used to sacrifice.
This, they would make us believe, was so clear, that the grain of a
man's skin might be seen through it; and was so heavy too that when they
removed their gods and kings, not being able to carry it away, they
buried it thereabouts; but the place has never been yet discovered.
Mr. Alexander Whittaker, minister of Henrico, on James river, in the
company's time, writing to them, says thus: "Twelve miles from the
falls there is a crystal rock, wherewith the Indians do head many of
their arrows; and three days journey from thence, there is a rock and
stony hill found, which is on the top covered over with a perfect and
most rich silver ore. Our men that went to discover those parts had but
two iron pickaxes with them, and those so ill tempered that the points
of them turned again, and bowed at every stroke, so that we could not
search the entrails of the place; yet some trial was made of that ore
with good success."
§ 10. Some people that have been in that country, without knowing any
thing of it, have affirmed that it is all a flat, without any mixture of
hills, because they see the coast to seaward perfectly level: or else
they have made their judgment of the whole country by the lands lying on
the lower parts of the rivers, (which, perhaps, they had never been
beyond,) and so conclude it to be throughout plain and even. When in
truth, upon the heads of the great rivers, there are vast high hills;
and even among the settlements there are some so topping that I have
stood upon them and viewed the country all round over the tops of the
highest trees for many leagues together; particularly, there are Mawborn
hills in the freshes of James river; a ridge of hills about fourteen or
fifteen miles up Mattapony river; Toliver's mount, upon Rappahannock
river; and the ridge of hills in Stafford county, in the freshes of
Potomac river; all which are within the bounds of the English
inhabitants. But a little farther backward, there are mountains, which
indeed deserve the name of mountains for their height and bigness; which
by their difficulty in passing may easily be made a good barrier of the
country against incursions of the Indians, &c., and shew themselves over
the tops of the trees to many plantations at 70 or 80 miles distance
very plain.
These hills are not without their advantages; for, out of almost every
rising ground, throughout the country, there issue abundance of most
pleasant streams, of pure and crystal water, than which certainly the
world does not afford any more delicious. These are every where to be
found in the upper parts of this country, and many of them flow out of
the sides of banks very high above the vales, which are the most
suitable places for gardens--where the finest water works in the world
may be made at a very small expense.
There are likewise several mineral springs, easily discoverable by their
taste, as well as by the soil which they drive out with their streams.
But I am not naturalist skilful enough to describe them with the
exactness they deserve.
CHAPTER IV.
OF THE WILD FRUITS OF THE COUNTRY.
§ 11. Of fruits natural to the country, there is great abundance, but
the several species of them are produced according to the difference of
the soil, and the various situation of the country; it being impossible
that one piece of ground should produce so many different kinds
intermixed. Of the better sorts of the wild fruits that I have met with,
I will barely give you the names, not designing a natural history. And
when I have done that, possibly I may not mention one-half of what the
country affords, because I never went out of my way to enquire after
anything of this nature.
§ 12. Of stoned fruits, I have met with three good sorts, viz: Cherries,
plums and persimmons.
1. Of cherries natural to the country, and growing wild in the
woods, I have seen three sorts. Two of these grow upon trees as
big as the common English white oak, whereof one grows in bunches
like grapes. Both these sorts are black without, and but one of
them red within. That which is red within, is more palatable than
the English black cherry, as being without its bitterness. The
other, which hangs on the branch like grapes, is water colored
within, of a faintish sweet, and greedily devoured by the small
birds. The third sort is called the Indian cherry, and grows
higher up in the country than the others do. It is commonly found
by the sides of rivers and branches on small slender trees, scarce
able to support themselves, about the bigness of the peach trees
in England. This is certainly the most delicious cherry in the
world; it is of a dark purple when ripe, and grows upon a single
stalk like the English cherry, but is very small, though, I
suppose, it may be made larger by cultivation, if anybody would
mind it. These, too, are so greedily devoured by the small birds,
that they won't let them remain on the tree long enough to ripen;
by which means, they are rarely known to any, and much more rarely
tasted, though, perhaps, at the same time they grow just by the
houses.
2. The plums, which I have observed to grow wild there, are of two
sorts, the black and the Murrey plum, both which are small, and
have much the same relish with the damson.
3. The persimmon is by Heriot called the Indian plum; and so
Smith, Purchase, and Du Lake, call it after him; but I can't
perceive that any of those authors had ever heard of the sorts I
have just now mentioned, they growing high up in the country.
These persimmons, amongst them, retain their Indian name. They are
of several sizes, between the bigness of a damson plum and a
burgamot pear. The taste of them is so very rough, it is not to be
endured till they are fully ripe, and then they are a pleasant
fruit. Of these, some vertuosi make an agreeable kind of beer, to
which purpose they dry them in cakes, and lay them up for use.
These, like most other fruits there, grow as thick upon the trees
as ropes of onions: the branches very often break down by the
mighty weight of the fruit.
§ 13. Of berries there is a great variety, and all very good in their
kinds. Our mulberries are of three sorts, two black and one white; the
long black sort are the best, being about the bigness of a boy's thumb;
the other two sorts are of the shape of the English mulberry, short and
thick, but their taste does not so generally please, being of a faintish
sweet, without any tartness. They grow upon well spread, large bodied
trees, which run up surprisingly fast. These are the proper food of the
silk-worm.
1. There grow naturally two sorts of currants, one red and the
other black, more sweet than those of the same color in England.
They grow upon small bushes, or slender trees.
2. There are three sorts of hurts, or huckleberries, upon bushes,
from two to ten feet high. They grow in the valleys and sunken
grounds, having different relishes; but are all pleasing to the
taste. The largest sort grow upon the largest bushes, and, I
think, are the best berries.
3. Cranberries grow in the low lands and barren sunken grounds,
upon low bushes, like the gooseberry, and are much of the same
size. They are of a lively red, when gathered and kept in water,
and make very good tarts. I believe these are the berries which
Captain Smith compared to the English gooseberry, and called
Rawcomens; having, perhaps, seen them only on the bushes, where
they are always very sour.
4. The wild raspberry is by some there preferred to those that
were transplanted thither from England; but I cannot be of their
opinion.
5. Strawberries they have, as delicious as any in the world, and
growing almost every where in the woods and fields. They are eaten
almost by all creatures; and yet are so plentiful that very few
persons take care to transplant them, but can find enough to fill
their baskets, when they have a mind, in the deserted old fields.
§ 14. There grow wild several sorts of good nuts, viz.: chestnuts,
chinkapins, hazelnuts, hickories, walnuts, &c.
1. Chestnuts are found upon very high trees, growing in barren
ridges. They are something less than the French chestnut; but, I
think not differing at all in taste.
2. Chinkapins have a taste something like a chestnut, and grow in
a husk or bur, being of the same sort of substance, but not so big
as an acorn. They grow upon large bushes, some about as high as
the common apple trees in England, and either in the high or low,
but always barren ground.
3. Hazelnuts are there in infinite plenty, in all the swamps; and
towards the heads of the rivers, whole acres of them are found
upon the high land.
4. Hickory nuts are of several sorts, all growing upon great
trees, and in an husk, like the French walnut, except that the
husk is not so thick, and more apt to open. Some of these nuts are
inclosed in so hard a shell, that a light hammer will hardly crack
them; and when they are cracked, their kernel is fastened with so
firm a web, that there is no coming at it. Several other sorts I
have seen with thinner shells, whose kernels may be got with less
trouble. There are also several sorts of hickories, called pig
nuts, some of which have as thin a shell as the best French
walnuts, and yield their meat very easily; they are all of the
walnut kind.
5. They have a sort of walnut they call black walnuts, which are
as big again as any I ever saw in England, but are very rank and
oily, having a thick, hard, foul shell, and come not clear of the
husk as the walnut in France doth; but the inside of the nut, and
leaves, and growing of the tree, declare it to be of the walnut
kind.
6. Their woods likewise afford a vast variety of acorns, seven
sorts of which have fallen under my observation. That which grows
upon the live oak, buds, ripens and drops off the tree, almost the
whole year around. All their acorns are very fat and oily; but the
live oak acorn is much more so than the rest, and I believe the
making of oil of them would turn to a good account; but now they
only serve as mast for the hogs and other wild creatures, as do
all the other fruits aforementioned, together with several other
sorts of mast growing upon the beach, pine and other trees. The
same use is made also of diverse sorts of pulse and other fruits
growing upon wild vines; such as peas, beans, vetches, squashes,
maycocks, maracocks, melons, cucumbers, lupines, and an infinity
of other sorts of fruits, which I cannot name.
§ 15. Grapes grow wild there in an incredible plenty and variety, some
of which are very sweet and pleasant to the taste; others rough and
harsh, and perhaps fitter for wine or brandy. I have seen great trees
covered with single vines, and those vines almost hid with the grapes.
Of these wild grapes, besides those large ones in the mountains,
mentioned by Batt in his discovery, I have observed four very different
kinds, viz:
1. One of these sorts grows among the sand banks upon the edges of
the low grounds, and islands next the bay and sea, and also in the
swamps and breaches of the uplands. They grow thin in small
bunches, and upon very low vines. These are noble grapes; and
though they are wild in the woods, are as large as the Dutch
gooseberry. One species of them is white, others purple, blue and
black, but all much alike in flavor; and some long, some round.
2. A second kind is produced throughout the whole country, in the
swamps and sides of hills. These also grow upon small vines, and
in small bunches; but are themselves the largest grapes, as big as
the English bullace, and of a rank taste when ripe, resembling the
smell of a fox, from whence they are called fox grapes. Both these
sorts make admirable tarts, being of a fleshy substance, and
perhaps, if rightly managed, might make good raisins.
3. There are two species more that are common to the whole
country, some of which are black, and some blue on the outside,
and some white. They grow upon vast large vines, and bear very
plentifully. The nice observer might perhaps distinguish them into
several kinds, because they differ in color, size, and relish; but
I shall divide them only into two, viz: the early and the late
ripe. The early ripe common grape is much larger, sweeter and
better than the other. Of these some are quite black, and others
blue, and some white or yellow; some also ripen three weeks or a
month before the other. The distance of their ripening, is from
the latter end of August to the latter end of October. The late
ripe common grapes are less than any of the other, neither are
they so pleasant to the taste. They hang commonly till the latter
end of November, or till Christmas; all that I have seen of these
are black. Of the former of these two sorts, the French refugees
at the Monacan town made a sort of claret, though they were
gathered off of the wild vines in the woods. I was told by a very
good judge who tasted it, that it was a pleasant, strong, and full
bodied wine. From which we may conclude, that if the wine was but
tolerable good when made of the wild grape, which is shaded by the
woods from the sun, it would be much better if produced of the
same grape cultivated in a regular vineyard.
The year before the massacre, Anno 1622, which destroyed so many good
projects for Virginia, some French vignerons were sent thither to make
an experiment of their vines. These people were so in love with the
country, that the character they then gave of it in their letters to the
company in England, was very much to its advantage, namely: "That it far
excelled their own country of Languedoc, the vines growing in great
abundance and variety all over the land; that some of the grapes were of
that unusual bigness, that they did not believe them to be grapes, until
by opening them they had seen their kernels; that they had planted the
cuttings of their vines at Michaelmas, and had grapes from those very
cuttings the spring following. Adding in the conclusion, that they had
not heard of the like in any other country." Neither was this out of the
way, for I have made the same experiment, both of their natural vine and
of the plants sent thither from England.
The copies of the letters, here quoted, to the company in England, are
still to be seen; and Purchase, in his fourth volume of pilgrims, has
very justly quoted some of them.
§ 16. The honey and sugar trees are likewise spontaneous near the heads
of the rivers. The honey tree bears a thick swelling pod, full of honey,
appearing at a distance like the bending pod of a bean or pea; it is
very like the carob tree in the herbals. The sugar tree yields a kind of
sap or juice, which by boiling is made into sugar. This juice is drawn
out by wounding the trunk of the tree, and placing a receiver under the
wound. It is said that the Indians make one pound of sugar out of eight
pounds of the liquor. Some of this sugar I examined very carefully. It
was bright and moist, with a large, full grain, the sweetness of it
being like that of good muscovado.
Though this discovery has not been made by the English above 28 or
thirty years, yet it has been known among the Indians before the English
settled there. It was found out by the English after this manner: The
soldiers which were kept on the land frontiers to clear them of the
Indians, taking their range through a piece of low ground about forty
miles above the then inhabited parts of Potomac river, and resting
themselves in the woods of those low grounds, observed an inspissate
juice, like molasses, distilling from the tree. The heat of the sun had
candied some of this juice, which gave the men a curiosity to taste it.
They found it sweet, and by this process of nature learned to improve it
into sugar. But the Christian inhabitants are now settled where many of
these trees grow, but it hath not yet been tried, whether for quantity
or quality it may be worth while to cultivate this discovery.
Thus the Canada Indians make sugar of the sap of a tree. And Peter
Martyr mentions a tree that yields the like sap, but without any
description. The eleomeli of the ancients, a sweet juice like honey, is
said to be got by wounding the olive tree; and the East Indians extract
a sort of sugar, they call jagra, from the juice, or potable liquor,
that flows from the coco tree. The whole process of boiling, graining
and refining of which, is accurately set down by the authors of Hortus
Malabaricus.
§ 17. At the mouth of their rivers, and all along upon the sea and bay,
and near many of their creeks and swamps, grows the myrtle, bearing a
berry, of which they make a hard brittle wax, of a curious green color,
which by refining becomes almost transparent. Of this they make candles,
which are never greasy to the touch, nor melt with lying in the hottest
weather; neither does the snuff of these ever offend the smell like that
of a tallow candle; but instead of being disagreeable, if an accident
put a candle out, it yields a pleasant fragrancy to all that are in the
room; insomuch, that nice people often put them out, on purpose to have
the incense of the expiring snuff.
The melting of these berries is said to have been first found out by a
surgeon in New England, who performed wonderful things, with a salve
made of them. This discovery is very modern, notwithstanding these
countries have been so long settled.
The method of managing these berries is by boiling them in water, till
they come to be entirely dissolved, except the stone or seed in the
middle, which amounts in quantity to about half the bulk of the berry;
the biggest of which is something less than a corn of pepper.
There are also in the plains, and rich low grounds of the freshes,
abundance of hops, which yield their product without any labor of the
husbandman, in weeding, hilling or poling.
§ 18. All over the country is interspersed here and there a surprising
variety of curious plants and flowers. They have a sort of briar,
growing something like the sarsaparilla. The berry of this is as big as
a pea, and as round, the seed being of a bright crimson color. It is
very hard, and finely polished by nature, so that it might be put to
diverse ornamental uses, as necklaces are, &c.
There are several woods, plants and earths, which have been fit for the
dying of curious colors. They have the puccoon and musquaspen, two
roots, with which the Indians use to paint themselves red. And a berry,
which grows upon a wild briar, dyes a handsome blue. There is the sumac
and the sassafras, which make a deep yellow. Mr. Heriot tells us of
several others which he found at Pamtego, and gives the Indian names of
them; but that language being not understood by the Virginians, I am not
able to distinguish which he means. Particularly he takes notice of
wasebur, an herb; chapacour, a root; and tangomockonominge, a bark.
There's the snake root, so much admired in England for a cordial, and
for being a great antidote in all pestilential distempers.
There's the rattlesnake root, to which no remedy was ever yet found
comparable; for it effectually cures the bite of a rattlesnake, which
sometimes has been mortal in two minutes. If this medicine be early
applied, it presently removes the infection, and in two or three hours
restores the patient to as perfect health as if he had never been hurt.
The Jamestown weed (which resembles the thorny apple of Peru, and I take
to be the plant so called) is supposed to be one of the greatest coolers
in the world. This being an early plant, was gathered very young for a
boiled salad, by some of the soldiers sent thither to quell the
rebellion of Bacon; and some of them eat plentifully of it, the effect
of which was a very pleasant comedy; for they turned natural fools upon
it for several days: one would blow up a feather in the air; another
would dart straws at it with much fury; and another stark naked was
sitting up in a corner, like a monkey, grinning and making mows at them;
a fourth would fondly kiss and paw his companions, and snear in their
faces, with a countenance more antic than any in a Dutch droll. In this
frantic condition they were confined, lest they should in their folly
destroy themselves; though it was observed that all their actions were
full of innocence and good nature. Indeed, they were not very cleanly,
for they would have wallowed in their own excrements if they had not
been prevented. A thousand such simple tricks they played, and after
eleven days returned to themselves again, not remembering anything that
had passed.
Perhaps this was the same herb that Mark Antony's army met with in his
retreat from the Parthian war and siege of Phraata, when such as had
eaten thereof employed themselves with much earnestness and industry in
grubbing up stones, and removing them from one place to another, as if
it had been a business of the greatest consequence. Wine, as the story
says, was found a sovereign remedy for it, which is likely enough, the
malignity of this herb being cold.
Of spontaneous flowers they have an unknown variety: the finest crown
imperial in the world; the cardinal flower, so much extolled for its
scarlet color, is almost in every branch; the moccasin flower, and a
thousand others not yet known to English herbalists. Almost all the year
round the levels and vales are beautified with flowers of one kind or
other, which make their woods as fragrant as a garden. From the
materials, their wild bees make vast quantities of honey, but their
magazines are very often rifled by bears, raccoons, and such like
liquorish vermin.
About the year 1701, walking out to take the air, I found, a little
without my pasture fence, a flower as big as a tulip, and upon a stalk
resembling the stalk of a tulip. The flower was of a flesh color, having
a down upon one end, while the other was plain. The form of it resembled
the pudenda of a man and woman lovingly joined in one. Not long after I
had discovered this rarity, and while it was still in bloom, I drew a
grave gentleman, about an hundred yards out of his way, to see this
curiosity, not telling him anything more than that it was a rarity, and
such perhaps as he had never seen nor heard of. When we arrived at the
place, I gathered one of them, and put it into his hand, which he had no
sooner cast his eye upon, but he threw it away with indignation, as
being ashamed of this waggery of nature. It was impossible to persuade
him to touch it again, or so much as to squint towards so immodest a
representation. Neither would I presume to mention such an indecency,
but that I thought it unpardonable to omit a production so
extraordinary.
There is also found the fine tulip-bearing laurel tree, which has the
pleasantest smell in the world, and keeps blossoming and seeding several
months together. It delights much in gravelly branches of chrystal
streams, and perfumes the very woods with its odor. So also do the large
tulip tree, which we call a poplar, the locust, which resembles much
the jasmine, and the perfuming crab tree, during their season. With one
sort or other of these, as well as many other sweet-flowering trees not
named, the vales are almost everywhere adorned, and yield a surprising
variety to divert the traveler.
They find a world of medicinal plants likewise in that country, and
amongst the rest the planters pretend to have a swamp-root, which
infallibly cures all fevers and agues. The bark of the sassafras tree
and wild cherry tree have been experimented to partake very much of the
virtue of the cortex peruviana. The bark of the root, of that which we
call the prickly ash, being dried and powdered, has been found to be a
specific in old ulcers and long running sores. Infinite is the number of
other valuable vegetables of every kind; but natural history not having
been my study, I am unwilling to do wrong to my subject by an unskillful
description.
§ 19. Several kinds of the creeping vines bearing fruit, the Indians
planted in their gardens or fields, because they would have plenty of
them always at hand; such as muskmelons, watermelons, pompions, cushaws,
macocks and gourds.
1. Their muskmelons resemble the large Italian kind, and generally
fill four or five quarts.
2. Their watermelons were much more large, and of several kinds,
distinguished by the color of their meat and seed; some are red,
some yellow, and others white meated; and so of the seed, some are
yellow, some red, and some black; but these are never of different
colors in the same melon. This fruit the Muscovites call arpus;
the Turks and Tartars karpus, because they are extremely cooling.
The Persians call them hindnanes, because they had the first seed
of them from the Indies. They are excellently good, and very
pleasant to the taste, as also to the eye; having the rind of a
lively green color, streaked and watered, the meat of a carnation,
and the seed black and shining, while it lies in the melon.
3. Their pompions I need not describe, but must say they are much
larger and finer than any I ever heard of in England.
4. Their cushaws are a kind of pompion, of a bluish green color,
streaked with white, when they are fit for use. They are larger
than the pompions, and have a long narrow neck. Perhaps this may
be the ecushaw of T. Harriot.
5. Their macocks are a sort of melopepones, or lesser sort of
pompion or cushaw. Of these they have great variety; but the
Indian name macock serves for all, which name is still retained
among them. Yet the clypeatæ are sometimes called cymnels, (as are
some others also,) from the lenten cake of that name, which many
of them very much resemble. Squash, or squanter-squash, is their
name among the northern Indians, and so they are called in New
York and New England. These being boiled whole, when the apple is
young, and the shell tender, and dished with cream or butter,
relish very well with all sorts of butcher's meat, either fresh or
salt. And whereas the pompion is never eaten till it be ripe,
these are never eaten after they are ripe.
6. The Indians never eat the gourds, but plant them for other
uses. Yet the Persians, who likewise abound with this sort of
fruit, eat the cucurbita lagenaris, which they call kabach,
boiling it while it is green, before it comes to its full
maturity, for when it is ripe the rind dries, and grows as hard as
the bark of a tree, and the meat within is so consumed and dried
away, that there is then nothing left but the seed, which the
Indians take clean out, and afterwards use the shells, instead of
flagons and cups, as is done also in several other parts of the
world.
7. The maracock, which is the fruit of what we call the passion
flower, our natives did not take the pains to plant, having enough
of it growing everywhere, though they often eat it; this fruit is
about the size of a pullet's egg.
§ 20. Besides all these, our natives had originally amongst them Indian
corn, peas, beans, potatoes and tobacco.
This Indian corn was the staff of food upon which the Indians did ever
depend; for when sickness, bad weather, war, or any other ill accident
kept them from hunting, fishing and fowling, this, with the addition of
some peas, beans, and such other fruits of the earth, as were then in
season, was the family's dependence, and the support of their women and
children.
There are four sorts of Indian corn: two of which are early ripe, and
two late ripe, all growing in the same manner; every single grain of
this when planted produces a tall upright stalk, which has several ears
hanging on the sides of it, from six to ten inches long. Each ear is
wrapt up in a cover of many folds, to protect it from the injuries of
the weather. In every one of these ears are several rows of grain, set
close to one another, with no other partition but of a very thin husk.
So that oftentimes the increase of this grain amounts to above a
thousand for one.
The two sorts which are early ripe, are distinguished only by the size,
which shows itself as well in the grain as in the ear and the stalk.
There is some difference also in the time of ripening.
The lesser size of early ripe corn yields an ear not much larger than
the handle of a case knife, and grows upon a stalk between three and
four feet high. Of this may be made two crops in a year, and perhaps
there might be heat enough in England to ripen it.
The larger sort differs from the former only in largeness, the ear of
this being seven or eight inches long, as thick as a child's leg, and
growing upon a stalk nine or ten feet high. This is fit for eating about
the latter end of June, whereas the smaller sort (generally speaking)
affords ears fit to roast by the middle of June. The grains of both
these sorts are as plump and swelled as if the skin were ready to
burst.
The late ripe corn is diversified by the shape of the grain only,
without any respect to the accidental differences in color, some being
blue, some red, some yellow, some white, and some streaked. That
therefore which makes the distinction, is the plumpness or shriveling of
the grain; the one looks as smooth and as full as the early ripe corn,
and this they call flint corn; the other has a larger grain, and looks
shriveled, with a dent on the back of the grain, as if it had never come
to perfection; and this they call she corn. This is esteemed by the
planters as the best for increase, and is universally chosen by them for
planting; yet I can't see but that this also produces the flint corn,
accidentally among the other.
All these sorts are planted alike in rows, three, four or five grains in
a hill; the larger sort at four or five feet distance, the lesser sort
nearer. The Indians used to give it one or two weedings, and make a hill
about it, and so the labor was done. They likewise plant a bean in the
same hill with the corn, upon whose stalk it sustains itself.
The Indians sowed peas sometimes in the intervals of the rows of corn,
but more generally in a patch of ground by themselves. They have an
unknown variety of them, (but all of a kidney shape,) some of which I
have met with wild; but whence they had their Indian corn I can give no
account; for I don't believe that it was spontaneous in those parts.
Their potatoes are either red or white, about as long as a boy's leg,
and sometimes as long and big as both the leg and thigh of a young
child, and very much resembling it in shape. I take these kinds to be
the same with those which are represented in the herbals to be Spanish
potatoes. I am sure those called English or Irish potatoes are nothing
like these, either in shape, color or taste. The way of propagating
potatoes there, is by cutting the small ones to pieces, and planting the
cuttings in hills of loose earth; but they are so tender, that it is
very difficult to preserve them in the winter, for the least frost
coming at them, rots and destroys them, and therefore people bury 'em
under ground, near the fire-hearth, all the winter, until the time comes
that their seedings are to be set.
How the Indians ordered their tobacco I am not certain, they now
depending chiefly upon the English for what they smoke; but I am
informed they used to let it all run to seed, only succoring the leaves
to keep the sprouts from growing upon, and starving them; and when it
was ripe they pulled off the leaves, cured them in the sun, and laid
them up for use. But the planters make a heavy bustle with it now, and
can't please the market neither.
CHAPTER V.
OF THE FISH.
§ 21. As for fish, both of fresh and salt water, of shell fish, and
others, no country can boast of more variety, greater plenty, or of
better in their several kinds.
In the spring of the year herrings come up in such abundance into their
brooks and fords to spawn, that it is almost impossible to ride through
without treading on them. Thus do those poor creatures expose their own
lives to some hazard, out of their care to find a more convenient
reception for their young, which are not yet alive. Thence it is that at
this time of the year the freshes of the rivers, like that of the
Broadruck, stink of fish.
Besides these herrings, there come up likewise into the freshes from the
sea multitudes of shad, rock, sturgeon, and some few lampreys, which
fasten themselves to the shad, as the remora of Imperatus is said to do
to the shark of Tiburone. They continue their stay there about three
months. The shads at their first coming up are fat and fleshy; but they
waste so extremely in milting and spawning, that at their going down
they are poor, and seem fuller of bones, only because they have less
flesh. It is upon this account (I suppose) that those in the Severn,
which in Gloucester they call twaits, are said at first to want those
intermusculary bones, which afterwards they abound with. As these are in
the freshes, so the salts afford at certain times of the year many other
kinds of fish in infinite shoals, such as the old-wife, a fish not much
unlike an herring, and the sheep's-head, a sort of fish, which they
esteem in the number of their best.
§ 22. There is likewise great plenty of other fish all the summer long;
and almost in every part of the rivers and brooks, there are found of
different kinds. Wherefore I shall not pretend to give a detail of them,
but venture to mention the names only of such as I have eaten and seen
myself, and so leave the rest to those that are better skilled in
natural history. However, I may add, that besides all those that I have
met with myself, I have heard of a great many very good sorts, both in
the salts and freshes; and such people, too, as have not always spent
their time in that country, have commended them to me beyond any they
had ever eaten before.
Those which I know of myself I remember by the names of herring, rock,
sturgeon, shad, old-wife, sheep's-head, black and red drum, trout,
taylor, green-fish, sun-fish, bass, chub, place, flounder, whiting,
fatback, maid, wife, small-turtle, crab, oyster, mussel, cockle, shrimp,
needle-fish, breme, carp, pike, jack, mullet, eel, conger-eel, perch,
and cat, &c.
Those which I remember to have seen there, of the kinds that are not
eaten, are the whale, porpus, shark, dog-fish, garr, stingray,
thornback, saw-fish, toad-fish, frog-fish, land-crab, fiddler, and
periwinckle. One day as I was hauling a sein upon the salts, I caught a
small fish about two inches and an half long, in shape something
resembling a scorpion, but of a dirty, dark color. I was a little shy of
handling it, though I believe there was no hurt in it. This I judge to
be that fish which Mr. Purchase in his Pilgrims, and Captain Smith in
his General History, page 125, affirm to be extremely like St. George's
Dragon, except only that it wants feet and wings. Governor Spotswood has
one of them dried in full shape.
§ 23. Before the arrival of the English there the Indians had fish in
such vast plenty, that the boys and girls would take a pointed stick and
strike the lesser sort as they swam upon the flats. The larger fish,
that kept in deeper water, they were put to a little more difficulty to
take. But for these they made weirs, that is, a hedge of small riv'd
sticks, or reeds, of the thickness of a man's finger. These they wove
together in a row, with straps of green oak, or other tough wood, so
close that the small fish could not pass through. Upon high water mark
they pitched one end of this hedge, and the other they extended into the
river, to the depth of eight or ten feet, fastening it with stakes,
making cods out from the hedge on one side almost at the end, and
leaving a gap for the fish to go into them, which were contrived so that
the fish could easily find their passage into those cods when they were
at the gap, but not see their way out again when they were in. Thus, if
they offered to pass through, they were taken.
Sometimes they made such a hedge as this quite across a creek at high
water, and at low would go into the run, then contracted into a narrow
stream, and take out what fish they pleased.
At the falls of the rivers, where the water is shallow, and the current
strong, the Indians use another kind of weir, thus made: They make a dam
of loose stone, whereof there is plenty at hand, quite across the river,
leaving one, two or more spaces or tunnels for the water to pass
through; at the mouth of which they set a pot of reeds, wove in form of
a cone, whose base is about three feet, and perpendicular ten, into
which the swiftness of the current carries the fish, and there lodges
them.
The Indian way of catching sturgeon, when they came into the narrow part
of the rivers, was by a man's clapping a noose over their tails, and by
keeping fast his hold. Thus a fish finding itself entangled would
flounce, and often pull the man under water, and then that man was
counted a cockarouse, or brave fellow, that would not let go; till with
swimming, wading and diving, he had tired the sturgeon, and brought it
ashore. These sturgeons would also often leap into their canoes in
crossing the river, as many of them do still every year into the boats
of the English.
They have also another way of fishing like those on the Euxine sea, by
the help of a blazing fire by night. They make a hearth in the middle of
their canoe, raising it within two inches of the edge; upon this they
lay their burning lightwood, split into small shivers, each splinter
whereof will blaze and burn, end for end, like a candle: 'Tis one man's
work to attend his fire and keep it flaming. At each end of the canoe
stands an Indian, with a gig or pointed spear, setting the canoe
forward, with the butt end of the spear, as gently as he can, by that
means stealing upon the fish without any noise, or disturbing of the
water. Then they with great dexterity dart these spears into the fish,
and so take them. Now there is a double convenience in the blaze of this
fire, for it not only dazzles the eyes of the fish, which will lie
still, glaring upon it, but likewise discovers the bottom of the river
clearly to the fisherman, which the daylight does not.
The following print, I may justly affirm to be a very true
representation of the Indian fishery.
[Illustration: _Lith. of Ritchies & Dunnavant Richmond, Va._
Tab: 1. Book 2. Pag: 120]
TAB. I. Represents the Indians in a canoe with a fire in the middle,
attended by a boy and a girl. In one end is a net made of silk grass,
which they use in fishing their weirs. Above is the shape of their
weirs, and the manner of setting a weir wedge across the mouth of a
creek.
NOTE. That in fishing their weirs they lay the side of the canoe
to the cods of the weir, for the more convenient coming at them,
and not with the end going into the cods, as is set down in the
print: but we could not otherwise represent it here, lest we
should have confounded the shape of the weir with the canoe.
In the air you see a fishing hawk flying away with a fish, and a
bald eagle pursuing to take it from him; the bald eagle has always
his head and tail white, and they carry such a lustre with them
that the white thereof may be discerned as far as you can see the
shape of the bird, and seems as if it were without feathers, and
thence it has its name bald eagle.
§ 24. 'Tis a good diversion to observe, the manner of the fishing-hawk's
preying upon fish, which may be seen every fair day all the summer long,
and especially in a morning. At the first coming of the fish in the
spring, these birds of prey are surprisingly eager. I believe, in the
dead of winter, they fish farther off at sea, or remain among the craggy
uninhabited islands upon the sea coast. I have often been pleasantly
entertained by seeing these hawks take the fish out of the water, and as
they were flying away with their quarry, the bald eagles take it from
them again. I have often observed the first of these hover over the
water and rest upon the wing some minutes together, without the least
change of place, and then from a vast height dart directly into the
water, and there plunge down for the space of half a minute or more, and
at last bring up with him a fish which he could hardly rise with; then,
having got upon the wing again, he would shake himself so powerfully
that he threw the water like a mist about him; afterwards away he'd fly
to the woods with his game, if he were not overlooked by the bald eagle
and robbed by the way, which very frequently happens. For the bald eagle
no sooner perceives a hawk that has taken his prey but he immediately
pursues and strives to get above him in the air, which if he can once
attain, the hawk for fear of being torn by him, lets the fish drop, and
so by the loss of his dinner compounds for his own safety. The poor fish
is no sooner loosed from the hawk's talons, but the eagle shoots himself
with wonderful swiftness after it, and catches it in the air, leaving
all further pursuit of the hawk, which has no other remedy but to go and
fish for another.
Walking once with a gentleman in an orchard by the river side, early in
the spring, before the fish were by us perceived to appear in shoal
water or near the shores, and before any had been caught by the people,
we heard a great noise in the air just over our heads, and looking up we
saw an eagle in close pursuit of a hawk that had a great fish in his
pounces. The hawk was as low as the apple trees before he would let go
his fish, thinking to recover the wood which was just by, where the
eagles dare never follow, for fear of bruising themselves. But,
notwithstanding the fish was dropped so low, and though it did not fall
above thirty yards from us, yet we with our hollowing, running and
casting up our hats, could hardly save the fish from the eagle, and if
it had been let go two yards higher he would have got it: but we at last
took possession of it alive, carried it home, and had it dressed
forthwith. It served five of us very plentifully for a breakfast, and
some to the servants. This fish was a rock near two feet long, very fat,
and a great rarity for the time of year, as well as for the manner of
its being taken.
These fishing hawks, in more plentiful seasons, will catch a fish and
loiter about with it in the air, on purpose to have chase with an eagle;
and when he does not appear soon enough the hawk will make a saucy
noise, and insolently defy him. This has been frequently seen by persons
who have observed their fishings.
CHAPTER VI.
OF WILD FOWL AND HUNTED GAME.
§ 25. As in summer, the rivers and creeks are filled with fish, so in
winter they are in many places covered with fowl. There are such a
multitude of swans, geese, brants, sheldrakes, ducks of several sorts,
mallard, teal, blewings, and many other kinds of water fowl, that the
plenty of them is incredible. I am but a small sportsman, yet with a
fowling piece have killed above twenty of them at a shot. In like manner
are the mill ponds and great runs in the woods stored with these wild
fowl at certain seasons of the year.
§ 26. The shores, marshy grounds, swamps and savannahs are also stored
with the like plenty of other game of all sorts, as cranes, curlews,
herons, snipes, woodcocks, saurers, ox-eyes, plovers, larks, and many
other good birds for the table that they have not yet found a name for.
Not to mention beavers, otters, musk rats, minxes, and an infinite
number of other wild creatures.
§ 27. Although the inner lands want these benefits, (which, however, no
pond or plash is without,) yet even they have the advantage of wild
turkeys, of an incredible bigness, pheasants, partridges, pigeons, and
an infinity of small birds, as well as deer, hares, foxes, raccoons,
squirrels, opossums. And upon the frontier plantations, they meet with
bears, panthers, wild cats, elks, buffaloes and wild hogs, which yield
pleasure as well as profit to the sportsman. And though some of these
names may seem frightful to the English, who hear not of them in their
own country, yet they are not so there, for all these creatures ever
fly from the face of man, doing no damage but to the cattle and hogs,
which the Indians never troubled themselves about.
Here I cannot omit a strange rarity in the female opossum, which I
myself have seen. They have a false belly, or loose skin quite over the
belly; this never sticks to the flesh of the belly, but may be looked
into at all times, after they have been concerned in procreation. In the
hinderpart of this is an aperture big enough for a small hand to pass
into: hither the young ones, after they are full haired, and strong
enough to run about, do fly whenever any danger appears, or when they go
to rest or suck. This they continue till they have learned to live
without the dam: but what is yet stranger, the young ones are bred in
this false belly without ever being within the true one. They are formed
at the teat, and there they grow for several weeks together into perfect
shape, becoming visibly larger, till at last they get strength, sight
and hair; and then they drop off and rest in this false belly, going in
and out at pleasure. I have observed them thus fastened at the teat from
the bigness of a fly until they become as large as a mouse. Neither is
it any hurt to the old one to open this budget and look in upon her
young.
§ 28. The Indians had no other way of taking their water or land fowl,
but by the help of bows and arrows. Yet so great was their plenty, that
with this weapon only they killed what numbers they pleased. And when
the water fowl kept far from shore (as in warmer weather they sometimes
did) they took their canoes and paddled after them.
But they had a better way of killing the elks, buffaloes, deer, and
greater game, by a method which we call fire hunting: that is, a company
of them would go together back into the woods any time in the winter,
when the leaves were falling and so dry that they would burn; and being
come to the place designed, they would fire the woods in a circle of
five or six miles compass; and when they had completed the first round
they retreated inward, each at his due distance, and put fire to the
leaves and grass afresh, to accelerate the work, which ought to be
finished with the day. This they repeat till the circle be so contracted
that they can see their game herded all together in the middle, panting
and almost stifled with heat and smoke; for the poor creatures being
frightened at the flame keep running continually round, thinking to run
from it, and dare not pass through the fire; by which means they are
brought at last into a very narrow compass. Then the Indians retreat
into the centre, and let fly their arrows at them as they pass round
within the circle; by this means, though they stand often quite clouded
in smoke, they rarely shoot each other. By this means they destroy all
the beasts collected within that circle. They make all this slaughter
chiefly for the sake of the skins, leaving most of the carcasses to
perish in the woods.
Father Verbiast, in his description of the Emperor of China's voyage
into the Eastern Tartary, Anno 1682, gives an account of a way of
hunting the Tartars have, not much unlike this; only whereas the Indians
surround their game with fire, the Tartars do it with a great body of
armed men, who having environed the ground they design to drive, march
equally inwards, which, still as the ring lessens, brings the men nearer
each other, till at length the wild beasts are encompassed with a living
wall.
The Indians have many pretty inventions to discover and come up to the
deer, turkeys and other game undiscerned; but that being an art known to
very few English there, I will not be so accessary to the destruction of
their game as to make it public. I shall therefore only tell you, that
when they go a hunting into the outlands, they commonly go out for the
whole season with their wives and family. At the place where they find
the most game they build up a convenient number of small cabins, wherein
they live during that season. These cabins are both begun and finished
in two or three days, and after the season is over they make no farther
account of them.
§ 29. This, and a great deal more, was the natural production of that
country, which the native Indians enjoyed, without the curse of
industry, their diversion alone, and not their labor, supplying their
necessities. The women and children indeed were so far provident as to
lay up some of the nuts and fruits of the earth in their season for
their farther occasions: but none of the toils of husbandry were
exercised by this happy people, except the bare planting a little corn
and melons, which took up only a few days in the summer, the rest being
wholly spent in the pursuit of their pleasures. And indeed all that the
English have done since their going thither has been only to make some
of these native pleasures more scarce, by an inordinate and unseasonable
use of them; hardly making improvements equivalent to that damage.
I shall in the next book give an account of the Indians themselves,
their religion, laws and customs; that so both the country and its
primitive inhabitants may be considered together in that original state
of nature in which the English found them. Afterwards I will treat of
the present state of the English there, and the alterations, I can't
call them improvements, they have made at this day.
BOOK III.
OF THE INDIANS, THEIR RELIGION, LAWS AND CUSTOMS, IN WAR AND PEACE.
CHAPTER I.
OF THE INDIANS AND THEIR DRESS.
§ 1. The Indians are of the middling and largest stature of the English.
They are straight and well proportioned, having the cleanest and most
exact limbs in the world. They are so perfect in their outward frame,
that I never heard of one single Indian that was either dwarfish,
crooked, bandy-legged, or otherwise misshapen. But if they have any such
practice among them as the Romans had, of exposing such children till
they died, as were weak and misshapen at their birth, they are very shy
of confessing it, and I could never yet learn that they had.
Their color, when they are grown up, is a chestnut brown and tawny; but
much clearer in their infancy. Their skin comes afterwards to harden and
grow blacker by greasing and sunning themselves. They have generally
coal black hair, and very black eyes, which are most commonly graced
with that sort of squint which many of the Jews are observed to have.
Their women are generally beautiful, possessing shape and features
agreeable enough, and wanting no charm but that of education and a fair
complexion.
§ 2. The men wear their hair cut after several fanciful fashions,
sometimes greased, and sometimes painted. The great men, or better sort,
preserve a long lock behind for distinction. They pull their beards up
by the roots with musselshells, and both men and women do the same by
the other parts of their body for cleanliness sake. The women wear the
hair of the head very long, either hanging at their backs, or brought
before in a single lock, bound up with a fillet of peak, or beads;
sometimes also they wear it neatly tied up in a knot behind. It is
commonly greased, and shining black, but never painted.
The people of condition, of both sexes, wear a sort of coronet on their
heads, from four to six inches broad, open at the top, and composed of
peak, or beads, or else of both interwoven together, and worked into
figures, made by a nice mixture of the colors. Sometimes they wear a
wreath of died furs, as likewise bracelets on their necks and arms. The
common people go bare-headed, only sticking large shining feathers about
their heads, as their fancies lead them.
§ 3. Their clothes are a large mantle, carelessly wrapped about their
bodies, and sometimes girt close in the middle with a girdle. The upper
part of this mantle is drawn close upon the shoulders, and the other
hangs below their knees. When that's thrown off, they have only for
modesty sake a piece of cloth, or a small skin tied round their waist,
which reaches down to the middle of the thigh. The common sort tie only
a string round their middle, and pass a piece of cloth or skin round
between their thighs, which they turn at each end over the string.
Their shoes, when they wear any, are made of an entire piece of
buckskin, except when they sew a piece to the bottom to thicken the
sole. They are fastened on with running strings, the skin being drawn
together like a purse on the top of the foot, and tied round the ankle.
The Indian name of this kind of shoe is moccasin.
But because a draught of these things will inform the reader more
at first view than a description in many words, I shall present him with
the following prints drawn by the life.
[Illustration: _Lith. of Ritchies & Dunnavant Richmond, Va._
Tab: 2 Book: 3 Pag 129]
TAB. II. is an Indian man in his summer dress. The upper part of his
hair is cut short to make a ridge, which stands up like the comb of a
cock, the rest is either shorn off, or knotted behind his ear. On his
head are stuck three feathers of the wild turkey, pheasant, hawk, or
such like. At his ear is hung a fine shell with pearl drops. At his
breast is a tablet, or fine shell, smooth as polished marble, which
sometimes also hath etched on it a star, half moon, or other figure,
according to the maker's fancy. Upon his neck and wrists hang strings of
beads, peak and roenoke. His apron is made of a deer skin, gashed round
the edges, which hang like tassels or fringe; at the upper end of the
fringe is an edging of peak, to make it finer. His quiver is of a thin
bark; but sometimes they make it of the skin of a fox, or young wolf,
with the head hanging to it, which has a wild sort of terror in it; and
to make it yet more warlike, they tie it on with the tail of a panther,
buffalo, or such like, letting the end hang down between their legs. The
pricked lines on his shoulders, breast and legs, represent the figures
painted thereon. In his left hand he holds a bow, and in his right an
arrow. The mark upon his shoulderblade is a distinction used by the
Indians in traveling, to show the nation they are of; and perhaps is the
same with that which Baron Lahontan calls the arms and heraldry of the
Indians. Thus the several lettered marks are used by several other
nations about Virginia, when they make a journey to their friends and
allies.
The landscape is a natural representation of an Indian field.
[Illustration: _Lith. of Ritchie & Dunnavant Richmond._
Fig. 2 Fig. 1
Tab. 3 Book 3 Pag. 129]
TAB. III is two Indian men in their winter dress. Seldom any but the
elder people wore the winter cloaks (which they call match-coats) till
they got a supply of European goods; and now most have them of one sort
or other in the cold winter weather. Fig. 1 wears the proper Indian
match-coat, which is made of skins, dressed with the fur on, sewed
together, and worn with the fur inwards, having the edges also gashed
for beauty sake. On his feet are moccasins. By him stand some Indian
cabins on the banks of the river. Fig. 2 wears the Duffield match-coat
bought of the English; on his head is a coronet of peak, on his legs are
stockings made of Duffields: that is, they take a length to reach from
the ankle to the knee, so broad as to wrap round the leg; this they sew
together, letting the edges stand out at an inch beyond the seam. When
this is on, they garter below knee, and fasten the lower end in the
moccasin.
§ 4. I don't find that the Indians have any other distinction in their
dress, or the fashion of their hair, than only what a greater degree of
riches enables them to make, except it be their religious persons, who
are known by the particular cut of the hair and the unusual figure of
their garments; as our clergy are distinguished by their canonical
habit.
The habit of the Indian priest is a cloak made in the form of a woman's
petticoat; but instead of tieing it about their middle, they fasten the
gatherings about their neck and tie it upon the right shoulder, always
keeping one arm out to use upon occasion. This cloak hangs even at the
bottom, but reaches no lower than the middle of the thigh; but what is
most particular in it is, that it is constantly made of a skin dressed
soft, with the pelt or fur on the outside, and reversed; insomuch, that
when the cloak has been a little worn the hair falls down in flakes, and
looks very shagged and frightful.
The cut of their hair is likewise peculiar to their function; for 'tis
all shaven close except a thin crest, like a cock's comb, which stands
bristling up, and runs in a semicircle from the forehead up along the
crown to the nape of the neck. They likewise have a border of hair over
the forehead, which by its own natural strength, and by the
stiffening it receives from grease and paint, will stand out like the
peak of a bonnet.
[Illustration: _Lith. of Ritchie & Dunnavant Richmond._
a Huskanaw pen.
3
Fig 2 a Priest a Conjurer Fig. 1
Tab 4 Book 3 Pag 131]
TAB. IV. Is a priest and a conjurer in their proper habits. The priest's
habit is sufficiently described above. The conjurer shaves all his hair
off, except the crest on the crown; upon his ear he wears the skin of
some dark colored bird; he, as well as the priest, is commonly grimed
with soot or the like; to save his modesty he hangs an otter skin at his
girdle, fastening the tail between his legs; upon his thigh hangs his
pocket, which is fastened by tucking it under his girdle, the bottom of
this is likewise fringed with tassels for ornament sake. In the middle
between them is the Huskanawpen spoken of § 32.
§ 5. The dress of the women is little different from that of the men,
except in the tieing of their hair. The women of distinction wear deep
necklaces, pendants and bracelets, made of small cylinders of the conch
shell, which they call peak: they likewise keep their skin clean and
shining with oil, while the men are commonly bedaubed all over with
paint.
They are remarkable for having small round breasts, and so firm, that
they are hardly ever observed to hang down, even in old women. They
commonly go naked as far as the navel downward, and upward to the middle
of the thigh, by which means they have the advantage of discovering
their fine limbs and complete shape.
[Illustration: _Lith. of Ritchie & Dunnavant Richmond._
Fig. 2 Fig. 1
Tab 5 Book 3 Pag. 131]
TAB. V. Is a couple of young women. The first wearing a coronet,
necklace and bracelet of peak; the second a wreath of furs on her head,
and her hair is bound with a fillet of peak and beads. Between the two
is a woman under a tree making a basket of silk grass after their own
manner.
[Illustration: _Lith. of Ritchies & Dunnavant Richmond, Va._
Pipe of peace v. ch. I have seen. Lahontans Calumet of peace.
a Birchen Canoe or Canoe of Bark
Tab. 6 Book 3 Pag. 132]
TAB. VI. Is a woman and a boy running after her. One of her hands rests
in her necklace of peak, and the other holds a gourd, in which they put
water or other liquid.
The boy wears a necklace of runtees, in his right hand is an Indian
rattle, and in his left a roasting ear of corn. Round his waist is a
small string, and another brought cross through his crotch, and for
decency a soft skin is fastened before.
Runtees are made of the conch shell as the peak is, only the shape is
flat and round like a cheese, and drilled edge ways.
CHAPTER II.
OF THE MARRIAGES AMONGST THE INDIANS, AND MANAGEMENT OF THEIR CHILDREN.
§ 6. The Indians have their solemnities of marriage, and esteem the vows
made at that time as most sacred and inviolable. Notwithstanding they
allow both the man and the wife to part upon disagreement, yet so great
is the disreputation of a divorce, that married people, to avoid the
character of inconstant and ungenerous, very rarely let their quarrels
proceed to a separation. However, when it does so happen, they reckon
all the ties of matrimony dissolved, and each hath the liberty of
marrying another. But infidelity is accounted the most unpardonable of
all crimes in either of the parties as long as the contract continues.
In these separations, the children go, according to the affection of the
parent, with the one or the other; for children are not reckoned a
charge among them, but rather riches, according to the blessing of the
Old Testament; and if they happen to differ about dividing their
children, their method is then to part them equally, allowing the man
the first choice.
§ 7. Though the young Indian women are said to prostitute their bodies
for wampom peak, runtees, beads, and other such like fineries; yet I
never could find any ground for the accusation, and believe it only to
be an unjust scandal upon them. This I know, that if ever they have a
child while they are single, it is such a disgrace to them that they
never after get husbands. Besides, I must do them the justice to say, I
never heard of a child any of them had before marriage, and the Indians
themselves disown any such custom; though they acknowledge, at the same
time, that the maidens are entirely at their own disposal, and may
manage their persons as they think fit.
§ 8. The manner of the Indians treating their young children is very
strange; for instead of keeping them warm, at their first entry into the
world, and wrapping them up, with I don't know how many clothes,
according to our fond custom, the first thing they do is to dip the
child over head and ears in cold water, and then to bind it naked to a
convenient board, having a hole fitly placed for evacuation; but they
always put cotton, wool, fur, or other soft things, for the body to rest
easy on, between the child and the board. In this posture they keep it
several months, till the bones begin to harden, the joints to knit, and
the limbs to grow strong; and then they let it loose from the board,
suffering it to crawl about, except when they are feeding or playing
with it.
While the child is thus at the board, they either lay it flat on its
back, or set it leaning on one end, or else hang it up by a string
fastened to the upper end of the board for that purpose; the child and
board being all this while carried about together. As our women undress
their children to clean and shift their linen, so they do theirs to wash
and grease them.
The method the women have of carrying their children after they are
suffered to crawl about, is very particular; they carry them at their
backs in summer, taking one leg of the child under their arm, and the
counter-arm of the child in their hand over their shoulder; the other
leg hanging down, and the child all the while holding fast with its
other hand; but in winter they carry them in the hollow of their
match-coat at their back, leaving nothing but the child's head out, as
appears by the figure.
[Illustration: _Lith. of Ritchies & Dunnavant Richmond._
Fig: 2. Fig: 3. Fig: 1.
Tab: 7. Book 3. Pag: 134]
[Illustration: _Lith. of Ritchies & Dunnavant Richmond._
Tab. 8 Book 3 Pag. 135]
CHAPTER III.
OF THE TOWNS, BUILDINGS AND FORTIFICATIONS OF THE INDIANS.
§ 9. The method of the Indian settlements is altogether by cohabitation,
in townships, from fifty to five hundred families in a town, and each of
these towns is commonly a kingdom. Sometimes one king has the command of
several of these towns, when they happen to be united in his hands by
descent or conquest; but in such cases there is always a vicegerent
appointed in the dependent town, who is at once governor, judge,
chancellor, and has the same power and authority which the king himself
has in the town where he resides. This viceroy is obliged to pay his
principal some small tribute, as an acknowledgment of his submission, as
likewise to follow him to his wars whenever he is required.
§ 10. The manner the Indians have of building their houses is very
slight and cheap. When they would erect a wigwam, which is the Indian
name for a house, they stick saplings into the ground by one end, and
bend the other at the top, fastening them together by strings made of
fibrous roots, the rind of trees, or of the green wood of the white oak,
which will rive into thongs. The smallest sort of these cabins are
conical like a bee-hive; but the larger are built in an oblong form, and
both are covered with the bark of trees, which will rive off into great
flakes. Their windows are little holes left open for the passage of the
light, which in bad weather they stop with shutters of the same bark,
opening the leeward windows for air and light. Their chimney, as among
the true born Irish, is a little hole on the top of the house, to let
out the smoke, having no sort of funnel, or any thing within, to
confine the smoke from ranging through the whole roof of the cabin, if
the vent will not let it out fast enough. The fire is always made in the
middle of the cabin. Their door is a pendent mat, when they are near
home; but when they go abroad they barricade it with great logs of wood
set against the mat, which are sufficient to keep out wild beasts.
There's never more than one room in a house, except in some houses of
state, or religion, where the partition is made only by mats and loose
poles.
§ 11. Their houses, or cabins, as we call them, are by this ill method
of building continually smoky when they have fire in them; but to ease
that inconvenience, and to make the smoke less troublesome to their
eyes, they generally burn pine or lightwood, (that is, the fat knots of
dead pine,) the smoke of which does not offend the eyes, but smuts the
skin exceedingly, and is perhaps another occasion of the darkness of
their complexion.
§ 12. Their seats, like those in the eastern part of the world, are the
ground itself; and as the people of distinction amongst those used
carpets, so cleanliness has taught the better sort of these to spread
match-coats and mats to sit on.
They take up their lodging in the sides of their cabins upon a couch
made of boards, sticks, or reeds, which are raised from the ground upon
forks, and covered with mats or skins. Sometimes they lie upon a bear
skin, or other thick pelt dressed with the hair on, and laid upon the
ground near a fire, covering themselves with their match-coats. In warm
weather a single mat is their only bed, and another rolled up their
pillow. In their travels, a grass plat under the covert of a shady tree,
is all the lodging they require, and is as pleasant and refreshing to
them as a down bed and fine Holland sheets are to us.
§ 13. Their fortifications consist only of a palisade, of about ten or
twelve feet high; and when they would make themselves very safe, they
treble the pale. They often encompass their whole town; but for the
most part only their king's houses, and as many others as they judge
sufficient to harbor all their people when an enemy comes against them.
They never fail to secure within their palisade all their religious
relics, and the remains of their princes. Within this inclosure, they
likewise take care to have a supply of water, and to make a place for a
fire, which they frequently dance round with great solemnity.
CHAPTER IV.
OF THEIR COOKERY AND FOOD.
§ 14. Their cookery has nothing commendable in it, but that it is
performed with little trouble. They have no other sauce but a good
stomach, which they seldom want. They boil, broil, or toast all the meat
they eat, and it is very common with them to boil fish as well as flesh
with their homony; this is Indian corn soaked, broken in a mortar,
husked, and then boiled in water over a gentle fire for ten or twelve
hours, to the consistence of frumenty: the thin of this is what my Lord
Bacon calls cream of maise, and highly commends for an excellent sort of
nutriment.
They have two ways of broiling, viz., one by laying the meat itself upon
the coals, the other by laying it upon sticks raised upon forks at some
distance above the live coals, which heats more gently, and dries up the
gravy; this they, and we also from them, call barbecueing.
They skin and paunch all sorts of quadrupeds; they draw and pluck their
fowl; but their fish they dress with their scales on, without gutting;
but in eating they leave the scales, entrails and bones to be thrown
away. They also roast their fish upon a hot hearth, covering them with
hot ashes and coals, then take them out, the scales and skin they strip
clean off, so they eat the flesh, leaving the bones and entrails to be
thrown away.
They never serve up different sorts of victuals in one dish; as roast
and boiled fish and flesh; but always serve them up in several vessels.
They bake their bread either in cakes before the fire, or in loaves on a
warm hearth, covering the loaf first with leaves, then with warm ashes,
and afterwards with coals over all.
[Illustration: _Lith. of Ritchie & Dunnavant Richmond._
Tab. 9 Book 3 Pag. 139]
TAB. IX. Represents the manner of their roasting and barbecueing, with
the form of their baskets for common uses, and carrying fish.
§ 15. Their food is fish and flesh of all sorts, and that which
participates of both; as the beaver, a small kind of turtle, or
terrapins, (as we call them,) and several species of snakes. They
likewise eat grubs, the nymphæ of wasps, some kinds of scarabæi, cicadæ,
&c. These last are such as are sold in the markets of Fess, and such as
the Arabians, Lybians, Parthians and Æthiopians commonly eat; so that
these are not a new diet, though a very slender one; and we are informed
that St. John was dieted upon locusts and wild honey.
They make excellent broth of the head and umbles of a deer, which they
put into the pot all bloody. This seems to resemble the _jus nigrum_ of
the Spartans, made with the blood and bowels of a hare. They eat not the
brains with the head, but dry them and reserve them to dress their
leather with.
They eat all sorts of peas, beans, and other pulse, both parched and
boiled. They make their bread of the Indian corn, wild oats, or the seed
of the sunflower. But when they eat their bread, they eat it alone, and
not with their meat.
They have no salt among them, but for seasoning use the ashes of
hickory, stickweed, or some other wood or plant affording a salt ash.
They delight much to feed on roasting ears; that is, the Indian corn,
gathered green and milky, before it is grown to its full bigness, and
roasted before the fire in the ear. For the sake of this diet, which
they love exceedingly, they are very careful to procure all the several
sorts of Indian corn before mentioned, by which means they contrive to
prolong their season. And indeed this is a very sweet and pleasing food.
They have growing near their towns, peaches, strawberries, cushaws,
melons, pompions, macocks, &c. The cushaws and pompions they lay by,
which will keep several months good after they are gathered; the peaches
they save by drying them in the sun; they have likewise several sorts of
the phaseoli.
In the woods, they gather chinkapins, chestnuts, hickories and walnuts.
The kernels of the hickories they beat in a mortar with water, and make
a white liquor like milk, from whence they call our milk hickory.
Hazelnuts they will not meddle with, though they make a shift with
acorns sometimes, and eat all the other fruits mentioned before, but
they never eat any sort of herbs or leaves.
They make food of another fruit called cuttanimmons, the fruit of a kind
of arum, growing in the marshes: they are like boiled peas or capers to
look on, but of an insipid earthy taste. Captain Smith in his History of
Virginia calls them ocaughtanamnis, and Theod. de Bry in his
translation, sacquenummener.
Out of the ground they dig trubs, earth nuts, wild onions, and a
tuberous root they call tuckahoe, which while crude is of a very hot and
virulent quality: but they can manage it so, as in case of necessity, to
make bread of it, just as the East Indians and those of Egypt are said
to do of colocassia, or the West Indians of cassava. It grows like a
flag in the miry marshes, having roots of the magnitude and taste of
Irish potatoes, which are easy to be dug up.
§ 16. They accustom themselves to no set meals, but eat night and day,
when they have plenty of provisions, or if they have got any thing that
is a rarity. They are very patient of hunger, when by any accident they
happen to have nothing to eat; which they make more easy to themselves
by girding up their bellies, just as the wild Arabs are said to do in
their long marches; by which means they are less sensible of the
impressions of hunger.
§ 17. Among all this variety of food, nature hath not taught them the
use of any other drink than water; which though they have in cool and
pleasant springs every where, yet they will not drink that if they can
get pond water, or such as has been warmed by the sun and weather.
Baron Lahontan tells of a sweet juice of maple, which the Indians to the
northward gave him, mingled with water; but our Indians use no such
drink. For their strong drink they are altogether beholden to us, and
are so greedy of it, that most of them will be drunk as often as they
find an opportunity; notwithstanding which it is a prevailing humor
among them, not to taste any strong drink at all, unless they can get
enough to make them quite drunk, and then they go as solemnly about it
as if it were part of their religion.
§ 18. Their fashion of sitting at meals is on a mat spread on the
ground, with their legs lying out at length before them, and the dish
between their legs; for which reason they seldom or never sit more than
two together at a dish, who may with convenience mix their legs together
and have the dish stand commodiously to them both, as appears by the
figure.
The spoons which they eat with do generally hold half a pint; and they
laugh at the English for using small ones, which they must be forced to
carry so often to their mouths that their arms are in danger of being
tired before their belly.
[Illustration: _Lith. of Ritchies & Dunnavant Richmond._
Tab. 10. Book 3 Pag. 141]
TAB. X. Is a man and his wife at dinner.
No. 1. Is their pot boiling with homony and fish in it.
2. Is a bowl of corn, which they gather up in their fingers, to
feed themselves.
3. The tomahawk, which he lays by at dinner.
4. His pocket, which is likewise stripped off, that he may be at
full liberty.
5. A fish. }
} Both ready for dressing.
6. A heap of roasting ears.}
7. The gourd of water.
8. A cockle shell, which they sometimes use instead of a spoon.
9. The mat they sit on.
All other matters in this figure are understood by the foregoing and
following descriptions.
CHAPTER V.
OF THE TRAVELING, RECEPTION AND ENTERTAINMENT OF THE INDIANS.
§ 19. Their travels they perform altogether on foot, the fatigue of
which they endure to admiration. They make no other provision for their
journey but their gun or bow, to supply them with food for many hundred
miles together. If they carry any flesh in their marches, they barbecue
it, or rather dry it by degrees, at some distance over the clear coals
of a wood fire; just as the Charibees are said to preserve the bodies of
their kings and great men from corruption. Their sauce to this dry meat,
(if they have any besides a good stomach,) is only a little bear's oil,
or oil of acorns; which last they force out by boiling the acorns in a
strong lye. Sometimes also in their travels each man takes with him a
pint or quart of rockahomonie, that is, the finest Indian corn parched
and beaten to powder. When they find their stomach empty, (and cannot
stay for the tedious cookery of other things,) they put about a spoonful
of this into their mouths and drink a draught of water upon it, which
stays their stomachs, and enables them to pursue their journey without
delay. But their main dependence is upon the game they kill by the way,
and the natural fruits of the earth. They take no care about lodging in
these journeys, but content themselves with the shade of a tree or a
little high grass.
When they fear being discovered or followed by an enemy in their
marches, they every morning, having first agreed where they shall
rendezvous at night, disperse themselves into the woods, and each takes
a several way, that so the grass or leaves being but singly pressed, may
rise again and not betray them. For the Indians are very artful in
following a track, even where the impressions are not visible to other
people, especially if they have any advantage from the looseness of the
earth, from the stiffness of the grass, or the stirring of the leaves,
which in the winter season lie very thick upon the ground; and likewise
afterwards, if they do not happen to be burned.
When in their travels they meet with any waters which are not fordable,
they make canoes of birch bark, by slipping it whole off the tree in
this manner: First, they gash the bark quite round the tree, at the
length they would have the canoe off, then slit down the length from end
to end; when that is done, they with their tomahawks easily open the
bark and strip it whole off. Then they force it open with sticks in the
middle, slope the under side of the ends and sow them up, which helps to
keep the belly open; or if the birch trees happen to be small they sow
the bark of two together. The seams they daub with clay or mud, and then
pass over in these canoes, by two, three, or more at a time, according
as they are in bigness. By reason of the lightness of these boats, they
can easily carry them over land, if they foresee that they are like to
meet with any more waters that may impede their march; or else they
leave them at the water side, making no farther account of them, except
it be to repass the same waters in their return. See the resemblance,
Tab. 6.
§ 20. They have a peculiar way of receiving strangers, and
distinguishing whether they come as friends or enemies, though they do
not understand each other's language: and that is by a singular method
of smoking tobacco, in which these things are always observed:
1. They take a pipe much larger and bigger than the common tobacco
pipe, expressly made for that purpose, with which all towns are
plentifully provided; they call them the pipes of peace.
2. This pipe they always fill with tobacco, before the face of the
strangers, and light it.
3. The chief man of the Indians, to whom the strangers come, takes
two or three whiffs, and then hands it to the chief of the
strangers.
4. If the stranger refuses to smoke in it, 'tis a sign of war.
5. If it be peace, the chief of the strangers takes a whiff or two
in the pipe, and presents it to the next great man of the town
they come to visit; he, after taking two or three whiffs, gives it
back to the next of the strangers, and so on alternately, until
they have past all the persons of note on each side, and then the
ceremony is ended.
After a little discourse, they march together in a friendly manner into
the town, and then proceed to explain the business upon which they came.
This method is as general a rule among all the Indians of those parts of
America as the flag of truce is among the Europeans. And though the
fashion of the pipe differ, as well as the ornaments of it, according to
the humor of the several nations, yet 'tis a general rule to make these
pipes remarkably bigger than those for common use, and to adorn them
with beautiful wings and feathers of birds, as likewise with peak,
beads, or other such foppery. Father Lewis Henepin gives a particular
description of one that he took notice of among the Indians upon the
lakes wherein he traveled. He describes it by the name of the calumet of
peace, and his words are these, Book I., chap. 24:
"This calumet is the most mysterious thing in the world among the
savages of the continent of the Northern America; for it is used in all
their important transactions: however, it is nothing else but a large
tobacco pipe, made of red, black or white marble; the head is finely
polished, and the quill, which is commonly two feet and a half long, is
made of a pretty strong reed or cane, adorned with feathers of all
colors, interlaced with locks of women's hair. They tie it to two wings
of the most curious birds they can find, which makes their calumet not
much unlike Mercury's wand, or that staff ambassadors did formerly carry
when they went to treat of peace. They sheath that reed into the neck
of birds they call huars, which are as big as our geese, and spotted
with black and white; or else of a sort of ducks, which make their nests
upon trees, though the water be their ordinary element, and whose
feathers be of many different colors. However, every nation adorns their
calumet as they think fit, according to their own genius, and the birds
they have in their country.
"Such a pipe is a pass and safe conduct among all the allies of the
nation who has given it. And in all embassies, the ambassador carries
that calumet, as the symbol of peace, which is always respected: for the
savages are generally persuaded, that a great misfortune would befall
them, if they violated the public faith of the calumet.
"All their enterprises, declarations of war, or conclusions of peace, as
well as all the rest of their ceremonies, are sealed, (if I may be
permitted to say so,) with this calumet: They fill that pipe with the
best tobacco they have, and then present it to those with whom they have
concluded any great affair, and smoke out of the same after them."
In tab. 6, is seen the calumet of peace, drawn by Lahontan, and one of
the sort which I have seen.
§ 21. They have a remarkable way of entertaining all strangers of
condition, which is performed after the following manner: First, the
king or queen, with a guard and a great retinue, march out of the town,
a quarter or half a mile, and carry mats for their accommodation. When
they meet the strangers, they invite them to sit down upon those mats.
Then they pass the ceremony of the pipe, and afterwards, having spent
about half an hour in grave discourse, they get up, all together, and
march into the town. Here the first compliment is to wash the courteous
traveler's feet; then he is treated at a plentiful entertainment, served
up by a great number of attendants; after which he is diverted with
antique Indian dances, performed both by men and women, and accompanied
with great variety of wild music. At this rate he is regaled till
bedtime, when a brace of young, beautiful virgins are chosen to wait
upon him that night for his particular refreshment. These damsels are to
undress this happy gentleman, and as soon as he is in bed, they gently
lay themselves down by him, one on one side of him, and the other on the
other. They esteem it a breach of hospitality, not to submit to
everything he desires of them. This kind ceremony is used only to men of
great distinction--and the young women are so far from suffering in
their reputation for this civility, that they are envied for it by all
the other girls, as having had the greatest honor done them in the
world.
After this manner, perhaps, many of the heroes were begotten in old
time, who boasted themselves to be the sons of some wayfaring god.
CHAPTER VI.
OF THE LEARNING AND LANGUAGES OF THE INDIANS.
§ 22. These Indians have no sort of letters to express their words by;
but when they would communicate anything that cannot be delivered by
message, they do it by a sort of hieroglyphic, or representation of
birds, beasts, or other things, shewing their different meaning by the
various forms described, and by the different position of the figures.
Baron Lahontan, in his second volume of New Voyages, has two
extraordinary chapters concerning the heraldry and hieroglyphics of the
Indians; but I, having had no opportunity of conversing with our Indians
since that book came to my hands, nor having ever suspected them to be
acquainted with heraldry, I am not able to say anything upon that
subject.
The Indians, when they travel ever so small a way, being much embroiled
in war one with another, use several marks painted upon their shoulders
to distinguish themselves by, and show what nation they are of. The
usual mark is one, two, or three arrows. One nation paints these arrows
upwards, another downwards, a third sideways--and others again use other
distinctions, as in tab. 2, from whence it comes to pass, that the
Virginia assembly took up the humor of making badges of silver, copper
or brass, of which they gave a sufficient number to each nation in amity
with the English, and then made a law, that the Indians should not
travel among the English plantations without one of these badges in
their company, to show that they are friends. And this is all the
heraldry that I know is practiced among the Indians.
§ 23. Their languages differ very much, as anciently in the several
parts of Britain; so that nations at a moderate distance do not
understand one another. However, they have a sort of general language,
like what Lahontan calls the Algonkine, which is understood by the chief
men of many nations, as Latin is in most parts of Europe, and Lingua
Franca quite through the Levant.
The general language here used is said to be that of the Occaneeches,
though they have been but a small nation ever since those parts were
known to the English; but in what this language may differ from that of
the Algonkines, I am not able to determine.
CHAPTER VII.
OF THE WAR, AND PEACE OF THE INDIANS.
§ 24. When they are about to undertake any war or other solemn
enterprise, the king summons a convention of his great men to assist at
a grand council, which, in their language, is called a Matchacomoco. At
these assemblies, 'tis the custom, especially when a war is expected,
for the young men to paint themselves irregularly with black, red,
white, and several other motley colors, making one-half of their face
red, (for instance,) and the other black or white, with great circles of
a different hue round their eyes, with monstrous mustaches, and a
thousand fantastical figures, all over the rest of their body; and to
make themselves appear yet more ugly and frightful, they strew feathers,
down, or the hair of beasts upon the paint while it is still moist and
capable of making those light substances stick fast on. When they are
thus formidably equipped, they rush into the Matchacomoco, and instantly
begin some very grotesque dance, holding their arrows or tomahawks in
their hands, and all the while singing the ancient glories of their
nation, and especially of their own families--threatening and making
signs with their tomahawk what a dreadful havoc they intend to make
amongst their enemies.
Notwithstanding these terrible airs they give themselves, they are very
timorous when they come to action, and rarely perform any open or bold
feats; but the execution they do, is chiefly by surprise and ambuscade.
§ 25. The fearfulness of their nature makes them very jealous and
implacable. Hence it is, that when they get a victory, they destroy
man, woman and child, to prevent all future resentments.
§ 26. I can't think it anything but their jealousy that makes them
exclude the lineal issue from succeeding immediately to the crown. Thus,
if a king have several legitimate children, the crown does not descend
in a direct line to his children, but to his brother by the same mother,
if he have any, and for want of such, to the children of his eldest
sister, always respecting the descent by the female, as the surer side.
But the crown goes to the male heir (if any be) in equal degree, and for
want of such, to the female, preferably to any male that is more
distant.
§ 27. As in the beginning of a war, they have assemblies for
consultation, so, upon any victory or other great success, they have
public meetings again for processions and triumphs. I never saw one of
these, but have heard that they are accompanied with all the marks of a
wild and extravagant joy.
Captain Smith gives the particulars of one that was made upon his being
taken prisoner, and carried to their town. These are his words, vol. I,
page 159:
"Drawing themselves all in file, the king in the midst had all
their pieces and swords borne before him. Captain Smith was led
after him by three great savages, holding him fast by each arm,
and on each side six went in file, with their arrows nocked; but
arriving at the town, (which was but thirty or forty hunting
houses made of mats, which they remove as often as they please, as
we our tents,) all the women and children staring to behold him,
the soldiers first, all in the file, performed the form of a
bissom as well as could be, and on each flank officers as
sergeants to see them keep their order. A good time they continued
this exercise, and then cast themselves in a ring, dancing in such
several postures, and singing and yelling out such hellish notes
and screeches, being strangely painted, every one his quiver of
arrows, and at his back a club, on his arm a fox or an otter's
skin, or some such matter for his vambrace; their heads and
shoulders painted red, with oil and puccoons mingled together,
which scarlet-like color made an exceeding handsome show; his bow
in his hand, and the skin of a bird with the wings abroad dried,
tied on his head; a piece of copper, a white shell, a long
feather, with a small rattle growing at the tails of their snakes,
tied to it, or some such like toy. All this, while Smith and the
king stood in the midst guarded, as before is said, and after
three dances they all departed."
I suppose here is something omitted, and that the conjurer should have
been introduced in his proper dress, as the sequel of the story seems to
mean.
§ 28. They use formal embassies for treating, and very ceremonious ways
in concluding of peace, or else some other memorable action, such as
burying a tomahawk, and raising a heap of stones thereon, as the Hebrews
were wont to do; or of planting a tree, in token that all enmity is
buried with the tomahawk; that all the desolations of war are at an end,
and that friendship shall flourish among them like a tree.
CHAPTER VIII.
CONCERNING THE RELIGION, WORSHIP, AND SUPERSTITIOUS CUSTOMS OF THE
INDIANS.
§ 29. I don't pretend to have dived into all the mysteries of the Indian
religion, nor have I had such opportunities of learning them as father
Henepin and Baron Lahontan had, by living much among the Indians in
their towns; and because my rule is to say nothing but what I know to be
truth, I shall be very brief upon this head.
In the writings of those two gentlemen, I cannot but observe direct
contradictions, although they traveled the same country, and the
accounts they pretend to give are of the same Indians. One makes them
have very refined notions of a Deity, and the other don't allow them so
much as the name of a God. For which reason, I think myself obliged
sincerely to deliver what I can warrant to be true upon my own
knowledge; it being neither my interest, nor any part of my vanity, to
impose upon the world.
I have been at several of the Indian towns, and conversed with some of
the most sensible of them in Virginia; but I could learn little from
them, it being reckoned sacrilege to divulge the principles of their
religion. However, the following adventure discovered something of it.
As I was ranging the woods, with some other friends, we fell upon their
quioccosan, (which is their house of religious worship,) at a time when
the whole town were gathered together in another place, to consult about
the bounds of the land given them by the English.
Thus finding ourselves masters of so fair an opportunity, (because we
knew the Indians were engaged,) we resolved to make use of it, and to
examine their quioccosan, the inside of which they never suffer any
Englishmen to see; and having removed about fourteen logs from the door,
with which it was barricaded, we went in, and at first found nothing but
naked walls, and a fireplace in the middle. This house was about
eighteen feet wide, and thirty feet long, built after the manner of
their other cabins, but larger, with a hole in the middle of the roof to
vent the smoke, the door being at one end. Round about the house, at
some distance from it, were set up posts, with faces carved on them, and
painted. We did not observe any window or passage for the light, except
the door and the vent of the chimney. At last we observed, that at the
farther end, about ten feet of the room was cut off by a partition of
very close mats, and it was dismal dark behind that partition. We were
at first scrupulous to enter this obscure place, but at last we
ventured, and, groping about, we felt some posts in the middle; then
reaching our hands up those posts, we found large shelves, and upon
these shelves three mats, each of which was rolled up, and sowed fast.
These we handed down to the light, and to save time in unlacing the
seams, we made use of a knife, and ripped them, without doing any damage
to the mats. In one of these we found some vast bones, which we judged
to be the bones of men--particularly we measured one thighbone, and
found it two feet nine inches long. In another mat we found some Indian
tomahawks finely graved and painted. These resembled the wooden falchion
used by the prize-fighters in England, except that they have no guard to
save the fingers. They were made of a rough, heavy wood, and the shape
of them is represented in the tab. 10, No. 3. Among these tomahawks, was
the largest that ever I saw. There was fastened to it a wild turkey's
beard painted red, and two of the longest feathers of his wings hung
dangling at it, by a string of about six inches long, tied to the end of
the tomahawk. In the third mat there was something which we took to be
their idol, though of an underling sort, and wanted putting together.
The pieces were these--first, a board three feet and a half long, with
one indenture at the upper end like a fork, to fasten the head upon.
From thence half way down, were half hoops nailed to the edges of the
board, at about four inches' distance, which were bowed out, to
represent the breast and belly; on the lower half was another board of
half the length of the other, fastened to it by joints or pieces of
wood, which being set on each side stood out about fourteen inches from
the body, and half as high. We supposed the use of these to be for the
bowing out of the knees, when the image was set up. There were packed up
with these things, red and blue pieces of cotton cloth, rolls made up
for arms, thighs and legs, bent too at the knees, as is represented in
the figure of their idol, which was taken by an exact drawer in the
first discovery of the country. It would be difficult to see one of
these images at this day, because the Indians are extreme shy of
exposing them. We put the clothes upon the hoops for the body, and
fastened on the arms and legs to have a view of the representation; but
the head and rich bracelets, which it is usually adorned with, were not
there, or at least we did not find them. We had not leisure to make a
very narrow search, for having spent about an hour in this enquiry, we
feared the business of the Indians might be near over, and that if we
staid longer, we might be caught offering an affront to their
superstition. For this reason, we wrapt up those holy materials in their
several mats again, and laid them on the shelf where we found them. This
image, when dressed up, might look very venerable in that dark place
where 'tis not possible to see it, but by the glimmering light that is
let in by lifting up a piece of the matting, which we observed to be
conveniently hung for that purpose; for when the light of the door and
chimney glance in several directions upon the image through that little
passage, it must needs make a strange representation, which those poor
people are taught to worship with a devout ignorance. There are other
things that contribute towards carrying on this imposture. First, the
chief conjurer enters within the partition in the dark, and may
undiscerned move the image as he pleases. Secondly, a priest of
authority stands in the room with the people, to keep them from being
too inquisitive, under the penalty of the deity's displeasure and his
own censure.
Their idol bears a several name in every nation, as Okee, Quioccos,
Kiwasa. They do not look upon it as one single being, but reckon there
are many of the same nature; they likewise believe that there are
tutelar deities in every town.
[Illustration: _Lith. of Ritchies & Dunnavant Richmond, Va._
Idol call'd, OKEÈ, QUIÓCCOS, or KIWASA.
Tab. 11 Book 3 Pag. 155]
TAB. 11. Their idol in his tabernacle.
The dark edging shows the sides and roof of the house, which consists of
saplings and bark. The paler edging shows the mats, by which they make a
partition of about ten feet at the end of the house for the idol's
abode. The idol is set upon his seat of mats within a dark recess above
the people's heads, and the curtain is drawn up before him.
§ 30. Father Henepin, in his continuation, page 60, will not allow that
the Indians have any belief of a Deity, nor that they are capable of the
arguments and reasonings that are common to the rest of mankind. He
farther says, that they have not any outward ceremony to denote their
worship of a Deity, nor have any word to express God by--that there's no
sacrifice, priest, temple, or any other token of religion among them.
Baron Lahontan, on the other hand, makes them have such refined notions,
as seem almost to confute his own belief of Christianity.
The first I cannot believe, though written by the pen of that pious
father; because, to my own knowledge, all the Indians in these parts are
a superstitious and idolatrous people; and because all other authors,
who have written of the American Indians, are against him. As to the
other account of the just thoughts the Indians have of religion, I must
humbly intreat the baron's pardon; because I am very sure they have some
unworthy conceptions of God and another world. Therefore, what that
gentleman tells the public concerning them, is rather to show his own
opinions, than those of the Indians.
Once in my travels, in very cold weather, I met at an Englishman's house
with an Indian, of whom an extraordinary character had been given me for
his ingenuity and understanding. When I saw he had no other Indian with
him, I thought I might be the more free; and therefore I made much of
him, seating him close by a large fire, and giving him plenty of strong
cider, which I hoped would make him good company and open-hearted. After
I found him well warmed, (for unless they be surprised some way or
other, they will not talk freely of their religion,) I asked him
concerning their god, and what their notions of him were? He freely told
me, they believed God was universally beneficent, that his dwelling was
in the heavens above, and that the influences of his goodness reached to
the earth beneath. That he was incomprehensible in his excellence, and
enjoyed all possible felicity; that his duration was eternal, his
perfection boundless, and that he possesses everlasting indolence and
ease. I told him I had heard that they worshipped the devil, and asked
why they did not rather worship God, whom they had so high an opinion
of, and who would give them all good things, and protect them from any
mischief that the devil could do them? To this his answer was, that,
'tis true God is the giver of all good things, but they flow naturally
and promiscuously from him; that they are showered down upon all men
indifferently without distinction; that God does not trouble himself
with the impertinent affairs of men, nor is concerned at what they do;
but leaves them to make the most of their free will, and to secure as
many as they can of the good things that flow from him; that therefore
it was to no purpose either to fear or worship him. But on the contrary,
if they did not pacify the evil spirit, and make him propitious, he
would take away or spoil all those good things that God had given, and
ruin their health, their peace, and their plenty, by sending war, plague
and famine among them; for, said he, this evil spirit is always busying
himself with our affairs, and frequently visiting us, being present in
the air in the thunder, and in the storms. He told me farther, that he
expected adoration and sacrifice from them, on pain of his displeasure,
and that therefore they thought it convenient to make their court to
him. I then asked him concerning the image which they worship in their
quioccasan, and assured him that it was a dead, insensible log, equipped
with a bundle of clouts, a mere helpless thing made by men, that could
neither hear, see nor speak, and that such a stupid thing could noways
hurt or help them. To this he answered very unwillingly, and with much
hesitation; however, he at last delivered himself in these broken and
imperfect sentences: It is the priests----they make the people believe,
and----. Here he paused a little, and then repeated to me, that it was
the priests----, and then gave me hopes that he would have said
something more; but a qualm crossed his conscience, and hindered him
from making any farther confession.
§ 31. The priests and conjurers have a great sway in every nation. Their
words are looked upon as oracles, and consequently are of great weight
among the common people. They perform their adorations and conjurations
in the general language before spoken of, as the catholics of all
nations do their mass in the Latin. They teach that the souls of men
survive their bodies, and that those who have done well here, enjoy most
transporting pleasures in their elysium hereafter; that this elysium is
stored with the highest perfection of all their earthly pleasures;
namely, with plenty of all sorts of game for hunting, fishing and
fowling; that it is blest with the most charming women, who enjoy an
eternal bloom, and have an universal desire to please; that it is
delivered from excesses of cold or heat, and flourishes with an
everlasting spring. But that, on the contrary, those who are wicked and
live scandalously here, are condemned to a filthy, stinking lake after
death, that continually burns with flames that never extinguish; where
they are persecuted and tormented day and night, with furies in the
shape of old women.
They use many divinations and enchantments, and frequently offer burnt
sacrifice to the evil spirit. The people annually present their first
fruits of every season and kind, namely, of birds, beasts, fish, fruits,
plants, roots, and of all other things, which they esteem either of
profit or pleasure to themselves. They repeat their offerings as
frequently as they have great successes in their wars, or their fishing,
fowling or hunting.
Captain Smith describes the particular manner of a conjuration that was
made about him, while he was a prisoner among the Indians at the Pamunky
town, in the first settlement of the country; and after that I'll tell
you of another of a more modern date, which I had from a very good hand.
Smith's word's are these: vol. 1, p. 160.
"Early in the morning, a great fire was made in a long house, and
a mat spread on the one side and on the other. On the one they
caused him to sit, and all the guard went out of the house, and
presently there came skipping in a great grim fellow, all painted
over with coal mingled with oil, and many snakes and weasel skins
stuffed with moss, and all their tails tied together, so as they
met in the crown of his head, like a tassel, and round about the
tassel was a coronet of feathers, the skins hanging round about
his head, back and shoulders, and in a manner covering his face;
with a hellish voice, and a rattle in his hand, with most strange
gestures and postures, he began his invocation, and environed the
fire with a circle of meal; which done, three much such like
devils came rushing in with the like antic tricks, painted half
black, half red; but all their eyes were painted white, and some
great strokes like mustaches, along their cheeks. Round about him
these fiends danced a pretty while; and then came in three more as
ugly as the rest, with red eyes and white strokes over their black
faces. At last they all sat down right against him, three of them
on one hand of the chief priest and three on the other. Then all
of them with their rattles began a song; which ended, the chief
priest laid down five wheat corns; then straining his arms and
hands with such violence that he sweat, and his veins swelled, he
began a short oration. At the conclusion they gave a short groan,
and then laid down three grains more; after that, began their song
again, and then another oration, ever laying down so many corns as
before, till they had twice encircled the fire. That done, they
took a bunch of little sticks prepared for that purpose,
continuing still their devotion, and at the end of every song and
oration, they laid down a stick betwixt the divisions of corn.
Till night neither he nor they did eat or drink, and then they
feasted merrily with the provisions they could make. Three days
they used this ceremony, the meaning whereof they told him was to
know if he intended them well or no. The circle of meal signified
their country, the circles of corn the bounds of the sea, and the
sticks his country. They imagined the world to be flat and round
like a trencher, and they in the midst."
Thus far is Smith's story of conjuration concerning himself; but when he
says they encircled the fire with wheat, I am apt to believe he means
their Indian corn, which some, contrary to the custom of the rest of
mankind will still call by the name of Indian wheat.
The latter story of conjuration is this: Some few years ago, there
happened a very dry time towards the heads of the rivers, and especially
on the upper parts of James river, where Col. Byrd had several quarters
of negroes. This gentleman has been for a long time extremely respected
and feared by all the Indians round about, who, without knowing the name
of any governor, have ever been kept in order by him. During this
drought, an Indian, well known to one of the Colonel's overseers, came
to him, and asked if his tobacco was not like to be spoiled? The
overseer answered yes, if they had not rain very suddenly. The Indian,
who pretended great kindness for his master, told the overseer if he
would promise to give him two bottles of rum, he would bring him rain
enough. The overseer did not believe anything of the matter, not seeing
at that time the least appearance of rain, nor so much as a cloud in the
sky; however, he promised to give him the rum when his master came
thither, if he would be as good as his word. Upon this, the Indian went
immediately a pauwawing as they call it, and in about half an hour,
there came up a black cloud into the sky that showered down rain enough
upon this gentleman's corn and tobacco, but none at all upon any of the
neighbors, except a few drops of the skirts of the shower. The Indian
for that time went away without returning to the overseer again, till he
heard of his master's arrival at the falls, and then he came to him and
demanded the two bottles of rum. The Colonel at first seemed to know
nothing of the matter, and asked the Indian for what reason he made that
demand? (Although his overseer had been so overjoyed at what had
happened that he could not rest till he had taken a horse and rode near
forty miles to tell his master the story.) The Indian answered with some
concern, that he hoped the overseer had let him know the service he had
done him, by bringing a shower of rain to save his crop. At this the
Colonel, not being apt to believe such stories, smiled, and told him he
was a cheat, and had seen the cloud acoming, otherwise he could neither
have brought the rain nor so much as foretold it. The Indian at this,
seeming much troubled, replied, why then had not such a one, and such a
one, (naming the next neighbor,) rain, as well as your overseer? for
they lost their crops, but I loved you and therefore I saved yours. The
Colonel made sport with him a little while, but in the end ordered him
the two bottles of rum, letting him understand, however, that it was a
free gift, and not the consequence of any bargain with his overseer.
§ 32. The Indians have their altars and places of sacrifice. Some say
they now and then sacrifice young children; but they deny it, and assure
us, that when they withdraw their children, it is not to sacrifice them,
but to consecrate them to the service of their god. Smith tells of one
of these sacrifices in his time, from the testimony of some people who
had been eye-witnesses. His words are these, (vol. 1, p. 140):
"Fifteen of the properest young boys, between ten and fifteen
years of age, they painted white; having brought them forth, the
people spent the forenoon in dancing and singing about them with
rattles. In the afternoon, they put these children to the root of
a tree. By them all the men stood in a guard, every one having a
bastinado in his hand, made of reeds bound together. They made a
lane between them all along, through which there were appointed
five young men to fetch these children: so every one of the five
went through the guard to fetch a child each after other by turns;
the guard fiercely beating them with their bastinadoes, and they
patiently enduring and receiving all, defending the children with
their naked bodies from the unmerciful blows, that pay them
soundly, though the children escape. All this while the women weep
and cry out very passionately, providing mats, skins, moss and dry
wood, as things fitting for their children's funeral. After the
children were thus past the guard, the guards tore down the tree,
branches and boughs with such violence, that they rent the body,
made wreaths for their heads, and bedecked their hair with the
leaves.
"What else was done with the children was not seen; but they were
all cast on a heap in a valley as dead, where they made a great
feast for all the company.
"The Werowance being demanded the meaning of this sacrifice,
answered, that the children were not dead, but that the Okee or
devil did suck the blood from the left breast of those, who
chanced to be his by lot, till they were dead; but the rest were
kept in the wilderness by the young men, till nine months were
expired, during which time they must not converse with any; and of
these were made their priests and conjurers."
How far Captain Smith might be misinformed in this account, I can't say,
or whether their Okee's sucking the breast, be only a delusion or
pretence of the physician, (or priest, who is always a physician,) to
prevent all reflection on his skill when any happened to die under his
discipline. This I choose rather to believe, than those religious
romances concerning their Okee. For I take this story of Smith's to be
only an example of huskanawing, which being a ceremony then altogether
unknown to him, he might easily mistake some of the circumstances of it.
The solemnity of huskanawing is commonly practiced once every fourteen
or sixteen years, or oftener, as their young men happen to grow up. It
is an institution or discipline which all young men must pass before
they can be admitted to be of the number of the great men, officers, or
cockarouses of the nation; whereas, by Capt. Smith's relation, they were
only set apart to supply the priesthood. The whole ceremony of
huskanawing is performed after the following manner:
The choicest and briskest young men of the town, and such only as have
acquired some treasure by their travels and hunting, are chosen out by
the rulers to be huskanawed; and whoever refuses to undergo this process
dares not remain among them. Several of those odd preparatory fopperies
are premised in the beginning, which have been before related; but the
principal part of the business is, to carry them into the woods, and
there keep them under confinement, and destitute of all society for
several months, giving them no other sustenance but the infusion, or
decoction, of some poisonous, intoxicating roots; by virtue of which
physic, and by the severity of the discipline which they undergo, they
became stark, staring mad; in which raving condition, they are kept
eighteen or twenty days. During these extremities, they are shut up,
night and day, in a strong inclosure, made on purpose; one of which I
saw belonging to the Pamunky Indians, in the year 1694. It was in shape
like a sugar loaf, and every way open like a lattice for the air to pass
through, as in tab. 4, fig. 3. In this cage, thirteen young men had been
huskanawed, and had not been a month set at liberty when I saw it. Upon
this occasion, it is pretended that these poor creatures drink so much
of that water of Lethe, that they perfectly lose the remembrance of all
former things, even of their parents, their treasure, and their
language. When the doctors find that they have drank sufficiently of the
wysoccan, (so they call this mad potion,) they gradually restore them to
their senses again, by lessening the intoxication of their diet; but
before they are perfectly well, they bring them back into their towns,
while they are still wild and crazy, through the violence of the
medicine. After this, they are very fearful of discovering anything of
their former remembrance; for if such a thing should happen to any of
them, they must immediately be huskanawed again; and the second time,
the usage is so severe, that seldom any one escapes with life. Thus they
must pretend to have forgot the very use of their tongues, so as not to
be able to speak, nor understand anything that is spoken, till they
learn it again. Now, whether this be real or counterfeit, I don't know;
but certain it is, that they will not for some time take notice of any
body, nor anything with which they were before acquainted, being still
under the guard of their keepers, who constantly wait upon them
everywhere till they have learnt all things perfectly over again. Thus
they unlive their former lives, and commence men by forgetting that they
ever have been boys. If, under this exercise, any one should die, I
suppose the story of Okee, mentioned by Smith, is the salvo for it; for,
(says he) Okee was to have such as were his by lot, and such were said
to be sacrificed.
Now this conjecture is the more probable, because we know that Okee has
not a share in every huskanawing; for though two young men happened to
come short home, in that of the Pamunky Indians, which was performed in
the year 1694, yet the Appomattoxs, formerly a great nation, though now
an inconsiderable people, made a huskanaw in the year 1690, and brought
home the same number they carried out.
§ 33. I can account no other way for the great pains and secrecy of the
keepers, during the whole process of this discipline, but by assuring
you, that it is the most meritorious thing in the world to discharge
that trust well, in order to their preferment to the greatest posts in
the nation, which they claim as their undoubted right, in the next
promotion. On the other hand, they are sure of a speedy passport into
the other world, if they should, by their levity or neglect, shew
themselves in the least unfaithful.
Those which I have observed to have been huskanawed, were lively,
handsome, well timbered young men, from fifteen to twenty years of age,
or upward, and such as were generally reputed rich.
I confess, I judged it at the first sight to be only an invention of the
seniors, to engross the young men's riches to themselves; for, after
suffering this operation, they never pretended to call to mind anything
of their former property; but their goods were either shared by the old
men, or brought to some public use; and so those younkers were obliged
to begin the world again.
But the Indians detest this opinion, and pretend that this violent
method of taking away the memory, is to release the youth from all their
childish impressions, and from that strong partiality to persons and
things, which is contracted before reason comes to take place. They hope
by this proceeding, to root out all the prepossessions and unreasonable
prejudices which are fixed in the minds of children. So that, when the
young men come to themselves again, their reason may act freely, without
being biased by the cheats of custom and education. Thus, also, they
become discharged from the remembrance of any ties by blood, and are
established in a state of equality and perfect freedom, to order their
actions, and dispose of their persons, as they think fit, without any
other control than that of the law of nature. By this means also they
become qualified, when they have any public office, equally and
impartially to administer justice, without having respect either to
friend or relation. Puffend. p. 7, book I. A proselyte of justice of
the Jews had a new soul.
§ 34. The Indians offer sacrifice almost upon every new occasion; as
when they travel or begin a long journey, they burn tobacco instead of
incense, to the sun, to bribe him to send them fair weather, and a
prosperous voyage. When they cross any great water, or violent fresh, or
torrent, they throw in tobacco, puccoon, peak, or some other valuable
thing, that they happen to have about them, to intreat the spirit
presiding there to grant them a safe passage. It is called a fresh, when
after very great rains, or (as we suppose) after a great thaw of the
snow and ice lying upon the mountains to the westward, the water
descends in such abundance into the rivers, that they overflow the
banks, which bound their streams at other times.
Likewise, when the Indians return from war, from hunting, from great
journeys or the like, they offer some proportion of their spoils, of
their chiefest tobacco, furs and paint, as also the fat, and choice bits
of their game.
§ 35. I never could learn that they had any certain time or set days for
their solemnities; but they have appointed feasts that happen according
to the several seasons. They solemnize a day for the plentiful coming of
their wild fowl, such as geese, ducks, teal, &c., for the returns of
their hunting seasons, and for the ripening of certain fruits; but the
greatest annual feast they have, is at the time of their corn-gathering,
at which they revel several days together. To these they universally
contribute, as they do to the gathering in the corn. On this occasion,
they have their greatest variety of pastimes, and more especially of
their war-dances and heroic songs; in which they boast, that their corn
being now gathered, they have store enough for their women and children,
and have nothing to do, but to go to war, travel, and to seek out for
new adventures.
§ 36. They make their account by units, tens, hundreds, &c., as we do;
but they reckon the years by the winters, or _cobonks_, as they call
them; which is a name taken from the note of the wild-geese, intimating
so many times of the wild geese coming to them, which is every winter.
They distinguish the several parts of the year, by five seasons, viz:
the budding or blossoming of the spring; the earing of the corn, or
roasting-ear time; the summer, or highest sun; the corn-gathering or
fall of the leaf, and the winter, or _cobonks_. They count the months
likewise by the moons, though not with any relation to so many in a
year, as we do; but they make them return again by the same name, as the
moon of stags, the corn moon, the first and second moon of _cobonks_,
&c. They have no distinction of the hours of the day, but divide it only
into three parts, the rise, power, and lowering of the sun. And they
keep their account by knots on a string, or notches on a stick, not
unlike the Peruvian quippoes.
§ 37. In this state of nature, one would think they should be as pure
from superstition, and overdoing matters in religion, as they are in
other things; but I find it is quite the contrary; for this simplicity
gives the cunning priest a greater advantage over them, according to the
Romish maxim, "_Ignorance is the mother of devotion._" For, no bigotted
pilgrim appears more zealous, or strains his devotion more at the
shrine, than these believing Indians do, in their idolatrous adorations.
Neither do the most refined Catholics undergo their pennance with so
much submission, as these poor Pagans do the severities which their
priests inflict upon them.
They have likewise in other cases many fond and idle superstitions, as
for the purpose. By the falls of James river upon Colonel Byrd's land,
there lies a rock which I have seen, about a mile from the river,
wherein are fairly imprest several marks like the footsteps of a
gigantic man, each step being about five feet asunder. These they aver
to be the track of their God.
This is not unlike what the fathers of the Romish Church tell us, that
our Lord left the print of His feet on the stone, whereon he stood while
he talked with St. Peter; which stone was afterward preserved as a very
sacred relic; and after several translations, was at last fixed in the
Church of St. Sebastian, the martyr, where it is kept, and visited with
great expressions of devotion. So that the Indians, as well as these,
are not without their pious frauds.
§ 38. As the people have a great reverence for the priest, so the priest
very oddly endeavours to preserve their respect, by being as hideously
ugly as he can, especially when he appears in public; for besides, that
the cut of his hair is peculiar to his function, as in tab. 4, book 3,
and the hanging of his cloak, with the fur reversed and falling down in
flakes, looks horridly shagged, he likewise bedaubs himself in that
frightful manner with paint, that he terrifies the people into a
veneration for him.
The conjuror is a partner with the priest, not only in the cheat, but in
the advantages of it, and sometimes they officiate for one another. When
this artist is in the act of conjuration, or of _pauwawing_, as they
term it, he always appears with an air of haste, or else in some
convulsive posture, that seems to strain all the faculties, like the
Sybils, when they appeared to be under the power of inspiration. At
these times, he has a black bird with expanded wings fastened to his
ear, differing in nothing but color, from Mahomet's pigeon. He has no
clothing but a small skin before, and a pocket at his girdle, as in tab.
4, book 3.
The Indians never go about any considerable enterprise, without first
consulting their priests and conjurers, for the most ingenious amongst
them are brought up to those functions, and by that means become better
instructed in their histories, than the rest of the people. They
likewise engross to themselves all the knowledge of nature, which is
handed to them by tradition from their forefathers; by which means they
are able to make a truer judgment of things, and consequently are more
capable of advising those that consult them upon all occasions. These
reverend gentlemen are not so entirely given up to their religious
austerities, but they sometimes take their pleasure (as well as the
laity) in fishing, fowling and hunting.
§ 39. The Indians have posts fixed round their _Quioccassan_, which have
men's faces carved upon them, and are painted. They are likewise set up
round some of their other celebrated places, and make a circle for them
to dance about on certain solemn occasions. They very often set up
pyramidal stones and pillars, which they color with puccoon, and other
sorts of paint, and which they adorn with peak, roenoke, &c. To these
they pay all outward signs of worship and devotion, not as to God, but
as they are hieroglyphics of the permanency and immutability of the
Deity; because these, both for figure and substance, are of all
sublunary bodies, the least subject to decay or change; they also, for
the same reason, keep baskets of stones in their cabins. Upon this
account too, they offer sacrifice to running streams, which by the
perpetuity of their motion, typify the eternity of God.
They erect altars wherever they have any remarkable occasion, and
because their principal devotion consists in sacrifice, they have a
profound respect for these altars. They have one particular altar, to
which, for some mystical reason, many of their nations pay an
extraordinary veneration; of this sort was the crystal cube, mentioned
book II, chap. 3, § 9. The Indians call this by the name of pawcorance,
from whence proceeds the great reverence they have for a small bird that
uses the woods, and in their note continually sound that name. This bird
flies alone, and is only heard in the twilight. They say, this is the
soul of one of their princes; and on that score, they would not hurt it
for the world. But there was once a profane Indian in the upper parts of
James river, who, after abundance of fears and scruples, was at last
bribed to kill one of them with his gun; but the Indians say he paid
dear for his presumption; for in a few days after he was taken away,
and never more heard of. I have young birds of this kind.
When they travel by any of these altars, they take great care to
instruct their children and young people in the particular occasion and
time of their erection, and recommend the respect which they ought to
have for them; so that their careful observance of these traditions
proves almost as good a memorial of such antiquities as written records,
especially for so long as the same people continue to inhabit in or near
the same place.
I can't understand that their women ever pretended to intermeddle with
any offices that relate to the priesthood or conjuration.
§ 40. The Indians are religious in preserving the corpses of their kings
and rulers after death, which they order in the following manner: First,
they neatly flay off the skin as entire as they can, slitting it only in
the back; then they pick all the flesh off from the bones as clean as
possible, leaving the sinews fastened to the bones, that they may
preserve the joints together; then they dry the bones in the sun, and
put them into the skin again, which, in the meantime, has been kept from
drying or shrinking; when the bones are placed right in the skin, they
nicely fill up the vacuities with a very fine white sand. After this
they sew up the skin again, and the body looks as if the flesh had not
been removed. They take care to keep the skin from shrinking, by the
help of a little oil or grease, which saves it also from corruption. The
skin being thus prepared, they lay it in an apartment for that purpose,
upon a large shelf raised above the floor. This shelf is spread with
mats, for the corpse to rest easy on, and skreened with the same, to
keep it from the dust. The flesh they lay upon hurdles in the sun to
dry, and when it is thoroughly dried, it is sewed up in a basket, and
set at the feet of the corpse, to which it belongs. In this place also
they set up a quioccos, or idol, which they believe will be a guard to
the corpse. Here night and day one or other of the priests must give
his attendance, to take care of the dead bodies. So great an honor and
veneration have these ignorant and unpolished people for their princes,
even after they are dead.
The mat is supposed to be turned up in the figure, that the inside may
be viewed.
[Illustration: _Lith. of Ritchies & Dunnavant Richmond._
Tab. 12 Book 3 Pag. 170]
TAB. 12. Represents the burial of the kings.
CHAPTER IX.
OF THE DISEASES AND CURES OF THE INDIANS.
§ 41. The Indians are not subject to many diseases; and such as they
have, generally come from excessive heats and sudden colds, which they
as suddenly get away by sweating. But if the humor happen to fix, and
make a pain in any particular joint, or limb, their general cure then is
by burning, if it be in any part that will bear it; their method of
doing this is by little sticks of lightwood, the coal of which will burn
like a hot iron; the sharp point of this they run into the flesh, and
having made a sore, keep it running till the humor be drawn off; or else
they take punk, (which is a sort of soft touchwood, cut out of the knots
of oak or hickory trees, but the hickory affords the best,) this they
shape like a cone, (as the Japanese do their moxa for the gout,) and
apply the basis of it to the place affected. Then they set fire to it,
letting it burn out upon the part, which makes a running sore
effectually.
They use sucking in sores frequently, and scarifying, which, like the
Mexicans, they perform with a rattlesnake's tooth. They seldom cut
deeper than the epidermis, by which means they give passage to those
sharp waterish humors that lie between the two skins, and cause
inflammations. Sometimes they make use of reeds for cauterizing, which
they heat over the fire, till they are ready to flame, and then apply
them upon a piece of thin wet leather to the place aggrieved, which
makes the heat more piercing.
Their priests are always physicians, and by the method of their
education in the priesthood, are made very knowing in the hidden
qualities of plants and other natural things, which they count a part
of their religion to conceal from everybody, but from those that are to
succeed them in their holy function. They tell us their god will be
angry with them if they should discover that part of their knowledge; so
they suffer only the rattlesnake root to be known, and such other
antidotes, as must be immediately applied, because their doctors can't
be always at hand to remedy those sudden misfortunes which generally
happen in their hunting or traveling.
They call their physic wisoccan, not from the name of any particular
root or plant, but as it signifies medicine in general. So that Heriot,
De Bry, Smith, Purchase and De Laet, seem all to be mistaken in the
meaning of this word wighsacan, which they make to be the name of a
particular root; and so is Parkinson in the word woghsacan, which he
will have to be the name of a plant. Nor do I think there is better
authority for applying the word wisank to the plant vincetoxicum
indianum germanicum, or winank to the sassafras tree.
The physic of the Indians consists for the most part in the roots and
barks of trees, they very rarely using the leaves either of herbs or
trees; what they give inwardly, they infuse in water, and what they
apply outwardly, they stamp or bruise, adding water to it, if it has not
moisture enough of itself; with the thin of this they bath the part
affected, then lay on the thick, after the manner of a poultice, and
commonly dress round, leaving the sore place bare.
§ 42. They take great delight in sweating, and therefore in every town
they have a sweating house, and a doctor is paid by the public to attend
it. They commonly use this to refresh themselves, after they have been
fatigued with hunting, travel, or the like, or else when they are
troubled with agues, aches, or pains in their limbs. Their method is
thus: the doctor takes three or four large stones, which after having
heated red hot, he places them in the middle of the stove, laying on
them some of the inner bark of oak beaten in a mortar, to keep them
from burning. This being done, they creep in six or eight at a time, or
as many as the place will hold, and then close up the mouth of the
stove, which is usually made like an oven, in some bank near the water
side. In the meanwhile the doctor to raise a steam, after they have been
stewing a little while, pours cold water on the stones, and now and then
sprinkles the men to keep them from fainting. After they have sweat as
long as they can well endure it, they sally out, and (though it be in
the depth of winter) forthwith plunge themselves over head and ears in
cold water, which instantly closes up the pores, and preserves them from
taking cold. The heat being thus suddenly driven from the extreme parts
to the heart, makes them a little feeble for the present, but their
spirits rally again, and they instantly recover their strength, and find
their joints as supple and vigorous as if they never had traveled, or
been indisposed. So that I may say as Bellonius does in his observations
on the Turkish bagnio's, all the crudities contracted in their bodies
are by this means evaporated and carried off. The Muscovites and
Finlanders are said to use this way of sweating also. "It is almost a
miracle," says Olearius, "to see how their bodies, accustomed to and
hardened by cold, can endure so intense a heat, and how that when they
are not able to endure it longer, they come out of the stoves as naked
as they were born, both men and women, and plunge into cold water, or
cause it to be poured on them." Trav. into Musc., I, 3, page 67.
The Indians also pulverize the roots of a kind of anchusa, or yellow
alkanet, which they call puccoon, and of a sort of wild angelica, and
mixing them together with bear's oil, make a yellow ointment, with
which, after they have bathed, they anoint themselves Capapee; this
supples the skin, renders them nimble and active, and withal so closes
up the pores, that they lose but few of their spirits by perspiration.
Piso relates the same of the Brazilians; and my Lord Bacon asserts, that
oil and fat things do no less conserve the substance of the body, than
oil-colors and varnish do that of the wood.
They have also a farther advantage of this ointment; for it keeps all
lice, fleas, and other troublesome vermin from coming near them; which
otherwise, by reason of the nastiness of their cabins, they would be
very much infested with.
Smith talks of this puccoon, as if it only grew on the mountains,
whereas it is common to all the plantations of the English, now on the
land frontiers.
CHAPTER X.
OF THE SPORTS AND PASTIMES OF THE INDIANS.
§ 43. Their sports and pastimes are singing, dancing, instrumental
music, and some boisterous plays, which are performed by running,
catching and leaping upon one another; they have also one great
diversion, to the practicing of which are requisite whole handfuls of
little sticks or hard straws, which they know how to count as fast as
they can cast their eyes upon them, and can handle with a surprising
dexterity.
Their singing is not the most charming that I have heard; it consists
much in exalting the voice, and is full of slow melancholy accents.
However, I must allow even this music to contain some wild notes that
are agreeable.
Their dancing is performed either by few or a great company, but without
much regard either to time or figure. The first of these is by one or
two persons, or at most by three. In the meanwhile, the company sit
about them in a ring upon the ground, singing outrageously and shaking
their rattles. The dancers sometimes sing, and sometimes look menacing
and terrible, beating their feet furiously against the ground, and
shewing ten thousand grimaces and distortions. The other is performed by
a great number of people, the dancers themselves forming a ring, and
moving round a circle of carved posts, that are set up for that purpose;
or else round a fire, made in a convenient part of the town; and then
each has his rattle in his hand, or what other thing he fancies most, as
his bow and arrows, or his tomahawk. They also dress themselves up with
branches of trees, or some other strange accoutrements. Thus they
proceed, dancing and singing, with all the antic postures they can
invent; and he's the bravest fellow that has the most prodigious
gestures. Sometimes they place three young women in the middle of the
circle, as you may see in the figure.
[Illustration: _Lith. of Ritchies & Dunnavant Richmond, Va._
Tab. 13 Book 3 Pag. 176]
TAB. 13. Represents a solemn festival dance of the Indians round their
carved posts.
Those which on each side are hopping upon their hams, take that way of
coming up to the ring, and when they find an opportunity strike in among
the rest.
Captain Smith relates the particulars of a dance made for his
entertainment, by Pocahontas, daughter of the emperor Powhatan, to
divert him till her father came, who happened not to be at home when
Smith arrived at his town. Gen. Hist., p. 194.
"In a fair plain field they made a fire, before which he sat down
upon a mat, when suddenly amongst the woods was heard such a
hideous noise and shrieking, that the English betook themselves to
their arms, and seized on two or three old men by them, supposing
Powhatan with all his power was coming to surprise them. But
presently Pocahontas came, willing him to kill her, if any hurt
were intended; and the beholders, which were men, women and
children, satisfied the captain that there was no such matter.
Then presently they were presented with this antic; thirty young
women came naked out of the woods, only covered behind and before
with a few green leaves, their bodies all painted, some of one
color, some of another, but all differing; their leader had a fair
pair of buck's horns on her head, an otter's skin at her girdle,
another at her arm, a quiver of arrows at her back, and a bow and
arrows in her hand. The next had in her hand a sword, another a
club, another a potstick; all of them being horned alike: the rest
were all set out with their several devices. These fiends, with
most hellish shouts and cries, rushing from among the trees, cast
themselves in a ring about the fire, singing and dancing with most
excellent ill variety, oft falling into their infernal
passions, and then solemnly betaking themselves again to sing and
dance; having spent an hour in this mascarado, as they entered, in
like manner they departed."
They have a fire made constantly every night, at a convenient place in
the town, whither all that have a mind to be merry, at the public dance
or music, resort in the evening.
Their musical instruments are chiefly drums and rattles: their drums are
made of a skin, stretched over an earthen pot half full of water. Their
rattles are the shell of a small gourd, or macock of the creeping kind,
and not of those called callibaches, which grow upon trees; of which the
Brazilians make their maraka, or tamaraka, a sort of rattle also, as
Clusius seems to intimate.
CHAPTER XI.
OF THE LAWS, AND AUTHORITY OF THE INDIANS AMONG ONE ANOTHER.
§ 44. The Indians having no sort of letters among them, as has been
before observed, they can have no written laws; nor did the constitution
in which we found them seem to need many. Nature and their own
convenience having taught them to obey one chief, who is arbiter of all
things among them. They claim no property in lands, but they are in
common to a whole nation. Every one hunts and fishes, and gathers fruits
in all places. Their labor in tending corn, pompions, melons, &c., is
not so great, that they need quarrel for room, where the land is so
fertile, and where so much lies uncultivated.
They bred no sort of cattle, nor had anything that could be called
riches. They valued skins and furs for use, and peak and roenoke for
ornament.
They are very severe in punishing ill breeding, of which every Werowance
is undisputed judge, who never fails to lay a rigorous penalty upon it:
an example whereof I had from a gentleman that was an eye-witness; which
was this:
In the time of Bacon's rebellion, one of these Werowances, attended by
several others of his nation, was treating with the English in New Kent
county about a peace; and during the time of his speech, one of his
attendants presumed to interrupt him, which he resented as the most
unpardonable affront that could be offered him; and therefore he
instantly took his tomahawk from his girdle and split the fellow's head
for his presumption. The poor fellow dying immediately upon the spot, he
commanded some of his men to carry him out, and went on again with his
speech where he left off, as unconcerned as if nothing had happened.
The Indians never forget nor forgive an injury, till satisfaction be
given, be it national or personal: but it becomes the business of their
whole lives; and even after that, the revenge is entailed upon their
posterity, till full reparation be made.
§ 45. The titles of honor that I have observed among them peculiar to
themselves, are only Cockarouse and Werowance, besides that of the king
and queen; but of late they have borrowed some titles from us, which
they bestow among themselves. A Cockarouse is one that has the honor to
be of the king or queen's council, with relation to the affairs of the
government, and has a great share in the administration. A Werowance is
a military officer, who of course takes upon him the command of all
parties, either of hunting, traveling, warring, or the like, and the
word signifies a war-captain.
The priests and conjurers are also of great authority, the people having
recourse to them for counsel and direction upon all occasions; by which
means, and by help of the first fruits and frequent offerings, they riot
in the fat of the land, and grow rich upon the spoils of their ignorant
countrymen.
They have also people of a rank inferior to the commons, a sort of
servants among them. These are called black boys, and are attendant upon
the gentry, to do their servile offices, which, in their state of
nature, are not many. For they live barely up to the present relief of
their necessities, and make all things easy and comfortable to
themselves, by the indulgence of a kind climate, without toiling and
perplexing their minds for riches, which other people often trouble
themselves to provide for uncertain and ungrateful heirs. In short, they
seem as possessing nothing, and yet enjoying all things.
CHAPTER XII.
OF THE TREASURE OR RICHES OF THE INDIANS.
§ 46. The Indians had nothing which they reckoned riches, before the
English went among them, except peak, roenoke, and such like trifles
made out of the conch shell. These past with them instead of gold and
silver, and served them both for money and ornament. It was the English
alone that taught them first to put a value on their skins and furs, and
to make a trade of them.
Peak is of two sorts, or rather of two colors, for both are made of one
shell, though of different parts; one is a dark purple cylinder, and the
other a white; they are both made in size and figure alike, and commonly
much resembling the English bugles, but not so transparent nor so
brittle. They are wrought as smooth as glass, being one third of an inch
long, and about a quarter diameter, strung by a hole drilled through the
centre. The dark color is the dearest, and distinguished by the name of
wampom peak. The Englishmen that are called Indian traders, value the
wampom peak at eighteen pence per yard, and the white peak at nine
pence. The Indians also make pipes of this, two or three inches long,
and thicker than ordinary, which are much more valuable. They also make
runtees of the small shell, and grind them as smooth as peak. These are
either large like an oval bead, and drilled the length of the oval, or
else they are circular and flat, almost an inch over, and one third of
an inch thick, and drilled edgeways. Of this shell they also make round
tablets of about four inches diameter, which they polish as smooth as
the other, and sometimes they etch or grave thereon circles, stars, a
half moon, or any other figure suitable to their fancy. These they wear
instead of medals before or behind their neck, and use the peak, runtees
and pipes for coronets, bracelets, belts, or long strings hanging down
before the breast, or else they lace their garments with them, and adorn
their tomahawks, and every other thing that they value.
They have also another sort which is as current among them, but of far
less value; and this is made of the cockle shell, broken into small bits
with rough edges, drilled through in the same manner as beads, and this
they call roenoke, and use it as the peak.
These sorts of money have their rates set upon them as unalterable, and
current as the values of our money are.
The Indians have likewise some pearl amongst them, and formerly had many
more, but where they got them is uncertain, except they found them in
the oyster banks, which are frequent in this country.
CHAPTER XIII.
OF THE HANDICRAFTS OF THE INDIANS.
§ 47. Before I finish my account of the Indians, it will not be amiss to
inform you, that when the English went first among them, they had no
sort of iron or steel instruments; but their knives were either
sharpened reeds or shells, and their axes sharp stones, bound to the end
of a stick, and glued in with turpentine. By the help of these, they
made their bows of the locust tree, an excessive hard wood when it is
dry, but much more easily cut when it is green, of which they always
took the advantage. They made their arrows of reeds or small wands,
which needed no other cutting, but in the length, being otherwise ready
for notching, feathering and heading. They fledged their arrows with
turkey feathers, which they fastened with glue made of the velvet horns
of a deer; but it has not that quality it's said to have, of holding
against all weathers; they arm'd the heads with a white transparent
stone, like that of Mexico mentioned by Peter Martyr, of which they have
many rocks; they also headed them with the spurs of the wild turkey
cock.
They rubbed fire out of particular sorts of wood (as the ancients did
out of the ivy and bays) by turning the end of a hard piece upon the
side of a piece that is soft and dry, like a spindle on its inke, by
which it heats, and at length burns; to this they put sometimes also
rotten wood and dry leaves, to hasten the work.
§ 48. Under the disadvantage of such tools they made a shift to fell
vast great trees, and clear the land of wood in places where they had
occasion.
They bring down a great tree by making a small fire round the root,
and keeping the flame from running upward, until they burn away so much
of the basis, that the least puff of wind throws it down. When it is
prostrate, they burn it off to what length they would have it, and with
their stone tomahawks break off all the bark, which when the sap runs
will easily strip, and at other times also, if it be well warmed with
fire. When it is brought to a due length, they raise it upon a bed to a
convenient height for their working, and then, begin by gentle fires to
hollow it, and with scrapers rake the trunk, and turn away the fire from
one place to another, till they have deepened the belly of it to their
desire. Thus also they shape the ends, till they have made it a fit
vessel for crossing the water, and this they call a canoe, one of which
I have seen thirty feet long.
When they wanted any land to be cleared of the woods, they chopped a
notch round the trees quite through the bark with their stone hatchets
or tomahawks, and that deadened the trees, so that they sprouted no
more, but in a few years fell down. However, the ground was plant-able,
and would produce immediately upon the withering of the trees. But now
for all these uses they employ axes and little hatchets, which they buy
of the English. The occasions aforementioned, and the building of their
cabins, are still the greatest use they have for these utensils, because
they trouble not themselves with any other sort of handicraft, to which
such tools are necessary. Their household utensils are baskets made of
silk grass, gourds, which grow to the shapes they desire them, and
earthen pots to boil victuals in, which they make of clay.
[Illustration: _Lith. of Ritchies & Dunnavant Richmond, Va._
Tab: 14. Book: 3 Pag: 183]
TAB. 14. Shows their manner of felling great trees (before they had
iron instruments) by firing the root, and bringing them to fit lengths,
and shaping them for use by fire alone.
The Indians of Virginia are almost wasted, but such towns or people as
retain their names and live in bodies are hereunder set down, all which
together can't raise five hundred fighting men. They live poorly, and
much in fear of the neighboring Indians. Each town, by the articles of
peace, 1677, pays three Indian arrows for their land, and twenty beaver
skins for protection every year.
In Accomac are eight towns, viz:
Metomkin is much decreased of late by the small pox, that was
carried thither.
Gingoteague. The few remains of this town are joined with a nation
of the Maryland Indians.
Kiequotank is reduced to very few men.
Matchopungo has a small number yet living.
Occahanock has a small number yet living.
Pungoteague. Governed by a queen, but a small nation.
Onancock has but four or five families.
Chiconessex has very few, who just keep the name.
Nanduye. A seat of the empress. Not above twenty families, but she
hath all the nations of this shore under tribute.
In Northampton, Gangascoe, which is almost as numerous as all the
foregoing nations put together.
In Prince George Wyanoke is extinct.
In Charles City Appomattox is extinct.
In Surry. Nottawayes, which are about a hundred bowmen, of late a
thriving and increasing people.
By Nansemond. Meherrin has about thirty bowmen, who keep at a stand.
Nansemond. About thirty bowmen. They have increased much of late.
In King William's county two. Pamunky has about forty bowmen, who
decrease.
Chickahominy, which had about sixteen bowmen, but lately increased.
In Essex. Rappahannock extinct.
In Richmond. Port Tobacco extinct.
In Northumberland. Wiccomocca has but few men living, which yet keep up
their kingdom and retain their fashion, yet live by themselves, separate
from all other Indians, and from the English.
§ 49. Thus I have given a succinct account of the Indians; happy, I
think, in their simple state of nature, and in their enjoyment of
plenty, without the curse of labor. They have on several accounts reason
to lament the arrival of the Europeans, by whose means they seem to have
lost their felicity as well as their innocence. The English have taken
away great part of their country, and consequently made everything less
plentiful amongst them. They have introduced drunkenness and luxury
amongst them, which have multiplied their wants, and put them upon
desiring a thousand things they never dreamt of before. I have been the
more concise in my account of this harmless people, because I have
inserted several figures, which I hope have both supplied the defect of
words, and rendered the descriptions more clear. I shall, in the next
place, proceed to treat of Virginia as it is now improved, (I should
rather say altered,) by the English, and of its present constitution and
settlement.
OF THE PRESENT STATE OF VIRGINIA.
AS THIS BOOK MUST CONSIST OF TWO PARTS, FIRST, THE POLITY OF THE
GOVERNMENT; SECONDLY, THE HUSBANDRY AND IMPROVEMENTS OF THE
COUNTRY; I SHALL HANDLE THEM SEPARATELY.
BOOK IV.
PART I.
OF THE CIVIL POLITY AND GOVERNMENT OF VIRGINIA.
CHAPTER I.
OF THE CONSTITUTION OF GOVERNMENT IN VIRGINIA.
§ 1. I have already hinted, that the first settlement of this country
was under the direction of a company of merchants incorporated.
That the first constitution of government appointed by them was a
president and council, which council was nominated by the corporation or
company in London, and the president annually chosen by the people in
Virginia.
That in the year 1610, this constitution was altered, and the company
obtained a new grant of his majesty; whereby they themselves had the
nomination of the governor, who was obliged to act only by advice in
council.
That in the year 1620, an assembly of burgesses was first called, from
all the inhabited parts of the country, who sat in consultation with the
governor and council, for settling the public affairs of the plantation.
That when the company was dissolved, the king continued the same method
of government, by a governor, council and burgesses; which three being
united were called the general assembly.
That this general assembly debated all the weighty affairs of the
colony, and enacted laws for the better government of the people; and
the governor and council were to put them in execution.
That the governor and council were appointed by the king, and the
assembly chosen by the people.
Afterwards the governor had a more extensive power put into his hands,
so that his assent in all affairs become absolutely necessary; yet was
he still bound to act by advice of council in many things.
Until the rebellion 1676, the governor had no power to suspend the
counsellors, nor to remove any of them from the council board.
Then a power was given him of suspending them, but with proviso, that he
gave substantial reasons for so doing; and was answerable to his majesty
for the truth of the accusation.
Then also this model of government by a governor, council and assembly,
was confirmed to them with a farther clause, that if the governor should
happen to die, or be removed, and no other person in the country
nominated by the crown to supply his place, then the president, or
eldest councillor, with the assistance of any five of the council,
should take upon him the administration of the government, all which are
authorized by commission and instructions to the governor.
Before the year 1680, the council sat in the same house with the
burgesses of assembly, much resembling the model of the Scotch
parliament; and the Lord Colepepper, taking advantage of some disputes
among them, procured the council to sit apart from the assembly; and so
they became two distinct houses, in imitation of the two houses of
parliament in England, the lords and commons; and so is the constitution
at this day.
§ 2. The governor is appointed by the crown; his commission is under
seal, and runs during pleasure.
He represents the king's person there in all things, and is subject to
his instructions.
His assent is necessary to the laws, agreed upon by the council and
assembly; without it no law can be made.
His test to all laws so assented to is also requisite.
He calls assemblies by advice of council, but prorogues or dissolves
them without.
He calls and presides in all councils of State, and hath his negative
there also.
He appoints commissioners of county courts for the administration of
justice, by consent of council.
He grants commissions to all officers of the militia, under the degree
of a lieutenant general, (which title he bears himself,) as he thinks
fit.
He orders and disposes the militia for the defence of the country.
He tests proclamations.
He disposes of the unpatented land according to the charter, the laws of
that country, and his instructions; for which end, and for other public
occasions, the seal of the colony is committed to his keeping.
All issues of the public revenue must bear his test.
And by virtue of a commission from the admiralty he is made
vice-admiral.
The governor's salary, till within these forty-five years last past, was
no more than a thousand pounds a year; besides which, he had about five
hundred more in perquisites. Indeed, the general assembly, by a public
act, made an addition of two hundred pounds a year to Sir William
Berkeley in particular, out of the great respect and esteem they bore to
that gentleman, who had been a long time a good and just governor; and
who had laid out the greatest part of his revenue in experiments, for
the advantage and improvement of the country; and who had, besides,
suffered extremely in the time of the usurpation. But this addition was
to determine with his government.
Sir William Berkeley, after the short interval of Jeffery's and
Chicheley's being deputy-governors, was succeeded by the Lord
Colepepper, who, under pretence of his being a peer of England, obtained
of King Charles II. a salary of two thousand pounds, besides one hundred
and sixty pounds a year for house rent, because there was no house
appointed by the country for the governor's reception. This salary has
continued ever since, to the succeeding governors.
If the administration of the government happen to fall into the hands of
the president and council, there is then usually allowed to the
president, the addition of five hundred pounds a year only; and to the
council, no more than what is given them at other times.
§ 3. The gentlemen of the council are appointed by letter or instruction
from his majesty, which says no more, but that they be sworn of the
council.
The number of the counsellors when complete, is twelve; and if at
anytime, by death or removal, there happen to be fewer than nine
residing in the country, then the governor has power to appoint and
swear into the council, such of the gentlemen of the country as he shall
think fit to make up that number, without expecting any direction from
England.
The business of the council, is to advise and assist the governor in all
important matters of government, which he shall consult them in.
In the general assembly, the council make the upper house, and claim an
entire negative voice to all laws, as the house of lords in England.
The salary of the council is in all but three hundred and fifty pounds
per annum, to be proportioned among them according to their attendance
on general courts and assemblies.
§ 4. The burgesses of assembly are elected, and returned from all parts
of the country, viz: from each county, two; and from James City, one;
and from the college, one; which make up in all sixty burgesses. They
are convened by writs issued from the secretary's office, under the seal
of the colony, and the test of the governor. These are directed to the
sheriff of each county respectively, and ought to bear date at least
forty days before the return. The freeholders are the only electors, and
wherever they have a freehold (if they be not women, or under age, or
aliens) they have a vote in the election. The method of summoning the
freeholders, is by publication of the writ, together with the day
appointed by the sheriff for election, at every church and chapel in the
county, two several Sundays successively. The election is concluded by
plurality of voices; and if either party be dissatisfied, or thinks he
has not fair treatment, he may demand a copy of the poll, and upon
application to the house of burgesses, shall have his complaint inquired
into. But to prevent undue elections, many acts have been there made,
agreeably to some lately enacted in England.
The first business of a convention, by the governor's direction, is to
make choice of a speaker, and to present him in full house to the
governor. Upon this occasion, the speaker, in the name of the house,
petitions the governor to confirm the usual liberties and privileges of
assembly, namely, access to his person whenever they shall have
occasion; a freedom of speech and debate in the house, without being
farther accountable; a protection of their persons, and their servants
from arrest, &c. And these being granted by the governor, and the cause
of their meeting declared by him, they proceed to do business, choosing
committees, and in other things imitating as near as they can the
method of the honorable house of commons in England.
The laws having duly passed the house of burgesses, the council, and the
governor's assent, they are transmitted to the king by the next shipping
for his approbation, his majesty having another negative voice. But they
immediately become laws, and are in force upon the governor's first
passing them, and so remain if his majesty don't actually repeal them,
although he be not pleased to declare his royal assent, one way or
other.
There are no appointed times for their convention, but they are called
together whenever the exigencies of the country make it necessary, or
his majesty is pleased to order anything to be proposed to them.
CHAPTER II.
OF THE SUBDIVISIONS OF VIRGINIA.
§ 5. The country is divided into twenty-nine counties, and the counties,
as they are in bigness, into fewer or more parishes, as they are filled
with inhabitants.
The method of bounding the counties is at this time with respect to the
convenience of having each county limited to one single river, for its
trade and shipping, so that any one whose concerns are altogether in one
county, may not be obliged to seek his freight and shipping in more than
one river. Whereas at first, they were bounded with respect to the
circuit, and the propinquity of the extremes to one common centre, by
which means one county reached then quite across a neck of land from
river to river. But this way of bounding the counties being found more
inconvenient than the other, it was changed by a law into what it is
now.
Besides this division into counties and parishes, there are two other
subdivisions, which are subject to the rules and alterations made by the
county courts, namely: into precincts or burroughs, for the limits of
constables; and into precincts or walks, for the surveyors of highways.
§ 6. There is another division of the country into necks of land, which
are the boundaries of the escheators, viz:
1. The northern neck between Potomac and Rappahannock rivers. This
is the proprietary in the Lord Colepepper's family.
2. The neck between Rappahannock and York rivers, within which
Pamunky neck is included.
3. The neck between York and James rivers.
4. The lands on the south side of James river.
5. The land on the eastern shore; in all, five divisions. Each of
which has its particular escheat-master.
In the northern neck are contained six counties. 1. Lancaster, viz: in
which are two parishes, viz: Christ Church, and Saint Mary White Chapel.
2. Northumberland, two parishes, viz: Fairfield and Boutracy, and
_Wiccocomoco_. 3. Westmoreland, two parishes, viz: Copely and
Washington. 4. Stafford, two parishes, viz: Saint Paul and Overworton.
5. Richmond, one parish, viz: North Farnham, and part of another, viz:
Sittenburn. 6. King George county, one parish, viz: Hanover, the other
part of Sittenburn.
In the neck between Rappahannock and York rivers, are contained six
other counties, viz:
1. Gloucester, in which are four parishes, viz: Pesso, Abingdon, Ware
and Kingston. 2. Middlesex, only one parish, viz: Christ Church. 3. King
and Queen, two parishes, viz: Stratton Major, Saint Stephen. 4. King
William, two parishes, viz: Saint John and Saint Margaret. 5. Essex,
three parishes, viz: South Farnham, Saint Anne, Saint Mary. 6.
Spottsylvania, one parish, viz: Saint George.
In the neck between York and James river, there are seven counties and
part of an eighth. The seven entire counties are: 1. Elizabeth City, in
which is only one parish, named also Elizabeth City parish. 2. The
Warwick, in which are two parishes, viz: Denby, Mulberry Island. 3.
York, in which are two parishes, viz: Charles and Yorkhampton, and part
of a third called Braton. 4. James City, in which are three parishes and
part of two others, viz: James City, part of Wilmington, Merchants'
Hundred, and the other half of Braton. 5. New Kent, two parishes, viz:
Blisland, and Saint Peter. 6. Charles City, two parishes, viz:
Westover, and part of Wilmington. 7. Hanover, one parish, viz: Saint
Paul. And 8. Part of Henrico county, on the north side of James river,
by which river the parishes are also divided, there being two parishes
in the whole county, viz: Henrico and Saint James, and part of a third
called Bristol.
On the south side James river are seven counties, and the other part of
Henrico. The seven counties, beginning at the bay as I have done in all
the rest are, viz: 1. Princess Anne, in which is but one parish, viz:
Lynhaven. 2. Norfolk, also one parish, called Elizabeth River. 3.
Nansemond, in which are three parishes, viz: Lower Parish, Upper Parish,
Chickaluck. 4. Isle of Wight, in which are two parishes, viz: Warwick
Squeeke Bay, and Newport. 5. Surry, two parishes, viz: Lyon's Creek,
Southwark. 6. Prince George, in which is one parish, viz: Martin
Brandon, and the other part of Bristol Parish, in Henrico. 7. Brunswick,
a new county constituted towards the southern pass of the mountains, on
purpose that by extraordinary encouragements the settlements may send up
that way first, as is given also to Spottsylvania county for the
northern pass. It is made one parish, by the name of Saint Andrew.
On the eastern shore, that is, on the east side the great bay of
Chesapeake, the place where Sir William Berkeley retired to in the
rebellion, without withdrawing from his government, (as Mr. Oldmixon
declares he did) are two counties. 1. Northampton, having one parish,
named Hungers. 2. Accomac, having one parish, named also Accomac.
In all there are at present twenty-nine counties, and fifty-four
parishes.
§ 7. There is yet another division of the country into districts,
according to the rivers, with respect to the shipping and navigation.
These are the bounds appointed for the naval officers, and collectors of
the public duties, and are as follows:
1. The upper parts of James river, from Hog island upwards.
2. The lower parts of James river, from Hog island downwards to
the capes, and round Point Comfort to Back river.
3. York, Poquoson, Mobjack bay, and Piankatank rivers.
4. Rappahannock river.
5. Potomac river.
6. Pocomoke, and the other parts on the eastern, made formerly two
districts, but they are now united into one.
CHAPTER III.
OF THE PUBLIC OFFICES OF GOVERNMENT.
§ 8. Besides the governor and council aforementioned, there are three
other general officers in that colony bearing his majesty's immediate
commission, viz: the auditor of the revenue, the receiver general of it,
and the secretary of state.
The auditor's business is to audit the accounts of the public money of
the government, and duly to transmit the state of them to England. Such
as the quitrents, the money arising by the two shillings per hogshead,
fort duties, the fines and forfeitures, and the profit of escheats and
rights of land. His salary is six per cent of all the public money. The
present auditor is John Grimes, esq.
The receiver general is to sell the public tobacco, collect and receive
the money, make the account thereof, and pay it out again by the king's
order. His salary is also six per cent. The present receiver general is
James Roscow, esq.
The secretary's business is to keep the public records of the country,
and to take care that they be regularly and fairly made up, viz: all
judgments of the general court, as likewise all deeds, and other
writings there proved; and farther, to issue all writs, both ministerial
and judicial, relating thereto. To make out and record all patents for
land, and to take the return of all inquests of escheats.
In his office is kept a register of all commissions of administration,
and probates of wills granted throughout the colony; as also of all
births, burials, marriages, and persons that go out of the country, of
all houses of public entertainment, and of all public officers in the
country, and of many other things proper to be kept in so general an
office.
From this office are likewise issued all writs for choosing of
burgesses, and in it are filed authentic copies of all proclamations.
The present secretary is Thomas Ficket, esq.
The secretary's income arises from fees for all business done in his
office, which come (_communibus annis_) to about seventy thousand pounds
tobacco per annum, out of which he pays twelve thousand five hundred,
and cask, to the clerks. His other perquisites proceed out of the
acknowledgments paid him annually by the county clerks, and are besides
about forty thousand pounds of tobacco and cask.
§ 9. There are two other general officers in the country who do not
receive their commission and authority immediately from the crown, and
those are: 1. The ecclesiastical commissary, viz: the Rev. James Blair,
authorized by the right reverend father in God, the lord bishop of
London, ordinary of all the plantations. 2. The country's treasurer,
viz: the Hon. Peter Beverley, esq., authorized by the general assembly.
The commissary's business is to make visitations of churches and have
the inspection of the clergy. He is allowed one hundred pounds per annum
out of the quitrents.
The treasurer's business is to receive the money from the several
collectors, and to make up the accounts of the duties raised by some
late acts of assembly for extraordinary occasions. His salary is six per
cent. of all money passing through his hands.
These are all the general officers belonging to that government, except
the court of admiralty, which has no standing officer. The present judge
of the admiralty is John Clayton, esq.
§ 10. The other public commission officers in the government, (except
those of the militia, for whom a chapter is reserved,) are escheators,
naval officers, collectors, clerks of courts, sheriffs of counties,
surveyors of land, and coroners.
The escheators have their precincts or bounds, according to the several
necks of land; for their profits, they demand five pound for each
inquest taken, being paid only as business happens.
The naval officers have their bounds according to the districts on the
rivers, and so have the collectors. The profits of the first arise from
large fees, upon the entering and clearing of all ships and vessels. The
collectors have each a salary out of the treasury in England of forty
pounds, sixty pounds, or an hundred pounds, according to their several
districts, they being appointed by the honorable commissioners of the
customs in England, pursuant to the statute made in the twenty-fifth
year of King Charles the second; and have, moreover, salaries of twenty
per cent. on all the duties they collect, by virtue of the same statute,
and also large fees for every entry and clearing.
The naval officers' other profits, are ten per cent. for all moneys by
them received; both on the two shillings per hogshead, port duties,
skins and furs, and also on the new imposts on servants and liquors when
such duty is in being.
The clerks of courts, sheriffs and surveyors, are limited according to
the several counties. The clerks of courts receive their commissions
from the secretary of State; the sheriffs theirs from the governor, and
the surveyors of land theirs from the governors of the college, in whom
the office of surveyor general is vested by their charter.
The clerks' profits proceed from stated fees, upon all law suits and
business in their respective courts, except the clerk of the general
court, who is paid a salary by the secretary, who takes the fees of that
court to himself.
The sheriff's profit is likewise by fees on all business done in the
county courts, to which he is the ministerial officer, and not judge of
the county court, as Mr. Oldmixon styles him, page 298; but the best of
his income is by a salary of all public tobacco, which is constantly put
into the sheriff's hands, to be collected and put into hundreds,
convenient for the market. He has likewise several other advantages,
which make his place very profitable.
The profits of the surveyors of land are according to the trouble they
take. Their fees being proportioned to the surveys they make.
The coroner is a commissioner officer also, but his profits are not
worth naming, though he has large fees allowed him when he does any
business. There are two or more of them appointed in each parish, as
occasion requires; but in the vacancy or absence of any, upon an
exigency, the next justice of peace does the business and receives the
fee, which is one hundred and thirty-three pounds of tobacco for an
inquest on a dead corpse, any other business seldom falling in his way.
§ 11. There are other ministerial officers that have no commission;
which are, surveyors of the highways, constables and headboroughs. These
are appointed, relieved and altered annually by the county courts, as
they see occasion; and such bounds are given them as those courts think
most convenient.
CHAPTER IV.
OF THE STANDING REVENUES, OR PUBLIC FUNDS IN VIRGINIA.
§ 12. There are five sorts of standing public revenues in that country,
viz: 1. A rent reserved by the crown upon all the lands granted by
patent. 2. A revenue granted to his majesty by act of assembly, for the
support and maintenance of the government. 3. A revenue raised by the
assembly, and kept in their own disposal, for extraordinary occasions.
4. A revenue raised by the assembly, and granted to the college. And 5.
A revenue raised by act of parliament in England upon the trade there.
§ 13. 1. The rent reserved upon their lands, is called his majesty's
revenue of quit rents, and is two shillings for every hundred acres of
land, patented by any person in that country, and two pence per acre for
all lands found to escheat; this is paid into the treasury there by all,
except the inhabitants of the Northern Neck, who pay nothing to the
king; but the whole quit rent of that neck is paid to certain
proprietors of the Lord Colepepper's family, who have the possession
thereof to themselves, upon the pretensions before rehearsed in the
first part of this book.
This revenue has been upwards of fifteen hundred pounds a year, since
tobacco has held a good price. It is lodged in the receiver general's
hands, to be disposed of by his majesty. This money is left in bank
there, to be made use of upon any sudden and dangerous emergency, except
when it is called home to England; and for want of such a bank, Sir
William Berkeley was not able to make any stand against Bacon, whom
otherwise he might easily have subdued, and consequently have prevented
above one hundred thousand pounds expense to the crown of England, to
pacify those troubles.
§ 14. 2. The revenue granted 10 his majesty by act of assembly, for the
support and maintenance of the government, arises first out of a duty of
two shillings per hogshead, which is paid for every hogshead of tobacco
exported out of that colony. 2. By a rate of fifteen pence per ton for
every ship, upon each return of her voyage, whether she be empty or
full. 3. By a duty of sixpence per poll for every passenger, bound or
free, going into that country to remain. 4. By the fines and forfeitures
imposed by several acts of assembly. There is also an addition, by wafts
and strays having no owner, composition of two pence per acre for
escheat land, chattels escheat, and the sale of land instead of rights,
at five shillings per right; all which are paid into the hands of the
receiver general, and disposed of by the governor and council, (with
liberty for the assembly to inspect the accounts when they meet,) for
defraying the public charges of the government.
The revenue, _communibus annis_, amounts to more than three thousand
pounds a year.
§ 15. 3. The revenue arising by act of assembly, and reserved to their
own disposal, is of two sorts, viz: a duty upon liquors imported from
the neighboring plantations, and a duty upon all slaves and servants
imported, except English.
The duty on liquors used to be 4d. per gallon on all wines, rum, and
brandy; and 1d. per gallon on beer, cider and other liquors, discounting
twenty per cent. upon the invoice, except oats.
The duty on servants and slaves used to be twenty shillings for each
servant, not being a native of England or Wales, and five pounds for
each slave or negro.
The former of these duties amounts _communibus annis_, to six hundred
pounds a year, and the latter to more or less, as the negro ships happen
to arrive.
The charge of building and adorning the governor's house and capitol,
was defrayed by these duties, and so was the erecting of the public
prison.
These funds are gathered into the hands of the treasurer of the country,
and are disposed of only by order of assembly.
§ 16. 4. The revenue raised by the assembly, and granted to the college,
is a duty on all skins and furs exported. This fund raises about an
hundred pounds a year, and is paid by the collectors, to the college
treasurer.
§ 17. 5 and last. The fund raised by act of parliament in England upon
the trade there, is a duty of one penny per pound, upon all tobacco
exported to the plantations, and not carried directly to England. This
duty was laid by Stat. 25, Car. 2, cap. 7, and granted to the king and
his successors; and by their gracious majesties King William and Queen
Mary, it was given to the college. This duty does not raise, both in
Virginia and Maryland, above two hundred pounds a year, and is accounted
for to the college treasurer.
CHAPTER V.
OF THE LEVIES FOR PAYMENT OF THE PUBLIC COUNTY AND PARISH DEBTS.
§ 18. They have but two ways of raising money publicly in that country,
viz: by duties upon trade, and a poll tax, which they call levies. Of
the duties upon trade, I have spoken sufficiently in the preceding
chapter. I come, therefore, now to speak of the levies, which are a
certain rate or proportion of tobacco charged upon the head of every
tithable person in the country, upon all alike, without distinction.
They call all negroes above sixteen years of age tithable, be they male
or female, and all white men of the same age; but children and white
women are exempted from all manner of duties.
That a true account of all these tithable persons may be had, they are
annually listed in crop time, by the justices of each county
respectively; and the masters of families are obliged, under great
penalties, then to deliver to those justices a true list of all the
tithable persons in their families.
Their levies are threefold, viz: public, county and parish levies.
§ 19. Public levies are such as are proportioned and laid equally, by
the general assembly, upon every tithable person throughout the whole
colony. These serve to defray several expenses appointed by law, to be
so defrayed, such as the executing of a criminal slave, who must be made
good to his owner. The taking up of runaways, and the paying of the
militia, when they happen to be employed upon the service. Out of these
they likewise pay the several officers of the assembly, and some other
public officers. They further defray the charge of the writs, for the
meeting of the house of burgesses, public expresses, and such like.
The authority for levying this rate is given by a short act of assembly,
constantly prepared for that purpose.
§ 20. The county levies are such as are peculiar to each county, and
laid by the justices upon all tithable persons, for defraying the charge
of their counties, such as the building and repairing their court
houses, prisons, pillories, stocks, &c., and the payment of all
services, rendered to the county in general.
§ 21. The parish levies are laid by the vestry, for the payment of all
charges incident to the several parishes, such as the building,
furnishing, and adorning their churches and chapels, buying glebes and
building upon them, paying their ministers, readers, clerks, and
sextons.
CHAPTER VI.
OF THE COURTS OF LAW IN VIRGINIA.
§ 22. I have already, in the chronology of the government, hinted what
the constitution of their courts was in old time, and that appeals lay
from the general court to the assembly; that the general court, from the
beginning, took cognizance of all causes whatsoever, both ecclesiastical
and civil, determining everything by the standard of equity and good
conscience. They used to come to the merits of the cause as soon as they
could without injustice, never admitting such impertinences of form and
nicety as were not absolutely necessary; and when the substance of the
case was sufficiently debated, they used directly to bring the suit to a
decision. By this method, all fair actions were prosecuted with little
attendance, all just debts were recovered with the least expense of
money and time, and all the tricking and foppery of the law happily
avoided.
The Lord Colepepper, who was a man of admirable sense, and well skilled
in the laws of England, admired the construction of their courts, and
kept them close to this plain method, retrenching some innovations that
were then creeping into them, under the notion of form, although, at the
same time, he was the occasion of taking away the liberty of appeals to
the assembly.
But the Lord Howard, who succeeded him, endeavored to introduce as many
of the English forms as he could, being directly opposite to the Lord
Colepepper in that point.
And lastly, Governor Nicholson, a man the least acquainted with law of
any of them, endeavored to introduce all the quirks of the English
proceedings, by the help of some wretched pettifoggers, who had the
direction both of his conscience and his understanding.
§ 23. They have two sorts of courts, that differ only in jurisdiction,
namely: the general court, and the county courts.
§ 24. The general court is a court held by the governor and council, or
any five of them, who by law are the judges of it, and take cognizance
of all causes, criminal, penal, ecclesiastical and civil. From this
court there is no appeal, except the thing in demand exceed the value of
three hundred pounds sterling, in which case an appeal is allowed to the
king and council, in England, and there determined by a committee of the
privy council, called the lords of appeals; the like custom being used
for all the other plantations. In criminal cases, I don't know that
there's any appeal from the sentence of this court; but the governor is
authorized, by his commission, to pardon persons found guilty of any
crime whatsoever, except of treason and wilful murder; and even in those
cases, he may reprieve the criminal, which reprieve stands good, and may
be continued from time to time until his majesty's pleasure be signified
therein.
§ 25. This court is held twice a year, beginning on the 15th of April,
and on the 15th of October. Each time it continues eighteen days,
excluding Sundays, if the business hold them so long, and these were
formerly the only times of goal delivery; but now, by the governor's
commission, he appoints two other courts of goal delivery, and the king
allows one hundred pounds for each court to defray the charge thereof.
§ 26. The officers attending this general court, are the sheriff of the
county wherein it sits, and his under officers. Their business is to
call the litigants, and the evidences into court, and to empannel
juries. But each sheriff, in his respective county, makes arrests, and
returns the writs to this court.
§ 27. The way of empanneling juries to serve in this court, is thus: the
sheriff and his deputies every morning that the court sits, goes about
the town, summoning the best of the gentlemen, who resort thither from
all parts of the country. The condition of this summons is, that they
attend the court that day to serve upon the jury, (it not being known
whether there will be occasion or no.) And if any cause happen to
require a jury, they are then sworn to try the issue, otherwise, they
are in the evening, of course, dismissed from all further attendance,
though they be not formally discharged by the court. By this means are
procured the best juries this country can afford; for if they should be
summoned by writ of venire, from any particular county, that county
cannot afford so many qualified persons as are here to be found, because
of the great resort of gentlemen from all parts of the colony to these
courts, as well to see fashions, as to dispatch their particular
business. Nor is vicinage necessary there, to distinguish the several
customs of particular places, the whole country being as one
neighborhood, and having the same tenures of land, usages and customs.
The grand juries are empanneled much after the same manner; but because
they require a greater number of men, and the court is always desirous
to have some from all parts of the country, they give their sheriff
order a day or two before, to provide this pannel.
§ 28. In criminal matters this method is a little altered; because a
knowledge of the life, and conversation of the party, may give light to
the jury in their verdict. For this reason a writ of venire issues in
such cases, to summon six of the nearest neighbors to the criminal, who
must be of the same county wherein he lived; which writ of venire is
returned by the sheriff of the respective county, to the secretary's
office, and the names are taken from thence, by the sheriff attending
the general court, and put in the front of the pannel, which is filled
up with the names of the other gentlemen summoned in the town, to be of
the petty jury for the trial of that criminal. If the prisoner have a
mind to challenge the jurors, the same liberty is allowed him there as
in England; and if the pannel fall short, by reason of such challenge,
it must then be made up of the bystanders.
§ 29. All actions in that country are generally brought to a
determination the third court, unless some special, extraordinary reason
be shown why the party can't make his defence so soon. The course is
thus: upon the defendant's nonappearance, order goes against the bail,
(for a capias is generally their first process,) on condition, that
unless the defendant appear, and plead at the next court, judgment shall
then be awarded for the plaintiff. When the defendant comes to the next
court he is held to plead. Thus, by common course, a year and a half
ends a cause in the general court, and three or four months in the
county court. If any one appeal from the judgment of the county court,
the trial always comes on the succeeding general court; so that all
business begun in the county court, tho' it runs to the utmost of the
law, (without some extraordinary event,) ought to be finished in nine
months.
§ 30. Every one that pleases, may plead his own cause, or else his
friends for him, there being no restraint in that case, nor any licensed
practitioners in the law. If any one be dissatisfied with the judgment
of the county court, let it be for any sum, little or great, he may have
an appeal to the next general court, giving security to answer, and
abide the judgment of that court; but an action cannot originally be
brought in the general court, under the value of ten pounds sterling, or
of two thousand pounds of tobacco, except in some particular cases of
penal laws.
§ 31. The county courts are constituted by law, and the justices thereof
appointed by commission from the governor with advice of council. They
consist of eight or more gentlemen of the county, called justices of the
peace, the sheriff being only a ministerial officer to execute its
process. This court is held monthly, and has jurisdiction of all causes
within the county, cognizable by common law or chancery, and not
touching life or member, and never was limited to any value in its
jurisdiction, as Mr. Oldmixion would have it, pag. 298. But in the case
of hog stealing, they may sentence the criminal to lose his ears; which
is allowed by a particular act for that purpose, as the punishment of
the second offence, the third is felony. In all things they proceed in
the same manner as the general court.
§ 32. This monthly court hath the care of all orphans, and of their
estates, and for the binding out and well ordering of such fatherless
children, who are either without an estate, or have very little.
In September annually they are to enquire into the keeping and
management of the orphan, as to his sustenance and education, to examine
into his estate, and the securities thereof, viz: whether the sureties
continue to be responsible, and his lands and plantations be kept
improving, and in repair, &c. If the orphan be poor, and bound an
apprentice to any trade, then their business is to enquire, how he is
kept to his schooling and trade; and if the court find he is either
misused or untaught, they take him from that master, and put him to
another of the same trade, or of any other trade, which they judge best
for the child. They cannot bind an orphan boy but to a trade, or the
sea.
Another charitable method in favor of the poor orphans there, is this:
that besides their trade and schooling, the masters are generally
obliged to give them at their freedom, cattle, tools, or other things,
to the value of five, six, or ten pounds, according to the age of the
child when bound, over and above the usual quantity of corn and clothes.
The boys are bound till one and twenty years of age, and the girls till
eighteen. At which time, they who have taken any care to improve
themselves, generally get well married, and live in plenty, though they
had not a farthing of paternal estate.
CHAPTER VII.
OF THE CHURCH AND CHURCH AFFAIRS.
§ 33. Their parishes are accounted large or small, in proportion to the
number of tithables contained in them, and not according to the extent
of land.
§ 34. They have in each parish a convenient church, built either of
timber, brick or stone, and decently adorned with everything necessary
for the celebration of divine service.
If a parish be of greater extent than ordinary, it hath generally a
chapel of ease; and some of the parishes have two such chapels, besides
the church, for the greater convenience of the parishioners. In these
chapels the minister preaches alternately, always leaving a reader to
read prayers when he can't attend himself.
§ 35. The people are generally of the church of England, which is the
religion established by law in that country, from which there are very
few dissenters. Yet liberty of conscience is given to all other
congregations pretending to Christianity, on condition they submit to
all parish duties. They have but one set conventicle amongst them, viz:
a meeting of Quakers in Nansemond county, others that have lately, been
being now extinct; and 'tis observed by letting them alone they decrease
daily.
§ 36. The maintenance for a minister there, is appointed by law at
sixteen thousand pounds of tobacco per annum, (be the parish great or
small;) as also a dwelling house and glebe, together with certain
perquisites for marriages and funeral sermons. That which makes the
difference in the benefices of the clergy is the value of the tobacco,
according to the distinct species of it, or according to the place of
its growth. Besides, in large and rich parishes, more marriages will
probably happen, and more funeral sermons.
The fee by law for a funeral sermon is forty shillings, or four hundred
pounds of tobacco; for a marriage by license twenty shillings, or two
hundred pounds of tobacco, and where the banns are proclaimed, only five
shillings, or fifty pounds of tobacco.
When these salaries were granted, the assembly valued tobacco at ten
shillings per hundred; at which rate, the sixteen thousand pounds comes
to fourscore pounds sterling; but in all parishes where the
sweet-scented grows, since the law for appointing agents to view the
tobacco was made, it has generally been sold for double that value, and
never under.
In some parishes, likewise, there are by donation stocks of cattle and
negroes on the glebes, which are also allowed to the minister for his
use and encouragement, he only being accountable for the surrender of
the same value when he leaves the parish.
§ 37. For the well governing of these, and all other parochial affairs,
a vestry is appointed in each parish. These vestries consist of twelve
gentlemen of the parish, and were at first chosen by the vote of the
parishioners; but upon the death of any, have been continued by the
survivors electing another in his place. These, in the name of the
parish, make presentation of ministers, and have the sole power of all
parish assessments. They are qualified for this employment by
subscribing, to be conformable to the doctrine and discipline of the
church of England. If there be a minister incumbent, he always presides
in the vestry.
For the ease of the vestry in general, and for discharging the business
of the parish, they choose two from among themselves to be
church-wardens, which must be annually changed, that the burthen may lie
equally upon all. The business of these church-wardens, is to see the
orders and agreements of the vestry performed; to collect all the parish
tobacco, and distribute it to the several claimers; to make up the
accounts of the parish, and to present all profaneness and immorality to
the county courts, and there prosecute it.
By these the tobacco of the minister is collected, and brought to him in
hogsheads convenient for shipping, so that he is at no farther trouble
but to receive it in that condition. This was ordained by the law of the
country, for the ease of the ministers, that so they being delivered
from the trouble of gathering in their dues, may have the more time to
apply themselves to the exercises of their holy function, and live in a
decency suitable to their order. It may here be observed, that the labor
of a dozen negroes does but answer this salary, and seldom yields a
greater crop of sweet scented tobacco than is allowed to each of their
ministers.
§ 38. Probates of wills and administrations are, according to their law,
petitioned for in the county courts; and by them security taken and
certified to the governor, which, if he approves the commission, is then
signed by them without fee. Marriage licenses are issued by the clerks
of those courts, and signed by the justice in commission, or by any
other person deputed by the governor, for which a fee of twenty
shillings must be paid to the governor. The power of induction, upon
presentation of ministers, is also in the governor.
In the year 1642, when the sectaries began to spread themselves so much
in England, the assembly made a law against them, to prevent their
preaching and propagating their doctrines in that colony. They admitted
none to preach in their churches but ministers ordained by some reverend
bishop of the church of England, and the governor, for the time being,
as the most suitable public person among them, was left sole judge of
the certificates of such ordination, and so he has continued ever
since.
§ 39. The only thing I have heard the clergy complain of there, is what
they call precariousness in their livings; that is, that they have not
inductions generally, and therefore are not entitled to a freehold; but
are liable, without trial or crime alledged, to be put out by the
vestry. And though some have prevailed with their vestries, to present
them for induction, yet the greater number of the ministers have no
induction, but are entertained by agreement with their vestries, yet are
they very rarely turned out without some great provocation, and then, if
they have not been abominably scandalous, they immediately get other
parishes, for there is no benefice whatsoever in that country that
remains without a minister if they can get one, and no qualified
minister ever yet returned from that country for want of preferment.
They have now several vacant parishes.
CHAPTER VIII.
CONCERNING THE COLLEGE.
§ 40. The college, as has been hinted, was founded by their late
majesties, King William and Queen Mary, of happy memory, in the year
1692. Towards the founding of which, they gave one thousand nine hundred
and eighty-five pounds, fourteen shillings and ten pence. They gave
moreover, towards the endowment of it, twenty thousand acres of land;
the revenue of one pence per pound on tobacco exported to the
plantations from Virginia and Maryland; and the surveyor general's
place, then avoid; and appointed them a burgess to represent them in the
assemblies. The land hitherto has yielded little or no profit; the duty
of one pence per pound, brings in about two hundred pounds a year; and
the surveyor general's place, about fifty pounds a year. To which the
assembly had added a duty on skins and furs exported, worth about an
hundred pounds a year.
§ 41. By the same charter, likewise, their majesties granted a power to
certain gentlemen, and the survivors of them, as trustees, to build and
establish the college, by the name of William and Mary college; to
consist of a president and six masters, or professors, and an hundred
scholars, more or less, graduates or non-graduates; enabling the said
trustees, as a body corporate, to enjoy annuities, spiritual and
temporal, of the value of two thousand pounds sterling per annum, with
proviso to convert it to the building and adorning the college; and then
to make over the remainder to the president and masters, and their
successors, who are likewise to become a corporation, and be enabled to
purchase and hold to the value of two thousand pounds a year, but no
more.
§ 42. The persons named in the charter for trustees, are made governors
and visitors of the college, and to have a perpetual succession, by the
name of governors and visitors, with power to fill up their own
vacancies, happening by the death or removal of any of them. Their
complete number may be eighteen, but not to exceed twenty, of which one
is to be rector, and annually chosen by themselves, on the first Monday
after the 25th of March.
These have the nomination of the president and masters of the college,
and all other officers belonging to it; and the power of making statutes
and ordinances, for the better rule and government thereof.
§ 43. The building is to consist of a quadrangle, two sides of which are
not yet carried up. In this part are contained all conveniencies of
cooking, brewing, baking, &c., and convenient rooms for the reception of
the president and masters, with many more scholars than are as yet come
to it. In this part are also the hall and school room.
§ 44. The college was intended to be an intire square when finished. Two
sides of this were finished in the latter end of Governor Nicholson's
time, and the masters and scholars, with the necessary housekeepers and
servants, were settled in it, and so continued till the first year of
Governor Nott's time, in which it happened to be burnt (no body knows
how) down to the ground, and very little saved that was in it, the fire
breaking out about ten o'clock at night in a public time.
The governor, and all the gentlemen that were in town, came up to the
lamentable spectacle, many getting out of their beds. But the fire had
got such power before it was discovered, and was so fierce, that there
was no hope of putting a stop to it, and therefore no attempts made to
that end.
In this condition it lay till the arrival of Colonel Spotswood, their
present governor, in whose time it was raised again the same bigness as
before, and settled.
There had been a donation of large sums of money, by the Hon. Robert
Boyle, esq., to this college, for the education of Indian children
therein. In order to make use of this, they had formerly bought half a
dozen captive Indian children slaves, and put them to the college. This
method did not satisfy this governor, as not answering the intent of the
donor. So to work he goes, among the tributary and other neighboring
Indians, and in a short time brought them to send their children to be
educated, and brought new nations, some of which lived four hundred
miles off, taking their children for hostages and education equally, at
the same time setting up a school in the frontiers convenient to the
Indians, that they might often see their children under the first
managements, where they learned to read, paying fifty pounds per annum
out of his own pocket to the schoolmaster there; after which many were
brought to the college, where they were taught till they grew big enough
for their hunting and other exercises, at which time they were returned
home, and smaller taken in their stead.
CHAPTER IX.
OF THE MILITIA IN VIRGINIA.
§ 45. The militia are the only standing forces in Virginia. They are
happy in the enjoyment of an everlasting peace, which their poverty and
want of towns secure to them. They have the Indians round about in
subjection, and have no sort of apprehension from them: and for a
foreign enemy, it can never be worth their while to carry troops
sufficient to conquer the country; and the scattering method of their
settlement will not answer the charge of an expedition to plunder them:
so that they feel none but the distant effect of war, which, however,
keeps 'em so poor, that they can boast of nothing but the security of
their persons and habitations.
§ 46. The governor is lieutenant-general by his commission, and in each
county does appoint the colonel, lieutenant-colonel and major, who have
under them captains, and other commissioned and subaltern officers.
Every freeman, (by which denomination they call all, but indented, or
bought servants,) from sixteen to sixty years of age, is listed in the
militia; which by a law is to be mustered in a general muster for each
county once a year; and in single troops and companies, four times more
at the least: most people there are skilful in the use of fire-arms,
being all their lives accustomed to shoot in the woods. This, together
with a little exercising, would soon make the militia useful.
§ 47. The exact number of the militia is not now known, there not being
any account of the number taken of late years, but I guess them at this
time to be about eighteen thousand effective men in all.
And whereas by the practice of former times upon the militia law,
several people were obliged to travel sometimes thirty or forty miles to
a private muster of a troop or company, which was very burdensome to
some, more than others, to answer only the same duty; this governor,
just and regular in all his conduct, and experienced to put his desires
in execution, so contrived, by dividing the counties into several
cantons or military districts, forming the troops and companies to each
canton, and appointing the musterfields in the centre of each, that now
throughout the whole country, none are obliged to travel above ten miles
to a private muster, and yet the law put in due execution.
§ 48. Instead of the soldiers they formerly kept constantly in forts,
and of the others after them by the name of rangers, to scour the
frontiers clear of the Indian enemy, they have by law appointed the
militia to march out upon such occasions, under the command of the chief
officer of the county, where any incursion shall be notified. And if
they upon such expedition remain in arms three days and upwards, they
are then entitled to the pay for the whole time; but if it prove a false
alarm, and they have no occasion to continue out so long, they can
demand nothing.
§ 49. The number of soldiers in each troop of light horse, are from
thirty to sixty, as the convenience of the canton will admit; and in a
company of foot about fifty or sixty. A troop or company may be got
together at a day's warning.
CHAPTER X.
OF THE SERVANTS AND SLAVES IN VIRGINIA.
§ 50. Their servants they distinguish by the names of slaves for life,
and servants for a time.
Slaves are the negroes and their posterity, following the condition of
the mother, according to the maxim, _partus frequitur ventrem_. They are
called slaves, in respect of the time of their servitude, because it is
for life.
Servants, are those which serve only for a few years, according to the
time of their indenture, or the custom of the country. The custom of the
country takes place upon such as have no indentures. The law in this
case is, that if such servants be under nineteen years of age, they must
be brought into court to have their age adjudged; and from the age they
are judged to be of, they must serve until they reach four and twenty;
but if they be adjudged upwards of nineteen, they are then only to be
servants for the term of five years.
§ 51. The male servants, and slaves of both sexes, are employed together
in tilling and manuring the ground, in sowing and planting tobacco,
corn, &c. Some distinction indeed is made between them in their clothes,
and food; but the work of both is no other than what the overseers, the
freemen, and the planters themselves do.
Sufficient distinction is also made between the female servants, and
slaves; for a white woman is rarely or never put to work in the ground,
if she be good for anything else; and to discourage all planters from
using any women so, their law makes female servants working in the
ground tithables, while it suffers all other white women to be
absolutely exempted; whereas, on the other hand, it is a common thing to
work a woman slave out of doors, nor does the law make any distinction
in her taxes, whether her work be abroad or at home.
§ 52. Because I have heard how strangely cruel and severe the service of
this country is represented in some parts of England, I can't forbear
affirming, that the work of their servants and slaves is no other than
what every common freeman does; neither is any servant required to do
more in a day than his overseer; and I can assure you, with great truth,
that generally their slaves are not worked near so hard, nor so many
hours in a day, as the husbandmen, and day laborers in England. An
overseer is a man, that having served his time, has acquired the skill
and character of an experienced planter, and is therefore entrusted with
the direction of the servants and slaves.
But to complete this account of servants, I shall give you a short
relation of the care their laws take, that they be used as tenderly as
possible:
BY THE LAWS OF THEIR COUNTRY,
1. All servants whatsoever have their complaints heard without fee
or reward; but if the master be found faulty, the charge of the
complaint is cast upon him, otherwise the business is done _ex
officio_.
2. Any justice of the peace may receive the complaint of a
servant, and order everything relating thereto, till the next
county court, where it will be finally determined.
3. All masters are under the correction and censure of the county
courts, to provide for their servants good and wholesome diet,
clothing and lodging.
4. They are always to appear upon the first notice given of the
complaint of their servants, otherwise to forfeit the service of
them until they do appear.
5. All servants' complaints are to be received at any time in
court, without process, and shall not be delayed for want of form;
but the merits of the complaint must be immediately enquired into
by the justices; and if the master cause any delay therein, the
court may remove such servants, if they see cause, until the
master will come to trial.
6. If a master shall at any time disobey an order of court, made
upon any complaint of a servant, the court is empowered to remove
such servant forthwith to another master who will be kinder,
giving to the former master the produce only, (after fees
deducted,) of what such servants shall be sold for by public
outcry.
7. If a master should be so cruel, as to use his servant ill, that
is fallen sick or lame in his service, and thereby rendered unfit
for labor, he must be removed by the church-wardens out of the way
of such cruelty, and boarded in some good planter's house, till
the time of his freedom, the charge of which must be laid before
the next county court, which has power to levy the same, from time
to time, upon the goods and chattels of the master, after which,
the charge of such boarding is to come upon the parish in general.
8. All hired servants are entitled to these privileges.
9. No master of a servant can make a new bargain for service, or
other matter with his servant, without the privity and consent of
the county court, to prevent the masters overreaching, or scaring
such servant into an unreasonable compliance.
10. The property of all money and goods sent over thither to
servants, or carried in with them, is reserved to themselves, and
remains entirely at their disposal.
11. Each servant at his freedom receives of his master ten bushels
of corn, (which is sufficient for almost a year,) two new suits of
clothes, both linen and woolen, and a gun, twenty shillings value,
and then becomes as free in all respects, and as much entitled to
the liberties and privileges of the country, as any of the
inhabitants or natives are, if such servants were not aliens.
12. Each servant has then also a right to take up fifty acres of
land, where he can find any unpatented.
This is what the laws prescribe in favor of servants, by which you may
find, that the cruelties and severities imputed to that country, are an
unjust reflection. For no people more abhor the thoughts of such usage,
than the Virginians, nor take more precaution to prevent it now,
whatever it was in former days.
CHAPTER XI.
OF THE OTHER PUBLIC CHARITABLE WORKS, AND PARTICULARLY THEIR PROVISION
FOR THE POOR.
§ 53. They live in so happy a climate, and have so fertile a soil, that
nobody is poor enough to beg, or want food, though they have abundance
of people that are lazy enough to deserve it. I remember the time when
five pounds was left by a charitable testator to the poor of the parish
he lived in, and it lay nine years before the executors could find one
poor enough to accept of this legacy, but at last it was given to an old
woman. So that this may in truth be termed the best poor man's country
in the world. But as they have nobody that is poor to beggary, so they
have few that are rich; their estates being regulated by the merchants
in England, who it seems know best what is profit enough for them in the
sale of their tobacco and other trade.
§ 54. When it happens, that by accident or sickness, any person is
disabled from working, and so is forced to depend upon the alms of the
parish, he is then very well provided for, not at the common rate of
some countries, that give but just sufficient to preserve the poor from
perishing; but the unhappy creature is received into some charitable
planter's house, where he is at the public charge boarded plentifully.
Many when they are crippled, or by long sickness become poor, will
sometimes ask to be free from levies and taxes; but very few others do
ever ask for the parish alms, or, indeed, so much as stand in need of
them.
§ 55. There are large tracts of land, houses, and other things granted
to free schools, for the education of children in many parts of the
country; and some of these are so large, that of themselves they are a
handsome maintenance to a master; but the additional allowance which
gentlemen give with their sons, render them a comfortable subsistence.
These schools have been founded by the legacies of well inclined
gentlemen, and the management of them hath commonly been left to the
direction of the county court, or to the vestry of the respective
parishes. In all other places where such endowments have not been
already made, the people join, and build schools for their children,
where they may learn upon very easy terms.
CHAPTER XII.
OF THE TENURE BY WHICH THEY HOLD THEIR LANDS, AND OF THEIR GRANTS.
§ 56. The tenure of their land there is free and common soccage,
according to custom of east Greenwich; and is created by letters
patents, issuing under the seal of the colony, and under the test of the
governor in chief for the time being. I don't find that the name of any
other officer is necessary to make the patent valid.
§ 57. There are three ways of obtaining from his majesty a title to land
there, viz: 1. By taking a patent upon a survey of new land. 2. By
petition for land lapsed. 3. By petition for land escheated. The
conditions of the two former are the entry of rights; the condition of
the third a composition of two pounds of tobacco for every acre.
§ 58. A right is a title any one hath by the royal charter to fifty
acres of land, in consideration of his personal transportation into that
country, to settle and remain there; by this rule also, a man that
removes his family is entitled to the same number of acres for his wife,
and each of his children; a right may be also obtained by paying five
shillings, according to a late royal instruction to the government.
§ 59. A patent upon land for survey is acquired thus: 1. The man proves
his rights; that is, he makes oath in court of the importation of so
many persons, with a list of their names. This list is then certified by
the clerk of that court to the clerk of the secretary's office, who
examines into the validity of them, and files them in that office,
attesting them to be regular, or he purchases them at five shillings
each as aforesaid. When the rights are thus obtained, they are produced
to the surveyor of the county, and the land is showed to him; who,
thereupon, is bound to make the survey if the land had not been patented
before. These rights to land are as commonly sold by one man to another,
as the land itself; so that any one, not having rights by his own
importation, may have them by purchase.
It is the business of the surveyor also to take care that the bounds of
his survey be plainly marked, either by natural boundaries, or else by
chopping notches in the trees, that happen in the lines of his courses;
but this is done at the charge of the man that employs him.
This survey being made, a copy thereof is carried, with a certificate of
rights to the secretary's office, and there (if there be no objection) a
patent of course is made out upon it, which is presented to the governor
and council for them to pass; the patentee having no more to do but to
send for it when it is perfected, and to pay the fee at the first crop
to the sheriff of the county, by whom annually the fees are collected.
This patent gives an estate in fee simple, upon condition of paying a
quit rent of twelve pence for every fifty acres, and of planting or
seating thereon, within three years, according to their law; that is, to
clear, plant, and tend three acres of ground for every fifty, and to
build an house, and keep a stock of cattle, sheep, or goats, in
proportion to the meaner part of the land in the patent.
§ 60. Lapsed land, is when any one having obtained a patent as before,
doth not set or plant thereon within three years, as the condition of
the patent requires; but leaves it still all or part uninhabited and
uncultivated. In such case it is said to be lapsed, and any man is at
liberty to obtain a new patent in his own name of so much as is lapsed,
the method of acquiring which patent is thus.
The party must apply himself by petition to the general court, another
to the governor, setting forth all the circumstances of the lapse. If
this petition be allowed, the court makes an order, to certify the same
to the governor, in whose breast it is then to make a new grant thereof
to such person if he thinks they deserve it, upon the same condition, of
setting or planting within three years, as was in the former patent.
Thus land may be lapsed or lost several times, by the negligence of the
patentees; who, by such omission, lose not only the land, but all their
rights and charges into the bargain.
But if within the three years after the date of the patent, or before
any new petition is preferred for it, the patentee shall set or plant
the said land, as the law directs; it cannot afterwards be forfeited,
but by attainder, or escheat, in which case it returns to his majesty
again.
Also when it happens, that the patentee dies within the three years,
leaving the heir under age, there is farther time given the heir after
he comes of age to set and save such land.
§ 61. When land is suggested to escheat, the governor issues his warrant
to the escheator, to make inquest thereof: and when upon such inquest,
office is found for the king, it must be recorded in the secretary's
office, and there kept nine months, to see if any person will lay claim
to it, or can traverse the escheat. If any such appear, upon his
petition to the general court he is heard, before any grant can be made.
If no person oppose the inquest, the land is given to the man that shews
the best equitable right thereto; and if there be none such, it is then
granted to any one, that the governor and council shall think fit, the
grantee always paying two pounds of tobacco per acre into the treasury
of the country, as a fine of composition with his majesty for his
escheat: and thereupon a patent issues reciting premises.
CHAPTER XIII.
OF THE LIBERTIES AND NATURALIZATION OF ALIENS IN VIRGINIA.
§ 62. Christians of all nations have equal freedom there, and upon their
arrival become _ipso facto_ entitled to all the liberties and privileges
of the country, provided they take the oaths of obedience to the crown
and government, and obtain the governor's testimonial thereof.
The method of obtaining naturalization is thus: the party desiring it
goes before the governor, and tenders his oath of allegiance, which the
governor thereupon administers, and immediately makes certificate of it
under the seal of the colony. By this means, the person alien is
completely naturalized to all intents and purposes.
§ 63. The French refugees sent in thither by the charitable exhibition
of his late majesty king William, are naturalized, by a particular law
for that purpose.
In the year 1699, there went over about three hundred of these, and the
year following about two hundred more, and so on, till there arrived in
all between seven and eight hundred men, women and children, who had
fled from France on account of their religion.
Those who went over the first year, were advised to seat on a piece of
very rich land, about twenty miles above the falls of James river, on
the south side of the river; which land was formerly the seat of a great
and warlike nation of Indians, called the Manicans, none of which are
now left in those parts; but the land still retains their name, and is
called the Manican town.
The refugees that arrived the second year, went also first to the
Manican town, but afterwards upon some disagreement, several dispersed
themselves up and down the country; and those that have arrived since
have followed their example, except some few, that settled likewise at
the Manican town.
The assembly was very bountiful to those who remained at this town,
bestowing on them large donations, money and provisions for their
support; they likewise freed them from every public tax, for several
years to come, and addressed the governor to grant them a brief, to
entitle them to the charity of all well disposed persons throughout the
country; which together with the king's benevolence, supported them very
comfortably, till they could sufficiently supply themselves with
necessaries, which now they do indifferently well, and have stocks of
cattle and hogs.
The year 1702, they began an essay of wine, which they made of the wild
grapes gathered in the woods; the effect of which was a strong bodied
claret, of good flavor. I heard a gentleman, who tasted it, give it
great commendation. Now if such may be made of the wild vine in the
woods, without pruning, weeding, or removing it out of the shade, what
may not be produced from a vineyard skilfully cultivated? But I don't
hear that they have done any thing since towards it, being still very
poor, needy, and negligent.
CHAPTER XIV.
OF THE CURRENCY AND VALUATION OF COINS IN VIRGINIA.
§ 64. The coin which chiefly they have among them, is either gold, of
the stamp of Arabia, or silver and gold, of the stamp of France,
Portugal or the Spanish America: Spanish, French and Portuguese coined
silver is settled by law at three pence three farthings the pennyweight.
Gold of the same coin, and of Arabia, at five shillings the pennyweight.
English guineas at twenty-six shillings each, and the silver two pence
in every shilling advance, English old coin goes by weight as the other
gold and silver.
OF THE
HUSBANDRY AND IMPROVEMENTS
OF
VIRGINIA.
PART II.
CHAPTER XV.
OF THE PEOPLE, INHABITANTS OF VIRGINIA.
§ 65. I can easily imagine with Sir Josiah Child, that this, as well as
all the rest of the plantations, was for the most part, at first,
peopled by persons of low circumstances, and by such as were willing to
seek their fortunes in a foreign country. Nor was it hardly possible it
should be otherwise; for 'tis not likely that any man of a plentiful
estate should voluntarily abandon a happy certainty, to roam after
imaginary advantages in a new world. Besides which uncertainty, he must
have proposed to himself to encounter the infinite difficulties and
dangers that attend a new settlement. These discouragements were
sufficient to terrify any man, that could live easily in England, from
going to provoke his fortune in a strange land.
§ 66. Those that went over to that country first, were chiefly single
men who had not the incumbrance of wives and children in England; and if
they had, they did not expose them to the fatigue and hazard of so long
a voyage, until they saw how it should fare with themselves. From hence
it came to pass, that when they were settled there in a comfortable way
of subsisting a family, they grew sensible of the misfortune of wanting
wives, and such as had left wives in England sent for them, but the
single men were put to their shifts. They excepted against the Indian
women on account of their being pagans, as well as their complexions,
and for fear they should conspire with those of their own nation to
destroy their husbands. Under this difficulty they had no hopes, but
that the plenty in which they lived might invite modest women, of small
fortunes, to go over thither from England. However, they would not
receive any, but such as could carry sufficient certificate of their
modesty and good behavior. Those, if they were but moderately qualified
in all other respects, might depend upon marrying very well in those
days, without any fortune. Nay, the first planters were so far from
expecting money with a woman, that 'twas a common thing for them to buy
a deserving wife, that carried good testimonials of her character, at
the price of one hundred pounds, and make themselves believe they had a
bargain.
§ 67. But this way of peopling the colony was only at first. For after
the advantages of the climate, and the fruitfulness of the soil were
well known, and all the dangers incident to infant settlements were
over, people of better condition retired thither with their families,
either to increase the estates they had before, or else to avoid being
persecuted for their principles of religion or government.
Thus, in the time of the rebellion in England, several good cavalier
families went thither with their effects, to escape the tyranny of the
usurper, or acknowledgement of his title. And so again, upon the
restoration, many people of the opposite party took refuge there, to
shelter themselves from the king's resentment. But Virginia had not many
of these last, because that country was famous for holding out the
longest for the royal family, of any of the English dominions. For
which reason the Roundheads went, for the most part, to New England, as
did most of those that in the reign of King Charles II were molested on
account of their religion, though some of these fell likewise to the
share of Virginia. As for malefactors condemned to transportation, tho'
the greedy planter will always buy them, yet it is to be feared they
will be very injurious to the country, which has already suffered many
murders and robberies, the effect of that new law of England.
CHAPTER XVI.
OF THE BUILDINGS OF VIRGINIA.
§ 68. There are three fine public buildings in this country, which are
said to be the most magnificent of any in the English America: one of
which is the college before spoken of, another the capitol or state
house, as it was formerly called; that is, the house for convention of
the general assembly, for the sitting of the general court, for the
meeting of the council, and for keeping of their several offices,
belonging to them.
Not far from this, is also built the public prison of the country for
criminals, which is a large and convenient structure, with partitions
for the different sexes, and distinct rooms for petty offenders. To this
is also annexed a convenient yard to air the criminals in, for the
preservation of their life and health, till the time of their trial; and
at the end of that, another prison for debtors.
The third is a house for the governor, not the largest, but by far the
most beautiful of all the others. It was granted by the assembly in
Governor Nott's time, begun in President Jennings' time, but received
its beauty and conveniency for the many alterations and decorations, of
the present governor, Colonel Spotswood; who, to the lasting honor and
happiness of the country, arrived there, while this house was carrying
up.
In his time was also built a new brick church, and brick magazine for
arms and ammunition, and the streets of the town altered from the
fanciful forms of Ws and Ms to much more conveniences.
These are all erected at Middle plantation, now named Williamsburg,
where land is laid out for a town. They all are built of brick, and
covered with shingle, except the debtors' prison which is flat roofed
anew; a very useful invention of the present governor also.
§ 69. The private buildings are also in his time very much improved,
several gentlemen there, having built themselves large brick houses of
many rooms on a floor; but they don't covet to make them lofty, having
extent enough of ground to build upon; and now and then they are visited
by high winds, which would incommode a towering fabric. They love to
have large rooms, that they may be cool in summer. Of late they have
made their stories much higher than formerly, and their windows larger,
and sashed with crystal glass; adorning their apartments with rich
furniture.
All their drudgeries of cookery, washing, dairies, &c., are performed in
offices apart from the dwelling houses, which by this means are kept
more cool and sweet.
Their tobacco houses are all built of wood, as open and airy as is
consistent with keeping out the rain; which sort of building is most
convenient for the curing of their tobacco.
Their common covering for dwelling houses is shingle, which is an oblong
square of cypress or pine wood; but they cover their tobacco houses with
thin clap board; and though they have slate enough in some particular
parts of the country, and as strong clay as can be desired for making of
tile, yet they have very few tiled houses; neither has any one yet
thought it worth his while to dig up the slate, which will hardly be
made use of, till the carriage there becomes cheaper, and more common;
the slate lying far up the frontiers above water carriage.
CHAPTER XVII.
OF THE EDIBLES, POTABLES, AND FUEL IN VIRGINIA.
§ 70. The families being altogether on country seats, they have their
graziers, seedsmen, gardeners, brewers, bakers, butchers and cooks,
within themselves. They have plenty and variety of provisions for their
table; and as for spicery, and other things that the country don't
produce, they have constant supplies of them from England. The gentry
pretend to have their victuals dressed, and served up as nicely, as if
they were in London.
§ 71. When I come to speak of their cattle, I can't forbear charging my
countrymen with exceeding ill husbandry, in not providing sufficiently
for them all winter, by which means they starve their young cattle, or
at least stint their growth; so that they seldom or never grow so large
as they would do, if they were well managed; for the humor is there, if
people can but save the lives of their cattle, though they suffer them
to be never so poor in the winter, yet they will presently grow fat
again in the spring, which they esteem sufficient for their purpose. And
this is the occasion, that their beef and mutton are seldom or never so
large, or so fat as in England. And yet with the least feeding
imaginable, they are put into as good case as can be desired; and it is
the same with their hogs.
Their fish is in vast plenty and variety, and extraordinary good in
their kind. Beef and pork are commonly sold there, from one penny, to
two pence the pound, or more, according to the time of year; their
fattest and largest pullets at sixpence a piece; their capons at eight
pence or nine pence a piece; their chickens at three or four shillings
the dozen; their ducks at eight pence, or nine pence a piece; their
geese at ten pence or a shilling; their turkey hens at fifteen or
eighteen pence; and their turkey cocks at two shillings or half a crown.
But oysters and wild fowl are not so dear, as the things I have reckoned
before, being in their season the cheapest victuals they have. Their
deer are commonly sold from five to ten shillings, according to the
scarcity and goodness.
§ 72. The bread in gentlemen's houses is generally made of wheat, but
some rather choose the pone, which is the bread made of Indian meal.
Many of the poorer sort of people so little regard the English grain,
that though they might have it with the least trouble in the world, yet
they don't mind to sow the ground, because they won't be at the trouble
of making a fence particularly for it. And, therefore, their constant
bread is pone, not so called from the Latin panis, but from the Indian
name oppone.
§ 73. A kitchen garden don't thrive better or faster in any part of the
universe than there. They have all the culinary plants that grow in
England, and in greater perfection than in England. Besides these, they
have several roots, herbs, vine fruits, and salad flowers peculiar to
themselves, most of which will neither increase nor grow to perfection
in England. These they dish up various ways, and find them very
delicious sauce to their meats, both roast and boiled, fresh and salt;
such are the Indian cresses, red buds, sassafras flowers, cymlings,
melons and potatoes, whereof I have spoken at large in the 4th chapter
of the second book, section 20.
It is said of New England, that several plants will not grow there,
which thrive well in England; such as rue, southernwood, rosemary, bays
and lavender; and that others degenerate, and will not continue above a
year or two at the most; such are July flowers, fennel, enula campana,
clary and bloodwort. But I don't know any English plant, grain or fruit,
that miscarries in Virginia: but most of them better their kinds very
much by being sowed or planted there. It was formerly said of the red
top turnip, that there, in three or four, years time, it degenerated
into rape; but that happened merely by an error in saving the seed; for
now it appears that if they cut off the top of such a turnip, that has
been kept out of the ground all the winter, and plant that top alone
without the body of the root, it yields a seed which mends the turnip in
the next sowing.
§ 74. Their small drink is either wine and water, beer, milk and water,
or water alone. Their richer sort generally brew their small beer with
malt, which they have from England, though barley grows there very well;
but for want of the convenience of malthouses, the inhabitants take no
care to sow it. The poorer sort brew their beer with molasses and bran;
with Indian corn malted by drying in a stove; with persimmons dried in
cakes, and baked; with potatoes; with the green stalks of Indian corn
cut small, and bruised; with pompions, and with the batates canadensis,
or Jerusalem artichoke, which some people plant purposely for that use;
but this is the least esteemed of all the sorts before mentioned.
Their strong drink is Madeira wine, cider, mobby punch, made either of
rum from the Caribbee islands, or brandy distilled from their apples and
peaches; besides brandy, wine, and strong beer, which they have
constantly from England.
§ 75. Their fuel is altogether wood, which every man burns at pleasure,
it being no other charge to him than the cutting and carrying it home.
In all new grounds it is such an incumbrance, that they are forced to
burn great heaps of it to rid the land. They have very good pit coal (as
is formerly mentioned) in several places of the country; but no man has
yet thought it worth his while to make use of them, having wood in
plenty, and lying more convenient for him.
CHAPTER XVIII.
OF THE CLOTHING IN VIRGINIA.
§ 76. They have their clothing of all sorts from England; as linen,
woollen, silk, hats and leather. Yet flax and hemp grow no where in the
world better than there. Their sheep yield good increase, and bear good
fleeces; but they shear them only to cool them. The mulberry tree, whose
leaf is the proper food of the silk worm, grows there like a weed, and
silk worms have been observed to thrive extremely, and without any
hazard. The very furs that their hats are made of perhaps go first from
thence; and most of their hides lie and rot, or are made use of only for
covering dry goods in a leaky house. Indeed, some few hides with much
ado are tanned and made into servants' shoes, but at so careless a rate,
that the planters don't care to buy them if they can get others; and
sometimes perhaps a better manager than ordinary will vouchsafe to make
a pair of breeches of a deerskin. Nay, they are such abominable ill
husbands, that though their country be overrun with wood, yet they have
all their wooden ware from England; their cabinets, chairs, tables,
stools, chests, boxes, cart wheels, and all other things, even so much
as their bowls and birchen brooms, to the eternal reproach of their
laziness.
CHAPTER XIX.
OF THE TEMPERATURE OF THE CLIMATE, AND THE INCONVENIENCIES ATTENDING IT.
§ 77. The natural temperature of the inhabited part of the country is
hot and moist, though this moisture I take to be occasioned by the
abundance of low grounds, marshes, creeks and rivers, which are
everywhere among their lower settlements; but more backward in the
woods, where they are now seating, and making new plantations, they have
abundance of high and dry land, where there are only crystal streams of
water, which flow gently from their springs in innumerable branches to
moisten and enrich the adjacent lands, and where a fog is rarely seen.
§ 78. The country is in a very happy situation, between the extremes of
heat and cold, but inclining rather to the first. Certainly it must be a
happy climate, since it is very near of the same latitude with the land
of promise. Besides, as the land of promise was full of rivers and
branches of rivers, so is Virginia. As that was seated upon a great bay
and sea, wherein were all the conveniencies for shipping and trade, so
is Virginia. Had that fertility of soil? So has Virginia, equal to any
land in the known world. In fine, if any one impartially considers all
the advantages of this country, as nature made it, he must allow it to
be as fine a place as any in the universe, but I confess I am ashamed to
say any thing of its improvements, because I must at the same time
reproach my countrymen with unpardonable sloth. If there be any excuse
for them in this matter, 'tis the exceeding plenty of good things with
which nature has blest them; for where God Almighty is so merciful as
to give plenty and ease, people easily forget their duty.
All the countries in the world, seated in or near the latitude of
Virginia, are esteemed the fruitfullest and pleasantest of all climates.
As for example, Canaan, Syria, Persia, great part of India, China and
Japan, the Morea, Spain, Portugal, and the coast of Barbary, none of
which differ many degrees of latitude from Virginia. These are reckoned
the gardens of the world, while Virginia is unjustly neglected by its
own inhabitants, and abused by other people.
§ 79. That which makes this country most unfortunate, is, that it must
submit to receive its character from the mouths not only of unfit, but
very unequal judges; for all its reproaches happen after this manner.
Many of the merchants and others, that go thither from England, make no
distinction between a cold and hot country; but wisely go sweltering
about in their thick clothes all the summer, because forsooth they used
to do so in their northern climate; and then unfairly complain of the
heat of the country. They greedily surfeit with their delicious fruits,
and are guilty of great intemperance therein, through the exceeding
plenty thereof, and liberty given by the inhabitants; by which means
they fall sick, and then unjustly complain of the unhealthiness of the
country. In the next place, the sailors for want of towns there, were
put to the hardship of rolling most of the tobacco, a mile or more, to
the water side; this splinters their hands sometimes, and provokes them
to curse the country. Such exercise and a bright sun made them hot, and
then they imprudently fell to drinking cold water, or perhaps new cider,
which, in its season they found in every planter's house; or else they
greedily devour the green fruit, and unripe trash they met with, and so
fell into fluxes, fevers, and the belly ache; and then, to spare their
own indiscretion, they in their tarpaulin language, cry, God d----m the
country. This is the true state of the case, as to the complaints of its
being sickly; for, by the most impartial observation I can make, if
people will be persuaded to be temperate, and take due care of
themselves, I believe it is as healthy a country as any under heaven:
but the extraordinary pleasantness of the weather, and plenty of the
fruit, lead people into many temptations. The clearness and brightness
of the sky, add new vigor to their spirits, and perfectly remove all
splenetic and sullen thoughts. Here they enjoy all the benefits of a
warm sun, and by their shady trees are protected from its inconvenience.
Here all their senses are entertained with an endless succession of
native pleasures. Their eyes are ravished with the beauties of naked
nature. Their ears are serenaded with the perpetual murmur of brooks,
and the thorough-base which the wind plays, when it wantons through the
trees; the merry birds too, join their pleasing notes to this rural
comfort, especially the mock birds, who love society so well, that often
when they see mankind, they will perch upon a twig very near them, and
sing the sweetest wild airs in the world. But what is most remarkable in
these melodious animals, if they see a man take notice of them, they
will frequently fly at small distances, warbling out their notes from
perch to perch, be it house or tree convenient, and sometimes too fly
up, to light on the same again, and by their music make a man forget the
fatigues of his mind. Men's taste is regaled with the most delicious
fruits, which, without art, they have in great variety and perfection.
And then their smell is refreshed with an eternal fragrancy of flowers
and sweets, with which nature perfumes and adorns the woods and branches
almost the whole year round.
Have you pleasure in a garden? All things thrive in it most
surprisingly; you can't walk by a bed of flowers, but besides the
entertainment of their beauty, your eyes will be saluted with the
charming colors and curiosity of the humming bird, which revels among
the flowers, and licks off the dew and honey from their tender leaves,
on which it only feeds. Its size is not half so large as an English
wren, and its color is a glorious shining mixture of scarlet, green and
gold.
§ 80. On the other side, all the annoyances and inconveniences of the
country may fairly be summed up, under these three heads, thunder, heat,
and troublesome vermin.
I confess, in the hottest part of the summer, they have sometimes very
loud and surprising thunder, but rarely any damage happens by it. On the
contrary, it is of such advantage to the cooling and refining of the
air, that it is oftener wished for than feared. But they have no
earthquakes, which the Caribbee islands are so much troubled with.
Their heat is very seldom troublesome, and then only by the accident of
a perfect calm, which happens perhaps two or three times in a year, and
lasts but a few hours at a time; and even that inconvenience is made
easy by cool shades, open airy rooms, summer houses, arbors, and
grottos: but the spring and fall afford as pleasant weather as Mahomet
promised in his paradise.
All the troublesome vermin that ever I heard anybody complain of, are
either frogs, snakes, musquitoes, chinches, seed ticks, or red worms, by
some called potato lice. Of all which I shall give an account in their
order.
Some people have been so ill informed, as to say, that Virginia is full
of toads, though there never yet was seen one toad in it. The marshes,
fens, and watery grounds, are indeed full of harmless frogs which do no
hurt, except by the noise of their croaking notes: but in the upper
parts of the country, where the land is high and dry, they are very
scarce. In these swamps and running streams, they have frogs of an
incredible bigness, which are called bull frogs, from the roaring they
make. Last year I found one of these near a stream of fresh water, of so
prodigious a magnitude, that when I extended its legs, I found the
distance betwixt them to be seventeen inches and an half. If any are
good to eat, these must be the kind.
Some people in England are startled at the very name of the rattle
snake, and fancy every corner of that province so much pestered with
them, that a man goes in constant danger of his life, that walks abroad
in the woods. But this is as gross a mistake, as most of the other ill
reports of that country. For in the first place this snake is very
rarely seen; and when that happens, it never does the least mischief,
unless you offer to disturb it, and thereby provoke it to bite in its
own defence. But it never fails to give you fair warning, by making a
noise with its rattle, which may be heard at a convenient distance. For
my own part I have traveled the country as much as any man in it of my
age, by night and by day, above the inhabitants, well as among them; and
yet before the first impression of this book I had never seen a rattle
snake alive, and at liberty, in all my life. I had seen them indeed
after they had been killed, or pent up in boxes to be sent to England.
The bite of this viper without some immediate application is certainly
death; but remedies are so well known, that none of their servants are
ignorant of them. I never knew any killed by these, or any other of
their snakes, although I had a general knowledge all over the country,
and had been in every part of it. They have several other snakes which
are seen more frequently, and have very little or no hurt in them, viz:
such as they call black snakes, water snakes, and corn snakes. The black
viper snake, and the copper-bellied snake, are said to be as venomous as
the rattle snake, but they are as seldom seen; these three poisonous
snakes bring forth their young alive, whereas the other three sorts lay
eggs, which are hatched afterwards; and that is the distinction they
make, esteeming only those to be venomous, which are viviparous. They
have likewise the horn snake, so called from a sharp horn it carries in
its tail, with which it assaults anything that offends it, with that
force, that as it is said it will strike its tail into the butt end of a
musket, from which it is not able to disengage itself.
All sorts of snakes will charm both birds and squirrels, and the
Indians pretend to charm them. Several persons have seen squirrels run
down a tree directly into a snake's mouth; they have likewise seen birds
fluttering up and down, and chattering at these snakes, till at last
they have dropped down just before them.
In the end of May, 1715, stopping at an orchard by the road side to get
some cherries, being three of us in company, we were entertained with
the whole process of a charm between a rattle snake and a hare, the hare
being better than half grown. It happened thus: one of the company in
his search for the best cherries espied the hare sitting, and although
he went close by her she did not move, till he, (not suspecting the
occasion of her gentleness,) gave her a lash with his whip; this made
her run about ten feet, and there sit down again. The gentleman not
finding the cherries ripe, immediately returned the same way, and near
the place where he struck the hare, he spied a rattle snake; still not
suspecting the charm, he goes back about twenty yards to a hedge to get
a stick to kill the snake, and at his return found the snake removed,
and coiled in the same place from whence he had moved the hare. This put
him into immediate thoughts of looking for the hare again, and he soon
spied her about ten feet off the snake, in the same place to which she
had started when he whipt her. She was now lying down, but would
sometimes raise herself on her fore feet struggling as it were for life
or to get away, but could never raise her hinder parts from the ground,
and then would fall flat on her side again, panting vehemently. In this
condition the hare and snake were when he called me; and though we all
three came up within fifteen feet of the snake to have a full view of
the whole, he took no notice at all of us, nor so much as gave a glance
towards us. There we stood at least half an hour, the snake not altering
a jot, but the hare often struggling and falling on its side again, till
at last the hare lay still as dead for some time. Then the snake moved
out of his coil, and slid gently and smoothly on towards the hare, his
colors at that instant being ten times more glorious and shining than at
other times. As the snake moved along, the hare happened to fetch
another struggle, upon which the snake made a stop, laying at his
length, till the hare had lain quiet again for a short space; and then
he advanced again till he came up to the hinder parts of the hare, which
in all this operation had been towards the snake; there he made a survey
all over the hare, raising part of his body above it, then turned off
and went to the head and nose of the hare, after that to the ears, took
the ears in his mouth one after the other, working each apart in his
mouth as a man does a wafer to moisten it, then returned to the nose
again, and took the face into his mouth, straining and gathering his
lips sometimes by one side of his mouth, sometimes by the other; at the
shoulders he was a long time puzzled, often hauling and stretching the
hare out at length, and straining forward first one side of his mouth
then the other, till at last he got the whole body into his throat. Then
we went to him, and taking the twist band off from my hat, I made a
noose and put it about his neck. This made him at length very furious,
but we having secured him, put him into one end of a wallet, and carried
him on horseback five miles to Mr. John Baylor's house, where we lodged
that night, with a design to have sent him to Dr. Cock, at Williamsburg;
but Mr. Baylor was so careful of his slaves that he would not let him be
put into his boat, for fear he should get loose and mischief them;
therefore, the next morning we killed him, and took the hare out of his
belly. The head of the hare began to be digested and the hair falling
off, having lain about eighteen hours in the snake's belly.
I thought this account of such a curiosity would be acceptable, and the
rather because though I lived in a country where such things are said
frequently to happen, yet I never could have any satisfactory account of
a charm, though I have met with several persons who have pretended to
have seen them. Some also pretend that those sort of snakes influence
children, and even men and women, by their charms. But this that I have
related of my own view, I aver, (for the satisfaction of the learned,)
to be punctually true, without enlarging or wavering in any respect,
upon the faith of a Christian.
In my youth I was a bear hunting in the woods above the inhabitants, and
having straggled from my companions, I was entertained at my return,
with the relation of a pleasant rencounter, between a dog and a rattle
snake, about a squirrel. The snake had got the head and shoulders of the
squirrel into his mouth, which being something too large for his throat,
it took him up some time to moisten the fur of the squirrel with his
spawl, to make it slip down. The dog took this advantage, seized the
hinder parts of the squirrel, and tugged with all his might. The snake,
on the other side, would not let go his hold for a long time, till at
last, fearing he might be bruised by the dog's running away with him, he
gave up his prey to the dog. The dog ate the squirrel, and felt no harm.
Another curiosity concerning this viper, which I never met with in
print, I will also relate from my own observation:
Sometime after my observation of the charm, my waiting boy being sent
abroad on an errand, also took upon himself to bring home a rattle snake
in a noose. I cut off the head of this snake, leaving about an inch of
the neck with it. This I laid upon the head of a tobacco hogshead, one
Stephen Lankford, a carpenter, now alive, being with me. Now you must
note that these snakes have but two teeth, by which they convey their
poison; and they are placed in the upper jaw, pretty forward in the
mouth, one on each side. These teeth are hollow and crooked like a
cock's spur. They are also loose or springing in the mouth, and not
fastened in the jaw bone as all other teeth are. The hollow has a vent,
also, through by a small hole a little below the point of the tooth.
These two teeth are kept lying down along the jaw, or shut like a spring
knife, and don't shrink up as the talons of a cat or panther. They have
also over them a loose thin film or skin of a flesh color, which rises
over them when they are raised, which I take to be only at the will of
the snake to do injury. This skin does not break by the rising of the
tooth only, but keeps whole till the bite is given, and then is pierced
by the tooth, by which the poison is let out. The head being laid upon
the hogshead, I took two little twigs or splinters of sticks, and having
turned the head upon its crown, opened the mouth, and lifted up the fang
or springing tooth on one side several times, in doing of which I at
last broke the skin. The head gave a sudden champ with its mouth,
breaking from my sticks, in which I observed that the poison ran down in
a lump like oil, round the root of the tooth. Then I turned the other
side of the head, and resolved to be more careful to keep the mouth open
on the like occasion, and observe more narrowly the consequence. For it
is observed, that though the heads of snakes, terrapins and such like
vermin, be cut off, yet the body will not die in a long time after--the
general saying is, till the sun sets. After opening the mouth on the
other side, and lifting up that fang also several times, he endeavored
to give another bite or champ; but I kept his mouth open, and the tooth
pierced the film and emitted a stream like one full of blood in blood
letting, and cast some drops upon the sleeve of the carpenter's shirt,
who had no waistcoat on. I advised him to pull off his shirt, but he
would not, and received no harm; and tho' nothing could then be seen of
it upon the shirt, yet in washing there appeared five green specks,
which every washing appeared plainer and plainer, and lasted so long as
the shirt did, which the carpenter told me was about three years after.
The head we threw afterwards down upon the ground, and a sow came and
eat it before our faces, and received no harm. Now I believe had this
poison lighted upon any place of the carpenter's skin that was scratched
or hurt, it might have poisoned him. I take the poison to rest in a
small bag or receptacle, in the hollow at the root of these teeth; but
I never had the opportunity afterwards to make a farther discovery of
that.
I will likewise give you a story of the violent effects of this sort of
poison, because I depend upon the truth of it, having it from an
acquaintance of mine of good credit, one Colonel James Taylor, of
Mattapony, still alive, he being with others in the woods a surveying.
Just as they were standing to light their pipes, they found a rattle
snake and cut off his head, and about three inches of the body. Then he,
with a green stick which he had in his hand, about a foot and a half
long, the bark being newly peeled off, urged and provoked the head, till
it bit the stick in fury several times. Upon this the colonel observed
small green streaks to rise up along the stick towards his hand. He
threw the stick upon the ground, and in a quarter of hour the stick of
its own accord split into several pieces, and fell asunder from end to
end. This account I had from him again at the writing hereof.
Musquitoes are a sort of vermin of less danger, but much more
troublesome, because more frequent. They are a long tailed gnat, such as
are in all fens and low grounds in England, and I think have no other
difference from them than the name. Neither are they in Virginia
troubled with them anywhere but in their low grounds and marshes. These
insects I believe are stronger, and continue longer there, by reason of
the warm sun, than in England. Whoever is persecuted with them in his
house, may get rid of them by this easy remedy: let him but set open his
windows at sunset, and shut them again before the twilight be quite shut
in. All the musquitoes in the room will go out at the windows, and leave
the room clear.
Chinches are a sort of flat bug, which lurks in the bedsteads and
bedding, and disturbs people's rest a nights. Every neat housewife
contrives there, by several devices, to keep her beds clear of them. But
the best way I ever heard, effectually to destroy them, is by a narrow
search among the bedding early in the spring, before these vermin begin
to nit and run about; for they lie snug all the winter, and are in the
spring large and full of the winter's growth, having all their seed
within them; and so they become a fair mark to find, and may with their
whole breed be destroyed; they are the same as they have in London near
the shipping.
Seed tick, and red worms are small insects, that annoy the people by
day, as musquitoes and chinches do by night; but both these keep out of
your way, if you keep out of theirs; for seed ticks are no where to be
met with, but in the track of cattle, upon which the great ticks fatten,
and fill their skins so full of blood, that they drop off, and wherever
they happen to fall, they produce a kind of egg, which lies about a
fortnight before the seedlings are hatched. These seedlings run in
swarms up the next blade of grass that lies in their way; and then the
first thing that brushes that blade of grass, gathers off most of these
vermin, which stick like burs upon anything that touches them. They void
their eggs at the mouth.
Red worms lie only in old dead trees, and rotten logs; and without
sitting down upon such, a man never meets with them, nor at any other
season, but only in the midst of summer. A little warm water immediately
brings off both seed ticks and red worms, though they lie ever so thick
upon any part of the body. But without some such remedy they will be
troublesome; for they are so small that nothing will lay hold of them,
but the point of a penknife, needle, or such like. But if nothing be
done to remove them, the itching they occasion goes away after two days.
§ 81. Their winters are very short, and don't continue above three or
four months, of which they have seldom thirty days of unpleasant
weather, all the rest being blest with a clear air, and a bright sun.
However, they have very hard frost sometimes, but it rarely lasts above
three or four days, that is, till the wind change: for if it blow not
between the north and north-west points, from the cold Appalachian
mountains, they have no frost at all. But these frosts are attended with
a serene sky, and are otherwise made delightful by the tameness of the
wild fowl and other game, which by their incredible number, afford the
pleasantest shooting in the world.
Their rains, except in the depth of winter, are extremely agreeable and
refreshing. All the summer long they last but a few hours at a time, and
sometimes not above half an hour, and then immediately succeeds clear
sunshine again. But in that short time it rains so powerfully, that it
quits the debt of a long drought, and makes everything green and gay.
I have heard that this country is reproached with sudden and dangerous
changes of weather, but that imputation is unjust; for tho' it be true,
that in the winter, when the wind comes over those vast mountains and
lakes to the north-west, which are supposed to retain vast magazines of
ice, and snow, the weather is then very rigorous; yet in spring, summer
and autumn, such winds are only cool and pleasant breezes, which serve
to refresh the air, and correct those excesses of heat, which the
situation would otherwise make that country liable to.
CHAPTER XX.
OF THE DISEASES INCIDENT TO VIRGINIA.
§ 82. While we are upon the climate, and its accidents, it will not be
improper to mention the diseases incident to Virginia. Distempers come
not there by choaking up the spirits, with a foggy and thick air, as in
some northern climes; nor by a stifling heat, that exhales the vigor of
those that dwell in a more southerly latitude: but by a willful and
foolish indulging themselves in those pleasures, which in a warm and
fruitful country, nature lavishes upon mankind, for their happiness, and
not for their destruction.
Thus I have seen persons impatient of heat, lie almost naked upon the
cold grass in the shades, and there, often forgetting themselves, fall
asleep. Nay, many are so imprudent, as to do this in an evening, and
perhaps lie so all night; when between the clew from heaven, and the
damps from the earth, such impressions are made upon the humors of their
body, as occasion fatal distempers.
Thus also have I seen persons put into a great heat by excessive action,
and in the midst of that heat, strip off their clothes, and expose their
open pores to the air. Nay, I have known some mad enough in this hot
condition, to take huge draughts of cold water, or perhaps of milk and
water, which they esteem much more cold in operation than water alone.
And thus likewise have I seen several people, (especially new-comers,)
so intemperate in devouring the pleasant fruits, that they have fallen
into dangerous fluxes and surfeits. These, and such like disorders, are
the chief occasions of their diseases.
§ 83. The first sickness that any new-comer happens to have there, he
unfairly calls a seasoning, be it fever, ague, or any thing else, that
his own folly or excesses bring upon him.
Their intermitting fevers, as well as their agues, are very troublesome,
if a fit remedy be not applied; but of late the doctors there have made
use of the Cortex Peruviana with success, and find that it seldom or
never fails to remove the fits. The planters, too, have several roots
natural to the country, which in this case they cry up as infallible;
and I have found by many examples a total immersion in cold spring
water, just at the accession of the fit an infallible cure.
§ 84. When these damps, colds and disorders affect the body more gently,
and do not seize people violently at first; then for want of some timely
application, (the planters abhorring all physic, except in desperate
cases,) these small disorders are suffered to go on, until they grow
into a cachexia, by which the body is overrun with obstinate scorbutic
humors. And this in a more fierce, and virulent degree, I take to be the
yaws.
§ 85. The gripes is a distemper of the Caribbee islands, not of that
country, and seldom gets footing there, and then only upon great
provocations; namely, by the intemperance before mentioned, together
with an unreasonable use of filthy and unclean drinks. Perhaps too it
may come by new unfine cider, perry or peach drink, which the people are
impatient to drink before it is ready; or by the excessive use of lime
juice, and foul sugar in punch and flip; or else by the constant
drinking of uncorrected beer, made of such windy unwholesome things as
some people make use of in brewing.
Thus having fairly reckoned up the principal inconveniences of the
climate, and the distempers incident to the country, I shall add a
chapter of the recreations and amusements used there, and proceed to the
natural benefits they enjoy. After which, I shall conclude with some
hints concerning their trade and improvements.
CHAPTER XXI.
OF THE RECREATIONS AND PASTIMES USED IN VIRGINIA.
§ 86. For their recreation, the plantations, orchards and gardens
constantly afford them fragrant and delightful walks. In their woods and
fields, they have an unknown variety of vegetables, and other rarities
of nature to discover and observe. They have hunting, fishing and
fowling, with which they entertain themselves an hundred ways. There is
the most good nature and hospitality practiced in the world, both
towards friends and strangers: but the worst of it is, this generosity
is attended now and then with a little too much intemperance. The
neighborhood is at much the same distance as in the country in England;
but the goodness of the roads, and the fairness of the weather, bring
people often together.
§ 87. The Indians, as I have already observed, had in their hunting, a
way of concealing themselves, and coming up to the deer, under the blind
of a stalking head, in imitation of which, many people have taught their
horses to stalk it, that is, to walk gently by the huntsman's side, to
cover him from the sight of the deer. Others cut down trees for the deer
to browse upon, and lie in wait behind them. Others again set stakes, at
a certain distance within their fences, where the deer have been used to
leap over into a field of peas, which they love extremely; these stakes
they so place, as to run into the body of the deer, when he pitches, by
which means they impale him; and for a temptation to the leap take down
the top part of the fence.
§ 88. They hunt their hares, (which are very numerous,) a foot, with
mongrels or swift dogs, which either catch them quickly, or force them
to hole in a hollow tree, whither all their hares generally tend when
they are closely pursued. As soon as they are thus holed, and have
crawled up into the body of the tree, the business is to kindle a fire,
and smother them with smoke, till they let go their hold, and fall to
the bottom stifled; from whence they take them. If they have a mind to
spare their lives, upon turning them loose, they will be as fit as ever
to hunt at another time; for the mischief done them by the smoke
immediately wears off again.
§ 89. They have another sort of hunting, which is very diverting, and
that they call vermin hunting; it is performed a foot, with small dogs
in the night, by the light of the moon or stars. Thus in summer time
they find abundance of raccoons, opossums and foxes in the corn fields,
and about their plantations: but at other times they must go into the
woods for them. The method is to go out with three or four dogs, and as
soon as they come to the place they bid the dogs seek out, and all the
company follow immediately. Wherever a dog barks, you may depend upon
finding the game; and this alarm draws both men and dogs that way. If
this sport be in the woods, the game, by the time you come near it, is
perhaps mounted to the top of an high tree, and then they detach a
nimble fellow up after it, who must have a scuffle with the beast before
he can throw it down to the dogs; and then the sport increases, to see
the vermin encounter those little curs. In this sort of hunting, they
also carry their great dogs out with them; because wolves, bears,
panthers, wild cats, and all other beasts of prey, are abroad in the
night.
For wolves they make traps and set guns baited in the woods, so that
when he offers to seize the bait, he pulls the trigger, and the gun
discharges upon him. What Ælian and Pliny write, of the horses being
benumed in their legs, if they tread in the track of a wolf, does not
hold good here; for I myself, and many others, have rid full speed
after wolves in the woods, and have seen live ones taken out of a trap,
and dragged at a horse's tail; and yet those that followed on horse
back, have not perceived any of their horses to falter in their pace.
§ 90. They have many pretty devices besides the gun to take wild
turkeys; and among others, a friend of mine invented a great trap,
wherein he at times caught many turkeys, and particularly seventeen at
one time; but he could not contrive it so as to let others in, after he
had entrapped the first flock, until they were taken out.
§ 91. The Indian invention of weirs in fishing is mightily improved by
the English, besides which they make use of seins, trolls, casting nets,
setting nets, hand fishing and angling, and in each find abundance of
diversion. I have sat in the shade at the heads of the rivers angling,
and spent as much time in taking the fish off the hook as in waiting for
their taking it. Like those of the Euxine sea, they also fish with
spilyards, which is a long line staked out in the river, and hung with a
great many hooks on short strings, fastened to the main line, about
three or four feet asunder, supported by stakes, or buoyed up with
gourds. They use likewise the Indian way of striking the light of a fire
in the night, as is described in the second book, chapter 5, section 23.
§ 92. Their fowling is answerable to their fishing for plenty of game in
its proper season. Some plantations have a vast variety of it, several
sorts of which I have not yet mentioned, as beaver, otter, squirrels,
partridges, pigeons, and an infinite number of small birds, &c.
§ 93. The admirable economy of the beavers deserves to be particularly
remembered. They cohabit in one house are incorporated in a regular form
of government, something like monarchy, and have over them a
superintendent, which the Indians call pericu. He leads them out to
their several employments, which consist in felling of trees, biting off
the branches, and cutting them into certain lengths, suitable to the
business they design them for, all which they perform with their teeth.
When this is done, the pericu orders several of his subjects to join
together, and take up one of those logs, which they must carry to their
house or dam, as occasion requires. He walks in state by them all the
while, and sees that every one bears his equal share of the burthen;
while he bites with his teeth, and lashes with his tail, those that lag
behind, and do not lend all their strength; their way of carriage is
upon their tail. They commonly build their houses in swamps, and then to
raise the water to a convenient height, they make a dam with logs, and a
binding fort of clay, so firm, that though the water runs continually
over, it cannot wash it away. Within these dams they'll inclose water
enough to make a pool like a mill pond; and if a mill happen to be built
on the same stream, below their dam, the miller, in a dry season, finds
it worth his while to cut it, to supply his mill with water. Upon which
disaster the beavers are so expert at their work, that in one or two
nights' time they will repair the breach, and make it perfectly whole
again. Sometimes they build their houses in a broad marsh, where the
tide ebbs and flows, and then they make no dam at all. The doors into
their houses are under water. I have been at the demolishing of one of
these houses, that was found in a marsh, and was surprised to find it
fortified with logs, that were six feet long, and ten inches through,
and had been carried at least one hundred and fifty yards. This house
was three stories high, and contained five rooms, that is to say, two in
the lower, two in the middle story, and but one at the top. These
creatures have a great deal of policy, and know how to defeat all the
subtilty and stratagems of the hunter, who seldom can meet with them,
tho' they are in great numbers all over the country.
§ 94. There is yet another kind of sport, which the young people take
great delight in, and that is, the hunting of wild horses; which they
pursue sometimes with dogs, and sometimes without. You must know they
have many horses foaled in the woods of the uplands, that never were in
hand, and are as shy as any savage creature. These having no mark upon
them, belong to him that first takes them. However, the captor commonly
purchases these horses very dear, by spoiling better in the pursuit; in
which case he has little to make himself amends, besides the pleasure of
the chase. And very often this is all he has for it; for the wild horses
are so swift, that 'tis difficult to catch them; and when they are
taken, 'tis odds but their grease is melted, or else being old, they are
so sullen, that they can't be tamed.
§ 95. The inhabitants are very courteous to travelers, who need no other
recommendation, but the being human creatures. A stranger has no more to
do, but to enquire upon the road, where any gentleman or good
housekeeper lives, and there he may depend upon being received with
hospitality. This good nature is so general among their people, that the
gentry, when they go abroad, order their principal servant to entertain
all visitors, with everything the plantation affords. And the poor
planters, who have but one bed, will very often sit up, or lie upon a
form or couch all night, to make room for a weary traveler, to repose
himself after his journey.
If there happen to be a churl, that either out of covetousness, or ill
nature, won't comply with this generous custom, he has a mark of infamy
set upon him, and is abhorred by all.
CHAPTER XXII.
OF THE NATURAL PRODUCTS OF VIRGINIA, AND THE ADVANTAGES OF THEIR
HUSBANDRY.
§ 96. The extreme fruitfulness of that country, has been sufficiently
shown in the second book, and I think we may justly add, that in that
particular it is not exceeded by any other. No seed is sown there, but
it thrives; and most of the northern plants are improved, by being
transplanted thither. And yet there's very little improvement made among
them, seldom anything used in traffic but tobacco.
Besides all the natural productions mentioned in the second book, you
may take notice that apples from the seed never degenerate into crabs
there, but produce as good or perhaps better fruit than the mother tree,
(which is not so in England,) and are wonderfully improved by grafting
and managing; yet there are very few planters that graft at all, end
much fewer that take any care to get choice fruits.
The fruit trees are wonderfully quick of growth; so that in six or seven
years time from the planting, a man may bring an orchard to bear in
great plenty, from which he may make store of good cider, or distill
great quantities of brandy; for the cider is very strong, and yields
abundance of spirit. Yet they have very few, that take any care at all
for an orchard; nay, many that have good orchards are so negligent of
them as to let them go to ruin, and expose the trees to be torn and
barked by the cattle.
Peaches, nectarines, and apricots, as well as plumbs and cherries, grow
there upon standard trees. They commonly bear in three years from the
stone, and thrive so exceedingly, that they seem to have no need of
grafting or inoculating, if any body would be so good a husband; and
truly I never heard of any that did graft either plum, nectarine, peach
or apricot in that country, before the first edition of this book.
Peaches and nectarines I believe to be spontaneous, somewhere or other
on that continent, for the Indians have, and ever had greater variety,
and finer sorts of them than the English. The best sort of these cling
to the stone, and will not come off clear, which they call plum
nectarines, and plum peaches, or cling stones. Some of these are twelve
or thirteen inches in the girt. These sorts of fruits are raised so
easily there, that some good husbands plant great orchards of them,
purposely for their hogs; and others make a drink of them, which they
call mobby, and either drink it as cider, or distill it off for brandy.
This makes the best spirit next to grapes.
Grape vines of the English stock, as well as those of their own
production, bear most abundantly, if they are suffered to run near the
ground, and increase very kindly by slipping; yet very few have them at
all in their gardens, much less endeavor to improve them by cutting or
laying. But since the first impression of this book, some vineyards have
been attempted, and one is brought to perfection, of seven hundred and
fifty gallons a year. The wine drinks at present greenish, but the owner
doubts not of good wine, in a year or two more, and takes great delight
that way.
When a single tree happens in clearing the ground, to be left standing,
with a vine upon it, open to the sun and air, that vine generally
produces as much as four or five others, that remain in the woods. I
have seen in this case, more grapes upon one single vine, than would
load a London cart. And for all this, the people till of late never
removed any of them into their gardens, but contented themselves
throughout the whole country with the grapes they found thus wild.
A garden is no where sooner made than there, either for fruits or
flowers. Tulips from the seed, flower the second year. All sorts of
herbs have there a perfection in their flavor, beyond what I ever tasted
in a more northern climate. And yet they haven't many gardens in that
country, fit to bear the name of garden.
§ 97. All sorts of English grain thrive, and increase there, as well as
in any other part of the world, as for example, wheat, barley, oats,
rye, peas, rape, &c. And yet they don't make a trade of any of them.
Their peas indeed are troubled with weevils, which eat a hole in them,
but this hole does neither damage the seed, nor make the peas unfit for
boiling. And such as are sowed late, and gathered after August, are
clear of that inconvenience.
It is thought too much for the same man, to make the wheat, and grind
it, bolt it, and bake it himself. And it is too great a charge for every
planter, who is willing to sow barley, to build a malt house, and brew
house too, or else to have no benefit of his barley; nor will it answer,
if he would be at the charge. These things can never be expected from a
single family; but if they had cohabitations, it might be thought worth
attempting. Neither as they are now settled, can they find any certain
market for their other grain, which, if they had towns, would be quite
otherwise.
Rice has been tried there, and is found to grow as well as in Carolina;
but it labors under the same inconvenience, the want of a community to
husk and clean it, and, after all, to take it off the planter's hands.
§ 98. I have related at large in the first book how flax, hemp, cotton,
and the silk worms have thriven there in the several essays made upon
them; how formerly there was encouragement given for making of linen,
silk, &c., and how all persons not performing several things towards
producing of them were put under a fine; but now all encouragement of
such things is taken away or entirely dropped by the assemblies, and
such manufactures are always neglected when tobacco bears anything of a
price.
Silk grass is there spontaneous in many places. I need not mention what
advantage may be made of so useful a plant, whose fibres are as fine as
flax, and much stronger than hemp. Mr. Purchase tells us, in his Fourth
Pilgrim, page 1786, that in the first discovery of this part of the
world they presented Queen Elizabeth with a piece of grogram that had
been made of it. And yet to this day they make no manner of use of this
plant, no, not so much as the Indians did, before the English came among
them, who then made their baskets, fishing nets, and lines of it.
§ 99. The sheep increase well, and bear good fleeces; but they generally
are suffered to be torn off their backs by briars and bushes, instead of
being shorn, or else are left rotting upon the dunghill with their
skins.
Bees thrive there abundantly, and will very easily yield to the careful
housewife a full hive of honey, and besides lay up a winter store
sufficient to preserve their stocks.
The beeves, when any care is taken of them in the winter, come to good
perfection. They have noble marshes there, which, with the charge of
draining only, would make as fine pastures as any in the world; and yet
there is hardly an hundred acres of marsh drained throughout the whole
country.
Hogs swarm like vermin upon the earth, and are often accounted such,
insomuch, that when an inventory of any considerable man's estate is
taken by the executors the hogs are left out, and not listed in the
appraisement. The hogs run where they list, and find their own support
in the woods, without any care of the owner; and in many plantations it
is well if the proprietor can find and catch the pigs, or any part of a
farrow, when they are young to mark them; for if there be any marked in
a gang of hogs, they determine the propriety of the rest, because they
seldom miss their gangs; but as they are bred in company, so they
continue to the end, except sometimes the boars ramble.
§ 100. The woods produce great variety of incense and sweet gums, which
distill from several trees; as also trees bearing honey and sugar, as
before was mentioned. Yet there's no use made of any of them, either for
profit or refreshment.
All sorts of naval stores may be produced there, as pitch, tar, rosin,
turpentine, plank, timber, and all sorts of masts and yards, besides
sails, cordage and iron, and all these may be transported by an easy
water carriage.
§ 101. These, and a thousand other advantages, that country naturally
affords, which its inhabitants make no manner of use of. They can see
their naval stores daily benefit other people, who send thither to build
ships, while they, instead of promoting such undertakings among
themselves, and easing such as are willing to go upon them, allow them
no manner of encouragement, but rather the contrary. They receive no
benefit, nor refreshment, from the sweets and precious things they have
growing amongst them, but make use of the industry of England for all
such things.
What advantages do they see the neighboring plantations make of their
grain and provisions, while they, who can produce them infinitely
better, not only neglect the making a trade thereof, but even a
necessary provision against an accidental scarcity, contenting
themselves with a supply of food from hand to mouth; so that if it
should please God to send them an unseasonable year, there would not be
found in the country provision sufficient to support the people for
three months extraordinary.
By reason of the unfortunate method of the settlement, and want of
cohabitation, they cannot make a beneficial use of their flax, hemp,
cotton, silk, silk grass and wool, which might otherwise supply their
necessities, and leave the produce of tobacco to enrich them, when a
gainful market can be found for it.
Thus, they depend altogether upon the liberality of nature, without
endeavoring to improve its gifts by art or industry. They sponge upon
the blessings of a warm sun, and a fruitful soil, and almost grudge the
pains of gathering in the bounties of the earth. I should be ashamed to
publish this slothful indolence of my countrymen, but that I hope it
will sometime or other rouse them out of their lethargy, and excite them
to make the most of all those happy advantages which nature has given
them; and if it does this, I am sure they will have the goodness to
forgive me.
FINIS.
* * * * *
Transcriber's note:
1. The author or printer has irregularly capitalized references to
"king" and queen".
2. Illustrations: printer's inconsistancies have been retained.
(example: Ritchie and Ritchies, Fig: and Fig., etc.)
3. Printer's correction:
pg. x Table of Contents Chapter VI. §22., pg ref. 140 to 147.
4. Spelling corrections (verified by multiple uses of correctly spelled
word elsewhere in text)
pg. vi - "jr." to "Jr." (Nathan Bacon, Jr.)
pg. vi - "procecute" to "prosecute" (intends to prosecute)
pg. xviii - "abridgment" to "abridgement" (made an abridgement)
pg. xix - "Guina" to "Guiana" (brough by some Guiana ships)
pg. 1 - "malecontents" to "malcontents" (malcontents in the)
pg. 3 - "Beverly" to "Beverley" (mainly to Robert Beverley)
pg. 12 - "Cheaspeake" to "Chesapeake" (cape of Chesapeake bay)
pg. 26 - "Burmuda" to "Bermuda" (put to sea from Bermuda)
pg. 28 - "palisado" to "palisade" (run a palisade on)
pg. 31 - "christianity" to "Christianity" (to us and Christianity)
pg. 36 - "setttlement" to "settlement" (settlement at Port Royal)
pg. 38 - "foundatian" to "foundation" (which laid the foundation)
pg. 50 - "Carribbee" to "Caribbee" (the Caribbee islands)
pg. 66 - "againt" to "against" (against the presented arms)
pg. 70 - "butcheriug" to "butchering" (in butchering the English)
pg. 76 - "Fitz-Hugh" to "Fitzhugh" (Col. William Fitzhugh)
pg. 84 - "forbiding" to "forbidding" (forbidding the plantations)
pg. 97 - "chesnuts" to "chestnuts" (are stored with chestnuts)
pg. 105 - "ripen" to "ripens" (buds, ripens and drops off)
pg. 118 - "eat" to "eaten" (had ever eaten before)
pg. 118 - "frog fish" to "frog-fish" (saw-fish, toad-fish, frog-fish)
pg. 118 - "feets" to "feet" (it wants feet and wings)
pg. 120 - "eagel" to "eagle" (a bald eagle pursuing)
pg. 136 - "our" to "out" (keep out wild beasts)
pg. 140 - "Hazlenuts" to "Hazelnuts" (Hazelnuts they will not)
pg. 143 - "the" to "they" (they daub with clay)
pg. 146 - "steem" to "esteem" (They steem it a breach)
pg. 157 - "extingush" to "extinguish" (flames that never extinguish)
pg. 160 - "undestand" to "understand" (letting him understand)
pg. 163 - "dont" to "don't" (I don't know)
pg. 171 - "scarrifying" to "scarifying" (and scarifying which)
pg. 172 - "Purchass" to "Purchase" (Smith, Purchase and De Laet)
pg. 172 - "saplins" to "saplings" (stick saplings into the ground)
pg. 173 - "anchuse" to "anchusa" (a kind of anchusa)
pg. 174 - "vermine" to "vermin" (other troublesome vermin)
pg. 189 - "Cinchley's" to "Cincheley's" (Jeffery's and Cincheley's)
pg. 191 - "aws" to "laws" (The laws having duly passed)
pg. 197 - "Petes" to "Peter" (Hon. Peter Beverley)
pg. 208 - "nonapperance" to "nonappearance" (the defendant's
nonappearance)
pg. 215 - "Spottswood" to "Spotswood" (arrival of Colonel Spotswood)
pg. 234 - "coveniency" to "conveniency" (its beauty and conveniency)
pg. 235 - "daries" to "dairies" (cookery, washing, dairies,)
pg. 237 - "sallad" to "salad" (vine fruits, and salad flowers)
pg. 241 - "imtemperance" to "intemperance" (of great intemperance)
pg. 247 - "eat" to "ate" (The dog ate the squirrel)
pg. 251 - "Apalachain" to "Appalachain" (Appalachain mountains)
pg. 253 - "cachexie" to "cachexia" (grow into a cachexia)
pg. 256 - "patridges" to "partridges" (squirrels, partridges,
pigeons,)
pg. 257 - "they'l" to "they'll" (Within these dams they'll)
pg. 259 - "stong" to "strong" (cider is very strong)
pg. 261 - "havn't" to "haven't" (they haven't many gardens)
pg. 262 - "Purchass" to "Purchase" (Mr. Purchase tells us)
pg. 264 - "spunge" to "sponge" (They sponge upon the)
5. A list of word variations wherein both appear in this text and have
been retained as printed.
"Edmond Jennings" and "Edmund Jenings"
"Tab." and "tab."
"lime juice" and "lime-juice"
"acknowledgment" and "acknowledgement"
"Chickahominy" (for river and county) and "Chickahomony" (for place)
"cover" and "covert" (i.e. covert of a shady tree)
"conjuror(s)" and "conjurer(s)"
"Culpepper" (throughout Introduction) and "Colepepper" (regular Text)
"divers" and "diverse" (divers sectaries in religion)
"firewood" and "fire-wood"
"fishing hawk" and "fishing-hawk"
"Harriot" and "Heriot" (it is unclear if the author refers to the
same person)
"lieutenant governor (general)" and "lieutenant-governor (general)
"man of war" and "man-of-war"
"northwest" and "north-west"
"Oldmixon" and "Oldmixion" (proper name)
"one half" and "one-half"
"Pocoson" and "Poquoson" (place)
"Pungoteague" and "Pungotegue" (place)
"quioccasan" (1), "quioccassan" (2) and "quioccosan" (1)
"quitrents" and "quit-rents"
"resettled" and "re-settled"
"roasting ear" and "roasting-ear"
"savanna" and "savannah"
"silk worm" and "silk-worm"
"south west" and "south-west"
"staid" and "stayed" (used interchangably by author)
"subdivisions" and "sub-divisions"
"sweet scented" and "sweet-scented"
"sweet woods" and "sweet-woods"
"timber trees" and "timber-trees"
"traveled" and "travelled"
"traveling" and "travelling"
"turkeys" and "turkies"
"war captain" and "war-captain"
"water carriage" and "water-carriage"
"water side" and "water-side"
"wild geese" and "wild-geese"
"wilful" and "willful"
"woolen" and "woollen"
"George Yardley" and "George Yardly"
6. Defined archaic words appearing in this text:
"benumed" (benumbed)
"burthen" (burden)
"burthensome" (burdensome)
"choaking" (choking)
"chrystal" (crystal)
"covert" (protected; sheltered)
"disperst" (dispersed)
"divers" (diverse)
"intire" (entire)
"mascarado" (var. of mascarade(Fr) for masquerade)
"snear" (sneer)
"subtilty" (subtlety)
"vertuosi" (pl. of virtuoso, alt. virtuosi)
*** End of this LibraryBlog Digital Book "The History of Virginia, in Four Parts" ***
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