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 beneficesof 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. Thebusiness 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.
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 purchaseand 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.
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 lateyears, 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.
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 groundtithables, 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 doneex 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 timein 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 andprivileges 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.
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 doneex 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 timein 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 andprivileges 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.
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.
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 thatoffice, 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.
OF THE LIBERTIES AND NATURALIZATION OF ALIENS IN VIRGINIA.
§ 62. Christians of all nations have equal freedom there, and upon their arrival becomeipso factoentitled 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 firstto 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.
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 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 notexpose 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 Englishdominions. 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.
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.
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 shillingsthe 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 mostof 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.
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.
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 GodAlmighty 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 beingsickly; 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 Englishwren, 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 nameof 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 thosesort 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 orreceptacle, 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 searchamong 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 blownot 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.