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The Present State of Virginia

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THE PRESENT STATE OF VIRGINIA.





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Sabin's Reprints.



No. V.





BY
HUGH JONES, A. M. — THE PRESENT STATE OF VIRGINIA.
NEW YORK:

REPRINTED FOR JOSEPH SABIN.

1865.




Two Hundred Copies Printed.



No. 175 JS



ALVORD, PRINTER.








GIVING


A particular and short Account of the
Indian, English, and Negroe Inhabitants of that
Colony.


Shewing their Religion, Manners, Government,
Trade, Way of Living, &c. with a Description of
the Country.


From whence is inferred a short VIEW of


Maryland and North Carolina.


To which are added,


Schemes and Propositions for the better Promotion of
Learning, Religion, Inventions, Manufactures, and Trade in
Virginia, and the other Plantations.


For the Information of the Curious, and for the Service of such
as are engaged in the Propagation of the Gospel and Advancement
of Learning, and for the Use of all Persons concerned in the


Virginia Trade and Plantation.




Gen. ix. 27.


God shall enlarge Japheth, and he shall dwell in the
Tents of Shem, and Canaan shall be his Servant.




By HUGH JONES, A. M.


Chaplain to the Honourable Assembly, and lately
Minister of James-Town, &c. in Virginia.




LONDON:


Printed for J. Clarke, at the Bible under the Royal-Exchange.
M DCC XXIV.









THE CONTENTS.


The INTRODUCTION


Page i



PART I. Chap. I.


Of the Original of the Indians, Europeans, and Negroes.
1


Chap. II.


Of the Government, Religion, Habits, Wars,
      Lives, Customs, &c. of the Indians of North
      America
7


Of the French Settlements and Apelachian Mountains
13


Of the Tramontane Order and Expedition, and of
      Christanna
14


Of Indian Worship and Principles
15


Of the Conversion of the Indians
19











PART II. Chap. I.


Of the English Settlements in Virginia and Maryland
21



Chap. II.


Of the Metropolis Williamsburgh, the College Capitol,
      Governor's House, and the Church, &c.
25


Chap. III.


Of the Situation and Nature of the Country of
      Virginia, and its Coasts, &c.
33


Chap. IV.


Of the Negroes, with the Planting and Management
      of Indian Corn and Tobacco, and of their
      Timber, Stock, Fruits, Provision, Habitations,
      &c.
36


Chap. V.


Of the Habits, Customs, Parts, Employments, Trade
      of the Virginians; and of the Weather, Coin,
      Sickness, Liquors, Servants, Poor, Pitch, Tar,
      Oar, &c.
43


Chap. VI.


Of Germanna, the Palatines, Wine, Hemp, Flax,
      Silk, Sumack, Trees, Fruits, Coals, Tracts of Land,
      Health, Militia, the Mannacan Town, Titles, Levies,
      Burgesses, Laws, and general Assembly
59











PART III.


Of the State of the Church and Clergy in Virginia
65











PART IV.


Of Authors concerning Virginia, and its publick
      Officers, Guard-Ships, and the State of Maryland
      and North Carolina, &c.
75











APPENDIX.


1. Scheme. Of Education in Virginia
83


2. Scheme. Of Religion in Virginia
95


3. Scheme. Of Arts, Projects, Inventions, and
      Manufactures in Virginia
112


4. Scheme. Of Trade in Virginia, and the other
      Plantations
138











INTRODUCTION. — THE STATE OF VIRGINIA.

D



Dedications and Prefaces, which are prefix'd
to most Books, being regarded
by few Readers, I think it best for my
present Purpose briefly to mention in
an Introduction, what I would have known concerning
the Occasion, Nature, and Use of this
Treatise, before I enter upon the main Work
it self.


When I considered the great Benefit that
arises to the Publick, from the large Colony
of Virginia, I observed, that tho' it be thus
advantageous, yet it is capable of great Improvements
still, and requires several Alterations,
both with Regard to its own Welfare, and
the Interest of Great Britain. Observing
moreover, that few People in England (even
many concerned in publick Affairs of this kind)
have correct Notions of the true State of the
Plantations; and having been eagerly applied
to frequently, by Persons of the greatest Figure,
Experience, and Judgment in political
and national Concerns, for Information concerning
all the Circumstances of Virginia, I
was requested to digest methodically, and publish,
what I knew and thought of these Matters;
and being in a great Measure injoined to
it by a noble Patron, I have here complied
with his Commands, with the best of my
Knowledge and Judgment.




For want of better Information, many that
are most willing, capable, or obliged to promote
Religion, Learning, Arts and Trade in
Virginia, are either at a Loss how to set about
it rightly, or else having engaged themselves
therein, have in a great Measure miscarried
in their Attempts, because true and particular
Accounts of it are very difficult to be obtained;
and this Country is altered wonderfully,
and far more advanced and improved in all
Respects of late Years, since the beginning of
Colonel Spotswood's Lieutenancy, than in the
whole Century before his Government, which
he may be esteemed to have discharged with a
commendable, just, and prudent Administration;
a prosperous Administration, glorious
for himself, and advantageous both for the
Crown and the Plantation; whilst he was Lieutenant
Governor of that Colony; whilst that
Colony was honoured with such an excellent
Governor; whilst that Governor was happy
in such a flourishing, large, and fertile Colony.




And as this Country has made such a considerable
Progress, under the Management of
the late Governor Spotswood; so have we all
imaginable Prospect that it will in the same
regular course proceed towards its greatest Perfection,
under the Care and Conduct of the
present Governor Colonel Drysdale.




The Scales of Justice are now fix'd there
upon their true Balance, and the Course of
Trade is nearly confined to its right Channel.




Arts, Sciences, Trades, and useful Inventions
are now planted there in some Measure,
and with due Cultivation may thrive wonderfully.




Providence has furnish'd this Province
with all Necessaries of Life, and Industry may
supply it with all Conveniences and Advantages,
for Profit, Ease, and Pleasure.




The best Measures have been concerted and
proposed, and Schemes have been nicely drawn
for the Encouragement of useful Discoveries
and laudable Undertakings, both for the Security
and Benefit of the Publick.




And as in Blessings temporal, so in spiritual
Concernments, might the Virginians abound,
were the Attempts that have been,
or may be, made for the due Regulation of
the Church, as well as State, brought to Maturity:
Were the Laws more plain and particular
in Relation to Livings; so that the
Labours of the Clergy might be rewarded
with less Trouble and Ill-Will in their Preferment
to Parishes, and collecting their Dues
and Salaries; and were the Principles and
Practice of Religion more firmly establish'd,
which might easily be done without interfering
with the Interest of the People, or Constitution
of the Government; with but few Corrections
and Alterations, and but little additional
Expence.




More especially at this eminent Juncture of
his Majesty's most Christian Goodness, in converting
his Palace at Whitehall into a College
of Preachers; and founding in the Universities
Courts of Statesmen perfectly instructed in
modern Languages and History.




For if at Home he has in this Respect, as
well as others, excelled his Royal Predecessors,
why may we not hope that his charitable
Benefactions may likewise be extended
Abroad to the Church and College of the
most antient and loyal Colony of Virginia?
Through the Means of such great and good
Governors in Church, as his Grace the Archbishop
of Canterbury, and his Lordship the
Bishop of London; the first of which eminent
Patrons of Religion and Learning is
Chancellor of the College of William and
Mary at Williamsburgh in Virginia; and to
the other belongs the weighty Care and Charge
of the Church and Clergy of all that and the
other English Plantations.




Why may we not hope that the College
founded and endowed there by King William
and Queen Mary of ever blessed Memory,
may partake of the royal Favours of our
present most gracious Sovereign? Why may
we not hope that the Church confirmed
there in each Reign since Queen Elizabeth's,
may be duly regulated by the pious Directions
of his present Majesty?




These are Actions suitable to the Genius
of our mighty Monarch: These are Undertakings
worthy of the Negotiation of such
pious and learned Bishops; to whose Consideration
the following Sheets are in the most
submissive Manner offered, humbly requesting
their Lordship's Excuse for this presumptive
Freedom; occasioned by the zealous Affection
which I have for the Colony, which
principally induced me to this Work, in order
to vindicate the Place and People from
undeserved Calumny, to make publick true
Informations of them, to proclaim to the
World their just Praises, and to prove as instrumental
as possible in the Service of Religion,
Learning, Arts, advantageous Undertakings,
and the Trade of that Plantation; to
do which, I think my self strictly obliged by
Gratitude and Conscience.




There are several Books upon this Subject,
but none descends to the present State and
Circumstances of this Colony, nor proposes
what Methods may seem most conducive to
the Promotion of its best Interest in all Respects;
but without particular Knowledge of
these Things no useful Designs can be carried
to the best Advantage, neither by the Government,
Societies, Companies, nor by private
Persons.




Wherefore I composed this as a Supplement
to those other Books; treating herein
for the most Part of such Heads, as are altogether
omitted, or but slightly accounted for,
or described by others.




For though some may have perfect Information
and true Notions of these Things;
yet the generality of Mankind are utter Strangers
to what I here specify, and entertain commonly
very erroneous and monstrous Thoughts
concerning the Country, Lives, Religion and
Government of the Virginians; so that there
seemed a great Necessity for a Book of this
kind; which I have made as plain and intelligible
as I possibly could, and composed in
the best Method that I could devise for the
Service of the Plantations, more particularly
Virginia, Maryland, and North Carolina, where
I have been.




I have industriously avoided the ornamental
Dress of Rhetorical Flourishes, esteeming
them unfit for the naked Truth of historical
Relations, and improper for the Purpose
of general Propositions.




Besides its Truth and my real Design of
publick Service, this mean Piece has little to
recommend it to the Approbation of Mankind,
and to introduce it to a candid Reception
in the World. Nevertheless I venture
to present it with the greatest Submission
to the Candour of the Reader, with Hopes
that it may meet with a kind Acceptance;
humbly requesting the following Favours of
the Readers, viz.




That they would be pleased to excuse and
correct the Errors of the Press.




That if any material Alterations have happened
to be made that I know not of, since
I left Virginia (which is above two Years)
they will give favourable Allowances for my
Accounts of such Things, and not censure me
as if I endeavoured to impose Falshoods upon
the World; and I hope the same will be
granted for any trivial Mistakes which I may
have made through Forgetfulness, or for want
of Opportunity of Consultation and Advice
in any small circumstantial Point, or in any
proper Name.




And lastly, since Improvement might be
made for the joint Advantage of Virginia and
Great Britain in so many particular Respects;
therefore I hope what I have instanced in the
following State and Schemes will be look'd
upon as sufficient for my Purpose, without
making Mention of several other beneficial
Things of the Nature and Use of which I
have but little Knowledge; such as Cotton,
Pepper, with the large thick Husks of Acorns
for the Diers Use, with the like.




















PART I. — Chap. I. — Of the Original of the Indians, Europeans, and Negroes. — Chap. II. — Of the Government, Religion, Habit, Wars, Lives, Customs, &c. of the Indians of North America, and of Christanna.








O



One main Cause, why the Gospel is
not propagated with better Success
among the Infidels, and why it is not
more strictly followed by such Europeans
as inhabit the American Plantations,
is the little right Knowledge
that Superintendants of the Church have of them,
from imperfect Accounts and false Information;
for before we can entertain any tolerable Idea of
the Tenents, and Inclinations of any People; it
is requisite we should know something of their
Original, Temper, and Government; for want of
which much Cost and Labour have been in vain
expended, and many pious Designs and Projects
frustrated.


And as the Progress of Religion, so for the
same Causes, and in the same Manner, is the Improvement
of Arts, Sciences, and Trade, much
retarded.


I shall therefore exhibit a short View of the
present Inhabitants of Virginia; which are Indians,
English, and Negroes, with a Description of
the Country: After which their Morals and Manners
may more plainly and briefly be described;
from whence may easily be inferred an Account
of Maryland and North Carolina, nearly agreeing
with Virginia in many Respects.


The Indians may be term'd Aborigines; for to
pretend to determine their Pedigree exactly, with
the Time and Manner of seating this unknown
World, to me seems as morally impossible, as it
is naturally to account for the Complexion of their
Bodies, and the Temper of their Minds.


So that the best History of them till late Years
is but meer Guess-work, of which my Sentiments
are these:


We know that all Nations of the World are
the Descendants of Noah's three Sons, Shem, Ham,
and Japheth: From the youngest (from some promised
Blessings) may we suppose the Europeans and
Western Asiaticks to be descended. From Canaan
the Son of the middlemost issued the Canaanites,
and from some of his Sons might spring the Egyptians,
Moors, Negroes, and other Inhabitants of
Africa.


From Shem sprung Eber, and from Eber's eldest
Son Peleg sprung the Hebrews, and from Eber's
younger Son Joktan are derived the East, and (I
suppose) their Cousins the West-Indians of America.
For in Peleg's Days the Earth was divided,
Gen. x. 25. and his Brother Jocktan's Dwelling
was from Mesha, as thou goest unto Sephar, a
Mount of the East, v. 30. By these were the Nations
divided in the Earth after the Flood, v. 32.


To me the Indians of America seem to be some
of the Posterity of Shem, driven thither by Providence,
for Causes unknown to us, which might
easily be done (in large Boats or Canoes and Periaguas)
from the Eastern Parts of Asia, their Grandfather
Jocktan's Country; which is not improbable:
Since a Storm might drive them off from
the Shore, and the trade Winds, which blow
constantly one Way half the Year, might carry
them directly to America, over the vast South Sea
Ocean; in which Passage their greatest Danger
of Death might be Hunger and Thirst; but they,
that know the Indians, know also, that they can
bear Want a prodigious while; and what might
they not bear, when the Divine Power was miraculously
concerned in it, for Purposes known to
the Almighty only?


Indeed for what we have yet discovered, we
don't know, but the Continent of America may
be join'd to Tartary; from whence (if so) they
might have an easy, though tedious Conveyance.
Be it how it will, I am of Opinion, that they are
descended from Asia, and not Africa; because in
their copper Colour, long black Hair, strait proper
Shape, and haughty Carriage, they are somewhat
like the East-Indians; whereas they seem to
be of a different Breed from the Negroes, who are
blacker, have uglier Faces and Bodies, and are of a
more servile Carriage, and slavish Temper: Besides,
the Africans circumcise, which with other Jewish
Customs, I imagine, they may derive from Egypt;
whereas the Indians use no such Practices: Moreover
they hate, and despise the very Sight of a
Negroe; but they seem to like an East-Indian, and
fear and revere the Whites.


What some may object in Contradiction to the
Universality of the Deluge; that the Communication
between Asia and America was washed away
by it; thence inferring that the Americans
are of Antidiluvian Families, may (I presume) be
exploded, when we remark, that in most Places,
at a great Depth, and far distant from the Sea,
are many great Beds of strange Shells, and Bones,
and Teeth of Fish and Beasts vastly different from
any Land or Water-Animals now found in those,
or any other Parts of the World; so that notwithstanding
all the curious Speculations of Philosophers
to reconcile this with Reason, and ascribe
for it natural Causes; yet to me it appears evidently
to be a Token, and Relict of the general Flood
of Noah. For these Shells and Bones might be
easily preserved from Corruption, and mouldering
so long a Time, whilst covered with a great Thickness
of dry Earth, and kept from Air; to which
when they are exposed they soon decay.


The best true Account that we have of the
Primitive wild Inhabitants of the Earth, not civilized
by Government, nor assisted by Learning,
Arts and Communication with Strangers, is of
the Canaanites; whose State of Nature the Indians
still retain, resembling them in most Respects,
who may be their Cousins descended from Joktan,
and may be some cursed Generations, for Reasons
hidden from us. For which Causes they might
be separated from the rest of Mankind, and be debarred
the Light of Grace, and kept in their barbarous
Ignorance, for their obstinate Rebellion against
God; till of his gracious Goodness and Mercy
he be pleased in his appointed Time to compleat
their Conversion, and be more favourable to
them.


I have a much truer and clearer Notion of the
Canaanites, Hebrews, &c. since I have seen the
Indians, than I could have before, who afford living
Examples of the primitive Savages, and Idolaters.


To confirm this, observe; that as the Inhabitants
of the Land of Canaan, who were vanquished
by the Israelites, and were principally descended
from Canaan the fourth Son of accursed Ham,
being a Mixture of several remarkable Nations
that were great and idolatrous, and in an especial
Manner hateful to God, with frequent Wars and
Barbarities among themselves; in like Manner are
the American Indians, as savage, idolatrous, unbelieving,
numerous, monstrous, idle and delighting
in War and Cruelty as their antient Relations the
Inhabitants of the Land of Canaan; and have as
many different Nations, Languages, and strange
Names and Customs as the Canaanites, the Jebusites,
the Hittites, the Hivites, the Perizites, and
the Gergisites. The Indians being subdivided into
as many Branches and Sovereignties as they, intermixt
with as hideous Neighbours, as the Gigantick
Philistines of the Race of Misraim; with the
Moabites and Amorites, Descendants of Lot by his
own Daughters; with the Midianites and Edomites,
the Posterity of Midian and Esau.


The Senecaa Indians in their War Dress may appear
as terrible as any of the Sons of Anak. The
Usherees, Shuterees, and Cherackees are full as formidable
as the Hittites, Jebusites, and Amalakites;
and a Tuskaroodau is as savage and strange as any
Canaanite, that dwelt by the Sea; and a Pomunkee,
Sapony, or Sugarr is as fierce and frightful as
any Amorite that dwelt upon or beyond the Mountains;
and Powhatan, Oppechancanough and Wickmaunatauchee
have fought many Battles not unlike
Og, Sihon, and Chederlaomer.


In my mean Judgment it seems not improbable
that when Noah had cursed the Posterity of Ham,
and reserved different blessings for Shem and Japheth,
God set a distinguishing Colour upon their Bodies,
and ingrafted in their Nature various Tempers,
and endowed them with separate Talents. From
whence their Posterity are of three different Complexions
and Countenances, as is apparent in White,
Black, and Brown People, which by Mixtures,
or from Climates or otherwise are subdivided: Particularly
the brown Children of Shem have two peculiar
Aspects different from each other, and distinct
from all the rest; one proper to the Jews,
the Sons of Peleg, and the other belonging to the
East and West-Indies, the Sons of Joktan, Peleg's
younger Brother.


To the white Posterity of Japheth, viz. to the
Europeans in particular are Noah's Words (Gen. ix.
27.) very applicable, where he said, that God should
enlarge Japheth, and he should dwell in the Tents of
Shem, and Canaan shall be his Servant; which
seems fulfilled in our Possession of Lands in the
East and West-Indies, the Tents of the Sons of
Shem, where Canaan or the Negroe is our Servant
and Slave; and as it is said of him in the 25th Verse,
a Servant of Servants is Canaan unto his Brethren.


For the Negroes seem evidently to be Descendants
from some of the Sons of Canaan. For it
is not to be supposed that the Jews destroyed them
all, for the Families of the Canaanites were spread
abroad, Gen. x. 18. so that probably in process of
Time they possessed Africa. As for the Blessing
upon Shem in the 26th Verse, and Canaan being his
Servant; this appears to be fulfilled in the Jews
in Part, descended from Peleg, Heber's eldest Son;
from whom sprung Abraham the Father of the
Faithful, in whose Seed the Lord God of Shem
may be said to be blessed according to Noah's Prophecy,
who made Part of Canaan Slaves, and took
them Captive. And as for the other Branches of
Shem's Posterity by Joktan (which Sound is not quite
lost in either of the Indies) I take them to be the
East and West-Indians, Chinese, and Tartars; and
it may be the Persians, for whom with their Cousins
the Jews, none but God knows what Blessings
may still be reserved in Store, it being to be hoped
that they and all the Ends of the World may be
converted, and see and partake of the Salvation
of our God; so that by all may the Lord God of
Shem at length be blessed.


Thus far, as to my Notions of the Original of
the Indians, whom I imagine to be descended from
some of the Sons of Joktan, second Son of Eber,
sprung from Shem, Noah's eldest Son: With a
Derivation of the Whites from Japheth the youngest,
and the Negroes from some of the Sons of
Canaan, Descendant of Ham, Noah's second Son.










A



As to the Government and Life of the Indians,
they live in a kind of patriarchal
Manner, variously diversify'd, not unlike
the Tribes and Families mentioned in the Old
Testament. Every small Town is a petty Kingdom
govern'd by an absolute Monarch, assisted and
advised by his great Men, selected out of the gravest,
oldest, bravest, and richest; if I may allow
their Dear-Skins, Peak and Roenoak (black and
white Shells with Holes, which they wear on
Strings about their Arms and Necks) to be Wealth.


Sometimes there are general Emperors, who have
several petty Kingdoms in some Measure under
their Protection and Power.


They dwell in Towns some twenty, some a
hundred Miles, and some farther from one another,
each Town having a particular Jargon and
peculiar Customs; though for the most Part they
agree in certain Signs, Expressions, and Manners.


They are frequently at War with all their Neighbours,
or most of them, and treat their Captive
Prisoners very barbarously; either by scalping
them (which I have seen) by ripping off the Crown
of the Head, which they wear on a Thong by
their Side as a signal Trophee and Token of Victory
and Bravery or sometimes they tie their Prisoners,
and lead them bound to their Town, where
with the most joyful Solemnity they kill them,
often by thrusting in several Parts of their Bodies
scewers of Light-wood which burn like Torches.
The poor Victim all the while (which is sometimes
two or three Days) not shewing the least Symptom
of Grief, nor Sign of Pain, but bearing it
with a scornful Sullenness.


In their Rejoicings and Wardances they with
the most antick Gestures, in the most frightful
Dress, with a hideous Noise, enumerate the Enemies,
that they have murder'd, and such like Exploits.


They attack always by Surprize, and will never
stand their Ground when discovered; but fly
to Ambush, whither the Enemy may pursue with
Peril of his Life.


They are made for running very swiftly, and
are nicely dextrous at fishing, hunting, and
fowling; whereby they support themselves and
Families with Venison, Fish, wild Turkies, &c.


The Women do all the hard Labour, such as
cutting down the Trees, planting Corn, &c. carrying
Burthens and all their other Work; the
Men only hunting, fishing and fowling, eating,
drinking, dancing and sleeping.


The Boys still use Bows and Arrows for Exercise,
with which they are very dextrous; but the
Men always use Fire-Arms, which with Ammunition
they buy of us with their Dear-Skins, going
rarely out unarmed.


They are so wonderfully quick-sighted, that
they will swiftly pursue by Eye the Track of any
Thing among the Trees, in the Leaves and Grass,
as an Hound does by the Scent, where we can't
perceive the least Mark or Footstep.


They cohabit in some hundreds of Families,
and fix upon the richest Ground to build their
wooden Houses, which they place in a circular
Form, meanly defended with Pales, and covered
with Bark; the middle Area (or Forum) being for
common Uses and publick Occasions. The Women
in order to plant their Indian Corn and Tobacco
(to clear the Ground of Trees) cut the Bark
round; so that they die and don't shade the Ground,
and decay in Time.


Wherever we meet with an old Indian Field,
or Place where they have lived, we are sure of
the best Ground. They all remove their Habitation
for fear of their Enemies, or for the Sake of
Game and Provision.


They have small Sweating Houses like Ovens;
out of which when they are almost smothered
with Heat, they run into a River, which they
always contrive to build their Towns near.


This Practice in all Distempers often kills vast
Numbers in Sicknesses, which are new to them.


They have no Notion of providing for Futurity;
for they eat Night and Day whilst their
Provision lasts, falling to as soon as they awake,
and falling asleep again as soon as they are well
crammed.


Their Fish, Flesh, and Fowl, they either barbacue
on an high Gridiron, or broil on sharp
Sticks before a Fire, which they always keep in
the Middle of their Cabbin; and they lie upon
Boards and Skins raised like Benches round about
their Room.


Their Drink is Water, unless they can get
Rum; with which they make themselves the
greatest Beasts, never ceasing as long as they have
Liquor to drink, and can keep awake.


I have known, when Cows have been given
them, that they let them go dry for Laziness in
neglecting to milk them, and die in the Winter
for want of Fodder.


They commonly wear a Dear-Skin, putting
their Arms thro' the Holes of the Shoulder, with
a Flap ty'd before and behind to cover their Nakedness;
though they buy often Matchcoats or Blankets
now, to defend them from the Wet and Cold,
and think themselves very fine in such Coats as
our common Soldiers wear, or of any taudry Colours:
Besides this, some pin Pieces of red or blue
Cloth about their Legs, and make Moccasons or
leather Purses for their Feet, with which they can
travel in the Woods, without Danger of Thorns
or Stumps. For all the Country is but one continued
Forest, with Patches of some hundred Acres
here and there cleared; either being formerly
seated by Indians, or the Trees being burnt in
Fire-Hunting, or cut down for Plantations.


Their Children almost as soon as born, are ty'd
flat on their Backs to a Board; and so may be
flung on the Ground, or put to lean against any
Thing, or be slung over their Neck in Travelling,
or hung upon a Bough, as Occasion requires.


This occasions them to be exactly strait; so
that it is a Miracle to see a crooked or deformed
Indian.


Their Hair is very black, coarse and long; and
they are all over daubed frequently with Bear's Oil.


Each Nation has some distinguishing Mark,
especially in the Cut or Tie of their Hair, in
which they are very whimsical and comical.


They often wear Shells hanging upon their
Breasts, with Feathers or a Deer's Tail in their
bored Ears or Hair, with a Wolf or Fox-Skin
for a Snapsack; with other odd Accoutrements.


In their Opinion, they are finest when dressed
most ridiculously or terribly. Thus some have
their Skins all over curiously wrought with blewish
Lines and Figures, as if done with Gun-Powder
and Needles, and all of them delight in being
painted; so that when they are very fine, you may
see some of them with their Hair cut off on one
Side, and a long Lock on the other. The Crown
being crested and bedaubed with red Lead and
Oil; their Forehead being painted white, and it
may be their Nose black, and a Circle of Blue
round one Eye, with the Cheek red, and all the
other Side of the Face yellow, or in some such
fantastical Manner. These Colours they buy of
us, being persuaded to despise their own, which
are common and finer.


They are treacherous, suspicious and jealous,
difficult to be persuaded or imposed upon, and very
sharp, hard in Dealing, and ingenious in their
Way, and in Things that they naturally know, or
have been taught; though at first they are very
obstinate, and unwilling to apprehend or learn
Novelties, and seem stupid and silly to Strangers.


An Instance of their resolute Stupidity and Obstinacy
in receiving a new Custom, I have seen in
the prodigious Trouble of bringing them to sell
their Skins, and buy Gunpowder by Weight; for
they could not apprehend the Power and Justice of
the Stilliard; but with the Scales at Length they
apprehended it tolerably well; though at first they
insisted upon as much Gunpowder as the Skin
weighed, which was much more than their Demand
in Measure. They have Geographical Notions,
as to the Situation of their own Country,
and will find the Way to very remote Places in
a surprizing Manner; steering by the Course of
the Rivers, &c. or by the Trees, whose North Side
is easily known by the Moss.


Thus I know, that Wickmannatauchee (a great
King among the Southern Indians) whom I saw
just before, and since, when he made his Escape
from his Enemy Indians at Christanna, where his
Queen and abundance of his People were slain,
and he ty'd in order to be carried away Prisoner;
yet broke loose, and ran directly Home several
hundred Miles stark-naked, without Arms or Provision,
in the Month of March, when the Trees
afforded no Fruit; neither did he go near any other
Nation, till he got to his own; therefore I
suppose Roots were his Provision, and Water his
Liquor, unless by some cunning Method (with
which they abound) he caught Fish, Fowl, or
Venison; and as for Fire I know they can kindle
that by rubbing of certain Sticks together.


They count their Time by Days, or by the
Return of the Moon, and Cohonks, a sort of wild
Geese. They walk one after another in a Line,
are very serious in Debates, speak but one at a
Time; and in Negotiations all agree to what either
proposes or approves of, and are not easily
imposed upon; and when affronted, they highly
resent Injuries, and being treacherous are no more
to be trusted than tame Lions, who can't wholly
lose their savage Hearts.


They have tolerable good Notions of natural
Justice, Equity, Honour and Honesty, to the
Rules whereof the great Men strictly adhere; but
their common People will lye, cheat, and steal.


They seldom commit Violence upon the English,
but when provoked, or put on by others.


The French, that are seated upon the River of
St. Laurence and the Messisippi, and the Lakes between
them in Canada and Lovisiana, which extend
behind all the English Plantations along the
Heart of North America a vast Way, from the
most Northern Parts of the French Settlements,
which are contiguous quite to the Gulf of Mexico,
are numerous, and through the Policy of their
late King intermarry with the Indians; by which
means being united with them, they often set them
on to destroy the English, which may prove dangerous
in Case of a War with France.


But to prevent more Mischiefs of this kind,
Providence has secured us from them by a continued
Ridge of vast high Hills, called the Apelachian
Mountains, running nearly under the Meridian,
as being passable but in very few Places;
which Mountains through the Care and Conduct
of the Honourable Colonel Spotswood are secured
for his Majesty, tho' not guarded as yet; which
might easily be done to the great Safety and Encouragement
of back Settlements in a vast rich
Country Westward of the Settlements of Virginia,
some hundred of Miles from the Sea quite to
the Mountains, which might prove a Terror to
the French Indians and Planters, in Case of Inroads
and Irruptions, and become a Safeguard to
the Trade of those Places.


Governor Spotswood, when he undertook the
great Discovery of the Passage over the Mountains,
attended with a sufficient Guard and Pioneers and
Gentlemen, with a sufficient Stock of Provision,
with abundant Fatigue passed these Mountains, and
cut his Majesty's Name in a Rock upon the Highest
of them, naming it M o u n t G e o r g e; and in
Complaisance the Gentlemen from the Governor's
Name, called the Mountain next in Height,
Mount Alexander.


For this Expedition they were obliged to provide
a great Quantity of Horse-Shoes; (Things
seldom used in the lower Parts of the Country,
where there are few Stones:) Upon which Account
the Governor upon their Return presented
each of his Companions with a Golden Horse-Shoe,
(some of which I have seen studded with valuable
Stones resembling the Heads of Nails) with this
Inscription on the one Side: Sic juvat transcendere
montes: And on the other is written the tramontane
Order.


This he instituted to encourage Gentlemen to
venture backwards, and make Discoveries and new
Settlements; any Gentleman being entitled to wear
this Golden Shoe that can prove his having drank
His Majesty's Health, upon Mount George.


He built a Fort called Christanna, which tho'
not so far back, yet proved of great Service and
Use; where at his sole Expence (I think) I have
seen Seventy Seven Indian Children at a Time at
School, under the careful Management of the
worthy Mr. Charles Griffin, who lived there some
Years for that Purpose; from whom I have been
informed of most of the Indian Customs and Principles,
that I here mention, except such as I have
seen and known my self.


These Children could all read, say their Catechisms
and Prayers tolerably well; but this pious
Design being laid aside thro' the Opposition of
Trade and Interest, Mr. Griffin was removed to
the College to teach the Indians, instructed there
by the Benefaction of the Honourable Mr. Boyle.


The Indians so loved and adored him, that I
have seen them hug him and lift him up in their
Arms, and fain would have chosen him for a
King of the Sapony Nation.


The Southern Indians, that came several hundred
Miles to meet the Governor, there to treat of
War, and Peace, and Trade, though they had several
murthered by their own Northern Enemies,
(even under the Mouths of our great Guns, and
whilst we were there) which made them somewhat
jealous that we had betray'd them; yet left several
Children under his Care, and engaged themselves
to send more, though they themselves would
not relinquish their Barbarity; for they in reasoning
with us by Interpreters, asked Leave to be
excused from becoming as we are; for they thought
it hard, that we should desire them to change
their Manners and Customs, since they did not desire
us to turn Indians: However, they permitted
their Children to be brought up in our Way; and
when they were able to judge for themselves, they
were to live as the English, or as the Indians,
according to their best liking.


The Indians have a blind Worship and Sacrifice,
Priests, and Physicians, and Expiation, with
howling Lamentations and Purgation at their Burials:
All which I have seen at the Funeral of
their Slain at Christanna, whom they buried thus;
having made Holes like Saw-Pits, and lined them
with Bark and Sticks, they wrapped the Bodies
in the best Cloth they could buy with the
Skins of the Deceased, and laid them in the Graves,
with all the Cloths, Skins and Nicknacks of the
Dead: Then they covered the Body hollow with
Sticks, and flung in the Earth with mournful
Noise; so the Bodies lay as in Coffins.


The Priest or Physician in curing the Wounded,
made an hideous Noise, singing certain Charms,
with particular Actions and Forms of Incantation,
to which he ascribed the Cure, tho' I believe this
is done only to blind the common Indians; for I
observed he did not begin his Operation, till he
had been in the Woods. Then he shut us all out
for an Hour, and when we were readmitted, I
perceived he had been using certain Roots and
Herbs that I knew not.


Upon Enquiry, we have from them these
their Notions of the State of the Dead.


They believe that they go to Mohomny that
lives beyond the Sun, if they have not been
Wicked, nor like Dogs nor Wolves, that is, not
unchast, then they believe that Mohomny sends
them to a plentiful Country abounding with Fish,
Flesh and Fowls, the best of their Kind, and easy
to be caught; but if they have been naughty,
then he sends them to a poor barren Country,
where be many Wolves and Bears, with a few
nimble Deer, swift Fish and Fowls, difficult to be
taken; and when killed, being scarce any thing
but Skin and Bones.


They allow Polygamy, if the Man can maintain
his Family, as I have been informed.


They punish Adultery in a Woman by cutting
off her Hair, which they fix upon a long Pole
without the Town; which is such a Disgrace that
the Party is obliged to fly, and becomes a Victim
to some Enemy, a Slave to some Rover, or perishes
in the Woods.


They have certain Hieroglyphical Methods of
characterizing Things; an Instance of which I
have seen upon the Side of a Tree where the
Bark was taken off.


There was drawn something like a Deer and
a River, with certain Strokes and Dashes; the
Deer looking down the River, which we interpreted
to be left for Information to some of their
stragling Company, that certain of them were
gone down that River a Hunting, and others were
gone different Ways.


I know by the Boys at the College, that they
have an excellent Genius for Drawing; and I fancy
by Art they might be made some of the best Masters
of Painting and Limning, to which they seem
naturally inclined.


They hate Injury and Oppression; and I have
been told they have some capital Punishments.


Besides the French, the Traders of some Companies
and Countries often set the Indians on to
injure the English on the Frontiers, out of a barbarous
inhuman Design; and often private Injuries
done by some of our ordinary or vile People (who
esteem and use the Indians as Dogs) are repaid
with publick Barbarity.


An Instance of their Resolutions for Satisfaction,
we have in the Death of Major Wynne, who was
shot by an Indian, because one of our Servants
had killed one of their great Men; and upon the
Trial of the Indian, they pleaded that we were
the Aggressors, and that they never rest without
Revenge and Reprisals; and that now they said
we and they were equal, having each lost a great
Man: Wherefore to avoid more Bloodshed, there
was a Necessity to pardon the Indian.


They report that the Northern Indians send out
Bodies of young Fellows yearly, who dare not
return without a certain Number of Scalps or
Prisoners, in order to train them up, and qualify
them for great and fighting Men.


Now these, and such as are set on by others,
do some Mischief (tho' but very seldom) in the
Frontier Plantations, tho' they be guarded with
Rangers; and these with such as think themselves
injured are the Indians that make Wars, and such
Disturbance in the Northern and Southern Colonies:
But the tributary Indians, of which there
are but four very small Nations in Virginia on this
Side the Mountains, keep to the Bounds allowed
them, and seldom do any Hurt, being sure to be
punished for Offences in a great Measure by our
Laws, since we protect and shelter them, by permitting
them to live among us; tho' sometimes
they will pretend to claim their prior Right to all
our Lands, as Blunt King of the Tuskaroodaus did,
when he told Colonel Spotswood that the Country
belonged to them before we English came thither;
so that he thought they had a better Title than
we, and ought not to be confined to such narrow
Limits for Hunting.


To retort this Argument, the Governor told
him that Mohomny took the Ground from them
and gave it us, because we did as he bid us, but
they would not.


Blunt answered, that they could not tell what
Mohomny would have them do; and asked how
we knew.


The Governor then told him that Mohomny sent
his Son to us, who lived a long time with us, and
told us and taught us what we should do; and
then he went back again to his Father.


With this King Blunt seemed satisfied and surprized;
and after a Pause, he said, he had talked
with several Governors and other English, but he
really never before heard that Mohomny had a
Son.


I relate this, to shew how by Degrees, after proper
Methods, they may be humoured, and brought
to have some Notions of the true Religion, when
their Capacity and Temper is rightly studied and
managed; for we must give Milk to such Babes in
Faith.


Some indeed, after seeming Conversion have apostatized
and returned to their own Ways, chiefly
because they can live with less Labour, and more
Pleasure and Plenty, as Indians, than they can with
us; but this might easily be remedied by making
a plentiful Provision for them, especially those at
the College, by sending some to Sea, and putting
out others to Trades, and not letting them idle
away their Time, nor return to their Towns so
soon, before they be perfect in the Understanding
and Approbation of our Customs and Religion,
and have seen some more of the World, and be
handsomly provided for; for then if they returned,
they might do Good to themselves and others.


This might by Degrees convert all the tributary
and neighbouring Indians; and the Northern and
Southern Nations might be managed by Missionaries
from the Society, and the College Indians.


These inland People are vastly numerous, as I
have been told by the Traders, who are sent out
amongst them seven or eight hundred Miles, with
about a hundred Horses, and stay there sometimes
for Years together.


The Missionaries that are now sent, generally
keep among the English, and rarely see an Indian;
or when they do, know but little how to manage
them; for you may as well talk Reason, Philosophy,
or Divinity to a Block, as to them, unless you
perfectly understand their Temper, and know how
to humour them.


I believe indeed, Mr. Andrews, Missionary to
the Northern Indians, in the late Queen's Time,
did great Good among them in seven Years: In
which Time, he found out something of their
Nature, and translated Part of our Prayers and
Psalms into their Language: Which Book when he
gave me, he told me that it had not the desired
Effect, neither did his Preaching avail as much as
could be wished, because Policy and Interest intervening
often superseded the Promotion of the
Gospel, and the debauched Lives and vile Practices
of our ordinary People give Examples very pernicious
to Religion; for the Indians think, that
they may surely be allowed the same Liberty as
we; and if our Folks don't act, as they say, they
should, the Indians may think the Christian Profession
to be a Cheat, when our pretended Principles
are contradicted by our Actions.


I have here specified some general Customs and
Notions of the Indians, without a superficial
Knowledge of which Things the Government
and Society for propagating the Gospel in Foreign
Parts, may be at great Trouble and Expence,
and yet make but small Progress in the Propagation
of Learning, Religion and good Manners
among the Heathen Indians of America; who in
Gross may all be said to be such, as I have here
given an Account of.














PART II. — Chap. I. — Of the English Settlements in Virginia. — Chap. II. — Of the Metropolis Williamsburgh, and the College, Capitol, and Governor's House, and the Church , &c. — Chap. III. — Of the Situation and Nature of the Country of Virginia, and its Coasts , &c. — Chap. IV. — Of the Negroes, with the Planting and Management of Indian Corn, Tobacco, &c. and of their Timber, Stock, Fruits, Provision, and Habitations, &c. — Chap. V. — Of the Habits, Customs, Parts, Imployments, Trade, &c. of the Virginians; and of the Weather, Coin, Sickness, Liquors, Servants, Poor, Pitch, Tar, Oar , &c. — Chap. VI. — Of Germanna, the Palatines, Wine , Hemp , Flax , Silk , Sumack , Trees , Fruits , Coals , the Tracts of Land , Health , Militia , the Mannacan Town, Titles , Levies , Burgesses , Laws , and general Assembly .








T



The first Discovery made for the English
in North-America, was in the Year 1584,
(a hundred and forty Years ago) by Captain
Philip Amidas, and Captain Arthur Barlow,
by the Protection and Encouragement of
Queen Elizabeth; with the Persuasion and Direction
of Sir Walter Raleigh.


They anchored at Roenoak Inlet, now belonging
to the Government of North Carolina, and
from the Virgin Queen, and the apparent Purity of
the Indians, and primitive Plenty of the Place,
that new discover'd Part of the World was named
Virginia.


After that, Sir Richard Greenvile, Sir Francis
Drake, and Sir Walter Raleigh carried on the Project,
and made Advancements in it, with the Leave
of the Government; which were promoted and
continued by the Merchants of London, Bristol,
Exeter and Plymouth; with Variety of Accidents,
Successes and Disappointments in Respect of their
Trade and Possessions, and War and Peace with
the Indians; especially under the Conduct of Captain
Smith, who was employed by the Company
of Merchants incorporated by King James I. in
1606; and has written a large History of his particular
Transactions.


They then fixed chiefly at, and near James
Town, on a small Island in James River, till the
Year 1609, when they sent out Settlements to
Nansemond, Powhatan, and the Year after to Kiquotan.


After that the Plantations of Virginia were
formed into a Government, managed first by three,
and afterwards by one Governor, to whose Assistance
in a small Time they added Counsellors;
and in 1620, they called an Assembly of Burgesses,
who being elected by the People, met the Governor
and Council at James Town, and debated Matters
for the Improvement and good Government
of the Country.


About this Time the Dutch brought over some
Negroes for Sale, who are now wonderfully encreased;
besides the constant Supplies of them
imported yearly.


At this Time, they made new Settlements, laid out
and apportioned Lands, some to the Governor, some
for a College and Indian School, some to the Church
and Glebes, and some to particular Persons; and
carried on Salt Works and Iron Works, besides Tobacco.


This Prosperity of the Colony so encouraged
its Increase, that one thousand three hundred People
have gone over in one Year to settle there;
upon which they made County Courts for the Tryal
of some Causes and Criminals under the General
Court and Assembly; but private Interest and Quarrels
byassing the Governors and other Persons
concerned, often introduced ill Success, Faction,
and Indian Wars.


The fatal Consequences of this Male-Administration
cry'd so loud, that King Charles I. coming
to the Crown of England, had a tender Concern
for the poor People, that had been betrayed thither
and almost lost: Upon which he dissolved
the Company in 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.


In this happy Constitution, the Colony of Virginia
has prosperously encreased gradually and
wonderfully, to its present most flourishing Condition.


Indeed Bacon's Rebellion against the Governor
occasioned a great deal of Bloodshed and Disturbance;
but that after his Death soon ceased.


The assured good Report of this vast Tract of
Land and happy Climate encouraged several Gentlemen
of Condition and good Descent, to transport
themselves and Families, and settle in this
new Paradise; some for the Sake of Wealth, some
for Religion, and others because they could not
well live elsewhere; and others because they dared
not, or cared not to stay at Home.


But one particular Occasion that sent several Families
of good Birth and Fortune to settle there,
was the Civil Wars in England; for Sir William
Barkley the Governor being strong for the King,
held out the last of all the King's Dominions against
the Usurper; and likewise proclaimed King Charles
II. before the Restoration.


This safe Receptacle enticed over several Cavalier
Families, where they made many Laws against
Puritans, tho' they were free from them; which
had this good Success, that to this Day, the People
are as it were quite free from them, being all of
the Church of England, without the odious distinguishing
Characters of High or Low among themselves.
Indeed, there are a few Quakers in some
of the worst Counties, where Clergymen are unwilling
to settle, such as the lower Parts of Nansemond
County; but these might easily be brought
over to the Church; and I am fully persuaded
that the Growth of their Doctrine might be easily
nipped in the Bud, by very plain Methods.


Among other Persons of Distinction that went
over to settle in Virginia, was the noble Cæcilius
Calvert Lord Baltimore, a Roman Catholick, who
with his Family, Friends and Attendants, was
willing to retire thither for the free Exercise of
his Religion.


He obtained a Patent for all that vast Part of
Virginia, which lies to the Northward of the
great River Potowmack; which was confirmed to
his Son and his Heirs in the Year 1633.


This Province was named Maryland from the
Royal Consort of King Charles I. and remains still
the Propriety of the present Lord Baltimore and his
Heirs, with the Restriction of their being Protestants;
and is perhaps the largest Estate in the
World belonging to any one Person, that is not a
Prince.


Though the Church of England be establish'd
in Maryland; yet it is a Sanctuary for Papists, who
are pretty numerous there, and enjoy the Freedom
of their Priests and Mass in a great Measure, without
Molestation.














T



The first Metropolis, James Town, was
built in the most convenient Place for
Trade and Security against the Indians,
but often received much Damage, being
twice burnt down; after which it never recovered
its Perfection, consisting at present of nothing
but Abundance of Brick Rubbish, and three
or four good inhabited Houses, tho' the Parish is
of pretty large Extent, but less than others. When
the State House and Prison were burnt down, Governor
Nicholson removed the Residence of the
Governor, with the Meeting of General Courts and
General Assemblies to Middle Plantation, seven
Miles from James Town, in a healthier and more
convenient Place, and freer from the Annoyance
of Muskettoes.


Here he laid out the City of Williamsburgh (in
the Form of a Cypher, made of W. and M.) on
a Ridge at the Head Springs of two great Creeks,
one running into James, and the other into York
River, which are each navigable for Sloops, within
a Mile of the Town; at the Head of which
Creeks are good Landings, and Lots laid out, and
Dwelling Houses and Ware Houses built; so that
this Town is most conveniently situated, in the
Middle of the lower Part of Virginia, commanding
two noble Rivers, not above four Miles from
either, and is much more commodious and healthful,
than if built upon a River.


Publick Buildings here of Note, are the College,
the Capitol, the Governor's House, and
the Church. The Latitude of the College at
Williamsburgh, to the best of my Observation, is
37°. 21´. North.


The Front which looks due East is double, and
is 136 Foot long. It is a lofty Pile of Brick
Building adorn'd with a Cupola. At the North
End runs back a large Wing, which is a handsome
Hall, answerable to which the Chapel is to
be built; and there is a spacious Piazza on the
West Side, from one Wing to the other. It is
approached by a good Walk, and a grand Entrance
by Steps, with good Courts and Gardens about
it, with a good House and Apartments for the Indian
Master and his Scholars, and Out-Houses;
and a large Pasture enclosed like a Park with about
150 Acres of Land adjoining, for occasional Uses.


The Building is beautiful and commodious, being
first modelled by Sir Christopher Wren, adapted
to the Nature of the Country by the Gentlemen
there; and since it was burnt down, it has been
rebuilt, and nicely contrived, altered and adorned
by the ingenious Direction of Governor Spotswood;
and is not altogether unlike Chelsea Hospital.


This Royal Foundation was granted and establish'd
by Charter, by King William and Queen Mary,
and endowed by them, with some thousand
Acres of Land, with Duties upon Furs and Skins,
and a Penny a Pound for all Tobacco transported
from Virginia and Maryland, to the other Plantations;
to which have been made several additional
Benefactions, as that handsom Establishment of
Mr. Boyle, for the Education of Indians, with the
many Contributions of the Country, especially a
late one of 1000 l. to buy Negroes for the College
Use and Service.


The Society is a Corporation establish'd for a
President, six Masters or Professors, with a hundred
Scholars, more or less.


For some Causes that I can't account for, the Revenue
is not improved as much as might be wished;
neither is the College brought to that Method
of Education and Advantage, as it might be; tho'
'tis hoped, that in a few Years it will, like the
Palm Tree, grow to the greater Perfection, under
the weighty Obstacles that load it.


The Salary of the President Mr. James Blair,
has been lately ordered to be reduced from 150 to
100 l. per Ann.


The Salary of the Fellows (one of which I
have been several Years) is 80 l. per Ann. each,
with 20 s. Entrance, and 20 s. a Year for Pupilage
for each Scholar: The Payments are sometimes
made in Current Spanish Money, and sometimes in
Sterling Bills.


The Nature of the Country scarce yet admits
of a Possibility of reducing the Collegians to the
nice Methods of Life and Study observed in Oxford
and Cambridge; tho' by Degrees they may
copy from thence many useful Customs and Constitutions.


When the College shall be compleatly finished,
and Scholarships founded, then is the Trust to be
transferred from the Trustees to the President and
Masters; but at present it is managed by a certain
Number of Governors or Visitors, (one of which
is chosen yearly Rector) appointed first by the
Trustees, elected out of the principal and worthiest
Inhabitants.


These appoint a Person, to whom they grant
several Privileges and Allowances to board and
lodge the Masters and Scholars at an extraordinary
cheap Rate.


This Office is at present performed in the neatest
and most regular and plentiful Manner, by
Mrs. Mary Stith, a Gentlewoman of great Worth
and Discretion, in good Favour with the Gentry,
and great Esteem and Respect with the common
People.


Great Pity it is, but the noble Design of this
College met with more Friends to encourage, and
Benefactors to advance, its flourishing State.


One Happiness is, that it has always a Chancellor
in England, chosen by the Governors or Feoffees;
to whose Patronage and Direction it may
have Recourse upon emergent Occasions.


The last Chancellor was the late Bishop of London;
and the present is his Grace the Archbishop of
Canterbury.


The Chancellor continues in that Office but seven
Years; so that it may happen as soon as he
has obtained a perfect Knowledge and Acquaintance
with the Persons and Affairs belonging to
the College, his Term is expired: Besides their Business
in other momentous Affairs at Home may
divert them, and the Distance of the Country
may prevent them from obtaining true Notions,
and exact Accounts of the Nature of the Colony
and the College; so that for these Reasons, they can't
do for it the Good, which they otherwise might:
For their better Information, and for Direction of
all, in promoting Religion and Learning in this
Plantation, I have made Publick this Account of
it, and its Inhabitants.


Fronting the College at near its whole Breadth,
is extended a noble Street mathematically streight
(for the first Design of the Town's Form is
changed to a much better) just three Quarters of
a Mile in Length: At the other End of which
stands the Capitol, a noble, beautiful, and commodious
Pile as any of its Kind, built at the Cost of the
late Queen, and by the Direction of the Governor.


In this is the Secretary's Office with all the
Courts of Justice and Law, held in the same Form,
and near the same Manner, as in England; except
the Ecclesiastical Courts.


Here the Governor and twelve Counsellors sit as
Judges, at the General Courts in April and October,
whither Trials and Causes are removed from
Courts, held at the Court-Houses Monthly in every
County by a Bench of Justices and a County
Clerk.


Here are also held the Oyer and Terminer Courts,
one in Summer, and the other in Winter, added
by the Charity of the late Queen, for the Prevention
of Prisoners lying in Gaol above a Quarter
of a Year before their Trial.


Here are also held Courts Martial, by Judges
appointed on Purpose, for the Trial of Pyrates;
likewise Courts of Admiralty, for the Trial of
Ships for illegal Trade.


The Building is in the Form of an H nearly;
the Secretary's Office, and the General Court taking
up one Side below Stairs; the Middle being an
handsom Portico leading to the Clerk of the Assembly's
Office, and the House of Burgesses on the
other Side; which last is not unlike the House
of Commons.


In each Wing is a good Stair Case, one leading
to the Council Chamber, where the Governor and
Council sit in very great State, in Imitation of
the King and Council, or the Lord Chancellor and
House of Lords.


Over the Portico is a large Room where Conferences
are held, and Prayers are read by the Chaplain
to the General Assembly; which Office I
have had the Honour for some Years to perform.
At one End of this is a Lobby, and near it is the
Clerk of the Council's Office; and at the other End
are several Chambers for the Committees of Claims,
Privileges, and Elections; and over all these are several
good Offices for the Receiver General, for
the Auditor, Treasurer, &c. and upon the Middle
is raised a lofty Cupola with a large Clock.


The whole is surrounded with a neat Area,
encompassed with a good Wall, and near it is a
strong sweet Prison for Criminals; and on the other
Side of an open Court another for Debtors,
when any are removed thither from other Prisons
in each County; but such Prisoners are very rare,
the Creditors being there generally very merciful,
and the Laws so favourable for Debtors, that some
esteem them too indulgent.


The Cause of my being so particular in describing
the Capitol is, because it is the best and
most commodious Pile of its Kind that I have
seen or heard of.


Because the State House, James Town, and the
College have been burnt down, therefore is prohibited
in the Capitol the Use of Fire, Candles,
and Tobacco.


Parallel to the main Street mentioned is a
Street on each Side of it, but neither quite so
long nor broad; and at proper Distances are small
cross Streets, for the Convenience of Communication.


Near the Middle stands the Church, which is a
large strong Piece of Brickwork in the Form of
a Cross, nicely regular and convenient, and adorned
as the best Churches in London. This from
the Parish is called Bruton Church, where I had
the Favour of being Lecturer.


Near this is a large Octogon Tower, which is
the Magazine or Repository of Arms and Ammunition,
landing far from any House except James
Town Court-House; for the Town is half in
James Town County, and half in York County.


Not far from hence is a large Area for a Market
Place; near which is a Play House and good
Bowling Green.


From the Church runs a Street Northward called
Palace Street; at the other End of which
stands the Palace or Governor's House, a magnificent
Structure, built at the publick Expence, finished
and beautified with Gates, fine Gardens,
Offices, Walks, a fine Canal, Orchards, &c. with
a great Number of the best Arms nicely posited,
by the ingenious Contrivance of the most accomplished
Colonel Spotswood.


This likewise has the ornamental Addition of a
good Cupola or Lanthorn, illuminated with most
of the Town, upon Birth-Nights, and other Nights
of occasional Rejoicings.


At the Capitol, at publick Times, may be seen a
great Number of handsom, well-dress'd, compleat
Gentlemen. And at the Governor's House upon
Birth-Nights, and at Balls and Assemblies, I have
seen as fine an Appearance, as good Diversion,
and as splendid Entertainments in Governor Spotswood's
Time, as I have seen any where else.


These Buildings here described are justly reputed
the best in all the English America, and are exceeded
by few of their Kind in England.


In every Part of this Town are excellent Springs
of good Water, or else may be made good Wells;
and the Ground falling on both Sides, conveys
the Water and Rain by small Channels into the
Creeks; but to make the main Street exactly level,
the Assembly lately gave a considerable Sum,
which was expended in removing Earth in some
Places, and building a Bridge over a low Channel;
so that it is now a pleasant, long dry Walk, broad,
and almost level from the College to the Capitol.


Williamsburgh is now incorporated and made a
Market Town, and governed by a Mayor and Aldermen;
and is well stock'd with rich Stores, of all
Sorts of Goods, and well furnished with the best
Provisions and Liquors.


Here dwell several very good Families, and more
reside here in their own Houses at publick Times.


They live in the same neat Manner, dress after
the same Modes, and behave themselves exactly as
the Gentry in London; most Families of any Note
having a Coach, Chariot, Berlin, or Chaise.


The Number of Artificers is here daily augmented;
as are the convenient Ordinaries or Inns
for Accommodation of Strangers.


The Servants here, as in other Parts of the
Country, are English, Scotch, Irish, or Negroes.


The Town is laid out regularly in Lots or square
Portions, sufficient each for a House and Garden;
so that they don't build contiguous, whereby may
be prevented the spreading Danger of Fire; and
this also affords a free Passage for the Air, which
is very grateful in violent hot Weather.


Here, as in other Parts, they build with Brick,
but most commonly with Timber lined with Cieling,
and cased with feather-edged Plank, painted
with white Lead and Oil, covered with Shingles
of Cedar, &c. tarr'd over at first; with a Passage
generally through the Middle of the House for an
Air-Draught in Summer.


Thus their Houses are lasting, dry, and warm
in Winter, and cool in Summer; especially if
there be Windows enough to draw the Air.


Thus they dwell comfortably, genteely, pleasantly,
and plentifully in this delightful, healthful,
and (I hope) thriving City of Williamsburgh.









U



Under the Meridian is extended the
Expanse Bay of Chesapeak, esteemed one
of the noblest and safest Bays in the
World.


The Land on the East Side of it is called the
Eastern Shore, the Northern Part of it belonging
to Maryland, and the Southern containing Accomack
and Northampton Counties belonging to Virginia;
at the extreme Point of which lies one of
the Capes of Virginia, the other being opposite
to it, one called Cape Henry, and the other Cape
Charles; without these runs a bold Shore Southward,
being the Coast of North Carolina.


After Ships are clear of England, they need go
near neither Land, Rocks, nor Shoals, but in a
direct Course might cross the vast Atlantick Ocean
about a thousand Leagues nearly W. S. W.
till they make Land somewhat to the Southward
of the Capes; then knowing (by their Latitude,
or Landmarks, or by certain Trees) what Land they
are near, they may easily get within the Capes,
unless they happen to be kept off to Sea for some
Time by blustering Northwesters; or unless they
carelessly fall upon Cape Hatteras, or other Shoals
on that Coast, in known Latitudes; so that this
may be esteemed as easy a Voyage as any.


There are belonging to Virginia four principal
Rivers (neither of them inferior upon many Accounts
to the Thames or Severn) that empty themselves
into the Bay after they have glided some
Hundreds of Miles fromwards the Mountains,
the Western Bounds of Virginia.


The most Southerly of these Rivers is called
James River, and the next York River, the Land
in the Latitude between these Rivers seeming most
nicely adapted for sweet scented, or the finest Tobacco;
for 'tis observed that the goodness decreaseth
the farther you go to the Northward of
the one, and the Southward of the other; but
this may be (I believe) attributed in some Measure
to the Seed and Management, as well as to the
Land and Latitude: For on York River in a small
Tract of Land called Digges's Neck, which is
poorer than a great deal of other Land in the same
Latitude, by a particular Seed and Management,
is made the famous Crop known by the Name of
the E Dees, remarkable for its mild taste and fine
Smell.


The next great River is Rappahannock, and the
fourth is Potowmack, which divides Virginia from
the Province of Maryland.


These are supplied by several lesser Rivers, such
as Chickahommony and others, navigable for Vessels
of great Burthen.


Into these Rivers run abundance of great
Creeks or short Rivers, navigable for Sloops, Shallops,
Long-Boats, Flats, Canoes and Periaguas.


These Creeks are supplied with the Tide, (which
indeed does not rise so high as in Europe, so prevents
their making good Docks) and also with fresh-Water-runs,
replenished with Branches issuing
from the Springs, and soaking through the Swamps;
so that no Country is better watered, for the Conveniency
of which most Houses are built near some
Landing-Place; so that any Thing may be delivered
to a Gentleman there from London, Bristol,
&c. with less Trouble and Cost, than to one living
five Miles in the Country in England; for
you pay no Freight for Goods from London, and
but little from Bristol; only the Party to whom
the Goods belong, is in Gratitude engaged to
freight Tobacco upon the Ship consigned to her
Owners in England.


Because of this Convenience, and for the Goodness
of the Land, and for the sake of Fish, Fowl,
&c. Gentlemen and Planters love to build near the
Water; though it be not altogether so healthy as
the Uplands and Barrens, which serve for Ranges
for Stock.


In the Uplands near the Ridge generally run
the main Roads, in a pleasant, dry, sandy Soil,
free from Stones and Dirt, and shaded and sheltered
chiefly by Trees; in some Places being not unlike
the Walks in Greenwich Park.


Thus neither the Interest nor Inclinations of
the Virginians induce them to cohabit in Towns;
so that they are not forward in contributing their
Assistance towards the making of particular Places,
every Plantation affording the Owner the Provision
of a little Market; wherefore they most
commonly build upon some convenient Spot or
Neck of Land in their own Plantation, though
Towns are laid out and establish'd in each County;
the best of which (next Williamsburgh) are
York, Glocester, Hampton, Elizabeth Town, and
Urbanna.


The Colony now is encreased to twenty nine
Counties, naturally bounded (near as much as may
be) one with another about as big as Kent; but
the frontier Counties are of vast Extent, though
not thick seated as yet.


The whole Country is a perfect Forest, except
where the Woods are cleared for Plantations, and
old Fields, and where have been formerly Indian
Towns, and poisoned Fields and Meadows, where
the Timber has been burnt down in Fire-Hunting
or otherwise; and about the Creeks and Rivers
are large rank Morasses or Marshes, and up the
Country are poor Savannahs.


The Gentlemen's Seats are of late built for the
most Part of good Brick, and many of Timber
very handsom, commodious, and capacious; and
likewise the common Planters live in pretty Timber
Houses, neater than the Farm Houses are generally
in England: With Timber also are built
Houses for the Overseers and Out-Houses; among
which is the Kitchen apart from the Dwelling
House, because of the Smell of hot Victuals, offensive
in hot Weather.










T



The Negroes live in small Cottages called
Quarters, in about six in a Gang, under
the Direction of an Overseer or Bailiff;
who takes Care that they tend such Land
as the Owner allots and orders, upon which they
raise Hogs and Cattle, and plant Indian Corn (or
Maize) and Tobacco for the Use of their Master;
out of which the Overseer has a Dividend (or Share)
in Proportion to the Number of Hands including
himself; this with several Privileges is his Salary,
and is an ample Recompence for his Pains, and
Encouragement of his industrious Care, as to the
Labour, Health, and Provision of the Negroes.


The Negroes are very numerous, some Gentlemen
having Hundreds of them of all Sorts, to
whom they bring great Profit; for the Sake of
which they are obliged to keep them well, and
not over-work, starve, or famish them, besides
other Inducements to favour them; which is
done in a great Degree, to such especially that are
laborious, careful, and honest; tho' indeed some
Masters, careless of their own Interest or Reputation,
are too cruel and negligent.


The Negroes are not only encreased by fresh
Supplies from Africa and the West India Islands,
but also are very prolifick among themselves; and
they that are born there talk good English, and affect
our Language, Habits, and Customs; and
tho' they be naturally of a barbarous and cruel
Temper, yet are they kept under by severe Discipline
upon Occasion, and by good Laws are prevented
from running away, injuring the English,
or neglecting their Business.


Their Work (or Chimerical hard Slavery) is
not very laborious; their greatest Hardship consisting
in that they and their Posterity are not at
their own Liberty or Disposal, but are the Property
of their Owners; and when they are free,
they know not how to provide so well for themselves
generally; neither did they live so plentifully
nor (many of them) so easily in their own
Country, where they are made Slaves to one another,
or taken Captive by their Enemies.


The Children belong to the Master of the Woman
that bears them; and such as are born of a
Negroe and an European are called Molattoes; but
such as are born of an Indian and Negroe are called
Mustees.


Their Work is to take Care of the Stock, and
plant Corn, Tobacco, Fruits, &c. which is not
harder than Thrashing, Hedging, or Ditching; besides,
tho' they are out in the violent Heat, wherein
they delight, yet in wet or cold Weather there
is little Occasion for their working in the Fields,
in which few will let them be abroad, lest by this
means they might get sick or die, which would
prove a great Loss to their Owners, a good Negroe
being sometimes worth three (nay four) Score
Pounds Sterling, if he be a Tradesman; so that
upon this (if upon no other Account) they are
obliged not to overwork them, but to cloath and
feed them sufficiently, and take Care of their
Health.


Several of them are taught to be Sawyers, Carpenters,
Smiths, Coopers, &c. and though for the
most Part they be none of the aptest or nicest;
yet they are by Nature cut out for hard Labour
and Fatigue, and will perform tolerably well;
though they fall much short of an Indian, that
has learn'd and seen the same Things; and those
Negroes make the best Servants, that have been
Slaves in their own Country; for they that have
been Kings and great Men there are generally lazy,
haughty, and obstinate; whereas the others are
sharper, better humoured, and more laborious.


The Languages of the new Negroes are various
harsh Jargons, and their Religions and Customs such
as are best described by Mr. Bosman in his Book
intitled (I think) A Description of the Coasts of
Africa.


The Virginia Planters readily learn to become
good Mechanicks in Building, wherein most are
capable of directing their Servants and Slaves.


As for Timber they abound with excellent good;
having about eight Sorts of Oak, several Kinds of
Walnut-Tree, and Hickory and Pignut, Pine, Cedar,
and Cypress for Shingles; which Covering is
lighter than Tiles, and being nailed down, are not
easily blown off in any Tempest or Gust.


The Oak, &c. is of quick Growth, consequently
will not last so long as ours; though it has
a good Grain, and is freer from Knots, and will
last long enough for Shipping, and ordinary Uses.


When a Tract of Land is seated, they clear it
by felling the Trees about a Yard from the Ground,
lest they should shoot again. What Wood they
have Occasion for they carry off, and burn the
rest, or let it lie and rot upon the Ground.


The Land between the Logs and Stumps they
how up, planting Tobacco there in the Spring, inclosing
it with a slight Fence of cleft Rails. This
will last for Tobacco some Years, if the Land be
good; as it is where fine Timber, or Grape Vines
grow.


Land when tired is forced to bear Tobacco by
penning their Cattle upon it; but Cowpen Tobacco
tastes strong, and that planted in wet marshy
Land is called Nonburning Tobacco, which smoaks
in the Pipe like Leather, unless it be of a good
Age.


When Land is tired of Tobacco, it will bear Indian
Corn or English Wheat, or any other European
Grain or Seed, with wonderful Increase.


Tobacco and Indian Corn are planted in Hills as
Hops, and secured by Wormfences, which are made
of Rails supporting one another very firmly in a
particular Manner.


Tobacco requires a great deal of Skill and Trouble
in the right Management of it.


They raise the Plants in Beds, as we do Cabbage
Plants; which they transplant and replant upon
Occasion after a Shower of Rain, which they call
a Season.


When it is grown up they top it, or nip off the
Head, succour it, or cut off the Ground Leaves,
weed it, hill it; and when ripe, they cut it down
about six or eight Leaves on a Stalk, which they
carry into airy Tobacco Houses; after it is withered
a little in the Sun, there it is hung to dry on Sticks,
as Paper at the Paper-Mills; when it is in proper
Case, (as they call it) and the Air neither too moist,
nor too dry, they strike it, or take it down, then
cover it up in Bulk, or a great Heap, where it
lies till they have Leisure or Occasion to stem it
(that is pull the Leaves from the Stalk) or strip it
(that is take out the great Fibres) and tie it up in
Hands, or streight lay it; and so by Degrees prize
or press it with proper Engines into great Hogsheads,
containing from about six to eleven hundred
Pounds; four of which Hogsheads make a
Tun, by Dimension, not by Weight; then it is
ready for Sale or Shipping.


There are two Sorts of Tobacco, viz. Oroonoko
the stronger, and Sweetscented the milder; the first
with a sharper Leaf like a Fox's Ear, and the other
rounder and with finer Fibres: But each of
these are varied into several Sorts, much as Apples
and Pears are; and I have been informed by the
Indian Traders, that the Inland Indians have Sorts
of Tobacco much differing from any planted or
used by the Europeans.


The Indian Corn is planted in Hills, and weeded
much as Tobacco.


This Grain is of great Increase and most general
Use; for with this is made good Bread, Cakes,
Mush, and Hommony for the Negroes, which with
good Pork and Potatoes (red and white, very nice
and different from ours) with other Roots and
Pulse, are their general Food.


Indian Corn is the best Food for Cattle, Hogs,
Sheep and Horses; and the Blades and Tops are excellent
Fodder, when well cured, which is commonly
used, though many raise good Clover and
Oats; and some have planted Sanfoin, &c.


In the Marshes, and Woods, and old Fields is
good Range for Stock in the Spring, Summer, and
Fall; and the Hogs will run fat with certain Roots
of Flags and Reeds, which abounding in the
Marshes they root up and eat.


Besides, at the Plantations are standard Peach-Trees,
and Apple-Trees, planted out in Orchards,
on Purpose almost for the Hogs.


The Peaches abound, and are of a delicious
Taste, and Apple-Trees are raised from the Seeds
very soon, which kind of Kernel Fruit needs no
grafting, and is diversify'd into numberless Sorts,
and makes, with good Management, an excellent
Cyder, not much inferior to that of Herefordshire,
when kept to a good Age; which is rarely done,
the Planters being good Companions and Guests
whilst the Cyder lasts. Here Cherries thrive much
better (I think) than in England; tho' the Fruit-Trees
soon decay, yet they are soon raised to great
Perfection.


As for Wool, I have had near as good as any
near Leominster; and it might be much improved
if the Sheep were housed every Night, and foddered
and littered as in Urchinfield, where they
have by such Means the finest Wool; but to do
this, would be of little Use, since it is contrary
to the Interest of Great Britain to allow them
Exportation of their Woollen Manufactures; and
what little Woollen is there made might be nearly
had as cheap, and better from England.


As for Provision, there is Variety of excellent
Fish in great Plenty easily taken; especially Oysters,
Sheepsheads, Rocks, large Trouts, Crabs, Drums,
Sturgeons, &c.


They have the same tame Fowl as in England,
only they propagate better; but they exceed in
wild Geese and Ducks, Cohoncks, Blew-Wings, Teal, Blew-Wings, Teal,
Swans, and Mallard.


Their Beef and Veal is small, sweet, and fat
enough; their Pork is famous, whole Virginia
Shoots being frequently barbacued in England; their
Bacon is excellent, the Hams being scarce to be
distinguished from those of Westphalia; but their
Mutton and Lamb some Folks don't like, though
others extol it. Their Butter is good and plentiful
enough. Their Venison in the lower Parts of
the Country is not so plentiful as it has been, tho'
there be enough and tolerably good; but in the
Frontier Counties they abound with Venison, wild
Turkies, &c. where the common People sometimes
dress Bears, whose Flesh, they say, is not to be
well distinguished from good Pork or Bacon.


They pull the Down of their living Geese and
wild and tame Ducks, wherewith they make the
softest and sweetest Beds.


The Houses stand sometimes two or three together;
and in other Places a Quarter, half a Mile,
or a Mile, or two, asunder, much as in the Country
in England.














T



The Habits, Life, Customs, Computations,
&c. of the Virginians are much
the same as about London, which they
esteem their Home; and for the most
Part have contemptible Notions of England, and
wrong Sentiments of Bristol, and the other Out-Ports,
which they entertain from seeing and hearing
the common Dealers, Sailors, and Servants
that come from those Towns, and the Country
Places in England and Scotland, whose Language
and Manners are strange to them; for the Planters,
and even the Native Negroes generally talk good
English without Idiom or Tone, and can discourse
handsomly upon most common Subjects; and conversing
with Persons belonging to Trade and Navigation
from London, for the most Part they are
much civilized, and wear the best of Cloaths according
to their Station; nay, sometimes too good
for their Circumstances, being for the Generality
comely handsom Persons, of good Features and
fine Complexions (if they take Care) of good
Manners and Address. The Climate makes them
bright, and of excellent Sense, and sharp in Trade,
an Ideot, or deformed Native being almost a Miracle.


Thus they have good natural Notions, and will
soon learn Arts and Sciences; but are generally diverted
by Business or Inclination from profound
Study, and prying into the Depth of Things;
being ripe for Management of their Affairs, before
they have laid so good a Foundation of Learning,
and had such Instructions, and acquired such
Accomplishments, as might be instilled into such
good natural Capacities. Nevertheless thro' their
quick Apprehension, they have a Sufficiency of
Knowledge, and Fluency of Tongue, tho' their
Learning for the most Part be but superficial.


They are more inclinable to read Men by Business
and Conversation, than to dive into Books,
and are for the most Part only desirous of learning
what is absolutely necessary, in the shortest and
best Method.


Having this Knowledge of their Capacities and
Inclination from sufficient Experience, I have
composed on Purpose some short Treatises adapted
with my best Judgment to a Course of Education
for the Gentlemen of the Plantations; consisting
in a short English Grammar; an Accidence to Christianity;
an Accidence to the Mathematicks, especially
to Arithmetick in all its Parts and Applications,
Algebra, Geometry, Surveying of Land, and Navigation.


These are the most useful Branches of Learning
for them, and such as they willingly and readily
master, if taught in a plain and short Method,
truly applicable to their Genius; which I
have endeavoured to do, for the Use of them,
and all others of their Temper and Parts.


They are not very easily persuaded to the Improvement
of useful Inventions (except a few,
such as Sawing Mills) neither are they great Encouragers
of Manufactures, because of the Trouble
and certain Expence in Attempts of this kind,
with uncertain Prospect of Gain; whereas by
their staple Commodity, Tobacco, they are in hopes
to get a plentiful Provision; nay, often very great
Estates.


Upon this Account they think it Folly to take
off their Hands (or Negroes) and employ their
Care and Time about any thing, that may make
them lessen their Crop of Tobacco.


So that though they are apt to learn, yet they
are fond of, and will follow their own Ways.
Humours, and Notions, being not easily brought
to new Projects and Schemes; so that I question,
if they would have been imposed upon by the
Missisippi or South-Sea or any other such monstrous
Bubbles.


In their Computations of Time, Weights and
Measures both of Length, Superficies, and Solidity,
they strictly adhere to what is legal; not running
into precarious Customs, as they do in England.
Thus their Quart is the true Winchester,
their Hundred is 100, not 112, and they survey
Land by Statute Measure.


Indeed, what English Coin is there, is advanced
in Value; so that a Shilling passes for 14 d. and a
Guinea goes by Tale for 26 s. but the Current
Money is the Spanish which in Reality is about
15 l. per Cent. inferior to our English Coin, as settled
by Law; but frequently the Value of this
varies in Respect of Sterling Bills according to
the Circumstances of Trade; Currency and Sterling
being sometimes at a Par; but for the Generality
10 per Cent. Discount is allowed for Sterling
Bills.


As for Education several are sent to England for
it; though the Virginians being naturally of good
Parts, (as I have already hinted) neither require
nor admire as much Learning, as we do in Britain:
yet more would be sent over, were they
not afraid of the Small-Pox, which most commonly
proves fatal to them.


But indeed when they come to England they
are generally put to learn to Persons that know
little of their Temper, who keep them drudging
on in what is of least Use to them, in pedantick
Methods, too tedious for their volatile Genius.


For Grammar Learning taught after the common
round-about Way is not much beneficial nor delightful
to them; so that they are noted to be
more apt to spoil their School-Fellows than improve
themselves; because they are imprisoned
and enslaved to what they hate, and think useless,
and have not peculiar Management proper for their
Humour and Occasion.


A civil Treatment with some Liberty, if permitted
with Discretion is most proper for them,
and they have most Need of, and readily take polite
and mathematical Learning; and in English
may be conveyed to them (without going directly
to Rome and Athens) all the Arts, Sciences, and
learned Accomplishments of the Ancients and
Moderns, without the Fatigue and Expence of
another Language, for which most of them have
little Use or Necessity, since (without another)
they may understand their own Speech; and all
other Things requisite to be learn'd by them sooner
and better.


Thus the Youth might as well be instructed
there as here by proper Methods, without the Expence
and Danger of coming hither; especially
if they make Use of the great Advantage of the
College at Williamsburgh, where they may (and
many do) imbibe the Principles of all human and
divine Literature, both in English and in the
learned Languages.


By the happy Opportunity of this College may
they be advanced to religious and learned Education,
according to the Discipline and Doctrine
of the established Church of England; in which
Respect this College may prove of singular
Service, and be an advantageous and laudable
Nursery and strong Bulwark against the contagious
dissentions in Virginia; which is the
most ancient and loyal, the most plentiful and
flourishing, the most extensive and beneficial
Colony belonging to the Crown of Great
Britain, upon which it is most directly dependant;
wherein is establish'd the Church of
England free from Faction and Sects, being ruled
by the Laws, Customs, and Constitutions of Great
Britain, which it strictly observes, only where
the Circumstances and Occasion of the Country
by an absolute Necessity require some small Alterations;
which nevertheless must not be contrary
(though different from and subservient) to the Laws
of England.


Though the Violence of neither Whig nor Tory
reigns there, yet have they Parties; for the very
best Administration must expect to meet with
some Opposition in all Places; especially where
there is a Mixture of People of different Countries
concerned, whose Education and Interest
may propose to them Notions and Views different
from each other.


Most other Plantations, especially they that are
granted away to Proprietors, are inferior to Virginia:
where the seeming Interest and Humour of
the Owners often divert them from Pursuit of
the most proper Methods; besides, they cannot
have such a right Claim to the Favour of the
Crown, nor demand its best Protection, since
they may often interfere with its Interest: whereas
Virginia is esteemed one of the most valuable
Gems in the Crown of Great Britain.


Thus Virginia having to itself (with Maryland)
the staple Commodity of Tobacco, has a
great Advantage of all other Plantations on the
Continent for the Encouragement of the Crown;
whereas others belonging to Gentlemen, or having
no peculiar Trade, cannot expect such Power to
advance and promote their Interest.


To this add, that Virginia equals, if not exceeds,
all others in Goodness of Climate, Soil,
Health, Rivers, Plenty, and all Necessaries, and
Conveniencies of Life: Besides she has, among
others, these particular Advantages of her
younger Sister Maryland, viz. Freedom from Popery,
and the Direction of Proprietors; not but
that Part of Virginia, which is between the Rivers
Potowmack and Rappahannock belongs to Proprietors,
as to the Quit-Rent; yet the Government
of these Counties (called the Northern Neck)
is under the same Regulation with the other
Parts of the Country.


If New England be called a Receptacle of Dissenters,
and an Amsterdam of Religion, Pensylvania
the Nursery of Quakers, Maryland the Retirement
of Roman Catholicks, North Carolina the
Refuge of Run-aways, and South Carolina the
Delight of Buccaneers and Pyrates, Virginia may
be justly esteemed the happy Retreat of true Britons
and true Churchmen for the most Part; neither
soaring too high nor drooping too low, consequently
should merit the greater Esteem and
Encouragement.


The common Planters leading easy Lives don't
much admire Labour, or any manly Exercise, except
Horse-Racing, nor Diversion, except Cock-Fighting,
in which some greatly delight. This
easy Way of Living, and the Heat of the Summer
makes some very lazy, who are then said to be
Climate-struck.


The Saddle-Horses, though not very large, are
hardy, strong, and fleet; and will pace naturally
and pleasantly at a prodigious Rate.


They are such Lovers of Riding, that almost
every ordinary Person keeps a Horse; and I have
known some spend the Morning in ranging several
Miles in the Woods to find and catch their Horses
only to ride two or three Miles to Church, to the
Court-House, or to a Horse-Race, where they
generally appoint to meet upon Business; and are
more certain of finding those that they want to
speak or deal with, than at their Home.


No People can entertain their Friends with
better Cheer and Welcome; and Strangers and
Travellers are here treated in the most free, plentiful,
and hospitable Manner; so that a few Inns
or Ordinaries on the Road are sufficient.


As to the Weather, the Spring and Fall are not
unlike those Seasons in England, only the Air is
never long foggy, nor very cloudy; but clear,
sometimes of a bluish Colour, occasioned by the
thin Smoak, dispersed in the Air, from the Flames
of the Woods and Leaves, which are fired in
Hunting, to drive the Beasts from their lurking
Places; or in the Spring to burn the old Leaves
and Grass, that there may be the better Pasture
the next Summer.


The Months of December, January and February
are generally much colder, and June, July
and August are much hotter than in England; tho'
sometimes 'tis on a sudden very cool in Summer,
and pretty warm in Winter, the Weather being
governed by the Wind; which with sudden Storms
from the North-West, and sometimes from the
West and South-West bring violent Gusts or Tempests,
with Thunder, Lightning, and Rain very
terrible, but soon over.


The North West Winds are exquisitely sharp
and cold, proceeding from Clouds arising from the
vast Lakes and prodigious snowy Mountains that
lie to that Quarter; but the Southerly Winds and
others are very warm.


The Days and Nights are there always much
nearer the Equality of twelve Hours, than in the
Latitude of England.


At the sudden Changes of the Weather, from
Heat to Cold, People are apt to take Cold, often
neglecting to shift their Cloaths with the
Weather; which with Abundance of Damps and
Mists from the Water, and by eating too plentifully
of some delicious Fruits, makes the People
subject to Feavers and Agues, which is the Country
Distemper, a severe Fit of which (called a
Seasoning) most expect, some time after their Arrival
in that Climate; but the Goodness of God
has furnished us with a perfect Catholicon for that
Sickness, viz. the Bark; which being taken and
repeated in a right Manner, seldom fails of a Cure,
unless the morbifick Matter comes to a Head again
from fresh Causes, and so returns with Mastery;
upon which Recourse must be had to the same
specifick Remedy; besides which there are several
Ways of Cure, but none so universal and sure
as that.


Some for Want of timely Care, through Ignorance
or Obstinacy, will permit the Distemper to
lurk about them so long, till at last it has reduced
them to an irrecoverable, lingering, ill Habit of
Body; especially if they live meanly, drinking too
much Water, and eating too much salt Meat; and
this Cachexy generally ends their Lives with a Dropsy,
Consumption, the Jaundice, or some such
Illness.


Besides this, some are troubled with the dry
Gripes, proceeding from Colds (I suppose) which
take away for a long Time the Use of the Limbs
of some, especially hard Drinkers of Rum; some
that have lain out in mighty cold Weather have
been Frost-bitten, and lost their Fingers or Toes.


There is no Danger of wild Beasts in traveling;
for the Wolves and Bears, which are up the
Country, never attack any, unless they be first
assaulted and hurt; and the Wolves of late are
much destroyed by Virtue of a Law, which allows
good Rewards for their Heads with the
Ears on, to prevent Imposition and cheating the
Publick; for the Ears are crop'd when a Head is
produced.


The Bears are also much destroyed by the Out-Planters,
&c. for the Sake of their Flesh and
Skins.


As for Rattle-Snakes, &c. they make off from
you, unless you by Carelesness chance to tread on
them; and then their Bite is found now not to
be mortal, if Remedies can be applied in Time.


The worst Inconveniency in travelling a-cross
the Country, is the Circuit that must be taken to
head Creeks, &c. for the main Roads wind along
the rising Ground between the Rivers, tho' now
they much shorten their Passage by mending the
Swamps and building of Bridges in several Places;
and there are established Ferries at convenient
Places, over the great Rivers; but in them is often
much Danger from sudden Storms, bad Boats,
or unskilful or wilful Ferrymen; especially if one
passes in a Boat with Horses, of which I have
great Reason to be most sensible by the Loss of a
dear Brother at Chickohomony Ferry, in Feb. 1723/4.


As for their Drink, good Springs of excellent
Water abound every where almost, which is very
cooling and pleasant in Summer, and the general
Drink of abundance: not so much out of Necessity,
as Choice.


Some Planters, &c. make good small Drink
with Cakes of Parsimmons a kind of Plumbs,
which grow there in great Plenty; but the common
small Beer is made of Molossus, which makes
extraordinary brisk good tasted Liquor at a cheap
Rate, with little Trouble in brewing; so that
they have it fresh and fresh, as they want it in
Winter and Summer.


And as they brew, so do they bake daily, Bread
or Cakes, eating too much hot and new Bread,
which cannot be wholsom, tho' it be pleasanter
than what has been baked a Day or two.


Some raise Barley and make Malt there, and
others have Malt from England, with which those
that understand it, brew as good Beer as in England,
at proper Seasons of the Year; but the
common strong Malt-Drink mostly used, is Bristol
Beer; of which is consumed vast Quantities
there yearly; which being well brew'd and improv'd
by crossing the Sea, drinks exceedingly
fine and smooth; but Malt Liquor is not so much
regarded as Wine, Rack, Brandy, and Rum,
Punch, with Drams of Rum or Brandy for the
common Sort, when they drink in a Hurry.


The common Wine comes from Madera or Phial,
which moderately drank is fittest to cheer the
fainting Spirits in the Heat of Summer, and to
warm the chilled Blood in the bitter Colds of
Winter, and seems most peculiarly adapted for this
Climate: Besides this, are plentifully drank with
the better Sort, of late Years, all Kinds of French,
and other European Wine, especially Claret and
Port.


Here is likewise used a great deal of Chocolate,
Tea and Coffee, which, with several Sorts of Apparel,
they have as cheap, or cheaper than in England,
because of the Debenture of such Goods
upon their Exportation thither: Besides, they
are allowed to have Wines directly from Madera,
and other Commodities are brought from the
West-Indies, and the Continent, which cannot be
brought to England without spoiling.


As for grinding Corn, &c. they have good
Mills upon the Runs and Creeks: besides Hand-Mills,
Wind-Mills, and the Indian Invention of
pounding Hommony in Mortars burnt in the Stump
of a Tree, with a Log for a Pestle hanging at the
End of a Pole, fix'd like the Pole of a Lave.


Though they are permitted to trade to no Parts
but Great Britain, except these Places: yet have
they in many Respects better and cheaper Commodities
than we in England, especially of late
Years; for the Country may be said to be altered
and improved in Wealth and polite Living within
these few Years, since the Beginning of Col.
Spotswood's Government, more than in all the
Scores of Years before that, from its first Discovery.
The Country is yearly supplied with vast
Quantities of Goods from Great Britain, chiefly
from London, Bristol, Liverpool, Whitehaven, and
from Scotland.


The Ships that transport these Things often call
at Ireland to victual, and bring over frequently
white Servants, which are of three Kinds. 1. Such
as come upon certain Wages by Agreement for a
certain Time. 2. Such as come bound by Indenture,
commonly call'd Kids, who are usually to
serve four or five Years; and 3. those Convicts or
Felons that are transported, whose Room they had
much rather have than their Company; for abundance
of them do great Mischiefs, commit Robbery
and Murder, and spoil Servants, that were
before very good: But they frequently there meet
with the End they deserved at Home, though indeed
some of them prove indifferent good. Their
being sent thither to work as Slaves for Punishment,
is but a mere Notion, for few of them
ever lived so well and so easy before, especially if
they are good for any thing. These are to serve
seven, and sometimes fourteen Years, and they
and Servants by Indentures have an Allowance of
Corn and Cloaths, when they are out of their
Time, that they may be therewith supported,
till they can be provided with Services, or otherwise
settled. With these three Sorts of Servants are
they supplied from England, Wales, Scotland, and
Ireland, among which they that have a Mind to
it, may serve their Time with Ease and Satisfaction
to themselves and their Masters, especially if
they fall into good Hands.


Except the last Sort, for the most Part who
are loose Villains, made tame by Wild, and then
enslaved by his Forward Namesake: To prevent
too great a Stock of which Servants and Negroes
many Attempts and Laws have been in vain made.


These if they forsake their Roguery together
with the other Kids of the later Jonathan, when
they are free, may work Day-Labour, or else rent
a small Plantation for a Trifle almost; or else turn
Overseers, if they are expert, industrious, and
careful, or follow their Trade, if they have been
brought up to any; especially Smiths, Carpenters,
Taylors, Sawyers, Coopers, Bricklayers, &c.
The Plenty of the Country, and the good Wages
given to Work-Folks occasion very few Poor,
who are supported by the Parish, being such as
are lame, sick, or decrepit through Age, Distempers,
Accidents, or some Infirmities; for where
there is a numerous Family of poor Children the
Vestry takes Care to bind them out Apprentices,
till they are able to maintain themselves by
their own Labour; by which Means they are never
tormented with Vagrant, and Vagabond Beggars,
there being a Reward for taking up Run-aways,
that are at a small Distance from their
Home; if they are not known, or are without a
Pass from their Master, and can give no good Account
of themselves, especially Negroes.


In all convenient Places are kept Stores or Ware-Houses
of all Sorts of Goods, managed by Store-Keepers
or Factors, either for themselves or others
in the Country, or in Great Britain.


This Trade is carried on in the fairest and genteelest
Way of Merchandize, by a great Number
of Gentlemen of Worth and Fortune; who
with the Commanders of their Ships, and several
Virginians (who come over through Business or
Curiosity, or often to take Possession of Estates,
which every Year fall here to some or other of
them) make as considerable and handsom a Figure,
and drive as great and advantageous a Trade for
the Advancement of the Publick Good, as most
Merchants upon the Royal-Exchange.


At the Stores in Virginia, the Planters, &c.
may be supplied with what English Commodities
they want.


The Merchants, Factors, or Store-Keepers in
Virginia buy up the Tobacco of the Planters, either
for Goods or current Spanish Money, or
with Sterling Bills payable in Great Britain.


The Tobacco is rolled, drawn by Horses, or
carted to convenient Rolling Houses, whence it
is conveyed on Board the Ships in Flats or Sloops,
&c.


Some Years ago there was made an Act to oblige
all Tobacco to be sent to convenient Ware-Houses,
to the Custody and Management of proper
Officers, who were by Oath to refuse all bad
Tobacco, and gave printed Bills as Receipts for
each Parcel or Hogshead; which Quantity was to
be delivered according to Order upon Return of
those Bills; and for their Trouble and Care in
viewing, weighing, and stamping, the Officers
were allowed 5 s. per Hogshead.


The Intent of this Law was to improve the
Commodity, prevent Frauds in publick Payments;
and for Ease of the common Planters, and Expedition
and Conveniency of Shipping.


But though the first Design was for publick
Tobacco only, yet the private Crops of Gentlemen
being included in the Law, was esteemed a
great Grievance; and occasioned Complaints,
which destroyed a Law, that with small Amendments
might have proved most advantageous.


The Abrogation of this Law reduced the Sailors
to their old Slavery of rolling the Tobacco in
some Places; where they draw it for some Miles,
as Gardeners draw a Roller, which makes them
frequently curse the Country, and thro' Prejudice
give it a very vile Character.


The Tobacco purchased by the Factors or Store-Keepers,
is sent Home to their Employers, or consign'd
to their correspondent Merchants in Great
Britain.


But most Gentlemen, and such as are beforehand
in the World, lodge Money in their Merchant's
Hands here, to whom they send their
Crop of Tobacco, or the greatest Part of it.


This Money is employed according to the Planter's
Orders; chiefly in sending over yearly such
Goods, Apparel, Liquors, &c. as they write for,
for the Use of themselves, their Families, Slaves
and Plantations; by which Means they have every
Thing at the best Hand, and the best of its Kind.


Besides English Goods, several Merchants in
Virginia import from the West-Indies great Quantities
of Rum, Sugar, Molossus, &c. and Salt
very cheap from the Salt Islands; which Things
they purchase with Money, or generally with
Pork, Beef, Wheat, Indian-Corn, and the like.


In some of the poorer Parts of the Country
abounding in Pine, do they gather up the Light-wood,
or Knots of the old Trees, which will not
decay, which being piled up (as a Pit of Wood to be
burnt to Charcoal) and encompassed with a Trench,
and covered with Earth, is set on Fire; whereby
the Tar is melted out, and running into a hole
is taken up, and filled into Barrels; and being
boiled to a greater Consistency becomes Pitch.


Of Pitch and Tar they send Home great Quantities,
though not near so much at North Carolina,
which formerly was the South Part of Virginia;
but has long since been given away to Proprietors,
tho' the Bounds between the Colony of
Virginia, and the Government of North Carolina
are disputed; so that there is a very long List of
Land fifteen Miles broad between both Colonies
(called the disputed Bounds) in due Subjection to
neither; which is an Asylum for the Runagates of
both Countries.


The greatest Part of Virginia is uneven: and
near the Water they are free from great Stones,
Rocks, and high Hills; but far in the Country
they have vast Rocks, Stones, and Mountains;
and though in the Salts there is no Stone for
Lime nor Building; (but with Oyster-Shells they
make good Lime and enough) yet up the Freshes,
and above the Falls of the Rivers are discovered
free and common Stone of several Sorts, among
which may be expected Lime-Stone.


Here are also vast Quantities of Iron Oar, and
various Kinds of Minerals, whose Nature and
Vertues are as yet undiscovered.


Moses's Words of Exhortation to the Israelites
for Obedience to God's Laws, Deut. viii. 6, 7, 8, 9,
may be applied to the Virginians; and particularly
when he saith that God had brought them into a
Land whose Stones are Iron; and for what we
know the following Words may also be applied to
them, when he saith out of the Hills of that
Land might be digged Brass, for which there is
no small Prospect and Expectation; and in all
Probability there may be found the nobler Metals
of Gold and Silver, if we did but search for them
in the Bowels of the Earth, if we would but be
at the Expence and Trouble to seek for them.


Why may not our Mountains in America, for
what we know, be as rich as those of Mexico and
Peru in the same Country? Since the little Hills
so plentifully abound with the belt of Iron; for
the digging, melting, working, and Exportation
whereof Providence has furnish'd us with all
wonderful Conveniences; if we would add but a
little Expence, Art, and Industry.


This Iron has been proved to be good, and 'tis
thought, will come at as cheap a Rate as any imported
from other Places; so that 'tis to be hoped
Col. Spotswood's Works will in a small Time prove
very advantageous to Great Britain, which undoubtedly
will be carried to great Perfection and
universal Benefit, by his skilful Management and
indefatigable Application to such noble Undertakings
and glorious Projects.














B



Beyond Col. Spotswood's Furnace above
the Falls of Rappahannock River
within View of the vast Mountains, he
has founded a Town called Germanna,
from some Germans sent over thither by Queen
Anne, who are now removed up farther: Here
he has Servants and Workmen of most handy-craft
Trades; and he is building a Church, Court-House
and Dwelling-House for himself; and with
his Servants and Negroes he has cleared Plantations
about it, proposing great Encouragement
for People to come and settle in that uninhabited
Part of the World, lately divided into a County.


Beyond this are seated the Colony of Germans
or Palatines, with Allowance of good Quantities
of rich Land, at easy or no Rates, who thrive
very well, and live happily, and entertain generously.


These are encouraged to make Wines, which
by the Experience (particularly) of the late Col.
Robert Beverly, who wrote the History of Virginia,
was done easily and in large Quantities in
those Parts; not only from the Cultivation of the
wild Grapes, which grow plentifully and naturally
in all the good Lands thereabouts, and in the
other Parts of the Country; but also from the
Spanish, French, Italian, and German Vines, which
have been found to thrive there to Admiration.


Besides this, these Uplands seem very good for
Hemp and Flax, if the Manufacture thereof was
but encouraged and promoted thereabouts; which
might prove of wonderful Advantage in our Naval
Stores and Linens.


Here may likewise be found as good Clapboards,
and Pipe-Staves, Deals, Masts, Yards, Planks, &c.
for Shipping, as we are supplied with from several
other Countries, not in his Majesty's Dominions.


As for Trees, Grain, Pults, Fruits, Herbs,
Plants, Flowers, and Roots, I know of none in
England either for Pleasure or Use, but what are
very common there, and thrive as well or better
in that Soil and Climate than this for the generality;
for though they cannot brag of Gooseberries
and Currants, yet they may of Cherries,
Strawberries, &c. in which they excel: Besides
they have the Advantage of several from other
Parts of America, there being Heat and Cold sufficient
for any; except such as require a continual
Heat, as Lemons and Oranges, Pine-Apples, and
the like, which however may be raised there with
Art and Care.


The worst Thing in their Gardens, that I know,
is the Artichoak; but this I attribute to Want
of Skill and good Management.


Mulberry Trees and Silkworms thrive there to
Admiration, and Experience has proved that the
Silk Manufacture might be carried on to great
Advantage.


There is Coal enough in the Country, but good
Fire-Wood being so plentiful that it encumbers
the Land, they have no Necessity for the Trouble
and Expence of digging up the Bowels of the
Earth, and conveying them afterwards to their
several Habitations.


There grows Plenty of Sumack, so very useful
in the Dying Trade.


The Land is taken up in Tracts, and is Freehold
by Patent under the King, paying two Shillings
as a yearly Quit-Rent for every hundred Acres.


Most Land has been long since taken up and
seated, except it be high up in the Country.


For surveying of Land, when any is taken up,
bought, exchanged, or the Right contested,
there is appointed a Surveyor in each County, nominated
and examined by the Governors of the
College, in whose Gift those Places are under the
Surveyor General.


But of this I may be more particular upon another
Occasion; only I shall here observe, that every
five or seven Years all People are obliged to
go a Procession round their own Bounds, and renew
their Landmarks by cutting fresh Notches in
the boundary Trees.


Sometimes whole Plantations are sold, and at
other Times small Habitations and Lands are let;
but this is not very common, most having Land
of their own; and they that have not think to make
more Profit by turning Overseers, or by some other
better Ways, than by Farming.


Though now Land sells well there, in a few
Years it will be more valued, since the Number of
Inhabitants encreases so prodigiously; and the
Tracts being divided every Age among several
Children (not unlike Gavel Kind in Kent and Urchinfield)
into smaller Plantations; they at Length
must be reduced to a Necessity of making the
most of, and valuing a little, which is now almost
set at Nought.


In general the Country of Virginia is plentiful,
pleasant and healthy; especially to such as
are not too fond of the Customs and Way of living
they have been used to elsewhere; and to such
as will endeavour at first to bear with some small
Matters, and wean themselves, and make every
Change as agreeable as they can.


Without such Proceeding the best Country in
the World would not please them; since wherever
they go from Home they must certainly find
many Things different from what they have been
accustomed to.


As for Health, I think this Climate as good as
any with Care, though some Constitutions can be
well in no Air, let them do what they will, and
the stoutest cannot be always Proof against Sickness,
be they in never so healthy a Country; and
in all Places with Care People may enjoy a good
Share of Health, if they have any tolerable good
Constitution; if they avoid Heats and Colds, Intemperance,
and all Manner of Excesses.


In each Country is a great Number of disciplin'd
and arm'd Militia, ready in Case of any
sudden Irruption of Indians or Insurrection of Negroes,
from whom they are under but small Apprehension
of Danger.


Up James River is a Colony of French Refugees,
who at the Mannacan Town live happily under
our Government, enjoying their own Language
and Customs.


The Gentlemen of the Country have no other
distinguishing Titles of Honour, but Colonels and
Majors and Captains of the Militia, except the Honourable
the Council, and some commissioned in Posts
by his Majesty or his Orders, who are nominated
Esquires: but there is one Baronet's Family there,
viz. Sir William Skipwith's.


The Taxes or Levies are either publick, County,
or Parish; which are levied by the Justices or
Vestries, apportioning an equal Share to be paid by
all Persons in every Family above Sixteen; except
the white Women, and some antiquated Persons,
who are exempt.


The Payment is Tobacco, which is sold or applied
in Specie to the Use intended.


The publick Levy is for the Service of the Colony
in General, the County Levy is for the Use
of the County, collected by the Sheriff's and their
Offices and Receivers; and the Parish Levy is for
its own particular Use, collected by the Church-Wardens
for Payment of the Minister, the Church,
and Poor.


There are two Burgesses elected by the Free-holders,
and sent from every County; and one for
James Town, and another for the College; these
meet, choose a Speaker, &c. and proceed in most
Respects as the House of Commons in England,
who with the Upper House, consisting of the Governor
and Council, make Laws exactly as the
King and Parliament do; the Laws being passed
there by the Governor, as by the King here.


All the Laws and Statutes of England before
Queen Elizabeth are there in Force, but none made
since; except those that mention the Plantations,
which are always specified in English Laws, when
Occasion requires.


The General Assembly has Power to make Laws,
or repeal such others, as they shall think most
proper for the Security and Good of the Country,
provided they be not contradictory to the
Laws of England, nor interfering with the Interest
of Great Britain; these Laws are immediately
in Force there, and are transmitted hither
to the Lords of the Plantations and Trade for
the Royal Assent; after which they are as obligatory
as any Laws can possibly be; but of late all
Laws relating to Trade must be sent Home before
they be of any Validity; which makes some
occasional Laws upon certain Emergencies altogether
useless; since the intended Opportunity
may be pass'd, before they are returned back to
Virginia; and so signify nothing to the Purpose.


All Laws that the King dislikes upon the first
Perusal, are immediately abrogated.


Thus in State Affairs Liberty is granted, and
Care is taken to make such Laws from Time
to Time, as are different from the Laws in England,
whenever the Interest or Necessity of the
Country, or the Nature of the Climate, and other
Circumstances shall require it.














PART III. — Of the State of the Church and Clergy of Virginia.







T



Though Provision is made, and
proper Measures are taken to make Allowances
and Alterations in Matters of
Government, State and Trade; yet in Matters
of Religion, there has not been the Care and
Provision that might be wished and expected.


For the Country requires particular Alterations
and Allowances in some indifferent spiritual Concernments,
as well as in temporal Affairs, which
might be done without deviating in the least from
the Principles and Practice of the Establish'd Church
of England; and instead of encouraging Dissentions,
or Heresy, or Schism, or Irreligion, would
be a sure Means always to prevent them, were
such small Alterations regularly established in some
Things indifferent, as might best agree with the
Conveniency and Nature of the Colony: for it
is impossible for a Clergyman to perform this Duty
according to the literal Direction of the Rubrick;
for were he too rigorous in these Respects by disobliging
and quarrelling with his Parish, he would
do more Mischief in Religion, than all his fine
Preaching and exemplary Life could retrieve; A
short Narrative of which Case of the Church I
transmitted Home to the late Bishop of London,
by Order and Appointment of a late Convention,
in a Representation of some Ecclesiastical Affairs;
but the Nature of this may more fully appear by
the following Account.


This, with all the other Plantations, is under
the Care of the Bishop of London, who supplies
them with what Clergymen he can get from England,
Scotland, Ireland, and France. The late
Bishop appointed the Reverend Mr. James Blair
to be his Commissary, who is likewise President
of the College, and one of the Council. He by
the Bishop's Order summoned the Clergy to Conventions,
where he sate as Chairman; but the Power
of Conventions is very little, as is that of the Commissary
at present. Visitations have been in vain
attempted; for the corrupt Abuses and Rigour of
Ecclesiastical Courts have so terrified the People,
that they hate almost the very Name, and seem
more inclinable to be ruled by any other Method,
rather than the present spiritual Courts.
Differences and great Disputes frequently arise between
the Governor and the People, concerning
the Presentation, Collation, Institution, and Induction
to Livings; and it is scarce yet decided distinctly
who have the Right of giving Parishes to
Ministers, whether the Governors or the Vestries,
though the best of Council have been applied to
for their Opinion; for their Sentiments are not
obligatory.


The Vestries consist of the Minister, and twelve
of the most substantial and intelligent Persons in
each Parish. These at first were elected by the
Parish by Pole, and upon Vacancies are supplied
by Vote of the Vestry; out of them a new Church-Warden
is annually chosen, under (as it were) the
Instruction of the old one chosen the Year before.
By the Vestry are all parochial Affairs managed,
such as the Church, Poor, and the Minister's Salary.


The Clerk in Case of the Minister's Death or
Absence has great Business, and is a kind of Curate,
performing frequently all the Offices of
the Church, except the two Sacraments and Matrimony;
but 'tis Pity but his Practices were better
regulated, and Sets of Sermons also appointed
for his Purpose; for in several Places the Clerks
are so ingenious or malicious, that they contrive
to be liked as well or better than the Minister,
which creates Ill-Will and Disturbance, besides
other Harm. In some Places they read the Lessons,
publish Banns, &c. when the Minister is
present, for his Ease; which first may not be improper
in very hot Weather, or if the Minister be
sick or infirm, if the Clerk can read tolerably well.
Likewise might they be allowed to bury when a
Minister cannot possibly be had before the Corpse
would corrupt in hot Weather; but little more
should be granted them, since some Places long accustomed
to hear only their Clerk read Prayers
and Sermons at Church, have no right Notions
of the Office, Respect, and Dignity of a Clergyman.
For registering Births and Burials, there is
a small Allowance which is generally given to the
Clerk, who takes that Trouble off the Minister's
Hands. The Use of this is to know the Number
of Tythables, for laying of Levies, and for
other Occasions, and Lists of these Registers are
delivered into the Hands of proper Officers.
The Parishes being of great Extent (some sixty
Miles long and upwards) many dead Corpses
cannot be conveyed to the Church to be buried:
So that it is customary to bury in Gardens or
Orchards, where whole Families lye interred together,
in a Spot generally handsomly enclosed,
planted with Evergreens, and the Graves kept decently:
Hence likewise arises the Occasion of
preaching Funeral Sermons in Houses, where at
Funerals are assembled a great Congregation of
Neighbours and Friends; and if you insist upon
having the Sermon and Ceremony at Church,
they'll say they will be without it, unless performed
after their usual Custom. In Houses also
there is Occasion, from Humour, Custom sometimes,
from Necessity most frequently, to baptize
Children and church Women, otherwise some would
go without it. In Houses also they most commonly
marry, without Regard to the Time of the Day
or Season of the Year. Though the Churches
be not consecrated by Bishops, yet might there be
some solemn Dedication prescribed for setting them
apart for sacred Uses; which would make People
behave themselves with greater Reverence than
they usually do, and have a greater Value for the
House of God and holy Things.


Their Churches were formerly built of Timber,
but now they build them of Brick, very strong
and handsome, and neatly adorned; and when any
Church is gone to Decay, or removed to a more
convenient Place, they enclose the old one with
a Ditch.


Though Persons are admitted to the Lord's
Supper there, that never were confirmed by the
Bishop, yet might there be certain Examinations
as preparatory Qualifications, which would lay the
Sureties and Parents of Children baptized, under
a Necessity of taking Care of them, as to a pious
Education, and would make them be obliged to
know more of their Duty than they generally
do.


For this End I have composed (as I before hinted)
an Accidence to Christianity, being a short Introduction
to the Principles and Practices of Christians,
collected out of the Church Catechism, the
thirty nine Articles, Hammond's Practical Catechism,
Grotius of the Truth of the Christian Religion,
and the whole Duty of Man.


Out of which may be extracted a brief Examination
for Communicants before their first Admittance;
which may be done by the Minister, if he
had Orders and Directions for it. By this Means
the People would attain to better Notions of Religion
(and many more would be Communicants,
who now abstain totally through Fear or Ignorance)
were the first true Principles timely instilled
into them in a brief Method; for any Thing tedious
soon tires them, and will not obtain the desired
Effect. In several Respects the Clergy are
obliged to omit or alter some minute Parts of the
Liturgy, and deviate from the strict Discipline and
Ceremonies of the Church; to avoid giving Offence,
through Custom, or else to prevent Absurdities
and Inconsistencies. Thus Surplices, disused
there for a long Time in most Churches, by bad
Examples, Carelesness and Indulgence, are now beginning
to be brought in Fashion, not without
Difficulty; and in some Parishes where the People
have been used to receive the Communion in their
Seats (a Custom introduced for Opportunity for
such as are inclined to Presbytery to receive the
Sacrament sitting) it is not an easy Matter to bring
them to the Lord's Table decently upon their
Knees.


The last Injunction in the Form of Publick
Baptism is most properly omitted there, wherein
the Godfathers and Godmothers are ordered to take
Care that the Child be brought to the Bishop to
be confirmed, which for the most Part would
prove impracticable.


It would be improper for the Chaplain of the
Honourable the Assembly and others, to use the
Prayers for the High Court of Parliament verbatim,
for they cannot know whether the Parliament
sits in England then; and their Intent is to
pray for the Assembly and the King's Dominions;
so that the Prayer must be altered in several Respects.


'Tis Pity but the Prayer was altered, and allowed
for the Assembly, Governor and Council; of
which we have an Instance in Irish Common Prayer
Books.


Every Minister is a kind of Independent in his
own Parish, in Respect of some little particular
Circumstances and Customs, to which they are often
occasionally obliged; but this Liberty without
Restraint may prove of bad Consequence hereafter;
when the bad Tenets and Discipline of any
heterodox, libertine, or fantastical Persons may
plead Prescription for their Establishment, and be
difficult to be eradicated.


In most Parishes are Schools (little Houses being
built on Purpose) where are taught English and
Writing; but to prevent the sowing the Seeds of
Dissention and Faction, it is to be wished that the
Masters or Mistresses should be such as are approved
or licensed by the Minister, and Vestry of
the Parish, or Justices of the County; the Clerks
of the Parishes being generally most proper for
this Purpose; or (in Case of their Incapacity or
Refusal) such others as can best be procured.


As for baptizing Indians and Negroes, several of
the People disapprove of it; because they say it
often makes them proud, and not so good Servants:
But these, and such Objections, are easily
refuted, if the Persons be sensible, good, and
understand English, and have been taught (or are
willing to learn) the Principles of Christianity, and
if they be kept to the Observance of it afterwards;
for Christianity encourages and orders them to become
more humble and better Servants, and not
worse, than when they were Heathens.


But as for baptizing wild Indians and new Negroes,
who have not the least Knowledge nor Inclination
to know and mind our Religion, Language
and Customs, but will obstinately persist in
their own barbarous Ways; I question whether
Baptism of such (till they be a little weaned of
their savage Barbarity) be not a Prostitution of a
Thing so sacred.


But as for the Children of Negroes and Indians,
that are to live among Christians, undoubtedly
they ought all to be baptized; since it is not out
of the Power of their Masters to take Care that
they have a Christian Education, learn their Prayers
and Catechism, and go to Church, and not
accustom themselves to lie, swear and steal, tho'
such (as the poorer Sort in England) be not taught
to read and write; which as yet has been found
to be dangerous upon several political Accounts,
especially Self-Preservation.


In every Parish there is allotted for the Minister
a convenient Dwelling-House and a Glebe of about
two hundred and fifty Acres of Land, with
a small Stock of Cattle ready in some Places, as
James Town.


The Salary of the Minister is yearly 16000,
and in some Parishes 20000 l. of Tobacco; out of
which there is a Deduction for Cask, prizing, collecting,
&c. about which Allowance there are
sometimes Disputes, as are also Differences often
about the Place, Time, and Manner of delivering
it; but all these Things might easily be regulated.


Tobacco is more commonly at 20 s. per Cent.
than at 10; so that certainly, (communibus annis)
it will bring 12 s. 8 d. a hundred, which will make
16000 (the least Salary) amount to 100 l. per Ann.
which it must certainly clear, allowing for all
petty Charges, out of the Lowness of the Price
stated, which is less than the Medium between
ten and twenty Shillings; whereas it might be
stated above the Medium, since it is oftener at
twenty than ten Shillings.


Besides the Glebe and Salary, there is 20 s. for
every Wedding by License, and 5 s. for every Wedding
by Banns, with 40 s. for a Funeral Sermon,
which most of the middling People will have.


This one would think should be sufficient Encouragement
for Clergymen of good Lives and
Learning (that are not better provided for elsewhere)
to go over and settle there; if they considered
rightly the little Danger and Fatigue they
may expose themselves to, the great Good they
may do, and what Advantages they may reap with
good Conduct and right Management of their
Fortunes and Conversations.


The Parishes are large, but then the Inhabitants
are but thin; and there are Chapels of Ease in
large Parishes, at which there is divine Service in
Turns with the Churches; and frequently upon a
Vacancy some neighbouring Clergyman does the
Duty of another Parish besides his own, on some
Week-Day, for which he has the Salary, till it can
be better supplied.


Many Disputes and Differences arise between
some of the Clergy and People; but this generally
proceeds from the uncertain and precarious
Footing of Livings, and some Disputes about the
Nature and Manner of the Payment of the established
Salary; which though it may be esteemed
sufficient, yet is not so well regulated, as might
be wished and expected in such a great Colony of
so long a standing, and free from the Molestation
of Church Faction, and Dissenters.


Besides the Payment of the Salary, the Surplice
Fees want a better Regulation in the Payment;
for though the Allowance be sufficient,
yet Differences often and Ill-Will arise about
these Fees, whether they are to be paid in Money
or Tobacco, and when; whereas by a small
Alteration and Addition of a few Laws in these
and the like Respects, the Clergy might live more
happy, peaceable, and better beloved; and the
People would be more easy, and pay never the more
Dues.


The Establishment is indeed Tobacco, but some
Parts of the Country make but mean and poor,
so that Clergymen don't care to live in such Parishes;
but there the Payment might be made in
Money, or in the Produce of those Places, which
might be equivalent to the Tobacco Payments;
better for the Minister, and as pleasing to the
People.


Some Clergymen are indeed unskilful in, and
others are not studious of, reconciling their own
Interest and Duty with the Humour and Advantage
of the People, especially at their first coming,
when many Things seem very odd to them; being
different to what they have been heretofore
accustomed to.


These Things often occasion Uneasiness to the
Ministers themselves, and the People; but for the
Generality they that have a Mind to do their
Duty, and live happily (with some Caution and
Care) may live with as much Satisfaction, Respect,
Comfort, and Love, as most Clergymen in England.


'Tis to be hoped and wished, that as the Government
of England have of late taken it into
their Consideration to encourage more Clergymen
to go over; so they may give Instructions and
Directions for the Advantage and Happiness of
both the Clergy and Laity, by rectifying and settling
some Affairs belonging to the Church of Virginia;
and providing such Laws as are wanting
or requisite to be altered in Respect of the Clergy;
a full and true Account of whom I have here
given (as much as the Scope of this Treatise
would admit of) to the best of my Knowledge.


This I have committed to Paper, for the better
Information of such as may in any Respect
be concerned in Affairs relating to Virginia, especially
its Government, Religion, and Trade: For
without exact Notions of the Temper, Lives,
and Manners of the People, and the Nature and
Produce of the Country, none can frame a correct
Judgment of what is most proper to be added,
altered, or continued, nor know what Steps
are to be taken for the Advancement of either the
publick or private Good of that Colony, in Respect
either of Church, State, or Trade.


Another Inducement for my writing this, was
for the Encouragement and Intelligence of such
good Clergymen and others, as are inclinable to
go and settle there; and for the Information of
all that are desirous of knowing how People live
in other Countries, as well as their own; together
with an Intent to vindicate this Country from
the unjust Reflections which are vulgarly cast on
it; and to wean the World from the unworthy
despicable Notions, which many entertain
concerning his Majesty's Dominions in North America;
where is Room and Imployment enough
for all that want Business or a Maintenance at
Home, of all Occupations; and where, if they be
not their own Enemies, they might live much
better than ever they did in England; which blessed
Opportunity of favourable Providence may give
great Comfort to any good Folks that are in poor
unfortunate Circumstances.









PART IV. — Of Authors concerning Virginia, and its publick Officers, Guard-Ships, and the State of Maryland and North Carolina. The Conclusion.







I



In the Miscellanea Curiosa is publish'd
Mr. Clayton's fine Description of Virginia,
and Col. Robert Beverley has wrote a
good History of it; but neither is so
particular as this, as to its present Condition; so
that as they are Supplements to Captain Smith's
History, this may be an Abridgment and Appendix
to them all.


True Accounts of this Country are difficult to
be had; for they that have lived there any Time
in any Repute and Business, seldom come to settle
in England; and the Sailors for the greatest
Part can give no more true Relations of the Nature
of the Country, than a Country Carrier can
write a Description of London, and relate the Politicks
of Court, and Proceedings of Parliament;
for they see and know but little of the Matter,
and that the very worst.


Others, by Reason of their short Stay, or for
want either of Opportunity, Learning, or Capacity,
can neither make right Remarks and correct Observations,
nor describe Things in their proper
Colours and true Lustre; and moreover some are
prevailed upon through Interest, Prejudice, Spite,
or Fancy, to conceal or misrepresent Things: Besides,
they that have been there formerly know
little, but the very worst of the present State of
the Country.


The Laws of that Plantation are collected into
a Body and published; and whatever (of any Moment
and worth Notice) is not mentioned in this
Treatise, or in the Books aforementioned, must
be supposed to correspond exactly with the Customs
and Things in Great Britain, particularly
in and about London; from all which any one
that is either obliged or inclin'd may have sufficient
Accounts of the large, increasing, flourishing,
and happy Colony of Virginia.


The present Governor is the Right Honourable
the Earl of Orkney, whose Lieutenant Governor
is Hugh Drysdale, Esq;


The Council are these Twelve.




Edmund Jennings, Esq; President.


The Rev. Mr. James Blair.


Robert Carter,
 Esquires.


William Bird,


Philip Ludwell,


John Lewis,


John Harrison,


Mann Page,


Cole Digges,


Peter Beverley,


John Robinson,


John Carter,








The Secretary is John Carter,
 
Esquires.


The Attorney-General is John Clayton,


The Receiver General is John Graham,


The Auditor is John Harrison,




The best List that I can collect or form of the Officers
of the Customs, is this.








l. 


James River.
 
Upper District.
 
Mr. John Banister, Collector,

       supplied by

       Col. William Randolph		
 
40


Col. Francis Lightfoot, Surveyor
—


 


 Lower District.
 
Mr. Thomas Mitchel, Collector
100


 Mr. —— Irvin, Surveyor
—






 





Elizabeth River
________ Surveyor ________
45






 





York River.
 
Mr. John Ambler, Collector
40


Mr. William Robertson, Surveyor
—






 






Rappahannock River.
 
Sir William Johnson, or
 Mr. Richard Chichister, Collector		
 
80


Mr. Christopher Robinson, Surveyor
—






 






South Potowmack
________ Collector ________
80






 






Cape Charles.
Mr. Griffith Bowen, Surveyor
100






 






Accomack and
 Northampton Counties.		
 
Mr. Henry Scarburgh, Collector
 
50








These have some considerable Perquisites besides
their Salaries; for which they give Attendance
and perform their Duty after the same Manner
as the Officers in the Rivers and Ports do in
Great Britain.


To guard the Coasts from the Ravages of Pyrates,
Men of War are frequently stationed there;
but they are not at all under the Direction of the
Governor upon Emergencies, tho' he be titular Admiral
of those Seas; but had he some Command over
Men of War, 'tis thought it might be of great
Service to the Country, and Security and Advantage
to the Merchants and others.


Maryland in most Respects in an inferior Degree
agrees with Virginia, only their Laws and
some Customs are particular; and tho' the Church
of England be the established Church there, and
handsom Provision be made for the Clergy, yet
they have many Papists, and several Dissenters;
which last may be supposed to be encouraged
thro' Jesuitical Views to distract and subvert the
Church of England.


As for North Carolina it is vastly inferior, its
Trade is smaller, and its Inhabitants thinner, and
for the most Part poorer than Virginia; neither
is their Government extraordinary, tho' they have
some good Laws, and there is some good Living
in this large Country, in which is Plenty of good
Provision.


As for Churches there are but very few; and I
knew of but one Minister in the whole Government,
and he (for what Reasons I know not) had
no great Faculty of influencing the People, and
is lately removed thence; so that much Religion
cannot be expected among a Collection of such
People as fly thither from other Places for Safety
and Livelihood, left to their own Liberty without
Restraint or Instruction.


Many there have I (with Sorrow) seen ten or
fifteen Years old, who have never had the Opportunity
of Baptism, which they joyfully receive.


Col. Frederick Jones, one of the Council, and in
a good Post, and of a good Estate in North Carolina,
before his Death applied to me, desiring me
to communicate the deplorable State of their
Church to the late Bishop of London; assuring me
that if the Society for propagating the Gospel in
Foreign Parts would contribute and direct them,
the Government there would join in establishing
by Law such Maintenance as might be sufficient
for some Clergymen to settle among them.


I acted according to his Request, but never
heard of the Event of this Application.


For Want of Clergy the Justices of the Peace
marry, and other Laymen perform the Office of
Burial.


The common nominal Christians live there not
much better than Heathens; the pious Endeavours
of the Society having been frequently disappointed
either by their not having full Knowledge of the
Country and People (and so pursue not the most
proper Methods) or else because they have had
the Misfortune sometimes to pitch upon Persons,
that have not answered the End of their Calling
and Mission.


By these Means the State of the Church in
North Carolina is very miserable; which is of
greatest Moment, and requires the most charitable
Direction and Christian Assistance; not only for
the Conversion of the Indians and Baptism of Negroes
there, but for the Christening and Recovery
to the Practical Profession of the Gospel great
Numbers of English, that have but the bare Name
of God and Christ; and that too frequently in
nothing but vain Swearing, Cursing, and Imprecations.


May all these vast Countries grow in Grace,
and encrease in spiritual Blessings, and temporal
Prosperity.


May all the Ends of the World see and pursue
rightly the Salvation of God, and know and believe
that there is none other Name given under
Heaven, by and thro' whom they may be saved, but
only the Name of Jesus Christ.


May God's Kingdom be established in the true
Church in America, as well as England; and may
it be truly said, blessed be the Lord God of Shem;
for his is the Kingdom, the Power, and the Glory,
for ever and ever. Amen.














APPENDIX. — Scheme I. — Of Education in Virginia. — Scheme II. — Of Religion in Virginia. — Scheme III. — Of Arts, Projects, Inventions, and Manufactures in Virginia. — Scheme IV. — Of Trade in Virginia.

I



It being observed by some Gentlemen
of Distinction, that in the foregoing
Account of Virginia, I hinted at some
Things, wherein Addition, Alteration,
or Improvement of some Methods
and Laws, seem'd absolutely requisite for the
Advancement of Religion and Learning, and the
Promotion of Arts and Trade; it was therefore
thought not improper to annex the following
Schemes upon those Subjects; wherein I deliver
my Sentiments in as free and plain a Manner as
I can, specifying what Redundancies or Deficiencies
occur to my Opinion; and humbly recommending
such Measures as my Imagination dictates
to be most proper for the Interest and Prosperity
of Virginia, &c. in Conjunction with the publick
Good of Great Britain.


The first of these Schemes, I submit with the
greatest Humility, to the candid Censure and Consideration
of his Grace the Archbishop of Canterbury,
to whose Protection Virginia Learning
and Education ought to be recommended, as he
is Chancellor of the College of William and
Mary.


The next Scheme most properly claims the favourable
Patronage of the Lord Bishop of London,
to whose careful Management the Church of
Virginia belongs.


The two last are more particularly offered to
the Perusal of the Lords Commissioners of Trade
and Plantations, and the worthy Virginia Merchants.


But forasmuch as Virginia is the Scene of Action
for all these Schemes, therefore is each of
them humbly presented to the Virginia Gentry;
particularly to the honourable the Lieutenant Governor,
the Council, the House of Burgesses, the
Clergy and the President, Rector and Governors
of the College of the most antient and loyal Colony
of Virginia.


If any thing here offered be dislik'd, I willingly
shall submit to censure when disproved and confuted;
mean while hope that nothing here mentioned
or proposed will be taken amiss, since this
Work was purposely undertaken with a sincere
Intention of publick Good; therefore I have Expectation
that it will find a kind Reception with
all publick-spirited, and unprejudiced Persons.




















T



The Royal Founders of William and Mary
College, with Prospect of doing the
greatest Good for the Colonies of Virginia
and Maryland, conferred this princely
Donation upon them; and were seconded with
the ample Benefaction of the honourable Mr.
Boyle, and the Contributions of the Country.
But this underwent the common Fate of most other
charitable Gifts of this Kind, having met with
several Difficulties to struggle with in its Infancy;
but the most dangerous was, that it was as it
were no sooner finished, but it was unfortunately
and unaccountably consumed to Ashes. Yet observe
the wonderful Turns of Fortune, and Power
of Providence. This College, Phœnix-like, as the
City of London, revived and improved out of its
own Ruins. But though it has found such unexpected
Success, and has proved of very great
Service already; yet is it far short of such Perfection,
as it might easily attain to by the united
Power of the Persons concerned about this important
Foundation.


For it is now a College without a Chapel, without
a Scholarship, and without a Statute.


There is a Library without Books, comparatively
speaking, and a President without a fix'd Salary
till of late: A Burgess without certainty of
Electors; and in fine, there have been Disputes
and Differences about these and the like Affairs
of the College hitherto without End.


These Things greatly impede the Progress of
Sciences and learned Arts, and discourage those
that may be inclined to contribute their Assistance
or Bounty towards the Good of the College.


Nevertheless the Difficulties of this Kind might
be removed by some such Regulations as follow,
viz.


Let none be permitted to teach School in any
Parish, but such as shall be nominated by the Minister
and Vestry, and licensed by the President of
the College.


Let such Lads as have been taught to read and
instructed in the Grounds of the English Language
in those Schools, be admitted into the Grammar
School at the College, if they pass Examination
before the President and Masters; together with
such Youth as shall be sent from Maryland, who
have a Right to be educated at this College.


Provided always that the Number of Grammar
Scholars shall never exceed one Hundred.


Let them be boarded and lodged in the Dormitory,
as they are at present; or upon such Terms
as may from Time to Time seem most proper to
the President and Masters, or to the Governors,
till a Transfer be obtained.


These Lads should be two Years under the
Care of the Usher, and two more under the
Grammar Master; and by them instructed in Latin
and Greek, in such Methods as the President and
Masters shall direct.


And during these four Years, at certain appointed
Times they should be taught to write as they
now are in the Writing-School, or in such Methods
as the President and Masters may judge better:
There also should the Writing Master teach
them the Grounds and Practice of Arithmetick,
in order to qualify such for Business, as intend to
make no farther Progress in Learning.


Out of the Grammar School should be yearly
elected by the President and Masters [or Professors]
five Scholars upon the Foundation, who
should be allowed their Board, Education, and
Lodging in proper Apartments gratis; and should
also be provided with Cloaths and Gowns, &c.
after the Charter-House Method.


These Scholars should continue three Years upon
the Foundation; during which Time, at appointed
Terms they should be instructed in Languages,
in Religion, in Mathematicks, in Philosophy,
and in History, by the five Masters or Professors
appointed for that Purpose; who with the
Grammar Master make up the Number appointed
by the Charter.


Besides the Scholars, the Professors should for a
certain Sum instruct such others as may be enter'd
Commoners in the College out of the Grammar
School, or from elsewhere, by the Approbation of
the President and Masters, who should be obliged
to wear Gowns, and be subject to the same Statutes
and Rules as the Scholars; and as Commoners are
in Oxford. These should maintain themselves, and
have a particular Table, and Chambers for their
Accommodation.


For to wait at the four high Tables hereafter
mentioned, there should be elected by the President
and Masters four Servitors, who should have
their Education, and such Allowances, as the Servitors
in Oxford.


Such Scholars, Commoners, and Servitors, as
have behaved themselves well, and minded their
Studies for three Years, and can pass proper Examination,
and have performed certain Exercises,
should have the Degree of a Batchellor of Arts
conferred upon them; should eat at a Table together,
and be distinguished by a peculiar Habit;
maintain themselves, be subject to certain Rules,
and pursue proper Studies; being allowed the Use
of the Library as well as the Masters, paying
proper Fees upon their Admission for the Good of
the Library.


Out of these Batchellors should be yearly elected
by the Presidents and Masters, one Fellow to
be allowed 20 l. for his Passage to England, and
20 l. per Ann. for three Years after his speedy Entrance
and Continuance in some certain College
in Oxford or Cambridge; after which he should
commence Master of Arts; which Degree, with
all others in our Universities, should be conferred
in the same Manner in this College by the President
and Masters.


Out of the Graduates above Batchellors should
the Masters or Professors be chosen by the Election
of the said Masters or Professors, with the
President; who also every seven Years should
chose a new Chancellor, to whose Determination
all Disputes and Differences should be referred.


And when the President's Place is vacant, it
should be filled by such of the Masters as has
belonged first to the College.


A Testimonium from this College should be of
the same Use and Force as from others in our
Universities.


If the present Fund be insufficient to defray the
Expence, proper Improvement should be made of
the Revenue, and Application made for additional
Benefactions.


A Body of Statutes should be directly formed
and establish'd by the Visitors, President, and
Masters; and a Transfer of the Trust should be
then made.


Such an Establishment would encourage the
bright Youth of Virginia to apply to their Studies,
and in some Measure would compel them to
improve themselves; whereas now being left to
their own Liberty, they proceed but superficially,
and generally commence Man before they have
gone through the Schools in the College. Here
too would be great Inducements for their Friends
to advise and persuade them to go through with
their Learning; when they are certain, that they
will thus be regularly improved, and have Prospect
of a cheap Education, and Hopes of the best
Preferment in their Country in Church and State;
and have equal (if not superior) Chance with others
for Promotion abroad in the World; being
bred compleat Gentlemen and good Christians,
and qualified for the Study of the Gospel, Law,
or Physick; and prepared for undertaking Trade,
or any useful Projects and Inventions.


As for the Accomplishments of Musick, Dancing,
and Fencing, they may be taught by such
as the President and Masters shall appoint at such
certain Times, as they shall fix for those Purposes.


'Till these Regulations (or the like) be made,
Matters may be carried on as they are at present;
only to me there seems an absolute Necessity now
for a Professor of Divinity, in order to instruct
the Indians and English Youth there in the Grounds
of Religion, and read Lectures of Morality to
the senior Lads, and to read Prayers and preach
in the College as Chaplain: This I am certain is
very much wanting, and what the present Income
of the College with good Management will
easily allow of; therefore I hope particular Notice
will be taken hereof.


There is as yet no great Occasion for the Hall,
so that it might be made a Chapel and Divinity-School,
for which Purpose it would serve nobly
with little or no Alterations.


As there is lately built an Apartment for the Indian
Boys and their Master, so likewise is there
very great Occasion for a Quarter for the Negroes
and inferior Servants belonging to the College;
for these not only take up a great deal of Room
and are noisy and nasty, but also have often made
President and others apprehensive of the great Danger of
being burnt with the College, thro' their Carelessness
and Drowsiness.


Another thing prejudicial to the College, is the
Liberty allowed the Scholars, and the negligent
Observance of College Hours, and the Opportunity
they have of rambling Abroad.


To remedy this, there is wanting some Contrivance
to secure the Youth within the College at
certain Hours; which has hitherto been in vain attempted,
because of the many Servants lodged in
the College, and the several Doors and Ways to
get out of it.


Likewise the Privileges and Apartments of the
President and Masters, and House-Keeper, &c.
ought to be fix'd and ascertain'd; for these being
precarious and doubtful, upon this Account has
arose much Difference and Ill-Will, to the great
Scandal of the College, and Detriment of Learning.


Little additional Charge would put the Government
of the College upon a much better Footing;
whereas at present it scarcely merits the name of
a College.


As for Election of a Burgess in Pursuance to a
Clause in the Charter, he ought to be chosen by
the President and as many Masters as there shall
actually be at any Time.


The Charter mentions six Masters or Professors,
but does not specify the Professions; it directs to
the making of Statutes and founding Scholarships,
but the particulars are left to the Discretion of
the Managers; and some such Establishment as
this here mentioned may not be improper, especially
if for greater Encouragement the Surveyors
of each County were to be appointed by the President
and Masters, out of such as have taken a
Batchellor of Arts Degree there; and if also the
Governor and Council were to elect a certain
Number of Batchellors for Clerks into the Secretaries
Office; out of which Clerks attending and
writing there at certain Times, the County Clerks
should be appointed by the Secretary.


The Office of the President would be to govern
the College, be Treasurer, and Censor, and
have a casting Vote in all Debates.


The six Professors or Masters would be




one for Divinity, who should be Chaplain and Catechist.


Mathematicks.


Philosophy.


Languages.


History.


Humanity, who should be Grammar Master.




The under Masters would be the Usher, the
Indian Master, and the Writing-Master.


The Town Masters must be such as occasion
requires, for Fencing, Dancing, and Musick.


There would be three English Fellows.


There would be fifteen Scholars, and a sufficient
Number of School-Boys for a constant Supply.


Besides a Number of Batchellors and Masters
of Arts, who would wait till they came in Fellows
or Professors, or got to be made Surveyors
or County Clerks.


For all this there might easily be contrived
Room in the College, especially if a Hall was
built in the Place intended for the Chapel.


As also would there be Room enough for the
House-Keeper, Officers, and Servants; especially
if a Quarter was built for the Negroes, &c.


The Tables might then be distinguish'd into
four higher or four lower, viz.


The upper Table for the President and Masters.

The second for the Masters of Arts, &c.

The third for the Batchellors of Arts.

The fourth for the Scholars and Commoners.

The four lower Tables should be

The first for the House-Keeper, and the upper School-Boys.

The second for the Usher, Writing-Master, and the lower School-Boys.

The third for the Servitors and College Officers.

And the last for the Indian Master and his Scholars.


This Regularity might easily be effected, and
would prove not only decent and creditable, but
also useful and advantageous to the Country and
the College.


The Library is better furnished of late than formerly,
by the kind Gifts of several Gentlemen;
but yet the Number of Books is but very small,
and the Sets upon each Branch of Learning are
very imperfect, and not the best of the Sort.


To remedy this Defect proper Application should
be made to the Societies and to the superior Clergy
in England, who would give at least what
Duplicates they have upon such an useful Occasion;
and what necessary Collection of Books cannot
be obtain'd by begging, they may buy as soon
as they shall be able to stock their Library; as a
great Help to which I believe considerable Contributions
would be made by the Clergy, Burgesses,
and Gentry of the Country, if upon easy
Terms they were allowed the Use of the Library
at certain Hours, at such Times as they shall be at
Williamsburgh, either for Pleasure or upon Business.


The Office of Librarian is given to Mr. John
Harris the Usher, in order to make his Place more
agreeable to his Merit; and if the Gardener was
made to execute the Office of Porter for his present
Salary, it would be no great Hardship upon
him, and would be an Ease to the College; and
for the Benefit and Encouragement of the House-Keeper
several small necessary Pensions and Privileges
might be contrived more than what are at
present allowed; so that it might be made well
worth the while of a Person of Integrity, Knowledge,
and Prudence, to undertake and carry on
so troublesom an Office.


The greater the Number of Collegians, the
greater would be the Gain of the House-Keeper;
so that when the College should be full and
compleat as here directed and wished, the Collegians
may be boarded upon easier Terms; boarded
I say; because if any but the President dieted
themselves, it would create Confusion; and if any
belonging to the College but such Masters as have
Families were permitted to eat elsewhere, it would
not be worth any body's while to lay in Provision,
when they could not tell what Number they
must provide for.


As for the English College Customs of Commons,
&c. it is thought as yet more adviseable to
board in the College than to keep to those Methods,
till the Country affords better Conveniencies
and Opportunities for so doing.


The Indians who are upon Mr. Boyle's Foundation
have now a handsom Apartment for themselves
and their Master, built near the College, which
useful Contrivance ought to be carried on to the
utmost Advantage in the real Education and Conversion
of the Infidels; for hitherto but little
Good has been done therein, though abundance
of Money has been laid out, and a great many Endeavours
have been used, and much Pains taken
for that Purpose.


The young Indians, procured from the tributary
or foreign Nations with much Difficulty, were
formerly boarded and lodged in the Town; where
abundance of them used to die, either thro' Sickness,
change of Provision, and way of Life; or
as some will have it, often for want of proper
Necessaries and due Care taken with them. Those
of them that have escaped well, and been taught
to read and write, have for the most Part returned
to their Home, some with and some without Baptism,
where they follow their own savage Customs
and heathenish Rites.


A few of them have lived as Servants among
the English, or loitered and idled away their Time
in Laziness and Mischief.


But 'tis great Pity that more Care is not taken
about them, after they are dismissed from School.


They have admirable Capacities when their
Humours and Tempers are perfectly understood;
and if well taught, they might advance themselves
and do great Good in the Service of Religion;
whereas now they are rather taught to become
worse than better by falling into the worst
Practices of vile nominal Christians, which they
add to their own Indian Manners and Notions.


To prevent this therefore, let there be chosen
continually four Indian Servitors out of the Indian
School, as the other four out of the Grammar
School.


Let these be maintained in the Indian House,
and wait upon the four lower Tables: Let them
be instructed as the other Servitors, or as their
Genius most aptly may require, but particularly in
Religion; and when they are found qualified let
them be sent to England, or placed out to Captains
of Ships or Trades, as the Mathematical Boys
in Christ-Hospital, for a few Years; then let them
return and be allowed a small Exhibition, and encouraged
in their separate Callings and Occupations;
and let them settle some among the English,
and others return to their own Nations.


Undoubtedly many of them would become excellent
Artists and Proficients in Trade; and thus
when Reason and Experience has convinced them
of the Preference of our Religion and Manners,
certainly they may not only save their own Souls;
but also be extreamly instrumental in the Conversion
of their barbarous Friends and Relations.


In proceeding thus, any that seem capable or inclinable
to study Divinity, should by all Means
be encouraged and forwarded in it, and sent over
for a small Time to one of our Universities with
an Allowance of a Fellow; after which, if such
were admitted into Orders, and then sent out
Missionaries among their own Country-Folks,
what great Good might we not expect from such,
when throughly converted and instructed in Christianity,
and made truly sensible of the Advantages
of Religion, the deadly State of Infidelity, and
the miserable Lives and Customs of the Indians?


In a Work of this Kind undoubtedly several
good Christians would contribute their charitable
Assistance; 'till which the present Fund should be
applied in this Method, though the Managers
should be obliged to reduce the Number of Indian
Scholars upon this Account; since this was
the main Intent of the Benefaction, and no other
Method can well answer this Design; which may
be evidenced by Experience both from the Colleges
of Virginia and New England too, as I have
been credibly informed from good Authors, as
well as my own Experience.


By such Methods in Process of Time might
the Indian Obstinacy be mollified, their seeming
Dulness might be cleared from Rust; and the
Gates of Heaven be opened for their Admission
upon their perfect Conversion to the Faith of
Christ. In such glorious Designs as these neither
should Humour, Interest, nor Prejudice divert any
from their charitable Assistance therein, especially
such as are concerned in Affairs of this
Kind, and engaged by Duty to lend their best Aid
in leading the Infidels into the Pale of Christ's
Church, and making them by mild and most gentle
Measures to accompany his Flock; since all
the Force in the World would rather drive them
from, than guide them, to the Congregation of
the Faithful and Communion of Saints.


By some such prudent and mild Methods alone
may they be made to live and die as true Christians,
and not like the most savage Brutes, as they
generally do.


Thus far as to the Education of the young Men
in Virginia, and the Instruction most proper for
the Indians; and as for the Negroes each Owner
ought to take Care that the Children born his
Property, and all his intelligent adult Negroes be
taught their Catechism and some short Prayers,
be made to frequent the Church and be baptized,
and hindered as much as may be from Swearing,
Lying, Intemperance, Prophaneness, and Stealing
and Cheating.


Finally, as to the Education of Girls, it is great
Pity but that good Boarding Schools were erected
for them at Williamsburgh and other Towns.















I



It is an Opinion as erroneous as common,
that any sort of Clergymen will serve in
Virginia; for Persons of immoral Lives,
or weak Parts and mean Learning, not only expose
themselves, but do great Prejudice to the
Propagation of the Gospel there; and by bad Arguments
or worse Example, instead of promoting
Religion, become Encouragers of Vice, Profaneness,
and Immorality. Whereas were such confined
to the narrow Limits of a Parish or two in
England, where their Knowledge and their Name
would scarce extend farther than the Circumference
of their own Country; then neither could
their bad Learning nor Example propagate so
much Mischief, as when sent Abroad into the
World among bright and observing People. Neither
do they want quarrelsom and litigious Ministers,
who would differ with their Parishioners
about insignificant Trifles, who had better stay at
Home and wrangle with their own Parishes,
which is not so great a Novelty here as there.
Neither would they have meer Scholars and Stoicks,
or Zealots too rigid in outward Appearance,
as they would be without loose and licentious
Profligates; these do Damage to themselves, to
others, and to Religion.


And as in Words and Actions they should be
neither too reserved nor too extravagant; so in
Principles should they be neither too high nor too
low: The Virginians being neither Favourers of
Popery nor the Pretender on the one Side, nor of
Presbytery nor Anarchy on the other; but are firm
Adherents to the present Constitution in State,
the Hanover Succession and the Episcopal Church
of England as by Law established; consequently
then if these are the Inclinations of the People,
their Ministers ought to be of the same Sentiments,
equally averse to papistical and schismatical
Doctrines, and equally free from Jacobitish
and Oliverian Tenets. These I confess are my
Principles, and such as the Virginians best relish,
and what every good Clergyman and true Englishman
(I hope) will favour; for such will never refuse
to say with me



God bless the Church, and George its Defender,

Convert the Fanaticks, and baulk the Pretender.




For our Sovereign is undoubtedly the Defender
and Head of our national Church of England, in
which Respect we may pray for the King and
Church; but Christ is the Head of the Universal
or Catholick Church, in which Respect we wish
Prosperity to the Church and King.


Clergymen for Virginia should be of such Parts,
Tempers, and Notions as these. They likewise
should be Persons that have read and seen something
more of the World, than what is requisite
for an English Parish; they must be such as can
converse and know more than bare Philosophy and
speculative Ethicks, and have studied Men and
Business in some measure as well as Books; they
may act like Gentlemen, and be facetious and
good-humour'd, without too much Freedom and
Licentiousness; they may be good Scholars without
becoming Cynicks, as they may be good
Christians without appearing Stoicks. They
should be such as will give up a small Matter rather
than create Disturbance and Mischief; for in
all Parishes the Minister as well as the People
should pass by some little Things, or else by being
at Variance the best Preaching may have the worst
Effect; yet they must not condescend too far, nor
part with a material Right, but must be truly
zealous and firm in every good Cause both publick
and private. There are many such worthy,
prudent, and pious Clergymen as these in Virginia,
who meet with the Love, Reputation, Respect, and
Encouragement that such good Men may deserve
and expect: However, there have been some
whose Learning, Actions, and Manners have not
been so good as might be wished; and others by
their outward Behaviour have been suspected to
have been, some Jacobites, and others Presbyterians
inwardly in their Hearts.


In Virginia there is no Ecclesiastical Court, so
that Vice, Prophaneness, and Immorality are not
suppressed so much as might be: The People
hate the very Name of the Bishop's Court. There
are no Visitations, so that the Churches are often
not in the best Repair, nor as decently adorned
as might be; neither in some Places can the Lord's
Supper be administer'd with such holy Reverence
as it should be, for want of proper Materials and
Utensils. The Churches being not consecrated
are not enter'd with such reverent Demeanour,
as ought to be used in God's holy Tabernacle.


For want of Confirmation Persons are admitted
to the holy Sacrament with mean and blind Knowledge,
and poor Notions of the divine Mysteries
of the Supper of the Lord; which is an Abuse
of a thing so very sacred.


In North Carolina and several Parts of Virginia
Children are often neglected to be baptized till
they are grown up, and then perhaps may never
know or never mind that they want to be christen'd;
and many esteem it unnecessary.


The Clerks upon several Occasions performing
too great a Share of divine Services, expose the
Church to Shame and Danger, and often bring
Contempt and Disdain upon the Persons and Function
of the Ministers.


Ministers are often obliged to bury in Orchards,
and preach Funeral Sermons in Houses, where they
also generally marry and christen; and as for Weddings
there is no Regard to the Time of the Day
nor the Season of the Year; and in North Carolina
the Justices marry.


Now to remedy all these Grievances and Deficiencies,
with all Evils of the like Kind, there is
an absolute Necessity for a Person whose Office
upon this Occasion should be somewhat uncommon,
till a Bishop be established in those Parts;
who might pave out a Way for the Introduction
of Mitres into the English America, so greatly wanting
there. This Person should have Instructions
and Power for discharging such Parts of the Office,
of a Bishop, of a Dean, and of an Arch-Deacon,
as Necessity requires, and the Nature of
those sacred Functions will permit; and from a
Medium of these three Functions he might be
called Dean of Virginia; under whose Jurisdiction
North Carolina might fall for the present, till the
Constitution in Church and State there be better
advanced.


This Person should reside in some Parish in Virginia,
and be obliged to make a Progress (for the
People will not approve of a Visitation) each
Spring and Fall in Virginia and North Carolina,
as his Discretion shall best direct him.


As for a Salary for his travelling Expences 100 l.
per Ann. would suffice; and that this might not
bring any new Charge upon the Publick, there
should be no Fees upon any Account, neither
should he put them to any Expence. This Person
should be one that is popular, universally acquainted
with the People, their Temper and Manners,
and one respected and beloved by them; and as a
farther Encouragement for him, and to support
the Dignity of his Office, he should have a good
convenient Parish in Virginia; and in his Absence
the Clergymen there should be obliged to officiate
in his Church in Turns, according to their Seniority
in the Country; for the Detriment that the
Parishes would suffer by the Loss of Service in
their Churches one Sunday in several Years would
be nothing, when compared with the Advantage
they would receive in Lieu of it.


As a farther Addition to his Salary and Honour,
he might be one of the Masters of the College,
particularly Divinity Professor would be most
suitable with his Character and Office, and more
convenient for him, since he might contrive to
make his Progress in the Vacation Time.


This Salary of 100 l. per Ann. might certainly
be easily obtained from the Government out of
the Quit-Rents, or otherwise, as the Commissary's
was; which Office and Name has not appeared
well-pleasing to the People and Clergy, for Reasons
I can't account for: neither has it obtained
the Power and good Effect as might have been
expected.


This Office of Dean might be try'd for a few
Years, and the Dean should be obliged to transmit
Home yearly to his Diocesan the Bishop of
London attested Copies of his Proceedings in his
Progress; setting forth the Particulars of the Attempts
that he has made, and the Good he has
done, signed by the Justices and Ministers of the
Place or County. The Expence of this Tryal
would be but little, but the Good that might arise
from hence might be unspeakable, and there
can be no Hurt in it; no Incroachment upon the
Privilege of the People, nor the Rights of the several
Incumbents.


His Office and Duty should be to register all
Letters of Orders and Credentials of Ministers,
sent over by the Bishop of London, and also all
Collations to Livings. To examine and confirm
all Persons before they be admitted to the Lord's
Supper, which Confirmation (or rather Approbation)
might be done without Imposition of Hands
in a peculiar Form, proper for the Circumstances
of this Occasion; and the Ministers should admit
none to the Sacrament without his Certificate of
this their Confirmation.


He should be obliged to send the Ministers in
his Progress timely Notice of his Intention, with
a printed Form of his Examination and Confirmation,
with Directions for the Minister to prepare
and exhort the Congregation thereto. In his
Progress he should preach at such vacant Churches
as he passes by; baptize all Children and others
that require it; and preach up the absolute Necessity
of it. He should have Power to call a
Vestry, and there examine whether the Church,
&c. be in good Repair, and fit for the Congregation;
whether it be sufficiently beautified and
commodiously built and situated; whether there
be Surplices, Communion-Table and Cloth, and
all the Utensils required in the Canons of the
Church of England.


He should enquire into the Conduct of the Minister;
and likewise should he inspect into the
Management of the Clerk, and prescribe him
Rules and Directions in the Execution of his Office,
especially where there is no Incumbent Minister,
which very frequently happens in several
Places for Years together.


He should see that the Lord's Supper be duly
and decently administered, encourage People to
frequent Communion, and instruct them in the
Nature of that holy Sacrament; and as for Baptism
he should see that it be rightly performed,
and by the Bishop of London's Directions should
prescribe the requisite Alteration in the last Clauses
of the Form of Baptism; as also those Alterations
wanting in the Prayer for the General Assembly,
instead of the Prayer for the Parliament.


He should also visit such Sick as he passes by,
and exhort all to a timely Repentance, and not
(as they too often do) to defer that and the Sacrament
till Death.


He should persuade and advise People as much
as may be to christen, marry, and bury at Church.
He should likewise enquire if there be any notorious
and scandalous Livers, who by their wicked
Practices give Offence to their Christian Neighbours.


He should likewise see that the divine Service
be performed regularly and decently according to
the Rubric, and exhort and direct thereto; with
Abundance more of such Things as these, which
might easily be done, if attempted in an easy, mild
Manner; which might prove of wonderful Advantage
to the Good of Vertue and Religion.


Though the Office of this Dean should be
chiefly to inspect, exhort, reprimand, and represent,
besides Confirming, and doing the common
Offices of a Clergyman; yet should he and the
Vestry present at the County Courts any egregious
Default or Omission of the Kinds here mentioned;
but here they should be very tender and
cautious not to give general Offence, for Rigour
will soon make such an Office odious to the People,
and then it will be but of little Service.


Presentments of this kind (when any) should
be made, given in, and prosecuted in the common
Courts, in the same Form and Manner as common
Presentments are; so that here would be no Innovation
in the Proceedings.


In order to create more Respect for sacred
Places and Things, the Churches and Church-Yards
there should be solemnly set apart for that
Purpose by the Dean, by some kind of Form of
Consecration suitable to be used by a Person that
is no Bishop, and agreeable to the Occasion of the
Thing, and Nature of the Place.


Such a Person as this might do a vast deal of
Good, and reduce the Church Discipline in Virginia
to a much better Method than at present it
is in: For tho' the Church of England be there
established, yet by permitting too great Liberty,
and by being too indifferent in many such Respects
as are here specified, great Inconveniences have
arose; and we may certainly expect far greater
Detriment in the Church from hence, unless timely
Lenitives and proper Remedies be applied, in
the best Methods that can possibly be devised;
some such Methods (I conceive) as these here proposed
may not be esteemed least proper; and if
they be rejected or despised, yet I am persuaded
that they are not so insignificant as some may imagine,
and not altogether so despicable as to be
quite disregarded; and not thought worthy of
the serious Perusal of any concerned in Affairs of
this Nature.


The Method used for obtaining a Living in
Virginia, is for the Party to notify his Intentions
of going Abroad to the Bishop of London, to produce
sufficient Testimonials of his good Life and
Principles, together with his Letters of Orders;
which being approved of, he has then a Licence,
and Certificate, and Credentials to the Governor,
with an Order upon the Treasury for 20 l. for
his Passage; and upon his Arrival makes Application
for some vacant Parish either to the Governor,
to the Parishioners, or to both; upon whose
Approbation he is admitted their Minister. But
Variety of Disputes have arose from the uncertain
Interpretation of the Virginia Laws relating to
Livings; and though the Opinion of the best
Council has been procured, yet as their Sentiments
could not sufficiently settle it, so have they
directly contradicted each other. Several of the
People insist that they have the Right of Presentation;
and on the other hand the Governor has
as strenuously contested with them for his Right
of Presentation in Behalf of the King; so that
several that the Parishes have nominated or elected
have been refused; and on the other Side, many
appointed and sent by the Governor have been rejected
with Disdain, Disappointment, and Ill-Will.
These Elections of the People are often
disagreeable to the Governor's Choice, and the
People on the contrary will refuse whom they say
the Governor may impose upon them, though he
comes directly recommended from the Bishop;
but in my Opinion their Election might be better
given up, suppose they had a Right to it, since
it often creates such Disturbance; and in Process
of Time, who knows but they may elect and insist
upon Persons unfit for the Ministry, either
for their Learning, Lives, or Doctrines, and not
licensed by the Bishop; and may obstinately refuse
any such as comes regularly, and is presented to
the Living by the Governor.


This Presentation by the Governor, who likewise
as Ordinary is to institute and induct, may
be termed a Collation; but there of late were not
above three or four Rectors thus collated, or instituted
and inducted in the whole Colony; because
of the Difficulties, Surmises, Disputes, and
Jealousies that arise upon such Accounts. But the
Clergy standing upon this Footing are liable to
great Inconveniency and Danger; for upon any
small Difference with the Vestry, they may pretend
to assume Authority to turn out such Ministers
as thus come in by Agreement with the Vestry,
who have often had the Church Doors shut
against them, and their Salaries stopped, by the
Order and Protection of such Vestry-Men, who
erroneously think themselves the Masters of their
Parson, and aver, that since they compacted but
from Year to Year with him as some have done,
they may turn off this their Servant when they
will; be without one as long as they please, and
chose another, whom and when they shall think
most proper and convenient; which Liberty being
granted them (I believe) some few would be content
rather never to appoint a Minister, than ever
to pay his Salary.


Among many Instances of these Kinds of Refusals,
Ejectments, and Elections, I shall only instance
that of the ingenious Mr. Bagge, who
coming to England for Priest's Orders, after he
had been Minister of St. Ann's for a long Time,
was refused by them upon his Return, when the
Governor sent him to his own Parish again; whereas
they strenuously stood by Mr. Rainsford, whom
they had elected and presented to the Governor.
And Mr. Latané, a Gentleman of Learning and
Vertue, and well beloved, was almost ejected,
nay was shut out of his Church, only upon account
of a small Difference and Dispute with some
of his Vestry. The main Allegation they had against
him was that they could not understand
him, (he having a small Tang of the French)
tho' they had been hearing him I think upwards
of seven Years, without any Complaint of that
kind till that very Time.


Governor Spotswood, to his great Honour be it
spoken, always stood up for the Right of Collation,
and was hearty in Vindication of the Clergy,
who, as he professed in a Speech to them, certainly
had not only his Protection but also his
Affection; so that it is difficult to be determined
in which Respect he chiefly excelled, either in
being a compleat Gentleman, a polite Scholar,
a good Governor, or a true Churchman.


I speak in Behalf of the Right of Presentations
belonging to the Crown; because my Reason
tells me that it is most equitable and most convenient
for the Peace and good Government, and
for the Security of the Doctrine and Discipline of
the established Church of England.


Many Arguments I know are brought against
it, both from apparent Reason and Interest; but
all these might easily be confuted by this following
Remark.


When Churches were built and endowed, as
these in Virginia, by the Laity, with the Leave
of the Bishop or Ordinary in antient Times, the
Presentations to such Ecclesiastical Benefices were
often granted away to the Families that founded
such Donations, as Rewards and Encouragements
of such pious Liberalities; whereas all other Preferments
were invested in the Church: This I take
to be the Origin of Lay-Presentations, when Gentlemen
reserved this for the Benefit of some of
their Posterity or Family, who might receive a
Maintenance from their Bounty; which they in
Reason ought to do preferable to any others who
contributed nothing towards it.


But though the Virginians built and endowed
their Churches, yet I never could find that they
had made any such Reserve; so that the Right of
Presentation must belong to the King their chief
Ordinary, who never granted away to them the
Title of Donation, but kept it for himself and
Heirs; so though he gives them Leave to make
Parishes and establish Salaries, yet he still imply'd
an Obligation in them to give those Livings to
whom he pleases.


This I take to be the Case, and hope I may
be excused for delivering my Opinion by any that
may entertain different Sentiments.


Be the Right invested in which it will, either
in the Crown or in the Country, I am certain
that it ought to be determined one way or other;
and if it belongs to the People, yet should there
be such Regulations made as might make the Livings
certain, and the Lives of the Clergy as
peaceable as may be.


Were the Establishment for the Clergy in Virginia
a little more plain and regular, even without
any additional Augmentation of their Salaries,
I am sure it would be for the Good of the
Clergy there, and for the Encouragement of good
and ingenious Men to go over and settle there.


Some Parishes are long vacant upon Account
of the badness of the Tobacco, which gives
Room for Dissenters, especially Quakers, as in
Nansemond County; but this might be remedied,
either by making the Payments of equal Value in
the other Commodities produced there, or else by
a standing Order, which Governor Spotswood proposed,
viz. that the Parishes longest vacant should
be in their due Course first supplied; for then the
good and bad would have Ministers alike in their
Turns; but the Ministers must run the Risk of
their Lot, though the most deserving should have
the worst Parish, and the most unworthy be best
preferred: but the Value of the Parishes being so
nearly equivalent to each other, this small Difference
might easily be made up to good Men some other
way; so that this Method may not be impracticable
nor improper.


Some Parishes are not conveniently divided; in
some the Churches are not commodiously placed,
and other Parishes are too large, others too small;
but these and the like Disproportions might easily
be remedied by the general Assemblies, if they
unanimously set about such Divisions without being
swayed by private Interest; to do which would
tend to the general Good of the Clergy and Laity;
but Works of this Nature, where great Numbers
are concerned, are not effected without great
Opposition and Difficulty.


The Buildings upon the Glebes being Timber
soon decay, especially upon Vacancies; but these
should be kept in due Repair continually by the
Vestry: Likewise should the Dimensions and Form
of the Dwelling-Houses and Out-Houses be more
particularly determined, and made such as might
conveniently and handsomly receive the Ministers
and their Families; which would be very great
Inducements for them to relinquish England for
the Certainty of good Livings, good Glebes,
good Accommodations, and a kind Reception.
The Expence of building and repairing where
most of the Materials are only an Incumbrance,
would be but a Trifle to a Parish; whereas 'tis a
great Expence and Trouble to a Stranger to fit
up the Apartments that he finds, which are generally
too small and often very ruinous. Besides
this a small Stock of Hogs and Cattle upon the
Glebes would be of excellent Service to Newcomers,
till they can be better furnished; they being
obliged to leave behind them the same Number
of the same Animals. Some Glebes, as that at James
Town, have this Convenience, and 'tis Pity but
more Parishes followed such Examples: The
prime Cost in stocking their Glebes by Degrees
would be insignificant; and the chief Trouble
would be for the Church-Wardens to receive the
Stock from the Executors of one Incumbent,
and deliver them again when there comes another.


Other Difficulties that the Clergy meet with
there are the Methods of Payment, the Laws and
Customs being not particular enough in this Respect;
so that sometimes Tobacco cannot be got
in Time convenient for the Minister, or is not
delivered at a proper Place for his Interest, or is
not at all good of its Kind, or not of the right
Sort, or but very indifferent, such as the Receivers
might have refused, or else is not pressed
hard enough, which is a very great Detriment;
and sometimes they will make the Ministers pay
for their Cask, or for collecting, pressing, rolling
their Tobacco, and making it heavy and convenient,
and that at an extravagant Rate; and if a
Stranger, fearful of being imposed upon, takes
the Management of his Tobacco into his own
Hands, he is at a Loss how to order it aright,
being unacquainted with the Nature of the Commodity,
and the Customs of the Country; and if
one Difference arises, it frequently begets wider,
though about those Things which might easily
be settled, and are of but little Value in respect
of their Inconveniency; so that the best way to
get sweet-scented Tobacco has been declared by
some to use sweet-scented Words.


Now all this should be determined, to avoid
future Quarrels of this kind, which too frequently
proceed from such Causes, by fixing the Times,
Places, and Manner of Payment; together with
a Regulation of the Allowances for collecting,
pressing, and making Tobacco heavy and convenient;
with an Injunction for the Payment of
none but good and vendible Tobacco for parochial
Dues. Whether the Parish or the Minister
be to allow the Expence thereof, it might easily
be determined; and if both are to join in it, this
might easily be settled, by which Means abundance
of Variance would be prevented, and the
Incomes would be more certain, and of a good
deal greater Value if the Parish did deliver good
heavy Tobacco with Cask to the Minister, at
Places most suitable to his own Conveniency,
which I take to be the Intent of the Law, which
was made for the good Payment of the Ministers.
The Charge of this would be but small to a
whole Parish, tho' it often falls heavy upon the
Minister, especially when he meets with sharp
or cross People; but in abundance of Parishes the
Inhabitants are so good that they never make any
Dispute about these Things, especially when they
like their Minister; for that he may have any
Favour of them that he in Reason may desire.


The Payment of the Surplus Fees also wants
a Regulation; for when Tobacco is dear, some
will pay them in Money, but when cheap they
will pay Tobacco, which does not seem equitable;
so that in my Opinion these Payments should
always be made at certain appointed Times and in
proper Methods, either in one or the other,
and not left to the Humor or Discretion of the
Debtor, since sometimes there is half in half Difference.


A Settlement of these Things should be made,
either for the Advantage of the Clergy or People,
or else a middle Expedient should be found out;
since the Consequences of Disputes and Variance
between Ministers and their Congregations are
generally very pernicious to the Welfare, Happiness,
and Tranquility of both Parties; wherefore
Remedies should be applied in Time, especially
in such Cases where Delays encrease the Danger;
when ill Customs in Time pleading Prescription
are established as firm as Median Laws, and propagate
such ill Habits in the Constitution, as are
most difficult to be extirpated.


As for the Establishment of Episcopacy in Virginia,
it would be of excellent Service, if Caution
was taken not to transplant with it the corrupt
Abuses of Spiritual Courts, which the People
dread almost as much as an Inquisition; but
these their Fears would soon be dissipated, when
by blessed Experience they might feel the happy
Influence of that holy Order among them, free
from the terrible Notions that Misrepresentations
of regular Church Government have made them
conceive.


I have often heard that there have been Intentions
of this Kind; and that the main Obstacle
was the Difficulty of raising a Salary sufficient to
support the Dignity, and recompense the Labours
of a Bishop. But this Impediment may (I presume)
with good Contrivance be easily removed;
for I don't at all question that the superior Clergy
and Collegians in the Universities would refuse to
contribute half a Crown a Year for this glorious
Undertaking, or that the Inferiors would join
their Shillings. This might be collected into the
Treasury gratis, by the Officers of the Taxes, and
might be taken off in a few Years, when upon
Tryal the Usefulness of a Bishop upon the Continent
of North America was confirmed by Experience;
for then a Maintenance might be contrived
by other Means very easily, there being
spare Land enough to be appropriated for a Barony.
And one skilled in Political Arithmetick
may readily compute what a handsom Income this
would amount to with Care in collecting.


A large Tract of Land claimed by Virginia and
North Carolina, and under the Government of
neither, rightly called the disputed Bounds, is a
kind of American Mint, whither several wicked
and profligate Persons retire, being out of the
certain Jurisdiction of either Government, where
they may pursue any immoral or vicious Practices
without Censure and with Impunity. But to end
Disputes about it, why might not this be granted
to a Bishop of Virginia and North Carolina?


The Occasion of these Disputes about the
Bounds depends upon a Mistake or Difference in
two Grants, one fixing the Bounds according to
a certain Latitude, and the other specifying the
Bounds (as I take it) to run Westward from Roon-oak
Inlet, which proves in a Latitude different
from that before mentioned; so that the List between
these Parallels of Latitude, which is about
fifteen Miles broad, and indefinitely long is disputed,
the Governments of Virginia and North
Carolina each pretending a Right to it; but this
might easily be settled, either by finding out the
true Meaning of the Grants, or what was the
Occasion of the Error, and then determining the
Bounds from thence; or if this (or what is before-mentioned)
cannot be done, the Mathematical
Professor, or some other, should be imployed to split
the Difference between them, rather than have continual
Disputes between the two Governments, to
the great Detriment of the Religion and Trade
of both of them.


No regular Church Government or Salaries
have been yet made for the Clergy in North Carolina;
but to bring this about, Representations
should be made to the Proprietors; their Directions
obtained to the Governor and Assembly
there for their Assistance for this Purpose, in
Conjunction with the Missions, that, by proper
Applications, I presume may be continued from
the Society, especially when they are assured that
Measures will be taken to prevent their pious Endeavours
to be any more frustrated there; and besides
this I don't think it impracticable for them
to obtain the Impropriation of the two travelling
Fellowships, for Clergymen of a certain College
in Oxford, to be confined to their Government
for some Years; since at present they have such
great Necessity for Christian Help of this Sort.


Besides, the continual Progress of such a Person
as the Dean before-mentioned for some Years,
would be of extraordinary Service in the present
deplorable Circumstances of the Church of Christ
in the Government of North Carolina.












I



It is an undoubted Truth, that in the
Multitude of Inhabitants consists the
Welfare, Riches, and Power of any
People; especially when all center in
Obedience to the same civil Power, and unanimously
join in the Encouragement of Trade, and
industriously unite in the Improvement of their
Manufactures; for then the greater Consumption
will be made of such Things as tend to the publick
Good, and the grander Figure will the Community
make, and the greater will be the Exports
and Imports of such Commodities as tend to the
Increase of the publick Wealth, and private Advantage
of each particular Member of the Society.


A remarkable Instance of this we have in the
Dutch, whose Riches and Grandeur arose from the
Increase of their Inhabitants, from their industrious
Improvement of Projects, Inventions, and
Manufactures at Home and Abroad, and carrying
on the greatest Trade with indefatigable Application.


For these Reasons should Virginia be better
stocked with Inhabitants, and more useful Arts
and Projects be promoted there, than hitherto
have been. Not that this would be in order for
the publick Good of Virginia alone, but of all
the British Empire in general; in that there might
be imployed all the idle and superfluous Persons,
who for want of Employment or Aversion to
Business, prove as dead Members of the whole
Body; or else by Immorality and Villany prove
noxious to others, destructive to themselves, and
a Scandal to Mankind.


What Shoals of Beggars are allowed in Great
Britain to suffer their Bodies to rust and consume
with Laziness and Want? And besides Strowlers
what Number of Poor are burdensom to most
Parishes? How do our Streets and Highways
swarm with Rogues, and how are we over-stocked
(as they say) with vast Numbers of People of
all Trades and Professions? But for all and more
than these might Work enough be found in our
Plantations, where they might be imployed in the
Benefit of their Country, for the Advantage both
of the temporal and spiritual Concernments, by
being kept to Business, and getting Money in an
honest Way.


It is a monkish Opinion too prevalent with
many still, that there is no good Living without
the Bounds of their own Cloyster. And Abundance
of English entertain the Chinese Notion,
that they are all Fools and Beggars that live in
any Country but theirs. This home Fondness has
been very prejudicial to the common Sort of English,
and has in a great Measure retarded the Plantations
from being stock'd with such Inhabitants
as are skilful, industrious, and laborious.


For these Reasons, such Persons of Sense and
Resolution as have entered into Projects for Improvements
in the Plantations (who have evinced
us, that all Schemes are not Bubbles) have been
obliged for the generality to make Use of the
worst and vilest of Mankind, for the Execution
of the noblest and most useful Undertakings;
tho' indeed continually several People of Sense,
Vertue, and Fortune, entertaining tolerable good
Notions of these Affairs, have embarked themselves
and Families in such laudable and useful
Designs: But for the generality, the Servants and
inferior Sort of People, who have either been
sent over to Virginia, or have transported themselves
thither, have been, and are, the poorest,
idlest, and worst of Mankind, the Refuse of
Great Britain and Ireland, and the Outcast of the
People.


These Servants are but an insignificant Number,
when compared with the vast Shoals of Negroes
who are imployed as Slaves there to do the
hardest and most Part of the Work; the most
laborious of which is the felling of Trees and
the like, to which kind of Slavery (if it must be
so called) our Wood-Cutters in England are exposed;
only with this Difference, that the Negroes
eat wholsomer Bread and better Pork with
more Plenty and Ease; and when they are Sick,
their Owners Interest and Purse are deeply engaged
in their Recovery, who likewise are obliged
to take all the Care imaginable of the Children
of their Slaves for their own great Profit;
so that the Negroes, though they work moderately,
yet live plentifully, have no Families to provide
for, no Danger of Beggary, no Care for the
Morrow.


But to me it seems to be more Prudence and
Charity for our own Poor and Vagabonds to be
there imployed and provided for, than for us to
maintain and use such great Numbers of Africans.
If we can do better without them certainly we
should forbear importing so many (though this
may interfere with the Interest of some), since it
would advance the Good of the Publick; and
that we may be without them is plain, since we
have Rogues and Idlers enough of our own to
do the same Work, to which if they were compelled
by mild Methods, it would ease the Publick
of a great deal of Charge, Trouble, and
Loss, and would highly tend to the Advancement
of the temporal and spiritual Happiness of our
Poor, and be very instrumental in the Suppression
of Theft and Villany, and for the Reformation
of the most Profligate. Thousands of poor, honest,
unfortunate People of all Trades and Occupations
might be there imployed for the Support
of themselves and Interest of Trade, that can
find neither Work nor Maintenance for themselves
and Families at Home; and such as had rather
stroll or steal here, might be confined by
mild Force to moderate Labour there, sufficient
to support themselves, and benefit their Imployers.


The British Trade may easily vend their Effects
and Manufactures; and Virginia, with the neighbouring
Plantations, is capacious enough for their
Reception, plentiful for their Maintenance, and
abound with most Conveniences and Materials
for most Kinds of Imployments; where several
Things, upon Account of the Goodness of the
Climate, and Fertility of the Country, may be
produced with less Labour and more Plenty than
in Great Britain; and innumerable Commodities
might there be made by our own People,
that are now imported at extravagant Prices, and
excessive Toil and Danger from other Nations:
Nay, we might supply other Nations with most
of those Things which we now fetch from Abroad;
so that though our Imports might decrease
a little, yet would our Exports be abundantly augmented,
which undoubtedly would tend much
more to the Advantage of our Country: Even
our own home Consumption in most Respects
might be raised much cheaper and better in the
Plantations than here; especially such Things as
are with great Toil and Cost forc'd (as it were)
unnaturally out of barren Ground, improper Soil,
or a disagreeable Climate; and the Land and People
in such Places might be occupied in more proper
Business, and for more useful Purposes.


But the common People here have such a vain
Fondness for their own Country, and such despicable
Notions of Virginia, &c. and are under
such dreadful Apprehensions of the imaginary Slavery
of the Plantations, that they choose for the
most Part rather to steal, beg, or starve, than go
Abroad to work; and in the mean Time the Magistrates
and our Laws are so mild to them, that
like as Pharaoh's lean Kine devoured the fat ones,
they grievously oppress and molest the Rich and
the Honest.


But certainly Means might be invented and
practised for easing our Nations of these Burdens,
for promoting our Trade and Plantations
by their Industry; and not for the Oppression
(whatever some may imagine) of the Poor and
Needy, but for their Maintenance and Felicity.
And I believe this may be done without putting
any Stop to the Importation of Negroes, rather
than fail, since they might be kept on in their
present Course of Life and Business; only they
must raise more Stock and Grain for the Support
of the additional English, who should stick solely
to the Arts and Employments to which they
were bred, or in which they are most expert.
Indeed while Tobacco is the only Staple Commodity
of any Consequence to Virginia, the
Country may be easily over-stock'd with Negroes,
because the Trade can't find Vent for near all the
Tobacco that so many Hands will make; so that
the Market being over-charged, is thus spoiled;
for too much of any Commodity is as bad, if not
worse, for the Planter, the Merchant, and the
Publick, than too little. For which Reason the
Honourable the Assembly of Virginia has from
Time to Time endeavoured to make prudent Provision
against raising too much Tobacco.


For this Cause they lately had a Duty of 5 l.
a Head for every new Negroe, which Law in a
great Measure is now revived; and though this
Addition in the Price of a Negroe made no sensible
Decrease in the Number imported; yet it did
this good, viz. it brought a great Sum into the
Treasury of the Country, which they have ready
to disburse upon any noble Occasion; such as
their late Donation to the College, to Williamsburgh,
and their additional Reward for the
Apprehension of Pyrates.


Besides their Attempts for the Prevention of
too many Negroes, they have a Law against Seconds,
which is most serviceable in confining the
Quantity of Tobacco to its proper Bulk. The
Intent of this Law is to prohibit all Persons from
manufacturing a second Crop from the Leaves
that sprout out from the Stalk after the first
Leaves are cut off; with a Penalty upon the Offender,
and a Reward for the Informer.


The Tobacco and the Negroe Trades might be
carried on after the present Methods, or with any
such Regulations as may seem more proper to those
concerned in these Affairs; without any Hindrance
to Arts, Handicrafts, useful Inventions and Cultivations
in Virginia, for the Interest and present
Trade of the Plantations and Great Britain would
not interfere with such Projects; but on the
contrary they would highly contribute to the mutual
Support of each other, with prudent Management
and Care.


The main Difficulty, Trouble, and Expence
will chiefly consist in sending over such Persons as
are before-mentioned, and afterwards in finding
them Habitations, Maintenance, and Work when
they are settled in Virginia, during the Term of
their Service; and after they are free, with a
Livelihood and Imployment for their Posterity.


There can be no Injury in such moderate legal
Compulsion as forces People to be honest and industrious,
though it be contrary to their Inclinations
or their false Notions, which ought to be
subjected to the publick Good and Opinion of
the Community; and restrained and directed by
the civil Power to pursue such Methods as the
Legislature shall judge most convenient for the
united Interest of all the Society or Empire.


Upon this Principle it will be esteemed no
Hardship upon our unfortunate, or lazy, poor,
idle Vagrants, nor profligate Wretches, if the
Government obliged them to be transported, and
then found Work and a plentiful Support for
them and their Families, since this would tend as
well to their private as the publick Good; it
would employ our People who cannot have Work,
or that will not voluntarily labour; it would secure
our Houses and our Pockets, it would ease
our Parishes, clear our Streets, Doors, and Roads,
and mightily encrease our Manufactures, and cultivate
our vast Tracts of rich Land that are now
but Wildernesses over-run with large Trees, and
inhabited by Deer, Wild-Fowls, &c.


In order for this some such Laws as the following
might suffice. As first, Persons of any Imployment
that can produce sufficient Certificates
of their Honesty, and that after due Application
they cannot get Work, or that they have been
reduced to mean Circumstances by Misfortunes,
with such like, should be sent over at the Expence
of the Government, which should also allow
them Land and Necessaries for their Settlement;
in Return for which they should do such
moderate Work for the Benefit of the Government,
as they shall be ordered for the half of seven
Years, to be thus imployed, viz. one Day
for themselves, and one Day for the Government;
and so on by Turns, observing Sunday as a Day
of Rest and Devotion. And after the Expiration
of these seven Years they should be free, and might
work Journey-Work, or for themselves, and
their Land and Houses should be the Inheritance
of them and their Heirs for ever; paying a small
Rent or Fine to the Government for it, besides
the Quit-Rent, out of which Rent and the Produce
of their every other Day's Labour might be
allowed a sufficient Salary for Centurions or Persons
to inspect into and direct the Work and Behaviour
of these Servants; and the Overplus certainly
would not only pay the Money at first advanced,
but would likewise in a few Years
bring in a very great Income.


But if the Government should decline undertaking
this in general, yet might particular Companies
take up Land and advance Money as above
specified, which would in all Probability in a
small Time tend to their great Profit; by carrying
on to the best Advantage, in the cheapest way,
their several Manufactures and Arts, imploying
therein such unfortunate poor Persons as are expert
in their respective Trades or Callings.


How many honest ingenious People might thus
get Work, Maintenance, and even Estates for
themselves and Families, who now lie obscured
in Idleness, and almost devoured by Poverty?


In the next Place, as for Vagrants and Beggars,
suppose that all such Persons that are taken
wandering above five Miles from their own Parish
(or less upon Occasion) without a Pass from the
Minister and Church-Wardens, specifying their
Business, with Leave for a certain Time, or without
being able to give a good Account of themselves
and their present Imployment; should be
put immediately by any House-Keeper into the
Custody of a Constable, who should be obliged
to carry them before the next Justice of the
Peace to be examined, and committed to the next
Bridewell or Prison, there to work, till at the next
Quarter-Sessions they be ordered for Transportation,
except Infants, aged and disabled Persons,
who should be sent Home to, and maintained by
their own Parishes, if discoverable, or else at the
County Charge. These should serve seven Years
for their Maintenance without Wages, with
somewhat less Perquisites and Privileges than those
above-mentioned in all Respects, both during
their Service and afterwards; however sufficient
Provision should be made for them, though not
so good as for those others.


In this Class should likewise be included all
petty Criminals and Bridewell Birds, all which
should be transported at the Expence of the
County to which they belong, as also should all
Convicts and Felons; and in Virginia should there
be appointed proper Persons to take Care of them,
manage, and employ them, who should have Salaries
for their Trouble, paid out of the Returns
made by the Labour of the Servants under their
Care; and the Overplus, which in a small Time
might prove very considerable, should belong to
the respective County that transported such Servants,
by which Means Funds might easily be
raised in every County or Shire to defray all their
publick Expences and Charges, from the Labour
of their Rogues and Beggars, without any Contribution
or Tax of honest and industrious People.
But to prevent Disorder and Mischief among
such, they that should be sent over for little
or no Faults but Idleness, should meet with
all civil Treatment and Encouragement, when
they did their Endeavours, but undergo the Severities
of Bridewell for their Faults or great Neglect.
But such notorious Villains as are sent over
in Chains for Robbery or Murder, &c. should be
kept a-part, and in Chains still, and be made Servants
for Life, lest they corrupt the rest, or
commit greater Robberies or Murders than ever
they did before; which for want of more Care
and greater Confinement of such Rogues too frequently
happen, as they are now managed.


However, this Rigour might be occasionally
abated, when any appear to be proper Objects of
Mercy and Charity; but this should be done with
the Leave of the Government there, and Care
should be taken of them both as to their Labour
and Provision, and Security should be contrived
against any Danger that may proceed from
thence.


I cannot here omit mentioning a late Design
of seating all Convicts that should be imported
into Virginia, in a County by themselves, under
the Care of proper Overseers, who should confine
them from doing any Hurt, and keep them
to their Labour, by such Methods as are used in
Bridewell.


The Land intended for this new County is very
good, and fit to produce Hemp and Flax,
which they were there solely to cultivate and
manufacture; from whence the County was designed
to be called Hempshire.


Tho' this Project was never put in Execution,
yet I am of Opinion that something of this Nature
would be very advantageous in securing and
employing our Felons, and for our better Supply
of Cordage in our Naval Stores, and making of
Linen of all Sorts.


The last Sort of Servants that I should be for
sending over to Virginia (besides such as are sent
by the Methods already in Use) are the greatest
Part of the Parish Poor all over England, Wales,
Scotland, and Ireland; so that they should be burdened
with none but such as are very old, very
young, or else sickly or disabled, which would
prove a very grateful Ease in most Places, where
the general Complaint is the vast Charge of a numerous
Poor; all which might easily be maintained
and employed in Virginia, in proper Trades,
Inventions, and Projects, and do great Good to
themselves and the Publick.


Here might Work be cut out for Thousands
that now pretend to want Business; and many
that now thro' Laziness decline Endeavours to
support themselves and Families, would then seek
for Employment, and set to work in Earnest, being
frighten'd into Industry and Labour, through the
dreadful Apprehension of being sent to the Plantations;
for such as could not or would not maintain
themselves, and all Girls and Boys that are in
no likelihood of doing this, should have their
Names returned to the Justices by the Church-Wardens
and Overseers, at the Quarter-Sessions,
who upon Examination should give Orders for
their Transportation; then would the Parish be
eased, and might easily have honest and laborious
People enough to do their Business and Work,
without the Charge of Abundance of lazy or
poor People.


These should be sent over at the Expence of
the Parish, and their Labour would soon repay
the Cost, and the Overplus might be applied for
the Service of the Parish; so that these would
soon maintain the rest of their Poor, and bring in
good Gain to themselves and their Parishioners in
Time, if they were under some such Restrictions,
and had some such Privileges as the first Sort of
unfortunate People here mentioned.


But if these Methods of Transportation be
thought impracticable, at the Expence, and for
the Benefit of the Government, the Counties,
and the Parishes, yet might other Contrivances be
found to transport the People above specified, besides
the Methods now practiced by some to transport
themselves, and by Mr. Forward and some
Merchants for sending over continually all sorts of
Servants; but the present Number is but a Trifle
in respect of what might be sent over, were Laws
made for the better Encouragement thereof, and
due Regulations made for the Employment and
Provision of such great Numbers as might yearly
be sent over. For when they are there they need
not be employed about Tobacco and Corn, as
they generally are, for that might be compleatly
managed by the Negroes; but they should carry
on other Inventions, Trades, and Arts, and be
confined to follow their own respective Callings
and Occupations wherein they are most artful;
and when their Time is served, better Care might
be taken of them, and such Provision and Privileges
allowed them, that they should be obliged
to labour and get plentifully their own Living in
an honest Way.


Now when I come to find Employment for all
these People, what a vast Field is presented to
View for their Labour? Nine and Twenty large
and fertile Counties, for the most Part thinly inhabited,
with Plenty of all Sorts of the best Provisions
and Materials. Most if not all Sorts of
English Husbandry, I know experimentally, may
be carried on there with much less Labour, and
far greater Encrease than in England: For Instance,
it is common only by howing up the Ground,
and throwing Seed upon it, and harrowing it in,
to reap from sixty to eighty Bushels for one of
English Wheat, of a large full Grain with a thin
Rind; and I have had two Tuns off an Acre of
Clover, which we may mow twice; and as for
Barley's being burnt up with dry hot Weather,
it often has the same fate in several Parts of England;
besides more Experience and Observation
of the Seasons, will make People more expert in
the Management of that, and all other Sorts of
Grain, or Seeds, and Grass, that they have not
there brought yet to the greatest Perfection. Several
English Farmers have indeed been baulked
of their Expectation, in Attempts of carrying on
their Art to great Advantage in Virginia; but this
in a great Measure I attribute to their want of
Judgment, and too strict Observance of the English
Customs and Times, without making proper
Allowance for the Difference of Soil, Seasons,
and Climates; besides the vast Expence and Trouble,
and the long Time required in clearing the
Ground for their Purpose, in building of Barns,
Farm-Houses, &c. so that frequently by that Time
that they have brought their Purposes to Perfection,
their Patience begins to be tired, and their
Purses are pretty well emptied; so that at last
they run into the rapid Current of planting Tobacco,
which they know will bring them in certain
Gain with but little Expence.


Now for the Conveniency of Husbandry, I
know a certain Gentleman, who employs a great
Number of Negroes in clearing Plantations, and
planting Corn and Tobacco, as usual, with this
Intention, viz. When these Negroes shall have
cleared the Land, planted Hedges, and built Barns
and Farm-Houses gradually in a few Years, without
any Hindrance to their Crops, then he proposed
to let these Farms with a Stock of Cattle,
&c. ready upon them for a small Rent and Fines,
to such poor, honest, skilful Farmers, as he can
procure to come and take them, either upon long
Lease or for Lives; and remove his Negroes upon
fresh Land to prepare more Farms. 'Tis Pity but
this Project was frequently practised, for thereby
good Estates might be raised in Families; many an
unfortunate Family might retrieve their bad Circumstances,
and find Employment and great Benefit;
and all this carried on with the same Opportunity
of Profit from Tobacco, as other Gentlemen
Planters have; nay better, in that the Hands
would be still tending fresh Ground.


As for Liquors, they might make as good Malt-Drink,
and as cheap there as any where else; and
for Cyder I think it surpasses even Herefordshire it
self, for Plenty and Fairness of Fruit, the Trees
thriving and producing wonderfully, yielding
a strong and good tasted Cyder, when well made
and managed, especially if kept in good Vaults.
From Peaches is distilled an excellent Spirit in very
great Plenty, very difficult to be distinguished
(when well made) from Citron Water. This they
call Persico, which with many other Spirits
might be made there to turn to a very good Account,
and produced in great Quantities from
their numerous large Orchards of Apples and
Peaches. Hogs, horned Cattle, and Sheep thrive
and encrease there mightily; and Salt and Casks
being very cheap, vast Advantage might be made
more than is, by raising of great Stocks, and
salting up Beef and Pork for victualling of Ships,
and supplying the West-Indies and other Places
with Provisions, which they might afford to do
very cheap, did some of the additional Part of
the Servants before-mentioned make it their Business
to tend Flocks and Herds, and provide better
and more Food for them in the Winter, than
what they now usually have. As for the Advantage
of Woollen Manufactures, that is so well
known, that I shall say nothing in that Respect,
only that there is in Virginia as good Wool as the
finest in England; and I doubt not but with good
Management the Climate will produce as fine as
any in Spain, since the Sheep in both Places are
of British Original; and in my Opinion it would
be a great Advantage (instead of Detriment) to
have fine Wool enough of our own to work up,
without being beholden to Spain for it; especially
if we consider that it might either be sent
Home to be wrought in Britain, or else we might
send over Numbers of our superfluous Cloth-workers
to make it up there into the same Sorts
of Goods, as they make in England, which would
be much the cheapest way; and then these
Goods should be imported to the Clothiers here,
who undoubtedly would have Call enough for
what they can make in Virginia and at Home;
for if they see Occasion they need not encrease
the Quantity, but only make Use of Plantation
Wool raised by Britons, instead of Spanish Wool;
and the Decrease of our Exports to Spain might
sufficiently be balanced (if not upon Account of
employing Numbers of our own People, yet) by
many other Ways. Neither can I see any Harm
in it, if the carrying on Woollen Manufactures
in Virginia by English People that want Employment,
the Quantity of Woollen Goods were
thereby encreased; especially such as are for Home
Consumption, and the Use of the Plantations;
for then Rich and Poor would have their Cloths
much cheaper; and if the Draper gained less by
his Countrymen, it might be contrived that he
should gain more by Strangers abroad in other
Parts of the World.


More might be said as to the Manufactures of
Hemp and Flax, than what I have mentioned of
Wool, because we are in a great Measure obliged
for these to foreign Nations, who in Case of War
might pinch us prodigiously more than they do;
more particularly to the great Expence and Inconveniency
of our Shipping, the Glory and Bulwark
of the British Nations. Here we have enough
of good Land lying waste; and at Home
we have People lying idle sufficient to supply us
from Virginia, with Ropes, Cables, and Canvas
for our Ships of War and Merchandize, with
Linens for wearing and for houshold Use, were
Projects set on Foot, and rightly carried on for so
useful and advantageous Undertakings.


Besides this, there is Pitch and Tar enough,
which with careful Management might be made
as good, and afforded as cheap, or cheaper, than
any from other Places.


Then as for Oak no Country has finer nor
more Plenty; which though it will not last long
enough for Houses, yet it will for Shipping:
Witness the New England Ships built of the same
Sort of Wood; and as for Deal Planks here may
be as good as any; and I question if Gottenburgh,
or any other Part of Europe can afford us better
Pines for Masts and Yards (especially for Merchants
Use) than what grow in Virginia in several
Places in very great Plenty; so that many Ships
might be built there, which would employ Numbers
of Shipwrights from Great Britain, and
would stand the Merchants in a great deal less
Expence, than if they were built at Home:
Nay, we might even build Ships for several other
Nations, and make them turn to a very good Account,
without any Risk of doing Damage to
our publick Safety or Interest.


As for Wine, in all Parts of the Country Grapes
grow wild and thrive extreamly, but at present
they are almost only Food for the Birds; few Attempts
having been made for the Cultivation of
them and making Wines, except that of Colonel
Robert Beverley, which was thus: He having
read, seen, studied, and enquired much concerning
the Nature of Vintages, reduced his Knowledge
to Practice for his better Experience and
Certainty, in planting a small Vineyard; and having
great Prospect that this would answer his
Purpose, he bragged much of it in Publick; but
being bantered by several Gentlemen, he proposed
to give each of them a Guinea down, if they
would give him Ten, if he made a certain Number
of Gallons of pure Wine that Vintage; they
accepted the Proposals, and he distributed (I think)
one hundred Guineas, made the Wine according
to the Terms agreed upon, and won his Wager;
which Money he afterwards employed in planting
more and greater Vineyards, from which he
made good Quantities of Wine, and would have
brought it to very high Perfection, had he lived
some Years longer.


His whole Family, even his Negroes drank
scarce any thing but the small Wines, and the
Strong is of a good Body and Flavour; the Red
that I have often drank to me seems to have the
Taste of Claret and the Strength of Red Port.
Not only red Grapes, but also white ones of all
Sorts from Europe produce and grow there to Admiration;
an Instance of which may be seen at
Colonel William Robinson's upon Rappahannock
River, who has planted out Abundance; and I
don't question but he and other Gentlemen there
will follow Mr. Beverley's Pattern; which if
brought to Perfection might tend to an extraordinary
good Account, and not only prove profitable
to the Planter, but also advantageous to
Britain, even if we could but make small Quantities
of Wine there; but much more beneficial
would it be if there could be made Abundance,
as in all Probability there might be, since the
Climate and the Soil seem so extreamly well adapted
for that Purpose; especially up towards the
Hills and Mountains, which at present lye waste.
Would it not be very advantageous to our Nations
if we could not only raise much Wine for
our own Use, but also sell great Quantities to our
Neighbours? And I know of but two trifling
Obstacles in the way; the one is, that the Clusters
of Grapes rarely ripen together, which might be
remedied by picking them at different Times;
the other is, that the Birds devour Abundance;
but this might be prevented by Nets, Guns,
Priapus, and several other Contrivances. This
would employ great Numbers of People, has upon
Trial been proved to answer Expectation, and
might bring vast Profit to the Planter, to the
Merchant, and to the Crown.


To encourage this, I know some that intend
to let Land for a small Acknowledgment in Wine.
Much the same might be said of Silk, which long
ago has been made there, and is known by Experience
to answer the Expectation of the Silk Men.
For Mulberries of all Sorts thrive there to Admiration,
and the Heat of the Summer has been
found to agree with the Nature of the Silk-Worm
extreamly well; so that the only Reason that I
know, why the Gentlemen formerly concerned
in making of Silk in Virginia drop'd their Proceedings,
was the great Profit that Tobacco
brought them in in those Days; which being
raised there only, turned then to an extraordinary
Advantage, much better than any other Project;
but now when so much Tobacco is made, and the
Gain so much less than formerly, I can't imagine
why the Silk Trade is not there revived; which
I am very positive would turn to a very great Account,
if carried on by good Managers. To this
Nature seems to invite us; for upon the Leaves
of the Chinckapin (which seem somewhat like
Mulberry Leaves) I have frequently found a very
large Worm not much unlike the Silk-Worm,
only much bigger.


If the Manufacture of Silk was carried on in
Virginia, every Body knows what Profit it must
bring to make Silk of the Produce of our own
Dominions, in great Plenty, and at cheaper Rates
than we can have it from Asia.


Besides, we may observe that the great Numbers
of People employed in this Manufacture, for
the most Part, might be the young, the aged,
and the disabled, who could not work at any thing
that required hard Labour or much Stirring.


As for Hops, England might save a great deal
of Trouble and Expence, and employ their People
in better Business than Hop-Yards, if Hop-Grounds
were cultivated in Virginia, which is
much fitter for the Purpose.


As for physical Plants and Trees, abundance of
Poor might be employed in simpling and collecting
Drugs for the Apothecaries Service, which abound
there; such as Sassafras, Saxafras, Snakeroot, with
numberless more, whose Virtue is unknown;
and undoubtedly among such various Sorts of anonymous
Plants and Shrubs, there must be many
whose Qualities are strange to the most skilful
Europeans, tho' many of them be understood by
the Indian Doctors: If it be not the true Cortex,
yet they have a Bark very like it in Colour, Taste,
and Operation.


I know that Abundance of Sumack is yearly
consumed in England; but not being perfect in
the Use and Nature of it, I shall only say that it
grows there in great Plenty; and that the Indians
have several fine Colours both for Dying and
Painting, that we know nothing of, as to their
Composition and Use; but Enquiry into these
Things, and Experience might, for what any
knows, in a small Time turn to a good Account,
both for the publick Advantage, and for the Interest
of particular Persons.


I shall say little of Sawing-Mills, since they
are already in Use there, and the great Benefit of
them is so well known. Certainly it must be improper
to bestow much Labour and Expence upon
that which might easily be done for a small
Cost, and with much quicker Expedition; yet is
this wonderful and useful Invention prohibited in
some Parts of Great Britain, upon Account of a
few that pretend they can't get their Livelihood
by any other, but the stupid slavish Work of
Sawing: But in my Opinion we might as well
prohibit the Use of Boats in all our Rivers, because
it interferes with the Interest of the Carriers,
and hinders the Consumption of great
Quantities of Hay and Oats in the Inns. I wonder
that they don't neglect the Use of Horses,
Jacks, Handspikes, and Cranes in his Majesty's
Yards, as well as Sawing-Mills; since each of
them abbreviates Labour and lessens the Expence,
requiring fewer People than must be employed,
were it not for those Inventions, so much hated
by the common People; but certainly these might
be so employed in other Business, as to get
more Money with less Labour. But to return to
Virginia, I am certain that if more Sawing-Mills
were set up there, it would bring great Profit to
the Owners, employ many People there, and
make Timber for Ships and Houses come at a
much cheaper Rate in England, than it now does,
without any Loss to the English landed Gentlemen
or Timber Merchants.


Paper-Mills I believe would answer well there;
for there are good Runs of Water with Timber
for nothing for building them, and I am sure the Negroes
would supply them with Rags enough for
Trifles; to which add the Advantage of Water
Carriage; these need not interfere with the English
Paper-Mills, but only supply us with such Quantities
of Paper, as we buy from foreign Countries.


As for carrying on the Fishing Trade in Virginia,
though there be Plenty of Fish there, yet I
believe other Countries where Fisheries are establish'd,
and that have little else to mind and depend
upon, would outdo it in this Respect; only
more Whales might be taken upon the Eastern
Shore, and bring good Gain to such People as
would make it their Business; and I don't question
but the Sturgeons (with the best of which the
Rivers abound) might with good Management
and Industry be made to surpass all others, both
for Cheapness and Goodness, for they are large,
fine, and easily taken; nay, they frequently leap,
some ashoar and some in Boats, as I have been
very credibly informed.


Upon the Rivers and Creeks are vast large
Marshes, which being drained and secured with
mud Walls, would employ abundance of People,
and might be converted into as good Meadows
and as large, as those upon the Thames about and
below London. Such Meadows are much wanting
there, and would well recompence the Cost and
Trouble of the Undertakers of such noble Projects;
besides this would confine the Rivers to
their proper Channels; whereas now they cover
for Miles from each Shoar large Quantities of flat
and shoaly Ground, useless and incommodious.
However impracticable or difficult this Task may
appear to some, yet I doubt not but in Process of
Time it may be effected.


The upper Parts of Virginia are deprived of
the Advantage of Water Carriage, because the
Rivers above the Falls are generally full of Trees
brought down by Land Floods, with some Rocks
here and there; but they might be made navigable,
and cleared very easily with small skilful Labour,
for they are generally broad and fuller of
Water than our inland Rivers where Boats and
Barges of great Burden can pass; and Wears might
be occasionally made there as up the Thames; but
the main Difficulty would be at the Falls or Cataracts,
where the Water falls over vast Rocks
with an hideous Noise and great Force. Hither
Sloops can come, where the Goods might be
landed with Cranes, and then put on Board the
Boats above the Falls; and by the like Methods
might Goods be sent down. But in Time it may
be worth while to turn Part of the Rivers, and
make Locks one above another, whereby Sloops
might easily be let down or taken up, and so pass
the Falls; like as the large Boats of Pleasure and
Burden are carried with Profit and Ease thro' Vallies
and over Hills quite a-cross France, in the
wonderful Canal of Languedoc, which was contrived
by the late King, in order to make a Communication
from our Seas, to the Mediterranean
through the Heart (almost) of his Kingdom;
which Action has added to his Glory as well as
Profit, and brings in a great Income both to the
Crown and to the Undertaker of this most wonderful
Work. If in England we will not follow
this Example by making a Communication from
the head Branches of the Thames into the Severn,
which is very practicable, the Distance being but
a few Miles; yet I question not but in a few Years
they will be obliged to imitate the Locks of Languedoc
at the Falls in Virginia.


In the Rocks up James River, and in other
Places is found a Stone resembling a Diamond,
much nearer than any Crystal or Bristol-Stone,
being very hard and ornamental.


There has been formerly discovered a Sand
taken for Gold Dust; and towards the Mountains
are variety of Stones, some seeming to contain
several Kinds of Metals, and others are good
for Building; among which is the Appearance of
Abundance of excellent Marble of several Sorts.
Upon the River Sides is cast up by the Tides abundance
of black heavy Sand resembling Smith's
Filings; but the Nature and Vertue of this is
unknown as yet: I believe it is washed from some
Veins of Mines at the Bottoms of the Rivers, or
is carried down by the Current, as Gold Dust in
Africa, from the upper Parts of the Rivers, and
from the Rocks and Mountains.


In several Places is Coal enough near the Surface
of the Earth; and undoubtedly in Time they
will either have Occasion or Vent for it, to supply
other Places, if they will not use it themselves;
but if Coal Works were there carried on
to Advantage, Newcastle may witness, what Numbers
of Ships and People are employed in such
Affairs, and what vast Profit accrues from
thence.


If our Iron Works in Virginia meet with any
tolerable Encouragement, we shall have no Need
to apply to Spain and Sweden for Iron, for we
have there enough to stock all Europe; and as I
have been informed it surpasses all other Iron in
Goodness and Cheapness. This Manufacture might
be carried on without any Detriment to the Iron
Merchants and Makers in England; for they might
stint the Quantity, have it all brought into their
Hands, and use themselves what they want instead
of foreign Iron, and vend Abroad the Overplus
that they may permit to be made. Certainly this
most useful Commodity would come cheaper from
our own Dominions than from other Countries;
and in working it from the Oar to the Bar would
employ great Numbers of People that now beg
or steal for their Living. As for working Iron
up into Instruments and Tools in Virginia, I believe
they would scarce desire so great Liberty;
unless upon Consideration the Gentlemen concerned
in such hard Ware found it to be for the Interest
of themselves, their Workmen, and the Publick,
to send over People to make all Sorts of Utensils
in Iron in Virginia, where they may have all
Sorts of Provisions and Materials for their Work
much cheaper than in England; where they may
have Land to settle for little or nothing; where
Wood, Oar, and Water Conveniences are plentiful.
What Detriment would it be to work up
Iron there, if it may be done cheaper, and by the
same People, who are so numerous in England
that they can (abundance of them) hardly get
Work and a poor Livelihood? But if it will not
be granted that Iron shall be wrought in Virginia,
yet might it be cast there; if Forges will not be
allowed there, yet might Furnaces be encouraged,
from whence our Merchants may be supplied with
better and cheaper Iron than from other Places;
and Recompence might easily be made in the
Trade to Spain and Sweden, &c. for the Deficiency
that would ensue in the Quantities of Goods
exported thither in Exchange for their Iron.


Virginia is justly esteemed one of the most considerable
Branches of the British Dominions; may
it then not be thought very hard that the Virginians
should not only be debarred the Favours allowed
other Britons; but also have less Privilege
allowed them than is given to foreign Nations?
What then may be the Reason why other Nations
are permitted to import their bar Iron,
whereas the Virginians shall not make a Bar, and
must pay the Duty of foreign Iron for all the pig
and sow Iron that they make?


I might mention more Projects, that in all Probability
would turn to an extraordinary Advantage,
if carried on in Virginia; but I presume
these may suffice as a Specimen to shew how useful
and easy it is to promote many Trades, Arts,
and Manufactures there, and what Numbers of
poor, idle, and wicked People may there be employed,
and get a plentiful Maintenance and Settlement
for their Families, and by their Labour
may enrich themselves, the Planters and Merchants,
benefit our Trade, encrease the Revenue
of the Crown, and advance the Interest and Glory
of Great Britain, Ireland, and all the English
Plantations and Settlements Abroad.


I shall conclude this Scheme with observing,
that the People sent over for such Employments
as are here mentioned, when rightly settled, might
have their Provision much cheaper than in England,
and might have their Cloths sent over at the
best Hand; and might be seated conveniently on
Tracts of Land taken up, bought, or rented by
long and cheap Leases; which besides the Profit
of their Labour would secure Estates for Thousands
of poor miserable Wretches, would advance
the Price of Land, and augment the Income of
the Quit-Rents.




















T



The Projects before laid down might
be put in Execution without any Impediment
to the planting of Tobacco,
Corn, &c. in the Methods that are
now practised, and without any Loss
to the present Virginia Trade, and Income to the
Crown arising from Tobacco, or Decrease of the
vast Quantities of all Sorts of Commodities yearly
transported to that large Plantation. And till
such Designs as are here laid down be put in Execution,
or brought to due Regulation and Perfection,
it might not be Cost and Labour thrown
away if the Virginia Gentlemen, Traders and Planters
attempted at some, if not all the Things
mentioned for their Advantage in the last Scheme;
especially when Tobacco is so very low, that it
is not worth while to plant too much of it, which
frequently happens. They might soon perceive
if these Designs would answer Expectation; and
Trials for Experience at their Leisure would not
cost much; for their Experience, I say, rather
than their Satisfaction, because they may be satisfied
as to the Practicableness and Usefulness of
most of these Things, from the repeated Proofs
that have been already made in most of these
Commodities, together with many more; particularly
Hides, which I forgot to mention, which are
now hardly of any Use or Value there, but might
be tann'd very cheap, because of the Plenty of
Bark; and I believe likewise that good Use might
be made of their Sheep and Calf-Skins, which
are now of no Value nor Use worth speaking of.
What Numbers would the Manufacture of these
Things employ, and what Advantage would it
bring to the Workmen and the Planters?


But I see that these Propositions may raise the
loud Clamours of Thousands of People concerned
in England, in the Trades belonging to all the
Commodities here spoken of: In Answer to whose
various Objections it may be replied, that all
these Things would be wrought by their own
Countrymen, poor Neighbours, or Friends; that
it will ease them of their Poor, Vagabonds, and
Villains: That all these Goods are to be transported
to England, so that in reality Virginia
would be only as a Yard or Work-House where
these Servants and Journeymen would labour for
the English; besides several of these Things are
such as we are wholly or in part supplied with
from other Nations; and certainly we had better
have Goods of the Produce of our own People
and Countries, than buy them of Strangers, who
make them for us; and if too great Quantities of
any kind should be made, more than our own Consumption
requires, surely it will be very advantageous
for us, if we can supply other Nations
with such Goods, the best of their Kind, and at
the cheapest Rate. Whenever any of these Projects
should interfere with the Interest of Great
Britain, by all Means they should be stop'd; and
when particular Trades or Persons might receive
Damage by any of these Projects carried on in
Virginia, Amends might be made them by some
other Privileges and Advantages in several other
Respects. Such Things should be encouraged
there, though they made less of several Kinds
here; for Abundance of our People and our Land
might be employed more properly in other Things,
rather than in what they are; which might be
much more easy to them, more agreeable to their
Soil, and more to the Interest of themselves and
the Publick; especially with Respect to such
Things as would be produced better, with less
Labour and more Plenty, with less Expence and
more Profit in Virginia than in Great Britain.
Such Things certainly might more properly be
manufactured there, and our Land and our People
now employed at Home about those Things
should be put to better Uses and Purposes, more
suitable and more beneficial both for the publick
and private Interest. These Measures would create
no Alteration in the present Trade and Methods,
but would only augment and add new Advantages
and Improvements to our Merchandize
and Manufactures: Instead of being a Hindrance
to the present Customs and Methods, it would
promote the Interest and Trade both of Great
Britain and Virginia, and the other Plantations.
Would it not be for the Good of Thousands of
unfortunate People, besides for the Benefit of
Virginia, if Farmers were there well settled, and
Husbandry carried on regularly, and all Sorts of
Grain and Grass brought to Perfection; if greater
Quantities of good Cyder and fine Spirits were
made there, not only for their own Use, but for
Transportation to the West-Indies; nay, and thro'
England to the Turkish Dominions where Wine is
prohibited? How cheap might Ships be there
victualled with the best Provision, and what Quantities
of barrelled Pork and Beef might be exported
from Virginia, with Indian Corn, Wheat,
Rye, &c. and be sent to several Parts of the
World, where such Things turn to very good
Account for the Merchant and Farmer? Many
indeed have been baulked in planting and husbandry
there; but such have been chiefly Londoners,
who are Strangers to Country Business. Any
Person may conceive the great Profit and Use
to Trade in general, by having the Marshes
turned into Meadows, the Rivers confined to
deep Channels, by Passages being contrived at the
Falls, and the upper Parts of the Rivers being
made navigable. England is the Mart and Store-House,
whither the Manufactures and vendible
Goods of Virginia for the most Part should be
sent; and after the English have culled what they
like and have Occasion for, surely they are so skilful
in Merchandize, that they could vend to other
Countries the Overplus of these Commodities,
and reap sufficient Profit for their Pains. Thus
suppose we should have more of the following
Things than our own Use requires, certainly they
might easily and profitably be disposed of to others;
such as the leathern and woollen Manufactures,
hempen and flaxen Goods, Pitch, Tar,
Timber for Ship and House-Carpenters, and Cabinet-Makers,
Joyners, &c. such as Oak, Deal,
Walnut, Hickory, Cedar, Cypress, Locust, and
the like, with Masts, Yards, Ships, and all Sorts
of naval Stores, with Planks, Clapboards, and
Pipestaves; and also Hops, Wine, Hoops, Cask,
Silk, Drugs, Colours, Paper, Train Oil, Sturgeon,
with various Sorts of Stones, Minerals,
and Oars, with Cord, Wood, and Coals, and Metals,
particularly Iron; which last, if it meets
with proper Encouragement, will soon be made
extreamly useful to the Publick.


I shall not insist at large upon the great Profit
accruing from the Goods sold to the Indians, and
their Dear-Skins and Furs which we buy. There
is Land, Provision, Materials, and all other Requisites
for carrying on these Things to the greatest
Perfection and Profit; and must not Trade and
Shipping be wonderfully benefited and advanced,
by transporting to and fro the Persons and Things
before-mentioned?


These Projects would tend to the great Interest
of the Plantation, as well as the Good of Thousands
of poor or idle English, and the Advantage
of the English Dominions and Trade in general;
and besides the Benefits above-mentioned, we
may further observe, that by such Means our inferior
People that now are cloathed with Rags,
being promoted to Circumstances that would afford
it, would yearly expend vast Sums in good
Apparel, Houshold Goods, &c. which they must
be supplied with from Great Britain, whereas
now they are not only useless, but even are noxious
Branches of our Society; to which Class we
may reduce at least (I believe) 1/20 Part of our People,
who might thus be put in a Method, not
only to maintain themselves handsomly and live
well, but likewise by their Consumption of Goods
would support Thousands of Families in the manufacturing
of such Commodities as they may
have Occasion for: And the Addition to our publick
Riches, which would be required in the Advancement
of the Fortunes and Estates of all these
mean People, would arise from the Encrease of
our foreign Trade, in supplying other Countries
with those Commodities, many of which we now
even buy ourselves; so that in Realty these Folks
might be maintained and provided for well at the
Expence of foreign Nations, without the least
Charge or Contribution (in effect) of our own
Fellow-Subjects.


Virginia was the first Plantation, and is one of
the very best and largest, depending most directly
upon the Crown, and bringing most into the
Treasury upon account of the Customs and Quit-Rents;
therefore it has the first Title to claim,
and a superior Right to demand such Encouragement,
as may tend to the speedy Promotion of its
Trade and Prosperity. This Colony ought first
to be brought to its greatest Perfection, and then
the others may crave the like Assistance, in such
Methods as may best suit with their Occasion and
particular Circumstances; so that in their Course
continually all the Plantations might be made constant
and sure Receptacles, and find sufficient Provision
and Employment for all our Poor, our
Beggars, and our notorious Rogues; all which
might more effectually and expeditiously be brought
to pass, if our Slave Trade were moderated, if
not ended, and exchanged for some other as advantageous
for the Merchant, and the publick
Good; for by what I understand since the Plantations
are so well stock'd with Slaves, and they
breed and thrive there so prodigiously, the Company
has not gained very exceedingly by slaving
of late Years; but be their Gain much or little,
I am persuaded that if fewer Slaves were imported
to Virginia, it would be better for the Virginia
Planters and Merchants; and with humble Submission
I am of Opinion that the African Traders
might prosecute more gainful Adventures than too
much slaving.


But I should not pretend to direct in the Regulation
of Trade; only I shall take Leave to
make this Observation as to the Trade of Virginia,
viz. It is great Pity but that the publick
Tobacco were well ordered; for the Publick, the
County, and the Parish Levies might be paid
much better, there being too frequently Deficiencies,
both in the Manner of the Payment, and
the Quality of the Commodity.


This with the Negroe Trade is what the Assembly
have often considered and attempted to rectify;
in which Respects their strenuous Endeavours
justly merit the Applause and grateful Acknowledgments
of all Persons interested in these
Affairs. As for the English Laws and Duties relating
to Tobacco, they are out of my Sphere;
only I know that frequently the Duty is so high,
and the Price so low, that it is very hard for the
Merchant; and the Planter and the Smoaker get
little or nothing but their Labour for their Pains
and Expence; for it has happened that Planters,
who have had a great Dependance upon their
Years Crop of Tobacco, for the Support of
themselves and Families, have, instead of clearing
any thing, been brought in Debt by it, the
Charges and Duties far over-balancing the Price
of the Tobacco; so that though the Virginians
are for the most Part very eager at making Tobacco,
which formerly turned to a vast Account,
yet of late Years they sometimes get little or nothing
by it, but Trouble and Loss; because of
the great Expence in making and sending it Home
to Market, and the great Duties which are paid
out of it, and the small Price that it usually bears,
especially when there is no great Demand and
Call for it. Besides many Frauds having of late
Years crept into the Trade, and Abundance of
Tobacco being counterfeited, and more run in
some Parts and Ports of Great Britain, the cunning
Dealer often by such Means ruins the fair
Trader, by vending his poor damaged counterfeited
or run Goods at a cheap Rate, thus underselling
his Neighbour, imposing upon the Publick,
and defrauding the Government; nay, 'tis
said that such have often doubly cheated the Government,
first by running Tobacco, or entering
all light Hogsheads at Importation, which in their
Language is called Hickory-puckery; and then again
by getting a Debenture for Tobacco that
has been run, or entering all heavy Hogsheads
for Exportation, which they term Puckery-hickory;
after which it is said that the same Tobacco
has been runned again into some neighbouring
Port.


It must be allowed as a Demonstration that
some such Practices have been used, if upon Enquiry
it be discoverable that the Government has
lost by the Customs, when the Amount even of
the Debentures has by much exceeded the Income
of the Duties; without any Allowance for the
vast Quantity that is consumed in the Country in
smoaking, chewing, Snuff, &c.


Having here and in the last Scheme spoken of
the Vent that might be contrived for the additional
Produce of Virginia, I shall add no more
upon that Subject, but subjoin a few Considerations
relating to all the Plantations in general.


The Extent, the Wealth, the numerous Inhabitants,
the Hands employed, the Goods consumed,
the Duties and Customs occasioned by
the Plantations, especially such as Virginia, are
well worthy the most serious Consideration, and
claim the greatest Favour and Encouragement in
the Trade and Manufactures of those Places,
which are vastly larger than all his Majesty's Dominions
in Europe, and in Time may become as
considerable; they being at present one of the
chiefest Causes and main Supports of our Trade,
and bringing as much Money into the Treasury,
and the Purses of Merchants, and other People,
as most other Parts of the World to which we
trade.


The Good of the Publick consists as well in
the Welfare of the Subject, as in the Power and
Riches of the Prince; Regard being to be had as
well to the Circumstances of the one, as the other.
Now the Advancement of Trade and Manufactures
in the Plantations in the highest Degree respects
both the Sovereign and the Subject, in which
both the publick and private Interest is deeply
engaged; therefore should the Plantation Trade
and Manufactures be set upon the best Footing
imaginable; be carried on strenuously to the best
Advantage; and be granted all reasonable Favour,
Protection, and Encouragement. They are Branches
and chief Members, why then may they not continue
justly to partake of the same Privileges and
Advantages that are enjoyed by England, which
may truly be esteemed their Head, to which they
are inseparably joined, as being essential Parts of
the same Body Politick? I need not relate the Fable
of the Head and Members, for every one
knows the Moral inferred from it; how that unless
the Members travel and labour for the Service
of the Head and Body, and the Head contrives,
and the Body conveys Nourishment and Sustenance
to the Members, the whole Fabrick, both
Head, Body, and Members would soon perish,
and moulder to Dust. I presume that the Application
of this to Great Britain, and our Trade
and Plantations may not be altogether improper.


There can be no Room for real Apprehension
of Danger of a Revolt of the Plantations in future
Ages: Or if any of them should attempt it,
they might very easily be reduced by the others;
for all of them will never unite with one another;
for though all the Plantations agree in this, that
they all belong to, and depend entirely upon Great
Britain; yet they have each Views different from
one another, and as strenuously pursue their separate
Interests, by various and distinct Methods.
Besides, they can't possibly be without Great Britain,
to which they owe their being at first made
Colonies; and afterwards have been always supported,
maintained and employed by it. They can't
live without this Mart for their Manufactures and
Market, for Supply of Goods that they want; where
they have a great Interest, from whence they are
descended, to which they are united by Blood, Religion,
Language, Laws, and Customs, and also
they have and may always expect to find greater
Favour, Encouragement, and Protection in England,
than from any other Nation in the World.
The Plantations cannot possibly subsist without
some Trade, Correspondence, Union, and Alliance
in Europe, and absolute Necessity obliges
them to fix these perpetually in Great Britain.
Upon which, as upon a Stock, they are ingrafted,
spring forth, blossom and bear Fruit abundantly,
and being once lop'd off from it, they would
soon wither and perish; thus is it the Interest and
Safety, as well as the Duty and Inclination of the
Inhabitants of our Plantations, always to be subservient
to the Government of England, by which
they are planted, protected, supported, assisted,
and encouraged.


'Tis true indeed, that the Roman Colonies, so
famous and flourishing of old, are long ago all
quite extinct; but then this is to be attributed to
the Decline and Destruction of the Roman Empire
it self, and had that continued, in all Probability
England it self had still been a Roman Colony,
as it once was; but when the Romans forsook
England, then England soon disowned Rome,
being obliged to apply for Succour to the Saxons,
afterwards to the Danes, and afterwards being
brought to the Norman Establishment; from
whence it has wonderfully and gradually advanced
its own Grandeur, Wealth, Dominions and Trade,
to its present immense and glorious Bulk; in
which thriving and flourishing Course may it still
prosperously proceed in the present Establishment
in Church and State, till Time it self shall have
an End.


The Roman Colonies were for the greatest Part
inhabited by the Nations to whom the Countries
belonged before the Approach of the Roman
Legions, who first subdued them, and then
made them as Slaves rather than Fellow Subjects;
so that when the Forces that kept them in Awe
and Slavery were removed, they then readily embraced
the joyful Opportunity of recovering their
antient Rights and Laws, and reassuming their
old Religions and Liberties, and rescuing themselves
and their Country from Slavery and Bondage,
wherewith they had been captivated by the
Roman Conquests.


But in our Colonies and Plantations the Case is
vastly different; we have there few or none of the
Indian Inhabitants intermix'd with us; the Country
is capacious enough for our Reception in the
Islands and along the Coasts, and there is sufficient
Room for the Indians backwards upon the
Continent. Our Colonies are all inhabited for
the most Part by Britons and Irish; their Trade
and Interest, Customs, Laws, and Religion are
agreeable to, or the same with ours; neither is
there any Necessity for Fleets or Armies to keep
them in Subjection and Awe.


Instead of forsaking England, it may be in the
Power (as well as it would be the Interest) of
the Plantations to assist England against any foreign
Force, that in future Ages may injure, insult,
or molest it.


The greatest Occasion that the Plantations
have or may require for powerful Assistance from
England, is upon Account of the Pyrates who abominably
infest their Seas and Coasts; but a
competent Number of bold and active Men of
War might soon take all those Nests of Robbers;
and Contrivances for proper Employment for such
wild and extravagant People, and more honest
Work for Sailors in the Plantations, might in a
great Measure prevent Pyrates. Several come in
upon Acts of Grace; the rest might be subdued
by Force, and confined to proper Labour and Industry;
and Encouragement and Work might be
found for all such as may be suspected to be inclinable
for the Account, as they call it; thus if
we cannot, or rather will not execute proper
Measures for the Extirpation of Pyrates in the
American Seas, yet certainly we should put a Stop
to their Encrease, and not suffer them to swarm
one Year more than another, which surely may
be made very practicable by apt Endeavours, courageous
Care, and good Conduct; as may most
remarkably be evidenced by the well concerted
Expedition from Virginia to North Carolina against
Blackbeard and his Crew, and the most successful
Efforts of the celebrated Captain Ogle,
who made such effectual Use of his Commission
and Opportunity.


A few more such famous Commanders as Captain
Brand and Captain Ogle might soon secure
our Plantation Merchandize, and clear a free Passage,
and safely guard our Coasts and convoy our
Ships, and either totally abolish all Pyratical Republicks,
or else at least put a Curb and Restraint
upon their outrageous Insults. These are Matters
of greatest Consequence to our Plantations, and
the trading Part of our Nation; and therefore
ought not to be neglected and slighted, but committed
to the Management of such Persons, of
the greatest Honour, Resolution, and Discretion,
who prefer the Publick before their private Trade,
mind the Interest of their Country as much as,
or more than their own, that will make it their
chief Business to find, that dare to attack, and
are able to conquer, these bold and desperate Rovers,
the greatest of Reprobates. Such gallant
Persons, if they be rare to be found, ought the
more to be rewarded and encouraged, valued and
honoured.


The last Thing that I shall mention with Regard
to the Advantage of Trade in Virginia, is
the absolute Necessity of a better Regulation of
the Post-Office there, for the safe and quicker
Conveyance of Letters.


Having thus delivered my Sentiments concerning
Learning and Education, Religion, Arts and
Inventions, and Trade in Virginia, with some general
Remarks concerning all the Plantations, I
draw near a Period upon these Subjects, supposing
that what I have here mentioned may be enough
to inform the Curious, and satisfy the candid
Reader; knowing that I have writ a great
deal more than they will relish or approve of,
whose Humour or Interest may clash with my
Opinion and Propositions; but I assure such that
I don't vainly imagine that these my private Sentiments
should be obligatory to any that dislike
them, or that they are absolutely necessary to be
punctually observed and complied with by them;
but I only humbly offer these my Thoughts to
the Consideration of all such as are concerned or
skilled in these Matters; who certainly have Liberty
either to reject them, or approve of them,
as they shall esteem it most reasonable, according
to their best Judgment and Discretion.


I shall only add, that if from these my private
Notions and Remarks any one publick Good may
be extracted, it will prove a great Satisfaction to
me, in that the Intent of this Memorial will be
answered, tho' but in a very small Degree, which
joyful Satisfaction will be raised in the same Proportion
as the Use of this Treatise encreases;
but if at last it should happen that no Good should
proceed from this my weak Endeavour; nevertheless
(I hope) my Labour will not be imputed
to me as criminal; since I have hereby offered my
best Service in the Advancement of the Interest,
and for the Promotion of the Good of a Country,
to which I am in the highest Degree obliged.


FINIS.











ERRATA.



Page 6. Line 2. and p. 22. l. 4. read Powhatan.

p. 7. l. 9. r. West-Indians.

p. 8. l. 22. r. or sometimes.

p. 11. l. 4. for flung r. slung.

p. 16. l. 18. r. Mohomny.

p. 21. l. 22. f. Professions r. Possessions.

p. 22. l. 28. f. Country r. County.

p. 39. l. 19. f. hired r. tired.

p. 42. l. 2. f. these r. they.

p. 45. l. 2. f. certain r. in hopes.

p. 46. l. 24. f. few r. most.

p. 57. l. 4. f. being r. which being.

ibid. l. 7. f. the trench r. a hole.

p. 60. l. 4. f. Wines r. Vines.

ib. l. 17. f. Planks r. Plants.

p. 61. l. 28. f. may r. think to.

p 62. l. 30. r. Mannacan.

p. 88. l. 9. r. President.

p. 93. l. 24. r. a Fellow.

p. 96. l. 14. f. This r. These.

ibid. l. 33. r. Ethicks.

p. 116. l. 24. f. Passages r. Purposes.

p. 129. l. 8. f. it seems r. seems.

p. 132. l. 16. f. so as r. as.

p. 134. l. 4. f. before r. above.
















BOOKS printed for John Clarke,
at the Bible, under the Royal-Exchange,
Cornhill.



A



An Accidence to the English Tongue,
chiefly for the Use of such Boys and Men
as have never learn'd Latin perfectly, and
for the Benefit of the Female Sex: Also for the
Welch, Scotch, Irish, and Foreigners, being a
Grammatical Essay upon our Language, considering
the true Manner of Reading, Writing,
and Talking proper English. By Hugh Jones, A.M.
lately Mathematical Professor at the College of
William and Mary at Williamsburgh in Virginia,
and Chaplain to the honourable the Assembly of
that Colony. 12°. Price 1 s. Bound.


The History of Virginia in four Parts.


I. The History of the first Settlement of Virginia,
and the Government thereof, to the Year
1706.


II. The natural Production 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 Improvement
of the Land, to the 10th of June 1720. By
a Native and Inhabitant of the Place. The second
Edition, enlarged, 8vo. pr. 4 s. 6 d.


A general Treatise of the Dominion of the
Sea, and a compleat Body of Sea Laws. 4to.
p. 10 s.


The Plantation Laws. 8vo.






Transcriber's Notes:
Errors noted in the Errata list have been fixed. They are shown in
 the text with mouse-hover popups. Position
your mouse over the word to see the correction.


Variations in spelling and hyphenation have been retained as in the
original.


The following corrections have been made to the text:




Page 6, line 14, Particularly [Original
has Parcularly]


Page 29, line 16, Gaol [Original has Goal]




 They are shown in the text with mouse-hover popups.