The History of Virginia Part 23

OF THE DISEASES INCIDENT TO VIRGINIA.

-- 82. While we are upon the climate, and its accidents, it will not be improper to mention the diseases incident to Virginia. Distempers come not there by choaking up the spirits, with a foggy and thick air, as in some northern climes; nor by a stifling heat, that exhales the vigor of those that dwell in a more southerly lat.i.tude: but by a willful and foolish indulging themselves in those pleasures, which in a warm and fruitful country, nature lavishes upon mankind, for their happiness, and not for their destruction.

Thus I have seen persons impatient of heat, lie almost naked upon the cold gra.s.s in the shades, and there, often forgetting themselves, fall asleep. Nay, many are so imprudent, as to do this in an evening, and perhaps lie so all night; when between the clew from heaven, and the damps from the earth, such impressions are made upon the humors of their body, as occasion fatal distempers.

Thus also have I seen persons put into a great heat by excessive action, and in the midst of that heat, strip off their clothes, and expose their open pores to the air. Nay, I have known some mad enough in this hot condition, to take huge draughts of cold water, or perhaps of milk and water, which they esteem much more cold in operation than water alone.

And thus likewise have I seen several people, (especially new-comers,) so intemperate in devouring the pleasant fruits, that they have fallen into dangerous fluxes and surfeits. These, and such like disorders, are the chief occasions of their diseases.

-- 83. The first sickness that any new-comer happens to have there, he unfairly calls a seasoning, be it fever, ague, or any thing else, that his own folly or excesses bring upon him.

Their intermitting fevers, as well as their agues, are very troublesome, if a fit remedy be not applied; but of late the doctors there have made use of the Cortex Peruviana with success, and find that it seldom or never fails to remove the fits. The planters, too, have several roots natural to the country, which in this case they cry up as infallible; and I have found by many examples a total immersion in cold spring water, just at the accession of the fit an infallible cure.

-- 84. When these damps, colds and disorders affect the body more gently, and do not seize people violently at first; then for want of some timely application, (the planters abhorring all physic, except in desperate cases,) these small disorders are suffered to go on, until they grow into a cachexia, by which the body is overrun with obstinate s...o...b..tic humors. And this in a more fierce, and virulent degree, I take to be the yaws.

-- 85. The gripes is a distemper of the Caribbee islands, not of that country, and seldom gets footing there, and then only upon great provocations; namely, by the intemperance before mentioned, together with an unreasonable use of filthy and unclean drinks. Perhaps too it may come by new unfine cider, perry or peach drink, which the people are impatient to drink before it is ready; or by the excessive use of lime juice, and foul sugar in punch and flip; or else by the constant drinking of uncorrected beer, made of such windy unwholesome things as some people make use of in brewing.

Thus having fairly reckoned up the princ.i.p.al inconveniences of the climate, and the distempers incident to the country, I shall add a chapter of the recreations and amus.e.m.e.nts used there, and proceed to the natural benefits they enjoy. After which, I shall conclude with some hints concerning their trade and improvements.

CHAPTER XXI.

OF THE RECREATIONS AND PASTIMES USED IN VIRGINIA.

-- 86. For their recreation, the plantations, orchards and gardens constantly afford them fragrant and delightful walks. In their woods and fields, they have an unknown variety of vegetables, and other rarities of nature to discover and observe. They have hunting, fishing and fowling, with which they entertain themselves an hundred ways. There is the most good nature and hospitality practiced in the world, both towards friends and strangers: but the worst of it is, this generosity is attended now and then with a little too much intemperance. The neighborhood is at much the same distance as in the country in England; but the goodness of the roads, and the fairness of the weather, bring people often together.

-- 87. The Indians, as I have already observed, had in their hunting, a way of concealing themselves, and coming up to the deer, under the blind of a stalking head, in imitation of which, many people have taught their horses to stalk it, that is, to walk gently by the huntsman's side, to cover him from the sight of the deer. Others cut down trees for the deer to browse upon, and lie in wait behind them. Others again set stakes, at a certain distance within their fences, where the deer have been used to leap over into a field of peas, which they love extremely; these stakes they so place, as to run into the body of the deer, when he pitches, by which means they impale him; and for a temptation to the leap take down the top part of the fence.

-- 88. They hunt their hares, (which are very numerous,) a foot, with mongrels or swift dogs, which either catch them quickly, or force them to hole in a hollow tree, whither all their hares generally tend when they are closely pursued. As soon as they are thus holed, and have crawled up into the body of the tree, the business is to kindle a fire, and smother them with smoke, till they let go their hold, and fall to the bottom stifled; from whence they take them. If they have a mind to spare their lives, upon turning them loose, they will be as fit as ever to hunt at another time; for the mischief done them by the smoke immediately wears off again.

-- 89. They have another sort of hunting, which is very diverting, and that they call vermin hunting; it is performed a foot, with small dogs in the night, by the light of the moon or stars. Thus in summer time they find abundance of racc.o.o.ns, opossums and foxes in the corn fields, and about their plantations: but at other times they must go into the woods for them. The method is to go out with three or four dogs, and as soon as they come to the place they bid the dogs seek out, and all the company follow immediately. Wherever a dog barks, you may depend upon finding the game; and this alarm draws both men and dogs that way. If this sport be in the woods, the game, by the time you come near it, is perhaps mounted to the top of an high tree, and then they detach a nimble fellow up after it, who must have a scuffle with the beast before he can throw it down to the dogs; and then the sport increases, to see the vermin encounter those little curs. In this sort of hunting, they also carry their great dogs out with them; because wolves, bears, panthers, wild cats, and all other beasts of prey, are abroad in the night.

For wolves they make traps and set guns baited in the woods, so that when he offers to seize the bait, he pulls the trigger, and the gun discharges upon him. What aelian and Pliny write, of the horses being benumed in their legs, if they tread in the track of a wolf, does not hold good here; for I myself, and many others, have rid full speed after wolves in the woods, and have seen live ones taken out of a trap, and dragged at a horse's tail; and yet those that followed on horse back, have not perceived any of their horses to falter in their pace.

-- 90. They have many pretty devices besides the gun to take wild turkeys; and among others, a friend of mine invented a great trap, wherein he at times caught many turkeys, and particularly seventeen at one time; but he could not contrive it so as to let others in, after he had entrapped the first flock, until they were taken out.

-- 91. The Indian invention of weirs in fishing is mightily improved by the English, besides which they make use of seins, trolls, casting nets, setting nets, hand fishing and angling, and in each find abundance of diversion. I have sat in the shade at the heads of the rivers angling, and spent as much time in taking the fish off the hook as in waiting for their taking it. Like those of the Euxine sea, they also fish with spilyards, which is a long line staked out in the river, and hung with a great many hooks on short strings, fastened to the main line, about three or four feet asunder, supported by stakes, or buoyed up with gourds. They use likewise the Indian way of striking the light of a fire in the night, as is described in the second book, chapter 5, section 23.

-- 92. Their fowling is answerable to their fishing for plenty of game in its proper season. Some plantations have a vast variety of it, several sorts of which I have not yet mentioned, as beaver, otter, squirrels, partridges, pigeons, and an infinite number of small birds, &c.

-- 93. The admirable economy of the beavers deserves to be particularly remembered. They cohabit in one house are incorporated in a regular form of government, something like monarchy, and have over them a superintendent, which the Indians call pericu. He leads them out to their several employments, which consist in felling of trees, biting off the branches, and cutting them into certain lengths, suitable to the business they design them for, all which they perform with their teeth.

When this is done, the pericu orders several of his subjects to join together, and take up one of those logs, which they must carry to their house or dam, as occasion requires. He walks in state by them all the while, and sees that every one bears his equal share of the burthen; while he bites with his teeth, and lashes with his tail, those that lag behind, and do not lend all their strength; their way of carriage is upon their tail. They commonly build their houses in swamps, and then to raise the water to a convenient height, they make a dam with logs, and a binding fort of clay, so firm, that though the water runs continually over, it cannot wash it away. Within these dams they'll inclose water enough to make a pool like a mill pond; and if a mill happen to be built on the same stream, below their dam, the miller, in a dry season, finds it worth his while to cut it, to supply his mill with water. Upon which disaster the beavers are so expert at their work, that in one or two nights' time they will repair the breach, and make it perfectly whole again. Sometimes they build their houses in a broad marsh, where the tide ebbs and flows, and then they make no dam at all. The doors into their houses are under water. I have been at the demolishing of one of these houses, that was found in a marsh, and was surprised to find it fortified with logs, that were six feet long, and ten inches through, and had been carried at least one hundred and fifty yards. This house was three stories high, and contained five rooms, that is to say, two in the lower, two in the middle story, and but one at the top. These creatures have a great deal of policy, and know how to defeat all the subtilty and stratagems of the hunter, who seldom can meet with them, tho' they are in great numbers all over the country.

-- 94. There is yet another kind of sport, which the young people take great delight in, and that is, the hunting of wild horses; which they pursue sometimes with dogs, and sometimes without. You must know they have many horses foaled in the woods of the uplands, that never were in hand, and are as shy as any savage creature. These having no mark upon them, belong to him that first takes them. However, the captor commonly purchases these horses very dear, by spoiling better in the pursuit; in which case he has little to make himself amends, besides the pleasure of the chase. And very often this is all he has for it; for the wild horses are so swift, that 'tis difficult to catch them; and when they are taken, 'tis odds but their grease is melted, or else being old, they are so sullen, that they can't be tamed.

-- 95. The inhabitants are very courteous to travelers, who need no other recommendation, but the being human creatures. A stranger has no more to do, but to enquire upon the road, where any gentleman or good housekeeper lives, and there he may depend upon being received with hospitality. This good nature is so general among their people, that the gentry, when they go abroad, order their princ.i.p.al servant to entertain all visitors, with everything the plantation affords. And the poor planters, who have but one bed, will very often sit up, or lie upon a form or couch all night, to make room for a weary traveler, to repose himself after his journey.

If there happen to be a churl, that either out of covetousness, or ill nature, won't comply with this generous custom, he has a mark of infamy set upon him, and is abhorred by all.

CHAPTER XXII.

OF THE NATURAL PRODUCTS OF VIRGINIA, AND THE ADVANTAGES OF THEIR HUSBANDRY.

-- 96. The extreme fruitfulness of that country, has been sufficiently shown in the second book, and I think we may justly add, that in that particular it is not exceeded by any other. No seed is sown there, but it thrives; and most of the northern plants are improved, by being transplanted thither. And yet there's very little improvement made among them, seldom anything used in traffic but tobacco.

Besides all the natural productions mentioned in the second book, you may take notice that apples from the seed never degenerate into crabs there, but produce as good or perhaps better fruit than the mother tree, (which is not so in England,) and are wonderfully improved by grafting and managing; yet there are very few planters that graft at all, end much fewer that take any care to get choice fruits.

The fruit trees are wonderfully quick of growth; so that in six or seven years time from the planting, a man may bring an orchard to bear in great plenty, from which he may make store of good cider, or distill great quant.i.ties of brandy; for the cider is very strong, and yields abundance of spirit. Yet they have very few, that take any care at all for an orchard; nay, many that have good orchards are so negligent of them as to let them go to ruin, and expose the trees to be torn and barked by the cattle.

Peaches, nectarines, and apricots, as well as plumbs and cherries, grow there upon standard trees. They commonly bear in three years from the stone, and thrive so exceedingly, that they seem to have no need of grafting or inoculating, if any body would be so good a husband; and truly I never heard of any that did graft either plum, nectarine, peach or apricot in that country, before the first edition of this book.

Peaches and nectarines I believe to be spontaneous, somewhere or other on that continent, for the Indians have, and ever had greater variety, and finer sorts of them than the English. The best sort of these cling to the stone, and will not come off clear, which they call plum nectarines, and plum peaches, or cling stones. Some of these are twelve or thirteen inches in the girt. These sorts of fruits are raised so easily there, that some good husbands plant great orchards of them, purposely for their hogs; and others make a drink of them, which they call mobby, and either drink it as cider, or distill it off for brandy.

This makes the best spirit next to grapes.

Grape vines of the English stock, as well as those of their own production, bear most abundantly, if they are suffered to run near the ground, and increase very kindly by slipping; yet very few have them at all in their gardens, much less endeavor to improve them by cutting or laying. But since the first impression of this book, some vineyards have been attempted, and one is brought to perfection, of seven hundred and fifty gallons a year. The wine drinks at present greenish, but the owner doubts not of good wine, in a year or two more, and takes great delight that way.

When a single tree happens in clearing the ground, to be left standing, with a vine upon it, open to the sun and air, that vine generally produces as much as four or five others, that remain in the woods. I have seen in this case, more grapes upon one single vine, than would load a London cart. And for all this, the people till of late never removed any of them into their gardens, but contented themselves throughout the whole country with the grapes they found thus wild.

A garden is no where sooner made than there, either for fruits or flowers. Tulips from the seed, flower the second year. All sorts of herbs have there a perfection in their flavor, beyond what I ever tasted in a more northern climate. And yet they haven't many gardens in that country, fit to bear the name of garden.

-- 97. All sorts of English grain thrive, and increase there, as well as in any other part of the world, as for example, wheat, barley, oats, rye, peas, rape, &c. And yet they don't make a trade of any of them.

Their peas indeed are troubled with weevils, which eat a hole in them, but this hole does neither damage the seed, nor make the peas unfit for boiling. And such as are sowed late, and gathered after August, are clear of that inconvenience.

It is thought too much for the same man, to make the wheat, and grind it, bolt it, and bake it himself. And it is too great a charge for every planter, who is willing to sow barley, to build a malt house, and brew house too, or else to have no benefit of his barley; nor will it answer, if he would be at the charge. These things can never be expected from a single family; but if they had cohabitations, it might be thought worth attempting. Neither as they are now settled, can they find any certain market for their other grain, which, if they had towns, would be quite otherwise.

Rice has been tried there, and is found to grow as well as in Carolina; but it labors under the same inconvenience, the want of a community to husk and clean it, and, after all, to take it off the planter's hands.

-- 98. I have related at large in the first book how flax, hemp, cotton, and the silk worms have thriven there in the several essays made upon them; how formerly there was encouragement given for making of linen, silk, &c., and how all persons not performing several things towards producing of them were put under a fine; but now all encouragement of such things is taken away or entirely dropped by the a.s.semblies, and such manufactures are always neglected when tobacco bears anything of a price.

Silk gra.s.s is there spontaneous in many places. I need not mention what advantage may be made of so useful a plant, whose fibres are as fine as flax, and much stronger than hemp. Mr. Purchase tells us, in his Fourth Pilgrim, page 1786, that in the first discovery of this part of the world they presented Queen Elizabeth with a piece of grogram that had been made of it. And yet to this day they make no manner of use of this plant, no, not so much as the Indians did, before the English came among them, who then made their baskets, fishing nets, and lines of it.

-- 99. The sheep increase well, and bear good fleeces; but they generally are suffered to be torn off their backs by briars and bushes, instead of being shorn, or else are left rotting upon the dunghill with their skins.

Bees thrive there abundantly, and will very easily yield to the careful housewife a full hive of honey, and besides lay up a winter store sufficient to preserve their stocks.

The beeves, when any care is taken of them in the winter, come to good perfection. They have n.o.ble marshes there, which, with the charge of draining only, would make as fine pastures as any in the world; and yet there is hardly an hundred acres of marsh drained throughout the whole country.

Hogs swarm like vermin upon the earth, and are often accounted such, insomuch, that when an inventory of any considerable man's estate is taken by the executors the hogs are left out, and not listed in the apprais.e.m.e.nt. The hogs run where they list, and find their own support in the woods, without any care of the owner; and in many plantations it is well if the proprietor can find and catch the pigs, or any part of a farrow, when they are young to mark them; for if there be any marked in a gang of hogs, they determine the propriety of the rest, because they seldom miss their gangs; but as they are bred in company, so they continue to the end, except sometimes the boars ramble.

-- 100. The woods produce great variety of incense and sweet gums, which distill from several trees; as also trees bearing honey and sugar, as before was mentioned. Yet there's no use made of any of them, either for profit or refreshment.