The History of Virginia Part 8

1. The land towards the mouth of the rivers is generally of a low, moist, and fat mould, such as the heavier sort of grain delight in: as rice, hemp, Indian corn, &c. This also is varied here and there with veins of a cold, hungry, sandy soil, of the same moisture, and very often lying under water. But this also has its advantages; for on such land generally grow the huckleberries, cranberries, c.h.i.n.kapins, &c. These low lands are, for the most part, well stored with oaks, poplars, pines, cedars, cypress and sweet gums; the trunks of which are often thirty, forty, fifty, some sixty or seventy feet high, without a branch or limb. They likewise produce great variety of evergreens, unknown to me by name, besides the beauteous holly, sweet myrtle, cedar, and the live oak, which for three quarters of the year is continually dropping its acorns, and at the same time budding and bearing others in their stead.

2. The land higher up the rivers, throughout the whole country, is generally a level ground, with shallow valleys, full of streams and pleasant springs of clear water, having interspersed here and there among the large levels some small hills and extensive vales.

The mould in some places is black, fat, and thick laid; in others looser, lighter and thin. The foundation of the mould is also various; sometimes clay, then gravel and rocky stones, and sometimes marl. The middle of the necks, or ridges between the rivers, is generally poor, being either a light sand, or a white or red clay, with a thin mould. Yet even these places are stored with chestnuts, c.h.i.n.kapins, acorns of the shrub oak, and a reedy gra.s.s in summer, very good for cattle. The rich lands lie next the rivers and branches, and are stored with large oak, walnut, hickory, ash, beech, poplar, and many other sorts of timber, of surprising bigness.

3. The heads of the rivers afford a mixture of hills, valleys and plains, some richer than others, whereof the fruit and timber trees are also various. In some places lie great plats of low and very rich ground, well timbered; in others, large spots of meadows and savannahs, wherein are hundreds of acres without any tree at all, but yields reeds and gra.s.s of incredible height; and in the swamps and sunken grounds grow trees as vastly big as I believe the world affords, and stand so close together, that the branches or boughs of many of them lock into one another; but what lessens their value is, that the greatest bulk of them are at some distance from water-carriage. The land of these upper parts affords greater variety of soil than any other, and as great variety in the foundations of the soil or mould, of which good judgment may be made by the plants and herbs that grow upon it.

The rivers and creeks do in many places form very fine large marshes, which are a convenient support for their flocks and herds.

-- 8. There is likewise found great variety of earths for physic, cleansing, scouring, and making all sorts of potter's ware; such as antimony, talk, yellow and red oker, fuller's-earth, pipe-clay, and other fat and fine clays, marl, &c.; in a word, there are all kinds of earth fit for use.

They have besides, in those upper parts, coal for firing, slate for covering, and stones for building, and flat paving in vast quant.i.ties, as likewise pebble stones. Nevertheless, it has been confidently affirmed by many, who have been in Virginia, that there is not a stone in all the country. If such travelers knew no better than they said, my judgment of them is, that either they were people of extreme short memories, or else of very narrow observation. For though generally the lower parts are flat, and so free from stones, that people seldom shoe their horses; yet in many places, and particularly near the falls of the rivers, are found vast quant.i.ties of stone, fit for all kinds of uses.

However, as yet, there is seldom any use made of them, because commonly wood is to be had at much less trouble; and as for coals, it is not likely they should ever be used there in anything but forges and great towns, if ever they happen to have any, for, in their country plantations, the wood grows at every man's door so fast, that after it has been cut down, it will in seven years time grow up again from seed, to substantial fire-wood; and in eighteen or twenty years it will come to be very good board timber.

-- 9. For mineral earths, it is believed they have great plenty and variety, that country being in a good lat.i.tude, and having great appearances of them. It has been proved, too, that they have both iron and lead, as appears by what was said before concerning the iron works set up at Falling creek in James river, where the iron proved reasonably good; but before they got into the body of the mine, the people were cut off in that fatal ma.s.sacre, and the project has never been set on foot since, till of late; but it has not had its full trial.

The golden mine, of which there was once so much noise, may, perhaps, be found hereafter to be some good metal, when it comes to be fully examined. But be that as it will, the stones that are found near it, in great plenty, are valuable, their l.u.s.tre approaching nearer to that of the diamond than those of Bristol or Kerry. There is no other fault in them but their softness, which the weather hardens, when they have been sometime exposed to it, they being found under the surface of the earth.

This place has now plantations on it.

This I take to be the place in Purchase's fourth book of his pilgrim, called Uttamussack, where was formerly the princ.i.p.al temple of the country, and the metropolitan seat of the priests in Powhatan's time.

There stood the three great houses, near sixty feet in length, which he reports to have been filled with the images of their G.o.ds; there were likewise preserved the bodies of their kings. These houses they counted so holy, that none but their priests and kings durst go into them, the common people not presuming, without their particular direction, to approach the place.

There also was their great Pawcorance, or altar stone, which, the Indians tell us, was a solid crystal, of between three and four feet cube, upon which, in their greatest solemnities, they used to sacrifice.

This, they would make us believe, was so clear, that the grain of a man's skin might be seen through it; and was so heavy too that when they removed their G.o.ds and kings, not being able to carry it away, they buried it thereabouts; but the place has never been yet discovered.

Mr. Alexander Whittaker, minister of Henrico, on James river, in the company's time, writing to them, says thus: "Twelve miles from the falls there is a crystal rock, wherewith the Indians do head many of their arrows; and three days journey from thence, there is a rock and stony hill found, which is on the top covered over with a perfect and most rich silver ore. Our men that went to discover those parts had but two iron pickaxes with them, and those so ill tempered that the points of them turned again, and bowed at every stroke, so that we could not search the entrails of the place; yet some trial was made of that ore with good success."

-- 10. Some people that have been in that country, without knowing any thing of it, have affirmed that it is all a flat, without any mixture of hills, because they see the coast to seaward perfectly level: or else they have made their judgment of the whole country by the lands lying on the lower parts of the rivers, (which, perhaps, they had never been beyond,) and so conclude it to be throughout plain and even. When in truth, upon the heads of the great rivers, there are vast high hills; and even among the settlements there are some so topping that I have stood upon them and viewed the country all round over the tops of the highest trees for many leagues together; particularly, there are Mawborn hills in the freshes of James river; a ridge of hills about fourteen or fifteen miles up Mattapony river; Toliver's mount, upon Rappahannock river; and the ridge of hills in Stafford county, in the freshes of Potomac river; all which are within the bounds of the English inhabitants. But a little farther backward, there are mountains, which indeed deserve the name of mountains for their height and bigness; which by their difficulty in pa.s.sing may easily be made a good barrier of the country against incursions of the Indians, &c., and shew themselves over the tops of the trees to many plantations at 70 or 80 miles distance very plain.

These hills are not without their advantages; for, out of almost every rising ground, throughout the country, there issue abundance of most pleasant streams, of pure and crystal water, than which certainly the world does not afford any more delicious. These are every where to be found in the upper parts of this country, and many of them flow out of the sides of banks very high above the vales, which are the most suitable places for gardens--where the finest water works in the world may be made at a very small expense.

There are likewise several mineral springs, easily discoverable by their taste, as well as by the soil which they drive out with their streams.

But I am not naturalist skilful enough to describe them with the exactness they deserve.

CHAPTER IV.

OF THE WILD FRUITS OF THE COUNTRY.

-- 11. Of fruits natural to the country, there is great abundance, but the several species of them are produced according to the difference of the soil, and the various situation of the country; it being impossible that one piece of ground should produce so many different kinds intermixed. Of the better sorts of the wild fruits that I have met with, I will barely give you the names, not designing a natural history. And when I have done that, possibly I may not mention one-half of what the country affords, because I never went out of my way to enquire after anything of this nature.

-- 12. Of stoned fruits, I have met with three good sorts, viz: Cherries, plums and persimmons.

1. Of cherries natural to the country, and growing wild in the woods, I have seen three sorts. Two of these grow upon trees as big as the common English white oak, whereof one grows in bunches like grapes. Both these sorts are black without, and but one of them red within. That which is red within, is more palatable than the English black cherry, as being without its bitterness. The other, which hangs on the branch like grapes, is water colored within, of a faintish sweet, and greedily devoured by the small birds. The third sort is called the Indian cherry, and grows higher up in the country than the others do. It is commonly found by the sides of rivers and branches on small slender trees, scarce able to support themselves, about the bigness of the peach trees in England. This is certainly the most delicious cherry in the world; it is of a dark purple when ripe, and grows upon a single stalk like the English cherry, but is very small, though, I suppose, it may be made larger by cultivation, if anybody would mind it. These, too, are so greedily devoured by the small birds, that they won't let them remain on the tree long enough to ripen; by which means, they are rarely known to any, and much more rarely tasted, though, perhaps, at the same time they grow just by the houses.

2. The plums, which I have observed to grow wild there, are of two sorts, the black and the Murrey plum, both which are small, and have much the same relish with the damson.

3. The persimmon is by Heriot called the Indian plum; and so Smith, Purchase, and Du Lake, call it after him; but I can't perceive that any of those authors had ever heard of the sorts I have just now mentioned, they growing high up in the country.

These persimmons, amongst them, retain their Indian name. They are of several sizes, between the bigness of a damson plum and a burgamot pear. The taste of them is so very rough, it is not to be endured till they are fully ripe, and then they are a pleasant fruit. Of these, some vertuosi make an agreeable kind of beer, to which purpose they dry them in cakes, and lay them up for use.

These, like most other fruits there, grow as thick upon the trees as ropes of onions: the branches very often break down by the mighty weight of the fruit.

-- 13. Of berries there is a great variety, and all very good in their kinds. Our mulberries are of three sorts, two black and one white; the long black sort are the best, being about the bigness of a boy's thumb; the other two sorts are of the shape of the English mulberry, short and thick, but their taste does not so generally please, being of a faintish sweet, without any tartness. They grow upon well spread, large bodied trees, which run up surprisingly fast. These are the proper food of the silk-worm.

1. There grow naturally two sorts of currants, one red and the other black, more sweet than those of the same color in England.

They grow upon small bushes, or slender trees.

2. There are three sorts of hurts, or huckleberries, upon bushes, from two to ten feet high. They grow in the valleys and sunken grounds, having different relishes; but are all pleasing to the taste. The largest sort grow upon the largest bushes, and, I think, are the best berries.

3. Cranberries grow in the low lands and barren sunken grounds, upon low bushes, like the gooseberry, and are much of the same size. They are of a lively red, when gathered and kept in water, and make very good tarts. I believe these are the berries which Captain Smith compared to the English gooseberry, and called Rawcomens; having, perhaps, seen them only on the bushes, where they are always very sour.

4. The wild raspberry is by some there preferred to those that were transplanted thither from England; but I cannot be of their opinion.

5. Strawberries they have, as delicious as any in the world, and growing almost every where in the woods and fields. They are eaten almost by all creatures; and yet are so plentiful that very few persons take care to transplant them, but can find enough to fill their baskets, when they have a mind, in the deserted old fields.

-- 14. There grow wild several sorts of good nuts, viz.: chestnuts, c.h.i.n.kapins, hazelnuts, hickories, walnuts, &c.

1. Chestnuts are found upon very high trees, growing in barren ridges. They are something less than the French chestnut; but, I think not differing at all in taste.

2. c.h.i.n.kapins have a taste something like a chestnut, and grow in a husk or bur, being of the same sort of substance, but not so big as an acorn. They grow upon large bushes, some about as high as the common apple trees in England, and either in the high or low, but always barren ground.

3. Hazelnuts are there in infinite plenty, in all the swamps; and towards the heads of the rivers, whole acres of them are found upon the high land.

4. Hickory nuts are of several sorts, all growing upon great trees, and in an husk, like the French walnut, except that the husk is not so thick, and more apt to open. Some of these nuts are inclosed in so hard a sh.e.l.l, that a light hammer will hardly crack them; and when they are cracked, their kernel is fastened with so firm a web, that there is no coming at it. Several other sorts I have seen with thinner sh.e.l.ls, whose kernels may be got with less trouble. There are also several sorts of hickories, called pig nuts, some of which have as thin a sh.e.l.l as the best French walnuts, and yield their meat very easily; they are all of the walnut kind.

5. They have a sort of walnut they call black walnuts, which are as big again as any I ever saw in England, but are very rank and oily, having a thick, hard, foul sh.e.l.l, and come not clear of the husk as the walnut in France doth; but the inside of the nut, and leaves, and growing of the tree, declare it to be of the walnut kind.

6. Their woods likewise afford a vast variety of acorns, seven sorts of which have fallen under my observation. That which grows upon the live oak, buds, ripens and drops off the tree, almost the whole year around. All their acorns are very fat and oily; but the live oak acorn is much more so than the rest, and I believe the making of oil of them would turn to a good account; but now they only serve as mast for the hogs and other wild creatures, as do all the other fruits aforementioned, together with several other sorts of mast growing upon the beach, pine and other trees. The same use is made also of diverse sorts of pulse and other fruits growing upon wild vines; such as peas, beans, vetches, squashes, mayc.o.c.ks, marac.o.c.ks, melons, cuc.u.mbers, lupines, and an infinity of other sorts of fruits, which I cannot name.

-- 15. Grapes grow wild there in an incredible plenty and variety, some of which are very sweet and pleasant to the taste; others rough and harsh, and perhaps fitter for wine or brandy. I have seen great trees covered with single vines, and those vines almost hid with the grapes.

Of these wild grapes, besides those large ones in the mountains, mentioned by Batt in his discovery, I have observed four very different kinds, viz:

1. One of these sorts grows among the sand banks upon the edges of the low grounds, and islands next the bay and sea, and also in the swamps and breaches of the uplands. They grow thin in small bunches, and upon very low vines. These are n.o.ble grapes; and though they are wild in the woods, are as large as the Dutch gooseberry. One species of them is white, others purple, blue and black, but all much alike in flavor; and some long, some round.

2. A second kind is produced throughout the whole country, in the swamps and sides of hills. These also grow upon small vines, and in small bunches; but are themselves the largest grapes, as big as the English bullace, and of a rank taste when ripe, resembling the smell of a fox, from whence they are called fox grapes. Both these sorts make admirable tarts, being of a fleshy substance, and perhaps, if rightly managed, might make good raisins.

3. There are two species more that are common to the whole country, some of which are black, and some blue on the outside, and some white. They grow upon vast large vines, and bear very plentifully. The nice observer might perhaps distinguish them into several kinds, because they differ in color, size, and relish; but I shall divide them only into two, viz: the early and the late ripe. The early ripe common grape is much larger, sweeter and better than the other. Of these some are quite black, and others blue, and some white or yellow; some also ripen three weeks or a month before the other. The distance of their ripening, is from the latter end of August to the latter end of October. The late ripe common grapes are less than any of the other, neither are they so pleasant to the taste. They hang commonly till the latter end of November, or till Christmas; all that I have seen of these are black. Of the former of these two sorts, the French refugees at the Monacan town made a sort of claret, though they were gathered off of the wild vines in the woods. I was told by a very good judge who tasted it, that it was a pleasant, strong, and full bodied wine. From which we may conclude, that if the wine was but tolerable good when made of the wild grape, which is shaded by the woods from the sun, it would be much better if produced of the same grape cultivated in a regular vineyard.

The year before the ma.s.sacre, Anno 1622, which destroyed so many good projects for Virginia, some French vignerons were sent thither to make an experiment of their vines. These people were so in love with the country, that the character they then gave of it in their letters to the company in England, was very much to its advantage, namely: "That it far excelled their own country of Languedoc, the vines growing in great abundance and variety all over the land; that some of the grapes were of that unusual bigness, that they did not believe them to be grapes, until by opening them they had seen their kernels; that they had planted the cuttings of their vines at Michaelmas, and had grapes from those very cuttings the spring following. Adding in the conclusion, that they had not heard of the like in any other country." Neither was this out of the way, for I have made the same experiment, both of their natural vine and of the plants sent thither from England.

The copies of the letters, here quoted, to the company in England, are still to be seen; and Purchase, in his fourth volume of pilgrims, has very justly quoted some of them.

-- 16. The honey and sugar trees are likewise spontaneous near the heads of the rivers. The honey tree bears a thick swelling pod, full of honey, appearing at a distance like the bending pod of a bean or pea; it is very like the carob tree in the herbals. The sugar tree yields a kind of sap or juice, which by boiling is made into sugar. This juice is drawn out by wounding the trunk of the tree, and placing a receiver under the wound. It is said that the Indians make one pound of sugar out of eight pounds of the liquor. Some of this sugar I examined very carefully. It was bright and moist, with a large, full grain, the sweetness of it being like that of good muscovado.

Though this discovery has not been made by the English above 28 or thirty years, yet it has been known among the Indians before the English settled there. It was found out by the English after this manner: The soldiers which were kept on the land frontiers to clear them of the Indians, taking their range through a piece of low ground about forty miles above the then inhabited parts of Potomac river, and resting themselves in the woods of those low grounds, observed an insp.i.s.sate juice, like mola.s.ses, distilling from the tree. The heat of the sun had candied some of this juice, which gave the men a curiosity to taste it.

They found it sweet, and by this process of nature learned to improve it into sugar. But the Christian inhabitants are now settled where many of these trees grow, but it hath not yet been tried, whether for quant.i.ty or quality it may be worth while to cultivate this discovery.

Thus the Canada Indians make sugar of the sap of a tree. And Peter Martyr mentions a tree that yields the like sap, but without any description. The eleomeli of the ancients, a sweet juice like honey, is said to be got by wounding the olive tree; and the East Indians extract a sort of sugar, they call jagra, from the juice, or potable liquor, that flows from the coco tree. The whole process of boiling, graining and refining of which, is accurately set down by the authors of Hortus Malabaricus.