VIRGINIA 87 



ginia hospitality. They all said the trouble was Lord 

 Cornwallis ; here he had burned the stable, there he 

 had pulled down the house, and again, stolen the beds. 

 And so, reluctantly and after much waiting and fruit- 

 less attempts, we had to go back to Williamsburg, and 

 on the next morning make our way to the ferry again. 

 The second time we came with the rising of the sun, 

 when the wind is generally calm ; but Lord Cornwallis 

 served again as excuse for a long delay ; he had ruined 

 the wharf and the tide was not yet high enough on the 

 flat shore to float off a boat laden with men and horses. 



Not far below the ferry lies James Island, which at 

 one time was only a peninsula, but during a severe 

 storm with high water the river broke through the nar- 

 row tongue of land. There stands 



Jamestown, or rather merely the rubbish of a town 

 so called ; for notwithstanding it is described here and 

 there in the newer geographies as a place of 80-100 

 houses, one or two, and they ruinous, is all that the 

 town contains at present. This was the oldest town in 

 Virginia and the first seat of government. The famous 

 Captain John Smith established it in the year 1606, 

 choosing a spot where an Indian village had stood and 

 the ground thus somewhat made ready. This Indian 

 village was called Paspahoc, just as the James River 

 was formerlv the Powhatan. Here was the first church 



j 



in North America built, of which as little trace re- 

 mains as of the general glory of the town, but it is 

 called a city none the less, forms a county of itself, and 

 under its ancient privilege returns a member to the 

 Assembly, the sole indweller of the town, + (who owns 

 besides the greatest part of the lands adjacent), self- 

 electing and self-elected. 



