90 TRAVELS IN THE CONFEDERATION 



in the spring of the year, having spent their sub- 

 stance for drink while the winter was on. Should the 

 price of tobacco rise, everything else rises as well, corn, 

 hogs, &c, desire of gain tempting the planter to use 

 most of his land and labor for tobacco, neglecting the 

 necessaries. 



Five miles from James River we passed Surry 

 Court-House, whither a great crowd of people was 

 hastening, (all of them mounted), because it was 

 court-day. Not far off, at a mill, there lay exposed 

 another shell-bank, beneath a deep bed of reddish sand, 

 in which the clay stratum was horizontal. To Nelson's 

 Ordinary (n miles), and beyond (10 miles) to Smith- 

 field, or Isle of Wight Court-house, the road lies 

 through a tract of pine-woods ; plantations of good ap- 

 pearance were to be seen here and there, but very few ; 

 however, we saw more churches on this road from 

 Williamsburg to Smithfield than in any other day's 

 journey in America, five, that is to say, including the 

 two at those places ; the other three stood alone in the 

 forest. 



Smithfield is a small place on the high bank of the 

 Pequia creek, which runs a devious course through 

 these flat regions to James River. Here at one time 

 stood an Indian village, Capahowosick, which, together 

 with the lands adjacent, was presented by Powhattan, 

 a great Sachem of the Virginia Indians, to the fore- 

 mentioned Captain Smith, by reason of the tender love 

 cherished by Powhattan's daughter, the beautiful 

 Pokahunta, for that Englishman. From this Poka- 

 hunta descend two esteemed Virginia families, the 

 Randolphs and Boilings, who still possess considerable 

 estates on the Appamatox inherited from her, where 



