314 COLONEL W. BYRD [1738-9. 



you will be so good as employ your interest and kind offices with 

 them, for that purpose, it will be an obligation ever to be acknow- 

 ledged by him who wishes everything that is good to you and your 

 household, and is, without guile, 



Sir, your hearty friend and humble servant, 



W. Bykd. 



Westover, the 23d of March, 1738-9. 



Sir: 



I sent an answer to your kind letter by the post, several months 

 ago, and congratulated your safe return to your family. This 

 kisses your hand by my friend, Dr. TSCHIPFELY, a Swiss gentle- 

 man, who is bound to Philadelphia, to try if he can prevail with 

 any of his countrymen to come and settle upon my land at Roan- 

 oke ; and if you will be so kind as to lend a helping hand towards 

 it, I shall ever acknowledge the obligation. The land is exceed- 

 ingly good, with a fine river running through the whole length of 

 it, more than a quarter of a mile wide ; full of wild fowl in winter, 

 and alive with fish all the year. Very many rivulets and creeks 

 run into it on both sides, which help to fertilize the soil, and will 

 afford all manner of convenience for mills of every kind. The 

 situation is high, and the air very wholesome free from those 

 aguish vapours which infect the lower part of the country : and as 

 the land lies forty miles on this side the mountains, the Indians 

 have no manner of claim or pretence to it, by the last peace we 

 made with them. The price I sell this land for, you know, is very 

 easy, being no more than ,3 of our currency for every hundred 

 acres. The quit-rent is but two shillings a year, and since I saw 

 you, I have prevailed with our Assembly to make all foreign Pro- 

 testants free from taxes for ten years, that shall come and inhabit 

 that part of the country. These, I think, are such temptations and 

 encouragements, as are not to be met with elsewhere. Nor will 

 the distance exceed seventy miles to a ship landing, and the road 

 will be very good, and very level all the way, when we have cleared 

 the ridge that we intend ; so that there will be little difficulty in 

 bringing the fruits of their industry to market. We have had the 

 misfortune, lately, to lose a ship, either by the villany or stupidity 

 of the master, which had 250 Switzers and Germans on board, 

 with effects to a considerable value. These were to seat on part of 



