Virginia 



blossoms in the spring make a beautiful appearance 

 throughout the country. 



Virginia is divided into fifty-two counties, and 

 seventy-seven parishes, and by act of assembly there 

 ought to be forty-four towns*; but one half of these 

 have not more than five houses; and the other half 

 are little better than inconsiderable villages. This 

 is owing to the cheapness of land, and the commo- 

 diousness of navigation : for every person may with 

 ease procure a small plantation, can ship his tobacco 

 at his own door, and live independent. When the 

 colony shall come to be more thickly seated, and 

 land grow dear, people will be obliged to follow 

 trades and manufactures, which will necessarily 

 make towns and large cities; but this seems remote, 

 and not likely to happen for some centuries. 



The inhabitants are supposed to be in number 

 between two and three hundred thousand. There 

 are a hundred and five thousand titheables, under 

 which denomination are included all white males 

 from sixteen to sixty; and all negroes whatsoever 

 within the same age. The former are obliged to 

 serve in the militia, and amount to forty thousand. 



The trade of this colony is large and extensive. 

 Tobacco is the principal article of it. Of this they 

 export annually between fifty and sixty thousand 

 hogsheads, each hogshead weighing eight hundred 

 or a thousand weight; some years they export much 



* These numbers have been since greatly increased. 



[45] 



