112 THE HORSE OF AMERICA. 



Virginia, at the period of which Mr. Beverley writes, and of 

 which I will have something further to say as we progress, were 

 but little if any larger than these semi-wild inhabitants of the 

 islands; they were of all colors and many of them paced. As it 

 is well known that the action of the ocean, so unaccountable to 

 all human ken, one year builds up a dike connecting islands with 

 the mainland, and the next year, perhaps, washes it out again, 

 we can thus easily understand how a herd of these semi-wild 

 animals may have been caught and kept there. In this way, it 

 seems to me, the origin of the Ohincoteague ponies may be easily 

 and rationally accounted for, without any shadow of violence to 

 the clearest reasoning. Mr. Hugh Jones, who, in many direc- 

 tions, seems to have been a closer observer of the life of the colo- 

 nists than any of the other tourists whose writings we have ex- 

 amined, wrote a little work entitled "The Present State of Vir- 

 ginia," which was published in London, 1724, expressing himself 

 as follows, on page 48: 



"The common planters, leading easy lives, don't much admire labor or any 

 manly exercise except horse-racing, nor diversion except cock-fighting, in which 

 some greatly delight. This easy way of living, and the heat of the summers, 

 make some very lazy, who are then said to be climate struck. The saddle 

 horses, although not very large, are hardy, strong, and fleet; and will pace 

 naturally and pleasantly at a prodigious rate. They are such lovers of riding 

 that almost every ordinary person keeps ahorse, and I have known some spend 

 the morning in ranging several miles in the woods to find and catch their horses 

 only to ride two or three miles to church, to the courthouse or to a horse race, 

 where they generally appoint to meet on business, and are more certain of find- 

 ing those they want to speak or deal with than at their home." 



Mr. Jones here places us in close contact with the character 

 and habits of the people of that day, as well as with the character 

 and qualifications of their horses. It is not to be inferred, I 

 think, that all their horses were pacers, but that all their saddle 

 horses were pacers there can be little doubt. This is the first 

 intimation we have from Virginia that some of their pacers were 

 very fast, and when Mr. Jones says "they could pace naturally 

 and pleasantly at a prodigious rate," he means that the speed 

 was marvelous, wonderful, astonishing. This "prodigious rate," 

 in a good measure, balances Dr. McSparran's account of the Narra- 

 gansett, which he had seen go a mile "in a little over two min- 

 utes and a good deal less than three," and gives strength to the 

 statement of Mr. Lewis, that when a boy he had ridden in pac- 



