CALCAREOUS MANURES— APPENDIX. 29 1 



perlence of the effects of malaria, this could not have been the case with 

 Smith, the most efficient director, and the true founder of the colony; who 

 would have known better, not only by his general intelligence, but also by 

 his experience of such effects, gained in his campaigns against the Turks. 

 It may be alleged, that fear of the savages, stronger than the dread of dis- 

 ease, caused the choice of, and after continuance on, an unhealthy spot, be- 

 cause it was more easily guarded on the land-side, and perfectly accessible 

 to ships. But spots equally favorable for defence, and on deep water, 

 might have been selected at first, much higher up the river ; and yet James- 

 town and its immediate neighborhood continued to be the chief place in Vir- 

 ginia, after the power of the savages had been crushed, and settlements had 

 been extended to distant and inland places. The proof of my position 

 would be sufficiently proved by any attempt made now to settle Englishmen, 

 just arrived, on the border of almost any of our tide-waters, and especially 

 about the junction of the salt and fresh waters. Several such trials have 

 been made with foreign laborers ; but the first autumn was enough to put 

 an end to each experiment, by inflicting so much disease and death as to 

 prevent any of the foreigners remaining through another season, who could 

 possibly move away. 



There can be but little doubt also, but there was much less of autumnal 

 diseases, or at least of violent and fatal diseases, before the revolutionary 

 war than now. There was no such thing then, as the healthy residents leav- 

 ing home in summer, as is so usual now, to spend the sickly season among 

 the mountains, or at the north ; nor does it appear that there was much 

 suffering for want of such resources, although the climate must even then 

 have become very far more unhealthy than in the early times of the colony. 



Another striking proof of the increased tendency of the country to pro- 

 duce disease, even within the last sixty years, is presented by history, in the 

 circumstances of the occupation of Yorktown by the British army in 1781, 

 and the siege carried on by the American army ; and especially in regard 

 to the hastily-levied militia from the mountains, and other high and healthy 

 parts of Virginia. Cornwalhs chose his position first in Portsmouth, and 

 afterwards in Yorktown, with a view to health, as well as defence, to await 

 the arrival of reinforcements from New York. His army was concentrated 

 at Yorktown, August 22. Washington reached Williamsburg, September 

 14, and the American army moved on thence to invest Yorktown, Sept. 

 30, and the surrender of the British army was made on Oct. 1 9th. Thus, 

 both armies were exposed to the worst part of the malaria season, and the 

 British army to the whole of it. Among the besiegers were raw militia, 

 just raised for the occasion, from Rockbridge county, (of which portion I 

 have been more particularly informed,) and probably from sundry others 

 of the mountain counties. There was certainly much sickness, and espe- 

 cially among the British troops ; but not more than is usual in camps, and 

 especially in besieged camps, suffering all the privations incidental to the 

 confined situation. It does not appear, from the very slight notices in his- 

 tory, that there was more sickness than might have been expected if the 

 same circumstance had occurred in the hilly middle region of Virginia. Yet, 

 if the like circumstances could occur now, it can scarcely be doubted but 

 that every soldier, not already acclimated, and accustomed to malaria, would 

 be made sick ; and that probably half of those just brought from breathing 

 the pure mountain air, would never return home. 



Another indirect proof is presented in the great and deplorable decline of 

 most of the lower counties of Virginia in wealth, and in the usual accom- 

 paniments of wealth, which formerly made a residence delightful in many 

 neighborhoods in which there is nothing now left to invite any ona to re- 



