124 PROGRESS TO THE MINES. 



19th. The worst of this fever was, that it put me to the necessity of 

 taking another ounce of bark. I moistened every dose with a little brandy, 

 and filled the glass up with water, which is the least nauseous way of taking 

 this popish medicine, and besides hinders it from purging. After I had 

 swallowed a few poached eggs, we rode down to the mouth of the canal, and 

 from thence crossed over to the broad rock island in a canoe. Our errand 

 was to view some iron ore, which we dug up in two places. That on the 

 surface seemed very spongy and poor, which gave us no great encourage- 

 ment to search deeper, nor did the quantity appear to be very great. How- 

 ever, for my greater satisfaction, I ordered a hand to dig there for some time 

 this winter. We walked from one end of the island to the other, being about 

 half a mile in length, and found the soil very good, and too high for any flood, 

 less than that of Deucalion, to do the least damage. There is a very wild 

 prospect both upward and downward, the river being full of rocks, over 

 which the stream tumbled with a murmur, loud enough to drown the notes 

 of a scolding wife. This island would make an agreeable hermitage for any 

 good Christian, who had a mind to retire from the world. Mr. Booker told 

 me how Dr. Ireton had cured him once of a looseness, which had been upon 

 him two whole years. He ordered him a dose of rhubarb, with directions to 

 take twenty-five drops of laudanum so soon as he had had two physical 

 stools. Then he rested one day, and the next he ordered him another dose 

 of the same quantity of laudanum to be taken, also after the second stool. 

 When this was done, he finished the cure by giving him twenty drops of 

 laudanum every night for five nights running. The doctor insisted upon the 

 necessity of stopping the operation of the rhubarb before it worked quite off, 

 that what remained behind might strengthen the bowels. I was punctual in 

 swallowing my bark, and that 1 might use exercise upon it, rode to Prince's 

 Folly, and my Lord's islands, wb .u-e I saw very fine corn. In the mean time 

 Vulcan came in order to makc<ii .(^e drills for boring the rocks, and gave 

 me his parole he would, by the f' c*^ of God, attend the works till they were 

 finished, which he performed a,f lamely as if he had been to labour for a 

 dead horse, and not for ready money. I made a North Carolina dinner upon 

 fresh pork, though we had a plate of green peas after it, by way of desert, for 

 the safety of our noses. Then ray first minister and I had some serious con- 

 versation about my affairs, and I find nothing disturbed his peaceable spirit 

 so much as the misbehavior of the spinster above-mentioned. I told him I 

 could not pity a man, who had it always in his power to do himself and her 

 justice, and would not. If she were a drunkard, a scold, a thief, or a slander- 

 er, we had wholesome laws, that would make her back smart for the diver- 

 sion of her other members, and it was his fault he had not put those whole- 

 some severities in execution. I retired in decent time to my own apartment, 

 and slept very comfortably upon my bark, forgetting all the little crosses 

 arising from overseers and negroes. 



20th. I continued the bark, and then tossed down my poached eggs, with as 

 much ease as some good breeders slip children into the world. About nine 

 I left the prudentest orders I could think of with my vizier, and then crossed 

 the river to Shacco's. I made a running visit to three of my quarters, where, 

 besides finding all the people well, I had the pleasure to see better crops than 

 usual both of corn and tobacco. I parted there with my intendant, and pur- 

 sued my journey to Mr. Randolph's, at Tuckahoe, without meeting with any 

 adventure by the way. Here I found Mrs. Fleming, who was packing up 

 her baggage with design to follow her husband the next day, who was gone 

 to a new settlement in Goochland. Both he and she have been about seven 

 years persuading themselves to remove to that retired part of the country, 

 though they had the two strong arguments of health and interest for so doing. 



