PROGRESS TO THE MINES. 



127 



Siled my guide, who I suspect led me out of the way. At length we came 

 into a great road, where he took leave, after giving me some very confused 

 directions, and so left me to blunder out the rest of the journey by myself. 

 I lost myself moi-e than once, but soon recovered the right way again. About 

 three miles after quitting my guide, I passed the south branch of Pamunky 

 river, near fifty yards over, and full of stones. After this, I had eight miles 

 to Mr. Chisweil's, where I arrived about two o'clock, and saved my dinner. 

 I was very handsomely entertained, finding every thing very clean, and very 

 good. I had not seen Mrs. Chiswell in twenty-four years, which, alas ! had 

 made great havoc with her pretty face, and ploughed very deep furrows in 

 her fair skin. It was impossible to know her again, so much the flower was 

 faded. However, though she was grown an old woman, yet she was one 

 of those absolute rarities, a very good old woman. I found Mr. Chiswell a 

 sensible, well-bred man, and very frank in communicating his knowledge in 

 the mystery of making iron, wherein he has had long experience. I told 

 him I was come to spy the land, and inform myself of the expense of 

 carrying on an iron work with effect. That I sought my instruction from 

 him, who understood the whole mystery, having gained full experience in 

 every part of it ; only I was very sorry he had bought that experience so 

 dear. He answered that he would, with great sincerity, let me into the little 

 knowledge he had, and so we immediately entered upon the business. He 

 assured me the first step I was to take was to acquaint myself fully with 

 the quantity and quality of my ore. For that reason I ought to keep a good 

 pick-axe man at work a whole year to search if there be a sufficient quantity, 

 without which it would be a very rash undertaking. That I should also 

 have a skilful person to try the richness of the ore. Nor is it great advan- 

 tage to have it exceeding rich, because then it will yield brittle iron, which 

 is not valuable. But the way to have it tough is to mix poor ore and rich 

 together, which makes the poorer sort extremely necessary for the produc- 

 tion of the best iron. Then he showed me a sample of the richest ore they 

 have in England, which yields a full moiety of iron. It was of a pale red 

 colour, smooth and greasy, and not exceedingly heavy ; but it produced so 

 brittle a metal, that they were obliged to melt a poorer ore along with it. 

 He told me, after I was certain my ore was good and plentiful enough, my 

 next inquiry ought to be, how far it lies from a stream proper to build a 

 furnace upon, and again what distance that furnace will be from water car- 

 riage; because the charge of carting a great way is very heavy, and eats 

 out a great part of the profit. That this was the misfortune of the mines of 

 Fredericks ville, where they were obliged to cart the ore a mile to the furnace, 

 and after it was run into iron, to carry that twenty-four miles, over an uneven 

 road to Rappahannock river, about a mile below Fredericksburg, to a planta- 

 tion the company rented of Col. Page. If I were satisfied with the situation, 

 I was in the next place to consider whether I had woodland enough near 

 the furnace to supply it with charcoal, whereof it would require a prodigious 

 quantity. That the properest wood for that purpose was that of oily kind, 

 such as pine, walnut, hickory, oak, and in short all that yields cones, nuts, 

 or acorns. That two miles square of wood, would supply a moderate fur- 

 nace; so that what you fell first may have time to grow up again to a pro- 

 per bigness (which must be four inches over) by that time the rest is cut 

 down. He told me farther, that one hundred and twenty slaves, including wo- 

 men, were necessary to carry on all the business of an iron work, and the 

 more Virginians amongst them the better ; though in that number he com- 

 prehended carters, colliers, and those that planted the corn. That if there 

 should be much carting, it would require one thousand six hundred barrels 

 of corn yearly to support the [ieople, and the cattle employed; nor does even 



