PROGRESS TO THE MINES. 



143 



they should eat nothing but chicken broth, and poached eggs, and drink 

 nothing but a quarter of a pint of milk boiled with a quart of water, and 

 medicated with a little mullein root, or that of the prickly pear, to restore the 

 mucus of the bowels, and heal the excoriation. At the same time, I order- 

 ed him to communicate this method to all the poor neighbours, and especial- 

 ly to my overseers, with strict orders to use it on the first appearance of that 

 distemper, because in that, and all other sharp diseases, delays are very 

 dangerous. I also instructed Mr. Booker in the way I had learned of blow- 

 ing up the rocks, which were now drilled pretty full of holes, and he pro- 

 mised to put it in execution. After discoursing seriously with the father 

 about my affairs, I joked with the daughter in the evening, and about eight 

 retired to my castle, and recollected all the follies of the day, the little I 

 had learned, and the still less good I had done. 



9th. My long absence made me long for the domestic delights of my own 

 family, for the smiles of an affectionate wife, and the prattle of my inno- 

 cent children. As soon as I sallied out of my castle, I understood that 

 Col. Carter's Sam was come, by his master's leave, to show my people how to 

 blow up the rocks in the canal. He pretended to great skill in that matter, 

 but performed very little, which however might be the effect of idleness 

 rather than ignorance. He came upon one of my horses, which he tied to a 

 tree at Shacco's, where the poor animal kept a fast of a night and a day. 

 Though this fellow worked very little at the rocks, yet my man, Argalus, stole 

 his trade, and performed as well as he. For this good turn, I ordered Mr. 

 Samuel half a pistole, all which he laid out with a New England man for 

 rum, and made my weaver and spinning woman, who has the happiness 

 to be called his wife, exceedingly drunk. To punish the varlet for all these 

 pranks, I ordered him to be banishecl from thence for ever, under the penalty 

 of being whipped home, from constable to constable, if he presumed to 

 come again. I left my memoranda with Mr. Booker, of every thing I or- 

 dered to be done, and mounted my horse about ten, and in little more reach- 

 ed Bermuda Hundred, and crossed over to Col. Carter's. He, like an indus- 

 trious person, was gone to oversee his overseers at North Wales, but his 

 lady was at home, and kept me till supper time before we went to dinner. 

 As soon as I had done justice to my stomach, I made my honours to the 

 good humoured little fairy, and made the best of my way home, where I had 

 the great satisfaction to find all that was dearest to me in good health, nor 

 had any disaster happened in the family since I went away. Some of the 

 neighbours had worm fevers, with all the symptoms of the bloody flux ; but, 

 blessed be God ! their distempers gave way to proper remedies. 



