Virginia 



bad; I had been wet to the skin in the afternoon; and 

 at the miserable plantation in which I had taken 

 shelter, I could get no fire; nothing to eat or drink 

 but pure water; and not even a blanket to cover me. 

 I threw myself down upon my mattrass, but suffered 

 so much from cold, and was so infested with insects 

 and vermin, that I could not close my eyes. I rose 

 early in the morning, therefore, and proceeded upon 

 my journey, being distant from Colonel Washing- 

 ton's not more than thirty miles. It was late, how- 

 ever, before I arrived there, for it rained extremely 

 hard, and a man who undertook to shew me the 

 nearest way, led me among precipices and rocks, 

 and we were lost for above two hours. It was not, 

 indeed, without some compensation; for he brought 

 me through as beautiful and picturesque a scene, 

 as eye ever beheld. It was a delightful valley, about 

 two miles in length, and a quarter of one in breadth, 

 between high and craggy mountains, covered with 

 chamcedaphnes* or wild ivy, in full flower. Through 

 the middle of the valley glided a rivulet about eight 

 yards wide, extremely lucid, and breaking into in- 

 numerable cascades; and in different parts of it stood 



* The chamoedaphne is the most beautiful of all flowering 

 shrubs: Catesby in his Natural History of Carolina speaks of it 

 in the following manner: "The flowers grow in bunches on the 

 'tops of the branches, to footstalks of three inches long; they are 

 'white, stained with purplish red; consisting of one leaf in form 

 'of a cup, divided at the verge into five sections. In the middle 

 'is a stilus, and ten stamina, which, when the flower first opens, 

 ' appear lying close to the sides of the cup, at equal distances; their 



(79l 



