THE HUGUENOTS IN VIRGINIA 353 



supply themselves with necessaries, which they now do 



indifferently well, and have stocks of cattle which are 



said to give abundance of milk more than any other in 



the country. In the year 1702 they began an essay of »702 w»ne 



wine which they make of the wild grapes gathered in 



the woods, the effect of which was a strong bodied claret 



of good flavour. I heard a gentleman who had tasted it, 



give it great coumiendation, I have heard that these 



people are upon the design of getting into the breed of 



buffaloes, to which end they lay in wait for their calves, 



that they may tame and raise a stock of them, in which, 



if they succeed, it will in all probability be greatly for 



their advantage ; for these are much larger than the 



cattle, and have the benefit of being natural to the Buffalo 



. 1 ,1 T Breeding 



climate. They now make their own clothes, and are 

 resolved, as soon as they have improved that manufac- 

 tui-e, to apply themselves to the making of wine and 

 brandy, which they do not doubt to bring to perfection." 

 But the endeavour to introduce the manufactures of 

 France here at the extreme trontier of Virginia was a 

 task too great for any set of colonists, and was doomed 

 to failui-e from the first. In planning as they did they 

 showed the characteristic Huguenot enterprise, but the 

 necessities of life drove them to agriculture as the only 

 means of keeping the wolf from the door. 



A letter from William Byrd thus described the settle- Description of 

 ment a year after its founding: "We visited about *^^^*"'^'"*°* 

 seventy of their huts, being, most of them very mean ; 

 there being upwards of fourty of y' m betwixt ye two creeks, 

 w'ch is about 4 miles along on ye River, and have cleared 

 all ye old Manacan fl&elds for near three miles together, 

 as also some others (who came thither last ffeb'ry) have 

 done more work than they y't went thither first. . . . 

 Indeed, they are very poor. . . . Tho' these people 

 are very poor, yet they seem very cheerful and are (as 

 farr as we could learn) very healthy, all they seem to de- 

 sire is y't they might have Bread enough." 



