104 
A JOURNEY TO 
that lies either upon Eno river, or a creek of it, not far from where the Tiis- 
caroras once lived. But by some circumstances in his story, it seems to 
be rather a lead than a silver mine. However, such as it is, he promised to 
go and show it to me whenever I pleased. To comfort his heart, I gave him 
a bottle of rum, with which he made himself very happy, and all the family 
very miserable by the horrible noise he made all night. 
1 3th. Our landlord had great relief from my remedy, and found himself 
easy this morning. On this account we took our departure with more satis- 
faction, about nine, and having picked up our friends at Mr. Birch’s, pursued 
our journey over Q.uoique creek, and Sturgeon run, as far as Brunswick 
court house, about twelve miles beyond Nottoway. By the way, I sent a 
runner half a mile out of the road to Col. Drury Stith’s, who was so good as 
to come to us. We cheered our hearts with three bottles of pretty good 
Madeira, which made Drury talk very hopefully of his copper mine. We 
easily prevailed with him to let us have his company, upon condition we 
would take the mine in our way. From thence we proceeded to Meherrin 
river, which lies eight miles beyond the court house, and in our way forded 
Great creek. For fear of being belated, we called not at my quarter, where 
Don Pedro is overseer, and lives in good repute amongst his neighbours. 
In compliment to the little major we went out of bur way, to lie at a settle- 
ment of his upon Cock’s creek, four miles short of Roanoke. Our fare here 
was pretty coarse, but Mr. Banister and I took possession of the bed, while 
the rest of the company lay in bulk upon the floor. This night the little 
major made the fir^t discovery of an impatient and peevish temper, equally 
unfit both for a traveller and a husband. 
14th. In the morning my friend Tom Wilson made me a visit, and gave 
me his parole that he would meet us at Blue Stone Castle. We took horse 
about nine, and in the distance of ten miles reached a quarter of Col. Stith’s, 
under the management of John Tomasin. This plantation lies on the west 
side of Stith’s creek, which was so full of water, by reason of a fresh in the 
river, that we could not ford it, but we and our baggage were paddled over 
in a canoe, and our horses swam by our sides. After staying here an hour, 
with some of Diana’s maids of hopour, we crossed Miles’ breek a small 
distance off, and at the end of eight miles were met by a tall, meager figure, 
which I took at first for an apparition, but it proved to be Col. Stith’s miner. 
I concluded that the unwholesome vapours arising from the copper mine had 
made this operator such a skeleton, but upon inquiry understood it was 
sheer famine had brought him so low. Fle told us his stomach had not been 
blessed with one morsel of meat for more than three weeks, and that too he 
had been obliged to short allowance of bread, by reason corn was scarce and 
to be fetched from Tomasin’s, which was ten long miles from the mine 
where he lived. However, in spite of this spare diet, the man was cheerful, 
and uttered no complaint. Being conducted by him, we reached the mines 
about five o’clock, and pitched our tents, for the first time, there being yet no 
building erected but a log-house, to shelter the miner and his two negroes. 
We examined the mine and found it dipped from cast to west, and showed 
but a slender vein, embodied in a hard rock of white spar. The . shaft they 
had opened was about twelve feet deep, and six over. I saw no more than 
one peck of good ore above ground, and that promised to be very rich. 
The engineer seemed very sanguine, and had not the least' doubt but his em- 
ployer’s fortune was made. He made us the compliment of three blasts, and 
we filled his belly with good beef in return, which in his hungry circum- 
stances was the most agreeable present we could make him. 
15th. It rained in the morning, which made us decamp later than we in- 
tended, but the clouds clearing away about ten, we wished good luck to 
