124 
PROGRESS TO THE MINES. 
19th. The worst of this fever was, that it put me to the necessity of 
taking another ounce of bark. I moistened every dose with a little brandy, 
and filled the glass up with water, which is the least nauseous way of taking 
this popish medicine, and besides hinders it from purging. After I had 
swallov/ed a few poached eggs, we roda down to the mouth of the canal, and 
from thence crossed over to the broad rock island in a canoe. Our errand 
was to view some iron ore, v/hich we dug up in two places. That on the 
surface seemed very spongy and poor, which gave us no great encourage- 
ment to search deeper, nor did the quantity appear to be very great. How- 
ever, for my greater satisfaction, I ordered a hand to dig there for some time 
this winter. We walked from one end of the island to the other, being about 
half a mile in length, and found the soil very good, and too high for any flood, 
less than that of Deucalion, to do the least damage. There is a very wild 
prospect both upward and downward, the river being full of rocks, over 
which the stream tumbled with a murmur, loud enough to drown the notes 
of a scolding wife. This island would make an agreeable hermitage for any 
good Christian, who had a mind to retire from the world. Mr. Booker told 
me how Dr. Ireton had cured him once of a looseness, which had been upon 
him two whole years. He ordered him a dose of rhubarb, with directions to 
take twenty-five drops of laudanum so soon as he had had two physical 
stools. Then he rested one day, and the next he ordered him another dose 
of the same quantity of laudanum to be taken, also after the second stool. 
When this was done, he finished the cure by giving him twenty drops of 
laudanum every night for five nights running. The doctor insisted upon the 
necessity of stopping the operation of the rhubarb before it worked quite off, 
that what remained behind might strengthen the bowels. I was punctual in 
swallowing my bark, and that I might use exercise upon it, rode to Prince’s 
Folly, and my Lord’s islands, where I saw very fine corn. In the mean time 
Vulcan came in order to make the drills for boring the rocks, and gave 
me his parole he would, by the grace of God, attend the works till they were 
finished, which he performed as lamely as if he had been to labour for a 
dead horse, and not for ready money. I made a North Carolina dinner upon 
fresh pork, though we had a plate of green peas after it, by way of desert, for 
the safety of our noses. Then my first minister and I had some serious con- 
versation about my affairs, and I find nothing disturbed his peaceable spirit 
so much as the misbehavior of the spinster above-mentioned. I told him I 
could not pity a man, who had it always in his power to do himself and her 
justice, and would not. If she were a drunkard, a scold, a thief, or a slander- 
er, we had wholesome laws, that would make her back smart for the diver- 
sion of her other members, and it was his fault he had not put those whole- 
some severities in execution. I retired in decent time to my own apartment, 
and slept very comfortably upon my bark, forgetting all the little crosses 
arising from overseers and negroes. 
20th. I continued the bark, and then tossed down my poached eggs, with as 
much ease as some good breeders slip children into the world. About nine 
I left the prudentest orders I could think of with my vizier, and then crossed 
the river to Shacco’s. I made a running visit to three of my quarters, where, 
besides finding all the people well, I had the pleasure to see better crops than 
usual both of corn and tobacco. I parted there with my intendant, and pur- 
sued my journey to Mr. Randolph’s, at Tuckahoe, without meeting with any 
adventure by the way. Here I found Mrs. Fleming, who was packing up 
her baggage with design to follow her husband the next day, who was gone 
to a new settlement in Goochland. Both he and she have been about seven 
years persuading themselves to remove to that retired part of the country, 
though they had the two strong arguments of health and interest for so doing. 
