"But to finish this discouerie, we passed on further, where within an ile [a mile] we were intercepted with great craggy stones in the midst of the river, where the water falleth so rudely and with such violence, as not any boat can possibly passe, and so broad disperseth the streame as there is not past fiue or sixe foote at low water, and to the shore scarce passage with a barge."
This was the first view had by Englishmen of
the situation where the city of Richmond was
located.
In September, 1609, when Smith was president, he set out to find a more favorable spot for the colony than marshy Jamestown. He sailed again to the Indian village Powhatan, at the falls of the river, and bought of the natives some land near the present site of Richmond, where the landscape presented such charming features that he called the place "None Such." On his way home he was wounded by the explosion of a bag of gun-*powder, and the next month he left the colony and sailed for England, leaving only a small settlement to occupy the site he had purchased. In 1645, "Fforte Charles" was built below the falls of the James, but no permanent settlement was effected. In 1675, Colonel William Byrd was granted 7351 acres of land beginning
