time the purity of its water was preserved when carried to sea in casks. This was thought to be due to the influence of the slight tincture of juniper distinguishing it, but no part of the world furnishes a finer natural fluid for drinking purposes than the whole of this general division of country. In the seventeenth century, all vessels leaving the Powhatan on their outward voyage took in their supply of water at Newport News, where a very bold spring was situated.[1]
Wherever Virginia was explored by the early colonists, the same beautiful and copious streams were observed. It was said that there was a crystal brook in every valley and that the number of watercourses was so great that one was reminded of the veins in the human body.[2] Spelman, who, as a captive among the Indians, spent a great many years of his life wandering throughout the whole area of country lying between the Powhatan and the Potomac, described it as being interspersed with a vast number of brooks, creeks, small and large rivers.[3] The head of water in the Virginian springs was considered to have been more eager than in the English, and in some places a stream burst from the ground with so much force and in such volume that in after times it was able, without any addition, to turn the wheels of a grist mill erected only a short distance from the source.[4] The
- ↑ “The 10th of March (1633) we sailed up the river (James). When we came to Newport Snüw (News), we landed and took in Water. A fine spring lies inside the shore of the river convenient for taking water from. All the ships come here to take in water on their way Home.” Devries’ Voyages from Holland to America, p. 49. Again, “The 20th, we proceeded to Kicketan and anchored at evening before the point of Newport Snüw (News), where we took in Water,” p. 53.
- ↑ Works of Capt. John Smith, pp. 18, 49; Nova Britannia, p. 11, Force’s Historical Tracts, vol. I.
- ↑ Spelman’s Relation of Virginia, p. cvi.
- ↑ Beverley’s History of Virginia, p. 94. Clayton states, “There’s a spring in the Isle of Wight or Nanzamond County vents the greatest Source of water I ever saw except Holy Well in Wales.” Clayton’s Virginia, p. 12, Force’s Historical Tracts, vol. III. Clayton also informs us that when he visited the Colony (about 1686) there was at Lady Berkeley’s (Green Spring) “a spring so very cold that ’twas dangerous drinking thereof in Summer time, it having proved of fatal Consequence to several,” p. 13.
