foundation of Jamestown, a second attempt was made by the settlers to produce English grain. When Captain Nelson’s ship, which had come from England, was sighted in the river below Jamestown Island on the twentieth of April, the larger number of the colonists were actively engaged in hewing down trees and sowing wheat, and on hearing the alarm from the fort, which was really raised in apprehension lest the approaching vessel belonged to the Spaniards, they rushed to their arms under the impression that the Indians had begun another assault upon the town.[1] This is the first intimation in the agricultural history of Virginia as to the removal of the forests with a distinct view to the production of crops, the trees cut down in the previous spring having been destroyed for the purpose of erecting a fort rather than for opening the land for cultivation. Clearing new grounds has always been regarded as the most tedious and searching as the task of the Virginian laborer, and however frequently he may be called upon to perform it, he always shrinks from the tax which it imposes upon his strength and patience. In the spring of 1608, the colonists had not learned from the Indians the most primitive method of destroying forests, that is, by tearing the bark in circles from the lower trunks of the trees before the spring sap has begun to rise from the roots. They were in need of open ground, and the only way to obtain it in a short time was by the application of the axe to the primæval woods surrounding them on all sides.
There has been transmitted to us an amusing account of the sensations which the pioneer wood-choppers experienced in cutting down the enormous walnut, oak, ash, gum, and cypress trees growing in the valley of the Powhatan. It is interesting to find that, unlike their
- ↑ Works of Capt. John Smith, p. 33.
