Warr, the colonists eventually set up a government,
bought peace with their enemy, and settled down to raise tobacco on
the land to which they received proprietary rights. Later they
expanded their holdings; developed their resources; improved their
government; established churches, schools and colleges; gained their
independence from their mother country; survived civil strife; and
advanced their civilization._

[Illustration]

I. JAMESTOWN

At Jamestown the colonists found that they could not succeed without
expanding the Indian's agriculture. They found the savages of the
Tidewater section growing corn, muskmelon, pumpkin, watermelon,
squash, maypops, gourds and peas in their fertile well-organized
gardens. Grapevines were cultivated at the edge of clearings and
there were rich harvests of chestnuts, hickory nuts and acorns.
Strawberries and other small fruits grew in abundance and mulberry
trees stood near every village. Tobacco was grown to itself, in
carefully prepared hills arranged in well-organized rows. It
developed into a slender plant less than three feet tall and the
short, thick leaves, when ripe, were pulled from the stalk and dried
before a fire or in the sun. The colonists learned to grow and store
the Indian foods for cold winters and they learned to earn their
livelihood from the export of the tobacco they grew.

In the northern part of Fairfax County, the Indians grew corn. They
fished, mined, and herded buffalo. In order to have sufficient
grassland for their "cattle", or buffalo, the Indians deliberately
set fire to the forests. They also burned their "old fields" that
had once been cultivated for they found that grass grew voluntarily
on them if the trees were kept down.

Maxwell in "The Use and Abuse of Forests by Virginia Indians" tells
us, "Virginia, between its mountains and the seas was passing
through its fiery ordeal and was approaching a crisis at the time
the colonists snatched the fagot from the Indian's hand. The tribes
were burning everything that would burn and it can be said of the
Alleghanies that if the discovery of America had been post-poned
five hundred years, Virginia would have been pasture land or
desert."

This point is further illustrated by the Manahoac Indian's remark to
Captain John Smith that he knew not what lay beyond the Blue Ridge
except the sun, "because the woods were not burnt".

Although the settlement by colonists helped to slow down this
bu