York County on the south side and
Gloucester on the north side.[39] On the Rappahannock was Lancaster
County, extending on both sides of the river from Pianketank to
Dividing Creek in the Northern Neck; and on the Potomac was the county
of Northumberland, first settled about 1638 at Chicacoan and
Appomattox on the Potomac, by refugees from Maryland.[40]

Towards the south the plantations, following the watercourses, had
spread to the heads of the creeks and rivers, tributaries of the
James, and some persons more adventurous than the rest had even made
explorations in North Carolina.[41] Westward the extension was, of
course, greatest along the line of the James, reaching as far as the
Falls where Richmond now stands. The population was probably about
twenty thousand, of whom as many as five thousand were white servants
and five hundred were negroes.

The houses throughout the colony were generally of wood, a story and a
half high, and were roofed with shingles. The chimneys were of brick,
and the wealthier people lived in houses constructed wholly of
home-made brick.[42] "They had, besides, good English furniture" and a
"good store of plate." By ordinary labor at making tobacco any person
could clear annually L20 sterling, the equivalent of $500 to-day. The
condition of the servants had greatly improved, and their labor was
not so hard nor of such continuance as that of farmers and mechanics
in England. Thefts were seldom committed, and an old writer asserts
that "he was an eye-witness in England to more deceits and villanies
in four months than he ever saw or heard mention of in Virginia in
twenty years abode there."[43]

The plenty of everything made hospitality universal, and the health of
the country was greatly promoted by the opening of the forests.
Indeed, so contented were the people with their new homes that the
same writer declares, "Seldom (if ever) any that hath continued in
Virginia any time will or do desire to live in England, but post back
with what expedition they can, although many are landed men in
England, and have good estates there, and divers wayes of preferments
propounded to them to entice and perswade their continuance."

In striking contrast to New England was the absence of towns, due
mainly to two reasons--first, the wealth of watercourses, which
enabled every planter of means to ship his products from his own
wharf; and, secondly, the culture of tobacco, which scattered the
people in a