the masters and scholars, with the necessary housekeepers and
servants, were settled in it, and so continued till the first year of
Governor Nott's time, in which it happened to be burnt (no body knows
how) down to the ground, and very little saved that was in it, the fire
breaking out about ten o'clock at night in a public time.

The governor, and all the gentlemen that were in town, came up to the
lamentable spectacle, many getting out of their beds. But the fire had
got such power before it was discovered, and was so fierce, that there
was no hope of putting a stop to it, and therefore no attempts made to
that end.

In this condition it lay till the arrival of Colonel Spotswood, their
present governor, in whose time it was raised again the same bigness as
before, and settled.

There had been a donation of large sums of money, by the Hon. Robert
Boyle, esq., to this college, for the education of Indian children
therein. In order to make use of this, they had formerly bought half a
dozen captive Indian children slaves, and put them to the college. This
method did not satisfy this governor, as not answering the intent of the
donor. So to work he goes, among the tributary and other neighboring
Indians, and in a short time brought them to send their children to be
educated, and brought new nations, some of which lived four hundred
miles off, taking their children for hostages and education equally, at
the same time setting up a school in the frontiers convenient to the
Indians, that they might often see their children under the first
managements, where they learned to read, paying fifty pounds per annum
out of his own pocket to the schoolmaster there; after which many were
brought to the college, where they were taught till they grew big enough
for their hunting and other exercises, at which time they were returned
home, and smaller taken in their stead.

CHAPTER IX.

OF THE MILITIA IN VIRGINIA.

Sec. 45. The militia are the only standing forces in Virginia. They are
happy in the enjoyment of an everlasting peace, which their poverty and
want of towns secure to them. They have the Indians round about in
subjection, and have no sort of apprehension from them: and for a
foreign enemy, it can never be worth their while to carry troops
sufficient to conquer the country; and the scattering method of their
settlement will not answer the charge of an expedition to plunder them:
so that they feel none but the dist