ade
their way to it.

That portion of the valley of Virginia in which establishments were
thus begun to be made, was at that time one continued forest;
overspreading a limestone soil of great fertility; and intersected by
rivers affording extensive bottoms of the most productive alluvial
land. Indeed few rivers of equal size, are bordered with as wide and
fertile levels of this formation of earth, as those which water that
section of country: the Roanoke particularly affords large bodies of
it, capable of producing in great abundance hemp, tobacco and the
different kinds of grain usually grown. In the country generally,
every species of vegetable, to which the climate was congenial, grew
with great luxuriancy; while the calcareous nature of the soil,
adapted it finely to the production of that kind of grain, to which
European emigrants were mostly used.

The natural advantages of the country were highly improved by the
persevering industry of its inhabitants. Its forests, felled by
untiring labor, were quickly reduced to profitable cultivation, and
the weeds which spontaneously sprang from the earth, were soon
succeeded by the various grasses calculated to furnish the most
nutritious food, for the lowing herds with which their farmers were
early stocked; these yielded a present profit, and laid the sure
foundation [50] of future wealth. Some of the most extensive and
successful graziers of Virginia, now inhabit that country; and reap
the rich reward of their management and industry, in the improved and
more contiguous market of Richmond.

In the infancy of these establishments, their only market was at
Williamsburg. Thither the early settlers _packed_ their butter and
poultry, and received in exchange salt, iron, and some of the luxuries
of life; their beef and other stock was taken to the same place. In
the process of time, as the country east of the Blue ridge became
more improved, other markets were opened to them; and the facilities
of communication were gradually increased. Their successors have
already derived great advantage from those improvements; and the
present generation will not only witness their farther extension,
but most probably see the country first tenanted by Lewis and his
cotemporaries, a great thoroughfare for the produce of several of the
western states--a link of communication between the Chesapeak bay and
the Gulph of Mexico.

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[1] King Shingiss was a famous village chief, "a ter