heir Merchant's Hands here, to whom they send their Crop of Tobacco,
or the greatest Part of it.

This Money is employed according to the Planter's Orders; chiefly in
sending over yearly such Goods, Apparel, Liquors, _&c._ as they write
for, for the Use of themselves, their Families, Slaves and Plantations;
by which Means they have every Thing at the best Hand, and the best of
its Kind.

Besides _English_ Goods, several Merchants in _Virginia_ import from the
_West-Indies_ great Quantities of Rum, Sugar, Molossus, _&c._ and Salt
very cheap from the _Salt Islands_; which Things they purchase with
Money, or generally with Pork, Beef, Wheat, _Indian-Corn_, and the
like.

In some of the poorer Parts of the Country abounding in Pine, do they
gather up the _Light-wood_, or Knots of the old Trees, which will not
decay, which being piled up (as a Pit of Wood to be burnt to Charcoal)
and encompassed with a Trench, and covered with Earth, is set on Fire;
whereby the Tar is melted out, and running into a hole is taken up, and
filled into Barrels; and being boiled to a greater Consistency becomes
Pitch.

Of Pitch and Tar they send Home great Quantities, though not near so
much at _North Carolina_, which formerly was the _South_ Part of
_Virginia_; but has long since been given away to Proprietors, tho' the
Bounds between the Colony of _Virginia_, and the Government of _North
Carolina_ are disputed; so that there is a very long _List_ of Land
fifteen Miles broad between both Colonies (called the _disputed Bounds_)
in due Subjection to neither; which is an _Asylum_ for the Runagates of
both Countries.

The greatest Part of _Virginia_ is uneven: and near the Water they are
free from great Stones, Rocks, and high Hills; but far in the Country
they have vast Rocks, Stones, and Mountains; and though in the Salts
there is no Stone for Lime nor Building; (but with _Oyster-Shells_ they
make good Lime and enough) yet up the Freshes, and above the Falls of
the Rivers are discovered free and common Stone of several Sorts, among
which may be expected Lime-Stone.

Here are also vast Quantities of _Iron Oar_, and various Kinds of
_Minerals_, whose Nature and Vertues are as yet undiscovered.

_Moses's_ Words of Exhortation to the _Israelites_ for Obedience to
God's Laws, _Deut._ viii. 6, 7, 8, 9, may be applied to the
_Virginians_; and particularly when he saith that God had brought them
into a Land whose Stones are Iron; and for what we