hted twice with dreadful storms, and once with what was still more
terrible, I mean a pirate who came on board and took away almost all
our provisions; and which would have been beyond all to me, they had
once taken my husband to go along with them, but by entreaties were
prevailed with to leave him;--I say, after all these terrible things,
we arrived in York River in Virginia, and coming to our plantation, we
were received with all the demonstrations of tenderness and affection,
by my husband's mother, that were possible to be expressed.

We lived here all together, my mother-in-law, at my entreaty,
continuing in the house, for she was too kind a mother to be parted
with; my husband likewise continued the same as at first, and I thought
myself the happiest creature alive, when an odd and surprising event
put an end to all that felicity in a moment, and rendered my condition
the most uncomfortable, if not the most miserable, in the world.

My mother was a mighty cheerful, good-humoured old woman --I may call
her old woman, for her son was above thirty; I say she was very
pleasant, good company, and used to entertain me, in particular, with
abundance of stories to divert me, as well of the country we were in
as of the people.

Among the rest, she often told me how the greatest part of the
inhabitants of the colony came thither in very indifferent
circumstances from England; that, generally speaking, they were of two
sorts; either, first, such as were brought over by masters of ships to
be sold as servants. 'Such as we call them, my dear,' says she, 'but
they are more properly called slaves.' Or, secondly, such as are
transported from Newgate and other prisons, after having been found
guilty of felony and other crimes punishable with death.

'When they come here,' says she, 'we make no difference; the planters
buy them, and they work together in the field till their time is out.
When 'tis expired,' said she, 'they have encouragement given them to
plant for themselves; for they have a certain number of acres of land
allotted them by the country, and they go to work to clear and cure the
land, and then to plant it with tobacco and corn for their own use; and
as the tradesmen and merchants will trust them with tools and clothes
and other necessaries, upon the credit of their crop before it is
grown, so they again plant every year a little more than the year
before, and so buy whatever they want with the crop that is bef