other work to occupy all my time.

The pine tree is cut into short pieces, even the roots being used,
for, if I mistake not, more tar may be had from the roots than from the
trunks of the tree. Our people here dig a hollow, much like unto the
shape of a funnel, on the side of a hill, or bank, fill it in with the
wood and the roots, and cover the whole closely with turf.

An iron pot is placed at the bottom of this hollow in the earth, and a
fire is built at the top of the pile. While the fuel smolders, the tar
stews out of the wood, falling into the iron pot, and from there is put
into whatsoever vessels may be most convenient in which to carry it over
seas.

THE MAKING OF CLAPBOARDS

There is far greater labor required in the making of clapboards, and
it is of a wearisome kind; but Captain Newport declares that clapboards
made of our Virginia cedar are far better in quality than any to be
found in England. Therefore it is Captain Smith keeps as many men as he
may, employed in this work, which is more tiring than difficult.

The trunks of the trees are cut into lengths of four feet, and trimmed
both as to branches and bark. An iron tool called a frow, which is not
unlike a butcher's cleaver, is then used to split the log into thin
strips, one edge of which is four or five times thicker than the other.

You will understand better the method by picturing to yourself the
end of a round log which has been stood upright for convenience of the
workmen. Now, if you place a frow in such a position that it will split
the thicknesses of an inch or less from the outer side, you will find
that the point of the instrument, which is at the heart of the tree,
must come in such manner as to make the splint very thin on the inner
edge. The frow is driven through the wood by a wooden mallet, to the end
that the sides of the clapboard may be fairly smooth.

Master Hunt has told me that if we were to put on board a ship the size
of the John and Francis, as many clapboards as she could swim under, the
value of the cargo would be no less than five hundred pounds, and they
would have a ready sale in London, or in other English ports.

PROVIDING FOR THE CHILDREN

And now before I am come to the most terrible time in the history of
our town of James, let me set down that which the London Company has
decreed, for it is of great importance to all those who, like Nathaniel
and me, came over into this land of Virginia befor