Some times there are great droughts, other times much raine, yet great necessitie of neither, by reason we see not but that all the raritie of needfull fruits in Europe, may be there in great plentie, by the industry of men, as appeareth by those we there Planted.
The entrances.
Cape Henry. {MN}
There is but one entrance by Sea into this Country, and that is at the mouth of a very goodly Bay, 18. or 20. myles broad. {MN} The cape on the South is called Cape Henry, in honour of our most noble Prince. The land white hilly sands like unto the Downes, and all along the shores great plentie of Pines and Firres.
Cape Charles.
The Countrey. {MN}
The north Cape is called Cape Charles, in honour of the worthy Duke of Yorke. The Isles before it, Smith's Isles, by the name of the discoverer. Within is a country that may have the prerogative over the most pleasant places knowne, for large and pleasant navigable Rivers, heaven & earth never agreed better to frame a place for man's habitation; were it fully manured and inhabited by industrious people. {MN} Here are mountaines, hils, plaines, valleyes, rivers, and brookes, all running most pleasantly into a faire Bay, compassed but for the mouth, with fruitfull and delightsome land. In the Bay and rivers are many Isles both great & small, some woody, some plaine, most of them low and not inhabited. This Bay lyeth North and South, in which the water floweth neare 200. myles, and hath a channell for 140 myles, of depth betwixt 6 and 15 fadome, holding in breadth for the most part 10 or 14 myles. From the head of the Bay to the Northwest, the land is mountanous, and so in a manner from thence by a Southwest line; so that the more Southward, the farther off from the Bay are those mountaines. From which fall certaine brookes which after come to five principall navigable rivers. These run from the Northwest into the South east, and so into the West side of the Bay, where the fall of every River is within 20 or 15 myles one of another.
The mountaines.
The soyle. {MN}
The mountaines are of divers natures: for at the head of the Bay the rockes are of a composition like Mill stones. Some of Marble, &c. And many peeces like Christall we found, as throwne downe by water from those mountaines. For in Winter they are covered with much snow, and when it dissolveth the waters fall with such violence, that it causeth great inundations in some narrow valleyes, which is scarce perceived being once in the rivers. These waters wash from the rocks such glistering tinctures, that the ground in some places seemeth as guilded, where both the rocks and the earth are so splendent to behold, that better judgements then ours might have beene perswaded, they contained more then probabilities. The vesture of the earth in most places doth manifestly prove the nature of the soyle to be lusty and very rich. {MN} The colour of the earth we found in diverse places, resembleth bole Armoniac, terra sigillata, and Lemnia, Fullers earth, Marie, and divers other such appearances. But generally for the most part it is a blacke sandy mould, in some places a fat slimy clay, in other places a very barren gravell. But the best ground is knowne by the vesture it beareth, as by the greatnesse of trees, or abundance of weeds, &c.
The valleyes.
Plaines. {MN}
The Country is not mountanous, nor yet low, but such pleasant plaine hils, and fertile valleyes, one prettily crossing another, & watered so conveniently with fresh brookes and springs, no lesse commodious, then delightsome. {MN} By the rivers are many plaine marishes, containing some 20 some 100. some 200 Acres, some more, some lesse. Other plaines there are few, but onely where the Salvages inhabit: but all overgrowne with trees & weeds, being a plaine wildernesse as God first made it.
The river Powhatan. {MN-1}
The branches. {MN-2}
James Towne. {MN-3}