1765 Encyclopedie entry on Virginia
From Encyclopédie ou Dictionnaire raisonné des sciences, des arts et des métiers, 1765:
Virginia, region in North America. It is bounded on the north by Maryland, on the south by Carolina, on the east by the North Sea [Atlantic], and on the west by Louisiana.
Raleigh, the plague and the victim of Spain, set up the first English colony in Mocasa, conquered this region, and gave it the name Virginia, in memory [honor] of Queen Elizabeth, his mistress, who lived her life in celibacy, entertaining all parties who sought to marry her without wanting to accept any of them.
Virginia is divided into northern and southern parts. The former extends from the 37th to 39th degree of latitude, and the latter from the 33rd to the 16th.
Northern Virginia is in a rather temperate climate. Summer is hot there, as in Spain, and winter cold, as in the north France. Often the cold is very severe there, but intermittently. One reaches this region through a long gulf between two promontories. The middle of the area is fertile and would be even more so if the savages deigned to farm it, but these savages are interested only in hunting and leave the housekeeping to their wives. They dress in the skins of wild animals, paint their bodies, and pierce their ears in order to hang shells from them. The women wash their newborn children in the river and rub them with certain drugs to toughen their skin against the cold and the heat.
Southern Virginia produces in abundance Indian corn and tobacco, in which the English conduct a large trade. The land is extremely fertile there, and European fruits grow very well there. One sees there lots of deer, bears, otters, squirrels, and animals whose skins are highly valued, as well as a large number of turkey-cocks, partridges, and other forest and river birds.
In Virginia there also grows a type of flax called herb-silk, with which they make cloth and clothes. The natives of the area are robust, agile, frank, and industrious. They are idolaters and worship all that they fear, such as fire, war, thunder, and mainly the devil, of whom they make frightful images. They regard the sun, the moon, and the stars as as many gods. Their priests are at the same time their doctors, and, as wizards, they consult the devil about the cure or death of their sick. Their chiefs, whom they call véroans, have command of one or several villages.
The two main rivers of Virginia are the James and York Rivers, which flow into Chesapeake Bay. The settlements are along the sea and on the banks of the rivers for the convenience of trade. The savages are inland and are like those of Maryland in almost everything.
The English have published equally careful social and natural descriptions of Virginia. One can consult them because some have been translated into French, but as these details would take us too long, we will be content to say that Virginia is divided into 19 counties, of which the main town is Jamestown.
According to the census taken in 1703, the 19 counties of Virginia contained sixty thousand six hundred inhabitants and nine thousand six hundred paid troops. It is likely that the settlements have doubled since the publication of this computation, which suffices to give an idea of the forces of England in America compared proportionally to the province of Virginia alone.
Elizabeth did hardly anything but give a name to the continent of Virginia. After the establishment of a weak settlement, whose collapse was soon seen, this region was completely abandoned. But when peace had ended the wars undertaken against Spain and no longer allowed ambitious dispositions the hope of advancing so quickly toward honor and fortune, the English began to support the peaceful intentions of their monarch by seeking a surer, although slower, way of acquiring glory and riches.
In 1606 Newport took charge of the conveyance of [people and supplies for] a colony and started a settlement that the company organized for this purpose in London and Bristol took care to supply annually with recruits, provisions, tools, and new settlers. Around 1609, Argal discovered a safer and more direct route to Virginia, and, leaving that of previous navigators, which had gone south of the Tropic [of Cancer], he took sail toward the west, with the lpe of the trade winds, and then turned north as far as his country's settlements.
In the same year, five hundred persons, under the leadership of Sir Thomas Gates and Sir George Sommers, were embarked for Virginia. Sommers's vessel, tossed by a horrible storm that drove it to the Bermudas, laid the foundations of another colony on those islands. Later Lord Delaware assumed the government of the England colonies, but all his efforts, supported by James I's care in sending him help in the form of men and money raised by the first lottery of which we have an example in England, did not secure these settlements against their decadence. It was such that in 1614 there no more than 400 men remained there, out of all those who had been conveyed there.
Finally, these new farmers, after having secured for themselves by their work the provisions most necessary for life, began to plant tobacco, and James, despite the aversion that he had for this drug, allowed them to ship it to England and at the same time prohibited the entry of Spanish tobacco. Thus by degrees, the new colonies took shape on this continent, and, giving new names to the areas they occupy, they left that of Virginia to the province where the first settlement was organized.
The theorizers of this century made lots of objections against these distant settlements and predicted that, after having drained their mother country of inhabitants, sooner or later they would be seen to shake off the yoke in order to form an independent state in America. But time has made it known that the views of those who promoted these undertakings were fairest and soundest. A gentle government and naval forces have maintained and can maintain for a long time the dominion of England over these colonies, and navigation has drawn so many benefits for it from them that today more than half of its vessels are involved in the upkeep of trade with the American settlements.
Virginia, region in North America. It is bounded on the north by Maryland, on the south by Carolina, on the east by the North Sea [Atlantic], and on the west by Louisiana.
Raleigh, the plague and the victim of Spain, set up the first English colony in Mocasa, conquered this region, and gave it the name Virginia, in memory [honor] of Queen Elizabeth, his mistress, who lived her life in celibacy, entertaining all parties who sought to marry her without wanting to accept any of them.
Virginia is divided into northern and southern parts. The former extends from the 37th to 39th degree of latitude, and the latter from the 33rd to the 16th.
Northern Virginia is in a rather temperate climate. Summer is hot there, as in Spain, and winter cold, as in the north France. Often the cold is very severe there, but intermittently. One reaches this region through a long gulf between two promontories. The middle of the area is fertile and would be even more so if the savages deigned to farm it, but these savages are interested only in hunting and leave the housekeeping to their wives. They dress in the skins of wild animals, paint their bodies, and pierce their ears in order to hang shells from them. The women wash their newborn children in the river and rub them with certain drugs to toughen their skin against the cold and the heat.
Southern Virginia produces in abundance Indian corn and tobacco, in which the English conduct a large trade. The land is extremely fertile there, and European fruits grow very well there. One sees there lots of deer, bears, otters, squirrels, and animals whose skins are highly valued, as well as a large number of turkey-cocks, partridges, and other forest and river birds.
In Virginia there also grows a type of flax called herb-silk, with which they make cloth and clothes. The natives of the area are robust, agile, frank, and industrious. They are idolaters and worship all that they fear, such as fire, war, thunder, and mainly the devil, of whom they make frightful images. They regard the sun, the moon, and the stars as as many gods. Their priests are at the same time their doctors, and, as wizards, they consult the devil about the cure or death of their sick. Their chiefs, whom they call véroans, have command of one or several villages.
The two main rivers of Virginia are the James and York Rivers, which flow into Chesapeake Bay. The settlements are along the sea and on the banks of the rivers for the convenience of trade. The savages are inland and are like those of Maryland in almost everything.
The English have published equally careful social and natural descriptions of Virginia. One can consult them because some have been translated into French, but as these details would take us too long, we will be content to say that Virginia is divided into 19 counties, of which the main town is Jamestown.
According to the census taken in 1703, the 19 counties of Virginia contained sixty thousand six hundred inhabitants and nine thousand six hundred paid troops. It is likely that the settlements have doubled since the publication of this computation, which suffices to give an idea of the forces of England in America compared proportionally to the province of Virginia alone.
Elizabeth did hardly anything but give a name to the continent of Virginia. After the establishment of a weak settlement, whose collapse was soon seen, this region was completely abandoned. But when peace had ended the wars undertaken against Spain and no longer allowed ambitious dispositions the hope of advancing so quickly toward honor and fortune, the English began to support the peaceful intentions of their monarch by seeking a surer, although slower, way of acquiring glory and riches.
In 1606 Newport took charge of the conveyance of [people and supplies for] a colony and started a settlement that the company organized for this purpose in London and Bristol took care to supply annually with recruits, provisions, tools, and new settlers. Around 1609, Argal discovered a safer and more direct route to Virginia, and, leaving that of previous navigators, which had gone south of the Tropic [of Cancer], he took sail toward the west, with the lpe of the trade winds, and then turned north as far as his country's settlements.
In the same year, five hundred persons, under the leadership of Sir Thomas Gates and Sir George Sommers, were embarked for Virginia. Sommers's vessel, tossed by a horrible storm that drove it to the Bermudas, laid the foundations of another colony on those islands. Later Lord Delaware assumed the government of the England colonies, but all his efforts, supported by James I's care in sending him help in the form of men and money raised by the first lottery of which we have an example in England, did not secure these settlements against their decadence. It was such that in 1614 there no more than 400 men remained there, out of all those who had been conveyed there.
Finally, these new farmers, after having secured for themselves by their work the provisions most necessary for life, began to plant tobacco, and James, despite the aversion that he had for this drug, allowed them to ship it to England and at the same time prohibited the entry of Spanish tobacco. Thus by degrees, the new colonies took shape on this continent, and, giving new names to the areas they occupy, they left that of Virginia to the province where the first settlement was organized.
The theorizers of this century made lots of objections against these distant settlements and predicted that, after having drained their mother country of inhabitants, sooner or later they would be seen to shake off the yoke in order to form an independent state in America. But time has made it known that the views of those who promoted these undertakings were fairest and soundest. A gentle government and naval forces have maintained and can maintain for a long time the dominion of England over these colonies, and navigation has drawn so many benefits for it from them that today more than half of its vessels are involved in the upkeep of trade with the American settlements.