le person in his
behalf from the people. It has been suggested in modern times, as an
improvement in the administration of justice, to allow the parties to
make their own statements.

There were in Virginia, in 1648, about fifteen thousand English, and of
negroes that had been imported, three hundred good servants. Of cows,
oxen, bulls, and calves, "twenty thousand, large and good;" and the
colonists made plenty of butter and good cheese. The number of horses
and mares, of good breed, was two hundred; of asses fifty. The sheep
numbered three thousand, producing good wool; there were five thousand
goats. Hogs, tame and wild, innumerable, and the bacon excellent;
poultry equally abundant. Wheat was successfully cultivated. The
abundant crop of barley supplied malt, and there were public
brew-houses, and most of the planters brewed a good and strong beer for
themselves. Hops were found to thrive well. The price-current of beef
was two pence halfpenny (about five cents) a pound, pork six cents.
Cattle bore about the same price as in England; most of the vessels
arriving laid in their stores here. Thirty different sorts of river and
sea fish were caught. Thirty species of birds and fowls had been
observed, and twenty kinds of quadrupeds; deer abundant. The varieties
of fruit were estimated at fifteen, and they were comparable to those of
Italy. Twenty-five different kinds of trees were noticed, suitable for
building ships, houses, etc. The vegetables were potatoes, asparagus,
carrots, parsnips, onions, artichokes, peas, beans, and turnips, with a
variety of garden herbs and medicinal flowers. Virginia (or Indian) corn
yielded five hundred fold; it was planted like garden-peas; it made good
bread and furmity, and malt for beer, and was found to keep for seven
years. It was planted in April or May, and ripened in five months. Bees,
wild and domestic, supplied plenty of honey and wax. Indigo was made
from the leaves of a small tree, and great hopes were entertained that
Virginia would in time come to supply all Christendom with the commodity
which was then procured "from the Mogul's country." The Virginia tobacco
was in high esteem, yet the crop raised was so large that the price was
only about three pence, or six cents, a pound. A man could plant enough
to make two thousand pounds, and also sufficient corn and vegetables for
his own support. The culture of hemp and flax had been commenced. Good
iron-ore was found, and there we