so that the province, as now
possessed, stretches in length above two hundred and forty miles, and
in breadth not above two hundred, lying between the fifty-fifth and
fortieth degrees of latitude. In sailing to Virginia, navigators steer
through a strait formed by two points, called the Capes, into the bay of
Chesapeak, a large inlet that runs three hundred miles into the country
from south to north, covered from the Atlantic Ocean by the eastern side
of Maryland, and a small portion of Virginia on the same peninsula. This
noble bay is about eighteen miles broad for a considerable space, and
seven at its narrowest part, yielding generally nine fathoms depth of
water; on both sides it receives many navigable rivers, those on the
Virginia side being known by the names of James River, York River, the
Rappahannock, and Potowmack. This country, especially towards the sea,
lies very low and swampy, and the soil is extremely fertile. The air
and weather are variable, the heats of summer excessive, the frosts of
winter sudden, and intensely cold; so that, upon the whole, the climate
is neither very agreeable nor healthy, the people being particularly
subject to agues and pleuritic disorders. The province abounds with vast
forests of timber; the plains are covered with a surprising luxuriancy
of vegetables, flowers, and flowering shrubs, diffusing the most
delicious fragrance. The ground yields plenty of corn, and every sort
of fruit in great abundance and perfection. Horned cattle and hogs
have here multiplied to admiration, since they were first imported from
Europe. The animals, natives of this and the neighbouring countries, are
deer, panthers or tigers, bears, wolves, foxes, squirrels, racoons, and
creatures called opossums, with an infinite variety of beautiful birds,
and a diversity of serpents, among which the rattlesnake is the most
remarkable.

Virginia is bounded to the south by the two Carolinas, situated between
the forty-sixth and thirty-first degrees of latitude; the length
amounting to upwards of four hundred miles, and the breadth extending
near three hundred, as far as the Indian nations called the Catawbas,
the Creeks, and Cherokees. The country of Carolina is divided into two
governments, of which the most northern is the most inconsiderable. The
climate in both is the same, as well as the soil: the first is warm,
though not unhealthy; the last extremely fertile, yielding every thing
in plenty which is produc