[page 142]

102.

But in summer it is so hot that the earth cracks and the little streams are completely dried up.

Erde kommt : Sommers-Zeit aber macht es eine solche Hitze daß der Boden aufspringen thut und was kleine Wasser seyn gantz austrücknen.

This province of Virginia is also for the most part a flat land, with very lovely forests; to the west it shares a border with North Carolina, to the north with Maryland and Pennsylvania[232]. The province is still sparsely populated; on the side where the Shenandoah and Potomac are located, it is populated with savages[233]. This province is also known for its tobacco, which grows very well and is planted in large quantities here etc.[234] Concerning slavery, it is not as good as in New England and those regions; as for pigs, sheep and other animals, there are many of them, they live in the forests like wild animals. The landowners who live there do not know how many head of cattle they have, because the animals never see the inside of a barn. You can sometimes walk 6-7 hours or more without coming across a house travelling the roads of this country, while the forests are crawling with pigs and sheep, etc.[235]. Around spring, we received news from the Court of France. As Mister Rochambeau, our general, had proved so valiant with the army that was entrusted to him, it was decided at the Court to write and send a letter of recognition that later was to be read under the order of His Majesty before all the regiments of the army! It was translated into German especially for the Deux-Ponts regiment,

Diese Profintz Virginia ist auch mehrstentheils eben Land und sehr schönes Gewälld, sie gräntzet gegen der westlichen Seite an Nord-Carrolina, gegen der nördlichen Seite stösset sie an Mary-Land und Phinselphania, auch ist diese Profintz noch gar nicht starck bewohnt, auf der einen Seite dem Fluße Schenenta und Patomack nach ist dieses Land mit lauder Wilden bewohnt. Wiedrum hat diese Provintz auch einen berühmten Namen von wegen ihrem vornehmen Wachsthum an Taback, welcher alda in der Menge gepflantzet wird etc. Was der Viehzug anbetrifft ist nicht so gut als in Ney-Engelland und selbige Gegenden, was die Schwein, Schaafe und dergleichen anbelangt hat es in der Menge und läufft in den Wäldern als wie Wild. Diese Gendel-Mäner die alda wohnen wissen nicht wieviel Viehe sie haben weil es niemals in keinen Stall kommt : wan mann in diesem Lande auf der Straße gehet, so trifft man biß 6-7 und noch mehr Stunden kein Hauß an unterwegs lauffen alle Wälder voller Schwein und Schaafe etc. Aufs Frühjahr bekamen wir Order aus Franckreich von Hoffe : Weilen Monsieur Rochambo unser General sich mit ihm seiner anvertrauten Armee so tapffer gehalten hatte : wurde indessen Order von Hoffe seiner Majestät ein sehr schöner Dankbrüff entschlossen und verfertiget worden ; welcher Brüff hernach der gantzen Armee bey allen Regimenter mußte vorgelessen werden ! Absonderlich vor das Regiment von Zweybrücken wurde er übersetzt ins Teutsche und wurde

[réclame]

her

https://gallica.bnf.fr/iiif/ark:/12148/btv1b10110846m/f72/pct:0,0,50,100/,700/0/native.jpg

Strasbourg, Médiathèque André Malraux, ms f 15, p. 142.

[agrandir]

Notes

232. The author’s notions of geography are quite unclear. Virginia simply has no western border (up to the Mississippi River), and its border with North Carolina is located to the south. To the north, Virginia adjoins Pennsylvania and Maryland.

233. The Shenandoah and Potomac Rivers are situated in northwest Virginia.

234. Tobacco, an Amazonian plant that was first deemed harmful in England, was finally authorized for its fiscal potential. Tobacco from the Caribbean West Indies having suffered a price increase, English smokers turned to Virginian tobacco, which was of lower quality but cheaper. The Jamestown colonists decided to pay back their debts to England by sending them small satchels filled with tobacco. Tobacco production saw a swift increase: starting in 1620, 50,000 pounds of tobacco were exported annually. In 1650, the Chesapeake Bay was nicknamed “Tobacco Coast”, the farming of this plant representing a revenue of 25 million pounds. Tobacco planters drew large profits from it, one thousand times greater than the capital and the tools they had to buy in the beginning. The banks of the James and York rivers were covered with English farms that hired a large workforce (and employed about twenty Africans, the first slaves sold by pirates, as early as 1619), which was paid 1 or 2 pounds a year while their work in the field brought in between 100 and 200 pounds annually. Tobacco was also at the origin of Virginia’s political culture: in 1619, a council of elected representatives started to meet to settle disputes. It was the first representative system in North America. Mann, Charles, 1493: Comment la découverte de l’Amérique a transformé le monde, Paris, Albin Michel, 2013, p.91-90. The settlers covered vast areas of Virginia with tobacco, quickly discovering that the soil was exhausted after two years, which meant that cultivation had to be moved further and further inland, to the detriment of the Indians, who only planted tobacco in modest quantities. Cf. Anonymous, Nègres filant et roulant le tabac, engraving, 1735. From Pomet, Pierre, Histoire générale des drogues simples et composées…, t. 1, pl. 122, p. 177 [reproduction en ligne - RMN]

235. Flohr represents these wild animals in his drawing of the city of Jamestown. At first, the farm animals brought over by the English had trouble adjusting, partly because they ended up being eaten by the colonists who had no other choice when they had to cope with bad harvests. But, after the peace treaty between the Indians and the first colonists, the security of the food supply led to the proliferation of pigs, goats, cattle, sheep, and horses. Cows and horses moved around freely in the Indian territories, destroying their crops, but the colonists demanded compensation if they happened to kill them. For several decades, these species reproduced with no control, so much so that in 1619 colonists noticed large numbers of pigs escaping into the woods, feeding on achenes, fruits, and corn and unearthing a tuber from the Virginia soil that served as food for Indians in case of bad harvests: truffles. Swedish botanist Peter Kalm observed the same thing in the eighteenth century: the Virginian truffle was pulled out of the soil by hoards of pigs that fattened up on these treasures and reproduced with no bounds. According to Mann (Charles), 1493: Comment la découverte de l’Amérique a transformé le monde, Paris, Albin Michel, 2013, p.95-96.