Page:Economic History of Virginia Vol 1.djvu/135

 harbor in the early history of the American colonies. The perilous character of the shoals of Hatteras only served to accentuate the natural advantages of the Virginian coast, a difference which the original settlers of the new country had practical occasion to recognize.

Both along the seaboard and on the shores of the Bay and in the lower valleys of the principal rivers, there was a vast extent of land which was converted into a permanent fen by its low situation; many of the marshes did not exceed twenty acres in area, but others covered the surface of many thousand, and in some instances could only be measured by a standard of miles. An attempt was made, by those who wished to darken the prospects of the infant colony, to disparage it by asserting that Virginia was largely composed of marshland. Butler declared that the country was interspersed with innumerable muddy lakes, bogs, swamps, and creeks, but this was indignantly denied, and by no one with more warmth than Smith, who stated that he knew of but few marshes in the tract of James River, and these on the whole were more profitable than hurtful; and he went so far as to say that there was far more ground of this character between Eriff and Chelsea in England than between Kecoughtan and the Falls of the Powhatan, a distance of one hundred and fifty-nine miles by the course of the river. Relatively speaking, this assertion of Smith was doubtless correct. The area in marsh was certainly small