Page:Economic History of Virginia Vol 1.djvu/422

 of many planters who did not reside in sight of a stream were compelled to seek refuge upon the tops of their houses in order to escape destruction. Large vessels were swept over bars of sand where, at ordinary tide, a small boat would run aground, and at places where vessels could float at ease at the usual flood, the water was too shallow to keep them off the bottom. A vast quantity of Indian corn, not drowned in the rain which had been falling for forty-five days, was laid flat, the tobacco in the exposed places was torn to shreds, while that which had been cut and stored away was destroyed with the barns in which it had been deposited. The fences were either blown down or crushed out of shape by the falling trees, leaving the cattle at liberty to enter and devour the crops as they lay scattered over the fields. It was estimated that ten thousand houses were ruined by the hurricane, this number including, doubtless, barns and stables as well as the cabins of slaves and servants and the residences of planters. It was impossible for all of the crops to have been swept away, since much corn and tobacco were planted in spots more or less sheltered from winds by a heavy growth of forest. According to one calculation made at the time, the amount saved was about one-third only of the expected product; according to another, only one-fifth.

Throughout the period between 1660 and 1670, an extraordinary degree of attention was paid to a number of commodities besides tobacco, an indication that the value of the latter staple was in a state of great depression. In the session of 1661-62, the former law, which had been expressly repealed as inconvenient and troublesome, requiring that every owner of land in fee simple should