Page:Notes on the State of Virginia (1853).djvu/133

Rh On Rappahannoc, Urbanna, Port Royal, Fredericksburg, Falmouth.

On Patowmac and its waters, Dumfries, Colchester, Alexandria, Winchester, Staunton.

On Ohio, Louisville.

There are other places at which, like some of the foregoing, the laws have said there shall be towns; but Nature has said there shall not, and they remain unworthy of enumeration. Norfolk will probably be the emporium for all the trade of the Chesapeak Bay and its waters; and a canal of 8 or 10 miles will bring to it all that of Albemarle Sound and its waters. Secondary to this place are the towns at the head of the tide waters, to wit, Petersburgh, on Appomattox, Richmond, on James River, Newcastle, on York River, Alexandria, on Patowmac, and Baltimore, on the Patapsco. From these the distribution will be to subordinate situations in the country. Accidental circumstances, however, may control the indications of Nature, and in no instances do they do it more frequently than in the rise and fall of towns. 



THE CONSTITUTION OF THE STATE AND ITS SEVERAL CHARTERS?

Queen Elizabeth, by her letters patent, bearing date March 25, 1584, licensed Sir Walter Raleigh to search for remote heathen lands not inhabited by Christian people, and granted to him in fee simple all the soil within 200 leagues of the places where his people should within 6 years make their dwellings or abidings, reserving only to herself and her successors their allegiance, and one-fifth part of all the gold and silver ore they should obtain. Sir Walter immediately sent