And that brought to mind a strange fact.  In all our journey up the river, we had not seen a leaf of tobacco nor had we seen a place where it was grown.  Tobacco, upon which civilization along the James had been built; that had once covered with its broad leaves almost every cultivated acre along the stream; that had made the greatness of every plantation home we had visited—­and now unknown among the products of the fertile river banks!

At last Gadabout was at the foot of the falls and rapids.  Like those first exploring colonists we found that here “the water falleth so rudely, and with such a violence, as not any boat can possibly passe.”

[Illustration:  The voyage ended. Gadabout in winter quarters.]

Of course there was a temptation to do with our boat as the colonists once proposed to do with theirs—­take her to pieces and then put her together again above the falls, and so sail on up the old waterway to the South Sea and to the Indies.  But the exploring spirit of the race is not what it used to be, and we simply ran Gadabout into a slip beside the disused canal and stopped.  An anchor went plump into the water, making a wave-circle that spread and spread till it filled the whole basin—­a great round water-period to end our river story.

THE END.

INDEX

Adams
Alexander, Elizabeth
Appomattox River, The
Association for the Preservation of Virginia Antiquities, The

Back River, The
Bacon, Nathaniel
Barney, Mrs. Edward E., owner of Jamestown Island
Berkeley, Lady Frances
Berkeley, Sir William
Berkeley (the estate)
  home of elder branch of Harrison family
  ancestral home of a signer of the Declaration of Independence,
    and of two Presidents of the United States
  plantation in 1776
Bermuda Hundred, village founded four years after settlement of James Towne
Brandon
  history of
  riverward entrance to grounds
  the “woods-way” to the mansion
  “the quarters”
  the landward entrance
  type of architecture
  characteristic hospitality
  interior of mansion
  colonial portraits
  the old garden
  present day family at Brandon
  the bedrooms
  colonial silver
  ancient records
  an old court gown
  the family burying-ground
  the garrison house
Bransford, Mrs. H.W., of the Carter family of Shirley, and one of the
  present owners of the plantation, living in the manor-house
Buck, Reverend Richard
Byrd, Evelyn, portrait and romance of
  her room at Westover
  tomb of
Byrd, Lucy Parke, wife of William Byrd of Westover
Byrd, William, the second, of Westover
  portrait at Brandon
  about 1726 built present mansion at Westover
  death
  tomb of
  ability of this colonial grandee
  founded the city of Richmond