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MRAP Directory 12
Page 03
From La Merced there was a trail from one to three metres wide, cut out in the solid rock and skirting all along the foaming river, which flowed in the opposite direction from that in which we were travelling. In several places narrow tunnels had been excavated in the rock, through which the trail proceeded. These tunnels were dangerous when you encountered caravans of pack animals coming through from the opposite direction. The animals often got jammed in the middle of the tunnel, tearing their loads to pieces in their attempts to disentangle themselves. Once I got jammed myself, and came out minus a patch of skin several inches long from my left shin and knee.
The most important spoon in the Jamestown collection, and one of the most significant objects excavated, is an incomplete pewter spoon--a variant of the trifid, or split-end, type common during the 1650-90 period. Impressed on the handle (in the trefoil finial of the stem) is the mark of the maker, giving his name, the Virginia town where he worked, and the year he started business. This is the sole surviving "touch" or mark of an American pewterer of the 17th century. The complete legend, encircling a heart, reads: "IOSEPH COPELAND/1675/CHUCKATUCK." (Chuckatuck is a small Virginia village in Nansemond County, about 30 miles southeast of Jamestown.) Joseph Copeland later moved to Jamestown where he was caretaker of the statehouse from 1688-91. He may have made pewter in Virginia's first capital. His matchless spoon found in the old Jamestown soil is the oldest dated piece of American-made pewter in existence.
Falerii was almost the only one of the Etruscan cities which had assisted Veii, and she was now exposed single-handed to the vengeance of the Romans. It is related that, when Camillus appeared before Falerii, a schoolmaster of the town treacherously conducted the sons of the noblest families into the Roman camp, but that Camillus, scorning the baseness of the man, ordered his arms to be tied behind him, and the boys to flog him back into the town; whereupon the inhabitants, overcome by such generosity, gave up their arms, and surrendered to the Romans (B.C. 394).
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