Maxwell in "The Use and Abuse of Forests by Virginia Indians" tells us, "Virginia, between its mountains and the seas was passing through its fiery ordeal and was approaching a crisis at the time the colonists snatched the fagot from the Indian's hand. The tribes were burning everything that would burn and it can be said of the Alleghanies that if the discovery of America had been post-poned five hundred years, Virginia would have been pasture land or desert." This point is further illustrated by the Manahoac Indian's remark to Captain John Smith that he knew not what lay beyond the Blue Ridge except the sun, "because the woods were not burnt". Although the settlement by colonists helped to slow down this burning process, it did not stop it altogether. The colonists cleared their land by burning also and when they had exploited one area moved on to another. (They did not burn as large areas as the Indians.) As other freemen came, they pushed upward and inward along the waterways to find unexploited land. This, of course, hastened the development of the Fairfax County area but it left acres of "old fields" going idle for want of a little fertilizer. Many ignorant overseers of large land holdings knew little of fertilization or replenishing the soil and they too, when they had exhausted one part of the proprietorship, moved on to another, which they cleared by burning. They gathered slaves from other plantations to help fell the trees and at night large groups of negroes gathered round the mound of burning trees and raised their voices in the spiritual singing that was characteristic of them. Sometimes the burning lasted for two or three days and laughter, song and wine were plentiful. Fairfax County itself was gradually being occupied by men from two of the colonies: viz., Maryland and Jamestown. The Maryland colonists were English traders who, for one reason or another, had left their colony (1632) and taken up their residence among friendly tribes along the Virginia shore of the Potomac. The Maryland colonists preceded the Jamestown colonists by a few years. The Jamestown colonists in their search for unused land had gradually started to move into Fairfax County around 1649. Word had spread that the area farther north (part of which is now known as Fairfax County) was the "land of opportunity" and wealthy land-holders began buying large units of five hundred to three thousand acres for speculation. Among these were the Masons, Draytons, Baxters, Brents, Vincents, Merriweathers, Fitzhughs, Hills, Dudleys and Howsings.