1. By keeping the coat (of pitch, lime and tallow, or whatever else it is) whole upon the bottom of the ship or vessel, for these worms never fasten nor enter, but where the timber is naked.2. By anchoring the large vessel in the strength of the tide, during the worm season, and hauling the smaller ashore; for in the current of a strong tide, the worm cannot fasten.3. By burning and cleaning immediately after the worm season is over; for then they are but just stuck into the plank, and have not buried themselves in it; so that theleast fire in the world destroys them entirely, and prevents all damage that would otherwise ensue from them.4. By running up into the freshes with the ship or vessel during the five or six weeks that the worm is thus above water; for they never enter, nor do any damage in fresh water, or where it is not very salt.
1. By keeping the coat (of pitch, lime and tallow, or whatever else it is) whole upon the bottom of the ship or vessel, for these worms never fasten nor enter, but where the timber is naked.
2. By anchoring the large vessel in the strength of the tide, during the worm season, and hauling the smaller ashore; for in the current of a strong tide, the worm cannot fasten.
3. By burning and cleaning immediately after the worm season is over; for then they are but just stuck into the plank, and have not buried themselves in it; so that theleast fire in the world destroys them entirely, and prevents all damage that would otherwise ensue from them.
4. By running up into the freshes with the ship or vessel during the five or six weeks that the worm is thus above water; for they never enter, nor do any damage in fresh water, or where it is not very salt.
OF THE EARTH AND SOILS.
§ 7. The soil is of such variety, according to the difference of situation, that one part or other of it seems fitted to every sort of plant that is requisite either for the benefit or pleasure of mankind. And were it not for the high mountains to the northwest, which are supposed to retain vast magazines of snow, and by that means cause the wind from that quarter to descend a little too cold upon them, 'tis believed that many of those delicious summer fruits, growing in the hotter climates, might be kept there green all the winter without the charge of housing, or any other care, than what is due to the natural plants of the country, when transplanted into a garden. But as that would be no considerable charge, any man that is curious might, with all the ease imaginable, preserve as many of them as would gratify a moderate luxury; and the summer affords genial heat enough to ripen them to perfection.
There are three different kinds of land, according to the difference of situation, either in the lower parts of the country, the middle, or that on the heads of the rivers.
1. The land towards the mouth of the rivers is generally of a low, moist, and fat mould, such as the heavier sort of grain delight in: as rice, hemp, Indian corn, &c. This also is varied here and there with veins of a cold, hungry, sandy soil, of the same moisture, and very often lying under water. But this also has its advantages; for on such land generally grow the huckleberries, cranberries, chinkapins, &c. These low lands are, for the most part,well stored with oaks, poplars, pines, cedars, cypress and sweet gums; the trunks of which are often thirty, forty, fifty, some sixty or seventy feet high, without a branch or limb. They likewise produce great variety of evergreens, unknown to me by name, besides the beauteous holly, sweet myrtle, cedar, and the live oak, which for three quarters of the year is continually dropping its acorns, and at the same time budding and bearing others in their stead.2. The land higher up the rivers, throughout the whole country, is generally a level ground, with shallow valleys, full of streams and pleasant springs of clear water, having interspersed here and there among the large levels some small hills and extensive vales. The mould in some places is black, fat, and thick laid; in others looser, lighter and thin. The foundation of the mould is also various; sometimes clay, then gravel and rocky stones, and sometimes marl. The middle of the necks, or ridges between the rivers, is generally poor, being either a light sand, or a white or red clay, with a thin mould. Yet even these places are stored with chestnuts, chinkapins, acorns of the shrub oak, and a reedy grass in summer, very good for cattle. The rich lands lie next the rivers and branches, and are stored with large oak, walnut, hickory, ash, beech, poplar, and many other sorts of timber, of surprising bigness.3. The heads of the rivers afford a mixture of hills, valleys and plains, some richer than others, whereof the fruit and timber trees are also various. In some places lie great plats of low and very rich ground, well timbered; in others, large spots of meadows and savannahs, wherein are hundreds of acres without any tree at all, but yields reeds and grass of incredible height; and in the swamps and sunken grounds grow trees as vastly big as I believe the world affords, and stand so close together, that the branches or boughs of many of them lock into one another; but what lessens their value is, that the greatest bulk of them are at some distance from water-carriage.The land of these upper parts affords greater variety of soil than any other, and as great variety in the foundations of the soil or mould, of which good judgment may be made by the plants and herbs that grow upon it. The rivers and creeks do in many places form very fine large marshes, which are a convenient support for their flocks and herds.
1. The land towards the mouth of the rivers is generally of a low, moist, and fat mould, such as the heavier sort of grain delight in: as rice, hemp, Indian corn, &c. This also is varied here and there with veins of a cold, hungry, sandy soil, of the same moisture, and very often lying under water. But this also has its advantages; for on such land generally grow the huckleberries, cranberries, chinkapins, &c. These low lands are, for the most part,well stored with oaks, poplars, pines, cedars, cypress and sweet gums; the trunks of which are often thirty, forty, fifty, some sixty or seventy feet high, without a branch or limb. They likewise produce great variety of evergreens, unknown to me by name, besides the beauteous holly, sweet myrtle, cedar, and the live oak, which for three quarters of the year is continually dropping its acorns, and at the same time budding and bearing others in their stead.
2. The land higher up the rivers, throughout the whole country, is generally a level ground, with shallow valleys, full of streams and pleasant springs of clear water, having interspersed here and there among the large levels some small hills and extensive vales. The mould in some places is black, fat, and thick laid; in others looser, lighter and thin. The foundation of the mould is also various; sometimes clay, then gravel and rocky stones, and sometimes marl. The middle of the necks, or ridges between the rivers, is generally poor, being either a light sand, or a white or red clay, with a thin mould. Yet even these places are stored with chestnuts, chinkapins, acorns of the shrub oak, and a reedy grass in summer, very good for cattle. The rich lands lie next the rivers and branches, and are stored with large oak, walnut, hickory, ash, beech, poplar, and many other sorts of timber, of surprising bigness.
3. The heads of the rivers afford a mixture of hills, valleys and plains, some richer than others, whereof the fruit and timber trees are also various. In some places lie great plats of low and very rich ground, well timbered; in others, large spots of meadows and savannahs, wherein are hundreds of acres without any tree at all, but yields reeds and grass of incredible height; and in the swamps and sunken grounds grow trees as vastly big as I believe the world affords, and stand so close together, that the branches or boughs of many of them lock into one another; but what lessens their value is, that the greatest bulk of them are at some distance from water-carriage.The land of these upper parts affords greater variety of soil than any other, and as great variety in the foundations of the soil or mould, of which good judgment may be made by the plants and herbs that grow upon it. The rivers and creeks do in many places form very fine large marshes, which are a convenient support for their flocks and herds.
§ 8. There is likewise found great variety of earths for physic, cleansing, scouring, and making all sorts of potter's ware; such as antimony, talk, yellow and red oker, fuller's-earth, pipe-clay, and other fat and fine clays, marl, &c.; in a word, there are all kinds of earth fit for use.
They have besides, in those upper parts, coal for firing, slate for covering, and stones for building, and flat paving in vast quantities, as likewise pebble stones. Nevertheless, it has been confidently affirmed by many, who have been in Virginia, that there is not a stone in all the country. If such travelers knew no better than they said, my judgment of them is, that either they were people of extreme short memories, or else of very narrow observation. For though generally the lower parts are flat, and so free from stones, that people seldom shoe their horses; yet in many places, and particularly near the falls of the rivers, are found vast quantities of stone, fit for all kinds of uses. However, as yet, there is seldom any use made of them, because commonly wood is to be had at much less trouble; and as for coals, it is not likely they should ever be used there in anything but forges and great towns, if ever they happen to have any, for, in their country plantations, the wood grows at every man's door so fast, that after it has been cut down, it will in seven years time grow up again from seed, to substantial fire-wood; and in eighteen or twenty years it will come to be very good board timber.
§ 9. For mineral earths, it is believed they have great plenty and variety, that country being in a good latitude, and having great appearances of them. It has been proved, too, that they have both iron and lead, as appears bywhat was said before concerning the iron works set up at Falling creek in James river, where the iron proved reasonably good; but before they got into the body of the mine, the people were cut off in that fatal massacre, and the project has never been set on foot since, till of late; but it has not had its full trial.
The golden mine, of which there was once so much noise, may, perhaps, be found hereafter to be some good metal, when it comes to be fully examined. But be that as it will, the stones that are found near it, in great plenty, are valuable, their lustre approaching nearer to that of the diamond than those of Bristol or Kerry. There is no other fault in them but their softness, which the weather hardens, when they have been sometime exposed to it, they being found under the surface of the earth. This place has now plantations on it.
This I take to be the place in Purchase's fourth book of his pilgrim, called Uttamussack, where was formerly the principal temple of the country, and the metropolitan seat of the priests in Powhatan's time. There stood the three great houses, near sixty feet in length, which he reports to have been filled with the images of their gods; there were likewise preserved the bodies of their kings. These houses they counted so holy, that none but their priests and kings durst go into them, the common people not presuming, without their particular direction, to approach the place.
There also was their great Pawcorance, or altar stone, which, the Indians tell us, was a solid crystal, of between three and four feet cube, upon which, in their greatest solemnities, they used to sacrifice. This, they would make us believe, was so clear, that the grain of a man's skin might be seen through it; and was so heavy too that when they removed their gods and kings, not being able to carry it away, they buried it thereabouts; but the place has never been yet discovered.
Mr. Alexander Whittaker, minister of Henrico, on James river, in the company's time, writing to them, says thus:"Twelve miles from the falls there is a crystal rock, wherewith the Indians do head many of their arrows; and three days journey from thence, there is a rock and stony hill found, which is on the top covered over with a perfect and most rich silver ore. Our men that went to discover those parts had but two iron pickaxes with them, and those so ill tempered that the points of them turned again, and bowed at every stroke, so that we could not search the entrails of the place; yet some trial was made of that ore with good success."
§ 10. Some people that have been in that country, without knowing any thing of it, have affirmed that it is all a flat, without any mixture of hills, because they see the coast to seaward perfectly level: or else they have made their judgment of the whole country by the lands lying on the lower parts of the rivers, (which, perhaps, they had never been beyond,) and so conclude it to be throughout plain and even. When in truth, upon the heads of the great rivers, there are vast high hills; and even among the settlements there are some so topping that I have stood upon them and viewed the country all round over the tops of the highest trees for many leagues together; particularly, there are Mawborn hills in the freshes of James river; a ridge of hills about fourteen or fifteen miles up Mattapony river; Toliver's mount, upon Rappahannock river; and the ridge of hills in Stafford county, in the freshes of Potomac river; all which are within the bounds of the English inhabitants. But a little farther backward, there are mountains, which indeed deserve the name of mountains for their height and bigness; which by their difficulty in passing may easily be made a good barrier of the country against incursions of the Indians, &c., and shew themselves over the tops of the trees to many plantations at 70 or 80 miles distance very plain.
These hills are not without their advantages; for, out of almost every rising ground, throughout the country, there issue abundance of most pleasant streams, of pure and crystalwater, than which certainly the world does not afford any more delicious. These are every where to be found in the upper parts of this country, and many of them flow out of the sides of banks very high above the vales, which are the most suitable places for gardens—where the finest water works in the world may be made at a very small expense.
There are likewise several mineral springs, easily discoverable by their taste, as well as by the soil which they drive out with their streams. But I am not naturalist skilful enough to describe them with the exactness they deserve.
OF THE WILD FRUITS OF THE COUNTRY.
§ 11. Of fruits natural to the country, there is great abundance, but the several species of them are produced according to the difference of the soil, and the various situation of the country; it being impossible that one piece of ground should produce so many different kinds intermixed. Of the better sorts of the wild fruits that I have met with, I will barely give you the names, not designing a natural history. And when I have done that, possibly I may not mention one-half of what the country affords, because I never went out of my way to enquire after anything of this nature.
§ 12. Of stoned fruits, I have met with three good sorts, viz: Cherries, plums and persimmons.
1. Of cherries natural to the country, and growing wild in the woods, I have seen three sorts. Two of these grow upon trees as big as the common English white oak, whereof one grows in bunches like grapes. Both these sorts are black without, and but one of them red within. That which is red within, is more palatable than the English black cherry, as being without its bitterness. The other, which hangs on the branch like grapes, is water colored within, of a faintish sweet, and greedily devoured by the small birds. The third sort is called the Indian cherry, and grows higher up in the country than the others do. It is commonly found by the sides of rivers and branches on small slender trees, scarce able to support themselves, about the bigness of the peach trees in England. This is certainly the most delicious cherry in the world; it is of a dark purple when ripe, and grows upon a single stalk likethe English cherry, but is very small, though, I suppose, it may be made larger by cultivation, if anybody would mind it. These, too, are so greedily devoured by the small birds, that they won't let them remain on the tree long enough to ripen; by which means, they are rarely known to any, and much more rarely tasted, though, perhaps, at the same time they grow just by the houses.2. The plums, which I have observed to grow wild there, are of two sorts, the black and the Murrey plum, both which are small, and have much the same relish with the damson.3. The persimmon is by Heriot called the Indian plum; and so Smith, Purchase, and Du Lake, call it after him; but I can't perceive that any of those authors had ever heard of the sorts I have just now mentioned, they growing high up in the country. These persimmons, amongst them, retain their Indian name. They are of several sizes, between the bigness of a damson plum and a burgamot pear. The taste of them is so very rough, it is not to be endured till they are fully ripe, and then they are a pleasant fruit. Of these, some vertuosi make an agreeable kind of beer, to which purpose they dry them in cakes, and lay them up for use. These, like most other fruits there, grow as thick upon the trees as ropes of onions: the branches very often break down by the mighty weight of the fruit.
1. Of cherries natural to the country, and growing wild in the woods, I have seen three sorts. Two of these grow upon trees as big as the common English white oak, whereof one grows in bunches like grapes. Both these sorts are black without, and but one of them red within. That which is red within, is more palatable than the English black cherry, as being without its bitterness. The other, which hangs on the branch like grapes, is water colored within, of a faintish sweet, and greedily devoured by the small birds. The third sort is called the Indian cherry, and grows higher up in the country than the others do. It is commonly found by the sides of rivers and branches on small slender trees, scarce able to support themselves, about the bigness of the peach trees in England. This is certainly the most delicious cherry in the world; it is of a dark purple when ripe, and grows upon a single stalk likethe English cherry, but is very small, though, I suppose, it may be made larger by cultivation, if anybody would mind it. These, too, are so greedily devoured by the small birds, that they won't let them remain on the tree long enough to ripen; by which means, they are rarely known to any, and much more rarely tasted, though, perhaps, at the same time they grow just by the houses.
2. The plums, which I have observed to grow wild there, are of two sorts, the black and the Murrey plum, both which are small, and have much the same relish with the damson.
3. The persimmon is by Heriot called the Indian plum; and so Smith, Purchase, and Du Lake, call it after him; but I can't perceive that any of those authors had ever heard of the sorts I have just now mentioned, they growing high up in the country. These persimmons, amongst them, retain their Indian name. They are of several sizes, between the bigness of a damson plum and a burgamot pear. The taste of them is so very rough, it is not to be endured till they are fully ripe, and then they are a pleasant fruit. Of these, some vertuosi make an agreeable kind of beer, to which purpose they dry them in cakes, and lay them up for use. These, like most other fruits there, grow as thick upon the trees as ropes of onions: the branches very often break down by the mighty weight of the fruit.
§ 13. Of berries there is a great variety, and all very good in their kinds. Our mulberries are of three sorts, two black and one white; the long black sort are the best, being about the bigness of a boy's thumb; the other two sorts are of the shape of the English mulberry, short and thick, but their taste does not so generally please, being of a faintish sweet, without any tartness. They grow upon well spread, large bodied trees, which run up surprisingly fast. These are the proper food of the silk-worm.
1. There grow naturally two sorts of currants, one red and the other black, more sweet than those of the same color in England. They grow upon small bushes, or slender trees.2. There are three sorts of hurts, or huckleberries, upon bushes, from two to ten feet high. They grow in the valleys and sunken grounds, having different relishes; but are all pleasing to the taste. The largest sort grow upon the largest bushes, and, I think, are the best berries.3. Cranberries grow in the low lands and barren sunken grounds, upon low bushes, like the gooseberry, and are much of the same size. They are of a lively red, when gathered and kept in water, and make very good tarts. I believe these are the berries which Captain Smith compared to the English gooseberry, and called Rawcomens; having, perhaps, seen them only on the bushes, where they are always very sour.4. The wild raspberry is by some there preferred to those that were transplanted thither from England; but I cannot be of their opinion.5. Strawberries they have, as delicious as any in the world, and growing almost every where in the woods and fields. They are eaten almost by all creatures; and yet are so plentiful that very few persons take care to transplant them, but can find enough to fill their baskets, when they have a mind, in the deserted old fields.
1. There grow naturally two sorts of currants, one red and the other black, more sweet than those of the same color in England. They grow upon small bushes, or slender trees.
2. There are three sorts of hurts, or huckleberries, upon bushes, from two to ten feet high. They grow in the valleys and sunken grounds, having different relishes; but are all pleasing to the taste. The largest sort grow upon the largest bushes, and, I think, are the best berries.
3. Cranberries grow in the low lands and barren sunken grounds, upon low bushes, like the gooseberry, and are much of the same size. They are of a lively red, when gathered and kept in water, and make very good tarts. I believe these are the berries which Captain Smith compared to the English gooseberry, and called Rawcomens; having, perhaps, seen them only on the bushes, where they are always very sour.
4. The wild raspberry is by some there preferred to those that were transplanted thither from England; but I cannot be of their opinion.
5. Strawberries they have, as delicious as any in the world, and growing almost every where in the woods and fields. They are eaten almost by all creatures; and yet are so plentiful that very few persons take care to transplant them, but can find enough to fill their baskets, when they have a mind, in the deserted old fields.
§ 14. There grow wild several sorts of good nuts, viz.: chestnuts, chinkapins, hazelnuts, hickories, walnuts, &c.
1. Chestnuts are found upon very high trees, growing in barren ridges. They are something less than the French chestnut; but, I think not differing at all in taste.2. Chinkapins have a taste something like a chestnut, and grow in a husk or bur, being of the same sort of substance, but not so big as an acorn. They grow upon large bushes, some about as high as the common apple trees in England, and either in the high or low, but always barren ground.3. Hazelnuts are there in infinite plenty, in all the swamps; and towards the heads of the rivers, whole acres of them are found upon the high land.4. Hickory nuts are of several sorts, all growing upon great trees, and in an husk, like the French walnut, exceptthat the husk is not so thick, and more apt to open. Some of these nuts are inclosed in so hard a shell, that a light hammer will hardly crack them; and when they are cracked, their kernel is fastened with so firm a web, that there is no coming at it. Several other sorts I have seen with thinner shells, whose kernels may be got with less trouble. There are also several sorts of hickories, called pig nuts, some of which have as thin a shell as the best French walnuts, and yield their meat very easily; they are all of the walnut kind.5. They have a sort of walnut they call black walnuts, which are as big again as any I ever saw in England, but are very rank and oily, having a thick, hard, foul shell, and come not clear of the husk as the walnut in France doth; but the inside of the nut, and leaves, and growing of the tree, declare it to be of the walnut kind.6. Their woods likewise afford a vast variety of acorns, seven sorts of which have fallen under my observation. That which grows upon the live oak, buds, ripens and drops off the tree, almost the whole year around. All their acorns are very fat and oily; but the live oak acorn is much more so than the rest, and I believe the making of oil of them would turn to a good account; but now they only serve as mast for the hogs and other wild creatures, as do all the other fruits aforementioned, together with several other sorts of mast growing upon the beach, pine and other trees. The same use is made also of diverse sorts of pulse and other fruits growing upon wild vines; such as peas, beans, vetches, squashes, maycocks, maracocks, melons, cucumbers, lupines, and an infinity of other sorts of fruits, which I cannot name.
1. Chestnuts are found upon very high trees, growing in barren ridges. They are something less than the French chestnut; but, I think not differing at all in taste.
2. Chinkapins have a taste something like a chestnut, and grow in a husk or bur, being of the same sort of substance, but not so big as an acorn. They grow upon large bushes, some about as high as the common apple trees in England, and either in the high or low, but always barren ground.
3. Hazelnuts are there in infinite plenty, in all the swamps; and towards the heads of the rivers, whole acres of them are found upon the high land.
4. Hickory nuts are of several sorts, all growing upon great trees, and in an husk, like the French walnut, exceptthat the husk is not so thick, and more apt to open. Some of these nuts are inclosed in so hard a shell, that a light hammer will hardly crack them; and when they are cracked, their kernel is fastened with so firm a web, that there is no coming at it. Several other sorts I have seen with thinner shells, whose kernels may be got with less trouble. There are also several sorts of hickories, called pig nuts, some of which have as thin a shell as the best French walnuts, and yield their meat very easily; they are all of the walnut kind.
5. They have a sort of walnut they call black walnuts, which are as big again as any I ever saw in England, but are very rank and oily, having a thick, hard, foul shell, and come not clear of the husk as the walnut in France doth; but the inside of the nut, and leaves, and growing of the tree, declare it to be of the walnut kind.
6. Their woods likewise afford a vast variety of acorns, seven sorts of which have fallen under my observation. That which grows upon the live oak, buds, ripens and drops off the tree, almost the whole year around. All their acorns are very fat and oily; but the live oak acorn is much more so than the rest, and I believe the making of oil of them would turn to a good account; but now they only serve as mast for the hogs and other wild creatures, as do all the other fruits aforementioned, together with several other sorts of mast growing upon the beach, pine and other trees. The same use is made also of diverse sorts of pulse and other fruits growing upon wild vines; such as peas, beans, vetches, squashes, maycocks, maracocks, melons, cucumbers, lupines, and an infinity of other sorts of fruits, which I cannot name.
§ 15. Grapes grow wild there in an incredible plenty and variety, some of which are very sweet and pleasant to the taste; others rough and harsh, and perhaps fitter for wine or brandy. I have seen great trees covered with single vines, and those vines almost hid with the grapes. Of these wild grapes, besides those large ones in the mountains, mentionedby Batt in his discovery, I have observed four very different kinds, viz:
1. One of these sorts grows among the sand banks upon the edges of the low grounds, and islands next the bay and sea, and also in the swamps and breaches of the uplands. They grow thin in small bunches, and upon very low vines. These are noble grapes; and though they are wild in the woods, are as large as the Dutch gooseberry. One species of them is white, others purple, blue and black, but all much alike in flavor; and some long, some round.2. A second kind is produced throughout the whole country, in the swamps and sides of hills. These also grow upon small vines, and in small bunches; but are themselves the largest grapes, as big as the English bullace, and of a rank taste when ripe, resembling the smell of a fox, from whence they are called fox grapes. Both these sorts make admirable tarts, being of a fleshy substance, and perhaps, if rightly managed, might make good raisins.3. There are two species more that are common to the whole country, some of which are black, and some blue on the outside, and some white. They grow upon vast large vines, and bear very plentifully. The nice observer might perhaps distinguish them into several kinds, because they differ in color, size, and relish; but I shall divide them only into two, viz: the early and the late ripe. The early ripe common grape is much larger, sweeter and better than the other. Of these some are quite black, and others blue, and some white or yellow; some also ripen three weeks or a month before the other. The distance of their ripening, is from the latter end of August to the latter end of October. The late ripe common grapes are less than any of the other, neither are they so pleasant to the taste. They hang commonly till the latter end of November, or till Christmas; all that I have seen of these are black. Of the former of these two sorts, the French refugees at the Monacan town made a sort of claret, though they were gathered off of the wild vines in the woods. I was told bya very good judge who tasted it, that it was a pleasant, strong, and full bodied wine. From which we may conclude, that if the wine was but tolerable good when made of the wild grape, which is shaded by the woods from the sun, it would be much better if produced of the same grape cultivated in a regular vineyard.
1. One of these sorts grows among the sand banks upon the edges of the low grounds, and islands next the bay and sea, and also in the swamps and breaches of the uplands. They grow thin in small bunches, and upon very low vines. These are noble grapes; and though they are wild in the woods, are as large as the Dutch gooseberry. One species of them is white, others purple, blue and black, but all much alike in flavor; and some long, some round.
2. A second kind is produced throughout the whole country, in the swamps and sides of hills. These also grow upon small vines, and in small bunches; but are themselves the largest grapes, as big as the English bullace, and of a rank taste when ripe, resembling the smell of a fox, from whence they are called fox grapes. Both these sorts make admirable tarts, being of a fleshy substance, and perhaps, if rightly managed, might make good raisins.
3. There are two species more that are common to the whole country, some of which are black, and some blue on the outside, and some white. They grow upon vast large vines, and bear very plentifully. The nice observer might perhaps distinguish them into several kinds, because they differ in color, size, and relish; but I shall divide them only into two, viz: the early and the late ripe. The early ripe common grape is much larger, sweeter and better than the other. Of these some are quite black, and others blue, and some white or yellow; some also ripen three weeks or a month before the other. The distance of their ripening, is from the latter end of August to the latter end of October. The late ripe common grapes are less than any of the other, neither are they so pleasant to the taste. They hang commonly till the latter end of November, or till Christmas; all that I have seen of these are black. Of the former of these two sorts, the French refugees at the Monacan town made a sort of claret, though they were gathered off of the wild vines in the woods. I was told bya very good judge who tasted it, that it was a pleasant, strong, and full bodied wine. From which we may conclude, that if the wine was but tolerable good when made of the wild grape, which is shaded by the woods from the sun, it would be much better if produced of the same grape cultivated in a regular vineyard.
The year before the massacre, Anno 1622, which destroyed so many good projects for Virginia, some French vignerons were sent thither to make an experiment of their vines. These people were so in love with the country, that the character they then gave of it in their letters to the company in England, was very much to its advantage, namely: "That it far excelled their own country of Languedoc, the vines growing in great abundance and variety all over the land; that some of the grapes were of that unusual bigness, that they did not believe them to be grapes, until by opening them they had seen their kernels; that they had planted the cuttings of their vines at Michaelmas, and had grapes from those very cuttings the spring following. Adding in the conclusion, that they had not heard of the like in any other country." Neither was this out of the way, for I have made the same experiment, both of their natural vine and of the plants sent thither from England.
The copies of the letters, here quoted, to the company in England, are still to be seen; and Purchase, in his fourth volume of pilgrims, has very justly quoted some of them.
§ 16. The honey and sugar trees are likewise spontaneous near the heads of the rivers. The honey tree bears a thick swelling pod, full of honey, appearing at a distance like the bending pod of a bean or pea; it is very like the carob tree in the herbals. The sugar tree yields a kind of sap or juice, which by boiling is made into sugar. This juice is drawn out by wounding the trunk of the tree, and placing a receiver under the wound. It is said that the Indians make one pound of sugar out of eight pounds of the liquor. Some of this sugar I examined very carefully.It was bright and moist, with a large, full grain, the sweetness of it being like that of good muscovado.
Though this discovery has not been made by the English above 28 or thirty years, yet it has been known among the Indians before the English settled there. It was found out by the English after this manner: The soldiers which were kept on the land frontiers to clear them of the Indians, taking their range through a piece of low ground about forty miles above the then inhabited parts of Potomac river, and resting themselves in the woods of those low grounds, observed an inspissate juice, like molasses, distilling from the tree. The heat of the sun had candied some of this juice, which gave the men a curiosity to taste it. They found it sweet, and by this process of nature learned to improve it into sugar. But the Christian inhabitants are now settled where many of these trees grow, but it hath not yet been tried, whether for quantity or quality it may be worth while to cultivate this discovery.
Thus the Canada Indians make sugar of the sap of a tree. And Peter Martyr mentions a tree that yields the like sap, but without any description. The eleomeli of the ancients, a sweet juice like honey, is said to be got by wounding the olive tree; and the East Indians extract a sort of sugar, they call jagra, from the juice, or potable liquor, that flows from the coco tree. The whole process of boiling, graining and refining of which, is accurately set down by the authors of Hortus Malabaricus.
§ 17. At the mouth of their rivers, and all along upon the sea and bay, and near many of their creeks and swamps, grows the myrtle, bearing a berry, of which they make a hard brittle wax, of a curious green color, which by refining becomes almost transparent. Of this they make candles, which are never greasy to the touch, nor melt with lying in the hottest weather; neither does the snuff of these ever offend the smell like that of a tallow candle; but instead of being disagreeable, if an accident put a candle out, it yields a pleasant fragrancy to all that are in theroom; insomuch, that nice people often put them out, on purpose to have the incense of the expiring snuff.
The melting of these berries is said to have been first found out by a surgeon in New England, who performed wonderful things, with a salve made of them. This discovery is very modern, notwithstanding these countries have been so long settled.
The method of managing these berries is by boiling them in water, till they come to be entirely dissolved, except the stone or seed in the middle, which amounts in quantity to about half the bulk of the berry; the biggest of which is something less than a corn of pepper.
There are also in the plains, and rich low grounds of the freshes, abundance of hops, which yield their product without any labor of the husbandman, in weeding, hilling or poling.
§ 18. All over the country is interspersed here and there a surprising variety of curious plants and flowers. They have a sort of briar, growing something like the sarsaparilla. The berry of this is as big as a pea, and as round, the seed being of a bright crimson color. It is very hard, and finely polished by nature, so that it might be put to diverse ornamental uses, as necklaces are, &c.
There are several woods, plants and earths, which have been fit for the dying of curious colors. They have the puccoon and musquaspen, two roots, with which the Indians use to paint themselves red. And a berry, which grows upon a wild briar, dyes a handsome blue. There is the sumac and the sassafras, which make a deep yellow. Mr. Heriot tells us of several others which he found at Pamtego, and gives the Indian names of them; but that language being not understood by the Virginians, I am not able to distinguish which he means. Particularly he takes notice of wasebur, an herb; chapacour, a root; and tangomockonominge, a bark.
There's the snake root, so much admired in England for a cordial, and for being a great antidote in all pestilential distempers.
There's the rattlesnake root, to which no remedy was ever yet found comparable; for it effectually cures the bite of a rattlesnake, which sometimes has been mortal in two minutes. If this medicine be early applied, it presently removes the infection, and in two or three hours restores the patient to as perfect health as if he had never been hurt.
The Jamestown weed (which resembles the thorny apple of Peru, and I take to be the plant so called) is supposed to be one of the greatest coolers in the world. This being an early plant, was gathered very young for a boiled salad, by some of the soldiers sent thither to quell the rebellion of Bacon; and some of them eat plentifully of it, the effect of which was a very pleasant comedy; for they turned natural fools upon it for several days: one would blow up a feather in the air; another would dart straws at it with much fury; and another stark naked was sitting up in a corner, like a monkey, grinning and making mows at them; a fourth would fondly kiss and paw his companions, and snear in their faces, with a countenance more antic than any in a Dutch droll. In this frantic condition they were confined, lest they should in their folly destroy themselves; though it was observed that all their actions were full of innocence and good nature. Indeed, they were not very cleanly, for they would have wallowed in their own excrements if they had not been prevented. A thousand such simple tricks they played, and after eleven days returned to themselves again, not remembering anything that had passed.
Perhaps this was the same herb that Mark Antony's army met with in his retreat from the Parthian war and siege of Phraata, when such as had eaten thereof employed themselves with much earnestness and industry in grubbing up stones, and removing them from one place to another, as if it had been a business of the greatest consequence. Wine, as the story says, was found a sovereign remedy for it, which is likely enough, the malignity of this herb being cold.
Of spontaneous flowers they have an unknown variety: the finest crown imperial in the world; the cardinal flower, so much extolled for its scarlet color, is almost in every branch; the moccasin flower, and a thousand others not yet known to English herbalists. Almost all the year round the levels and vales are beautified with flowers of one kind or other, which make their woods as fragrant as a garden. From the materials, their wild bees make vast quantities of honey, but their magazines are very often rifled by bears, raccoons, and such like liquorish vermin.
About the year 1701, walking out to take the air, I found, a little without my pasture fence, a flower as big as a tulip, and upon a stalk resembling the stalk of a tulip. The flower was of a flesh color, having a down upon one end, while the other was plain. The form of it resembled the pudenda of a man and woman lovingly joined in one. Not long after I had discovered this rarity, and while it was still in bloom, I drew a grave gentleman, about an hundred yards out of his way, to see this curiosity, not telling him anything more than that it was a rarity, and such perhaps as he had never seen nor heard of. When we arrived at the place, I gathered one of them, and put it into his hand, which he had no sooner cast his eye upon, but he threw it away with indignation, as being ashamed of this waggery of nature. It was impossible to persuade him to touch it again, or so much as to squint towards so immodest a representation. Neither would I presume to mention such an indecency, but that I thought it unpardonable to omit a production so extraordinary.
There is also found the fine tulip-bearing laurel tree, which has the pleasantest smell in the world, and keeps blossoming and seeding several months together. It delights much in gravelly branches of chrystal streams, and perfumes the very woods with its odor. So also do the large tulip tree, which we call a poplar, the locust, whichresembles much the jasmine, and the perfuming crab tree, during their season. With one sort or other of these, as well as many other sweet-flowering trees not named, the vales are almost everywhere adorned, and yield a surprising variety to divert the traveler.
They find a world of medicinal plants likewise in that country, and amongst the rest the planters pretend to have a swamp-root, which infallibly cures all fevers and agues. The bark of the sassafras tree and wild cherry tree have been experimented to partake very much of the virtue of the cortex peruviana. The bark of the root, of that which we call the prickly ash, being dried and powdered, has been found to be a specific in old ulcers and long running sores. Infinite is the number of other valuable vegetables of every kind; but natural history not having been my study, I am unwilling to do wrong to my subject by an unskillful description.
§ 19. Several kinds of the creeping vines bearing fruit, the Indians planted in their gardens or fields, because they would have plenty of them always at hand; such as muskmelons, watermelons, pompions, cushaws, macocks and gourds.
1. Their muskmelons resemble the large Italian kind, and generally fill four or five quarts.2. Their watermelons were much more large, and of several kinds, distinguished by the color of their meat and seed; some are red, some yellow, and others white meated; and so of the seed, some are yellow, some red, and some black; but these are never of different colors in the same melon. This fruit the Muscovites call arpus; the Turks and Tartars karpus, because they are extremely cooling. The Persians call them hindnanes, because they had the first seed of them from the Indies. They are excellently good, and very pleasant to the taste, as also to the eye; having the rind of a lively green color, streaked and watered, the meat of a carnation, and the seed black and shining, while it lies in the melon.3. Their pompions I need not describe, but must say they are much larger and finer than any I ever heard of in England.4. Their cushaws are a kind of pompion, of a bluish green color, streaked with white, when they are fit for use. They are larger than the pompions, and have a long narrow neck. Perhaps this may be the ecushaw of T. Harriot.5. Their macocks are a sort of melopepones, or lesser sort of pompion or cushaw. Of these they have great variety; but the Indian name macock serves for all, which name is still retained among them. Yet the clypeatæ are sometimes called cymnels, (as are some others also,) from the lenten cake of that name, which many of them very much resemble. Squash, or squanter-squash, is their name among the northern Indians, and so they are called in New York and New England. These being boiled whole, when the apple is young, and the shell tender, and dished with cream or butter, relish very well with all sorts of butcher's meat, either fresh or salt. And whereas the pompion is never eaten till it be ripe, these are never eaten after they are ripe.6. The Indians never eat the gourds, but plant them for other uses. Yet the Persians, who likewise abound with this sort of fruit, eat the cucurbita lagenaris, which they call kabach, boiling it while it is green, before it comes to its full maturity, for when it is ripe the rind dries, and grows as hard as the bark of a tree, and the meat within is so consumed and dried away, that there is then nothing left but the seed, which the Indians take clean out, and afterwards use the shells, instead of flagons and cups, as is done also in several other parts of the world.7. The maracock, which is the fruit of what we call the passion flower, our natives did not take the pains to plant, having enough of it growing everywhere, though they often eat it; this fruit is about the size of a pullet's egg.
1. Their muskmelons resemble the large Italian kind, and generally fill four or five quarts.
2. Their watermelons were much more large, and of several kinds, distinguished by the color of their meat and seed; some are red, some yellow, and others white meated; and so of the seed, some are yellow, some red, and some black; but these are never of different colors in the same melon. This fruit the Muscovites call arpus; the Turks and Tartars karpus, because they are extremely cooling. The Persians call them hindnanes, because they had the first seed of them from the Indies. They are excellently good, and very pleasant to the taste, as also to the eye; having the rind of a lively green color, streaked and watered, the meat of a carnation, and the seed black and shining, while it lies in the melon.
3. Their pompions I need not describe, but must say they are much larger and finer than any I ever heard of in England.
4. Their cushaws are a kind of pompion, of a bluish green color, streaked with white, when they are fit for use. They are larger than the pompions, and have a long narrow neck. Perhaps this may be the ecushaw of T. Harriot.
5. Their macocks are a sort of melopepones, or lesser sort of pompion or cushaw. Of these they have great variety; but the Indian name macock serves for all, which name is still retained among them. Yet the clypeatæ are sometimes called cymnels, (as are some others also,) from the lenten cake of that name, which many of them very much resemble. Squash, or squanter-squash, is their name among the northern Indians, and so they are called in New York and New England. These being boiled whole, when the apple is young, and the shell tender, and dished with cream or butter, relish very well with all sorts of butcher's meat, either fresh or salt. And whereas the pompion is never eaten till it be ripe, these are never eaten after they are ripe.
6. The Indians never eat the gourds, but plant them for other uses. Yet the Persians, who likewise abound with this sort of fruit, eat the cucurbita lagenaris, which they call kabach, boiling it while it is green, before it comes to its full maturity, for when it is ripe the rind dries, and grows as hard as the bark of a tree, and the meat within is so consumed and dried away, that there is then nothing left but the seed, which the Indians take clean out, and afterwards use the shells, instead of flagons and cups, as is done also in several other parts of the world.
7. The maracock, which is the fruit of what we call the passion flower, our natives did not take the pains to plant, having enough of it growing everywhere, though they often eat it; this fruit is about the size of a pullet's egg.
§ 20. Besides all these, our natives had originally amongst them Indian corn, peas, beans, potatoes and tobacco.
This Indian corn was the staff of food upon which the Indians did ever depend; for when sickness, bad weather, war, or any other ill accident kept them from hunting, fishing and fowling, this, with the addition of some peas, beans, and such other fruits of the earth, as were then in season, was the family's dependence, and the support of their women and children.
There are four sorts of Indian corn: two of which are early ripe, and two late ripe, all growing in the same manner; every single grain of this when planted produces a tall upright stalk, which has several ears hanging on the sides of it, from six to ten inches long. Each ear is wrapt up in a cover of many folds, to protect it from the injuries of the weather. In every one of these ears are several rows of grain, set close to one another, with no other partition but of a very thin husk. So that oftentimes the increase of this grain amounts to above a thousand for one.
The two sorts which are early ripe, are distinguished only by the size, which shows itself as well in the grain as in the ear and the stalk. There is some difference also in the time of ripening.
The lesser size of early ripe corn yields an ear not much larger than the handle of a case knife, and grows upon a stalk between three and four feet high. Of this may be made two crops in a year, and perhaps there might be heat enough in England to ripen it.
The larger sort differs from the former only in largeness, the ear of this being seven or eight inches long, as thick as a child's leg, and growing upon a stalk nine or ten feet high. This is fit for eating about the latter end of June, whereas the smaller sort (generally speaking) affords ears fit to roast by the middle of June. The grains of both these sorts are as plump and swelled as if the skin were ready to burst.
The late ripe corn is diversified by the shape of the grain only, without any respect to the accidental differences in color, some being blue, some red, some yellow, some white, and some streaked. That therefore which makes the distinction, is the plumpness or shriveling of the grain; the one looks as smooth and as full as the early ripe corn, and this they call flint corn; the other has a larger grain, and looks shriveled, with a dent on the back of the grain, as if it had never come to perfection; and this they call she corn. This is esteemed by the planters as the best for increase, and is universally chosen by them for planting; yet I can't see but that this also produces the flint corn, accidentally among the other.
All these sorts are planted alike in rows, three, four or five grains in a hill; the larger sort at four or five feet distance, the lesser sort nearer. The Indians used to give it one or two weedings, and make a hill about it, and so the labor was done. They likewise plant a bean in the same hill with the corn, upon whose stalk it sustains itself.
The Indians sowed peas sometimes in the intervals of the rows of corn, but more generally in a patch of ground by themselves. They have an unknown variety of them, (but all of a kidney shape,) some of which I have met with wild; but whence they had their Indian corn I can give no account; for I don't believe that it was spontaneous in those parts.
Their potatoes are either red or white, about as long as a boy's leg, and sometimes as long and big as both the leg and thigh of a young child, and very much resembling it in shape. I take these kinds to be the same with those which are represented in the herbals to be Spanish potatoes. I am sure those called English or Irish potatoes are nothing like these, either in shape, color or taste. The way of propagating potatoes there, is by cutting the small ones to pieces, and planting the cuttings in hills of loose earth; but they are so tender, that it is very difficult to preserve them in the winter, for the least frostcoming at them, rots and destroys them, and therefore people bury 'em under ground, near the fire-hearth, all the winter, until the time comes that their seedings are to be set.
How the Indians ordered their tobacco I am not certain, they now depending chiefly upon the English for what they smoke; but I am informed they used to let it all run to seed, only succoring the leaves to keep the sprouts from growing upon, and starving them; and when it was ripe they pulled off the leaves, cured them in the sun, and laid them up for use. But the planters make a heavy bustle with it now, and can't please the market neither.
OF THE FISH.
§ 21. As for fish, both of fresh and salt water, of shell fish, and others, no country can boast of more variety, greater plenty, or of better in their several kinds.
In the spring of the year herrings come up in such abundance into their brooks and fords to spawn, that it is almost impossible to ride through without treading on them. Thus do those poor creatures expose their own lives to some hazard, out of their care to find a more convenient reception for their young, which are not yet alive. Thence it is that at this time of the year the freshes of the rivers, like that of the Broadruck, stink of fish.
Besides these herrings, there come up likewise into the freshes from the sea multitudes of shad, rock, sturgeon, and some few lampreys, which fasten themselves to the shad, as the remora of Imperatus is said to do to the shark of Tiburone. They continue their stay there about three months. The shads at their first coming up are fat and fleshy; but they waste so extremely in milting and spawning, that at their going down they are poor, and seem fuller of bones, only because they have less flesh. It is upon this account (I suppose) that those in the Severn, which in Gloucester they call twaits, are said at first to want those intermusculary bones, which afterwards they abound with. As these are in the freshes, so the salts afford at certain times of the year many other kinds of fish in infinite shoals, such as the old-wife, a fish not much unlike an herring, and the sheep's-head, a sort of fish, which they esteem in the number of their best.
§ 22. There is likewise great plenty of other fish all the summer long; and almost in every part of the rivers and brooks, there are found of different kinds. Wherefore I shall not pretend to give a detail of them, but venture to mention the names only of such as I have eaten and seen myself, and so leave the rest to those that are better skilled in natural history. However, I may add, that besides all those that I have met with myself, I have heard of a great many very good sorts, both in the salts and freshes; and such people, too, as have not always spent their time in that country, have commended them to me beyond any they had ever eaten before.
Those which I know of myself I remember by the names of herring, rock, sturgeon, shad, old-wife, sheep's-head, black and red drum, trout, taylor, green-fish, sun-fish, bass, chub, place, flounder, whiting, fatback, maid, wife, small-turtle, crab, oyster, mussel, cockle, shrimp, needle-fish, breme, carp, pike, jack, mullet, eel, conger-eel, perch, and cat, &c.
Those which I remember to have seen there, of the kinds that are not eaten, are the whale, porpus, shark, dog-fish, garr, stingray, thornback, saw-fish, toad-fish, frog-fish, land-crab, fiddler, and periwinckle. One day as I was hauling a sein upon the salts, I caught a small fish about two inches and an half long, in shape something resembling a scorpion, but of a dirty, dark color. I was a little shy of handling it, though I believe there was no hurt in it. This I judge to be that fish which Mr. Purchase in his Pilgrims, and Captain Smith in his General History, page 125, affirm to be extremely like St. George's Dragon, except only that it wants feet and wings. Governor Spotswood has one of them dried in full shape.
§ 23. Before the arrival of the English there the Indians had fish in such vast plenty, that the boys and girls would take a pointed stick and strike the lesser sort as they swam upon the flats. The larger fish, that kept in deeper water, they were put to a little more difficulty to take. But forthese they made weirs, that is, a hedge of small riv'd sticks, or reeds, of the thickness of a man's finger. These they wove together in a row, with straps of green oak, or other tough wood, so close that the small fish could not pass through. Upon high water mark they pitched one end of this hedge, and the other they extended into the river, to the depth of eight or ten feet, fastening it with stakes, making cods out from the hedge on one side almost at the end, and leaving a gap for the fish to go into them, which were contrived so that the fish could easily find their passage into those cods when they were at the gap, but not see their way out again when they were in. Thus, if they offered to pass through, they were taken.
Sometimes they made such a hedge as this quite across a creek at high water, and at low would go into the run, then contracted into a narrow stream, and take out what fish they pleased.
At the falls of the rivers, where the water is shallow, and the current strong, the Indians use another kind of weir, thus made: They make a dam of loose stone, whereof there is plenty at hand, quite across the river, leaving one, two or more spaces or tunnels for the water to pass through; at the mouth of which they set a pot of reeds, wove in form of a cone, whose base is about three feet, and perpendicular ten, into which the swiftness of the current carries the fish, and there lodges them.
The Indian way of catching sturgeon, when they came into the narrow part of the rivers, was by a man's clapping a noose over their tails, and by keeping fast his hold. Thus a fish finding itself entangled would flounce, and often pull the man under water, and then that man was counted a cockarouse, or brave fellow, that would not let go; till with swimming, wading and diving, he had tired the sturgeon, and brought it ashore. These sturgeons would also often leap into their canoes in crossing the river, as many of them do still every year into the boats of the English.
They have also another way of fishing like those on the Euxine sea, by the help of a blazing fire by night. They make a hearth in the middle of their canoe, raising it within two inches of the edge; upon this they lay their burning lightwood, split into small shivers, each splinter whereof will blaze and burn, end for end, like a candle: 'Tis one man's work to attend his fire and keep it flaming. At each end of the canoe stands an Indian, with a gig or pointed spear, setting the canoe forward, with the butt end of the spear, as gently as he can, by that means stealing upon the fish without any noise, or disturbing of the water. Then they with great dexterity dart these spears into the fish, and so take them. Now there is a double convenience in the blaze of this fire, for it not only dazzles the eyes of the fish, which will lie still, glaring upon it, but likewise discovers the bottom of the river clearly to the fisherman, which the daylight does not.
The following print, I may justly affirm to be a very true representation of the Indian fishery.