hath a considerable Trade with the Indians for the Skins of Elks Deer Bears c. also for those of Bever Otter and other Furrs and doth likewise enjoy a good Trade with the English The Natives This Countrey is also possessed with sundry sorts of people not much unlike the Indians of Virginia being well proportioned Stout Swarthy Black haired very expert in their Bow and Arrows which are their chief weapons of War They are courteous to the English of a ready Witt and very apt to receive Instructions from them upon the least Offence the man turneth away his wife and marrieth again and the Children begotten by her she taketh with her the man not regarding them Fornication is here permitted They observe several Ceremonies in their Religious Rites and are said to worship the Devil whom they greatly fear Their Priests are no better than Sorcerers who strangly bewitch these silly Creatures When any woman findeth her self quick with Child she keepeth her self chast or untouched by man until her delivery the like she observeth in the time of her giving Suck A strange custom which our European Dames would not well like of They are very obedient and loving to their Kings They believe the Transmigration of the Soul and concerning the Creation of the World have a strange fantastical opinions They are much addicted to Dancing Sports and Recreations observing Festival Times Their Habit is but mean as the rest of the Indians yet do they Paint and besmear their Faces with several Colours by way of Ornament There Dyet and Habitations are also as mean They are much addicted to go to Wars against one another and do seldome give quarter to any but the Women and Children whom they preserve and make use of for the encreasing their strength A DESCRIPTION OF New-ENGLAND It s Situation NEw England is seated North of Maryland which according to the report of Capt. Smith hath 70 miles of Sea Coast where are found divers good Havens some of which are capable to harbour 500 Saile of Shipps from the fury the of Sea and Winds by reason of the interposition of several Isles to the number of about 200 which lie about this Coast And although this Countrey is seated in the midst of the Temperate Zone yet is the Clime more uncertain as to Heat and Cold then those European Kingdomes which lie Parallel with it and as to Virginia this may be compared as Scotland is to England The Aire The Aire is here found very healthful and very agreeable to the English which makes them possess many potent Colonyes Its Inhabitants This Countrey is possessed by divers sorts of People who are Governed by their particular Kings and do much differ in Customes and Manners from one another as those Indians inhabiting in Mary-Land Virginia and other parts of America And do live generally at variance with each other They have their several Townes and settlements and their Riches doth consist in their Furs and Skins which they sell to the English When first inhabited by the English This Countrey became first to be a Colony of the English about the Year 1605 being granted by Patent from King James to certain proprietors under the name of the Plymouth Company but divers years were spun out with great expences and not without sundry casualties befalling on the Adventurers before it became any thing considerable and in a setled condition Their Rivers and Fish This Country is well watered with Rivers the chief amongst which are Agamentico Conectecut Kinebequy Merrimeck Mishuin Mistick Neraganset Pascataway Pemnaquid Tachobacco c. and in these Rivers together with the Sea are taken excellent Fish as Cod Thornback Sturgeon Porpuses Haddock Salmons Herrings Mackeril Oysters Lobsters Crab-Fish Tortoise Cocles Muscles Clams Smelts Eels Lamprons Alewives Basses Hollibuts Sharks Seales Grampus and Whales Their Fowles and Birds Here are great variety of Fowls as Phesants Partridges Heath-Cocks Turkeys Geess Ducks Hernes Cranes Cormorants Swans Widgins Sheldrakes Snipes Doppers Blackbirds the Humbird Loon c. Their Beasts both Tame and Wild. Their Wild Beasts of chief note are Lyons Beares Foxes Rackoons Mooses Musquashs Otters Bevers Deer Hares Coneys c. and for Tame Beasts Cowes Sheep Goates Swine and Horses Amongst the hurtful things in this Countrey the Rattle-Snake is most dangerous Here are also several sorts of Stinging Flyes which are found very troublesome to the Inhabitants Their Trees and Fruits Here are sundry sorts of Trees as the Oak Cyprus Pine Chesnut Caedar Walnut Firr Ash Asp Elm Alder Maple Birch Sasafras Sumach several Fruit-Trees as Apples Pears Plumbs with several others that are growing in Virginia and Mary-land which I have already took notice of Their Commodities and Trade This Countrey affordeth several sorts of rich Furrs Flax Linnen Amber Iron Pitch Tarr Cables Masts and Timber to build Ships also several sorts of Grain c. The Inhabitants drive a considerable Trade to Barbadoes and other our American Plantations in supplying them with Flower Bisket Salt Flesh and Fish c. and in return bring Sugars and other Commodities as well for their own use as to sell again They also drive a considerable Trade with England for wearing Apparrel Stuffs Silks Cloth several Utensils for their Houses Iron Brass and such like things that are useful to man and not found amongst them As to the Coyns Weights and Measures of New-England and the rest of the American Plantations belonging to his Majesty they are the same with those of London but as to Coyns they are not much made use of in Trade their way being bartering of one Commodity for another but at Jamaica they have plenty of Spanish Coins and at Barbadoes those of England The English now Inhabiting in New-England are very numerous and powerful having a great many Towns many of which are considerable The English Government The Inhabitants are Governed by Laws of their own making and have their several Courts and places of Judicature and assemble together at their set times and places as well for the making of New Lawes abolishing of Old Hearing and Determining of Causes as for the Election of a Governour Deputy-Governour Assistants Burgesses and other Magistrates every Town having two Burgesses each County Annually Electing such like Officers for the looking after the like Affairs in the said Colony And in matters that concern Religion and Church-Government they are very strict and make a great shew being much of the stamp of the Ridgid Presbyterians The Towns Here are several Towns as Boston the Metropolis of New-England Commodiously seated for Traffique on the Sea-Shore It is at present a very large and spacious Town or rather City composed of several well-ordered Streets and graced with fair and beautiful Houses which are well Inhabited by Merchants and Trades-men who drive a considerable Trade for such Commodities as the Countrey afforeth to Barbadoes and the other Caribbee Isles as also to England and
Ireland taking in exchange such Commodities as each place affordeth or are found useful to them It is a place of a good strength having two or three Hills adjoyning on which are raised Fortifications with great Peices mounted thereon which are well guarded Charles-Town seated on and between the Rivers Charles and Mistick it is beautified with a large and well-built Church and near the River side is the Market-place from which runneth two Streets in which are divers good Houses Dorchester scituate near the Sea where there falleth in two Rivulets An indifferent Town Cambridg formerly New-Town seated on the River Merrimeck this Town consisteth of several Streets and is beautified with two Colledges and divers fair and well built Houses St. Georges-Fort seated on the mouth of the River Sagadebock New-Plimouth seated on that large Bay of Potuxed Reading commodiously seated about a great Pond and well-watered and Inhabited In this Town are two Mills one for Corn and the other for Timber Salem pleasantly seated betwixt two Rivers Other Towns placed Alphabetically Berwick Braintree Bristol Concord Dartmouth Dedham Dover Exeter Falmouth Glocester Greens-Harbour Hampton Hartford Haverhil Hingham Hull Ipswich Lin Maulden New-bury New-Havon Northam Norwich Oxford Rowley Roxbury Salisbury Sandwich Southampton Spring-field Sudbury Taunton Water-Town Wenham Weymouth Woburne and Yarmouth Most of these Towns beareth the names from those in England and many of them are of good account being commodiously seated either on the Sea-Shore or on Navigable Rivers and are well Inhabited And most of those Towns are known to the Indians by other Names A DESCRIPTION OF NEW-FOVND-LAND NEwfoundland is an Island in Extent equal to England from whence it is distant little above 600 Leagues lying near half way between Ireland and Virginia It is scituated betwixt the degrees of 46 and 53 of Northern Latitudes and it is only severed from the Continent of America by an Arm of the Sea like that which separates England from France Its Bays Rivers Fish Fowl Beasts c. It is Famous for many spacious and excellent Bayes and Harbours and within the Land for the variety of Fresh Springs whose waters are exceeding delicious It is enriched by nature with plenty of Fish Land and Water-Fowl and sufficiently stockt with Deer Hares Otters Foxes Squirils and other Beasts which yield good Furrs And though not over-run generally with Woods it doth afford besides store of Fewel abundance of stately Trees fit for Timber Masts Planks and sundry other uses The soile and Climate The Soile in most places is reputed fertile the Climate wholsome though the rigour of the winter season and the excess of Heats in Summer doth detract something from its due praise How Inhabited The North and West part of this Countrey the Native-Indians Inhabit though but few in number and those a more rude and savage sort of People then those of new-New-England and other places in the adjacent Contenent already taken notice of New-found-Land first discovered by the English The Island of New-found Land was first discovered by the English who are the true Propriators thereof excluding all Forreigne right and justifying the same to belong to the Crown of England only whose Interest hath been there continued by several under the Reigns of divers Kings Queens In the year 1623 Sir George Calvert Knight then Principal Secretary of State and afterwards Ld. Baltemore obtained a Patent of part of New-found-land which was erected into a Province and called Avalon where he caused a Plantation to be setled and a stately House and Fort to be built at Ferryland and afterwards Transported himself and Family thither and continuing the Plantation by his Deputy till by descent after his Lordships decease it came to his son and heir the Right Honorable Caecilius now Lord Baltemore who by Deputies from time to time was no less careful to preserve his Interest there which though during the late troubles in England it was by Sir David Kirkes means for some years discontinued he was soon reinvested in the same by his Majesties most happy Restauration There is no part of New-found-land generally more happy for multiplicity of excellent Bayes and Harbours then this Province and where vast quantities of Fish are yearly caught by the English especially at Ferryland and the Bay of Bulls But the whole Coast of the Island affords infinite plenty of Codd and Poor-John which is the chief Commodity of the Isle which is grown to a setled Trade for these many years to the enrichment of all those that Trade thither A great bank of Land East of Newfoundland over against Cape-Ray at the distance of about 70 miles lyeth a great Bank of Land of about 300 miles in Length and not above Seventy-five in Breadth where broadest It lyes under the Sea many Fathoms deep so the Ships of a considerable Burthen may ride over it and about this Banck lyes dispersed several small Isles called by St. Sebastion Cabot the first discoverer Los Baccaloos or the Isles of Cod-fish from the prodigious quantities of Cod-Fish there found which were said to obstruct â—he passage of his Vessels The Trade to this Island The French Dutch Biscaners and other Nations that yearely Trade hither amounting to between 3 or 400 Vessels are assured to find sufficient Freight of Cod and Poor John which they find good vent for in the Streights Spaine France and other Countreys to their great profit and encouragement And were the English diligent to inspect the advantage that might accrue to this Nation by settling Plantations on the Island and raising Fortifications for the security of the place we might give Law to all forreigners that come to Fish there and in few Years engross the whole Fishery to our selves the greatest Ballance perchance of Forraigne Trade FINIS It s Scituation It s Form Extent It s Soyl and Fertility Savanas formerly Fields of Indian Maiz. The Air Temperature Huricanes not in this Isle The Winter known only by Rain and Thunder Dayes Nights almost equal Sugars Cocao Indico Cotton Tobacco Hydes Tortoise Shells Curious Woods Copper Silver Ambergreece Salt Saltpeter Ginger Cod-Peper Piemente Druggs Gumms Cochaneil Of Servants Horses Cowes Asnegroes Mules Sheep Goats Hoggs Excellent Fish in great plenty Tortoise great variety of Tame Wild Fowl Excellent Fruits Herbs Roots Jamaica very healthful Diseases strangers are most subject unto Manchonele Snakes Guianas Alligators Muskettoes Merry-wings Port-Royal Port-Morant Old Harbour Point-Negrill Port-Antonio Other good bayes Harbors St. Jago Sevilla Mellila Orista 14 Precincts or Parishes in the Isle Sre the Mapp The Names of the Precincts or Parishes in the Isle Their Lawes The Spaniards First settlement The Spaniards inclined to Idleness 1. Consideration 2. Consid 3. Consid 4. Consid 5. Consid 6. Consid 7. Consid 8. Consid 9. Consid 1. Consid 2. Consid 4. Consid Commodities Imported and its Trade 4 Consid 5. Consid 6. Consid 7. Consid 8. Consid 9. Consid 10. Consideration It s Scituation Rivers It s Fertility Commodities Dayes Nights almost equal Temperature of Air. The Air moist Their Fruits Their Fish Their Beasts Herbs Roots Birds and Fowles Animals and Insects Trees Several Caves It s Division and Townes St. Michaels Litle Bristol Charles-Town Other Places on the Sea-Coast The Inhabitants Negro-Slaves Their Food Their Drink Their Apparel Their Lodging The Management of a Plantation The Island very strong The Government of the Island The Isle divided into four Circuits The present Governour See Mr. Ligons Book of Barbadoes page 87. It s Scituation c. It s Soyl and Commodities The Isle very delightful and of a pleasing Prospect The Isle Possessed by the English French Their Churches A Town Possessed by the French It s Scituation Extent A Spring of Mineral water and Baths Their Churches c. It s Scituation Extent The Number of Inhabitants Fish Fowl Cattle Commodities It s Scituation Extent and Fertility It s Scituation Extent It s Extent Scituation Fertility c. It s Scituation extent c. It s Scituation Fertility c. Their Scituation and Name St. Georges Isle Several good Ports It s Fertility Their Fruits Their Commodities Hoggs Fowles Defective in Fresh-water Their Spiders These Isles exceeding healthful The Inhabitants and strength of the Isle Its Bounds and Scituation This Country very healthful Their Fruits Commodities Trees Rivers Their Fowles The Disposition c. of the Natives It s Division into Kingdomes The Proprieters of Carolina Its Bounds It s Name and why so called †Capt. Smith a great Promoter of the English setling at Virginia Virginia nowvery healthful The Soyl very Rich. Excellent Fruits Plenty of Roots Herbs Abundance of Fowle Virginia well stored with Beasts Tame Cattle Variety of Fish The Product of the Country Their Trade Several good Woods It s chief Rivers James Town Elizabeth Town Dales Gift Virginia under a good Goverment The Counties Their Apparel Their Houses Their Dyet Chesopeak Bay Its Rivers The Country very healthful For the Beasts Fowl Fish Fruits c. See in the Description of Virginia Their Coyns way of Trade Maryland well Governed The Names of the Countries S. Maries Town This Country very Fertile New York The Disposition of the Natives Their Habit Dyet c. It s Scituation The Ayr. The Disposition of the Natives much like those of Virginia Excellent Fish Hurtfull things Fruits Commodities Trade The Government of the Inhabitants of new-New-England Boston Charles Town Dorchester Cambridg St. Georges Fort. Reading Salem It s Scituation Its Bayes and Rivers It s Fish Fowles Beasts Trees Its Inhabitants The English the true Proprietoâ—s of NewFâ—und-land The Ld. Baltemore the proprietor of Avalon in New-Found-Land A great bank of Land A great Trade here driven
Rows of the Plantin-Trees that are 6. Foot high so that by the first of June the whole 21 Acres that were planted the last Year will be full of Cocao-Trees and by that time you will have besides much other work done 21. Acres of Cocao-Trees in the ground which in less then 4. years from the Planting will begin to bear Cods and in a year after produce compleat Cropps And according to experience an Acre doth produce every year about 1000. pound Weight which at Jamaica is worth 4 l. per Cent. which for the 21 Acres doth amount unto 840 l. per Ann. Although this last year by reason their Cropps were blasted it is at present far dearer the Hundred weight at London being now worth 18. pound Sterling The charges of gathering and houseing the Cocao is inconsiderable only Cloths or Baggs to put it in which with some other incident charges may be reckoned at the most as all things else have been to Amount to 42. l. 15. s. more which makes up just 500. l. Note that all this that is Planted is done in 15. months and the Cocao bears not compleatly until the sixth year from the first begining or comming so that you will have four years and nine months at liberty with your Servants either to encrease the Cocao-Walk building of convenient houses and makeing of Garidens for pleasure or else you may fall on Ginger Indico or some other Commodity for present profit which perhapps may be necessary for such as cannot forbear their Money until the Cocao Walk doth come to perfection as aforesaid after which you will find sufficient profit as is exprest Sickness Mortality and running away Excepted Yet it cannot be expected but that as the Island encreaseth in this Commodity they must some-what abate the present Price and content themselves with a more moderate Gaines And according to this Calculation proportionably a greater or lesser Cocao-Walk may be undertaken and performed Their Cattle In this Isle are greater abundance of Cattle then in most of the English Plantations in America as Horses which are here so plentiful that a good Horse may be bought for 6 or 7 l. Their Cowes are very large and so numerous that although there hath been every Year so many Killed yet their number seemeth not much to be lessoned Assnegroes and Mules both wild and Tame are very many which are found to be very serviceable to the Inhabitants Their Sheep are large and tall and their Flesh good but their Wool is long hairy and little worth Goats are many which thrive exceedingly well the Countrey being very fit for them Hoggs are here in exceeding great plenty as well those wild in the Mountains as tame in the Plantations whose Flesh is far better tasted and more nourishing and easier to be digested then those of England which is the reason that it is so much eaten in this Island as indeed throughout the West-Indies Their Fish This Island hath both in the Rivers Bayes Roads and Creeks very excellent Fish and in such abundance that it contributes much to the feeding of the Inhabitants and those that frequent this Isle say that they have few or none of those sorts common to us in England but such great Variety of those appropriated to the Indies that it would be too tedious to Repeat the names of them if they were known or Remembred The principal sort is the Tortoise which they take plentifully on the Coast and about 20. or 30. Leagues to the Leeward of port Negril by the Isles of Camavos in the months of May June and July do resort great store of Ships from the Carribbee Isles to Victual and Load with this Fish it being reputed to be the wholsomest and best provision in all the Indies Their Fowls Here are very great plenty of tame Hens Turkies and some Ducks but of wild Fowle infinite store as Ducks Teale Wigen Geese Turkeys Pigeons Guine-Hens Plovers Flemingo's Snipes Parats Parachetos with very many others whose names are not known The Fruits There are great plenty of choise and excellent Fruits in this Island as Oranges Pome-granates Cocar-Nuts Limes Guavars Mammes Alumee-Supotas Suppotillias Avocatas Cashues Prickle-Aples Prickle-Pears Grapes Sower-Sops Custard-Aples Dildowes and many others whose names are not known or too tedious to name besides Plantains Pines c. Their Herbes and Roots Here likewise grows very well all manner of Summer Garden-Herbs and Roots common to us in England as Radish Lettis Purseley Cucumbers Melons Parsley Pot-herbs also Beanes Pease Cabbages Colly-Flowers c. Their Diseases It hath been experimentally found that there is no such Antipathy betwixt the constitutions of the English and this clime for the occasioning Sickness to be Mortal or Contageous more than in other parts for if a good Dyet and moderate Exercises are used without excess of Drinking they may enjoy a competent measure of Health The Diseases that Strangers are most incident to are Dropsies occasioned often by ill diet drunkeness and slothfulness Calentures too frequently the product of Surfits also Feavers and Agues which although very troublesome yet are seldome Mortal And the reason of the great Mortality of the Army at their first arrival was their want of Provisions together with an unwillingness to labour or excercise joyned with discontent Hurtful things There are upon this Island very few obnoctious Beasts Insects or Plants Here is the Manchonele which is a king of a Crab so common in all the Caribbee Isles Here are Snakes and Guianas but no poysonous quality is observed in them In many of the Rivers and Land-Ponds are Alligators which are very voracious Creatures yet seldome do they prey upon a Man as being very easy to be avoided for he can only move forwards and that he doth with great Swiftness and Strength and is as slow in turning Some are 10 15 or 20 foot long their backs are scaly and impenetrable so that they are hardly to be killed except in the Belly or Eye They have four Feet or Finns with which they go or swim They are observed to make no kind of Noise and the usual course for the getting their Prey is to lie on the banks of Rivers and as any Beast or Fowle cometh to drink they suddenly seize on them and the rather for that they do so much resemble a long peece of dry wood or some dead thing And as these Allegators are thus obnoctious on the one hand so are they found to be useful on the other for their Fat is a Sovereign Oyntment for any internal Ach or Pain in the Joynts or Bones They have in them Musk-codds which are stronger scented then those of the East-Indies and by this their strong smell they are discovered and avoyded which â—s supposed the Cattle by instinct of Nature are also sencible of and do by that means often shun them They lay Eggs in the Sand
hath any considerable attempt been made upon them The English being thus become Masters of the Island formed themselves into a Body or Colony Then did they they begin to settle themselves in Plantations whilst others betook themselves to the Sea as Freebooters or Privateers the better to secure themselves against the Spaniards and force them to a peace by their frequent annoying them in seizing such their ships which they could meet with which proved very succesful unto them And this caused the Isle to be much talked of and had in esteem by the English who sent them supplies of Men Provisions and necessaryes And thus by little and little it became to be so potent as now it is Governours since the English were Masters of the Island This Island since the English have been Masters of it hath had four Governours The first Leiutenant General Edward D'oyley who before his Majesties happy Restauration was Commander in cheif of all the English Army by Land and Sea in America The second the Right Honourable Thomas Lord Winsor who is now Lord Leiutenant of the County of Worcester The third Sr. Thomas Modyford Baronet And the fourth and present Sr. Thomas Lynch Knight Some Considerations relating to the English Affaires in America with Reasons to justify the first designe into the Indies Spaniards would never contract a Peace with the English in America They have alwayes taken our Merchants Ships sayling on these Coasts or forced them into their Harbours by distress of Weather In the Reign of our late King when we had Peace with them throughout Europe they Sacked St. Christophers Mevis Providence S ta Cruz and Tortugas murthering and carrying away most of the Inhabitants into slavery for which they never made any repairation The Indians who are the natural proprietors of America do abominate and hate the Spaniards for their cruelty and avarice and upon every occasion will shew their willingness to give themselves and their Countreys freely into the power and protection of the English The pretented first discovery cannot give them a legal power over the genuine right of the Natives nor were they the first discoverers of all those Countreys that they pretend unto The Popes Donation is of little validity for he hath given them the Crown of England which of the two he might more legally do then the Indies for that the English have been subject to his power the Indians never Possession is not of force to create thought it confirms a Right nor can it so alter the property as to make usurpation for some time to continue as a legal and just pretence of Dominion It is against the fundamental Lawes of Spain to make a peace and allow of a Trade into the Indies now there being no medium war must needs be justifyable where a Peace is not allowable Their barbarous cruelty in compelling our Merchants and others which they have took prisoners to turn their Religion and to work at their Forts and Mines at Mexico and elsewhere from whence they can never return murthering divers when upon a Treaty and after promise of fair quarter and not Exchanging or Ransoming any although the English have freely given them some hundreds of Prisoners doth sufficiently justify any attempt or mischief we can do against them either in seizing on their Ships or the landing on their Countreys and the sacking burning or taking their Towns and Countreys and the dispossessing them thereof Some Considerations why his Majesty should keep preserve and support this Island Jamaica is large and capacious whose extent I have already noted so that it is capable of receiving very great numbers of People It is seated in the heart of the Spaniards American Territories so that the Spanish Shipps coming into the West-Indies and sayling from Port to Port either make this Isle or may be immediately met by the Ships which ply on this Coast which renders it to be of great importance to Us as well as to the Spaniards for all the Plate Fleet which comes from Carthagena steer directly from St. Domingo in Hispaniola and from thence must pass by one of the Ends of this Isle to recover Havana which is the common Rendevouze of the Armado before it returns home through the Gulph of Florida Nor is there any other way whereby to miss this Isle because they cannot in a reasonable time turn it up to the windward of Hispaniola which though with great difficulty it might be done yet by this means they would loose the security of the said united Fleet which meet at Havana from all parts of the Bay of Mexica Nombre de dios and elsewhere and so accompany each other home Jamaica is found to precede all the English Plantations in America in the very Commodities that are proper to their several Colonies and produceth also of its own Cocao Hydes Tortoise-shells Wood for Dyers Gums Druggs and other Commodities already treated of and for Fruits Fowl and Fish infinite store many of which are unknown unto them Likewise such abundance of Horses and Cowes that none other of the English Blantations can equalize them And as this Island is found thus advantageous in the furnishing us with such good Commodities so is it no less profitable in the taking off our Manufactures and Commodities as well of the product of this Kingdom as those from Forreign parts That is to say all sorts of Stuffs Fabricks of Silks Linnen both fine and course Hatts Gloves Thread Tape Pinns Needles Stockings Shoos all sorts of Apparel Wine Brandy Strong-Beer All sorts of Utensils of Iron and other Mettals for Carpenters Joyners Smiths Coopers Mill-Wrights and other the like Tradesmen that are found useful for the Planters service Also Iron Brass Copper Steel Lead and Tinn unwrought All sorts of Armes and Ammunition Also Servants and Negro-Slaves And in a word all Commodities that are necessary and usefull either for the Back or Belly are here Vendible And is observed that the better the Commodities are especially Apparrel and Ornaments for the Back the sooner and better are they Vended It appears to be a place of no small concernment for it hath not only subsisted at the beginning but bettered its Condition being setled by an Army the worst kind of people to plant that have had such grand discouragements from England as want of pay provisions and recruits of Men yet amongst themselves talked of all encouragements to Plant the establishment of Justice and Government besides the frequent attempts of the Spanish Forces and if it thus thrived under these and such like considerable obstructions it is more then propable it will in a short time become a great and profitable Colony both to the King and Kingdome for when well planted it may bring into his Majesty some hundred thousand pownds per Annum Barbadoes which is so little compared to this yeilding about 10000 l. per Annum and employing
c. Commodities Commodities which this Countrey doth or may produce are Hemp Flax Hops Rape-Seed Anniceseed Wood Madder Pot-Ashes Honey Wax Silk if they would make it Mulberry-Trees here growing in such great plenty Saxafras Sarsaparilla several sweeâ— Gums and Balsomes of Sovereign vertues several sorts of Plants Woods c. used by Dyers here are veins of Alomes Iron and Copper sundry sorts of Rich Furrs Elk-skins which maketh excellenâ— Buffe and other Hides Pitch Tarr Rozen Turpentine Butter Cheese and Salted Flesh and Fish which find vent at the Barbadoes and other Caribbe Isles but above all these their chief Commodity is Tobacco which they are sure to find vent for and is the Standard by which all other Commodities are prized but it were well for the Inhabitants if they would imploy their time about the making of Silk or some other Commodities which in a short time would be found more advantageous unto them then their Tobacco would not be so great a Drug as of late it is insomuch that the Merchant oft-times had rather lose it then to pay the charges and Duties of Freight Custome Excise c. Here groweth a kind of Flax called Silk-grass of which the Indians make Thred and Strings and is good to make Linnen-cloth and Shifts and would make excellent strong Cables Their Trade Here all Trades-men especially Handicrafts finds good encouragement and for those Commodities aforesaid the English who have the sole Trade bring them all sorts of Apparel all manner of Utinsills belonging to Household-stuf or necessary in their Plantations or otherwise also Wine Brandy and other strong Drinks likewise all Silks Stuf and Cloth both Linnen and Wollen which they convert to several uses according to their Fancyes being now supplyed by Taylors Their Trees Here groweth sundry sorts of Trees of the red and white Oak Black Walnut Cedar Pine Cyprus Chesnut Poppler Ash Elm c. many of which are very good for the building of Ships and other uses The Rivers This Country is well watered with several great and strong Rivers which lose themselves in the Gulph or bay of Chesopeak which gives entrance for shipping in this Country as also to Mary-Land next adjoyning which said Bay is very large Capacious and Comodious for Shipping being said to run up into the Countrey northwards near 75 Leagues its breadth in many places being 5 6 or 7 Leagues and sometimes more and 6 or 7 Fathom deep and its opening to the South between Cape-Henry which begineth Virginia and Cape-Charles on the other side opposite being about 10 or 12 Leagues wide The principal of these Rivers begining at Cape-Henry are Pawhatan now called James-River being very large Commodious for ships and found navigable about 50 Leagues Pamaunke now York-River also large and Navigable about 20 Leagues Rapahanock or Toppahanock likewise a good River and Navigable about 40. Leagues which is the last River of Virginia Northwardly that falls into the Bay of Chesopeack Their Townes Upon or near these Rivers for the conveniency of shipping the English are seated which at present do amount unto the number of about 30 or 40000 and have some Townes the chief amongst which is James-Town or rather James City commodiously seated James-River the Town is beautified with many fair and well built Brick Houses and as it is the chief town of the Countrey here is kept the Courts of Judicature and Offices of publique concern not far from which at Green-Spring resideth the Governour Sir William Berkley Next to James-town may be reckoned that of Elizabeth seated at the mouth of the said River a well built Town Also Dales-gift Wicocomoco Bermuda and others The English Government This Countrey is Governed by Laws agreeable with those of England for the deciding of all Causes both Civil and Criminal which said Laws are thus made by the Governour appointed by his Majesty with the consent of the General Assembly which doth consist of his Council and the Burgesses chosen by the Free-holders And for the better Government the Countrey which is possessed by the English is divided into several Counties in each of which are Sheriffs Justices of the Peace and other Officers which are from time to time appoynted by the Governour The names of the Counties are those of Carotuck Charles Glocester Hartford Henrico James New-Kent Lancastar Middlesex Nansemund Lower-Norfolk Northampton Northumberland Rappahanock Surrey Warwick Westmorland Isle of Wight and York and in each of these Counties are held petty Courts every month from which there may be Appeales to the Quarter-Court held at James-Town The Natives or Indians Virginia was and yet is the habitation of divers sorts of Indians which have no dependance upon each other being of particular Tribes and having their peculiar King to Govern them every Indian-Town or rather poor Village being the habitation of a King and these People do rather live at enmity than amity together And as to their Dispositions Manners Religions c. there is found a difference but most of all in their Languages so that those People may not improperly be called so many several Nations They are generally a sort of people well proportionate stout of a swarthy complexion their Hair black and flaggy which they wear long they are of a ready Wit very Subtile and Treacherous not much addicted to labour being too great lovers of their ease they are much given to Hunting and going to Wars with each other their Weapons being the Bow and Arrows at which they are very expert being good marks-men but of late they have got the use of Guns and other Weapons through the folly of the English in shewing them They are very loving and obedient to their Kings in matters of Religion they observe strange Ceremonies and their Priests which are esteemed Conjurers makes Sacrifices for them They believe the Transmigration of the Soul and have strange fancies about the Creation of they World they believe there is a God but think he hath something else to do then to concern himself with things below as too inferiour for him and do therefore not Worship him but the Divel they worship out of a fear least he should destroy them as having the power of them Their Apparel is but mean only contenting themselves with something to cover their Nakedness and for the better defending themselves from the weather they anoynt their Bodyes with certain Oyles mixt with Beares Grease Their Houses are no better then our English Hogsties and are made of Boughs and covered with Bark of Trees and in the midst thereof is placed their Chimney or Fire-place Their Dyet in meaness is answerable to their Houses not endeavouring to please their Pallets with curious Sauces or pompering their Bodies with provokative Meates A DESCRIPTION OF MARYLAND It s Scituation and Bounds THe Province of Maryland lying between the degrees of 37 and 50 minutes or thereabouts and 40 degrees of Northern Latitude