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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A33345	A true and faithful account of the four chiefest plantations of the English in America to wit, of Virginia, New-England, Bermudus, Barbados : with the temperature of the air, the nature of the soil, the rivers, mountains, beasts, fowls, birds, fishes, trees, plants, fruits, &c. : as also, of the natives of Virginia, and New-England, their religion, customs, fishing, hunting, &c. / collected by Samuel Clarke ...	Clarke, Samuel, 1599-1682.	1670 (1670)	Wing C4558; ESTC R17743	124,649	128

A True and Faithful ACCOUNT OF THE FOUR CHIEFEST PLANTATIONS OF THE English in America TO WIT Of VIRGINIA NEW-ENGLAND BERMVDVS BARBADOS With the temperature of the Air The nature of the Soil The Rivers Mountains Beasts Fowls Birds Fishes Trees Plants Fruits c. AS ALSO Of the Natives of Virginia and New-England their Religion Customs Fishing Huntings c. COLLECTED By Samuel Clarke sometimes Pastor in Saint Bennet-Fink London LONDON Printed for Robert Clavel Thomas Passenger William Cadman William Whitwood Thomas Sawbridge and William Birch 1670. THE DESCRIPTION OF VIRGINIA AND THE PLANTATION OF THE ENGLISH The temperature of the Air the nature of the Soile the Rivers Mountains Beasts Fowls Birds Fishes Trees Plants Fruits c. As also of the Natives their Religion Customs Fishings Huntings Treachery c. ANNO Christi 1584. Sr. Walter Rawleigh obtained of Queen Elizabeth of glorious memory a Patent for discovering and Peopling of unknown Countries not actually possessed by any Christian Prince Dated March 25. and in the 26th year of her Reign In prosecution whereof April 27th he set forth two Barks under the Command of Mr. Philip Amadas and Mr. Arther Barlow which arrived on that part of America which that Virgin Queen named Virginia and thereof in her Majesties name there took possession July 13. And having taken a view of and liking the Country and having had conference and some trading with the Savages observing about fourteen sorts of sweet smelling timber Trees and many other commodities bringing with them two of the Savages they returned home in September following Anno Christi 1585. Sr. Richard Greenvile was sent by Sr. Walter Rawleigh with a Fleet of seven Sail which Landed in the Isle of St. John de Porto Rico. May 12. and there fortified themselves and built a Pinace The Spaniards promised to furnish them with Victuals but did not whereupon they took two Spanish Frigots In Hispaniola they had friendly greetings and some trade with the Spaniards from whence they came to an Anchor at Wokocon whereby the unskilfullness of the Master their Admiral strook on ground and sunk July 25. They returned for England and by the way they took a Spanish Ship of Three hundred Tun richly laden In Virginia they left a Colony under the Goverment of Mr. Ralph Lane and others besides an hundred men The Governour wrote from his new Fort in Virginia that if they had Kine and Horses in a reasonable proportion no Country in Christendom was to be compared to it They discovered from Roanoack to the Chesipians above one hundred and thirty miles and to Chawanock North-West as far In the beginning of June 1586. the Natives conspired against the English for which the chiefest of them lost his head and Sr. Francis Drake coming thither after he had Sacked diverse of the Spanish Towns took the Colony with 〈◊〉 his Victorious Fleet and brought them into England The same year Sr. Walter Rawleigh 〈◊〉 sent a Ship of an hundred Tun with Provisions for the Colony which arrived at Hatorask presently after they were come away wherefore having sought them in vain she returned with her provisions 〈◊〉 England About a fortnight after her departure Sr. Kichard Greenvile General of Virginia with three Ships arrived there and neither hearing of the Ship nor the Colony which he had left there the year before after long search in vain he left fifteen men to keep possession of the Country in the Isle of Roanoack furnished for two years and so returned by the way spoiling some Towns of the Azores and taking diverse Spaniards Anno Christi 1587. Sr. Walter Rawleigh notwithstanding former discouragements sent another Colony of One hundred and fifty Persons under the Government of Mr. John White with twelve Assistants to which he gave a Charter and incorporated them by the name of Governors and Assistance of the City of Rawleigh in Virginia These arrived July 22. at Hatorask where they went ashore to seek the fifteen men left there the year before intending to plant at Chesopiok But they were informed by a Native called Manteo that the Savages had secretly slain some of them and the other were fled they knew not whither This Manteo was afterwards Baptized and by Sr. Walter Rawleigh was made Lieutenant of Roanock Here also Mrs. Dare the Governours Daughter was delivered of a Daughter that was Baptized by the name of Virginia Aug. the 27. they departed and returned into England The Commodities that are in Virginia Oak of an excellent grain straight tall and long Elme Beech Birch very tall and great of whose Bark the Natives make their Canows Nut-Hasil Hasil Alder Cherry-Tree Maple Eive Spruce Aspe Fir in great abundance and many other Fruits Trees which the English knew not From the Firrs issues much Turpentine and Tar and Pitch Eagles Hearn Shaws Cranes large Ducks and Mallard Geese Swans Wigeon Sharks Crows Ravens Kites Sea-Mews Pidgeons Turtle-Doves Turkies and many other Fowles and Birds unknown Hawks of diverse kinds Deer Red and Follow Bears Wolves Beavers Otters Hares Conies Martens Sables Hogs Porcupins Polecats Cats wild and great Dogs whereof some like Foxes Elks and some Lyons Squirrils of three sorts some flying Squirils Hares c. Whales Porpoises Seales Cod very large Haddocks Herring Plaise Thornback Rack-Fish Lobsters Crabs Mussels Wilks Cony-Fish Lump-Fish Whitings Salmonds in great plenty Tobacco Vines Strawberries Rasberries Goosberries Hartleberries Corants Roses Pease Angellica Ground-nuts The Wood that is most common is Oak and Walnut many of their Oak are so tall and strait that they will bear Thirty inches square of good Timber for Twenty yards long there are two or three several kinds of them There are also two or three kinds of Walnuts there are Cyprus Trees some of which are neer three fathom about the Root very strait and fifty sixty yea eighty foot without a branch There are also some Mulberry Trees and Chesnut Trees whose fruit equalizeth the best in France or Italy they have Plums of three sorts Cherries Vines Gassafras Trees Virginia lies in the Latitude of 43. Degrees and 20. Minutes North. Anno Christ 1606. King James of happy memory granted a Pattent to sundry Persons to Plant along the Coast of Virginia where they pleased between 34. Degrees and 45. of Northerly Latitude in the main Land and the Islands thereunto adjoyning within a hundred miles of the Coast thereof In pursuance whereof there were some Ships sent the same year to begin a Plantation in the more Southerly part of Virginia Virginia is a Country in America that lies between the Degrees of 34. and 44. of North Latitude On the East it s bounded with the grear Ocean On the South with Florida On the North with Nova Francia But for the West the limits are unknown The Plantation which was begun in the year 1606. was under the Degree of 37. 38. and 39. where the tempreture of the air after they were well seasoned agreed

in case they should at any time by foul Weather be driven to or cast upon on this Island that so they might there find fresh meat to serve them upon such an exigence And the Fruits and Roots that grew there afforeded them so great plenty of food that now they were multiplied abundantly In so much as the Indians of the Leeward Islands that were within sight coming thither in their Canoos and finding such Game to hunt as these Hoggs were whose flesh was so sweet and excellent in tast they came often thither a hunting staying sometimes a moneth together before they returned home leaving behind them certain tokens of their being there which were Pots of several sizes made of Clay so finely tempered and turned with such Art as the like to them for fineness of Mettle and curiosity of turning are not made in England in which they boiled their meat This discovery being made and advice thereof sent to their friends in England other ships were sent with Men Provisions and Working Tools to cut down the Woods and clear the Ground wherein to plant Provisions for their sustentation till then finding Food but straglingly in the Woods But when they had cleared some quantity of Land they Planted Potato's Plantines and Maies or Indian Wheat with some other Fruits which together with the Hoggs which they found there served only to keep life and soul together And their supplies from England coming so slow and so uncertainly they were oft driven to great extremities And the Tobacco that grew there was so earthy and worthless as that it gave them little or no return from England or other places so that for a while they lingered in a doubtful condition For the Woods were so thick and most of the Trees so large and massy as that they were not to be faln by so few hands And when they were laid along the Boughs were so thick and and unweldy as required more help of strong and active men to lop and remove them off the ground which continued so for many years in somuch as they Planted Potato's Maies and Bonavists between the Boughs as the Trees lay on the ground Yet not long after they planted Indigo and ordered it so well as that it sold in London at very good Rates And their Cotten Woll and Fustick Wood proved very good and staple Commodities So that having these four sorts of commodities to traffique with all Some Ships were invited in hope of gain by that Trade to come and visit them bringing for exchange such Commodities as they wanted to wit Working-Tools Iron Steel Clothes Shirts Drawers Hose and Shooes Hats and more Hands So that beginning to find good by this Trade they set themselves hard to work and lived in much better condition But when their Sugar-Canes had been planted three or four years they found that to be the principal Plant whereby to raise the value of the whole Island and therefore bent all their endeavours to improve their knowledge and skill in Planting them and making Sugar Which knowledg though they studied hard was long in Learning This Island which we call Barbado's lies in thirteen Degrees and about thirty Minutes of Northern Latitude The usual Bay into which Ships put is Carlile Bay which without exception is the best in the Island and is somewhat more than a League over and from the Points of the Land to the bottom of the Bay is twice as much Upon the innermost part of this Bay stands a Town called the Bridge for that a long Bridge was at first made over a little Nook of the Sea which yet indeed is rather a Bogg than a Sea This Town is ill scituated the Planters looking more after conveniencie than health But one house being erected another was set up by it for Neighbourhood and than a third and a fourth till at last it became a Town Divers storehouses were also built there wherein to stow their goods being so neer and convenient for the Harbour But their great oversight was to build a Town in so unhealthfull a place For the ground being somewhat lower within the Land than the Sea banks are the Spring-Tides flow over and so remain there making much of that flat a kind of Bog or Marish which sends out so loathsome a Savour as cannot but breed ill blood and probably is the occasion of much sickness to those that live there The ground on either side this Bay but chiefly that to the Eastward is much firmer and lies higher and therefore with some charge may be made as convenient as the Bridge and much more healthfnl Three more Bayes there be of note in this Island One to the Eastward of this which they call Austins Bay The other are to the West of Carlile-Bay The first whereof is called Mackfields Bay the other Spikes Bay but neither of these three are environed with Land as Carlile Bay is but being to the Leeward of the Island and of good Anchorage they seldome are in danger unless in the time of the Turnado when the Winds turn about to the South And then if they be not well moved the Ships are subject to fall foul one upon another and sometimes are driven a ground For the Leeward part of the Island being rather shelvy than Rocky they are seldom or never cast away The leng the hot Island is twenty eight miles and the breadth in some places seventeen miles in others twelve so that they make about three hundred nitety two square miles in the whole Island It rises highest in the middle so that when you come within sight of this happy Island the nearer you come the more beautiful it appears to the Eye For being in it self exceeding beautiful it 's best discerned and best judged of when your eyes become full Mistris of the Object There you may see the high large and lofty Trees with their spreading branches and flourishing tops which seem to be beholding to the Earth and Roots that gave them such plenty of sap for their Nourishment which makes them grow to that perfection of beauty and largeness Whil'st they by way of gratitude return their cool shade to secure and shelter the Earth from the Suns heat which otherwise would scorch and dry it up So that Bounty and Goodness in the one and Gratefulness in the other serve to make up this Beauty which alwayes would lie empty and waste By the Commodity of the Scituation of this Island which is highest in the midst the Inhabitants within have these advantages First a free prospect into the Sea then a reception of a opure and refreshing air and Breezes that come from thence The Plantations overlooking one another so as the more in most parts are not debarred nor restrained of their liberties of the view to the Sea by those that dwell between them and it Whil'st the Sun is in the Aequinoctial or within ten degrees of

well with the constitutions of the English They sound the Summer as hot as in Spain the Winter as cold as in France or England The heat of Summer is in June July and August but commonly a cool Briefs asswages the vehemency of the heat The chiefest Winter is in half December January February and half March The Winds are variable which yet purifie the air as doth the Thunder and Lightning which sometimes is very terrible Sometimes there are great droughts and othersometimes great raines yet the European Fruits planted there prospered well There is but one entrance by Sea into the Country and that is at the mouth of a very goodly Bay which is about eighteen or twenty miles wide The Cape of the South side is called Cape Henry the Land there is white sand and along the shore are great plenty of Pines and Firrs The North Cape is called Cape-Charles The Isles before it are called Smiths Isles The Country is full of large and pleasant navigable Rivers In it are Mountains Hills Plains Valleys Rivers and Brooks this Bay lieth North and South in which the water flowes near two hundred miles and hath a Channel for One hundred and forty miles of depth between seven and fifteen fathom the breadth makes ten or fourteen miles Northward from the Bay the Land is Mountanous from which fall some Brooks which after make five Navigable Rivers the entrance of these Rivers into the Bay being within twenty or fifteen miles one of another The Mountains are of divers natures some of Stone for Millstones some of Marble c. and many pieces of Chrystal are brought down from them by the raines The Soil generally is lusty and rich being generally of a black sandy mould In some places a fat slimy clay In other places gravel The Countrey generally hath such pleasant plain Hills and fertile Valleys one prettily crossing another and watered so conveniently with sweet Brooks and chrystal Streams as if Artists had devised them By the Rivers are many Marshes some of 20 30 100. yea 200 Acres some more some less On the West side of the Bay and neerest to its mouth is the River called Powhatan according to the name of a principal Countrey that lies upon it the mouth of it is near three miles in breadth It s Navigable One hundred and fifty miles as the Channel goes In the farthest place which the English discovered are Falls Rocks and Shoales which hinder any farther Navigation In a Peninsula on the North side of this River the English first planted in a place which they called James Town As our men passed up one of their Rivers there came to them some called Sasquesahanocks with Skins Bows Arrows Targets Beads Swords and Tobacco-pipes for Presents They were great and well proportioned men so to the English they seemed like Giants with much ado they were restrained from adoring their discoverers Their Language well seeming their proportion sounding from them as it were a great voice in a Vault their attire was the skins of Bears and Wolves One had a Wolves-head hanging in a Chain for a Jewel his Tobacco-pipe was three quarters of a yard long prettily carved with a Bird a Bear a Dear being at the great end sufficient to beat out a mans brains their Bows Arrows and Clubs are suitable to their proportions One of the biggest of them had the calf of his Legg measured which was three quarters of a yard about and all the rest of his limbs answerable thereto His Arrows were five quarters long headed with Flints formed like a heart an inch broad and an inch and an half long which he wore in a Wolves Skin at his back In one hand a Bow and in the other a Club. The Natives of Virgina have generally black hair but few of them have Beards The men have half their heads shaven the hair of the other half long The Women are their Barbers who with two Shells grate away the hair of what fashion they please The Womens hair is cut in many fashions according to their eyes but ever some part of it is long They are very strong of able bodies and nimble they can lie in the Woods under a Tree by the fire in the coldest Weather and amongst the Grass and Weeds in Summer They are inconstant crafty timerous quick of apprehension and very ingenious They are very covetous of Copper Beads and such trash They are soon angry and so malicious that they seldom forget an injury They seldom steal one from another lest their Connivers should reveal it Their Women are careful to avoid suspition of dishonesty without the leave of their Husbands Each House-keeper knows his own Lands and Gardens and most live of their own labour They are sometimes covered with the Skins of wild Beasts which in Winter are dressed with the Hair inward but in Summer without The better sort use large Mantles of Dear-skins some Embroidered with white Beads some with Copper and others are painted But the common sort have scarce wherewith to cover their nakedness but with Grass or Leaves Some have Mantles made of Turkey Feathers so handsomly wrought and Woven with Thred that nothing could be discerned but Feathers These were exceeding neat and warm The Women are covered about their middles with a Skin and much ashamed to be seen bare They adorn themselves with Copper and Painting They Have their Leggs Hands Breasts and Faces cunningly wrought with divers Works as Beasts Serpents c. artificially wrought in their flesh with spots In each Ear commonly they have three holes whereat they hang Chains Bracelets or Copper Some of their men wear in those holes a small green and yellow coloured Snake near half a yard long which crawling and wrapping her self about his neck oftentimes familiarly kisses his lips Others wear a dead Rat tied by the tail Some on their heads wear the wing of a Bird or some large Feathers with the tail of a Rattle-Snake Many have the skin of a Hawk or some strange Fowl stuffed with the Wings stretched abroad Others a piece of Copper And some the hand of an enemy dried Their heads and shoulders are painted red with a certain Powder mixed with Oyl which they hold in Summer to preserve them from heat and in Winter from cold He is most gallant that is most monstrous to behold Their habitations are mostly by the Rivers or not far from some fresh Spring Their houses are built like our Arbours of small Sprigs bowed and tied together and so close covered with Mats or the bark of Trees that notwithstanding Wind Rain or Weather they are as warm as Stoves but smoky though they leave a hole on the top right over the Fire Their Lodging is by the Fire side on little Hurdles made of Reeds and covered with a Mat. On these round about the house they lie heads and points one by another covered with Mats or Skins and some stark naked Of these

Country he found great store of Beasts as big as Kine of which they killed two and found them to be good and wholesom meat and yet easie to be killed being but heavy and slow Creatures He found also a Mine and a strange kind of Earth which the Indian used for Physick and it cures the pain of the Belly He found also a Water issuing out of the Earth which tasted like Allom water it was good and wholsom He found an Earth like a Gum white and clear and another red like Terra Sigillata an other white and so light that being cast into water it swims Their Dear have usually three or four Fawns at a time none under two and our English Goates in Virginia oft times bring forth three and mostly two young ones so fruitful is the Country they have Beavers Otters Foxes Racoons as good meat as a Lamb Hares wild Catts with rich Furrs Musk-Rats c. wild Pidgeons in Winter numberless the flocks of them will be three or four hours together flying over so thick that they obscure the very Light Turkies far bigger than ours that will run as fast as a Gray-hound Buzzards Snites Partridges Owles Swans Geese Brants Droeis Shell-Drakes Teal Widgeon Curlews Puits Black-birds Hedg-Sparrows Oxeies Wood-peckers and in Winter flocks of Parakitoes Their Rivers are plentifully stored with Fish as Sturgeon Porpass Base Carp Shad Herring Eele Cat-Fish Pearch Trout Flat-Fish Sheeps-head Drummers Jarsishes Craifishes Crabs Oisters c. At one hale they have caught as much Sturgeon Base and other great Fish as hath loaded a Frigot They have without Art Grapes Mulberries Maricocks like a Lemmon whose blossome may admit comparison with our most pleasant and beautiful Flowers and the fruit is exceeding delightful to the tast Many goodly Groves of Chincomen-Trees that have husks like a Chesnut and are good meat either raw or boiled Chesnuts great store and Walnuts plenty of three sorts Filberts Crabs smaller but sowrer than ours Anno Christi 1613. Mr. Alex. Whitaker who was Minister to the Colony writing to a Friend in London gives this account of the Natives They acknowledg saith he that there is a great good God but know him not having the eyes of their understandings yet blinded wherefore they serve the Devil for fear after a most base manner sacrificing somtime their own children to him His Image they paint upon one side of a Toad-stool much like to a deformed Monster Their Priests are no other but such as our English Witches are They live naked in body as if the shame of their sin deserved no covering they esteem it a virtue to lie deceive and steal as their Master the Devil teacheth them The Natives are not so simple as some have conceited For they are of Body strong lusty and very nimble they are a very understanding Generation quick of apprehension sudden in their dispatches subtile in their dealings exquisite in their inventions and industrious in their labour The World hath no better marks-men with their Bows and Arrows than they be they will kill Birds flying Fishes swimming and Beasts running They shoot with marvellous strength for they shot one of our English being unarmed quite through the Body and nailed both his Armes to his Body with one Arrow Their service to their God is answerable to their lives being performed with great fear and attention and many strange dumb shews are used in it stretching forth their limbs and straining their bodies exceedingly They stand in great awe of their Priests which are a Generation of Vipers even of Satans own brood The manner of their life is much like that of the Popish Hermites For they live alone in the Woods in Houses sequestred from the common course of men neither is any man suffered to come into their House for to speak with them but when the Priest calls them He takes no care for his Victuals for all necessaries of bread water c. are brought to a place near to his House and are there left which he fetches at his pleasure If they would have Rain or have lost any thing they have recourse to him who Conjures for them and many times he prevaileth If they be sick he is their Physitian if they be wounded he sucks them At his command they make War and Peace neither do they any thing of moment without him They have an evil Government amongst them a rude kind of Common-wealth and rough Government wherein they both honour and obey their Kings Parents and Governours they observe the limits of their own Possessions Murther is rarely heard off Adultery and other gross offences are severely punished The whole Continent of Virginia situated within the Degrees of 34. and 47. is a place beautified by God with all the Ornaments of Nature and enriched with his earthly Treasures That part of it which the English chiefly possess begins at the Bay of Chesapheac and stretching it self in Northerly Latitude to the Degrees of 39. 40. and is interlined with seven most goodly Rivers the least wherof is equal to our Thames and all these Rivers are so nearly joyned as that there is not very much distance of ground between either of them and those several pieces of Land betwixt them are every where watered with many veins and creeks which sundry wayes do cross the Land and make it almost Navigable from one River to another the commodity whereof is very great to the Planters in respect of the speedy and easie Transportation of Goods from one River to another The River Powhatan ebbs and flowes One hundred and forty miles into the Main at the mouth whereof are the two Forts of Henry and Charles Forty two miles upward is the first and Mother Town of the English seated called James Town and seventy miles beyond that upward is the Town of Henerico built Ten mile beyond this is a place called the Falls because the River hath there a great descent falling down between many Mineral Rocks which be there Twelve miles beyond these Falls is a Chrystal Rock with which the Indians use to head most of their Arrows The higher ground in Virginia is much like to the mould of France being clay and Sand mixed together at the top but digging any depth its red Clay full of glistering spangles As for Iron Steel Antimony and Terra Sigillata they are very frequent The air of the Country especially about Henerico and upwards is very temperate and agrees well with our English bodies The extremity of Summer is not hot as in Spain nor the cold in Winter so sharp as ours in England The Spring and Harvest are the two longest seasons and very pleasant The Summer and Winter are both but short The Winter for the most part is dry and fair but the Summer ofttimes watered with great and sudden showers of Rain whereby the cold of Winter is warmed and the heat of Summer is cooled Amongst the Beasts in

bit they are oft taken and serve for nothing but to manure the Ground There are many Sturgious but the most are caught at Cape Cod and in the River of Meramack whence they are brought to England they are twelve fourteen and some eighteen foot long The Salmon is as good as ours and in great plenty in some places The Hollibut is like our Plaice or Turbut some being two yards long and one broad and a food thick Thornback and Scate is given to the Doggs being so common in many places The Bass is one of the best Fishes being a Delicate and fat Fish He hath a bone in his head that contain a Saucerful of Marrow sweet and good pleasant and wholesome they are three or four foot long they take them with a Hook and Line and in three hours a man may catch a dozen or twenty of them The Herrings are much like ours Alewives are much like Herrings which in the end of April come into the fresh Rivers to spawn in such multitudes as is incredible pressing up in such shallow waters where they can scarce swim and they are so eager that no beating with poles can keep them back till they have spawned Their Shads are far bigger than ours The Makarels be of two sorts In the beginning of the year the great ones are upon the Coast some 18. inches long In Sommer come the smaller kind they are taken with Hooks and Lines baited with a piece of Red Cloth There be many Eels in the salt water especially where grass grows they are caught in Weels baited with pieces of Lobsters Sometimes a man thus takes a busnel in a night they are wholesome and pleasant meat Lamprons and Lampries are little esteemed Lobsters are in plenty in most places very large and some being twenty pound weight they are taken at low water amongst the Rocks the smaller are the better but because of their plenty they are little esteemed The Oysters be great in form of a shoo-horn some of a foot long they breed in certain banks which are bare after every Spring-tide each makes two good mouthfuls The Periwig lies in the Oase like a head of hair which being touched draws back it self leaving nothing to be seen but a small round hole Muscles are in such plenty that they give them their Hoggs Clams are not much unlike to Cockles lying under the Sand every six or seven of them having a round hole at which they take in Air and Water they are in great plenty and help much to feed their Swine both Winter and Sommer for the Swine being used to them will constantly repair every ebb to the places where they root them up and eat them Some are as big as a Penny Loaf which the Indians count great dainties A Description of the Plantations in New-England as they were Anno Christi 1633. The outmost Plantation to the Southward which by the Indians is called Wichaguscusset is but a small Village yet pleasant and healthful having good ground store of good Timber and of Meddow ground there is a spacious Harbor for shipping before the Town they have store of Fish of all sorts and of Swine which they feed with Acrons and Clams and an Alewife River Three miles to the North is Mount Wolleston a fertile soil very convenient for Farmers houses there being great store of plain ground without Trees Near this place are Maschusets Fields where the greatest Sagamore in the Country lived before the Plague cleared all Their greatest inconvenience is that there are not so many Springs as in other places nor can Boats come in at low water nor Ships ride near the Shore Six miles further to the North lieth Dorchester the greatest Town in New-England well Wooded and Watered with good Arrable and Hay ground fair comfortable Fields and pleasant Gardens Here are many Cattel as Kine Goats and Swine It hath a good Harbor for ships there is begun the fishing in the Bay which proved so profitable that many since have followed them there A mile from thence lies Roxberry a fair and handsome Country Town the Inhabitants are rich It lies in the Mains and yet is well Wooded and watered having a clear Brook running through the Town where are great store of Smelts whence it s called Smelt-River A quarter of a mile on the North of it is another River called Stony River upon which is built a water Mill. Here is good store of Corn and Meddow Ground Westward from the Town it s somewhat Rocky whence it s called Roxberry the Inhabitants have fair houses store of Cattel Come-fields paled in and fruitful Gardens Their goods are brought in Boats from Boston which is the nearest Harbor Boston is two miles North-East from Roxberry It s Situation is very pleasant being a Peninsula hemmed on the South with the Bay of Roxberry On the North with Charles River the Marshes on the back side being not half a quarter of a mile over so that a little fencing secures their cattel from the Wolves Their greatest want is of Wood and Meddow ground which they supply from the adjacent Islands both for Timber Fire-wood and Hay they are not troubled with Wolves Rattlesnakes nor Musketoes being bare of Wood to shelter them It s the chief place for shipping and Merchandize This neck of Land is about four miles in compass almost square Having on the South at one corner a great broad Hill whereon is built a Fort which commands all Ships in any Harbour in the Hill Bay On the North side is another Hill of the same bigness whereon stands a Windmil To the North-West is an high Mountain with three little Hills on the top whence it is called Tremount From hence you may see all the Islands that lie before the Bay and such Ships as are upon the Sea Coast. Here are rich Corn Fields and fruitful Gardens The Inhabitants grow rich they have sweet and pleasant Springs and for their enlargement they have taken to themselves Farm-Houses in a place called Muddy River two miles off where is good Timber Ground Marsh-Land and Meddows and there they keep their Swine or other Cattel in the Summer and bring them to Boston in the Winter On the North side of Charles River is Charles Town which is another neck of Land on whose Northern side runs Mistick River This Town may well be paralled with Boston being upon a bare neck and therefore forced to borrow conveniencies from the Main and to get Farmes in the Country Here is a Ferry-boat to carry Passengers over Charles River which is a deep Channel and a quarter of a mile over Here may ride fourty ships at a time Up higher is a broad Bay that is two miles over into which run Stony River and Muddy River In the middle of this Bay is an Oyster bank Medfod Village is scituated towards the North-West of this Bay in a Creek A very fertile and pleasant place It s a mile and a half from

Charles Town At the bottom of this Bay the River is very narrow By the side of this River stands New-Town three miles from Charles Town It s a neat and well compacted Town having many fair buildings and at first was intended for a City The Inhabitants are mostly rich and have many Cattel of all sorts and many hundred Acres of Ground paled in On the other side of the River lies their Meddow and Marsh Ground for Hay Half a mile thence is Water Town nothing inferiour for Land Wood Meddows and Water Within half a mile of it is a great Pond which is divided between those two Towns And a mile and a half from this Town is a fall of fresh waters which through Charles River fall into the Ocean A little below this fall they have made weires where they catch great store of Shads and Alewives an hundred thousand of them in two Tides Mastick is three miles from Charles Town seated pleasantly by the waters side At the head of this River are very spacious Ponds to which the Alewives press to cast their Spawn where multitudes are taken On the West side of this River the Governour hath a Farm where he keeps most of his Cattel On the East side is Mr. Craddocks Plantation who impailed in a Park for Deer and some ships have been built there Winnisimet is a very pleasant place for situation and stands commodiously It s but a mile from Charles Town the River only parting them It s the lasts Town in the Bay The chief Islands that secure the Harbor from Winds and Waves are first Deere Island within a flight shot from Bullin Point It s so called because the Deer often swim thither to escape the Woolves where sixteen of them have been killed in a day The next is Long Island so called from its length Other Islands are Nodless Isle Round Isle the Governours Garden having in it an Orchard Garden and other conveniencies Also Slate Island Glass Island Bird Island c. they all abound with Wood Water and Meddows In these they put their Cattel for safety whil'st their Corn is on the Ground The Towns without the Bay are nearer the Main and reap a greater benefit from the Sea in regard of the plenty of Fish and Fowl and so live more plentifully than those that are more remoat from the Sea in the Island Plantations Six miles North-East from Winnisimet is Sagus is pleasant for situation seated at the bottom of a Bay which is made on the one side with a surrounding Shore and on the other side with a long Sandy Beach It s in the circumference six miles well Woodded with Oakes Pines and Cedars It s also well watered with fresh Springs and a great Pond in the middle before which is a spacious Marsh. One Black William an Indian Duke out of his generosity gave this place to the Plantation of Sagus so that none else can claim it when a storm hath been or is like to be there will be a roaring like thunder which may be heard six miles off On the North side of this Bay are two great Marshes divided by a pleasant River that runs between them The Marsh is crossed with divers Creeks where are store of Geese and Ducks and convenient Ponds wherein to make Decoys There are also fruitful Meddows and four great Ponds like little Lakes wherein is store of fresh Fish out of which within a mile of the Town runs a curious fresh Brook which is rarely frozen by reason of its warmness and upon it is built a Water Mill. For Wood there is store as Oake Walnut Cedar Elme and Aspe Here was sown much English Corn. Here the Bass continues from the midst of April till Michaelmas and not above half that time in the Bay There is also much Rock-Cod and Macharil so that shoals of Bass have driven shoals of Macharil to the end of the sandy bank which the Inhabitants have gathered up in Wheel barrows Here are many Muscle banks and Clam-banks and Lobsters amongst the Rocks and grassy holes Four miles from Saugus stands Salem on the middle of a neck of Land very pleasantly between two Rivers on the North and South The place is but barren sandy Land yet for seven years together it brought forth excellent Corn being manured with Fish every third year Yet there is good ground and good Timber by the Sea side and divers fresh Springs Beyond the River is a very good soil where they have Farms Here also they have store of Fish as Basses Eels Lobsters Clams c. They cross the River in Canows made of whole Pine Trees two foot and an half wide and twenty foot long in which also they go a Fowling sometimes two Leagues into the Sea It hath two good Harbours which lie within Derbins Fort. Marvil Head lies four miles South from Salem a very good place for a Plantation especially for such as will set up a Trade of Fishing There are good Harbours for Boats and good riding for ships Agowomen is nine miles to the North from Salem near the Sea and another good place for a Plantation It abounds with Fish and Flesh of Fowls and Beasts hath great Meddows and Marshes and Arable grounds many good Rivers and Harbours and no Rattle Snakes Merrimack lies eight miles beyond that where is a River Navigable for twenty miles and all along the side of it fresh Marshes in some places three miles broad In the River is Sturgion Salmon Bass and divers other kinds of Fish Three miles beyond this River is the out side of Massecusets Patent wherein these are the Towns that were begun in the year 1633. Of the Evils and Hurtful things in the Plantation Those that bring the greatest prejudice to the Planters are the ravenous Woolves which destroy the weaker Cattel of which we heard before Then the Rattle Snake which is usually a yard and a half long as thick in the middle as the small of a mans Legg with a yellow belly Her back is spotted with black russet and green placed like scales At her taile is a rattle with which she makes a noise when she is molested or when any come near to her Her neck seems no bigger than a mans thumb yet can she swallow a Squirrel having a wide mouth with teeth as sharp as needles wherein her poyson lies for she hath no sting when a man is bitten by her the poyson spreads so suddenly through the veins to the heart that in an hour it causes death unless he hath the Antidote to expel the poyson which is a Root called Snake-weed which must be champed the spittle swallowed and the Root applyed to the sore this is a certain cure This Weed is rank poyson if it be taken by any man that is not bitten unless it be Phisically compounded with other things He that is bitten by these Snakes his fresh becomes as spotted as a Lepers till he be perfectly cured She is naturally the most