and invited divers Gentlemen that were there aboard his ship which was a Friggot of about 400. tunnes her loading Gold and Elephants teeth the Man was exceeding civill to us and gave to every Gentleman of our Company a present of such rarities as he brought from Guinny and Binny We stayed together almost a whole day the weather being very calme and almost no wind at all in the evening a fresh breese began to blow which serv'd us both in our severall wayes and so saluting each other with our ordinance wee took leave About this time our Consort the None-such parted with us she directly for the Carribby Ilands we for St. Jago one of the Ilands of Cape Verd where wee were to trade for Negros Horses and Cattell which we were to sell at the Barbados So keeping our course about 80. Leagues from the Coast of Spaine and Barbaâ—ie the first land wee discovered was the I le of Porto Santo which lyeth in 33. degrees to the Noreward which wee left of our Larboard side When presently after we had sight of the Maderas which we sayld close by and had a full view of the place so Rocky and Mountainous and the ground so miserably burnt with the Sun as we could perceive no part of it either Hill or Valley that had the least appearance of green nor any tree bigger then a small Hathorne and very few of those Between this and three inconsiderable Ilands called the Deserts which appeared to us like the tops of large buildings no unevennesse or risings and fallings but levell as the toppe of a large Church or Barne but burnt worse then the other so that instead of the fresh and lively greenes other Countreys put on at this time of the yeare these were apparell'd with Russets or at best Phyliamorts But it fell out that this yeere the summer was there hotter then usually and the Sea men that were with us gave us to understand that they never had seen it so burnt as now and that the Leeward part of it was at other times exceeding fruitfull and pleasant abounding with all sorts of excellent fruits Corne Wine Oyle and the best Sugars with Horses Cattell Sheep Goates Hogges Poultrey of all sorts and the best sorts of Sea-fish These Ilands lye neere 33. degrees to the Noreward Having past between these leaving the Maderas on of our Starboard side wee found a constant trade-wind to carry us to the Southward When the next Iland that came in our view was Bona Vista but at such a distance as we could hardly discerne colours but the generall Landscape of the hills seemed to one very beautifull gently rising and falling without Rockes or high precipices This Iland is famous for excellent Salt and for Horses which in one property excell all that ever I have seene their hooves being to that degree of hardnesse and toughnesse that we ride them at the Barbados downe sharp and steepie Rocks without shooes and no Goates goe surer upon the sides of Rockes and Hills then they and many of them very strong and clean limb'd This Iland wee left ten Leagues or thereabouts on our Larboard side and next to it the I le of May famous for store of excellent Salt The last of those Ilands was Palma a land so high as after wee first discovered it which was in the morning wee thought to have reacht it that night but found our selves farre short of it next morning though wee had a full gaile all that night so much is the eye deceived in Land which lyes high This Iland is about 28 degrees to the Noreward and from it to the Iles of Cape Verd about 13 degrees a long way to bee silent for there is no land between and therefore I purpose to entertaine you with some Sea delights for there is no place so void and empty where some lawfull pleasure is not to bee had for a man that hath a free heart and a good Conscience But these Sea-pleasures are so mixt with Cruelties as the trouble of the one abates much the delight of the other for here wee see the great ones eate up the little ones as they doe at Land and with as little remorse yet laying that consideration aside the Chase affords some pleasure to the eyes for some kinds of fishes shew themselves above water for a long while together I have seen 20 Porpisces very large of that kinde Crosse the Prow of our Ship one behind another in so steady and constant a course in chase of some other fishes as I have seen a kennell of large Hounds in Windsor Forrest in the chase of a Stag one following another directly in a track and the onely difference I finde is these doe not spend their mouthes but what they want in that is supplyed by the goodnesse of their noses for they never are at a fault but goe constantly on The Dolphins likewise pursue the flying Fish forcing them to leave their knowne watry Elements and flye to an unknowne one where they meet with as mercilesse enemies for there are birds that attend the rising of those fishes and if they bee within distance seldome fayle to make them their owne These birds and no other but of their kinde love to straggle so far from land so that it may be doubted whether the sea may not bee counted their naturall home for wee see them 500 leagues from any land at Sun setting and so it is not possible they should recover land that night and on the waves they cannot rest without great hazzard I have seen them sometimes light and sit upon the waves but with such Caution for feare of being taken in by a fish as her rest is very unsafe unlesse when she is covered by the nights dark wings This Bird is a kinde of sea Hawke somewhat bigger then a Lanner and of that colour but of a far freer wing and of a longer continuance and when she is weary she finds resting places if the Seas be Calme for then the â—urtles lye and sleep upon the waves for a long time together and upon their backs they sit and sleep securely and there mute prune and oyl their feathers rouse and doe all their Offices of nature and have roome enough for all for some of those Turtles are a yeard broad in the back wee took one with our long Boate as he lay sleeping on the water whose body afforded all the Gentlemen and Officers of the Ship a very plentifull meal and was the best meat wee tasted all the time wee were at Sea There are of these kinds of Fishes but two sorts that continue in the mayne the Loggerhead Turtle and the Hawkes bill Turtle of which sorts the latter is the best and of that kind ours was that wee took There is a third kind called the Green Turtle which are of a leffer Magnitude but far excelling the other two in wholesomnesse and Rarenesse of taste but of them hereafter for I have no mind
to eat any dinner our selves Being painfully and pipeing hot arriv'd at this exalted mansion we found none to entertaine us but Bernardo whose countenance was not so well reconcil'd to himselfe as to give us a hearty welcome He told us that the Padre was gone forth about some affaires of the Iland but would returne time enough to dinner And whilst we were staying there expecting his comming we thought good not to be idle for the structure of that Fabricke did not minister to our eyes much of delight Onely that it had a faier prospect to sea So we walkt along upon that round hill enquiring what we could of the place and were inform'd that there had been formerly a very stately Town beautified with faire buildings and streets so contrived as to make the best use of such a prospect But burnt and demolisht by Sr. Francis Drake in the time of the warres between Queen Elizabeth and the King of Spaine which made us give more reverence to the place for that some of our Countreymen had there sacrificed their lives for the Honour of our Nation About the houre that our stomacks told us it was full high time to pay Nature her due we lookt about us and perceived at a good distance a horse comming towards us with a man on his back as hard as his heels could carry him and within a very little time made a sudden stop at the Padres house from whose backe being taken by two Negroes was set on the ground a great fat man with a gowne on his back his face not so black as to be counted a Mollotto yet I believe full out as black as the Knight of the Sunne his eyes blacker if possible and so far sunk into his head as with a large pinne you might have prick't them out in the nappe of his necke Upon his a lighting we perceived him very much discomposed for the pace he rid was not his usuall manner of riding as by our enquiry afterwards we understood and that he very seldom rid at all but his business having held him over long caus'd him to take horse who intended to come a foot and being mâ—â—â—nted and he none of the best horsemen was made subject to the wil of his horse which being a Barbe very swift of foot comming towards the place where he was kept ranne with such violence as it was a wonder his burthen had not been cast by the way for the Horse having a bit in his mouth and the stirrops being extreame short as the manner of their riding there is if he had ever checkt him with the bridle that he had been put to bound he had undoubtedly layd him on the ground But the rider that thought of nothing more then holding fast by the pummell with both handes was miraculously preserv'd In this great discomposure he was taken off by two Negroes and set on his owne legs but in such a trance as for some minutes he was not in a Condition to speake to us So sensible an impression had the feare of falling made in him But being at last come to himselfe he made his addresse to us and in his language bid us welcome begining to excuse his too long stay to redeeme which fault he had put himselfe in such a hazard as in his whole life he had not knowne the like We answered that it argued a great respect and civilitie to us that he would expose his gravitie which was accustomed to a moderate pace to such a swiftnes of motion as might in any kinde indanger his health or hazard his person But he being a man much reserv'd and slow of language said no more but brought us into his house which was upon a Levell at the entrance but the other side of the Rooms a steep precipice and some of the roomes like galleries-such as are in the meanest Innes upon London-way There were not in the house above 4 roomes besides two galleries and a Kitchin and those all on a flower and the flowers of earth not so much as made Levell nor soeeven as to deserve sweeping and the most of them were justly dealt withall for they had no more then they deserv'd both above and below for the Cobwebs serv'd for hangings and frying pans and gred-irons for pictures By this equipage you may guesse what the trading is of this Iland when the Governour is thus accoutred but by and by a Cloath was layde of Calico with 4 or 5 Napkins of the same to serve a dozen men The first Course was set on the table usherd in by the Padre himselfe Bernardo the Mollotto and Negroes following after with every one a dish of fruite 6 in all the first was Millions Plantines the second the third Bonanos the 4 of Guavers the 5 of Prickled Peares the 6 the Custard Apple but to fill up the table and make the feast yet more sumptuous the Padre sent his Mollotto into his own Chamber for a dish which he reserv'd for the Close of all the rest Three Pines in a dish which were the first that ever I had seene and as farre beyond the best fruite that growes in England as the best Abricot is beyond the worst Slow or Crab. Having well refresht our selves with these excellent fruites we dranke a glasse or two of Red Sack a kinde of wine growing in the Maderas verie strong but not verie pleasant for in this Iland there is made noe wine at all nor as I thinke any of grapes so neere the Line upon Ilands in all the world Having made an end of our fruite the dishes were taken away and another Course fetcht in which was of flesh fish and sallets the sallets being first plac't upon the table which I tooke great heed of being all Novelties to me but the best and most favourie herbs that ever I tasted verie well season'd with salt Oyle and the best vinagre Severall sorts we had but not mixt but in severall dishes all strange and all excellent The first dish of flesh was a leg of young sturke or a wilde Calfe of a yeare old which was of the Colour of stags flesh and tasted very like it full of Nerves and sinewes strong meat and very well Condited boyld tender and the sauce of savorie herbes with Spanish Vinagre Turkyes and Hens we had roasted a gigget of young goate fish in abundance of severall kindes whose names I have forgotten Snappers grey and red Cavallos Carpions c with others of rare colours and shapes too many to be named in this leafe some fryed in oyle and eaten hot some souc't some marinated of all these we tasted and were much delighted Dinner being neere halfe done the Padre Bernardo and the other black atendants waiting on us in comes an old fellow whose complexion was raised out of the red Sack for neare that Colour it was his head and beard milke white his Countenance bold and Cheerfull a Lute in his hand and plaide us for a Noveltie The
and whosoever deales in them without speciall license forfeits both Ship and Goods if they have power to compell them But I believe they have not being partly informed by the Hermite who came often to us to hear newes and beg somewhat of us which being obtained he would not stick to impart somewhat of the weaknesse of the Iland that would have cost him dear if it had been known to the Padre And some of that which he enformed us was that the Forts and Block-houses on either side the Prye on which we saw the appearance of Ordnances good store and large but we understood by him that those Forts were neither regular nor the Guns Brasse or Iron but such as Henry the Eighth took Bulloyne with and this we found by experience to be true For upon our first difference with Barnardo and the Padre we weyed Anchor and removed our selves out of the distance of the Castle which stood in the bottom of the Prye and expected to have been shot at from those Forts and Block-houses but saw no fire given and if they had been furnish'd with such Artillery as would have reach'd us we should certainly have heard from them We also enquired of our Intelligencer the Hermite what Trades or Manufactures were practised there but were answered that they were few and inconsiderable Sugar Sweet-meats and Coco-nuts being the greatest trade they had Yet by the Padres leave we carried away with us 50 head of Cattle and 8 Horses which Barnardo made us pay double for the usuall price being 25 s. a piece for which he made us pay 50 s. and for Horses 10 l. a piece which others have had for 4 or 5 l. But he was content we should rate our commodities accordingly and so we were no great losers by the exchange Having dispatch'd our businesse we got leave to go ashoar upon the little Iland at the entrance of the Prye there to cut and pull grasse for our Horses and Cattle which we made up into hay a work quickly done where so much Sun-shine was our helper It being perfectly dried we stowed it in the ship which was our last work and so wayed Anchor and hoysed Saile steering our course for the Barbadoes leaving Bernardo according to his own desire behinde us having but 2 Degrees to the southward to varie in the running of 620 Leagues Westward St. Jago lying in 15. and the Barbadoes in 13 Degrees and 30 Minutes to the Northward of the Line There are seven more Ilands which are called the Ilands of Cape Verd viz. S. Michaels St. Vincents St. Anthonies St. Lucia Bravo Fogo and Soll Some of which are much larger but none so considerable as this of St. Jago As we lay at Anchor in the entrance of the Prye we perceived at Sun-set between the Sun and us the Iland called Fogo which was at such a distance as none of us could discern it all the day till that houre and then the Iland interposing between the Sun and us we saw it perfectly shap'd like the neather half of a Sugar loafe the upper half being cut off eeven and in the midst of the top of that a smoak and fire rising out from which we guest it took its name About the tenth of August we put out to Sea and as we sayled we left the Iland of our Starbord-side and did not part with the sight of it till we discern'd a little Town near to the shoar which we were told was the best in the Iland and a place meant for the chief Port for all Traffick in the Iland but by means of a great mischiefe that Ships were subject to in that Harbour it was almost totally deserted For the Sea there was so rocky in the bottome and those rocks so thick together and sharp withall as they cut the Cables off neer to the Anchor and so the Anchor often left in the bottom There was a Dutchman that lay there but three daies and in that little stay lost two Anchors From this Iland to the Barbadoes we account 620 Leagues which by reason of the constancy of the Windes which blow seldome in any other point than Nore-east and By-east they have usually sayled it in 16 or 17 daies But we for that it was the time of Tornado when the windes chop about into the South were somewhat retarded in our passage and made it twenty two daies ere we came thither and many have made it a far longer time For in the time of Tornado the clouds interpose so thick and darken the skie so much as we are not able to make an observation for a fortnight together and so being doubtfull of our Latitude dare not make the best use of our Sayles and way for fear of slipping by the Island and being past it can hardly beat it up again without putting out into the Main and so by painfull traverses recover our selves to the Eastward of the Iland and then fall back again by the due Latitude upon it at 13 Degrees and 30 Minutes Besides this paines and losse of time when we misse the Iland we many times run hazards by falling upon the Leeward Ilands in the night of which the Bay of Merixo is well stor'd In this long reach which may be call'd a voyage it selfe I had only two things to make the way seem short the one was Pleasure the other Businesse that of Pleasure was to view the Heavens and the beauty of them which were objects of so great glory as the Inhabitants of the World from 40 Degrees to either Pole can never be witnesse of And this happens at the time when the Turnado is with those of that Latitude where we were For the clouds being exhal'd in great quantities some thick and grosse some thin and aeriall and being hurl'd and roll'd about with great and lesser curles the Sun then and there being far brighter then with us here in England caused such glorious colours to rest upon those Clouds as 't is not possible to be believed by him that hath not seen it nor can imagination frame so great a beauty And the reason is the neernesse and propinquity of the place we are in which makes us see the glory of the Sun and of those Stars too which move in that Horizon much more perfectly then at a further distance The proof of this I found by looking on the Stars that appear large and bright to us in England which being seen there do not only lose much of their light but of their magnitude For instance There is little Star called Auriga neer the Charles Wain which in England I have seen very perfectly in bright nights but at that distance I could never see it in the clearest night though I have often attempted it And upon my return to England I found it as I left it which argues that it was no decay or impediment in my sight that made me lose it but only the distance of place I deny not but a
plant but the ships being for the most part infected with this disease and our selves being unprovided of handes for a new plantation by reason of the miscarying of a ship which set ouâ— before us from Plimouth a month before with men victuals and all utensell's fitted for a plantation we were compelled to stay longer in the Iland than we attended Besides the ship we came in was consigned to another part in Africa called Cuâ—chew to trade for Negroes But during the time of our stay there we made enquires of some small plantation to rest us on til the times became better and fitter for our remove with intent to make use of those few hands we had to settle that till we had supplies and new directions from England And so upon discourse with some of the most knowing men of the Iland we found that it was farre better for a man that had money goods or Credit to purchase a plantation there ready furnisht and stockt with Servants Slaves Horses Cattle Assinigoes Camels c. with a sugar worke and an Ingenio than to begin upon a place where land is to be had for nothing but a triviall Rent and to indure all hardships and a tedious expectation of what profit or pleasure may arise in many yeers patience and that not to be expected without large and frequent supplies from England and yet fare and labour hard This knowledge was a spurre to set on Colonel Modiford who had both goods and credit to make enquiry for such a purchase which in very few dayes he lighted on making a visit to the Governonr Mr. Phillip Bell met there with Major William Hilliard an eminent planter of the Iland and a Councellor who had been long there and was now desirous to sucke in some of the sweet ayre of England And glad to find a man likely to performe with him took him home to his house and began to treate with him for halfe the plantation upon which he lived which had in it 500 Acres of Land with a faire dwelling house an Ingenio plac't in a roome of 400 foot square a boyling house filling roome Cisterns and Still-house with a Carding house of 100 foot long and 40 foot broad with stables Smiths forge and rooms to lay provisions of Corne and Bonavist Houses for Negroes and Indian slaves with 96 Negroes and three Indian women with their Children 28 Christians 45 Cattle for worke 8 Milch Cowes a dosen Horses and Mares 16 Assinigoes After a Months treaty the bargaine was concluded and Colonel Modiford was to pay for the Moity of this plantation 7000 l to be payed 1000 l in hand the rest 2000 l. a time at sixe and sixe months and Colonel Modiford to receive the profit of halfe the plantation as it rose keeping the account together both of the expence and profit In this plantation of 500 acres of land there was imployed for sugar somewhat more then 200 acres above 80 acres for pasture 120 for wood â—0 for Tobacco 5 for Ginger as many for Cotton wool and 70 acres for provisions viz. Corne Potatoes Plantines Cassavie and Bonavist some few acres of which for fruite viz. Pines Plantines Milions Bonanoes Gnavers Water Milions Oranges Limons Limes c. most of these onely for the table Upon this plantation I lived with these two partners a while But with Colonel Modiford three years for the other went for England and left Colonel Modiford to manage the imployment alone and I to give what assistance I could for the benefit of both which I did partly at their requests and partly at the instance of Mr. Thomas Kendall who reposed much confidence in me in case Colonel Modiford should miscarry in the Voyage I only speak thus much that you may perceive I had time enough to improve my selfe in the knowledge of the managment of a Plantation of this bulk and therefore you may give the more credit in what I am to say concerning the profit and value of this Plantation which I intend as a Scale for those that go upon the like or to varie it to greater or lesse proportions at their pleasure And indeed I wanted no tutridge in the learning this mystery for to do him right I hold Collonell Modiford as able to undertake and perform such a charge as any I know And therefore I might according to my ability be able to say something which I will as briefly as I can deliver to you in such plain language as I have But before I come to say any thing of the Iland as it waâ— when I arrived there I will beg leave to deliver you a word or two what hath been told me by the most ancient Planters that we found there and what they had by tradition from their Predecessors For few or none of them that first set foot there were now living About the year a Ship of Sir William Curteens returning from Ternambock in Brasill being driven by foul weather upon this coast chanc'd to fall upon this Iland which is not far out of the way being the most windwardly Iland of all the â—arribbies â—obago only excepted and Anchoring before it stayed some time to informe themselves of the nature of the place which they found by tryalls in severall parts to be so overgrown with Wood as there could be found no Champions or Saâ—annas for men to dwell in nor found they any beasts to inhabit there only Hogs and those in abundance the Portugalls having long before put some ashoar for breed in case they should at any time be driven by foul weather to be cast upon the Iland they might there finde fresh meat to serve them upon such an extremity And the fruits and roots that grew there afforded them so great plenty of food as they multiplyed abundantly So that the Natives of the leeward Ilands that were at the distance of sight comming thither in their Cannoas and Periagos and finding such Game to hunt as these hogs and the flesh so sweet and excellent in tast they came often thither a hunting and stayed sometimes a month together and so returned again at pleasure leaving behinde them certain tokens of their being there which were Pots of severall sizes in which they boyled their meat made of clay so finely tempered and turned with such art as I have not seen any like them for finenesse of mettle and curiosity of turning in England This information I received from the Planters in Barbadoes But being here a Prisoner in the Upper Bench Prison my chance was to meet with an antient Captain and one of those that first landed on the Iland and had the managing of a good part of the Iland under William late Earle of Pembrok before my Lord of Carlile begg'd it of King James This Captain Canon for so was his name inform'd me for certain that this was a grosse mistake in the Planters and that no Indians ever came there But those Pots were brought by the Negres
which they fetcht from Angola and some other parts of Africa and that he had seen them make of them at Angola with the greatest art that may be Though I am willing to believe this Captain who delivered upon his knowledge that the Negres brought some Pots thither and very finely and artificially made yet it does not hinder any man from believing that the Indians brought some too and who knowes which were the most exactly made For 't is certain that from some part of the Iland you may see in a clear day St. Vincents perfectly And if we can see them why may not they see us and they will certainly venture to any place they see so far as they know they can reach before night setting out very early in the morning But I leave you to credit which of these you please either or both But I have a great inclination to believe the Indians have been there for this reason that the Iland of St. Vincents lying in the same Climate with this of â—arbadoâ—s the Clay may be of the same nature and qualitie and they having the skill to bring their Clay to so fine a tempâ—â— as to burn and not break may shew us the way to temper ours of the Barbadoes so as we may make Bricks to burn without chopping or cracking which those of Angola being far off and it may be their Clay of different temper cannot help us in And it is no hard matter to procure an Indian or two to come from that Iland and give us direction which would be of infinite use and advantage to our buildings in Barbadoes But this digression must not lead me out of the way of my businesse This discovery being made and advice given to their friends in England other Ships were sent with men provisions and working tooles to cut down the Woods and clear the ground so as they might plant provisions to keep them alive which till then they found but straglingly amongst the Woods But having clear'd some part of it they planted Potatoes Platâ—â—nes and Mayes with some other fruites which with the Hogs-flesh they found serv'd only to keep life and soul together And their supplies from England comming so slow and so uncertainly they were often driven to great extremities And the Tobacco that grew there so earthy and worthlesse as it could give them little or no return from England or else-where so that for a while they lingred on in a lamentable condition For the Woods were so thick and most of the Trees so large and massie as they were not to be falne with so few hands and when they were laid along the branches were so thick and boysterous as required more help and those strong and active men to lop and remove them off the ground At the time we came first there we found both Potatoes Maies and Bonaâ—â—â—s planted between the boughes the Trees lying along upon the ground so far short was the ground then of being clear'd Yet we found Indico planted and so well ordered as it sold in London at very good rates and their Cotten wool and Fustick wood prov'd very good and staple commodities So that having these foure sorts of goods to traffick with some ships were invited in hope of gain by that trade to come and visit them bringing for exchange such commodities as they wanted working Tools Iron Steel Cloaths Shirts and Drawers Hose and Shoes Hats and more Hands So that beginning to taste the sweet of this Trade they seâ— themselves hard to work and lived in much better condition But when the Canes had been planted three or four years they found that to be the main Plant to improve the value of the whole Iland And so bent all their endeavours to advance their knowledge in the planting and making Sugar Which knowledge though they studied hard was long a learning But I will forbear to say any thing of that till I bring in the Plants where you shall finde not only the colour shape and qualitie of this Plant but the worth and value of it together the whole processe of the great work of Sugar-making which is the thing I mainly aime at But in my way to that I will give you a sleight description or view of the Iland in generall and first of the Scituation # It were a crime not to believe but that you are well verst in the knowledge of all parts of the known habitable world and I shall seem impertinent if I go about to inform you of the scituation of this Iland But because there have been some disputes between Seamen whether it lie in bare 13 Degrees or in 13 Degrees and 30 Minutes I shall easily be led by the most voices of the most able Seamen to give for granted that Carlile Bay which is the Harbour where most of them put in is 13 Degrees and 30 Minutes from the Line to the Northern Latitude This Bay is without exception the best in the Iland and is somewhat more then a league over and from the points of Land to the bottom of the Bay is twice as much Upon the most inward part of the Bay stands the Town which is about the bignesse of Houâ—slo and is called the Bridge for that a long Bridge was made at first over a little nook of the Sea which was rather a Bog then Sea A Town ill scituate for if they had considered health as they did conveniency they would never have set it there or if they had any intention at first to have built a Town there they could not have been so improvident as not to forsee the main inconveniences that must ensue by making choice of so unhealthy a place to live in But one house being set up another was erected and so a third and a fourth till at last it came to take the name of a Town Divers Store-houses being there built to stow their goods in for their convenience being neer the Harbour But the main oversight was to build their Town upon so unwholsome a place For the ground being somwhat lower within the Land than the Sea-banks are the spring-Tides flow over and there remains making a great part of that flat a kinde of Bog or Morost which vents out so loathsome a savour as cannot but breed ill blood and is no doubt the occasion of much sicknesse to those that live there At the time of our arrivall and a month or two after the sicknesse raign'd so extreamly as the living could hardly bury the dead and for that this place was neer to them they threw the dead carcases into the bog which infected so the water as divers that drunk of it were absolutely poysoned and dyed in few houres after but others taking warning by their harmes forbare to taste any more of it The ground on either side the Bay but chiefly that to the Eastward is much firmer and lies higher and I believe they will in time remove the Town upon that ground
for their habitations though they suffer the Store-houses to remain where they are for their convenience But the other scituation may be made with some charge as convenient as that and abundantly more healthfull Three Bayes there are more of note in this Iland one to the Eastward of this which they call Austin's Bay not in commemoration of any Saint but of a wilde mad drunken fellow whose lewd and extravagant carriage made him infamous in the Iland and his Plantation standing neer this Bay it was called by his name The other two are to the West of Carlile Bay and the first is called Mackfields Bay the other Spikes Bay but neither of these three are environ'd with Land as Carlile Bay is but being to the Leeward of the Iland and good Anchorage they seldome are in danger unlesse in the time of Turnado when the wind turnes about to the South and then if they be not well â—oor'd they are subject to fall foul on one another and sometimes driven aground For the Leeward part of the Iland being rather shelvie then rockie they seldome or never are cast away # The length and breadth of this Iland I must deliver you only upon trust for I could not go my selfe about it being full of other businesse but I had some speech with the antientest and most knowing Surveyer there one Captain Swann who told me that he once took an exact plot of the whole Iland but it was commanded out of his hands by the then Governour Sir Henry Hunks who carried it into England since which time neither himselfe nor any other to his knowledge had taken any nor did he believe there was any extant I desired him yet that he would rub up his memory and take a little paines in the survey of his Papers to try what could be found out there that might give me some light in the extent of the Iland which he promised to do and within a while after told me that he had found by some Papers that lay scattered in his Study the length of it but for the breadth it was very uncertain by reason of the nooks and corners that reach'd out into the Sea so that it must of necessity be broad in some places and narrow in others I desired then to know how many miles the broadest and how few the narrowest parts might be He told me that he guest the broadest place could not be above seventeen miles nor the narrowest under twelve and that the length he was assured was twenty eight miles Out of these uncertain grounds it was a hard matter to conclude upon any certainties and therefore the evenest way I can go is upon a Medium between twelve and seventeen and I will be as modest as I can in my computation and take but 14. which is lesse then the Medium and multiply 14. which is supposed to be the breadth by 28. which is assured to be the length and they make 392 square miles in the Iland Beyond this my enquiries could not reach and therefore was compell'd to make my estimate upon this bare Supposition But for the forme of the Superficies of the Iland I am utterly ignorant and for the Upright I have given it you in my first view of the Iland that it rises highest in the middle # When the Sun is in the Aequinoctiall or within 10 Degrees of either side we finde little change in the daies length for at six and six the Sun rises and sets but when he is neer the Tropick of Capricorn and is 37 Degrees from us we finde a difference for then the day is somewhat shorter and we perceive that shortning to begin about the end of October the Crepusculum being then not much longer then at other times which is not halfe the length as 't is with us in England At the time of new 〈◊〉 we finde both her Corners equally high when the Sun is neer us but when it is at the distance of 37 Degrees to the Southward we finde some difference for then it hangs not so equall but one end is higher then the other by reason of the position we are in Eight months of the year the weather is very hot yet not so scalding but that servants both Christians and slaves labour and travell tenne hours in a day As the Sunne rises there rise with him coole breezes of wind and the higher and hotter the sunne shines the stronger and cooler the breezes are and blow alwaies from the Nore East and by East except in the time of the Turnado And then it sometimes chops about into the South for an hour or two and then returnes againe to the same poynt where it was The other foure months it is not so hot but is neer the temper of the aire in England in the middle of May and though in the hot seasons we sweat much yet we doe not finde that faintnesse that we finde here in the end of July or beginning of August With this great heat there is such a moysture as must of necessity cause the ayer to be very unwholsome We are seldome drye or thirsty unlesse we overheat our bodyes with extraordinary labour or drinking strong drinks as of our English spirits which we carry over of french Brandy or the drinke of the Iland which is made of the skimmings of the Coppers that boyle the Sugar which they call kill-Divell And though some of these be needfull if they be used with temper yet the immoderate use of them over-heats the body which causes Costivenesse and Tortions in the bowels which is a disease very frequent there and hardly cur'd and of which many have dyed but certainely strong drinks are very requisit where so much heat is for the spirits being exhausted with much sweating the inner parts are left cold and faint and shall need comforting and reviving Besides our bodyes having bin used to colder Clymates finde a debility and a great fayling in the vigour and sprightliness we have in colder Climats our blood too is thinner and paler than in our own Countreys Nor is the meat so well relisht as in England but flat and insipid the hogges flesh onely excepted which is indeed the best of that kinde that I thinke is in the world Our Horses and Cattle seldome drinke and when they do it is in very small quantities except such as have their bodies over heated with working This moysture of the ayre causes all our knives etweese keyes needles swords and ammunition to rust and that in an instant for take your knife to the grindstone and grind away all the rust which done wipe it dry and put it up into your sheath and so into your pocket and in a very little time draw it out and you shall find it beginning to rust all over which in more time will eate deep into the steele and spoyle the blade Our locks too that are not often made use of will rust in the wards and
will be done in an houre or two Then put the liquor and roots into a large wollen bag like a jelly-bag poynted at the bottom and let it run through that into a Jar and within two hours it will begin to work Cover it and let it stand till the next day and then 't is fit to be drunk And as you will have it stronger or smaller put in greater or lesser quantities of roots some make it so strong as to be drunk with small quantities But the drink it selfe being temperately made does not at all flie up into the head but is a sprightly thirst-quenching drink If it be put up in small casks as Rundlets or Firkins it will last foure or five daies good and drink much more sprightly then out of the Jar. I cannot liken it to any thing so neer as Rhenish-wine in the Must but it is short of it in the strength of the spirit and finenesse of the tast There are two severall layers in which these roots grow one makes the skins of the Potatoes white the other red And where the red roots grow the Mobbie will be red like Claret-wine the other white Though this be the drink most generally used in the Iland yet I cannot commend the wholsomnesse of it for the most part of the roots have a moyst quality in them and are the cause of Hydropicke humours Mr. Phillip Bell then the Governour of the Iland told me that when he was Governour of the I le of Providence that there chanc'd some Spaniards to land there and tastâ—ng of this drinke wondred that any of those that continually drinke it were alive so unwholsome and Hydropicke he conceived this drinke to be Another drinke they have which is accounted much wholesomer though not altogether so pleasant and that is Perino a drink which the Indians make for their own drinking and is made of the Cassavy root which I told you is a strong poyson and this they cause their old wives who have a small remainder of teeth to chaw and spit out into water for the better breaking and macerating of the root This juyce in three or four hours will worke and purge it selfe of the poysonous quality Having shewed you in the making of Bread that the moysture being prest out which is accounted the poysonous quality that root has by drying and baking it is made usefull and wholsome and now having the juyce and root both used and both these put into water which is moyst I know not which way to reconcile these direct contraryes but this that the poyson of the old womens breath and teeth having been tainted with many severall poxes a disease common amongst them though they have many and the best cures for it are such opposites to the poyson of the Cassavie as they bend their forces so vehemently one against another as they both spend their poysonous qualities in that conflict and so the relict of them both becomes lesse unwholsome and the water which is in it selfe pure casts out the remainder of the ill qualities they leave behind which is manifested by the extraordinary working which is farre beyond that of Beere Wine or Sider with us in Europe This drink will keep a month or two being put into barrels and tasts the likest to English beere of any drink we have there # Grippo is a third sort of drinke but few make it well it was never my chance to taste it which made me the lesse curious to enquire after it # Punch is a fourth sort of that I have drunke it is made of water sugar put together which in tenne dayes standing will be very strong and fit for labourers # A fifth is made of wilde Plumbs which grow here in great abundance upon very large trees which being prest and strayned give a very sharpe and pognant flaver but there is not much of it made because of the trouble of making it and they are not there very indulgent to their palats # But the drinke of the Plantine is farre beyond all these gathering them full ripe and in the height of their sweetnesse we pill off the skin and mash them in water well boyl'd and after we have let them stay there a night we straine it and bottle it up and in a week drink it and it is very strong and pleasant drinke but it is to be drunk sparingly for it is much stronger then Sack and is apt to mount up into the head The seaventh sort of drink is that we make of the skimming of sugar which is infinitely strong but not very pleasant in taste it is common and therefore the lesse esteem'd the value of it is halfe a Crown a gallon the people drink much of it indeed too much for it often layes them asleep on the ground and that is accounted a very unwholsome lodging # The eighth sort of drink is Beveridge made of spring waterâ— white sugar and juyce of Orenges and this is not onely pleasant but wholsome # The last and best sort of drinke that this Iland or the world affords is the incomparable wine of Pines And is certainly the Nectar which the Gods drunke for on earth there is none like it and that is made of the pure juyce of the fruit it selfe without commixture of water or any other creature having in it selfe a naturall compound of all tastes excellent that the world can yield This drink is too pure to keep long in three or four dayes it will be fine 't is made by pressing the fruite and strayning the liquor and it is kept in bottles Having given you a taste of the Bread and Drinke this Iland affords which will serve any mans palate that is not over curious I could tell you what we have of both sorts that is brought to us from other parts of the world as Biskets both fine and coorse Barrels of meale close put up which comes to us very sweet from England and Holland of which we make Bread Pye-crust and Puddings And for drink good English Beer French and Spanish Wines with others some from the Maderas some from Fiall one of the Ilands of Asores So we cannot justly complaine of want either of bread or drink and from England spirits some of Anniseeds some of Mint some of Wormwood c. And from France Brandy which is extreame strong but accounted very wholsome # Having given you a just account as neere as my memory will serve of the bread and drinke of this Iland The next thing is the severall sortes of meat we have there and because Hogges flesh is the most generall meat and indeed the best the Iland affords I will begin with that which is without question as good as any can be of that kind for their feeding being as good as can grow any where the flesh must needs be answerable fruit the nuts of Locust Pompians of a rare kind almost as sweet
as Milions the bodies of the Plantines and Bonanoes Sugar-canes and Mayes being their dayly food When we came first upon the Iland I perceiv'd the sties they made to hold them were trees with the ends lying crosse upon one another and the inclosure they made was not large enough to hold the numbers of Hogges were in them with convenient distance to play and stirre themselves for their health and pleasure so that they were in a manner pesterd and choakt up with their own stinke which is sure the most noysome of any other beast and by reason of the Suns heat much worse I have smelt the stinke of one of those sties downe the wind neer a mile through all the wood and the crouding and thrusting them so close together was certainly the cause of their want of health which much hindred their growth So that they were neither so large nor their flesh so sweet as when they were wild and at their own liberty and choyce of feeding For I have heard Major Hilliard say that at their first comming there they found Hogges that one of them weighed the intrals being taken out and the head off 400 weight And now at the time of my being there the most sort of those that were in ours and our neighbours styes were hardly so big as the ordinary swine in England So finding this decay in their grouth by stowing them too close together I advised Collonell Modiford to make a larger stye and to wall it about with stone which he did and made it a mile about so that it was rather a Park than a Stye and set it on the side of a drie Hill the greatest part Rock with a competent Pond of water in the bottom and plac'd it between his two Plantations that from either food might be brought and cast over to them with great convenience And made several divisions in the Park for the Sowes with Pigg with little houses standing shelving that their foulnesse by gutters might fall away and they lie drie Other divisions for the Barrow-Hoggs and some for Boars This good ordering caused them to grow so large and fat as they wanted very little of their largnesse when they were wilde They are the sweetest flesh of that kinde that ever I tasted and the lovliest to look on in a dish either boyl'd roasted or bak'd With a little help of art I will deceive a very good palate with a shoulder of it for Mutton or a leg for Veal taking off the skin with which they were wont to make minc't Pies seasoning it with salt cloves and mace and some sweet herbs minc't And being bak'd and taken out of the Oven opening the lid put in a dramme-cup of kill-devill and being stirr'd together set it on the Table and that they call'd a Calvesfoot pie and till I knew what it was made of I thought it very good meat When I came first upon the Iland I found the Pork drest the plain waies of boyling roasting and sometimes baking But I gave them some tastes of my Cookery in hashing and fricaseing this flesh and they all were much taken with it and in a week every one was practising the art of Cookery And indeed no flesh tasts so well in Collops Hashes or Fricases as this And when I bak't it I alwaies laid a Side of a young Goat underneath and a side of a Shot which is a young Hog of a quarter old a top And this well seasoned and well bak'd is as good meat as the best Pasty of Fallow-Deer that ever I tasted In the coolest time of the year I have made an essay to powder it and hang it up for Bacon But there is such losse in 't as 't is very ill husbandry to practise it for it must be cut through in so many places to let the salt in as when 't is to be drest much goes to waste And therefore I made no more attempts that way But a little corning with salt makes this flesh very savoury either boyled or roasted About Christmas we kill a Boar and of the sides of it make three or four collers of Brawne for then the weather is so cool as with some art it may be kept sweet a week and to make the souc't drink give it the speedier and quicker seasoning we make it of Mobbie with store of Salt Limons and Lymes sliced in it with some Nutmeg which gives it an excellent flaver Beef we have very seldome any that feeds upon the soyle of this place except it be of Gods killing as they tearme it for very few are kill'd there by mens hands it were too ill husbandry for they cost too dear and they cannot be spared from their work which they must advance by all the means they can Such a Planter as Collonell James Drax who lives like a Prince may kill now and then one but very few in the Iland did so when I was there The next to Swines-flesh in goodnesse are Turkies large fat and full of gravie Next to them Pullen or Donghill-foule and last of all Muscovia-Ducks which being larded with the fat of this Porke being seasoned with pepper and salt are an excellent bak'd-meat All these with their Eggs and Chickens we eat Turtle-Doves the have of two sorts and both very good meat but there is a sort of Pidgeons which come from the leeward Ilands at one time of the year and it is in September and stay till Christmas be past and then return again But very many of them nere make returnes to tell newes of the good fruit they found there For they are so fat and of such excellent tastes as many foulers kill them with guns upon the trees and some of them are so fat as their weight with the fall causes them to burst in pieces They are good roasted boylld or bak'd but best cut in halves and stewed to which Cookery there needs no liquor for their own gravie will abundantly serve to stew them Rabbets we have but tame ones and they have but faint tastes more like a Chicken then a Rabbet And though they have divers other Birds which I will not forget to recount in their due times and place yet none for food for the Table which is the businesse I tend at this present Other flesh-meat I do not remember Now for fish though the Iland stands as all Ilands do invironed with the Sea and therefore is not like to be unfurnish't of that provision yet the Planters are so good husbands and tend their profits so much as they will not spare a Negres absence so long as to go to the Bridge and fetch it And the Fishermen seeing their fish lie upon their hands and stink which it will do in lesse then six hours forbear to go to Sea to take it only so much as they can have present vent for at the Taverns at the Bridge and thither the Planters come when they have a minde to feast themselves with fish to Mr.
alight to them and so we shoot and shoot again till all be kill'd for they will alwaies come back to see their dead friends The like we do with those birds we call Oxen and Kine which come to us in like manner Small Swallowes we have now and then but somewhat different from ours in colour But there is a Bird they call a Man of war and he is much bigger than a Heron and flies out to Sea upon discoveries for they never light upon the Sea to see what ships are comming to the Iland and when they return the Ilanders look out and say A ship is comming and finde it true I have seen one of them as high as I could look to meet us twenty leagues from land and some others almost as big as Ducks that in an evening came in a flock of twenty or there about and they made divers turnes about the ship a little before Sun-setting and when it grew dark they lighted upon the ribs of the ship and with little nooses of packthred the saylers caught them they were very fat and good Though the Bat be no Bird yet she flies with wings and alwaies a little before Sunsetting at which time they come out of holes chimneys and hollow trees and will raise them to a great height feeding themselves with flies that they finde in the aire at that time of the evening # Having done with Beasts and Birds we will enquire what other lesser Animalls or Insects there are upon the Iland of which Snakes are the chiefe because the largest and I have seen some of those a yard and a halfe long The only harme they do is to our Pigeon houses and milk-panns so that if we leave any hole in the bottom of the house where they can come in they will get to the nests and devour the young Pigeons if they be not over big And yet 't is strange to see what great morsells they will swallow slide they will up against a wall if it be but perpendicular but if it be declining outward they cannot get up but will fall back ten foot high if they be hindred by any stooping of the wall for which reason we make jetties neer the top of such roomes as we will keep them out of they have climbed six foot high upon the outside of a wall come in at a window down on the inside skim our milk-pannes and away again Till we took one of them there we knew not by what means our pannes were thus skim'd They never sting any body nor is there any venomous beast in the Iland The next to these are Scorpions of which some of them are as big as Ratts smooth aud coloured like a Snake somewhat blewer their bellies inclining to yellow very nimble and quick to avoid their pursuers yet the Snakes will now and then take them between whom there is a great conflict before the quarrell be decided for the Scorpions that are large are very strong and will maintain the fight sometimes halfe an houre I have seen them wrastle together a good part of that time But in conclusion the Snakes get the better and devour the other These Scorpions were never known to hurt man or beast Toads or Frogs we have none Lizards we had in great plenty but the Cats kill them so fast in the houses as they are much lessened in their number This little Animal loves much to be where men are and are delighted to stand and gaze in their faces and hearken to their discourse These with us I think are different from those of Europe the bodies of ours are about four inches long the tail neer as much headed not much unlike a Snake their colour when they are pleased a pure grasse-green on the back blewish toward the side and yellowish on the belly four leggs and those very nimble When they see at distance some of their own kinde that they are angry with they swell a little bigger and change their colour from green to russet or hair-colour which abates much of their beauty for their green is very pleaâ—ant and beautifull Cold they are as Frogs Next to these are Cockroches a creature of the bignesse and shape of a Beetle but of a pure hair-colour which would set him off the better if he had not an ugly wabling gate but that makes him unhandsome He appears in the evening when 't is dark and will when he pleases flie to your bed when he findes you sleeping and bite your skin till he fetch blood if you do not wake and if you take a Candle to search for him he shifts away and hides himselfe as the Puâ—nices do in Italy The Negres who have thick skins and by reason of their hard labour sleep foundly at night are bitten so as far as the breadth of both your hands together their skins are rac't as if it were done with a currie-comb Next to these tormentors are Musketos who bite and sting worse then the Gnats and Stouts that sting Cattle in England and are commonly felt in marish ground And next to them Meriwings and they are of so small a sise and so thin and aereall as you can hardly discern them but by the noise of their wings which is like a small bugle horn at a great distance Where they sting there will rise a little knob as big as a pease and last so a whole day the mark will not be gone in twenty four hours Caterpillars we have sometimes in abundance and they do very great harme for they light upon the leaves of our Potatoes which we call Slips and eat them all away and come so low as to eat of the Root too And the only remedy we have is to drive a flock of Turkies into the place where they are and they will devour them The harmes these vermine do us is double first in the slips which is the food we give our Horses and is cast into the rack and in our Potatoes being the root of these slips which we our selves feed upon Flies we have of so many kindes from two inches long with the great hornes which we keep in boxes and are shewed by John Tredescan amongst his rarities to the least Atome as it would be a weary work to set them down as also the sudden production of them from Nothing to Maggets from Maggets to Flies and there is not only a race of all these kindes that go on in a generation but upon new occasions new kindes as after a great downfall of rain when the ground has been extreamly moistned and softned with the water I have walk'd out upon a drie walk which I made my selfe in an evening and there came about me an army of such flies as I had never seen before nor after and they rose as I conceived out of the earth They were as big bodied as Bees but far larger wings harme they did us none but only lighted on us their colour between ash-colour and purple The
made of a round form above three foot and a halfe diameter Some trees have two some three of these spurrs This tree has commonly a double top one side being somewhat higher then the other The fruit is like none of the rest 't is of a stammell colour and has neither skin nor stone but it is more like a Cancre then a Fruit and is accounted unwholsom and therefore no man tastes it 't is I believe the seed of the tree for we see none other The leaves of this tree grow of such a height as till they fall down we can give no judgment of them The timber of of this tree is rank'd amongst the fourth sort three being better then it I have seen the bodies of these trees neer sixty foot high # The Bully tree is lesse then the Mastick and bears a fruit like a Bullis in England her body streight and well shap't her branches proportionable her timber excellent and lasting # Redwood is a handsome tree but not so loftie as the Mastick excellent timber to work for it is not so hard as some others which is the cause they seldome break their tooles in working it and that is the reason the work-men commend it above others 'T is a midling tree for sise the body about two foot and a halfe diameter # This is accounted as good as the Red-wood in all respects and is a strong and lasting timber good for building and for all uses within doors # Iron wood is called so for the extream hardnesse and with that hardnesse it has such a heavinesse as they seldome use it in building besides the workmen complain that it breaks all their tools 'T is good for any use without doores for neither Sun nor rain can any waies mollifie it 'T is much used for Coggs to the Rollers # Lignum vitae they use now and then for the same purpose when the other is away but having no bowling in that Country little is used They send it commonly for England where we employ it to severall uses as for making Bowles Cabinets Tables and Tablemen # The Locust is a tree not unfitly to be resembled to a Tuscan Pillar plain massie and rurall like a well lim'd labourer for the burden it bears being heavy and ponderous ought to have a body proportionably built to bear so great a weight That rare Architect Vitruvius taking a pattern from Trees to make his most exact Pillars rejects the wreathed vined and figured Columnes and that Columna Atticurges mentioned by himselfe to have been a squared Pillar and those that are swell'd in the middle as if sick of a Tympany or Dropsie and chuses rather the straightest most exact and best sis'd to bear the burthen that lies on them So looking on these trees and finding them so exactly to answer in proportion to the Tuscan Pillars I could not but make the resemblance the other way For Pillars cannot be more like Trees then these Trees are like Tuscan Pillars as he describes them I have seen a Locust and not one but many that hath been four foot diameter in the body neer the root and for fifty foot high has lessened so proportionably as if it had taken pattern by the antient Remainders which Philander was so precise in measuring which is a third part of the whole shaft upward and is accounted as the most gracefull diminution The head to this body is so proportionable as you cannot say 't is too heavy or too leight the branches large the sprigs leaves and nuts so thick as to stop all eye-sight from passing through and so eeven at top as you would think you might walk upon it and not sink in The Nuts are for the most part three inches and a halfe long and about two inches broad and somewhat more then an inch thick the shell somewhat thicker then a halfe crown piece of a russet Umbre or hair colour the leaves bigger than those that grow upon the Ash in England I shall not mention the timber having given it in my Buildings The Kernells are three or four in every nut and between those a kinde of light pulpie substance such as is in a Hazle-nut before the kernell be grown to the full bignesse In times of great famine there the poor people have eaten them for sustenance But of all tastes I do not like them # Another Locust there is which they call the bastard-Locust This lookes fair but will not last There is a tree called the Palmeto growing neer the Sea-coast which being a sandy light ground does not afford that substance of mould to make a large tree nor shall you finde in that low part of the Iland any considerable trees fit for building which is a main want and hinderance to them that would build there for there is no means to transport any from the high lands by reason of the unpassableness of the wayes the body of this tree I have seen about 45 or 50 foot high the Diameter seldome above 15 or 16 inches the rind of a pure ash colour full of wrinkles the leaves about two foot and a halfe long in bunches just as if you took twenty large flaggs with their flat sides together and tied them at the broader ends With these bunches they thatch houses laying every bunch by himselfe on the lathes somewhat to overhang one another as tiles do This is a very close kind of thatch keeps dry and is very lasting and looking up to them on the inside of the room they are the prettiest becomming figures that I have seen of that kind these leaves grow out no where but at the tops of the trees # Another kind of Palmeto there is which as it has an addition to the name has likewise an addition to the nature for I beleive there is not a more Royall or Magnificent tree growing on the earth for beauty and largeness not to be paralell'd and excels so abundantly in those two properties and perfections all the rest as if you had ever seen her you could not chuse but fall in love with her I 'm sure I was extreamly much and upon good and Antique Authority For if Xerxes strange Lydian love the Plantane tree was lov'd for her age why may not I love this for her largeness I beleive there are more women lov'd for their largeness then their age if they have beauty for an addition as this has and therefore I am resolv'd in that poynt to go along with the multitude who run very much that way but how to set her out in her true shape and colour without a Pencill would aske a better Pen then mine yet I will deliver her dimensions as neer truth as I can and for her beauty much will arise out of that But first I will beg leave of you to shew her in her Infancy which is about tenne or twelve years old at which time she is about
the potts are 26. or 28. inches long made taper downeward and hold about 30. pound of suger f. the walls of the roome which is 100. foot long and 40. foot broade within they have some tymes a storie of potts aboue this a Scale of 40. foote The ground roome of the Cureing house of the place where the gutters ly which convey the Molosses to the Cisterns The Index to the ground roome a. the knocking roome b. the dores c. the vacuitie betweene the gutters d. the Cisterns of which there are 4. which hold the Moloses till they boyle it which comonly they doe one day in a weeke e. all the gutters that convay the Molosses downe to the Cisterns f. the walls of the roome which are to be accompted two foot thick 〈◊〉 there are seldome any windows in the Cureing house for the moyst ayer is an enemy to the cure of the suger rather bring panns of well kindled coales into the roome espetially in moyst and raynie wether page 84 The Queene Pine page 84 At the time we landed on this Iland which was in the beginning of September 1647. we were informed partly by those Planters we found there and partly by our own observations that the great work of Sugar-making was but newly practised by the inhabitants there Some of the most industrious men having gotten Plants from Fernambock a place in Brasill and made tryall of them at the Barbadoes and finding them to grow they planted more and more as they grew and multiplyed on the place till they had such a considerable number as they were worth the while to set up a very small Ingenio and so make tryall what Sugar could be made upon that soyl But the secrets of the work being not well understood the Sugars they made were very inconsiderable and little worth for two or three years But they finding their errours by their daily practice began a little to mend and by new directions from Brasil sometimes by strangers and now and then by their own people who being covetous of the knowledge of a thing which so much concerned them in their particulars and for the generall good of the whole Iland were content sometimes to make a voyage thither to improve their knowledge in a thing they so much desired Being now made much abler to make their queries of the secrets of that mystery by how much their often failings had put them to often stops and nonplusses in the work And so returning with more Plants and better Knowledge they went on upon fresh hopes but still short of what they should be more skilfull in for at our arrivall there we found them ignorant in three main points that much conduced to the work viz. The manner of Planting the time of Gathering and the right placing of their Coppers in their Furnaces as also the true way of covering their Rollers with plates or Bars of Iron All which being rightly done advance much in the performance of the main work At the time of our arrivall there we found many Sugar-works set up and at work but yet the Sugars they made were but bare Muscavadoes and few of them Merchantable commodities so moist and full of molosses and so ill cur'd as they were hardly worth the bringing home for England But about the time I left the Iland which was in 1650. they were much better'd for then they had the skill to know when the Canes were ripe which was not till they were fifteen months old and before they gathered them at twelve which was a main disadvantage to the making good Sugar for the liquor wanting of the sweetnesse it ought to have caused the Sugars to be lean and unfit to keep Besides they were grown greater proficients both in boyling and curing them and had learnt the knowledge of making them white such as you call Lump Sugars here in England but not so excellent as those they make in Brasill nor is there any likelyhood they can ever make such the land there being better and lying in a Continent must needs have constanter and steadier weather and the Aire much drier and purer than it can be in so small an Iland as that of Barbadoes And now seeing this commodity Sugar hath gotten so much the start of all the rest of those that were held the staple Commodities of the Iland and so much over-top't them as they are for the most part sleighted and neglected And for that few in England know the trouble and care of making it I think it convenient in the first place to acquaint you as far as my memory will serve with the whole processe of the work of Sugar-making which is now grown the soul of Trade in this Iland And leaving to trouble you and my self with relating the errours our Predecessors so long wandred in I will in briefe set down the right and best way they practised when I left the Iland which I think will admit of no greater or farther improvement But before I will begin with that I will let you see how much the land there hath been advanc'd in the profit since the work of Sugar began to the time of our landing there which was not above five or six years For before the work began this Plantation of Major Hilliards of five hundred acres could have been purchased for four hundred pound sterling and now the halfe of this Plantation with the halfe of the Stock upon it was sold for seven thousand pound sterling and it is evident that all the land there which has been imployed to that work hath found the like improvment And I believe when the small Plantations in poor mens hands of ten twenty or thirty acres which are too small to lay to that work be bought up by great men and put together into Plantations of five six or seven hundred acres that two thirds of the Iland will be fit for Plantations of Sugar which will make it one of the richest Spots of earth under the Sun And now since I have put my selfe upon this Discovery I think it fit to let you know the nature of the Plant the right way of planting it the manner of growth the time of growing to ripenesse the manner of cutting bringing home the place where to lay them being brought home the time they may lie there without spoile the manner of grinding or squeezing them the conveyance of the liquor to the Cisterns how long it may stay there without harme the manner of boyling and skimming with the conveyance of the skimmings into the Cisterns in the Still-house the manner of distilling it which makes the strongest Spirits that men can drink with the temper to be put in what the temper is the time of cooling the Sugar before it be put into the Pots the time it staies in the Cureing house before it be good Muscavado Sugar And last the making of it into Whites which we call Lump-Sugar First then it is fit to set down what manner
of place is to be chosen to set this Sugar-work or Ingenio upon and it must be the brow of a small hill that hath within the compasse of eighty foot twelve foot descent viz. from the grinding place which is the highest ground and stands upon a flat to the Still house and that by these descents From the grinding place to the boyling house four foot and a halfe from thence to the fire-room seven foot and a halfe and some little descent to the Still house And the reason of these descentâ— are these the top of the Cistern into which the first liquor runs is and must be somewhat lower than the Pipe that convaies it and that is a little under ground Then the liquor which runs from that Cistern must vent it selfe at the bottom otherwise it cannot run all out and that Cistern is two foot and a halfe deep and so running upon a little descent to the clarifying Copper which is a foot and a halfe above the flowre of the Boyling house and so is the whole Frame where all the Coppers stand it must of necessity fall out that the flowre of the Boyling house must be below the flowre of the Mill house four foot and a halfe Then admit the largest Copper be a foot and a halfe deep the bottom of the Copper will be lower then the flowre of the Boyling-house by a foot the bottom of the Furnaces must be three foot below the Coppers and the holes under the Furnaces into which the ashes fall is three foot below the bottom of the Furnaces A little more fall is required to the Still-house and so the account is made up Upon what place the Sugar-work is to be set I have drawn two Plots that expresse more than language can do to which I refer you And so I have done with the Ingenio and now to the work I promised which I shall be briefe in When I first arrived upon the Iland it was in my purpose to observe their severall manners of planting and husbandily there and because this Plant was of greatest value and esteem I desired first the knowledge of it I saw by the growth as well as by what I had been told that it was a strong and lusty Plant and so vigorous as where it grew to forbid all Weeds to grow very neer it so thirstily it suck't the earth for nourishment to maintain its own health and gallantry But the Planters though they knew this to be true yet by their manner of Planting did not rightly pursue their own knowledge for their manner was to dig small holes at three foot distance or there about and put in the Plants endwise with a little stooping so that each Plant brought not forth above three or foure sprouts at the most and they being all fastned to one root when they grew large tall and heavy and stormes of winde and rain came and those raines there fall with much violence and weight the rootes were loosened and the Canes lodged and so became rotten and unfit for service in making good Sugar And besides the roots being far assunder weedes grew up between and worse then all weeds Wit hs which are of a stronger grouth then the Canes and do much mischiefe where they are for they winde about them and pull them down to the ground as disdaining to see a prouder Plant than themselves But experience taught us that this way of planting was most pernicious and therefore were resolved to try another which is without question the best and that is by digging a small trench of six-inches broad and as much deep in a straight line the whole length of the land you mean to plant laying the earth on one side the trench as you make it then lay two Canes along the bottom of the trench one by another and so continue them the whole length of the trench to the lands end and cover them with the earth you laid by and at two foot distance another of the same and so a third and fourth till you have finish'd all the land you intend to plant at that time For you must not plant too much at once but have it to grow ripe successively that your work may come in order to keep you still doing for if it should be ripe altogether you are not able to work it so and then for want of cutting they would rot and grow to losse By planting it thus along two together every knot will have a sprout and so a particular root and by the means of that be the more firmer fixt in the ground and the better able to endure the winde and weather and by their thick growing together be the stronger to support one another By that time they have been in the ground a month you shall perceive them to appear like a land of green Wheat in England that is high enough to hide a Hare and in a month more two foot high at least But upon the first months growth those that are carefull and the best husbands command their Overseers to search if any weeds have taken root and destroy them or if any of the Plants fail and supply them for where the Plants are wanting weeds will grow for the ground is too vertuous to be idle Or if any Wit hs grow in those vacant places they will spread very far and do much harm pulling down all the Canes they can reach to If this husbandry be not used when the Canes are young it will be too late to finde a remedy for when they are grown to a height the blades will become rough and sharp in the sides and so cut the skins of the Negres as the blood will follow for their bodies leggs and feet being uncloathed and bare cannot enter the Canes without smart and losse of blood which they will not endure Besides if the Overseers stay too long before they repair these void places by new Plants they will never be ripe together which is a very great harm to the whole field for which there is but one remedy and that almost as ill as the disease which is by burning the whole field by which they lose all the time they have grown But the roots continuing secure from the fire there arises a new spring altogether so that to repair this losse of time they have only this recompence which is by burning an army of the main enemies to their profit Rats which do infinite harm in the Iland by gnawing the Canes which presently after will rot and become unservicable in the work of Sugar And that they may do this justice the more severely they begin to make their fire at the out-sides of that land of Canes they mean to burn and so drive them to the middle where at last the fire comes and burnes them all and this great execution they put often in practice without Assises or Sessions for there are not so great enemies to the Canes as these Vermine as also to the
cloaths or in the knocking room and sometimes to bring in pans of coals well kindled into the Cureing-house If I have omitted any thing here you shall finde it supplyed in the Indexes of my Plots As for distilling the skimmings which run down to the Still-house from the three lesser Coppers it is only this After it has remained in the Cisterns which my plot shewes you in the Still-house till it be a little soure for till then the Spirits will not rise in the Still the first Spirit that comes off is a small Liquor which we call low-Wines which Liquor we put into the Still and draw it off a gain and of that comes so strong a Spirit as a candle being brought to a 〈◊〉 distance to the bung of a Hogshead or But where it is kept the â—pirits will â—â—ie to it and taking hold of it bring the fire down to the vessell and set all a fire which immediately breakes the vessell and becomes a flame burning all about it that is combustible matter We lost an excellent Negre by such an accident who bringing a Jar of this Spirit from the Still-house to the Drink-room in the night not knowing the force of the liquor he carried brought the candle somewhat neerer than he ought that he might the better see how to put it into the Funnell which conveyed it into the Butt But the Spirit being stirr'd by that motion flew out and got hold of the flame of the Candle and so set all on fire and burnt the poor Negre to death who was an excellent servant And if he had in the instant of firing clapt his hand upon the bung all had been saved but he that knew not that cure lost the whole vessell of Spirits and his life to boot So that upon this misadventure a strict command was given that none of those Spirits should be brought to the Drink-room ever after in the night nor no fire or candle ever to come in there This drink though it had the ill hap to kill one Negre yet it has had the vertue to cure many for when they are ill with taking cold which often they are and very well they may having nothing under them in the night but a board upon which they lie nor any thing to cover them And though the daies be hot the nights are cold and that change cannot but work upon their bodies though they be hardy people Besides comming home hot and sweating in the evening sitting or lying down must needs be the occasion of taking cold and sometimes breeds sicknesses amongst them which when they feel they complain to the Apothecary of the Plantation which we call Doctor and he gives them every one a dram cup of this Spirit and that is a present cure And as this drink is of great use to cure and refresh the poor Negres whom we ought to have a speciall care of by the labour of whose hands our profit is brought in so is it helpfull to our Christian Servants too for when their spirits are exhausted by their hard labour and sweating in the Sun ten hours every day they find their stomacks debilitated and much weakned in their vigour every way a dram or two of this Spirit is a great comfort and refreshing to them This drink is also a commodity of good value in the Plantation for we send it down to the Bridge and there put it off to those that retail it Some they sell to the Ships and is transported into forraign parts and drunk by the way Some they sell to such Planters as have no Sugar-works of their owne yet drink excessively of it for they buy it at easie rates halfe a crown a gallon was the price the time that I was there but they were then purposing to raise the price to a deerer rate They make weekly as long as they work of such a Plantation as this 30 l. sterling besides what is drunk by their servants and slaves And now for a close of this work of Sugar I will let you see by way of estimate to what a Revenue this Iland is raised and in my opinion not improbable If you will be pleased to look back to the extent of the Iland you shall find by taking a medium of the length and breadth of it that there is contained in the Iland 392 square miles out of which we will substract a third part which is the most remote part of the Iland from the Bridge where all or the most part of Trade is which by many deep and steep Gullies interposing the passage is in a manner stop'd besides the Land there is not so rich and fit to bear Canes as the other but may be very usefull for planting provisions of Corn Yeams Bonavista Cassavie Potatoes and likewise of Fruites as Oranges Limons Lymes Plantines Bonanoes as also for breeding Hoggs Sheep Goats Cattle and Poultry to furnish the rest of the Iland that want those Commodities For which reasons we will substract a third part from 392. and that is 130. and so the remaining â— is 262 square miles the greatest part of which may be laid to Sugar-works and some to be allowed and set out for small Plantations which are not able to raise a Sugar-work or set up an Ingenio by reason of the paucity of acres being not above twenty thirty or forty acres in a Plantation but these will be fit to bear Tobacco Ginger Cotten-wool Maies Yeames and Potatoes as also for breeding Hoggs But most of these will in short time be bought up by great men and laid together into Plantations of five sixe and seven hundred acres And then we may make our computation thus viz. A mile square will contain 640 acres of land and here we see is 262 acres being â— of the Iland So then we multiply 262. by 640. and the product will amount unto 167680. Now we will put the case that some of those men that have small Plantations will not sell them but keep them for provisions which they may live plentifully upon for those provisions they raise will sell at good rates for which use we will set out thirty thousand acres So then we substract 30000 acres from 167680 and there will remain 137680 acres to be for Sugar-works out of which â— may be planted with Canes the other â— for Wood Pasture and Provisions which must support the Plantations according to the scale of Collonell Modiford's Plantation as I said before Now these two fifts are as you see 55072 acres and an acre of good Canes will yield 4000 pound weight of Sugar and none will yield lesse then 2000 weight but we will take a Medium and rest upon 3000 weight upon which we will make our computation and set our price upon the Sugar according to the lowest rates which shall be 3 d. per pound as it is Muscavado to be sold upon the Iland at the Bridge In fifteen months the Canes will be ripe and in a month
Colworts Cabbage Turnips Redishes Marigolds Lettice Taragon Southernwood All these I carried with me in seeds and all grew and prospered well Leek-Seed I had which appeared to me very fresh and good but it never came up Rose trees we have but they never bear flowers There is a Root of which some of the Negres brought the Seeds and planted there and they grew 'T is a very large Root drie and well tasted the manner of planting it is to make little hills as big as Mole-hills and plant the seed a top and as soon as it puts forth the stalks they turn down to the ground on either side and then as they touch it they thrust up a stalk not unlike an Asparagus but of a purple colour These being gathered and eaten as a Sallet with oyle vinegar and salt will serve an ordinary pallet where no better is to be had But the root truly is very good meat boyl'd with powdred pork and eaten with butter vinegar and pepper Most of these roots are as large as three of the biggest Turnips we have in England We carried divers of them to Sea for our provision which stood us in good stead and would have serv'd us plentifully in our great want of victualls but the Rats of which we had infinite numbers aboard rob'd us of the most part # That part of the Iland which lies to the windeward and is part East part North the stormes and stiffe windes comming from those points have so wash'd away all earthly substance as there remaines nothing but steep Rocks and the Sea being very deep on that side the Anchors will hardly touch the bottom though the Cables be long so that what Ship soever rides on that side comes at her owne perill Contrarily if any Ship be under Sail on the Leeward side and goes but so far out as to lose the shelter of the Iland it is certain to be carried away down to the leeward Ilands and then it will be a very hard work to beat it up again without putting out into the Main So that there can hardly be any safe landing but where the Harbours and Baies are which lie to the Southwest and those places are so defensible by Nature as with small costs they may be very strongly fortified But they have been much neglected by the Proprietor for which reason and some others the Planters refused to call him by that name There was a Gentleman in the Iland who pretended to be a Souldier and an Ingeneer that undertook to fortifie all the landing places and to furnish them with such store of Artillery as should be sufficient to defend them provided he might have the Excise paid to him for seven years which was promised by the Governour and Assembly Whereupon he went to work and made such a Fort as when abler Ingeneers came upon the Iland they found to be most pernicious for commanding all the Harbour and not of strength to defend it selfe if it were taken by an enemy might do much harm to the land-ward So that at my comming from thence they were pulling it down and instead of it to make Trenches and Rampiers with Pallisadoes Horn-works Curtains and Counter-scarfes and having left a very good Fortification of standing wood round about the Iland near the Sea these were thought as much as needed for their defence against the landing of any forraign Forces and for their strength within # They built three Forts one for a Magazine to lay their Amonition and Powder in the other two to make their retreats upon all occasions At my comming from thence they were abâ—e to muster ten thousand Foot as good men and as resolute as any in the world and a thousand good Horse and this was the strength of the Iland about the time I came away # They Govern there by the Lawes of England for all Criminall Civill Martiall Ecclesiasticall and Maritime affairs This Law is administred by a Governour and ten of his Councill four Courts of ordinary Justice in Civill causes which divide the land in four Circuits Justices of Peace Constables Churchwardens and Tithing-men five Sessions in the year for tryall of Criminall causes and all Appeals from inferiour Courts in Civill causes And when the Governour pleases to call an Assembly for the supream Court of all for the last Appeales for making new Lawes and abolishing old according to occasion in nature of the Parliament of England and accordingly consists of the Governour as Supream his Councill in nature of the Peers and two Burgesses chosen by every Parish for the rest The Iland is divided into eleven Parishes No Tithes paid to the Minister but a yearly allowance of a pound of Tobacco upon an acre of every mans land besides certain Church-duties of Mariages Christenings and Burialls A standing Commission there was also for punishing Adultery and Fornication though rarely put in execution Something would be said concerning the seasons of the year but it is little therfore wil be the least troublesome Four months in the year the weather is colder then the other eight those are November December January February yet they are hotter than with us in May. There is no generall Fall of the leafe every Tree having a particular fall to himself as if two Locusts stands at the distance of a stones cast they have not their falls at one time one Locust will let fall the leaves in January another in March a third in July a fourth in September and so all months one kinde of Trees having their severall times of falling But if any month falls more leaves then other 't is February for so in my nicest observation I found it The leaves we finde fallen under the trees being the most of them large and stiffe when they were growing and having many veines which go from the middle stalk to the uppermost extent of the leafe when the thin part of the leafe is rotten and consum'd those veines appear like Anatomies with the strangest works and beautifullest formes that I have seen fit to be kept as a rarity in the Cabinets of the greatest Princes As also the Negres heads which we finde in the sands and they are about two inches long with a forehead eyes nose mouth chin and part of the neck I cannot perceive any root by which they grow but find them alwaies loose in the sand nor is it a fruit that falls from any tree for then we should finde it growing black it is as jet but from whence it comes no man knowes # Mines there are none in this Iland not so much as of Coal for which reason we preserve our Woods as much as we can We finde flowing out of a Rock in one part of the Iland an unctuous substance somewhat like Tarre which is thought to have many vertues yet unknown but is already discovered to be excellent good to stop a flux by drinking it but by annointing for all aches
and Elephants teeth but those commodities taking up but little room the Captaine made the Barbadoes in his way home intending to take in his full lading of Sugar and such other commodities as that Iland afforded and so being ready to set sayle my selfe and divers other Gentlemen embarkt upon the fifthteenth of April 1650 at twelve a clock at night which time our Master made choyce of that he might the better passe undescri'd by a well known Pirate that had for many dayes layne hovering about the Iland to take any ships that traded for London by vertue of a Commission as he pretended from the Marquesse of Ormond This Pirate was an Irish man his name Plunquet a man bold enough but had the character of being more mercilesse and cruell then became a valiant man To confirme the first part of his character he took a ship in one of the Habours of the Iland out of which he furnisht himselfe with such things as he wanted but left the carcase of the vessell to floate at large He had there a Frigot of about 500 Tunns and a small vessell to wayte on her but the night cover'd us from being disdiscern'd by him and so we came safely off the Iland About a fortnight after we had bin at sea our Master complain'd that his men had abus'd him and for some commodities usefull to themselves had truckt away the greatest part of his Bisket So that instead of bread we were serv'd with the sweepings and dust of the bread roome which caused a generall complaint of all the passengers but no remedy our Pease must now supply that want which with some Physicall perswasion of the Master that it was as hearty and binding as bread we rested satisfied with this Motto Patience upon force The next thing wanting was Fish an excellent food at Sea and the want of that troubled us much yet the same remedy must serve as for the other Patience The next thing wanting was Porke and the last Beere which put as clean out of all Patience So that now our staple food of the Ship was onely Beefe a few Pease and for drink water that had bin fifteen months out of England finding how ill we were accommodated we desir'd the Master to put in at Fiall One of the Ilands of Azores a little to refresh our selves which Iland was not much out of our way but the Master loath to be at the charge of re-victualling and losse of time refus'd to hearken to us and being a request much to his disadvantage slighted us and went on till he was past recovery of those Ilands and then a violent storme took us and in that storme a sad accident which happened by meanes of a Portugall who being a Sea-man and trusted at the Helme and who though he have a compasse before him yet is mainely guided by the quarter Master that Conns the ship above upon the quarter deck whose directions the Portugall mistooke being not well verst in the English tongue and so steer'd the Ship so neer the winde that she came upon her stayes which caused such a fluttering of the sayles against the Masts the winde being extreame violent as they tore all in peeces Nor was there any other sayles in the ship all being spent in the long voyage to Guinny nor any thread in the ship to mend them so that now the Master though too late began to repent him of not taking our Counsell to goe to Fiall But how to redeeme us out of this certaine ruine neither the Master nor his Mates could tell for though the winds blew never so faire we lay still at Hull and to make use of the Tide in the Maine was altogether vaine and hopelesse Our victualls too being at a very low Ebbe could not last us many dayes So that all that were in the ship both Sea-men and Passengers were gazeing one upon another what to doe when our small remainder of provision came to an end But the Sea-men who were the greater number resolv'd the Passengers should be drest and eaten before any of them should goe to the Pot And so the next thing to be thought on was which of the Passengers should dye first for they were all design'd to be eaten So they resolved upon the fattest and healthfullest first as likely to be the best meat and so the next and next as they eate Cherries the best first In this Election I thought my selfe secure for my body being nothing but a bagg-full of Hydroptique humours they knew not which way to dresse me but I should dissolve and come to nothing in the Cooking At last the Cooper took me into his consideration and said that if they would hearken to him there might be yet some use made of me and that was in his opinion the best that seeing my body was not of a consistence to satisfie their hunger it might serve to quench their thirst So I saying a short Prayer against drought and thirst remain'd in expectation of my doome with the rest So merry these kinde of men can make themselves in the midst of dangers who are so accustomed to them And certainely those men whose lives are so frequently exposed to such hazards do not set that value upon them as others who live in a quiet security yet when they put themselves upon any noble action they will sell their lives at such a rate as none shall out-bid them and the custome of these hazards makes them more valiant then other men and those amongst them that do found their courage upon honest grounds are certainly valiant in a high perfection At last a little Virgin who was a passenger in the Ship stood up upon the quarter deck like a she-Worthy and said that if they would be rul'd by her she would not only be the contriver but the acter of our deliverance At whose speech we all gave a strict attention as ready to contribute our help to all she commanded which was that the Ship-Carpenter should make her a Distaffe and Spindle and the Saylers combe out some of the Occome with which instruments and materialls she doubted not but to make such a quantity of thread as to repair our then uselesse Sailes which accordingly she did and by her vertue under God we held our lives Though such an accident as this and such a deliverance deserve a gratefull commemoration yet this is not all the use we are to make of it somewhat more may be considered that may prevent dangers for the future and that is the great abuse of Captaines and Masters of Ships who promise to their Passengers such plenty of victualls as may serve them the whole voyage But before they be halfe way either pinch them of a great part or give them that which is nastie and unwholsome And therefore I could wish every man that is to go a long voyage to carry a reserve of his own of such viands as will last and to put that up safe for
if it be not under lock and key they are never the neer for the Saylers will as certainly take it as you trust it to their honesties Complaine to the Master and you finde no remedy One thing I have observed let a Sayler steal any part of the Ships provision he shall be sure to have severe punishment but if from a Passenger though it concern him never so neerly his remedy is to be laughed at These enormities are fit to be complained on at the Trinity-house that some redresse may be had for the abuses are grievous Out of this danger at Sea it has pleased the God of all mercy to deliver me as also from a grievous and tedious sicknesse on land in a strange Country For which may his holy Name be eternally blessed and praised for ever and ever I am now cast in Prison by the subtle practices of some whom I have formerly called Friends But the eternall and mercifull God has been pleased to visit and comfort me and to raise me up such friends as have kept me from cold and hunger whose charities in an Age where cruelties and tyrannies are exercised in so high a measure may be accounted a prodigie But I doubt not of my release out of this restraint by the power of him who is able to do all in all For as David said to Saul that God who had delivered him out of the paw of the Lion and out of the paw of the Bear would deliver him from that uncircumcised Philistine Goliah of Gath So may I now say that God which has delivered me from a sicknesse to death on land and from shipwrack and hazards at Sea will also deliver me from this uncircumcised Philistine the Upper Bench than which the burning fire of a Feavour nor the raging waves of the Sea are more formidable But we have seen and suffered greater things And when the great Leveller of the world Death shall run his progresse all Estates will be laid eeven Mors Sceptra Ligonibus aequat A TABLE Of the severall things mentioned in this HISTORY A View of Porto Sancto Madera's and Desertes pag. 2. A view of Bonavista Isle of May and Palma pag. 3. Hunting and Hawking at Sea pag. 4. Shark and Pilot fish pag. 5. Carvil a fish that sails pag. 6. Observations upon the Ship 's way as also the treachery of Bernardo a Portugall pag. 7. The first sight of the Iland of Saint Jago pag. 8. Description of the Bay there which they call the Pâ—y pag. 9. The Padre Vadago's house and entertainment pag. 10. Our landing on the Iland and what hapned to us there pag. 13. There are seven Ilands more which are neighbours to this pag. 18. The first sight of the Barbadoes pag. 21. The Iland first discovered by a ship of Sir William Curteen's pag. 23. The Scituation of the Iland pag. 25. The extent and length of daies pag. 26. Temperature of the aire pag. 27. How watered pag. 28. Meat and drink for supportation of life pag. 29. Bread and drink pag. 31. Severall sorts of meat pag. 33. The manner of killing a Turtle pag. 36. Victualls brought from forraign parts pag. 37. A Feast of an inland Plantation pag. 38. The like of a Plantation neer the Sea pag. 39. Commodities exported and imported pag. 40. What materialls grow on the Iland fit to build with pag. 41. The number and nature of the Inhabitants pag. 43. A combination among the Servants to kill their Masters pag. 45. Reasons why the Negres can plot no Massacres upon their Masters pag. 46. Negres pastime upon Sundaies and their aptnesse to learne Arts. pag. 48. The Planters will not allow their Slaves to be Christians pag. 50. Observations upon the shapes of the Negres pag. 51. A plot of some Negres to burn the Ingenio and the plot discovered by some of their own Country-men who were honest and noble pag. 53. Observations upon the Indians pag. 54. Somwhat of the Planters themselves pag. 55. Tame Beasts which are of great use to the planters as Camells Horses Bulls Oxen Cowes Assinigoes Hoggs Sheep Goats pag. 58. Birds of all sorts pag. 60. Animalls and Insects pag. 61. Crabs that come and dwell upon the Land pag. 65. Severall Trees growing upon the Iland and first of the poysonous trees and plants pag. 66. Severall kinds of Fruit-trees pag. 69. Trees of mixt kinds pag. 72. Timber trees of severall kinds pag. 73. The Palmet Royall described pag. 75. Plants that bear fruit pag. 79. The Pine described pag. 82. Sugar Canes with the manner of planting growth time of ripenesse with the whole processe of Sugar-making both Muscavadoes and Whites pag. 84. The manner of distilling the skimings of the Coppers of which we make the strong drink which the planters call kill-devill pag. 92. An estimate of the value of the Sugar made upon this Iland in twenty months pag. 95. The Wit hs described pag. 96. Caves and the description of their largenesse pag. 98. The use of Liam-hounds ibid. Aloâ—â— growing there ibid. The flower of the Moon pag. 99. English Herbs and Rootes ib. Strength of the Iland by Nature to Sea-ward pag. 100. As also within Land ibid. How Governed and how Divided ibid. No Mines in this Iland p. 101. The Tar River ib. The ill contrivance of the Planters houses as we found them when first we came there pag. 102. Directions for better buildings p. 103. A survey of the pleasures and profits commodities and incommodities sicknesse and healthfulnesse of this Iland ballanced with those of England p. 104. The beauties of the Heavens and how much they transcend those of farther distances from the Lane p. 106. The voluptuous nor lazy persons are not fit to inhabit on this Iland pag. 108. The value of a Plantation Stock't of five hundred acres of Land whereof two hundred for Canes to be sold for 14000 l. ibid. How this purchase of 14000 l. by providence and good husbandry may be made with 3000 l. p. 109. The yearly revenue of this Plantation being once set in an orderly course will amount unto 8866 l. pag. 112. An Estimate of the expence that will issue out yearly to keep this Plantation in good order as you first received it which we will presuppose to be compleatly furnished with all things p. 113. The account ballanced the yearly Revenue will amount unto 7516 l. 19 s. p. 116. An Objection answered how it comes to passe that Plantations of so great a yearly value can be purchased with so little mony p. 116. Somewhat of the Diseases of the Country as also of the Physitians p. 118. An incomparable medicine for the stone ibid. Plunquet a great Pirate took a ship in one of the Bayes p. 119. I Embarked and set sail for England the fifteenth of Aprill 1650. ibid. The abuses of the Captains and Masters of ships that promise large provision of Victuall and Drink to their passengers and when they need it most fail them grossely ibid.
A storme at Sea out of which we were delivered under God by a little Virgin being a passenger in the Ship Errata PAge 1. line 9. for Risco from read Risâ—o as from p. 3. l. 13. for one r. us p. 4. l. 37. fot farkers r. forkers p. 5. l. 16. for he as is r. as he is p. 8 l. 18. dele was p. 9. l. 7 for it r. they p. 10. l. 4. for fell two bowes short in substance and language r fell the two bowes short substance and language p. 11. l. 29. for Millions r. Milons p. 12. l. 18. for Frillos Gropps or Piaro Torte's r Trillos Groppos or Piano Forte's p. 20. l. 14. for Painters r. Poynters p. 21. l. 3. for imperfect r. in perfect p. 23. l. 18. for Ternambock r. Fernambock p. 25. l. 35. for Morost r. Morasse p. 27. l. 4. for there rise r. there arises p. 29. l. 50. for Put r. Pat. p 32. l. 40. for Pognant r. Poynant p. 32. l. 47. for drunk sparingly r. drunk but sparingly p. 3â— l. 10. for Westalia r. Westfalia p. 38. l. 31. for Pognant r. Poynant p. 38. l. 48. for Millions r. Milons p. 42. l. 26. for handsome in their houses r. handsome their houses p. 46. l. 38. for Gambra r. Gambia p. 48. l. 46. for sinking r. singing p. 50. l. 35. for weary r. wary p. 54. 4. for to due r. to do p. 58. l. 13. for so are r. soar p. 57. l. 2. for Gambra r. Gambia p. 57. l. 28. for intreating r. in treating p. 58. l. 26. for Virginie r. Virginia p. 60. l. 23. for the nexi s r. the next is p. 60. l. 48. for Pitnies r. Titmise p. 62. l. â—1 for Pumises r. Puneses p. 71. l. 9. for Gnaver r. Guaver p. 72. l. â—8 for found r. form'd p. 75. l. 42 for greater r. great p. 77. l. 49. for ables r. abler p. 78. l. 19. for Pedistan r. Pedistall p. 82. l. 5. for out of the fruit r. out the fruit p. 83. l. 49. for leave r. beare p. 83. l. 50. for Jet r. Jetty p. 85. l. 35. for more r. most p. 90. l. 34. for Wit hs r. Ashes p. 90. l. 36. for Ripenesse r. Ropeinesse p. 105. l. 30. for Porch r. Perch p. 107. l. 45. for Ingoti r. Ingots p. 108. l. 29. for Percullis r. Portcullis p. 101. l. 26 for Gages r. Gouges p. 112. l. 46. for 300. r. 3000. p. 113. l. 33. for fruit r. frait or fraight p. 120. 13. for trusted at the Helme and r. trusted at the Helm who though FINIS A topographicall Description and Admeasurement of the YLAND of BARBADOS in the West INDYAES with the Mrs Names of the Seuerall plantacons The Scituation The Extent The Length of daies Temperature of the ayre How watered Meat and Drink for supportation of life Drink of Mobbie Perino Grippo Punch Plum-drinke Plantine-drinke Beveridge Wine of Pines Meat of all kinds Commodities Exported Commodities Imported What Buildings we found at our first comming upon the Iland What materialls grow in the Iland fit to build with which may be call'd the Elements of Architecture And first for Timber Stone fit for Building The number and nature of the inhabitants Negres Tame beasts that are living on the Iland Camels Horses Oxen Bulls and Cowes Assinigoes Hogges Sheepe Goates Birds Of lesser Animals and Insects Trees Physick-Nut Poyson tree Cassavie Coloquintida Cassia-fistula The poysoned Cane Tamarine Fruit trees Figge tree Cherry tree Orange Limon Lime-tree Prickled apple Prickled Peare Pomegranate Gnaver Coco Custard-Apple Anchovie-Pear Trees of mixt kinds Macow Date tree Mangrave Calibash Bay tree Timber trees Mastick Bully Redwood Prickled yellow-wood Iron wood Lignum vitae Locust Bastard-Locust Palmeto the lesse Palmeto Royall Plants that bear fruit Ginger Red Pepper Cucumber Millons Water-Millon Grapes Wild Plantine Bonano Aloes Flowers English Herbs and Roots Strength of the Iland by Nature to Seaward Captain Burrows Strength of the Iland within land How Governed how Divided Mines Most of this Paragraph is mentioned before