Selected quad for the lemma: land_n

Word A Word B Word C Word D Occurrence Frequency Band MI MI Band Prominent
land_n island_n lie_v south_n 5,603 5 9.7081 5 true
View all documents for the selected quad

Text snippets containing the quad

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

There are 6 snippets containing the selected quad. | View lemmatised text

Harbours are New-Plimouth Cape Anu Salem and Marvil-Head all which afford good ground for Anchorage being Land-lockt from Wind and Seas The chief and usual Harbour is the still Bay of Massechusets which is also aboard the Plantations it s a safe and pleasant Harbour within having but one secure entrance and that no broader than for three Ships to enter abreast but within there is Anchorage for five hundred Ships This Harbour is made by many Islands whose high Clifts shoulder out the boisterous Seas yet may easily deceive the unskilful Pilot presenting many fair openings and broad sownds whose Waters are too shallow for ships though Navigable for Boats and small Pinnases The entrance into the great Haven is called Nant●scot which is two Leagues from Boston From hence they may sail to the River of Wessaguscus Naponset Charles River and Mistick River on all which are seated many towns Here also they may have fresh supplies of Wood and water from the adjacent Islands with good Timber to repair their Weather-beaten Ships As also Masts or Yards there being store of such Trees as are useful for the purpose The places which are inhabited by the English are the best ground and sweetest Climate in all those parts bearing the name of New England the Air agreeing well with our English bodies being High Land and a sharp Air and though they border upon the Sea-Coast yet are they seldom obscured with Mists or unwholesome Foggs or cold Weather from the Sea which lies East and South from the Land And in the extremity of Winter the North-East and South-winds comming from the Sea produce warm weather and bringing in the Seas loosen the frozen Bayes carrying away the Ice with their Tides Melting the Snow and thawing the ground Only the North-west Winds coming over the Land cause extream cold weather accompanied with deep Snows and bitter Frosts so that in two or three dayes the Rivers will bear Man or Horse But these Winds seldom blow above three dayes together after which the Weather is more tollerable And though the cold be sometimes great yet is there good store of wood for housing and fires which makes the Winter less tedious And this very cold Weather lasts but eight or ten weeks beginning with December and ending about the tenth of February Neither doth the piercing colds of Winter produce so many ill effects as the raw Winters here with us in England But these hard Winters are commonly the forerunners of a pleasant Spring and fertile Summer being judged also to make much for the health of our English bodies The Summers are hotter than here with us because of their more Southerly Latitude yet are they tollerable being oft cooled with fresh Winds The Summers are commonly hot and dry there being seldom any Rain yet are the Harvests good the Indian Corn requiring more heat than wet to ripen it And for the English corn the nightly Dews refresh it till it grows up to shade its Roots with its own substance from the parching Sun The times of most Rain are in April and about Michaelmas The early Spring and long Summers make the Autumns and Winters to be but short In the Springs when the Grass begins to put forth it grows apace so that whereas it was black by reason of Winters blasts in a fortnights space there will be grass a foot high New England being nearer the Aequinoctial than Old England the days and nights be more equally divided In Summer the dayes be two hours shorter and in Winter two hours longer than with us Virginia having no Winter to speak of but extream hot Summers hath dried up much English blood and by the pestiferous Diseases hath swept away many lusty persons changing their complexions not into swarthiness but into Paleness which comes not from any want of food the Soil being fertile and pleasant and they having plenty of Corn and Cattel but rather from the Climate which indeed is found to be too Hot for our English Constitutions which New England is not In New England Men and Women keep their natural Complexions in so much as Seamen wonder when they arive in those parts to see their Countrey men look so Fresh and Ruddy neither are they much troubled with Inflammations or such Diseases as are increased by too much heat The two chief Messengers of Death are Feavours and Callentures but they are easily cured if taken in time and as easily prevented if men take care of their bodies As for our common Diseases they be Strangers in New England Few ever have the small Pox Measels Green-sickness Headach Stone Consumption c. yea many that have carried Coughs and Consumptions thither have been perfectly cured of them There are as sweet lusty Children born there as in any other Nation and more double births than with us here The Women likewise recover more speedily and gather strength after child-birth sooner than in Old England The Soil for the general is a warm kind of Earth there being little cold spewing Land no Moorish Fens nor Quagmires The lowest Grounds be the Marshes which are ovrflown by the Spring-Tides They are Rich Ground and yield plenty of Hay which feeds their Cattel as well as the best Upland Hay with us And yet they have plenty of Upland Hay also which grows commonly between the Marshes and the Woods And in many places where the Trees grow thin they get good Hay also And near the Plantations there are many Meddows never overflowed and free from all Wood where they have as much Grass as can be turned over with a Sithe and as high as a mans middle and some higher so that a good Workman will Mow three Loads in a day Indeed this Grass is courser than with us yet is it not sower but the Cattel eat and thrive very well with it and are generally larger and give more Milk than with us and bring forth young as well and are freer from diseases than the Cattel here There is so much Hay Ground in the Country that none need fear want though their Cattel should encrease to thousands there being some thousands of Acres that were yet never medled with and the more their Grass is Mowed the thicker it grows and where Cattel use to graze in the Woods the Ground is much improved growing more grassy and less full of Weeds and there is such plenty of Grass in the Woods that the Beasts need not Fodder till December at which time men begin to house their milch beasts and Calves In the Upland Grounds the Soil varies in some places Clay in others Gravel and some are of a Red Sand all which are covered with a black Mould usually a foot or little less deep The English Manure their ground with Fish whereof they have such plenty that they know not how otherwise to dispose of them yet the Indians being too lazy to catch Fish plant Corn eight or ten years in one place without any such help where they have yet a
in case they should at any time by foul Weather be driven to or cast upon on this Island that so they might there find fresh meat to serve them upon such an exigence And the Fruits and Roots that grew there afforeded them so great plenty of food that now they were multiplied abundantly In so much as the Indians of the Leeward Islands that were within sight coming thither in their Canoos and finding such Game to hunt as these Hoggs were whose flesh was so sweet and excellent in tast they came often thither a hunting staying sometimes a moneth together before they returned home leaving behind them certain tokens of their being there which were Pots of several sizes made of Clay so finely tempered and turned with such Art as the like to them for fineness of Mettle and curiosity of turning are not made in England in which they boiled their meat This discovery being made and advice thereof sent to their friends in England other ships were sent with Men Provisions and Working Tools to cut down the Woods and clear the Ground wherein to plant Provisions for their sustentation till then finding Food but straglingly in the Woods But when they had cleared some quantity of Land they Planted Potato's Plantines and Maies or Indian Wheat with some other Fruits which together with the Hoggs which they found there served only to keep life and soul together And their supplies from England coming so slow and so uncertainly they were oft driven to great extremities And the Tobacco that grew there was so earthy and worthless as that it gave them little or no return from England or other places so that for a while they lingered in a doubtful condition For the Woods were so thick and most of the Trees so large and massy as that they were not to be faln by so few hands And when they were laid along the Boughs were so thick and and unweldy as required more help of strong and active men to lop and remove them off the ground which continued so for many years in somuch as they Planted Potato's Maies and Bonavists between the Boughs as the Trees lay on the ground Yet not long after they planted Indigo and ordered it so well as that it sold in London at very good Rates And their Cotten Woll and Fustick Wood proved very good and staple Commodities So that having these four sorts of commodities to traffique with all Some Ships were invited in hope of gain by that Trade to come and visit them bringing for exchange such Commodities as they wanted to wit Working-Tools Iron Steel Clothes Shirts Drawers Hose and Shooes Hats and more Hands So that beginning to find good by this Trade they set themselves hard to work and lived in much better condition But when their Sugar-Canes had been planted three or four years they found that to be the principal Plant whereby to raise the value of the whole Island and therefore bent all their endeavours to improve their knowledge and skill in Planting them and making Sugar Which knowledg though they studied hard was long in Learning This Island which we call Barbado's lies in thirteen Degrees and about thirty Minutes of Northern Latitude The usual Bay into which Ships put is Carlile Bay which without exception is the best in the Island and is somewhat more than a League over and from the Points of the Land to the bottom of the Bay is twice as much Upon the innermost part of this Bay stands a Town called the Bridge for that a long Bridge was at first made over a little Nook of the Sea which yet indeed is rather a Bogg than a Sea This Town is ill scituated the Planters looking more after conveniencie than health But one house being erected another was set up by it for Neighbourhood and than a third and a fourth till at last it became a Town Divers storehouses were also built there wherein to stow their goods being so neer and convenient for the Harbour But their great oversight was to build a Town in so unhealthfull a place For the ground being somewhat lower within the Land than the Sea banks are the Spring-Tides flow over and so remain there making much of that flat a kind of Bog or Marish which sends out so loathsome a Savour as cannot but breed ill blood and probably is the occasion of much sickness to those that live there The ground on either side this Bay but chiefly that to the Eastward is much firmer and lies higher and therefore with some charge may be made as convenient as the Bridge and much more healthfnl Three more Bayes there be of note in this Island One to the Eastward of this which they call Austins Bay The other are to the West of Carlile-Bay The first whereof is called Mackfields Bay the other Spikes Bay but neither of these three are environed with Land as Carlile Bay is but being to the Leeward of the Island and of good Anchorage they seldome are in danger unless in the time of the Turnado when the Winds turn about to the South And then if they be not well moved the Ships are subject to fall foul one upon another and sometimes are driven a ground For the Leeward part of the Island being rather shelvy than Rocky they are seldom or never cast away The leng the hot Island is twenty eight miles and the breadth in some places seventeen miles in others twelve so that they make about three hundred nitety two square miles in the whole Island It rises highest in the middle so that when you come within sight of this happy Island the nearer you come the more beautiful it appears to the Eye For being in it self exceeding beautiful it 's best discerned and best judged of when your eyes become full Mistris of the Object There you may see the high large and lofty Trees with their spreading branches and flourishing tops which seem to be beholding to the Earth and Roots that gave them such plenty of sap for their Nourishment which makes them grow to that perfection of beauty and largeness Whil'st they by way of gratitude return their cool shade to secure and shelter the Earth from the Suns heat which otherwise would scorch and dry it up So that Bounty and Goodness in the one and Gratefulness in the other serve to make up this Beauty which alwayes would lie empty and waste By the Commodity of the Scituation of this Island which is highest in the midst the Inhabitants within have these advantages First a free prospect into the Sea then a reception of a opure and refreshing air and Breezes that come from thence The Plantations overlooking one another so as the more in most parts are not debarred nor restrained of their liberties of the view to the Sea by those that dwell between them and it Whil'st the Sun is in the Aequinoctial or within ten degrees of
bit they are oft taken and serve for nothing but to manure the Ground There are many Sturgious but the most are caught at Cape Cod and in the River of Meramack whence they are brought to England they are twelve fourteen and some eighteen foot long The Salmon is as good as ours and in great plenty in some places The Hollibut is like our Plaice or Turbut some being two yards long and one broad and a food thick Thornback and Scate is given to the Doggs being so common in many places The Bass is one of the best Fishes being a Delicate and fat Fish He hath a bone in his head that contain a Saucerful of Marrow sweet and good pleasant and wholesome they are three or four foot long they take them with a Hook and Line and in three hours a man may catch a dozen or twenty of them The Herrings are much like ours Alewives are much like Herrings which in the end of April come into the fresh Rivers to spawn in such multitudes as is incredible pressing up in such shallow waters where they can scarce swim and they are so eager that no beating with poles can keep them back till they have spawned Their Shads are far bigger than ours The Makarels be of two sorts In the beginning of the year the great ones are upon the Coast some 18. inches long In Sommer come the smaller kind they are taken with Hooks and Lines baited with a piece of Red Cloth There be many Eels in the salt water especially where grass grows they are caught in Weels baited with pieces of Lobsters Sometimes a man thus takes a busnel in a night they are wholesome and pleasant meat Lamprons and Lampries are little esteemed Lobsters are in plenty in most places very large and some being twenty pound weight they are taken at low water amongst the Rocks the smaller are the better but because of their plenty they are little esteemed The Oysters be great in form of a shoo-horn some of a foot long they breed in certain banks which are bare after every Spring-tide each makes two good mouthfuls The Periwig lies in the Oase like a head of hair which being touched draws back it self leaving nothing to be seen but a small round hole Muscles are in such plenty that they give them their Hoggs Clams are not much unlike to Cockles lying under the Sand every six or seven of them having a round hole at which they take in Air and Water they are in great plenty and help much to feed their Swine both Winter and Sommer for the Swine being used to them will constantly repair every ebb to the places where they root them up and eat them Some are as big as a Penny Loaf which the Indians count great dainties A Description of the Plantations in New-England as they were Anno Christi 1633. The outmost Plantation to the Southward which by the Indians is called Wichaguscusset is but a small Village yet pleasant and healthful having good ground store of good Timber and of Meddow ground there is a spacious Harbor for shipping before the Town they have store of Fish of all sorts and of Swine which they feed with Acrons and Clams and an Alewife River Three miles to the North is Mount Wolleston a fertile soil very convenient for Farmers houses there being great store of plain ground without Trees Near this place are Maschusets Fields where the greatest Sagamore in the Country lived before the Plague cleared all Their greatest inconvenience is that there are not so many Springs as in other places nor can Boats come in at low water nor Ships ride near the Shore Six miles further to the North lieth Dorchester the greatest Town in New-England well Wooded and Watered with good Arrable and Hay ground fair comfortable Fields and pleasant Gardens Here are many Cattel as Kine Goats and Swine It hath a good Harbor for ships there is begun the fishing in the Bay which proved so profitable that many since have followed them there A mile from thence lies Roxberry a fair and handsome Country Town the Inhabitants are rich It lies in the Mains and yet is well Wooded and watered having a clear Brook running through the Town where are great store of Smelts whence it s called Smelt-River A quarter of a mile on the North of it is another River called Stony River upon which is built a water Mill. Here is good store of Corn and Meddow Ground Westward from the Town it s somewhat Rocky whence it s called Roxberry the Inhabitants have fair houses store of Cattel Come-fields paled in and fruitful Gardens Their goods are brought in Boats from Boston which is the nearest Harbor Boston is two miles North-East from Roxberry It s Situation is very pleasant being a Peninsula hemmed on the South with the Bay of Roxberry On the North with Charles River the Marshes on the back side being not half a quarter of a mile over so that a little fencing secures their cattel from the Wolves Their greatest want is of Wood and Meddow ground which they supply from the adjacent Islands both for Timber Fire-wood and Hay they are not troubled with Wolves Rattlesnakes nor Musketoes being bare of Wood to shelter them It s the chief place for shipping and Merchandize This neck of Land is about four miles in compass almost square Having on the South at one corner a great broad Hill whereon is built a Fort which commands all Ships in any Harbour in the Hill Bay On the North side is another Hill of the same bigness whereon stands a Windmil To the North-West is an high Mountain with three little Hills on the top whence it is called Tremount From hence you may see all the Islands that lie before the Bay and such Ships as are upon the Sea Coast. Here are rich Corn Fields and fruitful Gardens The Inhabitants grow rich they have sweet and pleasant Springs and for their enlargement they have taken to themselves Farm-Houses in a place called Muddy River two miles off where is good Timber Ground Marsh-Land and Meddows and there they keep their Swine or other Cattel in the Summer and bring them to Boston in the Winter On the North side of Charles River is Charles Town which is another neck of Land on whose Northern side runs Mistick River This Town may well be paralled with Boston being upon a bare neck and therefore forced to borrow conveniencies from the Main and to get Farmes in the Country Here is a Ferry-boat to carry Passengers over Charles River which is a deep Channel and a quarter of a mile over Here may ride fourty ships at a time Up higher is a broad Bay that is two miles over into which run Stony River and Muddy River In the middle of this Bay is an Oyster bank Medfod Village is scituated towards the North-West of this Bay in a Creek A very fertile and pleasant place It s a mile and a half from
Charles Town At the bottom of this Bay the River is very narrow By the side of this River stands New-Town three miles from Charles Town It s a neat and well compacted Town having many fair buildings and at first was intended for a City The Inhabitants are mostly rich and have many Cattel of all sorts and many hundred Acres of Ground paled in On the other side of the River lies their Meddow and Marsh Ground for Hay Half a mile thence is Water Town nothing inferiour for Land Wood Meddows and Water Within half a mile of it is a great Pond which is divided between those two Towns And a mile and a half from this Town is a fall of fresh waters which through Charles River fall into the Ocean A little below this fall they have made weires where they catch great store of Shads and Alewives an hundred thousand of them in two Tides Mastick is three miles from Charles Town seated pleasantly by the waters side At the head of this River are very spacious Ponds to which the Alewives press to cast their Spawn where multitudes are taken On the West side of this River the Governour hath a Farm where he keeps most of his Cattel On the East side is Mr. Craddocks Plantation who impailed in a Park for Deer and some ships have been built there Winnisimet is a very pleasant place for situation and stands commodiously It s but a mile from Charles Town the River only parting them It s the lasts Town in the Bay The chief Islands that secure the Harbor from Winds and Waves are first Deere Island within a flight shot from Bullin Point It s so called because the Deer often swim thither to escape the Woolves where sixteen of them have been killed in a day The next is Long Island so called from its length Other Islands are Nodless Isle Round Isle the Governours Garden having in it an Orchard Garden and other conveniencies Also Slate Island Glass Island Bird Island c. they all abound with Wood Water and Meddows In these they put their Cattel for safety whil'st their Corn is on the Ground The Towns without the Bay are nearer the Main and reap a greater benefit from the Sea in regard of the plenty of Fish and Fowl and so live more plentifully than those that are more remoat from the Sea in the Island Plantations Six miles North-East from Winnisimet is Sagus is pleasant for situation seated at the bottom of a Bay which is made on the one side with a surrounding Shore and on the other side with a long Sandy Beach It s in the circumference six miles well Woodded with Oakes Pines and Cedars It s also well watered with fresh Springs and a great Pond in the middle before which is a spacious Marsh. One Black William an Indian Duke out of his generosity gave this place to the Plantation of Sagus so that none else can claim it when a storm hath been or is like to be there will be a roaring like thunder which may be heard six miles off On the North side of this Bay are two great Marshes divided by a pleasant River that runs between them The Marsh is crossed with divers Creeks where are store of Geese and Ducks and convenient Ponds wherein to make Decoys There are also fruitful Meddows and four great Ponds like little Lakes wherein is store of fresh Fish out of which within a mile of the Town runs a curious fresh Brook which is rarely frozen by reason of its warmness and upon it is built a Water Mill. For Wood there is store as Oake Walnut Cedar Elme and Aspe Here was sown much English Corn. Here the Bass continues from the midst of April till Michaelmas and not above half that time in the Bay There is also much Rock-Cod and Macharil so that shoals of Bass have driven shoals of Macharil to the end of the sandy bank which the Inhabitants have gathered up in Wheel barrows Here are many Muscle banks and Clam-banks and Lobsters amongst the Rocks and grassy holes Four miles from Saugus stands Salem on the middle of a neck of Land very pleasantly between two Rivers on the North and South The place is but barren sandy Land yet for seven years together it brought forth excellent Corn being manured with Fish every third year Yet there is good ground and good Timber by the Sea side and divers fresh Springs Beyond the River is a very good soil where they have Farms Here also they have store of Fish as Basses Eels Lobsters Clams c. They cross the River in Canows made of whole Pine Trees two foot and an half wide and twenty foot long in which also they go a Fowling sometimes two Leagues into the Sea It hath two good Harbours which lie within Derbins Fort. Marvil Head lies four miles South from Salem a very good place for a Plantation especially for such as will set up a Trade of Fishing There are good Harbours for Boats and good riding for ships Agowomen is nine miles to the North from Salem near the Sea and another good place for a Plantation It abounds with Fish and Flesh of Fowls and Beasts hath great Meddows and Marshes and Arable grounds many good Rivers and Harbours and no Rattle Snakes Merrimack lies eight miles beyond that where is a River Navigable for twenty miles and all along the side of it fresh Marshes in some places three miles broad In the River is Sturgion Salmon Bass and divers other kinds of Fish Three miles beyond this River is the out side of Massecusets Patent wherein these are the Towns that were begun in the year 1633. Of the Evils and Hurtful things in the Plantation Those that bring the greatest prejudice to the Planters are the ravenous Woolves which destroy the weaker Cattel of which we heard before Then the Rattle Snake which is usually a yard and a half long as thick in the middle as the small of a mans Legg with a yellow belly Her back is spotted with black russet and green placed like scales At her taile is a rattle with which she makes a noise when she is molested or when any come near to her Her neck seems no bigger than a mans thumb yet can she swallow a Squirrel having a wide mouth with teeth as sharp as needles wherein her poyson lies for she hath no sting when a man is bitten by her the poyson spreads so suddenly through the veins to the heart that in an hour it causes death unless he hath the Antidote to expel the poyson which is a Root called Snake-weed which must be champed the spittle swallowed and the Root applyed to the sore this is a certain cure This Weed is rank poyson if it be taken by any man that is not bitten unless it be Phisically compounded with other things He that is bitten by these Snakes his fresh becomes as spotted as a Lepers till he be perfectly cured She is naturally the most
are exceeding fat and tast excellently Tame Rabbets they have but they tast faintly more like Chickens then Rabbets They have also divers sorts of Birds but none that they use for Food Of their Fish Now for fish the Island want not plenty about it yet the Planters look so much after their profit on the Land that they will not spare time to catch it nor to send to the Bridge to buy that which is caught to their hands But when any have a mind to feast themselves with Fish they go to the Taverns at the Bridge where they have plenty and well drest Butter they seldom have that will beat thick but instead thereof they use Vineger Spice and fry much of their Fish in Oyl and eat it hot yet some they pickle and eat it cold Yet Collonel Humphrey Walrond having his Plantation near the Sea hath a Saine to catch Fish withall which his own servants and Slaves put to Sea twice or thrice a week and bring home store of small and great Fishes as Snappers red and gray Cavallos Macarel Mullets Cony-Fish and divers other sorts of firm and sweet Fish and some bigger then Salmons of the rarest colours that can be imagined being from the back fin which is the middle of the Fish to the end of the tail of a most pure grass green as shining as Satin The Fins and Tail dappled with a most rare hair-colour and from the back Fin to the Head a pure hair-colour dappled with green The Scales as big as an half Crown piece It is an exccent sweet Fish only there is one kind of Fish here wanting which are very rife in the adjacent Islands which is the green Turtle which the best meat that the Sea affords In other places they take an infinite number of them by turning them upon their backs with staves where they lie till they are fetcht away A large Turtle will have in her body half a bushel of Eggs. When they are to kill one of them they lay it on his back upon a table and when he sees them come with a knife to kill him he vapours out the most grievous sighs that ever you heard creature make and sheds as large tears as a Stag. He hath a joynt or crevis about an inch within the utmost edge of his shell into which they put the knife and rip up his belly which they call his Calipee and take out his bowels and heart which had three distinct points and this being laid in a dish will stir and pant ten hours after the Fish is dead It 's of a delicate taste and very nourishing Of The Quelquechoses The Quelquechoses with which they furnish out their Tables at a feast are Eggs potcht and laid upon Sippets soaked in Butter and juice of Limes and Sugar with plumpt Currans strewed upon them and Cloves Mace Cinamon strewed upon that with a little Salt Eggs boiled rosted and fried with Collops Buttered Eggs and Amulet of Eggs with the juice of Limes and Sugar a Fraize and a Tansie Custards and Cheese cakes Puffs Cream boiled to a heighth with yolks of Eggs and seasoned with Sugar and Spice Jelly which they make of a young Pig Caves-feet and a Cock Cream alone and some several wayes with the help of Limes Lemmons and Oranges and into some they put Plantanes Gnavers and Bonanoes stew'd or preserved with Sugar and the same fruit also preserved without Cream and to draw down a cup of Wine they have dried Neats Tongues Westfalia-Bacon Caviare Pickled-Herring Botargo all which are brought to them From Old and New England Virginia and Holland they have Beef and Pork As al Ling Haberdine Cod poor John Makarels and Herrings pickled and Sturgeon Pickled Turtles they have from the Lee-ward Islands Of these things they have had in these latter years such store that the Negroes are allowed for each man two Makarels a week and every woman one which are given them Saturday-nights after which they have their allowance of plantanes which is every one a large bunch or two two little ones to serve them for a weeks provision And if any Cattel die by chance or by any disease the Christian servants eat the bodies and the Negroes the Skins Head and Intrals which is divided to them by the Overseers If a Horse dies the Negroes have the whole bodies and this they think a high Feast with which poor souls were never better contented And the Drink which the servants have to this Diet is nothing but Mobby and sometimes a little Beveridge but the Negroes have nothing but water When the chief Planters make a Feast for their friends it s either made by such as live within Land or neer the Sea side For this Inland Plantation my Author instanceth in Sir James Draxe at whose Table he hath seen these several sorts of Meat well dressed And this Feast was alwayes made when he killed a Beef which he fed very fat by allowing it a dozen Acres of Bonavist to feed in First he mentions Beef as the greatest rarity in that Island of which he had these Dishes A Rump boiled a Chine rosted a large piece of the breast rosted a Cheek baked the Tongue and part of the Tripes in Minced-pies feasoned with sweet Herbs finely minced Suet Spice and Corrans The Leggs pallats and other ingredients for an Oleo Podigro and Maribones The Guests having eaten well hereof the Dishes were taken away and then came in a potato-pudding a Dish of Scotch Collips of a Legg of Pork Fricacy of the same a dish of boiled Chickens a shoulder of a young Goat a Kid with a Pudding in his belly a young Pigg exceeding fat and sweet a shoulder of Mutton which is there a rare Dish A Pastry made of the side of a young Goat and a side of a young Porket upon it well seasoned with pepper Salt and some Nutmegs A Loin of Veal to which they have plenty of Oringes Lemons and Limes three young Turkies in a Dish two Capons very large and fat two Hens with Eggs in a Dish four Ducklings eight Turtle Doves and three Rabbets And for cold Baked Meats two Muscovy Ducks larded and seasoned with pepper and salt And when these are taken from the Table another course is set on of Westphalia Bacon dried Neats Tongues Botargo pickled Oysters Caviare Anchoves Olives and mixt amongst these Custards Cream some alone some with preserved Plantanes Bonanoes Gnavers and these Fruits preserved by themselves Cheesecakes Puffs sometimes Tansies Fraises or Amulets And for raw fruit Plantaxes Bonanoes Gnavers Milions prickled Pears Anchove pears prickled Apples Custard Apples Water Milions and Pines better then all the rest And to this they had for Drink Mobby Beveridge Brandy Kill-Devil Drink of the Plantanes Claret White and Rhenish Wine Sherry Canary Red Sack Wine of Fiall besides several sorts of Spirits that come from England Now for a Plantation neer the Sea he instances in
neither of them sweet The Saint Jago Flower is very beautiful but of an unpleasing smell Another flower they have that opens not till Sun setting and is closed all day and therefore they call it the Flower of the Moon It grows in great tufts the Leaves like a heart the point turning back The flower is of a most pure Purple After the flower appears the seed black with an eye of Purple of the shape of a small Button so finely wrought and tough with all as it may well trim a suit of Apparel There is Purceane so plentifully every where as makes it disesteemed Herbs and Roots There are brought from England Rosemary Time Winter-Savory Sweet-Marjerom Pot-Marjerom Parsly Penny-royal Camomil Sage Tansie Lavender Cotton Garlick Onions Coleworts Cabbage Turnips Redishes Marigold Lettice Taragon Southern-wood c. all which prosper well There is a Root which was brought thither by the Negroes Large dry and well tasted It 's good boyled to eat with Pork mixt with Butter Vineger and Pepper It 's as big as three of our largest Turnips The strength of the Island This Island is strong by scituation For there cannot be any safe Landing but where the Harbours and Bayes are which lie to the South-West and those places are so Defencible by Nature as with small cost they are strongly fortified In the year one thousand six hundred and fifty they were able to muster ten thousand Foot as good and Resolute men as any in the World and a thousand good Horse and since then they are much increased Their Laws and Government Their Laws are like ours in England and they are governed by a Governour and ten of his Council four Courts of Justice in Civil Laws which divide the Countrey into four Circuits Justices of Peace Constables Churchwardens and Tithingmen Five Sessions in a year were held for trial of Criminal Causes and Appeals from Inferiour Courts When the Governour pleases to call an Assembly for the last Appeals and making new Laws or abolishing the Old It consists of the Governour his Councel and two Burgesses chosen by every Parish There are in the Island eleven Parishes No Tithe paid to the Minister but a yearly allowance of a Pound of Tobacco upon an Acre of every mans Land besides Church-Duties for Marriages Baptizings and Burials Their Weather Four Moneths in the year the Weather is colder then in the other eight and those are November December January and February yet are they hotter then with us in May. There is no general Fall of the Leaf every Tree having a particular time for it self as if two Locust-trees stand but at a stones cast distance one lets fall her leaves in January another in March another in July another in September The Leaves when Fallen under the Tree being most of them large and stiff when they were growing and full of veins from the middle stalk to the upper end when the thin part of the Leaf is consumed those veins appear like Skelletons with the strangest works and beautifullest Forms that can be imagined Negroes Heads They also find in the Sands things that they call Negroes-heads about two Inches long with a Forehead Eyes Nose Mouth Chin and part of the Neck They are alwayes found loose in the Sands without any Root It is black as Jet but whence it comes they know not TAR They have no Mines not so much as of Coles in the Islands There flows out of the Rock an Unctious substance somewhat like Tar It is excellent good to stop a Flux being drunk And for all Aches and Bruises being anointed with it It is so subtile that being put into the hand and rubbed there it works through the back of it PITCH and MOVNTIACK There is another Gumming Substance that is black and hard as Pitch and is used as Pitch they call call it Mountiack An Excellent REMEDY Against the STONE MY Author relates this Story concerning himself that during his abode in the Barbadoes he was taken with such a fit of the Stone that for fourteen dayes together he made not one drop of water But when he despaired of life God sent him such a Remedy as the World cannot afford a better For within ten hours after this taking of it he found himself not only eased but cured It brought away all the stones and gravel that stopped the passage and his water came as freely from him as ever before and caried before it such quantities of broken stones and gravel that the like hath hardly been seen And afterwards being in the like torment he used the same remedy and found the same ease The Medicine was this Take the Pizle of a green Turtle that lives in the Sea dry it with a moderate heat pound it in a Morter and take as much of this Powder as will lie upon a shilling in Beer Ale or Whitewine and in a short time it will work the cure These Turtles are frequent in the Chariby and Lucayick Islands near to the Barbadoes to which many of them are brought Three sorts of Turtles There are 3. sorts of Turtles The Loggerhead-Turtle the Hawks-bill-Turtle and the green Turtle which is of a less magnitude but far excelling the other two in wholesomness and rareness of tast That part of the Island which is the most remote from the Bridge the onely place of Trading by reason of deep and steep Gullies interposing the passage is almost stopt Besides the Land there is not so rich and fit to bear Canes as the other Yet it 's very useful for planting Provisions of Corn Bonavist Cassavy Potatoes c. As also of Fruit as Oranges Limons Lymes Plantanes Bonanoes Likewise for breeding of Hoggs Sheep Goats Cattel and Poultry to furnish either parts of the Island which wants those Commodities The Sugar Canes are fifteen Moneths from the time of their planting before they come to be fully ripe From the Island of Bonavista they have Horses brought to them whose Hooves are so hard and tough that they ride them at the Barbadoes down sharp and steep Rocks without shooes And no Goat goes surer on the sides of Rocks or Hills then they FINIS Here place the Examples of Minerals and Stones EXAMPLES OF THE Wonderful Works OF GOD IN THE CREATURES CHAP. I. Of strange Stones Earth and Minerals 1. IN Cornwal near unto a place called Pensans is that famous stone called Main-Amber which is a great Rock advanced upon some other of meaner size with so equal a counterpoize that a man may stir it with the push of his finger but to remove it quite out of his place a great number of men are not able Camb. Brit. p. 188. The like is in the Country of Stratherne in Scotland 2. In Summerset-shire near unto Cainsham are found in Stone-quarries stones resembling Serpents winding round in manner of a wreath the head bearing up in the Circumference and the end of the tail taking up the centre within but most of them are headless