TRANSCRIBER’S NOTE
The character ſ (long-form s) has been replaced by the normal s.
Footnote anchors are denoted by a number in [ ], and the footnotes have been placed at the end of the book.
These footnotes make numerous references to pages in Josselyn’s “An Account of Two Voyages to New-England”. This book can be accessed at:
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/66922
This edition of 1865 is a faithful reproduction of the original Josselyn edition of 1672, and the original spelling and punctuation have been carefully preserved without change, in both the printed 1865 book and in this etext.
The page numbering of the 1672 book has been preserved and inserted at the appropriate points of the text. These page numbers were in [ ] in the 1865 edition, but have been changed to { } in this etext to avoid confusion with the footnote numbering notation.
The cover image was created by the transcriber and is placed in the public domain.
Some minor changes to the text are noted at the [end of the book]. These are indicated by a dashed blue underline.
NEW-ENGLAND’S RARITIES.
NEW-ENGLAND’S
RARITIES
DISCOVERED IN BIRDS, BEASTS, FISHES,
SERPENTS, AND PLANTS OF
THAT COUNTRY.
By JOHN JOSSELYN, Gent.
With an Introduction and Notes,
By EDWARD TUCKERMAN, M.A.
Boston:
WILLIAM VEAZIE.
MDCCCLXV.
Two Hundred and Fifty Copies printed, Small Quarto.
BOSTON: PRESS OF JOHN WILSON AND SON.
Publisher’s Advertisement.
IN the reproduction of this quaint and curious treatise, which is one of the earliest, on the Natural History of New England, it has been the intention of the Publisher to enhance its value as a literary curiosity, by making it as nearly as possible an exact Fac-simile of the original edition, in accordance with the projected plan of a series of reprints, in which the present work is comprised.
In the furtherance of this intention, the precise orthography, punctuation, and also the arrangement,—with the exception of the commencement and termination of pages,—have been preserved.
The valuable Introduction and Notes of Prof. Tuckerman, incorporated in this edition, have been previously issued in vol. iv. of “The Transactions of the American Antiquarian Society,” which contains a reprint of “The Rarities” in a more modern style. The notes have, however, undergone a thorough revision by the author; and some few additions have been made by him, during the progress of the present edition through the press.
Some additional matter concerning the Genealogy of the Josselyn Family may be found contained in the Preface of the “Two Voyages to New England in 1638 and 1663, by John Josselyn,” published in uniform style with the present work.
BOSTON, May 15, 1865.
INTRODUCTION.
MR. John Josselyn, the writer of this book, was only brother, as he says, to Henry Josselyn, Esq., many years of Black Point in Scarborough, Me.; and both were sons to Sir Thomas Josselyn, Knt., of Kent, whose name is at the head of the new charter obtained by Sir Ferdinando Gorges for his Province in 1639, but who did not come to this country. Mr. Henry Josselyn was at Piscataqua, in the interest of Capt. John Mason, at least as early as 1634; but, in 1636, he is one of the Council of Gorges’s Province in Maine, and continued in that part of the country the rest of his life. He succeeded in 1643, by the will of Capt. Thomas Cammock, to his patent at Black Point, and soon after married his widow. He is afterwards Deputy-Governor of the Province; and until 1676, when the Indians attacked and compelled him to surrender his fort, he was, says Mr. Willis,—whose valuable papers are cited below,—“one of the most active and influential men in it;” holding, “during all the changes of proprietorship and government, the most important offices.” He is then a magistrate of the Duke of York’s Province of Cornwall, and, as late as 1680, a resident of Pemaquid; when he is spoken of, in a letter of Gov. Andros to the commander of the fort at Pemaquid, as one “whom I would have you use with all fitting respect, considering what he hath been and his age.” He is living in 1682; but had died before the 10th of May, 1683,[1] leaving no descendants.[2]
Notwithstanding the evidence, above afforded, of the social position of the family of which Henry and John Josselyn were members, the present writer failed in tracing it, doubtless from not knowing in which county it had its principal seat. In this uncertainty, it occurred to him to make application to the eminent English antiquary,—the Rev. Joseph Hunter, Vice-President of the Society of Antiquaries of London,—to whom he was indebted for former kind attentions; and was favored by this gentleman with such directions as left nothing to be desired. “The Josslines,” writes Mr. Hunter “(the name is written in some variety of orthographies, and now more usually Joceline), are quite one of the old aristocratic families of England, having several knights in the early generations; being admitted into the order of baronets, and subsequently into the peerage.... Their main settlement was in Hertfordshire, at or near the town of Sabridgeworth; and accounts of them may be read in the histories—of which Chauncy’s, Salmon’s, and Clutterbuck’s are the chief—of that county. But a fuller and better account is to be found in the ‘Peerage of Ireland,’ by Mr. Lodge, keeper of the records in the Birmingham Tower, Dublin: 4 vols. 8vo, 1754.”[3]
According to Lodge, the family begins with a Sir Egidius, who passed into England in the time of Edward the Confessor, and was descended from “Carolus Magnus, King of France, with more certainty than the houses of Lorraine and Guise.” Of this Sir Egidius was Sir Gilbert de Jocelyn, who accompanied the Conqueror, and had Gilbert—called St. Gilbert, being canonized by Pope Innocent III. in 1202—and Geoffry. To this Geoffry is traced back John Jocelyn, living in 1226; who married Catherine, second daughter and co-heir to Sir Thomas Battell, and had Thomas, who married Maud, daughter and co-heiress of Sir John Hide, of Hide Hall in Sabridgeworth, county of Hertford, Knt., by his wife Elizabeth, daughter of John Sudeley; Baron Sudeley, in the county of Gloucester. He had Thomas Jocelyn, Esq., who married Joan, daughter of John Blunt, and had Ralph, who married Maud, daughter of Sir John Sutton alias Dudley, and had Geoffry of Hide Hall, 1312. Geoffry married Margaret, daughter of Robert Rokell or Rochill, and had Ralph, who married Margaret, daughter and heir to John Patmer, Esq., and had Geoffry (died 1425), who married Catherine, daughter and heir to Sir Thomas Bray, and had four sons and two daughters. Of these, the eldest was Thomas Jocelyn, Esq., living in the reign of Edward IV., who married Alice, daughter of Lewis Duke of Dukes in Essex, Esq., by his wife Anne, daughter of John Cotton, Esq., and had issue George, his heir, called Jocelyn the Courtier, who married Maud, daughter and heir to Edmond Bardolph,—Lord Bardolph,—and had one daughter and three sons. John Jocelyn, Esq.,—“auditor of the augmentations, upon the dissolution of the abbeys by King Henry VIII.,”—was son and heir to the last-mentioned George, and married Philippa, daughter of William Bradbury, of Littlebury in Essex; by whom he had Sir Thomas, of Hide Hall,—created a Knight of the Bath at the coronation of King Edward VI.,—who married Dorothy, daughter of Sir Geoffry Gales or Gates, Knt., and had issue;[4] one daughter marrying Roger Harlakenden, of Carnarthen in Kent, Esq.; and the fifth son being Henry Jocelyn, Esq., who married Anne, daughter and heir to Humphrey Torrell, otherwise Tyrrell, of Torrell’s Hall in Essex,—became seated there, and had six sons and six daughters. The second son of this family was Sir Thomas Jocelyn (father to our author), who was twice married. His first wife was Dorothy, daughter of John Frank, Esq.; by whom he had six sons and five daughters,—Torrell, born 28th May, 1690; Henry, and Henry, both died infants; Thomas, who died without issue, in 1635, at Bergen op Zoom; Edward, who, by a lady of Georgia, had a daughter Dorothy, and died at Smyrna in 1648; Benjamin, born 19th May, 1602; Anne, married to William Mildmay, Esq., by whom she had Robert, John, Anne, and Elizabeth; Dorothy, married to John Brewster, Esq., and left no issue; Elizabeth, married to Francis Neile, Esq., and had Francis, John, and Mary; Frances, born 26th March, 1600, and married Rev. Clement Vincent; and Mary, died unmarried. The second wife of Sir Thomas Jocelyn was Theodora, daughter to Edmond Cooke, of Mount Maschall in Kent, Esq.; and by her he had Henry, John, Theodora, and Thomazine. Torrell, the eldest son, married, first, Elizabeth, daughter of Sir Richard Brooke of Cheshire,—heir to her grandfather (by the mother), Dr. Chaderton, Bishop of Lincoln,—by whom he had a daughter, Theodora, married to Samuel Fortrie, Esq.,[5] to whom our author dedicates the present volume, with acknowledgment of the “bounty” of his “honored friend and kinsman.”
The principal line of the family was continued by Richard, heir to Sir Thomas of Hide Hall; the said Richard being brother to our author, John Josselyn’s grandfather. In 1665, Sir Robert Jocelyn of Hide Hall was advanced to the dignity of baronet. The fifth son of this Sir Robert was Thomas; whose son, Robert Jocelyn, Esq., was bred to the law; was Solicitor-General and Attorney-General and Lord High Chancellor of Ireland; and created, in 1743, Baron Newport of Newport, and Viscount Jocelyn in 1755. Robert, son and successor of this nobleman, was created, in 1771, Earl of Roden, of High Roding, County of Tipperary; and was ancestor to the present Lord Roden.[6]
Our author, John Josselyn, made his first voyage to New England in 1638; arriving in Boston Harbor the 3d of July, and remaining with his brother at Black Point till the 10th of October of the following year. While at Boston, he paid his respects to the Governor and to Mr. Cotton, being the bearer to the latter of some poetical pieces from the poet Quarles; and, as he says, “being civilly treated by all I had occasion to converse with.” In the account of his first voyage, there is no appearance of that dislike to the Massachusetts government and people which is observable in the narrative of the second, and may there not unfairly be connected with his brother’s political and religious differences with Massachusetts.[7] His second voyage was made in 1663. He arrived at Nantasket the 27th of July, and soon proceeded to his brother’s plantation, where he tells us he staid eight years, and got together the matter of the book before us. This was first printed in 1672, but occurs also with later dates. It was followed, in 1674, by “An Account of Two Voyages to New England; wherein you have the Setting-out of a ship, with the Charges; the Prices of all Necessaries for furnishing a Planter and his Family at his first Coming; a Description of the Country, Natives, and Creatures; the Government of the Countrey as it is now possessed by the English, &c. A large Chronological Table of the most Remarkable Passages, from the first Discovering of the Continent of America to the Year 1673.” 12mo, pp. 279. Reprinted in the third volume of the Third Series of the Collections of the Historical Society; which edition is quoted here. A large part of the “Voyages” is taken up with observations relating to natural history; and it is quite likely that the author tried in this second work to supply some of the defects of his “Rarities.” Compare especially the accounts of beasts of the earth, of birds, and of fishes; each of which is better done in the “Voyages.”
Josselyn was, it appears, a man of polite reading. He quotes Lucan, Pliny, and Du Bartas; he has Latin and Italian proverbs; he is acquainted with the writings of Mr. Perkins, that famous divine; with Van Helmont; with Sandys’s “Travels,” and Capt. John Smith’s. His curiosity in picking up “excellent medecines” points to an acquaintance with physic; of his practising which, there occur, indeed (pp. 48, 58, 63), several instances.[8] Nor is he, by any means, uninterested in prescriptions for the kitchen; as see his elaborate recipe for cooking eels (Voyages, p. 111), and also that (ibid., p. 190) for a compound liquor “that exceeds passada, the Nectar of the country;” which is made, he tells us, of “Syder, Maligo-Raisons, Milk, and Syrup of Clove-Gilliflowers.” But his curiosity in natural history, and especially in botany, is his chief merit; and this now gives almost all the value that is left to his books.[9] William Wood, the author of “New-England’s Prospect” (London, 1634[10]), was a better observer, generally, than Josselyn; but the latter makes up for his other short-comings by the particularity of his botanical information.
The “Voyages” was Josselyn’s last appearance in print. He was already advanced in years, and alludes to this at page 69 of the present book, where he says he shall refer the further investigation of a curious plant—of which a neighbor, “wandering in the woods to find out his strayed cattle,” had brought him a fragment—“to those that are younger, and better able to undergo the pains and trouble of finding it out.” “Henceforth,” he declares in his “Voyages,” p. 151, “you are to expect no more Relations from me. I am now return’d into my Native Countrey; and, by the providence of the Almighty and the bounty of my Royal Soveraigness, am disposed to a holy quiet of study and meditation for the good of my soul; and being blessed with a transmentitation or change of mind, and weaned from the world, may take up for my word, non est mortale quod opto.”
We may suppose that a rude acquaintance with the more common or important animals of a new country will commence with the discovery of it. Thus the beginning of European knowledge of the marine animals of America goes back, doubtless, to the earliest fisheries of Newfoundland; and these began almost immediately after the discovery of the continent. Game and peltry were also likely to come to the knowledge of the earliest adventurers; and scattered among these, from the first, were doubtless men capable of regarding the world of new objects around them with an intelligent, if not a literate eye. Descriptions in this way, and specimens, at length reached Europe, and became known to the learned there—to Gesner, Clusius, and Aldrovandus—from as early as the middle of the sixteenth century. Without being naturalists, such observers as Heriot in Virginia (1585-6) and Wood in Massachusetts (1634) could give valuable accounts of what they saw; and more, it may well be, was due to the Christian missionaries, who accompanied or followed the adventurers, for the conversion of the heathen. Gabriel Sagard was one of these missionaries, a recollet or reformed Franciscan monk, who went from Paris to Canada in 1624, and spent two years in the country of the Hurons; publishing his “Grand Voyage du Pays des Hurons” in 1632, and enlarging it in 1636 to “Histoire du Canada et Voyages que les Freres Mineurs recollets y ont faits pour la Conversion des Infidelles,” &c., in four books; of which the third treats of natural history,[11] and is cited by Messrs. Audubon and Bachmann (Vivip. Quadrupeds of N.A., passim) for a good part of our more common and noticeable Mammalia. Something considerable thus got to be known of marine animals of all sorts, and of quadrupeds. But it was much longer before our birds—if we except a very few, as the blue-jay and the turkey—came to the scientific knowledge of Europeans; and this remark is, as might be expected, at least equally true of our reptiles.
Quite as accidental, doubtless, was the beginning of European acquaintance with our plants. There are, indeed, traces of the knowledge of a few at a very early period. Dalechamp, Clusius, Lobel, and Alpinus—all authors of the sixteenth century—must be cited occasionally in any complete synonymy of our Flora. The Indian-corn, the side-saddle flower (Sarracenia purpurea and S. flava), the columbine, the common milk-weed (Asclepias Cornuti), the everlasting (Antennaria margaritacea), and the Arbor vitæ, were known to the just-mentioned botanists before 1600. Sarracenia flava was sent either from Virginia, or possibly from some Spanish monk in Florida. Clusius’s figure of our well-known northern S. purpurea—of which he gives, however, only the leaves and base of the stem (Clus. Hist. Pl., cit. Gerard a Johnson)—was derived from a specimen furnished to him by one Mr. Claude Gonier, apothecary at Paris, who himself had it from Lisbon; whither we may suppose it was carried by some fisherman from the Newfoundland coast. The evening primrose (Œnothera biennis) was known in Europe, according to Linnæus, as early as 1614. Polygonum sagittatum and arifolium (tear-thumb) were figured by De Laet, probably from New-York specimens, in his “Novus Orbis,” 1633. Johnson’s edition of Gerard’s “Herbal” (1636)—which was possibly our author’s manual in the study of New-England plants—contains some dozen North-American species, furnished often from the garden of Mr. John Tradescant, who had other plants from “Virginia” beside the elegant one which bears his name; and John Parkinson—whose “Theatrum Botanicum” (1640) is declared by Tournefort to embrace a larger number of species than any work which had gone before it—describes, especially from Cornuti, a still larger number. But the first treatise especially concerned with North-American plants was that of the French author just mentioned; which, on several accounts, deserves particular attention.
John Robin—“second to none,” says Tournefort, “in the knowledge and cultivation of plants”—was placed in charge of the Royal Botanical Garden at Paris, about the year 1570; and Vespasian Robin, “a most diligent botanist,” followed, in similar connection[12] with the larger garden founded by Lewis the Thirteenth. Both are said to have assisted the writer whose book we are to notice; but especially the latter,[13] who, there is little doubt, deserves credit for all the American species described in it.
The history of Canadian and other new plants—“Canadensium Plantarum, aliarumque nondum editarum Historia” of Jacobus Cornuti, Doctor of Medicine, of Paris—was printed in that city (pp. 238) in 1635, under the patronage just mentioned; and contains accounts, accompanied, in every case but one, with figures on copper, of thirty-seven of our plants; of which the meadow-rue is known to botanists as Thalictrum Cornuti; and the common milkweed, as Asclepias Cornuti. Though himself not eminent as a botanist,[14] the work of Cornuti was valuable for its elegant presentation of much that was new; and it will always deserve honorable remembrance in the history of our Flora. There are several passages of it—as at pp. 5 and 7, and in the account of the two baneberries at p. 76, where we read, “Opacis et sylvestribus locis in eadem Americæ parte frequentissimum est geminum genus”—which look a little like a proper botanical collector’s notes on his specimens; and these specimens, and the others from the same region, may well have been results of the herborizing of that worthy Franciscan missionary, whose early observations on the natural history of Canada have been mentioned already above. Nor were the North-American plants possessed by Cornuti entirely confined to this region; for he speaks at the end (p. 214) of his having received a root, ex notha Anglia, as he strangely calls it, known, it appears, by the name of Serpentaria, or, in the vernacular, Snaqroel,—a sure remedy for the bite of a huge and most pernicious serpent in notha Anglia,—which was no doubt the snake-root so famous once as a cure for the bite of a rattlesnake, and one of the numerous varieties of Nabalus albus (L.) Hook., if not, as Pursh supposed, what is now the var. Serpentaria, Gray. But some view of the scantiness of scientific knowledge of our Flora, near forty years after Cornuti, may be had by reckoning the number of species for which Bauhin’s “Pinax” and “Prodromus” (1671) are cited by Linnæus in the “Species Plantarum.” Most of them are Southern plants; and the few decidedly Northern ones which meet us—as Cornus canadensis, Uvularia perfoliata, Trillium erectum, Arum triphyllum, and Adiantum pedatum—are all indicated, by Bauhin’s phrase, as from Brazil!
We have nothing illustrating the Flora of New England from Cornuti till Josselyn. In Virginia, Mr. John Banister, a correspondent of Ray’s, began to botanize probably not long after the middle of the seventeenth century. He was succeeded by several eminent names; as Mark Catesby, F.R.S. (born 1679), John Clayton, Esq. (born 1685), and John Mitchell, M.D., F.R.S.,—a contemporary of the other two,—who together gave to the botany of Virginia a distinguished lustre; as did Cadwalader Colden, Esq. (born 1688),—a selection from whose correspondence has been lately edited by Dr. Gray,—to that of New York; John Bartram (born 1701), “American botanist to his Britannic Majesty,” to that of Pennsylvania; and, somewhat later, Alexander Garden, M.D., F.R.S. (born 1728), to that of South Carolina. Josselyn himself is, indeed, little more than a herbalist; but it is enough that he gets beyond that entirely unscientific character. He certainly botanized, and made botanical use of Gerard and his other authorities. The credit belongs to him of indicating several genera as new which were so, and peculiar to the American Flora. It may at least be said, that, at the time he wrote, there is no reason to suppose that any other person knew as much as he did of the botany of New England. “The plants in New England,” he says in his “Voyages,” p. 59, “for the variety, number, beauty, and virtues, may stand in competition with the plants of any countrey in Europe. Johnson hath added to Gerard’s ‘Herbal’ three hundred, and Parkinson mentioneth many more. Had they been in New England, they might have found a thousand, at least, never heard of nor seen by any Englishman before.”[15] Nor did our author fail to adorn his “Rarities” with recognizable figures, as well as descriptions, of some of these new American plants; and his arrangement is also creditable to his botanical knowledge. By this arrangement, his collections are distinguished into—
1. “Such plants as are common with us in England.”
2. “Such plants as are proper to the country.”
3. “Such plants as are proper to the country, and have no name.”
4. “Such plants as have sprung up since the English planted and kept cattle in New England.”
The last of these divisions is the most valuable part of Josselyn’s account, as it affords the only testimony that there is to the first notice among us of a number of now naturalized weeds, which it is an interesting question to separate from the more important class of plants truly indigenous in, and common to, both hemispheres; and the author’s treatment of the latter—as indeed of the other two lists mentioned above—shows that he was competent, in a measure, to reckon the former. This furnishes a date, and an early one; and there is no other till 1785, when Dr. Manasseh Cutler’s Memoir, to be spoken of, enables us to limit the appearance of some other species not mentioned by Josselyn.
There is no work of any size or importance on New-England plants, after Josselyn, for the whole century which followed. We were not, indeed, without men in distinguished connection with the European scientific world. The most eminent New-England family gained honors in science, as well as in the conduct of affairs. John Winthrop the younger, eldest son of the first Governor of Massachusetts,—and the “heir,” says Savage, “of all his father’s talents, prudence, and virtues, with a superior share of human learning,”[16]—was himself the first Governor of Connecticut, and had, in this connection, a certain scientific position and reputation. “The great Mr. Boyle, Bishop Wilkins, with several other learned men,” says Dr. Eliot, “had proposed to leave England, and establish a society for promoting natural knowledge in the new colony of which Mr. Winthrop, their intimate friend and associate, was appointed Governor. Such men were too valuable to lose from Great Britain; and, Charles II. having taken them under his protection, the society was there established, and obtained the title of the Royal Society of London.... Mr. Winthrop sent over many specimens of the productions of this country, with his remarks upon them: ‘and, by an order of the Royal Society, he was in a particular manner invited to take upon himself the charge of being the chief correspondent in the West, as Sir Philiberto Vernatti was in the East Indies.’ ‘His name,’ says the same writer, Dr. Cromwell Mortimer, Secretary of the Royal Society, in his flattering dedication of the fortieth volume of the Philosophical Transactions to the Governor’s grandson, ‘had he put it to his writings, would have been as universally known as the Boyles’s, the Wilkins’s, and Oldenburghs’, and been handed down to us with similar applause.’”[17] There is, in the volume of Philosophical Transactions for 1670, “An Extract of a Letter written by John Winthrop, Esq., Governor of Connecticut in New England, to the Publisher, concerning some Natural Curiosities of those Parts; especially a very strange and curiously-contrived Fish, sent for the Repository of the Royal Society” (pp. 3); in which are mentioned, as sent, specimens of scrub-oak; “bark of tree with fir-balsam, which grows in Nova Scotia, and, as I hear, in the more easterly part of New England;” pods of milk-weed, “used to stuff pillows and cushions;” and “a branch of the tree called the cotton-tree, bearing a kind of down, which also is not fit to spin.”
Fitz John Winthrop, Esq., F.R.S. (died 1707), son of the last, and also Governor of Connecticut, is said to have been “famous for his philosophical” (that is, scientific) “knowledge.”[18] And the second Governor’s nephew, John Winthrop, Esq., F.R.S. (died 1747), who left this country and passed the latter part of his life in England, is declared by the author of the dedication already above cited, to have “increased the riches of their” (the Royal Society’s) “repository with more than six hundred curious specimens, chiefly in the mineral kingdom; accompanied with an accurate account of each particular.” “Since Mr. Colwell,” it is added, “the founder of the Museum of the Royal Society, you have been the benefactor who has given the most numerous collection.” Dr. John Winthrop, F.R.S. (died 1779), Hollisian Professor of Mathematics at Cambridge, N.E., whose important papers on astronomical and other related phenomena are to be found in the Philosophical Transactions, was of another line of the same family.
Paul Dudley, Esq., F.R.S. (born 1675), son of Gov. Joseph Dudley, and himself Chief Justice of Massachusetts, was author of several papers in the Philosophical Transactions; one of which is an “Account of the Poison-wood Tree in New-England” (vol. xxxi. p. 135); and another, “Observations on some Plants in New-England, with Remarkable Instances of the Nature and Power of Vegetation” (vol. xxxiii. p. 129). This last is of only seven pages, and of little scientific account: though we learn from it, that, in 1726, when Mr. Dudley wrote, the Pearmain, Kentish Pippin, and Golden Russetin, were esteemed apples here, and the Orange and Bergamot cultivated pears;[19] that, in one town in 1721, they made three thousand, and in another near ten thousand barrels of cider; and that, to speak of “trees of the wood,” he knew of a button-wood tree which measured nine yards in girth, and made twenty-two cords of wood; and of an ash, which, at a yard from the ground, was fourteen feet eight inches in girth. He also expresses an intention to treat separately the evergreens of New England; and this treatise, which was possibly more valuable than the one just noticed, was in the possession of Peter Collinson, the eminent patron of horticulture, and was given by him to J. F. Gronovius; but has not, that I am aware of, appeared in print.[20]
It is likely that the early physicians of New England gave special attention to those simples of the country, the virtues of which were known to the savages; and perhaps it was partly in this way that the Rev. Jared Eliot (born 1685), minister of Killingworth in Connecticut,—who is called by Dr. Allen “the first physician of his day,”—is also designated, both by him and by Eliot, a botanist; and by the latter, “the first in New England.” There is no doubt he was a friend of Dr. Franklin’s, and a scientific agriculturist according to the knowledge of his day; and he is said to have introduced the white mulberry into Connecticut.[21] His Agricultural Essays went through more than one edition, but is now rare. Mr. Eliot died while our next character, the first native New-England botanist who deserves the name, was a student of Yale College.
Manasseh Cutler, LL.D. (born 1743), was minister of the Hamlet in Ipswich—afterwards incorporated as the town of Hamilton—fifty-one years, and was also a member of the Medical Society of Massachusetts. He is author of “An Account of some of the Vegetable Productions naturally growing in this part of America, botanically arranged,” which makes nearly a hundred pages of the first volume of the Memoirs of the American Academy, 1785. In the introduction to this paper, the author speaks of Canada and the Southern States having had attention given to their productions, both by some of their own inhabitants and by European naturalists; while “that extensive tract of country which lies between them, including several degrees of latitude, and exceedingly diversified in its surface and soil, seems still to remain unexplored.” He attributes the neglect, in part, to this,—“that botany has never been taught in any of our colleges,” but principally to the prevalent opinion of its unprofitableness in common life. The latter error he combats with the then important observation, that, “though all the medicinal properties and economical uses of plants are not discoverable from those characters by which they are systematically arranged, yet the celebrated Linnæus has found that the virtues of plants may be, in a considerable degree, and most safely, determined by their natural characters: for plants of the same natural class are in some measure similar; those of the same natural order have a still nearer affinity; and those of the fame genus have very seldom been found to differ in their medical virtues” (p. 397). This shows, perhaps, that Dr. Cutler appreciated (for the Italics in the just-quoted passage are his own) that adumbration of a natural system which was afforded or suggested by the artificial; and his instances—the Gramineæ, the Borraginaceæ, the Umbelliferæ, the Labiatæ, the Cruciferæ, the Malvaceæ, the Compositæ, &c.; though these are cited under the divisions, not of the natural, but of the sexual system—are still more to the point. There are other observations of interest; and the suggestion is made, that persons should collect the plants of their districts, and send them from time to time to the Academy.
Dr. Cutler was thus, possibly, the first to suggest a botanical chair in our colleges, and a general herbarium to illustrate the Flora of New England; and perhaps it was this last which led him to propose a still more important undertaking. “It has long been my intention,” he says in a letter to Prof. Swartz, of Upsal, dated 15th October, 1802, “to publish a botanical work, comprising the plants of the northern and eastern States; and [I] have been collecting materials for that purpose. But numerous avocations, and a variety of other engagements, has occasioned delay. It is, however, still my intention, if my health permits, to do it. But, at this time, far less than in years past, there is very little encouragement given here to publications of this kind.”[22]
About three hundred and seventy plants are indicated in the published “Account” of Dr. Cutler. It was not to be expected, that, in this beginning, numerous mistakes should not be made. It could not possibly have been otherwise. There is still evidence enough of the author’s genius, which perhaps needed only opportunity and encouragement to anticipate a part of what botany now owes to a Nuttall, a Torrey, and a Gray. The “Account” was favorably received by other botanists of the time, both in this country and abroad. In a letter of Muhlenberg to Cutler, dated 9th February, 1791, the former says, “Not till a few months ago, I was favored with the first volume of the Memoirs of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, printed at Boston, 1785. Amongst other valuable pieces, I found your ‘Account of Indigenous Vegetables, botanically arranged;’ with which I was infinitely pleased, as this was the first work that gives a systematical account of New-England plants. Being a great friend to botany, and having studied it in my leisure-hours upwards of fourteen years in Pennsylvania, I know the difficulty of arranging the American plants according to the Linnæan system; and I was always eager to hear of some gentleman engaged in similar researches, that, by joining hands, we might do something towards enlarging American Botany.... This is the reason why I intrude upon your leisure-hours, and crave for your acquaintance and friendship.”[23] Drs. Withering and Stokes, of England, were other correspondents of Cutler, and furnished him with important observations upon his printed Memoir, besides specimens; as did also Swartz, and, it appears, Payshull of Sweden. Dr. Stokes followed up his various suggestions for the improvement of the Memoir, by proposing to dedicate a plant, which he took to be new, to its author. “A plant,” he says, “like a woolly heath, and which I wished to call Cutleria ericoides, turns out to be Hudsonia ericoides. I hope, however, your herborizations may furnish a new genus for you, not likely to be disturbed.”—Letters of Stokes to Cutler, from “Feb. 14 ’91, to Aug. 17, ’93.”[24]
But Dr. Cutler’s printed memoir on the plants of New England is much surpassed in interest by his manuscript volumes of descriptions, still extant. These manuscript volumes commence with “Book I., 1783,” and continue, so far as I have seen them, to 1804. The late Mr. Oakes possessed six of these books; and two were given to me by my valued friend, the late Dr. T. W. Harris. They are generally entitled, “Descriptions and Notes on American Indigenous Plants,” and contain a vast number of observations and analyses, sometimes accompanied by pen-and-ink sketches. This was evidently the material accumulated for the author’s Flora above mentioned; and the following extracts will serve to show that he was in many respects qualified to undertake such a work. Thus, in describing the several hickories, he points out those differences from Juglans, upon which Nuttall afterwards constituted his genus Carya. Again, in the same volume,—that for 1789,—there is a N. Gen. Anonymos, minutely described in several pages, which is no other than Thesium umbellatum, L., afterwards distinguished by Nuttall as his genus Comandra. Again, under Anonymos, Yellow-Sandbind, there is a full description of what Nuttall after named Hudsonia tomentosa. The same volume shows that the author had anticipated Prof. Gray in referring Orchis fimbriata, as it was called by Pursh and other botanists, to O. psychodes, L.; and the remark is also made that O. lacera Michx.,—which Muhlenberg and our other writers had mistakenly referred to O. psychodes, till Dr. Gray corrected the error,—“must be a new species,” which it then certainly was. Again, there is another Anomolos described at length, which is the same afterwards constituted by Nuttall his genus Microstylis. So Campanula humida (Cutler mss.) is what Pursh designated, long after, C. aparinoides. Again, in another volume (for 1800), he anticipates Pursh by proposing for our water-shield the name Brasenia ovalifolia; and, in yet another, he is before Bigelow in describing as a new species what the latter, many years later, published as Prunus obovata. This may suffice to indicate the merits of the botanist of Ipswich Hamlet. A little shrub-willow, with clean, shining leaves, and modest catkins,—inhabiting, almost everywhere, the alpine regions of the White Mountains, and gathered by him there, before any other botanist had penetrated those solitudes,—still reminds us of his name, which deserves to be remembered by his countrymen.
After Cutler, there appeared nothing of importance[25] on our botany, till the present elder school of New-England botanists—a school characterized by the names of an Oakes, a Boott, and an Emerson—was founded, now more than forty years ago, by the classical Florula of Bigelow.
1672 edition by Josselyn.
New-Englands
RARITIES
Discovered:
IN
Birds, Beasts, Fishes, Serpents, and Plants
of that Country.
Together with
The Physical and Chyrurgical Remedies wherewith
the Natives constantly use to Cure their
Distempers, Wounds, and Sores.
ALSO
A perfect Description of an Indian SQUA, in all
her Bravery; with a POEM not improperly
conferr’d upon her.
LASTLY
A CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE
of the most remarkable Passages in that Country
amongst the English.
Illustrated with CUTS.
By JOHN JOSSELYN, Gent.
London, Printed for G. Widdowes at the
Green Dragon in St. Pauls Church yard, 1672.
To the highly obliging,
His Honoured Friend and Kinsman,
Samuel Fortrey Esq;
SIR,
IT was by your assistance (enabling me) that I commenc’d a Voyage into those remote-parts of the World (known to us by the painful Discovery of that memorable Gentleman Sir Fran. Drake.) Your bounty then and formerly hath engaged a retribution of my Gratitude, and not knowing how to testifie the same unto you otherwayes, I have (although with some reluctancy) adventured to obtrude upon you these rude and indigested Eight Years Observations, wherein whether I shall more shame my self or injure your accurate Judgment and better Employment in the perusal, is a question.
We read of Kings and Gods that kindly took
A Pitcher fill’d with Water from the Brook.
The Contemplation whereof (well knowing your noble and generous Disposition) hath confirm’d in me the hope that you will pardon my presumption, and accept the tender of the fruits of my Travel after this homely manner, and my self as,
Sir,
Your highly obliged,
&
most humble Servant,
John Josselyn.
New-Englands
RARITIES
Discovered.
IN the year of our Lord 1663. May 28. upon an Invitation from my only Brother, I departed from London, and arrived at Boston, the chief Town in the Massachusetts, a Colony of Englishmen in New-England, the 28th of July following.
Boston (whose longitude is 315 deg. and 42 deg. 30 min. of North Latitude) is built on the South-west side of a Bay large enough for the Anchorage of 500 Sail of Ships, the Buildings are handsome, joyning one to the other as in London, with many large streets, most of them paved with pebble stone, in the high street towards the Common, there are fair buildings, some of stone, and at the East End of the {2} Town one amongst the rest, built by the Shore by Mr. Gibs, a Merchant, being a stately Edifice, which it is thought will stand him in little less than 3000 l. before it be fully finished.[26] The Town is not divided into Parishes, yet they have three fair Meeting-houses or Churches, which hardly suffice to receive the Inhabitants and Strangers that come in from all parts.[27]
Having refreshed my self here for some time, and opportunely lighting upon a passage in a Bark belonging to a Friend of my Brothers, and bound to the Eastward, I put to sea again, and on the Fifteenth of August, I arrived at Black-point, otherwise called Scarborow, the habitation of my beloved Brother,[28] being about an hundred leagues to the Eastward of Boston; here I resided eight years, and made it my business to discover all along the Natural, Physical, and Chyrurgical Rarities of this New-found World.
New-England is said to begin at 40 and to end at 46 of Northerly Latitude, that is from de la Ware Bay to New-found-Land.
The Sea Coasts are accounted wholsomest, the East and South Winds coming {3} from Sea produceth warm weather, the Northwest coming over land causeth extremity of Cold, and many times strikes the Inhabitants both English and Indian with that sad Disease called there the Plague of the back, but with us Empiema.[29]
The Country generally is Rocky and Mountanous, and extremely overgrown with wood, yet here and there beautified with large rich Valleys, wherein are Lakes ten, twenty, yea sixty miles in compass, out of which our great Rivers have their Beginnings.[30]
Fourscore miles (upon a direct line) to the Northwest of Scarborow, a Ridge of Mountains run Northwest and Northeast an hundred Leagues, known by the name of the White Mountains, upon which lieth Snow all the year, and is a Land-mark twenty miles off at Sea. It is rising ground from the Sea shore to these Hills, and they are inaccessible but by the Gullies which the dissolved Snow hath made; in these Gullies grow Saven Bushes, which being taken hold of are a good help to the climbing Discoverer; upon the top of the highest of these Mountains is a large Level {4} or Plain of a days journey over, whereon nothing grows but Moss: at the farther end of this Plain is another Hill called the Sugar-Loaf, to outward appearance a rude heap of massie stones piled one upon another, and you may as you ascend step from one stone to another, as if you were going up a pair of stairs, but winding still about the Hill till you come to the top, which will require half a days time, and yet it is not above a Mile, where there is also a Level of about an Acre of ground, with a pond of clear water in the midst of it; which you may hear run down, but how it ascends is a mystery. From this rocky Hill you may see the whole Country round about; it is far above the lower Clouds, and from hence we beheld a Vapour (like a great Pillar) drawn up by the Sun Beams out of a great Lake or Pond into the Air, where it was formed into a Cloud. The Country beyond these Hills Northward is daunting terrible, being full of rocky Hills, as thick as Mole-hills in a Meadow, and cloathed with infinite thick Woods.[31]
New-England is by some affirmed to be an Island, bounded on the North with the {5} River Canada, (so called from Monsieur Cane) on the South with the River Mohegan, or Hudsons River, so called because he was the first that discovered it.[32] Some will have America to be an Island, which out of question must needs be, if there be a Northeast passage found out into the South Sea; it contains 1152400000 Acres. The discovery of the Northwest passage (which lies within the River of Canada) was undertaken with the help of some Protestant Frenchmen, which left Canada and retired to Boston about the year 1669. The Northeast people of America i.e. New England, &c. are judged to be Tartars called Samoades, being alike in complexion, shape, habit and manners, (see the Globe:) Their Language is very significant, using but few words, every word having a diverse signification, which is exprest by their gesture; as when they hold their head of one side the word signifieth one thing, holding their hand up when they pronounce it signifieth another thing. Their Speeches in their Assemblies are very gravely delivered, commonly in perfect Hexamiter Verse, with great silence and attention, and answered again ex tempore after the same manner.[33]
{6} Having given you some short Notes concerning the Country in general, I shall now enter upon the proposed Discovery of the Natural, Physical, and Chyrurgical Rarities; and that I may methodically deliver them unto you, I shall cast them into this form: 1. Birds. 2. Beasts. 3. Fishes. 4. Serpents and Insects. 5. Plants, of these, 1. such Plants as are common with us, 2. of such Plants as are proper to the country, 3. of such Plants as are proper to the Country and have no name known to us, 4. of such Plants as have sprung up since the English Planted and kept Cattle there, 5. of such Garden Herbs (amongst us) as do thrive there and of such as do not. 6. Of Stones, Minerals, Metals, and Earths.
First, Of Birds.[34]
The Humming Bird.
The Humming Bird, the least of all Birds, little bigger than a Dor, of variable glittering Colours, they feed upon Honey, which they suck out of Blossoms {7} and Flowers with their long Needle-like Bills; they sleep all Winter, and are not to be seen till the Spring, at which time they breed in little Nests, made up like a bottom of soft, Silk-like matter, their Eggs no bigger than a white Pease, they hatch three or four at a time, and are proper to this Country.
The Troculus.[35]
The Troculus, a small Bird, black and white, no bigger than a Swallow, the points of whose Feathers are sharp, which they stick into the sides of the Chymney (to rest themselves, their Legs being exceeding short) where they breed in Nests made like a Swallows Nest, but of a glewy substance, and which is not fastened to the Chymney as a Swallows Nest, but hangs down the Chymney by a clew-like string a yard long. They commonly have four or five young ones, and when they go away, which is much about the time that Swallows use to depart, they never fail to throw down one of their young Birds into the room by way of Gratitude. I have more than once observed, that against the ruin of the Family these Birds will suddenly forsake the house and come no more.
{8} The Pilhannaw.[36]
The Pilhannaw or Mechquan, much like the description of the Indian Ruck, a monstrous great Bird, a kind of Hawk, some say an Eagle, four times as big as a Goshawk, white Mail’d, having two or three purple Feathers in her head as long as Geeses Feathers they make Pens of the Quills of these Feathers are purple, as big as Swans Quills and transparent; her Head is as big as a Childs of a year old, a very Princely Bird; when she soars abroad, all sort of feathered Creatures hide themselves, yet she never preys upon any of them, but upon Fawns and Jaccals: She Ayries in the Woods upon the high Hills of Ossapy, and is very rarely or seldome seen.
The Turkie.[37]
The Turkie, who is blacker than ours; I have heard several credible persons affirm, they have seen Turkie Cocks that have weighed forty, yea sixty pound; but out of my personal experimental knowledge I can assure you, that I have eaten my share of a Turkie Cock, that when he was pull’d and garbidg’d, weighed thirty {9} pound; and I have also seen threescore broods of young Turkies on the side of a marsh, sunning of themselves in a morning betimes, but this was thirty years since, the English and the Indians having now destroyed the breed, so that ’tis very rare to meet with a wild Turkie in the Woods; But some of the English bring up great store of the wild kind, which remain about their Houses as tame as ours in England.
The Goose.[38]
The Goose, of which there are three kinds; the Gray Goose, the White Goose, and the Brant: The Goose will live a long time; I once found in a White Goose three Hearts, she was a very old one, and so tuff, that we gladly gave her over although exceeding well roasted.
The Bloody-Flux Cured.
A Friend of mine of good Quality living sometime in Virginia was sore troubled for a long time with the Bloody-Flux, having tryed several Remedies by the advice of his Friends without any good effect, at last was induced with a longing desire to drink the Fat Dripping {10} of a Goose newly taken from the Fire, which absolutely cured him, who was in despair of ever recovering his health again.
The Gripe and Vulture.
The Gripe, which is of two kinds, the one with a White Head, the other with a black Head, this we take for the Vulture. They are both cowardly Kites,[39] preying upon Fish cast up on the shore. In the year 1668 there was a great mortality of Eels in Casco Bay, thither resorted at the same time an infinite number of Gripes, insomuch that being shot by the Inhabitants, they fed their Hogs with them for some weeks; at other times you shall seldom see above two or three in a dozen miles travelling. The Quill Feathers in their Wings make excellent Text Pens, and the Feathers of their Tail are highly esteemed by the Indians for their Arrows, they will not sing in flying; a Gripes Tail is worth a Beavers Skin, up in the Country.
A Remedy for the Coldness and pain of the Stomach.
The Skin of a Gripe drest with the doun on, is good to wear upon the Stomach for the Pain and Coldness of it.
{11} The Osprey.
The Osprey, which in this Country is white mail’d.
A Remedy for the Tooth-ach.
Their Beaks excell for the Tooth-ach, picking the Gums therewith till they bleed.
The Wobble.[40]
The Wobble, an ill shaped Fowl, having no long Feathers in their Pinions, which is the reason they cannot fly, not much unlike the Pengwin; they are in the Spring very fat, or rather oyly, but pull’d and garbidg’d, and laid to the Fire to roast, they yield not one drop.
For Aches.
Our way (for they are very soveraign for Aches) is to make Mummy of them, that is, to salt them well, and dry them in an earthern pot well glazed in an Oven; or else (which is the better way) to burn them under ground for a day or two, then quarter them and stew them in a Tin Stewpan with a very little water.
{12} The Loone.
The Loone is a Water Fowl, alike in shape to the Wobble, and as virtual for Aches, which we order after the same manner.[41]
The Owl.
The Owl, Avis devia, which are of three kinds; the great Gray Owl with Ears, the little Gray Owl, and the White Owl which is no bigger than a Thrush.[42]
The Turkie Buzzard.
The Turkie Buzzard, a kind of Kite, but as big as a Turkie, brown of colour, and very good meat.[43]
What Birds are not to be found in New-England.
Now, by what the country hath not, you may ghess at what it hath; it hath no Nightingals, nor Larks, nor Bulfinches, nor Sparrows, nor Blackbirds, nor Mag{13}pies, nor Jackdawes, nor Popinjays, nor Rooks, nor Pheasants, nor Woodcocks, nor Quails, nor Robins, nor Cuckoes, &c.[44]
Secondly, Of Beasts.[45]
The Bear, which are generally Black.[46]
The Bear, they live four months in Caves, that is all Winter; in the Spring they bring forth their young ones, they seldome have above three Cubbs in a litter, are very fat in the Fall of the Leaf with feeding upon Acorns, at which time they are excellent Venison; their Brains are venomous; They feed much upon water Plantane in the Spring and Summer, and Berries, and also upon a shell-fish called a Horse-foot; and are never mankind, i.e. fierce, but in rutting time, and then they walk the Country twenty, thirty, forty in a company, making a hideous noise with roaring, which you may hear a mile or two before they come so near to endanger the Traveller. About four years since, Acorns being very scarce up in the Country, some numbers of them came down {14} amongst the English Plantations, which generally are by the Sea side; at one Town called Gorgiana in the Province of Meyn (called also New-Sommerset-shire) they kill’d fourscore.
For Aches and Cold Swellings.
Their Grease is very good for Aches and Cold Swellings, the Indians anoint themselves therewith from top to toe, which hardens them against the cold weather. A black Bears Skin heretofore was worth forty shillings, now you may have one for ten, much used by the English for Beds and Coverlets, and by the Indians for Coats.
For Pain and Lameness upon Cold.
One Edw. Andrews being foxt,[47] and falling backward cross a Thought[48] in a Shallop or Fisher-boat, and taking cold upon it, grew crooked, lame, and full of pain, was cured, lying one Winter upon Bears Skins newly flead off, with some upon him, so that he sweat every night.
The Wolf.[49]
The Wolf, of which there are two kinds; one with a round-ball’d Foot, and {15} are in shape like mungrel Mastiffs; the other with a flat Foot, these are liker Greyhounds, and are called Deer Wolfs, because they are accustomed to prey upon Deer. A Wolf will eat a Wolf new dead, and so do Bears as I suppose, for their dead Carkases are never found, neither by the Indian nor English. They go a clicketing twelve days, and have as many Whelps at a Litter as a Bitch. The Indian Dog[50] is a Creature begotten ’twixt a Wolf and a Fox, which the Indians lighting upon, bring up to hunt the Deer with. The Wolf is very numerous, and go in companies, sometimes ten, twenty, more or fewer, and so cunning, that seldome any are kill’d with Guns or Traps; but of late they have invented a way to destroy them, by binding four Maycril Hooks a cross with a brown thread, and then wrapping some Wool about them, they dip them in melted Tallow till it be as round and as big as an Egg; these (when any Beast hath been kill’d by the Wolves) they scatter by the dead Carkase, after they have beaten off the Wolves; about Midnight the Wolves are sure to return again to the place where they left the slaughtered Beast, and the {16} first thing they venture upon will be these balls of fat.
For old Aches.
A black Wolfs Skin is worth a Beaver Skin among the Indians, being highly esteemed for helping old Aches in old people, worn as a Coat; they are not mankind, as in Ireland and other Countries, but do much harm by destroying of our English Cattle.
The Ounce.[51]
The Ounce or Wild Cat, is about the bigness of two lusty Ram Cats, preys upon Deer and our English Poultrey: I once found six whole Ducks in the belly of one I killed by a Pond side: Their flesh roasted is as good as Lamb, and as white.
For Aches and shrunk Sinews.
Their Grease is soveraign for all manner of Aches and shrunk Sinews: Their Skins are accounted good Fur, but somewhat course.
{17} The Raccoon.[52]
The Raccoon liveth in hollow trees, and is about the size of a Gib Cat; they feed upon Mass, and do infest our Indian Corn very much; they will be exceeding fat in Autumn; their flesh is somewhat dark, but good food roasted.
For Bruises and Aches.
Their Fat is excellent for bruises and Aches. Their Skins are esteemed a good deep Fur; but yet as the Wild Cats somewhat coarse.
The Porcupine.
The Porcupine, in some parts of the Countrey Eastward towards the French, are as big as an ordinary Mungrel Cur; a very angry Creature, and dangerous, shooting a whole shower of Quills with a rowse at their enemies, which are of that nature, that wherever they stick in the flesh, they will work through in a short time, if not prevented by pulling of them out. The Indians make use of their Quills, which are hardly a handful long, to adorn {18} the edges of their birchen dishes, and weave (dying some of them red, others yellow and blew) curious bags or pouches, in works like Turkie-work.[53]
The Beaver, Canis Ponticus, Amphybious.[54]
The Beaver, whose old ones are as big as an Otter, or rather bigger, a Creature of a rare instinct, as may apparently be seen in their artificial Dam-heads to raise the water in the Ponds where they keep, and their houses having three stories, which would be too large to discourse.[54] They have all of them four Cods hanging outwardly between their hinder legs, two of them are soft or oyly, and two solid or hard; the Indians say they are Hermaphrodites.
For Wind in the Stomach.
Their solid Cods are much used in Physick: Our Englishwomen in this Country use the powder grated, as much as will lye upon a shilling in a draught of Fiol Wine, for Wind in the Stomach and Belly, and venture many times in such cases to give it to Women with Child: Their Tails are flat, and covered with Scales without hair, {19} which being flead off, and the Tail boiled, proves exceeding good meat, being all Fat, and as sweet as Marrow.
The Moose-Deer.[55]
The Moose Deer, which is a very goodly Creature, some of them twelve foot high, with exceeding fair Horns with broad Palms, some of them two fathom from the tip of one Horn to the other; they commonly have three Fawns at a time, their flesh is not dry like Deers flesh, but moist and lushious somewhat like Horse flesh (as they judge that have tasted of both) but very wholsome. The flesh of their Fawns is an incomparable dish, beyond the flesh of an Asses Foal so highly esteemed by the Romans, or that of young Spaniel Puppies so much cried up in our days in France and England.
Moose Horns better for Physick Use than Harts Horns.
Their Horns are far better (in my opinion) for Physick than the Horns of other Deer, as being of a stronger nature: As for their Claws, which both Englishmen and French make use of for Elk, I cannot {20} approve so to be from the Effects, having had some trial of it; besides, all that write of the Elk describe him with a tuft of hair on the left Leg behind, a little above the pastern joynt on the outside of the Leg, not unlike the tuft (as I conceive) that groweth upon the breast of a Turkie Cock, which I could never yet see upon the Leg of a Moose, and I have seen some number of them.
For Children breeding Teeth.
The Indian Webbes make use of the broad Teeth of the Fawns to hang about their Childrens Neck when they are breeding of their Teeth. The Tongue of a grown Moose, dried in the smoak after the Indian manner, is a dish for a Sagamor.
The Maccarib.[56]
The Maccarib, Caribo, or Pohano, a kind of Deer, as big as a Stag, round hooved, smooth hair’d and soft as silk; their Horns grow backwards a long their backs to their rumps, and turn again a handful beyond their Nose, having another Horn in the middle of their Forehead, about half a yard long, very straight, but {21} wreathed like an Unicorns Horn, of a brown jettie colour, and very smooth: The Creature is no where to be found, but upon Cape Sable in the French Quarters, and there too very rarely, they being not numerous; some few of their Skins and their streight Horns are (but very sparingly) brought to the English.
The Fox.[57]
The Fox, which differeth not much from ours, but are somewhat less; a black Fox Skin heretofore was wont to be valued at fifty and sixty pound, but now you may have them for twenty shillings; indeed there is not any in New-England that are perfectly black, but silver hair’d, that is sprinkled with grey hairs.
The Jaccal.[58]
The Jaccal, is a Creature that hunts the Lions prey, a shrew’d sign that there are Lions upon the Continent; there are those that are yet living in the Countrey, that do constantly affirm, that about six or seven and thirty years since an Indian {22} shot a young Lion,[59] sleeping upon the body of an Oak blown up by the roots, with an Arrow, not far from Cape Anne, and sold the Skin to the English. But to say something of the Jaccal, they are ordinarily less than Foxes, of the colour of a gray Rabbet, and do not scent nothing near so strong as a Fox; some of the Indians will eat of them: Their Grease is good for all that Fox Grease is good for, but weaker; they are very numerous.
The Hare.[60]
The Hare in New-England is no bigger than our English Rabbets, of the same colour, but withall having yellow and black strokes down the ribs; in Winter they are milk white, and as the Spring approacheth they come to their colour; when the Snow lies upon the ground they are very bitter with feeding upon the bark of Spruce, and the like.[61]
{23} Thirdly, Of Fishes.[62]
Pliny and Isadore write there are not above 144 Kinds of Fishes, but to my knowledge there are nearer 300: I suppose America was not known to Pliny and Isadore.
A Catalogue of Fish, that is, of those that are to be seen between the English Coast and America, and those proper to the Countrey.
Alderling.
Alize, Alewife, because great-bellied; Olafle, Oldwife, Allow.[63]
Anchova or Sea Minnow.
Aleport.
Albicore.[64]
Barble.
Barracha.
Barracoutha, a fish peculiar to the West-Indies.[65]
Barsticle.
Basse.[66]
Sea Bishop, proper to the Norway Seas.
{24} River Bleak or Bley, a River Swallow.
Sea Bleak or Bley, or Sea Camelion.
Blew Fish or Hound Fish, two kinds, speckled Hound Fish, and Blew Hound Fish called Horse Fish.[67]
Bonito or Dozado, or Spanish Dolphin.[68]
River Bream.
Sea Bream.[69]
Cud Bream.
Bullhead or Indian Muscle.
River Bulls.
Burfish.
Burret.
Cackarel or Laxe.
Calemarie or Sea Clerk.
Catfish.[70]
Carp.
Chare, a Fish proper to the River Wimander in Lancashire.
Sea Chough.
Chub or Chevin.
Cony Fish.
Clam or Clamp.[71]
Sea Cob.
Cockes, or Coccles, or Coquil.[72]
Cook Fish.
Rock Cod.
Sea Cod or Sea Whiting.[73]
{25} Crab, divers kinds, as the Sea Crab, Boatfish, River Crab, Sea Lion, &c.
Sea Cucumber.
Cunger or Sea Eel.
Cunner or Sea Roach.
Cur.
Currier, Post, or Lacquey of the Sea.
Crampfish or Torpedo.
Cuttle, or Sleeves, or Sea Angler.
Clupea, the Tunnies enemy.
Sea Cornet.
Cornuta or Horned Fish.
Dace, Dare, or Dart.
Sea Dart, Javelins.
Dog-fish or Tubarone.
Dolphin.
Dorce.
Dorrie, Goldfish.
Golden-eye, Gilt-pole, or Godline, Yellow-heads.
Sea Dragon or Sea Spider, Quaviner.
Drum, a Fish frequent in the West Indies.
Sea Emperour or Sword Fish.
Eel, of which divers kinds.[74]
Sea Elephant, the Leather of this Fish will never rot, excellent for Thongs.
Ears of the Sea.
Flayl-fish.
{26} Flownder or Flook, the young ones are called Dabs.
Sea Flownder or Flowre.
Sea Fox.
Frogfish.
Frostfish.[75]
Frutola, a broad plain Fish with a Tail like a half Moon.
Sea Flea.
Gallyfish.
Grandpiss[76] or Herring Hog, this, as all Fish of extraordinary size, are accounted Regal Fishes.
Grayling.
Greedigut.
Groundling.
Gudgin.
Gulf.
Sea Grape.
Gull.
Gurnard.
Hake.
Haccle or Sticklebacks.
Haddock.
Horse Foot or Asses Hoof.
Herring.
Hallibut or Sea Pheasant. Some will have the Turbut all one, others distinguish {27} them, calling the young Fish of the first Buttis, and of the other Birt. There is no question to be made of it but that they are distinct kinds of Fish.[77]
Sea Hare.[78]
Sea Hawk.
Hartfish.
Sea Hermit.
Henfish.
Sea Hind.
Hornbeak, Sea Ruff and Reeves.
Sea Horseman.
Hog or Flying Fish.
Sea Kite or Flying Swallow.
Lampret or Lamprel.
Lampreys or Lamprones.[79]
Limpin.
Ling, Sea Beef; the smaller sort is called Cusk.
Sea Lanthorn.
Sea Liver.
Lobster.[80]
Sea Lizard.
Sea Locusts.
Lump, Poddle, or Sea Owl.
Lanter.
Lux, peculiar to the river Rhyne.
Sea Lights.
{28} Luna, a very small Fish, but exceeding beautiful, broad-bodied and blewish of colour; when it swims, the Fins make a Circle like the Moon.
Maycril.
Maid.
Manatee.
Mola, a Fish like a lump of Flesh, taken in the Venetian Sea.
Millers Thumb, Mulcet or Pollard.
Molefish.
Minnow, called likewise a Pink; the same name is given to young Salmon; it is called also a Witlin.
Monkefish.[81]
Morse, River or Sea Horse,[82] fresh water Mullet.
Sea Mullet, Botargo or Petargo is made of their Spawn.
Muscle, divers kinds.[83]
Navelfish.
Nunfish.
Needlefish.
Sea Nettle.
Oyster.[84]
Occulata.
Perch or River Partridge.
Pollack.
{29} Piper or Gavefish.
Periwig.
Periwincle or Sea Snail or Whelk.
Pike, or Fresh-water Wolf, or River Wolf, Luce and Lucerne, which is an overgrown Pike.
Pilchard, when they are dried as Red Herrings they are called Fumadoes.
Pilot Fish.
Plaice or Sea Sparrow.
Polipe or Pour-Contrel.
Porpuise or Porpiss, Molebut, Sea Hog, Sus Marinus, Tursion.
Priest Fish or Sea Priest.
Prawn or Crangone.
Punger.
Patella.
Powt, the Feathered Fish, or Fork Fish.
River Powt.
Pursefish, or Indian Reversus, like an Eel; having a Skin on the hinder part of her Head, like a Purse, with strings, which will open and shut.
Parratfish.
Purplefish.
Porgee.
Remora, or Suck Stone, or Stop Ship.
Sea Raven.
{30} Roch or Roach.
Rochet or Rouget.
Ruff or Pope.
Sea Ram.
Salmon.[85]
Sailfish.
Scallope or Venus Coccle.
Scate, or Ray, or Gristlefish; of which divers kinds; as sharp snowted Ray, Rock Ray, &c.
Shad.[86]
Shallow.
Sharpling.
Spurling.
Sculpin.
Sheepshead.[87]
Soles, or Tonguefish, or Sea Capon, or Sea Partridge.
Seal, or Soil, or Zeal.[88]
Sea Calf, and (as some will have it) Molebut.
Sheathfish.[89]
Sea Scales.
Sturgeon; of the Roe of this Fish they make Caviare, or Cavialtie.[90]
Shark or Bunch, several kinds.[91]
Smelt.
Snaccot.
{31} Shrimp.
Spyfish.
Spitefish.
Sprat.
Spungefish.
Squill.
Squid.[92]
Sunfish.
Starfish.[93]
Swordfish.
Tench.
Thornback or Neptunes Beard.
Thunnie, they cut the Fish in pieces like shingles and powder it, and this they call Melandria.
Sea Toad.
Tortoise, Torteise, Tortuga, Tortisse, Turcle or Turtle, of divers kinds.[94]
Trout.[95]
Turbut.[96]
Sea Tun.
Sea Tree.
Uraniscopus.
Ulatise or Sawfish, having a Saw in his Forehead three foot long, and very sharp.
Umber.
Sea Urchin.
{32} Sea Unicorn or Sea Mononeros.
Whale, many kinds.[97]
Whiting or Merling, the young ones are called Weerlings and Mops.
Whore.[98]
Yardfish, Asses Prick or Shamefish.
The Sturgeon.
The Sturgeon, of whose Sounds is made Isinglass, a kind of Glew much used in Physick: This Fish is here in great plenty, and in some Rivers so numerous, that it is hazardous for Canoes and the like small Vessels to pass to and again, as in Pechipscut River to the Eastward.
The Cod.
The Cod, which is a staple Commodity in the Country.
To stop Fluxes of Blood.
In the Head of this Fish is found a Stone, or rather a Bone, which being pulveriz’d and drank in any convenient liquor, will stop Womens overflowing Courses notably: Likewise,
{33} For the Stone.
There is a Stone found in their Bellies, in a Bladder against their Navel, which being pulveriz’d and drank in White-wine Posset or Ale, is present Remedy for the Stone.
To heal a green Cut.
About their Fins you may find a kind of Lowse, which healeth a green Cut in short time.
To restore them that have melted their Grease.
Their Livers and Sounds eaten, is a good Medicine for to restore them that have melted their Grease.
The Dogfish.
The Dogfish, a ravenous Fish.
For the Toothach.
Upon whose Back grows a Thorn two or three Inches long, that helps the Toothach, scarifying the Gums therewith.
Their Skins are good to cover Boxes and Instrument Cases.
{34} The Stingray.
The Stingray, a large Fish, of a rough Skin, good to cover Boxes and Hafts of Knives, and Rapier sticks.
The Tortous.
The Turtle or Tortous, of which there are three kinds:
1. The land Turtle; they are found in dry sandy Banks, under old Houses, and never go into the water.
For the Ptisick, Consumption, and Morbus Gallicus.
They are good for the Ptisick and Consumptions, and some say the Morbus Gallicus.
2. The River Turtle, which are venomous and stink.
3. The Turtle that lives in Lakes and is called in Virginia a Terrapine.
The Soile.
The Soile or Sea Calf, a Creature that brings forth her young ones upon dry land, but at other times keeps in the Sea preying upon Fish.
{35} For Scalds and Burns, and for the Mother.
The Oyl of it is much used by the Indians, who eat of it with their Fish, and anoint their limbs therewith, and their Wounds and Sores: It is very good for Scalds and Burns; and the fume of it, being cast upon Coals, will bring Women out of the Mother Fits. The Hair upon the young ones is white, and as soft as silk; their Skins, with the Hair on, are good to make Gloves for the Winter.
The Sperma Ceti Whale.
The Sperma Ceti Whale differeth from the Whales that yield us Whale-bones, for the first hath great and long Teeth, the other is nothing but Bones with Tassels hanging from their Jaws, with which they suck in their prey.
What Sperma Ceti is.
It is not long since a Sperma Ceti Whale or two were cast upon the shore, not far from Boston in the Massachusetts Bay, which being cut into small pieces and boiled in Cauldrons, yielded plenty of Oyl; the Oyl put up into Hogsheads, and flow’d into Cellars for some time, Candies at the {36} bottom, it may be one quarter; then the Oyl is drawn off, and the Candied Stuff put up into convenient Vessels is sold for Sperma Ceti, and is right Sperma Ceti.
For Bruises and Aches.
The Oyl that was drawn off Candies again and again, if well ordered; and is admirable for Bruises and Aches.
What Ambergreece is.
Now you must understand this Whale feeds upon Ambergreece, as is apparent, finding it in the Whales Maw in great quantity, but altered and excrementitious: I conceive that Ambergreece is no other than a kind of Mushroom growing at the bottom of some Seas; I was once shewed (by a Mariner) a piece of Ambergreece having a root to it like that of the land Mushroom, which the Whale breaking up, some scape his devouring Paunch, and is afterwards cast upon shore.
The Coccle.[99]
A kind of Coccle, of whose Shell the Indians make their Beads called Wompampeag and Mohaicks, the first are white, the other blew, both Orient, and beau{37}tified with a purple Vein. The white Beads are very good to stanch Blood.
The Scarlet Muscle.
The Scarlet Muscle, at Paschatawey a Plantation about fifty leagues by Sea Eastward from Boston, in a small Cove called Bakers Cove there is found this kind of Muscle which hath a purple Vein, which being prickt with a Needle yieldeth a perfect purple or scarlet juice, dying Linnen so that no washing will wear it out, but keeps its lustre many years: We mark our Handkerchiefs and Shirts with it.[100]
Fish of greatest Esteem in the West Indies.
The Indians of Peru esteem of three Fishes more than any other, viz. the Sea Torteise, the Tubaron, and the Manate,[101] or Sea Cow; but in New-England the Indians have in greatest request, the Bass, the Sturgeon, the Salmon, the Lamprey, the Eel, the Frost-fish, the Lobster and the Clam.
{38} Fourthly, Of Serpents, and Insects.[102]
The Pond Frog.[103]
The Pond Frog, which chirp in the Spring like Sparows, and croke like Toads in Autumn: Some of these when they set upon their breech are a Foot high; the Indians will tell you, that up in the Country there are Pond Frogs as big as a Child of a year old.
For Burns, Scalds, and Inflammations.
They are of a glistering brass colour, and very fat, which is excellent for Burns and Scaldings, to take out the Fire, and heal them, leaving no Scar; and is also very good to take away any Inflammation.
The Rattle Snake.[104]
The Rattle Snake, who poysons with a Vapour that comes thorough two crooked Fangs in their Mouth; the hollow of these Fangs are as black as Ink: The Indians, when weary with travelling, will {39} take them up with their bare hands, laying hold with one hand behind their Head, with the other taking hold of their Tail, and, with their teeth tear off the Skin of their backs, and feed upon them alive; which they say refresheth them.
For frozen Limbs, Aches, and Bruises.
They have Leafs of Fat in their Bellies, which is excellent to annoint frozen Limbs, and for Aches and Bruises wondrous soveraign. Their Hearts swallowed fresh, is a good Antidote against their Venome, and their Liver (the Gall taken out) bruised and applied to their Bitings is a present Remedy.
Of Insects.[105]
A Bug.
There is a certain kind of Bug like a Beetle, but of a glittering brass colour, with four strong Tinsel Wings; their Bodies are full of Corruption or white Matter like a Maggot; being dead, and kept awhile, they will stench odiously; they beat the Humming Birds from the Flowers.
{40} The Wasp.
The Wasps in this Countrey are pied, black and white, breed in Hives made like a great Pine Apple, their entrance is at the lower end, the whole Hive is of an Ash Colour, but of what matter its made no man knows; wax it is not, neither will it melt nor fry, but will take fire suddenly like Tinder: this they fasten to a Bow, or build it round about a low Bush, a Foot from the ground.
The flying Gloworm.
The flying Gloworm, flying in dark Summer Nights like sparks of Fire in great number; they are common likewise, in Palestina.
{41} Fifthly, Of Plants.
AND
1. Of such Plants as are common with us in ENGLAND.
Hedghog-grass.[106]
Mattweed.[107]
Cats-tail.[108]
Stichwort, commonly taken here by ignorant People for Eyebright; it blows in June.[109]
Blew Flower-de-luce; the roots are not knobby, but long and streight, and very white, with a multitude of strings.[110]
To provoke Vomit and for Bruises.
It is excellent for to provoke Vomiting, and for Bruises on the Feet or Face. They Flower in June, and grow upon dry sandy Hills as well as in low wet Grounds.
Yellow bastard Daffodill; it flowereth in May, the green leaves are spotted with black spots.[111]
Dogstones, a kind of Satyrion, whereof there are several kinds groweth in our Salt Marshes.[112]
{42} To procure Love.
I once took notice of a wanton Womans compounding the solid Roots of this Plant with Wine, for an Amorous Cup; which wrought the desired effect.
Watercresses.[113]
Red Lillies grow all over the Country innumerably amongst the small Bushes, and flower in June.[114]
Wild Sorrel.[115]
Adders Tongue comes not up till June; I have found it upon dry hilly grounds, in places where the water hath stood all Winter, in August, and did then make Oyntment of the Herb new gathered; the fairest Leaves grow amongst short Hawthorn Bushes, that are plentifully growing in such hollow places.[116]
One Blade.[117]
Lilly Convallie, with the yellow Flowers grows upon rocky banks by the Sea.[118]
Water Plantane, here called Water suck-leaves.[119]
For Burns and Scalds, and to draw Water out of swell’d Legs.
It is much used for Burns and Scalds, and to draw water out of swell’d Legs. Bears feed much upon this Plant, so do the Moose Deer.
{43} Sea Plantane, three kinds.[120]
Small-water Archer.[121]
Autumn Bell Flower.[122]
White Hellibore, which is the first Plant that springs up in this Country, and the first that withers; it grows in deep black Mould and Wet, in such abundance, that you may in a small compass gather whole Cart-loads of it.[123]
Wounds and Aches Cured by the Indians. For the Tooth-ach. For Herpes milliares.
The Indians Cure their Wounds with it, annointing the Wound first with Raccoons greese, or Wild-Cats greese, and strewing upon it the powder of the Roots; and for Aches they scarifie the grieved part, and annoint it with one of the foresaid Oyls, then strew upon it the powder: The powder of the Root put into a hollow Tooth, is good for the Tooth-ach: The Root sliced thin and boyled in Vineager, is very good against Herpes Milliaris.
Arsmart, both kinds.[124]
Spurge Time, it grows upon dry sandy Sea Banks, and is very like to Rupter-wort, it is full of Milk.[125]
Rupter-wort, with the white flower.[126]
Jagged Rose-penny-wort.[127]
{44} Soda bariglia, or massacote, the Ashes of Soda, of which they make Glasses.
Glass-wort, here called Berrelia, it grows abundantly in Salt Marshes.[128]
St. John’s-Wort.[129]
St. Peter’s-Wort.[130]
Speed-well Chick-weed.[131]
Male fluellin, or Speed-well.[132]
Upright Peniroyal.[133]
Wild-Mint.[134]
Cat-Mint.[135]
Egrimony.[136]
The lesser Clot-Bur.[137]
Water Lilly, with yellow Flowers, the Indians Eat the Roots, which are long a boiling, they tast like the Liver of a Sheep, the Moose Deer feed much upon them, at which time the Indians kill them, when their heads are under water.[138]
Dragons, their leaves differ from all the kinds with us, they come up in June.[139]
Violets of three kinds, the White Violet which is sweet, but not so strong as our Blew Violets; Blew Violets without sent, and a Reddish Violet without sent; they do not blow till June.[140]
{45} For swell’d Legs.
Wood-bine, good for hot swellings of the Legs, fomenting with the decoction, and applying the Feces in the form of a Cataplasme.[141]
Salomons-Seal, of which there is three kinds; the first common in England, the second, Virginia Salomons-Seal, and the third, differing from both, is called Treacle Berries, having the perfect tast of Treacle when they are ripe; and will keep good along while; certainly a very wholsome Berry, and medicinable.[142]
Doves-Foot.[143]
Herb Robert.[143]
Knobby Cranes Bill.[143]
For Agues.
Ravens-Claw, which flowers in May, and is admirable for Agues.[143]
Cinkfoil.[144]
Tormentile.[144]
Avens, with the leaf of Mountane-Avens, the flower and root of English Avens.[145]
Strawberries.[146]
Wild Angelica, majoris and minoris.[147]
Alexanders, which grow upon Rocks by the Sea shore.[148]
{46} Yarrow, with the white Flower.[149]
Columbines, of a flesh colour, growing upon Rocks.[150]
Oak of Hierusalem.[151]
Achariston is an excellent Medicine for stopping of the Lungs upon Cold, Ptisick, &c.
Oak of Cappadocia, both much of a nature, but Oak of Hierusalem is stronger in operation; excellent for stuffing of the Lungs upon Colds, shortness of Wind, and the Ptisick; maladies that the Natives are often troubled with: I helped several of the Indians with a Drink made of two Gallons of Molosses wort, (for in that part of the Country where I abode, we made our Beer of Molosses, Water, Bran, chips of Sassafras Root, and a little Wormwood, well boiled,) into which I put of Oak of Hierusalem, Cat-mint, Sowthistle, of each one handful, of Enula Campana Root one Ounce, Liquorice scrap’d brused and cut in pieces, one Ounce, Sassafras Root cut into thin chips, one Ounce, Anny-seed and sweet Fennel-seed, of each one Spoonful bruised; boil these in a close Pot, upon a soft Fire to the consumption of one Gallon, then take it off, and strein it gently; you may if you will [{47}] boil the streined liquor with Sugar to a Syrup, then when it is Cold, put it up into Glass Bottles, and take thereof three or four spoonfuls at a time, letting it run down your throat as leasurely as possibly you can; do thus in the morning, in the Afternoon, and at Night going to Bed.
Goose-Grass, or Clivers.[152]
Fearn.[153]
Brakes.[153]
Wood sorrel, with the yellow flower.[154]
Elm.[155]
Line Tree, both kinds.[156]
A way to draw out Oyl of Akrons, or the like, &c.
Maple; of the Ashes of this Tree the Indians make a lye, with which they force out Oyl from Oak Akorns that is highly esteemed by the Indians.[157]
Dew-Grass.[158]
Earth-Nut, which are of divers kinds, one bearing very beautiful Flowers.[159]
Fuss-Balls, very large.[160]
Mushrooms, some long and no bigger than ones finger, others jagged flat, round, none like our great Mushrooms in England, of these some are of a Scarlet colour, others a deep Yellow, &c.[160]
{48} Blew flowered Pimpernel.[161]
Noble Liver-wort, one sort with white flowers, the other with blew.[162]
Black-Berry.[163]
Dew-Berry.
Rasp-Berry, here called Mul-berry.
Goose-Berries, of a deep red Colour.[164]
Haw-thorn, the Haws being as big as Services, and very good to eat, and not so astringent as the Haws in England.[165]
Toad flax.[166]
Pellamount, or Mountain time.[167]
Mouse-ear Minor.[168]
The making of Oyl of Akrons. To strengthen weak Members. For Scall’d-heads.
There is Oak of three kinds, white, red and black, the white is excellent to make Canoes of, Shallopes, Ships, and other Vessels for the Sea, and for Claw-board, and Pipe-staves, the black is good to make Waynscot of; and out of the white Oak Acorns, (which is the Acorn Bears delight to feed upon): The Natives draw an Oyl, taking the rottenest Maple Wood, which being burnt to ashes, they make a strong Lye therewith, wherein they boyl their white Oak-Acorns until the Oyl swim on the top in great quantity; this [{49}] they fleet off, and put into bladders to annoint their naked Limbs, which corrobarates them exceedingly; they eat it likewise with their Meat, it is an excellent clear and sweet Oyl: Of the Moss that grows at the roots of the white Oak the Indesses make a strong decoction, with which they help their Papouses or young Childrens scall’d Heads.[169]
Juniper, which Cardanus saith is Cedar in hot Countries, and Juniper in cold Countries; it is hear very dwarfish and shrubby, growing for the most part by the Sea side.[170]
Willow.[171]
Spurge Lawrel, called here Poyson berry, it kills the English Cattle if they chance to feed upon it, especially Calves.[172]
Gaul, or noble Mirtle.[173]
Elder.[174]
Dwarf Elder.[175]
For a Cut with a Bruse.
Alder; An Indian Bruising and Cutting of his Knee with a fall, used no other remedy, than Alder Bark, chewed fasting, and laid to it, which did soon heal it.[176]
To take Fire out of a Burn.
The decoction is also excellent to take {50} the Fire out of a Burn or Scalld.
For Wounds and Cuts.
For Wounds and Cuts make a strong decoction of Bark of Alder, pour of it into the Wound, and drink thereof.
Hasel.[177]
For sore Mouths, falling of the Pallat.
Filberd, both with hairy husks upon the Nuts, and setting hollow from the Nut, and fill’d with a kind of water of an astringent taste; it is very good for sore Mouths, and falling of the Pallat, as is the whole green Nut before it comes to Kernel, burnt and pulverized. The Kernels are seldom without maggots in them.[177]
The Figure of the Walnut.
Walnut; the Nuts differ much from ours in Europe, they being smooth, much like a Nutmeg in shape, and not much bigger; some three cornered, all of them but thinly replenished with Kernels.[178]
{51} Chestnuts; very sweet in taste, and may be (as they usually are) eaten raw; the Indians sell them to the English for twelve pence the bushel.[179]
Beech.[180]
Ash.[181]
Quick-beam, or Wild-Ash.[182]
Coals of Birch pulverized and wrought with the white of an Egg to a Salve, is a gallant Remedy for dry scurfy Sores upon the Shins; and for Bruised Wounds and Cuts.
Birch, white and black; the bark of Birch is used by the Indians for bruised Wounds and Cuts, boyled very tender, and stampt betwixt two stones to a Plaister, and the decoction thereof poured into the Wound; And also to fetch the Fire out of Burns and Scalds.[183]
Poplar, but differing in leaf.[184]
Plumb Tree, several kinds, bearing some long, round, white, yellow, red, and black Plums; all differing in their Fruit from those in England.[185]
Wild Purcelane.[186]
Wood-wax, wherewith they dye many pretty Colours.[187]
Red and black Currans.[188]
{52} For the Gout, or any Ach.
Spunck, an excrescence growing out of black Birch, the Indians use it for Touchwood; and therewith they help the Sciatica, or Gout of the Hip, or any great Ach, burning the Patient with it in two or three places upon the Thigh, and upon certain Veins.[189]
2. Of such Plants as are proper to the Country.
To ripen any Impostume or Swelling. For sore Mouths. The New-Englands standing Dish.
Indian Wheat, of which there is three sorts, yellow, red, and blew; the blew is commonly Ripe before the other a Month: Five or Six Grains of Indian Wheat hath produced in one year 600. It is hotter than our Wheat and clammy; excellent in Cataplasms to ripen any Swelling or impostume. The decoction of the blew Corn, is good to wash sore Mouths with: It is light of digestion, and the English make a kind of Loblolly of it {53} to eat with Milk, which they call Sampe; they beat it in a Morter, and sift the flower out of it: the remainder they call Homminey, which they put into a Pot of two or three Gallons, with Water, and boyl it upon a gentle Fire till it be like a Hasty Pudden; they put of this into Milk, and so eat it. Their Bread also they make of the Homminey so boiled, and mix their Flower with it, cast it into a deep Bason in which they form the Loaf, and then turn it out upon the Peel, and presently put it into the Oven before it spreads abroad; the Flower makes excellent Puddens.[190]
Bastard Calamus Aromaticus, agrees with the description, but is not barren; they flower in July, and grow in wet places, as about the brinks of Ponds.[191]
To keep the Feet warm.
The English make use of the Leaves to keep their Feet warm. There is a little Beast called a Muskquash, that liveth in small Houses in the Ponds, like Mole Hills, that feed upon these Plants. Their Cods sent as sweet and as strong as Musk, and will last along time handsomly wrap’d up in Cotton wool; they are very good to lay amongst Cloaths. May is the best {54} time to kill them, for then their Cods sent strongest.
Wild-Leekes, which the Indians use much to eat with their fish.[192]
A Plant like Knavers-Mustard, called New-England Mustard.[193]
Mountain-Lillies, bearing many yellow Flowers, turning up their Leaves like the Martigon, or Turks Cap, spotted with small spots as deep as Safforn, they Flower in July.[194]
One Berry, or Herb True Love. [See the Figure].[195]
Tobacco, there is not much of it Planted in New-England. The Indians make use of a small kind with short round leaves called Pooke.[196]
For Burns and Scalds.
With a strong decoction of Tobacco they Cure Burns and Scalds, boiling it in Water from a Quart to a Pint, then wash the Sore therewith, and strew on the powder of dryed Tobacco.
Hollow Leaved Lavender.
Hollow Leaved Lavender, is a Plant that grows in salt Marshes overgrown with Moss, with one straight stalk about the bigness of an Oat straw, better than a Cubit high; upon the top standeth one {55} fantastical Flower, the Leaves grow close from the root, in shape like a Tankard, hollow, tough, and alwayes full of Water, the Root is made up of many small strings, growing only in the Moss, and not in the Earth, the whole Plant comes to its perfection in August, and then it has Leaves, Stalks, and Flowers as red as blood, excepting the Flower which hath some yellow admixt. I wonder where the knowledge of this Plant hath slept all this while, i.e. above Forty Years.[197]
For all manner of Fluxes.
It is excellent for all manner of Fluxes.
Live for ever, a kind of Cud-weed.[198]
Tree Primerose, taken by the Ignorant for Scabious.[199]
A Solar Plant, as some will have it.
Maiden Hair, or Cappellus veneris verus, which ordinarily is half a Yard in height. The Apothecaries for shame now will substitute Wall-Rue no more for Maiden Hair, since it grows in abundance in New-England, from whence they may have good store.[200]
Pirola, Two kinds. [See the Figures], both of them excellent Wound Herbs.[201]
Homer’s Molley.[202]
{56} Lysimachus or Loose Strife, it grows in dry grounds in the open Sun four foot high, Flowers from the middle of the Plant to the top, the Flowers purple, standing upon a small sheath or cod, which when it is ripe breaks and puts forth a white silken doun, the stalk is red, and as big as ones Finger.[203]
Marygold of Peru, of which there are two kinds, one bearing black seeds, the other black and white streak’d, this beareth the fairest flowers, commonly but one upon the very top of the stalk.[204]
Treacle-Berries. See before [Salomons Seal].
Oak of Hierusalem. [See before].
Oak of Cappadocea. [See before].
Earth-Nuts, differing much from those in England, one sort of them bears a most beautiful Flower.[205]
For the Scurvy and Dropsie.
Sea-Tears, they grow upon the Sea banks in abundance, they are good for the Scurvy and Dropsie, boiled and eaten as a Sallade, and the broth drunk with it.[206]
Indian Beans, better for Physick use than other Beans.
Indian Beans, falsly called French beans, are better for Physick and Chyrurgery {57} than our Garden Beans. Probatum est.[207]
Squashes, but more truly Squontersquashes, a kind of Mellon, or rather Gourd, for they oftentimes degenerate into Gourds; some of these are green, some yellow, some longish like a Gourd, others round like an Apple, all of them pleasant food boyled and buttered, and season’d with Spice; but the yellow Squash called an Apple Squash, because like an Apple, and about the bigness of a Pome-water is the best kind;[208] they are much eaten by the Indians and the English, yet they breed the small white Worms (which Physitians call Ascarides,) in the long Gut that vex the Fundament with a perpetual itching, and a desire to go to stool.
Water-Mellon, it is a large Fruit, but nothing near so big as a Pompion, colour, smoother, and of a sad Grass green rounder or more rightly Sap-green; with some yellowness admixt when ripe; the seeds are black, the flesh or pulpe exceeding juicy.[209]
For heat and thirst in Feavers.
It is often given to those sick of Feavers, and other hot Diseases with good success.
{58} New-England Daysie, or Primrose, is the second kind of Navel Wort in Johnson upon Gerard; it flowers in May, and grows amongst Moss upon hilly Grounds and Rocks that are shady.[210]
For Burns and Scalds.
It is very good for Burns and Scalds.
An Achariston, or Medicine deserving thanks.
An Indian whose Thumb was swell’d, and very much inflamed, and full of pain, increasing and creeping along to the wrist, with little black spots under the Thumb against the Nail; I Cured it with this Umbellicus veneris Root and all, the Yolk of an Egg, and Wheat flower, f. Cataplasme.
Briony of Peru, (we call it though it grown hear) or rather Scammony; some take it for Mechoacan: The green Juice is absolutely Poyson; yet the Root when dry may safely be given to strong Bodies.[211]
Red and Black Currence. [See before].
Wild Damask Roses, single, but very large and sweet, but stiptick.[212]
Sweet Fern,[213] the Roots run one within another like a Net, being very long and spreading abroad under the upper crust of {59} the Earth, sweet in taste, but withal astringent, much hunted after by our Swine: The Scotchmen that are in New-England have told me that it grows in Scotland.
For Fluxes.
The People boyl the tender tops in Molosses Beer, and in Possets for Fluxes, for which it is excellent.
Sarsaparilia, a Plant not yet sufficiently known by the English: Some say it is a kind of Bind Weed; we have, in New-England two Plants, that go under the name of Sarsaparilia: the one not above a foot in height without Thorns, the other having the same Leaf, but is a shrub as high as a Goose Berry Bush, and full of sharp Thorns; this I esteem as the right, by the shape and savour of the Roots, but rather by the effects answerable to that we have from other parts of the World; It groweth upon dry Sandy banks by the Sea side, and upon the banks of Rivers, so far as the Salt water flowes; and within Land up in the Country, as some have reported.[214]
Bill Berries, two kinds, Black and Sky Coloured, which is more frequent.[215]
{60} To cool the heat of Feavers, and quench Thirst.
They are very good to allay the burning heat of Feavers, and hot Agues, either in Syrup or Conserve.
A most excellent Summer Dish.
They usually eat of them put into a Bason, with Milk, and sweetned a little more with Sugar and Spice, or for cold Stomachs, in Sack. The Indians dry them in the Sun, and sell them to the English by the Bushell, who make use of them instead of Currence, putting of them into Puddens, both boyled and baked, and into Water Gruel.
Knot Berry, or Clowde Berry, seldom ripe.[216]
Sumach, differing from all that I did ever see in the Herbalists; our English Cattle devour it most abominably, leaving neither Leaf nor Branch, yet it sprouts again next Spring.[217]
For Colds.
The English use to boyl it in Beer, and drink it for Colds; and so do the Indians, from whom the English had the Medicine.
Wild Cherry, they grow in clusters like {61} Grapes, of the same bigness, blackish, red when ripe, and of a harsh taste.[218]
For Fluxes.
They are also good for Fluxes.
Transplanted and manured, they grow exceeding fair.
Board Pine, is a very large Tree two or three Fathom about.[219]
For Wounds.
It yields a very soveraign Turpentine for the Curing of desperate Wounds.
For Stabbs.
The Indians make use of the Moss boiled in Spring Water, for Stabbs, pouring in the Liquor, and applying the boiled Moss well stamp’d or beaten betwixt two stones.
For Burning and Scalding.
And for Burning and Scalding, they first take out the fire with a strong decoction of Alder Bark, then they lay upon it a Playster of the bark of Board Pine first boyled tender, and beat to a Playster betwixt two stones.
To take Fire out of a Burn.
One Christopher Luxe, a Fisher-man, having burnt his Knee Pan, was healed {62} again by an Indian Webb, or Wife, (for so they call those Women that have Husbands;) She first made a strong decoction of Alder bark, with which she took out the Fire by Imbrocation, or letting of it drop upon the Sore, which would smoak notably with it; then she Playstered it with the Bark of Board Pine, or Hemlock Tree, boyled soft and stampt betwixt two stones, till it was as thin as brown Paper, and of the same Colour, she annointed the Playster with Soyles Oyl, and the Sore likewise, then she laid it on warm, and sometimes she made use of the bark of the Larch Tree.
To eat out proud Flesh in a Sore.
And to eat out the proud Flesh, they take a kind of Earth Nut boyled and stamped, and last of all, they apply to the Sore the Roots of Water Lillies boiled and stamped betwixt two stones, to a Playster.
For Stitches.
The Firr Tree, or Pitch Tree,[220] the Tar that is made of all sorts of Pitch Wood is an excellent thing to take away those desperate Stitches of the Sides, which perpetually afflicteth those poor People that are {63} stricken with the Plague of the Back.
Note, You must make a large Toast, or Cake slit and dip it in the Tar, and bind it warm to the Side.
The most common Diseases in New England.
The Black Pox, the Spotted Feaver, the Griping of the Guts, the Dropsie, and the Sciatica, are the killing Diseases in New-England.
The Larch Tree, which is the only Tree of all the Pines, that sheds his Leaves before Winter; The other remaining Green all the Year: This is the Tree from which we gather that useful purging excrense, Agarick.[221]
For Wounds and Cuts.
The Leaves and Gum are both very good to heal Wounds and Cuts.
For Wounds with Bruises.
I cured once a desperate Bruise with a Cut upon the Knee Pan, with an Ungent made with the Leaves of the Larch Tree, and Hogs Grease, but the Gum is best.
Spruce is a goodly Tree, of which they make Masts for Ships, and Sail Yards: It is generally conceived by those that have {64} skill in Building of Ships, that here is absolutely the best Trees in the World, many of them being three Fathom about, and of great length.[222]
An Achariston for the Scurvy.
The tops of Green Spruce Boughs boiled in Bear, and drunk, is assuredly one of the best Remedies for the Scurvy, restoring the Infected party in a short time; they also make a Lotion of some of the decoction, adding Hony and Allum.
Hemlock Tree, a kind of Spruce, the bark of this Tree serves to dye Tawny; the Fishers Tan their Sails and Nets with it.[223]
To break Sore or Swelling.
The Indians break and heal their Swellings and Sores with it, boyling the inner Bark of young Hemlock very well, then knocking of it betwixt two stones to a Playster, and annointing or soaking it in Soyls Oyl, they apply it to the Sore: It will break a Sore Swelling speedily.
One Berry, Herba Paris, or True Love.[224]
Sassafras, or Ague Tree.[225]
{65} For heat in Feavers.
The Chips of the Root boyled in Beer is excellent to allay the hot rage of Feavers, being drunk.
For Bruises and dry Blowes.
The Leaves of the same Tree are very good made into an Oyntment, for Bruises and dry Blows. The Bark of the Root we use instead of Cinamon; and it is Sold at the Barbadoes for two Shillings the Pound.
And why may not this be the Bark the Jesuits Powder was made of, that was so Famous not long since in England, for Agues?
Cran Berry, or Bear Berry, because Bears use much to feed upon them, is a small trayling Plant that grows in Salt Marshes that are over-grown with Moss; the tender Branches (which are reddish) run out in great length, lying flat on the ground, where at distances, they take Root, over-spreading sometimes half a score Acres, sometimes in small patches of about a Rood or the like; the Leaves are like Box, but greener, thick and glittering; the Blossoms are very like the Flowers of {66} our English Night Shade, after which succeed the Berries, hanging by long small foot stalks, no bigger than a hair; at first they are of a pale yellow Colour, afterwards red, and as big as a Cherry; some perfectly round, others Oval, all of them hollow, of a sower astringent taste; they are ripe in August and September.[226]
For the Scurvy.
They are excellent against the Scurvy.
For the heat in Feavers.
They are also good to allay the fervour of hot Diseases.
The Indians and English use them much, boyling them with Sugar for Sauce to eat with their Meat; and it is a delicate Sauce, especially for roasted Mutton: Some make Tarts with them as with Goose Berries.
Vine, much differing in the Fruit, all of them very fleshy, some reasonably pleasant; others have a taste of Gun Powder, and these grow in Swamps, and low wet Grounds.[227]
{67} 3. Of such Plants as are proper to the Country, and have no Name.
(1.)
Pirola, or Winter Green, that kind which grows with us in England is common in New-England,[228] but there is another plant which I judge to be a kind of Pirola, and proper to this Country, a very beautiful Plant; The shape of the Leaf and the just bigness of it you may see in the Figure.
The Leaf of the Plant judged to be a kind of Pirola.
The Ground whereof is a Sap Green, embroydered (as it were) with many pale yellow Ribs, the whole Plant in shape is {68} like Semper vivum, but far less, being not above a handful high, with one slender stalk, adorned with small pale yellow Flowers like the other Pirola. It groweth not every where, but in some certain small spots overgrown with Moss, close by swamps and shady; they are green both Summer and Winter.[229]
For Wounds.
They are excellent Wound Herbs, but this I judge to be the better by far. Probatum est.
(2.)
This Plant was brought to me by a neighbour, who (wandering in the Woods to find out his strayed Cattle,) lost himself {69} for two Dayes, being as he ghessed eight or ten Miles from the Sea-side. The Root was pretty thick and black, having a number of small black strings growing from it, the stalks of the Leaves about a handful long, the Leaves were round and as big as a Silver five Shilling piece, of a sap or dark green Colour, with a line or ribb as black as Jeat round the Circumference, from whence came black lines or ribs at equal distance, all of them meeting in a black spot in the Center.[230] If I had staid longer in the Country, I should have purposely made a Journey into those Parts where it was gathered, to discover if possible, the Stalk and Flower; but now I shall refer it to those that are younger, and better able to undergo the pains and trouble of finding it out; for I understood by the Natives, that it is not common, that is, every where to be found, no more then the embroydered Pirola, which also is a most elegant Plant, and which I did endeavour to bring over, but it perished at Sea.
For Wounds.
Clownes all heal, of New-England, is another Wound Herb not Inferiour to {70} ours, but rather beyond it: Some of our English practitioners take it for Vervene, and use it for the same, wherein they are grosly mistaken.
The Leaf is like a Nettle Leaf, but narrower and longer; the stalk about the bigness of a Nettle stalk, Champhered and hollow, and of a dusky red Colour; the Flowers are blew, small, and many, growing in spoky tufts at the top, and are not hooded, but having only four round Leaves, after which followeth an infinite of small longish light brown Seed; the Roots are knotty and matted together with an infinite number of small white strings; the whole Plant is commonly two Cubits high, bitter in taste, with a Rosenie favour.[231]
{71}
(3.)
This Plant is one of the first that springs up after White Hellibore, in the like wet and black grounds, commonly by Hellibore, with a sheath or Hood like Dragons, but the pestle is of another shape, that is, having a round Purple Ball on the top of it, beset (as it were) with Burs; the hood shoots forth immediately from the Root, before any Leaf appears, having a Green {72} sprig growing fast by it, like the smaller Horse Tayl, about the latter end of April the Hood and Sprig wither away, and there comes forth in the room a Bud, like the Bud of the Walnut Tree, but bigger; the top of it is of a pale Green Colour, covered with brown skins like an Onion, white underneath the Leaves, which spread in time out of the Bud, grow from the root with a stalk a Foot long, and are as big as the great Bur Dock Leaves, and of the colour; the Roots are many, and of the bigness of the steel of a Tobacco Pipe, and very white; the whole Plant sents as strong as a Fox; it continues till August.[232]
{73}
A Branch of the Humming Bird Tree.
{74} (4.)
This Plant the Humming Bird feedeth upon, it groweth likewise in wet grounds, and is not at its full growth till July, and then it is two Cubits high and better, the Leaves are thin, and of a pale green Colour, some of them as big as a Nettle Leaf, it spreads into many Branches, knotty at the setting on, and of a purple Colour, and garnished on the top with many hollow dangling Flowers of a bright yellow Colour, speckled with a deeper yellow as it were shadowed, the Stalkes are as hollow as a Kix, and so are the Roots, which are transparent, very tender, and full of a yellowish juice.[233]
For Bruises and Aches upon stroaks.
The Indians make use of it for Aches, being bruised between two stones, and laid to cold, but made (after the English manner) into an unguent with Hogs Grease, there is not a more soveraign remedy for bruises of what kind soever; and for Aches upon Stroaks.
In August, 1670. in a Swamp amongst Alders, I found a fort of Tree Sow Thistle, the Stalks of some two or three Inches, {75} about, as hollow as a Kix and very brittle, the Leaves were smooth, and in shape like Sonchus lævis, i.e. Hares Lettice, but longer, some about a Foot, these grow at a distance one from another, almost to the top, where it begins to put forth Flowers between the Leaves and the Stalk, the top of the stalk runs out into a spike, beset about with Flowers like Sow Thistle, of a blew or azure colour: I brought home one of the Plants which was between twelve and thirteen Foot in length, I wondered at it the more for that so large and tall a Plant should grow from so small a Root, consisting of slender white strings little bigger than Bents, and not many of them, and none above a Finger long, spreading under the upper crust of the Earth; the whole Plant is full of Milk, and of a strong favour.[234]
{76}
The Plant when it springs up first.
{77}
The Figure of the Plant when it is at full growth.
(5.)
This Plant I found in a gloomy dry Wood under an Oak, 1670. the 18th of August, afterwards I found it in open Champain grounds, but yet somewhat scarce: The Root is about the bigness of a French Walnut, the Bark thereof is brown, and rugged, within of a yellowish Colour, from whence ariseth a slender stalk, no bigger than an Oat straw, about two Cubits in height, somewhat better than a handful above the Root shooteth out one Leaf of a Grass Green colour, and an Inch or two above that, another Leaf, and so four or five at a greater distance one from another, till they come within a handful of the top, where upon slender foot stalks grow the Flowers four or five, more or fewer, clustering together in pale long green husks milk white, consisting of ten small Leaves, snipt a little on the edges with purple hair threads in the midst; the whole Plant is of a brakish tast: When it is at its full growth the stalks are as red as Blood.[235]
{78}
{79} (6.)
This Plant Flowers in August, and grows in wet Ground; it is about three or four foot in height, having a square slender stalk, chamfered, hollow and tuff, the Leaves grow at certain distances one against another, of the colour of Egrimony Leaves sharpe pointed, broadest in the midst about an Inch and half, and three or four Inches in length, snipt about the edges like a Nettle Leaf, at the top of the Stalk for four or five Inches thick, set with pale green husks, out of which the Flowers grow, consisting of one Leaf, shaped like the head of a Serpent, opening at the top like a mouth, and hollow throughout, containing four crooked pointels, and on the top of every pointel a small, glistering, green button, covered with a little white woolly matter, by which they are with the pointels fastened close together and shore up the tip of the upper chap, the crooked pointels are very stiff and hard, from the bottom of the husks, wherein the Flower stands, from the top of the Seed Vessel shoots out a white thread which runs in at the bottom of the Flower, and so {80} out at the mouth; the whole Flower is milk white, the inside of the chaps reddish, the Root I did not observe.[236]
{81} (7.)
This Plant I take for a varigated Herb Paris, True Love or One Berry, or rather One Flower, which is milk white, and made up with four Leaves, with many black threads in the middle, upon every thread grows a Berry (when the Leaves of the Flower are fallen) as big as a white pease, of a light red colour when they are ripe, and clustering together in a round form as big as a Pullets Egg, which at distance shews but as one Berry, very pleasant in taste, and not unwholsome; the Root, Leaf, and Flower differ not from our English kind, and their time of blooming and ripening agree, and therefore doubtless a kind of Herba Paris.[237]
{82}
The small Sun Flower, or Marygold of America.
{83}
{84} (8.)
This Plant is taken by our Simplists to be a kind of Golden Rod, by others for Sarazens Consound. I judge it to be a kind of small Sun Flower, or Marygold of the West Indies; the Root is brown and slender, a foot and half in length, running a slope under the upper face of the Earth, with some strings here and there, the stalk as big as the steal of a Tobacco pipe, full of pith, commonly brownish, sometimes purple, three or four foot high, the Leaves grow at a distance one against another, rough, hard, green above, and gray underneath, slightly snipt and the ribs appear most on the back side of the Leaf, the Flower is of a bright yellow, with little yellow cups in the midst, as in the Marygold of Peru, with black threads in them with yellow pointels, the Flower spreads it self abroad out of a cup made up of many green beards, not unlike a Thistle; Within a handful of the top of the stalk (when the Flower is fallen), growes an excrense or knob as big as a Walnut, which being broken yieldeth a kind of Turpentine or rather Rosen.[238]
What Cutchenele is.
The stalk beneath and above the knob, covered with a multitude of small Bugs, about the bigness of a great flea, which I presume will make good Cutchenele, ordered as they should be before they come to have Wings: They make a perfect Scarlet Colour to Paint with, and durable.
{85} 4. Of such Plants as have sprung up since the English Planted and kept Cattle in New-England.[239]
Couch Grass.[240]
Shepherds Purse.[241]
Dandelion.[242]
Groundsel.[243]
Sow Thistle.[244]
Wild Arrach.[245]
Night Shade, with the white Flower.[246]
Nettlestinging, which was the first Plant taken notice of.[247]
Mallowes.[248]
{86} Plaintain, which the Indians call English-Mans Foot, as though produced by their treading.[249]
Black Henbane.[250]
Wormwood.[251]
Sharp pointed Dock.[252]
Patience.[253]
Bloodwort.[254]
And I suspect Adders Tongue.[255]
Knot Grass.[256]
Cheek weed.[257]
Compherie, with the white Flower.[258]
May weed, excellent for the Mother; some of our English Houswives call it Iron Wort, and make a good Unguent for old Sores.[259]
The great Clot Bur.[260]
Mullin, with the white Flower.[261]
Q. What became of the influence of those Planets that produce and govern these Plants before this time!
I have now done with such Plants as grow wild in the Country in great plenty, (although I have not mentioned all) I shall now in the Fifth place give you to under{87}stand what English Herbs we have growing in our Gardens that prosper there as well as in their proper Soil, and of such as do not, and also of such as will not grow there at all.
5. Of such Garden Herbs (amongst us) as do thrive there, and of such as do not.[262]
Cabbidge growes there exceeding well.
Lettice.
Sorrel.
Parsley.
Marygold.
French Mallowes.
Chervel.
Burnet.
Winter Savory.
Summer Savory.
Time.
Sage.
Carrats.
Parsnips of a prodigious size.
Red Beetes.
{88} Radishes.
Turnips.
Purslain.[263]
Wheat.[264]
Rye.
Barley, which commonly degenerates into Oats.
Oats.
Pease of all sorts, and the best in the World; I never heard of, nor did see in eight Years time, one Worm eaten Pea.
Garden Beans.[265]
Naked Oats,[266] there called Silpee, an excellent grain used insteed of Oat Meal, they dry it in an Oven, or in a Pan upon the fire, then beat it small in a Morter.
Another standing Dish in New-England.
And when the Milk is ready to boil, they put into a pottle of Milk about ten or twelve spoonfuls of this Meal, so boil it leasurely, stirring of it every foot, least it burn too; when it is almost boiled enough, they hang the Kettle up higher, and let it stew only, in short time it will thicken like a Custard; they season it [{89}] with a little Sugar and Spice, and so serve it to the Table in deep Basons, and it is altogether as good as a White-pot.
For People weakned with long Sickness.
It exceedingly nourisheth and strengthens people weakned with long Sickness.
Sometimes they make Water Gruel with it, and sometimes thicken their Flesh Broth either with this or Homminey, if it be for Servants.
Spear Mint.[267]
Rew, will hardly grow.
Fetherfew prospereth exceedingly.
Southern Wood, is no Plant for this Country. Nor,
Rosemary. Nor
Bayes.[268]
White Satten groweth pretty well, so doth
Lavender Cotton.[269] But
Lavender is not for the climate.
Penny Royal.
Smalledge.
Ground Ivy, or Ale Hoof.[270]
Gilly Flowers will continue two Years.[271]
{90} Fennel must be taken up, and kept in a warm Cellar all Winter.
Housleek prospereth notably.
Holly hocks.
Enula Campana, in two Years time the Roots rot.[272]
Comferie, with white Flowers.
Coriander, and
Dill, and
Annis thrive exceedingly, but Annis Seed, as also the Seed of Fennel seldom come to maturity; the Seed of Annis is commonly eaten with a fly.
Clary never lasts but one Summer, the Roots rot with the Frost.
Sparagus thrives exceedingly, so does
Garden Sorrel, and
Sweet Bryer, or Eglantine.[273]
Bloodwort but sorrily, but
Patience,[274] and
English Roses, very pleasantly.[275]
Celandine, by the West Country men called Kenning Wort, grows but slowly.[276]
Muschata, as well as in England.
Dittander, or Pepper Wort, flourisheth notably, and so doth
Tansie.[277]
Musk Mellons are better than our English, and
{91} Cucumbers.
Pompions, there be of several kinds, some proper to the Country,[278] they are dryer then our English Pompions, and better tasted; you may eat them green.
The ancient New-England standing Dish.
But the Houswives manner is to slice them when ripe, and cut them into dice, and so fill a pot with them of two or three Gallons, and stew them upon a gentle fire a whole day, and as they sink, they fill again with fresh Pompions, not putting any liquor to them; and when it is stew’d enough, it will look like bak’d Apples; this they Dish, putting Butter to it, and a little Vinegar, (with some Spice, as Ginger, &c.) which makes it tart like an Apple, and so serve it up to be eaten with Fish or Flesh: It provokes Urin extreamly and is very windy.
{92} Sixthly and lastly,
Of Stones, Minerals, Metals and Earths.[279]
As first, the Emrald which grows in flat Rocks, and is very good.
Rubies, which here are very watry.
I have heard a story of an Indian, that found a stone, up in the Country, by a great Pond as big as an Egg, that in a dark Night would give a light to read by; but I take it to be but a story.
Diamond, which are very brittle, and therefore of little worth.
Crystal, called by our West Country Men the Kenning Stone; by Sebegug Pond is found in considerable quantity, not far from thence is a Rock of Crystal called the Moose Rock, because in shape like a Moose, and
Muscovy Glass, both white and purple of reasonable content.
Black Lead.[280]
Bole Armoniack.
{93} Red and Yellow Oker.
Terra Sigilla.
Vitriol.
Antimony.
Arsnick, too much.
Lead.[281]
Tin.
Tin Glass.
Silver.
Iron, in abundance, and as good bog Iron as any in the World.
Copper. It is reported that the French have a Copper Mine at Port Royal, that yieldeth them twelve Ounces of pure Copper out of a Pound of Oar.
I shall conclude this Section with a strange Cure effected upon a Drummers Wife, much afflicted with a Wolf in her Breast; the poor Woman lived with her Husband at a Town called by the Indians, Casco, but by the English, Famouth; where for some time she swaged the Pain of her Sore, by bathing it with strong Malt Beer, which it would {94} suck in greedily, as if some living Creature: When she could come by no more Beer, (for it was brought from Boston, along the Coasts by Merchants,) she made use of Rhum, a strong Water drawn from Sugar Canes, with which it was lull’d a sleep; at last, (to be rid of it altogether) she put a quantity of Arsnick to the Rhum, and bathing of it as formerly, she utterly destroyed it, and Cured her self; but her kind Husband, who sucked out the Poyson as the Sore was healing, lost all his Teeth, but without further danger or inconvenience.
{95} An Addition of some RARITIES overslipt.
The Star Fish,[282] having fine points like a Star, the whole Fish no bigger than the Palm of a Mans hand, of a tough substance like leather, and about an Inch in thickness, whitish underneath, and of the Colour of a Cucumber above, and somewhat ruff: When it is warm in ones hand, you may perceive a stiff motion, turning down one point, and thrusting up another: It is taken to be poysonous; they are very common, and found thrown up on the Rocks by the Sea side.
Sea Bream, which are plentifully taken upon the Sea Coasts, their Eyes are accounted rare Meat, whereupon the proverbial comparison, It is worth a Sea Breams Eye.[283]
{96} Blew Fish, or Horse, I did never see any of them in England; they are as big usually as the Salmon, and better Meat by far: It is common in New-England and esteemed the best sort of Fish next to Rock Cod.
Cat Fish, having a round Head, and great glaring Eyes like a Cat: They lye for the most part in holes of Rocks, and are discovered by their Eyes: It is an excelling Fish.
Munk Fish, a flat Fish like scate, having a hood like a Fryers Cowl.
Clam, or Clamp, a kind of Shell Fish, a white Muscle.
An Achariston, For Pin and Web.
Sheath Fish, which are there very plentiful, a delicate Fish, as good as a Prawn, covered with a thin Shell like the sheath of a Knife, and of the colour of a Muscle.
Which shell Calcin’d and Pulveriz’d, is excellent to take off a Pin and Web, or {97} any kind of Filme growing over the Eye.
Morse, or Sea Horse, having a great Head, wide Jaws, armed with Tushes as white as Ivory, of body as big as a Cow, proportioned like a Hog, of brownish bay, smooth skin’d and impenetrable; they are frequent at the Isle of Sables, their Teeth are worth eight Groats the Pound; the best Ivory being Sold but for half the Money.[284]
For Poyson.
It is very good against Poyson.
For the Cramp.
As also for the Cramp, made into Rings.
For the Piles.
And a secret for the Piles, if a wise Man have the ordering of it.
The Manaty, a Fish as big as a Wine pipe, most excellent Meat; bred in the Rivers of Hispaniola in the West Indies; it hath Teats, and nourisheth its young ones with Milk; it is of a green Colour, and tasteth like Veal.
{98} For the Stone Collick.
There is a Stone taken out of the Head that is rare for the Stone and Collect.
To provoke Urine.
Their Bones beat to a Powder and drank with convenient Liquors, is a gallant Urin provoking Medicine.
For Wound and Bruise.
An Indian, whose Knee was bruised with a fall, and the Skin and Flesh strip’d down to the middle of the Calf of his Leg; Cured himself with Water Lilly Roots boyled and stamped.[285]
For Swellings of the Foot.
An Indian Webb, her Foot being very much swell’d and inflamed, asswaged the swelling, and took away the inflamation with our Garden or English Patience, the Roots roasted. f. Cataplas. Anno 1670. June 28.
To dissolve a Scirrhous Tumour.
An Indian dissolv’d a Scirrhous Tumour in the Arm and Hip, with a fomentation of Tobacco, applying afterwards the Herb stamp’d betwixt two stones.
{99}
A
DESCRIPTION
OF AN
INDIAN SQUA.[286]
Now (gentle Reader) having trespassed upon your patience a long while in the perusing of these rude Observations, I shall, to make you amends, present you by way of Divertisement, or Recreation, with a Coppy of Verses made sometime since upon the Picture of a young and handsome Gypsie, not improperly transferred upon the Indian SQUA, or Female Indian, trick’d up in all her bravery.
The Men are somewhat Horse Fac’d, and generally Faucious, i.e. without Beards; but the Women many of them {100} have very good Features; seldome without a Come to me, or Cos Amoris, in their Countenance; all of them black Eyed, having even short Teeth, and very white; their Hair black, thick and long, broad Breasted; handsome streight Bodies, and slender, considering their constant loose habit: Their limbs cleanly, straight, and of a convenient stature, generally, as plump as Partridges, and saving here and there one, of a modest deportment.
Their Garments are a pair of Sleeves of Deer, or Moose skin drest, and drawn with lines of several Colours into Asiatick Works, with Buskins of the same, a short Mantle of Trading Cloath, either Blew or Red, fastened with a knot under the Chin, and girt about the middle with a Zone, wrought with white and blew Beads into pretty Works; of these Beads they have Bracelets for their Neck and Arms, and Links to hang in their Ears, and a fair Table curiously made up with Beads likewise, to wear before their Breast; their Hair they Combe backward, and tye it up short with a Border, about two handfulls broad, {101} wrought in Works as the other with their Beads: But enough of this.
The POEM.
Whether White or Black be best
Call your Senses to the quest;
And your touch shall quickly tell
The Black in softness doth excel,
And in smoothness; but the Ear,
What, can that a Colour hear?
No, but ’tis your Black ones Wit
That doth catch, and captive it.
And if Slut and Fair be one,
Sweet and Fair, there can be none:
Nor can ought so please the tast
As what’s brown and lovely drest:
And who’ll say, that that is best
To please ones Sense, displease the rest?
{102} Maugre then all that can be sed
In flattery of White and Red:
Those flatterers themselves must say
That darkness was before the Day:
And such perfection here appears
It neither Wind nor Sun-shine fears.
A
{103} Chronological Table
Of the most remarkable passages in that part of America, known to us by the name of NEW-ENGLAND.[287]
Anno Dom. 1492. Christ. Columbus discovered America.
1516. The Voyage of Sir Thomas Pert, Vice Admiral of England, and Sir Sebastian Cabota to Brazile, &c.
1527. New-found-Land, discovered by the English.
1577. Sir Francis Drake began his Voyage about the World.
{104} 1585. Nova Albion discovered by Sir Francis Drake, and by him so Named.
1585. April 9. Sir Richard Greenevile was sent by Sir Walter Rawleigh with a Fleet of Seven Sail to Virginia, and was stiled the General of Virginia.
1586. Captain Thomas Candish, a Suffolk Gentleman, began his Voyage round about the World, with three Ships past the Streights of Magellan, burn’d and ransack’d in the entry of Chile, Peru, and New-Spain, near the great Island Callifornia in the South Sea; and returned to Plymouth with a precious Booty Anno Dom. 1588. September the 8th; being the third since Magellan that circuited the Earth.
1588. Sir Walter Rawleigh first discovered Virginia, by him so Named, in honour of our Virgin Queen.
1595. Sir Walter Rawleigh discovered Guiana.
{105} 1606. A Collony sent to Virginia.
1614. Bermudas Planted.
1618. The blazing Star; then Plymouth Plantation began in New-England.[288]
1628. The Massachusets Colony Planted, and Salem the first Town therein Built.[289]
1629. The first Church gathered in this Colony was at Salem; from which Year to this present Year, is 43 Years.
In the compass of these Years, in this Colony, there hath been gathered Fourty Churches, and 120 Towns built in all the Colonies of New-England.
The Church of Christ at Plymouth, was Planted in New-England Eight Years before others.
1630. The Governour and Assistants {106} arrived with their Pattent for the Massachusets.
1630. The Lady Arabella in New-England.