CHAP. XXII.
The proceedings and present estate of the Summer Isles, from Anno
Dom.
1624, to this present 1629.
From the Summer Isles, Mr. Ireland, and divers others report, their Forts, Ordnance and Proceedings, are much as they were in the Year 1622. as you may read in the General History, Pag. 199. Captain Woodhouse Governour. There are few sorts of any Fruits in the West Indies, but they grow there in abundance; yet the fertility of the Soil in many Places decayeth, being Planted every Year, for their Plantains, which is a most delicate Fruit, they have lately found a way by Pickling or Drying them, to bring them over into England, there being no such Fruit in Europe, and wonderful for increase. For Fish, Flesh, Figgs, Wine, and all sorts of most excellent Herbs, Fruits and Roots they have in abundance. In this Governour's time, a kind of Whale, or rather a Jubarta, was driven on Shoar in Southampton Tribe from the West, over an Infinite Number of Rocks so bruised, that the Water in the Bay where she lay, was all Oily, and the Rocks about it all Bedasht with Parmacitty, congealed like Ice, a good quantity we gathered, with which we commonly cured any Boil, Hurt or Bruise; some burnt it in their Lamps, which blowing out, the very snuff will burn so long as there is any of the Oil remaining, for two or three days together. {MN}
{MN} The present Estate of the Summer Isles.
The next Governour was Captain Philip Bell, whose time being expired, Captain Roger Wood possess'd his Place, a worthy Gentleman of good desert, and hath lived a long time in the Country; their Numbers are about 2 or 3000 Men, Women and Children, who increase there exceedingly; their greatest Complaint is want of Apparel, and too much Custom, and too many Officers; the Pity is, there are no more Men than Women, yet no great Mischief, because there is so much less Pride: the Cattle they have increase exceedingly; their Forts are well maintain'd by the Merchants here, and Planters there; to be brief, this Isle is an excellent Bit to Rule a great Horse.
All the Cohow Birds and Egbirds are gone; seldom any wild Catts seen; no Rats to speak off; but the Worms are yet very troublesome; the People very healthful, and the Ravens gone; Fish enough, but not so near the shoar as it used, by the much beating it; it is an Isle that hath such a Rampire and a Ditch, and for the quantity so manned, Victualled, and Fortified, as few in the World do exceed it, or is like it.
{MN} The 22d of March, two Ships came from thence; the Peter-Bonaventure, near 200 Tunns, and sixteen Pieces of Ordnance; the Captain, Thomas Sherwin; the Master, Mr. Edward Some, like him in Condition, a Goodly, Lusty, Proper, Valiant Man: The Lydia, wherein was Mr. Anthony Thorne, a smaller Ship, were chased by eleven Ships of Dunkirk; being thus over-match'd, Captain Sherwin was taken by them in Torbay, only his Valiant Master was slain; the Ship with about seventy English Men they carried betwixt Dover and Callais to Dunkirk; but the Lydia safely recovered Dartmouth.
{MN} An Evil Mischance.
These Noble Adventures for all thole losses patiently do bear them; but they hope the King and State will understand it is worth keeping, tho' it afford nothing but Tobacco, and that now worth little or nothing, Custom and Fraught pay'd, yet it is worth keeping, and not supplanting; tho' great Men feel not those losses, yet Gardiners, Carpenters and Smiths, do pay for it.
From the Relation of Robert Chestevan and others.
CHAP. XXIII.
The Proceedings and present Estate of New England, since 1624.
to this present 1629.
When I went first to the North part of Virginia, where the Westerly Colony had been planted, it had dissolved it self within a Year, and there was not one Christian in all the Land. I was set forth at the sole Charge of four Merchants of London; the Country being then reputed by your Westerlings, a most Rocky Barren, Desolate Desart; {MN-1} but the good Return brought from thence, with the Maps and Relations I made of the Country, which I made so manifest, some of them did believe me, and they were well embraced both by the Londoners and the Westerlings, for whom I had promised to undertake it, I thinking to have joined them all together, but that might well have been a work of Hercules. Betwixt them long there was much contention; the Londoners indeed went bravely forward; but in three or four Years, I and my Friends consumed many hundred Pounds amongst the Plimothians, who only fed me with delays, promises and excuses, but no Performance of any thing to any purpose. In the interim, many particular Ships went thither, and finding my Relations true, and that I had not taken that I brought home from the French Men, as had been reported; yet further, for my Pains to discredit me, and my calling it New-England, they obscured, and shadowed it, with the Title of Canada, till at my humble suit, it pleased our most Royal King Charles, whom God long keep, bless and preserve, then Prince of Wales, to confirm it with my Map and Book, by the Title of New England; the gain thence returning, did make the same thereof so increase, that thirty, forty, or fifty sail went Yearly only to Trade and Fish; but nothing would be done for a Plantation, till about some Hundred of your Brownists of England, Amsterdam and Leyden, went to New Plimouth, whose humorous Ignorances, caused them for more than a Year to endure a wonderful deal of misery, with an infinite patience; saying my Books and Maps were much better cheap to teach them than my self; {MN-2} many other have used the like good Husbandry, that have payed soundly in trying their self-will'd conclusions; but those in time doing well, divers others have in small handfuls undertaken to go there, to be several Lords and Kings of themselves, but most vanished to nothing; notwithstanding the Fishing Ships, made such good returns, at last it was ingrossed by twenty Patentees, that divided my Map into twenty parts, and cast Lots for their shares; but Money not coming in as they expected, procured a Proclamation, none should go thither without their Licences to Fish; but for every thirty Tuns of Shipping, to pay them five Pounds; besides, upon great Penalties, neither to Trade with the Natives, cut down Wood for their Stages, without giving satisfaction, though all the Country is nothing but Wood, and none to make use of it, with many such other pretences, for to make this Country plant it self, by its own Wealth: Hereupon most Men grew so discontented, that few or none would go; so that the Patentees, who never a one of them had been there, seeing those Projects Would not prevail, have since not hindred any to go that would, that within these few last years, more have gone thither than ever.
{MN-1} Considerations about the loss of time.
{MN-2} The effect of negardliness.
{MN} Now this Year 1629, a great company of People of good Rank, Zeal, Means, and Quality, have made a great Stock, and with six good Ships in the Months of April and May, they set Sail from Thames, for the Bay of the Massachusets, otherwise called Charles's River; viz. the George Bonaventure, of twenty pieces of Ordnance, the Talbot nineteen, the Lions-whelp eight, the May-flower fourteen, the Four Sisters fourteen, the Pilgrim four, with three hundred and fifty Men, Women, and Children; also an hundred and fifteen head of Cattel, as Horse, Mares, and neat Beast; one and forty Goats, some Conies, with all Provision for Houshold and Apparel; six pieces of great Ordnance for a Fort, with Muskets, Pikes, Corselets, Drums, Colours, with all Provision necessary for a Plantation, for the good of Man; other Particulars I understand of no more, than is writ in the general History of those Countries.
{MN} A new Plantation 1629.
But you are to understand, that the noble Lord chief Justice Popham, Judge Doderege; the Right Honourable Earls of Pembroke, Southampton, Salisbury, and the rest, as I take it, they did all think, as I and them went with me, did; That had those two Countries been planted, as it was intended, that no other Nation should complant betwixt us. If ever the King of Spain and we should fall foul, those Countries being so capable of all Materials for shipping, by this might have been Owners of a good Fleet of Ships, and to have relieved a whole Navy from England upon occasion; yea, and to have furnished England with the most Easterly Commodities; and now since, seeing how conveniently the Summer Isles fell to our shares, so near the West-Indies, we might with much more facility than the Dutch Men have invaded the West-Indies, that doth now put in practice, what so long hath been advised on, by many an honest English States-man.
{MN} Those Countries, Captain Smith oft times used to call his Children that never had Mother; and well he might, for few Fathers ever payed dearer for so little content; and for those that would truly understand, how many strange Accidents hath befallen them and him; how oft up, how oft down, sometimes near despair, and ere long flourishing, cannot but conceive Gods infinite Mercies and Favours towards them. Had his Designs been to have perswaded Men to a Mine of Gold, though few doth conceive either the charge or pains in refining it, nor the power nor care to defend it; or some new Invention to pass to the South Sea, or some strange Plot to invade some strange Monastery, or some portable Country, or some chargeable Fleet to take some rich Carocks in the East-Indies; of Letters of Mart to rob some poor Merchants; What multitudes of both People and Money would contend to be first imployed? But in those noble endeavours (now) how few of quality, unless it be to beg some Monopoly; and those seldom seek the common good, but the Commons Goods, as you may read at large in his general History, pag. 217, 218, 219, his general Observations and Reasons for this Plantation; for yet those Countries are not so forward, but they may become as miserable as ever, if better courses be not taken than is; as this Smith will plainly demonstrate to his Majesty, or any other noble Person of Ability, liable generously to undertake it; how within a Short time to make Virginia able to resist any Enemy, that as yet lieth open to all, and yield the King more Custom within these few years, in certain staple Commodities, than ever it did in Tobacco; which now not being worth bringing home, the Custom will be as uncertain to the King, as dangerous to the Plantation.
{MN} Notes of inconveniency.
CHAP. XXIV.
A brief Discourse of divers Voyages made unto the goodly Country of Guinea and the great River of the Amazons; relating also the present Plantation there.
It is not unknown how that most Industrious and honourable Knight, Sir Walter Rawleigh, in the Year of Our Lord 1595, taking the Isle of Trinidado, fell with the Coast of Guiana, Northward of the Line 10 degrees, and coasted the Coast, and searched up the River Oranoco; where understanding that twenty several Voyages had been made by the Spaniards; in discovering this Coast and River, to find a passage to the great City of Mano, called by them the Eldorado, or the Golden City: he did his utmost to have found some better Satisfaction than Relations: {MN-1} But means failing him, he left his trusty Servant Francis Sparrow to seek it, who wandring up and down those Countries, some fourteen or fifteen years, unexpectedly returned; I have heard him say, he was led blinded into this City by Indians; but little Discourse of any purpose, touching the largeness of the report of it; his body seeming as a Man of an uncurable Consumption, shortly died here after in England. There are above thirty fair Rivers that fall into the Sea, between the River of Amazons and Oranoco, which are some nine degrees asunder. {MN-2} In the year 1605, Captain Ley, Brother to that noble Knight, Sir Oliver Ley, with divers others, planted himself in the River Weapoco, wherein I should have been a Party; but he died, and there lies buried, and the supply miscarrying, the rest escaped as they could.
{MN-1} Sparrow left to seek the great city of Mano.
{MN-2} Captain Charles Ley.
{MN} Sir Thomas Roe, known to be a most Noble Gentleman, before he went Lord Ambassadour to the Great Mogul, or the Great Turk, spent a year or two upon this Coast, and about the River of the Amazons, {MN-2} wherein he most imployed Captain Matthew Morton, an expert Sea-man in the discovery of this famous River, a Gentleman that was the first shot, and mortally supposed wounded to Death, with me in Virginia, yet since hath been twice with command in East-Indies; {MN-3} Also Captain William White, and divers others worthy and industrious Gentlemen, both before and since, hath spent much time and charge to discover it more perfectly, but nothing more effected for a Plantation, till it was undertaken by Captain Robert Harcote 1609.
{MN-1} Sir Thomas Roe.
{MN-2} Captain Morton.
{MN-3} Captain White.
{MN} This worthy Gentleman, after he had by Commission made a discovery to his mind, left his Brother Michael Harcote, with some fifty or sixty Men in the River Weapoco, and so presently returned to England, where he obtained by the favour of Prince Henry a large Patent for all that Coast called Guiana, together with the famous River of Amazons, to him and his Heirs: but so many troubles here surprized him, though he did his best to supply them, he was not able, only some few he sent over as Passengers, with certain Dutch Men, but to small purpose. Thus this business lay dead for divers years, till Sir Walter Rawleigh, accompanied with many valiant Soldiers and brave Gentlemen, went his last Voyage to Guiana, amongst the which, was Captain Roger North, Brother to the Right Honourable the Lord Dudley North, who upon this Voyage, having stayed, and seen divers Rivers upon this Coast, took such a liking to those Countries, having had before this Voyage, more perfect and particular Information of the excellency of the great River of the Amazons, above any of the rest, by certain English Men returned so rich, from thence in good Commodities, they would not go with Sir Walter Rawleigh in search of Gold; that after his return for England, he endeavoured by his best Abilities to interest his Country and State in those fair Regions, which by the way of Letters Patents unto divers Noble Men and Gentlemen of Quality, erected into a Company and Perpetuity for Trade and Plantation, not knowing of the Interest of Captain Harcote.
{MN} Captain Harcote.
{MN} Whereupon accompanied with 120 Gentlemen and others, with a Ship, a Pinnace and two Shallops, to remain in the Country, he set Sail from Plimouth the last of April 1620, and within seven Weeks after he arrived well in the Amazons, only with the loss of one old Man: Some hundred Leagues they ran up the River to settle his Men, where the sight of the Country and People so contented them, that never Men thought themselves more happy: Some English and Irish that had lived there some eight years, only supplied by the Dutch, he reduced to his Company and to leave the Dutch: having made a good Voyage, to the value of more than the charge, he returned to England with divers good Commodities, besides, Tobacco: So that it may well be conceived, that if this Action had not been thus crossed the Generality of England had by this time been won and encouraged therein. But the time was not yet come, that God would have this great business effected, by reason of the great Power the Lord Gundamore, Ambassadour for the King of Spain, had in England, to cross and ruin those Proceedings, and so unfortunate Captain North was on this business, he was twice committed Prisoner to the Tower, and the Goods detained, till they were spoiled, who beyond all others, was by much the greatest Adventurer and Loser.
{MN} Captain Roger North.
{MN} Notwithstanding all this, those that he had left in the Amazons, would not abandon the Country. Captain Thomas Painton, a worthy Gentleman; his Lieutenant dead. Captain Charles Parker, Brother to the Right Honourable the Lord Morley, lived there six years after; Mr. John Christmas, five years; so well, they would not return, although they might, with divers other Gentlemen of Quality and others: All thus destitute of any supplies from England. But all Authority being dissolved, want of Government did more wrong their Proceedings, than all other crosses whatsoever. Some relief they had sometime from the Dutch, who knowing their Estates, gave what they pleased, and took what they list. Two Brothers, Gentlemen, Thomas and William Hixon, who stayed three years there, are now gone to stay in the Amazons, in the Ships lately sent thither.
{MN} Nota bene.
The business thus remaining in this fort, three private Men left of that Company, named Mr. Thomas Warriner, John Rhodes, and Robert Bims, having lived there about two years, came for England, and to be free from the disorders that did grow in the Amazons, for want of Government amongst their Country-men, and to be quiet amongst themselves, made means to let themselves out for St. Christophers; their whole number being but fifteen Persons that payed for their Passage in a Ship going for Virginia, where they remained a year before they were supplied, and then that was but four or five Men. Thus this Isle, by this small beginning, having no interruption by their own Country, hath not got the start of the Continent and main Land of Guinea, which hath been laid apart, and let alone until that Captain North, ever watching his best opportunity and advantage of time in the State, hath now again pursued, and set on foot his former design. Captain Harcote being now willing to surrender his Grant, and to joyn with Captain North, in passing a new Patent, and to erect a Company for Trade and Plantation in the Amazons, and all the Coast and Country of Guinea for ever. Whereupon, they have sent this present year in January, and since 1628, four Ships, with near two hundred Persons; the first Ship with 112 Men, not one miscarried; the rest went since, not yet heard of and are preparing another with their best Expedition; and since January is gone from Holland, 100 English and Irish, conducted by the old Planters.
This great River lieth under the Line, the two chief Head Lands North and South, are about three degrees asunder, the mouth of it is so full of many great and small Isles, it is an easie matter for an unexperienced Pilot to lose his way. It is held one of the greatest Rivers in America, and as most Men think in the World; and cometh down with such a fresh, it maketh the Sea fresh, more than thirty Miles from the Shoar. Captain North having seated his Men about an hundred Leagues in the Main, sent Captain William White, with thirty Gentlemen and others, in a Pinnace of thirty Tun, to discover further, which they did some two hundred Leagues, where they found the River to divide it self in two parts, till then all full of Islands, and a Country most healthful, pleasant and fruitful; for they found food enough, and all returned safe and in good health: In this discovery, they saw many Towns well inhabited, some with three hundred People, some with five, six, or seven hundred; and of some they understood to be of so many thousands, most differing very much, especially in their Languages: Whereof they suppose by those Indians, they understand are many hundreds more, unfrequented till then by any Christian, most of them stark naked, both Men, Women and Children, but they saw not any such Giant-like Women as the Rivers name importeth. But for those where Captain North hath seated his Company, it is not known where Indians were ever so kind to any Nation, not sparing any pains, danger or labour, to feed and maintain them. The English following their Buildings, Fortifications and Sugar-works; for which they have sent most expert Men, and with them all things necessary for that purpose; to effect which, they want not the help of those kind Indians to produce; and many other good Commodities, which (God willing) will ere long make plain and apparent to this Kingdom, and all the Adventures and Well-willers to this Plantation, to be well worthy the cherishing and following with all alacrity.
CHAP. XXV.
The Beginning and Proceedings of the new Plantation of St. Christopher
by
Captain Warner.
Master Ralph Merifield and others, having furnished this worthy Industrious Gentleman, {MN-1} he arrived at St. Christophers, as is said, with fifteen Men, the 28th of January 1623, viz. William Tested, John Rhodes, Robert Bints, Mr. Benifield, Sergeant Jones, Mr. Ware, William Ryle, Rowland Grascock, Mr. Bond, Mr. Langley, Mr. Weaver, Edward Warner, their Captain's Son, and now Deputy Governour, till his Father's return, Sergeant Aplon, one Sailor and a Cook: At their arrival, they found three French Men, who sought to oppose Captain Warner, and to set the Indians upon us; but at last we all became Friends, and lived with the Indians a Month, then we built a Fort, and a House, and planting Fruits, by September we made a crop of Tobacco; {MN-2} but upon the nineteenth of September came a Hericano and blew it away, all this while we lived upon Cassada Bread, Potatoes, Plantanes, Pines, Turtles, Guanes, and Fish plenty; for drink we had Nicnobby.
{MN-1} 1623.
{MN-2} A Hericano.
{MN} The 18th March 1624 arrived Captain Jefferson, with three Men Passengers in the Hopewell of London, with some Trade for the Indians, and then we had another crop of Tobacco, in the mean time the French had planted themselves in the other end of the Isle; with this crop Captain Warner returned for England in September 1625.
{MN} 1624.
In his absence came in a French Pinnace, under the command of Monsieur de Nombe, that told us, the Indians had slain some French Men in other of the Caribbe Isles, and that there were six Peryagoes, which are huge great Trees, formed as your Canoos, but so laid out on the sides with Boards, they will seem like a little Gally: {MN} Six of those, with about four or five hundred strange Indians came unto us, we bade them be gone, but they would not; whereupon we and the French joyned together, and upon the fifth of November set upon them, and put them to flight: upon New years Even they came again, found three English going about the Isle, whom they slew.
{MN} Their Fight with the Indians.
{MN-1} Until the fourth of August, we stood upon our Guard, living upon the spoil and did nothing. But now Captain Warner arriving again with near an hundred People, then we fell to work and planting as before; {MN-2} but upon the fourth of September, came such a Hericano, as blew down all our Houses, Tobacco, and two Drums into the air we know not whither, drove two Ships on Shoar that were both split; all our Provision thus lost, we were very miserable, living only on what we could get in the wild Woods, {MN-3} we made a small party of French and English to go aboard for Provision, but in their returning home, eight French Men were slain in the Harbour.
{MN-1} 1625.
{MN-2} A Hericano.
{MN-3} Eight French Slain.
{MN} Thus we continued till near June that the Tortles came in 1627, but the French being like to starve, sought to surprize us, and all the Cassado, Potatoes, and Tobacco we had planted, but we did prevent them. The 26th of October, came in Captain William Smith, in the Hope-well, with some Ordnance, Shot and Powder, from the Earl of Carlisle, with Captain Pelham and thirty Men; about that time also came the Plow, also a small Ship of Bristow, with Captain Warner's Wife, and six or seven Women more.
{MN} 1627.
{MN} Upon the 25th of November, the Indians set upon the French, for some injury about their Women, and slew six and twenty French Men, five English, and three Indians. Their Weapons are Bows and Arrows, their Bows are never bent, but the string lies flat to the Bow; their Arrows a small Reed, four or five foot long, headed some with the poisoned Sting of the Tail of a Stingray, some with Iron, some with Wood, but all so poisoned, that if they draw but blood, the hurt is incurable.
{MN} Three Indians Slain.
{MN} The next day came in Captain Charles Saltonstall, a young Gentleman, Son of Sir Samuel Saltonstall, who brought with him good store of all Commodities to relieve the Plantation; but by reason some Hollanders, and others had been there lately before him, who carried away with them all the Tobacco, he was forced to put away all his Commodities upon trust till the next crop; in the mean time he resolved there to stay, and imploy himself and his Company in planting Tobacco, hoping thereby to make a Voyage, but before he could be ready to return for England, a Hericano happening, his Ship was split, to his great loss, being sole Merchant and owner himself, notwithstanding forced to pay to the Governour the fifth part of his Tobacco, and for fraught to England, three pence a pound, and nine pence a pound custom, which amounts together to more than threescore pound in the hundred pound, to the great discouragement of him and many others, that intended well to those Plantations. Nevertheless he is gone again this present year 1629, with a Ship of about three hundred Tuns, and very near two hundred People, with Sir William Tuffton Governour for the Barbadoes, and divers Gentlemen, and all manner of Commodities fit for a Plantation.
{MN} The arrival of many English Ships.
Captain Prinn, Captain Stone, and divers others came in about Christmas; so that this last year, there hath been about thirty Sail of English, French, and Dutch Ships, and all the Indians forced out of the Isle, for they had done much mischief amongst the French, in cutting their Throats, burning their Houses, and spoiling their Tobacco; amongst the rest Tegramund, a little Child, the King's Son, his Parents being slain, or fled, was by great chance saved, and carefully brought to England, by Master Merifield, who brought him from thence, and bringeth him up as his own Children.
{MN-1} It lieth seventeen degrees Northward of the Line, about an hundred and twenty Leagues from the Cape de tres Puntas, the nearest main Land in America, it is about eight Leagues in length, and four in breadth; an Island amongst 100 Isles in the West Indies, called the Caribbes, where ordinarily all them that frequent the West Indies, refresh themselves; those, most of them are Rocky, little, and Mountainous, yet frequented with the Canibals; many of them inhabited, as Saint Domingo, Saint Mattalin, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent, Granada, and Margarita, to the Southward; Northward, none but Saint Christophers, and it but lately, yet they will be ranging Marigalanta, Guardalupo, Deceado, Mountserat, Antegua, Mevis, Bernardo, Saint Martin, and Saint Bartholomew, but the worst of the four Isles possessed by the Spaniard, as Portorico or Jamaica, is better than them all; as for Hispaniola, and Cuba, they are worthy the Title of two rich Kingdoms, the rest not respected by the Spaniards, for want of Harbours, and their better choice of good Land, and profit in the main. But Captain Warner, having been very familiar with Captain Painton, in the Amazon, hearing his information of this St. Christophers; and having made a years trial, as it is said, returned for England, joyning with Master Merifield and his Friends, got Letters Patents from King James to plant and possess it. Since then, the Right Honourable the Earl of Carlisle hath got Letters Patents also, not only of that, but all the Caribe Isles about it, who is now chief Lord of them, and the English his Tenants that do possess them; over whom he appointeth such Governours and Officers as their affairs require; and although there be a great Custom imposed upon them, considering their other charges, both to feed and maintain themselves; yet there is there, and now a going, near upon the number of three thousand People; where by reason of the rockiness and thickness of the Woods in the Isle, it is difficult to pass, and such a snuff of the Sea goeth on the Shoar, ten may better defend, than fifty assault. {MN-2} In this Isle are many Springs, but yet Water is scarce again in many places; the Valleys and sides of the Hills very fertile, but the Mountains harsh, and of a sulphurous composition; all overgrown with Palmetas, Cotten Trees; Lignum vitæ, and divers other sorts, but none like any in Christendom, except those carried thither; the air very pleasant and healthful, but exceeding hot, yet so tempered with cool breaths, it seems very temperate to them, that are little used to it; the Trees being always green, the days and nights always very near equal in length, always Summer; only they have in their Seasons great Gusts and Rains, and sometimes a Hericano, which is an over grown, and a most violent storm.
{MN-1} The Description of the Isle.
{MN-2} The Springs; Temper; and Seasons.
{MN} In some of those Isles, are Cattel, Goats, and Hogs, but here none but what they must carry; Guanes they have, which is a little harmless Beast, like a Crocodile, or Alligator, very fat and good Meat; she lays Eggs in the Sand, as doth the Land Crabs, which live here In abundance, like Conies in Boroughs, unless about May, when they come down to the Sea side, to lay in the Sand, as the other; and all their Eggs are hatched by the heat of the Sun.
{MN} A strange hatching of eggs for beasts.
{MN} From May to September, they have good store of Tortoises that come out of the Sea to lay their Eggs in the Sand, and are hatched as the other; they will lay half a peck at a time, and near a bushel ere they have done, and are round like Tenis-balls: This Fish is like Veal in taste, the Fat of a brownish colour, very good and wholsom. We seek them in the Nights, where we find them on shoar, we turn them upon their backs, till the next day we fetch them home, for they can never return themselves, being so hard, a Cart may go over them, and so big, one will suffice forty or fifty Men to dinner. Divers sorts of other Fish they have in abundance, and Prawenes most great and excellent, but none will keep sweet scarce twelve hours.
{MN} Fish.
{MN} The best and greatest is a Passer Flaminga, which walking at her length, is as tall as a Man; Pigeons and Turtle Doves in abundance; some Parrots, wild Hawks, but divers other sorts of good Sea-fowl, whose Names we know not.
{MN} Birds.
{MN} Cassado is a Root planted in the Ground, of a wonderful Increase, and will make very good White-bread, but the Juce Rank Poyson, yet boyled, better than Wine; Potatoes, Cabbages, and Radish plenty.
{MN} Roots.
{MN} Maize, like the Virginia Wheat; we have Pine-Apple, near so big as an Hartichock, but the most daintiest taste of any Fruit; Plantains, an excellent and most increasing Fruit; Apples, Prickle Pears, and Pease, but differing all from ours. There is Pepper that groweth in a little red Husk, as big as a Walnut, about four Inches in length, but the long Cods are small, and much stronger and better for use, than that from the East Indies. There is too sorts of Cotten, the silk Cotten as in the East Indies, groweth upon a small stalk, as good for Beds as Down; the other upon a shrub, and beareth a Cod bigger than a Walnut, full of Cotten wool: Anotto also groweth upon a shrub, with a Cod like the other, and nine or ten on a bunch, full of Anotto, very good for Dyers, tho' wild; Sugar Canes, not tame, four or five foot high; also Mastick, and Locus-trees; great and hard Timber, Gourds, Musk-Melons, Water-Melons, Lettice, Parsly; all places naturally bear Purslain of it self; Sope-berries like a Musquet Bullet, that washeth as white as Sope; in the middle of the Root is a thing like a Sedge, a very good Fruit, we call Pengromes; a Pappaw is as great as an Apple, coloured like an Orange, and good to eat, a small hard Nut, like a Hazel Nut, grows close to the Ground, and like this grows on the Palmetas, which we call a Mucca Nut; Mustard-seed will grow to a great Tree, but bears no seed, yet the Leaves will make good Mustard; the Mancinel Tree, the Fruit is Poison; good Figs in abundance; but the Palmeta serveth to build Forts and Houses, the Leaves to cover them, and many other uses; the juice we draw from them, till we suck them to Death, (is held restorative) and the top for meat doth serve us as Cabbage; but oft we want Powder'd Beef and Bacon, and many other needful necessaries.
{MN} Fruits.
By Thomas Simons, Rowland Grascocke, Nicholas Burgh, and others.
CHAP. XXVI.
The first Planting of the Barbadoes.
The Barbados lies South-West and by South, an hundred Leagues from St. Christophers, threescore Leagues West and South from Trinidado, and some fourscore Leagues from Cape de Salinos, the next part of the main. The first Planters brought thither by Captain Henry Powel, were forty English, with seven or eight Negros; then he went to Disacuba in the main, where he got thirty Indians, Men, Women and Children of the Arawacos, Enemies both to the Caribbes and the Spaniards. {MN} The Isle is most like a Triangle, each side forty or fifty Miles square, some exceeding great Rocks, but the most part exceeding good Ground; abounding with an infinite number of Swine, some Turtles, and many sorts of excellent Fish; many great Ponds wherein is Duck and Mallard; excellent Clay for Pots, Wood and Stone for Building, and a Spring near the midst of the Isle of Bitume, which is a liquid mixture like Tarr, that by the great Rains falls from the Tops of the Mountains, it floats upon the Water in such abundance, that drying up, it remains like great Rocks of Pitch, and as good as Pitch for any use.
{MN} A Description of the Isle.
{MN} The Mancinel Apple, is of a most pleasant sweet smell, of the bigness of a Crab, but rank Poyson, yet the Swine and Birds have wit to shun it; great store of exceeding great Locus-trees, two or three Fathom about, of a great height, that beareth a Cod full of Meal, will make Bread in time of necessity. A Tree like a Pine beareth a Fruit so great as a Musk Melon, which hath always ripe Fruit Flowers, or Green Fruit, which will refresh two or three Men, and very comfortable; Plumb-trees many, the Fruit great and Yellow, which but strained into Water in four and twenty hours, will be very good drink; wild Figg-trees there are many; all those Fruits do fat the Hoggs, yet at sometimes of the Year they are so lean as Carrion; Guane-trees bear a Fruit so big as a Pear, good and wholsom; Palmetaes of three several sorts; Pappaws, Prickle Pears, good to eat or make drink; Cedar Trees very tall and great; Fustick Trees are very great, and the wood yellow, good for dying; Soap Berries, the kernel so big as a sloe, and good to eat; Pumpeons in abundance; Goads so great as will make good great Bottles, and cut in two pieces, good Dishes and Platters; many small Brooks of very good Water; Guinea Wheat, Cassado, Pines and Plantains; all things we there Plant, do grow exceedingly, so well as Tobacco; the Corn, Pease, and Beans, cut but away the Stalk, young sprigs will grow, and so bear Fruit for many Years together, without any more Planting; the Isle is overgrown with Wood or great Reeds, those Woods which are soft are exceeding light and full of Pitch, and those that are hard and great, they are as hard to cut as Stone.
{MN} Fruits and Trees.
{MN} Mr. John Powel came thither the 40th of August 1627. with forty five Men, where we stayed three Weeks, and then returning, left behind us about an Hundred People, and his Son John Powel for his Deputy, as Governour; but there have been so many Factions amongst them, I cannot from so many variable Relations, give you any certainty for their orderly Government: for all those Plenties, much misery they have endured, in regard of their weakness at their Landing, and long stay without supplies; therefore those that go thither, it were good they carry good Provision with them; but the Isle is most healthful, and all things Planted do increase abundantly; and by this time there is, and now a going, about the number of fifteen or sixteen Hundred People.
{MN} Their numbers.
Sir William Curtine, and Captain John Powel, were the first and chief Adventurers to the Planting this fortunate Isle; which had been oft frequented by Men of War to refresh themselves, and set up their Shallopes; being so far remote from the rest of the Isles, they never were troubled with any of the Indies. Harbours they have none, but exceeding good Rodes, which with a small Charge, might be very well Fortified; it doth Ebb and Flow four or five foot, and they cannot perceive that there hath ever been any Hericano in that Isle.
From the Relations of Captain John White, and Captain Wolverstone.
CHAP. XXVII.
The first Plantations of the Isle of Mevis.
{MN-1} Because I have ranged and lived amongst those Islands, what my Authors cannot tell me, I think it no great error in helping them to tell it my self. In this little Isle of Mevis, more than twenty Years ago, I have remained a great time together, to Wood and Water and refresh my Men; it is all Woody, but by the Sea-side Southward, there are Sands like Downs, where a Thousand Men may quarter themselves Conveniently; but in most places the Wood groweth close to the Water side, at a high Water mark, and in some places so thick of a soft spungy Wood like a wild Fig-tree, you cannot get through it, but by making your way with Hatchets, or Fauchions: whether it was the dew of those Trees, or of some others, I am not certain, but many of our Men became so tormented with a burning swelling all over their Bodies, they seemed like scalded Men, and near Mad with Pain; {MN-2} here we found a great Pool wherein bathing themselves they found much ease; and finding it fed with a Pleasant small stream that came out of the Woods, we found the head half a Mile within the Land distilling from many Rocks, by which they were well cured in two or three days. Such factions here we had, as commonly attend such Voyages, that a pair of Gallows were made, but Captain Smith for whom they were intended, could not be perswaded to use them; but not any one of the inventors, but their lives by Justice fell into his Power to determine of at his Pleasure, whom with much Mercy he favoured, that most basely and unjustly have betrayed him.
{MN-1} The Description of the Isle.
{MN-2} The Bath.
{MN} The last Year 1628. Mr. Littleton with some others, got a Patent of the Earl of Carlisle to Plant the Isle called the Barbadoes, thirty Leagues Northward of St. Christophers; which by report of their Informers, and Undertakers, for the excellency of the Pleasantness thereof, they called Dulcina, but when they came there, they found it such a Barren Rock they left it; altho they were told as much before, they would not believe it, perswading themselves those contradicters would get it for themselves, was thus by their cunning Opinion, the deceivers of themselves; for seeing it lie conveniently for their purpose in a Map, they had not Patience to know the goodness or badness, the inconvenience nor probability of the Quantity nor Quality; which error doth predominate in most of our homebred Adventurers, that will have all things as they conceit and would have it; and the more they are contradicted, the more hot they are; but you may see by many Examples in the general History, how difficult a matter it is, to gather the Truth from amongst so many Foreign and several Relations, except you have exceeding good experience both of the Countries People, and their Conditions; and those ignorant undertakings, have been the greatest hindrance of all those Plantations.
{MN} A great misfortune.
{MN} At last because they would be absolute, they came to Mevis, a little Isle by St. Christophers; where they seated themselves, well furnished with all necessaries, being about the Number of an Hundred, and since increased to an Hundred and fifty Persons, whereof many were old Planters of St. Christophers; especially Mr. Anthony Hinton, and Mr. Edward Tompson. But because all those Isles for the most part are so capable to produce, and in Nature like each other, let this discourse serve for the description of them all. Thus much concerning those Plantations, which now after all this time, loss and charge, should they be abandon'd, suppressed, and dissolved, were most lamentable; and surely seeing they all strive so much about this Tobacco, and that the Fraught thereof, and other charges are so great, and so open to any Enemy by that Commodity they cannot long subsist.
{MN} Their Numbers.
And it is a wonder to me to see such Miracles and Mischiefs in Men; how greedily they pursue to dispossess the Planters of the Name of Christ Jesus, yet say they are Christians, when so much of the World is unpossessed; yea, and better Land than they so much strive for, murthering so many Christians, burning and spoiling so many Cities, Villages and Countries, and subverting so many Kingdoms, when so much lieth wait, or only possessed by a few poor Savages, that more serve the Devil for fear, than God for love; whose Ignorance we pretend to reform, but Covetousness, Humours, Ambition, Faction, and Pride hath so many Instruments, we perform very little to any purpose; nor is there either Honour or Profit to be got by any that are so vile, to undertake the subversion, or hinderance of any honest intended Christian Plantation.
{MN} Now to conclude the Travels and Adventures of Captain Smith; how first he Planted Virginia and was let ashoar with about an Hundred Men in the wild Woods; how he was taken Prisoner by the Savages, by the King of Pamaunke tied to a Tree to be shot to death, led up and down their Country to be shewed for a wonder; fatted as he thought, for a Sacrifice for their Idol, before whom they conjured him three days, with strange Dances and Invocations, then brought him before their Emperor Powhatan, that commanded him to be slain; how his Daughter Pocahontas saves his life, returned him to James Town, relieved him and his famished Company, which was but eight and thirty to possess those large Dominions; how he discovered all the several Nations, upon the Rivers falling into the Bay of Chisapeacke; flung near to death with a most Poisoned taile of a Fish called Stingray: how Powhatan out of his Country took the Kings of Pamaunke and Paspahegh Prisoners, forced thirty nine of those Kings to pay him contribution, subjected all the Savages: how Smith was blown up with Gun-powder, and returned for England to be cured.
{MN} Certain exploits of Captain Smith.
Also how he brought our New England to the subjection of the Kingdom of Great Britain; his fights with the Pirats, left alone amongst a many French men of Warr, and his Ship ran from him; his Sea-fights for the French against the Spaniards; their bad usage of him; how in France in a little Boat he escaped them; was adrift all such a stormy Night at Sea by himself, when thirteen French Ships were split, or driven on shoar by the Isle of Ree, the General and most of his Men drowned, when God, to whom be all Honour and Praise, brought him safe on shoar to all their Admirations that escaped; you may read at large in his General History of Virginia, the Summer Isles, and New England.