USA > Massachusetts > Chronicles of the first planters of the colony of Massachusetts Bay, 1623-1636 > Part 18
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1 Ten-pound Island, on which there is now a light-house.
The sweet briar. Gooseberries are still found on the island, and be- fore it was cleared up, wild straw- berries were also obtained there.
3 The distance from Gloucester to Salem harbour is about nine miles.
4 Endicott.
5 Baker's Island, Great and Little Miseries, Coney Island, and others,
a full topographical description of which may be scen in Bentley's History of Salem, in Mass. Hist. Coll. vi. 219-222. See also Bow- ditch's Chart of the Harbours of Salem, Beverly, Marblehead and Manchester, and the accurate and beautiful Map of Massachusetts, made by order of the Legislature in 1844.
235
THE VOYAGE FORTY-FIVE DAYS LONG.
George to our great comfort, there being come on CHAP. Tuesday, which was seven days before us. We - XI. rested that night with glad and thankful hearts that 1629. God had put an end to our long and tedious journey June 29. through the greatest sea in the world.
The next morning the Governor came aboard to our ship, and bade us kindly welcome, and invited me and my wife to come on shore and take our lodg- ing in his house ;1 which we did accordingly.
Thus you have a faithful report, collected from day to day, of all the particulars that were worth noting in our passage.
Now in our passage divers things are remarkable.
First, through God's blessing, our passage was short and speedy ; for whereas we had a thousand leagues, that is, three thousand miles English, to sail from Old to New England, we performed the same in six weeks and three days.
Secondly, our passage was comfortable and easy for the most part, having ordinarily fair and moderate wind, and being freed for the most part from stormy and rough seas, saving one night only, which we that were not used thought to be more terrible than in- deed it was ; and this was Wednesday at night, May 27th.
Thirdly, our passage was also healthful to our passengers, being freed from the great contagion of the scurvy and other maledictions,2 which in other passages to other places had taken away the lives of
1 Higginson says, in another place, that it was "a fair house, newly built for the Governor."
2 Maladies, diseases.
30.
236
THE VOYAGE A HEALTHFUL ONE.
CHAP. many.
XI. And yet we were, in all reason, in wonder-
ful danger all the way, our ship being greatly crowd- 1629. ed with passengers ; but, through God's great good- June. ness, we had none that died of the pox but that wicked fellow that scorned at fasting and prayer. There were indeed two little children, one of my own, and another beside; but I do not impute it merely to the passage, for they were both very sickly children, and not likely to have lived long, if they had not gone to sea. And take this for a rule, if children be health- ful when they come to sea, the younger they are the better they will endure the sea, and are not troubled with sea-sickness as older people are, as we had ex- perience in many children that went this voyage. My wife, indeed, in tossing weather, was something ill by vomiting ; but in calm weather she recovered again, and is now much better for the sea-sickness.1 And for my own part, whereas I have for divers years past been very sickly, and ready to cast up whatsoever I have eaten, and was very sick at Lon- don and Gravesend, yet from the time I came on shipboard to this day I have been strangely health- ful.2 And now I can digest our ship diet very well, which I could not when I was at land. And indeed in this regard I have great cause to give God praise, that he hath made my coming to be a method to cure me of a wonderful weak stomach and continual pain of melancholy wind from the spleen. Also divers children were sick of the small pox, but are safely recovered again ; and two or three passengers, to-
1 She lived till 1640, in which year she died, at New Haven, in Connecticut. See note 3 on page 211.
2 Yet he died in August of the next year, - of a hectic fever, ac- cording to Cotton Mather. See the Magnalia, i. 329.
237
THE VOYAGE PLEASANT AND PROFITABLE.
wards the latter end of the voyage, fell sick of the CHAP. scurvy, but coming to land recovered in a short time. XI.
Fourthly, our passage was both pleasurable and 1629. profitable. For we received instruction and delight June. in beholding the wonders of the Lord in the deep waters, and sometimes seeing the sea round us ap- pearing with a terrible countenance, and, as it were, full of high hills and deep valleys ; and sometimes it appeared as a most plain and even meadow. And ever and anon we saw divers kinds of fishes sporting in the great waters, great grampuses and huge whales, going by companies, and puffing up water streams. Those that love their own chimney-corner, and dare not go far beyond their own town's end, shall never have the honor to see these wonderful works of Almighty God.
Fifthly, we had a pious and Christian-like passage; for I suppose passengers shall seldom find a company of more religious, honest and kind seamen than we had. We constantly served God morning and even- ing by reading and expounding a chapter, singing, and prayer. And the Sabbath was solemnly kept, by adding to the former, preaching twice and cate- chising. And in our great need we kept two solemn fasts, and found a gracious effect. Let all that love and use fasting and praying, take notice that it is as prevailable by sea as by land, wheresoever it is faith- fully performed. Besides, the shipmaster and his com- pany used every night to set their eight and twelve o'clock watches with singing a psalm, and prayer that was not read out of a book.1 This I write not
1 That is, extempore, according Justin Martyr says, the officiating to the mode of the early Christians. minister in the public worship of the
238
END OF HIGGINSON'S VOYAGE.
CHAP. for boasting and flattery, but for the benefit of those XI. that have a mind to come to New-England hereafter,
1629. that if they look for and desire to have as prosperous June. a voyage as we had, they may use the same means to attain the same.1
So letting pass our passage by sea, we will now bring our discourse to land, on the shore of New- England; and I shall, by God's assistance, endeavour to speak nothing but the naked truth, and both ac- quaint you with the commodities and discommodities of the country.2
primitive church, " offered prayers and thanksgivings according to his ability." See his Second Apology, towards the end, Opera, p. 98, (ed. Cologne, 1686.) Origen, too, con- tra Celsum, lib. viii. pp. 386, 402, says the same thing ; and Tertullian in his Apol., cap. 30, says, " We pray without a prompter, because our prayers flow from our own minds : sine monitore, quia de pec- tore oramus." Opera, v. 80, (ed. Semler.)
1 It appears from page 214, that this Journal was "written from
New-England, July 24, 1629," and was undoubtedly sent home on the return of the Talbot and Lion's Whelp, which arrived in England before Sept. 19. See page 90.
2 The principal part of the pre- ceding Journal is printed from an old MS., which, though not the original, is unquestionably a very early copy. It was in the posses- sion of Hutchinson, but not of Prince. It is now the property of the Massachusetts Historical Soci- ety. See page 232.
FRANCIS HIGGINSON'S
NEW-ENGLAND'S PLANTATION.
NEW-ENGLANDS PLANTATION. Or a Short and Trve Description of the Commodities and Discommodities of that Countrey. Writ- ten by Mr. Higgeson,1 a reuerend Diuine now there resident. Whereunto is added a Letter, sent by Mr. Graues, an Enginere, out of New-England. The third Edition, enlarged.
LONDON. Printed by T. and R. Cotes for Michael Sparke, dwell- ing at the Signe of the Blew Bible in Greene Arbor. 1630. sm. 4to. pp. 25.
1 Mr. Higginson's name does not appear on the title-page of the first edition, printed the same year ; nor is Graves's Letter printed in that edition. I have both editions before me, loaned me by Edward A. Crown- inshield, Esq. of Boston. That they were actually distinct editions, and not merely different in their title-
pages, is demonstrated by the colla- tion of the volumes, by which it ap- pears that the typographical errors of the first edition are not to be found in the third. The appearance of three editions of this pamphlet in the course of a year, shows the in- terest with which the infant Planta- tion was regarded in England.
TO THE READER.
READER,
Do not disdain to read this Relation; and 1630. look not here to have a large gate, and no building within, a full-stuffed title, with no matter in the book. But here read the truth; and that thou shalt find without any frothy, bombasting words, or any quaint, new-devised additions, only as it was written (not intended for the press) by a reverend divine now there living, who only sent it to some friends1 here which were desirous of his Relations ; which is an epitome of their proceedings in the Plantation. And for thy part, if thou meanest to be no planter nor venturer, do but lend thy good prayers for the furtherance of it. And so I rest a well-wisher to all the good designs both of them which are gone, and of them that are to go.2
M. S.3
1 Among them were Isaac John- son and Increase Nowell, who was a relative, besides his parishioners at Leicester, and the persons who treat- ed him so kindly at Yarmouth. See pages 65 and 220.
2 This indicates that the first edi- tion of the book was printed before the sailing of Winthrop's fleet, that is, before April.
3 The initials of Michael Sparke, the publisher. See page 240.
16
CHAPTER XII.
NEW-ENGLAND'S PLANTATION.1
CHAP. XII. 1629. July to Sept.
LETTING pass our voyage by sea,? we will now begin our discourse on the shore of New-England. And because the life and welfare of every creature here below, and the commodiousness of the country whereas such creatures live, doth, by the most wise ordering of God's providence, depend, next unto himself, upon the temperature and disposition of the four elements, Earth, Water, Air, and Fire, (for as of the mixture of all these all sublunary things are composed, so by the more or less enjoyment of the wholesome temper and convenient use of these con- sisteth the only well being both of man and beast in a more or less comfortable measure in all coun- tries under the heavens,) therefore I will endeavour
1 This Relation was probably sent home on the return of the Four Sis- ters and Mayflower, which arrived in England before Nov. 20th. Of course it covers a space of only about three months, from the first of July to the middle or end of Sep- tember. See pages 107 and 240.
2 It is evident from page 238, that this Narrative was a continuation of the Journal of the Voyage. But the Journal, it seems, was not deem- ed of sufficient importance to be printed with it, and was accordingly omitted, and was never subsequently printed in England.
243
THE SOIL OF NEW-ENGLAND.
to show you what New-England is, by the consider- CHAP. ation of each of these apart, and truly endeavour, by XII. God's help, to report nothing but the naked truth, 1629. and that both to tell you of the discommodities as July to Sept. well as of the commodities. Though, as the idle pro- verb is, " Travellers may lie by authority," and so may take too much sinful liberty that way, yet I may say of myself, as once Nehemiah did in another case, " Shall such a man as I lie ?" No, verily. It be- cometh not a preacher of truth to be a writer of falsehood in any degree ;1 and therefore I have been careful to report nothing of New-England but what I have partly seen with mine own eyes, and partly heard and inquired from the mouths of very honest and religious persons,? who by living in the country a good space of time have had experience and know- ledge of the state thereof, and whose testimonies I do believe as myself.
First therefore of the Earth of New-England, and all the appurtenances thereof.
It is a land of divers and sundry sorts all about Masathulets3 Bay, and at Charles river is as fat black earth as can be seen anywhere ; and in other places
1 And yet he was accused of ex- aggerating the advantages of the country. See Dudley's letter to the Countess of Lincoln, in a subsequent part of this volume.
2 Conant and his associates ; per- haps, also, Gov. Bradford and others from the Colony of New-Plymouth, who came to Salem as messengers from the church to attend Higgin-
son's installation on the 6th of Aug. and with whom he then had ample opportunity to confer. See Morton's Memorial, p. 146, and Prince's An- nals, p. 263.
3 So spelt in the original ; possi- bly a typographical error, although it is spelt four times afterwards in the same manner.
244
· MUCH CLEARED GROUND.
CHAP. you have a clay soil, in other gravel, in other sandy, XII. as it is all about our Plantation at Salem, for so our town is now named.1
1629. July to Sept. Psalm 1xxvi. 2.
The form of the earth here, in the superficies of it, is neither too flat in the plainness, nor too high in hills, but partakes of both in a mediocrity, and fit . for pasture or for plough or meadow ground, as men please to employ it. Though all the country be, as it were, a thick wood for the general, yet in divers places there is much ground cleared by the Indians,2 and especially about the Plantation ; and I am told that about three miles from us a man may stand on a little hilly place and see divers thousands of acres of ground as good as need to be, and not a tree in the same. It is thought here is good clay to make brick and tiles and earthen pots, as need to be. At this instant we are setting a brick-kiln on work, to make bricks and tiles for the building of our houses. For stone, here is plenty of slates at the Isle of Slate3 in Masathulets Bay, and limestone, freestone, and smooth-stone, and iron-stone, and marble-stone3 also in such store, that we have great rocks of it, and a harbour hard by. Our Plantation is from thence called Marble-harbour.4
1 See pages 12 and 31.
2 See Chronicles of Plymouth, pp. 124, 167 and 206.
3 This Isle of Slate and the mar- ble-stone have never yet been found. 4 A name nearly resembling this, now belongs to an adjoining town, which in 1649 was set off from Sa- lem. Wood, who was here in 1633, says, in his New-England's Pros- pect, part i. ch. 10, " Marvilhead is a place which lieth four miles full south from Salem, and is a very convenient place for a plantation, especially for such as will set upon
the trade of fishing. There was made here a ship's loading of fish the last year, where still stand the stages and drying scaffolds." In Professor Sewall's oration, delivered in 1769 at the funeral of the Rev. Edward Holyoke, President of Har- vard College, who had once been a minister in that town, it is thus gra- phically described : " Marmaracria, oppidum maritimum, saxis abun- dans, inde Nov-anglicè dictum Marblehead ; asperrima vox, aures Latinas horridè perstringens." See Mass. Hist. Coll. viii. 54.
245
WONDERFUL FERTILITY OF THE SOIL.
Of minerals there hath yet been but little trial CHAP. made, yet we are not without great hope of being XII. ~ furnished in that soil. 1629. July to Sept.
The fertility of the soil is to be admired at, as ap- peareth in the abundance of grass that groweth every where, both very thick, very long, and very high in divers places. But it groweth very wildly, with a great stalk, and a broad and ranker blade,1 because it never had been eaten with cattle, nor mowed with a scythe, and seldom trampled on by foot. It is scarce to be believed how our kine and goats,2 horses and hogs do thrive and prosper here, and like well of this country.
In our Plantation we have already a quart of milk for a penny. But the abundant increase of corn proves this country to be a wonderment. Thirty, forty, fifty, sixty, are ordinary here. Yea, Joseph's increase in Egypt is outstripped here with us. Our planters hope to have more than a hundredfold this year. And all this while I am within compass ; what will you say of two hundred fold, and upwards ? It is almost incredible what great gain some of our English planters have had by our Indian corn. Cred- ible persons have assured me, and the party himself avouched the truth of it to me, that of the setting of thirteen gallons of corn he hath had increase of it fifty-two hogsheads, every hogshead holding seven bushels of London measure, and every bushel was by him sold and trusted to the Indians for so much
1 Probably the meadow spear grass (poa nervata), or the foul mea- dow grass. See Dewey's Report on the Herbaceous Plants of Mas- sachusetts, p. 246, and Bigelow's Plants of Boston and Vicinity, p. 35.
2 They had at this time in the Plantation about forty cows, and as many goats, as Higginson himself informs us in a letter at the end of this Relation.
246
NATURAL PRODUCTIONS OF THE COUNTRY ..
CHAP. beaver as was worth eighteen shillings ; and so of XII. this thirteen gallons of corn, which was worth six 1629. shillings eight pence, he made about £327 of it the July to year following, as by reckoning will appear ; where Sept. you may see how God blesseth husbandry in this land. There is not such great and plentiful ears of corn I suppose any where else to be found but in this country, being also of variety of colors, as red, blue, and yellow, &c .; 1 and of one corn there springeth four or five hundred. I have sent you many ears of divers colors, that you might see the truth of it.
Little children here, by setting of corn, may earn much more than their own maintenance.
They have tried our English corn at New Ply- mouth Plantation,2 so that all our several grains will grow here very well, and have a fitting soil for their nature.
Our Governor hath store of green pease growing in his garden as good as ever I eat in England.
This country aboundeth naturally with store of roots of great variety and good to eat. Our turnips, parsnips and carrots are here both bigger and sweeter than is ordinarily to be found in England. Here are also store of pumpions, cowcumbers, and other things of that nature which I know not. Also, divers excel- lent pot-herbs grow abundantly among the grass, as strawberry leaves in all places of the country, and plenty of strawberries in their time, and penny-royal, winter-savory, sorrel, brooklime, liverwort, carvel,
1 See Chronicles of Plymouth,
2. See Chronicles of Plymouth, note 1 on p. 131, and note 4 on p. 133; pages 231 and 370. and Dewey's Report, p. 253.
247
THE PLANTS AND TREES OF NEW-ENGLAND.
and watercresses ; also leeks and onions are ordi- CHAP. nary, and divers physical herbs.1 Here are also XII. abundance of other sweet herbs, delightful to the 1629. smell, whose names we know not, and plenty of July to Sept. single damask roses,2 very sweet ; and two kinds of herbs that bear two kinds of flowers very sweet, which they say are as good to make cordage or cloth as any hemp or flax3 we have.
Excellent vines are here up and down in the woods. Our Governor hath already planted a vine- yard,4 with great hope of increase.
Also, mulberries, plums, raspberries, currants, chestnuts, filberts, walnuts, small-nuts, hurtleber- ries, and haws of white-thorn, near as good as our cherries in England, they grow in plenty here.
For wood, there is no better in the world, I think, here being four sorts of oak, differing both in the leaf, timber, and color, all excellent good. There is also good ash, elm, willow, birch, beech, sassa- fras, juniper, cypress, cedar, spruce, pines and fir,5 that will yield abundance of turpentine, pitch, tar, masts, and other materials for building both of ships and houses. Also here are-store of sumach6 trees, that are good for dyeing and tanning of leather ; likewise such trees yield a precious gum, called white benjamin, that they say is excellent for per- fumes. Also here be divers roots and berries,
1 See Chronicles of Plymouth, pp. 132, 165, and 234; Dewey's Report, p. 209.
2 The sweet briar (rosa rubigi- nosa.) See Chron. Plym. 234 ; Dewey's Report, p. 55; and Bige- low's Plants, p. 209.
3 See Chronicles of Plymouth, note 2 on page 166 ; Dewey's Re-
port, p. 83 ; and Bigelow's Plants, p. 130.
4 See note 1 on page 152,
5 See Chronicles of Plymouth, pages 118, 124, 164, 165.
6 Sce page 133; Dewey's Re- port, p. 200 ; and Bigclow's Plants, page 125.
248
THE BEASTS OF NEW-ENGLAND.
1629. July to Sept.
CHAP. wherewith the Indians die excellent holding colors, XII. that no rain nor washing can alter. Also we have materials to make soap ashes and saltpetre in abun- dance.
For beasts there are some bears, and they say some lions1 also ; for they have been seen at Cape ·Anne. Also here are several sorts of deer, some whereof bring three or four young ones at once, which is not ordinary in England ; also wolves, foxes, beavers, otters, martens, great wild cats, and a great beast called a molke,2 as big as an ox. I have seen the skins of all these beasts since I came to this Plantation, excepting lions. Also here are great store of squirrels, some greater, and some smaller and lesser ; there are some of the lesser sort, they tell me, that by a certain skin will fly from tree to tree, though they stand far distant.3
Of the Waters of New-England, with the things belong- ing to the same.
New-England hath water enough, both salt and fresh. The greatest sea in the world, the Atlantic Sea, runs all along the coast thereof. There are abundance of islands along the shore, some full of wood and mast to feed swine, and others clear of
1 See Chronicles of Plymouth, note 1 on page 176.
2 Probably an error of the press
for moose. See Josselyn's New- England's Rarities, p. 19 ; Wood's New-England's Prospect, part i. ch. 6; and Emmons's Report on the Quadrupeds of Massachusetts, pp. 74-78.
3 " The third kind is a flying squirrel, which is not very big, slen- der of body, with a great deal of loose skin, which she spreads square when she flies ; which the wind gets, and so wafts her bat-like body from place to place." Wood's New- England's Prospect, ch. 6.
249
ABUNDANCE OF SEA-FISH.
. wood, and fruitful to bear corn. Also we have store CHAP. XII. of excellent harbours for ships, as at Cape Anne,~ and at Masathulets Bay, and at Salem, and at many 1629. other places ; and they are the better, because for July to strangers there is a very difficult and dangerous pas- Sept. sage into them, but unto such as are well acquainted with them they are easy and safe enough.
The abundance of sea-fish are almost beyond be- lieving ; and sure I should scarce have believed it except I had seen it with mine own eyes. I saw great store of whales, and grampuses, and such abund- ance of mackerels1 that it would astonish one to be- hold ; likewise codfish, abundance on the coast, and in their season are plentifully taken. There is a fish called a bass,2 a most sweet and wholesome fish as ever I did eat ; it is altogether as good as our fresh salmon ; and the season of their coming was begun when we came first to New-England in June, and so continued about three months' space.3 Of this fish our fishers take many hundreds together, which I have seen lying on the shore, to my admiration. Yea, their nets ordinarily take more than they are able to haul to land, and for want of boats and men they are constrained to let a many go after they have taken them ; and yet sometimes they fill two boats at a time with them. And besides bass, we take plenty of scate and thornback, and abundance of
1 See note 2 on page 232.
2 The striped bass, (labrax linea- tus.) See Wood, ch. 9, and Sto- rer's Report on the Fishes of Massa- chusetts, page 7.
3 This helps us to fix the date of this Relation. It was not written till after the first of September, and
was probably sent home by the Mayflower or Four Sisters, both of which reached England before Nov. 20, and had brought a letter, dated the 5th of September, from Gov. Endicott and others. See pages 107, 109 and 242.
-
250
EXCELLENCE OF THE WATER.
CHAP. lobsters,1 and the least boy in the Plantation may XII.
1629. July to Sept.
both catch and eat what he will of them. For my own part, I was soon cloyed with them, they were so great, and fat, and luscious. I have seen some myself that have weighed sixteen pound ; but others have had divers times so great lobsters as have weighed twenty-five pound,2 as they assured me.
Also, here is abundance of herring, turbot,3 stur- geon, cusks, haddocks, mullets, eels, crabs, muscles, and oysters.4 Besides, there is probability that the country is of an excellent temper for the making of salt ; for, since our coming, our fishermen have brought home very good salt which they found can- died by the standing of the sea-water and the heat of the sun upon a rock by the seashore ; and in divers salt marshes that some have gone through, they have found some salt in some places crushing under their feet, and cleaving to their shoes.
And as for fresh water, the country is full of dainty springs,5 and some great rivers, and some lesser brooks ; and at Masathulets Bay6 they digged wells and found water at three foot deep in most places ; and near Salem they have as fine clear water as we
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