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NEW ENGLISH CANAAN, or
NEW CANAAN.
The Second Book.
Containing a Description of the Beauty of the Country,
with Her Natural Endowments both in the Land and Sea,
with the Great Lake of Erocoise.
CHAPTER I.
The General Survey of the Country.
N the month of June Anno Salutis 1622 it was my chance to arrive in the parts of New England with 30 servants, and provision of all sorts fit for a plantation. And while our houses were building, I did endeavor to take a survey of the country. [150]
The more I looked, the more I liked it. And when I had more seriously considered of the beauty of the place, with all her fair endowments, I did not think that in all the known world it could be paralleled. For so many goodly groves of trees, dainty fine round rising hillucks, delicate fair large plains; sweet crystal fountains and clear-running streams that twine in fine meanders through the meads, making so sweet a murmuring noise to hear as would even lull the senses with delight asleep, so pleasantly do they glide upon the pebble stones, jetting most jocundly where they do meet; and hand in hand run down to Neptune's Court, to pay the yearly tribute which they owe to him as sovereign Lord of all the springs. Contained within the volume of the land, fowls in abundance, fish in multitude, and discovered besides, millions of turtledoves on the green boughs; which sat pecking of the full ripe pleasant grapes that were supported by the lusty trees; whose fruitful load did cause the arms to bend. With which here and there dispersed you might see lilies, and of the Daphnean tree; which made the land to me seem paradise. For in mine eye, 'twas Nature's Masterpiece: Her chiefest Magazine of all, where lives Her store. If this land be not rich, then is the whole world poor. [151]
What I had resolved on, I have really performed, and I have endeavored to use this abstract as an instrument to be the means to communicate the knowledge which I have gathered by my many years' residence in those parts, unto my Countrymen; to the end that they may the better perceive their error, who cannot imagine that there is any country in the universal world which may be compared unto our native soil. I will now discover unto them a country whose endowments are by learned men allowed to stand in a parallel with the Israelites' Canaan, which none will deny to be a land far more excellent than Old England in her proper nature.
This I consider I am bound in duty (as becometh a Christian man) to perform, for the glory of God, in the first place; next (according to Cicero) to acknowledge that Non nobis solum nati suntus, sed partim patria, partim parentes, partim amid vindicant. [152]
For which cause I must approve of the endeavors of my countrymen that have been studious to enlarge the territories of his Majesty's empire by planting colonies in America.
And of all other I must applaud the judgment of those that have made choice of this part whereof I now treat; being of all other most absolute, as I will make it appear hereafter by way of parallel, among those that have settled themselves in New England. Some have gone for their consciences' sake (as they profess), and I wish that they may plant the Gospel of Jesus Christ: as becometh them, sincerely and without fatisme or faction, whatsoever their former or present practices are (which I intend not to justify). Howsoever, they have deserved (in mine opinion) some commendations, in that they have furnished the country so commodiously in so short a time, although it hath been but for their own profit. Yet posterity will taste the sweetness of it, and that very suddenly. [153]
And since my task in this part of mine abstract is to entreat of the natural endowments of the country, I will make a brief demonstration of them in order, severally, according to their several qualities; and show you what they are, and what profitable use may be made of them by industry.
CHAPTER II.
What Trees Are There and How Commodious.
Oaks are there of two sorts, white and red, excellent tymber for the building both of houses and shipping; and they are found to be a tymber that is more tough than the Oak of England. They are excellent for pipe-staves and such like vessels; and pipe-staves at the Canary Islands are a prime commodity. I have known them there at 35p. the 1000, and they will purchase a freight of wines there before any commodity in England, their only wood being pine, of which they are enforced also to build shipping. Of Oak there is great abundance in the parts of New England, and they may have a prime place in the Catalogue of commodities. [154]
Ash there is store and very good for staves, oars or pikes, and may have a place in the same Catalogue. [155]
Elm: of this sort of trees there are some; but there hath not as yet been found any quantity to speak of. [156]
Beech there is of two sorts, red and white; very excellent for trenchers or chairs, and also for oars; and may be accompted for a commodity. [157]
Walnut, of this sort of wood there is infinite store and there are four sorts. It is an excellent wood for many uses approved. The younger trees are employed for hoops, and are the best for that employment of all other stuff whatsoever. The nuts serve when they fall to feed our swine, which makes them the delicatest bacon of all other food, and is therein a chief commodity. [158]
Chestnut, of this sort there is very great plenty: the tymber whereof is excellent for building and is a very good commodity, especially in respect of the fruit, both for man and beast. [159]
Pine, of this sort there is infinite store in some parts of the country. I have traveled 10 miles together where is little or no other wood growing. And of these may be made rosin, pitch, and tar, which are such useful commodities that if we had them not from other countries in amity with England, our Navigation would decline. Then how great the commodity of it will be to our nation to have it of our own, let any man judge. [160]
Cedar, of this sort there is abundance; and this wood was such as Solomon used for the building of that glorious Temple at Hierusalem. And there are of these Cedars, fir trees, and other materials necessary for the building of many fair Temples; if there were any Solomons, to be at the cost of them. And if any man be desirous to find out in what part of the Country the best Cedars are, he must get into the bottom grounds, and in valleys that are wet at the spring of the year, where the moisture preserves them from the fire in spring time; and not in a woodden prospect. This wood cuts red, and is good for bedsteads, tables and chests, and may be placed in the Catalogue of commodities. [161]
Cypress, of this there is great plenty, and vulgarly this tree hath been taken for another sort of Cedar; but workmen put a difference between this Cypress, and the Cedar, especially in the color; for this is white and that red white, and likewise in the fineness of the leaf and the smoothness of the bark. This wood is also sweeter than Cedar and (as it is in Garret's Herbal [162]) a more beautiful tree. It is of all other, to my mind, most beautiful, and cannot be denied to pass for a commodity. [163]
Spruce, of these there are infinite store, especially in the northern parts of the country; and they have been approved by workmen in England to be more tough than those that they have out of the East country; from whence we have them for masts and yards of ships.
The Spruce of this country are found to be 3 and 4 sadum about; and are reputed able, singly, to make masts for the biggest ship that sails on the main ocean, without peesing [164] , which is more than the East country can afford. And seeing that Navigation is the very sinews of a flourishing Commonwealth, it is fitting to allow the Spruce tree a principal place in the Catalogue of commodities. [165]
Alder, of this sort there is plenty by riversides good for turners. [166]
Birch, of this there is plenty in diverse parts of the country. Of the bark of these the Salvages of the northern parts make them delicate canoes, so light that two men will transport one of them over land where they list, and yet one of them will transport ten or twelve Salvages by water at a time. [167]
Maple, of those trees there is great abundance, and these are very excellent for bowls. The Indians use of it to that purpose, and it is to be accompted a good commodity. [168]
Elder, there is plenty in that country. Of this the Salvages make their arrows, and it hath no strong unsavory scent like our Elder in England. [169]
Hawthorn, of this there is two sorts, one of which bears a well-tasting berry as big as one's thumb, and looks like Little Queen apples. [170]
Vines, of this kind of trees there are that bear grapes of three colors, that is to say: white, black, and red. [171]
The country is so
apt for vines that, but for the fire at the spring of the year, the vines would so overspread the land
that one should not be able to pass
for them. The fruit of some is as big as a musket bullet, and is excellent in taste.
Plumtrees, of this kind there are many: some that bear fruit as big as our ordinary bullis: others there he that do bear fruit much bigger than pear plums, their color red, and their stones flat, very delicious in taste. [172]
Cherry trees, there are abundance, but the fruit is as small as our sloes. But if any of them were replanted and grafted, in an orchard they would soon be raised by means of such and the like as fruits. [173]
There is great abundance of Muske Roses in diverse places: the water distilled excelleth our rosewater of England. [174]
There is abundance of Sassafrass and Sasperilla, growing in diverse places of the land; whose buds at the spring do perfume the air. [175]
Other trees there are not greatly material to be recited in this abstract, as gooseberries, raspberries, and other berries. [176]
There is Hemp that naturally growth, finer than our Hemp of England. [177]
CHAPTER III.
Pot-Herbs and other Herbs for Salads.
The country there naturally affordeth very good pot-herbs and salad herbs, and those of a more masculine virtue than any of the same species in England: as Potmarjoram, Thyme, Alexander, Angelica, Pursland, Violets, and Anis seeds, in very great abundance. And for the pot I gathered in summer, these I dried and crumbled into a bag to preserve for winter store. [178]
Honeysuckles,
Balm, and diverse other good herbs are there that grow without the industry of man, that are used
when occasion serveth very commodiously.
CHAPTER IV.
Of Birds, and Feathered Fowls.
Now that I have briefly showed the Commodity of the trees, herbs, and fruits, I will show you a description of the fowls of the air, as most proper in ordinary course. [179]
And first of the Swan, because she is the biggest of all the fowls of that country. There are of them in Merrimac River and in other parts of the country, great store at the seasons of the year. [180]
The flesh is not much desired of the inhabitants, but the skins may be accompted a commodity, fit for diverse uses, both for feathers and quills.
There are Geese of three sorts, viz: Brant Geese, which are pied, and White Geese which are bigger; and Gray Geese, which are as big and bigger than the tame Geese of England; with black legs, black bills, heads, and necks black. The flesh is far more excellent than the Geese of England, wild or tame, yet the purity of the air is such that the biggest is accompted but an indifferent meal for a couple of men. [181]
There is of them great abundance. I have had often 1000 before the mouth of my gun. I never saw any in England for my part so fat as I have killed there in those parts. The feathers of them make a bed softer than any down bed that I have lain on; and is there a very good commodity. The feathers of the Geese that I have killed in a short time have paid for all the powder and shot I have spent in a year, and I have fed my dogs with as fat Geese there as I have ever fed upon myself in England.
Ducks there are of three kinds, Pied Ducks, Gray Ducks, and Black Ducks in great abundance: the most about my habitation were Black Ducks; and it was a noted custom at my house to have every man's Duck upon a trencher, and then you will think a man was not hardly used. They are bigger-bodied than the tame Ducks of England: very fat and dainty flesh. [182]
The common dogs' fees were the giblets, unless they were boiled now and then for to make broth.
Teals there are of two sorts: Green-winged and Blue-winged. But a dainty bird, I have been much delighted with a roast of these for a second course: I had plenty in the rivers and ponds about my house. [183]
Widgens there are, and abundance of other waterfowl, some such as I have seen, and such as I have not seen elsewhere before I came into those parts, which are little regarded. [184]
Simps there are like our Simps in all respects, with very little difference. I have shot at them only to see what difference I could find between them and those of my native country, and more I did not regard them. [185]
Sanderlings are a dainty bird, more full-bodied than a Snipe, and I was much delighted to feed on them because they were fat, and easy to come by, because I went but a step or two for them. And I have killed between four and five dozen at a shoot, which would load me home. [186]
Their food is at ebbing water on the sands, of small seeds that grow on weeds there; and they are very good pastime in August.
Cranes, there are great store, that evermore came there at Saint David's Day, and not before: that day they never would miss. [187]
These sometimes eat our corn, and do pay for their presumption well enough; and serveth there in powder with turnips to supply the place of powdered beef, and is a goodly bird in a dish, and no discommodity.
Turkeys there are, which diverse times in great flocks have sallied by our doors; and then a gun (being commonly in a readiness) salutes them with such a courtesy as makes them take a turn in the cook-room, they dance by the door so well. [188]
Of these there hath been killed that have weighed forty-eight pound apiece.
They are by many degrees sweeter than the tame Turkeys of England, feed them how you can.
I had a Salvage who hath taken out his boy in a morning, and they have brought home their loads about noon.
I have asked them what number they found in the woods, who have answered Neent Metawna, which is a thousand that day: the plenty of them is such in those parts. They are easily killed at roost because the one being killed, the other sit fast nevertheless, and this is no bad commodity. [189]
There are a kind of fowls which are commonly called Pheasants, but whether they be pheasants or no I will not take upon me to determine. They are in form like our pheasant hen of England. Both the male and the female are alike, but they are rough-footed and have staring-feathers about the head and neck. The body is as big as the pheasant hen of England, and they are excellent white flesh, and delicate white meat. Yet we seldom bestow a shoot at them. [190]
Partridges, there are much, like our Partridges of England. They are of the same plumes, but bigger in body. They have not the sign of the horseshoe on the breast as the Partridges of England; nor are they colored about the heads as those are. They sit on the trees, for I have seen 40 in one tree at at time; yet at night they fall on the ground, and sit until morning so together; and are dainty flesh. [191]
There are Quails also, but bigger than the quails in England. They take to trees also: for I have numbered 60 upon a tree at a time. The cocks do call at the time of the year, but with a different note from the cock-quails of England. [192]
The Larks there are like our Larks of England in all respects, saving that they do not use to sing at all. [193]
There are Owls of diverse kinds; but I did never hear any of them whoop as ours do. [194]
There are Crows, Kights and Rooks that do differ in some respects from those of England. The Crows (which I have much admired, what should be the cause) both smell and taste of musk in summer, but not in winter. [195]
There are Hawks in New England of five sorts, and these of all other feathered fowls I must not omit to speak of, nor need I to make any apology for myself concerning any trespass that I am like to make upon my judgment concerning the nature of them, having been bred in so genious a way that I had the common use of them in England. [196] And at my first arrival in those parts I practiced to take a Lannaret, which I reclaimed, trained, and made flying in a fortnight, the same being a passinger at Michaelmas. I found that these are of most excellent Mettell, rank-winged, well-conditioned, and not ticklish-footed; and having hoods, bells, lures and all things fitting, I was desirous to make experiment of that kind of Hawk before any other. [197]
And I am persuaded that Nature hath ordained them to be of a far better kind than any that have been used in England. They have neither dorre, nor worm to feed upon them (as in other parts of the world), the country affording none; the use whereof in other parts makes the Lannars there more buzzardly than they be in New England. [198]
There are likewise Falcons, and tassell gentles, admirable well-shaped birds; and they will tower up when they purpose to prey, and on a sudden, when they espy their game, they will make such a cancellere that one would admire to behold them. Some there are more black than any that have been used in England. [199]
The Tassell gent of the least size is an ornament for a person of estimation among the Indians to wear in the knot of his lock, with the train upright, the body dried and stretched out. They take a great pride in the wearing of such an ornament, and give (to one of us that shall kill them one for that purpose) so much beaver as is worth three pounds sterling, very willingly. [200]
These do us but little trespass, because they prey on such birds as are by the seaside, and not on our chickens. [201]
Goshawks there are, and Tassels. The Tassels are short-trussed buzzards; but the Goshawks are well-shaped, but they are small; some of white male, and some red male. I have seen one with eight bars in the train. These fall on our bigger poultry. The lesser chicken I think they scorn to make their prey of; for commonly the cock goes to wrack. Of these I have seen many, and if they come to trespass me, I lay the law to them with the gun, and take them damage fesant. [202]
There are very many Marlins: some very small, and some so large as is the Barbary Tassell. [203]
I have often beheld these pretty birds, how they have scoured after the Blackbird, which is a small-sized Chosse that eateth the Indian maize. [204]
Sparhawks there are also, the fairest and best-shaped birds that I have ever beheld of that kind. Those that are little, no use is made of any of them, neither are they regarded. I only tried conclusions with a Lannaret at first coming; and when I found what was in that bird, I turned him going. But for so much as I have observed of those birds, they may be a fit present for a prince; and for goodness be preferred before the Barbary, or any other used in Christendom, and especially the Lannars and Lannarets. [205]
There is a curious bird to see, too, called a hummingbird, no bigger than a great beetle; that out of question lives upon the bee, which he eateth and catcheth amongst flowers. For it is his custom to frequent those places. Flowers he cannot feed upon by reason of his sharp bill, which is like the point of a Spanish needle, but short. His feathers have a gloss like silk, and as he stirs, they show to be of a changeable color. He has been and is admired for shape, color, and size. [206]
CHAPTER V.
Of the Beasts of the Forest.
Now that I have made a rehearsal of the birds and feathered fowls, which participate most of air, I will give you a description of the beasts, and show you what beasts are bred in those parts, and what my experience hath gathered by observation of their kind, and nature. I begin with the most useful and most beneficial beast which is bred in those parts, which is the Deer.
There are in this country three kinds of Deer, of which there are great plenty, and those are very useful.
First therefore I will speak of the Elk, which the Salvages call a Moose: it is a very large deer, with a very fair head and a broad palm like the palm of a fallow deer's horn, but much bigger, and is six foot wide between the tips, which grow curving downwards. He is of the bigness of a great horse. [207]
There have been of them seen that have been 18 handfuls high. He hath a bunch of hair under his jaws: he is not swift, but strong and large in body, and long-legged; insomuch that he doth use to kneel when he feedeth on grass.
He bringeth forth three fawns or young ones at a time; and being made tame, would be good for draught, and more useful (by reason of their strength) than the elk of Raushea. These are found very frequent in the northern parts of New England: their flesh is very good food, and much better than our red deer of England. [208]
Their hides are by the Salvages converted into very good leather, and dressed as white as milk.
Of this leather, the Salvages make the best shoes, and use to barter away the skins to other Salvages that have none of that kind of beasts in the parts where they live. Very good buffe [209] may be made of the hides: I have seen a hide as large as any horse-hide that can be found. There is such abundance of them that the Salvages, at hunting time, have killed of them so many that they have bestowed six or seven at a time upon one Englishman to whom they have borne affection.
There is a second sort of Deer (less than the red deer of England, but much bigger than the English fallow deer): swift of foot, but of a more dark color; with some griseld hairs. When his coat is full-grown in the summer season, his horns grow curving with a crooked beam, resembling our red deer, not with a palm like the fallow deer. [210]
These bring 3 fawns at a time, spotted like our fallow deer's fawns: the Salvages say, four. I speak of what I know to be true; for I have killed in February a doe with three fawns in her belly, all haired, and ready to fall; for these deer drop their fawns 2 months sooner than the fallow deer of England.
There is such abundance of them that an hundred have been found at the spring of the year within the compass of a mile.
The Salvages take these in traps made of their natural hemp, which they place in the earth where they fell a tree for browse. If he tread on the trap, he is horsed up by the leg by means of a pole that starts up and catcheth him. [211]
Their hides the Salvages use for clothing, and will give for one hide killed in season 2, 3, or 4 beaver skins, which will yield pounds apiece in that country: so much is the deer's hide prized with them above the heaver. I have made good merchandise of these, the flesh is far sweeter than the venison of England; and he feedeth fat and lean together as a swine, or mutton, whereas our deer of England feed fat on the outside. They do not croak at rutting time, nor spendle shafte, nor is their flesh discolored at rutting. [212]
He that will impale fitting ground may be brought once in the year where, with bats and men, he may take so many to put into that park as the hides will pay the charge of impaling. If all these things be well-considered, the Deer, as well as the Moose, may have a principal place in the Catalogue of commodities. [213]
I for my part may he bold to tell you that my house was not without the flesh of this sort of deer winter nor summer. The humbles was ever my dog's fee, which by the wesell was hanged on the bar in the chimney, for his diet only: for he has brought to my stand a brace in a morning, one after the other, before sun's rising, which I have killed. [214]
There is likewise a third sort of deer, less than the other which are a kind of reindeer, to the southward of all the English plantations. They are excellent good flesh. And these also bring three fawns at a time, and in this particular the deer of those parts excel all the known Deer of the whole world. [215]
On all these the Wolves do prey continually. The best means they have to escape the wolves is by swimming to island or necks of land, whereby they escape: for the wolf will not presume to follow them until they see them over a river. Then, being landed, they waiting on the shore undertake the water, and so follow with fresh suit. [216]
The next in mine opinion fit to be spoken of is the Beaver; which is a beast ordained for land and water both, and hath forefeet like a cunny, her hinder feet like a goose, mouthed like a cunny, but short-eared like a Serat. He feeds upon fish in summer, and wood in winter, which he conveys to his house built on the water, wherein he sits with his tail hanging in the water, which else would overheat and rot off. [217]
He cuts the bodies of trees down with his foreteeth, which are so long as a boar's tusks. And with the help of other beavers which, held by each other's tails like a team of horses (the hindmost with the leg on his shoulder staid by one of his forefeet against his head), they draw the log to the habitation appointed, placing the logs in a square; and so by piling one upon another, they build up a house, which with boughs is covered very strongly, and placed in some pond to which they make a dam of brushwood like a hedge, so strong that I have gone on the top of it across the current of that pond.
The flesh of this beast is excellent food. The fleece is a very choice fur, which before the Salvages had commerce with Christians, they burned off the tail. This beast is of a masculine virtue for the advancement of Priapus; and is preserved for a dish for the Sachems, or Sagamores, who are the princes of the people but not Kings (as is fondly supposed). [218]
The skins are the best marchantable commodity that can be found to cause ready money to be brought into the land, now that they are raised to 10 shillings a pound.
A servant of mine in five years was thought to have L1000 in ready gold gotten by beaver when he died; whatsoever became of it. And this beast may challenge preheminence in the catalogue. [219]
The Otter of those parts, in winter season, bath a fur so black as jet, and is a fur of very high price; a good black skin is worth 3 or 4 Angels of gold. The flesh is eaten by the Salvages; but how good it is I cannot show, because it is not eaten by our nation. Yet is this a beast that ought to be placed in the number amongst the commodities of the country. [220]
The Luseran, or Luseret, is a beast like a Cat; but so big as a great hound, with a tail shorter than a Cat. His claws are like a Cat's. He will make a prey of the deer. His flesh is dainty meat, like a lamb: his hide is a choice fur, and accompted a good commodity. [221]
The Marten is a beast about the bigness of a Fox. His fur is chestnut-color, and of those there are great store in the northern parts of the country, and is a good commodity. [222]
The Raccoon is a beast as big, full out, as a Fox, with a bush-tail. His flesh excellent food: his oil precious for the Syattica; his fur, coarse, but the skins serve the Salvages for coats; and they are with those people of more esteem than a coat of beaver, because of the tails that (hanging round in their order) do adorn the garment, and it is therefore so much esteemed of them. His forefeet are like the feet of an ape; and by the print thereof, in the time of snow he is followed to his hole, which is commonly in a hollow tree, from whence he is fired out and so taken. [223]
The Foxes are of two colors: the one red, the other gray. These feed on fish and are good fur. They do not stink as the foxes of England, but their condition for their prey is as the foxes of England. [224]
The Wolves are of diverse colors: some sandy-colored, some griselled, and some black. Their food is fish, which they catch when they pass up the rivers into the ponds to spawn at the springtime. The Deer are also their prey, and at summer when they have whelps the bitch will fetch a puppy dog from our doors to feed their whelps with. They are fearful curs, and will run away from a man (that meeteth them by chance at a bank-end) as fast as any fearful dog. These prey upon the Deer very much. The skins are used by the Salvages, especially the skin of the black wolf, which is esteemed a present for a prince there. [225]
When there ariseth any difference between prince and prince, the prince that desires to be reconciled to his neighboring prince does endeavor to purchase it, by sending him a black wolf skin for a present; and the acceptance of such a present is an assurance of reconciliation between them. And the Salvages will willingly give 40 beaver-skins for the purchase of one of these black wolf skins; and although the beast himself be a discommodity which other countries of Christendom are subject unto, yet is the skin of the black wolf worthy the title of a commodity, in that respect that hath been declared.
If I should not speak something of the Bear, I might happily [226] leave a scruple in the minds of some effeminate persons who conceived of more danger in them than there is cause. Therefore to encourage them against all fear, and fortify their minds against needless danger, I will relate what experience hath taught me concerning them. They are beasts that do no harm in those parts: they feed upon Whortleberries, Nuts, and Fish, especially shellfish.
The Bear is a tyrant at a Lobster, and at low water will down to the rocks and grope after them with great diligence.
He will run away from a man as fast as a little dog. If a couple of Salvages chance to espy him at his banquet, his running away will not serve his turn, for they will coate him, and chase him between them home to their houses, where they kill him to save a labor in carrying him far. His flesh is esteemed venison, and of a better taste than beef.
His hide is used by the Salvages for garments, and is more commodious than discommodious, and may pass (with some allowance) with the rest. [227]
The Muskewashe is a beast that frequenteth the ponds. What he eats I cannot find. He is but a small beast, less than a Cunny, and is indeed in those parts no other than a water rat; for I have seen the suckers of them digged out of a bank, and at that age, they neither differed in shape, color, nor size from one of our great Rats. When he is old, he is of the Beaver's color; and hath passed in weight with our chapmen for Beaver. [228]
The male of them have stones which the Salvages, in uncasing of them, leave to the skin, which is a most delicate perfume, and may compare with any perfume that I know for goodness. Then may not this be excluded the catalogue.
This country, in the north parts thereof, hath many Porcupines, but I do not find the beast any way useful or hurtful. [229]
There are in those northern parts many Hedgehogs, of the like nature to our English Hedgehogs.
Here are great store of Coneys in those parts, of diverse colors: some white, some black, and some gray. Those towards the southern parts are very small, but those to the north are as big as the English Cony: their ears are very short. For meat the small rabbit is as good as any that I have eaten of elsewhere. [230]
There are Squirrels of three sorts, very different in shape and condition. One is gray, and he is as big as the lesser Coney, and keepeth the woods feeding upon nuts.
Another is red, and he haunts our houses, and will rob us of our corn; but the cat many times pays him the price of his presumption. The third is a little flying Squirrel, with bat-like wings, which he spreads when he jumps from tree to tree, and does no harm. [231]
Now because I am upon a treaty of the beasts, I will place this creature the snake amongst the beasts, having my warrant from the holy Bible; who (though his posture in his passage be so different from all other, being of a more subtle and airy nature) can make his way without feet and lift himself above the superficies of the earth, as he glides along. Yet may he not be ranked with any but the beasts, notwithstanding he frequents the water as well as the land. [232]
There are of Snakes diverse, and of several kinds, as he with us in England; but that country hath not so many, as in England have been known. The general Salvage name of them is Ascowke. [233]
There is one creeping beast or long creeple (as the name is in Devonshire), that hath a rattle at his tail that does discover his age: for so many years as he hath lived, so many joints are in that rattle, which soundeth (when it is in motion) like peas in a bladder. And this beast is called a Rattlesnake; but the Salvages give him the name of Sesick; which some take to be the Adder and it may well be so; for the Salvages are significiant in their denomination of any thing, and it is no less hurtful than the Adder of England, nor no more. [234]
I have had my dog venomed with troubling one of these, and so swelled that I had thought it would have been his death. But with one saucer of salad oil poured clown his throat, he has recovered, and the swelling assuaged by the next day. The like experiment hath been made upon a boy that hath by chance trod upon one of these, and the boy never the worse. Therefore it is simplicity in anyone that shall tell a bugbear tale of horrible or terrible Serpents that are in that land.
Mice there are good store, and my Lady Woodbee's black gray malkin may have pastime enough there; but for Rats, the country by nature is troubled with none. [235]
Lions there are none in New England: it is contrary to the nature of the beast to frequent places accustomed to snow; being like the Cat, that will hazard the burning of her tail rather than abide from the fire. [236]
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Dialogue with others about these subjects. |
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