Chapter II: Part 2

As there can be no Monarchy without the Supremacy of a King and Crown, nor no King without Subjects, nor any Parents without it be by the fruitful off-spring of Children; neither can there be any Masters, unless it be by the inferior Servitude of those that dwell under them, by a commanding enjoynment: And since it is ordained from the original and superabounding wisdom of all things, That there should be Degrees and Diversities amongst the Sons of men, in acknowledging of a Superiority from Inferiors to Superiors; the Servant with a reverent and befitting Obedience is as liable to this duty in a measurable performance to him whom he serves, as the loyalest of Subjects to his Prince. Then since it is a common and ordained Fate, that there must be Servants as well as Masters, and that good Servitudes are those Colledges of Sobriety that checks in the giddy and wild-headed youth from his profuse and uneven course of life, by a limited constrainment, as well as it otherwise agrees with the moderate and discreet Servant: Why should there be such an exclusive {53} Obstacle in the minds and unreasonable dispositions of many people, against the limited time of convenient and necessary Servitude, when it is a thing so requisite, that the best of Kingdoms would be unhing’d from their quiet and well setled Government without it. Which levelling doctrine we here of _England_ in this latter age (whose womb was truss’d out with nothing but confused Rebellion) have too much experienced, and was daily rung into the ears of the tumultuous Vulgar by the Bell-weather Sectaries of the Times: But (blessed be God) those Clouds are blown over, and the Government of the Kingdom coucht under a more stable form.

There is no truer Emblem of Confusion either in Monarchy or Domestick Governments, then when either the Subject, or the Servant, strives for the upper hand of his Prince, or Master, and to be equal with him, from whom he receives his present subsistance: Why then, if Servitude be so necessary that no place can be governed in order, nor people live without it, this may serve to tell those which prick up their ears and bray against it, That they are none but Asses, and deserve the Bridle of a strict commanding power to reine them in: For I’me certainly confident, that there are several Thousands in most Kingdoms of Christendom, that could not at all live and subsist, unless they had served some prefixed time, to learn either some Trade, Art, or Science, and by either of them to extract their present livelihood. {54}

Then methinks this may stop the mouths of those that will undiscreetly compassionate them that dwell under necessary Servitudes; for let but Parents of an indifferent capacity in Estates, when their Childrens age by computation speak them seventeen or eighteen years old, turn them loose to the wide world, without a seven years working Apprenticeship (being just brought up to the bare formality of a little reading and writing) and you shall immediately see how weak and shiftless they’le be towards the maintaining and supporting of themselves; and (without either stealing or begging) their bodies like a Sentinel must continually wait to see when their Souls will be frighted away by the pale Ghost of a starving want.

Then let such, where Providence hath ordained to live as Servants, either in _England_ or beyond Sea, endure the prefixed yoak of their limited time with patience, and then in a small computation of years, by an industrious endeavour, they may become Masters and Mistresses of Families themselves. And let this be spoke to the deserved praise of _Mary-Land_, That the four years I served there were not to me so slavish, as a two years Servitude of a Handicraft Apprenticeship was here in _London_; _Volenti enim nil difficile_: Not that I write this to seduce or delude any, or to draw them from their native soyle, but out of a love to my Countrymen, whom in the general I wish well to, and that the lowest of them may live in such a capacity of Estate, as that the bare interest of {55} their Livelihoods might not altogether depend upon persons of the greatest extendments.

Now those whose abilities here in _England_ are capable of maintaining themselves in any reasonable and handsom manner, they had best so to remain, lest the roughness of the Ocean, together with the staring visages of the wilde Animals, which they may see after their arrival into the Country, may alter the natural dispositions of their bodies, that the stay’d and solid part that kept its motion by Doctor _Trigs_ purgationary operation, may run beyond the byas of the wheel in a violent and laxative confusion.

Now contrarywise, they who are low, and make bare shifts to buoy themselves up above the shabby center of beggarly and incident casualties, I heartily could wish the removal of some of them into _Mary-Land_, which would make much better for them that stay’d behind, as well as it would advantage those that went.

They whose abilities cannot extend to purchase their own transportation into _Mary-Land_ (and surely he that cannot command so small a sum for so great a matter, his life must needs be mighty low and dejected), I say they may for the debarment of a four years sordid liberty, go over into this Province and there live plentiously well. And what’s a four years Servitude to advantage a man all the remainder of his dayes, making his predecessors happy in his {56} sufficient abilities, which he attained to partly by the restrainment of so small a time?

Now those that commit themselves into the care of the Merchant to carry them over, they need not trouble themselves with any inquisitive search touching their Voyage; for there is such an honest care and provision made for them all the time they remain aboard the Ship, and are sailing over, that they want for nothing that is necessary and convenient.

The Merchant commonly before they go aboard the Ship, or set themselves in any forwardness for their Voyage, has Conditions of Agreements drawn between him and those that by a voluntary consent become his Servants, to serve him, his Heirs or Assigns, according as they in their primitive acquaintance have made their bargain (see note No. 34), some two, some three, some four years; and whatever the Master or Servant tyes himself up to here in _England_ by Condition, the Laws of the Province will force a performance of when they come there: Yet here is this Priviledge in it when they arrive, If they dwell not with the Merchant they made their first agreement withall, they may choose whom they will serve their prefixed time with; and after their curiosity has pitcht on one whom they think fit for their turn, and that they may live well withall, the Merchant makes an Assignment of the Indenture over to him whom they of their free will have chosen to be their Master, in the same nature as we here in _England_ (and no {57} otherwise) turn over Covenant Servants or Apprentices from one Master to another. Then let those whose chaps are always breathing forth those filthy dregs of abusive exclamations, which are Lymbeckt from their sottish and preposterous brains, against this Country of _Mary-Land_, saying, That those which are transported over thither, are sold in open Market for Slaves, and draw in Carts like Horses; which is so damnable an untruth, that if they should search to the very Center of Hell, and enquire for a Lye of the most antient and damned stamp, I confidently believe they could not find one to parallel this: For know, That the Servants here in _Mary-Land_ of all Colonies, distant or remote Plantations, have the least cause to complain, either for strictness of Servitude, want of Provisions, or need of Apparel: Five dayes and a half in the Summer weeks is the alotted time that they work in; and for two months, when the Sun predominates in the highest pitch of his heat, they claim an antient and customary Priviledge, to repose themselves three hours in the day within the house, and this is undeniably granted to them that work in the Fields.

In the Winter time, which lasteth three months (viz.), _December_, _January_, and _February_, they do little or no work or imployment, save cutting of wood to make good fires to sit by, unless their Ingenuity will prompt them to hunt the Deer, or Bear, or recreate themselves in Fowling, to slaughter the Swans, Geese, and Turkeys (which this Country affords in a most {58} plentiful manner): For every Servant has a Gun, Powder and Shot allowed him, to sport him withall on all Holidayes and leasurable times, if he be capable of using it, or be willing to learn.

Now those Servants which come over into this Province, being Artificers, they never (during their Servitude) work in the Fields, or do any other imployment save that which their Handicraft and Mechanick endeavours are capable of putting them upon, and are esteem’d as well by their Masters, as those that imploy them, above measure. He that’s a Tradesman here in _Mary-Land_ (though a Servant), lives as well as most common Handicrafts do in _London_, though they may want something of that Liberty which Freemen have, to go and come at their pleasure; yet if it were rightly understood and considered, what most of the Liberties of the several poor Tradesmen are taken up about, and what a care and trouble attends that thing they call Liberty, which according to the common translation is but Idleness, and (if weighed in the Ballance of a just Reason) will be found to be much heavier and cloggy then the four years restrainment of a _Mary-Land_ Servitude. He that lives in the nature of a Servant in this Province, must serve but four years by the Custom of the Country; and when the expiration of his time speaks him a Freeman, there’s a Law in the Province, that enjoyns his Master whom he hath served to give him Fifty Acres of Land, Corn to serve him a whole year, three Suits of Apparel, {59} with things necessary to them, and Tools to work withall; so that they are no sooner free, but they are ready to set up for themselves, and when once entred, they live passingly well. (See note No. 35).

The Women that go over into this Province as Servants, have the best luck here as in any place of the world besides; for they are no sooner on shoar, but they are courted into a Copulative Matrimony, which some of them (for aught I know) had they not come to such a Market with their Virginity, might have kept it by them untill it had been mouldy, unless they had let it out by a yearly rent to some of the Inhabitants of _Lewknors-Lane_ (see note No. 36), or made a Deed of Gift of it to Mother _Coney_, having only a poor stipend out of it, untill the Gallows or Hospital called them away. Men have not altogether so good luck as Women in this kind, or natural preferment, without they be good Rhetoricians, and well vers’d in the Art of perswasion, then (probably) they may ryvet themselves in the time of their Servitude into the private and reserved favour of their Mistress, if Age speak their Master deficient.

In short, touching the Servants of this Province, they live well in the time of their Service, and by their restrainment in that time, they are made capable of living much better when they come to be free; which in several other parts of the world I have observed, That after some servants have brought their indented and limited time to a just and legal period {60} by Servitude, they have been much more incapable of supporting themselves from sinking into the Gulf of a slavish, poor, fettered, and intangled life, then all the fastness of their prefixed time did involve them in before.

Now the main and principal Reason of those incident casualties, that wait continually upon the residences of most poor Artificers, is (I gather) from the multiciplicity or innumerableness of those several Companies of Tradesmen, that dwell so closely and stiflingly together in one and the same place, that like the chafing Gum in Watered-Tabby, they eat into the folds of one anothers Estates. And this might easily be remedied, would but some of them remove and disperse distantly where want and necessity calls for them; their dwellings (I am confident) would be much larger, and their conditions much better, as well in reference to their Estates, as to the satisfactoriness of their minds, having a continual imployment, and from that imployment a continual benefit, without either begging, seducing, or flattering for it, encroaching that one month from one of the same profession, that they are heaved out themselves the next. For I have observed on the other side of _Mary-Land_, that the whole course of most Mechanical endeavours, is to catch, snatch, and undervalue one another, to get a little work, or a Customer; which when they have attained by their lowbuilt and sneaking circumventings, it stands upon so flashy, mutable, and transitory {61} a foundation, that the best of his hopes is commonly extinguisht before the poor undervalued Tradesman is warm in the enjoyment of his Customer.

Then did not a cloud of low and base Cowardize eclipse the Spirits of these men, these things might easily be diverted; but they had as live take a Bear by the tooth, as think of leaving their own Country, though they live among their own National people, and are governed by the same Laws they have here, yet all this wont do with them; and all the Reason they can render to the contrary is, There’s a great Sea betwixt them and _Mary-Land_, and in that Sea there are Fishes, and not only Fishes but great Fishes, and then should a Ship meet with such an inconsiderable encounter as a Whale, one blow with his tayle, and then _Lord have Mercy upon us_: Yet meet with these men in their common Exchange, which is one story high in the bottom of a Celler, disputing over a Black-pot, it would be monstrously dreadful here to insert the particulars, one swearing that he was the first that scaled the Walls of _Dundee_, when the Bullets flew about their ears as thick as Hailstones usually fall from the Sky; which if it were but rightly examined, the most dangerous Engagement that ever he was in, was but at one of the flashy battels at _Finsbury_, (see note No. 37), where commonly there’s more Custard greedily devoured, than men prejudiced by the rigour of the War. Others of this Company relating their several dreadful exploits, {62} and when they are just entring into the particulars, let but one step in and interrupt their discourse, by telling them of a Sea Voyage, and the violency of storms that attends it, and that there are no back-doors to run out at, which they call, _a handsom Retreat and Charge again_; the apprehensive danger of this is so powerful and penetrating on them, that a damp sweat immediately involves their Microcosm, so that _Margery_ the old Matron of the Celler, is fain to run for a half-peny-worth of _Angelica_ to rub their nostrils; and though the Port-hole of their bodies has been stopt from a convenient Evacuation some several months, theyl’e need no other Suppository to open the Orifice of their Esculent faculties then this Relation, as their Drawers or Breeches can more at large demonstrate to the inquisitive search of the curious.

Now I know that some will be apt to judge, that I have written this last part out of derision to some of my poor Mechanick Country-men: Truly I must needs tell those to their face that think so of me, that they prejudice me extremely, by censuring me as guilty of any such crime: What I have written is only to display the sordidness of their dispositions, who rather than they will remove to another Country to live plentiously well, and give their Neighbors more Elbow-room and space to breath in, they will croud and throng upon one another, with the pressure of a beggarly and unnecessary weight. {63}

That which I have to say more in this business, is a hearty and desirous wish, that the several poor Tradesmen here in _London_ that I know, and have borne an occular testimony of their want, might live so free from care as I did when I dwelt in the bonds of a four years Servitude in _Mary-Land_.

_Be just (Domestick Monarchs) unto them_
_That dwell as Household Subjects to each Realm;_
_Let not your Power make you be too severe,_
_Where there’s small faults reign in your sharp Career:_
_So that the Worlds base yelping Crew_
_May’nt bark what I have wrote is writ untrue,_
_So use your Servants, if there come no more,_
_They may serve Eight, instead of serving Four._

{64}

CHAP. IV.

_Upon Trafique, and what Merchandizing Commodities this Province affords, also how Tobacco is planted and made fit for Commerce._

Trafique, Commerce, and Trade, are those great wheeles that by their circular and continued motion, turn into most Kingdoms of the Earth the plenty of abundant Riches that they are commonly fed withall: For Trafique in his right description, is the very soul of a Kingdom; and should but Fate ordain a removal of it for some years, from the richest and most populous Monarchy that dwells in the most fertile clyme of the whole Universe, he would soon find by a woful experiment, the miss and loss of so reviving a supporter. And I am certainly confident, that _England_ would as soon feel her feebleness by withdrawment of so great an upholder; as well in reference to the internal and healthful preservative of her Inhabitants, for want of those Medicinal Drugs that are landed upon her Coast every year, as the external profits, Glory and beneficial Graces that accrue by her.

_Paracelsus_ might knock down his Forge, if Trafique and Commerce should once cease, and grynde the hilt of his Sword into Powder, and take some of the Infusion to make him so valorous, that he might cut his {65} own Throat in the honor of _Mercury_: _Galen_ might then burn his Herbal, and like _Joseph of Arimathea_, build him a Tomb in his Garden, and so rest from his labours: Our Physical Collegians of _London_ would have no cause then to thunder Fire-balls at _Nich. Culpeppers_ Dispensatory (see note No. 38). All Herbs, Roots, and Medicines would bear their original christening, that the ignorant might understand them: _Album grecum_ would not be _Album grecum_ (see note No. 39) then, but a Dogs turd would be a Dogs turd in plain terms, in spight of their teeth.

If Trade should once cease, the Custom-house would soon miss her hundreds and thousands Hogs-heads of Tobacco (see note No. 40), that use to be throng in her every year, as well as the Grocers would in their Ware-houses and Boxes, the Gentry and Commonalty in their Pipes, the Physician in his Drugs and Medicinal Compositions; The (leering) Waiters for want of imployment, might (like so many _Diogenes_) intomb themselves in their empty Casks, and rouling themselves off the Key into the _Thames_, there wander up and down from tide to tide in contemplation of _Aristotles_ unresolved curiosity, until the rottenness of their circular habitation give them a _Quietus est_, and fairly surrender them up into the custody of those who both for profession, disposition and nature, lay as near claim to them, as if they both tumbled in one belly, and for name they jump alike, being according to the original translation both _Sharkes_. {66}

Silks and Cambricks, and Lawns to make sleeves, would be as soon miss’d at Court, as Gold and Silver would be in the Mint and Pockets: The Low-Country Soldier would be at a cold stand for Outlandish Furrs to make him Muffs, to keep his ten similitudes warm in the Winter, as well as the Furrier for want of Skins to uphold his Trade.

Should Commerce once cease, there is no Country in the habitable world but would undoubtedly miss that flourishing, splendid and rich gallantry of Equipage, that Trafique maintained and drest her up in, before she received that fatal Eclipse: _England_, _France_, _Germany_ and _Spain_, together with all the Kingdoms——

But stop (good Muse) lest I should, like the Parson of _Pancras_ (see note No. 41), run so far from my Text in half an hour, that a two hours trot back again would hardly fetch it up: I had best while I am alive in my Doctrine, to think again of _Mary-Land_, lest the business of other Countries take up so much room in my brain, that I forget and bury her in oblivion.

The three main Commodities this Country affords for Trafique, are Tobacco, Furrs, and Flesh. Furrs and Skins, as Beavers, Otters, Musk-Rats, Rackoons, Wild-Cats, and Elke or Bufieloe (see note No. 42), with divers others, which were first made vendible by the _Indians_ of the Country, and sold to the Inhabitant, and by them to the Merchant, and so {67} transported into _England_ and other places where it becomes most commodious.

Tobacco is the only solid Staple Commodity of this Province: The use of it was first found out by the _Indians_ many Ages agoe, and transferr’d into Christendom by that great Discoverer of _America Columbus_. It’s generally made by all the Inhabitants of this Province, and between the months of _March_ and _April_ they sow the seed (which is much smaller then Mustard-seed) in small beds and patches digg’d up and made so by art, and about _May_ the Plants commonly appear green in those beds: In _June_ they are transplanted from their beds, and set in little hillocks in distant rowes, dug up for the same purpose; some twice or thrice they are weeded, and succoured from their illegitimate Leaves that would be peeping out from the body of the Stalk. They top the several Plants as they find occasion in their predominating rankness: About the middle of _September_ they cut the Tobacco down, and carry it into houses, (made for that purpose) to bring it to its purity: And after it has attained, by a convenient attendance upon time, to its perfection, it is then tyed up in bundles, and packt into Hogs-heads, and then laid by for the Trade.

Between _November_ and _January_ there arrives in this Province Shipping to the number of twenty sail and upwards (see note No. 43), all Merchant-men loaden with Commodities to Trafique and dispose of, {68} trucking with the Planter for Silks, Hollands, Serges, and Broad-clothes, with other necessary Goods, priz’d at such and such rates as shall be judg’d on is fair and legal, for Tobacco at so much the pound, and advantage on both sides considered; the Planter for his work, and the Merchant for adventuring himself and his Commodity into so far a Country: Thus is the Trade on both sides drove on with a fair and honest _Decorum_.

The Inhabitants of this Province are seldom or never put to the affrightment of being robb’d of their money, nor to dirty their Fingers by telling of vast sums: They have more bags to carry Corn, then Coyn; and though they want, but why should I call that a want which is only a necessary miss? the very effects of the dirt of this Province affords as great a profit to the general Inhabitant, as the Gold of _Peru_ doth to the straight-breecht Commonalty of the _Spaniard_.

Our Shops and Exchanges of _Mary-Land_, are the Merchants Store-houses, where with few words and protestations Goods are bought and delivered; not like those Shop-keepers Boys in _London_, that continually cry, _What do ye lack Sir? What d’ye buy?_ yelping with so wide a mouth, as if some Apothecary had hired their mouths to stand open to catch Gnats and Vagabond Flyes in.

Tobacco is the currant Coyn of _Mary-Land_, and will sooner purchase Commodities from the Merchant, {69} then money. I must confess the _New-England_ men that trade into this Province, had rather have fat Pork for their Goods, than Tobacco or Furrs (see note No. 44), which I conceive is, because their bodies being fast bound up with the cords of restringent Zeal, they are fain to make use of the lineaments of this _Non-Canaanite_ creature physically to loosen them; for a bit of a pound upon a two-peny Rye loaf, according to the original Receipt, will bring the costiv’st red-ear’d Zealot in some three hours time to a fine stool, if methodically observed.

_Medera_-Wines, Sugars, Salt, Wickar-Chairs, and Tin Candlesticks, is the most of the Commodities they bring in: They arrive in _Mary-Land_ about _September_, being most of them Ketches and Barkes, and such small Vessels, and those dispersing themselves into several small Creeks of this Province, to sell and dispose of their Commodities, where they know the Market is most fit for their small Adventures.

_Barbadoes_ (see note No. 45), together with the several adjacent Islands, has much Provision yearly from this Province: And though these Sun-burnt _Phaetons_ think to outvye _Mary-Land_ in their Silks and Puffs, daily speaking against her whom their necessities makes them beholding to, and like so many _Don Diegos_ that becackt _Pauls_, cock their Felts and look big upon’t; yet if a man could go down into their infernals, and see how it fares with them there, I believe he would hardly find any other Spirit to {70} buoy them up, then the ill-visaged Ghost of want, that continually wanders from gut to gut to feed upon the undigested rynes of Potatoes.

_Trafique is Earth’s great Atlas, that supports_
_The pay of Armies, and the height of Courts,_
_And makes Mechanicks live, that else would die_
_Meer starving Martyrs to their penury:_
_None but the Merchant of this thing can boast,_
_He, like the Bee, comes loaden from each Coast,_
_And to all Kingdoms, as within a Hive,_
_Stows up those Riches that doth make them thrive:_
_Be thrifty_, Mary-Land, _keep what thou hast in store,_
_And each years Trafique to thy self get more._

{71}

A Relation of the Customs, Manners, Absurdities, and Religion of the SUSQUEHANOCK (see note No. 46) INDIANS in and near MARY-LAND.

As the diversities of Languages (since Babels confusion) has made the distinction between people and people, in this Christendompart of the world; so are they distinguished Nation from Nation, by the diversities and confusion of their Speech and Languages (see note No. 47) here in _America_: And as every Nation differs in their Laws, Manners and Customs, in _Europe_, _Asia_ and _Africa_, so do they the very same here; That it would be a most intricate and laborious trouble, to run (with a description) through the several Nations of _Indians_ here in _America_, considering the innumerableness and diversities of them that dwell on this vast and unmeasured Continent: But rather then I’le be altogether silent, I shall do like the Painter in the Comedy, who being to limne out the Pourtraiture of the Furies, as they severally appeared, set himself behind a Pillar, and between fright and amazement, drew them by guess. Those _Indians_ that I have convers’d withall here in this Province of _Mary-Land_, and have had any occular experimental view of either of their Customs, Manners, Religions, and Absurdities, are called by the {72} name of _Susquehanocks_, being a people lookt upon by the Christian Inhabitants, as the most Noble and Heroick Nation of _Indians_ that dwell upon the confines of _America_; also are so allowed and lookt upon by the rest of the _Indians_, by a submissive and tributary acknowledgement; being a people cast into the mould of a most large and Warlike deportment, the men being for the most part seven foot high in latitude, and in magnitude and bulk suitable to so high a pitch; their voyce large and hollow, as ascending out of a Cave, their gate and behavior strait, stately and majestick, treading on the Earth with as much pride, contempt, and disdain to so sordid a Center, as can be imagined from a creature derived from the same mould and Earth.

Their bodies are cloth’d with no other Armour to defend them from the nipping frosts of a benumbing Winter, or the penetrating and scorching influence of the Sun in a hot Summer, then what Nature gave them when they parted with the dark receptacle of their mothers womb. They go Men, Women and Children, all naked, only where shame leads them by a natural instinct to be reservedly modest, there they become cover’d. The formality of _Jezabels_ artificial Glory is much courted and followed by these _Indians_, only in matter of colours (I conceive) they differ.

The _Indians_ paint upon their faces one stroke of red, another of green, another of white, and another of black, so that when they have accomplished the {73} Equipage of their Countenance in this trim, they are the only Hieroglyphicks and Representatives of the Furies. Their skins are naturally white, but altered from their originals by the several dyings of Roots and Barks, that they prepare and make useful to metamorphize their hydes into a dark Cinamon brown. The hair of their head is black, long and harsh, but where Nature hath appointed the situation of it any where else, they divert it (by an antient custom) from its growth, by pulling it up hair by hair by the root in its primitive appearance. Several of them wear divers impressions on their breasts and armes, as the picture of the Devil, Bears, Tigers, and Panthers, which are imprinted on their several lineaments with much difficulty and pain, with an irrevocable determination of its abiding there: And this they count a badge of Heroick Valour, and the only Ornament due to their _Heroes_. (See note No. 48).

These _Susquehanock Indians_ are for the most part great Warriours, and seldom sleep one Summer in the quiet armes of a peaceable Rest, but keep (by their present Power, as well as by their former Conquest) the several Nations of _Indians_ round about them, in a forceable obedience and subjection.

Their Government is wrapt up in so various and intricate a Laborynth, that the speculativ’st Artist in the whole World, with his artificial and natural Opticks, cannot see into the rule or sway of these _Indians_, to distinguish what name of Government to {74} call them by; though _Purchas_ (see note No. 49) in his _Peregrination_ between _London_ and _Essex_, (which he calls the whole World) will undertake (forsooth) to make a Monarchy of them, but if he had said Anarchy, his word would have pass’d with a better belief. All that ever I could observe in them as to this matter is, that he that is most cruelly Valorous, is accounted the most Noble: Here is very seldom any creeping from a Country Farm, into a Courtly Gallantry, by a sum of money; nor feeing the Heralds to put Daggers and Pistols into their Armes, to make the ignorant believe that they are lineally descended from the house of the Wars and Conquests; he that fights best carries it here.

When they determine to go upon some Design that will and doth require a Consideration, some six of them get into a corner, and sit in Juncto; and if thought fit, their business is made popular, and immediately put into action; if not, they make a full stop to it, and are silently reserv’d.

The Warlike Equipage they put themselves in when they prepare for _Belona’s_ March, is with their faces, armes, and breasts confusedly painted, their hair greased with Bears oyl, and stuck thick with Swans Feathers, with a wreath or Diadem of black and white Beads upon their heads, a small Hatchet, instead of a Cymetre, stuck in their girts behind them, and either with Guns, or Bows and Arrows. In this posture and dress they march out from their Fort, or {75} dwelling, to the number of Forty in a Troop, singing (or rather howling out) the Decades or Warlike exploits of their Ancestors, ranging the wide Woods untill their fury has met with an Enemy worthy of their Revenge. What Prisoners fall into their hands by the destiny of War, they treat them very civilly while they remain with them abroad, but when they once return homewards, they then begin to dress them in the habit for death, putting on their heads and armes wreaths of Beads, greazing their hair with fat, some going before, and the rest behind, at equal distance from their Prisoners, bellowing in a strange and confused manner, which is a true presage and forerunner of destruction to their then conquered Enemy. (See note No. 50).

In this manner of march they continue till they have brought them to their Berken City (see note No. 51), where they deliver them up to those that in cruelty will execute them, without either the legal Judgement of a Council of War, or the benefit of their Clergy at the Common Law. The common and usual deaths they put their Prisoners to, is to bind them to stakes, making a fire some distance from them; then one or other of them, whose Genius delights in the art of Paganish dissection, with a sharp knife or flint cuts the Cutis or outermost skin of the brow so deep, untill their nails, or rather Talons, can fasten themselves firm and secure in, then (with a most rigid jerk) disrobeth the head of skin and hair at one pull, leaving {76} the skull almost as bare as those Monumental Skelitons at Chyrurgions-Hall; but for fear they should get cold by leaving so warm and customary a Cap off, they immediately apply to the skull a Cataplasm of hot Embers to keep their Pericanium warm. While they are thus acting this cruelty on their heads, several others are preparing pieces of Iron, and barrels of old Guns, which they make red hot, to sear each part and lineament of their bodies, which they perform and act in a most cruel and barbarous manner: And while they are thus in the midst of their torments and execrable usage, some tearing their skin and hair of their head off by violence, others searing their bodies with hot irons, some are cutting their flesh off, and eating it before their eyes raw while they are alive; yet all this and much more never makes them lower the Top-gallant sail of their Heroick courage, to beg with a submissive Repentance any indulgent favour from their persecuting Enemies; but with an undaunted contempt to their cruelty, eye it with so slight and mean a respect, as if it were below them to value what they did, they courageously (while breath doth libertize them) sing the summary of their Warlike Atchievements.

Now after this cruelty has brought their tormented lives to a period, they immediately fall to butchering of them into parts, distributing the several pieces amongst the Sons of War, to intomb the ruines of their deceased Conquest in no other Sepulchre then {77} their unsanctified maws; which they with more appetite and desire do eat and digest, then if the best of foods should court their stomachs to participate of the most restorative Banquet. Yet though they now and then feed upon the Carkesses of their Enemies, this is not a common dyet, but only a particular dish for the better sort (see note No. 52); for there is not a Beast that runs in the Woods of _America_, but if they can by any means come at him, without any scruple of Conscience they’le fall too (Without saying Grace) with a devouring greediness.

As for their Religion, together with their Rites and Ceremonies, they are so absurd and ridiculous, that its almost a sin to name them. They own no other Deity than the Devil, (solid or profound) but with a kind of a wilde imaginary conjecture, they suppose from their groundless conceits, that the World had a Maker, but where he is that made it, or whether he be living to this day, they know not. The Devil, as I said before, is all the God they own or worship; and that more out of a slavish fear then any real Reverence to his Infernal or Diabolical greatness, he forcing them to their Obedience by his rough and rigid dealing with them, often appearing visibly among them to their terrour, bastinadoing them (with cruel menaces) even unto death, and burning their Fields of Corn and houses, that the relation thereof makes them tremble themselves when they tell it. {78}

Once in four years they Sacrifice a Childe to him (see note No. 53), in an acknowledgement of their firm obedience to all his Devillish powers, and Hellish commands. The Priests to whom they apply themselves in matters of importance and greatest distress, are like those that attended upon the Oracle at _Delphos_, who by their Magic-spells could command a _pro_ or _con_ from the Devil when they pleas’d. These _Indians_ oft-times raise great Tempests when they have any weighty matter or design in hand, and by blustering storms inquire of their Infernal God (the Devil) _How matters shall go with them either in publick or private._ (See note No. 54).

When any among them depart this life, they give him no other intombment, then to set him upright upon his breech in a hole dug in the Earth some five foot long, and three foot deep, covered over with the Bark of Trees Arch-wise, with his face Du-West, only leaving a hole half a foot square open. They dress him in the same Equipage and Gallantry that he used to be trim’d in when he was alive, and so bury him (if a Soldier) with his Bows, Arrows, and Target, together with all the rest of his implements and weapons of War, with a Kettle of Broth, and Corn standing before him, lest he should meet with bad quarters in his way. (See note No. 55). His Kinred and Relations follow him to the Grave, sheath’d in Bear skins for close mourning, with the tayl droyling on the ground, in imitation of our _English_ Solemners, {79} that think there’s nothing like a tayl a Degree in length, to follow the dead Corpse to the Grave with. Here if that snuffling Prolocutor, that waits upon the dead Monuments of the Tombs at _Westminster_, with his white Rod were there, he might walk from Tomb to Tomb with his, _Here lies the Duke of_ Ferrara _and his Dutchess_, and never find any decaying vacation, unless it were in the moldering Consumption of his own Lungs. They bury all within the wall or Pallisado’d impalement of their City, or _Connadago_ (see note No. 56) as they call it. Their houses are low and long, built with the Bark of Trees Arch-wise, standing thick and confusedly together. They are situated a hundred and odd miles distant from the Christian Plantations of _Mary-Land_, at the head of a River that runs into the Bay of _Chæsapike_, called by their own name _The Susquehanock River_, where they remain and inhabit most part of the Summer time, and seldom remove far from it, unless it be to subdue any Forreign Rebellion.

About _November_ the best Hunters draw off to several remote places of the Woods, where they know the Deer, Bear, and Elke useth; there they build them several Cottages, which they call their Winter-quarter, where they remain for the space of three months, untill they have killed up a sufficiency of Provisions to supply their Families with in the Summer.

The Women are the Butchers, Cooks, and Tillers of the ground, the Men think it below the honour of {80} a Masculine, to stoop to any thing but that which their Gun, or Bow and Arrows can command. The Men kill the several Beasts which they meet withall in the Woods, and the Women are the Pack horses to fetch it in upon their backs, fleying and dressing the hydes, (as well as the flesh for provision) to make them fit for Trading, and which are brought down to the _English_ at several seasons in the year, to truck and dispose of them for course Blankets, Guns, Powder and lead, Beads, small Looking-glasses, Knives, and Razors. (See note No. 57).

I never observed all the while I was amongst these naked _Indians_, that ever the Women wore the Breeches, or dared either in look or action predominate over the Men. They are very constant to their Wives; and let this be spoken to their Heathenish praise, that did they not alter their bodies by their dyings, paintings, and cutting themselves, marring those Excellencies that Nature bestowed upon them in their original conceptions and birth, there would be as amiable beauties amongst them, as any _Alexandria_ could afford, when _Mark Anthony_ and _Cleopatra_ dwelt there together. Their Marriages are short and authentique; for after ’tis resolv’d upon by both parties, the Woman sends her intended Husband a Kettle of boyl’d Venison, or Bear; and he returns in lieu thereof Beaver or Otters Skins, and so their Nuptial Rites are concluded without other Ceremony. (See note No. 58). {81}

Before I bring my Heathenish Story to a period, I have one thing worthy your observation: For as our Grammar Rules have it, _Non decet quenquam me ire currentem aut mandantem_: It doth not become any man to piss running or eating. These Pagan men naturally observe the same Rule; for they are so far from running, that like a Hare, they squat to the ground as low as they can, while the Women stand bolt upright with their armes a Kimbo, performing the same action, in so confident and obscene a posture (see note No. 59), as if they had taken their Degrees of Entrance at _Venice_, and commenced Bawds of Art at _Legorne_.

{82}

A Collection of some Letters that were written by the same Author, most of them in the time of his Servitude.

_To my much Honored Friend_ Mr. T. B.

SIR,

I have lived with sorrow to see the Anointed of the Lord tore from his Throne by the hands of Paricides, and in contempt haled, in the view of God, Angels and Men, upon a public Theatre, and there murthered. I have seen the sacred Temple of the Almighty, in scorn by Schismatics made the Receptacle of Theeves and Robbers; and those Religious Prayers, that in devotion Evening and Morning were offered up as a Sacrifice to our God, rent by Sacrilegious hands, and made no other use of, then sold to Brothel-houses to light Tobacco with.

Who then can stay, or will, to see things of so great weight steer’d by such barbarous Hounds as these: First, were there an _Egypt_ to go down to, I would involve my Liberty to them, upon condition ne’er more to see my Country. What? live in silence under the sway of such base actions, is to give consent; and though the lowness of my present Estate and Condition, with the hazard I put my future dayes upon, might plead a just excuse for me to stay at home; but Heavens forbid: I’le rather serve in {84} Chains, and draw the Plough with Animals, till death shall stop and say, _It is enough_. Sir, if you stay behind, I wish you well: I am bound for _Mary-Land_, this day I have made some entrance into my intended voyage, and when I have done more, you shall know of it. I have here inclosed what you of me desired, but truly trouble, discontent and business, have so amazed my senses, that what to write, or where to write, I conceive my self almost as uncapable as he that never did write. What you’le find will be _Ex tempore_, without the use of premeditation; and though there may want something of a flourishing stile to dress them forth, yet I’m certain there wants nothing of truth, will, and desire.

_Heavens bright Lamp, shine forth some of thy Light,_
_But just so long to paint this dismal Night;_
_Then draw thy beams, and hide thy glorious face,_
_From the dark sable actions of this place;_
_Leaving these lustful Sodomites groping still,_
_To satisfie each dark unsatiate will,_
_Untill at length the crimes that they commit,_
_May sink them down to Hells Infernal pit._
_Base and degenerate Earth, how dost thou lye,_
_That all that pass hiss, at thy Treachery?_
_Thou which couldst boast once of thy King and Crown,_
_By base Mechanicks now art tumbled down,_
Brewers _and_ Coblers, _that have scarce an Eye,_
_Walk hand in hand an thy Supremacy;_
_And all those Courts where Majesty did Throne,_
_Are now the Seats for Oliver and Ioan:_ {85}
_Persons of Honour, which did before inherit_
_Their glorious Titles from deserved merit,_
_Are all grown silent, and with wonder gaze,_
_To view such Slaves drest in their Courtly rayes;_
_To see a_ Drayman _that knows nought but Yeast,_
_Set in a Throne like_ Babylons _red Beast,_
_While heaps of Parasites do idolize_
_This red-nos’d_ Bell, _with fawning Sacrifice._
_What can we say? our King they’ve Murthered,_
_And those well born, are basely buried:_
_Nobles are slain, and Royalists in each street_
_Are scorn’d, and kick’d by most Men that they meet:_
_Religion’s banisht, and Heresie survives,_
_And none but Conventicks in this Age thrives._
_Oh could those_ Romans _from their Ashes rise,_
_That liv’d in_ Nero’s _time: Oh how their cries_
_Would our perfidious Island shake, nay rend,_
_With clamorous screaks unto the Heaven send:_
_Oh how they’d blush to see our Crimson crimes,_
_And know the Subjects Authors of these times:_
_When as the Peasant he shall take his King,_
_And without cause shall fall a murthering him;_
_And when that’s done, with Pride assume the Chair,_
_And_ Nimrod-_like, himself to heaven rear;_
_Command the People, make the Land Obey_
_His baser will, and swear to what he’l say._
_Sure, sure our God has not these evils sent_
_To please himself, but for mans punishment:_
_And when he shall from our dark sable Skies_
_Withdraw these Clouds, and let our Sun arise,_
_Our dayes will surely then in Glory shine,_
_Both in our Temporal, and our State divine:_ {86}
_May this come quickly, though I may never see_
_This glorious day, yet I would sympathie,_
_And feel a joy run through each vain of blood,_
_Though Vassalled on t’other side the Floud._
_Heavens protect his Sacred Majesty,_
_From secret Plots, & treacherous Villany._
_And that those Slaves that now predominate,_
_Hang’d and destroy’d may be their best of Fate;_
_And though Great_ Charles _be distant from his own,_
_Heaven I hope will seat him on his Throne._

Vale.

Yours what I may, G. A.

From the Chimney Corner upon a low cricket, where I writ this in the noise of some six Women, _Aug._ 19. _Anno_

_To my Honored Father at his House._

SIR,

Before I dare bid Adieu to the old World, or shake hands with my native Soyl for ever, I have a Conscience inwards tells me, that I must offer up the remains of that Obedience of mine, that lyes close centered within the cave of my Soul, at the Alter, of your paternal Love: And though this Sacrifice of mine may shew something low and thread-bare, (at this time) yet know, That in the Zenith of all {87} actions, Obedience is that great wheel that moves the lesser in their circular motion.

I am now entring for some time to dwell under the Government of _Neptune_, a Monarchy that I was never manured to live under, nor to converse with in his dreadful Aspect, neither do I know how I shall bear with his rough demands; but that God has carried me through those many gusts a shoar, which I have met withall in the several voyages of my life, I hope will Pilot me safely to my desired Port, through the worst of Stormes I shall meet withall at Sea.

We have strange, and yet good news aboard, that he whose vast mind could not be contented with spacious Territories to stretch his insatiate desires on, is (by an Almighty power) banished from his usuped Throne to dwell among the dead. I no sooner heard of it, but my melancholly Muse forced me upon this ensuing Distich.

_Poor vaunting Earth, gloss’d with uncertain Pride,_
_That liv’d in Pomp, yet worse than others dy’d:_
_Who shall blow forth a Trumpet to thy praise?_
_Or call thy sable Actions shining Rayes?_
_Such Lights as those blaze forth the vertued dead,_
_And make them live, though they are buried._
_Thou’st gone, and to thy memory let be said,_
_There lies that Oliver which of old betray’d_
_His King and Master, and after did assume,_
_With swelling Pride, to govern in his room._
_Here I’le rest satisfied, Scriptures expound to me,_
_Tophet was made for such Supremacy._

{88}

The death of this great Rebel (I hope) will prove an _Omen_ to presage destruction on the rest. The Worlds in a heap of troubles and confusion, and while they are in the midst of their changes and amazes, the best way to give them the bag, is to go out of the World and leave them. I am now bound for _Mary-Land_, and I am told that’s a New World, but if it prove no better than this, I shall not get much by my change; but before I’le revoke my Resolution, I am resolv’d to put it to adventure, for I think it can hardly be worse then this is: Thus committing you into the hands of that God that made you, I rest

_Your Obedient Son_, G. A.

From aboard a Ship at _Gravesend_, _Sept._ 7th, _Anno_

_To my Brother._

I leave you very near in the same condition as I am in my self, only here lies the difference, you were bound at Joyners Hall in _London_ Apprentice-wise, and I conditionally at Navigators Hall, that now rides at an Anchor at _Gravesend_; I hope you will allow me to live in the largest Mayordom, by reason I am the eldest: None but the main Continent of _America_ will serve me for a Corporation to inhabit {89} in now, though I am affraid for all that, that the reins of my Liberty will be something shorter then yours will be in _London_: But as to that, what Destiny has ordered I am resolved with an adventerous Resolution to subscribe to, and with a contented imbracement enjoy it. I would fain have seen you once more in this Old World, before I go into the New, I know you have a chain about your Leg, as well as I have a clog about my Neck: If you can’t come, send a line or two, if not, wish me well at least: I have one thing to charge home upon you, and I hope you will take my counsel, That you have alwayes an obedient Respect and Reverence to your aged Parents, that while they live they may have comfort of you, and when that God shall sound a retreat to their lives, that there they may with their gray hairs in joy go down to their Graves.

Thus concluding, wishing you a comfortable Servitude, a prosperous Life, and the assurance of a happy departure in the immutable love of him that made you,

Vale.

Your Brother, G. A.

From _Gravesend_, Sept. 7. _Anno_

{90}

_To my much Honored Friend_ Mr. T. B. _at his House_.

I am got ashoar with much ado, and it is very well it is as it is, for if I had stayed a little longer, I had certainly been a Creature of the Water, for I had hardly flesh enough to carry me to Land, not that I wanted for any thing that the Ship could afford me in reason: But oh the great bowls of Pease-porridge that appeared in sight every day about the hour of twelve, ingulfed the senses of my Appetite so, with the restringent quality of the Salt Beef, upon the internal Inhabitants of my belly, that a _Galenist_ for some days after my arrival, with his Bag-pipes of Physical operations, could hardly make my Puddings dance in any methodical order.