Chapter VI: Part 6

[279] “For such commodities as lie under ground, I cannot, out of mine own experience or knowledge, say much; having taken no great notice of such things: but it is certainly reported that there is iron-stone; and the Indians informed us that they can lead us to the mountains of black-lead; and have shown us lead-ore, if our small judgment in such things does not deceive us; and though nobody dare confidently conclude, yet dare they not utterly deny, but that the Spaniard’s-bliss may lie hid in the barren mountains. Such as have coasted the country affirm that they know where to fetch sea-coal, if wood were scarce. There is plenty of stone, both rough and smooth, useful for many things; with quarries of slate, out of which they get coverings for houses; with good clay, whereof they make tiles and bricks and pavements for their necessary uses. For the country it is well watered as any land under the sun; every family, or every two families, having a spring of sweet water betwixt them; which is far different from the waters of England, being not so sharp, but of a fatter substance, and of a more jetty colour.... Those that drink it be as healthful, fresh, and lusty as they that drink beer.”—_Wood, New-Eng. Prospect_, chap. v. “The humour and justness of” this writer’s “account recommend him,” says the editor of 1764, “to every candid mind.” There is certainly no view of New England, as it was at its settlement, that surpasses Wood’s in understanding, and homeborn English truth, not always without beauty. What he says in this place of “quarries of slate” points to a very early discovery. Higginson says, in 1629 (New-Eng. Plantation, _l. c._, p. 118), “Here is plenty of slates at the Isle of Slate in Masathulets Bay:” and there is a court order of July 2, 1633, granting “to Tho: Lambe, of slate in Slate Ileand, 10 poole towards the water-side, and 5 poole into the land, for three yeares; payeing the yearely rent of ijs. vjd.”—_Mass. Col. Rec._, vol. i. p. 106. There are other later grants of the same island, which “lies between Bumkin Island and Weymouth River.”—_Pemberton, Desc. Bost., Mass. Hist. Coll._, vol. iii. p. 297. Josselyn, in his Voyages, p. 46, says that tables of slate could be got out (he does not tell us where), “long enough for a dozen men to sit at.” Argillaceous slate is, according to Dr. Hitchcock, “the predominating rock on the outermost of these islands;” and he adds, that “there can be but little doubt that the peninsula of Boston has a foundation” of this rock.—_Report on Geol. of Mass._, p. 270.

[280] “Mr. John Winthrope, jun., is granted y^e hill at Tantousq, about 60 miles westward, in which the black-leade is; and liberty to purchase some land there of the Indians” (13th November, 1644).—_Mass. Col. Rec._, vol. ii. p. 82; and _Savage, in Winthrop, N. E._, vol. ii. p. 213, note. The place mentioned is what is now Sturbridge; which is called “the most important locality” of black-lead in Massachusetts, by Dr. Hitchcock.—_Geol._, pp. 47, 395.

[281] “The mountains and rocky hills are richly furnished with mines of lead, silver, copper, tin, and divers sorts of minerals, branching out even to their summits; where, in small crannies, you may meet with threds of perfect silver: yet have the English no maw to open any of them;” and so forth.—_Josselyn’s Voyages_, p. 44.

[282] _Asterias rubens_, L.—_Gould, Report on Invert._, p. 345.

[283] See the chapter on Fishes, p. 23, for this and the others here spoken of.

[284] “Numerous about the Isle of Sables; i.e., the Sandy Isle.”—_Voyages_, p. 106. “Mr. Graves” (year 1635) “in the ‘James,’ and Mr. Hodges in the ‘Rebecka,’ set sail for the Isle of Sable for sea-horse, which are there in great number,” &c.—_Winthrop’s N. E., by Savage_, vol. i. p. 162. And I cite one other mention of this pursuit: “Eastward is the Isle of Sables; whither one John Webb, _alias_ Evered (an active man), with his company, are gone, with commission from the Bay to get sea-horse teeth and oyle.”—_Lechford’s Newes from New England_ (1642), _Mass. Hist. Coll._, vol. iii. 3d series, p. 100. The Magdalen Islands, in the Gulf of St. Lawrence, are the most southern habitat of the animal spoken of by Godman.—_Amer. Nat. Hist._, vol. i. p. 249.

[285] Compare Cutler (Account of Indig. Veg., _l. c._, p. 456) and Wood and Bache (Dispens., p. 1369).

[286] The author has something to the same effect in his Voyages, p. 124; but Wood’s account of the Indian women (New-England’s Prospect, part ii. chap. xx.) is far better worth reading. Both appreciated, in one way or another, their savage neighbors. Wood has a pleasant touch at the last. “These women,” he says, “resort often to the English houses, where _pares cum paribus congregatæ_,—in sex, I mean,—they do somewhat ease their misery by complaining, and seldom part without a relief. If her husband come to seek for his squaw, and begin to bluster, the English woman betakes her to her arms, which are the war-like ladle and the scalding liquors, threatning blistering to the naked runaway, who is soon expelled by such liquid comminations. In a word, to conclude this woman’s history, their love to the English hath deserved no small esteem; ever presenting them something that is either rare or desired,—as strawberries, hurtleberries, rasberries, gooseberries, cherries, plumbs, fish, and other such gifts as their poor treasury yields them” (_l. c._). And, if Lechford’s Newes from New England (_l. supra c._, p. 103) can be trusted, the savages became “much the kinder to their wives by the example of the English.”

[287] In the author’s Voyages, this chronological table is greatly extended; beginning with “_Anno Mundi_, 3720,” and ending with A.D. 1674.

[288] Set right by the author in Voyages, p. 248.

[289] The author, in the “chronological observations” appended to his Voyages, enlarges this, but confounds Conant’s Plantation at Cape Ann, and Endicott’s, as follows: “1628. Mr. John Endicot arrived in New England with some number of people, and set down first by Cape Ann, at a place called afterwards Gloster; but their abiding-place was at Salem, where they built the first town in the Massachusets Patent.... 1629. Three ships arrived at Salem, bringing a great number of passengers from England.... Mr. Endicot chosen Governour.” The next year, Josselyn continues as follows: “1630. The 10th of July, John Winthrop, Esq., and the Assistants, arrived in New England with the patent for the Massachusetts.... John Winthrop, Esq., chosen Governour for the remainder of the year; Mr. Thomas Dudley, Deputy-Governour; Mr. Simon Broadstreet, Secretary.”—_Voyages_, p. 252. The title of Governor was used anciently, as it still is elsewhere, in a looser sense than has been usual in New England; and derived all the dignity that it had from the character and considerableness of the government. Conant and Endicott were directors or governors of settlements in the Massachusetts Bay before Winthrop’s arrival; but when the Massachusetts Company in London proceeded, on the 20th October, 1629, to carry into effect their resolution to transfer their government to this country,—and chose accordingly Winthrop to be their Governor; Humphrey, their Deputy-Governor; and Endicot and others, Assistants (Young, Chron. of Mass., p. 102),—the record appears sufficient evidence that they had in view something quite different from the fishing plantation which Conant had had charge of at Cape Ann, or the little society (“in all, not much above fifty or sixty persons,” says White’s Relation in Young, Chron., p. 13; which the editor, from Higginson’s narrative, raises to “about a hundred”) “of which Master Endecott was sent out Governour” (White, _l. c._) at Naumkeak.

[290] That is, Noddle’s Island was already planted on (by Mr. Maverick) when the government was established.—Compare Johnson, cited by Prince, N. E. Chronol., edit. 2, p. 308, note.

[291] The date set right in Prince, N. E. Chronol., p. 367.

[292] The date corrected in Prince, N. E. Chronol., edit. 2, p. 367.

[293] Compare Prince, p. 367, and Mass. Col. Rec., vol. i. p. 128. “The will,” says Dr. Mather, “because it bequeathed a thousand pounds to New England, gave satisfaction unto our Mr. Wilson; though it was otherwise injurious to himself.”—_Magnalia_, vol. iii. p. 45, _cit._ Davis, _in Morton’s Memorial_, p. 334, note.

[294] Compare Winthrop, N.E., vol. i. p. 265; Johnson’s Wonder-working Prov. lib. ii. c. 12, _cit._ Savage; and Morton’s Memorial, by Davis, p. 209, and note, p. 289.

[295] Morton’s Memorial, by Davis, p. 244.

[296] 1664, “December, a great and dreadful comet, or blazing star, appeared in the south-east in New England for the space of three moneths; which was accompanied with many sad effects,—great mildews blasting in the countrey the next summer.”—_Josselyn’s Voyages, Chronol. Obs._, p. 273; and see p. 245 of the same for a fuller account.—Compare Morton’s Memorial, by Davis, p. 304. As to the blasting and mildew of 1665, see the same, p. 317; and that of 1664, p. 309.

[297] See Josselyn’s Voyages, p. 204 and p. 277, where the “hole” is said to have been, not “two,” but “forty, yards square:” and we are farther told that “the like accident fell out at Casco, one and twenty miles from it to the eastward, much about the same time; and fish, in some ponds in the countrey, thrown up dead upon the banks,—supposed likewise to be kill’d with mineral vapours.” Hubbard (Hist. N.E., chap. 75) tells this, partly in the same words with the account in the Voyages, and adds, “All the whole town of Wells are witnesses of the truth of this relation; and many others have seen sundry of these clay pellets, which the inhabitants have shown to their neighbours of other towns.” And compare also the following, at p. 189 of the Voyages: “In 1669, the pond that lyeth between Watertown and Cambridge cast its fish dead upon the shore; forc’t by a mineral vapour, as was conjectured.”

TRANSCRIBER’S NOTE

Footnote [54] is referenced twice from page 53.
Footnote [143] is referenced four times from page 88.
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Footnote [153] is referenced twice from page 91.
Footnote [160] is referenced twice from page 92.
Footnote [177] is referenced twice from page 96.
Footnote [291] is referenced three times from page 162.

A few minor typographical errors and punctuation errors have been
corrected after careful comparison with other occurrences within
the text and consultation of external sources.

Hyphenation is inconsistent in this book but has not been changed.

Except for those changes noted below, all misspellings in the text,
and inconsistent or archaic usage, have been preserved.

Introduction:
Pg 24: ‘the Linnean system’ replaced by ‘the Linnæan system’.

Title page:
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Errors likely introduced in this 1865 printing:
Pg 76: ‘upon their breeeh’ replaced by ‘upon their breech’.
Pg 79: ‘are common liewise’ replaced by ‘are common likewise’.
Pg 115: ‘two or three Fadom’ replaced by ‘two or three Fathom’.

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Pg 46: ‘nor Mag{12}pies’ replaced by ‘nor Mag{13}pies’.
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