Chapter X: Part 10

1. Ilex Aquifolium, holly.
2. Kalmia latifolia, the spoon tree.
3. Kalmia angustifolia, another species of it.
4. Magnolia glauca, the beaver tree. The young trees of this kind
only keep their leaves, the others drop them.
5. Viscum album, or misletoe; this commonly grows upon the Nyssa
aquatica, or tupelo tree, upon the Liquidambar styraciflua, or
sweet gum tree, the oak and lime tree, so that their whole
summits were frequently quite green in winter.
6. Myrica cerifera, or the candleberry tree; of this however only
some of the youngest shrubs preserve some leaves, but most of
them had already lost them.
7. Pinus Abies, the pine.
8. Pinus sylvestris, the fir.
9. Cupressus thyoides, the white cedar.
10. Juniperus Virginiana, the red cedar.

Several oaks and other trees dropt their leaves here in winter, which however keep them ever green, a little more to the south, and in Carolina.

November the 30th. It has been observed, that the Europeans in North America, whether they were born in Sweden, England, Germany or Holland; or in North America, of European parents, always lost their teeth much sooner than common; the women especially were subject to this disagreeable circumstance, the men did not suffer so much from it. Girls not above twenty years old, frequently had lost half of their teeth, without any hopes of getting new ones: I have attempted to penetrate into the causes of this early shedding of the teeth, but I know not, whether I have hit upon a true one. Many people were of opinion that the air of this country hurt the teeth: so much is certain that the weather can no where be subject to more frequent and sudden changes; for the end of a hot day, often turns out piercing cold, and vice versa. Yet this change of weather, cannot be looked upon as having any effect upon the shedding of the teeth, for the Indians prove the contrary: they live in the same air, and always keep fine, entire white teeth; this I have seen myself, and have been assured of by every body: others ascribe it to the great quantities of fruit and sweet meats which are here eaten. But I have known many people, who never eat any fruit, and nevertheless had hardly a tooth left.

I then began to suspect the tea, which is drank here in the morning and afternoon, especially by women, and is so common at present, that there is hardly a farmer’s wife or a poor woman, who does not drink tea in the morning: I was confirmed in this opinion when I took a journey through some parts of the country which were still inhabited by Indians. For Major General Johnson told me at that time, that several of the Indians who lived close to the European settlements, had learnt to drink tea. And it has been observed, that such of the Indian women, as used themselves too much to this liquor, had in the same manner as the European women, lost their teeth prematurely, though they had formerly been quite sound. Those again, who had not used tea preserved their teeth strong and sound to a great age.

I afterwards found, that the use of tea could not entirely cause this accident. Several young women who lived in this country, but were born in Europe, complained that they lost most of their teeth after they came to America: I asked, whether they did not think that it arose from the frequent use of tea, as it was known, that strong tea, as it were enters into and corrodes the teeth; but they answered, that they had lost their teeth before they had began to drink tea, but continuing my enquiries, I found at last a sufficient cause, to account for the loss of their teeth: each of these women owned, that they were accustomed to eat every thing hot, and nothing was good in their opinion, unless they could eat it as fast as it came from the fire. This is likewise the case with the women in the country who lose their teeth much sooner and more abundantly than the men. They drink tea in greater quantity and much oftener, in the morning, and even at noon, when the employment of the men will not allow them to sit at the tea-table. Besides that, the Englishmen care very little for tea, and a bowl of punch is much more agreeable to them. When the English women drink tea, they never pour it out of the cup into the saucer, but drink it hot as it is out of the former. The Indian women in imitation of them, swallow the tea in the same manner. On the contrary those Indians whose teeth are sound, never eat any thing hot, but take their meat either quite cold, or only just milk warm.

I asked the Swedish churchwarden in Philadelphia, Mr. Bengtson, and a number of old Swedes, whether their parents and countrymen had likewise lost their teeth as soon as the American colonists; but they told me that they had preserved them to a very great age. Bengtson assured me, that his father at the age of seventy, cracked peach stones and the black walnuts with his teeth, notwithstanding their great hardness, which at this time no body dares to venture at that age. This confirms what I have before said, for at that time the use of tea was not yet known in North America.

No disease is more common here, than that which the English call fever and ague, which is sometimes quotidian, tertian or quartan. But it often happens, that a person who has had a tertian ague, after losing it for a week or two, gets a quotidian ague in its stead, which after a while again changes into a tertian. The fever commonly attacks the people at the end of August, or beginning of September, and commonly continues during autumn and winter till towards spring, when it ceases entirely.

Strangers who arrive here, commonly are attacked by this sickness the first or second year after their arrival; and it is more violent upon them, than upon the natives, so that they sometimes die of it; but if they escape the first time, they have the advantage of not being visited again the next year, or perhaps never any more. It is commonly said here, that strangers get the fever to accustom them to the climate. The natives of European offspring, have annual fits of this ague in some parts of the country: some however are soon delivered from it, with others on the contrary it continues for six months together, and others are afflicted with it till they die. The Indians also suffer it, but not so violently as the Europeans. No age is secured against it: in those places where it rages annually, you see old men and women attacked with it; and even children in the cradle, sometimes not above three weeks old: it is likewise quotidian, tertian or quartan with them. This autumn the ague was more violent here, than it commonly used to be. People who are afflicted with it, look as pale as death, and are greatly weakened, but in general are not prevented from doing their work in the intervals. It is remarkable, that every year there are great parts of the country where this fever rages, and others where scarce a single person has been taken ill. It likewise is worth notice, that there are places where the people cannot remember that it formerly prevailed in their country, though at present it begins to grow more common: yet there was no other visible difference between the several places. All the old Swedes, Englishmen, Germans, &c. unanimously asserted, that the fever had never been so violent, and of such continuance when they were boys, as it is at present. They were likewise generally of opinion, that about the year 1680, there were not so many people afflicted with it, as about this time. However others equally old, were of opinion that the fever was proportionably as common formerly, as it is at present; but that it could not at that time be so sensibly perceived, on account of the scarcity of inhabitants, and the great distance of their settlements from each other; it is therefore probable that the effects of the fever have at all times been equal.

It would be difficult to determine the true causes of this disease; they seem to be numerous, and not always alike: sometimes, and I believe commonly several of them unite. I have taken all possible care to sound the opinions of the physicians here on that head, and I here offer them to the reader.

Some of them think that the peculiar qualities of the air of this country cause this fever; but most of them assert that it is generated by the standing and putrid water, which it seems is confirmed by experience. For it has been observed in this country, that such people as live in the neighbourhood of Morasses or Swamps, or in places where a stagnant, stinking water is to be met with, are commonly infested with the fever and ague every year, and get it more readily than others. And this chiefly happens at a time of the year when those stagnant waters are most evaporated by the excessive heat of the sun, and the air is filled with the most noxious vapors. The fever likewise is very violent in all places which have a very low situation, and where salt water comes up with the tide twice in twenty four hours, and unites with the stagnant, fresh water in the country. Therefore on travelling in summer over such low places where fresh and salt water unite, the nauseous stench arising from thence often forces the traveller to stop his nose. On that account most of the inhabitants of Penn’s neck, and Salem in New Jersey, where the ground has the above-mentioned quality, are annually infested with the fever to a much greater degree, than the inhabitants of the higher country. If an inhabitant of the higher part of the country, where the people are free from the fever, removes into the lower parts, he may be well assured that the fever will attack him at the usual time, and that he will get it again every year, as long as he continues in that country. People of the liveliest complexion on coming into the low parts of the country, and continuing there for some time, have entirely lost their colour and become quite pale. However this cannot be the sole cause of the fever, as I have been in several parts of the country which had a low situation and had stagnant waters near them, where the people declared they seldom suffered from this sickness: but these places were about two or three degrees more northerly.

Others were of opinion that diet did very much towards it, and chiefly laid the blame upon the inconsiderate and intemperate consumption of fruit. This is particularly the case with the Europeans, who come into America, and are not used to its climate and its fruit; for those who are born here can bear more, yet are not entirely free from the bad effects of eating too much. I have heard many Englishmen, Germans, and others speak from their own experience on this account; they owned, that they had often tried, and were certain that after eating a water melon once or twice before they had breakfasted, they would have the fever and ague in a few days after. Yet it is remarkable, that the French in Canada told me that fevers were less common in that country, though they consumed as many water melons as the English colonies, and that it had never been observed that they occasioned a fever; but that on coming in the hot season to the Illinois, an Indian nation which is nearly in the same latitude with Pensylvania and New Jersey, they could not eat a water melon without feeling the shaking fits of an ague, and that the Indians therefore warned them not to eat of so dangerous a fruit. Query, Does not this lead us to think that the greater heat in Pensylvania, and the country of the Illinois, which are both five or six degrees more southerly than Canada, makes fruit in some measure more dangerous? In the English North American colonies, every countryman plants a number of water melons, which are eaten whilst the people make hay, or during the harvest when they have nothing upon their stomachs, in order to cool them during the great heat, as that juicy fruit seems very proper to give refreshment. In the same manner melons, cucumbers, gourds, squashes, mulberries, apples, peaches, cherries, and such like fruit are eaten here in summer, and altogether contribute to the attacks of the ague.

But that the manner of living contributes greatly towards it, may be concluded from the unanimous accounts of old people, concerning the times of their childhood; according to which, the inhabitants of these parts, were at that time not subject to so many diseases as they are at present, and people were seldom sick. All the old Swedes likewise agreed, that their countrymen, who first came into North America, attained to a great age, and their children nearly to the same; but that their grand children, and great grand children did not reach the age of their ancestors, and their health was not near so vigorous and durable. But the Swedes who first settled in America, lived very frugally; they were poor, and could not buy rum, brandy, or other strong liquors, which they seldom distilled themselves, as few of them had a distilling vessel. However they sometimes had a good strong beer. They did not understand the art of making cyder, which is now so common in the country: tea, coffee, chocolate, which are at present even the country people’s daily breakfast, were wholly unknown to them: most of them had never tasted sugar or punch. The tea which is now drank, is either very old, or mixed with all sorts of herbs, so that it no longer deserves the name of tea: therefore it cannot have any good effect upon those who use it plentifully; besides, it cannot fail of relaxing the bowels, as it is drank both in the morning and in the afternoon quite boiling hot. The Indians, the offspring of the first inhabitants of this country, are a proof of what I have said. It is well known that their ancestors, at the time of the first arrival of the Europeans, lived to a very great age. According to the common accounts, it was then not uncommon to find people among the Indians, who were above a hundred years old: they lived frugally, and drank pure water: brandy, rum, wine, and all the other strong liquors, were utterly unknown to them; but since the christians have taught them to drink these liquors, and the Indians have found them too palatable, those who cannot resist their appetites, hardly reach half the age of their parents.

Lastly, some people pretended that the loss of many odoriferous plants, with which the woods were filled at the arrival of the Europeans, but which the cattle has now extirpated, might be looked upon as a cause of the greater progress of the fever at present. The number of those strong plants occasioned a pleasant scent to rise in the woods every morning and evening. It is therefore not unreasonable to think that the noxiousness of the effluvia from putrifying substances was then prevented, so that they were not so dangerous to the inhabitants.

Several remedies are employed against this disease: the jesuit’s bark was formerly a certain one, but at present it has not always this effect, though they sell it genuine, and for the very best. Many people accused it of leaving something noxious in the body. Yet it was commonly observed, that when the bark was good, and it was taken as soon as the fever made its appearance, and before the body was weakened, it was almost sure to conquer the fever, so that the cold fits never returned, and no pain or stiffness remained in the limbs; but when the disease is rooted in, and has considerably weakened the patients, or they are naturally very weak, the fever leaves them after using the jesuit’s bark, but returns again in a fortnight’s time, and obliges them to take the bark again; but the consequence frequently is a pain and a stiffness in their limbs, and sometimes in their bowels, which almost hinders them from walking: this pain continues for several years together, and even accompanies some to the grave. This bad effect is partly attributed to the bark, which can seldom be got genuine here, and partly to the little care which the patients take in using the bark. A man of my acquaintance was particularly dexterous in expelling the ague by the use of the jesuit’s bark. His manner of proceeding was as follows: when it was possible, the patient must use the remedy as soon as the fever begun, and before it was settled in his body: but before he took the medicine, he was to take a diaphoretic remedy, as that had been found very salutary; and as the fever is frequently of such a nature here, as not to make the patient sweat, even when the hot fit is upon him, a perspiration was to be brought about by some other means. To that purpose the patient took his dose on the day when he had his cold fit, and was not allowed to eat any thing at night. The next morning he continued in a warm bed, drank a quantity of tea, and was well covered that he might perspire plentifully. He continued so till the perspiration ceased, and then left the bed in a hot room, and washed his body with milk warm water, in order to cleanse it from the impurities that settled on it from the perspiration, and to prevent their stopping up of the pores. The patient was then dried again, and at last he took the bark several times in one day. This was repeated twice or thrice on the days after he had the ague, and it commonly left him without returning, and most people recover so well, that they do not look pale after their sickness.

The bark of the root of the Tulip tree, or Liriodendron Tulipifera, taken in the same manner as the jesuit’s bark, sometimes had a similar effect.

Several people peeled the roots of the Cornus florida, or Dog wood, and gave this peel to the patients; and even some people, who could not be cured by the jesuit’s bark, have recovered by the help of this. I have likewise seen people cured of the fever, by taking brimstone reduced to powder, and mixed with sugar every night before they went to bed, and every morning before they got up: they took it three or four times in the intervals, and at each time drank some warm liquor, to wash the powder down. However others that tried the same remedy did not find much relief from it.

Some people collected the yellow bark of the peach tree, especially that which is on the root and boiled it in water, till half of it was evaporated by boiling. Of this decoction the patient took every morning about a wine glass full, before he had eaten any thing. This liquor has a disagreeable taste, and contracts the mouth and tongue like alum; yet several persons at Raccoon who had tried many remedies in vain, were cured by this.

Others boiled the leaves of the Potentilla reptans, or of the Potentilla canadensis, in water, and made the patients drink it before the ague fit came on, and it is well known that several persons have recovered by this means.

The people who are settled upon the river Mohawk in New York, both Indians and Europeans collect the root of the Geum rivale, and pound it. This powder some of them boil in water till it is a pretty strong decoction: others only infuse cold water on it and leave it so for a day; others mix it with brandy. Of this medicine the patient is to take a wine glass full on the morning of the day when the fever does not come, before he has eaten any thing. I was assured that this was one of the surest remedies, and more certain than the jesuit’s bark.

The people who live near the iron mines, declared that they were seldom or never visited by the fever and ague; but when they have the fever, they drink the water of such fountains, as arise from the iron mines, and have a strong chalybeat taste; and they assured me that this remedy was infallible. Other people therefore who did not live very far from such springs, went to them for a few days, when they had the fever, in order to drink the water, which commonly cured them.

I have already shown above, that sage mixed with lemon juice, has been found very salutary against the ague.

It was however universally remarkable, that that which cures one person of it, has no effect upon another.

The pleurisy is likewise a disease which the people of this country are much subject to. The Swedes in this province call it stitches and burning, and they always mean the pleurisy whenever they mention those words. Many of the old Swedes told me that they had heard very little of it when they were young, and that their parents had known still less of it in their childhood; but that it was so common now, that many people died every year of it: yet it has been observed, that in some years this disease has been very moderate, and taken few people away with it, whilst in other years it makes great havock: it likewise is more violent in some places than in others.

In the autumn of the year 1728, it swept away many at Penn’s neck, a place below Raccoon, and nearer to the Delaware, where a number of Swedes are settled. Almost all the Swedes there died of it, though they were very numerous. From hence it happened that their children who were left in a very tender age, and grew up among the English children, forgot their mother tongue, so that few of them understand it at present. Since that time, though the pleurisy has every year killed a few people at Penn’s neck, yet it has not carried off any considerable numbers. It rested as it were till the autumn of the year 1748, but then it began to make dreadful havock, and every week six or ten of the old people died. The disease was so violent, that when it attacked a person, he seldom lived above two or three days; and of those who were taken ill with it, very few recovered. When the pleurisy was got into a house, it killed most of the old people in it: it was a true pleurisy, but it had a peculiarity with it, for it commonly began with a great swelling under the throat and in the neck, and with a difficulty of swallowing. Some people looked upon it as contagious; and others seriously declared, that when it came into a family, not only those who lived in the same house suffered from it, but even such relations as lived far off. There have been several people at Penn’s neck, who, without visiting their sick friends, have got the pleurisy and died of it: I do not dispute the truth of this, though I do not agree to the conclusion. The pleurisy was the most violent in November; yet some old people died of it even in the next winter; but children were pretty free from it. The physicians did not know what to make of it, nor how to remedy it.

It is difficult to determine the causes of such violent diseases. An old English surgeon who lived here gave the following reason. The inhabitants of this country drink great quantities of punch and other strong liquors in summer, when it is very hot; by that means the veins in the diaphragm contract, and the blood grows thick. Towards the end of October and the beginning of November, the weather is apt to alter very suddenly, so that heat and cold change several times a day. When the people during this changeable weather are in the open air, they commonly get this disease. It is likewise certain that the air is more unwholesome one year, than another, which depends upon the heat, and other circumstances: this peculiar quality of the air must of course produce a pleurisy. It is remarkable, that both in the year 1728, and in the present, when so many people died at Penn’s neck, few died at Raccoon, though the two places are near each other, and seem to have the same soil and climate. But there is this difference that Penn’s neck lies remarkably low, and Raccoon pretty high. The people in the former place have settled between marshes and swamps, in which the water stagnates and putrifies; and most of these places are covered with trees, by which means the wet is shut up still more, and near such marshes, are the houses. Lastly the water at Penn’s neck is not reckoned so good as that in Raccoon, but has some taste. It likewise becomes brackish in several little rivers when the Delaware during the tide rises very high, and runs up into them. On the banks of these rivulets live many of the Swedes, and take water for common use from them.

December the 3d. This morning I set out for Philadelphia, where I arrived in the evening.

Wild grapes are very abundant in the woods, and of various kinds; a species of them which are remarkable for their size, grow in the marshes, and are greedily eaten by the Raccoon: they are therefore called marsh grapes, but the English call them fox grapes; they have not an agreeable flavour, and are seldom eaten by the inhabitants of this country, who make use of a small kind of wild grapes, which grow on a dry soil, and pretty late in autumn when they are quite ripe, are eaten raw, and have a very good flavour, being a mixture of sweet and acid: some people dry these grapes when gathered and bake them in tarts, &c. they likewise make use of them as dried sweetmeats. The Swedes formerly made a pretty good wine from them; but have now left it off. However some of the English still press an agreeable liquor from these grapes, which they assured me was as good as the best claret, and that it would keep for several years.

The manner of preparing this sort of wine has been described at large in an almanack of this country, for the year 1743, and is as follows: the grapes are collected from the twenty first of September to about the eleventh of November, that is as they grow ripe: they must be gathered in dry weather, and after the dew is gone off: the grapes are cleared of the cobwebs, dry leaves, and other things adhering to them. Next a great hogshead is prepared which has either had treacle or brandy in; it is washed very clean, one of the bottoms beat out, and the other placed on a stand for the purpose, or on pieces of wood in the cellar, or else in a warm room, about two feet above the ground: the grapes are put into this hogshead, and as they sink lower in three or four days time more are added. A man with naked feet gets into the hogshead and treads the grapes, and in about half an hour’s time the juice is forced out; the man then turns the lowest grapes uppermost, and treads them for about a quarter of an hour: this is sufficient to squeeze the good juice out of them: for an additional pressure would even crush the unripe grapes, and give the whole a disagreeable flavour. The hogshead is then covered with a thick blanket; but if there is no cellar, or it is very cold, two are spread over it. Under this covering the juice is left to ferment for the first time, and in the next four or five days it ferments and works very strongly. As soon as the fermentation ceases, a hole is made about six inches from the bottom, and some of the juice is tapped off about twice in a day. As soon as this is clear and settled, it is poured into an anker of a middling size; for from twenty bushels of grapes, they get about as many gallons of juice; the anker remains untouched and the must in it ferments a second time: at this time it is necessary that the anker be quite full; the scum which settles at the bunghole, must be taken off, and the anker always filled up with more must, which is kept ready for that purpose: this is continued till christmas, when the anker may be stopped up; at last the wine is ready in February and bottled. It is likewise usual here, to put some of the ripe grapes into a vessel in order to make a vinegar, and that which is got by this means is very good. Several people made brandy from these grapes which has a very pleasant taste, but is still more pleasant, if the fruits of the persimon are mixed with it. The wood of these vines is of no use, it is so brittle that it cannot be used for sticks: on cutting into the stem, a white, insipid resin comes out a few hours after the wound is made. In many gardens vines are planted for the purpose of making arbours for which they are indeed excellent; as their large and plentiful leaves form a very close cover against the scorching heat of the sun. When the vines flower here in May and June, the flowers exhale a strong, but exceeding pleasant and refreshing smell, which is perceptible even at a great distance. Therefore on coming into the woods about that time, you may judge from the sweet perfume in the air, arising from the flowers of the vines, that you are near them, though you do not see them. Though the winters be ever so severe, yet they do not affect the vines. Each grape is about the size of a pea, but further southward they are said to be of the size of common raisins, and of a finer flavour. Further up in the country, during a part of autumn, they are the chief food of bears, who climb up the trees in order to pluck them. People are of opinion that if the wild vines were cultivated with more care, the grapes would grow larger, and more palatable.

December the 5th. I shall here mention two prognosticks of the weather, which were greatly valued here. Some people pretended to foretel that the ensuing winter would not be a severe one: this they conjectured from having seen wild geese and other migratory birds go to the south in October, but return a few days ago in great numbers, and even pass on further to the north. Indeed the ensuing winter was one of the most temperate ones.

Several persons likewise assured us that we should have rain before to morrow night. The reason they gave for this conjecture was, that this morning at sun rising, from their windows they had seen every thing very plainly on the other side of the river, so that it appeared much nearer than usual, and that this commonly foreboded rain. This presage was likewise pretty exactly fulfilled.

The Indians before the arrival of the Europeans, had no notion of the use of iron, though that metal was abundant in their country. However they knew in some measure how to make use of copper. Some Dutchmen who lived here, still preserved the old account among them, that their ancestors on their first settling in New York had met with many of the Indians, who had tobacco pipes of copper, and who made them understand by signs, that they got them in the neighbourhood: afterwards the fine copper mine was discovered, upon the second river between Elizabeth-town and New York. On digging in this mine, the people met with holes worked in the mountain, out of which some copper had been taken, and they found even some tools, which the Indians probably made use of, when they endeavoured to get the metal for their pipes. Such holes in the mountains have likewise been found in some parts of Pensylvania, viz. below Newcastle towards the sea side, and always some marks of a copper ore along with them. Some people have conjectured, that the Spaniards, after discovering Mexico, sailed along the coasts of North America, and landed now and then, in order to enquire whether any gold or silver was to be met with, and that they perhaps made these holes in the mountains: but supposing them to have made such a voyage along the coasts, they could not immediately have found out the copper mines; and they probably did not stop to blast this ore, as they were bent only upon gold and silver; it is therefore almost undoubted that the Indians dug these holes: or may we be allowed to suspect that our old Normans, long before the discoveries of Columbus, came into these parts and met with such veins of copper, when they sailed to what they called the excellent Wineland, [51] of which our ancient traditional records called Sagor speak, and which undoubtedly was North America. But in regard to this, I shall have occasion in the sequel better to explain my sentiments. It was remarkable, that in all those places where such holes have lately been found in the mountains, which manifestly seem to have been dug by men, they were always covered with a great quantity of earth, as if they were intended to remain hidden from strangers.

December the 6th. On long voyages the sailors sometimes catch such fish as are known to none of the ship’s company; but as they are very greedy after fresh provisions, they seldom abstain from eating them, however it proves often venturing too much, experience having shown, that their want of caution has often cost them their lives, for sometimes poisonous fish are caught. But there is a method of finding them out, as I have heard from several captains of ships: it is usual when such unknown fish are boiled, to put a silver button, or any piece of silver into the kettle, which if the fish be poisonous, will turn quite black, but if it be not, it will not change: some of the seamen referred to their own repeated experience. [52]

Mr. Franklin and several other gentlemen frequently told me, that a powerful Indian, who possessed Rhode Island had sold it to the English for a pair of spectacles: it is large enough for a prince’s domain, and makes a peculiar government at present. This Indian knew to set a true value upon a pair of spectacles: for undoubtedly if those glasses were not so plentiful, and only a few of them could be found, they would on account of their great use, bear the same price with diamonds.

The servants which are made use of in the English American colonies are either free persons, or slaves, and the former are again of two different sorts.

1. Those who are quite free serve by the year, they are not only allowed to leave their service at the expiration of their year, but may leave it at any time when they do not agree with their masters. However in that case they are in danger of losing their wages, which are very considerable. A man servant who has some abilities, gets between sixteen and twenty pounds in Pensylvania currency, but those in the country do not get so much. A servant maid gets eight or ten pounds a year: these servants have their food besides their wages, but must buy their own clothes, and what they get of these they must thank their master’s goodness for.

2. The second kind of free servants consist of such persons as annually come from Germany, England and other countries, in order to settle here. These new comers are very numerous every year: there are old and young ones, and of both sexes; some of them have fled from oppression, under which they supposed themselves to have laboured. Others have been driven from their country by persecution on account of religion; but most of them are poor, and have not money enough to pay their passage, which is between six and eight pounds sterling for each person; therefore they agree with the captain that they will suffer themselves to be sold for a few years, on their arrival. In that case the person who buys them, pays the freight for them, but frequently very old people come over, who cannot pay their passage, they therefore sell their children, so that they serve both for themselves and for their parents: there are likewise some who pay part of their passage, and they are sold only for a short time. From these circumstances it appears, that the price of the poor foreigners who come over to North America is not equal, and that some of them serve longer than others: when their time is expired, they get a new suit of clothes from their master, and some other things: he is likewise obliged to feed and clothe them during the years of their servitude. Many of the Germans who come hither, bring money enough with them to pay their passage, but rather suffer themselves to be sold, with a view that during their servitude they may get some knowledge of the language and quality of the country, and the like, that they may the better be able to consider what they shall do when they have got their liberty. Such servants are taken preferable to all others, because they are not so dear; for to buy a Negroe or black slave, requires too much money at once; and men or maids who get yearly wages, are likewise too dear; but this kind of servants may be got for half the money, and even for less; for they commonly pay fourteen pounds, Pensylvania currency, for a person who is to serve four years, and so on in proportion. Their wages therefore are not above three pounds Pensylvania currency per ann. This kind of servants, the English call servings. When a person has bought such a servant for a certain number of years, and has an intention to sell him again, he is at liberty to do so; but he is obliged, at the expiration of the term of the servitude to provide the usual suit of cloaths for the servant, unless he has made that part of the bargain with the purchaser. The English and Irish commonly sell themselves for four years, but the Germans frequently agree with the captain before they set out, to pay him a certain sum of money, for a certain number of persons; as soon as they arrive in America, they go about and try to get a man who will pay the passage for them. In return they give according to the circumstances one, or several of their children to serve a certain number of years, at last they make their bargain with the highest bidder.

3. The Negroes or Blacks make the third kind. They are in a manner slaves; for when a Negro is once bought, he is the purchaser’s servant as long as he lives, unless he gives him to another, or makes him free. However it is not in the power of the master to kill his Negro for a fault, but he must leave it to the magistrates to proceed according to the laws. Formerly the Negroes were brought over from Africa, and bought by almost every one who could afford it. The quakers alone scrupled to have slaves; but they are no longer so nice, and they have as many Negroes as other people. However many people cannot conquer the idea of its being contrary to the laws of christianity to keep slaves. There are likewise several free Negroes in town, who have been lucky enough to get a very zealous quaker for their master, who gave them their liberty, after they had faithfully served him for some time.

At present they seldom bring over any Negroes to the English colonies, for those which were formerly brought thither have multiplied considerably. In regard to their marriage they proceed as follows: in case you have not only male but likewise female Negroes, they must intermarry, and then the children are all your slaves: but if you possess a male Negro only, and he has an inclination to marry a female belonging to a different master, you do not hinder your Negro in so delicate a point; but it is no advantage to you, for the children belong to the master of the female; it is therefore advantageous to have Negro-women. A man who kills his Negro must suffer death for it: there is not however an example here of a white man’s having been executed on this account. A few years ago it happened that a master killed his slave; his friends and even the magistrates secretly advised him to leave the country, as otherwise they could not avoid taking him prisoner, and then he would be condemned to die according to the laws of the country, without any hopes of saving him. This lenity was employed towards him, that the Negroes might not have the satisfaction of seeing a master executed for killing his slave; for this would lead them to all sorts of dangerous designs against their masters, and to value themselves too much.

The Negroes were formerly brought from Africa, as I mentioned before; but now this seldom happens, for they are bought in the West Indies, or American Islands, whither they were originally brought from their own country: for it has been found that on transporting the Negroes from Africa, immediately into these northern countries, they have not such a good state of health, as when they gradually change places, and are first carried from Africa to the West Indies, and from thence to North America. It has frequently been found, that the Negroes cannot stand the cold here so well as the Europeans or whites; for whilst the latter are not in the least affected by the cold, the toes and fingers of the former are frequently frozen. There is likewise a material difference among them in this point; for those who come immediately from Africa, cannot bear the cold so well as those who are either born in this country, or have been here for a considerable time; for the frost easily hurts the hands or feet of the Negroes which come from Africa, or occasions violent pains in their whole body, or in some parts of it, though it does not at all affect those who have been here for some time. There are frequent examples that the Negroes on their passage from Africa, if it happens in winter, have some of their limbs destroyed by frost on board the ship, when the cold is but very inconsiderable and the sailors are scarce obliged to cover their hands. I was even assured, that some Negroes have been seen here, who have had an excessive pain in their legs, which afterwards broke in the middle, and dropt entirely from the body, together with the flesh on them. Thus it is the same case with men here, as with plants which are brought from the southern countries, and cannot accustom themselves to a colder climate.

The price of Negroes differs according to their age, health and abilities. A full grown Negro costs from forty pounds and upwards to a hundred of Pensylvania currency. There are even examples that a gentleman has paid hundred pounds for a black slave at Philadelphia, and refused to sell him again for the same money. A Negro boy, or girl, of two or three years old, can hardly be got for less than eight or fourteen pounds in Pensylvanian currency. Not only the quakers, but likewise several christians of other denominations sometimes set their Negroes at liberty. This is done in the following manner: when a gentleman has a faithful Negro who has done him great services, he sometimes declares him independent at his death. This is however very expensive; for they are obliged to make a provision for the Negro thus set at liberty, to afford him subsistence when he is grown old, that he may not be driven by necessity to wicked actions, or that he may be at any body’s charge, for these free Negroes become very lazy and indolent afterwards. But the children which the free Negro has begot during his servitude are all slaves, though their father be free. On the other hand those Negro children are free whose parents are at liberty. The Negroes in the North American colonies are treated more mildly, and fed better than those in the West Indies. They have as good food as the rest of the servants, and they possess equal advantages in all things, except their being obliged to serve their whole life time, and get no other wages than what their master’s goodness allows them: they are likewise clad at their master’s expence. On the contrary, in the West Indies, and especially in the Spanish Islands they are treated very cruelly; therefore no threats make more impression upon a Negro here, than that of sending him over to the West Indies, in case he would not reform. It has likewise been frequently found by experience, that when you show too much remissness to these Negroes, they grow so obstinated, that they will no longer do any thing but of their own accord: therefore a strict discipline is very necessary, if their master expects to be satisfied with their services.

In the year 1620, some Negroes were brought to North America in a Dutch ship, and in Virginia they bought twenty of them. These are said to have been the first that came hither. When the Indians who were then more numerous in the country than at present, saw these black people for the first time, they thought they were a true breed of Devils, and therefore they called them Manitto for a great while: this word in their language signifies not only God, but likewise the Devil. Some time before that, when they saw the first European ship on their coasts, they were perfectly persuaded that God himself was in the ship. This account I got from some Indians, who preserved it among them as a tradition which they had received from their ancestors: therefore the arrival of the Negroes seemed to them to have confused every thing; but since that time, they have entertained less disagreeable notions of the Negroes, for at present many live among them, and they even sometimes intermarry, as I myself have seen.

The Negroes have therefore been upwards of a hundred and thirty years in this country: but the winters here especially in New England and New York, are as severe as our Swedish winters. I therefore very carefully enquired whether the cold had not been observed, to affect the colour of the Negroes, and to change it, so that the third or fourth generation from the first that came hither, were not so black as their ancestors. But I was generally answered, that there was not the least difference of colour to be perceived; and that a Negro born here of parents which were likewise born in this country, and whose ancestors both men and women had all been blacks born in this country, up to the third or fourth generation, was not at all different in colour, from those Negroes who are brought directly over from Africa. From hence many people conclude, that a Negro or his posterity do not change colour, though they continue ever so long in a cold climate; but the mixing of a white man with a Negro woman, or of a Negro with a white woman has a different effect, therefore to prevent any disagreeable mixtures of the white people and Negroes, and that the Negroes may not form too great an opinion of themselves, to the disadvantage of their masters, I am told there is a law made prohibiting the whites of both sexes to marry Negroes, under pain of death, and deprivation of the clergyman who marries them: but that the whites and blacks sometimes mix, appears from children of a mixed complexion, which are sometimes born.

It is likewise greatly to be pitied, that the masters of these Negroes in most of the English colonies take little care of their spiritual welfare, and let them live on in their pagan darkness. There are even some, who would be very ill pleased at, and would by all means hinder their Negroes from being instructed in the doctrines of christianity, to this they are partly led by the conceit of its being shameful, to have a spiritual brother or sister among so despicable a people, partly by thinking that they should not be able to keep their Negroes so meanly afterwards; and partly through fear of the Negroes growing too proud, on seeing themselves upon a level with their masters in religious matters.

Several writings are well known, which mention, that the Negroes in South America have a kind of poison with which they kill each other, though the effect is not sudden, but happens a long time after the person has taken it: the same dangerous art of poisoning is known by the Negroes in North America, as has frequently been experienced. However only a few of them know the secret, and they likewise know the remedy against it, therefore when a Negro feels himself poisoned and can recollect the enemy, who might possible have given him the poison, he goes to him, and endeavours by money and entreaties to move him to deliver him from the poison; but if the Negro is malicious, he does not only deny that he ever poisoned him, but likewise that he knows a remedy against it: this poison does not kill immediately, for sometimes the sick person dies some years after. But from the moment he has the poison he falls into a consumption and enjoys few days of good health: such a poor wretch often knows that he is poisoned, the moment he gets the poison. The Negroes commonly employ it on such of their brethren as behave well, are beloved by their masters, and separate as it were from their countrymen, or do not like to converse with them. They have likewise often other reasons for their enmity; but there are few examples of their having poisoned their masters. Perhaps the mild treatment they receive, keeps them from doing it, or perhaps they fear that they may be discovered, and that in such a case, the severest punishments would be inflicted on them.