Chapter I: Front Matter (1)

TRAVELS
INTO
NORTH AMERICA;

CONTAINING

Its Natural History, and
A circumstantial Account of its
Plantations and Agriculture in general,

WITH THE
CIVIL, ECCLESIASTICAL AND
COMMERCIAL STATE OF THE COUNTRY,

The MANNERS of the INHABITANTS, and several
curious and IMPORTANT REMARKS on various Subjects.

By PETER KALM,

Professor of Oeconomy in the University of Aobo in Swedish
Finland, and Member of the Swedish Royal Academy of Sciences.

TRANSLATED INTO ENGLISH

By JOHN REINHOLD FORSTER, F.A.S.

Enriched with a Map, several Cuts for the Illustration of Natural
History, and some additional Notes.

VOL. II.

LONDON:
Printed for the EDITOR;
And Sold by T. Lowndes, in Fleet-street,

MDCCLXXI.

PETER KALM’s TRAVELS.

New Jersey, Raccoon.

December the seventh, 1748.

In the morning I undertook again a little journey, to Raccoon, in New Jersey.

It does not seem difficult to find out the reasons, why the people multiply more here than in Europe. As soon as a person is old enough, he may marry in these provinces, without any fear of poverty; for there is such a tract of good ground yet uncultivated, that a new-married man can, without difficulty, get a spot of ground, where he may sufficiently subsist with his wife and children. The taxes are very low, and he need not be under any concern on their account. The liberties he enjoys are so great, that he considers himself as a prince in his possessions. I shall here demonstrate by some plain examples, what effect such a constitution is capable of.

Maons Keen, one of the Swedes in Raccoon, was now near seventy years old: he had many children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren; so that, of those who were yet alive, he could muster up forty-five persons. Besides them, several of his children and grandchildren died young, and some in a mature age. He was, therefore, uncommonly blessed. Yet his happiness is not comparable to that which is to be seen in the following examples, and which I have extracted from the Philadelphia gazette.

In the year 1732, January the 24th, died at Ipswich, in New England, Mrs. Sarah Tuthil, a widow, aged eighty-six years. She had brought sixteen children into the world; and from seven of them only, she had seen one hundred and seventy-seven grandchildren and great-grandchildren.

In the year 1739, May the 30th, the children, grand and great-grandchildren, of Mr. Richard Buttington, in the parish of Chester, in Pensylvania, were assembled in his house; and they made together one hundred and fifteen persons. The parent of these children, Richard Buttington, who was born in England, was then entering into his eighty-fifth year: and was at that time quite fresh, active, and sensible. His eldest son, then sixty years old, was the first Englishman born in Pensylvania.

In the year 1742, on the 8th of January, died at Trenton, in New Jersey, Mrs. Sarah Furman, a widow, aged ninety-seven years. She was born in New England; and left five children, sixty-one grandchildren, one hundred and eighty-two great-grandchildren, and twelve great-great-grandchildren, who were all alive when she died.

In the year 1739, on the 28th of January, died at South Kingston, in New England, Mrs. Maria Hazard, a widow, in the hundredth year of her age. She was born in Rhode Island, and was a grandmother of the then vice-governor of that island, Mr. George Hazard. She could count altogether five hundred children, grandchildren, great-grandchildren, and great-great-grandchildren. When she died, two hundred and five persons of them were alive; a grand-daughter of hers had already been grandmother near fifteen years.

In this manner, the usual wish or blessing in our liturgy, that the new-married couple may see their grandchildren, till the third and fourth generation, has been literally fulfilled in regard to some of these persons [1].

December the 9th. In every country, we commonly meet with a number of insects; of which many, though they be ever so small and contemptible, can do considerable damage to the inhabitants. Of these dangerous insects, there are likewise some in North America: some are peculiar to that country, others are common to Europe likewise.

I have already, in the preceding volume, mentioned the Mosquitoes, as a kind of disagreeable gnats; and another noxious insect, the Bruchus Pisi, which destroys whole fields with pease. I shall here add some more.

There are a kind of Locusts which about every seventeenth year come hither in incredible numbers. They come out of the ground in the middle of May, and make, for six weeks together, such a noise in the trees and woods, that two persons who meet in such places, cannot understand each other, unless they speak louder than the locusts can chirp. During that time, they make, with the sting in their tail, holes into the soft bark of the little branches on the trees, by which means these branches are ruined. They do no other harm to the trees or other plants. In the interval between the years when they are so numerous, they are only seen or heard single in the woods.

There is likewise a kind of Caterpillars in these provinces, which eat the leaves from the trees. They are also innumerable in some years. In the intervals there are but few of them: but when they come, they strip the trees so entirely of their leaves, that the woods in the middle of summer are as naked as in winter. They eat all kinds of leaves, and very few trees are left untouched by them; as, about that time of the year the heat is most excessive. The stripping the trees of their leaves has this fatal consequence, that they cannot withstand the heat, but dry up entirely. In this manner, great forests are sometimes entirely ruined. The Swedes who live here shewed me, here and there, great tracts in the woods, where young trees were now growing, instead of the old ones, which, some years ago, had been destroyed by the caterpillars. These caterpillars afterwards change into moths, or phalænæ, which shall be described in the sequel, in their proper places.

In other years the Grass-worms do a great deal of damage in several places, both in the meadows and corn-fields. For the fields are at certain times over-run with great armies of these worms, as with the other insects; yet it is very happy that these many plagues do not come all together. For in those years when the locusts are numerous, the caterpillars and grass-worms are not very considerable, and it happens so with the latter kinds, so that only one of the three kinds comes at a time. Then there are several years when they are very scarce. The grass-worms have been observed to settle chiefly in a fat soil; but as soon as careful husbandmen discover them, they draw narrow channels with almost perpendicular sides quite round the field in which the worms are settled; then by creeping further they all fall into the ditch, and cannot get out again. I was assured by many persons that these three sorts of insects followed each other pretty closely; and that the locusts came in the first year, the caterpillars in the second, and the grass-worms in the last: I have likewise found by my own experience that this is partly true.

Moths, or Tineæ, which eat the clothes, are likewise abundant here. I have seen cloth, worsted gloves, and other woollen stuffs, which had hung all the summer locked up in a shrine, and had not been taken care of, quite cut through by these worms, so that whole pieces fell out: Sometimes they were so spoiled that they could not be mended again. Furs which had been kept in the garret were frequently so ruined by worms, that the hair went off by handfuls. I am however not certain whether these worms were originally in the country, or whether they were brought over from Europe.

Fleas are likewise to be found in this part of the world. Many thousands were undoubtedly brought over from other countries; yet immense numbers of them have certainly been here since time immemorial. I have seen them on the grey squirrels, and on the hares which have been killed in such desart parts of this country, where no human creature ever lived. As I afterwards came further up into the country, and was obliged to lie at night in the huts and beds of the Indians, I was so plagued by immense quantities of fleas, that I imagined I was put to the torture. They drove me from the bed, and I was very glad to sleep on the benches below the roof of the huts. But it is easy to conceive that the many dogs which the Indians keep, breed fleas without end. Dogs and men lie promiscuously in the huts; and a stranger can hardly lie down and shut his eyes, but he is in danger of being either squezed to death, or stifled by a dozen or more dogs, which lie round him, and upon him, in order to have a good resting place. For I imagine they do not expect that strangers will venture to beat them or throw them off, as their masters and mistresses commonly do.

The noisy Crickets (Gryllus domesticus) which are sometimes to be met with in the houses in Sweden, I have not perceived in any part of Pensylvania or New Jersey, and other people whom I have asked, could not say that they had ever seen any. In summer there are a kind of black Crickets [2] in the fields, which make exactly the same chirping noise as our house crickets. But they keep only to the fields, and were silent as soon as winter or the cold weather came on. They say it sometimes happens that these field crickets take refuge in houses, and chirp continually there, whilst it is warm weather, or whilst the rooms are warm; but as soon as it grows cold they are silent. In some parts of the province of New York, and in Canada, every farm-house and most of the houses in the towns, swarm with so many, that no farm-house in our country can be better stocked with them. They continue their music there throughout the whole winter.

Bugs (Cimex lectularius) are very plentiful here. I have been sufficiently tormented by them, in many places in Canada: But I do not remember having seen any with the Indians, during my stay at Fort Frederic. The commander there, Mr. de Lousignan, told me, that none of the Illinois and other Indians of the western parts of North America knew any thing of these vermin. And he added, that he could with certainty say this from his own experience, having been among them for a great while. Yet I cannot determine whether bugs were first brought over by the Europeans, or whether they have originally been in the country. Many people looked upon them as natives of this country, and as a proof of it said, that under the wings of bats the people had often found bugs, which had eaten very deep into the flesh. It was therefore believed that the bats had got them in some hollow tree, and had afterwards brought them into the houses, as they commonly fix themselves close to the walls, and creep into the little chinks which they meet with. But as I have never seen any bugs upon bats, I cannot say any thing upon that subject. Perhaps a louse or a tick (Acarus) has been taken for a bug. Or, if a real bug has been found upon a bat’s wing, it is very easy to conceive that it fixed on the bat, whilst the latter was sitting in the chinks of a house stocked with European bugs.

As the people here could not bear the inconvenience of these vermin, any more than we can in Sweden, they endeavoured to expel them by different means. I have already remarked in the preceding volume, that the beds to that purpose were made of Sassafras wood, but that they were only temporary remedies. Some persons assured me that they had found from their own experience, and by repeated trials, that no remedy was more effectual towards the expulsion of bugs, than the injecting of boiling water into all the cracks where they are settled, and washing all the wood of the beds with it; this being twice or thrice repeated, the bugs are wholly destroyed. But if there are bugs in neighbouring houses, they will fasten to one’s clothes, and thus be brought over into other houses.

I cannot say whether these remedies are good or no, as I have not tried them; but by repeated trials I have been convinced that sulphur, if it be properly employed, entirely destroys bugs and their eggs in beds and walls, though they were ten times more numerous than the ants in an ant-hill [3].

The Mill-beetles, or Cock-roaches, are likewise a plague of North America, and are settled in many of its provinces. The learned Dr. Colden was of opinion that these insects were properly natives of the West Indies, and that those that were found in North America were brought over from those islands. To confirm his opinion, he said, that it was yet daily seen how the ships coming with goods from the West Indies to North America brought mill-beetles with them in great numbers. But from the observations which I have made in this country, I have reason to believe that these insects have been on the continent of North America since time immemorial. Yet notwithstanding this I do not deny their being brought over from the West Indies. They are in almost every house in the city of New York; and those are undoubtedly come over with ships. But how can that be said of those mill-beetles, which are found in the midst of the woods and desarts?

The English likewise call the Mill-beetles, Cock-roaches, and the Dutch give them the name of Kackerlack. The Swedes in this country call them Brodoetare, or Bread-eaters, on account of the damage they do to the bread, which I am going to describe. Dr. Linnæus calls them Blatta Orientalis. Many of the Swedes call them likewise Kackerlack. They are not only observed in the houses, but in the summer they appear often in the woods, and run about the trees, which are cut down. On bringing in all sorts of old rotten blocks of wood for fewel, in February, I discovered several cock-roaches settled in them; they were at first quite torpid, or as it were dead; but after lying in the room for a while, they recovered, became very lively, and began to run about. I afterwards found very often, that when old rotten wood was brought home in winter, and cut in pieces for fewel, the cock-roaches were got into it in numbers, and lay in it in a torpid state. In the same winter, a fellow cut down a great dry tree, and was about to split it. I then observed in a crack, some fathoms above the ground, several cock-roaches together with the common ants. They were, it seems, crept up a great way, in order to find a secure place of abode against winter. On travelling in the middle of October 1749, through the uninhabited country between the English and French colonies, and making a fire at night near a thick half rotten tree, on the shore of lake Champlain, numbers of cock-roaches came out of the wood, being wakened by the smoke and the fire, which had driven them out of their holes. The Frenchmen, who were then in my company, did not know them, and could not give them any name. In Canada the French did not remember seeing any in the houses. In Pensylvania, I am told, they run in immense numbers about the sheaves of corn, during the harvest. At other times they live commonly in the houses in the English settlements, and lie in the crevices, especially in the cracks of those beams which support the ceiling, and are nearest to the chimney.

They do a deal of damage by eating the soft parts of the bread. If they have once made a hole into a loaf, they will in a little time eat all the soft part in it, so that on cutting the loaf, nothing but the crust is left. I am told they likewise eat other victuals. Sometimes they bite people’s noses or feet, whilst they are asleep. An old Swede, called Sven Laock, a grandson of the Rev. Mr. Laockenius, one of the first Swedish clergymen that came to Pensylvania, told me, that he had in his younger years been once very much frightened on account of a cock-roach, which crept into his ear whilst he was asleep. He waked suddenly, jumped out of bed, and felt that the insect, probably out of fear, was endeavouring with all its strength to get deeper. These attempts of the cock-roach were so painful to him, that he imagined his head was bursting, and he was almost senseless; however he hastened to the well, and bringing up a bucket full of water, threw some into his ear. As soon as the cock-roach found itself in danger of being drowned, it endeavoured to save itself, and pushed backwards out of the ear, with its hind feet, and thus happily delivered the poor man from his fears.

The Wood-lice are disagreeable insects, which in a manner are worse than the preceding; but as I have already described them in a peculiar memoir, which is printed among the memoirs of the Royal Academy of Sciences for the year 1754, I refer my readers to that account.

December the 11th. This morning I made a little excursion to Penn’s Neck, and further over the Delaware to Wilmington. The country round Penn’s Neck has the same qualities as that about other places in this part of New Jersey. For the ground consists chiefly of sand, with a thin stratum of black soil. It is not very hilly, but chiefly flat, and in most places covered with open woods of such trees as have annual leaves, especially oak. Now and then you see a single farm, and a little corn field round it. Between them are here and there little marshes or swamps, and sometimes a brook with water, which has a very slow motion.

The woods of these parts consist of all sorts of trees, but chiefly of oak and hiccory. These woods have certainly never been cut down, and have always grown without hindrance. It might therefore be expected that there are trees of an uncommon great age to be found in them; but it happens otherwise, and there are very few trees three hundred years old. Most of them are only two hundred years old; and this convinced me that trees have the same quality as animals, and die after they are arrived at a certain age. Thus we find great woods here, but when the trees in them have stood an hundred and fifty or an hundred and eighty years, they are either rotting within, or losing their crown, or their wood becomes quite soft, or their roots are no longer able to draw in sufficient nourishment, or they die from some other cause. Therefore when storms blow, which sometimes happens here, the trees are broke off either just above the root, or in the middle, or at the summit. Several trees are likewise torn out with their roots by the power of the winds. The storms thus cause great devastations in these forests. Every where you see trees thrown down by the winds, after they are too much weakened by one or the other of the above mentioned causes to be able to resist their fury. Fire likewise breaks out often in the woods, and burns the trees half way from the root, so that a violent gust of wind easily throws them down.

On travelling through these woods, I purposely tried to find out, by the position of the trees which were fallen down, which winds are the strongest hereabouts. But I could not conclude any thing with certainty, for the trees fell on all sides, and lay towards all the points of the compass. I therefore judged, that any wind which blows from that side where the roots of the tree are weakest and shortest, and where it can make the least resistance, must root it up and throw it down. In this manner the old trees die away continually, and are succeeded by a young generation. Those which are thrown down lay on the ground and putrify, sooner or later, and by that means encrease the black soil, into which the leaves are likewise finally changed, which drop abundantly in autumn, are blown about by the winds for some time, but are heaped up, and lie on both sides of the trees, which are fallen down. It requires several years before a tree is intirely reduced to dust. When the winds tear up a tree with the roots, a quantity of loose soil commonly comes out with and sticks to them for some time, but at last it drops off, and forms a little hillock, which is afterwards augmented by the leaves, which commonly gather about the roots. Thus several inequalities are formed in the woods, such as little holes land hills; and by this means the upper soil must likewise be heaped up in such places.

Some trees are more inclined to putrify than others. The tupelo-tree (Nyssa), the tulip-tree (Liriodendron), and the sweet gum-tree (Liquidambar), became rotten in a short time. The hiccory did not take much time, and the black oak fell sooner to pieces than the white oak; but this was owing to circumstances. If the bark remained on the wood, it was for the greatest part rotten, and entirely eaten by worms within, in the space of six, eight, or ten years, so that nothing was to be found but a reddish brown dust. But if the bark was taken off, they would often lie twenty years before they were entirely rotten. The suddenness of a tree’s growth, the bigness of its pores, and the frequent changes of heat and wet in summer, cause it to rot sooner. To this it must be added, that all sorts of insects make holes into the stems of the fallen trees, and by that means the moisture and the air get into the tree, which must of course forward putrefaction. Most of the trees here have deciduous or annual leaves. Many of them begin to rot whilst they are yet standing and blooming. This forms the hollow trees, in which many animals make their nests and places of refuge.

The breadth of the Delaware directly opposite Wilmington is reckoned an English mile and a half; yet to look at it, it did not seem to be so great. The depth of the river, in the middle, is said to be from four to six fathoms here.

December the 12th. The Joiners say, that among the trees of this country they chiefly use the black walnut-trees, the wild cherry-trees, and the curled maple. Of the black walnut-trees (Juglans nigra) there is yet a sufficient quantity. However careless people take pains enough to destroy them, and some peasants even use them as fewel. The wood of the wild cherry-trees (Prunus Virginiana) is very good, and looks exceedingly well; it has a yellow colour, and the older the furniture is, which is made of it, the better it looks. But it is already difficult to get at it, for they cut it every where, and plant it no where. The curled maple (Acer rubrum) is a species of the common red maple, but likewise very difficult to be got. You may cut down many trees without finding the wood which you want. The wood of the sweet gum-tree (Liquidambar) is merely employed in joiner’s work, such as tables, and other furniture. But it must not be brought near the fire, because it warps. The firs and the white cedars (Cupressus thyoides) are likewise made use of by the joiners for different sorts of work.

The millers who attended the mill which stood here, said, that the axle-trees of the wheels of the mill were made of white oak, and that they continued good three or four years, but that the fir-wood does not keep so well. The cogs of the mill-wheel, and the pullies, are made of the wood of the white walnut-tree, because it is the hardest which can be got here. The wood of mulberry-trees is of all others reckoned the most excellent for pegs and plugs in ships and boats.

At night I went over the river Delaware, from Willmington, to the ferrying-place, on the New Jersey side.

December the 13th. In the morning I returned to Raccoon.

On many trees in the woods of this country, either on one of the sides, or in the middle of a branch, or round a branch, are greater or lesser knobs or excrescences. Sometimes there is only a single one in a tree. In the size there is a considerable difference, for some of these knobs are as big and bigger than a man’s head, others are only small. They project above the surface of the tree, like a tumor. Sometimes a tree was quite covered with them. They do not ly on one side only, but often form a circle round a branch, and even round the stem itself. The trees which have these knobs are not always great ones, but some not above a fathom high. The knobs commonly consist of the same parts as the wood itself, and look within like curled wood. Some of them are hollow. When a knob on a little tree is cut open, we commonly find a number of little worms in it, which are sometimes also common in the greater knobs. This shews the origin of the knobs in general. The tree is stung by insects, which lay their eggs under the bark, and from the eggs worms are afterwards hatched. They occasion an extravasation of the sap, which gradually condenses into a knob. Only the trees with annual deciduous leaves have these knobs, and among them chiefly the oak, of which again the black and Spanish oak have the greatest abundance of knobs. The ash trees, (Fraxinus excelsior) and the red maple (Acer rubrum) likewise have enough of them. Formerly the Swedes, and more especially the Finlanders, who are settled here, made dishes, bowls, &c. of the knobs which were on the ash-trees. These vessels, I am told, were very pretty, and looked as if they were made of curled wood. The oak-knobs cannot be employed in this manner, as they are commonly worm-eaten and rotten within. At present the Swedes no longer make use of such bowls and dishes, but make use of earthen ware, or vessels made of other wood. Some knobs are of an uncommon size, and make a tree have a monstrous appearance. Trees with knobs are very common in the woods of this country [4].

The roads are good or bad according to the difference of the ground. In a sandy soil the roads are dry and good; but in a clayey one they are bad. The people here are likewise very careless in mending them. If a rivulet be not very great, they do not make a bridge over it; and travellers may do as well as they can to get over: Therefore many people are in danger of being drowned in such places, where the water is risen by a heavy rain. When a tree falls across the road, it is seldom cut off, to keep the road clear, but the people go round it. This they can easily do, since the ground is very even, and without stones; has no underwood or shrubs, and the trees on it stand much asunder. Hence the roads here have so many bendings.

The farms are most of them single, and you seldom meet with even two together, except in towns, or places which are intended for towns; therefore there are but few villages. Each farm has its corn-fields, its woods, its pastures and meadows. This may perhaps have contributed something towards the extirpation of wolves, that they every where met with houses, and people who fired at them. Two or three farm-houses have generally a pasture or a wood in common, and there are seldom more together; but most of them have their own grounds divided from the others.

December the 18th. All persons who intend to be married, must either have their banns published three times from the pulpit, or get a licence from the governor. The banns of the poorer sort of people only are published, and all those who are a little above them get a licence from the governor. In that licence he declares that he has examined the affair, and found no obstacles to hinder the marriage, and therefore he allows it. The licence is signed by the governor; but, before he delivers it, the bridegroom must come to him in company with two creditable and well known men, who answer for him, that there really is no lawful obstacle to his marriage. These men must subscribe a certificate, in which they make themselves answerable for, and engage to bear all the damages of, any complaints made by the relations of the persons who intend to be married, by their guardians, their masters, or by those to whom they may have been promised before. For all these circumstances the governor cannot possibly know. They further certify that nothing hinders the intended marriage, and that nothing is to be feared on that account. For a licence they pay five and twenty shillings in Pensylvanian money, at Philadelphia. The governor keeps twenty shillings, or one pound, and the remaining five shillings belong to his secretary. The licence is directed only to protestant clergymen. The quakers have a peculiar licence to their marriages. But as it would be very troublesome, especially for those who live far from the governor’s residence to come up to town for every licence, and to bring the men with them who are to answer for them, the clergymen in the country commonly take a sufficient number of licences and certificates, which are ready printed, with blanks left for the names; they give them occasionally, and get the common money, one pound, five shillings, for each of them, besides something for their trouble. The money that they have collected, they deliver to the governor as soon as they come to town, together with the certificates, which are signed by two men, as above-mentioned; they then take again as many licences as they think sufficient: from hence we may conceive that the governors in the English North American colonies, besides their salaries, have very considerable revenues [5].

There is a great mixture of people of all sorts in these colonies, partly of such as are lately come over from Europe, and partly of such as have not yet any settled place of abode. Hence it frequently happens that when a clergyman has married such a couple, the bridegroom says he has no money at present, but would pay the fee at the first opportunity: however he goes off with his wife, and the clergyman never gets his due. This proceeding has given occasion to a custom which is now common in Maryland. When the clergyman marries a very poor couple, he breaks off in the middle of the Liturgy, and cries out Where is my fee? The man must then give the money, and the clergyman proceeds; but if the bridegroom has no money, the clergyman defers the marriage till another time, when the man is better provided. People of fortune, of whom the clergyman is sure to get his due, need not fear this disagreeable question, when they are married.

However, though the parson has got licences to marry a couple, yet if he be not very careful, he may get into very disagreeable circumstances; for in many parts of the country there is a law made, which, notwithstanding the governor’s licence, greatly limits a clergyman in some cases. He is not allowed to marry a couple who are not yet of age, unless he be certain of the consent of their parents. He cannot marry such strangers as have bound themselves to serve a certain number of years, in order to pay off their passage from Europe, without the consent of their masters; if he acts without their consent, or in opposition to it, he must pay a penalty of fifty pounds, Pensylvania currency, though he has the licence, and the certificate of the two men who are to answer for any objection. But parents or masters give themselves no concern about these men, but take hold of the clergyman, who is at liberty to prosecute those who gave him the certificate, and to get his damages repaid. With the consent of the parents and masters he may marry people without danger to himself. No clergyman is allowed to marry a negro with one of European extraction, or he must pay a penalty of one hundred pounds, according to the laws of Pensylvania.

There is a very peculiar diverting custom here, in regard to marrying. When a man dies, and leaves his widow in great poverty, or so that she cannot pay all the debts with what little she has left, and that, notwithstanding all that, there is a person who will marry her, she must be married in no other habit than her shift. By that means, she leaves to the creditors of her deceased husband her cloaths, and every thing which they find in the house. But she is not obliged to pay them any thing more, because she has left them all she was worth, even her cloaths, keeping only a shift to cover her, which the laws of the country cannot refuse her. As soon as she is married, and no longer belongs to the deceased husband, she puts on the cloaths which the second has given her. The Swedish clergymen here have often been obliged to marry a woman in a dress which is so little expensive, and so light. This appears from the registers kept in the churches, and from the accounts given by the clergymen themselves. I have likewise often seen accounts of such marriages in the English gazettes; which are printed in these colonies; and I particularly remember the following relation: A woman went, with no other dress than her shift, out of the house of her deceased husband to that of her bridegroom, who met her half way with fine new cloaths, and said, before all who were present, that he lent them his bride; and put them on her with his own hands. It seems, he said that he lent the cloaths, lest, if he had said he gave them, the creditors of the first husband should come, and take them from her; pretending, that she was looked upon as the relict of her first husband, before she was married to the second.

December the 21st. It seems very probable, from the following observations, that long before the arrival of the Swedes, there have been Europeans in this province; and, in the sequel, we shall give more confirmations of this opinion. The same old Maons Keen, whom I have already mentioned before, told me repeatedly, that on the arrival of the Swedes in the last century, and on their making a settlement, called Helsingburg, on the banks of the Delaware, somewhat below the place where Salem is now situated; they found, at the depth of twenty feet, some wells, inclosed with walls. This could not be a work of the native Americans, or Indians, as bricks were entirely unknown to them when the Europeans first settled here, at the end of the fifteenth century; and they still less knew how to make use of them. The wells were, at that time, on the land; but in such a place, on the banks of the Delaware, as is sometimes under water, and sometimes dry. But since, the ground has been so washed away, that the wells are entirely covered by the river, and the water is seldom low enough to shew the wells. As the Swedes afterwards made new wells for themselves, at some distance from the former, they discovered, in the ground, some broken earthen vessels, and some entire good bricks; and they have often got them out of the ground by ploughing.

From these marks, it seems, we may conclude, that in times of yore, either Europeans or other people of the then civilized parts of the world, have been carried hither by storms, or other accidents, settled here, on the banks of the river, burnt bricks, and made a colony here; but that they afterwards mixed with the Indians, or were killed by them. They may gradually, by conversing with the Indians, have learnt their manners, and turn of thinking. The Swedes themselves are accused, that they were already half Indians, when the English arrived in the year 1682. And we still see, that the French, English, Germans, Dutch, and other Europeans, who have lived for several years together in distant provinces, near and among the Indians, grow so like them, in their behaviour and thoughts, that they can only be distinguished by the difference of their colour. But history, together with the tradition among the Indians, assures us, that the above-mentioned wells and bricks cannot have been made at the time of Columbus’s expedition, nor soon after; as the traditions of the Indians say, that those wells were made long before that epocha. This account of the wells, which had been inclosed with bricks, and of such bricks as have been found in several places in the ground, I have afterwards heard repeated by many other old Swedes.

December the 22nd. An old farmer foretold a change of the weather, because the air was very warm this day at noon, though the morning had been very cold. This he likewise concluded, from having observed the clouds gathering about the sun. The meteorological observations annexed to the end of this volume will prove that his observation was just.

December the 31st. The remedies against the tooth-ach are almost as numerous as days in a year. There is hardly an old woman but can tell you three or four score of them, of which she is perfectly certain that they are as infallible and speedy in giving relief, as a month’s fasting, by bread and water, is to a burthensome paunch. Yet it happens often, nay too frequently, that this painful disease eludes all this formidable army of remedies. However, I cannot forbear observing the following remedies, which have sometimes, in this country, been found effectual against the tooth-ach.

When the pains come from the hollowness of the teeth, the following remedy is said to have had a good effect: A little cotton is put at the bottom of a tobacco-pipe; the tobacco is put in upon it, and lighted; and you smoke till it is almost burnt up. By smoking, the oil of the tobacco gets into the cotton, which is then taken out, and applied to the tooth as hot as it can be suffered.

The chief remedy of the Iroquois, or Iroquese, against the tooth-ach occasioned by hollow teeth, I heard of Captain Lindsey’s lady, at Oswego; and she assured me, that she knew, from her own experience, that the remedy was effectual. They take the seed capsules of the Virginian Anemone, as soon as the seed is ripe, and rub them in pieces. It will then be rough, and look like cotton. This cotton-like substance is dipped into strong brandy, and then put into the hollow tooth, which commonly ceases to ache soon after. The brandy is biting or sharp, and the seeds of the anemone, as most seeds of the Polyandria Polygynia class of plants (or such as have many Stamina, or male flowers, and many Pistilla, or female flowers) have likewise an acrimony. They therefore, both together, help to assuage the pain; and this remedy is much of the same kind with the former. Besides that, we have many seeds which have the same qualities with the American anemone.

The following remedy was much in vogue against the tooth-ach which is attended with a swelling: They boil gruel, of flour of maize, and milk; to this they add, whilst it is yet over the fire, some of the fat of hogs, or other suet, and stir it well, that every thing may mix equally. A handkerchief is then spread over the gruel, and applied as hot as possible to the swelled cheek, where it is kept till it is gone cool again. I have found, that this remedy has been very efficacious against a swelling as it lessens the pain, abates the swelling, opens a gathering, if there be any, and procures a good discharge of the Pus.

I have seen the Iroquese boil the inner bark of the Sambucus Canadensis, or Canada Elder, and put it on that part of the cheek in which the pain was most violent. This, I am told, often diminishes the pain.

Among the Iroquese, or Five Nations, upon the river Mohawk, I saw a young Indian woman, who, by frequent drinking of tea, had got a violent tooth-ach. To cure it, she boiled the Myrica asplenii folia, and tied it, as hot as she could bear it, on the whole cheek. She said, that remedy had often cured the tooth-ach before.

January the 2nd, 1749. Before the Europeans under the direction of Columbus, came to the West Indies, the savages or Indians (who lived there since times immemorial) were entirely unacquainted with iron, which appears very strange to us, as North America, almost in every part of it, contains a number of iron mines. They were therefore obliged to supply this want with sharp stones, shells, claws of birds and wild beasts, pieces of bones, and other things of that kind, whenever they intended to make hatchets, knives, and such like instruments. From hence it appears, that they must have led a very wretched life. The old Swedes who lived here, and had had an intercourse with the Indians when they were young, and at a time when they were yet very numerous in these parts, could tell a great many things concerning their manner of living. At this time the people find accidentally, by ploughing and digging in the ground, several of the instruments which the Indians employed, before the Swedes and other Europeans had provided them with iron tools. For it is observable that the Indians at present make use of no other tools, than such as are made of iron and other metals, and which they always get from the Europeans: Of this I shall be more particular, in its proper place. But having had an opportunity of seeing, and partly collecting a great many of the ancient Indian tools, I shall here describe them.

Their hatchets were made of stone. Their shape is similar to that of the wedges with which we cleave our wood, about half a foot long, and broad in proportion; they are made like a wedge, sharp at one end, but rather blunter than our wedges. As this hatchet must be fixed on a handle, there was a notch made all round the thick-end. To fasten it, they split a stick at one end, and put the stone between it, so that the two halves of the stick come into the notches of the stone; then they tied the two split ends together with a rope or something like it, almost in the same way as smiths fasten the instrument with which they cut off iron, to a split stick. Some of these stone-hatchets were not notched or furrowed at the upper end, and it seems they only held those in their hands in order to hew or strike with them, and did not make handles to them. Most of the hatchets which I have seen, consisted of a hard rock-stone: but some were made of a fine, hard, black, apyrous stone. When the Indians intended to fell a thick strong tree, they could not make use of their hatchets, but for want of proper instruments employed fire. They set fire to a great quantity of wood at the roots of the tree, and made it fall by that means. But that the fire might not reach higher than they would have it, they fastened some rags to a pole, dipped them into water, and kept continually washing the tree, a little above the fire. Whenever they intended to hollow out a thick tree for a canoe, they laid dry branches all along the stem of the tree, as far as it must be hollowed out. They then put fire to those dry branches, and as soon as they were burnt, they were replaced by others. Whilst these branches were burning, the Indians were very busy with wet rags, and pouring water upon the tree, to prevent the fire from spreading too far on the sides and at the ends. The tree being burnt hollow as far as they found it sufficient, or as far as it could without damaging the canoe, they took the above described stone-hatchets, or sharp flints, and quartzes, or sharp shells, and scraped off the burnt part of the wood, and smoothened the boats within. By this means they likewise gave it what shape they pleased. Instead of cutting with a hatchet such a piece of wood as was necessary for making a canoe, they likewise employed fire. A canoe was commonly between thirty and forty feet long. The chief use of their hatchets was, according to the unanimous accounts of all the Swedes, to make good fields for maize-plantations; for if the ground where they intended to make a maize-field was covered with trees, they cut off the bark all round the trees with their hatchets, especially at the time when they lose their sap. By that means the tree became dry, and could not take any more nourishment, and the leaves could no longer obstruct the rays of the sun from passing. The smaller trees were then pulled out by main force, and the ground was a little turned up with crooked or sharp branches.

Instead of knives they were satisfied with little sharp pieces of flint or quartz, or else some other hard kind of a stone, or with a sharp shell, or with a piece of a bone which they had sharpened.

At the end of their arrows they fastened narrow angulated pieces of stone; they made use of them, having no iron to make them sharp again, or a wood of sufficient hardness: these points were commonly flints or quartzes, but sometimes likewise another kind of a stone. Some employed the bones of animals, or the claws of birds and beasts. Some of these ancient harpoons are very blunt, and it seems that the Indians might kill birds and small quadrupeds with them; but whether they could enter deep into the body of a great beast or of a man, by the velocity which they get from the bow, I cannot ascertain; yet some have been found very sharp and well made.

They had stone pestles, about a foot long, and as thick as a man’s arm. They consist chiefly of a black sort of a stone, and were formerly employed, by the Indians, for pounding maize, which has, since times immemorial, been their chief and almost their only corn. They had neither wind-mills, water-mills, nor hand-mills, to grind it, and did not so much as know a mill, before the Europeans came into the country. I have spoken with old Frenchmen, in Canada, who told me, that the Indians had been astonished beyond expression, when the French set up the first wind-mill. They came in numbers, even from the most distant parts, to view this wonder, and were not tired with sitting near it for several days together, in order to observe it; they were long of opinion that it was not driven by the wind, but by the spirits who lived within it. They were partly under the same astonishment when the first water-mill was built. They formerly pounded all their corn or maize in hollow trees, with the above-mentioned pestles, made of stone. Many Indians had only wooden pestles. The blackish stone, of which the hatchets and pestles are sometimes made, is very good for a grindstone, and therefore both the English and the Swedes employ the hatchets and pestles chiefly as grindstones, at present, when they can get them.

The old boilers or kettles of the Indians, were either made of clay, or of different kinds of pot-stone, (Lapis ollaris). The former consisted of a dark clay, mixt with grains of white sand or quartz, and burnt in the fire. Many of these kettles have two holes in the upper margin, on each side one, through which the Indians put a stick, and held the kettle over the fire, as long as it was to boil. Most of the kettles have no feet. It is remarkable that no pots of this kind have been found glazed, either on the outside or the inside. A few of the oldest Swedes could yet remember seeing the Indians boil their meat in these pots. They are very thin, and of different sizes; they are made sometimes of a greenish, and sometimes of a grey pot-stone, and some are made of another species of apyrous stone; the bottom and the margin are frequently above an inch thick. The Indians, notwithstanding their being unacquainted with iron, steel, and other metals, have learnt to hollow out very ingeniously these pots or kettles of pot-stone.

The old tobacco-pipes of the Indians are likewise made of clay, or pot-stone, or serpentine-stone. The first sort are shaped like our tobacco-pipes, though much coarser and not so well made. The tube is thick and short, hardly an inch long, but sometimes as long as a finger; their colour comes nearest to that of our tobacco-pipes which have been long used. Their tobacco-pipes of pot-stone are made of the same stone as their kettles. Some of them are pretty well made, though they had neither iron nor steel. But besides these kinds of tobacco-pipes, we find another sort of pipes, which are made with great ingenuity, of a very fine, red pot-stone, or a kind of serpentine marble. They are very scarce, and seldom made use of by any other than the Indian Sachems, or elders. The fine red stone, of which these pipes are made, is likewise very scarce, and is found only in the country of those Indians who are called Ingouez, and who, according to father Charlevoix, live on the other side of the river Missisippi [6]. The Indians themselves commonly value a pipe of this kind as much as a piece of silver of the same size, and sometimes they make it still dearer. Of the same kind of stone commonly consists their pipe of peace, which the French call calumet de paix, and which they make use of in their treaties of peace, and alliances. Most authors who have wrote of these nations mention this instrument, and I intend to speak of it when an opportunity offers.

The Indians employ hooks made of bone, or bird’s claws, instead of fishing-hooks. Some of the oldest Swedes here told me, that when they were young, a great number of Indians had been in this part of the country, which was then called New Sweden, and had caught fishes in the river Delaware, with these hooks.

They made fire by rubbing one end of a hard piece of wood continually against another dry one, till the wood began to smoke, and afterwards to burn.