Chapter III: Front Matter (3)

I often enquired among the old Englishmen and Swedes, whether they had found that any trees were killed in very severe winters, or had received much hurt. I was answered, that young hiccory trees are commonly killed in very cold weather; and the young black oaks likewise suffer in the same manner. Nay sometimes black oaks, five inches in diameter, were killed by the frost in a severe winter, and sometimes, though very seldom, a single mulberry-tree was killed. Peach-trees very frequently die in a cold winter, and often all the peach-trees in a whole district are killed by a severe frost. It has been found repeatedly, with regard to these trees, that they can stand the frost much better on hills, than in vallies; insomuch, that when the trees in a valley were killed by frost, those on a hill were not hurt at all. They assured me that they had never observed that the black walnut-tree, the sassafras, and other trees, had been hurt in winter. In regard to a frost in spring, they had observed at different times, that a cold night or two happened often after the trees were furnished with pretty large leaves, and that by this most of the leaves were killed. But the leaves thus killed have always been supplied by fresh ones. It is remarkable that in such cold nights the frost acts chiefly upon the more delicate trees, and in such a manner, that all the leaves, to the height of seven and even of ten feet from the ground, were killed by the frost, and all the top remained unhurt. Several old Swedes and Englishmen assured me they had made this observation, and the attentive engineer, Mr. Lewis Evans, has shewn it me among his notes. Such a cold night happened here, in the year 1746, in the night between the 14th and 15th of June, new style, attended with the same effect, as appears from Mr. Evans’s observations. The trees which were then in blossom, had lost both their leaves and their flowers in these parts which were nearest the ground; sometime after they got fresh leaves, but no new flowers. Further it is observable, that the cold nights which happen in spring and summer never do any hurt to high grounds, damaging only the low and moist ones. They are likewise very perceptible in such places where limestone is to be met with, and though all the other parts of the country be not visited by such cold nights in a summer, yet those where limestone lies have commonly one or two every summer. Frequently the places where the limestone lies are situated on a high ground; but they suffer notwithstanding their situation; whilst a little way off in a lower ground, where no limestone is to be found, the effects of the cold nights are not felt. Mr. Evans was the first who made this observation, and I have had occasion at different times to see the truth of it, on my travels, as I shall mention in the sequel. The young hiccory-trees have their leaves killed sooner than other trees, in such a cold night, and the young oaks next; this has been observed by other people, and I have found it to be true, in the years 1749 and 1750.

March the 11th. Of the genus of Wood-peckers, we find here all those, which Catesby in his first volume of the Natural History of Carolina, has drawn and described. I shall only enumerate them, and add one or two of their qualities; but their description at large I defer for another occasion.

Picus principalis, the King of the Wood-peckers, is found here, though very seldom, and only at a certain season.

Picus pileatus, the crested Wood-pecker; this I have already mentioned.

Picus auratus, the gold-winged Wood-pecker: This species is plentiful here, and the Swedes call it Hittock, and Piut; both these names have a relation to its note; it is almost continually on the ground, and is not observed to pick in the trees; it lives chiefly on insects, but sometimes becomes the prey of hawks; it is commonly very fat, and its flesh is very palatable. As it stays all the year, and cannot easily get insects in winter, it must doubtless eat some kinds of grass or plants in the fields. Its form, and some of its qualities, make it resemble a cuckow.

Picus Carolinus, the Carolina Wood-pecker. It lives here likewise, and the colour of its head is of a deeper and more shining red than Catesby has represented it, vol. i. p. 19. t. 19.

Picus villosus, the spotted, hairy, middle-sized Wood-pecker is abundant here; it destroys the apple-trees by pecking holes into them.

Picus erythrocephalus, the red-headed Wood-pecker. This bird was frequent in the country, and the Swedes called it merely Hackspick, or Wood pecker. They give the same name to all the birds which I now enumerate, the gold-winged wood-pecker excepted. This species is destructive to maize-fields and orchards, for it pecks through the ears of maize, and eats apples. In some years they are very numerous, especially where sweet apples grow, which they eat so far, that nothing but the mere peels remain. Some years ago there was a premium of two pence per head, paid from the public funds, in order to extirpate this pernicious bird, but this law has been repealed. They are likewise very fond of acorns. At the approach of winter they travel to the southward. But when they stay in numbers in the woods, at the beginning of winter, the people look upon it as a sign of a pretty mild winter.

Picus varius, the lesser, spotted, yellow-bellied Wood-pecker. These birds are much more numerous than many people wished; for this, as well as the preceding and succeeding species, are very hurtful to apple-trees.

Picus pubescens, or the least spotted Wood-pecker. This species abounds here. Of all the wood-peckers it is the most dangerous to orchards, because it is the most daring. As soon as it has pecked a hole into the tree, it makes another close to the first, in a horizontal direction, proceeding till it has pecked a circle of holes round the tree. Therefore the apple-trees in the orchards here have several rings round their stems, which lie very close above each other, frequently only an inch distant from each other. Sometimes these wood-peckers peck the holes so close, that the tree dries up. This bird, as Catesby remarks, is so like the lesser spotted wood-pecker, in regard to its colour and other qualities, that they would be taken for the same bird, were not the former (the Picus pubescens) a great deal less. They agree in the bad quality, which they both possess, of pecking holes into the apple-trees.

Rana ocellata are a kind of frogs here, which the Swedes call, Sill-hoppetosser, i. e. Herring-hoppers, and which now began to quack in the evening, and at night, in swamps, pools, and ponds. The name which the Swedes give them is derived from their beginning to make their noise in spring, at the same time when the people here go catching what are called herrings, which however differ greatly from the true European herrings. These frogs have a peculiar note, which is not like that of our European frogs, but rather corresponds with the chirping of some large birds, and can nearly be expressed by picet. With this noise they continued throughout a great part of spring, beginning their noise soon after sun-setting, and finishing it just before sun-rising. The sound was sharp, but yet so loud that it could be heard at a great distance. When they expected rain they cried much worse than commonly, and began in the middle of the day, or when it grew cloudy, and the rain came usually six hours after. As it snowed on the 16th of the next month, and blew very violently all day, there was not the least sign of them at night, and during the whole time that it was cold, and whilst the snow lay on the fields, the frost had so silenced them, that we could not hear one; but as soon as the mild weather returned, they began their noise again. They were very timorous, and it was difficult to catch them; for as soon as a person approached the place where they lived, they are quite silent, and none of them appeared. It seems that they hide themselves entirely under water, except the tip of the snout, when they cry. For when I stepped to the pond where they were in, I could not observe a single one hopping into the water. I could not see any of them before I had emptied a whole pool, where they lodged in. Their colour is a dirty green, variegated with spots of brown. When they are touched they make a noise and moan; they then sometimes assume a form, as if they had blown up the hind part of the back, so that it makes a high elevation; and then they do not stir, though touched. When they are put alive into spirits of wine, they die within a minute.

March the 12th. The bird which the English and Swedes in this country call Robin-red-breast [17], is found here all the year round. It is a very different bird from that which in England bears the same name. It is Linnæus’s Turdus migratorius. It sings very melodiously, is not very shy, but hops on the ground, quite close to the houses.

The Hazels (Corylus avellana) were now opening their blossoms. They succeeded best in a rich mould, and the Swedes reckoned it a sign of a good soil where they found them growing.

March the 13th. The alder (Betula Alnus) was just blossoming.

The Dracontium foetidum grew plentifully in the marshes and began to flower. Among the stinking plants, this is the most fœtid; its nauseous scent was so strong, that I could hardly examine the flower; and when I smelled a little too long at it, my head ached. The Swedes call it Byorn-blad (bear’s-leaf) or Byorn-retter (bear’s-root.) The English call it Polecat-root, because its effluvia are as nauseous and fœtid, as those of the polecat, which I have mentioned before. The flowers are purple-coloured; when they are in full flower, the leaves begin to come out of the ground; in summer the cattle do not touch it. Dr. Colden told me, that he had employed the root in all cases where the root of the arum is made use of, especially against the scurvy, &c. The Swedish name it got, because the bears, when they leave their winter habitations, are fond of it in spring: It is a common plant in all North America.

The Draba verna was abundant here, and now appeared in flower.

The Veratrum album was very common in the marshes, and in low places over all North America. The Swedes here call it Dack, Dackor or Dackretter, that is puppet-root, because the children make puppets of its stalks and leaves. The English call it Itch-reed or Ellebore. It is a poisonous plant, and therefore the cattle never touch it; however it sometimes happens that the cattle are deceived in the beginning of spring, when the pastures are bare, and eat of the fine broad green leaves of this plant, which come up very early; but such a meal frequently proves fatal to them. Sheep and geese have likewise often been killed with it. By means of its root, the maize is preserved from the greediness of voracious birds, in the following manner: The roots are boiled in water, into which the maize is put as soon as the water is quite cool; the maize must ly all night in it, and is then planted as usual. When the maize-thieves, crows, or other birds, pick up or pluck out the grains of maize, their heads grow delirious, and they fall, which so frightens the rest that they never venture on the field again; when those which have tasted the grains recover, they leave the field, and are no more tempted to visit it again. By thus preparing maize, one must be very careful that no other creatures touch it; for when ducks or fowls eat a grain or two of the maize which is thus steeped, they become very sick; but if they swallow a considerable quantity they die. When the root is thrown away raw, no animal eats it; but when it is put out boiled, its sweet taste tempts the beasts to eat it. Dogs have been seen to eat a little of it, and have been very sick after it; however they have recovered after a vomit, for when animals cannot free themselves of it by this means, they often die. Some people boil the root, and wash the scorbutic parts with the water or decoct. This is said to cause some pain, and even a plentiful discharge of urine, but it re-establishes the patient. When the children here are plagued with vermin, the women boil this root, put the comb into the decoction, and comb the head with it, and this kills them most effectually.

March the 17th. At the first arrival of the Swedes in this country, and long after that time, it was filled with Indians. But as the Europeans proceeded to cultivate the land, the Indians sold their land, and went further into the country. But in reality few of the Indians really left the country in this manner; most of them ended their days before, either by wars among themselves, or by the small-pox, a disease which the Indians were unacquainted with before their commerce with the Europeans, and which since that time has killed incredible numbers of them. For though they can heal wounds and other external hurts, yet they know not how to proceed with fevers, or in general with internal diseases. One can imagine, how ill they would succeed with the cure of the small-pox, when as soon as the pustules appeared, they leaped naked into the cold water of the rivers, lakes, or fountains, and either dived over head into it, or poured it over their body in great abundance, in order to cool the heat of the fever. In the same manner they carry their children, when they have the small-pox, into the water and duck them [18]. But brandy has killed most of the Indians. This liquor was likewise entirely unknown to them, before the Europeans came hither; but after they had tasted it, they could never get enough of it. A man can hardly have a greater desire of a thing, than the Indians have of brandy. I have heard them say, that to die by drinking brandy, was a desirable and an honourable death; and indeed ’tis no very uncommon thing to kill themselves by drinking this liquor to excess.

The food of these Indians was very different from that of the inhabitants of the other parts of the world. Wheat, rye, barley, oats, and rice-groats, were quite unknown in America. In the same manner it is with regard to the fruits and herbs which are eaten in the old countries. The maize, some kinds of beans, and melons, made almost the whole of the Indian agriculture and gardening; and dogs were the only domestic animals in North America. But as their agriculture and their gardening were very trifling, and they could hardly live two months in a year upon their produce, they were forced to apply to hunting and fishing, which at that time, and even at present, are their chief subsistence, and to seek some of the wild plants and trees here. Some of the old Swedes were yet alive, who in their younger years had an intercourse with the Indians, and had seen the minutiæ of their œconomy. I was therefore desirous of knowing which of the spontaneous herbs they made use of for food at that time; and all the old men agreed that the following plants were what they chiefly consumed:

Hopniss or Hapniss was the Indian name of a wild plant, which they ate at that time. The Swedes still call it by that name, and it grows in the meadows in a good soil. The roots resemble potatoes, and were boiled by the Indians, who eat them instead of bread. Some of the Swedes at that time likewise ate this root for want of bread. Some of the English still eat them instead of potatoes. Mr. Bartram told me, that the Indians who live farther in the country do not only eat these roots, which are equal in goodness to potatoes, but likewise take the pease which ly in the pods of this plant, and prepare them like common pease. Dr. Linnæus calls the plant Glycine Apios.

Katniss is another Indian name of a plant, the root of which they were likewise accustomed to eat, when they lived here. The Swedes still preserve this name. It grows in low, muddy and very wet ground. The root is oblong, commonly an inch and an half long, and one inch and a quarter broad in the middle; but some of the roots have been as big as a man’s fists. The Indians either boiled this root or roasted it in hot ashes. Some of the Swedes likewise eat them with much appetite, at the time when the Indians were so near the coast; but at present none of them make any use of the roots. A man of ninety-one years of age, called Nils Gustafson, told me, that he had often eaten these roots when he was a boy, and that he liked them very well at that time. He added that the Indians, especially their women, travelled to the islands, dug out the roots, and brought them home; and whilst they had them, they desired no other food. They said that the hogs, which are amazingly greedy of them, have made them very scarce. The cattle are very fond of its leaves. I afterwards got fond of these roots roasted, and in my opinion they tasted well, though they were rather dry: The taste was nearly the same with that of the potatoes. When the Indians come down to the coast and see the turneps of the Europeans, they likewise give them the name of katniss. Their katniss is an arrow-head or Sagittaria, and is only a variety of the Swedish arrow-head or Sagittaria sagittifolia, for the plant above the ground is entirely the same, but the root under ground is much greater in the American than in the European. Mr. Osbeck in his voyage to China, vol. i. p. 334, of the English edition, mentions, that the Chinese plant a Sagittaria, and eat its roots. This seems undoubtedly to be a variety of this katniss. Further in the north of this part of America, I met with the other species of Sagittaria which we have in Sweden.

Taw-ho and Taw-him was the Indian name of another plant, the root of which they eat. Some of them likewise call it Tuckah; but most of the Swedes still knew it by the name of Taw-ho. It grows in moist ground and swamps. Hogs are very greedy of the roots, and grow very fat by feeding on them. Therefore, they often visit the places where these roots grow; and they are frequently seen rooting up the mud, and falling with their whole body into the water, so that only a little of the back part was out of the water. It is therefore very plain, that these roots must have been extirpated in places which are frequented by hogs. The roots often grow to the thickness of a man’s thigh. When they are fresh, they have a pungent taste, and are reckoned a poison in that fresh taste. Nor did the Indians ever venture to eat them raw, but prepared them in the following manner: They gathered a great heap of these roots, dug a great long hole, sometimes two or three fathoms and upwards in length, into which they put the roots, and covered them with the earth that had been taken out of the hole; they made a great fire above it, which burnt till they thought proper to remove it; and then they dug up the roots, and consumed them with great avidity. These roots, when prepared in this manner, I am told, taste like potatoes. The Indians never dry and preserve them; but always take them fresh out of the marshes, when they want them. This Taw-ho is the Arum Virginicum, or Virginian Wake-robin. It is remarkable, that the Arums, with the plants next akin to them, are eaten by men in different parts of the world, though their roots, when raw, have a fiery pungent taste, and are almost poisonous in that state. How can men have learnt, that plants so extremely opposite to our nature were eatable; and that their poison, which burns on the tongue, can be conquered by fire. Thus the root of the Calla palustris, which grows in the north of Europe, is sometimes used instead of bread on an exigency. The North American Indians consume this species of Arum. Those of South America, and of the West Indies, eat other species of Arums. The Hottentots, at the Cape of Good Hope, in Africa, prepare bread from a species of Arum or Wake-robin, which is as burning and poisonous as the other species of this plant. In the same manner, they employ the roots of some kinds of Arum as a food, in Egypt and Asia. Probably, that severe but sometimes useful mistress, necessity, has first taught men to find out a food, which the first taste would have rejected as useless. This Taw-ho seems to be the same with what the Indians in Carolina call Tuckahoo; and of which see Vol. I. p. 287.

Taw-kee is another plant, so called by the Indians who eat it. Some of them call it Taw-kim, and others Tackvim. The Swedes call it always by the name of Taw-kee. The plant grows in marshes, near moist and low grounds, and is very plentiful in North America. The cattle, hogs and stags, are very fond of the leaves in spring; for they are some of the earliest. The leaves are broad, like those of the Convallaria, or Lilly of the Valley, green on the upper side, and covered with very minute hair, so that they looked like a fine velvet. The Indians pluck the seeds, and keep them for eating. They cannot be eaten fresh or raw, but must be dried. The Indians were forced to boil them repeatedly in water, before they were fit for use; and then they ate them like pease. When the Swedes gave them butter or milk, they boiled or broiled the seeds in it. Sometimes they employ these seeds instead of bread; and they taste like pease. Some of the Swedes likewise ate them; and the old men among them told me, they liked this food better than any of the other plants which the Indians formerly made use of. This Taw-kee was the Orontium aquaticum.

Bilberries were likewise a very common dish among the Indians. They are called Huckleberries by the English here, and belong to several species of Vaccinium, which are all of them different from our Swedish Bilberry-bush, though their berries, in regard to colour, shape, and taste, are so similar to the Swedish bilberry, that they are distinguished from each other with difficulty. The American ones grow on shrubs, which are from two to four feet high; and there are some species which are above seven feet in height. The Indians formerly plucked them in abundance every year, dried them either in the sun-shine or by the fire-side, and afterwards prepared them for eating, in different manners, These huckleberries are still a dainty dish among the Indians. On my travels through the country of the Iroquese, they offered me, whenever they designed to treat me well, fresh maize-bread, baked in an oblong shape, mixed with dried Huckleberries, which lay as close in it as the raisins in a plumb-pudding. I shall write more at large about it in the sequel. The Europeans are likewise used to collect a quantity of these berries, to dry them in ovens, to bake them in tarts, and to employ them in several other ways. Some preserve them with treacle. They are likewise eaten raw, either quite alone or with fresh milk.

I shall, on the 27th of March, find occasion to mention another dish, which the Indians ate formerly, and still eat, on formal ceremonies.

March the 18th. Almost during the whole of this spring, the weather and the winds were always calm in the morning at sun-rising. At eight o’clock the wind began to blow pretty hard, and continued so all day, till sun-setting; when it ceased, and all the night was calm. This was the regular course of the weather; but sometimes the winds raged, without intermission, for two or three days together. At noon it was commonly most violent. But in the ordinary way, the wind decreased and increased as follows: At six in the morning, a calm; at seven, a very gentle western breeze, which grew stronger at eight; at eleven it was much stronger; but at four in the afternoon, it is no stronger than it was at eight o’clock in the morning; and thus it goes on decreasing till it is quite a calm, just before sun-set. The winds this spring blew generally west, as appears from the observations at the end of this volume.

I was told, that it was a very certain prognostic of bad weather, that when you see clouds in the horizon in the south-west, about sun-setting, and when those clouds sink below the horizon, in an hour’s time, it will rain the next day, though all the forenoon be fair and clear. But if some clouds be seen in the south-west, in the horizon, at sun-set, and they rise some time after, you may expect fair weather the next day.

March the 20th. An old Swede prognosticated a change in the weather, because it was calm to-day; for when there has been wind for some days together, and a calm follows, they say, rain or snow, or some other change in the weather, will happen. I was likewise told, that some people here were of that false opinion, that the weather commonly alters on Friday; so that, in case it had rained or blown hard all the week, and a change was to happen, it would commonly fall on Friday. How far the former prognostic has been true, appears from my own observations of the weather, to which I refer.

March the 21st. The red maple (Acer rubrum) and the American elm (Ulmus Americana) began to flower at present; and some of the latter kind were already in full blossom.

March the 24th. I walked pretty far to-day, in order to see whether I could find any plants in flower. But the cloudy weather, and the great rains which had lately fallen, had allowed little or nothing to grow up. The leaves now began to grow pretty green. The plants which I have just before mentioned, were now in full blossom.

The noble Liverwort, or Anemone hepatica, was now every where in flower. It was abundant; and the Swedes called it Blablomster, or Blue-flower. They did not know any use of it.

Near all the corn-fields on which I walked to-day, I did not see a single ditch, though many of them wanted it. But the people generally followed the English way of making no ditches along the fields, without considering whether the corn-fields wanted them or not. The consequence was, that the late rain had in many places washed away great pieces of the grounds, sown with wheat and rye. There were no ridges left between the fields, except a very narrow one near the fence, which was entirely over-grown with the Sumach, or Rhus glabra, and with black-berry bushes, so that there the cattle could find very little or no food. The corn fields were broad-cast, or divided into pieces, which were near seventeen feet broad, and separated from each other only by means of furrows. These pieces were uniform, and not elevated in the middle.

Meloe majalis a species of oil-beetle, crept about on the hills.

Papilio Antiopa, or willow butterfly, flew in the woods to-day, and was the first butterfly which I saw this year.

Papilio Euphrosyne, or the April butterfly, was one of the scarce species. The other American insect, which I described this day and the following days, I shall mention on some other occasion. In the sequel I shall only mention those which were remarkable for some peculiar qualities.

The hay-stacks were commonly made here after the Swedish manner, that is, in the shape of a thick and short cone, without any cover over it. When the people wanted any hay, they cut some of it loose, by a peculiar sort of a knife. However, many people, especially in the environs of Philadelphia, had hay-stacks with roofs which could be moved up and down. Near the surface of the ground were some poles laid, on which the hay was put, that the air may pass freely through it. I have mentioned before, that the cattle have no stables in winter or summer, but must go in the open air, during the whole year. However, in Philadelphia, and in a few other places, I have seen that those people who made use of the latter kind of hay-stacks, viz. that with moveable roofs, commonly had built them so, that the hay was put a fathom or two above the ground, on a floor of boards, under which the cattle could stand in winter, when the weather was very bad. Under this floor of boards were partitions of boards on all the sides, which however stood far enough from each other, to afford the air a free passage.

March the 27th. In the morning I went in order to speak with the old Swede, Nils Gustafson, who was ninety-one years of age. I intended to get an account of the former state of New Sweden. The country which I now passed through was the same with that which I had found in those parts of North America I had hitherto seen. It was diversified with a variety of little hills and vallies: the former consisted of a very pale brick-coloured earth, composed, for the greatest part, of a fine sand, mixed with some mould. I saw no mountains, and no stones, except some little stones, not above the size of a pigeon’s or hen’s egg, lying on the hills, and commonly consisting of white quartz, which was generally smooth and polished on the outside. At the bottom, along the vallies, ran sometimes rivulets of crystalline water, the bottom of which was covered with such white pebbles as I have just described. Now and then I met with a swamp in the vallies. Sometimes there appeared, though at considerable distances from each other, some farms, frequently surrounded on all sides by corn-fields. Almost on every corn-field there yet remained the stumps of trees, which had been cut down; a proof that this country has not been long cultivated, being overgrown with trees forty or fifty years ago. The farms did not ly together in villages, or so that several of them were near each other, in one place; but they were all separated from one another. Each countryman lived by himself, had his own ground about his house, separated from the property of his neighbour. The greatest part of the land, between these farms so distant from each other, was over-grown with woods, confiding of tall trees. However, there was a fine space between the trees, so that one could ride on horseback without inconvenience in the woods, and even with a cart in most places; and the ground was very plain and uniform at the same time. Here and there appeared some fallen trees, thrown down by the wind; some were torn up by the roots; others broken quite across the stem. In some parts of the country the trees were thick and tall, but in others I found large tracts covered with young trees, only twenty, thirty, or forty years old: these tracts, I am told, the Indians formerly had their little plantations in. I did not yet see any marks of the leaves coming out, and I did not meet with a flower in the woods: for the cold winds, which had blown for several days together successively, had hindered this. The woods consisted chiefly of several species of oak, and of hiccory. The swamps were filled with red maple, which was all now in flower, and made these places look quite red at a distance.

The old Swede, whom I came to visit, seemed to be still pretty hearty and fresh, and could walk by the help of a stick; but he complained of having felt in these latter years, some pains in his back, and limbs, and that he could keep his feet warm in winter only by sitting near the fire. He said he could very well remember the state of this country, at the time when the Dutch possessed it, and in what circumstances it was in before the arrival of the English. He added, that he had brought a great deal of timber to Philadelphia, at the time that it was built. He still remembered to have seen a great forest on the spot where Philadelphia now stands. The father of this old man had been one of the Swedes who were sent over from Sweden, in order to cultivate and inhabit this country. He returned me the following answers to the questions I asked him.

Quere, Whence did the Swedes, who first came hither, get their cattle? The old man answered, that when he was a boy, his father and other people had told him, that the Swedes brought their horses, cows, and oxen, sheep, hogs, geese, and ducks, over with them. There were but few of a kind at first, but they multiplied greatly here afterwards. He said, that Maryland, New York, New England, and Virginia, had been sooner inhabited by Europeans than this part of the country; but he did not know whether the Swedes ever got cattle of any kind, from any of these provinces, except from New York. Whilst he was yet very young, the Swedes, as well as he could remember, had already a sufficient stock of all these animals. The hogs had propagated so much at that time, there being so great a plenty of food for them, that they ran about wild in the woods, and that the people were obliged to shoot them, when they intended to make use of them. The old man likewise recollected, that horses ran wild in the woods, in some places; but he could not tell whether any other kind of cattle turned wild. He thought that the cattle grow as big at present as they did when he was a boy, supposing they get as much food as they want. For in his younger years, food for all kinds of cattle was so plentiful, and even so superfluous, that the cattle were extremely well fed by it. A cow at that time gave more milk, than three or four do at present; but she got more and better food at that time, than three or four get now; and, as the old man said, the scanty allowance of grass, which the cattle get in summer, is really very pitiful. The causes of this scarcity of grass have already been mentioned.

Quere, Whence did the English in Pensylvania and New Jersey get their cattle? They bought them chiefly from the Swedes and Dutch, who lived here; and a small number were brought over from Old England. The form of the cattle, and the unanimous accounts of the English here, confirmed what the old man had said.

Quere, Whence did the Swedes here settled get their several sorts of corn, and likewise their fruit-trees and kitchen-herbs? The old man told me that he had frequently heard, when he was young, that the Swedes had brought all kinds of corn, and fruits, and herbs, or seeds of them, with them. For, as far as he could recollect, the Swedes here were plentifully provided with wheat, rye, barley, and oats. The Swedes, at that time, brewed all their beer of malt made of barley, and likewise made good strong beer. They had already got distilling vessels, and made good brandy. Every one among them had not a distilling vessel, but when they intended to distil, they lent their apparatus to one another. At first they were forced to buy maize of the Indians, both for sowing and eating. But after continuing for some years in this country, they extended their maize-plantations so much that the Indians were obliged some time after to buy maize of the Swedes. The old man likewise assured me, that the Indians formerly, and about the time of the first settling of the Swedes, were more industrious and laborious in every branch of business, than they are now. Whilst he was young, the Swedes had a great quantity of very good white cabbage. Winter cabbage, or Cale, which was left on the ground during winter, was likewise abundant. They were likewise well provided with turnips. In winter they kept them in holes under ground. But the old man did not like that method; for when they had lain too long in these holes, in winter, they became spungy. He preferred that method of keeping them which is now commonly adopted, and which consists in the following particulars. After the turnips have been taken out of the ground in autumn, and exposed to the air for a while, they are put in a heap upon the field, covered with straw at the top, and on the sides, and with earth over the straw. By this means they stand the winter very well here, and do not become spungy. The Indians were very fond of turneps, and called them sometimes Hopniss, sometimes Katniss. The Swedes likewise cultivated carrots, in the old man’s younger years. Among the fruit-trees were Apple-trees. They were not numerous, and only some of the Swedes had little orchards of them, whilst others had not a single tree. None of the Swedes made cyder, for it is come into use but lately. The Swedes brewed strong beer and small beer, and it was their common liquor. But at present there are very few who brew beer, for they commonly prepare cyder. Cherry-trees were abundant when Nils Gustafson was yet a boy. Peach-trees were at that time more numerous than at present, and the Swedes brewed beer of the fruit. The old man could not tell from whence the Swedes first of all got the peach-trees.

During the younger years of this old man the Indians were every where spread in the country; they lived among the Swedes, and were scattered every where. The old man mentioned Swedes who had been killed by the Indians; and he mentioned two of his countrymen who had been scalped by them. They stole children from the Swedes, and carried them off, and they were never heard of again. Once they came and killed some Swedes, and took the upper part of their sculls with them; on that occasion they scalped a little girl, and would have killed her, if they had not perceived a boat full of Swedes, making towards them, which obliged them to fly; the girl was afterwards healed, but never got any hair on her head again; she was married, had many children, and lived to a considerable age. At another time, the Indians attempted to kill the mother of this old man, but she vigorously resisted them, and in the mean while a number of Swedes came up, who frightened the Indians, and made them run away. Nobody could ever find out to what nation of Indians these owe their origin; for in general they lived very peaceably with the Swedes.

The Indians had their little plantations of maize in many places; before the Swedes came into this country, the Indians had no other than their hatchets made of stone; in order to make maize plantations they cut out the trees and prepared the ground in the manner I have before mentioned [19]. They planted but little maize, for they lived chiefly upon hunting; and throughout the greatest part of summer, their Hopniss or the roots of the Glycine Apios, their Katniss, or the roots of the Sagittaria Sagittifolia, their Taw-ho or the roots of the Arum Virginicum, their Taw-kee or Orontium aquaticum, and whortle-berries, were their chief food. They had no horses or other cattle which could be subservient to them in their agriculture, and therefore did all the work with their own hands. After they had reaped the maize, they kept it in holes under ground, during winter; they dug these holes seldom deeper than a fathom, and often not so deep; at the bottom and on the sides they put broad pieces of bark. The Andropogon bicorne, a grass which grows in great plenty here, and which the English call Indian Grass, and the Swedes Wilskt Grass [20], supplies the want of bark; the ears of maize are then thrown into the hole and covered to a considerable thickness with the same grass; and the whole is again covered by a sufficient quantity of earth: the maize kept extremely well in those holes, and each Indian had several such subterraneous stores, where his corn lay safe, though he travelled far from it. After the Swedes had settled here and planted apple-trees and peach-trees, the Indians, and especially their women, sometimes stole the fruit in great quantity; but when the Swedes caught them, they gave them a severe drubbing, took the fruit from them, and often their clothes too. In the same manner it happened sometimes that as the Swedes had a great encrease of hogs, and they ran about in the woods, the Indians killed some of them privately and feasted upon them: but there were likewise some Indians who bought hogs of the Swedes and fed them; they taught them to run after them like dogs, and whenever they removed from one place to another, their hogs always followed them. Some of those Indians got such numbers of these animals, that they afterwards gave them to the Swedes for a mere trifle. When the Swedes arrived in America, the Indians had no domestic animals, except a species of little dogs. The Indians were extremely fond of milk, and ate it with pleasure when the Swedes gave it them. They likewise prepared a kind of liquor like milk in the following manner: they gathered a great number of hiccory nuts and walnuts from the black walnut-trees, dried and crushed them; then they took out the kernels, pounded them so fine as flour, and mixed this flour with water, which took a milky hue from them, and was as sweet as milk. They had tobacco-pipes of clay, manufactured by themselves, at the time that the Swedes arrived here; they did not always smoke true tobacco, but made use of another plant instead of it, which was unknown to the old Swedes, but of which he assured me that it was not the common mullein, or Verbascum Thapsus, which is generally called Indian Tobacco here [21].

As to their religion, the old man thought it very trifling, and even believed that they had none at all; when they heard loud claps of thunder, they said that the evil spirit was angry; some of them said that they believed in a God, who lives in heaven. The old Swede once walked with an Indian, and they met with a red-spotted snake on the road: the old man therefore went to seek a stick in order to kill the snake; but the Indian begged he would not touch it, because he adored it: perhaps the Swede would not have killed it, but on hearing that it was the Indian’s deity, he took a stick and killed it, in the presence of the Indian, saying: Because thou believest in it, I think myself obliged to kill it. Sometimes the Indians came into the Swedish churches, looked at them, heard them, and went away again, after a while. One day as this old Swede was at church, and did not sing, because he had no Psalm-book by him, one of the Indians, who was well acquainted with him, tapped him on the shoulder, and said: Why dost thou not sing with the others, Tantanta! Tantanta! Tantanta? On another occasion, as a sermon was preached in the Swedish church, at Raccoon, an Indian came in, looked about him; and, after hearkening a while to the preacher, he said: Here is a great deal of prattle and nonsense, but neither brandy nor cyder; and went out again. For it is to be observed, that when an Indian makes a speech to his companions, in order to encourage them to war, or to any thing else, they all drink immoderately on those occasions.

At the time when the Swedes arrived, they bought land at a very inconsiderable price. For a piece of baize, or a pot full of brandy, or the like, they could get a piece of ground, which at present would be worth more than four hundred pounds, Pensylvania currency. When they sold a piece of land, they commonly signed an agreement; and though they could neither read nor write, yet they scribbled their marks, or signatures, at the bottom of it. The father of old Nils Gustafson bought a piece of ground from the Indians in New Jersey. As soon as the agreement was drawn up, and the Indians should sign it, one of them, whose name signified a beaver, drew a beaver, another of them drew a bow and arrow, and a third a mountain, instead of their names. Their canoes they made of thick trees; which they hollowed out by fire, and made them smooth again with their hatchets, as has been before mentioned.

The following account the old man gave me, in answer to my questions with regard to the weather and its changes: It was his opinion, that the weather had always been pretty uniform ever since his childhood; that there happen as great storms at present as formerly; that the summers now are sometimes hotter, sometimes colder, than they were at that time; that the winters were often as cold and as long as formerly; and that still there often falls as great a quantity of snow as in former times. However, he thought that no cold winter came up to that which happened in the year 1697; and which is often mentioned in the almanacks of this country; and I have mentioned it in the preceding volume. For in that winter the river Delaware was so strongly covered with ice, that the old man brought many waggons full of hay over it, near Christina; and that it was passable in sledges even lower. No cattle, as far as he could recollect, were starved to death in cold winters; except, in later years, such cattle as were lean, and had no stables to retire into. It commonly does not rain, neither more nor less, in summer than it did formerly; excepting that, during the last years, the summers have been more dry. Nor could the old Swede find a diminution of water in brooks, rivers, and swamps. He allowed, as a very common and certain fact, that wherever you dig wells, you meet with oyster-shells in the ground.

The old Gustafson was of opinion, that intermitting fevers were as frequent and violent formerly as they are now; but that they seemed more uncommon, because there were fewer people at that time here. When he got this fever, he was not yet full grown. He got it in summer, and had it till the ensuing spring, which is almost a year; but it did not hinder him from doing his work, either within or out of doors. Pleurisy likewise attacked one or two of the Swedes formerly; but it was not near so common as it is now. The people in general were very healthy at that time.

Some years ago, the old Swede’s eyes were so much weakened that he was forced to make use of a pair of spectacles. He then got a fever; which was so violent, that it was feared he would not recover. However, he became quite well again, and at the same time got new strength in his eyes; so that he has been able to read without spectacles since that time.

The houses which the Swedes built when they first settled here, were very bad. The whole house consisted of one little room, the door of which was so low, that one was obliged to stoop in order to get in. As they had brought no glass with them, they were obliged to be content with little holes, before which a moveable board was fastened. They found no moss, or at least none which could have been serviceable in stopping up holes or cracks in the walls. They were therefore forced to close them, both without and within, with clay. The chimnies were made in a corner, either of grey sand, a stone, or (in places where no stone was to be got) of mere clay, which they laid very thick in one corner of the house. The ovens for baking were likewise in the rooms. Formerly the Swedes had proper stables for the cattle; but after the English came hither, and made no peculiar buildings for their cattle, the Swedes likewise left off making stables.

Before the English came to settle here, the Swedes could not get as many cloaths as they wanted; and were therefore obliged to make shift as well as they could. The men wore waistcoats and breeches of skins. Hats were not in fashion; and they made little caps, provided with flaps before. They had worsted stockings. Their shoes were of their own making. Some of them had learnt to prepare leather, and to make common shoes, with heels; but those who were not shoemakers by profession, took the length of their feet, and sewed the leather together accordingly; taking a piece for the sole, one for the hind-quarters, and one more for the upper-leather. At that time, they likewise sowed flax here, and wove linen cloth. Hemp was not to be got; and they made use of flaxen ropes and fishing tackle. The women were dressed in jackets and petticoats of skins. Their beds, excepting the sheets, were skins of several animals; such as bears, wolves, &c.

Tea, coffee, and chocolate, which are at present universally in use here, were then [22] wholly unknown. Bread and butter, and other substantial food, was what they breakfasted upon; and the above-mentioned superfluities have only been lately introduced, according to the account of the old Swede. Sugar and treacle they had in abundance, as far as he could remember; and rum formerly bore a more moderate price.

From the accounts of this old Swede I concluded, that before the English settled here, they followed wholly the customs of Old Sweden; but after the English had been in the country for some time, the Swedes began gradually to follow their customs. When this Swede was but a boy, there were two Swedish smiths here, who made hatchets, knives, and scythes, exactly like the Swedish ones, and made them sharper than they can be got now. The hatchets now in use are in the English way, with a broad edge; and their handles are very narrow, Almost all the Swedes made use of baths; and they commonly bathed every Saturday. They celebrated Christmas with several sorts of games, and with several peculiar dishes, as is usual in Sweden; all which is now, for the greatest part, left off. In the younger years of this Swede, they made a peculiar kind of carts here. They sawed thick pieces of liquid-amber trees, and made use of two of them for the foremost wheels, and of two more for the hindmost. With those carts they brought home their wood. Their sledges were at that time made almost in the same manner as they are now, or about as broad again as the true Swedish ones. Timber and great beams of wood were carried upon a dray. They baked great loaves, such as they do now. They had never any biscuit, though the clergymen, who came from Sweden, commonly got some baked.

The English on their arrival here bought large tracts of land of the Swedes, at a very inconsiderable price. The father of the old Swede sold an estate to the English, which at this time would be reckoned worth three hundred pounds, for which he got a cow, a sow, and a hundred gourds.

With regard to the decrease of birds, the number of them and fish, he was wholly of that opinion which I have already mentioned [23]. This was the account which the old man gave me of the former state of the Swedes in this country. I shall speak more particularly of it in the sequel.