Part 3

LASTLY

A CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE of the most remarkable Passages in that Country amongst the ENGLISH.

Illustrated with CUTS.

By JOHN JOSSELYN, Gent.

London, Printed for G. Widdowes at the Green Dragon in St. Pauls Church yard, 1672.

To the highly obliging,

His Honoured Friend and Kinsman,

SAMUEL FORTREY Esq;

SIR,

It was by your assistance (enabling me) that I commenc’d a Voyage into those remote-parts of the World (known to us by the painful Discovery of that memorable Gentleman Sir Fran. Drake.) Your bounty then and formerly hath engaged a retribution of my Gratitude, and not knowing how to testifie the same unto you otherwayes, I have (although with some reluctancy) adventured to obtrude upon you these rude and indigested Eight Years Observations, wherein whether I shall more shame my self or injure your accurate Judgment and better Employment in the perusal, is a question.

We read of Kings and Gods that kindly took A Pitcher fill’d with Water from the Brook.

The Contemplation whereof (well knowing your noble and generous Disposition) hath confirm’d in me the hope that you will pardon my presumption, and accept the tender of the fruits of my Travel after this homely manner, and my self as,

Sir,

Your highly obliged, & most humble Servant,

John Josselyn.

New-Englands

RARITIES

Discovered.

In the year of our Lord 1663. May 28. upon an Invitation from my only Brother, I departed from London, and arrived at Boston, the chief Town in the Massachusetts, a Colony of Englishmen in New-England, the 28th of July following.

Boston (whose longitude is 315 deg. and 42 deg. 30 min. of North Latitude) is built on the South-west side of a Bay large enough for the Anchorage of 500 Sail of Ships, the Buildings are handsome, joyning one to the other as in London, with many large streets, most of them paved with pebble stone, in the high street towards the Common, there are fair buildings, some of stone, and at the East End of the {2} Town one amongst the rest, built by the Shore by Mr. Gibs, a Merchant, being a stately Edifice, which it is thought will stand him in little less than 3000 l. before it be fully finished. The Town is not divided into Parishes, yet they have three fair Meeting-houses or Churches, which hardly suffice to receive the Inhabitants and Strangers that come in from all parts.

Having refreshed my self here for some time, and opportunely lighting upon a passage in a Bark belonging to a Friend of my Brothers, and bound to the Eastward, I put to sea again, and on the Fifteenth of August, I arrived at Black-point, otherwise called Scarborow, the habitation of my beloved Brother, being about an hundred leagues to the Eastward of Boston; here I resided eight years, and made it my business to discover all along the Natural, Physical, and Chyrurgical Rarities of this New-found World.

New-England is said to begin at 40 and to end at 46 of Northerly Latitude, that is from de la Ware Bay to New-found-Land.

The Sea Coasts are accounted wholsomest, the East and South Winds coming {3} from Sea produceth warm weather, the Northwest coming over land causeth extremity of Cold, and many times strikes the Inhabitants both English and Indian with that sad Disease called there the Plague of the back, but with us Empiema.

The Country generally is Rocky and Mountanous, and extremely overgrown with wood, yet here and there beautified with large rich Valleys, wherein are Lakes ten, twenty, yea sixty miles in compass, out of which our great Rivers have their Beginnings.

Fourscore miles (upon a direct line) to the Northwest of Scarborow, a Ridge of Mountains run Northwest and Northeast an hundred Leagues, known by the name of the White Mountains, upon which lieth Snow all the year, and is a Land-mark twenty miles off at Sea. It is rising ground from the Sea shore to these Hills, and they are inaccessible but by the Gullies which the dissolved Snow hath made; in these Gullies grow Saven Bushes, which being taken hold of are a good help to the climbing Discoverer; upon the top of the highest of these Mountains is a large Level {4} or Plain of a days journey over, whereon nothing grows but Moss: at the farther end of this Plain is another Hill called the Sugar-Loaf, to outward appearance a rude heap of massie stones piled one upon another, and you may as you ascend step from one stone to another, as if you were going up a pair of stairs, but winding still about the Hill till you come to the top, which will require half a days time, and yet it is not above a Mile, where there is also a Level of about an Acre of ground, with a pond of clear water in the midst of it; which you may hear run down, but how it ascends is a mystery. From this rocky Hill you may see the whole Country round about; it is far above the lower Clouds, and from hence we beheld a Vapour (like a great Pillar) drawn up by the Sun Beams out of a great Lake or Pond into the Air, where it was formed into a Cloud. The Country beyond these Hills Northward is daunting terrible, being full of rocky Hills, as thick as Mole-hills in a Meadow, and cloathed with infinite thick Woods.

New-England is by some affirmed to be an Island, bounded on the North with the {5} River Canada, (so called from Monsieur Cane) on the South with the River Mohegan, or Hudsons River, so called because he was the first that discovered it. Some will have America to be an Island, which out of question must needs be, if there be a Northeast passage found out into the South Sea; it contains 1152400000 Acres. The discovery of the Northwest passage (which lies within the River of Canada) was undertaken with the help of some Protestant Frenchmen, which left Canada and retired to Boston about the year 1669. The Northeast people of America i.e. New England, &c. are judged to be Tartars called Samoades, being alike in complexion, shape, habit and manners, (see the Globe:) Their Language is very significant, using but few words, every word having a diverse signification, which is exprest by their gesture; as when they hold their head of one side the word signifieth one thing, holding their hand up when they pronounce it signifieth another thing. Their Speeches in their Assemblies are very gravely delivered, commonly in perfect Hexamiter Verse, with great silence and attention, and answered again ex tempore after the same manner.

{6} Having given you some short Notes concerning the Country in general, I shall now enter upon the proposed Discovery of the Natural, Physical, and Chyrurgical Rarities; and that I may methodically deliver them unto you, I shall cast them into this form: 1. Birds. 2. Beasts. 3. Fishes. 4. Serpents and Insects. 5. Plants, of these, 1. such Plants as are common with us, 2. of such Plants as are proper to the country, 3. of such Plants as are proper to the Country and have no name known to us, 4. of such Plants as have sprung up since the English Planted and kept Cattle there, 5. of such Garden Herbs (amongst us) as do thrive there and of such as do not. 6. Of Stones, Minerals, Metals, and Earths.

First, Of Birds.