Part 22 (1/2)

Their fish is in vast plenty and variety, and extraordinary good in their kind. Beef and pork are commonly sold there, from one penny, to two pence the pound, or more, according to the time of year; their fattest and largest pullets at sixpence a piece; their capons at eight pence or nine pence a piece; their chickens at three or four s.h.i.+llings the dozen; their ducks at eight pence, or nine pence a piece; their geese at ten pence or a s.h.i.+lling; their turkey hens at fifteen or eighteen pence; and their turkey c.o.c.ks at two s.h.i.+llings or half a crown.

But oysters and wild fowl are not so dear, as the things I have reckoned before, being in their season the cheapest victuals they have. Their deer are commonly sold from five to ten s.h.i.+llings, according to the scarcity and goodness.

-- 72. The bread in gentlemen's houses is generally made of wheat, but some rather choose the pone, which is the bread made of Indian meal.

Many of the poorer sort of people so little regard the English grain, that though they might have it with the least trouble in the world, yet they don't mind to sow the ground, because they won't be at the trouble of making a fence particularly for it. And, therefore, their constant bread is pone, not so called from the Latin panis, but from the Indian name oppone.

-- 73. A kitchen garden don't thrive better or faster in any part of the universe than there. They have all the culinary plants that grow in England, and in greater perfection than in England. Besides these, they have several roots, herbs, vine fruits, and salad flowers peculiar to themselves, most of which will neither increase nor grow to perfection in England. These they dish up various ways, and find them very delicious sauce to their meats, both roast and boiled, fresh and salt; such are the Indian cresses, red buds, sa.s.safras flowers, cymlings, melons and potatoes, whereof I have spoken at large in the 4th chapter of the second book, section 20.

It is said of New England, that several plants will not grow there, which thrive well in England; such as rue, southernwood, rosemary, bays and lavender; and that others degenerate, and will not continue above a year or two at the most; such are July flowers, fennel, enula campana, clary and bloodwort. But I don't know any English plant, grain or fruit, that miscarries in Virginia: but most of them better their kinds very much by being sowed or planted there. It was formerly said of the red top turnip, that there, in three or four, years time, it degenerated into rape; but that happened merely by an error in saving the seed; for now it appears that if they cut off the top of such a turnip, that has been kept out of the ground all the winter, and plant that top alone without the body of the root, it yields a seed which mends the turnip in the next sowing.

-- 74. Their small drink is either wine and water, beer, milk and water, or water alone. Their richer sort generally brew their small beer with malt, which they have from England, though barley grows there very well; but for want of the convenience of malthouses, the inhabitants take no care to sow it. The poorer sort brew their beer with mola.s.ses and bran; with Indian corn malted by drying in a stove; with persimmons dried in cakes, and baked; with potatoes; with the green stalks of Indian corn cut small, and bruised; with pompions, and with the batates canadensis, or Jerusalem artichoke, which some people plant purposely for that use; but this is the least esteemed of all the sorts before mentioned.

Their strong drink is Madeira wine, cider, mobby punch, made either of rum from the Caribbee islands, or brandy distilled from their apples and peaches; besides brandy, wine, and strong beer, which they have constantly from England.

-- 75. Their fuel is altogether wood, which every man burns at pleasure, it being no other charge to him than the cutting and carrying it home.

In all new grounds it is such an inc.u.mbrance, that they are forced to burn great heaps of it to rid the land. They have very good pit coal (as is formerly mentioned) in several places of the country; but no man has yet thought it worth his while to make use of them, having wood in plenty, and lying more convenient for him.

CHAPTER XVIII.

OF THE CLOTHING IN VIRGINIA.

-- 76. They have their clothing of all sorts from England; as linen, woollen, silk, hats and leather. Yet flax and hemp grow no where in the world better than there. Their sheep yield good increase, and bear good fleeces; but they shear them only to cool them. The mulberry tree, whose leaf is the proper food of the silk worm, grows there like a weed, and silk worms have been observed to thrive extremely, and without any hazard. The very furs that their hats are made of perhaps go first from thence; and most of their hides lie and rot, or are made use of only for covering dry goods in a leaky house. Indeed, some few hides with much ado are tanned and made into servants' shoes, but at so careless a rate, that the planters don't care to buy them if they can get others; and sometimes perhaps a better manager than ordinary will vouchsafe to make a pair of breeches of a deerskin. Nay, they are such abominable ill husbands, that though their country be overrun with wood, yet they have all their wooden ware from England; their cabinets, chairs, tables, stools, chests, boxes, cart wheels, and all other things, even so much as their bowls and birchen brooms, to the eternal reproach of their laziness.

CHAPTER XIX.

OF THE TEMPERATURE OF THE CLIMATE, AND THE INCONVENIENCIES ATTENDING IT.

-- 77. The natural temperature of the inhabited part of the country is hot and moist, though this moisture I take to be occasioned by the abundance of low grounds, marshes, creeks and rivers, which are everywhere among their lower settlements; but more backward in the woods, where they are now seating, and making new plantations, they have abundance of high and dry land, where there are only crystal streams of water, which flow gently from their springs in innumerable branches to moisten and enrich the adjacent lands, and where a fog is rarely seen.

-- 78. The country is in a very happy situation, between the extremes of heat and cold, but inclining rather to the first. Certainly it must be a happy climate, since it is very near of the same lat.i.tude with the land of promise. Besides, as the land of promise was full of rivers and branches of rivers, so is Virginia. As that was seated upon a great bay and sea, wherein were all the conveniencies for s.h.i.+pping and trade, so is Virginia. Had that fertility of soil? So has Virginia, equal to any land in the known world. In fine, if any one impartially considers all the advantages of this country, as nature made it, he must allow it to be as fine a place as any in the universe, but I confess I am ashamed to say any thing of its improvements, because I must at the same time reproach my countrymen with unpardonable sloth. If there be any excuse for them in this matter, 'tis the exceeding plenty of good things with which nature has blest them; for where G.o.d Almighty is so merciful as to give plenty and ease, people easily forget their duty.

All the countries in the world, seated in or near the lat.i.tude of Virginia, are esteemed the fruitfullest and pleasantest of all climates.

As for example, Canaan, Syria, Persia, great part of India, China and j.a.pan, the Morea, Spain, Portugal, and the coast of Barbary, none of which differ many degrees of lat.i.tude from Virginia. These are reckoned the gardens of the world, while Virginia is unjustly neglected by its own inhabitants, and abused by other people.

-- 79. That which makes this country most unfortunate, is, that it must submit to receive its character from the mouths not only of unfit, but very unequal judges; for all its reproaches happen after this manner.

Many of the merchants and others, that go thither from England, make no distinction between a cold and hot country; but wisely go sweltering about in their thick clothes all the summer, because forsooth they used to do so in their northern climate; and then unfairly complain of the heat of the country. They greedily surfeit with their delicious fruits, and are guilty of great intemperance therein, through the exceeding plenty thereof, and liberty given by the inhabitants; by which means they fall sick, and then unjustly complain of the unhealthiness of the country. In the next place, the sailors for want of towns there, were put to the hards.h.i.+p of rolling most of the tobacco, a mile or more, to the water side; this splinters their hands sometimes, and provokes them to curse the country. Such exercise and a bright sun made them hot, and then they imprudently fell to drinking cold water, or perhaps new cider, which, in its season they found in every planter's house; or else they greedily devour the green fruit, and unripe trash they met with, and so fell into fluxes, fevers, and the belly ache; and then, to spare their own indiscretion, they in their tarpaulin language, cry, G.o.d d----m the country. This is the true state of the case, as to the complaints of its being sickly; for, by the most impartial observation I can make, if people will be persuaded to be temperate, and take due care of themselves, I believe it is as healthy a country as any under heaven: but the extraordinary pleasantness of the weather, and plenty of the fruit, lead people into many temptations. The clearness and brightness of the sky, add new vigor to their spirits, and perfectly remove all splenetic and sullen thoughts. Here they enjoy all the benefits of a warm sun, and by their shady trees are protected from its inconvenience.

Here all their senses are entertained with an endless succession of native pleasures. Their eyes are ravished with the beauties of naked nature. Their ears are serenaded with the perpetual murmur of brooks, and the thorough-base which the wind plays, when it wantons through the trees; the merry birds too, join their pleasing notes to this rural comfort, especially the mock birds, who love society so well, that often when they see mankind, they will perch upon a twig very near them, and sing the sweetest wild airs in the world. But what is most remarkable in these melodious animals, if they see a man take notice of them, they will frequently fly at small distances, warbling out their notes from perch to perch, be it house or tree convenient, and sometimes too fly up, to light on the same again, and by their music make a man forget the fatigues of his mind. Men's taste is regaled with the most delicious fruits, which, without art, they have in great variety and perfection.

And then their smell is refreshed with an eternal fragrancy of flowers and sweets, with which nature perfumes and adorns the woods and branches almost the whole year round.

Have you pleasure in a garden? All things thrive in it most surprisingly; you can't walk by a bed of flowers, but besides the entertainment of their beauty, your eyes will be saluted with the charming colors and curiosity of the humming bird, which revels among the flowers, and licks off the dew and honey from their tender leaves, on which it only feeds. Its size is not half so large as an English wren, and its color is a glorious s.h.i.+ning mixture of scarlet, green and gold.

-- 80. On the other side, all the annoyances and inconveniences of the country may fairly be summed up, under these three heads, thunder, heat, and troublesome vermin.

I confess, in the hottest part of the summer, they have sometimes very loud and surprising thunder, but rarely any damage happens by it. On the contrary, it is of such advantage to the cooling and refining of the air, that it is oftener wished for than feared. But they have no earthquakes, which the Caribbee islands are so much troubled with.