West other Mountains prevented their sight and the exceeding Coldness prevented further Discovery and compelled them to a speedy return The same Gentleman at another time when he went to make what Discovery he could of the Countrey met with another sort of Indians who were Enemies to the Christians yet venturing amongst them and presenting them with some small Trifles of Glass and Metals found them very kind to him and would fain have obliged him to have setled amongst them by proposing a Match between him and their King's or some other Great Man's Daughter whom he should best fancy nor could he wave their Courtesie nor obtain leave to depart without a Promise of returning again within six Months And South-west from them he found a Nation differing in Government from all the other Indians that inhabit those Parts being rather Slaves than Subjects to their King who was a very grave Man and courteous to Strangers yet horrid barbarous in his Superstition that whilst this Gentleman was there he sent three Youths to kill as many young Women of their Enemies as they could meet withal to serve his Son who was then newly dead in the other World They were not long before they returned with Skins torn off the Head and Faces of several young Girls which they laid at the Feet of their King who received them as the most acceptable Presents CHARLES the Second by the Grace of God King of England Scotland France and Ireland Defender of the Faith c. Whereas by Our Letters Patents bearing date the Twenty Fourth Day of March in the Five and Twentieth Year of Our Reign We were graciously pleased to give unto our right Trusty and right Well-beloved Couzen and Counsellor Edward Earl of Clarendon Our High Chancellour of England Our right Trusty right entirely Beloved Couzen Counsellour George Duke of Albemarl Master of Our Horse Our right Trusty and Well-beloved William now Earl of Craven Our right Trusty and Well-beloved Councellour Anthony Lord Chancellour of our Exchequer Our right Trusty and Well-beloved Counsellour Sir George Carteret Knight and Baronet Vice-Chamberlain of Our Houshold Our right Trusty and Well-beloved Sir John Colleton Knight and Barronet and Sir William Berkley Knight all that Territory Province or Tract of Ground called Carolina situate lying and being within our Dominions of America extending from the North end of that Island called Luke-Island which lyeth in the Southern Virginia Seas within six and thirty deg of Northern Latitude and to the West as far as the River of St. Matthias which Bordereth upon the Coast of Florida and within one and thirty deg of Southern Latitude and so West in a direct Line as far as the South Seas aforesaid Now know ye that We at the humble Request of the said Grantees in the aforesaid Letters Patents named and as a farther mark of Our particular Favour towards them We are graciously pleased to enlarge Our said Grant unto them according to the Bounds and Limits hereafter specified and in Favour to the Pious and Noble purpose of the said Edward Earl of Clarendon c. of Our especial Grace certain Knowledge and meer Motion have Given Granted and Confirmed and by this Our present Charter for Us Our Heirs and Successors do Give Grant and Confirm unto the said Edward Earl of Clarendon c. their Heirs and Assigns at that Province Territories or Tract of Land situate lying and being within Our Dominions of America aforesaid extending North and Eastward as far as the North end of Carah-Tuck River or Inlett upon a straight Westerly Line to Wianoacke Creek which lyeth within or about thirty six deg thirty min. of Northern Latitude and so West in a direct Line as far as the South-Seas and South and Westward as far as thirty nine deg inclusive Northern Latitude and so West in a direct Line as far as the South Seas together with all and singular Ports Harbours Bays Rivers and Islets belonging unto the Province and Territory aforesaid and also all the Soil Lands Fields Woods Mountains Fenns Lakes Rivers Bays Islets situated or being within the Bounds or Limits last before mentioned with the Fishing of all sorts of Fish Whales Sturgeons and all the Royal Fishes in the Seas Bays Islets and Rivers within the Premises and the Fish therein taken together the Royalty of the Sea upon the Coast within the Limits aforesaid And moreover all Veins Mines and Quarries as well discovered as not discovered of Gold Silver Gems and Precious Stones and all other whatsoever be it of Stones Marble or any other thing whatsoever found or to be found within the Province Territory Isles and Limits aforesaid And furthermore the Patronage and Advowsons of all the Churches and Chappels which as Christian Religion shall encrease within the Province Territory Isles Islets and Limits aforesaid shall happen hereaf-to be Erected together with Licence and Power to Build and Found Churches and Chappels and Oratories in convenient and fit places within the said Bounds and Limits and to cause them to be dedicated and consecrated according to the Ecclesiastical Laws of our Kingdom of England together with all and singular the like and as ample right Jurisdictions Priviledges Prerogatives Royalties Liberties Immunities and Franchises of what kind soever within the Territories Isles Islets and Limits aforesaid to have Use Exercise and enjoy the same as amply and fully and in as ample manner as any Bishop of Durham in our Kingdom of England ever heretofore had held used or enjoyed or of right ought or could have use or enjoy and them the said Edward Earl of Clarendon c. their Heirs and Assigns we do by these Presents for Us Our Heirs and Successors make create and constitute the true and absolute Lords and Proprietors of the said Province or Territory and of all other the Premisses saving always the Faith Allegiance and Sovereign Dominions due to Us Our Heirs and Successors for the same to have hold possess and enjoy the said Province Territories Isles Islets and all and singular of them the Premisses unto them the said Edward Earl of Clarendon c. their Heirs and Assigns for ever to be holden of Us Our Heirs and Successors as of our Manor of Eastgreen within Our County of Kent in free and common Soccage and not in Capite nor by by Knight-Service yielding and paying a parly to Us Our Heirs and Successors for the same a fourth part of all Gold and Silver Oâ—r which within the Limits hereby granted shall from time to time happen to be found over and beside the yearly Rent of twenty Marks and the fourth part of the Gold and Silver Oar in and by the said recited Letter Patents reserved and payable And that the Province or Territory hereby granted and described may be dignified with as large Titles and Priviledges as any other Part of our Dominions and Territories in that Region Know ye that We of our further Grace certain Knowledge and meer
Carts they are very delicate Fruit and hang almost like our Onions tied upon Ropes They receive forty Bushels of good English Wheat for one Bushel sown Cherries they have in abundance and Fowl and Fish great plenty with several that are unknown in England There are likewise Bears Wolves Foxes Rattle-Snakes and several other Creatures as I imagin saith my Author because the Indians bring such Skins to sell but I have travelled several hundred of Miles to and fro yet never to my knowledge saw one of them except two Rattle-Snakes and killed them both so that the fear of them is more than the hurt neither are we troubled with the Muskâ—to-fly in this place our Land lying generally high and healthy and they being commonly in boggy ground With common and reasonable care there may in a few years be Horses Beef Pork Flour Bisket and Pease to spare yea this Country will produce Honey Wax Silk Hemp Flax Hops Woad Rapeseed Madder Pota-shes Anniseed and Salt Hides raw or tann'd and there is a very large vast Creature called a Moose of whose Skins are made excellent Buff besides the natural product of Pitch Tar Rozin Turpentine c. As for Furs they are Beaver black Fox and Otter with divers other sorts The Tobacco is excellent upon the River Delaware There may be very good fishing for Cod and Cush as several have found by experience who have caught great plenty of well-grown Fish Upon the whole matter this Province affords all that is either for the Necessity Conveniency Profit or Pleasure of Humane Life and it may therefore be reasonably expected that this Country with the rest of America may in a few Ages be throughly peopled with Christianity And this shall suffice for New Jersey A DESCRIPTION OF PENSYLVANIA IT is the Jus Gentium or Law of Nations that whatever waste or uncultivated Country is the discovery of any Prince it is the Right of that Prince who was at the charge of that discovery Now this Province is a Member of that part of America which the King of England's Ancestors have been at the charge of discovering and which they and he have taken care to preserve and improve and his late Majesty of happy Memory upon the Petition of William Penn Esq wherein he set forth his Father's Service his own Sufferings and his Losses in relation to his Father's Estate and lastly his long and costly attendance without success was pleased in right and consideration thereof to make a grant to the said William Pen of all that Tract of Land in America which is expressed in the following Declaration to the Inhabitants and Planters of the Province of Pensylvania CHARLES R. WHereas His Majesty in Consideration of the Great Merit and Faithful Services of Sir William Penn deceased and for divers other good Causes Him thereunto moving hath been graciously pleased by Letters Patents bearing Date the Fourth Day of March last past To give and grant unto William Penn Esq Son and Heir of the said Sir William Penn all that Tract of Land called by the Name of Pensylvania as the same is bounded on the East by Delaware River from Twelve Miles distance Northward of New-Castle Town unto the three and fortieth Degree of Northern Latitude if the said River doth extend so far Northward then by the said River so far as it doth extend And from the Head of the said River the Eastern bounds to be determined by a Meridian-Line to be drawn from the head of the said River unto the said three and fortieth Degree the said Province to extend Westward five Degrees in Longitude to be computed from the said Eastern bounds and to be bounded on the North by the beginning of the three and fortieth Degree of Northern Latitude and on the South by a Circle drawn at Twelve Miles distance from New-Castle Northwards and Westwards unto the beginning of the fortieth Degree of Northern Latitude and then by a strait Line Westward to the Limit of Longitude above-mentioned together with all Powers Preheminences Iurisdictions necessary for the Government of the said Province as by the said Letters Patents reference being thereunto had doth more at large appear His Majesty doth therefore hereby publish and declare His Royal Will and Pleasure That all Persons settled or inhabited within the Limits of the said Province do yield all due Obedience to the said William Penn his Heirs and Assigns as Absolute Proprietors and Governors thereof As also to the Deputy or Deputies Agents or Lieutenants lawfully Commissioned by him or them according to the Powers and Authorities granted by the said Letters Patents Wherewith His Majesty Expects and Requires a ready Compliance from all Persons whom it may concern as they tender His Majesties Displeasure Given at our Court at White-hall the Second Day of April 1681. in the Three and thirtieth Year of Our Reign By His Majesties Command CONWAY The Description of the Province cannot better be given by any than by William Penn himself who sent the following Account from off the place in a Letter dated from Philadelphia Aug. 16. 1683. For this Province the general Condition of it take as followeth THE Country itself in its Soil Air Water Seasons and Product both Natural and Artificial is not to be despised The Land contains divers sorts of Earth as Sand yellow and black It s Soil poor and rich Also Gravel both loomy and dusty and in some places a fast fat Earth like to our best Vales in England especially by Inland-Brooks and Rivers God in his wisdom hath ordered it so that the Advantages of the Country are divided the Back-Lands being generally three to one richer than those that lye by Navigable Waters we have much of another Soil and that is a black Hasle-Mould upon a stony or rocky bottom The Air It s Air. is sweet and cleer the Heavens serene like the South-Parts of France rarely over-cast and as the Woods come by numbers of people to be more cleared that itself will refine The Waters Its Waters are generally good for the Rivers and Brooks have mostly gravel and stony bottoms and in number hardly credible We have also Mineral Waters that operate in the same manner with Barnet and North-hall not two Miles from Philadelphia For the Seasons of the Year having It s Climate by God's goodness now lived over the coldest and hottest that the oldest liver in the Province can remember I can say something to an English understanding First Of the Fall for then I came in I found it from the 24th of October to the beginning of December as we have it usually in September or rather like an English mild Spring From December to the beginning of the Month called March we had sharp frosty weather not foul thick black weather as our North-East Winds bring with them in England but a Sky as clear as in Summer and the Air dry cold piercing and hungry yet I remember not that I wore
thousand and five hundred Pounds sterling for Ten Months Moreover this Ship of Three hundred Tun seldom carries less than Forty Pieces of Ordnance which with their Provisions c. by modest computation takes up no less room than One hundred and fifty Tun so that the Ship in all probability cannot bring home more than One hundred and fifty Tun of Merchants Goods and the Freight of these Goods comes to Forty Pounds sterling a Tun to pay Ware and Tare of the Ship and Mens Wages so that for the Ship 's Ware and Tare it comes barely but to One hundred and fifty Pounds sterling clear Now admit an English Ship of Three hundred Tun be bound for Jamaica and suppose the Freight of this Ship be at Six Pounds sterling per Tun this Ship shall make her Voyage better in Eight Months time than the Spaniard shall in Ten Months now the Freight of the English Ship comes to One thousand eight hundred Pounds sterling and the Wages and Victuals of the said Ship at Sixty Pounds per Month comes to Four hundred and eighty Pounds sterling so that you see the Ship clears for her Ware and Tare the sum of One thousand three hundred and twenty Pounds sterling See here therefore the great difference The fourth and last reason is this The King of Spain contracts with a body of Merchants to furnish the West-Indies with Four thousand Negroes every Year and the Nigrilloes or Merchants there engage to pay the King one hundred Pieces of Eight Custom for each Negro-slave brought unto them which comes to Four hundred thousand Pieces of Eight by the Year which is paid to the said King the King therefore prohibits all Merchants and others for bringing Negroes to the West-Indies and each Piece of Eight is valued at Five Shillings sterling in Barbadoes but in the Leeward Islands it goes for six The Proposals lately made by Captain John Poyntz for Himself and Company to all such People as are minded to Transport or Concern themselves in the Island of Tobago WHereas his late Majesty Charles the Second King of Great Britain hath given and granted unto James Duke of Courland his Heirs and Successours the said Island of Tobago on condition that none shall inhabit the said Island save only the Subject of the King of England and the Duke of Courland their Heirs and Successours on the said condition I have contracted with the said Duke that my self and Company settle One hundred and twenty thousand Acres of Land in the said Island and to have several great and large Priviledges some of which are here inserted viz. Imprimis That one hundred and twenty thousand Acres of Land in the said Island of Tobago is given and granted to my self and Company and our Heirs for ever and seven Years to be free from the payment of any Rent and after the expiration of seven Years each for himself is to pay Two-pence per Acre every Year to the Duke his lawful Heirs and Successours Secondly That my self and Company and all the Inhabitantâ— shall enjoy Liberty of Conscience without interruption Roman-Catholicks only excepted Thirdly That my self and Company c. are to be governed by a Governour Deputy-Governour and Assembly to be yearly chosen by the majority of Freeholders Votes of the People in the Island to make good and wholsom Laws for the good Government and Defence of the said Island and all Controversies in the Promises to be decided by the majority of Voices Note These are but Breviates and part of the Heads of the Grant from the Duke of Courland and ratified to my self and Company whereby we hold and enjoy our Land for that end I do refer all People to the Grant as more at large as also them that have been on the skirt or body of the said Island to confirm the truth of what is before spoken of the Products of the said Island Proposals for further Encouragement First THose that are desirous to concern themselves in the said Island shall and may have as much Land as they themselves please either by Lease or Purchase only they are to put upon every Fifteen Acres of Land one White Man and so in proportion to the rest and this to be done in three Years time Secondly All Persons that are desirous to transport themselves to the said Island in the quality of Servants shall have better Encouragement from my self and Company than has been yet propounded by any of his Majesties Subjects in any Settlement in the American Plantations Thirdly And for a further encouragement all those Persons and Planters that are any way concerned in the Premises shall have Credit given unto them from Crop to Crop as the Factory is stored for what they shll stand in need of for which the said Company will erect a Bank or Factory of Credit in the said Island the Debtor allowing only two and a half per Cent. Fourthly All Merchants and others that shall import any Negroes or other Merchandize into the said Island shall have their Goods and Debts insured and disposed of for two and a half per Cent. with Factoâ—age Storage Wharfage c. and exported again for two and a half per Cent. more And all Tradesmen and others that contract any Debts against themselves shall have Credit given them out of the Bank or Factory from Crop to Crop for two and a half per Cent. And the Proprietors to engage their whole Interest for the true performance of the foresaid Premises Fifthly All Merchants and others that have Goods fit to accommodate the said Island and have not ready Money to purchase Land nor to pay for their own or servants Passage such may Barter with Goods in lieu of Money Always this implies only such Persons as Contract with the Proprietors or some of them before the first Shipping departs out of the River of Thames to Ship off as above their proportion of Goods or People as is already sufficiently above expressed FINIS ASTRONOMICAL TABLES SHEWING The Rising and Setting of the Sun with the Length of the Days and Nights in all the Principal English Plantations in the West-Indies ALSO Tables of the New and Full Moons in every Month from the Year 1686 to 1700 in the Meridian of London and from thence referred to the Meridians of the Principal Plantations abovesaid The which Tables will serve as a constant Diary or Calendar for the Use of the English Inhabitants in those Ilands ALSO A Table by which at any Time of the Day or Night here in England you may know what Hoar it is in any of those Islands AND How to make Sun-Dials fitting for all those Remote Parts A Table shewing the Prime or Golden Number the Dominical or Sunday Letter and the Moveable Feasts from the Year 1686 to the Year 1700. Years of our Lord. Pr. or Go. Nu. Dom. or Sun Let. Shrove Sunday Easter Day Ascension Day Whit-Sunday Advent Sunday 1686 15 C Feb. 14 Apr. 4 May 13 May