a sort of Ceder-trees Trees which differ from all other in the World in several respects the Wood whereof is very sweet and well sented The English who settled themselves upon this Isle in the Year 1612 are the only Proprietors Proprietors thereof having now established a powerful Colony there wherein are about five thousand Inhabitants The Island is exceeding strong and defended as it were with a kind of natural Fortification being so fenced about with Rocks that without knowledge of the Passages a Boat of ten Tun cannot be brought into the Haven although by the assistance of a skilful Pilot there is entrance for Ships of the greatest burden And besides the natural strength of those Islands the English have since their settling there added such artificial helps and so strongly fortified the approaches by Block-houses and Forts as renders it impregnable In the Year 1616 which is four Years after the first settling there Captain Tucker is sent over with a new Supply whereupon they applied themselves the more earnestly to the planting of Corn Tobacco and other Commodities so that in about three Years those Isles began to gain so much repute in England that the improving them became a publick business many great Lords and Persons of Quality interesting themselves therein as Adventurers whereupon Captain Buttler was dispatched thither with a new Supply of 500 Men about which time the Isle was divided into Tribes or Counties and the whole reduced to a settled Government both in Church and State after which things succeeded so well that it has been ever since growing to greater perfection A DESCRIPTION OF CAROLINA CAROLINA so called from his late Majesty King Charles the Second of eternal Memory is a new Colony not long since settled by the English in that part of Florida adjoyning to Virginia which makes its Northern bounds in the Latitude of thirty six Degrees Situation and extends its self to the Latitude of 29 Degrees which terminates its extream Southern bounds It is on the East washed with the Atlantick Ocean and is bounced on the West by Mare Pacificum of the South-Sea A New Map of CAROLINA By Robt. Morden This Province of Carolina saith he was in the Year 1663. granted by Letters Patents from his late Majesty in propriety to Edward Earl of Clarendon George Duke of Albemarl William Earl of Craven John Lord Berkley Anthony Lord Ashly since Earl of Shaftsbury Sir George Carteret and Sir John Coleton Knights and Baronets and Sir William Berkley Knight By which Letters Patents the Laws of England are always to be in force in Carolina only the Lords Proprietors have power with the consent of the Inhabitants to make such By-laws as may be thought necessary for the better government of the Province So that no Money can be raised or Law made without the consent of the Inhabitants or their Representatives They are likewise thereby indued with a right to appoint and impower Governours and other Magistrates to grant Liberty of Conscience make Constitutions with many other great Priviledges c. as will sufficiently appear by the Letters Patents And the said Lords Proprietors have there settled a Constitution of Government whereby is granted Liberty of Conscience and wherein all possible care is taken for the equal administration of Justice and for the lasting security of the Inhabitants both in their Bodies and Estates And by their Care and Endeavours and at their very great charge two Colonies are likewise settled in that Province one at Albemarl in the most Notherly part and the other at Ashly-River which is in the Latitude of thirty two Degrees and some odd Minutes Albemarl Albemarl which borders upon Virginia only exceeds it in Health Fertility and Mildness of Winter being in the Growths Productions and other things much of the same nature with it and therefore I shall not trouble my self nor the Reader with a particular Description of that part but apply my self principally to discourse of the Colony settled at Ashly-River This Colony was first settled in the Month of April 1670. by the Lords Proprietors who did at their sole charge furnish out three Ships with a considerable number of able Men and eighteen Months Provision together with Cloth Tools Ammunition and whatsoever else was thought necessary for this new Settlement and continued for several years after to supply the place with all things necessary until the Inhabitants were by their own industry able to live of themselves in which condition they have now been for divers years past and are arrived to a very great degree of plenty so that most sorts of Provisions are cheaper there than in any other of the English Colonies Ashly-River Ashly-River about seven Miles from the Sea divides itself into two branches the Southermost still retains the name of Ashly but the North branch is called Cooper-River Upon the Point of Land which divides those two Rivers the Proprietors in the Year 1680. ordered the Port-Town that should serve for them both to be built calling it Charles-Town which is since considerably advanced to the number of near two hundred Houses more being daily raising by persons of all sorts that repair thither from the more Northern English Colonies in the Sugar-Islands besides those that go from England and Ireland many persons who likewise went thither Servants having since their times were out gotten good stocks of Cattel and Servants of their own built themselves Houses and exercise their Trades Many that went thither in that condition being now worth several hundred Pounds living in a very plentiful condition and continually adding to and increasing their Estates so that Land is already become of that value near the Town that it is sold for twenty Shillings per Acre though pillaged of all its valuable Timber and not cleared of the rest And the Land that is cleared and fitted for planting and fenced is let for ten Shillings per Annum the Acre though twenty Miles distance from the Town and six Men will in six Weeks time fell clear fence in and fit it for planting At this Town as soon as its Foundations were well laid there Rode at one time sixteen Sail of Ships some whereof carried above two hundred Tun that came from divers Parts of the King's Dominions to traffick there which great concourse of Shipping will undoubtedly make it a considerable Town of Trade It 's a Country blessed with a temperate and wholsom Air Temperature neither the heat in Summer nor the cold in Winter being the least troublesom or offensive the latter being so exceeding moderate that it doth not so much as check the growth and flourishing of the Trees and Plants which is occasioned either by reason of its having the great Body of the Continent to the Westward of it and by consequence the North-West Wind which always blows contrary to the Sun and is the freezing Wind as the North-East is with us in Europe or else from the
several of which being capable to harbour five hundred Sail of Ships from the rage of the Sea and Winds by reason of the interposition of several Isles to the number of about 200 which lie about this Coast The Account of the Worship and Ceremonies of the Indians hath been much perfected by the Industry and Voyages of Capt. Gosnold Capt. Hudson Capt. Smith and others the last of which gives a very large Account this Captain being taken Prisoner by the Natives and while he stayed among them observed their Magical Rites three or four days after his being seized seven of their Priests in the House where he lay each with a Rattle making him sit down by them began about Ten in the Morning to sing about a fire which they encompassed with a Circle of Meal at the end of every Song which the Chief Priest begun the rest followed in order they laid down two or three Grains of Wheat then the Priest disguised with a great Skin his Head hung round with little Skins of Weasles and other Vermine and a Cornet of Feathers painted as ugly as the Devil at the end of every Song he used strange and vehement Gestures throwing great Cakes of Deer-Suet and Tobacco into the fire thus these howling Devotions continued till Six a Clock at Night and held so three days This they pretended was to know of their God whether any more English should arrive and what they intended to do in that Country They sed Capt. Smith so high that he much doubted they would have sacrificed him to their Chief Deity the Image of whom is so deformed that nothing can be more monstrous the Women likewise after he was freed and President of the Company made him a very odd Entertainment thirty of them came out of the Woods only covered before and behind with a few green Leaves their Bodies painted of different colours the Commander of these Nymphs had on her Head a large pair of Stag's Horns and a Quiver of Arrows at her Back with Bow and Arrows in her hand the rest followed with Horns and Weapons all alike they rushed through the Streets with hellish shouts and crys dancing about a fire which was there made for that purpose for an hour together then they solemnly invited him to their Lodging where he was no sooner come but they all surrounded him and crying Love you not me after which they feasted him with great variety cook'd after their mad fashion some singing and dancing all the while and at last lighted him home with a Firebrand instead of a Torch to his Lodgings And although this Country is seated in the midst of the Temperate Zone yet is the Clime more uncertain Temperature as to the heat and cold than those European Kingdoms which lie Parallel with it and as to Virginia this may be compared as Scotland is to England The Air The Air. is found very healthful and agreeable to the English which makes them possess many Potent Colonies being very numerous and powerful When they design to make War they first consult with their Priests and Conjurers no People being so Barbarous almost but they have their Gods Their Religion Priests and Religion they adore as it were all things that they think may unavoidably hurt them as Fire Water Lightning Thunder our Great Guns Muskets and Horses yea some of them once seeing an English Boar were struck with some terror because he bristled up his Hairs and gnashed his Teeth believing him to be the God of the Swine who was offended with them The chief God they Worship is the Devil which they call Okee they have conference with him and fashion themselves into his shape In their Temple they have his Image ill-favouredly Carved Painted and Adorned with Chains Copper and Beads and covered with a Skin The Sepulchre of their Kings is commonly near them whose Bodies are first Imbowelled dried on a Hurdle adorned with Chains and Beads and then wrapped in white Skins over which are Matts they are afterwards Intombed orderly in Arches made of Matts their Wealth being placed at their feet But for their common Burials they dig a hole in the Earth with sharp Stakes and the Corps being wrapped in Skins and Matts they lay them in the Ground placing them upon sticks and then cover them with Earth the Burial ended the Women having their Faces painted black with Cole and Oyl sit Mourning in the House twenty four hours together howling and yelling by turns The Natives are cloathed with loose Mantles made of Deers Skins and Aprons of the same round their Middle Their Cloathing all else being naked of Stature like to us in England They Paint themselves and their Children and he is most Gallant who is most deformed The Women Imbroider their Legs Hands and other Parts with several Works as of Serpents and the like making black spots in their Flesh Their Houses are made of small Poles round and fastened at the top in a circle like our Arbours covered with Matts twice as long as broad they are exact Archers and with their Arrows will kill Birds flying or Beasts running full speed One of our Men was with an Arrow shot through the Body and both the Arms at once Another Indian shot an Arrow of an Ell long through a Target that a Pistol Ballet could not pierce their Bows are of tough Hazle and their Strings of Leather their Arrows of Cane or Hazle headed with Stones or Horn and Feathered Artificially They soon grow heartless if they find their Arrows do no execution They say there is Men among them of above two hundred years of Age. Though the Planting of this Country was designed by several of the English yet it lay much neglected 'till a small company of Planters under the Command of Captain George Popham and Captain Gilbert was sent over at the charge of Sir John Popham in 1606. to begin a Colony upon a Tract of Land about Saga de hoch the most Northernly part of new-New-England but that design within two years expired with its Founder Soon after some Honourable Persons of the West of England commonly called the Council of Plymouth being more certainly informed of several Navigable Rivers and Commodious Havens with other places sit either for Planting or Traffick newly discovered by many skilful Navigators obtained of King James the First a Patent under the Great Seal of all that part of North America called New-England from forty to forty eight Degrees of North Latitude This vast Tract of Land was in 1612. Cantoned and divided by Grant into many lesser Parcels according as Adventurers presented which Grants being founded upon uncertain and false Descriptions and reports of some that Travelled thither did much interfere one with another to the great disturbance of the first Planters so that little profit was reaped from thence Nor was any greater Improvement made of those Grand Portions of Land saving the erecting some few Cottages for Fishermen
write or speak Philadelphia the Third of the Sixth Month August 1685. Governour HAving an opportunity by a Ship from this River out of which several have gone this year I thought fit to give a short account of Proceedings as to Settlement here and the Improvement both in Town and Countrey As to the Countrey the Improvements are large and Settlements very much thronged by way of Township and Villages great inclination to planting Orchards which are easily raised and some brought to perfection much Hay-seed sown and much planting of Corn this year and great product said to be both of Wheat Rye and Rice Barly and Oats prove very well besides Indian Corn and Pease of several sorts also Kidney-Beans and English Pease of several kinds I have had in my own Ground with English Roots Turnips Parsnips Carrots Onions Leeks Radishes and Cabbages with abundance of Herbs and Flowers I know but of few Seeds that have miss'd except Rosemary Seed which being English might be old Also I have such plenty of Pumkins Musk-Melons Water Melons Squashes Coshaws Bucks-hens Cucumbers and Simnels of divers sorts admired at by new comers that the Earth should so plentifully cast forth especially the first years breaking up and on that which is counted the worst sort of Sandy Land I am satisfied and many more that the Earth is very fertil and the Lord hath done his part if man use but a moderate diligence Grapes Mulberries and many wild Fruits and natural Plums in abundance this year have I seen and eat of A brave Orchard and Nursery have I planted and they thrive mightily and bear Fruit the first year I endeavour to get choice of Fruits and Seeds from many parts also Hay-Seed and have sowed a Field this Spring for Trial. First I burned the Leaves then had it grubb'd not the Fields but the small Roots up then sow'd great and small Clovers with a little old Grass-Seed and had it only raked over not plowed nor harrowed and it grows exceedingly Also for Experience I sowed some Patches of the same sort in my Garden and dunged some and that grows worst I have planted the Irish Potatoes and hope to have a brave encrease to transplant next year Captain Rapel the Frenchman saith he made good Wine of the Grapes of the Country last year and transplanted some but intends to make more this year also a Frenchman in this Town intends the same for Grapes are very plentiful Now as to the Town of Philadelphia it goes on in Planting and Building to admiration both in the Front and backward and there are about 600 Houses in three years time and since I built my Brick-House the Foundation of which was laid at my going which I design after a good manner to encourage others and that from building with Wood it being the first many take example and some that built wooden Houses are sorry for it Brick Building is said to be as cheap Bricks are exceeding good and better than when I built more makers fallen in and Bricks cheaper they were before at 16 s. English per Thousand and now many brave Brick houses are going up with good Cellars Arthur Cook is building him a brave Brick House near William Frampton's on the Front for William Frampton hath since built a good Brick House by his Brew-house and Bake-house and lett the other for an Ordinary John Wheeler from new-New-England is building a good Brick House by the Blew Anchor and the two Brick-makers a double Brick House and Cellars besides several other going on Samuel Carpenter has built another House by his I am building another Brick House by mine which is three large Stories high besides a good large Brick Cellar under it of two Bricks and a half thickness in the Wall and the next Story half under ground the Cellar has an arched Door for a Vault to go under the Street to the River and so to bring in Goods or deliver out Humphrey Murry from New-York has built a large Timber-House with Brick Chimneys John Test has almost finished a good Brick House and a Bake-house of Timber and N. Allen a good House next to Thomas Wynn's Front-Lot John Day a good House after the London fashion most Brick with a large Frame of Wood in the Front for Shop-windows all these have Balconies Thomas Smith and Daniel Pâ—ge are Partners and set to making of Brick this year and they are very good Also Pastours the German Friend Agent for the Company at Frankford with his Dutch People are preparing to make Bricks next year Samuel Carpenter is our Lime-burner on his Wharf Brave Lime stone is found here as the Workmen say being proved We build most Houses with Balconies Lots are much desired in the Town great buying one of anothe We are now laying the Foundation of a large plain Brick House for a Meeting-House in the Center sixty foot long and about forty foot broad and hope to have it soon up there being many hearts and hands at work that will do it A large Meeting-house fifty foot long and thirty eight broad also going on the front of the River for an Evening-Meeting the Work going on apace many Towns-people setling their Liberty-Lands I hope the Society will rub off the Reproaches some have cast upon them We now begin to gather in something of our many great Debts I do understand three Companies for Whale-catching are designed to fish in the Rivers-mouth this Season and find through the great plenty of Fish they may begin early A Fisherman this year found a way to catch Whitings in this River and it is expected many sorts of Fish more than has been yet caught may be taken by the skilful Fish are in such plenty that many sorts on Tryal have been taken with Nets in the Winter-time The Swedes laughing at the English for going to try have since tried themselves The River is so big and full of several sorts of brave Fish that it s believed except frozen over we may catch any time in the Winter It is great pity but two or three experienced Fishermen were here to ply this River to salt and serve fresh Fish to the Town A good way to pickle Sturgeon is wanting such abundance being in the River even before the Town many are catcht boyled and eaten Last Winter great plenty of Deer were brought in by the Indiands and English from the Country We are generally very well and healthy here but abundance dead in Maryland this Summer The Manufacture of Linnen by the Germans goes on finely and they make fine Linnen Samuel Carpenter having been lately there declares They had gathered one Crop of Flax and had sown the second and saw it come up well and they say might have had forwarder and better had they had old Seed and not stayed so long for the growth of the new Seed to sow again I may believe it for large has my experience been this year though in a small piece of ground to
wholsom though the rigour of the Winter season and the excels of Heats in Summer doth detract something from it due praise The Island of New-found-land was first discovered by Sebastian Cabot The first Discoverer likewise Fabian gives an account that in the time of Henry the Seventh three men being taken in New-found-land were brought to the King And Robert Thorn writes that his Father and one Mr. Eliot were the Discoverers of the New-found-land in 1530. Mr. Hore sets out for a further Discovery but was brought to such extremity by Famine that many of his Company were killed and eaten by their fellows and those which returned were so altered that Sir William Butts a Norfolk Knight could not know his Son Thomas who was one of this starved number but only by a Wart that grew upon one of his knees After the first Discovery the business of Trading thither was laid aside for many years In the mean time the Normans Portugals and Brittains of France resorted to it and changed the Names which had been given by the English to the Bays and Promontories but the English would not so soon relinquish their Pretensions And therefore in 1583. Sir Humphrey Gilbert took Possession thereof in the Name and by the Commission of Queen Elizabeth forbidding all other Nations to use Fishing and intending to have setled an English Colony there but being wrack'd in his return the setling of the Colony was discontinued till 1608. and then undertook by John Guy a Merchant of Bristol who in twenty three days failed from thence to Conception Bay in New-found-land In 1611. they had scarce six days of Frost in October and November which presently thawed the rest of the Months being warmer and dryer than in England neither were the Brooks frozen up three nights together with Ice able to bear a Dog They had Filberds Fish Mackerel and Foxes in the Winter White Patridges in the Summer larger than ours who are much afraid of Ravens They kill a Wolf with a Mastiff and a Greyhound In 1612. they found some Houses of the Natives which were nothing but Poles set round and meeting on the top ten foot broad the fire in midst covered with Deer-skins The People are of a reasonable Stature Beardless Broad-faced their faces covered with Oker Some of them went naked only their Privities covered with a Skin They believe in one God who Created all things but have many whimsical Notions and ridiculous Opinions for they say That after God had made all things he took a number of Arrows and struck them in the Ground from whence Men and Women first sprung up and have multiplied ever since A Sagamore or Governour being asked concerning the Trinity answered There was only one God one Son one Mother and the Sun which were four yet God was above all Being questioned if they or their Ancestors had heard that God was come into the World he said That he had not seen him Some among them speak visibly to the Devil and he tells them what they must do as well in War as other matters One Samuel Chaplain in 1603. gives an acconnt of a Feast made by one of their Great Lords in his Cabbin eight or ten Kettles of Meat were set on several Fires some yards asunder The men sate on both sides the Room each of them having a Dish of the Bark of a Tree one of which was appointed to give every man his Portion Before the Meat was boyled one took his Dog and Danced about the Kettles and when he came before the Sagamore threw the Dog down and then another succeeded in the like Exercise After the Feast they Danced with the Heads of their Enemies in their hands singing all the while Their Canoes are of the Bark of Birch strengthned with little Wooden Hoops they have many Fires in their Cabbins ten Housholds sometimes live together lying upon Skins one by another and their Dogs with them which are like Foxes At another Feast the Men cause all the Women and Maids to sit in Ranks themselves standing behind Singing suddenly all the Women threw off all their Mantles of Skins and strip themselves stark naked being not at all ashamed their Songs ended they cryed with one Voice Ho Ho Ho and then covered themselves with their Mantles and after a while renewed their former Songs and Nakedness When a Maid is fourteen or fifteen years of Age she hath many Lovers and uses her Pleasure with as many of them as she pleases for five or six years and then takes whom she likes for a Husband providing he be a good Hunter living Chastly with him all her life after except for Barrenness he forsakes her When any dies they make a Pit and therein put all his Goods with the Corps covering it over with Earth Their Iurials and setting many pieces of Wood over it and a stake Painted red They believe the immortality of the Soul and that the Dead go into a far Country to make merry with their Friends If any fall sick they send to one Sagamon Memberton a great Conjurer who made Prayers to the Devil and blowed upon the Party and cutting him sucks the Blood if it be a Wound he heals it after the same manner applying a round slice of Beaver Stones for which they make him a Present of Venison or Skins If they desire News of things absent the Spirit answers doubtfully and sometimes false When the Savages are hungry they consult with this Oracle and he tells them the place where they shall go if they find no Game the excuse is the Beast hath wandered and changed his place but most times they speed which makes them to believe the Devil to be God though they do not Worship him When these Conjurers consult with the Devil they fix a staff in a Pit to which they tie a Cord and putting their Head into the Pit make Invocation in an unknown Language with so much stirring and pains that they sweat again when the Devil is come the Wizard persuades them he holds him fast with his Cord forcing him to answer before he lets him go Then he begins to sing something in praise of the Spirit who hath discovered where there are some Deer and the other Savages answer in the same Tune they then Dance and Sing in a strange Tongue After which they make a Fire and leap over it putting an half Pole-out of the top of the Cabbin wherein they are with something tied thereto which the Devil carrieth away Memberton wore about his neck the mark of his Profession which was a Triangle Purse with something within it like a Nut which he said was his Spirit This Office is Hereditary they teaching this Mystery of Iniquity to their Sons by Tradition In 1613. fifty four English-men six Women and two Children Wintered there they killed Bears Otters and Sables sowed Wheat Rye Turnips and Coleworts Their Winter was dry and clear with some Frost and Snow Several had the