squeezed out and then opened upon a cloath and dried in the Sun 't is ready to make bread And thus 't is done They have a piece of Iron which I guesse is cast round the diameter of which is about twenty inches a little hollowed in the middle not unlike the mould that the Spectacle makers grinde their glasses on but not so much concave as that about halfe an inch thick at the brim or verge but thicker towards the middle with three feet like a pot about six inches high that fire may be underneath To such a temper they heat this Pone as they call it as to bake but not burn When 't is made thus hot the Indians whom we trust to make it because they are best acquainted with it cast the meal upon the Pone the whole breadth of it and put it down with their hands and it will presently stick together And when they think that side almost enough with a thing like a Battle-dore they turn the other and so turn and re-turn it so often till it be enough which is presently done So they lay this Cake upon a flat board and make another and so another till they have made enough for the whole Family This bread they made when we came first there as thick as a pancake but after that they grew to a higher degree of curiosity and made it as thin as a wafer and yet purely white and crispe as a new made wafer Salt they never use in it which I wonder at for the bread being tastlesse of it selfe they should give it some little seasoning There is no way it eats so well as in milk and there it tasts like Almonds They offer to make Pie-crust but very few attain to the skill of that for as you work it up with your hand or roll it out with a roller it will alwaies crackle and chop so that it will not be raised to hold any liquor neither with nor without butter or eggs But after many tryalls and as often failings at last I learnt the secret of an Indian woman who shew'd me the right way of it and that was by searsing it very fine and it will fall out as fine as the finest wheat-flower in England if not finer Yet this is not all the secret for all this will not cure the cracking But this is the main skill of the businesse Set water on the fire in a skillet and put to it as much of this fine flower as will temper it to the thicknesse of starch or pap and let it boyl a little keeping it stirring with a slice and mix this with the masse of flower you mean to make into pye-crust which being very well mingled and wrought together you may add what cost you will of butter and eggs and it will rise and stand nere as well as our past in England But those that have not Cows cannot make butter upon the place but must make use of such as is brought from England or Holland were better leave it out be content to eat their pie-crust drie Yet I make a main difference between butter that is brought from either of those places in respect of the times it is brought For if a ship set out from England in November and that ship arive at the Barbadoes at the middle or neer the end of December when the Sun is at the farthest distance the butter may come thither in very good condition and being set in cool places may retain the taste for a while But if the ship set out in Spring or Summer that brings this butter it is not then to be endured it is so restie and loathsome Nor can Cheese be brought from thence without spoyle at that time of the year except you put it in oyle Neither are Candles to be brought for the whole barrell will stick together in one lump and stinck so profoundly as neither Rats nor mice will come neer them much lesse eat of them For which reason the Planters who are much troubled with this annoyance as also for that these candles cannot be taken out of the barrell whole nor will stand in the candlestick without drooping and hanging down they burn for the most part wax lights which they make themselves of wax they fetch from Africa and have it at a reasonable rate there being no Bees in the Barbadoes But I am too apt to flie out in extravagant digressions for the thing I went to speak of was bread only and the severall kinds of it and having said as much of the bread of Cassavie as I know I will give you one word of another kinde of bread they make which is a mixt sort of bread and is made of the flower of Mayes and Cassavie mixt together for the Maies it selfe will make no bread it is so extream heavy and lumpish But these two being mixt they make it into large Cakes two inches thick and that in my opinion tasts the likest to English bread of any But the Negres use the Mayes another way which is toasting the ears of it at the fire and so eating it warm off the eare And we have a way to feed our Christian servants with this Maies which is by pounding it in a large Morter and boyling it in water to the thicknesse of Frumentie and so put in a Tray such a quantity as wil serve a messe of seven or eight people give it them cold and scarce afford them salt with it This we call Lob-lollie But the Negres when they come to be fed with this are much discontented and crie out O! O! no more Lob-lob The third sort of bread we use is only Potatoes which are chosen out of the dryest and largest they can chose And at the time we first came there was little else used at many good Planters Tables in the Iland And these are all the sorts of bread that I know growing upon the place The next thing that comes in order is Drink which being made of severall materialls afford more variety in the description The first and that which is most used in the Iland is Mobbie a drink made of Potatoes and thus done Put the Potatoes into a tub of water and with a broom stir them up and down till they are washt clean then take them out and put them into a large iron or brasse pot such as you boyl beefe in in England and put to them as much water as will only cover a quarter part of them and cover the top of the pot with a piece of thick canvas doubled or such cloth as sacks are made with covering it close that the steam go not out Then make a little fire underneath so much only as will cause these roots to stew and when they are soft take them out and with your hands squeeze break and mash them very small in fair water letting them stay there till the water has drawn and suckt out all the spirit of the roots which
have come into every room in the house and by that means you shall feele the cool breese all the day in the evening when they slacken a coole shade from my North South building both which are great refreshings in hoâ— Countryes and according to this Modell I drew many plots of severall sises and Contrivances but they did not or would not understand them at last I grew wearie of casting stones against the wind and so gave over # It were somewhat difficult to give you an exact account of the number of persons upon the Iland there being such store of shipping that brings passengers dayly to the place but it has been conjectur'd by those that are long acquainted and best seen in the knowledge of the Iland that there are not lesse then 50 thousand soules besides Negroes and some of them who began upon small fortunes are now risen to very great and vast estates The Iland is divided into three sorts of men viz. Masters Servants and slaves The slaves and their posterity being subject to their Masters for ever are kept and preserv'd with greater care then the servants who are theirs but for five yeers according to the law of the Iland So that for the time the servants have the worser lives for they are put to very hard labour ill lodging and their dyet very sleight When we came first on the Iland some Planters themselves did not eate bone meat above twice a weeke the rest of the seven dayes Potatoes Loblolly and Bonavist But the servants no bone meat at all unlesse an Oxe dyed and then they were feasted as long as that lasted And till they had planted good store of Plantines the Negroes were fed with this kind of food but most of it Bonavist and Loblolly with some eares of Mayes toasted which food especially Loblolly gave them much discontent But when they had Plantines enough to serve them they were heard no more to complaine for 't is a food they take great delight in and their manner of dressing and eating it is this 't is gathered for them somewhat before it be ripe for so they desire to have it upon Saturday by the keeper of the Plantine grove who is an able Negro and knowes well the number of those that are to be fed with this fruite and as he gathers layes them all together till they fetch them away which is about five a clock in the after noon for that day they breake off worke sooner by an houre partly for this purpose and partly for that the fire in the furnaces is to be put out and the Ingenio and the roomes made cleane beside they are to wash shave and trim themselves against Sunday But 't is a lovely sight to see a hundred handsome Negroes men and women with every one a grasse-green bunch of these fruits on their heads every bunch twice as big as their heads all comming in a train one after another the black and green so well becomming one another Having brought this fruit home to their own houses and pilling off the skin of so much as they will use they boyl it in water making it into balls and so they eat it One bunch a week is a Negres allowance To this no bread nor drink but water Their lodging at night a board with nothing under nor any thing a top of them They are happy people whom so little contents Very good servants if they be not spoyled by the English But more of them hereafter As for the usage of the Servants it is much as the Master is mercifull or cruell Those that are mercifull treat their Servants well both in their meat drink and lodging and give them such work as is not unfit for Christians to do But if the Masters be cruell the Servants have very wearisome and miserable lives Upon the arrival of any ship that brings servants to the Iland the Planters go aboard and having bought such of them as they like send them with a guid to his Plantation and being come commands them instantly to make their Cabins which they not knowing how to do are to be advised by other or their servants that are their seniors but if they be churlish and will not shew them or if materialls be wanting to make them Cabins then they are to lie on the ground that night These Cabins are to be made of sticks wit hs and Plantine leaves under some little shade that may keep the rain off Their suppers being a few Potatoes for meat and water or Mobbie for drink The next day they are rung out with a Bell to work at six a clock in the morning with a severe Overseer to command them till the Bell ring again which is at eleven a clock and then they return and are set to dinner either with a messe of Lob-lollie Bonavist or Potatoes At one a clock they are rung out again to the field there to work till six and then home again to a supper of the same And if it chance to rain and wet them through they have no shift but must lie so all night If they put off their cloths the cold of the night will strike into them and if they be not strong men this ill lodging will put them into a sicknesse if they complain they are beaten by the Overseer if they resist their time is doubled I have seen an Overseer beat a Servant with a cane about the head till the blood has followed for a fault that is not worth the speaking of and yet he must have patience or worse will follow Truly I have seen such cruelty there done to Servants as I did not think one Christian could have done to another But as discreeter and better natur'd men have come to rule there the servants lives have been much bettered for now most of the servants lie in Hamocks and in warm rooms and when they come in wet have shift of shirts and drawers which is all the cloths they were and are fed with bone meat twice or thrice a week Collonell Wâ—lrond seeing his servants when they came home toyled with their labour and wet through with their sweating thought that shifting of their linnen not sufficient refreshing nor warmth for their bodies their pores being much opened by their sweating and therefore resolved to send into England for rug-Gownes such as poor people wear in Hospitalls that so when they had shifted themselves they might put on those Gowns and lie down and rest them in their Hamocks For the Hamocks being but thin and they having nothing on but shirts and drawers when they awak'd out of their sleeps they found themselves very cold and a cold taken there is harder to be recovered than in England by how much the body is infeebled by the great toyle and the Sun's heat which cannot but very much exhaust the spirits of bodies unaccustomed to it But this care and charity of Collonell Walrond's lost him nothing in the
bigger then a large Pomegranate and yet his faculties are such as may draw more eyes to look on him and more mindes to consider him then the Vast Whale for though it be true that his large body appearing above the surface of the water being in calmes a smooth leavell superficies and suddenly appearing is one of the strangest and most monstrous sights that can be in nature and the more admirable when he is incounted by his two mortall enemies the Sword and Theshal fishes For to shake them off he leapes more then his owne length above water and in his fall beats the sea with such violence as the froth and foame is seen a quarter of an houre after White as when t is beaten by a strong West wind against a Rock and at other times spouts out the water in great quantities the height of an ordinary Steeple Yet this great master-piece of Nature is not in my opinion so full of wonder nor doth raise the consideration to such a height as this little fish the â—arvill who can when he pleases enjoy himselfe with his neighbour fishes under water And when he putts on a resolution to trie his fortune in another Element the Ayer he riseth to the top of the sea let the billow go never so high and there without the help of a sayâ—er Raises up his maine Mast spreads his sayles which he makes of his own sinewes fits his Rudder and Ballast and begins his voyage But to what Coast he is bound or what trafique he intends himselfe and He that made him onely can tell Fishes there are none to prey on nor flies and therefore t is not for food he travailes I have seen them 500 leagues from any land if his voyage be to any Port he must have a long time and much patience to get thither if to sea hee 's there already in one thing he hath the advantage of any ship that ever sayled for he can go neerer the wind by a poynt then the most yare Friggot that ever was built Which shewes how farre Nature can exceed Art Another advantage he has that in the greatest Tempest he never feares drowning Compasse nor Card he needs not for he is never out of his way whether then his voyage be for pleasure or profit we are yet to seeke But before wee arive at our next Harbour St Jago one of the Iles of Cape Verd and now revolted from the King of Spayne to the Portugall Let me tell you one little observation I made of the Ships way which in slacke windes and darke nights wee saw nothing under water but darkenes but in stiffe windes and strong gayles wee saw perfectly the keele of the Ship and fishes playing underneath as lighted by a torch and yet the nights of equall darkenes Which put me in mind of a poynt of Philosophy I had heard discourst of among the Learned That in the Ayer Rough hard bodies meeting with one another by violent stroakes Rarifie the Ayer so as to make fire So here the ship being of a hard substance and in a violent motion meeting with the strong resistance of the waves who though they bee not hard yet they are rough by reason of their saltnes doe cause a light though no fire and I may guesse that that light would bee fire were it not quencht by the sea in the instant it is made which in his owne Element hath the greater power and predominancie But before wee came to St Jago wee were to have visited a small Iland called Soll by the intreatie of a Portugall wee carried with us whose name was Bernardo Mendes de Sousa who pretended to have a great part of the Iland if not the whole to bee his owne but for that it lay somewhat out of our waye and wee could not recover it by reason the winde was Crosse and partly for that wee were enformed by some of the Saylers who told us it was uninhabited by any but Goats Dogs and the like and wee guest hee would out of a vaine glorie shew us something that he Call'd his But the Master who well knew the Condition of the place would not lose so much tyme to no purpose Which gave some discontentment to the Portugall which hee exprest in his Countenance by a sullen dogged looke till wee came to St Jago But that was but a whetstone to sharpen a worse humour hee was big with for though our Merchants redeem'd him out of prison in London intending him a Mayne director in the whole voyage whose Credulous eares hee highly abused by telling them That the Padre Vagado Chiefe Governour of St Jago was his brother and that by the power hee had with him to lay all trade open for Negroes Horses and Cattle which were there Contrabanded goods By which perswasion they gave him the power and Command of the ship and goods But hee intended nothing lesse then the performance of that trust but instead of it meant to make prey of both and of our Liberties and probably lives to boote if wee had not bin verie wary of him The first thing wee perceiv'd in him was a strange looke hee put on when wee came nere the Iland which caused us to suspect some great and bad designe hee was bent on for being Iolly and very good Companie all the voyage to change his Countenance when wee were nere the place where wee hop'd to enjoy our selves with happinesse and Contentment was a presage of some evill intent to bee put in practice which howerly wee expected and were all at gaze what part of it was first to bee acted which hee more speedily then hee needed discovered and it was thus Our water being a good part spent in our passage thither and wee being to make new and large provisions for the remaynder of our Voyage carrying horses and Cattle with us which wee were to take in there hee Commanded the Master by the power he had over him to send a shoare all the emptie Caske hee had aboard with intent to detayne them and so make us comply by little and little to his ends But the Master absolutely denied the Landing our great Caske but told him he would send our quarter Caskes in our long boate and so by making often returnes to fill our Pipes Buts But finding himself at a losse in this designe thought good to keepe us from any water at all and so appointed our men to dig in the valley under the Padres house where he was well assured no Springs of water were to be found But some of our men who spoke good Spanish by their enquiries heard That there was a very good well on the other side of the hill under the Castle and were brought to the sight of it by some of the Country people Which when he perceiv'd we had knowledge of he was much out of Countenance and used his best eloquence to make us beleeve he had never heard of that Well So finding that this
so become uselesse and Clocks and Watches will seldome or never go true and all this occasion'd by the moystnesse of the Ayre And this we found at feâ— for before we came neere this Iland we perceiv'd a kind of weather which is neither raine nor mist and continued with us sometimes four or five dayes together which the seamen call a Heysey weather and rises to such a height as though the sunne shine out bright yet we cannot see his body till nine a clock in the morning nor after three in the afternoone And we see the skie over our heads cleare a close and very unhealthull weather and no pleasure at all in it This great heat and moysture together is certainely the occasion that the trees and plants grow to such vast height and largenesse as they are # There is nothing in this Iland so much wanting as Springs and Rivers of water there being but very few and those very smal inconsiderable I know but only one River and that may rather be term'd a Lake then a River The Springs that runne into it are never able to fill it they are so small outfall to Sea it has none but at spring tides the Sea comes in and fills it and at Nepe tides it cannot runne out againe the sea-banks being higher than it But some of it issues out through the Sands and leaves behind it a mixt water of fresh and salt at the time the tide comes in it brings with it some fishes which are content to remaine there being better pleased to live in this mixt water then in the Salt Colonel Humphrey Walrond who is owner of the land of both sides and therefore of it has told me that he has taken fishes there as bigge as Salmons which have been overgrown with fat as you have seen Porpisces but extreamely sweet and firme But it has not been often that such fish or any other have bin taken in that place by reason the whole Lake is filled with trees and roots So that no Net can be drawn nor any Hook laid for they will wind the lines about the roots and so get away or the lines break in pulling up being fastned to the roots This River or Lake reaches not within the Land above twelve score yards or a flight shot at most and there is no part of it so broad but you may cast a Coyte over it The spring tides there seldome rise above four or five foot upright there come from the sea into these small bibling rivolets little Lobsters but wanting the great clawes afore which are the sweetest and fullest of fish that I have seen Chicester Lobsters are not to be compared to them But the water which the people of this Iland most relye upon is raine water which they keep in ponds that have descents of ground to them so that what falls on other ground may runne thither And the place in which the Pond is set must be low and claye in the bottome or if it be not naturally of Clay it must be made so For if it finde any Leake to the rocky part it gets between those clifts and sinks in an instant About the end of December these ponds are fill'd and with the help it hath by the weekly showrs that fall they continue so yet sometimes they feele a want This pond water they use upon all occasions and to all purposes to boyle their meat to make their drink to wash their linnen for it will beare soape But one thing seem'd to me a little loathsome and that was the Negroes washing themselves in the Ponds in hot weather whose bodies have none of the sweetest savours But the planters are pleased to say that the Sunne with his virtuall heat drawes up all noysome vapours and so the waters become rarified and pure againe But it was a great satisfaction to me that a little Rivulet was neere us from whence we fetcht dayly as much as served us both for meat and drink In these ponds I have never seen any small fish fry or any thing that lives or moves in it except some flies that fall into it but the water is clear and well tasted And because their Cattle shall not be in danger of miring or drowning the best Husbands raile in a part of the Pond where it is of a competent depth for the water to stand and pave that in the bottom with stone and so the Cattle neither raise the mud nor sink in with their feet and so the water comes clear to them Water they save likewise from their houses by gutters at the eves which carrie it down to cisterns And the water which is kept there being within the limits of their houses many of which are built in manner of Fortifications and have Lines Bulwarks and Baâ—tians to defend themselves in case there should be any uproar or commotion in the Iland either by the Christian servants or Negre slaves serves them for drink whilst they are besieged as also to throw down upon the naked bodies of the Negres scalding hot which is as good a defence against their underminings as any other weapons If any tumult or disorder be in the Iland the next neighbour to it discharges a Musket which gives the Alarum to the whole Iland for upon the report of that the next shoots and so the next and next till it go through the Iland Upon which warning they make ready # Bread which is accounted the staffe or main supporter of mans life has not here that full taste it has in England but yet they account it nourishing and strengthening It is made of the root of a small tree or shrub which they call â—assavie the manner of his grouth I will let alone till I come to speak of Trees and Plants in generall His root only which we are now to consider because our bread is made of it is large and round like the body of a small Still or retort and as we gather it we cut sticks that grow neerest to it of the same tree which we put into the ground and they grow And as we gather we plant This root before it come to be eaten suffers a strange conversion for being an absolute poyson when 't is gathered by good ordering comes to be wholsome and nourishing and the manner of doing it is this They wash the outside of the root clean and lean it against a Wheel whose sole is about a foot broad and covered with Latine made rough like a large Grater The Wheel to be turned about with a foot as a Cutler turnes his Wheel And as it grates the root it falls down in a large Trough which is the receiver appointed for that purpose This root thus grated is as rank poyson as can be made by the art of an Apothecary of the most venomous simples he can put together but being put into a strong piece of double Canvas or Sackcloth and prest hard that all the juice be
as Milions the bodies of the Plantines and Bonanoes Sugar-canes and Mayes being their dayly food When we came first upon the Iland I perceiv'd the sties they made to hold them were trees with the ends lying crosse upon one another and the inclosure they made was not large enough to hold the numbers of Hogges were in them with convenient distance to play and stirre themselves for their health and pleasure so that they were in a manner pesterd and choakt up with their own stinke which is sure the most noysome of any other beast and by reason of the Suns heat much worse I have smelt the stinke of one of those sties downe the wind neer a mile through all the wood and the crouding and thrusting them so close together was certainly the cause of their want of health which much hindred their growth So that they were neither so large nor their flesh so sweet as when they were wild and at their own liberty and choyce of feeding For I have heard Major Hilliard say that at their first comming there they found Hogges that one of them weighed the intrals being taken out and the head off 400 weight And now at the time of my being there the most sort of those that were in ours and our neighbours styes were hardly so big as the ordinary swine in England So finding this decay in their grouth by stowing them too close together I advised Collonell Modiford to make a larger stye and to wall it about with stone which he did and made it a mile about so that it was rather a Park than a Stye and set it on the side of a drie Hill the greatest part Rock with a competent Pond of water in the bottom and plac'd it between his two Plantations that from either food might be brought and cast over to them with great convenience And made several divisions in the Park for the Sowes with Pigg with little houses standing shelving that their foulnesse by gutters might fall away and they lie drie Other divisions for the Barrow-Hoggs and some for Boars This good ordering caused them to grow so large and fat as they wanted very little of their largnesse when they were wilde They are the sweetest flesh of that kinde that ever I tasted and the lovliest to look on in a dish either boyl'd roasted or bak'd With a little help of art I will deceive a very good palate with a shoulder of it for Mutton or a leg for Veal taking off the skin with which they were wont to make minc't Pies seasoning it with salt cloves and mace and some sweet herbs minc't And being bak'd and taken out of the Oven opening the lid put in a dramme-cup of kill-devill and being stirr'd together set it on the Table and that they call'd a Calvesfoot pie and till I knew what it was made of I thought it very good meat When I came first upon the Iland I found the Pork drest the plain waies of boyling roasting and sometimes baking But I gave them some tastes of my Cookery in hashing and fricaseing this flesh and they all were much taken with it and in a week every one was practising the art of Cookery And indeed no flesh tasts so well in Collops Hashes or Fricases as this And when I bak't it I alwaies laid a Side of a young Goat underneath and a side of a Shot which is a young Hog of a quarter old a top And this well seasoned and well bak'd is as good meat as the best Pasty of Fallow-Deer that ever I tasted In the coolest time of the year I have made an essay to powder it and hang it up for Bacon But there is such losse in 't as 't is very ill husbandry to practise it for it must be cut through in so many places to let the salt in as when 't is to be drest much goes to waste And therefore I made no more attempts that way But a little corning with salt makes this flesh very savoury either boyled or roasted About Christmas we kill a Boar and of the sides of it make three or four collers of Brawne for then the weather is so cool as with some art it may be kept sweet a week and to make the souc't drink give it the speedier and quicker seasoning we make it of Mobbie with store of Salt Limons and Lymes sliced in it with some Nutmeg which gives it an excellent flaver Beef we have very seldome any that feeds upon the soyle of this place except it be of Gods killing as they tearme it for very few are kill'd there by mens hands it were too ill husbandry for they cost too dear and they cannot be spared from their work which they must advance by all the means they can Such a Planter as Collonell James Drax who lives like a Prince may kill now and then one but very few in the Iland did so when I was there The next to Swines-flesh in goodnesse are Turkies large fat and full of gravie Next to them Pullen or Donghill-foule and last of all Muscovia-Ducks which being larded with the fat of this Porke being seasoned with pepper and salt are an excellent bak'd-meat All these with their Eggs and Chickens we eat Turtle-Doves the have of two sorts and both very good meat but there is a sort of Pidgeons which come from the leeward Ilands at one time of the year and it is in September and stay till Christmas be past and then return again But very many of them nere make returnes to tell newes of the good fruit they found there For they are so fat and of such excellent tastes as many foulers kill them with guns upon the trees and some of them are so fat as their weight with the fall causes them to burst in pieces They are good roasted boylld or bak'd but best cut in halves and stewed to which Cookery there needs no liquor for their own gravie will abundantly serve to stew them Rabbets we have but tame ones and they have but faint tastes more like a Chicken then a Rabbet And though they have divers other Birds which I will not forget to recount in their due times and place yet none for food for the Table which is the businesse I tend at this present Other flesh-meat I do not remember Now for fish though the Iland stands as all Ilands do invironed with the Sea and therefore is not like to be unfurnish't of that provision yet the Planters are so good husbands and tend their profits so much as they will not spare a Negres absence so long as to go to the Bridge and fetch it And the Fishermen seeing their fish lie upon their hands and stink which it will do in lesse then six hours forbear to go to Sea to take it only so much as they can have present vent for at the Taverns at the Bridge and thither the Planters come when they have a minde to feast themselves with fish to Mr.
next of these moving little Animalls are Ants or Pismires and those are but of a small sise but great in industry and that which gives them means to attain to their ends is they have all one soul. If I should say they are here or there I should do them wrong for they are every where under ground where any hollow or loose earth is amongst the roots of trees upon the bodies branches leaves and fruit of all trees in all places without the houses and within upon the sides walls windowes and roofes without and on the floores side-walls sealings and windowes within tables cupbords beds stooles all are covered with them so that they are a kind of Ubiquitaries The Cockroaches are their mortall enemies and though they are not able to do them any mischiefe being living by reason they are far stronger and mightier then a hundred of them if they should force any one of them with multitudes he has the liberty of his wings to make his escape yet when they finde him dead they will divide him amongst them into Atomes and to that purpose they carry him home to their houses or nests We sometimes kill a Cockroach and throw him on the ground and mark what they will do with him his body is bigger then a hundred of them and yet they will finde the means to take hold of him and lift him up and having him above ground away they carry him and some go by as ready assistants if any be weary and some are the Officers that lead and shew the way to the hole into which he must passe and if the Van curriers perceive that the body of the Cockroach lies crosse and will not passe through the hole or arch through which they mean to carry him order is given and the body turned endwise and this done a foot before they come to the hole and that without any stop or stay and this is observable that they never pull contrary waies Those that are curious and will prevent their comming on their Tables Cupbords or Beds have little hollowes of timber fill'd with water for the feet of these to stand in but all this will not serve their turne for they will some of them goe up to the sieling and let themselves fall upon the teasters of the Beds Cupbords and Tables To prevent them from comming on our shelves where our meat is kept we hang them to the roofe by ropes and tarre those roapes and the roofes over them as also the strings of our Hamacks for which reason we avoid them better in Hamacks then in beds Sometimes when we try conclusions upon them we take the Carpet off the Table and shake it so that all the Ants drop off and rub down the leggs and feet of those tables which stood not in water and having done so we lay on the Carpet againe and set upon it a Sallet dish or Trencher with suger in it which some of them in the room will presently smell and make towards it as fast as they can which is a long journey for he must begin at the foot of the table and come as high as the inside of the Carpet and so go down to the bottome and up of the outside of the Carpet before he gets on the table and then to the sugar which he smels to and having found it returnes againe the same way without taking any for his paines and enformes all his friends of this bootie who come in thousands and tenne thousands and in an instant fetch it all away and when they are thickest upon the table clap a large book or any thing fit for that purpose upon them so hard as to kill all that are under it and when you have done so take away the book and leave them to themselves but a quarter of an houre and when you come againe you shall find all those bodies carried away Other trials we make of their Ingenuity as this Take a Pewter dish and fill it halfe full of water into which put a little Gally pot fill'd with Sugar and the Ants will presently find it and come upon the Table but when they perceive it inviron'd with water they try about the brims of the dish where the Gally pot is neerest and there the most venturous amongst them commits him selfe to the water though he be conscious how ill a swimmer he is and is drown'd in the adventure the next is not warn'd by his example but ventures too and is alike drown'd and many more so that there is a small foundation of their bodies to venture on and then they come faster then ever and so make a bridge of their own bodies for their friends to passe on neglecting their lives for the good of the publique for before they make an end they will make way for the rest and become Masters of the Prize I had a little white sugar which I desired to keep from them and was devising which way to doe it and I knockt a Nayle in the beam of the roome and fastned to it a brown thread at the lower end of which thread I tyed a large shell of a fish which being hollow I put the sugar in and lockt the door thinking it safe but when I returned I found three quarters of my sugar gone and the Ants in abundance ascending and descending like the Angels on Jacobs Ladder as I have seen it painted so that I found no place safe from these more then busie Creatures Another sorts of Ants there are but nothing so numerous or harmfull as the other but larger by farre these build great nests as bigge as Bee hives against a wall or a tree of Clay and Lome sometimes within doors and in it severall little Mansions such as Bees make for themselves but nothing so curious these the Cockroaches and Lizards meet withall way-laying them neere their nests and feed upon them which to prevent they make from thence many and severall galleries that reach some of them sixe or seaven yards severall waies of the same earth they doe their nests so that for such a distance as that they are not to be perceiv'd by any of their enemies and commonly their Avenues go out amongst leaves or mosse or some other Covert that they may not be perceiv'd but the most of these are in the woods for we have destroyed their nests and their galleries within doors so often as they are weary of building and so quit the house I can say nothing of these but that they are the quickest at their work of building of any little Creatures that ever I saw Spiders we have the beautifullest and largest that I have seen and the most curious in their webs they are not at all Poysonous One sort more of these harmefull Animals there are which we call Chegoes and these are so little that you would hardly think them able to doe any harme at all and yet these will do more mischiefe then the Ants and if
Houses where they lay up their stores of Corn and other provisions and likewise in dwelling houses for their victualls For when the great down-falls of rain come which is in November and December and in the time of the Turnado they leave the field and shelter themselves in the dwelling houses where they do much mischiefe The Canes with their tops or blades doe commonly grow to be eight foot high the Canes themselves are commonly five or sixe foot I have seen some double that length but 't is but seldome the bodyes of them about an inch diametre the knots about five or six inches distant one from another many times three or four inches some more some lesse for there is no certaine rule for that the colour of the blades and tops pure grass green but the Canes themselves when they are ripe of a deep Popinjay and then they yeeld the greater quantity and fuller and sweeter juyce The manner of cutting them is with little hand-bills about sixe inches from the ground at which time they divide the tops from the Canes which they do with the same bills at one stroake and then holding the Canes by the upper end they strip off all the blades that grow by the sides of the Canes which tops and blades are bound up in faggots and put into Carts to carry home for without these our Horses and Cattle are not able to work the pasture being so extreame harsh and sapless but with these they are very well nourisht and kept in heart The Canes we likewise binde up in faggots at the same time and those are commonly brought home upon the backs of Assinigoes and we use the fashion of Devoâ—shire in that kind of Husbandry for there we learnt it which is small pack-saddles and crookes which serve our purposes very fitly laying upon each Crook a faggot and one a top so that each Assinigo carries his three faggots and being accustomed to go between the field and the place where they are to unload will of themselves make their returnes without a guide So understanding this little beast is in performing his duty The place where they unload is a little platforme of ground which is contiguous to the Mill-house which they call a Barbycu about 30 foot long and 10 foot broad done about with a double rayle to keep the Canes from falling out of that room where one or two or more who have other work to do in the Mill house when they see the Assinigoes comming and make a stop there are ready to unloade them and so turning them back againe they go immediately to the field there to take in fresh loading so that they may not unfitly be compar'd to Bees the one fetching home honey the other sugar being laid on the Barbycu we work them out cleane and leave none to grow stale for if they should be more then two dayes old the juyce will grow sower and then they will not be fit to worke for their soureness will infect the rest The longest time they stay after they are cut to the time of grinding is from Saturday evening to Munday morning at one or two a clock and the necessity of Sunday comming between upon which we do not work causes us to stay so long which otherwise we would not doe The manner of grinding them is this the Horses and Cattle being put to their tackle they go about and by their force turne by the sweeps the middle roller which being Cog'd to the other two at both ends turne them about and they all three turning upon their Centres which are of Brass and Steele go very easily of themselves and so easie as a mans taking hold of one of the sweeps with his hand will turne all the rollers about with much ease But when the Canes are put in between the rollers it is a good draught for five Oxen or Horses a Negre puts in the Canes of one side and the rollers draw them through to the other side where another Negre sâ—ands and receives them and returnes them back on the other side of the middle roller which drawes the other way So that having past twice through that is forth and back it is conceived all the juyce is prest out yet the Spaniards have a press after both the former grindings to press out the remainder of the liquor but they having but small works in Spaine make the most of it whilst we having far greater quantities are loath to be at that trouble The Canes having past to and againe there are young Negre girles that carry them away and lay them on a heap at the distance of six score paces or there abouts where they make a large hill if the worke have continued long under the rollers there is a receiver as big as a large Tray into which the liquor falls and stayes not there but runs under ground in a pipe or gutter of lead cover'd over close which pipe or gutter carries it into the Cistern which is fixt neer the staires as you go down from the Mill-house to the boyling house But it must not remaine in that Cisterne above one day lest it grow sower from thence it is to passe through a gutter fixt to the wall to the Clarifying Copper as there is occasion to use it and as the work goes on and as it Clarifies in the first Copper and the skumme rises it is conveyed away by a passage or gutter for that purpose as also of the second Copper both which skimmings are not esteem'd worth the labour of stilling because the skum is dirtie and grosse But the skimmings of the other three Coppers are conveyed down to the Still-house there to remaine in the Cisterns till it be a little sower for till then it will not come over the helme This liquor is remov'd as it is refin'd from one Copper to another and the more Coppers it passeth through the finer and purer it is being continually drawn up and keel'd by ladles and skim'd by skimmers in the Negres hands till at last it comes to the tach where it must have much labour in keeling and stirring and as it boyles there is thrown into the four last Coppers a liquor made of water and Wit hs which they call Temper without which the Sugar would continue a Clammy substance and never kerne The quantities they put in are small but being of a â—art quality it turnes the ripeness and clamminesse of the Sugar to cruddle and separate which you will find by taking out some drops of it to Candy and suddenly to grow hard and then it has inough of the fire Upon which Essay they presently poure two spoonfulls of Sallet Oyle into the tach and then immediately it gives over to bubble or rise So after much keeling they take it out of the tach by the ladles they use there and put it into ladles that are of greater receipt with two handles and by them remove it into the cooling Cisterne neer
the stayers that goes to the fire roome But as they remove the last part of the liquor out of the tach they do it with all the celerity they can and suddenly cast in cold water to coole the Copper from burning for the fire in the furnace continues still in the same heat and so when that water is removed out againe by the Ladles they are in the same degree carefull and quick as soon as the last Ladle full is taken out to throw in some of the liquor of the next Copper to keep the tach from burning and so filâ— it up out of the next and that out of the third and that out of the fourth and that out of the Clarifying Copper and so from the Cistern and so from the Mill-house or Ingenio And so the work goes on from Munday morning at one a clock till Saturday night at which time the fire in the Furnaces are put out all houres of the day and night with fresh supplies of Men Horses and Cattle The Liquor being come to such a coolnesse as it is fit to be put into the Pots they bring them neer the Cooler and stopping first the sharp end of the Pot which is the bottom with Plantine leaves and the passage there no bigger then a mans finger will go in at they fill the Pot and set it between the stantions in the filling room where it staies till it be thorough cold which will be in two daies and two nights and then if the Sugar be good knock upon it with the knuckle of your finger as you would do upon an earthen pot to trie whether it be whole and it will give a sound but if the Sugar be very ill it will neither be very hard nor give any sound It is then to be removed into the Cureing house and set between stantions there But first the stopples are to be pull'd out of the bottom of the pots that the Molosses may vent it selfe at that hole and so drop down upon a gutter of board hollowed in the middle which conveyeth the Molosses from one to another till it be come into the Cisterns of which there is commonly foure at either corner one and there remains till it rise to a good quantity and then they boyl it again and of that they make Peneles a kinde of Sugar somewhat inferiour to the Muscavado but yet will sweeten indifferently well and some of it very well coloured The pots being thus opened at the bottoms the Molosses drops out but so slowly as hardly to vent it selfe in a month in which time the Sugar ought to be well â—ur'de and therefore they thought fit to thrust a spike of wood in at the bottom that should reach to the top hoping by that means to make way for the Molosses to have the speedier passage But they found little amendment in the purging and the reason was this the spike as it went in prest the Sugar so hard as it stopt all pores of passage for the Molosses So finding no good to come of this they devis'd another way and that was by making an augure of Iron which instrument cuts his way without pressing the Sugar and by that means the Molosses had a free passage without any obstruction at all And so the Sugar was well cur'd in a month As for the manner of using it after it is cur'd you shall finde it set down in my Index to the plot of the Cureing house And this is the whole processe of making the Muscavado-Sugar whereof some is better and some worse as the Canes are for ill Canes can never make good Sugar I call those ill that are gathered either before or after the time of such ripenesse or are eaten by Rats and so consequently rotten or pull'd down by Withes or lodg'd by foule weather either of which will serve to spoil such Sugar as is made of them At the time they expect it should be well cur'd they take the pots from the stantions in the Curing-house and bring them to the knocking room which you shall finde upon the plot of the cureing house and turning it upside down they knock the pot hard against the ground and the Sugar comes whole out as a bullet out of a mold and when it is out you may perceive three sorts of colours in the pot the tops somewhat brownish and of a frothy light substance the bottom of a much darker colour but heavy grosse moist and full of molosses both which they out away and reserve to be boyl'd again with the molosses for peneles The middle part which is more then two thirds of the whole pot and lookes of a bright colour drie and sweet they lay by it selfe and send it down daily upon the backs of Assinigoes and Camells in leather baggs with a tarr'd cloth over to their Store-houses at the Bridge there to be put in Caskes and Chests to be ship't away for England or any other parts of the World where the best market is Though this care be taken and this course used by the best husbands and those that respect their credits as Collonell James Drax Collonell Walrond Mr. Raynes and some others that I know there yet the greater number when they knock out their Sugars let all go together both bottom and top and so let the better bear out the worse But when they come to the Merchant to be sold they will not give above 3 l. 10 s. for the one and for the other above 6 l. 4 s. And those that use this care have such credit with the Buyer as they scarce open the Cask to make a tryall so well they are assured of the goodnesse of the Sugars they make as of Collonell James Drax Collonell Walrond Mr. Raines and some others in the Iland that I know I have yet said nothing of making white Sugars but that is much quicker said than done For though the Muscavado Sugar require but a months time to make it so after it is boyl'd yet the Whites require four months and it is only this Take clay and temper it with water to the thicknesse of Frumenty or Pease-pottage and poure it on the top of the Muscavado Sugar as it stands in the pot in the Cureing-house and there let it remain four months and if the clay crack and open that the aire come in close it up with some of the same either with your hand or a small Trowell And when you knock open these pots you shall finde a difference both in the colour and goodnesse of the top and bottom being but to such a degree as may be rank'd with Muscavadoes but the middle perfect White and excellent Lump-Sugar the best of which will sell in London for 20 d. a pound I do not remember I have left unsaid any thing that conduces to the work of Sugar-making unlesse it be sometimes after great rains which moisten the aire more then ordinary to lay it out upon fair daies in the Sun upon
and Elephants teeth but those commodities taking up but little room the Captaine made the Barbadoes in his way home intending to take in his full lading of Sugar and such other commodities as that Iland afforded and so being ready to set sayle my selfe and divers other Gentlemen embarkt upon the fifthteenth of April 1650 at twelve a clock at night which time our Master made choyce of that he might the better passe undescri'd by a well known Pirate that had for many dayes layne hovering about the Iland to take any ships that traded for London by vertue of a Commission as he pretended from the Marquesse of Ormond This Pirate was an Irish man his name Plunquet a man bold enough but had the character of being more mercilesse and cruell then became a valiant man To confirme the first part of his character he took a ship in one of the Habours of the Iland out of which he furnisht himselfe with such things as he wanted but left the carcase of the vessell to floate at large He had there a Frigot of about 500 Tunns and a small vessell to wayte on her but the night cover'd us from being disdiscern'd by him and so we came safely off the Iland About a fortnight after we had bin at sea our Master complain'd that his men had abus'd him and for some commodities usefull to themselves had truckt away the greatest part of his Bisket So that instead of bread we were serv'd with the sweepings and dust of the bread roome which caused a generall complaint of all the passengers but no remedy our Pease must now supply that want which with some Physicall perswasion of the Master that it was as hearty and binding as bread we rested satisfied with this Motto Patience upon force The next thing wanting was Fish an excellent food at Sea and the want of that troubled us much yet the same remedy must serve as for the other Patience The next thing wanting was Porke and the last Beere which put as clean out of all Patience So that now our staple food of the Ship was onely Beefe a few Pease and for drink water that had bin fifteen months out of England finding how ill we were accommodated we desir'd the Master to put in at Fiall One of the Ilands of Azores a little to refresh our selves which Iland was not much out of our way but the Master loath to be at the charge of re-victualling and losse of time refus'd to hearken to us and being a request much to his disadvantage slighted us and went on till he was past recovery of those Ilands and then a violent storme took us and in that storme a sad accident which happened by meanes of a Portugall who being a Sea-man and trusted at the Helme and who though he have a compasse before him yet is mainely guided by the quarter Master that Conns the ship above upon the quarter deck whose directions the Portugall mistooke being not well verst in the English tongue and so steer'd the Ship so neer the winde that she came upon her stayes which caused such a fluttering of the sayles against the Masts the winde being extreame violent as they tore all in peeces Nor was there any other sayles in the ship all being spent in the long voyage to Guinny nor any thread in the ship to mend them so that now the Master though too late began to repent him of not taking our Counsell to goe to Fiall But how to redeeme us out of this certaine ruine neither the Master nor his Mates could tell for though the winds blew never so faire we lay still at Hull and to make use of the Tide in the Maine was altogether vaine and hopelesse Our victualls too being at a very low Ebbe could not last us many dayes So that all that were in the ship both Sea-men and Passengers were gazeing one upon another what to doe when our small remainder of provision came to an end But the Sea-men who were the greater number resolv'd the Passengers should be drest and eaten before any of them should goe to the Pot And so the next thing to be thought on was which of the Passengers should dye first for they were all design'd to be eaten So they resolved upon the fattest and healthfullest first as likely to be the best meat and so the next and next as they eate Cherries the best first In this Election I thought my selfe secure for my body being nothing but a bagg-full of Hydroptique humours they knew not which way to dresse me but I should dissolve and come to nothing in the Cooking At last the Cooper took me into his consideration and said that if they would hearken to him there might be yet some use made of me and that was in his opinion the best that seeing my body was not of a consistence to satisfie their hunger it might serve to quench their thirst So I saying a short Prayer against drought and thirst remain'd in expectation of my doome with the rest So merry these kinde of men can make themselves in the midst of dangers who are so accustomed to them And certainely those men whose lives are so frequently exposed to such hazards do not set that value upon them as others who live in a quiet security yet when they put themselves upon any noble action they will sell their lives at such a rate as none shall out-bid them and the custome of these hazards makes them more valiant then other men and those amongst them that do found their courage upon honest grounds are certainly valiant in a high perfection At last a little Virgin who was a passenger in the Ship stood up upon the quarter deck like a she-Worthy and said that if they would be rul'd by her she would not only be the contriver but the acter of our deliverance At whose speech we all gave a strict attention as ready to contribute our help to all she commanded which was that the Ship-Carpenter should make her a Distaffe and Spindle and the Saylers combe out some of the Occome with which instruments and materialls she doubted not but to make such a quantity of thread as to repair our then uselesse Sailes which accordingly she did and by her vertue under God we held our lives Though such an accident as this and such a deliverance deserve a gratefull commemoration yet this is not all the use we are to make of it somewhat more may be considered that may prevent dangers for the future and that is the great abuse of Captaines and Masters of Ships who promise to their Passengers such plenty of victualls as may serve them the whole voyage But before they be halfe way either pinch them of a great part or give them that which is nastie and unwholsome And therefore I could wish every man that is to go a long voyage to carry a reserve of his own of such viands as will last and to put that up safe for