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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A12471	The true travels, adventures, and observations of Captaine Iohn Smith, in Europe, Asia, Affrica, and America, from anno Domini 1593. to 1629 His accidents and sea-fights in the straights; his service and stratagems of warre in Hungaria, Transilvania, Wallachia, and Moldavia, against the Turks, and Tartars ... After how he was taken prisoner by the Turks, sold for a slave ... and escaped ... Together with a continuation of his generall History of Virginia, Summer-Iles, New England, and their proceedings, since 1624. to this present 1629; as also of the new plantations of the great river of the Amazons, the iles of St. Christopher, Mevis, and Barbados in the West Indies. All written by actuall authours, whose names you shall finde along the history.	Smith, John, 1580-1631.; Cecil, Thomas, fl. 1630, engraver.	1630 (1630)	STC 22796; ESTC S111906	69,204	79

he got thirty Indians men women and children of the Arawacos enemies both to the Caribes and the Spaniards The I le is most like a triangle each side forty or fifty miles square some exceeding great rocks but the most part exceeding good ground abounding with an infinite number of Swine some Turtles and many sorts of excellent fish many great ponds wherein is Ducke and Mallard excellent clay for pots wood and stone for building and a spring neere the middest of the I le of Bitume which is a liquid mixture like Tarre that by the great raines falls from the tops of the mountaines it floats upon the water in such abundance that drying up it remaines like great rocks of pitch and as good as pitch for any use The Mancinell apple is of a most pleasant sweet smell of the bignesse of a Crab but ranke poyson yet the Swine and Birds have wit to shun it great store of exceeding great Locus trees two or three fadome about of a great height that beareth a cod full of meale will m●ke bread in time of necessity A tree like a Pine beareth a fruit so great as a Muske Melon which hath alwayes ripe fruit flowers or greene fruit which will refresh two or three men and very comfortable Plumb trees many the fruit great and yellow which but strained into water in foure and twenty houres will be very good drinke wilde figge trees there are many all those fruits doe fat the hogges yet at some times of the yeare they are so leane as carrion Gwane trees beare a fruit so bigge as a Peare good and wholsome Palmetaes of three severall f●rrs Papawes Prickle Peares good to eat or make drinke Cedar trees very tall and great Fusticke trees are very great and the wood yellow good for dying sope berries the kernell so bigge as a sloe and good to eat Pumpeons in abundance Goads so great as will make good great bottles and cut in two peeces good dishes and platters many small brooks of very good water Ginni wheat Cassado Pines and Plantaines all things we there plant doe grow exceedingly so well as Tobacco the corne pease and beanes cut but away the stalke young sprigs will grow and so beare fruit for many yeares together without any more planting the I le is overgrowne with wod or great reeds those wods w●ich are soft are exceeding light and full of pitch and those that are hard are so hard and great they are as hard to cut as stone Master Iohn Powell came thither the fourth of August 1627. with forty five men where we stayed three weeks and then returning left behind us about an hundred people and his sonne Iohn Powell for his Deputy as Governour but there have beene so many factions amongst them I cannot from so many variable relations give you any certainty for their orderly Government for all those plenties much misery they have endured in regard of their weaknesse at their landing and long st●y without supplies therefore those that goe thither it were good they carry good provision with them but the I le is most healthfull and all things planted doe increase abundantly and by this time there is and now a going about the number of fifteene or sixteene hundred people Sir William Curtine and Captaine Iohn Powell were the first and chiefe adventurers to the planting this fortunate I le which had beene oft frequented by men of Warre to refresh themselves and set up their shallops being so farre remote from the rest of the Iles they never were troubled with any of the Indies Harbours they have none but exceeding good Rodes which with a small charge might bee very well fortified it doth ebbe and flow foure or five foot and they cannot perceive there hath ever beene any Hericano in that I le From the relations of Captaine Iohn White and Captaine Wolverstone CHAP. XXVII The first plantation of the I le of Mevis BEcause I have ranged and lived amongst those Ilands what my authours cannot tell me I thinke it no great errour in helping them to tell it my selfe In this little I le of Mevis more than twenty yeares agoe I have remained a good time together to wod and water and refresh my men it is all woddy but by the Sea side Southward there are sands like downes where a thousand men may quarter themselves conveniently but in most places the wod groweth close to the water side at a high water marke and in some places so thicke of a soft spungy wood like a wilde figge tree you cannot get through it but by m●king your w●y with hatchets or fauchions whether it was the dew of those trees or of some others I am not certaine but many of our men became so to●mented with a burning sw●lling all over their bodies they seemed like se●ld●d men and neere mad with paine here we found a great Poole wherein bathing themselves they found much ease and fi●ding it fed with a pleasant small streame that came out of the woods we found the head halfe a m●le within the land distilling from a many of rocks by which they were well cured in two or three dayes Such factions here we had as commonly attend such voyages that a paire of gallowes was m●de but Captaine Smith for whom they were intended could not be perswaded to use them but not any one of the inventers but their lives by iustice fell into his power to determine of at his pleasure whom with much mercy he favoured that most basely and u●justly would have betrayed him The last yeare 1628. Master Littleton with some others got a Pattent of the Earle of Carlile to plant the I le called the Barbados thirty leagues Northward of Saint Christophers which by report of their informers and undertakers for the excellencie and pleasantnesse thereof they called Dulcina but when they came there they found it such a ba●ren rocke they left it although they were told as much before they would not beleeve it perswading themselves those contradicters would get it for themselves was thus by their cunning opinion the deceiver of themselves for seeing it lie conveniently for their purpose in a map they had not patience to know the goodnesse or badnesse the inconvenience nor probabilities of the quality nor quantity which errour doth predominate in most of our home-bred adventurers that will have all things as they conceit and would have it and the more they are contradicted the more hot they are but you may see by many examples in the generall history how difficult a matter it is to gather the t●uth from amongst so many forren and severall relations except you have exceeding good experience both of the Countries people and their conditions and those ignorant undertakings have beene the great●st hind●rance of all those plantations At last because they would be absolute they came to Mevis a little I le by Saint Christophers where they seated themselv●s well

Sander Screwe Panassa Musa Lastilla to Varna an ancient Citie upon the Blacke Sea In all which journey having little more libertie than his eyes judgement since his captivitie he might see the Townes with their short Towers and a most plaine fertile and delicate Countrey especially that most admired place of Greece now called Romania but from Varna nothing but the Blacke Sea water 〈◊〉 he came to the two Capes of Taur and Pergilos where hee passed the Straight of Niger which as he conjectured is some ten leagues long and three broad betwixt two low lands the Channell is deepe but at the entrance of the Sea Dissabacca their are many great Osie-shou●ds and many great blacke ro●kes which the Turkes said were trees weeds and mud throwen from the in-land Countryes by the inundations and violence of the Current and cast there by the Eddy They sayled by many low Iles and saw many more of those muddy ro●kes and nothing else but salt water till they came betwixt Susax and Curuske only two white townes at the entrance of the river Bruapo appeared In six or seven dayes saile he saw foure or five seeming strong castles of stone with flat tops and battlements about them but arriving at Cambia he was according to their custome well used The river was there more than halfe a mile broad The Castle was of a large circumference foure●●ene or fifteene foot thicke in the foundation some six foot from the wall is a Paliizado and then a Ditch of about fortie foot broad full of water On the west side of it is a Towne all of low flat houses which as be conceived could bee of no great strength yet it keepes all them barbarous Countreyes about it in admiration and subjection After he had stayed there three dayes it was two dayes more before his guides brought him to Nalbrits where the Tymor then was resident in a great vast stonie Castle with many great Courts about it invironed with high stone wals where was quartered their Armes when they first subjected those Countreyes which only live to labour for those tyrannicall Turkes To her unkinde brother this kinde Ladie writ so much for his good usage that hee halfe suspected as much as she intended for shee told him he should there but sojourne to learne the language and what it was to be a Turke till time made her Master of her selfe But the Tymor her brother diverted all this to the worst of crueltie for within an hour● after his arrivall he caused his Drub-man to strip him naked and shave his head and beard so bare as his hand a great ring of iron with a long stalke bowed like a sickle rivetted about his necke and a coat made of Vlgries haire guarded about with a peece of an undrest skinne There were many more Christian slaves and neere an hundred Forsados of Turkes and Moores and he being the last was slave of slaves to them all Among these slavish fortunes there was no great choice for the best was so bad a dog could hardly have lived to endure and yet for all their paines and labours no more regarded than a beast CHAP. XIII The Turkes diet the Slaves diet the attire of the Tartars and manner of Warres and Religions c. THe Tymor and his friends fed upon Pillaw which is boiled Rice and Garnances with little bits of mutton or Buckones which is rosted peeces of Horse Bull Vlgrie or any beasts Samboyses and Muselbit are great dainties and yet but round pies full of all sorts of flesh they can get chopped with varietie of herbs Their best drinke is Coffa of a graine they call Coava boiled with water and Sherbecke which is only honey and water M●res milke or the milke of any beast they hold restorative but all the Comminaltie drinke pure water Their bread is made of this Coava which is a kinde of blacke whea● and Cuskus a small white seed like Millya in Biskay but our common victuall the entrailes of Horse and Vlgries of this cut in small peeces they will fill a great Cauldron and being boiled with Cuskus and put in great bowles in the forme of chaffing-dishes they sit round about it on the ground after they haue raked it thorow so oft as they please with their soule fists the remainder was for the Christian slaves Some of this broth they would temper with Cuskus pounded and putting the fire off from the hearth powre there a bowle full then cover it with co●les till it be baked which stewed with the remainder of the broth and some small peeces of flesh was an extraordinarie daintie The better sort are attired like Turkes but the plaine Tartar hath a blacke sheepe skinne over his backe and two of the legs tied about his necke the other two about his middle with another over his belly and the legs tied in the like manner behinde him then two more made like a paire of b●ses serveth him for breeches with a little close cap to his skull of blacke felt and they use exceeding much of this felt for carpets for bedding for Coats and Idols Their houses are much worse than your Irish but the In-land Countreyes have none but Carts and Tents which they ever remove from Countrey to Countrey as they see occasion driving with them infinite troopes of blacke sheepe Cattell and Vlgries eating all vp before them as they goe For the Tartars of Nagi they have neither Towne nor house corne nor drinke but flesh and milke The milke they keepe in great skinnes like Burracho's which though it be never so sower it agreeth well with their strong stomackes They live all in Hordias as doth the Crim-Tartars three or foure hundred in a company in great Carts fifteene or sixteene foot broad which is covered with small rods wattled together in the forme of a birds nest turned vpwards and with the ashes of bones tempered with oile Camels haire and a clay they have they lome them so well that no weather will pierce them and yet verie light Each Hordia hath a Murse which they obey as their King Their Gods are infinite One or two thousand of those glittering white Carts drawen with Camels Deere Buls and Vlgries they bring round in a ring where they pitch their Campe and the Murse with his chiefe alliances are placed in the midst They doe much hurt when they can get any Stroggs which are great boats used upon the river Volga which they call Edle to them that dwell in the Countrey of Perolog and would doe much more were it not for the Muscovites Garrisons that there inhabit CHAP. XIIII The description of the Crym-Tartars their houses and carts their Idolatry in their lodgings NOw you are to understand Tartary and Scythia are all one but so large and spacious few or none could ever perfectly describe it nor all the severall kinds of those most barbarous people that inhabit it Those we call the Crym-Tartars border

Turke by covenant commands to follow him so that from all those Tartars he hath had an Army of an hundred and twenty thousand excellent swift stomackfull Tartarian horse for foot they have none Now the Chan his Sultaines and nobility use Turkish Caramanian Arabian Parthian and other strange Tartarian horses the swiftest they esteeme the best seldome they feede any more at home than they have present use for but upon their plaines is a short wodde like heath in some countries like gaile full of berries farre much better than any grasse Their Armes are such as they have surprised or got from the Christians or Persians both brest-plates swords semiteres and helmets bowes and arrowes they make most themselves also their bridles and saddles are indifferent but the nobility are very handsome and well armed like the Turkes in whom consisteth their greatest glory the ordinary sort have little armor some a plaine young pole unshaven headed with a peece of iron for a lance some an old Christian pike or a Turks cavatine yet those tattertimallions will have two or three horses some foure or five as well for service as for to eat which makes their Armies seem thrice so many as there are souldiers The Chan himselfe hath about his person ten thousand chosen Tartars and Ianizaries some small Ordnance and a white mares taile with a peece of greene taffity on a great Pike is carried before him for a standard because they hold no beast so precious as a white mare whose milke is onely for the King nobility and to sacrifice to their Idolls but the rest have ensignes of dive●s colours For all this miserable knowledge furniture and equipage th● mischiefe they doe in Christendome is wonderfull by reason of their hardnesse of life and constitution obedience agilitie and their Emperours bountie honours grace and dignities he ever bestoweth upon those that have done him any memorable service in the face of his enemies The Caspian Sea most men agree that have passed it to be in length about 200. leagues and in breadth an hundred fifty environed to the East with the great desarts of the Tartars of Turkamane to the West by the Circasses and the mountaine Caucasus to the North by the river Volga and the land of Nagay and to the South by Media and Persia this sea is fresh water in many places in others as salt as the great Ocean it hath many great rivers which fall into it as the mighty river of Volga which is like a sea running neere two thousand miles through many great and large Countries that send into it many other great rivers also out of Saberya Yaick and Yem out of the great mountaine Caucasus the river Sirus Arash and divers others yet no Sea neerer it than the blacke Sea which is at least an hundred leagues distant in which Country live the Georgians now part Armenians part Nestorians it is neither found to increase or diminish or empty it selfe any way except it be under ground and in some places they can finde no ground at two hundred fadome Many other most strange and wonderfull things are in the land of Cathay towards the North-east and Chyna towards the South-east where are many of the most famous Kingdomes in the world where most arts plenty and curiosities are in such abundance as might seeme incredible which hereafter I will relate as I have briefly gathered from such authors as have lived there CHAP. XVII How captaine Smith escaped his captivity slew the Bashaw of Nalbrits in Cambia his passage to Russia Transilvania and the middest of Europe to Affrica ALL the hope he had ever to be delivered from this thraldome was only the love of Tragabigzanda who surely was ignorant of his bad usage for although he had often debated the matter with some Christians that had beene there a long time slaves they could not finde how to make an escape by any reason or possibility but God beyond mans expectation or imagination helpeth his servants when they least thinke of helpe as it hapned to him So long he lived in this miserable estate as he became a thresher at a grange in a great field more than a league from the Tymors house the Bashaw as he ost used to visit his granges visited him and rocke occasion so to beat spurne and revile him that forgetting all reason he beat out the Tymors braines with his threshing bat for they have no flailes and seeing his estate could be no worse than it was clothed himselfe in his clothes hid his body under the straw filled his knapsacke with corne shut the doores mounted his horse and ranne into the desart at all adventure two or three dayes thus fearfully wandring he knew not whither and well it was he met not any to aske the way being even as taking l●ave of this miserable world God did direct him to the great way or Castragan as they call it which doth crosse these large territories and generally knowne among them by these markes In every crossing of this great way is planted a post and in it so many bobs with broad ends as there be wayes and every bob the figure painted on it that demonstrateth to what part that way lead●th as that which pointeth towards the Cryms Country is marked with a halfe Monne if towards the Georgians and Persia a blacke man full of white spots if towards China the picture of the Sunne if towards Muscovia the signe of a Crosse if towards the habitation of any other Prince the figure whereby his standard is knowne To his dying spirits thus God added some comfort in this melancholy journey wherein if he had met any of that vilde generation they had made him their slave or knowing the figure engraven in the iron about his necke as all slaves have he had beene sent backe againe to his master sixteene dayes he travelled in this feare and torment after the Crosse till he arrived at Aecopolis upon the river Don a garrison of the Muscovites The governour after due examination of those his hard events tooke off his irons and so kindly used him he thought himselfe new risen from death and the good Lady Callamata largely supplied all his wants that the Country of Cambia is two dayes journy from the head of the great river Bruapo which springeth from many places of the mountaines of Innagachi that joyne themselves together in the Poole Kerkas which they account for the head and falleth into the Sea Dissabacca called by some the lake Meotis which receiveth also the river Tanais and all the rivers that fall from the great Countries of the Circassi the Cartaches and many from the Tauricaes Precopes Cummani Cossunka and the Cryme through which Sea he sailed and up the river Bruapo to Nalbrits and thence through the desarts of Circassi to Aecoplis as is related where he stayed with the Governour till the Convoy went to Coraguaw then with his certificate how hee

and many other Officers there imployed only by friendship to raise their fortunes out of the labours of the true industrious planters by the title of their office who under the colour of sinceritie did pillage and deceive all the rest most cunningly For more than 150000. pounds have beene spent out of the common stocke besides many thousands have beene there consumed and neere 7000. people that there died only for want of good order and government otherwise long ere this there would have beene more than 20000. people wh●re after twentie yeeres spent onely in complement and trying new conclusions was remaining scarce 1500. with some few cattell Then the Company dissolved but no account of any thing so that his Majestie appointed Commissioners to oversee and give order for their proceedings Being thus in a manner left to themselves since then within these foure yeeres you shall see how wonderfully they have increased beyond expectation but so exactly as I desired I cannot relate unto you For although I have tired my selfe in seeking and discoursing with those returned thence more than would a voyage to Virginia few can tell me any thing but of that place or places they have inhabited and he is a great traveller that hath gone up downe the river of Iames Towne been at Pamaunke Smiths Iles or Accomack wherein for the most part they keepe one tune of their now particular abundance and their former wants having beene there some sixteene yeeres some twelve some six some neere twentie c. But of their generall estate or any thing of worth the most of them doth know verie little to any purpose Now the most I could understand in generall was from the relation of Mr. Nathaniel Cawsey that lived there with mee and returned Anno Dom. 1627. and some others affirme Sir George Yerley was Governour Captaine Francis West Doctor Iohn Poot Captain Roger Smith Captaine Matthewes Captaine Tucker Mr. Clabourne and Mr. Farrer of the Councell their habitations many The Governour with two or three of the Councell are for most part at Iames Towne the rest repaire thither as there is occasion but everie three moneths they have a generall meeting to consider of their publike affaires Their numbers then were about 1500. some say rather 2000. divided into seventeene or eighteene severall Plantations the greatest part thereof towards the falls are so inclosed with Pallizadoes they regard not the Salvages and amongst those Plantations above Iames Towne they have now found meanes to take plentie of fish as well with lines as nets and where the waters are the largest having meanes they need not want Upon this River they seldome see any Salvages but in the woods many times their fires yet some few there are that upon their opportunitie have slaine some few stragglers which have beene revenged with the death of so many of themselves but no other attempt hath beene made upon them this two or three yeares Their Cattle namely Oxen Kine Buls they imagine to be about 2000. Goats great store and great increase the wilde Hogs which were infinite are destroyed and eaten by the Salvages but no family is so poore that hath not tame Swine sufficient and for Poultrie he is a verie bad husband breedeth not an hundred in a yeere and the richer sort doth daily feed on them For bread they have plentie and so good that those that make it well better cannot be divers have much English corne especially Mr. Abraham Perce which prepared this yeere to sow two hundred acres of English wheat and as much with barley feeding daily about the number of sixtie persons at his owne charges For drinke some malt the Indian corne others barley of which they make good Ale both strong and small and such plentie thereof few of the upper Planters drinke any water but the better sort are well furnished with Sacke Aquavitae and good English Beere Their servants commonly feed upon Milke Homini which is bruized Indian corne pounded and boiled thicke and milke for the sauce but boiled with milke the best of all will oft feed on it and leave their fl●sh with milke butter and cheese with fish Bulls flesh for they seldome kill any other c. And everie one is so applyed to his labour about Tobacco and Corne which doth yeeld them them such profit they never regard any food from the Salvages nor have they any trade or conference with them but upon meere accidents and defiances and now the Merchants have left it there have gone so many voluntarie ships within this two yeeres as have furnished them with Apparell Sacke Aquavitae and all necessaries much better than ever before For Armes there is scarce any man but he is furnished with a Peece a Iacke a Coat of Maile a Sword or Rapier and euerie Holy-day everie Plantation doth exercise their men in Armes by which meanes hunting and fowling the most part of them are most excellent mark-men For Discoveries they have made none nor any other commoditie than Tobacco doe they apply themselves unto though never any was planted at first And whereas the Countrey was heretofore held most intemperate and contagious by many now they have houses lodgings and victuall and the Sunne hath power to exhale up the moyst vapours of the earth where they have cut downe the wood which before it could not being covered with spreading tops of high trees they finde it much more healthfull than before nor for their numbers few Countreyes are lesse troubled with death sicknesse or any other disease nor where overgrowne women become more fruitfull Since this Sir George Yerley died 1628. Captaine West succeeded him but about a yeere after returned for England Now Doctor Poot is Governour and the rest of the Councell as before Iames Towne is yet their chiefe seat most of the wood destroyed little corne there planted but all converted into pasture and gardens wherein doth grow all manner of herbs and roots we have in England in abundance and as good grasse as can be Here most of their Cattle doe feed their Owners being most some one way some another about their plantations and returne againe when they please or any shipping comes in to trade Here in winter they have hay for their Cattell but in other places they browze upon wood and the great huskes of their corne with some corne in them doth keepe them well Mr. Hutchins sa●th the● h●ve 2000. C●●●le and about 5000. people but Master Flond Iohn Davis William Emerson and divers others say about five thousand people and five t●ousand kine calves ox●n and bull● for goa●s hogs a●d poult●y corne fish deere and many sorts of other wilde be●sts and fowle in their season they have so much more than they spend they are able to feed thr●e or foure hundred men more than they have and doe oft much releeve many ships both there and for their returne and

upon Moldavia Podolia Lituania and Russia are much more regular than the interior parts of Scythia This great Tartarian Prince that hath so troubled all his neighbours they alwayes call Chan which signifieth Emperour but we the Crym-Tartar He liveth for most part in the best champion plaines of many Provinces and his removing Court is like a great Citie of houses and tents drawne on Carts all so orderly placed East and West on the right and left hand of the Prince his house which is alwayes in the midst towards the South before which none may pitch their houses every one knowing their order and quarter as in an Armie The Princes houses are very artificially wrought both the foundation sides and roofe of wickers ascending round to the top like a Dove-coat this they cover with white felt or white earth tempered with the powder of bones that it may shine the whiter sometimes with blacke felt curiously painted with vines trees birds and beasts the breadth of the Carts are eighteene or twenty foot but the house stretcheth foure or five foot over each side and is drawne with ten or twelve or for more state twenty Camels and Oxen. They have also great baskets made of smaller wickers like great chests with a covering or the same all covered over with blacke felt rubbed over with tallow and sheeps milke to keepe out the raine prettily bedecked with painting or feathers in those they put their houshold stuffe and treasure drawne upon other carts for that purpose When they take downe their houses they set the doore alwayes towards the South and their carts thirtie or fortie foot distant on each side East and West as if they were two walls the women also have most curious carts every one of his wives hath a great one for herselfe and so many other for her attendants that they seeme as many Courts as he hath wives One great Tartar or Nobleman will have for his particular more than an hundred of those houses and carts for his severall offices and uses but set so farre from each other they will seeme like a great village Having taken their houses from the carts they place the Master alwayes towards the North over whose head is alwayes an Image like a Puppet made of felt which they call his brother the women on his left hand and over the chiefe Mistris her head such another brother and betweene them a little one which is the keeper of the house at the good wives beds-feet is a kids skinne stuffed with wooll and neere it a Puppet looking towards the Maids next the doore another with a dried cowes udder for the women that milke the kine because only the men milke mares every morning those Images in their orders they besprinkle with that they drinke bee it Cossmos or whatsoever but all the white mares milke is reserved for the Prince Then without the doore thrice to the South every one bowing his knee in honour of the fire then the like to the East in honour of the aire then to the West in honour of the water and lastly to the North in behalfe of the dead After the servant hath done this duty to the foure quarters of the world he returnes into the house where his fellowes stand waiting ready with two cups and two basons to give their master and his wife that lay with him 〈◊〉 night to wash and drinke who must keepe him company all the day following and all his other wives come thither to drinke where hee keepes his house that day and all the gifts presented him till night are laid vp in her chests and at the doore a bench full of cups and drinke for any of them to make merry Chap. XV. Their feasts common diet Princes estate buildings tributes lawes slaves entertainment of Ambassadours FOr their feasts they have all sorts of beasts birds fish fruits and hearbs they can get but the more variety of wilde ones is the best to which they have excellent drinke made of rice millit and honey like wine they have also wine but in Summer they drinke most Cossmos that standeth ready alwayes at the entrance of the doore and by it a fidler when the master of the house beginneth to drinke they all cry ha ha and the fidler playes then they all clap their hands and dance the men before their Masters the women before their Mistresses and ever when he drinks they cry as before then the fidler stayeth till they drinke all round sometimes they will drinke for the victory and to provoke one to drinke they will pull him by the ears and lugge and draw him to stretch and heat him clapping their hands stamping with their feet and dancing before the champions offering them cups then draw them backe againe to increase their appetite and thus continue till they be drunke or their drinke done which they hold an honour and no infirmity Though the ground be fertile they sow little corne yet the Gentlemen have bread and hony-wine grapes they have plenty and wine privately and good flesh fish but the common sort stamped millit mingled with milke and water They call Cassa for meat and drinke any thing also any beast unprofitable for service they kill when they are like to die or however they die they will eat them guts liver and all but the most fleshy parts they cut in thinne slices and hang it up in the Sunne and wind wihout salting where it will drie so hard it will not putrifie in a long time A Ramme they esteeme a great feast among forty or fiftie which they cut in peeces boiled or roast puts it in a great bowle with salt and water for other sauce they have none the master of the feast giveth every one a peece which he eateth by himselfe or carrieth away with him Thus their hard fare makes them so infinite in Cattell and their great number of captived women to breed vpon makes them so populous But neere the Christian frontiers the baser sort make little cottages of wood called Vlusi daubed over with durt and beasts dung covered with sedge yet in Summer they leave them beginning their progresse in Aprill with their wives children and slaves in their carted houses scarce convenient for foure or five persons driving their flocks towards Perecopya and sometimes into Taurica or Osow a towne upon the river Tanais which is great and swift where the Turke hath a garrison and in October returne againe to their Cottages Their Clothes are the skinnes of dogges goats and sheepe lined with cotten cloath made of their finest wooll for of their worst they make their felt which they use in aboundance as well for shooes and caps as houses beds and Idolls also of the coarse wooll mingled with horse haire they make all their cordage Notwithstanding this wandring life their Princes sit in great state upon beds or carpits and with great reverence are attended both by

this last yeare was there at least two or th●ee and twenty saile They have oft much salt fi●h from New England but fresh fish enough when they will take it Peaches in abundance at Kecoughtan Apples Peares Apricocks Vines figges and other fruits some have planted that prosper●d ●xceedin●ly but their diligence about Tobacco left them to be spoiled by the c●ttell yet now they beginne to revive Mistresse Pearce an honest indus●rious woman hath beene there neere twentie yeares and now returned sait● shee hath a Garden at Iames towne containing three ●r s●me a●●e● where in one yeare shee hath gathered neere an hundred b●shels of ●x●ellent figges and that of her owne provision she can keepe a b●tter house in Virginia than here in London for 3. or 400. pounds a yeare yet went thither with little or nothing They have some tame geese ducks and turkies The masters now do so traine up their servants and youth in shooting deere and fowle that the youths will kill them as well as their Mast●●s They have two brew-houses but they finde the Indian corne so much better than ours they beginne to leave sow●●g it Their Cities and Townes are onely scattered houses they call plantations as are our Country Villages but no Ordnance mounted The Forts Captaine Smith left a building so ruined there is scarce mention where they were no discoveries of any thing more than the curing of Tobacco by which hitherto being so present a commodity of gaine it hath brought them to this abundance but that they are so disjoynted and every one commander of himselfe to plant what he will they are now so well provided that they are able to subsist and if they would joyne together now to worke upon Sope-ashes Iron R●pe-oile Mader Pitch and Tarre Flax and Hempe as for their Tobacco there comes from many places such abundance and the charge so great it is not worth the bringing home There is gone and now a going divers Ships as Captaine Perse Captaine Prine with Sir Iohn Harvy to be their governour with two or three hundred people there is also some Bristow and other parts of the West Country a preparing which I heartily pray to God to blesse and send them a happy and prosperous voyage Nathaniel Causie Master Hutchins Master Floud Iohn Davis William Emerson Master William Barnet Master Cooper and others CHAP. XXII The proceedings and present estate of the Summer Iles from An. Dom. 1624 to this present 1629. FRom the Summer Iles Master Ireland and divers others report their Forts O●dnance and proceedings are much as they were in the yeare 1622. as you may read in the generall History page 199. Captaine Woodhouse governour There are few sorts of any fruits in the West Indies but they grow there in abundance yet the fertility of the soile in many places decayeth being planted every yeare for their Plantaines which is a most delicate fruit they have lately found a way by pickling or drying them to bring them over into England there beinq no such fruit in Europe wonderfull for increase For fish flesh figs wine and all sorts of most excellent hearbs fruits and rootes they have in abundance In this Governours time a kinde of Whale or rather a Iubarta was driven on shore in Southampton tr●be from the west over an infinite number of rocks so bruised that the water in the Bay where she lay was all oily and the rocks about it all bedasht with Parmacitty congealed like ice a good quantity we gathered with which we commonly cured any byle hurt or bruise some burnt it in their lamps which blowing out the very snuffe will burne so long as there is any of the oile remaining for two or three dayes together The next Governour was Captaine Philip Bell whose time being expired Captaine Roger Wodd possessed his place a worthy Gentleman of good desert and hath lived a long time in the Country their numbers are about two or three thousand men women and children who increase there exceedingly their greatest complaint is want of apparell and too much custome and too many officers the pity is there are more men than women yet no great mischiefe because there is so much lesse pride the cattell they have increase exceedingly their forts are well maintained by the Merchants here and Planters there to be briefe this I le is an excellent bit to rule great horse All the Cohow birds and Egbirds are gone seldome any wilde cats seene no Rats to speake of but the wormes are yet very troublesome the people very healthfull and the Ravens gone fish enough but not so neere the shore as it used by the much beating it it is an I le that hath such a rampire and a ditch and for the quantity so manned victualled and fortified as few in the world doe exceed it or is like it The 22. of March two ships came from thence the Peter-Bonaventure neere two hundred tunnes and sixteene peeces of Ordnance the Captaine Thomas Sherwin The Master Master Edward Some like him in condition a goodly lusty proper valiant man the Lydia wherein was Master Anthony Thorne a smaller ship were chased by eleuen ships of Dunkerk being thus overmatched Captaine Sherwin was taken by them in Turbay only his valiant Master was slaine the ship with about seventy English men they carried betwixt Dover and Callis to Dunk●rk but the Lydia safely recovered Dartmouth These noble adventurers for all those losses patiently doe beare them but they hope the King and state will understand it is worth keeping though it afford nothing but Tobacco and that now worth little or nothing custome and fraught payed yet it is worth keeping and not supplanting though great men feele not those losses yet Gardiners Carpenters and Smiths doe pay for it From the relation of Robert Chesteven and others Chap. XXIII The proceedings and present estate of New England Since 1614. to this present 1629. WHen I went first to the North part of Virginia where the Westerly Colony had beene planted it had dissolved it selfe within a yeare and there was not one Christian in all the land I was set forth at the sole charge of foure Merchants of London the Country being then reputed by your westerlings a most rockie barren desolate desart but the good returne I brought from thence with the maps and relations I made of the Country which I made so manifest some of them did beleeve me and they were well embraced both by the Londoners and Westerlings for whom I had promised to undertake it thinking to have joyned them all together but that might well have become a worke for Hercules Betwixt them long there was much contention the Londoners indeed went bravely forward but in three or foure yeares I and my friends consumed many hundred pounds amongst the Plimothians who only sed me but with delayes promises and excuses but no performance of any thing to any purpose In the interim many particular ships