1672 edition by Josselyn.
New-Englands
RARITIES
Discovered:
IN
Birds, Beasts, Fishes, Serpents, and Plants
of that Country.
Together with
The Physical and Chyrurgical Remedies wherewith
the Natives constantly use to Cure their
Distempers, Wounds, and Sores.
ALSO
A perfect Description of an Indian SQUA, in all
her Bravery; with a POEM not improperly
conferr’d upon her.
LASTLY
A CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE
of the most remarkable Passages in that Country
amongst the English.
Illustrated with CUTS.
By JOHN JOSSELYN, Gent.
London, Printed for G. Widdowes at the
Green Dragon in St. Pauls Church yard, 1672.
To the highly obliging,
His Honoured Friend and Kinsman,
Samuel Fortrey Esq;
SIR,
IT was by your assistance (enabling me) that I commenc’d a Voyage into those remote-parts of the World (known to us by the painful Discovery of that memorable Gentleman Sir Fran. Drake.) Your bounty then and formerly hath engaged a retribution of my Gratitude, and not knowing how to testifie the same unto you otherwayes, I have (although with some reluctancy) adventured to obtrude upon you these rude and indigested Eight Years Observations, wherein whether I shall more shame my self or injure your accurate Judgment and better Employment in the perusal, is a question.
We read of Kings and Gods that kindly took
A Pitcher fill’d with Water from the Brook.
The Contemplation whereof (well knowing your noble and generous Disposition) hath confirm’d in me the hope that you will pardon my presumption, and accept the tender of the fruits of my Travel after this homely manner, and my self as,
Sir,
Your highly obliged,
&
most humble Servant,
John Josselyn.
New-Englands
RARITIES
Discovered.
IN the year of our Lord 1663. May 28. upon an Invitation from my only Brother, I departed from London, and arrived at Boston, the chief Town in the Massachusetts, a Colony of Englishmen in New-England, the 28th of July following.
Boston (whose longitude is 315 deg. and 42 deg. 30 min. of North Latitude) is built on the South-west side of a Bay large enough for the Anchorage of 500 Sail of Ships, the Buildings are handsome, joyning one to the other as in London, with many large streets, most of them paved with pebble stone, in the high street towards the Common, there are fair buildings, some of stone, and at the East End of the {2} Town one amongst the rest, built by the Shore by Mr. Gibs, a Merchant, being a stately Edifice, which it is thought will stand him in little less than 3000 l. before it be fully finished.[26] The Town is not divided into Parishes, yet they have three fair Meeting-houses or Churches, which hardly suffice to receive the Inhabitants and Strangers that come in from all parts.[27]
Having refreshed my self here for some time, and opportunely lighting upon a passage in a Bark belonging to a Friend of my Brothers, and bound to the Eastward, I put to sea again, and on the Fifteenth of August, I arrived at Black-point, otherwise called Scarborow, the habitation of my beloved Brother,[28] being about an hundred leagues to the Eastward of Boston; here I resided eight years, and made it my business to discover all along the Natural, Physical, and Chyrurgical Rarities of this New-found World.
New-England is said to begin at 40 and to end at 46 of Northerly Latitude, that is from de la Ware Bay to New-found-Land.
The Sea Coasts are accounted wholsomest, the East and South Winds coming {3} from Sea produceth warm weather, the Northwest coming over land causeth extremity of Cold, and many times strikes the Inhabitants both English and Indian with that sad Disease called there the Plague of the back, but with us Empiema.[29]
The Country generally is Rocky and Mountanous, and extremely overgrown with wood, yet here and there beautified with large rich Valleys, wherein are Lakes ten, twenty, yea sixty miles in compass, out of which our great Rivers have their Beginnings.[30]
Fourscore miles (upon a direct line) to the Northwest of Scarborow, a Ridge of Mountains run Northwest and Northeast an hundred Leagues, known by the name of the White Mountains, upon which lieth Snow all the year, and is a Land-mark twenty miles off at Sea. It is rising ground from the Sea shore to these Hills, and they are inaccessible but by the Gullies which the dissolved Snow hath made; in these Gullies grow Saven Bushes, which being taken hold of are a good help to the climbing Discoverer; upon the top of the highest of these Mountains is a large Level {4} or Plain of a days journey over, whereon nothing grows but Moss: at the farther end of this Plain is another Hill called the Sugar-Loaf, to outward appearance a rude heap of massie stones piled one upon another, and you may as you ascend step from one stone to another, as if you were going up a pair of stairs, but winding still about the Hill till you come to the top, which will require half a days time, and yet it is not above a Mile, where there is also a Level of about an Acre of ground, with a pond of clear water in the midst of it; which you may hear run down, but how it ascends is a mystery. From this rocky Hill you may see the whole Country round about; it is far above the lower Clouds, and from hence we beheld a Vapour (like a great Pillar) drawn up by the Sun Beams out of a great Lake or Pond into the Air, where it was formed into a Cloud. The Country beyond these Hills Northward is daunting terrible, being full of rocky Hills, as thick as Mole-hills in a Meadow, and cloathed with infinite thick Woods.[31]
New-England is by some affirmed to be an Island, bounded on the North with the {5} River Canada, (so called from Monsieur Cane) on the South with the River Mohegan, or Hudsons River, so called because he was the first that discovered it.[32] Some will have America to be an Island, which out of question must needs be, if there be a Northeast passage found out into the South Sea; it contains 1152400000 Acres. The discovery of the Northwest passage (which lies within the River of Canada) was undertaken with the help of some Protestant Frenchmen, which left Canada and retired to Boston about the year 1669. The Northeast people of America i.e. New England, &c. are judged to be Tartars called Samoades, being alike in complexion, shape, habit and manners, (see the Globe:) Their Language is very significant, using but few words, every word having a diverse signification, which is exprest by their gesture; as when they hold their head of one side the word signifieth one thing, holding their hand up when they pronounce it signifieth another thing. Their Speeches in their Assemblies are very gravely delivered, commonly in perfect Hexamiter Verse, with great silence and attention, and answered again ex tempore after the same manner.[33]
{6} Having given you some short Notes concerning the Country in general, I shall now enter upon the proposed Discovery of the Natural, Physical, and Chyrurgical Rarities; and that I may methodically deliver them unto you, I shall cast them into this form: 1. Birds. 2. Beasts. 3. Fishes. 4. Serpents and Insects. 5. Plants, of these, 1. such Plants as are common with us, 2. of such Plants as are proper to the country, 3. of such Plants as are proper to the Country and have no name known to us, 4. of such Plants as have sprung up since the English Planted and kept Cattle there, 5. of such Garden Herbs (amongst us) as do thrive there and of such as do not. 6. Of Stones, Minerals, Metals, and Earths.
First, Of Birds.[34]
The Humming Bird.
The Humming Bird, the least of all Birds, little bigger than a Dor, of variable glittering Colours, they feed upon Honey, which they suck out of Blossoms {7} and Flowers with their long Needle-like Bills; they sleep all Winter, and are not to be seen till the Spring, at which time they breed in little Nests, made up like a bottom of soft, Silk-like matter, their Eggs no bigger than a white Pease, they hatch three or four at a time, and are proper to this Country.
The Troculus.[35]
The Troculus, a small Bird, black and white, no bigger than a Swallow, the points of whose Feathers are sharp, which they stick into the sides of the Chymney (to rest themselves, their Legs being exceeding short) where they breed in Nests made like a Swallows Nest, but of a glewy substance, and which is not fastened to the Chymney as a Swallows Nest, but hangs down the Chymney by a clew-like string a yard long. They commonly have four or five young ones, and when they go away, which is much about the time that Swallows use to depart, they never fail to throw down one of their young Birds into the room by way of Gratitude. I have more than once observed, that against the ruin of the Family these Birds will suddenly forsake the house and come no more.
{8} The Pilhannaw.[36]
The Pilhannaw or Mechquan, much like the description of the Indian Ruck, a monstrous great Bird, a kind of Hawk, some say an Eagle, four times as big as a Goshawk, white Mail’d, having two or three purple Feathers in her head as long as Geeses Feathers they make Pens of the Quills of these Feathers are purple, as big as Swans Quills and transparent; her Head is as big as a Childs of a year old, a very Princely Bird; when she soars abroad, all sort of feathered Creatures hide themselves, yet she never preys upon any of them, but upon Fawns and Jaccals: She Ayries in the Woods upon the high Hills of Ossapy, and is very rarely or seldome seen.
The Turkie.[37]
The Turkie, who is blacker than ours; I have heard several credible persons affirm, they have seen Turkie Cocks that have weighed forty, yea sixty pound; but out of my personal experimental knowledge I can assure you, that I have eaten my share of a Turkie Cock, that when he was pull’d and garbidg’d, weighed thirty {9} pound; and I have also seen threescore broods of young Turkies on the side of a marsh, sunning of themselves in a morning betimes, but this was thirty years since, the English and the Indians having now destroyed the breed, so that ’tis very rare to meet with a wild Turkie in the Woods; But some of the English bring up great store of the wild kind, which remain about their Houses as tame as ours in England.
The Goose.[38]
The Goose, of which there are three kinds; the Gray Goose, the White Goose, and the Brant: The Goose will live a long time; I once found in a White Goose three Hearts, she was a very old one, and so tuff, that we gladly gave her over although exceeding well roasted.
The Bloody-Flux Cured.
A Friend of mine of good Quality living sometime in Virginia was sore troubled for a long time with the Bloody-Flux, having tryed several Remedies by the advice of his Friends without any good effect, at last was induced with a longing desire to drink the Fat Dripping {10} of a Goose newly taken from the Fire, which absolutely cured him, who was in despair of ever recovering his health again.
The Gripe and Vulture.
The Gripe, which is of two kinds, the one with a White Head, the other with a black Head, this we take for the Vulture. They are both cowardly Kites,[39] preying upon Fish cast up on the shore. In the year 1668 there was a great mortality of Eels in Casco Bay, thither resorted at the same time an infinite number of Gripes, insomuch that being shot by the Inhabitants, they fed their Hogs with them for some weeks; at other times you shall seldom see above two or three in a dozen miles travelling. The Quill Feathers in their Wings make excellent Text Pens, and the Feathers of their Tail are highly esteemed by the Indians for their Arrows, they will not sing in flying; a Gripes Tail is worth a Beavers Skin, up in the Country.
A Remedy for the Coldness and pain of the Stomach.
The Skin of a Gripe drest with the doun on, is good to wear upon the Stomach for the Pain and Coldness of it.
{11} The Osprey.
The Osprey, which in this Country is white mail’d.
A Remedy for the Tooth-ach.
Their Beaks excell for the Tooth-ach, picking the Gums therewith till they bleed.
The Wobble.[40]
The Wobble, an ill shaped Fowl, having no long Feathers in their Pinions, which is the reason they cannot fly, not much unlike the Pengwin; they are in the Spring very fat, or rather oyly, but pull’d and garbidg’d, and laid to the Fire to roast, they yield not one drop.
For Aches.
Our way (for they are very soveraign for Aches) is to make Mummy of them, that is, to salt them well, and dry them in an earthern pot well glazed in an Oven; or else (which is the better way) to burn them under ground for a day or two, then quarter them and stew them in a Tin Stewpan with a very little water.
{12} The Loone.
The Loone is a Water Fowl, alike in shape to the Wobble, and as virtual for Aches, which we order after the same manner.[41]
The Owl.
The Owl, Avis devia, which are of three kinds; the great Gray Owl with Ears, the little Gray Owl, and the White Owl which is no bigger than a Thrush.[42]
The Turkie Buzzard.
The Turkie Buzzard, a kind of Kite, but as big as a Turkie, brown of colour, and very good meat.[43]
What Birds are not to be found in New-England.
Now, by what the country hath not, you may ghess at what it hath; it hath no Nightingals, nor Larks, nor Bulfinches, nor Sparrows, nor Blackbirds, nor Mag{13}pies, nor Jackdawes, nor Popinjays, nor Rooks, nor Pheasants, nor Woodcocks, nor Quails, nor Robins, nor Cuckoes, &c.[44]
Secondly, Of Beasts.[45]
The Bear, which are generally Black.[46]
The Bear, they live four months in Caves, that is all Winter; in the Spring they bring forth their young ones, they seldome have above three Cubbs in a litter, are very fat in the Fall of the Leaf with feeding upon Acorns, at which time they are excellent Venison; their Brains are venomous; They feed much upon water Plantane in the Spring and Summer, and Berries, and also upon a shell-fish called a Horse-foot; and are never mankind, i.e. fierce, but in rutting time, and then they walk the Country twenty, thirty, forty in a company, making a hideous noise with roaring, which you may hear a mile or two before they come so near to endanger the Traveller. About four years since, Acorns being very scarce up in the Country, some numbers of them came down {14} amongst the English Plantations, which generally are by the Sea side; at one Town called Gorgiana in the Province of Meyn (called also New-Sommerset-shire) they kill’d fourscore.
For Aches and Cold Swellings.
Their Grease is very good for Aches and Cold Swellings, the Indians anoint themselves therewith from top to toe, which hardens them against the cold weather. A black Bears Skin heretofore was worth forty shillings, now you may have one for ten, much used by the English for Beds and Coverlets, and by the Indians for Coats.
For Pain and Lameness upon Cold.
One Edw. Andrews being foxt,[47] and falling backward cross a Thought[48] in a Shallop or Fisher-boat, and taking cold upon it, grew crooked, lame, and full of pain, was cured, lying one Winter upon Bears Skins newly flead off, with some upon him, so that he sweat every night.
The Wolf.[49]
The Wolf, of which there are two kinds; one with a round-ball’d Foot, and {15} are in shape like mungrel Mastiffs; the other with a flat Foot, these are liker Greyhounds, and are called Deer Wolfs, because they are accustomed to prey upon Deer. A Wolf will eat a Wolf new dead, and so do Bears as I suppose, for their dead Carkases are never found, neither by the Indian nor English. They go a clicketing twelve days, and have as many Whelps at a Litter as a Bitch. The Indian Dog[50] is a Creature begotten ’twixt a Wolf and a Fox, which the Indians lighting upon, bring up to hunt the Deer with. The Wolf is very numerous, and go in companies, sometimes ten, twenty, more or fewer, and so cunning, that seldome any are kill’d with Guns or Traps; but of late they have invented a way to destroy them, by binding four Maycril Hooks a cross with a brown thread, and then wrapping some Wool about them, they dip them in melted Tallow till it be as round and as big as an Egg; these (when any Beast hath been kill’d by the Wolves) they scatter by the dead Carkase, after they have beaten off the Wolves; about Midnight the Wolves are sure to return again to the place where they left the slaughtered Beast, and the {16} first thing they venture upon will be these balls of fat.
For old Aches.
A black Wolfs Skin is worth a Beaver Skin among the Indians, being highly esteemed for helping old Aches in old people, worn as a Coat; they are not mankind, as in Ireland and other Countries, but do much harm by destroying of our English Cattle.
The Ounce.[51]
The Ounce or Wild Cat, is about the bigness of two lusty Ram Cats, preys upon Deer and our English Poultrey: I once found six whole Ducks in the belly of one I killed by a Pond side: Their flesh roasted is as good as Lamb, and as white.
For Aches and shrunk Sinews.
Their Grease is soveraign for all manner of Aches and shrunk Sinews: Their Skins are accounted good Fur, but somewhat course.
{17} The Raccoon.[52]
The Raccoon liveth in hollow trees, and is about the size of a Gib Cat; they feed upon Mass, and do infest our Indian Corn very much; they will be exceeding fat in Autumn; their flesh is somewhat dark, but good food roasted.
For Bruises and Aches.
Their Fat is excellent for bruises and Aches. Their Skins are esteemed a good deep Fur; but yet as the Wild Cats somewhat coarse.
The Porcupine.
The Porcupine, in some parts of the Countrey Eastward towards the French, are as big as an ordinary Mungrel Cur; a very angry Creature, and dangerous, shooting a whole shower of Quills with a rowse at their enemies, which are of that nature, that wherever they stick in the flesh, they will work through in a short time, if not prevented by pulling of them out. The Indians make use of their Quills, which are hardly a handful long, to adorn {18} the edges of their birchen dishes, and weave (dying some of them red, others yellow and blew) curious bags or pouches, in works like Turkie-work.[53]
The Beaver, Canis Ponticus, Amphybious.[54]
The Beaver, whose old ones are as big as an Otter, or rather bigger, a Creature of a rare instinct, as may apparently be seen in their artificial Dam-heads to raise the water in the Ponds where they keep, and their houses having three stories, which would be too large to discourse.[54] They have all of them four Cods hanging outwardly between their hinder legs, two of them are soft or oyly, and two solid or hard; the Indians say they are Hermaphrodites.
For Wind in the Stomach.
Their solid Cods are much used in Physick: Our Englishwomen in this Country use the powder grated, as much as will lye upon a shilling in a draught of Fiol Wine, for Wind in the Stomach and Belly, and venture many times in such cases to give it to Women with Child: Their Tails are flat, and covered with Scales without hair, {19} which being flead off, and the Tail boiled, proves exceeding good meat, being all Fat, and as sweet as Marrow.
The Moose-Deer.[55]
The Moose Deer, which is a very goodly Creature, some of them twelve foot high, with exceeding fair Horns with broad Palms, some of them two fathom from the tip of one Horn to the other; they commonly have three Fawns at a time, their flesh is not dry like Deers flesh, but moist and lushious somewhat like Horse flesh (as they judge that have tasted of both) but very wholsome. The flesh of their Fawns is an incomparable dish, beyond the flesh of an Asses Foal so highly esteemed by the Romans, or that of young Spaniel Puppies so much cried up in our days in France and England.
Moose Horns better for Physick Use than Harts Horns.
Their Horns are far better (in my opinion) for Physick than the Horns of other Deer, as being of a stronger nature: As for their Claws, which both Englishmen and French make use of for Elk, I cannot {20} approve so to be from the Effects, having had some trial of it; besides, all that write of the Elk describe him with a tuft of hair on the left Leg behind, a little above the pastern joynt on the outside of the Leg, not unlike the tuft (as I conceive) that groweth upon the breast of a Turkie Cock, which I could never yet see upon the Leg of a Moose, and I have seen some number of them.
For Children breeding Teeth.
The Indian Webbes make use of the broad Teeth of the Fawns to hang about their Childrens Neck when they are breeding of their Teeth. The Tongue of a grown Moose, dried in the smoak after the Indian manner, is a dish for a Sagamor.
The Maccarib.[56]
The Maccarib, Caribo, or Pohano, a kind of Deer, as big as a Stag, round hooved, smooth hair’d and soft as silk; their Horns grow backwards a long their backs to their rumps, and turn again a handful beyond their Nose, having another Horn in the middle of their Forehead, about half a yard long, very straight, but {21} wreathed like an Unicorns Horn, of a brown jettie colour, and very smooth: The Creature is no where to be found, but upon Cape Sable in the French Quarters, and there too very rarely, they being not numerous; some few of their Skins and their streight Horns are (but very sparingly) brought to the English.
The Fox.[57]
The Fox, which differeth not much from ours, but are somewhat less; a black Fox Skin heretofore was wont to be valued at fifty and sixty pound, but now you may have them for twenty shillings; indeed there is not any in New-England that are perfectly black, but silver hair’d, that is sprinkled with grey hairs.
The Jaccal.[58]
The Jaccal, is a Creature that hunts the Lions prey, a shrew’d sign that there are Lions upon the Continent; there are those that are yet living in the Countrey, that do constantly affirm, that about six or seven and thirty years since an Indian {22} shot a young Lion,[59] sleeping upon the body of an Oak blown up by the roots, with an Arrow, not far from Cape Anne, and sold the Skin to the English. But to say something of the Jaccal, they are ordinarily less than Foxes, of the colour of a gray Rabbet, and do not scent nothing near so strong as a Fox; some of the Indians will eat of them: Their Grease is good for all that Fox Grease is good for, but weaker; they are very numerous.
The Hare.[60]
The Hare in New-England is no bigger than our English Rabbets, of the same colour, but withall having yellow and black strokes down the ribs; in Winter they are milk white, and as the Spring approacheth they come to their colour; when the Snow lies upon the ground they are very bitter with feeding upon the bark of Spruce, and the like.[61]
{23} Thirdly, Of Fishes.[62]
Pliny and Isadore write there are not above 144 Kinds of Fishes, but to my knowledge there are nearer 300: I suppose America was not known to Pliny and Isadore.
A Catalogue of Fish, that is, of those that are to be seen between the English Coast and America, and those proper to the Countrey.
Alderling.
Alize, Alewife, because great-bellied; Olafle, Oldwife, Allow.[63]
Anchova or Sea Minnow.
Aleport.
Albicore.[64]
Barble.
Barracha.
Barracoutha, a fish peculiar to the West-Indies.[65]
Barsticle.
Basse.[66]
Sea Bishop, proper to the Norway Seas.
{24} River Bleak or Bley, a River Swallow.
Sea Bleak or Bley, or Sea Camelion.
Blew Fish or Hound Fish, two kinds, speckled Hound Fish, and Blew Hound Fish called Horse Fish.[67]
Bonito or Dozado, or Spanish Dolphin.[68]
River Bream.
Sea Bream.[69]
Cud Bream.
Bullhead or Indian Muscle.
River Bulls.
Burfish.
Burret.
Cackarel or Laxe.
Calemarie or Sea Clerk.
Catfish.[70]
Carp.
Chare, a Fish proper to the River Wimander in Lancashire.
Sea Chough.
Chub or Chevin.
Cony Fish.
Clam or Clamp.[71]
Sea Cob.
Cockes, or Coccles, or Coquil.[72]
Cook Fish.
Rock Cod.
Sea Cod or Sea Whiting.[73]
{25} Crab, divers kinds, as the Sea Crab, Boatfish, River Crab, Sea Lion, &c.
Sea Cucumber.
Cunger or Sea Eel.
Cunner or Sea Roach.
Cur.
Currier, Post, or Lacquey of the Sea.
Crampfish or Torpedo.
Cuttle, or Sleeves, or Sea Angler.
Clupea, the Tunnies enemy.
Sea Cornet.
Cornuta or Horned Fish.
Dace, Dare, or Dart.
Sea Dart, Javelins.
Dog-fish or Tubarone.
Dolphin.
Dorce.
Dorrie, Goldfish.
Golden-eye, Gilt-pole, or Godline, Yellow-heads.
Sea Dragon or Sea Spider, Quaviner.
Drum, a Fish frequent in the West Indies.
Sea Emperour or Sword Fish.
Eel, of which divers kinds.[74]
Sea Elephant, the Leather of this Fish will never rot, excellent for Thongs.
Ears of the Sea.
Flayl-fish.
{26} Flownder or Flook, the young ones are called Dabs.
Sea Flownder or Flowre.
Sea Fox.
Frogfish.
Frostfish.[75]
Frutola, a broad plain Fish with a Tail like a half Moon.
Sea Flea.
Gallyfish.
Grandpiss[76] or Herring Hog, this, as all Fish of extraordinary size, are accounted Regal Fishes.
Grayling.
Greedigut.
Groundling.
Gudgin.
Gulf.
Sea Grape.
Gull.
Gurnard.
Hake.
Haccle or Sticklebacks.
Haddock.
Horse Foot or Asses Hoof.
Herring.
Hallibut or Sea Pheasant. Some will have the Turbut all one, others distinguish {27} them, calling the young Fish of the first Buttis, and of the other Birt. There is no question to be made of it but that they are distinct kinds of Fish.[77]
Sea Hare.[78]
Sea Hawk.
Hartfish.
Sea Hermit.
Henfish.
Sea Hind.
Hornbeak, Sea Ruff and Reeves.
Sea Horseman.
Hog or Flying Fish.
Sea Kite or Flying Swallow.
Lampret or Lamprel.
Lampreys or Lamprones.[79]
Limpin.
Ling, Sea Beef; the smaller sort is called Cusk.
Sea Lanthorn.
Sea Liver.
Lobster.[80]
Sea Lizard.
Sea Locusts.
Lump, Poddle, or Sea Owl.
Lanter.
Lux, peculiar to the river Rhyne.
Sea Lights.
{28} Luna, a very small Fish, but exceeding beautiful, broad-bodied and blewish of colour; when it swims, the Fins make a Circle like the Moon.
Maycril.
Maid.
Manatee.
Mola, a Fish like a lump of Flesh, taken in the Venetian Sea.
Millers Thumb, Mulcet or Pollard.
Molefish.
Minnow, called likewise a Pink; the same name is given to young Salmon; it is called also a Witlin.
Monkefish.[81]
Morse, River or Sea Horse,[82] fresh water Mullet.
Sea Mullet, Botargo or Petargo is made of their Spawn.
Muscle, divers kinds.[83]
Navelfish.
Nunfish.
Needlefish.
Sea Nettle.
Oyster.[84]
Occulata.
Perch or River Partridge.
Pollack.
{29} Piper or Gavefish.
Periwig.
Periwincle or Sea Snail or Whelk.
Pike, or Fresh-water Wolf, or River Wolf, Luce and Lucerne, which is an overgrown Pike.
Pilchard, when they are dried as Red Herrings they are called Fumadoes.
Pilot Fish.
Plaice or Sea Sparrow.
Polipe or Pour-Contrel.
Porpuise or Porpiss, Molebut, Sea Hog, Sus Marinus, Tursion.
Priest Fish or Sea Priest.
Prawn or Crangone.
Punger.
Patella.
Powt, the Feathered Fish, or Fork Fish.
River Powt.
Pursefish, or Indian Reversus, like an Eel; having a Skin on the hinder part of her Head, like a Purse, with strings, which will open and shut.
Parratfish.
Purplefish.
Porgee.
Remora, or Suck Stone, or Stop Ship.
Sea Raven.
{30} Roch or Roach.
Rochet or Rouget.
Ruff or Pope.
Sea Ram.
Salmon.[85]
Sailfish.
Scallope or Venus Coccle.
Scate, or Ray, or Gristlefish; of which divers kinds; as sharp snowted Ray, Rock Ray, &c.
Shad.[86]
Shallow.
Sharpling.
Spurling.
Sculpin.
Sheepshead.[87]
Soles, or Tonguefish, or Sea Capon, or Sea Partridge.
Seal, or Soil, or Zeal.[88]
Sea Calf, and (as some will have it) Molebut.
Sheathfish.[89]
Sea Scales.
Sturgeon; of the Roe of this Fish they make Caviare, or Cavialtie.[90]
Shark or Bunch, several kinds.[91]
Smelt.
Snaccot.
{31} Shrimp.
Spyfish.
Spitefish.
Sprat.
Spungefish.
Squill.
Squid.[92]
Sunfish.
Starfish.[93]
Swordfish.
Tench.
Thornback or Neptunes Beard.
Thunnie, they cut the Fish in pieces like shingles and powder it, and this they call Melandria.
Sea Toad.
Tortoise, Torteise, Tortuga, Tortisse, Turcle or Turtle, of divers kinds.[94]
Trout.[95]
Turbut.[96]
Sea Tun.
Sea Tree.
Uraniscopus.
Ulatise or Sawfish, having a Saw in his Forehead three foot long, and very sharp.
Umber.
Sea Urchin.
{32} Sea Unicorn or Sea Mononeros.
Whale, many kinds.[97]
Whiting or Merling, the young ones are called Weerlings and Mops.
Whore.[98]
Yardfish, Asses Prick or Shamefish.
The Sturgeon.
The Sturgeon, of whose Sounds is made Isinglass, a kind of Glew much used in Physick: This Fish is here in great plenty, and in some Rivers so numerous, that it is hazardous for Canoes and the like small Vessels to pass to and again, as in Pechipscut River to the Eastward.
The Cod.
The Cod, which is a staple Commodity in the Country.
To stop Fluxes of Blood.
In the Head of this Fish is found a Stone, or rather a Bone, which being pulveriz’d and drank in any convenient liquor, will stop Womens overflowing Courses notably: Likewise,
{33} For the Stone.
There is a Stone found in their Bellies, in a Bladder against their Navel, which being pulveriz’d and drank in White-wine Posset or Ale, is present Remedy for the Stone.
To heal a green Cut.
About their Fins you may find a kind of Lowse, which healeth a green Cut in short time.
To restore them that have melted their Grease.
Their Livers and Sounds eaten, is a good Medicine for to restore them that have melted their Grease.
The Dogfish.
The Dogfish, a ravenous Fish.
For the Toothach.
Upon whose Back grows a Thorn two or three Inches long, that helps the Toothach, scarifying the Gums therewith.
Their Skins are good to cover Boxes and Instrument Cases.
{34} The Stingray.
The Stingray, a large Fish, of a rough Skin, good to cover Boxes and Hafts of Knives, and Rapier sticks.
The Tortous.
The Turtle or Tortous, of which there are three kinds:
1. The land Turtle; they are found in dry sandy Banks, under old Houses, and never go into the water.
For the Ptisick, Consumption, and Morbus Gallicus.
They are good for the Ptisick and Consumptions, and some say the Morbus Gallicus.
2. The River Turtle, which are venomous and stink.
3. The Turtle that lives in Lakes and is called in Virginia a Terrapine.
The Soile.
The Soile or Sea Calf, a Creature that brings forth her young ones upon dry land, but at other times keeps in the Sea preying upon Fish.
{35} For Scalds and Burns, and for the Mother.
The Oyl of it is much used by the Indians, who eat of it with their Fish, and anoint their limbs therewith, and their Wounds and Sores: It is very good for Scalds and Burns; and the fume of it, being cast upon Coals, will bring Women out of the Mother Fits. The Hair upon the young ones is white, and as soft as silk; their Skins, with the Hair on, are good to make Gloves for the Winter.
The Sperma Ceti Whale.
The Sperma Ceti Whale differeth from the Whales that yield us Whale-bones, for the first hath great and long Teeth, the other is nothing but Bones with Tassels hanging from their Jaws, with which they suck in their prey.
What Sperma Ceti is.
It is not long since a Sperma Ceti Whale or two were cast upon the shore, not far from Boston in the Massachusetts Bay, which being cut into small pieces and boiled in Cauldrons, yielded plenty of Oyl; the Oyl put up into Hogsheads, and flow’d into Cellars for some time, Candies at the {36} bottom, it may be one quarter; then the Oyl is drawn off, and the Candied Stuff put up into convenient Vessels is sold for Sperma Ceti, and is right Sperma Ceti.
For Bruises and Aches.
The Oyl that was drawn off Candies again and again, if well ordered; and is admirable for Bruises and Aches.
What Ambergreece is.
Now you must understand this Whale feeds upon Ambergreece, as is apparent, finding it in the Whales Maw in great quantity, but altered and excrementitious: I conceive that Ambergreece is no other than a kind of Mushroom growing at the bottom of some Seas; I was once shewed (by a Mariner) a piece of Ambergreece having a root to it like that of the land Mushroom, which the Whale breaking up, some scape his devouring Paunch, and is afterwards cast upon shore.
The Coccle.[99]
A kind of Coccle, of whose Shell the Indians make their Beads called Wompampeag and Mohaicks, the first are white, the other blew, both Orient, and beau{37}tified with a purple Vein. The white Beads are very good to stanch Blood.
The Scarlet Muscle.
The Scarlet Muscle, at Paschatawey a Plantation about fifty leagues by Sea Eastward from Boston, in a small Cove called Bakers Cove there is found this kind of Muscle which hath a purple Vein, which being prickt with a Needle yieldeth a perfect purple or scarlet juice, dying Linnen so that no washing will wear it out, but keeps its lustre many years: We mark our Handkerchiefs and Shirts with it.[100]
Fish of greatest Esteem in the West Indies.
The Indians of Peru esteem of three Fishes more than any other, viz. the Sea Torteise, the Tubaron, and the Manate,[101] or Sea Cow; but in New-England the Indians have in greatest request, the Bass, the Sturgeon, the Salmon, the Lamprey, the Eel, the Frost-fish, the Lobster and the Clam.
{38} Fourthly, Of Serpents, and Insects.[102]
The Pond Frog.[103]
The Pond Frog, which chirp in the Spring like Sparows, and croke like Toads in Autumn: Some of these when they set upon their breech are a Foot high; the Indians will tell you, that up in the Country there are Pond Frogs as big as a Child of a year old.
For Burns, Scalds, and Inflammations.
They are of a glistering brass colour, and very fat, which is excellent for Burns and Scaldings, to take out the Fire, and heal them, leaving no Scar; and is also very good to take away any Inflammation.
The Rattle Snake.[104]
The Rattle Snake, who poysons with a Vapour that comes thorough two crooked Fangs in their Mouth; the hollow of these Fangs are as black as Ink: The Indians, when weary with travelling, will {39} take them up with their bare hands, laying hold with one hand behind their Head, with the other taking hold of their Tail, and, with their teeth tear off the Skin of their backs, and feed upon them alive; which they say refresheth them.
For frozen Limbs, Aches, and Bruises.
They have Leafs of Fat in their Bellies, which is excellent to annoint frozen Limbs, and for Aches and Bruises wondrous soveraign. Their Hearts swallowed fresh, is a good Antidote against their Venome, and their Liver (the Gall taken out) bruised and applied to their Bitings is a present Remedy.
Of Insects.[105]
A Bug.
There is a certain kind of Bug like a Beetle, but of a glittering brass colour, with four strong Tinsel Wings; their Bodies are full of Corruption or white Matter like a Maggot; being dead, and kept awhile, they will stench odiously; they beat the Humming Birds from the Flowers.
{40} The Wasp.
The Wasps in this Countrey are pied, black and white, breed in Hives made like a great Pine Apple, their entrance is at the lower end, the whole Hive is of an Ash Colour, but of what matter its made no man knows; wax it is not, neither will it melt nor fry, but will take fire suddenly like Tinder: this they fasten to a Bow, or build it round about a low Bush, a Foot from the ground.
The flying Gloworm.
The flying Gloworm, flying in dark Summer Nights like sparks of Fire in great number; they are common likewise, in Palestina.