[65]The only passenger known to have a name similar to Jennings was John Jenny, who lived to be an important man in the Plymouth Colony. This woman may have been one in his series of wives.
[66]Indian name for Plymouth.
[67]Double his money.
[68]Monhegan and Damerill’s Cove (Damariscove) are islands off the coast of Maine, each with a well-protected small harbor. Pemaquid is the peninsula east of Boothbay, Me.; Sagadahoc is the extension of the Kennebec River below its junction with the Androscoggin. Anquam is Gloucester or Annisquam on Cape Ann, Mass. The Isles of Shoals are off New Hampshire.
[69]A fishing stage, built over rock ledges near some convenient harbor, was a scaffold or “wharf built of spruce trees, boards, and beach stones where the fish could be cleaned,” salted and cured in the sun. The fishermen raced from Europe to get the best places, so a ship already in New England waters could hope to beat them all. S. E. Morison, The Story of the “Old Colony” of New Plymouth (1956), 122. The new year began on March 25 in the Old Style dating system.
[70]“Alcerme” in the manuscript. Both Altham and Capt. John Smith believed that alkermes berries existed in North America. Perhaps they thought cranberries were the same things. Actually, alkermes berries are insects (species coccus ilicis) which live in the bark of the kerm oak, a tree found around the Mediterranean Sea. The pregnant females have a bright red color, and juice squeezed from them was used as a dye and a cordial, especially in times when they were still thought to be a vegetable.
[71]A master salter went over on the Anne, but he proved a better talker than practitioner of his business. The Pilgrims gave him a lot of help, but he made no salt. In spite of the logic of the idea, saltmaking never became important in the Plymouth Colony.
[72]Martha’s Vineyard, Mass.
[73]“Bowle alminact” in the manuscript. The term had many variants, but referred to an astringent earth found in Armenia, used as a styptic.
[74]Capt. Thomas Dermer made two voyages of exploration along the Atlantic coast between Monhegan and Virginia in 1619 and 1620, employed by Sir Ferdinando Gorges and others interested in developing New England. He learned much and tried to establish peace with the Indians, but in his dealings with those near Narragansett Bay (where he liberated some French mariners) and Martha’s Vineyard, he may have stirred up fear of the English. He was mortally wounded in a fight with Epenow, an Indian who had once been a captive of Sir Ferdinando and shown off as a curiosity in England. W. F. Gookin, Capawack alias Martha’s Vineyard, 14-17.