After a short nap, I arose and went to the town-house, where I found the chiefs in consultation; after some time, I was called upon, and desired to write a letter for them to the Governor of South Carolina, which signified their desire of living in peace with the English, as long as the sun shone, or grass grew, and desired that a trade might be opened between them. These wrote, I sealed them up, with some wampum and beads in the inside. I was the same day invited to Chilhowey, where I was received and treated much in the same manner as at Settico. I wrote some letters; and one that Yachtino the headman had brought from Col. Stephen was interpreted to them, which seemed to give them great satisfaction. I found here a white man, who, notwithstanding the war, lived many years among them; he told me that the lower towns had been greatly distressed when attacked by Colonel Montgomery; being obliged to live many months upon horse-flesh, and roots out of the woods, occasioned partly by the numbers drove among them, and the badness of the crops that year.
Returning home with Ostenaco the next day, being the 2d of January 1762, I enquired whether he thought I should receive any more invitations? He told me he believed not, because the towns to which I had already been invited, having been our most inveterate enemies during the war, had done this, as an acknowledgment and reparation of their fault.
I had now leisure to complete taking the courses of the river, from which, as I have already mentioned, I was deterred by the Indians, as likewise to make remarks upon the country and inhabitants.
The country being situated between thirty-two and thirty-four degrees north latitude, and eighty-seven degrees thirty minutes west longitude from London, as near as can be calculated, is temperate, inclining to heat during the summer-season, and so remarkably fertile, that the women alone do all the laborious tasks of agriculture, the soil requiring only a little stirring with a hoe, to produce whatever is required of it; yielding vast quantities of pease, beans, potatoes, cabbages, Indian corn, pumpions, melons, and tobacco, not to mention a number of other vegetables imported from Europe, not so generally known amongst them, which flourish as much, or more here, than in their native climate; and, by the daily experience of the goodness of the soil, we may conclude, that, with due care, all European plants might succeed in the same manner.
Before the arrival of the Europeans, the natives were not so well provided, maize, melons, and tobacco, being the only things they bestow culture upon, and perhaps seldom on the latter. The meadows or savannahs produce excellent grass; being watered by abundance of fine rivers, and brooks well stored with fish, otters and beavers, having as yet no nets, the Indians catch the fish with lines, spears, or dams; which last, as it seems particular to the natives of America, I shall trouble the reader with a description of. Building two walls obliquely down the river from either shore, just as they are near joining, a passage is left to a deep well or reservoir; the Indians then scaring the fish down the river, close the mouth of the reservoir with a large bush, or bundle made on purpose, and it is no difficult matter to take them with baskets, when enclosed within so small a compass.
North America, being one continual forest, admits of no scarcity of timber for every use: there are oaks of several sorts, birch, ash, pines, and a number of other trees, many of which are unknown in Europe, but already described by many authors. The woods likewise abound with fruits and flowers, to which the Indians pay little regard. Of the fruits there are some of an excellent flavour, particularly several sorts of grapes, which, with proper culture, would probably afford an excellent wine. There are likewise plumbs, cherries, and berries of several kinds, something different from those of Europe; but their peaches and pears grow only by culture: add to these several kinds of roots, and medicinal plants, particularly the plant so esteemed by the Chinese, and by them called gingsang, and a root which never fails curing the most inveterate venereal disease, which, however, they never had occasion for, for that distemper, before the arrival of Europeans among them. There are likewise an incredible number of buffaloes, bears, deer, panthers, wolves, foxes, racoons, and opossums. The buffaloes, and most of the rest, have been so often described, and are so well known, that a description of them would be but tedious; the opossum, however, deserves some attention, as I have never seen it properly described. It is about the size of a large cat, short and thick, and of a silver colour. It brings forth its young, contrary to all other animals, at the teat, from whence, when of a certain size, and able to walk, it drops off, and goes into a false belly, designed by providence in its dam for its reception, which, at the approach of danger, will, notwithstanding this additional load, climb rocks and trees with great agility for its security.
There are a vast number of lesser sort of game, such as rabbits, squirrels of several sorts, and many other animals, beside turkeys, geese, ducks of several kinds, partridges, pheasants, and an infinity of other birds, pursued only by the children, who, at eight or ten years old, are very expert at killing with a sarbacan, or hollow cane, through which they blow a small dart, whose weakness obliges them to shoot at the eye of the larger sort of prey, which they seldom miss.
There are likewise a great number of reptiles, particularly the copper-snake, whose bite is very difficult to cure, and the rattle-snake, once the terror of Europeans, now no longer apprehended, the bite being so easily cured; but neither this, nor any other species, will attempt biting unless disturbed or trod upon; neither are there any animals in America mischievous unless attacked. The flesh of the rattle-snake is extremely good; being once obliged to eat one through want of provisions, I have eat several since thro’ choice.
Of insects, the flying stag is almost the only one worthy of notice; it is about the shape of a beetle, but has very large beautiful branching horns, like those of a stag, from whence it took its name.
The Indians have now a numerous breed of horses, as also hogs, and other of our animals, but neither cows nor sheep; both these, however, might be supplied by breeding some tame buffaloes, from which, I have been informed, some white prisoners among them have procured both butter and cheese; and the fine long shag on its back could supply all the purposes of wool.