Productions of the Soil.
The Soil is very rich and fertile, producing naturally Walnuts, Grapes (of which the English who are there Planted have made very good Wine) Apricocks, Bullys, with a multitude of others; besides the Woods also are full of very good Peaches, and all the Season of the Year strew’d all over with Strawberries. Mulberry-Trees are the common growth of the Woods; and to assure you they are the natural Offspring of the Place, and grow to an incredible bigness, one whereof the English (who are new Planted at Albemarle Point on Ashley River) made use to fasten the Gate of their Pallisado to, was so large, that all who came from thence say, they never saw any Oak in England bigger, which is but the ordinary size of the Mulberry-Trees of this Countrey, which is so sure an Argument of the richness of the Soil, that the Inhabitants of Virginia enquiring of the Seamen who came from thence, concerning the Quality and Product of the Countrey, when they were inform’d of the large Mulberry-Trees it produc’d, were so well satisfi’d with it, that they made no farther Enquiry. There are also other Trees, as Ash, Poplar, and Bay, with several sorts unknown to us of Europe; but those which make it almost all one general Forrest of large Timber-Trees, are Oak, both red and white, and Cedar. There are also here and there large Groves of Pine-Trees, some a hundred Foot high, which afford a better sort of Mast than are to be had either in Mary-Land or Norway. These larger Trees weaving their luxuriant Branches into a close Shade, suffer no Under-wood to grow between them, either by their Droppings, or else the Heads of Deer which loosening all the tender Shoots, quite destroy it; so that a great part of the Countrey is as it were a vast Forrest of fine Walks, free from the heat of the Sun, or the incumbrance of Shrubs and Bushes, and so clear and open, that a Man may easily ride a Hunting amongst the Trees, yielding a Prospect very pleasant and surpassing. On the Skirts of these Woods grow lesser Trees and Shrubs of several sorts; amongst them are sundry Dying Materials, which how well the Inhabitants know how to make use of, appears in the Deer-Skins that the chief of them wear, which are Painted, or rather Dy’d, with several lively Colours. But amongst their Shrubs, one of most note and use is that whose Leaves make their Casini, a Drink they frequently use, and affirm to be very advantageous for the preservation of Health; which, by the description our English give of the size, colour, and shape of the Leaf, the sort of Tree it grows on, and the taste, colour, and effects of the Drink, which is nothing but the Decoction of the Leaf, seems to be the very same with the East-India TEE, and by those who have seen and tasted both, affirm’d to be no other, and may very probably be a spontaneous and native Plant of this Place, since those who give us an account of it, tell us, that this so much valu’d Leaf grows most plentifully in Nanking, a Province in China under the very same Latitude, and very much agreeing in Soil and Situation with this of Carolina.
What Herbs else the Countrey produces, the English Enquirers (who by minding their Plantations and Settlement there, have been taken off from such unprofitable Actions) give us but little account, onely they say, that those Plats of Ground which have been formerly clear’d off by the Indians for the Planting their Corn, they found thick cover’d with three-leav’d Grass and Dazies, which the fertility of the Soil thrusts forth, whenever the Natives remove their Tillage to some other place, and leave the Earth to its own production; and in other parts they found plenty of Garden Herbs growing wild. The low and Moorish Grounds are for the most part overgrown with Sedge and Reeds, and such other Trash, which usually incumbers rich and uncultivated Lands; those they call Swamsas, which with a little Husbandry would prove very good Meadows. There are also some large and pleasant Savanas, or grassy Plains.
These are a part of the Trees and Plants best known to us, that Nature of her self produces, in a Soil which contrives and nourishes any thing. The English who are now Planted in the most Northern parts of it, at Albemarle, bordering on Virginia, have Apples, Pears, Cherries, Apricocks, Plumbs, and Water-Melons, equalling, and if you will believe the Inhabitants, both in largeness of size and goodness of taste, exceeding any in Europe. And they who are Setled farther South on Ashley River, have found that the Oranges, Lemmons, Pomegranates, Limes, Pomecitrons, &c. which they Planted there, have thriven beyond expectation; and there is nothing which they have put into the Earth, that through any defect in the Soil, hath fail’d to prosper.
Commodities of the Countrey.
Besides those things which do serve to satisfie Hunger, or provoke it, the Land doth with great return produce Indigo, Ginger, Tobacco, Cotton, and other Commodities fit to send abroad and furnish foreign Markets; and when a little time shall have brought those kind of Plants to maturity, and given the Inhabitants leisure to furnish themselves with Conveniences for ordering those things aright, the Trials that they have already made of the Soil and its fitness for such Plantations, assure you, that besides Silk, enough to store Europe, and a great many other considerable Commodities, they shall have as great plenty of good Wine and Oyl, as any part of the World.
The Mould is generally black, mellow, and upon handling feels soft, and (to use their Expression who have been there) soapy, and is generally all over the Countrey just like the fine Mould of our well order’d Gardens. Under this black Earth, which is of a good thickness in most places that they have try’d, there lies a Bed of Marle, and in some parts Clay.
Fish and Water-Fowl.
The Rivers are stor’d with plenty of excellent Fish of several sorts, which are taken with great ease in abundance, and are one great part of the Natives Provision, who are never like to want this Recruit, in a Countrey so abounding in large Rivers, there being in that one small Tract between Port Rasal and Cape Carteret, which are not one Degree distant, five or six great Navigable Rivers, that empty themselves into the Sea. These Rivers are also cover’d with Flocks of Ducks and Mallard, whereof millions are seen together, besides Cranes, Herons, Geese, Curlews, and other Water-Fowl, who are so easie to be kill’d, that onely rising at the discharge and noise of a Gun, they instantly light again in the same place, and presently offer a fresh Mark to the Fowler. At the Mouths of the Rivers, and along the Sea-Coast, are Beds of Oysters, which are of a longer Make than those in Europe, but very well tasted, wherein are often found good large Pearls, which though the unskilful Indians by washing the Oysters do commonly discolour, and spoil their lustre, yet ’tis not to be doubted, but if rightly order’d, there will be found many of value, and the Fishing for them turn to some account.
Besides the easie Provisions which the Rivers and Sea afford, their Woods are well stock’d with Deer, Rabbets, Hares, Turtle-Doves, Phesants, Partridges, and an infinite number of Wood-Pigeons and wild Turkies, which are the ordinary Dishes of the Indians, whose House-keeping depends on their Fishing and Hunting, and who have found it no ill way of Living in so fertile a Countrey, to trust themselves without any labor or forecast, to the Supplies which are there provided to their hands, without the continual trouble of Tillage and Husbandry. Besides, these Woods are fill’d with innumerable variety of smaller Birds, as different in their Notes as Kinds.