It was however universally remarkable, that that which cures one person of it, has no effect upon another.
The pleurisy is likewise a disease which the people of this country are much subject to. The Swedes in this province call it stitches and burning, and they always mean the pleurisy whenever they mention those words. Many of the old Swedes told me that they had heard very little of it when they were young, and that their parents had known still less of it in their childhood; but that it was so common now, that many people died every year of it: yet it has been observed, that in some years this disease has been very moderate, and taken few people away with it, whilst in other years it makes great havock: it likewise is more violent in some places than in others.
In the autumn of the year 1728, it swept [[377]]away many at Penn’s neck, a place below Raccoon, and nearer to the Delaware, where a number of Swedes are settled. Almost all the Swedes there died of it, though they were very numerous. From hence it happened that their children who were left in a very tender age, and grew up among the English children, forgot their mother tongue, so that few of them understand it at present. Since that time, though the pleurisy has every year killed a few people at Penn’s neck, yet it has not carried off any considerable numbers. It rested as it were till the autumn of the year 1748, but then it began to make dreadful havock, and every week six or ten of the old people died. The disease was so violent, that when it attacked a person, he seldom lived above two or three days; and of those who were taken ill with it, very few recovered. When the pleurisy was got into a house, it killed most of the old people in it: it was a true pleurisy, but it had a peculiarity with it, for it commonly began with a great swelling under the throat and in the neck, and with a difficulty of swallowing. Some people looked upon it as contagious; and others seriously declared, that when it came into a family, not only those who lived in the same house suffered from it, but even such relations [[378]]as lived far off. There have been several people at Penn’s neck, who, without visiting their sick friends, have got the pleurisy and died of it: I do not dispute the truth of this, though I do not agree to the conclusion. The pleurisy was the most violent in November; yet some old people died of it even in the next winter; but children were pretty free from it. The physicians did not know what to make of it, nor how to remedy it.
It is difficult to determine the causes of such violent diseases. An old English surgeon who lived here gave the following reason. The inhabitants of this country drink great quantities of punch and other strong liquors in summer, when it is very hot; by that means the veins in the diaphragm contract, and the blood grows thick. Towards the end of October and the beginning of November, the weather is apt to alter very suddenly, so that heat and cold change several times a day. When the people during this changeable weather are in the open air, they commonly get this disease. It is likewise certain that the air is more unwholesome one year, than another, which depends upon the heat, and other circumstances: this peculiar quality of the air must of course produce a pleurisy. [[379]]It is remarkable, that both in the year 1728, and in the present, when so many people died at Penn’s neck, few died at Raccoon, though the two places are near each other, and seem to have the same soil and climate. But there is this difference that Penn’s neck lies remarkably low, and Raccoon pretty high. The people in the former place have settled between marshes and swamps, in which the water stagnates and putrifies; and most of these places are covered with trees, by which means the wet is shut up still more, and near such marshes, are the houses. Lastly the water at Penn’s neck is not reckoned so good as that in Raccoon, but has some taste. It likewise becomes brackish in several little rivers when the Delaware during the tide rises very high, and runs up into them. On the banks of these rivulets live many of the Swedes, and take water for common use from them.
December the 3d. This morning I set out for Philadelphia, where I arrived in the evening.
Wild grapes are very abundant in the woods, and of various kinds; a species of them which are remarkable for their size, grow in the marshes, and are greedily eaten by the Raccoon: they are therefore called [[380]]marsh grapes, but the English call them fox grapes; they have not an agreeable flavour, and are seldom eaten by the inhabitants of this country, who make use of a small kind of wild grapes, which grow on a dry soil, and pretty late in autumn when they are quite ripe, are eaten raw, and have a very good flavour, being a mixture of sweet and acid: some people dry these grapes when gathered and bake them in tarts, &c. they likewise make use of them as dried sweetmeats. The Swedes formerly made a pretty good wine from them; but have now left it off. However some of the English still press an agreeable liquor from these grapes, which they assured me was as good as the best claret, and that it would keep for several years.
The manner of preparing this sort of wine has been described at large in an almanack of this country, for the year 1743, and is as follows: the grapes are collected from the twenty first of September to about the eleventh of November, that is as they grow ripe: they must be gathered in dry weather, and after the dew is gone off: the grapes are cleared of the cobwebs, dry leaves, and other things adhering to them. Next a great hogshead is prepared which has either had treacle or brandy in; it is washed [[381]]very clean, one of the bottoms beat out, and the other placed on a stand for the purpose, or on pieces of wood in the cellar, or else in a warm room, about two feet above the ground: the grapes are put into this hogshead, and as they sink lower in three or four days time more are added. A man with naked feet gets into the hogshead and treads the grapes, and in about half an hour’s time the juice is forced out; the man then turns the lowest grapes uppermost, and treads them for about a quarter of an hour: this is sufficient to squeeze the good juice out of them: for an additional pressure would even crush the unripe grapes, and give the whole a disagreeable flavour. The hogshead is then covered with a thick blanket; but if there is no cellar, or it is very cold, two are spread over it. Under this covering the juice is left to ferment for the first time, and in the next four or five days it ferments and works very strongly. As soon as the fermentation ceases, a hole is made about six inches from the bottom, and some of the juice is tapped off about twice in a day. As soon as this is clear and settled, it is poured into an anker of a middling size; for from twenty bushels of grapes, they get about as many gallons of juice; the anker remains untouched [[382]]and the must in it ferments a second time: at this time it is necessary that the anker be quite full; the scum which settles at the bunghole, must be taken off, and the anker always filled up with more must, which is kept ready for that purpose: this is continued till christmas, when the anker may be stopped up; at last the wine is ready in February and bottled. It is likewise usual here, to put some of the ripe grapes into a vessel in order to make a vinegar, and that which is got by this means is very good. Several people made brandy from these grapes which has a very pleasant taste, but is still more pleasant, if the fruits of the persimon are mixed with it. The wood of these vines is of no use, it is so brittle that it cannot be used for sticks: on cutting into the stem, a white, insipid resin comes out a few hours after the wound is made. In many gardens vines are planted for the purpose of making arbours for which they are indeed excellent; as their large and plentiful leaves form a very close cover against the scorching heat of the sun. When the vines flower here in May and June, the flowers exhale a strong, but exceeding pleasant and refreshing smell, which is perceptible even at a great distance. Therefore on coming into the woods [[383]]about that time, you may judge from the sweet perfume in the air, arising from the flowers of the vines, that you are near them, though you do not see them. Though the winters be ever so severe, yet they do not affect the vines. Each grape is about the size of a pea, but further southward they are said to be of the size of common raisins, and of a finer flavour. Further up in the country, during a part of autumn, they are the chief food of bears, who climb up the trees in order to pluck them. People are of opinion that if the wild vines were cultivated with more care, the grapes would grow larger, and more palatable.
December the 5th. I shall here mention two prognosticks of the weather, which were greatly valued here. Some people pretended to foretel that the ensuing winter would not be a severe one: this they conjectured from having seen wild geese and other migratory birds go to the south in October, but return a few days ago in great numbers, and even pass on further to the north. Indeed the ensuing winter was one of the most temperate ones.
Several persons likewise assured us that we should have rain before to morrow night. The reason they gave for this conjecture was, that this morning at sun rising, from [[384]]their windows they had seen every thing very plainly on the other side of the river, so that it appeared much nearer than usual, and that this commonly foreboded rain. This presage was likewise pretty exactly fulfilled.
The Indians before the arrival of the Europeans, had no notion of the use of iron, though that metal was abundant in their country. However they knew in some measure how to make use of copper. Some Dutchmen who lived here, still preserved the old account among them, that their ancestors on their first settling in New York had met with many of the Indians, who had tobacco pipes of copper, and who made them understand by signs, that they got them in the neighbourhood: afterwards the fine copper mine was discovered, upon the second river between Elizabeth-town and New York. On digging in this mine, the people met with holes worked in the mountain, out of which some copper had been taken, and they found even some tools, which the Indians probably made use of, when they endeavoured to get the metal for their pipes. Such holes in the mountains have likewise been found in some parts of Pensylvania, viz. below Newcastle towards the sea side, and always some marks of a [[385]]copper ore along with them. Some people have conjectured, that the Spaniards, after discovering Mexico, sailed along the coasts of North America, and landed now and then, in order to enquire whether any gold or silver was to be met with, and that they perhaps made these holes in the mountains: but supposing them to have made such a voyage along the coasts, they could not immediately have found out the copper mines; and they probably did not stop to blast this ore, as they were bent only upon gold and silver; it is therefore almost undoubted that the Indians dug these holes: or may we be allowed to suspect that our old Normans, long before the discoveries of Columbus, came into these parts and met with such veins of copper, when they sailed to what they called the excellent Wineland,[51] of which our ancient traditional records called Sagor speak, and which undoubtedly was North America. But in regard to this, I shall have occasion in the sequel better to explain my sentiments. It was remarkable, that in all those places where such holes have lately been found in the mountains, which manifestly seem to [[386]]have been dug by men, they were always covered with a great quantity of earth, as if they were intended to remain hidden from strangers.