UNSUCCESSFUL SETTLEMENTS IN NEW ENGLAND

I.—Gosnold’s Fort at Cuttyhunk.

[Gosnold was the first Englishman who attempted to found a colony in New England; and this account of his attempt is by his companion, John Brereton.]

TO the Honorable Sir Walter Raleigh, Knight. Honorable Sir,—Being earnestly requested by a dear friend to put down in writing some true relation of our late-performed voyageto the north parts of Virginia,[227] at length I resolved to satisfy his request.…

May it please your Lordship, therefore, to understand that upon the five and twentieth of March, 1602, being Friday, we went from Falmouth, being in all two and thirty persons, in a small bark of Dartmouth, called “The Concord,” holding a course for the north part of Virginia.…

On Friday, the 14th of May, early in the morning, we made the land, being full of fair trees, the landsomewhat low, certain hammocks[228] or hills lying into the land, the shore full of white sand, but very stony or rocky. And standing fair along by the shore, about twelve of the clock the same day, we came to an anchor,where eight Indians in a Basque-shallop,[229] with mast and sail, an iron grapple, and a kettle of copper, came boldly aboard us, one of them apparelled with a waistcoat and breeches of black serge, made after our sea fashion, hose and shoes on his feet: all the rest—saving one that had a pair of breeches of blue cloth—were naked. These people are of tall stature, broad and grim visage, of a black, swart complexion, their eyebrows painted white. Their weapons are bows and arrows. It seemed by some words and signs they made, that some Basques,or of St. John de Luz,[230] have fished or traded in this place, being in the latitude of forty-three degrees.

But riding here, in no very good harbor, and withal doubting the weather, about three of the clock the same day, in the afternoon, we weighed, and standing southerly off into sea the rest of that day and the night following, with a fresh gale of wind,in the morning we found ourselves embayed with a mighty headland.[231] But coming to an anchor about nine of the clock the same day, within a league of the shore, we hoisted out the one-half of our shallop; and Captain Bartholomew Gosnold, myself, and three others, went ashore, being a white, sandy, and bold shore; andmarching all that afternoon, with our muskets on our necks, on the highest hills which we saw,—the weather very hot,—at length we perceived this headland to be parcel of the main, and sundry islands lying almost round about it. So returning towards evening to our shallop,—for by that time the other part was brought ashore, and set together,—we espied an Indian, a young man of proper stature, and of a pleasing countenance; and, after some familiarity with him, we left him at the seaside, and returned to our ship, where, in five or six hours’ absence,we had pestered[232] our ship so with codfish, that we threw numbers of them overboard again. And surely, I am persuaded, that in the months of March, April, and May, there is upon this coast better fishing, and in as great plenty, as in Newfoundland; for the skulls of mackerel, herrings, cod, and other fish, that we daily saw as we went and came from the shore, were wonderful. And besides, the places where we took these cods, and might in a few days have laden our ship, were but in seven fathoms water, and within less than a league from the shore;where,[233] in Newfoundland, they fish in forty or fifty fathoms water, and far off.

From this place we sailed round about this headland almost all the points of the compass, the shore very bold; but, as no coast is free from dangers, so I am persuaded this is as free as any. The land somewhat low, full of goodly woods, but in some places plain. At length we were come amongst many fair islands, which we had partly discerned at our first landing, all lying within a league or two one of another, and theoutermost not above five or seven leagues from the main.But coming to an anchor under one of them,[234] which was about three or four leagues from the main, Captain Gosnold, myself, and some others, went ashore; and, going round about it, we found it to be four English miles in compass, without house or inhabitant, saving a little old house made of boughs covered with bark, an old piece of a weir of the Indians to catch fish, and one or two places where they had made fires. The chiefest trees of this island are beeches and cedars, the outward parts all overgrown with low, bushy trees three or four feet in height, which bear some kind of fruits, as appeared by their blossoms; strawberries, red and white, as sweet and much bigger than ours in England; raspberries, gooseberries, whortleberries, and such an incredible store of vines, as well in the woody part of the island, where they run upon every tree, as on the outward parts, so that we could not go for treading upon them; also many springs of excellent sweet water, and a great standing lake of fresh water near the seaside an English mile in compass, which is maintained with the springs, running exceeding pleasantly through the woody grounds, which are very rocky. Here are also in this island great store of deer, which we saw, and other beasts, as appeared by their tracks; as also divers fowls, as cranes,hernshaws,[235] bitterns, geese, mallards, teals, and other fowl in great plenty; also great store of peas, which grow in certain plots all the island over. On the north side of this island we found many huge bones and ribs of whales.

From hence we went to another island to the north-westof this, and within a league or two of the main, which we found to be greater than before we imagined, being sixteen English miles, at the least, in compass; for it containeth many pieces or necks of land, which differ nothing from several islands, saving that certain banks of small breadth do like bridges join them to this island. On the outside of this island are many plain places of grass, abundance of strawberries, and other berries before mentioned. In mid-May we did sow in this island, for a trial, in sundry places, wheat, barley, oats, and peas, which in fourteen days were sprung up nine inches, and more. The soil is fat and lusty, the upper crust of gray color, but a foot or less in depth, of the color of our hemp-lands in England, and being thus apt for these and the like grains. The sowing or setting—after the ground is closed—is no greater labor than if you should set or sow in one of our best prepared gardens in England. This island is full of high timbered oaks, their leaves thrice so broad as ours; cedars, straight and tall; beech, elm, holly, walnut-trees in abundance, the fruit as big as ours, as appeared by those we found under the trees, which had lain all the year ungathered; hazelnut-trees, cherry-trees, the leaf, bark, and bigness not differing from ours in England, but the stalk beareth the blossoms or fruit at the end thereof, like a cluster of grapes, forty or fifty in a bunch; sassafras-trees, great plenty all the island over, a tree of high price and profit; also divers other fruit-trees, some of them with strange barks of an orange color, in feeling soft and smooth like velvet: in the thickest parts of these woods you may see a furlong or more round about.

On the north-west side of this island, near to the seaside, is a standing lake of fresh water, almost three English miles in compass, in the midst whereof stands a plot of woody ground, an acre in quantity, or not above. This lake is full of small tortoises, and exceedingly frequented with all sorts of fowls,before rehearsed,[236] which breed, some low on the banks, and others on low trees about this lake, in great abundance, whose young ones of all sorts we took and ate at our pleasure; but all these fowls are much bigger than ours in England. Also in every island, and almost in every part of every island, are great store of ground-nuts, forty together on a string, some of them as big as hen’s eggs: theygrow not two inches under ground, the which nuts we found to be as good as potatoes. Also divers sorts of shell-fish, as scallops, mussels, cockles, lobsters, crabs, oysters, and whelks, exceeding good and very great.…