For gentlemen, what exercise should more delight them than ranging daily these unknown parts,using fowling and fishing for[320] hunting and hawking? and yet you shall see the wild hawks give you some pleasure in seeing them stoop six or seven times after one another, an hour or two together,at the skults[321] of fish in the fair harbors, as those ashore at a fowl, and never trouble nor torment yourselves with watching,mewing,[322] feeding, and attending them, nor kill horse and man with running, and crying, “See you not a hawk?” For hunting, also, the woods, lakes, and rivers afford not only chase sufficient for any that delights in that kind of toil or pleasure, but such beasts to hunt, that, besides the delicacy of their bodies for food, their skins are so rich as they will recompense thy daily labor with a captain’s pay.
X.—The Glories of Fishing.
COD-FISHING.
The main staple from hence to be extracted, for the present, to produce the rest, is fish; which, however it may seem a mean and base commodity, yet who will but truly take the pains, and consider the sequel, I think will allow it well worth the labor. It is strange to see what great adventures the hopes of setting forth men-of-war to rob the industrious innocent would procure.… But who doth not know that the poor Hollanders, chiefly by fishing, at a great charge and labor, in all weathers in the open sea, are made a people so hardy and industrious?and by the sending this poor commodity to the Easterlings[323]for as mean,[324] which is wood, flax, pitch, tar, rosin, cordage, and such like,—whichthey exchange again to the French, Spaniards, Portuguese, and English, &c., for what they want,—are made so mighty, strong, and rich, as no state but Venice, of twice their magnitude, is so well furnished with so many fair cities, goodly towns, strong fortresses, and that abundance of shipping and all sorts of merchandise, as well of gold, silver, diamonds, precious stones, silks, velvets, and cloth-of-gold, as fish, pitch, wood, or such gross commodities? What voyages and discoveries, east and west, north and south, yea, about the world, make they! What an army, by sea and land, have they long maintained in despite of one of the greatest princes of the world! And never could the Spaniard, with all his mines of gold and silver, pay his debts, his friends and army, half so truly as the Hollanders still have done by this contemptible trade of fish.…
You shall scarce find any bay, shallow shore, or cove of sand, where you may not take many clams, or lobsters, or both, at your pleasure, and in many places load your boat, if you please; nor isles where you find not fruits, birds, crabs, and mussels, or all of them, for taking, at a low water. And, in the harbors we frequented,a little boy might take of cunners and pinnacks,[325] and such delicate fish, at the ship’s stern, more than six or ten can eat in a day, but with a casting-net, thousands when we pleased; and scarce any place, but cod, cusk, halibut, mackerel, skate, or such like, a man may take with a hook or line what he will. And in divers sandy bays a man may draw with a net great store of mullets, bass, and divers other sorts of suchexcellent fish, as many as his net can draw on shore. No river where there is not plenty of sturgeon, or salmon, or both; all which are to be had in abundance, observing but their seasons. But if a man will go at Christmas to gather cherries in Kent, he may be deceived, though there be plenty in summer. So here these plenties have each their seasons, as I have expressed. We, for the most part, had little but bread and vinegar; and though the most part of July, when the fishing decayed,they wrought[326] all day, lay abroad in the isles all night, and lived on what they found, yet were not sick. But I would wish none put himself long to such plunges, except necessity constrain it. Yet worthy is that person to starve that here cannot live, if he have sense, strength, and health.
XI.—Visit of Pocahantas to London in 1617.
During this time, the Lady Rebecca, alias Pocahontas, daughter to Powhatan, by the diligent care of Master John Rolfe, her husband, and his friends, was taught to speak such English as might well be understood, well instructed in Christianity, and was become very formal and civil after our English manner. She had also, by him, a child, which she loved most dearly; and the treasurer and company took order, both for the maintenance of her and it. Besides, there were divers persons of great rank and quality had been very kind to her; and, before she arrived at London, Captain Smith, to deserve her former courtesies, madeher qualities known to the queen’s most excellent majesty and her court, and wrote a little book to this effect to the queen, an abstract whereof followeth:—