Neihumkek - Salem and Cherton – Charlestown 1629-1630

Letting pass our voyage by sea, we will now begin our discourse on the shore of New England. And because the life and welfare of every creature here below, and the commodiousness of the country whereas such creatures live, doth by the most wise ordering of God's providence, depend next unto himself, upon the temperature and disposition of the four elements, earth, water, air and fire; therefore I will endeavor to show you what New England is by the consideration of each of these apart, and truly endeavor by God's help to report nothing but the naked truth, and that both to tell you of the discommodities as well as of the commodities, though as the idle proverb is, travelers may lie by authority , and so may take too much sinful liberty that way. Yet I may say of myself as once Nehemiah did in another case: "Shall such a man as I lie?" No verily; it becometh not a preacher of truth to be a writer of falsehood in any degree. And therefore I have been careful to report nothing of New England but what I have partly seen with mine own eyes, and partly heard and inquired from the mouths of very honest and religious persons, who by living in the country a good space of time have had experience and knowledge of the state thereof, and whose testimonies I do believe as myself.

First therefore of the earth of New England and all the appurtenances thereof. It is a land of divers and sundry sorts all about Massachusetts Bay, and at Charles River is as fat black earth as can be seen anywhere; and in other places you have a clay soil; in others sandy, as it is all about our plantation at Salem, for so our town is now named.

The form of the earth here in the superficies of it is neither too flat in the plains nor too high in hills, but partakes of both in mediocrity, and fit for pasture, or for plow or meadow ground, as men please to employ it. For all the country is as it were a thick wood in general, yet in divers places there is much ground cleared by the Indians, as especially about the plantation. I am told that about three miles from us a man may stand on a little hilly place and see divers thousands of acres of ground as good as need to be, and not a tree in the same. It is thought here is good clay to make bricks and tiles and earthen pots as needs to be. At this instant we are setting up a brick-kiln to make bricks and tiles for the building of our houses. For stone there is plenty of slates at the Isle of Slate in the bay of Massachusetts, and limestone, free-stone and smooth-stone and iron-stone and marble stone also in such a store, that we have great rocks of it, and a harbor hard by. Our plantation is from thence called Marble Harbor.

Of minerals there hath yet been but little trial made, yet we are not without great hope of being furnished in that soil.

The fertility of the soil is to be admired at, as appeareth in the abundance of grass that groweth everywhere, both very thick, very long, and very high in divers places. But it groweth very wildly with a great stalk and a broad and ranker blade, because it never had been eaten by cattle, nor mowed with a scythe, and seldom trampled on by foot. It is scarce to be believed how our kine and goats, horses and hogs do thrive and prosper here and like well of this country.

In our plantation we have already a quart of milk for a penny, but the abundant increase of corn proves this country to be wonderment. Thirty, forty, fifty, sixty are ordinary here. Yea, Joseph' s increase in Egypt is here outstripped with us. Our planters hope to have more than a hundred fold this year, and all this while I am within compass; what will you say of two-hundred fold and upward? It is almost incredible what great gain some of our English planters have had by our Indian corn. Credible persons have assured me, and the party of it himself announced the truth of it to me, that from the setting of 13 gallons of corn, he hath had an increase of 52 hogsheads, every hogshead holding seven bushels of London measure, and every bushel was by him sold and trusted to the Indians for so much beaver as was worth 18 shillings, and so of this 13 gallons of corn which was worth 6 shillings 8 pence, he made about £ 327 of it the year following, as by reckoning it will appear; wherefore you may see how God blesseth industry in this land. There are not such beautiful and great ears of corn I suppose anywhere else but in this country, being also of variety of colors as red, blue and yellow, etc. And of one corn there springeth four or five hundred. I have sent you many ears of divers colors that you may see the truth of it. Little children here by planting of corn may earn much more than their own maintenance.

They have tried our English corn at new Plymouth plantation, so that all our several grains grow here very well, and have a fitting soil for their nature.

Our governor hath store of green peas growing in his garden as good as ever I ate in England. This country aboundeth naturally with store of roots of great variety and good to eat. Our turnips, parsnips and carrots are here bigger and sweeter than is ordinarily found in England. Here are also store of pumpkins, cucumbers, and other things of that nature which I know not. Also, divers excellent pot-herbs grow abundantly among the grass, as strawberry leaves in all parts of the country and plenty of strawberries in their time, and pennyroyal, winter savory, sorrel, brooklime, liverwort, carvel and water cresses, also leeks and onions are ordinary , and divers medicinal herbs. Here are also abundance of other sweet herbs delightful to the smell, whose names we know not, etc., and plenty of single damask roses very sweet and two kinds of herbs that bear two kinds of flowers very sweet, which they say, are as good to make cordage or cloth as any hemp or flax we have.

Excellent vines are here up and down in the woods. Our governor hath already planted a vineyard with great hope of increase. Also, mulberries, plums, raspberries, corrance, chestnuts, filberts, walnuts, smalnuts, hurtle berries and haws of whitethorn near as good as our cherries in England, they grow in plenty here.

For wood there is no better in the world I think, here being four sorts of oak differing both in the leaf, timber, and color, all excellent good. There is also good ash, elm, willow, birch, beech, sassafras, juniper cypress, cedar, spruce, pines and fIr that will yield abundance of turpentine, pitch, tar, masts and other materials for building both of ships and houses. Also here are store of sumac trees, which are good for dying and tanning of leather, likewise such trees yield a precious gum called white beniamen, that they say is excellent for perfumes. Also here be divers roots and berries wherewith the Indians dye excellent holiday colors that no rain nor washing can alter. Also we have materials to make soap-ashes and saltpeter in abundance.

For beasts there are some bears, and they say some lions also; for they have been seen at Cape Anne. Also here are several sorts of deer, some whereof bring three or four young ones at once, which is not ordinary in England. Also wolves, foxes, beavers, otters, martins, great wild cats, and a great beast called a molke as big as an ox. I have seen the skins of all these beasts since I came to this plantation excepting lions. Also here are great store of squirrels, some greater, and some smaller and lesser. There are some of the lesser sort, they tell me, that by a certain skin will fly from tree to tree though they stand far distant.

Of the waters of New England with the things belonging to the same. New England hath water enough both salt and fresh, the greatest sea in the world, the Atlantic sea, runs all along the coast thereof. There are abundance of islands along the shore, some full of wood and mast to feed swine; and others clear of wood, and fruitful to bear corn. Also we have store of excellent harbors for ships, as at Cape Anne, and at Massachusetts Bay, and at Salem, and at many other places; and they are the better because for strangers there is a very difficult and dangerous passage into them, but unto such as are well acquainted with them, they are easy and safe enough. The abundance of sea-fish is almost beyond believing, and sure I should scarce have believed it except I had seen it with mine own eyes. I saw great store of whales, and crampus, and such abundance of mackerels that it would astonish one to behold, likewise codfish abundant on the coast, and in their season are plentifully taken. There is a fish called a bass, a most sweet and wholesome fish as ever I did eat. It is altogether as good as our fresh salmon, and the season of their coming was begun when we came first to New England in June, and so continued about three months space. Of this fish our fishermen take many hundreds together, which I have seen lying on the shore to my admiration. Yea, their nets ordinarily take more then they are able to haul to land, and for want of boats and men they are constrained to let many go after they have taken them, and yet sometimes they fill two boats at a time with them. And besides bass we take plenty of skate and thomback, and abundance of lobsters, that the least boy in the plantation may both catch and eat what he will of them. For my own part I was soon cloyed with them, they were so great, and fat, and luscious. I have seen some myself that have weighed 16 pounds, but others have had divers times so great lobsters as have weighed 25 pounds, as they assured me. Also here is abundance of herring, turbot, sturgeon, cusks, haddocks, mullets, eels, crabs, mussels and oysters. Besides, there is probability that the country is of an excellent temper for the making of salt. For since our coming our fishermen have brought home very good salt which they found candied by the standing of the sea water and the heat of the sun, upon a rock by the sea shore. And in divers salt marshes that some have gone through, they have found some salt in some places crushing under their feet and clinging to their shoes.

And as for fresh water, the country is full of dainty springs, and some great rivers, and some lesser brooks; and at Massachusetts Bay they dug wells and found water at three foot deep in most places: and near Salem they have as fine clear water as we can desire, and we may dig wells and find water where we wish. Thus we see both land and sea abound with store of blessings for the comfortable sustenance of man’s life in New England.

Of the air of New England with the temper and creatures in it. The temper of the air of New England is one special thing that commends this place. Experience doth manifest that there is hardly a more healthful place to be found in the world that agreeth better with our English bodies. Many that have been weak and sickly in old England, by coming hither have been thoroughly healed and grown healthful and strong. For here is an extraordinary clear and dry air that is of a most healing nature to all such as are of a cold, melancholy, phlegmatic, rheumatic temper of body. None can more truly speak hereof by their own experience than myself. My friends that knew me can well tell how very sickly I have been and continually in physic, being much troubled with a tormenting pain through an extraordinary weakness of my stomach~ and abundance of melancholic humors; but since I came hither on this voyage, I thank God I have had perfect health, and freed from pain and vomiting, having a stomach to digest the hardest and coarsest fare who before could not eat finest meat, and whereas my stomach could only digest and did require such drink as was both strong and stale, now I can and do oftentimes drink New England water very well, and I that have not gone without a cap for many years together, neither durst leave off the same, have now cast away my cap, and do wear none at all in the day time. And whereas before times I clothed myself with double clothes and thick waistcoats to keep me warm even in the summer time, I do now go as thin clad as any, only wearing a light stuff cassock upon my shirt and stuff breeches of one thickness without linings. Besides I have one of my children that was formerly most lamentably handled with sores breaking out of both his hands and feet of the kings-evil, but since he came hither he is very well ever he was, and there is hope of perfect recovery shortly, even by the very wholesomeness of the air, altering, digesting and drying up the cold and crude humors of the body. And therefore I think it is a wise course for all cold complexions to come to take physic in New England: for a sip of New England's air is better then a whole draft of old England's ale. In the summer time in the midst of July and August, it is a good deal hotter than in old England. And in winter, January and February are much colder as they say. But the spring and autumn are of a middle temper.

Fowls of the air are plentiful here, and of all sorts as we have in England as far as I can learn, and a great many of strange fowls which we know not. Whilst I was writing these things, one of our men brought home an eagle, which he had killed, in the wood. They say they are good meat. Also here are many kinds of excellent hawks, both sea hawks and land hawks. And myself am walking in the woods with another in company, sprung a partridge so big that through the heaviness of his body could fly but a little way. They that have killed them say they are as big as our hens. Here are likewise abundance of turkeys often killed in the woods, far greater than our English turkeys, and exceeding fat, sweet and fleshy, for here they have abundance of feeding all the year long, such as strawberries: in summer all places are full of them, and all manner of berries and fruits. In the wintertime I have seen flocks of pigeons, and have eaten of them. They do fly from tree to tree as other birds do, which our pigeons will not do in England. They are of all colors as ours are, but their wings and tails are far longer, and therefore it is likely they fly swifter to escape the terrible hawks in this country .In winter time this country doth abound with wild geese, wild ducks, and other sea fowl, that a great part of winter the planters have eaten nothing but roast meat of divers fowls which they have killed. Thus you have heard of the earth, water and air of New England.

Now it may be you expect something to be said of the fire proportion able to the rest of the elements. Indeed I think New England may boast of this element more then of all the rest: for though it be something cold in the winter, yet here we have plenty of fire to warm us, and that a great deal cheaper than they sell billets and faggots in London. Nay, all Europe is not able to afford to make so great fires as New England. A poor servant here is he that possesses but 50 acres of land; he may afford to give more wood for timber and fire as good as the world yields than many noble men in England can afford to do. Here is good living for those that love good fires. And although New England have no tallow to make candles of, yet by the abundance of the fish thereof, it can afford oil for lamps. Yea, our pine trees that are the most plentiful of all wood, doth allow us plenty of candles, which are very useful in a house; and they are such candles as the Indians commonly use, having no other, and they are nothing else but the wood of the pine tree cloven in two little slices something thin, which are so full of the moisture of turpentine and pitch that they burn as clear as a torch. I have sent you some of them that you may see the experience of them.

Thus of New England's commodities, now I will tell you of some discommodities that are here to be found.

First: in the summer season for these three months June, July and August, we are troubled with little flies called mosquitoes, being the same they are troubled with in Lincolnshire and the fens, and they are nothing but gnats, which except they be smoked out of their houses are troublesome in the night season. Secondly: in the winter season for two months space the earth is commonly covered with snow, which is accompanied with sharp biting frosts, something more sharp than is in old England, and therefore we are forced to make great fires.

Thirdly: this country being very full of woods and wildernesses, doth also much abound with snakes and serpents of strange colors and huge greatness. Yea, there are some serpents called rattlesnakes, that have rattles in their tails that will not fly from a man as others will, but will fly upon him and sting him so mortally, that he will die within a quarter of an hour after, except the party stung have about him some of the root of an herb called snake weed to bite on, and then he shall receive no harm. But yet seldom falls it out that any hurt is done by these. About three years since an Indian was stung to death by one of them, but we heard of none since that time.

Fourthly and lastly: here wants as yet the good company of honest Christians to bring with them horses, kine and sheep to make use of the fruitful land. Great pity it is to see so much good ground for corn and for grass as any is under the heavens, to lie altogether unoccupied, when so many honest men and their families in old England through the populous ness thereof, do make very hard shift to live one by the other. Thus you know now what New England is, as also the commodities and discommodities thereof.

Now I will show you a little of the inhabitants thereof, and their government.

For their governors they have kings, which they call saggamores, some greater, and some lesser, according to the number or their subjects. The greatest saggamores about us cannot make above three hundred men, and other lesser saggamores have not above fifteen subjects, and others near about us but two. Their subjects about twelve years since were swept away by a great and grievous plague that was amongst them, so that there are very few left to inhabit the country .

The Indians are not able to make use of the one fourth part of the land, neither have they any settled places, as towns to dwell in, nor any ground as they challenge for their own possession, but change their habitation from place to place. For their statures, they are a tall and strong limbed people, their colors are tawny, they go naked, save only they are in part covered with beasts skins on one of their shoulders, and wear something before their privates. Their hair is generally black, and cut in front like our gentlewomen, and one lock longer than the rest, much like to our gentlemen, which fashion I think came from hence into England. For their weapons, they have bows and arrows, some of them headed with bone, and some with brass. I have sent you some of them for an example. The men for the most part live idly, they do nothing but hunt and fish. Their wives set their corn and do all their other work. They have little household stuff, as a kettle, and some other vessels like trays, spoons, dishes and baskets. Their houses are very little and homely, being made with small poles pricked into the ground, and so bent and fastened at the top, and on the sides they are matted with boughs, and covered on the roof with sedge and old mats, and for their beds that they take their rest on, they have a mat. They do generally confess to like well of our coming and planting here; partly because there is abundance of ground that they cannot possess nor make use of, and partly because our being here will be a means both of relief to them when they want, and also a defense from their enemies, wherewith before this plantation began, they were often endangered. For their religion, they do worship two gods: a good god and an evil god. The good god they call Tantum, and their evil god, whom they fear will do them hurt, they call Squantum.

For their dealing with us, we neither fear them nor trust them, for forty of our musketeers will drive five hundred of them out of the field. We use them kindly; they will come into our houses sometimes by half a dozen or half a score at a time when we are at victuals, but will ask or take nothing but what we give them. We propose to learn their language as soon as we can, which will be a means to do them good.

Of the present condition of the plantation, and what it is.

When we came first to Neihumkek, we found about half a score houses, and a fair house newly built for the Governor. We found also abundance of corn planted by them, very good and well liking. And we brought with us about two hundred passengers and planters more, which by common consent of the old planters were all combined together into one body politic, under the same Governor.

There are in all of us both old and new planters about three hundred, whereof two hundred of them are settled at Neihumkek, now called Salem: and the rest have planted themselves at Massachusetts Bay, beginning to build a town there which we do call Cherton, or Charles town.

We that are settled at Salem make what haste we can to build houses, so that within a short time we shall have a fair town.

We have great ordnance, wherewith we doubt not but we shall fortify ourselves in a short time to keep out a potent adversary. But that which is our greatest comfort and means of defense above all other, is that we have here the true religion and holy ordinances of almighty God taught amongst us. Thanks be

to God, we have plenty of preaching, and diligent catechizing, with strict and careful exercise, and good and commendable orders to bring our people into a Christian conversation with whom we have to do withal. And thus we doubt not but God will be with us, and if God be with us, who can be against us?

“Place: Charlestown, MA; Primary Immigrant: Nicholas Stower; Accompanying family members: Daughters Elizabeth, Sarah, Joanna and Son Richard. Permanent Entry Number: 3066059 (Same number included all 5 people.). Nicholas sister Deborah with her husband, Simon Hoyt and two sons, Walter and Nicholas; Ralph Sprague, with his wife, and three children; Ralph’s brothers William and Richard; all came to New England on board the Lyon’s Whelp, John Gibbs, Master. The companion ship of the Talbot. They sailed from Gravesend April 25, 1629, with about forty planters out of the counties of Dorset and Somerset, and arrived at Salem in the middle of July 1629. She brought 6 fishermen from Dorchester.”

“Rev. Francis Higginson with Mrs. Anne Higginson, along with John, Francis, Timothy, Theophilus, Samuel, Anne, Mary, Charles and Neophytus Higginson sailed from the Isle of Wight about May 11, 1629. They arrived at Salem July 29, 1629 with about 100 planters and some servants on board the Talbot, Thomas Beecher, Master. The companion ship of the Lyon’s Whelp. This is Rev. Higginson letter to friends in London of life in the New England. Rev Higginson died from a fever in the summer of 1630.”