Thomas Wentworth Higginson

“ To which I answered, “My lord, I distinctly see the danger in which we stand, which is much greater than would be readily imagined. With respect to the passage from this island to Española in so small a vessel as a canoe, I look upon it not merely as difficult, but impossible; for I know not who would venture to encounter so terrific a danger as to cross a gulf of forty leagues of sea, and amongst islands where the sea is so impetuous, and scarcely ever at rest.” ”

“ For seven years was I at your royal court, where every one to whom the enterprise was mentioned treated it as ridiculous; but now there is not a man, down to the very tailors, who does not beg to be allowed to become a discoverer. There is reason to believe that they make the voyage only for plunder, and that they are permitted to do so to the great disparagement of my honor, and the detriment of the undertaking itself. It is right to give God his due, and to receive that which belongs to one’s self. ”

“ After so long and tedious travels, God, of his goodness, using his accustomed favor, changed their sorrow into joy, and showed unto them the sight of land. Whereof they were so exceeding glad, that the pleasure caused them to remain a long time as men without sense; whereby they let the pinnace float this and that way, without holding any right way or course. But a small English bark boarded the vessel, in the which there was a Frenchman which had been in the first voyage into Florida, who easily knew them, and spake unto them, and afterward gave them meat and drink. ”

“ Here nature and liberty afford us that freely which in England we want, or it costeth us dearly. What pleasure can be more than being tired with any occasion ashore, in planting vines, fruits, or herbs; in contriving their own ground to the pleasure of their own minds, their fields, gardens, orchards, buildings, ships, and other works, &c.; to recreate themselves before their own doors, in their own boats upon the sea, where man, woman, and child, with a small hook and line, by angling, may take divers sorts of excellent fish at their pleasures? ”

“ Higginson has executed his task in a very clear and lucid manner, not making use of any hard aphorisms, so puzzling to the young, but placing himself on their level, and explaining every thing in so easy and gentle a manner, that he must be a very dull, or a very perverse scholar, who does not find his attention riveted. ”

“ Oftentimes their bodies are traversed from side to side by arrows; and they do not die of the wounds, but soon become well, unless the entrails or the heart be struck.
I believe they see and hear better, and have keener senses, than any people there are in the world. They are great in the endurance of hunger, thirst, and cold, as if they were made for these more than others by habit and nature. ”

“ Now Arnold Lodlo and Michael Bute railed at them, and told them their knavery would show itself. Then was the shallop hauled up to the ship-side; and the poor, sick, and lame men were called upon to get them out of their cabins into the shallop. The master called to me, who came out of my cabin as well as I could, to the hatchway, to speak with him, where, on my knees, I besought them, for the love of God, to remember themselves, and to do as they would be done unto. They bade me keep myself well, and get me into my cabin, not suffering the master to speak with me. ”

“ And sure it is to be wondered at, how such a barbarous and uncivil prince should take unto him—adorned and set forth with no great outward ornament and munificence—a form and ostentation of such majesty as he expresseth, which oftentimes strikes awe and sufficient wonder in our people presenting themselves before him. ”

“ Therefore let the king and queen, our princes and their most happy kingdoms, and all the other provinces of Christendom, render thanks to our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, who has granted us so great a victory, and such prosperity. Let processions be made, and sacred feasts be held, and the temples be adorned with festive boughs. Let Christ rejoice on earth, as he rejoices in heaven, in the prospect of the salvation of the souls of so many nations hitherto lost. ”

“ 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 Ann, and at Masathulets 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 are almost beyond believing ”

“ These men are still travelling with me, and, although they have been with us now a long time, they continue to entertain the idea that I have descended from heaven; and on our arrival at any new place they publish this, crying out immediately with a loud voice to the other Indians, “Come! come and look upon beings of a celestial race;” upon which both women and men, children and adults, young men and old, when they got rid of the fear they at first entertained, would come out in throngs, crowding the roads to see us, some bringing food, others drink, with astonishing affection and kindness. ”

“ And when people’s wants were great, not only in one town, but in divers towns, such was the godly wisdom, care, and prudence—not selfishness, but self-denial—of our Governor Winthrop and his assistants, that, when a ship came laden with provisions, they did order that the whole cargo should be bought for a general stock; and so accordingly it was, and distribution was made to every town, as every man had need. Thus God was pleased to care for his people in times of straits, and to fill his servants with food and gladness. ”

“ In the year of our Lord 1586, Sir Walter Raleigh, at his own charge, prepared a ship of an hundred tons, freighted with all manner of things in most plentiful manner, for the supply and relief of his colony then remaining in Virginia. But, before they set sail from England, it was after Easter; so that our colony half despaired of the coming of any supply; wherefore every man prepared for himself, determining resolutely to spend the residue of their life in that country. ”

“ During this time they began to build a small pinnace, with hope to return into France, if no succor came unto them, as they expected from day to day. And though there were no man among them that had any skill, notwithstanding, necessity, which is the mistress of all sciences, taught them the way to build it. After that it was finished, they thought of nothing else, save how to furnish it with all things necessary to undertake the voyage. But they wanted those things that of all other were most needful, as cordage and sails, without which the enterprise could not come to effect. ”

“ This fish makes war on all others in the lakes and rivers, and possesses, as these people assure, a wonderful instinct; which is, that, when it wants to catch any birds, it goes among the rushes or reeds bordering the lake in many places, keeping the beak out of the water without budging; so that when birds perch on the beak, imagining it a limb of a tree, it is so subtle, that, closing the jaws which it keeps half open, it draws the birds under water by the feet. ”

“ And what sport doth yield a more pleasing content, and less hurt and charge, than angling with a hook, and crossing the sweet air from isle to isle, over the silent streams of a calm sea, wherein the most curious may find profit, pleasure, and content? ”

“ In our beginning, many were in great straits for want of provision for themselves and their little ones. Oh the hunger that many suffered, and saw no hope in an eye of reason to be supplied, only by clams and mussels and fish! ”

“ 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 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. ”

“ I saw great store of whales, and grampuses, and such abundance of mackerels, that it would astonish one to behold; likewise codfish, abundance 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. ”

“ 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? ”

“ So that, when they go to war, they divide their force into three: to wit, one party, scattered in divers places, hunting; another forms the main body, which is always under arms; and another party as a vanguard, to scout along the river, and see whether they will not discover some trail or mark indicating the passage of friends or enemies. This they ascertain by certain marks the chiefs of one nation give to those of another, which are not always alike, notifying each other from time to time when they alter any. ”

“ But in the spring, Thorvald said they would get ready their ship, and send their long-boat, and some men with it, along to the westward of the land, and explore it during the summer. The land seemed to them fair and woody, and narrow between the woods and the sea, and of white sand. There were many islands and great shoals. They found neither man’s abode nor beast’s; but, on an island to the westward, they found a corn-shed of wood. More works of men they found not; and they went back, and came to Leif’s booths in the fall. ”

“ 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 ”

“ But when we showed them knives and their use, by cutting of sticks; and other trifles, as combs and glasses, they came close aboard our ship, as desirous to entertain our friendship. To these we gave such things as we perceived they liked, when we showed them the use,—bracelets, rings, peacock-feathers, which they stuck in their hair, and tobacco-pipes. After their departure to their company on the shore, presently came four others in another canoe; to whom we gave as to the former, using them with as much kindness as we could.
The shape of their body is very proportionable. ”

“ To quiet them, and to win their favor, our men gave them such victuals as they had with them to eat, which the old woman received thankfully; but the young woman disdained them all, and threw them disdainfully on the ground. They took a child from the old woman to bring into France; and going about to take the young woman, which was very beautiful, and of tall stature, could not possibly, for the great outcries that she made, bring her to the sea; and especially having great woods to pass through, and being far from the ship, we purposed to leave her behind, bearing away the child only. ”

“ WHEREAS, in the year of our Lord God 1562, it pleased God to move your Honor to choose and appoint us to discover and view a certain long coast of the West India, from the head of the land called La Florida, drawing toward the north part, unto the head of Britons,149 distant from the said head of La Florida nine hundred leagues, or thereabout, to the end we might certify you, and make true report of the temperature, fertility, ports, havens, rivers, and generally of all the commodities that be seen and found in that land, and also to learn what people were there dwelling.... ”

“ 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 himself avouched the truth of it to me, that, of the setting of thirteen gallons of corn, he hath had increase of it fifty-two 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 eighteen shillings ”

“ As we were naked, and the cold was very great, the oars loosened in our hands; and the next blow the sea struck us capsized the boat. The assessor and two others held fast to her for preservation; but it happened to be for far otherwise, as the boat carried them over, and they drowned under her. As the surf near the shore was very high, a single roll of the sea threw the remainder into the waves, and half drowned us on the shore of the island, without our losing any more than the boat had taken under. Those of us who survived escaped naked as we were born, losing all that we had ”

“ A poor servant here, that is to possess but fifty acres of land, may afford to give more wood for timber and fire, as good as the world yields, than many noblemen 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 ”

“ The 28th, George Howe, one of our twelve assistants, was slain by divers savages which were come over to Roanoke, either of purpose to espy our company, and what number we were, or else to hunt deer, whereof were many in the island. These savages—being secretly hidden among high reeds, where oftentimes they find the deer asleep, and so kill them—espied our man wading in the water alone, almost naked, without any weapon save only a small forked stick, catching crabs therewithal, and also being strayed two miles from his company ”

“ The hunters never hunt in advance of the main body, or the scouts, so as not to create any alarm or disorder, but in the rear, and in the direction where they do not apprehend enemies. They thus continue until they are two or three days’ journey from the foe, when they advance stealthily by night, all in a body, except the scouts, and retire by day into the picket-fort, where they repose, without wandering abroad, making any noise, or building a fire, even for cooking, during that time, so as not to be discovered, should their enemies happen to pass. The only fire they make is to smoke. ”

“ Of this fish our fishers take many hundreds together, which I have seen lying on the shore, to my admiration. Yea, their nets ordinarily take more than they are able to haul to land; and, for want of boats and men, they are constrained to let a 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 thornback, and abundance of lobsters; and the least boy in the plantation may both catch and eat what he will of them. ”