18 



conception I shall not mention" — " Vines doe grow 

 here plentifully laden with the biggest grapes that 



ever I saw : some I have seen four inches about" 



"We abound with such things which, next under God, 

 doe make us subsist : as fish, foule, deere ; and sun- 

 drie sorts of fruits, as musk millions, water millions, 

 Indian pompions, Indian pease, beanes, and many 

 other odde fruits that I cannot name."^ 



Governor Bradford, whose prudence, piety, and 

 wisdom, were more signalized than his poetical in- 

 spiration, has preserved the most perfect inventory 

 of the treasures of the gardens of our forefathers, 

 in lines whose initial letters are capitals, and which 

 must therefore be considered as verse. No skill of 

 pronunciation can reduce to rhythmical melody the 

 roughness of his catalogue of the cultivated plants 

 at the conclusion of the first twenty years of New 

 England's improvement.- 



" And truly it was admirable to know, 



" How greatly all things here began to grow. 



" All sorts of grain which our own land doth yield, 



" Were hither brought, and sown in every field : 



" As wheat and rye, barle)', oats, beans, and pease, 



" Here all thrive, and they profit from them raise. 



" All sorts of roots and herbs in gardens grow, 



" Parsnips, carrots, turnips, or what you'll sow ; 



" Onions, mellons, cucumbers, radishes, 



" Skirits, beets, coleworts, and fair cabbages. 



" Here grow fine flowers, many, and 'mongst those, 



" The fair white lily, and sweet fragrant rose. 



"Many good wholesome berries here j'ou'll find, 



'•' Fit for man's use, almost of every kind. 



" Pears, apples, cherries, plums, quinces, and peach, 



" Are noic no dainties, you may have of each. 



" Nuts and grapes of several sorts are here, 



" If you will take the pains them to seek for." 



(1)1 Mass. Hist. Col. vol. 1, page 124. 

 (2) Descriptive and Historical Account of New England, published from William 

 Bradford's MS. in 1 Mass. Hist. Col. vol. 3, page 77. The date when this whimsi- 

 cal tract was written, is not certainly ascertained. From internal evidence it may 

 be presumed to have been composed about 1640. 



