THE FLORA OF COLONIAL DAYS. 75 



May 21. The place (Martha's Vineyard) most pleas- 

 ant, for the two-and-twentieth we went ashore and found 

 it full of wood, vines, gooseberry bushes, whortleberries, 

 raspberries, eglantines, etc. The fire-wood then by us 

 ta^en in, was cypress, birch, witch-hazel and beech." 



"In June, 1603, Martin Pring, with two small vessels, 

 arrived on the American coast, between the forty-third 

 and forty-fourth degrees of north latitude among a multi- 

 tude of islands. Following the coast south in search of 

 sassafras, he entered a large sound and, on the north side, 

 built a hut and enclosed it with a barricade, where some 

 of the party kept guard while others collected sassafras in 

 the woods. The natives were treated with kindness 

 and the last of the two vessels departed, well-freighted, 

 on the ninth of August." 



We next find a record that Edw^ard Winslow, writing 

 from Plimmouth, Dec. 11, 1621, says : "All the spring- 

 time the earth sendeth forth naturall}^ very good salad 

 herbs ; here are grapes, white and red, and very sweet 

 and strong also. Strawberries, gooseberries, raspberries, 

 &c., with plums, black and red, being almost as good as 

 a damson, abundance of roses, white, red and damask, 

 single, but very sweet indeed." Another writer from 

 Plymouth speaks of "the bay which is about four miles 

 over from land to land, compassed about to the very sea 

 with oaks, pines, juniper, sassafras and other sweet wood. 

 The crust of the earth a spit's depth (the depth of a 

 spade), excellent black earth, all wooded with oaks, pines, 

 sassafras, juniper, birch, holly, vines, some ash, walnut." 



Following in chronological order, we find that the next 

 record is the account of "A Voyage into New England, 

 begun in 1623 and ended in 1624, performed by Christo- 

 pher Levet. . . . The first place I set my foot 

 upon in New England was the Isle of Shoals, being 



