1837.] 



FARMERS' REGISTER. 



685 



for my self. And indeed by sea 1 lost, all my 

 books, chymical instruments, o;hisses and micro- 

 scopes, which rendered me uncapable of makinfr 

 those remarks and observations I had det^igiied: 

 they were all cast away in Captain Will's ship, 

 as they were to follow me; and Virginia beinw a 

 country where one cannot furnish one's self anjajn 

 with such thinirs, I was discouraj^ed fi'om making' 

 so diligent a scrutiny as olherivisc I nn'ght have 

 done, so that I took very (ew minutes down in 

 writing ; and therefore, since I have only my 

 memory to rely on, which too has the disatlvan- 

 tage of it's own weakness and of the distance of 

 two years since now I left the country, if future 

 relations shall in some small points make out my 

 mistake, I thought this requisite to justify my can- 

 dor; for I ever judg'd it villanous to impose in 

 matters of fact ; but descriptions of things that de- 

 pend on memory may be liable to mistakes, and 

 yet the sincerity of the person that delivers thera 

 intire. But hereof I shall be as cautious as possi- 

 ble, and shall rather wave some thinj^s Vv'hereof 1 

 have some doubts, and am uncapable now of sat- 

 isfying my self than in any sort presume too far. 

 The method I design is, first, to give an account 

 of the air, and all such observations as refer there- 

 to ; then of the water, the earth and soil ; the 

 birds, the beasts, the fishes, the plants, the insects; 

 and lastl}^, the present state of the inhabitants: 

 But at present I shall neither trouble you nor my 

 self with any more than an account of what re- 

 fers to the air alone, being conscious the honora- 

 ble society may receive such a glut with the im- 

 perltjciion of this, as to excuse me from a fitrlher 

 relation. 



But before I begin, perhaps it rnay not be im- 

 pertinent to acquaint you with some thinirs that 

 happen'd in our voyage. VYe saii'd in the ship 

 Judith, Captain T'rmi commander : 'twas fly-boat 

 built, about 200 or 250 tuns ; she sprung a con- 

 siderable leak. When the captain had made 

 long and diligent search, had tried all methods 

 that sea-men use upon such occasions, or he could 

 think of; all in vain, and that the leak encreased, 

 he came pensively to consult me. Discoursing 

 with him about it, and understanding that the 

 ship was ceiled within, so that though the leak 

 might possibly be in the fore-part, it would fill the 

 whole cavity betwixt the ceiling and the planks, 

 and so run into the hold at all the crevices of the 

 ceiling up and down : I thereupon conceived, that 

 where it burst in betwixt the ceiling and the 

 planks, it must needs make some noise. He told 

 me, they had endeavored to find it out that way, 

 and according to custom had clapt cans to their 

 ears to hear with ; but the working of the ship, 

 the tackle and the sea, made such a noise, that 

 they could discover nothing thereby, i happilv 

 bethought my self of the speaking trumpet ; and 

 having one which 1 had contrived for some other 

 conveniences, of a differing shape from the com- 

 mon sorts, I bid him take it and apply the broad 

 end to the side of the ship, the narrow end to his 

 ear, and it would encrease his hearing as much as 

 it augmented the voice the other way, and would 

 ward the ear too from the confusion of foreign 

 noise. Upon the first application, accordingly 

 they heard it, tho' it happened to be at a consider- 

 able distance ; and when they removed the trum- 

 pet nigher, they heard it as if it had been the current 

 of a mighty river, even so distinctly, as to have 

 Vol. lV-74 



apprehensions of the bigness and figure of the 

 hole that the water came in at; so "that c>itting 

 tliere the ceiling of the ship, they immediately 

 stopt the leak. 



In the sea I saw many little thinirs which the 

 seamen call carvels ; they are like a jelly or starch 

 that is made with a cast of blue in it ; they swim 

 like a small sheep's bladderabove the water: down- 

 wards there are long fibrous strings, some where- 

 of I have found near a half a yard louiT. This I 

 take to be a sort of sea plant, and the strings, its 

 roots growing in the sea, as duck- weed does in 

 ponds. It may be reckon'd among the potent ial 

 cauteries; for when we were one day becalni'd, 

 getting some to make ol)servations thereof, the 

 sportful people rub'd it on one anoiher's hanils and 

 fiices, and where it touch'd it would make it look 

 very red, and make it smart worse than a nettle, 

 in my return fi)r England we struck a hauksbill 

 turtle, in whose guts I found many of these car- 

 vels ; so that it's manifest they feed thereon. 



'Tis commonly asserted by the seamen, that they 

 can srnell the pines at Virginia several leagues at 

 sea before they see land, but I could receive no 

 satisfaction as \o this point ; i could not discern any 

 such thing when at a moderate distance. I tear 

 much of this may be attributed to fiincy; for one 

 day there came three or four, fijif scent, to tell me 

 they were certain they smelt the pines; but it af- 

 terwards prov'd that we were at that time 200 

 leagues from the shoar, so that I was satisfied that 

 was therefore meer fancy. Indeed vve thought, 

 by the general accounts of the ship, that we had 

 been just on the coast, but all were deceived by a 

 current we met with, that at that time set about 

 south-east, or east-south-east, which when once 

 becalmed we tried thus : We hoised out a boat, 

 and took one of the scuttles that cover'd one of 

 tiie hatches of the ship, tying thereto a great 

 weight, and a strong long rope, we let it sink a 

 considerable depth, and then fastning it to the 

 boat, it serv'd as an anchor, that the boat could 

 not drive ; then with the glass and logg line we 

 found the current set, as 1 say, eastward, at the 

 rate of a mile and a half an hour. This current 

 is of mischevous consequence: it does not always 

 run one waj', but as it sets sometimes as we 

 proved easterly, so does it. as they say, set at 

 other times westerly, whereby many ships have 

 been lost ; for then the ships being before their 

 accounts, they ^'a\\ in with the land before they 

 are aware. Thus one year many ships were 

 lost on Cape Hattarasse, and thereabouts. 



Of the Air. 



The cape called Cape Henry, lies in 36^ of the 

 northern latitude. The air and temperature of the 

 seasons is much govern'd by winds in Virginia, 

 both as to heat and cold, driness and moisture, 

 whose variations being very notable, I the more 

 lamented the loss of my barometers and ther- 

 mometers, for considerable observations might be 

 made thereby, there being often great andsuddain 

 changes. The Nore and Note- West are very 

 nitrous and piercing, cold and clear, or else stormy. 

 The south-east and sou'h hazy and soultry hot. 

 Their v/inter is a fine clear air, and drv, which 

 renders it verj^ pleasant : Their fi'osts are short, 

 but sometimes very sharp, that it will ireeze the 

 rivers over three miles broad; nay, the Secretary 

 of State assured me, it had frozen clear over Po- 



