794 CHRONOLOGICAL ARRANGEMENT 



As early as 1376 A. D. (= "twenty-six years ago" in lett. Anton. Zen.), four fishing-boats 

 driven by a storm " more than a thousand miles Westward from Frislanda " (the Faeroe Islands) 10 

 an island called Estotiland (Iceland?), the inhabitants very intelligent and "possess all the arts like 

 ourselves," derived it is believed from former intercourse with our people, for " he saw Latin books " 

 which they of the present generation do not understand, but " have their own language and letters : " 

 their "foreign intercourse is with Greenland, whence they import furs, brimstone, and pitch.'" — The 

 fisherman and his companions brought knowledge of the compass, and after a stay of " five years " 

 were sent " with twelve boats to the southwards to a country which they called Drogio : " here most 

 of the party were massacred, the remainder saving themselves through knowledge " of taking fish 

 with nets ; " * but the report spreading excited jealousy, and they were passed from tribe to tribe dur- 

 ing " thirteen years " through the hands of " more than five and twenty chiefs, for they were contin- 

 ually fighting amongst themselves " (compare the uniformity of stitch in the fish-nets of Europeans 

 and the American and Polynesian tribes). The fisherman describes the country as very great " and 

 as it were a new world ; the people are very rude and uncultivated, for they all go naked and suffer 

 cruelly from the cold, nor have they the sense to clothe themselves with the skins of the animals 

 which they take in hunting: they have no kind of metal : they live by hunting, and carry lances of 

 wood sharpened at the point: they have bows, the strings of which are made of beasts' skins: they 

 are very fierce, and have deadly fights amongst each other, and eat one another's flesh : they have 

 chieftains and certain laws among themselves, but differing in the different tribes : the farther you go 

 south-westwards, however, the more refinement you meet with, because the climate is more temper- 

 ate," and "in those parts they have some knowledge and use of gold and silver" (copper ?). Leaving 

 his companions, who were unwilling to make the attempt, the fisherman escaped "through the woods," 

 and "passing from one chief to another," his former acquaintances, "after a long time" reached 

 " Drogio, where he spent three \ ears." At length boats arrived from Esto'iland ; in which he took 

 passage, and trading in company became rich enough to fit " out a vessel of his own," and "returned 

 to Frislanda." 



" In the reign of Edward III." (.Major pr. H. 55, and Galvan.). an Englishman named Robert 

 Machim having run away with a woman and embarked for Spain, the ship was driven by a storm to 

 an unknown island (Madeira) ; and Machim with others landing, were abandoned. The woman dying, 



* Apocynum cannabinum of Northeast America. Called by the colonists Indian hemp, by the 

 natives on the Lower Mississippi " enequen '' (Alvarad.) : probably the material used by the fisher- 

 men in teaching the natives how to make fish-nets : — natives wearing a covering of Tillandsia moss 

 interwoven with cords of "canape silvestra " were seen by Verrazanus at 34° on the Atlantic: "can- 

 nabis " growing wild, by Hariot on the Roanoke (De Dry i. 8) : " hemp," by Newport on James river : 

 fishing-nets of " chanure " growing in their own country, by Jacques Cartier in the Bay of St. Law- 

 rence, in the possession of natives from the South : and fish-lines " of their owne hempe " and strong 

 sturgeon-nets, according to W. Wood ii. 16, were made by the natives near Plymouth : A. cannabinum 

 was observed by Oakes from Lat. 42 30' along the Atlantic; by myself, frequent in peninsular New 

 Jersey, upright, three feet or more high, and the flowers greenish ; by Baldwin, as far as Matanzas in 

 Florida; by Chapman, in " dry or damp soil, Florida, and northward;" by Beck, near the mouth of 

 the Missouri. Transported to Europe, is described by Morison xv. pi. 3 (Pers.). 



Apocynum hypeiicifolium of Northeast America. An allied species with small pearly- white 

 flowers, — observed by myself at 44 on the Pemigewasset, in two forms, upright three feet hi°h, and 

 the other form depressed ; known to grow throughout Canada as far as 54 on the Saskatchewan 

 (Drumm., and Hook.). Transported to Europe, is described by Aiton, and Jacquin hort. iii pi 

 66 (Pers.). 



Apocynum androsannifolium of Northeast America. The American dogbane, known to the 

 natives from early times :— of the "two kinds of herbes " growing around Salem and said to be 

 " good to make cordage," the " very sweet " flowers observed by Higgeson (hist. coll. i. 121) clearly 

 belong to this species: A. androsaemifolium is known to grow from Hudson's Bay and 54 on the 

 Saskatchewan throughout Canada (Hook., and Drumm.) ; has been observed by myself alono- the 

 Atlantic to 38 ; by Pursh, from Canada to Carolina (Ell.) ; by Chapman, in "rich soil, North Caro- 

 lina, and northward." 



Asclepias incarnata of Northeast America. Also called by the colonists Indian hemp, and said 

 to have been used by the natives for bow-strings, — " the fibres of the bark are strong and capable of 

 being wrought into a fine soft thread, but it is very difficult to separate the bark " (Cutl. p. 424) : A. 

 incarnata was observed by myself frequent on the marshy borders of streams from 43 to 3S alono- 

 the Atlantic ; by Schvveinitz, at 36 in Upper Carolina; by Chapman, in Upper Georgia; by Michaux^ 

 in Illinois ; by Beck, on the Mississippi at St. Louis ; and by E. James, on the Platte. 



