Fopgrs of Sofjn Sosscljm. 9 



he, by any means, uninterefted in prefcriptions for the 

 kitchen; as fee his elaborate recipe for cooking eels 

 (Voyages, p. in), and alfo that {ibid., p. 190) for a com- 

 pound liquor "that exceeds ■paffada, the Nedlar of the 

 country;"' which is made, he tells us, of " Syder, Maligo- 

 Raifons, Milk, and Syrup of Clove-Gilliflowers." But his 

 curiofity in natural hiftory, and efpecially in botany, is his 

 chief merit; and this now gives almoft all the value that 

 is left to his books. 1 William Wood, the author of 

 "New-England's Profpecl" (London, 1634 2 ), was a bet- 

 ter obferver, generally, than Jolfelyn; but the latter makes 

 up for his other fhort-comings by the particularity of his 

 botanical information. 



The " Voyages " was Joffelyn's laft appearance in print. 

 He was already advanced in years, and alludes to this at 

 page 69 of the prefent book, where he fays he mail refer 

 the further investigation of a curious plant — of which a 

 neighbor, " wandering in the woods to find out his ftrayed 

 cattle," had brought him a fragment — " to thofe that are 

 younger, and better able to undergo the pains and trouble 

 of finding it out." " Henceforth," he declares in his 

 :t Voyages," p. 151, "you are to expect, no more Relations 



black." Dr. Mitchell, the botanist of Virginia, has a paper upon the same topic, 

 — the cause of the negro's color, — in the Philosophical Transactions; but this 

 appears less in accordance with more recent researches (Prichard, Nat. Hist, of 

 Man, p. 81) than Josseljn's observations. 



1 " His book is a curiosity, sometimes worth examining, but seldom to be im- 

 plicitly relied on." — Savage, in Winthrop, N. E., vol. i. p. 267, note. 



2 Reprinted, the third edition, with an introductory essay and some notes ; 

 Boston, 1764, — the edition made use of in these notes. 



B 



