12 
CAPE COD. 
its attendant vices, as if its fibres were the staif of which 
pirates spin their yarns. I heard the voices of men 
shouting aboard a vessel, half a mile from the shore, 
which sounded as if they were in a barn in the country, 
they being between the sails. It was a purely rural 
sound. As I looked over the water, I saw the isles 
rapidly wasting away, the sea nibbling voraciously at the 
continent, the springing arch of a hill suddenly inter¬ 
rupted, as at Point Alderton, — what botanists might call 
premorse, — showing, by its curve against the sky, how 
much space it must have occupied, where now was water 
only. On the other hand, these wrecks of isles were 
being fancifully arranged into new shores, as at Hog 
Island, inside of Hull, where everything seemed to be 
gently lapsing into futurity. This isle had got the very 
form of a ripple, — and I thought that the inhabitants 
should bear a ripple for device on their shields, a wave 
passing over them, with the datura^ which is said to pro¬ 
duce mental alienation of long duration without affecting 
the bodily health,^ springing from its edge. The most 
^ The Jamestown weed (or thorn-apple). “ This, being an early plant, 
was gathered very young for a boiled salad, by some of the soldiers 
sent thither [i. e. to Virginia] to quell the rebellion of Bacon; and some 
of them ate plentifully of it, the effect of which was a very pleasant 
comedy, for they turned natural fools upon it for several days: one 
would blow up a feather in the air; another would dart straws at it with 
much fury; and another, stark naked, was sitting up in a corner like a 
monkey, grinning and making mows at them; a fourth would fondly 
kiss and paw his companions, and sneer in their faces, with a counte¬ 
nance more antic than any in a Dutch droll. In this frantic con¬ 
dition they were confined, lest they should, in their folly, destroy 
themselves, — though it was observed that all their actions were 
full of innocence and good nature. Indeed, they were not very 
cleanly. A thousand such simple tricks they played, and after 
eleven days returned to themselves again, not remembering any¬ 
thing that had passed.” — Beverly’s History of Virginia^ p. 120. 
