164 PLYMOUTH HARBOUR. CHAP. Oaks, pines, walnuts, beech, sassafras, vines, and other X. trees1 which we know not. This bay is a most hope1620. ful place; innumerable store of fowl, and excellent Dec. 18. V good; and cannot but be of fish in their seasons; skate, cod, turbot, and herring, we have tasted of; abundance of muscles, the greatest and best that ever we saw; crabs and lobsters, in their time, infinite. It is in fashion like a sickle, or fish-hook.5 Monday, the 18th day, we went a land, manned the mouth of the harbour." This Skate and cod are still caught The only forest trees now on Wild fowl are yet abundant in here. The European turbot, it is well known, is not found in our waters. The first settlers probably gave this name to the flounder or small halibut. See Storer's Report on the Fishes of Massachusetts, pp. 140, 145, 146. Higginson, in his New England's Plantation, enumerates the turbot among other fish. T. Morton, in his New English Canaan, ch. vii. says, "there is a large-sized fish, called halibut, or turbot; some are taken so big that two men have much ado to haul them into the boat." Wood, ch. ix. says, "the halibut is not much unlike a plaice or turbot, some being two yards long, and one wide, and a foot thick." And Josselyn, p. 26, says, some will have the halibut and turbot all one; others distinguish them; there is no question to be made of it but that they are distinct kinds of fish." The turbot and plaice are very much alike in appearance. See the figures of them in Yarrell's British Fishes, i. 209, 233. 66 There are muscles in Plymouth, but generally small, and clams; the Journal probably refers to the latter. Crabs and lobsters are very abundant in the summer season. The form of Plymouth Bay, which includes Kingston and Duxbury harbours, is accurately described. The words "in the long-boat" seem to be omitted. THE TREES AND PLANTS OF PLYMOUTH. 165 X. with the master of the ship and three or four of the CHAP. sailors. We marched along the coast in the woods some seven or eight miles,' but saw not an Indian nor 1620. an Indian house; only we found where formerly had 18. been some inhabitants, and where they had planted their corn. We found not any navigable river, but four or five small running brooks of very sweet fresh water, that all run into the sea. The land for the crust of the earth is, a spit's depth, excellent black mould, and fat in some places; two or three great oaks, but not very thick, pines, walnuts, beech, ash, birch, hazel, holly, asp, sassafras in abundance, and vines every where, cherry trees, plum trees, and many others which we know not. Many kinds of herbs we found here in winter, as strawberry leaves innumerable, sorrel, yarrow, carvel, brooklime, liverwort, water 1 Whichever way the travellers went, they could not have walked seven miles; because northwest, at the distance of four miles, they would have come to Jones's river in Kingston, and southeast, at the distance of three miles, to Eel river. These rivers, though not large, cannot be denominated brooks. F. North of the village, towards Kingston, there are five brooks, which were named by the original planters First Brook, Second Brook, &c. in order, beginning from the town. Half a mile south of the village is Wellingsly Brook, by the side of which dwelt Secretary Morton. Double Brook, or Shingle Brook of the first settlers, runs northerly by the post road to Sandwich, and unites with Eel river. Beaver Dam Brook is in the village of Manomet Ponds. Indian Brook is still further south on the shore. See Mass. Hist. Coll. xiii. 178, and Thacher's Plymouth, p. 322. See note on page 123. 4 This is an exact description of The wild grape, both white and • All the trees here enumerated are now found in Plymouth. The asp, or aspen, was probably our native poplar. The beach, about three miles long, which lies in front of the village, extending from Eel river, N. N. West, and protecting the harbour, was originally well wooded. Towards the northern part, till 1770, it was quite thickly covered with trees. The inner side of the beach was covered with plum and wild-cherry trees, and the swamp with large pitch pine and beech wood. Beech plums, wild gooseberries, and white grapes were found here in great quantities in their proper season. See a list of the trees, in Mass. Hist. Coll. Dec. 166 JONES'S RIVER, IN KINGSTON. CHAP. cresses, great store of leeks and onions,' and an exX. cellent strong kind of flax and hemp. Here is sand, 1620. gravel, and excellent clay, no better in the world, ex Dec. 19. cellent for pots, and will wash like soap, and great store of stone, though somewhat soft, and the best water that ever we drunk; and the brooks now begin to be full of fish. That night, many being weary with marching, we went aboard again. 5 The next morning, being Tuesday, the 19th of December, we went again to discover further; some went on land, and some in the shallop. The land we found as the former day we did; and we found a creek, and went up three English miles, a very pleasant river at full sea. A bark of thirty tons may go up; but at low water scarce our shallop could pass. This place we had a great liking to plant in, but that it was so far from our fishing, our principal profit, and so encompassed with woods, that we should be in much danger of the salvages; and our number being so little, and so much ground to clear; so as we thought good to xiii. 165, 172, 206; Thacher's These were probably the allium The Indian hemp (apocynum xxvi. 120. Plymouth is abundantly supplied with springs and brooks of excellent water. F. Sco p. 129. Some years since, before the Town Brook was obstructed, tomcods were abundant in December; eels and smelts enter the brooks in autumn. This was Jones's river, in Kingston, so called, it is supposed, by the Pilgrims, in compliment to the Captain of the Mayflower; which they would not have done had they entertained any doubt of his fidelity. Jones's river parish was set off from Plymouth in 1717, and incorporated in 1726, as the town of Kingston. See note on p. 138, and Mass. Hist. Coll. xiii. 208 and 217. 2 THEY CONCLUDE TO BUILD ON THE BANK. 167 X. quit and ' clear that place till we were of more strength. CHAP. Some of us, having a good mind, for safety, to plant in the greater isle, we crossed the bay, which is there 1620. five or six miles over, and found the isle about a mile and a half or two miles about, all wooded, and no fresh water but two or three pits, that we doubted of fresh water in summer, and so full of wood as we could hardly clear so much as to serve us for corn. Besides, we judged it cold for our corn, and some part very rocky; yet divers thought of it as a place defensible, and of great security. That night we returned again a shipboard, with resolution the next morning to settle on some of those places. 20. So in the morning, after we had called on God for Dec. direction, we came to this resolution, to go presently ashore again, and to take a better view of two places which we thought most fitting for us; for we could not now take time for further search or consideration, our victuals being much spent, especially our beer, and it being now the 19th of December. After our landing and viewing of the places, so well as we could, we came to a conclusion, by most voices, to set on the main land, on the first place, on a high ground, where there is a great deal of land cleared, and hath been planted with corn three or four years ago; and there is a very sweet brook' runs under the hill side, and many delicate springs of as good water as can be drunk, and where we may harbour our shallops and boats exceeding well; and in this brook much good I think the word not is here accidentally omitted. 2 See note 1 on page 160. 'On the bank, facing the harbour. It Now called Town brook. issues from a pond called Billington Sea. F. 168 RAINY AND TEMPESTUOUS WEATHER. 2 CHAP. fish in their seasons; on the further side of the river X. also much corn-ground cleared.' In one field is a 1620. great hill, on which we point to make a platform, and plant our ordnance, which will command all round about. From thence we may see into the bay, and far into the sea; and we may see thence Cape Cod. Our greatest labor will be fetching of our wood, which is half a quarter of an English mile; but there is enough so far off. What people inhabit here we yet know not, for as yet we have seen none. So there we made our rendezvous, and a place for some of our people, about twenty, resolving in the morning to come all ashore and to build houses. Dec. 21. Dec. 22. But the next morning, being Thursday, the 21st of December, it was stormy and wet, that we could not go ashore; and those that remained there all night could do nothing, but were wet, not having daylight enough to make them a sufficient court of guard, to keep them dry. All that night it blew and rained extremely. It was so tempestuous that the shallop could not go on land so soon as was meet, for they had no victuals on land. About eleven o'clock the shallop went off with much ado with provision, but could not return, it blew so strong; and was such foul weather that we were forced to let fall our anchor, and ride with three anchors ahead.1 Friday, the 22d, the storm still continued, that we On the spot now called the 2 The Burial Hill, rising 165 feet Duxbury, and the shores of the bay for miles around, is unrivalled by any sea view in the country. In a clear day the white sand hills of Provincetown may be distinctly seen from this hill. "Dec. 21, dies Richard Britterige, the first who dies in this harbour." Bradford, in Prince, p. 168. |