A true and faithful account of the four chiefest plantations of the English in America to wit, of Virginia, New-England, Bermudus, Barbados : with the temperature of the air, the nature of the soil, the rivers, mountains, beasts, fowls, birds, fishes, trees, plants, fruits, &c. : as also, of the natives of Virginia, and New-England, their religion, customs, fishing, hunting, &c. / collected by Samuel Clarke ...

Of their great Fires.

Sometimes through carelesness of servants,* 1.1 whole fields of Sugar Canes, and Houses have been burnt down: For if the Canes take fire,

there is no quenching of them, they burn so furiously, and make a ter∣rible noise;* 1.2 For each knot of every Cane, gives as great a report as a Pistol. There is no way to stop it but by cutting down, and removing all the Canes before it for the breadth of twenty or thirty foot down the wind; and there the Negroes stand and beat it out as it creeps along; and some of them are so earnest to stop it, as with their naked feet to tread, and to roll their naked bodies upon it, so little do they regard their own smart in regard of their Masters benefit.

When Negroes are brought to be sold,* 1.3 the Planters go to the ship to buy them, where they find them stark naked, and therefore cannot be deceived in any outward infirmity. The strongest, youngest, and most beautiful yield the best prizes; thirty pound is the price for the best, and about twenty five pound for a woman Negro; Children are much cheaper. They are very chast people. For when at sometimes they are altogether naked,* 1.4 they will not so much as cast their eyes upon those parts which ought to be covered.

Jealous they are of their wives, and, and take it hainously if any make the least Courtship to them.* 1.5 And if any woman hath two children at a birth, her Husband provides a cord to hang her, concluding that she hath been false to his bed: And if by the authority of his Master, he be overawed, yet he never loves her after. The Planters allow some of them two or three Wives, but no women above one husband.

When a Wife is brought to bed,* 1.6 the Husband removes into another room, leaving his Wife upon a boord on which she lies, and calls a neigh∣bour to her, who makes her a little fire near her feet, and that serves for Possets, Broths, and Candles. In a fortnight she is at her work a∣gain with her Pickaninny (so they call their Children) at her back, as merry as any other.

They have times of suckling their Children, and refreshing them∣selves in the fields; and good reason, for they carry a burden on their backs, and work too. Some of them when their children are three years old, as they stoop in their weeding-work, will set their Pickaninnies a stride on their backs, where he will spur his Mother with his heels, and crow on her back, clapping his hands as if he meant to fly, which the Mother is so well pleased with, that she will continue her painful stoop∣ing work longer then she would do, rather then discompose her jovial Pickaninny, so glad she is to see him merry.

The Sabbath dayes they have wholly to their pleasures: In the after∣noons they have Kettle-Drums to make them Musick, and they all go to dancing,* 1.7 the men by themselves, and the women by themselves, and sometimes the men wrestle amongst themselves.

When any of them die,* 1.8 they make a grave, and bury him in the even∣ing, clapping their hands, and making a doleful sound with their voices. They are cowardly, and therefore bloody, when they have advantages. If you threaten before you punish them, they will hang themselves to a∣void the punishment. If they have bruises or strains, they anoint them∣selves with a kind of Oyl that comes out of Barbary that cures them.* 1.9 When they are sick, or inwardly distempered, a little Kill-Devil revives, and comforts them.

The young Maids have usually large breasts that stand strutting out,* 1.10 hard and firm, but when they are old, and have had children, their breasts hang down below their Navels.

They are excellent Swimmers and Divers, both men and women. Some Indians they have from the Neighbouring Islands, or from the Continent, whose Women are better versed in ordering the Cussavy, and making Bread then the Negroes;* 1.11 As also for making Mobby. The men they use for foot-men, and killing of Fish. One of them will go out with his Bows and Arrows, and in a dayes time will kill more Fish then will serve a Family of a dozen persons whil'st it is good. They are ve∣ry active and learn any thing sooner then the Negroes: Their Women have small breasts, long black hair: Clothes they scorn to wear, espe∣cially if they be well shaped, only they wear something before their pri∣vities.

One of these women being got with child by a Christian servant, when the time of her travel came, being loth to be delivered amongst the men, went alone to a Wood, where was a Pond of water, by which she was delivered, and washing her Child in the Water, within three hours came home again with her Child in her Arms, which was a lusty boy.

Some of the Planters feed daily two hundred mouthes, and keep them in such good order, as there is no mutinies amongst them, though they be of several Nations.

Their first work is Weeding, which if it be neglected but a little time, all is in danger of being spoiled. After Weeding comes Planting, espe∣cially in May, and November: But Canes may be planted at all times, that so one Field may be ready after another. Commonly one Field contains about twelve Acres.

Notes

• * 1.1

  Dreadful fire.
• * 1.2

  How quenched.
• * 1.3

  Of the Ne∣groes.
• * 1.4

  Their cha∣stiy.
• * 1.5

  Their jea∣lousie.
• * 1.6

  Of their easie travel
• * 1.7

  Dancing.
• * 1.8

  The Fune∣rals,
• * 1.9

  And Phy∣sick.
• * 1.10

  Negro. Maids and Wives.
• * 1.11

  Indians.