1602 – John Brereton (Buzzard’s Bay)

JOHN BRERETON. BUZZARD’S BAY, NEW-FOUNDLAND. 1602.

John Brereton and Gabriel Archer [Bartholomew Gosnold and Bartholomew Gilbert].  First English Settlement, Buzzard’s Bay, 1602.  Voyages of Bartholomew Gosnold and Bartholomew Gilbert.  Narratives of John Brereton and Gabriel Archer.  First English Settlement: Brereton.  A Brief and true Relation… [In  C.H. Levermore (Ed.), Forerunners and Competitors of the Pilgrims and Puritans…, Vol. 1] 

FIRST IMPRESSIONS

14 May 1602.  “But on Friday the fourteenth of May, early in the morning, we made the land, being full of faire trees, the land somewhat low, certeine hummocks or hilles lying into the land, the shore ful of white sand, but very stony or rocky.”

“The chiefest trees of this Island, are Beeches and Cedars; the outward parts all outgrowen with lowe bushie trees, three or foure foot in height, which some beare some kinde of fruits, as appeared by their blossomes; Strawberies, red and white, as sweet and much bigger than ours in England; Rasberries, Gooseberies, Hurtleberies, and such incredible store of Vines, as well as the Woodie part of the Island…”  [The first Island was possibly Martha’s Vineyard.]

OVERVIEW

Plantae:

  • Beech (Fagus spp.)  (pp. 33,35,42)
  • Cedar (either Juniperus or Chamaecyparis sp.)  (pp. 33,35)  Page 42 notes: “Cedars tall and straight, in great abundance.”
  • “Cypres trees” [p. 42]
  • “High timbered Oakes (Quercus spp.)  [p. 35,42]
  • Elme  (Ulmus spp., sp. U. fulva/rubra)
  • Hollie  (Ilex sp.?)
  • “Walnut trees great store” (Juglans cinerea and/or Carya spp.) [pp. 35,42]
  • Haslenutt trees  (Corylus sp.)  [pp. 35,42]
  • Cherry trees  (Prunus serotina, possibly the Beach Plum and other Prunus look-alikes as well.)  [pp. 35,42]
  • Sassafras (Sassafras albidum)
  • “diverse other fruit trees, some of them with stranger barkes, of an Orange colour, in feeling soft and smooth like Velvet.”   [Paper and Black Birch???][ p. 35]
  • “Colours to die with, red, white and blacke.” [p. 42]

Fruit Bearers:

  • “Strawberies, red and white, as sweet and much bigger that ours in England,”  Indian [Yellow] Strawberry (Duchesnea indica)  and regular Wild Strawberry (Frageria canadense).
  • Rasberries,  (Rubus spp.)
  • Gooseberies, (Ribes sp.)
  • Hurtleberies,  (Whortleberries)
  • “such incredible store of Vines.”   (Vitis spp.  Grape) 

Food plants:

  • Wheat
  • Barley
  • Oats
  • Pease
  • Sorrel (Rumex acetosa and/or acetosella, or Oxalis spp.)

Herbs and other small plants:

  •       Iris.  “Iris Florentina, whereof apothecaries make    sweet balles.”
  •             Tobacco (Nicotiana tabacum)

Animalia

  • “Snakes foure foot in length, and six inches about, which the Indians eat for daintie meat, the skinnes whereof they use for girdles.”  [Black Snake?  Hog Nose?]  [p. 42]
  • Whales/Ceta.  On the North shore of New-Foundland were the scattered remains of Whales, the form of bones and ribs probably left over by the natives following a whale hunt.
  • Numerous other Fishes, Fowles and Beasts.

Mineralia

  • Seven “Mettals and Stones” are noted, none as medicinal. 
  • “Clay, red & white, which may prove Terra Sigillata” refers to the officinal medicine Terra Sigillata, a pressed, packed clay, which is marked with a stamped sign (the sigillata) of its inventor and/or producer.
  • The “Stones of a blue metalline colour, which we take to be Steele oare,” is either Copper or Iron.  Regular Copper was noted to be “in great abundance.”
  • Emerie stones
  • Alabaster
  • “Stones glistening and shining like Minerall stones.”
  • “Stones of all soprts for buildings.”

NOTES:

Cherry (Prunus spp.)–see Trees.

Climate

[Newfoundland. Buzzard’s Bay. 1602.]  Brereton notes the aggreeable climate of New-Foundland. [p. 41]

Fire-Starting

[Newfoundland. Buzzard’s Bay. 1602.]  Brereton:  “They strike fire in this maner; every one carrieth about him in a purse of tewd leather, a Minerall stone (which I take to be their Copper) and with a flat Emerie stone…tied fast to the end of a little sticke, gently he striketh upon the Minerall stone, and within a stroke or two, a sparke falleth upon a piece of Touchwood (much like a Spunge [Spunk] in England) and with the least sparke he maketh a fire presently.” [p. 39]

Flax

Briefly mentioned.  Probably a generic referral to their use of fiber products, such as Tilia, Morus, etc.   See on listing given on p. 42 of text, “Medicines” section for these notes.

Food/Nutriment

Most foods noted in this early travel writing are from Europe.  On page 35 her notes in May that his people sowed wheat, barley, oats and pease.  On the south shore of New-Foundland he found “great Pease, which grow in certeine plots all Island over.” 

Identifications:

  • Wheat
  • Barley
  • Oats
  • Pease

See “Fruits.”

Fruit

[Newfoundland. Buzzard’s Bay. 1602.]  Brereton noted several flowering shrubs and fruit bearers which he felt similar to those of Europe.  On page 33 he notes the following fruit-bearers on the Island of New-Foundland:  “Strawberies, red and white, as sweet and much bigger that ours in England,” Rasberries, Gooseberies, Hurtleberies, and “such incredible store of Vines.”

[NOTE: the color yellow is noted repeatedly in the early writings as red.   In the New France letters, for example, we find the term “Red Lilies” in use to describe the wild yellow varieties.  When it comes to Jesuit writings, this color change can be explained in a theosophical sense, for it perhaps related to the attitudes of the religious writers of this time and their respect for Christ’s Blood.  In the more common mindset and social setting, this change in terminology or metalinguistics perhaps stems from the reliance people on the use of the term red when referring to dark yellow to orange flowers, for this is seen often in herbals and diaries with garden notes for the time.]

Identifications:

  •  
    • “Strawberies, red and white, as sweet and much bigger that ours in England,”  Indian [Yellow] Strawberry (Duchesnea indica)  and regular Wild Strawberry (Frageria canadense).
    • Rasberries,  (Rubus spp.)
    • Gooseberies, (Ribes sp.)
    • Hurtleberies,  (Whortleberries)
    • “such incredible store of Vines.”   (Vitis spp.  Grape) 
    • Ground-Nuts (Apios tuberosa?)

[Newfoundland. Buzzard’s Bay. 1602.]  Brereton: “Also, in every Island, and almost in every part of very Island, are great store of Ground nuts, fortie together on a string, some of them as big as hennes eggs; they grow not two inches underground: the which nuts we found to be good as Potatoes.” [p. 36]

In “A Briefe Note of such Commodities as we saw in the Countrey, nowithstanding our small time of stay” (p. 42), he notes 12 trees, and 11 “Fruits, Plants and Herbs.”   Of the Ground nuts, he wrote “Ground nuts, good meat, & also medicinable.” 

Medicines

[Newfoundland. Buzzard’s Bay. 1602.] The Iris florentina is noted on page 42 as part of “A Briefe Note of such Commodities as we saw in the Countrey, nowithstanding our small time of stay.”

Those most important to note:

Plantae

Iris.  “Iris Florentina, whereof apothecaries make sweet balles.”

Sassafras.  “Sassafras trees, the roots whereof at 3s. the pound are 336. l. [Pounds] the tunne.”    “The finder of Sassafras in these parts was one Master Robert Meriton.” [p. 42]

Animalia

“Snakes foure foot in length, and six inches about, which the Indians eat for daintie meat, the skinnes whereof they sue for girdles.”  [Black Snake?  Hog Nose?]  [p. 42]

Mineralia

  •  
    • Seven “Mettals and Stones” are noted, none as medicinal. 
    • “Clay, red & white, which may prove Terra Sigillata” refers to the officinal medicine Terra Sigillata, a pressed, packed clay, which is marked with a stamped sign (the sigillata) of its inventor and/or producer.
    • The “Stones of a blue metalline colour, which we take to be Steele oare,” is either Copper or Iron.  Regular Copper was noted to be “in great abundance.”

Sassafras (Sassafras albidum)

[Newfoundland. Buzzard’s Bay. 1602.]  Brereton wrote:

“Sassafras trees great plentie all the Island over, a tree of high price and profit; also diverse other fruit trees, some of them with stranger barkes, of an Orange colour, in feeling soft and smooth like Velvet.” (p. 34)

Again makes a brief note about the cutting of Sassafras, to be placed aboard a ship. (p. 39-40).

[NOTE:  the term “drinke” is in the Middle English sense–meaning to draw-in or exhale.]

Sorrel (Rumex acetosa and/or acetosella, or Oxalis spp.)

[Newfoundland. Buzzard’s Bay. 1602.]  “Sorrell, and many other herbs wherewith they made sallets.”

Tobacco (Nicotiana tabacum)

[Newfoundland. Buzzard’s Bay. 1602.]  Brereton wrote: “they gave us also of their Tabacco, which they drinke greene, but dried into powder, very strong and pleasant.”  [NOTE:  the term “drinke” is in the Middle English sense–meaning to draw-in or exhale.]

Touchwood–see Fire Starting

Trees

[Newfoundland. Buzzard’s Bay. 1602.]  Brereton noted the typical natural products, namely wood and pitch, but also several flowering shrubs and fruit similar to those of Europe.  On page 33 he notes the chiefest trees on the Island of New-Foundland:  Beech and Cedar.  Page 35 notes are of the “High timbered Oakes, Cedars, Beech, Elme, Hollie, Walnut trees, Haslenutt trees, and Cherry trees.”  Of the Cherry tree he notes it difference from the European species:  “but the stalke beareth the blossomes or fruit at the end thereof, like cluster of Grapes, forty or fifty in a bunch.” 

On page 36 he wrote of “diverse other fruit trees, some of them with stranger barkes, of an Orange colour, in feeling soft and smooth like Velvet.”  

Page 42 notes refer to “A Briefe Note of such Commodities as we saw in the Countrey, nowithstanding our small time of stay.”

Identifications:

  • Beech (Fagus spp.)  (pp. 33,35,42)
  • Cedar (either Juniperus or Chamaecyparis sp.)  (pp. 33,35)  Page 42 notes: “Cedars tall and straight, in great abundance.”
  • “Cypres trees” [p. 42]
  • “High timbered Oakes (Quercus spp.)  [p. 35,42]
  • Elme  (Ulmus spp., sp. U. fulva/rubra)
  • Hollie  (Ilex sp.?)
  • “Walnut trees great store” (Juglans cinerea and/or Carya spp.) [pp. 35,42]
  • Haslenutt trees  (Corylus sp.)  [pp. 35,42]
  • Cherry trees  (Prunus serotina, possibly the Beach Plum and other Prunus look-alikes as well.)  [pp. 35,42]
  • Sassafras [p. 42]  (Which see.)
  • “diverse other fruit trees, some of them with stranger barkes, of an Orange colour, in feeling soft and smooth like Velvet.”   [Paper and Black Birch???][ p. 35]

“Colours to die with, red, white and blacke.” [p. 42]