MARTIN PRING. 1603. [NEW-FOUNDLAND]
Martin Pring. A Voyage set out from the Citie of Bristoll at the Charge of the Chiefest Merchants and Inhabitants of the said Citie with a small Ship and a Barke for the Discoverie of the North Part of Virginia, in the Yeere 1603 under the Command of Me Martin Pring. [IN C.H. Levermore (Ed.), Forerunners and Competitors of the Pilgrims and Puritans…, Vol. 1, pp. 60-69.]
Pring’s brief recollection of his mission gives us insight into the early Sassafras harvesters. The year before, Captain Bartholomew Gosnold had been at this same place of encampment (Savage Rock), and had collected nearly all of the local Sassafras from wild groves. Pring makes brief note on finding and harvesting it further inland, and gives a description of the settlement he came on, its garden and their birch bark canoe.
Pring mentions:
Trees
Pine-trees
Firre-trees
Cedars
tall Okes
Beeches
Maples
Ashes
Birch trees (Birch Canoe use)
“Cherie trees bearing fruit whereof wee did eate”
Hasels
“Wich-hasels, the best wood of all other to make Sope-ashes with-all”
Walnut trees
“divers other sorts of trees to us unknowne.”
Shrubs
Vines
“Holy [Holly] to make Bird-lime with”
“a kinde of tree bearing a fruit like a small red Peare-plum with a crowne or knop on the top”
“low trees bearing faire Cheries”
“a white kind of Plums”
Garden Crops
wheat, barley, oats, pease,
“sundry sorts of Garden Seeds,”
Hemp, Rape-seed, Flax.
Native Food and Crops
Tobacco,
Pompions,
“Cowcumbers and such like,”
“Maiz or Indian Wheat,”
wild Pease,
“Strawberries very faire and bigge,”
Gooseberries,
Raspices [Raspberries],
Hurts [Hurtleberries, Whortleberries/Huckleberries]
“other wild fruits.”
Canoes
An early note was made on the Birch Canoe (pp. 64-65):
“Their Boats, whereof we brought one to Bristoll, were in proportion like a Wherrie ofthe River Thames, seventeene foot long and four foot broad, and made of the Barke of a Birch-tree, farre exceeding in bigness those of England: it was sown together with strong and tough Oziers or twigs, and the seames covered over with Rozin or Turpentine little inferiour in sweetnesse to Frankincense, as we made triall by burning a little thereof on the coales at sundry times after our comin home: it was open like a Wherrie, and sharpe at both ends, saving that the beake was a little bending roundly upward. And though it carried nine men standing upright, yet it weighed not at most above sixtie pounds in weight, a thing almost incredible in regard of the largenesse and capacity thereof. Their Oares were flat at the end like an Oven peele, made of Ash or Maple very light and strong, about two yards long, wherewith they row very swiftly….”
Garden Crops
Mentions: wheat, barley, oats, pease, “sundry sorts of Garden Seeds,” Hemp, Rape-seed and Flax.
The following were noted to be in gardens attended to by the Natives:
Tobacco, Pompions, “Cowcumbers and such like,” “Maiz or Indian Wheat,” wild Pease, “Strawberries very faire and bigge,” Gooseberries, Raspices [Raspberries], Hurts [also called Hurtleberries, Whortleberries/Huckleberries], and “other wild fruits.” [pp. 65]
Sassafras
The purpose of this voyage by Pring was to find another source for the much desired Sassafras:
“As for Trees the Country yeeldeth Sassafras a plant of sovereigne vertue for the French Poxe, and as some of late have learnedly written good against the Plague and many other Maladies….”
The year before, Captain Gosnold had been at Savage Rocke. Pring has perhaps landed where Gosnold had already harvested much of the Sassafras, for Pring writes “But meeting with no Sassafras, we left these places with all the foresaid Ilands, shaping our course for Savage Rocke discovered the yeere before by Captain Gosnold.” (p. 62) [Identified in footnote a Cape Neddick near York Beach.] At Pring’s next stopover, he spoke with the local inhabitants and wrote “here also we could find no Sassafras.”
Pring then went to Plymouth Harbor and anchored in what was then called Whitson Bay (later known as Cape St. Louis by Champlain.) He spent several weeks on this coastline setting up camp and tilling a garden. His team planted wheat, barley, oats, pease, and “sundry sorts of Garden Seeds.” He later noted this would be good grounds for establishing Oat, Hemp, Rape-seed and Flax crops, and considered the soil to be quite rich and the weather healthy.
Nearby were the large groves of Sassafras he planned to harvest. By the end of July, Pring’s crew had collected large amounts of the Sassafras bark, filling the “small Barke called the Discoverer, with as much Sassafras as we thought sufficient.” He then sent this product to England. (p. 66)
Trees
Martin Pring set sail for the New-Foundland on April, 1603. His first entries in the Island notes mention “goodly grasse and sundry sorts of Trees, as Cedars, Spruce, Pine and Firr-Trees. [p. 61] In the inlets he travelled he noted “very goodly Groves and Woods replenished with tall Okes, Beeches, Pine-trees, Firre-trees, Hasels, Wich-hasels and Maples.” He notes numerous trees, some of which could provide valuable products aside from wood, fruit-bearers and the Birch Canoe.
Near where their encampment was laid:
“As for Trees the Country yeeldeth Sassafras a plant of sovereigne vertue for the French Poxe, and as some of late have learnedly written good against the Plague and many other Maladies…; Vines, Cedars, Okes, Ashes, Beeches, Birch trees, Cherie trees bearing fruit whereof wee did eate, Hasels, Wich-hasels, the best wood of all other to make Sope-ashes with-all, Walnut trees, maples, Holy to make Bird-lime with, and a kinde of tree bearing a fruit like a small red Peare-plum with a crowne or knop on the top (a plant whereof carefully wrapped up in earth, Master Robert Salterne brought to Bristol.) We found also low trees bearing faire Cheries. There were likewise a white kind of Plums which were growne to their perfect ripeness. With divers other sorts of trees to us unknowne.”
Listing of those mentioned [pp. 61-62]:
tall Okes
Beeches
Pine-trees
Firre-trees
Hasels,
Wich-hasels (p. 63: mentions its use for making bows)
Maples
Vines
Cedars
Okes
Ashes
Beeches
Birch trees
“Cherie trees bearing fruit whereof wee did eate”
Hasels
“Wich-hasels, the best wood of all other to make Sope-ashes with-all”
Walnut trees
maples
“Holy [Holly] to make Bird-lime with”
“a kinde of tree bearing a fruit like a small red Peare-plum with a crowne or knop on the top”
low trees bearing faire Cheries.
a white kind of Plums
“divers other sorts of trees to us unknowne.”
Ashes
Birch trees (Birch Canoe use)
Brian Altonen, MPH, MS 