These Verbal Deliveries
Being Always Publish'd In Their Most Publick Assemblies,
Serve Instead Of Our Traditional Notes, By The Use
Of Letters.
Some Indians, that I have met withal, have given me
a very curious Description of the great Deluge,
The Immortality of the Soul,
with a pithy Account of the Reward of good and wicked Deeds in the Life
to come; having found, amongst some of them, great Observers of Moral Rules,
and the Law of Nature; indeed, a worthy Foundation to build Christianity upon,
were a true Method found out, and practis'd, for the Performance thereof.
Their way of Dancing, is nothing but a sort of stamping Motion,
much like the treading upon Founders Bellows. This Female-Gang
held their Dance for above six Hours, being all of them of a white Lather,
like a Running Horse that has just come in from his Race.
My Landlady was the Ring-leader of the Amazons, who, when in her own House,
behav'd herself very discreetly, and warily, in her Domestick Affairs;
yet, Custom had so infatuated her, as to almost break her Heart
with Dancing amongst such a confused Rabble. During this Dancing,
the Spectators do not neglect their Business, in working the Loblolly-Pots,
and the other Meat that was brought thither; more or less of them
being continually Eating, whilst the others were Dancing.
When the Dancing was ended, every Youth that was so disposed,
catch'd hold of the Girl he liked best, and took her that Night
for his Bed-Fellow, making as short Courtship and expeditious Weddings,
as the Foot-Guards us'd to do with the Trulls in Salisbury-Court.
Next we shall treat of the Land hereabouts, which is a Marl as red as Blood,
and will lather like Soap. The Town stands on this Land,
which holds considerably farther in the Country, and is in my Opinion,
so durable that no Labour of Man, in one or two Ages, could make it poor.
I have formerly seen the like in Leicestershire, bordering upon Rutland.
Here were Corn-Stalks in their Fields as thick as the Small of a Man's Leg,
and they are ordinarily to be seen.
We lay with these Indians one Night, there being by my Bed-side
one of the largest Iron Pots I had ever seen in America,
which I much wondred at, because I thought there might be no navigable Stream
near that Place. I ask'd them, where they got that Pot?
They laugh'd at my Demand, and would give me no Answer, which makes me guess
it came from some Wreck, and that we were nearer the Ocean,
or some great River, than I thought.
{Monday.}
The next day about Noon, we accidentally met with a Southward Indian,
amongst those that us'd to trade backwards and forwards,
and spoke a little English, whom we hir'd to go with us
to the Esaw Indians, a very large Nation containing many thousand People.
In the Afternoon we set forward, taking our Leaves of the Wisack Indians,
and leaving them some Trifles.
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