Part 2

On many trees in the woods of this country, either on one of the sides, or in the middle of a branch, or round a branch, are greater or lesser knobs or excrescences. Sometimes there is only a single one in a tree. In the size there is a considerable difference, for some of these knobs are as big and bigger than a man’s head, others are only small. They project above the surface of the tree, like a tumor. Sometimes a tree was quite covered with them. They do not ly on one side only, but often form a circle round a branch, and even round the stem itself. The trees which have these knobs are not always great ones, but some not above a fathom high. The knobs commonly consist of the same parts as the wood itself, and look within like curled wood. Some of them are hollow. When a knob on a little tree is cut open, we commonly find a number of little worms in it, which are sometimes also common in the greater knobs. This shews the origin of the knobs in general. The tree is stung by insects, which lay their eggs under the bark, and from the eggs worms are afterwards hatched. They occasion an extravasation of the sap, which gradually condenses into a knob. Only the trees with annual deciduous leaves have these knobs, and among them chiefly the oak, of which again the black and Spanish oak have the greatest abundance of knobs. The ash trees, (Fraxinus excelsior) and the red maple (Acer rubrum) likewise have enough of them. Formerly the Swedes, and more especially the Finlanders, who are settled here, made dishes, bowls, &c. of the knobs which were on the ash-trees. These vessels, I am told, were very pretty, and looked as if they were made of curled wood. The oak-knobs cannot be employed in this manner, as they are commonly worm-eaten and rotten within. At present the Swedes no longer make use of such bowls and dishes, but make use of earthen ware, or vessels made of other wood. Some knobs are of an uncommon size, and make a tree have a monstrous appearance. Trees with knobs are very common in the woods of this country [4].

The roads are good or bad according to the difference of the ground. In a sandy soil the roads are dry and good; but in a clayey one they are bad. The people here are likewise very careless in mending them. If a rivulet be not very great, they do not make a bridge over it; and travellers may do as well as they can to get over: Therefore many people are in danger of being drowned in such places, where the water is risen by a heavy rain. When a tree falls across the road, it is seldom cut off, to keep the road clear, but the people go round it. This they can easily do, since the ground is very even, and without stones; has no underwood or shrubs, and the trees on it stand much asunder. Hence the roads here have so many bendings.

The farms are most of them single, and you seldom meet with even two together, except in towns, or places which are intended for towns; therefore there are but few villages. Each farm has its corn-fields, its woods, its pastures and meadows. This may perhaps have contributed something towards the extirpation of wolves, that they every where met with houses, and people who fired at them. Two or three farm-houses have generally a pasture or a wood in common, and there are seldom more together; but most of them have their own grounds divided from the others.

December the 18th. All persons who intend to be married, must either have their banns published three times from the pulpit, or get a licence from the governor. The banns of the poorer sort of people only are published, and all those who are a little above them get a licence from the governor. In that licence he declares that he has examined the affair, and found no obstacles to hinder the marriage, and therefore he allows it. The licence is signed by the governor; but, before he delivers it, the bridegroom must come to him in company with two creditable and well known men, who answer for him, that there really is no lawful obstacle to his marriage. These men must subscribe a certificate, in which they make themselves answerable for, and engage to bear all the damages of, any complaints made by the relations of the persons who intend to be married, by their guardians, their masters, or by those to whom they may have been promised before. For all these circumstances the governor cannot possibly know. They further certify that nothing hinders the intended marriage, and that nothing is to be feared on that account. For a licence they pay five and twenty shillings in Pensylvanian money, at Philadelphia. The governor keeps twenty shillings, or one pound, and the remaining five shillings belong to his secretary. The licence is directed only to protestant clergymen. The quakers have a peculiar licence to their marriages. But as it would be very troublesome, especially for those who live far from the governor’s residence to come up to town for every licence, and to bring the men with them who are to answer for them, the clergymen in the country commonly take a sufficient number of licences and certificates, which are ready printed, with blanks left for the names; they give them occasionally, and get the common money, one pound, five shillings, for each of them, besides something for their trouble. The money that they have collected, they deliver to the governor as soon as they come to town, together with the certificates, which are signed by two men, as above-mentioned; they then take again as many licences as they think sufficient: from hence we may conceive that the governors in the English North American colonies, besides their salaries, have very considerable revenues [5].

There is a great mixture of people of all sorts in these colonies, partly of such as are lately come over from Europe, and partly of such as have not yet any settled place of abode. Hence it frequently happens that when a clergyman has married such a couple, the bridegroom says he has no money at present, but would pay the fee at the first opportunity: however he goes off with his wife, and the clergyman never gets his due. This proceeding has given occasion to a custom which is now common in Maryland. When the clergyman marries a very poor couple, he breaks off in the middle of the Liturgy, and cries out Where is my fee? The man must then give the money, and the clergyman proceeds; but if the bridegroom has no money, the clergyman defers the marriage till another time, when the man is better provided. People of fortune, of whom the clergyman is sure to get his due, need not fear this disagreeable question, when they are married.

However, though the parson has got licences to marry a couple, yet if he be not very careful, he may get into very disagreeable circumstances; for in many parts of the country there is a law made, which, notwithstanding the governor’s licence, greatly limits a clergyman in some cases. He is not allowed to marry a couple who are not yet of age, unless he be certain of the consent of their parents. He cannot marry such strangers as have bound themselves to serve a certain number of years, in order to pay off their passage from Europe, without the consent of their masters; if he acts without their consent, or in opposition to it, he must pay a penalty of fifty pounds, Pensylvania currency, though he has the licence, and the certificate of the two men who are to answer for any objection. But parents or masters give themselves no concern about these men, but take hold of the clergyman, who is at liberty to prosecute those who gave him the certificate, and to get his damages repaid. With the consent of the parents and masters he may marry people without danger to himself. No clergyman is allowed to marry a negro with one of European extraction, or he must pay a penalty of one hundred pounds, according to the laws of Pensylvania.

There is a very peculiar diverting custom here, in regard to marrying. When a man dies, and leaves his widow in great poverty, or so that she cannot pay all the debts with what little she has left, and that, notwithstanding all that, there is a person who will marry her, she must be married in no other habit than her shift. By that means, she leaves to the creditors of her deceased husband her cloaths, and every thing which they find in the house. But she is not obliged to pay them any thing more, because she has left them all she was worth, even her cloaths, keeping only a shift to cover her, which the laws of the country cannot refuse her. As soon as she is married, and no longer belongs to the deceased husband, she puts on the cloaths which the second has given her. The Swedish clergymen here have often been obliged to marry a woman in a dress which is so little expensive, and so light. This appears from the registers kept in the churches, and from the accounts given by the clergymen themselves. I have likewise often seen accounts of such marriages in the English gazettes; which are printed in these colonies; and I particularly remember the following relation: A woman went, with no other dress than her shift, out of the house of her deceased husband to that of her bridegroom, who met her half way with fine new cloaths, and said, before all who were present, that he lent them his bride; and put them on her with his own hands. It seems, he said that he lent the cloaths, lest, if he had said he gave them, the creditors of the first husband should come, and take them from her; pretending, that she was looked upon as the relict of her first husband, before she was married to the second.

December the 21st. It seems very probable, from the following observations, that long before the arrival of the Swedes, there have been Europeans in this province; and, in the sequel, we shall give more confirmations of this opinion. The same old Maons Keen, whom I have already mentioned before, told me repeatedly, that on the arrival of the Swedes in the last century, and on their making a settlement, called Helsingburg, on the banks of the Delaware, somewhat below the place where Salem is now situated; they found, at the depth of twenty feet, some wells, inclosed with walls. This could not be a work of the native Americans, or Indians, as bricks were entirely unknown to them when the Europeans first settled here, at the end of the fifteenth century; and they still less knew how to make use of them. The wells were, at that time, on the land; but in such a place, on the banks of the Delaware, as is sometimes under water, and sometimes dry. But since, the ground has been so washed away, that the wells are entirely covered by the river, and the water is seldom low enough to shew the wells. As the Swedes afterwards made new wells for themselves, at some distance from the former, they discovered, in the ground, some broken earthen vessels, and some entire good bricks; and they have often got them out of the ground by ploughing.

From these marks, it seems, we may conclude, that in times of yore, either Europeans or other people of the then civilized parts of the world, have been carried hither by storms, or other accidents, settled here, on the banks of the river, burnt bricks, and made a colony here; but that they afterwards mixed with the Indians, or were killed by them. They may gradually, by conversing with the Indians, have learnt their manners, and turn of thinking. The Swedes themselves are accused, that they were already half Indians, when the English arrived in the year 1682. And we still see, that the French, English, Germans, Dutch, and other Europeans, who have lived for several years together in distant provinces, near and among the Indians, grow so like them, in their behaviour and thoughts, that they can only be distinguished by the difference of their colour. But history, together with the tradition among the Indians, assures us, that the above-mentioned wells and bricks cannot have been made at the time of Columbus’s expedition, nor soon after; as the traditions of the Indians say, that those wells were made long before that epocha. This account of the wells, which had been inclosed with bricks, and of such bricks as have been found in several places in the ground, I have afterwards heard repeated by many other old Swedes.

December the 22nd. An old farmer foretold a change of the weather, because the air was very warm this day at noon, though the morning had been very cold. This he likewise concluded, from having observed the clouds gathering about the sun. The meteorological observations annexed to the end of this volume will prove that his observation was just.

December the 31st. The remedies against the tooth-ach are almost as numerous as days in a year. There is hardly an old woman but can tell you three or four score of them, of which she is perfectly certain that they are as infallible and speedy in giving relief, as a month’s fasting, by bread and water, is to a burthensome paunch. Yet it happens often, nay too frequently, that this painful disease eludes all this formidable army of remedies. However, I cannot forbear observing the following remedies, which have sometimes, in this country, been found effectual against the tooth-ach.

When the pains come from the hollowness of the teeth, the following remedy is said to have had a good effect: A little cotton is put at the bottom of a tobacco-pipe; the tobacco is put in upon it, and lighted; and you smoke till it is almost burnt up. By smoking, the oil of the tobacco gets into the cotton, which is then taken out, and applied to the tooth as hot as it can be suffered.

The chief remedy of the Iroquois, or Iroquese, against the tooth-ach occasioned by hollow teeth, I heard of Captain Lindsey’s lady, at Oswego; and she assured me, that she knew, from her own experience, that the remedy was effectual. They take the seed capsules of the Virginian Anemone, as soon as the seed is ripe, and rub them in pieces. It will then be rough, and look like cotton. This cotton-like substance is dipped into strong brandy, and then put into the hollow tooth, which commonly ceases to ache soon after. The brandy is biting or sharp, and the seeds of the anemone, as most seeds of the Polyandria Polygynia class of plants (or such as have many Stamina, or male flowers, and many Pistilla, or female flowers) have likewise an acrimony. They therefore, both together, help to assuage the pain; and this remedy is much of the same kind with the former. Besides that, we have many seeds which have the same qualities with the American anemone.

The following remedy was much in vogue against the tooth-ach which is attended with a swelling: They boil gruel, of flour of maize, and milk; to this they add, whilst it is yet over the fire, some of the fat of hogs, or other suet, and stir it well, that every thing may mix equally. A handkerchief is then spread over the gruel, and applied as hot as possible to the swelled cheek, where it is kept till it is gone cool again. I have found, that this remedy has been very efficacious against a swelling as it lessens the pain, abates the swelling, opens a gathering, if there be any, and procures a good discharge of the Pus.

I have seen the Iroquese boil the inner bark of the Sambucus Canadensis, or Canada Elder, and put it on that part of the cheek in which the pain was most violent. This, I am told, often diminishes the pain.

Among the Iroquese, or Five Nations, upon the river Mohawk, I saw a young Indian woman, who, by frequent drinking of tea, had got a violent tooth-ach. To cure it, she boiled the Myrica asplenii folia, and tied it, as hot as she could bear it, on the whole cheek. She said, that remedy had often cured the tooth-ach before.

January the 2nd, 1749. Before the Europeans under the direction of Columbus, came to the West Indies, the savages or Indians (who lived there since times immemorial) were entirely unacquainted with iron, which appears very strange to us, as North America, almost in every part of it, contains a number of iron mines. They were therefore obliged to supply this want with sharp stones, shells, claws of birds and wild beasts, pieces of bones, and other things of that kind, whenever they intended to make hatchets, knives, and such like instruments. From hence it appears, that they must have led a very wretched life. The old Swedes who lived here, and had had an intercourse with the Indians when they were young, and at a time when they were yet very numerous in these parts, could tell a great many things concerning their manner of living. At this time the people find accidentally, by ploughing and digging in the ground, several of the instruments which the Indians employed, before the Swedes and other Europeans had provided them with iron tools. For it is observable that the Indians at present make use of no other tools, than such as are made of iron and other metals, and which they always get from the Europeans: Of this I shall be more particular, in its proper place. But having had an opportunity of seeing, and partly collecting a great many of the ancient Indian tools, I shall here describe them.

Their hatchets were made of stone. Their shape is similar to that of the wedges with which we cleave our wood, about half a foot long, and broad in proportion; they are made like a wedge, sharp at one end, but rather blunter than our wedges. As this hatchet must be fixed on a handle, there was a notch made all round the thick-end. To fasten it, they split a stick at one end, and put the stone between it, so that the two halves of the stick come into the notches of the stone; then they tied the two split ends together with a rope or something like it, almost in the same way as smiths fasten the instrument with which they cut off iron, to a split stick. Some of these stone-hatchets were not notched or furrowed at the upper end, and it seems they only held those in their hands in order to hew or strike with them, and did not make handles to them. Most of the hatchets which I have seen, consisted of a hard rock-stone: but some were made of a fine, hard, black, apyrous stone. When the Indians intended to fell a thick strong tree, they could not make use of their hatchets, but for want of proper instruments employed fire. They set fire to a great quantity of wood at the roots of the tree, and made it fall by that means. But that the fire might not reach higher than they would have it, they fastened some rags to a pole, dipped them into water, and kept continually washing the tree, a little above the fire. Whenever they intended to hollow out a thick tree for a canoe, they laid dry branches all along the stem of the tree, as far as it must be hollowed out. They then put fire to those dry branches, and as soon as they were burnt, they were replaced by others. Whilst these branches were burning, the Indians were very busy with wet rags, and pouring water upon the tree, to prevent the fire from spreading too far on the sides and at the ends. The tree being burnt hollow as far as they found it sufficient, or as far as it could without damaging the canoe, they took the above described stone-hatchets, or sharp flints, and quartzes, or sharp shells, and scraped off the burnt part of the wood, and smoothened the boats within. By this means they likewise gave it what shape they pleased. Instead of cutting with a hatchet such a piece of wood as was necessary for making a canoe, they likewise employed fire. A canoe was commonly between thirty and forty feet long. The chief use of their hatchets was, according to the unanimous accounts of all the Swedes, to make good fields for maize-plantations; for if the ground where they intended to make a maize-field was covered with trees, they cut off the bark all round the trees with their hatchets, especially at the time when they lose their sap. By that means the tree became dry, and could not take any more nourishment, and the leaves could no longer obstruct the rays of the sun from passing. The smaller trees were then pulled out by main force, and the ground was a little turned up with crooked or sharp branches.

Instead of knives they were satisfied with little sharp pieces of flint or quartz, or else some other hard kind of a stone, or with a sharp shell, or with a piece of a bone which they had sharpened.

At the end of their arrows they fastened narrow angulated pieces of stone; they made use of them, having no iron to make them sharp again, or a wood of sufficient hardness: these points were commonly flints or quartzes, but sometimes likewise another kind of a stone. Some employed the bones of animals, or the claws of birds and beasts. Some of these ancient harpoons are very blunt, and it seems that the Indians might kill birds and small quadrupeds with them; but whether they could enter deep into the body of a great beast or of a man, by the velocity which they get from the bow, I cannot ascertain; yet some have been found very sharp and well made.

They had stone pestles, about a foot long, and as thick as a man’s arm. They consist chiefly of a black sort of a stone, and were formerly employed, by the Indians, for pounding maize, which has, since times immemorial, been their chief and almost their only corn. They had neither wind-mills, water-mills, nor hand-mills, to grind it, and did not so much as know a mill, before the Europeans came into the country. I have spoken with old Frenchmen, in Canada, who told me, that the Indians had been astonished beyond expression, when the French set up the first wind-mill. They came in numbers, even from the most distant parts, to view this wonder, and were not tired with sitting near it for several days together, in order to observe it; they were long of opinion that it was not driven by the wind, but by the spirits who lived within it. They were partly under the same astonishment when the first water-mill was built. They formerly pounded all their corn or maize in hollow trees, with the above-mentioned pestles, made of stone. Many Indians had only wooden pestles. The blackish stone, of which the hatchets and pestles are sometimes made, is very good for a grindstone, and therefore both the English and the Swedes employ the hatchets and pestles chiefly as grindstones, at present, when they can get them.

The old boilers or kettles of the Indians, were either made of clay, or of different kinds of pot-stone, (Lapis ollaris). The former consisted of a dark clay, mixt with grains of white sand or quartz, and burnt in the fire. Many of these kettles have two holes in the upper margin, on each side one, through which the Indians put a stick, and held the kettle over the fire, as long as it was to boil. Most of the kettles have no feet. It is remarkable that no pots of this kind have been found glazed, either on the outside or the inside. A few of the oldest Swedes could yet remember seeing the Indians boil their meat in these pots. They are very thin, and of different sizes; they are made sometimes of a greenish, and sometimes of a grey pot-stone, and some are made of another species of apyrous stone; the bottom and the margin are frequently above an inch thick. The Indians, notwithstanding their being unacquainted with iron, steel, and other metals, have learnt to hollow out very ingeniously these pots or kettles of pot-stone.