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WOLLEY'S
NEW YORK

Of tkis edition, two hundred
and fifty copies have been
printed, and the type distrib
uted. This is

A TWO YEARS' JOURNAL
IN NEW YORK & and
PART OF ITS TERRITORIES IN AMERICA
BY CHARLES WOLLEY, A. M.

Reprinted from the original edition of 1701

With an Introduction and Notes by
EDWARD GAYLORD BOURNE
Professor of History in Yale University

CLEVELAND
The Burrows Brothers Company
1902

Copyright, 1902
BY
The Burrows Brothers Company

Cleveland

INTRODUCTION

Of the author of this description of New York
in 1678-80 neither the year of his birth nor the
date of his death is known. Almost equally scan
ty is our knowledge of his life. His modesty
veiled his authorship of his single contribution to
literature under his mere initials. His identity
was not revealed for over a century and a half,
and then, when his little work again saw the light
in a modern edition, by a curious fatality or caprice,
the spelling of his name was changed and was
entered in bibliographies and catalogues under a
form which he never used and for which there is
no authority.
In the narrative the reader is informed that the
author sailed from England for New York May
27, 1678, with Sir Edmund Andros; that he was
there "minister to the English," and that after
his return he lived at Alford in Lincolnshire.*
These statements enabled the historian of New
York, E. B. O'Callaghan, to identify the writer
as the Reverend Charles "Wolley, for among the
* Infra, p. 51. — 5 —

INTRODUCTION " General Entries " in the state archives he found
the following:
"A Certificate to Mr. Charles Wolley to goe for
England in the Hopewell.
"Sr Edmund Andros Kn' &c. Whereas Mr.
Charles Wolley (a Minister of the church of Eng
land) came over into these parts in the Month of
August 1678 and hath officiated accordingly as
Chaplaine under his Royall Highnesse during the
time of his abode here, Now upon Applicacon for
leave to returne for England in order to some
promocon in the church to which hee is presented,
hee having liberty to proceede on his voyage.
These are to certify the above and that the sd Mr.
Wolley hath in his place comported himself un-
blameable in his Life and conversacon. In Testi
mony whereof I have hereunto sett my hand and
Seale of the province in New York this 15th day of
July in the 32th yeare of his Matyes Raigne.
Annoq Dominj 1680.
"Examined by mee M. N. Seer." *
Dr. O'Callaghan next learned f that Mr. Wol
ley was a graduate of Cambridge University; and
inquiry of the authorities of the university
brought the information that the admission book
* Historical Magazine, Dec, 1857, p. 371; also in O'Callaghan's
ed., p. 12.
t Probably through the inquiry in Notes and Queries, April 23,
1859, p. 341, and the reply which appeared June 11.
— 6 —

INTRODUCTION of Emmanuel College contained the entry: "Ch.
Wolley of Line, admitted sizar 13 June, 1670."
The degree books show that he was graduated
bachelor of arts in January, 1674, and that he
received his M.A. in July, 1677. In his signa
tures at the time of receiving his degrees his name
is written in a hand as legible as print : Charles
Wolley* These signatures, together with the
collegiate records and the certificate of Governor
Andros, leave no room for doubt as to the proper
spelling of the name.
Of the life of the youthful garrison chaplain in
New York — the first clergyman of the church of
England to hold a charge in that province — we
have no knowledge beyond what is contained in
his "Journal" and in the certificate of Governor
Andros. Curiously enough, however, we do have
a curt and unsympathetic description of a service
that he conducted. In 1679 two representatives
of the Labadists, a sect in Holland somewhat
similar to the Quakers, came to America to find,
if possible, an eligible place for a colony. Of
their travels in New England, New York, and
New Jersey, one of them, Jasper Dankers, wrote
a detailed journal which is the fullest, most inter
esting, and most instructive narrative of travel in
New York that we possess for this period. In this
journal Dankers' s entry for October 15, 1679, is:
•Tracings are given in O'Callaghan's ed., p. 10. — 7 —

INTRODUCTION "We went at noon today to hear the English
minister, whose services took place after the Dutch
was out. There were not above twenty-five or
thirty people in the church. The first thing that
occurred was the reading of all their prayers and
ceremonies out of the prayer-book, as is done in
all Episcopal churches. A young man then went
into the pulpit and commenced preaching, who
thought he was performing wonders ; but he had
a little book in his hand out of which he read his
sermon which was about a quarter of an hour or
half an hour long. With this the services were
concluded, at which we could not be sufficiently
astonished." *
Of Mr. Wolley' s life after his return to England
we know nothing except that he lived for a while
in Alford in Lincolnshire, where he seems on occa
sion to have conducted service, f His preface
indicates that he gave up preaching. He evi
dently failed to secure the promotion he hoped
for, and the absence of his name from all the rec
ords of the diocese of Lincoln precludes the sup
position that he held a benefice at Alford. % As
* ' ' Journal of a Voyage to New York and a Tour in Several of the
American Colonies in 1679-80. By Jasper Dankers and Peter Sluyter
of Wiewerd in Friesland. Translated from the original manuscript
in Dutch for the Long Island Historical Society, and edited by
Henry C. Murphy." Brooklyn, 1867, p. 148.
f Infra, p. 51.
t See the letter of the bishop of Lincoln in O'Callaghan's ed., p. 14.
— 8 —

INTRODUCTION
the years went by, he fondly recurred to his early
experiences in New York and, finally, in the
absence of other occupation and to supply an
obvious need, he took up the composition of a nar
rative of his observations in the distant colony.
That he failed to complete his design seems
certain. His preface refers to what we have as
Part I., and the concluding sentences of the text
also look to a continuation. More specific is the
indication on page 62 that the second part would
treat of the conversion of the Indians. But
whether this first essay was not a successful ven
ture and the failure discouraged the writer, or
whether death cut short his labors, cannot be
known. Dr. O'Callaghan noted the presence of
the name "Charles Wolley" in the list of those
admitted to citizenship in New York in 1703, and
ventured the conjecture that possibly our author
returned to America. There seems to be little
ground for this supposition. The Charles Wolley
admitted to citizenship was a merchant, and appa
rently was in New York in 1701, the year of the
publication of our Charles Wolley' s "Journal." *
Yet we are not left so entirely in the dark in
* See Lists of Burghers of New Amsterdam and of Freemen of
New York in the " Collections of the New York Historical Society,"
1885, p. 85. The actual date of the admission of Charles Wolley to
citizenship was Dec. 2, 1702. The name " C. Wolley" is signed to
a " Petition of the Protestants of New York to King William III.,"
dated Dec. 30, 1701. — " Documents Relating to the Colonial History
of New York," vol. iv., p. 934. — 9 —

INTRODUCTION
regard to the real Charles Wolley as the absence
of records of the external facts of his life might
lead one to suppose. His character and intellec
tual tastes leave their clear impress upon his
pages. The self -depreciation of his preface, and
the modest retirement behind his initials in com
ing before the public as an author, reveal an
unassuming disposition. A truly liberal spirit
and a kindly humanity lighted up with a quiet
humor are disclosed by the incident of the dinner
at which he brought together for social intercourse
the Lutheran and Calvinist dominies who, inher
iting the "virulent and bigotted Spirits" of
Luther and Calvin, had not spoken to each other
for six years. The easy discursive style, with its
digressions and irrelevancies; the quaint phraseol
ogy, often an unobtrusive echo in its pedantries
of Sir Thomas Brown; the bits of Latin verse;
the vein of physiological metaphor and the cita
tion of medical writers — all reflect the simple,
bookish life of a cultivated gentleman whose writ
ing is more like easy rambling conversation than
is the case with the professional author, and whose
taste for medical literature may have been a not
unnatural outcome of his " valetudinary constitu
tion." To the retired scholar recalling the two years
spent in New York nothing stood out so clearly or
seemed so worthy of portrayal as those "perfect
— 10 —

INTRODUCTION
Adamites," the Indians, and so to them he
devotes most of his attention, recording both his
own observations and information derived from
an Indian friend and from the governor's inter
preter.* Nor was this choice of material strange,
for the New York of that day was a frontier town
and its main interests to a European observer
would be those native to the soil. Of the city
itself he says so little that it will not be out of
place to restore from other contemporary descrip
tions enough to furnish a setting for his comments.
Of Manhattan Island not more than one-half
was yet under cultivation, f The rest was still
good woodland. The population of the little town
at the lower end numbered about 3500. J The
houses were mainly of brick and stone.** The
slender total of the year's commerce of the future
metropolis of the new world would constitute now
but a fraction of a cargo for one of its ocean
steamers, ff Property of from five hundred to one
*That Mr. Wolley drew upon Denton's "Brief Description of
New York " for some of his material relating to the natural features
of the country will appear in the notes. Cf infra, pp. 44, 57.
t Dankers and Sluyter's " Journal," p. 135.
% Brodhead's estimate based upon the number of houses, which
was 343. — " History of the State of New York," vol. ii., p. 318.
**" New York is built most of Brick and Stone, and covered with
red and black Tile." — Denton, p. 40 (Burrows ed.).
ft ' ' There may lately have traded to ye Collony in a yeare from tenn
to fifteen shipps or vessells of about togeather 100 tuns each." —
Governor Andros's statement to the Board of Trade, April, 1678.
" Documents Relating to the Colonial History of New York," vol.
iii., p. 261. — II —

INTRODUCTION
thousand pounds gave a man the standing of " a
good substantiall merchant." * The description
which Jasper Dankers gives of the primitive trade
is typical of the frontier. "I must here remark,
in passing, that the people in this city, who are
most all traders in small articles, whenever they
see an Indian enter the house, who they know has
any money, they immediately set about getting
hold of him, giving him rum to drink, whereby he
is soon caught and becomes half a fool. If he
should then buy anything, he is doubly cheated —
in the wares and in the price. He is then urged
to buy more drink, which they now make half
water, and if he cannot drink it, they drink it
themselves. They do not rest until they have
cajoled him out of all his money, or most of it ;
and if that cannot be done in one day, they keep
him, and let him lodge and sleep there, but in
some out-of-the-way place, down on the ground,
guarding their merchandise and other property in
the meantime, and always managing it so that
the poor creature does not go away before he has
given them all they want." f
Dankers thus describes a journey to Harlem:
"We went from the city, following the Broadway,
over the valey, or the fresh water. Upon both
sides of this way were many habitations of negroes,
*IHd.
•(•Dankers and Sluyter's " Journal," pp. 152-153.
— 12 —

INTRODUCTION mulattoes, and whites. These negroes were for
merly the proper slaves of the [West India] com
pany, but, in consequence of the frequent changes
and conquests of the country, they have obtained
their freedom and settled themselves down where
they thought proper, and thus on this road, where
they have ground enough to live on with their
families. We left the village called the Bouwerij,
lying on the right hand, and went through the
woods to New Harlem, a tolerably large village
situated on the south side of the island, directly
opposite the place where the northeast creek and
the East River come together, situated about three
hours' journey from New Amsterdam, like as old
Harlem, in Europe, is situated about three hours
distance from old Amsterdam."*
To the young clergyman fresh from his studies
and from the rigorously enforced conformity to
the church of England the religious complexion
of New York must have seemed strange indeed.
"New York has," wrote Governor Dongan less
than ten years later, "first a Chaplain belonging
to the Fort of the Church of England; secondly,
a Dutch Calvinist, thirdly a French Calvinist,
fourthly a Dutch Lutheran. Here bee not many
of the Church of England ; few Roman Catholicks ;
abundance of Quakers preachers men & Women
especially; Singing Quakers, Ranting Quakers;
* Ibid., pp. 136-137. — 13 —

INTRODUCTION
Sabbatarians; Antisabbatarians ; Some Anabap
tists some Independents ; some Jews ; in short of
all sorts of opinions there are some, and the most
part of none at all. . . . The most prevailing
opinion is that of the Dutch Calvinists." *
Such was the community which our author
found " very civil and courteous," and in which
he "comported himself unblameable in his Life
and conversacon."
In regard to the text of the present reprint of
"A Two Years' Journal in New York," it is
only necessary to say that it is an exact transcript
of that of the original edition, with the exception
that the use of the long "s" has been discarded.
The original is found with two imprints as will
be seen from the facsimile title-pages. The Lon
don imprint for John Wyat and Eben Tracy is
apparently the original and primary one ; for the
copies which are inscribed as printed for Dicken
son Boys in Lowth and George Barton in Boston
contain a catalogue, paged continuously with the
text, of books for sale by Eben Tracy at the Three
Bibles on London Bridge. The paging of the
original edition in several copies, and presumably
in all, is wrongly numbered as follows: pp. 97-104
are numbered as 87, 88, 81, 82, 95, 96, 89, 90. This
* Governor Dongan's Report on the Province of New York, 1687.
" Documentary History of the State of New York," vol. i., p. 186.
— 14 —

INTRODUCTION
is true of the two British Museum copies and of
the Lenox copy. The text of Wolley' s narrative
ends on p. 81 (i.e., p. 99), and the remaining five
pages are filled with a list of books for sale by
Eben Tracy and a description of a balsam from
Peru whose virtues are highly extolled.
The reprint published by William Gowans of
New York in 1860 under the editorial care of Dr.
E. B. O' Callaghan follows the text of the original
with perfect exactness — except in the matter of
the long "s" and the use of italics — save for the
single misprint of Macculoso instead of Macculosa,
p. 31. Dr. O' Callaghan enriched this edition
with copious genealogical and antiquarian notes.
Annotations drawn from his notes will be fol
lowed in the present edition by the initials " O' C. "
At the time of the issue of his reprint, Mr.
Gowans advertised a copy of the original edition for
$63 and recorded in the announcement: "I have
heard of no copy being in the possession of any of
the veteran collectors of rare American books on
this continent, with the exception of one in the
extensive collection of John Carter Brown, Esq.,
of Providence, Rhode Island." Ten years later
Allibone knew of only three copies. Since then
others have emerged from their obscurity and
found their way into the hands of dealers or of
collectors. As has been indicated above, "C. W." was
— 15 —

INTRODUCTION identified by Dr. O' Callaghan as Charles Wolley,
and in the text of his introductory essay the name
is uniformly spelled "Wolley." On the title-
page, however, and on the cover the spelling
" Wooley " is given. Apparently this was simply
an error, * but as catalogues and bibliographies
follow title-pages the author's name has gone into
these repositories and into the references of many
secondary writers as Charles Wooley. In the
present edition the name is restored to its proper
form and it is to be hoped that the consequences
of Gowans' s error or caprice gradually may be
effaced. Edward Gaylord Bourne.

*This was Brodhead's view, who says of Gowans' s reprint, he
" misprints the name ' Wooley' "— " History of the State of New
York," vol. ii., p. 332. As Brodhead knew O'Callaghan well, his
attributing the arbitrary change of spelling to Gowans is probably
more than a conjecture. On the other hand, the name is spelled
"Wooley" in O'Callaghan's last note, p. 97.

16 ¦

WOLLEYS NEW YORK
LONDON
JOHN WYAT AND EBEN TRACY
1701

LONDON
DICKENSON BOYS .AND GEORGE BARTON
1 701

Title-page (second imprint) and text reprinted
from a copy of the original edition in the
Lenox Library, New York City.
Title-page (first imprint) reprinted from a copy of
the original edition in the John Carter Brown
Library, Providence, Rhode Island.

—sT

A two Years

JOU

Nerp-¥<ark :

' , And part of its
TERRITORIES AMERICA. By C W. A,,M.

,L 0 ND 0 M?
Printed tor fobtt VI jut , at theJ^o/l' in
St.Pim.fi Church- Yard;and Eben Itucy,.
at the three Bibles on LmdovrB'ndgt.i
M DCCl.

jt\

•"KBKJJJW^"'

A two Years

1 1

JOURNAL

!

1 N

'

New-York i

And part of its

TERRITORIES

I N

1

AMERICA.

.1

By C. tVi 'A. M;

LONDON,

Printed for Dickenfon Boys in Lcrwth,
arid George Birton in Bofton, MDCC1.

|

l
TO THE READER.

The materials of this Journal have laid by me
several years expecting that some Landlooper or
other in those parts would have done it more
methodically, but neither hearing nor reading of
any such as yet, and I being taken off from the
proper Studies and Offices of my Function, for
my unprofitableness, I concluded, that when I could
not do what I ought, I ought to do what I could,
which I shall further endeavour in a second Part:
in the mean while, adieu.

¦23

TWO YEARS JOURNAL

IN

NEW YORK. &C

In the year 1678, May the 27, we set sail from
old England for New- York in America, in the
Merchants Ship called the Blossom, Richard
Martain of New-England Master. We had on
board Sir Edmund Andros, Governor of New -York,
Merchants and Factors, Mr. William Pinhorne,
Mr. James Graham, Mr. John White, Mr. John
West and others ; the 7th of August following we
arriv'd safe at New- York.
The City of New- York, by Dr. Heylin* and other
Cosmographers, is call'd New- Amsterdam, and
the Country New -Netherlands, being first in
habited by a Colony of Dutch ; but as first dis
cover' d by the English it was claim' d to the Crown
of England by Colonel Nichols, in the year 1665,
then sent over Governor; to whom it was surren-
dred by the Dutch upon Articles; it being a
fundamental Point consented unto by all Nations,
*The earlier editions of Heylin's " Cosmographie " appeared
before the English conquest of New Netherlands. — 25 —

W O L L E Y ' S NEW YORK
That the first discovery of a Country inhabited by
Infidels, gives a right and Dominion of that Coun
try to the Prince in whose Service and Employ
ment the discoverers were sent; thus the Spaniard
claims the West-Indies ; the Portugals Brasile ;
and thus the English those Northern parts of
America ; for Sebastian Cabot employed by K.
Hen. 7th, was the first discoverer of those parts,
and in his name took Possession, which his Royal
Successors have held and continu'd ever since:
Therefore they are of the Crown of England, and
as such they are accounted by that excellent
Lawyer Sir John Vaughan : So this particular
Province being granted to his then Royal-High
ness the D. of York, by Letters Patents from King
Charles the II. was from his title and Propriety
caU'd New-York.
The Fort and Garrison of this place lieth in the
degree of 40th and 20 minutes of northern Lati
tude, as was observ'd and taken by Mr. Andrew
Norwood, Son of the Famous Mathematician of
that name, and by Mr. Philip Wells, and Van
Cortland Junior, Robert Rider and Jacobus Ste
phens, the seventh of July 1679, with whom I
was well acquainted, and at that time present
with them. The Temperature of the Climate.
By the Latitude above observ'd, New-York lieth
— 26 —

W O L L E Y ' S NEW YORK

10 Degrees more to the Southward than Old Eng
land ; by which difference according to Philosophy
it should be the hotter Climate, but on the con
trary, to speak feelingly, I found it in the Winter
Season rather colder for the most part: the reason
of which may be the same with that which Sir
Henry Wotton* gives for the coldness of Venice,
as he observ'd from the experience of fourteen
years Embassie, viz. Though Venice be seated in
the very middle point, between the Equinoctial
and the northern Pole, at 45 degrees precisely, or
there abouts, of Latitude, yet their winters are
for the most part sharper than ours in England,
though about six degrees less of Elevation, which
he imputed to its vicinity or nigh Situation to the
chilly tops of the Alps, for Winds as well as
Waters are tainted and infected in their passage.
New-York in like manner is adjacent to and
almost encompass' d with an hilly, woody Country,
full of Lakes and great Vallies, which receptacles
are the Nurseries, Forges and Bellows of the Air,
which they first suck in and contract, then dis
charge and ventilate with a fiercer dilatation.
The huge lake of Canada, which lies to the north
ward of New -York, is supposed to be the most
probable place for dispersing the cold Northwest-
winds which alter the nature of this Climate,
insomuch that a thick winter Coat there is com-
* Ambassador to Venice for many years between 1604 ana 1624.
— 27 —

W O L L E Y ' S NEW YORK
monly called a Northwestern : So that the Conse
quence which Men make in common discourse
from the Degree of a place to the temper of it, is
indeed very deceivable, without a due regard to
other circumstances; for as I have read in the
Philosophical Transactions, the order of the sea
sons of the year is quite inverted under the torrid
Zone, for whereas it should be then Summer when
the Sun is near, and Winter when the Sun is
farther of; under the torrid Zone it's never less
hot than when the Sun is nearest ; nor more hot
than when the Sun is farthest off; so that to
the people who live between the Equinoctial and
the Tropicks, Summer begins about Christmas,
and their Winter about St. John's day, the reason
whereof is that when the Sun is directly over their
heads, it raises abundance of Vapours, and draws
them so high that they are presently converted
into water by the coldness of the Air; whence it
comes to pass that then it rains continually, which
does repress the Air; but when the Sun is farther
off there falls no more Rain, and so the heat
becomes insupportable ; but besides these Observa
tions and Philosophical Solutions, give me leave
to offer one Consideration to the Inhabitants of
the Northern parts of England, viz. Whether they
have not taken notice for the several years past
of some alteration in the Seasons of the year ; that
the Winters have been earlier, colder and longer,
— 28 —

W O L L E Y ' S NEW YORK
and the Summers shorter than formerly within
their own memories; for which I think I may
appeal to the Gardeners. Especially as to the
fruit of the Vine, no Grapes having come to their
maturity or perfection in the same Gardens they
used to do : Now to what reasons shall we impute
these, shall we say in the words of that Scribe of
the Law, Esdras, The world hath lost his youth,
and the times begin to wax old, for look how much
the world shall be weaker through age? Or shall
we apologize with Dr. Hakewell, in his Power and
Providence in the Government of the World?* For
my part I humbly submit to the Virtuoso's of
Natural and Divine Philosophy; rather than
embarass and envelop my self in prying within
the Curtains of the Primitive Chaos, or the Womb
of the Creation, or the dark Orb of Futurities.
Of the Air.
It's a Climate of a Sweet and wholesome breath,
free from those annoyances which are commonly
ascribed by Naturalists for the insalubrity of any
Country, viz. South or South-east Winds, many
stagnant Waters, lowness of shoars, inconstancy
of Weather, and the excessive heat of the Sum
mer; the extremity of which is gently refresh' d,
*Dr. George Hakewill's " Apologie or Declaration of the Power
and Providence of God in the Government of the World," etc., 3rd
ed., Oxford, 1635, examined and censured " the common errour
touching Nature's perpetual! and Universal Decay." — 29 —

W O L L E Y ' S NEW YORK
fann'd and allay' d by constant breezes from the
Sea; it does not welcome its Guests and Strangers
with the seasoning distempers of Fevers and
Fluxes, like Virginia, Maryland, and other Plan
tations, nature kindly drains and purgeth it by
Fontanels* and Issues of running waters in its
irriguous Valleys, and shelters it with the umbrel
la' s of all sorts of Trees from pernicious Lakes ;
which Trees and Plants do undoubtedly, tho'
insensibly suck in and digest into their own
growth and composition, those subterraneous
Particles and Exhalations, which otherwise wou'd
be attracted by the heat of the Sun and so become
matter for infectious Clouds and malign Atmos
pheres, and tho we cannot rely upon these causes
as permanent and continuing, for the longer and
the more any Country is peopled, the more un-
healthful it may prove, by reason of Jaques,f
Dunghills and other excrementitious stagnations,
which offend and annoy the bodies of Men, by
incorporating with, and infecting the circumam
bient Air, but these inconveniencies can scarce be
suppos'd to happen within our age, for the very
settling and inhabiting a new Country, which is
commonly done by destroying its Wood, and that
by Fire (as in those parts I describe) does help to
* Fontanels — a medical metaphor ; a fontanel is " an artificial ulcer
or a natural issue for the discharge of humours from the body. " —
Murray's " New Eng. Diet."
t Jaques = jakes.
— 30 —

W O L L E Y ' S NEW YORK
purine and refine the Air; an experiment and
remedy formerly us'd in Greece and other Nations,
in the time of Plague or any common infection.
To conclude this Chapter, I my self, a person
seemingly of a weakly Stamen and a valetudinary
Constitution, was not in the least indispos'd in
that Climate, during my residence there, the space
of three years: This account and description of
the place, I recommend as a fair encouragement,
to all who are inclined to Travel; to which I shall
subjoin other inviting Advantages and Curiosities
in their proper places.
Ofthe Inhabitants. And first of the Indians or Natives.
There are a clan of highflown Religionists, who
stile the Indians the Populus Terrce, and look
upon them as a reprobate despicable sort of crea
tures : But making the allowances for their invin
cible ignorance, as to a reveal' d Education, I
should rather call them the Terrm filii: For
otherwise I see no difference betwixt them and the
rest of the Noble Animals. They are stately and
well proportioned in Symmetry through the whole
Oeconomy of their bodies, so that I cannot say
I observed any natural deformity in any of them ;
which probably may be owing to their way of
nurturing their new born infants: which is thus,
as soon as a Woman is delivered, she retires into
the Wood for a burden or bundle of sticks, which
— 31 —

W O L L E Y ' S NEW YORK
she takes upon her back to strengthen her; the
Children they Swaddle upon a Board, which they
hang about their heads, and so carry them for a
year together, or till they can go, this I had con
firm'd to me, by my friend Mr. William Asfordby,
who lived in those parts sixteen years, and had
for his Neighbour one Harman the Indian in
Marble-Town, in the County of Ulster, formerly
called Sopus, * in the Province of New- York, whose
Squaw or Wife us'd this way to her self and Chil
dren: In nursing their Children, the Mother
abhors that unnatural and Costly Pride of suck
ling them with other Breasts, whilst her own are
sufficient for that affectionate service ; their hardi
ness and facility in bringing forth is generally
such as neither requires the nice attendance of
Nursekeepers, nor the art of a dextrous Lucina,
being more like the Hebrew Women than the
native ^Egyptians, delivered before the Midwife
can come to them ; like that Irish Woman of whom
Dr. Harvyf de generatione Animalium, Cap. de
partu, Page 276, reports from the mouth of the
Lord Carew, Earl of Totness and Lord President
of Munster, who though big with Child accom-
* The district of Sopus or Esopus was organized into a county in
1683 and named Ulster. — O'C.
f The celebrated discoverer of the circulation of the blood. Har
vey's " Exercitationes de Motu Cordis et Sanguinis " was published
in 1628, and his "Exercitationes de Generatione Animalium" in
1651. — 32 —

W O L L E Y ' S NEW YORK
panied her Husband in the Camp, marching from
place to place, but by reason of a sudden flood
which hindered their Armies march for one hour,
the Woman's pains coming upon her, she with
drew her-self to a thicket of Shrubs, and there
alone brought forth Twins, both of which she
brought down to the River and wash'd both her
self and them, wrapping them up in a course and
Irish Mantle, marches with them at her back, the
same day barefoot and barelegged twelve Miles,
without any prejudice to herself or them. The
next day after, the Lord Deputy Montjoy, who at
that time commanded the Army against the
Spaniard, who had besieged Kinsale, with the
Lord Carew, stood God-fathers for the Children ;
but I cannot say of them as it is related of the
Queen of Navarre,* Mother to Henry of France,
called the Great, who sung a French Song in the
time of his Birth, seeming to show other Women,
that it is possible to be brought to bed without
crying out.
As to their Stature, most of them are between
five or six foot high, straight bodied, strongly
composed, in complexion perfect Adamites; f of a
* This anecdote is related by the historian Palma Cayet who was a
member of the household of the queen of Navarre and under-tutor
to Prince Henry. See Petitot, " Coll. des Mems. de l'Histoire de
France," vol. xxxix., p. 234.
¦(¦The traditional etymology of Adam. "This man was called
Adam, which in the Hebrew tongue signifies one that is 'red',
— 33 —

W O L L E Y ' S NEW YORK
clayish colour, the Hair of their Heads generally
black, lank and long, hanging down. And I have
been several times amongst them, and could never
observe any one shap'd either in redundance or
defect, deformed or mishapen. They preserve
their Skins smooth by anointing them with the
Oyl of Fishes, the fat of Eagles, and the grease of
Rackoons, which they hold in the Summer the
best Antidote to keep their skins from blistering
by the scorching Sun, their best Armour against
the Musketto's; the surest expeller of the hairy
Excrement, and stopper of the Pores of their
Bodies against the Winter's cold, their Hair being
naturally black, they make it more so, by oyling,
dying and dayly dressing, yet though they be
very curious about the Hair of their Heads, yet
they will not endure any upon their Chins, where
it no sooner grows but they take it out by the
Roots, counting it a spurious and opprobrious
excrement: Insomuch, that the Aberginians* or
Northern Indians in New-England, call him an
English-man's Bastard, that hath but the appear
ance of a Beard ; so that I leave it to the other Sex :
Judicat ex mento non mente puella maritum.
because he was formed out of red earth compounded together ; for
that kind is virgin and true earth." — Josephus, " Antiquities of the
Jews," book i., chap. i.
*This name is also found in Hutchinson's " Hist, of Mass.," vol.
i., p. 407, in the same sense. Probably a corruption of " abor
igines."— O'C.
— 34 —

W O L L E Y ' S NEW YORK
Of their Apparel.
Notwithstanding the heat of parching Sum
mers, and the searching cold of piercing Winters,
and the tempestuous dashings of driving Rains,
their ordinary habit is a pair of Indian Breeches,
like Adam's Apron to cover that which modesty
commands to be hid, which is a piece of Cloth
about a yard and a half long, put between their
groins, tied with a Snake's Skin about their
middle, and hanging down with a flap before,
many of them wear skins about them in fashion
of an Irish Mantle and of these some be Bears
Skins and Rackoon Skins sewed or skuered
together; but of late years, since they trade with
the English and Dutch, they wear a sort of Blan
ket, which our Merchants call Duffles, which is
their Coat by day and covering by night, I have
heard of some reasons given why they will not
conform to our English Apparel, viz. because
their Women cannot wash them when they are
soiled, and their means will not reach to buy new,
when they have done with their old, therefore
they had rather go as they do, than be lowsie and
make their bodies more tender by a new acquired
habit, but they might be easily divested of these
reasons, if they were brought to live in Houses
and fix'd Habitations, as I shall shew hereafter.
Though in their habit they seem to be careless
— 35 —

W O L L E Y ' S NEW YORK
and indifferent, yet they have an instinct of nat
ural Pride, which appears in their circumstantial
Ornaments, many of them wearing Pendants at
their Ears, and Porcupine -quills through their
Noses, impressing upon several parts of their
bodies Portraictures of Beasts and Birds, so that
were I to draw their Effigies it should be after the
pattern of the Ancient Br'dains, called Picts from
painting, and Britains from a word of their own
Language, Breeth, Painting or Staining, as Isidore
writes, with whom Mr. Cambden concurs ; though
Dr. Skinner* in his Etymologicon Onomasticon, a
Bri. honor & Tain fluvius, Insula fluviis nobilis :
But to leave these Authors in their own critical
ingenuity, I shall conclude this Chapter with a
general Sentiment of such Customs that by these
variety of Pictures depourtraicted in their Bodies ;
they are either ambitious to illustrate and set off
their natural Symmetry, or to blazon their Her
aldry, which a certain Author calls Macculosa
Nobilitas : Or else to render them terrible and
formidable to all Strangers: or if we may conjec-

*The " Etymologiarum Libri XX," of Isidore of Seville, who died
in the year 636, served during the earlier middle ages as a general
encyclopedia of knowledge. The " Britannia " of William Camden,
first published in Latin in 1586 and subsequently in various English
editions, was a general work on the antiquities of England and one
of the most important products of historical scholarship of the six
teenth century. Stephen Skinner's " Etymologicon Linguae Angli-
canse," London, 1671, served as the principal authority on English
etymology until the nineteenth century.
-36-

W O L L E Y • S NEW YORK
ture out of that Rabbinical Critick the Oxford
Gregory* upon Cain's Thau, that according to the
natural Magicians and Cabbalists, Adam and the
rest of mankind in his right, had marks imprinted
upon them by the finger of God, which marks
were, pachad and chesed ; the first to keep the
Beasts in awe of Men ; the latter to keep Men in
love one with another. Whether there be any
remains of a traditional imitation in the Indian
World or not,;' I leave that and other conjectures
to the Readers* diversion.
Of their Traffick, Money, and Diet.
They live principally by Hunting, Fishing and
Fowling. Before the Christians especially the
Dutch came amongst them they were very dexter
ous Artists at their Bows, insomuch I have heard
it affirm' d that a Boy of seven years old would
shoot a Bird flying: and since they have learn' d
the use of Guns, they prove better marksmen
than others, and more dangerous too (as appear' d
in the Indian War with New-England.) The
Skins of all their Beasts, as Bears, Bevers, Rac-
koons, Foxes, Otters; Musquashes, Skunks, Deer
and Wolves, they bring upon their backs to New-
York, and other places of Trade, which they barter

*See " Notes and Observations upon Some Passages of Scripture.
By John Gregorie, Master of Arts, Christ Church, Oxon." London,
1684, pp. 67-68. — 37 —

W O L L E Y ' S NEW YORK
and exchange for Duffies or Guns, but too often
for Rum, Brandy and other strong Liquors, of
which they are so intemperate lovers, that after
they have once tasted, they will never forbear,
till they are inflamed and enraged, even to that
degree, that I have seen Men and their Wives
Billingsgate it, through the Streets of New -York,
as if they were metamorphosed into the nature of
those beasts whose Skins they bartered: It
were seriously to be wished that the Christians
would be more sparing in the sale of that Liquor,
which works such dismal effects upon those
who are for gratifying their sensual Appetites:
Being unacquainted with the comforts of
Christian Temperance, and the elevated Doc
trine of Self-denial and Mortification. They
had better take to their primitive Beverage
of water, which some Vertuoso's tell us breed
no Worms in the Belly nor Maggots in the
Brain. Their Money is called Wampam and Sea- want,
made of a kind of Cockle or Periwinkle-shell, of
which there is scarce any, but at Oyster-Bay.
They take the black out of the middle of the shell
which they value as their Gold ; they make their
White Wampam or Silver of a kind of a Horn,
which is beyond Oyster -bay : The meat within
this horny fish is very good. They fashion both
sorts like beads, and String them into several
-38-

W O L L E Y ' S NEW YORK
lengths, but the most usual measure is a Fathom ;
for when they make any considerable bargain,
they usually say so many Fathom ; So many black
or so many white Wampams make a farthing, a
penny, and so on: which Wampam or Indian
Money we valued above the Spanish or English
Silver in any Payments, because of trading with
the Indians in their own Coin. The price of
Indian Commodities as sold by the Christian
Merchants is as followeth. s. d.
Bevers —00—10—3 a Pound.
The Lapps —00—07—6
Minks —00—05—0
Grey Foxes— 00— 03— 0
Otters —00—08—0
Rackoons —00—01—5
Bever is fifteen pence a Skin Custom at New-
York, four pence at London ; three pence a Skin
Freight, which is after the rate of fifteen Pound
a Tun. The value of other Skins, a Deer Skin 00 — 00 — 6
a p. A good Bear Skin will give 00—07 — 0. A
black Bever-skin is worth a Bever and a half of
another colour. A black Otter' s-skin, if very
good, is worth Twenty Shillings. A Fisher' s-
skin three shillings. A Cat' s-skin half a Crown.
A Wolf's-skin three shillings. A Musquash or a
— 39 —

W O L L E Y ' S NEW YORK
Muskrat' s-skin six shillings and ten pence. An
Oxe-hide three pence a pound wet and six pence
dry. Rum in Barbados ten pence a Gallon.
Molossus* three pence a pound, and fifty shillings
a barrel in winter, that being the dearest season.
Sugar in Barbados twelve shillings the hundred
which contains a hundred and twelve pounds;
which at New- York yields thirty shillings the bare
hundred. In Barbados (new Negro's i. e. such
as cannot speak English) are bought for twelve or
fourteen pound a head, but if they can speak
English sixteen or seventeen pound; and at
New -York, if they are grown Men, they give
thirty five and thirty or forty Pound a head;
where by the by let me observe that the Indians
look upon these Negroes or Blacks as an anoma
lous Issue, meer Edomites, hewers of Wood and
drawers of Water, f
The Price of Provisions: Long-Island Wheat
three shillings a Skipple:}: (a Skipple being three
parts of a Bushel) Sopus Wheat half a Crown a
Skipple, Sopus Pease half a Crown a Skipple;
Indian Corn Flower fifteen shillings a hundred,
Bread 18 a hundred. To Barbados 50s. a Tun
freight, 4 Hogsheads to a Tun ; Pork 3 1. the bar
rel, which contains two hundred and 40 pounds,
* Molossus = molasses.
f Josh., ix., 20.
J Skipple = Dutch Schepel.
— 40 —

W O L L E Y • S NEW YORK
i. e. 3d. the pound; Beef 30s. the barrel; Butter
6d. a Pound: amongst Provisions I may reckon
Tobacco, of which they are obstinate and inces
sant Smoakers, both Indians and Dutch, espe
cially the latter, whose Diet especially of the
boorish sort, being Sallets and Bacon, and very
often picked buttermilk, require the use of that
herb to keep their phlegm from coagulating and
curdling. I once saw a pretty instance relating
to the power of Tobacco, in two Dutchmen riding
a race with short campaigne Pipes in their
mouths, one of which being hurl'd from his Steed,
as soon as he gathered himself up again, whip'd
to his Pipe, and fell a sucking and drawing,
regarding neither his Horse nor Fall, as if the
prize consisted in getting that heat which came
from his beloved smoke: They never burn their
Pipes, but as soon as they are out put them into
their Pockets, and now and then wash them.
The Indians originally made Pipes of Flint, and
have some Pipes of Steel; they take the leaves of
Tobacco and rub them betwixt their hands, and
so smoke it; Tobacco is two pence halfpenny a
pound, a merchantable Hogshead contains four
hundred pound neat, i. e. without the Cask. A
Dutch pound contains eighteen ounces. Pipe
staves are fifty shillings or three pound a thou
sand, they are sent from New- York to the Madera
Islands and Barbados, the best is made of White
—41 —

W O L L E Y ' S NEW YORK
Oak. Their best Liquors are Fiall, * Passado, and
Madera Wines, the former are sweetish, the latter
a palish Claret, very spritely and generous, two
shillings a Bottle ; their best Ale is made of Wheat
Malt, brought from Sopus and Albany about three
score Miles from New -York by water; Syder
twelve shillings the barrel; their quaffing liquors
are Rum-Punch and Brandy-punch, not com
pounded and adulterated as in England, but pure
water and pure Nants.\ The Indians Diet.
What they liv'd upon originally is hard to
determine, unless we recur to St. John Baptist's
extemporary Diet in the Wilderness, for they may
be properly called iU^oi,% i. e. Inhabitants of the
Wood, so may be supposed to have had their victus
parabilis, food that wanted no dressing; but
stories of the first times being meerly conjectural,
I shall only speak what I wrote down from the
best information. They have a tradition that
their Corn was at first dropt out of the mouth of
a Crow from the Skies ; just as Adam de Marisco**
* Fiall = Fayal. The editor has not found "Passado" in any
dictionary or encyclopedia.
f Nants — brandy, from Nantes.
% For 6H6^cot — the name applied to a sect of Indian devotees in
Strabo. ** Adam de Marisco was a learned Franciscan friar, a friend of
Simon de Montfort and of bishop Grosseteste of Lincoln. His cor
respondence has been printed but not his formal treatises.
— 42 —

W O L L E Y ' S NEW YORK
was wont to call the Law of Nature Helias's* Crow,
something flying from Heaven with Provisions for
our needs. They dig their ground with a Flint,
called in their Language tom-a-hea-kan,\ and so
put five or six grains into a hole the latter end of
April or beginning of May, their Harvest is in
October, their Corn grows like clusters of Grapes,
which they pluck or break off with their hands,
and lay it up to dry in a thin place, like unto our
Cribs made of reed; when its well dryed they
parch it, as we spreklej Beans and Pease, which is
both a pleasant and a hearty food, and of a prodi
gious encrease, even a hundred fold, which is
suppos'd as the highest degree of fruitfulness,
which often reminded me of the Marquess of
Worcester's Apophthegm of Christ's Miracle of
five Loves and two Fishes, viz. that as few grains
of Corn as will make five Loves being sowed in
the earth will multiply and increase to such
advantage as will feed 5000 with Bread, and two
Fishes will bring forth so many fishes as will
suffice so many mouths, and because such are so
ordinary amongst us every day, we take no notice
of them : this Indian Corn is their constant Viati
cum in their travels and War. Their Squaws or
* Elijah's raven. See I. Kings, xvii., 4 ff.
¦(¦The familiar " tomahawk."
{The editor has not been able to find this word in the dialect
dictionaries or elsewhere.
— 43 —

W O L L E Y ' S NEW YORK
Wives and Female Sex manage their Harvest,
whilest the Men Hunt and Fish, and Fowl; of
which they bring all varieties to New- York, and
that so cheap that I remember a Venison bought
for three shillings; their Rivers are plentifully
furnish' d with fish, as Place, Pearch, Trouts,
Eels, Bass and Sheepshead, * the two last are deli
cate Fish : They have great store of wild-fowl, as
Turkeys, Heath-hens, Quails, Partridges, Pigeons,
Cranes, Geese, Brants, Ducks, Widgeon, Teal and
divers others : f And besides their natural Diet,
they will eat freely with the Christians, as I
observed once when we were at dinner at the
Governor's Table, a Sackamaker or King came in
with several of his Attendants, and upon invita
tion sat round upon the Floor (which is their
usual posture) and ate of such Meat as was sent
from the Table : amongst themselves when they
are very hungry they will eat their Dogs, which
are but young Wolves stolen from their damms,
several of which I have seen following them, as
our Dogs here, but they won't eat of our Dogs
because they say we feed them with salt meat,

* Cf. Denton's ' ' Brief Description, " p. 43 : " These Rivers are very
well furnished with Fish, as Basse, Sheepsheads, Place, Pearch,
Trouts, Eels, Turtles and divers others."
¦(¦For the enumeration of the wildfowl, Wolley also relies upon
Denton: "Wild Fowl there is great store of, as Turkies, Heath-
Hens, Quailes, Partridges, Pidgeons, Cranes, Geese of several sorts,
Brants, Ducks, Widgeon, Teal and divers others.' ' — Ibid., p. 44.
— 44 —

W O L L E Y ' S NEW YORK
which none or but few of the Indians love, for
they had none before the Christians came: so
unacquainted were they with Acids : They are of
opinion that when they have ill success in their
hunting, fishing, &c. their Menitto is the cause of
it, therefore when they have good success they
throw their fat into the fire as a Sacrifice ingem
inating Kenah Menitto, i. e. I thank you Me
nitto ; their Kin-tau Kauns, * or time of sacrificing
is at the beginning of winter, because then all
things are fat, where a great many Sacka-makersf
or Kings meet together, and Feast; every Nation
or Tribe has its Ka-kin-do-wet, or Minister, and
every Sacka-maker gives his Ka-kin-do-wet 12
fathom of Wampam mixt, and all that are able at
that time throw down Wampam upon the ground
for the Poor and Fatherless, of whom they have a
great many. Now I am speaking of fishing and
fowling it may not be improper to add some thing
*The Kin-tau Kaun or Kintacaw is explained by O'Callaghan as
simply a dance of which there were various phases according to the
occasion. Dankers writes : ' ' When we arrived at Gouanes, we heard
a great noise, shouting and singing in the huts of the Indians. .
They were all lustily drunk, raving, striking, shouting, jumping,
fighting each other, and foaming at the mouth like raging wild
beasts. . . . These Indians had canticoyed (gekintekayf) there
today, that is, conjured the devil and liberated a woman among
them, who was possessed by him." — Dankers and Sluyter's " Jour
nal," pp. 273-275. Denton, p. 50, gives a description of the " Can-
tica's." ¦(•"Sacka-maker" seems to be the same word as "Sagamore"
used by the New England Indians. Dankers gives " Sachamor " as
a variant of " Sackamacher, " p. 267. — 45 —

W O L L E Y ' S NEW YORK
about the art of catching Whales, which is thus,
two Boats with six Men in each make a Company,
viz. four Oars-men or Rowers ; an Harpineer and
a Steers-man; about Christmas is the season for
Whaling, for then the Whales come from the
North-east, Southerly, and continue till the latter
end of March, and then they return again; about
the Fin is the surest part for the Harpineer to
strike: As soon as he is wounded, he makes all
foam, with his rapid violent Course, so that if
they be not very quick in clearing their main
Warp to let him run upon the tow, which is a line
fastned to the Harping-iron about 50 fathoms
long, its a hundred to one he over-sets the Boat :
As to the nature of a Whale, they copulate as
Land-beasts, as is evident from the female Teats
and Male's Yard, and that they Spawn as other
Fishes is a vulgar error, Lam. 4. 3. even the Sea
monsters draw out the breast they give suck to
their young ones. For further its observable that
their young Suckers come along with them their
several courses. A Whale about 60 foot long
having a thick and free Blubber may yield or
make 40 or 50 barrels of Oyl, every Barrel contain
ing 31 or 32 Gallons at 20s. a Barrel, if it hath a
good large bone it may be half a Tun or a Thou
sand weight, which may give 25/. Sterling old
England Money. A Dubartus* is a Fish of the
* Dubartus is a popular variant of Jubartes, a name given in the
-46-

W O L L E Y ' S NEW YORK
shape of a Whale, which have teeth where the
Whale has Bone, there are some 30 or 40 foot long,
they are call'd by some the Sea- Wolf, of them the
Whales are afraid, and do many times run them
selves ashore in flying from them, this is prov'd
by the Whalers who have seen them seize upon
them : the Blubber of the Whale will sometimes
be half a yard thick or deep, if the Blubber be
not fat and free, the Whale is call'd a Dry-skin;
a Scrag-tail Whale is like another, only somewhat
less, and his bone is not good, for it will not split,
and it is of a mixt colour, their Blubber is as good
for the quantity as others : I never heard of any
Spermaceti Whales, either catch' d or driven upon
these Shores, which Sperma as they call it (in the
Bahama Islands) lies all over the body of these
Whales, they have divers Teeth which may be
about as big as a Man's wrist, which the ordinary
Whales have not, they are very strong, fierce and
swift, inlaid with Sinews all over their bodies.
But to leave this Leviathan to his pastime in the
deep, let us go a shore, and speak something of
the nature of a Beaver, in hunting of which the
Indians take great pains and pleasure ; the Beaver
hath two sorts of Hair, one short soft and fine to
protect him from the cold, the other long and
thick, to receive the dirt and mire, in which they
seventeenth and eighteenth centuries to the species of Rorqual found
near New England.— " New Eng. Diet." — 4; —

IV O L L E Y ' S NEW YORK
are often busie and employed, and to hinder it
from spoiling the skin; his teeth are of a peculiar
contexture, fit to cut boughs and sticks, with
which they build themselves houses, and lodgings
of several stories and rooms, to breed their young
ones in : for which purpose nature hath also f ur-
nish'd them with such forefeet as exactly resemble
the feet of a Monkey, or the hands of a Man : their
hind-feet proper for swimming, being like those
of a Duck or Goose: As to the Castoreum or parts
conceived to be bitten away to escape the Hunter,
is a vulgar conceit, more owing to Juvenal* and
other poetical fancies than to any traditional
truth, or the Etymologies of some bad Grammar
ians, deriving Castore a castrando, whereas the
proper Latin word is fiber, and castor, but borrowed
from the Greek, so called quasi ydanop, i. e. animal
ventricosum, from his swaggy and prominent
belly: the particular account of which is in Dr.
Brown's Vulgar Errors : f but to be short, the blad-
* Juvenal in his twelfth satire, line 34, compares the frightened
voyager who throws overboard his most precious possessions to
lighten the ship to the beaver: "... qui se
Eunuchum ipse facit cupiens evadere datnno
Testiculi."
f Sir Thomas Brown's famous " Pseudodoxia Epidemica, . . .
or Enquiries into Vulgar and Common Errors " was first published
in 1646. Wolley quotes here from book iii., chap. 14. The Greek
word should be ydarutp^ which in turn seems to have been a guess
of Sir Thomas, as it is not recorded in Liddell and Scott's Lexicon.
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W O L L E Y ' S NEW YORK
ders containing the Castoreum are distinct from
the Testicles or Stones, and are found in both
Sexes ; with which when the Indians take any of
them they anoint their Traps or Gins which they
set for these Animals, to allure and draw them
hither. As to the nature of Bears, their bringing forth
their young inform ous and unshapen, I wholly re
fer you to Doctor Broivn's said Vulgar Errors :* the
substance of their legs is of a particular structure,
of a thick fattish ligament, very good to eat, and
so the Indians say of their body, which is often
their diet; when they hunt them, they commonly
go two or three in company with Guns: for in case
one shoot and miss the Bear will make towards
them, so they shoot one after another to escape
the danger and make their Game sure: But with
out Guns or any Weapon except a good Cudgel or
Stick. I was one with others that have had very
good diversion and sport with them, in an Orchard
of Mr. John Robinson's^ of New ¦ York ; where we
follow' d a Bear from Tree to Tree, upon which he
could swarm like a Cat ; and when he was got to
his resting place, perch' d upon a high branch, we
dispatc'd a youth after him with a Club to an
*The title of chap. 6, book iii., in the "Vulgar Errors" is:
" That a Bear brings forth her cubs informous or unshaped."
t Mr. Robinson's orchard is supposed to have extended from about
Cedar St. to Maiden Lane. — O'C. — 49 —

W O L L E Y ' S NEW YORK
opposite bough, who knocking his Paws, he comes
grumbling down backwards with a thump upon
the ground, so we after him again : His descend
ing backwards is a thing particularly remarkable:
Of which I never read any account, nor know not
to what defect in its structure to impute it: unless
to the want of the intestinum ccecum, which is the
fourth Gut from the Ventricle or Stomach, and
first of the thick Guts, which by reason of its
divers infolds and turnings seems to have no end,
and for that reason perhaps called cozcum or blind
Gut: which being thick may probably detain the
meat in the belly, in a descending posture: but
these conjectures I wholly submit to the anatom
ical faculty : The Indians seems to have a great
value for these animals, both for their skins and
carkase-sake, the one good meat, the other good
barter: And I may infer the same from a present
which my acquaintance, old Claus the Indian,
made me of a couple of well grown Bears Cubs,
two or three days before I took Shiping for Eng
land, he thinking I would have brought them
along with me, which present I accepted with a
great deal of Ceremony (as we must everything
from their hands) and ordered my Negro boy
about 12 years old to tye them under the Crib by
my Horse, and so left them to any ones acceptance
upon my going aboard: I brought over with me a
Grey Squirrel, a Parret and a Rockoon, the first
— 50 —

W O L L E Y ' S NEW YORK
the Lady Sherard had some years at Stapleford,
the second, I left at London ; the last I brought
along with me to Alford, where one Sunday in
Prayer time some Boys giving it Nutts, it was
choaked with a shell : It was by nature a very
curious cleanly Creature, never eating anything
but first washed it with its forefeet very carefully:
the Parot was a pratling familiar bird, and divert
ing company in my solitary intervals upon our
Voyage home. As I was talking with it upon the
Quarter Deck, by a sudden rowling of the Ship,
down drops Pall overboard into the Sea and cry'd
out amain poor Pall: The Ship being almost be
calm' d, a kind Seaman threw out a Rope, and
Pall seiz'd it with his Beak and came safe aboard
again : This for my own diversion. As the Ser
pent was the most dangerous reptile in Paradise,
so is the Rattle Snake in the Wilderness. It has
its name from the configuration of its skin, which
consists of several foldings which are all contracted
dum latet in herba, whilst it lies on the grass, or at
the root of some rotten Tree, from whence it often
surprizes the unwary traveller, and in throwing
himself at his legs: The dilating of these folds
occasion a rattling. Wherever it penetrates or
bites it certainly poysons : they are in their great
est vigour in July; but the all-wise Providence
which hath furnish' d every Climate with antidotes
proper for their distempers and annoyances, has
— 51 —

W O L L E Y ' S NEW YORK
afforded great plenty of Penny-royal or Ditany,
whose leaves bruised are very hot and biting upon
the Tongue, which being tied in a clift of a long
stick, and held to the nose of a Rattle Snake, will
soon kill it by the smell and scent thereof ; the
vertues of this Plant are so effectual, that we read
by taking of it inwardly, or by outward applica
tion and by fume it will expell a dead Child.
And the juice of it applied to wounds made by
Sword, or the biting of venomous creatures is a
present remedy: but besides this, I shall speak of
another way of drawing out the poyson of these
Creatures, which is by sucking of it out with their
mouths, which one Indian will do for another, or
for any Christian so poyson' d: A rare example of
pure humanity, even equal to that of the Lady
Elenor, * the Wife of King Edward the first, who
when her Husband had three wounds given him
with the poysoned Knife of Anzazim the Saracen,
two in the Arm and one near the Arm-pit, which
by reason of the envenom' d blade were fear'd to
be mortal, and when no Medicine could extract
the poyson, his Lady did it with her Tongue, lick
ing dayly while her Husband slept, his rankling
wounds, whereby they perfectly clos'd, and yet
•This story first appears in an English writer in Camden's " Britan
nia." It is derived from a Spanish author of the fifteenth century
and is not found in the contemporary sources. See C. H. Pearson ,
" History of England during the Early and Middle Ages," vol. ii.,
p. 289. — 52 —

W O L L E Y ' S NEW YORK

her self receiv'd no harm, so sovereign a medicine
is a good Tongue, beyond the attractive power of
Cupping Glasses and Cauteries. It were to be
wish'd that where Penny-royal or Dittany is
scarce or unknown, that every Country family
understood the vertue of Rue or Herb-a-grace,
which is held as a preservative against infectious
Diseases, and cures the biting of a mad Dog or
other venom, which would be no invasion upon,
or striving with the dispensatory of Pestal and
Mortar, Still and Furnace ; which legal faculties
and professions being established and encourag'd
by the wise constitutions of Governments, should
not be interlop'd and undermin'd by persons of
any other faculties, who are too apt to add tem
poral Pluralities to their spiritual Cures. Indeed
it is a duty owing to human nature, to administer
to and assist any one in forma pauperis, but to
take a fee a reward or gratuity from a Naaman or
a person able to employ the proper faculty, is to
act the Gehazi, and not the Prophet Elisha ; Miles
equis, piscator aquis, an hammer for the Smith, an
Homer for the School, let the Shooe-maker mind
his Boot, and the Fisherman his Boat, the Divine
his Sermon, and the Doctor his Salmon.* This
digression I hope will be taken as it's written with
an impartial deference to both professions : for as
we are taught from Jesus the Son of Sirach, to
* W illiam Salmon, 1 644-1 713, a quack ; author of many medical books.
— 53 —

W O L L E Y ' S NEW YORK
honor the physician for his skill, and the Apothe
cary for his confections, Ecclesiasticus chap. 38.1.
8. so we are taught from a greater than he, to
honor and revere the Doctors of souls, the holy
Jesus the Son of God, for their Spiritual Cures
and Dispensatories : But to return to the Indians,
they have Doctors amongst them, whom they call
Me-ta-ow, to whom every one gives something for
there Cure, but if they die nothing at all, and
indeed their skill in simples costs them nothing,
their general remedy for all diseases is their
sweating: Which is thus: when they find them
selves any ways indisposed, they make a small
Wigwam or House, nigh a River- side, out of
which in the extremity of the Sweat they plunge
themselves into the Water; about which I dis
coursed with one of their Me-ta-ows, and told him
of the European way of Sweating in Beds, and
rubbing our bodies with warm cloths: to which
he answered he thought theirs the more effectual
way: because the water does immediately stop all
the passages (as he call'd the Pores) and at the
same time wash off the excrementitious remainder
of the Sweat, which he thought could not be so
clearly done by friction or rubbing; which prac
tice I leave to the consideration or rather diversion
of the Physicians and their Balneo's:* but this
experiment prov'd Epidemical in Small-Pox, by
* Balneo = bagnio, a bath.
— 54 —

W O L L E Y ' S NEW YORK
hindering them from coming out. As to their
way of living, it's very rudely and rovingly, shift
ing from place to place, according to their exigen
cies, and gains of fishing and fowling and hunting,
never confining their rambling humors to any
settled Mansions. Their Houses which they call
Wigwams are as so many Tents or Booths covered
with the barks of Trees, in the midst of which
they have their fires, about which they sit in the
day time, and lie in the nights ; they are so Satur
nine that they love extremes either to sit still or
to be in robustous motions, spending their time in
drowsie conferences, being naturally unenclin'd
to any but lusory pastimes and exercises; their
Diet in general is raw Flesh, Fish, Herbs, and
Roots or such as the Elements produce without
the concoction of the fire to prepare it for their
Stomachs ; so their Horses are of a hardy tempera
ment, patient of hunger and cold, and in the
sharp winter, when the ground is cover' d with
Snow, nourish themselves with the barks of Trees,
and such average* and herbage as they can find at
the bottom of the Snow: But now I am speaking
of Horses, I never could be inform' d nor ever did
see an Indian to have been on Horseback: Of
which there are great ranges runing wild in the
* Average, a word used in Lincoln and other northern counties for
the pasturage to be found after the harvest; stubble. — Wright's
" Eng. Dialect Diet." — 55 —

W O L L E Y ' S NEW YORK
Woods, to which they pretend no right: but leave
them to the Dutch and English Chevaliers to
tame and manage; for which I often wondered
there were not cheif Rangers, and a Charta de
Foresta to regulate such Games. When they travel
by water, they have small Boats, which they call
Canoes, made of the barks of Trees, so very nar
row, that two can neither sit nor stand a breast,
and those they row with long paddles, and that
so swiftly, that they'll skim away from a Boat
with four Oars, I have taken a particular pleasure
in plying these paddles, standing upright and
steddy, which is their usual posture for dispatch :
In which they bring Oysters and other fish for the
Market : they are so light and portable that a Man
and his Squaw will take them upon their Shol-
ders and carry them by Land from one River to
another, with a wonderful expedition; they will
venture with them in a dangerous Current, even
through Hell-gate it self, which lies in an arm of
the Sea, about ten miles from New -York East
ward to New-England, as dangerous and as unac
countable as the Norway Whirl-pool or Maelstrom :
in this Hell-gate which is a narrow passage, run
neth a rapid violent Stream both upon Flood and
Ebb; and in the middle lieth some Islands of
Rocks, upon which the Current sets so violently,
that it threatens present Shipwrack; and upon
the Flood is a large whirlpool, which sends forth a
_56-

W O L L E Y ' S NEW YORK
continual hedious roaring;* it is a place of great
defence against an Enemy coming that way,
which a small Fortification would absolutely pre
vent, by forcing them to come in at the west-end
of Long-Island by Sandy-Hook, where Nutten-
Island would force them within the command of
the Fort of New- York, which is one of the strong
est and best situated Garrisons in the North parts
of America, and was never taken but once through
the default of one Captain Manning, who in
absence of the Governour suffered the Dutch to
take it ; for which he was condemned to an Exile
to a small Island from his name, call'd Manning's
Island,f where I have been several times with the
said Captain, whose entertainment was commonly
a Bowl of Rum-Punch. In deep Snows the Indians
with broad Shoos much in the shap of the round
part of our Rackets which we use at Tennis : will
travel without sinking in the least: at other times
their common ordinary Shooes are parts of raw
Beasts- skins tied about their feet: when they
travel, for directing others who follow them, they
lay sticks across, or leave some certain mark on
Trees. Now I am speaking of the Indian Shooes,

*This description of Hellgate is quoted from Denton, and the
remarks following in regard to the defensive strength of the passage
are adapted from the same.— Denton's " Brief Description," p. 40.
f Captain Manning's stepdaughter who inherited the island mar
ried Robert Blackwell and the property was thence called Black
well's Island.— O'C. — 57 —

W O L L E Y ' S NEW YORK

I cannot forbear acquainting the Reader that I
seldom or never observ'd the Dutch Women wear
any thing but Slippers at home and abroad, which
often reminded me of what I read in Dr. Ham-
ond* upon the 6th of Ephesians, N. B. that the
Egyptian Virgins were not permitted to wear
Shooes, i. e.' not ready to go abroad: like the cus
tom among the Hebrews, whose women were
call'd dtxoea, domi portce and ouapsaai home-setters
and Stxuptxai house bearers, the Heathen painted
before the modest women's doors Venus sitting
upon a Snail, qua? domi porta vocatur, called a
House bearer, to teach them to stay at home, and
to carry their Houses about with them. So the
Virgins were called by the Hebrews Gnalamoth,
absconditce, hid, and the places of their abodes
izap6vjvuva\ cellce Virginales, Virgins Cells. Con
trary to these are Whores Pro. 7. II. her feet
abide not in her house, therefore the Chaldees
call her Niphcath-hara going abroad, and an Harlot
the Daughter of an Harlot, egredientem filiam egre-
dientis, a goer forth, the Daughter of a goer forth ;
and when Dinah went out to see the Daughters
of the Land, and was ravish' d by Sichem : Simeon
and Levi cry out, should he deal with our Sister
as with an Harlot, which the Targum renders, an
sicut exeuntem foras: They have another custom
differing from other Nations. They feast freely
* Henry Hammond, 1605-1660.
-58-

W O L L E Y ' S NEW YORK
and merrily at the Funeral of any Friend, to
which I have been often invited and sometimes a
Guest, a custom derived from the Gentiles to the
latter Jews, according to which says Josephus of
Archelaus, he mourned seven* days for his Father,
and made a sumptuous Funeral Feast for the mul
titude, and he adds that this custom was the
impoverishing of many Families among the Jews,
and that upon necessity, for if a Man omitted it,
he was accounted no pious Man. The Dutch eat
and drink very plentifully at these Feasts ; but I
do not remember any Musick or Minstrels, or
monumentarii choraulce mentioned by Apuleius, or
any of the Musick mentioned by Ovid de fastis.
Cantabis mcestis tibia funeribus.
So that perhaps it may be in imitation of David's
example, who as soon as his child was dead,
wash'd and anointed himself and ate his bread as
formerly, 2 Sam. 12. 20. In all these Feasts I
observ'd they sit Men and Women intermixt, and
not as our English do Women and Men by them
selves apart.
Of the Indians Marriages and Burials.
When an Indian has a mind to a woman (asking
the consent of Parents) he gives her so many
Fathom of Wampam according to his ability,
then his betrothed covers her face for the whole
*". Sevens " in original edition. — 59 —

W O L L E Y ' S NEW YORK
year before she is married, which put me in mind
of Rebekah, who took a veil and covered her self
when she met Isaac, Gen. 24. 65. which veil (saith
Tertullian de velandis virginibus) was a token of her
modesty and subjection. The Husband doth not
lie with his Squaw or Wife, whilst the Child has
done Sucking, which is commonly two years, for
they say the Milk will not be good if they get
Children so fast. They bury their friends sitting
upon their heels as they usually sit, and they put
into their graves with them a Kettle, a Bow and
Arrows, and a Notas or Purse of Wampam ; they
fancy that after their death they go to the South
ward, and so they take their necessaries along
with them; or perhaps like the uncircumcis'd in
Ezek. 32. 27. who went down to the Grave with
Weapons of War, and laid their Swords under their
heads, the ensigns of Valor and Honor: as tho
they would carry their strength to the grave with
them, contrary to that of the Apostle, it is sown
a weak body, 1 Cor. 15. They mourn over their
dead commonly two or three days before they
bury them : they fence and stockado their graves
about, visiting them once a year, dressing the
weeds from them, many times they plant a certain
Tree by their Graves which keeps green all the
year: They all believe they shall live as they do
now, and think they shall marry, but must not
work as they do here; they hold their Soul or
_6o—

W O L L E Y ' S NEW YORK
Spirit to be the breath of Man: They have a Tra
dition amongst them that about five hundred
years agoe, a Man call'd {Wach que ow) came
down from above, upon a Barrel' s-head, let down
by a Rope, and lived amongst them sixty years,
who told them he came from an happy place,
where there were many of their Nations, and so
he left them. And they have another Tradition
of one Meco Nish, who had lain as dead sixteen
days, all which time he was unburied, because
he had a little warmth about his breast, and after"
sixteen days he lived again, in which interval he
told them he had been in a fine place where he
saw all that had been dead. Such Traditions as
these ought to be lookt upon by the Professors
of Christianity, as the Epileptick half moon Doc
trine of that grand Enthusiast Mahomet, beyond
whose Tomb hanging in the air his Superstitious
Arabians are not able to lift their minds to the
Kingdom of Heaven: So that the Mahometans
Tomb and the Indians Tub may stand upon the
same bottom, as to their Credit and Tradition:
and the Indians after their rising again to the
Southward shall Marry, Eat and Drink, may
plead as fair for them as the Mahometans earthly
Paradise of Virgins with fairer and larger eyes
than ever they beheld in this world, and such
like sensual enjoyments, which its even a shame
to mention: or the Jews worldly Messiah, who
— 61 —

W O L L E Y ' S NEW YORK
ought all to be the dayly objects of our Christian
prayers and endeavours for their Conversion, that
they may believe and obtain a better Resurrec
tion, even the Necumah the day of Consolation,
when we shall be so wonderfully changed as to be
fit Companions for Angels, and reign with our
Saviour in his Glory, who only hath the words of
eternal life. In order to which I shall endeavour
to offer some proposals in a Second Part, de propa
ganda fide; and so conclude this with some mixt
occasional observations, with all due respects to
some modern Criticks: Whether Adam or Eve
sewed their fig-leave together with needle and
thread is not my business to be so nice as rem
istam acu tangere: But this I am well inform' d of,
That the Indians, make thread of Nettles pill'd
when full ripe, pure white and fine, and likewise
another sort of brownish thread of a small weed
almost like a Willow, which grows in the Wood,
about three foot high, which is called Indian
Hemp, of which they likewise make Ropes and
bring them to sell, which wears as strong as our
Hemp, only it wont endure wet so well, of this
they make their Baggs, Purses or Sacks which
they call Notas, which word signifies a Belly, and
so they call any thing that's hollow to carry any
thing. Their work is weaving with their fingers,
they twist all their thread upon their Thighs,
with the palm of their hands, they interweave
— 62 —

W O L L E Y • S NEW YORK
their Porcupine quills into their baggs, their
Needles they make of fishes or small beast bones,
and before the Christians came amongst them,
they had Needles of Wood, for which Nut-wood
was esteemed best, called Um-be-re-mak-qua, their
Axes and Knives they made of white Flint-stones ;
and with a Flint they will cut down any tree as
soon as a carpenter with a Hatchet, which experi
ment was tried of late years by one Mr. Crabb of
Alford in Lincolnshire, for a considerable wager,
who cut down a large Tree with a flint, handled
the Indian way, with an unexpected art and
quickness. They make their Candles of the same
wood that the Masts of Ships are made of, which
they call Woss-ra-neck. Thus far of the Indians,
in this first part, which were part of my own per
sonal observations, and other good informations
from one Claus an Indian, otherwise called Nich
olas by the English, but Claus by the Dutch,
with whom I was much acquainted, and likewise
from one Mr. John Edsal the constant Interpreter
betwixt the Governor and the Indians, and all
others upon all important affairs, who was my
intimate acquaintance, and his Son my Scholar
and Servant, whose own hand-writing is in many
of my Memorials: One thing I had almost forgot,
i. e. when the Indians look one another's Heads
they eat the Lice and say they are wholesome,
never throwing any away or killing them : In a
-63-

W 0 L L E Y ' S NEW YORK
word as they have a great many manly instincts
of nature, so I observed them very civil and
respectful both in their behaviour and entertain
ment ; I cannot say that ever I met any company
of them, which I frequently did in my walks out
of the Town, but they would bow both Head and
Knee, saying here comes the Sacka-makers Kakin-
do-wet, i. e. the Governours Minister, whom I
always saluted again with all due ceremony. They
are faith-guides in the woods in times of Peace,
and as dangerous enemies in times of War. Their
way of fighting is upon Swamps, i. e. Bogs and
Quagmires, in sculking Ambushes, beyond Trees
and in Thickets, and never in a body. When
they intend War they paint their faces black, but
red is the sun-shine of Peace. There are several
Nations which may be more properly called Tribes
of Indians.
Rockoway upon the South of Jamaica upon
Long-Island, the 1.
Sea-qua-ta-eg, to the South of Huntingdon,
the 2.
Unckah-chau-ge, Brooke-haven, the 3.
Se-tauck, Seatauchet North, the 4.
Ocqua-baug, South-hold to the North, the 5.
Shin-na-cock, Southampton, the greatest Tribe,
the 6.
Mun-tauck, to the Eastward of East-Hampton,
the 7. _64-

W O L L E Y ' S NEW YORK
All these are Long-Island Indians.
The Tribes which are Friends.
Top-paun, the greatest, which consists of an
hundred and fifty fighting young Men. It' s call' d
the greatest because they have the greatest Sachim
or Sacka-maker, i. e. King, whose name is Maim-
shee. The Second is Ma-nissing, which lies westward
from Top-paun, two days Journey; it consists of
three hundred fighting Men, the Sacka-makers
name is called Taum-ma-hau-Quauk.
The Third, Wee-quoss-cah-chau. i. e. Westches
ter Indians, which consists of seventy fighting
Men, the Sacka-makers name is Wase-sa-kin-now.
The Fourth, Na-ussin, or Neversinks, a Tribe of
very few, the Sacka-makers name is Onz-zeech.
May the lover of Souls bring these scattered
desert people home to his own Flock.
To return from the Wilderness into New -York,
a place of as sweet and agreeable air as ever 1
breathed in, and the Inhabitants, both English
and Dutch very civil and courteous as I may speak
by experience, amongst whom I have often wished
my self and Family, to whose tables I was fre
quently invited, and always concluded with a
generous bottle of Madera. I cannot say I ob
served any swearing or quarrelling, but what was
easily reconciled and recanted by a mild rebuke,
-65-

W O L L E Y ' S NEW YORK
except once betwixt two Dutch Boors (whose usual
oath is Sacrament) which abateing the abusive
language, was no unpleasant Scene. As soon as
they met (which was after they had alarm' d the
neighbourhood) they seized each other's hair with
their forefeet, and down they went to the Sod,
their Vrows and Families crying out because they
could not part them, which fray happening against
my Chamber window, I called up one of my
acquaintance, and ordered him to fetch a kit full
of water and discharge it at them, which immedi
ately cool'd their courage, and loosed their grap
ples: so we used to part our Mastiffs in England.
In the same City of New-York where I was Minis
ter to the English, there were two other Ministers
or Domines as they were called there, the one a
Lutheran a German or High-Dutch, the other a
Calvinist an Hollander or Low-Dutchman, who
behav'd themselves one towards another so shily
and uncharitably as if Luther and Calvin had
bequeathed and entailed their virulent and
bigotted Spirits upon them and their heirs forever.
They had not visited or spoken to each other with
any respect for six years together before my being
there, with whom I being much acquainted, I
invited them both with their Vrows to a Supper
one night unknown to each other, with an obliga
tion, that they should not speak one word in
Dutch, under the penalty of a Bottle of Medera,
— 66 —

W O L L E Y ' S NEW YORK
alledging I was so imperfect in that Language
that we could not manage a sociable discourse, so
accordingly they came, and at the first interview
they stood so appaled as if the Ghosts of Luther
and Calvin had suffered a transmigration, but the
amaze soon went off with a salve tu quoque, and a
Bottle of Wine, of which the Calvinist Domine
was a true Carouzer, and so we continued our
Mensalia the whole meeting in Latine, which they
both spoke so fluently and promptly that I blush' d
at my self with a passionate regret, that I could
not keep pace with them ; and at the same time
could not forbear reflecting upon our English
Schools and Universities (who indeed write Latine
Elegantly) but speak it, as if they were confined
to Mood and Figure, Forms, and Phrases, whereas
it should be their common talk in their Seats and
Halls, as well as in their School Disputations, and
Themes. This with all deference to these reposi
tories of Learning. As to the Dutch Language
in which I was but a smatterer, I think it lofty,
majestic and emphatical, especially the German
or High-Dutch, which as far as I understand it is
very expressive in the Scriptures, and so underived
that it may take place next the Oriental Lan
guages, and the Septuagint: The name of the
Calvinist was Newenhouse* of the Lutheran Bern-
hardus Frazius, who was of a Gentile Personage,

* Wilhelmus van Nieuwenhuyzen. -67-

W O L L E Y ' S NEW YORK
and a very agreeable behaviour in conversation,
I seldom knew of any Law-suits, for indeed Attor
neys were denyed the liberty of pleading: The
English observed one anniversary custom, and
that without superstition, I mean the strenarum
commercium, as Suetonius calls them, a neighbourly
commerce of presents every New- Years day.
Totus ab auspicio, ne foret annus iners. Ovid.
Fastor. Some would send me a Sugar-loaf, some a pair
of Gloves, some a Bottle or two of Wine. In a
word, the English Merchants and Factors (whose
names are at the beginning) were very unanimous
and obliging. There was one person of Quality,
by name Mr. Russel, younger brother to the late
Lord Russel, a gentleman of a comely Personage,
and very obliging, to whose lodgings I was often
welcome : But I suppose his Fortune was that of a
younger Brother according to Henry the VHI's.
Constitution, who abolished and repealed the
Gavelkind custom, whereby the Lands of the
Father were equally divided among all his Sons,
so that ever since the Cadets or younger Sons of
the English Nobility and Gentry, have only that
of the Poet to bear up their Spirits.
Sum pauper, non culpa mea est, sed culpa parentum
Qui mefratre meo non genuere prius.
In my rude English rhiming thus.
— 68 —

W O L L E Y ' S NEW YORK

I'm poor (my dad) but that's no fault of mine,
If any fault there be, the fault is thine,
Because thou did'st not give us Gavelkine.
The Dutch in New- York observe this custom, an
instance of which I remember in one Frederick
Philips the richest Miin Heer in that place, who
was said to have whole Hogsheads of Indian
Money or Wampam, who having one Son and
Daughter, I was admiring what a heap of Wealth
the Son would enjoy, to which a Dutch Man
replied, that the Daughter must go halves, for so
was the manner amongst them, they standing
more upon Nature than Names; that as the root
communicates it self to all its branches, so should
the Parent to all his off-spring which are the Olive
branches round about his Table. And if the case
be so, the minors and infantry of the best Fami
lies might wish they had been born in Kent*
rather than in such a Christendom as entails upon
them their elder Brother's old Cloths, or some
superannuated incumber' d reversion, but to invite
both elder and younger Brothers to this sweet
Climate of New-York, when they arrive there, if
they are enclined to settle a Plantation, they may
purchase a tract of ground at a very small rate,
in my time at two-pence or three-pence the Acre,
* The custom of gavelkind, securing in the case of intestacy the
equal division of landed property among all the sons, has survived
in Kent to the present day.
_69-

W O L L E Y ' S NEW YORK
for which they have a good Patent or Deed from
the Governor. Indeed its all full of Wood, which
as it will require some years before it be fit for
use, so the burning of it does manure and melio
rate the Soil; if they be f or Merchandice, they pay
for their freedom in New- York but six Bevers or
an equivalent in Money, i. e. three pounds twelve
shillings, and seventeen shillings Fees: And
Goods that are brought over commonly return
cent, per cent. i. e. a hundred pounds laid out in
London will commonly yield or afford 200 pounds
there. Fifty per cent, is looked upon as an indif
ferent advance, the species of payment and credit*
or trust is sometimes hazardous, and the Com
modities of that Country will yield very near as
much imported into England, for three and forty
pounds laid out in Bever and other Furrs, when
I came away, I received about four-score in Lon
don ; indeed the Custom upon the skins is high,
which perhaps might raise it to eight and forty
pounds, or fifty; as for what I had occasion, some
things were reasonable, some dear. I paid for
two load of Oats in the straw 18 shillings to one
Mr. Henry Dyer : to the same for a load of Pease-
straw six shillings: paid to Thomas Davis for
shooing my Horse three shillings, for in that place
Horses are seldom, some not shod at all, their
Hoofs by running in the woods so long before
* Misprinted " cerdit" in the original edition.
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W O L L E Y • S NEW YORK
they are backed are like Flints : Paid to Derick,
i. e. Richard Secah's Son for a load of Hay twelve
shillings : Paid to Denys Fisher's Son a Carpen
ter, for two days work in the Stable eight shil
lings: for a Curry Comb and Horse-brush four
shillings: to Jonathan the Barber 11. As. the year:
to the Shoo-maker for a pair of Boots and Shooes
11. 5s. to the Washer-woman or Laundress 11. 5s.
&d. the Year. So all Commodities and Trades are
dearer or cheaper according to the plenty of im
portation from England and other parts: The
City of New- York in my time was as large as some
Market Towns with us, all built the London way;
the Garrison side of a high situation and a pleas
ant Prospect, the Island it stands on all a level
and Champain; the diversion especially in the
Winter season used by the Dutch is aurigation,
i. e. riding about in Wagons which is allowed by
Physicians to be a very healthful exercise by
Land. And upon the Ice its admirable to see
Men and Women as it were flying upon their
Skates from place to place, with Markets upon
their Heads and Backs. In a word, it's a place
so every way inviting that our English Gentry,
Merchants and Clergy (especially such as have the
natural Stamina of a consumptive propagation in
them ; or an Hypocondriacal Consumption) would
flock thither for self preservation. This I have
all the reason to affirm, and believe from the

W O L L E Y ' S NEW YORK
benign effectual influence it had upon my own
constitution; but oh the passage, the passage
thither, hie labor, hoc opus est: there is the timorous
objection: the Ship may founder by springing a
Leak, be wreckt by a Storm or taken by a
Pickeroon : which are plausible pleas to flesh and
blood, but if we would examine the bills of mor
tality and compare the several accidents and
diseases by the Land, we should find tnem almost
a hundred for one to what happens by Sea, which
deserves a particular Essay, and if we will believe
the ingenious Dr. Carr in his Epistolce Medicinales,
there is an Emetick Vomitory vertue in the Sea-
water it self, which by the motion of the Ship
operates upon the Stomach and ejects whatever is
offensive, and so extimulates and provokes or recov
ers the appetite, which is the chiefest defect in
such Constitutions : and besides, there is a daily
curiosity in contemplating the wonders of the
Deep, as to see a Whale wallowing and spouting
cataracts of Water, to see the Dolphin that hier-
oglyphick of celerity leaping above water in chase
of the flying fish, which I have sometimes tasted
of as they flew aboard, where they immediately
expire out of their Element; and now and then
to hale up that Canibal of the Sea, I mean the
Shark, by the bate of a large gobbet of Beef or
Pork; who makes the Deck shake again by his
flapping violence, and opens his devouring mouth
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W O L L E Y ' S NEW YORK
with double rows of teeth, in shape like a Skate
or Flare as we call them in Cambridge ; of which
dreadful fish 1 have often made a meal at Sea,
but indeed it was for want of other Provisions.
When I came for England in a Quaker's Ship,
whose Master's name was Heathcot ; * who, when
he had his plum Broths, I and the rest were glad
of what Providence sent us from day to day, our
water and other Provisions, which he told us
upon going aboard were fresh and newly taken
in, were before we arrived in England so old and
nauseous that we held our noses when we used
them, and had it not been for a kind Rundlet of
Medera Wine, which the Governor's Lady pre
sented me with, it had gone worse: but such a
passage may not happen once in a hundred times;
for as I went from England to New- York, 1 faired
very plentifully both with fresh and season' d
meat, & good drink, Sheep killed according to our
occasion, and likewise Poultry coop'd up and
corn'd and cram'd, which made the common Sea
men so long for a novelty, that as I went down
betwixt Decks I observ'd two Terpaulins tossing
something in a Blanket, and being very inquisi-

*" George Heathcote ... a sturdy Quaker who, ' on the first
ofthe sixth month, 1672,' being owner and commander of a ship,
was imprisoned by Governor Bellingham of Massachusetts, ' for
delivering him a letter and not putting of his hat.' . . . He was
master of the • Pink Hopewell ' in 1679, which vessel cleared for Lon
don July 17, 1680."— O'C. It was on this voyage that Mr. Wolley
sailed with him. — 73 —

W O L L E Y ' S NEW YORK
tive they told me they were roasting a Cockerill,
which was by putting a red-hot Bullet into it
after it was trust, which would fetch all the
Feathers off and roast well enough for their Stom
achs, at which I smiling went again above-deck,
and made it a publick and pardonable diversion;
but as to the Sharks, as our Ship was one day
becalm' d, and four of our Seamen for diversion
Swimming about the Vessel, we on board espied
two or three of them making towards their prey,
we all shouted and made what noise we could,
and scared them (tho with much ado) from seizing
the Men, whilst we drew them up by ropes cast
out; when they are sure of their prey they turn
themselves upon their backs & strike their Prey,
but in case a Man has the courage to face them in
swimming they make away, so awful is the aspect
of that noble animal Man: but suppose his Cour
age or his Strength fails him, and he becomes a
prey to any of the watry host, what difference
betwixt being eaten by fish or by worms at the
Christian Resurrection, when the Sea must give
up its Dead, and our scattered parts be recollected
into the same form again; but to conclude all
with an Apophthegm* of the Lord Bacon's, viz.
'One was saying that his Great-Grand-father
' Grand-father and Father died at Sea. Said
1 another that heard him, and as I were you, I
* This is No. 297 in Bacon's " Apophthegms," or anecdotes.
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W O L L E Y • S NEW YORK
'would never come to Sea; why saith he, where
' did your Great-Grandfather and Ancestors die?
' he answered where but in their Beds, saith the
' other, and 1 were as you I would never go to Bed.
But for all this I durst venture a knap in a Cabbin
at Sea, or in a Hammock in the Woods. So
Reader a good Night.
Opere in tanto fas est obrepere somnum.
FINIS.

— 75 —

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