Scheeps-togt van Martin Pringe, gedaan in 't jaar 1603. Van Bristol na 't noorder-gedeelte van Virginien....

having been there about seven weeks, although sown late, came up very well, as proof that there is a good climate or air and soil there. In our opinion, hemp, flax, rapeseed, and the like, which require a fat and fertile soil, would thrive exceptionally well in that region, as we found grass about knee-high in some places.

Sassafras, what it is good for.

Trees of all kinds.

Regarding the trees in this region, one finds Sassafras, a plant that has extraordinary power to cure the French or Spanish pox syphilis, and, according to the writings of some scholars, is good against the plague and many other diseases. There are grapevines, cedars, oaks, beeches, birches, and cherry trees—which at that time bore ripe fruit that we ate—hazelnuts, witch-hazels, the best wood for making wagon axles, walnuts, and mast-trees, which are very suitable for making birdlime. There is also a certain kind of tree bearing a fruit not unlike a small red plum, with a crown or elevation at the upper end. Captain Robert Salterne brought a branch of this with earth to Bristol. We also found low trees there that bore very good cherries; there was also a type of white plum, but not fully ripe at that time, and several other trees unknown to us.

Beasts.

Advantage of their hides.

The beasts that one finds here are deer, fallow deer in abundance, bears, wolves, foxes, lynxes, and, according to some, also tigers likely referring to mountain lions or wildcats, porcupines, and dogs with long, pointed noses, from which one could derive great profit in the future, for we have been told for a fact that the French, in the year 1604, drew the value of 30,000 crowns from Canada alone in beaver and otter hides.

Birds.

The birds in this region are eagles, vultures, cranes, herons, crows, seagulls, and an abundance of other river and sea birds.