Bartholomeus Gosnols reys van Engeland na het noorder-gedeelte van Virginien, anno 1602 doo...

the North-Eastern side was unknown to us. This island lies South and North. On the West side, there are some creeks that are so enclosed that the water in several places pushes against itself, whither the Indians frequently come from the mainland to catch crabs.

How it appeared,

It lies at 41 degrees, 10 minutes. One has eight fathoms of water close under the land. It is entirely wild and uninhabited, overgrown with trees and shrubs, such as oaks, ashes, beeches, walnuts, sassafras, cedars, and various others which we did not know how to name.

of crops,

The lesser crops consist of wild peas, young sassafras, cherry trees, grapevines, sweet-briar, thorn-bush shrubs, and the like. And the earth-fruits are strawberries, blackberries, ground-nuts, ey possibly referring to a specific root or tuber, mater possibly referring to a specific edible plant, and the like in abundance.

and fertility.

As for the fertility of the soil, we found it to our wish, for we sowed legumes there which, in 14 days, stood nearly half a foot above the earth.

Where they begin to make a fort.

On this island is a pond of fresh water, which is about two miles around, and on one side is only 30 rods from the sea. In the middle of it is a rocky, small island, about the size of a morning-land a measure of land, roughly an acre, entirely overgrown with wood. Here we began to make a fort for our stay, as we considered that place very suitable for it. The Indians in this region called gold Wassador, which made us conclude that there was gold in that land.

Equipment for that purpose.

On the 29th, we were busy gathering sassafras, laid the foundation of our fort or small island, renewed the bottom of our sloop, and made a flat-bottomed pontoon or boat to be able to sail back and forth across the fresh water.

Sassafras powder a good medicine.

The powder of sassafras restored, in the time of 12 hours, one of us who was overloaded from eating a seal (otherwise a very delicious food).