When it pleaseth God we are settled and fitted for the fishing business
and other trading, I doubt not but by the blessing of God the gain will
give content to all. In the mean time, that we have gotten we have sent
by this ship; and though it be not much, yet it will witness for us
that we have not been idle, considering the smallness of our number all
this summer. We hope the merchants will accept of it, and be encouraged
to furnish us with things needful for further employment, which will
also encourage us to put forth ourselves to the uttermost.
Now because I expect your coming unto us, with other of our friends,
whose company we much desire, I thought good to advertise you of a
few things needful. Be careful to have a very good bread-room to put
your biscuits in. Let your cask for beer and water be iron-bound, for
the first tire, if not more. Let not your meat be dry-salted; none
can better do it than the sailors. Let your meal be so hard trod in
your cask that you shall need an adz or hatchet to work it out with.
Trust not too much on us for corn at this time, for by reason of this
last company that came, depending wholly upon us, we shall have little
enough till harvest. Be careful to come by some of your meal to spend
by the way; it will much refresh you. Build your cabins as open as you
can, and bring good store of clothes and bedding with you. Bring every
man a mussket or fowling-piece. Let your piece be long in the barrel,
and fear not the weight of it, for most of our shooting is from stands.
Bring juice of lemons, and take it fasting; it is of good use. For hot
waters, aniseed water is the best; but use it sparingly. If you bring
anything for comfort in the country, butter or sallet oil, or both is
very good. Our Indian corn, even the coarsest, maketh us pleasant meat
as rice; therefore spare that, unless to spend by the way. Bring paper
and linseed oile for your windows, with cotton yarn for your lamps.
Let your shot be most for big fowls, and bring store of powder and
shot. I forbear further to write for the present, hoping to see you by
the next return. So I take my leave, commending you to the Lord for a
safe conduct unto us, resting in him,
Your loving friend,
E. W.
_b. Captain John Smith's Account, 1624_
Smith's _Works_ (Birmingham edition), 782 ff.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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