to the path which led to the plantation of Mr. Stabley, whose address
we had from Mr. Moll, but he was sick. We were here a little while,
but nothing was offered us to eat, and we only asked to drink. We
wished to be put across the Sassafras River here, but could not
accomplish it, although we were upon the bank of the river. We were
directed to the ferry at the court house, which was about two miles
west, but difficult to find through the woods. A person gave us a
letter to take to the Manathans, who put us in the path leading to the
ferry, where we arrived about two o'clock, and called out to them to
come and take us over. Although the weather was perfectly still and
they could easily hear us, we were not taken over, though we continued
calling out to them until sundown. As no one came for us, we intended
to go back to the plantation of Mr. Stabley, or one of those lying
before us, and to proceed there along the strand, but a creek
prevented us, and we had to search for the road by which we came. We
missed this road, although we were upon it, and could not find that or
any other plantation, and meanwhile it became dark. Although the moon
shone we could not go straight, for it shone above, and did not give
us light enough to see through the trees any houses or plantations at
a distance, several of which we passed as the result proved. We were
utterly perplexed and astray. We followed the roads as we found them,
now easterly and then westerly, now a little more on one side, and
then a little more on the other, until we were completely tired out,
and wished ourselves back again upon the strand. We had to keep on,
however, or remain in the woods, and as the latter did not suit us, we
chose the former, fatigued as we were, and uncertain as was the issue.
I plucked up courage and went singing along, which resounded through
the woods, although I was short of breath through weariness. My
comrade having taken his compass out of his sack in order to see how
we were going, had put it back again, and we were walking on, when he
discovered he had by that means lost his sword; though we had gone
some distance, we returned again to look for it, and I found it at
last. We continued on westerly again, but as we came to no end, we
determined to go across, through the thickets and bushes, due north,
in order that if we could not discover any plantation, we might at
least reach the strand. It was now about nine o'clock in the evening.
After having proceeded about an hour in that direction, we heard
directly in front of us a dog barking, which gladdened us. It was a
remarkable circumstance, as dogs are used to keep men away from
dwellings, but served to bring us to them, and was remarkable also for
the providence of the Lord, who caused this dog to bark, who, the
nearer we approached, heard more noise made by us among the leaves and
bushes, and barked the more, calling to us as it were, to come
straight up to him, which we endeavored to do. We soon came, however,
to a very deep hollow, where we could see over the tops of the trees
in it, and on the other side what seemed to be a shed of a plantation
in which the dog was barking. This encouraged us, but we had yet to go
through the hollow, where we could see no bottom, and the sides were
steep. We scrambled down I know not how, not seeing whether there was
water or a morass there; but on reaching the bottom, we found it was a
morass grown up with bushes. My comrade, who followed me, called out
to know whether we could not pass round it, but we had to go through
it. We came at length to a small brook, not broad, which we crossed
and clambered up the side again, when we came to the shed where the
dog continued barking, and thus led us to the house. His master was in
bed, and did not know what noise it was he heard. On our knocking, he
was surprised to hear such strange people at the door, not knowing
whether we were few or many, or whether he dared invite us in or not,
but he did. We had then little trouble. When we entered the house he
was astonished to see us, inquiring what people we were, where we came
from, where we were going, but especially how we reached there. No
one, he said, could get there easily in the day time, unless he were
shown or knew the way well, because they were very much hidden, and he
would come to have the other plantations sooner than this one. We told
him our adventures, at which he was as much astonished as we were
rejoiced. We had reason to behold the Lord in all this, and to glorify
Him as we did silently in our hearts. The wife arose and offered us a
little to eat of what she had, and afterwards gave me some deer skins,
but they were as dry and hard as a plank. I lay down upon them, and
crept under them, but was little covered and still less warmed by
them. My companion went to lie with a servant in his bunk, but he did
not remain there long before a heavy rain came--before which the Lord
had caused us to enter the house against all appearances--and
compelled him to evacuate his quarters very quickly. The water entered
in such great quantities that they would otherwise have been wet
through, though already it did not make much difference with my
comrade. We passed the night, however, as well as we could, sitting,
standing, or lying down, but cold enough.
_12th, Tuesday._ This plantation was about four miles below the court
house or ferry, westerly towards the bay, and we did not know if we
went to the ferry that we would not be compelled again to remain there
calling out, uncertain when we would be carried over. We therefore
promised this servant if he would put us across we would give him the
money, which we would otherwise have to pay at the ferry. The master
made some objections on account of the servant's work and the distance
from the river, and also because they had no canoe. The servant
satisfied him on these points, and he consented. We breakfasted on
what we could get, not knowing how or where we would obtain anything
again. We three, accordingly, went about two miles to the strand,
where we found a canoe, but it was almost entirely full of water, and
what was the worst of it, we had nothing with which to bale it out.
However, by one means and another we emptied it and launched the
canoe. We stepped in and paddled over the river to the plantation of a
Mr. Frisby. I must not forget to mention the great number of wild
geese we saw here on the river. They rose not in flocks of ten or
twelve, or twenty or thirty, but continuously, wherever we pushed our
way; and as they made room for us, there was such an incessant
clattering made with their wings upon the water where they rose, and
such a noise of those flying higher up, that it was as if we were all
the time surrounded by a whirlwind or a storm. This proceeded not only
from geese, but from ducks and other water fowl; and it is not
peculiar to this place alone, but it occurred on all the creeks and
rivers we crossed, though they were most numerous in the morning and
evening when they are most easily shot.
Having crossed this river, which is of great width, we came to the
plantation of Mr. Frisby, which stands upon an eminence and affords a
very pleasant prospect, presenting a view of the Great Bay as well as
the Sassafras River. When we first came on, we stopped here, but the
master was not at home; and as we had a letter of recommendation and
credit to him, he found it at his house when he returned. When we
arrived there now, we intended merely to ask his negroes for a drink,
but he being apprised of our arrival, made us go into the house, and
entertained us well. After we had partaken of a good meal, he had
horses made ready for us immediately to ride to Bohemia River, which
hardly deserves the name of a river in respect to other creeks. We
mounted on horseback, then, about ten o'clock, he and one of his
friends leading a piece of the way. Upon separating, he left us a boy
to show us the path and bring back the horses. This boy undertaking
more than he knew, assured us he was well acquainted with the road;
but after a while, observing the course we rode, and the distance we
had gone, and that we had ridden as long as we ought to have done, if
we had been going right, we doubted no longer we had missed the way,
as truly appeared in the end; for about three o'clock in the afternoon
we came upon a broad cart road, when we discovered we had kept too far
to the right and had gone entirely around Bohemia River. We supposed
we were now acquainted with the road, and were upon the one which ran
from Casparus Hermans's to his father's, not knowing there were other
cart roads. We rode along this fine road for about an hour or an hour
and a half, in order to reach Augustine Hermans, when we heard some
persons calling out to us from the woods, "Hold, where are you riding
to?" Certain, as we supposed we were, in our course, we answered, "to
Augustine Hermans." "You should not go that road then," they rejoined,
"for you are out of the way." We therefore rode into the bushes in
order to go to them, and learned hat we were not upon the road we
thought we were, but on the road from Apoquemene, that is, a cart road
made from Apoquemene, a small village situated upon a creek, to
Bohemia Creek or river. Upon this road the goods which go from the
South River to Maryland by land, are carried, and also those which
pass inland from Maryland to the South River, because these two
creeks, namely, the Apoquemene and the Bohemia, one running up from
Maryland, and the other from the Delaware River, as the English call
the South River, come to an end close to each other, and perhaps shoot
by each other, although they are not navigable so far; but are
navigable for eight miles, that is two Dutch miles of fifteen to a
degree. When the Dutch governed the country the distance was less,
namely, six miles. The digging a canal through was then talked of, the
land being so low; which would have afforded great convenience for
trade on the South River, seeing that they would have come from
Maryland to buy all they had need of, and would have been able to
transport their tobacco more easily to that river, than to the great
bay of Virginia, as they now have to do, for a large part of Maryland.
Besides, the cheap market of the Hollanders in the South [River] would
have drawn more trade; and if the people of Maryland had goods to ship
on their own account, they could do it sooner and more readily, as
well as more conveniently in the South [River] than in the Great Bay,
and therefore, would have chosen this route, the more so because as
many of their goods, perhaps, would for various reasons be shipped to
Holland, as to England. But as this is a subject of greater importance
than it seems upon the first view, it is well to consider whether it
should not be brought to the attention of higher authorities than
particular governors. What is now done by land in carts, might then be
done by water, for a distance of more than six hundred miles.[248]
[Footnote 248: This suggestion was finally realized by the cutting of
the Chesapeake and Delaware Canal, completed in 1829.]
We had, then, come on this road with our horses to the carrying-place
into Maryland and more than three miles from where we supposed we
were. To go there we would have had to pass through woods and over
small morassy creeks. The sun was nearly down, and we therefore
advised with the persons before mentioned. One of them was a Quaker
who was building a small house for a tavern, or rather an ale-house,
for the purpose of entertaining travellers, and the other was the
carpenter who was assisting him on the house, and could speak good
Dutch, having resided a long time at the Manathans. We were most
concerned for the young man and the horses. The Quaker, who had put up
a temporary shed, made of the bark of trees, after the manner of the
Indians, with both ends open, and little larger than a dog's kennel,
and where at the best we three might possibly have been able to lie,
especially when a fire was made, which would have to be done, offered
us his lodgings if we wished, and as good accommodations as he had,
which were not much. He had nothing to eat but maize bread which was
poor enough, and some small wild beans boiled in water; and little to
lie on, or to cover one, except the bare ground and leaves. We would
not have rejected this fare if the Lord had made it necessary, and we
were afterwards in circumstances where we did not have as good as
this; but now we could do better. The other person, an Irishman, who
lived about three miles from there, did not urge us much, because,
perhaps, he did not wish us to see how easily he would make two
English shillings for which we had agreed with him to take the horses
and boy to the creek, and put them on the path to reach home. We were
to walk to his house, conducted by the Quaker, while he rode round the
creek with the horses. We had to cross it in a canoe, which, when we
were in it, was not the breadth of two fingers above water, and
threatened every moment to upset. We succeeded, however, in crossing
over, and had then to make our way through bushes by an untrodden
path, going from one newly marked tree to another. These marks are
merely a piece cut out of the bark with an axe, about the height of a
man's eyes from the ground; and by means of them the commonest roads
are designated through all New Netherland and Maryland; but in
consequence of the great number of roads so marked, and their running
into and across each other, they are of little assistance, and indeed
often mislead. Pursuing our way we arrived at the house of Maurits, as
the carpenter was called, where he had already arrived with the
horses, and had earned two shillings sooner than we had walked three
miles, and more than he had made by his whole day's work. We went into
the house and found his Irish wife, engaged in cooking, whereby we
made reprisals in another way. After we had thus taken a good supper,
we were directed to a place to sleep which suited us entirely and
where we rested well.
_13th, Wednesday._ As soon as it was day we ate our breakfast and
left, after giving this man his two shillings, who also immediately
rode off with the young man and the horses, to put him on the path to
Sassafras River, while the Quaker who had remained there during the
night, was to take us to the broad cart-road where he had found us.
But neither he nor we could follow the new marked trees so well in the
morning light, and we soon missed the way, and no wonder, for we now
had the marks behind the trees. We went again through thickets and
bushes of the woods, to and fro, for full three hours without any
prospect of getting out, and that within a distance of not over
three-quarters of an hour. We struck a foot-path at last which led us
to Bohemia Creek, directly opposite the house which was being built.
We descended in order to wade over it, the bottom appearing to be hard
on this side, and promising a good passage; but when we were in the
middle of it, we sank up to our knees in the mud. When we were over we
went into the Quaker's hut, who warmed up some beans, and set them
before us with maize bread. Not to leave him like an empty calabash,
we gave him an English shilling for leading us astray, and other
things. We had now a fine broad cart-road to follow, eight miles long,
which would lead us to Apoquemene, as it did, and where we arrived
about noon. They are almost all Dutch who live here, and we were again
among the right kind of people, with whom we could at least obtain
what was right. We stepped into a house and were welcome. Some food
was immediately set before us to eat, and among other things butter,
cheese, and rye bread which was fresh and so delicious that my
companion said it was to him like sweet cake. We left there after we
had taken dinner, a boy leading us upon the way as far as a long
wooden bridge or dam over a meadow and creek, and proceeded on to
Kasparus Hermans's, the brother of Ephraim, about six miles from
there, where we arrived at three o'clock, but again found him absent
from home. As the court was sitting at Newcastle he had to be there as
one of its members. We were, however, welcomed by his wife. Her name
was Susanneken, and his, Kasparus or Jasper; which led my thoughts
further, communing with God in His love, who makes the past as well as
the future to be present, and who consumes the present in Him with the
future and the past, as it proceeds from Him with all our
sensations.[249] We passed the night there, and had to sleep with a
Quaker who was going next day to Maryland.
[Footnote 249: The meaning of this passage is made clear only by the
discovery of the facts mentioned in Note B prefixed to this volume.
The names Jasper and Susanneken (a diminutive of Susanna) appeal to
Danckaerts and excite these reflections because they were the names of
himself and his wife, who had died in 1676.]
_14th, Thursday._ While we were waiting for Casparus, we embraced the
opportunity to examine his place again, which pleased us in all
respects, and was objectionable only because it lay on the road, and
was therefore resorted to by every one, and especially by these
miserable Quakers. He returned home in the afternoon, and was glad to
find us. We spoke to him in relation to a certain tract of land which
we wished to look at, and Ephraim and his father had told us of; and
when we heard what it was, it was a part of Bohemia, which we had
already tolerably well looked at on our way to Maryland, being that
which lies on the creeks and river, and which, on our return and twice
losing the way, lay higher up in the woods; but we reserved the
privilege in case we should winter on the South River, of riding over
it thoroughly on horseback, with him and his brother Ephraim.[250] For
the present, time compelled us to see if we could not yet reach the
Manathans for the winter; and we were the more induced to the attempt
because a servant of Ephraim had arrived this evening by water in a
boat, and would be ready to return with it to Newcastle early in the
morning. We therefore excused ourselves and let the subject rest. We
heard here that his father Augustine Hermans was very sick and at the
point of death, and that Miss Margaret had gone there to attend upon
him in that condition.
[Footnote 250: It was upon the piece of land here alluded to that the
colony of the Labadists was afterward planted. See p. 112, note 2,
_supra_.]
_15th, Friday._ It was flood tide early this morning, and our servant
slept a little too long, for it was not far from high water when he
appeared. We hurried, however, into the boat and pushed on as hard as
we could, but the flood stopped running, when we were about half way.
We continued on rowing, and as the day advanced we caught a favorable
wind from the west and spread the sail. The wind gradually increasing
brought us to Newcastle about eight o'clock among our kind friends
again, where we were welcome anew. We were hardly ashore before the
wind, changing from the west to the northwest, brought with it such a
storm and rain that, if we had still been on the water, we should
have been in great peril, and if we had been at Kasparus's we should
not have been able to proceed in such weather. We here again so
clearly perceived the providence of the Lord over us, that our hearts
were constrained to ascend to Him, and praise him for what He is and
does, especially towards His children. As we have confined ourselves
quite strictly to the account of our journey, we deem it serviceable
to make some observations upon some general matters concerning
Maryland, in addition to what we have before remarked.
As regards its first discoverer and possessor, that was one Lord
Balthemore, an English nobleman, in the time of Queen Maria. Having
come from Newfoundland along the coast of North America, he arrived in
the great bay of Virginia, up which he sailed to its uppermost parts,
and found this fine country which he named Maryland after his queen.
Returning to England he obtained a charter of the northerly parts of
America, inexclusively, although the Hollanders had discovered and
began to settle New Netherland. With this he came back to America and
took possession of his Maryland, where at present his son, as
governor, resides.[251]
[Footnote 251: The first Lord Baltimore, George Calvert, who secured
the patent of 1632, never voyaged to Maryland as here described. Also,
the grant was definite in bounds, from the Potomac to 40 deg. N. lat.
Cecilius Calvert, the second lord, died in 1675. Charles Calvert, the
third, was at this time both proprietary and governor, having come out
to his province this winter, arriving in February, 1680. The writer
erroneously attributes the granting of Maryland to Queen Mary Tudor,
predecessor of Queen Elizabeth, instead of to Queen Henrietta Maria.]
Thereafter, at the time of Queen Elizabeth, the settlers preferred the
lowest parts of this great bay and the largest rivers which empty into
it, either on account of proximity to the sea, and the convenience of
the streams, or because the uppermost country smacked somewhat of the
one from whom it derived its name and of its government. They have
named this lower country Virginia, out of regard to Queen Elizabeth.
It has been the most populous, though not the best land, and a
government was established in Virginia distinct from that of Maryland.
A governor arrived while we were there, to fill the place made vacant
by the death of his predecessor.[252]
[Footnote 252: Lord Culpeper came out to Virginia as governor this
year, arriving in May, 1680. His predecessor as _governor_, Sir
William Berkeley, had been recalled and had died, but Colonel Jeffreys
and Sir Henry Chicheley had meantime been lieutenant-governors
successively.]
As to the present government of Maryland, it remains firm upon the old
footing, and is confined within the limits before mentioned. All of
Maryland that we have seen, is high land, with few or no meadows, but
possessing such a rich and fertile soil, as persons living there
assured me that they had raised tobacco off the same piece of land for
thirty consecutive years. The inhabitants, who are generally English,
are mostly engaged in this production. It is their chief staple, and
the money with which they must purchase every thing they require,
which is brought to them from other English possessions in Europe,
Africa and America. There is, nevertheless, sometimes a great want of
these necessaries, owing to the tobacco market being low, or the
shipments being prevented by some change of affairs in some quarter,
particularly in Europe, or indeed to both causes, as was the case at
this time, whereby there sometimes arises a great scarcity of such
articles as are most necessary, as we saw when there. So large a
quantity of tobacco is raised in Maryland and Virginia, that it is one
of the greatest sources of revenue to the crown by reason of the taxes
which it yields. Servants and negroes are chiefly employed in the
culture of tobacco, who are brought from other places to be sold to
the highest bidders, the servants for a term of years only, but the
negroes forever, and may be sold by their masters to other planters as
many times as their masters choose, that is, the servants until their
term is fulfilled, and the negroes for life. These men, one with
another, each make, after they are able to work, from 2,500 pounds to
3,000 pounds and even 3,500 pounds of tobacco a year, and some of the
masters and their wives who pass their lives here in wretchedness, do
the same. The servants and negroes after they have worn themselves
down the whole day, and come home to rest, have yet to grind and pound
the grain, which is generally maize, for their masters and all their
families as well as themselves, and all the negroes, to eat. Tobacco
is the only production in which the planters employ themselves, as if
there were nothing else in the world to plant but that, and while the
land is capable of yielding all the productions that can be raised
anywhere, so far as the climate of the place allows. As to articles
of food, the only bread they have is that made of Turkish wheat or
maize, and that is miserable. They plant this grain for that purpose
everywhere. It yields well, not a hundred, but five or six hundred for
one; but it takes up much space, as it is planted far apart like vines
in France. This grain, when it is to be used for men or for similar
purposes, has to be first soaked, before it is ground or pounded,
because the grains being large and very hard, cannot be broken under
the small stones of their light hand-mills; and then it is left so
coarse it must be sifted. They take the finest for bread, and the
other for different kinds of groats, which, when it is cooked, is
called _sapaen_ or _homina_. The meal intended for bread is kneaded
moist without leaven or yeast, salt or grease and generally comes out
of the oven so that it will hardly hold together, and so blue and
moist that it is as heavy as dough; yet the best of it when cut and
roasted, tastes almost like warm white bread, at least it then seemed
to us so. This corn is also the only provender for all their animals,
be it horses, oxen, cows, hogs, or fowls, which generally run in the
woods to get their food, but are fed a little of this, mornings and
evenings during the winter when there is little to be had in the
woods; though they are not fed too much, for the wretchedness, if not
cruelty, of such living, affects both man and beast. This is said not
without reason, for a master having a sick servant, and there are many
so, and observing from his declining condition, he would finally die,
and that there was no probability of his enjoying any more service
from him, made him, sick and languishing as he was, dig his own grave,
in which he was to be laid a few days afterwards, in order not to busy
any of the others with it, they having their hands full in attending
to the tobacco.[253]
[Footnote 253: Despite these criticisms as to slavery, it appears, if
we can accept the hostile testimony of Dittelbach, _Verval en Val der
Labadisten_ (Amsterdam, 1692), that Sluyter, when in control of the
Labadist plantation at Bohemia Manor, employed slave labor without
hesitation and with some harshness.]