That Nathaniel and I may gather oysters without too great labor of
walking and carrying heavy burdens, Captain Smith has bought from the
savages a small boat made of the bark of birch trees, stretched over a
framework of splints, and sewn together with the entrails of deer. On
the seams, and wherever the water might find entrance, it is well gummed
with pitch taken from the pine tree, and withal the lightest craft that
can well be made.
Either Nathaniel or I can take this vessel, which the savages call a
canoe, on our shoulders, carrying it without difficulty, and when the
two of us are inside, resting upon our knees, for we may not sit in
it as in a ship's boat, we can send it along with paddles at a rate so
rapid as to cause one to think it moved by magic.
With this canoe Nathaniel and I may go to the oyster beds, and in half
an hour put on board as large a cargo of shellfish as she will carry,
in addition to our own weight, coming back in a short time with as much
food as would serve a dozen men for two days.
If these oysters could be kept fresh for any length of time, then would
we have a most valuable store near at hand; but, like other fish, a few
hours in the sun serves to spoil them.