A Briefe and True Report of the New Found Land of Virginia – Thomas Hariot

Hariot starts by saying that some of the reports that came out previously had been slanderous. He calls the indigenous the “natural inhabitants”. His report is in “three parts” First, commodities that are already found or raised by planters which can be traded, second the commodities that are natural to the country that are useful for life, and third commodities that are useful for building. So sellable, edible, and buildable. So his “true report” is only about the STUFF that can be used in the country.

First: Sellable

Silk of grass that is easy to sow and plant.

Worm silk – probably easy to grow here by adding mulberry trees.

Flax and hemp – tons here.

Allum – A huge vein of it along the coast (white copper, nitrum)

Wapeih – a kind of earth like terra sigillata, used by surgeons and physicians? From medieval times apparently, it was seen as a proof against poisons.

Pitch, tar, rosin, and turpentine – many trees that have this

Sassafrass – useful for physic

Cedar – good timber and sweet wood

Wine – two kinds of good grapes.

Oil – walnut oil

Furs – lots of otters

Deer skins – lots of deer

Civet cat – native of asia so maybe he meant a skunk?

Iron – found all over

Copper – two towns found with diverse copper plates, and maybe also silver

Pearl – lot of variety of mussels

Sweet gums

Dyes – many different kinds and new to England

Oade and madder – useful for dyers

Sugar cane – it wasn’t preserved well so they couldn’t tell if it would grown. Same with oranges and lemons

Second: Victuals and sustenance

Maize – lots of sweet and mild flavored corn, useful for beer.

Beans – more diverse in color than English beans

Peas

Melons and gourds – several forms and are very good

The ground is very easy to plant, “so much small labor and pain is needed…One many may prepare and husband much ground with less than four and twenty hours of labor, as shall yield him victual in a large proportion for a twelve month”. (page 19)

Tobacco – called “Uppowoc” but called tobacco by Spaniards – The leaves are dried and turned to powder then used to smoke. He writes that it purges the sueperfluous and other gross humors, opens the pores and passages of the body and is seen as being healthy and will prevent many grievous diseases. (Note that this is in the sustenance part, not the sellable part)

He has a section on roots that are useful for ropes or to eat

Then a section on “fruit” included which are chestnuts, walnuts, medlars, grapes, strawberries, mulberries, applecrabs, sacquennummener (?) and a reed that you can eat.

Then beasts, like deer, conies (rabbits/hares), saquennckot and maquowoct (smaller than rabbits—maybe mice/voles/etc?), squirrels, bears, lions, wolves (not good meat), fowls like cockes and hens, partridges, cranes, swans, and geese. Also parrots, falcons, and hawks (not good meat)

Fish: sturgeons, trouts, porpoises, rays, oldwines, mullets, plaice, and many other sorts that have no names. Seacrabs, oysters, muscles, scallops, periwinkles, and crevises, turtles.

Building materials:

Walnots, oaks, firs, rakiock (used to make canoes), cedar,  maple, witch-hazel, holly, willows, beech, ash, elm, sassafras, ascopo (like a laurel), and many others that have no English names.

Stones, bricks, lime

Then he writes about the nature and manners of the people. He writes, “they shall have cause both to fear and love us”. They are “poor” because the “want…skill, judgment in the knowledge and use of our things” and “esteem our trifles before things of greater value”. They have some religion “far from the truth” though they may be reformed.

The temperature is excellent, warmer than England, but not as hot as the tropics.