Not onely serue the ordinary turnes of you which are and
shall bee the platers and inhabitants, but such an ouerplus sufficiently
to bee yelded, or by men of skill to bee prouided, as by way of
trafficke and exchaunge with our owne nation of England, will enrich
your selues the prouiders; those that shal deal with you; the
enterprisers in general; and greatly profit our owne countrey men, to
supply them with most things which heretofore they haue bene faine to
prouide, either of strangers or of our enemies: which commodities for
distinction sake, I call 'Merchantable'.
In the second, I will set downe all the comodities which wee know the
countrey by our experience doeth yeld of its selfe for victuall, and
sustenance of mans life; such as is vsually fed vpon by the inhabitants
of the countrey, as also by vs during the time we were there.
In the last part I will make mention generally of such other comodities
besides, as I am able to remember, and as I shall thinke behoofull for
those that shall inhabite, and plant there to knowe of; which specially
concerne building, as also some other necessary vses: with a briefe
description of the nature and maners of the people of the countrey.
THE FIRST PART,
OF MARCHAN-
TABLE COMMO-
DITIES.
'Silke of grasse or grasse Silke.'
THere is a kind of grasse in the countrey vppon the blades where of
there groweth very good silke in forme of a thin glittering skin to bee
stript of. It groweth two foote and a halfe high or better: the blades
are about two foot in length, and half inch broad. The like groweth in
Persia, which is in the selfe same climate as Virginia, of which very
many of the silke workes that come from thence into Europe are made.
Here of if it be planted and ordered as in Persia, it cannot in reason
be otherwise, but that there will rise in shorte time great profite to
the dealers therein; seeing there is so great vse and vent thereof as
well in our countrey as els where. And by the meanes of sowing & plating
in good ground, it will be farre greater, better, and more plentifull
then it is. Although notwithstanding there is great store thereof in
many places of the countrey growing naturally and wilde. Which also by
proof here in England, in making a piece of silke Grogran, we found to
be excellent good.
'Worme Silke.'
In manie of our iourneyes we found silke wormes fayre and great; as
bigge as our ordinary walnuttes. Although it hath not beene our happe to
haue found such plentie as elsew here to be in the coutrey we haue heard
of; yet seeing that the countrey doth naturally breede and nourish them,
there is no doubt but if art be added in plantig of mulbery trees and
others fitte for them in commodious places, for their feeding and
nourishing; and some of them carefully gathered and husbanded in that
sort as by men of skill is knowne to be necessarie:
