As For Their Rural Improvements,
They Are Many, But All Of The Most Simple And Useful Kind.
The island of Nantucket lies in latitude 41 degrees 10 minutes.
60
miles S. from Cape Cod; 27 S. from Hyanes or Barnstable, a town on
the most contiguous part of the great peninsula; 21 miles E. by S.
from Cape Pog, on the vineyard; 50 E. by S. from Wood's Hole, on
Elizabeth Island; 80 miles S. from Boston; 120 from Rhode Island;
800 N. from Bermudas. Sherborn is the only town on the island, which
consists of about 530 houses, that have been framed on the main;
they are lathed and plastered within, handsomely painted and boarded
without; each has a cellar underneath, built with stones fetched
also from the main: they are all of a similar construction and
appearance; plain, and entirely devoid of exterior or interior
ornament. I observed but one which was built of bricks, belonging to
Mr. - - , but like the rest it is unadorned. The town stands on a
rising sandbank, on the west side of the harbour, which is very safe
from all winds. There are two places of worship, one for the society
of Friends, the other for that of Presbyterians; and in the middle
of the town, near the market-place, stands a simple building, which
is the county court-house. The town regularly ascends toward the
country, and in its vicinage they have several small fields and
gardens yearly manured with the dung of their cows, and the soil of
their streets. There are a good many cherry and peach trees planted
in their streets and in many other places; the apple tree does not
thrive well, they have therefore planted but few. The island
contains no mountains, yet is very uneven, and the many rising
grounds and eminences with which it is filled, have formed in the
several valleys a great variety of swamps, where the Indian grass
and the blue bent, peculiar to such soils, grow with tolerable
luxuriancy. Some of the swamps abound with peat, which serves the
poor instead of firewood. There are fourteen ponds on this island,
all extremely useful, some lying transversely, almost across it,
which greatly helps to divide it into partitions for the use of
their cattle; others abound with peculiar fish and sea fowls. Their
streets are not paved, but this is attended with little
inconvenience, as it is never crowded with country carriages; and
those they have in the town are seldom made use of but in the time
of the coming in and before the sailing of their fleets. At my first
landing I was much surprised at the disagreeable smell which struck
me in many parts of the town; it is caused by the whale oil, and is
unavoidable; the neatness peculiar to these people can neither
remove nor prevent it. There are near the wharfs a great many
storehouses, where their staple commodity is deposited, as well as
the innumerable materials which are always wanted to repair and fit
out so many whalemen.
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