One
Of The Early Writers (Higginson) Mentions The Abundance Of Oil (From
Fish) Available For Lamps, But All Tallow And Suet Used By The Early
Colonists Was, For Some Years (Till Cattle Became Plentiful),
Necessarily Imported.
Some of the "candle-snuffers" of the "first
comers" doubtless still remain.
We may be sure every family had its
candles, "betty-lamps," candlesticks, and "snuffers." "Lanthorns" were
of the primitive, perforated tin variety - only "serving to make darkness
visible" now found in a few old attics in Pilgrim towns, and on the
"bull-carts" of the peons of Porto Rico, by night. Fire, for any
purpose, was chiefly procured by the use of flint, steel, and tinder, of
which many very early specimens exist. Buckets, tubs, and pails were,
beyond question, numerous aboard the ship, and were among the most
essential and highly valued of Pilgrim utensils. Most, if not all of
them, we may confidently assert, were brought into requisition on that
Monday "wash-day" at Cape Cod, the first week-day after their arrival,
when the women went ashore to do their long-neglected laundrying, in the
comparatively fresh water of the beach pond at Cape Cod harbor. They
are frequently named in the earliest inventories. Bradford also
mentions the filling of a "runlet" with water at the Cape. The
"steel-yards" and "measures" were the only determiners of weight and
quantity - as the hour-glass and sun dial were of time - possessed at
first (so far as appears) by the passengers of the Pilgrim ship, though
it is barely possible that a Dutch clock or two may have been among the
possessions of the wealthiest.
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