Wood' States That The "Beef" Of The Pilgrims Was "Tainted."
In Some Way It Was Made The Basis Of A Reputedly Palatable Preparation
Called "Spiced Beef," Mentioned As Prepared By One Of The Sailors For A
Shipmate Dying On The MAY-FLOWER In Plymouth Harbor.
It must have been a
very different article from that we now find so acceptable under that
name in England.
Winthrop' gives the price of his beef at "19 shillings
per cwt." Winslow advises his friend Morton, in the letter so often
quoted, not to have his beef "dry-salted," saying, "none can do it
better than the sailors," which is a suggestion not readily understood.
"Smoked" beef was practically the same as that known as "jerked,"
"smoked," or "dried" beef in America. A "dried neat's-tongue" is named
as a contribution of the Pilgrims to the dinner for Captain Jones and
his men on February 21, 1621, when they had helped to draw up and mount
the cannon upon the platform on the hill at Plymouth. Winthrop paid
"14d. a piece" for his "neats' tongues." The pork of the Pilgrims is
also said by Wood' to have been "tainted." Winthrop states that his
pork cost "20 pence the stone" (14 lbs.).
Hams seem to have been then, as now, a highly-prized article of diet.
Goodwin mentions that the salt used by the Pilgrims was (evaporated)
"sea-salt" and very "impure." Winthrop mentions among his supplies,
"White, Spanish, and Bay salt."
The beans of the Pilgrims were probably of the variety then known as
"Spanish beans." The cabbages were apparently boiled with meat, as
nowadays, and also used considerably for "sour-krout" and for pickling,
with which the Leyden people had doubtless become familiar during their
residence among the Dutch. As anti-scorbutics they were of much value.
The same was true of onions, whether pickled, salted, raw, or boiled.
Turnips and parsnips find frequent mention in the early literature of the
first settlers, and were among their stock vegetables. Pease were
evidently staple articles of food with the Plymouth people, and are
frequently named. They probably were chiefly used for porridge and
puddings, and were used in large quantities, both afloat and ashore.
Vinegar in hogsheads was named on the food-list of every ship of the
Pilgrim era. It was one of their best antiscorbutics, and was of course
a prime factor in their use of "sour krout," pickling, etc. The fruits,
natural, dried, and preserved, were probably, in that day, in rather
small supply. Apples, limes, lemons, prunes, olives, rice, etc., were
among the luxuries of a voyage, while dried or preserved fruits and small
fruits were not yet in common use. Winslow, in the letter cited, urges
that "your casks for beer . . . be iron bound, at least for the first
[end] tyre" [hoop]. Cushman states that they had ample supplies of beer
offered them both in Kent and Amsterdam. The planters' supply seems to
have failed, however, soon after the company landed, and they were
obliged to rely upon the whim of the Captain of the MAY-FLOWER for their
needs, the ship's supply being apparently separate from that of the
planters, and lasting longer. Winthrop's supply seems to have been large
("42 tons" - probably tuns intended). It was evidently a stipulation of
the charter-party that the ship should, in part at least, provision her
crew for the voyage, - certainly furnish their beer. This is rendered
certain by Bradford's difficulty (as stated by himself) with Captain
Jones, previously referred to, showing that the ship had her own supply
of beer, separate from that of the colonists, and that it was intended
for the seamen as well as the officers.
Bradford mentions "aqua vitae" as a constituent of their lunch on the
exploring party of November 15. "Strong waters" (or Holland gin) are
mentioned as a part of the entertainment given Massasoit on his first
visit, and they find frequent mention otherwise. Wine finds no mention.
Bradford states in terms: "Neither ever had they any supply of foode from
them [the Adventurers] but what they first brought with them;" and again,
"They never had any supply of vitales more afterwards (but what the Lord
gave them otherwise), for all ye company [the Adventurers] sent at any
time was allways too short for those people yt came with it."
The clothing supplies of the Pilgrims included hats, caps, shirts,
neck-cloths, jerkins, doublets, waistcoats, breeches (stuff and leather),
"hosen," stockings, shoes, boots, belts (girdles), cloth, piece-goods
(dress-stuff's), "haberdasherie," etc., etc., all of which, with minor
items for men's and women's use, find mention in their early narratives,
accounts, and correspondence. By the will of Mr. Mullens it appears that
he had twenty-one dozen of shoes and thirteen pairs of boots on board,
doubtless intended as medium of exchange or barter. By the terms of the.
contract with the colonists, the Merchant Adventurers were to supply all
their actual necessities of Clothing food, clothing, etc., for the full
term of seven years, during which the labors of the "planters" were to be
for the joint account. Whether under this agreement they were bound to
fully "outfit" the colonists before they embarked (and did so), as was
done by Higginson's company coming to Salem in 1628-29 at considerable
cost per capita, and as was done for those of the Leyden people who came
over in 1629 with Pierce in the MAY-FLOWER and the TALBOT to Salem, and
again in 1630 with the same Master (Pierce) in the LION by the Plymouth
successors to the Adventurers (without recompense), does not clearly
appear. No mention is found of any "outfitting" of the MAY-FLOWER
passengers except the London apprentices. There is no doubt that a
considerable supply of all the above-named articles was necessarily sent
by the Adventurers on the MAY-FLOWER, both for the Pilgrims' needs on the
voyage and in the new colony, as also for trading purposes.
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