On the seams, and wherever the water might find entrance,
it is well gummed with pitch taken from the pine tree, and withal
the lightest craft that can well be made.
Either Nathaniel or I can take this vessel, which the savages call a
canoe, on our shoulders, carrying it without difficulty, and when
the two of us are inside, resting upon our knees, for we may not
sit in it as in a ship's boat, we can send it along with paddles
at a rate so rapid as to cause one to think it moved by magic.
With this canoe Nathaniel and I may go to the oyster beds, and in
half an hour put on board as large a cargo of shellfish as she will
carry, in addition to our own weight, coming back in a short time
with as much food as would serve a dozen men for two days.
If these oysters could be kept fresh for any length of time, then
would we have a most valuable store near at hand; but, like other
fish, a few hours in the sun serves to spoil them.
PREPARING STURGEON FOR FOOD
Of the fish called the sturgeon, we have more than can be consumed
by all our company; but one cannot endure the flavor day after day,
and therefore is it that we use it for food only when we cannot
get any other.
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