,
and entertained us exceedingly well. We found a good fire, half-way up
the chimney, of clear oak and hickory, which they made not the least
scruple of burning profusely. We let it penetrate us thoroughly. There
had been already thrown upon it, to be roasted, a pail-full of Gouanes
oysters, which are the best in the country. They are fully as good as
those of England, and better than those we ate at Falmouth. I had to
try some of them raw. They are large and full, some of them not less
than a foot long, and they grow sometimes ten, twelve and sixteen
together, and are then like a piece of rock. Others are young and
small. In consequence of the great quantities of them, everybody keeps
the shells for the purpose of burning them into lime. They pickle the
oysters in small casks, and send them to Barbados and the other
islands. We had for supper a roasted haunch of venison, which he had
bought of the Indians for three guilders and a half of _seewant_, that
is, fifteen stivers of Dutch money,[117] and which weighed thirty
pounds. The meat was exceedingly tender and good, and also quite fat.
It had a slight spicy flavor. We were also served with wild turkey,
which was also fat and of a good flavor; and a wild goose, but that
was rather dry. Everything we had was the natural production of the
country. We saw here, lying in a heap, a whole hill of water-melons,
which were as large as pumpkins, and which Symon was going to take to
the city to sell. They were very good, though there is a difference
between them and those of the Caribbee Islands; but this may be owing
to its being late in the season, and these were the last pulling. It
was very late at night when we went to rest in a kermis bed, as it is
called,[118] in the corner of the hearth, along side of a good fire.

[Footnote 116: This settler was Simon Aertsen De Hart, who came to New
Netherland in 1664 and settled at Gowanus Cove. The house in which he
entertained the travellers was till lately still standing, near
Thirty-ninth Street, west of Third Avenue, Brooklyn, but was destroyed
to make room for the terminal buildings of the Thirty-ninth Street
ferry. A picture of it as it appeared in 1867 is plate XII. in Mr.
Murphy's edition of this journal.]

[Footnote 117: Thirty cents.]

[Footnote 118: Shake-down, bed on the floor.]

_30th, Saturday._ Early this morning the husband and wife set off for
the city with their marketing; and we, having explored the land in the