The Sauk Centre herald. (Sauk Centre, Stearns County, Minn.) 1886-current, 1925-09-10
DESCRIBES j. s.
WONDERS IN 1888
Old Volume, Giving impress
sions of New England 800
Years Ago, Uncovered.

Worcester, Mass.-A quaint volume,
yellowed with age and of great rarity,
giving impressions of New England as
1t was 300 years ago, in the days OF
the Pilgrims, has been uncovered in
The library Of the American Antigua
rian society here.
The volume carries the title of New
Englands Rarities Discovered" and
was the work of John Josselyn of
Kent, England, one of the earliest ar
rivals in New England. He is de-
scribed on the f1yleaf Of the work as
"John Josselyn, Gent"
The old volume bears the press i'm
print Of the Green Dragon, in St.
Pauls Churchyard, London, in 1872.
In it the author, as the title has it,
tells of the birds, beasts, fishes, SER
penis and plants of that country, to-
gether with the physical and chyrur-
gical remedies which the natives con-
stantly use to cure their distempers,
wounds and Sores"
JoSSelyn, a son Sir Thomas jesse
Ign, an aristocrat of Kent, visited New
England in 1888, staying with his
brother at Black Point in the colony
of Massachusetts, "otherwise," as he
puts it, known as Scarborow and
some 100 leagues east of Boston" 1t
was during this visit of one years
duration and a subsequent one thirty
years later that he obtained material
for his New England Rarities."
Boston Handsome Town.
Josselyn found Boston to be "a
town built on the southwest side Of a
bay large enough for the anchorage
of 500 sail of Ships
'It's buildings" he wrote, "are
handsome, joining one to the other as
In London, with many large streets,
most of them paved with pebble
stone.
"The town is not divided into par
fshes, yet they have three fair meet
ing houses, or churches, which hard
ly suffice to receive the inhabitants
and strangers that come in from all
parts"
After telling of the White noun
tains, upon which lyeth snow all the
year and are landmark twenty miles
of at sea-" and Of the country beyond
them, which he thought "daunting ter
rible, being full of rocky hills, as thick
as mole hills in a meadow and
cloathed with infinite thick woods
Josselyn launched into discussion of
birds, beasts, fishes, serpents, insects
and plant life, much of which ap-
peared to amaze him. 7~
Amazed by "Turkie"
Josselyn seemed greatly impressed
with the "turkie," as he called It, "a
fowl blacker than ours" He wrote:
'T have heard several credible per-
sons affirm they have seen turkie-
cocks that weighed forty, yea sixty
pound. But out Of my personal ex-
perimental knowledge can assure you
that have eaten my share of turkie
that, when he was pulled, weighed
thirty pound"
Josselyn once found a white goose
which had three hearts, adding.
"She was very old one and so tuff
we gladly gave her over, although ex-
ceeding well roasted"
In his wanderings Josselyn came
upon bears which walk the country
twenty, thirty, forty in a company,
making hideous noise with roaring
which you may hear for a mile or so
before they come so near as to en-
danger the traveller"
Indians anointed themselves with
the grease from the bearskins, he
wrote, to harden themselves against
cold weather" And he recounted that
one New Englander, who had taken
cold after too copious Hbation Gin a
shallop or fisher-boat and who grew
crooked, lame and full of pain, was
cured by lying one winter upon bear
skins"
Josselyn came upon gayly bedecked
Indian squaws who evidently caught
his artistic eye. He found the Indian
men somewhat horse-faced, and gen.
orally faucious, /. e., without boards
but the squaws, many Of them hand
some, dressed in colors and were gen.
orally plump as cartridges"