NARRATIVE HISTORY AMOUNTS TO FABULATION, THE REAL STUFF BEING MERE CHRONOLOGY

Transcription

1 PEOPLE MENTIONED IN CAPE COD: NARRATIVE HISTORY AMOUNTS TO FABULATION, THE REAL STUFF BEING MERE CHRONOLOGY CAPE COD: The Jamestown weed (or thorn-apple). This, being an early plant, was gathered very young for a boiled salad, by some of the soldiers sent thither [i.e. to Virginia] to quell the rebellion of Bacon; and some of them ate plentifully of it, the effect of which was a very pleasant comedy, for they turned natural fools upon it for several days: one would blow up a feather in the air; another would dart straws at it with much fury; and another, stark naked, was sitting up in a corner like a monkey, grinning and making mows at them; a fourth would fondly kiss and paw his companions, and sneer in their faces, with a countenance more antic than any in a Dutch droll. In this frantic condition they were confined, lest they should, in their folly, destroy themselves, though it was observed that all their actions were full of innocence and good nature. Indeed, they were not very cleanly. A thousand such simple tricks they played, and after eleven days returned to themselves again, not remembering anything that had passed. Beverley s History of Virginia, p PEOPLE OF CAPE COD BEVERLEY

2 CAPE COD: Our way to the high sand-bank, which I have described as extending all along the coast, led, as usual, through patches of Bayberry bushes, which straggled into the sand. This, next to the Shrub-oak, was perhaps the most common shrub thereabouts. I was much attracted by its odoriferous leaves and small gray berries which are clustered about the short twigs, just below the last year s growth. I know of but two bushes in Concord, and they, being staminate plants, do not bear fruit. The berries gave it a venerable appearance, and they smelled quite spicy, like small confectionery. Robert Beverley, in his History of Virginia, published in 1705, states that at the mouth of their rivers, and all along upon the sea and bay, and near many of their creeks and swamps, grows the myrtle, bearing a berry, of which they make a hard brittle wax, of a curious green color, which by refining becomes almost transparent. Of this they make candles, which are never greasy to the touch nor melt with lying in the hottest weather; neither does the snuff of these ever offend the smell, like that of a tallow candle; but, instead of being disagreeable, if an accident puts a candle out, it yields a pleasant fragrancy to all that are in the room; insomuch that nice people often put them out on purpose to have the incense of the expiring snuff. The melting of these berries is said to have been first found out by a surgeon in New England, who performed wonderful things with a salve made of them. From the abundance of berries still hanging on the bushes, we judged that the inhabitants did not generally collect them for tallow, though we had seen a piece in the house we had just left. I have since made some tallow myself. Holding a basket beneath the bare twigs in April, I rubbed them together between my hands and thus gathered about a quart in twenty minutes, to which were added enough to make three pints, and I might have gathered them much faster with a suitable rake and a large shallow basket. They have little prominences like those of an orange all encased in tallow, which also fills the interstices down to the stone. The oily part rose to the top, making it look like a savory black broth, which smelled much like balm or other herb tea. You let it cool, then skim off the tallow from the surface, melt this again and strain it. I got about a quarter of a pound weight from my three pints, and more yet remained within the berries. A small portion cooled in the form of small flattish hemispheres, like crystallizations, the size of a kernel of corn (nuggets I called them as I picked them out from amid the berries). Loudon says, that cultivated trees are said to yield more wax than those that are found wild. (See Duplessy, Végétaux Résineux, Vol. II. p. 60.) If you get any pitch on your hands in the pine-woods you have only to rub some of these berries between your hands to start it off. But the ocean was the grand fact there, which made us forget both bayberries and men. PEOPLE OF CAPE COD BEVERLEY DUPLESSY

3 1616 June 2, Sunday (Old Style): Sir Thomas Dale arrived in London, leaving Virginia in hands of Captain George Yeardly. During Governor Dale s administration of the Virginia colony, the English had conducted a program of raids on Powhattan villages. In the course of one such excursion, the Indians seem to have enticed Dale and a few of his men to join them in a dose of an hallucinogen, perhaps Datura stramonium, the alkali-bearing plant which the settlers called thornapple or Jamestown or Jimson weed. Percy reported: Sr Tho: Dale makeinge more invasyons & excursions upon the Salvages had many conflicts wth them and one thinge amongste the reste was very remarkable The wch may be supposed to have bene ocasyoned by the Salvages Sorceries and Charmes for Sr Thomas Dale wth Some of the better sorte sitteinge in An Indyans howse A fantasy possessed them thatt they impagined the Salvages were sett upon them eache man Takeinge one another for an Indyan And so did fall pell mell one upon an other beatinge one another downe and breakeinge one of Anothers heades, thatt Mutche miscgiefe mighte have been donn butt thatt itt pleased god the fantasy was taken away wherby they had bene deluded and every man understood his error. DOPERS CAPE COD: The Jamestown weed (or thorn-apple). This, being an early plant, was gathered very young for a boiled salad, by some of the soldiers sent thither [i.e. to Virginia] to quell the rebellion of Bacon; and some of them ate plentifully of it, the effect of which was a very pleasant comedy, for they turned natural fools upon it for several days: one would blow up a feather in the air; another would dart straws at it with much fury; and another, stark naked, was sitting up in a corner like a monkey, grinning and making mows at them; a fourth would fondly kiss and paw his companions, and sneer in their faces, with a countenance more antic than any in a Dutch droll. In this frantic condition they were confined, lest they should, in their folly, destroy themselves, though it was observed that all their actions were full of innocence and good nature. Indeed, they were not very cleanly. A thousand such simple tricks they played, and after eleven days returned to themselves again, not remembering anything that had passed. Beverley s History of Virginia, p PEOPLE OF CAPE COD BEVERLEY

4 1667 Although the exact date of his birth is unknown, it would appear that Robert Beverley, Jr. was born either during this year or the following one, most likely in Middlesex County, Virginia, the eldest child of Major Robert Beverley ( ) with his 2d wife, Mary Keeble Beverley. NOBODY COULD GUESS WHAT WOULD HAPPEN NEXT Robert Beverley, Jr. Stack of the Artist of Kouroo Project

5 1676 During the Bacon s Rebellion of 1675/1676, Major Robert Beverley, Sr. was an ally of Royal Governor Sir William Berkeley. Afterward he would become controversial clerk of the House of Burgesses. Back in 1616, sixty years before, during Governor Dale s administration of the Virginia colony, some natives seem to have enticed Dale and a few of his men to join them in a dose of an hallucinogen, perhaps Datura stramonium, the alkali-bearing plant which the settlers called thornapple or Jamestown or Jimson weed, with the most emphatic result. In this year a group of soldiers sent out to combat Bacon s Rebellion prepared a salad for themselves, mistakenly including some leaves of this plant and there was another such episode of delusion. The British turn d fool and it required fully eleven days for them to recover. PLANTS CAPE COD: The Jamestown weed (or thorn-apple). This, being an early plant, was gathered very young for a boiled salad, by some of the soldiers sent thither [i.e. to Virginia] to quell the rebellion of Bacon; and some of them ate plentifully of it, the effect of which was a very pleasant comedy, for they turned natural fools upon it for several days: one would blow up a feather in the air; another would dart straws at it with much fury; and another, stark naked, was sitting up in a corner like a monkey, grinning and making mows at them; a fourth would fondly kiss and paw his companions, and sneer in their faces, with a countenance more antic than any in a Dutch droll. In this frantic condition they were confined, lest they should, in their folly, destroy themselves, though it was observed that all their actions were full of innocence and good nature. Indeed, they were not very cleanly. A thousand such simple tricks they played, and after eleven days returned to themselves again, not remembering anything that had passed. Beverley s History of Virginia, p PEOPLE OF CAPE COD BEVERLEY LIFE IS LIVED FORWARD BUT UNDERSTOOD BACKWARD? NO, THAT S GIVING TOO MUCH TO THE HISTORIAN S STORIES. LIFE ISN T TO BE UNDERSTOOD EITHER FORWARD OR BACKWARD. Stack of the Artist of Kouroo Project Robert Beverley, Jr.

6 1682 Tobacco yards were to be seen at this point in Ipswich, and this would continue until 1783, scarcely any tobacco being imported to the region. Local use of tobacco would continue into the new century before resistance would begin to arise: Many families would have their spots of land for cultivating it, and their mode of twisting it, and curing it with molasses and rum so as to render it more palatable. Segars were very little used till after the peace of Independence. Pipes and a large box of tobacco for smoking were in daily and extensive use. They were considered, till within thirty years, as essential for the entertainment of company, as the chibouque and its apparatus are in Turkey. It is matter of consolation, that tobacco, though consumed much more than either cleanliness, comfort, health, or temperance justifies, has begun to loose its hold on the vitiated appetite of thousands, and that there is some prospect of its going down to the deep degradation of intoxicating liquors. Had the liquid, which the affrighted servant of Raleigh threw upon him, so effectually quenched his zeal for rendering tobacco fashionable, as it fully drenched his smoking head, and thus no imitators of this noble lord been found, a vast amount of evil would have been prevented in the civilized world. When Virginia s Middle Peninsula malcontents destroyed their fields of planted tobacco and also the fields of neighboring farmers in what was known as the plant-cutter riots, because of low wholesale prices prices that were low due to overproduction the vengeance of the government fell heavily on Major Robert Beverley, Sr., who it seems because of some loose talk while intoxicated was being blamed as the principal instigator of these disturbances. Beverley would be jailed for this loose talk and would lose all his positions. Indeed, the Virginia legislature would in 1684 classify such destructive of growing crops as a capital crime. CAPITAL PUNISHMENT THE FUTURE IS MOST READILY PREDICTED IN RETROSPECT Stack of the Artist of Kouroo Project Robert Beverley, Jr.

7 1687 Major Robert Beverley, Sr. died leaving a Virginia estate of some 50,000 acres and 42 slaves. THE FUTURE CAN BE EASILY PREDICTED IN RETROSPECT Stack of the Artist of Kouroo Project Robert Beverley, Jr.

8 1690 After an English education followed by a return to Virginia, Robert Beverley, Jr. settled in Jamestown where his brother Peter Beverley was a clerk, and enrolled himself a volunteer scrivener. Eventually he would come into an inheritance of 6,000 acres in King and Queen County on the Mattaponi River.

9 1692 Robert Beverley, Jr. was appointed to the clerkship of the new county of King and Queen.

10 1697 Robert Beverley, Jr. got married with Ursula Byrd,16-year-old daughter of William Byrd I. Within a year she would die in giving birth to a son William Beverley.

11 1698 October 20, Thursday (Old Style): When fire destroyed the statehouse in Jamestown, Robert Beverley, Jr. and his brother Peter Beverley salvaged the surviving public papers.

12 1699 Robert Beverley, Jr. won election to the 1st of his four terms as burgess for Jamestown.

13 1700 In about this year Robert Beverley, Jr. acquired property in Elizabeth City, including a patent for Point Comfort Island.

14 1701 AN ESSAY UPON THE GOVERNMENT OF THE ENGLISH PLANTATIONS ON THE CONTINENT OF AMERICA (attributed to Robert Beverley, Jr.).

15 1703 March: Robert Beverley, Jr. became clerk of the House of Burgesses. During this month John Evelyn entered in his diary: March 8 (Old Style): The 8th of this moneth, going out to Brompton parke to take the aire after my late Indisposition In walking in one of the Alleys, I hapned to stumble on a short stake left in the ground, which breaking my shin, kept me [in] greate paine, as yet it dos, remaining unhealed: & denying me to go to church this [14] being the 5t Sonday in Lent, to my grate sorrow: I beseech God to be mercifull to & heale me:... Summer: After losing a case in Virginia court in regard to a property dispute, and in addition losing a legal appeal of the decision, Robert Beverley, Jr. sailed to England to continue his appeal. (Again he would lose.)

16 1705 Bath, the first town in North Carolina, was begun. While in England, Robert Beverley, Jr. authored THE HISTORY AND PRESENT STATE OF VIRGINIA, the first published history of a British Colony by a native of North America. He also wrecked his political career by writing from England a series of scandalous letters about affairs in Virginia. Governor Francis Nicholson wrote, for instance: As to Mr. Beverley s letter and narrative, they are part false, part scandalous, & part Malitious, but I could not expect otherwise from a man of his universal ill character. After publication of h is history volume, the illustrations of which were knockoffs of previously published illustrations rather than being based upon any personal knowledge either of the author or the illustrator, he returned to Virginia. READ THE 1855 REPRINT

17

18 1715 When John Fontaine visited Robert Beverley, Jr. at his residence, near the head of the Mattapony, (the Mattaponi River), what he discovered was that Here he cultivated several varieties of the grape, native and French, in a vineyard of about three acres, situated upon the side of a hill, from which he made in that year four hundred gallons of wine. He noted that Beverley had nothing in or about his house but what was actually necessary, he had good beds, but no curtains, and instead of cane chairs used wooden stools. He lived mainly within himself upon the products of his land.

19 1716 Robert Beverley, Jr. befriended Governor Alexander Spotswood and probably was one of the one of the Knights of the Golden Horseshoe who accompanied him on his exploratory journey to the crest of the Blue Ridge Mountains.

20 1722 AN ABRIDGEMENT OF THE PUBLIC LAWS OF VIRGINIA (attributed to Robert Beverley, Jr.). Early in this year he prepared, also, and sent off to England for publication, a politic revision to his THE HISTORY AND PRESENT STATE OF VIRGINIA. READ THE 1855 REPRINT April 22, Sunday (Old Style): Robert Beverley, Jr. died in King and Queen County, Virginia.

21 1857 January 26, Monday: Having already perused the volumes for the years , Henry Thoreau checked out, from Harvard Library, the JESUIT RELATION volumes numbered 11 through He also checked out the four volumes of Robert Beverley, Jr. s HISTORY OF THE PRESENT STATE OF VIRGINIA (London, 1705; a new edition had been printed in Richmond, Virginia in 1855), which means that he was lugging perhaps 20 volumes back to Concord (the JESUIT RELATION volumes are not that large; although he needed to go from the library just off the Yard all the way to Porter Square, almost ¾ mile, walking this was elective as there were horse-drawn omnibuses). 1. Thoreau presumably read each and every volume of the JESUIT RELATIONS that was available in the stacks at the Harvard Library. We know due to extensive extracts in his Indian Notebooks #7 and #8 that between 1852 and 1857 he did withdraw or consult all the volumes for the years between 1633 and Thoreau took notes in particular in regard to the reports by Father Jean de Brébeuf, Father Jacques Buteux, Father Claude Dablon, Father Jérôme Lallemant, Father Paul Le Jeune, Father François Le Mercier, Father Julien Perrault, Father Jean de Quens, Father Paul Ragueneau, and Father Barthélemy Vimont. Cramoisy, Sebastian (ed.). RELATION DE CE QUI S EST PASSÉ EN LA NOUVELLE FRANCE IN L ANNÉE 1636: ENVOYÉE AU R. PERE PROVINCIAL DE LA COMPAGNIE DE JESUS EN LA PROVINCE DE FRANCE, PAR LE P. PAUL LE JEUNE DE LA MESME COMPAGNIE, SUPERIEUR DE LA RESIDENCE DE KÉBEC. A Paris: Chez Sebastian Cramoisy..., 1637 Rache, Pierre de (ed.). RELATION DE CE QUI S'EST PASSÉ EN LA MISSION DES PERES DE LA COMPAGNIE DE JESUS AUX HURONS, PAYS DE LA NOUVELLE FRANCE, ÉS ANNÉES 1648 & 1649 : ENVOYÉE AU R.P. HIEROSME LALEMANT, SUPERIEUR DES MISSIONS DE LA COMPAGNIE DE JESUS, EN LA NOUVELLE FRANCE. A Lille: De l'imprimerie de la Vefue de Pierre de Rache..., 1650

22 He would copy from this work by Beverley into his Fact Book and into his Indian Notebook #8.

23 Two references to Beverley, one of them a footnote, 2 would appear in CAPE COD. READ THE 1855 REPRINT

24 January 26. Another cold morning. None looked early, but about eight it was -14. A. M. At Cambridge and Boston. Saw Boston Harbor frozen over (for some time). Reminded me of, I think, Parry s Winter Harbor, with vessels frozen in. Saw thousands on the ice, a stream of men reaching down to Fort Independence, where they were cutting a channel toward the city. Ice said to reach fourteen miles. Snow untracked on many decks. [Ice did not finally go out till about Feb. 15th.] At 10 P. M., The Jamestown weed (or thorn-apple). This, being an early plant, was gathered very young for a boiled salad, by some of the soldiers sent thither [i.e. to Virginia] to quell the rebellion of Bacon; and some of them ate plentifully of it, the effect of which was a very pleasant comedy, for they turned natural fools upon it for several days: one would blow up a feather in the air; another would dart straws at it with much fury; and another, stark naked, was sitting up in a corner like a monkey, grinning and making mows at them; a fourth would fondly kiss and paw his companions, and sneer in their faces, with a countenance more antic than any in a Dutch droll. In this frantic condition they were confined, lest they should, in their folly, destroy themselves, though it was observed that all their actions were full of innocence and good nature. Indeed, they were not very cleanly. A thousand such simple tricks they played, and after eleven days returned to themselves again, not remembering anything that had passed. Beverley s History of Virginia, p. 121.

25

26 CAPE COD: Our way to the high sand-bank, which I have described as extending all along the coast, led, as usual, through patches of Bayberry bushes, which straggled into the sand. This, next to the Shrub-oak, was perhaps the most common shrub thereabouts. I was much attracted by its odoriferous leaves and small gray berries which are clustered about the short twigs, just below the last year s growth. I know of but two bushes in Concord, and they, being staminate plants, do not bear fruit. The berries gave it a venerable appearance, and they smelled quite spicy, like small confectionery. Robert Beverley, in his History of Virginia, published in 1705, states that at the mouth of their rivers, and all along upon the sea and bay, and near many of their creeks and swamps, grows the myrtle, bearing a berry, of which they make a hard brittle wax, of a curious green color, which by refining becomes almost transparent. Of this they make candles, which are never greasy to the touch nor melt with lying in the hottest weather; neither does the snuff of these ever offend the smell, like that of a tallow candle; but, instead of being disagreeable, if an accident puts a candle out, it yields a pleasant fragrancy to all that are in the room; insomuch that nice people often put them out on purpose to have the incense of the expiring snuff. The melting of these berries is said to have been first found out by a surgeon in New England, who performed wonderful things with a salve made of them. From the abundance of berries still hanging on the bushes, we judged that the inhabitants did not generally collect them for tallow, though we had seen a piece in the house we had just left. I have since made some tallow myself. Holding a basket beneath the bare twigs in April, I rubbed them together between my hands and thus gathered about a quart in twenty minutes, to which were added enough to make three pints, and I might have gathered them much faster with a suitable rake and a large shallow basket. They have little prominences like those of an orange all encased in tallow, which also fills the interstices down to the stone. The oily part rose to the top, making it look like a savory black broth, which smelled much like balm or other herb tea. You let it cool, then skim off the tallow from the surface, melt this again and strain it. I got about a quarter of a pound weight from my three pints, and more yet remained within the berries. A small portion cooled in the form of small flattish hemispheres, like crystallizations, the size of a kernel of corn (nuggets I called them as I picked them out from amid the berries). Loudon says, that cultivated trees are said to yield more wax than those that are found wild. (See Duplessy, Végétaux Résineux, Vol. II. p. 60.) If you get any pitch on your hands in the pine-woods you have only to rub some of these berries between your hands to start it off. But the ocean was the grand fact there, which made us forget both bayberries and men. PEOPLE OF CAPE COD February 20, Friday: James Buchanan was suffering from dysentery, and since he was due to be inaugurated as President on March 4th, he wrote to Jefferson Davis to decline an invitation to dinner. He explained that just now he needed to live with great caution.

27 BEVERLEY this morning the ground is once more covered about one inch deep. Minott says that the house he now lives in was framed and set up by Captain Isaac Hoar just beyond the old house by Moore s, this side the one he was born in, his mother s (?) house (whose well is that buried by Alcott on the sidewalk), and there the frame stood several years, Hoar having gone off, he thinks, to Westminster. (M. helped a man take down its chimney when he was a boy; it was very old, laid in clay.) He was quite a lad and used to climb up on the frame and, with a teaspoon, take the eggs of the house wren out of the mortiseholes. At last his grandfather, Dr. Abel Prescott, an eminent physitian, bought it and moved it to where it now stands, and died in [it] in 1805, aged eighty-eight (born 1717). Said he died exactly where I sat, and the bed stood so and so, north and south from the clock. This Dr. Prescott had once probably lived with his nephew Willoughby Prescott, where Loring s is. After, when married, lived in the old rough-cast house near the poorhouse where Minott s mother was born. It was Dr. Abel P. s son Abel (Minott s uncle) who rode into Concord before the British. Minott s father was rich, and died early in the army, Aunt says. Minott always sits in the corner behind the door, close to the stove, with commonly the cat by his side, often in his lap. Often he sits with his hat on. He says that Frank Buttrick (who for a great many years worked at carpentering for John Richardson, and was working for him when he died) told him that Richardson called him when he was at the point of death and told him that he need not stop working on account of his death, but he might come in to the prayer if he wished to. R. is spoken of as a strong and resolute man. I wish that there was in every town, in some place accessible to the traveller, instead [of] or beside the common directories, etc., a list of the worthies of the town, i.e. of those who are worth seeing. Miss Minott has several old pieces of furniture that belonged to her grandfather Prescott, one a desk made for him and marked She said the looking-glass was held oldest furniture, she thought. It has the name John scratched on the middle by a madcap named John Bulkley from college, who had got so far with a diamond before he was stopped. Beverley, after describing the various kinds of fowl that frequented the shores of Virginia, not to mention beavers, otters, music rats, minxes, etc., etc., says, Although the inner 1ands want these benefits (which, however, no pond or plash is without), etc. I admire the offhand way of describing the superfluous fertility of the land and water. What is the relation between a bird and the ear that appreciates its melody, to whom, perchance, it is more charming and significant than to any else? Certainly they are intimately related, and the one was made for the other. It is a natural fact. If I were to discover that a certain kind of stone by the pond-shore was affected, say partially disintegrated, by a particular natural sound, as of a bird or insect, I see that one could not be completely described without describing the other. I am that rock by the pond-side. What is hope, what is expectation, but a seed-time whose harvest cannot fail, an irresistible expedition of the mind, at length to be victorious? CAT MAGISTERIAL HISTORY IS FANTASIZING, HISTORY IS CHRONOLOGY Stack of the Artist of Kouroo Project Robert Beverley, Jr.

28 COPYRIGHT NOTICE: In addition to the property of others, such as extensive quotations and reproductions of images, this read-only computer file contains a great deal of special work product of Austin Meredith, copyright Access to these interim materials will eventually be offered for a fee in order to recoup some of the costs of preparation. My hypercontext button invention which, instead of creating a hypertext leap through hyperspace resulting in navigation problems allows for an utter alteration of the context within which one is experiencing a specific content already being viewed, is claimed as proprietary to Austin Meredith and therefore freely available for use by all. Limited permission to copy such files, or any material from such files, must be obtained in advance in writing from the Stack of the Artist of Kouroo Project, 833 Berkeley St., Durham NC Please contact the project at <Kouroo@kouroo.info>. It s all now you see. Yesterday won t be over until tomorrow and tomorrow began ten thousand years ago. Remark by character Garin Stevens in William Faulkner s INTRUDER IN THE DUST Prepared: May 27, 2014

29 ARRGH AUTOMATED RESEARCH REPORT GENERATION HOTLINE This stuff presumably looks to you as if it were generated by a human. Such is not the case. Instead, someone has requested that we pull it out of the hat of a pirate who has grown out of the shoulder of our pet parrot Laura (as above). What these chronological lists are: they are research reports compiled by ARRGH algorithms out of a database of modules which we term the Kouroo Contexture (this is data mining). To respond to such a request for information we merely push a button.

30 Commonly, the first output of the algorithm has obvious deficiencies and we need to go back into the modules stored in the contexture and do a minor amount of tweaking, and then we need to punch that button again and recompile the chronology but there is nothing here that remotely resembles the ordinary writerly process you know and love. As the contents of this originating contexture improve, and as the programming improves, and as funding becomes available (to date no funding whatever has been needed in the creation of this facility, the entire operation being run out of pocket change) we expect a diminished need to do such tweaking and recompiling, and we fully expect to achieve a simulation of a generous and untiring robotic research librarian. Onward and upward in this brave new world. First come first serve. There is no charge. Place requests with <Kouroo@kouroo.info>. Arrgh.