several kinds, because they differ in color, size, and relish; but
I shall divide them only into two, viz: the early and the late
ripe. The early ripe common grape is much larger, sweeter and
better than the other. Of these some are quite black, and others
blue, and some white or yellow; some also ripen three weeks or a
month before the other. The distance of their ripening, is from
the latter end of August to the latter end of October. The late
ripe common grapes are less than any of the other, neither are
they so pleasant to the taste. They hang commonly till the latter
end of November, or till Christmas; all that I have seen of these
are black. Of the former of these two sorts, the French refugees
at the Monacan town made a sort of claret, though they were
gathered off of the wild vines in the woods. I was told by a very
good judge who tasted it, that it was a pleasant, strong, and full
bodied wine. From which we may conclude, that if the wine was but
tolerable good when made of the wild grape, which is shaded by the
woods from the sun, it would be much better if produced of the
same grape cultivated in a regular vineyard.

The year before the massacre, Anno 1622, which destroyed so many good
projects for Virginia, some French vignerons were sent thither to make
an experiment of their vines. These people were so in love with the
country, that the character they then gave of it in their letters to the
company in England, was very much to its advantage, namely: "That it far
excelled their own country of Languedoc, the vines growing in great
abundance and variety all over the land; that some of the grapes were of
that unusual bigness, that they did not believe them to be grapes, until
by opening them they had seen their kernels; that they had planted the
cuttings of their vines at Michaelmas, and had grapes from those very
cuttings the spring following. Adding in the conclusion, that they had
not heard of the like in any other country." Neither was this out of the
way, for I have made the same experiment, both of their natural vine and
of the plants sent thither from England.

The copies of the letters, here quoted, to the company in England, are
still to be seen; and Purchase, in his fourth volume of pilgrims, has
very justly quoted some of them.

Sec. 16. The honey and sugar trees are likewise spontaneous near the heads
of the rivers. The honey tree bears a thick swelling pod, fu