relation to the chestnut. An oaken
stick, sufficiently long to reach from one side of the fireplace to the
other, and trimmed with knives until it was no larger around than the
ramrod of a matchlock, forms our spit, and this we thrust through the
body of the bird from end to end. A pile of rocks on either side of the
fireplace, at a proper distance from the burning wood, serves as rests
for the ends of the wooden spit, and when thus placed the bird will
be cooked in front of the fire, if whosoever is attending to the labor
turns the carcass from time to time, so that each portion may receive an
equal amount of heat.

I am not pretending to say that this is a skillful method of cooking;
but if you had been with us in Jamestown, and were as hungry as we often
were, a wild turkey filled with chinquapin nuts, and roasted in such
fashion, would make a very agreeable dinner.

We were put to it for a table; but yet a sort of shelf made from a plank
roughly split out of the trunk of a tree, and furnished with two legs on
either end, was not as awkward as one may fancy, for we had no chairs
on which to sit while eating; but squatted on the ground, and this low
bench served our purpose as well as a better piece of furniture would
have done.

When the captain was at home, he carved the bird with his hunting knife,
and one such fowl would fill the largest trencher bowl we had among us.

Nor could we be overly nice while eating, and since we had no napkins on
which to wipe our fingers, a plentiful supply of water was necessary to
cleanse one's hands, for these wild turkeys are overly fat in the months
of September and October, and he who holds as much of the cooked flesh
in his hand as is needed for a hearty dinner, squeezes therefrom a
considerable amount in the way of grease.

We were better off for vessels in which to put our food, than in many
other respects, for we had of trencher bowls an abundance, and the
London Company had outfitted us with ware of iron, or of brass, or of
copper, until our poor table seemed laden with an exceeding rich store.

CANDLES OR RUSHLIGHTS

To provide lights for ourselves, now that the evenings were grown
longer, was a much more difficult task than to cook without proper
conveniences, for it cost considerable labor. We had our choice between
the candle wood, as the pitch pine is called, or rushlights, which last
are made by stripping the outer bark from common rushes, thus leaving