- A prepared drawing of the plat of a survey made for William Sherwood at Jamestown in 1680
A prepared drawing of the plat of a survey made for William Sherwood at Jamestown in 1680. “Roades” indicates the course of the “Greate Road” that connected the town with the mainland. On the left the isthmus that joined the “Island” to Glasshouse Point is shown. - Daniel Defoe
With an imagination scarcely less opulent than Bunyan's, Defoe, if he had described a dream, would have managed somehow to make it as short-winded and inconsequent as a real one. He was in love with verisimilitude, and delighted in facts for their own sakes. 'To read Defoe,' wrote Charles Lamb, 'is like hearing evidence in a Court of Justice.' No compliment could have pleased him better. - Farming instruction book 1601
Farming instruction book 1601 - John Bunyan
Bunyan's business was the description of a pilgrim's progress through a world thus vividly good and bad. His choice of allegory as a method allowed him to illustrate at the same time the earnestness of his times and their extraordinary clarity of sensation. It was a form ready to his hand. The authorised version of the Bible, published in 1611, its English retaining the savour of a style then out of date, formed at once his writing and his method, as it constituted his education. 'My Bible and Concordance are my only library in my writings.' - John Smith
John Smith - Map of France, corrected by order of the king
Map of France, corrected by order of the king Desborough Cooley in his "History of Voyages," says, "They deprived her (France) of several degrees of longitude in the length of her western coast, from Brittany to the Bay of Biscay. And in the same way retrenched about half a degree from Languedoc and La Provence." These alterations gave rise to a "bon-mot." Louis the XIV., in complimenting the Academicians upon their return, remarked, "I am sorry to see, gentlemen, that your journey has cost me a good part of my kingdom!" - Musketeer wearing a bandolier
Musketeer wearing a bandolier. Note how he pours the charge from one cylinder down the muzzle. From De Gheyn. There were several ways of carrying this ammunition. The powder was normally either in a flask or bandolier; the shot in a soft leather pouch. When going into action, a soldier often took his bullets from his pouch and put them in his mouth so he could spit them into the barrel of his gun and save time in loading. - Ornaments
When first discovered by white men, Wisconsin Indians were using rude pottery of their own make. Their arrowheads and spearheads, axes, knives, and other tools and weapons were of copper obtained from Lake Superior mines, or of stone suitable for the purpose. They smoked tobacco in pipes wrought in curious shapes from a soft kind of stone found in Minnesota, and ornaments and charms were also frequently made from this so-called "pipestone." - Patrero
Patrero or “murderer” In 1627 Isaak De Rasieres visited Plymouth and noted that the Pilgrims had six cannon of unspecified types in their fort and four “patreros” mounted in front of the governor’s house at the intersection of the two streets of the town. - Seventeenth Century Plows
Seventeenth Century Plows - The Royal Prince
On the third day, June 3rd, the Royal Prince, bearing the flag of Sir George Ayscue, the largest and heaviest ship in the English fleet, ran on the Galloper shoal, and being threatened by fire-ships, surrended. The ship was burnt, and the crew, including the admiral, were made prisoners. - Travel by canoe
Upon the first day of July, 1634, Nicolet left Quebec, a passenger in the second of two fleets of canoes containing Indians from the Ottawa valley, who had come down to the white settlements to trade. - Travel by canoe
Like Nicolet, our two adventurous explorers traveled by canoes, with Indians to do the paddling. Passing between the Manitoulin Islands, in the northern waters of Lake Huron, they visited and traded with the Huron Indians there, thence proceeded through the Straits of Mackinac, and across to the peninsula of Door county, which separates Green Bay from Lake Michigan. - Trenching Implements 17th Century
Trenching Implements 17th Century