Second, revised and corrected edition of the scarce first natural history of New England. John Josselyn (fl.1638–75) was an English traveller of whom little is known. He arrived in New England in 1638, and returned for nearly a decade in the 1660s, when he landed in Boston, before heading to his brother’s estate in Maine. Whilst not thoroughly scientific, his natural observations are among the earliest depicting the natural landscape, flora and fauna, and everyday life of colonial New England. The work begins with an interesting physical and topographical description of Boston and Scarborough, Maine, in 1663, including descriptions of the language of indigenous people: ‘Their language is very significant, using but few words, every word having a diverse signification, which is expressed by their gesture; […] Their Speeches in their Assemblies are very gravely delivered, commonly in perfect Hexameter Verse’. Josselyn then describes the natural world and its medicinal properties: from birds (e.g., humming bird, pilhannaw, turkey, owl) to beasts (e.g., the bear, wolf, raccoon, porcupine, moose); dozens of fishes; snakes (the pond frog and rattle snake); insects (the flying glow worm); plants, divided into those that are also present in England, those which are only present in America, and have or don’t yet have a name – with a charming folding woodcut of the hollow-leaved lavender, a dozen more including the humming bird tree and the marigold of America – and those that were not originally in New England, but came with the English settlers. The penultimate section, titled ‘Description of an Indian Squa’, including a description of indigenous female beauty and attire, and a very personal poem of the author’s eulogising of local feminine attraction – very favourably compared with that of Europe. The last section is a chronological table of the colonisation of New England, from 1492 to 1672, when Bellingham was governor of Massachusetts. Interestingly, the last leaf includes a list of books sold by C. Widdowes at the Green Dragon, London, as well as an ad for remedies against consumption and the cough, and a ‘Homogenial Pill’, sold by Widdowes at his premises, for E. Buckworth, physician to Queen Anne.
