Mission

Some notes on the Spaniards of Florida's food. They seem to have been very, very poorly supplied. I didn't make a note of the exact quote, but Dickinson said they had not been supplied at St. Augustine for several years. [Edit: I happened to see it while looking at some other notes: "The governor stated the poverty of the country unto us. The place is a garrison maintained one half by the King of Spain, the other half by the Church of Rome... And all their supply of bread, clothing and money comes from the Havana and Porto Vella [Footnote: Presumably Porto Bella]. And it is going on of three years since they have had a vessel from any place whatsoever, which makes their wants very great; all things being expended except ammunition and salt, of which they said they had enough." (Dickinson, p. 61)] At the end is also a quote about clothing I thought some of you might find interesting. (From 1696.) “The Spaniards had brought little provision with them, so that there was not much to spare for us; having not above a rove of corn, and a little Nova Spain bread, which was so bad __ that it was more dust and dead weevils than bread: an handful of it was an acceptable present to us. We would mix it with a little water, making it to a paste, which would eat pleasantly; but hunger was no stranger unto us; and we knew not that we should have any victuals on our journey: but our deliverance seemed to overbalance it all.” (Dickinson, p. 43-4) “About an hour before sunset, we got to an Indian plantation (this was the first place we saw anything planted) being full of pumpion vines and some small pumpion on them but the Spaniards were too quick for us and got all before us: some of us got a few as big as one’s fist. We had a fire there, yet had not patience to dress them as they should be, but put them into the fire, roasted them and eat them. The Spaniards used a great deal of cookery with their pumpions, and the piragua [a small boat] that came last from Augustine had brought bread, corn and strung beef; but it was kept from us, except a piece of strung beef the captain of the Spaniards gave my wife [who was nursing a child] as big as a stick of sealing-wax; which we treasured up, expecting it must be harder with us when we left these people.” (Dickinson, p. 47) "About half an hour afterwards the governor [of [st.] Augustine] sent for John Smith and me and gave us a shirt and sliders, a hat and pair of silk stockings, telling us he had no woolen clothes as yet [it was mid-November], but would have some made." (Dickinson, p. 58)

I was discussing the spelling and meaning of the Yiddish word "Oy" with someone on-line and it reminded me of that cartoon. I really like the animation on the squirrel in Much Ado About Nutting. Somewhere or another I heard that Jones spent a lot of time watching squirrels so that they could get the animation of the movement right (compare it to Shuffle Off to Buffalo to see just how far animation had come in 20 some years...)

That's why I didn't want to ship my medical stuff down to the fort for PiP this year - it cost me $65 one way in 2008. (Fortunately Michael brought it down. Unfortunately, after all that trouble, I hardly used it.) I'm just going to bring a few things to this event. Probably bandages, my bone saw, a couple of forceps and maybe the small syringe. (The big one stays at home as this seems to be a more serious event.)

Thanks, Patrick. Do you have the page # for that?

You do realize Dampier brought the prince so he could show him off in England for money? It suggests to me that it was a pretty rare thing. (Alas, Dampier was so poor in England that he soon wound up selling his prized attraction to someone else so that they could show him for money. The prince apparently didn't adapt well to the food, diseases, living in England or some such and died soon after that.) “Abundance of mosquitoes and sand-flies hindered our rest, to remedy which we digged holes in the sand, got some grass and laid it therein to to lie upon, in order to cover ourselves from the flies, which most of us did; but it being extreme cold, and firing scarce, we had little comfort.” (Dickinson, p. 20) These folks were shipwrecked on the coast of Florida. It seems funny to me that I haven't come across more references to mosquitoes. “About noon some fish was brought us [by the Florida Indians who captured them when they shipwrecked]: hunger was grown strong upon (us), and the quantity given was not much more than each a mouthful; which we ate. The Casseekey [cacique: basically an indian chief] ordered the master Joseph Kirle, Solomon Cresson, my wife and me, to sit upon their cabin to eat our fish; and they gave us some of their berries to eat. We tasted them, but not one amongst us could suffer them to stay in our mouths; for we could compare the taste of them to nothing else, but rotten cheese __ steeped in tobacco.” (Dickinson, p. 26-7) Now THERE'S a flavor to contemplate and savor! [From Jonathan Dickison's Journal or God's Protecting Providence; Being the Narrative of a journey from PORT ROYAL in JAMAICA to PHILADELPHIA August 23, 1696 to April 1, 1697.]

Crews? It's not been quite that formal to date. Although I think it would be neat of some other folks joined me in creating a display (physical or skill) of some sort. In the past, much of this event has tended to have an educational cast to it as they lead tours around the Santa Maria. (Note: this is just IMHO - I am not one of the organizers or anything.)

Gosse is tough because he doesn't give any sources. I'm not using his encyclopedia for the medical tome I'm working on because he's not period and he doesn't provide references. So I am inclined not to entirely trust him.

One thing that I sort of lost in the last few pages is the sad fact that the BiB contract got canceled. I'm sorry for you guys. On the plus side, if you don't let it get to you, the rest of us should get to see more of you at the event. One bad thing about being an organizer is that while they're at the event, they're so busy running around, dealing with the schedule and putting out the inevitable fires that we hardly get to hang with them.

That's a really interesting book containing some accounts that are otherwise sort of hard to find. Not only does it give a different perspective on pirates than the standard General History fare, it also contains many pirate stories from post-period. It's well worth a read if you want a fresh perspective on piracy.

Here's an ancient one: Shuffle Off to Buffalo You'll never get that song out of your head after you hear it. :angry:

QJ, have you ever had Auchentoshan 12? I had some a few months ago and quite liked it. Being these many past months on an alcohol fast, I haven't gone a-searching for a bottle, but I do plan to get me one eventually. I am also a minor fan of Glen Ord and a major fan of The Macallen 12.

The Travels and Controversies of Friar Domingo Navarrete 1618-1686, edited by J.S. Cummins, Volume 1; Chyrurgic Memoirs: Being and Account of many Extraordinary Cures... by John Moyle; South Pacific by James Michener and my Spanish Textbook, Puntos en Breve by a bunch of somewhat muddleheaded people.

I'm pretty sure it was Groucho Marx. Not to get OT (if that's even possible at this point), but everyone should see a Marx brothers movie at least once in their life. Quality entertainment with a capital K. I suggest starting with The Cocoanuts. This will in no way help with your pirate flag research, however.

As I commented last year at PiP...things change constantly in Key West. The place is the embodiment of transformation on steroids. I forget who said it, but I've always liked a quote that I will try an paraphrase from recollection about one of my favorite places on earth: "Key West is the udder of America where the cream and the crud collect."

Poppa not having his pics on-line was a mixed blessing for me. See, I try to pick pics all organized like. I go through everyone's on-line album and save the pics that appeal to me with names denoting why I think they are appealing. Then I start writing the page and realize somewhere I saw this absolutely great picture of Jess bending like a willow branch. And I end up going through every damned photo album again until I find it...meanwhile finding three others that I missed the first time. Then I go back to writing and remember there was this terrific pic of Captain Sterling looking like a drowned rat. So I end up going back through every damned photo album again until I find it...meanwhile finding six others that I missed. Then...rinse and repeat, rinse and repeat. This is why PiP takes a month to do - there are so many photo albums. (At least I have the majority of the text written, though.) Poppa's photo album - being the largest (in fact, it is usually more than all the other albums combined) is the hardest to search and the most likely to produce more new pictures to try and squeeze in. So...it's a mixed blessing not having it around.

If you painted a big explosion in behind them, this picture would have a whole different meaning. (Bummer this wasn't on-line when I was doing the Journal - it's a funny picture. RJ looks like a human willow branch. )

No. (Done.)

This is pretty much why I haven't said anything; I don't feel like we really know anything definite. 10 will get you 1 that Fayma hasn't said anything because there is nothing to say yet. Much of it is probably still up in the air - it is only February. A lot may still happen. However, it is nice to have something to talk about. The pub has been kind of slow lately.

Didn't you thinly disguise the fan club as the Bonaventure Tropical Fruit Fly Organization?

Pretty cool. I especially like the nameplate.

Pirate Mythory is Foxe's site. He's done more research on the pirate flags than anyone else I know and I would take his word on a flag over most other websites and many books.