“It is impossible to tell how many peach trees we passed, all laden with fruit to breaking down, and many of them actually broken down. We came to a place surrounded with such trees from which so many had fallen off that the ground could not be discerned... The hogs and other animals mostly feed on them... [One woman] showed us several large apples, as good fruit of that country... We tasted here, for the first time, smoked “twaelft” [striped bass] fish... It was salted a little them smoked, and, although it was now a year old, it was still perfectly good, and in flavor not inferior to smoked salmon...

“We arrived in the evening at ... [the house of] Symon [Aertsen De Hart, near modern 37th street]... We found a good fire, half way up the chimney, of clear oak and hickory, of which they made not the least scruple of burning profusely... There had been already thrown upon it, to be roasted, a pail full of Gounaes oysters, which are the best in the country. They are fully as good as those of England... I had to try some of them raw. They are large and full, some of them not less than a foot long... In consequence of the great quantities of them, everybody keeps the shells for the purpose of burning them into lime. They pickle the oysters in small casks, and send them to Barbadoes and the other islands.

“We had for supper a roasted haunch of venison, which he had bought of the Indians... We were also served with wild turkey... and a wild goose... Every thing we had was the natural production of the country. We saw here, lying in a heap, a whole hill of watermelons, which were as large as pumpkins, and which Symon was going to take to the city to sell.”