A Briefe and True Report of the New Found Land of Virginia — A Reader’s Guide

Commodities and the Language of Value

Harriot's first section enumerates 'merchantable commodities'—goods that could be traded for profit. He lists silk grass, sassafras, cedar, and pearls, among others, often comparing them to familiar European equivalents. For instance, he notes that the local 'sylke of a grasse' is 'finer then any that is brought from the East Indies.' This comparative gesture serves a dual purpose: it renders the unfamiliar legible to English readers and asserts Virginia's potential as a source of valuable raw materials. Yet Harriot also includes items of less obvious commercial value, such as 'a kinde of earth' used for pottery, suggesting a broader ethnographic curiosity. The tension between economic utility and descriptive detail runs throughout the report, as Harriot oscillates between the roles of colonial promoter and natural historian.

Subsistence and the Native Food System

The second part of the report focuses on 'victuall'—foodstuffs available in Virginia. Harriot describes a wide array of fish, shellfish, and game, often noting their abundance and taste. He remarks that oysters are 'some very great, and some small; some rounde and some of a long shape,' and that those from salt water are 'far better' than those from brackish. Such distinctions reveal a careful observer attuned to local variation. Harriot also records Native fishing methods, including the use of weirs made from reeds and the practice of spearing fish with sharpened poles 'after the maner as Irishmen cast dartes.' This cross-cultural comparison is typical of Harriot's approach: he frequently draws analogies to English or Irish practices, making the unfamiliar comprehensible while implicitly measuring Native technology against European standards.

Building Materials and the Promise of Settlement

The third section addresses materials for construction and other 'mechanicall necessarie vses.' Harriot catalogs trees suitable for timber, including oaks, walnut, fir, and cedar, often specifying their dimensions and potential applications. He notes that walnut trees can be 'foure & fiue fadome' in length and 'aboue fourescore foot streight without bough,' a claim that underscores the region's suitability for shipbuilding. The description of canoes made from a single tree—'with the helpe of fire, harchets of stones, and shels'—highlights Native ingenuity while also suggesting that such techniques could be adapted by English settlers. Harriot's inclusion of lime, stone, and brick addresses potential doubts about the availability of building materials, revealing his awareness of skeptical audiences. Throughout, the text balances practical advice with a sense of wonder at the land's abundance.

Harriot's Briefe and True Report is best read as a document of early colonial encounter, where empirical observation serves promotional ends. Readers should attend to the ways Harriot navigates between description and persuasion, noting how his catalog of resources is also a catalog of cultural assumptions. The text rewards attention to its comparative language and its moments of ethnographic detail, which offer glimpses of Algonquian life even as they are framed within a colonial agenda.

Harriot’s careful lists of Virginia’s plenty made me think of another traveler, one who wandered Italy jotting down wines and ruins without any plan to conquer. There’s something tender in that—one man cataloging for profit, another for wonder. I found myself returning to The journal of Montaigne's travels in Italy by way of Switzerland and Germany in 1580 and 1581, Volume 1 (of 3) — Reading Notes for that same quiet attention to what passes before the eyes.