A large cylindrical earthenware pot with conical base, the sides near the base somewhat concave, with horizontal parallel lines on the walls, is resting on a small fire made of stout trimmed pieces of timber. It contains liquid of a bluish color in which ears of maize and other foodstuffs are cooking.
Inscribed in dark brown ink, to the left and right of the pot, in the centre, "The seething of their meate. | in Potts of earth. "
John White (c 1540-1593) was an English artist & early pioneer of English efforts to settle North America. He was among those who sailed with Richard Grenville to the shore of present-day North Carolina in 1585, acting as artist & mapmaker to the expedition. During his time at Roanoke Island he made a number of watercolor sketches of the surrounding landscape & the native Algonkin peoples. White had been commissioned to "draw to life" the inhabitants of the New World & their surroundings. During White's time at Roanoke Island, he completed numerous watercolor drawings of the surrounding landscape & native peoples. These works are significant as they are the most informative illustrations of a Native American society of the Eastern seaboard. They represent the sole-surviving visual record of the native inhabitants of America encountered by England's first settlers.
