e woods,
passing several little rivulets of fresh water, to New Plymouth, the
principal place in the district Patucxet, so called in their patent
from his Majesty in England.

New Plymouth lies in a large bay to the north of Cape Cod, or
Mallabaer, east and west from the said [north] point of the cape, which
can be easily seen in clear weather. Directly before the commenced
town lies a sand-bank, about twenty paces broad, whereon the sea breaks
violently with an easterly and east-north-easterly wind. On the north
side there lies a small island where one must run close along, in order
to come before the town; then the ships run behind that bank and lie in
a very good roadstead. The bay is very full of fish, [chiefly] of cod,
so that the governor before named has told me that when the people have
a desire for fish they send out two or three persons in a sloop, whom
they remunerate for their trouble, and who bring them in three or four
hours' time as much fish as the whole community require for a whole
day--and they muster about fifty families.

At the south side of the town there flows down a small river of fresh
water, very rapid, but shallow, which takes its rise from several lakes
in the land above, and there empties into the sea; where in April and
the beginning of May, there come so many shad from the sea which want
to ascend that river, that it is quite surprising. This river the
English have shut in with planks, and in the middle with a little door,
which slides up and down, and at the sides with trellice work, through
which the water has its course, but which they can also close with
slides.

At the mouth they have constructed it with planks, like an eel-pot,
with wings, where in the middle is also a sliding door, and with
trellice work at the sides, so that between the two [dams] there is a
square pool, into which the fish aforesaid come swimming in such
shoals, in order to get up above, where they deposit their spawn, that
at one tide there are 10,000 to 12,000 fish in it, which they shut off
in the rear at the ebb, and close up the trellices above, so that no
more water comes in; then the water runs out through the lower
trellices, and they draw out the fish with baskets, each according to
the land he cultivates, and carry them to it, depositing in each hill
three or four fishes, and in these they plant their maize, which grows
as luxuriantly therein as though it were the best manure in the world.
And if