r cold and liable to much
snow. Two winds ordinarily prevail: the N.W. in winter and the S.W. in
summer; the other winds are not common; the N.W. corresponds with our
N.E. because it blows across the country from the cold point as our N.E.
does. The S.W. is dry and hot like our S.E. because it comes from the
warm countries; the N.E. is cold and wet like our S.W. for similar
reasons. The character of the country is very like that of France; the
land is fairly high and level, especially broken along the coast by
small rocky hills unfit for agriculture; farther in the interior
are pretty high mountains (generally exhibiting great appearance of
minerals) between which flow a great number of small rivers. In some
places there are even some lofty ones of extraordinary height, but not
many. Its fertility falls behind no province in Europe in excellence of
fruits and seeds. There are three principal rivers, to wit: the Fresh,
the Mauritius and the South River,(1) all three reasonably wide and
deep, adapted for the navigation of large ships twenty-five leagues up
and of common barks even to the falls. From the River Mauritius off to
beyond the Fresh River stretches a channel that forms an island, forty
leagues long, called Long Island, which is the ordinary passage from New
England to Virginia, having on both sides many harbors to anchor in,
so that people make no difficulty about navigating it in winter. The
country is generally covered with trees, except a few valleys and some
large flats of seven or eight leagues and less; the trees are as in
Europe, viz. Oak, hickory, chestnut, vines. The animals are also of the
same species as ours, except lions and some other strange beasts, many
bears, abundance of wolves which harm nobody but the small cattle, elks
and deer in abundance, foxes, beavers, otters, minks and such like. The
birds which are natural to the country are turkeys like ours, swans,
geese of three sorts, ducks, teals, cranes, herons, bitterns, two sorts
of partridges, four sorts of heath fowls, grouse or pheasants. The river
fish is like that of Europe, viz., carp, sturgeon, salmon, pike, perch,
roach, eel, etc. In the salt waters are found codfish, haddock, herring
and so forth, also abundance of oysters and clams.

(1) Connecticut, Hudson and Delaware.

The Indians are of ordinary stature, strong and broad shouldered; olive
color, light and nimble of foot, subtle of mind, of few words which they
previously we