is bay there is no
great current; the whole coast is, as it were, one continued harbour,
which gives all that live in the island great convenience for mutual
commerce. But the entry into the bay, occasioned by rocks on the one
hand and shallows on the other, is very dangerous. In the middle of it
there is one single rock which appears above water, and may, therefore,
easily be avoided; and on the top of it there is a tower, in which a
garrison is kept; the other rocks lie under water, and are very
dangerous. The channel is known only to the natives; so that if any
stranger should enter into the bay without one of their pilots he would
run great danger of shipwreck. For even they themselves could not pass
it safe if some marks that are on the coast did not direct their way; and
if these should be but a little shifted, any fleet that might come
against them, how great soever it were, would be certainly lost. On the
other side of the island there are likewise many harbours; and the coast
is so fortified, both by nature and art, that a small number of men can
hinder the descent of a great army. But they report (and there remains
good marks of it to make it credible) that this was no island at first,
but a part of the continent. Utopus, that conquered it (whose name it
still carries, for Abraxa was its first name), brought the rude and
uncivilised inhabitants into such a good government, and to that measure
of politeness, that they now far excel all the rest of mankind. Having
soon subdued them, he designed to separate them from the continent, and
to bring the sea quite round them. To accomplish this he ordered a deep
channel to be dug, fifteen miles long; and that the natives might not
think he treated them like slaves, he not only forced the inhabitants,
but also his own soldiers, to labour in carrying it on. As he set a vast
number of men to work, he, beyond all men's expectations, brought it to a
speedy conclusion. And his neighbours, who at first laughed at the folly
of the undertaking, no sooner saw it brought to perfection than they were
struck with admiration and terror.

"There are fifty-four cities in the island, all large and well built, the
manners, customs, and laws of which are the same, and they are all
contrived as near in the same manner as the ground on which they stand
will allow. The nearest lie at least twenty-four miles' distance from
one another, and the most remote are not so far distant bu