They fill those skrews with swan's downe, & with it their ears covered;
but I dare say that the people doe not for to hold out the cold, but rather
for pride, ffor their country is not so cold as the north, and other lakes
that we have seene since.
It should be difficult to describe what variety of faces our arrivement did
cause, some out of joy, others out of sadnesse. Neverthelesse the numbers
of joyfull exceeded that of the sorrowfull. The season began to invite the
lustiest to hunting. We neither desire to be idle in any place, having
learned by experience that idlenesse is the mother of all evil, for it
breeds most part of all sicknesse in those parts where the aire is most
delightfull. So that they who had most knowledge in these quarters had
familiarity with the people that live there about the last lake.
The nation that we weare with had warrs with the Iroquoits, and must trade.
Our wildmen out of feare must consent to their ennemy to live in their
land. It's true that those who lived about the first lake had not for the
most part the conveniency of our french merchandise, as since, which
obliged most of the remotest people to make peace, considering the enemy of
theirs that came as a thunder bolt upon them, so that they joyned with them
& forgett what was past for their owne preservation.
