We Embarked Ourselves On The Delightfullest Lake Of The World.
I tooke
notice of their Cottages & of the journeys of our navigation, for because
that the country was so pleasant, so beautifull & fruitfull that it grieved
me to see that the world could not discover such inticing countrys to live
in.
This I say because that the Europeans fight for a rock in the sea
against one another, or for a sterill land and horrid country, that the
people sent heere or there by the changement of the aire ingenders
sicknesse and dies thereof. Contrarywise those kingdoms are so delicious &
under so temperat a climat, plentifull of all things, the earth bringing
foorth its fruit twice a yeare, the people live long & lusty & wise in
their way. What conquest would that bee att litle or no cost; what
laborinth of pleasure should millions of people have, instead that millions
complaine of misery & poverty! What should not men reape out of the love of
God in converting the souls heere, is more to be gained to heaven then what
is by differences of nothing there, should not be so many dangers committed
under the pretence of religion! Why so many thoesoever are hid from us by
our owne faults, by our negligence, covetousnesse, & unbeliefe. It's true,
I confesse, that the accesse is difficult, but must say that we are like
the Cockscombs of Paris, when first they begin to have wings, imagining
that the larks will fall in their mouths roasted; but we ought [to
remember] that vertue is not acquired without labour & taking great paines.
We meet with severall nations, all sedentary, amazed to see us, & weare
very civil. The further we sejourned the delightfuller the land was to us.
I can say that [in] my lifetime I never saw a more incomparable country,
for all I have ben in Italy; yett Italy comes short of it, as I think, when
it was inhabited, & now forsaken of the wildmen. Being about the great sea,
we conversed with people that dwelleth about the salt water, [Footnote:
"That dwelleth about the salt water;" namely, Hudson's Bay.] who tould us
that they saw some great white thing sometimes uppon the water, & came
towards the shore, & men in the top of it, and made a noise like a company
of swans; which made me believe that they weare mistaken, for I could not
imagine what it could be, except the Spaniard; & the reason is that we
found a barill broken as they use in Spaine. Those people have their haires
long. They reape twice a yeare; they are called Tatarga, that is to say,
buff. They warre against Nadoneceronons, and warre also against the
Christinos. These 2 doe no great harme to one another, because the lake is
betweene both. They are generally stout men, that they are able to defend
themselves. They come but once a year to fight. If the season of the yeare
had permitted us to stay, for we intended to goe backe the yeare following,
we had indeavoured to make peace betweene them.
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