ore they went,
notwithstanding our bad lodging and accidentall diet) who can but
approue this a most excellent place, both for health & fertility? And
of all the foure parts of the world that I haue yet seene not
inhabited, could I haue but meanes to transport a Colonie, I would
rather liue here than any where: and if it did not maintaine it selfe,
were wee but once indifferently well fitted, let vs starue.

The maine Staple, from hence to bee extracted for the present to
produce the rest, is fish; which howeuer it may seeme a mean and a
base commoditie: yet who will but truely take the pains and consider
the sequell, I thinke will allow it well worth the labour....

First, the ground is so fertill, that questionless it is capable of
producing any Grain, Fruits, or Seeds you will sow or plant, growing
in the Regions afore named: But it may be, not euery kinde to that
perfection of delicacy; or some tender plants may miscarie, because
the Summer is not so hot, and the winter is more colde in those parts
wee haue yet tryed neere the Sea side, then we finde in the same
height in Europe or Asia; Yet I made a Garden vpon the top of a Rockie
Ile in 43-1/2, 4 leagues from the Main, in May, that grew so well, as
it serued vs for sallets in Iune and Iuly. All sorts of cattell may
here be bred and fed in the Iles, or Peninsulaes, securely for
nothing. In the Interim till they encrease if need be (obseruing the
seasons) I durst vndertake to haue corne enough from the Saluages for
300 men, for a few trifles; and if they should bee vntoward (as it is
most certaine they are) thirty or forty good men will be sufficient to
bring them all in subjection, and make this prouision; if they
vnderstand what they doe: 200 whereof may nine monethes in the yeare
be imployed in making marchandable fish, till the rest prouide other
necessaries, fit to furnish vs with other commodities....

But, to retumne a little more to the particulars of this Countrey,
which I intermingle thus with my proiects and reasons, not being so
sufficiently yet acquainted in those parts, to write fully the estate
of the Sea, the Ayre, the Land, the Fruites, the Rocks, the People,
the Gouernment, Religions, Territories, and Limitations, Friends, and
Foes: but, as I gathered from the niggardly relations in a broken
language to my vnderstanding, during the time I ranged those Countries
&c. The most Northern part I was at, was the Bay of Penobscot, which
is East and West