the gulf of Florida; but also, by a series of
unparalleled encroachments, endeavoured to contract the English colonies
within such narrow limits as would have cut off almost one half of their
possessions. As we have already given a geographical description of Nova
Scotia, and mentioned the particulars of the new settlement of Halifax,
we shall now only observe, that it is surrounded on three sides by the
sea, the gulf, and river of St. Lawrence; that its original boundary to
the west was the river Pentagoet; but it is now contracted within the
river St. Croix, because the crown of Great Britain did, in the year
one thousand six hundred and sixty-three, grant to the duke of York the
territory of Sagadahack, stretching from St. Croix to the river of this
name; which was in the sequel, by an express charter from the crown,
annexed to the province of Massachusett's Bay, one of the four
governments of New England. This country, situated next to Nova Scotia,
lies between the forty-first and forty-fifth degrees of north latitude,
extending near three hundred miles in length, and about two hundred in
breadth, if we bound it by those tracts which the French possessed: no
part of the settlements of this country, however, stretches above sixty
miles from the sea. The summer is here intensely hot, and the winter
proportionably severe; nevertheless, the climate is healthy, and the
sky generally serene. The soil is not favourable to any of the European
kinds of grain; but produces great plenty of maize, which the people
bake into bread, and brew into beer, though their favourite drink
is made of molasses hopped, and impregnated with the tops of the
spruce-fir, which is a native of this country. The ground raises good
flax and tolerable hemp. Here are great herds of black cattle, some of
them very large in size, a vast number of excellent hogs, a breed of
small horses, graceful, swift, and hardy; and large flocks of sheep,
whose wool, though not so fine as that of England, is manufactured with
great success.

New England is composed of the four provinces known by the names of
New Hampshire, Massachusetts Bay, Rhode Island, and Connecticut. It is
bounded on the south by New York, extending northerly on both sides of
the river Hudson, about two hundred miles into the country possessed by
the Indians of the Five Nations, whom the French distinguish by the name
of the Irroquois; but in breadth this province does not exceed fifty
miles, t