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teen miles long and four broad, upon which plain grows very fine grass, that makes exceeding good hay, and is very good pasture for sheep or other cattle, where you shall find neither stick nor stone to hinder their heels, or endanger them in their races; and once a year the best horses in the island are brought hither to try their swiftness, and the swiftest are rewarded with a silver cup, two being annually procured for that purpose. There are two or three other small plains, of about a mile square, which are no small benefit to those towns that enjoy them.

Upon the south side of Long Island, in the winter, lie store of whales and grampuses, which the inhabitants begin with small boats to make a trade of catching, to their no small benefit; also, an innumerable multitude of seals, which make an excellent oil. They lie all winter upon some broken marshes and beaches, or bars of sand before mentioned, and might be easily got, were there some skilful men would undertake it.

Within two leagues of New York lieth Staten Island. It bears from New York west, something southerly. It is about twenty miles long and four or five broad. It is mostly of very good land, full of timber, and produceth all such commodities as Long Island doth, besides tin, and store of iron ore, and the calamine stone is said likewise to be found there. There is but one town upon it, consisting of English and French, but is capable of entertaining more inhabitants. Betwixt this and Long Island is a very large bay, and is the common *

* for all ships and vessels out of the sea. On the north side of this island After-Kull puts into the main land, on the west side whereof is two or three towns, but on * * but one. There is very great marshes or meadows on both sides of it; excellent grass, * and good convenience for the settling of several towns. There grows black wa * as there doth in Virginia, with mighty tall, strait timber, as good as any in the whole of America. It produceth any commodity Long Island doth.

Hudson's river runs by New York northward into the country, toward the head of which is seated New Alba

ny, a place of great trade with the Indians; betwixt which and New York, being above one hundred miles, is as good corn land as the world affords, and able to entertain hundreds of families, which in the time of the Dutch government of those parts could not be settled for the Indians, excepting one place called the Sopers, which is kept a garrison; but since the reducement of those parts, under his majesty's rule, and a patent granted to his royal highness the duke of York, which is about six * by the care and diligence of the honourable Col. Nichols, sent thither deputy to his ** such a league of peace was made, and friendship concluded betwixt that colony, that they have not resisted or disturbed any christians there, in the settling or peaceful possessing of any lands there, within that government, but every man hath sat under his vine, and hath peaceably reaped and enjoyed the fruits of his own labours, which God * *

Westward of After-Kull, before mentioned, about eighteen or twenty miles, runs in Raritan river westward into the country, some score of miles, both sides of which river is adorned with meadows, enough to maintain thousands of cattle; the woodland is likewise

* for corn, and stored with wile beasts, as deer and elks, and an innumerable * * * fowl, as in other parts of the country. This river is thought very capable** of several towns and villages on each side of it. No place in the north

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two or three towns and villages, settled upon * betwixt that and Delaware Bay, which is about sixty miles, all which is a rich champaign country, free from stones, and indifferent level, store of excellent good timber, and very well watered, having brooks or rivers ordinarily one or more in every mile's travel. The country is full of deer, elks, bear, and other creatures, as in other parts of the country, where you shall meet with no inhabitants in your journey but a few Indians; * where there is stately oaks, whose broad-branched tops serve for no other use but to keep off the sun's heat from the wild beasts of the wilderness; where is grass as high as a man's middle, that

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serves for no other end except to maintain the elks and deer, who never devour an hundredth part of it, then to be burnt every spring, to make way for new. How ma

ny poor people in the world would think themselves happy, had they an acre or two of land, whilst here is [are] hundreds, nay thousands of acres, that would invite inhabitants.

Delaware Bay, the mouth of the river, lieth about the midway betwixt New York and the capes of Virginia. It is a very pleasant river and country, but very few inhabitants, and them being mostly Swedes, Dutch, and Finns. About sixty miles up the river is the principal town, called New Castle, which is about forty miles from Maryland, and very good way to travel, either with horse or foot. The people are settled all along the west side sixty miles above New Castle; the land is good for all sorts of English grain, and wanteth nothing * * people to populate it, it being capable of entertaining many hundred families.

Some may admire that these rich and great tracts of land, lying so adjoining to New England and Virginia, should be no better inhabited, and that the richness of the soil, and healthfulness of the climate, and the like, should be no better a motive to induce

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that whilst it was under the Dutch gov* years, there was little encouragement for any English, both in respect * from the Indians, *

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the Dutch being almost always in danger * g of a war, which would have been destructive to their * * the main thing prosecuted by the Dutch. And secondly the Dutch * * lands, together with their exacting of the * their lands that did much hinder the populating of it; together * dislike the English have of liv.

tenth of all which * *

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ing under another government

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there were several towns of a considerable great.

GENERAL HISTORY

ness began and settled by people out of New England, and every day more and more came to view and settle.

To give some satisfaction to people that shall be desirous to transport themselves thither, (the country being capable of entertaining many thousands,) how and after what manner people live, and how land may be procured, &c. I shall answer, that the usual way is for a company of people to join together, either enough to make a town, or a less number. These go with the consent of the governour, and view a tract of land, there being choice * and finding a place convenient for a town, they return to the governour, who, upon their desire, admits them into the colony, and gives them a grant or patent for the said tract, for themselves and their associates. These persons, being thus qualified, settle that * * and take in what inhabitants to themselves they shall see cause to admit of, till their town is full.

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These associates, thus taken in, have equal privileges with themselves, and they make division of the land, suitable to every man's occasions, no man being debarred of such quantity as he hath occasion for. The rest they let lie in common, till they have occasion for a new division, never dividing their pasture lands at all, which lie in common to the whole * The best com. modities for any to carry with them is clothing, the country being full of all sorts of cattle, with which they may furnish themselves at an easy rate.

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* * a true description of the country about New York was thought necessary to be published as well for the encouragement of any that may have a mind to remove themselves thither, as for a

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