Page:A Description of New England - Smith (1616).djvu/27

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.
6
The description of New England,

and dangers by landing here or there in some Riuer or Bay, tell thereby the goodnesse and substances of Spaine, Italy, Germany, Bohemia, Hungaria & the rest. By this you may perceiue how much they erre, that think euery one wch hath bin at Virginia vnderstandeth or knowes what Virginia is: Or that the Spaniards know one halfe quarter of those Territories they possesse; no, not so much as the true circumference of Terra Incognita, whose large dominions may equalize the greatnesse and goodnes of America, for any thing yet known. It is strange with what small power hee hath raigned in the East Indes; and few will vnderstand the truth of his strength in America: where he hauing so much to keepe with such a pampered force, they neede not greatly feare his furie, in the Bermudas, Virginia, New France, or New England; beyond whose bounds America doth stretch many thousand miles: into the frozen partes whereof one Master Hutson an English Mariner did make the greatest discouerie of any Christian I knowe of, where he vnfortunately died. For Affrica, had not the industrious Portugales ranged her vnknowne parts, who would haue sought for wealth among those fryed Regions of blacke brutish Negers, where notwithstanding all the wealth and admirable aduentures & endeauours more then 140 yeares, they knowe not one third of those blacke habitations. But it is not a worke for euery one, to manage such an affaire as makes a discouerie, and plants a Colony: It requires all the best parts ofArt