eight times.  But as the greater part must have some manure, inasmuch 
as it is so exhausted by the wild herbage, I am afraid that all will not 
be sown; and the more so, as the managers of the farms are hired men.  
The two hindermost farms, Nos. 1 and 2, are the best; the other farms 
have also good land, but not so much, and more sandy; so that they are 
best suited for rye and buckwheat.

The small fort, New Amsterdam, commenced to be built, is situated 
on a point opposite to Noten Island; [the channel between] is a gun-
shot wide, and is full six or seven fathoms deep in the middle.  This 
point might, with little trouble, be made a small island, by cutting a 
canal through Blommaert's valley, so as to afford a haven winter and 
summer, for sloops and ships; and the whole of this little island ought, 
from its nature, to be made a superb fort, to be approached by land 
only on one side (since it is a triangle), thus protecting them both.  
The river marks out, naturally, three angles; the most northern faces 
and commands, within the range of a cannon shot, the great Mauritse 
River and the land; the southernmost commands, on the water level, 
the channel between Noten Island and the fort, together with the 
Hellegat; the third point, opposite to Blommaert's valley, commands 
the lowland; the middle part, which ought to be left as a marketplace, 
is a hillock, higher than the surrounding land, and should always serve 
as a battery, which might command the three points, if the streets 
should be arranged accordingly. 

Up the river the east side is high, full of trees, and in some places 
there is a little good land, where formerly many people have dwelt, 
but who for the most part have died or have been driven away by 
the Wappenos.

These tribes of savages all have a government.  The men in general 
are rather tall, well proportioned in their limbs, and of an orange color, 
like the Brazilians; very inveterate against those whom they hate; cruel 
by nature, and so inclined to freedom that they cannot by any means be 
brought to work; they support themselves by hunting, and when the 
spring comes, by fishing.  In April, May, and June, they follow the 
course of these [the fish], which they catch with a drag-net they them-
selves knit very neatly, of the wild hemp, from which the women and 
old men spin the thread.  The kinds of fish which they principally take 
at this time are shad, but smaller than those in this country ordinarily 
are, though quite as fat, and very bony; the largest fish is a sort of white 
salmon, which is of very good flavor, and quite as large; it has white 
scales; the heads are so full of fat that in some there are two or three 
spoonfuls, so that there is good eating for one who is fond of picking 
heads.  It seems that this fish makes them lascivious, for it is often 
observed that those who have caught any when they have gone fishing, 
have given them, on their return, to the women, who look for them 
anxiously.  Our people also confirm this....

As an employment in winter they make sewan, which is an oblong 
bead that they make from cockle-shells, which they find on the sea-
shore, and they consider it as valuable as we do money here, since 
one can buy with it everything they have; they also make bands of it,
which the women wear on the forehead under the hair, and the men 
around the body; and they are as particular about the stringing and 
sorting as we can be here about pearls.  They are very fond of a game 
they call Seneca, played with some round rushes, similar to the Spanish
feather-grass, which they understand how to shuffle and deal as though
they were playing with cards; and they win from each other all that 
they possess, even to the lappet with which they cover their private 
parts, and so they separate from each other quite naked.  They are 
very much addicted to promiscuous intercourse.  Their clothing is 
[so simple as to leave the body] almost naked.  in the winter time they 
usually wear a dressed deer skin; some a covering made of turkey 
feathers which they understand how to knit together very oddly, with
small strings.  They also use a good deal of duffel cloth, which they 
buy from us, and which serves for their blanket by night, and their 
dress by day.

The women are fine looking, of middle stature, well proportioned, 
and with finely cut features; with long and black hair, and black eyes 
set off with fine eyebrows; they are of the same color as the men.  
They smear their bodies and hair with grease, which makes them 
smell very rankly; they are very much given to promiscuous 
intercourse.

They have a marriage custom amongst them, namely:  when there is 
one who resolves to take a particular person for his wife, he collects 
a fathom or two of sewan, and comes to the nearest friends of the 
person whom he desires, to whom he declares his object in her 
presence, and if they are satisfied with him, he agrees with them 
how much sewan he shall give her for a bridal present; that being 
done, he then gives her all the Dutch beads he has, which they call 
Machampe, and also all sorts of trinkets.  If she be a young virgin, 
he must wait six weeks more before he can sleep with her, during 
which time she bewails or laments over her virginity, which they 
call Collatismarrenitten; all this time she sits with a blanket over 
her head, without wishing to look at any one, or any one being 
permitted to look at her.  This period being elapsed, her bridegroom 
comes to her; he in the mean time has been supporting himself by 
hunting, and what he has taken he brings there with him; they then 
eat together with the friends, and sing and dance together, which 
they call Kintikaen.  That being done, the wife must provide the food 
for herself and her husband, as far as breadstuffs are concerned, and 
[should they fall short] she must buy what is wanting with her sewan.

For this reason they are obliged to watch the season for sowing.  At 
the end of March they begin to break up the earth with mattocks, 
which they buy from us for the skins of beavers or otters, or for 
sewan.  They make heaps like molehills, each about two and a 
half feet from the others, which they sow or plant in April with 
maize, in each heap five or six grains; in the middle of May, when
the maize is the height of a finger or more, they plant in each heap
three or four Turkish beans, which then grow up with and against
the maize, which serves for props, for the maize grows on stalks
similar to the sugar-cane.  When they wish to make use of the 
grain for bread or porridge, which they call 
Sappaen, they first boil it and then beat it flat upon a stone; 
then they put it into a wooden mortar, which they know how 
to hollow out by fire, and then they have a stone pestle, which 
they know how to make themselves, with which they pound it 
small, and sift it through a small basket, which they understand 
how to weave of the rushes before mentioned.  The finest meal 
they mix with lukewarm water, and knead it into dough, then 
they make round flat little cakes of it, of thickness of an inch 
or a little more, which they bury in hot ashes, and so bake into 
bread; and when these are baked they have some clean fresh 
water by them in which they wash them while hot, one after 
another, and it is good bread, but heavy.  The coarsest meal 
they boil into a porridge, as is before mentioned, and it is good 
eating when there is butter over it, but a food which is very soon 
digested.  The grain being dried, they put it into baskets woven 
of rushes or wild hemp, and bury it in the earth, where they let it 
lie, and go with their husbands and children in October to hunt 
deer, leaving at home with their maize the old people who cannot 
follow; in December they return home, and the flesh which they 
have not been able to eat while fresh, they smoke on the way, 
and bring it back with them.  They come home as fat as moles.

When a woman here addicts herself to fornication, and the husband 
comes to know it, he thrashes her soundly, and if he wishes to get 
rid of her, he summons the Sackima with her friends, before whom 
he accuses her; and if she be found guilty the Sackima commands 
one to cut off her hair in order that she may be held up before the 
world as a whore, which they call poerochque; and then the husband 
takes from her everything that she has, and drives her out of the house; 
if there be children, they remain with her, for they are fond of them 
beyond measure.  They reckon consanguinity to the eighth degree, 
and revenge an injury from generation to generation unless it be atoned 
for; and even then there is mischief enough, for they are very revengeful.

And when a man is unfaithful, the wife accuses him before the Sackima, 
which most frequently happens when the wife has a preference for 
another man.  The husband being found guilty, the wife is permitted 
to draw off his right shoe and left stocking (which they make of deer 
or elk skins, which they know how to prepare very broad and soft, and
wear in the winter time); she then tears off the lappet that covers his
private parts, gives him a kick behind, and so drives him out of the 
house; and then "Adam" scampers off.

It would seem that they are very libidinous--in this respect very 
unfaithful to each other; whence it results that they breed but 
few children, so that it is a wonder when a woman has three or 
four children, particularly by any one man whose name can be 
certainly known.  They must not have intercourse with those of 
their own family within the third degree, or it would be considered 
an abominable thing.

Their political government is democratic.  They have a chief 
Sackima whom they choose by election, who generally is he 
who is richest in sewan, though of less consideration in other 
respects.  When any stranger comes, they bring him to the 
Sackima.  On first meeting they do not speak--they smoke a 
pipe of tobacco; that being done, the Sackima asks:  "Whence 
do you come?" the stranger then states that, and further what he 
has to say, before all who are present or choose to come.  That 
being done, the Sackima announces his opinion to the people, 
and if they agree thereto, they give all together a sigh--"He!"--
and if they do not approve, they keep silence, and all come close 
to the Sackima, and each sets forth his opinion till they agree; that 
being done, they come all together again to the stranger, to whom 
the Sackima then announces what they have determined, with the 
reasons moving them thereto.

All travellers who stop over night come to the Sackima, if they 
have no acquaintances there, and are entertained by the expenditure 
of as much sewan as is allowed for that purpose; therefore the 
Sackimas generally have three or four wives, each of whom has 
to furnish her own seed-corn.

The Sackima has his fixed fine of sewan for fighting and causing 
blood to flow.  When any are--[here four pages, at least, are missing 
in the original manuscript].

Coming out of the river Nassau, you sail east-and-by-north about 
fourteen leagues, along the coast, a half miles from the shore, and 
you then come to "Frenchman's Point" at a small river where those 
of Patucxet have a house made of hewn oak planks, called Aptucxet, 
where they keep two men, winter and summer, in order to maintain 
the trade and possession.  Here also they have built a shallop, in 
order to go and look after the trade in sewan, in Sloup's Bay and
thereabouts, because they are afraid to pass Cape Mallabaer, and in 
order to avoid the length of the way; which I have prevented for this 
year by selling them fifty fathoms of sewan, because the seeking 
after sewan by them is prejudicial to us, inasmuch as they would, 
by so doing, discover the trade in furs; which if they were to find 
out, it would be a great trouble for us to maintain, for they already 
dare to threaten that if we will not leave off dealing with that people, 
they will be obliged to use other means; if they do that now, while 
they are yet ignorant how the case stands, what will they do when