they do get a notion of it?

From Aptucxet the English can come in six hours, through the 
woods, passing several little rivulets of fresh water, to New 
Plymouth, the principal place in the district Patucxet, so called 
in their patent from his Majesty in England.

New Plymouth lies in a large bay to the north of Cape Cod, or 
Mallabaer, east and west from the said [north] point of the cape, 
which can be easily seen in clear weather.  Directly before the 
commenced town lies a sand-bank, about twenty paces broad, 
whereon the sea breaks violently with an easterly and east-north-
easterly wind.  On the north side there lies a small island where 
one must run close along, in order to come before the town; then 
the ships run behind that bank and lie in a very good roadstead.  
The bay is very full of fish, [chiefly] of cod, so that the governor 
before named has told me that when the people have a desire for 
fish they send out two or three persons in a sloop, whom they 
remunerate for their trouble, and who bring them in three or four 
hours' time as much fish as the whole community require for a 
whole day--and they muster about fifty families.

At the south side of the town there flows down a small river of 
fresh water, very rapid, but shallow, which takes its rise from 
several lakes in the land above, and there empties into the sea; 
where in April and the beginning of May, there come so many 
shad from the sea which want to ascend that river, that it is quite
surprising.  This river the English have shut in with planks, and 
in the middle with a little door, which slides up and down, and 
at the sides with trellice work, through which the water has its 
course, but which they can also close with slides.

At the mouth they have constructed it with planks, like an eel-pot, 
with wings, where in the middle is also a sliding door, and with 
trellice work at the sides, so that between the two [dams] there is 
a square pool, into which the fish aforesaid come swimming in 
such shoals, in order to get up above, where they deposit their 
spawn, that at one tide there are 10,000 to 12,000 fish in it, which 
they shut off in the rear at the ebb, and close up the trellices above, 
so that no more water comes in; then the water runs out through the 
lower trellices, and they draw out the fish with baskets, each 
according to the land he cultivates, and carry them to it, depositing 
in each hill three or four fishes, and in these they plant their maize, 
which grows as luxuriantly therein as though it were the best manure 
in the world.  And if they do not lay this fish therein, the maize will 
not grow, so that such is the nature of the soil.

New Plymouth lies on the slope of a hill stretching east towards 
the seacoast, with a broad street about a cannon shot of 800 feet 
long, leading down the hill; with a [street] crossing in the middle,
northwards to the rivulet and southwards to the land.  The houses 
are constructed of hewn planks, with gardens also enclosed behind 
and at the sides with hewn planks, so that their houses and court-yards 
are arranged in very good order, with a stockade against a sudden 
attack; and at the ends of the streets there are three wooden gates.  
In the centre, on the cross street, stands the governor's house, before 
which is a square stockade upon which four patereros are mounted, 
so as to enfilade the streets.   Upon the hill they have a large square 
house, with a flat roof, made of thick sawn plank, stayed with oak 
beams, upon the top of which they have six cannon, which shoot 
iron balls of four and five pounds, and command the surrounding 
country.  The lower part they use for their church, where they preach 
on Sundays and the usual holidays.  They assemble by beat of drum, 
each with his musket or firelock, in front of the captain's door; they 
have their cloaks on, and place themselves in order, three abreast, 
and are led by a sergeant without beat of drum.  Behind comes the
governor, in a long robe; beside him, on the right hand, comes the 
preacher with his cloak on, and on the left hand the captain with his 
side-arms, and cloak on, and with a small cane in his hand; and so 
they march in good order, and each sets his arms down near him.  
Thus they are constantly on their guard night and day.

Their government is after the English form.  The governor has his 
council, which is chosen every year by the entire community, by 
election or prolongation of term.  In inheritances they place all the 
children in one degree, only the eldest son has an acknowledgement 
for his seniority of birth.  They have made stringent laws and ordin-
ances upon the subject of fornication and adultery, which laws they 
maintain and enforce very strictly indeed, even among the tribes 
which live amongst them.  They speak very angrily when they hear 
from the savages that we live so barbarously in these respects, and 
without punishment.  Their farms are not so good as ours, because 
they are more stony, and consequently not so suitable for the plough.  
They apportion their land according as each has means to contribute 
to the eighteen thousand guilders which they have promised to those 
who had sent them out; whereby they have their freedom without 
rendering an account to any one; only if the King should choose to 
send a governor-general they would be obliged to acknowledge 
him as sovereign overlord.  The maize seed which they do not 
require for their own use is delivered over to the governor, at three
guilders the bushel, who in his turn sends it in sloops to the north 
for the trade in skins among the savages; they reckon one bushel 
of maize against one pound of beaver's skins; the profits are divided
according to what each has contributed, and they are credited for the
amount in the account of what each has to contribute yearly towards 
the reduction of his obligation.  Then with the remainder they 
purchase what next they require, and which the governor takes care 
to provide every year.  They have better sustenance than ourselves,
because they have the fish so abundant before their doors.  There are 
also many birds, such as geese, herons and cranes, and other small-
legged birds, which are in great abundance there in the winter.

The tribes in their neighborhood have all the same customs as already 
above described, only they are better conducted than ours, because the 
English give them the example of better ordinances and a better life; 
and who also, to a certain degree, give them laws, in consequence of 
the respect they from the very first have established amongst them.

The savages [there] utilize their youth in labor better than the savages 
round about us:  the girls in sowing maize, the young men in hunting.  
They teach them to endure privation in the field in a singular manner, 
to wit:

When there is a youth who begins to approach manhood, he is 
taken by his father, uncle, or nearest friend, and is conducted 
blindfolded into a wilderness, in order that he may not know 
the way, and is left there by night or otherwise, with a bow and
arrows, and a hatchet and a knife.  He must support himself there 
a whole winter with what the scanty earth furnishes at this season, 
and by hunting.  Towards the spring they come again, and fetch 
him out of it, take him home and feed him up again until May.  
He must then go out again every morning with the person who 
is ordered to take him in hand; he must go into the forest to seek 
wild herbs and roots, which they know to be the most poisonous 
and bitter; these they bruise in water and press the juice out of them, 
which he must drink, and immediately have ready such herbs as will
preserve him from death or vomiting; and if he cannot retain it, he 
must repeat the dose until he can support it, and until his constitution
becomes accustomed to it so that he can retain it.

Then he comes home, and is brought by the men and women, all 
singing and dancing, before the Sackima; and if he has been able to 
stand it all well, and if he is fat and sleek, a wife is given to him.

In that district there are no lions or bears, but there are the same 
kinds of other game, such as deers, hinds, beavers, otters, foxes, 
lynxes, seals and fish, as in our district of country.  The savages 
say that far in the interior there are certain beasts of the size of oxen,
having but one horn, which are very fierce.  The English have used 
great diligence in order to see them, but cannot succeed therein, 
although they have seen the flesh and hides of them which were 
brought to them by the savages.  There are also very large elks here, 
which the English have indeed seen.

The lion skins which we sometimes see our savages wear are not 
large, so that the animal itself must be small; they are of a mouse-
gray color, short in the hair and long in the claws.

The bears are some of them large and some small; but the largest 
are not so large as the middle-sized ones which come from Green-
land.  Their fur is long and black and their claws large.  The savages
esteem the flesh and grease as a great dainty.

Of the birds, there is a kind like starlings, which we call maize 
thieves, because they do so much damage to the maize.  They 
fly in large flocks, so that they flatten the corn in any place where 
they alight, just as if cattle had lain there.  Sometimes we take them 
by surprise and fire amongst them with hailshot, immediately that 
we have made them rise, so that sixty, seventy, and eighty fall all 
at once, which is very pleasant to see.

There are also very large turkeys living wild; they have very long 
legs, and can run extraordinarily fast, so that we generally take 
savages with us when we go to hunt them; for even when one has 
deprived them of the power of flying, they yet run so fast that we 
cannot catch them unless their legs are hit also.

In the autumn and in the spring there come a great many geese, 
which are very good, and easy to shoot, inasmuch as they congregate
together in such large flocks.  There are two kind of partridges; the 
one sort are quite as small as quails and the other like the ordinary 
kind here.  There are also hares, but few in number, and not larger 
than a middle-sized rabbit; and they principally frequent where the
land is rocky.

This, sir, is what I have been able to communicate to you from 
memory, respecting New Netherland and its neighborhood, in 
discharge of my bounden duty; I beg that the same may so be 
favorably received by you, and I beg to recommend myself for 
such further service as you may be pleased to command me in, 
wherever you may find me.

In everything your faithful servant,

ISAACK DE RASIERES.

ISAACK DE RASIERES."

Harmen Meydertsz van den Boagaert (?),  Narrative of a Journey 
Into the Mohawk and Oneida Country, 1634-1635.  In J. Franklin 
Jameson, ed., Narratives of New Netherland, 1609-1664 (Original 
Narratives of Early American History).  NY: Charles Scribner's 
Sons, 1909.

Praise the Lord above all--Fort Orange, 1634.

December 11. Journal kept of the principal events that happened 
during the journey to the Maquas and Sinnekens Indians.  First, the 
reasons why we went on this journey were these, that the Maquas