the year; and so ill accommodated in their ships, that many of them have died miserably in their passage; but, could never get one satisfactory answer.  Somebody, they know not who, had written a letter to his friend, or cousin, from thence, inviting him by all means, to come over; that it was a fine fruitful country, and to be held for ever, at a penny an acre.  But the truth of the fact is this, The English established in those colonies, are in great want of men to inhabit that tract of ground, which lies between them, and the wild Indians, who are not reduced under their dominion.  We read of some barbarous people, whom the Romans placed in their armies, for no other service, than to blunt their enemies’ swords, and afterwards to fill up trenches with their dead bodies.  And thus our people who transport themselves, are settled in those interjacent tracts, as a screen against the insults of the savages, and many have as much land, as they can clear from the woods, at a very reasonable rate, if they can afford to pay about a hundred years’ purchase by their labour.  Now beside the fox’s reasons which inclines all those, who have already ventured thither, to represent everything, in a false light, as well for justifying their own conduct, as for getting companions, in their misery; so, the governing people in those plantations, have wisely provided,[17] that no letters shall be suffered to pass from thence hither, without being first viewed by the council, by which our people here, are wholly deceived in the opinions, they have of the happy condition of their friends, gone before them.  This was accidentally discovered some months ago, by an honest man who having transported himself, and family thither, and finding all things directly contrary to his hope, had the luck to convey a private note, by a faithful hand, to his relation here, entreating him, not to think of such a voyage, and to discourage all his friends from attempting it.  Yet this, although it be a truth well known, hath produced very little effects; which is no manner of wonder, for as it is natural to a man in a fever to turn often, although without any hope of ease, or when he is pursued to leap down a precipice, to avoid an enemy just at his back; so, men in the extremest degree of misery, and want, will naturally fly to the first appearance of relief, let it be ever so vain, or visionary.

You may observe, that I have very superficially touched the subject I began with, and with the utmost caution:  for I know how criminal the least complaint hath been thought, however seasonable or just, or honestly intended, which hath forced me to offer up my daily prayers, that it may never, at least in my time, be interpreted by innuendoes as a false scandalous, seditious, and disaffected action, for a man to roar under an acute fit of the gout, which beside the loss and the danger, would be very inconvenient to one of my age, so severely afflicted with that distemper.