The Principal Navigations, Voyages, Traffiques, and Discoveries of The English Nation, Vol. XII., America, Part I. eBook

This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 541 pages of information about The Principal Navigations, Voyages, Traffiques, and Discoveries of The English Nation, Vol. XII., America, Part I..

The Principal Navigations, Voyages, Traffiques, and Discoveries of The English Nation, Vol. XII., America, Part I. eBook

This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 541 pages of information about The Principal Navigations, Voyages, Traffiques, and Discoveries of The English Nation, Vol. XII., America, Part I..

[Sidenote:  Inchanters.] These people are great inchanters, and vse many charmes of witchcraft:  for when their heads doe ake, they tye a great stone with a string vnto a sticke, and with certaine prayers and wordes done to the sticke, they lift vp the stone from ground, which sometimes with all a mans force they cannot stirre, and sometime againe they lift as easily as a fether, and hope thereby with certaine ceremonious wordes to haue ease and helpe.  And they made vs by signes to vnderstand, lying groueling with their faces vpon the ground, and making a noise downeward, that they worship the deuill vnder them.

[Sidenote:  The beasts and foules of the Countrey.] They have great store of Deere, Beares, Hares, Foxes, and innumerable numbers of sundry sorts of wild foule, as Seamewes, Gulles, Wilmotes, Ducks, &c. whereof our men killed in one day fifteene hundred.  They haue also store of haukes, as Falkons, Tassels, &c. whereof two alighted vpon one of our ships at their returne, and were brought into England, which some thinke wil proue very good.

There are also great store of rauens, larkes, and partriges, whereof the countrey people feed.

All these foules are farre thicker clothed with downe and fethers, and haue thicker skinnes then any in England haue:  for as that countrey is colder, so nature hath provided a remedie thereunto.

Our men haue eaten of the Beares, Hares, Patriges, Larkes, and of their wild foule, and find them reasonable good meat, but not so delectable as ours.

Their wild foule must be all fleine, their skins are so thicke:  and they tast best fryed in pannes.

The Countrey seemeth to be much subiect to Earthquakes.

The ayre is very subtile, piercing and searching, so that if any corrupted or infected body, especially with the disease called Morbus Gallicus come there, it will presently breake forth and shew it selfe, and cannot there by any kind of salue or medicine be cured.

Their longest Sommers day is of great length, without any darke night, so that in Iuly al the night long, we might perfitly and easily write and reade whatsoeuer had pleased vs, which lightsome nights were very beneficiall vnto vs, being so distressed with abundance of yce as we were.

[Sidenote:  The length of their day.] The Sunne setteth to them in the Euening at a quarter of an houre after tenne of the clocke, and riseth againe in the morning, at three quarters of an houre after one of the clocke, so that in Sommer their Sunne shineth to them twenty houres and a halfe, and in the night is absent three houres and a halfe.  And although the Sunne bee absent these 3. houres and a halfe, yet it is not darke that time, for that the Sunne is neuer aboue three or foure degrees vnder the edge of their Horizon; the cause is that the Tropicke of Cancer doth cut their Horizon at very vneuen and oblique Angles.

[Sidenote:  A full reuolution of the Moone aboue their Horizon.] But the Moone at anytime of the yeere being in Cancer, hauing North latitude; doth make a full revolution aboue their Horizon, so that sometime they see the Moone about 24. houres togither.  Some of our company of the more ignorant sort, thought we might continually haue seene the Sunne and the Moone, had it not bene for two or three high mountaines.

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The Principal Navigations, Voyages, Traffiques, and Discoveries of The English Nation, Vol. XII., America, Part I. from Project Gutenberg. Public domain.