I had now leisure to complete taking the courses of the river, from which, as I have already mentioned, I was deterred by the Indians, as likewise to make remarks upon the country and inhabitants.
The country being situated between thirty-two and thirty-four degrees north latitude, and eighty-seven degrees thirty minutes west longitude from London, as near as can be calculated, is temperate, inclining to heat during the summer-season, and so remarkably fertile, that the women alone do all the laborious tasks of agriculture, the soil requiring only a little stirring with a hoe, to produce whatever is required of it; yielding vast quantities of pease, beans, potatoes, cabbages, Indian corn, pumpions, melons, and tobacco, not to mention a number of other vegetables imported from Europe, not so generally known amongst them, which flourish as much, or more here, than in their native climate; and, by the daily experience of the goodness of the soil, we may conclude, that, with due care, all European plants might succeed in the same manner.
Before the arrival of the Europeans, the natives were not so well provided, maize, melons, and tobacco, being the only things they bestow culture upon, and perhaps seldom on the latter. The meadows or savannahs produce excellent grass; being watered by abundance of fine rivers, and brooks well stored with fish, otters and beavers, having as yet no nets, the Indians catch the fish with lines, spears, or dams; which last, as it seems particular to the natives of America, I shall trouble the reader with a description of. Building two walls obliquely down the river from either shore, just as they are near joining, a passage is left to a deep well or reservoir; the Indians then scaring the fish down the river, close the mouth of the reservoir with a large bush, or bundle made on purpose, and it is no difficult matter to take them with baskets, when enclosed within so small a compass.
North America, being one continual forest, admits of no scarcity of timber for every use: there are oaks of several sorts, birch, ash, pines, and a number of other trees, many of which are unknown in Europe, but already described by many authors. The woods likewise abound with fruits and flowers, to which the Indians pay little regard. Of the fruits there are some of an excellent flavour, particularly several sorts of grapes, which, with proper culture, would probably afford an excellent wine. There are likewise plumbs, cherries, and berries of several kinds, something different from those of Europe; but their peaches and pears grow only by culture: add to these several kinds of roots, and medicinal plants, particularly the plant so esteemed by the Chinese, and by them called gingsang, and a root which never fails curing the most inveterate venereal disease, which, however, they never had occasion for, for that distemper, before the arrival of Europeans among them. There are likewise an incredible number of buffaloes, bears, deer, panthers, wolves, foxes, racoons, and opossums. The buffaloes, and most of the rest, have been so often described, and are so well known, that a description of them would be but tedious; the opossum, however, deserves some attention, as I have never seen it properly described. It is about the size of a large cat, short and thick, and of a silver colour. It brings forth its young, contrary to all other animals, at the teat, from whence, when of a certain size, and able to walk, it drops off, and goes into a false belly, designed by providence in its dam for its reception, which, at the approach of danger, will, notwithstanding this additional load, climb rocks and trees with great agility for its security.
