New York (State) -- History -- Colonial period, ca. 1600-1775 -- Sources
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.
END OF "LETTER OF ISAACK DE RASIERES."
MEGAPOLENSIS ON THE MOHAWKS
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 and Sinnekens
very often came to our factor [commis] Marten Gerritsen and me stating
that there were French Indians in their land, and that they had made a
truce with them so that they, namely, the Maquas, wished to trade for
their skins, because the Maquas Indians wanted to receive just as much
for their skins as the French Indians did. So I proposed to Mr. Marten
Gerritsen to go and see if it was true, so soon to run counter to their
High Mightinesses; and, besides, trade was doing very badly, therefore
I went as above with Jero[ni]-mus [de] la Croex and Willem Tomassen.
May the Lord bless my voyage! We went between nine and ten o'clock
with five Macquas Indians, mostly northwest above eight leagues, and
arrived at half-past twelve in the evening at a hunter's cabin, where
we slept for the night, near the stream that runs into their land and
is named Oyoge. The Indians here gave us venison to eat. The land is
mostly full of fir trees, and the flat land is abundant. The stream
runs through their land near their (Maquas) castle, but we could not
ascend it on account of the heavy freshet.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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