The Jesuit Relations and Allied Documents, Vol. 2: Acadia, 1612-1614
History
The Jesuit Relations and Allied Documents, Vol. 2: Acadia, 1612-1614
Canada -- History -- To 1763 (New France); Indians of North America -- Canada; Jesuits -- Missions; Jesuits -- North America
confused procession of them, as it were. Moreover, though a land
of frost, it is very windy, the wind being nearly always a cold
one. Another cause of cold is the wildness of the country; for,
being covered on every side by one continuous forest, it naturally
follows that the soil hardly ever becomes really warmed through.
A third cause is the mountains, covered with snow and perpetual
frost, which are said to wall us in far away to the North and the
West.
Certè quidem ab ea parte non nisi gelu perflamur & niuibus. Alioqui
sanè facies regionis est peramœna, pluribus [13] locis hospitem
inuitans ac bene pollicens; & quod apparuit, si colatur, non infœcunda.
Indigenæ rari sunt. Etheminquenses mille capita numerare non possent,
nec multò plus Algonquini simul & Montanenses iuncti: Soriqui duo
millia non conficerent: Itaque summùm quatuor capitum millibus tam
vasti terrarum & littorum tractus non tenentur, sed percurruntur. Gens
enim est vaga, siluestris, & sparsa, vt quæ venatu solo & piscatu
viuat. Imberbes feré, & quidem statura cōmuni, vel paulò breuiore ac
graciliore quàm nostri, at non degener tamen aut indecora; color non
multùm fuscus, faciem vulgò pingunt, & in luctu atrant. Iuris amantes,
ac vim latrociniùmque perosi. Quod sanè mirum est in hominibus, qui
lege ac magistratu carent. Sui enim quisque dominus est ac vindex.
Sagamos quidem habēt, hoc est bellorum ductores, sed quorum omnino
precarium sit imperium, si tamen imperium appellandum est, vbi nulla
est necessitas parendi. Sequuntur vel exemplo, vel vsu, vel affinitatis
[14] aut generis conciliatione inducti, nonnunquam etiam certè cuiusdam
potentiæ auctoritate: bella populatim gerunt, ob illatas priuatis
iniurias. Genus totum vindictæ auidum; & vt barbarum, in victoriâ
insolens, captiuorum capita tanquam opima spolia & torques magno gaudio
circumferunt.
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