Reuenants à la paucité de ce [72] peuple, il y a encores des autres raisons d'icelle, ceste-cy principalement: qu'en vne vie tant inegale, si disetteuse, & tant laborieuse, le naturel luy peut durer, s'il n'est bien fort; & le fort mesme y reçoit des accidents souuent, & heurts irremediables. Leurs femmes aussi à cause du grand trauail ne sont pas si fecondes: car c'est le plus, si elles enfantent de deux en deux ans. Aussi ne pourroyent elles nourrir leur fruict, si elles accouchoy[~e]t plus souuent; veu mesmes qu'elles alaictent leurs enfans iusques à trois ans, si elles peuu[~e]t. Leur couche ne dure guieres, deux heures: souuent en chemin elles se deliurent, & vn peu apres reprendront leur trauail comme deuant. Returning to the sparseness of the [72] population, there are still some other reasons for it; this being the principal one, that in a life so irregular, so necessitous and so painful, a man's constitution cannot hold out unless it be very strong, and even then he is liable to accidents and irremediable injuries. Their wives, on account of their heavy work, are not very prolific, for at most they do not have children oftener than every two years, and they are not able to nourish their offspring if they have them oftener, as they nurse them for three years if they can.[19] Their confinement lasts hardly two hours; often the children are born on the march, and a little while afterward the mothers will go on with their work as before.