serves for no other end except to maintain the elks and deer, who never devour an hundredth part of it, then to be burnt every spring, to make way for new. How ma ny poor people in the world would think themselves happy, had they an acre or two of land, whilst here is [are] hundreds, nay thousands of acres, that would invite inhabitants. Delaware Bay, the mouth of the river, lieth about the midway betwixt New York and the capes of Virginia. It is a very pleasant river and country, but very few inhabitants, and them being mostly Swedes, Dutch, and Finns. About sixty miles up the river is the principal town, called New Castle, which is about forty miles from Maryland, and very good way to travel, either with horse or foot. The people are settled all along the west side sixty miles above New Castle; the land is good for all sorts of English grain, and wanteth nothing * * * people to populate it, it being capable of entertaining many hundred families. Some may admire that these rich and great tracts of land, lying so adjoining to New England and Virginia, should be no better inhabited, and that the richness of the soil, and healthfulness of the climate, and the like, should be no better a motive to induce * ernment * * to populate it * * that whilst it was under the Dutch gov* years, there was little encouragement for any English, both in respect * * from the Indians, * * * * the Dutch being almost always in danger * * g of a war, which would have been destructive to their * * the main thing prosecuted by the Dutch. And secondly the Dutch * * lands, together with their exacting of the * their lands that did much hinder the populating of it; together * dislike the English have of liv. tenth of all which * * * * ing under another government there were several towns of a considerable great ness began and settled by people out of New England, and every day more and more came to view and settle. To give some satisfaction to people that shall be desirous to transport themselves thither, (the country being capable of entertaining many thousands,) how and after what manner people live, and how land may be procured, &c. I shall answer, that the usual way is for a company of people to join together, either enough to make a town, or a less number. These go with the consent of the governour, and view a tract of land, there being choice * and finding a place convenient for a town, they return to the governour, who, upon their desire, admits them into the colony, and gives them a grant or patent for the said tract, for themselves and their associates. These persons, being thus qualified, settle that * * and take in what inhabitants to themselves they shall see cause to admit of, till their town is full. * These associates, thus taken in, have equal privileges with themselves, and they make division of the land, suitable to every man's occasions, no man being debarred of such quantity as he hath occasion for. The rest they let lie in common, till they have occasion for a new division, never dividing their pasture lands at all, which lie in common to the whole * * The best commodities for any to carry with them is clothing, the country being full of all sorts of cattle, with which they may furnish themselves at an easy rate. * * a true description of the country about New York was thought necessary to be published as well for the encouragement of any that may have a mind to remove themselves thither, as for a * * * |