Selected quad for the lemma: water_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
water_n	fish_n	great_a	sea_n	3,519	5	6.8793	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A07216	A briefe discourse of the Nevv-found-land with the situation, temperature, and commodities thereof, inciting our nation to goe forward in that hopefull plantation begunne.	Mason, John, 1586-1635.	1620 (1620)	STC 17616; ESTC S109928	7,050	16

Ashe Beech or Ellmes haue we seene or heard of the greatest parts of the Plaines are marish and boggs yet apt to be drawen dry by meanes of many fresh Lakes intermixt which paye tribute to the Sea and on the brinks of these Lakes through which the water draines away from the rootes of the Grasse it florisheth in the other parts of the Plaines where the water standeth and killeth the growth of the Grasse with his coldnesse it is rushie and seggy in some parts is barren mossie ground but that that is firme and dry beareth good grasse The Spring beginneth in the end of Aprill Haruest continueth while Nouember I haue seene September and October much more pleasant than in England The South part is not so mountanous nor so woodie for being a little passed vp from the Sea coast the continent hath champion ground for 40. miles together in North and South extent of the like nature of the former hauing pretty Groues and many fresh laks replenished with Eeles Salmon-Troutes great and in great plentie The Beastes are Ellans Follow-deare Hares Beares harmeles Wolues Foxes Beauers Catnaghenes excellent Otteres and a small beast like a Ferret whose excrement is Muske And the Plantations haue prettie stoare of Swine and Goates The Fowles are Eagles Falcons Tassills Marlins a great Owle much deformed a lesser Owle Bussards Gripes Osprayes which diue for Fishes into the Water Rauens Crowes wild Geese Snipes Teales Twillockes excellent wilde Duckes of diuers sorts and aboundance some whereof rare and not to be found in Europe Their particulars too tedious to relate all good meate Partriches white in Winter and gray in Summer greater thā ours Butters blacke Birds with redd breastes Phillidas Wrens Swallowes Iayes with other small Birds and 2. or 3. excellent kinds of Beach Birds very fat and sweet at the plātations English Pigeons The sea fowles are Gulles white and gray Penguins Sea Pigeons Ice Birds Bottle noses with other sortes strange in shape yet all bowntifull to vs with their Egges as good as our Turkie or Hens where with the Ilelands are well replenished But of all the most admirable is the Sea so diuersified with seuerall sorts of Fishes abounding therein the consideration whereof is readie to swallow vp and drowne my senses not being able to comprehend or expresse the riches therof For could one acre therof be inclosed with the Creatures therein in the monthes of Iune Iulie and August it would exceed one thousand acres of the best Pasture with the stocke thereon which we haue in England May hath Herings on equall to 2. of ours Lants and Cods in good quātity Iune hath Capline a fish much resembling Smeltes in forme and eating and such aboundance dry on Shoare as to lade Carts in some partes pretty store of Salmond and Cods so thicke by the shoare that we heardlie haue beene able to row a Boate through them I haue killed of them with a Pike Of these three men to Sea in a Boate with some on Shoare to dresse and dry them in 30 dayes will kill commonlie betwixt 25. and thirty thousand worth with the Oyle arising from them 100 or 120. pound And the fish and Traine in one Harbour called Sainct Iohns is yearly in the Sommer worth 17 or 18. thousand pounds Iulie and so till Nouember hath Macrill in aboundance one thereof as great as two of ours August hath great large Cods but not in such aboundance as the smaller which continueth with some little decreasing till December What should I speake of a kinde of Whales called Gibberts Dog-fish Porposes Hering-Hogges Squides a rare kinde of fish at his mouth squirting matterefor th like Inke Flownders Crabbes Cunners Catfish Millers thunnes c. Of al which there are innumerable in the Summer season Likewise of Lobsters plentie and this last yeare stoare of Smelts not hauing beene knowne there before I haue also seene Tonnie fish in Newland now of shell fish there is Scalupes Musseles Vrsenas Hens Periwinkles c. Here we see the chiefe fishing with his great commoditie expressed which falleth so fitly in the Summer season betwixt seed-time and Haruest that it cannot be any hinderance to either I haue heard some countries commended for their two fowld Haruest which heare thou hast although in a different kinde yet both as profitable I dare say as theirs so much extolled if the right course be taken well fareth that country say I which in one months time with reasonable paines wil pay both landlords rent seruants wages and all Houshold charges But peraduenture some squeaysie stomake will say Fishing is a beastly trade vnseeming a Gentleman to whom I answere Bonus odor luti cū lucro let them propound the Holanders to themselues for example whose Countrie is so much inriched by it others say the Countrie is barren but they are deceiued for Terra quae tegit seipsam tegit Dominum and the great aboundance of Woodes and wilde Fruites which excedingly florish there proue the contrary And what thogh the fertility of the soyle and temperature of the Climate be inferiour to Virginia yet for foure maine reasons to be laid downe it is to be parallelled to it if not preferred before it the which we will heare propound 1 The first reason is the nearenes to our owne home which naturally we are so much addicted vnto being but the halfe of the way to Virginia hauing a conuenient passage for three seasonable Monthes March Aprill and May which alwayes accomodate faire windes to passe thether sometime in 14. or 20. dayes seldome in thirtie dayes Likewise the commodious returne in Iune Iulie August September October and Nouember sometimes in 12. 16. 20. and now and then in thirtie dayes 2 The great intercourse of trade by our Nation these threescore years and vpwards in no small numbers frequenting the New-found land and daylie increasing with the likelinesse thereof to continue fish being a staple commoditie with vs and so sellable in other countries yearlie imploying 3000. thousand Sea-men and breeding new daylie also fraighting three hundreth Ships in that voyage and releuing of 20000. people moe here in England for most of these fishers are maried and haue a charge of Children and liue by this meanes not being able to gaine halfe so much by another labour furthermore the reuenew that groueth to the. King by the customes of French Spanish and Straights goods imported from the proceede of this fish trade suppose at the least to the value of ten thousand pounds yearely 3 The conueniency of transporting plantors thether at the old rate ten shillings the man and twentie shillings to find him victual thether likewise other commodities by shippes that goe sackes at ten shilling per tunne out and thirtie shillings home whereas Virginia and Birmooda fraightes are fiue pound the man and three pound the tunne 4 Fourthly and lastly Securitie from foraine and domesticke enemies there being but few Saluages in the north and

none in the south parts of the Countrie by whom the planters as yet neuer suffered damage against whom if they should seeke to trouble vs a small fortification will serue being but few in number and those onely Bow men Also if any Warres should happen betwixt vs and other Nations wee neede not feare rooting out For the Yce is a Bulwarke all Aprill commonlie and after that during the whole Summer wee haue a garison of 9. or 10. 1000 of our owne Nation with many good and warlike Shippes who of necessitie must defend the fishing season for their liuings sake as they alwayes formerlie haue done in the Warres with Spaine And afterwards in the monthes of Haruest and Winter the winds are our friends and will hardlie suffer any to approch vs the which if they should the cold opposite to the nature of the Spainard will giue him but cold Intertainement neither will the Plantours be altogether puffed vp with carelesse securitie but fortifie in some measure knowing that Non sunt securi qui dant sua Colla securi Nowe hauing formerly layed downe the temperature of the Aire and disposition of the Weather in the Winter season to be cold and consequently differēt from other places of the same situation vnder the same Parallel in Europe and by experience answerable to 59. or 60. degrees thereof It will be expected that I should shew some reasons concerning the same which according to mine opinion submitting my selfe to better Iudgements I will set downe It being a generall rule approued through America that any place vnder the same Parallel of another place in Europe is as cold as those places which are situate in 12. or 13. degrees to the North wards therof and the same rule holdeth a like on either side of the Equinoctiall For example the straights of Magelan in 54. to the South of the Equinoctiall are more cold snowie and boysterous than any part of Europe in 65 Likewise on this side the Line the Country about the Riuer Orenoaque and Trinidade in 9. or ten degrees is foūd as temperate as Gualata vnder 23. degrees of more northerlie latitude in Africa So likewise Sainct Augustine in Florida vnder 31. degrees is anserable to Valadulid in 42. degrees in Spaine also the plantations vnder 37. degrees in Virginia are correspondent in the Winter to the temperature of Deuenshire or Cornewell vnder 50. degrees heare in England and although their Summer bee some what hotter in regard of the nearenes of the Sunne being then in Cancer within 15. degrees of their Zenith the Radius therof then striking neare at a right Angle causing a strange reflection yet would it be much hotter if the Sun in his passage ouer the great Oceane 3000. miles broad vnder that Paralel betwixt Europe America by the exhalation of waterish vapours much moisture thereout into the middle region of the Aire did not coole the same which being made more grosse thick with misty Clouds his Beames cannot pearce through with their propre vigor and force to heate the Earth To this cooling of the Sunnes heate helpeth also all those great fresh ponds and lakes so abounding in America Fresh waters being more naturally cold than salt and both colder than the Earth of like qualitie also are the marish and Boggie groundes the Lands not manured and therefore more naturally cold the Country slenderly peopled voide of Townes and Cities whereof Europe is full the smoake whereof and heate of fires much qualifieth the coldnesse of the Aire Lastly the chiefest reason of the coldnesse in New-found-land in the VVinter season is the Yce which beeing congealed into great firme Lands Euen from the North Pole all alongst the Coast of Gronland Grenland The North-west passage Terra de laberador so towardes the Grandbay all that tract hauing many Inlets and broken Lands apt as vnnaturali wombes to breede and bring foorth such Monsters which being nursed in their ruder armes till the VVinter season past are turnde foorth of doores in the Spring to shift for themselues and being weary of their imprisonments in those angrie Climes with one accord as if they had agreed with winde and streame take Ferrie into Newfound-land which immuring vs in the months of Febru March both which are subject to northeast winds blowing from this Yce causeth it very cold The currant stil setting it southward as a Iaylor to bring it before the Iudge neuer leaueth it till with the helpe of the outset of Sainct Lawrence Gulfe it be presented nearer the Sun to be broild by his scorching Beames and consumed I cannot deny but in some VVinters betwixt Christmas and March Yce is bred in the Harbors and bayes of New-foundland by reason of the calmenesse of the winds there incident And the want of streames not causing motion in the Waters and when it is so frozen it is none otherwise then the Texsell or Inner Seas in Holand of 15. or 18. Inches thicknesse and breakes and consumes in the Spring all fresh Lakes frozen opens in the end of March or the beginning of Aprill which brings with it many showers to wash away Snow and bare the ground and in the midle of the Month many Ships arriue of the English some French and in the midest of May some Portingalls All which as so many Reapers come to the Haruest gathering in aboundance the wonderfull blessings of the Lord. I might heare further discourse of our discoueries conference with the Saluages by Master Iohn Gye their maner of life Likewise of the managinge our businesse in our plantations with the descriptions of their situations in 2. places 16. miles distant from other on the northside the bay of conception of the manner charge and benefite of our fishings with the seuerall strange formes and natures of Fishes projects for making Yron Salt Pitch Tarre Tirpintine Frank-Incense Furres Hope of trade with Saluages and such like with many accidents and occurences in the time of my gouerment there but these may suffice as Verbum sapienti being of sufficient trueth to remoue errours of conceiuing the Countrie more pleasant by reason of his naturall sight in the Spheare then it is indeede also to convince and take away malicious and scandelous speeches of maligne persons who out of enuy to GOD and good Actions instructed by their father the Deuill haue sought to dispoile it of the dewe and blamish the good name thereof And lastlie to induce thee gentle Reader to the true consideration thereof as a thing of great consequence to our Nation not only at present but like to bee much more beneficiall when the plaintations there shall increase which God grant to his owne glorie and the good of our Common-Wealth FINIS