u>- 



The Second Book, 



CONTAINING 





I 



A DESCRIPTION 



O F 



NORTHERN AMERICA 





IffllliHliiiiL^S 



t=\f3s WP 







l^^^^^s 



^^ 



CHAP. I. 



0/" r£* "Bounds of America, W ^ f/tf Qivijion of the Mexican 



or 3\(jrthem part thereof. 



/Wing in the firft part of this Volume difcours'd at large The Bounds 



l • • 1 r i . ^ i i l and Divi(Soa 



concerning the original or the Americans, and whether that ofK«*m A 



part of the World call'd India Occidentalism or America, were 

 known to the Ancients, or own its Difcovery wholly to 

 the Moderns, asalfo of all the Difcoveries that have been 

 made of the fevcral parts thereof, and by whom, we fliall 

 now pafs on to the Topographical part, defcribing every 

 particular Province or Region, by giving, an account of 

 their Situation, Temperature, Productions, Nature of r;he"Soil, and Quality of the 

 Inhabitants. America, lying Weftward of the Azores, and the Worlds Meridian, is 

 byTome fuppos'd to confift of one vaft Ifland,and fevcral lefler ones,fcatter'd about 

 it: Nor can this fuppofition be thought vain, if, as many think, it be inviron'd 

 on the North-fide, as toward the Eaft, South, and Weft it is known to be $ Eaft 

 and South, by the Atlantick Ocean - y and Weft, by Mar del Zur : But becaufe the 

 North. Weft Paflage, though attempted by many, as Kelfon, VaVis, Forhifber, Sutton, 

 Smith, Hudfon, and others, hath not yet by any been fully difcoYCr'd • fo that it is 

 not certainhpknown whether America be joyn'd to Greenland, and the Artlick Region, 

 by a continu'd Tract of Land, or fever'dby the Ocean : We fliall follow the me- 

 thod of thofe Geographers, who, reputed fufficiently Authentick,have divided this 

 new WorlcPinto Iflands, and two grand Teninfula's joyn'd together by zwlfthmus, or 

 Neck of Land, call'd The SraightofDarien, by fome The Straight of Panama, lying al. 

 moft under the Equinoctial Line, and extending in length from Nombre de t>ios 

 Southward above a hundred Miles, and from Eaft to Weft feventeen Miles over in x 



