138 



AMERICA. 



Chap. L 



Whew* oe- 



aoouiutrd. 



Towhj and 

 Cities not 

 certainly 

 known. 



Sect. VI* 



Norumbegua. 



■JOrumbefrua, lying between No>* Scon* Northward, and Ne* England South- 

 warcf is' fo utterly not taken notice of by many as a diftindt Province, 

 that it might feem to be fwallow'd up and loft in the two Countxeys be- 

 tween which it lies, or at leaft to be thought a part of Virginia or New England (for 

 Virginia largely taken is faid to contain Nev England, Noyum Belgium, and Virginia, 

 efpecially fo call'd) and that fo much the rather, becaufe the Bcfjabees, accounted by 

 Sanfon d' Abbeville an ancient People of I{t» England, are written to have Hv'd near 

 the River Tenobfcot, which is reckoned to be the fame with VemtegoVct, or (as lome 

 will have it) Norumbegua, from which, or from a certain great City of that.Name, 

 the Country for fancy's fake muft needs be denominated . but flnce moft com- 

 monly we find it narn'd and treated of apart, it will not be improper to-fpllow 

 that method, carrying the Bounds of 'New England no farther Northward than the 

 River Qutmebequi or Sagadahoc, and fo determining the main pact of this Countrcy 

 to that ipace between the aforefaid River and femtegovct, excepting a frinali Sou- 

 therly portion upon the Banks of the River ChoVacoM - fo that it appears chiefly 

 fituate under the forty third Degree of Northern Latitude. 



As for the Towns or Cities of this Province, there is but a very uncertain ac- 

 count to be given, forafmuch as the pretended great City Norunibegua, from whence 

 the Province (hould take its Appellation, is not acknowledged by any of the moft 

 authentick modern Writers, nor in any late Voyage or Difcovcry any mention 

 made either of that or any other considerable Town or City. Dr. Beylm hippo- 

 feth it to be no other than Agguncia, a poor litde Village, that leems composed of a 

 company of Hutts or Sheaves, covered with the Skins of Beafts, or the Barks of 

 Trees. But the moft favourable conjecture is, that it might haply be the Ruincs 

 of an ancient Town, which the Natives call'd Arambcck, and had probably deferred 

 it long before the arrival of the Europeans in thole parts • however, it is not very 

 probable that the Name of the Countrey fliould be deriv'd from this City, if ever 

 there were any fuch, or from the River, which appears to have been term'd No- 

 rumbegua on purpofe to make way for this derivation, whereas PomtegoVet is the an- 

 cient Appellation that properly belongs to it . nor hath any modern one been ap- 

 ply'd to it but that of ^io Grande, by Buno in his Comment upon Thilij> Chver'w, upon 

 what ground is hard to tell, fince it is obferv'd by Heylin and others, to be neither 

 large, nor otherwife much to be commended, being Navigable not above twenty 

 or thirty Miles, in refpeel: of its many great Cataracts and Falls of Water, an In- 

 convenience with which many other Rivers otjmericazxt prejudiced, and rendred 

 impafTable. 



Before and about the Mouth of this River, which is judg'd to be about eight or 

 nine Miles broad, lie many fmall Iflands, or rather Hills, inviron'd with Water, 

 the chiefeft of which is by the French call'd la Haute IJle> from the high and Moun- 

 tainous appearance of it to thofe that fee it from afar off at Sea. 



The^foremention'd Buno, though he names, as belonging to Norumbega, thefe 

 feveral places, T?j$ Porto del Refugio, Porto %eale, <Paradifo t Flora, and Angolema, from 

 fome obfeure French teftimonies, without particularifing any Author, yet he after- 

 wards con feffc, that the Names given by the French, and thofe apply'd by?the Spa- 

 niards, are fo various and difagreeing, and bteed fuch a confufion, that no Charts 

 or Defcriptions had concluded upon either. As 



