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who do not fuffer the others to be heard, who 

 have been a long time defirous of having mifii- 

 onaries Tent them. 



It is a long time fince the importance of the 

 place, ftill more than the beauty of the country 

 about the Narrows has given ground to wifh, 

 that fome considerable fettlement were made in 

 this p!ace ; this has been tolerably well begun, fome 

 fifteen years fince, but certain caufes of which I 

 am not informed, have reduced it almoft to no- 

 thing ; thofe who are againft it alledge firft, that 

 it would bring the trade for the northern furs too 

 near the Englifh, who as they are able to afford 

 their commodities to the Indians cheaper than <we, 

 would draw all that trade into the province of 

 New York. Secondly, that the lands near the 

 Narrows are not fertile, and that the whole furface 

 to the depth of nine or ten inches confifts of fand, 

 below which is hard clay impenetrable to the wa- 

 ter ; from whence it happens that the plains and 

 interior parts of the woods are always drowned ; 

 that every where you fee nothing but diminutive 

 ill-grown oaks, and hard walnut-trees, and that 

 the trees having their roots always under water 

 their fruits ripen very late. Thefe reafons have 

 not been unanfwered ; it is true that in the neigh- 

 bourhood of fort Pontchartrain the lands have a 

 mixture of fand, and that in the neighbouring 

 forefts there are bottoms almoft conftantly under 

 water *, however thefe very lands have produced 

 wheat eighteen years fucceflively without the leaft 

 manure, and you have no great way to go to find 

 the fineil foil in the world . With refpect to 

 woods, without going a great way from the fort, 

 I have feen as I have been walking fuch as may 

 vie with our nobleft forefts. 



As 



