those nations and people, who still remain independent of the King of Spain, is very meager and trifling; and that the countries, yet uninvaded, are for the most part of little consequence and unproductive, or if good and fruitful, are very difficult of cultivation, especially for our people, who, being unaccustomed to so hot a climate, can with great difficulty betake themselves to agriculture; and being unprovided with slaves, and not used to the employment of them, cannot, like the Spaniards and Portuguese, supply through others, their own Moreover, the colonizing such wild and uncultivated countries, insufficiency. demands more inhabitants than we can well supply; not so much through lack of population, in which our provinces abound, as from the fact, that all who are inclined to do any sort of work here, procure enough to eat without any trouble; and are, therefore, unwilling to go far from home on an uncertainty; to this may be added, the doubt of being able to protect it,

40 NEW- YORK COLONIAL MANUSCRIPTS. unless at greater and heavier expense than the returns are worth that may probably be derived from thence. But in order that you, High and Mighty, may be correctly informed herein, and understand tlie situation of the countries yet uniiivaded by our enemies, we shall explain to you more particularly the extent and condition thereof, from one end of our boundaries in West India to the other. The limits granted to us by Your High Mightinesses, start from, or begin on the iVorth at, Nova Francia, the bounds whereof were extended somewhat too far by the French so that ;