Becoming America - An Exploration of American Literature from Precolonial to Post-Revolution, 2018a

BECOMING AMERICA
PRE- AND EARLY COLONIAL LITERATURE
if one suddenly shouts on the islands where they resort most often, one can kill
them easily as they throw themselves in the water when they hear the noise; or
they can be caught in any other way that the ingenuity of those who take pleasure
in it may suggest.
If one is fond of shing, whether with the line, nets, warrens, weels or other
inventions, there are rivers, brooks, lakes and ponds in as great number as one
could desire, with an abundance of salmon; very beautiful trout, ne and large,
of every kind; sturgeon of three sizes; shad; very good bass, some of which weigh
twenty pounds. There are carp of all kinds and some of them are very large; and
pike, some of them ve feet long; turbot without scales, two or three kinds, big and
little; white sh a foot long; gold sh, smelts, tench, perch, tortoises, seal, of which
the oil is very good even for frying; white porpoises, and many others that we do
not have and that are not found in our rivers and ponds. All these varieties of sh
are found in the great river St. Lawrence; besides, cod and whales are caught on the
coasts of New France in nearly all seasons. Thus one can judge of the pleasure that
the French will have when once they are settled in these places; living a sweet, quiet
life, with perfect freedom to hunt, sh, and make homes for themselves according
to their desires; with occupation for the mind in building, clearing the ground,
working gardens, planting them, grafting, making nurseries, planting all kinds of
grains, roots, vegetables, salad greens and other potherbs, over as much land and
in as great quantity as they wish. The vines there bear pretty good grapes, even
though they are wild. If these are transplanted and cultivated they will yield fruit in
abundance. And he who will have thirty acres of cleared land in that country, with
the help of a few cattle, and of hunting and shing, and trading with the savages
in conformity to the regulations of the company of New France, will be able to live
there with a family of ten as well as those in France who have an income of fteen
or twenty thousand livres.
Chapter II
That Kings and great Princes ought to take more pains to spread the knowledge of
the true God and magnify His glory among barbarians than to multiply their states.
Voyages of the French to the New World since the year 1504.
THE most illustrious palms and laurels that kings and princes can win in this
world are contempt for temporal blessings and the desire to gain the spiritual.
They cannot do this more protably than by converting, through their labor and
piety, to the catholic, apostolic and Roman religion, an innite number of savages,
who live without faith, without law, with no knowledge of the true God. For the
taking of forts, the winning of battles, and the conquests of countries, are nothing
in comparison with the reward of those who prepare for themselves crowns in
heaven, unless it be ghting against indels. In that case, war is not only necessary,
but just and holy, since the safety of Christianity, the glory of God and the defence
of the faith are at stake. These labors are, in themselves, praiseworthy and very
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