248                                BROAD ADVICE.
the advocate-fiscal has caused to be charged on the 28th of August, 1643, against him; and it will be found that this man as well becomes such an administration as a pickpocket a silver-cloth doublet.
F. Let us stop here a spell. Are you able to speak here so freely all those things of which you have made mention 1 Friends, I will have no part in what is said. I am a stranger in the country, and know not its customs. I will rather sleep.
Gr. I never heard such talk. The world is turned; the boy is master. Although I speak crooked Dutch, I can understand well. It is now two years since two brave citizens, shipwrecked in the Channel, passed through England, who came from New Netherland, and I have not in all my life heard the like as these men told us of the directors whom they have there.
B. Well, I have just come from thence, and have brought over a number of people in my ship who will complain of the present directors and some of the government.
K. Well, let us drive away melancholy. It is a hard word that cannot be spoken, and an impossible deed which cannot be done. Schipper, proceed, what kind of country is New Netherland ?
B. New Netherland is one of the finest countries which lie under the sun, with all kinds of fruits, vegetables and trees ; several fine rivers; fish are caught there in abundance in every diversion, to salt, to dry, to fry, to boil, but principally to eat and to sell. There are also already many tame cattle, and deer more than the inhabitants are able to kill. In short, there is every thing there in sufficiency. Birds, wild and tame, to overflowing. The wine-grape grows wild ; onions also grow wild ; chestnuts, mulberries, plums, medlars, wild cherries, currants, gooseberries, hazel nuts, small apples, strawberries, kraakberries, blueberries, earthnuts, artichokes in the ground, and more, similar to them, all grow wild. Besides^ all that we have in Europe will grow there freely.
F.    What latitude have you there, Master ?
B. That's a seaman's question ;—38, 39, 40, 41, 42 degrees along the coast.
F. That's a good climate, I beh'eve you say, also. But what business is there ?