John Hadding

“ France, though under absolute government, and professing the Romish religion, is the most flourishing kingdom in Europe. The air temperate, pleasant, and healthful; the soil extraordinary fruitful; and the commodities salt fish, corn, wine, pepper, skins, silk, &c. The days the same length as in England. The language so universally prevails, that it is used in most courts in Europe. The manners of the people very polite, and the last century has produced many great men of almost every branch of polite and useful learning. ”

“ AMERICA is the South division of the world, and takes its name from one Americus Vespuous, an adventurous Florentine who not many centuries ago first discovered it, and therefore by some it is called the New World. It is bounded on the East by the Atlantic and Virginian Seas, on the West by the Pacific ocean, on the South by the same dividing it from Asia, and on the North its bounds are not known. ”

“ The air is very different, by reason of its vast extent from North to South. The longest day in the North is about two months, and the shortest in the South nine hours and three quarters. The people are rude and barbarous, their food is horse-flesh, and live in tents and open fields. The religion is Paganism in the North, and Mahometism in the South. They never speak to the Cham, who is an absolute monarch, but on their knees with their faces towards the ground; his subjects stile him the Shadow of God, he looks upon himself as the monarch of the whole world ”