Page:Historical and biographical sketches.djvu/192

188 can be fattened on the wild fruits in the bushes. This land is also full of cattle (rundvee), called buffaloes and elks, none of which are seen in Pennsylvania, Virginia, or Carolina. Twenty or thirty of these buffaloes are found together. There are also many bears, which hurt nobody. They feed upon leaves and wild fruits, on which they get very fat, and their flesh is excellent. Deer exist in great numbers, beside Indian cocks and hens (turkeys?), which weigh from twenty to thirty pounds each, wild pigeons more than in any other place in the world, partridges, pheasants, wild swans, geese, all kinds of ducks, and many other small fowls and animals; so that if the settlers can only supply themselves for the first year with bread, some cows for milk and butter, and vegetables, such as potatoes, peas, beans, etc., they can find flesh enough to eat from the many wild animals and birds, and can live better than the richest nobleman. The only difficulty is that they will be about thirty miles from the sea; but this, by good management, can be made of little consequence.” Apparently this description sounded like enchantment in the ears of the poor Swiss and Palatines who had never known anything but the thin soil of their native country, and who frequently met with a refusal if they sought to secure a farm of one or two acres. And how was that land of promise to be reached? Easily enough. They had only before the 1st of March to present themselves to one or another well-known merchant at Frankfort, pay £3 sterling or twenty-seven guilders each (children under ten years of age at half rates), that is, £2 for transportation, and £1 for seventy pounds of biscuit, a measure and a half of peas, a measure of oatmeal, and the necessary beer, and immediately they would be sent in ships to Rotterdam, thence to be carried over to Virginia. First,