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[ Barcia, 69. The following passage in one of the unpublished letters of Menendez seems to indicate that the above is exaggerated: "Your Majesty may he assured by me, that, had I a million, more or less, I would employ and spend the whole in this undertaking, it being so greatly to the glory of the God our Lord, and the increase of our Holy Catholic Faith, and the service and authority of your Majesty and thus I have offered to our Lord whatever He shall give me in this world, Whatever I shall possess, gain, or acquire shall be devoted to the planting of the Gospel in this land, and the enlightenment of the natives thereof, and this I do promise to your Majesty." This letter is dated 11 Septemher, 1565. I have examined the country on the line of march of Menendez. In many places it retains its original features.]
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[ Amid all the confusion of his geographical statements, it seems clear that Menendez believed that Cheeapeake Bay communicated with the St. Lawrence, and thence with Newfoundland on the one hand, and the South Sea on the other. The notion that the St. Lawrence would give access to China survived till the time of La Salle, or more than a century. In the map of Gastaldi, made, according to Kohl, about 1550, a belt of water connecting the St. Lawrence and the Atlantic is laid down. So also in the map of Ruscelli, 1561, and that of Mactines, 1578, as well as in that of Michael Lok, 1582. In Munster's map, 1545, the St. Lawrence is rudely indicated, with the words, "Per hoc fretfl iter ad Molucas.">[
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[ The "black drink" was, till a recent period, in use among the Creeks. It is a strong decoctiun of the plant popularly called eassina, or nupon tea. Major Swan, deputy agent for the Creeks in 1791, thus describes their belief in its properties: "that it purifies them from all sin, and leaves them in a state of perfect innocence; that it inspires them with an invincible prowess in war; and that it is the only solid cement of friendship, benevolence, and hospitality." Swan's account of their mode of drinking and ejecting it corresponds perfectly with Le Moyne's picture in De Bry. See the United States government publication, History, Condition, and Prospects of Indian Tribes, V. 266.]
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[ The earliest maps and narratives indicate a city, also called Norembega, on the banks of the Penobseot. The pilot, Jean Alphonse, of Saintonge, says that this fabulous city is fifteen or twenty leagues from the sea, and that its inhabitants are of small stature and dark complexion. As late as 1607 the fable was repeated in the Histoire Unicerselle des Indes Occidentales.]
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[ Such extempore works of defence are still used among some tribes of the remote west. The author has twice seen them, made of trees piled together as described by Champlain, probably by war parties of the Crow or Snake Indians. Champlain, usually too concise, is very minute in his description of the march and encampment.]