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74
Läsebok. N:o 77 — 78.
Yea, that shall I do, and make your Grace merry:
You think I’m the abbot of Canterbury;
But I’m his poor shepherd, as plain you may see,
That am come to beg pardon for him and for me.
The King he laughed, and swore by the mass:
I’ll make thee lord abbot this day in his place! —
Now, nay, my liege, be not in such speed,
For alack! I can neither write nor read.
Four nobles a week then I will give thee,
For this merry jest thou hast shown unto me;
And tell the old abbot, when thou comest home,
Thou hast brought him a pardon from good King John.
78. The Western Wilderness.
Towards the centre of North America, there are wide
tracts of country, stretching many hundreds of miles from
North to South, and from East to West, which are almost
uninhabited. On the Eastern coast of this vast continent,
which is washed by the Atlantic Ocean, lie the provinces of
the United States, peopled by a race of men who came at
first from England, and who still speak our language and
follow our manners.
The Western shores, bounded by the Pacific Ocean, are
mostly possessed by the Spaniards, who were the first
discoverers and conquerors of America; but great part of the
inland country is still left free to the tribes of native Indians
who have never been subdued by Europeans. These tribes,
however, are few; and the number of men in each tribe is
but small; for they destroy one another by continual wars;
and the land is far too wide for these poor hunters to keep
as their own, or even to wander over, though they sometimes
ramble to great distances in pursuit of their game. Thus it
happens that you might travel in these regions for clays and
days together, without seeing so much as the print of a
human foot in the dust, or the smoke of a human dwelling,
curling up among the trees of the forest.
Yet the land is fair and fertile, and suited for men to
till, and to plant, and to make their abode in: thick forests
of stately trees, for building ships or houses, cover?;the face
of the country in some parts, whilst in others wide grassy
plains, for growing corn or feeding cattle, stretch as far as
the eye can reach; various wild fruits, and among the rest
grapes of fine flavour, spread a feast for the beasts and the
birds, which the traveller would gladly share. Many mighty
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