Selected quad for the lemma: spirit_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
spirit_n	age_n	year_n	youth_n	286	3	8.0905	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A67689	An impartial description of Surinam upon the continent of Guiana in America with a history of several strange beasts, birds, fishes, serpents, insects and customs of that colony, etc. / worthy the perusal of all, from experience of George Warren ...	Warren, George, 17th cent.	1667 (1667)	Wing W970; ESTC R6956	16,255	34

An IMPARTIAL DESCRIPTION OF SURINAM UPON The CONTINENT of GUIANA IN AMERICA With a History of several strange Beasts Birds Fishes Serpents Insects and Customs of that Colony c. Worthy the Perusal of all from the Experience of George Warren Gent. London Printed by William Godbid for Nathaniel Brooke at the Angel in Gresham-Colledge in the second yard from Bishopsgate-street 1667. To the READER THIS is a present of three years Collection not without many hazards to my self for the delights of Warm Countries are mingled with sharp Sawces and indeed from the Constant breathings through the Pores more there than in Colder Regions 't is rationally believed our Spirits must make hast out of Bodies exhaust by heat but I have often seen many both Natives and others at Surinam very vigorous in extreme Old Age. In this Continent the Indians will tell you of Mighty Princes upwards and Golden Cities how true I know not But a brave Country it is and it may be truly said to a Mind untaint with Ambition and that can live according to Nature no place is more accommodate whether we regard health a luxuriant Soyle or kind Women I have made it no design of mine either to hide the inconveniencies of the Country or to extol the happiness thereof beyond truth Such as it is is here expos'd Some there are who confidently believe these warm Climates were the Dwellings of the Antient Learned Heathens to which opinion for the pleasure of the same places I could assent but that the most Acute Philosophers of old held a gross Doctrine that under or neer the Line 't was not habitable whereof dayly Experience affords a Confutation and it 's great ignorance to think any considerable Improvements can be made far distant from the Sun What advantage hath Accrewed to the English Scepter How Navigation hath been increased by the only Trade of Tobacco and Sugar in our New Plantations Who hath not heard As for my self I held it more Ingenuous to venture thy Censure for appearing in Print than that you should lose the delight of these Observations Farewell A Full and Impartial DESCRIPTION of SURINAM CHAP. I. Of the River WHICH is in Six or Five and a half Degrees of Northerly Latitude barr'd with Sand at the Entrance but yet Three Fathom deep at High-Water and in Spring Tides more 'T is about a League over at the Mouth of which breadth or but very little narrower it holds five Leagues up to a small Village call'd the Fort and then by degrees in two Leagues farther decreases a Mile and so continues as far as hath been discover'd It hath a Channel on either side to the East and West but the first is reputed best in which Vessels of 300 Tons have sailed neer 20 Leagues up to the Metropolis or chief Town of the Colony called Toorarica consisting of about One hundred Dweling Houses and a Chappel Before the Town is a very fair Bay or Harbour large enough to contain an Hundred Sail of Ships 'T is on both sides Woody unless here and there a Plantation be open to it and so perfect a Meander that in a matter of fifteen Leagues sailing a Ship steers all points of the Compass 'T is well stor'd with good Fish of innumerable kinds and others though not so useful yet for their Rarity very observable as the Sword-Fish so called from a Bone growing at his Snout resembling a Sword or more properly a Rake of which I have seen some above an Ell long There is another call'd the Manatee who feeds upon Bushes by the River side gives suck like a Cow and eats more like Flesh than Fish I 'le but name a third which for the strangeness of its Nature deserves a more particular Description 'T is the Torpedo or Num-Eele which being alive and touching any other Living Creature strikes such a deadness into all the parts as for a while renders them wholly useless and insensible which is believ'd has occasioned the Drowning of several persons who have been unhappily so taken as they were Swiming in the River It produces the like Effect if but touch'd with the end of a long Pole or one man immediately laying hold of another so benumm'd The Truth of this was experienced One of them being taken and thrown upon the Bank where a Dog spying it stir catches it in his Mouth and presently falls down which the Master observing and going to pull him off becomes motionless himself another standing by and endevouring to remove him follows the same fortune the Eele getting loose they Return quickly to themselves Plantations are setled Thirty Leagues up the River higher than which 't is not probable the Limits of that New Colony can extend by reason of Cataracts or Falls of Water that descend from ledges of Rocks from one side of the River to the other rendring any passage by Water the best means of Conveying necessaries altogether impossible nor is it only one for which in time perhaps some Remedy might be invented but they are observed to be within five or six Leagues one of another for ought is known up to the very head There was once an occasion to go up those Falls in Chase of some Indians who had been down and kill'd an English-Woman and robb'd the house wherein she was This Expedition was undertaken by a good number of men well provided who after they had with most grievous labour hall'd their Boats by Land above seven or eight of those Falls were at last compell'd to return without desired Success not having so much as seen an Indian and adventuring as they came back to shoot those Precipices in their Boats were some of them dash'd to pieces in the Descent and the rest hardly escaped with their Lives These Cataracts are in most of the Rivers upon the Coast and are the only Let to the more perfect discovery of that rich Continent CHAP. II. Of the Climate and Country in General WHICH from November till July is but moderately hot by reason of Clouds interpos'd and excessive Rains cooling the Earth all that time and the Constant North-East-Brizes which no less Refrigerate the Aire The other five Months when little Rain falls and those friendly Clouds are wanting the heat is something violent occasioned no less by a Reflection from the earth which is generally Sandy than the nearness of the Sun it self and would be hardly tolerable were it not for the Brizes before-mentioned Being no further from the Equinoctial Line the dayes and nights are alwayes almost Equal not differing above an hour the Sun Rising and Setting never sooner or later than half an hour before or half an hour after Six The constant warmness of the place makes it far more agreeable to Age than Youth The first it cherishes and as it were renews their years making them sprightly and gallant who were here crazy and impotent the latter have less spirit and decay more swiftly than in these Northern Countries though Surinam