The manner of their living is very barbarous, because they do not eat at fixed times, but as often as they please

I resolved to abandon trade and to fix my aim on something more praiseworthy and stable whence it was that I made preparation for going to see part of the world and its wonders.

Those new regions [America] which we found and explored with the fleet . . . we may rightly call a New World . . . a continent more densely peopled and abounding in animals than our Europe or Asia or Africa and, in addition, a climate milder than in any other region known to us.