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.

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

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.