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For a mightie great compasse, their countrey lieth so under the
Ocean, and subject to the tide, that twice in a day & night by turnes,
the sea overfloweth a mightie deale of ground when it is floud, &
leaveth all drie again at the ebbe & return of the water : insomuch, as
a man can hardly tell what to make of the outward face of the earth
in those parts, so doubtfull it is between sea and land. The poore sillie
people that inhabit those parts, either keepe together on such high
hils as Nature hath afforded here & there in the plain : or els raise
mounts with their owne labour and handle worke (like to tribunals
cast up and reared with turfe, in a campe) above the height of the sea,
at any Spring tide when the floud is highest ; and thereupon they set
their cabines and cottages. Thus dwelling as they doe, they seeme
(when it is high water, and that all the plaine is overspread with the
sea round about) as if they were in little barkes floting in the middest
of the sea : againe, at a low water when the sea is gone, looke upon
them, you would take them for such as had suffered shipwracke, hav-
ing their vessels cast away, and left lying ato-side amid the sands : for
yee shall see the poore wretches fishing about their cottages, and fol-
lowing after the fishes as they go away with the water. They have
not a four-footed beast among them : neither enjoy they any benefite
of milke, as their neighbour nations doe : nay, they are destitute of
all meanes to chase wild beasts, and hunt for venison ; in as much as
there is neither tree nor bush to give them harbour, nor any weare
