our inheritance for actuall sinnes are our owne purchase and improuement and yet bought with that stocke which our Parents left vs Our first Parents are to bee considered not as singular persons onely whereby they defiled themselues but as the roote of Mankind which had receiued Originall Righteousnesse to keepe or to lose to them and theirs as a perpetuall inheritance As in the Bodie Politike the Act of the Prince is reputed the Act of the whole the consent of a Burgesse in Parliament bindeth the whole Citie which he representeth and as in the naturall Bodie the whole bodie is lyable to the guilt of that fact which the head or hand hath committed as a root to his branches a Fountaine to his streames doth conuey the goodnesse or badnesse which it selfe hath receiued So stands it betwixt vs and Adam our naturall Prince the Burgesse of the World the Head of this humane Bodie and Generation the Root and Fountaine of our Humanitie When hee sinned hee lost to himselfe and vs that Image of GOD or that part of the Image of GOD which he had receiued for himselfe and vs not the substance nor the faculties of bodie or soule but the conformitie in that substance and faculties to the will of GOD in righteousnesse and holinesse of truth Not so much therefore are wee here to consider the ordinary course of Nature wherein the soule that sinneth it shall dye as the Ordinance of GOD who appointed the first Adam the Wel-spring of Nature which he receiued incorrupted the second of Grace that as men we all by Generation are of the first and with the first one old man in whom we all sinned of and with the second Adam we are all one new man in the Lord euen one bodie one Spirit one Seed one Christ in whom and with whom wee as members of that Head obeyed the Precepts and suffered the curse of the Law Other sinnes of Adam are not our naturall but his personall because he could be no longer a publike person then while he had somewhat to saue or lose for vs all being alreadie forfeited in this first sinne The Authour then of Originall Sinne is the Propagator of our Nature his actuall sinne is originally ours the Guilt being deriued by imputation the Corruption by naturall generation First that Person corrupted Nature after Nature infected our Persons The matter of this Originall corruption in regard of the subiect is All and euery man and All and euery part of all and euery man subiect to all sinne that if all be not as bad as any and the best as the worst it must be ascribed to GODS restrayning or renewing not vnto vnequall degrees in this originall staine In regard of the Obiect the matter of it is the want of originall Righteousnesse and a contrary inclination to Euill The imaginations of our hearts being onely euill continually No Grapes can grow on these Thornes The forme of this corruption is the deformitie of our corrupted Nature not by infusion or imitation but by default of that first instrument by which this Nature descendeth It is the roote of actuall sinnes and whereas they as fruits are transient this still remayneth vntill Christ by his death destroyeth this death in vs But here ariseth another difficulty How this sinne can bee deriued by Generation seeing it is truely beleeued that God is Father of Spirits the For men of our Soules which doth by infusion create and by Creation infuse theme corruptible Elements beeing vnable to procreate an incorruptible substance or generation to produce in corruption Neither standeth it with reason that he which communicateth not the substance should communicate the accidents or with Iustice that an innocent Soule should necessarily be stayned by inuoluntary infusion into a polluted bodie I answere hereunto That although the Soule be not traducted as they terme it and by Generation conferred yet is it coupled to the body in that manner and order which GOD had appointed for the coniunction thereof though man had not sinned Neither was it the Soule alone in Adam or the body alone but the Person consisting of both which sinned Neither can we be partakers of Natures sinne till we be partakers of humane Nature which is not till the Soule and Body bee vnited Wee are not so much therefore to looke to the concupiscence and lust of the Parents in generation as Lumbard teacheth vs but to the Person which Scotus saith is filia Adae debitrix iustitiae originalis And although the Soule be not in the seed yet it is communicated to the Body saith Aquinas by a dispositiue preparatiue power of the Seed which disposeth and prepareth the Body to the receiuing of the Soule where it is receiued after the generall rule according to the measure and nature of that which receiueth The Father is then a perfect Father not because he begetteth the Soule but because he begetteth the Person or at least all whatsoeuer in the Person is begotten and though he doth not beget the substance thereof yet as it is such a subsistence he may be said to procreate it because his generation worketh towards the Vnion of the Soule and Body which Vnion is made by the Spirits Animall and Vitall And these Spirits are procreated by the Seed and consist of a middle nature as it were betwixt bodily and spirituall so that the production of the Soule and incorporating thereof may be counted in the middle way betweene Creation and Generation And therefore this originall corruption did not reach to Christ Iesus although hee were true Man because hee was the Seed of the Woman and did not descend of Adam by generation per seminatem rationem tanquam à principio actiuo saith Aquinas but was miraculously framed in the wombe and of the substance of the Virgin by the power of the Holy Ghost Thus haue I presumed to offer my crude and rude Meditations to the wiser World about the deriuation of Originall sinne which it selfe is the cause why we can no better see it as darkenesse hideth it selfe But the whole Citie of Mankind being here with set on fire it behoueth euery one to be more carefull to quench it then ouer-curiously to enquire how it came It is sufficient that nothing descended hereby to vs by corruption or was made ours by imputation which is not fully cured by Christ who is made vnto vs both by imputation of his actiue and passiue obedience and by reall infusion of his Spirit Wisdome Righteousnesse Sanctification and Redemption if wee haue faith to receiue it and Charitie to expresse it an absolute renewer and perfecter of the Image of God beyond what wee had in our first Parents lost CHAP. VI. Of the Reliques of the Diuine Image after the Fall whereby naturally men addict themselues vnto some Religion and what was the Religion of the World before the Floud THis sinne of our first
in the yeere from the Creation 1656. The Septuagint and the Fathers that followed them reckon farre otherwise which errour of theirs differing from the Hebrew verity Agustine ascribes to the first Coppiers of that Translation others to their own set purpose that they might contend with other Nations in the challenge of Antiquitie for that cause and least the often halfing of ages should trouble the faithlesse saith Master Broughton they faine Cainan betwixt Arphaxad and Selah in which account if Luke in his Genealogie had followed them it is to be ascribed to them which would correct Luke by their corrupt translation of the Septuagint for some Copies of the Gospel haue wanted it The place is commonly thought to be Armenia The Sybilline Oracles if at least we may so call those eight bookes in Greeke verse translated into Latine by Castalion doe place Ararat in Phrygia and say it is the Hill whence the Riuer Marsyas issueth But Scaliger censureth our Sybils to be counterfeit inuented with zeale to vp-hold the Truth by falshood in which our later Legendaries haue followed them Goropius after his wont paradoxicall holdeth it to be the Hill Paropanisus or Paropamisus a part of the Hill Taurus vnproperly ascribed to Caucasus which riseth betweene the Euxine and Hircan Sea supposed the highest part of the Earth called now Naugracot Hee imagined that the place first inhabited after the Floud was Margiana whence those Colonies passed that with Nimrod built Babylon His reason is because they went from the East to the Plaine of Shinar whereas Armenia beareth somewhat Westward from thence As though that iourney had been presently after the Floud which was an hundred yeares after in which space it is likely they followed the Mountainous Countries Eastward a long time and from Assyria Adiabena turned backe into that fertile Plaine where pride fulnesse of bread and abundance of idlenesse set them on worke against God I hold it not meet that a fewe coniectures should counterpoize the generall consent of all Ages Iosephus saith the place in Armenia was called Apobaterion of this their going forth of the Arke and alleadgeth Berosus testimonie that a part of this Arke was then said to remaine in the Cordyaean or Gordyaean Hils the pitch whereof some scraping away wore the same for Amulets And out of Nich. Damascenus lib. 96. There is saith he aboue the Region of the Minyae a great Hil in Armenia by name Baris wherein they say many saued themselues in the time of the Floud and one brought in an Arke there stayed the remnants of the wood thereof continuing there long time after which happily was he that Moses the Iewish Law-giuer writ of This mountaine or mountainous Region the Caldean Paraphrast calleth Kardu Curtius Cordaei montes Ptolomaeus Gordiaei the people are called Cardyaei or Gordyaei In this Tract saith Epiphan there is one high Mountaine called Lubar which signifieth the descending place Lubar in the Armenian and Egyptian language signifying the same that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 before mentioned and the word Baris before cited out of Damascenus seemeth to be corruptly written for Lubaris The Armenians through all ages haue as it seemeth reserued the memorie hereof and euen in our daies there standeth an Abbey of Saint Gregories Monkes neere to this Hill which was able to receiue Shaugh Thamas and a great part of his Armie These Monkes if any list to beleeue them say that there remaineth yet some part of the Arke kept by Angels which if any seeke to ascend carrie them backe as farre in the night as they haue climed in the day Cartwright an eye-witnesse saith that this Hill is alwaies couered with snow at the foote thereof issue a thousand Springs there are adioyning three hundred Villages of the Armenians He saith also that there are seene many ruinous foundations supposed to be the workes of this first people that a long time durst not aduenture into the lower Countryes for feare of an other floud Abidenus saith that the Ship or Arke was still in Armenia in his time and that the people vsed the wood thereof against many diseases with maruellous effect After that Noah had obtained his deliuerance and was now gone out of the Arke his first care was Religion and therefore he hee built an Altar to the Lord and tooke of euery cleane beast and of euery cleane fowle and offered burnt offerings vpon the Altar And the Lord smelled a sauour of rest and renued the auncient blessings and promises to Noah and his posteritie The liuing creatures were also permitted to their food and submitted to their rule by whom they had in the Arke escaped drowning Onely the bloud was prohibited to them as a ceremoniall obseruation to instruct them in lenitie and hatred of crueltie the politicall Ordinance being annexed touching the bloud of man against man or beast that should shead the same This difference being alleadged of the life of Man and Beast that the life of the Beast is his bloud the life of Man is in his bloud Not that the bloud which we see shed is the life of the beast for that is properly Cruor not Sanguis that is the matter whose forme was the life or vitall spirit which being separated from the body is seuered also from the forme or life And the life of Beasts hath no other forme but that which is vnited with the bloud as the life of trees is the sappe of trees their bloud being as it were their soule But the life of man is in his bloud hauing his seate therein liuing when it is by death separated from the bloud meane while the Spirits being the purest part of the bloud as conduits conueying life to the bodily members and as firme bands of a middle nature between the body and soule vniting them together which bands and carriages being broken by effusion of bloud the soule subsisteth a spirituall substance without the body not subiect to substantiall corruption or mortalitie God did also make a couenant for Man with the beasts of the field infusing into the Nature of all things a dread and feare of man whereby they feare the power the snares and sleights of man and therefore flee or else submit themselues not by that willing instinct as to Adam in innocencie but rather with a seruile feare And although by hunger or prouocation or feare of their owne danger they sometimes rebell yet otherwise there remaines some impression of this naturall decree in them as experience in all places hath shewed Euen the Lyon King of Forrests and sauage Creatures doth not easily giue on-set but on such occasions yea the Moores meeting with this Beast doe rate and brawle at him this magnanimous beast passing by with a leering countenance expressing a mixt passion of dread and disdaine fearing the voice of one that feareth not the weapons of many and which himselfe by the terrour of
So vaine a thing is man his soule of nothing lighter then vanitie in the infusion created and in the Creation infused to be the dweller in this house of clay and habitation of dust yea not a house but a Tabernacle continually in dissolution Such is the Maker and matter of Man The forme was his conformitie to GOD after whose Image he was made Christ only is in full resemblance The Image of the inuisible GOD the brightnesse of his glory the ingraued forme of his Person Man was not this Image but made adimaginem According to this Image resembling his Author but with imperfection in that perfection of human Nature This Image of GOD appeared in the soule properly secondly in the body not as the Anthropomorphite Heretikes and Popish Image-makers imagine but as the instrument of the soule and lastly in the whole Person The soule in regard of the spirituall and immortall substance resembleth him which is a Spirit and euerlasting which seeth all things remayning it selfe vnseene and hauing a nature in manner incomprehensible comprehendeth the natures of other things to which some adde the resemblance of the holy Trinitie in this that one soule hath those three essentiall faculties of Vnderstanding Will and Memory or as others of Vegetation Sense and Reason In regard of gifts and naturall endowments the soule in the vnderstanding part receiued a Diuine Impression and Character in that knowledge whereby shee measureth the Heauens bringeth them to the Earth lifteth vp the Earth to the Heauen mounteth aboue the Heauens to behold the Angels pierceth the Center of the Earth in darknesse to discerne the infernall Regions and Legions beneath and aboue them all searcheth into the Diuine Nature whereby Adam was without study the greatest Philosopher who at first sight knew the nature of the beasts the originall of the VVoman and the greatest Diuine except the second Adam that euer the Earth bare The will also in free choice of the best things in righteous disposition towards man and true holinesse towards GOD was conformed to his will for whose wils sake it is and was created The body cannot so liuely expresse the vertue of him that made it but as it could in that perfect constitution so fearefully and wonderfully made and as the Organ of the soule whose weapon it was to righteousnesse had some shadow therefo The whole Man in his naturall Nobility beyond and Princely Dominion ouer the other Creatures that we mention not the hope of future blessednesse sheweth after what Image Man was created and to what he should be renued The end whereunto GOD made Man is GOD himselfe who hath made all things for himselfe the subordinate end was Mans endlesse happinesse the way whereunto is religious obedience Moses addeth He created them Male and Female thereby to shew that the Woman in Oeconomicall respect is the Image and glory of the Man beeing created for the Man and of the Man but in relation to GOD or the World She as a Creature was also framed after the same Image As for that monstrous conceit of the Rabbins that the first man was an Hermaphrodite it deserueth not confutation or mention The order of the Womans Creation is plainly related GOD finding not a meete helpe for Adam in his sleepe tooke one of his ribs whereof he built the Woman This in a Mystery signified that deadly sleepe of the heauenly Adam on the Crosse whose stripes were our healing whose death was our life and out of whose bleeding side was by Diuine dispensation framed his Spouse the Church This may be part of the sense or an application thereof as some say to this Mystery or the signification rather of the thing it selfe here declared then of the words which properly and plainly set downe the Historie of a thing done after the litterall sense to bee expounded According to this sense Moses expresseth the Creation the making and marrying of the Woman The Maker was GOD the matter a Rib of Adam the forme a building the end to be a meete helpe The Man was made of Dust the Woman of the Man to bee one flesh with the Man and of a Rib to be a helpe and supporter of him in his calling which requireth strength neyther could any bone be more easily spared in the whole body which hath not such variety of any other kind nor could any place more designe the Woman her due place not of the head that she should not arrogate rule not of the feet that the husband should not reckon her as his slaue but in a meane betweene both and that neere the heart in which they should as in all Diuine and Humane Lawes else bee fast ioyned The building of this body of the Woman was in regard of the Progeny which was in that larger roome to haue the first dwelling The soule of the Woman is to be conceiued as the soule of the Man before mentioned immediately infused and created by GOD herein equall to Man Being thus made she is marryed by GOD himselfe vnto Adam who brought her vnto him to shew the sacred authority of Marriage and of Parents in Marriage A mutuall consent and gratulation followeth betweene the parties lest any should tyrannically abuse his fatherly power And thus are two made one flesh in regard of one originall equall right mutuall consent and bodily coniunction And thus were this goodly couple glorious in nakednesse not so much in the ornaments of beautie which made them to each other amiable as of Maiestie which made them to other creatures dreadfull the Image of GOD clothing that nakednesse which in vs appeareth filthy in the most costly clothing GOD further blessed them both with the power of multiplication in their owne kind and dominion ouer other kinds and gaue them for food euery herbe bearing seed which is vpon all the earth and euery tree wherein is the fruit of a tree bearing seed He doth as it were set them in possession of the Creatures which by a Charter of free gift he had conueyed to them to hold of him as Lord Paramount But lest any should thinke this but a niggardly and vnequall gift whereas since the Floud more hath beene added and that in a more vnworthinesse through mans sinne let him consider that since the Fall the Earth is accursed whereby many things are hurtfull to mans nature and in those which are wholsome there is not such variety of kinds such plentie in each variety such ease in getting our plenty or such quality in what is gotten in the degree of goodnesse and sweetnesse to the taste and nourishment which had they remayned in this sickly and elder Age of the World we should not need to enuie Cleopatra's vanitie or Heliogabilus his superfluitie and curiositie And had not Man sinned there should not haue needed the death of beasts to nourish his
pretended difformititie by Hils Dales Waters compared with the Diameter of this Globe is not so much as the inequalicie in an Apple or a carued Bowle or quilted Ball which yet we call round And this diuersitie serueth not onely for ornament but for more largenesse of Habitation varietie of Ayre and Earth and for pleasure and profit Thus doth this Globe swell out to our vse for which it enlargeth it selfe and seemeth large to vs being in respect of the Vniuerse lesse then little How much thereof is couered with waters How much not at all discouered How much desart desolate And now many millions are they which share the rest of this little among them And yet how many thousands glorie of the greatnesse of their possessions All this Globe is demonstrable to be but a point and in comparison nothing to that wide wide Canopie of Heauen a mans possession but a point and as nothing to the Earth a man of possessions but a point and in a manner nothing to his possessions and as Socrates said sometimes to Alcibiades few can shew their Lands in an vniuersall Map where a whole Region occupieth a small roome and yet how couetous how proud is dust and ashes of dust and earth not withstanding the little we haue while we liue and that lesse which shall haue and possesse vs in a Prison of three Cubits being dead Well did one compare this our grosser and drossier World to an Ant-hill and men the Inhabitants to so many Pismires in the varietie of their diuersified studies toyling and turmoyling themselues therein Scipio seemed ashamed of the Romane Empire as seeming but a point of the Earth which it selfe was but a point And yet how readie are many to sell Heauen for Earth That largenesse and continuance beyond all names of time and place for this momentany possession of almost nothing although they haue Hell and Deuill and all in the bargaine Let this morall obseruation entertaine our Reader perhaps tyred in these rigid Disputes and now let vs returne to the naturall disposition and constitution of this Globe in which the Earth was couered with varietie of Plants and Fruits which had beene before couered with slimy waters God commanded and the Waters which yet oppressed and by their effusion and confusion did tyrannize rather then orderly subdue and gouerne this inferiour myrie masse were partly receiued into competent channels and there also gathered on swelling heapes where though they menace a returne of the old Chaos both by their noyse and waues yet hath GOD stablished his Commandement vpon it and set barres and doores and said Hitherto shalt thou come and no further and here shall it stay thy proud waues Otherwise The Deepes which then couered it as a Garment would now stand aboue the Mountaines At his rebuke they flee who with fetters of sand to shew his power in weaknesse with a Miracle in Nature chaineth vp this inraged Tyrant that the Creatures might haue a meet place of Habitation Thus did not only the dry Land appeare but by the same hand was enriched with Herbes and Trees enabled in their mortall condition to remayne immortall in their kinde And here beginneth Moses to declare the Creation of compound bodies hitherto busied in the Elements THE FOVRTH DAYES WORKE NOw when ehe Lord had made both Plants Trees and Light without the influence yea before the being of the Sunne Moone or Starres he now framed those fiery Balls and glorious Lights whereby the Heauens are beautified the Ayre enlightned the Seas ruled and the Earth made fruitfull Thus he did the fourth day after those other things created lest some foolish Naturalist should binde his mightie hand in Natures bands seeing these Lights now become the chiefe Officers in Natures Court That shining before dispersed was vnited in these bodies whether by refraction of those former beames by these solid Globes or by gathering that fiery substance into them or by both or by other meanes I leaue to others coniectures Many are the Dreames of Philosophers some esteeming them Fire some Earth others Clouds and others Stones fired Heraclides and the Pythagoreans deemed each starre a World They are commonly holden Round simple lucide bodies the most compact and condensate parts of their Orbs or of that Aethereall Region of and in which they are bright flames not of this our fire which deuoureth and consumeth for the whole Ocean would not serue the Sunne alone for a Draught nor the Earth with all her store for a Breake-fast but quickning and nourishing Let vs a little consider of their Greatnesse Swiftnesse Number Influence For the first Ptolomey measured the Sunnes greatnesse 1663 8 times as much as the whole Terrestriall Globe Copernicus whom Scaliger calleth Alterum aeui nostri Ptolomeum 162. Tycho Brahe 140. The Moone is holden by Ptolomeus 39. times lesse then the Earth by Copernicus 43. by Tycho 42. Albategnius and Alfraganus haue added their opinions of the rest therefore diuiding them into sixe rankes or formes of differing magnitudes wherein as they somewhat differ from each other so much more from Tycho Brahe that Learned Dane whose costs and paines in this Science are admirable But Salomon wiser then they all had fore-told that the Heauens in height and the Earth in deepnesse and the Kings heart none can search out that is exactly and absolutely as appeareth in the differing opinions both of the Earths Circuit and Diameter and of the Altitude of the Heauens and consequently of the quantitie of the Starres which must presuppose the former They agree not in the order of the Planets nor how many Semi-diameters of the Earth the Heauen is eleuated which after Ptolomeys Hypotheses are 20000. after Tychos reckoning 14000. Hence it is that the quantitie and the swiftnesse is much more after the former then after this later opinion which doth better salue the incrediblenesse thereof then fayning a Giant-like labour as Ramus calleth it of the Earths continuall rolling The number of Starres some haue reckoned 1600. others 1022. and Tycho Brahe more The Iewes out of their Cabalists reckon 290160. Galileus his Glasse hath made them innumerable in descrying infinite numbers otherwise not visible to vs and especially the Galaxia full of them Yea God himselfe propounds it to Abraham whom Iosephus cals a great Astronomer as a thing impossible to number them It is his owne Royall Prerogatiue He counteth the number of the Starres and bringeth out their Armies by number and calleth them all by their names The end why GOD placed them in the Firmament Moses expresseth To separate the Day from the Night and to be for signes and for seasons and for dayes and for yeares and for lights in the Firmament of the Heauen to giue light vpon the Earth Their influence and effects are in Scripture mentioned neither can any iustly deny the same in the Elements
and Elementary bodies the Stoicall Fate the Chaldean Iewish and Arabian Fancies are now disclaymed euen by those Learned which maintayne in our dayes Iudiciall Astrologie or commend the same Neither can it agree with Christian Religion to subiect the will of Man to any externall naturall force nor with reason in matters contingent and casuall to make them naturall Arbiters nor will I easily beleeue that particular euents can be fore-told from generall causes especially in the affaires and fortunes of men Where the numbers substances faculties actions of these stars are weakly or not at al known vnto vs as hath beene shewed it is like as to say how many and what kind of Chickens a Hen will hatch when wee see not all nor scarce know any of the Egges vnder her The swiftnesse of the Heauens Wheele which euen in the moment of obseruing is past obseruing the vanitie of our Oracle-Almanacks which commonly speake doubtfully or falsely of the weather the infinitenesse almost of causes concurring which are diuersly qualified the weakenesse of those foundations on which this Art is grounded the force of hereditarie qualities descended from Parents of custome and education in forming mens manners the disagreements of the Astrologers among themselues the new from the old and all from the Truth as Experience in all ages hath shewed And lastly the prohibition of the same by Scripture Fathers Councels Lawes yea the learnedest of the Chaldeans and other Astronomers themselues as Eusebius reciteth of Bardanes and Rob. Moses ben Maimon hauing read all the Arabians workes hereof answereth the Iewish Astrologers are strong arguments against the Starre-gazers predictions But let Picus Mirandula his twelue Bookes against Astrologie and Ioseph Scaligers Preface before Manilius be well weighed of such as dote on or doubt of this Genethliacall ridiculous vanitie if not impious villany as those Authors and others prooue it not by the errors of some Chiefetaines and Champions onely but of the Arte it selfe and the whole Senate of Iewish Saracenical and Christian Astrologers together hatching a lye The signes and constellations which Astronomers obserue in and on each side the Zodiakes would be too prolixe in this discourse already tedious as likewise those alterations which some haue obserued in some starres But those two great Lights the two eyes of the Heauens the greater light to rule the day and the lesse to rule the night which is called great not so much for the quantitie wherein it is lesse then many starres as for the operation and seeming to the sense doe command mine eyes to take more speciall view of their beauties How willing could I be like Phaton to mount the Chariot of the Sunne which commeth forth as a Bridegroome out of his Chamber and reioyceth like a mightie man to runne his race King of Starres enthronized in the mids of the Planets heart of the World eye of the Heauens brightest gemme of this goodly Ring father of dayes yeeres seasons meteors Lord of light fountaine of heate which seeth all things and by whom all things see which lendeth light to the starres and life to the World high Steward of Natures Kingdome and liueliest visible Image of the liuing inuisible God And dazled with this greater light I would reflect mine eyes to that reflexion of this light in the sober siluer countenance of the silent Moone which whether it haue any natiue shining though weake as Zanchius and Bartholinus hold or whether it bee an aethereall earth with Mountaines and Vallies and other not elementary Elements compact of the dregs of the aethereal parts or whatsoeuer else reason fancie or phrensie haue imagined thereof is Queene of the Night attended with the continuall dances of twinckling starres Mother of Moneths Lady of Seas and moysture constant image of the Worlds inconstancie which it neuer seeth twice with the same face and truest modell of humane frailtie shining with a borrowed light and eclipsed with euery interposition of the earth But I am not Endymion nor so much in Lunaes fauour as to be lulled asleepe in her lap there to learne these mysteries of Nature and the secrets of that happy marriage between these celestial twinnes And it is high time for me to descend from these measures of time the lampes of the World and to behold the neerer works of GOD before our feet in the ayre and waters which GOD on the fift day created But the principall rarities to be obserued in these creatures we shall disperse in our scattered discourses through this Worke as occasion shall bee offered as likewise touching the beasts both Wilde and Tame and the creeping things created the sixth day Thus was the Ayre Water and Earth furnished with their proper inhabitants Sanctius his animal mentisque capacius altae Deerat adhuc quod dominari in caetera posset Natus homo est After he had thus prouided his cheere he sought him out a guest and hauing built and furnished his house his next care was for a fit Inhabitant Of this Moses addeth Furthermore God said Let Vs make Man But this will aske a longer discourse In the meane time wee haue this testimonie of Moses of the Creation of the World whose sense if I haue missed or misted in these many words I craue pardon And although this testimonie might suffice a Christian which must liue by faith and not by sight yet to preuent cauillers we haue other witnesses both of reason and authority That this World had a Beginning and that the Builder and Maker thereof was GOD. For doth not Nature both within and without vs in the admirable frame of this lesse or that greater World in the Notions of the one and the Motions of the other in the wise and mighty order and ordering of both lead men vnto a higher and more excellent Nature which of his goodnesse we call GOD When we behold the whole World or any part of it in the Elements such agreement in such disagreement in the Heauenly motions such constancie in such varietie in these compound bodies Being Liuing Sense Reason as diuers degrees diuersly communicated to so many formes and rankes of Creatures We can no more ascribe these things to chance than a Printers Case of Letters could by chance fall into the right Composition of the Bible which he Printeth or of Homers Iliads to vse Tullies similitude neither can any ascribe the Creation to the Creature with better reason then if by some shipwracke being cast on a desolate Iland and finding houses but seeing no people therein he could esteeme the Birds or Beasts all the Ilanders he seeth to be the framers of these buildings But thou mayest thinke it eternall Thou mayest as well thinke it to be GOD Infinite Vnchangeable in the whole and in all the parts Doth not the Land by seasons the Sea by ebbing and flowing the Aire by succeeding changes the Heauens by motions all
by faith and not by sight This that Moses telleth of the fall of Man Experience doth in manner proclaime through the World in the manifold effects thereof which we daily see For whereas the World was made for Man as before is shewed who alone in regard of his bodily and spirituall nature can need and vse it no creature in the world is in his kind so imperfect as man Hee that was before as an earthly God is now become an incarnate Deuill and for aspiring to be like his Lord was made a seruant of his seruants the noblest part in him becomming a base Officer to degrade him Reason it selfe deiected at the feet of Sense to be a slaue and a very Bawd to sensuall pleasures a very Broker for dung-hill profits And what is this but to metamorphose man into a beast vnlesse that some in a lower degree liuing onely to liue suffocated with eating drinking sleeping are degenerated into plants And if he descend not lower to become torpide and liuelesse yet doth he participate the imperfections of those things and that without their perfections as if with an imperfect retrograde hee would returne into his first elements or in a perfected imperfection to his first nothing What stone so hard as mans heart is relentlesse remorselesse to his best good What dust more subiect to the wind or water more flexible then hee to temptation and sinne But those things remaine in their nature or naturall place Man is a fuming smoke a passing shadow And yet if wee could stay at our Elements it were somewhat better but wee are seruants and drudges beneath all names of basenesse vnbowelling the Earth and our selues in the earth for a little hardened earth that neuer had the dignitie to see no not to be seen of the Sunne We seeme to rule the Skie Winds and Seas indeed we aduenture our liues to their mercy and not three fingers thicknesse doth separate vs from death that we may bring home an idle discourse or somewhat almost lesse then nothing that we call a Iewell Once we inuert Nature subuert others peruert our selues for those things which sometimes kill the body and alway except a power with whom all things are possible preuent the Soule And yet Thou Foole this night may they fetch away thy Soule and whose then shall these things bee And whose then and where then shalt thou be Thou gainest faire to loose thy selfe to be taken with thy taking to bee thus bad to others that thou mayest be worse to thy selfe and when-as like an Asse thou hast been laden all the dayes of thy life with those things which euen in hauing thou wantedst now to be more intollerably burthened now to be in Hell which will neuer bee satisfied in thee whose Character was before engrauen in thy vnsatiable heart Tell me not then of the reasonable power of our soules whereby we resemble GOD seeing that reason may tell thee and me that by abusing it we are like and are of our Father the Deuill That erected countenance to be still groueling in and poring on the Earth that immortall soule to mind onely such things as haue not the imperfect priuiledge to be mortall those high excellencies to bee abused to mischiefe blaspheming denying forswearing GOD and all for the basest of the basest creatures Well might this deluge of corruption mooue that Cynick in a throng of men to make search for a Man this Man which is now left vs beeing but the ruines the carkasse of himselfe Well might the Greekes call this body of ours 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 quasi 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Sepulchre of the soule the Latines Corpus where by reason of mans fall from his first estate the first syllable is falne off Cor the heart is gone we are Vecordes Socordes onely pus remaines corruption and filthinesse and doe not wee call it body because both die the soule also hereby infected and that both deaths internall and externall The Spirit the better part of man is spirit indeed a puffe and vaine blast of emptinesse animus is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a winde that passeth that passeth the wind in vanitie But what needes all this Why are we fallen into so long and tedious discourse of our fall Euen because some are fallen further beyond all sense and feeling of their fall and beleeued not that man was euer any other creature then now they see that if their goodnesse cannot yet their wickednesse might teach them that so perfect a World should not haue beene framed for so imperfect a wretch now onely perfect in imperfection Our fall must teach vs to rise our straying to returne our degeneration a regeneration And therefore was not that Image of GOD wholly done out but some remainder continued to the Posteritie to conuince them of miserie in themselues that so denying themselues they might take vp their Crosse and follow the second Adam vnto a durable happinesse But how may some aske as the Pelagian did came this misery to vs Non peccat ille qui genuit non peccat ille qui condidit per quas igitur rimas inter tot praesidia innocentiae fingis peccatum ingressum Doth it agree with diuine Iustice that if the Fathers haue eaten sowre Grapes the Children-teeth should be set on edge I answere We are Heires of our Father we need not seeke some secret cranie we see an open gate by one man sinne entred into the World and death by sinne A little leaue let vs borrow to cleere this difficultie Sinne is a transgression of the Law or a defect of conformitie to the Law 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and cannot properly be said to haue an efficient but a deficient cause being in it owne nature and subsistence 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Schoole-men say in sinne are two things to bee considered the substance and the qualitie essence and priuation the act and defect whereof that they call the Materiall this the Formall part of sinne beeing nothing else but a deformitie irregularitie and vnlawfulnesse in our naturall condition and conditions as easily to be distinguished though not to be diuided from the action as lamenesse from the working hand or iarring in an Instrument both from the Instrument and sound The Sinner is termed nequam as nequicquam naught as not ought Not that sinne is simply norhing Non negatiue sed priuatiuè Nihil nor is it a meere and pure priuation but to bee considered with that subiect wherein and whereof it is such a distortion and destruction the want of this consideration draue the Manichees to their Hereticall opinion of two beings and beginnings Sinne was first seene in the Deuill who voluntarily strayed from the right way and as hee abode not in the Truth himselfe so hee beguiled our first Parents from whom by the Conduit of Nature it is conueyed to vs I speake of Originall sinne which is
of Berosus and other ancient Authors he sayth the Tyrians and Sydonians called him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which the Greekes made Belus and so Mr. Selden also is of opinion that these names 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 differ onely according to the proprietie of the language and not indeed for the Grammarians obserue that the Chaldee words often lose that middle letter Elias in his Thesbi obserueth that Baal signifieth the act of generation which may well agree with those beastly Baal-rites before mentioned Baal is read in the foeminine gender Tob. 1.5 Rom. 11.4 In Photius is mentioned that the Phoenicians and Syrians called Saturne 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 EL and Bel and Bolathes Lilius Giraldus out of Seruius affirmeth that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the Assyrian language signifieth the Sunne from whence the Greeke 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is deriued some attribute this to the Phoenician tongue in which Hal signifieth GOD. The Assyrians named Saturne and the Sunne Hel. The Indians called that Hercules which Tully de Nat. Deor. numbreth the first Belus But we find no end of these Labyrinths D. Willet in his Comment vpon Daniel hath these words The Chaldaeans had fiue Idols three gods and two goddesses Their first god was Bel a name contracted of Behel which commeth of Bahal which signifieth a Lord to whom was built that Temple before mentioned The second was the Sunne which they called Rach that is a King because he is chiefe among the Planets and the Persians call him Mithra as Iustinus Martyr sayth Dialog in Triphon The Priests of this Idoll were called Raciophantae Obseruers of the Sunne Their third god was Nego the Fire so called of the brightnesse this was carried about among them the Priests were called Ortophantae Their first goddesse was Shacha which was the Earth worshipped also of the Romans vnder the name of Tellus and Opis of the Syrians called Dorcetha In the honour of this goddesse they vsed to keepe a feast fiue dayes together in Babylon during which time the Masters were vnder the dominion of their seruants one of which was vsually set ouer the rest and royally clothed and was called Sogan that is great Prince our Lords of Mis-rule seeme to deriue their pedigree from hence This festiuall time was called Shache whereof Babylon was called Sheshach of keeping this Feast Ierem. 25.27 and 51.41 Their other goddesse was Mulitia which was Venus whose Priests were called Natitae or Natophantae But the chiefest of their Idols was Bel. Hee also interpreteth those words Dan. 1.4 Whom they might teach the learning and tongue of the Chaldaeans of Schooles wherein youth was brought vp in good letters to bee after employed in the State So among the Egyptians they had the like vse where Moses was taught the learning of the Egyptians Among the Israelites eight and fortie Cities were appointed for the Leuites which were as the common Schooles and Vniuersities for the whole Kingdome Samuel and Elizeus had their Schooles and Colledges of Prophets yea the rude Indians had their Gymnosophistes and the Romans had their Colledges of Augures This Bel or Baal Idolatrie passed out of Asia into Europe euen as farre as these parts of Britaine For the Celtae and Britanni worshipped Abellio Belenus or Belinus as appeareth by inscriptions in Lipsius and Scaliger and our famous Antiquarie Mr Camden mentioneth an Altar in Cumberland inscribed Deo sancto Belatucadro And on the Coynes of Cunobelinus the Brittish King was stamped Apollo or Belenus which in heathen mysteries are the same with the Sunne playing on a Harpe and the name Cunobelinus makes euidently to our purpose Heliogabalus is another Syrian idolatrous title for the Sunne as appeareth by an inscription Soli Alagabalo for so also is that name written Neither is Gabalus from any other deriuation the name of the Romane Emperour Priest of that god whose name he vsurped deriued from the Hebrew Ahgol-Baal that is the Round or Circular Lord either in respect of the Sunnes Circular bodie and iourney or of that round stone which the Syrians conceited as the Troians of their Palladium and the Ephesians of their Diana to haue diuinely descended Such stones as Mr Selden in relation of those things obserueth were the Baetaelia or Betuli of the Ancients dedicated to diuers deities somewhat of fashion like fire round and sharpe vpwards the beginning of which Baetuli some deriue from Iacobs stone at Bethel In the seuenteenth Chapter of the second Booke of Kings is mentioned Succoth Benoth an Idoll of the Babylonians Beda interpreteth it the Tabernacles of Benoth and so the word Succoth vsed Amos 5.25 is by Saint Stephen Act. 7.43 interpreted And so doth the Glosse on that part of the Kings interprete where Lyra according to the signification of the words a Tabernacle of wings relateth out of Rab. Sal. that this Idoll was made like to a Hen brooding her chickens which Idols the Babylonians framed in worship of that constellation called by the vulgar the Hen and chickens and of the learned Pleiades as others did to the Sunne others to the Moone Some applie it to the mysterie of their Idoll which Christ the Trueth truly sayth of himselfe protecting his worshippers as a Hen her chickens My learned friend Mr Selden hath gathered by the signification of Succoth Benoth the Tabernacles of the daughters that thereby is meant the Temple of Venus Mylitta or Vrania where the daughters of the Babylonians sate as before is said to performe their filthie deuotions yea by an easie deduction hee deriueth the name of Venus from this Benoth B and u easily exchanged the moderne Iewes pronounce θ like σ Venos Suidas also calls her Binos And in Africa was a Citie called Sicca Venerea a name transported by the Punikes from this Siccuth or Succoth Benoth where was a Temple of like nature in which the women purchased their marriage-money by prostituting their bodies It seemeth the Idolatrous Priests carried the Tabernacle of their Idoll on their shoulder in apish imitation of the true Priests and Leuites for so Amos sayth Yee carried Succoth or Sicchuth your King Chiun your Images which Drusius interpreteth Moloch and Hercules In the fourteenth Chapter of Daniel as the Latines read is a large historie both of Bel a dead statue and of a liuing Dragon which the Babylonians worshipped The Priests of Bel were seuentie besides their wiues and children whose fraud and coozenage Daniel detected making it manifest by their foot-steps in the ashes which hee had strewed in the Temple that they were the deuourers of that huge portion of fortie sheepe twelue measures of meale and sixe great pots of wine daily consecrated for Bels breake-fast He after slew the Dragon also for which the Babylonians forced the King to lodge him sixe dayes among the Lions But howsoeuer generally more authoritie is to bee ascribed to the
people withall In the death of Christ these died and had their consumption with his consummatum est the Iudicials remayning euer since dead the ceremonies deadly only they were as it were for their more honourable funerall after that their death detayned some time aboue ground and those ceremonies which before Christ were necessarie in the times of the Apostles till the Iewish Church might be instructed became indifferent but since meerely vnlawfull neither can it now but be sacrilegious to violate the sepulchres of the dead This Nation was diuided as is said alreadie into Tribes according to the number of Iacobs sonnes amongst whom Leui had no portion but the Lord was their portion they seruing at the Altar and liuing of the Altar but eight and fortie Cities with their suburbs assigned for their habitation amongst other Tribes that being so dispersed they might disperse also and preach the Law to the rest and were reckoned to that Tribe with which they dwelled and whereas others might not marrie for feare of alienation of their inheritances into another Tribe this of Leui either had or tooke libertie herein as Iudg. 19. and 2. Chron. 22. Ioiada married the Kings sister and thus Elizabeth wife of Zacharie the Priest might be Cousin to Marie the Mother of our Lord The number of twelue remayned yet entire in reckoning of these Tribes because Ioseph had a double portion and his sonnes Ephraim and Manasses made two Tribes Neither were they alone reckoned Israelites that naturally descended from some one of these twelue sonnes of Israel but such also of other Nations as embraced their Ceremonies and Religion being for distinction sake called Proselytes The Hebrew word which is interpreted a Proselyte signifieth extracted or drawne forth because they esteemed such drawne forth of Hell whom yet they made the children of Hell more then themselues in burthening their consciences not onely with those Ceremonies whereunto the Law and their Tradition tyed them but with diuers others also The name Proselite as Drusius affirmeth is either taken largely for any stranger or strictly for a conuert to their Religion A Proselyte was made with obseruation of three things Circumcision Baptisme or Washing and Oblation The first was a signe of the Couenant in which they were receiued the second as a badge of their cleannesse for all the Gentiles were vncleane the third for the atonement with GOD. This was while the Temple stood and now is not in force but whether Baptisme be still vsed I know not Hee ought to be circumcised in the presence of three And if by nature or accident he were before circumcised and wanted that fore-skin yet did they cut him there and made him bleede notwithstanding and when his wound was whole then before three witnesses was hee baptised in which ceremonie they couered the whole body with water This manner of baptising they vsed also in reconciling and receiuing penitents which had giuen scandall by notorious offences in token of repentance newnesse of life hauing first before this washing testified their humiliation by fasting and prayer Of this washing they were so scrupulous that Clemens Alexandrinus testifieth they were often washed in their beds A woman Proselite was admitted by Baptisme onely and the offering of two Turtles or two Pigeons Serarius sayth Baptisme and Circumcision are still required the like is written by P. Ricius and Munster who adde that when any desireth to become a Proselyte they propound to him the hardest things of the Law with the promises of future happinesse as of the Sabbath not eating fat c. with some penances that hee should not after say had I wist and they would seeme to bee willing by these meanes to driue them from their Religion as being corrupted by such new commers but Christ affirmeth otherwise §. III. Of the Hebrew Politie and ciuill Gouernement THe gouernement of this people was as Betramus thinketh before Iethro's aduice had brought in those Gouernours of thousands hundreds fifties and tens vnder seuentie Elders according to the number of persons which descended with Iacob into Egypt and that the seuentie assigned after to Moses for assistants in the gouernement were continued in their former office with further ratification and encrease of gifts and not newly instituted Yea this number hee sayth gouerned in Egypt howsoeuer Pharaohs tyrannie did afterward much eclipse their authoritie and were by Moses and Aaron assembled together Exod. 4.29 So that the thirteene Tribes consisted of seuerall Families according to the number of the chiefe heads thereof mentioned by Moses to which the thirteene Princes of the thirteene Tribes being annexed made vp the number His reasons let such as will learne of himselfe The gouernement in that time of Moses was mixt the Monarchy being in Moses but qualified with an Aristrocratie in these seuenty and the other Officers before mentioned a Democratie also appeared in the Assemblies so often mentioned In lighter matters the Chiliarchs Centurions Quinquagenarij and Decurions iudged in more weighty the seuenty Thus it continued in Ioshua's time till they had conquered and inhabited Cities And then each Citie had their Senate or Councell of the Chiliarchs and other Officers beforenamed proportionable to the greatnesse thereof Iosephus numbreth seuen Elders and two Leuites in euery City which seemeth more to agree with his time then this former Euen in Bethlehem the least of the thousands of Iuda Boaz assembled ten Elders about the matter of Ruth It seemeth that they had Leuites assisting in the iudgements and Tribunals as men learned in the Law and so we reade of the times of Dauid and Iehoshaphat But I had rather send my Reader for these things to the Scriptures and to the labors of Betramus and Sigonius from all which it is also apparant that the State was after Moses and Ioshua managed by Iudges of diuers Tribes not by Election nor inheritance succeeding in that Office but by appointment of God till they desired a king whereas before God was their king and by his Law partly partly by Oracle ruled the State being as some thinke an Aristocraty There were also in the times of these Iudges Princes of each Tribe and the heads of Families There was also a gouernement in each City by the Elders or Senate exercised in the Gates thereof as before is obserued They had accordingly their Councels or Assemblies either of the whole Nation or of a whole Tribe or of some one Citie The kingdome of Israel after it was diuided from the house of Dauid continued the like forme of gouernement as is most probable After the Captiuity it appeareth by the Histories of Hezra and Nehemiah that the chiefe sway was vnder the Lieutenant or Deputie of the Persian king according to commission from him Other Offices happily receiued some alteration in regard of their numbers and estate weaker and lesse then in those former times of prosperity so that what Iosephus
hee saith of Frankincense In Panchaea is the Citie Panara whose Inhabitants are called the Ministers of Iupiter Tryphilius whose Temple is thence distant threescore furlongs admirable for Antiquitie Magnificence and nature of the place it is two hundred foot long the bredth answerable hauing in it large Statues and about it the houses of the Priests Many fountaines there springing make a nauigable streame called the water of the Sunne which is medicinable to the bodie The Countrey about for the space of two hundred furlongs is consecrated to the gods and the reuenue thereof spent in Sacrifices Beyond is a high mountaine called the seate of heauen and Olympus Triphylius where Coelus is said to haue instituted the Rites there yeerely obserued The Priests rule all in Panchaea both in ciuill and religious cases and liue very deliciously attired with linnen Stoales and Mitres and party-coloured Sandals These spend their time in singing Hymnes and recounting the acts of their gods They deriue their generation from the Cretan Iupiter They may not goe out of their sacred limits assigned them if they doe it is lawfull to kill them The Temple is enriched with gifts and offerings The doores excell for matter and workemanship The bed of the god is six Cubits long and foure broad all of gold faire wrought The Table stands by nothing inferiour In the middest is another bed of gold very large grauen with Aegyptian letters in which are contained the gests of Iupiter Coelus Diana and Apollo written by Mercurie Thus farre Diodorus Iustine mentioneth Hierotimus an Arabian King which had six hundred children by Concubines Some are of opinion that the Wise-men which by the ancient conduct of a Starre came to Ierusalem the first fruites of the Gentiles came out of Arabia Scaliger mentioneth a conquest antiently made and holden by the Arabians in Chaldaea Philostratus saith the Arabians are skilfull in Auguries or Diuinations because they eate of the head and heart of a Dragon That they eate Serpents Solinus affirmeth Athenaeus saith That the Arabians vsed to maime themselues if their King hapned to bee maimed and that in the same member and in another place hee citeth out of Heraclides Cumaeus the delicacies of this Arabian King and his quiet or idle course of life committing matters of iudgement to Officers and if any thinke himselfe wronged by them hee pulls a chaine fastned to a window in the highest part of the Palace Whereupon the King takes the matter into his hand and whether part hee findeth guiltie dyeth for it His expences were fifteene Babylonian Talents a day The Arabians kill Mice as a certaine supposed enemy to the gods a custome common to them with the Persians and Aethiopians The women couer their faces contented to see with one eye rather then to prostitute the whole face They kill not vipers but scarre them away with Clappers from their Balsame-trees saith Pausanias when they gather that commoditie because they thinke them consecrated to those Balsame-trees vnder which they liue and feed of that liquor with which also they cure themselues if they are bitten of them The Arabike tongue is now the common language of the East especially among such as embrace the Mahumetan Religion this language in the first diuision of tongues according to Epiphanius was begun in Armot the first speaker and Author thereof It is now the most vniuersall in the world as Bibliander Postellus Scaliger Aldrete and Claude Duret in his late Historie del ' Origine des Langues de cest vniuers doe proue at large from the Herculean pillars to the Molluccas and from the Tartars and many Turkes in Europe vnto the Aethiopians in Afrike extending it selfe which was neuer granted to any other language since that first confusion and babbling at Babel CHAP. II. Of the Saracene Name Nation and proceeding in Armes and the succession of their Chalifaes §. I. Of the Saracens before MAHOMETS dayes THe Arabians are distinguished by many sir-names the chiefe whereof saith Scaliger are the Hagarens so called of Hagar the hand-maid of Sara whom the Arabians call Erabelhagiari and Elmagarin and the Saracens still called by their neighbours Essarak that is theeuish The Hagarens were more ciuill whose chiefe hold was Petra and their Princes were all entituled Aretae as the Egyptians Ptolemaei Hierome in many places affirmeth that the Ismaelites and Hagarens are the same which now are called Saracens so in his Commentarie on the second of Ieremie Cedar saith he is the Region of the desart and of the Ismaelites whom now they call Saracens And on the twentie fiue of Ezekiel the Madianites Ismaelites and Agarens are now called Saracens And on Esay twentie one he extendeth their desart from India to Mauritania and to the Atlantike Ocean Epiphanius likewise affirmeth That the Hagarens and Ismaelites in his time were called Saracens Plinie mentioneth that the Saracens placing them neere to the Nabathaeans Ptolemey likewise nameth the Scenites so called of their tents which with themselues their flockes and substance they remoued vp and downe from place to place Posteritie hath called all these Tent-wanderers saith Scaliger out of Ammianus Marcellinus Saracens and so doth Ptolemey in the next words call the next adioyning people seating them in the Northerly bounds of Arabia Foelix In the same Chapter he setteth downe Saraca the name of an Arabian Citie Some Authors haue written that because Ishmael was sonne of Hagar a bond-woman his nicer posteritie haue disclaimed that descent and deriued their pedegrece and name from Sara Peruersonomine saith Hierome assumentes sibi nomen Sarae quòd scilicet de ingenua domina videantur esse generati Iosephus Scaliger in his Annotations vpon Eusebius Chronicle after that hee hath cited the former testimony of Ammianus and of Onkelos on the thirtie seuen of Genesis addeth the authoritie of Stephanus who affirmeth Saraka to bee a Region of Arabia neere the Nabathaeans of which hee thinketh that the Saracens borrowed their name Wee know saith Scaliger that the Arabian Nomades are so called for SARAK in Arabike soundeth as much that is furaces 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 theeuish or robbers such as the Cosak-Tartars bordering on the Turkes the Bandoliers in the Pyrenaean hills and the Borderers sometimes betwixt England and Scotland De Sara peridiculum To call them Saracens of SARA is ridiculous for then either they must bee called SARAEI or shee SARACA Mr. Brerewood saith that Sarra signifies a Desart and Shakan to inhabit in the Arabike and therefore as they are called Scenites of their Tents so might they also of the Desarts their not habited habitation be called Saracens Booke of Lang. c. 13. And Erpenius saith that this name is vnknowne to themselues but all the Muhammedans generally call themselues Muslimos or Muslemans which signifieth Beleeuers as if all else were Infidells or Heretikes Marcellinus thus writeth of them this people
best house which needed lest furniture of houshold Hee added that they searched the secrets of Nature and that returning into the Citie if they met with any carrying figs or grapes they receiued of him gratis if oyle they powred it on them and all mens houses and goods were open to them euen to the Parlors of their wiues When they were entred they imparted the wisdome of their sentences as the other communicated his meats If they feared any disease they preuented the same with fire as was now said of Calanus Megasthenes reproueth this Calanus as Alexanders Trencher-Chaplaine and commendeth Mandanis saying That when Alexanders messengers told him that he must come to the sonne of Iupiter with promise of rewards if he came otherwise menacing torture hee answered That neither was he Iupiters sonne nor did possesse any great part of the earth as for himselfe he neither respected his gifts nor feared his threatnings for while he liued India yeelded him sufficient if he dyed he should be freed from age and exchange for a better and purer life Whereupon he saith Alexander both pardoned and praised him Clitarchus reporteth also that to the Brachmanes are opposed another sect called Pramnae men full of subtiltie and contention which derided the studies of others in Physiologie and Astronomie He diuideth the Brachmanes into those of the Mountaines clothed in Deere skins which carried scrips full of roots and medicines which they applied with certaine charmes to cure diseases and the second sort he calleth Gymnetae those naked ones before mentioned whereof it seemeth they were called Gymnosophistae which had women amongst them but not in carnall knowledge the third he calleth Ciuill which liued in Cities and Villages wearing fine linnen and apparrelled in skins Clemens Alexandrinus speakes of their fastings and other austere courses out of Alex. Polyhistor de rebus Indicis The Brachmanes saith he neither eate any quick thing nor drinke wine But some of them eat euery day as we doe some onely euery third day They contemne death nor much esteeme of life beleeuing to be borne againe Some worship Pan and Hercules But those Indians which are called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for their grauitie and austeritie liue altogether naked These practise Truth and foretell things to come and worship a certaine Pyramis vnder which they thinke are laid the bones of some god Neither the Gymnosophists nor these 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 vse women but thinke it vnlawfull and against Nature and therefore obserue chastitie Likewise there are Virgins which are called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of the female sexe They seeme to obserue the heauenly bodies and by their signification to foretell future euents Thus farre Clemens Nicolaus Damascenus saith That at Antiochia hee saw the Indian Embassadors sent to Augustus from Porus the King as his letter contained of sixe hundred Kings with presents among which was a female-Viper of sixteene Cubits one of the like bignesse Strabo saith he saw sent out of Egypt and a Cray-fish of three Cubits and a Partrich bigger then a Vulture Zarmanochagas one of these Indian Philosophers was one of the Embassadours who at Athens burned himselfe not moued thereto by aduersitie but by prosperitie which had in all things followed his desires lest in his succeeding age it might alter and therefore entered the fire anointed naked laughing His Epitaph was Here lyeth Zarmanochagas the Indian of Bargosa which according to his Countrey-custome made himselfe immortall But it is not such maruell that their Philosophers thus contemned death whereas their Women the weaker and more fearefull sexe wherein out-went their sexe and weakenesse For their custome admitting many wiues the dearest of which was burned with the deceased husband Hae igitur contendunt inter se de amore viri they are Hieromes words ambitio summa certantium est ac testimonium castitatis dignam morte decerni They ambitiously contend amongst themselues to obtaine this fatall testimonie of their husbands loue and their owne chastitie and the conqueresse in her former habit lyeth downe by the carkasse embracing and kissing the same contemning the fire which thus marryeth them againe in despight of deaths diuorce A thing to this day obserued in many parts of India as we shall see anon Arrianus reporteth of a place called Comar it seemeth the Cape Comori ouer-against Zeilan wherein is a Hauen to which vsed to resort certaine Votaries which had deuoted themselues to a single life to wash themselues in those holy-waters The like was done by their Nun-like women They had a tradition of a certaine goddesse which vsed to wash her selfe there euery moneth Suidas telleth of a Nation called Brachmanes inhabiting an Iland in the Sea where Alexander erected a pillar with inscription that he had passed so farre They liue an hundred and fiftie yeeres and haue neither bread wine flesh nor metals nor houses but liue of the fruits and cleere water and are very religious Their wiues liue apart on the other side Ganges to whom they passe in Iuly and August and after fortie dayes returne home againe When the wife hath had two children shee neither knoweth her husband after nor any other man which is obserued also when in fiue yeeres he can raise no issue of her hee after abstaineth These slay no beasts in sacrifice but affirme That GOD better accepteth vnbloudie sacrifices of Prayer and more delighteth in Man his owne Image In the Hills called Hemodi Bacchus is said to haue erected pillars to witnesse his Conquest as farre in that Easterne Ocean as Hercules did in the West He built the Citie Nysa where he left his sicke and aged Souldiers which Alexander spared and suffered to their owne libertie for Dionysius or Bacchus his sake And as Bacchus erected Pillars so did Alexander Altars to the Twelue chiefe gods as high as Towers Monuments of his farre trauels where he obserued solemne games and sacrifices Hee sacrificed also not to his Countrey gods alone but to Hydaspis Acesine and Indus Indian Riuers and to other gods with other Rites and Sacrifices then he had before vsed drowning a golden bowle in Indus and another in the Ocean in his Ethnicke superstition To him did the Indian Magi so doth Arrianus call their Brachmanes say That hee was but as other men sauing that hee had lesse rest and was more troublesome and being dead should enioy no more land then would serue to couer his bodie And euery man said they stamping with their feet on the ground hath so much as he treadeth on Eusebius reciteth out of Bardesanes Cyrus that amongst the Indians and Bactrians were many thousand Brachmanes which as well by Tradition as Law worshipped no Image nor ate any quick Creature dranke no Wine nor Beere only attending on Diuine things whereas the other Indians are very vicious yea some hunt Men sacrifice and deuoure them and were as Idolaters Plinie besides his Relations of Monsters in
fragments in a cloth on the wall hauing a circle of Charcoales about it with this wall to keepe out this small creature and great enemy There are other Ants almost a finger long and reddish which doe great harme to fruits and plants Great is the harme which Moths and Wormes do in mens Clothes and Bookes which can very hardly bee kept from them But more hurtfull is the Baratta which flyeth and is twice as bigge as a Bee from which nothing almost can be kept close enough and are to be esteemed as a plague among them like to the Pismires and are commonly in all fat wares and sweet meats and when they come vpon apparell they leaue their stayning Egges behind The Salamander is said to be common in the I le of Madagascar an Iland of Africa by which they sayle to India Of Serpents they haue diuers kinds and very venemous besides one other kind as bigge as a Swine which is destitute of poyson hurteth onely by byting But the superstition of the King of Calicut multiplyeth their Serpents For he causeth Cottages to be set vp to keep them from the raine and maketh it death to whomsoeuer that shall kill a Serpent or a Cow They thinke Serpents to be heauenly Spirits because they can so suddenly kill men So much hath that old Serpent both at first and since deluded men by this venemous creature There are Hogges with hornes in the Moluccas in Celebes and Mindanao are Hogges which besides the teeth they haue in their mouthes haue other two growing out of their snowts and as many behind their Eares of a large spanne and a halfe in length Of fish they haue great plenty and variety They haue of Hayent or Tuberons which deuoure men especially such as fish for Pearles And others bathe themselues in Cisternes not daring to aduenture the Riuers for them One Thomas Smith an Englishman riding before Surate entring into the water had the outside of his thigh shared off by one of them and though he escaped from the fish yet not from death by effusion of bloud Linschoten tels the like in his ship that one had his legge bitten off and putting his hand to the place was presently depriued thereof but this is too common Of fish-monsters like men and like an Hogge some write and as monstrous is that which Maffaeus telleth of a Whale which with the opposition of his huge body stayed the course of a ship sayling with eight other ships into India with so great a noyse and shaking as if they had fallen on a Rocke Neyther could the winds which filled the sayles further her course The Mariners when they saw two Elements of wind and current so strongly encountred looked out and saw this Monster with her sins embracing the sides of the ship and enterlacing the sterne with her tayle applying her bodie to the Keele which contained about eighty foot in length They thought presently that some hellish Fiend had beene sent to deuoure them and consulted of remedy at last sent out their Priest in his holy Vestments with Crosses and Exorcismes who like the greater Deuill preuailed with these weapons and the Whale forsooke them without further hurt There are certaine fish shels like Scalop shels found on the shoare so great that two strong men with a leauer can scarce draw one of them after them They haue fish within them A ship called Saint Peter fell vpon sands sayling from Cochin and split The men saued themselues and of the wood of the old ship built a Caruall wherein to get the Continent but in the meanewhile were forced to make a Sconce and by good watch to defend themselues from certaine Crabs of exceeding greatnesse and in as great numbers and of such force that whosoeuer they got vnder their clawes it cost him his life as two Mariners of the ship told Linschoten No lesse strange is that which hapned to Captayne Saris in his way betweene Saint Laurence and Zeilan in a darke night when they could not see halfe the shippes length before them on a sudden they had a fierie gleame and shining light from the waters so that they might thereby see to reade At the first they were afraid of broken grounds but after found it to bee nothing but certayne shell fish in those waters whose shels yeelded so bright a lustre Crabs heere with vs haue a sympathy with the Moone and are fullest with her fulnesse in India there is a contrary antipathy for at full Moone they are emptiest They haue Oysters in which the Pearles are found which are fished for by duckers that diue into the water at least ten twenty or thirty fathome These men are naked and haue a basket bound at their backs which being at the bottome they rake full of Oysters and durt together and then rise vp and put them into Boats They lay them after on the Land where the Sunne causeth them to open and then they take out sometime many sometime few Pearles as each Oyster yeeldeth which is sometimes two hundred graines and more The King hath one part the Souldier a second the Iesuites a third and the fishers themselues the fourth a small recompence for so great a danger in which many men euery fishing time lose their liues The Hollanders found Tortoyses so great that tenne men might sit and dine within one of the shels §. II. Of the Indian Trees Fruits and strange Plants OF the Indian Plants diuers haue written both in their generall Herbals as Pena and Lobel Gerard with other Herbarists and in peculiar workes of this subiect Clusius Garcias de Orto Christopher Acosta c. Some also pretending themselues Natures Principall Secretaries haue found out in these and the like not onely temperatures learned by experience but Signatures of Natures owne Impression fitted to their seuerall and speciall vses in Physicke finding out a strange harmony and likenesse in the greater and lesser World but leauing these speculations to better leisure let vs take a little view of the Indian Trees Plants and Fruits Of their Fruits Ananas is reckoned one of the best in taste like an Apricocke in shew a farre off like an Artichoke but without prickles very sweet of scent It was first brought out of the West Indies hither it is as great as a Melon the Iuyce thereof is like sweet Must it is so hote of Nature that if a Knife sticke in it but halfe an houre when it is drawne forth it will be halfe eaten vp yet moderately eaten hurteth not a man Iacas are bigger then the former and grow out of the body of the tree they are of many pleasant tastes but hard to digest Of Mangas there are three sorts they are as bigge as Goose-egges The first sort hath stones which the second wanteth the third is poyson so deadly that yet no remedy hath beene found against it Of the like bignesse is the Caions yellow of good sauour
exceed the due and iust proportion of her owne Globositie and thereby no lesse to excell the highest eleuation as wee may tearme it of the Sea then the Cliffes and Shores doe those Waters which approach them And what needs a conceit of miracle in the very ordinary constitution and conseruation of Nature though all Nature if wee regard it as a Creation by supernall power bee nothing else but miracle Some indeed dreame of I know not what proportion of the Elements wherby they would haue the Water to exceed the Earth as before is said and it is true that the vpper face and vtter superficies of the Waters for ought that is knowne to the contrary is as great as that of the Earth But if wee compare the depth of the Waters with the Diameter of the Earth we shall find that in most places the one is not so many Fathoms as the other is Miles Yea whoeuer soundeth at such depth And whereas the Diameter of the Earth is by some reckoned 8 11. Miles and by some more who euer cast Line and Lead into the Sea to measure a thousand Fathom Yea in Scaligers opinion the Earth is so much greater then the Water that if the Mountaines were cast downe into these watry receptacles and the Earth brought into a perfect roundnesse there would no place in it be left for the Water Record recordeth not so much as he yet holds the Earth almost ten thousand times as great as the Sea and all other waters And if wee receiue the Iewish Tradition mentioned by our Apocrypha Esdras this may bee more probable for hee saith that euen in the vtter face of the Globe the Waters were gathered into a seuenth part and sixe parts of the Earth kept drie Some imagine a bottomlesse depth passing quite thorow the Earth through which the Moone being in the other Hemisphere causeth the heightning of the Tides no lesse then when she is present in ours Which gaue no small helpe also in their conceit in the generall Deluge which if it be true addes a greater proportion to the Sea then wee haue obserued But because little reason and no experience can be shewed for this Assertion I will not insist in refutation But that Deluge being caused by breaking vp the Fountaines below and violent Stormes from aboue confute that opinion that the Sea should be higher then the Earth which then might haue effected the Floud without either of those former causes But why doe I drowne my innocent Reader with my selfe in these Depths of the Sea which some measure by the height of Hills others resemble those extraordinarie Land-heights to extraordinarie Whirle-Pooles but seeing the Sea is Tenant to the Earth which hath as before we haue said remoued it selfe in some sort to make way and roome for it the more ordinarie height and eleuation of the one may seeme to answere the more ordinary depth and descending of the other These bottomes of the Sea haue also their diuersified shape and forme as it were of Hillockes Mountaynes Valleyes with the Accliuities and Decliuities of Places as in the Shelues Shallowes Rockes Ilands appeareth And as the Land is not onely higher then the Sea at the shore so is it apparant that in remote places from the Sea the Land doth besides the exorbitant swellings of Mountaynes in the ordinary leuell exceed the height of Maritine regions which thence receiue those Riuers which require descent all the way of their passage which in some is one thousand in some two thousand miles And therefore is it likely also that the Sea answers in like proportion it being obserued to grow shallower neere the shoare and differently deeper in the farther recesse of the Maine §. II. Of the Saltnesse and Motions of the Sea THe saltnesse of the Sea some ascribe to the first Creation some to the sweat of the Earth roasted with the Sunne some to the saltnesse of the Earth especially in Minerals of that nature some to adust vapours parly let fall on the Sea partly raysed from it to the brinks and face thereof some to the motion of the Sea some to vnder-earth or vnder-sea fires of bituminous nature causing both this saltnesse and the motion also of the Sea and some to the working of the Sunne which draweth out the purer and finer parts leauing the grosser and baser behind as in this little world of our bodies the purest parts of our nourishment being employed in and on the body the vrine and other excrements remaining doe detaine a saltnesse I will not determine this question as neither that of the Ebbing and Flowing of the Sea which some say is the breath of the world some the fires aforesaid boyling in and vnder the water some the waters in holes of the earth forced out by Spirits some the meeting of the East and West Ocean some ascribe it to the Moone naturally drawing water as the Load-stone Iron some to the variable light of the Moone a variable light they all giue vs They that send vs to God and his Decree in Nature haue said what is the true cause but not how it is by Naturall meanes effected Certaine it is that the Ocean and the Moone are companions in their motion vncertaine whether the Ocean hath a naturall power in it selfe or from the Moone so to moue which is made so much the more doubtfull by reason that they follow not the Moone in all places of the word alike Vertomanum writeth that in Cambaia the Tides are contrarie to the course they hold in these parts for they encrease not with the full but with the wane of the Moone and so the Sea-crabs doe likewise In the Iland of Socotora Don Iohn of Castro obserued many dayes and found contrary both to the Indian and our wont that when the Moone riseth it is high Sea and as the Moone ascends the Tide descends and ebbeth being dead-low water when the Moone is in the Meridian and this operation hee found continuall With vs also our highest Tides are two dayes after and not at the very Full and Change About Vaygats Stephen Borrough found it to flow by fits very vncertaine Scaliger saith that the full-Moones at Calicut cause the encrease of the water and at the mouth of Indus not farre thence in the same Sea the new-Moones But what exceeding difference of the Tides doe wee find in the Downes and other places on our owne Coasts both for time and quantitie that at once in the compasse of ones sight there should bee both floud ebbe and these differing in degrees and that on some places of our Coast it should rise one fathom in some two in the Thames three at or neere Bristoll ten and on some part of the French coast neere Saint Malos fifteene whereas our shoare ouer against it riseth but two The like differences may bee obserued betweene the Tyrrhene Sea and that on the opposite coast
ship to murther the English there Dangerous had this Fray prooued had not the murthering Peece with almost a cleane riddance of them cruelly decided the quarrell Yet would they not desire their liues and pulled the Pikes of such as had wounded them thorow their bodies to reuenge it with their Swords This is generall to the Iaponians call it fortitude or desperatnesse or cruelty or in some respects all of them Quabacondono the Nephew of Taicosama before mentioned feemed to delight in bloud and butchery and obserued as an ordinary recreation at set times to haue condemned persons brought before him in a place purposely inclosed and framed to this inhumanity in the midst of which was a faire Table and thereon those wretches were set in what posture he pleased so to try his arme art and blade in this beastly caruing of humane bodies sometimes also setting them for markes to his Peece or Arrowes sometimes exenterating women to open and curiously to search the closest Cabinets of Nature alway prouoking vengeance to repay him in his owne Coyne For old Taicosama hauing a young child of his owne bodie studied how to remoue this Quabacondono It is a custome in Iapon that the Fatherr growing old resigne their Signiories to the Sonne or Heire The Lords of Tensa which title includes the Iaponian Empire adde another ceremony to visit that Sonne now in possession so to acknowledge a kind of subiection all the Lords in the Empire doing the like in publike solemnity This time was appointed and Quabacondono prouided all variety of cheere for entertainment a thousand choyce Wayters to attend and thirteene thousand of their Iaponian Tables little bigger then our Trenchers but all was disappointed by Taicosamas iealousie refusing to come After that He picked quarrels with him and caused Him to goe to the Monastery of Coia a receptacle for Exiles Quabacondono in this distresse shaued his hinder-locke and beard changing his name to Doi The Bonzij gaue Him entertainment at Coia as to other Exiles without any respect to his present Title or late power A few dayes after came a Mandate from Taicosama that they should all plucke out their bowels after the Iaponian custome First began an Honourable seruant who hauing cut himselfe open acrosse the brest was by Quabacondono after reuerence done to him beheaded and then Others in order after the same manner the fift was Quabacondono whose head after hee had ripped vp himselfe was strooke off with the same Sword which hee had vsed before in his butcherly recreations And lastly he that had smitten off his head committed execution vpon himselfe the Bonzij presently burning all their bodies in the same place One of this company was offered by Taicosama his liberty which hee refused chusing kindly to dye with him who in life had vsed him kindly The like executions followed in others one of which was the mightiest Lord in Tensa who being slaine his Son but 16. yeeres old had his life offered but sending word to Taicosama he could not liue without reuenge of his Fathers death went presently to a Temple in Meaco and before the Idoll Fotoco disembowelled himselfe Of all Quabacondonos wiues and their followers one and thirty chiefe women and three of his children little Infants were carried in Carts to the place of execution where the Executioner presently presents them with Quabacondonos head that death might first enter at their eyes which by a bloudy hand soone possessed all the other members Their bodies were all laid in one Graue ouer which Taicosama raysed a Temple with Inscription The Temple of Traytors After other wiues and children of the other Nobles executed hee demolished to the ground the Palace which Quabacondono had built with the City by him founded consisting of little other then three hundred Noblemens Houses this being the Iaponian policy vnder shew of attendance to keepe the Grandes at the Court so to bee secured of their persons and practices I haue beene the longer in this Relation to shew the Iaponian tyranny in this example whereof it were easie to giue you many The poorest if sentence of Death bee determined on them will if they can haue knowledge and meanes preuent it with this accounted honourable kind of death crossing themselues And whensoeuer any man is executed presently euery man rusheth in and tryes his Catan or Sword on the body of the Dead thus shred into gobbets not a piece left bigger then a mans hand This Captaine Saris saw done on a woman and her two Paramours at Firando whom shee had appointed to visit her but one comming sooner and before the other was gone they quarrelled to draw a Sword in a Garrison Towne and adultery are both death and they were all thus executed The like for stealing one for a little bagge of Rice another for a piece of Lead not worth aboue sixe pence Their doores stand open so little doe they feare Theeues and they make ordinary through-faires thorow other mens houses Crucifying is common the bodies still hanging and putrifying by the high-wayes their Crosses haue two crosse timbers fastned to the maine Post which is set into the ground the one for the expansion of the hands the other of the feet with a shorter piece in the midst to beare vp the weight of the body They bind them thereto and runne a Launce into the right side of the crucified sometimes two acrosse Headding is vsuall which in Solemnitie is thus performed one goes before with a Mattocke another followes with a shouell a third with a boord or table contayning the crime which also hee himselfe following next holdeth in a sticke to which is fastened a paper made like a Vane the end whereof is in his hands tyed behind him by which cord the Executioner leades him on each side a Souldier with his Launce resting on him at the dismall place without shew of feare hee sits downe and holds out his head presently wiped off others mangling him as is said Since Captaine Saris his returne the King of Firando is dead and three of his followers crossed themselues their bodies were burned and enioyed the same Sepulchre with his And the Mint-master a Great man with this olde Emperour hath already promised thus to dye with Him I could leade you from these Tragedies to their Comedies which in Iapon are common and that by common women which are to bee hired of their Pandar or Owner for this the Bed or attendance at table to fill your drinke but it is Note-worthy that the Pandar being dead is by a bridle made of Straw put in his mouth drawne about the streets and cast on a dung-hill or some open place to bee deuoured of Beasts or Fowles This hinders not but these Hydras heads multiply Sometimes Great Men at their Great Solemnities will themselues in person personate the Acts of their Ancestors This Captaine Saris saw the King of Firando with the chiefe Men doe whiles hee
the Portugall Fort in Ternate he kept a Sow which some of the deuouter Mahumetans killed He getting the chiefe Priest accessorie to the fact into the Castle at his deliuerie made his face bee greased with Bacon by the Iaylor which caused the people to ofter abuse to some Portugals Menesius in reuenge cut off the hands of two of them the third had his hands bound behinde him and was bayted with two dogges on the Sea-shore which his implacable enemies transported him into like dogged humour though he were not with Hecuba transformed into the shape insomuch that fastening with his teeth on one of their eares he held fast till his strength fayling hee sunke into the Sea with the Dogge and was drowned In Celebes they eate mans flesh The King of the Moluccas was wont to send condemned persons to Celebes to be deuoured Nicolaus Nunnes writeth That Celebes is very large and contayneth many and great Ilands the Soyle is exceeding fertile the Inhabitants comely and tall rather ruddie then blacke They haue many Kings which is cause of many contentions Three of them were conuerted Peter Mascarenia in a Letter dated a thousand fiue hundred sixtie nine speaketh of a King of Sion in Celebes which was baptized and his subiects therefore rebelled against him one Towne onely except and that hee and the King of Sanguim did take vp a Crosse on their owne shoulders which the chiefe Men had before hewen of a faire piece of wood and helped to erect the same and then with the multitude kneeling downe worshipped it Southward of Celebes is situated a little Iland where Sir Francis Drake graued his ship This Iland is throughly growne with Woods in which euery night certayne fierie Flyes made such a light as if euery Twigge or Tree had beene a burning Candle Here they found Batts as bigge as Hennes and plentie of Cray-fishes so great that one vvould suffice foure men to their dinner they digged themselues holes in the earth like Conies At Macassar in this Iland is an English Factorie In this Iland some are Moores some Ethnikes They enuenome their Arrow-heads which are made of Fish-bones with an incurable poyson There are Priests which conforme or rather deforme themselues to the habit of women nourishing their haire on the head and plucking it out of the face They gild their teeth and vse broken wanton effeminate gestures They are called Becos and marrie one another For them to lye with a woman is capitall and punished with burning in pitch These Men-Monsters Women-Deuils much hindered the Portugals Conuersions §. III. Of the Iauas and other adioyning Ilands NOt farre from hence is Iaua of which name M. Paulus and Nich. di Conti reckon two great Ilands ascribing to the one two thousand and to the other three thousand miles in circuit The lesse is neere to the firme Land of the South Continent where Beach and some other Prouinces are named by Paulus and Vertomannus of Heathenish superstitions The lesse Iaua had in the dayes of M. Paulus eight Kingdomes in sixe of which himselfe had beene which hee nameth Felech wherein the rurall Inhabitants were Idolaters the Citizens Moores the Idoll-worshippers eate any flesh whatsoeuer of man or beast and obserue all day what they first see in the morning Basma the second acknowledged the Great Chams soueraigntie but payed him no tribute Here were certayne Vnicornes headed like Swine footed like an Elephant with one horne on their foreheads with which they doe not hurt any but to that end vse certayne prickles that grow on their tongues They delight also in the myre like Swine Here are little Apes much resembling men in their countenance which they vsed to preserue with certayne Spices hauing flayed off their skins and left the haire growing in those parts where Nature causeth men to be hayrie and sell them to Merchants to be carried ouer the World as the bodies of little men happily the onely true Pygmies the world yeeldeth In Samara the third of those Kingdomes none of the North-starres can bee seene They are Man-eaters and Idolaters but not so brutish as in Dragorian the next Kingdome where if a man bee sicke his kinsmen consult with their Sorcerers who enquire of the Deuill Whether he shall escape or no And if the answere bee Negatiue they send for certayne men specially designed to that villanous mysterie which strangle him and then they dresse and eate him amongst the kindred euen to the very marrow in his bones For say they if any flesh should remayne it would putrifie and wormes would breede thereof which after for want of sustenance would perish whereby the soule of the dead partie would be much tormented The bones they burie safely that no beast should touch them such dread haue they of beasts and crueltie in a more then beastly crueltie and such a care to obserue humanitie and pietie in a most impious inhumanitie Lambri the next Kingdome hath in it some men with tayles like Dogs a span long The last is Fanfur where they liue of bread made of pith of Trees the wood whereof is heauie and sinketh to the bottome if it be put in water like Iron and therefore they make Lances thereof able to pierce Armour for it is three fingers thicke betwixt the hollow and the barke To let passe Pentan Sondar and other Idolatrous Ilands and come to Iaua maior This Countrey is very rich but in times past of most abominable custome Nic. Conti saith That they feede on Cats Rats and other vermine and were most vile murtherers not sticking to make triall of the good cutting or thrust of their blades on the next body they met with and that without punishment yea if the blow or thrust were deliuered with fine force with much commendation Vertomannus affirmeth of them That some obserue Idols some the Sunne or Moone others an Oxe and many the first thing they meete in the morning and some worship the Deuill When men were old and not able longer to worke their children or parents carryed them into the Market and sold them to others which did eate them And the like they vsed with the younger sort in any desperate sicknesse preuenting Nature with a violent death and esteeming their bellies fitter Sepulchres then the earth accounting others fooles which suffered the wormes to deuoure so pleasant foode For feare of these Man-eaters they stayed not long there It seemeth that they haue much left their brutish customes since wonne to more ciuilitie by trading of the Moores and Christians especially such as are of the Arabian law although as our owne Countrey-men report which haue there liued a mans life is valued to the murtherer at a small summe of money They are a prowd Nation If a man should come in where they are set on the ground after their manner and should sit on a Chest or high thing it were as much as his life were worth The King of Bantam breaking
is but the beginning of another our penance endureth all the way neyther haue we hope of Pardon and Indulgence from some seuerer Poenitentiaries and Censours whose greatest vertue is to find or seeke faults in Others Had the Muses beene propitious and the Graces gracious we would haue had some Musicall and gracefull harmony at least in Phrase and Method but euen the Muses which whilome so graced that Father of History Herodotus that each of them vouchsafed if yee vouchsafe it credit to bestow that Booke on him which hee entitled with their names seemed afraid of so tedious a iourney nor would the Graces grace vs with their company Many indeed offered themselues with their Rules Methods and Precepts of Histories as Bodinus Chytraus Posseuinus Mylaeus Folietta Viperanus Zuinger Sambucus Riccobonus Patritius Pontanus Foxius Robertellus Balduinus and Others which haue written Treatises of that argument but I thought such attendance would be chargeable especially to a Traueller and their many Rules would not haue added wings to my Head and Feet as the Poets paint their Mercury but rather haue fettered my Feet and made my weake Head forget it selfe with their remembrances I therefore followed Nature both within me and without me as my best guide for matter and manner which commonly yeeldeth Beauties as louely if not so curious as those which bankrupt themselues with borrowing of Art the issues of our bodies and minds herein being like Quas matres student demissis humeris esse vincto pectore vt gracilae sint saith Cherea in the Comedy Tametsi bona est natura reddunt curatura iunceas To conceited curiositie may hide rather then commend Natures bounty which of it selfe is alway more honest if not more honourable Neuer could the Persian Court parallel the goodlinesse of Ester and Aspatia which yet neglected the Persian delicacies Once I haue had sufficient burthen of the businesse in hand enough it was for me to goe though I did not dance vnder it But it is time to leaue this idle discourse about our course in this Asian History and bethinke vs of our African Perambulation RELATIONS OF THE REGIONS AND RELIGIONS IN AFRICA OF AEGYPT BARBARIE NVMIDIA LIBYA AND THE LAND OF NEGROS AND OF THEIR RELIGIONS THE SIXT BOOKE CHAP. I. Of Africa and the Creatures therein §. I. Of the Name and Limits of Africa WHether this name Africa bee so called of Epher or Apher the sonne of Midian and nephew of Abraham by his second wife Keturah as Iosephus affirmeth alleaging witnesses of his opinion Alexander Polyhistor and Cleodemus or of the Sunnes presence because it is aprica or of the colds absence of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Festus saith or of the word Feruca which in the Arabian tongue signifieth to diuide wherupon they call this part of the world Ifrichia because it is saith Leo diuided by Nilus and the Sea from the rest of the world or of Ifricus an Arabian King which chased by the Assyrians here seated himselfe or of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Aphar the Hebrew word which signifies dust as Aphra the Syriake also fitly agreeing to the sandie and parched Soile or if any other can giue more probable Edymologie of the Name I list not to contend Nor is it meet for me to be religious in these questions of names in this Quest and Inquirie of Religions It is a great Peninsula by one Isthmus or necke of Land betweene the Red Sea and the Mediterranean ioyned to the Continent which with the Red Sea aforesaid is the Easterne limit of Africa as the Mediterranean on the North and elsewhere the Ocean For Nilus is a 〈◊〉 obscure and vncertaine Vâ—â— pâ—rn Some diuide the World into two parts Asia and Europe accounting Africa a part of Europe which opinion Vâ—â—râ— ascribeth to Aratosthenes Salust Lucan and Aethicus with Simlerus mention it It is twice as bigge as Europe and yet not so much peopled Nature hauing made here her soliâ—â—â—ie place or retyring accended by scorching heats and showres of sands as a counterfeit of those heauenly raines and mouing waters which the Aire and Seas affoord in other places Such are the many Desarts in Africa onely fertile in barrennesse although in other parts it is both fruitfull 〈◊〉 populous The Equinoctiall Circle doth in manner diuide it in the middest And yet old Atlas neuer sheddeth his inowie hairts but hath alwayes on his huge and high tops vnmolten snow whence sometime it is dispersed as from a store-house in such incredible quantitie that it couereth Carts Horses and the tops of Trees to the great danger of the Inhabitants and the Fountaynes are so cold as a man is not able to endure his hand in them Mount Atlas aforesaid stretcheth from the Ocean bearing name of him almost to Egypt Other Mountaynes of name are those of Sierra Leona and the Mountaynes of the Moone c. One Lake Zembre yeeldeth three mightie Riuers disemboking themselues into three seuerall Seas Nilus which runneth Northwards fortie degrees from hence in Astronomicall reckoning Cuama which runneth into the Easterne and Zaire into the Westerne Seas of which Riuers and of other like the Reader shall finde more in due place spoken AFRICAE DESCRIPTIO Some parts of Africa are beyond admiration for barrennesse some for fertilitie Plinie mentions a Citie in the middest of the sands called Tacape in the way to Leptis which hath a Spring of water flowing plentifully and dispensed by course amongst the Inhabitants There vnder a great Date-tree groweth an Oliue vnder that a Figge vnder that a Pomegranate vnder that a Vine vnder that Wheat Pease Herbs all at once The Vine beares twice a yeere and otherwise very abundance would make it as bad as barren Somwhat is gathered all the yeere long Foure cubits of that soile square not measured with the fingers stretched out but gathered into the fist are sold for so many Denarij This Budans sommes and proportions by the Acre after the Roman measure and saith that an Acre of that ground after that rate is prised at 12800 Sestertij nummi which maketh 320. French crownes not reckoning the defect of the cubic which bring added wâ—des much to the summe The Romans reckoned sixe Prouinces in Africa Ptolemey numbreth twelue But then was not Africa so well knowne as now Iohn Leo a Moore both learned and experienced hauing spent many yeeres in trauell diuideth Africa into foure parts Barbaria Numidia Libya and the Land of Negros Numidia he calleth Biledurgerid or the Region of Dares and Libya he calleth Sarra for so the Arabians call a Desart But he thus excludeth Egypt and both the higher and lower Aethiopia which others adde hereunto and make vp seuen parts of Africa §. II. Of the Beasts wilde and tame MAny are the Creatures which Africa yeeldeth not vsuall in our parts Elephants are there in plentie and keepe in
speech of the Inhabitants to the Arabians or of the word Bar which signifieth a Desart doubled It comprehendeth both Mauritania's Africa minor Libya exterior besides Cyreniaca and Marmarica whereof wee haue spoken The Inhabitants some fetch from Palestina some from Arabia It was conquered by the Romans and taken from the Greeke Emperors by the Vandals and from them againe by the Saracens and Arabians and is now partly subiect to the Turke partly to the Xeriffe It is vsually diuided into foure Kingdomes Marocco Fesse Tremisen and Tunis for of Barca is said alreadie The Cities of Barbarie it is Ios. Scaliger his testimonie speake Arabike but not pure nor yet so degenerate as the Italian is from the Latine but the Countrie people vse the old African tongue nothing like the other HONDIVS his Map of Barbarie BARBARIA The Kingdome of Tunis contayneth all that which the Ancients called Africa Propria or Minor and Numidia Antiqua the Romanes perhaps vaine-gloriously vaunting or ambitiously ayming at the Empire of the Vniuerse stiling their first footing and possession in Asia and Africa by the name of the whole which others haue beene forced to distinguish by adding Propria or Minor So they called Attalus his Legacie Asia and this Prouince yea Carthage it selfe had that name Africa The soyle is fertile especially the West-part The Inhabitants are sound and healthfull seldome vexed with any sicknesse Hereof are reckoned fiue parts Bugia Constantina Tunis Tripolis and Ezzab This Ezzab is the most Easterly part hauing many Townes and Regions amongst which some account Mesrata From these parts vnto Capes is the Tripolitan Region The chiefe Towne is Tripolis wherein the great Turke hath his Bassa or Vice-roy a receptacle of the Pyrats which roue and rob in those Seas in the yeere 1551. wonne from the Knights of Malta by Sinan Bassa From Capes to Guadilbarbar is the Tunetan Territorie From thence vnto the Mountayne of Constantina is that Region hereof bearing name and from thence to the Riuer Maior about an hundred and fiftie miles space doth Bugia extend it selfe so called of Bugia the principall Citie sometime adorned with Temples Hospitals Monasteries and Colledges of Students in the Mahumetane Law Here is also Necaus a very pleasant Citie and Chollo very rich Constantina is an ancient Citie contayning eight thousand Families many sumptuous buildings a great Temple two Colledges and three or foure Monasteries much resorted to by Merchants Euery trade hath their peculiar streetes A little from the Citie is a hote Bath hauing in it abundance of Crabfishes or little Tortoyses which the women take for euill spirits and ascribe vnto them the cause of their sicknesse or ague if any befall and therefore kill white Hens and set them on an earthen vessell with their feathers enuironing the same with little Wax-candles and so leaue them neere to this Bath or Fountayne How euer it fare with their Feuer their meat shall not stay long but some or other that see the womens deuotion will enuy the euill spirits so good cheere and for that time will be the spirits themselues to dresse and eate their prouision Not farre hence is a Marble building with Images grauen therein the people haue a conceit that it was sometime a Schoole and those Statues the Schollers by Diuine judgement so transformed for their wickednesse In this Region is situated Bona sometime called Hippo famous through our Christian World for the most famous of the Fathers that since the Apostles dayes haue left vs their writings Aurelius Augustinus a name fitting to him which indeed was Aureus Augustissimus Bishop of the See while hee liued and yet liuing in his Workes a Bishop not of Hippo but of the Westerne Church Wittie Learned Wise and Holy Father that hast with Thee carryed these Titles from Hippo where after Thee the Arrian Vandals and since the Saracens haue liued and Lorded and at this day is possessed of such as haue no possession of Wit Learning Wisedome or Holinesse but haue testified their banishment of all these by ascribing them to Fooles and Mad men whom they honour and admire as Saints This Bona then brooking this name better contayneth now three hundred Herthes and a sumptuous Mosque to which is adjoyned the house of the Cadi Tunis is now a great Citie since the ruines of Carthage neere vnto which it standeth Carthage as the more ancient deserueth first Relation of which wee may yet say with Salust Silere melius puto quà m parum dicere wee may not say much and a little will bee too little for such Greatnesse It was built threescore and twelue yeeres before Rome as the common account goeth by Dido and her Phoenicians an emulous competitor with Rome for the Empire of the World It contayned saith Orosius in the circuit of the walles twentie miles Linier Epitome sayth foure and twentie all engirt with the Sea except three miles space which had a wall of squared Stone thirtie foot broad and fortie cubites high The Tower Byrsa enuironed aboue two miles and had in it the Temples of Iuno Aesculapius and Belus Of the greatnesse of their name and power those three Punike warres are witnesses in the second of which Anniball whom his father Hamilcar then Generall in Spaine had caused to sweare at the Altar of Iupiter neuer to hold friendship with the Romans he then being but nine yeeres old as Aemilius Probus or as other will haue it Cornelius Nepos reporteth he I say passed ouer the Pyrenaean Mountaynes through France and ouer the Alpes into Italy with an Armie of an hundred thousand foot-men and thirtie thousand Horse The Riuers Ticinus and Trebia the Lake Trasimenus running with Roman blood by three ouerthrowes of Scipio Sempronius and Flaminius the Romane Consuls witnessed the Punike might But the victory at Cannae against Varro did pierce the brest and had rent the heart of Rome had Anniball known to haue vsed the victory as well as to haue gotten it There did Rome seeme to breath her last the Sunne the Wind the Dust helping the Carthaginian with Natures forces yea the Riuer Gellus against Nature stayed it selfe as congealed indeed whether with wonder feare of necessitie accepting a Bridge or Damme rather of Roman bodies for a passage to the African Armie These were golden dayes to Carthage when three bushels of Gold-Rings taken from the fingers of the slaine enemies were sent hither as a present A swoune meane-while did Rome sustaine and easily in fiue dayes might Hanniball haue dined in the Capitoll and poore helpe could shee finde when she reuiued had not Capua with feasting the Conquerour detayned Rome from Conquest when they despoyled the Temples for Armour armed their slaues and bestowed their priuate state on the publike Treasurie all which could not make Fabius fight with Annibal but by not fighting he learned to ouercome knowing that a shield was better
Barbarie a Composition called Lafis The Cobtini is as foolish a Sect one of which shewed himselfe not many yeeres since at Algier mounted on a Reede with a Bridle and reynes of leather affirming that hee had ridden an hundred miles on that Horse in one night and was therefore highly reuerenced Somewhat also is said before of these African Sects in our Chapter of Fez Another occasion diuided Africa from other of the Mahumetane superstition For when Muauia and Iezid his Sonne were dead one Maruan seized on the Pontificalitie but Abdalan the sonne of Iezid expelled him Hee also had slaine Holem the sonne of Halea a little before whom the Arabians had proclaimed Caliph and therefore made the Maraunian stocke of which hee descended odious to the Arabians They therefore at Cufa chose Abdimely for the Saracenicall Soueraigne who was of Hali's posteritie which they call the Abazian stocke or family Hee sent Ciafa against Abdalan who fledde and was slaine Ciafa exercised all cruelties against all that Maraunian kindred drew Iezid out of his Sepulchre and burnt his carkasse and slaying all of that house cast their bodies to the Beasts and Fowles to be deuoured Whereupon one Abed Ramon of that familie some suppose him the Sonne of Muauias fled into Africa with great troupes of followers and partakers where the Saracens receiued him very honourably Barrius tels that Ciafa himselfe was Caliph and that he descended of Abaz of whom that stocke was called Abazian and that he tooke an oath at his Election to destroy the Maraunians which hee executed in manner as aforesaid by Abidela his kinsman and Generall To Abed Ramon resorted the Mahumetans in Africke who equalling his heart to his fortunes called himselfe Miralmuminin which is mis-pronounced Miramulim and signifieth the Prince of the beleeuers which he did in disgrace of the Abazians Some attribute the building of Marocco to him which others ascribe to Ioseph as before is said and some to some other Prince built as they say in emulation of Badget which the Easterne Calipha builded for the Metropolitan Citie of their Law and Empire Barrius addeth that he became a Nabuchodonosor to whip and scourge Spaine which Vlit his Sonne by Musa his Captaine wholly conquered in the time of Rhodericus But Pelagius soone after wich his Spanish forces began to make head against the Moores and recouered from them some Townes which Warre was continued with diuersitie of chance and change three hundred yeeres and more till Alphonsus the sixt tooke Toledo from them and for diuers good seruices which Don Henry had done him in these warres gaue him his Daughter in marriage and for her portion those parts which hee had taken from the Moores in Lusitania since called the Kingdome of Portugall with all that hee or his could Conquer from them Thus was the Kingdome of Portugall planted in the bloud of the Moores whereby it hath beene so fatned and hath so batned euer since that all their greatnesse hath risen from the others losse For they not onely cleered those parts of that Kingdome of them by an hereditary Warre but pursued them also into Africa where Iohn the first tooke Scuta from them so making way to his Posteritie to pierce further which happily they performed Alphonsus the fift Portugall tooke from them Tanger Arzila and Alcasare and others especially Emanuel wanne from them many Cities and a great part of Mauritania the Arabians not refusing the Portugals seruice till the Seriff arose in Africa as euen now was shewed and chased the Portugals thence Thus Spaine hath reuenged her selfe of the Mahumetan iniuries by her two Armes of Castle which at last draue them out of Granada and tooke diuers Townes in the Maine of Africa from them and King Philip now in our dayes hath expelled the remainders of that Race quite out of Spaine and Portugall which thus freed it selfe and burthened them by another course did yet more harme to the Mahumetan profession For Henry sonne of Iohn the first set forth Fleets to discouer the Coasts of Africa and the Ilands adiacent diuers of which were by the Portugals possessed and made way to the further discoueries and conquests of that Nation in Africa and India to these our dayes where they haue taken diuers Kingdomes and Cities from the Moores Of which other places of this Historie in part and the larger Relations of Barrius in his Decades of Osorius Maffaeus Marmol Arthus Iarrie and others are ample witnesses CHAP. XIII Of Biledulgerid and Sarra otherwise called Numidia and Libya WEe haue now I suppose wearied you with so long discourse of that part of Africa on this side Atlas but such is the difference of the Mindes wearinesse from that of the Body that this being wearied with one long iourney if the same be continued with a second it is more then tired the other after a tedious and irkesome way when another of another nature presents it selfe is thereby refreshed and the former wearinesse is with this varietie abated yea although it bee as this is from a better to a worse Euen the mounting vp this cold hill and thence to view the Atlantike Ocean on the West Southward and Eastward the Desarts will neither make the Soule breathlesse with the steepe ascent nor faint with so wide prospects of manifold Wildernesses this of barren Earth and that of bare Waters a third seeming to bee mixt of both a Sea without waters an Earth without soliditie a sand not to hazard Ships with her priuie ambushments but with open violence swallowing men and disdaining to hold a foot-print as a testimony of subiection a winde not breathing ayre but sometimes the higher Element in fiery heates and sometimes the lower in sandie showres once a Nature mocking Nature an order without order a constant inconstancie where it is Natures pastime to doe and vndoe to make Mountaines and Valleyes and Mountaines of Valleyes at pleasure Strange is the composition of these places but stranger is that of the Minde which feedes it selfe with the cruell hunger and satiates thirst with insatiable thirstinesse of these Desarts And whereas the body feareth to be drowned euen there where it as much feareth to want water in this sandie iourney the Soule modell of Diuinitie life of Humanitie feares no such accidents to it selfe but in a sweetnesse of varietie delights to suruey all that her first and Ancient inheritance howsoeuer since by sinne mortgaged and confiscated and being sequestred from all societies of Men can here discourse with GOD and Nature in the Desarts Hither now after so long a Preamble we bring you and at first present vnto your view Numidia where you shall bee feasted with Dates which haue giuen the name Biledulgerid that is Date-Region thereunto and before is made one entire part of seuen in our diuision of Africa Ludonicus Marmolius writes it Biledel Gerid Obserue by the way with Aldrete that this Numidia is that
age Some ascend aboue the Moone to call some heauenly Constellation and Influence into this Consistorie of Nature and there will I leaue them yea I will send them further to Him that hath reserued many secrets of Nature to himselfe and hath willed vs to content our selues with things reuealed As for secret things both in Heauen and Earth they belong to the Lord our God whose holy Name be blessed for euer for that he hath reuealed to vs things most necessary both for body and soule in the things of this life and that which is to come His incomprehensible Vnitie which the Angels with couered faces in their Holy Holy Holy-Hymnes resound and Laude in Trinitie hath pleased in this varietie to diuersifie his workes all seruing one humane nature infinitely multiplied in persons exceedingly varied in accidents that we also might serue that One-most God that the tawnie Moore blacke Negro duskie Libyan Ash-coloured Indian Oliue-coloured American should with the whiter Europaean become one sheep-fold vnder one Great Sheepheard till this mortalitie being swallowed vp of life wee may all bee one as Hee and the Father are one and all this varietie swallowed vp into an ineffable vnity only the Language of Canaan bee heard onely the Fathers name written in their foreheads the Lambes song in their mouthes the victorious Palmes in their hands their long Robes being made white in the bloud of the Lambe whom they follow whither soeuer He goeth filling Heauen and Earth with their euerlasting Halleluiahs without any more distinction of Colour Nation Language Sexe Condition all may be One in him that is One and only blessed for euer Amen RELATIONS OF THE REGIONS AND RELIGIONS IN AFRICA OF AETHIOPIA AND THE AFRICAN ILANDS AND OF THEIR RELIGIONS THE SEVENTH BOOKE CHAP. I. Of Aethiopia Superior and the Antiquities thereof §. I. Of the name and diuision of Aethiopia OVt of Nubia we needed neither Palinurus helpe nor Charon to set vs on the Aethiopian Territory the Sea is farre distant and the Riuer Nilus which parteth them whether loth to mixe his fresh waters with the Seas saltnesse or fearing to fall downe those dreadfull Cataracts or dreading the multitude of Pits which the Egyptians make in his way to intrap him heere sheweth his vnwillingnesse to passe further forward and distracted with these passions hath almost lost his Channell diffusing himselfe in such lingering and heartlesse manner as Man and Beast dare here insult on his Waters and I also haue aduentured to take the aduantage of these shallowes and wade ouer into this anciently renowmed Aethiopia The name Aehiopia came from Aethiops the sonne of Vulcan before it had beene called Aetheria and after that Atlantia Lydiat deriueth Aethiopia of Ai and Thebets the Land of or beyond Thebais which was called Aegyptus Superior next to Aethiopia Chytraeus saith it is deriued of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 splendeo and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 visus of the Sunnes burning presence Two Aethiopia's are found in Africke as Plinie witnesseth out of Homer so ancient is the diuision the Easterne and Westerne And this partition is by some still followed as namely by Osorius Others diuide the same into the Asiatike and African Author hereof is Herodotus in his Pocyhimnia which reckoneth two sorts of Aethiopians in Xerxes huge Armie the Easterne mustered vnder the Indian Standards the other of Africa by themselues differing from the former in Language and their curled haire Eusebius mentioneth Aethiopians neere the Riuer Indus And to let passe Pausanias his search among the Seres or Philostratus at Ganges for some Asian Aethiopians the Scriptures seeme to mention an Aethiopia in Asia For Cush the sonne of Cham of whom Iosephus saith the Aethiopians called themselues and were called by others Chusaei was Author not onely of the Aethiopians in Africa but of many peoples of Arabia also in Asia as Moses relateth And hence perhaps it was that Miriam and Aaron contended with Moses for his Wife Zippora because she was an Aethiopian And yet was she a Midianite but called an Aethiopian in respect of the neighbour-hood which Midian had to Aethiopia Orientalis as Vatablus obserueth out of the Iewish Writers or for that Midian is also assigned to Aethiopia taken in a larger sense as saith Genebrard Iunius saith because the Midianites dwelt in that Region which was assigned to Cush Aethicus in his Cosmography affirmeth that Tygris burieth it selfe and runneth vnder ground in Aethiopia which Simlerus interpreteth of Arabia for otherwise Tygris washeth no part of Africa Saint Augustine affirmeth that the Region Northwards from the Red Sea and so euen to India was called Aethiopia Orientalis This distinction is still acknowledged by later Writers And therefore it is needlesse to fetch Moses a Wife out of Aethiopia beneath Egypt to interpret that place For so Iosephus as wee shall after see telleth of a Wife which Moses in his prosperitie before his flight married from thence This obseruation is very necessary because the Scriptures often mention Aethiopia when no part of Africa can be vnderstood as Genes 2.13 where one of the Riuers of Paradise is said to compasse the whole Land of Cush or Aethiopia And so in other places Cush or Aethiopia Learned Iunius obserueth that Cush is either a proper name as Genes 10. or common to the people that came of him it is also a name attributed to the three Arabia's to the two African Aethiopia's and to all the Southerne tract by the Persian Gulfe Leauing that Asian Aethiopia which already wee haue handled vnder other names wee will now proceed in our African iourney where we find in Ptolemie not so exact description thereof as in later Geographers being then in the greatest part vnknowne Maginus maketh Aethiopia to containe two of those seuen parts whereinto he diuideth Africa one of which he calleth Aethiopia Superior and Interior which for the most part is subiect vnto the Christian Prince called in Europe Priest or Prester Iohn the other Inferior and Exterior is all that Southerly part of Africa which was not knowne to the Ancients This doth not altogether agree with Homers diuision whose Geographie Strabo hath so largely trauersed and admired For how could Homer or any in his time attaine to the knowledge of those remote parts Neither yet may we reiect that renowmed Poet seeing this partition may serue vs now in the better discouerie of places where we may reckon all that to the Westerly Aethiopia which from Guinea stretcheth to the Cape of Good Hope and thence to the Red Sea Northwards to the Easterly Nilus and a line from the head thereof vnto the aforesaid Cape being the Arbiter in this diuision But to let passe this curiositie in caruing when all is like to be eaten we will begin at Aethiopia vnder Egypt and so take the Countries
Rials and with vs eight Shillings for that by him the furious spirit of Nilus is slacked and cooled being detayned in the way by many Sluces for that purpose made The great Turke denying this the Abassine caused those Dammes to be broken and by drowning Egypt in vncouth manner forced that great Monarch to composition Aluarez denies both the Mountaynes of Luna and the melting of Snow which is supposed the cause of this Riuers hastinesse and ascribeth the ouer-flowing of Nilus to the extreme raines in Ethiopia whose Fountaynes diuers Portugals haue seene hee saith in Goyame The Turke notwithstanding hath by warring vpon him erected a new Beglerbegship in his Dominions Aluarez liued there sixe yeeres and was once within thirtie miles of Nilus but in all his trauels neuer saw that Riuer So little accesse haue the Ethiopians barred out by vnpassable passages vsually to the same Andrea Corsali reporteth that the Prete Dauid was of oliue colour but shewed his face but once in the yeere hauing at other times his face couered for greater state and therefore also spake to none but by an Interpreter The Inhabitants are branded with fire which they vse not for Baptisme but in obseruation of a custome of Salomon who so marked his slaues as they affirme Friar Luys giueth another reason thereof saying that when the world groned vnder Arrianisme the Abassine Emperour caused his Subiects to brand themselues with a threefold marke or stampe in the forehead to testifie their faith of and in the Trinitie which now since their commerce with the Roman Christians is in manner wholly left except in the ruder and more vnciuill parts of Barnagasso the borders of the Empire The same Author saith that in Ethiopia are Elephants the Rhinoceros and besides other beasts the Vnicorne in the Kingdome of Goyame and in the Hills of the Moone but seldome seene onely the horne is found which he casteth in manner as the Hart. There are also he saith birds of Paradise and such store and varietie of flowers all the yeere long that their Eunuchs are alway decked with them There is one flower not any where else known called Ghoyahula much resembling a Mary-gold but exceeding faire in varietie and excellency of colours fragrant smell abundance of leaues in the flower and with a more rare qualitie beginning to open at noone and so by little and little opening more and more till midnight alway the sent encreasing with the opening after midnight it shuts by little and little till noone denying by the same degrees her pleasing offices to both senses of Sent and Sight He tells also of a little Bird to which Nature hath committed the tuition of this Flower which all the time that it is open flyes about it driues away things offensiue sings sweetly and spreads her selfe thereon with other things very strange I dare not affirme very true He mentioneth also a bird called the Rhinoceros of the ayre much bigger then an Eagle and hauing a bow-fashioned bill or beake foure foot long and a horne betweene the eyes with a black line alongst it It is a cruell fowle and attends on battells and camps The Portugalls had sight of one at the Red Sea when Soliman the Eunuch had his Nauie in the Red Sea The horne is of the same propertie with that of the Vnicorne and Rhinoceros There are fishes also called Rhinocerotes of the Sea many of which are paid the Prete for Tribute Many many other Ethiopian rarities wee might obserue out of this Authour but if it deserue credit the Hill Amara after his description may furnish you for and beyond all the rest of Ethiopia as a second earthly Paradise CHAP. V. Relations of Ethiopian rarities collected out of Friar LVYS a Spanish Author §. I. Of the Hill Amara THe hill Amara hath alreadie beene often mentioned and nothing indeed in all Ethiopia more deserueth mention whether wee respect the naturall site or the employment thereof Somewhat is written thereof by Geographers and Historians especially by Aluarez whom we haue chiefly followed in the former Relations of this Countrie as an eye-witnesse of the most things reported but neither they nor he haue any thing but by relation sauing that he passed two dayes iourney along by the said Hill and that also had almost cost him his life But Iohn de Baltasar saith our Friar liued in the same a long time and therein serued Alexander which was afterwards Emperor and was often by commandement of the same man when he was Emperor sent thither out of his Relations Friar * Luys saith hee hath borrowed that which here we offer you And here we offer you no small fauour to conduct you into and about this place where none may come but an Ethiopian and that by expresse licence vnder paine of leauing his hands feet and eyes behind in price for his curiositie and not much lesse is the danger of such as offer to escape from thence Aluarez himselfe being an eye-witnesse of some such cruell executions inflicted for that offence This Hill is situate as the Nauill of that Ethiopian Body and Centre of their Empire vnder the Equinoctiall Line where the Sunne may take his best view thereof as not encountring in all his long iourney with the like Theatre wherein the Graces and Muses are Actors no place more graced with Natures store or furnished with such a store-house of bookes the Sunne himselve so in loue with the sight that the first and last thing hee vieweth in all those parts is this Hill and where Antiquitie consecrated vnto him a stately Temple the gods if yee beleeue Homer that they feasted in Ethiopia could not there nor in the world find a fitter place for entertainment all of them contributing their best store if I may so speake to the banquet Bacchus Iuno Venus Pomona Ceres and the rest with store of fruits wholsome ayre pleasant aspect and prospect secured by Mars lest any sinister accident should interrupt their delights if his garrisons of Souldiers were needfull where Nature had so strongly fortified before onely Neptune with his ruder Sea-deities and Pluto with his black-guard of barking Cerberus and the rest of that dreadful traine whose vnwelcome presence would trouble all that are present are all saue Charon who attends on euery feast yea now hath ferried away those supposed deities with himselfe perpetually exiled from this place Once Heauen and Earth Nature and Industrie haue all beene Corriuals to it all presenting their best presents to make it of this so louely presence some taking this for the place of our Fore-fathers Paradise And yet though thus admired of others as a Paradise it is made a Prison to some on whom Nature had bestowed the greatest freedome if their freedome had not beene eclipsed with greatnesse and though goodly starres yet by the Sunnes brightnesse are forced to hide their light when grosse and earthly bodies are seene their noblenesse making
that one Boy with a burning firebrand will chase away thousands of them Some there are which hunt these beasts with Launces and Arrowes and liue on their flesh little differing from Beefe There is also found in their Riuers and Lakes the Torpedo or Crampfish of strange effect in Nature if holden in the hand and not stirring it makes no alteration but if it moues it selfe the arteries ioynts sinewes and all the members of the body suffer an exceeding torture and astonishment which presently ceaseth with letting goe the Fish The Aethiopians haue a superstitious conceit that it is good to driue away Deuils out of Men thinking it torments those Spirits no lesse then humane bodies They say I haue not made tryall thereof my selfe that if this fish bee laid amongst dead fishes and there stirre it selfe it makes them also to moue as if there were life in them There are many of them in Nilus in the end of the Prouince of Goyama where is a bottomlesse Lake so the Portugall thought that could not sound the bottom with his Pike whence continuallly springs abundance of water being the head of that Riuer little at the first and after a dayes iourney and a halfe running to the East and then entreth a Lake supposed the greatest in the World passing swiftly through the midst thereof without mixture of waters and casting it selfe ouer high Rockes takes freer scope but presently is swallowed of the Earth so that it in some places it may be stepped ouer After fiue dayes iourney towards the East it winds it selfe againe to the West and so passeth on in his way towards Egypt The Aethiopians affirme that it is easie to diuert the Riuers course and to famish Egypt but I thinke it farre easier to say then doe it Low places in Abassia are intemperately hote Their Winter continues from May to September and then begins in the Red Sea which I haue obserued Fernandes reports it to flow in all time of the Moones increase and to flow continually out all the time of the decrease In their Winter it raineth and thundreth commonly euery afternoone In the Kingdome of Zambea in which we now liue wee may see both the Poles the Antarctike higher with his Crosse-starres In this Tract of Heauen there is as it were a cloud or blot supposed more thinne then other parts about it are many Starres lesse then those which illustrate the other Pole They beginne their yeere with the Spring on the first of September numbring twelue moneths in each thirty dayes reckoning the odde dayes betweene August and September by themselues The Abassines expresse their ioy most by eating and drinking and therefore on Holidayes resort to their Churches which are shaded with trees where are set Vessels full of a liquor which they vse in stead of Wine which they make of Honey adding Opium and thereafter their holies they serue their bellies drinking to drunkennesse quarrels fighting They haue Grapes but except in the Vintage season they straine their dryed Raisons insomuch that Peter Paez a Iesuite writ from thence Anno 1604. that the Emperour desiring him to say Masse after the Romane rite they could find no Wine to doe it §. III. Of their Customes in priuate life and publike Gouernment and their late miseries THey sow little more then they must spend And for their apparell the richer buy it of the Moores attiring themselues after their fashion the rest both Men and Women vse a skinne or some course piece of linnen without adorning by Arte When they doe reuerence to any they cast off this cloth from their shoulders to the Nauell stripping themselues halfe naked They weare their haire long which serues them for a hat or head a-tire and for greater neatnesse gallantry they curle it in diuers manners and anoint it with Butter which in the Sunne shewes like dew on the grasse So curious are they herein that for feare of disordering their curles they haue a crotch fastned in the Earth whereon at night they lay their neckes and so sleepe with their heads hanging They brand themselues on the whole body specially on the face The nailes of their little fingers they suffer to grow to the greatest length imitating as much as may be the spurs of Cocks which also they sometimes fasten and fit to their fingers Their hands and feet which commonly are bare they dye reddish with the iuyce of a certaine barke They are a slothfull people scarsely prouiding necessaries for life not giuing themselues to hunting or fishing and although the materials of Woollen linnen Cottons are at hand yet doe the most of them couer their bodies like beasts with rude skins each man commonly wearing a Rammes skin the ends fastned at his hands and feet They lye on the hides of their Kine without other Beds In stead of Tables they haue great troughes rudely hollowed wherein they take their meat without cloth or Napkin Their vessels are of black Earth Few of them are Merchants besides the Mahumetans They haue no great Cities but many vnfortified Villages Their greatest Towne hath scarcely sixteene houses They vse little writing no not in their publike Iudgements they haue no Bookes but for their Holies and Officers for their accounts And because we haue mentioned their Iudgements it shall not be amisse to expresse their forme out of Fernandes The Emperour hath a House called Cala low without any vpper storie To the doore all such come as haue any suite euery one according to their differing Language crying Lord Lord some also imitating the voyces of Beasts whereby is knowne of what Prouince they are Then doth the Emperour commit their case to the Vmbari so are the Iudges called of the word Vmbare which signifies a three-footed stoole on which each of them sits some on the right others on the left hand In the Townes the Lords are Iudges where when any one sueth the Lord sends one of his Seruants to the Defendant assigning him a time to make his appearance and then the Plaintiffe and Defendant plead each his owne case this is the fashion in Barbary also and many other places and after they haue both said what they can all that are present giue sentence From this they may appeale to the Vmbares from them to the Azages or Supreme Iudges and from these to the Emperour Sometimes Iustices Itinerant or Visitors are sent into the Prouince to enquire of Crimes which places being bought cause Iustice to be sold and these to be Legall Theeues more dangerous then Out-lawes In the flourishing state of the Empire they say the Emperour was wont to hold a continuall Progresse in Tents esteeming it base to liue in any City But wheresoeuer he abode there was presently a City of Tents hauing due places assigned to all publike and priuate employments Churches Hospitals for sicke and for the poore Victualling-houses Shops of seuerall Trades and the like They say also that this mouing City was thirty miles
and the Piaces their Masters goe to them by night to teach them When this time of their solitary discipline is past they obtaine a testimoniall thereof and begin to professe in practice of Physick and Diuination Let vs bury the Cumanois and then we haue done Being dead they sing their praises and bury them in their houses or dry them at the fire and hang them vp At the yeeres end if he were a great man they renue the lamentation and after many other ceremonies burne the bones and giue to his best beloued wife his skull to keepe for a Relique They beleeue that the Soule is immortall but that it eateth and drinketh about in the fields where it goeth and that it is the Eccho which answereth when one calleth §. III. Of Trinidado and Paria IN the yeere 1497. some adde a yeere more Christopher Columbus seeking new Discoueries after the suffering of vnsufferable heats and calmes at Sea whereby the hoopes of his vessels brake and the fresh-water not able further to endure the hot indignation of that now-beleeued Burning-Zone fled out of those close prisons into the lap of that Father of waters the Ocean for refuge he came at last to Trinidado The first Land he incountred he called by that name either for deuotion now that his other hopes were dried vp with the heat or washed into the Sea by the violent showres aboue-boord and the lesse but not lesse dangerous which flowed from his Caske within or else for the three Mountaines which he there descried Once this discouery of Land so rauished his spirit by the inexpected deliuery from danger as easily carried his impotent thoughts into a double errour the one in placing earthly Paradise in this Iland to which opinion for the excellency of the Tobacco there found hee should happily haue the smokie subscriptions of many Humorists to whom that fume becomes a fooles Paradise which with their braines and all passeth away in smoke the other was that the Earth was not round like a Ball but like a Peare the vpper swelling whereof he esteemed these parts Hence Columbus sailed to Paria and found out the Pearle-fishing of which Petrus Alphonsus a little after made great commoditie by trade with the Sauages He was assailed with eighteene Canoas of Canibals one of which he tooke with one Caniball and a bound Captiue who with teares shewed them that they had eaten sixe of his fellowes and the next day he must haue gone to pot too to him they gaue power ouer his Iaylor who with his owne club killed him still laying on when his braines and guts came forth and testified that hee needed not further feare him In Haraia or Paria they found plenty of salt which the Fore-man in Natures shop and her chiefe worke-man the Sunne turned and kerned from water into salt his worke-house for this businesse was a large plaine by the waters-side Here the Sepulchres of their Kings and great men seemed not lesse remarkable they laid the body on a kinde of hurdle or grediron of wood vnder which they kindled a gentle fire whereby keeping the skinne whole they by little and little consumed the flesh These dried carkasses they held in great reuerence and honoured for their houshold Gods In the yeere 1499. Vincent Pinzon discouered Cape Saint Augustine and sailed along the coast from thence to Paria But why stand we here pedling on the coast for Pearles Salt and Tobacco Let vs rouze vp higher spirits and follow our English guides for Guiana Onely let me first haue leaue to mention concerning the Superstitions of these parts Northward from Guiana what it pleased Sir Walter Raleigh to impart vnto mee from the Relation of a very vnderstanding man of that Countrey whom he vsed for an interpreter These people worship the Sunne whom they imagine as the fabulous Grecians tell of his Charet and horses wherewith yong Phacton sometime set the World on fire to be drawne into a Chariot by Tigres which are the most fierie and fierce beasts amongst them In honour therefore of the Sunne and for sustenance of his Chariot-beasts they carefully wash the carkasses of their dead and lay them forth in the night for repast vnto the Tigres wearied with their long and late iourney in the day For so they beleeue that after Sun-set these beasts are to this end dismissed from their labour and that vicissitude wherein Dauid obserueth the wisedome of diuine prouidence that when it is night the wild beasts goe forth to seeke their prey which when the Sunne ariseth and calleth men forth of their houses to labour returne to their Dens is blindly by them applyed to this their superstition They likewise haue a Tradition amongst them that their Ancestors in times past neglecting thus to prepare the corpses of such as died for the Tigres diet or not washing them so neatly as behoued the Tigres made hereof a complaint to the Sunne as not able to doe his worke if not allowed their wonted cates whereupon the Sun sent one amongst them brandishing a terrible fierie sword and so dreadfully assaulting the places of their habitations and the soyle couered with long grasse that all fell on fire and an hundred thousand of the Inhabitants were destroyed a terrible warning hereafter to bee more diligent in these Tigre-deuotions which accordingly they performe to this day CHAP III. Of Guiana and the Neighbouring Nations on the Coast and within the Land §. I. Discouerie of Guiana by Sir WALTER RALEIGH IN the yeere 1595. Sir Walter Raleigh hauing before receiued Intelligence of this rich and mighty Empire set forth for the Discouery and on the two and twentieth of March anchored at Point Curiapan in Trinidado and searched that Iland which he found plentifull Hee tooke the Citie of Saint Ioseph and therein Antonie Berreo the Spanish Gouernour Leauing his ships hee went with an hundred men in Boats and a little Galley and with some Indian Pylots passed along that admirable confluence of Riuers as by the Corps du Guard vnto Orenoque as great a Commander of Riuers as the Emperour of Guiana of Souldiers And although wee haue before mentioned somewhat thereof yet this his peculiar place requireth some further consideration This Riuer Orenoque or Baraquan since of this Discouerie called Raleana runneth from Quito in Peru on the West it hath nine branches which fall out on the North side of his owne maine mouth on the South side seuen Thus many Armes hath this Giant-like streame to be his Purueyers which are alway filling his neuer-filled mouth seeming by this their naturall officiousnesse incorporate thereunto and to bee but wider gapings of the same spacious iawes with many Ilands and broken grounds as it were so many morsels and crummes in his greedy Chaps still opening for more though he cannot euen in Winter when his throat is glibbest altogether swallow these yea these force him for feare of choking to yawne his