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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A90519	An historical & geographical description of the great country & river of the Amazones in America. Drawn out of divers authors, and reduced into a better forme; with a mapp of the river, and of its provinces, being that place which Sr Walter Rawleigh intended to conquer and plant, when he made his voyage to Guiana. / Written in French by the Count of Pagan, and dedicated to Cardinall Mazarine, in order to a conquest by the Cardinals motion to be undertaken. And now translated into English by William Hamilton, and humbly offered to his Majesty, as worthy his consideration.	Pagan, Blaise François de, comte de Merveilles, 1604-1665.; Hamilton, William, gent.	1660 (1660)	Wing P162; Thomason E1805_2; ESTC R209931	71,773	189

the parties concerned that they might make such use thereof as they saw good And I have chosen this way of examples subjoyned to the discourse of generosity by way of Apology for my self and first opening my condition from that obscurity it lay under to prevent or repulse the currish snarls of clownish Pedants and Schiolists My intent in this Translation is beside what I have exprest to his Majesty the propagation of Religion and the good of England But if Religion be not better intended and attended and prosecuted by undertakers than it hath been at home it may justly frustrate all and cast us in as great confusions abroad as it did at home But because this would require more length than this Epistle is now fit to be drawn unto and I may have another occasion for it perhaps ere long I heartily recommend all to Gods blessing and thy good acceptance and bid thee farewell Blackefriers this 22 of October 1660. W. H. Advertisement These Books are newly Printed for and Sold by John Starkey at the Miter in Fleet-street near to Temple-Barre THe World Surveyed or the famous Voyages and Travels of Vincent Le Blanc of Marseilles who from the age of fourteen years to threescore and eighteen travelled through most parts of the World viz. the East and West Indies Persia Pegn the Kingdomes of Fez and Morocco Guinny and through all Africa from the Cape of good hope into Alexandria by the Territories of Monomotapa of Prester John and Egypt into the Mediterranean Isles and through the principall Provinces of Europe Containing amore exact description of severall parts of the World than hath hitherto been done by any other Author the whole work enriched with many authentick Histories originally written in French and faithfully rendred into English by F. B. in folio Aminta The famous Pastorall written in Italian by the admired Poet Signor ' Torquato Tasso and translated into English Verse by John Dancer being the exact imitation of Pastor Fido with other ingenious Poems in 80. The Shepheards Paradise A Comedy privately acted before King Charles the First by the Queens Majesty and her Ladies of honour written by the Honourable Walter Mountague Esquite in 80. To my Lord the most Eminent Cardinall MAZARINE My Lord WHat can be offered greater in a little work than the great River of the Amazones It now offers it self with all its grandures to your Eminency after that it hath hidden them so long time It desires baptisme from you for all its peoples it desires laws from you for all its Nations and a valiant King for all its Provinces that he may unite them to his Crown If the conquest thereof be easie neither will the expense thereof be excessive For there will need no great Armies here to give battels nor no great provision of Artillery for carrying on of sieges There is need only of preparations fitting for planting of five Colonies at the first aboard the first whereof is to be in the Isle of the Sun for guarding the best entry into this great Rivers mouth The second on the famous Bosphore or Strait thereof to desend and keep this Rivers passage The third on that renowned point of the Comanares for the best seat of that whole Empire The fourth near to the Mountain of Swana whereby to be Master of the gold-mine there And the fifth and last on the mouth of the River of Maragnon to watch over the Frontier of that side of the Andes And in favours of this first establishment your Eminence might easily adde the alliances of the Illustrious and renowned Nations of the Homagues of the Generous and noble Yorimans of the valiant Topinambes and give order for a Fleet-volant of about twelve men of Warre continually to be visiting and going between these Colonies because the distance by sailing of the farthest of these from the other will be at the least a thousand Spanish leagues and this alwayes upon the channell of the great River of the Amazones it self But this is enough for an Epistle and the Book it self will speak the matter more at length and in so noble a design your Counsels will not be wanting to France as I shall never be wanting my Lord to give you all sort of honour submissions and respects being as I am of Your Eminence the most humble most obedient and most obliged Servant Blaise Francis de Pagan From Paris the 12th of March 1655. MAGNI AMAZONI FLUVII IN AMERICA MERIDIONALI noua delineatio AN HISTORICAL AND Geographical Description OF THE Great River of the Amazones IN AMERICA CHAP. I. Of the greatness of the River of the Amazones WHat the Danow is to Europe Ganges to Asia and Nilus to Afrique the same is the great Amazone to America And as America is the greatest part of the world so is the River of the Amazones the greatest River in the Universe His length is of greater extent than that of the Nile and Negro in Afrique his breadth larger than that of Ganges and Kiam in Asia his navigation and portableness is better than that of the Danow and Rhine in Eurupe his mouth or entrance into the Sea is more open than that of Plata and Saint Lawrence in America and his depth is like unto that of the Oceane and of the mediterrane-Sea His inundations or overflowings are yearly and fruitfull his aspect is every where and every way pleasant all his branches and Rivers running out of him are inhabited his fields are all fertile and all his adjoyning plaines or valleys cultivated Chase fishing and Venison are there every where great store woods fruits and Corn-fields for harvest cover the grounds and little hills there and the sweetness of his Air is through all alike equally temperate and both gold and silver are found in the Rivers and mountains there Its peoples are innumerable its Iles great and infinite in number yet inhabited all its peoples are spritely and nimble and the riches of the Climate furnisheth them abundantly with all things This River's course is almost alwayes under the equinoctiall Line and every where his nights and days are of alike length and the other Rivers that pay their tribute to him are all under the torride Zone Marvellous effects of the divine providence which having distanced so many Nations from the Sea-coasts and its commodities hath given them so great Rivers and waters in so great abundance that this famous River of the Amazones may reasonably enough be called an Ocean-Sea of sweet waters But all its prerogatives which by an universall consent have made the title of the greatest River of the world be given unto it shall more amply be seen and with more particular deduction of Circumstances in the following Chapters of this Book CHAP. II. Of the great Realm of the Amazone IN the Peninsule or almost-Ile of the Southerly America and almost in the midst of so great a Continent or main-Land there is a great extent of Land covered with so many

above-named it is impossible for Ships to take the same waies back again for returning to the places from whence they came that they held in coming from them so long as their Sailes must be fill'd with those East-windes so this great River of the Amazones hath this particular advantage beyond them that whole Armadoes can go from East to West and from West to East alwaies under the line and the same way both of going and coming and as the same time CHAP. XIII Of the Bosphore of the Amazone THe Thracian and Cimmerian Bosphores or Ox-swim-bredths were never so famous in ages past as the Amazonian Bosphore will be renowned in times to come in all apperance This one strange Strait of this River richer in one day than are at present both the Straits of Hellespont and of Elsenore shuts up in one channell scarcely a thousand paces broad or an Italian mile the whole great River of the Amazones proud of the spoiles of so many and great and long Rivers and highly puft up for his course of more than nine hundred sixty leagues through Plaines and Valleys the fertilest in the whole world and triumphing in all the waters that rise from the East of the great Cordeliere from the Town of Popayan to that of Plata which is the space of five hundred leagues This wonderfull Bosphore or Ox-passe which Providence hath reserved to be one day the Key of the richest Trade in the world and of the greatest Kingdom that is in one only Continent hath three hundred twenty eight degrees and fifty minutes of longitude and two degrees and fourty minutes of North-latitude and is three hundred leagues from the North sea following the course of turning and windings of this great River unto Zaparara however Father D' Acogna often enough variable in his measures carry sometimes this distance of the Bosphore from the Sea unto the length of three hundred sixty leagues But untill the longitude of this great part of America be better observed I intend alwaies to follow the least measures of distances Now this one only and famous Strait of the great River of the Amazones is yet further considerable for this that the flowing of the great Seas is here easily perceived offering a marvellous advantage to the commerce of this Rivers Navigation by the ebbing and flowing of the Ocean Whence it follows that the advantages of the first Nation that shall possesse its self by Colonies and Forts of both sides of this Amazonian Bosphore cannot be exprest in a few words For can any doubt but that the riches of so many Mines discovered and not wrought by the miserable depopulations of the rich Western Regions of this Peninsulare America will be one day snatched up by the greed of those will follow us and the multitude of men that will be born hereafter in these happy Countries and will in end be carried on the currents of so many famous Rivers as render themselves unto the Bosphore of the Amazone to be afterwards brought into Europe by the easie Navigation of the Atlantique Sea in comparison of the troublesome mountains of Panama the Corsaires and the Shipwracks of the Gulph of Mexico and the notable dangers of the channell of Bahame CHAP. XIV Of the first three Rivers that enter into that of the Amazones AFter that we have thus summarily described the course of the great River of the Amazones we will return to his beginning to handle anew the things that are without and adjacent to it But I could wish that Father Acogna the Authour and eye-witnesse of a part of these relations were more cleanly and understandable in them For not having been able to find either cartes or books to help my cares that I have to unfold these ambiguities I my self therefore rest not satisfied in this behalf with mine own work Without staying therefore to censure a Person of his Noblenesse and merit by reasons which I might and the curious may themselves perceive in his writings I shall take me to my Subject and tell you that from the Town of Cofana in the Province of Kixo to the East of the Andes of Peru and to the North of the line comes forth the Coca a navigable River which quickly renders himself on the North-side into the beginnings of the great River of the Amazones which as yet in these parts having his stream too rapid and violent hath not therefore at this place so convenient a navigation himself as other Rivers that enter into his large bed on the side of the Antarctique or South Pole The first whereof passing on as it were about three daies journeys from the City of Avila of the same Province of the Kixos renders himself in short while and under the name of Payamino into the great River on the South-side thereof and below the entrance of the Coca though the distance is not known nor set down But about eighteen leagues from the Town of Kito beyond the Andes of the great Cordelier is the mount Antezame on the South-side of the line from the foot of which the River of Napo coming forth and running amongst the Rocks without being navigable untill he come to a Port or Haven of the same name well nigh unto Archidona he becomes yet more easie to be navigated four leagues beneath that as well for the greatnesse of his Channell as for the lesse rapidnesse and violence of his stream and pursuing in this condition his way to great River he enters thereinto about thirty leagues only from Archidona But concerning the mouth of this River you may look the seventh Chapter of this Book unto which I will here adde that the foresaid Port of Napo where the Indians have an habitation is the best embarquing place for all those that from the Province of Kito would sail or go into the great Amazone And as to this pleasant fair and great enough River of Napo it hath this prerogative beyond others to rolle alongst with him a-amongst the sands of his current good store of Gold which the Natives of this Countrey gathering do therewith without much pains or trouble pay their tribute which yearly they owe to the Spaniards of that same Province a Province also that abounds every where else in all sorts of Fruites necessary for intertaining of the life the like whereunto may be said of it both for Fishing and Hunting or Chace CHAP. XV. Of the Agarique and the Putomaya HAving begun to shew you before the divers Havens or embarquing places by which the great and rich Province of Kyto may enter into the commerce of the great River of Amazone we will now follow the like way be the other Rivers that come from the North-side and give the like advantages to the rich Regions of the Popayan and of the Kingdom of new Granado whereof the first are the Aguarique and the Putomaya taking their beginnings in the Putomaya taking their beginnings in the great mountaines of the Cordelier both of

They had from the year One thousand six hundred thirty eight Knives and Axes and other Instruments of Iron after the fashion of Europe which they gave out to have bought from Indians their Neighbours that were nearer than they to the Sea and these again from certain persons that were white of countenance and cloathed like the Portuguais and armed with Sword and Musket that dwelt upon the Atlantique Sea which have been without doubt either Hollanders or English who have both sailed into the Orenoc and dwelt for some time in the Coasts of Guyana but were at length hostilely chased from thence by the Savages as also all the French were an One thousand six hundred fifty four from the I le of Cayene in the main Land and on the same side of the Sea of the North which is not above two hundred leagues at the most from Rio-negro but reckoning in a streight line and by the shortest distance But because nature hath not offered in all the Realm of the great Amazone a more favourable situation than on the point of the Comanares for setling of a Colony of the most considerable ones of any in the world and which cannot fail one day to be the Seat of an Empire most flourishing and of great richesse in Trade we shall therewith finish this Chapter in telling you That the Land of it is right upon the bankes of these two great Rivers that it is also mounted above the height of ordinary inundations that the surface of it is plain sweet and not shrubby that the Neighbouring Fields abound in graines for necessary Provisions and in good pasturage for nourishing of Cattle that Quarries of an excellent Stone for Building and easie to be cut and hewn are as near it as Woods and Trees of a marvellous greatnesse and height for the conveniency of Buildings and Houses that the distance of the great Amazone from the Rio-negro is not so great but the fortifications may conveniently and regularly be drawn along on the Land-side and that the Foussies of these fortifications and this wall being well ordered may easily be made deep enough and themselves fill'd by the debordments of the one or of the other River at pleasure CHAP. XXVII Of Rio-negro and of the Province of Camsuara FOllowing the North-side of the great River of the Amazones Rio-negro incontinent presents its self next after the Province of Caribane His bredth and depth give him the prerogative to be thought the fairest and mightiest River of all that enter into the great Amazone whose mouth being wide a great league and an half hath four degrees of South latitude and three hundred twenty two degrees and twenty minutes of longitude and seven hundred eighty eight leagues of distance from the Sources of the great Amazone The Amazones course is here towards the North-east and that of Rio-negro right East where he enters into the other with such grandure and majesty that he keeps his waters distinct and separate from the others and keeps half of the whole channell to himself for the space of twelve leagues before the great River though here all united into one great bed to receive him can overcome the distinctnesse of his waters with all the force that he hath The Spaniards first and after them the Portugall's call'd it Rio-negro because at his mouth as often also in his channell his waters appear very black because indeed they are very clear and without any colour but very deep The Natives also name it for the same reason Coriguacure that is the Black River But as Rio-negro is the great Caketa of the sixteenth Chaper of our Book we shall say no more of it here nor stay again upon the obscurities of Father D' Acogna which we have there briefly unfolded but passe on to the recitall of the Nations that inhabite its bankes and tell you That the Province of Camsuare is the first that presents its self having on its South Rio-negro on its East the great Amazone and on its North the great Province of Guyane All the Plaines of these Countries are mounted like those of Caribana and not subject to the ordinary overflowings covered with infinite Peoples and aboundant in all things especially of Trees of a prodigious height and thicknesse But amongst the rich Nations of this fertile Province of Camsuare those of the Aguares of the Agaypes of the Jamnes and of the Carupatabes are not the least considerable without relating the Guaranacasanes which make a Province on the beginning of the River of Orenoc as he comes out of the great Caketa See the sixteenth Chapter to make the knowledge of these things lesse confused and imperfect than they are in Historians and Geographers who treat of them either too diffusedly in great Books or too lightly in little Tractates seeing also it becomes daily more certain by new and reiterated experiences CHAP. XXVIII Of the Province of Cayane and of the Nations Neighbouring BUt going now to the South-side of the great River of the Amazones again we shall find to the East and following that of Surina the Province of Cayane through which the great and long River of the Madera passeth and renders it self into the great Amazone And because this River of the Madera which was so called by the Spaniards because of the great number of Trees which it drew alongst with it into its mouth is one of the principall Rivers of America you shall find the distances and measures and other circumstances that concern it in the tenth and eighteenth Chapters of this Book Now the Nations that Province great enough contains within its extent whether lying alongst the great Amazone or in going up the great River of the Madera which the Natives call also Cayane are no lesse happy for the fertility of their fair Fields and pleasant Rivulets than other Peoples of all these fertile Countries are They are of no lesse courage for Warre not lesse expert in Fights and handling of Armes they have also the like industry in their handy-works that serve to make their happinesse of life the more accomplished by the exchange of them with such commodities as they stand in need of and they keep likewise in their conduct and Government of affairs Laws and Customes like unto those that all other Provinces of the Realm of the Amazone do But of all these infinite Peoples that cover so many considerable Plaines and Fields the Cayanes and the Anamares are the most renown'd and next to these the Curares and the Goarinumes and after them the Abacares and the Oragunagues and lastly the Sabucares and the Urubingues in going down the great Amazone which yet are the most esteem'd for their curious finenesse of working and making house Utensiles But the remotest of all in going down the great Amazone and amongst these the best known are the Maraques and the Oregates and towards the South the Guaranaques and others without number which undoubtedly border upon the great Lake of

AN Historical Geographical DESCRIPTION OF THE Great Country River OF THE AMAZONES IN AMERICA Drawn out of divers Authors and reduced into a better forme with a Mapp of the River and of its Provinces being that place which Sr Walter Rawleigh intended to conquer and plant when he made his Voyage to Guianu Written in French by the Count of Pagan and dedicated to Cardinall Mazarine in order to a Conquest by the Cardinals motion to be undertaken And now translated into English by William Hamilton and humbly offered to his Majesty as worthy his Consideration LONDON Printed for John Starkey at the Miter in Fleet-street near Temple-Barre 1660. TO THE Imperial Majesty OF CHARLES II of Great-Brittain France and Ireland Defender of the Faith of Protestants and of Protestants themselves by his Title of signal providence Happiness Victories Triumphs Gracious Sir NOt only freewill-offerings and gifts were acceptable to God though they had a member or members superfluous or were deficient in some and so had much imperfection so it were not of the nature of unsincerity in which respect they behoved to be without blemish Levit. 22.23 but in trespass-offerings also which were commanded and not left free if the Party was poor not only a single Turtle or young Pigeon was accepted for the other was for an Holocaust but a single meat-offering a very little Flower or Meal and a little Salt to it were accepted for both Holocaust and trespass-offering under one Lev. 5.7 which being doubtlesly in use from Noahs time or Adams rather as elsewhere I hope to make it appear gave as undoubtedly the beginning to that practice and proverb among the Heathens Heathenism being but an inveterate corruption of heresie and schism from the Religion delivered by God to Adam and Noah as shall also God willing be made appea● molâ salsâ litant qui non habent thura such may acceptably sacrifice to God with meal and salt who have not frankincense The like debonnairety to accept of mean gifts from good mindes hath also been annumerated to the heroick indowments of the greatest Kings Thus Artaxerxes disdained not a pitcher of water from a Paisant And Plutarch in his Apophthegms shows by one of them the property of a royall disposition to have been esteemed this Non minus est regium parvula accipere quam largiri magna It is no less Kingly to accept of little things than freely to bestow great matters And this Royall Sir is my humble request to your saered Majesty at this time That you will graciously accept a mean gift from a mean giver and by your royall return of justice and bountie to enable me to serve God and your Majesty with better God himself inviting you thereto by his example who allowed even of poor freewill-offerings made to him of purpose to obtain his bountifull returns of some eminent benefits or favours And yet a mean gift Sir I call this of mine not that the work it self should be so accounted but my work about it which is but a Translation For the Book though in bulke but small in its concernments is very rich and as highly commendable in it self so not much less in the Author In its natural language it made its first address to Cardinal Mazarine in order to have set his Majesty of France on conquest of the great Kingdome of the Amazone to himself But having these five years at least that now it hath been abroad not made use of it that way it comes now by me to beg your Majesties favourable acceptance in hope of that large retribution to your self when your Majesty shall think fit to apply your thoughts to it for which it was intended to another It was by an old servant of your Majesties Royall Fathers and Gandfathers I. L. D. brought over and communicate to one of your Majesties most expert Seamen C. W. who from his youth up and often times since hath been in and knowes perfectly all the coasts of the Southern America Both these are very confident at least wish heartily and my self with the like affection do now humbly present it also That your Majesty would so consider of that great Empire as if it were already your own as it may be with much ease if your applications be seasonable and suitable to its worth For it is possest by the barbarous Natives only except in two Skirts Brasile on the East where the Portuguaise pitched and Peru upon the West where the Spaniard is divided from the Inland by the tract of the Andes or Cordeliere hills but in the Peninsular great continent your Majesty may dresse an Empire of near nine thousand miles in circuit of the pleasantest fertilest and richest continent in the world whether for air waters or soil to which no Prince can pretend much less lay a claim For the discoveries of that River by the Portugaise and Spaniards were more to satisfie their curiosity than that they could then hope for a conquest And the Natives not only in their forlorn condition but by singular junctures of providence call for the Christian Religion from us while others cease from that duty as the man of Macedon did Paul to help them while he was hindred to go into Bithynia Act. 16.7 9 10. and others have been hindred hitherto to go to them for such end but they may also easily be made to receive your Majesties Government with friendship if wisely dealt with For while neither Portugall nor Spain nor France pursued the design here offered God in in his providence amidst your Majesties and your good Subjects troubles seems not obscurely to have been designing this for you and your Brittain as may be hoped from ancient prediction not liable to exception from the solidest and soberest wits as at another occasion I may fullier clear if your Majesty command it and so much the more as his providence hath prevented your projecting having already made way and brought to pass for your Majesties interest an opportune and considerable Colonie by that noble Lord Willoughbee of Parham to his great travels hazards and vast expenses both seeming to concurre with the foresaid prediction and to point out your Majesty for the layer of such a foundation both to Christ and your self The Author of this work is a French Earl of a most ancient Nobility and descent from those famous and honourable Commanders in the holy Warres who for their wise conduct and rare valour were imployed in places of great trust and transmitted them with the Coat of arms and name of Pagan which was the badge of their great exploits in mating and killing the Pagans or Infidels to their suecessors of the same name and family as the Author himself showes at large in the Dedication of his rare Book of Fortifications to another noble branch of the same family of whose rare accomplishments for gentile and manly learning and Souldiery lest I should here presume too much upon your Majesties patience I

the imaginary Treasures of the fabulous rather than famous Lagad rado CHAP. XXIV Of the Province of Yoriman NEXT after the Province of Corosirare as you go down the great Amazone on the South-side is the Province of Yoriman being but of sixty leagues long but of such repute amongst the Indians of all these Countries by reason of the strength and valour of its Inhabitants than the Navy of the Portuguais themselves passing along did perceive it They are of a good stature of a fair body and well formed They are expert in all things they take themselves to especially in Armes and go all naked as well men as women They are also so numerous for multitude that never any saw at one time so many Barbarians together It was an infallible token of their great courage that they went and came as they did amidst the Armed Vessels and Ships of Warre of the Portuguais to traffique with them with extreme assurance of minde For whilest the Portuguais going up the great Amazone sail'd along by this Province every day there came to them above two hundred Canoes full of Women and Children with Fruits Fishes Meales and other such like Provision which they changed with the Portuguais for axes and knives whereof they have great esteem as all others Indians of the new world The Yorimans inhabite not only the main Land of this Province but fill also the great Iles that the great Amazone makes by sundry of his Armes stretched forth The first Village of this Warlike Nation is on the mouth of a Christalline River which must be strong and come very farre considering the force wherewith he pusheth the deep waters of the great Amazone But the notablest of their Habitations is the greatest of any that lie on the great Amazone containing more a good deal on the banke of that River than a good league and in every of its Houses four or five Familes and sometimes more whereby easily may be gathered the great number of the Inhabitants of this long Town whereof we spake also in the ninth Chapter of this Book It was in this place so abounding with all things that the Fleet of the Portuguais stay'd five or six daies at its return after it had gone up the River of the Amazones before with good successe as shall be afterwards related Not one of so numerous a people fled from his House for fear of their arrivall but the whole Fleet got freely from them all that they stood in need of and because the Navy was near an end of all its Provisions it got from their bounty five hundred Sacks of the Meale of Mandioqua which sufficed it for the whole rest of its Voyage The other Habitations also of this happy Province of Yoriman are not much inferiour to the former they are all along very frequent on the firm land but yet both mightier and more numerous in a great Iland about thirty leagues lower where it seemes the principall Forces are of this generous Nation generous I say both for its valour liberality and numerousnesse of men that inhabite it CHAP. XXV Of the Province of Surina and the Neighbouring Nations BUt to go from the Province of Yoriman to that of Surina we must in our passage visit the Nation of the Cusiguares that labour the fertile Plaines situated on the South-banke of the Amazone which in this place receives the plentifull waters of that great River that gives its own name to this pleasant Province This renowned River of Cusiguare both for the easinesse of its Navigation though somewhat hindered now and then by Rocks appearing in it here and there and for the happinesse of its Fishing no lesse abounding here than elsewhere will be no lesse considerable for the high stature and the great courage of his Nation of the Motuanes that cover the first Plaine that he waters who by testimony of the Indians that report it use also long Plates of fine Gold for Eare and Nose-Pendants whence it would seem that they are not farre from the rich Province of the Plata and of Potosy because even to travell up to their Countrey it takes full two moneths time But upon the same River and between the aforesaid two Nations the Curians and the Catoses enjoy likewise the happy fruitfulnesse of so many good Grounds and so many pleasant Rivers that on all sides enter into their principall River Now as the Province of Homague is celebrated amongst all those of the great Amazone for its fine works of Stufles and Cloathes of Cotton of so great variety and the Province of Corosirare for their excellent Pottery of Vessels of Earth so artificially Painted and fashioned so the Province of Surina is no lesse commendable for a delicate houshold-stuffe or Utensiles of a marvellous fine artifice It is on the South of the great River and to the East of the Cusiguares its Peoples being the Surines and the Coripunes Nations that are the most curious and expert of working in Wood of any in all America They make Seates and Formes in the fashion of Animals yet so fine and commodious for the ease of the body that nothing can be added to their industry They make also Javelots and Arrows with so much gentilenesse and elegancy that all other Nations seek after them And the like Images that they make to the life are so perfectly done in all points that our best Ingravers and Carvers could find no other occasion but to learn from them so that by exchange of so many singular workmanships of so sundry sorts they daily make their lives more happy by all necessary Commodities which on all sides come unto them from this rich traffique CHAP. XXVI Of the Province of Caribane FOr as much as the distances of all these Rivers and Provinces are just enough set down in the ninth Chapter of this Book we shall say only of this Province of Caribane that it lies between the Rio-negro and the great Amazone in extent of more than an hundred leagues on the banks of either of them Its Fields and Plaines are higher than that they are subject to the overflowings of these Rivers or of an equall height unto them yet fertile and abundant in all things The River of Bazurura which enters into that of the Amazones on the North-side makes here Lakes and Ilands very pleasant and the divers Nations of this great Province are no lesse considerable for the plenteousnesse and fertility of their Countrey than for the happy condition of their life Of these the Araguananes and the Mariguanes are the most Westerly and lye against the bankes of the Yoriman already mentioned The Pogoanes and the Caraganes are on the Basurura The Comanares possesse that point which the two Rivers for me at their meeting The Tuynamanes and the Comarurianes are on the side of Rio-negro and the others lesse renown'd possesse the Lands that are furthest off from the Amazone All these Peoples are valiant and use-skilfully the Bow and Arrow

Parallaxes in the Eclipses of the Sun and of the Phenombres in the Eclipse of the Moon which hinder the taking exactly of the time of her immersion and emersion under and out of the shadow of the Earth But to let it be seen that I am not the only man that take to my self this licence to suspect and give little trust to the exactness of these Observations so as thereby definitively to regulate Longitudes with neglect of itinerary distances which being well managed often supply in some sort the others too great incertitude I shall here set down the examples which John Kepler that famous Astronomer thought good himself to set down at the end of the Catalogue of the Towns of the Rodolphine Tables that he might show the varieties of the difference of Longitudes found out by diverse Observations of the same Eclipses between the Meridians of Rome and Norimberg as followeth Regiomontanus makes it of thirty six minutes of an hour or of nine degrees of the equator and with him many more Stafler and Verner of eighteen minutes of an hour or of font degrees and an half Shoner Mercator and Hondius regulate it to twelve minutes of an hour or to three degrees And leaving others Kepler himself hath reduced it to four minutes of an hour or to one degree only So that the varieties of the difference of these two Meridians in so little a distance as they stand in coming to eight whole degrees with how much more reason may we doubt of the true Longitude of the West-coasts of the South and North America Now these diversities are no less frequent every where else as may be verified by the difference of the Meridians of the same Rome and of Toledo in Spain set down in Authors of Astronomy and Geography For Kepler the last and painfullest of all reduces it to sixteen degrees and according to others it amounts often to thirty Which notwithstanding we have made an essay to remedy as much as the matter doth permit in our Geographicall Tables by more exact cares and researches than those of this curious Author Kepler himself which being not yet Printed yet Monsieur Morin the Kings professor of the Mathematicks hath not thought ill to draw out of them that which he hath set at the beginning of his Abridgement of the Rodolphine Tables as preferable to any other Catalogue of Towns that he could then meet with to serve his purpose After these Reasons brought I would now willingly consent that the Longitude of the West-coast of America were made shorter by ten degrees at least that the difference of the Longitudes of the Town of Kito and of the Point of Zaparara were made of fourty seven degrees and so the distance from the one to the other in a straight Line of nine hundred fourty Geometricall Leagues And this would agree better and not be so far different from the total number of measures observed in the navigation of the great River of the Amazones as is to be seen in the eighth Chapter of this Book through all which that we might change nothing out of our own opinion we have set down the Longitudes according to the ordinary and recentest Carts of South America But surely it ought to be made broader by Geographers that shall go over it again to find place there for all that we faithfully relate unto them in this work that so the great Amazone and so many other Rivers that run unto him and Provinces that are discovered upon them may commodiously be lodged and in their own naturall extent In which case the East-coast of this same America to the turn of the Cape of St. Augustine should be kept in the same degrees and minutes of its longitude and all the rest from thence towards the West augmented unto ten degrees and compassed in the just and fitting Geometricall proportions as well in regard to Meridians as to the Longitudes And the same ampliation being made over North America you will find his East-coast drawn back by four or five degrees conformably to the assurances that the first English gave that sail'd to Virginia and to the report of John Laet in his third Book of America Whereunto I offer my self willingly to contribute my cares and studies in favours of such as will undertake it making use and serving my self in all these Geographicall procedures with the precepts of the true and new doctrine of the eighth Book of my Geometricall Theorems Printed 1654 as well for the Longitudes as itenerary distances which I there shew that they ought alwayes to be in great Circles and not in parallells reduced to certain proportions Which last is a Rule altogether contrary to the truths of Geometry however Mathematicians and Geographers that preceeded the impression of that Book have generally taught the Maxime of it without adverting or considering so notable an errour That the shortest distance from one point to another on the Globe of the Earth is alwayes described or led by a great Circle c. See the eighth Book of my foresaid Theorems A second Advertisement to Geographers about the restitution of Longitudes BUt to get a perfecter knowledge as well of the Longitudes that fit America as those that concern the East Indies we have resolved to set down here a method to find them easily by the motion of the Moon upon firm land in this manner 1. Draw on a right horizontall Plain that is very smooth and white a very exact meridian Line and with the same exactness observe the height of the Pole by a quadrant that can mark minutes and if possible half minutes as it is easie now to get such an one by the new inventions of dividing the Alhidades of it 2. On the night of the full Moon take the horizontall height of a fixt Star untill the shadow of a Plummet hung made by the Moon shall be just upon the Meridian but with this caution that the height of the Star observed be at least of thirty degrees to avoid refractions and that the same Stars distance from the Meridian be reasonable enough for a greater exactness 3. Seek the true distance of the foresaid Star from the Meridian of your Hemisphere by this Rule As the Rectangle contained in the Sinuses of the complement of the elevation of the Pole and of the complement of the declination of the Star is to the quadrat-side of the whole Sinuse so the Rectangle contained in the Sinuses of the summe or totall and of the difference of the half of the complement of the observed height of the Star and of the half of the difference of the complement of the declination of the Star and of the complement of the elevation of the Pole is unto the quadrat-side of the Sinuse of the half of the true distance of the Star from the Meridian But if the declination and right ascension of the Star which you make use of for this astronomicall Observation be not set down

to your hand in the same Table of its longitudes and latitudes you shall find it by the Rules of my sixth Book of Geometricall Theorems aforesaid whither I refer you 4. Double the foregoing half of the distance found and substract that from the right ascension of the Star observed if it be in the Eastern part of the heavens but adde it to its right ascension if the Star be in the West part of the heavens and the summe of the addition or the residue after the substraction will be the true right ascension of the Meridian of the Moon in degrees minutes and seconds of the equator 5. In the Ephemerids or in the Astronomicall Tables take the Node of the Moon ascendant or descendant in signs degrees minutes and seconds of the Ecliptick according to the hour of your observation after your best esteem to wit that which is nearest to that right ascension of the Moon or of the midst of heaven which is all one But in the Rule of the precedent Article if the Pole be North the declination also of the fixed Star must be Northern and contrarily 6. With the same right ascension of the Moon and of the Meridian take also in the same Tables or by the sixth Book of my Theorems the midst of heaven in signs degrees minutes and seconds in the Ecliptick and the Angle of the Meridian and of the Ecliptick only in degrees minutes and seconds which we shall alwayes hereafter call the midst of heaven to shun a longer title or repetition 7. Substract from the midst of heaven the Node of the Moon or from the Node of the Moon the midst of heaven that you may finde alwayes lesse residue than ninety degrees and this distance of the Node of the Moon from the midst of heaven will be the base of a Sphericall Triangle-Obliquangle whereof the lesser Angle will alwayes be of five degrees and no minutes and the greater Angle alwayes the Angle of the Meridian and of the Ecliptick of the foregoing Article according to the seventh Book of my Theorems 8. Seek the Arch of the Meridian contained between the Orbite of the Moon and the Ecliptick Circle by this Rule As the totall Sinuse or Sine is to the Sine of the distance of the Node of the Moon in the midst of heaven so is the Sine of the Angle of five degrees to the Sine of the perpendicular And as the totall Sine is to the Sine of the complement of the preceding distance so is the tangent of the Angle of five degrees to the tangent of the complement of the Angle sought for 9. Take the difference of this Angle sought for and of the Angle of the midst of heaven and you shall have the second Angle sought for in degrees minutes and seconds Then as the total Sine is to the Sine of the complement of the second Angle required so the tangent of the complement of the precedent perpendicular is to the tangent of the complement of the Arch of the Meridian contained between the midst of heaven and the center of the Moon 10. Finally as the Sine of the Angle of five degrees is to the Sine of the precedent Arch of the Meridian so the Sine of the Angle of the midst of heaven is to the Sine of the argument of the latitude of the Moon which argument you must substract or adde to the Node of the Moon according to the disposall of the probleme for getting in signs degrees minutes and seconds the place of the Moon in her Orbite 11. With the precedent argument of the latitude of the Moon take in the astronomick Tables its reduction to the Ecliptick in minutes and seconds that you may either substract or adde the same according to the title of the same Tables to the place of the Moon in her Orbite and you shall have the true longitude or the true place of the Moon in the Ecliptick in signs degrees minutes and seconds As also in the same Tables her true latitude if you desire it with the same argument seeing in all these observations the Moon is alwayes near her copulations 12. Compare the two longitudes of the Moon found out in this manner on the same night but in diverse Meridians and take the difference of them as also her hourly motion at the time of both the observations because the hours minutes and seconds of hours that shall agree to the degrees minutes and seconds of the Ecliptick of that difference being turned into degrees and minutes of the Equator will give the true difference of the Longitudes contained between the two Towns where the two observations have been made Now all the secret of this easie and new method consists in this that the center of the body of the Moon is necessarily in the Circle of the Meridian when she is full or very near her opposition the shadow of the Plummet-Line coming just upon the true Meridian-Line of the place where the observation is made and in this that nothing more being required to be added but the plain heighth of one fixt Star and without Parallax the operation may be made in any Moneth of the year without staying for a tedious restitution of Astronomy and without being put to the charges of great Instruments Horizontall and Verticall which are otherwise necessary to the practice of this Science of finding out longitudes which Nonius Horoncius Frisius Kepler and Morinus the perfectlyest of them all have painfully travelled in But this is enough for the Geographers and Mathematicians that are dispersed over the world and ought to labour in the restitution of Geography to whom notwithstanding I could wish an exacter knowledge of Astronomy and of Trigonometry that they might the more easily arrive at the glory of perfecting this goodly science no less pleasant than necessary And for conclusion we shall in favours of an Astronomer that will make this observation of the Moon in his own particular that he may compare it with that of the Rodolphine Tables tell him that the longitude of the Town of Rome on the globe of the earth is fourty degrees and that its Meridian is the same that it hath in the Rodolphine Tables which are the best of all other astronomick ones if you correct but the equations of the Center and the intervalls of the Planets by the fifth Book of our Geometricall Theorems As also for the choice of the equation of the time if you use that equation which proceeds from the difference of the two right ascensions to wit of the middle place and of the true place of the Sun in the Ecliptick because that amongst so many divers and various equations of the time that the most excellent Authors have yet given or established that alone seems to me Geometricall and exact as we have said elsewhere and that the errours of other wayes will amount sometimes to four of five degrees in longitudes upon the earth But as the