by blowing and whifling doth both cause the fire never to extinguish and sometimes according unto the strength of the blast doth make flames breake out either more or lesse There are in the Hill Aetna two principall places which are like unto two Furnaces with Tunnels on the top of them where divers times but especially in the Evening and Night the flame doth appeare mounting upwards and it is so strong that oftentimes it brings up with it burnt and scorching stones and peeces of hard substances which seemes to bee rent out of some Rocke to the great terrour and danger of any that doe come neere This is that place whither Empedocles threw himselfe Note that hee might be reported a God This is it whereof Virgil doth make his Tract called Aetna which the Poets did report to bee the Shop of Vulcan where Cyclopes did frame the Thunderbolts for Iupiter And to conclude that is it which some of our grosse Papists have not feared to imagine to be the place of Purgatory As they have beene so foolish to thinke that there is also another place called the Mount Veda in Jseland where soules have another Purgatory to bee punished in but there by colde which Surius in his Commentaries is so absurdly grosse as to report and allow * The Papists Purgatory is the fiery Aetna The Papists have show for their Purgatory in Aetna out of that Book which is commonly called by the name of the Dialogues of Gregory the Great For in that Booke there are divers things to that purpose But our best Writers of late have discovered that that same Treatise is a counterfeit being made by a later Pope Gregory and not by the first of that name ordinarily called Gregorius Magnus who although hee have in his Workes divers things tending to Superstition yet hee was never so absurde as to write things so unprobable foolish and grounded upon so bare reports as these were Such another Hill as the Mountaine of Aetna is was in time past Vesuvius a Hill in Campania which is part of Italy but this never had the like continuance as that of Aetna although in the time of Pliny the fire did breake forth there and so strongly as that the elder Pliny who spent all his time in discovering the secrets of Nature pressing neere to behold it was stifeled with the flame smoke or ashes so that hee * The dâ—ath of Pliny the elder died in the place as is most excellently described in the Booke of his Epistles by his Nephew the younger Plinie Not farre from Sicily on the South lyeth the little Ile called in old time Melita whence those Dogs come which are so much desired under the names of Canes Melitenses * Note This is the place where Saint Paul was cast up after his shipwrack in his journey to Rome where the Viper hanged on his hand and did not hurt him This Countrey is now called * Malta the onely place for repelling the Turks Malta is one of the places most renowned in the world for repelling of the Turkes When Soliman the Emperour of them did send against it a most mighty Army it was then defended by them who are called the Knights of Malta which by Sea doe great spoyle to the Gallies of the Turke that passe that way There were in times past divers Orders of Knights and men that had vowed themselves to adventure their lives and whole state for the maintenance of Christs Religion and some places of the Earth against the Infidels and Saracens The most ancient of all those were called the * The society of the Knights Templers Templers who were a great corporation or societie consisting of divers Gentlemen younger brothers for the most part out of all the Realmes of Christendome Their chiefe charge was to defend the Citie of Ierusalem and the Reliques or remainder of the Temple there and Sepulcher of Christ for the preservation of which places together with the rest of the Holy Land they had given unto them and purchased for their money very rich and ample possessions in England France Spaine Jtaly and other places of Europe in so much that in the dayes of Mathew Paris hee reporteth that they had under them many thousands of Mannours They had also in every kingdom where their Order was permitted a great and ample house where some chiefe of their company did lye who received the Rents within that Kingdome and caused the money to bee transported into the Holy Land and other Ordinances to be made and executed belonging unto their Order of which houses the Temple that is now in London was a chiefe one which had in f rmer times belonged to the Iews but was afterwards translated to that use when the Holy Land was quite taken by Saladine and could never be recovered into the hands of the Christians since the Societie of these Templers ceased * The Pope and the King of France conspiring their ruine the Pope and the King of France conspiring their ruine and their Lands were dispersed into divers mens hands In the same time when the Templers were in their strength there was another sort called the * Hospitallers Hospitallers whose condition and employment was very like unto the other both of them fighting for the preservation of Palest na Wee reade that sometimes these two companies had great jarres betweene themselves whereby grew much hinderance to the Warres against the Infidels All these were accounted as Orders of Religion and therefore it was forbidden them at any time to marry without dispensation from the Pope because not being entangled to Wife and Children they might be more resolute to adventure their lives After them grew up the order of the * The Knights of Rhodes Knights of Rhodes who since they could not live in the Holy Land yet would abide as neere unto it as possible they might and therefore partly to preserve Pilgrimes which should goe to visit the Sepulchre of Christ and partly to infest the Turkes and Saracens but especially to keepe the Enemies of Christ's Faith from encroaching further upon Christendome which most earnestly they did and doe desire they placed themselves in the Ilands of Rhodes where daily doing great scath unto the Turke Solyman the great Warriour could not endure them but with a mighty Army so over-laid them that hee wonne the Island from them The Knights of Malta After the losse of Rhodes the Island of Malta was given unto these Knights by Charles the Fift Emperour whereupon they are now called the Knights of Malta for the great Master after hee came from Rhodes went into Candy and from thence into Sicily and so into Jtaly from thence hee made a Voyage into England and then into France and lastly into Savoy from whence hee departed with the Religion into this Island and there they continue and behave themselves as in the former Iland and offering no violence unto Christians they
honourable government is established which wee now see at this day It is supposed that the Faith of * The religion ve y ancient which they nâ—w professe Christ was first brought into this Land in the dayes of the Apostles by Ioseph of Arimathaea Simon Zelotes and some other of that time but without doubt not long after it was found here which appeareth by the Testimony of Tertullian who lived within lesse then two hundred yeares after Christ And there are Records to shew that in the dayes of Eleutherius one of the ancient Bishops of Rome * K. Lucius he first that here received Baptisme and the Gospel King Lucius received here both Baptisme and the Gospel in so much that it is fabulous vanity to say that Augustine the Monk was the first that here planted the Christian Faith For hee lived six hundred yeares after Christ in the time of Gregory the Great Bishop of Rome before which time Gildas is upon great reason thought to have lived here of whom there is no doubt but that hee was a learned Christian Yea and that may bee perceived by that which Beda hath in his Ecclesiasticall Story concerning the comming in of Augustine the Monke that the Christian Religion had beene planted here before but that the puritie of it in many places was much decayed and also that many people in the Iland were yet Infidels For the conversion of whom as also for the reforming of the other Austine was sent hither where hee behaved himselfe so proudly that the best of the Christians which were here did mislike him In him was erected the Arch-bishopricke of Canterbury which amongst old Writers is still termed Dorebernia the Archbishops doe reckon their succession by number from this Augustine * Note The reason wherefore Gregory the great is reported to have such care for the conversion of the Ethnicks in Brittaine was because certaine young Boyes were brought him out of this Countrey which being very goodly of countenance as our Countrey Children are therein inferiour to no Nation in the World hee asked them what Countrey-men they were and it was replyed that they were Angli he said they were not unfitly so called for they were Angli tanquam Angeâ—i Nam vultum habent Angelorum And demanding further of what Province they were in this Iland it was returned that they were called Deires which caused him againe to repeate that word and to say that it was great pitty but that by being taught the Gospell they should be saved de ira Dei England hath since the time of the Conquest growne more and more in riches insomuch that now more then 300 yeares since No countrey like England in the time of King Henry the third it was an ordinary speech that for wealth this Countrey was Puteus inexhaustus a Well that could not be drawne dry Which conceit the King himselfe as Mathew Paris writeth did often suggest unto the Pope who thereupon tooke advantage abusing the simplicity of the King to sucke out inestimable summes of money to the intolerable grievance of both the Clergie and Temporality And among other things to bring about his purpose the Pope did perswade the King that he would invest his young Sonne in the Kingdome of Apulia which did containe a great part of all Naples and for that purpose had from thence many thousands besides infinite summes which the King was forced to pay for interest to the Popes Italian Vsurers Since that time it hath pleased God more and more to blesse this Land but never more plentifully than in the dayes of our late and now raigning Soveraigne whose raigne continuing long in peace hath peopled the Land with abundance of inhabitants * The Riches of the Countrey hath stored it with Shipping Armour and Munition hath fortified it many wayes hath increased the trafficke with the Turke and Muscovite and many parts of the earth farre distant from us hath much bettered it with building and enriched it with Gold and Silver that it is now by wise men supposed that there is more Plate within the Kingdome then there was Silver when her Majesty came to the Crown Some Writers of former times yea and those of our owne Country too have reported that in England have been Mynes of Gold or at the least some Gold taken out of other Mynes which report hath in it no credit in as much as the Countrey standeth too cold neither hath it sufficient force of the Sunne to concoct and digest that Mettall But truth it is that our Chronicles doe witnesse that some Silver hath beene taken up in the Southerne parts as in the Tinne-Mynes of Devonshire and Cornewall and such is sometimes found now but the vertue thereof is so thinne that by that time it is tryed and perfectly fined it doth hardly quit the cost notwithstanding ' Lead Iron and such baser mettals be here in good plenty The same reason which hindreth gold ore from being in these parts that is to say the cold of the climate doth also hinder that there is no wine whose Grapes grow here For although wee have Grapes which in the hotter and warme Summers doe prove good but yet many times are nipped with the frost before they be ripe yet notwithstanding they never come to that concocted maturity as to make sweet and pleasant wine yet some have laboured to bring this about therefore have planted vineyards to their great cost and trouble helping and ayding the soyle by the uttermost diligence they could but in the end it hath proved to very little purpose The most rich commodity which our Land hath naturally growing is * The rich commodity of Wooll Wooll for the which it is renowned over a great part of the Earth For our Clothes are sent into Turkie Venice Italy Barbary yea as far as China of late besides Muscovy Denmark and other Northern Nations for the which we have exchange of much other Merchandize necessary for us here besides that the use of this wooll doth in severall labours set many thousands of our people in worke at home which might otherwise be idle * Bridges Amongst the Commendations of England as appeareth in the place before named is the store of good Bridges whereof the most famous are London Bridge and that at Rochester In divers places here there bee also Rivers of good Name but the greatest glory doth rest in three * Rivers the Thames called in Latine of Tame and Isis Tamesis Severne called Sabrina and Trent which is commonly reputed to have his name of trente the French word signifying thirty which some have expounded to be so given because thirty severall Rivers doe run into the same And some other doe take it to bee so called because there bee thirty severall sorts of Fishes in that water to bee found the names whereof doe appeare in certain old Verses recited by Master Camden in his Booke of the Description of
computation is onely by the Sunne and Moone who they hold to be of a Divine nature and although they know nothing truly concerning God yet they have a darke opinion that the soule doth live after the separation from the body * Their apparell The men and women thorowout the whole Countrey doe goe starke naked even very few of them having any thing on to cover their Privities only some of them doe pull some kinde of ornaments thorow their eares and the most of them have their lower-lip bored thorow with a great hole therein putting some device or other * The proportion of the Inhabitants They looke very disguisedly but they are all wonderfull straight of limbe and proportion insomuch that the Author writeth that in all the time wherein hee lived among them hee saw not one crooked backt or mishapen in any part whereof seeking to give a reason hee ascribeth it to this that their Children are never swathed nor bound about with any thing when they are first borne but are put naked into the bed with their Parents to lie which beds are devised of Cotton wooll and hung up between two trees not farre from the ground in the which slagging downe in the middle men and their wives and their children doe lie together But whether this bee the true reason of the straightnesse of their bodies it may bee doubted from the authority of Saint Hierome who in one of his Treatises mentioning that the Children of the noblest and greatest Romanes in his time were very crooked when other which were bred of meaner parents were not so imputeth it to this cause that the Gentlewomen of Rome in a kinde of wantonnesse did not suffer their Infants to bee so long swathed as poorer people did and that thereby their joynts and members not being tied and restrained within compasse did flye out of proportion Certainely howsoever there may be some reasons naturally given of these things it is much to be ascribed to the immediate will of God who giveth and taketh away beauty at his pleasure * Note The men of these parts are very strong and able of body and therefore either give sound strokes with their Clubs wherewith they fight or else shoot strong shoots with their Bowes whereof they have plenty and if any of them bee taken in the Warres after they have beene crammed of purpose to bee eaten of their enemies they are brought forth to execution wherein marvellous willingly they doe yeeld themselves to death as supposing that nothing can be more honourable unto them than to bee taken and to dye for their Countrey He therefore who is to kill the other doth with very much insolencie pride insult over him which is to be slaine saying thou art he which wouldst have spoyled and destroyed us and ours but now I am to recompence thee for thy paines and the other without all feare replies Yea I am hee that would have done it would have made no spare if I had prospered in mine intent and other such sutable words shewing their resolution to conquer or willingly to dye in the common cause of themselves and their people * The Canibals or man-eaters which is the Countrey custome It is strange to see the inhumane and unnaturall custome which many of the people of the West Indies have for there are whole Ilands full of such Canibals as doe eate mans flesh and among the rest these Tovonpinambaltij are famous that way who when they are disposed to have any great meeting or to have any solemne feast they kill some of their adversaries whom they keepe in store for that purpose and cutting him out into collops which they call Boucan they will lay them upon the coles and for divers dayes together make great mirth in devouring them wherein they have this fashion very strange that so long as they are in their eating banquet although it continue divers dayes they doe never drinke at all but afterwards when they are disposed to fall to drinking of a certaine liquor which they have amongst them they will continue bousing at it for two or three whole dayes and in the meane time never eate In many parts both of Hispania nova and Peru as also in the Ilands neere adjoyning they have an herbe wherof they make great use of which some is brought into divers parts of Europe under the name of * Their great use of Tobacco Tobacco Paetum or Nicosiana although we have also much counterfeit of the same the people of those parts doe use it as Phisicke to purge themselves of humours and they apply it also to the filling of themselves the smoake of it being received through a leafe or some such hollow thing into the nostrils head and stomacke and causing the party which receiveth it to lie as if he were drunke or dead for a space needing no food or nourishment in the meane while Whereof it cannot be denied but that it is possible that by prescript of Physicke it may be serviceable for some purposes among us although that also it be very disputable in as much as they who speak most highly of it must and doe confesse that the force of it is obstupefactive and no other whereby it produceth his owne effects and wisemen should be wary and sparing in receiving of such a thing But when we doe consider the vaine and wanton use which many of our Countrymen have of late taken up in receiving of this Tabbaco not onely many times in a day but even at meat Note and by the waâ— to the great waste both of their purse and of their bodies wee may well deplore the vanitie of the Nation who thereby propose themselves as ridiculous to the French and other our Neighbours And certainly if it were possible that our worthy warlike and valiant Progenitors might behold hold their manners who doe most delight therein they would wonder what a generation had succeeded in their roomes who addict themselves to so fond and worse then effeminate passion Benzo who lived among them of the West Indies doth call the smell of it a Tartarus and hellish savour And whosoever looketh into those Bookes which our Christians travelling thither have written concerning those West Indies shall finde that the Inhabitants there doe use it most as a remedy against that which is called Lues Venerea whereunto many of them are subject being uncleane in their conversation and that not onely in Fornication and Adultery with Women * Note this yee Tobacoonists but also their detestable and execrable sinne of Sodomie After that the Spaniards had for a time possessed Hispania Nova for the desire of Gold and Pearle some of them travailed toward the South and as by water they found the Sea West-ward from Peru which is alwaies very calme and is by them called the South-Sea as the other wherein Cuba standeth is tearmed the North-Sea so by land they found that huge mighty
unto the Turk whose life is so excellently written by Martinus Partesius From the East part of Epirus Northward lyeth a Country which was never noted by any famous name but as it should seeme was sometime under Epirus from which it lyeth Northward sometimes under Macedonia from which it lyeth Westward and sometimes under Illyris or Dalmatia from which it lyeth Southward and it may be that there was in old time divers free Cities there Illyricum Illyricum which confineth upon Graecia toward the North and West neere unto the top of the Adriatick Sea and not farre from Venice is for a good part of it at this day under the Venetians The fourth and greatest part of old Graecia was Macedonia Macedonia which is falsly by the Maps of the Romane Empire placed on the Westside of Graecia for in truth it lyeth on the Eastside looking toward Asia the lesser being bounded on the Eastside by the Sea called Mare Aegeum on the Southside by Achaia and the Hill Othris and part of Epirus and on the Westside by certaine great Mountains but on the North by the Hill Haemus This was the Kingdome so famous in times past for Philip and Alexander his sonne who conquered the whole World and caused the name of the third Empire to be attributed unto this place Here stood the Hill Athos whereof part was digged downe by the army of Xerxes the great King of Persia who warred against the Grecians Here was the Hill Olympus the City of Philippi where the Philippians dwelt to whom Saint Paul wrote Here was Ampollonia Amphipolis Edessa Pella Thessalonica and Berea yea and the whole Countrey of Thessalia lay on the Southside of this part of Greece In this Countrey of Graecia were in ancient time many Kingdomes and States as at this day there are in Italy as the Macedonians the Kingdome of Epirus the State of Athens the government of Sparta the City of Thebes and very many other places insomuch that almost every Town had a peculiar government But now it is all under one Monarchy Many famous things from Grecia From Graecia in old time did almost all famous things come These were they that made the war against Troy that resisted Xerxes the mighty King of Persia that had the Famous Law-makers as Solon in Athens Famous Lawes and Lycurgus in Lacedemon that took away the Monarchy from the Persians that brought forth the Famous Captaines Famous Captains as Themistocles Miltiades Alexander and many other that were the Authours of civilitie unto the Western Nations and to some in the East as Asia the lesse that gave to Italy and to the Romanes the first light of learning because from them arose the first Poets as Homer The first Poets Hesiodus Sophocles and divers other The great Philosophers Socrates Plato Aristotle and all the Sects of the Academicks Stoicks Peripateticks Epicureans and almost all their Scholars The great Orators The great Oratours Demosthenes and Eschines and in one word the Mathematicks excepted which came rather from the Chaldeans and the Egyptians the whole flower of Arts and good Learning On the Northeast part of Graecia standeth Thracia Thracia which though heretofore it hath beene distinguished yet now it is accounted as the chiefe part of Greece Heere on the edge of the Sea-coast very neer unto Asia Constantinople standeth the City called Bizantium but since Constantinople because Constantine the Great did new build it and made it an Imperiall City This was the chiefe residence of the Emperour of Graecia sometimes called New Rome and the glory of the East where the Generall Councel was once assembled and one of the Seas of the Patriarks who was called the Patriark of CoÌ„stantinople But by the great discord of the Christians all Graecia and this Citie are fallen into the hands of the Turke who now maketh it his place of Imperiall aboad It was wonne in the time of Constantine the last Emperour so that by Constantine it obtained his honour and by Constantine it lost it In this City lyeth resident with the Turke an Ambassadour or Agent for the King of England The Christians that do live now in Graecia are in miserable servitude unto the Turke They disagree in many things from the doctrine of the Church of Rome Of the Sea running between Europe and Asia Northerne parts were not discovered in times past IF there were no other argument that the Northern parts of the World were not discovered in times past by any that travelled that way yet this would sufficiently avouch it that there was never thought upon any Land betweene Asia and Europe higher than the river Tanais which doth not extend it selfe very farre into the North but is short of the uttermost bounds that was by the space of foure thousand miles but this River which by the Tartarians is now called Don where it doth run it leaveth Asia on the Eastside and Europe on the West but going forward toward the South it disburdeneth it selfe into a dead Lake or Fen for so it seemeth which is called Maeotis-Palus Maeotis Palus Iustin Ovid. spoken of in the second book of Iustine and not forgotten by Ovid de ponto and at this day in the dead of Winter it is usually so frozen that the Scythians and Tartarians neer adjoyning do both themselves their cattâ—ll yea sometimes with Sleads after them passe over as if it were dry Land On the Southern part of this Maeotis is a narrow strait of the Sea which is commonly called by the name of Bosphorus Cimmerius Bosphorus Cimmerius because as it is thought sometime Oxen have ventured to swim crosse there from Asia to Europe or backward When the water hath runne for a pretty space in so narrow a passage there beginneth a great and wide Sea named Pontus Euxinus Pontus Euxinua Whither as Iosephus reporteth the Whale did carry the Prophet Ionas and there did disburden himselfe of his carriage by casting him upon the Land At the mouth of this Sea is a very great strait knowne by the name of Thracius Bosphorus Thracius Bosphorus where the bredth of this Sea is not above one mile severing Asia and Europe On the side of Europe standeth Constantinople On the side of Asia the City called Pera or Galata which for the neernesse is by some reckoned a part of Constantinople When any of the Turkes Ianizaries have committed ought worthy of death A strange custome among the Turks the custome is to send the same party in the night time over by boat from Constantinople to Peru where by the way he is throwne into the water with a great stone about his necke and then there is a piece of Ordnance shot off which is a token of some such execution The Turke is forced to take this course lest the rest of his Ianizaries should mutiny when any of their fellowes is put to death By reason of the standing of
Persian who procured unto himselfe great fame by his many valorous attempts against the Turke Surius in his Commentaries writing upon him saith that upon some fond conceit the Iewes were strongly of opinion that hee was that Messias whom unto this day they expect and therefore hoped that he should have beene their deliverer and advancer But he addeth in his report that it fell out so cleane contrary that there was no man who more vexed and grieved them than that Ismael did Their Religion The Persians are all at this day Sarazens in Religion beleeving in Mahomet but as Papists and Protestants doe differ in opinion concerning the same Christ so doe the Turks Persians about their Mahomet the one pursuing the other as Heretikes with most deadly hatred in so much that there is in this respect almost continuall war betweene the Turke and the Persians Of Parthia and Media Situation of Parthia ON the North-East side of Persia lyeth that Country which in old time was called Parthia but now named Arach of whom those great warres of the Romanes with the Medians or Armenians in Tacitus and ancient Histories are true This Country boundeth on Media by the West and it was in ancient time veryful of people whose fight as it was very much on horsebacke Their manner of fight so the manner of them continually was for to give an onset and then to returne their wayes even to returne againe like to the Wilde Irish so that no man was sure when he had obtained any victory over them Great wars of the Parthians against the Romanes These were the people that gave the great overthrow to that rich Marcus Crassus of Rome who by reason of his covetousnesse intending more to his getting of gold than to the guiding of his army was slaine himselfe and many thousands of the Romanes The Parthians with exprobation of his thirst after money poured moulten gold into his mouth after he was dead Against these the great Lucullus fought many battels but the Romanes were never able to bring them quite to subjection Media how situated On the West-side of Parthia having the Mare Caspium on the North Armenia on the West and Persia on the South lyeth that Country which in time past was called Media but now Shirvan or Sarvan which is at this day governed by many inferiour Kings and Princes which are tributaries and doe owe subjection to the Sophy of Persia So that hee is the Soveraigne Lord of all Media as our English-men have found who passing through the dominion of the Emperour of Russia have crossed the Mare Caspium and merchandized with the inhabitants of this Media A famous Nation This Nation in former times was very famous for the Medes were they that removed the Empire from the Assyrians unto them which as in themselves it was not great yet when by Cyrus it was joyned to that of the Persians it was very mighty and was called by the name of the Empire of the Medes and Persians Here it was that Astyages raigned the Grandfather of Cyrus and Darius of the Medes The chiefe City of Media The chiefe City of this Kingdome was called Ecbatana as the chiefe City of Persia was Babylon It is to bee observed of the Kings of Media that in the Summer time they did use to retire themselves Northward unto Ecbatana for avoyding of the heate but in the winter time they came downe more South unto Susis which as it seemeth was a warmer place but by this meanes they were both taken for Imperiall Cities and chiefe residences of the Kings of Media which being knowne takes away some confusion in old Stories The like custome was afterward used also by the Kings of Persia Of Armenia and Assyria Situation of Armenia ON the West-side of the Mare Caspium of Media lieth a Countrey called by a generall name Armenia which by some is distinctly divided into three parts the North part whereof being but little Divided into three parts is called Georgia the middle part Turcomania the third part by the proper name of Armenia By which a man may see the reason of difference in divers writers Some saying that the countrey whence the Turkes first came was Armenia some saying Turcomania and some Georgia the truth being that out of one or all these Countries they did descend These Turks are supposed to bee the issue oâ— them whom Alexander the Great did shut up within certaine Mountaines neere to the Mare Caspium A memorable Note There is this one thing memorable in Armenia that after the great Floud the Arke of Noah did rest it selfe on the Mountaines oâ— Armenia where as Josephus witnesseth it is to be seene yet to this day the hills whereon it resteth are called by some Noae Montes Armenians Christians The people of this Nation have retained amongst them the Christian Faith as it is thought from the time of the Apostles but at this day it is spotted with many absurdities Bathing of their children Among other Errours which the Church of Armenia hath bin noted to hold this is one that they did bathe their children waving them up and downe in flames of fire and repute that to bee a necessary circumstance of Baptisme Which errour ariseth by mistaking that place of Iohn the Baptist where he saith That he that came after him meaning Christ should baptize them with the holy Ghost and with fire In which place the word doth not signifie materiall fire but expresseth the lively and purging operation of the Spirit like to the nature of fire On the South part of Armenia bending towards the East lyeth the Country of Assyria Assyria bounded which is bounded on the West with Mesopotamia This Country was that Land wherein the first Monarchy was setled which began under Ninus whom the Scripture calleth Nimrod living not long after Noahs Flood and it ended in Sardanapalus continuing a thousand and three hundred yeares The King of this Countrey was Senacherib Kings of Assyria of whom wee reade in the Booke of the Kings and here reigned Nebuchadnezzar who tooke Ierusalem and led the Iewes away prisoners unto Babylon In this Countrey is the swift River Tygris The swift river Tygris The City Ninivee neere unto the which was Paradice Vpon this River stood the great City Ninivee called by prophane writers Ninus which was almost of incredible bignesse and exceeding populous by the neerenesse of the River and marvellous fruitfulnesse of the soile which as Herodotus writeth did returne their Corne sometime two hundred and sometimes three hundred fold and did yeeld sufficiency for to maintaine it This Citie for a long time was the Imperiall Seat of the Monarchy but being destroyed as God foretold it should be by the Chaldeans the residence of the King was afterwards removed unto Babylon a great City in Chaldea first built by Semiramis Of Chaldea Situation of Chaldea NExt unto Assyria
till that in the yeare one thousand five hundred twenty and one Solyman the Great Turke did winne it from the Christians by force From thence South-ward is the I le * The Ile Carphathus Carphathus but in the farthest end of the East part of the Mediterranean is * The I le of Cyprus Cyprus which about three hundred yeares since was a Kingdome and did afford great ayde unto the Christians that went to conquer the Holy-Land but it is now under the Turke The chiefe City thereof is * The Citie of Famogusta Famogusta which is an Archbishops Sea for Christians for their Tribute doe yet live there In this Countrey in old time was Venus much honored and therfore she was called Cypria as also Paphia because shee had a Temple in a Citie there called * The Citie Paphos Paphos * The Iland Tyrus Neere unto Syria stood the Iland Tyrus against the pride whereof the Prophets doe much speake this was a rich Citie for Merchandize and Navigation in old time and is the place from whence Dido and the builders of Carthage did come The destruction of it is most famous by Alexander the Great Of the rest of the small Ilands wee doe say nothing Of the Ilands in the Jndian Sea THe Ilands are very many that doe lie in the Seas adjoyning to the East Indies but the most famous among them shall only be touched Among old Writers as especially appeareth by Solinus was well knowne that which was then called Taprobana which lieth neere the Aequinoctiall Line It was in that time a Monarchy where the Kings raigned not by succession but by election and if any of them did grow intolerable hee was deposed and enforced to die by withdrawing from him all things necessary This is now called * The Iland of Sumatra Sumatra and hath in it divers Kings Not farre from thence lie Eastward the two Ilands called * Two Jlands Iava major and Iava minor Java-major * Java-minor which were all knowne to the old Writers as in generall may bee noted that all the East-part either in the Continent or in the Ilands have very many small Kings and Kingdomes From whence yet more East lieth a great number of Iles which are now called the * The Ilands of Moluccoes the great Riches which the King of Spaine receives from hence yearly Moluccoes which are places as rich for their quantity as any in the World from these it is that the Spaniards have yearely so great quantity of all kindes of Spice neither is there any place of all the East Indies that doth more richly furnish home their Carrects then doe these Moluccoes The Ilands which are called by that name are by some of our Writers accounted to bee at least foure and twentie or five and twentie and some of them which are the bigger have in them two or three Kings a peece and some of them which are lesse are either the severall Dominion of severall Kings or else two or three of them doe belong to some one Prince * Note When Sir Francis Drake did compasse the whole World hee came neere unto these but did not touch at any of them but Master Candish taking at large a journey was in one or more of them where hee found the people to bee intelligent and subtill and the Kings of the Countrey to take upon them as great state as might be convenient for such petty Princes Some of these Islands the Spaniards in right of the Portugals have got into their owne possession with the Kings of some other they have leagued and a third sort utterly detest them More North-ward over against China lyeth a Countrey consisting of a great many Islands called Iapona of * The Iland of Iapan Iapan the people whereof are much of the same nature with the men of China this Countrey was first discovered by the Jesuites who in a blinde zeale have travelled into the farthest parts of the World to winne men to their Religion This Iland is thought to be very rich About the parts of Iapan there are divers people whose most ordinary habitation is at the Sea and doe never come into the Land but onely for their necessities or to furnish themselves with new vessels wherein they may abide but lying not farre from the Land they have Ducks and other Fowles swimming about them which sometimes they take into their Boats and Ships and in such sort doe breed them to the maintenance of them and their Children Into this Iapan of late dayes have our English also sayled as into other parts of the East Indies and there erected a Factory The rest that be either neere unto Asia or Africa because there is little written of them wee passe over Divâ—rs smal Iionds onely named onely naming them as the Philippina Borreo Bandara as also on the side of Africke the Island of Saint Laurence called by the Inhabitants Madagascar Sumatra and other of lesse note And yet we doe finde in Solinus and Plinie but especially in Pomponius Mela that it was knowne in old time that there were many Ilands neere unto the East Indies which as it might bee first discovered by the trafficking of the Ilanders into the Continent so no doubt that Navie which Alexander sent out to Jndia to descry and coast thorow the Easterne Seas did give much light thereunto partly by that which themselves did see and partly by those things which they heard in such places or of such persons as they met with in their travell Of the Ilands in the Atlanticke Sea THere bee many Ilands which be westward from Africa and from Europe as those which are called the * Iland of Gorgades Gorgades that lie in the same climate with Guinea which are foure in number not inhabited by men but they are full of Goates Peter Martyr in his first Decade the sixt Booke saith that the Admirall Colonus in the yeare of Christ 1498 sailing to Hispaniola with eight Ships came to the I le * The Ile Madera Madera from whence sending directly the rest of his Ships to the East Indies hee in one Ship with deckes and two Carayels sayled to the Equinoctiall betweene which and the I le Madera in the middest way lie thirteene Ilands of the Portugals in old time called * Hesperides Hesperides now Cabonerde two dayes sayling distant from the inner parts of Ethiâ—pe one whereof is called * Bonavista Bonavista North-ward from thence in the same climate with the South part of Morocco lie those which are called * Canariae Ilands Canariae or the fortunate Ilands which are seven in number being most fruitfull and very pleasant and therefore called by that name Fortunatae insulae This is famous in them that it hath pleased all Cosmographers to make their Meridian to bee their first point where they doe beginne to reckon the computation of their Longitude and unto them after three hundred and