thin innet skin of walnuts being set on fire are said to have taken off the hair of his face This was he whose felicity when Damocles a flatterer did seem marvelousty to admire he caused him to be set one day at dinner in his royall seat with dainty fare before him Plate rich Hangings Musick and all other matters of delight but withall a naked sword which was onely tyed with a single haire of a horses mane to be hanged directly over him the feare whereof did so feare the flatterer left it should fal upon him that he continually looked upwards and about him and took no joy of that which was before him whereby Dyonisius did evidently teach him that the state of some Princes howsoever it seem glorious unto others yet it doth bring little contentment unto themselves by reason of the continual dangers which hang over them It is reported of this man that when all the people of this Country did for his cruelty continually curse him there was one woman which daily did go to the Churches and prayed the gods to lengthen his life where withall when Dionysius was acquainted marvelling himself at the reason of it he sent for her and asked what good thing he had done unto her that she was so careful evermore to pray for him But the woman answered that it was not for love but for feare that she begged these things of the gods For said she I am an old woman I do remember when your Grandfather lived who being very hard unto his people was much maligned by them and they prayed that they might be rid of him which falling our afterward your father came in place and he was worse than the former which when the subjects could not endure they prayed also that he might dye hoping that the next would be better Then came your self in place who have much exceeded the cruelty of your father And whereas others wish that you were gone also trusting for amendment in the next I that have lived so long and see that things grow worse and worse do pray that you may continue because that if we should have one that should succeed you if he walke in the steps of his predecessors he must needs be as bad as the Devill himself for none else in tyranny can go beyond you Phalaris of Agrigentum was he who proposed rewards unto him who invented new torments which caused Perillus to make a Bull of Brasse into the which if offenders should be put and fire should be set under then it would make them roare like a Bull But when upon the terror thereof none would so offend as to deserve that torment Phalaris took Perillas the Authour thereof and to try the experience put him into it whereby Perillus lost his life This Countrey is now also under the King of Spaine who among other titles was wont to call himself King of both Sicilies reckoning this Island for one and that part of Italy for another which is now called Calabria and was in the Romane H stories named Magna Graecia There is nothing more renowned in all Sicilia either with new or old Writers then the mountain Aetna which being on the outside oft covered with snow yet by a sulphurous or brimstony matter doth continually burn within yea so that whereas it was supposed in the ages last before us that the matter being consum'd the fire had ceased twice in our age it hath broke forth again to the incredible loss of all the country adjoining the ashes thereof destroying vines and fruits which were within the compass of many mâ—…les about Agatheas in his History doth tell that in his one time there was an incredible deale of ashes which did fall about Constantinople and the places neer adjoining insomuch that the ground was covered with the same which he reputeth to have been brought from the hill in Sicily But Bâ—…din in his Method Hist. doth reprove this as a fable which can have no shew of truth by reason of the great distance of the place notwithstanding it is certaine that sometimes when it doth strongly break out the fields and vineyards and all the fruits within the compasse of some miles à re much hurt therewithall The reason of this Fire was laid down by Justine in his 4. Books and is since approved both by Historians and Philosophers which is that within the ground there is great â—…ore of Sulphuâ—…e brimstony matter which having once fire in it is apt to keep it And whereas all the whole Country is full of chinks and chaps and hollowness within the ground the matter which entreth there doth minister substance to the continuance of that â—…me as we see that water cast on coales in the Smiths Forge doth make them burn more servently and then into the Chinâ—…es and Châ—…ps the wind doth also enter which by blowing and 〈◊〉 dâ—…th both cause the fire never to extinguish and sometimes according unto the strength of the blast doth make flames break out either more or lesse There are in the Hill Aetna two principal 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 appear mounting upwards and it is so strong that oftentimes it brings up with it burnt scorching stones pieces of hard substances which seem to be rent out of some rocke to the great terrour and danger of any that do come near This is that place whither Empedocles threw himsâ—…lf that he might be reported a god This was it whereof Virgil doth make his Tract called Aetna which the Poets did report to be the shop of Vulcan where Cyclopes did frame the Thunder-bolts for Jupiter 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 been so foolish to think that there is also another place called the Mount Vidu in Iseland where soules have another Purgatory to be punished in but there by cold which Surius in his Commentaries is so absurdly grosse as to report an â—…allow The Papists have shew 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 he have in his Works divers things tending to superstition yet he was never so absurd as to write things so unprobable foolish and grounded upon so bare reports as these were Such another Hill as the Mountain 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
the Gospel insomuch that it is fabulous vanity to say that Austin the Monk was the first that here planted the Christian Faith for he lived 600. 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 he was a learned Christian Yea and that may be perceived by that which Beda hath in his Ecclesiasticall story concerning the comming in of Austin the Monk that the Christian Religion had been planted here before but that the purity of it in many places was much decaied and also that many people in the Island were yet Infidels For the conversion of whom as also for the reforming of the other Austine was sent hither where he behaved himselfe so proudly that the best of the Christians which were here did mislike him In him was erected the Archbishoprick of Canterbury which amongst old writers is still termed Dorobarnia The Archbishops do reckon their succession by number from this Austine The reason whereof Gregorie the great is reported to have such care for the conversion of the Ethnicks in Britaine was because certain boyes which were brought him out of this Countrey which being very goodly of countenance as our Country children are therein inferior to no Nation in the world he asked them what country-men they were and it was replyed that they were Angli he said they were not unfitly so called for they were Angli tanquam Angeli nam vultum habent Angelorum And demanding further of what Province they were in this Island it was returned that they were called Deires which caused him again to repeat that word to say that it was great pitty but that by being taught the Gospel they should be saved de ira Dei England hath since the time of the Conquest grown more and more in riches insomuch that now more then 300. years since 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 drawn dry Which conceit the King himself as Matthew Paris writeth did often suggest unâ—…o the Pope who there upon took advantage abusing the simplicity of the King to suck out inellimable summes of money to the intolerable grievance of both the Clergy Temporalty And among other things to bring about his purpose the Pope did perswade the King that he would invest his young son in the Kingdome of Apulia which did contain 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 Usurers Since that time it hath pleased God more and more to blesse this Land but never more plentifully then in the daies of our late and now raigning Soveraigne whose raigne continuing long in peace hath peopled the Land with abundance of inhabitants hath stored it with Shipping Armour and Munition hath fortified it many waies hath encreased the trafficke with the Turk 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 Crowne Some Writers of former times yea and those of our owne Countrey 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 Country standeth too cold neither hath it sufficient force of the Sun to concoct and digest that metall But truth it is that our Chronicles do witnesse that some silver hath been taken up in the Southerne parts as in the Tin-mines of Devonshire and Cornwall and such is sometimes found now but the virtue thereof is so thin that by that time it is tried and perfectly fined it doth hardly quit the cost notwithstanding Lead Iron and such basers metals 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 we have grapes which in the hotter and warm summers do prove good but yet many times are nipped in 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 and therefore have planted vineyards to their great cost and trouble helping and aiding the soil 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 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 farre as China of late besires Moscovie Denmarke and other Northerne Nations for the which we have exchange of much other Merchandize necessary for us here besides that the use of this Wooll doth in several labours set many thousands of our people in worke at home which might otherwise be idle 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 be also Rivers of good Name but the greatest glory doth rest in three the Thames called in Latine of Tame and Isis Tamesis Servene 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 several Rivers do run into the same And some other do take it to be so call'd because there be thirty several sorts of fishes in that water to be found the names whereof do appear in certain old verses recited by Master Camden in his booke of the Description of England One of the honourable commendations which are reputed to be in this Realme is the fairnesse of our greater and larger Churches which as it doth yet appear in those which we call Cathedrall Churches many of them being of very goodly and sumptuous buildings so in times past it was more to be seen when the Abbies and those which were called religious houses did flourish whereof there were a very great number in this Kingdome which did eate up much of the wealth of the Land but especially those which lived there giving themselves to much filthiness and divers sorts of uncleannesse did so draw downe the vengeance of God upon those places that they were not only dissolved but almost utterly defaced by King Henry the eighth There are two Archbishopricks and 24 other Bishopricks within England and Wales It was a
glory of the East where the generall Council was once assembled and one of the seas of the Patriarks who was called the Patriark of Constantinople But by the great discord of the Christians all Graecia and this City are fallen into the hands of the Turk who now maketh it his place of imperiall aboad It was won 〈◊〉 the time of Constantine the last Emperor so that by Constantine it obtained his honour and by Constantine it lost it In this City lyeth resident with the Turk an Ambassadour or Agent for the King of England The Christians that do now live in Grecia 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 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 〈◊〉 that there was never thought upon anâ—… land between Asia and Europe higher than the River Tanais which doth not extend it selfe very faâ—… 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 towards the South it disburtheneth it self into a dead Lake or Fen for so it seemeth which is called Meotis Palus spoken of in the second book of Justine and not forgotten by Ovid de Ponto and at this day in the dead of winter it is usually frozen that the Scythians and Tartarians neer adjoining do both themselves and their cattel yea sometimes with sleads after them passe over as if it were dry land On the Southern part of this Meotis is a narrow strait of the Sea which is commonly called by the name of 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 run for a pretty space iâ—… so narrow a passage there beginneth â—… great and wide Sea named Pontus Euxinus whether as Josephus reporteth the whale did carry the Prophet Jonas and there did disburthen 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 where the breadth of this sea is not above one mile serving Asia and Europe Oâ—… the side of Europe standeth Constantinople On the side of Asia the City called Pera or Galatae which for the neerenesse is by some reckoned a part of Constantinople When any of the Turks Janizaries have committed ought worthy of death the custome is is to send the same party in the night time over by boat from Constantinople to Pera whereby the way he is thrown iâ—… to the water with a great stone about his neck and then there is a piece of Oâ—…dnance shot off which is a token of some such execution The Turke is forced to take this course lest the rest of his Janizaries should mutiny when any of their fellowes is put to death By reason of the standing of Asia and Europe so neare together and the sea running between them which serveth each place with all manner of commodities it appeareth that Constantinople is marveâ—…lously richly and conveniently seaâ—…ed aâ—…d therefore a fit place from whence â—…e Turke may offer to atcâ—…ieve attâ—…mps After this stâ—…ait the sea openeth it self more large toward he 〈◊〉 â—…is called by the name oâ—… 〈◊〉 But then it groveth again into a â—…other straâ—…t which they write to be 〈◊〉 bâ—…ead 〈◊〉 two in 〈◊〉 This is called Hâ—…ll spâ—…ntus having on the one side 〈◊〉 in Asia on the otherside Sâ—…stus on the side of Euâ—…pe This is that place where â—…rxes the great King oâ—… Persia dâ—…d â—…ike his bridge over the Sea so muâ—…h renowned in ancient history which was not impossible by reason of the narrownesse the foundation of his bridge being rested on ships Here also may appeare the reason of the story of Leander and Hero which Leander is reported for the love of Hero to have often times swum over the Sea till at last he was drowned From this straâ—…â—…outhward the Sea groweth more wide and is called afterwards by the name of Mare Aegeum and so descendeth to the full Mediterranean Of Asia and first of Tartary ON the South side of Asia 〈◊〉 unto the Dominiâ—… the Emperour of Râ—…ssia is Tartary in ancient time 〈◊〉 Scyâ—…hia the bouâ—…ds whereof did then extend themâ—…es into a good part of Europe and therefore was called Scythia Europea but the greatest part of â—…t lyeth in Asia a mighty large Country extending it self on the North to the uttermost Sea on the â—…ast to the Dominion of the Great Cham or Prince of Cathaie on the South down to Mare Caspium The Tartarians which now inhabit it are men of great stature rude of behaviour no Christians but Gentiles neither do they acknowledge Mahomet They have few or no Cities among them but after the manner of the old Scythians do live in Wildernesses lying under their Carts and following their droves of Cattell by the milke whereof they do nourish themselves They sowe no corne at all because they abide not long in any one place but taking their direction from the North-pole-starre they remove from one coast of their Countrey unto another The Countrey is populous and the men are great warriours fighting alwaies on horseback with their bow arrowes and a short sword They have amongst them infiniâ—…e store of horses whereof they sell many into the Countries neere adjoining Their ordinary food in their warres is horse-flesh which they use to eat raw being chafed a little by hanging at their saddle They have great wars with the Countries adjoining but especially with the Moscovite and sometimes with the Turke from hence came Tamberlain who brought 700000. of the Tartarians at once into the field wherein he distressed and took prisoner Bajazet the great Turke whom he afterward forced to feed as a dog under his table They have now amongst them many Princes and Governours as those have one whom they call the Crim Tartars and those have ano ther which are the Tartars of Ma gaiae and so divers others The English have laboured to their great expences to finde out the way by the North Seas of Tartaria to go into Cathay and China but by reason of the frozen Seas they have not yet prevailed although it hath been reported that the Flemmings have discovered that passage which would be very likely to the great benefit of the Northern parts of Christendome yet that report doth not continue and therfore it is to be thought that the Flemmings have not proceeded so farre Of Cathaie and China NExt beyond Tartaria on the North-East part of Asia lyeth a
Flood the Ark of Noah did â—…est it self on the Mountaines of Armenia where as Josephus witnesseth it is to be seen yet to this day the hils whereon it resteth â—…re called by some Nâ—…ae Montes The people of this Nation have retained amongst them the Chriâ—…tian faith as it is thought from the â—…ime of the Apostles but at this say it is spotted with many absurdities Among other Errors which the Church of Armenia hath been noted to hold this is one that they lid bathe their Children waving them up and down in flames oâ—… fire and repute that to be a necessary circumstance of Baptisme Which errour ariseth by mistaking that place of John 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 lieth the Country of Assyria 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 Nim rod living not long after Noahs Flood and it ended in Sardanapalus continuing a thousand and three hundred yeares The King of this Country was Senacherib of whom we read â—…n the book of the Kings and here reigned Nebuchadnezzar who took Jerusalem and led the Jewes away prisoners unto Babylon In this Countrey is the swift River Tygris near unto the which was Paradise Upon this River stood the great City Ninive called by prophane Writers Ninus which was almost of incredible bignesse and exceeding populous by the nearnesse of the River and marvellous fruitfulnesse of the soil which as Herodotus writeth did return their Corn sometime two hundred and sometimes three hundred fold and did yield sufficiency for to maintain it This City for a long time was the Imperiall Seat of the Monarchy but being destroied 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 NExt unto Assyria lyeâ—…h Chaldea having on the East side Assyria on the West Syria or Palestina on the North Armenia on the South the Desart of Arabia This Countrey is often called by the name of Mesopotamia which name it hath because it lieth in the middle of two great Rivers Tygris and Euphrates It is called also by the name of Babylonia which word of it self properly taken doth signifie only that part of the Countrey which standeth about Babylon The chief City whereof was Babylon whose ruines do remain unto this day It was a rich and most pleasant City for all kind of Delight and was in the latter time of that Monarchy the Imperiall City of the Assyrians where Nebuchadnezzar and other their great Kings did â—…ye It was to this City that the children of Israel were carried captives which thereof was called the Captivity of Babylon The Kings of Persia also did keep â—…heir residence here it was built upon the River Euphrates some part of it standing on the one side and some part on the other having for its foundresse Semiramis the wife of Ninus Ammianus Marcellinus reporteth one thing of this Countrey wherein the admirable power of God doth appeare for he writeth that in these parts are a huge number of Lyons which were like enough to devour both men and beasts throughout the Countrey but withall he saith that by reason of the store of water and mudd thereof there do breed yearly an innumerable company of Gnats whose property is to flye unto the eye of the Lyon as being a bright and orient thing where byting and stinging the Lyon he â—…eareth so fiercely with his clawes that he putteth out his own eyes and by that meanes many are drowned in the Rivers others starve for want of prey and many the more easily killed by the Inha bitants It is supposed by Divines that in this Mesopotamia between the River Tygris and Euphrates Paradise did stand This was the Country wherein Abraham the Patriarch was born unto which the Romanes could very hardly extend their Dominion For they had much to do to get the Government of any thing beyond the River Euphrates From this people it is thought the wise men came which brought presents to Christ by the guiding of the Starre For as in India and all the Eastern parts so especially in this Country their Noblemen and Priests and very many people do give themselves to all Arts of Divination Here were the great Southsayers Enchanters and wise men as they call them Here were the first Astrologians which are so described and derided in the Scripture and against the Inhabitants of Babylon and Chaldea were the Lawes of the Romans made which are against divining Mathematicians who in Tullie de Divinatione Cornelius Tacitus as also in the Lawes of the Emperors are Ordinarily collected by the name oâ—… Chaldeans and indeed from these and from the Egyptians is supposed to have sprung the first knowledge of Astronomy It is thought that a great reason whereof these Chaldeans were expert in the laudable knowledge of Astronomy was partly because the Countrey is so plain that being without hils they might more fully and easily discover the whole face of the Heaven and partly because the old Fathers which lived so long not only before but in some good part also after the flood of Noah did dwell in or near to these parts and they by observation of their own did find out and discover many things of the heavenly bodies which they delivered as from hand to hand to their posterity But as corruption doth staine the best things so in proces of time the true Astronomy was defilled with superstitious Rules of Astrology which caused the Prophets Isaiah and Ieremiah so bitterly to inveigh against them And then in their fabulosity they would report that they had in their Records Observations for five and twenty thousand yeares which must needs be a very great untruth unlesse we will qualifie it as some have done expounding their yeares not of the Revolution of the Sun but of the Moon whose course is ended in the space of a moneth Of Asia the lesse ON the North-west side of Mesopotamia lyeth that Countrey which is now called Natolia but in times past Asia minor having on the North side Pontus Euxinus on the West the Hellespont and on the South the maine Mare Mediterraneum In the ancient writings both of the Grecians and of the Romans this is oftentimes called by the single name of Asia because it was best knowne unto them and they were not so much acquainted with the farther places of Asia the Great This Countrey in generall for the fruitfulnesse of the Land standing in so temperate a Climate and
but did not touch at any of them but Master Candish taking as large a journey was in one or more of them where he found the people to be intelligent and subtill and the Kings of the Country 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 own possession with the Kings of some other they have leagued and a third sort utterly detest them More Northward over against China lyeth a Country consisting of a great many Islands called Japona of Japan the people whereof are much of the same nature with the men of China This Country was first discovered by the â—…esuites who in a blind zeale have travelled into the farthest parts of the world to win men to their Religion This Island is thought to be very rich About the parts of Japan there are diâ—…ers people whose most ordinary habitation is at the Sea and do never come into the Land but only 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 fowls swimming about them which sometimes they take into their Boats and Ships in such sort do breed them to the maintenance of them and their Children Into this Iapan of late daies have our English also sail'd as into other parts of the East Indies and there erected a Factory The rest that be either neer unto Asia or Africa because there is little written of them we passe over onely naming them as the Philipinâ—… Borneo Bandaâ—…a as also on the side of Africke the Island of Saint Laurence called by the inhabitants Madagasâ—…ar 〈◊〉 and others of lesse note And yet we do find in Solinus and Pliny but especially in Pomponius Mela that it was known in old time that there were many Islands neer unto the East-Indies which as it might be first discovered by the trafficking of the Islanders into the continent so no doubt that Navy which Alexander sent out to India to desâ—…ry and coast thorow the Eastern seas did give much light thereunto partly by that which themselves did see and partly by those things which they heard in such places and of such persons as they met with in their travell Of the Islands in the Atlantick Sea THere be many Islands which he Westward from Africa and from Europe as those which are called the Gorgades that lye in the same climate with Guinea which are four in number not inhabited by men but they are full of Goats Peter Martyr in his first Decade the sixth Book saith that the Admirall Colonus in the year of Christ 1498 sailing to Hispaniola with eight ships came to the Isle of Madera from whence sending directly the rest of his ships to the East Indies he in one ship with decks and two Carayels sailed to the Equinoctiall betweene which and the Isle Madera in the middest way lye 13. Islands of the Portugalls in old time called Hesperides now Cabonerde two daies sailing distant from the inner parts of Ethiope one whereof is called Bonavista Northward from thence in the same climate with the South part of Morocco lye those which are called Canariâ—… or the fortunate Islands which are seven in number being most fruitful and very pleasant and therefore called by that name Fortunate Insulae This is famous in them that it hath pleased all Cosmographers to make their Meridian to be their first point where they do begin to reckon the computation of their Longitude and unto them after three hundred and threescore Degrees to return again From these Islands it is that those strong and pleasant Sacks which are called Canary Wings are brought and from thence are fetched those that they call Canary Birds These Islands are under the Crowne of Spaine The heat of the Countrey is very great and therefore fitter for concoction but besides that the sayle of it self is accommodated thereunto and by reason of them both these Islands do bring forth a Grape which is sweeter in taste then any other Grape and hath that property with it that the Wine which is made thereof doth not â—…ume into the head like other Sack but doth help the stomacke and exercise the force of it there The slips of their Vines have been brought into Spaine and some other places of Europe but they have not sorted to the same purpose as they do in their native Countrey ... There do grow also in these Isles good store of Sugar-canes which yeeldeth plentifully that kinde of commodite unto Spaine either for Marmelets wherein they much delight or for other uses Peter Martyr in the beginning of his Decades which he hath written de Orbe novo doth particularly touch the names and some other things of these Islands On the backside of Africa also just under the Equinoctial is the Isle of Saint Thomas inhabited by the Portugals which Island was taken in the later time of Queen Elizabeth by the Dutch it is reported that in the midst of this Iland is an Hill and over that a continual cloud where with the whole Island is watered such a like thing as this is reported of the Isle of Cloves The aire of this Island is unwholsome and there is hardly seen any Portugal or stranger that comes to dwell there which lives till he be above forty years of age More Northward from Africke lye those Islands which are called Azores Insulae being six or seven in number of which Tercera is one of the chief of whom the rest by some are called Tercera's which are farre inferiour in fruitfulnesse unto the Canaries These were first under the Crown of Portugal and one of them was the last which was kept out from the King of Spaine by the Prior Don Antonio who afterward called himself King of Portugal but the Spaniard at last took this Terrera from him and doth possesse all these Islands together with the rest of the Dominion which did belong to the Portugall He who list to see the unadvised proceedings of Don Antonio both in parting with Lisbon and the rest of Portugall as also in losing these Islands which last of all held out for him let him read Conestagio of the union of Portugall to the Crown of Castile But these Azores have in times past yeelded much Oade which thereupon in England was called Island Oade but now they are the place where the Spaniards do commonly touch and take in fresh water both going and comming to and from America finding that to passe directly without turning on either hand towards America is very hard by reason of the strong current of the water from the gulph of Mexico and so forward to the East and therefore they are enforced either to go lower to the South and so to water in some part of Guinea or thereabout or else to keep
them which they do with great pleasure For divers of the People of those quarters as the Caribees and the Cannibals and almost all are eaters of mans flesh In this Country groweth abundance of that wood which since is brought into Europe to die red colours and is of the place whence it commeth called Brasil wood the trees whereof are exceeding great The people of Brasil where Lyrius and his fellows lived are called by the name of Tauvaupinambaltii by description of whose qualities many things may be learned concerning the rest of the inhabitants neere thereobout First then they have no letters among them and yet seem to be very capable of any good understanding as appeared by the speech of some of them reproving the Frenchmen for their great greedinesse and coveâ—…ousness of gain when they would take so much pains as to come from another end of the world to get commodities there Their computation is onely by the Sun and Moon whom they hold to be of a Divine nature and although they know nothing truly concerning God yet they have a dark opinion that the soule doth live after the seperation from the body The men and women throughout the whole Countrey do go starke naked even very few of them having any thing on to cover their privities onely some of them do pull some kind of ornaments thorow their eares and the most of them have their lower lip boared thorow with a great hole therein putting some device or other They look very disguisedly but they are wonderful straight of limb and proportion insomuch that the Author writeth that in all the time wherein he lived among them he saw not one crooked backt or mis-shapen in any part whereof seeking to give a reason he ascribeth it to this that their children are never swathed or bound about with any thing when they are first born 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 far from the ground in the which flagging down in the middle men and their wives and their children do lie together But whether this be the true reason of the straightnesse of their bodies it may be doubted from the authority of S. Hierom who in one of his treatises mentioning that the children of the noblest and greatest Romans in his time were very crooked when other which were breed of meaner parents were not so imputeth it to this cause that the Gentlewomen of Rome in a kind of wantonness did not suffer their infants to be so long swathed as poorer people did and that thereby their joynts and members not being tied and restrained within compass did flye out of proportion Certainly 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 The men of these parts are very strong and able of body and therefore either give sound strokes with their clubs where with they fight or else shoot strong shoots with their bows whereof they have plenty if any of them be taken in the wars after they have been cramed of pur pose to be eaten of their enemies they are brought forth to execution wherein marvellous willingly they do yeeld themselves to death as supposing that nothing can be more honourable unto them then to be taken and to die for their Country He therefore who is to kil the other doth with very much insolency and pride insult over him which is to be slain saying thou art he which would'st have spoyled and destroyed us and ours but now I am to recompence thee for thy pains and the other without all fear replies Yea I am he that would have done it and 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 die in the common cause of themselves and their people It is strange to see the inhumane and unatural custome which many of the people of the West Indies have for there are whole Islands full of such Canibals as do eat mans flesh and amongst the rest these 〈◊〉 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 keep in store for that purpose cutting him out into collops which they call Boucan they will lay them upon the coals 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 daies they do never drink at all but afterwards when they are disposed to fall to drinking of a certain liquor which they have amongst them they will continue bousing at it for two or three dayes and in the mean time never eat In many parts both of Hispania nova and Peru as also in the Islands neer adjoyning they have an herbe whereof they make great use of which some is brought into divers parts of Europe under the name of Tobacco Paetum or Nicosiana although we have also much conterfeit of the same the people of those parts do use it as Physick to purge themselves of humours and they apply it also to the filling of themselves the smoak of it being received through a leafe or some such hollow thing into the nostrils head and stomack and causing the party which receiveth it to lie as if he were drunk or dead for a space needing no food or nourishment in the mean while Whereof it cannot be denied but that it is possible that by prescript of Physick it may by 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 do confess that the force of it is obstupâ—…factive and no other whereby it produceth his own effects and wise men should be wary sparing in receiveing of such a thing But when we do consider the vaine and wanton use which many of our Country-men have of late taken up in receiving of this Tobacco not only many times in in a day but even at meat and by the way to the great waste both of their purse and of their bodies we may wel deplore the vanity of the nation who thereby purpose 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 their manners who do most delight therein they would wonder what a generation had succeeded in their rooms who addict themselves to so fond and worse than effeminate passion Benzo who lived among them of the West Indies doth call the smell of it a Tartarus and hellish savour And whatsoever looketh into those Books which our Christians travelling
thither have written concerning those West Indies shall find that the inhabitants there do use it most as a remedy against that which is called Lues venerea whereunto many of them are subject being unclean in their conversation and that not only in fornication and adultery with women but also their detestable and excrable sin of Sodomy After that the Spaniards had for a time possessed Hispania nova for the desire of Gold and Pearle some of them travelled towards the South and as by water they found the Sea westward from Peru which is alwaies very calme and is by them called the South sea as the other wherein Cuba standeth ' is termed the North sea so by land they found that huge and mighty Country which is called Peru wherein the people are for the most part very barbarous and without God men of great stature yea some of them far higher than the ordinary sort of men in Europe using to shoot strongly with bows made of Fish-bones and most cruel people to their enemies Our English people who have travelled that way do in their writings confess that they saw upon the South of Peru very huge tall men who attempting upon them when they put to land for fresh water were much frighted with their Guns or else doubtless had offered violence unto them which our men fearing got them away as speedily as they could There was one Petrus de Cieca a Spaniard who when he had travelled two and twenty years returned back again into Europe and wrote an excellent Book of the Discovery of that whole Country And he amongst other things doth record that there are found in some parts of Peru very huge and mighty bones of men that had been Gyants who dwelt and were buried there Amongst these the Spaniards partly by force but especially by perfidious treason did get infinite sums of Gold and Pearls wherewith being allured they hoped for more by reason that a great part thereof hath under the Zona torrida and that caused them to spread themselves here and there as far as they durst in the country where in some places they digged Gold out of the â—…rth and in some other they found it ready digged and tried unto their hands by the people of the Country which had used that Trade before their comming thither Amongst other creatures which are very famous in this Peru there is a little beast called Cincia which is no bigger than a Fox the tale whereof is long the feet short and the head like a very Fox which hath a bag hanging under her belly whereinto she doth use to put her yong when she seeth them in danger of any hunter or passenger That Petrus de Cieca of whom mention was made before telleth that himself saw one of them which had no less then seven young ones lying about her but as soon as she perceived that a man was comming neer unto her she presently got them into her bag and ran away with such incredible swiftness as one would not have imagined After the Spaniards had conquered Mexico they discovered Peru travelling towards the south and as they prevailed against the Mexicans taking part with an enemy neighbour so finding two brothers striving in Peru Guasâ—…ar Atabaliba they so demeaned themselves in their difference that they ruined both and got their incredible store of Gold The first that attempted against the Peruvians and destroyed their Kings were James of Almagra and the two brothers of Pizarres but dealing treacherously and cruelly with the Peruvians they long enjoyed not their victory but all of them died a violent death The people of Peru are in many places much wiser than those of Cuba Hispaniola and some others parts of the Continent where the Spaniards first landed and therefore they have some orders and solemne customes among them as among the rest they do bury their dead with observable ceremonies laying up their bodies with great solemnity into a large house prepared for that purpose They have also in one Province there a custome of carrying news messages veryspeedily to the end the King and Governor of the Country may presently take advertisement of any thing which falleth out and this is not on horse-back or by the Dromedary or Else as they use in other places but only men who pass over Rocks and thorow Bushes the next way and in 〈◊〉 set places there be alwaies fresh Posts to carry thaâ—… further which is brought unto them by the other The Spaniards have here and there scatteringly upon the sea-coasts set up some Towns and Castles but are not able to possess almost any thing of the land neither have they as yet discovered the inward parts thereof â—…hough daily they spread themselves more and more insomuch thâ—…t it is supposed that within these seven years last past they have gotten into Guiana where in former time no â—…ranger of that Nation hath been Guiana is a country which lieâ—…h to â—…he North sea in the same height as Peru to the South as it is discribed â—…bout five degrees from the Aequinâ—…ctial and that as I take it toward the South The Country is supposed to be exceeding rich to have in it many mines of gold which have not yet been touched or at least but very lâ—…tely to be exceeding fertile and delightful otherwise although it lie iâ—… the heat of Zona torrida but there is such store of rivers fresh waters iâ—… every part thereof and the soile it self hath such correspondency thereunto that it is reported to be as green and pleasant to the eye as any place in the world Some of our Englishmen did with great labour and danger pass by water into the heart of the country earnestly desire that some forces of â—…he English might be sent thither a Colony erected there by reason of the distance of the place the great hazard that if it should not succeed well it might prove dishonourable to our nation and withal because the Spaniards have great companies and strength although not in it ye many wayes about it that intendment was discontinued In divers parts of this Peru and near unto Guiana there are very many great rivers which as they are fiâ—… for any navigation that should be attempted to go up within the land so otherwise they must needs yeeld health and fruitfulness to those that iâ—…habit there The greatest of these rivers is that which some call Oregliana or the river of the Amazones And next is the river Maragnone down towards Magellane straights Rio de la Plata and our English men do speak of the river Orinoque in the greatest of which this is famous that for a good spece after they have run into the main sea yea some write 20. or 30. Miles they keep themselves unmixt with the salt water so that a very great way wiâ—…hin the sea men may take up as fresh water as