be subject to such Dangers and still to enrich other Men and maintain their voluptuous Filthiness and Lives returning themselves as Slaves and living worse than their Dogs amongst them Whereupon he burst out into these or such like abrupt Speeches O hellish Slavery to be thus subject to Dogs Oh! God strengthen my Heart and Hand and something shall be done to ease us of these Mischiefs and deliver us from these cruel Mahumetan Dogs The other Slaves pitying his Distraction as they thought bad him speak softly lest they should all fare the worse for his Distemperature the worse quoth Rawlins what can be worse I will either attempt my Deliverance at one time or another or perish in the Enterprize but if you would be contented to hearken after a Release and joyn with me in the Action I would not doubt of facilitating the same and shew you a way to make your Credits thrive by some work of Amazement and augment your Glory in purchasing your Liberty I prethee be quiet said they again and think not of Impossibilities yet if you can but open such a door of Reason and Probability that we be not condemned for desperate and distracted Persons in pulling the Sun as it were out of the Firmament we can but sacrifice our Lives and you may be sure of Secrecy and Taciturnity The fifteenth of January the morning Water brought us near Cape de Gatt hard by the Shore we having in our Company a small Turkish Ship of War that followed us out of Argier the next day and now joyning with us gave us notice of seven small Vessels six of them being Sattees and one Pollack who very quickly appeared in sight and so we made toward them but having more advantage of the Pollack than the rest and loth to lose all we both fetch'd her up and brought her past hope of Recovery which when she perceived rather than she would voluntarily come into the Slavery of these Mahumetans she ran her self a shore and so all the men forsook her we still followed as near as we durst and for fear of splitting let fall our Anchors making out both our Boats wherein were many Musqueteers and some English and Dutch Renegadoes who came aboard home at their Conge and found three Pieces of Ordnance and four Murtherers but they strait-way threw them all over-board to lighten the Ship and so they got her off being laden with Hides and Logwood for dying and presently sent her to Argier taking nine Turks and one English Slave out of one Ship and six out of the less which we thought sufficient to man her In the rifling of this Catelaynia our Turks fell at variance one with another and in such a manner that we divided our selves the less Ship returned to Argier and our Exchange took the opportunity of the Wind and plyed out of the Streights which rejoyced John Rawlins very much as resolving on some Stratagem when opportunity should serve in the mean while the Turks began to murmur and would not willingly go into the Marr Granada as the Phrase is amongst them notwithstanding the Moors being very superstitious were contented to be directed by their Hoshea who with us signifieth a Witch and is of great Account and Reputation amongst them as not going in any great Vessel to Sea without one and observing whatsoever he concludeth out of his Divination The Ceremonies he useth are many and when they come into the Ocean every second or third Night he maketh his Conjuration he beginneth and endeth with Prayer using many Characters and calling upon God by divers Names yet at this time all that he did consisted in these Particulars Upon the sight of two great Ships and as we were afraid chasing us being supposed to be Spanish men of War a great silence is commanded in the Ship and when all is done the Company giveth as great a Shreik the Captain still coming to John Rawlins and sometimes making him take in all his Sails and sometimes causing him to hoyse them all out as the Witch findeth by his Book and Presages then have they two Arrows and a Curtle-axe lying upon a Pillow naked the Arrows are one for the Turks and the other for the Christians then the Witch readeth and the Captain or some other taketh the Arrows in their hand by the Heads and if the Arrow for the Christians cometh over the head of the Arrow for the Turks then do they advance their Sails and will not endure the Fight whatsoever they see but if the Arrow of the Turks is found in the opening of the hand upon the Arrow of the Christians then will they stay and encounter with any Ship whatsoever the Curtle-axe is taken up by some Child that is innocent or rather ignorant of the Ceremony and so laid down again then do they observe whether the same side is uppermost which lay before and so proceed accordingly They also observe Lunaticks and Changelings and the Conjurer writeth down their Sayings in a Book groveling on the Ground as if he whisper'd to the Devil to tell him the Truth and so expoundeth the Letter as it were by Inspiration Many other foolish Rites they have whereon they do dote as foolishly Whilst he was busied and made Demonstration that all was finished the People in the Ship gave a great Shout and cryed out a Sail a Sail which at last was discovered to be another Man of War of Turks for he made towards us and sent his Boat aboard us to whom our Captain complained that being becalmed by the Southern Cape and having made no Voyage the Turks denied to go any farther Northwards but the Captain resolved not to return to Argier except he could obtain some prize worthy his endurances but rather to go to Salle and sell his Christians to victual his Ship which the other Captain apprehended for his honour and so perswaded the Turks to be obedient unto him whereupon followed a Pacification amongst us and so that Turk took his course for the Streights and we put up Northward expecting the good hour of some beneficial Booty All this while our Slavery continued and the Turks with insulting Tyranny set us still on work in all base and servile actions adding stripes and inhumane revilings even in our greatest labour whereupon John Rawlins resolved to obtain his Liberty and surprize the Ship providing Ropes with broad spikes of Iron and all the Iron Crows with which he knew a way upon consent of the rest to ram up or tye fast their Scuttles Gratings and Cabbins yea to shut up the Captain himself with all his Consorts and so to handle the matter that upon the Watch-word given the English being Masters of the Gun-room Ordnance and Powder they would either blow them into the Air or kill them as they adventured to come down one by one if they should by any chance open their Cabbins But because he would proceed the better in his Enterprize as he had somewhat
whose Hairs be Threds of Gold their Eyes of Diamonds as big as the Moon their Lips of Cherries their Teeth of Pearl their Tongues of Rubies their Cheeks of Coral their Noses of Jaspar very rich Girls their Fore-heads of Saphyr their Eyes exceeding black and Bodies exceeding white round fac'd sweet as Musk amorous and very beautiful all over there shall they spend the time with these Virgins in pleasant Arbors who being enjoyed shall have their Virginities again renewed as often as lost In the midst of this delightful place saith he is a very high spreading Tree higher than all the Mountains in the World were they heap'd one upon another and so broad that it shadeth all Paradise The Trunk of this extraordinary rare Tree is all of Diamond the leaves of Ophirian Gold and the Boughs of Jett each Leaf hath an Antick Shape having on one side growing the Name of God and on the other that of Mahomet Nor were his ridiculous Fopperies of Hell less than the other namely that it was the Navel of the World compassed with a large high Wall of attractive Adamant having seven Gates of flaming Brass to enter in at that it was divided into several Cells or Dungeons whereof some were more loathsom and fuller of Torments than others which are prepared for those Souls who have highest transgressed Some of these Caves saith he are so deep that a Mill-stone in a thousand years cannot attain to the bottom and other places are without Bottom In the descent of these deep Caves or Dungeons are placed sharp Pikes and Swords to wound and torment the Souls that move there These Dungeons are full of flaming Oyl and Brimstone which striketh such a Terror that the very Devils themselves do howl screetch and rage there beyond measure other Dungeons be full of Serpents Toads and all manner of venemous and noisome Creatures that can be imagined Here shall the Wicked eat of the Fruit of the Tree Zacon which being in their guts shall flame like Sulphur they shall drink boyling water and every day of new Torments shall have alteration Some Rivers saith he be full of Crocodiles others so cold as makes them gnash and chatter others boyl with violence of heat yet saith the Alcoran shall not these pains endure for ever for after so many thousand years when each Soul hath suffer'd according to the demerits of the Sins which he hath committed then shall they be delivered by Mahomet yea his Charity is so great that he will deliver the Devils also first changing their affrighting shapes into others more tollerable and then by washing them in a River flowing out of Paradise called Alcanser they shall become whiter than the driven Snow and from thence forward Sing Lala Hillulaes unto Mahomet And this is that he delivers of Hell whose description he might the better give as being the place of his proper residence His Doctrine of Angels was that they were either good or bad yet both subject to death the good as consisting of Flame because Lucifer an Angel by Ambition was cast out of Paradise the bad Angels are imprisoned in Dogs Swine Toads Wolves Bears Tygers c. After the Judgment-day they must be tormented in Hell some Millions of years and afterwards be delivered by Mahomet and received into Paradise but as for the Women poor Souls be they never so good they have the Gates shut against them yet are consigned to a Mansion without where they shall live happily as wicked Women to another place repleat with all dolour and misery As absurd and ridiculous were his opinions concerning our Saviour Christ as that the Virgin Mary conceived him by smelling to a Rose presented to her by the Angel Gabriel and that he was born out of her Breasts also that she was free from Original Sin and the Temptations of the Devil Christ is called in the Alcoran the Breath and Word of God said to know the Secrets of Hearts to raise the dead to life cure diseases restore sight to the Blind and speech to the Dumb and that his Disciples wrought Miracles by his Vertue Yet visit they not his Sepulchre in their Pilgrimages not thinking him to have died as generally bruted for being as they say led towards the Place of Execution God not permitting so base a People to put to death so holy a Prophet did assume him into Heaven when mist and sought by the Souldiers in the throng they laid hold of one of the Judges that had condemned him who resembled him much in favour and proportion telling him that he should not escape from them again and so not believing whatsoever he said did Execute him in his Room They sharply punish all such as blaspheme him and say that he shall return to Judgment about forty years before the Worlds ending and that at the last day the Righteous shall enter into Heaven the Jews under the Banner of Moses the Christians under the Banner of Christ and the Saracens under his Banner Having with these and the like odd whimzies patched up his Alcoran to give it the better credit that the People might imagine it to come from Heaven he devised this cunning way He secretly caused a wild Ass to be taken and bound his Alcoran being fairly written about his Neck then as he preached unto the People he pretended a sudden Rapture of some extraordinary thing that was revealed to him from above and with a loud voice spake to the People Ye have desired a Law behold God hath sent you a Law from Heaven go to such a Desart there shall ye find an Ass and a Book tyed about his Neck which will direct you in the ways which God hath commanded Thereupon the People run in great haste and as they could do no other found it according as he had said so with great Pomp they bring back the Ass with the Book about his neck suitable to the Bearer and now as thoroughly convinced they give great Honour to this their new Prophet Thus were these silly Souls deluded by this cunning Impostor to imbrace a bruitish sensual Religion but fleshly People will have a fleshly Religion and a fleshly Paradise to inhabit But like Prophet like People and like Religion for Mahomet himself was such a fleshly Fellow that in glorying of his Strength he boasted that he had known his eleven Wives successively in one hour and permitting by his impure Law to his followers to take unto them four Wives though they be nigh of Kin yea five marrying them Virgins and to take besides as many of them which they have bought and taken Captives as their ability will serve to maintain These were his sensual bruitish baits to catch the credulous inconsiderate Multitude but his devices are so ridiculous that a wise man cannot chuse but smile at his conceits in Pleasure this indeed hath made many of the most serious of them to mislike his inventions and sensual delights Amongst the rest hear Avicena one
Spectators rather are conceived to have accelerated his Death which hapned November the 15. 1634. and was buried in the Abbey Church at Westminster all present at his Burial doing Homage to this aged Thomas de temporibus There was if not still living in Northumberland a Scottish Minister named Michael Vivan a Person who may give just matter of Admiration both to the present and future Ages as by the perusing of this ensuing Letter may appear written by a Person of Quality to Dr. Fuller and by him inserted into his England's Worthies THere is an Acquaintance of mine and a Friend of yours who certified me of your desire of being satisfied of the truth of that Relation I made concerning the old Minister in the North. It fortuned in my Journey to Scotland I lay at Alnwick in Northumberland one Sunday by the way and understanding from the Host of the House where I lodged that this Minister lived within three miles of that place I took my Horse after Dinner and rid thither to hear him preach for my own satisfaction I found him in the Desk where he read unto us some part of the Common-Prayer some of Holy David's Psalms and two Chapters one out of the Old the other out of the New Testament without the use of Spectacles The Bible out of which he read the Chapters was a very small printed Bible He went afterwards into his Pulpit where he prayed and preached unto us about an hour and half His Text was Seek you the Kingdom of God and all hings shall be added unto you In my poor Judgment he made an excellent good Sermon and went clearly through without the help of any Notes After Sermon I went with him to his House where I proposed these several following Questions to him Whether it was true the Book reported of him concerning his Hair whether or no he had a new set of Teeth come whether or no his Eye-sight ever failed him and whether in any measure he found his strength renewed unto him He answered me distinctly to all these and told me he understood the news-News-book reported his Hair to become a dark brown again but that is false he took his Cap off and shewed me it It is come again like a Child's but rather flaxen than either brown or gray For his Teeth he hath three come within these two years not yet at their Perfection while he bred them he was very ill Forty years since he could not read the biggest print without Spectacles and now he blesseth God there is no print so small but he can read without them For his strength he thinks himself as strong now as he hath been these twenty years Not long since he walked to Alnwick to dinner and back again six North-Countrey miles He is now an hundred and ten years of age and ever since last May a hearty Body very chearful but stoops much He had five Children after he was eighty years of age four of them lusty Lasses now living with him the other died lately his Wife yet hardly fifty years of age He writes himself Machel Vivan he is a Scottish-man born near Aberdeen I forget the Towns name where he is now Pastor he hath been there fifty years Windsor 28 Sept. 1657. Your assured loving Friend THOMAS ATKIN An Example of Divine Vengeance pursuing Sinners IN the Year 1614. ten English-men having received the Sentence of Death for their several Crimes at the Sessions-House at the Old-Bayly in London had their Execution respited by the intreaty of the East-India Merchants upon Condition that they should be all banished to Souldania-Bay to the end if they could find any peaceable abode there they might discover something advantagious to their Trade and this was accordingly done But two of them when they came thither were taken thence and carried on the Voyage one whose Sir-name was Duffield by Sir Thomas Row that Year sent Ambassador to the Great Mogol that Fellow thus redeemed from a most sad Banishment was afterward brought back again into England by that noble Gentleman and here being intrusted by him stole some of his Plate and run away another was carried on the Voyage likewise but what became of him afterward is not known so that there remained eight which were there left with some Ammunition and Victual with a small Boat to carry them to and from a very little uninhabited Island lying in the very mouth of that Bay a place for their retreat and safety from the Natives on the Main The Island called Pen-guin Island probably so named at first by some Welsh-man in whose Language Pen-guin signifies a White-head and there are many great lazy Fowls upon and about this Island with great cole black Bodies and very white Heads called Pen-guins The chief man of the eight there left was sir-named Cross who took upon him the name of Captain Cross He was formerly Yeoman of the Guard to King James but having had his Hand in Blood twice or thrice by men slain by him in several Duels and now being condemned to die with the rest upon very great Sute made for him he was hither banished with them whither the Justice of Almighty God was dispatched after him as it were in a Whirl-wind and followed him close at the very heels and over-took him and left him not till he had paid dear for that Blood he had formerly spilt This Cross was a very stout and a very resolute man who quarrelling with and abusing the Natives and engaging himself far amongst them immediately after himself with the rest were left in that place many of these Savages being got together fell upon him and with their Darts thrown and Arrows shot at him stuck his Body so full of them as if he had been larded with Darts and Arrows making him look like the Figure of the man in the Almanack that seems to be wounded in every part or like that man described by Lucan Totum pro vulnere corpus who was all Wound where Blood touched Blood a just Retaliation of God for his Cruelty shewed unto others The other seven the rest of these miserable Banditi who were there with Cross recovered their Boat and got off the Shore without any great hurt and so rowing to their Island the Waves running high they split their Boat at their landing which engaged them to keep in that place they having now no possible means left to stir thence And which made their Condition whilst they were in it extreamly miserable it was a place wherein grew never a Tree neither for Sustenance or Shelter or Shade nor any thing beside to help sustain Nature a place that had never a drop of fresh Water in it but what the showers left in the holes of the Rocks And besides all this there were a very great number of Snakes in that Island so many of those venemous Worms that a man could not tread safely in the long Grass which grew in it for fear of them And
walls and writeth on the Door and within and without on every wall and about the Bed in Hebrew Letters Adam Chama Chuts Lilich or after the Jewish pronuntiation Lilis Hereby they signifie their desire that if a woman shall be delivered of a Son God may one Day give him a Wife like to Eve and not a shrew like Lilis This Word Lilis is read in the Prophet Isaiah 34. 14. interpreted a Scritch-Owl but the Jews seem to mean by it a devillish Spectrum in Womans shape that useth to slay or carry away Children which are on the eighth Day to be circumcifed Elias Levita writeth that he hath read that a hundred and twenty years Adam contained himself from his wife Eve and in that space there came to him Devils which conceived of him whence were ingendred Devils and Spirits Faries and Goblins and there were four Devils Mothers or Dams of them Lilith Nuemah Ogereth and Machalath Thus is it read in Ben Sira When God had made Adam and saw it was not good for him to be alone he made him a Woman of the Earth like unto him and called her Lilis These disagree for Superiority not suffering Caesarve priorem Pompeiusve Parem Lilis made of the same mould would not be underling and Adam would not endure her his equal Lilis seeing no hope of agreement uttered that sacred word Jehovah with the Cabalistical interpretation thereof and presently did flye into the Air. Adam plaining his case God sent three Angels after her viz. Senot Sensenoi Saumangeleph either to bring her back or to denounce unto her that a hundred of her Children should dye in a day These overtook her over the troublesome Sea where one day the Egyptians should be drowned and did their message to her she refusing to obey they threatned her drowning but she besought them to let her alone because she was created to vex and kill Children on the eighth day if they were men if women Children on the twentieth day They nevertheless forcing her to go Lilis sware to them that whensoever she should find the name or figure of those Angels written or painted on Schedule Parchment or any thing she would do Infants no harm and that she would not refuse that punishment to lose an hundred Children in a day And for this cause do they write these names on a Scroll of Parchment and hang them on their Infants necks Thus far Ben Sira In their Chambers always is found such a scroll or painting and the names of the Angels of Health this office they ascribe to them are written over the Chamber-door In their Book Brandspiegel Printed at Cracovia 1597. is shewed the authority of this History collected by their wise men out of those words Gen. 1. 27. Male and female created he them compared with the forming of Eve of a Rib in the next Chapter saying That Lilis the former was divorced from Adam for her pride which she conceived because she was not made of Earth as well as he and God gave him another flesh of his flesh and concerning her R. Moses tells that Samael the Devil came riding upon a Serpent which was as big as a Camel and cast water upon her and deceived her When any Jewish Woman is in travel she must not send for a Christian Midwife except no Jewish can be gotten and then the Jewish Women must be very thick about her for fear of negligence or injury And if she be happily delivered of a Son there is exceeding joy through all the house and the Father presently makes festival provision against the Circumcision on the eighth day In the mean time ten Persons are invited neither more nor fewer which are all past thirteen Years of Age The night after her delivery seven of the invited Parties and some others sometimes meet at the Child's house and make there great cheer and sport all Night Diceing Drinking Fabling so to solace the Mother that she should not grieve too much for the Childs Circumcision Of the Opinion of the Chinesses concerning the peopling of the World after the Flood THAT after the waters of Heaven had overflowed the Earth so that all mankind was drowned by an universal Deluge God seeing that the World would be desolate and no body to inhabit it he sent the Goddess Amida the chief Lady of Honour to his Wife Nacapiran from the Heaven of the Moon that she might repair the loss of drowned mankind and that when the Goddess having set her feet upon a Land whence the waters were withdrawn called Calemphuy she was changed all into Gold and in that manner standing upright with her face looking up unto Heaven she sweat out at her arm-pits a great number of Children namely Males out of the right and Females out of the left having no other place about her body whence she might bring them forth as other Women of the World have who have sinned and that for a chastisement of their sin God by the order of Nature hath subjected them to a misery full of corruption and filthiness for to shew how odious unto him the sin was that had been committed against him The Goddess Amida having thus brought forth these Creatures which they affirm were thirty three thousand three hundred thirty and three two parts of them Females and the other Males for so say they the World was to be repaired she remained so feeble and faint with this delivery how could she do otherwise having no body to assist her at her need that she fell down dead in the place for which cause the Moon at that time in memory of this death of hers whereat she was infinitely grieved put her self into mourning which mourning they affirm to be those black spots we ordinarily behold in her face occasioned indeed by the shadow of the Earth and that when there shall be so many Years run out as the Goddess Amida brought forth Children which were as I have delivered thirty three thousand three hundred thirty and three then the Moon will put off her mourning and afterwards be as clear as the Day A strange and wonderful Relation of Ferdinand Mendez Pinto a Portugal which he saw in his Journey in China AFTER the Relation of many and divers things we came saith he to a Town anciently called Cohilonza that is the flower of the field and had in former times been in very great prosperity but about a hundred forty and two years before a certain stranger chanced to come thither being as it seems an holy man although the Bonzes which are their Priests said he was a Sorcerer by reason of the wonders he did having raised up five dead men and wrought many other miracles whereat all men were exceedingly astonished and that having divers times disputed with the Priests he had so shamed and confounded them as fearing to deal any more with him they incensed the Inhabitants against him and perswaded them to put him to death affirming that otherwise God would consume