insnared Damsel that she suffer'd him for many Nights together to enjoy his beastly Pleasures with her without being taken notice of by any but no Eye-sight so sharp and piercing as that of Jealousie some of her former Sweet-hearts observing her kind Looks in the day-time to this Stranger and finding themselves wholly out of Favour conclude he was the man that supplanted them in their Affection for which they vow Revenge and four of them joyn'd together arm'd with trusty Back-Swords way-lay him one Evening in the Fields who no sooner comes up to them but these valiant Heroes fell all four upon him at once with their dead-doing Bilboes but they do but Duel a Shadow though they see him plainly they cannot reach him and their mighty Stroaks are lost in insignificant cleaving down the empty Air on the other side tho' they behold him only single yet they feel more than a hundred Flails belabouring them so severely till their Backs seem Brawn and their Heads Jelly which obliged them to cry out for Quarter which he very generously to shew that he was a Devil of Honour grants but withal tells them they must undergo a further small Penance for their Presumption saying this he tyes their Hands behind them and letting down their Breeches whips them with Rods of Holly and Nettles intermix'd till the Crimson Gore in Streams flow'd down their Posteriors then having fast pin'd the hinder lap of their Shirts to their Shoulders with their Hands bound and Breeches about their Heels as aforesaid he dismiss'd them who rambling all Night they knew not whither found themselves in the morning hard by the Village where they meâ— two Wenches going a milking amaz'd and ready to run away seeing them in that ridiculous Posture these with much Rhetorick and some Tears they intreat to loose them which the hard-hearted Sluts ready to be-piss themselves with laughing refusing they are forced to march on into the middle of the Village and there too they could not get unbound till they had made an ingenious Confession how they came thus pickled At another time a Miller living in that Village took some occasion to fall out with our Stranger upbraiding him as an idle Fellow and one that having no Employment was very fit to serve in the Wars the Stranger replyed little but told him he should be even with him for his Sawsiness before he slept accordingly the Miller and his Family werâ— no sooner got to Bed but he heard his Mill set going very furiously whereupon getting up to seâ— what the matter was he found a whole Cart-load of Office-Marmalade brought to be ground and thrown into his Hopper and Bynns At this unexpected Sight poor Dusty-Pell began to swear anâ— wish'd a thousand Tun of Devils damn the Authoâ— of this Roguery when lo on a sudden as a Punishment for his Prophaneness as he went to shut down the Mill he is taken up and duck'd above forty times over head and Ears in the Stream and then his Toll-dish full of the before mentioned Frankincense clap'd so fast on his Head that it could not be got off for above two days For these and some other extravagant Pranks that he plaid he was at last carried before a Justice in whose Presence he was no sooner come but there was heard all about the House a hideous Noise as of hissing of Serpents whilst he fell into such a loud excessive Laughter that he made the whole House to shake which fit of Mirth being over the Magistrate demanded of him what Country-man he was to which he replyed that he was an Inhabitant of another World and only a Sojourner in this as he spake which words the Room seemed full for almost half an hour of fiery Flashes accompanied with a most dreadful Clap of Thunder in which he vanished away and was never seen after The Birth Life and Actions of the Impostor Mahomet according to their Saracenical Story of him THEY have written a Book of the Generation of Mahomet to this effect The Book of the Generation of Mahomet you see they would Ape the Genealogy of our Saviour the Messenger of God from Adam and Eve to the time when God brought him forth permitted him for the Sins of his People gracious perfect and fit for himself When as Rabachbar had learned out of the Scriptures and by Astrology together with a little Witch-craft that this Prophet should be born to the World he heard That there was a man born in Jeseras a City of Arabia having all such Marks and Tokens as he had sore-seen by the Prophecies and his Witchcraft viz. A spot on his Fore-head a print between his Shoulders and the Brand of Lucifer to satisfie his Desire he went thither to see where finding those Tokens fulfilled in young Mahomet he thereupon expounded the dark mystery of his far-fetched Light learned of his Master Rabelnedi and his Master the Devil in this manner When Adam was newly created as he stood up his Brain shaked and made a noise as the Leaves do which are shaken with the Wind whereat Adam wondring how could he do otherwise God said unto him The Sound which thou hast heard it is the sign of the Prophets and Messengers of my Commandments take heed therefore that thou commit the Seed of Light only to worthy Loyns and to a clean Womb. And this light of Mahomet put into a dark Lanthorn that should be born shined from the face of Adam as the Sun or Moon at the Full. And when he had begotten Seth that Light passed instantly from the face of Adam into the face of Eve insomuch that the Birds of the Air and Beasts of the Earth wondered at her Beauty yea the Angels every day saluted her and brought her Odours out of Paradise till she brought forth Seth alone having before at every burthen brought forth a Brother and a Sister Seth inherited this Light which remained between Heaven and Earth the Angels thereby ascending and descending upon Seth and crying always Rejoyce thou Earth worthy of the Light of Mahomet on him be Prayer and Salvation of God Adam drawing near to his end declared unto him by his Testament the mystery of that Light and the Genealogy of the Prophets Then descended Gabriel attended with threescore and ten thousand Angels bearing every one of them a white Leaf and a Pen which signed the writing for the continuance of the Order of the Prophetical generation Seth received this writing and was cloathed with a double red Garment shining as the Sun and as soft as the Violet-flower From him it passed by succession to Noah and Sem then to Abraham at whose Birth two Lights from the East and West meeting in the midst lightned the whole World and the Angels were heard singing That it was the Light of the Prophet Mahomet who should be born of his Seed whose Word should be in the Vertue of God This Light say they passed from Abraham to the Face of Hagar being
Elionara Sister to the King of Portugal at Bruges in Flanders which was solemnized in the deep of Winter whenas by reason of unseasonable Weather he could neither hawk nor hunt and was now tired with Cards Dice c. and such other domestical Sports or to see Ladies dance with some of his Courtiers he would in the Evening walk disguised all about the Town It so fortuned as he was walking late one Night he found a Country-Fellow dead drunk snorting on a Bulk he caused his Followers to bring him to his Palace and there stripped him of his old Cloaths and attired him after the Court Fashion when he waked he and they were ready to attend upon his Excellency persuading him he was some great Duke The poor Fellow admiring how he came thither was served in state all the day long After Supper he saw them dance heard Musick and the rest of those Court-like Pleasures but late at night when he was well tipled and again fast asleep they put on his old Cloaths and so conveyed him to the place where they first found him Now the Fellow had not made them so good sport the day before as he did when he returned to himself all the Jest was to see how he looked upon it In conclusion after some little Admiration the poor man told his Friends he had seen a Vision constantly believed it would not otherwise be persuaded and so the Jest ended Memorials of Thomas Coriat the famous Odcombian Traveller MR. Thomas Coriat was born at Odcombe nigh Evil in Somerset-shire and bred at Oxford where he attained to admirable fluency in the Greek Tongue he was a Man in his Time Notus nimis omnibus very sufficiently known one who seemed to carry Folly in his Face the shape of his Head being like a Sugar-loaf inverted with the little end before but such as conceived him Fool ad duo and something else ad decem were utterly mistaken for he drave on no Design cared for Coin and Counters alike so contented with what was present that he accounted those men guilty of Superfluity who had more Suits and Shirts than Bodies seldom putting off either till they were ready to go away from him Noble Prince Henry King James his Son allowed him a Pension and kept him for his Servant Sweet-meats and Coriat made up the last Course at all Court-Entertainments indeed he was the Courtiers Anvil to try their Wits upon and sometimes this Anvil returned the Hammers as hard Knocks as it received his Bluntness repaying their Abusiveness He being addicted to travel took a Journey into several places of Europe and at his Return made a Book thereof known by the name of Coriat's Crudities printed about the year 1611. being ushered into the World by very many Copies of excellent Verses made by the Wits of those times which made one to say that the Porch was more worth than the Palace the Preface of other mens mock-commending Verses than the Book it self however they did very much advantage and improve if not enforce the Sale thereof doing themselves much more Honour than him whom they undertook to commend in their several Encomiasticks Now because the Book is very scarce and hard to come by I shall give you a Copy of one of their Encomiums there being about sixty in all by which you may give a guess at the rest To the no less learned than wise and discreet Gentleman Mr. Thomas Coriat in some few Months Travels born and brought up to what you see viz. To be the delight of a world of noble Wits to be a shame to all Authors as the Gout and Quartane Fever have been to all Physicians This plain Song sendeth Christopher Brooke his poor Friend to attend the Descant of his famous Book thorough all Hands Tongues Arts Trades Mysteries and Occupations whatsoever THE subtile Greek Ulysses needs must travel Ten years sorsooth over much Sand and Gravel And many Cities see and Manners know Before there could be writ a Book or two Of his Adventures and he travell'd still Else there are Lyars sore against his Will But this rare English-Latin-Grecian Of Orators and Authors the Black Swan A voluntary Journey undertook Of scarce six Months and yet hath writ a Book Bigger than Homer's and tho' writ in Prose As full of Poetry spite of Homer's Nose If he liv'd now that in Darius Casket Plac'd the poor Iliads he had bought a Basket Of richer stuff t' intomb thy Volume large Which thou O noble Tom at thine own charge Art pleas'd to print but thou need'st not repent Of this thy bitter cost for thy brave Precedent Great Caesar is who penned his own Gests And as some write recited them at Feasts And at 's own Charge had printed them they say If printing had been used at that day The Press hath spent the three for one you got At your Return What 's that Poor thing God wot Manure this Land still with such Books my Friend And you shall be paid for it in the end For I methinks see how men strive to carry This jovial Journal into each Library And we e're long shall well perceive your Wit Grave learned Bodley by your placing it Therefore lanch forth great Book like Ship of Fame Th' Hopewel of Odcombe thou shalt have to name Explicit Christopherus Brook Eboracensis Amongst others that writ mock-commendatory Verses of this Book of Crudities was John Taylor the Water-Poet which though of the same nature with the other yet gave great offence to Mr. Coriat complaining of him therefore to King James The Verses were these What matters for the place I first came from I am no Dunce-comb Cox-comb Odcombe Tom Nor am I like a Wool-pack cramb'd with Greek Venus in Venice minded to go seek And at my back-return to write a Volume In memory of my Wits Gargantua Columne The choicest Wits would never so adore me Nor like so many Lacquies run before me But honest Tom I envy not thy state There 's nothing in thee worthy of my hate Yet I confess thou hast an excellent Wit But that an idle Brain doth harbour it Fool thou it at the Court I on the Thames So farewel Odcombe Tom God bless King James Afterwards Taylor wrote a Book called Laugh and be fat wherein he paraphrased upon all those Gentlemen that had written on Mr. Coriat's Book which Book by the Command of King James he procured to be burnt and afterwards adding more Complaints against Taylor to the King his Majesty was pleased to tell him that when the Lords of his Honourable Privy Council had leisure and nothing else to do then they should hear and determine the Differences betwixt Mr. Coriat the Scholar and John Taylor the Sculler Whereupon Taylor wrote these following Verses to the King Most mighty Monarch of this famous Isle Upon the Knees of my submissive mind I beg thou wilt be graciously inclin'd To read these Lines my rustick Pen compile Know Royal Sir
small Turrets which are made open with Lights every way that a man in them may be easily seen and heard Now their Moolaas or devout Priests do five times every day ascend unto the tops of those high Turrets whence they proclaim as loudly as they can possibly speak their Prophet Mahomet thus in Arabian La alla illa alla Mahomet Resul-alla that is There is no God but one God and Mahomet the Messenger from God Upon a time Tom Coriat when their Moolaa was to cry as aforesaid he got upon an high place directly opposite to one of those Priests and contradicted him thus La alla illa alla Hasaret Eesa Benalla that is No God but one God and the Lord Christ the Son of God and farther added that Mahomet was an Impostor and all this he spake in their own Language as loud as possibly he could in the ears of many Mahometans that heard it But whether Circumstances considered the zeal or discretion of our Pilgrim were more here to be commended I leave to the judgment of the Reader No doubt but had this bold attempt of his been acted in many other places of Asia it would have cost him his Life with as much torture as cruelty could have invented But he was here taken for a Mad-man and so let alone Haply the rather because every one there hath liberty to profess his own Religion freely and if he please may argue against theirs without fear of an Inquisition as this our Pilgrim did at another time with a Moolaa who had called him Giaur that is Infidel or false Believer which Mr. Coriat took in such Dudgeon that he made a Speech to him as followeth Mr. Coriat's Speech to a Mahometan But I pray thee tell me thou Mahometan dost thou in sadness call me Giaur That I do quoth he Then quoth I in very sober sadness I retort that shameful word in thy Throat and tell thee plainly that I am a Musulman and thou art a Giaur for by that Arab word Musulman thou dost understand that which cannot properly be applyed to a Mahometan but only to a Christian so that I do consequently infer that there are two kinds of Musulmen the one an Ortho-musulman that is a true Musulman which is a Christian and the other a Pseudo-musulman that is a false Musulman which is a Mahometan What thy Mahomet was from whom thou dost derive thy Religion assure thy self I know better than any one of the Mahometans amongst many Millions yea all the particular Circumstances of his Life and Death his Nation his Parentage his driving Camels thorough Aegypt Syria and Palestina the marriage of his Mistress by whose Death he raised himself from a very base and contemptible Estate to great Honour and Riches his manner of cozening the sottish People of Arabia partly by a tame Pidgeon that did fly to his Ear for meat and partly by a tame Bull that he fed by hand every day with the rest of his Actions both in Peace and War I know as well as if I had lived in his time or had been one of his Neighbours in Mecha the Truth whereof if thou didst know as well I am persuaded thou would'st spit in the face of thy Alcoran and trample it under thy Feet and bury it under a Jakes a Book of that strange and weak matter that I my self as meanly as thou dost see me attired now have already written two better Books God be thanked and will hereafter this by God's gracious Permission write another better and truer yea I would have thee know thou Mahometan that in that renowned Kingdom of England where I was born Learning doth so flourish that there are many thousand Boys of sixteen years of Age that are able to make a more learned Book than thy Alcoran neither was it as thou and the rest of you Mahometans do generally believe composed wholly by Mahomet for he was of so dull a Wit he was not able to make it without the help of another namely a certain Renegado Monk of Constantinople called Sergis so that his Alcoran was like an Arrow drawn out of the Quiver of another man I perceive thou dost wonder to see me so much inflamed with Anger but I would have thee consider it is not without great cause I am so moved for what greater Indignity can there be offered to a Christian which is an Artho-musulman than to be called Giaur by a Giaur c. By this which hath been said you may perceive our Coriat thus distinguished that himself was the Orthodox Musulman or true Believer The Moolaa the Pseudo-Musulman or false true Believer a distinction which must needs make an Intelligent Reader to smile It also shews what an opinion he had of his former writings and how if he had returned what a bustle he would have made in the World with another Volume but death prevented him for having left it Thomas Rowe the English Ambassador at Mandoa he went to Surat where he was over-kindly used by some of the English who gave him Sack which they had brought from England he calling for it as soon as he first heard of it and crying Sack Sack is there such a thing as Sack I pray you give me some Sack and drinking of it though moderately for he was a very temperate man it increased his Flux which he had then upon him and this caused him within a few days after his very tedious and troublesome Travels for he went most on foot at this place to come to his journeys end for here he overtook Death December 1617. and was buried under a little Monument like one of those usually made in our Church-yards upon whom a joking Wit made this Epitaph Here lies the Wonder of the English Nation Within the bosome of old Tellus maw For fruitless Travel and for strange Relation He past and repast all thy eyes e're saw Odcomb produc'd him many Nations fed him And worlds of Writers through the World have spread him The reason inducing the Mahometans to often Prayer exemplified by a Story IN a great City where Mahomet was zealously professed there lived say they a devout Musulman who for many years together spent his whole day in the Mosquit or Church in the mean time he minding not the World at all became so poor that he had nothing left to buy bread for his Family yet notwithstanding his poor condition he was resolved still to ply his Devotions and in a morning when he perceived that there was nothing at all left for the further subsistence of himself and houshold took a solemn leave of his Wife and Children resolving for his part to go and pray and dye in the Mosquit leaving his Family if no relief came to famish at home But that very day he put on this resolution there came to his house in his absence a very beautiful young Man as he appeared to be who brought and gave unto his Wife a very good quantity of
third was of Pearls wherein was Abraham and the huge huge Angel of Death with his Book and Pen in Hand writing the Times and mens Lives which fatal opinions make them hardy In the fourth he beheld an infinite company of Angels whereof every one was a thousand times bigger then the Globe of the earth exactly to an inch each of them had ten thousand Heads every head threescore and ten thousand tongues and every tongue praised God in seven hundred thousand several Languages Amongst other of these Angels saith he was one named Phatyr or the Angel of mercy who was of that immense greatness that every step he trod was twelve times more than the distance betwixt the Poles This Angel said he had a Quill or Pen of orient Pearl of such a length never a Scrivener in London hath the like that an excellent Arabian Courser could hardly reach to the end of it in five hundred years continual galloping with this Pen saith he doth God record all things past present and to come in such a mysterious Character that none but He and Seraphael can understand it with this Quill were written all the hundred and four Holy Books viz. the ten which Adam received Seth fifty Enoch thirty and Abraham the Remainder this Pen forsooth also writ Moses Law David's Psalms Christ's Gospel and Mahomet's Alcoran The fifth Heaven of Diamond and in it Moses the sixth of Ruby and in it John Baptist in the seventh Heaven he saw the Throne of God supported by seven Angels each of them so great that a Faulcon with incessant flying could scarce in a thousand Years reach the distance of one Eye from another fourteen everlasting burning Candles hung about the Throne whose length according to Mahomet's measure was as much as a Horse could run in five hundred Years There saith this Blasphemer did he see the Almighty who bid him welcome and stroked him on the Face with his hand which was a thousand times colder than Ice Here Mahomet for shame of his own Baseness blush'd a thing he never did for lying and sweat six drops which he wiped from his Brow and threw into Paradise where one became a Rose another a Grain of Rice and the other four became four Learned Men viz. Armet Sembelin Almamed Moler-zed and Seh-nassin Then returning to his Elmparac or Mule he rode back to his house at Mecha all this was done in the tenth part of the Night but when he was requested to do thus much in the Peoples sight he answered Praised be God I am a man and an Apostle The Book Asear saith Bellonius telleth further That in his Journey Mahomet heard a Womans Voice crying Mahomet Mahomet but he held his Peace afterwards another called him but he gave no Answer Mahomet asked the Angel who they were He answered That the one was she which published the Jews Law and if he had answered her all his Disciples should have been Jews the other was she which delivered the Gospel whom if he had answered all his Followers had been Christians Now who would think People should be so credulous to believe such antick Stories but his other Opinions were full as ridiculous as concerning the Day of Judgment that he should paint it out by a great and fearful Duel betwixt him and Death who being overcome shall be so enraged that he shall destroy all the World presently and being armed in flaming Brass shall sound his Trumpet to each Quarter of the World whose affrighting Noise shall make all Creatures to give up the Ghost yea the very Angels also shall die as also Adriel who wrapping his iron Wings about him shall strangle himself with such a hideous Noise as is not to be imagined Then shall ensue a terrible Earth-quake and a violent shower of parching Brimstone which shall turn the World into a disordered Chaos in which Condition it shall remain the space of forty days when God shall take it in his Fist and say Where are now the Haughty Princes the Cruel Tyrants Lascivious Wantons and Covetous Muck-worms of the Earth Then will he rain down Mercy for forty Days and Nights together incessantly which shall reduce the World again into a flourishing Condition Then shall the Angel Seraphiel take a Golden Trumpet in his hand of length five hundred Years Travel from one end to another with which he shall give such a Sound as shall revive again both Angels and Men who shall re-assume their former Estate after this Michael the Arch-Angel comes with a mighty Ballance and poises every man's Actions in either Scale those whose good Deeds out-weigh their evil are put on the right hand the other on the left then is every man loaden with his Sins in a Satchel and hung about his Neck with which they pass on a narrow weak Bridge over the Mouth of Hell now those that be heavy laden break the Bridge and fall therein but such as have but few Sins pass over securely On the other side of the Bridge stands Mahomet who shall be transformed into the shape of a mighty Ram full of Locks and long Fleeces of Wool in which all his Sectaries like Fleas shall shroud themselves then will he jump into Paradise and so convey them all thither Paradise he described to be as many miles about as there be Attomes in the Sun and that it is enclosed with a Wall of ninety times refined Gold ten thousand miles high and three thousand thick having seven Gates to enter in at and is divided into seven spacious Gardens and those sub-divided into seventy times seven several places of Delight In this place he promises to his Mussel-men or true Believers all sensual Pleasures and Delights imaginable namely That they should have Garments of Silk with all sorts of Colours Bracelets of Gold and Amber Parlours and Banquetting-houses upon Floods and Rivers Vessels of Gold and Silver Angels serving them bringing in Gold and Silver Flaggons Milk and Wine curious Lodgings rarely furnished Cushions Pillows and Down-beds most beautiful Women to accompany them Maidens and Virgins with twinkling Eyes Gardens and Orchards with Arbors Fountains Springs and all manner of pleasant Fruit Rivers of Milk Honey and spiced Wine all manner of sweet Odours Perfumes and fragrant Scents yea whatsoever the Flesh shall desire to have In this Paradise saith Mahomet there is a Table of Diamond seven hundred thousand days Journey long does not he think you deserve the Whetstone this is for men to feast upon sitting on Chairs of Gold and Pearl Gabriel the Porter of Paradise hath seventy thousand Keys which belong to his Office and every Key is seven thousand miles long questionless he must be very strong or else those Keys must needs tire him Here saith the Alcoran men shall tumble in all manner of Pleasure reposing upon fair Beds lined with Crimson there shall they gather the Fruits of the Garden to their Contentment there shall they enjoy the Company of fair and beautiful Damsels
History that gives us a veiw of all Places and Times by that we see with other mens eyes and hear with their ears But in your reading have a great care in the choice of your Authors avoiding such as be either false or impertinent which to a judicious eye is easily discernable for some I have known othervvise ingenious enough apt to believe idle Romances and Poetical Fictions for Historical Varieties Not but that ingenious Romances and and vvitty Fables may be read and profitably too but to avoid such rude ones as Huon of Bourdeaux Four Sons of Amon Fortunatus Chimon of England and such like lest you be brought into the belief of Don Quixot which that Satyrical Romance doth sufficiently whip Indeed it were to be wished that such rude depraved Books were utterly abolished or restrained at least from Youth of both kinds for preventing of fantastical Impressions they being as deep taking as either the Juyce of Malt or the Vine of the effects of the which last I shall here insert a short Story A Gentleman being soundly doz'd had the Charity of his Conquerors to buttress him up from the Inn to his Chamber where laying him on his Bed he took quiet Repose for two or three hours after he awakes intolerable dry and inflamed i' th Throat roar'd out and knocks supposing he had been at the Inn not in his Chamber for the Tapster whom loudly and often he call'd for crying I burn I burn Cans you Rogue and impatient of delay threatens to fetch him with another Allarum which suddenly he puts in Execution and storms his own glass Windows so furiously with Bedstaves old Shooes and the like Weapons that he made a Breach big enough out of which he might have thrown the Room after In like manner what Impressions Books of that nature have made upon some much studious in them is sufficiently known who will believe no otherwise but that they are true and for this only reason Because they are Printed As for my own Undertakings in this following Work I shall neither extenuate nor extoll in the Composure thereof I have endeavoured to collect nothing but what is rare and not vulgarly known nor made use of any Authors for my Authority but what I take to be of unquestionable Credit and Estimation Indeed it was designed and drawn out for a far larger Volume had not the Bookseller's Interest overswayed me to publish no more at this time however your kind Acceptance of this will engage us very suddenly to contrive the rest in a Second Part it being already fitted and prepared for the Press I hope this will not pass without a general Acceptance I having in my time writ above seven score Books some of them very considerable and all which excepting one passing with a general Approbation and that one also how ever sold with some Gain I must confess I have had my Juvenile Excursions and my Loyal Intentions by writing in defence of the Old King's Cause is sufficiently known I am now by some time past the Meridian of my Years and shall for the future write nothing but what may be for the Benefit of my Country and that they may be known as I am A True Lover of Ingenuity W. WINSTANLEY THE TABLE THE miraculous and strange Adventures and Deliverances of one Andrew Battel of Leigh in Essex Page 1. A strange Deliverance of an English-man from a desolate Island near to Scotland wherein he had long continued in extreme penury and misery 16. A strange Adventure of some English-men in the recovery of their own Freedom and a Ship called the Exchange of Bristol from the Turkish Pirates of Argier published by John Rawlins A remarkable Story of eight men left in Greenland Anno Christi 1630. with a relation of their strange preservation 43. A notable Story of Edgar King of England and how he was revenged on him that circumvented him 54. The Story of Mackbeth King of Scotland 59. Of a Costermongers Daughter that came to be Sultaness to the Grand Seignior of Constantinople Historical Observations out of several Authors 71. How they baptize marry and bury in Russia 82. The Life Manners and Customs of the Samoits a People inhabiting Nova Zembla 89. A Description of Groenland and the Inhabitants thereof 92. Several Varieties of the West-Indies 96. Of the Tortoises in the West-Indies 103. Several Rarities of divers Countries 105. Of a mirthful Custom formerly used at Dunmow in Essex 109. Of what we find in credible Authors concerning Guy Earl of Warwick 111. The Life of St. Patrick the Irish Apostle 120. A marvellous preservation of the Protestants in Ireland in the time of Queen Mary by a merry accident 126. The murther of Duffe King of Scotland and how miraculously it came to be discover'd 127. The Cruelty of Albovine King of Lombardy to his Queen Rosamond and how she was revenged of him 134. The miseries of insorced Marriage exemplified in a story of a Knight in Warwickshire murdered by his own Lady 138. A remarkable story of the occasion of the Danes invading England and of their murdering St. Edmund 141. Histories of Parents crossing the affections of their Children and the sad effects thereof 149. Observations upon Kings of several Nations 153. A strange change of Religion of the two Dr. Reynolds 160. Why the Fish called Tunny is not sold in Venice 161. Of Machamut a Moorish King of a poisonous nature 163. A notable Imposture of Margaret Ulmer 164. Of People long lived who have had their Teeth and excrements of Hair renewed 167. An Example of Divine Vengeance pursuing sinners 170. Of two famous Virago 's Joan of Arc and Catarina d' Arcuso 177. That the Italians are very revengeful an Example 183. Spanish pride exemplified in a story 185. A mirthful conceit of Philip Duke of Burgundy 188. Memorials of Thomas Coriat 189. The reason inducing Mahometans to often prayer exemplified by a story 208. A strange murther in the time of K. James 210. The Custom of Lapland for the marrying their Daughters 213. Of Spirits or Devils and that they have had Carnal knowledge of people 214. The Life and Actions of the Impostor Mahomet according to their Saracenical opinion of him 223. The Talmud of the Jews their Dreams c. 239. The opinion of the Chineses concerning the people of the World after the Flood 244. A strange Relation of Ferdinand Mendes Pinto a Portugal which he saw in his Journey in China 245. The Letter of Agbarus Prince of the Edesseans to our Saviour with his Answer taken out of Eusebius 249. The conversion of a Thief by St. John the Apostle taken out of the same Eusebius 254. The Conspiracy of Earl Gowry to have murdered King James in Scotland An. 1600. 257. A notable Combat betwixt a Knight and an Esquire in the time of King Richard the Second 264. Of such another Combat fought in France 269. A remarkable piece of Justice done by the Emperour Rodulphus 270.
foot or two foot and an half broad in form of a Weaver's Shuttle and so light that a man may carry many of them at once for the weight In these Boats they will row so swiftly that it is almost incredible for no Ship in the World is able to keep way with them although she have never so good a Gale of Wind and yet they use but one Oar who sitting in the middle of their Boat and holding their Oar in the middle being broad at each end like our Oars will at an Instant go backward and forward as they please We could not particularly learn their Rites or Ceremonies but generally they worship the Sun as chief Author of their Felicity At their first Approach unto us they used with their hands to point up to the Sun and to strike upon their Breasts crying Ilyont as who would say I mean no harm which they will do very often and will not come near you until you do the like and then they will come without any fear at all They bury their Dead in the out-Islands near the Sea-side Their manner of Burial is this Upon the tops of the Hills they gather a Company of Stones together and make thereof a hollow Cave or Grave of the length and breadth of the Body which they intend to bury laying the Stones somewhat close like a Wall that neither Foxes nor other such Beasts may devout the Bodies covering them with broad Stones shewing afar off like a Pile of Stones And near to this Grave where the Body lieth is another wherein they bury his Bow and Arrows with his Darts and all his other Provision which he used while he was living He is buried in all his Apparel and the coldness of the Climate doth keep the Body from smelling and stinking although it lye above the Ground They eat all their Food raw and use no Fire to dress their Victuals as far as we could perceive Also we have seen them drink the Salt water at our Ships side but whether it be usual or no I cannot tell Although they dress not their Meat with Fire yet they use Fire for other things as to warm them and the like Divers of our Men were of Opinion that they were Man-eaters and would have devoured us if they could have caught us but I do not think they would for if they had been so minded they might at one time have caught our Cook and two other with him as they were filling of Water at an Island a great way from our Ship These three I say were in the Ships Boat without either Musket or any other Weapon whenas a great Company of the Savages came rowing unto them with their Darts and other Furniture which they never go without and stood looking into the Boat for Nails or any old Iron which they greedily desire while our men were in such a fear that they knew not what to do At length our Cook remembred that he had some old Iron in his Pocket and gave each of them some as far as it would go with his Key of his Chest and presently they all departed without offering any harm at all But this I speak not that I would have men to trust them or to go among them unprovided of Weapons for by so doing they may chance to forfeit their Life for their fool-hardiness Several Varieties of the West-Indies OVideos in his fifteenth Book and first Chapter saith That in the Year 1520. the City of St. Domingo in Hispaniola was almost dishabited by a great Army of Ants as in Spain a City was dispeopled by Conies in Thessaly another City was destroyed by Rats amongst the Atariotaes one by Frogs and the Minutines by Fleas Amitle in Italy by Serpents and another part thereof by Sparrows as were divers places of Africa often by Locusts so can the great God arm the least Creatures to the destruction of proud vain-glorious Man And this Misery so perplexed the Spaniards that they sought as strange a Remedy as was the Disease which was to chuse some Saint for their Patron against the Ants. Alexander Geraldine the Bishop having sung a solemn and Pontificial Mass after the Consecration and Elevation of the Sacrament and devout Prayers made by him and the People opened a Book in which was a Catalogue of the Saints by lot to chuse some he or she Saint whom God should please to appoint their Advocate against that Calamity and the Lot fell upon St. Saturnine whose Feast is on the 29th of November after which the Ant-damage saith Ovideos became more tolerable and by little and little diminished by God's Mercy and Intercession of that Saint The same Author reporteth That going from the Gulf of Ovotigua to Panama two hundred Leagues Eastward near the Mouth of the Gulf he saw a Fish or great Water-monster which at times lifted it self right up above the Water so far that the Head and both the Arms might be seen which seemed higher than their Carvel and all her Masts Thus did she rise and fall divers times beating the Water strongly and not casting any Water out of her Mouth a younger or lesser of the same kind did likewise swim a little distance from the greater To Ovideos Judgment each Arm seemed five and twenty foot long and as big as a Butt or Pipe the Head fourteen or fifteen foot high and much more in breadth and the rest of the Body larger That of her which appeared above Water was above five times the height of a mean man which makes five and twenty Paces She seemed to disport her self at a Tempest which suddenly arose to their purpose and brought them in few days to Panama The Indians of Brasil are of a marvellous quick Sight for at a League off they see any thing and in the same manner hear they guess very right ruling themselves by the Sun they go to all parts they list 200 or 300 Leagues thorough thick Woods and miss not one Jot they travel much and always running a Gallop especially with some Charges no Horse is able to hold out with them they are great Archers and so certain that no Bird can scape them be it never so little or any Vermin of the Woods and there is no more but if they will shoot an Arrow thorough the Eye of a Bird or Man or hit any other thing be it never so small they do it with great Facility and with their own Safety They are great Fishers and Swimmer they fear no Sea nor Waves continue a day and a night swiming and the fame they do rowing and sometimes without Meat They use also for Weapons Swords of Wood and enterlay the ends of them with Palm-tree of sundry Colours and set Plumes on them of divers colours chiefly in their Feasts and Slaughters and these Swords are very cruel for they make no Wound but bruise and break a Man's Head without having any Remedy of Cure Near to the River of the Amazons is