blacke Lions which we can ascribe to no other cause then the excesse of heat and not to any quality of the Seed or any curse inflicted on the place Moreouer it is reported by Ferdinando de Quir in his late discouery of the South Continent that hee there also found some blacke people yet can wee not imagine this Land though stretching very farre in quantity toward the Equinoctiall to come so farre or much farther then the Tropicke of Capricorne These arguments make it the more probable that the Regions situate vnder the Tropicks generally exceed more in heat then those placed in the middle of the Earth vnder the Line 2 In the other extreame Section from 60 Degrees towards the Pole the first 15 Degrees towards the Equatour are more moderately cold the other towards the Pole most immoderately cold and vnapt for conuenient Habitation That this Section of 30 Degrees comprehended betwixt the 60 Degree and the Pole is in a sort habitable is confirmed by the testimony of many Nauigatours especially the English and Hollanders who haue aduentured very farre Northward and haue there found the Earth though not so fruitfull yet furnished with some commodities and peopled with Inhabitants The first 15 Degrees towards the Equatour admit of no great exception containing in their extent Finmarke Bodia in Scandia Noua Zembla Auian Groenland with many other places indifferently discouered where they haue indeed found the aire very cold in regard of this of ours Yet not so Immoderate but that it can at all times agree with the naturall temper of the natiue Inhabitants and at least at some times of the yeere admit a passage for forraigne Nations But the other Region stretching Northward from 75 Degrees to the Pole it selfe howsoeuer it may bee probably thought habitable yet affords it no conuenient meanes and sustenance for mans life in respect of other places neither can the people of this climate inioy any good complection or Temperament of the foure qualities for as much as the cold with them is so predominant that it choaketh and almost extinguisheth the naturall hâ—at whence Hypocrates saith that they are dryed vp which is a cause of their swarty colour and dwarfish stature which assertion of his can obtaine no credit but of such Northerne people as liue neere the Pole Neuerthelesse wee shall not finde these poore Northerne Nations so destitute altogether of vitall aides but that their wants are in some sort recompensed by the benefit of nature The chiefest comforts in this kinde which wee inioy and they seeme to want are Heat and Light The defect of heat is somewhat mollified 1 By the Sunne staying so long aboue their Horizon as 6 months and by consequence impressing into the Aire a greater degree of heat 2 By the naturall custome of the Inhabitants neuer acquainted with any other temperature both which reasons wee haue formerly alleaged 3 By the industrie of the Inhabitants being taught by necessity to preserue themselues during the Winter-time in Caues Stoues and such like places heated with continuall fires the defect of which prouidence was thought to bee the ruine of Sr Hugh Willoughby intending a search of the North-east passage on the North of Lapland and Russia To recompense the defect of Light Nature hath prouided two wayes 1 In that the Sunne in his Parallell comming neerer and neerer to the Horizon giues them a long time of glimmering light both before his rising and after his setting which may serue them insteed of day 2 For that the Sunne and Starres by reason of a refraâ—tion in a vaporouâ— and foggy Horizon appeâ—reâ—â—o theâ— sometime before hee is truly risen which caused the Hollanders Noua Zombla to wonder why they should see the Sunne diuerse dayes before according to their account hee was to rise aboue their Horizon according to Astronomicall grounds which probleme had staggered all the Mathematicians of the world had not the Perspectiue science stept in to giue an answer 3 In the middle Section betwixt 30 and 60 Degrees of Latitude the first 15 are Temperately Hot the other 15 more inclined to Cold. The middle Region partakes a mixture of both extreames towit of the cold Region towards the Pole and the hot towards the Equatour whence it must needs follow that the more any parts of this Tract approach the hot Region vnder the Tropicke and Equatour the more it must partake of Heat yet this heat being mittigated by some cold by reason of the fite of the Sunne it must of necessity bee Temperate and very apt for humane habitation Also this mixture of the cold quality being more extended and increased on the other moity towards the Pole through the vicinity of the cold Region must loose much of the former heat which shall hereafter bee more confirmed out of the naturall constitution and complection of the Inhabitants bearing the true markes of externall cold and internall Heat whereof the one is strengthened by the other For the externall cold if it be not ouer predominant and too much for the internall Heat will by an Antiperistasis keepe in and condensate this heat making it more feruent and vigorous 6 The East and West Hemispheares are bounded and diuided by the Meridian passing by the Canaries and the Molucco Ilands 7 The East Hemispheare reacheth from the Canaries the Moluccoes on this side as the other on the opposite part of the Spheare Wee may here note a great difference betwixt this diuision and the former Foâ— the North and South Hemispheares being diuided by the Equatour are parted as it were by Nature it selfe and the Sunnes motion But the diuision of the Globe into East and West wee can ascribe to no other cause then mans Institution yet are the Easterne and the Westerne found to differ many wayes the discouery of which may giue great light to obseruation 1 The Easterne Hemispheare wherein we liue is euery way happier and worthier then the other Westward How farre short the Westerne Hemispheare comes of this of ours many circumstances may declare For first if we compare the Quantity of Land wee shall finde a great disparity For the Westerne Hemispheare containes in it besides the Southerne Continent wherein ourâ— also claimes a moity onely America with the Ilands thereunto adioyning whereas the other within this large circuit containes all the other parts of the Earth knowne vnto the Ancients as Europe Asia and Africke with many Ilands to them annexed Moreouer it is probably conjectured by some that America is vsually on our Mappes and Globes especially the more ancient painted and delineated out greater then indeed it is which hath beene ascribed to the fraudulent deceit of the Portugalls heretofore who to the end they might reduce the Molucco Ilands to the East Indies then their owne possession sought as well in their Mapps as relations to curtaile Asia and inlarge America in such sort as the Molucâ—o Ilands might seeme to fall within the 180 Degrees Eastward wherein they
it greater at the time of the Soâ—stice the reflection being greater approaching neerer to right Angles If wee consider the Earth wee shall finde no reason at all why the heat should be more predominant at this time then another Then must wee of necessity ascribe it to a speciall Influence of the Dog-starre being in coniunction with the Sunne Many other Instances might bee here produced but I hold it needlesse being a matter consented to amongst most Philosophers The second point concernes the Extent and limitation of this operation in inferiour bodyes for vnfolding of which point wee must know that this operation may haue respect either to the Elements of Earth and Aire or else to the Inhabitants residing on the Earth For the operation of the Heauens vpon the Elementary masse experience it selfe will warrant yet with this limitation that this operation is measured and squared according to the matter whereinto it is receaued as for example wee shall finde the Moone more operatiue and predominant in moist Bodyes then in others partaking lesse of this quality Likewise the heat caused by the Sunne more feruent where it meets with a subiect which is more capable Whence it comes to passe that one Countrey is found hotter then another although subiect to the same Latitude in respect of the Heauens for howsoeuer the action of the Heauens bee alwayes the same and vniforme in respect of the Heauen it selfe yet must the same bee measured and limited according to the subiect into which it is imprest For the Inhabitants wee are to distinguish in them a twofold nature the one Materiall as partaking of the Elements whereof euery mixt body is compounded The other spirituall as that of the Soule The former wee cannot exempt from the operation of the Heauens for as much as euery Physician can tell how much the humours and parts of our body are stirred by celestiall influence especially by the Moone according to whose changes our bodies dayly vndergoe an alteration For the humane soule how farre it is gouerned by the stars is a matter of great consequence yet may wee in some sort cleere the doubt by this one distinction The Heauens may bee said to haue an operation vpon the soule two manner of wayes First Immediatly by it selfe Secondly Mediately by the humours and corporeall organes whereof the Soules operation depends The first wee absolutely deny for the soule being an immateriall substance cannot bee wrought vpon by a materiall agent as Philosophers affirme for the second it may bee granted without any absurdity For the operation of the soule depends meerely on materiall and corporeall organes The Elementary matter whereof these organes consist are subiect to the operation of the Heauens as any other Elementary matter So that wee may affirme the Heauens in some sort to gouerne mens mindes and dispositions so farre forth as they depend vpon the bodily instruments But here wee must note by the way that it is one thing to inferre a Necessity another thing to giue an Inclination The former we cannot absolutely auerre for as much as mans will which is the commandresse of his actions is absolutely free not subiect to any naturall necessity or externall coaction Yet can wee not deny a certaine inclination for as much as the soule of a man is too much indulgent vnto the body by whose motion it is rather perswaded then commanded The third point we haue in hand is to shew how many wayes the Heauens by their operation can affect and dispose a place on the Earth Here wee must note that the operation of the Heauens in the Earth is twofold either ordinary or extraordinary The ordinary is againe twofold either variable or Inuariable The variable I call that which is varyed according to the season as when the Sunne by his increase or decrease of heat produceth Summer or Winter Spring or Autumne which operation depends from the motion of the Sunne in his Eclipticke line wherein hee comes sometimes neerer vnto vs sometimes goeth fâ—rther from our verticall point The Inuariable I call that whereby the same places are supposed to inioy the same temperament of heat or cold without any sensible difference in respect of the Heauens putting aside other causes and circumstances for how soeuer euery Region is subiect to these foure changes to wit Summer Winter Spring and Autumne yet may the same place inioy the same temperament of Summer and Winter one yeere as it doth another without any great alteration and this depends from the situation of any place neerer or farther of in respect of the Equinoctiall circle The Extraordinary operation of the Heauens depends from some extraordinary combination or concurse of Planets particularly affecting some speciall place whence the cause may bee probably shewed why some place should some â—eeres proue extraordinary fruitfull other times degenerate againe to barrennesse or why it should sometimes bee molested with too much drouth and other times with too much moisture To let passe the other considerations as more appertaining to an Astrologer then a Geographer wee will here onely fasten on the Inuariable operation of the Heauens on earthly places and search how farre forth the places of the Earth are varied in their Temper Quality according to their diuerse situations and respect to the Equinoctiall circle taking onely notice of the Diurnall and ordinary motion of the Sunne in his course Herein shall wee finde no small variety not onely in the temper of the Ayre but also in the disposition and complection of the Inhabitants both which we shall more specially declare the former in this Chapter the other in due place wherein we shall haue occasion to treat of the materiall constitution and manners of diuerse Nations 2 In respect of the Heauens a place may be diuided two wayes First into the North and South Secondly into the East and West 3 Any place is said to be Northerne which lyeth betwixt the Equatour and Arcticke Pole Southerne betwixt the Equatour and the Antarcticke-Pole The whole Globe of the Earth as we haue formerly taught is diuided by the Equatour into two Hemispheares whereof the one is called Northerne lying towards the Northerne or Arcticke Pole the other towards the other Pole is called the Southerne But here to cleere all doubt wee must vnderstand that a place may be said to be Northerne or Southerne two manner of wayes either Absolutely or Respectiuely Absolutely Northerne and Southerne places are tearmed when they are situated in the Northerne or Southerne Hemispheares as wee haue taught in this Definition But such as are Respectiuely Northerne may be vnderstood of such Regions whereof the one is situate neerer the Pole the other neerer the Equatour In the first place here wee are to consider a place as it is absolutely taken to be either North or South Concerning which we will particularly note these two Theorâ—mes 1 Northerne and Southerne places alike situate generally inioy a like disposition Wee haue formerly granted to
Albertus Magnus who in his Commentaries vpon the great Coniunctions of Albumazar obserued that before Noahs flood chanced a coniunction of Iupiter and Saturne in the last degree of Cancer against the constellation since termed Argo's ship out of which he would needs collect that the floud of Noah might haue beene fore-showne because Cancer is a watry signe and the house of the Moone being mistrisse of the Sea and all moist bodyes according to Astrologie which opinion was afterwards confirmed by Petrus de Alliaco who affirmes in his Comment vpon Genesis that although Noah did well know this flood by diuine Reuelation yet this coniunction being so notable hee could not bee ignorant of the causes thereof for those were not only signes but also apparant causes by vertue receiued from the first cause which is God himselfe Further to confirme this assertion hee would haue Moses by the cataracts of Heauen to haue meant the the great watry coniunction of the Planets A reason wherof hee seemes to alleage because it is likely that God would shew some signe in the Heauens by which all men might be warned to forsake their wicked courses But notwithstanding this curious opinion I rather cleaue to those which thinke this Deluge to be meerely Supernaturall which I am induced to belieue for diuers causes vrged by worthy writers First because this is set downe in Holy Scripture for a chiefe token or marke of Noahs extraordinary faith dependance vpon Gods promises which had been much diminished and of small moment had it any way been grounded on the fore-sight of second causes For this was no more then might haue beene discouered to the rest of the wicked worldlings who no doubt would in some sort haue prouided for their safety had they receiued any firme perswasion of this dreadfull Deluge To which others adde a second reason that second causes of themselues without any change or alteration are not able to produce such an admirable effect as the drowning of the whole World for it is not conuenient say they that God the Author of Nature should so dispose and direct the second causes that they might of themselues bee able to inuert the order of the Vniuerse and ouer-whelme the whole Earth which hee gaue man for his habitation But this reason is thought very weake for as much as it seemeth to imply a new creation The conceit of a new Creation is pronounced by a learned Countreyman of ours both vnlearned and foolish for whereas it is written saith hee that the fountaines of the deepe were broken open it cannot otherwise be vnderstood then that the waters forsooke the very bowels of the Earth and all whatsoeuer therein was dispersed made an eruption through the face of the Earth Now if wee compare the height of the waters in this deluge aboue the highest mountaines being onely 15 cubits with the depth of the semi-diameter of the Earth to the Center we shall not find it impossible answering reason with reason that all these waters dispersed vnder the Earth should so far extend as to drowne the whole Earth for the semi-diameter of the Earth as Astronomers teach is not aboue 35 â— miles wherein the waters contained and dispersed may bee sufficient for the hight of the greatest mountaines which neuer attaine 30 miles vpright whereas this distance of 30 miles is found in the depth of the Earth 116 times Secondly the extension of the Ayre being exceeding great it might please God to condensate and thicken a great part thereof which might concurre to this Inundation We willingly assent to the worthy Authour that this Inundation might bee performed without any new creation Notwithstanding we cannot hence collect that it was Naturall But to compose the difference the better and to shew how far Nature had a hand in this admirable effect we will thus distinguish that an effect may be called Naturall two manner of wayes First in regard of the causes themselues Secondly in respect of the Direction and Application of the causes If we consider the meere secondary and instrumentall causes wee might call this effect Naturall because it was partly performed by their helpe and concurrence But if we consider the mutuall application and coniunction of these second causes together with the first cause which extraordinarily set them a worke we must needs acknowledge it to be supernaturall For other particular Inundations in particular Regions we may more safely terme them Naturall as directed and stirred vp by second causes working no otherwise then according to their owne naturall disposition Two causes concurring together are here most notable whereof the first is the great coniunction of watry Planets working on the water their proper subiect the other the weaknes of the bounds and banks restraining the water which by processe of time weare out and suffer breaches both these causes sometimes concurring together cause an Inundation which assertion wee may lawfully accept but with this caution that Almighty God working by second causes neuerthelesse directs them oftentimes to supernaturall and extraordinary ends 2 Particular alterations haue happened to Bounds of Regions by Particular Inundations Howsoeuer some inundation haue not continued long but after a small time leâ—t the Earth to her owne possession yet others haue been of such violence as they haue beene found to haue fretted away or added and so altered the bounds and limits of places which besides diuerse examples produced by vs in our former chapter Aristotle seemes to acknowledge in the 1 booke ofhis Meteors the 14 Chapter where he saith that by such Accidents sometimes the Continent and firme land is turned into the Sea and other-where the Sea hath resigned places to the Land for sith the agitation or mouing of the water depends ordinarily vpon the vertue of Heauenly bodyes if it should happen that those Starres should meet in coniunction which are most forceable and effectuall for stirring vp of Tempests and Flouds the Sea is knowne to rage beyond measure either leauing her ancient bounds or else vsurping new By this meanes as we haue shewed in the former Chapter some Ilands haue been ioyned to the Land and some Peninsula's separated from the Land and made Ilands somewhere the Sea hath beene obserued for a great space to leaue the Land naked as Verstegan coniectures of the most part of Belgia which hee sayes was in ancient time couered with water which besides many other arguments hee labours to proue out of the multitude of fish-shells and fish-bones found euery-where farre vnder ground about Holland and the coasts thereabouts which being digged vp in such abundance and from such depthes could not saith hee proceed from any other cause then the Sea which couered the whole Countrey and strewed it with fishes Lastly that the Sea might seeme as well to get as lose shee hath shewed her power in taking away and swallowing vp some Regions and Cities which before were extant Such fortune had Pyrrha and Antisâ—a about Meotis
bee performed by many stronger and abler men as it hath beene tried sometimes that a Franticke man hath broken very strong chaines wherwith he hath been bound which many other men could not doe Neither on the other side can it seeme strange that many and great exhalations vapours and spirits should be ingendred vnder the Earth For as much as the Earth is heaâ—ed many wayes Many wayes may bee specified whence such fumes should arise as first from the Sunne and Starres Secondly from the subterranean fires hid in the bowels of the Earth Thirdly in the winter-time by an Antiperistasis the heat collecting it selfe downeward to the inner parts of the Earth which was before in the outward parts of it The argument by which Aristotle would confirme this opinion is drawne as well from the time as from the places wherein Earthquakes vsually happen from the time because then most Earthquakes are obserued to bee when most exhalations are inclosed in the bowels of the Earth to wit in the Spring-time and the Autumne From the places because for the most part spongie and hollow Regions which may drinke in a greater quantity of exhalations are commonly most subiect vnto it for although many exhalations are dayly inclosed in the wombe of the Earth yet Earthquakes fall but seldome because the matter is seldome so strong and violent as to shake the Earth Wherefore some Philosophers haue expressed three principall wayes which make this Earth-quake first when a great quantity of exhalations is suddenly ingendred which for the greatnesse of it cannot be contained in so little a space for then being almost choked it seekes a way to fly forth Secondly when the Earth is condensated by cold and driues the exhalation from one place to another which flying hither and thither shakes and strikes the Earth Thirdly when the exhalation the cold compassing it round by an Antiperistasis begets heat within it and so is rarified for so being vnable any longer to confine it selfe to its former place it breakes forth and so shakes the Earth We must here note by the way that not onely exhalations are cause of the distemperature in the Earth but also subterranean fires and windes all which by some are iudged to bee of equall force in this action for the diuision of Earthquakes so farre forth as it concernes the difference of places we must vnderstand that it may be either Vniuersall or particular An Vniuersall Earth-quake is that which shakes all the whole Earth in euery part at least in the vpper face whereof I suppose no naturall cause can be giuen but the immediate and miraculous power of God such an Earth-quake happened at the time of our Sauiours Passion whereof Dydimus a graue and ancient Writer left record But that which is said to haue happened in the time of Valentinian mentioned by Orosius in his 7 booke of Histories 32 Chapter is thought by graue Authours to be no vniuersall Earth-quake howsoeuer for the large extent of it it was thought to be generall A particular Earth-quake is that which is bounded in some one or more particular places which for the causes before-alleaged cannot be so far extended because the cauernes and conuexities of the Earth where such vapours and exhalations are contained cannot bee ordinarily so great as to extend to many Kingdomes and Regions 1 Regions extreame cold or extreame hot are not so subiect to Earth-quakes as places of a Middle temper The reason is because in places extreame cold exhalations are not so soone ingendred and in so great a quantity as in other parts on the other side in places which are extreame hot the exhalations which are bred are soone consumed with excesse of heat both which may be confirmed by Instances It is obserued that in the cold Northerne parts as Olaus Magnus writes in his 10 booke and 13 Chapter Earthquakes are very seldome or neuer so it is obserued by Pliny in his 2 booke and 18 Chapter and Albertus Magnus in his 3 booke of Mâ—teours tract 2 That places which are very hot as Egypt are seldome troubled with this shaking of the Earth whereas places betwixt both which are seated in a more temperat climate find it not so strange 1 Hollow and spongie places are more subiect to Earth-quakes then solide and compacted soyles We must here vnderstand that hollow places are either such as lye open to the Aire or are hollow onely vnder and close vpward The former sort are not at all subiect to the molestation of Earth-quakes because the exhalations fly out without impediment but the latter being more apt to ingender and retaine such matter must of necessity bee more troubled This is most plainely obserued in Phrygia Italia Caria Lydia wherein such motions are more frequent To confirme this a little farther wee obserue that hilly and mountainous places suffer this violence oftner then other parts because there most commonly cauernes and concaâ—ities are more frequent then in plaine countreyes But here by the way may bee obiected that sandy and slimy countryes are many times more free from Earth-quakes then other places an instance whereof was giuen before in Aegypt wherein neuer any Earth-quake as most Authours affirme or at least but one as Seneca hath beene obserued The reason may bee giuen that sandy places without any strife suffer the exhalatioÌ„s to disperse themselues that slimy places want sufficient receptacles to entertayne them 3 Ilands are more often troubled with Earth-quakes then the Continent This haue they found to be true in many Ilands of the Mediterranean Sea and others also chiefly in Cyprus Sicylia Euboea Tyrus Angria Lippora and the Molucco Ilands betwixt the East and West-Indies The cause some would haue to bee the Antiperistasis or circumstancy of the waters which is apt to engender greater store of exhalations in the Earth But neuerthelesse that Ilands are more subiect to Earth-quakes then Continents I dare affirme no otherwise then probable because some places in the Continent seeme very much affected especially in Europe aboue other places Constantinople and Basilaea if we credite authors which haue written of this matter in Asia China and other Regions adioyning thereunto CHAP. XIII 1 THe Naturall affections of the Land haue hitherto beene declared Wee are in the next place to treate of the Ciuill Those wee terme Ciuill which concerne the Inhabitants 2 An Inhabitant is a man dwelling in a certaine place The name of an Inhabitant as we haue before noted may be taken either generally for any liuing creature residing in a certaine place in which sense Brute beasts may be called Inhabitants which signification is only metaphoricall or else for a Reasonable liuing creature whose abode is setled in any place or Region in which sense we here take it The consideration of the Inhabitants we haue reserued for this last Treatise following as well the methode of the first creation as of Moses in the narration For God proceeding in the first Creation according to the
grant a naturall motion and so consequently yeeld to our assertion A third reason may here bee drawne from the condensation of the Aire It is a receiued opinion amongst most Philosophers that the thinne and subtile parts of the Aire will naturally mount vpward but the thicker and condensated parts pitch and settle themselues downeward Which obseruation if it bee true will yeeld vs this conclusion That the Aire is by nature heauy and therefore moueth downeward toward the center of the Sphericall Globe of the Earth Which I will demonstrate out of these Principles 1 That that body which by addition of parts or condensation is made more heauy or ponderous must needs haue some weight in it selfe This may easily appeare because the mixture of lightnesse with heauinesse will not intend and encrease the ponderosity but slacke and diminish it For the chiefest thing which remits or diminisheth any quality is the mixture of his contrary as wee see the quality of cold to be abated and weakened if it entertaine any mixture of heat 2 The thickning or condensation of any body is made by addition and coaction of more parts into the same space or compasse As if the Aire or any such like body were thickned it would confine it selfe to a more narrow roome then before and so consequenly the narrow roome would containe more parts then before Out of which wee conclude that forasmuch as many parts pressed together in the same space make the whole masse more ponderous these parts so pressed together must needes haue some waight in themselues Which may further be illustrated because the intention of the quality commonly followes the condensation of the subiect Which may easily appeare in red-hot-iron which burnes and scorcheth more than flame or coales because euery part hath more degrees or heat Now where more parts are closely pressed together the heat must needs bee more feruent I haue dwelt longer on this subiect because I would not seeme to broach a new opinion without sufficient reason To conclude all and come as neere the receiued opinion as I can I will say that the Aire may bee considered two wayes first absolutely in it selfe secondly in comparison of heauier bodies to wit the Earth and Water In the first sense I grant no absolute lightnesse in the Aire because out of his naturall inclination it tends as neere as it can to the center as all other lower bodies But if we consider it comparatiuely in respect of other heauier bodies we may call it light that is lesse heauy or ponderous So that by lightnesse we vnderstand no absolute lightnesse but a priuation The summe of all wee haue hitherto proued is this That all terrene bodies as Earth Water Aire and other mixt bodies which concurre to the composition of the Earthly Spheare as neere as they can settle and conforme themselues to the center of the Earth which site or position of them to the center is their true and naturall place wherein they seeke their preseruation 2 Of two heauy Bodies striuing for the same place that alwaies preuaileth which is heauiest 3 Hence it comes to passe that the Earth enioyes the lowest place the next the Water and the last the Aire The increment or increase of any effect must necessarily arise from the greater vigour or efficacy of the efficient cause as both Reason and Philosophie well teach Now as wee haue shewed all heauy bodyes naturally do descend downeward out of a naturall inclination they haue to attaine the center but where there is a greater weight or constipation of ponderous parts in the same masse there must needs proceede a greater inclination Supposing then the Earth Water and Aire being three waighty bodies to incline and dispose themselues to their vttermost force to inclose and engirt the center of the Terrestriall Spheare it must needes bee that the Earth beeing the most compact and ponderous must obtaine the preheminence next to which succeedes the Water then the Aire being of all other the least ponderous Yet wee deny not but the Water and Aire being setled in this wise are in their naturall places which to vnderstand wee must repeate what we said before that Nature hath a twofold intention the one primary the other secondary Indeed if we consider Natures primary or speciall inclination in the bodies themselues we shall finde them as wee said immediatly directed to the center as neere as might bee but the secondary intent of Nature was that the bodies should so settle and conforme themselues as that each of them should obtaine a place according to his degree of massinesse and waight Out of this may bee answered a certaine obiection which some haue produced to proue the Aire to bee absolutely light in his owne nature Experience teacheth vs say these men that a bladder blowne vp with winde or an empty barrell being by force kept vnder water the force and obstacle omitted will suddenly ascend to the top and that a man ready to sinke in the Water will not so easily sinke downe while hee can hold his breath all which effects they ascribe to no other cause than to inclination of the Aire to moue vpwards from the center But indeed this motion howbeit agreeable to the vniuersall nature and consistency of the Spheare is notwithstanding in respect of the Aire it selfe vnnaturall and violent because this ascent of it is not caused by the forme of the Aire but the interposition of a heauier body striuing for the same place and so reuerberating it backe from the place whereunto it tended For here is to bee imagined that the bladder or empty barrell drowned in the water claimes and inioyes for the time that place or distance which otherwise so much water should occupie to wit so many inches of feete from one side to the other No maruell then that obstacles remoued the Water being most ponderous and waighty receiues his owne right and as it were shoulders out the Aire and violently driues it off to his owne habitation Whence many haue imagined that this motion is proper and naturall to the Aire when of it selfe it is meerely violent and enforced by the interiection of another body more waighty and ponderous than it selfe 7 this conformity of the Terrestriall parts two things are to bee obserued 1 The center it selfe 2 The parts which conforme themselues vnto it The Center is an imaginary point in the midst of the Terrestriall Globe to which all the parts are conformed The Fathers of the Mathematicall Sciences haue laboured to deriue all their doctrine from a point as the first and most simple principle whereon all the rest depend Not that they imagine a point to bee any positiue entity in it selfe but because it is the first bound of magnitude whence all terminated quantities take their originall The first princâ—â—le wee may call it not of naturall constitution because a thousand points collected could not be so compounded as out of it should arise the least
on the land in their perfect figure and greatnesse sayling farther off they will obserue them on the lower part little little diminished vntill such time as the tops only of the houses and trees will bee visible In like sort they which tarry on the Land will first espye the top and masâ— of a Ship approaching which sight will bee perfected more and more as the Ship drawes toward the land and at last all parts of it will shew themselues which accident can bee cast vpon no other cause then the Sphericall roundnesse and swelling of the water which if the distance be great interposeth it selfe betweene the station on the Land and the Ship wherein Passengers are conueyed which experiment is expressed in this Diagramme here annexed Certaine Platonicks of which the chiefest is Patricius a late Writer would ascribe this experiment to the impediment of the sight caused partly by the distance wich cannot perfectly represent the obiect partly by the interposed vapours arising in the Sea partly by the quiuering light which is spread by the refraction of the Sun-beames in the water I deny not but these causes may somewhat hinder and cause that the true and perfect species of a body cannot alwayes visit the sight Yet will it bee euident that this is not all but that the Sphericall roundnesse of the water will proue a greater impediment where the distance is any thing greater But for one of Patricius his shifts concerning vapour arising out of the Sea to which Clauius seemes also to consent in his Commentary vpon Iohannes de Sacrobosco it makes more for our assertion then his For that which is seene in a thicke medium according to the doctrine of the Opticks seemes greater in quantity and by consequence neerer and so higher then would otherwise appeare as wee see by experience that the Sunne sometimes is seene of vs before it ascend aboue the Horizon because of a refraction of it's beames in a thicke matter Wherefore it were rather to be imagined that a tower seene at Sea or a ship from the land through these thicke and grosse vapours should appeare higher and seeme neerer then if it met not with such vapours Secondly what is vrged concerning the trembling light caused by a refraction of the Sun-beames in the water is of no force For although such a light might cause an impediment or hinderance to the sight yet would not this decrement or hinderance bee by degrees and in such proportion as we find it to be correspondent to wit to the distance interposed And much wonder it is that Patricius as my learned Friend Mr R. Hues obserues being as it seemes very well read in the stories of Spanish nauigations should not bee conuinced out of the Navigation of Magellane who taking his iourney toward the Southwest parts passed by the Magellane straights now called by his name and so returned by the Cape of Good Hope into Spaine to which wee way adde the voiages of Drake Candish and many others The second reason is vrged by Aristotle in his 2d booke de coelo and hath its ground in Archimedes lib. 1. de Aqua-vectis which is formed in this sort The nature of the water is to affect and flow to the lower place whence it must necessarily bee inferred that it must bee round for otherwise it should not alwayes obtaine the lower place The reason of the consequence shall bee expressed in this figure for if we ascribe to the water a plaine superficies let it for example bee ADB and from the center of the earth C let there be described a circle to wit EGF then let there be drawne CD a perpendicular line to AB and let AC and BC be ioyned together Now because the right line CD is lesse then CA or CB as will appeare euidently by sense it will be plaine that the point D will be in a lower place then the point A or B because D is neerer to the Center for as much as DC is but a part of a beame of the circle whereas AC and CB euidently exceed that quantity or proportion Another reason there is commonly drawne from the roundnes of drops cast on the sand as also from water in pots whose superficies seemes to swell aboue the brimmes but this reason as we shall proue in place conuenient is rather against this assertion then for it because indeed wee affirme the water to be round but so as it claimes the same Center with the Center of the Terrene Globe and therefore cannot be sensible in so little a portion as a drop or pot of water This proposition being sufficiently proued by these two reasons it is needfull in the second place that wee answer certaine obiections cast in by the said Patricius against our assertion Euery surface of the water quoth Patricius is either only plaine or only round or both plaine and round or neither plaine nor round First that it is not both plaine and round seemes very euident for so it should admit of contrariety Neither can one part be plaine and another round because the water is an vniforme and homogeneall body not consisting of such vnequall parts that it should neither bee plaine nor round seemes more impossible because fâ—w or none haue dreamt of any other figure Lastly that it is not round only hee labours to confirme by sundry reasons and experiments First he testifies of himselfe that sayling in the Sea he plainely â—aw in the morning before Sun-rising the Mountaines of Corsica which afterward assoone as the Sunne was risen vanished out of his sight Whence he concludes that this proceeds not from the roundnesse of the Earth but from some other cause But this argumeÌ„t to iudicious men will seeme very weake 1 Because it depends altogether on the authority and credit of Patricius whose assertion I take to bee no better then another mans deniall 2ly were this argument euery where sound yet would it proue no other thing but that this effect were not to be imputed to the Sphericall swelling of the Earth Whence cannot bee drawne any generall conclusion that the Earth or Water is not Sphericall Wee deny not in the meane time that other causes sometimes concurre which may hinder or take away the sight of obiects from those who saile on the Sea The second experiment Patricius describes in this manner At a certaine Towne called Comaâ—lum saith hee there is a very great poole through which poole or lake some 3 yeares agoe it was my chance to bee carried in a boat The bottome of the water almost all the way in all the iourney appeared to bee lesse then 2 foot in depth from the top The way increasing at first the lower parts and foundations of houses then the tops and princely pinnacles began to vanish from our sight at last hauing scarce passed 6000 paces a Tower 72 foot high began to appeare as it were cut off by the middle and from the middle part vpward appeared visible
vnderstood wee are first to set downe in a Scheme or Diagram both the number and order of all the heauenly Orbs conceiued according to our grounds Secondly we must shew in particular how this ranging of the heauenly bodies is capable of all the motions and apt to satisfy the apparences In which parts I wil not too nicely descend to Astronomicall curiosities being too many and subtile for a Geographer to discusse Only I will giue a tast to satisfie such as suppose no middle way can bee troden out betwixt Ptolomies stability of the Earth and Copernicus his three Motions I might seeme perhaps presumptuous beyond my knowledge to reiect and passe by the draughts and delineations of Ptolomy Alphonsus and their followers which are commonly defended and in vse or that other of Copernicus supported with the authority and credit of so great an Astronomer or that of Tichobrahe more corrected then either and to preferre my own being an Embrion or halfe fashioned To this I answer First that I only expose this Scheme following to the view of the iudicious iustifying it no farther then will stand with Astronomicall obseruation Secondly I herein arrogate little or nothing to my selfe for as much as I haue digested and compounded it out of the obseruations and experiments of late Astronomers and only collected together what they scattered The Scheme it selfe is expressed in this manner wherein to beginne from the lowest The Center is the Globe of the Earth to which wee haue giuen a Diurnall motion from the West to the East vpon her owne Poles whose Reuolution is made in 24 houres About the Earth as the Center of the whole world the Moone is carried in her circle which amongst all the Planets is found more neerely to respect the Earth as well in place as nature Next succeeds the Sunne as the leader of all the Planets which carried round about the earth in an Annuall circuit describes the Ecliptick circle about the Sun as the proper Center are all the Planets moued except the Moon The two immediate coÌ„panions of the Sun are Venus Mercurie which so coÌ„passe him about that the Earth neuer comes betwixt them and the Sunne The other three Planets as Mars Iupiter and Saturne howsoeuer they enuiron the Sunne as their proper Center yet so as within their circles they comprehend the body of the Earth The Planet Mars because hee is found by Astronomers to moue sometimes aboue sometimes vnder the Sunne is vnderstood to moue in such a circle which on the opposite side shall cut the circle of the Sunne yet so as Mars and the Sunne can neuer meet in one point Forasmuch as Mars as well as the other Planets is supposed to be carryed in an Epicycle about the Sunne and to keepe an equall distance from him howsoeuer moued Neither is he euer found vnder the Sunne but about the time of the opposition as Astronomers obserue whence a cause hath beene giuen why Mars should appeare greatest at the time of Opposition These fiue Planets to wit Saturne Iupiter Mars Venus and Mercury may bee considered according to a double motion The one is proper and naturall wherein they are moued about the Sunne as their proper Center The other Accidentall and as it were by a consequence of Nature whereby in their circuit mouing about the Sunne as their Center they must of necessity by a consequent site of the place be carryed about the Earth For the Sunne placed in his Eclipticke line so compasseth round the Earth that with him hee is supposed to carry the Epicyâ—les wherein these Planets are moued round a-about him Whence wee finde the motion of these Planets about the Sunne as their owne Center to bee regular but about the Earth irregular which proceeds from their Excentricity in respect of the Earth Aboue all the Planets wee place the Firmament or Starry Heauen hauing a very slow motion not to bee finished in many thousand yeeres and this motion is on other Poles then the Poles of the world to bee sought out in or neere the Poles of the Eclipticke This Heauen would Aristotle haue to bee the first moueable and therefore gaue it a very swift motion which is the same which wee call Diurnall and haue giuen to the Earth But it seemes more consonant to nature that the slower motions should agree to the higher bodies and the swifter to the lower that there might be a proportion betwixt the time and the space of motion It remaines that wee probably shew that out of their suppositions the Celestiall Apparences may bee as well or better salued then by the ordinary grounds The Apparences which are most called in question concerne either the Motion or the Places and Positions All the rest are either of lesse moment or at least are thereunto reduced Euery motion which is found or thought to bee found in the Heauens is either the Diurnall or Periodicke The Diurnall Motion as wee haue already shewed belongs to the Earth which according to our grounds is supposed to moue from the West vnto the East in 24 houres Which may answer to the Motion of the first moueable Spheare which according to Aristotle is the Starry Firmament and thought to moue from the East to the West The Periodicke Motion is either a slower Motion to be finished not vnder many thousand yeeres or else a swifter Reuolution of the Planets This slow motion the common Astronomers would haue towfold The one from the West to the East on the Poles of the Eclipticke the other a Motion as they call it of Trepidation from the South point to the North and backward againe but one slow Motion of the sixt Starres vpon the Poles of the Eclipticke granted to the Firmament will for ought I see satisfy both The reason why they put two distinct Motions is 1 Because they haue obserued the Starres of Aries Taurus and the rest of the Zodiacke not to be seated in the same place wherein they were anciently found but to be moued certaine degrees from the West towards the East Whence they would conclude a Motion to bee from the West vnto the East 2. It will stand with no lesse experience that the foresaid Starres of the Firmament haue moued themselues from the South towards the North. To passe ouer the râ—st the Pole-star which in Hipparchus time was distant from the Pole about 12 Degrees is now obserued to approach almost three degrees These two Motions should they bee esteemed in the account of Astronomers might seeme deficient Notwithstanding wee may probably coniecture this to bee no other then one and the selfe-same Motion vpon the Poles of the Eclipticke Whence it may come to passe that the fixt Starres are not only carryed from West to East but also by reason of the obliquity of the Eclipticke line encline more and more dayly to the Pole of the World whence they may againe returne For this motion from the West to the East is of the primary intent of
experimentally according to Miles Furlongs or such like measures How many Authors of great name and estimation haue differed amongst themselues euery man may enforme himselfe out of this Table here inserted These differences wee finde diuersly related but of all others which Authors haue set forth  Authors Furlongs Miles  Strabo and Hipparchus 252000 31500  Eratosthenes 250000 31250 The circuit of the whole earth containes according to Possidonius the ancieÌ„t Arabians 240000 30000 Ptolomie 180000 22500  The later Arabians 204000 25500  Italians and Germans 172800 21600 I preferre the iudgements of Mr Robert Hues For as much as it is not grounded on common tradition but industriously by himselfe deriued out of the Ancients by diligent search and examination as by one whose iudgement being armed as well with skill in the language as the knowledge of antiquity scornes to be iniured by translation What should bee the cause of these differences is a matter which hath staggered curious searchers into Antiquities more then the former Euery opinion being supported with the names and authorities of such renowned Authors might challenge a pitch aboue the measure of my Decision only I may not bee thought ouer presumptuous to coniecture where I cannot define especially hauing so good a guide as my forenamed Author to tread out the way before mee Wherefore supposing as a ground these Authors so much differing about the measure of the earth to haue beene in some sort led by reason The differences must needs arise out of one of these causes either the errour or negligence of the obseruers in trusting too much to others relations without any farther search or else the defect in the Mathematicall grounds out of which they deriued their demonstration or the diuersity of measures vsed in this worke or finally from the misapplication of these measures to the distances whence may arise some errour out of the experimentall measuring of places in the earth In the first place it may perhaps be doubted whether Aristotle defining the measure of the Earth to bee 400000 furlongs were not deceaued by relations for as much as hee auoucheth it from the Mathematicians of his times whose authority and credit for ought wee know deserues as well to bee forgotten as their names But this answer might seeme too sharp in the other for as much as wee find them registred for Masters in their science and such as could not easily bee cosened by others impostures Neither can wee imagine the second to bee any cause of their errour for the same reason because the wayes these Mathematicians vsed in finding out the circuit of the earth are by writers of good credit commended to posterity as warrantably grounded on certaine demonstrations being no other then what wee haue shewed before which admit of no Parallogisme In the third place wee ought to examin whether the diuersity of opinion concerning this matter proceeded from diuersity of the measures which were vsed in this worke Nonnius and Pâ—â—ceruâ— would needs perswade that the Furlongs whereby they measured the earth were not the same Maurolycus and Xilander talke of diuerse kindes of paces Maurolycus labours to reconcile both but without effect First whereas they would haue diuerse kâ—nde of paces it cannot be denied but in the meane time we cannot learne that the Grecians euer measured their Furlongs by Paces but either by Feet or Faddomes A Faddome which the Greeks call 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is the measure of the extension of the hands together with the breast betwixt containing six feet which is a kinde of measuring well knowne vnto our Mariners in sounding the depth of the Sea This measure notwithstanding is by many translated a Pace by what reason let any man iudge Xilander in translating Strabo renders it an Ell Secondly for a Furlong it containes according to Herodoiuâ— an ancient Grecian writer 600 Feet which is also testified by Suidas being much later A Furlong containes 100 Faddomes euery Faddome foure Cubits A Cubit according to Heron a Foot and halfe or 24 Digits Now for the variety of Furlongs it is true that Censorinus makes three kindes For either it is called the Italian consisting of 625 Feet which is of most regard in measuring the Earth or the Olympian of 600 Feet or the Pythian containing 1000 Feet But to let passe this latter we shall finde by serious consideration that the Italian and Olympian Furlongs differ only in name and are indeed the same For the Italian containing 625 Roman Feet according to Pliny in his second booke is â—quall to the Olympian hauing 600 Grecian Feet For a Foot with the Grecians exceeds the Roman Foot by a twenty fourth part as much as is the difference betwixt 600 and 625. Hence wee see how little certainty can bee expected of such as goe about to reconcile these opinions out of the various vse and acception of the measures The most probable assertion then is that the errour was grounded on this that the distances of places mentioned by the foresaid Authors were not by themselues exactly measured but taken vp vpon trust on the relation of trauellers wherein they might easily bee mistaken For instance wee will take Eratosthenes and Possidonius as of greatest credit who are notwithstanding taxed for many errours in their experimentall obseruations whereas it is cleere that Ptolomy grounded his opinion on the distances of the places exactly measured as is witnessed by his designation of the Latitude of the earth so farre as it was discouered and knowne Eratosthenes for mistaking in the measure of distances is much taxed by Hyparchus as we find in Strabo For betwixt Alexandria and Carthage hee reckons aboue 13 thousand furlongs whereas by a more diligent enquiry there are found to bee but 9 thousand Likewise Possidoniuâ— is knowne to bee mistaken in that hee made the Distance betwixt Rhodes and Alexandria to bee 5000 Furlongs whereas out of the relation of Marriners some haue made it 4000 some 5000 as it is witnessed by Eratosthenes in Strabo who notwithstanding sayes that hee found by Instruments that it was not aboue 3750 and Strabo wouâ—d haue it somewhat lesse as 2640. Maurolycus going about to defend Possidonius against Ptolomy brings nothing but friuoâ—ous reasons vnworthy so good an author Out of all which hath beene spoken our former Corollary will bee manifest that the diuersity of opinions concerning the circumference of the Earth arose from the experimentall mistake in the distances of places where they trusted to other mens relations rather then their owne knowledge 6 The Diameter is a right line passing by the Center of the Earth from one side to the other and measuring the thicknesse of it the inuention of which depends on these Rules 1 As 22 is to 7 so is the circumference of a circle to the Diameter wherefore the circumference of the Earth multiplied by 7 and diuided by 22 will produce the Diameter The exact proportion betwixt the Circumferences of a
92 3 It is probable that the sea is carried some-where from East to West and some-where from North to South contrariwise 98 4 Of the violent motion of the sea caused by windes 101 5 To some certaine places at certaine times belong certaine winds 102 6 The violence of the winds makes the sea sometimes in some places transcend his ordinary bounds 103 CHAP. VII Of the Depth Situation and Termination of the sea 1 The ordinary depth of the sea is commonly answerable to the ordinary height of the maine land aboue the water and the Whirlepooles extraordinary depths answer to the height of the mountaines aboue the ordinary height of the Earth 104 2 The superficies of the sea is some-where higher then the superficies of the Earth some-where lower 109 3 The sea in respect of the Earth is higher in one place then another 111 4 The Water is so diuided from the dry-land that the quantity of water is greater in the Southerne Hemispheare of land in the Northerne 115 5 The whole Globe of the Earth is enuironed round with sea betwixt East and West 116 6 It is probable that the Earth is enuirnoed round with water from North to South Of the North-west passage 117 CHAP. VIII OfSea Trafficke and Merchandice 1 Nauigation first taught by Almighty God was afterwards seconded by the industrie of famous men in all ages 132 2 Nauigation is very necessary as well for the increase of knowledge as riches 135 CHAP. IX Of Pedography Riuers Lakes and Fountaines in the Earth 1 All Riuers haue their originall from the sea the mother of riuers 142 2 All Riuers and Fountaines were not from the beginning 155 3 Many riuers are for a great space of land swallowed vp of the Earth whereof some after a certaine distance rise againe 156 4 Riuers for the most part rise out of great mountaines and at last by diuerse or one Inlet are disburthened into the sea 157 5 Diuerse Fountaines are endowed with diuerse admirable vertues and operations 159 6 Places neere great Riuers and Lakes are most commodious for Habitation 162 7 Of Lakes and their causes 162 8 It is probable that some Lakes haue some secret intercourse with the sea vnder ground 163 CHAP. X. Of Mountaines Vallyes plaine-Regions woody and champion Countreyes 1 Mountaines Vallyes and Plaines were created in the beginning and few made by the violence of the Deluge 165 2 The perpendicular height of the highest mountaines seldome exceeds 10 furlongs 169 3 The ordinary height of the land aboue the sea in diuerse places is more then the hight of the highest mountaines aboue the ordinary face of the Earth 171 4 Mountaines Countreyes are commonly colder then plaine 172 5 Mountaines since the beginning of the world haue still decreased in their quantity and so will vnto the end 174 6 Of Woods and their nature 178 7 Woods are not so frequent or great as in ancient times 179 8 Places moderately situate towards the North or South-pole abound more in woods then neere the Equatour 180 CHAP. XI Of Ilands and Continents 1 It is probable that Ilands were not from the first beginning but were afterwards made by violence of the water 184 2 Peninsula's by violence of the sea fretting through the Istmus haue oftentimes turned into Ilands and contrariwise Peninsalas by diminution of the sea made of Ilands 189 CHAP. XII Of Inundations and Earth-quakes 1 No vniuersall Inundation of the Earth can be naturall the other may depend from naturall causes 193 2 Particular alterations haue happened to the bonds of Countries by particular Inundations 195 3 Certaine Regions by reason of great Riuers are subiect to certaine anniuersary Inundations 197 4 Regions extreame cold or extreame hot are not so subiect to Earth-quakes as places of a middle temper 201 5 Hollow and spongie places are more subiect to Earthquakes then solide and compacted Soiles 202 6 Ilands are more often troubled with earth-quakes then the continent 203 CHAP. XIII Of the Originall of Inhabitants 1 All Nations had their first originall from one stocke whence afterwards they became diuided 206 2 The first inhabitants of the Earth were planted in Paradise and thence translated to the places adioyning 208 3 The first plantation of Inhabitants immediately after the Deluge beganne in the East 213 CHAP. XIV Of the disposition of Inhabitants in respect of the site 1 The people of the Northerne Hemispheare as well in Riches and Magnificence as valour science and ciuill gouernment far surpasse the people of the south Hemispheare 221 2 The extreame Inhabitants toward the pole are in complexion hot and moist Those towards the Equatour cold and drye those of the middle partaking of a middle temper 226 3 The extreame Inhabitants towards the poles are naturally enclined to Mechanicall works and martiall endeuours the extreame towards the Equatour to workes of Religion and Contemplation The middle to lawes and ciuility 232 4 The people of the extreame Regions towards the poles in Martiall prowesse haue commonly proued stronger then those neerer the Equatour but the middle people more prouident then either in the establishment and preseruation of commonwealths 236 5 The extreame Regions in Manners Actions and Customes are cleane opposite the one to the other The middle partake a mixture of both 239 6 The people of the Easterne Hemispheare in science Religion Ciuility and Magnificence and almost in euery thing els are farre superiour to the Inhabitants of the Westerne 250 7 The Westerne people haue beene obserued to be more happy and able in Martiall discipline the Easterne in witty contemplation and contemplatiue sciences 252 8 The Easterne part of the Westerne Hemispheare was peopled before the Westerne 255 CHAP. XV. Of the Diuersity of dispositions in regard of the Soile 1 Mountaine-people are for the most part more stout warlike and generous then those of plaine Countries yet lesse tractable to gouernment 256 2 Windy Regions produce men of wild and instable dispositions But quiet Regions more constant and curteous 273 CHAP. XVI Of the dispositions of Inhabitants according to their originall and education 1 Colonies translated from one Region into another farre remote retaine a long time their first disposition though by little little they decline and suffer alteration 278 2 The mixture of Colonies begets the same Nation a greater disparity and variety of the Nations amongst themselues 278 3 Education hath a great force in the alteration of Naturall dispositions yet so as by accident remitted they soone returne to their proper Temper  4 By Discipline Nations become more Wise and Politicke in the preseruation of states yet lesse stout and couragious 283 The Analysis of the second Booke Generall which of a place generally taken without any speciall diuision handles the Adiuncts and proprieties these agree to a place in respect of the Earth it selfe which are Internall or Externall Common or Magneticall whereof Chapter 2. Heauens which are Generall or Speciall Chapt. 3.
consider the naturall changes of Countries sithence the first creation wee shall finde them to haue suffered as well in the naturall accidents and disposition of the soile as the temper of the Inhabitants concerning the former wee may note a twofold alteration whereof the one is a progresse from Imperfection to Perfection the other contrariwise from Perfection to Imperfection The first groweth out of the generall Industrie of mankinde which is wont to worke euery thing as neere as it can to his best ends and vse for his owne good and propagation of his kinde which wee may best finde in the first originall of the world the first ground-worke of ciuill society for man being once expelled out of Paradise for his owne transgression had left him notwithstanding for his lot the whole world besides which no question hee found as in the cradle of Nature a poore infant as yet altogether vnfashioned and vnshaped for humane habitation For who can imagine the earth at that time to bee any otherwise then as a vast Wildernesse all ouergrowne with briers and bushes growing of their owne accord out of the Earth Moreouer what Fennes Bogges Marishes and other such incombrances could there bee wanting to those places which neuer yet felt the chastising hand of husbandrie All these incommodities as mankind began to multiplie and propagate it selfe on the face of the Earth were by little and little remoued and the Earth reduced into a better forme for humane dwelling because euery man choosing out his owne possession began presently to till and manure the soyle with all heedfull industrie For if our first Parents being placed in Paradise it selfe the most pleasant and fertile portion of the whole world were neuerthelesse enioyned to dresse and manure the Garden for their better vse and profit what shall wee imagine of the other parts of the Earth which no doubt a thousand degrees come short of this perfection especially knowing this curse to bee laid on man by our Creatour That he should eat his bread in the sweat of his browes as though the earth were bound to open her treasures onely to mans paines and labour And howsoeuer the diligence of mankinde hath gone very farre in adorning and fashioning the vpper face of the earth yet hath it not waded so farre but that many places in our times are left altogether rude and vncultered groaning vnder vast Wildernesses and vnprofitable desarts For times past wee might haue for instance gone no farther then Britanie and Germanie both which Countryes we shall finde in these dayes to differ as much from the dayes of Caesar as Caesar iudged them to differ from the Roman Territory which no doubt hee preferred before all parts of Europe Notwithstanding this generall inclination of mankinde to perfect their dwelling places for their better ease and comfort wee shall finde many wayes whereby the parts of the Earth haue degenerated and proued more vnfit for humane habitation then in former times The first which is the greatest and cause of all the rest is that Curse which our Almighty Creatour cast on the whole earth for Adams sake which afterward seemes renued and increased in the generall deluge wherein all mankinde suffered for their sinnes a plague of waters For as the estate of mankind immediatly before the Flood was farre better then that afterwards so was the estate of Paradice farre better then that So as wee may note from the beginning of the world a generall defect and weakenesse of the Creatures still more and more declining from their originall perfection granted in the first creation So that many great Philosophers haue coniectured not without ground that the world from the first creation hath suffered the change of ages sensibly and this wherein wee liue to bee the last and decrepite age wherein Nature lyeth languishing as ready to breath out her last But this opinion seemes to bee controled by reason for as much as wee finde not a proportionall decrement and defect of naturall vigour in things as well in man as other creatures For if wee compare the estate of a man before the Flood with the age of Dauid long after wee shall finde a great disparity in the proportionall decrement of the Yeeres and Ages of men for as much as many before the Flood attained to 800 and some as Methusalem to 900 yeeres But in Dauid time the dayes of mans life as he himselfe testifieth are threescore and ten and admit wee vnderstand this speech of Dauid to bee meant only of his chiefest strength and liuelyhood wee shall yet finde a great diuersity because man is vnderstood to bee in his greatest strength and vigour in his middle age so that the whole age of man by this account surmounts not 140 yeeres To which proportion of defect or decrement our times can no way agree because many men in our dayes come neere the same age as wee see by experience which may bee confirmed by diuerse instances whereof wee will produce only two the one of a certaine Indian presented to Soliman the Turke being of the age of 200 yeeres the other of the Countresse of Desmond in Ireland which Sr Walter Rauleigh mentions to this purpose who was married in Edward the fourth's time yet was aliue very lately But to this doubt I might answer that this extraordinary difference betwixt the ages of men betweene the Patriarches and Dauids time compared with men ages betwixt Dauids and our dayes came from two especiall causes First by the vniuersall Deluge which caused a generall defect and decay of nature in the whole earth the like whereof hath not since beene found Secondly it was as it seemes much impaired by the Intemperance and luxurious diet of those times which added much to this generall weaknesse of nature for as much as the children can haue little or no naturall perfection in themselues more then is deriued vnto them by their parents For nothing can giue that to others which it neuer had it selfe whence it must needs come to passe that the posterity deriued from luxurious and distempered bodyes should proue as weake and impotent generally if not more then their Parents Now why the people soone vpon the Flood should finde their distemperature more noxious and preiudiciall to long life then the men of our age a good reason may bee giuen because the Earth long after the Flood had not fully receaued that naturall heat and spirit which it lost in the Deluge So that all things arising out of it as Plants Hearbs Fruits and liuing creatures feeding thereon proued for a while more vnwholsome and vnnaturall then in some yeeres after when it had somewhat reuiued it selfe by the heat of the Sunne and the Starre and by little and little returned to his owne nature The other cause of deficiencie is more speciall as not happening to all but to diuerse parts of the Earth and that more at one time then another as the neglect of due manuring many places
caused commonly two wayes either by contagion naturally incident to diuerse places or by hostile Inuasion and deuastation of this latter arise two maine effects The first is the want and scarcity of Inhabitants which should dresse and manure the ground to make it more fruitfull and accommodate to mans vse The second is their pouerty and captiuity whereof the one makes them vnable the second vnwilling to effect any great matter for the benefit of the Land A good instance whereof wee may finde in the land of Palestine which in times past by God himselfe was called A land flowing with milke and hony for the admirable pleasantnesse and fertility of the Soile yet at this day if wee will credit trauellers report a most barren Region deuoid almost of all good commodity fit for the vse of man in the ruines of which sometimes famous kingdome euery bleere-eyed iudgement may easily read Gods curse long since denounced Which strange alteration next vnto Gods anger wee can ascribe to no other cause then the hostile inuasion of forraine enemies which hath almost lâ—ft the land waste without the natiue Inhabitants whence it could not chuse in a short time but degenerate from the ancient fruitfulnesse The like may we finde in all those miserable Regions which groane at this day vnder the tyranny of the vsurping Turke whence a prouerbe runnes currant amongst them That where the Turkes horse hath once grazed no grasse will euer aftâ—r grow which signifies no other then the barbarous manner of the Turkes hauing once conquered a land to lay it open euer after to deuastation for being for the most part warlike men trained vp in martiall discipline they little or nothing at all regard the vse of husbandry whence in short time a Countrey must needs â—urne wild and vnfruitfull To these causes we may adde the influence of heauenly constellations which being varied according to the times produce no small effects in the changes and alterations of the earth The diuerse alteration in the disposition of the Inhabitants which was our second point we haue referâ—â—ed to another place neere the end of this tract to which is properly appertaines 3 Plâ—ces hauing long continued without habitation are seldome so healthy and fit for dwelling as those which haue beene inhabited This Proposition I haue knowne to bee warranted by the Testimonie of many experienced Nauigators in so much as I presume few men can doubt of the truth of it who hath either beene a Traualler himselfe into farre Countreyes or at least hath read other mens discoueries The onely matter therefore wee here intend is to produce certaine causes of this effect to giue satisfaction to such as make a distinction betwixt the knowledge of the effect and inquiry of the cause The first cause which I can alleage is the industrie of mankinde inhabiting any Countrey mentioned in the former Theoreme out of which ariseth a twofold effect 1 The improuing of the Soyle by remouing all such impediments as otherwise would proue noysome to mankinde for whereas all things growing of their owne accord are suffered to rot into the ground in like manner what other can wee expect but Fennes Fogges and noisome vapours altogether hurtfull to the welfare and life of man 2 The profit of mans industrie is no lesse apparent in manuring the ground and opening the vpper face of the Earth which being composed of diuerse substances sendeth forth many times certaine hot fumes and vapours which in many cold Countreyes mollify the vsuall rigour of the Aire which most offends the Inhabitants This reason is giuen by my Countrey-man Captaine Whitborne for the extreame cold which some men professe themselues to haue tried in New-found-land which neuerthelesse according to many mens description is knowne to lye farre more South then England for the natiues of the Countrey being for the most part driuen into the North part by the Europeans who vsually trade there for fish and they themselues liuing altogether on Fish from the Sea or some wild beasts on the land as Beares Deare and such like without any manuring of the ground for herbage The Soyle by them is in a manner left altogether vnmanured so that neither the soyle can bee well cleansed from noisome vapours arising from the putrefaction of herbage rotting as I said into the ground or left free to send out such wholsome fumes and vapours from its interiour parts which may warme the Ayre and preserue mankind 3 A third reason drawne from mens Industries that those Countreyes which haue inioyed Inhabitants by the continuall vse of Fires haue their Aire more purged and refined from drossie and noisome vapours which vsually arise out of a contagious soyle daily infected by putrefaction for scarce any nation hath beene knowne so barbarous and ignorant which hath not the inuention and vse of Fire neither is any infection of the aire so pestilent and opposite to humane constitution which the breath of fire will not in some sort dispell If any man obiect the distance of houses and villages wherein fire is vsed which seeme to claime a small interest in the change of the ayre hanging ouer a whole Countrey let him well consider the quicknesse of motion and fluidity of the Ayre passing as it were in a moment from one place to the other and hee may soone answer his owne obiection All those reasons hitherto mentioned an inhabited Region owes to mans industrie which wee generally touched in the precedent Theoreme The second cause which is as a consequent of habitation is the necessity of breathing of people liuing in any Region of the earth whereby may follow two effects 1 A certaine measure of heat impressed into the aire as wee see in any roome in a great throng of people by reason of their breathing together in one place 2 The assimilation of the Aire to humane bodies by a continuall respiration These alterations of the aire might perhaps to common apprehensions seeme small and insensible But hee that considers how great a quantity of aire is requisite for a mans respiration and the space and extent of motion together with the multitude of Inhabitants in a populous Countrey would hold it no strange matter that the breathing of men should breed such an alteration of the aire wee finde by experience that strong built houses being left tenantlesse will soone fall into decay not so much for want of reparation as the foggy vapours and moisture caused by want of Respiration The like whereof in some proportion may we imagine to be in a region wanting Inhabitants and depriued of this benefit of nature CHAP. II. Of the Generall Adiuncts of Places 1 IN a place Topographically taken two things are to bee considered 1. The Adiuncts 2 The Description The Adiuncts are such proprieties as agree to speciall places 2 Such Adiuncts agree to a place either in respect of the Earth it selfe or in respect of the Heauens Those which agree to a place in respect of
it will euer prosper 4 Why our Mastiffes a seruiceable kinde of creature against the molestation of Wolues and such hurtfull beasts transported into France should after a litter or two degenerate into Curres and proue altogether vnseruiceable 5 Why with vs in England some places produce Sheep of great stature but course wooll other places small Sheep but of very fine wooll which being naturally transplanted will in a generation or two so degenerate the one into the others nature that the greater sheep loose somewhat of their greatnesse yet improue their fleeces as the other increase their stature but loose much in the finenesse of their wooll 6 Why many places at the ridge of the mountaines Andi in America cannot bee passed ouer without extreame vomitting and griping euen vnto death 7 Why a Riuer in the Indies should haue such a nature to breed a great long worme in a mans leg which oftentimes proues mortall vnto the patient with infinite the like examples found in Geographers concerning the nature and accidents of Fountaines Hearbs Trees Beasts and Men themselues as wee shall shew hereafter so much varied according to the disposition of the soyle what wiser answer can an ingenious man expect then silence or admiration for to make recourse to Sympathies Antipathies and such hidden qualities with the current of our Philosophers is no other then in such sort to confesse our owne ignorance as if notwithstanding wee desired to bee accounted learned for beside the difference of the termes wherein euery Mountebanke may talke downe a iudicious Scholler I see no aduantage betwixt a Clowne which sayes he is ignorant of the cause of such an effect or of a iuggling Scholler which assignes the cause to bee a sympathie antipathie or some occult quality I speake not this to countenance supine blockishnesse or to cast a blocke in the way of curious industrie The former disposition I haue alwayes hated and the latter still wished in my selfe and admitted in others All which I can in this matter propose to a curious wit to bee sought must bee reduced to one of these two heads for either such admirable effects as we haue mentioned must arise from some Formall and Specificall vertue in the soyle or from some extraordinary Temperament made of a rare combination of the Elements and their secondary mixtures as of Hearbs Stones Mineralls and vapours arising from such and affecting the Aire of both which wee shall haue some occasion to treat in the particular Adiuncts of places yet so as I feare I shall neither giue my selfe content or my Reader any sufficient satisfaction But In magnis voluisse sat est 11 Hitherto of the common imbred Adiuncts of the Earth Topographically taken Next we will speake somewhat of the Magneticall Affections of a place These are in number two viz Variation and Declination We haue in our former Treatise of the Magneticall nature of the Earth handled diuerse other affections growing from the Magneticall Temper and disposition of the terrestriall Globe whence some man might here collect this repetition to bee altogether needlesse or at the least imperfect omitting many other of the Magneticall Affections To this I answer that it is one thing to speake of these Affections as they agree to the whole Spheare of the Earth Another thing to consider them as they are particular proprieties and markes of particular places and Regions In the former sort haue we besides the Variation and Declination handled many other affections of the Earth magnetically considered Wee here onely speake of these two as they are speciall markes and proprieties of sqeciall places which it behooues a Topographer to obserue as a matter worthy of obseruation in the description of any place The vse shall be commended vnto vs in these two Theoremes 1. The Magneticall Variation is of no vse for the first finding out of the Longitude yet may it serue to good purpose for the Recognition of a place heretofore discouered The reason of this wee haue shewne in our former booke because the variation seldome or neuer answeres proportionally to the Longitude as some of the ancients on false grounds haue surmised whence no true consequence can bee drawne from the variation of a place to the finding out of the Longitude yet may it bee of speciall vse for the new finding out of such places as haue formerly by others beene first discouered so the variation were first by them diligently and faithfully noted and obserued first because few places in the Earth can exactly and precisely agree in the selfe-same variation but in some Degree or minute will bee found to varie Secondly if any two places should bee found to accord in the same Degree of Variation yet comparing the variation with the degree of Declination wee shall commonly finde a difference for as much as places agreeing in variation may notwithstanding varie in the Declination Thirdly if two places should be equalized in both as wee cannot deny it to bee possible yet the comparing of these two Magneticall motions with other affections as well in respect of the Earth it selfe as of the Heauens will giue at least a probable distinction of which cases it is not hard out of the obseruations of our new writers and Nauigatours to giue particular instances Concerning the first we finde the variation of the compasse at Cape Verde to bee iust 7 Degrees about the Ilands neere to Cape Verde to amount only to 4 Degrees whence a Sea-man if other helpes failed may hereafter as he passeth distinguish the one from the other and if occasion serue correct this errour In the like sort might a man otherwise altogether ignorant of the place out of former obseruations in the same Iland of Cuba distinguish betwixt Cape Corientes and Cape S. Anthony In that the one hath only 3 degrees of variatiō wheras the other hath 13 for an instance of the second case we will take the coasts of Brasill 100 leagues distant from the shoare Cape Corientes beyond Cape bonae spei which agree in the same variation to wit amounting to 7 Degrees 30 minutes which notwithstanding are distinguisht by their seuerall declination for howsoeuer the magneticall motion of variation being of late inuented hath not so particularly beene traced out in all or most places yet must the declination of each place needs be different for as much as the former hath 23 degrees of South Latitude the other none at all lying iust vnder the Equinoctiall since the Latitude as wee haue formerly taught is in some measure proportionall to the Declination For the third if any two places bee found agreeing both in Variation and Declination as may bee probably guessed of Cape Rosse in S. Iohns Iland and the west end of S. Iohn de Porto Rico the Latitude being all one as of 17 degrees 44 minutes and the variation admitting perhaps insensible difference to wit of a little more then one degree yet might this helpe conioyned with former
our Easterne winde is found to bee driest of all others whereof no other cause can bee giuen then that it comes ouer a great Continent of land lying towards the East out of which many drie and earthly exhalations are drawn so the Westerne winde is obserued to be very moist because it passeth ouer the hugie Atlanticke Ocean which must needs cast forth many watrie and moist vapours which beget raine and showres from the moisture of which Westerne winde some haue sought out an answer to that Probleme why hunting hounds should not sent nor hunt so well the winde being in the West as at other times For say they it is caused by the moisture of it either in making hinderance to their legges in running or at least to their smell being very thicke and foggy In this Westerne winde we may also perceiue much cold which is caused by the quality of those watrie vapours through which it passeth which being drawne from the water are naturally cold In our South wind wee shall finde both heat and moisture whereof the former ariseth from the Sunne which in those Southerne Regions neere the Equatour is most predominant The latter from the naturall disposition of the places because before it approacheth our coasts it passes ouer the Mediterranean Sea out of which the Sunne begets abundance of watry vapours which mixt themselues with the windes Finally the North-winde is obserued to bee cold and drye It must of necessity bee cold because it is carried ouer diuerse cold and snowy places most remote from the heat of the Sunne It is drie because it passeth ouer many Ilands and dry places sending out store of dry exhalations as also because the Sunne being very remote from those Regions fewer exhalations are drawne vp which might infect it by impressions of their watrie quality These instances may serue to proue our assertion That Meteors wherewith the Aire is vsually charged and by consequence their qualitâ—es imprest into the Aire are depending from the Earth out of which they are drawne either Directly from the same Region which they affect or Obliquely from some other Region remote from it Howsoeuer wee obserue that the disposition of the Ayre depends from the Soile wee cannot altogether exclude the Heauens as shall bee taught hereafter in place conuenient CHAP. III. Of the Adiuncts of a place in respect of Heauens 1 WE haue in the former Chapter spoken of the Adiuncts of a place in respect of it Selfe We are now to proceed to such Accidents as agree to a place in respect of the Heauens 2 The Adiuncts of the Earth in respect of the Heauens are of two sorts either Generall or Speciall Generall I call such as are abstracted from any speciall quality or condition of the Earth or any place in the Earth These accidents concerne either the Situation of the Inhabitants or the Diuision of the places both which we haue handled in our Sphericall part of Geographie The Speciall are such as concerne the nature of the place in respect of the Heauens not Absolutely but Respecting some speciall qualities or properties depending on such situation which more properly belongs to this part For the vnfolding of which before we descend to particularities we will premise this one generall Theoreme 1 Places according to their diuerse situation in regard of the Heauens are diuersly affected in quality and constitution This Proposition needs no proofe as being grounded on ordinary experience for who findes not betwixt the North and the South a manifest difference of heat and cold moisture and drouth with other qualities thereon depending as well in the temper of the soyle it selfe as the naturall disposition of the inhabitants Only three points will here require an exposition First by what Meanes and instruments the Heauens may bee said to worke on the Earth Secondly how farre this operation of the Heauen on the Earth may extend and what limits it may suffer Thirdly how these operations are distinguished one from the other Concerning the first wee are taught by our ordinary Philosophers that the Heauens worke on inferiour bodies by three instruments to wit Light Motion and Influence By Light as by an instrumentall agent it ingendreth heat in the Aire and Earth not that the light being in a sort an Immateriall quality can immediatly of it selfe produce heat being materiall and elementary But by attrition and rarefaction whereby the parts of the aire being made thinner approach neerer to the nature of fire and so conceaue heat This is againe performed two wayes either by a simple or compo unded beame The simple Ray is weaker The compounded inferring a doubling of the Ray by Reflection is stronger and of more validity in the operation and by consequence so much the more copious in the production of heat by how much more the reflection is greater if wee meerely consider it in regard of the Heauens without any consideration of the quality of the Earth By motion the heauens may exercise their operation on the Earth two wayes First by attenuating and rarefying the vpper part of the Aire next adioyning turning it into Fire as some Philosophers would haue it whence the inferiour parts of the ayre communicating in this affection must needs partake some degrees of heat But this I hold to bee a conceit grounded onely vpon Aristotles authority who supposed the heauens to bee a solide compact body which will not so soone bee granted of many more moderne Mathematicians Secondly the heauenly bodyes may bee said to worke on inferiour things by motion in that by motion they are diuersly disposed and ordered to diuerse Aspects and configurations of the Starres and Planets whereby they may produce diuerse effects so that in this sense the heauens are imagined as a disponent cause which doth not so much produce the effects themselues as vary the operation Hereon is grounded all Astrologie as that which out of diuerse aspects and combinations of the Planets and Signes foresheweth diuerse euents The third Instrument by which the Heauens are said to worke is the heauenly influence which is a hidden and secret quality not subiect to sense but only knowne and found out by the effects This third agent being by some questioned would hardly bee beleeued but that a necessity in nature constraines it For many effects are found in inferiour bodies caused by the heauens which can no way bee ascribed to the Light or Motion As for example the production of Mettals in the bowels of the earth the Ebbing and Flowing of the Sea whereof neither the one or the other can challenge any great interest in the Light For as much as the former is farre remote from the Sunne-beames the other ceaseth not to moue in his channell when the Sunne and Moone are both vnder the Earth Besides who can giue a reason of the excesse of heat in the Canicular or Dog-dayes if hee exclude this influence For if wee consider the Light of the Sunne wee shall finde
holy Scripture and it is not vnlikely â—hat many of those 〈◊〉 people fetcht their first originall from them The second cause may bee drawne from the Industrie and labour of the inhabitants in tillage and manuring of the ground wherein the Soâ—â—herne inhabitant hath beene more deficiâ—nt Foâ— it is certaine out of the holy Scripture that Noahs Arke wherâ—in was thâ— Seminary of mankinde and almost all other liuâ—â—g 〈◊〉 rested in â—he Northerne part of the world whence both man and beasts beganne to be propagated toward the Southâ—punc no farther then necessity enforced the Regions inhabited gâ—â—wing daily more and more populous and as iâ— were groaning to bee deliuered oâ— some of her children Hence may bee inferred â—wo consecâ—aries First that the Northerne Hemispheare was 〈◊〉 sooner and is now therefore â—ore populous then the Southerne Secondly that the chiefest and principall men which were best seated rathâ—r chose to keepe their ancient habitation sending such abroad who could either bee best spared or had the smallest possessions at home Yet notwithstanding it cannot be imagined but they retained with them a sufficient company and more then went away Out of which it must needs be granted that the Northerne halfe of the Earth being best inhabited should be best manured and cultured from whence the ground must in time proue more fruitfull and commodious for habitation for as a fruitfull Countrey for want of the due manuring and tillage doth degenerate and waxe barren so diuerse barren and sterill Countreyes haue by the industrie of the Inhabitants beene brought to fertilitie and made capable of many good commodities necessary for mans life If I were curious to draw arguments from the nature of the Heauens I could alleage the Greatnesse and Multitude of Starres of the greater magnitude in our Northerne Hemispheare wherein the Southerne is deficient as also the longer soiourning of the Sun in our Northerne Hemispheare but these as vncertaine causes I passe ouer Other reasons may perchance bee found out by those who are inquisitiue into the secrets of nature to whom I leaue the more exact search of these matters 4 Either Hemispheare consisting of 90 Degrees may be diuided into three parts each of them containing 30 Degrees 5 Of these parts 30 we allot for Heat 30 for Cold and 30 for Temperature whereof the former lyeth towards the Equatour the second towards the Pole the third betwixt both The ancient Cosmographers as wee haue shewed in our former Treatise diuided the whole Globe of the Earth into fiue Zones which they supposed had also proportionally diuided the Temper and disposition of the Earth In such sort that according to the Degrees of Latitude the Heat and Cold should in rease or diminish Which rule of theirs had beene very certaine were there no other causes concurrent in the disposition of the Earth and Ayre but onely the Heauens But sithence that many other concurrent causes as we haue shewed mixe themselues with these celestiall operations and the experiment of Nauigatours haue found out a disproportion in the quality in respect of the Distance some later writers haue sought out a new pertition more consonant to naturall experience The whole Latitude of the Hemispheare consisting of 90 Degrees from the Equatour to the Pole they haue diuided into three parts allowing 30 Degrees toward the Equatour to Heat 30 Degrees towards the Pole to Cold and the other 30 Degrees lying betwixt both to Temperature These 30 Degrees for Imagination sake they haue subdiuided againe each of them into two parts contayning 15 Degrees a peece more particularly to designe out the speciall disposition of each Region lying either Northward or Southward from the Equatour which is the bound betwixt both Hemispheares In the first section of 30 Degrees lying Northward from the Equatour wee comprehend in Africke Numidia Nigritarum Regio Lybia Guinia Nubia Egypt Ethiopia superior In Asia Arabia India Insulae Philippinae In America Noua Hispania Hispaniola Cuba with other parts of America Mexicana In the other extreame section from 60 Degrees of Latitude to the Pole wee comprehend in Europe Groenland Island Friesland Norwey Suethland for the most part Noua Zembla In Asia a great part of Scythia Orientalis In America Anian Quivira with diuerse other parts of the North of America Mexicana In the middle betwixt both betwixt 30 and 60 Degrees of Latitude wee comprehend in Africa Barbarie in Europe all the kingdomes except those North Prouinces before named and almost all Asia except some places toward the South as Arabia India and the Philippinae Insulae formerly placed in the first Section In like manner may we diuide the Southerne Hemispheare into three Sections In the first from the Equatour 30 Degrees we place in Africke Congo Monomotapa Madagascar In the Southerne Tract Beach and Noua Guinia with many Ilands thereunto adioyning as many of the Philippinae Insulae with Insulae Solomonis In America Peru Tisnada Brasilia with the most part of that Region which they call America Peruana In the other extreame Section from 60 Degrees to the Antarctike Pole is couched the most part of that great land scarce yet discouered called Terra Australis Incognita In the middle Region betwixt both from 30 to 60 Degrees shall wee finde placed in America the Region of the Pantagones in the Southerne Continent Maletur Iauaminor with many others In discouering the qualities of these seuerall Sections or partitions of the earth our chiefest discourse must be addressed to the Northerne Hemispheare as that is more discouered and knowne amongst old and new writers by which according to the former Proposition one may parallell the other concerning which wee will inferre these Propositions 1 In the first Section of the Hemispheare the first 15 Degrees from the Equatour are found somewhat Temperate the other 15 about the Tropicks exceeding Hot. That the Region lying vnder the Equatour is Temperately hot contrary to the opinion almost of all the Ancients hath beene in part proued heretofore as well by reason as experiment for that all places by how much the neerer they approach the Equatour by so much more should bee hotter as some imagine diuerse instances will contradict It is reported by Aluarez that the Abyssine Embassadour arriuing at Lisbone in Portugall was there almost choaked with extreame heat Also Pâ—rguer the Germane relates that hee hath felt the weather more hot about Dantzicke and the Balticke Sea then at Tholouse in a â—eruent Summer The causes which wee haue before touched are chiefly two The first is that the Sun is higher in this orbe in respect of those vnder the Equatour and moueth more swiftly from them spending on them onely twelue houres whence so great an impression of heat cannot bee made as in other places for heat being a materiall quality must necessarily require some Latitude of time to bee imprest into the ayre or any other subiect From the Diminution of heat in the Region must the ayre needs receaue into
it selfe the contrary quality of cold An argument of cold may bee drawne from the testimony of Alvarez who affirmes the waters there in the month of Iune to bee frozen ouer with Ice the South winde blowing The second cause is by iudicious writers ascribed to the subtility and rarity of the Aire vnder the Equinoctiall line which cannot recâ—aue into it selfe so many degrees of heat as the thicke and grosse aire of diuers places distant For the North Region wherein Europe and a great part of Asia is placed is for the most part full of waters which bursting out of secret and vnknowne concauities doe produce infinite Fennes Gogges Lakes and Marishes which in the Summer season cause infinite vapours to abound which being intermixed with heat scorch and heat more feruently then the purer ayre of Africke being for the most part free from the mixture and concurse of such slimie vapours That the aire being thickned should yeeld a greater feruour euery man out of ordinary experience can frame to himselfe an argument For wee see Fire and Heat being incorporated as it were in the Steele or Iron to burne and heat more then in Aire or Wood. The like reason some would draw from the keepers of Stoâ—es or Hot houses which doe besprinkle the ground with water that the vapour being contracted and the aire thickned they may the longer and better maintaine heat and spare Fuell Another cause which we haue formerly touched may bee drawne from the Set and Anniuerwindes which blow most part of the yeere one way Iosephus Acosta obserues that betwixt the Tropicks the winde is for the most part Easterly beyond Westerly and a Dutch-discouerer hath related that in Guinea they haue a certaine winde which comes from the land till noone and then very violent from the Sea in so much as the Inhabitants are wont to trafficke in the morning being not able to indure it which if it bee true wee cannot imagine this Region to bee so hot as men suppose For here the heat in the night is asswaged by the absence or remotenesse of the Sunne Likewise the excesse of heat incident to noonetide is much qualified or as it should seeme by this relation altogether vanquished by the cold winde deriued from the Sea Another reason no lesse probable may be deriued from the excessiue height of the land and great mountaynes obserued to bee neere or vnder the line whose tops are alwayes couered with Snow which giue a sufficient testimony of cold For instance wee need goe no farther then the ridge of the mountaines Andâ— in America where they obserued the Ayre to be so â—hinne and cold that it inforced them to scowre and vomit which came neere it The like whereof is related of another called Punas where the extremity of cold cutteth off their hands From which experience wee may finde some places neere the Line to bee more infested with cold 〈◊〉 heat The laâ—t and greatest â—eason may bee taken from the continuall moisture wherewith the regions situate betwixt the Tropicks frequently abound This moisture is deriued from two causes 1 From the melting of the Snow on the tops of the mountaines by the Sunne which running from thence continually into the vallies keepe them almost alwayes watrish especially in the midst of Summer when the Sunne is neerest 2 From the extreame heat of the Sunne which being very neere and many times verticall rayseth vp continually moist vapours in great quantity These vapourâ— in so short a time as 12 houres being not consumed but meeting with the cold from the middle Region of the aire are therewith conuerted into drops which fall downe againe in great showres in so much as some trauellers of good credit haue told me that all the while they sayled betwixt the Tropicks they seldome saw the Sunne by reason of raine and clowdy vapours Whence wee note with Iosephus Acosta by way of consectary that the presence of the Sunne betwixt the Tropicks produceth moisture but contrariwise without the Tropicks it is the cause of drouth whence the inhabitants inioy as it were a Winter when the Sun is to them verticall because of the distemperature by Windes Raines and Stormes and great Inundations whereunto commonly all great riuers betwixt the Tropicks are most subiect Also they seeme to haue a Summer when the Sunne is in or neere the Tropicks because being somewhat remoued he cannot bee so powerfull in drawing such store of vapours and exhalations which hee can dispell and consume Thus wee see the moity of this first Section lying 15 degrees from the Equatour how soeuer subiect to a greater reflection of the Sunne-beames yet through the concurrence of other causes to bee found indifferently Temperate and the other 15 degrees about the Tropicks howsoeuer subiect to a lesser Reflection to bee excessiue hot which later cause besides all which hath beene said before shall bee further confirmed hereafter by the complection of the natiue Inhabitants which wee shall finde to bee Choller-adust the true symptome of an externall heat But if any man shall answer that this accident is incident as well to the Regions situate vnder the Equatour as to that vnder the Tropicks I will produce another reason drawne from the colour of their countenances which vnder the Equatour is not seene so blacke and swarthie as elsewhere For toward the Tropicke is placed the Land of Blackmores or Nigritarum Regio where the people are all coleblacke which might perhaps happen also to those that dwell vnder the other Tropicke but that other causes interpose themselues which hinder the excesse of heat which is taken to be the chiefe cause of this blacknesse Here some would oppose the opinion of Herodotus which referred the cause of this blacknesse in the Negroes to the Seed which hee would haue to bee blacke others would haue this blacknesse as a curse inflicted vpon Chams posterity but these opinions carry very little shew of probability For first if this former opinion were admitted it would of necessity follow saith Boden that Ethiopians in Scythia should alwayes bee borne blacke and Scythians in Ethiopia should bee alwayes white For as much as all nations from the beginning of the world haue beene confused and mixt by the distinction of Colonies but experience teacheth vs that men trasplanted into another Soyle will in manner of trees and Plants by little and little degenerate and change their first disposition As if a Blackmore marry and beget children here with vs in England experience will plainely declare the children to be more inclining to whitenesse then the fathers and the grand children more then them Secondly if the second opinion of Chams curse deserued any credit I see no reason why all his posterity such as by most writers consent are generally the people of Africke should not bee subiect to the same execration as well as one little parcell of it Moreouer it is reported by Pline and confirmed by Appian that in those places are many
fed themselues with vnknowne substance and the Castilians with painted shadowes But to let passe the quantity as a matter of lesse moment and lesse questioned a great disparity will bee found in the Quality and Dâ—sposition For what one commodity almost was euer found in this Continent which is not onely parallelled but surmounted by this our Hemispheare If we compare the Mines of Gold and Siluer wherein consists the wealth and riches of both places our East Indies will easily challenge the superiority If Trees Plants Herbage and Graines let our Physicians and Apothecaries iudge who owe most of the medicinable drugges to India Let our Merchants answer which owe their Spices to Arabia their Wine to Spaine Italy the Mediterranean Graecian and Indian Ilands their Silkes Linnen Cloathing and their furniture almost wholly to Europe If wee compare the multitude and various kindes of Beasts bred and nourished in either place no question but Europe Asia and Africa can shew farre greater Heads of Sheepe Cattle and such like with farre greater variety of kindes then euer were found in this new found Continent If all these failed yet the well tempered disposition of the Europaeans and Asians in respect of this barbarous and vnnurtured place disdaines all comparison where wee shall obserue on the one side a people long since reduced to ciuility instructed as well in liberall sciences as handy-crafts armed with martiall discipline ordered by Lawes and ciuill gouernment bound with a conscience and sense of Religion on the other side a multitude of miserable and wretched nations as farre distant from vs inciuility as place wanting not only Gouernment Arts Religion and such helps but also the desire being senselesse of their owne misery 2 The difference of East and West cannot worke a diuersitie in two places by any diuersity of the Heauens East and West places compared together are either of equall or vnequall Latitude For places of vnequall Latitude no question can bee made but they receaue a greater variety of Temper from the Heauens as wee haue formerly proued but this disparity growes not out of the diuersity of East and West but the distance of North and South But that places alike situate in Latitude cannot vary by any diuersity of the heauens is plaine for as much as all things to them rise and set alike without any diuersity wherefore if any such diuersity bee at any place found we ought not to seeke the cause thereof in the heauens but rather in the condition of the Earth it selfe which no question suffers in diuerse places of the same Latitude a great variety 8 Either Hemispheare may againe Respectiuely be subdiuided into the West or East The West in this our Hemispheare I call that which is neerer the Canary Ilands the East that which lieth towards the Molucco Ilands to which points there are others correspondent in the other Hemispheare 1 Places situate towards the East in the same Latitude are hotter then those which are placed towards the West For the explanation of this Theoreme we are to examine two matters First what probability may induce vs to beleeue the East to bee hotter temper then the West Secondly what should bee the cause of this diuersity in both places being supposed equally affected in respect of the Heauens for confirmation of the former many reasons haue beene alleaged of old and late writers It is agreed on saith Bodin with a ioint consent of the Hebrewes Greeks and Latines that the East is better tempered then the West which hee labours to confirme First out of many speeches of â—zekiel Esay and the other Prophetâ— where the East seemes to challenge a dignity and prerogatiue aboue the West which betokeneth as he imagines a blessing of the one aboue the other But I dare not venter on this Interpretation without a farther warrant Secondly wee may here produce the testimony of Pliny in his seuenth booke where hee affirmes that by ordinary obseruation it is found that the pestilence commonly is carried from the East into the West which Bodin testifies himselfe to haue found by experience in Galia Narbonensis and many other history seemes to iustifie Amianus a Greeke Author obserues that Seleucia being taken and a certaine porch of the Temple being opened wherein were shut certaine secret mysteries of the Chaldeans that a suddaine contagion arose of incurable diseases which in the time of Marcus and Verus from the farthermost ends of Persia spread it selfe as farre as the Rhâ—â—â— and France and filled all the way with heapes of carkasses If at any time the contagion bee obserued to bee carried another way an vniuersall pestilence is feared as according to the histories there happened not long after from Ethiopia towards the North which infested the greatest part of the world A third proofe may bee drawne from the testimony of Aristotle Hippocrates Gallen Ctâ—sias and other graue Autâ—ors who affirme that all things are bred better and fairer in Asia then in Europe which must needs argue a better temperature To backe which Testimonies we need goe no farther then moderne obseruation Euery Geographer will tell you how farre in fertility Natolia in Asia surmounts Spaine and China vnder the same Latitude exceeds both who knowes not how farre Fez and Morocco on the Westerne Verge of Africa stand inferiour to Egypt a most fruitfull and happy Region And how farre short both these come of India situate in the same Climate An argument of greater heat in the Easterne places may bee the multitude of Gold and Siluer-mines Spices and other such like commodities wherein Asia excells Europe whereas such mettals and commodities as require not so great a measure of heat in their conâ—oction are rather found in Europe then in Asia whence there seemes to arise a certaine correspondency of the East with the South and the West with the North. The greatest reason of all is taken from the Temper and naturall disposition of the Inhabitants for as much as the European resembling the Northerne men shewes all the Symptomes of inward heat strengthned with externall cold The Asiaticke followes the disposition of the Southerne man whose inward heat is exhausted by externall scorching of the Sunne-beames and therefore partakes more of Chollâ—r-adust or melancholy But this point wee shall more fully prosecute in due place To shew a cause of this variety is very difficult Those which in wit and learning haue farre exceeded my poore scantling haue herein rather confessed their owne ignorance then aduentured their iudgement It were enough to satisfie an ingenuous minde to beleeue that Almighty God was pleased in the first creation of the world to endow the Easterne part of the Earth with a better temper of the Soyle from whence all the rest deriue their originall which seemes not improbable in that he made Asia the first resting place of man after the Creation the second Seminary of mankinde after the Deluge the onely place of our Sauiours Incarnation In this matter I
beleeue no lesse and can speake no more except I should vrge the beating of the great Atlanticke Ocean vpon our Westerne shoares which may in some sort qualifie the excesse of heat incident to the Easterne tract which may produce some degrees of Temperature But here also wee shall perhaps meet with crosse instances which will stirre vp more doubt thâ—n satisfaction CHAP. IV. Of the manner of Expression and Description of Regions 1 HAuing treated of the generall Adiuncts of places wee are next to handle the manner of describing a Region which proposeth vnto vs two points â— the finding out the Position of two places one in regard of the other 2 The Translation of such places so found out into the Globe or Charte 2 The former depends on the inuention of the Angle of Position by some Dioptricke Instrument This manner of description of a particular Region seemes very necessary for a Geographer which euery Mechanician may soone learne and practice Many instruments haue beene deuised by curious Artificers for this purpose whose vse hath beene set out largely by later writers as by Gemma Frisius Diggs Hopton and others to whom my reader may haue recourse because I hold it not my taske in this subiect to describe the Instruments themselues but briefly to shew the ground and vse of them which these propositions shall expresse 1 Diuerse places obserued at two or more Stations by some Dioptricke Instrument the situation of two places one in regard of the other may bee found out and expressed in a Plaine This may sensibly bee shewed in the Figure following to expresse which the more plainely wee will set downe these Rules 1 Let there bee drawne in some Chart or plaine platforme a right line which wee must accompt to bee our Meridian because it shall afterward serue for that purpose This right line shall be AB whose two ends A and B shall bee taken for the North and South 2 You must choose out of some high place as a Towre or Mountaine from whence you may behold such cities townes castles and other such notable places whereof you desire to know the situation and bearing of the one to the other This High place is called the First Station where you must place the plaine before prepared in such sort as it may Astronomically and truely agree with the true Meridian of the place whose inuention we haue taught in the first Booke and so respect the foure Cardinall coasts to wit East West North and South Vpon this place seated in such a manner of situation fasten your Dioptricke instrument that it may bee turned about the point A on euery side at pleasure in such sort as the sight may be directed to euery one of the adiacent places First then remouing it from A direct your sight to F and draw the line AF of indefinite length likewise your Instrument being directed to G draw the line AG infinitely which by this meanes will also hit the place E Let B also bee imagined a certaine place as a City or Castle situate in the very Meridian it selfe which wee find already drawne to our hands In like sort ought wee to proceede with the other places C and D and as many as we please This performed you must remoue your selfe with your Instrument and Plaine to some one of these places thus fore-marked out as for example vnto D which is called the second station and there as in the former ascending vp some high place the Plaine being first fitted and placed Astronomically take the distance AD of any length whatsoeuer for to the greatnesse of this Distance shall all the rest bee proportionall Hence so place your Dioptricke Instrument at the place D that it may bee turned round and directed to all those places formerly obserued In this sort leuelling your sight to the place or castle F draw the line DF so directing your sight to the rest you may draw the lines DCG DEDB c. Now by the points of Intersections of these lines as in F G E C B c. are to bee described and delineated out the said notable land-markes as Townes Castles Promontories and such like Betwixt these places if any man desire to know the distance in miles hee may know it by finding out any one of these Distances for one being knowne the rest will also bee exactly knowne as for example wee will imagine the Distance AD to containe 10 miles wherefore let the line AD bee diuided into 10 equall parts then with your compasse examine how many such parts are contained in the Distance AF for so many miles will bee likewise in it contained as for example according to this supposition wee shall find it 5 parts wherefore the castle or city F will be 5 miles distant from the city A. Hee that desires more particularly to acquaint himselfe with the vse and diuerse manners of descriptions of Regions deriued from this one ground Let him haue recourse to diuerse Authors who haue particularly laboured in this subiect amongst which our two Englishmen Digges and Hopton deserue not the least praise whereof the later out of these principles hath framed a curious instrument which hee calls his Topographicall-Glasse whose vse hee hath perspicuously and exactly taught in diuerse pleasant conclusions too large for the scope of my methode to insert 2 At one Station by opticall obseruation the situation of one place in respect of the other may bee found out This may bee shewed out of an opticall experiment both pleasant and admirable The ground is expressed in this proposition The light traiected by a narrow hole into a darke place will represent in any Table or white paper within whatsoeuer is without directly opposed vnto it For demonstration of which proposition wee must take as granted of the perspectiâ—e Authours That the visuall Image or species will passe by a right line through any little hole and will bee terminated in any point of the Medium Now that it should more perspicuously bee seene in a darke place then in the light The cause is assigned to bee because the light of the Sunne is taken away or much diminished which otherwise would hide and shadow the species of the thing which is presented to the sight as wee see by experience the greater light of the Sun to obscure the Starres which neuerthelesse from the darke bottome of a deepe Well or Mine will shew themselues at mid-day Neuerthelesse wee must obserue by the way that this representation of any thing to the sight by this Image impressed in this sort in a wall or paper will shew it selfe so as the parts will bee seene inuersed or as wee may say turned on the contrary side as the higher lower the lower higher the right-side to the left and the left to the right which we may declare by an ocular demonstration in this figure heere inserted Let vs imagine a Triangular platforme of land whereof we desire to know the situation
Peripateticks admit of any drouth in the Aire which this moist element should seeke to auoid Moreouer if Water should conforme it selfe to roundnesse by reason of the drouth of the body whereon it fall then must it follow that either the moisture of the Water should â—xpell the drouth of the Earth or else that the drouth of the Earth should worke on the moisture of the Water But neither can be graunted with probability First beâ—ause moisture and drouth are not qualities of such actiuity to driue and remâ—ue one the other from one place to another as it is here imagined Secondly if the moist should worke on the dry it should either touch it or not If it touches not it cannot worke on it becauâ—e no Physicall action can bee performed withâ—â—t touching besides it were very impossible to imagine that without thiâ— tâ—uch one of these qualities should perceiue or â—ent the other to auoid it If it touch it auoides not the touch but ioynes it selfe with the drouth And indeed reason and experience shewes that droâ—th rather couets and drawes vnto it selfe moisture then expels it wherefore Scaliger goes about to â—oâ—ge a new cause of this experience Euery thing saith hee in this nature is one and the selfe-same But this vnity in Homogeneall bodies is best preserued in a Globe or round figure wherein is no inequality no parts higher or lower abounding or deficient But herâ— might a man aske why the greater parts of the Water are not likewise conformed vnto roundnesse as well as the lesser droppe Hee would perhaps answer that nature in them was not in such distâ—â—sse to make vse of this speciall priuiledge I grant it yet find I in this no satisfaction for as much as hee giues a fiâ—all cause where I sought an efficient for I would farther aske by what action or motion this water should gather it selfe into a circular figure and from what forme it should arise for first wee haue shewed that this motion cannot proceed from the externall drouth wee must seeke the cause in the water it selfe here wee shall finde it either the particular forme of the water or a certaine vniuersall forme as some suppose it cannot bee imagined that it should proceed from the generall forme of the vniuerse First because as wee haue elsewhere proued there is no such Internall forme of the world Secondly those motions are commonly ascribed to an vniuersall Nature or forme wherein any particular body as it were neglects his owne Nature for the preseruation of the whole Vniuerse But here water containing it selfe in an orbe and not â—lowing abroad towards the Center rather seemes to forsake the Center and Vniuerse to preserue it selfe Whence we must necessarily conclude that this roundnesse in drops of water cast on the sand proceedes not from externall drouth nor any vniâ—ersâ—ll forme but from the â—peciall and essentiall forme of the water and consequently because it makes a circle excentricall with the Earth it must bee found rising higher in the midst To which wee will adde another experiment Let there bee cast on a large Table or planke a little portion or drop of water I here aske whither this water on the midst of the Table equilibrated will continually flow abroad or at length suffer a stay or stop It cannot bee continually spread abroad first because experience teacheth the contrary for we see little drops cast on such a plaine to confine themselues within certaine bounds and least any should imagine as before that this happens by reason of the drouth of the Table let him first moisten the Table and hee shall find no great alteration Secondly if the water should alwayes fall downward and so still runne abroad and spread it selfe to the margents of the Table it would follow that if the Table were of an infinite capacity the water thus shed would infinitely flow abroad without intermission and so should Nature set no bound to the thicknesse and motion of the water whereof experience hath sufficiently taught the contrary Now that water thus standing still on a plaine equilibrated Table should haue a Canonicall figure it may bee plainely proued almost by sense whereby wee perceiue the middle to bee higher then the extreames for no man can deny but the water thus standing is endowed with thicknesse for as much as it is a naturall body Wherefore of necessity it must swell aboue the Table It cannot bee Spherically Concentricall with the whole Earth because in so small a segment of an Arch as this little quantity of water admits it would bee insensible It cannot bee plaine because the sides or extremities of it touch the Table whereas the middle superfiâ—ies by reason of the thicknesse is eleuated aboue the Table Neither can wee imagine another figure besides which can aptly bee admitted It is meet in the next place that out of the grounds of Philosophie wee explaine how it comes to participate this figure where wee are first to vnderstand that the figure of the water is as it were compounded of two spheares whereof the first is imagined to bee concentricall with the whole Earth the other lesser onely answering to the portion or quantity of water were it made round for if wee consider the simple and particular nature of the water wee shall find it inclining to roundnesse of it selfe as wee haue shewed by experiment yet such a sensible roundnesse as cannot haue one Center with the Earth But if we consider the water as it concurres to the constitution of the whole Vniuerse wee shall find this Figure to partake of a circular segment concentricke with the whole Earth Now because neither of these two Figures can precisely and exactly arise by it selfe sith the one must needs some what alter the other wee must of necessity admit of a figure mixt and compounded of both these which can bee no other then a Cone To expresse this more plainely because this path is yet vntroden wee find in the water a double motion directed to this double figuration The first whereof is that whereby all the parts of a quantity of water are inclined to an Absolute roundnesse or Sphericall Figure without respect of the Vniuerse the Center of which roundnesse is to bee sought in the water it selfe The later is that whereby the parts of the Water conforming themselues to the Center of the Earth as neere as they can make a Sphericall figure as much as Nature can suffer concentricke with the whole Terrestriall Globe In the former of these motions the Water seekes it's owne preseruation in the later the safety of the whole Vniuerse for the safety and consistency of the whole is deriued from the part which concurre to preserue the whole To expresse a little better the manner of these two concurrent operations wee will take for an vndoubted ground That God hath giuen to Nature a power and inclination to preserue herselfe This granted wee must distinguish of a two-fold preseruation the one Speciall
the Sea were dâ—uided into many parts it would more easily dissolue and putrify The grounds of this opinion being ouerthrowne there want not reasons to contradict First sayes one if the Sea were not created salt then was there some time wherein it was fresh To this I answer two wayes First that it might bee created fresh yet being apt from the heat of the Sunne to receiue saltnesse it might almost at the first receiue it Secondly if I should grant that it was a long time before it embraced this quality I know neither History to confute mee or reason to conuince mee Secondly it is vrged from the Nature of liuing creatures in the Sea that they cannot well liue in fresh waters and therefore it seemes originally salt and not by Accident But this is of no great force First because experience shewes that many kind of fishes liue in both and many rather couet and desire the fresh Water then the Sea Secondly it is not improbable that as the Sea by little and little and by degrees turned from freshnesse to saltnesse the temper and disposition of the fishes was in like manner changed and altered Whence it may come to passe that fishes since bred and nourished in fresh Waters cannot so well endure the salt Moreouer who knowes whether all these seuerall kinds of fishes now found in the Sea were from the beginning since wee see by experience that sundry kinds of liuing creatures dayly arise out of putrefaction on the land which may with like probability or more bee admitted in the Sea There are yet behind other reasons of one Patricius a Platonist who would oppose Aristotle in good earnest Aristotle saith hee speaking of the saltnesse of the Sea Water shewed not the cause For I would aske why that parcell of water from whence the thinner parts are extracted should remaine salt was it so from the beginning or afterwards imprest was it Inbred or Accidentall If hee would haue it an inbred quality from the beginning hee vainly goes about to seeke out the cause If the saltnesse bee aduentitious the cause is to bee giuen but the cause giuen by him is not true for as much as it rather takes away the saltnesse But to these obiections of Patricius spunne out in many words wee may answer two wayes either that the saltnesse is meerely aduentitious bred by an exhalation drawne vp by the Sunne and so distilling downe againe or else because this answere seemes not wholely to satisfy For as much as rainy Water is seldome salt and if it were could hardly flow in so great quantity to feed the saltnesse of the Sea I will answer secondly that the saltnesse is radically or originally in the matter of the Water yet so as it cannot bee drawne out and sensibly bee perceiued in the mixture of many sweet humours ioyned with it without a separation first made by the heat of the Sunne of the thinner parts from the thicker So that the Sunne is a disponent though not a productiue cause of this saltnesse in the Sea 2 Seas absolutely salt are neuer frozen This may seeme a Paradoxe to some men in regard that amongst our Geographers wee haue so often mention made of Mare Congelatum taking it's name from the Ice wherewith it is shut vp from passage as also for that in the voyages of Frobisher Dauis Hudson and other later Nauigatours which haue beene imployed in the search of the Northwest passage wee find such strange relations not onely of Seas closed vp with Ice and hindring their passage towards the North but also of Rocks and Ilands of Ice of an incredible greatnesse The truth of these Relations I no way disapproue but rather out of these testimonies approue our former assertion that Seas which are wholly Salt are neuer found to freeze For first whereas it is called Mare Congelatum it may beare the nâ—me well enough from the multitude of Ice floating on the water or collected into a Rocke or Iland This Ice as it will easily appeare is not produced out of the substance of the Salt water of the maine Ocean but rather carryed into the Sea by great riuers of fresh water running into the Ocean For the riuers are not alwayes frozen but sometimes by a remission of the cold are thawed and the peeces broken a sunder and floating into the Sea in it oft times meet in great heapes which may bee proued 1 In that these great râ—cks of Ice melting with the heate of the Sunne haue dissolued into fountaines of fresh water gushing downe in great abundance wherewith sometimes in case of necessity they haue fraughted their shippes as wee haue testified by the fore-named Nauigatours 2 Because some part of the maine Sea situate perhaps more Northerne and in a colder Climate suffers not this accident whereas places neere the shore farther South are almost alwayes frozen The reason whereof is because the Sea neere the shore is commonly mixed with fresh waters conueyed in either by great Riuers or infinite secret passages vnder ground which wee see not The reason why that salt waters exclude this propriety incident or the fresh I take to bee the Hot-spirits hid in the salt humor which are more feruent and operatiue then those of the fresh water 9 So much for the saltnesse The next is the Thicknesse whereof we will set downe this short Theoreme 1 The Water of the Sea is thicker then other Water This Proposition hath it's light from the former because thicknesse of Water is a companion of the saltnesse as depending from the same cause to wit the exhalation and extraction of the thinner parts of the Water There are many small causes giuen by Patricius of this thicknesse of the Sea-Water Fâ—â—st because the parts of it should more strongly hold together and not couer and ouerflow the firme land But this seemes to bee grounded on an errour that the Water should be aboue the Land and that it should containe it selfe within it's owne bounds and limits which opinion we haue elsewhere reiected The second cause of the thicknesse of the Sea is that it might bee more apt to beare and carry ships and other great weights for the vse of man Thirdly the Water being thicke may more easily bee conuerted into salt out of which many saltish minerals in the Earth are ingendred Other causes are giuen by this Author but lesse forceable which we will omit as referring them to the Philosopher whose proper taske it is to seek them out CHAP. VI. Of the Motions of the Sea 1 THe Motion of the Sea whereof we are in this Chapter to treate is either Naturall or Violent The Naturall I call that which is partly incident to the Naturall Disposition of the Sea 2 This againe is two-fold either Generall or Speciall Generall is that which agrees generally to all or at least to most parts of the Sea such as is the Ebbing and Flowing of the Sea Wee must here obserue that the Water
hath a two-fold Motion The first is common to all heauy Bodyes as well as the Earth in which is an inclination to come as neere as they can to the Center of the Earth whereof wee haue spoken in our former booke The second is that which more properly agrees to the Sea which is againe twofold either the Naturall or the Violent The Naturall howsoeuer requiâ—ing perhaps the concurrence of some externall cause is notwithstanding so called for as much as it chiefly seemes to proceede from the Disposition of the Sea-water The Violent is caused meerely by the violence of the winds mouing the Ocean The Naturall motion we haue againe diuided into generall or speciall because the Affluxe and Refluxe of the Sea whereof we are to treat is generall throughout the whole Ocean some petty creekes perchance excepted whereas the Currents which is the second kinde of motion are more speciall as agreeing not to all or most parts as it seemes but to some one or other speciall place as we shall shew 1 The Sea twice euery day ebbes and flowes The flowing and ebbing of the Sea howsoeuer it cannot be precisely obserued in all Seas yet because few places of the maine Ocean are exempted from it deserues the first chiefest consideration That such a motion there is experience shewes but the searching out of the cause is for ought I can obserue one of the greatest difficulties in all Naturall Philosophie in so much as Aristotle one of the acutest Philosophers is reported to haue stood amazed at the flowing and ebbing of Euripus and despairing of finding out the cause at length enforced to cast himselfe into the Riuer which had before confounded him Wherefore it may seeme sufficient for mee to trace their steps who haue waded far into the search of this cause hauing very little hope to goe further The first opinion was of the Stoickes who supposed the whole World to bee a great liuing creature composed of diuerse Elements which inioyes both breath and life This liuing creature they imagine to haue his nostrils placed in the maine Ocean where by drawing in and sending foorth breath the ebbing and flowing of the Sea is caused but this seemeth rather to bee a Poeticall fiction or Allegory then any conceit of a Philosopher Apollonius Tianaeus was of an opinion that certaine Spirits eithervnder or aboue the Water breathed into it this motion Timaeus taught the cause of this moisture to be the riuer breaking into the Ocean by the great mountaines Plato thought that it was made by the swallowing vp of the Sea into a gulfe or hole which being againe cast out was the cause of that motion in the Sea Seleuous the Mathematician which affirmed that the Earth was carried round with a perpetuall motion thought that the Moone was turned round with a motion contrary to the motion of the Eâ—rth and from this to proceed that motion of ebbing and flowing of the Sea whereof wee now treat What Aristotles opinion was concerning this matter is an vncertaine coniecture forasmuch as litle or nothing can bee gathered touching this point in controuersie out of any booke which is certainly knowne to be Aristotles for the tract of the propriety of Elements where the cause of this motion is ascribed to the Moone is iudged to be none of Aristotles but of some later Authour Yet Plutarch imposeth on Aristotle this opinion that this motion of the Sea should come from the Sun because by it are raised vp many windy exhalations which should cause the Sea to swell blowing into the great Atlantick Ocean But thisopinion is charged by Paâ—ricius of a threefold errour 1. That it should proceed from the Sun 2 From the wind 3 That it is only in the Atlantick Sea He saw saith Patricius that in the Atlantick which he could not in the Aegean Sea at home and neere Athens For 1 No wind blowes so regularly that for one six houres it should blow forward the other six houres backward for the wind oftentimes blowes many daies the same way without ceasing yet is their not one only flowing or one ebbing in the Sea 2. The Sunne stirres vp sometimes windes and sometimes stirres them not vp But of a perpetuall effect which is daily why would this Philosopher giue a cause meerely violent and not quotidian which notwithstanding would haue nothing violent to be perpetuall If the Sea bee somewhere moued naturally by other motions as the Euripus which is said to be his death wherefore will he deny this motion to be Naturall seeking out an externall cause of this effect But all this while our Platonick Philosopher seems to fight with shadowes for what iudicious man can imagine so iudicious and wise a Philosopher as Aristotle should so grossely ouershoot himselâ— to father this opinion I should much rather beleiue that no such opinion is to be found in Aristotle at least that it is indirectly related which I the rather beleiue because one Caesalpinus a late Writer aswell opposite to Aristotle as the other hath related Aristotles opinion otherwise to wit that the ebbing and flowing of the Sea is deriued from a double cause whereof the one is the multitude of Riuers bringing in a great force of waters into it whence it comes to passe that it flowes only towards one paâ—t which is the lower as it happens to the Mediterranean For the Egaean and Ponticke Sea with Maeotis flow into the Tyrrhene and not on the opposite side The other cause hee makes to bee the libration of the whole Sea for it is often turn'd from one side to the other which in so great a vastnes seemes but little but in straights narrow places much more So that Aristotle saith Caesalpinus would haue that to agree to the Sea which vsually happens to a paire of ballance which hauing receiued the beginning once of their motion are inclined sometimes this way sometimes that way by reason of the equality of the weight for if the weight of one should ouercome thewhole would incline thatway and would not riâ—e vpon the other side But against this opinion imposed on Aristotle Caesalpinus not without good reason excepts that the Superficies of the Water being Equidistant from the Center as is supposed by Geographers no reason may bee giuen why it should incline more to one side then another hauing once obtained his true place sith according to Aristotles owne grounds no violence câ—n be perpetâ—all To which I may adde another answer that no satisfactory reason can be alleadged why it should alwayes obserue so true and iust periods of time in its motion sith all Riuers are sometimes encreased and other times diminished according to the season of the yeere and variety of the weather wherefore the said Authour which impugnes this opinion hath framed another conceit grounded on the circular motion of the Earth which he explaineth in this sort It agrees â—o reason saith he that the Water should not altogether follow the motion
of the Earth but should in part bee driuen backe and in part flow besides for since it is of a moist nature while the Earth is carried from the Aire about it the Water iâ— somewhat left behind as wee may see in a small vessell which is moâ—e laâ—ge then deep for if it be moued forward the Water will leape back to the opposite part will oftentimes poize it selfe hither thither seeking an aequilibration when therefore the Earth is a litle caried forward the water as it were left behind being out of his Aequilibrium or aquall poize it will runne to the other part but beyond the true poize forthe violence of the motion oppressed into it in the beginning from thence for the same cause it will tend againe to the opposite part doing this oftentimes seeking an equall weight wherein it may rest so that if the Earth should at any times rest from her naturall motion the Water would also leaue off the Libration to and fro But because the circumvolution of the Earth is imagined to be perpetuall the libration of the sea is also per petuall so farre forth then that this motion is of the continent or Earth it is onely accidentall in the Water neither besides his proper nature neither according to nature But so farre forth as the Water is in some sort moued in the Earth it may be said to be according to nature for it alwaies seekes the lower place because it cannot aequally follow the motion of the Earth Hence they giue the reason why this motion is not perceiued in Lakes and Riuers as well as in the maine Ocean for sith the motion of the Earth is not very sensible it cannot be perceiued but in a great masse of waters The reasons to confirme this opinion besides the refutation of other opinions are chiefly these two If the Water by it selfe should be mou'd without the motion of the Earth it must needs be moued either according to or against his nature But neither of them can be graunted First if according to Nature there would not be one only motion of one body according to nature but many which is denyed by Arâ—stotle If besides or against Nature some violent motion would bee perpetuall which also seemes absurd wherefore it must needs follow that the sea should moue accidentally For sith the Water is conteined outwardly of the Aire internally of the Earth And that part of the Aire which toucheth the Water is of Aristotle called Stagnans or standing still not flowing as that which is aboue the Earth but is onely troubled variously with windes This libration or motion of the Water cannot bee caused by the wind or Aire wherefore it must proceed from the motion of the Earth The second reason may be drawne from the quantity of tides in diuers places of the Earth for it is â—ound by experience that the Water swels higher greater in the maine Ocean then in other lesser Seas For it is obserued that about great Brittaine it mounts sometimes aboue 80 cubits also it oftner ebbes and flowes in lesser currents because the spaces of this libration are shorter and straâ—ghter or because besides the motion of ebbing and flowing which the Mediterranean seas partake from the Ocean at Hercules Pillars they haue a proper libration in their owne channels whence it comes to passe that in some narrow seas as in the Euripus besides Euboia the sea seauen times a day ebbs and flowes whereof there can no sufficient reason be giuen from the motion of the Moone or other cause whereto other Philosophers ascribe this effect This opinion of Caesalpinus seemes to carry great likelyhood of reason and congruity with experience yet because it is grounded on the circular motion of the Earth which seemes a paradox to most men I dare not warrant it otherwise then probable neither can it well stand with the grounds of our Magneticall Philosophers because they affirme the whole spheare of the Earth and Water together with the Aire to moue round with one Vniforme revolution in such sort as one should not moue to the opposite part or stay behind the other as they would haue it here to doe There is yet another opinion more commonly defended in the schooles of naturall Philosopherâ— that this motion of the sea is to bee ascribed to the Moone as the principall cause others againe as they admit the Moone to haue her operation in this effect ioyne other causes to it and indeed this seemes more probable for there want not arguments in Patricius and other later writers to shew that the Moone cannot be the sole cause of this motion First because this motion is not obserued in all seas Lakes and Riuers wheâ—eupon neuerthelesse the Moone hath the like dominion But experience shewes the contrary for besides fresh Riuers it is manifest by obseruation of trauailers that this ebbing and flowing is not to be found in the Hircâ—â— Mantian and Dead sea also in Maotis Palus in the Pontick Propontiâ—ke Ligurian and Narbon streytes neither in the Tyrrhene sea Moreouer it is not obserued in a great part of the Red sea Neither can the Narrownesse of the channell excuse it because these seas are great and also for the most part within the Tropicke of Cancer and therefore exposed sometimes to the perpendicular beames of the Moone Secondly If the Moone should by her owne â—orce excite and moue these waterâ— then would it moue those seas which it doth moue Altogether and not only in parts The contrary whereof we may find First in the Red Sea which in the beginning and end Ebbes and flowes but in the middle not at all moreouer the Mediterranean sea ebbes flowes as one sea on all the coasts of Africa wherein it is in a sort diuided and yet those seas with which it is ioyned as the Tyrrhene Ligurian and Gallican Seas feele not any such motion Thirdly it is obiected that if the Moone were the only cause of this Flâ—x and Reflux of the sea then those seas which are said in whole to moue should aequally flow in hight but this is contradicted by experience because some flow higher and some lower As for example The Adriatick sea in the inmost creeke neere Venice swels neere foure foote in hight but the rest of it not aboue two â—oote which increase is likewise obserued in the Aegean Cretian Ionian and Cyprian Seas also the Syrian and Aegyptian euen to Portus Ferinae But from mons pulcher to the Herculean streytes it increaseth aboue two foot in length But without these straights the same Ocean by the coasts of Portugall and Biscay and France the Sea riseth vsually to 15 foot in hight and neere the coasts of Belgia and Brittaine 18 foot At the confines of Bristoll to 60 and thence to the borders of S. Michael to 60 But at the coasts of Aethiopia neere the Atlantick shores it riseth not higher then in the Adriatick Sea But neere the Ilands
forth these vapours if the vapours kept vnder doe raise the sea vp or if the Sea swell with these vapours in her wombe how can she let them out 2 How will he proue the Sea naturally to be hot sith it is one of the cold Elements Thirdly where he saith that the light of the Moone is but in halfe imparted to the Sea why should not the Sea proportionally in halfe be stirred vp wherfore Patricius and Casman finding neither the Sunne nor the Moone of it selfe to be a sole or sufficient cause of this motion hauing ioyned them both together in this causality and added besides other particular causes first say they there are two kind of causes concurring to that effect either Vniuersall and externall or Particular internall and next causes The Vniuersall causes are two to wit the Sunne and the Moone The Sunne saith he with the heat of his beames and light doth conserue viuificate and stirre vp to action the Internall and originall heat in all things here below This Heat being stirred vp and viuificated all things are made fit for motion and being so accommodated are stirred vp to motion as if from an Internall life they should be promoted to an Externall for as in the primâ—ry life of things the motion and action is shewn in the Essence in the secondary the action and motion outwardly in respect of other things so the first and originall heat of the Sea cherished stirred vp by the external heat of the Sun driues the Ocean and moues it to action The Moone also cherisheth preserueth viuificates nourisheth and stirres vp to motion all these earthly humours and moistures and as she dayly by houres beholds the Sun as her darling and by him is as it were big-bellied with liuely seedes so she beholdes her loue the Ocean dayes and nights and fills the Ocean with these seeds which she receiues from the Sunne But this cannot be performed without her motion without the diffusion of her light without the effusion of her influeÌ„ce seeds wherefore it cannot otherwise bee but all our humours and moistures should be made fruitfull conceiue life bring forth beare fruit and be stirred vp to life and motion by the motion of the Moone through the Aspect of the Moone with the Sun with the Earth with the Ocean wherfore all lower moistures are subiect to the power of the Moone Notwithstanding all are not aequally vnder her dominioÌ„ sith all are not of the same substance of the same Rarity or density or of the same Heat reasons all â—aged from the Caspian Sea may be ascribed to the thicknesse of the water not suffering any thing to sinke into it So that for the crassitude of it it must needs be heauier then other Water and so more vnapt for motion Thirdly it is recorded by some that in the inmost creeke of the Red sea there is a motion and so in the mouth of it by reason of the Ocean but in the middle no such matter is to be obserued which strange effect some ascribe to the Thinnesse of the Water one of the causeâ— aboue named begetting fewer and weaker Vapours and Spirits which either streightway breath out or are too weake to raise vp the Water This thinnesse is confirmed to be in that midle part of the Red sea not onely out of the authority of Iohn Barro out of the experiments of Iohn de Castro which found this Water to be cleare and liker to Christall then that of other parts but also by the cleare perspicuity of it For in almost all the sea may the bottome plainly be seene Fourthly we reade the like of the Baltick sea that it neuer ebbes or flowes which Bartholomew Kackerman that countri-man ascribeâ— 1. To the Narrownesse of the channell 2. To the depth of it 3. To the northerne situation which cause I thinke hee might well haue spared considering that more Northerne seas then that both ebbe and flowe Fiftly it is reported of Maotis Pontus and Proppotis that they flowe from the one to the other but neuer ebbe For Maotis flowes into the Pontick sea as from the Higher place into the lower and the Pontick into the Propontick Aegean for the same cause but returne not back againe But besides this cause of this declinity of the ground it standes with reason that the Water should be fresher then that in other places of the sea For first all of them receiue into them many and great Riuers of fresh Water for Maotis Palus besides other partakes of Tanais Into Pontus fall according to Arcanus report about 52 fresh Riuers whereof the chiefe are Ister Hispanis Boristhenes Tanais Phasis all great currents SecoÌ„dly the forenamed fishes which delight in fresh springs are here also found in abundance Besides this freshnesse if wee beleeue ancient writers as Pliny and others it is a sea of extraordinary depth so that for this cause some part of it was called Negrepont or the blacke-sea Which blacknesse was by some thought to arise from the depth of it wherein in many places they could sound no bottome Sixtly it is â—estified of the Tyrrhene Ligurian and Narbon seas that they suffer not this motion The cause of which is onely ascribed to the extreame depth for few or no Riuers are disburthened into it except Rhodanus We are in the next place to shew why this working of the sea is more in one place then in another The reasons whereof although many be thought on are chiefly reduced either to the excâ—sse of saltnesse in the water or the narrownesse of the channell into which from an open place the sea is to be disburthened or the shallownesse of the shore All which either concurring together or taken by themselues apart may cause the sea to swell more in one place theÌ„ another which may as the former bee proued by diuerse Instances Foure Seas are more particularly noted to flow and swell higher then other The first is that compasseth about Europe from Hercules pillars which according to diuerse shores takes diuerse names as the Portugall Cantabrian Gallican Belgicke and British Seas And in the New World or America the Southerne Sea shall be the second The third is that of Cambaia and India The fourth is that which compasseth about Taprobana for the three last the causes fore-specified seeme manifestly to concurre for Taprobana is reported by Pliny to haue a shore not aboue sixe paces deepe and the Sea to be greene and ouergrowne with weeds in so much that the tops of the weedes fret their ships and later Writers report that the Land is knowne to augment the confines by reason of the shallownesse of the Water so as wee haue shewed that some Seas neither ebbe nor flow by reason of the depth of the channell so on the other side must it follow that other Seas ebbe and flow more by reason of the shortnesse and shallownesse of the shores for of contrary câ—uses proceede ordinarily contrary effects Moreouer it
stands with experience that in any Water or Sea where the flood is stopped and hindred by quicke-sands it returnes with greater force as it were enraged and swelâ— so much the higher which is the cause why in the coasts of Cambaia it is liâ—ted vp so high because the shores are so shallow and so short and exposed to impediments that in the ebbâ— the Sea â—â—ns backe many miles leaues the sandâ— vncouered Whence it must needs returne with greater violence This also is found in the Indian Sea and neere Panama in the Southerne Sea where the Sea ruÌ„ning back for two leagues certaine Ilands and Lands are left naked so that in these three Seas here named the Sea seemes to enlarge its limits in bredth more then in other places to which we may ascribe this effect For the Seas about Europe wee may pronounce also that for the most part they haue short shallow shores as may easily appeare in the confines of Belgia But it may be obiected of the English shores that they swell very high albeit the depth of the Water in the middle is found to be 144 foot Here must we haue recourse to the other cause the flowing of a large wide sea into a narrow channell for the large torrents of water running swiftly into a narrow channell being hindred on both sides by the shores from spreading it selfe in bredth is enforced to swell in hight so that the effect is rather to be ascribed to the violence of a greâ—t current enbosoming it selfe into a streite channell which may more euidently shew it selfe in 3 instances For in the streite chanels of Zeland and Holland it is lifted vp about three foote At Bristoll in England by reason of a greater force of Waters running from the Sea into a more narrow channell and seconded by the maine Ocean at the backe it swels to the hight of 60 foote In the Armorean seas where larger seas are emptied into more narrow streites then the former it increaseth to 90 foote Out of which experiments may wee plainely collect that to the increase of the motiâ—n of the sea besides the saltnesse of the Water two other causes are concurring to wit the shallownesse of the shore and the streitnesse of the channell wherein a great and large sea is to bee exâ—â—erated This may lastly bee farther illustrated from the disparity of these seas with others for in the Adriaticke Egaan Ionian and almost all the African seaâ— the sea seldome swels to so great a measure whereof the cause is as well the depth of the seas as the equality of thâ— shores for as the depth is a cause that sometimes it flowes not at all and the inequality and shortnesse of the shore that it flowes high so a meane hight of the Waters from the bottome and a more equall figuration of the coasts may bee a cause of an indifferent working of the Water Hitherto wee haue shewed the variety of motion in the sea in regard of the diuersity of places wee are next to speake something concerning the variation of it in regard of the times which though it properly appertaine not to Geography yet am I loath to leaue it out because the discourse is pleasant Concerning which point the Marriners make six degrees of change in the tides according to the times First diurnall whereof wee speake in this discourse The second Hebdomedary or weekely which Possidonius called monethly or weekely because it is distinguished by seuerall weekes of a moneth but tarries not till the end of the moneth For it is found by experience of Nauigatours that a day before the coniunction of the Moone with the Sunne and the day of coniunction and a day afterwards the seas in the maine Ocean haue their greatest flowes and ebbes being lifted higher and laid lower downe and then the tides are most swift The fourth day from the coniunction the tide is lesse and lesse swift The fift yet lesse then then the former and the sixt day lesse then the fift But in the seuenth day which is a day before the quarter and in the eight following wherein it is halfe-faced and in the ninth which is a day after the quarter the sea is as it were dead not much stirring neither much ebbing or much flowing which was as it seemes only obserued by Pliny in the Euboian Euripus but whether it so happen else-where I leaue to men experienced in these matters This motion as it doth encrease according to the age of the Moone So it is said proportionally to decrease againe The third motion is monethly which seemes in the time of the coÌ„iunction wherein the sea-tides are highest and swiftest The fourth is called motus semestris or six-monthly happening at the times of the Equinoctiall differing one from the other like monethes The fift is called Trimestris because it happeneth onely in three moneths distance The last is Annuall which Patricius witnesseth that himselfe saw in Liburnia in the moneth of Ianuary These motions I carelesly passe ouer because the distinction seemes to me full of vncertainty and sâ—arce warranted and such experiments as are brought for the proofe of it concerne rather particular places then the generall nature of the sea 3 Hitherto of the generall motion of the sea The Speciall is that which is obserued in some speciall places 1 It is probable that the sea is carried somewhere from East to West and somewhere from North to South and contrariwise It hath beene a receiued opinion amongst Philosophers of this later age that the sea by the rapture of the heauens should be moued round as it were in a diurnall course which they haue lâ—boured to proue by diuers experiments First because it is obserued by Marriners that a ship can well saile from Spaine into America with an indifferent winde in 30 dayes when she can hardly returne vnder three moneths which they ascribe to the circular motion of the sea For a ship going from East to West sailes with the Water but from West to East against the streame so that the one must needes bee swifter and the other slower Their second experiment to confirme this point is of a ship sayling from Spaine to Holland which may as they say swifter returne backe then goe thither To this motion of the Water from East to West Iulius Scaliger hath added another which he would haue to be from North to South from Terra Laboratoris Southward But Patricius not denying these motions would haue many more in diuerse seas not admitting any vniuersall circular motion enforced by the heauens but various motions diuersly disposed in diuers seas for which hee giues many instances some whereof wee will here relate First going about to disproue Scaligers opinion and experience hee brings the experiment of the Portugall Nauigatours who testifie that they came from Mosambicke of the side on Madagascar into Malebar in 28 sometimes in 30 other times in 35 dayes which is farre from the accompt of
of the superficies of the Water compared to the superficies the Earth vncouered which should be higher in place of which shall be this Theoreme 1 The superficies of the Sea is some-where higher then the superficies of the Earth some-where lower There hath beene a great dispute among Phylosophers concerning the poâ—ition of the Sea in respect of the Land whether it bee higher or lower some haue beene of an opinion that the Water is higher which opinion was defended by Tully in his Booke De Natura Deorum where hee saith that the Sea being placed aboue the Earth yet couering the place of the Earth is congregated and collected neither redounding nor flowing abroad which afterwards seemes to be seconded by diuers learned Diuines who reducing most things to the supernaturall and first cause diuers times neglected and ouer-slipt the second Hence Saint Basil in his 4 Homily on the Hexameron lest the water saith hee should ouerflow and sâ—red it selfe out of the place it hath occupied it is commanded to gather it selfe together otherwise what should hinder the Red Sea to ouerâ—flow all Egypt being lower then it â—elfe vnlesse it were manicled with the Creatours power as it were with setters to which also afterwards seeme to subscribe Aquinâ—â— Dionisius and Catharinus with diuers other Diuines who held that the first discouery of the Earth and the gathering together of the Waters in the first Creation was made not by any mutation in the Earth but by a violent accuâ—ulation of the Waters being as it were restrained and bridled supernaturally that they could not transcend certain limits and bounds To confirme this opinion some reasons are alleaged by moderne Philosophers first because it is the ordeâ— of all the Elements amongst themselues that the Earth as the heauiest should take the lower place and the water should ascend aboue Secondly because Marriners comming from the maine Ocean to the Land seeme to see the land farre lower then the Water Thirdly they alleage thaâ— place of Iâ—b wheâ—e God himselfâ— professeth that he hath bounded the Waterâ— in these words Hitherto shalâ— thou come and no farther here shall thy proud waues be stayed But this opinion seemeth very improbable that God in the first institution of Nature should impose a perpâ—tuall violence vpon Nature sith wâ—â—ee the Creator in other maâ—ters to vse Nature as his ordinary â—eruant and to administer the Regiment of things by â—econd causes Neither were the authority of these Diuines so great in thâ—se Cosmoâ—râ—phicall conceipts to ouersway these of the same profession who could more exactly iudge of these matters Neither are these reasons of so greaâ— validity as to enforce assent For first whereas St Basill seemes to wonder why the Red Sea should not ouerâ—lowe all Aegypt if it were not supernâ—turally bounded he takes that as granted which is the question in controversie that the Water is higher for which he can produce no other reason thâ—n the Testimony of the sense but this is very weak forasmuch as in such matters the sense is oftentimes deceiued as stands well with the grounds of the perspectiues for as weare there taught two Parallels will in the end seeme to concurre so far as the sight can iudge Now the Spheare of the Heauens and the Sphericall segment of the Waters being parallell the one to the other will necessarily seeme to concurre to the end whence it must needs come to passe that that part of the Sea must seeme â—o lift it selfe higher â—nd contrarywise the Heâ—uens will seeme somewhat lower then indeed they are and this I take to be the true cause why the Sea being seene a great way off may appeare raised aboue the land whereon we stand Another reason may bee giuen from the perpetuall Refraction of the vsuall Lines comming from the Sea to our sight For the Aire neere the Sea being alwayes intermixed with thicke watrish vapours rising vp the Seâ— must of necessity be presented in a thicker Medium by a refracted sight whence coÌ„sequently it must seeme greater higher then indeed it is for as the Opticks teach all things seeme greater higher in a thicker Medium To the other three Reasons brought to coÌ„firme this assertion it is no hard thing to answer To the first which would out of the order of the Elements inforce that the Water is higher â—hen the Earth I answer as before that if we intirely consider these Elements amongâ—t themselues we must giue the hight to the Water for as much as the greatest part of the Eâ—rth lies â—rowned for that aboue beaâ—es no sensible proportion in respect of the parts of the Earth vncouered But here we compare not the 2 Elements intirely betwixt themselues but the superficies of the Water with the parts of the Earth vncouered habitable which superficies of the earth notwithstanding this reason may bee higher then the Water Secondly where they produce the testimony of the sight for my own part I can warrant no such experience hauing neuer launced far into the deep yet if any such experiment be auouched it may easily bee answered out of opticall Principles that comming out of the maine Ocean towards the land by reason of the sphericall conueâ—ity of the water interposed betweene our sight and the lower part of the land those land parcels must needs seeme lesse as hauing some parts shadowed from our fight whence it must consequently appeare lower as couched almost vnder water From the 3d reason grounded on Scripture whereon our diuines seeme most to depend nothing else is concluded but that Almighty God hath set certaine bounds limits which the Waters should not passe These bounds limits I take not to be supernatural as if the water restrained by such a power should containe it selfe within its own circuit But naturall as clifâ—s â—ils within which the waters seems intrenced This opinion therefore being disliked others haue laboured to defend an opposite position that the water is lower then the Earth altogether which opinion beares more constancy with the doctrine of Arist. most of our modern Philosophers The reason wheron this assertion is grounded be chiefly these 1 If the sea were higher then the Earth what should hinder the water of it froÌ„ flowing â—broad ouerwhelming the Earth sith all men will confesse that the water is by nature disposed to moue downwards to the lower place If they haue recourse to supernatural â—ouÌ„ds besides that we haue spoken coÌ„cerning the interpretatioÌ„â— of such places of Scripture as seeme to fauour this opinioÌ„ we â—nswere as before that it is very improbable that God in the first creation should impose such a perpetuall violence secondly we read that in the vniuersalâ— deluge wherein all the world was drowned God brake open the springs of the deep opened the Cataracts of heauen to powre down raine continually many daies together vpon the Earth Of which there had beene no necessity at all had the sea beene heaâ—ed vp in such
and Compasse durst not aduenture into the Ocean so farre out of sight of land But to giue the opposite part all reasonable aduantage admit the Straites diuiding Asia and America were very narrow and within kenne was it likely that from hence thâ—y could by shipps transport so many kndes of creatures Could we beleeue any man to be so mad as to carry ouer with him Lions Beares Tigers Foxes and other innumerable sorts of rauenous and vnprofitable beasts as pernicious to mankind as other creatures seruing for his vse If any were found so foolish or malicious yet were it very vnlikely hee should transporte so many kinds This argument seemes no more to concerne America then most Ilands of the World wherein we find diuers creatures not only seruing for the vse of man but many vnprofitable hatefull to the Inhabitants The meanes of this transportation is very difficult to finde St Augustine with some other Diuines haue bin driuen to a supernaturall cause as if Almighty God should performe this matter by the ministry of Angels which answer we dare not vtterly reiect being supported by the authority of so great a Pillar of the church yet I cannot so easily imagine that God who vsed naturall meanes for the preseruation of all liuing creatures in the Arke should haue recourse to a supernaturall power in the propagation of these creatures on the face of the Earth wherefore to me the reason would seeme better answered out of our ground which we shall proue hereafter That Ilands were not from the first Creation but afterward broken from the maine Continent by the violence of the Water Hence it might come to passe that such beasts as were in the parts of the Earth so broken off haue since there continued by continuall propagation vntill this day I meane of ravenous and hurtfull beasts because of the others lesse doubt can be made but that they might be convayed from one Country into another by shipping to serue the necessity of mankind Here we see that no argument as yet hath bin vrged so strong against the North-passage but may with reasonable probability be answered It remaines in the second place that we descend somewhat to particulars to inquire whether this be to be effected either towards the North-east or the North-west The North-east passage hath heretofore bin attempted by many of our English Nauigatours but with vnhappy successe yet were not these voyages altogether fruitlesse forasmuch as by this meanes a way was found out to Russia whence began the first trade betweene ours and the Russian Merchants But that litle hope can hence arise sundry reasons may be alleaged the chiefe whereof are these 1 The dangerous rending of the Scythick Cape set by Ortelius vnder 80 degrees Northward together with the perillous sailing in those Northerne Seas alwayes pestred with Ice and Snow seconded by diuerse Bayes or shelues mists fogges long and darksome nights most aduerse to any happy Nauigation 2 The obseruation of the Water which is more shallow towards the East which giues small hope of a through passage because all Seas are fed with waters and for the most part are obserued to be more shallow towards the shore then in the middle But where in sailing forward any Sea is found to decrease in depth it is a likely argument that it is rather a Creeke Bay or Riuer then a Straite Notwithstanding these reasons some haue heretofore gone about to proue a passage by the North-east to Cathay of which opinion was Antony Ienkinson whose reasons be well answered by Sr Humphrey Gilbert which I briefly touch adding some things of mine own as I find occasion The first reason was drawne from a Relation of Tartarian who reported that in hunting the Morse he sailed very far towards the South-east wherein he found no end which might giue a likely coniecture that it was a passage throughout But to this we may easily answere that the Tartarians are a barbarous Nation altogether ignorant of Nauigation which neither know the vse of the Charte Compasse or Celestiall Obseruations therefore in a wide Sea know not how to distinguish the North-east from the South-east Besides the curious search of this long passage must depend on better Discoueries then a poore Fisher-man who seldome dares aduenture himselfe out of sight of land besides the Fisher-man iudging by sight could not see about a kenne at sea which will proue nothing in regard of so long a distance The second Reason vrged by Mr Ienkinson was this that there was an Vnicorne's horne found vpon the coasts of Tartaria which could not come saith he by any other meanes then with the tide in some streight in the North-east in the frozen Sea there being no Vnicorne in all Asia sauing in Iâ—dia and Cataia To this reason I may answer with Sr Humphrey Gilbert many waies 1 We may well doubt whether Tartarians knowe a true Vnicornes horne or no 2 It is credible that it could bee driuen so farre by the Tide being of such a Nature that it cannot swimme 3 The Tides running to and fro would haue driuen it as farre backe with the Ebbe as it brought it forward with the Floud 4 the Horne which was cast on this coast might be the Horne of an Asinus Indicuâ— which hath but one Horne like an Vnicorne in his fore-head whereof there is great plenty in all the North parts as in Lappia Norvegia Finmarke as Zeigler testifies in his History of Scandia 5 Lastly there is a fish which hath a Horne in his â—ore-head câ—lled the Sea Vnicorne whereof Martin Frobisher foâ—nd one on the coast of Newfound-land and gaue it to Queene Elizabeth which was said to be put into her wardrope But whether it be the same which is at this day to be seene at Winsor Castle I cannot tell The third and strongest reason which was vrged for the North-east passage was this That there was a continuall current through the Frozen Sea of such swiftnesse that if any thing were throwne into the water it would presently be caried out of sight To this we may easily answer that this strong current is not maintained by any Tide coÌ„ming from another Sea but by diuerse great Riuers falling into this streight In like sort we find a strong current from Maeotis Palus by Pontus Euxinus Sinus Bosphorus and along all the coast of Greci as Contarenus and diuerse other affirme out of their own experience and yet the Sea lyeth not open to any other Sea but is maintained by Tanais and diuerse other riuers so in this North-east part may this current of water be maintained by the Riuers Duâ—â—a Ob and many others which continually fall into it Hitherto haue we treated of other passages either effected or attempted to Cathay and the East Indies The last and most desired and sought in our time is that by the North West This way hath bin often attempted as by Cabot Dauis Frobisher Hudson Sr Thomas Button and
Geographer to obserue in those matters shall generally be comprised in this Theoreme 1 Woods in these dayes are not so frequent nor so great as in ancient times We cannot imagine otherwise then that the Earth soone vpon the flood bearing in her wombe the seeds of all vegetals being inwardly moistned and outwardly comforted with Heat should presently abound with plants of all sorts in so much as in a short time each thing propagating it selfe by communication of his own seeds the whole Earth was ouergrown as one forrest but afterwards as man began to spread and multiply on the face of the Earth these Woods and Thickets began to suffer chastisement vnder the hand of laborious husbandry For first to open a passage from one place vnto another and that some parcels of ground should as pastures bee diuided from Woody acres it was necessary that this great plenty of trees should suffer a decrease yet little had this beene noted in so vast a store had not the inuention of building of houses by little and little turned great forrests into Cities which for the most part owed not only their first originall but also their daily reparation to Trees and Timber but aboue all the greatest deuourer of Woods and Forrests is Fire an element fed and nourished almost of no other matter For to let passe the ordinary vse of fire in euery house and family which in so infinite a multitude of people in so many yeeres since the Flood must require an extraordinary proportion of wood and fuell how many Arts haue beene since inuented depending onely vpon this Element we will goe no farther then the Art of Liquefaction fining of gold and other mettals found out in the bowels of the Earth wherein the couetousnesse of men hath been as vnsatiâ—ble as the fire To this which wee haue said may probably be opposed two things first the power and inclination of euery Creature to multiply and propagate it selfe Secondly the industry of mankind in seconding that inclination Whence it may bee coniectured that great woods should by durance increase to a greater quantity for the former no man will deny but that plants and trees left to themselues will commonly propagate their kind neuerthelesse it cannot preuaile so much as the other which procure the decrease first because the Earth being dryer now then soone vpon the Flood cannot so much further the growth of vegetals as then it did Secondly because as wee haue said this growth in a populous Countrey cannot bee so great as the diminution since few or no houses can want so necessary an Element as fire To the second wee answer that mans industry hath done somewhat in plantation of groues and such like but how little is this in comparison of the huge and vast forrests in time by man wasted and consumed We shall read of Germany that in the time of Caesar it seemed a wilde Countrey hauing many great woods and forrests but few Cities but now the case being altered we shall find the Cities both in number and greatnes increased and the Woods diminished Two instances may suffice the one of the Forrest of Ardenna in Lutzemburg accompted in Caesars time 500 miles ouer now scarce 50. The other of Sylua Hyrcinia which heretofore if we beleeue Histories reached so far as a man could trauaile in 60 dayes but now is made the onely limit or bound diuiding Bohemia from the rest of Germany The like may bee obserued almost of euery other Countrey reduced to ciuility 2 Places moderatly situated towards the North or South Pole abound more in Woods then neere the Equatour This situation wee vnderstand to comprehend almost all the temperat Zone reaching either way so farre as 60 degrees or there about The demonstration of this Theoreme depends of these two foments of all plants Heat and Moisture both which concurre not only to the abundance and fertility but also to the greatnesse of all plants for it is most certaine that wheresoeuer these two vitall succours are wanting or deficient there must be a great scarcity of trees fruits herbage and such like This is the cause why the Regions far North neere about the Pole beyond 60 degrees haue not onely scarcity of trees but haue them such as are of a farre smaller quantity then other Regions lying more temperate For the internall and naturall heat is almost extinguished with the extremity of cold and the moisture as it were dried vp by the frosty disposition of the Region To this cause may wee ascribe that which Geographers haue deliuered concerning Island that for want of Timber they couer their houses with fish-bones digging out houses in the sides of Rockes and mountaines Moreouer that the meere defect of moisture may cause a scarcity of growth may bee proued by many places 1 because temperate Regions which are Mountainous and lying higher produce trees of small length Bodin testifies as a thing very remarkeable that hee hath obserued oakes in France not exceeding 3 or 4 feet But this is no great wonder with vs in England sith in the dry and barren plaines about Salisbury there are many examples not much different All which we can ascribe to no other cause then the want of moisture On the other side as great or greater a defect of heat moisture is found neere the Equatour by reason of the externall heat of the Sunne which in all plants and vegetalls not onely euaporates the moisture and by consequence causeth drowth but by the extraction of Internall heat leaueth a greater cold behind correspondent to that humour in a man which we call Melancholy and choler-adust But this extremity of heat causing this defect of internall heat moisture wee place not directly vnder the Equinoctiall because we haue shewed it to be more temperate but rather vnder the Tropicks which by experience are found scorched with great heat How subiect these places vnder the Tropickes are to this sterility we need goe no farther then Libia and Numidia to confirme Places by the report of trauailers indigent not onely of Woods and Trees but almost of all vitall succours Whereas the Woods Forrests dispersed almost in euery region of Europe and the more temperate parts of Asia are celebrated of all writers Yet whereas wee haue defined the chiefest places for the growth of Woods to be towards the North so farre as 60 degrees or there-abouts wee cannot warrant this as an absolute generall obseruation because some places lying very low and subiect to much moisture though situat more Southerly may enioy this proportion as we haue formerly shewed of trees neere the Riuer Hiarotis recorded by Strabo to haue their noone shadowes of 5 furlongs as also of certaine trees in America neere Riuo Negro wherein as Peter Martyr writes a King dwelt with all his family But these places howsoeuer situat towards the South are as Geographers deliuer vnto vs most times of the yeere ouerwhelmed with Water consisting all of marish
Helicâ— and Bura before mentioned in the Corinthian straites some haue beene of opinion that the whole Mediterranean within Hercules pillars was in time past habitable land till it gaue way to the violency of the Seas inuasion But in this I credit nothing without farther ground The like vncertainties are also related of the Atlantick Ilands greater then all Africa swallowed vp of the Ocean which Columbus was said in a sort to haue discouered in the Sea finding a great shallow fraught with weedes where he supposed this great Iland to haue stood But I rather beleeue that this Atlanticke Iland spoken of by Plato was either a Poeticall fiction as Moores Vtopia with vs or at least the Continent of America perhaps in those dayes obscurely discouered but the discouery lost againe to after ages 3 Certaine Regions by reason of great Riuers are subiect to certaine Anniuersary Inundations which commonly happen betwixt the Tropicks in the Summer without the Tropicks in the Winter The former clause is proued by experience almost in all great Riuers in the world which at some times of the yeere swell higher ouerflowing their bankes and drowning a part of the land about them But this happens not alike in all places for in Riuers included within the Tropicks as Nilus Niger in Africa and Oregliana in America with others there-about this Anniuersary Inundation is in the SuÌ„mer else-where it is commonly in the Winter For the former these causes may be assigned 1 The melting of the snow on the tops of the great mouÌ„taines in those parts which is greatest of all when the Sun is neerest or verticall vnto them which we are to accompt their Summer 2 The daily raines showres such Regions are subiect vnto These showres are much more frequent greater when the Sun is neerest their verticall point or in it The reason whereof we haue formerly shewed to bee this That the Sun daily in those parts drawes vp more vapours then he can dissipate consume Whence meeting with the cold of the middle Region of the Aire they are condensated into drops so turned into raine For the later case in riuers situat without the Tropicks coÌ„monly happens the contrary to wit that such Inundations happen rather in the winter then in the Summer whereof these reasons may bee rendred 1 Because Raine and showres whereof such ouer-flowing are ingendred in those parts are more frequent in winter then in the Summer 2 whereas neere the Equatour the snow is known to melt with the Sunne from the tops of high Mountaines in other parts it seldome or neuer melts at all as may bee thought vnder the Pole or thereabouts or else if it melt it happens as in the temperat Zones we see it doth oftner by raine then the heat of the Sunne 4 Next are we to speake of Earthquakes An Earthquake is a sensible motion and shaking of the parts of the Earth Amongst other remarkeable affections of a place which are not so ordinary an Earthquake hath no small consideration being oftentimes a meanes which God vseth to shew some great and extraordinary iudgement But not to spend more on this subiect then may seeme meete for Geography wee will shew the causes and kindes of it by which we may the sooner come to learne what Regions and places of the Earth are most subiect to this affection which is necessary of a Cosmographer to bee knowne Concerning the cauâ—es of it much dispute hath been among Philosophers some haue ridiculously affirmed that the Earth is a liuing creature and suppose with no lesse if not greater abâ—urdity that the Earth being in good temper doth rest settle quietly according to her naturall disposition From which temper if she be any way remoued as if she were sicke or pain'd in some part she shakes and shiuers The relation of this opinion is a sufficient confutation Thales Milesius would haue the Earth as a shippe to swimme on the Waters which being sometimes as a vessell by tempests turned on one side too much it takes a great quantity of water which is the cause of Earthquakes But this opinion is a poeticall fiction Little more probable is the opinion of Democritus that the Earth drinking in raine water more then her cauernes can well containe the water reuerberated backe is cause of such a motion But who can imagine that drops of raine falling into the Earth can bee reuerberated backe with such violence to cause such an extraordinary motion of the Earth Anaximenes Milesius was of opinion that the Earth her selfe was cause of her own motion for the parts of it being taken out as it were and broken fall downe sometimes into a great depth causing the vpper face of it to shake and tremble to which opinion also Seneca seemes to subscribe in the sixt booke of his naturall questions the 10 chapter To which also accords the Philosophicall Poet Lucretius in these words Terra superna tremit magnis concussa ruinis Subter vbi ingentes speluncas subruit aetas Quippe cadunt toti montes magnoque repentè Concussu laâ—è dispergunt inde Tremores Et meritò quoniam plaustris concussu tremiscunt Tecta viam propter non magno pondere tota The vpper Earth seaz'd with great ruines shakes When surrowed age her vast ribbes ouertakes For mountaines great fall downe and with the blow The Tremblings are dispersed to and fro Not without reason when a small-siz'd waine Makes houses neere the way to shake amaine This last opinion seemes to carry more shew ofprobability then the former neither can any man deny that sometimes the Earth in some parts may shake by the breaking downe of some subterranean parts whose suddain and violent motion may cause the rest being continuate to entertaine the like conuulsion But yet more generall seemes the opinion of Aristotle who would haue Earthquakes to proceed from a spirit or vapour included in the bowells of the Earth as he testifies in the 2 of his Meteors the 7 chapter For this vapour finding no way to passe out is enforced to returne backe and batred any passage out seekes euery corner and while it labours to breake open some place for going forth it makes a tumultuous motion which is the Earth-quake Now least it should seeme improbable that so great a masse of Earth should bee moued and shaken by so thinne and rarefied a body as is a fume or vapour Aristotle in the same place shewes the admirable force of Winds as well vpon the Aire as on the bodies of liuing creatures In the Aire because experience shewes that being stirred vp by a Windy vapour it sometimes is knowne to moue rockes from one place to another to plucke vp trees and shrubbs by the rootes and sometimes to throw downe the strongest and most stately buildings In mans body because by the stirring vp and agitation of the spirits which are the Instruments of vitall and animall functions sometimes one sicke man can doe that which cannot
truly they can rather admire then imitate and better set vs the materâ—alls then inuent the workemâ—nship like those distressed Israelites which were enforced to runne vnto the Philistines to haue their swords sharpened As we ascribe to those nations of the North this perfection in operatiue and externall faculties So cannot wee deny the Southerne man his due prerogatiue which is Religion Contemplation For these nations being aboue all other affected with melancholy willingly withdrâ—w themselues from common society into Desarts and remote receptacles more accommodated to abstracted meditation For contemplation being of the Hebrewes tearmed a precious death hath a speciall force to sharpen the wits of men and by separation as it were from the dregges of the vulgar not onely opens vnto him the seâ—rets of nature but giueâ— him wings to â—lie vp to heauen in sacred meditation Whence it cannot seeme strange that from these parts at first proceeded the Prophets Philosophers Mathematicians of great estimation Alâ—o that almost all Religions of any great moment owe their first originall to those parts we need roue no farther then the Hebrewes Chaldaeans Aegyptians Graecians whom wee shall find the first founders of Diuine and Humane sciences Which historicall obseruation dissents not any whit from the iudgement of the Naturalists Because as Huarâ—â—s obserues the true â—oment of the best vnderstanding consisâ—s in the cold and drye braine incident to melancholy And Aristoâ—le obserues that beasâ—s theÌ„selues are so much the more adiudged to approach the prudencie of man by how much they parâ—ake the quality of cold An instance of which may bee giuen in the Elephant whose bloud according to Plinys Testimony is coldest of all other Creatures To this I might adde for an argument of the râ—ligious disposition of the Southerne man 〈…〉 Afâ—r writes â—oncerning the vast number of Temples in â—ome places of Africke as about Fesse Morocco their strict obsâ—ruation of holy rites their â—igide Ecclesiasticall censure witâ— such like What is spoken by Aluarez of the hill Aâ—iarâ— in the midst of Africke of their strange Library Churches Pallaces with other matters of this purpose would serue well to my purpose had â— the ingenuity to beleâ—ue the Iâ—sâ—â—te But against this may be obiected perchance that the Chrisâ—ian Religion which is the truest and only Religion hath no great footing as yet amongst thoâ—e Southerne Nations Secondly that their Churches haue no perfect platforme of Ecclesiasticall gouernment as we find in other Churches towards the Northâ—rne tract To the first I answer that we here speake of the Inclination of men to Religious exercises so far forth as it depends on their naturall disposition not respecting this or that Religion for to bee informed in the true Religion and reiect all other depends not any way on the naturall Inclination of men but on the immediate gift of the Almighty God which is pleased oftentimes to make elecâ—â—on of one Nation before the other to make the one according to the Apostle a vessell of honour the other of dishonour To the second I likewise answer that in Religion two things are to be conâ—idered First the Religious and deuouâ— Inclination of man to embrace diuine contemplation Secondly the well ordering and gouerâ—ing of Religious aâ—â—ions according to Lawes and Statutes pertaâ—ning to the externâ—ll regiâ—ent of the Church The foâ—mer onely being granâ—ed to â—he Southerne man wee may ascribe the perfection of the other to the people of the middle Region whom we haue pronounced to bee most happy in the managing of â—iuill afâ—aires and Politicke gouernment Now to proue this people to bee bâ—st endowâ—d with this faculty many reasons may bee alleaged because according to the testâ—mony of most approued writers wee haue found Lawes Manners Statutes the best manner of gouerning Common-wealths to haue proceâ—ded from these Nations For Histories will shew vs that the greatest and bâ—st empires of the world haue flourished in Asia Greece Asyâ—ia Italy France Germany which lie betwixt the Equâ—tour the Pâ—le from the 40 to the 50 degrees And that out of these haue alway proceeded the best commanders the most prudent States-Men and Law-giuers the wisest Lawyers the most eloquent Oratours the wariest Merchants Whereas neither Africa in the South nor Scythia in the North could euer boast of many Law-giuers or States-Men worthy note whence Galen complaines that Scythia neuer brought forth any Philosopher besides Anacharsis of any great credit 3 The People of the Extreame Region towards the Poles in Martiall prowesse haue commonly proued stronger then those neere the Equatour but the middle people more prouident then either in the establishment and preseruation of Commonwealths The grounds of this Proposition wee haue layd before for the former clause that the people of the North should proue more puissant then these of the South may well bee concluded out of their naturall strength of body and their courage of the minde whereof the latter makes them â—eady to attempt the other to execute most chiualrous designes Neither want there most true and pregnant examples in history to second this principle for euery man that is indifferently seene in history may obserue with wonder how the strong Nations of the Scythians haue inuaded the South winning from them many Trophies and victories whereas wee seldome find any expedition set on from the South to the North except to the losse or ruine of the South worth any memorable relation To this many would haue these threatning prophecies of Ieremy Ezechiel and Esay to allude which foretold that from the North should issue warres troopes of horsemen and the Ruines of Kingdomes This we shall obserue to bee true not only in the generall but almost in all particular States which wee shall find propagated from the North to the South The Assyrians at first ouercame the Chaldâ—â—â—s the Medes the Assyrians the Persians the Medes the Greekes the Persians the Parthians the Greeks the Romans the Cartâ—aginians the Gothes the Romans the Turkes the Arabians the Tartars the Turkes and howsoeuer the Romans by their prowesse wanne somewhat towards the North yet found they by experience that beyond Danubius no great matter was to be expected for as much as these Nations could not be easily vanquished and being ouercome would not away with subiection which as some say was the cause that Traian hauing built a great Bridge of stone ouer the Danow was perswaded to breake it downe Tacitus expressely confesseth that the Germans were too hard for the Romans and could not haue beene ouercome by them but by the aduantage of the weapons and manner of fight wherein the Romans hauing long continued a ciuill Nation had practised themselues which he secondeth by many instances drawne from seuerall conflâ—cts betwixt the Germans and the Romans which he might well speake for as much as himselfe reports 210 yeeres were spent in the conquest of Germany and no Nation so much troubled them as this which notwithstanding when all was past was
broken and cut off After which Spaine and Italy found a meanes to free themselues from their bondage Likewise the Colonyes of the Celtes and Romans endeauoured alwaies to settle themselues in the middle Regions and neuer ventured as farre as Scythia Northward or Southward as farre as Aethiopia Whence the middle charged with intermixture of both extreames begat a great diuersity For we find by experience that out of the mixture of diuerse kinds diuerse Formes and Natures are ingendred As of the Mule Leopard Crocuta Lycisca and Camelopardus which being mixt Creatures are vnlike their Sires So may we iudge of the various mixture of diuerse kinds of men A Mastiffe or Lycisca little differs from a Wolfe because he was conceiued of a Wolfe and a Dogge So that a Wolfe is as Varro noteth nothing else then a wilde Dogge But on the other side a Mule from an Asse and a Horse As a Camelopardus from a Panthor and a Camell differ very much so that if people very neere in Nature be linckt together they produce an of-spring very like themselues But if two very vnlike in nature as an Ethiopian and a Scythian should match together they must needs bring forth a birth very vnlike to themselues like a Personated man brought vpon the stage by Ptolomaeus Philedephus who as Athenaeus writes was of two colours on one side white on the other blacke 2 The second point whereby the disposition of people is varied is Education Education is the exercise of many people in religions or morall discipline Amongst all externall causes of the change of dispositions there is none greater then Education For as a good nature is oftentimes corrupted with euill conuersation so an ill disposition with good institution hath in some sort been corrected The chiefe obiects of discipline are Religion and Morality Whereof we giue the chiefest prerogatiue to Religion as that which more immediatly bindeth the consciences of men euen against nature In the second place Ciuility whose end is worldly happinesse How far each of these preuaile shall bee shewed in these Theoremes 1 Education hath great force in the alteration of naturall dispositions yet so as by accident remitted they soone returne to their former temper The force of institution hath been so great that by some it hath been thought to equall if not surmount Nature whence they haue tearmed it a second nature For as wee see all sortes of Plantes and Hearbs by good husbandry to grow better but left to themselues to grow wilde and barren So shall wee find it if not much more in mankind which though neuer so Sauage and Barbarous haue by discipline been corrected and reformed and though neuer so Polite and ciuill neglecting discipline haue degenerated and growne barbarous For if the externall lineaments of the body may bee by art as it were wrought into another mould much more may wee ascribe this to the habits and operations of the mind being of a more agill nature and apter to receiue impression The ancients amongst the French as Bodin testifies deemed a long visage the most handsome Whence the Midwiues endeuoured to frame most faces to this fashion as may bee seene in most ancient statues and images In India as wee also reade a great nose and a broad face was most admitted which caused their Midwiues to effect it as neere as they could in their tender infants In like manner it hath been the endeauour and ambition of most teachers and informers of youth to frame the wits of their nouices to such disciplines and perfections as in the same country found most honor best acceptance Hence it came to passe that custome preuailing beyond nature many nations situate in a ruder climate wanting that benefit of the Heauens which others plentifully inioye haue surpassed them in Artes Sciences and many other Endowments of the minde In so triuiall a matter wee will not roue farre for example It is recorded by the ancients as well of the Germans as of our owne nation that they liued almost in the condition of wilde beasts in Woods and Desarts feeding like swine on hearbs and rootes without law or discipline In so much as their Bardes or learned men as they deemed them wanting the vse of letters challenged their chiefect perfection in the composure of certaine rimes of triuiall subiects to please the people Their houses were caues their pallaces brackes and thickots their tables rockes as one saith of them Antra lares dumeta thoros caenacula rupes They were as Iustine speakes of the infancy of the world rather carefull to keepe their owne then ambitious to conquer others and more studious to preserue life then seeke honour Their onely law was nature or some few customes preserued by tradition not writing Little differing from the present Americans not yet reduced to civility But time and discipline preuailing against barbarisme they are God be praised reduced to such a height of civility that they may as it were reade other mens wantes in their owne perfections and measure other mens losse by their owne gaines Insomuch as they seeme to haue robbed the Asiaticks of humanitie the Romans of militarie Discipline the Hebrewes of Religion the Grecians of Philosophie the Aegiptians of Geometry the Phoenicians of Arithmetick the Chaldaeans of Astrologie and almost all the world of curious Workmanship This their excellency hath bin so fortunate as to set them in the enuy of other nations who notwithstanding haue beene faine to borrow of their store The Italians are censured by Machiauell the Florentine for sending for Germans to measure their land chalenging to themselues the prerogatiue of wit aboue other nations Likewise Pope Leo dispatched his Embassador into Germany for Mathematicians to rectifie the calender as sometimes Caesar into Aegipt This force of discipline how great soeuer being for a time neglected nature is notwithstanding found to returne to her owne corruption A prime example of it we haue in the Romans and Italians heeretofore for Artes and Military discipline carrying away the palme from the whole world But now degenerated so much as it may seeme the image of basenesse submitting their neckes to the pride of an insulting Prelate farre more abiect then the losse of their libertie vnder Caesar or the Gothish vsurpation of Alaricus The like effect of this neglect of discipline may we find in the Hebrewes Chaldaeans Phaenicians Aegiptians Graecians and Indians who were sometimes admired for learning and Eloquence and set in the highest top of perfection Wherefore Aristotle had good reason in his first booke de Coelo to affirme that Artes and Sciences with all nations had beene subiect to ebbes and flowes sometimes flourishing in great perfection and sometimes languishing and contemned And to this and no other cause can we ascribe the present Ignorance and Barbarisme of the Americans Their descent being from Noah and his posterity they could not at first but haue some forme of discipline which afterwards being by long processe of
time or incertainty of tradition neglected and obliterated they fell backe into such wayes as their owne depraued nature dictated or the diuell malitiously suggested 2 By Discipline nations become moâ—e wise and politicke in the preseruations of states yet lesse stout and couragious As Discipline hath been the chiefe cause of the establishment of all states so hath it on the other side been occasion to soften and weaken the courage of many nations For it hath beene many times seene that such people who haue beene commended for wit haue yeelded to such who are of a ruder disposition as at this day the Greeks and Macedons to the Turkes the ancient Gaules to the French the Egyptians to the Persians the Chaldeans to the Saracens Hence some giue a reason why the French did inuade and runne ouer Italy without controle vnder Charles the 5 because the Italian Princes at that time were giuen to study and learning and it is obserued that the ancient courage of the Turke is much abated since the time that they grew more ciuill and more strictly imbraced discipline And this some thinke to haue giuen occasion to Alexander the great to conquer the Persian Monarchie the Persians hauing beene before reduced to ciuility and lost their hardnesse And we daily see by experience that no men are more desperate and aduenturous then those which are rude and barbarous wanting all good manners and education None more fearefull and many times more cowardlike then such as are most wise and politick an example of the former we haue in Aiax of the other in Vlisses wherevpon the wisest lâ—aders and commanders haue not been esteemed the most valiant A certaine English gentleman writing military obseruations affirmes the French nobility to bee more valorous and coragious then the English Because of the loosenesse of their discipline and the strictnesse of ours But I will neither grant him the one or the other neither can I auerre their courage to be greater or our discipline stricter If their valour bee more it must needs follow their wit is lesse out of this ground But how soeuer it be I am sure that Caesar and Tacitus giue the cause of the great stature and courage of the Germans to be their loosenesse and liberty which howbeit it bee not the sole cause it must needs bee a great helpe For wee plainely finde by experience that those countries which be most mountanous where is lesse discipline are found to produce men for the most part most warlicke Such as the Suitzers in Germany and Biscaynâ—s and Arragonians in Spainâ— Whence as some obserue such countries as are partly Mountanous partly plaine are seldome at quiet the one part willingly submitting themselues to gouernment the other affecting warre and rebellion Which hath been the cause of the troubles of Naples and in England before Henry the eight's time betwixt the Welsh and English Why discipline should in this sort mollifie and weaken the courage of men many causes may bee giuen The first and greatest is Religion then the which there is no greater curbe to the courage not meerely of it selfe but by accident Because Death being the greatest hazard of a souldier religion giues a more euident apprehension and sense of the immortality of the soule of man and sets before the eye of his vnderstanding as it were the images of Hell-paines and Caelestiall ioyes weighing in an aequall scale the danger of the one and the losse of the other Whereas ignorant people wanting all sense of religion lightly esteeme of either holding a temporall death the greatest danger Whence grew the vsuall Prouerbe amongst profane Ruffians that conscience makes cowards But this as I said is meerely accidentall For as much as nothing spurres on a true resolution more then a good conscience and a true touch of religion witnesse the holy Martyrs of the Church of all ages whose valour and constancy hath outgone all heathen presidents But because souldiers for the most part being a most dissolute kinde of people hauing either a false religion which can suggest no setled resolution or an ill conscience grounded vpon no assurance Religion must needs beget in them a more fearefull disposition Another cause may bee the seuerity of discipline which especially in the training vp of youth is mixed with a kind of slauery without which our yonger yeers are very vntractable to tast the bitter roots of knowledge This feare as it were stamped in our affections cannot but leaue behind it a continuall impression which cannot suddainly bee razed out Such as we find in vs of our masters and teachers whose friendship we rather imbrace then familiarity A third reason why discipline would weaken and mollifie a Nation may be the delight which men reape in Contemplatiue studies and morall or politicke duties whence followes a neglect of the other For people of knowledge must needs finde a greater felicity in giftes of the minde which is vsually seconded with a contempt of externall and military affaires The last cause may bee the want of vse and practise of military affaires in most common-wealths for many states well established continue a long time without warres neither molesting their neighbours nor dissenting amongst themselues except very seldome and that by a small army without troubling the whole state whence the generall practise being lesse knowne becomes more fearefull Notwithstanding all this it were brutish to imagine discipline any way vnnecessary or hurtfull either to a Captaine or Statesman For as much as it more strengthens the wit then abates the courage of a nation Neither is it properly said to breake and weaken but rather to temper and regulate our spirits For it is not valour but rather rashnesse or fiercenesse which is not managed with policy and discretion And although it hath sometimes beene attended with notable exploites as that of Alexander the great of the Gothes the ancient Gaules and many other Yet shall we obserue such conquests to bee of small continuance For what they atcheiued by strength they lost for want of policy So that it is well said by one that moderation is the mother of continuance to States and Kingdomes Thus haue we run ouer by Gods assistance the chiefe causes of diuersity of dispositions of Nations Wherein if any man will informe himselfe as hee should hee must compare one circumstance with another and make his iudgement not from a man but a nation and not censure any Nation out of one obseruation For practise in Art cannot alwayes come home to speculation So experience in this kinde will oftentimes crosse the most generall rules wee can imagine T is enough to iudge as wee finde and walke where the way is open If any man will desire more curiosity hee may spend more labour to lesse purpose Let euery man by beholding the nationall vices of other men praise Almighty God for his owne happinesse and by seeing their vertues learne to correct his owne vices So should our trauaile in this Terrestriall Globe bee our direct way to Heauen And that eternall guide should conduct vs which can neuer erre To whom be ascribed all Glory Prayse and Power for euermore Deo triuni Laus in aeternum FINIS Ptolom geogr l. 1. sec. 1. Seneca in Medeâ Act. 2. De gen cor 〈◊〉 de caelo cap. 4. L. de Sphaer Lib. 1 geog cap. 4. Lib. 2. c. 72. Lib. 1. De Mundi fabr part 3. cap. 2. Psal. 104. Fundauit Terram super bases suas ne dimoueatur in saeculum vers 5. Ptol. dict 1. cap. 5. Alph. 6. diff 6. Prop. 11. lib. 1. * Pag. 149. R. Ld. D. 1 Meteor Lib. 4. Sr Walter Rawleigh
Peninsula's the most famous are Africa Scandia Taurica Chersonesus Peloponnesus and America Peruana That little parcell of land which ioynes this Peninsula with the maine land we call an Istmus which is a narrow necke of land betwixt two seas ioyning two Continents such as are Istmus Corinthiacus and Istmus Cimbricus more famous are those two narrow lands whereof the one lyeth betwixt Peruana and Mexico in America the other diuiding Africke from Asia A Promontorie is a great mountaine stretching it selfe far into the sea whose extremity is called a Cape or Head of which the most remarkeable are the Cape of good hope in Africke 2. The Cape of S. Vincent in Portugall 3. The Cape of Comary in Asia 4. The Cape de la Victoria in America Our obseruation concerning this distinction shall bee comprised in this Theoreme 1 Peninsula's by the violence of the sea fretting through the Istmus haue oftentimes beene turned into Ilands and contrariwise sometimes Peninsula's by diminution of the sea made of Ilands This proposition is not hard to proue if any credit ought to bee gâ—uen to ancient writers for it is commonly related that Sicily was heretofore ioyned to Italy Cyprus to Syria Euboea with Boeotia Besbicum with Bythinia all which at this day are Ilands separated and diuided from the continent The like hath beene coniectured of our Brittany which some imagined heretofore to haue beene ioyned with the continent of France about Douer and Calais as may seeme probably to be gathered out of the correspondency of the Cliffs whereof we haue spoken in this chapter before the agreement of the soyle the smalnesse of the distance and many more arguments remembred by vs else-where Also it hath beene obserued on the other side that the sea in some places leauing his ancient bounds hath ioyned some Ilands to the land making Peninsulas of Ilands In this sort if wee belieue antiquity was Antissa ioyned to Lesbos Zephirium to Halicarnassus Ethusa to Mindus Promiscon to Miletum Narthucusa to the Promontory of Parthenius In these antiquities it behooues euery man to iudge without partiality according to reason not ascribing too much to fabulous narrations wherein those ages did abound neither yet shewing himselfe too incredulous For as much as we cannot charge these Authors with any manifest absurdity The speciall and particular arguments by which wee should establish our assertion wee must according to the rules of method reserue to the speciall part where we shall treat ofspeciall Countreyes CHAP. XII 1 OF the perpetuall Accidents of the land we haue spoken somewhat it remaines in this place wee treat of the Casuall 2 The casuall I call such as happen not ordinarily at all times such as are Inundations and Earth-quakes 3 An Inundation is an ouerwhelming of the land by Water Howsoeuer it bee certaine out of holy Scriptures that God hath set the sea his certaine bounds and limits which it cannot passe yet the same God sometimes to shew his speciall iudgement on some place or age hath extraordinarily permitted the sea sometimes to breake his appointed limits and inuade the Iurisdiction of the land This wee call a Deluge or Inundation The inundations which euer haue been obserued on the Earth are of two sorts either Vniuersall or particular An vniuersall is that whereby the whole face of the Earth is couered with water whereof we haue onely two examples The first was in the first creation of the world when as wee read in the Scriptures the whole face of the Earth was round inueloped with Water which couered the tops of the highest mountaines till such time as God by a supernaturall hand made a separation of the Waters from the dry land But this is improperly called an Inundation because the same properly taken implies as much as an ouer-flowing of that which was dry land before The second as we read in Genesis happened in the time of Noah when God for the sinne of man drowned the whole world breaking open the cataracts of Heauen and loosing the springs of the deepe Particular inundations are such as are not ouer the whole Earth but in some particular places or regions Such a deluge according to Genebrardus happened in the time of Enos wherein a third part of the Earth was drowned The like iâ— spoken of Ogygeâ— King of Athens that in his time happened a very great Inundation which drowned all the confines and coasts of Attica and Achaia euen to the Aegean sea In which time it was thought that Buras and Helice Cities of Achaia were swallowed vp whereof Ouid in his Metamorphosis speakes thus Si quaeras Helicen Buran Achaidos vrbes Inuenies sub aquis Buras and Helice on Achaiâ—n ground Are sought in vaine but vnder seas are found As famous was the Inundation of Thessaly in Deucalions time mentioned not onely by profane writers and Poets but also by S. Augustin Ierom and Eusebius which would haue it to happen in the time of Cranaus who next after Cecrops gouerned Athens This inundation was exceeding great extending it selfe not onely ouer all Thessaly and the regions adioyning westward but ouerwhelmed the greatest part of Italy The same or other happening neere the same time oppressed Aegypt if Eusebius may obtaine credit Hence some would haue the people of Italy to haue been called Vmbrij as Pliny and Solinus report quia ab imbribus diluuij superfuissent But this Etymologie seemes too farre fetcht There are also two other notable Inundations meÌ„tioned by ancient writers which fell out in Aegypt from the Riuer of Nilus whereof the first couered all the neither Aegypt which was subiect to Prometheus and hence as Natalis Comes obserues was the fable drawne of the vulture lighting on Prometheus liuer afterwards slaine by Hercules For as Diodorus Siculus obserues the Riuer Nilus for the swiftnes of his course was in ancient time called an Eagle This Riuer afterwards did Hercules by his great â—kill and iudgement streiten and bound reducing it into narrow channels whence some Greeke Poets turning Hercules labours into fables faigned that Hercules slew the Eagle which sed on Prometheus brest meaning that hee deliuered Prometheus out of that sorrow and losse which hee and his people sustained by that Inundation The second of these Egyptian flouds happened about Pharus in Egypt where Alexander the great built Alexandria To these may bee added many more of lesser moment as well in ancient times as in our dayes As that of Belgia in some parts mentioned before on another occasion and not many yeeres since in some parts of Somerset-shire with vs in Britanny 1 No vniuersall Inundation of the Earth can be Naturall The other may depend on some Naturall causes Of the causes of Inundations many disputes haue beene amongst Naturall Philosophers some haue trusted so farre to Nature that they haue ascribed not only particular Inundations but that vniuersall Deluge in the time of Noah to second causes of this opinion was Henricus Mecliensis a Schollar of