mountaines of Calecut and the sea called the great gulfe of Bengala It is rich in gold which is there found in riuers Look the situation thereof in the Map of the East Indies and in the Asia of Ortelius and Cellarius The Pint-Eusine is now called the Maior or the blacke Sea at the one end thereof toward the Midland sea is Constantinople the Card-men call it by diuers names which Ortelius hath set downe in his Synonym By the Brother waues of those Chaldean streames is meant as I suppose the Persian sea whereinto Euphrates and Tygris both together empty being before ioined about Babylon now called Bagadet and so the Poet takes as much of the breadth of Asia at the West end as he doth at the East the one from Quinsay to Chiorze the other from the sea of Constantinople to the Persian Gulfe Concerning the straight of Anien the Cardmen are not all of one opinion Mercator Ortelius Cellarius Theuet and others set down plainly a good broad arm of Sea betwixt the Northeast point of Asia and America But Vopelius ioines Asia and this fourth part of the world together greatly enlarging Asia and curtolling the other contrary to the opinion of the Authors aforesaid and many Spaniards that haue written of the new-found world the reasons that may bee alledged in fauour of either side require a large Commentary Vopelius his opinion indeed cutteth off many doubts that arise about the enpeopling of America but Mercator and th 'others who are most commonly followed seeme to ground more vpon Geography and better to agree with the seas naturall sway and easie compassing the earth Arias Montanus in his booke intituled Phaleg where he treateth of the habitations of Noes posterity setteth downe a Mappe according to Vopelius this booke of his bound in the volume called Apparatus is ioined with the great Bibles of Antwerp But the Poet followeth Mercator Ortelius and the common opinion of the Cardmen of our time for Ptolome Strabo Mela in their daies had not discouered so much Quinsay which the Poet cals Quinzit is a famous citty in the Northeast point of Asia about tenne leagues from the sea built vpon peeres and arches in a marrish ground it is twenty leagues or 100 miles about and by reason as well of the great Lake-waters there as also of th'ebbe and flow of the sea it hath as M. P. Venet. reports in the 64. chapter of his 2. booke 12000 bridges of stone the most renoumed bound-marke of all Asia and the greatest city in the world if that bee true But Theuet gainsaith it in the 27 chapter of the 12 booke of his Cosmography where he describes the city and Lake with the riuer that causes the lake to swell hee sayeth it is not aboue foure leagues in compasse yet M. Paule affirmes he hath been there Chiorze is another worthy part of Asia set downe here for a bound-marke because of the strange Buls there as great as Elephants with haire as smooth and soft as silke Howsoeuer now adaies that country is nothing so ciuill as others inhabited by the posterity of Cham and Iaphet yet the fruitfulnesse of the ground and great commodities there growing for maintainance of mans life declare it hath beene in times past one of the best portions of the children of Noe. 7 Ashurt Assyriland Moses sayth the sonnes of Sem were Elam Ashur Arphaxad Lud and Aram The Poet here in six verses hath noted out the first habitations of these fiue reseruing afterward about the 300 verse and so forth to shew their first second third and fourth out-going ouer the rest of Asia Concerning Ashur it may be gathered out of the 10 of Genesis verse the 11 that hauing sorted himselfe with the people that now began to feare Nimrod and liking not to liue vnder that yoke went on further and in the countrey after his name called Assyria built Niniuy which a long time remained one of the greatest citties in the world as appeares by the prophesie of Ionas and other places of Scripture and Caleh and Resen not farre asunder which haue been long-agoe destroyed Elam that was the eldest seated himselfe by the riuer Euphrates neere the Persian Gulfe which now is called the Sea of Mesendin The Poet giueth him a Princely title because the Monarchie began betime and long continued ther-abouts where also raigneth still the Sophi a great Emperor and deadly enemie of the Turks The Riuer Araxes is described by Ptolome in his third Mappe of Asia where hee makes it spring from the foote of Pariard which some men take for the hill Taurus and so passing Scapene Soducene Colthene to emptie into the Caspian sea These countries are very rich and therefore the Poet cals them fat lands Lud hauing passed the Riuer composed of Tygris and Euphrates which straight after void into the Gulfe had Elam on the North the two Riuers ioyned and the Gulfe on the East and on the West the Marches of Seba which is the vpper part of Arabia The Poet here alloueth him the Lydian fields if by Lydia bee vnderstood that part of the lesser Asia called Meâ—nia by Ptolome Herodote and Plinie Lud should haue wandered further then the other foure brothers Moses reports not any thing of his Colonies and his farre going may bee the cause for according to the Poet hee should haue coasted vp as farre as Aeolia and the Midland sea The seat of Aram is Mesopotamia to wit the countries about Babylon and the mountaines of Armenia which were after called by the name of Taurus This also containeth Syria and the great Armenia betwixt the which runneth Euphrates Arphaxad passing Euphrates staied in Chaldea and for that Astronomy and other excellent arts there chiefly flourished the Poet surnameth him the Learned which appertaineth also vnto him in regard of the true doctrine maintayned by his posteritie and after some corruption reformed in the house of Abraham whom the Lord remooued from Vr of the Chaldeans into Syria Cham goes to the â—â—â—â—paâ—â—s 8 C ham Lord was of the land that Southward is beset With scorch'd Guineas waues and those of Guagamet Of Benin Cefala Botongas Concritan That fruitfull is of droogs to poison beast or man Northward it fronts the sea from Abile pent betweene The barren Affricke shoare and Europe fruitfull-greene And on the Westerne coast where Phoebus drownes his light Thrusts out the Cape of Fesse the greene Cape and the white And hath on th' other side whence comes the sunne from sleepe Th' Arabike seas and all the blood-resembling Deepe Nay all the land betwixt the Liban mountaine spred And Aden waues betwixt the Persicke and the Red This mighty Southerne Prince commanding far and wide Vnto the regiment and scept'r of Affricke tide 9 Canan one of his sonnes began to build and dwell â—ow and what â—â—â—â—ns are deâ—â—â—ded of Cham By lordans gentle streame whereas great Israell Was after to be plac'd Phut peopled Lybia Mizraijm
Hochilega and other landes thereabouts Reade Theuet also the latter Card-men For the French Calicuza I haue translated Caliquas according as I finde it written both in others and in Ortellius who also hath for Mechi Terlichi-mechi and therefore I translate it Terlichi 46 They sow'd at'hother side Xalisco nowe called Noua Gallicia is described by Gomara in the 21. Chapter of his 5. booke It is a land very fruitfull and rich in honny waxe and siluer and the people there are Idolaters and Men-eaters Nunnius Gusmannus who seized the countrie for the king of Spain in the yeare 1530. hath written a discourse thereof and it is to be read in the third volume of the Spanish Nauigations The Prouince of Mechuacan from whence not farre lyeth Cusule is about 40. leagues lower southward then Xalisco that also the said Gusmannus conquered after he had most cruelly and traiterously put to death the Prince and Peeres of the countrie as Gomara sheweth in his booke chapter aboue quoted Mexico which some count all one with Themixtetan is the mother Cittie of that kingdome now called Hispania Noua wonderfull rich it is and strong and of high renoume built farre more curiously then Venice vpon a lake salt on the northside because it is there of a Sea-like breadth and on the southside fresh because of a Riuer that empties there into it Greater is the Cittie thought to be then Seuille in Spaine the streetes are passing well set and their channels in such manner cast as can not be mended Diuers places there are to buy and sell-in the needefull and ordinary wares but one there is greater then the rest with many walkes and galleries round about it where euery day may bee seene aboue threescore thousande Chapmen There is the Iudgement hall for common Pleas and were also many temples shrines of Idols before the comming of Ferdinando Cortez who made thereof the first conquest for the K. of Spaine exercising most horrible cruelties vpon all both yong and old in the Citie as Barthelemi de las Casas a Monke Bishoppe of Spaine reports in his historie of the Indies where he stayed a long time Looke the description of Mexico in the thirde volume of the Spanish Nauigations fol. 300. See also Benzo of Millaine his historie of the newe worlde the 2. booke and 13. Chapter Now from these partes aboue named after report of some wonders of many there seene and worthie a larger discourse by themselues the Poet drawes his Colonies down further towardes Peru by the Land-straight of Panama which parts the South-sea from the Ocean and thereabout is hardly 20. leagues in breadth The fiery mountaine of Nicaragua is by Gomara described in his 5. booke Chap. 203. so are the other wonders which the Poet here notes in his 4. booke chap. 194. 47 Then Chili they possest Gomara in his fourth booke chap. 131. holds opinion that the men of Chili are the right Antipodes or Counter-walkers vnto Spaine and that the countrie there is of the same temper with Andaluzie This Chili lyeth on the shore of el Mar Pacifico so also doth Quintete which I haue put for Chinca both neere the Patagones or Giants whose countrie is full of people and hath certaine riuers that runne by day and stand by night some think because of the snowes which in the day time are melted by the Sun and frozen by the Moone in the night but I take it rather to be some great secret and miracle of nature The cause why here I made exchange of Chinca was first for that the Poet had spoke before of the springs of Chink which I take for the same then because it is so diuersly placed of the Card-men for Ortelius in his Mappe of the new world sets it aboue and Theuet beside Chili in either place it stands well to be taken for the Chink afore-named but Mercator placeth it a great deale lower and on the contrary coast neer the riuer of Plata where indeede is a countrie called Chica that perhaps hath bred this error Lastly Quintete stands so right in way which the Poet followes from Chili to the Patagones that I thought it not amisse to take the same rather then the doubtfull Chinca By the fomy Brack of Magellanus he meanes the sea and Straight of Magellan close by terra Australis Gomara describeth it well in the beginning of the third booke of his Portugall Historie The Poet hath alreadie shewed how people came first on the North America from the kingdome of Anian ouer the maine land to th' Atlantick sea shore then on all the further coasts from Quiuir to the Magellan Straight along th' Archipelago de San Lazaro Mar del Zur Pacifico and now he takes the higher side on the left hand from the Land-Straight of Panama to the riuer of Plata which is not farre from the Magellan noting by the way the most note-worthie places of all this huge reach of ground represented as it is by our late writers in their generall and particular Mappes of the New-found world Huo is a great sweet-water streame rising at Quillacingas that lieth vnder the Equatour and running athwart the countrie now called Carthage into the sea at Garia Vraba is the countrie that lieth betwixt that riuer and Carthagene Concerning Zenu marke what Gomara sayth thereof in his second booke and 69. chapter It is the name of a riuer and citie both and of a Hauen very large and sure The Citie is some 8. leagues from the sea There is a great Mart for Salt and Fish Gould the inhabitants gather all about and when they set themselues to get much they lay fine-wrought nets in the riuer of Zenu and others and oftentimes they draw-vp graines of pure gold as big as egges This countrie is not farre from the Straight of Darien In the sayd second booke chap. 72. he describes also Noua Grenada and the Mount of Emeraudes which is very high bare and peeld without any herbe or tree thereon growing and lieth some fiue degrees on this side the Equatour The Indians when they goe-about to get the stones first vse many enchauntments to know where the best vaine is The first time the Spanyards came there they drew thence great and little 1800. very fayre and of great price but for this commoditie the countrie is so barren that the people were faine to feede on Pismers till of late the Spanish couetousnesse hath made them know the value of their Mountaine Cumana is described in the foresaid booke chap. 79. in the ende whereof Gomara sayth the vapours of the Riuer of Cumana engender a certaine little mist or slime vpon mens eyes so as the people there are very pore-blind Parie is described in the 84 chapter of the said second book Maragnon a Riuer which as Gomara sayth 2. booke 87. chapter is three-score miles ouer It emptieth at the Cape of Aâ—inde three degrees beiond th' Aequator but springeth a great way further
Carion Melact Peucer Althamer Lazius Coropius and others But the Poet holdes that a simple resemblaunce of words is no good ground for a story His reasons are first that hils riuers and seas change their names as by Ortelius his treasure of Geography doth appeare comparing the bookes and tables of Ptolomie Strabo Mela other ancients with the maps of Gemma Frisius Vopelius Mercator Postel Theuet Cellarius and other late writers Secondly that cities and countreys are not alwayes called by the names of their founders and first inhabitants Thirdly that no stocke or nation hath sure hold of any place in the world because of the many chaunges that befall this life Fourthly that as in the sea one waue thrusteth on another so the people and chiefly those of old time haue driuen each other out of place and in a maner played In docke out nettle All stories proue these reasons to be true for the last the Author shewes three notable examples to confirme it 15 Th' old Bretton It is aboue 1200 yeares ago since Vortiger king of England then called great Brettaine or Albion that is a white-sand Isle hauing warre with his neighbors the Scots sent for ayd to the Saxon-English a people of Germany who after they had done him good seruice playd as the Turks did in Greece for they seated the selues in a part of the Island on the East where few yeares after they kept such a coyle that the old Bretton the naturall Inbred of the countrey was constrained to forsake it So with a great multitude passed the sea and landed in Armoricke now called litle Brittaine where they gathered more and more together and increased much by succession of tune See more hereof in the Chronicles of England Brittaine The riuer Loyre fals into the trench of Nantes and so voids into the Ocean 16 The Lombard About the yeare of Christ 568 Alboin king of Lombardes hauing heard of the fruitfulnesse of Italie left Pannonia or Hungarie where he dwelt in gard of certaine Huns vpon conditions and in few weekes after made a rode into Italy with a mightie armie and got many townes chiefly in Insubria now called Lombardy of those Lombards who raigned there aboue 200 yeares till they were ouercome and brought to thrall by the Emperour Charlemaine about the yeare 774. Looke the histories of France and the second part of the Librarie of N. Vignier I shall speake anon of their beginning more particularly 17 Th' Alaine About the yeare 412 when Ataulphe king of Gothes had driuen away the Alaines and Vandals froÌ„ Cordway and Seuill which they possessed as also most of the prouinces of Spaine the Vandals sate downe in Betica which after was of their name called first Vandolosie and then shorter Andalosie The Alaines in Lusitania and the prouince of Carthage or as some say betwixt the riuers Iberus and Rubricatus whereabouts in time past dwelt a people called Iacetani not vnlikely to be the men of Arragon afterward they ioyned and went both together into Affricke where they raigned a long time But in the yeare 534. the Emperour Iustinian who caused the Romane lawes to be gathered together into one bodie sent an armie against them vnder the command of Belissarius he regained Affricke tooke Carthage and led Gilimer king of Goths prisoner vnto Rome After all this the Romanes the Mores also were constrained to giue place in Affricke to the Arabians who preassed in there and encamped them selues in sundrie places 18 This hunger n'ere suffiz'd The Poet saith that desire of rule reuenge and vainglorie ambition and couetousnesse haue chiefly caused so many people to remoue change their dwellings As also manie stories of Scripture and others plainlie shew Seneca rekened diuerse other causes in his booke de CoÌ„solatione ad Elbiam where he saith The Carthaginians made a road into Spaine the Greekes into Fraunce and the Frenchmen into Greece neither could the Pyrene mountaines hinder the Germanes passage ouer wayes vnknowen and vntroad the light-headed people haue caried their wiues and childreÌ„ and ouer-aged parents some after long waÌ„dering vp down seated themselues not according to their free choise but where they first might when they waxed wearie of trauell some on other mens possessions seized by force of armes some as they sought vnknowen places were drowned in the sea some there sat downe where they first began to want prouision And all forsooke not their couÌ„treys or sought other for the same causes Many after their cities were destroyed by warre fled from their enemies and so bereft of their owne possessions were faine to preasse vpon other mens manie left their dwellings to auoide the disquiet of ciuill warres and manie to emptie Cities of their ouercreasing multitude some by pestilence or the earthes often gulfing or like vnsufferable faultes of a bad soile were cast forth and some were entised from home by report of a larger and more fruitfull ground some for one cause and some for another c. 19 I doe not speake-of here The Poet hath Scoenites which I translate Arabes because they were a people of Arabia great robbers harriers of Aegypt and the coast of Affrike the shepheardes Nomades are as I take them the Numidians Moores or as some think a kind of Scythians The Hordies are the TartariaÌ„s who liue in the field in chariots tents Now the Poet leauing the vncertaine course of these roguing nations who haue had no more staie in them then swallowes and other wandring birds intendeth to speake of a more warlike people whereof he alledgeth some notable examples 20 Right such that Lombard was He setteth downe much matter in few wordes concerning the Lombardes There are diuerse opinions of their pedegree Melancthon and Peucer in the third fourth booke of Carions Chron. hold they dwelt in Saxonie by the riuer Albis about where now are the Byshoprickes of Meidburg and Halberstad and a part of the Marquessie of Brandburg from thence vnder the conduct of Alboin entred Italie and in the time of the Emperour Iustin the 2. seated themselues betweene the Appenine hilles and the Alpes where they begaÌ„ a kingdome They were called Lombards either because of their long Iauelines for thence it seemes are come the names of Halbards and Iauelines de barde or because they dwelt in a countrey slat and fruitfull as the Dutch word Bord may signine Som other Authors couÌ„t theÌ„ far-northerne people yet shew not their ancieÌ„t aboad Ptolomee in the 4. table of Lurope deriues them from the couÌ„trey of Swaube as also he noteth in the 2. booke and 11. chap of his Geogr. with whom agreeth C. T acituâ—â— in his Histories But Lazius in the 12. booke of his â—â—grationes of the Northern people Vignier in the first part of his Labratie pag. 905. and our Poet here followes the opinion of Paulus Diaconus they differ not much but onelie about the time of their staie and place of their first aboad
appeares that aboue ten thousand Myllions of golde haue been brought thence into Europe beside heapes of Rubies Emeraudes and Pearle much wracked in the sea and much brought for a yearly tribute into Spaine Whereunto I will adde what Franciscus Lopes de Gomara saith concerning the vnualuable riches of Guainacapa the name signifieth young and rich the father of Antibalippa last king of Peru whom the Spaniards put to death All the furniture of his house table and kitchin saith hee in the 120. chapter of his fourth booke were of golde aend siluer and the meanest of siluer somewhat embased with copper for the more strength He had in his wardrop giant-like images of golde liuely featured as also all kinde of beasts foules trees herbes and flowers that the land there beareth and all kinde of fishes that either the Sea there or any fresh water of his kingdome breedeth in the said mettals well and proportionably resembled not so much as cordes paniers troughes billets and other such implements but were so to conclude there was nothing in his kingdome whereof he had not the counterfet in golde or siluer Jt is also said that the kings of Peru called Ingaes haue a garden in a certaine Isle neere Puna where they delight themselues when they list take the Sea that hath in golde and siluer all hearbes flowers and trees and other things whatsoeuer meet for a pleasant garden such a sumptuous deuise as neuer was heard-of or seene elsewhere Besides all this that king last but one had gathered into Cusco huge masses of golde and siluer vnfined which the Indians hid so secretly as the Spaniards could neuer come-by it there was also in and about Cusco great store of picture-tables and tombes all of fine siluer worth some thirtie some fifty some threescore thousand ducats a peece also dining-tables vessels and images a great number all of fine golde The Spaniards at the taking of Antibalippa found as good as 252000. poundes of siluer and of golde 1300265. pezoes euery pezo valued at a ducat and a halfe Besides the great golden table of Antibalippa worth nye 40000. Crownes Now for all this great spoyle that the Spaniards got and hauock that they made as well in Peru as other the Prouinces thereabout yet the Indians as Benzo reports who stayde there with the Spaniards foureteene yeares and wrote in three bookes worthy-reading that whole storie they sticke not to say they haue yet more remaining then all that the Spaniards euer had And to make their meaning plainer they will take out of a great vessell full of wheate one graine betwixt their fingers and say See you this the Viracochie so they call the Spaniards haue taken as it were this one graine away but thus much say they poynting to the rest in the vessel thus much and more haue they left behinde them Now the word Viracochie because it comes thus in my way Benzo himselfe in his third booke saith it signifies the frother scumme of the Sea and that the Peruvians so call the Spaniards for deepe hatred and abomination of them saying also sometimes one to another in their language The winde bears downe houses and trees and the fire burnes them but these Viracochie they doe worse then winde and fire They waste all they eate all they turne the earth and all vpsedowne they turne the course of riuers they are neuer at quiet they neuer cease ranging vp and downe to seeke golde and siluer and all they finde is too little for them When they haue it what doe they They take their pleasure they warre one with another rob one another kill one another they are euer giuen to lying blaspheming and denying the same God whom they professe and these men haue cruelly slaine without cause our fathers our children and kinsfolkes taken from vs contrarie to all right our goods our libertie and countrie Hauing thus commended the Spaniards they curse the Sea for vomiting on the Earth so cruell and wicked a people and often haue vpbrayded the Spaniards themselues with this notorious reproach that golde was the Christians God O how shall this people in the latter day condemne that euer-greedy couetousnes for which Europe nowadayes heareth so ill and is by the selfe-people thereof so wasted and vnpeopled But concerning the diuers gouernements of the West Indies seeing they are set downe so well at large by Lopes Ouiede Benzo and others it is too great a matter for mee to handle in this discourse which is I feare mee growne to long alreadie therefore will I draw to an ende The Poet at the 413. verse begins to shew some likely opinions how this new-founde worlde was peopled and first in generall that the people of countries enhabited exercising their ordinary trafficke one with another might sometimes be cast by force of tempest vpon the West-Indian shore and so be constrained their shippes being broken to remaine still there Others by plague warre or famine were driuen to leaue their countries seeke some quieter dwelling farther off and so haue lighted on these new Countries Or perhaps some great man of authoritie or cunning Pilot by ventring made a discouerie thereof and ledde the ouer-creases of some people thither As the Poet sheweth more particularly in the verses following 44 Nay could not long agoe He guesseth inspeciall and most likely that the inhabitants of the furthest Northeast shore of Asia to witte the men of Quinsay and other places there might haue emptied their ouer-peopled Citties by passing the Anien Straight a part of sea no broader as he saith then the Phare of Gallipoli Gibraltare or Messine and so frō the East Indies might they haue stoared first the lande of Tolguage which Theuet in his mappe of the new world placeth betwixt the Realmes of Anian Tolm and Quiuir within 15. degrees of the North-pole then the rest as followeth 45 So from the Wastes of Tolm Quiuir In all this huge Northen part of America few people there are especially toward the coast ouer-against Quinsay and th' other East-countries There are therefore great Waste-landes as the later Card-men haue noted about the kingdomes or countries of Anian Tolguage Quiuir and Tolm aboue 12000. leagues compasse So then the Poet holds opinion that some of Sems posteritie hauing once passed from the farthest East-point of Asia ouer to the West-Indian Coast thrust their of spring farther into the land The Countries here named by the Poet are to be found in the Sea-cards and Land-mappes betwixte New-Spaine and Estotilant as if he meant that the North-part of America was first inhabited concerning the properties particular descriptions of these places reade the thirde volume of the Spanish Nauigations the second Booke of the generall history of Lopez de Gomara Chap. 37. c. the History of Florida Benzo the Reportes of Iohann s Verazzanus laques Cartier and other French Captaines concerning their discouering of the Land of Labour where the sea is frozen Baccalos New-France Canada