OBSERVATIONS TOPOGRAPHICAL MORAL PHYSIOLOGICAL Made in a JOURNEY Through part of the LOW-COUNTRIES Germany Italy and France WITH A Catalogue of PLANTS not Native of England found Spontaneously growing in those Parts and their Virtues By JOHN RAY Fellow of the ROYAL SOCIETY Whereunto is added A brief Account of Francis Willughby Esq his Voyage through a great part of Spain LONDON Printed for John Martyn Printer to the Royal Society at the Bell in St. Paul's Church-yard 1673. To his Honoured Friend Philip Skippon Esq SIR AFter the deplorable Death of that Reverend and Worthy Prelate John Lord Bishop of Chester to whom the Dedication of this Work was intended several weighty considerations induced me to recommend it to your Patronage As first that I might thereby take occasion publicly to own my Obligations to you and profess my gratitude 2. Because having been much assisted in the Compiling thereof by your Notes and Communications you have so great interest in it that it 's but equal I should present you with it 3. Having travelled constantly in your Company during my continuance beyond the Seas you are well acquainted with most of the particulars therein delivered and can attest the truth of them if any one should question or deny it As for the Work it self my first design was only a Catalogue of outlandish Plants of my own discovering such as grew wild beyond Sea and were not common to us in England The English Observations are but an accession to the Catalogue and intended only to help deliver the Press of that Wherefore being hudled up in some haste upon a deliberate perusal of them I find the Phrase and Language in many places less ornate and in some scarce congruous But my main aim having been to render all things perspicuous and intelligible which I hope I have in some measure effected I was less attentive to Grammatical and Euphonical niceties The Catalogue I have had already some years by me deferring the publication thereof because I still entertain'd some thoughts of making another Voyage beyond the Seas and then I doubt not but I should have augmented it by the addition of many Plants with their Virtues and uses But now the Death of Friends and other Adversities that have lately befallen me besides my Age having cut off my hopes and well qualified not to say quite extinguished my desires of further Travelling I have ventured it abroad as it is and submit it to the censure of the Judicious and Candid Reader If either Catalogue or Observations prove any ways useful to the Public by affording matter of Information or if nothing else innocent Diversion to those that abound with leisure and might perhaps bestow their time worse I have what I desire and as much as I can reasonably expect But to detein you no longer I am not so ignorant of my own Abilities or so well conceited of any Composition or Performance of mine as to think I shall do you any Honour by this Dedication I rather hope your Name prefixed will gain Reputation to my Book and procure it acceptance in the World Be pleased therefore to behold and receive it according to my intention before intimated as a token and expression only of the respect and gratitude of SIR Your much Obliged Servant JOHN RAY THE PREFACE WHen I had Travelled over the greatest part of England in search of Plants and sufficiently informed my self what sorts my own Countrey naturally produced I grew desirous to see what Varieties Foreign Countries of a different Soil and Temperature of Air might afford For which reason I was easily induced to accompany Francis Willughby Esquire Philip Skippon Esquire and Nathanael Bacon Gent. in a Voyage beyond the Seas The success whereof as to the number of Plants found exceeding my expectation notwithstanding the shortness of our stay in most places gave me not leave to make an exact scrutiny I thought it might not be amiss for the satisfaction of the curious and direction of those who may heerafter travel the same places with like design to publish a Catalogue of all not native of England that I had observed But considering the paucity of those who delight in studies and enquiries of this nature to advantage the Catalogue I have added thereto a brief Narrative of our whole Voyage with some Observations Topographical Moral and Natural made by my self and the forementioned Gentlemen I shall say nothing to recommend them but only that what I write as of mine own knowledge is punctually and in all circumstances true at least according to my apprehension and judgment I not giving my self that liberty which many Travellers are wont to take and the common Proverb seems to allow them And for what I write from the Relation of others though I will not warrant it for certain yet to me it seemed most likely and probable What Birds Beasts Fishes and Insects I observed abroad whether common to us in England or peculiar to other Countries I have forborn to set down because the taking notice and describing of them was the particular design and business of that excellent person Mr. Francis Willughby lately deceased and he having prepared store of materials for a History of Animals and likewise digested them into a convenient method that work if God grant leisure and ability to bring it to due perfection is intended to be made public and the Reader may there find what is heer omitted I might have been more large concerning France but that we were frustrated in our design of making Grand tour as they there call it being driven out thence by the Fr. Kings Declaration commanding all the English to withdraw themselves and their effects out of his Dominions within two months time And yet that Country being near us much travelled by and well known to those of our Nation and there being many Itineraries and Descriptions of it extant in Print I thought it less needful to write much concerning it As for Spain it being a Countrey out of the ordinary road of Travellers and those that have viewed it giâ—â—ng others little encouragement to follow their example but rather condemning themselves for their curiosity as having found nothing there which might answer their trouble and expence that the Reader may know something of it without the hazard and charge of travelling it I have added by way of Appendix a short account of Mr. Francis Willughby's Voyage through a great part of it collected out of his notes which had he himself published he would doubtless have enriched with more Observations and cloathed with better Language Now whereas in the Narrative discoursing concerning the petrification of Shells Fish-bones c. I have delivered as my opinion or conjecture that those bodies which are commonly known in England by the names of Star-Stones and S. Cutberts Beads were nothing else but the spines and tail-bones of some Fishes I must own my self to have been therein mistaken For my learned and
time after the Sermon is done The Collections for the Poor are made in Sermon-time a Purse with a Bell hanging at the bottom of it and fastned to the end of a Pole being by the Collector reach'd to every one The Psalm to be sung is marked upon Slates which are hung up and down the Churches The People of these Countreys buy and sell small Commodities and travel by Wagon or Boat upon the Lords Days Their travelling Wagons are some covered and some open few travel on Horseback No Beggars to be seen in all Holland care being taken to set on work all that are able and Provision made for the aged and impotent There are in this one Province of Holland three or four and twenty walled Towns and Cities and six of these at least beside Amsterdam bigger than any we have in England except London and Amsterdam by this time well approaches to the Bigness of London To these I shall add some Observations concerning the Low-Countries made by my much honoured Friend Francis Barnham Esq deceased at his being there in the Retinue of my Lord Ambassadour Holles In all the Cities and Towns of Note throughout the Vnited Netherlands there is a continual Watch kept night and day upon the highest Steeple for the more ready and speedy discovery of Fires or other things of a surprising nature which we have already noted in our Description of the City of Leyden All Differences arising between Skippers and Foremen c. are decided by casting the Die this we often observed them to do when several of them strove who should carry us The Rain that falls upon the Houses is by Pipes and Gutters conveyed into a Cistern and there reserved for the uses of the House as at Venice in Italy This particular we have also before taken notice of in the Description of Leyden The generality of the Dutch from the better sort to the meanest do much dread their Superiours I think the cause is because upon Complaint made there is speedy care taken to do Justice The generality of the People of all sorts are strangely given to the humour of running up and down to see any new or strange thing The Common sort have any thing that is rich or gay in great admiration insomuch that when my Lord Holles made his Entry into Breda the Coronets that were on the top of his Coach were talkt of with wonder all the Countrey over The People universally are great lovers of Money very covetous and greedy of Gain yet in their Bargains punctual and just The Knowledge of most of them extends no further than the Arts of getting Money and an ability to talk of State-Affairs wherein you shall meet with mean persons very well seen I think the Reason may be because the lowest of them is not without hopes of coming to be a Burger and at last one of the States I cannot allow the Low-Dutch to be of a valiant and couragious temper generally notwithstanding they fight so well at Sea For the Constitution of their Bodies which is Phlegmatic and the temperature of the Air which is moist and their Diet which is gross and foggy forbid it Yet are there few or none in these Countries that die of Consumptions There is Liberty of all Religions and Professions but abundance of Spies to watch them that they disturb not the publick Peace I think it harder to be a Traitor under the Government of Holland than under any other Kingdom or State because they seem to be more watchful and suspicious The People say and print what they please and call it Liberty The better much more the worse sort have little sense of Honour governing themselves more by the Rules of Profit and Advantage than of Generosity and Decorum Murder is not prosecuted with so much diligence and concern as Felony or Theft The times of the day for Marriages and Burials are limited but with difference is respect of places for at Breda they must bury their dead before 12 of the clock and at Amsterdam not till the Afternoon When any famous Deed or Exploit is done by any of their Nation it is represented to the People with all insinuating circumstances to make them proud of the Honour of being Subjects in a State where such mighty deeds are done Besides for encouragement there is for the most part a Monument or Statue erected to the memory of them who do great things Their Solemnizations of Victoirs as they call them seems to me of great use like Triumphs among the Romans For those Bonfires and other expressions of Joy do make glad the People and give them better thoughts of their Governours and dispose them to their service In the service of God the People seem more delighted and concerned in that part of Worship which consists in singing than any other and they provide more for it For in their Churches there are few other Books among them than Psalters bound up with the Church-Catechism The common sort of Women not to say all seem more fond of and delighted with lascivious and obscene Talk than either the English or the French The Women are said not much to regard Chastity while unmarried but when once married none more chast and true to their Husbands The Women even of the better sort do upon little Acquaintance easily admit saluting with a Kiss and it is familiarly used among themselves either in Frolicks or upon Departures and Returns though never so short The Women are in a sense Privy-Counsellors to their Husbandsâ— for they are for the most part privy to all their Actions and the Men seldom do any thing without their Advice and Consent Yet doth not this Indulgence enamour them of their own Nation for it is said that if a Woman can get an English Husband she will never marry a Dutch The Dutch when they see their Friends at the point of Death and past all hope of Recovery out of Pity and Tenderness desirous to rid them out of their Pain will sometimes hasten their end by withdrawing the Pillow or the like Thus far Mr. Barnham In most of the Cities and Towns in the Netherlands there are a great number of chiming little Bells which seldom rest but were to us troublesome with their frequent Jangling But for Rings of great Bells all Europe cannot shew so many as England alone so that it might well be called the Ringing Island A multitude of Storks frequent these Countries building upon their Chimnies in the Towns and Cities as well as Villages but not in the Territories of Common-wealths only as some imagine but of Kings and Princes also as at Lovain and elsewhere in the King of Spain's Countrey and in Germany in several Princes Dominions June 22. we travelled from Maestricht to Liege four Leagues distant In the side of a Hill we ascended at some distance from Maestricht we saw an arched Passage into a Vault as we were informed some two hours in length A good
sylv altera Clus In the moist and fenny places near the Lake both here and at Constance Gratiola vulgaris plentifully Aug. 17. we rode Post from Constance toward Munchen in Bavaria The several Stages where we changed Horses were 1. Wangen a small Imperial Town two miles distant from Lindaw 2. Laykirk another small Imperial Town two miles further on 3. Memmingen a free City of the Empire and one of the chiefest of Suevia both for Greatness and Strength The Streets are broad Water running through them 4. Mundelheim a small Town under the Duke of Bavaria where we lodged 5. Lansberg a pretty Town with a handsom Fountain in the Market-place built in 1663. four German miles from Mundelheim From hence we rode through no considerable Town till we came to Munchen passing by the Ammerzee a great Lake about three German miles in length where we had the Alps or some very high Mountains in Prospect All Strangers that enter Munchen are first strictly examined at the Gate their Names sent in to the the Governour and they deteined till the return of the Messenger with leave for their Admission This City is very strongly walled and fortified and for the bigness of it is the most splendid and beautiful place we have seen in all Germany so that well might Cluverius term it omnium Germanicarum pulcherrimam The Streets are broad and streight adorned with sumptuous Churches and Cloisters and stately Houses Above all the Dukes Palace deserves Respect not to say Admiration it being the most magnificent and sumptuous Edifice for a House that we have any where hitherto seen beyond the Seas In the great Garden of this Palace we saw many rare Plants among the rest we especially took notice of the Aloe-trees for so I may well call them for the Greatness and Highth of their Stalks which shoot up in one year of which there were more I verlly think in this one Garden than in all Europe besides I mean of such as came to Stalk and Flower In this City so far remote from our native Countrey it seemed strange to us to find a Cloister of English Nuns We thought it worth noting that the Bodies of the Churches here are filled with Pews and Seats as ours in England whereas generally in the Churches of the Roman-Catholics there are no fixed Seats or but very few the People either standing to hear their Sormons or sitting on moveable Benches and Stools that so when the Sermon is ended the Body of the Church may be again cleared Having viewed Munchen the nearness of Augsburgh invited us thither where we arrived August 21. having passed by the way a pleasant little Town belonging to an Abby of Bernardines called Pruck and after that a little walled Town seated on a Hill called Fridberg Augsburgh is a great City about eight miles in Compass well walled and trenched about standing upon the River Lech The Houses for the most part well-built the Streets adorned with several stately Fountains The Armory comparable to that of Strasburgh consisting of twelve Rooms filled with Arms and Weapons of all sorts The Stadthouse next to that of Amsterdam the fairest and most stately of any we have yet seen in which there is one upper Room or Chamber very large and high-rooft paved with Marble richly gilt and painted both Roof and Walls and in all respects scarce to be parallel'd The Citizens are divided between Papists and Lutherans these latter being esteemed double the number of the former yet have they seven Cloisters of Men and five of Women whereof one English Very few Reformed here This is a free City of the Empire and governed by its own Magistrates It seems to me at present for the bigness not very populous and is I believe somewhat decayed and short of what it hath been both as to Riches and Multitude of Inhabitants which may be attributed to the Losses and Injuries iâ— susteined in the late Wars In a large Plain not far from Augsburgh over which you pass going thence to Munchen we observed many rare Plants viz. Tithymalus verrucosus Trifolium pratense album à Fuchsio depictum sive mas J. B. Pseudo-asphodelus Alpinus C. B. Thlaspi clypeatum asperifolium seu biscutatum Horminum sylv latifolium Ger. Phalangium parvo flore non ramosum C. B. Carlina herbariorum Lob. Geâ—tianella Autumnalis flore caruleo quinquefolio calyce pentagono grandi Floris tubus è calyce non eminet ut in hujus generis aliis sed folia tantùm expanduntur supra margines calycis ut in Caryophyllis Gentianellae species minima flore unico caeruleo elegantissimo an minima Bavarica Linum sylvestre latifolium caule viscoso flore rubro C. B. fortè Folia habet pilosa acuminata modicè lata nervis quinque per longitudinem decurrentibus longitudine foliorum Lini flos quinquefolius coloris incarnati ut vocant saturatioribus velut sanguineis lineolis striatus Radix lignosa est per plures annos durare videtur Cirsii seu cardui duae species Priori flos Cirsii nostri Anglicani flori simillimus in uno caule plerunque unicus verùm folia pallidè sunt viridia profundè laciniata spinulis horrida ad modum ferè Cardui viarum vulgatissimi Alteri quae jam defloruerat folia viridia non laciniata breviora latiora quà m praecedenti in ambitu spinosa Hyoseris masculi foliis figurâ suâ nonnihil similia Saxifraga Venetorum Daucus montanus Apii foliis flore luteo Another sort of umbelliferous Plant very like to the Figure of Caucalis Peucedani folio Lotus siliquosa lutea Monspeliensis J. B. near the River Lech as also Bellis caerulea Monspeliaca Ger. Doryâ—nio congener planta Thalictrum angustissimo folio By the way-side near the City in sandy Ground Rhamnus primus Diascoridis and all about in stony places Caryophyllus gramineo folio minimus not to mention those that we had elsewhere seen v. g. Aster Atticus Italorum flore purpureo Mezereon Germanicum Asclepias flore albo Anonymus flore Coluteae c. Aug. 28. we departed from Augsburgh and being loth to leave behind us unseen so considerable a City as Nurenberg which Cluver calls Germanicarum superbissimam we bestowed three days on a Journey almost directly backwards to see it The first day after the Riding of six German miles we crossed the Danow over a Wooden Bridge to Donavert a prettâ— Town belonging to the Duke of Bavaria where we lodged The second being the 29. of August we passed through two walled Towns viz. Monhaim and Papenhaim and lodged at Weissenbergh an Imperial Town of some note the Inhabitants whereof are all Lutherans it is â—ive miles distant from Donavert Nigh this Town is a strong Fort built upon a Hill belonging to the Marquess of Anspach who is also a Lutheran The third day being the thirtieth we passed through a small walled
Hippocr ex naturâ sanguinis interpretationem singulis inensibus disputationes familiares continuabit Jacobus Pancratius Bruno D. diebus Lunae Martis h. 3. pomer Institutiones Medicas perspicuâ brevitate explicabit Diebus verò Jovis Veneris morborum particularium cognitu curatu difficiliorum tractationem suscipiet operáque suâ novâ studia Auditorum privatim quoque pro viribus dispatando promovebit PHILOSOPHIAE PROFESSORES M. Abdias Trew in Mathematicis Elementa Euclidis in Syllogismos resoluta repetet Subjunctis post denas circiter propositiones Problematibus ex Mathesâ— speciali ut ita Studiosi simul fundamentorum Mathematicorum rationem eorundem usum perspiciant In Physicis decisionem brevem potiorum usum prae reliquis habentium controversiarum nuper inchoatam pertexet M. Joh. Paul Felwinger Compendium Logicae absolvet In Metaphysicis tractabit doctrinam Affectionum Entis In Politicis in tractatu de Magistratu perget Collegia Logica Metaphysica Politica aperiet Disputationes Metaphysicas in Aristotelem si qui futuri sixt Respondentes continuabit Georgius Matthias Kônig proximè Syntagma de Viris literatis 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 auspicabitur In Epistolâ ad Galatas etiam perget eáque finitâ ad Epistolam ad Ephesios se conferet M. Joh. Leonhardus Schwaeger explanabit Cioeronis Brutum de claris Oratoribus ejusque Oratorem seu de perfecto Oratore ad M. Brutum Characteres verò quos hactenus sub explicatione textus Virgiliani sparsim oftendit ac porro ostendet in unum ctiam simul collectos uberiusque diductos priorum exemplo excepturis ad calamum dictabit Vtrumque per vices ab ipso fiet horâ pomeridianâ tertiâ atque insuper ejus opera ad Exercitia Oratoria tam publica quam privata in prosa pariter ac ligata petituris parata erit M. Christophorus Molitor diebus Lunae Martis specimen Philologematum Sacrorum juxta ductum Schickardiani horologii vel Atrii Dilherriani dictabit diebus autem Jovis Veneris quae in Arabicis restant continuabit Privatim si futurus est justus Auditorum numerus Collegium tam Rabbinicum quam Ebraicum aperiet in Rabb explicabit continuabit Theologiam Talmudicam Dn. Hackspanii b. m. In Ebraico verò linguae fundamenta docebit uti hactâ—nus sic nunquam omittet circulum Oratorium Habebuntur praeterea ex Superiorum munificentiâ sine Studiosorum sumptibus quâvis hebdomade disputationes quas vocant circulares in Theologicâ Juridicâ Medicâ Philosophicâ Facultate necnon singulis mensibus Exercitia Oratoria Sept. 4. we proceeded on our journey to Ratisbone and passed through Nieumarkt a little walled town belonging to the Duke of Bavaria 5. We passed through Heinmaw a small walled town subject to the Duke of Neuburg and at night passing the River Danow by a fair Stone-Bridge we entred Ratisbone or Regensberg so called from the River Regen which heer falls into the Danow This City is large and well built the houses being for the most part of stone adorned with many fair palaces of noble men well walled about and fortified The streets are but narrow The roofs of the houses are not built so steep as at Augsburgh Nurenburgh c. or as ours in England but flattish after the Italian made The Diet of the Empire is usually held heer it being an Imperial City and governed by its own magistrates though in the D. of Bavaria's countrey This city hath a Bishop who is of the Romish Religion but he hath little to do all the magistrates and the greatest part of the Inhabitants being Lutherans Yet some cloisters there are of Monks and Nuns and a college of Jesuits Upon the rocks not far from Ratisbone a little below the town on the other side the river we found besides many of the rarer sort of our English plants Asclepias flore albo Daucus montanus Apii folio major C. B. Apium montanum nigrum J. B. Caucalis Peucedani folio Ger. as I take it It hath a fine leaf a small root which I believe yearly perishes reddish stalks an umbel of white flowers to which succeed small round seeds with purple apices An Daucus montanus Apii folio flore luteo C. B It hath winged leaves like to Bipennella but larger the several wings of each leaf being as large as and like unto the intire leaf of the said Bipennella a great root but not hot in tast as the Burnet-Saxifrages are the stalk riseth up to the highth of a man almost the seeds are round striate covered with a hoary down reddish toward the top and of a hot spicy tast Tithymalus verrucosus J. B. Stoebe major calyculis non splendantibus C. B. Hepaticum trifolium Lob. Flammula Jovis Cerinthe major flore luteo Fraxinella Cytisus supinus sylvest Ratisponensis flor lut ad exortum foliorum prodeuntibus Cat. Aldtdorf Cytisus Gesneri cui flores ferè spicati J. B. Euphrasia pratensis lutea C. B. which we first found not far from Heinmaw Phalangium ramosum Chamaedrys vulgaris Cham. foliis laciniatis Aster montanus luteus hirsuto salicis folio Aster Austriacus 4 Clus i. e. Linaria aurea Tragi Aster Atticus Italorum flore purpureo Park Oxyacantha sive Berberis Bugula caerulea Alpina Orobanche minor purpureis floribus sive ramosa in the Corn-fields Chondrilla carulea J. B. Folia huic valdè laciniata glabra glauca Flores longis insident pediculis dilutè caerulei ad ruborem inclinantes Securidaca dumetorum major flore vario siliquis articulatis C. B. which is common all over Germany Veronica supina facie Teucrii pratensis no less common Lepidium annuum growing among Radishes and Foenum Graecum which I suppos was sown there Septemb. 10. we hired a Boat for Vienna First on our left hand as we went down the river we passed by a little village and a castle standing on a hill called Thonastan About three miles and half below Regensberg we passed in sight of Wert a castle belonging to the Bishop of Ratisbone seated on a hill by a river called Wisent which heer runs into the Danow This night we lodged at Straubing a very handsom pleasant walled Town belonging to the Duke of Bavaria five miles below Ratisbone Sept. 12. in the morning we past Pogen where is a Church standing on a high hill Four miles below Straubing we rowed under a wooden bridge which there crosses the Danow Heer on the left hand as one goes down stands Dreckendorf a walled town belonging to the Duke of Bavaria A little further off we passed by the mouth of the river Iser Then we had a prospect of Osterhoven on our left hand and not far thence a small village called Hofkirchen and on the same side still a little castle called Hilkersberg where the shores along the river began to be rocky This night we lodged at a pretty little walled town built of stone called
old made this Collection and was treating with Manfredus Septalius Canon at Millain for his Cabinet so much talked of all over Italy for which they told us he was to give 1000 pistols But before the bargain was concluded the Duke died in the 28 year of his age The Revenues of this Prince are said to be 350000 Crowns per ann his ordinary expences not to exceed 180000. In a Mountain in this Territory called Zibbo nigh Paiuli Castle some 28 miles distant from Modena is a Fountain where Petroleum issues out of the earth In another Mountain called Monte Nicani are found petriâ—ied cockles and others shells We began our Journey to Parma and at 7 miles end forded the River Serchio passing by strong little Town on our left hand called Rubiera and after 8 miles more entred Reggio a city almost as big as Modena and of equal strength subject to the same Prince who is called Duke of Modena and Reggio It is more extended in length and makes a fairer shew having one broad and long street Heer there are many Sculptors who make pretty carved works in Ivory and wood for which this Town is noted Ten miles onward we passed a long Bridge over the River Lenzo and entred the Duke of Parma's Countrey and five miles more brought us to Parma a larger City then Modena of a round figure well built of brick though the houses be not tall The streets broad and well paved but no porticos under the houses In short it is a very pleasant and handsome Town but not so well fortified as many other Cities in Italy We travelled to Piacenza At 6 miles distance from Parma we ferried over the River Taro. Nine miles further we came to a large Burgo called St. Donin Eight miles beyond St. Donin we passed through a pretty little Town called Fiorenzuola and just without the Town crossed the River Arta and proceeding on still 12 miles we came to Piacenza a City for bigness not inferiour to Parma and for strength Superior being well walled and trench's about and having a strong Citadel but not so handsome and well built The Revenues of the Duke of Parma are said by some to be 500000 by some but 400000 crowns per ann He keeps 3000 foot and 1000 horse in costant pay and can upon occasion raise 20000 foot and 1000 horse more Besides Parma and Piacenza he holds in the State of the Church the Dukedom of Castro and the County of Ronciglione the first of which was pawned to the Pope and for want of payment of the money forfeited to the Church concerning the restitution whereof there hath been such a stir of late He holds also five Cities in Abruzzo The present Dukes name is Ranutius Farnesius We rode to Crema 13 miles foom Piacenza passing through Castigno a large Burgo in the State of Milan two miles thence ferrying over the River Adda and 2 miles further the River Serio which runs into the Adda Heer we entred the Venetian Territory and at the end of other five miles arrived at Crema no great City but strongly fenced and fortified and for the bigness populous held with a good Garrison of about 500 Souldiers by the Venetians as being a frontier place It is situate in a fair and spacious plain near the River Serio and hath a large territory about it called Cremasco This City is famous for fine thread made by the Nuns and little brushes made of the roots of a king of grass called Capriole which I take to be Gramen Scoparium ischaemi paniculis of Lobel We hired horses for Brescia 30 miles distant from Crema By the way we rode through 1. a little Town called Osanengo about 3 miles from Crema 2. Romanengo a great Burgo with a small Castle belonging to the King of Spain some 3 miles from Osanengo and about 4 miles further onward 3. Soncin a considerable wall'd Town in the Dutchy of Milan which Schottus takes notice of as a very civil place to strangers and mentions panem ex Amygdalis dulcibus lucernas praestantissimas ex orichalco made there Near this Town we ferried over the River Oy or Ollius and entred again into the Venetian Territory Two miles off this place we rode close by L'orzi nuovi a small Town but one of the best fortified places we have seen carefully guarded by a good Garrison which the Venetians maintain there Two miles from this Fortress we passed a great Village called L'orzi vecchii then several Villages the most considerable whereof was Lo grado Heerabout and at L'orzi nuovi is great store of flax planted and fine linnen cloth made The Countrey we rode through this day was full of Villages and well peopled divided into small Fields and those enclosed with hedges like our enclosed Countreys in England The City of Brescia is less then Verona but considering the bigness more populous well built having broad and streight streets paved with stone in the middle and with bricks set edge wayes on each side after the manner of the Holland Cities as are also the streets of Parma Piacenza and Crema It is encompassed with two walls the interiour of old building more slight and weak the exterior of good strength and thickness with a broad trench before it The inhabitants are very busie and industrious driving a great trade of making Guns and other iron ware The Brescian Guns are much esteemed not only in Italy but all over Europe as well for the goodness of the iron and temper as the excellency and neatness of the workmanship The Markets are well stored with all things necessary for humane life The territory of this City is in length from Moso near Mantua to Dialengo in the upper end of Val Camonica 100 miles in breadth from Limone upon the Lago di Garda to L'orzi nuovi 50 fruitful of corn and wine The hills clothed with Woods and the valleys abundant in good pastures so that there is excellent cheese made heer and sent abroad to Venice and other parts of Italy In the Mountains are iron and copper mines which yield great profit to the owners and inrich the whole Coutrey Few Cities in Italy have so large and so rich a territory so populous and full of Towns and great Villages The City it self hath often changed Lords and Governments and was for a long time miserably torn in pieces and wasted by intestine quarrels and fightings between the Factions of the Guelfs and Ghibellines The Visconti of Milan made themselves masters of it and held it for many years In the time of Phillippus Maria the Citizens being much oppressed and aggrieved and having often in vain sent Embssadors to him for redress they finally delivered themselves up to the Venetians in the year 1426. who now keep in Garrison for the security of this City 800 Souldiers and 300 more in the Castle which stands on a rocky hill
of the Dukes nevertheless the Duke hath built a strong fortress at a place called La torre in the middle of them The City of Turin hath an University and boasts to have been the first that brought the use of Printing into Italy All provisions are plentiful and cheap there the Countrey round about being very rich and fertile Indeed the whole Principality of Piemont is esteemed inferiour to no part of Italy for pleasantness and plenty of Corn Cattel Wine Fruit Hemp Flax Metals and almost every thing necessary for humane life and withal it is so populous that the Italians use to say that the Duke of Savoy hath only one City in Italy of 300 miles in compass It hath 8 Episcopal Cities and 150 Towns The Inhabitants are more given to Husbandry than Merchandise so that the land is no where better cultivated then in Piemont They are also very affectionate to their Prince and for his honour and safety ready upon all occasions to venture their lives and fortunes Leti saith that they are good Souldiers expert in warlike exercises and so valiant that they will rather die than turn their backs Of the riches of this Countrey we may saith he take an estimate by the late Wars which continued for 23 years during which time were maintained by the Duke in Garrison and in the field between 25 and 30 thousand Souldiers for the most part without any assistance or supplies of money or men from any other place but Piemont which besides all this contributed to the Duke in 15 years 11 millions The same Author saith it is not in Piemont as in other Countreys wherein there are some persons excessive rich but the generality of the people extremely poor but on the contrary the Piemontese are generally well to live and there are very few among them of extraordinary estates As for the Duke he by all mens confession keeps a splendid and regal Court answerable to his Title of Royal Highness His annual Revenue is said to be a million of gold according to Leti 1800000 crowns of which Piemont alone yields 1400000. He is able to bring into the Field 30000 Foot and 5000 Horse and yet leave enough at home to guard the Countrey The States which the Duke possesses in Italy are The Principality of Piemont The Marquesates of Saluzzes which he had of the French in exchange for la Bresse and of Asti the Duchy of Aosta the Countries or Earldoms of Nizza and of Vercelli The present Dukes name is Carolus Emmanuel son of Victor Amideus he was at the time of our being there about thirty years of age and was then in mourning for his Duchess Francesca Borbona and his Mother Christiana di Francia whom they call Madam Royal who were lately dead He hath two or three handsome Palaces near the City adorned with rich Hangings goòd Pictures and other Furniture 1. That called the Venery or hunting Palace lately built 2. Millefiore 3. Valentine The making of oil'd cloth for Hoods Hat-cases and Coats to fence off the rain was first invented at Turin by one Giacomo Marigi and is still held as a secret by them though now it be done in other places as well as there We took horses and a guide at Turin for Genua which we reacht at three days end About a mile below Turin we past the River Po which heer begins to be navigable by a Bridge and after we had rode about a mile further by the Rivers side we mounted the hills under which the River heerabout runs which are very steep and difficult to ascend Not far from the foot of these Mountains in the Woods wherewith they are covered and in the ditches by the way side I observed growing wild Dens caninus flore purpureo Ger. Leucoium bulbosum vulgare C. B. Dentaria aphyllos Clus sive Anblatum Cordi Doronicum vulgare J. B. Hepaticum Trifolium Lob. Hyacinthus botryodes 2 Clus This grow plentifully on the banks and borders of the Corn-fields and by the way sides all along as we rode from Turin to Genua At 5 miles distance from Turin we passed through a pretty large Town called Chier where we took notice of a triumphant Arch erected to Victor Amadeus Father to the present Duke of Savoy About 4 miles further we passed by a walled Town called Villa nova and this first night lodged at Aste a large Town but that seemed to us to be poor and decaying 20 miles distant from Turin We proceeded on our journey as far as Nove a pretty large Town under the Genoese 27 Piemont miles distant from Aste I think they may well pass for 35 English About 4 miles from Aste upon the bank of the River Tanar which is there very high and on the sands under the bank we found great variety of petrified shells as Oysters Scallops Cochles c. as also tubuli striati call'd by some Antales which Seignior Rosaccio a Mountebank in Venice first shewed us Belemnites and other rare sorts of stones In the Corn-fields we passed through we observed Ornithogalum luteum C. B. in great plenty now in flower This day we passed by a large Village called Non and another which had formerly been walled called Felizan then Alexandria an large Town upon the River Tanar of more strength than beauty the buildings both public and private being generally but mean It was so called in honour of Pope Alexander III because in his time it was peopled by the Milanese whose City was then almost quite destroyed ad made desolate by the Emperour Frederic Barbarossa for siding with the Pope against him The River which seemed to me as large as the Po at Turin divides the City in two parts which are joyned together by a fair brick-bridge In our passage through the Town we took notice of a triumphal Arch erected to Philip IV. King of Spain upon his marriage We rode from Nove to Genna 30 miles all over mountains About 6 miles from Nove we passed through a handsom little walled Town called Gavi where there is a strong castle on a hill over the Town and about 6 miles further onward another elegant and well-built Town called Voltagio From hence we ascended continually for about 7 or 8 miles till we came to the top of a very high hill from whence we had a prospect of Genua and the Sea Then we descended constantly till we came to the City In all this way we met with and overtook Mules and Asses going to and returning from Genua to the number of 500 or 600 or more Between Gavi and Voltagio we observed Dens caninus with a white flower and all along on the mountains from Gavi to Genoa stoechas citrina altera tenuifolia sive Italica J. B. as also Psyllium majus semper virens sedi minoris species flore albo quadrifolio now in flower Petasites flore albo on the side of a mountain about 6 miles from Voltagio in
temperate than other nations Their herbs seemed to me more savory and better concocted than ours Their water also was not so crude But for flesh ours in my judgment much excels theirs being much more succulent and sapid Yet in Rome have I eaten beef not inferiour to ours but I suppose it might be of German oxen of which as we were informed there are many driven thither and for sucking veal the Romans as we have already noted think theirs preferrable to any in the world The Italians especially those of inferiour quality are in all things very sparing and frugal Whether it be because they are so educated and accustomed or because the gabels and taxes which they pay to their governours are so great that they cannot afford to spend much on themselves or because naturally loving their case they had rather live nearly then take much pains The Nobility and great persons chuse rather to spend their revenues in building fair palaces and adorning them with Pictures and statues in making stately and spacious orachards gardens and walks in keeping coaches and horses and a great retinue of servants and staffiers than in keeping great houses and plentiful tables giving board-wages to their servants and attendants which in my opinion is the better way of spending estates these things finding poor people employment so that the money comes to be distributed among them according to their industry whereas the other way maintains in idleness such persons for the most part as least deserve relief those that are modest and deserving chusing rather if possibly they can to maintain themselves and their families by the labour of their hands than hang about great houses for a meals meat Besides that great house-keeping is very often not to say always the occasion of great disorder and intemperance Were I therefore Gods steward for a great estate for such all rich men are or ought to be I should think it more charity to employ poor people and give them mony for their work than to distribute my estate among them freely and suffer them to live in idleness I mean such as are able to labour The inferiour Gentry affect to appear in public with as much splendour as they can and will deny themselves many satisfactions at home that they may be able to keep a coach and therein make the tour à la mode about the streets of their City every evening The Italians when they call speak to or of one another use only the Christian name as Signor Giacomo Signor Giovanni c. unless it be for distinctions sake so that you may converse among them perchance some months before you hear any mans surname mentioned The Italian Gentry live for the most part in the Cities whence it is that the Cities are so splendid and well built so populous and rich and the Countrey so poor and thinly inhabited Yet are the Noblemens Palaces rather great and stately than commodious for habitation In many Cities the paper windows which are for the most part tatter'd and broken disgrace the buildings being unsuitable to their magnificence The houses are generally built of stone thick walled and high rooft which makes them warm in Winter and cool in Summer but they contrive them rather for coolness than warmth and therefore make the windows large to give them air enough Of the Gentry in Italy especially in Venice if there be many brothers of one house only one usually marries and that the eldest if he pleases if he be not disposed then any other as they can agree among themselves The rest do what they can to greaten him that is married to uphold the Family The brothers that marry not keep concubines or whores which though it be sin yet their Confessors can easily absolve them of it In most of the Cities and Towns of Italy there are Academies or Societies of Virtuosi who have at set times their meetings and exercises which are for the most part prolusions of wit and Rhetoric or discourses about moral subjects curious questions and Problems or Paradoxes sometimes extemporany sometimes premeditated These have their head whom they call Prince and a certain number of Academists who are chosen by balloting but they seldom refuse any that offer themselves to election Many of these Academies assume to themselves conceited or fanciful names and take a suteable imprese or coat of arms as for example the Academists of Bergamo call themselves Eccitati and their imprese is the picture of the morning In Mantua the Academists called Accesi have taken for their Emblem a Looking-glass reflecting the Sun-beams those called Timidi a hare As for the other Cities of Italy in Rome there are 3 Academies the Humoristi the Lyncei and the Fantastici in Padua 3 the Ricoverati Infiammati and Incogniti in Bologna 3 Ardenti Indomiti and one innominate in Venice 2 Discordanti and Gussoni in Naples 2 Ardenti and Intronati in Luca 2 Oscuri and Freddi in Florence la Crusca in Siena Intronati in Genoa Addormentati in Vicenza Olympici in Parma Innominati in Pavia Affidati in Milan Nascosti in Ferrara Elevati in Rimini Adagiati in Cesena Offuscati in Ancona Caliginosi in Fabriano Disuniti in Perugia Insensati in Viterbo Ostinati in Brescia Occulti in Faenza Philoponi in Treviso Perseveranti in Fermo Raffrontati in Verona Philarmonici in Macerata Catenati in Alessandria Immobili in Vrbin Assorditi Most of the Italians of any fashion wear black or dark coloured cloths and for the fashion of them follow the French but not too hastily excepting those Countries which are subject to the King of Spain which use the Spanish habit As for their vices they are chiefly taxed for three 1. Revenge they thinking it an ignoble and unmanly thing to put up or pass by any injury or affront Many times also they dissemble or conceal their displeasure and hatred under a pretence of friendship that they may more easily revenge themselves of whom they hate by poisoning assassinating or any other way for nothing will satisfie them but the death of those who have injured them and there be Bravo's and cut-throats ready to murther any man for a small piece of mony Besides which is worst of all they are implacable and by no means to be trusted when they say they pardon Hence they have a Proverb among them Amicitie reconciliate menestre riscaldate non furono mai grate The women also provoke their children to revenge the death of their fathers by shewing them the weapons wherewith they were murthered or cloths dipt in their blood or the like by which means feuds between families are maintained and entail'd from generation to generation These are the qualities for which we usually say An English man Italianate is a Devil incarnate 2. Lust to which the inhabitants of hot Countreys are by the temper of their bodies inclined Hence it is that all Cities and great Towns do so swarm with Courtezans and Harlots and to avoid worse
Every two years they have two Diets or general Councils The first Diet when the Officers which they send to their several Praefecturae are elected is at Michaelmas the second when they take an account of their Officers is on St. John Baptists day To these Diets each Commune sends its Delegates Messi they call them or Commissioners some one and some two These Delegates must act according to the instructions given them by their several Communities Each League hate its Head or Chief The Burgomaster of Coira is always Head of the League della casa di Dio. In the Lega Grisa there are four Communities that by ancient custom have the Head who is here called Landtreichter by turns In the Dieci Dritture six Communities have the choice of the Chief who is called Landamman Those six Communes send each its Delegate to Tavas and the Delegates by the major vote chuse the new Landamman These sometimes with some assistants meet as a lesser Council but have no absolute or decisive sentence There lies an Appeal from the general Diet to the Communities and what the major part of those concludes or agrees upon is valid The Grisons pay no sort of Datii Gabels or Taxes In Italy the County of Chiavenna and the Valtelline are subject to the Grisons To the County of Chiavena they sent formerly two Podesta's or Bailifls one to Plurs which Town was miserably destroyed by the falling of a Mountain upon it and one to Chiavena who is called Commissario Near Plurs are made Pots and Vesof stone turned after the manner of wood which will endure the fire The Valtelline according to Simler is divided into six Praefecturae whether the Grisons send Podesta's or Governors Those are Bormio which some make a County by it self Tirano Tellio Sondrio Morbegno and Travona They named to us two more viz. Ponte and Chiur These Podesta's are changed every two years the principal or head of them is the Prefect of Sondrio who is not called Podesta but Governatore as we were told as Simler saith Capitaneo In the chusing of Praefects the order both of the Leagues and of the Communities is observed So that for example if the Lega Grisa chuses the Governor of Sondrio for this two years the Lega della casa di Dio shall have the choice of him the next two and the Dieci Dritture the following The like order is observed in the several Communities of each League The People of Valtelline the Country of Bormio and the County of Chiavenna pay no Taxes or Gabels more than for the maintenance of their Governors or Podesta's We left Ponte and passed over another high Mountain called in a very bad season for that it snowed exceeding fast all the while we were abroad which in many places so filled up the track that we could see no way at all only we could presently find when were out for then our horses were almost up to the belly in snow besides a brisk gale of most bitter cutting wind blew just in our faces which did so affect my eyes that I could not open tem without great pain for three days nor easily endure to look upon snow for a great while after The reason why my eyes were more affected than others I conceive was because I was not careful to wipe the snow off my face but suffered it to freez to the hair of my eyebrows and eye-lids the cold whereof being contiguous to them stupified and would in time have quite mortified my eyes And here by the way we may take notice that the People living in this mountainous cold Country look more swarthy and dusky at least their their faces and parts exposed to the air and have not so good complexions as those that live below in a milder and more temperatre Region It is an observation of Bodin in his Method of History That the Inhabitants of the temperate Zone as you go further and further from the Tropic are still whiter and whiter till you come to a certain degree of latitude and then they grow dusky and dark-coloured again 3 witness the Greenlanders Laplanders c. extremity of cold parching and tanning the skin as well as excess of heat And we found this true by our own experience for our faces were so hackt and burnt if I may take so to use that word by the cold in our passage over these Mountains that for some time after we lookt like so many Gypsics This night we lodged in a terra called Bergun We went on to Coira the capital City of the Grisons a pretty little Town standing on a small River that falls into the Rhene about half a mile below environed almost with Mountains save only on that side the River Rhene runs where there is a pleasant Valley having very good Meadow and Pasture grounds The Inhabitants of Coira are all Protestants excepting the Bishop who coyns money that is current here and 24 Canons The Bishop hath nothing at all to do in the Government of the Town The form of Government is much like that of Zurich and Basel viz. the Citizens are divided into sive Tribes or Companies each of which chuses 14 Senators which make up the great Council of 70. These are called Ratsheren and are chosen by the people anew every year on S. Martins day anew I say for the same are usually chosen again so long as they live Out of this greater Council are chosen yearly of each Tribe sive into the lesser Council to which are added the 5 Masters of the Companies for the last year who make up the number of 30. Half these are called Senators and govern the Common-wealth The chief Officers who preside in the Senate are the two Burgomasters who rule alternately one one year the other the next The Council of 30 with the regent Burgomaster who is called Stativoâ—ht judge in criminal causes Besides there is a Bench of Judges made up of the five Masters of the Companies and ten out of the Council of 30 wherein the Praetor of the City called Stattrichter presides which determines civil controversies and actions of debt But from them there lies an Appeal to the Council of 30. In the mountanous Pastures about this Town we observed growing plentifully Crocus vernus flore albo flo Caeruleo flo ex albo caerulco variegato Hepatica nobilis ubique Leucoium bulbosum Tab. Ornithogalum flore luteo Besides Coira the Grisons have two little Towns which they call Cities Mayfield and Eylandts For their Religion the Grisons are divided some Communities being Romanists some Protestants but most Protestants of whom they told us there were in all the Country about 17000 fighting men We travelled from Coira to Walenstat situate beside a small Lake thence called Walenstatter-Sea passing by the way through Mayfield Ragats and Sargans Both Sargans and Walenstat are Voghtia's or Praefecturae belonging the seven Cantons We ferried over the Lake to Wesen
the Queens Cavallerisca 6. A great piazza before the palace where are abundance of coaches always attending 7. The English College of Theatines 8. Il retiro Out of the Town the Escurial and El Pardo I set out from Madrid for Port S. Sebastian We passed within sight of the Escurial and El Pardo and lay that night at S. Augustin 6 leagues We passed Butrago and lay at Samoserra all the way a barren miserable mountainous Country 11 leagues We passed Frecedille and lay at Aranda having crossed the river Durius or Duero 11 leagues We passed Bahalon and Lerma where is a Convent of Dominican Freres and a palace of the Duke or Lerma's and came that night to Burgos 12 leagues The most considerable things in Burgos are 1. The bridge over the river Relarzon 2. The gate at the end of the bridge where are the statues of Charles V of Janus Calvus of Diego Porcellero of Fernandez Gonsales of Nunio Pasures of Don Carlotte all famous men of Burgos 3. The market-place 4. The great Church in which are a great many monuments of Bishops and Canons two great monuments of Pedro Fernando di Velasco Constable of Castile and his Wife Mencia di Mendoza Countess of Haro This night we lodged at Quintora-vides 5 leagues We passed by Pancorva a place very famous for good water Miranda a great Town where there is a good bridge over the river Iberus and after that we passed over two other rivers Baias and Sadurra and lay at Erminian 11 leagues At Miranda there is a great market for wheat We travelled to Vittoria Over one of the gates is the statue of King Bamba and inscribed in gold letters Haec est victoria quae vincit 4 leagues Vittoria is the chief City of a little Countrey called Alaba We passed this day by Salines the first Town of Guipuscoa and lay at Aescurias 9 leagues In Guipuscoa they pay no taxes or other duties to the King without the consent of the Countrey The whole Province is more commonly called Provincia than Guipuscoa it is cantoned out into a great many Corporations and Villages every one of which send 1 2 or 3 Representatives to the general meeting when there is any public business All offices are annual and chosen diversly according to the differing customs of the Towns The chief Officer in each town to determine all civil and criminal causes is the Alcalda but from him they may appeal to the Governour of the Province sent by the King every third year and from the Governour to the Kings Council at Valladolid Next to the Alcalda are 2 Regidores to look after the prices of all commodities a Bolser for the treasury a Medino for the prison Argozils or Serjeants c. They boast that they are the walls of Spain and therefore have many priviledges Guipuscoa is under the Bishop of Pampelona In Guipuscoa and Biscay they have a peculiar language of their own and therefore send their children to School to learn Spanish which they call Romance as we do ours to learn Latin The Searchers having hindred us we were forced to travel great way in the night We were lighted by Tias or Teas which burnt as well and gave as good a light as torches When they went out they tossed them up and down in their hands which kindled them again These Teas so called doubtless from the Latin word taeda are very commonly used in this Countrey and are nothing else but bastons of wood hacked and cleft but so as the pieces hang together and afterwards soundly dried in an Oven or Chimney Along the middle they use to cleave them almost quite asunder They are made of several sorts of wood of Robla i. e. Oak Aiga i. e. but the best of Avellana i. e. Hazel I wonder much at this unless they have some way of preparing the wood by steeping it in oil or other inflammable matter The taedae of the Ancients were made only of the trunks of old and sappy pines We passed by Mondragone where there is a fabrica of Arms for the King Oniate Legaspa Villa real and lay at Villa franca 7 leagues We left S. Adrian which is the ordinary road a little on our left hand This Countrey is very populous and well wooded all the hills being covered with oaks They use no ploughs but turn over the ground with tridents of iron 4 or 5 of them working together and thrusting in their tridents all together turn up a yard or two of earth at a time which they afterwards dress and level like beds in a garden The people are something better conditioned than the Spaniards richer and far more populous 1. Because there is a better government and greater liberty 2. There is abundance of wood and iron 3. More rain than in the other parts of Spain We passed Tolosa and arrived this night at S. Sebastian having travelled 8 leagues The most observable things in S. Sebastian are 1. The walls and guns 2. A great Convent of Dominican Freres in which there is a famous pair of stone-stairs each step being of one entire stone and supported only on one side 3. The haven The Government of S. Sebastian consists of a great Council of all that have one or more houses and are married but none can bear office unless he have two houses of these there is not above 150 or 200 though the town be very populous conteining about 24000 souls Once in a year all the names of this 150 or 200 are put into an urn and a child takes out 8 to be Electors Every one of this 8 chuses his man the old Magistrates that are just then going out divide these 8 that the Electors have chosen into 4 pairs fitting them as well as they can v. g. an old man and a young together c. These 4 pairs are put into an urn The first pair that are drawn out are the two Alcaldas for that year the second pair the two Deputy Alcaldas the third pair the two Regidores the fourth pair the two Deputy Regidores In much the same manner they chuse two Jurats one Syndic or Atturney general one Treasurer c. all these Officers make a lesser Senate but in businesses of importance the whose number meets There is no distinction of Nobiles and Plebeii but all that are descended from Guipuscoans that are married and have one house are in capacity to be Electors all that have two houses to be Magistrates The Jurats places are most desired there being a great many Ecclesiastical preferments belonging to the Town the disposition whereof when they come to be vacant is in them who usually bestow them upon their Relations and Friends Every Winter there are several whales caught upon this coast they coming hither in Winter and frequenting heer as they do upon the coast of Groenland in Summer They catch them by striking them with a harping iron after the same manner as
the Knights of the Golden Fleece and over the upper Stalls or Seats this written in French Le treshaut tres puissant Philip dit le bon c. which because it contains the History of the Authors first Institution and Model of this Order I thought fit to translate into English and here set down The most High and Mighty prince Philip called the Good by the Grace of God Duke of Burgundy Lorain and Brabant in the year 1429. in the City of Bruges did in imitation of Gedeon create and institute to the Honour of God and the virgin Mary and for the sake of S. Andrew Protector and Patron of Burgundy a Company or Society of Honourable Knights into which might be received Emperors Kings Dukes Marquesses and other Personages as well of his own Subjects as of forein Countries provided they were of Noble bloud and good fame and called these great Persons Knights of the Golden Fleece to whom he gave for perpetual Chief him that should be lawful Duke of Burgundy and have the Seigneury or Lordship of the Low-Countries limiting their number to 24 comprehending also the Chief And for occurrences and use of the Order he created four Honourable Officers viz. A Chancellor a Treasurer a Secretary and a King of Arms. And for the Establishment and well regulating of this Order he made notable Statutes and Ordinances The Houses of this Town are of a different make from those of Holland the outside being covered with Boards like those of Edenburgh in Scotland We observed great store of wild Fowl to frequent the Waters hereabout and found growing wild Herniaria hirsuta on the sandy and gravelly Banks June 20. We took a Wagon drawn by three Horses abreast as is usual in these Countries which in six hours time brought us to Eindhoven a small wall'd Town and thence in four hours more to Haumont a pitiful walled Town belonging to the Bishop of Liege June 21. Three hours Riding brought us to another little wall'd Town called Bry the Houses whereof were old and decaying Between Haumont and this place we rode over Heaths of great extent called the Champagne We then left the level Countrey and ascended some Hills from whence we had a pleasant Prospect of the Mose and Maestricht where we arrived this Evening though it be accounted seven hours distant from Bry. This City is fortified with good Outworks besides a strong Wall and Trench garrisoned with 31 Companies of Foot and six Troops of Horse it being a great Town and a Frontier Half of the Magistrates are Protestants and half of the Romish Religion The greater part of the Citizens Romanists There are in Town near 20 Cloisters or Monasteries of both Sexes and they have the free and publick Exercise of their Religious Worship For the Protestants there are three Dutch Churches and one English and French which those Nations use alternately The old Buildings of his City are like those of the Bosch but since the States have been Masters of it it is become a rich and thriving place and they are building fair new brickt Houses space They were also setting up a large Stone Stadthouse of a square Figure resembling that at Amesterdam The River Meuse divides the City into two parts which are joined together by a broad stone-Bridge of nine Arches The lesser part over the Water is called Wick The Garrison-Soldiers are all Protestants The Common People of Holland especially Inn-keepers Wagoners Foremen they call them Boat-men and Porters are surly and uncivil The Wagoners bait themselves and their Horses four or five times in a days Journey Generally the Dutch men and women are almost always eating as they travel whether it be by Boat Coach or Wagon The men are for the most part big-boned are gross-bodied The first Dish at Ordinaries and Entertainments is usually a Salade Sla they call it of which they eat abundance in Holland Their Meat they commonly stew and make Hotchpots of it Puddings neither here nor in any place we have travelled beyond Sea do they eat any either not knowing the goodness of the Dish or not having the Skill to make them Puddings and Brawm are Dishes proper to England Boil'd Spinage minc'd and buttered sometimes also with Currans added is a great Dish all over these Countreys The Common People feed much upon Cabiliau that is Cod-fish and pickled Herrings which they know how to cure or prepare better than we do in England You shall seldome fail of hung Beef in any Inn you come into which they cut into thin slices and eat with Bread and Butter laying the slices upon the Butter They have four or five sorts of Cheese three they usually bring forth and set before you 1. Those great round Cheeses coloured red on the outside commonly in England called Holland-Cheeses 2. Cummin-seed Cheese 3. Green Cheese said to be so coloured with the juice of Sheeps Dung This they scrape upon Bread buttered and so eat 4. Sometimes Angelot's 5. Cheese like to our common Countrey Cheese Milk is the cheapest of all Belly-Provisions Their strong Beer thick Beer they call it and well they may is sold for three Stivers the Quart which is more than three pence English All manner of Victuals both Meat and Drink are very dear not for the Scarcity of such Commodities but partly by reason of the great Excise and Impost wherewith they are charged partly by reason of the abundance of Money that is stirring here By the way we may note that the dearness of this sort of Provisions is an argument of the Riches of a Town or Countrey these things being always cheapest in the poorest places Land is also here sold at 30 or 40 years Purchase and yet both Houses and Land set at very high annual Rents So that were not the poor Workmen and Labourers well paid for their pains they could not possibly live Their Beds are for the most part like Cabbins inconveniently short and narrow and yet such as they are you pay in some places ten Stivers a night the man for them and in most six There is no way for a Stranger to deal with Inn-keepers Wagoners Porters and Boat-men but by bargaining with them before-hand Their Houses in Holland are kept clean with extraordinary ordinary niceness and the Entrance before the Door curiously paved with Stone All things both within and without Floor Posts Walls Glass Houshold-stuff marvellously clean bright and handsomly kept nay some are so extraordinarily curious as to take down the very Tiles of their Pent-houses and cleanse them Yet about the preparing and dressing of their Victuals our English Houswives are I think more cleanly and curious than they So that no wonder Englishmen were formerly noted for excessive eating they having greater temptation to eat both from the goodness of their Meat and the curiosity of the dressing it than other nations In the principal Churches of Holland are Organs which usually play for some
only seized the Revenues of the Church into his own hand but also assumed to himself entirely the Episcopal Power and Jurisdiction He also is universal Patron and disposes of all vacant Benefices as he pleases indeed the Council of four nominate and present two unto him of which usually he chuses one because it may well be presumed that he knows not so well as they what persons are best qualified and fit to be preferred but he is not obliged to confer the Benefice upon either of the persons by them so nominated but may either put in another known to himself or command them to nominate others if he like not those presented The Religion of the Countrey is the Reformed The whole Palatinate is divided into three Praefècturae and some viz. the greater of these subdivided into less Every Praefectura hath its Inspector or Bishop who is Pastor of some Church in that Praefectura He differs not from any other in any Jurisdiction but in that commonly he hath a larger Stipend His business is only to give Information if he be of a lesser Division to the Inspector of the whole Praefectura under which he is if of a greater to the Council of foar If need be every Praefectura or great Town hath a Presbytery The Presbytery of Heidelberg consists of the five Ministers of the City two Deputies from each Jurisdiction except the Aulica and two from each Quarter of the City so that at this time the number in all is 21. These all have equal Suffrages the Lay-men with the Ministers only one of the Ministers always presides in his Course This Presbytery assembles once every week at whose meeting is always present a Delegate from the Prince to see that nothing be agitated there which it concerns not the Presbytery to meddle withal This Presbytery hath no power to excommunicate or inflict any Church Censure but if any person be accused to them of any Crime they send him to the Jurisdiction to whom he appertains to enquire into his Offence The Court having received this Information from the Presbytery either neglect it if they please or if they see cause enquire into it and punish the Delinquent according to his Demerit and in the close of the Sentence or Warrant for execution add this Clause Quod ad Scandalum Ecclesiae datum remittimus te ad Presbyterium Now at last all they can do is to exact of him a public Confession before the Church and a promise of Amendment for the future As for Ordination it is given by the Council of four by Imposition of Hands after examination of the person to be ordained and Testimonials exhibited from the University or other Persons of known Credit The Prince receives all Tithes except such as in some places for conveniencies sake are paid immediately to the Ministers and other Church-Revenues most whereof is paid out again in Stipends to the Ministers which the Prince proportions accordieg to their Merit and his own Discretion the rest is reserved for Emergencies July 25. we hired a Coach for Strasburgh which brought us thither in three days At three miles distance from Heidelberg we passed in sight of Philipsburg a well fortified place situate in a level near the Rhene now possessed by the French The Castle or Palace yielded a goodly Prospect A mile further we passed through Graffe a small Town with a Castle belonging to the Markgrave of Tourlach where our Coachman paid Toll We lodged this first night at a Village called Linknom under the same Lord who is a Lutheran July 26. at four miles end we baited at a large Village called Raspach and two miles on further we passed through Stolchoven a little walled Town where our Coachman paid another Toll and after one mile more another walled Town called Lichtenaw both under the Marquess of Baden This second night we took up our quarters at Sertz a Village under the Earl of Haâ—aw July 27. we passed over the Rhene divided into two Branches or Streams by two great Wooden-Bridges which instead of Boards are floored with whole Fir-Trees laid loose across neither pinned nor nailed down I conceive that the Bridge might upon any exigent be more suddenly thrown down and broken Soon after we were past the Bridges we entred Strasburgh In this Journey we observed great plenty of Maiz or Indian Wheat planted in some places Lathyrus sativus and in others Carthamus or bastard Saffron sown in the fields Growing wild besides what we had before observed in other places Blattaria Solidago Saracenica and in the Meadows near Strasburgh Carduus Pratensis Tragi Strasburgh is a free City of the Empire large well built rich and populous encompassed with a double Wall and Trench full of Water besides the advantage of a good situation in a large Level very exactly fortified and the Walls and Works most regular elegant and scrupulously kept in repair so that it seems no easie thing by force to take this City neither was it I think once attempted in the late German Wars It lies as a Block in the Frenchmens way and is as it were the Rampart of the Empire in these parts The Government is by a greater Council of 300 chosen by the several Companies of Citizens and a lesser of 71 of which number six are Burgomasters six Stetmasters 15 Patres Patriae and 13 of the Militia The Women of this City are well-favoured and of good Complexions The Inhabitants are most part Lutherans who have seven Churches some Papists who have one Church and four Cloisters two for Men and two for Women and a few Reformed who yet are not allowed a Church in Town but forced to go some two miles to Church in the Territory of the Earl of Hanaw This City is an Episcopal See the Bishop whereof is Lord of the lower Alsatia He hath a Palace in the City but is not suffered to lodge therein above three days together in an Inn he is allowed eight days at a time Here is the fairest largest best furnished and handsomeliest kept Armory or Arsenal that we saw in Germany or in all these respects any where else Here are also public Granaries Wine-Cellars and Store-houses The River Elle runs through the Town The Domo or Cathedral Church is a fair Building of Stone having a great pair of Brass Folding-Doors at the West end Herein we viewed the famous Clock described by Coryat and others a Piece of excellent Workmanship made as were told by one Isaac Habrechtus of Strasburgh The Steeple of this Church is curiously built of carved Stone and incomparably the highest that ever we yet saw The number of Steps from the bottom to the top is 662. We ascended 640 Steps to the place called the Crown from whence we had a wide Prospect of the Countrey round about In this Steeple two men watch constantly by day and four by night Ten hours distant from Strasburgh towards Stutgard is Sowrebourn
nist quod alia aliis majora sint ita ut si lapidi lapident attriveris è medio utriâ—sque conchyliâ— lapidea â—rumpant obversa transversa mixta inaequali quidem pâ—oportione sed formâ unâ c. The same Joannes de Laet gives us another Relation from Jacobus Salmasius Uncle to Claudius Salmasius and Lord of Sauvignac of great store of these petrified Shells found in the stony Fields about Sauvignac which I shall here exhibit to the Reader in his own words Pagus ille Salviniacum uno milliari distat ab Avallono ut nunâ— appellatur vel ut prius vocabatur Aballono 3 aut 4 mil. à Vezelio poetria Theodori Bezae Hujus pagi ager arabilis montosus est lapidosus totus qui tamen est feracissimus In lapidibus illis reperiuntur inserta quasi ex differenti lapidis materia omne genus conchylia aliquando plura aliquando pauciora prout est ipsius saxi magnitudo Visuntur ibi Pectines Ostrea Solenes Cornua Hammonis alia genera In toto illo tractu per spatium trium aut quatuor milliarium haec 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in agris reperiuntur usque ad appidum vel castrum Montis Regalis nomine Mont-real cujus ditionis ager consitus est totus hujusmodi lapidibus varias conchyliorum species partim interiâ—s insertâ—s partim in superficie etiam extantes praeferentibus In Italy besides the places already mentioned we were told that there were found of these Shells in the Territory of Modena in a Mountain called Monte Nicani and in the Chanel of a River near Vdine in Friuli thence called Rivus miraculorum and doubtless in many other places And for the lon-Lon-Countries Goropius l'ecanus saith Apud vicinos nostros Limburgos Leodios Chondrusios Namurcos Hannones Atrebates Tornacenses alios multos à quibus vel Marmora nobis vel alia lapidum genera advehuntur non parva est concharum copia varietas Vidi in silice durissimo Bethunis advecto quo viae apud nos sternuntur tot conchulas totas lapideas conclusis valvulis integras magnâ ut curd arte ex illis fuisse caemento aliquo compactus judicaretur Besides all which places and others mentioned by Writers I doubt not but in Italy Germany France England and the Low-Countries there are many not taken notice of where these Bodies might be found were diligent Search and Observation made That they have not been discovered or taken notice of in other parts of Europe and in Asia and Africa is certainly to be attributed to the Negligence and Redeness of the People who mind nothing that is curious or to the want of learned Writers who should communicate the Histories of them to the World I come now to give an account of the Opinions of the best Authors concerning the Original and Production of these Stones The first and to me most probable Opinion is that they were originally the Shells or Bones of living Fishes and other Animals bred in the Sea This was the general Opinion of the Antients insomuch that Steno saith It was never made a Question among them whether such Bodies came from any place else but the Sea It hath of late times and is now received and embraced by divers learned and ingenious Philosophers as in the precedent age by Fracastorius and in the present by Nicolaus Steno and Mr. Robert Hook after whom I need name no more to give it countenance and authority in the World In his Micrographia Observ 17. He thus discourses concerning these Bodies Examining some of these very curiously figured Bodies found about Keinsham which are commonly thought to be Stones formed by some extraordinary plastic Virtue latent in the Earth itself I took notice of these particulars First that these figured Bodies were of very differing Substances as to hardness some of Clay some Marl some soft Stone almost of the hardness of those Stones which Masons call Fire-Stone others as hard as Portland Stone others as hard as Marble and some as hard as a Flint or Crystal Next they were of very differing Substances as to Transparency and Colour some white some almost black some brown some metalline or like Marcasites some transparent like white Marble others like flaw'd Crystal some gray some of divers colours some radiated like those long petrified drops which are commonly found at the Peak and in other subterraneous Caverns which have a kind of Pith in the middle Thirdly that they were very different as to the manner of their outward Figuration for some of them seem'd to have been the Substance that had filled the Shell of some kind of Shell-fish others to have been the Substance that had conteined or enwrapped one of these Shells on both which the perfect impression either of the inside or outside of such Shels seem'd to be left but for the most part those impressions seemed to be made by an imperfect or broken Shell the great end or mouth of the Shell being always wanting and oftentimes the little end and sometimes half and in some there were Impressions just as if there had been Holes broken in the figurating imprinting or moulding Shell some of them seem'd to be made by such a Shell very much bruised or flaw'd insomuch that one would verily have thought that very figured Stone had been broken or bruised whilst a Gelly as 't were and so hardned but within the Grain of the Stone there appeared not any sign of any such bruise or breaking but only on the very uttermost Superficies Fourthly they were very different as to their outward covering some having the perfect Shell both in Figure Colour and Substance sticking on its surface and adhering to it but might very easily be separated from it and like other common Cochle or Scallop-shells which some of them most accurately resembled were very dissoluble in common Vinegar others of them especially those serpentine or helical Stones were covered with or reteined the shining or pearl-coloured Substance of the inside of the Shell which Substance on some parts of them was exceeding thin and might very easily be rubbed off on other parts it was pretty thick and reteined a white Coat or flaky Substance on the top just like the sides of such Shells some of them had large pieces of the Shell very plainly sticking on to them which were easily to be broken or flaked off by degrees they likewise some of them reteined all along the surface of them very pretty kind of Sutures such as are observed in the Skulls of several kinds of living Creatures which Sutures were most curiously shaped in the manner of Leaves and every one of them in the same Shell exactly one like another which I was able to discover plainly enough with my naked eye but more perfectly and distinctly with my Microscope All these Sutures I found by breaking some of the Stones to be the Termini or boundings of certain Diaphragms or partitions
Vilshoven belonging to Bavaria Sept. 13. At four miles distance from Vilshoven we came to Passaw a considerable city for its strength and greatness formerly well built with many fair stone houses But about three quarters of a year before our being there a most dreadful Fire burnt down ruin'd and destroy'd almost the whole Town Churches public buildings and all It is situate just at the confluence of the rivers In and Danow and subject to the Archduke of Inspruck who we were told gave 50000 dollars towards the rebuilding of it Heer is a bridge over the river In to a town called Instat Hitherto the river Danow flowed gently down but below Passaw it began to be streightned by hills on both sides and to run with a swifter stream Seven miles from Passaw we passed by Nayhonse castle and this third night lodged at a pretty little village belonging to the Emperor called Asch standing on the right side of the river Sept. 14. we had an open countrey again no hills being near the river At four miles end we landed at Lintz and viewed the city which we found to be a very elegant place well built with stone houses flat rooft after the Italian fashion having a large square Piazza with two fountains in it and on the highest part a fair palace of the Emperor whence there is a pleasant prospect of the Danow and Countrey adjacent About three miles below Lintz we passed a pretty village on our left hand called Malhausen Then we had a prospect of a town on our right hand situate upon the river Ens called Intz. Seven miles below Lintz are hills again on both sides the river Heerabouts is a village called Greine where the Earl of Lichtenstein hath a house situate on a hill Below Greine on the left hand is a little village where we past a dangerous place in the river called Strom where the stream being streightned by hills on each hand runs very swiftly and besides is full of rocks a little further below a rock which jets a good way out into the river we passed a violent whirtl-pool called the Werble At some distance further on the left hand stands a small village under a high hill half whereof fell down about two years before our being there which made so great a noise that it was heard two German miles off at Ips a little town we passed by on the right hand We lodged this fourth night at a small village called Morpach 11 miles from Lintz Sept. 15. in the morning we went by a rich cloister called Melk on our right At six miles distance from our lodging we passed a fair house of the Earl of Dernstein's on our left hand and heerabout had a prospect of Ketwein a rich Abby strongly situate on a hill attempted by the Swedes without succchess About nine miles from Marbach we passed under a wooden bridge by a little walled town called Stein where the Swedes they told us were notably beaten and driven out again after they had entred the town which repulse they afterwards revenged when they took the place by plundering and spoiling it Not far hence we landed to view Krembs a considerable city seated on the side of a hill well-built walled about and trenched towards the river From hence we came into an open countrey and the river being at liberty the chanel grew much wider Six miles below Krembs we passed by a small walled Town oh the right hand called Deuln then we had the prospect of Greitenstein a castle situate on a hill at some distance from the river on the left hand next we had a sight of Cornberg a wall'd town in a plain not far from the Danow taken by the Swedes in the late wars and by them notably defended against the Emperor Heer and afterward at several other places we observed mills built upon two boats the wheel lying between the boats which are fixed at a convenient distance one from another and so the stream coming between the boats and by reason it is streightned by degrees running more swiftly turns the wheel One of the boats is by strong cables or chains at each end fastned to the bank and so the boats mill and all rise and fall with the water About a mile and half before we reach'd Vienna we went by a fair rich Abby called Claisternaiberg with a little wall'd town of the same name and at the end of 19 German miles which the swiftness of the current assisting us we made this day we arrived at Vienna the chief city of Austria and at present the imperial seat so called from the river Wien which runs into the Danow no the East side of the Town It is for the bigness of it the most frequent and full of people that we have yet seen beyond the seas The wall is not above four or five English miles in circuit but there are large Suburbs at a little distance from the town those houses that were very near being lately pull'd down to clear the wall and works for fear of a Siege The Tures at the time of our being there having taken Neuhausel and news coming that they were marching with their whole army towards Presburg in Hungary not above 40 English miles distant from Vienna This City is regularly and strongly fortified with a high and impenetrable wall of earth faced with brick a broad and deep trench into which they can as they told us when they please draw the water Bastions half-moons and horn-words c. that it is justly reputed one of the strongest holds of Christendom The inner wall which was said to be built with the ransom of Richard I. King of England is of little strength or consideration in comparison with the new and outer one The houses are sufficiently tall and well built of stone the roofs flattish after the Italian mode The streets rather narrow than broad the markets well stored with all necessaries Heer we first met with tortoises to be sold at the rate of six pence apiece they are found in muddy ditches in these parts Heer also we first took notice of the fruit of Sorbus legitima and first saw in the fish-markets the Silurus or Sheat-fish the greatest of all fresh-water fish that we have seen some of them weighing above 100 pound The Emperors palace the Cathedral church and other public buildings deserve remembrance were it my design minutely to describe places The Emperor is of a mean stature and dark complexion thin-visaged his hair black his under-lip thick and hanging down a little much like his effigies on his coin As for plants we found heerabout Onobrychis spicata flore purpureo Psyllium vulgare Kalispinosum at this distance from the Sea Scabiosa foliis dissectis flore albo vel 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Clus Dorycnio congener in great plenty Marrubium album angustifolium peregrinum C. B. as it seemed to me In the Island of Danubius near Vienna Aristolochia
Clematitis Solanum vesicarium sive Alkekengi plentifully We hired a coach for Venice and began our journey thitherward and this night lodged at a great Village called Trayskerk four miles distant from Vienna by the way-side we found store of Absinthium Austriacum â—enuifolium Clus At four miles end we came to Neustat Neapolis Austriaca they call it well walled and trencht about of a square figure mean bigness handsomly built having streight streets and a fair square market-place At three of the corners are mounts or bastions and at the fourth a Castle In the layes near this town I first found Asperula caerulea Two miles beyond Neustat we began to leave the open countrey and to come among hills We lodged this night at a village called Gluknitz four miles distant from Neustat The houses in these villages are for the most part covered with shingles of wood the hills clothed with woods of Pine After two miles riding we came to a village called Schadwyen or Shadwin seated between the mountains and enclosed with a gate at each end Heer we alighted and our Coachman hired ten oxen which stood there ready for that purpose to draw his Coach up a steep ascent to the top of the hills which part Austria and Stiria On the sides and top of this hill we found these plants Libanotis Theophrasti minor Park Cyclamen autumnale of two sorts Tussilago Alpina folio rotundo A sort of small Trachelium that I have not elsewhere seen A small sort of Muscus clavatus with leaves like Juniper Larix abundantly Lysimachia lutea in alis foliorum florens A kind of Glaux with a rough cod Gentiana folio Asclepiadis abundantly and many others that we had before met with In this journey we also found Muscus denticulatus major in the shady lanes in many places and in watery and springy places Alsine muscosa J. B. further on we came to a little wall'd place near the river Muercz called Mertzuschlag Heerabout are many mills and sithes and sickles made heer then we passed through a village called Langenwang where stands a castle on a hill after that another called Kriegla where we crost the river This afternoon we passed through a pleasant valley among woody mountains and at night took up our loding at Kimberg a large village six long miles distant from Glocknitz We travelled along the same valley and passed through a great village called Kapsuberg besides many other villages castles and Gentlemens houses on the sides of the hills which we rode near to and at three miles end came to Pruck an der Mure i. e. Bons Muroe a fair town for this Countrey and walled about having a large market-place with a fountain in it Proaeding on in the same valley some two leagues further we passed Lewben a very neat pleasant and well-built walled town better than we expected to have found any in this mountainous Countrey It hath a fair market-place with fountains And we observed much Iron lying in the streets which is heer made and wherewith the inhabitants drive a great trade Heer we crossed the Mura twice and soon after we were past Lewben we rode over a hill and following the course of the said river among the mountains at evening we came to a village called S. Michael where we lodged We saw in these parts many men and women with large swellings under their chins or on their throats called in Latin or rather in Greec Bronchocelt and by some in English Bavarian Pâ—â—kes Some of them were single others double and treble This is a disease which these Alpine Nations have of old been subject to Quis tumidum guttur miretur in Alâ—plbvs Yet among the Grisons who live on the highest parts of the Alps I do not remember to have seen any of these â—I dare say there are not half so many thereabouts as in these Countries What should be the Cause of this evil whether the drinking of Snow-water or water infected with the viâ—ose steams and particles of Mercury or other minerals and metals wherewith in all probability those mountains abound is no easie matter to determin For on the one hand in some mountainous countries where the snow lies as long as it doth-heer and consequently their waters are little else then snow dissolved we shall find very few infected with this disease and on the other hand as few in Hungary Transylvania and other countries abounding with mercury and other minerals We must therefore suspend till some ingenious Physician of these Countries by long and diligent observing what causes or occasions these Tumours and likewise what prevents and cures them instructs us better We also observed in these Countries more Idiots and delirous persons than any where else which we imputed sometime to the snow-water sometime to the inordinate eating of Cabbage of which in all the market-towns we saw monstrous heaps lying to be sold But upon further consideration I think with Palmarius it ought rather to be attributed to the mineral steams that infect their waters especially Mercurial For we see the vapour of Quicksilver doth principally affect the brain and nervose parts begetting palsies and deliriums in Painters Gilders Miners and those that are much conversant about it We travelled on by the river Mures side to Knittlefield a walled town three miles from S. Michael and then proceeding along the same valley we passed by some Noblemens houses and castles and lodged at a village upon the Mure called S. Georgio four miles from Knittefield We travelled on in the same valley by the river Mure till we came to Newmarkt a little walled place four miles from S. Georgio Then we followed the course of another little river which runs into the Dravus about Volckmarck in a narrow valley between high hills and a mile from Newmarkt we came to a considerable wall'd town called Freisach in which are four cloisters A mile further we came to Heirt in Carinthia where we lay this night We rode rocky ways through valleys to S. Veit or Vit a wall'd town of some note three miles distant from Heirt The Emperor hath a Mint-house for coining money heer Proceeding on three miles further we arrived at Vilkircken which had been a market-Town of note but about three years since a lamentable Fire burnt it down to the ground We rode very rugged way among the mountains and rocks passing the whole length of a Lake called Oostsukersey and at the further end of it observed a strong castle seated on a high hill belonging to the Earl of Dietrichstein a Prince of the Empire who coins money Then we came down into a pleasant valley and so over the river Dravus which is heer navigable and runs by the walls of Villach a well-built town and one of the chief of this Countrey three miles distant from Vilkerck A good distance from Villach we passed the Guile a considerable
river falling into the Dravus and had very rocky way among high mountains till we came to Orlesteina a village where we lodged We travelled among high mountains very bad way to a village called Klein Tarvis two miles and proceeding on still among the mountains we came to the river Timent which runs into the Adriatic Sea and lodged this night at Pontieba the last town we passed in the Emperors countrey part of it is subject to the Emperor called Pontieba Imperiale and part to the Venetians called Pontieba Veneta where we took a bill of health for Venice Between Klein Tarvis and Pontieba we saw a herd of Goats following the Goat-herd like so many dogs in other places we have seen sheep in that manner following their shepherd which no doubt was usual in Judaea for our Saviour John 10. 4. comparing himself to a shepherd and his disciples and servants to sheep saith And he goeth before his sheep and they follow him for Which would have seemed strange to the hearers had the shepherds been wont only to drive their sheep as with us they do We past over the river Timent by a bridge that parts Carinthia from Friuli About a German mile off we came to a little fort in a village called Clausen where are two draw-bridges which we were not permitted to pass till we had delivered our bill of health Hence we travelled along by the river and observed timber-trees floted down the stream and when the rocks stopped them men with hooks put them off and directed them into the force of the current This is the manner all over the Alps and other high mountains they fell trees and get them to any little current of water and expect a good shot of rain and then flote them down to the greater rivers This day we passed Vensonga a pretty little wall'd town and lodged at Hospitaletto a large village where we got quit of the mountains and came into the plain Countrey of Friuli We passed by Limonia a wall'd town situate on the rising of a hill at the foot of the mountains Some miles further we passed S. Danicle then we forded the river Timent in several places The river heerabouts in a time of rain or when the snow melts on the mountains spreads itself to a very great breadth as appears by the empty chanel Soon after we had passed the river we ascended a cliff and entred the walls of a little town called Spilimberg where were rows or cloisters on each side the street under the houses which we after found in many of the towns of Lombardy ten Italian miles further riding brought us to S. Avogio a village where we rested this night We rode along the plains and at ten miles end came to Saribe a walled town where the river Livenza divides itself and encompasseth the wall From hence we drove on about two Dutoh miles and lodged at Conegliano a wall'd Town seated on the ridge of a hill a place of good account as is also Saribe All the way we travelled in Italy hitherto we had little other bread than what was made of Sorghum a grain the blade whereof arises to seven or eight foot highth and is as great as ones finger bearing a large panicle on the top the berry or seed being bigger than that of wheat and of a dusky colour We rode a Dutch mile and then ferried over the river Anaxus or Piave and at ten Italiam miles further come to Treaviso a large Town the head of a Province called Marea Trevisana an important place for strength but too near and too obnoxious to Venice to be rich From Treviso we rode through a very fertil and well cultivated countrey to Mestre a little Town by the Lagnne so they call the Flats about Venice which are all covered with water when the Tide is in where we took boat for Venice Upon the mountains we passed over this voyage we found a great number of plants we had not before met with as Quinquifolium albâ—m majus caulescâ—â—â— C. B. Quinquefolium album majus alterum C. B. Teucrium Alpinum Cisti flore Epimcdium vilgae Linaria purpurea parva J. B. And not far from Pontieba on Italy side upon the rocks Ledum Alpinum hirsutum C. B. Ledum Alpinum hirsutum minus An Cistus Austriacus myrtifolius Auricula ursiâ— Sedum serra tum alterum foliis longis angustis Sedum Alpinum minimum foliis cinereis flore candido J. B. Siler montanum and many others Helleborus niger verus plentifully all over the highest mountains Scabiosa argentea angustifolia in the chanels of the torrents in Friuli and Galega by the rivers and ditches every where in Italy In Marea Trevisana some part of Friuli and the greatest part of Lombardy we observed the Corn-fields to be so thick set with rows of trees that if a man from an hill or high tower should look down upon the Countrey at a distance he would take it to be a Wood. Against every Tree is planted a Vine which runs up the tree and the branches of the neighbour-vines they draw from tree to tree and tie together So that their Corn-fields are also Woods and Vine-yards the same land sufficing for all these productions and not being exhausted with so much spending as one would be apt to imagine by reason of the depth and richness of its soil Neither in this hot Countrey doth the Corn receive any prejudice from the shade or dropping of the Trees which in our colder Climate would quite marr it but rather advantage there falling little rain in Summer-time and the Trees keeping off the scorching Sun-beams which else might dry up and wither it the heat notwithstanding sufficing to bring the Grain to perfect maturity Whereas with us all the Sun we can give it is little enough and the very grass which grows under the trees is sowr and crude for that usually we have too little heat for our moisture and they too much This part of Italy hath been deservedly celebrated for fertility and may justly in my opinion be stiled the Garden of Europe OF VENICE VEnice is built upon certain little Islands in the middle of the Sea or rather in the middle of certain Flats or Shallows covered all over with water at full Sea but about the City when the Tide is out in many places bare called by the Italians Lagune These Lagune are enclosed and separated from the main Gulf or Adriatic Sea by a bank of earth il Lito or Lido they call it extending according to Contarini about 60 miles according to Leander Albertus and others who come nearer the truth but 35 and resemble the space conteined in a bent Bow the bow being the shore of the firm land and the Lido the string The City stands at an equal distance from the firm land of Italy and from the Lito viz. five miles from each This Lido serves as
they call Garganico The air is clear and healthful but must needs be sharp in Winter time being so near the high mountains among which Baldus is famous for the great variety of choice simples growing thereon of which Joan. Pona an Apothecary of Verona hath written a particular Catalogue and description Which Book and thereupon the Paduan herbarists making simpling voyages yearly thither hath gotten Baldus its reputation for I am very confident that many hills about the Alps produce as great variety and as choice plants as that Not for from Verona is the Lago di Garda anciently called Lacus Benacus which furnishes the City with plenty of excellent Fish especially trouts Sardinie and a sort of Fish of the Trout kind called Carpione peculiar to this lake Those we saw were not a foot long of the fashion of Trout We travelled from Verona to Mantua 24 miles by the way passing through some large Villages but no considerable Town Six miles short of Mantua at a place called Marmirola we viewed an elegant palace of the Dukes richly furnished and adorned with pictures and statues The City of Mantua is of great antiquity strong by situation as standing in the middle of a lake and well fortified Schottus saith that it is 4 miles in circuit hath 8 gates and about 50000 souls It seemed to us a great City but not answerably populous having not yet recovered it self of the losses it sustained when it was miserably sackt by the Emperor Ferdinand II. his Army in the year 1630. A little out of the City stands a pretty house of the Dukes called Palazzo del Te wherein there is a square room having the roof arched round in form of Cupola called the Giants-hall so contrived that if two stand in the opposite corners one laying his ear to the wall may hear what the other whispers with his face to the corner which he that stands in the middle of the room or in the corner on the same side shall not The like room we were told there is in the Duke of Parma's Palace at Caprarola Our whispering place in the Cathedral Church of Glocester is of somewhat a different make In a Village near Mantua called Ande now Petula was born the Prince of Latine Poets P. Virgilius Maro In this City are two Societies of Virtuosi Academies they call them the one stile themselves Accesi the other Timidi This City hath according to the fate of her neighbours undergone several changes of Government In the year 1328. Lewis Gonzaga by the favour of the people made himself Lord of it from whom the present Duke is descended In the year 1433. John-Francis Gonzaga was created Marquess of Manina by the Emperor Sigismund IV. In the year 1530. Frederic Gonzaga was created Duke of Mantua by the Emperor Charles V. The Dukes yearly revenue is said to be 400000 crowns according to the account we had of it in particulars somewhat less viz. the mills pay 4000 crowns per annum The Jews who are about 6000 in number and wear no badge of distinction give 20000 crowns per annum The rest of the Citizens of Mantua 70000 crowns The Countrey yields 60000 pistols and Montserrat 13000 in all 386000 crowns the year Yet is the present Prince through ill husbandry not proportioning his expences to his income become very poor being indebted to the Venetians as Leti saith four millions of crowris To advance his Revenue at the time of our being there he was put to that pitiful shift of debasing his coin so that none of his money would pass further then his own Territory His name was Carolus Gonzaga II. since dead and his Son Caroulus Ferdinandus succeeds him in his estates There are besides of this Family 4 or 5 small Princes feudatory of the Empire but Sovereign Lords having Jura Regalia in their petty States viz. The Princes of 1. Novellara 2. Bozolo 3. Gustalla 4. Sabionetta in which the male line is failed 5. Castiglione We were told that these Princelets were obliged to attend the Duke of Mantua's Court three months in the year The Dukes Council of State or Privy Council consists only of six of the chief Nobility In these parts all the children of the common people have equal shares of their Parents Estates at least their moveables The wife when her husband dies carries her dowry back with her if she dies first then her children if she leaves any divide her dower equally among them If she die childless her dower is divided half goes to her husband and half to her next kindred If a woman hath had children by one husband and he dying she marries again and hath children by her second husband her estate is divided into equal parts one moiety goes to her first husbands children and the other to her second 's We took boat for Ferrara which brought us first into the lake then into the chanel of the River Mincius which runs out of the Lago di Garda called in Latine Lacus Benacus at a strong Fort of the Venetians called Peschiera and coming to Mantua spreads it self into a lake of 5 miles long At 16 miles end we came to a Bridg and Sluce at a place called Governo where we entred the River Po going down stream we passed by Ostia 10 miles distant from Governo and 10 miles further down Massa both on our left hand and 7 miles below Massa came to Stellata a large Village on our right hand under the Pope Heer the Territory of Mantua ended Eight miles beyond this place we left the River Po at a Village called Il Ponte and struck up an artificial Chanel of 4 miles long which brought streight to the Gates of Ferrara This City is very considerable as well for its greatness as its strength It is said to be about 7 miles in compass and besides the advantage of its siruation in a fenny level it is strongly fortified with walls an bulwarks and surrounded with a broad and deep trench full of water so that I look upon it for a City of that bigness as the strongest in all Italy It had formerly a Prince of its own but is now with all its territory subject to the Pope From Ferrara we went with the Procaccio or Courrier to Bologna shifting our boat at a place called Mal-Albergo some 17 miles from Ferrara where we went up into a higher chanel viz. the Rhenus Bononiensis and passing through 9 locks or sostegni we arrived at Bologna distant by water from Ferrara 45 miles A great part of the Countrey we passed through between Ferrara and Bologna is a perfect level and fenny ground much like to the Isle of Ely in England Bononia is a large City of a round figure and yet 7 or 8 miles in circuit The houses not tall fair portico's on each side the streets convenient to walk in as well in Summer to defend one from the scorching beams of the Sun as in Winter to shelter form
Ligorn Livorno called anciently Portus Liburnus some 10 or 12 miles distant This Town is not large and but low built yet very pleasant and uniform having streight streets and a spacious Piazza in the middle It stands in an open level without mountain or hillock within 5 miles of it on any side It is well-fortified with walls and bastions and a deep trench round except on the Sea-side and secured with a good Garrison being one of the most considerable and important places in all Tuscany Since the Great Duke made it a free port it hath encreased mightily in trading and riches great numbers of Merchants from all Nations resorting hither and most of the bargains for the commodities of the whole Levant being heer driven The greatest part of the Inhabitants are Strangers and Jews which last are esteemed one third of the whole number of people and thought to amount to 5000 persons and upward Before these privileges granted to Ligorn when it was thin of Inhabitants it was accounted a very bad air and an unhealthful place by reason of the fens and marshes adjoyning but now since it is become populous the multitude of fires as is supposed hath so corrected the air that people enjoy their health as well and live as long heer as in any other Town or City of Italy Near the Haven is a very magnificent statue of Ferdinand I. Great Duke about the pedestal whereof are 4 brass Statues of slaves chained of a gigantick bulk and stature The haven within the mole is but small but heer is good riding for Ships without The Great Duke in Lent time uses to make his residence in this Town heer being great variety of good fish taken in the Sea near hand and to be sold at reasonable rates all other provisions being dear enough In Ligorn we saw workmen filing of marking-stones called in Latine Lapis galactites morochthus in Italian Pictra lattaria which they told us were found at Monte negro and thereabout some 5 miles distant from Ligorn and from hence transported into France Spain England the Low Countreys c. Of the dust and filings of this stone they make the body of power for hair as the workmen informed us Of Plants we observed about Ligorn Kali geniculatum majus in the marshes by the Sea-side Absinthium Seriphium Gallicum Polium montanum album C. B. Medica doliata spinosa Medica cochleata Spinosa Med. marina on the Sands Caltha arvensis C. B. Hyacinthus palustris vernus flosculis fimbriatis albis Hyacinthus comosus Ger. Lathyrus flore coccineo Vicia luteo flore sylvestris Ochrus sive ervilia Dod. these three last among the Corn as also Gla. diolus Narbonensis Lob. Telephium scorpioides Anguill in arenosts Phyteuma Monspeliensium Cichorium pratense vesicarium Col. Medica Scutellata J. B. Iris humilis violacea latifolia eadem flore albo in rupibus ad mare Herniaria hirsuta Allii species an Ampeloprassum Ferrum equinum Lob. Orchis macrophyllâ—s Columnae Trifolium fragiferum sive vesicarium floribus nitidis rubellis flosculis velut in umbella parva dispositis Chrysanthemum Bellidis folio Hort. Pat. inter segetes Buphthalmum Cotulae folio C. B. an Chrysanthem Valentinum Clusii Anthyllis leguminosa flo purpureo Cruciata minima muralis Col. Peplus minor J. B Ageratum sive Balsamita mas A sort of Draba with a white flower Hieracium perfoliatum besides many which we had found in other places as that sort of Dorycnium which J. Bauhinus calls Trifolium album rectum hirsutum valdè Carduus Chrysanthemus Narbonensis which Lobel calls Eryngium luteum Monspeliensium Heliotropium majus Carduus solstitialis Ger. Cichoreum pratense verrucarium in arvis passim Blattaria flore luteo Convolvulus minimus spicifolius Lob. Melissa sylvest hirsutior minùs odorata Dorycnio congener planta Rapistrum monospermon Ammi vulgare Passerina Tragi Sideritis vulgaris Aster luteus foliis ad florem rigidis Stoebe major caliculis non splendentibus Between Pisa and Ligorn we noted Leucoium bulbosum majus polyanthemum Ger. in the marshes near Pisa plentifully Aristolochia clematitis Aster conyzoides nobis dictus Asparagus altilis Gramen supinum aculeatum J. B. Besides these we observed some which grow wild in England but more rarely as Leucoium marinum majus folio sinuato Orchis fuciflora galeâ alis herbidis Hyacinthus stellaris vernus minor Eranthemum sive flos Adonis Trifolium pumilum supinum flosculis longis albis P. B. Ferrum equinum Germanicum siliquis in summitate C. B. At Ligorn finding a good Dutch Vessel ready to set sail for Naples we put our selves aboard her The wind not favouring us we spent five days in this passage before we reached our Port. The Captain of the Ship told us that heerabouts usually in the forenoon the wind blows from the Land and in the afternoon from the Sea so that it is Easterly in the forenoon and Westerly in the afternoon We also observed in this Voyage that about Sun-set the wind fell so that soon after Sun-set there was little or no wind stirring and likewise several days about Sun-rising we had but little wind In our return backwards from Messina to Naples and from Naples to Ligorn we observed that the wind for the most part sate contrary to us And the Sea men told us that this was general in Summer time So that you have a much quicker passage from Ligorn to Naples and thence to Messina than backwards We observed also that the wind follows the Sun so that every morning we could make some use of the wind to sail with but in the afternoon none at all which agrees exactly with our Captains observation the land lying Eastward and the Sea West Our Captain also told us that when they made a Voyage from Holland to the West-Indies they sailed down the Coast of Africa as far Southward as the place in the West-Indies whither they intended to go lay and then steer'd directly Westward both the wind blowing constantly from the East and the Sea also running the same way Which relation of his concurring with the general vogue of Mariners if true doth much confirm the opinion of the diurnal motion of the earth When they return backwards from thence into Holland they go round about the Bay of Mexico and up a good way northward and then strike over to Europe the water being reflected as he said that way and the wind also often blowing that way Naples lies by the Sea side under hills in form of a Theater for its figure and situation much like to Genua but somewhat bigger and much more populous so that before the last great Plague which swept away as we were credibly informed at least 120000 souls one might well reckon the number of Inhabitants to have been about three hundred thousand The circuit of the walls is not above seven Italian miles but it hath large Suburbs The Town is well built of stone the
minor folio oblongo Ger. Ammi vulgare foliis mag incisis Meda orbiculata major J. B. Tordylium majus Scorpioides Bupleuri folio Crithmum spinosum sive Pastinaca marina Passerina Lob. Aparine semine Coriandri Saccharato Trifolium stellatum C. B. Cerinthe flore luteo Melissa peregrina flore albo Cortex ramulorum antiquiorum caules enim perennant cinereus juniorum ruber Caules quadrati Folia bina ex adverso quà m Melissae minora pediculis satis longis subnixa Flores cucullati albi cum aliqua tamen ruboris mixtura Vascula seminalia qualia Moluccae laevis ferè excepto quòd in 5 lacinias dividantur duabus inferiùs tribus superiùs sitis Semina itidem qualia Moluccae Odor plantae gravis Nigella arvensis Sysirynchinum majus Limonium parvum Narbonense oleaefolium Cichorea spinosa Cretica Ponae Daucus lucidus Asparagus petraeus sive Corruda Tragos sive Vva marina major herbariorum Lob. Beta Cretica spinosa Park Trifolium capitulis glomeratis glomerulis spinosis Linum sylvestre caeruleum Caltha arvensis Atractylis Cruciata minima muralis Col. Coronopus folils acutis in margine dentatis i. e. Plantagini affinis Bibinella Siciliae herbula J. B. Malva flo carneo minore Ex radice alba simplici plures emittit caules humi procumbentes hirsutos superna parte rubentes Folia ima subrotunda longis pediculis annexa quae in caulibus sunt in tres aut quinque lacinias dissecta hirsuta circa margines crenata Flores parvi quinquefolii carnei Semina qualia malvae vulgaris Alaternus Phillyrea latifolia seu serrata secunda Clus Glaux peregrina annua Iva moschata Monspeliensium Asparagus sylvest spinosus Clus Sedum minus luteum ramulis reflexis Geranium procumbens Althaeoe folio We put to Sea again but the wind still continuing contrary and the Sea very rough when we were gotten about half over the channel we were forced to return back again to the primo terreno of Sicily viz. the Castle of Puzallu The greatness of the waves not permitting us to come ashore there we rowed 6 miles further South and put in at a little Cove called the Harbour of Punto Cerciolo The weather continuing foul we were deteined heer 3 days having no other shelter then a pitiful small hut o◠two which the two Sentinels who stand constantly at this point to watch and give notice to the Countrey of the coming of Corsairs had set up for themselves to creep into in stormy weather We should have been glad of fresh straw to lie in having nothing in our kennel but old short straw so full of fleas that we were not able to sleep in it Our diet was the blood and flesh of Sea-tortoises that our Sea-men took by the way and bread we brought along with us Wine we got at house about half a mile off our lodging but when our bread failed we were fain to send 8 miles for more Fish or flesh we could get none This stop gave us leisure enough to search the shores and neighbouring Countrey for plants of which we found Panax Herculeum majus Ger. Cinara sylvestris Ger. Ruta sylvestris Limonium elegans Raumolfii Beta Cretica spinosa Park Medica orbiculata fructu minore Med. orbiculata elegans fructu circum oras rugoso Hypericum foliis parvis crispis seu sinuatis Perfoliata angustifolia montana Col. Siliqua arbor seu Panis S. Joannis Medica marina Anonis lutea parva procumbens In arenosis nascitur radice albâ longâ simplici fibris nunc paucioribus nunc pluribus majoribus donatâ Folia ei parva tripartitò divisa pediculis nullis verùm duae inferiores partes cauli adjacent ut in Lotis fit ac proinde haec planta eodem modo trifolia est quo Loti quinquefoliae Quinetiam folia saturè viridia sunt in margine eleganter dentata alternatim posita Flores lutei Anonidis vulgaris Siliquae breves tumidae subrotundae duobus intus ordinibus seminum figurâ lienis praeditorum In arenosis maris litoribus circa Siciliam frequens v. g. propè Cataniam circa Promontorium Pachynum hoc in loco Cistus mas 4 folio oblongo albido J. B. Lotus flore luteo corniculis articulatis Radix ei simplex alba in nonnullis tamen plantis ima parte in fibras spargitur Cauliculi plures in terram procumbentes Folia glauca pentaphylla si auriculas ad caulem hinc indè appositas adnumeres Flores parvi lutei Trifolii corniculati sed minores ad nodos nunc singuli nunc bini interdum etiam terni Siliquae graciles longae contortae in spiram seu corniculatae articulatae semina oblonga in singulis internodiis continentes Caucalis maritima J. B. Smyrnium Creticum Gladiolus Narbonensis Polium montanum album Saxifragia Venetorum Ad. Psyllium vulgare Acanthium Illyricum Telephium scorpioides Anguillarae Tragos sive uva marina major J. B. Opuntia marina in litus rejecta and many others before observed in other places The wind ceasing we put to Sea again and had a very good passage over to Malta By the way we saw our Seamen take several Tortoises on this manner When they espy a Tortoise floting on the top of the water as they can easily do at a good distance with as little noise as they can possibly they bring their boat up close to him then they either catch him with their hands and draw him up into the boat or if they cannot get near enough to do so one leaps out of the boat into the Sea and turns the Tortoise on his back and then with ease drives him before him up to the boat the Tortoise being not able to turn himself or swim away on his back They say and it is not unlikely that the Tortoise while he flotes thus upon the water sleeps which is the reason why they are so still and make so little noise in bringing their boat up to him One of these Tortoises which they caught had two great bunches of those they call Bernacle-shells sticking or growing to his back and some of them the largest and fairest of that kind which we have seen As for that opinion of a bird breeding in them which some have affirmed with much confidence and of which Michael Meyerus hath written a whole Book it is without all doubt false and frivolous The Bernacles which are said to be bred in them being hatcht of eggs of their own laying like other birds the Hollanders in their third Voyage to discover the Northeast passage to Cathaia and China in 80 degrees 11 minutes of Northern latitude having found two Islands in one of which they observed a great number of these Geese sitting on their eggs c. as Dr. Johnson relates out of Pontanus As for these shells they are a kind of Balanus marinus as Fabius Columna proves never coming to be other then what they are but only growing in bigness as other shells do
well He also mentions a sort of excrescence or moss or scurf which the Rocks about S. Maria el Aalia and other places on the North side of the Island naturally put forth called by the Countrey people Vercella which they scrape off with an iron instrument and having washed it with a certain liquor and mingled it with other Ingredients He tells us not what that liquor or those ingredients are they expose it to the Sun and use it to dye wool of a carnation colour This kind of moss called in Wales Kenkerig and in England Cork or Arcel is gathered and used for the same purpose in Wales and the North of England Malta hath been famous of old for a breed of little Dogs called Catuli Melitaei the race whereof is quite extinct and now their Cats are as much esteemed The Roses of Malta contend for sweetness with those of Paestum and the Honey with that of Hybla or Hymettus So that some suppose this Island had its name Melita from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifying honey The air is clear and healthful and the people long lived Not much rain falls heer yet sufficient to supply water to feed their springs of which there are several in the high grounds or small hills about the middle of the Island That these Springs proceed from rain-water only my Author doth very well prove because they are found only at the foot of little hills consisting of a certain porous stone which the Maltese call Giorgiolena or a chalky earth which easily imbibes the rain And to speak in general that all springs and running waters owe their rise and continuance to rain seems to me more than probable 1. Because I never yet saw any springing or running waters breaking out either on the top of a hill or so near the top but that there was earth enough above them to feed such Springs considering the condition of high mountains which are almost constantly moistned with clouds and on which the Sun-beams have but little force and yet I have made it part of my business in viewing the highest hills in England and Wales to examine this particular Nor have I yet ever observed such springing and running waters in any plain unless there were hills so near that one might reasonably conclude they were fed by them 2. Many springs quite fail in dry Summers and generally all abate considerably of their waters I am not ignorant that some make a distinction between failing springs and enduring springs and would have the former to proceed from rain and the latter from the Sea but I see no sufficient foundation for such a distinction and do think that both the one and the other are to be attributed to rain the failing and enduring being to be referred either to the different quantity and thickness of earth that feeds them or to the different quality the one more quickly the other more slowly transmitting the water or some such like accident 3. In clay grounds into which the water sinks with difficulty one shall seldom find any springs but in sandy gravelly rocky stony or other grounds into which the rain can easily make its way one seldom fails of them 4. They who would have fountains to arise from and to be fed by the Sea have not as yet given a satisfactory account of the ascent of water to the tops of mountains and its efflux there For though water will creep up a filtre above its level yet I question whether to so great an excess above its aequilibrium with the air whereas in pumps we see it will not rise above two or three and thirty foot or if it should whether it would there run out at the top of the filtre we not having as yet heard of any experiment that will countenance such a thing For the ascent and efflux of sap in trees I suspect may be owing to a higher principle then purely mechanical As for the Sabulum Quellem or Arena bulliens of Helmont I look upon it as an extravagant conceit of his and yet some ground there is to believe that there is a kind of earth lying up and down in veins which doth like a filtre retain the water and carry or derive it along as it lies from place to place till it brings it to the supersicies of the earth where it runs out In other places there are subterraneous channels like the veins in animals whereinto the water soaking into the earth is gathered and wherein it runs as above ground out of smaller rivulets into greater streams and where one of these veins opens in the superficies of the earth there is a spring greater or lesser according to the magnitude of the vein Nor need we wonder that springs should endure the length of a dry Summer for in many sorts of earth the water makes its way but slowly since we see that in those troughs or leches wherein Landresses put ashes and thereupon water to make a lixivium the water will be often many hours before it gets all through the ash and the Lech ceases to drop and in many Chymical preparations which are filtred its long before the liquor can free it self and wholly drain away from the earthy and feculent part Some attribute the original of fountains to watery vapours elevated by subterraneous fires or at least by that generally diffused heat which Miners find in the earth when they come to 50 or 60 fathoms under ground and condensed by the tops and sides of the mountains as by an Alembick head and so distilling down and breaking out where they find issue And in reason one would think that generally the deeper one digs in the earth the colder one should find it sith the Urinators affirm that the deeper they dive in the Sea the colder still they find the water And yet were there such subterraneous heats they are not so great as that it is likely they should elevate vapours so high through so thick a coat of earth which it must be an intense heat indeed will carry them through which heat none say is found near the superficies of the earth Mr. Hook's account viz. that salt water being heavier than fresh by reason of its preponderancy it may drive up the fresh as high above the surface of the Sea as are the tops of mountains before it comes to an aequilibrium with it is very ingenious and would be most likely were there continued close channels from the bottom of the Sea to the tops of mountains not admitting the air which I believe will not be found in many places What is said about ebbing and flowing wells in confirmation of it adds no strength for none of those ebbing and flowing wells that I have yet seen do at all observe the motion of the Sea but reciprocate two or three times or oftner every hour excepting one on the Coast of South-Wales in a sandy ground by the Sea-side not ¼ of a mile from the water which
most part all along from Catania and we found the ground rich and well cultivated and the Countrey well inhabited for the slag and cinders cast out of the mountain being in process of time dissolved by the weather doth mightily fatten and enrich the soil We rode up so high till we came to the conservatories of snow and seeing the mountain above us all covered with snow we did not nor indeed could we ascend any higher The trees heerabout had at this time scarce put out their leaves As we went up we found in one place the ground covered for a quarter of a mile broad and 4 or 5 miles in length with cinders which had been thrown forth by the mountain and was cartainly the relique of a huge stream of melted coals iron stones and sulphure poured out in the time of the last eruption nothing as yet growing among these stones and cinders This mountain hash in former times thrown forth stones and slag as far as Catania it self as we could manifestly see but of all the eruptions that ever were I believe this last which happened Anno 1669. since our being there was the greatest and most horrid for a full description and exact account wherof I refer the Reader to Borellus his learned Treatise De incendiis Aetnae This mountain is of a very great height and we were told by credible persons that one might see it at Sea over the whole Island any way one came thither We could clearly discern the top of it as far as the Island of Malta which in a right line must needs be at least 100 miles distant One thing we could not but wonder at that there should be a ring of snow about the top of Aetnas but the highest top it self bare without any snow upon it The Inhabitants of Sicily are noted for churlish and uncivil to Strangers and I think not undeservedly The Italians have a Proverb Omnes insulani mali Siciliani autem pessimi All Islanders are bad but the Sicilians worst of all This Island is confessedly a very ill place to travel in by reason of the Robbers and Banditi wherewith it is infested thanks to the good Government which takes no more care to cleanse it of such vermine These Bandits will not be content with your money but will also seize your person and detain you prisoner in the mountains till you give them a good ransom for your deliverance We took notice of some Laws and Customs proper to Sicily during our stay heer 1. It is unlawful to carry out of this Island in money more then ten crowns a person if any one carries out more and be taken all is forfeited But the searchers are not so strict but that if you give them a little money they will let you pass especially if you be a stranger and traveller without any searching at all 2. It is unlawful to kill any Calves in this Island so that no Veal can be procured heer And yet at Malta they have Veal enough transported hence by stealth 3. It is unlawful to take above one ounce of silver without weighing of it so that if you buy any thing which comes to more though your money be never so good you shall see them pro forma put it in their scales 4. No person under age imberbis Iuvenis may be received in any time in Sicily unless he hath a patent and license to travel 5. It is prohibited under pain of death to any man to carry pistols about him but long guns they may and do all carry The reason is because a pistol may easily be hid and so men murthered unawares 6. All the money current in Sicily is coined at Messina After our return to Messina May 27. we passed by boat over the Fretum to see Rhegio or Rhezo anciently Regium an old City but now Very mean and poor All they have to boast of at present is their Gardens well stored with all sorts of the best fruits their Silk of which plenty is made heer and if we may believe themselves the best in Italy or sicily And S. Pauls pillar which burned of which they have but a small fragment remaining They told us many stories and legends of it which we gave little heed to We took boat and went as far as Scylla to see the fishing of the Pesce Spada or Sword-fish The maner whereof is thus On the top of the Cliffs by the Sea-side stand Speculatores Huers our Fisher-men call them to espy the Fish who so soon as they see them either by voice if they be near or by known signs if at distance give notice to the Fishing-boats whereabouts the fish are The boat presently makes towards the place then one gets up to the top of a little mast in the boat made with steps on purpose and there stands to observe the motion of the fish and direct the rowers who accordingly ply their oars When they are come very near him he upon the mast comes down and taking the harping iron in his hand if he can strikes it into him The fish being wounded plays up and down and wearies himself and when he is faint and spent they draw him up into the boat This is much like the Whale-fishing The harping iron is put on a staff or pole of wood The point of it is sharp and hath beards on each side like a barbed arrow so joynted that if you hold the point upward they clap close to the shaft if downward they fall off from it on each side so that they resist not the going in of the iron but only the drawing out This fish is held a great dainty by the Messanese as much longed for and as greedily bought up by them as Soland goose by the Scots sold in Messina at first coming in for six pence English the pound In May and beginning of June it is taken on the coast of Calabria about the latter end of June it comes over to the Sicilian side and is taken about the Faro till August There because there be no rocks or cliffs hanging over the Sea they prepare a large boat or brigandine and pitch up in it a tall mast with shrowds like the mast of a ship on the top of which the Speculator or Huer stands In the beginning of June yearly is celebrated at Messina a great Festival called The Feast of our Lady of the Letter it continues near a weeks time with great solemnity During this time all the house-keepers hang out in all the streets a multitude of lamps candles and tapers and set their windows as full of lights in paper-lanthorns as they can hold which burn all night so that the streets are as lightsome almost by night as by day Nay the light was so great that at a good distance from the Town as we came thither late at night the reflection thereof from the clouds and atmosphere appeared to us like the Aurora or Crepuseulum though we saw not
thence have drawn rayes or ribs of stone answering to the ridges or striae of a cochle-shell to the edges round The Domo or Cathedral Chruch is a stately edifice of marble having a beautiful front adorned withinside with the heads of all the Popes placed in the wall round about the body of the Chruch Part of this Church is paved with Marble inlaid or a more elegant sort of Mâ—saic work containing part of the History of the Bible done by Micherino Sanese This pavement is covered with a moveable floor of boards to preserve it Had it been finished as intended all Europe could not have shown the like but there is not a fourth part done The painting of the Library walls in this Chruch containing the History of Alneas Sylvius afterwards Pope Pius II half by the hand of Petrus Peruginus and half by Raphael Vrbin is in my judgment the most excellent painting that ever I beheld and so fresh and lively as if it had been done but yesterday Heer are also other good Churches and handsome Palaces We ascended the Tower called Torre di mangio from whence we had a fair prospect of the whole City which runs out into 3 angles The walls enclose much void ground which is made use of for Gardens and Vineyards All the streets and Piazza are paved with brick set edge-ways after the manner of Venice and the sides of the streets of the Holland Towns The whole Town is well built and situate upon a hill and by that means always clean They heer make no use of snow or ice to cool or refresh their Wines their cellars keeping it cool enough In the Palace of the Podestà we saw a room the walls and roof whereof were painted by Micherino Sanese valued at more then the whole Palace besides We took notice also of the Theater for Comedies a fair brick building and the Studium called the Sapienza where are the public Schools a mean building much like that of Pisa This City is counted a very good place to sojourn in for a Stranger that would learn Italian as well because the Citizens heer speak the purest language as for that they are very civil and courteous to Foreigners Besides by reason of its situation the air is temperate even in Summer time Provisions also are reasonable We travelled to Radicofani 34 miles passing through 1. Lucignano a post-village and in sight of Cuna a Village on a hill also a little walled Town called Fuon-convento then Tornieri a post-village and lastly S. Quiricho i. e. S. Cyriaci oppidum Which so soon as we had passed I found great plenty of Lavender-cotton which grew all along by the way-side There grew also all this days journey in great plenty Absinthium Romanum Caes Between S. Quiricho and Radicofani Cinara sylv and two other species of thistle one I guessed to be Carduus tomentosus Lob. the other I knew not Acarna flore purpuro-rubente Patulo Veronica spicata coerulea Winter Savory After luteus Linariae folio Colchicum covered all the pastures Between S. Quiricho and Radicofani we passed no considerable Town or Village All the Countrey we rode through this day is mountainous and barren very little wood growing on the ground Radicofani being a frontier is strongly fortified and held with a Garrison of 300 Souldiers by the Great Duke This Radicofani is situate upon a high hill so that one may see it going or coming 12 or 14 miles We travelled from Radicofani to Viterbo 38 miles About 10 miles from Radicofani we passed over a small River called at a place called Ponte Argentino which divides the State of the Gr. Duke and of the Pope It is to be noted that in all this Countrey the Towns and Villages are generally set upon the tops of hills for coolness I suppose We observed also that the Countrey subject to the Great Duke at least that part we travelled this Voyage was craggy and bare of trees and seem'd to us to be but dry parcht and barren land But so soon as we came into the Ecclesiastical State the world was well amended for the hills were for the most part covered with trees and the valleys very fruitful Fourteen miles from Radicofani we passed Aquapendente a large old Town ex re nomen habens for it stands upon the brow of a hill from which the water falls perpendicularly Then we passed S. Lorenzo a little Town on the edge of the lake of Volsinii now called Bolsena and rode along the brink of the lake 5 miles to Bolsena From Bolse we mounted up to Monte Fiascone where we tasted the so much celebrated wine and after 8 miles further riding over a spacious and fruitful plain arrived at Viterbo a large and well situate Town but not very fairly built All that we took notice of there was 2 or 3 handsome Fountains and the monument of Pope John XXI in the Domo There are Sulphure-wells and hot springs about the Town but we had not time to examine or so much as view them We rode to Baccano 22 miles from Viterbo passing through Ronciglione a pretty Town belonging to the State of Castro In the woods we travelled through this day upon the mountains near Viterbo we found many rare plants v. g. Carduus globosus Ger. Viola matronalis Casia poetica Lob. Cerrus minore glande Ger. Orobus sylvaticus viciae foliis C. B. Cyclaminus folio anguloso J. B. plentifully in all the Woods between Viterbo and Rome Mespilus vulgaris Hesperis sylvestris latifolia flore parvo albo Park Thlaspi Candiae Ger. Lamium scntellaria dictum Sorbus Linaria major purpurea Blattaria lutea Cytisus cortice cinereo aut albido siliquis hirsutis We cannot yet certainly determine what this plant is called by Botanic writers Plumbago Plinii at Bolsena and about Rome plentifully by the way sides Polygonum vel Linifolia per terram sparsa flore Scorpioidis J. B. Helleborus niger hortensis flore viridi J. B. in vepretis montosis passim We travelled from Baccano to Rome 16 miles From a mountain we passed over not far from Baccano we had a wide prospect of the Campania of Rome which being covered over with a thick mist appeared to us looking down upon it from the clear sky above like a huge lake of water nor could we have perswaded our selves otherwise had we not before observed the like Phaenomenon in some places of England About 3 miles short of Rome we passed by an ancient monument like to those we had observed at Modena which they call the Sepulchre of Nero and somewhat more than a mile before we entred the City we passed over the Tiber by the Ponte Molle anciently Pons Milvius and came upon the Via Flaminia a streight paved way having Ville and Gardens on either side it which brought us to the Gate called Porta del Popolo whereat we entred the City OF ROME OF Rome both
and proceeding on about 15 miles further we passed near to Chioza a large Town built among the lagune and Pelestrina a village standing upon the Argine or Lido we entred into the lagune at the haven of Malamocco and soon after arrived at Venice Feb. 9. of which City we have already written as much as suffices for our purpose We began our journey from Venice to Geneva by the way of Rhoetia and Swizzerland Passing by boat to Mestre 7 miles and from Mestre to Treviso by coach 12 miles At Treviso we took horses and a Vitturine for Trent in which journey we spent two days and an half it being almost 80 miles riding The first day we passed through C. Franco 12 miles and then over a fair champian Countrey to Bassano a very handsome and pleasant walled Town upon the river Brenta over which there is a good bridge of wood This Town drives a great trade of weaving silks As soon as we were past Bassano we entred among the mountains going up beside the river Brenta 14 miles and lodged at Pont Sigismund The second day we rode still up beside the river and about 2 miles from Ponte we passed through a gate where we paid Datii to the Arch-Duke of Inspruck At this pass is hewn out of the rock a box or little castle called Caâ—olo a great height above the road to which there is no avenue at all but both the Souldiers that keep it and all their provisions must be drawn up by rope and pully only there is a fountain of fresh water in it Notwithstanding that this fortress belongs to the Arch-Duke yet the Venetian territory extends 4 or 5 miles further to a place called Sixteen miles riding brought us to a pretty little Town called Bergo and 13 miles more to Perzine a rich and populous Borgh 5 miles short of Trent Near this Town is a good valley but at our being there the snow was not melted Between Bassano and Ponte the Countrey on the left hand the river Brenta as we went up belongs to the Sette Commune and on the right hand to Bassano Upon the river were several saw-mills and a great quantity of timber floted down the stream to Padua As soon as we got among the mountains we every where found stoves in the houses instead of Chimneys The plants we observed in this journey were Erica Pannonica 4. Clus now in flower upon the sides of the mountains and the Rocks plentifully Fumaria bulbosa Leucoium bulbosum vulgare C. B. Leuc. bulbosum minus triphyllon J. B. We got early to Trent a pretty little City seated upon the river Athesis at the foot of the mountains which do encompass it almost round save the valley where the river runs The inhabitants speak altogether Italian and the Venetian money passes current among them notwithstanding their present Prince is Arch-Duke of Inspruck Beside the North door of the Domo we found the monument of Matthiolus having on it these inscriptions Above Herbarum vires nec rectiùs edidit alter Nec mage te clarus hac super arte fuit Si mens ut corpus depingi posset imago Vna Dioscordis Matthiolique foret Under his Effigies this D. O. M. Petro Andreae Matthiolo Senensi III Caesarum Ferdinandi Maximiliani Rudolphi Consiliario Et Archiatro Et Hieronymae Comitissae ex aâ—tiqua illustri Castellanorum seu Comitum Varmi familia Ferdinandus Matthiolus Caesari Ferdinando Austriae Archiduci Joanni Georgio Saxoniae Electori à consiliis cubiculis medicus Apostolica Imperiali auctoritatibus Sacri Pala tii Lateranen Aulaeque Caesareae comes Et armatae militiae eques auratus Vna cùm Maximiliano fratre Anniversariis precibus institutis Parentibus bene merentissimis PP Ann. MDCXVII Vixit ille an LXXVII Ann. Christi MDLXXVII obiit Tridenti Vixit illa an XXXII Obiit ibidem An. Dom. MDLXIX Below this Distich Saxa quidem absumit tempus sed tempore nunquam Interitura tua est gloria Matthiole On the front of the Quire is this following inscription concerning the Council held in this City Sacrosanctum postremum Oecumenicum generale Concilium fuit in hac celeberrima civitate celebratum quidem sub Papa Paulo III Anno MDXLV XIII Decembris pro felice inchoatione fuit facta Processio generalis per totam Urbem ab Ecclesia Sanctissimae Trinitatis ad hanc Ecclesiam Cathedralem quâ finitâ primus Cardinalis Praesidens qui postea fuit Papa Julius III prout etiam alter Card. Praesidens fuit Papa Marcellus II nominatus in hoc loco eminentiore tunc magis amplo ad celebrandum Concilium Sessiones faciendas deputato ad altare S. Gloriosissimi martyris Vigilii hujus Ecclesiae patroni celebravit missam de Spiritu S. Ac reliquis caeremoniis peractis fuerunt sub D. Paulo III celebratae octo publicae Sessiones cum decretis aliae tres ob vastam pestem in hac Urbe grassantem Bononiae ubi nihil fuit decretum Anno MDXLVII Postea cessante peste bellis fuit reductum hoc Concilium in hoc eodem loco fuerunt sub Papa Julio III celebratae aliae publicae sex Sessiones cum Decretis Annis 1551 1552 quibus interfuerunt tres Seren issimi Principes Ecclesiastici S. R. I. Electores Archiepiscopi Moguntinus Trevirensis Coloniensis 1° Die Septemb. 1551. hanc Urbem ingressi prout etiam Serenissimus Elector Brandenburgensis duos oratores huc ablegavit Demum sub Papa Pio IV Anno 1561 1563 fuerunt celebratae ultimae novem publicae Sessiones cum Decretis in Ecclesia S. Mariae majoris hujus urbis istius Ecclesiae Reverendissimo Capitulo incorporata sicuti etiam Ecclesia S. Petri. Et nihilominus ad pedes Sanctissimi Crucifixi tum in hoc loco existentis nunc aliò translati pro Decretorum corroboratione scmper fuerunt publicata omnia dicti Concilii Decreta Interfuerunt sub dictis summis Pontificibus celebrationi Cardinales Legati 13 inter quos Christophorus Madrucius non Legati 4 inter quos Ludovicus Madrucius Oratores Principum totius Europae 29 Patriarchae 3 Archiepiscopi 33 inter quos Archiepiscopus Rossaniensis qui postea fuit Vrbanus 7 nominatus Episcopi 233 Abbates 18 Generales ordinum 12 Theologiae Doctores 148 Procuratores 18 Officiales Concilii 3 Cantores 9 Natarii 4 Cursores Papae 2. Sacrosancto Spiritui S. omnium Conciliorum directori sacratissima Die Pentecostes Anno 1639. dicatum Heer are no remarkable Churches or other buildings The Bishop is both spiritual and temporal Prince Under him there is a Governour who yet can do nothing without the Council which consists of 8 persons viz. The Podestà or Mayor of the City the Capitaneo two Canons of the Church and 4 Gentlemen or Citizens All these are nominated and appointed by the Bishop and continue in power during life modò bene se gesserint There
African Scorpions to be mortal or at least very noxious 4. Tarantula's so called because found about Tarentum though we have seen of them at Rome which are nothing else but a large sort of Spiders the biting whereof is esteemed venemous and thought to put people into Phrenetic fits enforcing them to dance to certain tunes of the Music by which means they are cured long and violent exercise causing a great evacution by sweat These fits they say do also yearly return at the same season the Patient was bitten But Dr. Thomas Cornelius of Cosenza before mentioned a learned Physician and Virtuoso in Naples diligently enquiring into this generally received and heertofore unquestioned story that he might satisfie himself and others whether it were really true in experience 5. Cimiei as the Italians call them as the French Punaise We English them Chinches or Wall-lice which are very noisome and troublesome by their bitings in the night time raising a great heat and redness in the skin They harbour in the straw of the bolsters and mattresses and in the wood of the bedsteds and therefore in some Nosocomia or Hospitals for sick persons as for example at Genua the bedsteds are all of iron This insect if it be crushed or bruised emits a most horrid and loathsome scent so that those that are bitten by them are often in a doubt whether it be better to endure the trouble of their bitings or kill them and suffer their most odious and abminable stink We have of these insects in some places of England but not many neither are they troublesome to us We departed from Trent intending for Coira or Chur in the Grisons Countrey called in Latine curia Rhaetorum We rode up the valley wherein the river Athesis runs called Val Venosta every 5 miles passing through a large village and one handsome little town called Burgo and lodged at a small place called Brunsole We rode through Bolzan considerable Town and for bigness comparable to Trent and 10 miles further Maran a large Town and lodged at a village called Raveland We passed through Latourn Slach Schlanders Maltz all villages and Towns of note and last of all Cleurn a pretty great walled Town and then struck up on the left hand among the mountains to a village called Tavers where we lodged We rode on through the snow to Monastero where the Grisons Countrey begins and S. Maria a small terra and stopt at Gherf a village at the foot of the high mountains In this Countrey the people use a peculiar language of their own which they call Romansch that is Lingua Romana It seems to be nearer Spanish than Italian though distinct from both Besides their own language they generally speak both Italian and Dutch so that after we had lost Italian in the valleys we wondered to find it heer again among the hills Their wines they bring all out of the Valtelline from Tirano about 2 days journey distant The Countrey at this time was all over covered with snow so that they are fain to keep their cattel within doors for six months yet the people said that heerabouts the snow did not lie all Summer no not on the tops of the highest mountains Heer we observed that to draw their sleds over the snow instead of Oxen they make use of Bulls one Bull drawing a little sled About Tavers we observed them sowing of dust upon the snow which they told us was to make the snow melt sooner I suppose it was rather for manure They use stoves in all places and good reason they have the Countrey being so cold A great number of Chamois or Gemps Rupicaprae are taken all over these Countries upon the high hills as though the people had not told us we must needs have gathered from the multitude of horns we saw stuck up in the houses where we lodged Bears there are and Wolves among the high mountains but not many The men generally wear ruffs and long bushy beards All the people as far as we had experience or could judge of them in the short stay we made among them we found to be honest hearty and civil and the common sort very mannerly Their houses are built of stone and covered with shingles of wood the walls thick and the windows very small to fence against the cold They have no strong holds or fortified places among them nor will they permit any to be erected having so much confidence in their own valour that they think they need no other defence indeed their Countrey is such as one would think none of their neighbouring Princes should covet unless for the security of his own Territories We passed the Mountain of Bufalora in 7 or 8 hours In the top of the Mountain in the mid way between Cherf and Zernetz is an Inn called Furno From Zernetz we rode in the Valley of the higher Engadine through Zuotz a great terra and two other Villages and lodged at a little place called Ponte OF THE GRISONS THe Grisons are divided into 3 Leagues and each League subdivided into Communes each commune contains several Villages not all an equal number but some more some fewer The Lega Grisa according to Simler hath 19 Communes The Lega della casa Dio hath 21 Communes which are sometimes contracted into 11. Cleurn Tavers and Maltz have sately revolted from this League and put themselves under the Archduke of Inspruck The Dieci Dritture have ten as the name imports Each Commune hath its annual chief Magistrate whom in some places they call Maestrale and a certain number of Assessors or Judges which in their language are called Truoeder Each terra or Village chuses its Judges by majority of votes Sometimes the People chuse only a certain number of Delegates which Delegates are to make choice of the Judges All the People as well rich as poor as well Servants as Masters have their Suffrages so soon as they come to the age of 16 years The time of their Election is St. Matthias day The Commune of Engadina alta hath 10 great Villages terre they call them 16 Judges called Truoeder one Maestrale one Chancellour or Notary The Maestrale the Chancellour and 4 Truoeder are always of Zuotz The other terre have some one some two according to their bigness In other Communities the several terre have the Maestrale and other Officers by turns These Magistrates are changed every two years but confirmed every year and may be put out by the People if they please The Maestrale called in some places Landamman is the chief and assembles the Truoeder together makes Processes and in sum hath the executive power When they have occasion to meet to decide any business or judge in any criminal cause he that is cast or condemned if he hath goods bears the charges if he hath none then the Commune bears the charges So that every Commune is a Common-wealth by its self and its government purely Democratical
and from Wesen rode to Glaris one of the 13 Cantons of Switzerland Heer we saw the horns of the Ibex which they call Steinbuck They are somewhat like to Goats horns but larger They told us that there were none of these beasts found heerabouts but that in Wallisland and in the Archbishoprick of Saltzburgh in Germany there were of them But of the Rupicaprae or Gimpses and Mures Alpini majores called Marmottoes they have good store Of birds they have in plenty Merulae torquatae which they call Ringer-Amzel Merulae aquaticae which they call Wasser-amzel Vrogallus or Cock of the wood Lagopus a milk white bird somewhat bigger than a Partridge feathered down to the very toes and claws of the Heath-cock kind but more of these in the Grisons Country where they brought them us to sell The people of this Canton of Glaris as also Appenzel are mixt two third parts Protestants and one third Roman-Catholics They both make use of the same Church for their several Services first the Priest comes and does Mass then the Minister and preaches The Governments of the several Cantos of Switzerland may be reduced to three forms or heads The first is of those Cantons which have no Cities whose chief Officer is called Landamman and in these the supreme power is in all the People by whose counsel all businesses of moment are decided Of this sort are Vri Suits Vnderwalden Zug Glaris and Appenzel The second of those which have Cities that were either built by or sometime subject to Princes whose chief Officer is called Scultetus or Scout This form is most Aristocratical of all others and of this sort are Bern Lucern Friburg and Solothurn The third of those which have Cities divided into several Tribes or Companies by whose suffrages the Magistrates are yearly chosen of this Order are Zurich Basel and Schaffhausse GLARIS Is divided according to Similer into 15 parts but as we were told there into 12 Parishes of which some have five Counsellors some six some more some less according to their bigness These make up the Senate or Council which consists of 60 whereof two parts are of the reformed Religion and one of the Romish besides the Landamman and other cheif Officers who have the privilege of sitting in Council when their term is expired The chief and supreme power is in the whole people Upon the last Sunday in April yearly there is a general Convention of all the males above 16 years of age together with the Magistrates at a place called Schuandan This general Meeting or Convention is called Landtskmein and by these by majority of Sussrages the Magistrates and Officers are chosen and first the Landamman who continues in Office sometimes two sometimes three years Into this Office they may choose out of all the people whom they please without any regard of place 2. The Statthalter who is the Landammans Lieutenant These Offices in the Canton are thus divided between the Protestants and Papists Three years the Landamman is a Protestant and the Statthalter a Papist then the two following the Landamman is a Papist and the Statthalter a Protestant 3. The Seckelmeister or Treasurer 4. Pannerheer or Standard-bearer 5. Landshauptman or chief Captain and under him in time of war Lieutenant 6. Landtsfendricht or Ensign These three last continue for life 7. Three Landtschrieben i. e. Secretaries or Chancellours who are present in Council but have no suffrages 8. Landtweible or Apparitour he gathers the votes in the general Convention summons the Council by Proclamation in the Church c. The Landscmein chuses also the Landtvogts or Prefects and either confirms or abrogates public Edicts and Constitutions The 60 Senatours usually continue in office during life modo bene se gesserint yet are they yearly chosen anew or confirmed at the general Convention not by the whole Convention but each one by that part of Parish to which he belongs and by which he was chosen who also when any one dies chuse another into his place The Landamman when his office is expired is called old Landamman and may still sit in council which is a favour allowed him in regard of his former dignity The aforementioned Officers do also sit in council The Landamman puts men in prison by his Authority propounds business to the Council appoints the days of the Councils meeting and to that end appoints the Officer to give them notice in the Church In this Canton to avoid the ambition and inordinate expences of Candidates for Offices who were wont to court and feast the people they have lately introduced Lottery in the choice of Officers and Governours All the Candidates are first put to the vote and those eight if there be so many for any one place who have most surages are set in the middle Then the Landtschrieb or Secretary takes eight balls one of which is gilt and wraps them up in single papers and puts them into a hat which he holds under his arm whilst a little child puts in his hand and takes out the balls one by one and gives them to the eight He who happens to have the gilt ball is the Officer Besides these Councils there are also two Consistories of Judges one consisting of nine chosen by the Landtskmein out of the Council or Ratsheeren to whom the Landamman is added as President who determine all causes of injuries and all business of inheritances and where money is gained with hazard of life the other consisting of five who determine actions of debt These Consistories saith Simler sit only in May and September Private quarrels by consent of the parties are usually referred to a Councellour of the Parish To the general Died at Baden the Reformed send the Landamman when he is a Protestant and the Roman Catholics the Statthalter and so vice versa The Territory of Glaris is about eight hours long that is allowing 3 English miles to an hour 24 miles The number of Freemen of both Religions about 2500. This Canton hath one Vogtia or Bayliewick proper to it self that is Werdenburg to which every three years they send a new Landtvogt or Prefect who is Protestant In the Cantons of Basel Zurich Bern Lucern Schaffhausse Triburg and Soloturn the Citizens only are Freemen and the Territory or Country round about will all the Towns therein are Subjects and divided into several Bayliwicks or Praefecturae Vogties they call them to every of which the Cities send a Bayliff or Landtvogt who is Governour there whom they change in some Cantons every second in some every third in some every sixth year In the other Cantons where there are no Cities all the Countrymen inhabiting the Canton properly so called are freemen I say the Canton properly so called for these also have their Subjects whom they govern likewise by their Prefects or Landtvogts Besides the proper there are also common Praefectures or Vogties some to two some to three some to seven some
to twelve and some to all the Cantons to which the Cantons concerned by course send their Landtvogts To the 12 Cantons Appenzel is the excluded belong the 4 Italian Praefecturae which they obtained by the donation of Maximilian Sforze Duke of Milan An. 1513. viz. Lugano Logarno Mendriz and Val Madia To the 7 Cantons that is Zurich Lucern Suitz Vri Vnderwald Glaris and Zug belong Baden Liberae Provinciae and Sargans to these 7 and Bern belongs Turgow to these 7 and Appenzel belongs Rhineck or Rheinthall To the 3 Cantons i. e. Vri Suitz and Vnderwald belongs Bellinzona in Italy whose Territory is divided into three Bayliwicks to which those three Cantons send Landvogts by course viz. Bellinzona Val Palensa and Riviera To the two Cantons of Suitz and Glaris belong Vznach and Wesent or Castra Rhoetica At Glaris they told us that in their own Countrey those of the Canton of Suitz were good Soldiers but living most upon milk and white meats they could not last and endure abroad That those of Vri Appenzel and the lower part of Glaris made the best Soldiers of all We travelled from Glaris through Nafels a little Village and several other Villages near the Lake of Rappersville or the Zurich-sea especially Lachen where they usually take boat for Zurich and after an hours riding by the Lakes side and in sight of Rappersvill and the long Bridge cross the Lake we climb'd up a very high Mountain on our left hand to the top of which when we were ascended we rode throogh a Country all covered with snow which in the Summer time seems to be a very pleasant place Heer we found Eynsidle where is a famous Monastery of Benedictine Freres in whose Church is an Image of our Lady which works great miracles si credere fus sit This is a place of great devotion visited by Strangers and Pilgrims after the manner of Loreto And as there is the Holy house so here is a Chappel divinely consecrated set in the body of the Church and enclosed in a case of Marble given by an Archbishop of Saltzburg Near the door of this Church is an Alley of Shops of Beads and Medals as at Loreto and here as there an incredible number of Beggers continually waiting The Canton of Switz is Protector of his Abbey If any one desire to know more of this place he may consult the History of it entitled as I remember Sanctae Virginis Eynsiddlensis We rode again over the snow for about three hours and then descending by degrees we passed through three Villages and at last arrived at Swyts a fair Village for it s counted no other though it be comparable to the best of our Market Towns having a large Piazza handsomely paved The government of this Canton is much what the same with that of Glaris The whole Canton is divided into 6 parts or quarters Each division hath 10 Counsellors so that the Council or Senate consists of 60 which they call Ratsheeren When a Senatour dies that quarter to which he belonged chuses another by the major vote of all the people Every quarter hath its head who is called Siebener because they are seven in all the Landamman making one of the number which make a lesser Council to manage and take care of the public revenue The Senatours are obliged in important causes to take each his man to be his assistant and in the most weighty of all as concerning peace and war each two men so that then the Council is tripled The last Sunday of April as at Glaris is the Convention of the whole Canton called the Landtskmein when all the males above 16 years of age meet and elect by major vote the Landamman and other Officers and Landvogts To this meeting all the people that can conveniently are obliged to come and every one to swear fidelity to their Countrey to maintain their Liberties c. The Officers are the same as at Glaris This Canton and every one of the rest send two Messi to the general Diet at Baden of which the Landamman is usually one This Canton hath also the like two little Councils or Consistories as Glaris We rode about 3 miles to a place called Brunen beside the lake of Lucern and there embarkt for Altorf spending in our passage upon the water about 3 hours and then we had but a mile to the town From Swytz to Altorf there is no travelling by land as they told us unless we would go some scores of miles about Altorf hath no piazza yet is it a larger town than Schwytz and hath a pretty Church and a Monastery of Capucines Heer we heard at large related to us the story of William Tell and the Lantvogt which he that is desirous to know may consult Simler On the top of a pillar over one of their fountains in the street is set the statue of this Tell with his cross-bow on his shoulder and leading his son by the hand At some distance stands a tower on which are painted the several passages of the Story The Government is almost the same with that of Schwytz The number of Senators manner of their election the same The Officer and Magistrates the same only they mentioned a Suk-heer who hath the charge of the Ammunition whom they told us not of in other Cantons and 6 Fiersprachts i. e. Proctors or Councellors but not of the Council The Senatours being to judge in criminal causes take to them another man so that then the Council is doubled They have also a lesser Council of 15 called the Landtram which decides civil causes These are taken out of the great Council and go round in a rota They meet the first Munday every moneth A third Council also they have called the Poderade which sits weekly about actions of debt where the sum exceeds not 60 livers The Senators as they told us have no Salary or allowance at all When one of the Council is chosen Landtvogt he is put out of the Council Vri is the first Canton that set it self at liberty We returned to the lake of Lucern and taking boat we went by water within one hour of Stantz the principal village of Vnderwald where we lodged As we sailed upon this lake we happened to see a great fall of snow from the tops of some mountains hanging over the lake which made a ratling and report not unlike thunder as Monsieur de Cartes in his Meteors notes At Stantz they have a very fair Church and two Convents one of Capucine Freres and one of Muns Heer and at Altorf Switz Lucern c. we observed in the Church-yards crosses set upon the graves some of wood some of iron and on some of them hanging a little copper kettle with holy water in it Some women we saw coming with a bunch of herbs in their hands which they dipped in the kettle and sprinkled the water therewith upon the graves These I suppose
with a carneous the other with a blew flower From Lansa we went on the same day as far as Cau de Creux 5 leagues or 20 English miles from Bagnols Among these mountains we met with no brooks and scarce any water September 1. We intended to have seen the Coral-fishing heer but the windy weather hindred us The Sea must be very calm and smooth else it is impossible for them to fish for it It grows downward as the urinators told us under the hollow rocks and not upwards as trees I believe rather that it grows indifferently either upwards or downwards according to the situation of the rocks Near C. de Creux upon the mountains they find a kind of Selenitis which may be cut or flit into very thin plates like the common Muscovy-glass Upon the shore are thrown up conchae venerea of several sorts and magnitudes and other smal shells of affinity to them which they call Porcellane These they put in the juyce of lemons or citrons and set them out in an open bottle all night Thâ— dew mingling with the acid juyce dissolves the Porcellane This liquor they use for a Cosmetic They catch fish about C. de Creux as at Naples bâ— hanging a fire-brand or other light at the end of thâ— boat which entices the fish into the nets This day we passed by Rosas a strong Garrison Castillon Villa sacra and lay at Figera Sept. 2. We passed Crispia Basalon Argelagueâ— S. Jaâ—â— and lay at Castel-foulet 5 leagueâ— All the way we observed abundance of Pomegranaâ— trees C. Foulet is a small Garrison 3. We passed by Aulot where we saw a Bufalore of which there are divers in that Town It is a hole or cave out of which continually issues a cool air They keep bottles of wine fruit c. in a little house built over the cave The wine heer kept drinks as cool as if it were kept in ice or snow They say that it is the water running and falling down under the ground that makes these Spiracula which is not unlikely They are all on the left side of the river as you go to Vict and none on the right This day also we passed Rhoda and lay at Vict 7 leagues 4. We went to the hill where the Amethysts or Violet stones are found distant two leagues from Vict called S. Sigminont On the top of the hill is an hermitage and place of devotion where S. Sigminont a Burgundian King did penance The Amethysts are found lower in the side of the hill Viscount Jacque is lord of the Soil and whoever opens a mine pays him a pistol and an half per mensem They find the stones by following a vein of reddish or black earth or a vein in the rock so coloured They are all hexangular and pointed like crystal There are of three sorts the best are the blackest or deepest violet 2. Others are almost quite white 3. Some but very rarely are found tinctured with yellow They sometimes stick a great many together to the rock like the Bristow-diamonds but those are never good the best are found loose in the chinks of the rock in a fat yellowish or reddish earth They scrape out this earth with long narrow knives that enter into the chinks and then crumble it in pieces with their fingers to feel for the stones They are afterwards ground and polished upon leaden moulds after the same manner as crystal is First they use the dust of Smiril or Emery and at last of Tripoli All along the way to this hill we saw abundance of Arbutus and Rbus coriariorum called Rhondo In this Countrey they use not bark of Oak to tan their leather as we do but the leaves and branches of this shrub which they first bruise with a perpendicular stone and then mingle with water and heating the water luke-warm steep the skins in it 3 or 4 days In these mountains are also found Emeralds Gold and other sorts of minerals and stones but it doth not turn to account to search for them Topazes are found in a lake called the lake of Silles not far from S. Colonna near Girona They find them upon the shore of the lake At Vict there is a great Market-place and a Church at a Covent said to have been built by Charlemagne when he had discomfited the Saracens driven them out of Catalonia This night we lodged at Moia having travelled only 3 leagues We rode within sight of Montserret broken at the top into rocks standing like the teeth of a Saw from whence it took its name There is a Chappel of our Lady a place of great devotion This night we lodged at Casa della pobla a single Inn 5 leagues We came to Cardona 2 leagues All the way as we rode the rocks and stones were full of round holes just like those in the stones at Ancona in which the Pholades harbour and there is no question but these holes have been made by some animal before the stones were hardned We viewed the mountain of salt where were three Officers one to weigh the salt another to receive money and the third to keep accounts The Revenue of this Salt amounts yearly to about 30000 pieces of eight For every Quintal that is 104 pounds they pay ten reals of two sous to a real The salt is hard and transparent like crystal and when powdred fine as white as snow They hew it out with axes and mattocks and make chaplets boxes c. of it They say there is no end of it but that it reaches to the center of the earth Near the place where they work there are two caves within the rock of salt to the end of one of which they never durst venture to go Not far from this there is another mountain of salt where the salt sticks to the rocks and is most of it tinctured with red Of this red salt they make broad plates like tiles which they call Ruggiolas these they heat before the fire but never put them into it and use them to take away aches strengthen the stomach keep the feet warm c. Well heated on both sides they will keep warm for 24 hours Amongst this red salt there is a kind of Selenitis which some call Ising-glass and the Italians Gesso from the Latin woâ—â— Gypsum signifying chalk because when burnt it is turned into a white calx which naturally roches into Parallelipipedums of the figure of a Lozenge Of which sorts of stones are found in several places of our nation About these mountains of salt grows great plenty of Halimus and Limonium Cardona is a Dukedom containing 3 or 4 villages besides the town The Duke thereof is one of the richest Grandees of Spain having 3 Dukedoms 4 Marquisates 2 Earldoms c. The name of his family is Folke He lives for the most part at Madrid but sends every three years a Governour The King of Spain hath nothing at all to do with this
vente de Maio de mill y quincentos y seys annos Rogad al Sennor por ellos Chocolate is sold at Sevil for something more than a piece of eight the pound Vanillas which they mingle with the Cacao to make Chocolate for a Real di Plato Acchiote which they mingle with the other ingredients to give a colour is made of a kind of red earth brought from New Spain wrought up into cakes it is sold for a Real di plato the ounce All the oil and wine they have in the West-Indies goes from Spain they not being permitted to plant Vines or Olive-trees that they may always have a dependence upon Spain At and near Sevil we paid two Reals de quarto a bed bread wine flesh and all other Commodities excessive dear excepting only Olives and Pomegranates which were better heer than in any other part of Spain There had lately been a great plague in Sevil which had very much depopulated and impoverished indeed almost rained the City I set out from Sevil towards Madrid the first day we travelled to Carmona where the Aqueduct forementioned begins 6 leagues in all which way we saw no houses but a great many Aloe-trees We passed Les fontes and lay at Euia a great Town of above 20000 inhabitants Between Carmona and Euia is a very good Countrey abundance of corn and olive trees Ossiuna is within 4 leagues of Euia where the Duke of Ossuna hoth a palace We travelled this day 9 leagues We passed over the river Xenil that runs into Guadalquivir baited at Arrasith and lodged at Cordova 8 leagues About a league from Cordova we passed another little river that runs into Guadalquivir Before we entred Cordova we rode over a great stone-bridge that heer crosses the Guadalquivir In the middle of the bridge stands a statue erected to the Angel Raphael with this inscription Beatissimo Raphaeli Angelorum proceri custodi suo vigilantissimo qui ante annos 300 sub Paschali antistite populum peste depopulante se medicum tantae cladis futurum praedixit qui subinde Anno 1578 venerabili Presbytero Andreae de Cas Roelas S. S. M. M. exuvias evulgavit tandem patefecit Cordubensium tutelam sibi à Deo demum datam Quare ut justa gratitudo diu staret S. P. Q. Cordubensis hanc lapideam statuam cautus pius erexit multâ procuratione Domini Josephi de Valdeanas Herera Domini Gundesalvi de Cea Rios Senatorum Pontifice Innocente X Hispan rege Philippo IV Episcopo Domino Fratre Petro de Tapia Praetore Domino Alphonso de flores monte negro Anno 1651. The most considerable places in Cordova are 1. The Bishops Palace 2. The Cavallerisca where the King keeps a great many horses 3. The ruines of Almansor's Palace the last King of the Moors 4. Plassa di Corridera 5. The Church of the Augustine Freres 6. The great Church which was anciently a Mosque It is large but very low supported by a great many rows of pillars in a quadrate order 16 rows one way and 30 another Upon many of the pillars are Moors heads carved in the stone and one or two with turbants on In the middle of this Church is the great Chappel where are several Bishops interred In one of the Chappels that is now dedicated to S. Peter in the Moors time was kept a thigh of Mahomet Round about the cornish of this Chappel and that part of the Church next it is an Arabic inscription The People complain grievously that Cordova is quite ruined and undone by Gabels and taxes We left Cordova and after a league or two riding entred the Sierra Morena a miserable desolate mountainous Countrey and lodged at a little village called Adamus 6 leagues We travelled all day through the Sierra Morena and lay at a village called La conquista 9 leagues In this days journey we saw abundance of galls upon the Ilices which were of like bigness figure colour consistency and other accidents with those that grow upon Oaks This day we first met with red wine again which they call Vino tinto We got safe out of Sierra Morena and came to Almedovar del campo a great Lougar 9 leagues About the middle of Sierra Morena are the bounds of Castilia nova and Andaluzia We passed by Caraquol Cividad real and lay at Malagon 10 leagues Between Malagon and Cividad real we passed over the river Anas now called Guadiana which was there but a little brook In this days journey we met with a great many great flocks of sheep and goats going towards the Sierra Morena out of Castile it being the custom all Summer to feed their sheep upon the mountains of Castile and in Winter in the Sierra Morena We passed by the ruines of an Aqueduct about 4 leagues from Malagon then Yvenas a good big lougar and lay at Orgas 10 leagues We passed through Toledo and lay at Esquinas 11 leagues As soon as ever we were passed the Sierra Morena we felt a great change of weather the warm air that comes from Afric and the Mediterranean Sea being stopped by the interposition of the mountains This day there was heer a hard frost and pretty thick ice The most considerable things in Toledo are 1. The bridge over Tagus consisting of but two arches one great one and one little one 2. The shambles where notwithstanding the coldness of the day I saw abundance of flies which confutes the story that there is but one great fly there all the year 3. The great Church where there are many monuments of Bishops but without inscriptions in the Capella maggior lie interred two Kings and in the Capella de los Res four Kings 4. The Kings palace 5. The ruines of a famous Engine to raise up water to the Kings Palace There is so little of it remaining that it is impossible thence to find out all the contrivance and intrigue of it Between Toledo and Madrid the Countrey is very populous and the soil very good All along the road from Sevil to Madrid the common fare is Rabbets red-leg'd Partridges and Eggs which are sufficiently dear We arrived at Madrid 6 leagues near the Town we passed over the river Xarante Madrid is very populous well built with good brick houses many having glass windows which is worth the noting because you shall scarce see any in all Spain besides The streets are very foul and nasty There is one very fair piazza or market place encompassed round with tall an uniform houses having 5 rows of Balconies one above another and underneath porticos or cloysters quite round The chief things to be seen in Madrid are 1. The Prison 2. The Piazza just now mentioned 3. The Kings Chappel 4. Palaces of several Noblemen as that of the Duke of Alva that of the Duke of Medina de los Torres c. 5. The Kings palace where there is the Kings Cavallerisca and
deep and fruitful of Wheat and other grain This Island is mountainous yet all cultivated furnished with store of fresh sorings It maintains upon it 3000 persons the number of houses being about 500. It was much more populous before the Turkish Armata most inhumanely wasted it in the year 1565 carrying away prisoners 6000 persons In the streight betwixt Malta and Gozo lies a little Island called Comina anciently according to Cluverius Hephaestia about 5 miles in compass and well cultivated for the defence whereof the Gr. Master Wignacourt caused a Fort to be built opposite to that on the other side the streight in Gozo to secure the streight and hinder any vessels passing between the Islands without leave That there is great plenty of shells and fish-bones petrified found in Malta I have already intimated I shall now therefore only name those which are not at all or but rarely found with us in England 1. Glossopetrae which are nothing else but Sharks teeth of several shapes and sizes These the Maltese call Serpents Tongues 2. The Vertebres of Thornbacks and other cartilagineous fishes 3. Cats heads as they call them from their likeness to a little skull 4. Serpents eyes of several figures and colours The most of them red and like to those they call Toad-stones the exteriour superficies being a segment of a sphaerical and shining as if it were polished so that they are commonly set in rings I have seen great lumps or masses of these cemented together That the Toadstone is nothing else but the jaw-tooth of a fish called Lupus marinus by Schonfeldius Dr. Merret in his Pinax hath first published to the world and I doubt not but these have the same or like original 5. Serpents teeth which are small oblong striate stones of a polite superficies but no certain figure Whither to refer these as yet I know not as neither 6. Those they call Serpents eggs which are somewhat like the former but not striate with lines 7. Bastons of S. Paul Baculi S. Pauli having the resemblance of small snagged sticks 8. Petrified Lentils because for colour figure and magnitude somewhat like to that pulse Besides I found among the stones I bought there some exactly figured like the fore teeth of a man and doubtless many other sorts by diligent search might be found which have not as yet been named or taken notice of As for Plants I found heer very few sorts but what I had before observed in Italy and Sicily viz. Cucumis asininus Hypericum tomentosum Consolida regalis peregrina parvo flore J. B. Carduus lactens peregrinus Cam. There are but few trees growing upon the Island the greatest want they have being of fewel to supply which defect they have of late begun to make use of Sea-wrack to burn in their ovens prepared after a certain manner invented by a pesant of Malta for which he is highly commended by Abela as a great benefactor to his Countrey Heer I first noted the custom of slitting up the notrils of Asses because they being naturally streight or small suffice not to admit air enough to serve them when they travel or labour hard in these hot Countreys For the hotter the Countrey is the more air is necessary for respiration and refreshment of the body there being less of that menstruum which serves to nourish or continue fire and consequently â—he vital heat of Animals which hath great likeness thereto in hot air then in cold whence we see that fire burns furiously in cold weather and but faintly in hot Whether it be because the air is thinner in hot weather and hot Countreys or because the reflected Sun-beams spend and consume a good part of the forementioned menstruum or from both these causes That the air is thinner and consequently the menstruum also more diffused in hot weather is clear in experience I need mention no other experiment to demonstrate it then the air enclosed in the shank of an ordinary weather-glass which in hot weather dilates its self and in cold contracts very considerably So then to give an account of the raging of fire in the coldest weather we need not have recourse to the insignificant term of Antiperistasis the true reason thereof being the density of the ambient and contiguous air containing plenty of that menstruum which nourishes the fire I omitted to mention the ancient Coemeteria or subterraneous burying-places called Catacumbe of which there be many in Malta because of these we have already had occasion to discourse in our description of Syracuse in Sicily That this Island produces or nourishes no Serpent or other venemous creature the common people affirm but because I find no mention heerof in Abela I give little credit to their report should it be true it would be to me a great argument that this was not the Island upon which St. Paul was cast when he suffered Shipwrack but rather that Melita before mentioned upon the Coast of Dalmatia for which there is also some ground in the Scripture which saith Acts 27. 26. For that St. Paul upon the Vipers fastning on his hand did by his Prayers obtain of God that all the Serpents in Malta should be turned into stones and the Island for the future wholly free from all venemous beasts is a Monkish fancy grounded upon the forementioned petrified fish-bones which they fondly imagined were sometime parts of Serpents whereas in other places where plenty of such stones are found there is no lack of Serpents I confess it is difficult to imagine how Serpents should come at first to breed heer if the whole Island were once as we conceive a submarine Rock covered with the Sea and there be no spontaneous generation of animals as wel also believe because it can scarce be imagined that any man should on purpose bring over Serpents hither unless perchance to shew them for a curiosity Whether there be venemous beasts or no I am sure there are venemous insects heer the very biting ox stinging of the Gnats with which the City is much infested being more virulent then in other places For my part I do not remember that in England the biting of a gnat did ever cause a swelling or leave a mark behind it in the skin of my face though I know in some it doth but there it both raised a swelling and left a mark behind it that was not out for a month after The Maltese easily defend themselves from the annoyance and bitings of this insect keeping them out of their beds by large linnen curtains lapping over one another At first we were not aware of the trouble these Animals were like to give us and left our curtains open From Malta we returned the same way to Messina staying a day at Catania where we hired horses and took a Souldier to guide us up Mount Aetna now called Mon-Ghibello The top of which at Catania was told us to be 30 miles distant We ascended for the