joyned that of Parana it rowls its Waters for above sixty Leagues without any mixture 't is not deep tho' towards its mouth it is sixty or eighty Leagues broad and ten for the most part of its Course where after having form'd several Islands and the greatest Cataract in the World it keeps its swiftness for above forty Leagues distance in the Sea It might contribute much towards the carrying on the Commerce from one Sea to the other but the Spaniards do not think fit to put this Adviso in practice for fear other Nations might thereby become acquainted with it who would make better advantage than they do of such Discoveries Canada THe Name of Canada is that which the Canadians gave their Countrey thro which passes the greatest River of Northern America which they call the River of Canada This Countrey is full of Woods and the Climate colder than that of France tho' both be in an equal distance from the Equinoctial Canada furnishes Us with Beavers Stock-fish Mouse-skins and Whale-oyl According to the late Relation you cannot go for half a League together along the great River without meeting with either another River or a Lake Wood costs nothing more than the trouble of cutting it All these Conveniencies would be considerable if there happen'd not from time to time horrible Tempests which they call Hurricanes In the Year 1663. an Earthquake lasted there for above six Months The Savages are distributed into several Nations under the Government of their Sagamos's who are the eldest of their Families They wear Vestments of Skins almost like to those which our Painters very generously bestow upon Hercules or John Baptist. They make use of Bows and Arrows the points whereof they garnish with Iron and Fish-bones and make War by Courses and Surprises They are almost most all alike in manners but are different in tongues some are wandring and Vagabonds others have Villages and setled Abodes that is to say Hamocks which consist in some Cottages They live almost all of them without any care of Futurity and are very fond of Tobacco And therefore they call their Festivals and their Feasts Tabagies They can bring but very few men into the Field for which reason the Europeans found it no difficult matter to settle themselves there tho' they brought along with them for that purpose but very inconsiderable Forces The French have Forts here for the security of Commerce and to put a stop to the Courses of the Savages who are their Enemies The Jesuits Capuchins and other Religions have their Convents Canada contains the following Countries New France New Denmark New Wales New Britain otherwise the Land of Labrador and Terra Coterialis Accadia New England and New York formerly called New Holland Besides these Countries there is that of Saguenay which receives its name from a River whose mouth is not above a quarter of a League broad but which enlarges it self when you go up it and is above two hundred fathoms deep in several places This Circumstance hath given occasion to some Adventurers to seek a passage there for the going to China thro' the Northern Ocean Quesbeck the Principal Colony of the Country Founded in 1608. is the Capital of all Canada the Residence of a Vice-Roy and Bishop The City is divided into High and Low with a Fortress upon the Rock which commands the great River that carries the flowing of the Sea above the City Tadousac the three Rivers and Montreal upon the same River are three very considerable Colonies of the French The two best Sea Ports are Miscou and the Port Royal of Accadia As concerning the people the Hurons and the Algonquins towards the beginning of the great River have ever been friends of the French the Iroquois are cruel and great Buccaniers that is to say they suck the flesh of their Enemies they fortifie their abodes with Palisadoes They have been sturdy Enemies to the French and have done them great damage by means of the fire Arms they had from the English and the Hollanders of their Neighbourhood Yet the French boast that they have prevailed over them and that tho' these Savages have been able to bring several Troops into the Field without disgarrisoning or emptying their Retreats which are inaccessible they have nevertheless been constrained to yield to the Arms of France Their Country is pretty fruitful seeing it produces Muscadine Grapes Lemmons vence and Melons even as good as those of Pro in France The principal Isle of New-Found-Land is one of the greatest in the World with a great number of Ports whereof that of Plaisance possessed by the French is the best Heretofore they burnt one part of the Forests of this Island to render it the more habitable But the Rosin and other Gums which ran into the Sea were the occasion of the Fishery being spoiled in the Neighbourhood for above seven years Almost the like thing happened in the Isle of St. Christophers when several Ships loaded with Tobacco perished there the strength and bitterness of that Herb poysoning the Fish France sends every year a great number of Ships to this Island which it calls for that reason Terra Neuviers The English have likewise fetled themselves here The Isle of Cape Breton has the Port of Chibou in its Eastern parts which Nature has formed with all possible advantages for the security of a Fleet. There is a Shoal and Ridge of Sand on the East of New-Found-Land notorious for the taking of Stockfish and its extent of two hundred and sixty Leagues which has given it the name of the Great Bank 'T is not a Rock as several do imagine they call it Bank by reason of the shallowness all along by its side in respect of the Depth which is very great in the other parts of that Sea The fishing there is of two sorts The one for Cod and the other for dry Stock-Fish The Seamen who Fish there have at the same time the pleasure of taking with the Line great Birds or Fowl which they call Fauquets and Happefoyes which they effect by baiting their Hooks with the Livers of Cods Virginia VIrginia bears this Name in honour of the most Illustrious and Renowned Elizabeth the Maiden-Queen of England First some French nested themselves in this Countrey but the English were too hard and powerful for them took absolute possession of it in the Year 1584 and have continued in their settlement there notwithstanding the loss of five or six Colonies They have a Governour an Admiral and several particular Officers This Establishment facilitates to them the communication of what they have in New England and Florida The Air of Virginia which is extreamly healthful produces several sorts of excellent Fruits It is somewhat cold and yet the Inhabitants go naked the Oyl and the Colours with which they rub themselves defending them against the injuries of the Weather From thence is Exported Tobacco and Silk which is drawn from an Herb wholly peculiar to
of the Turks upon the Red Sea The Governour keeps two small Galleys and some Ships to make himself considerable upon the Red Sea The Merchandizes of the East-Indies bound for Europe came thither formerly for which reason the Turks have not without regret seen the Establishment of the Europeans in those Indies But they still bring Spices to truck with the Inhabitants for Corral Cossir formerly Berenice was the Resort of the Commodities which the Romans fetch'd from the East-Indies and which from thence were carried to the nearest part of the Nile in the City of Coptos now called Cana. Buge in the most Southern part of Egypt is a Kingdom tributary to the Abyssins according to the Relations of 1657. Biledulgerid and Zaara BIledulgerid is the Numidia of the Moderns and more Southern than the ancient Numidia The Name of Biledulgerid speaks a Land fruitful in Dates A Fruit which the Numidians gather tho' they be short-sighted by reason of the Sand which the Wind brings in their Eyes This part of Africk extends from the West to the East almost as far as Barbary Some Kings there are of the Mahometan Religion whose power is but very inconsiderable The Arabians under their Cheiques or Chiefs are strong in Cavalry and capable of great Enterprizes if they had not War amongst themselves They sometimes assist the Turks and at other times the Kings of Morocco and Fez the changes of Soveraigns and the diversity of Tongues have often caus'd the Names of Cities to be changed The Arabians in these parts hunt after Ostriches because they make great advantages of 'em they sell their Feathers eat their Flesh and order their Skins for their Baggage they make their Witchcrafts and Incantations of the Heart their Medicaments of the Fat and their Ear-Pendants of the Horn or Beak Suz the best peopled Countrey of all Biledulgerid has the City of Tarudante where the greatest Traffick is of Sugar and where began the Dominion of the Cherifs The River of Suz renders the Land fruitful by its inundation The Sea-Towns are Cartguessem of the Conquests of Portugal and Messa with a Temple near which the Inhabitants believe that Jonas was cast up out of the Whales belly They say that all the Whales approaching it die immediately and that from this Temple must come forth a great Pontif. The Cape of Guer which is not very far distant from it has near it the City of the Holy Cross formerly called Agades and Darrumia It was built by the Portugals but the Moors have it in possession and the Christians have nothing more remaining there than some Magazines in its neighbourhood Tesset is a Countrey of small product and thinly inhabited Daru has some fortified Places and amongst others that of Tigumedet the native Countrey of the Cherifs who having first of all obtain'd from the King of Fez a Drum and an Ensign under pretext of making War against the Christians dethron'd at length the King of the Countrey which happen'd towards the beginning of the last Age. Segelmessa abounds in hurtful Animals Tegorarina has plenty of Dates Zeb wants Water and those who inhabit it in Summer yield their abode to the Scorpions Biledulgerid communicates its Name to all the Countrey Fessen has a Town of the same Name The Desart of Barca consists in Plains of Sand where was formerly seen the Temple of Jupiter Hammon notorious for its Oracles for the Fountain of the Sun for the loss of the Army of Cambyses King of Persia and for the happy Journey of that of Alexander the Great Bacchus Perseus and Hercules are said to have been there before this Conquerour and three High-ways are reported to have led thither the first from Memphis the second from Paretonium and the third from Cyrene Mount Atlas advances several of its Branches into Biledulgerid The Cap of Non upon the Ocean was for a long while the limit of the Navigations of the Portugueses who call'd it in that manner for that they at that time pass'd no farther The Name of Zaara signifies Desart and that of Libya which is also given to this Countrey is a Greek word which was first of all attributed to Africa Little is to be seen in the Zaara but Sand Monsters and Scorpions for which reason the Inhabitants wear Boots for a defence against the stings and bitings of those Creatures The Air is healthful and the sick of the neighbouring Countreys are brought thither for the Recovery of their health The Arabians consider there three sorts of Countreys the Cehel where is small Sand without any Verdure the Zaara where is Gravel and a little Verdure and the Asgar where are Marshes Herbs and Bushes Travellers before-hand make provision of all things necessary for the Life of Man for the Houses and Wells are at such a distance from one another that they go often a hundred Leagues without finding either Abode or Water A Merchant formerly endured there so much thirst that he gave ten thousand Ducats for a Cup of Water and yet he di'd as well as the person who receiv'd his Money for the giving him Drink People are sometimes constrain'd to bury themselves in the Sand to avoid meeting with Lyons and other wild Beasts which make a horrible noise every night The Inhabitants are for the most part Shepherds and the best Hunters in the World but very miserable Some amongst 'em follow the Religion of Mahomet and the greatest number lead a libertine kind of life Several small Sovereigns receive the Tribute of the Caravans which pass thro' their Dominions Their other Revenues consist in Cattel and when mention is made of their Riches they ask how many Camels they have Five principal Desarts are reckon'd Zanhaga Zuenziga where are Salt-Pits Targa Lempta and Berdoa The Ghir which is the greatest River of it forms some pretty considerable Lakes and loses its self in the Sand in several places of its course and comes out again presently after the Rio Ouro which is empty'd into the Ocean and was so call'd by the Portuguese by reason of the Gold they found there when they made their first Voyages along that Coast This River runs under the Tropick thro' desart Countreys with ten or twelve fathom water towards its entrance into the Sea The Coast as far as Cape Boiador has high white and grey Hills or Downs with a desart Countrey o'rspred with Sand and wild Rushes Nigritia NIgritia is so called from its ancient People the Nigritae who reciprocally seem to have had their Name from their black Colour or from that of their Land which in some places is all burnt by the excessive heat which contributes to the blackning both the Sand and the Inhabitants They who attribute this blackness to the Race of Cham say that people of other Countreys preserve their whiteness in Nigritia and that the Asiaticks and the Americans who are in the same Zone with the Negroes are not naturally black The Niger does somewhat temper the Country
Vlterior or Southern in respect of them we divide it into Terra-firma and Islands The Countrys of the Terra firma are towards the West the Asian Turky Georgia and Arabia towards the middle Persia towards the North Tartary towards the East China towards the South India divided into Terra-firma which is the Empire of the Mogul and into two Peninsula's the one on this and the other on that side the Ganges The Islands are in the Eastern Sea that is that of the Indies where are found to be the greatest Riches and perhaps in greater number than in all the rest of the Universe These Islands are the Maldives Ceilan those of the Sound and Japan the Philippins and the Moluccoes There are some Islands of Asia in the Mediterranean Sea Cyprus Rhodes and others in the Archipelago Turkey in Asia WHat belongs to the Turk in Asia comprehends much about the same Provinces which the ancient Romans had in that part of the World and besides that those of Armenia and Assyria 'T was formerly adorned with a great number of brave Cities The conduct of the Turks and the laziness of the Inhabitants have quite ruined most of them One wou'd think this Countrey ought to be very populous by reason of the freedom which Men enjoy there of having several Wives yet it 's certain it has very few people if we consider its large extent There seldom pass five or six years together without several thousands of persons being swept away by the Plague What is considerable is that along the Coasts where the Echelles that is to say places of Trade inrich themselves by the transportation of the Levantine Merchandizes which consist in Skins Cotton Tapistry Camlets and other like Stuffs These Echelles have this in particular that they have Consuls for the Nations of Europe And in consideration of the Christian Princes the Knights of Maltha do not commonly form any enterprizes thereabouts The Merchants who dwell there send and receive their Letters by a sort of Pigeons called Carriers which they keep and which they send for that purpose to the places where they have been brought up The Grand Seigniour has his Bashaws there who keep the people under extream subjection The Mahometan Religion is received in most places Where are also to be seen Jews and Christians of the Greek Church As for manners a Cadi or Judge has judiciously observ'd That amongst the Nations who inhabit this Region the Turks were blameable for their Whoring the Jews for their Superstition and the Christians for their Litigiousness This Turkey is certainly in a choice scituation in the midst of our Continent and in the Temperate Zone it has the Course of the Euphrates and Tigris with the conveniency of four Seas the Mediterranean the Black Sea the Caspian and that of El-Catif which open to it the Commerce of the principal Regions of the World and particularly that of the East-Indies The Euphrates having pass'd near the ruins of the ancient Babylon joins it self to the Tigris below Bagdad It s Channel is inconsiderable in those parts by reason of the many Islets that are made there It has this advantage that it joins the Traffick of the Black Sea which is not far distant from its Sources with that of the East-Indies The Tigris forms several Lakes sometimes going under the Earth and after having passed by Bagdad mixing with Euphrates The Waters of these two Rivers fall into the Sea El-Catif formerly under the name of Euphrates now under that of Tigris or rather under that of Chat which is called the Arabick River The Countrey which they Water is so beautiful and so fertil that several place therein the Terrestrial Paradice There are hardly any Stone Bridges upon the Tigris and by reason of its inundations they commonly make their Bridges of Boats Four great Provinces are in this Turkey Natolia Turcomania Dierbech and Souria Natolia formerly Asia Minor is a Peninsula much more long than broad between the Black Sea the Archipelago the Mediterranean and the River of Euphrates The ancient Greeks sent thither several Colonies Cyrus the Great thought his Empire would not be considerable unless he had Asia Minor Mighty Battails have often been fought for the preserving this Province and for the Conquering it There are reckoned four Beglerbeyats or general Governments that of Natolia at Chioutaye Caramania at Cogni Amasi at Tocat and Aladuli at Maraz The City of Burse has been successively the Residence of the Kings of Bithynia and of some Greek Emperours and Turkish ones too before they passed into Europe The first Ottomans have their Tombs there Soliman the First would needs be buryed at the neck of the Dardanelles near Gallipoli Burse yields little but to Conscantinople for its Riches and its multitudes of people Nice is known for the holding the first General Council and for the Residence of the Greek Emperours after that the French had taken Constantinople in the Year 1201. Angoure is famous for the Victory of Tamberlane over Bajazet Emperour of the Turks and before for that of Pompey over Mithridates Tocat is the Appennage of the Sultan-Mothers The Countrey round about it produces Saffron Troy Pergamus Sardis have been Royal Cities Troy famous by reason of its being taken by the Greeks after a Siege often Years or rather for Homer's immortal Banter has its ruins mingled with the decays of some Modern works It was called Dardania upon the account of Dardanus its first King Ilium by reason of its Castle of Priam. The City of Pergamos is highly renowned for the riches of King Attalus and the invention of Parchment Sardis for the Residence of the ancient Kings of Lydia Dinobi upon the Black Sea has Copper Mines in its Neighbourhood which are perhaps the only ones in Asia It has been the abode of Mithridates the most formidable Enemy of the Romans who notwithstanding his defeat had the thought of traversing Lacholcide Soythia and Illyria to come and attack Italy Chalcedon is the place where was held the Fourth General Council As its ancient Inhabitants were cracking that their City was built before Bizantium a Persian told them judiciously that its Founders had been blind to choose so incommodious a scituation in respect of that of Bizantium Avido one of the Castles that are called Dardanelles upon the Hellespont has seen the swimming Amours of Hero and Leander as also the passage of that prodigious Army of Xerxes King of Persia upon a Bridge of six hundred and seventy four Galleys Fogia Smyrna Ephesus Milazo and Halicarnassus are upon the Coast of the Archipelago Fogia formerly Phocee the Mother of Marscilles is the first City that was taken in a form'd Siege and the taking of it was Harpagus his Act General under Cyrus the great Smyrna which is often called the Smirnes and which contains above ninety thousand Souls is in a fertile ground and drives one of the greatest Commerces in the Mediteranean-Sea The English French and
burnt by order of Alexander the Great at the end of a Feast It has still full ten thousand Houses a Proverb of the Countrey goes thus That if Schiras was Schiras that is to say what it was formerly Grand Cairo would pass but for its Suburbs The Ruins of this Persepolis are called Chilminar i. e. Forty Columns which seem to be the remains of the Palace of Cyrus the Great the most beautiful of all the East The Neighbours of those Ruins endeavour to destroy 'em entirely to free themselves from the importunities of strangers who go to see them upon that account What remains of 'em shews a great antiquity of habits for Personages and an extraordinary magnificence in the stones of the building Those who have seen them say that they surpass the Antiquities of Rome and the Wonders of Aegypt The abode of Schiras is so agreeable that Mahomet according to what the Persians say would not go thither for fear of being charm'd with the Beauty of the Ladies and that if he had tasted the delights of that Town he would have made it his request to God never to have died The Government of Schiras is the most considerable of all Persia it affords excellent Wines and that Mummy or Counter-poyson which serves for Medicament to all manner of Wounds Susa was the Court of Ahasucrus and some other Kings Alexander the Great married Statira there He gave ten thousand Talents for the acquitting the Debts of those who had a mind to return into Greece and receiv'd there thirty thousand young Men of Recruits for his Army This is also the place where the fair Esther obtain'd favour for the Jews and where Mordecai was put into the place of Haman who was hanged after that he would have caus'd Mordecai to have undergone his own Fate The Palace of Susa built by Darius is said to have been enrich'd by Memnon with the Spoils of the great Thebes in Aegypt and 't is famed that the stones were cemented with Gold After Persepolis it is reckoned amongst the magnificent Works of the Kings of Persia as well as the delicious Gardens of Cyrus the younger in Lydia Congue Bender Congo is a City upon the Gulph of Bassora much like that of Thoulon in Provence 'T is much augmented since the ruine of Ormus as well as Gombru It has a Demesne which the Persians and the Portugals have the Revenue of by halves Lar communicates its Name to a sort of silver Money that is coin'd there five of those Larins make but one Piaster the City has full four thousand Houses and a small Cittadel Some believe it the ancient Passagarde where the grand Cyrus having overcome Astiages transferred the Empire of the Medes to the Persians Calanus the Indian Philosopher did voluntarily suffer death there in the sight of all the Macedonian Army It has several very learn'd Inhabitants the Earthquakes which are frequent in these parts render it the less populous The Frontiers of Persia towards Turkey have a warlike People called Curdes whose Countrey had been the field of several Battels Alexander the great overcame Darius at Arbela and they would persuade us that there were four hundred thousand Persians killed and only three hundred Macedonians the Caliphs won there the Battel of Moraga which made them Masters of Persia Near Chuy Selim defeated Ismael Sophi who before had always been his Conquerour Tabris or Tauris drives an extraordinary Trade and the first of Persia it has Walls and Towers of cut stone of a vast heighth Ardebil is the staple of the Silks of the Countrey and the place of burial of several Kings of Persia amongst others of Cha-Sefi who has a magnificent Tomb there Bakuie gives sometimes its Name to the Caspian-Sea It has in its neighbourhood a source of Oyl which serves to burn throughout all Persia Kirman towards the Ocean yields Wools and very fine Steel whereof Arms are made that are in great vogue a Cymeter of that steel does easily cut a Helmet through without striking hard Moghostan is a Countrey which contains the Amadizes and the Gauls very warlike Nations who have perhaps furnish'd Matter to make the Fables of Amadis de Gaule Ormus has had the Title of a Kingdom the Soyl of this Island is subject to great heats and produces only Salt it has not a drop of fresh Water but what it borrows The Portuguese being Masters of it had caus'd a Fort to be made in the Isle of Kesem for the having this conveniency The excellent scituation of Ormus gave occasion formerly to this saying That if the World was a Ring Ormus was the precious Stone in it In the year 1622 the King Scha-Abbas took it by help of the English and after having caused the Fortress of it to be razed transferred the Commerce to Gombru which he caus'd to be called by his own Name Bender-Abassi The Portuguese lost by the taking of that Town to the value of seven or eight Millions Thus Gombru grew great from the ruins of Ormus The Castles which defend Gombru are fortified after the ancient manner The Road is commodious riding safe at anchor in five or six fathom Water All Nations who trade upon the Indian-Seas except the Portuguese carry their Commodities thither and bring Velvet Taffaties raw Silks and other Commodities from Persia The English have half of the Customs and the right of exporting some Horses which the Persians have granted them in acknowledgment of the Men and Ships wherewith they assisted them for the taking of Ormus Bahrem upon the Coast of Arabia and of the Dependances of Persia is an Island known for the Springs of fresh Water which it has at the bottom of the Sea and for the Pearls that are fished there which are the best the greatest and the roundest of all the East Giask upon that Coast is a place where is droven the greatest Commerce for Silk Candahar upon the Confines of the Mogul is a Conquest of the late Kings of Persia Tartary THis is the vastest Region of our Continent Equals in bigness all Europe and possesses all the Northern part of Asia The Name of Tartary which has succeeded that of Scythia is come from the River Tatar which the Chineses name Tata because they do not make use of the Letter R. The Tartars are a warlike People the best Archers of the World but cruel and barbarous they make War almost ever to the disadvantage of those they visit and to the confusion of those who attack them Cyrus at the passage of the Araxes Darius Histaspes in his march against the Scythians of Europe Alexander the great when he was beyond the Oxus have been constrain'd to yield to the Tartars In our time the great Kingdom of China has been forc'd to own them its Masters Their Cavalry does most execution in their Battels on the contrary to what is practised in Europe it is it which first attacks places The most peaceable of the Tartars inhabit Tents of
being sometimes obliged to put out the Fire which they esteem their God They have such a reverence for Wood as the Fewel and Nourishment of that God that not to prophane it by touching of the dead they make their Coffins of Iron The Indians in general are tawny Olive-colour'd with lank black Hair If there be any Whites their whiteness is a mark of Leprosie They drink from on high or pour it in without touching the Cup with their lips they affect white in their Buildings they ride on Oxen instead of Horses Persons of quality who travel in these Countreys cause a kind of Cornet or Ensign to be carried before them Their way of salutation is to take one another by the Beard If they be distant from Court they suffer their hair to grow as a token of their discontent in that they are deprived of the happiness of seeing their Prince India is very fertile and populous in those parts that confine upon its great Rivers It has some Countreys where you must go in good company if you mean to save your self from Robbers whom they call Koulis It is fine to see the High-ways of two hundred Leagues in length which resemble Walks or Alleys they are planted with Cocoes Dates and Palm-trees This Countrey ministers excellent Bread there being Corn and Rice in abundance Victuals in general are mighty cheap in these parts and nevertheless the Inhabitants are naturally very sober The neighbourhood of Tartary is full of Mountains and Forests where the Moguldoes often take the divertisement of Hunting there is a great number of wild Beasts and Rats too who attack Men in their Beds Here it was that Alexander made Timber to be cut for the building of Ships which he caused to descend down the Indus and upon the Ocean whose ebbing and flowing did extraordinarily surprise his Pilots As for the remains of Antiquity in this State there are very few the Moguls having made it their bus'ness to ruin the ancient Towns The Indus is navigable from the Lahor as far as Sind The People of the Countrey call it Pang-ab by reason of the five Rivers which assemble in the highest part of its course The Ganges which is small and low when there is no Rain was formerly famous for its Gold it is so at present for its Water which is very light The Natives of the Countrey say that this Water sanctifies them whether they drink of it or wash in 't they go in Pilgrimage to the places where it passes the Moguls always cause some of it to be carried with them It is fine to see sometimes four or five hundred thousand Indians in one and the same season round this Ganges wherein several go to cast Gold and Silver The Custom of some is to hide it under ground in the opinion they have it may serve them after their death There are full forty Kingdoms in this Empire whereof all the Names are almost the same with those of the capital Cities Likewise some small Territories there are whose Lords who call themselves Rajas are of a very ancient Race and maintain themselves in Fortresses and Mountains inaccessible The greatest mischief they do is to rob and make incursions upon the Mogul's Subjects The Names of some Cities terminating in Pore seem to shew that they still preserve the Memory of Porus as well as others in Scander that of Alexander The Dominions of the Mogul are much larger than those of the Persian and equal those of the Turk The Mogul prevails by the number of his Subjects by the vastness of his Riches by the extent of his Empire His Revenue exceeds those both of the Grand Seignior and Sophi together The Sophi surpasses him in Arms in Horses and Soldiers The Mogul keeps good correspondence with the Turk in consideration both of State and Religion Guzaratta yields every year about eight Millions of Gold and its Merchants pass for the ablest and most sagacious of all India This Province has three stately Cities Amad-abad Cambaya and Surat with thirty other considerable Towns Amad-abad the Capital is esteemed by the English as much as London Cambaia was called the Cairo of the Indies by reason of its bigness which is two Leagues in circuit by reason of its Commerce and the fertility of its Soyl which furnishes amongst other things Cotton Anir Opium Agates whereof there is a Mine at Baroche Since the losses of the Portugals Cambaya is much decayed besides that its Haven is very bad Surat forty six days journey from the Royal City of Agra is one of the Asiatic Cities which drives the greatest Trade tho' the coming to it be dangerous the Houses low and cover'd with Palm-trees It s River abates much which is four Leagues below the Town can hardly carry Vessels of seventy or eighty Ton they being oblig'd to unlade the Merchandizes at Sohali This is the principal Scene of the English Commerce in the East-Indies the French have setled a Consul there for the same purpose It is now about thirteen years ago that this City was plunder'd by a Raja of the Countrey a Rebel of the Mogul called Siva-Gi the loss arising to above thirty-Millions This Siva-Gi has since that taken several Towns to the South of Surat Diu is a Fortress in an Island which the Portugals have been forced to abandon after having gloriously defended it in the years 1539 and 1546. One of their Soldiers is said to have shewn such bravery there that wanting Lead he pull'd out his great Teeth for the charging his Musket on the other side an Indian being struck with the Pike of a Portuguese advanc'd and thrust it on so far into his own body until that he came up to his enemy and slash'd his hamms for him with his short Sword There is mention made in the War of Flanders of somewhat the like bravery A Soldier hidden in a Boats of Turffs for the surprising of Breda having receiv'd a Wound from the Pike of those who search'd it had the resolution and cunning to wipe the Iron and end of the Pike for fear his blood should discover the Enterprize Cabul with a Town of the same Name is fruitful in Myrobalan Plums Candahar was conquer'd and taken from the Persian but restored to him in the year 1650 and the Moguls have not been able to retake it Agra has the capital City of all the Dominions where might be raised upon occasion two hundred thousand Men capable of bearing Arms it is likewise the greatest City of the Indies The Prince draws a great Revenue from eight hundred Stoves that are there 'T is twice as large as Ispahan but ill built and without Walls It 's much augmented since the year 1566 That Ecbar made it his Residence after having caus'd there a stately Castle to be raised Delli was the abode of the Mogul before Agra and is so still since that Cha-Jean has built the City of Jean-Abad in its neighbourhood Gualeor is a Fortress
the Grandees of Spain to sit in publick under the Royal Canopy of the King of Spain Beira is fertile in Rye Millet Apples and Chestnuts It s City of Coimbra formerly the abode of Alphonso the first King of Portugal is famous for its University for its Bishoprick which is said to be worth above a hundred and fifty thousand Livres yearly Rent Estremadura another than that of Castile produces Wine Oyl Salt Honey which the Bees make there of the Flowers of Lemmons and of Roses It s City of Lisbon is the Capital of all the Kingdom one of the richest greatest most beautiful and most populous Towns of all Europe It has above thirty thousand Houses and an admirable Port with the conveniency of the ebbing and flowing of the Sea It particularly drives the trade of Brasile and of the East-Indies The small City of Belem which is near it is the Mausoleum or the place of burial of several Kings of Portugal Santaren has so great a number of Olive-Trees in its Dependencies that the Inhabitants boast of being able to make of their Oyl a River as great as the Tagus Setuval which the Flemmings call St. Hubes is well situated well built and of great trade It has the best Harbour in all the Kingdom thirty Miles in length three in breadth Its Salt-Pits and Fishery according to what the Portuguese say raise a greater Revenue to their King than all Arragon does to the King of Spain Alen-Teyo by reason of its Corn is reckon'd for the Granary of Portugal Its City of Evora pretends to the first rank after Lisbon In the Year 1663. the Portuguese gain'd a famous Battel over the Spaniards in its neighbourhood Elvas is known for its excellent Oyls for the Sieges which it has happily sustain'd against the Castillians Ourques in the Year 1139. saw that famous Battel fought which gave occasion to the proclaiming the first King of Portugal Algarve tho' of small extent has the Title of a Kingdom It was reunited to the Crown by the Marriage of Alphonso the Third with Beatrix of Castile it affords Figs Olives Almonds and Wines very much esteemed the Name of Algerbia in the Moorish Tongue signifies a fertile field The Seventeen Provinces of the Low-Countries THese Provinces are made to pass under the number of Seventeen because that formerly tho' at divers times they have each had their peculiar Lord. The Name of the Low-Countries is given them as a Country situated in the lower part of the Rhine The situation of the Low Countries is so much the more considerable as that it lies between England France and Germany These Seventeen Provinces touch France and Germany and are separated from England by the Sea There are four Dutchies Brabant Limbourg Luxembourg Guelderland Seven Counties Holland Zealand Zutphen Flanders Artois Hainault Namur a Marquisate of the Holy Empire which has only the City of Antwerp five Lordships Malines Vtrecht Over-Issel or Trans-Isalane Friesland Groninghen This Region is small but one of the richest and most populous in the World Its Air is temperate its Winter is more long than cold its Summer resembles the Spring of the Southern Provinces of France It s Soyl is generally fertile full of good Pasturages which furnish Cattel Milk Butter Cheese and other Commodities abundantly It s principal Rivers are the Rhine Maes Scheld The Rhine has its Sources in Suisserland most of its Course in Germany after having divided it self upon its entrance into the low Countrys at Skinckensckons it communicates most of its Waters to other Rivers those it keeps lose their Name in the Sand a little below Leyden in Holland The Maes which comes from France and from Lorrain has this advantage over the Rhine that it carries its Name and Waters to the very Ocean wherein it forms several good Harbours The Scheld serv'd for bounds to France and to the Empire in the time of the Emperour Charles the Bold It receives at Gaunt the Lis or Ley a navigable River and before it entirely loses its Name it makes two principal Branches the left called Hont the right whose Chanel passes by Tolen falls into the Meuse Besides these Rivers and those which fall into them there are Canals great store of Lakes Pools and Marshes which fortifie the Country provide it with Fish and afford the convenience of passage and the more easie transport of their Commodities The Emperour Charles the Fifth saw himself Master of all these Provinces In the Year 1581. they reâ—us'd for the most part Obedience to King Philip his Son taking for a Pretext of their Revolt the cruel Treatments of their Governours the Infraction of their Priviledges the Introduction of the Council of Trent and the Imposition of the Tenth Penny upon all the Commodities that were sold in that Country We may say that the two Real Causes of this Revolution were the Change of Religion and the Ambition of some Lords joyn'd to the Aversion of the People to a foreign Government Two Years before these Revolted Provinces had made the Union at Vtrecht for which reason the Duke of Alva who made War in those Provinces for the King of Spain did maintain that he ought not to treat them as the Patrimony of his Master but as his own Conquest There are in the Low-Countries two States very different from one another the one is a Republick or rather several Republicks and is called for that reason the Vnited Provinces otherwise Holland the other belongs in part to the King of Spain and goes under the Name of the Catbolick Provinces or that of Flanders The Christian King has Conquered the best of these Provinces and the strongest Towns which have been confirm'd to him by the Treaties of the Pyrenees of Aix la Chapelle and of Niâ—â—meghen or else possess'd by him under colour of Dependencies The Hague is the Residence of the Council of the States-General of the Vnited Provinces Bruxels that of the Princes or of the Governours established by the King of Spain Lisle Tournay Doway Ypres Dunkirk Arras St. Omar Cambray Valenciennes Luxembourg are Cities the most considerable of the Acquisition of France The Roman Catholick Religion is only receiv'd in Flanders All sorts of Sects are tolerated in Holland Each person is allowed to follow his own Opinion tho' not Preach it in Publick The Sect of Calvin is there principally exercised The National Synod held at Dort in the Year 1619. has regulated the principal Points of that Religion The Humours of the People of Flanders and Holland are as different from one another as are their Governments and Religions The Flemmings do much affect those fine Titles of Honour which the Kings of Spain have not been sparing of to them The Emperour Charles the Fifth had a design of making a Kingdom of this State so as would have done before him Charles the Bold Duke of Burgundy who meant to have it called the Kingdom of the Lyon The Hollanders are more popular than
the Flemmings wedded to Commerce to Manufacture and Navigation Both People are industrious in making Handy-craft-Works They have two sorts of Tongues the Walloon which is a corrupted French and which becomes purer since the French King's Conquests and the Flemming or Low Dutch The first is particularly in Artois in French-Flanders and in Haynault The Vnited Provinces and the Provinces of the King of Spain were in War until the Year 1609. when they made a Truce of Twelve Years His Catholick Majesty did then treat with the States General of the Vnited Provinces in quality and as holding them for Free-Countrys Provinces and States to whom he had no Pretension In the Year 1648. the Peace was made there before that of the Empire which was concluded at Munster in the same Year And since the Spaniards of Flanders and the Hollanders have thought fit to live neighbourly and in good intelligence nay to confederate together for their mutual defence The War having been declared by the French King upon the Hollanders in the Year 1672. the Spaniards fail'd not to take part in it for the traversing the Conquests of his Christian Majesty which cost them very considerable Cities and Provinces whereas the Hollanders recover'd what they had lost The Princes of Orange of the House of Nassau have almost ever had the Military and Civil Government in the Vnited Provinces The Vnited Provinces of the Low-Countries THe Vnited Provinces are so call'd from their Union at Vtrecht in the Year 1579. They are commonly called Holland that being the richest most populous Province of 'em all Their situation is towards the end of the Rivers Rhine and Meuse in the Northern part of the Low Countries between the Dominions of the King of Spain in Flanders England which is separated from 'em by the Sea and several Principalities of the Empire The Princes of the Empire who are their Neighbours are the Duke of Newbourg in his Dutchy of Juliers and his Barony of Ravestein the Elector of Brandenbourg in his Dutchy of Cleves the Elector of Cologn the Bishop of Munster the Count de Bentheim the Prince of East-Friesland in the Territories of the same Name The Vnited Provinces which before owed subjection to the King of Spain have since been independent of one another or to say rather as many Republicks which altogether make now but one under the Name of the States General of the Vnited Provinces of the Low Countries The Dignity of this State residing in the States General the Absolute authority over things reserved by reason of the alliance has remained in the States of each Province The Seal of the Republick is a Lion holding a Bundle of Seven bound Arrows with allusion to as many confederated Provinces these Provinces as the Politicians say have not always been so well united but that they resembled a Body which has several Heads some of which would draw it on one side while the others endeavour to tug it on the other There is no State in the World of so small an Extent which has so great a number of Fortresses and which seems better defended by the Nature of the Places than this It has the See and several Rivers which defend it the Rhine the Meuse the Waal the Issel Notwithstanding all these Defences the French King made surprising Conquests in the Year 1672. by the reduction of three Provinces and sixty considerable Towns which proceeded from raw unexpert meer Citizens sons being imploid in the Soldiery Besides the Vnited Previnces and the Places that are in them the States General have in Flanders the Cities of Sluyce Middlebourg Ardembourg Sasvan Gaunt Axel Hulst in Brabant Lisle Bergen-ap-Zoom Breda Boisleduc Grave and they have Maestricht in the Bishoprick of Liege Dalem Fauquemont Bolduc in the Land of Outre Meuse These Places were taken by the French King but restor'd to them by his Majesty in consideration of the Peace of 1678. In Germany they had upon the Rhine Orsoy Wesel Reez Emerik Genep in the Dutchy of Cleves Rhineberg in the Electorate of Cologn these are return'd into the hands of its true Masters in consideration of the aforesaid Peace Towards Westphalia the States General have Garrisons in the City of Embden in the Forts of Eideler and Leer-ort which belong to the Prince of East-Friesland There are in Holland two Companies of Merchants the one for the East-Indies the other for the West The first of these Companies seems it self to be a Potent Republick It boasts of having subdued more Leagues of Country than there are Acres of Land in all Holland Of having fourteen or fifteen thousand Soldiers and a Number of Ships in its Service Of employing commonly above fourscore thousand Men. It had long since above twenty very considerable Fortresses as many Magazines upon the Coasts of the Indian-Sea where it has endeavour'd to constrain several Petty Kings not to receive into their States any other Nations of Europe than their own The West-India Company is weak and feeble in respect of the other whether that the Portugals have had more right and more strength than the Hollanders in Brazil Or the term of the Concession of Priviledg obtained by these from their Sovereign be expired Or in short that the Company of the East-Indies has us'd all its efforts to ruin the other The Hollanders have hitherto been Powerful at Sea have often beaten the French the Spanish Fleets nay made Head against the English who are Sovereigns of the Sea The Number of their Ships is so great that if we may believe their Partizans it equals that of the rest of Europe They have always in their own Country wherewith to Equip a great Number tho' their Land neither produces Wood nor other things necessary for that purpose They are able to Arm out above a hundred to Sea if they had but the Mariners and Soldiers they had formerly At their first Establishment they only pretended to Fishing and Trading from Port to Port since they have drove the richest Commerce that is carried on at Sea Amongst the Vnited-Provinces there are four towards the West Holland Zealand Vtrecht Guelderland Four towards the East Zutphen Over-Yssel or Trans-Isalane Friesland Groninghen Those who reckon but seven make but one of that of Guelderland and Zutphen In the Assemblies these Provinces have ever given their Votes in the following Order Guelderland with Zutphen first of all then Holland Zealand Vtrecht Friesland Over-Yssel finally Groninghen with the Ommelands Each of 'em sends its Deputies to the Hague where are form'd three Colledges or Assemblies of them the States-General the Council of State and the Chamber of Accounts In the Assembly of the States-General all the Provinces above-mention'd must consent in General and in Particular to the Resolutions that are taken therein and do not follow the plurality of Voices Each Province may send thither one two three four or five Deputies but all these Deputies have together but one Voice and have right to
Building Amongst other Towns of the Province Chastel-Challon has the Title of Principality Arley has sometimes serv'd for an abode to the Duke of Burgundy Luxeul has Medicinal Waters and Alabaster Bleterans the Castle of Joux and and of Saint Anne have been considerable for their Situation Arbois affords delicious Wines and which keep a long time Saint Claud is visited by those who bear a Devotion to that Saint Noseret has fine Fairs and a Castle whose Terrasses are Leaded Near this Province and upon the German Confines are two Seigniories the County of Monbelliard and the Abbey of Lure with Towns of the same Name Monbelliard which is defended by a strong Cittadel belongs to a Prince of the House of Wirtembourg which depend thereupon The French King is now the Chief Sovereign of it Suisserland SVisserland had its Name from Switz one of its most ancient Cantons whether this Canton was the most considerable of the three who began the Alliance in the Year 1308. or that in the Year 1315. they first of all fought then for the Liberty of the Country in the Battel of Morgarten wherein fifty of the Switzers defeated an Army of twenty thousand Austrians When Suisserland made a part of Gaul it was divided into four Quarters which seem to correspond with the modern Countries of Zurichgow Argow Turgow Wiflispurgergow Since it has had two parts separated by the River of Russ the one belonging to the Germans the other to the Burgundians who called it their Lesser-Burgundy or Burgundia Trans-Jurana as being beyond Mount-Jura The Rhine Rhosne Aar Russ Inn Tesin and other Rivers have their Sources in Suisserland for which reason this Country is esteemed the highest of Europe The Tesin and Russ furnish them with the conveniency of Trading into Germany and Italy Several Lakes there are the most considerable of which are those of Geneva and Constance All these Waters produce Fish in abundance and the Mountains in this Tract afford the means of Hunting Bucks Shamoies or Wild-Goats and Boors The Switzers are well shap'd and proportioned and very strong and robust for the most part Their best Revenue comes from the Pensions they receive from the French King and the King of Spain Their Cattel afford them Butter Cheese and Milk Their Interest is to maintain Peace and to remain united among themselves They speak both French and German in this Country but have corrupted several terms of both Tongues 'T is held that upon occasion they are able to bring into the Field sixty thousand fighting Men the Canton of Bearn alone being capable of raising eighteen thousand It is an Infantry which renders good service to the Prince who imploys it as numerous as it was in the time of Julius Caesar It seems to pawn its own Liberty by engaging it self under the pay of others but by so doing it preserves the freedom of its Country The Valour and Fidelity of the Switzers have invited the French Kings the Popes of Rome and the Dukes of Genoa to conside in them for the Guard of their proper Persons and the greatest Families of Europe do not disdain their Alliance True it is they have not so many Nobles as formerly but those they have are very considerable and a mistake it is to believe that they were wholly exterminated Several Castles were there razed when they cast off the Yoke of the House of Austria by reason of the ill treatments of its Lieutenants Under the Name of Suisserland are known thirteen Cantons of the Country which are subject to them and of their Allies The Cantons as well as the Allies are as many Republicks govern'd by their Magistrates whom they call Burgher-Masters or Avoyers or Landames This Name is given to the chief of the Cantons where are no Cities The Cantons and the Allies have Ordinances independent on one another nevertheless they Govern sometimes several Provinces together and they have Laws almost a-like with a strict Union they have often given them the Name of the Republick of the Switzers or of the Lords of the Leagues In this Commonwealth are two sorts of Religion the Protestant and Roman-Catholick When mention is made of the Catholick Cantons they reckon either five or seven of them The five are Vri Switz Vndervald Lucerne Zug The two others Fribourg and Soleurre Zurich Bern Basle Schafouse are Protestants Glaris and Appenzel have both Papists and Protestants This diversity of Religion does often cause their affairs to be embroil'd and sometimes occasions their Assembling separately Commonly the five Popish Cantons hold their Assembly at Lucerne the four Protestant Cities at Aran. The General Assemblies are held every Year at Baden so called from its Baths Each Canton is free to engage it self with whom it thinks convenient so that the Switzers are found in different Parties nevertheless the Switzers sharing in almost all the Wars that are made in Europe have none themselves and live in Peace in their own Country As concerning succours the Cantons have certain Treaties they can call and summon one another Some have no right but of calling three or five but those who summon succours may also cause others to come who are allied to them thus most commonly they all joyn therein each according to its Forces They have not all an equal Authority over their subject Countries they have it only according to the Associations which they have made in divers times And those who entred last into the Leagues have not any Right over the Countries which have been subjected before the times of their Leagues Amongst all these Cantons Zurich has the Presidence Bern is the most powerful Basle has the finest City the abode and the Rendezvous of several Learned Men The Canton of Schafouse has its City of great Trade Soleurre has one too of the same Name where Resides the French Embassador Vri Swits Vnderwald Glaris Appenzel have only Burroughs Hence follows the order of the thirteen Cantons according to their Ranks Zurich Bern Vri Switz Vnderwald Zug Glaris Fribourg Soleurre Schafouse Appenzel The Countries subjected to the Cantons have either been Conquered by Arms or submitted voluntarily There is about a score of them which for the most part have the Title of Bailywicks as Baden and those which lie in Italy Among the Allies of the Cantons the Grisons are the most powerful They are so called from one of their Ligues whose Inhabitants were used to wear Grey Scarfes Their City of Coire is the Place whither are brought the Merchandizes of Italy and Germany by reason of the conveniency of the Rhine which begins to bear Boats thereabouts One of their Countries is the Valtoline the most Beautiful and Important Valley of Europe Wallais lies along the Rhosne There are moreover in the number of the Allies four Bishops that of Sion at Saint Maurice Basle at Porentru Constance at Mersbourg and Coire at Marsoila There is likewise the Abbot of Saint Gall who dwells at Weil seven Cities Saint Gall
Neuchatel Wallangery Biel Geneva Mulhausen Rotweil The six first Protestants and Rotweil Catholick Geneva is the best Fortified of all the Burghers or Citizens keep a very exact Guard for the preservation of their Liberty and that of Religion which is Reformed In the Year 1663. the French King obtain'd freedom for the Catholicks to say Mass in that Town where it had not been Celebrated in this Age. The Lake of Geneva is crossed by the Rhosne which mixeth not with its Waters there sometimes arise Tempests even in clear fair Weather because it abutts at the foot of the Mountains In the Country it s said that Julius Caesar caused his Treasures to be cast into this Lake when he was pursued by the Switzers hitherto they have been sought for to no purpose Savoy THis Country formerly the abode of the Allobroges is said to have been called Savoy after one of its Princes had drove away the Robbers It is full of Mountains which we generally call the Alpes tho' several Branches there have their peculiar Names Mount Cenis and the lesser St. Bernard make the two principal Passages for Italy 'T is very cold in these parts the Inhabitants by reason of their drinking the Snow-water are subject to the Goitre which is a swelling of the Throat proceeding from the crudity of that Water Nevertheless there are several Places in this Country both very pleasant and very fertile The Mountains have Marmotes which are seldom seen elsewhere they are great Rats who have short Legs rugged Hair the Mouth and Ears of a Squirrel four Teeth long and cutting they sleep full six Months of the Year without taking in any Food or Nourishment Savoy is reckon'd for the Principal and most Noble Dutchy of Christendom It 's certain that its Dukes have had Alliances with all that 's Royal in Europe After the Houses of England and France that of Savoy is one of the most ancient Ame the eighth had reason to say that he had Princes to his Vassals Most of the Gentlemen of his Dominions come from the Emperours of the East and West from the Kings of Italy from the Princes of Morea from the Counts of Geneva The Power of the Dukes of Savoy is so much the more considerable in that they are Masters of several Passages from France into Italy by the possession of Piedmont of the County of Niece and other Seigneuries Under Savoy is comprehended Genevois Choblais Faussigni Tarentaise Maurienne part of Bugey Chambri is the Capital of the Dutchy and the Seat of a Parliament Montmelion is the strongest in it with a Cittadel which covers the head of almost an inaccessible Mountain where the Keys of Savoy are said to be kept Anneci is the Residence of the Bishop of Geneva Ripaille was the retreat of Felix the Fourth before and after his Pontificate This Prince liv'd there with his Friends in such a disapplication from Affairs that since People say Faire Ripaille when they are merry and without disquiet Italy AMong the Authors who have written concerning Italy few there are but represent it as the most beautiful best and most delicious Country in the World Its situation towards the midst of the temperate Zone affords it all these advantages It is commonly compared to a Boot the figure whereof it does really resemble lying between the Mediterranean-Sea and the Gulph of Venice The Alpes which Livy calls the Walls of Italy and Rome are at those places where it touches France Savoy Suisserland Germany the Appennine Mountain runs quite through it The Po Adige Tiber and Arne are the greatest Rivers of this Country There is not one in the World observ'd in so short a course to have so much encrease as the Po and which is so inconvenient by its over-flowings notwithstanding the Dikes that have been raised for prevention The People of Italy are polite dextrous subtile and prudent extream in their Manners they were formerly Masters of the most considerable Empire that has been seen since the Creation of the World And now stand possess'd of the chiefest Dignity of the Roman-Catholick Church They obey divers Princes who are all Papists but very different in Power and Interests We are oblig'd to the Italians for the Discovery of the New World Columbus was a Genouese Americus Vespucius a Florentine The Cities of Italy are so much the more beautiful and better built in that the Nobility have commonly their abode in ' em Their Churches and other Edifices are adorned with excellent Pictures for which reason the Men and Houses are said to be all painted The Italian Tongue is deriv'd from the Latin Tuscan is received in the Court of Rome and amongst the well-bred people Their way of reckoning the Hours is very different from ours they regulating it according to the Sun 's setting then they count four and twenty Hours and at the entrance of the Night they begin to reckon the Hours of a New Day Insomuch that the number of the Hours at Noon rises and falls according to the Seasons tho' there are always four and twenty Hours for the Civil Day that is for the Day and Night together For Example On the twelfth day of August at Noon which we reckon twelve a Clock the Italians reckon seventeen and so what remains to finish the Civil Day of four and twenty Hours comprehends seven Hours which make up just the time which the Sun employs that day the twelfth of August since the Hour of Noon unto its setting The Sovereign Princes of Italy are the Pope the King of Spain who possess almost half of it the Duke of Savoy the great Duke of Florence the Republick of Genoa the Duke of Mantua the Duke of Modena the Duke of Parma the Bishop of Trent the Republick of Lucca The other Princes are call'd Petty by reason of the small extent of their Dominions The Republick of Venice is independent most of the other States depend either on the Church or the Empire for some Fiefs The Quality of Duke is in Italy more considerable than of Prince bating in the Territories of the King of Spain There are so many Archbishopricks and Bishopricks that the Kingdom of Naples alone has more than all France hath the truth is most of 'em have not so good a Revenue as our Country Curates Italy is divided into three great parts the High which may be called Lombardy the Middle and the Low According to this division there is found in the High Piemont Montferrat Milantz the Coast of Genoa Parmezan Modenois Mantouan the Domain of Venice Trentin The State of the Church Tuscany Lucquois are in the Middle the Kingdom of Naples possesses the rest There is a fourth part if we may add the Isles thereto Piemont according to the saying of a Piemontin is a City of three hundred Miles in compass One and the same Land produces Corn Wine and Fruits Turin the abode of the Dukes of Savoy is a lovely Town accompanied with a strong Cittadel It
of raising Forces by Sea and Land of making Peace or War with the command of the Castles of the Cittadels and Garrisons of the Kingdom The richness of the Countrey consists in Wool in Cattle and Salt-Fish It s Land has several Mines of Lead Iron Sulphur Azure and Coal It s principal Rivers have a prodigious Quantity of Salmon All Scotland is divided into two great parts by the River of Tay the one Northern the other Southern Northern Scotland contained under the name of High-lands is that where the Romans could not carry their Armies and where in our times the English Parliamentaries had not all the Success they had promised to themselves It was the abode of the ancient Scots whose Kings had their residence at Dunstafag The Robberies of the Inhabitants have been there formerly so frequent principally in the Province of Albania that if by the Law any one of the Province had committed a Robbery he amongst them whom a man could seize of was obliged to repair the loss or to lose his Life Aberdeen is the most considerable City of this Country by reason of its University and of its Pearls which are found in its little River and of the Salmons that are taken in its Neighbourhood where three hundred are said to be sometimes taken at one Cast of the Net The Southern part of Scotland which is called Lower is a better Country than the upper There is to be seen Edenborough the Capital of the Kingdom the abode of the late Kings St. Andrew and Glascow have the Title of Archbishopricks St. Andrew has also a famous University I say famous for such a Kingdom as that of Scotland where Glascow passes for a Paradise Abernethi was the abode of the King of the Picts Duns upon the Marches of England is the place of Birth of the subtil Doctor Scotus Leith the Sea-port of Edinborough St. Johns Town a new City near the ruins of the ancient Perth which the Sea has ruined It is defended with good Walls whereas most of the other Cities of the Kingdom have none at all The Coronation of the Kings of Scotland is performed at Scone near St. Johns-Town There was in this Abby a Marble Chair from which the Royalty of Scotland was esteemed inseparable but the King of England Edward the 4th having transferred it to London it looks as if King James the 6th was as it were forced to go thither That Chair had been before in the Country of Argyle Dunbar is an old Castle the Fortifications whereof have been destroyed The English Parliamentaries won a Battail there in the year 1650. Dunbarton is a Fortress upon a Rock near a Lake where the Fish are said to have no bones The Isles of May and Bass have Castles situated upon inaccessible Rocks The Garrison of that of Bass receives great conveniencyes from the Geese Sea Coots or Moor-hens which go there to make their Nests these Fowls furnish abundance of Wood for Fewel Among the Islands which depend on Scotland The Hebrides are on the West the Orcades on the North of that Kingdom The Inhabitants of the Orcades keep carefully the Cup of St. Magnus whom they name their Apostle With this Cup they try their Bishops and hope for abundance of good from 'em when those Prelates empty it quite They are of so good a complexion that they never take Physick Towards the North of the Orcades there be the Isles of Scetland which we have said to depend on the Crown of Denmark The Insularies there are so healthful and so vigorous that they make no scruple of marrying when they are a hundred years old Nay they go a fishing at the age of a hundred and thirty and a hundred and forty Zeal one of these Islands suffers no Forreign Animals they dye as soon as they come there Ireland IReland formerly called Ivernia and Hibernia is on the West of Great Brittain from which it is separated by a Sea full of Shelves and Rocks where there is a concourse of several Rivers which fall in there with great Rapidity There is little sayling there but with Ships of a middle Bulk yet Ireland has the finest Harbours and the greatest number in the World The Irish are tall and well proportioned love Repose and Liberty most of them are Catholicks During the usurpation of the Royal Authority in England by the two Houses and by Cromwel most of the Papists were brought to condign Punishment for their execrable Massacres and Bloudshed and the Irish Nobility pen'd up in a corner of the Kingdom between the River of Shennon and the Sea The Physitians there are received by Succession The Riches of this Realm consists in Butter Suet Wool Hides Frizes Coverlets Cheeses and Salmon The English who reside there drive almost all the Trade Though this Island be full of Lakes Ponds Marshes Mountains it is nevertheless very healthful and is said neither to produce or suffer any thing that 's venemous The Wood or Timber that 's cut there engenders neither Worms nor Spiders Of this Nature is the Timber Work of the Pallace of Westminster and that of the Town-House of the Hague in Holland Of late time several of its Marshes have been drained and dryed up and the Countrey which was formerly only Forrests is at present so disgarnished of Woods that they are constrained to make use of Turfe instead of it for Firing All along the Coast is great plenty of those Fowl we call Soland-Geese they are produced of the Wood of the Ships which rot in the Sea There be also Pearls which float in company as Bees follow their King but are not of a fine Water Ireland is divided according to the Dispositions of the Regions of the World into four parts Leinster Ulster Cannaught and Munster formerly Meeth was reckoned for a fifth but is now accounted a Member of Leinster There is still another Division which divides all Ireland into two parts whereof the one is the Province of the English the other the Country of the true Irish though the whole Country has been subdued and there is almost every where English and Scotch Collonies The Province of the English has in like manner four Countreys Lease Meth Dublin Kildare-Monmouth is the best Country with the finest Havens of the Kingdom Leinster drives the greatest Trade the two other Ports are not so considerable Mead passes for the Granary of Ireland by reason of its Corn. There be few good Towns Armagh in Ulster which was formerly the principal in all the Island has now nothing more than the Ruines with the Title of the Primary and the Archbishops See London-Derry is much more considerable Drogday is strong and trading a Proverb runs that Wexford was in vogue that Dublin is so and that Drogdah shall be The Hole of St. Patrick has Circumstances which have furnished matter to the making of Books Amongst other Fables which be told thereof is the descent of Souls into Purgatory and into Hell through
Virginia They would make us believe that there is a flying Squirrel which makes use of its paws as if they were wings The Inhabitants of Virginia love to make good Cheer are Idolaters and have divers Lords whom they call Werouns Their Towns which they surround with Pallisadoes have only 18 or 20 Houses Pomeiock and James-Town are the Principal places of this Region The Bay of Chesapeack is very considerable being seventy five Leagues in length for the most part six or seven broad and ten or twelve towards its entrance The Ships sail up above sixty Leagues for it is often fifteen or sixteen fathom deep and six or seven where it is most shallow The Islands of Barmudas or Summer Isles are under the same Crown and almost in the same Parallel with Virginia distant above three hundred Leagues from the Continent of America They are several in number around the principal one and almost all invironed with Rocks and sufficiently known for the Shipwracks that happen there The Merchants bring thence Cocheneal Tobacco Pearls and Amber there are found Tortoises of an excessive bigness and Spiders without venom extraordinary large of a streak'd colour which spin Webs capable of holding little Birds In the Year 1516. five men being imbarked at the Barmudas in a little Pinnace traversed above twelve hundred Leagues at Sea and by a singular happiness arrived in Ireland In the Year 1525. a Portuguez who was in the East Indies being desirous to do a notable piece of service to his Prince undertook a Voyage which was no less perilous for with a small Gally but sixteen foot long and six-broad he departed from Cochim and having traversed the Occan and all its particular Seas at last he arrived at Lisbon where he brought the King of Portugal the news of the building a Cittadel at Diu a piece of news which was agreeably received in that Court Florida THe Spaniards and French the Discoverers of this Province have but very small knowledge of it as not having been very far in the Country the Spaniards under divers Leaders and principally under Soto made some Expeditions into it but both he and most of his men dyed in the prosecution of their design The Name of Florida was given it either upon the account of its Flowers which it produces in great abundance or by reason of the first Discovery of some of its parts which was on a Palm Sunday The French that setled themselves in that part which lies towards the North-East had left there the names of the Scine Lonaloire Garrone Gironde Chorcute to the Rivers they met withal in those parts But the Spaniards jealous of the French Names having given them others and the English who have lately setled several Colonies here do still at this day Christen them anew In the Year 1562. John Ribaud caus'd to be built upon the River of Port-Royal the Fortress of Charles's Fort which he called by that Name in consideration of King Charles the Ninth of France Two years after one Laudonier built the Fort of Carolina upon the River of May Now by the way it is to be observ'd that several Geographers do not give to these two Places their true Position Since which the French were constrained to abandon 'em both upon the account of the Civil Wars which arose in France and of the jealousie of the Spaniards who could not well bear with the Frenchmen having footing in Florida The Spaniards made Florida much greater than it really is for they attribute to it Virginia and New France perhaps not to prejudice the Pretentions of their Soveraign who attributes to himself all America tho' his Subjects have only appear'd in some of its Provinces Others give only this Name of Florida to the Peninsula of Tegesta which advances to the South and contributes to form the great and famous Gulph of Mexico and the Channel of Bahama The Air of Florida is so temperate that there has been often seen old Men at the Age of Two hundred and fifty years whilst the Children of five Generations are all alive at the same time The Land is fertile full of Fruit-trees and its Towns the best peopled of all America having in several places rich Furs and an immense quantity of Pearls It s Mountain Apalatei produces abundance of Copper It s principal River is that of Spirito Sancto or Chucagua which falls into the Mexican Gulph The Coast is not over convenient for great Ships because the Sea is but very shallow The Inland parts are possess'd by the Savages under the Government and Jurisdiction of divers Paroustis or Caciques who are their Lords Relations acquaint us with the Brave Resistance they made against the Spaniards These Savages adore the Sun and Moon Upon the Coast the Spaniard holds St. Austin and St. Matthews two Colonies of small consideration tho' in each there be a Castle St. Austin is of the greatest importance by reason of its Haven and its nearness to the Channel of Bahama where the Spanish-Fleets commonly pass when with their Cargoes they return from Havana into Europe New Mexico THis Mexico is call'd New because it was one of the last Conquests of the Spaniards in Northern America not being subdued till after the Year 1583. 'T is the Ancient Mexico according to some Authors who say its Inhabitants people part of New Spain The scarcity of Victuals and other inconveniencies of this Countrey have not hindred the Spaniards from going to search for Mines in its Entrals The Natives are Idolaters and call their Chiefs Caciques New Mexico California Anien Quivira and Cibola are its principal parts and Santafe the most considerable Town California on whose Coasts some Pearls are found is one of the greatest Islands in the World Anian gives its Name to a famous Streight beyond which is the Land of Jesso The Wealth of Quivira consists in certain Bulls or Oxen which are very benificial to the Inhabitants their Flesh is their Food of their Skins they make Cloaths and Coverings for their Houses Thread of their Hair Bow-strings of their Nerves Awls and Bodkins of their Bones Trumpets and Bugles of their Horns they preserve Water in their Bladders and make Fewel of their Dung dryed This Creature has something of the Lyon the Camel the Goat and the Sheep There is in Cibola Grandeda Acoma and some other Fortresses upon the Mountains with Palisado's and Ditches which shew that the Americans were not ignorant of the Art of Fortifying such places as they meant or stood in need to defend Other Enumerations are made of the Countreys of New Mexico but very uncertain are they the Inhabitants commonly have no setled abode give the Names of their Chiefs to their Villages and those Names only subsists during the Life of each of those Leaders New Spain THe Indians name this Countrey Mexico and the Spaniards New Spain so that hereby they call their King the King of Spains The Spaniards here establish'd in this Countrey several
whom Charles the Ninth had engaged it had a design to build a City at the mouth of the Lake Macaraybo upon the model of that of Venice but in a little while after they changed their design and chose rather to return into their Countrey New Andalousia is otherwise called Paria from its great River Its Coast as well as that of Venezuela goes under the name of Costa de las Perlas by reason of the Pearl-fishing that is there since they have ceased so doing in the Neighbourhood of the Isles of Margaretes and Cabagna Some Indians maintain and defend themselves there still against the Spaniards and most of the Sea Towns have often been pillaged and plunder'd by the English That of Comana has Salt Pits in its Neighbourhood The Countrey and City of Popayen have kept the Name of their last King The New Kingdom of Granada which was discovered by one Ximanes a Granadian furnishes Silver Copper Iron and Emeralds There was formerly one brought from hence to Philip the Second King of Spain that the Goldsmiths could not sufficiently esteem the value of it It was put into the Treasury of the Escurial Guayna THis Countrey has been named by some the Savage Coast the Countrey of the Amazons El-Dorado and Guayna this last Name which is Indian has prevailed over the rest L'Orenoque bounds it on the West the Amazon River on the East the North Sea on the North and the high Mountains towards the South and all these bounds leave it a figure which approaches very much to Oval L'Oronoque called also Paria which in the Indian Tongue signifies River does often constrain its Inhabitants by its over-flowings to make lodgings upon Trees which resemble the Nests of great Birds Amongst other Rivers of Guayna Surinam is the most Navigable Cayenne forms the Island of the same Name At the Mouth of these Rivers and all along the Coast which is generally low and extends above two hundred and fifty Leagues there are several Colonies of English French and Hollanders The Territories that lie near the Lake Parima which is in the mid'st of Guayna are said to acknowledge for their Soveraign a a Successour of Guainacapa of the Family of the Incas of Peru and compose the true Kingdom of the Golden King The rest drawing towards the Sea is possessed by divers Nations who are Idolaters and obey the most ancient of their Families Some Relations make mention of Amazons inhabiting there or rather great Women who make War with an admirable Dexterity and Valour that those of the Isle of Arowen which is at the Mouth of the Amazon River go particularly under that Name by reason of their long Hair that there are some Nations in those Parts where they truck their Women and where the Men commonly seek after the oldest because they are more laborious and fitter than the young for the management of their business The Inhabitants of Guayana are long liv'd by reason of the good Air they breath The East Winds are regular there and it is never excessively hot or cruelly cold There are places proper for the Cultivating of Manioc for Cotton for Sugar and Tobacco and others which furnish Gums Timber Precious Stones of several sorts Parrots and Monkeys Hunting and Fishing are here equally useful and pleasant Manoa near the Lake Panima the principal City of Guayna is called Eldorado by reason of the quantity of Gold which is said to be there so great both in Coin Plate Armour and other Furniture that the Inhabitants make their Arms of it cover their Bodies with it after having rubbed them with Oyl or Balm from whence it comes that people would make this Town pass for the Richest in the World The Island Cayene the principal Colony of the French in those parts is sixteen or seventeen Leagues in circumference whereof it presents five to the Sea the rest is between the arms of the River of the same Name It has several Hills and Meadows which are there called Savanes Peru. PERV is so considerable a Region that the Spaniards thought fitting to comprehend under that Name all the other parts of Southern America It is almost all under the Torrid Zone and yet it has not the Qualities of the Countreys of our Hemisphere that are in the same Zone There are three sorts of Countreys very different from one another the Plain the Mountainous and the Andes The Plain which borders upon the Sea and where it hardly ever rains is sandy and subject to Earthquakes and but ten or twelve Leagues in breadth The Mountainous which has full twenty consists in Valleys in Hills and Mountains where it is very cold The Andes that are as broad as the Mountainous part and where there be almost always continual Rains are Mountains excessively high and nevertheless fertile and well peopled so as under the Name of Peru many more Territories have been contained than those that have been conquered The Spaniards have a Vice Roy in this Countrey where they have particularly fortified Arica as a Sea-Port whether are brought the Commodities of Lima and the Riches of Potosi They invaded this Kingdom under Pizarra in the Year 1525. the Civil Wars which followed did for some time retard the absolute Conquest The Indians not being able to defend themselves pay them Tribute The King of Spain draws immense Sums from the Mines of Peru the principal Towns have almost all of 'em some and the Fond of Earth is there often of Gold and Silver for which reason Peru is without contradiction the richest Countrey in the World It is certain that the Spaniards brought from thence to the value of above twenty Millions of Ducats in the first Voyage they made thither The security of the Ways is so great that Commodities often to the worth of three or four hundred thousand Ducats are frequently conducted under the Convoy only of four Musqueteers The Incas had reign'd hereditarily in Peru for above three hundred years before the coming of the Spaniards They had caused there to be made two Royal High-ways the one in the Plain where they were at great Charges in setling the Sand and the other in the Mountains where it was necessary to fill up several Valleys These Ways were each of 'em five hundred Leagues in length and there were Houses where Travellers were entertain'd by the Inhabitants with all the care and civility imaginable The same Incas had also caused Temples to be built to the Sun to the Moon and the Stars which they called the Moons Waiting Gentlewomen to Lightning to Thunder and the Rain-bow which they said was the Executioner of the Kings Justice Some say that their Policy resembled in some manner that of the Greeks and Romans that their Government was full of Ease Franchises and Liberality They divided the World into three parts High Low and Subterranean signifying thereby Heaven Earth and Hell Atabalippa one of the last of those Incas said The Pope was not wise to
give away what belonged not to him and that he the said Atabalippa had right to prefer the Divinity of the Sun before that of a Crucified Man He likewise threw down upon the ground a Breviary that was offered him because it spoke not a word and they had made him hope it would tell him fine things This unhappy Prince having been defeated and taken by the Spaniards at Camamalca offered as much Gold as a Room seven and twenty foot in length could hold seventeen in breadth and proportionably high to the half of its height Notwithstanding which he was put to death as a Conspiratour and a Tyrant It is not to be wondred at the abundance of the Incas Gold and Silver since they had in Gold all the Animals and Plants they had the knowledge of and had Temples where they plac'd a number of Statues of pure Gold and an infinite company of Precious Stones those rich Fabricks have been demolish'd by the Spaniards in hopes of finding Gold in the Materials and joyning of the stones which were cemented with it tho' they were of a prodigious bigness The Provinces of Peru are Quito los Reyes los Charcas la Sierra Quito has a great deal of Gold Cotton and Medicinal Herbs and a Town of the same Name the ancient abode of the Inca Guainacapa The Province de los Reyes has the finest Cities of the Countrey Lima and Cusco Lima is new and one of the best of all America It s great Trade as well as the Residence of the Vice-Roy and of the Arch-bishop have rendred it the Capital of Peru. Callao a Sea-port Town two Leagues from Lima is capable of receiving and securing several Ships Cusco built four hundred years before the Spaniards took it is very Populous because the Kings kept commonly their Court there and oblig'd the Caciques or Lords of the Countrey to build each a House there and make it the place of their Childrens Residence There is in the Province de los Charcas the Cities de la Plata and Petosi this last one of the best inhabited in all the West Indies It has all the Conveniencies and Delights of Life and for that reason several persons go to dwell there The Silver Mines of its Mountain are really the richest in the World they are in no wise subject to the Inconveniencies of the Waters which commonly incommode other Mines The King of Spain drew thence formerly every year above a Million of Ducuts for his Fifth but since they are much diminished The Spaniards are not sparing of proclaiming from time to time the discovery of other Mines in their Provinces of America Chili CHili derives its Name from that of one of its Valleys or from the Cold which people suffer in its Mountains that environ it towards the North and East The difficulty of passing through these Mountains obliges the Spaniards of Peru when they go thither to take their way by Sea They have had it in possession since the year 1554. Some parts of this Countrey are so fruitful and pleasant chiefly to'wards the Sea-Coasts that there are none of all America that better resemble those of Europe which we esteem the finest They have Ostridges Copper and the purest Gold in the World there are so many Mines of that precious Metal that Chili is compared to a golden Sheet which has made the King of Spain resolve to keep it tho' what he holds there costs him more to defend than the rest he has in America The Cold is excessive Almagre lost more Men and Horses by the Cold than by the Sword At the four Months end after he had invaded this Countrey they found some of his Troopers dead in the same posture and as fresh as if they had but just mounted on Horse-back The Rivers only run in the day time and remain frozen during the night This does not hinder but there are a number of Vulcano's or Mountains belching forth fire The Spaniards have a Governour who depends on the Vice-Roy of Peru. The Arauques made such a Resistance against them that in the year 1641 they were constrain'd to make Peace with them There is not in all America a more Warlike and Valiant People than these Arauques they know how to make Swords Muskets and Cuirasses they have the dexterity to draw up in Battel to Attack fight in a Retreat to Encamp advantagiously to build Forts and they put in practice most of the stratagems of War which they have learnt in having seen them but once used They have often surpriz'd and ruin'd Cities massacred Garrisons they have also demolished the Fortresses of Arauco Turen Tucapel An Arauque makes no difficulty to attack a Spaniard San Jago the Conception and the Imperial are the principal Cities of Chili San Jago has its Sea-Port called Valparaiso the Conception is the abode of the Governour by reason of the Neighbourhood of the Arauques La Mocha at five Leagues distance from the Terra firma is a small Isle where the Ships go often to take in fresh Water and where several Inhabitants of Chili have taken refuge to exempt themselves from the rigour of the Spanish Yoke Magellanica MAgellanica is at the point of Southern America near the Streights of Magellan 'T is sometimes called Chica and the Country of the Patagons 'T is is a Land very poor and subject to cold by reason of its high Mountains whereon Snow is almost ever lying The Natives dwell in Dens where they adore the Devil for fear he should do them some mischief The English Spaniards and Hollanders have given very different Names to the places to which they have resorted The Spaniards in the time of their King Philip the Second built Ciudad del Rey Filippe and some other Fortresses at the Eastern entrance of the Streight of Magellan with design to hinder their Enemies from passing into the South-Sea But the Channel was found too large for the compassing such an Enterprize and the want of Victuals caus'd that Colony to perish there So that Ciudad was called Puerto del fame The Haven of St. Julian where Magellan wintered and punished his Mutineers and the wish'd-for Haven are upon the Eastern Coast Here is Sweet Water wherewith most Ships have provided themselves as those of Magellan Drake Candish Olivier de Nort le Maire Schouten and others that have touch'd there The Spanish Relations affirm there are Men called Patagons ten foot high that will thrust Arrows of two foot and a half long down to the bottom of their stomach and drew 'em out again without receiving any harm that eat at one Meal a great Basket full of Bisket and drink as much Wine as a Horse can drink Water that one alone can carry a Tun of Wine that three or four of 'em can launch a Ship into the Sea that they run as swift as Staggs and lastly that fifty Spaniards can hardly bind one of these Patà gons The English who have since landed in Magellanica
relate things quite contrary to what is before specified and say that the Inhabitants there are not bigger than the Europeans Tucuman TVcuman is a temperate Countrey interlaced with several Rivers which after having watered the Plains fall into the great River de la Plata Its Inhabitants are docible and ingenious being more given to Peace than War the Spanish Captain who subdued them stood in no need of very considerable Troops for that purpose They obey Caciques their Lords their Riches consist in Cattle The Spaniards have there a Governour and their principal Town is San-Jago d' El-Estero Cordoua is the next best Town of Tucuman Chaco and Trapalanda are two of its principal Countreys It s People Quirandies towards the Southern part have much of the Scythian humour they have their moveable Habitations and have always made a great resistance against the Spaniard La Plata THe Name of La Plata was given by the Spaniards to this Countrey and a great River which waters it in consideration of the Silver they received there and of the Mines they found This Countrey is pleasant and fertilâ— It has a good Corn-Soil Vineyards fruitful Trees and Cattle in abundance It has a Rock which by Antithesis is called Poor Several Europeans have had a passionate desire to settle themselves here in hopes of finding great Treasures The King of Spain is acknowledg'd in most of the places of De la Plata Wherefore in the year 1680 the Colonies of the Countrey sent Men to hinder the settlement of the Portuguese in the Isles S. Gabriel near Buenosaires The Spanish Governour has his Residence in the City of the Assumption wherein there is a Garrison The true Paraguay is towards the beginning of the great River of the same Name which in our Tongue signifies the River of Feathers Parana is along the River which has Cataracts or falls of Water near two hundred Yards high Buenos-aires is one of the best Spanish Colonies by reason of the Commerce it drives in Brasile from whence it receives the Merchandizes of Europe which has invited the Spaniards of Potosi to go often thither to furnish themselves with Necessaries in exchange for their Ingots of Silver notwithstanding the rigorous Prohibitions of their King whose Rights are lost by these means A Proposal was made to his Catholick Majesty to have his Silver of Peru brought this way which is much nearer and shorter than that of Panama But he thought not fitting to consent to it for fear his Subjects should communicate their Commerce of Silver with the Portuguese of Brasile The Inhabitants have great Trees which they call Zaines whereof they make Boats all of a piece They shew the right wayes to several places by the felling of Trees and as those Trees are some green others either black yellow or red the Forests are agreeably diversifyed by them The Orechons are there remarkable for the bigness of their Ears According to the Relations of the Year 1627 there are in La Plata People more Civiliz'd and more succeptible of our Arts and Religion than in the other parts of America they say that according to a Tradition left their Fore-Fathers by St. Thomas whom they call St. Sume Priests should come into their Countrey with the Cross to instruct them and teach them their salvation Brasile BRasile has its Name common with a sort of Wood which it furnishes in abundance It was called the Country of the Holy Cross when discovered in the Year 1501 in the Name of the King of Portugal It extends along the North Sea towards the North. It has great Rocks under Water whose Mouths make several good Harbours Its Bounds towards the West are unknown those it has towards the South are placed diversly according to the will of the Castilians and Portuguez who explain their own way the Regulation of the Year 1493 Each pretending the Possession of the River La Plata with that of the Molucco Islands and causing Geographical Cards to be made for that purpose to their own advantage By the Regulation above mentioned Alexander the 6th whom Sixtus the 5th Lists in the Rank of the three greatest Popes of the Church invested Ferdinand King of Arragon and Isabella Queen of Castile his Wife in all the Lands which they should cause to be Discovered on the West of a Line which was imaginarily to be drawn from one Pole to the other a hundred Leagues beyond the Islands Azores What was to Discover on the East of that Line was to belong to the King of Portugal Now the difficulty was in the Execution the Castilians would reckon those hundred Leagues from the most Western of the Azores the Portuguese from the most Eastern with design of making pass for what they abandoned within the Desarts of America the rich Possession of the Molucco's which since was pawned to their King by the Emperour Charles V. for Three hundred and fifty thousand Ducats In short these two Nations not agreeing in this affair no more than in several others the Portuguez reckon'd as Brasile all that extends from the River Maranon unto that of La Plata and the Spaniards plac'd the Southern Bounds of it at the Capitania of St. Vincent In the Year 1680. the Portuguezes have shown by their Descent into the Islands of St. Gabriel that they mean not to abate the least of their Pretensions Tho' Brasile be under the Torrid Zone its Air is temperate its Waters the best in the World Its Inhabitants live often a hundred and fifty years and more Besides the Woods of Brasile there is Amber Balm Tobacco Whale-Oyl Cattel Confitures Sugar in abundance the Engines with which they prepare it being of great value There are such Animals Trees Fruits and Roots as are not seen in other parts The Serpents Adders Water-Snakes and Toads have no Venome and serve for Food for the Inhabitants The Fields are destined to Sugars the Mountains for Woods and the Valleys for Tobacco for Fruits and for Mandioche which is a kind of Root which the Inhabitants make their Bread of In this Region is an Herb called Viva which if toucht will shut up as a Dazy in the night and will not open till the Party that injured it be out of fight Most of the Towns are not of above a hundred or an hundred and twenty Houses The Coast of Brasile is divided into fourteen Praefectures or Lordships which are called Capitania's and belong at present all to the Portuguese In the Year 1654 the Hollanders lost all they had Conquered in these parts the War they had then with England not suffering them to send succours thither and the Portuguese Colonies were there much better established than theirs In the Year 1662 the Portuguese entred into Treaty with them to give them satisfaction that they might not have them their Enemies at the same time they were to defend themselves against the Spaniards Amongst the Capitanias Tamuraca is the most ancient tho' the smallest
Fernambuca is esteemed a Terrestrial Paradice by reason of the Beauty of its Territory Bahia de todos os Santos to the City of San-Salvador at present an Archbishops See and the Residence of the Governour It was taken in the Year 1624 by the Hollanders who got such a Booty there that each Souldier had for his share above fifteen thousand Crowns This good fortune occasion'd their Retreat and their Retreat gave occasion to the Spaniards and Portugueses to retake it The Capitania of Rio-Janeiro which the Savages call Ganabara has a great resort of Ships by means of a Navigable River or rather of an Arm of the Sea which advances full twelve Leagues within the Land and is seven or eight in Breadth In the Year 1658 a Mine of Silver was found in the Capitania The City of Santos can receive Ships of two hundred Tun by means of its River As concerning the inward part of Brasile it is not much known but what is known take as followeth The Inhabitants there go naked for the most part and have the dexterity of passing great Rivers by the help of a Panyer and a Rope Three Letters of our Alphabet are of no use amongst them F L R Some say it s because they have neither Faith nor Law nor Ruler The Principal nations amongst them are the Toupinambous the Morguices the Tapuyes and others who differ in Manners and in Language and commonly are distinguish'd by divers Head-Gears and Forms of Hair they wear Their number was much greater before the coming of the Portuguese among 'em several Toupinambous to preserve their freedom have traversed great Desarts and are gone to dwell near the River Maranhaon The Tapuyes are more hard to be Civiliz'd than the Brasilians who inhabit Aldea's These Aldea's are Villages which have but five or six Houses but very long and each capable of containing five or six hundred Persons Most of the Inhabitants of Brasile have made a brave Defence notwithstanding the Wars they make among themselves they have hindred the Europeans from making any progress in the Inlands of their Countrey and have often ruined the Towns and Sugar-Engines which the Christians had made along the Coast Africa THat which the Romans call'd Africa was known among the Greeks under the Name of Libya Thus these two Nations styled the Provinces that were opposite to them towards the South on the other side of the Mediterranean Sea and these Names were afterwards communicated to the rest of Africa The Writers of Holy Matters call it the Country of Cham because that in the Division made by the Children of Noah it fell to Cham's share Africa is a great Peninsula which represents in some manner the Figure either of a Heart Pyramid or Triangle Those who compare it to a Bow say that the Cape of Sierra-Leona and that of Good Hope are the two ends of it that the Isle of St. Thomas in the Ethiopick Sea is the Middle of the string where they put the Arrow whose Heel they place at the Isthmus of Sues in Egypt This part of the World advances thirty five Degrees beyond the Equator and as many on this side the same Line and yet the Inhabitants of the Southern parts are much blacker and less Politick than those of the Northern It s length is from West to the East from Cape Verd to that of Guardafuy which are above two thousand Leagues distant from one another Eighteen hundred are reckon'd from Cape Boa towards the midst of the Coast of Barbary as far as the Cape of Good Hope The Portuguese were the first who discovered the African Coasts upon the Ocean Some say it was first sail'd round under the Ptolemeys others that Solomon sent Fleets to Ophir which having been fitted out in the Red Sea return'd to Joppa in the Holy Land by the Mediterranean Sea Three famous Seas serve for its Bounds as the main Ocean the Mediterranean and the Red Sea The Ocean communicates it self to the Mediterranean Sea by the Streights of Gibraltar and to the Red Sea by that of Babel-Mandel Several Opinions walk about touching the rise of the Name of the Red Sea the Vulgar believe this Sea to be so call'd by reason of its red sand some assert that the reflection of the Mountains which seem reddish burnt and glowing communicates that Colour to it Others attribute it to the Rain-Waters and to those of a Fountain which run into that Sea from the Coasts of Arabia Probably this Name of Red and that of Rubrum which the Latins have given the Gulph of Arabia came from that of Erithrean which is Greek and was peeuliar to that Gulph which was known to us sooner than the other parts of the Erithrean Sea The Red Sea is very long and narrow full of Rocks and divided into three Channels according to its length The middle one called the Long Sea is from twenty five to fifty Fathoms deep Navigable by night and day the two others along the Shoars are so full of Rocks small Islands and Woods that they are only to be sail'd in the day time nor that neither without having Pilots which are taken at Babel-Mandel or Zeilan This Sea receives no considerable Rivers There is green and red Corral and they fish and take some Pearls near the Island Dalaca The ebbing and flowing is so great that some Naturalists have affirmed that the Children of Israel past it dry-foot during the Ebb and that the Egyptians having not well nicked their time were overtaken and lost by the return of the Tide But the Holy Scripture tells us that the Sea divided it self for the facilitating the passage to the Israelites and the Arabians still show the place of their passage between Azirut and El-Tor The greatest Rivers of Africa are the Nile and the Niger The Nile according to the newest Relations has its Sourse in Abyssinia at twelve Degrees of Northern Latitude and runs a Course of full five hundred Leagues after having pass'd thro' the Lake Bar-Dambea Its Cataracts or Water-falls are towards its Source and in the Confines of Aethiopia and Egypt its Mouths make their influx into the Mediterranean Sea out of Egypt where the Ancients have left seven and the Neotericks four Tho' indeed there are but two of them now unless there 's an Inundation Its Waters enrich and fatten the Land and nourish Egypt by their regular Overflowing It s ufual height and encrease is to sixteen Cubits more or less proves inconvenient It is to be perceived by the retreat of the Cattel by the marks which are in the Pits and by the heaviness of the Rivers Mud which they expose in the night out o' doors to receive moisture or Dew which precedes and foreshews this Overflowing The cause of it has been diversly alledged some have said this River communicates its self with the Ocean by the Lake and River of Zaire and that the storms of the Sea cause its Waters to swell Others affirm that the sand
which gathers towards its Mouths stops them and that the Northerly Winds drove them up Several Moderns believe that these Waters encrease from the thawed Snow and from the Rains which fall regularly and abundantly in Ethiopia It has lately been found out that the Nitre wherewith the Nile abounds so much is the cause of all these wonderful effects and that being heated by the Sun it mingles it self with the Water renders it troubled swells it and makes it pass over its Banks insomuch that the Mud which the Nile conveyes does not come from elsewhere nor does it make its Banks the higher The Niger keeps its ancient Name which it received from the people whose Countrey it Waters It sometimes goes under the Earth and before it empties it self into the Atlantick Sea it forms three principal Branches the Senega Gambia and Rio Grande It fertilizes all the places it passes through and an abundance of Grains of Gold are found in its Sand. The Zaire is considerable for the rapidity and plenty of its Waters the Zambre forms three Branches Cuama Spiritu-Santo and Rio-de los Infantes The Ghir often loses it self in the Sand and almost as often gets out thence again The three greatest Lakes are Zaire Zembre and Zaflan all three in Ethiopia Amongst the Mountains of Africa none are more renown'd than Atlas and those of the Moon The Poets have feign'd that Heaven was supported by Atlas by reason of its excessive height or else upon the account of a King of Mauritania called Atlas who was one of the first that studied Astrology Antiquity thought this Mountain to be the boundary of the World In respect of its scituation the Romans have divided all Africa into Citerior and Vlterior and those of the Countrey divide it into Interior and Exterior Strabo and Mela separate Africa from Asia by the Nile some Arabian Geographers shut it up between the Mediterranean the Ocean and the Rivers Zaire and Nile In matter of division it seems more proper to follow the Seas than Rivers The Isthmus of Sues which hinders Africa from being an Isle is of about nine Leagues between the Red Sea and the nearest Channel of the Nile for from one Sea to the other there is above twenty five Leagues or three days journey by Camels They say that one of the Ptolemeyes Queen Cleopatra some Sultans and other Soveraign Princes of Egypt have endeavour'd to no purpose to pierce or cut the Neck of this Isthmus and that they have been discouraged from their undertaking by the vastness of the Work and by the damage the Waters of the Red Sea might do being found higher than those of the Mediterranean and so might have corrupted by their bitterness that of the Nile the only Water that 's drunk in Egypt Ptolomey intended a Memorable Work in making Africa an Island Cleopatra's design was to make her Ships pass into the Red Sea that she might have escap'd falling into Augustus's hands The Sultan's meant to facilitate the Commerce of the Europeans through their Dominions towards the constant Levy of a vast Tribute The Africans exact great Services from their Elephants their Camels and their huge Apes Dromedaries they call a sort of Camels smaller and swifter than the others they have wild Asses Unicorns Barbes Cameleons Marmousets and Parrots They get fine Feathers from their Ostriches and their Civit Cats are much esteem'd for their scents There is no living-Creature in the World that becomes so great from so small a beginning as does the Crocodile it is form'd of an Egg and still grows as long as it lives insomuch that there are those that attain to twenty five or thirty Cubits The scituation of Africa under the Torrid Zone and the abundance of its burning Sand occasions insupportable heats principally towards the Tropicks and make it the least fertile and worst peopled part of our Continent It s greatest Rivers have Crocodiles Its Mountains and Desarts are full of Lions and other wild Beasts The lack and scarcity of Water produces several Monsters Creatures of several kinds coupling commonly at the Watering-places where they meet The Anthropophagi or Man-eaters that have been found in those parts and the Slaves that are daily transported from thence do also very much contribute to the rendring it desart The Africans to consider them in general are no great Soldiers and their Armies are more numerous than good Their Combats are perform'd on Horse-back with the Lance and confusedly The Arabians who have taken up their Habitations in Africk trust in their dexterity and Address their being harden'd and enur'd to labour and their long habit of fighting renders 'em formidable to their Neighbours Some say there 's no Nation but has some good and evil but that the Africans have nothing that 's good As concerning Religion there are Idolaters Cafres without Law Mahometans Jews and Christians of several sorts The Portuguese have some Bishopricks in those places where they have made any Establishments We may consider Africa under a treble respect the Countrey of the Whites that of the Blacks and Ethiopians the Islands make a fourth The Countrey of the Whites comprehends Barbary Egypt Biledulgerid and the Zaara or Desart The Countrey of the Blacks has three parts Nigritia Nubia and Guiney Ethiopia is of two sorts Higher and Lower Ethiopia Superior is much of Abyssinia in the inward part of the Countrey Ethiopia Inferior contains Congo Cafreria with Monomotapa and Zanguebar The Islands attributed to Africk are either in the Ocean as the Tercera's Madera the Canaries the Isles of Cap-verd Madagascar and others or in the Mediterranean Sea as Maltha We are not acquainted with those of the Red Sea The Island Gueguere is within the Arms of the Nile Egypt and almost all Barbary belongs to the Turk with exception to the Kingdoms of Morocco and Fez which have a Prince of their own and to the Cities of the Corsairs and some Towns of the Christians upon the Coast Abissinia Nubia Congo and Mono-motapa have their peculiar Kings There are Arabian Cheiques in Numidia and in Libya The rest of Africa belongs to several little petty Soveraigns some of whose Dominions extend no farther than the compass of one Town or Burrough But to speak the truth we have but little knowledge of the inward part of the Countrey The Monarchs of England Spain and Portugal and the States-General of the Vnited Provinces have some Places upon the Coast which furnish 'em with the means of carrying on the Commerce with the inland parts of the Countrey The French have some places of Traffick in Barbary in Guiney and in the Isle of Madagascar which they have called the Isle Dauphine The Great Master of the Order of St. John of Jerusalem is Prince of the Isle of Maltha Barbary THe Ancients knew in Africa under the Name of Barbary what we call Zanguebar whereas the Modern Barbary is all along the Mediterranean-Sea where it comprehends the best Countrey of all Africk
City of all Nigritia Ardre towards the Coast has its King from whom there was an Ambassadour to the French King at Paris towards the latter end of the Year 1670 for the establishment of Traffick in its Dominions The Coast of Maleguetta is so call'd from a kind of Pepper which it produces and which is said to be better than that of the Indies Apes do them great service in Guinca Those that are called Barris fetch Water turn the Spit and serve too at Table Abissinia or Aethiopia THis Countrey is otherwise call'd Abech Abassia Abassinia the Empire of the Negus the Kingdom of Prester John the Middle-Indies the Southern-Indies the High or Great Aethiopia Those of the Countrey give their King the Name of Belulgian by reason of the Ring which the Queen of Sheba received from Salomon and which since that time has been Hereditary in that Royal Family Those who call him Prester-John do it upon this foundation that he sometimes carries a Cross in his hand The Popish Missionaries boast that some of the late Kings have been Catholicks But since the Jesuits who had been powerfully establisht in that Countrey have been Banish'd thence the Papists complain of the Persecution their followers have suffered in those parts The Abissins have a great number of Churches where Divine Service is performed much after the same manner it is here This Land is temperate unless in the Valleys where it is very hot and upon some Mountains where it is cold The Aethiopians are the most ancient People in the World and boast of having never been driven from their Countrey They are dexterous active blith and perform better than other people in great Employments The Mahometans are used to Spirit away the Abissin Children and go sell them to Indian Princes They are so-so Souldiers for Africans but they have not the Art of Building nor of Grinding their Corn and they often eat Cows flesh all raw with Salt and Pepper which they look upon as a peculiar Delicacy They have Civet-Cats and make use of Cloth Stones Salt and little pieces of Iron instead of money for which purpose they also use Gold which they give by weight They do not work in their Mines of Gold and Silver of Narea which has given occasion to say of their Prince That he might with his Treasures purchase whole Worlds The King of Abissinia to whom is also given the title of Emperour is Absolute in all the Territories of his Dominions And this it is that makes his principal Revenue He commonly keeps his Court in the open Field sometimes in one place sometimes an other He has few Cities but a great number of Villages Several places upon the Frontier of the Galles have been fortified for the security of the Inhabitants against the incursions of those people the capital Enemies of the Abissins The Turks hold the City of Suaquem upon the Red Sea whither the Vice-Roy of Barnagasse has commonly sent a Tribute of a thousand Ounces of Gold There are several Relations of Aethiopia and for the most part fabulous But the Jesuits pretend that the late ones they have published to be the most certain According to the Account of an Abissin Ambassadour sent to the Grand Seignior in the Year 1657 Gonthar was the abode of the Emperour Four Kings were tributary to him The King of Sennar which is a hot Country paid him his Tribute in Horses the King of Narea paid it him in Gold The Kings of Bugia and Doncala payed it him in Linnen and Cloth These Dominions are not of so great an extent nor of the same scituation they have hitherto been shown us The Galles on one side have subdued several great Provinces in the Southern part and the Moores have rendred themselves Masters of several places all along upon the Red Sea upon the Coast of Abex According to the late Relations the Sources of the Nile are placed in the Province of the Agaux at twelve Degrees of Northern Latitude which shows in the Cart the difference of above thirty of those Degrees That famous River goes first of all towards the North and then towards the East across the Lake of Bardambea from thence towards the South and towards the West so to return to take its Course pretty near its Sources towards the North and to continue it thro' Aegypt Twenty four small Kingdoms have been commonly accounted in Abissinia that of Amara has a Fortress upon a Mountain called Amba Guexem where formerly were kept the Princes of the Royal Blood Goyama is almost environed with the Nile Which has given some occasion to say that it is the Island Meroe There is in that of Tigermahon the City of Caxumo or Aceum which is said to have been the Residence of the Queen of Sheba several of the Abissin Kings have held their Coronation in that Town Dambea has the famous Lake Bar-Dambea and 's not very far off the City of Gorgora one of the last Residences of the Kings The Coast of Abex upon the Red Sea is full of Woods The tongue of the ancient Troglodites who inhabited it had this peculiarity that it resembled whistling Some have endeavoured to persuade the World that the King of the Abissins might very much incommode the Grand Seignior if he diverted the Waters of the Nile into the Red Sea and so render Aegypt dry This proposition has rendred them ridiculous because there are Mountains that must of necessity be cut through for the bringing this about and that these Mountains which have the Sources of several great Rivers make Aethiopia one of the highest Countreys of all Africa Albuquerque Vice-Roy of the East-Indies for the King of Portugal seems to have had the same design but he did not pursue the putting it into execution He it was who would have caused the Body of Mahomet to be stollen away and have pillaged Mocha with three hundred Horse which he had sent from Ormus upon Ships made on purpose for this Design Congo COngo is a temperate Countrey the Rains and Winds moderating the Heat which is insupportable in the adjacent parts Africa has no Regions that abound more in Rivers The Zaire which is the principal one of this Countrey is considerable for its rapidity and for the abundance of its Waters The Congolans know not how to make use of the Commodities of their Land and though they have Mines of Gold they have none but shells for Money Several amongst them have been converted to Christianity after the example of some of their Kings The Portugueses bring from thence Ivory and Slaves They have their establishment in the Royal City called San-Salvador and in that of St. Paul in the small Island of Loanda where they get fresh Water out of the holes they make in the sand They keep a Garrison in the Forts of Massagan and Cambambo in the Kingdom of Angola for the security of their Silver-Mines in which they work and here it is they assemble their
Negroes appointed for Brasile The Males alone have Right of succeeding in this Kingdom and all Lands belong to the King who is called Mani The Inhabitants have Horses of Wood the use of which is mighty pleasant They lay a piece of an Oxes Hide of the bigness of a Saddle upon a Post near twelve inches thick and he who travels is seated thereon with his leggs on each side all this is carried by two strong men who find others in the way to relieve them Learning is amongst them in so little estimation that when Emanuel King of Portugal had sent to their King all the excellent Books of Law that he could meet with with a considerable number of Civilians This Prince sent the Doctors back and caused the Books to be burnt saying They would but puzzle the Brains of his Subjects who stood in need of nothing but honest reasonable old fashion'd Thinking and common Sense That nevertheless he should be no less a friend of the King of Portugal They still reckon under the notion of Congo the Kingdoms of Angola Cacongo and Malemba The Ansicain people who have the Qualities of the Basques in France And lastly the Bramas and Loanghi Those Kingdoms and People no longer acknowledge the Soveraignty of the King of Congo as they did formerly The King of Angola calls himself the Soba His Subjects love Doggs flesh to that degree that they bring up whole Herds or Packs of them and one Dogg alone well sed is sometimes sold amongst them for above two hundred Crowns They have nothing recommendable but their Dexterity in shooting with the Bow They will let fly a dozen Arrows before the first be fallen upon the ground They say the Sun is a Man the Moon a Woman and the Stars the Children of that Man and that Woman Cafreria and Mono-Motapa THe Land of Cafreria is the most Southern of all Africk nay of all our Continent reaching along the Aethiopick-Sea with an extent of Coasts for about twelve hundred Leagues part in the Torrid and part in the temperate Southern Zone 'T is full of Mountains subject to great Colds and under several petty Kings who for the most part pay tribute to the Emperour of Mono-Motapa The King of Sofala pays it to the King of Portugal who has a Garrison in the Castle of Sofala and who by the means of this Garrison draws abundance of Gold from the Mines which are in the inland Countrey This Gold is accounted as good as any in the World they gather it likewise in the Rivers with Nets after there has been Rain Solomon might possibly have had his come from hence which he employed in the building of the Temple The Coast of Cafreria is low and full of Woods the Soyl produces Flowers of an grateful smell and the Trees make a curious prospect Three great Rivers discharge ' emselves into the Indian Seas through Cafreria all three known in the beginning under the name of Zambera Cuama Spirito Santo les Infantes The Cafres live without Law so as their Name speaks them They often furnish the Seamen who come thither with their Cattel But the Mariners now cause the Oxen they buy to betied to great Posts and shut up the Sheep before they pay 'em because the Cafres after having sold 'em were used to make 'em return home with the Call of a Whistle which is wholly peculiar to ' em We may say of 'em in seeing their colour that they resemble our Chimney-sweepers Besides that they have big Heads flat Noses whether they take care to break them in their infancy or that this happens because when they are little their Mothers carry them continually upon the Back Be it how it will they look upon it as one of the Beauties of the Countrey to have them in that manner They have frizl'd Hair Lips extraordinary big the Chine of the Back sticking out sharp and very large Hips insomuch that nothing can be seen more terrible So that we are not to wonder if Pirard calls 'em those Devils of Cafres The Cape of Good Hope which lies toward the most Southern part of this Countrey is by much the longest the most famous and the most dangerous Cape in the World 'T was called so in hopes of arriving suddenly at the East-Indies when it was veered in the year 1498. Before it had the Name of the Tempestuous Cape from the storms that are frequent thereabouts Some have call'd it the Lyon of the Sea others the Head of Africa There are Signs by which the Sailers know when they are near it fifty or sixty Leagues off they find the Bodies of great Reeds called Trombes floating on the Sea and they see flying a number of white Birds mark'd with black spots They who return from the East-Indies see Troops of Sea Wolves made like Bears and then they are continually sounding This Cape serves for bounds to the East and West-India-Companies As they go to the East-Indies and return from thence they must of necessity come in ken of it The Land enjovs a temperate Air several Valleys have Herbs and Flowers in abundance There are Rivers full of Fish and Woods full of Deer and Cattel The Inhabitants who make their Garments of Beasts-skins are very good at running but very villanous in their Diet and when they speak you 'd think you heard Turkey-Cocks Mono-Motapa which is entirely in the Terra firma is almost environ'd with Cafreria It goes under the Name of its King whereas Kings commonly go under the Names of the Countreys that are subject to ' em It is fertile abounding in Ivory and so rich in Gold that the King of it is called the Golden Emperour The Inhabitants who are very superstitious have Pikes Bows and Arrows for their Arms several of 'em are so swift o' foot that they equal Horses in running The Common People only wear Garments below their middle A Relation that was publish'd in the year 1631 tells us That the King then reigning was baptiz'd with all his Court by the Jesuits This Prince is commonly adorn'd with Chains and Jewels like a Bride He is said to have for his usual Guard a Regiment of Women and another of Doggs and that in the Armies those Women do not less service than the Men. The Princes who pay him Tribute receive every Year firing from him for a Mark of the Fealty they owe him the City which is the most considerable has the same Name with the Kingdom Zimbaoe is a square Fortress and the abode of the Court Mono-Emugi is a State on the North of Mono-Motapa The Giaques otherwise called Galles and Chava border upon it and are illustrious for their Valour and for their Conquests which they have made in our time over Abissinia in the upper Aethiopia Zanguebar ZAnguebar of Barbary is a great Coast in the Oriental part of Africa along the Indian-Sea on each side the Equinoctial 'T is a low fenny woody Countrey which by the extremity of the
moisture causes the Air to be unhealthy and intemperate The Inhabitants are Idolaters and are swayed by several Soveraigns they addict ' emfelves to trade as well as the Arabians and Mahometans who are among ' em What is towards the South bears principally the Name of Zanguebar wherein are the little Kingdoms of Mozambique Quiloa Mombaze and Melinde What is towards the North is called Ayen and sometimes New Arabia It comprehends the Territories of Brava Magadoxo Adea and Adel. There is in Mozambique the best Government and the best Town which the Portugals have in those parts They have there a strong Castle in the Island of the same Name which is half a League in length This is the place where their Ships wait for a fair Wind and Weather in their East-India Voyages The Inhabitants wou'd be much more numerous if the Air was not so distemperate Quiloa is in a Peninsula It s King was the first amongst those of Zanguebar who became a tributary of the Portuguese There are very delicate Hens in and about Quiloa tho' their Feathers their Flesh their Blood and their Bones be black Mombaze is in an Island upon a Rock The Portuguese go often thither to winter in the later season because that Victuals are cheap and in great plenty in this Countrey the entrance of the Haven is so narrow and so full of Rocks that in several places there is only passage for a Ship Melinde does often give its Name to all the Coast Where are found several Parks of above a League round enclos'd with Elephants Teeth Brava is a small Republick with a City built after the manner of those of the Moors The King and Inhabitants of Magadoxo are Mahometans Adea has a good Harbour called Barraboa Adel wherein is the City of Arat it obeys a King who is a great Enemy of the Christians Barbora and Zela drive a great Trade by reason of the conveniency of their Havens towards the entrance of the Red Sea The Tercera Islands THese Islands were thus named from that which is particularly called Tercera The great number of Autours or Goss-hawks that are seen there has made them go under the name of Azores They have that of the Flemming Islands because they were discovered by a Flemming They are called High as more Northerly in respect of the Canaries The Portuguese who are Masters of 'em export from thence Corn Wine Garden-Woad Skins and other Commodities There are seven that are the principal without reckoning those of Coreo and of Flores where several have placed the First Meridian Angra the capital City and the abode of a Bishop is in Tercera The other Islands are Gratiosa St. George Fayal Pico St. Michael and Santa-Maria The Canary Islands THe first discovery of these Islands was made by one Bethen-Court a French Gentleman who had the title of King of the Canaries and facilitated the Conquest of 'em to the Spaniards whom they now obey The Name of Canary came from the Doggs which those Islands had formerly and not from the Canes of Sugar which were not planted there till after they had this Name The common opinion is that they are the Fortunate Islands of the Ancients They furnish excellent Wines Sugar abundantly and small Birds that are called Canary-Birds They are reckon'd seven in number They are all exempt from venomous Animals and nevertheless subject to excessive heats The principal Canary has a City and Bishoprick of the same Name The Isle of Fierro is known for its Tree which distils Water to its Inhabitants and by the Position that in France is made there of the first Meridian The Island of Teneriffe is the greatest of all these Islands it has the Mountain of Pico always covered with Snows Seamen esteem it the highest and the streightest in the World and indeed it requires three days time to mount to the top of it 'T is seen fifty Leagues off It 's us'd as a Pharos by those who are at Sea and some place there the first Meridian It is said to yield every Year above twenty thousand Tuns of the most excellent Wines that the Earth produces The other Canary Islands are la Gomera Palma Fortaventura and Lancelotta These Islands serve often for Rendezouz to the Spanish Fleets which come from the West-Indies and which there receive order to what place of the Kingdom of Spain they must go and dis-embark their Riches At la Palma our Ships touch to refresh themselves in their Voyage towards America The makers of Romances have taken occasion to sham us with many things upon occasion of the Canaries The Islands of Cap-Verd THe Islands which are in parallel with Cap-Verd are in number ten and go under the Name of that Cape which is in the most Western part of Africk The Ancients called them Hesperides and Gorgades Poetry has plac'd those fine Gardens therein which it feigned to be kept by a Dragon Christopher Columbus says they are ill named because that in his third Voyage he found they were dry and barren They belong for the most part to the Portugueses who transport from thence Salt and Goats-skins Salt is made naturally there in Ditches along the Sea There is so great abundance of it principally in the Isle of May that the Flemmings call all these Islands the Isles of Salt The chief one is that of St. James with a small Town of the same Name the others are St. Anthony St. Vincent St. Lucy's St. Nicholas Insula Salis Buen avista del Fogo and de Brave there are some of these who have no Inhabitants unless some Goatherds The Ocean which is near it bears the Name of the Green Sea by reason of the great abundance of an Herb that is found there of a Green and Yellowish Colour which makes it resemble a Meadow in the double Latin sense of Aequor The Isle of Madagascar THe Isle Madagascar in the Eastern which we call the Indian Sea is the greatest of the Islands that are attributed to Africa It is distant from it a hundred or a hundred and twenty Leagues and there is hardly an Island in the World of so vast an extent 'T is in length above a thousand English Miles and near three hundred in breadth The Natives of the Countrey call it Madecase the Portuguese St. Lawrence and the French the Isle Dauphine The Ancients call'd it Menuthias and the Kernel of Aethiopia According to our Relations the Air is temperate the Soil proper for all manner of Grains and Trees Rice Skins Wax Gums Cristals Steels Copper Ebony and Woods of several sorts are transported from thence The Inhabitants consist both of Whites and Blacks who are almost all Idolaters there being very few Mahometans among ' em The Portugals English and Hollanders have sometimes touch'd there the Portugals in the Ance of Galion the English in the Bay of St. Augustin and the Hollanders in that of Antongil The French since they have built the Fort Dauphin have made pretty
Babilon have been so great that it alone contributed more to King Cirus than did the third part of his Dominions After Babilon Seleucia has been considerable in Assiria Ctesiphon Vologe-socerta and lastly Bagdad which is in the place of Ctesiphon Bagdad which some call Baldac and which is vulgarly called Babilon is not only resorted to by Merchants of several Nations but also by Mahometans who go thither from all parts of Asia to visit in its neighbourhood the Sepulchres of Omar Ali and other Disciples of Mahomet It was for a long while the Residence of the Caliphs one of whom named Vlit has had the glory of being Master of the greatest Monarchy that has ever been in the World It extended from the most Western parts of Barbary to the Indus 'T is observ'd of another Caliph of this same City that he left at his death eight Sons eight Daughters eight Millions of Gold eight thousand Slaves and his Dominions augmented by eight Kingdoms In the Year 1638 when the Grand Seignior Amurath the Fourth recover'd this strong and important City of Bagdad from the Persians he caus'd three Men of each Company of his Army to be cast into the Ditch and upon them a number of Faggots and Sacks of Wool for the making the Assault with the more facility Kufa is a Town which the Inhabitants have in peculiar veneration by reason of the Sepulcher of Ali. They keep there a Horse always ready to mount him whom they say is to come and convert the whole World to their Law Bassora is a Town near the mouth of the Tigris called Chat by those of the Countrey 'T is spacious and pleasant by reason of its Palm-Trees By the means of its Harbour it furnishes the Indies and Persia with Dates which serve for Bread and Wine to those who know how to prepare them It s great Commerce of Horses makes it often called by the Name of Mer-El-Catif They were used to Voyage upon this Sea or Gulph along the shoar and with the lead in hand The Barks that are made use of there are sewed with little Cords of Coco insomuch that not any Nails are to be perceived in ' em Some few years ago Bassora belong'd to Ali Bashaw who called himself King of it and who had this state from Father to Son and was the Dominus fac-totum paying only a small tribute to the Grand Seignior who did not press him for fear he should take the Persians side Souria is divided into Souria Phoenicia and the Holy Land Souria proper to the City of Aleppo which is reckoned for the best of all the Levant and contains above two hundred and fifty thousand Persons It is really the third of the Ottoman Empire if we consider the resort thither of the Caravans the Rendezvouz of the Turkish Armies in the Wars of Persia and all its other advantages The Jewels Spices Silks and other precious Commodities arrive here from the East by Sea and by Land They send them afterwards into Barbary by means of the Port of Alexandretta upon the Mediterranean Sea They there make use of Camels for the going to Bi r where they might have the conveniency of the Euphrates as far as the Neighbourhood of Bagdad but several Mills there hinder the Navigation It 's fine to see upon that River the Peasants going down the stream upon Goats-skins which they fill with Wind and let out again when they have made use of them Antioch which for excellency has the Denomination of Great was the abode of some Roman Emperours and the Cradle of Christianity St. Paul having established here the first Patriarchate of the Church It has had formerly a Suburb called Daphne which passed for one of the most delicious places in the World Damas the Metropolis of Phoenicia sends us sweet smelling Waters Wines pleasurable Fruits Prunes Raisins Cutlasses Sword Blades and other works which keep the Name of it They say that after the Battel of Issus Alexander the Great found in Damascus two hundred thousand six hundred Talents of Coined Money This City is in so fertile and so agreeable a scituation that some have called it the Paradice of the World Sayd otherwise Sidon has a French Consul for Trade Sur or Sour from whence came the Name of Souria is the ancient Tyre renowned for its fine Scarlet for its good Mariners for its Colonies and for the Siege of seven Months which it held out against Alexander the Great before he could take it In its Neighbourhood is to be seen the Castle of Tygade the ancient obode of Old de la Montagne Prince of the Assassins who executed blindly all the Orders of their Sovereign Saint John de Aere otherwise Ptolemaida formerly the Residence of the Knights of St. John of Jerusalem is accompanied with a Sea-Haven Mount Libanus is remarkable for its height for its fertility for the ancient Cedars which have been found there since the Creation of the World It has full sixty Leagues in compass and forty Villages of the Maronites Those people who are Catholicks receive their Name from the Monastery of Saint-Maron They are in possession of four hundred Villages and can bring fifteen thousand Men in Arms. Canobin is the Residence of their Patriarch who bears the Title of that of Antioch Besides the Maronites in this Mount Libanus are Emirs or Princes and the Nations of the Druses Nassarians Kelbins who maintain there their liberty The Holy Land where the principal Mysteries of our Salvation were wrought is as it were in the midst of our Continent It was first of all named the Land of Canaan the Land of the Promise the Land of the Hebrews the Land of Israelites and afterwards Judea Palestine and finally the Holy Land by reason of the Birth and Death of the Saviour of the World and in consideration of the abode of the Prophets It s principal and first Divisions have been into eleven people who bore the Names of the Children of Canaan into fifty two Kingdoms and five Satrapies into twelve Tribes who went under the Names of the Children of Jacob. 'T is however to be observed that Manasses and Ephraim are the Names of the Children of Joseph who died before the Division and that the Tribes who had the Lands on the East of Jordan had them upon condition of engaging first in the most dangerous Actions The other Divisions of the Holy Land have been into twelve Governments under Solomon Into two Kingdoms Israel and Judah Into six Provinces after the Captivity of Babylon Into three Roman Provinces Into five Tribunals or Audiences by Gabinius And lastly Into three Ecclesiastical Provinces The Holy-Land has hardly at present any place of Remark and the Turks only preserve the Towns they have there by reason of the Money which they exact from the Pilgrims It had formerly Cities so rich so powerful and in such great numbers that no Countrey in the World was there that could be compared to 't for that
reason there having been reckoned above five hundred and seventy It s extent from the South to the North is about seventy Leagues Its breadth thirty somewhere more somewhere less according as it is bounded either by the Mountains of Arabia or by Jordan What is there call'd the Desart is so stiled in that it has not all the fertility that is found in the Countreys which are near it It s modern Division is into three Principalities Sayd Cossaria and Gaza Two Governments are under the Bashaw of Damascus Jerusalem and Naplouse Jerusalem tho' fallen from its ancient Lustre still preserves those places which Jesus Christ was pleas'd to honour with his presence It has been famous for the bigness beauty and riches of its Temple for its Kings for its High-Priests and for other particularities It was ruined by Nebuchadnezzar by Vespasian and Titus These two last saw the Death of Eleven hundred thousand Persons There are eight Nations of Christians who are rank'd in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre The Roman Catholicks the Maronites the Greeks the Armenians the Syrians or Jacobites the Copties or Aegyptians and the Georgians One of the Gates of the City called the Eye of a Needle has given occasion to the Proverb that a Camel may as soon pass through the Eye of a Needle as a Rich man enter into the Kingdom of Heaven Nazareth is the place where the Saviour of the World was conceived Bethlem that where he was born There are an infinite number of rare things to be remark'd upon these Cities of the Holy Land The misfortune is that they are hardly any longer to be known Some Islands in the Mediterranean Sea belong to the Turks whereof that of Cyprus is the greatest It has the Title of a Kingdom and formerly contained nine Nicosia is the Capital City of the Island Famagusta the Principal Sea-Port This Famagusta was the last place which the Venetians defended there against the Turks who took it at last after a Siege of seventy dayes and above a hundred and forty thousand Shot made against the Town The Grotto of the seven Sleepers is near the City of Baffo In an Abbey near Limisso they keep Cats brought up to the hunting of Serpents after which they return back thither at the ringing of a Bell. The Isle of Rhodes is famous for the ancient abode of the Knights of the same Name who were constrained to yield it to the Turk in the Year 1522 For the Colossus of the Sun which was so prodigious that few persons could embrace the thumb of it Great Ships passed easily with full Sails between its Leggs When the Sarazens caused the Copper of it to be carried into Aegypt they found it to load above nine hundred Camels The Isles of Chio and Metilin are in the Archipelago Chio one of the most fertile and most delicious in the World produces excellent Fruits Malmsy Wine and particularly Mastick It has the High and Low Town and in both are reckoned above twenty thousand Mortals They are almost all Christians Greeks and Latins and there is not a place under the Turk where the Christians have more freedom Metelin affords excellent Wines And the Nightingales are said to sing more melodiously there than elsewhere It s ancient Inhabitants have had the reputation of being very expert Mariners In the last Age the famous Barberossa who is said to have been a Native of this Island rendred himself formidable to all Christendom Patmos or Palmosa is known for the Exile and the Grotto of St. John the Evangelist The Isle of Lango under the Name of Cos has passed for the native Countrey of Hippocrates and Appelles The enviers of Hippocrates attribute all his knowledge to Medicinal Receipts which were brought into the Temple of Aesculapius Apelles observ'd proportion in his Pictures whereas Zeuxis made them greater than Nature for the giving them Majesty The Inhabitants of Lango are said to have found out the first use of Silk-Worms Not far from thence there is a little Island called Caloiero which is almost impregnable It is only a steep Rock where the Monks and those who inhabit it draw up their Boats after them with Ropes Georgia UNder the Name of Georgia we bring Mingrelia Gurgistan Zuiria and Circassia Provinces where the ancient Romans were not able to establish their Empire by reason of the sharpness of the Mountains known by the Ancients under the Name of Caucasus celebrated in the fable of Prometheus All these Provinces lie between the Black and Caspian Seas which are thought to communicate with one another because they have Fish of the same kinds and that those Territories which lie between both seem to have a superficies of but little depth principally when they go on Horse-back there From thence they transport Silk Stuffs Wax Honey Little Money is made use of most of the Georgians being so poor that they often sell their Children to have wherewith to subsist on An Inhabitant has been known there to exchange his Mother for a Turkish Horse that was to his mind There are in Georgia several Christians and some Mahometans The true Natives have a peculiar tongue Several amongst them are free some have their Kings others acknowledge either the Turk or the Persian according to the necessity of their affairs Those who obey the Turk have great Priviledges in his Dominions they pay him but a very inconsiderable Tribute may enter armed and with displayed Ensigns into Jerusalem Teflis has a particular King who owns Allegigiance to him of Persia Derbent often disputed by the Turks and the Persians is in the Passage that is called the Port of Iron these are the Remnants of the Caspian Ports that are seen upon Mount Barmach with some Springs of Medicinal Oyl The Tartars of Dagestan who are near it are commanded by the Schemkal a Prince whose Dignity depends on fate when he is dead those who pretend to have his Place assemble around and a Priest cafts a Golden Apple in the midst of them which makes him Prince it touches for they don't scramble for Sovereignty Mingrelia otherwise Imereti and Basciaciuch lies near the Black Sea at the place where that Sea receives the Faze which contrary to other Rivers has fresh waters above and salt below In the Countrey about Faze Pheasants were first of all had There are caught several other sorts of Birds especially Crows and Jackdaws In the Year 1642 those Birds eat a prodigious quantity of Herrings which the Sea had cast upon the Coast to the height of a foot and half There are White Bears which prove that those Creatures form a particular sort of Bears Mingrelia upon the Eastern part of the Black Sea is the ancient Colches famous for the Amour of Jason and Medea and the coming thither of the Argonautes to sharpe the Golden Fleece This Fleece when the Metaphor is shorn off is thought by the wise to have consisted in the Mines of Gold or else in the
that they keep Registers of their Race which are from time to time approv'd of by the Judges Horses of the most noble and commonly Mares are sometimes sold for three or four thousand Piasters The Arabians eat their Meals crouching upon their Heels whereas the Turks eat upon Cushions cross-legg'd the oldest among 'em wear the finest Cloaths and the gaudiest Colours Their Predecessours prohibited Buildings and the tilling of Lands for that those who stood possess'd of great stocks if they meant to enjoy 'em were easily constrain'd to obey them who aim'd at subduing ' em They made also that Member of the Noble Race Successour of the Kingdom who came first into the World after the proclaiming of the King In the comparison of the Manners and Maximes of the Levantine Nations with those of Europe the Arabians are made to resemble the Italians the Persians the French the Turks the Spaniards Arabia in general is subject to such great heats that they are constrain'd to keep the Markets by night There is a great number of Mountains and few Rivers It is divided into three parts Petraea Deserta and Foelix the two former is almost wholly in the possession of the Turks Arabia Foelix has several petty Sovereigns Arabia Petraea was inhabited by the Madianites Moabites Amalekites and Idumeans Nations of whom mention is often made in the Holy Oracles Its Inhabitants pay Tribute to the Bashaw of Cairo Crac otherwise Montreal formerly call'd Petra has communicated to it its Name Busseret is the Countrey of Philip the Roman Emperour who is said to have embrac'd Christianity Tor upon the Red-Sea is a Port defended by a four-square Castle There are in the places adjacent found petrified Mushrooms white Corral Chagrin small Oysters and sometimes Sea-men or such people as are bred and live in the Sea 'T is said the Red-Sea is but three Leagues broad in that place and that the Children of Israel pass'd it over there dry-shod when they came out of Aegypt that it was one of the Ports from whence Solomon sent his Fleets into Ophir to fetch Gold Pegs of Wood are put into the Ships of the Places that belong to this Sea because little Iron is to be found there Those who have a mind to impose Talk as that if they made use of Iron Nails instead of Pegs the Ships would be attacked and stopp'd by the Loadstone that is found in the neighbouring Mountains Mount Oreb is famous in the Holy Writ for the burning Bush wherein God appear'd to Moses Sinai is illustrious for the Decalogue or Ten Commandments which this Prophet receiv'd It is extraordinary high and nevertheless the Mount St. Catherine which is near it is much higher Arabia Deserta is a Countrey where they often want good Water tho' there be some Wells the Water for the most part is hardly worth any thing Ana upon the Euphrates has an Arabian Emir There is a King in this Arabia who has a moving and portative City which consists in Tents and he causes it to be carried whither he pleaseth He takes this course to avoid being surpriz'd by the Turks Sumiscasac is esteem'd the ancient Saba from whence departed the three Kings or rather wise Men to come and adore the Saviour of the World in Bethlehem Arabia Faelix goes under that Name as being a good Countrey It has Horses very much esteem'd Manna Cinnamon Myrrh Balm Benjamin Incense and other Perfumes There is so great a quantity of Incense that from the Port of Dolfar the Inhabitants furnish the principal parts of the World Aden is a City of great trade in a small Peninsula at the foot of a Mountain with two Castles towards the North and a small Fortress at the entrance of the Harbour The Portugals at the time of their establishment in the East Indies had Orders to make themselves Masters of Aden Ormus and Malaca by reason of their important situations The Turks prevented them at Aden whose King they caused to be hang'd on the Mast of their Captain 's Galley Since that time there have been some Revolutions those of the Countrey having dispossess'd the Turks Ormus and Malaca have been in the power of the Portuguese the Persians have taken from them Ormus by the help of the English and the Hollanders Malaca Mecha and Medina are famous for the Pilgrimages of the Mahometans who are in great esteem after such a Journey they go particularly to Mecha to pay their devotion to Kiaabee the four-square House which they call the House of God as having been built by Abraham This City about as big as York as containing about six thousand Houses is a days journey distant from the Red-Sea the place of the Birth of Mahomet whose body was as some Authors say transferred to Medina when Albaquerque the Portuguese would have surpriz'd the Port of Ziden otherwise called Gidde with design to go with Cavalry and fetch away that Mahometan Relick The Countrey about Mecha produces in abundance that sort of Berry which serves to make the Drink called Coffee so much us'd in the Levant by reason of its virtue to fortifie the Stomach and facilitate Digestion Medina three days journey from the Red-Sea is the place where that pretended Prophet lyes buryed Endeavours have been used to make his Tomb pass for a Wonder as if it was suspended in the Air by the means of the Load-stone this is not only found to be a fallacy but Antiquity shews us such like things Democritus the Athenian by order of Ptolomey King of Aegypt undertook to make the Statue of Arsinoe all of Iron for to dispose it after the like manner and in the Temple of Serapis in Alexandria they formerly hung up the same way a Sun made of a very delicate Iron The Prince of Mecha called Sultan Scherif is one of the most Potent of all Arabia His most usual Residence is in Almacharana The Grand Seignior makes him often Presents and causes part of the Revenue of Aegypt to be given him by reason that he 's of the Race of Mahomet and to oblige him to defend the Turkish Pilgrims The Arabians call Scherifs the Relations of Mahomet the Turks call them Emirs Fartach Caxem Gubel-haman Alibinali Amanzirifdin Masfa Mascalat Jemen are as many Sultanies or small Kingdoms in Arabia-Felix Mascate formerly belonging to the Portugals has for a long while carried on the trade from the Indies to the Mecha by the means of the Cities El-Catif and Lehsa Sohar in the Eastern part drove the Commerce which has since been to Ormus and to Gombru Mocha upon the Red Sea is an open Town with a small Castle By reason of the goodness of its Haven there resort thither Ships from all parts of the East-Indies with Merchandizes to take in those of Europe which are in like manner brought thither There are Jews Persians Armenians Indians Banians It is the place where the Pilgrims disembark who go from the Indies to Mecha 'T is much augmented since the
Pelts and do nothing else than look to their Cattel Their Countrey has in all times been a Nursery of Men who under divers Names have made Conquests and establish'd Colonies in several places That great Wall which the Chineses had rais'd for the putting a stop to their incursions has not been capable of effecting that purpose They aaknowledge several Princes whom they call Cans They have sundry Hurdes that may be called Cantons Camps Tribes or Assemblies of Families The little knowledge we have of them is the reason we call them all under the general Name of Tartars They have the Owl in great veneration since that Cingis one of their Sovereigns was saved by the means of that Bird. They will not suffer they should be buried some amongst 'em make choice of a Tree and give order for their being hang'd up upon it after their death There be still among 'em Idolaters but they are for the most part Mahometans It has been observ'd that those who have conquered China have hardly any particular Religion tho' they practice several Moral Vertues Five great parts are commonly reckon'd in Asian Tartary Tartaria Deserta Giagathi Turquestan Northern Tartary and the Tartary of Kin. Desort Tartary is so called because that most of the Lands there are uncultivated It is for the most part subject to the Czars of Muscovy who draw fine and rich Furrs from thence and who with ease subdued the Inhabitants of it they being only Shepherds Its Gities of Casan and Astracan are near the Wolga which empties it self into the Caspian-Sea by seventy Mouths the Obi which in the same Countrey empties it self into the Ocean has six Astracan drives a great trade in Salt which the Inhabitants find in a neighbouring Mountain The Calmack People are Idolaters much like to the ancient Scythians by reason of their incursions their cruelty and their other ways of living Giagathai and Mawaralnahr have peculiar Chams The City of Samarchand is that where Tamerlane the great a Native of la Casta a day's journey from thence establish'd a famous University There is also one at Bockora which passes for the Countrey of Avicenna a famous Philosopher and Physician another at Orcange near the Caspian-Sea Alexandria of Sogdiana was formerly famous for the death of the Philosopher Calisthenes The Tribe of the Mogul is known by the rise of the Prince of the same Name whose Successours command a good part of India The Inhabitants of these Parts hunt wild Horses with Faulcons in some of these Countries they have such a disposition for Musick that their little Children sing instead of crying Those of Giagathai and Yousbeg do not call themselves Tartars being of the Mahometan Religion Turquestan is the Country from whence some make the Turks to come Thibet which is part of it has Musk Cinnamon Coral which serve for Money to it's Inhabitants The Tartars of Kin which some call Cathai is the most Potent State of all Tartary very Populous Rich and full of Great Cities Cambalu or rather Muoncheu is the Capital thereof Several Authors have told Wonders of this City making it known under the Names of Quinzai Xantum Suntien and Peguim Amongst other things they say that in the Palace Royal there are twenty four Pillars of fine Gold and another much greater of the same Metal with a Pine Apple beset with Jewels that are worth four Great Cities The Voyage of Cathai has been undertaken by several ways in hopes of finding Gold Musk Rhubarb and other Rich Commodities there several have gone thither by the Terra-firma others by the Northern Sea some by going up the Ganges The Tartars of this Country invaded China in our Time the King of Niuche called Xunchi is the same who made the Conquest of it at the Age of twelve years assisted with the good and faithful Councels of two of his Uncles Besides a continual success and happyness a great Moderation has been observ'd in this young Conquerour who has treated a Nation newly subdued with all the Lenity imaginable The old or true Tartary which the Arabians call after a different manner is towards the North and but very little known Salmanasar King of Assyria is said to have transported thither the Tribes which he carryed away Captive from the Holy Land and there are also said to be still at this day Hords of them who keep up their Names and follow their Manners It has Imaus one of greatest Mountains in the World China CHina which receiv'd almost as many Names as it has had Royal Families has ever pass'd for one of the most Considerable Kingdoms in the World by reason of it's bigness the Beauty of it's Cities the great number Politeness and Maximes of it's Inhabitants Printing the Manufacture of Silks Artillery Gunpowder and Chairs or Sedans are said to have been in use with them sooner than with us Besides what is necessary to the Life of Man China produces the most precious commodities of the East It seems as if Nature had bestow'd upon each of it's Provinces some peculiar Gift those who have dwelt in this Country do aver that all that is thought fine dispers'd in the rest of the World is collected in China That there is likewise a vast number of things which would be in vain sought for else-where So that it is no wonder if the Tartars found it so easy a matter to subdue a Nation subdued in delights before who having forgot to wear the sabre contented themselves with fighting at fisticuffs and with their Nails which they expresly let grow for that purpose and for tearing away their Flabels and their hair which was their Principal Ornament This oblig'd their Conquerours to call the Chineses the soft and easy and to make them enjoy the Pleasures of the Campagne which they had never done before that Conquest China is almost Quadrangular so Populous that there has been sometimes reckoned above Sixty Thousand Millions of Persons of those who might be assessed and pay Taxes It 's Rivers are so covered with Boats that there are held to be as many as in all the other Rivers of the World The Annual Revenue of it's King has ever been esteem'd a Hundred and Fifty Millions of Gold according to others Four Hundred Millions of Ducats The Chineses laugh'd at our Maps which plac'd their Kingdom at one of the ends of the World they say they are in the mid'st the Jews have pretended the same thing for Jerusalem the Greeks for Delphos the Moors for Granada They say also that they have two Eyes that the Europeans have but one and other People none at all Learned Men are oblig'd to them for that they have compiled their History which was brought into Europe by Martini the Jesuit It is esteemed so much the more faithful in that they made it but of their own Country and only for themselves They have always been so Jealous of the secrets of their Policy and of their other affairs that they did
the State with a Castle-Royal It is probably the City which several Authors call Cambalu what those Authors call Cathai is nothing else than Northern China In the Year 1644. This City was surpriz'd and pillag'd by a Rebel who dissipated in a few days all the Riches which sixteen Kings had heaped up during two hundred and fourscore Years Since that the Tartars of Niuche whom they call Kin have rendred themselves Masters of it and by the taking of Nakin and Canton have setled their Conquests in the great Kingdom of China India THe Name of India and that of Indostan is given to the Empire of the Mogul and has two great Peninsula's on this and on the other side the Ganges They call by the Name of Indies the Islands of the Oriental Sea the Coasts of Persia and Arabia and those of Africa towards the East The Coasts of Africa upon the Ocean on this side the Cape of Good Hope and of America are known under Name of the West-Indies by those who frequent the Sea The principal Tongues that have any vogue in the East-Indies are the Canarine in and about Goa the Malabar in the Countrey of the same Name the Guzerate in Cambaia Coromondel Bisnagar and Bengala the Malaize in Malucca Sumatra the Java's and the Moluccoes that of the Maldive Isles is wholly peculiar Arabick is employed only for Religion and the Sciences just as Latin is in Europe Portuguese is spoken in all the places which were first conquered by the Crown of Portugal tho' some of those places be at present possess'd by other Nations of Europe The Empire of the Mogul THis Empire comprehends the greatest part of the firm land of India between Persia Tartary and China The Mogul is the Sovereign thereof He has his Name and his Rise from a Tribe come from Giagathai a Countrey of Great Tartary He passes for the richest Prince in the World as to Jewels besides those of his Crown he has those of several Princes his Neighbours whose Predecessours had for a long while lived in and entertain'd the curiosity of having 'em Besides he inherits the Jewels of the Grandees of his Court He is Universal Heir to those he gives Pensions to all Houses before which he passes owe him a Present the Lands belong to him his Will serves for Law in the decision of Matters In this State People go under the Name of the Employment they possess and not of the Lands they enjoy Some Relations assert that this Monarch is every day shewn part of his Treasures sometimes his Elephants sometimes his Jewels another day somewhat else and that he commonly sees every thing but once a Year all the Treasure being divided into as many parts as there are days in the Year The day of his birth he is weighed and the feasting upon that occasion lasts five days then he receives sometimes the value of above thirty Millions and always something very rare The Civil War which arose between the four Sons of Scha-Jehan did not allow Aureng-zebe who rendred himself Master of 'em all to observe punctually these Diversions One of the Temples of this State is pav'd and imbowed with Plates of pure Gold In the Palace of Agra there are two Towers cover'd with sheets of massy Gold and a Throne enrich'd with Jewels with four Lyons of silver Vermilion guilt supporting a Canopy of massy Gold People talk at a much higher rate He is said to have two Bushels of Carbuncles five Bushels of Emeralds twelve Bushels of diverse sorts of Precious Stones twelve hundred Cutlasses whose Scabbards are of Gold and covered with Jewels They say moreover that the Treasure of Scha-Choram one of the late Moguls was of fifteen hundred Millions of Crowns What is certain is that Scha-Jehan who reign'd near forty Years left above five Millions of Crowns that the Throne which he caus'd to be made in his City of Jehan-Abad which is that of Delli came to above sixty Millions of Livers There are seven magnificent Thrones whereof the greatest was begun by Tamerlain The Money of this State is of good alloy great Justice is done the Europeans are in great consideration being by them call'd Francs They reckon the ways by Cosses each of which is a Mile and a half No Oats are allowed their Horses they give 'em Pease and a sort of Paste made of Sugar Flour and Butter They bathe themselves in Cysterns which they call Tanques in the Rivers there are Tuberons which eat Men. The Mogul upon occasion can arm two hundred thousand Horse He has but little Infantry and that too but bad He has a considerable number of Elephants of which Creatures he commonly keeps five or six hundred He draws great Services from these Creatures they are sure-footed rise and lye down easily tho' there be of 'em thirteen and fifteen foot high This Prince is of the Mahometan Religion of the Turkish Sect Most of his Vassals are Pagans The Gymnosophists and the Brachmans have formerly been esteem'd for Wisdom in India just as are the Bramins at this day The former were very cruel they caused old people and the diseased to be killed out of an opinion that they did them good service The Bramins exercise surprising Abstinences and Mortifications some amongst 'em will remain standing with their Arms up for ten or twelve Years They are as the Priests of the Countrey The Troopers and Soldiers are called Rezbutes There are several Mahometans in the Empire of the Mogul Above two thirds there are Gentiles or Banians or Persces The Banians are almost all Merchants sharp cunning and as sagacious as possible Hucksters by reason of their acquaintance in the Country where they live amongst the Mahometans as the Jews do among the Christians they make profession of doing no hurt to any Creature living of pardoning the injuries that are done them they believe the transmigration of Souls have Hospitals for Brutes more than for Men. One amongst 'em spent in one day above twelve thousand Ducats for the making the Nuptials of his Friend's Bull They have a Cow in great veneration They dare not eat of any thing that has had life not so much as Radishes for fear of eating the Soul of some of their Friends They do not willingly light Candles for the preventing the Gnats from burning themselves in 'em When the Portugueses who dwell there have no Money they endeavour to catch some Bird which they shew in the Streets saying they are going to have it roasted for their Supper and immediately the Banians do not fail to give them Money to redeem it out of their hands Marriage is with them in such consideration that when a young man is dead without having been married they cause some Maiden or other to lye with the Body to whom they give for that purpose a Dowry or Portion The Persees are descended from the ancient Persians who retired into those parts Never any of 'em are Farriers or Locksmiths for fear of
where the Mogul confines such of the Princes of his Blood as give him any umbrage Lahor resorted to by the Caravans is the ancient Bucephalea and is said to be twenty four Leagues in compass Naugracut has a famous Idol those who go thither out of devotion cut a piece of their Tongue off Kachmire otherwise Cassimere is esteemed the little Paradise of India upon the account of its beauty Chitor a ruin'd City was the Capital of Ruana the Successour of Porus. Bengala is renowned for the temprature of its Air its fruitful Soyl the abundance of its Rice which most parts of the Indies furnish themselves with for its fine Canes or Reeds its Silks its excellent Wood of Calamba the rarest and of the most agreeable scent in the World It likewise gives name to the greatest and most famous Gulph of Asia One of the late Histories of the Indies does affirm that a Man of Bengala has lived three hundred and five years The capital City is Bengala otherwise Satigan The Peninsula of India intra Gangem THis Peninsula is the Countrey which is particularly call'd India It has two Parts separated by the Mountains of Guate which advance from the North to the South with several delicate Plains on their top and which cause divers Seasons at the same time towards the East and West Summer being on the one side and Winter on the other It has above fifty Kings the most powerful of whom do by little and little encroach upon the Dominions of the others The Portugals English and particularly the Hollanders have Towns near the Sea with Fortresses for the security of Trade which is commonly of Spices Jewels Pearls and Cotton-Cloth It has the conveniency of several Woods for the building of Ships the Portugals making use of this advantage cause several Carracks to be made at Bazaim The Towns of the Europeans are upon the Sea farther in the Land there are others of the same Name which belong to the Natives of the Countrey and are only distinguish'd from one another by their high scituation The Fig-tree Leaves are in those parts so great that they serve those of the Countrey for Coverlets and Table-Cloths Amongst the several Religions there is that of certain Christians whose Predecessours were instructed by St. Thomas Decan has Visapor for its Capital five Leagues in circuit the abode of Idalcan or Idal-Schach a Mahometan King He still defends himself against the Mogul who had taken from him several places and no longer pays him any Tribute Goa is the Residence of the Portugal Vice-Roy and the Arsenal of that Crown for the East-Indies Some esteem the Hospital of Goa finer richer and better served than that of the Holy Ghost at Rome or the Infirmery of Maltha It is a spacious City but the excessive heats are mortal to many persons those who are bound hither touch at two small Islands five Leagues from the Town and there they take in Pilots who commonly bring them into the Port of Mormogan one of the best of Asia Malabar is a very level Countrey with a good pleasant Coast and inhabited by people who know no other Trade than that of Piracy There blows in Winter a Wind which so moves the neighbouring Sea that it rouls a vast quantity of the Sand into the Entrance of the Harbours so as then small Barks cannot come in In Summer another Wind quite contrary is so violent that it carries away the Sand clearly and lays open the Navigation The great number of Rivers there renders Horses of little use principally for War Those Rivers fatten the Land nourish Crocodiles whose flesh is good to eat and serve for the transportation of Victuals and Spiceries The Malabarians pass a whole day without eating by taking two Grains of a Paste called Anfian which they have come from Cambaia they are oblig'd to continue this nourishment and if they once left it off they could not live four days to an end The Children in this Countrey do not succeed their Fathers those of their Sisters inherit as being certainly the next of Blood The Wives burn themselves after the death of their Husbands to shew that they will not survive them A few years ago two hundred of these Women took this course after the death of the Naique of Madura a small Territory bordering upon Malabar since which that Law has been moderated in favour of the Widows The greatest Ears are the most beautiful because they have room to fasten more Jewels than the small Calecut is a trading Town whither the Portuguese resorted with a less favourable success than at Cochim where they obtained leave for the making a Cittadel the first Fortress they had in the East-Indies The Hollanders took it from them in the Year 1662. The Prince of Calecut calls himself Zamorin He pretends a Tribute from the Kings of Malabar Besides this Prince there are in this Countrey the Kings of Cananor of Tanor of Cranganor of Cochim of Coulan of Travancor and ten or twelve others of small consideration Tamul gives its name to a particular Language besides the Malaize Tongue there are others which they call the Bagadan and the Grandonique Cochim which comes near the bigness of Goa pays a Tribute to the Hollanders who stand possess'd of its Fortress as we have already said The Haven of it is not good by reason of the Rocks and Shelves which are at its entrance Coulan is now neither so rich nor so populous as it was when it had above a hundred thousand Inhabitants Zamorin consider'd it for its Situation its Harbour and Loyalty The Sand of the Sea having stopped up its Haven Goa and Calecut have taken from it all its Commerce Onor has Pepper very heavy and black Rice which is better than the White After Malabar and towards the East is the Coast of Fishing otherwise called Manar where they Fish for Pearls where the Market is held at Tuticorin This Country wherein are about thirty small Cities is dry and burnt It obeys for the most part a Naique of Madura the Hollanders stand possess'd of the small Island of the Kings with some Fortresses which render them Masters of the Passages of the Banks of Manar They gather Amber-grease on this Coast near Cape Comorrin was formerly found a piece of Amber-grease which is said to have weighed thirty Quintals Coromandel or Corobander is so called from the Rice which it produces in abundance It has the Havens of Meliapour and St. Thomas where that Apostle fore-told that White People would arrive in their Country which was verified by the coming of the Portugals By some it is observed in the Descendents of those who put that Holy Apostle to death that they have one Leg much greater than the other The Sea being here high and rough at all times the small Vessels chuse rather to retire to Pallecate and the great to Negapatan Narsinga and Bisnagar otherwise Karnatek have Amethists Saphirs and other precious Stones The
of it People observe there for a rarity the doleful Tree whose Flowers only come by Night and fall at the sight of the Sun Ihor in the most Southern part of India is built upon Posts near a River which divides it into two Ports Cambodia whose King is a Vassal of that of China drives a great Trade The City of the same Name is sixty Leagues from the Sea built in length upon a rising ground to exempt it self from the Inundation of its River The Mecon which passes by it has two principal Mouths which separate themselves afterwards into two others It is Navigable In the Year 1644 four Holland Ships entred it and got out again notwithstanding the endeavours and oppositions of the King of that Countrey who would have hindred them from so doing Cochinchina is one of the best Kingdoms of all India A great number of Galleys are kept there where the Office of Rower is more sought after than in Europe the French Bishops have been busie there to promote the Catholick Religion Tunquim or Tonkin has its peculiar King as well as Cochinchina and Cambodia Upon the Confines of China and India there are People called Maug Timocoves Gueyes and others The Tunquiners are the best Fire arms-men of all Asia instead of Purses they have little Strings whereon they file their Copper Money which are round pieces pierced thro' the middle distinguish'd from sixty to sixty by certain marks they carry them upon their shoulders or else around their arms The Country of Tunquim is boggish watry and interlaced with above thirty Rivers which fall into the Sea the Air is nevertheless very pure They reckoâ— they have aobut twenty thousand Villages and six great Provinces wherein are said to be two hundred thousand Christians The capital City is esteemed twenty Miles in circuit wherein it contains above a Million of Persons There are upon the Frontiers Forests full of Apes who go sometimes to the number of three or four hundred and ravage the fields from whence they carry a prodigious quantity of Rice which they fasten between their skin and a girdle of straw which they make for that purpose This Country has no wall'd Towns or Fortresses The King of Tunquim has above fifty thousand Soldiers for this guard and keeps above sixty thousand upon the Frontiers of Cachinchina with whose Prince he is often at Dagger's drawing He is said to have above five hundred Elephants about as many Galleys most of em well fitted and finely guilt It is by the means of the Elephants that the Tunquiners have maintain'd themselves against the Chineses who did domineer over 'em for somewhile The most modern Relations make seven Kingdoms pass under the Name of Tunquim Tunquim Cochinchina Ciucanghe or Caubang the small Bao the little Lao and the Mountains of Rumoy or Kemois where there is a little King of Fire and another of Water They likewise make mention of the great Kingdom of Lao which extends from fourteen Degrees to two and twenty and a half of Northern Latitude upon a breadth of fifty Miles along a River of same Name where Langione at eighteen Degrees of Latitude is the capital City They likewise mention that its King has for Tributaries those of Bao Ciocangue Ava and that there are full five hundred thousand Men capable of Service in his Dominions The Maldive Islands THe Maldive's Islands situate on the South of India both on this and the other side the Equinoctial have this Name from their City called Male and from Dive which signifies Island in the Language of the Country They are said to be twelve thousand in all which is spoke at hazard and an uncertain number is taken for a certain These Islands are dispers'd from the North-East to the South-East into thirteen Provinces which the Inhabitants call Atollons whereof each has a Bank for its Ramparts Some of 'em are only Rocks or heaps of Sand and all are very small That of Male which is the Principal is not a League in compass They are interlaced with several Arms of the Sea environed with Rocks which render 'em of very difficult access It has been the good pleasure of Divine Providence that there are four Ports or four Openings to the Issues of each Atollon that those Ports corresponding to one another the Inhabitants might communicate together Without this help the Ships would be hurried away by the great Currents of the Sea for above seven or eight hundred Leagues from the Maldives These Currents go six Months towards the East six Months towards the West sometimes more sometimes less The Chanels through which the Ships may pass most easily are those of Malos-Madou of Adou and Sovadou this is twenty Leagues broad As the Sea is but shallow in these parts and there are commonly high Winds and few Commodities few Europeans resort to these Islands The King of Maldives is called Rascan His Revenue consists in the Misfortunes of others that is to say it accrews from the Shipwracks of Vessels that are cast away in those parts Certain it is there is no trust to be put in the Pilots of those Islands they often cause the Ships to be cast away that are left to their conduct that so the profit thereof may redound to their King This Prince has a Custom to Caress strangers and invite them into his Island that so by their dwelling there for some while they may die of the Disease that reigns in those parts The Insularies are of a low Stature of a tawny Complexion of the Mahometan Religion subject to several Evils by reason of the excessive heats which reign there and Feavers which seldom abandon their Islands They shave themselves with cold water catch Fish by swimming go easily to the bottom of the Sea choose a convenient place for the Anchors of their Ships will with an incredible facility weigh up from thence burdens of a hundred thousand pounds weight by the means of a Cable and some pieces of their Woods of Condou Their Cocoes furnish them with great Conveniencies they make of 'em Wine Honey Sugar Milk and Butter they eat Almonds instead of Bread with all sorts of Meats they place each Trade in a particular Island Now to exempt ' emselves from the Vermin which might spoil and destroy their Commodities they have their Ware houses and Magazines set up in the Sea upon Posts and Pillars at two or three hundred Paces from their Islands The Isle of Ceylan CEylan is said by the Insularies to have been much greater formerly than it is at this day of four hundred Miles which it was then in compass it is not now above three hundred 'T is made to resemble a Pearl and several do believe that it is the Taprobana of the Ancients It s Air is the purest and most healthful that is in all India Some call it the Land of Delights and say that it is the place where was the Terrestrial Paradise that the Pico of Adam whither
the Pagan Priests go in Devotion is a Testimony thereof as well as the Crystal Mountains the Forests of Cinnamon and the Rivers of precious Stones which are all to be found there except the Diamond Doubtless the Cinnamon which is gather'd in this Island is by much the best in the World It affords excellent Ivory The fishing for Pearls is perform'd in its neighbourhood upon the Coast of the Isle of Manar This Island abounds so with Rice that they give it their Horses instead of Oats The Pike of Adam afore-mention'd is a high sharp Mountain The Fables of the Countrey say that Adam was there bred and buried that the Lake of Salt Water which is at the top of it is a Flood of the Tears Eve shed during a hundred years for the death of her Son Abel The Inhabitants of Ceylan are of divers Religions active well shap'd black and very ugly Their Forces consist in Elephants which are reckon'd the most couragious and docible of all India from whence it comes they are called Noble They say moreover that the Elephants of other Countreys seeing them do them Reverence and that the Ivory of their Teeth does never turn yellow There was formerly a white Ape in Ceylan in such veneration amongst the Inhabitants that this Ape falling into the hands of the Portugals they offer'd to the King of Portugal tho' in vain three hundred thousand Crowns to purchase him again The Bannians who reckon amongst their false Divinities Ramo one of their Heroes say amongst other follies that he desiring to pass from the Western Peninsula of India into this Island all the Scale-fish join'd together upon the surface of the Sea to make him a Bridge The Streight of Manar is but a Musket-shot broad by reason of the small Islands which are daily made by the stones that are cast in there that they may approach the nearer to a Pagod or Temple of Idolaters which is in the Terra firma of India upon the Coast of the Fishery There are none but small Vessels which can pass through this Streight So narrow a space of Sea makes it believ'd that the Island was formerly joined to the firm Continent The Portugals have nothing more in Ceylan the Hollanders stand now possess'd of most of the Places upon the Sea There are in this Island several Cities with the Title of Kingdom Candea Das sette-Corolas Ceitavaca Galle Colombo Chialo Jaffanatapan Trinquilemale Baticala Jala The King of Candea is the most powerful of the Countrey and a sworn Enemy of the Hollanders He commonly causes his Blacks to burn the Cinnamon that he may render it useless to his Enemies The best Town of Ceylan is Candea towards the midst of the Island The Islands of Sunda THe Streight of Sunda gives it Name to the Isles of Sumatra and Borneo It is the common passage of the Ships which go to China and in the most Oriental Seas The Air of these three Islands is unwholsome and they do not furnish those Provisions for the Mouth that are to be got in the Terra firma of India Their Inhabitants are Pagans in the Inland-Countrey Mahometans upon the Sea-Coasts They have several Kings who besides their Armies by Land have considerable Forces by Sea They furnish rich Merchandizes and chiefly Spiceries which the English Portugals Hollanders and most other Nations fetch from thence Sumatra is the most renown'd Island of the East by reason of its spaciousness and riches It is seven hundred Miles in length and two hundred in breadth with several Mines of Gold It is ten Leagues distant from the Terra firma the Ancients thought it a Peninsula by reason of the great number of small Islands which seem'd to join it to the Continent It has five or six Kings of whom that of Achem is best known to us the others remain at Camper Jambi Menancabo and Palimban They have maintain'd themselves so well in their Islands that the Europeans have not yet been able to hold there any Fortresses There is a Mountain which casts forth fire and flames in like manner with Mount Gibel in Sicily The Pepper which grows in this Island is better than that of the Coast of Malabar because the Soyl is here more humid The Gold is gathered in grain and small pieces in little Ditches by the means of floods of Water In the Inlands of this Isle there are still barbarous Inhabitants who make no difficulty of eating the raw flesh of their Enemies with Salt and Pepper which they always carry about them for that purpose The City of Achem the most considerable of all the Island was much better than it is at this day It is half a League from the Sea in a Plain with a Fortress upon the Banks of a River which is as broad as the Thames but so shallow that it cannot bear ordinary Vessels Java has several small Kings each City having often its own the knowledge of whom is of no great use to us There are amongst others those of Japara Tuban Jortan Panarvan Panarucan and Palambuam Several are Pagans some Mahometans Most own homage to the Grand Materau who resides either at Materau or Japara and who formerly pretended to the Sovereignty of the whole Island There are Oysters taken upon this Coast some of which are said to weigh full three hundred pounds The Island produces such large Reeds that one of these Reeds alone is sufficient to make a small Boat It likewise furnishes excellent Calamba which is the Wood of the Aigle or Aloes Salt which is taken near Jortan Gold and Silver in abundance It s Southern Coast is not yet known Java is one of the greatest Islands of Asia and by reason of its abundance some call it the Compendium of the whole World Its City of Bantam is at the foot of a Hill environ'd with two Hills and cut through by a third The Walls of the City are of Brick flanck'd with several Cannons without full Earth only three foot thick Its Haven is the most spacious and most frequented that is in all the Islands of Sonde There is all manner of Spices Gums and other Commodities of the East-Indies It is the Staple of the English tho' our last advice from thence tell us of great changes and that the King of Bantam's Son assisted by the Hollanders had drove both the Right King and English from thence The French have of late years drove some small Trade in this Town Some Spaniards call Bantam the Geneva of the East Jacatra or Batavia has since the Year 1669. been the Residence of the Councel of the Hollander's East-India Company and the Magazine General of all the rich Merchandises which they draw from the Countries of the East to send into Europe It has a good Cittadel with four regular Bastions Half-Moons and other Works It is in a Bay which being covered by some Islands toward the Sea forms the best Road in all the Indies After this Jortam is one of
The Seine Loire Garone Rhosne in France The Danube Rhine Elbe Oder in Germany The Vistule and Nieper in Poland The Volga and Dom in Moscovy The Thames Trent Severn in England The Tay in Scotland The Shennon in Ireland We may consider the State of Europe according to their Titles without having regard to their Rank and say that there is the Patrimony of the Church Two Empires Germany and Turkey Seven Kingdoms each with its King who acknowledged yet no Superiors England France Spain Portugal Suedeland Denmark Poland this Elective Eight Electorates Mayence Treves Cologne Bohemia Bavaria Saxony Brandenbourg the Palatinate One Arch-Dutchy which is Austria Two Great Dutchies Moscovy Tuscany Six Dutchies besides those in the Empire Lorrain Savoy Mantua Modena Parma Courland Four Principalities which pay Homage to the Turks Transylvania Walachia Moldavia lesser Tartary Seven Republicks Holland Suisserland Venice Genoa Lucca St. Marin Ragusa A great number of Principalities and Imperial Cities in Germany enjoy Sovereignty in their States but owe Fealty to the Emperor The Christian Religion is the most received in Europe for which reason some give it the Name of Christendom By the Cares of the Europeans the Faith has been Preached and Established in America Africa and Asia Besides the Roman Catholicks the Protestants and the Reformed there are in Europe several Sectaries Mahometans and Idolaters in some Countries of the North. The Roman Catholick Religion is for the most part where is us'd the Latin Tongue The Schisms where they speak the Sclavonian Protestanism where the Teutonick is in use Judaism wandring in most parts of the World is tolerated in some Cities It has been particularly banish'd out of France Spain and Portugal Some who have undertaken to make the supputation of the Parts of the Earth Discover'd according to the Religions that are receiv'd up and down have said that if those Parts were divided into thirty Christianity would have five of them Mahometism six and Paganism nineteen In Europe are reckon'd four Principal Tongues the Teutonick the Latin the Greek and the Sclavonian The Teutonick is of three sorts German in Germany Saxon in England and Scotland Danish in Denmark in Sueden Norway and Ireland The Latin Tongue is receiv'd in Italy France and Spain The Greek was formerly of four sorts Attick Ionick Dorick Aeolick The Sclavonian is currant amongst the Sclavonians Bohemians Polanders Moscovites There are seven other less considerable Tongues the Albanese Cossack Hungarian Finlandish Irish British and Bask. The Cossack has affinity with that of the lesser Tartary the Finlandish is receiv'd in Finland and Lapland the Brittish in the Principality of Wales and in Brittany of France Amongst the Ancient People of Europe the Greeks have won the Prize for Sciences and the Roman for Arms In the last Ages its Western Nations have excell'd in Navigation The Present State of the Countries Fortresses and other Places which the Europeans stand Possess'd of in the East and West-Indies EVrope at first had but two Nations who in the last Age and towards the end of the Age before undertook with success Voyages of a long course and who afterwards sent Colonies into those Lands they had Discover'd the Spaniards towards the West the Portugals towards the East They obtained from Pope Alexander VI. a Donative of all the undiscover'd Lands The other Europeans were not satisfied with the over-Prodigal Liberality of this Sovereign Pontiff the English share therein the French and Hollanders were willing to have their share therein Since which there have been divers changes in several places of those Countries the rigour which the Spaniards and Portugals have used to exclude other Nations having only promoted their own Destruction The French have in Canada 1. Mont-real the three Rivers Quebec Tadousac upon the Great River of St. Laurence Accadia Port-Royal St. John Pemtagoet near the Sea the Isle of Cap-Breton in the Isle of Terra-Nova Plaisance the Bay of little Niort 2. In the Antilles Islands St. Christopher's in part the other part belonging to the English St. Bartholomew St. Croix St. Martin Guadaloupe la Desirce Mary-Galant the Saints Martinick St. Alousie Grenade the Grenadins The Tortuse and several Colonies in the Western Part of the Islands of Hispaniola called San-Domingo 3. In the Terra-firma of Southern America upon the Coast of Guayana the Isle of Cayene The Colony of Corou Coonama Comaribo 4. The Commerce of the Coast of Africa upon the Rivers of Senega of Gambia at Rufisque near Cap-Verd at Grand-Sestre at Ardre in several places of Guinea 5. The Fort Dauphin in the Isle of Madagascar The Isles of St. Mary of Bourbon of Diege-Rois Countoirs or Staples at Suratte at Souali and other Places of the Mogul Near Nazul-Patan at Rezapour at Siam in the Kingdom of Tunquim at Bantam in the Isle of Java and other Places The Spaniards possess the greatest and best part of America where they have a great number of Towns 1. In the Northern America New-Spain the Isles of Cuba Hispaniola the French have setled themselves in the Western part of Hispaniola Porto-rico St. Augustin St. Matthew in Florida a part of new Mexico 2. In Southern America la Castille d'or otherwise called Terra-firma Peru Chili Paraguay which comprehends the Countries of Tucuman and la Plata The Isles of Salomon in the South Sea 3. In the Coast of Africa upon the Ocean Larache the Canary Islands 4. Towards the East most of the Philippine Island called Manilhes They have a part of the Molucco Islands which they have abandoned and the Hollanders have not failed to make advantage of their so doing The Portuguese have 1. All the Coasts of Brasile in Southern America where are the Capitanias of Peru Maranhaon Ciara Riogrande Paraibe Tamaraca Pernambuco Seregippe Baia de Todos-os-Santos los-Isleos Porto-Seguro Spiritu-Santo Rio-Janeiro and San-Vincente Towards the Mouth of the Amazon the Places of Estero Corduba Cogemine 2. In Africa Mazagan upon the Coast of the Kingdom of Morocca Some Forts upon the River St. Dominick a Branch of the Niger upon the Coasts of Guinea of Congo of Angola Habitations in the Isle of St. Thomas The Isles Terceres Madera Porto-Santo Cap-Verd of the Prince of Fernando Pao of Annabon 3. Several Places in the East-Indies in Cafreria the Castle of Cofala the Village of Sena a Factory with a small Fort at the Cape of Corientes strong Houses of Cuama and on the Rivers of the Coast In Zanguchar the City and Castle of Mozambick with the Fort of St. Mark Factories and small Forts of Angoxa and Quilimane The Castle of Quiloa a Factory in the Isle Monfia The Town and Castle of Mombaze the Castle of Melinde with the Villages and Factories of Pata and Ampaze The Traffick in all the Coast of Africk from the Cape of Good-Hope to the Red-Sea in the Isle Zoeotora at Aden at Fartach at Bassora In Persia half of the Revenue of the Isle of Baharem of Congue the Traffick to Bender-Rich
as now Languedoc comprehended Cevenes The other great Governments are not subdivided into great Provinces Now follow the capital Cities according to that distribution Amiens Rouen Paris Troyes Rennes Mans No-gent-le-Retrou Orleans Nevers Tours Anger 's Poictiers Angoulesme Bourges Dijon Bourg-en-Bresse Lyon Clermont Moulins Gueret Pau Auch Bourdeaux Saintes Perigueux Limoges Cahors Rodes Toulouse Viviers Grenoble and Aix Spain SPain is a Great Peninsula two hundred Leagues in length and the same in breadth in the most Western part of Europe betwixt the ninth and twenty fourth Degree of Longitude and between thirty five Degrees and a half and forty Degrees and a half of Northern Latitude This Peninsula is upon the Ocean and upon the Mediterranean-Sea towards the North-East it borders upon France for the space of above a hundred Leagues the Pyrenean Mountains between both Several things concur to the making Spain thinly inhabited its Fertility Mountains the barrenness of its Women the banishment of the Moors of whom above eight hundred thousand were constrain'd to depart thence in the Year 1610 the great number of persons that are sent to Colonies and the Wars abroad From whence it proceeds that never above seven thousand natural Spaniards were ever seen together in any Army The Heat reigns there more than the Cold those Provinces which lye South-East are more fertile than the rest The Mountains without Trees and the mighty Rocks are there called Sierra This Country has but scarcity of Corn but abounds with the strongest Wines the most delicious Fruits and the sweetest Oyls of Europe The Gold and Silver which is brought into Spain from America is very capable of purchasing it all the other Conveniencies of Life In the Year 1618. it was verified that since the first discovery of this New World by Columbus the Spaniards had drawn from thence above fifteen hundred thirty six Millions of Gold These are immense Sums but as the Traders of Europe have the best share in them they have not enrich'd Spain proportionably to what it has been weakned by the Colonies that have been sent thither Moreover the necessity of having foreign Commodities drains and exhausts the better part of those Riches This made Henry the Fourth of France say That the Spanish Pistolls spoke their Riches in their own Dominions but carried elsewhere did but shew their Poverty Mines there are of Copper Quick-silver Lead Iron and Salt in Spain those of Gold and Silver have been spared since they have had the conveniency of those of America The Horses of this Region are generally in esteem those of Andalousia above all others yet they travel commonly in this Countrey upon Mules and Asses by reason of the Mountains No Prince whatsoever has so much Land as the King of Spain He may with justice style himself the greatest Territorian of the Universe if I may use that Term. True it is that his Dominions lye separated from one another and dispers'd in the four parts of the World Some of his Predecessours have boasted that the Sun never set in their Dominions and that the extent of their Territories was only to be measured by the Course of that Planet In some Letters which the Kings of Persia have address'd to them in the foregoing Age there is To the King who has the Sun for a Hat Among other Titles they wear that of Catholick particularly since Ferdinand the Fifth and that of the King of Spains they have taken up this last but of late years These following are those which Philip the Fourth took in the Pleinpouvoir which he gave in the Year 1659 to Don Lewis de Haro for the treating of a Peace between France and Spain Dom Philip by the Grace of God King of Castile Leon Arragon the two Sicilies Jerusalem Portugal this Title was left out in the Plein-pouvoirs of the Peace of Nimmeghen Navarre Grenada Toledo Valencia Galicia Maillorca Seville Sardaigna Cordova Corsica Murcia Jaen the Algarbes Algezire Gibraltar the Canary Islands the East and West-Indies the Islands and Terra firma of the Ocean-Sea Arch-Duke of Austria Duke of Burgundy which is no longer allow'd him by the French King since the Cession of the Franche Compte Brabant Milan Count of Hapsbourg Flanders Tirol Barcellonna Lord of Biscay and Malines The principal Order of Knighthood in Spain is that of the Golden Fleece the others are those of St. James of Calatrava of Alcantara and Montese the Kings of Spain have attributed to themselves great Masterships and Jurisdictions of 'em under the Name of Perpetual Administrators There are moreover above fourscore Grandees who are much the same with the Dukes and Peers of England this Dignity of Grandee is setled upon Lands and falls to Females The Spaniards esteem Arts as disnonourable upon which account most of their Artificers are strangers They have always maintain'd the reputation of being Faithful and Loyal to their Prince they are slow in their Resolutions and their Tediousness and Procrastination makes them often lose good Occasions Some of 'em have the vanity to say That their Country furnishes the World with Generals of Armies That God spoke to Moses upon Mount Sinai in the Castillian Tongue That the Lord of the Universe must be a Spaniard born and other such great Words Spain sometimes called Iberia Hesperia Mus-Arabia was subject to strangers during a long while the Celtae Rhodiots Phenicians Carthaginians Romans Vandals Swabians Goths and the Moors have commanded and domineer'd there over all or in some parts Its first Division was into two parts the one on this side the other on that side the Ebre which then bounded the Empires of Rome and Carthage since what has been called Vlterior Hispania has only comprehended Betica and Lusitania In each part the Romans establish'd fourteen Convents or Benches of Justice During the decay and fall of the Domination of the Moors there arose five Kingdoms Leon with Castile Aragon Navarre Portugal and Grenada After which the whole Country fell under the sway of the King of Castile the King of Portugal and the King of Arragon It is principally by these three Titles that the King of Spain has possess'd all his States wherein are eight Vice-Roy-ships In our time the King of Castile has been a peaceable Possessour of all these Kingdoms tho' that since Pelagius the Succession of these Kingdoms has fallen ten times upon Females In the Year 1640 Portugal proclaim'd the Duke of Braganza King The principal Rivers of Spain are the Douere abounding in Fish the Tagus renowned for its golden Sands Guadiana which is said to run under Ground Guadalquiber is the deepest Iberus famous for its Name All of them have their Source in Castile and are not Navigable like many Rivers in other Countreys Guadiana has given the Spaniards occasion to say That their Land affords the richest Bridge upon Earth that it daily feeds above ten thousand Cattel and that a great Army may march over it in Battalia the Ancients seem
thereof The City of the same Name is the greatest of Spain The abode in it is so pleasant by reason of the pureness of its Air and its admirable Fountains that the Moors placed Paradise in that part part of Heaven which is upon its Zenith Malgus is known for the excellent Wines which it furnishes the World withal Almeria for its Commerce and its Harbour Monde for the Victory of Julius Caesar over Pompey's Sons He killed upon the place thirty thousand of his Enemies and afterwards made the Circumvallation of the Town with the Arms and Bodies of the Dead Murcia is called the Garden of Spain by reason of its excellent Fruits It s Town of the same Name drives a great Trade in Silk Carthagena is a good Sea-Port Valentia is the most agreeable Country of all Spain The City of the same Name has also those of Beautiful Great of Valencia del-Cid since its being taken by Rodrigo from the Moors Alicant is known for the Transportation of its good Wines Upon the Coast are seen in a place called Morvedre the Ruins of the ancient Sagonte the destruction whereof by Hannibal gave occasion to the second Punick War The Principality of Catalonia the most important Province of Spain produces Wine Oyl Corn and Fruits in abundance The Neighbourhood of the Pyrenees furnish it with very fine Marble Jaspar and Azure Those who make Spain the Head of the Catholick King 's Dominions say Catalonia is one of its Ears and Portugal the other Ten Cities are reckoned in this Province seventeen Vigueries or great Baily-wicks with above a hundred Walled Towns whereof the most part were taken and re-taken in the late Wars Barcelona the Capital City has good Edifices by reason of the conveniency it has of being furnished with Stone from Mount-Juy Tarragona whereof the greatest part of Spain has born formerly the Name is more Ancient and Strong than it is Beautiful Tortosa upon the end of the Ebre The French gained near this Town a famous Victory over the Sarazens in the time of Charlemain Larida has susteined several Sieges and seen several Battels fought in our time Caesar formerly defeated near this place Aframius and Petreius of Pompey's Party Gironne is a Principality whereof the Eldest Sons of the Kings of Aragon bore the Title Cordene a famous Dutchy has a Mountain of Salt which seems of all sorts of Colours but becomes white when it is pounded Problet a rich Monastery was the Sepulchre of the King 's of Aragon That of our Lady at Montferrat is known for its great Solitude for its Pilgrimages and the Presents that are made there Roses the strongest and most important of the Sea-Towns The Isles of Majorca and Minorca are the ancient Baleares where the Inhabitants were heretofore as good Slingers and great Pyrats as it this day They obliged their Children to fight for their Break-fast with their Slings notwithstanding their activity they were constrain'd to demand help of Augustus against the Rabbets which harassed their Country The Books of Raymundus Lullius are read and studied in the University of Majorca as Aristotle's Des-Cartes's are in other places The Isle of Minorca has good Havens whereof the most considerable is that of Mahon with Avenues well Fortified The Territory of Yvica has this particularity of killing Serpents which are in great numbers in the Isle Formentera Aragon has no good Towns but Saragossa Ainsa and Benavari have been the Capitaâ—s of two small Kingdoms Sobrarbe and Ribagorce Monzon is a place where the States of Aragon did formerly assemble Navarre consists in six Merindades or Governments whereof the Capital is Pamplune There is on this side the Pyrenees one of those Governments which is call'd of Low-Navarre in the hands of the French King The French say That the Genealogy-Table shews the Rights which his most Christian Majesty has over the Kingdom of Navarre which was Usurp'd from his Predecessors about the Year 1512. without any other ground than that of Vis Arma. Old-Castile has receiv'd its Name from a Castle whose Figure is seen in the first Quarter of the Arms of the King of Spain Burgos is the Metropolitan City thereof with a strong Castle and a fine Church Valladolid has been the abode of the Kings the Ruins of the ancient Numantia are still seen towards the Sources of the Donere near Soria where is kept the Great Standard of the Kingdom The Inhabitants of Calahorre were formerly in such esteem for their Fidelity and Loyalty that the Emperor Augustus Caesar chose his Life-Guard out of those People Both Castiles as well as all the other Inland Provinces are extraordinary full of Mountains New-Castile has the Capital Cities of the Kingdom Madrid and Toledo Madrid is adorn'd with beautiful Fabricks as being the most usual Seat of the King Toledo is very ancient in the midst of Spain where some Gothick Kings had then their abode It s Clergy is reckoned the richest of Christendom the Sword-blades which are made in this Town are in very great esteem The Escurial standing seven or eight Leagues from Madrid passes amongst the Spaniards for an eighth Wonder of the World it costing King Philip the Second above twenty Millions of Gold but 't is true that this expence was not extraordinay for a Prince who is said to have spent above seven hundred Millions of Gold during his Reign In the Year 1671. this admirable House was very much endamaged by a Fire Badajox is upon the Frontier of Portugal in Estramadura The small Territory of la Manche is made the Native Country of Don Quixot The Kingdom of Leon was the first which the Christians did establish after the Invasion of the Moors It s Town of the same Name has a Cathedral Church renowned for its Beauty That of Toledo is esteemed for its Riches of Sevil for its Bigness of Salamanca for its Strength The City of Salamanca has a Celebrated University which has the Priviledg of Teaching the Hebrew Greek Arabick and Chaldean Tongues Mention is made of the Vallies of Vatuegas Inhabited by a kind of Patoacas or Savage People never heard of in Spain before the late discovery of 'em in the Mountains of the Kingdom of Leon. The occasion this An Hawk of the Duke of Alva's which he very much valued flew over those Mountains and his Man not being able to find her at first they were sent back by the Duke to seek her Clambring from one Hill to another they hapned at last upon a large and pleasant Valley where they spied a Company of Naked Savage People hemm'd about amongst many Craggy Rocks the Savages gazing a while upon them ran into their Caves made in the hollows of the Rocks the best Houses they had which being observed by the Falconers they return again to their Lord telling him that instead of a Falcon they had brought him news of a new World in the midst of Spain and of a Race of People which came in with
Preside therein but one Week That of Guelderland begins because it is the most Ancient and its Plenipotentiaries were the first who propos'd the Union It is the same Province which in the Year 1674. had offer'd the Sovereignty to the Prince of Orange The Admiralty has five Sessions and as many Magazines which are those of Rotterdam Amsterdam Horn or Enkuysan Middlebourg Harlingen the three former in Holland the fourth in Zealand the fifth in Friesland As touching Religion all sorts of Sects are tolerated in this State as we have said but Calvinism is principally followed The Province of Holland taken by it self is a great Peninsula which maintains it self against the Assaults of the Sea by the means of its Dikes where a careful Watch is kept both Day and Night It alone has always Contributed more than all the other Provinces have done together Of a hundred Livres it furnishes fifty nine and a half It has still some Nobility the Brederodes the Wassenaers the Egmonts this Nobility has ever Voted there the first tho' it has but one Voice together whereas that eighteen Cities of the same Provinces had there each their own with the Sovereignty bound by Alliance Most of the Towns in this Province are beautiful and pleasant as having been built in the last Age. Six of them are reckoned Principal that are called Great Dort Haerlem Delf Leyden Amsterdam Goude Dort whose Situation is upon four Rivers has the first Voice as that where the Counts of Holland and their Subjects gave reciprocally the Oath to one another It is the Place where Mony is Coined its Inhabitants have the Priviledg of Marching with Guards In the Year 1421. of a Town upon the Continent it became an Island by a terrible Inundation which drown'd above ten thousand Persons and twelve Villages Haerlem is the Place where the finest and whitest Linnen is made of the Province Delf is the Place of the Sepulchre of the Princes of Orange and where Porcelain Ware is made Leyden is the Eye or according to others the Garden of Holland by reason of the Cleanness of its Streets and the Beauty of its Houses 'T is Celebrated for its Antiquity for its University and its excellent Impressions for the Rhine's losing it self in the Sand where endeavours have been to no purpose used to make a Sea-Port in a word for an entire Defeat of the Spanish Army in the last Age after that the Hollanders had broken all the Neighbouring Dikes A Native of this Town was the Taylor who to his own bane made himself King of the Anabaptists in Munster Amsterdam Vyes with the best Cities of the World in the great Number of its Ships and the conveniency it has of sitting them out it now drives the greatest part of the Commerce that was formerly carried on by Antwerp Sevil and Lisbon It alone Contributes as much or more than all the other Cities of the Province The Inhabitants of the Country call it the Market and the Shop of the Rarities of the Universe by reason of the various Merchandizes wherewith it is filled and say it has so much Gold and Silver that there are sometimes found several Millions of Tuns of Gold in its Banck each of those Tuns being esteemed at near ten thousand Pounds the Expence for its Stadt-House or Town-House was Prodigious finally Amsterdam contains so many Riches that they have been constrained to enlarge the Circuit of it Gouda has this advantage as being in a Place where the Waters are running and where Inhabitants enjoy the purest Ait that is in all Holland Rotterdam the Birth-place of Erasmus is the best of the twelve Cities they call petty by reason of its great Traffick with England and upon the Meuse The Hague is the Residence of the Council of the States-General but a Town the best Built and the most Delicious in all Europe where the Embassadors of the Neighbouring Princes make their usual Residence The Texel is a Harbour towards the North famous for a Retreat of Ships The Brill has the same advantage towards the South the rest of the Coast is full of Downs or Hills of Sands with some Retreats for Fisher Boats and Busses Zealand is the Province which first of all set it self at Liberty and consented last to the Peace with Spain the Prince of Orange possesses most of its particular Lordships and Baronies those who compare the States-General to a Ship say that Zealand is the Pinnace It consists of eight Principal Islands whereof there are four great ones that of Walcheren is the most beautiful of all those of the Low-Countries with the Cities of Middlebourg and Flushing both well fortified Middlebourg the chief of the Province is the general Staple of the Country for Wines Flushing a commodious Harbour for many Ships the Duke of Alva had a design of causing a Cittadel to be built there as well as at Antwerp The small Isle of Duveland is known in the History of 1575. for the bold and hardy passage of the Spaniards across the Sea under Mondragon The Barony of Vtrecht has a Capital City of the same Name where dwell most of the Nobility of the Country They reckon above fifty six Cities to which one may go by Boat from Vtrecht in less than a day Guelderland has four Quarters that of the same Name which is toward the South called the High-Quarter of Guelderland belongs to the Spaniards who in the Year 1627. did to no purpose at all endeavour to bring the Rhine to the City of Gueldres and into the Meuse for the depriving the Vnited-Provinces of its Commerce with Germany Nimmeghen famous for the Conclusions of the Treaties of Peace in the the Years 1678 and 1679. is the Capital of Holland's Guelderland in the Quarter of the Betuve the abode of the ancient Batavians Arnheim is in that of the Veluve The Province of Zutphen bears the same Name with its Capital City and passes sometimes for a fourth Quarter of the Dutchy of Guelderland having no Vote in the Assemblies of the States-General but conjoyntly with this Dutchy besides this Capital at the Siege thereof â—ell that Ornament of our Nation Sir Philip Sidney as great a Wit Courtier Soldier and Statesman perhaps as ever was There is in this Province Groll and eight or nine small Cities Over-Yssel otherwise Trans-Isaline is so called from its Situation beyond the Yssel where the Rhine communicates part of its Waters by the means of a Trench or Chanel which Drusus caused formerly to be made There are three Countries Salande Tuvente Drente where they would persuade us were formerly the Salians Tubantes and Tencterians Saland has Deventer the Capital of the Province a famous passage over the Yssel Drente has Coeworden one of the most regular Pentagones of Europe Friesland affords special strong Horses and Beeves of an excessive bigness It has had at divers times Princes Dukes and according to some Kings who have resided at Staveren Leuvarden has the
keeps in its Metropolitan Church call'd the Dome the Relick of St. Suaire wherein the Face of our Lord is imprinted with most of his Body It boasts of having of all the Cities of Italy brought the Press into use Nice near the Sea has several Roman Antiquities and a Cittadel which seems inaccessible by reason of its situation upon a Rock Montferrat has most of its Towns upon Hills very fertile in Corn and Wine By the Peace of Quieras a part of that Country was yielded to the Duke of Savoy the other remaining the Duke of Mantua's who possesses Casal near the Po. This Town is fortified with several Bulwarks and Half-moons with a Castle and a strong Cittadel composed of six great Bastions The Land of Milan is the most beautiful Country of all Lombardy and the finest Dutchy of Christendom now possess'd by the King of Spain The Ways are pleasant almost all in a direct line with Chanels of Spring-Water on both sides and rows and plantations of Trees which make them resemble Alleys and Walks The Champain of Milan is so fertile that there is not an Inch of Land but brings forth twice a Year The Nobility as well as in the Kingdom of Naples does not meddle with Commerce as does that of the other neighbouring States The City of Milan is called Great because it is full ten Miles in compass wherein it contains above two hundred and thirty Churches ninety six Parishes as many Convents and above a hundred Fraternities It is a general Mart of the Merchandizes of France of Spain of Italy of Germany so great a number of Artizans it has of all sorts that the Italians have it for a Proverb That Milan must be ruin'd if they would accommodate Italy with them It has ever passed for a second Rome tho' it has been besieged forty times and taken two and twenty Its strength consists rather in its Men than in its Walls it being reckoned to contain above three hundred thousand persons It s Castle is one of the finest Fortresses of Europe of six great Bastions Royal invested with Brick with Grafts and Ditches full of running Water The Coast of Genoa formerly called Liguria produces Muscate-Wines Olives in abundance all manner of good Fruits the Western part particularly is full of Lemmon Orange Fig Palm and Cedar-trees the Inland of the Country is mountainous full of Woods which furnish Materials for the making of Ships and Galleys The Situation of Genoa is upon the Sea-shore part in Plains part in Hills The City is full five Miles round and has Fortifications which are yet much greater in circuit for which reason it is the greatest the most trading and the most important of all Italy towards the West The Buildings and Structures of this Town are so magnificent and so beautiful that it is called the Stately tho' very much endamag'd by the late Batteries of the French One of the principal Revenues of its Inhabitants consists in the transportation of Silk-stuffs Parma the Capital of Parmezan is the common abode of the Duke of that Name of the House of the Farnezes a Feudatory of the Church It has a Cittadel whereon Money has not been sparing for the rendring it good and a fair Palace for its Princes dwelling Modena is the Capital of the Dutchy of the same Name fortified with Bulwarks after the ancient manner inhabited by above thirty five thousand Souls In Modena it was that Brutus was in vain besieged by Mark Anthony after the Murder of Julius Caesar Octavius having happily defeated the Army of him who would by this Siege have renewed the Civil Wars Mantua is seated in the Waters of a Lake of twenty Miles in circuit which only affords entrance by Causeys into the Town Its Mills do raise a good Revenue to this Duke the Jews who are there very numerous pay him a great Tribute The Ducal Palace is one of the finest and best furnish'd in all Italy The Demesn of Venice has so many Rivers Canals and Navigable Lakes that Merchandizes are easily conveyed into all its places The Republick is independent above twelve hundred Years standing the Bulwark of Christendom against the Turks The City of Venice is one of the greatest of Europe so populous that there are reckoned above three hundred thousand persons Those who have seen it may boast of having seen one of the Wonders of the World It s Arcenal is the finest the greatest and the best furnished upon Earth The Isles whereof the City is composed are separated from one another by Chanels wherein there be above fifteen thousand Boats which they call Gondoles The Church and Palace of St. Mark are very fine Structures the Treasury of St. Mark contains immense Riches The Bishoprick of Trent which belongs to its Bishop is under the Protection of the House of Austria The City of Trent is ancient inhabited both by Italians and Germans renowned for-holding the last General Council The state of the Church is look'd upon as so much the more considerable in that the Pope who is the Temporal and Spiritual Prince of it pretends to be the Chief and Soveraign Pontife of all Christendom the Patriarch of Rome and of the West Primate and Exarch of Italy Metropolitan of the Suffragan Bishops of Rome Bishop of St. John de Lateran Rome formerly the Capital of the finest greatest and most considerable Empire of the Universe was once the Mistress of the better part of the World famous for excellent Men who have surpassed others in Valour in Piety in Justice and Temperance It has had in its beginning Kings Consuls and Emperours the Papists call it Rome the Holy by reason of the Residence of the Popes We may say it has few Equals if we consider its Antiquities Churches Palaces and Curiosities Tuscany has three principal Cities Florence Siena Pisa formerly as many Republicks Florence the Capital of this State renowned upon the account of its Beauty is large and very populous The Palace of the Great Duke has fine Pictures Jewels of great value several Rarities Lucca fortified with eleven regular Bastions is famous for its Silks and Olives The Head of this Republick is a Gonfalonier or Chief-Standard-Bearer whose Charge lasts but two Months The Kingdom of Naples is the greatest State of Italy it belongs to the King of Spain who pays for it every Year a white Hobbey to the Pope with seven thousand Ducats The Spring is there so long and so full of Flowers the Autumn so loaded with Fruits that it is esteemed a Paradise The City of Naples is the abode of several Gentlemen which makes it be called the Gentile It is situated so advantagiously that it seems an abridgment of all the Beauties of Italy There are few Cities in Europe who have so many Churches and so many Cittadels as has Naples Germany GErmany has very fertile Provinces and a great number of fine Cities The Corn Fruits Salt and other Commodities afford a very considerable
acquisitions of Sueden over the Empire by the Peace of Osnabrug are the Dutchy of Pomerania Citerior and in the Ulterior Stetin Gartz Dam Golnau The Isle and Principality of Rugen the Isles and the Mouths of the Oder the Dutchies of Bremen and of Verden the City the Seigniory and the Port of Wismar Wildhusen in Westphalia certain Customs in the Rest of Pomerania and in the new Marquisate of Brandenbourg The War declared in the year 1675 by the King of Denmark and several Princes of the Empire deprived Sueden of many of these acquisitions which it was restored to by the Peace of Nimeguen in the year 1679. The Treaty of Oliva in the year 1660. was so advantageous to Sueden that the King of Poland did there make renunciation of the Title of King of Sueden for the future reserving only to himself the Title during his life to other Princes and likewise consented that Lifeland should henceforward be Hereditary to the Crown of Sueden This is to be understood of Lifeland on the North of the Duna where the only place of Dunembourg was reserved to the Crown of Poland conformable to the Truce made at Stumsdorf for twenty six years in the year 1635. The Peace with the Muscovites procured restitution to Sueden of all the Grand Duke or Zar had taken in Lifeland The King of Sueden has lately very much augmented his Revenue by the re-union to his Demesne of several Lands which had been Alienated from it He pretends to the Succession of Gleves and of Juliers by the means of his great Grandfather John Duke of Deux-Ponts who married Magdelain the third Sister of the Duke of John William In the States of the Kingdom the Peasants make a Body as well as the other Orders Sueden possesses part of Scandinavia which is the best of it as being towards the East The Cold is somewhat long in this Country often very sharp to provide themselves against it the Inhabitants do not make use of Furres as they do in Germany they have only Night-Caps Gloves of Wool Waist-Coats and make great Fires of the Fewel they have plenty of They have so few sick People in their Countrey that the Physitians and Apothecaries have hardly practice among 'em whereas Barbers are there in great request The Ministers and Officers of Justice do there keep Inns. The Inhabitants of this Province are all equally rich their greatest Revenues consist in Mines of Copper from whence most of the Europeans are furnish'd wherewith to make money their Canons and their Bells The City of Stockholme alone has in its Castle above a hundred pieces of great Artillery and there are held to be above eight Thousand in the Kingdom In the review of the Militia which was made in the year 1661. there were reckoned above Fourscore Thousand Men in Arms. This Countrey being full of Woods and Mountains affords very little Corn in time of scarcity the Poor eat often very bad Bread It furnishes Butter Suet Hides Skins Pitch Rosin Masts Posts and Planks The Towns are subject to Fire the Houses being only built of Wood. The Lakes and Gulphs are there more considerable than the Rivers Trade being only drove upon the Coasts neither dare the Ships venture upon that without a Pylot by reason of the number of Rockswith which it is beset The Ice is here so strong and firm in Winter that when it is but two Inches thick it is said to be able to bear a Man on Foot Waggons go on it with safety when it is half a foot thick The Snow does there afford the means of travelling in Sledges The Horses in this Countrey are proper for War they are very easily reared and rarely sick they see as well almost by night as by day they carry their man swimming with ease they leap great Ditches they have so much courage and agility that they attack with their Feet and Teeth the Enemies of those who mount them Six great Regions are principally known under the name of Sueden Gotia Sueden Lapland Finland Ingria Lifeland the three former towards the West the three other towards the East the Gulph of Finland between both and besides these the modern acquisitions before specified Gotia is divided into Ostro-Gotia and Westro-Gotia this last towards the Ocean the former upon the Baltick Sea According to the like division the Goths who subdued Italy were called Ostro-Goths and those who rendred themselves Masters of Spain Visi-Goths Calmar is a strong Town and the place where the Suedes until now did embark for Germany It s Cittadel was esteemed in the Northern Countreys as much as that of Milan in Italy Norkoping has works and forges of Copper which afford the Europeans the conveniency of coming to load Cannon there Lindkoping the Countrey of the Historian Olaus-Magnus is remarkable for the Victory of Charles of Sudermania since King of Sueden There be several Cities in these parts whose names be thus terminated in Koping which signifies the places where the market is kept Gottembourg a new Town and has its Sea-Port upon the Ocean Sueden properly taken communicates its name to the other Provinces of this State Stockholme is the Capital City of all the Kingdom accompanied with a Royal Castle and a Sea-Port at the disgorging of the Lake of Meler whereof was formerly the conjunction proposed with that of Wener for the communicating the Ocean and Baltick Seas and thus be exempted from the passage of the Sound This Town is now better built and much richer than it was before the War of the Suedes in Germany In the year 1641. they began to make the Streets in Right Lines and to build their Houses of one and the same Structure It is a safe Harbour for Ships which may ride there in security without Anchor There be three Channels which lead thither between several Isles and Rocks The Kings Ships remain at Elsnappen The Country round about is beautify'd with several fine Houses which the Soveraigns and most of the Senators have caus'd to be built Upsal accompanied with a great Castle is the Metropolitan and formerly the place of the Coronation of their Kings whose abode it formerly was When in Sueden were several Kingdoms that of Upsal was ever the most considerable of 'em This City has an University and the most renowned Fairs of all those parts It s principall Church was a stately Building and is said to have been embelish'd and wainscoted with Gold now it is covered with Copper Lapland has no Towns only some Habitations divided into five Countries which bear the name of their Rivers The Laplanders are very low of Stature the tallest among them not exceeding four Foot in height They have no other Cloaths than of Skins and when they are young they are so hardned to the cold that they afterwards undergo it with ease when without habilliments They have neither Wool nor Flax nor Hemp they have blades of Copper which they call Cipons which they exchange for
Schismaticks in black Russia who first of all acknowledge him of Kiou and then the Greek Patriarch of Constantinople There is in this State several other Sects Here Gentlemen are equall the distinction and precedence proceeding only from the publick Offices they stand possess'd of they serve at their own costs in time of Wars but do not stay long in the Campagne Their infantry is commonly compos'd of Forreigners The Garments of the Polanders are long have their Beards shaved off their Chins only one Tuff of Hair upon their Heads upon the occasion of Casimir the first one of their Kings whom they took out of a Cloister he was in in France to place him upon their Throne They are almost all handsome well shaped well proportioned knowing for the most part the Latin Tongue The use of Spices is very common and with them in great request they misuse their Peasants in consequence of the absolute Power they have over them which certainly did occasion the revolt of the Cossaques and afterwards all the disorders of the Kingdom Their Cavalary is so considerable that if they were well united they might bring into the Field a hundred thousand Horse The confidence they have therein and the fear of rendring a King or Citizens too powerful have inclined them in all times to neglect their Fortresses Their usual Arms are their Cimiter the Sword the Battel Ax Carabine and Arrows The Cossaques have ever formed a Militia and not a particular Nation At the first they were Volunteers making incursions upon the Turks and the lesser Tartars these last call them by the Name of Roux because their Country makes a part of Russia King Battori reduced them into a Body and joyned thereto two thousand Horse to whom he appointed the fourth part of the Revenue of his Demesne for which reasons they were called Quartians They have power of choosing and of deposing their General who takes an Oath of Fidelity to their King Their number was first of all six thousand afterwards forty thoufull sand and now since twenty thousand Their abode is in the lower parts of Volhinia and of Podolia which is called Ukrain that is to say Frontier This Country is by much the most fertile and the best inhabited of all Poland so many fortified Buroughs have been there made since the beginning of this Age and so full is it of Inhabitants that in the late Wars there were reckoned at the same time two hundred thousand Cossaques besides a hundred and fourscore thousand Tartars and as many Polanders in Arms. There be Cossaques who have their retreats in some Isles of the Boristhenes which is not Navigable by reason of the Cataracts or falls which they call Porowis Their Custom was formerly to put to Sea with several light Ships and to go plunder the Coasts of the Grand Seignior upon the Black Sea Since they confederated with the lesser Tartars and have likewise courted the Protection of the Muscovite and that of the Grand Seignior who gave them in his name a Prince for the Ukrain insomuch that we may say that the Felony of the Cossaques the Irruption of the Suedes under Carolus Gustavus the Tumults and Irresoluon of the Muscovites the continual harassings of the lesser Tartars the Invasion of Ragotski Prince of Transilvania the defection of several Provinces the Insurrections of the whole Armies of Poland and Lithuania the different Factions of the Kingdom and the Caballs of the Neighbouring Nations to have a King Elected have given a rude shock to this Crown And this was what really moved the Grand Seignior to make war upon this Realm after the taking of Candia Poland has ten great parts four towards the West upon the Vistula Poland Mazovia Gujavia Royal Prussia six towards the East on the West of the Boristhenes Lithuania Samogitia Polachia Lesser Russia Volhinia Podolia These Provinces have been acquired for the most part either by Arms or Allyances They are divided into Palatinates the Palatinates into Chastellenies the Chastellenies into Capitanies The Government of the Places are called Starostyes Besides these Provinces there is a part of Muscovy which has been yielded to Poland in the year 1634. after that King Ladislaus the 4th being yet but Prince had the year foregoing gloriously relieved the City of Smolensko and reduced to extremity an Army of an hundred thousand Muscovites who were all constrained to ask his pardon as their Prince to save their Lives This Treaty which is called of Viasma acquired to Poland Smolensko Novogrodeck Sovierski Gzernihou and other places and by that same Treaty the King of Poland renounced his pretensions upon Muscovy The Truce of 13 years concluded on the 14th of February in the year 1667. left the Grand Duke of Muscovy in possession of Smolensko until a certain term as well as in part of the Ukrain on the East of the Boristhenes and procured the restoration of Dunembourg Polosk and Vitepski to the Crown of Poland Poland the most populous of all the Provinces is divided into High and Low In the former is Cracow where the Coronations of the Kings and Queens are performed and where is a great number of Germans Italians and Jews Of Cracow was the Popish Bishop St. Stanislaus who was killed by order of King Bogislaus Upon the Confines of Silesia stands the City of Czentochow with the Cloister of our Lady of Clermount a place extraordinary strong which the Suedes did twice besiege in vain in the year 1655 and 1656. Low Poland though much smaller than the Higher is called Great because it makes part of the Kingdom rather than the other It s City of Gnesne is ancient the abode of the first Princes It was so called upon the account of an Eagles Nest that was there found when it was built and which gave occasion to the Arms of Poland which art Gules an Eagle-Argent Crowned beaked and Armed Or bound under the Wings with a Ribbon of the same The Province of Mazovia alone has full thirty thousand Gentlemen Narsan is the Capital thereof and of all the Kingdom too with a Castle the Kings usual abode Gujavia has the City of Uladislau where the Houses are built of Brick which is somewhat extraordinary in Poland It has also the Lake of Goblo from whence issued the Rats that eat King Popiel Prussia which is of two sorts Regal and Ducal has a great number of Cities which were built by the Knights of the Teutonique Order Its Lakes and Sea Coast furnish abundance of Amber Nariembourg is strong Toren the Birthplace of the Copernicus drives a great Trade with a fine Bridge of Wood over the Vistule Dantzick one of the four Capital Hanse-Towns drives all the Trade of Poland and has not its like upon all the Baltick Sea It is free and has right of sending to the States of the Kingdom The King of Poland has there some Rights The City of Elbiens disputes with it the Precedence in the States of Prussia The generous
some Hides or Cloaths of Gold They have in esteem the Corn of Resan and of Volodimere the Hides of Jaroslau the Wax and Honey of Plescou the Suet of Vologde The Oyl of the Country about the Wolga the Flax and Hemp of great Novogorod the Pitch of Duvine the Salt of Astracan the Sables and other Furrs of Siberia where the Hunters have the dexterity to hit the Beast upon its Nose for the having the Spoils entire The Country bordering upon the lesser Tartars is wholly Desart by the incursions of those People who go thither to make Slaves to sell them in the Crim from whence they are led to Constantinople as there are very handsom Women amongst those slaves they ever meet with Chapmen who take them off their hands The Palisado'd Hedges of Wood and the Ditch that was made a hundred Leagues in length have not been capable to stop those Incursions They have treated the Russians with so many indignities in the foregoing ages that besides the Tribute the Prince of Muscovy was bound to light off his Horse before the Embassadour of Tartary to offer him a Dish of Milck to lick up what by chance might fall upon the Horses Crest to keep standing and bare headed the Tartar being seated The Religion of the Muscovite is little different from that of the Greeks all their Images are in Board Pictures St. Nicholas is the Protectour of their Nation they have seldom any Festivals but on the day of the Blessed Virgins Anunciation they have at Mosco a Patriarch the head of their Religion three Archbishops and Metropolitans at Rosthou at Susdal and at Great Novogorode Bishop of Wologda Resan Susdal Tuvere Tobelesca Astracan Casan Plescou Colomna and almost in all the Provinces of the Great Duke where they are chosen out of the Body of the Monks The Muscovites have this good property as they do not constrain any body for Religion they hate the Roman Catholicks because of the excesses committed by the Polanders when they rendred themselves Masters of Moscow in the year 1611. There be still some Idolaters towards the North. Muscovy is divided into two parts Southern and Northern the former towards the Wolga the latter towares the Duvine which Wolga the greatest River of Europe falls into the Caspian Sea after having run a course of about seven hundred Leagues The Duvine which waters the most trading Towns of Muscovy empties it self by six or seven Mouths into the Gulph of St. Nicholas which is called the White Sea by reason of the Snow of the Country thereabouts The Dom which seperates Europe from Asia has its beginning a hundred Leagues from its end its Course is about six hundred Leagues first towards the East afterwards towards the West the conjunction of these three Rivers was formerly proposed for the communication of the principal Seas of our Continent that is to say for the facillitating the Commerce of the Ocean Mediterranean and Caspian Seas But this design did not succeed by reason of the divers Interests of the Neighbouring Princes The Rivers of Muscovy have this in particular that they have not any Carps There be few good Towns in all those Parts they are not paved some that are boarded with Wood nor walled for the most part the Lands being till'd and plow'd between the streets the Houses below made of Wood and Mud in the Markets their Houses are to be sold wholly prepared and ready to be set up There often happen Fires by reason of that combustible matter which is easily lighted and enflamed by the number of Candles that are lighted before the Images and which the Muscovites who are commonly drunk do not take care to extinguish Mosco the Capital City and the Residence of the Great Duke seems rather a heap of several Boroughs than a good City It has had forty thousand Houses but has less since it has been pillaged at divers times by the lesser Tartars by the Polanders and since the late burning down of most part of its Houses It s two Castles were built by Italian Ingeniers after the Model of that of Milan Volodimere the Residence of the Prince before that of Moscow is in the most fertile part of all Muscovy accompanied with a Castle The Rivers of Moscow and of Occa furnish the Inhabitants of Moscow with the means of making their Merchandize descend upon the Volga The lesser Novogorod is the last City of Europe towards the East Plescou is well fortifyed as being a Bulwark against the Polanders and the Suedes Great Novogorod was one of the four Magazines of the Hanse-Towns and a Town so rich and puissant that it was formerly a saying of its Citizens that nothing could oppose God or great Novogorod In the year 1577. the Great Duke took it and is said to have carried away from thence three hundred Waggons loaded with Gold and Silver It is still at this day a Town of great Commerce Archangel or St. Michael the Archangel is the staple of all Muscovy by reason of its Sea-Port The Customs there mount to above six hundred thousand Crowns a year This place was both first discovered and first frequented by the English Ships but have been followed by other Nations of Europe Before the Commerce of Muscovy was carryed on by passing through the Sound and resorting to Nerva the great Impositions laid upon Merchandize by the Princes through whose Territories they were to pass have made Merchants abandon that way St. Nicholas drives also a great Trade at the entrance of the Duvin these are the only good Places of the Grea Duke upon the Ocean Colmogorod is noted for the faires that are held there in Winter The Duvine there receives great Ships Oustioug is in the Center of the Countrey where its traffick is pretty considerable by means of its Scituation at the meeting of two Rivers The Interest of the Great Duke of Muscovy would be to have a place upon the Baltick Sea for the Cannons Muskets and other ammunition of War which he has brought him from Hamburgh and Lubeck are conveyed by the North of Norway with extraordinary pain and trouble Besides the White Sea has Banks and Rocks at its entrance the Snow thaw'd and melted and the Torrents which augment it in the Spring carry its Waters with such impetuosity that the Ships can hardly enter therein true it is that abundance of Salmon are taken there Kola and Pitzora in Lapland receive Merchants Ships As concerning the Conquest of the Great Duke in Asiatick Tartary there is principally Astracan and Casan with Titles of Kingdoms and the Hurdes of Zavolha and Nagaia Astracan towards the Mouth of the Wolga drives a great traffick upon the Caspian Sea In this Country is the Plant Zoophite which resembles a Lamb it eats the Herbs round about its Root and if it be cut it casts forth a red Liquor like to bloud the Wolves devour it with as much greediness and avidity as if it were a Sheep Locomoria
the 2d Emperour of the Turks Pella was the Birth-place of that ancient Conquerour Edissa the abode of King Philip his Father who was there assassinated Philippi is famous for the defeat of Cassius and Brutus Monte-Santo otherwise Athos for the great number of its Caloyers religious Greeks who chose it for the Place of their abiding by reason of the goodness of the Air. Its shadow reaches to the Isle of Lemnos which is seen from Mount Ida in Asia Xerxes had the satisfaction to make it his Island Stesicrates a Sculpturean proposed to Alexander the Great to make of it a very extraordianry Statue with one hand it should have poured a great River into the Sea with the other it should have held a considerable City Thessalonica or Saloniki has had Kings of its own Albania is renowned for its good Cavalry where Valone is accompanyed with good harbour from whence the passage is easie into Italy Pyrrhus King of Epirus had a thought of making a Bridge of Boats from that Coast to Otranto in Italy During the War against the Pyrates Terentius Varro Pompeys Lievtenant had the same design Durazzo is noted for the encampments of Gaesar and of Pompey Groye for being the brave Scanderbegs Native Place that Flail of the Ottoman Empire whose Armies he defeated in two and twenty set Battails Scutari was a long while besieged by the Forces of Mahomet the 2d who shot therein so many Arrows that they furnished the Garrison with Wood sufficient to warm themselves with all the Winter Epirus has had the Title of a Kingdom Prevesa was the best Town it was formerly Nicopolis built by order of Augustus in memory of the Naval Victory which he gained over Marc-Antony and Cleopatra near Actium Larta is the ancient Ambracia which served for Residence to King Pyrrhus Near that place dwells the Acarnanes the best Slingers of Greece the only People which did not assist the Greeks in their Trojan War The Epirots were the first People of Greece who made War upon the Romans and who made use of Elephants against them unknown before to Italy Thessalia has had several Tyrants amongst others Jason of Pheres There be the Cities of Larisse the Native place of Achilles where Mahomet the 4th for some time made his Abode during the last War of Candia Armira Volo with their Sea Ports Tricca the Episcopal Title of Heliodorus who chose rather to lose his Bishoprirk thandisown his Romance of Theagenes and Chariclea Achaia has two Cities Setines and Stives the former was the most flourishing Republick of the World the Abridgment of all Greece the other as we have said has dared to aspire to the general Dominion of the Countrey Sparta is famous for the signal Victory of the Christians over the Turks in the year 1671. In that engagement a hundred and eighty nine Turkish Galleys were lost five and twenty thousand Turks killed four thousand made Prisoners twelve thousand Christians freed This City is in the Countrey of the ancient Aetolians who despised the orders of Alexander the Great during his greatest Conquests Negrepont formerly Euboae is only seperated from Achaia by a Strait called otherwise Euripe This Euripe has given a good deal of Exercise to Philosophers who have sought out the cause of its ebbing and flowing those who seem to have examined it best say that it is regular towards the days of the New and Full Moon that is to say in twenty four or twenty five hours it has twice its ebbing and flowing as the Ocean and that it is irregular towards the dayes of the first and last quarter of the Moon that is to say that in twenty four or in twenty five hours it has 11 12 13 or 14 times Floud and as often an Ebb. The Peloponesus the most renowned Peninsula in the World is joyned to the rest of Greece by a Neck of Land of about six thousand paces in breadth which several Kings and Emperors have in vain endeavored to dig through It was a saying fodere Isthmum when they meant to express nenterprize which had no probability of being effected The Christians who called it Morea upon the account of its Mulberries have made there retrenchments in divers times against the Turks who won them under Amurath the 2d and under Mahomet the 2d The midst of that Peninsula was formerly inhabited by the Arcadians who had in their Countrey the finest Asses in the World and who neglected to learn Astrology when the other Greeks received it because they esteemed themselves more ancient than the Moon Patras where St. Andrew was put upon the Cross is one of its best Towns Modon the abode of the Sangiacbey or Governour of the Province Maina gives its Name to a Petty Countrey which has no longer the Liberty it a long time maintained against the Turks by favour of the Sea and the sharpness and steepness of the Mountains Napoli of Romania and Malvasia are peopled on the score of their Sea-Ports where a great Trade is droven Corinth now ruined was formerly named the Rich the conveniency of its Scituation made it be called the Market of Greece Its Inhabitants invented the Greek Galleys after that it was burnt by the Romans there came a mixture of its melted Mettals which has retained the Name of Corinthian Brass Philip King of Macedon esteemed three places in Greece for strength the Castle of Corinth Demetrias and Calcis The Castle of Corinth named the Acrocorinth and Ithoma near Messena by reason of their Scituations were called the two Horns of the Peloponesus Mesitra is the ancient Sparta otherwise called Lacedemon whose power was particularly upon Land whereas that of Athens was upon the Sea It s most Noble Citizens were called Spartiates the others Lacedemonians perhaps with the same difference that is put between the Castillans and the Spaniards The Government of this State consisted in few persons they observed there a stile in speaking and writing which expressed much in few Words Olympies was noted for the Temple and Oracle and Statue of Jupiter the Olympian one of the seven Wonders of the World for the Olympyads which were reckoned from four to four years after the celebration of the Olimpick Games The Ceremonies where of were kept until the Countrey was subdued by the Romans Sicion had its Kings almost as soon as the Assyrians The Ancients did affirm that the River Alpheus which passes in the Peloponesus went under the Sea to the Fountain Arethusa in Sicily Besides the Dominions of the Grand Seignior which we have mentioned in Africa in Asia and Europe His Highness possesses Suaquem upon the Red Sea Teflis in Georgia Asoph at the Mouth of the Dom. Themon and Temroch near the Palus Maeotides on the side of Asia Arabia Petrea part of desart Arabia The Kingdoms of Zibit and Ziden in Arabiafoelix with the Towns of Dolfar and El-catif In Europe Bessarabia Ocziacou Dassain towards the Mouths of the Nieper Gaffa and other places
in lesser Tartary The Isle of Gandia Waradin in Transilvania The Scituations of these Countreys and places is to be seen in the Map to know the importance of them Transilvania Valachia Moldavia lesser Tartary the Republick of Ragusa the Corsairs of Barbary and others hold of the Turks Of Hungary Hungary seems to have been so called from the Huns a People noted for the Devastations they have made in several Regions of Europe principally under Attila one of their Kings Most of the Towns of this Country have Names that have very little affinity one with another because the Nations who gave them at their setling themselves there had very different Tongues Hungary is commonly divided into High and Low the last towards the South is almost wholly in possession of the Turks the former towards the North for the most part in the hands of the House of Austria unless it be such places as have been lately seized or revolted with Count Teckley Two parts of it have been sometimes made separated from one another by the Danube the one to the West known under the Name of Pannonia the other to the East making part of ancient Dacia There be several Countreys the enumeration whereof is not here very material The House of Austria has there four General Ships the Turks four Bachalics or great Governments When the Realm of Hungary was in its Splendour it extended to the very Adriatick Sea as far as Greece and comprehended Transilvania Walachia and Moldavia from whence it came that the Emperour as King of Hungary pretends that the Princes of those three States be allowed of by him The Grand Seignior has maintained his pretension better in that point The Soyl of Hungary is fertile the Plains are beautiful and afford plenty of Corn the Hills Wine which is transported into Poland and other places where it is accounted excellent that of Tokay is in most esteem It also affords Salt and other Conveniencies of Life Several Great Rivers contribute to this abundance the Danube Drave Save which have their Sources in Germany the Teyss which is entirely Hungarian The Danube leads its Waters from the West to the East through the midst of the Countrey with less swiftnes towards Noon than towards the Evening and the Morning after a course of above six hundred Leagues it falls into the Black Sea by several Mouths The Teyss can carry Boats four Leagues from its Source It abounds so in Fish that they are said to make the third part of its Bed for which reason it often casts abundance of them upon the Neighbouring Plains and that in the publick Markets of the Towns those who retire into the Countrey have order to take them away Formerly the Hungarians put the Figure of the above mentioned Rivers in their Ensigns or Colours and since they have carryed the Cross therein having embrac'd Christianity under their Prince Esthienne who for that consideration obtained of Pope Silvester the 2d the Title of King and was crowned in the year 1001. The highest Mountains of Hungary are towards Poland and Transilvania the Richest between Buda and Strigonia The Hungarians are Warlike neither their Garments nor their Manners be very different from those of the Turks Their Tongues is almost wholly peculiar to themselves and nevertheless the Latine Sclavonian German and Turkish are in use among them The Emperour Ferdinand the 2d allowed the liberty of Religion in this Realm in the year 1622. The Revocation of that Toleration has occasioned perpetual Revolts and is the source of that great War it is now the Scene of This Realm has two Archbishopricks Strigonia or Gran and â—oloâ—â—a with ten Bishopricks the half of which is in the Infidels hands Four orders of Persons have Sessions in the States the Prelates the Barons the Nobles and the Burgesses of Free and Royal Cities The Dignity of Palatine is there the most considerable after that of King who if he acts in any wise against their Priviledges may be opposed by force if the Palatine consent thereto The Hungarians will not suffer to have any Palatines but of their own Nation The Archbishop of Strigonia is Prince and perpetual Chancellour of the Kingdom he Crowns the King after his election These two Officers have almost all the Authority Hungary has had eight Kings of the House of Austria from Ferdinand the â— Brother of the Emperour Charles the 5th unto Leopold-Ignace Though the Hungarian Nobility do not love the Germans yet they have not opposed this Election for the sheltering themselves against the oppression of the Turks who respect a Peasant as much as they do a Gentleman The greatest strength of the Countrey consists in light Horse the Troopers be called Hussars the Foot Soldiers Heidukes Besides extraordinaries the Emperour draws from what he possesses in Hungary about a million of Livers every year He raises this Money from the Mines by an imposition on each Horse and by the exportation of Cattle The Grand Seignior has there his Caraz which is four Livers a Head of those under his Sway This is so small a matter for either of those Princes that for the preservation of what they hold there they are obliged to employ their other Revenues The Turk pretends to all Hungary and the States which depend thereon by virtue of a Cession which was made thereof to Soliman the 2d by John Sigismond Son of King John Count de Cepuse and by the Queen his Mother In Upper Hungary there be several Free Towns which form thirteen Communities The King of Poland holds half of Cepuse with a dozen of Cities Most of the Frontiers are untilled and overgrown with Shrubs and Weeds Tho there be a Truce between the Austrians and the Ottomans yet they fail not of making incursions upon one another In the year 1642. the Truce was made between the two Empires for twenty-years In the year 1664. after two years War it was renewed the Turk remaining Master of the Fortress of Waradin and Newheusel this last in the very middle of all Europe The most considerable Cities of Hungary are Presbourg Cassovia Esperies Buda Agria Temesvar Kanise Presbourg is the Capital of all the House of Austria possesses in this Realm Since the loss of Albe Royale it has been the place of Election and Coronation of their Kings Cassovia is towards the Mountains with the finest Arcenal of the Country Esperies has Fairs which render it very populous The strongest places of the House of Austria are Javarin and Komorra the Bulwarks of Christendom Javarin is in a vast Plain environed with the Danube and the Raab which sometimes gives it its Name defended with several Bastions faced with Brick with Ravelins between both Having formerly been taken by the Turks it was petarded and retaken with as much happiness as boldness by a French Gentleman called Vaubecour Komorra has the Danube for its Moat or Ditch and cannot be besieged but by three Bodies of Armies The Isle of the
same Name otherwise called of Schut where the Turks were routed by the Imperialists in a late Action to the loss of many of their Men has above three hundred Villages or Boroughs above fifteen thousand Inhabitants with the convenience of hunting and fishing Leopolstad Fillek Tokay Zatmar and Kalo have likewise been fortified by order from the Emperour Buda is divided into High and Low Town the Germans call it Offen that is to say Court because it was the abode of the Kings and the Capital of all the Kingdom it has the most honourable Beglerbyat of all Turkey though it be not the most gainful its Bashaw has more Authority than others Its usual Garrison is of eight or ten thousand Men. Agria Temesvar Kanisa have in like manner Bashaws as being upon the Frontier The Turks call Temesvar the invincible The Emperour Ferdinand the 2d besieged Kanise being then but Arch-Duke and could not take it Leopold-Ignace was not more happy in the year 1664. The Retreat from Kanise by the Duke of Mercoeur is one of the the finest Actions of our Age. People also esteem that from Mayence by the Cardinal de la Valette that from Torgow by the Suedish General Banier that from Dundee by the Marquiss of Montross Five Churches is the place where Solyman the Great dyed during the Siege he laid to Zygeth in the year 1566. Mogacz is noted for the defeat of the Christians in the year 1526. The Bridge of Esseck for the exploit of Count Peter de Serin who burnt it in sight of the Turks Armies Of Transilvania Walaciha and Moldavia TRansilvania is so called because it is seated beyond the Woods which separate it from Hungary It is sometimes called Sevenburgen because of the Cities which the Saxons built therein to the number of seven Hermanstat Cronstat Nosenstat Medwish Scespurg Clausembourg Weissembourg The People of this State are of three sorts Cicules or Zeckels Saxons Hungarians who give each different Names to each City of the Countrey The Zeckels are come from Tartary or rather are the remains of the Huns who laid aside their Name that they might not be odious to their Neighbours They have setled themselves principally in seven places at Sepsi at Orbay at Kisdi at Czick at Girgio at Marcos at Aranias their Capital City is Newmark The Saxons are Originaries of Germany the Hungarians stile themselves the Nobles of the Country Hermanstad the residence of the Prince is a strong Town Waradin was fortifyed by the Turks who usurped it in the year 1660. One of the Principal Revenues of Transilvania consists in Salt which is principally got at Torda it is sent into Hungary by the River of Marish There be Mines of Gold and Silver and sometimes Pieces of pure Gold are found in the Rivers which weigh above half a pound So as the Hungarians being Masters of Transilvania called it their Treasure There be several sorts of Religion the Catholicks Lutherans Calvinists have had there the free exercise of theirs towards the beginning of this Age. The Families of Bathori and of Ragotski have bestowed several Princes upon this Countrey which was made a Soveraignty in the year 1512. for John Zapolia upon condition of holding of Hungary The last Ragotski who was killed in Battel against the Turks in the year 1659. was the fourteenth Prince thereof he stiled himself By the Grace of God Prince of the Kingdom of Transilvania Lord of a part of Hungary and Count of the Siculi He paid the Grand Seignior annually a Tribute of fifty thousand Livers the Ministers of the Port have made it mount to a hundred thousand Rixdollers The Emperour as King of Hungary pretends to have right to the installation of the Prince of Transilvania the Emperour Rodolphus II. having establisht there Botskai upon condition of Return upon the Males failing Walachia which offers it self on the North East of Transilvania along and on the North of the Danube was called petty and Transalpina for the distinguishing it from Moldavia It is watred with a great number of Rivers some of its Mountains have great Mines of Gold its Horses are by many accounted the best in Europe It s Prince called Hospodar sometimes Vaivode that is to say Head of the Troops resides at Tergowis and pays the Grand Seignior a hundred and twenty thousand Livers of annual Tribute Moldavia has been sometimes known under the Name of Great Walachia and of Walachia Cis-Alpina It is rich in Wax and in Honey out of which it raises every year about 2 hundred thousand Crowns only for the tenths of the Prince There are several Heaps of Stones which are said to have been set up by order of Darius King of Persia who made war upon the Scithians It s capital Cities are Yasi and Sockou Choczin near the Niester is the place where a Polish Army was defeated under King Sigismond-Augustus and where King John Sobieski a little before his election gained over the Turks a Victory the most memorable of our age The Eastern part called Bessarabia butts upon the Black Sea and belongs to the Grand Seignior who is Master of the Mouths of the Danube and of the Niester and who takes all possible means to subdue those of the Nieper and subject entirely the rich Province of the Ukrain The Champaign of Budziac is twelve Leagues in length ten in breadth is possessed by the Dobruck Tartars who are the greatest Robbers of all those parts They are said to amount to above 15000. They inhabit the Country round about Bialigrod About the year 1500. a Governour of Moldavia called Estienne rendred himself the Soveraign thereof and at several times vanquished the Turks the Lesser Tartars and the Polanders His Successours have played there as it were at Bo-peep and several of them have been massacred by their Subjects upon the account of their Cruelties Of a score of its Princes which be there called Waivodes not two of them succeeded their Fathers They did for sometime hold of Poland now of the Turk at disposal The ordinary Tribute was a hundred and fourscore thousand Livers The Port augments from time to time the Tribute of the Moldavians as well as that of the Walachians for the rendring them poor and obedient if it protects in appearance their Princes who are commonly of low Birth it imitates those who defend Sheep and suffer Bees to live upon the account of the Wool and the Honey they afford Of Lesser Tartary LEsser Tartary which lies in Europe is so called for distinction sake from the Great which makes part of Asia It is also named Percopense and Crimee from its principal Cities scituated in the Peninsula called formerly Taurica The Nogay Tartars may be there comprehended between the Tanais and the Boristhenes the Tartars of Ocziakou between the Mouths of the Boristhenes and the Niester and also the Tartars of Budziack above mentioned on the East of Moldavia between the Mouths of the Niester and of the Danube Besides all
the Gulph of Venice It pays eighteen thousand Sequins of annual Tribute to the Grand Seignior for liberty of Commerce in the Levant The City which seems to have succeeded to the ancient Epidaure is pretty well fortify'd and very populous It has the Title of an Archbishoprick its Inhabitants who addict themselves for the most part to trade are Roman Catholicks In the year 1667. it received a great loss by an Earthquake It s Principal Harbour is that of St. Croix which is three Leagues distant from it Its Ships are pretty numerous well known in the Seas of the Levant as its Caravans be in the Dominions of the Turks in Europe He who commands the Republick of Ragusa is called Doge or Rectour he is assisted with the Councel of a hundred Senators his Government lasts only a Month. The Governour of the Castle is changed every day wherein one of the Nobles enters to command in his turn Their Gentlemen must marry Gentlewomen if they mean their Children should be acknowledged to be of the Ragusian Nobility The Revenue of the Republick is five and twenty thousand Crowns The Country above the Town is not over fertile full of Rocks and Stones if it bring forth any thing it is by the means of the Forreign Earth which they cause to be brought thither which is done with such care and such success that the Coast makes a Beautiful Prospect of Vineyards Orange Trees Lemon Trees and Pomegranates The Neighbouring Islands which are of the dependance of Ragusa are also very pleasant The Turks have some sort of inclination for the Ragusians by reason they pay punctually their Tribute and that by their means they are provided with all the Commodities of Europe which they stand in need of They give them Priveledges which they seldom grant to other Christians Of the Brittish Islands THese Islands consist in two great and several small ones Great Brittain and Ireland are the two great the small are all in the Neighbourhood of Great Brittain the Hebrides Orcades Shetland which depends on the Crown of Denmark in the sea of Scotland Man Anglesey the Sorlingues in the Irish Sea Wight Guernsey Jersey in the Channel Formerly Great Brittain went under the Name of Albion by reason of its Rocks all along the Sea which seem white It now comprehends two Kingdoms that of England and that of Scotland the union whereof gave occasion to King James to stile himself King of Great Brittain and at the same time the design of stifling the partialities which were between the two Nations The English were not very well satisfyed with this change since thereby their Name became the less famous The Brittish Islands had to the number of Nineteen Kingdoms England had seven of them Wales three Scotland two Ireland five the Isle of Man made one the Isles near Scotland another All this now is under the Crown of England Several places and Islands in the East and West Indies are also subject to it whereof we have made mention in the Article of Europe Of England ENgland was so called by the English an ancient People who dwelt on the confines of Germany and of Denmark the Name of Saxony Trans-marine was given it by the Saxons Before it was called Lhoegria and then Scotland went under the Name of Albania and Wales that of Cambria During the decay of the Roman Empire the Saxons and English invaded Great Brittain with main force and near Bedford gained a signal Victory over the Insularies who were constrained to abandon their Countrey Several Brittons retired into Wales others passed into Brittany in France where they setled the British Tongues by the help of their Country Men whom the Romans had already lead thither to support their pretensions to the Empire King Arthur one of the last Brittish Kings who dyed in the year 542. is the same whom so many Fables be told of and to whom is attributed the institution of the Knights of the round Table The Victors that is to say the Saxons and the English raised a Wall towards the West of England to mark the Bounds of their Conquests and at the same time made a Law by which all the Brittons should have a hand cut off who were found with a Sword on this side the Wall In the year 450. and the following there were formed seven Kingdoms Kent Sussex Essex West-Sex East-Anglia Mercia North-Humbria A little after that Charlemagne was acknowledged Emperour of the West all these Monarchies were reduced into one by King Egbert who dyed in the year 837. The Successours of this Egbert having been troubled by the Danes the last of them declared his Heir William Duke of Normandy to whom the Conquest of England brought the Name of Conquerour Thus England has had Soveraigns of six several Nations of the Brittons Romans Saxons English Danes and Normans These last have established there the Principal Laws the King who now reigns is James the 2. England is a greater Kingdom more fertile and populous than is either Scotland or Ireland It is the most considerable of any State in the Ocean It produces Corn and Fruits in abundance the best Tin in the World is transported thence Wool Cloaths Hides and other Commodities both excellent and in great plenty neither is it wanting in excellent Liquors The English Horses Dogs and Cocks are in high esteem all over the World No Wolves have been seen there since the general hunting which destroyed them almost all by the means of permission Criminals had of redeeming their Lives with the Heads of those Animals Gunners and Dogs were for sometime kept upon Frontiers of Scotland to hinder the Wolves ' which were hunted out from returning into England The great respect that is paid to Ladys in this Realm has given occasion to the saying that England is the Paradise of Women the Purgatory of Servants and the Hell of Horses The English for the most part are well proportioned and of a generous Nature They have had so great an Antipathy to the Scots that Edward the 1. the same who was preferred before his Eldest Brother by reason of the Beauty of his Body recommended that after his Death they should boyl him until they parted his Flesh and his Bones that they should bury his Flesh and carry his Bones along to the War against the Scots The English are owned Soveraigns of the Ocean and have made those States and Potentates to repent who have dared to dispute their Right to that Title Their Countrey is compared to the Tortoise in the shell who has all his Defences collected The acquisition of some Places by the allyance with Portugal has obliged them to extraordinary expences The Spaniards have a Proverb with all War and Peace with England The general Religion of the English is the reformed the King of England is the Head of the Anglican Church where of the Principal Members are the Bishops who compose the House of Lords with the other Peers This
Parliament is very different from those of France besides the House of Lords there is that of the Commons called the Lower House The principal Rivers of England are the Thames Severn and Humber which do not encrease by the Rains the neighbouring Lands being sandy There be reckoned one and fifty Counties called Shires each of those Counties is distributed into hundreds into Tithings or Tenths They may be considered according to the four Regions of the World and this division is much the same with that the Romans made when they were Masters of the Country The Southern part of England is along the Channel where be the best Harbours of the Kingdom Canterbury and Bristow be there considerable the first upon the account of its Archbishopwrick and of its Primacy the second for its Commerce Ships arriving there at full Sail. Rochester is the usual Station of the Kings Ships which are called men of War Frigats Yachts Salisbury has a Metropolitan Church wherein are reckoned as many Doors as there be Months and as many Windows as there be days in the year Windsor is a Royal Castle near the Thames where the Ceremonies of the order of the Garter are generally performed Dover is known for its strong Castle for Peoples embarking there for Calice Dunkirk and Ostend for the Neighbourhood of the Downs under whose shelter the Ships that are bound towards the East and towards the South may wait safely for Winds fair for their Voyage Hastings is a place where in the year 1066. William the Conquerour gained a full Victory over Herald the 2d the last Danish King who was killed upon the spot with above sixty thousand of his Men. Portsmouth Southampton Plimouth have very good Ports The Eastern part has this advantage of having London the Capital of all the Realm one of the Greatest Richest and most Populous Cityes in the World by the means of its greatest traffick It s Scituation is upon the River of Thames where it receives the noblest Ships of the Universe its Bridge is three hundred and thirty Paces in length The Pastures and Meads round about would make a most pleasant Prospect and Landskip if the Smoak of Coals which is commonly burnt there did not raise a continual Cloud Norwich is one of the best Cities and most populous of all the Kingdom Yarmouth sees the fishing of Herrings performed in its Neighbourhood where at Michaelmas is held a fair for that purpose Cambridge one of the most famous Universities in the World Harwich a famous Port. The Countrey round about was the abode of the Icenians whose Queen Bodicea put to Death a great number of Romans in the time of Nero and preferred a glorious Death before an Ignominious Slavery Towards the midst of the Realm is Oxford with one of the four most famous Universities of Europe wherein there is thirty three Colledges that of the University has a Library full of very curious Manuscripts unless it be that of the Vatican there be few in the World that have any so fine Gloucester is commonly the appanage of the third Son of the King of Great Brittain It is near the Severn near the Isle of Aldney where was formerly fought a singular Combat between Edmond Ironside King of the English Saxons and Canute the Dane who at length divided the Kingdom between them after having fought a long while without being able to have any advantage over one another Chester is accompanyed with a Sea-Port where People embark for Ireland At Worcester was the Defeat of the Kings Army in the year 1651. by the Rebels York in the Northern part is the second City of the Kingdom and the Title of the Kings second Son Lancaster is a County Palatin famous for its ancient Family The two Houses of York and Lancaster gave a great deal of trouble to England during above a hundred years by the fatal Faction of the White and Red Rose New-Castle and Hull have the conveniency of the Sea The Country about New-Castle is full of Mines which afford Coals so necessary to the Inhabitants of the City of London and the best Crayons of Europe The refusal that was made at Hull of receiving King Charles the 1. was one of the Principal Motives of the War between his Majesty and the Parliamentaryes Barwick and Carlisle have some Fortifications Penrith keeps the round Terrass which is said to have been King Arthurs Table Between Hull and Newcastle there be the Ports of Brilington and Scarborough The Principality of Wales is the Title of the Kings Eldest Son it has few good Cities Bangor was there formerly a famous Abby where above twelve hundred Monks lived on what they earn'd by working Milford is reckoned one of the finest Havens of Europe by reason of its Sinuosities which form as many good Ports The Isle of Anglesey which is near it was the abode of some Druids and the retreat of those who in Great Brittain would not submit to the Romans It is called the Nursing Mother of Wales by reason of its fertility It s City of Aberfrau served formerly for abode to the Kings of North-Wales Of Scotland THis Kingdom is the ancient Caledonia which was called Scotland from the Scots a People who made a sharp War upon the Romans and obliged them to make entrenchments against their Incursions principally under Adrian and under Severus The Name of Albany has been sometimes given to all this Kingdom whereas it is now peculiar to one of its Countys which the Inhabitants call Broad Albiny Some Scotch Authors make the Name of Scotch come from the ancient Scythians for the showing their Predecessours in the Higher Antiquity Scotland is of a cold Temperature its Gulphs Lakes and Mountains hinder its Provinces from being over Fertile The Inhabitants are of the reformed Religion Popery having been there abolish'd under King James the 6th But the many Scots which Sprung up with the Reformation produced there many Troubles and occasioned most of the disorders which in our time we have seen in the Kingdoms of England Scotland and Ireland There be still at this day Phanaticks who call themselves the Sweet Singers of Israel and are retire into the Mountains and into the Woods though they be hardly able to subsist there The Southern Scots live much after the same way as the English the Northern are wedded to the ancient Customs and not over careful of neatness in their Repasts The Scotch Nation has for a long while been in esteem for Valour and Fidelity the most Christiam King St. Lewis and his Successours the French Kings have trusted them with the Guard of their Royal Persons and made allyance with Scotland This Kingdom is now the most ancient in the World it is said to have been above two thousand years hereditary with a Succession of about a hundred and ten Kings The Power and Revenues of the King of Scotland are rendred much more considerabbe since his Majesties Restauration and his re-stablishment in the Power
in antiquity for its excellent Archers for the Ship called the Bull which served to carry away the Beautiful Europa for the Amours of Pasiphae for those of Ariadne for the Cruelty of the Minotaur for the Birth Abode and Funeral of Jupiter for the Judgements of Minos for the Labyrinth whereof the invention is attributed to Daedalus It s ancient Inhabitants said that most of the Gods were born in their Countrey But little Credit is to be giv'n to people who have always passed for great Lyars Except the Sfaciotes who pass for Bravos the Candiots have the reputation of flying from Toyl of trustiing in the goodness of their Soyl which furnishes them with Malmsies Wine several good Fruits and other Commodities Mount Ida is its highest Mountain from its peak or top both Seas may easily be seen Several Plains and Valleys are fertile in Candy but few are watred otherwise than with Torrents The Cretes were so succesful in Navigation that they rendred themselves Masters of the Seas under Minos one of their Kings This Prince made Laws for them and that they might be the better established feigned he had concerted them during the space of nine years with Jupiter Afterwards this Island was governed by a Republick and towards the time of Pompey the Great was subdued by the Romans The Emperours of Constantinople were also Masters of it after which it was given to Boniface Prince of Monferrat who sold it to the Venetians in the year 1194. The Turks seeing this Island in the midst of their Dominions thought it was for their conveniency to dislodge the Venetians from thence which they accordingly did in the year 1669. after a War of four and twenty years This Island is divided into four Territories which bear the Names of so many principal Cities Candia which is Capital thereof and the Metropolitan Canea Rettimo and Sittia The principal Fortresses of the Island are upon the Coast either in Islands or Peninsula's the Grabuses Suda and Spinalonga which remained to the Venetians by the last peace between the Republick and the Port. The City of Candia is in the Northern part of the Island in an advantageous Situation as strong by Art as by Nature the Venetians did all that was humanly possible before they yielded it to the Infidels The Christian Princes for the most part sent Succours thither by which means it sustained the efforts of a Siege the most memorable that ever was recorded in any History An Index Alphabetical of the several Countries Described in this Vniversal Geography ABissinia page 90 Aegypt page 73 Aethiopia page 90 Africa page 59 America page 10 Antartick lands page 7 Arabia page 137 Arobic Region page 2 Asia page 110 Barbary page 66 Biledulgerid page 81 Brasile page 54 Cafreria page 96 Canada page 19 Candia page 426 Gastella Aurea page 40 Chili page 49 China page 155 Congo page 94 Denmark page 299 England page 410 Europe page 196 Flanders page 256 Florida page 24 France page 220 Franche-County page 267 Georgia page 132 Germany page 283 Guyana page 43 Guiney page 89 Holland page 246 Hungary page 395 India page 162 India intra Gangem page 171 India extra Gangem page 177 Ireland page 420 Iseland page 4 Isles Antilles page 32 Isles British page 409 Isles Canaries page 101 Isles du Cap-Verd page 103 Isles of Crylon page 184 Isles of Japan page 189 Island of Madagascax page 104 Isles Maldive page 182 Island of Maltha page 105 Isles Moluccoe page 193 Isles Philippine page 191 Isles of Sunda page 186 Isles Tercera page 101 Italy page 275 Lorrain page 263 Low-Countries page 242 Magellanica page 59 Mexico page 28 Mexico nova page 27 Mogul's Empire page 163 Mono-motapa page 96 Muscovy page 369 Nigritia page 94 Nova Hispania page 28 Nubia page 88 Peru page 45 Persia page 143 Plata page 53 Poland page 361 Portugal page 237 Provinces Catholic page 256 Provinces United page 247 Ragusa Common-wealth page 408 Savoy page 274 Scotland page 416 Sicily page 422 Spain page 223 Sueden page 353 Suisser-land page 269 Tartary page 152 Tartaria Minor page 403 Transilvania c. page 400 Tucuman page 52 Turkish Empire page 378 Turkei in Asia page 117 Turkei in Europe page 385 Virginia page 22 Zaara page 83 Zanguebar page 99 FINIS Advertisement THere is lately published a Book entituled the Honourable State of Matrimony made comfortable or an Antidote against Discord betwixt Man and Wife c. Wherein is shew'd 1. From whence the Discord betwixt Man and Wife do arise 2. The great Evil of these Discords notably discovered 3. Whether the Fault be principally in the Man or the Wife curiously enquired into 4. The never failing Remedies for the cure of these unkind Breaches faithfully discovered 5. The Pretences and Plea's and Excuses they have for these Discords fully confuted and answered 6. The Superiority of the Husband asserted and proved and the Subjection of the Wife clearly demonstrated 7. How Men and their Wives should carry it towards their Children and Servants together with the Stepmothers Duty fully declared Sold by Francis Pearse at the Blew Anchor at the West-end of St. Pauls 1685.