Elephant before him to break the way through the Woods that the King with his Followers might pass As he fled the Conspirators pursued him but at a great distadce for fear of some exceellent Fowling Pieces which he had with him and so he got safe to the Mountain Gauluda about 15 miles off where many of the Inhabitants thereabout resorted to him But if the Rebel Party had been resolute who were the greater number even almost all the Kingdom this Hill could not have secured him but they might have driven him from thence there being many ways by which they might have ascended The People having thus driven away the old King marched away to the City of Cande and proclaimed the Prince to be King telling us English that what they had done was not rashly but upon good Consideration and advice the King by his evil Government having occasioned it who went about to destroy both them and their Countrey As in detaining Ambassadors hindering of all Trade making Prisoners of all people that come upon his Land and killing his Subjects and their Children not suffering them to enjoy nor to see their Wives And that all this was contrary to reason and as they were informed to the Government of other Countreys The Prince being young and tender and having never been out of the Pallace nor ever seen any but those that attended on his Person was affinghted to see so many coming and bowing down to him and telling him that he was King and his Father was fled into the Mountains neither did he say or act any thing as not owning the business or else not knowing what to say or do This much discouraged the Rebels to see they had no Thanks for their pains and so all things stood till Dâ—â—emo 25. 1664 at which time they intended to march and fall upon the old King But in the mean time the Kings Sister flyes away with the Prince from the City into the Countrey near the King which so amazed the Rebels that the Money Cloth and plunder which they had taken and were going to distribute to strangers to joyn with them they scattered about the Town and fled away Others of their Company seeing the business was overthrown to make amends for their former Fact revolted and fell upon their Consorts killing and taking Prisoners all they could The People were now all up in Arms against each other killing whom they pleased only saying they were Rebels and taking their Goods By this time a great Man had drawn out his Souldiers into the Field and declared for the old King and so went to seize the Rebels that were scattered abroad but understanding they were all fled and no whâ—le Party or Body left to resist him he marched into the City killing all he could catch And so all revolted and came back to the King again whilst he only lay still upon his Mountain The King needed to take no care to seize or execute the Rebels for they themselves out of their zeal to him and to make amends for what was past imprisoned and killed all they met the Plunder being their own This continued 8 of 10 days which the King hearing of commanded to kill no more but only to imprison them till examination which was not so much to save the Innocent as that he might torment the Rebels and make them confess their Confederates for he spared none that seemed guilty and some to this day lye chained in Prison being sequestred of all their Estates and beg for their Living The King could not be insensible but that it was his rigorous Government which occasioned this Rebellion yet amended it not in the least but like Rehoboam added yet more to the Peoples yoke And being thus safely reinstated in his Kingdom again and observing that the Life of his Son gave incouragement to the Rebellion he resolved for the future to prevent it by taking him away and about a year after his Son being sick the Hing takes this Opportunity to dispatch him by pretending to send Physick to him to cure him but was really Poyson which soon made an end of him The People hearing of the death of the Prince according to the Custom of that Countrey when any of the Royal Blood dye came all in General toward the City where he was with black or else very dirty Cloths which is their mourning the men all bare-headed the Women with their hair loose and hanging about their Shoulders to mourn and lament for the Death of their young Prince which the King hearing of sent them word That since it was not his Fortune to live to sit on the Throne after him and Reign over the Land it would be but in vain to mourn and a great trouble and hindrance to the Countrey and their voluntary good will was taken in as good part us the mourning it self and so dismist the Assembly and burned the Princes dead body without Ceremonies or Solemnities but one thing there is that argues him guilty of Imprudence and horrible Ingratitude that most of those who went along with him when he fled of whose Loyalty he had such ample Experience he hath since cut off and that with extream Cruclty too In Feornary two years after there appeared in this Countrey another Comet or Stream in the West with the head of it under the Horizon much like that seen in England in 1680. The sight of this did much daunt both King and People having so lately felt the sad Event of a Blazing Star The King sent men to the highest Mountains in the Land to look if they could perceive the head of it which they could not it being still under the Horizon This continued visible about a Month and by that time was so diminished as not to be seen But there were no remarkable Passages ensued upon it LXXVII About five or six nights after the extinction of the first Comet which was seen in England and in the same Moneth of December another Comet was visible which continued till the middle of January following it was much less than the former seeming about the bigness of an ordinary Trencher Plate about 8 Inches over and had prickly Rays dispersed round about it In April 1665 following a Third Comet was seen much of the Nature and colour of the first only a little more Jovial This year June 3. A great Victory was obtained by His Majesties Fleet under his Royal Highness the Duke of York against the whole Dutch Fleet wherein above Thirty Capital Ships were taken and destroyed and near Eight Thousand men killed and taken Prisoners A great Plague began in London and this year there dyed in all ninety seven thousand three hundred and six whereof of the Plague sixty eight thousand five hundred ninety six In February this year there was a great Tempest accompanied with Thunder Lightning and an Earthquake in divers places at which time the stately Spire of Trinity Church in Coventry fell down and demolished
3 Moons were seen in one night by the Inhabitants all these Prodigies appeared about the end of the first Carthaginian War In the second War after Hanno was overcome by Scipio a Child of a Month old was heard to cry in the Street Triumphi Triumphi In the Fields near Rome Ships were discerned in the Sky and Men in long White Garments were perceived to march towards each other but never to meet It likewise rained Stones and the Sun and Moon were seen as it were to justle each other and in the day two Moons appeared in the Heavens At Phalascis the Heavens seemed to be rent in sunder and at Capua the Moon seemed to burn and to bend down towards the Earth A Green Palm-Tree in Naples took Fire and burned away to Ashes At Mantua a little Rivulet was turned into blood and at Rome it rained blood An Ox was likewise heard to speak these Words Cave tibi Roma Rome look to thy self Soon after several large tall Ships appeared upon the River of Taracina in Spain The Sun at divers times appeared of a bloody colour many Temples and Houses in Rome were beaten down with Thunderbolts from Heaven some of the Cities Ensigns or Field-Colours were observed to sweat Blood Two Suns appeared in the Heavens at one time It likewise rained Milk and Stones A Comet in the form of a burning Torch was discerned to reach from the East to the West In the Vileterman Fields the Earth rent asunder in such huge and frightful breaches that Trees and whole Houses were swallowed up in it and it rained blood for two whole days together about which time Hannibal received that notable overthrow by Scipio which was the destruction of the famous City of Carthage and the Conquest of that Countrey to the Romans Tit. Liv. Hist II. In the year of the World 3417 when Cyrus overcame Craesus King of the Lydians in Battel a Child of six Months old is said to have distinctly foretold in a Prodigious and wonderful manner That his Kingdom should be lost A Dog and a Serpent spake very plainly and articulately to King Tarquinius of which Sir G. Wharton writes thus When Romes perverse and giddy multitude Dissolved in Tarquin their Great Monarchy To doom the Act unnatural and Rude 'T is said a Serpâ—nt bark'd In the year of the World 3842 at Veios in Italy it rained Oyl extreamly and Wool was also rained out of the Clouds In the year that the Great Mithridates K. of Pontus was born there appeared a huge Comet which at first seemed but small but afterwards spread it self so much that it came as far as the Equinoctial Line so that its extent equalized that Region of the Heavens which we call the Milky Way Another Comeâ— likewise appeared in the first year of his Reign which shined so bright night and day for 70 days together that the whole Heavens seemed all to be on a ligâ—â—t Fire for the Tayl of it covered the fourth part of the Heavens and exceeded the Sun in brightness and also its rising and setting took up the space of four hours Just before the taking of Aristonicus a dangerous Enemy to the Romans news was brought to Rome that the Image of Apollo at Cuma had wept for 4 days together The Southsayers were so astonished at the Prodigy that they had thrown the Image into the Sea had not the old men at Cuma interceded for it but the more expert Astrologers said That thereby the Destruction of Greece was foretold from whence that Image was brought Junius Syllanus going Proconsul into Asia he with his Company saw a spark fall from a Star which increased in Bulk as it came nearer the Earth and being grown to the bigness of the Moon it gave as much light as if it had been a cloudy day and when it drew up towards Heaven again it grew into the fashion of a Lamp When Julius Caesar had crossed the River of Rubicon contrary to the Decree of the Senate the Heavens as foreseeing what miseries were to ensue thereupon rained blood and there happened a horrible Eclipse of the Sun of 10 parts and an half of which Lucan thus speaks The Sun hides When mounted in the midst of Heaven he rides In Clouds his burning Chariot to enfold The World in darkness quite Day to behold No Nation hopes The same day that the Battle between Caesar and Pompey was fought in the Pharsalian Fields the Image of Victory which stood in the Temple of Minerva at Eulide was seen to turn its face toward the Temple-door whereas before it looked to the Altar At Antioch in Syria such great noises and Clamours were heard twice a day about the Walls of the Town that the People affrighted with the supposed approach of the Enemy ran out of the City in their Arms In the Temples of Ptolemais Organs and other Instruments were heard to play of themselves before Julius Caesar was slain in the Senate House and there being a Colony sent to be planted in Capua according to the Julian Law and some Monuments being demolished to lay Foundations for New Houses In the Tomb of Capys who was said to be the Founder of Capua there was found a brazen Table wherein was ingraven in Greek Letters That whensoever the bones of Capys should be uncovered one of the Julian Family should be slain by the hands of his own Party and that his blood should be revenged to the great damage of all Italy At the same time also those Horses which Caesar had consecrated to Mars after his passage over Rubicon did abstain from all kind of Food and were observed to have drops falling from their Eyes after such a manner as if they had shed Tears Also the Bird Regulus having a little branch of Lawrel in her Mouth flew with it into Pompâ—ys Court where she was torn in pieces by divers other Birds that pursued her where also Caesar himself was soon after slain with Twenty three wounds by Brutus Cassius and others Shortly after his Death about the time of the banishment of Antonius and â—â—â—idus an Ox being led out to the Plough uttered these words to his Master Why urge you me to work we shall want no Corn but men And a new Born Child did speak A. B. Vâ—ers Annals Pearson's Vaâ—â—â—â—es III. About the time that our Lord and Saviour was born which was in the year of the World 3849 and the 43 year of the Reign of Augustus Caesar many wonderful and remarkable Prodigies shewed themselves in the Heavens and this more frequently than in former years as Jesphas in his Jewish Antiquities testifies which unusual sights occasioned the Mâ—gi or Wise Men of those times in their Predictions to conclude That 〈◊〉 more than Ordinary Person would arise or appear in the World Which presages some Learned Persons applyed to Augustus Câ—â—sar who then reigned prosperously But the more divinely inspired interpreted them to signifie him who as the Prophet Isaiah saith should
the Gates and there remained with his Army Then Vespasian sent several Noblemen as Embassadors to Joseph who thus addressed themselves to him Vespasian General of the Roman Army sends to know what it will avail you to be thus blockt up in a walled Town he desires rather that you would come forth and treat peaceably with him and enter into a League together for it will be for your benefit to serve Caesar Emperor of Rome whereby you may live and not be destroyed nor any of your People Then Joseph sent Embassadors to Vespasian desiring Truce for a few days to consult with the People about this matter which he agreed to and Joseph sent to the chief Priests and Rulers of Jerusalem and the rest of the People the following Letter Ye shall understand Brethren that Vespasian General of the Romans sent his Ambassadors unto me inquiring what it would avail me to be obstinate against them and not rather to come forth and treat of Peace and to joyn in League together that we may serve the Emperor of the Romans so that we may save our lives and not be destroyed And I beseech ye why will you lose your lives with the lives of your Wives your Sons and your Daughters Why will you all fall together on the sword The Dreadful Apparitious and Presages seen over the City of Ierusalem Page 14 whereby those that shall be left alive among you shall be led Captive out of your Countrey to a People which they never knew and whose Language they understand not and likewise your Countrey shall be made desolate your Sanctuary laid wast so that there shall not be so much as one man to enter into it Never suffer this you that are wise men but rather receive my Counsel and come hither to us that we may consult together what conditions of Peace we shall make for the safety of our Lives rather than be destroyed and that we may enjoy the blessings of our Countrey and live at peace therein for Life and quietness is to be preferred before Death and Banishment But the Inhabitants of Jerusalem with the Priests Elders and Noblemen of Judea and the rest of the People returned this answer to Joseph Take heed to thy self that thou never consent to receive Conditions of peace from the Romans but be strong to fight till such time as thou shalt consume them or till thou and all the People dye in Battel and so shalt thou fight the Battels of the Lord for his people and his Sanctuary and the Cities of our God in the mean season let it be as it will but let not thy power be with them When Joseph heard this Resolution of the People for continuance of the War he was exceeding angry and in great fury fell upon the Roman Army with all his Forces in which skirmish very many of the Jews were slain and from that day forward Vespasian began more fiercely to War upon the Jews He marched thence to Gâ—rara a great City in the higher Galilee which he besieged took and rased to the Ground slaying all the people Men Women and Children Oxen Sheep Camels and Asses leaving nothing alive and then said Now I begin to be revenged for the Romans which the Jews murthered in the Land of Judea From thence be came to Jorpata where Joseph was The first day he incamped about it refreshing his Souldiers with plenty of meat and drink and then furnished every man with Arms The next morning early the Roman Army gave a great shout and beset the City round about on every side Joseph standing upon an high Tower beheld the mighty Army of the Romans and thereupon founding a Trumpet gave a sign to the Battle issuing out with the whole power of the Jews upon the Roman Camp at the foot of the Hill and maintaining the Fight from morning till night at which time it being dark the Jews retreated into the Town and the Romans to their Camp the next day the Fight was renewed and so the third and fourth day wherein many were destroyed on both sides For the Romans advanced confidently and stoutly to the Battel boastingly saying We will quickly vanquish this little Nation as we have subdued all others against whom we have fought and they shall trouble us no more and then shall we be at rest The Jews likewise on the other side encouraged themselves against the Romans saying At this time we will all dye together for the Zeal to the Sanctuary of our God and will never suffer these unclean Persons to pollute it and having once destroyed them we shall be quiet ever after So that what with the Pride of the Romans on the one side and the stiff-necked stubbornness of the Jews on the other much people perished of either Party At this time the Jews who dwelt about Jorpata fled to the Camp of Vespasian and joyned with the Romans and alwaies when Joseph skirmished with Vespasian without the City Vespasian sent a Party to assault the City so that Joseph and his Men fought with Vespasian without the Town and the Jews within defended the Walls against the Romans but those within dayly diminished and the chiefest of Josephs Army were slain except some few with whom Joseph fled and recovered the Town and stopped up the Gates after him But Vespasian having a long time besieged Jorpata he at length espied a Conduit of sweet Water without the Walls which ran into the City the Citizens drinking thereof because it was good this he cut off whereby the Inhabitants were destitute of drink having only Well-water which Joseph perceiving and judging that the Romans would now think they might take them at pleasure since they must dye for Thirst He thereupon took Garments and dipped them in the Well-waters in the Town and hanged them over the Walls in several places to declare they had plenty of Water Then Vespasian commanded a Mount to be raised nigh the Town to plant an Iron Ram wherewith to batter and beat down the Walls which they did so furiously that Joseph perceiving them to shake filled sacks of Chaff and hanged them down by the Walls which by their softness prevented the Force of the Iron Horns of the Ram which Policy Vespasian observing he sent secretly into the Town some Jews as spies who should cut the ropes of the sacks and then slip down the Walls with them thereby to be secured from danger and several other devices were used on each side But Joseph perceiving the War to increase dayly he issued out with his Forces and made a great slaughter in the Camp of the Romans burning the Mount and Engines of War they had left behind them and forcing them to retire from the Walls Vespasian perceiving his men shrink stood up and encouraged them so much with good Words and large Promises of Gold and Silver that they continued the Fight against Joseph till night In the hear of the Battel the Jews wounded Vespasian in the Right
of its depth the Overseers of the work being desirous to find the bottom tyed a long Rope to one of the Labourers and let him down into it being come to the bottom there was water therein up to his Ankles and searching every part of that hollow place he found it to be foursquare as far as he could conjecture by feeling then returning toward the Mouth of it he happened upon a little Pillar not much higher than the water and laying his hand on it found a book thereon wrapt up in a piece of thin clean Linnen which taking up he gave notice by shaking the rope to be drawn forth which done he shewed them the book which struck them with admiration because it seemed very fresh and untoucht though found in so dark and obscure an hole The Book being unfolded and opened surprized not only the Jews but the Graecians for they found in the entrance thereof these words written in Capital Letters IN THE BEGINNING WAS THE WORD AND THE WORD WAS WITH GOD AND THE WORD WAS GOD And to speak truly saith the Historian that Scripture did plainly and manifestly contain the whole Gospel which the Divine Tongue of the Virgin Disciple St. John had declared This together with the other Miracles which at that time were proclaimed from Heaven did demonstrate that not any word of our Lord should fall to the ground which had foretold the utter desolation both of the Temple and City of Jerusalem Eusebius Eccles Hist lib 3. Thus severely were the Judgments of Heaven executed upon the Jews which did not yet end here but continued to their posterity For in 434. The Jews in the Isle of Creet were deluded by the Devil affirming himself to be Moses who led the Israelites through the Red Sea and perswaded those poor Creatures That he was sent from God to lead them through the Sea to their own Countrey the holy Land This these poor Creatures soon believed and disposing of all their Goods to others according to his perswasion they followed this seducer who had spent a whole year in going from one City to another he then led them with their Wives and Children to the top of a steep Rock that hung over the Sea when they were come hither this Mock Mises commanded them to wrap their heads in their upper Garments and so to throw themselves from the Rock into the Sea assuring them of a safe Passage they readily obeyed him and in that manner a great many of them perished in the Waves and more would have followed had it not pleased God that some Christian Fishermen were there at that instant who took up many of them as they were flooting upon the waters and ready to perish These afterward returning to the rest of the Jews told them how they had been cheated and deceived and how narrowly they had escaped whereupon they being upon good reason all very much inraged sought far and near for this seducer to put him to death but when he could not possibly be found any where they thereupon fully concluded That it was the Devil himself the old man slayer who had appeared to them in humane shape and divers of the Jews being moved by this Calamity became Christians Eusebius Hist In the Reign of Trajan the Jews rebelled in Egypt and Cyrene where they slew many Greeks and Romans and did eat their flesh and girded themselves with their Guts imbrued themselves with their blood and cloathed themselves with their skins Many they sawed in sunder from the Crowns downward others they cast to wild Beasts so that they destroyed Two Hundred Thousand of them and likewise Two Hundred and Fifty Thousand by the same abhorred Cruelty in Egypt and Cyprus whereupon Trajan sent an Army against them under Martius Turbo who destroyed many Thousands of them and fearing lest the Jews in Mesopotamia should break out into the like outrages he commanded Lucius Quietus utterly to destroy and root them out of that Countrey which he performed so effectually that the Emperor to recompence his service made him President of Judea Dion Hist Adrian the Emperour rebuilt the City of Jerusalem though not in the same place for he changed the scituation thereof somewhat Westward and called the name thereof Aelia according to his own name To despight the Christians he built a Temple over our Saviours Grave with the Images of Jupiter and Venus another at Bethlem to Adonis the Gallant of Venus and to inrage the Jews who abominate Swinesflesh he set up the Picture of a Swine over the Gates of the City who storming at the prophanation of their Land broke out into open Rebellion but were subdued by Julius Severus the Emperors Lieutenant an experienced Captain who by reason of their multitudes would not try it out in a set Battel but proceeding more warily and taking his opportunity he by degrees took 50 of their fortifyed Castles rased nine hundred and fourscore of their best Towns and slew five hundred and eighty thousand of their men besides an innumerable multitude who perished by Famine Sickness and Fire so that almost all Judea was left destitute With them likewise was slain one Benchoahab their Counterfeit Mâ—ssias for so he termed himself that is The Son of a Star usurping that Prophecy out of Jacob a star shall arise Though he proved but a fading Comet whose blazing portended the ruine of that Nation The Captives by order from Adrian were transported into Spain and the Holy Land was laid wast which parted with her people and fruitfulness both together Indeed Pilgrims here and there find Parcels of rich ground in Palestine which God may seem to have left that men may tast the former sweetness of the Land before it was scourged for the Peoples sins and that they may guess the goodness of the cloth by the fineness of the shreds But it is barren for the generality the streams of Milk wherewith it once flowed are now drawn dry and the whole face of the Land looketh sad not so much for want of dressing as because the Almighty God hath frowned on it Adrian aforementioned banished Five Hundred Thousand Jews into Spain whence they were again banished by Ferdinando and Isabella in 1492 at which time there were driven out of Spain One Hundred and Twenty Thousand Families From thence they passed into Tuseany and the Popes Dominions but were again banished by Pope Paul 4. and Pius 5. But it would be endless to shew what miseries they have endured in all Nations ever since their Predecessors committed that great and grievous sin of Crucifying the Lord of life and Glory and thus much of the Jews as we find them mentioned by Josephus Eusebius Mr. Clark and other Ancient and Modern Authors I shall now proceed in the series of the History of Comets and other Prodigies according to the Order of time which this digression hath somewhat diverted VII In the 70 year after the Birth of our Saviour thâ—â—â— was a great
the next place a thing so grievous that David preferred the Pestilence in his Choice To see men slain by the Sword or dye of Contagious Diseases is not yet so grievous as to see them dye of Famine or to kill and eat one another when Samaria was besieged by Benhadad K. of Syria the Famine was so great that an Asses head was sold for fourscore pieces of Silver and the fourth part of a Cab of Doves Dung for fifty pieces of Silver Two Women agreed to eat their own Children and when they had boyled and eaten one the other Woman hid hers In the siege of Jerusalem Mice Rats and Hides were good meat and Women did dress and eat their own Children the smell whereof drew others who were hunger-starved to come to share with them But that Cities which were not besieged and a Countrey naturally fruitful should be so ruined as not to be able for so long a time to afford Bread to a poor remnant of people but that they must be forced to eat Carrion and dead men yea one another whilst alive this was lamentable and hitherto never heard of Had not I been provided saith my Author with victuals at my coming out of Switzerland Famine had arrested me in Germany for there was not any where meat to be had for money The Italians and Spaniards who had been at the fight at Norlingen and being disarmed wandred about were so black and feeble for hunger that had I not given them part of my provision I believe they had torn me in pieces and eaten me Travelling from Newstadt toward Frankendale in a snowy day I unexpectedly met with the Army of Duke Bernard whose stragling Forerunners came riding up to me by couples and when I looked for a worse errand they asked only for a little Bread which my Guide bestowed upon them so long as we had any From thence to Manheim and Heidelburg many dead men lay strawed on the way especially on the places where they had made Fires who perished through cold and want When we were besieged in the Castle of Heidelburg our Souldiers at first killed more Horses in a day then they could eat least they should dye of themselves for want of hay therefore what was left they threw out of the Castle down the Rock which the Enemy in the night drew into the Town though some of them were slain in the Action and so they heartily eat our Horseflesh At which time the Serjeant Major with fifty men issued out upon three hundred of the Enemy intrenched on the East side of the Castle many were slain others broke their necks down the Rocks Our Souldiers being Masters of the Trench fell to ransack the Enemies knapsacks which they had left behind them but found nothing in them except our own Horse-flesh which yet was not unwelcome for it grew scarce with us so that now we were compelled to kill the Horses which stood fasting and sleeping on the Dunghil not out of compassion to them but for our own necessity Another Serjeant Major had two very fine Horses our Souldiers took one and eat him but he thinking to make sure of the other fastened him to the Wall with a strong Chain and a Padlock but they taking their opportunity cut off the Horses Neck and left the head in the Chain carrying away the body and greedily eating it At length Dogs and 〈◊〉 me in request so that we could smell our meat 〈◊〉 off and yet on the Table it was still more lothsome the tast being answerable to the smell yet we eat it exceeding savourly but our bread at last failing we yielded to necessity For the Armies every where over-running the Countrey devoured both Corn and Cattel so that those who had any goods lest offered to give all for a little food But that being not to be obtained they were fain to lye in the streets and highwayes much contrary to their former way of living to beg something for Gods sake wherewith to refresh their dying Souls yet no sooner had they swallowed what was given them but they presently gave up the Ghost Memorable is that relation which Reinmannus recordeth of the Famine in Alsatia that Valentine Engelin a Citizen of Rufack with the Sexton of the Church deposed before a Magistrate upon their Oaths That Ann◠the Daughter of John Ebstein confessed to them that she came from Colmar where she had waited many days before the Hangmans door in hope to get a piece of Horseflesh to satisfie her hunger but not prevailing she was now come to Rufack intreating them that if there were the body of any young man or woman unburied they would give it her to eat to preserve her Life And that two other women and a boy made the same request affirming that they had lived a long time upon dead mens flesh After which the Churchyard of St. Nicholas where the dead bodies lay was shut up Lastly they declared that four young maids had cut in pieces the dead body of another maiden of eleven years old and had eaten every one their part of her Many who survived the loss of all they had sustained themselves for a long time with Roots Acorns green Fruits grass Thistles and other Weeds which the very beasts would not have eaten upon which several of them grew distracted and died In some places the poor famished people were so faint that they had not strength to bury one another so that the dead bodies have been devoured by Dogs Foxes and Wolves Yea some Persons have run mad for meer hunger In some Cities the Inhabitants have by this Famine been constrained to kill and sell all manner of Vermine in publick shops as Dogs Cats Mice Rats c. A woman at Hanover who used commonly to sell Dogs flesh to the Souldiers was in the street assaulted by Dogs and had all her cloths torn off her body so that she was forced to sit down on the ground to hide her shame and had she not been timely rescued she had been torn in pieces by the Dogs If any had a Beast left which he carefully kept for his necessity some or other of his Acquaintance would if possible steal it from him and eat it They snatched from each other with great eagerness the very stinking Carrion which had lain 5 or 6 weeks dead and full of Maggots yea they fought and beat one another to get a morsel thereof as it happened at a place called Dubach It moved the Grandees and Governours to compassion to see their People in such extream want Insomuch that the Noble Earl of Falkenstein seeing his Subjects crave sustenance of him commanded his Servants to give them his Hounds to satisfie their hunger whom they presently killed and eat with all greediness And as the Famine increased when no more food was to be got men were like inraged Beasts one against another and gathering together by Troops watched one another upon the High-ways and so murthered drest
and having his Legs bare a Fox pursued him even amidst the Earls Servants and would not forbear biting of his Legs and heels for extream hunger till they gave him a blow on the neck and so took him alive The eyes of the Fox were sunk in his head his bones stuck out and he was so extream lean that his ribs almost clung together they carryed him alive with them in the Coach and after a few days he dyed Another English Gentleman who came about that time through Germany into England by the by-ways thereby to escape the Souldiers reported that Wolves Foxes and other Wild Beasts lay dead for want of Food and that in some Places men lived only upon Robbery and the spoil of Strangers or of one another so that Thievery was the only Trade then practiced among them LXIII Thus much of this tremendous Judgment of Famine In the last place let Pestilence Sickness and Diseases bring up the Bere of this lamentable Scene of sorrow These Distempers are oft-times the Companions or Effects of War it is very rare for a great Army to stay long in a place and not to leave some Infection behind them Beyond the River Dona after the Swedes departure from thence with their Forces the Plague and several unheard of Diseases swept away a multitude of people the like happened in the Palatinate and Bohemia After Mastricht was taken the Town and Countrey were grievously afflicted with Feavers Fluxes and the Pestilence above all and the same year the Armies of the Duke of Lorrain and the Rhinegrave dyed miserably in the like kind in Alsatia The Army of the Prince of Orange having taken Rhineberg left such infection in Brabant that the Inhabitants the year after were afraid to live in their own Houses About the same time General Holck being sent with six thousand men to invade Saxony he plundered the City of Leipswick and committed as great outrages as Tillies Army had done before but such a Plague overtook both him and his Army that most of his Souldiers dyed like rotten sheep and being infected himself he offered six hundred Rix dollars for a Protestant Minister to instruct and comfort him But both he and his Souldiers had so behaved themselves that no Minister was to be found In the mean time all his Friends and Servants forsook him except his Concubine who stayed with him to the last He had been both Protestant and Papist but revolted from both so that being guilty of his own perfideousness and the execrable Murders and Rapines he had occasioned he dyed utterly despairing of future happiness In the City of Basil above Twenty Thousand dyed of the Plague Their Popish Neighbours of the City of Trent rejoyced at their sufferings as being their Enemies in Religion but their Joy was very short for the Winter following the Pestilence raged dreadfully among them and though that City was not great yet above Three Thousand Persons were buried out of it This Plague was extraordinary virulent and altogether incurable Some dyed raging others were killed with their Carbuncles others were swoln and discoloured as if they had taken poyson and some dyed most strangely spotted If any Souldier were but slightly wounded it presently turned to a malignant Ulcer defying all means of Cure when the Infection got into a Kindred it destroyed Parents Children and most times all of the blood which demonstrates that a divine hand was very conspicuous in this woful visitation though the Food and Air might also much conduce to impoyson the Bodies In the Siege of Hannover above twenty two thousand People were buried of the Sickness and had not it pleased God hereby to diminish their numbers they had yielded the Town for want of Victuals In the same Seige Souldiers who went seemingly well and with their Eye-sight upon the Guard came off again in a few hours struck stark blind even Thirty at a time were thus afflicted but the Disease afterward falling into their Legs most of them recovered About this time almost all Germany felt this punishment in a grievous manner In Swaben Tyrol and all along the Rivers of Rhine and Main the Plague raged furiously The King of Hungary was fain to dissolve his Court and send his Servants away to other Cities for their security The Inhabitants of Memingen Campden and Isnen in Swaben were utterly consumed and none left alive In the Countrey thereabout formerly inhabited by above Thirty Thousand men there were not Four hundred Souls to be found In the Confines of Bavaria the living were not sufficient to bury the dead but Rats and Mice devoured their Carcases to the great horror of Passingers Holland and the Low Countreys smarted very sore likewise The University of Leyden buried Thirty Thousand The Countrey Villages and the Hague were miserably afflicted and also Brussels and Antwerp The Cities of Nimegen Emerick Rees Guelders with other places neer were not only visited therewith whereof the Marquess of Avtona the Spanish General and other Commanders dyed but there happened new contagious Diseases among others strange Fluxes and a Pox hitherto unknown The Emperors Army forraging and dispersing themselves all over the Countrey scattered the Contagion from their Quarters at Hailburn to the Land of Wirtenburg and many places became hereby utterly depopulated But after Gallas his taking in the Towns upon the Rhine such an Infection happened through the stink of the dead unburied bodies that in the Bishoprick of Mentz alone there dyed of this and Famine Twenty Four Thousand People In Saxony Brandenburg Pomerania Mecklenburg c. the Pestilence and other Diseases were so Universal that these and the Sword seemed to contend which should be the greatest destroyers It consumed in Saxony no less than Sixteen Thousand Souls in two Months time Thus as by the print of the foot of Hercules you may guess at his stature so by these few particulars of the miseries of some places we may judge of the lamentable Condition of the whole Countrey where these dreadful Judgments have left such wounds as perhaps posterity for some Generations will see the scars of And so I have done with this particular Relation of the Prodigies and Miseries of Germany for several years and shall now proceed more generally according to my former method LIV. In the year 1638. Six Suns were seen at once in Cornwall and several Apparitions of men in the Heavens preparing to fight with each other Also Navys of Ships were visible in the Sky The Scots at this time make an Insurrection the King goes in Person to appease them they renounce the Bishops and Prelacy and set up Presbytery in Scotland In this year 1638. happened a terrible Earthquake in the Island of St. Michael one of the Agores or Tercera's belonging to the Spaniard in the Atlantick Ocean Westward Upon June 26. 〈◊〉 Island began universaly to quake and tremble 〈◊〉 which continued eight days so that the People leaving the Cities Towns and Castles were forced to 〈◊〉
as the whole Country hereabouts a terrible and unusual Earthquake whose strong and unequal motions joyned with horrible Roarings from Monte Gibello exceedingly frighted the Inhabitants but was so extraordinarily violent in the Country adjacent that the People were forced to abandon their houses and to fly into the Fields to avoid the danger threatned them from the falling of their houses The Village of Nicolosi was of all others the most dreadfully handled by this furious Earthquake the houses and other buildings being shaken all in pieces and buried in their own ruines the poor people who had preserved their lives by a timely flight with such little of their goods as their hasty fears would permit them to carry out with them continued a night or two in the Fields beholding with grief and astonishment the ruine of their habitations but observing that by these violent concussions the Earth began to open in several places and to threaten them with inevitable ruine they fled though with much trouble and amazement to this City These shakings of the Earth being so frequent and violent that the people went reeling and staggering with much difficulty supporting one another from falling insomuch as what with their want of sleep the pains they were forced to take in travelling and the great terrors imprinted on them by what they had seen and suffered they appeared at their arrival in this City as so many distracted people wholly insensible of what they did This dreadful convulsion of the Earth was immediately followed on Monday March 11. about 10 at night by 3 terrible Eruptions much about the same time and a little distance one from the other These said Eruptions were observed to be on the side of Monte Gibello about 2 miles beyond the Mountain called Montpileri from whence with a terrible noise it threw up its flames with much fury and violence about a hundred yards in height its noise not roaring only inwards from the belly of the Mountain as before but violently cracking like peals of Ordnance or thunder from the side of it throwing out vast stones some of them of 300 pound weight which being as it were shot through the air fell several miles distant from the place whilst the whole Air was filled with smoak burning cinders and ashes which fell like a fiery rain upon the Country In the mean time issued from the side of this Prodigious Mountain a vast Torrent of Melted and burning Matter which like an Inundation Drowned as in a Flood of Fire the Countrey on this side of it This Burning River ran down upon the Mountain Montpileri which opposing its direct course it divided it self into two Streams which encompassed the said Mountain one of them taking its way by La Guardia the Convent of St. Anne and Mâ—lpasso the other by the Towns of Monpileri and Falicchi which in few hours were wholly destroyed and lost not so much as any sign of them remaining with several lesser Villages and Farmes and with them the Famous Image of the blessed Lady of the Annunciata which though highly Reverenced throughout the whole Island esteemed the Wonder of Sicily and the whole World and to which the People with much Devotion resorted in Pilgrimage from the remotest parts was also swallowed up and consumed by this dreadful Torrent This Fiery and burning Deluge immediately spread it self to above six mile in breadth seeming to be somewhat of the colour of melted and burning Glass but as it cooles becomes hard and Rocky and every where in its passage leaves Hills and Pyramids of that matter behind it At the same time Monte Gibello from its top raged with dreadful Flames which with its noise and Concussions of the Earth which still continued added not a little to the Terror of the People who ran with Cries and Lamentations about the City and Country expecting nothing but to be swallowed up or consumed by Fire having no other apprehensions but of Death and a General Conflagration The two Torrents of Fire came forward destroying all things in their way and by Wednesday March 13th had on the West-side branched it self into several Streams and overran Campo Rotundo St. Pietro and Mostorbianco with La Potielli and St. Antonino and on the East-part ruin'd the lower part of Mascalucia and Le Placchi taking its way towards this City On Thursday the 14th the Wind came Eastwards on which fell abundance of Rain which abated not the Progress of the Fire which on the East-side had from Mascalucia made its way to St. Giovanni di Galermo the lower part whereof it destroyed and passing on seemed to threaten this City on one side as did that on the West-side the other As the Fire approached the Religious every where appeared with much Devotion carrying in Procession their Reliques especially those of St. Agatha the famous Martyr of Catâ—nia in which they reposed no small confidence followed by great multitudes of People some of them mortifying themselves with Whips and other signs of Penance with great Complaints and Cryes expressing their dreadful expectation of the Events of those Prodigious fiery Inundations Whil'st the People were thus busied in their Devotions and astonisht by their Fears News was brought to the Magistrates of the City that a considerable number of Thieves and Robbers had taken the opportunity of this general Distraction to make a Prey of the already distressed People and that they had murdered several of them for their Goods and that it was to be fear'd that the City of Catania it self might run some danger from the great numbers of them which were about the Country and from thence took their opportunities to get into the Town Whereupon consultation being had for the prevention of farther mischief from them the Commander of the Castle was ordered with a considerable number of Horse and a Party of Spaniards to secure the Country and City against these Robbers who immediately sent out several Parties with his Provost-Marshal with Order to seize on all suspected Persons and such as were not able to give a good account of themselves and for such as were taken in the Fact Robbing to Execute them by Martial-Law without any farther Tryal and accordingly caused three pair of Gallowes to be set up for their speedy Execution one before the Gate Di Aci a second in the Market-place and a third before the Gate Della Decima setting strong Guards upon the Gates of the City and causing all suspected Houses to be searched an Account to be given in of all Lodgers and such Persons to be secured as could any ways fall under a Suspition The poor People out of the Country being by this Prodigious Calamity stript out of all their Estates and reduced to great extremâ—ty fled most of them for refuge and relief to this City with great Lamentations moving the Charity of the Magistrates whho were readily inclined to give them the best assistance they were able and the Citizens moved by their Complaints and
Sufferings freely open'd their Doores filling their Houses with as many of those distressed People as they could possibly receive the Bishop and all persons of Quality and Estate contributing largely for their support till better Order could be taken for the disposing of them The City of Messina also and several other Cities informed of this extraordinary Calamity sent hither large Supplies of Provisions offering their best assistance to this place in case of extremity All the Elements seemed at this time to make War upon us and to conspire together for the punishment of the Inhabitants The Air was continually darkened with Clouds and Smoke agitated by great and violent Winds and oftentimes showred down great Rains insomuch as the Sun from the beginning of these Eruptions very seldom appeared to us and when it did with extraordinary paleness for a little time only and as it were abhorring so dreadful a Spectacle soon hid its face again under a thick Cloud The Sea ran much higher than it was wont to do and by its extraordinary Roaring and in some places over-flowing its Banks added not a little to our consternation The Land every where infested with Thieves insomuch that till by the extraordinary care taken by the Magistrates and Officers severe execution was done upon such as were apprehended in the Fact no person was able to stir abroad without danger of his life whilst the Fire by this prodigious overflowing of the Mountain threatned to take possession of all On Friday the 15th the stream of fiery Matter which destroyed the lower part of St. Giovanni di Galermo divided it self into two parts one of its branches taking its way toward Mosterbianco the other threatning the City of Catania but this last was observed to move with more slowness than before having in 24 hours time scarcely gained 20 paces On the 18th being Monday the Torrents being still seen to draw nearer and nearer to this City the Senate with Monsegnior Cambuchi the Bishop of this place followed by all the Clergy Secular and Regular and an infinite number of people went in a solemn Procession out of this City to Monte de St. Sofia carrying out with greatest Devotion their choicest Relicks and upon an Altar erected in view of the Mountain exposed them where they celebrated Mass and used the Exorcismes accustomed upon such extraordinary occasions all which time the Mountain ceased not as before with excessive roaring to throw up its smoak and flames with extraordinary violence and abundance of great stones which were carried through the Air some of them falling within their view though at ten miles distance from the Eruption the Ashes which proceeded from thence were scattered in great abundance as well on this City as on the Country adjacent every where in the Fields with Cinders and the heat of the said Ashes destroying the Grass which obliged the people to drive away their Cattle to a farther distance which would otherwise have perished for want of food These streams of ruine dayly crept nearer and nearer to this City but by uneven and irregular motions according as it was more or less supplyed from its fountain but on Wednesday the 20th we perceived that that branch of it which seemed most to threaten this City from St. Giovanni di Galermo was wholly extinguisht and the other which bent its course toward Moster-bianco ran but slowly and gave us some hopes that its fury was also near spent but the other Torrent which had before overflown Mosterbianco continued its motion with as much violence as ever being in breadth above a Musquet shot over but in probability could not easily overflow to the Westwards which was defended by its Rocky scituation another branch which ran by Santo Pietro was observed to be much larger than the rest and its stream more quick and active but meeting with some opposition in its way it made some stop only sending out a Rivulet toward the Eastwards about three or four yards wide of its most subtle and active matter which directed its course towards a small Village about a Furlong distant from its main stream another Branch threatned Campo Rotundo but bent its course westwards towards the Farm of Valcorrente where its Fiery body was scattered into several deep and rocky places without any considerable damage About this time we had hopes that the violence of this eruption had been over the Mountain not throwing out its flames with that violence as before and its noise and roaring in a great measure ceased Those who at nearest distance took a view of the Mountain informed that the top of it was fallen in and the Mountain supposed to want near a mile of its former height that the largest of the Mouths from whence these fiery streams were vented was about half a mile in compass but the view of this dreadful Inundation carried so much terror in it as they were not able to express from all these Mouths were vomited Rivers of a thick and fiery substance of stone and metals melted whose depth was various according to the several places it filled in its passage in some places 4 in others 8 12 or 15 yards and upwards its breadth in some places 6 miles in others much more itsflame like that of Brimstone and its motion like that of Quick-silver advancing ordinarily very slowly unless where it was provoked by the addition of a fresh Torrent or some considerable descent Wheresoever it passed it left large heaps of its congealed matter with which it covered and burnt the Earth melting the Walls of Castles and Houses throwing down and consuming all before it nothing being yet found able to resist its force nor any thing able to quench its burning water being observed rather to add to its fury wheresoever it has passed it has left its dreadful marks behind it levelling some hills and raising others so much changing the scituation that not the least trace of any place or Town remains nothing being to be seen but confused heaps of ragged stone which yielding a noisome fume strikes terror and astonishment into all that behold it On Friday the 22 the Mountain again roared with much loudness and threw up from its Mouths a vast quantity of matter which formed two large hills higher and larger than that of Monpileri with a large bank of the same matter to the Eastward sending down a violent stream of its liquid matter towards Malpasso much enlarging the former Current and passing thence to Campo Rotundo and Santo Pietro compleated the ruines of those Towns driving furiouflyi towards Moster bianco the other stream by Santo Giovanni de Galermo being wholly diverted and extinguisht From this time till the 25th the Mountain continued silent but then it burst out again with more force than ever before its noise much louder like Peales of Ordnance and so forcible and lasting as for 24 hours it caused a shaking and trembling in our Buildings the Air so filled with Smoak and Ashes as
a multitude of Miracles and Prodigies of Nature I shall now proceed to those of Art The Chineses look upon themselves as the wisest People upon the face of the Earth they use therefore to say That they see with both Eyes and all other Nations but with one only and thereupon they boast though I know not with what Truth and Justice that the most famous Inventions which have been so lately known to us in Europe have been no Strangers to them for many Ages past however I shall relate what are most observable both in these and other Nations It is likewise recorded that Augustus Caesar having several ways adorned and fortifyed the City of Rome putting it into a condition of bravery and security for after times he thereupon gloried That he found Rome of brick and left it of Marble and certainly nothing makes more for the just Glory of a Prince than to leave his Dominions in better State than he found them Yet the vast Expences of some Princes and People had been more truly commendable and their mighty works more really glorious had they therein consulted more of the Publick good and less of their own Ostentation However it may not be unpleasant nor unprofitable to describe them and likewise to relate the most curious Inventions and Rarities in all Ages even to these times which have been more favourable to Learning than the former and wherein Arts have been thereby improved to the height 1. But first concerning Buildings the most famous structure we first read of was immediately after the Universal Deluge or Noah's Flood for Nimrod the Son of Chus the Son of Cham perswaded the People to secure themselves from the like after-claps by building some stupendious Edifice which might resist the fury of a second Deluge This Counsel was generally imbraced Heber only and his Family as the Tradition goes contradicting such an unlawful attempt But the major part prevailing the Tower of Babel began to rear its Head of Majesty Five Thousand One Hundred Forty six Paces from the Ground having its Basis and circumference equal to its height The Passage to go up went winding about the outside and was of an exceeding great breadth there being not only room for Horses Carts and the likemeans of Carriage to meet and turn but lodgings also for Man and Beast And as Verslegan reports Grass and Corn-fields for their nourishment and admirable it is to consider what multitudes of men there were in the World in so short a space there being but eight persons that came out of the Ark and now this Building was carried on by Five Hundred Thousand Men the Foundation of it was nine miles compass But God by the Confusion of Tongues hindred the Proceeding of this Building one not being able to understand what his Fellow called for which Du Bartas wittily describes Bring me quoth one a Trowel quickly quick One brings him up a Hammer hew this brick Another bids and then they cleave a Tree Make fast this Rope and then they let it flee One calls for Planks Another Morter lacks They bring the first a Stone the last an Ax One would have Nails and him a Spade they give Another asks a Saw and gets a Sieve Thus crosly crost they prate and rail in vain What one hath made another spoils again This makes them leave their work and like mad Fools Scatter their Stuff and tumble down their Tools II. We read in several Ancient Histories of The seven Marvels or Wonders of the World The first whereof they reckoned to be The Walls of Babylon This City of Babylon was seated on the Banks of the River Euphrates which ran through the midst of it over which Semiramuis built a strong and stately Bridge of a mile long binding each stone together with clips of Iron fastened with melted Lead and is the ancientest City of the World first built by Nimrod in the place appointed for the raising of the Tower of Babel and by him made the Imperial Seat of the Chaldeaâ— Kings afterward much beautified and inlarged by Semiramis the Wife of Ninus one of his Successors and finally much increased both in bulk and beauty by Nebuchadnezzar for he added a new City to the old which he compassed about with three Walls and made therein three stately Gates and near his Fathers Palace he built another more stately where he raised Stone Works like mountains which he planted with all manner of Trees He made also Pensile Gardens hanging as it were in the Sky borne upon Arches four-square each square containing four hundred foot filled above with Earth wherein grew all sorts of Trees and Plants The Arches were built one upon another even to fifty Cubits high He likewise made Aquâ—â—iucts for watering these Gardens He erected an Image of Gold in the Plain of Dura sixty Cubits high and six broad These stately Buildings puft him up who therefore arrogated to himself the whole Glory of them saying in his Pride Is not this the great Babel that I have built a City of great Fame and State The compass of the Walls were 365 Furlongs or forty six some say threescore miles according to the number of the days of the year in height two hundred Cubits and fifty Cubits in bredth that six Chariots or Carriages might meet on the top they were finished in one year by the hands of Two Hundred Thousand Workmen The City was foursquare and fifteen miles from one corner to another Insomuch that Aristotle saith It ought rather to be called a Countrey than a City adding withal That when the Town was taken it was three days before the furthest parts of the Town had any Intelligence thereof which taking of the Town must be understood of the surprize thereof by the Medes and Persians in the Reign of Beshazzar when Daniel the Prophet interpreted to that King the words Mene Tekel Peres which were miraculously written by a hand upon the Wall as he was banquetting with his Nobility and foretold the very day before it was taken that God had given his Kingdom to the Medes and Perfians All which was accomplished the might following when Darius King of Media and Persia besieging Babylon took it on a sudden with the help of his Nephew Cyrus the Persian in the time of a great Feast when the King Nobility and People contemning their Enemies being over-confident of their own strength minded only their Sports and Pastimes which we read was surprized after this manner The River Euphrates ran quite through the Town round about whose banks the politick Cyrus cut many and deep Channels into which he in a very short time drained and emptied the River conveying his own Forces into the Town all along the dry and yeilding Channel and in a little 〈◊〉 made himself Master of it the Babylonians being 〈◊〉 in Wine and Debauchery In the Reign of 〈◊〉 Semiramis this City revolted from her and 〈…〉 thereof coming to her as she was ordering 〈…〉 she
thereupon leaving her head half drest 〈…〉 besieged it never ordering the rest of her hair 〈…〉 had recovered it Of this great Lady it is recorded That she was born in Ascalon a Town of Syria and exposed to the fury of Wild Beasts but being born not to dye so ingloriously she was brought up by Shepherds and at full Age presented to the Syrian Vice Roy who gave her in marriage to his only Son going with him to the Wars she fell into acquaintance with King Ninus who liking her Person and Spirit took her to his bed This bred in him a greater Affection to her so that he granted her at her request the command of the Empire for 5 days making a Decree that her Will in all things should be punctually performed which boon being gotten she put on the Royal Robes and as some writers report commanded the King to be slain Having thus gotten the Empire she exceedingly inlarged it leading her Army consisting of one hundred Thousand Chariots of War three Millions of Foot and half a Million of Horse A Woman worthy of Honour and Applause but only for her insatiable Lusts of which the Greek Writers charge her to be very guilty This Queen Semiramis caused an huge Obelisk or Pyramid to be cut out of the Armenian Mountains all of one entire stone one hundred and fifty foot long and twenty four foot thick which was foursquare and was brought with much difficulty to the River Euphrates and from thence to Babylon where she erected it to be a matter of admiration to future Ages Babylon likewise revolted from the Persians in the Reign of Darius Hyslaspes and that Victuals might 〈…〉 for the Men of War they strangled 〈…〉 of the Women they being then it seems 〈…〉 to be necessary Evils when they had for 〈…〉 obstinately defended the Town that the 〈…〉 had very little hope of prevailing Zopyrus one 〈…〉 Captains mangling his body and disâ—iguring 〈◊〉 Face by cutting off his own Ears and Nose â—ed to the Babylonians complaining of the Tyranny of the King as if he had been thus cruel to him The Babylonians believing his Words and knowing his Courage committed the charge of the whole Army to him as a man to whom such barbarous usage had made the King irreconcileable But he taking the best Opportunity delivered both the Town and Souldiers into the hands of his Soveraign which made Darius often say That he had rather have one Zopyrus than Twenty Babylonians Here dyed Alexander the Great after whose Death the Graecian Captains regardful rather of their own Ambition than the Common Loyalty divided the Empire amongst themselves leaving the body of the King eight days unburied A wonderful change of Fortune that he who living thought the World too small for his valour being dead should find no place big enough for his Body The Walls of this City were built of Stone and wonderful high strongly joyned together with Lime and Ciment growing in the Mines of that Countrey but especially in the great Lake of Asphaltites in Judea where sometime Sodom and Gomorrah stood within the Town were a great number of Marble Temples and Golden Images whole Streets shining and glittering with Gold and precious Stones And among other Temples there was one of Belus built by Semiramis and dedicated to Cush or Jupiter Belus fourfquare each side containing two Furlorys or a Thousand Paces with thick Towering Walls and entred by four Gates of polished Brass In thâ— midst thereof there was a Tower sometimes reckon 〈◊〉 one of the 〈◊〉 Wonders it had an hundred Braâ—en 〈◊〉 and â—wo Hundred and Fifty Towers and 〈…〉 a quarâ—â—r of a mile both in height and bredth uâ—on which were raised eight other Towers one above another with easie stairs to ascend up to the top where there 〈◊〉 a Chappel with a sumptuous Bed and a Table of â—old In the top of this Chappel were placed three Golden Statues one of Jupiter 40 Foot long weighing a Thousand Talents each Talent containing 63 pounds 10 Ounces Another Image of Ops weighing as much sitting in a Golden Throne at her Feet were two Lyons and hard by divers huge Serpents of Silver each weighing Thirty Talents The third Image was of Juno standing in weight eight hundred Talents to all which was added a Common Table of Gold forty foot long and twelve broad weighing 50 Talents There were also two standing Cups of 30 Talents and 2 Vessels for perfumes of the like weight Besides 3 other Vessels of Gold weighing twelve hundred Talents All which the Persian Kings after the Conquest of it took away Finally such wonderful things are written by credible Authors of Artificial Mountains Orchards and Gardens hanging in the Air that they seem almost incredible All which demonstrates the wonderful Wealth and Glory of those Monarchs in that time But after the taking of it by the Macedonians the grandeur and magnificence thereof began to decline lessening a fourth part in the time of Quintus Curtius and was reduced to Desolation in the days of Pliny and in the Reign of the Emperor Adrian there was nothing left of Babylon but a poor Wall which served for a Park for Wild Beasts in which the Kings of Persia used to hunt and those who have lately travelled thither relate it is now so full of Lyons and Savage Beasts yea and of Robbers and Murtherers that Passengers are forced to have Souldiers to Guard them from whence we may by the way observe the exact accomplishment of the Prophecy of Jeremiah ch 51. concerning this City A drought is upon her Waters and I will dry up her Sea and make her Springs dry and Babylon shall become heaps a dwelling place for Dragons an astonishment and an hissing without an Inhabitant The Wild Beasts of the Desert with the Wild Beasts of the Islands shall dwell there and the Out shall dwell there and it shall be no more inhabited neither shall it be dwelt in from Generation to Generation and the Land shall be Desert and Dry. And it is certainly reported by Travellers that there is not nowany Town or Village near that once famous City nor so much as a Tree or green Herb in all that Territory but all is become a sandy Desart For Bagdat which is now called New Babylon is a days Journey from the place where the old City stood and this barrenness is wonderful considering the admirable fruitfulness thereof in times past which Pliny saith was the most fruitful Countrey of all the East and that the ground usually yielded two hundred and some years Three Hundred for one Treasure of Time Vol 1. III. The Second Wonder of the World is reckoned to be The Colossus of the Sun which was at Rhodes It was the Statue or Figure of a man dedicated by the Gentiles to the Sun and some say to Jupiter it was composed of Brass of an incredible bigness and in height like a mighty Tower so that it can hardly be imagined how
such great Miracles In several Ages after it made woful irruptions as from the year 1160 to 1169 all Sicily was shaken with huge Earthquakes and the Mountain Aetna foaming mightily overthrew all the circumjacent places with incredible Desolation with the ruine of the Cathedral Church of Catania about ten miles distant in which Abbot John and his Monks were overwhelmed Many other fearful burnings have happened since that time but none more horrible for its mighty devastations than that in the year 1669 The Right Honourable the Earl of Winchelsea His Majesties late Ambassador at Constantinople in his return from thence visiting Catania was an Eye-witness of this Prodigious Judgment whereof he gave the following Account to His present Majesty King Charles the second as soon as he came to Naples May it please Your Majesty In my Voyage from Malta to this place I touched at the City of Catania in Sicily and was there most kindly Invited by the Bishop to lodge in his Palace which I accepted that so I might be the better able to inform your Majesty of that extraordinary Fire which comes from Mount Gibel 15 miles distant from that City which for its horridness in the aspect for the vast quantity thereof for it is 15 miles in length and 7 in breadth for its monstrous devastation and quick progress may be termed an Inundation of Fire a Flood of Fire Cinders and burning Stones burning with that Rage as to advance into the Sea 600 yards and that to a mile in breadth which I saw and that which did augment my admiration was to see in the Sea this matter like ragged Rocks burning in sour fathom water two fathom higher than the Sea it self some parts liquid and moving and throwing off not without great violence the stones about it which like a crust of a vast bigness and red hot sell into the Sea every moment in some place or other causing a great and horrible noise smoak and hissing in the Sea and thus more and more coming after it making a firm foundation in the Sea it self I stayed there from nine a Clock on Saturday morning to seven next morning and this Mountain of Fire and Stones with Cinders had advanced into the Sea 20 yards at least in several places in the middle of this Fire which burn'd in the Sea it hath formed a passage like to a River with its Banks on each side very steep and craggy and in this Channel moves the greatest quantity of this Fire which is the most liquid with stones of the same composition and Cinders all red hot swimming upon the Fire of a great magnitude From this River of Fire under the great Masse of the Stones which are generally three fathom high all over the Country where it burns and in other places much more there are secret Conduits or Rivulets of this liquid matter which Communicate Fire and heat into all parts more or less and melts the Stones and Cinders by fits in those places where it toucheth them over and over again where it meets with Rocks or Houses of the same matter as many are they melt and go away with the Fire where they find other compositions they turn them to lime or ashes as I am informed The composition of this Fire Stones and Cinders are Sulphur Nitre Quick-silver Sal-Armoniac Lead Iron Brass and all other Mettals It moves not regularly nor constantly down hill in some places it hath made the Valleys Hills and the Hills that were not high are now Valleys When it was night I weat upon two Towers in divers places and could plainly see at 10 miles distance as we judged the Fire to begin to run from the Mountain in a direct line the flame to ascend as high and as big as one of the highest and greatest Steeples in Your Majesties Kingdoms and to throw up great Stones into the Air I could discern the River of Fire to dâ—scend the Mountain of a terrible â—â—ery or red colour and stones of a paler Red to swim thereon and to be some as big as an ordinary Table We could see this fire to move in several other places and all the Country covered with Fire ascending with great Flames in many places smoaking â—â—â—e to a violent furnace of Iron melted making a noiâ—e with the great picces that fell especially those which fell iâ—to the Sea A Cavalier of Malta who lives there and attended me told me that the River was as liquid where it issues out of the Mountain as water and came out like a Torrent with great violence and is five or six fathom deep and as broad and that no stones do sink therein I assure Your Majesty no Pen can express how terrible it is nor can all the Art and Industry of the world quench or divert that which is burning in the Country In 40 days time it hath destroyed the habitations of 27 thousand persons made two Hills of one 1000 paces high a-piece and one is four miles in compass Of 20000 persons which inhabited Catania 3000 did only remain all their Goods are carryed away the Cannons of Brass are removed out of the Castle some great Bells taken down the City-Gates Walled up next the Fire and preparation made all to abandon the City That night which I lay there it rained Ashes all over the City and 〈◊〉 Miles at Sea it troubled my Eyes This Fire in its Progress 〈…〉 â—ith a Lake of Four Miles in compass and iâ— was not only satisâ—â—â—d to fill it up though it was four fathâ—â— deep but hatâ— made 〈◊〉 it a Mountain I send also to Your Sacred Majesty the following Account in Print which the Bishop save me as it is â—â—â—ected one of divers Relations from Caâ—ama Mount 〈…〉 Gibello a Mountain so Renowned throughout the World for its heightand greatness but more for â—hosâ— Prodigious Flames Smoak and Ashes which it hath cast out from the top of it whilst the other parts are continually even in the midst of Sâ—mmer cover'd with Snow has been for many Ages observ'd once or sometimes oftner in the space of above fifteen years to throw up more than ordinary â—lames with much Smoak and Stones and great quantities of Aâ—â—es which though terrible to the Neighbouring Towns and Villages was yet wâ—nt in little time to abate of its fury and prove but seldom more inâ—urious to the Country â—ear it than by communicating largely its ashes which though for the present it did somewhat incommode them they had afterwards a considerable Compensation in the product of their Lands which by this means were rendred more fruitful But on Friday the 18th of March 1669. the Sun was observed before its setting to appear of a pale and dead colour which being contrary to what it ever before appeared to us struck no small terror into the Inhabitants all Objects appearing also of the same colour with a paleness received from that of the Sun The same night happened in this City as well