or fifty Rats and other means they used to destroy them but could not prevail finding them still to increase against them and continued with them till almost to the end of Captain Tuckers time who was then Governour but towards the end of his time it pleased God by what means it is not well known to take them away insomuch that Wild Cats and many Dogs that lived on them were famished Some have attributed this destruction of them to the encrease of Wild Cats some to one thing some to another though none could positively conclude this or that It remaineth then as we know God doth sometimes effect his will without subordinate and secondary causes and sometimes against them So we need not doubt but that in the speedy increase and spreading of these Vermine as also in the preservation of so many of them by such weak means as they then enjoyed and especially in the suddain removal of this great annoyance there was joyned with and besides the ordinary and manifest means a more immediate and secret work of God In the Sommer Islands THere is the Tortoys which they call a Turckle which having some affinity and resemblance with Fishes Beasts and Fowls They are in the shape of their body like a Crab-fish and have four fins they are as great as three or four men can carry the upper part of them is covered with a great shell which they call a Galley patch weighing about half a hundred weight the Flesh that cleaveth to the inside of this being Roasted against the Fier is excellent Meat almost like the Marrow of Beef but the shell it self harder then horn she hath also a shell on her belly not so hard but being boyled it becometh soft like the sinews or gristle of Beef and good Meat These live in the Sea spending the Spring time and part of Sommer about these Islands but the residue of the year is not known where They are like to Fowl in respect of smallness and fashion of their heads and necks which are wrinckled like a Turkies but white and not so sharp Billed They also breed their young of Eggs which thâ—y lay They resemble Beasts in that their flesh is like Veal but more hard and solid and they feed always upon grass growing at the bottom of the water neither can they abide any longer under water then they hold their breath which the old ones will do long but the young ones being chased to and fro cannot continue two Minutes without coming up to breathe Shortly after their first coming in the Male and Female couple which is there called Cooting this they continue some three days together during which time they will scarce separate though a Boat come to them nor hardly when they are smitten Not long after the she Turckle comes up by night upon some sandy Bay and further up then the water useth to flow she digs a hole with her Fin in the sand some two foot deep and there coming up several nights lays her Eggs some half a bushel which are about the bigness of a Hens Egg and round as a Ball and â—â—ch time covers them with sand very curiously so that a Man shall hardly find the place These Eggs as it seems are afterwards hatched by the heat of the Sun and then by the providence of God the means as yet unknown are brought out of the Earth for they could never perceive that she returns any more to them and yet in likelihood they remain not long in the Earth after they are hatched because as is before said they cannot live without breathing Sometimes is seen the young ones no bigger then a Mans hand which some Fish will devour They grow slowly and seem to have a very long life they 'l sleep on the top of the Water and were wont to sleep often on the Land till the Country was peopled they will also live out of the Water some three weeks and that without Meat but mourn and pine away they are very witty Being on the Land turned upon their backs they can no more without some help or advantage recover themselves by which means when they come on shore to lay their Eggs they are easily taken as also they are when they are Cooting But otherwise they take them for the most part by night making a great light in a Boat to which they will sometimes swim and seldom shun so that a Man standing ready with a staffe in his hand at one end of which he hath a Socket wherein is an Iron less then a Mans finger four-square and sharp with a line fastned to it he striketh this Iron into the upper shell of the Turckle it strikes so fast that after she hath a little tyred her self by swimming to and fro she is taken by it They will live the head being cut off four and twenty hours so that if you cut the flesh with a knife or touch it it will tremble and shrink away There is no meat will keep longer either fresh or salt Out of the Description of Great Britain these Stories following are Remarkable and Pleasant BRitain seated in the Ocean hath her praises in honourable Eulogies That Britain is the Seas High Admiral and the Fortunate Island whose Air is more temperate then France whose Soil bringeth forth all Grain in abundance whose Seas produce Orient Pearl whose Fields are the seat of a Summer Queen her wildest parts free from wild Beasts and her chief City worthily named Augusta So as we may truly say with the Psalmist Our Lives are fallen in pleasant places Yea we have a fair Inheritance To the Praise of this Island are these following Verses England fierce Land Worlds Angle fertile Art Rich Isle thou needst no other Countries Mart Each other Country yet thy succour needs England Joyes Land be free and Joyous long Free Race free Grace free kind free Mind and Tongue Tet hands pass tongues for free and Glorious Deeds KENT DOver with the Castle is accounted by Mathew Paris the Monk the Lock and Key to the whole Realm of England fatal for the death of King Stephen and surrender of King John therein hapning An accident hapned in the year 1586. the fourth day of August in this County at Mottingham a Town 8 miles distant from London suddenly the ground began to sink and three great Elms thereon growing were carryed so deep into the bowels of the Earth that no part of them could any more be seen the hole left in compass fourscore yards about and a line of 50 fathams plummed into it doth find no bottom The City of Canterbury hath been honoured with the Presence and Coronations of King John and Queen Isabel his Wife with the Marriages of King Henry the third and of King Edward the first and with the Interments of Edward the Black Prince King Henry the fourth and of Queen Joan his Wife King Stephen and Maud his Queen was buryed at Feversham SUSSEX A Battel was fought
History and Description of the World not so choicely nor methodically handled as might be expected but yet may serve to refresh your memory after the tedious and ill way of other mighty Volumes It were a worthy employ for any that hath parts and leisure to go through with it in a more acute and accurate manner not emitting ought memorable to extract from those numerous Records of History all such short Memoirs as may tend either to instruction or delight And as he will thereby infinitely oblige both these whose way of Education may have less qualified them to distinguish the Stars in sailing on the vast Ocean of Story and those also whose confinement in time or coin may disenable them for such expensive ways of knowledge So shall he in particular find me the most acknowledging of all his Servants must esteem mine most happy faults that have been to him incentives of aspiring to the true glory of Writing better ERRATA PAge 1. line 4. dele utraque p. 4. l. 20. r. Ctesiphon p. 12. l. 2. r. happy p. 25. l. 4. dele from East Frizeland to Westphalia then r. Westphalia is most famous c. p. 31. l. 16. for of the r. and p. 32. l. 11. r. Earl Floris p. 41. l. 19. r. Persians p. 52. l. 5. r. Lines p. 57. l. 11. r. any p. 59. l. 12. r. third p. 60. l. 19. r. Shoals p. 67. r. not maly but maly p. 75. l. 13. r that p. 78. l. 6. r. injoyned ib. l. 21. r. and at p. 81. l. 4. r. rich p. 82. l. 7. dele of p. 83. l. 21. r. far from p. 84. l. 3. r. Isicles ib. l. 17. r. Lewelyn p. 91. l. 23 r. not wherein but where in in p. 93. l. 2. r. enricheth this ib. l. 14. r. Ruyters p. 100. l. 13. r. notwithstanding they p. 108. l. 12. in piramidy-wise r. pyramid-wise ib. l. 1. dele of and the comma after wonders p. 109. l. 12. r. Shotland ib. l. 19. r. ever pleasing p. 112. l. 23. r. Gods p. 114. l. 7. r. necks were p. 116. l. 9. r. Agincourt p. 118. l. 13. r. Cyrenaean p. 120. l. 16. r. Ecstatick p. 126. l. 2. r. of Arabia p. 129. l. 22. r. wanderers p. 134. l. 6. r. Herodian ib. l. 12. r. more barbarous then the Axiacan p. 147. l. 7. r. murtherer p. 149. l. 5. r. Savour p. 162. l. 11. r she please Other Literal escapes there are which the kind Reader may correct as he passes Memorable things Noted in the DESCRIPTION OF THE WORLD IN our Description of the World there are four parts into which the World is divided Europe Asia Africa America utraque We will begin first with Asia for in Asia did God himself speak his miraculous work of the Creation There was the Church first collected there was the Saviour of the world born Crucified and Raised again Indeed the greatest part of Divine History was there written and Acted There was the first Monarch and Monarchies of the World in Assyria Persia Babylonia Media The first people of the world received their being in Mesopotamia and the several tongues of the World their Original in Babylonia These are parts of Asia and were in the first ages blest with God's own holy Presence Exodus the third and the footing of Angels Exod. 14. However now it is left for her Infidelity to the punishment of a Prophetical Curse that long before passed upon her and is delivered up into the hands of Turks and Nations that Blaspheme the Creatour and therefore doth not flourish in that height as heretofore Now add together that this Region was at first the Paradise of the World and indeed still enjoyeth a fertile Soyl and temperate Air and that it exceeds in compass the two other parts of the old World to which she was the Mistress for Arts and Sciences Yet is it not at this day so well peopled in proportion as this little Europe which came many hundred years after for this we need search no further cause than God's just Anger Yet hath he not exercised upon her only by Miraculous and Immediate Punishment from Heaven but hath suffered as it were her own Creatures over which Man at the first had the Rule to turn head upon their Lords and possesse their Habitation for it is so over-run with wild-Beasts and cruel Serpents that in many places they live not without much danger In this though the Nation suffer for their Monstrous Irreligion Yet the Earth which did not offend reserves her place and abounds with many excellent commodities not else-where to be had Myrrhe Frankincense Cinamon Cloves Nutmegs Mace Pepper Musk Jewels of great esteem and Minerals of all sorts It breeds Elephants Camels and many other Beasts Serpents Fowl wild and tame and some have added such Monstrous shapes of men as passe all belief In Asia were the seven Churches which St. John mentioned in the Apocalips now scarce is it inhabited but toward the Sea-side and that by a base and abject people such as are both lazy in their life and odious Idolaters in their Religions for the most part Mahumetans Here Ephesus it self the Star of Asia that as well for her Religion as her miraculous Temple set the world at gaze upon her It was raised in the middle of the City Modelled out by Ctesifon but was 220. years in building and was ordered in such a ground that no Earth-quake should move it It was 425. foot long and 220. broad and 127. Pillars given by so many several Kings whereof twenty seven were most curiously graven all the rest of Marble polished In this City St. John the Evangelist is said to have gone down into his Grave alive there be who yet question his death Armenia minor which is one of the Provinces of Asia minor is by most thought to be the Land of Ararat where the Ark rested And there is great store of Oyl and excellent Wine Arabia Foelix in Asia major is accounted the fruitfullest Country in the World In this Arabia is the City Medina where Mahomet is Intombed in an Iron Chest supported only by a Roof of Adamant without other Art to keep it from falling to the ground Cyprus a place heretofore Consecrated to Venus to whom both Men and Women performed their Sacrifice naked till by the prayer of Barnabas the Apostle the Temple was ruined Trojus Reports that the Fathers of this Isle had wont to prostitute their Daughters to Mariners for money whereby to raise them a portion against they could get them Husbands but Christianity corrected those Barbarous Customs AFRICA IN most parts she hath scarce plenty sufficient to maintain Inhabitants and where there is we shall meet with multitudes of Ravening Beasts or other horrible Monsters enough to devour both it and us In a word There is no Region of the World so great an Enemy to Mans Commerce there is such scarcity of water that no Creature almost could live had not
is found a hard stone which we term Emerill This stone is serviceable for many purposes and many Trades as Glasiers c. but especially for the Gold-smiths and Lapidaries to cut their precious stones Jersey THis Island is in length ten miles and in bredth six miles the whole circuit of the Island being thirty eight miles Pembroke-shire in this shire nothing remarkable Caermarden-shire IN the ruins of Carreg-Castle which stood mounted on a high hill under which many Vaults and spacious Caves far into the ground are seen wherein is thought the people unable to fight were therein secured in time of their Wars Where also is a Well that in this place twice in four and twenty hours ebbing and twice flowing resembleth the unstable Motions of the main Sea Glamorgan-shire THings of strange note that in a Rock or Cliff upon the Sea-side and Island of Barry lying near the South-east point of this Country is heard out of a little chink the noise as it were of Smiths at their work one while the blowing of Bellows to increase the heat then the stroaks of the hammer and sound of the Anvil sometimes the noise of the Grind-stone in grinding of Iron Tools then the hissing sparks of Steel-gads as they fly from their beating with the puffing noise of flames in a Furnace More Westward from hence upon the River Ogmore and near unto Newton in a sandy plain about an hundred paces from Severn there springeth a Well though not of the clearest water whereat the flowing and fulness of the Sea can hardly any water be gotten but at the ebb and fall of the Tide it walloweth up a main And upon the same shore more North and by West on the top of a hill called Minyd-Margan is erected a Monument inscribed with a strange Character and as strange a conceit held thereof by the by-dwellers whose opinions are possessed that if any Man read the same he shall shortly after dye Monmouth OUr King Henry the V the great Triumpher over France was born in Monmouth Brecknock-shire THe Welshmen relate of a Prince named Brechavius the Father of an holy off-spring whose twenty four Daughters were all of them Saints From the top of a Hill in Welsh called Mounch-devuy or Cadier Arthur if any man from the North-east Rock cast their Cloaks Hats and Staves notwithstanding will never fall but with the Air and wind return back and blow up neither will any descend from that Cliff being so cast unless it be stone or some Metalline substance affirming the cause to be the Clouds which are seen to rack much lower than the top of that hill As strange a tale is told of the Mâ—â—y Llynsavathan two Miles East from Brecâ—nock which at the breaking of her frozen Ice maketh a fearful sound like unto Thunder In which place as is reported sometimes stood a fair City which was swallowed up in an Earthquake and resigned her Stone-walls unto this deep and broad water Radnor-shire NEar Knigton a Market Town is Offaes Ditch which runs along by the Mountain which was a bound set to separate the Welsh from the English A Law was made that it should be present death for the Welsh to pass over the same Cardigan-shire IN Tyui the Beaver hath been found a Creature living both by land and water whose stones the Physicians hold in great price His fore-feet are like unto a Dogs but the hinder whole skinned as is the Goose like Oars giving him swift motion in swiming his tail broad and Gristly he useth a stern wherewith on the sudden he can divert his swift floating course Mount-Gomery-shire nothing there remarkable Merioneth-shire HIlls there are so high as it is affirmed by one that shepherds upon their tops falling at odds in the Morning and challenging the field for fight before they can come together to try out the Quarrel the day will be spent and the heat of their fury shut up with their sleep Denbigh-shire THis is worth observing both for Admiration and Antiquity that in the Parish of Llan-sunan within this County there is a place compass cut out of the main Rock by mans hand in the side of a stony hill wherein there be four and twenty seats to sit in some less some bigger where Children and young men coming to seek their Cattel use to sit and to have their sports And at this day they commonly call it King Arthurs Round Table Flint-shire THis Country hath many shallow Rivers in it but none of fame and note but d ee and Cluyde How he it there is a Spring not far from Rudland Castle of great report and antiquity which is termed Holy-well and is commonly called St. Winefrids Well of whom antiquity thus reporteth that Winefrid a Christian Virgin very fair and vertuous was doted upon by a young lustful Prince or Lord of the Country who not being able to rule his head-strong affections having many times in vain attempted and tryed her chastity both by rich Gifts and large Promises could not by any means obtain his desires he therefore in a place of advantage suddenly surprized and ravished her weak yet resisting body After the deed done the cruel Tyrant to stop her crys and acclamations slew her and cut off her head out of which place did suddenly arise a Spring that continueth to this day carrying from the Fountain such a forcible stream and currant as the like is not found in Christendom Over the head of the Spring there is built a Chappel of Free-stone with Pillars curiously wrought and ingraved in the Chancel whereof and Glass window the Picture of the Virgin is drawn together with the Memorial of her life and death To this Fountain Pilgrims are accustomed to repair in their zealous but blind devotion and divers others resort to Bathe in holding firmly that the water is of much vertue There be many Red stones in the bottom of this Well and much green Moss growing upon the sides the superstition of the people holding that these Red spots in the stones were drops of the Ladies bloud which all the water in the Spring can never wash away and that the Moss about the Wall was her hair which though some of it be given to every stranger that comes yet it never wasteth But howsoever this be carryed for truth by the Tradition of time the Moss it self smells exceeding sweet Carnaervon-shire KIng Edward the second was born at Carnaervon in a Tower of the Castle he was the first Prince of Wales of the English Line There are in this shire two Pools called the Mears the one of which produceth great store of fish but all having only one eye and in the other there is a moveable Island which as soon as a man treadeth on it forthwith floateth a great way off whereby the Welsh are said to have often escaped and deluded their Enemies assailing them Anglesea-Island THe length of this Island is twenty miles in bredth seventeen miles the whole circumference amounting
was unsightly their necks was hung with Chains and Carkaneths their Arms wreathed with many Bracelets and over their side garments the Shag Rug Mantles purfled with a deep fringe of divers colours both Sexes accounting idleness their only liberty and ease their greatest riches In Warâ— they were forward and fought with Battle-axes whose bearers were called Galloglasses the common souldier but lightly armed who served with darts and sharp skeines their Trumpet was a Bag-pipe and word for encounter Pharroh which at the first Onset with great acclamation they uttered and he that did not was taken into the Air and carryed into the Vale of Kerry where transformed as they did believe he remained until he was hunted with hounds from thence to his home For the dying and dead they hired Women to mourn who expostulated with the sick why he would die and dead at his Funeral such out-crys were made such clapping of hands such howlings and gestures that one would think their sorrows unrecoverable holding the opinion of Pythagoras for their souls departed Their Diet in necessity was slender feeding upon Water-cresses Roots Mushrooms Shamroh Butter tempered with Oatmeal Milk Whey yea and raw fish the bloud being crushed out their use was also to let their Kine bloud which standing a while and coming to Jelly with Butter they did eat as a very good dish Out of the Description of the Civil Wars fought in England Wales and Ireland FRance felt the heavy hands of Edward and Henry our English Kings when the one of them at Poictiers took Prisoners John King of France and Philip Sirnamed the hardy his son the other Henry the fifth at Azincourt in a bloudy battel took and slew four thousand Princes Nobles Knights and Esquires even all the flower of France as their own writers have declared And at Paris the Crown of France was set upon Henry the 6 th his Head homage done unto him by the French that Kingdom made subject and their Flower deluces quartered with our Lions of England An enterprize remaining fresh in Memory of Philip date King of Spain against our Dread Soveraign Queen Elizabeth in the year 1588. attempting by his invincible Navy as he thought and so termed under the Conduct of the Duke of Medina Celi which with great Pride and Cruelty was intended against us arrived on our Coasts to Englands Invasion and Subversion had yet nevertheless here in the narrow Seas the one part of his Fleet discomfited taken and drowned and the other part forced to their great shame in poor Estate to make a fearful and miserable flight about the Coast of Ireland homeward so that of 158 great ships furnished for War came to their own Coast of Spain but few and those so torn and beaten by the English Canons that it was thought they were unserviceable for ever and eleven of their Ensigns or Banners prepared for Triumph and Pride in Conquest were contrariwise to their dishonour shewed at Pauls Cross and in other places of this Realm Out of the Description of the Turkish EMPIRE WE will take notice of their Religion how it is a meer Couzenage thrust upon the filly people by the impious subtilty of one Mahomet whose story is well worth our knowledge and may cause us to commiserate the desperate Estate of those ignorant yet perverse and bloudy Antichristians His place of Birth is questioned whether he were a Cirenick an Arabian or Persian it is not yet fully decided certain enough it is he was of base Parents his Father some say a Worshipper of Devils and his Mother a faithless Jew betwixt them they sent into the World a pernicious deceiver which none but two such Religions could have made up In the year 597. when he had been for a while thus instructed by his distracted Parents poverty and hope to improve his Fortunes perswaded him from his Native soil to live for another while among true professed Christians where he received so much knowledge of the Word and light of the Gospel as to pervert it to his destruction and ruine of many Millions of souls In his first adventurous travels abroad he fell into the hands of theevish Saracens which sold him to a Jewish Merchant and he imployed him to drive his Camels through Egypt Syria Palestine and other forrain Countries where he still gathered farther instructions of that truth which he intended to abuse His wickedness first brake forth into fraud open Theft and Rapine and other sins of highest rank in which he continued and seduced others till the death of his Master and after marryed his Aged but rich Mistress He had means now to act his malicious purposes and wealth to countenance his exceeding Pride which would not be satisfied with a lower Ambition then to be called a Prophet of God This he began to practice by the Counsel of one Sergius a Monk who being cast out for Heresie from Constantinople betook himself into Arabia and joyned in with Mahomet to make up this mischief perfect see now their Juggling There wanted no craft betwixt them to make use of his worst actions to gull the simple For when by his debaucht drinking and gluttony he was fallen into an Epilepsie and in his fits lay Bear like grovelling and foaming upon the Earth as one without sense he pretended an Exta-like swoon wherein his soul was wrapped from his body in which he converst with Gabriel an Angel from Heaven To make this familiarity with God the more to be believed he had bred up a Dove to take her meat from his ear which he most blasphemously professed to be the Holy Ghost who in such times and in that shape infused the prophesies which he was to preach Lastly what they in their wicked fancies had conceived and meant to propagate they digested into a Volume and called it the Alcoran For this too they had a trick that it might seem to have been sent from Heaven into the hands of Mahomet and to this purpose he had himself fed up a tame Bull which by custom became so familliar that no sooner he heard the voice of his Master but he would straight run cast the head in his lap and use his wanton dalliance as with a Fellow Betwixt the horns of this Bull had he fastned the Alcoran and conveyed him into a by-place near where he had assembled the Multitude at a set time to expect a wonderful Miracle from Heaven that might confirm his Prophecy The Scene thus ordered on the sudden he lift up his voice and made a loud cry which no sooner the beast heard but he brake his way through the Press over-turned many of the Spectators which now stood at a gaze and gently laid his horns and book in the bosom of this false couzener which he with much ceremony and feigned Reverence received and in their presence opening the Volume began to interpret the chief of their Laws which for hereafter they were to observe Circumcision he allowed and with the
then the hangman having a pan of Coals near him with red hot pincers nip'd of the nipple of one breast then he took a knife and gives him a slash or cut down the back on one side from the shoulder to the waste and presently gave him such another slash three inches from the first then on the top he cut the slashes into one and presently taking pincers took hold of the cross cut and tore him down like a Girse below the middle letting it hang down behind him like a belt after which he took his burning pincers and pluck'd off the tops of his fingers of one hand then passing to another place of the Town his other nipple was plucked off the other side of his back so cut and mangled which they call by the name of rimming his other fingers nip'd off then passing further all his Toes were nip'd off with the burning pincers after which he was inforced to come out of the Cart and go on foot up a steep hill to the Gallows where he was broken with a wheel alive one bone after another beginning at his leggs and ending with his neck and last of all quartered and laid on the Wheel on a high post till Crows Ravens or consuming time consume him This was the manner of both their executions but I speak of the greatest murther particularly because it is reported that all these torments never made him once to change countenance or to make any sign or action of grief to call to God for mercy or to intreat the people to pray for him but as if he had been a sensless stock or stone he did most scornfully and as it were in disdain abide it whilst the other Villain did cry rore and make lamentation calling upon God often The difference was not much in their lives and manner of their deaths but the odds may be great in their dying In the City of Prague is said to be of Churches and Chappels 150. I was there at four several sorts of divine exercise viz. at good Sermons with the Protestants at Mass with the Papists at a Lutherans preaching and at the Jews Synagogue three of which I saw and heard for curiosity and the other for Edification The Jews in Prague are in such great numbers that they are thought to be of Men Women and Children betwixt 50 or 60000. who do all live by Brokage and Usury upon the Christians and are very rich in Money and Jewels so that a man may see 10 or 12 together of them that are accounted worth 20 30 or 40000 l. a piece and yet the slaves go so miserably attired that 15 of them are not worth the hanging for their whole ward-ropes The City of Hamburgh The priviledges of their grand hang-man YOu must understand that this fellow is a Subsidy Hangman to whom our Tyburn Tatterdemallion or our Wapping winde-pipe stretcher is but a Raggamuffin not worth the hanging The priviledges of this Grand haulter-master are many as he hath the emptying of all the Vaults or draughts in the City which no doubt he gains some favour by Besides all Oxen Kine Horses Dogs or any such beasts if they dye themselves or if they be not like to live the hang man must knock them on the head and have their skins and whatsoever Inhabitant in his jurisdiction doth any of these things aforesaid himself is abhorred and accounted as a Villain without Redemption So that with hangings headings breakings pardoning and killing of Dogs flaying of Beasts emptying of Vaults and such privy Commodities his whole Revenue sometimes amounts to four or five hundred pounds a year And he is held in that regard and estimation that any man will converse and drink with nay sometimes the Lords of the Town will feast with him and it is accounted no impeachment to their honours for he is held in the rank of a Gentleman or a rank Gentleman and he scorns to be clad in the cast weeds of executed offenders no he goes to the Mercers and hath his Sattin his Velvet or what stuffe he pleases measured out by the Yard or the Ell with his Gold and Silver Lace his silk Stockings laced spangled Garters and Roses Hat and Feather with four or five brave Villains attending him in Livery Cloaks who have stipendary means from his ignominious bounty Their manner of executing Thieves and Murtherers upon the Wheel I shall name one for a president A Poor Carpenter dwelling in the Town who having stoln a Goose and plucking it within his doors a little Girl his Daughter-in-law went out of his house and left the door open by which means the owner of the Goose passing by espyed the wretched thief very diligently picking what he before had been stealing to whom the owner said Neighbour I now perceive which way my Geese use to go but I will have you in Question for them and so away he went the Caitiff being thus reproved grew desperate and his Child coming into his house ye young whore quoth he must ye leave my door open for folks to look in upon me and with that word he took a hatchet and with a cursed stroak he clove the Childs head for the which murther he was condemned and judged to be broken alive upon the wheel Upon the day of Execution about the hour of 12 at Noon the people of the Town in great multitudes flocked to the place of Execution which is half a mile English without the Gates the Prisoner came on foot with a Divine with him all the way exhorting him to repentance and because death should not terrifie him they had given him many Rowses and Carowses of Wine and Beer for it is a custom there to make such poor wretches drunk whereby they be made sensless either of Gods mercy or their own misery but being pray'd for by others they themselves may die resolutely or to be feared desperately But the Prisoner being come to the place of death he was by the Officers delivered to the hang-man who entring his strangling fortification with two grand hang-men more and their men to assist their Hamburghian brother in this great and weighty work the Prisoner mounted on a mount of Earth built high on purpose that the people about may see the execution a quarter of a mile round about four of the hang-mens men takes each of them a small halter and by the hands and the feet they hold the prisoner extended all abroad lying on his back then the Arch-hang-man or the great Master of this mighty business took up a wheel much about the bigness of one of the fore wheels of a Coach and first having put off his Doublet his Hat and being in his shirt as if he meant to play at Tennis he took the wheel and set it on the edge and turn'd it with one hand like a Top or Whirly-gig then he took it by the Spoaks and lifting it up with a mighty stroke he beat one of the poor wretches legs in
pieces the bones I mean at which he rored grievously then after a little pause he breaks the other leg in the same manner and consequently breaks his arms and then he stroke four or five main blows on his breast and burst all his bulk and chest in shivers lastly he smote his neck and missing burst his chin and Jaws to mammocks then he took the broken mangled Corps and spread it on the wheel and then fixed the post into the Earth some six foot deep being in height above the ground some ten or twelve foot and there the carkass must lye till it be consumed by all consuming time or ravening fowls This was the terrible manner of the horrid Execution and at this place are twenty posts with those wheels or pieces of wheels with heads of men nailed on the top of the posts with a great spike driven through the skull The several kinds of torments which they inflict upon offenders in those parts puts me to imagine our English hanging to be but a flea-biting There manner of beheading MOreover if any men in those parts are to be beheaded the fashion is that the prisoner kneels down and being blinded with a Napkin one takes hold of the hair of the crown of the head holding the party upright whilst the hangman with a backward blow with a sword will take the head from a mans shoulders so nimbly and with such dexterity that the owner of the head shall never want the miss of it And if it be any mans fortune to be hanged for never so small a crime though he be mounted whole yet he shall come down in pieces for he shall hang till every joynt and limb drop one from another Strange Torments and varieties of deaths THey have strange torments and varieties of deaths according to the various nature of the offences that are committed as for example he that counterfeits any Princes Coin and is proved a Coiner his judgment is to be boiled to death in Oil not thrown into the Vessel all at once but with a pulley or a rope to be hanged under the Arm-pits and let down into the Oil by degrees first the feet and next the legs and so to boil his flesh from the bones alive For those that set houses on fire wilfully they are smoaked to death as first there is a pile or post fixed in the ground and within an English Ell of it is a piece of Wood nailed cross whereupon the offender is made fast sitting then over the top of the post is whelmed a great tub or dry fat which doth cover or over-whelm the prisoner as low as the middle Then underneath the executioner hath wet straw hay stubble or such kind of stuffe which is fired but by reason it is wet and dank it doth not burn but smother and smoak which smoak ascends up into the Tub where the prisoners head is and not being able to speak he will heave up and down with his belly and people may perceive him in these torments to live three or four hours Adultery there if it be proved is punished with death as the loss of the parties heads if they be both marryed or if not both yet the marryed party must die for it and the other must endure some easier punishment either by the purse or carkasse which in the end proves little better then half a hanging One thing more In Hamburgh those that are not hanged for theft are chained two or three together and they must in that sort six or seven years draw a dung-cart cleanse the streets of the Town and every one of those thieves for as many years as he is condemned to that slavery so many bells he hath hanged at an Iron above one of his shoulders and every year a bell is taken off till all are gone and then he is a free-man again some of the thieves had seven bells some five some six some one but such a noise they make as if all the Devils in hell were dancing the Morrice A Pretty Story THe Hangmans place being void there were two of the bloud for it is to be noted that the succession of the office doth lineally descend from the Father to the Son or to the next of the bloud which were at strife for the possession of this high indignity Now it happened that two men were to be beheaded at the same Town and at the same time and to avoid suit in Law for this great Prerogative it was concluded by the Arbitrators that each of these new hangmen should execute one of the prisoners and he that with greatest cunning and slight could take the head from the body should have the place to this they all agreed and the prisoners were brought forth where one of the executioners did bind a Red silk thred double about his prisoners neck the threds being distant one from another but the breadth of one thred and he promised to cut off the head with a backward blow with a sword between the threds The other called his prisoner aside and told him that if he would be ruled by him he should have his life saved and besides quoth he I shall be sure to have the office The prisoner was glad of the motion and said he would do any thing upon these conditions then said the hang-man when thou art on thy knees and hast said thy prayers and that I do lift up my Axe for I will use an Axe to strike thee I will cry Hem at which word do thou rise and run away thou knowest none will stay thee if thou canst once escape after thou art delivered into my custody it is the fashion of our Country and let me alone to shift to answer the matter This being said or whispered the heads-man with the sword did cut off the prisoners head just between the threds as he had said which made all the people wonder at the steddiness of his hand and most of them judged that he was the man that was and would be fittest to make a mad hang-man of But as one tale is good till another be told and as there be three degrees of good better and best so this last hang-man did much exceed and eclipse the others cunning For his prisoner being on his knees and he lifting up his Axe to give the fatal blow Hem said he according to promise whereupon the fellow arose and ran away but when he had run some seven or eight paces the hang-man threw the Axe after him and struck his head smoothly from his shoulders Now for all this who shall have the place is unknown for they are yet in Law for it and I doubt not but before the matter is ended that the Lawyers will make them exercise their own Trade upon themselves to end the controversie This tale doth savour somewhat Hyperbolical but I wish the Reader to believe to more of the matter than I saw and there is an end Hamburgh a free City HAmburgh
is a free City not being subject to the Emperour or any other Prince but only governed by twenty four Burgo-masters whereof two are the chief who are called Lords and do hold that dignity from their first Election during their lives The buildings are all of one uniform fashion very lofty and stately it is wonderful populous and the water with boats comes through most of the streets of the Town Their Churches are most gorgeously set forth as the most of them covered with Copper with very lofty spires and within sides they are adorned with Crucifixes Images and Pictures which they do charily keep for Ornaments In St. Jacobs and in St. Katherines Churches there is in one of them a Pulpit of Alablaster and the other a pair of such Organs which for worth and Workmanship are unparallel'd in Christendom as most travellers do relate The Womens Habit. THe Women there are no fashion-mongers but they keep in their degrees one continual habit as the richer sort do wear a Huick which is a Robe of Cloth or Stuff plated and the upper part of it is gathered and sowed together in the form of an English pot-lid with a tassle on the top and so put upon the head and the garment goes over her tuffe and face if she please and so down to the ground so that a man may meet his own Wife and perhaps not know her from another Woman Men and Women draw Carts their Office THey have no Porters to bear burdens but they have big burly-bon'd Knaves with their Wives that do daily draw Carts any whither up and down the Town with Merchants Goods or any other imployments And it is reported that these Cart-drawers are to see the Rich men of the Town provided of Milch Nurses for their Children which Nurses they call by the Name of Ams so that if they do want a Nurse at any time these fellows are cursed because they have not gotten Wenches enough with Child to supply their wants The Lawyer a bad Trade A Lawyer hath but a bad Trade there for any Cause or Controversie is tryed and determined in three days Quirks Quiddits Demurs Habeas Corpus's Cercioraries Procedendoes or any such dilatory tricks are abolished and not worth a button THE Lamentable Destruction OF THE Ancient and Memorable City and Temple OF JERUSALEM Being destroyed by Vespasian and his Son Titus WArs hath brought dreadful Jars and Confusions both of horrour and terrour unto Domestick Forreign Inward and Outward Estates In Jehovahs ire were shafts shot at Juda so that War Fire Sword Famine Infectious Plagues Depopulations and Desolations was the final Conquest of old Jacobs Land These are the Theames of my mournful Muse these are the grounds of my Lamentation Josephus wrote these things in ample manner which I do here Epitomize That worthy Author in a large scope relates and the Books of his Antiquities do tell his Countries alterations how oftentimes they rose how often they fell how often God favoured them and how often his frowns was upon them and at last in his anger he cast them head-long down The seventh Book of Josephus's wars declareth plainly how the Romans did by Conquest gain the Kingdom how death did in sundry shapes tyrannize both in Sword in Fire in Famine and in Rapes Since Hebers Sons enjoyed the Country it hath been six times wasted and destroyed so that if you account all the Wars since the Creation that hath chanced they are nothing to Jerusalems desolation No story no Memory describes the calamity of old Israels Tribes to be parallel'd And indeed if each Land in the universal did recount the bloudy broyls to them it were but a Molehill to a Mountain all which for sin the Almighty in his anger heaped upon this sinful Land It is now about sixteen hundred years since great Vespasian Romes Imperial Prince with his stout Valiant Son brave young Titus did over-run Judea's Kingdom and with a Royal Army renowned did beleaguer Jerusalem with Forces and stratagems as with Rampiers Engines scaling Ladders and Towers with all the Art that either might or sleight could do The besieged amongst themselves in this interim fell to Sedition like Bavines that lyeth near one to another if one burn and burning each one burneth another so did the Jews each other madly kill insomuch as their streets were fill'd with their slain Corpses Eleazer Simon and John disagreeing rent Jerusalem in pieces each contending who should be the chief John scorned Eleazer as thinking himself most worthy to be Superiour on the other side Eleazer thought John to be his Inferiour and Simon scorned them both and each scorned another and would not by any be ruled or over-born The City being thus divided into three Factions sad it is to relate how horrid their bloudy and inhumane actions were there all impieties were committed in sundry sorts of varieties all sacrilegious acts were counted most noble and meritorious facts In evil they strived each other to surpass and laboured most how to serve the Devil These men had no thoughts of grace and goodness but daily each against the other most madly fought and over-turned all things by their hurly burly so violent were they one against another that they burned each others store-houses with their Victuals And with hearts more harder than the Adamantine Rocks they drailed Virgins by the hair of their heads as also the Aged they spared not to drag about the streets some Infants their brains they dashed out and some upon the points of Lances they bore about the streets It is not possible to write with Pen the devillish out-rages and barbarous acts that was committed by them The advantage upon this seditious and most inhumane disorder that the Romans took is most incredible yet credible it may be because the Jews were altogether unmindful of their own safety they wasted and spoiled one another without remorse insomuch as their enemies their cruel foes relented and wept in pity of them whilst they relentness Villains void of pity did their Mother City consume and ruinate the Channels flowed all with gore bloud the streets were bestrowed with murdered carkasses the Temple with unhallowed hands defiled there was no respect to any to Man Woman or Child Thus this three headed multitude or hellish crew did waste themselves till indeed they did at length subdue themselves but you must note they were not altogether neglective some vigilancy they had upon their enemy and whilst they were making their strength more sure within the Romans without with their dreadful Batteries made not only the City to tremble but the Walls to break at which the factious wisely bethought themselves and assembled themselves together with all their powers and as a wonderment it was united together like good friends And then like swoln Rivers bounded in with Banks they sally forth and fight their enemies like as the ambitious torrent breaks his bounds and over-runs whole Lordships so did these Jews out-dare and challenge
then you will be more sorrowful and less dainty poor Jerusalem had once Beauty Strength Riches spacious Buildings Authority and honour yet these availed them nothing wrong trode down right and Justice was quite forgotten which was their chiefest their greatest their only earthly good But now one little piece of bread they reckoned more upon then ever before they did of bags of Gold Scraps parings and fragments c. which your full sed Corps did usually fling away with them had been a ransom for a King the loathsome garbage which our dogs refuse had been amongst the Jews a dish of state Whilst within Famine plaid the Tyrant the Romans Army strived to win the Walls their Pioners and all their Engines were at work to batter and assault the Wall Now note Jerusalem had three strong stone Walls and long it was ere the Romans could get one but the dearth so spread and death of the sword as that in the streets the living trod upon the dead the Carkasses which the Seditious kill'd fill'd many great houses so that with the stinck of bodies putrefied there dyed a number numberless of people for burial they afforded none but where they fell they let them lye stink and rot yet very unsensible were they of the sad condition of each other by hundreds and thousands then did the souldiers throw their liveless Corpses over the Walls upon this and their dis-uniting the Romans had high advantages and could with more security batter and scale the Walls When the Romans saw their dismal fall from the Walls they told it to Titus which when he perceived he wept and lifted up his hands to Heaven and called on God to witness with him this These flanghters saith he were no thoughts of mine neither was it my fault Indeed those wretches that escaped from out of the City and came amongst their foes in my Army found both relief and pity if any of those that fled to my Army had by the Seditious been caught they had without remorse strook them dead But another misery I must unfold unto you many Jews had swallowed store of Gold which they supposed in their need should help them but from this treasure did their bane proceed the Gold was the cause that many of them perisht amongst them all one unhappy poor creature went privately to do the needs of Nature and in his dung he looked for his Gold where being by the straggling souldiers took they ript him up and searched his Maw to find what Gold or treasure there remained In this sort was many a Man and Woman ript and slain for the gain of Gold that the souldiers gaped for In some they found Gold in many none but had they Gold or not it was all one with them they were unbowelled and searched most barbarously whither they had any or no. But my story briefly to conclude Vespasians Souldiers had subdued the walls his triumphant banner was displayed and that in the midst of the streets at which the Jews were all dismayed and upon which they desperately did retire to the Temple which with ungodly hands they set on fire which noble Titus with great care intreated them they would spare Oh save the house quoth he and I will spare you for the Temple sake quench the fire put out the flame Oh let not after-times report that you have burnt the worlds unmatchable glory For your own sakes your wives and your childrens if from Vespasians hands you expect grace if from Vespasians hands you expect your lives oh save your Temple Titus doth command you to save the Temple The Jews heard of the mercy they might have had but with hearts hard they refused the offer they refused mercy and themselves regarded not but in their madness they burned consumed and confounded to the ground King Solomons great Temple that Temple which did cost thirty Millions was in a moment lost and consumed The blest Sanctum Sanctorum the holiest place often blessed with Johovahs sacred grace where as the Text saith were 22000 Oxen slain and 12000 sheep besides dyed at the same time for an oblation That house of God whose glorious fame made all the World to wonder was burnt and ransackt and laid level to the ground which when it was seen by Vespasian and young Titus they cry'd kill kill those wretched Jews spare not to kill use speedy and Marshal Law the Roman souldiers then fell on and spared none they slew while they were weary of slaying and had no respect to Age or Sex the streets were drowned in bloud and slaughtered-Carkases did swim in in bloud the ablest men that were saved they carryed away for slaves John Simon and Eleazer as they deserved were brought to violent ends Now from that time that the Romans began their siege until the City was won by Sedition by the Sword Fire and Famine were deprived of their lives eleven hundred thousand besides one hundred thousand were taken as beasts and sold for slaves and from the time it was first erected till the Romans had takeâ— it it stood as appears in Histories twenty one hundred seventy and nine years But before Gods vengeance was showred down upon them what strange prodigious Wonders did he shew as warnings how they should avoid their destruction and cause them to repent the wicked evils they had done 1. The Firmament shewed them a Comet like a fiery Sword 2. Divers nights the Temple and the Altar were environed with bright burning lights 3. In the midst of the Temple though una Cow did bear a Lamb. 4. No Bolts or Bars could restrain the Temple-gates but they would fly open of themselves 5. In the Air assembled Armed men and Chariots the pondrous Earth quaked affrighted and trembled 6. To this sense a voice cryed in the Temple the people cry'd oh let us from hence depart These supernatural accidents foretold some fearful Judgment was to come but toyes they were accounted to the Jews or scar-crow-bugbears to fright children with and not minding them nor no way by them being affrighted they did in Jerusalem securely revell they thought these signs were against their foes and not them But when war when death when spoil when ruine had storm'd them appear'd the place so desolate as none could have known there had been a City Thus Juda and thus Jerusalem fell which Christ did foretell and was now fulfill'd that all their joys they should be bereft off and that one stone should not be left to stand upon another FINIS THE CONTENTS OF THIS BOOK SHeweth that in Asia did God begin his marvellous work of Creation and there was the first Church Collected also the Saviour of the World born and slain In this Asia abounds Myrrhe Frankinsence Nutmegs Pepper c. and it breeds Elephants and many other Beasts and Serpents page 1. 2 3 4. In the City Medina in Arabia is Mahomet Intombed in an Iron Chest supported by Art from falling to the ground 5 A brief