a place called Etvora that is to say the Stone-house a very strong thing for it is a great huge Rock and it hath an Entrance like a great Door within it as any Hall in England The Indians say that there St. Thomas did preach to their Fore-fathers Hard by standeth a Stone as big as four great Canons and it standeth upon the ground upon four Stones little bigger than a man's Finger like Sticks the Indians say it was a Miracle which the Saint shewed them and that that Stone had been Wood. Likewise by the Sea-side there are great Rocks upon which are store of Prints of the footing of bare Feet all which Prints are of one Bigness they say they are the print of the Foot-steps of that Saint when standing upon the Rocks he called to the Fishes of the Sea and they heard him At the Antillus in Brasil they have a Bird which for the rareness and strangeness thereof deserveth to be had in Remembrance It is the finest Bird that can be imagined it hath a Cap on his Head to which no proper Colour can be given for on whatsoever side ye look on it it sheweth red green black and more Colours all very fine and shining and the Breast is so fair that on whatsoever side ye take it it sheweth all the Colours especially a yellow more finer than Gold the Body is gray it hath a very long Bill and the Tongue twice the length of the Bill they are very swift in Flight and in their Flight they make a noise like the Bee and they rather seem Bees in their Swiftness than Birds for they always feed flying without sitting on a Tree even as the Bees do fly sucking the Honey from the Flowers They have two beginnings of their Generation some are hatch'd of Eggs like other Birds others of little Bubles and it is a thing to be noted a little Buble to begin to convert it self into this little Bird for at one Instant it is a Buble and a Bird and so converts it self into this most fair Bird a wonderful thing and unknown to the Philosophers seeing one living Creature without Corruption is converted into another Also in this Country of Brasil a certain Tree groweth in the Fields and the Main of the Bay in dry places where no Water is very great and broad it hath certain Holes in the Branches as long as an Arm that are full of Water that in Winter nor Summer never runneth over neither is it known whence this Water cometh and drink as many or drink few of it it is always at the same stay and so it serveth not only for a Fountain but also for a great main River and it happeneth five hundred Persons to come to the Foot of it and there is harbour for them all they drink and wash all that they will and they never want Water it is very savory and clear and a great Remedy for them that travel into the Main when they can find no other Water John Lerius a French-man who lived in Brasil for some time writeth That the Barbarians much wondered to see French-men and other Strangers coming far off from remote Countries to take so much Pains to carry back their Ships laden with Brasil or Red Wood and therefore one of the ancientest of them questioned him in this manner concerning that matter What meaneth it that you Mair and Peros that is French-men and Portugals come so far to fetch Wood Doth your Country yield you no Wood for the Fire Then said I It yieldeth Fewel surely and that in great Plenty but not of that kind of Trees such as yours are especially Brasil which our men carry from hence not to burn as you suppose but for to dye Here he presently excepting But have you said he need of so great plenty of that Wood yea surely said I for seeing even one Merchant with us possesseth more Scarlet Cloaths more Knives and Scissers and more Looking glasses alledging known and familiar Examples unto him than all those which were ever brought hither unto you he only will buy all the Brasil to the end that many Ships might return laden from hence Ah! saith the Barbarian you tell me strange and wonderful things Then presently remembring what he had heard he proceeded to demand further Questions of me But saith he That great rich Man of whom you make Report doth he not die He dieth said I as also other men do Who then said he is Heir of those Goods which this man leaveth when he dieth His Children said I if he have any if he have none his Brethren Sisters or his next Kindred When I had said this Surely saith that my discreet old Fellow hereby I easily perceive that you Mair that is French-men are notable Fools for what needeth you so greatly to tire and turmoil your selves in sailing over the Sea in passing whereof as being here arrived you report to us you sustain so many Miseries Is it forsooth that you might get riches for your Children or living Kinsfolk Is not the Earth which hath nourished us sufficient also to maintain them We surely have both Children and Kinsfolk and them as you see we love dearly but seeing we confidently hope that it shall come to pass that after our death the same Earth which nourished us shall also relieve and cherish them therein we repose our selves and rest content One of these Islands on the South-part of the Streights is called Baldivia which took its name of a Spanish Captain so called whom afterwards the Indians took Prisoner and it is said they inquired of him the reason why he came to molest them and to take their Countrey from them having no Title or Right thereunto He answered to get Gold which the Barbarians understanding caused Gold to be molten and poured down his Throat saying Gold was thy desire glut thee with it When the Spaniards first began to inhabit the West-Indies Sancta Domingo was an Island as full of Indians as any place of that bigness in all America but by the cruelty of the Spaniards in their excessive labour in the Mines they were most of them destroyed which labour was so grievous that many of the surviving Indians would rather kill themselves than endure it It happened on a time that a Spaniard called certain of them to go work in the Mines which rather than they would do they proffer'd to lay violent hands on themselves which the Spaniard perceiving he said unto them Seeing you will rather hang your selves than to go and work I will likewise hang my self and go with you because I will make you work in the other World but the Indians hearing this said We will willingly work with you because you shall not go with us so unwilling they were of the Spaniards company so that of all the Inhabitants of this Island there was none escaped Death but only these few which was by the means of this Spaniard or else they would
of his own Sect Mahomet saith he hath given us a Law which sheweth the perfection of felicity to consist in those things which concern the Body whereas the Wise and Sages of old had a greater desire to express the felicity of the Soul then of the Body as for the bodily felicity though it were granted them yet they regarded it not nor esteemed it in comparison of the felicity which the Soul requireth Mahomet had also in him a spice of the transmigration of Souls from one Body unto another by which means he devised how a Camel might pass through the Eye of a Needle the Soul of a Sinner for Purgation entring first into the Body of a Camel then of a lesser Beast and finally of a little Worm which should creep through the eye of a Needle and so become perfect The Saracens his Followers esteem Rice as a great Delicacy by reason of their Tradition that it came of Mahomet's Sweat for say they when Mahomet compassed the Throne of God in Paradise God turned and looked on him which made the modest Prophet sweat and wiping it off with his finger six drops fell out of Paradise one whereof produced the Rose the second Rice the other four his four Associates Concerning the Death of this Impostor there is several Opinions The Book of the Policy of the Turkish Empire saith That he was poysoned by one of his Disciples called Albunor to make Tryal of his boasting Prophecy That he would rise again within three days after his Death This Albunor after coming to see him found his body torn in pieces and devoured of Dogs whereupon gathering together the Bones that remained into a Coffin he caused them to be buried Mr. Smith in his Gods Arrows against Atheists saith That sitting up late one Evening in his Palace and having taken his fill of Wine wherein one of his Companions had poured some Poyson felt his wonted Sickness approaching and made haste forth saying He must needs depart to confer with the Angel Gabriel and go aside lest his glorious Presence should be an occasion of their Deaths forth he went and remembring that a soft place was best for his Falling Sickness down he fell upon a Dunghil groveling along with great Pain foming at the Mouth and gnashing his Teeth The Swine came about the Dunghil fell upon him wounded him sore and had eaten him up had not his Wife and others of his House heard the noise of the Hogs and rescued the false Prophet however he died fourteen days after His Death happened in the sixty third Year of his Age and in the eleventh after his Hegira or Flight dying at Medina and was buried there in the Grave of Avisee his Wife Here is a stately Temple and huge erected with elegant and magnificent Structures daily encreased and adorned by the Costs of the Othomans and Gifts of other Princes Within this Building is a Chappel not persectly square covered with a goodly Roof under which is the Urn of Stone called Hagiar Monauar sometimes belonging to Avisee aforesaid This is all covered with Gold and Silk and compassed about with Iron Grates gilded within this which shineth with Gold and Gems Mahomet's Carcass was placed and not lifted up by force of Load-stone or other Art but that stone Urn lieth on the ground The Musulman Pilgrims after their return from Mecha visit this Temple because Mahomet yet living was wont to say That he would for him which should visit his Tombe as well as if he had visited him living intercede with God for a life full of Pleasures Therefore do they throng thither with great veneration kiss and embrace the grates for none have access to the Urn of Stone and many for love of this Place leave their Country yea some madly put out their Eyes to see no Worldly thing after and there spend the rest of their days So zealous are these sottish People in this sensual senceless irreligious Religion Of the Talmud of the Jews their Dreams concerning Adam c. THIS Talmud saith that Adam's Body was made of the Earth of Babylon his Head of the Land of Israel his other members of other Parts of the World so R. Meir thought he was compact of the Earth gathered out of the whole Earth as it is written Thine eyes did see my Substance now it is elsewhere written The eyes of the Lord are over all the Earth There are twelve hours of the Day saith R. Aha in the first whereof the Earth of Adam or earthly matter was gathered in the second the Trunk of his Body fashioned in the third his Members stretched forth in the fourth his Soul infused in the fifth he stood upon his Feet in the sixth he gave Names to the Creatures in the seventh Eve was given him in Marriage in the eighth they ascended the Bed two and descended four in the ninth he received the Precept which in the tenth he brake and therefore was judged in the eleventh and in the twelfth was cast out of Paradise as it is written Man continued not one night in honour The Stature of Adam was from one End of the World to the other and for his Transgression the Creator by laying on his Hand lessened him for before saith R. Eleazar with his Hand he reached a reacher indeed the very Eirmament His Language was Syriack or Aramitish saith R. Juda and as Raschlakis addeth the Creator shewed him all Generations and the wise men in them His sin after Jehuda was Heresie R. Jsaac thinketh the nourishing his foreskin They farther tell that he was an Hermaphrodite a Man-woman having both Sexes and a double Body the Female part joyned at the Shoulders and back parts to the Male their Countenances turned from each other This they prove by Moses his words So God created Man in his Image Male and Female created he them and he called their name ADAM Yet after this is mention of Adam's solitariness and forming of Eve out of his side that is cutting the Female Part from the Male and so fitting them to Generation Thus doth Leo Hebraeus reconcile the Fable of Pluto's Androgynus with Moses's narration out of which he thinketh it borrowed For as he telleth that Jupiter in the first forming of Mankind made them such Androgini with two Bodies of two Sexes joyned in the Brest divided for their Pride the Navil still remaining as a Scar of the wound then made so with little difference is this their Interpretation of Moses As ridiculous and extravagant are their Opinions about their Womens Conceptions and Travel and of one Lilich a she Devil which should kill their children to prevent which they have divers expedients which take out of their own Writings as followeth When a Jewish Woman is great with Child and near her Time her Chamber is furnished with necessaries and then some holy and devout Man if any such may be had with Chalk maketh a Circular Line round and in the Chamber upon all the
have hanged themselves also The cruelty of the Spaniards to the Indians of Peru was so extraordinary great that those silly People would not believe that the Spaniards were born into the World like other men supposing that so fierce and cruel a Creature could not be procreated of Man and Woman They called them therefore Viracochie that is Sea-froth as if they thence had received their Original Nor can any alter this their Opinion so deeply rooted saying The Winds overthrow Trees and Houses Fire burns them but these Viracochie devour all things insatiably seeking Gold and Silver which as soon as they have gotten they play away at Dice War kill one another rob blaspheme wickedly forswear and deny God never speak truth and us they have spoiled of our Countrey and Fortunes and therefore they cursed the Sea which brought to the Land so fierce and dreadful an Issue Before the Spaniards conquered Peru the Tribute which the poor People were tied to pay to their Juca's or Kings was on certain dayes to give him so many Pipes of Lice so to acknowledge subjection and keep themselves clean Of the Tortoises in the West-Indies The Tortoise is reasonable toothsom and wholsom Meat of such largeness that one of them will make a dozen Messes appointing six to every Mess It is such a kind of Meat as a man can neither absolutely call Fish nor Flesh keeping most in the Water and feeding upon Sea-grass like an Heifer in the bottom of the Coves and Bayes and laying their Eggs of which we should find five hundred at a time in the opening of a she-one in the Sand by the Shoar-side and so covering them close leave them to the hatching of the Sun like the Monati at St. Dominick which made the Spanish Friars at their first arrival make some scruple to eat them on a Friday because in colour and taste the Flesh is like to Morsels of Veal Concerning the laying of their Eggs and the hatching of their Young Peter Martyr writeth thus in his Decads of the Ocean At such time as the heat of Nature moveth them to generation they come forth of the Sea and making a deep Pit in the Sand they lay three or four hundred Eggs therein when they have thus emptied their Bag of Conception they put as much of the same again into the Pit as may satisfie to cover the Eggs and so resort again to the Sea nothing careful of their succession At the day appointed of Nature to the procreation of these Creatures there creepeth out a multitude of Tortoises as it were Pismires out of an Ant-hill and this onely by the heat of the Sun without any help of their Parents Their Eggs are as big Goose-Eggs and themselves grown to Perfection bigger than great round Targets The Indians of Virginia at the first coming of the English thither were so simple and ignorant that having surprized some Gun-powder from the English their King caused it to be sown thinking it would grow up and increase as did Corn and other Seeds Throughout all the Mountains either of the Islands or firm Land of Nova Hispania Carthagena c. there are infinite numbers of Monkeys which are a kind of Apes but very different in that they have a Tayl a very long one And amongst them there are some kinds which are thrice yea four times bigger than the ordinary some are all black some bay some gray and some spotted Their agility and manner of leaping is admirable for that they seem to have Reason and Discourse to go upon Trees wherein they seem to imitate Birds My Author going from Nombre de Dios to Panama saw in Capira one of these Monkeys leap from one Tree to another which was on the other side of a River making him much to wonder They leap where they list winding their Tails about a Branch to shake it and when they will leap farther than they can at once they use a pretty device tying themselves by the Tails one of another and by this means make as it were a Chain of many then do they lanch themselves forth and the first holpen by the force of the rest takes hold where he list and so hangs to a Bough and helps all the rest till they be gotten up It were long to report the Fooleries Tricks Traverses and pleasant Sports they make when they are taught which seem not to come from brute Beasts but from a man-like understanding The same Author saw one in Carthagena in the Governours House so taught as the things he did seemed incredible They sent him to the Tavern for Wine putting the Pot in one hand and the Money in the other and they could not possibly get the Money out of his hand before he had his Pot full of Wine If any Children met him in the street and threw any stones at him he would set his Pot down on the one side and cast stones against the Children till he had assured his way then would he return to carry home his Pot and which is more although he were a good Bibber of Wine yet would he never touch it until leave was given him They told him moreover that if he saw any Women painted he would fall upon them pull off their Attire and would seek to bite them Several Rarities of divers Countreys THe Coco-tree is one of the most admirable Rarities in the whole World which Mr. Herbert in his Travels thus describes The Tree that bears the Coco is strait and lofty without any Branches save at the very top where it spreads its beautiful plumes and Nuts like Pearls or Pendants adorning them It is good Timber for Canoes Masts Anchors the leaves for Tents or Thatching the Rind for Sails Matteresses Cables and Linnen the Shells for Furniture the Meat for Victualling The Nut is covered with a thick rind equal in bigness to a Cabbage The Shell is like the Skull of a man or rather a Deaths-head the Eyes Nose and Mouth being easily discerned within it is contained a quart of sweet and excellent Liquor like new White-wine but far more aromatick tasted The Meat or Kernel is better relished than our Filberds and is enough to satisfie the Appetite of two reasonable men the Indian Nut alone Is Cloathing Meat and Trencher Drink and Can Boat Cable Sail Mast Needle all in one The Divine Du Bartas hath celebrated its praises unto the Life in these Verses translated by Joshua Sylvester The Indian Isles most admirable be In those rare Fruits call'd Coco's commonly The which alone far richer wonder yields Than all our Groves Meads Gardens Orchards Fields What would'st thou drink the wounded leaves drop Wine Lack'st thou fine Linnen dress the tender Rine Dress it like Flax spin it then weave it well It shall thy Cambrick and thy Lawn excell Long'st thou for Butter bite the pulpous part For never better came to any Mart. Do'st need good Oyl then bolt it to and fro And passing Oyl it soon becometh