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Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
end_n	foot_n	half_a	inch_n	1,859	5	11.0254	5	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A35222	The English empire in America, or, A prospect of His Majesties dominions in the West-Indies ... with an account of the discovery, scituation, product, and other excellencies of these countries : to which is prefixed a relation of the first discovery of the New World called America, by the Spaniards, and of the remarkable voyages of several Englishmen to divers places therein : illustrated with maps and pictures by R.B., author of Englands monarchs, &c., Admirable curiosities in England, &c., Historical remarks of London, &c., The late wars in England, &c., and The history of Scotland and Ireland.	R. B., 1632?-1725?	1685 (1685)	Wing C7319; ESTC R21113	146,553	216

and hath retained the name ever since It is of a small extent not above three Leagues or nine Miles in length and neer as much in bredth so that it seems almost round It lies in the Latitude of seventeen degrees on this side the Line full of mountains whereon grow plenty of Cedar and other Trees The Valleys and plains being very fertile It is chiefly inhabited by the Irish with some English in all about six or seaven hundred persons There is in it a very fair Church of a delightful structure built by the contributions of the Governor and Inhabitants The Pulpit Seats and all the Joyners and Carpenters work within it are of the most precious and sweet-scented wood growing in the Countrey On the Coasts of these Islands there is sometimes taken by the Fishers a Monster so dreadful that they call it the Sea-Devil about four foot long and proportionably big it hath on the back a great bunch full of Prickles like an Hedghog The Skin thereof is hard uneven and rugged like that of a Sea-dog and of a black colour the head is flat and on the upper part hath many little risings and among them two small very black eyes The mouth is extream wide with several very sharp Teeth two of them crooked like a Wild Boars it hath four Fins and a broad forked Tail but has the name of Sea-Devil because above the eyes there are two little sharp black Horns which turn toward his back like a Rams As this Monster is extream ugly the Meat of it which is soft and full of strings is absolute Poyson causing strange Vomitings and Swoonings which prove mortal if not prevented by a good Dose of Mithridate or some other Antidote this dangerous Creature is only desired by the curious to adorn their Closets whereby it happens that this Devil who was never profitable while alive gives a little satisfaction to their Eyes after death The Sea Vnicorn is a Fish no less Miraculous a Prodigious one being cast ashore about these Islands is thus described by an Ingenious occular Witness This Unicorn saith he was pursuing a smaller Fish with such earnestness and impetuosity that it stuck with half the body dry on a Sand-bank and before it could recover the deep was destroyed by the Inhabitants It was about eighteen Foot long and in compass as big as a Barrel having six great Fins like the ends of Galley Oars whereof two were placed near the Gills and the other four at the sides of the Belly at equal distances they were of a Vermillion red Colour All the upper part of the Body was covered with great Scales about the bigness of a Crown peice of a blew Colour intermixt with Spangles of Silver near the Neck the Scales were closer and of a dark Colour like a Collar The Scales under the Belly were yellow the Tail Forked the Head somewhat bigger than that of a Horse and near the same shape The lower part of the Body was covered with an hard dark Skin and as it is said the Land Vnicorn hath one Horn in his Forehead so this Sea Vnicorn had a very fair one issuing out of his Head about nine Foot and an half in length it was very streight and grew smaller to the very point which was sharp enough to peirce Wood Stone or any thing more hard Toward the Head it was sixteen Inches about and from thence almost to the end waved like a wreathed Pillar growing smaller till they gently ended in a point it was naturally polished of a shining black marked with certain small white and yellow strokes and of such solidity that a sharp File could hardly get a little small Powder from it It had no Ears standing up but two spacious Gills as the other Fishes The Eyes are about the bigness of an Hens Egg the Ball which was of a Skie Colour Enameld with yellow was of Vermillion Colour and beyond it another as clear as Chrystal The Mouth was wide ●●ough with several extream sharp Teeth The Tongue proportionable covered with a rough red Skin Upon the Head was a Crown rising two Inches above the Skin made Oval and ending in a point Above three hundred Persons eat of the Meat of it and thought it exceeding delicate being Inter-larded with white fat and when Boiled came up in Fleaks like fresh Cod but of a more excellent tast Those who saw it alive and broke its back with Leavers affirmed that he made prodigious attempts to thrust them with his Horn using it with much nimbleness and dexterity and if he had not wanted Water would have been too hard for them all within him they found the scales of several Fishes a token that he lived by prey Of all the Sea-Monsters that are good to eat and kept for Provision as Salmon and Cod are in Europe the most esteemed in these Islands is a certain Fish by the French called Lamantine and Manaty It is a Monster that in time grows to that bulk that some of them are eighteen foot in length and seven in bigness the head is like a Cow and from thence termed by some the Sea-Cow with small Eyes and a thick Skin of a dark colour wrinkled and hairy which being dryed serves for a Buckler against the Arrows of the Indians They have no Fins but instead thereof two short feet under their Bellies each of which hath four fingers very weak to support the weight of so heavy a Body nor hath he any other defensive weapons It lives on the grass and Herbage about the Rocks in those Shallow places that have not much above a fathom of Sea-Water The Females are disburthened of their young like Cows and have two Teats wherewith they suckle them they bring forth two at a time who forsake not the old one till they no longer need Milk and can feed on Grass as she does Of all Fish none are so good meat as this two or three will load a great Canow and eat short like a Land creature of a Vermilion colour not cloying or fulsom and mixt with fat which being melted never grows musty It is much more wholsom salted a day or two than fresh Certain small stones found in his head are highly valued for the Stone and Gravel when dissolved to Powder There are often seen rising out of the Sea about these Islands great numbers of Fishes which fly fifteen or twenty foot above Water and neer an hundred paces in Length but no more in regard their Wings are dried by the Sun they are somewhat like Herrings but of a rounder head and broader back their wings like a Bats which begin a little below the head and reach almost to the Tail In their flight they many times strike against the Sails of Ships and fall even in the day time upon the Decks some say they are very good meat the cause of their flying is to avoid danger from greater Fishes but they meet with Enemies in the Air as well as

Water for certain Sea-Fowl which live only by Prey have open hostility with them and seize them as they fly The Sword-Fish is worth observing as well as the Flying-Fish it hath at the end of the upper Jaw a defensive weapon about the bredth of a great broad Sword which hath Sharp hard teeth on both sides some of these Swords are five foot long and six inches broad at the lower end with twenty seaven white solid teeth in each rank and the bulk of their Bodies bears a proportion thereto The head of this Monster is flat and hideous to behold being in the Shape of an Heart neer their Eyes they have two Vents at which they cast out the Water which they have swallowed They have no Scales but a greyish Skin on their back and white under the belly which is rough like a file They have seaven Fins two of each side two on the back and and one which serves them for a Tail some call them Saw-fishes and some Emperors because there is always open War between them and the Whale which is many times wounded to death by this their dreadful weapon CHAP. XV. A Prospect of the Island of Dominica THe Island of Dominica lyes in the Latitude of fifteen degrees and thirty Minutes judged to be in length about thirteen Leagues or forty Mile and not much less in breadth where it is greatest On the West-side of the Isle is a very convenient Harbour for Ships It is very Mountainous in the midst which incompasses an inaccessible bottom where from the tops of certain Rocks may be seen an infinite number of Vipers Dragons and other dreadful venemous Creatures whom none dares approach unto Yet there are many fruitful valleys producing several commodities but especiably Tobacco which is planted by the English but the Natives who are Cannibals and very barbarous do much hinder the coming of the English to settle there For the Caribeans are very numerous in it and have a long time entertained those who came to visit them with a story of a vast and monstrous Serpent which had its aboad in that bottom affirming that there was on the head of it a very sparkling stone like a Carbuncle of inestimable price and that it commonly covered this Rich Jewel with a thin moving Skin like that of a mans Eye-lid but that when it went to drink or sported it self within the midst of that deep bottom he fully discovered it and that the Rocks all about received a a wonderful lustre from the Fire issuing out of that precious Crown The Supream Person of this Island was heretofore one of the most considerable among those of the same Nation for when all their forces marched out against the Arovagues their Common Enemies of the Continent he had still the conduct of the Van-guard and was known by a particular Mark which he had about him When any French ships come neer this Island there are immediately seen several Canows in each of which there are are three or four Indians at the most who come to direct them to the Havens where they may safely Anchor They commonly bring along with them some of the Countrey fruits whereof having presented the Captains and other Officers with the choicest they offer the rest in exchange for Fishing hooks graines of Chrystal and such trifles as they Account precious They have had some differences with the English upon the account of damage received from some particular Persons which though our nation hath protested against yet their reveng is so implacable that they hardly ever forgive nor pass by any injuries And upon this Account next the Arovages on the Continent of America the greatest enemies the Caeibbeans have are the English which enmity took his rise from hence that some ill principled Englishmen under the Flags of other Nations having by pretended kindness and little gifts and Aqua Vitae which they dearly love got divers of the Carribbeans aboard their Ships when they saw their Vessel ful of these poor people who never dreamt of such Treachery carried away men Women and Children into their Plantations were they are still kept slaves Hence it happens they bear such a grudg to the English as hardly to endure to hear their Language and if a Frenchman or some other Nation in Friendship with them chance to use any English expression he runs the hazard of their Enmity In revenge hereof they oft make Incursions into Montserrat Antego and other English Settlements firing their Houses and carrying a way Goods Men Women and Children with them but do not eat them as they do the Arovagues They do not love to be called Cannibals though they eat the Flesh of their Enemies which they say they do to satisfy their Indignation and revenge and not out of any delicacy they find in it more than in any thing else which they eat In other things they are of a good tractable disposition and so great enemies to severity that if the European or other Nations who have any of them slaves treat them with rigour they dye out of pure grief They commonly reproach the Europeans with their Avarice and immoderate industry in getting wealth for themselves and Children since the Earth is able to find sufficient sustenance for all men if they will take pains to cultivate it As for themselves they say they are not perplexed with care for those things wherewith their lives are preserved and it is apparent they are much fatter and healthier than those that fare deliciously They live without Ambition without vexation without disquiet having no desire of acquiring Honours or Wealth slighting Gold and Silver and seeming astonished to see us so much esteem them considering we are so well furnished with Glass or Chrystall which they think more beautiful and valuable When they go a hunting Fishing or root up Trees for ground to make a little Garden or to build Houses which are innocent Imployments and sutable to the nature of man they do all without eagerness and as it were in a way of divertisement and Recreation When they see the Christians sad or perplext at any thing They give them this Gentle Reprehension Compeer a Familiar word they learn of the French signifying Friend or Gossip how miserable art thou thus to expose thy Person to such tedious and dangerous Voyages and to suffer thy self to be orepressed with cares The inornate desire of getting wealth puts thee to all this trouble and all these inconveniences and yet thou art no less disquieted for the goods thou hast already gotten than for those thou art desirous to get Thou art in continual fear lest some body should rob thee either in thy own Countrey or upon the Seas or that thy Goods should be lost by shipwrack or the Waters thus thou growest O d in a short time thy hair turns grey th● forehead is wrinckled a thousand inconveniencies attend thy Body a thousand afflictions surround thy heart and thou makest all the hast

forced to melt it their Beer when thawed drunk like water They endeavoured to remedy it with Sea-coal fire as being hotter than wood and stopped the Chimney and Doors to keep in the heat when they instantly swounded away for want of Air Their Shoes froze as hard as horns to their feet and when they sate at the fire while they were almost burnt on the forepart they were frozen white on their backs The Snow rose higher than the House which in clear weather they endeavoured to remove cutting out steps and ascending up as out of a Vault or Cellar when neither Cloths nor great fires would keep out the cold they were forced to heat Stones and apply them burning hot to their feet and bodys in one night a barrel of water was turned into Ice They saw no Sun from November 3. to Jan. 24. a long night of fifty two days When the Sun had left them they saw the Moon continually day and night never going down the twilight likewise remaining several days and they saw some daylight sixteen days before the return of the Sun The Bears who had held them beseiged and often endangered them forsook them with the returning Sun these Bears are very large and cruel some of their Skins being thirteen foot long and yeilding and hundred pound of fat which served them for Oyl in their Lamps the flesh they durst not eat some of them losing all their own skin by eating a Bears Liver they devour any thing even their own kind for having killed one with a Gun another Bear carried it a great way over the Ice in his mouth and then fell to eating it whereupon making to him with their weapons he fled leaving his purchase half eaten and four men could hardly carry the other half when the whole body seemed to be very lightly carried by his fellow The white Foxes continually visited them of which they took many whose flesh was good Venison to them and their Skins in the linings of their Caps a comfortable remedy against the extream cold they used Pattens of wood with Sheepskins above and many Socks and Soles under their feet with shoes of Rug or Felt Their Diet was very mean but at length despairing of relief they made them two open Scutes wherein they sailed above a Thousand miles after ten months continuance in this disolate Habitation and though incompassed with a thousand dangers from the Ice which surrounded them like Tents Towns and Fortifications yet at length happily returned to their own Country However no further progress was made till the English several years after made more profitable Discoveries and found in Greenland not far off a very beneficial Trade of Whale-fishing which continues to this time Now though this Countrey is reckoned to be in Europe and therefore out of our present survey yet being so near adjacent it may not be unpleasant to give a brief relation of an hunting spectacle of the greatest chase which nature hath created I mean the killing of Whales when they spy him on the top of the water ●o which he is often forced to get breath they row toward him in a Shallop wherein the Harponier stands ready to dart his harping Iron with both his hands to which ●s fastened a line of such length that the Whale finding himself wounded and sinking to the bottom may carry it down with him it being contrived the Shallop shall incur no danger thereby when he rises they strike him again with Lances about twelve foot long the Iron being eight therof and the blade eighteen inches the harping Iron being chiefly intended only to fasten him to the Shallop and thus they hold him in hot persuit till after having cast up first Rivers of Water and then of bloud as being angry with both Elements for suffering such weak hands to destroy him he at length yields his slain Carcass a prey to the Conquerors The Tragedy is thus exprest by the Poet. When the Whale felt his side so rudely goar'd Loud as the Sea that nourisht him he roar'd As a broad Bream to please some curious taste While yet alive in boyling water cast Vext with unwonted heat boyls flings about The Scorching brass and hurls the liquor out So with the barbed Javeling stung he raves And ●courges with his tail the suffering waves His fury doth the Seas with Billows fill And makes a Tempest though the winds be still He Swims in bloud and bloud do's spouting throw To Heav'n that Heav'n mens Cruelties might know Roaring he tears the Air with such a noise As well resembles the conspiring voice Of routed Armies when the Field is won c. Being dead they tow him to the Ship with two or three Shallops joined together and then floating at the stern of the Ship they cut the blubber or fat from the flesh in pieces three or four foot long which are cut smaller ashore and boiled in Coppers which done they take them out and put them into wicker Baskets which are set in Shallops half full of water into which the Oil runneth and is thence put into Buts The ordinary length of a Whale is sixty Foot his brains are said to be the Sperma Caeti his head is the third part of him his mouth sixteen foot wide the Whalebones or Finns are no other than the rough and inward part of the mouth of which he hath five hundred which close in the shutting thereof like the fingers of both hands within each other he hath a Trunk or breathing hole in his head he hath no teeth but sucks his meat his Tongue is monstrous great and deformed like a Woolsack about eight Tun in Weight part of which yeildeth eleven Hogsheads of Oyl His food that nature might teach the greatest to be content with little and that greatness may be maintained without rapine as in the Elephant and Whale the greatest of Land and Sea Monsters is grass and weeds of the Sea and a kind of water-worm like a Beetle whereof the Finns in his mouth hang full and sometimes little birds all which striking the Water with his Tail and making a small Tide he gapes and receives into his Mouth neither is any thing else found in his Belly as is affirmed by Eye-witnesses this great Head hath little Eyes not much unlike an Ox and a little Throat not greater than for a Mans Fist to enter with such huge Bones on each side as suffer it not to stretch wider his body is round fourteen or fixteen Foot thick his Genitals hang from him as in Beasts in Generation they go into shallow Waters near the Shore and in the Act join Bellies as is said of the Elephant at which time much of their Sperm Floats on the Water their Tail is like a Swallows at least twenty Foot broad at the end they have but one young one at a time which is brought forth as in Beasts about the bigness but longer than an Hogshead the Female Whale hath two Breasts

therefore to secure the weakness of their little bodies against the injuries of the Air and the attempts of other Beasts they take possession of such a shell as they find most convenient which is commonly that of Perriwinkles As they grow bigger they Shift their Shells and get into larger they have instead of a foot an instrument like a Crabs Claw wherewith they close the entrance of their Shells and secure their whole body if he be set neer the Fire he forsakes his Quarters if it be presented to him to get in again he goes in backward when they all intend to change lodgings to which they are much inclined there happens a serious engagement managed with that clasping Instrument till at length the strongest by Conquest gets possession which he peaceably enjoys during his pleasure Another Insect called the flying Tygar is observable the Body is chequered with spots of divers colours as the Tygar is about the bigness of an horned Beetle the head sharp with two great Eyes as green and Sparkling as an Emerald his mouth is arm'd with two hard hooks extreamly sharp wherewith he holds fast his prey while he gets the substance the whole body is covered with a hard and swarthy crustiness which serves him for armour Under his Wings which are also of solid matter there are four less Wings as soft as Silk it hath six Legs each whereof hath three Joints and they are bristled with certain little prickles In the day he is continually catching Flies and other little Animals and in the Night sits Singing on the Trees The Horn-fly is another which hath two snouts like an Elephant one turning upward and the other down about three Inches long the head is blew like a Grashopper the two Eyes green the upper side of the Wings of a bright Violet Damaskt with Carnation heightned by a small natural thred of Silver the Colours drawn with such Curiosity that the most curious Painting cannot reach it I imagined saith my Author it had been Artificial because of the lively Carnation colour and the string of Silver but having taken it in my hand I thought nature must certainly be in an excellent humour and had a mind to divert her self when she bestowed such sumptuous Robes on this little Q. of Insects A Monstruous Spider is likewise found in these parts so large that when her legs are spred she takes up above the bredth of a mans hand the Body consists of 2 parts one flat and the other round smaller at one end like a Pigeons egg with a hole in the back which is as it were their Navil it is armed with two Sharp tushes solid and black smoot and shining so that some set them in Gold for Tooth-pickers esteemed to have a virtue of preserving from pain and corruption the places rubbed therewith when they grow old they are covered with a swarthy down soft as Velvet they have ten feet having each four Joints armed at the ends with a black hard-horn They every year shift their old Skins and their two Tushes they feed on flyes and such vermine and it hath been observed that in some places their Webs are so strong that little Birds can hardly extricate themselves from them The Palmer-worm is notable from the almost infinite number of Feet which are as bristles under his Body and help him to creep along the ground with incredible swiftness if persued It is half a Foot long the upper part covered with swarthy Scales which are hard and jointed one within another like the Tiles of a House but what is dangerous in this Creature is that he hath a kind of Claw both in his head and Tail wherewith he twitches so home and so poysonous the wounded place that for four and twenty hours the patient feels great pain There was some years since brought from thence a Bird about the bigness shape of a Swallow only the two great Feathers of the Tail a little shorter and the beak turned down like a Parrot and the feet like a Ducks it was black only under the Belly a little white like our Swallows in fine it was so like them that it may be called the Swallow of America The Fly Catcher is a very pretty Animal it is a four legged Creature of a very small size some of them seem to be covered with fine Gold or Silver Brocado others with a mixture of green Gold and other delightful colours they are so familiar that they come boldly into rooms where they do no mischief nay on the contrary cleer them of Flyes and such Vermine which they perform with such nimbleness and slight that the cunning of Huntsmen is not comparable to it for he lies down on a plank where he hopes the Fly will come and keeps his eye alway fixt upon it putting his head into as many different postures as the Fly shifts places and standing upon his fore-feet and gaping after it he half opens his little Wide Mouth as if he had already swallowed it in hope nay though a noise be made and one come neer him nothing disturbs him and having at last found his advantage he starts so directly on his prey that he very seldom misses it They are so tame as to come upon the Table at dinner and attempt to catch a Fly there or upon their hands or cloths being very neat clean things They lay small eggs as big as Pease which having covered with a little Earth they leave to be hatched by the Sun as soon as they are killed all their beauty vanishes and they become pale It may be reckoned a kind of Camelion assuming the colour of those things on which it makes its ordinary residence for being about Palm Trees it is green about Orange Trees yellow and the like CHAP. XIX A Prospect of the Island of St. Christophers THis Island was so named by Christopher Columbus who finding it very pleasant gave it his own name which the shape of the Mountains likewise inclined him to for it hath on its upper part as it were upon one of its shoulders another lesser Mountain as St. Christopher is painted like a Giant carrying our Saviour upon his as it were a little Child It is scituated seventeen degrees and twenty five Minutes on this side the Line is about twenty five Leagues in compass the soil being light and sandy is apt to produce all sorts of the Country Fruits with many of the choicest growing in Europe It lyes high in the midst by reason of some very high Mountains out of which arise several Rivers which do sometimes so suddenly overflow through the Rains falling from the Mountains that the Inhabitants are thereby surprized The whole Island is divided into four Cantons or Quarters two whereof are possessed by the Engli●h and two by the French but so separated that People cannot go from one quarter to the other without passing over the Lands of one of the two Nations The English have more little Rivers in