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A16286 A briefe description of the whole world Wherein is particularly described all the monarchies, empires and kingdomes of the same, with their academies. As also their severall titles and situations thereunto adioyning. Written by the most Reverend Father in God, George, late Arch-bishop of Canterbury. Abbot, George, 1562-1633.; Marshall, William, fl. 1617-1650, lengraver. 1636 (1636) STC 32; ESTC S115786 116,815 362

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Northern parts of America they finde some tokens of civility and Christian Religion but especially they doe meet with some words of the Welch Language as that a bird with a white head should be called Pengwinn and other such like yet because we have no invincible certaintie hereof and if any thing were done it was only in the Northerne and worse parts and the entercourse betwixt Wales and those parts in the space of divers hundred yeares was not continued but quite silenced wee may goe forward with that opinion that these Westerne Jndies were no way knowne to former ages God therefore remembring the Prophecie of his Sonne that the Gospell of the Kingdome should before the day of judgement bee preached in all coasts and quarters of the World and in his mercy intending to free the people or at the least some few of them from the bondage of Satan who did detaine them in blockish ignorance and from their Idolatrous service unto certaine vile spirits whom they call their Zemes Their Religion and most obsequiously did adore them raised up the spirit of a man worthy of perpetuall memory one * Columbus the first discoverer of America Christophorus Columbus borne at Genua in Italy to set his mind to the Discovery of a new World who finding by that compasse of the old knowne World that there must needs be a much more mighty space to the which the Sunne by his daily motion did compasse about then that which was already known and discovered and conceiving that this huge quantity might as wel be land as Sea he could never satisfie himselfe till that he might attempt to make proofe of the verity thereof Being therefore himselfe a private man and of more vertue then Nobility after his reasons and demonstrations laid downe whereby hee might induce men that it was no vaine thing which hee went about hee went unto many of the Princes of Christendome and among others to Henry the seventh King of England desiring to bee furnished with shipping and men fit for such a Navigation but these men refusing him partly because they gave no credit to his Narration and partly lest they should bee derided by their neighbour Princes if by this Genoe-stranger they should be cousened but especially for that they were unwilling to sustaine the charges of shipping at last hee betooke himselfe unto the Court of Ferdinandus and Elizabeth King and Queene of Castile where also at the first hee found but small entertainment yet persisting in his purpose without wearinesse and with great importunity it pleased God to move the mind of Elizabeth the Queene to deale with her husband to furnish forth two Ships for the discovery onely and not for conquest whereupon * In the yeare 149. America discovered by Columbus Columbus in the yeare one thousand foure hundred ninetie and two accompanied with his brother Bartholomeus Columbus and many Spaniards sayled farre to the West for the space of threescore dayes and more with the great indignation and often mutinies of his company fearing that by reason of their long distance from home they should never returne againe insomuch that the Generall after many perswasions of them to goe forward was at length enforced to crave but three dayes wherein if they saw not the Land hee promised to returne and God did so blesse him to the end that his voyage migh● not prove in vaine that in that space one of his Companie did espie fire which was a certain● Argument that they were neere to the Land as it fell out indeed The first Land whereunto they came was an Iland called by the Inhabitants * The Iland Haity Haity but in remembrance of Spaine from whence he● came hee termed it Hispaniola and finding it to bee a Countrey full of pleasure * The riobes of the Countrey and having in it abundance of Gold and Pearle hee proceeded further and discovered another bigge Ile which is called * The Iland Cuba Cuba of the which being very glad with great treasure hee returned unto Spaine bringing joyfull newes of his happy successe When Columbus did adventure to restraine the time of their expectation within the compasse of three dayes engaging himselfe to returne if in that space they saw no Land there bee some write that hee limited himselfe not at all adventures but that bee did by his eye discerne a difference in the colour of the Clouds which did arise out of the West from those which formerly hee had seene which Clouds did argue by the clearenesse of them that they did not arise immediately out of the Sea but that they had passed over some good space of the Land and thereby grew clearer and clearer not having in them any new or late risen vapours but this is but conjecturall * The pride of the Spaniard labouring to abscure the same of Columbus The Spaniards who are by nature a people proud have since the death of Columbus laboured to obscure his fame envying that an Italian or stranger should be reported to bee the first discoverer of those parts And therefore have in their writings since given forth that there was a Spaniard which had first beene there and that Columbus meeting with his Cardes and Descriptions did but pursue his enterprize and assume the glory to himselfe But this fable of theirs doth savour of the same spirit wherewithall many of them in his life time did reproach him that it was no matter of importance to finde out these Countries but that if that hee had not done it many other might and would Which being spoken to Columbus at a solemne Dinner hee called for an Egge and willed all the Guest●one after another to set it up on end Which when they could not doe he gently bruising the one end of it did make it flat and so set it up by imitation whereof each of the other did the same whereby hee mildely did reprove their envy towards him and shewed how easie it was to doe that which a man had seene done before To go forward therefore Columbus being returned to Castile after his welcome to the Princes was made Great Admirall of Spaine and with a new Fleete of more Ships was sent to search further which hee accordingly did and quickly found the mayne Land not farre from the Tropick of Cancer Which part of the Countrey in honour of Spaine hee called * Hispania nova Hispania nova in respect whereof at this day the King of Spaine doth entitle himselfe Hispaniarum Rex Some there bee which write that Columbus did not discover further than the Islands and that hee spent the greatest part of his former labours in coasting Cuba and Hispaniola to see whether they were Ilands or a Continent that some other in the meane time did thrust themselves forward and descryed the firme Land Among whom * Of whom this Countrey had its name Americus Vespucius was the chiefe of whose name a great
Israel which were under one Kingdome till the time of Rehoboam the Sonne of Solomon But then were they divided into two Kingdomes ten Tribes being called Israel and two Iudah whose chiefe Citie was called Ierusalem Jerusalem Twelve Tribes divided The ten Tribes after much Idolatry were carried prisoners unto Assyria and the Kingdome dissolved other people being placed in their roome in Samaria and the Country adjoyning The other two Tribes were properly called the Iewes and their Land Iudaea The Iewes which continued long after in Ierusalem and thereabout till the Captivity of Babylon where they lived for seventie yeares They were afterward restored but lived without glory till the comming of Christ But since that time for a curse upon them and their children for putting Christ to death they are scattered upon the face of the Earth as Runnagates without certaine Countrey King Priest or Prophet In their chiefe City Jerusalem was the Temple of God first most gloriously built by Salomon and afterward destroyed by Nebuchadnezzar Jerusalem destroyed By the commandement of Cyrus King of Persia was a second Temple built much more base than the former For besides the poverty and smalnesse of it there wanted five things which were in the former as the Iewes write Note First the Arke of the Covenant Secondly the pot of Manna Thirdly the Rodde of Aaron Fourthly the two Tables of the Law written by the finger of God And fiftly the fire of the Sacrifice which came downe from Heaven Herod the Great an Edomite stranger having gotten the Kingdome contrary to the Law of Moses and knowing the people to be offended therewithall to procure their favour did build a third Temple wherein our Saviour Iesus Christ and his Apostles did teach The City of Jerusalem was twice taken and utterly laid desolate Ierusalem twice destroyed 1 By Nebuchadnezzar 2 By Vespasian first by Nebuchadnezzar at the Captivitie of Babylon and secondly after the death of Christ by Vespasian the Romane who first began the warres and by his Sonne Titus who was afterward Emperour of Rome who brought such horrible desolation on that Citie and the people thereof by Fire Sword and Famine that the like hath not beene read in any History Hee did afterwards put thousands of them on some one day to be devoured of the Beasts which was a cruel Custome of the Romanes magnificence Although Numbers and Times be not superstitiously to be observed as many foolish imagine yet it is a matter in this place not unworthy the noting which Iosephus reporteth in his seventh Booke and tenth Chapter de Bello Iudaico that the very same day whereon the Temple was set on fire by the Babylonians was the day whereon the second Temple was set on fire by the Romanes and that was upon the tenth day of August After this destruction the Land of Iudaea and the ruines of Ierusalem were possessed by some of the people adjoyning till that about sixe hundred yeares since the Saracens did invade it for expelling of whom from thence divers Frenchmen and other Christians under the leading of Godfrey of Bullen did assemble themselves thinking it a great shame that the Holy Land as they called it the Citie of Jerusalem and the place of the Sepulchre of Christ should bee in the hands of Infidels This Godfrey ruled in Ierusalem by the name of a Duke but his successours after him for the space of 87 yeares called themselves Kings of Ierusalem About which time Saladine who called himselfe King of Aegypt and Asia the lesse did winne it from the Christians For the recovery wherof Richard the first King of England together with the French King and the King of Sicilia did goe in person with their Armies to Ierusalem but although they wonne many things from the Infidels yet the end was that the Saracens did retaine the Holy Land Roger Hoveden in the life of Henry the Second King of England doth give this memorable note that at that time when the Citie of Ierusalem and Antioch were taken out of the hand of the Pagans by the meanes of Godfrey of Bullen and other of his Company the Pope of Rome that then was was called Vrbanus the Patriarch of Ierusalem Heraclius and the Romane Emperour Fredericke and at the same time when the said Ierusalem was recovered againe by Saladine the Pope● name was Vrbanus the Patriarch of Jerusalem Heraclius and the Roman Emperour Frederick Ierusalem in the Turkes Dominions The whole Countrey and Citie of Ierusalem are now in the Dominion of the Turke who notwithstanding for a great Tribute doth suffer many Christians to abide there There are now therefore two or more Monasteries and Religious Houses where Friers do abide and make a good commoditie of shewing the Sepulchre of Christ and other Monuments unto such Christian Pilgrimes as do use superstitiously to go in Pilgrimage to the Holy Land The King of Spaine was wont to call himselfe King of Ierusalem Of Arabia Arabia bounded NExt unto the Holy Land lyeth the great Country of Arabia having on the North part Palaestina and Mesopotamia on the East side the Gulph of Persia on the South the mayne Ocean of India or Aethiopia on the West Aegypt and the great Bay called Sinus Arabicus or the Red Sea This Countrey is divided into three parts the North part whereof is called Arabia Deserta Arabia divided into three parts the South part which is the greatest is named Arabia Foelix and the middle between both that which for the abundance of Rockes and Stones is called Arabia Petrea or Petrosa Of the Desart of Arabia The Desart of Arabia is that place in the which God after the deliverance of the Israelites from Egypt by passing thorow the Red Sea did keepe his people under Moses for forty yeares because of their rebellion feeding them in the mean time with Manna from Heaven and sometimes with water miraculously drawne out of dry Rockes For the Countrey hath very little water almost no Trees and is utterly unfit for Tillage or Corn. There are no Townes nor inhabitants of this Desart in Arabia Petrosa are some but not many Arabia Foelix for Fruitfulnesse of ground and convenient standing every way toward the Sea is one of the best Countries of the World and the principall cause why it is called Foelix is for that it yeeldeth many things in abundance which in other parts of the World are not to be had as Frankincense especially the most precious Balmes Mirrhe and many other both Fruits and Spices and yeeldeth withall store of some precious stones When Alexander the Great was young after the manner of the Macedonians hee was to put Incense upon an Altar and powring on great store of Frankincense one of the Nobilitie of his Countrey told him that hee was too prodigall of that sweet perfume and that hee should make spare untill hee had conquered the Land wherein the Frankincense did grow But when
England One of the honourable commendations which are reputed to bee in this Realme is the * Fair and large Churches fairenesse of our greater and larger Churches which as it doth yet appeare in those which wee call Cathedrall Churches many of them being of very goodly and sumptuous buildings so in times past it was more to be seene when the Abbeyes and those which were called Religious Houses did flourish whereof there were a very great number in this Kingdome which did eate up much of the wealth of the Land but especially those which lived there giving themselves to much filthinesse and divers sorts of uncleannesse did so draw downe the vengeance of God upon those places that they were not only dissolved but almost utterly defaced by King Henry the eight 1. Archbishopricks and 24. other Bishopricks There are here two Archbishoprickes and twenty foure other Bishoprickes within England and Wales It was a tradition among old Writers that Britaine did breed no Wolves in it neither would they live here but the report was fabulous in as much as our Chronicles do write that there were here such store of them that the Kings were enforced to lay it as an imposition upon the Kings of Wales who were not able to pay much money for tribute that they should bring in yearely certaine hundreds of Wolves by which meanes they were at the length quite rid from Wolves * The Countrey of Wales had in times past a King of it selfe yea Of Wales and sometimes two the one of North Wales and the other of South-wales betweene which people at this day there is no great good affection But the Kings of England did by little and little so gaine upon them that they subdued the whole Countrey unto themselves and in the end King Henry the eight intending thereby to benefit this Realme and them did divide the Countrey into Shires appointed there his Iudices itinerantes or Iudges of the circuite to ride and by Act of Parliament made them capable of any preferment in England as well as other Subjects When the first news was brought to Rome that Iulius Caesar had attempted upon Britaine Tully in the elegance of his wit as appeareth in one of his Epistles did make a flowt at it saying that there was no gaine to bee gotten by it For gold here was none nor any other commodity to bee had unlesse it were by slaves whom he thought that his friend to whom he wrote would not looke to be brought up in learning or Musicke Note But if Tully were alive at this day hee would say that the case is much altered in as much as in our Nation is sweetnesse of behaviour abundance of Learning Musicke and all the liberall Artes goodly Buildings sumptuous Apparell rich Fare and whatsoever else may bee truely boasted to bee in any Countrey neere adjoyning * Of Scotland The Northerne part of Brittaine is Scotland which is a Kingdome of it selfe and hath beene so from very ancient time without any such Conquest or mayne transmutation of State as hath beene in other Countries It is compassed about with the Sea on all sides saving where it joyneth upon England and it is generally divided into two parts the one whereof is called the Hye-land and the other the Low-land The Low-land is the most ' civill part of the Realme wherin religion is more orderly established and yeeldeth reasonable subjection unto the King but the other part called the Hye-land which lyeth further to the North or else bendeth towards Ireland is more rude and savage and whether the King hath not so good accesse by reason of Rockes and Mountaynes as to bring the Noblemen which inhabite there to such due Conformity of Religion or otherwise as hee would This Countrey generally is more * Scotland very poo●e in former times poore than England or the most part of the Kingdomes of Europe but yet of late yeares the wealth thereof is much increased by reason of their great trafficke to all the parts of Christendome yea unto Spaine it selfe which hath of late yeares beene denied to the English and some other Nations and yet unto this day they have not any Shippes but for Merchandize neither hath the King in his whole Dominion any vessell called A man of Warre Some that have travelled into the Northerne parts of Scotland doe report that in the Solstitium aestivale they have scant any night and that which is is not above two houres being rather a dimnesse than a darknesse The language of the Countrey is in the Lowland a kind of barbarous English But towards Ireland side they speake Irish * Thereason why it is said that in Brittain are soure languages which is the true reason whereof it is reported that in Brittaine there are foure Languages spoken that is Irish in part of Scotland English for the greatest part Welsh in Wales and Cornish in Cornwall In the Confines between the two Kingdomes of England and Scotland which are commonly called the * Borderers great Robb●s and Stealers Borders there lie divers Outlawes and unruly people which as being subject to neither Prince by their good wils but so farre as they list do exercise great robberies and stealing of Cattell from them that dwell thereabout and yet the Princes of both Realmes for the better preservation of Peace and Iustice doe appoint certaine Warders on each side who have power euen by Martiall Law to represse all enormities The Queene of England had on her side three whereof one is called the * Lord Warden of the Marches Lord Warden of the East Marches the other of the West Marches the third the Warden of the middle Marches who with all their power cannot so order things but that by reason of the out-rages thereabouts committed the borders are much unpeopled whiles such as desire to be civill do not like to live in so dangerous a place It hath beene wondred at by many that are wise how it could bee that whereas so many Countries having in them divers Kingdomes and Regiments did all in the end come to the Dominion of one as appeareth at this day in Spaine where were wont to bee divers Kings and so in times past in England where the seven Kingdomes of the Saxons did grow all into one yet that England and Scotland Note being continuate within one Iland could never till now bee reduced to one Monarchy whereof in reason the French may bee thought to have beene the greatest hinderance For they having felt so much smart by the Armes of England alone in so much that sometime all that whole Countrey almost hath beene over-runne and possessed by the English have thought that it would bee impossible that they should resist the force of them if both their Kingdomes were united and joyned into one The Custome therefore of the Kings of France in former times was that by their Gold they did binde unto them the Kings and
threescore Degrees to returne againe From these Ilands it is that those strong and pleasant Sacks which are called * From hence the best Canary Sack●s Canary Wines are brought and from thence are fetched those that they call Canary Birds These Ilands are under the Crowne of Spaine The heat of the Countrey is very great and therefore fitter for concoction but besides that the soyle of it selfe is accommodated thereunto and by reason of them both these Ilands doe bring forth a Grape which is sweeter in taste then any other Grape and hath that propertie with it that the Wine which is made thereof doth not fume into the head like other Sacke but doth helpe the stomacke and exercise the force of it there The slips of their Vines have beene brought into Spaine and some other places of Europe but they have not sorted to the same purpose as they doe in their native Countrey There doe grow also in these Iles From hence great store of Sugar-canes good store of Sugar-canes which yeelde plentifully that kinde of commoditie unto Spaine either for Marmalets wherein they much delight or for other uses Peter Martyr in the beginning of his Decades which hee hath written De Orbe novo doth particularly touch the names and some other things of these Ilands On the backe-side of Africa also just under the Aequinoctiall is the * The I le of S. Thomas I le of Saint Thomas inhabited by the Portugals which Island was taken in the latter time of Queene Elizabeth by the Dutch it is reported that in the middest of this Island is an Hill and over that a continuall Cloud wherewith the whole Island is watered such a like thing as this is reported of the * The I le of Cloves Isle of Cloves The ayre of this Island is unwholsome and there is hardly seene any Portugall or stranger that comes to dwell there which lives till hee be above fortie yeares of age More Northward from Africke lie those Islands which are called * The Ilands of Azores Azores Insulae being sixe or seven in number of which Tercera is one of the chiefe of whom the rest by some are called Terceras which are farre inferiour in fruitfulnesse unto the Canaries These were first under the Crowne of Portugall and one of them was the last which was kept out from the King of Spaine by the Prior Don Antonio who afterward called himselfe King of Portugall but the Spaniard at last tooke this Tercera from him and doth possesse all these Islands together with the rest of the Dominion which did belong to the Portugals Hee who list to see the unadvised proceedings of Don Antonio both in parting with Lisbon Note the unadvisednesse of Don Antonio and the rest of Portugall as also in losing these Islands which last of all held out for him let him read Conestagio of the uniting of Portugall to the Crown of Castile But these Azores have in times past yeelded much Oade which thereupon in England was called Jsland Oade but now they are the place where the Spaniards do commonly touch and take in fresh water both going and comming to and from America finding that to passe directly without turning on either hand towards America is very hard by reason of the strong current of the water from the Gulph of Mexico and so forward to the East and therefore they are enforced either to goe lower to the South and so to water in some part of Guinea or thereabout or else to keepe up as high as these Ilands Of America or the new World ALthough some doe dispute out of Plato and the old Writers that there was not onely a guesse but a kind of knowledge in ancient time that besides Europe Asia and Africa there was another large country lying to the West yet he that shall advisedly peruse the conjectures made thereupon may see that there is nothing of sufficiencie to enforce any such knowledge but that all Antiquity was utterly ignorant of the new found Countries towards the West Whereunto this one argument most forcible may give credite * The people of America utterly void of all manner of God or goodnesse that at the first arriving of the Spaniards there they found in those places nothing shewing trafficke or knowledge of any other Nation but the people naked uncivill some of them devourers of mens flesh ignorant of shipping without all kinde of learning having no remembrance of Historie or writing among them never having heard of any such Religion as in other places of the World is knowne but being utterly ignorant of Scripture or Christ or Moses or any God neither having among them any token of Crosse Church Temple or Devotion agreeing with other Nations The reasons which are gathered by some late Writers out of Plato Seneca and some other of the Ancient are rather conjecturall The reasons conjecturall of a new found World that it was likely that there should bee some such place then any way demonstrative or concluding by experience that there was any such Countrey and the greatest inducement which they had to perswade themselves that there was any more Land towards the West then that which was formerly knowne was grounded upon this that all Asia Europe and Africk concerning the Longitude of the World did containe in them but 180 Degrees and therefore it was most probable that in the other 180 which filleth up the whole course of the Sunne to the number of 360 degrees GOD would not suffer the water onely to possesse all but would leave a place for the habitation of men beasts flying and creeping creatures I am not ignorant that some who make too much of vaine shewes out of the British Antiquities have given out to the World and written something to that purpose that Arthur sometimes King of Britaine had both knowledge of these parts and some Dominion in them for they finde as some report that King Arthur had under his government many Ilands and great Countries towards the North and West which one of some speciall note hath interpreted to signifie America and the Northerne parts thereof and thereupon have gone about to entitle the * Some have entitled the Queene of England Soveraigne of these Provinces Queene of England to bee Soveraigne of those Provinces by right of Descent from King Arthur But the wisedome of our State hath beene such as to neglect that opinion imagining it to be grounded upon fabulous foundations as many things are which are now reported of King Arthur onely this doth carrie some shew with it that now some hundred of yeares since there was a Knight of Wales who with shipping and some pretty Company did goe to discover those parts whereof as there is some record of reasonable credit amongst the Monuments of Wales so there is this one thing which giveth pregnant shew thereunto that in the late Navigation of some of our men to Norumbega and some other