Land about the River it hath been so calme that men did go in single thin linnen garments In this Countrey standeth the Lake called Lacus Asphaltites because of a kinde of slime called Bitumen or Asphaltum which daily it doth cast up being of force to joine stones exceeding fast in building And into this Lake doth the River Jordan runne This Lake is it which is called Mare Mortuum a Sea because it is salt and Mortuum or Dead for that no living thing is therein The water thereof is so thicke that few things will sinke therein in so much that Josephus faith that an Oxe having all his legges bound will not sinke into that water The nature of this Lake as it was supposed was turned into this quality when God did destroy Sodome and Gomorrah and the Cities adjoining with fire and brimstone from Heaven for Sodome and the other Cities did stand near unto Jordan and to this Mare Mortuum for the destruction of whom all that Coast to this day is a witnesse the Earth smelling of brimstone being desolate and yielding no fruit saving apples which grow with a faire shew to the eye like other fruit but as soon as they are touched do turn presently to soot or ashes as besides Josephus Solinus doth witnesse in his 48 Chapter The Land of Palestina had for iâ—…s Inhabitants all the Twelve Tribes of Israel which were under one Kingdome till the time Rehoboam the Sonne of Solomon But then were they divided into two Kingdomes ten Tribes being called Israel and two Iudah whose chiefe City was called Ierusalem 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 adjoining The other two Tribes were properly called the Iewes and their Land Iudea which continued long after in Ierusalem aâ—…d thereabout till the Captivity of Babylon where they lâ—…ved for seventy-yeâ—…es 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 Country King Priest or Prophet In their chiefe City Ierusalem was the Temple of God first most gloriously built by Solomon and afterward destroied by Nebuchadnezzar 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 theâ—…e wanted five things which were is the former as the Jewes write First the Arke of the Covenant Secondly the pot of Manna Thirdly the Rod of Aaron Fourthly the two Tables of the Law written by the finger of God And fifthly the fire of the Sacrifice which came down 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 he built a third Temple wherein our Saviour Jesus Christ and his Apostles did teach The City of Jerusalem was twice taken and utterly laid desolate first by Nebuchadnezzar at the Captivity of Babylon and secondly after the death of Christ by Vespasian the Roman who first began the Warres and by his sonne Titus who was afterward Emperour of Rome who brought such horrible desolation on that City and the people thereof by fire sword and famine that the like hath not been read in any History He did afterwards put thousands of them on one some day to be devoured of the Beasts which was a cruel custome of the Romans 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 Josephus reporteth in his seventh booke and tenth Chapter de bello Judaico 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 Iudea and the ruines of Jerusalem were possessed by some of the people adjoining till that about six hundred yeares since the Saracens did invade it for expelling of whom from thence divers French men 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 City of Jerusalem and the place of the Sepulchre of Christ should be in the hands of Infidels This Godfrey ruled in Jerusalem by the name of a Duke but his successours after him for the space of 87. yeares called themselves Kings of Jerusalem About which time Saladine who called himself King of Egypt and Asia the lesse did winne it from the Christians For the recovery whereof Richard the first King of England together with the French King and the King of Sicilia did go 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 City of Ierusalem and Antioch were taken out of the hands of the Pagans by the meanes of Godfrey of Bullen and others of his Company the Pope of Rome that then was was called Urbanus the Patriach of Ierusalem Heraclius and the Roman Emperour Fredericke and at the same time when the said Ierusalem was recovered again by Saladine the Popes name was Urbanus the Patriarke Ierusalem Heraclius and the Roman Emperour Fredericke The whole Countrey and City of Jerusalem 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 Fryars do abide and make a good commodity of shewing the Sepulchre of Christ and other Monuments unto such Christian Pilgrims as do use superstitiously to go in pilgrimage to the Holy Land The King of Spaine was wont to call himselfe King of Jerusalem Of Arabia NExt unto the Holy Land lieth the great Country of Arabia having on the North part Palestina and Mesopotamia on the East side the Gulph of Persia on the South the maine Ocean of India or Ethiopia on the West Egypt and the great Bay called Sinus Arabicus or the Red Sea This Countrey is divided into three parts North part whereof is called Arabia Deserta the South part which is the greatest is named Arabia Foelix and the middle betweene both that which for the abundance of Rocks and stones is called Arabia Petrea or Petrosa 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 keep his people under Moses for
the Gospel insomuch that it is fabulous vanity to say that Austin the Monk was the first that here planted the Christian Faith for he lived 600. yeares after Christ in the time of Gregory the great Bishop of Rome before which time Gildas is upon great reason thought to have lived here of whom there is no doubt but that he was a learned Christian Yea and that may be perceived by that which Beda hath in his Ecclesiasticall story concerning the comming in of Austin the Monk that the Christian Religion had been planted here before but that the purity of it in many places was much decaied and also that many people in the Island were yet Infidels For the conversion of whom as also for the reforming of the other Austine was sent hither where he behaved himselfe so proudly that the best of the Christians which were here did mislike him In him was erected the Archbishoprick of Canterbury which amongst old writers is still termed Dorobarnia The Archbishops do reckon their succession by number from this Austine The reason whereof Gregorie the great is reported to have such care for the conversion of the Ethnicks in Britaine was because certain boyes which were brought him out of this Countrey which being very goodly of countenance as our Country children are therein inferior to no Nation in the world he asked them what country-men they were and it was replyed that they were Angli he said they were not unfitly so called for they were Angli tanquam Angeli nam vultum habent Angelorum And demanding further of what Province they were in this Island it was returned that they were called Deires which caused him again to repeat that word to say that it was great pitty but that by being taught the Gospel they should be saved de ira Dei England hath since the time of the Conquest grown more and more in riches insomuch that now more then 300. years since in the time of King Henry the third it was an ordinary speech that for wealth this Countrey was Puteus inexhaustus a Well that could not be drawn dry Which conceit the King himself as Matthew Paris writeth did often suggest unâ—…o the Pope who there upon took advantage abusing the simplicity of the King to suck out inellimable summes of money to the intolerable grievance of both the Clergy Temporalty And among other things to bring about his purpose the Pope did perswade the King that he would invest his young son in the Kingdome of Apulia which did contain a great part of all Naples and for that purpose had from thence many thousands besides infinite summes which the King was forced to pay for interest to the Popes Italian Usurers Since that time it hath pleased God more and more to blesse this Land but never more plentifully then in the daies of our late and now raigning Soveraigne whose raigne continuing long in peace hath peopled the Land with abundance of inhabitants hath stored it with Shipping Armour and Munition hath fortified it many waies hath encreased the trafficke with the Turk and Muscovite and many parts of the earth farre distant from us hath much bettered it with building and enriched it with Gold and Silver that it is now by wise men supposed that there is more Plate within the Kingdome then there was Silver when her Majesty came to the Crowne Some Writers of former times yea and those of our owne Countrey too have reported that in England have been Mynes of Gold or at the least some gold taken out of other Mynes which report hath in it no credit in as much as the Country standeth too cold neither hath it sufficient force of the Sun to concoct and digest that metall But truth it is that our Chronicles do witnesse that some silver hath been taken up in the Southerne parts as in the Tin-mines of Devonshire and Cornwall and such is sometimes found now but the virtue thereof is so thin that by that time it is tried and perfectly fined it doth hardly quit the cost notwithstanding Lead Iron and such basers metals be here in good plenty The same reason which hindreth gold ore from being in these parts that is to say the cold of the climate doth also hinder that there is no wine whose grapes grow here For although we have grapes which in the hotter and warm summers do prove good but yet many times are nipped in the frost before they be ripe yet notwithstanding they never come to that concocted maturity as to make sweet and pleasant wine yet some have laboured to bring this about and therefore have planted vineyards to their great cost and trouble helping and aiding the soil by the uttermost diligence they could but in the end it hath proved to very little purpose The most rich commodity which our Land hath naturally growing is Wooll for the which it is renowned over a great part of the Earth For our Clothes are sent into Turkie Venice Italy Barbary yea as farre as China of late besires Moscovie Denmarke and other Northerne Nations for the which we have exchange of much other Merchandize necessary for us here besides that the use of this Wooll doth in several labours set many thousands of our people in worke at home which might otherwise be idle Amongst the Commendations of England as appeareth in the place before named is the store of good Bridges whereof the most famous are London Bridge and that at Rochester In divers places here there be also Rivers of good Name but the greatest glory doth rest in three the Thames called in Latine of Tame and Isis Tamesis Servene called Sabrina and Trent which is commonly reputed to have his name of trente the French word signifying thirty which some have expounded to be so given because thirty several Rivers do run into the same And some other do take it to be so call'd because there be thirty several sorts of fishes in that water to be found the names whereof do appear in certain old verses recited by Master Camden in his booke of the Description of England One of the honourable commendations which are reputed to be in this Realme is the fairnesse of our greater and larger Churches which as it doth yet appear in those which we call Cathedrall Churches many of them being of very goodly and sumptuous buildings so in times past it was more to be seen when the Abbies 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 filthiness 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 eighth There are two Archbishopricks and 24 other Bishopricks 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 mony for tribute that they should yearly bring in certaine hundreds of Wolves by which meanes they were at the length quite rid from Wolves The Country of Wales had in times past a King of it self yea and sometimes two the one of North-Wales and the other of South-Wales between which people at this day there is no great good affection But the Kings of England did by little and little so gain upon them that they subdued the whole Country unto themselves and in the end King Henry the 8. intending thereby to benefit this Realme and them did divide the Country into Shires appointed there his Judices Itinerantes or Judges of the circuit to ride and by Act of Parliament made them capable of any preferment in England as well as other Subjects When the first newes was brought to Rome that Julius Caesar had attempted upon Britain Trully in the elegance of his wit as appeareth in one of his Epistles did make a flout at it saying That there was no gain to be gotten by it For gold here was none nor any other commodity to be had unlesse it were by slaves whom he thought that his friend to whom he wrote would not look to be brought up in learning or Musick But if Tully were alive at this day he would say that the case is much altered in as much as in our Nation is sweetness of behavior abundance of learning Musick all the liberal Acts goodly buildings sumptuous apparel rich fare and whatsoever else may be truly boasted to be in any Country near ad joining The Northern part of Britaine is Scotland which is a Kingdome of it self and hath been so from very ancient time without any such conquest or maine transmutation of State as hath been 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 Highland and the other the Low-land The Low-land is the most civill part of the Realm wherein religion is more orderly established and yieldeth reasonable subjection unto the King but the other part called the High-land which lyeth further 〈◊〉 the North or else bendeth towards Ireland is more rude and savage and whither the King hath not so good accesse by reason of Rocks and mountaines as to bring the Noblemen which inhabite there to such due conformity of Religion or otherwise as he would This Countrey generally is more poor then England or the most part of the Kingdomes of Europe but yet of late yeares the wealth thereof is much encreased by reason of their great traffick to al the parts of Christendome yea unto Spain it self which hath of late years been denied to the English and some other Nations and yet unto this day they have not any ships but for Merchandize neither hath the King in his whole Dominion any vessel called A man of war Some that have travelled into the Northerne parts of Scotland do report that in the Solstitium aestivele they have scant any night and that which is is not above two houres being rather a d mnesse then a darknesse The language of the Countrey is in the Lowland a kind of barbarous English But towards Ireland side they speak Irish which is the true reason whereof it is reported that in Britain there are four languages spoken that is Irish in part of Scotland English for the greatest part Welch in Wales Cornish in Cornwall In the confines between the two Kingdomes of England and Scotland which are commonly called the Borders there lye divers out-laws and unruly people which being subject to neither Prince by their good wits but so far as they list do exercise great robberies and stealing of cattell from them that dwell therabout and yet the Princes of both Realmes for the better preservation of Peace and Justice do appoint certain Warders on each side who have power even by Martiall Law to represse all enormities The Queen of England had on her side three whereof one is called the 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 outrages 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 been wondred at by many that are wise how it could be 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 be 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 being continuate within one Iland could never till now be reduced to one Monarchy whereof in reason the French may be thought to have been the greatest hindrance For they having felt so much smart by the Armes of England alone insomuch that sometimes all that whole Country almost hath been over run and possessed by the English have thought that it would be impossible that they should resist the force of them if both their Kingdoms were united joined into one The Custome theresore of the Kings of France in former times was that by their gold they did bird unto them the Kings and Nobility of Scotland and by that means the Kings of England were no sooner attempting any thing upon France but the Scots by and by would envade England Whereupon the Proverb amongst our people grew That he who will France win must with Scotland first begin And these French-men continuing their policy did with infinite rewards breake off the Marriage which was intended and agreed upon between King Edward the sixth and Mary the late unfortunate Queen of Scotland drawing her rather to be married with the Dolphin of France who was son to King Henry the second and afterward himself reigned by the name of King Francis the second But this was so ill taken by the English that they sought revenge upon Scotland and 〈◊〉 them a great overthrow in that 〈◊〉 which was called Musselborough field The people of this Country were in times past 〈◊〉 barbarous that they did not refuse 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 flesh which as S. Hierom doth 〈◊〉 of them he himselâ—… saw some of 〈◊〉 to do in France and the 〈◊〉 hereof went so far that Chrysostome in one place doth allude to such a matter There be many little Islands adjoining unto the
up as high as these Islands Of America or the new World ALthough some do dispute out of Plato and the old Writers that there was not only 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 antiquitie was utterly ignorant of the new found Countries towards the West Whereunto this one Argument most forcible may give credit 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 kind of learning having no remembrance of History or writing among them never having heard of any such Religion as in other places of the world is known but being utterly ignorant of Scripture or Christ or Moses or any God neither having among them any token of Crosse Church Temple oâ—… 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 conjectural that it was likely that there should be some such place than any way demonstrative or concluding by experience that therewas any such countrey and the greatest inducement which they had to perswade themselves that therewas any more Land towards the West then that which was formerly known was grounded upon this that all Asia Europe and Africke 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 Sun to the number of 360 degrees God would not suffer the water only 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 vain shewes out of the British Antiquities have given out to the world and written something to that purpose that Arthur sometimes King of Britain had both knowledge of these parts and some Dominion in them for they find as some report that King Arthur had under his government many Islands and great Countries towards the North and West which one of some special note hath interpreted to signifie America and the Northern parts thereof and thereupon have gone about to entitle the Queen of England to be Soveraigne of those Provinces by right of descent from King Arthur But the wisedome of our State hath been 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 only this doth carry some shew with it that now some hundreds of years since there was a Knight of Wales who with shipping and some pretty company did go 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 Northern parts of America they find some tokens of civility and Christian Religion but especially they do meet with some words of the Welch language as that a Bird with a whitehead should be called Pengwiun other such like yet because we have no invincible certainty hereof and if any thing were done it was only in the Northern and worse parts and the entercourse betwixt Wales and those parts in the space of divers hundred years was not continued but quite silenced we may go forward with that opinion that these Westerne Indies were no way known to former ages God therefore remembring the prophesie of his Son that the Gospel of the Kingdome should before the day of judgement be 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 certain vile spirits whom they call their Zemes most obsequiously did adore them raised up the spirit of a man worthy of perpetual memory one Christopherus Columbus born at Genua in Italy to set his mind to the discovery of a new World who finding by that compasse of the old known World that there must needs be a much more mighty space to the which the Sun 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 〈◊〉 Sea he could never satisfie himself till he might attempt to make proof of the verity thereof Being therefore himself a private man and of more vertue than Nobility after his reasons and demonstrations laid down whereby he might induce men that it was no vain thing which he went about he went unto many of the Princes of Christendome and among others to Henry the seventh King of England desiring to be 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 be 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 he betook himself unto the Court of Ferdinandus and Elizabeth King and Queen of Castile where also at the first he found but small entertainment yet persisting in his purpose without weariness with great importunity it pleased God to move the mind of Elizabeth the Queen to deale with her husband to surnish forth to ships for the discovery only and not for conquest whereupon Columbus in the year thousand four hundred ninety and two accompanied with his brother Bartholomeus Columbus and many Spaniards sayled farre to the West for the space of three score daies and more with the great indignation often mutinies of his company fearing that by reason of their long distance from home they should never return again insomuch that the General after many perswasions of them to go forward was at length enforced to crave but three daies wherein if they saw not the Iland he promised to return and God did so blesse him to the end that his Voyage might not prove in vain that in that space one of his Company did espye Fire which was a certain Argument that they were near to the Land as it fell out indeed The first Land whereunto they came was an Island called by the Inhabitants Haity but in remembrance of Spaine from whence he came he termed it Hispaniola and finding it to be a Countrey full of pleasure and having in it abundance of Gold and Pearle he proceeded further and
world is Albion or Britania which hath heretofore contained in it many severall Kingdomes but especially in the time of the Saxons It hath now in it two Kingdomes England and Scotland wherin are four several languages that is the English which the civill Scots do barbarously speake the Welch tongue which is the language of the old Britains the Cornish which is the proper speech of Cornewall and the Irish which is spoken by those Scots which live on the West part of Scotland neer unto Ireland The commodities and pleasures of England are well known unto us and many of them are expressed in this verse Anglia Mons Pons Fons Ecclesia Foemina Lana England is stor'd with Bridges Hils and Wooll With Churches Wels and Women beautifull The ancient inhabitants of this land were the Britaines which were afterward driven into a corner of the Countrey now called Wales and it is not to be doubted but at first this Countrey was peopled from the continent of France or thereabout when the sons of Noah had spread themselves from the East to the West part of the world It is not strange to see why the people of that Nation do labour to fetch their pedigree from one Brutus whom they report to come from Troy because the original of that truth began by Galfridus Monumentensis above 500. yeares agone and his book containeth great shew of truth but was noted by Nubringensis or some author of his time to be meerly fabulous Besides that many of our English Nation have taxed the saying of them who would attribute the name of Brittannia unto Brutus and Cornubia to Corynaeus Aeneas Sylvius Epist. 1. 3. hath thought good to confirm it saying The English people saith he do report that after Troy was overthrown one Brutus came unto them from whom their Kings do fetch their pedigrees Which matter there are no more Historians that deliver besides a certaine English man which had some learning in him who willing to aequall the blood of those Iflanders unto the Roman stock and generosity did affirm and say that concerning Brutus which Livy and Salust being both deceived did report of Aeneas We do find in ancient Records and Stories of this Island that since the first possessions which the Britains had here it was over-run and conquered five several times The Romans were the first that did attempt upon it under the conduct of Julius Caesar who did onely discover it and frighted the inhabitants with the name of the Romans but was not able to sarre to prevaile upon it as any way to possesse it yet his successours afterwards did by little and little so gain on the Country that they had almost all of it which is now called England and did make a great ditch or trench from the East to the West sea between their dominion here and Scotland Divers of the Emperours were here in person as Alexander Severus who is reputed to be buried at York Here also was Constantius father unto Constantine the Great who from hence married Helena a woman of this Land who was afterward mother to the renowned Constantine But when the Romans had their Empire much weakned partly by their owne discords and partly by that decay which the irruptions of the Gothes and Vandals and such like invaders did bring upon them they were forced to retire their legions from thence and so leaving the Countrey naked the Scots and certaine people called the Pictes did breake in who most miserably wasted and spoiled the Country Then were the Inhabitants as some of our Authors write put to that choise that either they must stand it out and be slaine or give ground till they came to the sea and so be drowned Of these Pictes who were the second over-runners of this Land some do write that they did use to cut and pounse their flesh and lay on colours which did make them the more terrible to be seen with the cuts of their flesh But certaine it is that they had their name for painting themselves which was a common thing in Brittaine in Caesars time as he reporteth in his Commentaries the men colouring their faces with Glastone or Ode that they might seem the more dreadfull when they were to joyn battell To meet with the cruelty and oppression of these Barbars the Saxons were in the third place by some of the Land called in who finding the sweetnesse of the soile and commodiousnesse of the Countrey every way did repaire hither by great troops and so seated themselves here that there were at once of them seven several Kingdomes and Kings within the Compasse of England These Saxons did beare themselves with much more temperance and placability towards those few of the Countrey that remained then the Pictes had done but yet growing to contention one of their Kings with another partly about the bounds of their territories and partly about other quarrels they had many great battels each with other In the time of these Religion and Devotion was much embraced and divers Monasteries and rich Religious houses were founded by them partly for pennance which they would do and partly otherwise because they thought it too meritorious insomuch that King Edgar alone is recorded to have built above foure severall Monasteries And some other of their Kings were in their ignorance so devoted that they gave over their Crownes and in superstition did goe to Rome there to lead the lives of private men These seven Kingdomes in the end did grow all into one and then the fourth and most grievous scourge and conquest of this Kingdome came in the Danes who Lording it here divers yeares were at last expelled and then William Duke of Normandy pretending that he had right thereunto by the promise of adoption or some other conveiance from Harald did with his Normans passe over into this Land and obtained a great victory in Sussex at a place which he caused in remembrance thereof to be called Battell and built an Abby there by the name of Battell Abby He took on him to winne the whole by conquest and did beare himselfe indeed like a Conquerour For he seised all into his hands gave out Barons Lordships and Mannors from himself reversed the former Lawes and Customes and instituted here the manners and orders of his own Country which have proceeded on and been by little and little bettered so that the honourable government is established which we now see at this day It is supposed that the faith of Christ was first brought into this land in the days of the Apostles by Joseph of Arimathea Simon Zelotes and some other of that time but without doubt not long after it was found here which appeareth by the testimony of Tertullian who lived within lesse then 200. yeares after Christ And there are records to shew that in the daies of Eleutherius one of the ancient B shops of Rome King Lucius received here both Baptisme and