witnesses in her wel-pâ—opled Regions can auerre that the parts betwixt the Tropikes are both habitable and inhabited and for the Perioeci Antoeci Anticthones and Antipodes the worlds roundnesse and other things of like nature this America yeelds and is sufficient proofe and the yeerely compassing the world which the Spaniards and Portugals diuide betwixt them makes more then euident And let those two English Ships the onely two of one Nation which euer haue sailed and that with admirable successe and fortune about the Globe of the earth tell Lactantius ghost whether they dropped into the clouds as hee feared there to become new constellations which Antiquitie would easily haue attributed to them The Golden Hinde which trauersed the world round and returned a Golden Hind indeed with her belly full of Gold and Siluer is yet at Debtford there resting after her long iourney offering vp her selfe to Time her deeds to eternitie The causes of the Temperature and habitablenesse of those parts That which beguiled the Ancients was the neerenesse of the Sunne his direct beames and the swift motion of the heauens which they coniectured did chase away cold and moisture out of all those parts And hardly could reason otherwise ghesse till experience shewed the contrary For neuer is it moister in those parts betweene the Tropikes then when the Sunne is neerest causing terrible stormes and showers euery day as if hauing drunken too much in his long and hote iourney ouer the Ocean hee did there vomit it vp againe Once the people of those parts reckon it Winter when the Astronomer would call it Summer because of this tedious weather which euery day happening cannot but coole the Ayre and Earth with a maruellous temper and on the other side they call the time of the Sunnes absence Summer because of the perpetuall clearenesse which continueth those sixe moneths the Sunne then exhaling no more vapours then his hote stomacke can digest which with his directer beames being drawne vp surcharge him with abundance and in the middle Region of the Aire by the then stronger Antiperistasis are thickened into raines and attended with Thunder and Lightnings proclaime dayly defiance to the earth threatning harme but doing good cooling the same after the morning Sun hath heated it the showres then falling when the Sunne threatens his hottest fury and violence These Raines make the like inundations and ouerflowings of Riuers in America as before wee haue obserued in Nilus Niger and Zaire in Africa which breaking their bounds and driuing the Inhabitants sometimes to dwell on trees growing sometimes in their carkasses framed into Boats or Canoes therein to retire themselues till the waters are retired cause a cooling and refreshing to the Earth which they couer and shield by their inundations from the Sunnes angry arrowes As in a Limbeck a strong fire causeth abundance of vapours to be extracted out of herbes or other matter which being pressed and finding no issue turn into water and if the fire be smal it exhausteth the vapors as fast as it raiseth them So the Sun in his greatest strength exhaleth these plentifull vapours and distilleth them in showers which in lesse heat are of lesse quantitie and more easily consumed Without the Tropikes it is contrary for the Summer is dry the Winter moist the cause being the Suns weaknesse not able to concoct and disperse the vapours by the moist earth then easily yeelded which in his greater force in the Summer season wee see effected the like wee see in greene wood and dry on the fire It is no lesse worthy note that no part of the World hath so many so great Lakes and Riuers the vapours and exhalations whereof cannot but coole and moisten the neighbouring Elements of the Ayre and the Earth Againe the equall length of the Dayes and Nights perpetually sharing the time in equall portions causeth that the heat is not so vnequall as the Ancients dreamed The great Dewes also in the night which are greater them wee would thinke and comparable for wetting to pretty showers encrease the freshnesse and coolenesse Wee may adde hereunto the neighbour-hood of so huge an Ocean the proprietie of the Windes which in most places betweene the Tropikes are set and certaine no lesse then the Sunne and Tides and bring with them much refreshing Further the situation of the Land doth further the cold not a little in those hot Regions Contrariwise neere the Poles the continuance of the Sunne and long dayes make it hotter then in parts neerer the Sunne as in Russia then in England Yea the high ridges and tops of some Mountaines in the burning Zone are vnsufferable for cold alwayes hauing on them snow hayle and frozen waters the grasse withered and the men and beasts which do passe along that way for heere is no conuenient dwelling benummed with the extremity of cold Paries cùm proximus alget When the Mountaines are subiect to this degree of cold it cannot but temper the Neighbour Regions with some coolenesse at least Now to all these Reasons of the Temperature vnder the Line and betweene the Tropikes some adde the influence of some vnknowne Constellations Onely let this be remembred that the former hold not equally in all parts of the Torride Zone seeing that Nature hath diuersified her selfe in diuers places and by naturall exceptions hath bounded and limited those generall Rules In some places vnder the Line it raineth not at all in other some those cooling Windes are wanting neither hath euery Region Lakes Riuers or Mountaines to refresh them But of these particulars we shall take better view in their peculiar places In the same space the Windes are most-what Easterly and without the Tropikes Westerly so that the Mariners vse not to goe and returne the same way but obseruing the generall Windes seeke to make vse thereof accordingly The reason of this Easterly Winde vnder the Zodiake is ascribed to the motion of the Heauens the first Moueable drawing saith Acosta with his owne motion the inferiour Orbes yea euen those Elementarie of the Fire Ayre and where it findes no other obstacle of the Water also as some suppose But for the Ayre whereof wee now speciall speake the motion of the Comets circularly carried in the Ayre where also their motion is diuers as is obserued in the Planets doth sufficiently prooue Without the Tropikes from seuen and twentie to seuen and thirtie Degrees the Windes are said to be for the most part Westerly mooued as some thinke by the repercussion of the Ayre heere preuailing against that force of the Heauens which mastereth it within the Tropikes euen as wee see Waters being encountered with more force returne with an Eddie in a manner backe This of the Easterly Winds is to be vnderstood of the Sea for at Land though winds bee as before is said certaine and set yet that which is the generall Winde of one Country is not generall to all yea in the same Countrey
home also are more dreadfull to all daring Attempters where to the Nauie Royall such Succenturiatae Copiae are adioyned the Ships of the Societie continually encreasing and being able to furnish a puissant Armada of themselues which but few if a few forraine of Ships Royall can equall I adde that in the present estate of Things Necessitie may bee alledged for a Vertue For doe wee not see want of Trade The Merchant wanting Traffique and consequently the Mariner employment whiles Barbarie is many yeeres together trodden vnder foot by barbarous Ciuill vnciuill Warres the Straits brought into straits by loosenesse and abundance of Turkish Robbers and Christian vnchristian Rouers the Spaniard and Portugall forbid Trade to both the Indies the Russian Warres bereaue vs of Russian Wares should I adde Diuisions of our Merchants at home Or should I not rather fixe mine eyes on Others neere our home which can preoccupate our Mariner by cheaper Seruice haue followed our Trade into Turkie and other places by vs frequented take more libertie in remote Seas making prize and spoyle of Portugalls and others by their Trade into the Indies haue weakened our Turkie and wakened this Indie Trading selling their Spices at cheaper rates then the Turkie Merchant could affoord yea haue haunted vs euen into Greene-land and followed English Examples round about the World Let none traduce me as a deprauer of their Actions whose Noble Attempts I honour but I speake in defence of the Indian Traffique without which our needie Mariner must haue sued to serue them at Sea no lesse then our needie voluntary Souldior hath done on Land which without the profits now reaped would haue procured the inconueniences so much quarrelled §. III. Answer to obiections made against the Indian Trade and Societie with other Arguments for it FOr must not our Mariner either die at Wapping or other dismall place of Iustice for Iniustice Or else liue to the Death or losse of Honest men thriuing in vnthriftinesse and Pyracies Or else most of them want employment Or bee forced to serue Forreiners Better a death at Bantam then in other places more infamously fatall and better this bad Aduenture there for Englands Wealth then Forreiners And yet with due sobrietie and temperance not wracking themselues on their Rack a very Rock or on their Quick-sands filthie diseased Women extreamely both deare and vile how many of those dying many might escape Better that our Men should carrie forreine Siluer into Those parts to bring Money and Wares for the publike benefit then all this Money to be intercepted by strangers for it growes not in England Europe no lesse disfurnished and we to buy those Wares with more expence of Money at a worse hand Non est laus ista hominis sed temporum said Tully of Attilius Regulus his returning vpon Oath to the Punike Tortures Non est fraus ista hominum sed temporum I may answere touching these losses of Men and Money which in Dutch or other Employments and Transporting would happen though England held no Commerce with India And yet if our Mynts lacke worke let vs examine our store of Plate encreasing with our Pride our Clothes of Siluer Gold Tissue and rich-metalld Stuffes our Laces and Embroideries from the Hatband to the Shoo-strings exhausting so much Siluer and Gold in the Materials that I speake not of the communicating it to Others now happily vnited vnto Vs which all cannot but diuert worke from the Mint especially finde our Men of Warre haue had so little out of American spoyles And for Men how prosperously hath Captain Newport made two Returnes from the Indies If Mariners are lost are not Mariners made and bred in this Employment Must wee not disarme our selues of shipping and leaue our Ilands waterie Walls destitute of their Mouing Bulwarkes if our Sea-Trade faile which without Gaine and Glorie Honos alit Artes must faile and fall too SAVL and IONATHAN onely may bee armed the Kings Royall Nauie royally furnished but for Merchants ships wonted Assistance not a Sword nor a Speare found in the hands of any of the people they might sharpen their Mattockes Weeding Hookes and Axes amongst the Philistinis But a SMITH in Israel doth far far better that can fit vs with Weapons of Warre that wee shall not need borrow of strangers And long so and not on other Conditions but Israels flourishing may our SMITH flourish in our Israel If any thinke these feares fantasticall let him but looke on the face of Things before this Trade was well settled how many in little space of the best Merchant-ships were alienated into Spaine and Italy the Alceder the Beuis the Royall Merchant the May-Flower the Prosperous the Susan Parnell the Gold Noble the Consent the Concord I know not with what Concent nay Discord rather to our Sea-Concent and Harmonie If Fluxes and Diseases pursue vs in the Indies haue they not so done I name not Kentish and Essex Marishes and other vnwholesome English Habitations in Ireland O Ireland the Land of ire indeed in the death of so many Commanders and Souldiers by Warre and Diseases in the late Rebellion yea euen still neither salo solo doelo gente nor mente like our owne Homes which yet how many are glad to leaue there to crie their fortunes There Where not prodigall of their best bloud in Dutch Danish Sweden Poland Russian Warres For small stipends voluntarily aduenturing more certaine Deaths then in this Indian Aduenture no lesse perhaps more then some of the former iustifiable to a scrupulous conscience What should I speak of the highest Worke of Conscience in propagating Christian Religion and warring vpon the Regions and Legions of Infernall Powers captiuating silly soules in Ethnicke darkenesse And O that our Merchants would mind this Merchandise the gaine of soules settling learned Ministers in their Factories to bee Factors for Christ then might we looke for a Blessing Yea now wee haue great Hopes that Iapan may yeeld siluer and if men proue better in soule their bodies may lesse miscarry How euer my prayers shall be to GOD ALMIGHTIE for His Blessing vpon their Endeuours For my selfe I haue beene bold to say this in their Defence as a most indifferent looker on lesse then others more able more interested haue or can and not more then Reason and Religion may admit which I would haue interpreted with the same Equitie with which for which it is written not imputed to itching busie fingers sicke of the Scribling disease nor to base insinuating Flattery of Ours nor to malicious Intimations and barking against Forreiners whose worthy Exploits I honour but let Themselues the prouoking Portugall and not-prouoked Flemming be Iudges that I call not the Admiring Ethnike to honour the English Worth if our Trade hath not beene the farthest from first offering from suspition of iniurie and therefore neerest to Innocence and Iustice the true cause of that which they
without any fault but the defect of our Treasurie who therefore poysoned himselfe and the I le became tributarie Sextus Rufus saith as much Amasis was the first if we beleeue Herodotus f that euer conquered Cyprus and made it tributarie He also saith lib. 4. That the Cyprians were partly from Salamine and Athens partly from Arcadia partly from Cythnus from Phoenicia and from Aethiopia Plinie affirmeth That it was sometime the seate of nine Kings and was diuersly named as Acamantis Cerastis Aspelia Amathusia Macaria Cryptus and Colinia It was such a Forrest of Trees that when as their shipping and Mines were not able to waste them it was made lawfull for any man to fell and destroy them and for his labour to possesse the land which he had so cleered Bartholomaeus Saligniacus sayth he saw flying fishes in the Sea about Cyprus which in the Atlantike Ocean are common he saw also a Ramme in Cyprus with seuen hornes HONDIVS his Map of Cyprus CYPRUS In the time of Constantine it was forsaken of the Inhabitants as before forsaken of the Elements which refused to water with any drops of raine that Iland sometime called Macaria or happy the space of seuenteene yeeres together or as others haue it sixe and thirtie repeopled from diuers parts by Helena the Mother of Constantine and remayning to the Greeke Empire till that Lion of England made it a prey and the Knights purchase who sold it to Guido Lusignun whose posterity failing the Venetians succeeded till SEYLIM the Second minding to erect a Religious Hospitall to testifie his magnificence beganne with an irreligious foundation For whereas their holy Lawes will not suffer any thing to bee dedicated to holy vses which their owne Sword hath not conquerd hee brake league with the Venetian and robbed them of this Iland which they are thought not with the iustest title before to haue possessed But it is high time to bethinke vs of our Indian shore whence we haue taken so large a prospect where we are stayed to be transported into the chiefe of those Ilands there to take a more leisurely view of their Regions and Religions And if any be desirous to reade the ancient names and descriptions of the Seas and Ilands about Asia Marcianus Heracleotes and Sculax Carnandensis haue written especiall Treatises thereof which Dauid Hoeschelius hath published in Greeke very profitable to the learned Students of the ancient Geographie as are the workes also of Isidorus Characenus Artemidorus Ephesius and Dicaearchus Messenius which he hath ioyned with them CHAP. XV. A larger Relation of some principall Ilands of Asia and first of the Ilands of Iapon §. I. A Preface touching the Iesuites and a description of Iapon with some of their strange Customes THe Iesuits haue not more fixed the eyes of the World vpon them in the Westerne parts then they haue fixed their owne eyes on the Easterne heere seeking to repaire with their vntempered-Morter the ruines of their Falling Babylon there laying a new foundation of their after-hopes heere by their Politike Mysteries and Mysticall Policies endeuouring to recouer there by new Conquests to make supply to their losses heere for busie intruding into affaires of State suspected by their owne hated by their Aduersaries there by seeming to neglect Greatnesse and to contemne Riches of the mightiest are not feared whiles Others beleeue obserue and admire them Both heere and there they spare not to compasse Sea and Land to winne Proselytes euery of their Residences or Colledges being as so many Forts to establish this new Romane Monarchie but with vnlike aduantage encountring there with Reason or rather with the carkasse of Reason attended with Ignorance and Superstition whose Owlish eyes cannot endure the enteruiew of Truth though darkened with those Cloudes wherewith they ouer-cast it Heere with Truth yea the Soule of Truth true Religion whose Shield of Faith and Sword of the Spirit these the stronger part of the strongest Gate of Hell cannot preuaile against A Spanish Faction of Spanish humour and successe more easily conquering a World of the naked Americans and effeminate Indians then keeping all they had in Europe Such are the armes of the one and the preaching of the other Yet would I faine be thankful to the one and the other the first for furthering Geographic with knowledge of a new World the other for making a possibility of a better World to some whereas otherwise there was a generall desperation of all Neyther are the wounds of Popish Superstition so absolutely mortall as the Ethnike Atheisme the one hauing no foundation at all the other shewing the true foundation although their Babylonish slime euen heere supply the roome of better morter besides their stubble hay and wood built vpon it Better a mixed truth then a totall errour and a maymed Christ then none at all But howsoeuer they bee beholden to them for their Diuinitie it were inhumanitie in vs not to acknowledge a beholdingnesse to them for that they giue vs the knowledge of many peoples although in all their Discourses this caution is necessary not to yeeld them a Catholike and vniuersall credit where we any way may spie them dawbing the wals of their pretended Catholike Church In relating their Miracles and such like we will remember they are Iesuits in other things not seruiceable to Rome we will heare them as Trauellers when lying doth not aduantage them nor hurt vs But as the labours of the Iesuites may euery where breed shame to our negligence in a better quarrell so in Iapon it is most of all admirable that the furthest part of the World should be so neere to their industry And that you at last may bee acquainted with Iapon wee will borrow of them to pay your hopes by this long introduction suspended Maffaeus who hath translated and set forth more then thirty of those Iaponian Epistles in the twelfth Booke of his Indian History doth thus describe it Besides other lesse three principall Ilands beare the name of Iapon which the first and greatest more particularly challengeth and contayneth in it three and fifty Kingdomes or Principalities the chiefe City whereof is Meaco The second is Ximum diuided into nine Signiories The third Xicoc quartered into foure Lordships so that there are in all of this Iaponian Dominion three score and sixe Shires or pettie Kingdomes The space of Land is measured two hundred leagues in length in bredth some-where ten in other places thirtie betweene the thirty and thirtie eight degrees of Latitude Eastward from China Our Countrey-man William Adams which now liues there and hath done these many yeeres and therefore hath better meanes to know the truth placeth it from the 35. to the 48. degree of Northerly latitude the length East and by North and West and by South for so it lyeth is two hundred and twenty English leagues that way and South and North two hundred and three score leagues almost
but a Bay and vncertaine what that of Hudson is the most of which is discouered impassible Yet Hopes are not quite extinct we must expect Gods pleasure and future Discoueries for this passage It seemes that most of all those Seas in the North parts beyond New-found-land are intermixed with Ilands a Maze and Labyrinth to the Discouerer In this Voyage and Bay they saw many of those fishes called Sea-Vnicornes such as wee haue mentioned in Sir Martin Frobishers Nauigation some of which fishes are twelue or sixteene foot long the horne seeming to hold the proportion of two thirds in length to their bodies and of these it seemes are those in Venice and other places reserued as great Iewels Greater Iewels are those Merchants and Mariners which to the glory of our Nation spare no cost and feare no danger in these their attempts Resolute gallant glorious attempts which thus seeke to tame Nature where she is most vnbridled in those Northeasterly Northwesterly Northerly Borders where she shewes her selfe al Borderer indeed and to subdue her to that gouernment and subiection which God ouer all blessed for euer hath imposed on all sensible creatures to the nature of Man resembling in one Image and abridgment both God and the World consisting of a spirituall and bodily visible and inuisible subsistence How shall I admire your Heroike courage yee Marine Worthies beyond all names of worthinesse that neyther dread so long eyther presence or absence of the Sunne nor those foggie mysts tempestuous winds cold blasts Snowes and Haile in the Ayre nor the vnequall Seas which might amaze the hearer and amate the beholder where the Tritons and Neptunes selfe would quake with chilling feare to behold such monstrous Icie Ilands renting themselues with terrour of their owne massines and disdayning otherwise both the Seas souereigntie and the Suns hottest violence mustering themselues in those watery Plaines where they hold a continual ciuill warre and rushing one vpon another make windes and waues giue backe seeming to rent the eares of others whiles they rent themselues with crashing and splitting their congealed Armours nor the riggid ragged face of the broken Lands sometimes towring themselues in a lofty height to see if they can find refuge from those snowes and colds that continuall beate them somtimes hiding themselues vnder some hollow Hilles or Cliffes sometimes sinking and shrinking into Valleyes looking pale with snowes and falling in frozen and dead swounds sometimes breaking their necks into the Sea rather imbracing the waters then the Ayres cruelty and otherwhile with horrible Earthquakes in heat of indignation shaking asunder to shake off this cold and heauy yoke Great God to whom all names of greatnesse are little and lesse then nothing let me in silence admire and worship thy greatnesse are little and lesse then nothing let mee in silence admire and worship thy greatnesse that in this little Heart of man not able to serue a Kite for a a breake-fast hast placed such greatnesse of spirit as the World is too little to fill only Thy selfe the Prototype and Samplar of this Modell canst with thine owne selfe becomming all in all vnto vs fill and more then satisfie Thee I beseech to prosper in this and like attempts this Nation of ours that as in greater light then to Others thou hast giuen vs thy Sonne so with him thou wilt giue all things euen this among other blessings that thy Virgin Truth by Virginian Plantation or Northerly Discouery may triumph in her conquests of Indian infidelity maugre the brags of that Adulteresse that vaunteth her selfe to be the only Darling of God and Nature CHAP. IIII. Of Newfoundland Noua Francia Arambec and other Countries of America extending to Virginia §. I. English Discoueries and Plantations in Newfoundland LEauing those vnknowne and frozen Lands and Seas although there is yet knowne no frozen Sea otherwise then as you haue heard let vs draw somwhat neerer the Sunne gently marching as the situation of Regions shall direct vs lest if we should suddenly leape from one extremitie to another wee should rather exchange then auoid danger And here we haue by Land Saguenay and many Countries of Canada which the French haue stiled by a new name of New France and by the Sea the Ilands many in number and much frequented for their plenty of fish commonly called Newfoundland which name some ascribe to an I le others to diuers Ilands and broken Lands which the French call Bacalos vpon the gulfe and entrance of the great Riuer called Saint Lawrence in Canada This Riuer some call the Strait of the three Brethren some Saint Lawrence and others Canada It farre exceedeth any Riuer of the elder World It beginneth sayth Iaques Cartier beyond the Iland of Assumption ouer against the high Mountaynes of Honbuedo and of the seuen Ilands The distance from one side to the other is about fiue and thirtie or forty leagues In the middest it is about two hundred fathome deepe There are great store of Whales and Sea-horses From the entrance vp to Hochelaga is three hundred leagues Many Ilands are before it offering of their good nature to be mediators betweene this haughty streame and the angry Ocean many others all alongst his passage he holdeth in his louing vnlouely lap washing and hugging them with his ruder imbracings The former are vsually frequented and were first discouered by the English the other by the French Of Sebastian Cabot his proceeding this way is spoken already Robert Thorne in a Treatise of his before mentioned affirmeth that his Father and one Master Eliot were the Discouerers of the Newfoundland and exhorted King Henry to vndertake the search of the Indies by the Pole which he held to be nauigable Vpon this motion 1527. the King sent two ships as Hall and Grafton mention in their Chronicles one of which ships was cast away about the North parts of Newfoundland the other shaping her course towards Cape Briton and the Coasts of Arambec or as some call it Norumbega returned home Iohn Rut wrote a Discourse hereof to the Honourable Kings Grace of England that I may borrow his owne words wherein he declareth their coasting and the height of some places as Cape Bas in 52. degrees and 25. leagues thence Cape Ras c. They found there eleuen Sayle of Normans one Briton and two Portugall Barkes fishing Albertus de Prate another of them wrote another Iournall to Cardinall Wolsey More tragicall was the successe of Master Hores company which set our nine yeeres after in this Discouery but by famine were brought to such extremities that many of the company were murthered and eaten by their fellowes And those which returned were so altered that Sir William Buts a Norfolke Knight and his Lady knew not their Sonne Master Thomas Buts one of this starued number but by a secret marke namely a War◠which Nature had sealed on one of his knees The commod ties
againe hath gotten the Ilands all along the Coast which hee guardeth and keepeth with his watery Garrisons Virginia betwixt those two sowre-faced Suters is almost distracted and easily would giue entertainment to English loue and accept a New Britan appellation if her husband be but furnished out at first in sorts and sutes befitting her Marriage solemnitie all which her rich dowrie would mayntaine for euer after with aduantage And well may England court her rather then any other Europaean louers in regard of his long continued amity and first Discouerie of her Lands and Seas this by Sebastian Cabot with his English Mariners a hundred and fifteene yeeres since and the other by Sir Walter Raleighs charge and direction Anno Dom. 1584. Then first of all Christians did Master Philips Amadas and Master Arthur Barlow take possession in Queene Elizabeths name The next yeere that mirrour of Resolution Sir Richard Greenuile conuayed thither an English Colony which he there left for Plantation vnder the gouernment of Master Ralph Lane which there continued vntill the eighteenth of Iune in the yeere following and then vpon some vrgent occasions returned with Sir Francis Drake into England Yet had they stayed but a little longer a ship of Sir Walter Raleighs had supplyed their necessities and soone after Sir Richard againe repaired thither with three ships and then also left fifteene men more to keepe possession In the yeere 1587 a second Colonie were sent vnder the gouernment of Master Iohn White To their succour Sir Walter Raleigh hath sent fiue seuerall times the last by Samuel Mace of Weymouth in March one thousand sixe hundred and two but he and the former performed nothing but returned with friuolous allegations The same yeere Captaine Bartholmew Gosnold and Captaine Gilbert discouered the North parts of Virginia of which Voyage Iohn Brereton hath written a Treatise In the yeere 1603. the Bristow men by leaue of Sir Walter Raleigh set forth a Voyage thither in 43. degrees In this Expedition was Robert Salterne which had beene the yeere before with Captaine Gosnold They discouered Whitson-bay so they termed it in one and forty degrees twenty fiue minutes The people vsed Snakes skins of which some were six foot long for Girdles they were exceedingly rauished with the Musicke of a Gitterneboy dancing in a ring about him they more feared two English Mastiues then twentie men They had such Boats as before are mentioned seuenteene foot long foure broad of Birchbarke sowed with Osyers the seames couered with Rozen almost as sweet as Frankincense carrying nine men standing vpright and yet not weighing aboue threescore pound They brought one of them to Bristoll This yeere Captaine Gilbert set forth againe for Virginia at Meuis they laded twenty tuns of Lignum vitae hee had foure more were slaine by the Sauages And in the yeere 1605. Captaine George Weymouth made thither a prosperous Voyage and discouered threescore miles vp a most excellent Riuer His Voyage was set forth in print by Iames Rosier After this followed the plantation by the present Aduenturers for the foundation of a New Britan Common-wealth and the East and West parts of England ioyned in one purpose of a two-fold Plantation in the North and South parts of Virginia Of the North parts our Method requires first mention Mawooshen was many yeeres together visited by our men extending betweene 43. and 45. degrees 40. leagues in bredth and 50. in length They found therein nine Riuers Quibiquesson Pemaquid Ramassoc Apanawapaske Apaumensele Aponeg Sagadahoc Ashamahaga Shawokotoc Sagadahoc is in 43. degrees it is a mile and halfe at the mouth holding the same bredth a dayes iourney and then makes a sound three dayes iourney broad in which are sixe Ilands it hath two branches the one from the Northeast 24. dayes iourney the other North-west 30. dayes iourney At the heads are two Lakes the Westermost 8. dayes iourney long and foure wide the Eastermost halfe so large This is Bashabaes his dominion The Tarentines country is in 44. deg. two third parts where the Sauages tell of a Rock of Allum neere the Riuer of Sasnowa Captain T. Hanham Thomas Hanham sayled to the Riuer of Sagadahoc 1606. He relateth of their beasts doggs like wolues of colours blacke white red grisled red Deere and a beast bigger called the Mus c. of their fowles fishes trees of some Oare proued to be siluer Bashabes hath many vnder-Captaines called Sagamos their houses built with Wit hs and couered ouer with Mats sixe or seuen paces long He expresseth also the names of their twelue Moones or moneths as Ianuary Mussekeshos February Gignokiakeshos c. An. 1607. was settled a Plantation in the Riuer Sagadahoc the ships called the Gift and the Mary and Iohn being sent thither by that famous English Iusticer Sir Iohn Popham and others They found this coast of Virginia full of Ilands but safe They chose the place of their Plantation at the mouth of Sagadahoc in a Westerly Peninsula these heard a Sermon read their Patent and Lawes and built a Fort. They sailed vp to discouer the Riuer and Countrey and encountred with an Iland where where was a great fall of water ouer which they haled their Boat with a Rope and came to another fall shallow swift and vnpassable They found the Countrey stored with Grapes white and red good Hops Onions Garlicke Okes Walnuts the soile good The head of the Riuer is in forty fiue and odde minutes Cape Sinieamis in 43. deg. 30. min.. a good place to fortifie Their Fort bare name of Saint George Fortie fiue remained there Captaine George Popham being President Raleigh Gilbert Admirall The people seemed affected with our mens deuotions and would say King IAMES is a good King his God a good God and Tanto naught So they call an euill spirit which haunts them euery Moone and makes them worship him for feare Hee commanded them not to dwell neere or come among the English threatning to kill some and inflict sicknesse on others beginning with two of their Sagamos children saying he had power and would doe the like to the English the next Moone to wit in December The peple told our men of Canibals neere Sagadahoc with teeth three inches long but they saw them not In the Riuer of Tamescot they found Oysters nine inches in length and were told that on the other side there were twice as great On the 18. of Ianuary they had in seuen houres space thunder lightning raine frost snow all in aboundance the last continuing On February the 5. the President died The Sauages remoue their dwellings in Winter neerest the Deere They haue a kinde of shooes a yard long fourteene inches broad made like a Racket with strong twine or sinewes of a Deere in the mids is a hole wherein they put their foot buckling it fast When a Sagamos dyeth they blacke themselues and at the same time yerely
renue their mourning with great howling as they then did for Kashurakeny who died the yeere before They report that the Canibals haue a Sea behinde them They found a Bath two miles about so hote that they could not drinke it Master Patteson was slaine by the Sauages of Nanhoc a Riuer of the Tarentines Their short Commons caused feare of mutiny One of the Sauages called Aminquin for a straw hat and knife giuen him stript himselfe of his cloathing to Beuers skinnes worth in England 50. shillings or three pound to present them to the President leauing onely a flap to couer his priuities He would also haue come with them for England In winter they are poore and weake and do not then company with their wiues but in Summer when they are fat and lusty But your eyes wearied with this Northerne view which in that Winter communicated with vs in extremitie of cold looke now for greater hopes in the Southerne Plantation as the right arme of his Virginian body with greater costs and numbers furnished from hence But first let me tell you that by some lately these Northerne Parts are stiled by the Name of new-New-England as being supposed in the same Latitude with Noua Albion on the South Sea discouered by Sir Francis Drake hauing New France on the North and the Southern Plantation of Virginia on the South New Spaine New Granado New Andalusia being in the same Continent A Map and Discouerie hereof was set forth this last yeere by Captaine Iohn Smith with new English Names exchanged for the Saluage It lyeth betwixt 41. degrees and 45. minutes The harsh Names of the habitations of those parts I forbeare to recite the commodities are expressed by that Author First for fish let not any thinke this contemptible when by his report the Hollanders reape from three kinds Herring Cod and Ling fifteene hundred thousand pound yeerely herevpon principally founding their greatnesse by Sea and Land In March Aprill May and halfe Iune here is Cod in abundance in May Iune Iuly and August Mullet and Sturgeon whose Roes doe make Caularie and Puttargo Their store of Herrings they compare to the haires of their heads In the end of August September October and Nouember you haue Cod againe to make Corfish or Poore-Iohnt wice as good as in New-found-land where their fishing also is chiefely but in Iune and Iuly Mullets are here taken by Nets which at Cape Blanke are hooked and twice as large He addes store of Red-berries called Alkermes Muske-Rats Beuers Otters Martins Blacke Foxes probabilities of Mines and manifold commodities of the soile the particulars whereof I referre to the booke it selfe together with the arguments for a Plantation there There also you may reade his Obseruations and Discoueries Anno 1614. with the successe of sixe ships that went the next yeere and his disasters by French Pirats and English perfidie This present yeere 1616. eight voluntarie ships went thither to make further tryall and hereafter we hope to haue English Colonies renued in this Northerly Plantation newly called New-England §. II. Of the Southerne Plantation and Colonies and many causes alledged of the ill successe thereof at the first CAptaine Bartholomew Gosnold hauing long sollicited many of his friends at last preuailed with some Gentlemen as Master Edward Maria Wingfield Captaine Iohn Smith and diuers others with the helpe of some Noblemen and Merchants his Maiestie granting Commission for establishing Councels to direct here and to gouerne and execute there so that December 19. 1606. they set saile and after long contending with contrarie windes and the windy inconstancie of some of the company that would haue returned for England before they had saluted their desired Port they were by a storme forced into the same vnexpected where after some harme by assault of the Sauages on the 13. of May Master Wingfield was chosen President their fort contriued and the fals soone after discouered Sixe weekes being thus spent Captaine Newport returned with the ships and Captaine Smith before held in much iealousie was by the paines of Mr Hunt the Preacher reconciled and admitted of the Councell a hundred being left there for the Plantation Within ten dayes after the departure of this moueable Tauerne as they called it a more sauage enemy then the Sauages had assaulted them and scarcely ten left vntouched with sicknesse through want of conuenient lodging and diet of which from May to September fifty dyed Wingfield was deposed and Ratcliffe established in his place and by the industrie of Smith Iames Towne was builded the Sauages supplying their necessities they failing Captaine Smith sought trade abroad others at home intending a returne in the Pinace for England by his vnexpected returning were forced to stay or sinke which action cost the life of Captaine Kendall Soone after the like plot of the President and Captaine Archer was discouered and by him againe suppressed The Winter approaching the Riuers afforded them plenty of Cranes Swannes Geese Ducks with which and Pease wilde Beasts and other land-commodities they dayly feasted But in the discouerie of Chickahamine Riuer George Casson was surprised and Smith with two others were beset with two hundred Sauages his men slaine and himselfe in a quagmire taken prisoner but after a moneth he procured himselfe not onely libertie but great admiration amongst them and returning once more stayed the Pinace from flight and the Fort from being abandoned The Treasurer and Councell meane-while carefull to supply their wants sent two ships with neere a hundred men Capt. Newport arriued safely Captaine Nelson with the other ship by force of windes was driuen to shift as hee could elsewhere Now the Sauages enchanted by Smiths relations of God Nature and Art were in manner at his command till the ambition of some by giuing foure times as much for their commodities as he appointed seeking to seeme of so much greater magnificence and authoritie made them prize their commodities dearer Newport whom Smith had called father and extolled with Powhatan the Emperour went with solemnitie to visit him sending Smith before who after his manner of State gaue him royall entertainment sitting vpon his bed of Mats his pillow of leather embroidered with pearle and white beads attired with a robe of skins large as an Irish mantle at his head and feet sate a handsome yong woman on each side his house twenty others their heads and shoulders painted red with a great chaine of white beades about their necks before those sate his chiefest men in like order in his Arbor-like house Newport gaue him a boy for whom Powhatan gaue him Namontacke his seruant which was after brought into England Powhatan wittily cheated our men and offering so much corne as they gaue copper said he could eate that not this Their gettings in this voyage other commodities and their townes were casually consumed by fire and the ship staying fourteene weekes spent most of that prouision for the reliefe of the
vse to paint themselues and their children he is the most gallant which is most monstrous Their women imbroder their legges hands c. with diuers workes as of Serpents and such like with blacke spots in the flesh Their houses are made of small Poles made fast at the top in round forme as is vsed in many Arbours with vs couered with Barkes or Mats twice as long as they are broad They are exact Archers and will with Arrowes kill Birds flying Fishes swimming Beasts running one of ours by them hath beene shot thorow the body and both his armes thereby fastened and pierced They speake of men two hundred yeeres old and more as Master Wingfield reporteth Their Bowes are of tough Hasill the strings of Leather Arrowes of Canes or Hasill headed with stones or hornes and artificially feathered They are heartlesse if they see defence to frustrate their Arrowes §. IIII. Of the present estate of Virginia and the English there residing THe last of May 1616. Sir Thomas Dale that worthy Commander and best establisher of the Virginian Plantation came from thence into England to procure and further the common good partly by conference with Him and chiefly by a Tractate and Relations of Master Rolph the Husband of Pokahuntas which came ouer with him I haue learned what here I deliuer you The English doe now finde this Countrey so correspondent to their constitutions that it is more rare to heare of a mans death in Virginia then in that proportion of people in England That Aristocraticall Gouernment by a President and Councell is long since remooued and those hatefull effects thereof together Order and diligence haue repayred what confusion and idlenesse had distempered The men haue beene employed in Palazading and building of Townes impaling grounds to keepe their Cattle from ranging and to preserue their Corne and a Peace concluded betwixt the English and Indians For howsoeuer they could well before defend themselues and their Townes from them yet not easily their Corne and Cattle This peace hath yeelded many benefits both opportunity of lawfull purchase of a great part of the Country from the Natiues freely and willingly relinquishing and selling the same for Copper or other Commodities a thing of no small consequence to the conscience where the milde Law of Nature not that violent Law of Armes layes the foundation of their possession and quiet enioying thereof yeerely planting and reaping without impediment . fowling hunting fishing trauelling as securely as in England Plenty and Health attending their Peace and Industry They haue Indian Wheate called Mays Pease and Beanes and other the naturall Commodities English Wheate Pease Barley Turneps Cabbages Carrots Parsneps Herbes and Flowres for pleasure and vse with other things as good as the best made English ground can yeeld And that you may know what two mens labours with Spade and Shouell onely can manure in one yeere they refused fifty pounds offered for their Crop Hempe Flaxe Tobacco which with a little better experience in the curing would be as good as any in America Fish Fowle Deere and other Beasts I need not mention Sir Thomas Dale whose Prudence Fortitude Temperance Iustice in the well ordering and gouerning the English Virginian affaires I cannot sufficiently honour obserued two seasons for the taking of Fish the Spring and the Fall himselfe taking no small paines in the triall at one hale with a Saint he caught fiue thousand three hundred of which were as bigge as Cod the least of the residue a kind of Salmon Trowt two foot long Yet durst he not aduenture on the maine Skul for breaking his Net Likewise two men with Axes and such like weapons haue taken and killed neere the shore and brought home forty as great as Cod in two or three houres space And whereas heretofore wee were constrayned yeerely to buy Corne of the Indians which brought vs into base esteeme with them now they seeke to vs come to our Townes sell the skins from their shoulders which are their best garments to buy Corne Yea some of their petty Kings haue this last yeere borrowed foure or fiue hundred bushels of Wheat for payment whereof this Haruest they haue Mortgaged their whole Countries some of them not much lesse in quantitie then a whole Shire in England So that Famine the quondam deuourer of our Nation is famished and in it selfe deuoured The places inhabited by the English are six Henrico and the limits Bermuda Nether Hundred West and Sherley Hundred Iames Towne Kequoughton Dales Gift The inhabitants are Officers Labourers Farmers The first haue charge and care ouer both the latter watching and warding for their preseruations in the due execution of their employments and businesse These are bound to maintaine themselues and their families with food and raiment by the industrie of them and theirs The Labourers are of two sorts some employed onely in the generall workes fed and cloathed out of the store Others are speciall Artificers as Smiths Shoomakers Carpenters Tailors Tanners c. which worke in their professions to the Colony and maintaine themselues with food and apparell hauing time limited them to till and manure the ground The Farmers liue at most ease yet by their good endeuours bring much plenty to the Plantation They are bound by Couenant both for themselues and their seruants to maintaine his Maiesties right and title in that kingdome to watch ward in the townes where they are resident to doe one and thirtie dayes seruice for the Colony when they shall be called thereunto to maintaine themselues and theirs with food and raiment to pay yeerely for themselues and each man-seruant two Barrels and a halfe a piece of their best Indian wheat this amounts to twelue bushels a halfe English measure that no Farmer nor other shall plant Tobacco knowne to be a vendible commoditie except he yeerely manure for himselfe and euery man-seruant two acres of ground with corne and then to plant as much as they please Also the Company haue already sent a ship to Virginia with prouision of cloathing houshold-stuffe and other necessaries to establish a Magazine there to be bought at easie rates in bartar and exchange for their commodities to a mutuall benefit of both parts I cannot heere omit the Christian care of his Maiestie worthy the Defender of the Faith in prouiding charitable collections and contributions in England for the erecting and maintaining of a Colledge in Virginia to be a Seminarie and Schoole of education to the Natiues in the knowledge and perfection of our Religion which I beseech Almightie God to prosper with answerable successe They haue likewise brought thence children of both sexes here to be taught our language and letters which may proue profitable instruments in this designe As for the English there now residing likely to bee much encreased by good supplyes now in sending at Henrico and in the Precincts which is seated on the North side the
widest and to vomit out betweene these cleauing morsels into the Oceans lap so many streames and so farre is it from the Northerne and Southerne extremes three hundred miles distant The Inhabitants on the Northerne branches are the Tiuitiuas a goodly and valiant people which haue the most manly speech and most deliberate saith Sir Walter that euer I heard of what Nation so euer In the Summer they haue houses on the ground as in other places In the Winter they dwell vpon the trees where they build very artificiall Townes and Villages for betweene May and September the Riuer of Orenoque riseth thirtie foot vpright and then are those Ilands ouerflowne twenty foot high except in some few raised grounds in the middle This waterie store when the clouds are so prodigall of more then the Riuers store-house can hold whereby they become violent intruders and incrochers vpon the Land and not the violence of cold giueth this time the Title of Winter These Tiuitiuas neuer eate of any thing that is set or sowne Natures nurslings that neither at home nor abroad will be beholden to the Arte or Labour of Husbandry They vse the tops of Palmitos for bread and kill Deere Fish and Porke for the rest of their sustenance They which dwell vpon the branches of Orenoque called Capuri and Macureo are for the most part Carpenters of Canoas which they sell into Guiana for gold and into Trinidado for Tobacco in the excessiue taking whereof they exceed all Nations When a Commander dieth they vse great lamentation and when they thinke the flesh of their bodies is putrified and fallen from the bones they take vp the carkasse againe and hang it vp in the house where he had dwelt decking his skull with feathers of all colours and hanging his gold-plates about the bones of his arms thighs and legs The Arwacas which dwell on the South of Orenoque beat the bones of their Lords into powder which their wiues and friends drinke As they passed along these streames their eyes were entertained with a Pageant of Shewes wherein Nature was the onely Actor here the Deere came downe feeding by the waters side as if they had desired acquaintance with these new-come guests there the Birds in vnspeakeable varietie of kinds and colours rendering their seruice to the eye and eare the Lands either in large plaines of many miles bearing their beautifull bosomes adorned with Floraes embroidery of vnknown Flowres and Plants and prostrating themselues to the eye that they might be seene or else lifting vp thēselues in Hils knitting their furrowed brows and strouting out their goggle eyes to watch their treasure which they keepe imprisoned in their stony walls and now to see these strangers the Waters as the Graces dancing with mutuall and manifold embracings of diuers streames attended with plenty of Fowle and Fish both Land and Water feasting varietie of senses with varietie of obiects onely the Crocodile a creature which seemeth Vassall now to the land now to the Water but to make prey on both wel-nigh marred the Play and turned this Comedie into a Tragedie euen in their sight feasting himselfe with a Negro of their company One leuell passed hence to Cumana an hundred and twenty leagues to the North wherein dwell the Sayma the Assawai the Wikiri and the Aroras a people as blacke as Negros but with smooth haire Their poisoned Arrowes like cruell Executioners doe not onely kill but with vncouth torments make death to be as the last so the least of their fury especially if men drinke after they are wounded At the Port of Morequito they anchored and the King being an hundred and ten yeeres old came afoot fourteene miles to see them and returned the same day They brought them store of fruits and a sort of Paraquitos no bigger then Wrens and an Armadilla which seemeth to be all barred ouer with small plates somewhat like to a Rhinoceros with a white horne growing in his hinder-parts as big as a great hunting horne which they vse to winde in stead of a Trumpet They after eate this beast Monardus saith it is in bignesse and snout like a Pigge liues vnder the earth as a Moule and is thought to liue on earth They passed further till they came in sight of those strange ouer-fals of Caroli of which there appeared ten or twelue in sight euery one as high ouer the other as a Church-Tower They had sight at Winicapora of a Mountaine of Cristall which appeared a farre off like a white Church-Tower of an exceeding height There falleth ouer it a mighty Riuer which toucheth no part of the side of the Mountain but rushing ouer the top falleth to the ground with so terrible noise as if a thousand great bels were knocked one against another No maruell of these roaring out-cries if we consider that double penalty of Sense and Losse which this Riuer seemeth to sustaine the one in that dreadfull downfall bruising and breaking his vnited streames into drops and making it foming and senselesse with this falling-sicknesse the other in leauing behinde his Cristall purchase further enriched with Diamonds and other Iewels which euen now hee embraced in his waterie armes but himselfe such is the course and curse of couetousnesse will not suffer himselfe to enioy Now for the Monsters of Men there are said to be not seene by our men but reported by the Sauages and other an Amazonian Nation further South which Gomara thinkes to bee but the wiues of some Indians a thing common as you haue euen now read shooting and following the warres no lesse then their husbands Once about Iucatan about Plata about the Riuer called of this supposition Amazones about Monomotapa in Africa our Age hath told but no man hath seene this Vnimammian Nation Yet here they speake not of searing of the brest and what need they if there bee such seeing the women are so good Archers in other places their brests notwithstanding Againe they tell of men with mouthes in their brests and eyes in their shoulders called Chiparemoi and of the Guianians Ewiaponomos very strong and of others headed like Dogges which liue all the day time in the Sea These things are strange yet I dare not esteeme them fabulous onely as not too prodigall of faith I suspend till some eye-intelligence of some of our parts haue testified the truth §. II. Relations and discoueries thereof by other Englishmen FRANCIS SPARREY left in Guiana by Sir W. Raleigh 1595. hath also written of these parts He relateth of a place called Comalaha Southwards from Orenoque where at certain times they sell women as at a faire He saith he bought eight the eldest of which was not eighteene for a Red-hafted Knife which in England cost a halfe-peny he gaue them to the Sauages Hee was afterwards sent Prisoner into Spaine Anno 1604. Captaine Charles Leigh set saile from Woolwich on the one and twentieth of March for Guiana May 10. he came
they are very iealous and if they take them in Adulterie cause their braines to be beaten out Their wiues especially the elder are as their seruants and he which hath most is the greatest man Their account of time is by Moones or dayes their numbring is to ten and then say ten and one c. They also keepe accounts by bundles of stickes contayning so many as dayes are agreed on of which they take away euery day one They haue a certaine obseruance of the Sunne and Moone supposing them to be aliue but as farre as he could perceiue vsed neither Sacrifice nor adoration to any thing At the death of any great man they make a solemne Feast their chiefest prouision being their strongest drinke called Parranow and as long as this drinke lasteth they continue their Feast with dancing singing and excessiue drinking accounting the greatest Drunkard the brauest man during which drunken solemnitie some woman being neerest of kinne to the dead partie stands by and cries extremely Their Priests or South-sayers he cals them Pecaios haue conference with the Deuill whom they terme Wattipa but feare him much and say hee is naught hee will often beate them blacke and blue They beleeue that the good Indians when they die goe to Caupo or Heauen the bad to Soy downwards When a chiefe man dies if hee haue a Captiue they slay him if not then one of his seruants to attend him the other world The qualitie of the Land is diues by the Sea-side low and would be violently hot if a fresh Easterly breeze did not coole it with a vehement breath in the heate of the day the Mountaines are colder the middle sort most temperate Profit may here take pleasure neither need pleasure abandon profit The particulars are by this and other our Authors related I hunt after Rarities to present you Such is the fish Cassoorwa which hath in each eye two sights and as it swimmeth it beares the lower sights within the water and the other aboue the ribs and backe resemble those parts in a man saue that it is little bigger but much daintier then a Smelt Besides the Pockiero or small Swine with the Nauill in the backe is another called Paingo as large as ours in England The Sea-cow or Manatin eates like Beefe and will take Salt and serue to victuall ships it yeelds also an excellent Oyle and the hide will make Buffe There are infinite store of them The Pina for delicacie exceedeth a fruit tasting like Strawberries Claret-wine and Sugar What commoditie Tobacco and Sugars in those parts may yeeld is incredible especially in this smokie humour of the one sexe and that daintier of the other Their Dies Gummes and other commodities I omit Of Gold and other Metals they haue good testimonie The Marashawaccas are a Nation of Charibes vp high within Land hauing great eares beyond credit they haue an Idoll of stone which they worship as their God in a house erected purposely to it which they keepe verie cleane It is fashioned like a man sitting vpon his heeles holding open his knees and resting his elbowes vpon them holding vp his hands with the palmes forwards and gaping with his mouth wide open Captaine Michael Harcourt was left Commander of the Countrie for his Brother who continued the possession three yeeres in all which space of thirtie persons died but sixe and some of them by casualtie Amongst the East Indian Plants is mentioned one called Sentida the like they found here much like vnto Rose trees about halfe a yard high which if they were touched or a leafe cut from them would presently shrinke and close vp themselues and hang as they were dead and withered within halfe a quarter of an houre by degrees againe opening Areminta the Cacique of Moreshegoro had a rough skin like to Buffe-leather of which kind there be many in those parts They returned by Cape Brea which is so called of the Pitch there gotten in the Earth whereof there is such abundance that all places of this our World may be stored thence it is excellent for trimming of shippes for those hote Countries not melting in the Sunne §. III. Relations of these and the adioyning Countries by the Spaniards IT were a hard taske to muster all that World of Riuers and names of Nations in the parts neere Guiana which they that will may finde in Sir Walter and Master Keymis and Master Harcourt their owne Relations As for Guiana this Sir Walter hath written It is directly East from Peru towards the Sea and lyeth vnder the Aequinoctiall it hath more abundance of Gold then any part of Peru and as many or moe great Cities It hath the same Lawes Gouernment and Religion and Manoa the Imperiall Citie of Guiana which some Spaniards haue seene and they call it El Dorado for the greatnesse riches and situation farre exceedeth any of the World at least so much of it as the Spaniards know It is founded vpon a Lake of Salt-water two hundred leagues long like vnto the Caspian Sea The Emperour of Guiana is descended from the Ingas the magnificent Princes of Peru For when Francis Pizarro had conquered Peru and slaine Atabalipa the King one of his younger brethren fled from thence and took with him many thousands of those Souldiers of the Empire called Oreiones with whom and other his followers he vanquished all that tract which is between the great Riuers of Orenoque and Amazones Diego Ordas who was one of the Captaines of Cortes in the conquest of Mexico in the yeere 1531. thus saith Gomara and that he perished at Sea others with more probability say it was a few yeeres after the conquest of Peru made search for Guiana but lost himselfe being slaine in a mutinie Before this his prouision of Powder was fired and one Iuan Martinez which had the charge thereof was therefore condemned to bee executed But at the Souldiers request his punishment was altered and hee set in a Canoa alone without victuall and so turned loose into the Riuer Certaine Guianians met him and hauing neuer seene man of that colour they carried him into the Land to be wondred at and so from Towne to Towne till hee came to the great Citie of Manoa the seat and residence of Inga the Emperour He no sooner saw him but he knew him to be a Christian for the Spaniards not long before had conquered his brother and caused him to be well entertained in his Palace Hee liued seuen moneths in Manoa but was not suffered to wander any whither into the Countrie he was also brought thither all the way blind-fold led by the Indians vntill he came at Manoa He entred the Citie at noone and trauelled all that day till night and the next from the rising till the setting of the Sunne thorow the Citie ere hee came to the Palace of Inga After seuen moneths the Emperour put him to his choise whether to stay or goe and he with the Emperours
vnto his Treasury besides the resignation of many Precincts Townes Lands Villages and Royalties at lest as much more worth to dispose of though with great grudge to the discontented Nobles whose Houses were thereby made to serue his turne in all his designes Here hath hee raysed a new treasure without diminishing any part of his old being most prepared for England But neyther his Embassadour Andrew Sauen nor Master Authenie Ienkinson did so thorowly expresse his minde being darkely and cautelously made knowne to them or else Queene Elizabeth would not apprehend the message But this secrecy notwithstanding his eldest Sonne and Fauourites tooke knowledge of it which bred such iealousie in the Emperour that he was faine to dissemble his affection and couer his purpose therein with a new Marriage at home one Feodor Nagois daughter a Subiect of his owne by whom afterwards he had a third Sonne called Demetrius He spends now his time in pacifying his discontented Nobility and people kept two Armies on foot with small charge his Princes and Nobles going most on their owne charge the Gentlemen and Sinobarskeys hauing portions of Money Corne and Land certayne Reuenewes being put a part for that purpose besides Escheats Robberies and Customes payed them whether they goe to warre or no without diminution of his Crowne Reuenew or great standing Treasure The one Army consisted most of Tartars employed against the Pole and Sweden which sought to recouer Liuonia The other Army consisted commonly of 100000. Horse most his owne Subiects some few Poles Swedens Dutch and Scots employed against the Crimme which commonly doth not last aboue three moneths May Iune and Iuly euery yeere His Tartars notwithstanding King Stephins preuayling bring away many Captiues out of Liefland the fruitfullest Land in all the East flowing with Milke and Honey the fairest women and best conditioned people in the World to conuerse and commerce with but giuen much to Luxury Idlenesse and Pleasure for which sinnes they themselues say that God hath thus plagued and rooted them out and planted Strangers in their Countrey It was my fortune by speciall fauour to buy and redeeme diuers men women and children of these Captiues for small summes of money some being Merchants of good quality and got leaue to conuay some to Liefland againe some to England some to Hamborow and Lubeck Amongst them were taken some Dutch French Scots and English which had serued vnder Pontus a French Captain who were placed about the Suburbs of the Musco by my mediation had leaue to build a Church I contributed well thereto and got them a Learned Minister their Assembly were at least two thousand euery Sunday their Rites after the Lutherane fashion Of these eighty fiue were Scots Souldiers left of seuen hundred sent from Stockholme and three English in their company I got them well housed at Boluan neere the Mosco I appeased the Emperours fury against them causing to be told him the difference of these remote Aduenturers ready to serue any Christian Prince for pay and the Natiue Swedens and that they would be of good vse against the Crimme Tartar Some vse was after made of my aduice and 1200. of them did better seruice against the Tartar then 12000. Russes with their short Bowes and Arrowes The Tartars not knowing before the vse of Pistols were strucke dead off their Horses with shot they saw not and cryed away with those new Deuils that come with their thundring puffs of fire whereat the Emperor laughed and wished for more of them and they had Pensions and Lands allowed and married with the Liuonian women increased into Families I was glad hee tooke no notice of the English which might haue yeelded him an opportune quarrell to my selfe and to the Merchants goods in his Countrey worth 100000. Markes A little before hee had sold Master Thomas Glouer a chiefe Agent for the English Company a Wife borne of a Noble House in Poland Basmanaua taken Captiue with her Sister at Pollotzca for 10000. Hungarian Duckets in Gold and yet shortly after on displeasure tooke from him 16000. pounds more in Cloth Silkes and other merchandise and sent him with his Wife empty out of his Land The Emperour expecting some returne and answer of his Letters out of England the Queene addressed one Daniel Syluester there with who arriued at Saint Nicholas past vp to Colmogro and there making Clothes for his passing vp to the Emperour whiles the Taylor was putting on him his new Sute in the English house a Thunderbolt strooke him dead piercing downe his necke and coller in the inside of his new Coat not outwardly seene A flash of Lightning killed also his Boy and Dogge by him burnt his Deske Letters and the House at that instant at which newes the Emperour much perplexed said Gods will bee done But raging and in desperate case his Enemies besetting three parts of his Countrey the Pole and Sweden Eastward and Crimme Southward King Stephen threatning also shortly to visit the Mosco He made preparation but pretending that he could no way he furnished of Powder Salt-peeter Lead and Brimstone the Narue being shut but out of England hee sent for me and told me he had a message of honour weight and secresie to employ me in to the Queenes Maiesty Perceiuing that I had attayned the familiar knowledge of his Language the Polish and Dutch Tongues be questioned me of diuers things liked my answere asked if I had seene his great Vessels at Vologda I told him I had What Traytor hath shewed them you I ventured in company of thousands more I said to behold their beauty c. He said You shall see double the number ere long but much more to bee admired if you knew what inestimable treasure they are inwardly to be beautified with It is reported that your Queene my Sister hath the best Nauy of Ships in the World It is true said I and entred into a large discourse and description of them He gaue me charge to prepare my selfe and to be silent and secret and to attend euery day till he were prepared for my dispatch he commanded his Secretary to take in writing of me a description of the Queenes Nauy Royall to which I added the Picture of a Ship with all her glorious and Martiall accoultrements About this time the Emperour was much busied in searching out a Treason against him plotted by Bomelius and the Archbishop of Nouogrod with some others discouered by their Seruants on the Racke Letters sent in Cyphers three sundry wayes to Swethen and Poland The Bishop confessed all and Bomelius denyed all But being racked his backe and body cut with wyre whips he confessed more then the Examiners were willing the Emperour should know He sent word they should roast him being taken from the Pudkie and bound to a wooden Spit which being done till they thought no life left they brought him in a Sled thorow the Castle
together may no way compare with this Countrey either for commodities or goodnesses of soyle This sparke kindled in their hearts such constancie of zeale and forwardnesse that they furnished out Sir Thomas Gates who had happily returned with the rest from Bermudas with six ships 300. men and a hundred Kine with other Cattle Munition and prouision of all sorts Sir Thomas Dale hauing newes that it was a Fleet of enemies prepared himselfe and the rest to an encounter but it ended with a common ioy in the shaking of hands and not of Pikes Lawes are now made for lawlesnesse had marred so much before for the honour of God frequenting the Church obseruation of the Sabbath reuerence to Ministers obedience to superiours mutuall loue honest labours and against Adultery Sacriledge wrong and other vices Harbengers of Gods wrath and mans destruction The Colony consisted of seuen hundred men of sundry Arts and Professions few of them sicke which hauing left the Fort at Cape Henry fortified and kept by Captaine Dauies and the keeping of Iames Towne to that Noble and wel-deseruing Gentleman Master George Perole is remoued vp the Riuer fourescore miles further beyond Iames Towne to a place of higher ground strong and defencible by nature with good Ayre plenty of Springs much faire and open grounds freed from Woods and wood enough at hand Here they burnt brickes cut downe wood and euery man fals to somewhat they haue built they say competent houses the first story all of bricke that euery man may haue his lodging and dwelling by himselfe with a sufficient quantity of ground allotted thereto Here also they were building an Hospitall with fourescore lodgings and beds already sent for the sicke and lame as the Booke called the New life of Virginia relateth Master Whitaker in his Letter and Booke from Henrico 1612. testifieth the health and welfare of the Colonie Samuel Argal in the yeere 1613. affirmed likewise that hee found the state of Virginia farre better then was reported In one Voyage they had gotten 1100. bushels of Corne they found a slow kind of Cattle as bigge as Kine which were good meate and a medicinable sort of earth They tooke Pokohuntis Powhatans dearest daughter prisoner a matter of good consequence to them of best to her by this meanes being become a Christian and married to Master Rolph an English Gentleman Thus I haue beene bold somewhat largely to relate the proceedings of this Plantation to supplant such slanders and imputations as some haue conceiued or receiued against it and to excite the diligence and industry of all men of ability to put to their helping hand in this Action so Honourable in it selfe Glorious to God in the furtherance of his Truth and beneficiall to the Common-wealth and to the priuate purses of the Aduenturers if the blooming of our hopes be not blasted with our negligence As for the want of successe hitherto Careat successibus opto Quisquis ab euentu facta notanda putet Reason should preuaile with Men leaue sense and euent of things as an argument for Beasts That reason which sheweth Virginia's more then possibilities probabilities doth also point out the causes of those ill Successes Discontents at Sea Ignorance of the Country and of their Language Diuision in the Councell Commanders some of them not skilfull Souldiers nor forward Aduenturers Care to relade the Ships before they could prouide Houses of Victuals Ambition Cruelty Neglect of the Seasons for Fish and Land-commodities Brackish slimy Water at Iames Fort Riot Sloth False information in England Sending ill People that consumed the rest with idlenesse Want of Authority to punish them That kind of Aristocraticall Authority first established occasion of their Quarrels Iniuries to and from the Saluages and yet a necessity of their vse and helpe Sicknesse caused by the grosse and vaporous Aire and soyle about Iames Towne and drinking water The theeuish trucke and exchange which some secretly held with them The treachery of Fugitiues Falshood of the Sauages and the Many many faults as they report of Mariners in priuate truckings and night marts both with our Men and Sauages Their long stay and spending the Colonies reliefe besides Extraordinary casualties of fire cold shipwracke and if wee beleeue Ouiedo and obserue the like amongst the Spaniards the very Aire of the Indies seemes to be of inclination and disposition to contentions which easily ruine and dissolue the greatest and best enterprises that I speake not of the Deuils malice to Christian hopes Experience hath now made men wiser both to preuent and remedie these euils and to order their proceedings accordingly And although Fame fils not our eares with so often and many Virginian rumors as aforetimes yet we know that still waters are deepest and wee cannot but hope that those worthy Virginian-Consuls cunctando restituunt rem rather with carefull prouidence and watchfull diligence working sure then with humerous hastinesse laying foundations to a leisurely repentance seeking more the common good there then to be the common talke heere Once they there maintayne themselues now a long time without the wonted charge to the Company and diuers of our Nobility and Gentry doe now as after a long slumber while we are writing these things againe bethinke them of this Virginian Plantation whereunto the profitable Neighbour-hood of the Summer Iles or Bermudas may be good furtherance God Almighty prosper both that the Word may goe out of Bermuda and the Law of the Lord from Virginia to a truer conuersion of the American World then hitherto Our Humorists or Spanish insolencies haue intended §. III. Of the Soyle People Beasts Commodities and other Obseruations of Virginia FOr the description of the Countrey Master Hakluyt from Others Relations in his third Volume of Voyages hath written largely of those parts discouered for Sir Walter Raleigh Concerning the later Captaine Iohn Smith partly by word of mouth partly by his Map thereof in print and more fully by a Manuscript which hee courteously communicated to mee hath acquainted mee with that whereof himselfe with great perill and paine had beene the Discouerer being in his discoueries taken Prisoner as is before said and escaping their fury yea receiuing much honour and admiration amongst them by reason of his Discourses to them of the motion of the Sunne of the parts of the World of the Sea c. which was occasioned by a Diall then found about him They carried him Prisoner to Powhatan and there beganne the English acquaintance with that sauage Emperour The summe of his obseruation in that and other Discoueries since concerning the Countrey is this Virginia is situate betweene 34. and 44. degrees of Northerly latitude the bounds whereof on the East side are the great Ocean Florida on the South on the North Noua Francia the Westerne limits are vnknowne But that part which began to bee planted by the English Southerne Colony in the yeere 1606. is vnder the degrees 37.
38. and 39. The temperature agreeth with English bodies not by other meanes distempered The Summer is hot as in Spaine the Winter cold as in France and England certaine coole Brizes doe asswage the vehemency of the heate The great Frost in the yeere 1607. reached to Virginia but was recompenced with as milde a Winter with them the next yeere And the Winter Anno 1615. was as cold and frosty one fortnight as that There is but one entrance by Sea into this Country and that at the mouth of a very goodly Bay The Capes on both sides were honoured with the names of our Britanian hopes Prince Henry and Duke Charles The water floweth in this Bay neere two hundred miles and hath a channell for a hundred and forty miles of depth betwixt seuen and fifteene fathome of breadth ten or fourteene miles At the head of the Bay the Land is Mountaynous and so runneth by a Southwest Line from which Mountaynes proceed certaine Brooks which after come to fiue principall Nauigable Riuers The Mountaynes are of diuers composition some like Mil-stones some of Marble many pieces of Chrystall they found throwne downe by the waters which also wash from the Rockes such glistering Tinctures that the ground in some places seemeth gilded The colour of the earth in diuers places resembleth Bole-Armoniac terra sigillata and other such apparances but generally is a blacke sandy molde The Riuer next to the mouth of the Bay is Powhatan the mouth whereof is neere three miles broad it is Nauigable an hundred miles falls rocks shoalds prohibite further Nauigation hence Powhatan their greatest King hath his Title In a Peninsula on the Northside thereof is situate Iames Towne The people inhabiting which haue their Weroances are the Kecoughtans which haue not past twenty fighting men The Paspaheghes haue forty Chichahamania two hundred The Weanocks an hundred The Arrowhatocks thirty The Place called Powhatan forty The Appamatusks threescore The Quiyonghcohanocks fiue and twenty The Warraikoyacks forty The Naudsamunds two hundred The Chesapeacks an hundred The Chickahamanians are not gouerned by a Weroance but by the Priests No place affordeth more Sturgeon in Summer of which at one draught haue beene taken threescore and eight nor in Winter more Fowle Fourteene miles from Powhatan is the Riuer Pamaunke nauigable with greater Vessels not aboue threescore and ten miles Toppahanok is nauigable an hundred and thirty miles Patawomeke an hundred and twenty To speake of Powtuxunt Bolus and other Riuers on the East side of the Bay likewise of diuers places which receiued name by some accident as Fetherstones Bay so called of the death of one of ours there happening and the like or to mention the numbers which euery people can make would exceed our scope and the Readers patience Captaine Smiths Map may somewhat satisfie the desirous and his Booke now printed further This the Captaine saith that hee hath beene in many places of Asia and Europe in some of Africa and America but of all holds Virginia by the naturall endowments the fittest place for an earthly Paradise Alexander Whitaker the Preacher at Henrico writes that at the mouth of Powhatan are the Forts of Henrico and Charles two and forty miles vpward is Iames Towne and threescore and ten miles beyond that the new Towne of Henrico ten miles higher the fals where the Riuer falleth downe betweene many minerall Rockes twelue miles beyond a Chrystall Rocke wherewith the Indians head their Arrowes three dayes iourney from thence is a Rocke or Hill found couered ouer with a rich siluer Ore Our men that went to discouer those parts had but two Iron Pickaxes with them and those so ill tempered that the points turned againe at euery stroke but tryall was made of the Ore with argument of much hope Sixe dayes iourney beyond this Mine runs a ridge of Hils beyond which the Indians report is a great Sea which if it bee true is the South Sea At Henrico they are exceeding healthfull and more then in England Master Thomas Hariot hath largely described the Commodities which the Water and Earth yeeld set forth also in Latine with exquisite Pictures by Theodore de Bry besides the relations of Brereton and Rosier and others There is a Grasse which yeeldeth silke beside store of Silke-wormes Hempe and Flaxe surpassing ours in growth and goodnesse exceeded by a new found stuffe of a certaine sedge or water-flagge which groweth infinitely and with little paines of boyling yeeldeth great quantitie of sundry sorts of Skeines of good strength and length some like silke and some like Flaxe and some a courser sort as Hempe There is also a rich veine of Allum of Terra Sigillata Pitch Tarre Rozen Turpentine Sassafras Cedar Grapes Oyle Iron Copper and the hope of better Mines Pearle sweete Gummes Dyes Timber Trees of sweet wood for profit and pleasure of which kinde haue beene discouered fourteene seuerall kinds Neither is it needfull that heere I relate the Commodites of Virginia for food in Fowles Beasts Fishes Fruites Plants Hearbes Berries Graines especially their Maiz which yeeldeth incredible recompence for a little labour One Acre of ground will yeeld with good husbandry two hundred Bushels of Corne They haue two Roots the one for Medicinall vse to cure their hurts called Weighsacan the other called Tockahough growing like a flagge of the greatnesse and taste of a Potato which passeth a fiery purgation before they may eate it being poyson whiles it is raw Yet in all this abundance our men haue had small store but of want and no fire nor water could purge that poyson which was rooted in Some to the hinderance of the Plantation The chiefe Beasts of Virginia are Beares lesse then those in other places Deere like ours Aronghcun much like a Badger but liuing on trees like a Squirrell Squirrels as big as Rabbets and other flying Squirrels called Assepanicke which spreading out their legs and skins seeme to flye thirty or forty yards at a time The Opassom hath a head like a Swine a tayle like a Rat as bigge as a Cat and hath vnder her belly a bagge wherein she carrieth her yong Their Dogges barke not Their Wolues are not much bigger then our Foxes Their Foxes are like our siluer-haired Conies and smell not like ours Mussascus is otherwise as our Water-Rat but smelleth strongly of Muske Master Whitaker saith they yeeld Muske as the Musk-Cats doe Their Vetchunquoys are wild Cats Their vermine destroyed not our Egges and Pullen nor were their Serpents or Flyes any way pernicious They haue Eagles Hawkes wild Turkeyes and other Fowle and Fish which here to repeate would to some nice fastidious stomacks breed a fulnesse though with some of their Countrimen in Virginia they would haue beene sauoury sometimes and dainty They are a people clothed with loose Mantles made of Deeres skins and aprons of the same round about their middles all else naked of stature like to vs in England They