within three days it rained which made them have a great belief in the Devil Nineteen Leagues from Longo is the Province of Mayombe which is all Woods and Groves so overgrown that a man may travel twenty days in the shadow without any Sun or Heat Here is no kind of Corn or Grain nor any kind of tame Cattel nor Hens so that the People live onely upon Plantans and Roots of sundry sorts very good and Nuts But they have great store of Elephants flesh which they highly esteem also they have many kinds of wild Beasts and great store of Fish The Woods are so covered with Baboons Monkeys Apes and Parrots that it will fear any man to travel in them alone Here is also two kinds of Monsters which are common in these Woods and very dangerous the greatest of these two Monsters is called Pongo in their Language and the lesser is called Eugeco This Pongo is in all proportion like a man but more like a Giant in stature for he is very tall and hath a Mans face hollow cyed with long Hair upon his Brows His Face and Ears are without Hair as also his Hands his Body is full of Hair but not very thick and it is of a Dunnish colour He differeth not from a Man but in his Legs for they have no Calf He goeth always upon his Legs and carrieth his Hands clasped on the nape of his Neck when he goeth upon the ground They sleep in the Trees and build shelters for the Rain They feed upon Fruit that they find in the Woods and upon Nuts for they eat no kind of Flesh They cannot speak and have no understanding more than a Beast The People of the Country when they travel in the Woods make Fires where they sleep in the nights and in the morning when they are gone the Pongoes will come and sit about the Fire till it goeth out for they have no understanding to lay the Wood together They go many in company and kill divers Negroes that travel in the Woods Many times they fall upon the Elephants which come to feed where they be and so beat them with their clubbed Fifts and pieces of Wood that they will run roaring away from them These Pongoes are never taken alive because they are so strong that ten men cannot hold one of them but yet they take many of their young ones for the young Pongo hangeth on his Mothers Belly with his Hands fast clasp'd about her so that when any of the Country people do kill the Female with their poisoned Arrows they easily take the young one so hanging about her When they die among themselves they cover the dead with great heaps of Boughs and Wood which is commonly found in the Forest One of these Pongoes took a Negro Boy of the Authors which lived a month with them for they hurt not those which they surprise at unawares except they look on them which he avoided He said their height was like a Mans but their bigness twice as great The Morombes use to hunt with their Country Dogs and kill many kinds of little Beasts and great store of Pheasants But their Dogs be dumb and cannot bark at all they hang wooden Clappers about their Necks and follow them by the rattling of their Clappers The Huntsmen have Petes which they whistle their Dogs withall The European Dogs are highly esteemed there because they do bark one of them having been sold up in the Country for 30 l. In the Town of Mani-Mayombe is a Feâ—isso or Idol called Maramba and it standeth in a high Basket made like a Hive and over it a great House This is their House of Religion for they believe onely in him and keep his Laws carrying his Reliques always with them They are for the most part Witches and use their Witchcraft for hunting and killing of Elephants Fishing helping of Sick and Lame men and to forecast Journies whether they shall speed well or evil By this Maramba are all Thefts and Murders tried for in this Country they use to bewitch one another to death therefore when any dieth their Neighbours are brought before Maramba and if it be a great man that dieth the whole Town cometh to swear The Order is when they come before Maramba to kneel and clasp the Idol in their Arms and to say Emeno eyge bembet Maramba that is I come to be tried O Maramba And if any of them be guilty they fall down stark dead for ever The same way of Tryal also they have for any other matter In this Country of Mayombe did Battel continue the space of twelve moneths going from thence to Mani-kesock North-east of which place live a kind of little people called Matimbas which are no bigger than Boys of twelve years old but very thick and live onely upon Flesh which they kill in the Woods with their Bows and Darts Several other places in Angola did he also see at last desirous to return to his Native Country he embarqued and arrived safely in England where he lived a long time after leaving in writing behind him at his death the Relation of these his Miraculous Travels and Deliverances A strange Deliverance of an English-man from a Desolate Island near to Scotland wherein he had long continued in extream penury and misery IN the Year 1616 a Flemming named Pickman who was well known in England and Holland for his Art and dexterity in getting out of the Sea the great Guns of that Spanish Fleet which was forced upon the Coasts of Scotland and Ireland in the Year 1588. This man coming from Dronthem in Norway in a Vessel loaden with Boards was overtaken by a Calm during which the Current carried him upon a Rock or little Island towards the Extremities of Scotland where he was in some danger to have been cast away To avoid a Wrack he commanded some of his men to go into the Shallop and to tow off the Ship They having done so would needs go up into a certain Rock to look for Birds Eggs But as soon as they were got up into it they at some distance perceived a man whence they imagined that there were others lurking thereabouts and that this man had made his escape thither from some Pyrats who if not prevented might surprise their Ship and therefore they made all the haste they could to their Shallop and so returned to their Ship But the Calm continuing and the Current of the Sea still driving them upon the Island they were forced to get into the Long-boat and to tow her off again The man whom they had seen before was in the mean time come to the Brink of the Island and made signs with his hands lifted up and sometimes falling on his knees and joyning his hands together begging and crying to them for relief At first they made some difficulty to go to him but at last being overcome by his lamentable signs they went nearer the Island where they saw something that
of Hungary came thither accompanied with divers Noble-men and Gentlemen who notwithstanding found no deceit therein Thus she continued for the space of almost four years Her Torments seemed to increase more and more upon her At last the chief Magistrate of the City sent for her Parents and asked them whether they desired to have their Daughter delivered from so great Torments by the Physicians making incision into her Belly Her Father being a plain man answered that he was willing to leave his Daughter to God's Providence and to lawful Remedies of Physicians But the Mother being guilty of the Deceit said that she would not have them to attempt any thing to the endangering of her daughters life adding moreover that she would pray that God's Vengeance might light upon them if her Daughter miscarried under their hands Yet some were sent to the Maid to mind her that they had many times craved help of Physicians that now there was a proffer made of their help who by God's assistance might either wholly free her from her Distemper or at least asswage the violence of it But she being instructed of her Mother answered That she with a willing mind would patiently suffer what it should please God to inflict upon her that she desired not any Physick but that as for the space of four years she had undergone the extremity of her Pains so she was still willing to bear the Cross which God had laid upon her till it pleased him to remove it hoping that she should still be as able to bear the violence of her Disease as hitherto she had been But the Magistrate of Elsing being better pleased with her Father's Answer sent a Dr. of Physick with two Chirurgions and a Midwife to search the Maidens Belly by Incision These came to her and searching her Belly found it stuffed with Clouts very cunningly and with Pillows and such like Materials with divers Hoops wherewith her Belly was made round she crying out all the while and when all these were removed they saw the Maiden stark naked with as well a compact and as fair a Body as might be When now the Deceit was discovered the Parents with the Daughter and all they which were accessory with whom in the Night whilst others slept she made good cheer were carried to Prison and afterwards put to the Rack The counterfeit Belly was brought to the Town-house and there shewed to the Burgo-masters and the Maids Mother was found to be a Witch who by the Devils help had caused those strange noises which seemed to proceed out of the Maids Belly and upon strict examination she confessed that she had done all these things by the Devils perswasion and help for Gain-sake all these four years for which she was condemned by the Judge had first her Neck broke and afterwards was openly burned The Daughter had her Cheek burned through with an hot iron and was condemned to perpetual Imprisonment The Father who took his Oath that he was deceived by his Wife and Daughter even till that day wherein this wicked Fact vvas discovered vvas acquitted and freely dismissed the other Accessories vvere banished and some of them that vvere most guilty vvere othervvise punished Of People long-lived who have had their Teeth and Excrements of Hair renewed MR. Purchas in his Pilgrimage relateth that whilst the Portugals were busie in building a Fort in the Kingdom of Decan belonging to Asia that there came a certain Bengalan to the Governour which had lived as he affirmed three hundred thirty five years The old men of the Country testified that they had heard their Ancestors speak of his great Age and himself had a Son fourscore and ten years old and not at all Book-learned yet was a speaking Chronicle of those passed Times His Teeth had sometimes fallen out others growing in their places and his Beard after it had been very hoary by degrees returned into his former blackness About an hundred years before that time he had alter'd his Pagan Religion into the Arabian or Moorish For this his Miraculous age the Sultans of Cambaya had allowed him a Stipend to live on the continuance of which he sought and did obtain of the Portugals Fryar Joano dos Santos tells a Story of one who was alive Anno 1605 of whom the Bishop of Cochin had sent men to inquire who by diligent search found that he was then 380 years old and had married eight times the Father of many Generations They said his Teeth had thrice fallen out and were thrice renewed his hair thrice hoary and as oft black again He could tell of nineteen successive Kings which reigned in Horan his native Country in Bengala He was also born a Gentile and after turned Moor and hoped he said to dye a Christian rejoycing to see a Picture of St Francis saying as the Fryar tells us such a man when he was twenty five years old had foretold him that long life Nic-di Conti saith he saw a Bramane three hundred years old But to come nearer to our home Mr. Morison reporteth of the Irish Countess of Desmond that she lived to the age of a hundred and forty Years being able to go on foot four or five miles to the Market-Town and using weekly so to do in her last Years and not many years before she died she had all her Teeth renewed He also tells of one Jemings a Carpenter in Beverly a Town of Holdernes in England whom the men of those Parts reported to have lived a hundred and twenty years and that he married a young Woman some few years before his death by whom being of good Fame he had four Children and that his eldest Son by his first Wife then living was a hundred years old or thereabouts but was so decrepid as he was rather taken for the Father than the Son King James going a Progress into Hereford-shire the ingenious Serjeant Hoskin gave him an Entertainment where he provided ten aged People to dance the Morrice before him all of them making up more than a thousand years so that what was wanting in one was supplied in another A Nest of Nestors saith Mr. Fuller not to be found in another place In the Year 1634. Thomas Earl of Arundel a great Lover of Antiquities in all kinds brought out of the Country unto King Charles the First an old man named Thomas Parre Son of John Parre born at Alberbury in the Parish of Winnington in Shrop-shire who lived to be above a hundred and fifty Years of Age verifying his Anagram Thomas Parre Most rare hap He was born in the Reign of King Edward the Fourth 1483. and towards his latter end slept away most part of his time being thus character'd by an Eye-witness of him From Head to Heel his Body had all over A quick-set thick-set nat'ral hairy Cover Having been at Westminster about two Months change of Air and Diet better in it self but worse for him with the trouble of many Visitants or
that day proved so cold that they could not stir out of their Tent. The same day there came two Ships of Hull into the Sound who knowing that some men had been left there the Year before being very desirous to know whether they were dead or alive the Master manned forth a Shallop to go as near the Shore as they could and so over the Ice to the Tent when these men came near unto it they haled them with the usual Word at Sea crying Hey to which one of them in the Tent answered again Hoe which sudden Answer almost amazed them all but perceiving them to be the very men left there with joyful Hearts they embraced one another and so coming into the Tent they shewed the Hull-men the curtesie of the House giving them some Venison which was roasted four months before and a Cup of cold Water which for Novelty sake they kindly accepted of After a little Discourse these eight men resolved to leave their Tent and to go with them to their Ship where they were welcomed after the heartiest and kindest English manner and so they staid with them till the London Fleet came which was three days after at which time they went aboard the Admiral in which Captain William Goodler was who made them very welcome and gave order that they should have any thing which was in the Ship that might do them good he gave them Apparel also to the value of twenty pounds so that after fourteen days refreshment they grew all perfectly well but when some of them went to their own Master that had left them there he fell foul upon them calling them Run-a-ways with other harsh Terms far enough from the Civility of an honest man Thus they continued in the Fleet until the 20th of August at which time with joyful Hearts they set Sail thorow the foaming Ocean and though sometimes crossed with contrary Winds yet at last they came safely to an Anchor in the River of Thames and the Muscovy Merchants dealt very well by them The Names of those eight Men thus left in Green-land William Fakely Gunner Edward Pelham Gunner's Mate that wrote this Story John Wise and Robert Goodfellow Seamen Thomas Ayers Whale-cutter Henry Bet Cooper John Daws and Richard Kellet Land-men A notable Story of Edgar King of England how he was by his chief Favourite circumvented of the fair Lady Elfrida and how afterwards the King was revenged of him for the same THis Edgar sirnamed the Peaceable the thirtieth Monarch of the English men was a Prince endowed with a great many Vertues and as many Vices and of all Vices most to Lasciviousness of which the Chronicles relate many Examples we shall only instance in one which for the variety of the matter deserveth to be recorded unto Posterity Fames lavish Report of beauteous Elfrida the Paragon of her Sex and Wonder of Nature the only Daughter of Ordgarus Duke of Devonshire sounded so loud in those Western parts that the Eccho thereof was heard into King Edgar's Court and entered his Ears which ever lay open to give his Eyes the Scope of Desire and his wanton thoughts the Reins of Will to try the Truth whereof he secretly sent his Minion or Favourite Earl Ethelwold of East-Anglia who well could judge of Beauty and knew the Dyet of the King with Commission that if the Pearl proved so orient it should be seized for Edgar's own wearing who meant to make her his Queen and Ordgarus the Father of a King Ethelwood a jolly young Gallant posted into Devonshire and guest-wise visited Duke Ordgarus his Court where seeing the Lady surpassing the Report blam'd Fame's over-sight for sounding her Praise in so base and leaden a Trumpet and wholly surprized with her Love himself began to wooe the Virgin yea and with her Father's good liking so as the King would give his Assent Earl Ethelwold returning related that the Maid indeed was fair but yet her Beauty much augmented by babling Reports and neither her Feature or Parts any wise befitting a King Edgar mistrusting no Rival in his Love nor dreaming false Fellowship in Wooing did with a slight Thought pass over Elfrida and pitch'd his Affections the faster another way Earl Ethelwold following the Game now on Foot desired Edgar's Assistance to bring it to a stand pretending not so much for any liking to the Lady as to raise his own Fortunes by being her Father's Heir to which the King yielded and ignorant of what had passed sollicited Ordgarus in the behalf of his Minion Ethelwold The Duke glad to be shrouded under the favour of such a Favourite willingly consented and his Daughters Destiny 's assured to Earl Ethelwold The Marriage solemnized and the Fruits thereof a short time enjoyed the Fame of her Beauty began to be spread and that with a larger Epithet than formerly it had been whereupon Edgar much doubting of double dealing laid his Angle fair to catch this great Gull and bearing no shew of wrong or suspect invited himself to hunt in his Parks and forthwith repairing into those parts did not a little grace his old Servant to the great Joy of Ordgarus the Duke But Ethelwold mistrusting the cause of his coming thought by one Policy to disappoint another and therefore revealing the truth to his Wife how in his Proceedings he had wronged her Beauty and deceived his Sovereign requested her loving assistance to save now his endangered Life which lay in her power and of the means he thus adviseth Like as said he the richest Diamond rough and uncut yields neither sparkle nor esteem of great Price nor the Gold unburnished gives better Lustre than the base Brass so Beauty and Feature clad in mean Aray is either slightly looked at with an unfixed Eye or is wholly unregarded and held of no Worth for according to the Proverb Cloath is the Man and Man is the Wretch then to prevent the thing that I fear and is likely to prove my present Ruine and thy last Wrack conceal thy great Beauty from King Edgar's Eye and give him Entertainment in thy meanest Attires let them I pray thee for a time be the nightly Curtains drawn about our new nuptial Bed and the daily Clouds to hide thy splendant Sun from his sharp and too too piercing sight whose Vigour and Rayes will soon set his waxen Wings on Fire that ready are to melt at a far softer Heat Pitch thou seest defileth the hand and we are forbid to give occasion of Evil veil then thy Fairness with the Scaffs of Deformity from his over-lavish and unmastered Eye for the fairest Face draws ever the Gaze if not the Attempts and Natures Endowments are as the Bush for the Wine which being immoderately taken doth surfeit the Sense and is again cast up with as loathing a Tast Of these Dregs drunk Amnon after his fill of fair Thamer Herod of Miramy and Aeneas of Dido yea and not to seek Examples far off King Edgar's variation in his unstedfast
day they were in a like Sleep conveyed to their Irons again after which he caused them to be brought into his Presence and questioned where they had been which answered by your Grace in Paradise and recounted all the Particulars before mentioned Then the old man answered this is the Commandment of our Prophet That whosoever defends his Lord he makes him enter into Paradise and if ye will be obedient to me and hazard your Lives in my Quarrel ye shall have this Grace This so animated them that they swore to be obedient to his Commands and he was thought happy whom the old man would command any thing though it cost him his Life so that other Lords and his Enemies were slain by these his Assassines which exposed themselves to all Dangers and contemned their Lives These men the Italians call Assassines whence we use the Phrase to Assassinate the name importing as much as Thieves or Cut-throats such a one was he who murdered the Count of Tripolis in the Wars for the Holy Land and such a one was he who so desperately wounded our Edward the First at the Siege of Acon with a poysoned Knife whose Venome could by no means be asswaged till his vertuous Wife proposing herein a most rare Example of conjugal Love sucked out the Poyson which her love made sweet to her delicate Pallate so sovereign a Medicine is a Wife's Tongue anointed with the Vertue of lovely Affection and indeed it is no wonder that Love should do Wonders which is it self a Wonder This Aladine thus playing the Tyrant and robbing all which passed that way Vlan in the Year 1262. sent and besieged his Castle which after three years Siege they took slew him and ruined his Paradise not being able for want of Victuals to hold out longer Paulus Venetus reporteth that in a City called Samarchan subject to the Nephew of the Great Cham of Tartary the Brother of the Great Cham named Zagatai governed that Country who being persuaded to become a Christian the Christians thorough his Favour built a Church in honour of St. John Baptist with such Cunning that the whole Roof thereof was supported by one Pillar in the midst under which was set a square Stone which by favour of their Lord was taken from a Building of the Saracens Zagathai's Son succeeded after his Death in the Kingdom but not in the Faith from whom the Saracens obtained that the Christians should be compelled to restore that Stone and when they offered a sufficient valuable Price the Saracens refused to receive any other Composition than the Stone but the Pillar lifted up it self that the Saracens might take away their Stone and so continued About the Year of our Lord 400. one Agilmond was King of the Lombards inhabiting Pannonia now called Hungary This King one morning going a hunting as he was riding by a Fish-pond he spied seven Children sprawling for Life which one as saith Paulus Diaconus or it may be many Harlots had been delivered of and most barbarously thrown into the Water The King amazed at this Spectacle put his Boar-spear or Hunting-pole among them one of the Children's hands fastned to the Spear and the King softly drawing back his Hand wafted the Child to the Shore This Boy he named Lamissus from Lama which in their Language signified a Fish-pond He was in the King's Court carefully brought up where there appeared in him such Tokens of Vertue and Courage that after the Death of Agilmond he was by the Lombards chosen to succeed him In the time of the Emperour Frederick Barbarossa Anno 1161. Beatrix the Emperour's Wife coming to see the City of Millain in Italy was by the irreverent People first imprisoned and then most barbarously handled for they placed her on a Mule with her Face towards the Tail which she was compelled to use instead of a Bridle and when they had thus shewn her to all the Town they brought her to a Gate and kicked her out To revenge this Wrong the Emperour besieged and forced the Town and adjudged all the People to die save such as would undergo this Ransome Between the Buttocks of a skittish Mule a bunch of Figs was fastened and such as would live must with their hands bound behind run after the Mule till with their Teeth they had snatched out one or more of the Figs. This Condition besides the hazard of many a sound Kick was by most accepted and performed Since which time the Italians when they intend to scoff or disgrace one use to put their Thumb between two of their Fingers and say Ecco la fico which is counted a Disgrace answerable to our English Custom of making Horns to that Man whom we suspect to be a Cuckold Giraldus Cambriensis who wrote an History of Ireland reporteth that in his time in the North of England a knot of Youngsters took a Nap in the fields As one of them lay snorting with his Mouth gaping as though he would have caught Flies it happened that a Snake or Adder slipt into his Mouth and glided down into his Belly where harbouring it self it began to roam up and down and to feed on the young man's Entrails The Patient being sore distracted and above measure tormented with the biting pangs of this greedy Guest incessantly prayed to God that if it stood with his gracious Will either wholly to bereave him of his Life or else of his unspeakable mercy to ease him of his Pain The Worm would never cease from gnawing the Patient's Carcass but when he had taken his repast and his Meat was no sooner digested than it would give a fresh onset in boring his Guts Divers Remedies were sought as Medicines Pilgrimages to Saints but all could not prevail Being at length schooled by the grave Advice of some sage and expert Father who willed him to make his speedy repair to Ireland where neither Snake nor Adder would live He presently thereupon would tract no time but busked himself over Sea and arrived in Ireland He had no sooner drank of the Water of that Island and eaten of the Victuals thereof but forthwith he killed the Snake avoided it downward and so being lusty and lively he returned into England When David Bruce was King of Scotland in the beginning of his Reign for the better proof of exercising Justice among them that coveted to live by truth and to have more ready occasion to punish others that meant the contrary he commanded that Saddles and Bridles with all other such Instruments and Stuff as pertained to Husbandry should be left abroad both day and night without the doors and if it chanced that any of them were stollen or taken away the Sheriff of the Shire should either cause the same to be restored again or else to pay for it out of his own Purse During the time whilst such strait punishment was executed against Offenders it fortuned that a Carle of the Countrey because he durst not steal other mens goods stole his
weaned from the sweet nipple of our Liberty and frame our selves plyant to the Will of that God that you reveal unto us St. Patrick considering that these silly Souls were as all carnal ones for the most part are more to be terrified from Infidelity through the Pains of Hell than allured to Christianity by the Joyes of Heaven most heartily besought God for the Honour and Glory of his Divine Name to give some evident token of the matter they so importunately required Finally by the especial direction of God he found in the North-edge of Ulster a desolate corner hemmed in round and in the middle thereof a Pit where he built a Church at the East end of which was a door which led to a Closet of Stone like to a long Oven which was called St. Patrick's Purgatory for that the People for several Ages after resorted thither to do Penance reporting at their return strange Visions of Pain and Bliss appearing unto them and this is the Cave which the Inhabitants in these dayes call Ellan u ' Frugadory that is the Isle of Purgatory and St. Patrick's Purgatory and is by the Irish had in great Veneration to this day Those that repaired to this place for Devotion-sake used to continue therein twenty four hours sometimes with Ghostly meditations and otherwhiles with dread for the Conscience of their Deserts when they said they saw a plain resemblance of their own Faults and Virtues with the horror thereunto belonging the one so terrible the other so joyous that they verily deemed themselves for the time to have had a sight of Heaven and Hell The Revelation of Men St. Patrick yet living were kept written within the adjoyning Abbey for many Ages after Now when any Person was disposed to enter for the Door was alwayes kept fast shut up he repaired first to the Arch-Bishop who cast before him the Perils and Dangers belonging thereunto because it was known that divers entering into that Cave were never seen to return back but if the Party were fully resolved he recommended him to the Prior who in like manner would exhort him to choose some other kind of Penance and not to hazard such a danger If notwithstanding he found the party fully bent he conducted him to the Church injoyning him to begin with Prayer and Fast of fifteen days together or so long as in discretion could be endured That time expired if yet he persevered in his purpose the whole Convent accompanied him with solemn Procession and Benediction to the Mouth of the Cave where they let him in and so barred up the door till the next morning and then with like Ceremonies they waited his return if he were seen no more they fasted and prayed fifteen days after But to return to St. Patrick what with his Doctrine and the Holiness of his Life he won many to embrace Christianity so that the better part of the Kingdom were converted to the Faith of Christ for Laigerius Son to Nealus the great Monarch although he received not the Gospel himself yet permitted all that would to embrace it but because he refused to be baptized and apply to his Doctrine the Bishop denounced against him a Curse from God accordingly but yet tempered with Mercy and Judgment as thus That during his Life he should be victorious but after him neither should the Kingdom stand nor his Lineage inherit Thence he took his way to Conil Lord of Connaught who honourably received him and was converted with all his People sending him afterward to his Brother Logan King of Leinster whom he also converted In Munster he found great Friendship by the means of an Earl there named Davis who honour'd him highly and gave him a dwelling-place in the East-Angle of Armagh called Sorta where he erected many Cells and Monasteries both for religious Men and Women He travelled thirty years in preaching thorough the Land planting Bishops and Priests in convenient places whose Learning and Conversation by the especial Grace and Favour of God established the Faith in that rude Nation other thirty years he spent in his Province of Armagh among his Brethren placed in those Houses of Religion which by his means were founded So he lived in all about 122 Years and then he dyed being after his Death canonized for a Saint and had in such venerable Esteem in his Country that in Controversies and solemn Protestations they were accustomed to swear by St. Patrick's Staff which Oath they feared more to break than if they had sworn by the Holy Evangelists His See also of Armagh was by reason of him had in such honourable Estimation in old time that not only Bishops and Priests but Kings also and Princes were in general subject to the Metropolitan thereof in all Obedience and to his Government alone After his Death rose as great difference for his Sepulchre as was for Homer amongst them of Greece they of Downe challenged his Grave to be with them upon certain Verses written on a Tomb which ascribes Patrick Bridget and Columbe to be buried therein they of Armagh lay claim by the Warrant of St. Bernard who saith that Patrick in his Life time there ruled and after Death there rested Glassenbury in England by ancient Records will have his Body interred with them and Scotland avoucheth his Birth to be at Glasco and Bones to rest at Kirk-Patrick with them thus is his Burial place left dubious such striving there is for the Interment of honourable Persons as it happened to St. Telion a famous Bishop of Landaff in Wales at whose Burial it is said that three places did strive to have the interring of his Body Pen-allum where his Ancestors were buried Lanfolio naur where he dyed and Landaff his Episcopal See Now after Prayer to God to appease this Contention in the place where they had left him there appeared suddenly three Hearses with three Bodies so like as no Man could discern the right and so every one taking one they were all well pleased A marvellous Preservation of the Protestants in Ireland in the time of Queen Mary by a merry Accident ABout the third Year of the Reign of Queen Mary a Pursevant was sent with a Commission into Ireland to empower some eminent Persons to proceed with Fire and Faggot against poor Protestants It happened by divine Providence this Pursevant at Chester lodged in the House of a Protestant Inn-keeper who having gotten some Inkling of the matter secretly stole his Commission out of his Cloak-bag and put the Knave of Clubs in the room thereof Some Weeks after he appeared before the Lords of the Privy Council at Dublin whereof Bishop Coren Arch-bishop of Dublin was then a Principal but instead of a Commission he produced a Card vvhich so incensed them that they caused him to be committed to Prison for such an Affront as done on design to deride them Here he lay for some Months till with much ado at last he got his Enlargement Then over
Spectators rather are conceived to have accelerated his Death which hapned November the 15. 1634. and was buried in the Abbey Church at Westminster all present at his Burial doing Homage to this aged Thomas de temporibus There was if not still living in Northumberland a Scottish Minister named Michael Vivan a Person who may give just matter of Admiration both to the present and future Ages as by the perusing of this ensuing Letter may appear written by a Person of Quality to Dr. Fuller and by him inserted into his England's Worthies THere is an Acquaintance of mine and a Friend of yours who certified me of your desire of being satisfied of the truth of that Relation I made concerning the old Minister in the North. It fortuned in my Journey to Scotland I lay at Alnwick in Northumberland one Sunday by the way and understanding from the Host of the House where I lodged that this Minister lived within three miles of that place I took my Horse after Dinner and rid thither to hear him preach for my own satisfaction I found him in the Desk where he read unto us some part of the Common-Prayer some of Holy David's Psalms and two Chapters one out of the Old the other out of the New Testament without the use of Spectacles The Bible out of which he read the Chapters was a very small printed Bible He went afterwards into his Pulpit where he prayed and preached unto us about an hour and half His Text was Seek you the Kingdom of God and all hings shall be added unto you In my poor Judgment he made an excellent good Sermon and went clearly through without the help of any Notes After Sermon I went with him to his House where I proposed these several following Questions to him Whether it was true the Book reported of him concerning his Hair whether or no he had a new set of Teeth come whether or no his Eye-sight ever failed him and whether in any measure he found his strength renewed unto him He answered me distinctly to all these and told me he understood the News-book reported his Hair to become a dark brown again but that is false he took his Cap off and shewed me it It is come again like a Child's but rather flaxen than either brown or gray For his Teeth he hath three come within these two years not yet at their Perfection while he bred them he was very ill Forty years since he could not read the biggest print without Spectacles and now he blesseth God there is no print so small but he can read without them For his strength he thinks himself as strong now as he hath been these twenty years Not long since he walked to Alnwick to dinner and back again six North-Countrey miles He is now an hundred and ten years of age and ever since last May a hearty Body very chearful but stoops much He had five Children after he was eighty years of age four of them lusty Lasses now living with him the other died lately his Wife yet hardly fifty years of age He writes himself Machel Vivan he is a Scottish-man born near Aberdeen I forget the Towns name where he is now Pastor he hath been there fifty years Windsor 28 Sept. 1657. Your assured loving Friend THOMAS ATKIN An Example of Divine Vengeance pursuing Sinners IN the Year 1614. ten English-men having received the Sentence of Death for their several Crimes at the Sessions-House at the Old-Bayly in London had their Execution respited by the intreaty of the East-India Merchants upon Condition that they should be all banished to Souldania-Bay to the end if they could find any peaceable abode there they might discover something advantagious to their Trade and this was accordingly done But two of them when they came thither were taken thence and carried on the Voyage one whose Sir-name was Duffield by Sir Thomas Row that Year sent Ambassador to the Great Mogol that Fellow thus redeemed from a most sad Banishment was afterward brought back again into England by that noble Gentleman and here being intrusted by him stole some of his Plate and run away another was carried on the Voyage likewise but what became of him afterward is not known so that there remained eight which were there left with some Ammunition and Victual with a small Boat to carry them to and from a very little uninhabited Island lying in the very mouth of that Bay a place for their retreat and safety from the Natives on the Main The Island called Pen-guin Island probably so named at first by some Welsh-man in whose Language Pen-guin signifies a White-head and there are many great lazy Fowls upon and about this Island with great cole black Bodies and very white Heads called Pen-guins The chief man of the eight there left was sir-named Cross who took upon him the name of Captain Cross He was formerly Yeoman of the Guard to King James but having had his Hand in Blood twice or thrice by men slain by him in several Duels and now being condemned to die with the rest upon very great Sute made for him he was hither banished with them whither the Justice of Almighty God was dispatched after him as it were in a Whirl-wind and followed him close at the very heels and over-took him and left him not till he had paid dear for that Blood he had formerly spilt This Cross was a very stout and a very resolute man who quarrelling with and abusing the Natives and engaging himself far amongst them immediately after himself with the rest were left in that place many of these Savages being got together fell upon him and with their Darts thrown and Arrows shot at him stuck his Body so full of them as if he had been larded with Darts and Arrows making him look like the Figure of the man in the Almanack that seems to be wounded in every part or like that man described by Lucan Totum pro vulnere corpus who was all Wound where Blood touched Blood a just Retaliation of God for his Cruelty shewed unto others The other seven the rest of these miserable Banditi who were there with Cross recovered their Boat and got off the Shore without any great hurt and so rowing to their Island the Waves running high they split their Boat at their landing which engaged them to keep in that place they having now no possible means left to stir thence And which made their Condition whilst they were in it extreamly miserable it was a place wherein grew never a Tree neither for Sustenance or Shelter or Shade nor any thing beside to help sustain Nature a place that had never a drop of fresh Water in it but what the showers left in the holes of the Rocks And besides all this there were a very great number of Snakes in that Island so many of those venemous Worms that a man could not tread safely in the long Grass which grew in it for fear of them And
Wretch might have conceived his present compared with his former condition an Heaven upon Earth but he did not so though he had to his good Entertainment made for him a Chain of bright Brass an Armour Breast Back and Head-piece with a Buckler of Brass his beloved Metal and which his Countrey-men esteemed far above Gold yet all this contented him not for never any seemed to be more weary of ill usage than he was of Courtesies none ever more desirous to return home to his Countrey than he For when he had learn'd a little of our Language he would daily lye upon the Ground and cry very often thus in broken English Cooree home go Souldania go home go And not long after when he had his desire and was returned home he had no sooner set footing on his own shore but presently he threw away his Clothes his Linnen with all other Covering and got his Sheep-skins upon his back Guts about his neck and his Cow-turd Cap upon his head Thus you see what manner of Life they affect the name of Cleanliness not being known amongst them And for their Religion Cooree being asked by the Minister of the Ship who was their God he lifting up his hands in his bad English said thus England God great God Souldania no God And so much for Souldania Of two famous Virago's the one a French-woman called Joan of Arc or La Pucelle de Dieu the other a Biscainer called Catarina d' Arcuso JOAN of Arc was Daughter to one James of Arc dwelling in Domremy near Vaucaleurs in France in her younger years she tended Sheep under her Father at which time France groaned under the Victorious Arms of the English John Duke of Bedford being then Regent thereof in the minority of our King Henry the sixth who was crowned King of France in Paris the principal City Charles the seventh having little left to him of that spacious Kingdom but only the Title He being at this Exigent this young Maid then about eighteen years of age presented her self unto him at Chinon bidding him not to faint but constantly affirmed that God had sent her to deliver the Realm of France from the English yoak and restore him to the fulness of his Fortunes At first it seems she was not much credited though judged to be set on by the Nobles but when the Wise of both sorts as well Clerks as Souldiers had sifted her with manifold Questions she continuing in her first Speech so stedfastly uttering nothing saith Serres but that which was modest chaste and holy that honour and faith were given to her Sayings An old Woman directed her She soon armed her self like a man and required to have that Sword which hung in St. Katharines Church of Fierebois in Tourain This demand increased their admiration of her for such a Sword was found among the old Donaries or Votive Tokens of that Church Thus warlikely arrayed she rides to Blois where Forces and fresh Victuals lay for the Relief of Orleans then closely besieged and ready to yield unto the English She joyning with the Admiral and Marshal of France they entred the City in despight of the Besiegers This greatly encouraged the fainting French Joan the Maid of God so Superstition had now intitled her having thus fortunately begun writes this Letter to the English General before the City King of England Do reason to the King of Heaven for his Blood-Royal yield up to the Virgin the Keys of all the good Cities which you have forced She is come from Heaven to reclaim the Blood-Royal and is ready to make a Peace if you be ready to do reason Yield therefore and pay what you have taken King of England I am the chief of this War wherefore I encounter your men in France I will chase them will they or no. If they will obey I will take them to mercy The Virgin comes from Heaven to drive you out of France If you will not obey she will cause so great a stir as the like hath not been this thousand years in France And believe certainly that the King of Heaven will send to her and her good men of Arms more force than you can have Go in Gods name into your Countrey be not obstinate for you shall not hold France of the King of Heaven the Son of St. Mary but Charles shall enjoy it the King and lawful Heir to whom God hath given it He shall enter Paris with a goodly Train You William de la Pole Earl of Suffolk John Lord Talbot Thomas Lord Scales Lieutenants to the Duke of Bedford and you Duke of Bedford terming your self Regent of the Realm of France spare innocent Blood and leave Orleans in liberty If you do not reason to them whom you have wronged the French will do the goodliest Exploit that ever was done in Christendom Understand these News of God and the Virgin This Letter was entertained by the English with laughter and Joan reputed no better than a Bedlam or Enchantress Yet however thus disesteemed by her Encouragements and Conduct the English had Orleans pluck'd out of their hopes and with much loss were driven to raise the Siege Joan her self was wounded at one Sally in which she led being shot through the Arm with an Arrow Judge what she esteemed of that hurt when she used these admirable and terrible words This is a Favour let us go on they cannot escape the hand of God nay in all Adventures she was one and fore-most In memory of this admirable Deliverance they of that City erected a Monument where Charles the seventh King of France and Joan the Martial Maid were represented kneeling in Armour elevating their eyes and hands to Heaven in sign of thanks and acknowledgment of so great a benefit Still the Martial Maid goes on victoriously she and the Duke of Alanzon recover Jergeaux from the Earl of Suffolk forcing it by Assault slaying one of the Earl's Brothers and taking the Earl himself Prisoner and having their numbers augmented encounter the Lord Talbot that terrour of France at a Village called Patay whom they discomfit and slew of the English above a thousand The Lords Talbot the glory of the English Scales Hungerford and Sir Thomas Rampestone were taken Prisoners These Losses shook the whole Fabrick of the English greatness in France and caused the Revolt of many Towns to King Charles who encouraged by these Successes marcheth into Champaigne where by composition he taketh the Cities of Troys and Auxerre Chalons and Rheims yield themselves in which last according to the Maids direction he was solemnly crowned King But now our Martial Maids good Fortune having ascended the Meridian began to decline for though by her subtile practises King Charles was possess'd of the Town of St Dennis a neighbour to Paris then in possession of the English she with the Duke of Alanzon going with their Forces to attempt it the English gave them so rough an Encounter that Joan her self was
small Turrets which are made open with Lights every way that a man in them may be easily seen and heard Now their Moolaas or devout Priests do five times every day ascend unto the tops of those high Turrets whence they proclaim as loudly as they can possibly speak their Prophet Mahomet thus in Arabian La alla illa alla Mahomet Resul-alla that is There is no God but one God and Mahomet the Messenger from God Upon a time Tom Coriat when their Moolaa was to cry as aforesaid he got upon an high place directly opposite to one of those Priests and contradicted him thus La alla illa alla Hasaret Eesa Benalla that is No God but one God and the Lord Christ the Son of God and farther added that Mahomet was an Impostor and all this he spake in their own Language as loud as possibly he could in the ears of many Mahometans that heard it But whether Circumstances considered the zeal or discretion of our Pilgrim were more here to be commended I leave to the judgment of the Reader No doubt but had this bold attempt of his been acted in many other places of Asia it would have cost him his Life with as much torture as cruelty could have invented But he was here taken for a Mad-man and so let alone Haply the rather because every one there hath liberty to profess his own Religion freely and if he please may argue against theirs without fear of an Inquisition as this our Pilgrim did at another time with a Moolaa who had called him Giaur that is Infidel or false Believer which Mr. Coriat took in such Dudgeon that he made a Speech to him as followeth Mr. Coriat's Speech to a Mahometan But I pray thee tell me thou Mahometan dost thou in sadness call me Giaur That I do quoth he Then quoth I in very sober sadness I retort that shameful word in thy Throat and tell thee plainly that I am a Musulman and thou art a Giaur for by that Arab word Musulman thou dost understand that which cannot properly be applyed to a Mahometan but only to a Christian so that I do consequently infer that there are two kinds of Musulmen the one an Ortho-musulman that is a true Musulman which is a Christian and the other a Pseudo-musulman that is a false Musulman which is a Mahometan What thy Mahomet was from whom thou dost derive thy Religion assure thy self I know better than any one of the Mahometans amongst many Millions yea all the particular Circumstances of his Life and Death his Nation his Parentage his driving Camels thorough Aegypt Syria and Palestina the marriage of his Mistress by whose Death he raised himself from a very base and contemptible Estate to great Honour and Riches his manner of cozening the sottish People of Arabia partly by a tame Pidgeon that did fly to his Ear for meat and partly by a tame Bull that he fed by hand every day with the rest of his Actions both in Peace and War I know as well as if I had lived in his time or had been one of his Neighbours in Mecha the Truth whereof if thou didst know as well I am persuaded thou would'st spit in the face of thy Alcoran and trample it under thy Feet and bury it under a Jakes a Book of that strange and weak matter that I my self as meanly as thou dost see me attired now have already written two better Books God be thanked and will hereafter this by God's gracious Permission write another better and truer yea I would have thee know thou Mahometan that in that renowned Kingdom of England where I was born Learning doth so flourish that there are many thousand Boys of sixteen years of Age that are able to make a more learned Book than thy Alcoran neither was it as thou and the rest of you Mahometans do generally believe composed wholly by Mahomet for he was of so dull a Wit he was not able to make it without the help of another namely a certain Renegado Monk of Constantinople called Sergis so that his Alcoran was like an Arrow drawn out of the Quiver of another man I perceive thou dost wonder to see me so much inflamed with Anger but I would have thee consider it is not without great cause I am so moved for what greater Indignity can there be offered to a Christian which is an Artho-musulman than to be called Giaur by a Giaur c. By this which hath been said you may perceive our Coriat thus distinguished that himself was the Orthodox Musulman or true Believer The Moolaa the Pseudo-Musulman or false true Believer a distinction which must needs make an Intelligent Reader to smile It also shews what an opinion he had of his former writings and how if he had returned what a bustle he would have made in the World with another Volume but death prevented him for having left it Thomas Rowe the English Ambassador at Mandoa he went to Surat where he was over-kindly used by some of the English who gave him Sack which they had brought from England he calling for it as soon as he first heard of it and crying Sack Sack is there such a thing as Sack I pray you give me some Sack and drinking of it though moderately for he was a very temperate man it increased his Flux which he had then upon him and this caused him within a few days after his very tedious and troublesome Travels for he went most on foot at this place to come to his journeys end for here he overtook Death December 1617. and was buried under a little Monument like one of those usually made in our Church-yards upon whom a joking Wit made this Epitaph Here lies the Wonder of the English Nation Within the bosome of old Tellus maw For fruitless Travel and for strange Relation He past and repast all thy eyes e're saw Odcomb produc'd him many Nations fed him And worlds of Writers through the World have spread him The reason inducing the Mahometans to often Prayer exemplified by a Story IN a great City where Mahomet was zealously professed there lived say they a devout Musulman who for many years together spent his whole day in the Mosquit or Church in the mean time he minding not the World at all became so poor that he had nothing left to buy bread for his Family yet notwithstanding his poor condition he was resolved still to ply his Devotions and in a morning when he perceived that there was nothing at all left for the further subsistence of himself and houshold took a solemn leave of his Wife and Children resolving for his part to go and pray and dye in the Mosquit leaving his Family if no relief came to famish at home But that very day he put on this resolution there came to his house in his absence a very beautiful young Man as he appeared to be who brought and gave unto his Wife a very good quantity of