is such as it doth almost exceed the capacitie of mans witte no man need to wonder why in former times as well as now the Noblemen so much delighted to dwell heere This we haue taken out of Leander where manie other things may be read of who hath described the whole kingdome this Citie and the Liberties thereof very curiouslie that indeed it is not necessarie to send the Reader vnto any other Authour but Scipio Mazzella which in a seuerall and peculiar Treatise hath with extraordinarie paines and diligence set out in the Italian Tongue a description of this kingdome There is also in Print a little booke written by Alexander Andreas of the warre betweene Philippe King of Spaine and Paul the fourth Pope of Rome out of which the Reader which is not satisfied with this discourse of ours may heere and there picke out something concerning this kingdome worth the noting and not triuiall The booke is set out in the Italian tongue by Hieronymo Ruscello Iohn Baptista Caraffa Pontanus and Pandulfus Collenutius haue written the histories and chronicles of the kingdome of Naples in the which they in diuers places speake much of the situation of this country Gabriel Barry hath very curiously described Calabria his natiue country as Sanfelicius hath done Campania REGNI NEAPOLITANI VERISSIMA SECVNDVM ANTIQVORVM RECENTIORVM TRADITIONEM SCRIPTIO PYRRHO LIGORIO AV Cum priuilegio APVLIA now called PVGLIA or TERRA DI OTRANTO WE haue composed this discourse following of this countrey out of the treatise of Antony Galatey which he wrote of the situation of Iapigya now called Terra di Barri This country saith he in respect of his situation is seated in the most temperate place of the world Of diuers authours it hath beene diuersly called by sundry names Aristotle and Herodotus called it Iapygia others Peucetia others Mesapia others Magna Gracia Great Greece others Apulia others Calabria for that which now is called Calabria was anciently called Brutia The corne hearbs and fruits of this country are of the best The oats of this soile is as good as the barly of other countries and the barly as good as their wheat Melones of a most pleasing taste and Pome-citrons do euery where grow in great plenty Physick herbs of greater force then other where are here in all places very common The aire is very wholesome the soile is neither drie nor squally or moorish But these so great gifts and blessings of God are intermedled with some mischiefe and danger for heere nature doth breed a most venemous and pernicious kind of spider the Greeks do call it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Latines Phalangium and Araneus whose poisonous bite is onely cured by Musicke or Tabret and Pipe Heere is also the venimous serpent which the Greeks call Chersydros the Latines Natrix terrestris the Land snake we call it if I be not deceiued an Adder and heere is a kinde of Locust which hurt and mar all things they light vpon The cities of this country long since more famous were Tarentum now Taranto proudly seated between two seas exceedingly stored with fish in forme somewhat like a long Iland This city in all mens iudgement is inuincible Callipolis now Galipoli Pliny called it Anxa is a city situate in the end of a promontorie or forland shooting farre out into the sea but with such a narrow Isthmos or necke-land that in some places there is scarce so much as a cartway It is very strong and round beset with high cliffes from the maine land there is only one entrance in the which is a very strong Castell Hydruntum of them called Otranto is the chiefe city and which is somewhat more Metropolitan of the whole Peninsula or Demi-ile and that not without cause for whether you respect the antiquity of it the vertue and humanity of the citizens ioined with valour and great magnanimity it hath euer been of them accounted for a very famous and worthy city It hath a very good and capacious hauen but against the raging blasts of the North wind not so safe It was sometime very strong and defencible but now it lieth almost leuell with the ground The fields adioining are very fruitfull full of springs and alwaies green From hence Montes Cerauni certaine hills of Epirus now called Cimera and Canina may easily be descried Heere is the end of the Hadriaticke and Ionian seas as Pliny testifieth Brundusium now called Brindisi a famous city hath as notable a hauen as any in the world els where the inner hauen is enclosed with castles and an huge chaine the outer hauen is heere and there beset with rocks and small Ilands but his mouth is by Alphonsoes meanes so stopped and dette vp that there is no entrance but for little shippes and barges It hath beene in former time a very populous city now it is little inhabited These are the chiefe marine cities He that would know more particularly of the ancient names situation antiquities and priuate stories of the mid-land cities and townes we refer him to the learned discourse of Galatey written of this his natiue country to which if he please to adioine the description of Leander I perswade my selfe the thirstie Reader shall not know what els he may demand CALABRIA GAbriel Barrius Franciscanus hath very curiously described Calabria in fiue bookes which are imprinted at Rome with as little heedfull diligence Out of him we haue culled these particulars following CALABRIA saith he a country of Italie in forme and fashion not much vnlike a tongue lieth between the vpper and neather seas It beginneth at the neather sea the Greeks call it the Tyrrhen sea the Latines the Mediterran or Mid-land sea from the riuer Talao which runneth into the Bay of Policastro at the vpper sea the Ionian sea the Grecians terme it from the riuer Siris otherwise sometime called Senno and coasteth along vntill it come to the streights of Faro di Messano and the city Regio and so being diuided longwise by the mount Apennine heere they call it Aspro monte it endeth in two capes or promontories the one called Leucopetra of them Capo de Leocopetra the other Lacinium vulgarly of them called Cabo delle colonne or Cabo dell ' Alice Not only the plaines and champions but euen the hillie places like vnto Latium or Campania are well serued with water Whatsoeuer is necessary for the maintainance of mans life this country doth yeeld in great abundance it needeth no forraine commodities but is able to liue of it selfe Calabria generally is a good and a fertile soile it is not combred with Fennes Lakes or Bogges but is alwaies green affoording good pastorage for cattell and excellent ground for all sorts of graine The fountaines and brooks are many and those passing cleare and wholesome The sunnie hills and mountaines open to euery coole blast of wind are wonderfull fertile for corne vines and trees of diuers kinds whereof arise great profit to
Africa are generally or indefinitly named these seuerall prouinces of those greater parts are only to be vnderstood The bounds of this prouince of Africa on the West are the riuer Ampsaga and the Mauritania's the countries of the Moores their next neighbours on the North lieth the Midland sea Arae Philenorum a village betweene it and Cyrenaica is the vttermost bound of it Eastward the Inner Libya and the deserts of the same do confine it vpon the South This countrey was otherwise sometime called ZEVGIS and ZEVGITANA It comprehendeth within this compasse these three shires NVMIDIA named of some MASSYLIA BYZACIVM and TRIPOLITANA Diodorus Siculus diuideth this prouince into foure nations the Poeni Libophoenices Libyi and the Numidae At such time as the Romans bore a sway here and Scipio Aemilianus commanded their legions in these parts this Africa was diuided into two prouinces that neere Carthage they called OLDE AFRICA that which conteined Numidia NEW AFRICA as Pliny Appian and Dion do ioyntly testifie Numidia and Byzacium were vnder the command of the Consuls that wherein Carthage stood belonged to the iurisdiction of the Proconsuls as Sextus Rufus reporteth And this diuision they made as Pliny writeth by a certaine ditch drawen betweene them In the first booke of Iustinians Code and in the seuen and twentieh title of the same thou shalt finde another maner of diuision of this countrey and a farre other maner of gouernment of it by Presidents and Lieutenants Numidia beside the great store of Marble there found called by the name of Numidian marble and the maruellous plenty of Deere and wilde beasts which it yeeldeth hath nothing worth the remembrance as Pliny affirmeth Liuy Pliny and Solinus do giue it the praise for the best horsmen for seruice in the warres of any countrey whatsoeuer They doe as highly commend the fat soile of Byzacium which is such that it yeeldeth an hundred for one yea it hath beene knowen that one bushell of wheat being sowen hath yeelded at haruest the increase of an hundred and fifty bushels againe The Lieutenant of this place sent from thence vnto Augustus Caesar Emperour of Rome forty eares of corne sprung and growen vp from one root and one graine as was probable Item there were sent likewise to Nero from thence three hundred and forty stalks with eares of corne come vp of one and the some graine To this also may be adioyned the goodnesse of the soile which is such as Columella reporteth of it that the husbandman after he hath layd his seed in the ground from seed-time to haruest neuer looketh to his fields nor once medleth with it more for that searse any weed or other such thing which vsually hindereth the growth of corne doth here come vp of it owne accord except it be either set or sowen by hand Halicarnasseus also maketh mention of this great fertility of Africa But Titus the Emperor of Rome in one word doth sufficiently declare the woonderfully fruitfulnesse and plenty of all things here in an Oration of his written vnto the seditious and mutinous Iewes where he nameth it Altricem orbis terrarum The nourse of all nations of the world Yea and Saluianus in his seuenth booke termeth it Animam Reipublicae Romanae The soule of the Romane Common-wealth or politicke body there where thou mayst reade many other things worth the obseruation of the riches command and power of this countrey Herodian maketh it a country very fertile of men Polybius on the other side doth as much commend it for the great abundance of cattell and all sorts of liuing creatures that it breedeth So that for multitude of Horses Oxen Sheepe and Goats it doth farre surpasse almost all the rest of the world beside And that which is most woonderfull of all other it is no strange thing here as Columella out of Dionysius Mago and Marcus Varro telleth vs to see Mules to breed and bring forth yoong so that the inhabitants do as oft see the foales of Mules there as we do of Mares here The same authour in the first chapter of his fourth booke sayth that the people are very ingenious and witty Hirtius calleth it Gentem insidiosam A treacherous nation Maternus nameth it Gentem subdolam A wily and crafty people so that Vlgetius doubted not to say That for wiles and wealth the Romans were alwayes inferiour to the Africans Iuuenal the Poet termeth it Causidicorum nutâ—iculam The nurse of prating petifoggers Athenaeus recounteth the Carthaginians amongst those nations which delight much in quassing and carowsing and vse to be often drunke Saluianus in his seuenth booke De Prouidentia sayth that they are generally so inhumane such drunkards so deceitfull fraudulent couetous treacherous disloyall leud lecherous and vnchaste that he that is not such an one he surely is no Africane Lastly there is as he there addeth no maner of wickednesse or villany that they are not giuen vnto All histories do make mention of the vnfaithfulnesse and false-heartednesse of this nation which indeed is such and they for the same so greatly noted and famous that they grew for it into a common by-word among all such nations as had any conuersation or ought to do with them And thus much of this Africa a land as the Poets terme it most rich for triumphs the fortresse or castle as Cicero calleth it of all Prouinces belonging to the Romane Empire The Ilands neere adioyning and belonging to this country more famous and of better note are Melita Menyx Cosura and Cercina beside some other lesser ones and of lesse account of which as also the people riuers mountaines townes and cities see this our Table That Sardinia that goodly iland which lieth ouer against Genua did sometime belong to this Africa Iustinian doth testifie in the seuen and twentieth Title of the first booke of his Code But of CARTHAGE the chiefe and metropolitane citie of this prouince although Salust sayth it is better farre to say nothing at all of it than to speake little yet notwithstanding I thinke it not amisse to adde somewhat of that also in this place This city of the Latines was called CARTHAGO of the Greeks CHARCHEDON Solinus Polyhistor reporteth that it was first called CARTHADA which word sayth he in the Phoenician tongue of neere affinity to the Hebrew and Arabicke signifieth Ciuitatem nouam The new city And indeed truth it is that _____ in the Arabicke dialect and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Kariat hadátha in the Syrian doth signifie A new city or castle Hereupon it is that Stephanus nameth it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 NOVAM VRBEM The new city He moreouer calleth it OENVSSA CACABE and CADMEIA but vpon what ground and authority I know not Cadmeia peraduenture it was named of the Hebrew 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which in that language as also in the rest of the orientall tongues deriued from hence signifieth the East or first and chiefest both which may well agree to this city for the first
that after his death by the triall of Hoate Iron she would approue to the view of the world how wrongfully he was put to death The day came when as the Emperour sate to heare the causes and complaints of widdowes and Orphanes Together with these came the late Countesse bringing in her hand the Earles head and demandeth what death that Iudge is worthy of that had put a man to death wrongfully The Emperour answered He is worthy to lose his head She saith Thou art the same man who at the false suggestion of thy wife didst vniustly cause my husband to be beheaded The which when as the widdow approued vnto him by the maner of triall by hoat iron the Emperour yeelded himselfe into the hands of the widdow willing to abide his deserued punishment Notwithstanding by the mediation of the Bishop and the Nobility he obtained of the Countesse respite for tenne daies then for eight then for seuen lastly for six After the end of which daies the Emperour hauing examined the matter and being assured of the truth gaue sentence against his wife that she should be burned at a stake and giuing foure castles vnto the widdow redeemed his life These castles are in the Bishopricke of Luna in Hetruria or Tuscane and they are called after the names of the daies of repreeue The tenth The eighth The seuenth and The sixth Thus farre Syffridus which I thought good to set down in this place for to my knowledge no man els hath left any record of these castles neither are they named in this Mappe by our Authour notwithstanding that he hath described the country most curiously FLORENTINI DOMINII FIDELISSIMA ET NOVA DESCRIPTIO Auctore D. Stephano Monacho Montisoliueti The liberties of PERVGIA IOhannes Campanus writing of this country affirmeth that although he had trauailed and viewed many countries yet he neuer saw in all his life a more pleasant country and better manured then the country of Perugia All things seeme wast and wild to those that are farre off but if you shall come more neere nothing may be found more glorious either in respect of the husbandry of the land or wholesomnesse of the aire or fertility of the soile The riuer of Tiber runneth through the middest of this country and kindly watereth the same Not farre from which is the city Perugia situate vpon the Mount Apennine built long since as Trogus Pompeius affirmeth by the Achaians and of the twelue cities of Hetruria it is the chiefe It was called Augusta by the Emperour Augustus as the Capitall letters halfe a yeard square grauen vpon the gate do declare This city in regard of the nature of the place is inuincible richly beautified both with religious and priuate buildings of great state and is very populous This city aboue all the cities of Italie hath been euermore most fortunate and happie hauing retained the same state and gouernment little or nothing altered which it enioied before the building of Rome and that which afterward it had in the time when Rome was ruled by Kings Consuls Emperours and Tyrants at this time it reteineth Yet it hath endured many and diuers greeuous and bitter storms For in the time when Fabius Maximus was Consull as Liuie reporteth 4500. of his citizens were slaine In the daies of the Triumuiri Augustus besiedged it and forced it to great distresse for want of victualls tooke it and rased it to the ground and was wholly defaced with fire except only the Temple of Vulcane as Appian recordeth Afterward it endured the seuen yeares siedge and batterie of the cruell Tyrant Totilas and at length was sacked and spoiled c. Now it is subiect to the Pope of Rome and hath a famous Vniuersitie which was erected about the yeare of CHRIST 1290. as Middendorpius hath written Heere in the time of our grandfathers flourished the most renowmed Ciuilians Bartholus and Baldus In the precincts of this city is Lago di Perugia the lake of Perugia anciently called LACVS TRASVMENVS famous long since for a great ouerthrow heere giuen by Hanniball to the Romanes Appianus calleth it Lacus Plestinus but for what reason I know not It is in compasse as the foresaid Campanus writeth about thirtie miles The water of it is very cleare and pure there are no riuers which runne into it neither hath it any issue forth yet is his water so exceeding sweet that any man would thinke it were fedde from some running fountaine It hath in it three Isles whereof two which are toward the North are close together the one called the Greater the other the Lesser Maiores and Minores This is wast and not in habited only it hath a Church situate vpon the toppe of an hill The other which is neere to the liberties of Cortona conteineth about 200. families The third which is toward the South and is bigger then the other two is very populous and well inhabited The inhabitants almost giue themselues wholly to Fishing they sow little Corne yet they do not neglect to plant vines For wood fuell and fodder they go out into the fields and woods neere adioining Amongst the records of Lewis first Emperour of Rome there is mention of these three Ilands where he nameth them MAIOR MINOR and PVLVENSIS now Polueso where I perceiue that they yet retaine their ancient names No boggs fennes or spuing meeres do impech the shore this is full of Oliue gardens which vpon the hills on euery side do adorne the Lake and are for their wonderfull fertility very beautifull In the plaine which is between the Lake and the Hilles there is such abundance of Hempe and Flax so that in all Hetruria or Tuscane there is not more No country yeldeth better Wines or sweeter Apples The kinds of Fishes in the lake are not many but the abundance is wonderfull in which it farre excelleth all other Lakes of Italie heere also the fishing continueth all the yeare long yea euen in the dead of winter which no other Lake in all Italie affoordeth These fish in the winter are caried into Tuscane Vmbria and Picenta to Rome also they driue much cattell daily to be sold The same Campanus affirmeth that heere they take a pickerell partly coloured spotted with diuers green specks of the which he reporteth strange wonders namely that it doth engender with serpents and from thence it getteth those strange colours The common people saith Iacobus Greumus in the twentieth chapter of his first booke verily beleeueth that lampreies do engender with serpents which Plinie holdeth for a fable notwithstanding that hee often seemeth to be much delighted in writing of fables Athenaeus also writeth out of the report of one Andreas that these Lampreies which are bred of the viper if they bite the wound is deadly which opinion he afterward reclaimeth as false Againe he telleth of a Pike that lying vpon the drie land which when a fox assaied to catch one of his feetstooke fast in his teeth and both were
the second booke of Chronicles But there being three Arabiaes Deserta Felix and Petraea we are especially in respect of the neerenesse and neighbourhood of it to Iudaea to speake of the later in this place ARABIA PETRAEA tooke the name of Petra the Metropolitane city of this prouince and place of residence of their Kings This also was called NABAIOTH by the Hebrews of Nabaioth the sonne of Ismaël Esa 60. Ezech. 27. whereupon the name and appellation of Nabataea arose amongst the old Historiographers It sometime did belong to the Edomites and Amalechites and was a part of their lands and country Whereupon the Israelites by the commandement of God were constrained to passe by this country Saint Hierome saith that Petra the city is of the Hebrews called Iacteel and of the Syrians Recem This country by reason of the passage of the children of Israel through it and the great workes and wonders of God done in it is very famous and oft mentioned in the holy Scriptures The places of it oft spoken of in the booke of God are these The Red sea Exod. 13.14.15.23 Num. 11.14.21.33 Deut. 1.2.11 Iosu 2.24 Psalm 77.105.113 Act. 7.1 Cor. 10. Sur and Mara Exod. 15. Elim Exod. 15.16 There were twelue wels and seuenty palme trees of which Strabo doth speake in the sixteenth booke of his Geography The wildernesse of Sin Exod. 16. Arabia Petraea in many places was a vast and horrible desert as is apparant out of the first and eight chapters of Deuteronomy of which there are also diuers other testimonies euery where to be obserued Sinay Exod. 16. Raphidim Exod. 17.19 Horeb Exod. 3.17 Obserue in this place that Horeb was part of those mountaines which the Greekes call Mélanas that is the Blacke hils which are of such a wonderfull height that vpon the toppe of them the sunne may be descried at the fourth watch of the night that is about three of foure of the clocke in the morning an houre or two before her appearance to those which dwell in the plaine But Sinay was the East part or ridge of mount Horeb. This is proued by these places of Scripture Exod. 33. Deut. 4.5.9.10.29 Psalm 105. Actor 7. In Deut. 33. Sinay is called the hill Pharan and in Exod. 18. the Holy mount Moreouer there is mention made of the hill and wildernesse of Sinay almost in euery chapter throughout the whole bookes of Exodus and Leuiticus and in the two and thirtith chapter of Deuteronomy it is againe spoken of The country round about it is called the Wildernesse of Sinay Num. 9.10.26 Amalec Exod. 17. Num. 14.24 Deut. 25. Madian Exod. 18. Num. 10. Act. 7. The Graues of lust and Haseroth Num. 11.12 Deut. 1. Pharan Num. 12.20 Deut. 1.33 The Desert of Zin Num. 13.20.26 Deut. 32. The Desert of Cades and Cadesbarne Num. 13.20.26.32.34 Deut. 1 9. Iosu 10.15 Horma Num. 14.21 Hor Num. 20. Deut. 32. The Waters of strife Num. 20.26 Oboth Ieabarim Zared the Brooke Mathana Nahaliel Bamoth Num. 21. Deut. 2. Also of Zared and Seir mention is made in Num. 24. Deut. 1.2.33 Iosu 24. Tophel and Laban Deut. 1. Elath Deut. 2. Asiongaber Deut. 2.3 Kings 22.2 Paral. 8. Beroth Mosera Gadgad Iatebatha Deut. 10. In the three and thirtith chapter of Numbers the foure and twenty mansions or places of abode where the children of Israel in that their tedious peregrination between Aegypt and the Holy Land pitched their tents are recited by name Which mansions and encamping places of theirs were greatly famoused with many miracles and wonderfull workes of God which he wrought there in the sight of that peruerse and froward generation These places were not remote one from another by equall distances as is very probable by these places of the Old Testament Exod. 14.15.19 Num. 10.14.33 Neither did the people of Israel being led through this wildernesse vp and downe euer crosse the first way which they had gone before but by winding turning this way and that way they came thrise to the Red-sea as may easily be demonstrated out of the three and thirtieth of Numbers the second of Deuteronomy and the eleuenth of Iudges These do necessarily appertaine to the vnderstanding of the tract of that their iourney and orderly placing of those forsaid mansions and resting places Of SYRIA and PHOENICIA Although in old time the name of SYRIA and the bounds thereof were more large yet that is properly called Syria which is enclosed within the mount Amanus Monte Negro Postellus calleth it a part of the riuer Euphrates Iudaea and the Phoenician sea PHOENICIA a part of Syria famous by many reasons and accidents amongst his more notable cities had Tyre and Sidon But the chiefe or Metropolitane city of COELESYRIA Hollow Syria or Holland in Syria we may call it lying Eastward from Iudaea was Damascus oft mentioned both in holy and prophane writers Of which places we haue spoken of in Palaestina Thus farre Stella the authour of this Mappe hath discoursed vpon the same Of the old Palaestina read Saint Hierome and that which the learned B. Arias Montanus hath written of it in his Chaleb Iacobus Zieglerus Wolfangus Wissenburgius and Michaêl Aitzinger haue described the same in seuerall and peculiar treatises Iosephus in the six and seuen bookes of the warres of the Iewes Adam Reisner in seuen bookes and Christianus Adrichomius haue described Ierusalem the chiefe city of Palaestina IEWRY and ISRAEL An exposition with an history or discourse vpon certaine places of this Mappe ADER or Eder a tower The Iewes do call a flocke or herd Eder although others do thinke that the word rather signifieth a defect or want and I know not whether it do in those places signifie a floore or plot of ground I meane that which the Latines do call Aream In this place some write that the natiuity or birth of our Sauiour Christ was by the Angels told vnto the Shepheards Beersabe the well of the oth or the well of confirmation made by an oth so called for that Abimelech King of Gerar made a couenant neere this place first with Abraham Gen. 21. then with Isaac Gen. 26. Againe Iacob going into Aegypt when he came vnto this well he was encouraged and commanded by a voice from heauen that he should boldly go downe into Aegypt and not feare God promising him that out of his seed should come the Captaine or Leader of the Gentiles and the Redeemer of Israel Gen. 46. It is also called the Fountaine of fulnesse or saturity for Agar the handmaid of Abraham when she was with her sonne Ismaël cast out by Sara her mistresse she wandred vp and downe in this place ready to die presently with her sonne for want of drinke but the Angell shewed her this well whereby she with the child drunke their fill and were satisfied Gen. 21. Neither is that Beersabee Gen. 22.3 King 13. diuerse from this BETHANIA the house of obedience or the house of affliction or the house
yeeld Strabo also maketh these ilands rich in Hides or Leather Do not then these three whose plentifull store hath made ENGLAND at this day so famous all the world ouer manifestly proue that they all pointed and aimed at Britaine For what country or prouince is there in the whole globe of the Earth that is so rich in Pelts and Leather or hath such plenty of fine wooll as ENGLAND hath The same Strabo affirmeth that in the Cassiterides they digge not very deep for mettals Pliny saith that they are found in the very sourd of the earth That these do speake both of the same thing who doth not see By these I gather That the Phoenicians in times past and Spaniards did for trafficke saile through the straights of Gibraltar vnto this iland and for Tinne Lead and Pelts bring in for exchange Brasen vessels and Salt like as afterward the Romanes when Caesar had subdued it vsed to do the next way ouer land by France Therefore it was then first knowen to the Romanes by the name of Britannia which before that certaine ages passed was very famous amongst the Phoenicians by the name of Cassitera Appianus a reuerend authour who liued about the time of Hadrian the Emperour writeth that the Spaniards did forbeare to trauell vpon the West and North ocean but when they were forced into Britaine by the violence of the tide That heere he nameth Britaine Cassitera I make no question but that name was then worne out of vse and this as I thinke it very likely was growen in request and better knowne Let the learned see and at their better leisure consider whether that Sextus Rufus Auienus doth not describe these ilands vnder the name of OESTRYMNIDVM Surely I am of that opinion he doth For he saith that these Oestrymniades are very rich of lead and tinne and that the country people do make shippes of Leather in which they saile vpon the maine sea What is this else then that which Pliny reporteth That the Britanes do go to sea in shippes made of wickers and couered ouer with raw hides and doth not Caesar in his first booke de Bello ciuili affirme that the Britans did vse to make the keele and ribbes of their ships of some light wood the other part being radled with osiers or roddes was couered with leather This iland the Romanes as Dion and Xiphiline do testifie diuided into the HIGHER containing all that part which is toward the South and the LOVVER toward the North. In the Almagest of Ptolemey this is called MINOR The Lesser and that MAIOR The Greater and that about the time of Seuerus Emperour of Rome But in the raigne of Valentinian the Emperour I find in Sextus Rufus that it was distinguished by these names BRITANNIA PRIMA The First BRITANNIA SECVNDA The Second BRITANNIA MAXIMA The Greater CAESARIENSIS and FLAVIA The booke of Remembrances Notiar and Ammianus do adde VALENTIA which others as Orosius Claudian and Hegesippus call SCOTIA Scotland Xiphilinus in Seuerus referreth the people generally to these two nations MAEATAI and CALEDONII for the names of the rest may as he saith welnigh be reduced to these two Yet this must needes be false except he meane it particularly of Valentia the later part He that desireth to know the seuerall Nations of this iland as then it was inhabited let him haue recourse to Ptolemeys Geography and this our Mappe into which we haue packed those things which we haue gathered heere and there dispersed in Caesars Commentaries Tacitus Pausanias and Ammianus and he shal be satisfied to the full But wilt not thou be deceiued take the learned M. Camden for thy guide and then I will warrant thy safe conduct Thus farre of the names of these ilands now let vs speake in like manner of the iles themselues and first of the greatest of them which we said was called Britannia BRITANNICARVM INSVLARVM TYPVS Ex conatibus Geographicis Abrah Ortelij Cum privileg decen 1595. NATALIBVS INGENIO ET DOCTRINA ILLVSTRI REVERENDOQVE DOMINO D. GEORGIO AB AVSTRIA PRAEPOSITO HARLEBECENSI AC SERENISS PRINCIPI CARDINALI ARCHIDVCI A CVBICVLIS Abrah Ortelius R. M. Geog. L. M. dedicab Caesar and Diodorus Siculus do giue out that it is wonderfull populous But from whence the people and first inhabitants came whether they were home-borne indigenae or come from other countries it is not knowen as Tacitus hath written The inner partes higher within the land are inhabited of those which they say were borne and bred there the sea coasts are possessed of those which came thither from Belgium the Low countries all of them almost are called by the names of those cities and prouinces from whence they came and where they were bred as Caesar reporteth This his opinion Ptolemey doth confirme who in this I le also doth name and describe the Belgae and Attrebates Tacitus auoucheth that in that the Caledonij a people in Scotland are red haired and bigge limmed it is a manifest argument that they are come of the stocke of the Germaines Their well coloured complections curled heads and country opposite to the coast of Spaine do proue that the ancient Iberi in former times had crossed the sea and seated themselues heere That the Galli or Gauls did enter vpon those coasts neere to their country it is very probable by their ceremonies superstitious opinions and similitude of languages Zozimus in his first booke writeth that the Emperour Probus sent into this iland all the Burgundians and Vandals that he could suppresse and take aliue that heere they might dwell and seat themselues The Saxons and other nations which entered this land I do of purpose omit because these were of later times and but the other day we only determined to touch those things that were of greater antiquity Generally the inhabitants of this I le in those daies were all vnciuill and rude and as they were more farther remote from the maine continent so they had lesse knowledge of forren wealth and were lesse desirous of the same That the Britans were more valiant and hardy than the Gauls we learne out of Tacitus that they were more taller of stature than they Strabo doth affirme That they vsed strangers discurteously Horace reporteth Claudianus the poet nameth this ile saeua Britannia tyrannous Britaine And the same authour in his Panegyricus for the Consulship of Honorius calleth the people saeuos Britannos cruell Britans Quid in his second book of Loue nameth them virides Britannos the green Britans in the fifteenth booke of his Metamorphosis Aequoreos Britannos the Britans of the sea They weare their haire long all their body in what part soeuer being shauen beside their head and vpper lippe The same authour saith that for nature and quality they are for the most part all alike yet some are more plaine and simply minded others more rude and barbarous so that although they haue great store of milke yet they know not how to
ouer For this I remember I haue read in Ouid Marcell Comit. and others sometime to haue happened Aristotle in his Problemes writeth That it is whiter than other seas yet the Greekes now call it Maurothalassa and likewise the Turkes Caradenis that is as Lucian doth interpret them both Mare nigrum the Blacke sea Contrariwise mare Aegeum the Archipelago or Mediterran sea the Turkes call Acdeniz and the vulgar Greekes Aspra thalassa both signifying as the learned Leunclaw expoundeth them Mare album the white sea Aelianus in his Varia historia writeth That it breedeth no tender or soft shelfish but very seldome and those very few It feedeth no Whales only certaine small seales and pretty little dolphins sometimes are heere taken as Plutarch in his Morals hath left recorded There is no rauenous creature that praieth vpon fish doth liue in it beside seales and dolphines as Pliny writeth Strabo in the seuenth booke of his Geography saith That there are about 40. riuers which comming from diuers quarters do vnload themselues into it Yet we in this our Mappe do point at a great many more beside The cities vpon the coast of this sea more famous are BYZANTIVM Constantinople of which we will say nothing in this place because we haue before in the mappe of Thrace written of it at large in respect of the narrownesse of the place which is assigned for such like purposes Then TOMOS Tomisuar as Calcagninus or Kiouia as Ciofánus thinketh famous by the banishment and exile of the noble poet Ouid. BORYSTHENES otherwise called Olbia and Miletopolis Strapenor a city in Sarmatia Europaea situate at the mouth of the riuer Boristhenes of which Dion Prusaeus hath spoken much that I may omit others in his 16. oration DIOSCVRIAS which was also called Sebastopolis built if you will giue any credit to poeticall fables by the waggoners of Castor and Pollux it is yet to this day knowen by the name of Sauatopoli or Sauastopoli This city was in times past so famous as Pliny telleth out of Timosthenes that there ordinarily resorted vnto it 300. seuerall nations speaking so many different languages so that the Romanes for the dispatch of all matters for their state did maintaine there 130. interpretours There are heere many other cities which were nothing so renowmed as TRAPEZVS now vulgarly called TREBIZONDA of the Turkes Tarabasson but of the barbarous nations neere adioining as Theuet reporteth Waccamah CERASVS Cherasoda or as the barbarous people call it Omidie PHARNACEA Platena AMISVS Amid or Hemid or as Niger thinketh Simiso SINOPE Pordapas yet the Turkes to this day call it Sinabe HERACLEA Aupop and Pendarachia and oueragainst Constantinople where we began is CHALCEDON Chalcidona or as the Turkes terme it Caltitiu a free city and of great command in those daies but now as P. Gyllius saith it is a small street without any mention of wals Vpon the West side of this sea the Thracians did dwell vpon the South the Asians as the Bithynians Galatians and Cappadocians The Colchi did possesse the Eastern coast All along generally vpon the North aswell in Europe as Asia inhabited the Sarmatians and Scythians distinguished into diuers and sundry nations amongst these are the Tauroscythians which tooke their name from thence and their Cherronnesus or demy-ile vulgarly knowen by the name of Taurica Cherronnesus and Scythica Cherronnesus Appianus nameth it Pontica Cherronnesus the demy-ile of Pontus which Pliny writeth was sometime inuironed round with the sea For forme and quality it is compared and thought to be much like Peloponnesus Strabo from the mouth or relation of others hath left written that it was sometime annexed to the maine land by an isthmos or neckeland of 360. furlongs in length The country toward Metopon Frons Arietis the rammes head is rough mountainous and much subiect to Northren stormes cold and violent blasts Neere to Theodosia Caffa or Cofe as the Turkes write it a city situate vpon the sea whose hauen is so capacious and large that it is able to entertaine an hundred tall shippes at once it is a good and fertile soile Athenaeus writeth that bulbi certaine bolled rootes which do grow heere of their owne accord are so sweet and pleasant that they may be eaten raw In it also is the hill Berosus where as Pliny witnesseth are three wels of which whosoeuer drinketh he dieth without any griefe and without any remedy Plutarch in Tanais maketh mention of an oile made in this mountaine Berosus which the country people do presse out of a certaine plant which they call Halinda With this oile they annoint themselues and then being once warme they feele not the cold although it be neuer so bitter The same authour telleth of the hearb Phryxa which groweth about Borea antrum the caue Borea which if the stepchildren shall haue about them they shall suffer no wrong at their stepmothers hand This hearb is colder than Snow yet as soone as euer the stepmothers shall go about to wrong their sonne in lawes it presently casteth out flames of fire and by that meanes they shunne all eminent dangers and causes of feare Thus far of Cherronnesus Taurica They which take any pleasure in fables or fictions of poets belonging to this Pontus or spoken of the same let them haue recourse to Senecan Medra or the Iphigenia of Euripides and others that haue written of the voiages of the Argonautes or the story of Iasons Golden fleece But before I leaue this sea I thinke it not amisse to put thee in mind what Iosephus writeth in the 11. chapter of his 9. booke of the Antiquity of the Iewes Hee there saith that Ionas the Prophet being deuoured and swallowed vp of the whale about Issicus finus Golfo de Atazzo a bay of the mediterran sea neere to Issus a city of Silicia which now they vulgarly call Atazzo was after three daies cast vp againe into this Euxine sea aliue vnhurt or any way perished One part of this his relation I will beleeue if you will beleeue the other Robertus Constantinus in his supplement of the Latine tongue saith that Lamia was a fish Of the fenne MAEOTIS Mar delle Sabacche it is commonly called now a daies the Italians of a towne abuttant vpon it name it Mar della Tana and Mar bianco the white sea of the Scythians it is called Carpaluc of the Arabians Bohari'lazach as Baptista Ramusius witnesseth beside other Geographers read Polyb. in his 4. booke and Arist in the end of his 1. booke and beginning of the 2. of his Meteor The length of it is 6000. as Themistius Euphrada writeth In this sea there are not many ilands yet these are not all inhabited or manured and the people which dwell in them do liue very poorly for they vse the flesh of great fishes dried in the sunne and then beaten and stamped to powder in steed or meale for bread for as Pomponeus saith they yeeld no great store of prouision for victuals ΠΟÎΤΟΣ ΕΥΞΕΙÎΟΣ
FRance fol. xj The Foundation of the Empire fol. xxxviij xxxix France fol. xliijj G. GEographia Sacra fol. j. The Geography of Holy Writers fol. j. The Geography of the Ancients fol. vj. Goodwins sands fol. ix Gallia described by Strabo fol. xj xij Gallia described by Caesar fol. xiij Germany fol. xv xvj Great Greece fol. xxij Graecia fol. xxvij Great Britaine fol. xlij Galizia fol. xliij H. THe Holy land fol. ij Hibernia fol. ix Hellas fol. xxvij I. IVdaea fol. iij. Iewry fol. iij. Israël fol. iij. Ireland fol. ix Illyris fol. xvij Italy fol. xviij Italy of the Gaules fol. xix Isole de Trimite fol. xxij Icaria fol. xxviij Ilands of the Ioniā sea fol. xxix Iasons voyage fol. xxxv Ireland fol. xlj K. The Kings Monastery f. xl L. THe Low countreis fol. xiiij Latium fol. xxj Lesbos fol. xxviij Lemnos fol. xxviij Limbourgh fol. xlv M. MAn fol. ix Monte Circello fol. xxij Magna Graecia fol. xxij Moesia fol. xxiiij Mar Maiore fol. xxv Mona fol. xlvj N. THe Nauigation or voyage of Aeneas fol. xxxiij O. THe Orkeney iles fol. ix The Oracle of Iupiter Ammon fol. xxxij P. PAlestina fol. ij The Peregrination of S. Paul fol. iiij The Peregrination of Abraham fol. v. Pannonia fol. xvij Pontus Euxinus fol. xxv The Peregrination of Vlysses fol. xxxiiij The Paradise of Thessaly fol. xxxvj The Paradise of Antiochia in Syria fol. xxxvij R. THe Roman world f. vij The Roman empire f. vij Rhodus f. xxviij Rhenia f. xxviij S. SHepey fol. ix Spaine fol. x. Sicilia fol. xxiij Samos fol. xxviij Sardinia fol. xxix Sardegna fol. xxix T. TEnet fol. ix Tuscia or Tuscane fol. xx Trinacria fol. xxiij Thrace fol. xxvj Tempe Thessalica fol. xxxvj V. THe Voyage of Alexander the Great fol. xxxij The Voyage or nauigation of Aeneas fol. xxxiij W. The West Iles. fol. ix Spectandum dedit Ortelius mortalib orbem Orbi spectandum Galleus Ortelium Papius Α Χ Ρ Ω VITAE SCOPVS A DESCRIPTION OF THE WHOLE WORLD THIS Map next ensuing containeth and representeth the portraiture of the whole earth and of the maine Ocean that enuirons compasseth the same all which earthly Globe the Ancients who were not as then acquainted with the New world not long since descried diuided into three parts namely Africa Europe and Asia But since that discouery of America the learned of our age haue made that a fourth part and the huge Continent vnder the South pole a fifth Gerardus Mercator the Prince of moderne Geographers in his neuer-sufficiently-commended vniuersall Table or Map of the whole world diuides this Circumference of the earth into three Continents the first he calles that which the Ancients diuided into three parts and from whence the holy Writ beares record that mankinde had their first originall first was seated the second is that which at this present is named America or the VVest Indies for the third he appoints the South maine which some call Magellanica as yet on very few coasts thorowly discouered That this orbe or masse of the earthly Globe containes in circuit where it is largest 5400 German or 21600 Italian miles antiquity hath taught late Writers haue subscribed to their opinion And these so manifold portions of earth sayth Plinie in the 11. booke of his Naturall historie yea rather as some haue termed them the pricke or center of the world for so small is the earth in comparison of the whole frame of the world this is the matter this is the seat of our glorie Here we enioy honours here we exercise authoritie here we hunt after riches here men turmoile and tire themselues here we moue and maintaine ciuill dissensions and by mutuall slaughter make more roome vpon the earth And to let passe the publike tumults of the world this in which we force the borderers to giue place and remoue farther off and where we incroch by stelth vpon our neighbors lands as he that extends his lands lordships farthest and cannot abide that any should seat themselues too neere his nose How great or rather how small a portion of earth doth he enioy Or when he hath glutted his auarice to the full How little shall his dead carcase possesse Thus far Plinie The situation of this earth and sea the disposition of the seuerall regions with their inlets and gulfs the maners and inclinations of the people and other memorable and note-worthy matters are described by men of ancienter times such as follow PTOLEMEY of ALEXANDRIA CAIVS PLINIVS 2 3 4 5 and 6 books of his Natural history ARISTOTELES DE MVNDO written and dedicated to Alexander the Great STRABO in 17. books SOLINVS POLYHISTOR POMPONIVS MELA DIONYSIVS APHER and his Expositor EVSTATHIVS APVLEIVS in his booke of the World DIODORVS SICVLVS in his fiue former books MARTIANVS CAPELLA PAVLVS OROSIVS in the beginning of his History AETHICVS and another of that name surnamed SOPHISTA not yet printed IVLIVS the Oratour called by Cassiodore PRIMVS BEROSVS described the antiquitie of the World ANTONIVS AVGVSTVS if the title be true set downe the Iournals of the Romane empire SEXTVS AVIENVS the sea-coasts STEPHANVS the cities VIBIVS SEQVESTER in an Alphabeticall order the Riuers Fountaines Lakes Woods Hilles and Nations thereof TYPVS ORBIS TERRARVM QVID EI POTEST VIDERI MAGNVM IN REBVS HVMANIS CVI AETERNITAS OMNIS TOTIVSQVE MVNDI NOTA SIT MAGNITVDO CICERO HOMINES HAC LEGE SVNT GENERATI QVI TVERENTVR ILLVM GLOBVM QVEM IN HOC TEMPLO MEDIVM VIDES QVAE TERRA DICITVR Cicero EQVVS VEHENDI CAVSA ARANDI BOS VENANDI ET CVSTODIENDI CANIS HOMO AVTEM ORTVS AD MVNDVM CONTEMPLANDVM Cicero HOC EST PVNCTVM QVOD INTER TOT GENTES FERRO ET IGNI DIVIDITVR O QVAM RIDICVLI SVNT MORTALIVM TERMINI Seneca VTINAM QVEMADMODVM VNIVERSA MVNDI FACIES IN CONSPECTVM VENIT ITA PHILOSOPHIA TOTA NOBIS POSSET OCCVRRERE Seneca EVROPA WHy Europe should be so called or who was the first Authour of this name no man as yet hath found out vnlesse sayth Herodotus in his fourth booke we should thinke that the whole region borrowed this name from Europa daughter to the King of Epyrus This Plinie calleth the Nurse of the victorious and conquering people of all other nations of the world most beautifull and farre surpassing the rest and so it is sometimes compared to Asia and Africa not for his greatnesse and compasse but for his might and power Certaine it is that this part being most plentifully inhabited is for multitude of nations inferiour to neither of the other The North and Westerne sides hereof are bathed by the Ocean the South coast is disioyned from Africa by the Mediterranean sea Then Eastward by the Aegaean sea now called Archipelago by the Euxin sea named at this present Mar Maggiore by the lake of Maeotis now termed Mar delle Zabacche by the riuer Tanais commonly called Don and by the Isthmus or straight of the maine land
which is from the head or fountaine of this riuer directly vnto the North Ocean it is diuided from Asia according to the opinion of Glarean And thus it beares the shape of a Peninsula which signifies a place of the earth almost disioyned and cut from the Continent and so well neere on euery side enuironed with waters as in the Table it selfe is manifest The head hereof Rome was whilome conqueresse of the earth The regions thereof as they are now called are Spaine France Germanie Italie Slauonia Greece Hungarie Poland with Lithuania Moscouia or more significantly Russia and that Peninsula which conteineth Norway Sweden and Gotland Among the Isles thereof the first place is due to Britany conteining England and Scotland then followes Ireland Groenland Frisland and Island all situate in the maine Ocean In the Mediterran sea it hath Sicilia Sardinia Corsica Candia Maiorica Minorica Corfu Negropont and others of lesse note the particular names and situations whereof are to be seene in the Table This our Europe besides the Roman Empire reuerenced of all the world hath in all if you adde those foureteene which Damianus à Goes reckens vp only in Spaine eight and twentie Christian Kingdomes whereby you may estimate the worthinesse of this region It is a place out of measure fruitfull and the naturall disposition of his aire is very temperate For all kindes of Graine for Wine and abundance of Woods it is inferior to none but comparable to the best of the others It is so pleasant and so beautified with stately Cities Townes and Villages that for the courage and valour of the people and seuerall nations although it be lesse in quantitie and circuit yet might it well be accounted and indeed of all ancient Writers hath it euer beene accounted superiour vnto the other parts of the World most renowmed also hath it beene both in regard of the Macedonian Empire and the great command and power of the Romans The praises thereof you may reade in Strabo who in his third booke and seuen bookes following hath most learnedly and excellently described it Peruse also other ancient Geographers Of late Writers amongst other things by the way Volateranus Sebastian Munster Dominicus Niger Georgius Rithaimerus in their Geographies haue endeuoured to paint it out in his colours But Pius the second Christopher Cella and Anselmus his brother haue described it a part and by it selfe Diuers Iournals ouer all Europe in a maner together with the distances of places haue beene committed to writing by Cherubin Stella John Herbacius and George Mayerus The like hath beene done by William Gratarolus in the end of his booke which is entitled De regimine iter agentium or A direction for trauellers AFRICA THis the Ancients haue diuersly distinguished but at this present it is diuided by Iohn Leo of Africa into foure chiefe parts Barbarie Numidia Libya and the Land of Negros BARBARIE which is accounted the best they circumscribe with the Atlantick Mediterranean seas with mount Atlas with the region of Barcha bordering vpon Aegypt NVMIDIA called by the inhabitants Biledulgerid and abounding with Dates for which cause the Arabians call it by no other name but the Date-bearing region is bounded Westward by the Atlantick Ocean Northward by mount Atlas it stretcheth East as farre as the citie Eloacat which is an hundred miles distant from Aegypt and the sandie Deserts of Libya embrace it on the South LIBYA the third part is named in the Arabian tongue Sarra which word signifies a Desert It beginnes East from Nilus and thence runneth West as farre as the Atlantick sea Numidia lies to the North of it and the Land of Negros to the South Now followeth the fourth part which they call NIGRITARVM terra either from the inhabitants which are of a blacke colour or from the riuer Niger that runneth thorow the countrey It is confined North by Libya South by the Aethiopick Ocean West by Gualata and East by the Kingdome of Gaoga And here we are to note that according to this their diuision all Africa is included within the Mediterran Atlantick and Aethiopick seas and the riuer Nilus wherefore Aegypt and Aethiopia are accounted parts of Asia which we notwithstanding thinke more properly to belong to Africa For the true Aethiopia containes at this day Presbyter Iohns Empire which by all late Writers is ascribed to Africa We therefore with Ptolemey iudge that it ought to be bounded by the Mediterran and Ocean seas rather than by any riuer whatsoeuer and so it hath the forme of a Peninsula being ioyned to Asia by an Isthmos or small neck-land which lies betweene the Mediterran sea and the gulfe of Arabia The South part hereof was vnknowen to our ancestours till the yeere 1497 whereas Vasco de Gama first doubling the Cape de buona speranza or of good hope and sailing about Africa came to Calicut in East India This Southern part by the Persians and Arabians is called Zanzibar At the foresayd Cape of good hope the inhabitants are exceeding blacke which we thought in no wise to omit because all men suppose the cause of blacknesse to be heat and the nearenesse of the Sunne wheras here the Sunne scorcheth no more than about the Streight of Magellan if we measure the heat of the place according to the position of the heauens and distance from the Equinoctiall line where notwithstanding the people are reported to be maruellous white But if we will needs ascribe this blacknesse to the scorching heat of the Sun let vs consider what makes the Spaniards and Italians looke so white whenas they are equally distant from the Equinoctiall with the inhabitants of the foresayd Cape namely the one towards the South and the other towards the North. Presbyter Iohns people are of a browne colour in Zeilan and Malabar the inhabitants are coale blacke yet all in one the same distance from the aequator and vnder the very same parallele of the heauens * And on the contrary why did Herodotus and Pindarus describe such as inhabited the same climate with themselues namely Colchis to be of a blacke colour and curled haire Herodotus in his Thalia makes the Indians blacke like the Aethiopians which the experience of our times confirmeth I know Herodotus will haue the cause hereof to be the seed of the parents which he sayth is not white as that of other people but blacke To whom Postellus also subscribeth and imputeth the originall of this blacknesse vnto Chams curse Against which opinion I haue nothing to allege Let the trueth of the matter rest vpon the authours credit But this a man may thinke more strange that in all America there were no blacke people found besides a few only in one place called by them Quareca What then is the efficient cause of this colour Is it the drinesse of the heauen or of the earth Is it perhaps some hidden propertie of the soile Or a kind of qualitie inherent to the nature of men
as appeares out of the Map by an Ocean so huge and to the Indians so vnnauigable Also what else may we coniecture to be signified by this word Norumbega the name of a North region of America but that from Norway signifying a North land some Colonie in times past hath hither beene transplanted But why in mine opinion the maine Ocean was neuer sailed by ancient Nauigatours I haue declared in my Thesaurus Geographicus speaking of OPHIR All this part of the World except the North tract thereof whose Coasts are not yet discouered hath in these last times beene sailed round about From North to South it stretcheth in forme of two Peninsulae or Demi-isles which are seuered by a very narrow Isthmos or neck-neck-land The Northermost of the two conteineth New Spaine the prouince of Mexico the countrey of Florida and New-found-land But the Southermost which the Spaniards call Terra firma containes Perú and Brasil A description of all which regions the studious in Geography may reade in Leuinus Apolonius in the Decads of Peter Martyr and in Maximilianus Transsiluanus who writ all in Latine Also to this purpose you haue many things worthy the obseruation in the Iesuites Epistles and in Maffeius his story of the Indies Postellus also promiseth Discourses of West-Indie-matters and so doth Fredericus Furius Caeriolanus These that follow haue purposely written of America but all in their mother-languages and for the most part in Spanish but the better halfe of them are translated into Italian PEDRO CIEçA DE LEON GONSALVO FERNANDO DE OVIEDO FERNANDO CORTEZ PETER ALVARADO DIEGO GODOYA ALVAREZ NVNNEZ NVNNEZ DE GVSMAN FRANCIS VLLOA FRANCIS VASQVEZ DE CORONADO ANTONIE MENDOçA FRIER MARCO DE NIZZA FERNANDO ALARCHON FRANCIS XERES IOHN VERARZANO AMERICO VESPVTIO FRANCIS LOPEZ DE GOMARA IEROME BENZO in Italian IAQVES CARTHIER and ANDREVV THEVET wrote in French IOHN STADEN in Dutch Diuerse of which Authours and many that haue written since are translated into English in the third volume of M. Hakluyts English Voyages AMERICAE SIVE NOVI ORBIS NOVA DESCRIPTIO Vlterius Septentrionem versus hae regiones incognitae adhuc sunt The peaceable or the south sea called by the Spaniards MAR DEL SVR. THis sea albeit vnknowen yet was it not vnnamed by ancient writers for Plinie calles it Ecum and Orosius Orientale that is The East sea Ptolemey falsly termes it SINVM MAGNVM A great bay whereas he should haue nam'd it MARE MAGNVM A great sea For of all the seas in the world it is the greatest and the widest In Paulus Venetus it is described vnder the name of Mare Cin that is as I interpret it out of Nubiensis Arabs Bahci'ltzni vel alkini Mare Sinarum The sea of China and in Haithon Armenus whom elswhere we more truly call Antonie Curchino by the name of Mare Cathay Well therefore might it be named by the ancient and middle-age writers but neuer was it fully knowen and discouered till Fernando Magellan a Portugale sailed thereupon Seene it was indeed and as it were saluted in the yeere 1513 by Vasco Nunnez from the coast of Perú But Magellan in the yeere of our saluation 1520. hauing passed the streight by him found and called after his owne name which it hitherto retaineth for euery common Mariner calles it The Streight of Magellan with an heroick and Herculean courage entred this sea which vncertaine it is whether any shippe before his had euer stemmed For meditating a voyage to the isles of the Moluccos whereunto the Portugals vsually sailed from West to East and intending to make thither a shorter cut from East to West he came at length vnto them by this sea in one of which isles called Machian he was slaine in a skirmish The course of his voyage was this Departing from Siuil with fiue ships whereof one being his owne was called by a name of good presage Victoria he came to the fortunate or Canary-isles then to the Gorgones or Hesperides now termed The isles of Cape verde and thence to the Streight abouenamed which when he had found and past thorow he enters into this sea where with a fresh and prosperous gale hauing sailed vpon the maine 40. dayes together and beholding nothing but sea on all sides and still the sea when he had crossed the South tropick he descried two small barren and vnhabited isles where notwithstanding because they found good fishing they staied two dayes then departed calling them the Vnfortunate isles Now they are knowen by the name of Tuberones and the isles of S. Peter Then he proceeds on his nauigation in the space of 3. moneths and 20. dayes hauing sailed ouer this vast Ocean 2400. leagues he attained at length to the Aequinoctiall and thence to the desired Molucces And because as we haue said he had for the most part a prosperous no tempestuous wind he named this Pacificum or The peaceable sea now called by the common Mariner The South sea or Mar del Sur. Those that haue written of the New world say that this sea about those vnfortunate isles is most exceeding deepe and that neere vnto the coast of Perú it yeeldeth pearles and that there are in it 7449. isles so that some in our times not vnfitly haue called the Western part thereof Archipelagus or A sea thicke set with isles seeing this like the Aegean sea which is planted all ouer with the Cyclades the Sporades and many other islands and is called in the Italian tongue Archipelago is also with isles most notably replenished In the bottome of this sea Francis Vlloa and Antonie Digafetta do report that there growes a weed of 14. or 15. fathoms high within the water and that it riseth out of the water to the height of some 4. or 5. fathom so that sometimes you shall seeme not to saile thorow a sea but rather thorow a greene medow The place of Aristotle in his booke De Admirandis c. doth not much disagree from this where he writes of the Phoenicians which inhabited Gadyra that when they had sailed a while without the pillars of Hercules they arriued at certeine regions abounding with weeds and slime which were ouerflowed with the tides of the sea The very same affirmeth Iornandes in the beginning of his Getish history where he writes that none could saile thorow the Ocean being impassable in regard of weeds or turfs and for that cause vnknowen Yea Plinie and Antigonus out of Megasthenes haue left recorded that all the East Ocean growes full of woods And that the sea neere Portugale should beare Okes laden with mast Polybius reporteth in Athenaeus Also that the Bay-tree growes in the Red sea the same authour affirmes vpon the credit of Pythagoras Hereunto you may adde that of Theophrastus in his 4. booke of the history of Plants cap. 7.8.9 and the testimony of Aelianus lib 13. de Animal cap. 3. and Strabo lib. 16. and Plinie lib. 2. cap. 103. lib. 6. cap. 22. and lib. 13. cap.
thirtie THVLE Schetland Of these Brittish isles beside the ancient writers Tacitus and Caesar reade Henry Huntington Polydore Virgill Iohn Mayor Paulus Iouius Gregory Cenall in the 2. summa of his 3. booke de re Gallica Antony Sabellicus Enne 10. lib. 5. William Paradine Ieffrey of Monmouth Ponticus Verumius and Beda but especially M. William Camden Clarenceux his Britannia whom when thou hast discreetly read I doubt not but thou wilt thinke thou hadst particularly surueyed the whole ile ANGLIAE SCOTIAE ET HIBERNIAE SIVE BRITANNICAR INSVLARVM DESCRIPTIO Britannia oim insularum Occidentis Septentrionis maxima potentiss est cuius potiorem hodie partem Angliam vocamus ab Anglis videlicet Saxonum gente quae sub Valentiniano eam ingressa tenuit Haec veteribus Albion dicebatur ad differentiam quum reliquae oēs eò tractu Britannicae dicebantur Ab Occasu vicinam habet Hiberniam hodie Irlandiam appellatam regibus Angliae subditam Of SCOTLAND SCOTLAND the North part of Brittaine anciently called Albanie and is of the first inhabitants which they call the wilde Scots and dwell more in within the land retaining yet the old language at this day called Albaine was formerly called of the Romanes Britannia minor and secunda as Lhoyd doth gather out of Sextus Rufus This country is diuided into 2. parts by the rough craggy mount Grampius now Grantzbeen whereof Tacitus maketh mention For it begining at the German ocean neere the mouth of the riuer Dee coasting along by Aberden through the middest of the country toward the Irish-sea staieth at the lake Loumond This Mountaine was sometime the bound of the kingdome of the Pictes and Scottes Scotland is fuller of mountaines and more barren then England Yet euery where it hath many commodious ports and hauens For so is this country embraced of the armes of the sea that there is no house in it as Iohn Maior affirmeth which is aboue twentie leagues distant from the salt water In the vallies are Lakes meeres pooles riuers and fountaines well stored with sundrie sorts of fish In the mountaines are champion plaines yeelding great store of pasture for cattell and woods abounding with plenty of Deere By the meanes of which commodities it hath been so maintained that hitherto it might neuer be wholly conquered For in any eminent danger they presentlie flie to the woods and bogges for succour and refuge where they haue of venison and fish sufficient store for prouision of victuall Scotland hath many wonders whereof some we haue heere set downe out of Hector Boëthus In Galloway saith he is a lake called Myrtoun part of whose water in the winter freezeth as other waters do the other part was neuer knowne to haue beene frozen in the greatest frosts that euer were In the country of Carict there are very great and large Oxen whose flesh is verie tender and of a pleasant and delicat tast Besides that the fatte neuer waxeth hard but is alway thinne in the manner of liquid oile The Sea that washeth the coast of this prouince is very rich of oisters herrings congers cockels and other such like fishes In the prouince of Coyl about ten miles from the towne Aër is a Stone hardly twelue foot high of 33. cubites thicke called of the inhabitants The deafe stone For although you shall make neuer so great a noise nay if one shall shoote off a peece of ordinance on the one side it shall hardly be heard on the other side except one bee a good way off from it for then the sound may easily be perceiued In Lennox which Ptolemey calleth Lelgouia Lelannonia as I conceiue out of Ptolemey but I thinke our authour meant Selgouiae which is farre from this place there is a very great lake which they call Loumond aboue twenty foure miles long and eight miles broad It conteineth thirtie Ilands whereof diuers haue villages well inhabited with Churches and Chappels dedicated to the seruice of Almighty God In this three things are especially worth the obseruation For the fishes there most wholesome and good haue no sinnes The water oft times when the winds are most calme and still is so boisterous and rough that it affraieth the best experienced watermen from putting forth to crosse the same For the wind being alaied the boates are taken in their midde-course and are tossed with such danger that except some commodious hauen shall fortune to be neere hand many times they are ouerturned and cast away Lastly there is an iland in it very good pasture for the feeding of cattell which swimmeth and moueth euery way as the winds driue It is credibly reported that there is a stone which groweth in Argadia Argathelia or Argile which if it be couered but a while with straw or flax it will set it on fire At Slanis a castle in Buquhan there is a caue of a strange nature For the water that droppeth into it in continuance of time is turned into a very white stone and if within a certaine number of yeares they should not be taken out it would haue been long since filled vp with them In this prouince there is no ratte euer seene and if so be that any should be brought in thither it will not by any meanes liue there In the countrie of Fife great store of a kind of blacke stone is digged out of the earth we call it sea-coale a most excellent kind of fuell At the mouth of the riuer Forth in the maine sea there is a very high rocke out of whose toppe a spring of fresh water a great miracle of nature doth runne abundantlie About two miles distant from Edenburgh is a spring vpon the toppe of whose water dropps of oile do continually swimme in such sort that if you take none from off it there will be neuer the more and if you take ought from thence there will be neuer the lesse This oile is good against the roughnesse of the skinne Thus farre of the strange thinges of this Realme Scotland in the countrie of Drisdaile hath a mine of Gold in the which also is found that which they commonly call Lazure It hath also mines both of Iron and Lead The inhabitants which possesse the South part on this side the mount Grampius are more ciuill and humane and do speake the English tongue Those which dwell in the North parts are a rough and more hard kind of people they call them The wild-Scottes and do weare mantles and skirts died with Saffron after the Irish fashion and go barelegged They speake the Irish tongue And as the Language of Scotland is of two sorts so are their maners as diuers These Marianus Scotus calleth High-land-men the other I meane the wild-Scottes they call Low-land-men The chiefe city of Scotland is Edenburgh there is the kings seat and the castle of Maidens often mentioned in histories Saint Andrew and Aberdon are two Vniuersities The city Glasow is the Archbishops sea The towne of Perth commonly
called S. Iohns-toun is the onely towne in Scotland that is walled about Of the wood Caledon whereof Ptolemey and other ancient writers haue recorded There is scarcely any mention to be found onely about the towne of Sterling there remaineth some shew of the name Thus farre of the kingdome of Scotland now it will not be amisse to speake somewhat of the ilands that lie round about the same and do belong vnto that crowne The HEBRIDES commonly called the West-iles both for bignesse and number do excell the rest Hector Boëthus saith that they be in number 43. But heere he reckoneth vp the I le of Man as one of them which is not subiect to the kingdome of Scotland but is vnder the allegeance of the King of England neither do I thinke that it was euer accounted of the ancients among the Hebrides The first of the Hebrides is Aran otherwise called Boëth then Hellaw and Rothes Not farre from these is Alize where are great plenty of Barnacles which they call Soland-geese The greatest of all and the most famous is Ile a fertile soile for corne and rich for veines of mettall Then Cumber and Mule Neere vnto these is Ione memorable for the tombs of Kings long since buried there Next vnto this is Lewis last of all is Hirth situate in the 43. degree of latitude Thus Boethus calleth them But Iohn Maior the Scot nameth them thus Argila Aranea Awyna Butha or Rothsaya and Leuisora In these ilands are those geese which they call Clakes Gyraldus calleth them Bernacles which Boëthus affirmeth to breed of the sea and of rotten wood and not to grow vpon trees as the common sort beleeue and haue published in their writings For if you shall cast saith he a peece of wood into that sea in continuance of time first wormes do breed within the wood which by little and little become to haue heads feet wings at the last being fledge and growen to their full growth to the bignes of a goose they attempt to flie and do somtimes swim and sometimes vse their wings as other Sea-foule do Beyond the Hebrides are the ORCHADES or the Orkeney iles of which the best is Pomona famous for the Bishops-sea a goodly Church and two strong castles One of these Iohn Maior calleth Zeland which is 50. miles in length In these grow no manner of trees nor any wheat and yet otherwise of all other sorts of graine they are very fertile It breedeth no serpent or venimous beast In Scotland they buy the barrell'd butter the inhabitants hauing abundance of Barley whereof they make a most strong kind of drinke and are very great drinkers yet as Boëthus saith you shall neuer see a drunken-man or madde man one bestraught or a naturall foole amongst them The same authour affirmeth the like of the inhabitants of the iles of Scetland but this is no wonder amongst them that drinke nought but water All the wealth and commodities of these Scetland-men consist in Stockfish and hides of beastes In the Hebrides they vse the Irish tongue in the iles of Orkeney they speake the Gottish language M. Iordanus in his mappe of Denmarke saith that the Orchades are subiect to the kingdome of Denmarke yet we know them to belong to Scotland vnder the title of a Dukedome But se what we haue written of this in the discourse to the mappe of Denmarke Of Scotland and of the ilands adioining thou maist read more at large in Hector Boëthus Iohn Maior and Iohn Lisley Scottish-men which haue written the histories of this their country SCOTIAE TABVLA Miliaria Scotica Cum Priuilegio Of ENGLAND THe South part of the Iland of Britaine is as we haue said before diuided into two parts That part which is toward the East abutting vpon the German Ocean is of the Angles a people of the Saxons which seated themselues there in their language called ANGLIA or England that is the Angles land The West part which is seuered from that other by the riuers Seuern and Dee and doth vse the ancient Brittish tongue is of the same Angles or Englishmen called WALLIA or Wales yet the Brittan or Welshman calleth himselfe Cumro and his country Cumria the English Saissons and their country Lhoëgria neither do they know or at least they will not acknowledge what England or an Englishman doth meane So great difference there is betweene the languages of the seuerall nations of this Iland All this South part England I meane and Wales hath their proper king vnto whom many Dukes Marquesses Earles Barons and great Noblemen are subiect and obedient It is a countrie at all times of the yeare most kind and temperate The Aire is thicke and so it is much subiect to windes clowdes and raine and therefore in regard of thicknesse of the aire it is neither opprest with too much heat or too much cold For it is found true by experience that although it be more Northerly than Brabant Flanders and other forrein countries yet heere the winter is neuer so bitter nor the frost so eger as in those parts It hath euerie where many hilles without wood and water which notwithstanding do bring forth very small and short grasse an excellent feed for sheepe and therefore infinite flockes of sheepe do bespread them which either by reason of the kindnesse of the aire or goodnesse of the soile do yeeld most soft wooll farre finer than those of other countries And for that this country breedeth neither woolues nor any rauenous beast you shall see in diuers places flocks of sheepe vpon the hilles and dales greene pastures commons fallowes and corne fields into which after the crop is off euery man by a certaine ancient custome doth put in his cattell in common to wander heere and there without a shepheard This indeed is that Golden fleece in which especially the riches of the inhabitants doth consist for an huge masse of gold and siluer is by Merchants which thither flocke from all quarters for such like wares yearly brought into the Iland and there doth continually rest for that it is by proclamation forbidden that no man may carry any money out of the Realme It aboundeth also with all sorts of cattell except asses mules camels and elephants There is in no place of the world greater and larger dogges nor better The soile is very fatte and fertile and naturally bringeth foorth beside all sorts of corne and pulse all maner of things onely the firre-tree and as Caesar saith the beech tree although that now it hath in diuerse places plenty of beeches The ay-green Bay tree doth in these Northren countries no where thriue better Such abundance of Rosemary heere doth grow in all places and that so high that they oft times do fence their gardens therewith Wine they haue none for the grapes seldome heere do ripen and is amongst them planted rather for shade and pleasure then for his fruit and profit There is in no country in Christendome more
The greater part of Flanders was from the beginning vnder protection of the French Kings but now it is at libertie and absolute of it selfe being released by Emperour Charles the fift Earle of Flanders who in the treatie of Madrid quite shooke off the French yoke This region Guicciardine hath most diligently described and Iacobus Marchantius most learnedly You may reade also Iacobus Meierus his ten tomes of Flanders affaires Ad autographum Gerardi Mercatoris in hanc formulam contrahebat parergaque addebat Ab Ortelius ZELAND LEuinus Lemnius of Zirichzee in his booke De occultis naturae miraculis Of the bidden secrets of Nature amongst other things writeth thus of Zeland his natiue country That this Marine tract saith he was notvnknowne vnto the ancients it may out of Cornelius Tacitus easily be gathered although not by the same name that at this day it is knowne by but of a custome and common kind of salutation and speaking one to another which acquaintance and friends of this prouince do vse at their meetings therefore he calleth them by the name of MATTIACI when he thus writeth In the same iurisdiction are the Mattiaci a nation very like the Bataui but that those in regard of the situation of their countrie are more desperate and couragious Whereby he giueth to vnderstand that although they are next neighbours and do border vpon the Bataui or Hollanders so called of the hollownesse and lownesse of the ground so that they might iustly be accounted one and the same people yet are only distinguished by the name of their customary saluation and being neerer the Sea are more hardie and audacious as indeed they are and for manhood witte policy craft deceits cunning in buying and selling and diligence in getting and waies to enrich themselues they do farre excell them And in that hee calleth them Mattiaci I conceiue it that they were not so named either of any place or captaine but of that fellowlike salutation as I said and vsuall maner of speaking one to another vsuall amongst them to witte of Maet which in common speach and friendly meetings signifieth a fellow and companion in all our actions bargaines contracts and dangers of all our purposes counsailes labours and trauailles a copartner and consort in any thing whatsoeuer we take in hand or go about c. For the name of Zeland is not ancient but is lately inuented and made of Sea and Land as who would say sea-Sea-land a country or land bordering vpon the sea for it is enclosed round with the ocean consisting of fifteene Ilands although it be not long since the raging Sea did great hurt in this country by whose violence and ouerflowing a good part of Zeland his dammes walles and banks being rent and broken downe was ouercome of the salt-water and laid leuell with the sea notwithstanding certaine of them do remaine of which especially three do continually wrestle with the boisterous billowes of the sea and do very hardly defend themselues with infinite costs and charges against this rude and vnruly element Of these first Walcheren Walachria doth offer it selfe to the eie of such as do saile to these coasts so named either of him that first entered and inhabited in it or as I gesse of the Gaulls Galli which much frequented this country who of the Low-countrie-men are yet called Walen or of that part of Brittaine which lieth vpon the West side of it and is called Wales the most gentleman-like and brauest nation you may beleeue him amongst the English and descended also from the Gaulles which their language as yet doth manifest c. From hence Northward or somewhat declining toward the East is Scouwen Scaldia the Latines call it of the riuer Sceldt which runneth by it and heere falleth into the sea c. Suytheuelandt so named of the situation of it toward the South to distinguish it from another distant from it Northward and therefore called Noortheuelandt a large and most goodly tract of ground coasting along the shore of Flanders and Brabant although of late yeares hauing suffered great dammage and losse it is now much lesse and narrower Thus farre Lemnius Tritthemius in the Annalles of the Franks nameth Middleborough the chiefe city of these Ilands Mesoburgus Meyer calleth it Mattiacum more like a Latinist then a true Geographer More of these thou maist read in the forenamed Lemnius who hath most excellently well described all the Ilands of Zeland and the cities of the same To these if thou wilt thou maist adioine Lewis Guicciardine and I know not what els thou canst seeke for further satisfaction There are also certaine Annalles of these Ilands written in the mother tongue by Iohn Reygersberg But for an incomme thou maist also to these former adde the descriptions of the cities of the Low-countries done by Adrian Barland Of the people of this prouince these verses are commonly spoken Crescit nequitia simul crescente senectâ In Zelandinis non fallit regula talis The worse they wax as they grow old In Zelanders this rule doth hold These Ilands are situate between the mouthes of the riuers Maese and Sceldt bordering on the North vpon Holland on the East vpon Brabant on the South vpon Flanders on the West vpon the Germane sea Iames Meyer thinketh that Procopius calleth these Arboricas Yet Petrus Diuaeus is of opinion that this place of Procopius is corrupt and for Arborichas it ought to be read and written Abroditos That these are those Ilands I do verily beleeue vnto which Caesar in his sixth booke De bello Gallico affirmeth that he forced a part of the army of Ambiorix Prince of the Eburones which as his owne words do giue to vnderstand did hide themselues in Ilands which the continuall motion or ebbing and flowing of the sea had made It is also very probable that Lucane in his first booke aimed at these Isles in these his verses Quaque iacet littus dubium quod terra fretumque Vendicat alternis vicibus cùm funditus ingens Oceanus vel cùm refugis se fluctibus aufert Ventus ab extremo pelagus sic axe volutat c. They come in troopes amaine From where th' vncertaine shore doth lie that is nor sea nor land But both by course as raging Tethys flow'th and ebb'th againe Or as the wind with rowling waues all calm'd doth stand From North to South thus carrying to and fro c. And that which the same Authour in his ninth booke sometime did speake of the Syrtes or Quicksands one may now not altogether vnfitly applie to these Ilands where he thus speaketh Primam mundo Natura figuram Cum daret in dubio terrae pelagique reliquit Nam neque subsedit penitus quo stagna profundi Acciperet necse defendit ab aequore tellus Ambigua sed lege loci iacet inuia sedes When as this massie world by Nature first was fram'd A doubtfull case it seem'd how God would haue it nam'd For neither could
city Groningen as also that tract which they call Ommeland to these are adioined Ouerysel Drent and Twent countries of a fatte and fertile glebe well inhabited full of villages and hamlets breeding also great plenty of cattell The cities of West Friesland are thirteen GROENINGEN the more famous for that it brought forth the learned Rodolphus Agricola DAM LIEVVERDT with a faire castle heere is kept the Court or place of Parliament and Chancerie as they commonly call it DOCKVM the place where the famous Mathematician Gemma Frisius was borne FRANICHER a common palace and place of retreit whither the Noblemen and Gentry of this country do for their pleasure retire themselues BOLSART SNEECK where Ioachim Hopper a very learned and worthy man was borne ILST SLOTEN HARLINGEN vpon an arme of the German ocean which they call Suyderzee hath a commodious hauen garded with a strong castle to defend it from the impechment and assault of the enemie WORCKVM and HINDELOPEN vpon the same bay Lastly STAVEREN which in time past hath been a mighty city but now hauing endured many bitter storms and inundations of the sea it is nothing so renowmed nor great There are beside these 490. villages or parishes of which diuers are endowed with great priuiledges and haue many rich farmours It hath many Monasteries so that for the beauty of their townes husbandrie of the land and stately Abbeies Friesland giueth place to no other country whatsoeuer That in this prouince are many gentlemen descended from honourable families hauing their houses and farms in diuers places of the shire and no Barons or free Lords the cause is partly by reason of the foresaid casualities and partly for that they being contented with their own estate and liberty haue not followed the courts of forrein Princes Petrus Oliuarus in his annotations vpon Pomponius Mela where he speaketh of West Friesland writeth that within so little a circuite of ground he neuer saw so many parish Churches There were saith he which do alleadge this to haue been the cause of that multitude of Churches they report that there arose a great contention amongst the nobility of this country about their places in those Churches euery one contending for the highest seat and when as this contention grew euery day worse and worse they determined as many as were able to build them seuerall Curches euery man vpon his owne demaines and so euery man might take the highest roome in his own seat and heere grew the cause of building so many Churches Thus farre Oliuarius where also thou maist see many things els worth the reading Moreouer read Albertus Crantzius his Saxonia But he that desireth a more ample knowledge of this prouince let him haue recourse vnto the description of the Low countries done by Lewis Guicciardine Aelsius Edouardus Leon Frisius hath described this country in Heroike verse dedicated to D. Viglius Zwichemus Cornelius Kempius and Suffridus Petrus haue done the same at large in peculiar treatises The learned Hieronymus Verrutius did this other day promise to set out the antiquities of this Country FRISIA OCCIDENTALIS SIBRANDVS LEONIS LEOVARDIENSIS DESCRIB Cum priuilegio Imp. et Reg. Mtm. ad decennium 1579. Antiquae Frisiae situs sub Augusto Imperatore ut fertur EAST FRIESLAND THat the Frisij did not in former times inhabit this tract but the Cauchi there is none I thinke that doubt Beside Strabo Dion Suetonius Paterculus and Ael Spartianus Ptolemey who distinguisheth them into The Greater and The Lesser doth make mention of this people Ptolemey placeth the Greater Cauchi between the riuers Weiser and Elbe the Lesser between Eems and Weiser where now these Frieslanders which we call East-Frieslanders at this day do dwell Of the Cauchi Pliny in the first Chapter of his sixteenth booke thus speaketh In the North we haue seene saith he the countries of the Cauchi the Greater and the Lesser as they are termed altogether void of wood and trees For by an huge in-let there twise euery day and night by courses the sea runneth in amaine confusedly couering whatsoeuer generally the earth bringeth forth leauing it doubtfull which is sea and which is land There the silly distressed people get them vp to the toppes of high hills or mounts raised by labour and industrie of men according to the height of the highest tide as they find by experience and thereon they build their poore cottages where they dwell like sailers floting on the waters when the ocean flowing encloseth them round or like those which haue suffered shipwrake when the waters ebbing returne backe againe and then they go out to fish about their cabbines when they obserue the fish to follow the tide They haue no cattell they liue not vpon milke and whit-meats as their neighbours do they hunt not any wild beast as being farre from any shrubs or bushes where they may hide their heads Of Reike a kind of seaweed and rushes growing vpon the washes and boggy places they twist cords whereof they make their fishing nets and taking vp a kind of muddy earth with their hands drying it rather with the wind then with the sunne they vse it for fuell to dresse their meat and heat their limmes starke and stiffe with the cold blasts of the Northren winds They haue no other drinke but raine water which they catch and keep in ditches in the porches of their houses Yet these nations if they be at this day conquered by the Romanes they count it no other but slauery and bondage So it is indeed fortune is fauourable to some to their owne hurt and hinderance Thus Pliny writeth of this people who wondereth that they preferred liberty before the tyrannous command of the Romanes or rather as I thinke he enuieth that they were freed from their yoke For neither is it yet so wonderfull a thing as he would make it for a free nation before all things els whatsoeuer to maintaine their liberty which is excellent a thing in his iudgement ô Pliny whom thou thy selfe doest highly commend before all other who perswadeth vs to maintaine the same with the vttermost hazard of our life and affirmeth it worthily to be desired and preferred not only of man but also of brute beasts before all things in the world beside This country in former times was diuided into many Signiories which seuerally were gouerned by their seuerall and proper Princes euen vnto the time of Fredericke the third Emperour of Rome who gaue this whole country vnto one Vlricke and created him Earle of the same in the yeare after Christs natiuity 1465. The soile of this tract is so rich of all necessarie things that it seemeth not greatly to stand in need of the help of neighbour countries Yea it doth so plentifully abound with diuers things as Horses Oxen Cattell Hogges Wool Butter Cheese Barley Oates Wheat Beanes Pease and Salt that from hence euery yeare they conuey great store of these commodities vnto forrein countries This County hath
Saxony for the true and ancient Saxony was comprehended in former times between the riuers Elue and Rhein according to his vttermost length the breadth of it was restrained by the Germane sea and the riuer Eydore and the borders of Hessen and Thuringen Brunswicke was almost in the center and middest of it But now it is not bounded with those or such like naturall bounds such as riuers and mountaines are but it is confined by other Princes signiories and countries Therefore Saxony at this day is diuided into the Vpper and Neather The Vpper or High Saxony is that which this Mappe doth represent and is graced with the title of a Dukedome whose Duke also is one of the Princes Electours which haue their voices in the choosing of the Emperour The chiefe townes of this prouince are VVitteberg and Torga Of Saxony and the antiquities of the same Albert Crantz hath written a whole volume M. Adams also in the first booke of his Ecclesiasticall history hath some things of this country worth the reading Hamelman hath set out the histories of Saxony and VVestfalen They that do desire to know the situation buttes and bounds and famous acts let them read VVitichinde and Sebastian Munster Pet. Albinus Niuemontius very lately and Dauid Chytraeus haue written very learnedly of this prouince Of the Marquesate of BRANDENBVRG LVSATIA Laussnitz and VOITLAND countries which we haue also described in this Chart take these few lines The Marquesate of BRANDENBVRG one of those prouinces which in old time were inhabited of the Wandalls is diuided at this day into the Old and the New by this runneth the riuer Oder by that Elue Albis the Latines call it In the old Marquesate the chiefe city is Brandenburg whereof the whole country tooke his name The New hath the city Franckford vulgarly called Franckford vpon Oder to make a difference between it and that which is situate vpon the riuer Meyn Heere is an Vniuersitie and a great Mart kept twise euery yeare At Berline is the Princes court ordinarily kept Him of the Marquesate they commonly call the Marquesse he also is one of the Prince Electours VOITLAND is a little shire subiect to the Marquesse This Aeneas Syluius calleth Aduocatorum terram and Praetorianam the Sollicitours or Controwlers land framing a word from the Etymologie or true meaning of the Germaine name for Voyt in the Dutch tongue signifieth a Sollicitour or Controwler So called for that sometime the Prince of this country was one of the foure controwlers of the Roman Empire The townes of better note are these as Gasper Bruschius thus reckoneth them vp in Munsters Cosmographie Curia Regnitiana Renitz court commonly called Hoff so named of the riuers which runne by it and there falling into Sala a great city and very populous beautified with the goodly and stately Church of S. Michael a large Monastery of Nunnes and two rich Hospitalls Plauhenium or Plaun a city with a castell Olsnitz which the castell Voytzberg neere adioining Adorff and Weidonium Weyda as I thinke a faire towne with certaine Abbeies about them Milford and VVhite-crowne Geraw Scletz and whatsoeuer is between the Hoff and Cygney standing vpon the riuer Elster Hallestra the Latines call it Neere vnto this is Feichtelberg that famous mountaine bearing plentifully the stately Pine-trees out of which foure riuers do arise runne a very strange worke of Nature vnto foure quarters of the world namely Egre Meyn Nabe and Sala VVolfangus Iobstius hath written a curious description of the Marquesate of Brandenburg LVSATIA Laussnitz is diuided into Ober Laussnitz and Nider Laussnitz the Vpper and the Neather it is also is a part of Saxony as Rithaymer testifieth It lieth between the riuers Elue and Oder and the Bohemian mountaines Sometime it was a part of Meisen Misnia and was adioined to it but the Bohemians who laboured by all meanes to enlarge the bounds of their kingdome and command at length seized it into their hands The people in maners conditions and language do not much differ from the Silesians only they are distinct from them by name and iurisdiction as gouerned by seuerall Princes The name and appellation of Lusatia is somewhat neere in sound to the name of Elysij or Lygij which it is certaine as Ioachinus Cureus writeth sometime dwelt heere about Their chiefe cities are Gorlitz and Sittaw and some others The riuer Neiss runneth through the middest of this country Gasper Peucer hath this other day in Elegiacke verse described the same in a pecular treatise MISNIA Meisen and THVRINGIA Thuringen are described and set out in their seuerall tables which we haue heereafter inserted into this our Theater of the World in their proper places A portraiture and draught of these countries shaddowed and counterfeited out of the Geographicall Chart of Iohn Criginger which was imprinted at Prage in Bohemia in the yeare of Christ 1568. we haue adioined to this our worke SAXONIAE MISNIAE THVRINGIAE NOVA EXACTISSIMAQUE DESCRIPTIO Cum priuilegio The county of MANSFIELD MANSFIELD a part of Old Saxonie is thought to haue beene so called of Mannus the second king of the Germanes For Mansueldt in this country speech seemeth to signifie nothing else but The field of Mannus Which deriuation Ascanien another place not far from hence denominated as some men do verily beleeue of Ascenez the first authour of the Germane name and nation doth seeme strongly to confirme Heere also is Ascher leuben which in their language is as much to say as The house of Aschenez There is also a lake which of Ascenez is called Ascherslebische see This countrie hath vpon the East the riuer Sala the territories of the Archbishopricke of Magdeburg and the Diocesse of Merseburg on the South lieth Turingen on the West the Counties of Swartzburg and Stolberg the Principalities of Sangerhouse Anhalt and Asseburg So that these Earles of Mansfield which are also called The noble Lords of Heldrungen haue these princes their neere neighbours the Archbishop of Magdeburg the bishop of Merseburg the Prince Electour of Saxony the Landgraue of Thuringia the Duke of Saxony the bishop of Halberstade the Prince of Anhald the Lord of Bernburg the Earles of Swartzburg and Stolburg the Lords of Werther and Asseburg When or by whom this prouince was graced with the title of an EARLDOME Andrew Hoppenrode in his booke which he hath written set forth of the Petigrees of the Saxon Princes plainly confesseth that he is altogether ignorant Notwithstanding this same authour and with him Syriacus Spangeberg do auerre it to haue beene very ancient by this that an Earle of this country called Herger did liue in the daies of Great Arthur that renowmed king of the Britans and was one of those which together with the rest of the worthies of this king were first made Knights of the order of the Round Table Now this king Arthur we know liued about 542. yeres after the incarnation of our Sauior Christ But if there be
the inhabitants The valleies are pleasant and fruitfull The shady groues and woods do affoord many pleasures and delights The goodly meddowes and pastures are richly decked with herbs and sweet-smelling flowres and euer-running streames And amongst other heere is great plenty of Medicke fodder wherewith they feed and fatte their cattell Heere also grow many excellent physicke hearbs of soueraigne vertues against diuers and sundrie diseases It bringeth forth diuers plants as the Plane tree Vitex or Agnus castus the Turpentine tree the Oliue tree Siliqua Siluestris Arbute or Strawberry tree wild Saffron Madder Liquirise Tubera or Sowbread It hath also some hoate baths continually distilling from their fountaines which do cure aches and many other like maladies In diuers places there are springs of salt water whereof they make a kind of brine or pickle It is well watered with many fine riuers and those stored with sundrie sorts of fresh fish The sea also on ech side yeeldeth great plenty of fish both tunies sword-fishes and lampreies There in many places is found the best Corall both white and redde Heere is most pleasant hunting and hawking for in these quarters diuers and sundrie sorts of wild beasts do lodge and as many birds and fowles do breed and build wild boares harts hindes goates hares foxes lynces otters squerrells martens badgers ferrets porkupines tortuses both of the waters and of the mountaines Of fowles phesants partridges quailes wood-cocks ring-doues crowes c. as also of many kinds of hawks it is euery where full It maintaineth some herds of cattell and flocks of sheep and goats It breedeth excellent horses very swift and of great stomacke Mettals heere were found in old time and now also it aboundeth at this day with diuers kinds of mineralls hauing indeed euery where mines of gold siluer iron salt marble alablaster crystall marchasite red-lead or vermillion copperas alume brimstone c. many kinds of corne wheat siligo beerbarly rie trimino we call it I thinke Turky wheat barly rise and of sesamum infinite store It aboundeth also with all kind of pulse legumina the Latines call them oile wine and hony and those in their kinds the best There are heere euery where orchards thicke set with oranges limons and pome cittron trees Heere also is made great plenty of excellent silke farre better then any kind of silke made in other places of Italie The Cotton tree Gossipium groweth heere plentifully But what shall I speake of the kind temperature of the aire For heere the fields both winter and summer are continuallie green But aboue all things there is nothing that doth argue the same more soundly then that airy dew or heauenly hony which they call Manna that euery where distilleth from aboue and is heere gathered in great abundance So that that which the Israelites in the wildernes did admire and hold for a strange wonder heere kind nature doth affoord of her own accord It is adorned also with many goodly market towns where marts and faires are kept at certaine times of the yeare Heere in some places still is obserued the ancient custome of the Romanes vsed at funerals and buriall of the dead where a chiefe mourner Praefica they called her is hired to go before the rest of the mourners and she to guide their mournefull ditties and to keepe time in their howling lamentations The funerall being done and all ceremonies performed the dead mans friends and kindred bringing their meat and iunkets do banquet altogether at the dead mans house The women of this country naturally for modesty and for that the waters of these places are good and wholesome drinke naught but water It is a shame for any women to drinke wine except she be very old or be in child-bed c. See more in the same authour Cassiodore also in his Variar hath in diuers places many things of this country APVLIAE QVAE OLIM LAPYGIA NOVA COROGRAPHIA CALABRIAE DESCRIP Per Prosperum Parisium Consent Cum Priuilegio decennali SICILIA THere is not one either of the ancient Historians or Cosmographers that hath not made mention of this Iland or curiously described the same especially Strabo Plinie Solimus and others Diodorus Siculus calleth it The soueraigne of all other Ilands Solinus in like maner writeth of it That whatsoeuer this country breedeth either of the nature of the soile or inuention of man it is little inferiour to those things which are esteemed of greatest worth Of the later writers Vadianus hath thus set it out in his true colours SICILIA not only for richnesse of the soile for which cause it was of the ancients dedicated to Ceres and Bacchus and was accounted the Garner of Rome but also for the multitude and antiquity of his townes famous actes victories and quarrels betweene the Romans and Carthagians both contending for the mastery is more famous then any other Iland whatsoeuer In Plinies time there were 72. cities at this day they report it to containe twelue Bishopricks of great iurisdiction and large diocesses The Dukes of Swevland possessed it a long time It was assaulted and taken by the English Lorreiners especially at that time when they made their voiage into the Holy land against the impious Saracens Lastly it fell vnto the Kings of Arragon and so at this day it remaineth vnder the obedience of Spaine Neither is there any other Iland that I know in the whole world that both Greeks and Latines haue indifferently partly in respect of the goodnesse of the soile and situation partly for the great accidents that heere haue happened by their writings made more famous He that would be further satisfied of the particulars let him read Benedictus Bordonius who hath in one booke comprised a discourse of all the Ilands of the World Leander Albertus Dominicus Niger Franciscus Maurolycius Marius Aretius all which haue most learnedly described the same Lastly Thomas Fazellus that countrie-man borne who hath most curiously and liuelily described the true countenance of this his natiue soile where you shall find the particular story of the mount Aetna now called by an Arabicke name Monte Gibello of which also Petrus Bembus hath put forth a seuerall Treatise Tully hath written something of this Iland in his orations against Verres Thucydides in his sixth booke hath very well laid downe the history of the originall and first inhabitants of the same as Diodorus Siculus hath done in like maner in his fifth booke Hubertus Goltzius hath out of ancient coines added great light vnto the histories of this country SARDINIA SEbastian Munster in his Cosmography hath an excellent description of this Iland done by Sigismundus Arquerus Calaritanus a Sicilian The same is described by Leander Albertus Benedictus Bordonius Nicolas Leonicus besides that which you may reade of it in old writers amongst whom Pausanias hath written some things that are not common This Iland the state of the Roman Empire decaying came into the hands of the Saracens from whom it was
aboue 4000. furlongs and where it is narrowest it is 1300. furlongs broad The Prussians Lithuanians and Russians dwell round about it the rest the Liuonian Gulfe doth bound Liuonia conteineth the CVRONES ESTHENI and LETTI nations different both in maners and language In the cities and townes they vse the Saxon or German tongue The country is full of wood plaine and champion without hils or mountaines for the most part lying lay and vnhusbanded notwithstanding that the soile is good and fertile For if you shall except wine and oile and some few other such things which nature yeeldeth to some countries that are situate in a more temperate climate for these only are brought in hither vnto them other things more necessary for the maintenance of mans life are heere found in such great plenty that they do liberally communicate them to strangers and forreiners They haue great plenty of Fish and Deere Munster affirmeth that the Hares in this country do in euery season of the yeare change their colour for in the winter they are white and in the summer they are gray From hence wax hony ashes stone-pitch pix arida liquid pitch the Dutch call it Ther we Tarre and that kind of corne which the Latines call Secale the Germanes Rogghe and we Rie is yearely brought vnto vs in great abundance It hath certaine cities very large and finely built of them the chiefest is RIGA a colonie of the Germanes of the Bishopricke of Breme commodiously seated vpon the riuer Duin It is a goodly Mart towne and the Metropolitane of the whole prouince RIVALIA they vulgarly call it Reuel the Russians Roliua built by Waldemare king of Denmarke famous for his goodly hauen vpon a bay of the Balticke or East-sea This for traffique is not lesse frequented or populous then Riga DORPATVM Derpt neere neighbour to the Russians which call it Iuriongorod The riuer Becke runneth by the walles of this city very commodious for traffique with the Russians This riuer is caried in one channell into the sea which running violently with a great fall from steep rocks worketh the same effect to the people neere adioining as Lewenclay saith that the cataracts or fals of the riuer Nilus did to the Aegyptians which in continuance of time by little and little grow to be deaffish and thicke of hearing Besides these cities there are certaine lesser townes fortified with goodly strong castles VENDA Wenden the more honourable for that heere the Grand-captaine or Master of the order keepeth his court It is situate in the middest of the country Then VELINVM Welum Parnaw vpon the sea Wolmer Veseburgum I thinke they call it Yseborg Wittestein Narua and others Willichius and Cureus do thinke that the Efflui and Limouij did sometime dwell in these quarters Of the forme of gouernment and ordering of their common-wealth which is at the prescript of the knights of the order of the Holy Crosse read Iohn Aubane Munster Lewenclay Gaguine in his Sarmatia and Herberstein out of whom we haue culled these particulars But Crantzius also in his sixth booke of Wandalia is to be read with Oderbornes second booke of the life of Basilidis and Dauid Chytraus his Chronicle of Saxony who hath written of the same with greater diligence than the rest POMERANIA or POMERLAND PEtrus Artopoeus Pomeranus in Munsters Cosmography thus describeth this country his natiue soile POMOERANIA saith he situate vpon the Balticke sea of the first inhabitants in their natiue language that is in the Wandall tongue is called PAMORZI It is still possessed of the first in-borne inhabitants gouerned by their proper Princes and was neuer subdued or made subiect to any forrein iurisdiction It is in all places very fertile well watered with riuers brookes lakes creekes and in-lets from the sea it hath many good hauens rich pastures and good corne grounds it hath great plenty of apples cattell deere fishes foule corne butter cheese hony wax and such like commodities it hath many rich mountaines populous cities townes castels and villages there is no void place or wast ground in it but those which lakes or mountaines do possesse Before Christianity was entertained here they spake the Wandall language and followed their fashions and maner of life vntill such time as they were subdued vnder the command of the Roman Emperours for then together with Religion they began to vse the Saxon tongue which to this day they retaine Thus farre Artopoeus Pomerye in the Wandalian language which is the same with the Slauonian tongue signifieth nothing els as Herberstein affirmeth but neere the sea or a marine coast The banke or sea-wall of this country is so strongly fortified by nature with such a strong rampart that heere is no feare of the sea breaking in to ouerflow them The more famous cities vpon this coast besides some other situate further within the land are Stetin Newgard Stargard c. STETIN sometime was but a small village inhabited by a few poore fishermen but after that Christianity was planted heere about Wineta vtterly destroied and the mart was remoued hither it begun presently so to flourish that now it is become the Metropolitan of the whole country It is most pleasantly seated vpon the banke of the riuer Oder from the which it ariseth by little and little higher vpon the side of an hill It is enclosed with a strong wall and deep trench GRYPSVVALD is a towne in the Dukedome of Wolgast which others do call the Dukedome of Barth this towne being long together much afflicted with ciuill warres was much hindered and impaired but in the yeare 1456. by erecting and placing of an Vniuersity there it began againe by little and little to lift vp the head IVLINVM a towne sometime not inferiour vnto the goodly cities of Europe whether you respect the wealth of the citizens or stately buildings of the same This was sometime a famous mart towne of the Wandalls Such a multitude of merchants did flocke hither from Russia Saxony Laussnitz Meisen and all parts of Wandal-land in such troopes that in all Europe except Constantinople there was scarce such a mart to be found but it was so shaken by the violent warres of the Danes that at last it was almost wholly brought to nothing such is the mutability of vnconstant fortune alwaies delighted in change Now they call it Wollin STRALSVND vpon the sea shore It hath had sometime his proper prince viz. the Duke of Barth It is a city very populous and greatly frequented by Merchants WINETA this sometime was also a city of good reckoning peraduenture it is now called Archon or Iulinum Wollin For the cities of wandal-Wandal-land according to the diuersity of languages of sundry nations had their diuers names That which the Wandalls called Stargard the Saxons named Aldenburg and the Danes Bannesia as Crantzius affirmeth But I thinke it good to set down the description of this country which the singular learned man M. Peter Edling sent me from Colberg in this
ENGLAND In old writers there are but few records left of these Ilands Amongst the new writers Olaus Magnus Gothus Episcopus Vpsaliensis Albertus Crantzius Saxo Grammaticus Iacobus Zieglerus Sigismundus ab Herberstein in his commentaries of Moscouia haue described these countries And Nicolas Wimman hath set forth the nauigation of the Northren sea See also a little discourse of Antony and Nicolas Zenis two brethren of the ilands situate vnder the North pole together with the shipwracke of Peter Quirinus written by himselfe and Christophero Fiorauante as also by Nicholas Mighel in the Italian tongue There is also a discourse of these Northren parts written by Sebastian Cabato who in the yeare 1557. first sailed into these quarters But aboue all the history of Saxony lately written and set out by Dauid Chytraeus is not to be forgotten SEPTENTRIONALIVM REGIONVM DESCRIP ISLAND I Do find in the Ecclesiasticall history lately set forth and imprinted vnder the name of M. Adams That the people of this Iland came vnto Adelbert Bishop of Breme earnestly entreating him to appoint them some learned diuines that might be able to preach the Gospell and plant Christianity amongst them Neither do I thinke that there is any mention of this Nation in any other more ancient writer than he Although I must confesse that Sigebertus Gemblacensis hath left record that Great King Arthur about the yeare of Christ 470. subdued this iland and reduced the people to his obedience This I take as a fable not for any true history For I do certainly know that this was neuer written by Sigebert but shuffled in as many things els by some other For a very faire Manuscript copy of mine owne as also another in parchment of my friend haue it not Now this Adelbert died about the yeare after Christs incarnation 1070. And that the name Thule oft spoken of almost by all old writers aswell Poets and Historians as Geographers doth not pertaine to this Iland against the opinion well neere of all the learned men of our time but rather to Scone Scandia Peninsula a neck-land of Norway not only the authority of Procopius a graue discreet writer but also for that a note and remnant of that name yet remaineth to this day in Scone in that part which is opposite to the Orkeney iles namely in a place of Norway where the famous Mart of the Belgae is seated For amongst other shires of Norway there is one in this place which they call Tilemercke that is the March or shire of Tule The ilands also ouer against this shore which vulgarly are called Hetland and Shetland the seamen as I vnderstand out of England by the relation of my good friend M. W. Camden are commonly called Thylinsel whereby I conceiue that this Iland tooke the name from the next maine land opposite vnto it For what els is Thilensel but the iland of Thile This opinion of mine not only Pomponius Mela doth confirme who writeth that Thule was opposite to the sea coast of the Belgae he directly saith I say Belgarum not Britannorum littori the sea coast of Britaine where indeed Island is situate not Thule but also Ptolemey the prince of all Geographers and writers in that argument who placeth Thule vnder the 29. degree of Longitude and 63. of Latitude Which position and calculation of degrees doth exactly and precisely fall vpon Tilemarke And as for Island there is no man that hath looked with halfe an eie into Geographicall Mappes and Charts but doth know it to lie vnder the first degree of Longitude and the sixtieth degree of Latitude And I perswade my selfe euen Arngrimus Ionas himselfe an Islander borne in that his Treatise of Island where he saith that the latitude of this Iland is about 44. degrees and 45. minutes was much deceiued It is therefore as cleare as the noone day as he saith that Island is not the same that Thule was and the same Procopius saith that it is inhabited by thirteen Nations and gouerned by so many Kings and to be tenne times as great as Brittaine so that not without good cause Stephanus giueth it the title of Great when as it is certaine that Island is much lesse than Brittaine The same Procopius affirmeth that the Scritifinni a kind of people so called did inhabite Thule these Diaconus nameth Strictofinni and speaketh of them in Scandia as doth also Iornandes in his history notwithstanding he corruptly calleth them that I may note this by the way Crefennae Thus gentle Reader thou seest that which they name Scandia or Scone he calleth Thule and the same nation to this day dwelleth in the same Scandia called by the same name no whit corrupted For they are called vulgarly Scrickefinner and do dwell in Scandia and not in Island In Thule Procopius writeth that there be huge great woods in Island all the world knoweth there are none at all And so Isacius vpon Lycophron saith truly when he affirmeth that Thule is vpon the East of Brittaine not vpon the North as is Island Contrary to that which Strabo a most worthy and diligent Geographer by the sound iudgement of all the learned saith of it but from the relation as there he addeth of Pytheas a shamefull lying historiographer whose custome was as Diodorus Siculus in his second booke writeth to counterfait and coine fables so cunningly that ordinarily they passed for true stories This is that Thule which Tacitus reporteth when the Romane nauy sailed round about Brittaine was seen and viewed by them but not regarded and therefore not entered as is probable This could not be Island which is much farther off and out of kenning But this is enough in this place of Thule or Scandia We will addresse our selues to speake of Island an iland altogether vnknowen and not once named in any ancient writer ISLAND or the Frosen or Icie land which is all one was so named of the ice which lieth continually vpon his North side for there now beginneth the Frosen-sea as Crantzius writeth It was called SNELAND of the Snow which all the yeare long doth heere in some places continue Item GARDARSHOLM that is Garders ile so called as Arngrimus himselfe being an Islander borne writeth of one Gardar a man so named who first found it or inhabited the same This iland is an hundred Germane miles in length as commonly most writers do hold but the foresaid Arngrimus Ionas saith it is 144. miles long For the most part it is not inhabited but is wast and mountainous especially toward the North part by reason of the bitter blasts of the South winds which will not suffer as Olaus teacheth so much as any low shrubbe or bush once to put forth his head It is subiect to the king of Norway and so hath continued euer since the yeare of Christ 1260. at what time first the same Arngrime affirmeth they did their homage to that Crowne Whereupon the king of Denmarke euery yeare sendeth thither a Lieutenant by
ac proprio idiomate vtuntur Haec saxa hoīm iumentorúm camelorúm pecorumque caeterarumque rerū formas referentia Horda populi gregis pascentis armētaque fuit Que stupenda quadam metamorphosi repente in saxa riguit priori forma nulla in parte diminúta Euenit hoc prodigium annis circiter 300. retro elapsis Cum priuilegio TARTARIA OR THE EMPIRE OF THE MIGHTIE CHAM HE that will take vpon him to describe TARTARIA he must needes speake of a great number of nations farre asunder and remote one from another For all that huge tract and portion of the Maine land is now called Tartaria that is between the East sea or as he calleth it Mare Mangicum the sea of Mangi or of Sin a country all the World ouer and vulgarly knowen by the name of China and the South countries Sin or China that part of India which is beyond Ganges the country of the Saci the riuer Iaxartes now they call it Chesel the Caspian sea Mar delle Zabacche Maeotis palus it was called of the ancient writers and Westward vp as high almost as the Moscouites For all these countries well neere the Tartars did possesse and in these places they were seated So that it comprehendeth that country which the old Historiographers called Sarmatia of Asia both the Scythiaes and Seria the country where the Seres dwelt which now I take to be named Cataio The name of this Nation was neuer heard of in Europe before the yeare after Christs incarnation 1212. They are diuided in stead of shires into Hordaes that is as the word amongst them doth signifie into companies or couents But as they do inhabite large and wide countries farre distant and remote one from another so in manners and kind of life they are as farre different They are well limmed men broad and fatte faced scowling countenanced and hollow eied shauen all but their beards which they neuer cut low they are strong and of able bodies and do eat horse flesh and other beasts howsoeuer they come to their deaths only hogges excepted from which they wholly abstaine they can more easily endure hunger and thirst than other men a little sleepe doth serue them moreouer when they ride if they be very hungry and thirsty they vse to pricke the veines of their horses vpon which they ride and by drinking of their bloud to slacke their hunger and thirst And because they roue vp and downe and haue no certaine place of abode they guide their course and iourney by the stars especially by the obseruation of the North pole starre which they in their language call as Sigismund Herberstein testifieth Seles nicol that is the iron clubbe naile or sterne They stay not long in one place taking it to be a signe of ill fortune to dwell long vpon one plotte They obserue no maner of iustice or law The people especially the poorer sort are very rauenous and couetous alwaies gaping after other mens goods They haue no maner of vse either of gold or siluer In this country thou seest TANGVT a prouince from whence all the Rheubarbe that is spent and vsed in all the world is brought vnto vs and other places Heere also is the country CATAIA whose chiefe city is Cambalu which as Nicolaus de Comitibus writeth is eighteen Italian miles about or as M. Paulus Venetus thirty two It is of a square forme in ech of whose corners there are castles built foure miles in compasse where continually the Emperours garrisons are kept But Quinzai a city of the prouince Mangi which is from hence Eastward vpon the Eastern sea is thought to be farre bigger than this For this as the same M. Paulus Venetus affirmeth who dwelt there about the yeare after the birth of Christ 1260. is in compasse an hundred miles The same is also auouched by Odericus of Friuli de foro Iulio who nameth it Cansay It is situate in a lake of fresh water There are in it 1260. bridges whereof many are of such great height that shippes full laden may go vnder them and neuer strike saile Heere the Great Cham hath a standing garrison of 12000. trained souldiers continually resident It is a wonderfull stately and pleasant city whereupon it obtained that name for Quinzai they interpret The city of Heauen The Tartars call their Emperour Cham which signifieth the same that Princeps a Prince hereupon Cambalu is interpreted The seate or city of the Prince Sigismundus of Herberstein writeth that the Tartars do call themselues Besermanni The Tartars together with their manner and course of life are most liuely described by Sigismund of Herberstein and Martine Broniouius as also in the Historicall Glasse or Mirour of histories writen by Vincentius Beluacensis in the 30. 31. and 32. bookes of the same See also the commentaries of Hungary written by Antonio Bonfinio M. Paulus Venetus who it is certaine liued long there amongst them and the Iournall or Trauells of Iosapha Barbarus a Venetian Of their originall read Matthias of Michou Haiton the Armenian Caelius secundus Curio his Saracen history and the letters of Iacobo Nauarcho a Iesuite Of the Tartars there be many things worth the reading in the trauells of two Friars which about the yeare 1247. were sent into these quarters by Pope Gregory the fourth in the thirtieth chapter of Nicephorus his eigteenth booke Laonicus also hath many things in diuers places of his workes of the Tartars vnder the name of the Scythians the like hath Gregoras another Greeke writer Lastly Dauid Chytraeus in his Saxon chronicle hath written much of this nation But no man hath more fully and amply set out the maners and life of the Tartars then William Rubricius a Friar of the order of S. Francis a copy of whose trauells into these parts in the yeare of Christ 1253. I haue by me in written hand TARTARIAE SIVE MAGNI CHAMI REGNI tÿpus Continet haec tabula oēm Tartariam cum reliqua Asiae Orientalioris vsque Oceanū Eoum parte Magno Chamo obediente Cuius imperium Obij fl Kataia lacu Volga fl Mari Caspio Chesel flu Vssonte monte Thebet regione Caromoram fluuio Oceano terminatur Cum Priuilegio CHINA BErnardinus Scalantus hath in the Spanish tongue set out a peculiar description of this country in a seuerall tract out of whom we haue gathered these few lines This huge kingdome of China the inhabitants do call TAME and themselues TANGIS but of the bordering nations it is named CHINA and is that Tein or Sin which Auicenna so many hundred times mentioneth and commendeth for rare simples and plants of soueraigne vse in Physicke and is the same no doubt with SINAE or Sinarum regio a country for rich commodities much talked of amongst all ancient Cosmographers This country on the East bordereth vpon the East sea vulgarly called Mare Cin the sea of China on the South vpon the prouince Cauchinchina on the West it is bounded by Bramas on the North
also two sorts of Priests the one sort go in white with their heads shauen and liue by begging as our Friars do the other goeth in blacke wearing their haire long and dwell by themselues as our Priests vse to do heere in Europe Neither of them may marrie yet they liue very wantonly and licentiously Thus farre out of Scalantus It will not be amisse to these to adde some things out of others Iohn Barry in his Asian Decades giueth out that this king hath vnder him fifteen very great and large countries which they call Gouernments And moreouer he addeth that this King alone doth farre surpasse all the rest of the Princes of Asia round about him and that his yearely renenews do exceed all the riches and wealth of all Europe For handy-craft trades and occupations they do excell all men liuing their works are so finely and cunningly made that one would iudge them to haue been framed by nature and not by art and industrie of man At the city Nimpo which others call Liampo he saith it hath been obserued that some of the Portugals in the space of three moneths haue bought and shipped away 166000. pounds of silke Odoardus Barbosa writeth that the people are very kind and humane and go apparelled much like the Dutchmen whom also they do much resemble in pronunciation and maner of speech Those cleare and transparent vessels or dishes as white as the drift snow which amongst vs are of such great estimation are heere made in this maner They mingle certaine cochle-shels eg-shels other things together which they knead make into a paste This paste they hide in the earth where they let it li for the space of fourescore or an hundred yeares before they stirre it or looke to it again leauing it as a great inheritance or pretious iewell vnto their heires That paste they vse which their grandfathers or great grandfathers haue laied vp for them And they do obserue duely by an ancient custome that he which taketh away the old paste do put new presently in his place Antony Pigafetta calleth this King the most mighty Prince of the whole world He saith that his palace or house where he keepeth his Court is enclosed with 7. wals and that he hath alwaies 10000. souldiers for his gard continually there attendant vpon him and that 70. crowned Kings do homage vnto him and are subiect to his gouernment and command The same authour affirmeth that Muske is from hence transported into diuers parts of the world Andrew Corsalis he likewise saith that the greatest store of Rheubarbe and Pearle that is brought hither to vs in Europe doth come from hence In the Iesuites Epistles lately set forth in print many things well worth the obseruation are heere and there set downe of this country That of Ptolemey these people were called SINAE the situation doth plainly proue neither doth the name yet retained much differ from that For the Spaniards and Portugals do write it Ch na yet they pronounce it Sina Of the situation and nature of this country the behauiours and maners of the people you may read in a worke of Iohn Gonsalis set forth of this argument Of the same also read the letters of the Iesuites afore mentioned and Ferdâ—nando Lopez but especially the sixth booke of Maffeius de rebus Indicis Lastly the nienth chapter of the ninth booke of the first part of the choice Library of Posseuinus The Ile IAPAN OR IAPONIA IOhn Peter Maffey in the twelfth booke of his history of India doth thus write of this iland They are especially three greater ilands with many other smaller round about them disioined one from another by very narrow straits or armes of the sea that are called by the name of IAPAN or Iaponia The first and the greatest is diuided into three and fifty signiories or kingdomes the head and chiefe city of this is Meaco whereof this whole iland taketh his name The second is named Ximen and conteineth nine kingdomes the more famous cities of the kingdome of Bungo are Vosuqui and Funay The third iland is called Xicocum it conteineth not aboue foure kingdomes or signiories it is beautified with the goodly city Tonsa Tosa he calleth it of the same name with the kingdome Thus the regiments or kingdomes of Iapan are in all generally sixty and six beside diuers other iurisdictions which cannot iustly be called kingdomes The length of the whole maine land is as they say almost two hundred leagues the breadth is nothing so much for in some places it is not aboue tenne leagues broad at the most it is not aboue thirty leagues ouer Of the compasse there is nothing certainly written that I know of It runneth out from the South toward the North from the thirty degree of latitude almost to the thirty and eight Vpon the East it is opposite to New-Spaâ—ne remote from it not aboue 150. leagues Vpon the North it hath the Scythians or Tartarians and other such people exceeding rude and barbarous On the West lieth China Sinarum regno in some place neerer in some place further off according to the diuers windings and bendings of the shore for from the city Liampo which is the vttermost bound of China toward the West vnto Gotum Ogoto I thinke which is the first Iland of all Iapan that offereth it selfe to the view of those which saile from thence hitherward is not aboue threescore leagues but from Amacan a mart town in the West where the Portugals for the most part do altogether vse to trade vnto the same Gotum the cutte is 297. leagues ouer On the South neere hand it hath naught but the vast and wide Ocean further off certaine lands and countries not yet descried or knowne out of which the report goeth that certaine sailours came once by chance vnto Iapan and neuer put off from thence any more to returne backe to their natiue soile The country for the most part is full of snow all the yeare long bleake and cold and therefore not very fertile In September they cut downe their rise in some places they reap their wheat in May for this generally is the vsuall food throughout the whole country yet they make no bread of it as we vse heere in Europe but a kind of pudding or pappe which they eat in stead of bread The temperature of the aire is very kind and wholesome their fresh waters are passing good they haue also some bathes or springs of hot waters of soueraigne vertues in Physicke as some do constantly report High and steep mountaines they haue many heere and there but two are especially famous the one of which whose name I know not doth continually burne and cast out flames of fire as Aetna in Sicilia was wont to do and as Hecla in Island now vsually doth at certaine times In the toppe of this mountaine the Diuell enclosed in a white clowd sheweth himselfe to certaine men after that for deuotions sake they haue long
of the forenamed Maffeius who handleth them more at large with many other things of these Ilands of Iaponia Of the same there are heere and there many things in the Iesuites Epistles INDIA THat there is not a more goodly and famous country in the world nor larger comprehended vnder one and the same name than INDIA almost all writers iointly with one consent haue affirmed It was so named of the riuer Indus The whole compasse of India by the iudgement of Strabo and Pliny is thus limited vpon the West it hath the riuer Indus on the North the great mountaine Taurus on the East the Eastern sea wherein those famous Ilands the Moluccaes do lie on the South it hath the Indian sea In the middest it is diuided into two large prouinces by the goodly riuer Ganges Of which that which is on the West side of Ganges is called India intra Gangem India on this side Ganges that on the East India extra Gangem India beyond Ganges That in holy Scripture it is called EVILAT or Hauila this latter some writers call SERIA the country of the Seres as Dominicus Niger testifieth M. Paulus Venetus seemeth to diuide it into three prouinces the Greater the Lesser and the Middlemost which he saith they name Abasia This whole country generally not only for multitude of nations of which as Herodotus writeth it is most populous and best stored of any country in the world and for townes and villages almost infinite but for the great abundance of all commodities only brasse and lead excepted if one may giue credit to Pliny is most rich and fortunate It hath very many riuers and those very great and faire These running to and fro and in many places crossing and watering the same do cause it as in a moist soile where the sunne is of force to bring forth all things most plentifully It storeth all the world with Spices Pearles and Pretious stones as hauing greater plenty of these commodities than all the countries of the whole world besides There are neere vnto this country many goodly ilands which heere and there lie scattering in the maine Ocean so that it may iustly be tearmed the World of Ilands But especially IAPAN which M. Paulus Venetus calleth Zipangri situate in this sea is worth the noting which because it is not many yeares since that it was knowen to few or none I thinke it not amisse to say something of it in this place It is a very large and wide iland and hath almost the same eleuation of the Northren pole and position from the South with Italy The Ilanders and people heere inhabiting are much giuen to learning wisedome and religion and are most earnest and diligent searchers out of the truth in naturall causes They vse to pray and say seruice oft which they do in their Churches in the same maner as the Christians do They haue but one King vnto whom they are subiect and do nothing but according to his behests and lawes Yet he also hath one aboue him whom they call Voo to whom the ordering of Ecclesiasticall matters gouernment of the state of the Church is soly committed This peraduenture we may not vnfitly compare to the Pope as their King to the Emperour To their Bishop they commit the saluation and care of their soules They worship only one God protraitured with three heads yet they can shew no reason of this act They baptize their infants by fasting in token of penance they labour to bring downe their bodies They crosse and blesse themselues with the signe of the crosse against the assault of Satan so that in religion certaine ceremonies and maner of liuing they seeme to imitate the Christians yet notwithstanding the order of the Iesuites labour by all meanes possibly they can not refusing any paines and trauell to reduce them wholly to Christianity Heere are also the MOLVCCAE certaine ilands famous for the abundance of spices which they yearly yeeld and send into all quarters of the world In these is bred the Manucodiatta a little bird which we call the bird of Paradise a strange fowle no where els euer seen More neere the coast of India is SVMATRA or rather Samotra for so the King himselfe of that country writeth it in his letters vnto his Maiesty this Iland was knowen to the ancient Geographers and Historians by the name of TAPROBANA There are also diuers other Ilands heereabout of great estimation and fame as Iaua Maior Iaua Minor Borneo Timor c. as thou maist see in the Mappe but we cannot in this place speake of euery thing particularly and to the full Thus farre the religion of Mahomet is professed and from Barbary ouer against Spaine euen vnto this place is the Arabicke language spoken or vnderstood The Moores from Marrocco Ambassadours to our late Queene some fiue yeares since we saw and heard them speake that tongue naturally in which also their commission or letters patents were written From Achem in Samotra and Bantam in Iaua Maior our Merchants this other day brought letters vnto his Highnesse so fairely and curiously written in that character and language as no man will scarcely beleeue but he that hath seen them especially from so barbarous and rude a Nation Of the ancient writers Diodorus Siculus Herodotus Pliny Strabo Quintus Curtius and Arrianus in the life of Alexander haue described the Indies So hath Apuleius also in the first booke of his Floridorum Dion Prusaeus in his 35. oration hath written much of this country but very fabulously There is also extant an Epistle of Alexander the Great written to Aristotle of the situation of India Of the latter writers Ludouicus Vartomannus Maximilianus Transsiluanus Iohannes Barrius in his Decades of Asia and Cosmas Indopleutes whom Petrus Gyllius doth cite haue done the same But see the Iesuites Epistles where thou shalt find many things making much for the discouery of the I le Iapan But if thou desire a full and absolute description of the same I would wish thee to haue recourse vnto the twelfth booke of Maffeius his Indian history Iohn Macer a Ciuillian hath also written bookes of the history of India in which he hath much of the ile Iaua Moreouer Castagnedo a Spaniard hath written in the Spanish tongue a discourse of the Indies Of the ilands which lie scattering heere and there in this ocean read the twentieth booke of the second Tome of Gonsaluo Ouetani written in like maner in the Spanish tongue INDIAE ORIENTALIS INSVLARVMQVE ADIACIENTIVM TYPVS Cum Priuilegio The kingdome of PERSIA OR The Empire of the SOPHIES THe Empire of the Persians as it hath alwaies in former ages been most famous so at this day still it is very renowmed knowen farre and neere and conteineth many large and goodly prouinces For all that whole tract of Asia comprehended between the great riuer Tigris the Persian gulfe the Indian which of old writers was called mare Rubrum the Red sea the riuers
immediately after Baiazeth he placeth Mahomet And that I may giue euery man his right the singular learned man my good friend Georgius Bruno Agrippinensis hath taught me that the very Turkes themselues do not account him for an Emperour After him MAHOMETES tooke vnto him the crown of the Empire who made fierce warres vpon the Walachians subdued a great part of Slauonia first passed with an armie ouer the Donaw conquered Macedonia and pearced through the country euen as low as the Ionian sea He translated his Court from Prusias in Bithynia vnto Adernopoli in Greece where he died in the fourteenth yeare of his raigne After him AMVRATH the second succeeded in the kingdome This man conquered Epirus Aetolia Achaia Boeotia Attica and Thessalonica now Salonichi a city belonging to the state of Venice After him MAHOMET the second tooke vpon him the Diademe he ouerthrew Athens the most renowmed Vniuersity of the World He wonne by battery the great city of Constantinople vpon the nine and twentith day of May in the yeare after the birth of Christ 1452. He subdued the kingdome of Trapezonda vnder his command He tooke Corinth He forced the ilands Lemnos Stalamine they now call it Euboea Nigroponte and Mitylene to yeeld to his obedience He got Capha a city belonging to the Signiory of Genua and at Geiuisen a city of Bithynia died in the 32. yeare of his raigne BAIAZETH the second after his death possessed the crowne He made warre vpon the Venetians and wanne from them Naupactus Lepanto or as the Turkes call it Einebachti Methona Modon or Mutune a city in Peloponesus Dyrrachium Durazzo and spoiled all Dalmatia He was poisoned by a Iew his Physition After whom SELYMVS his sonne succeeded in the Emperiall throne He wanne Alcairo the strongest city of Aegypt and killing the Souldan subdued Alexandria and all Aegypt vnder his obedience He tooke also Damascus in Syria SOLYMANNVS the only sonne of Zelimus possessing his fathers roome wanne Belgrad tooke Buda the Princes seat and spoiled Strigonium and almost all Hungary He gatte the Rhodes by composition and vtterly rased Quinqueecclesias in Hungary the Turkes call it Petscheu the Dutch Funfkirchen Hauing surprized the city he besieged Zygeth where he ended his life ZELIMVS the second his sonne continued the battery wanne it and sacked it in the yeare of Christ 1566. And thus vnder 11. Emperours in 260. yeares a great part of Africa a greater of Europe and the most of Asia was by Turkish tyranny brought vnder their yoke But he that desireth a more absolute knowledge of the histories of the Turks let him read Paulus Iouius Christofer Richer Cuspinian Baptista Egnatius Gilbertus Nozorenus Andreas Lacuna Pius the second in the fourth chapter of his Europa and others that haue written of the Turkish affaires but no man hath set out these histories either with greater diligence or more amply than M. Richard Knolles our learned countryman my singular good friend Laonicus Chalcondylas hath curiously described the pedigree of the Ottomans together with the originall of the Turks Iohn Leonclaw hath very lately imprinted the Annalles of the Souldan Otthomans written by the Turks in their owne language and interpreted by him into the Latine tongue Of their ancient maner of life behauiour and customes thou maist read in the eighteen chapter of Leo the Emperour of Warlike preparation as also in Bartholomew Georgieuiz who hath written a seuerall treatise of that argument but especially the Annalles of the Turkish Souldans and the history of the Musulmans both written by the singular learned Iohn Leonclaw shall satisfie thee to the full TVRCICI IMPERII DESCRIPTIO Concordia parue res crescunt Discordia maximae dilabuntur Cum priuilegio The HOLY LAND THat which the ancients called Palestina and Phoenicia all the Europeans generally now call The HOLY LAND vnder which name they comprehend that whole country which God gaue vnto the Israelites by the name of the Land of Promise to them and their seed to possesse and inhabite for euer and which after the death of Solomon we read was diuided into two kingdomes IVDAH conteining two tribes Iudah and Beniamin whose cheife or Metropolitan city was Ierusalem and SAMARIA or ISRAEL which comprehended the other tenne tribes together with the city Sebaste or Samaria A latter description of the modern situation of this country very curious exact done by F. Brocard in a seuerall treatise vnto whom we send the Reader for further satisfaction we offer in this Mappe for the former tables did present vnto thy eie the ancient face and more beautifull countenance of this land To him they may adioine that please the treatise of William Tyrius entituled The Holy warres and other authours that haue written their Peregrinations to Hierusalem of which sort there is a great number written and imprinted in diuers languages For many Christians not only out of sundrie parts of Europe but from all quarters of the world haue in former times and now do daily trauell vnto Hierusalem for deuotion to visite the holy sepulchre of our Lord and Sauiour Iesus Christ and are there sometimes by the Franciscane Friars dubbed Knights who thereof are named Knights of the Sepulchre the order ceremonies of making these Knights we haue thought not altogether impertinent from our purpose to describe in this place as it is set out by Iod. a Meggē an ei-witnes of that in the 12 chap. of his treatise intituled Peregrinatio Hierusolymetana And thus he hath down the maner of it First of all therefore the Knight that is to be made prepareth himselfe vnto his deuotions that he may receiue the fauour of the degree of the holy order and making his confession hauing heard Masse receiued the Sacrament he is admitted into the roome where the holy sepulchre is and then they begin on this manner First all being gathered together within the holy sepulchre they sing this Psalme Come holy spirit c. Then this Send forth thy spirit c. The Answear And renew c. Lord heare c. Let vs pray Thou Lord which know'st the harts of the faithful c. Then the Gardian demandeth of him what wouldest thou haue He answeareth vpon his knees I do desire to be made a knight of the order of the Holy sepulchre of our Lord and Sauiour Iesus Christ Question Of what state and condition of life art thou of Answear A noble man borne of honourable parents Question Hast thou sufficient liuing whereby thou maist liue and maintaine the estate and dignity of knighthood without the help of merchandise or vse of any mechanicall or handie-craft occupation Answear I haue thankes be to God sufficient liuing and maintenance by lands and reuenews Question Art thou prepared to sweare with hart and mouth to keep and obserue to the vttermost of thy power those militarie sacraments and orders which shal be heereafter inioined thee namely these which follow First a knight of the holy order of the sepulchre
ditch wall or rampart Yet it is apparant out of the description of this prouince done by Iohn Leo Africanus that there be diuers other cities beside these although they be not very strong For in his eighth booke of the description of Africke he reckoneth vp thirty and two beside certaine other villages which he describeth according to their name and situation Of Egypt thou maist read in the description of the Holy Land set forth by Brocard toward the latter end of the same as also in Bellonius Obseruations Guillandine and Niger Of Nilus read Goropius and Nugarola beside that which ancient writers haue written of it which thou shalt see in our Mappe of old Egypt The Hauen of CARTHAGE IT is not our purpose to describe CARTHAGE that famous city and next after Rome the only glory of the world which so long bearded the Romanes and stood out against all forren subiection but because we saw this his Bay to be set out in Italy in this forme I thought it would be a thing wel-pleasing the learned student of Geography to ioine the same also to this our worke together with this discourse of Paulus Iouius written of the same Such is the forme of the Bay of Carthage that the entrance into it is not to be descried by such as saile thitherward from the maine sea for that the cape Clupea called of old writers Mercuries Foreland or Fairenesse stretcheth out it selfe farre into the West and againe winding it selfe and bending inward maketh another cape sometimes called Apolloes Foreland now the sailours call it Zafranio From thence vnto the straits of Goletto it is redoubled in maner of an halfe moone and at the left hand of the city Rada Raba the chart hath famous for hot bathes of soueraigne vertue it leaueth the country Ouer against which are to be seene the ruines of old Carthage and the place where it stood Thus farre Iouius But the places neere adioining are described more particularly in Iohn Leo Africanus NATOLIAE QVAE OLIM ASIA MINOR NOVA DESCRIPTIO AEGYPTI RE CENTIOR DE SCRIPTIO CARTHAGINIS CELEBERRIMY SINVS TYPVS ETHIOPIA or ALHABAS The country of ABYSSINES or The Empire of PRESTER IOHN THe same whom we in Europe call Presbyter Iohn or Priest Iohn the Moores call ATICI ABASSI themselus that is the Abyssines or Ethiopians ACEGVE and NEGVZ that is Emperour and King for his proper name is arbitrarily giuen him as heere we vse in Europe at the discretion of the parents It seemeth also that at his coronation he changeth his name like as the Popes of Rome vse at this day to do and together with his crowne to take vnto him another proper appellation for he which in our remembrance possessed the throne and made a league of amity with the King of Portugall was called before his coronation Atani Tingal but after he had taken vpon him the Emperiall diademe he was named Dauid This Prester Iohn out of doubt in this our age is one of the greatest Monarches of the World whose kingdome lying between the two Tropickes reacheth from the Red-sea almost vnto the Ethiopian ocean and that we may somewhat more precisely set downe the bounds of this Empire for as much as we can gather out of the surueihgs of the same made and set forth by some learned men of our time it hath vpon the North Egypt which now is vnder the command of the Turke on the east it abutteth vpon the Red sea and Barbaricum sinum Pliny calleth it Troglodyticum sinum others Asperum mare the rough sea the seamen at this day vulgarly Golfo de Melinde on the South it is strongly by nature fensed and enclosed by Montes Lunae the mountaines of the Moone on the West it is confined by the kingdome of Nubia and the riuer Nilus These bounds do seeme to containe that prouince which old writers called Ethiopia beneath Egypt together with Troglodytis Cinnamomifera regio the country where in those daies Cinnamon grew most plentifull with part of the inner Libya These countries now are diuided into many smaller prouinces and are called by diuers and sundrie names as thou maist see in the Mappe These countrie people are at this day generally of all our moderne Historiographers called ABYSSINI or as themselues with the Arabians round about them pronounce the word Hhabas and with Al the Arabicke article or pronoune prefixed Alhabas as Beniamin reporteth and Abexim as Garcias ab Horto affirmeth all which wordes indeed originally are the same and do only differ either in sound or maner of writing for the Eastern Hheth a letter I meane proper to those nations and barbarous to vs borne in Europe the West part of the World is diuerslly expressed by diuers as they do well know which know ought in the Hebrew Arabicke Syrian and Ethiopicke languages sometimes by our single h sometime by the double hh otherwise by ch others do wholly omit it as not finding any letter in that language in which they write that is of that nature and power whereby they may truly expresse the same Again the last letter of the same word which the Hebrewes and Arabians call Schin is sometime expressed by sh sometime by ss or by the Spanish x which they sound almost like our sh and sometimes by s or z. For thus I find the word written often in the holy Scriptures translated into Arabicke and Habashi and Alhabassi Psalm 68.32 and 74.14 Item in Gen. 2.13 where Ardzi ' lhabas the land of Ethiopia is the same that Auicenna in the 283. chapter of the second tract of his second booke calleth B'ledi'lhhabashah the country of the Abyssines or as our fathers named it India Occidentalis the West Indies the interpetour Gerardus Cremonensis hath Terras alhabes Bellunensis hath Terras Indiae minoris the countries of the Abyssines or of the lesser India Heere also it is worth the obseruing that this word out of all doubt had his originall from the Hebrew שוכ Cush whereby they did long since call this nation and people as it is apparant out of Gen. 10.5 and 2.13 by the iudgement of all Interpreters Grammarians and Iewish Rabbines For the Hebrew ו or vaw which indeed and in his owne nature is the same with our w is pronounced of some nations in some cases like the Germane v or v consonant as they call it somewhat like the sound of b altogether the same with that pronunciation of the Hebrew Beth when it followeth a vowell as the modern Grammarians and Iewish Rabbines do now teach According to which custome it is not vnlikely but that this word שוכ which the Iewes sounded Cush some other nations might pronounce and vowell thus שוח chauash chabaas habas or Abyssi And indeed the Asians generally and they themselues as Ortelius citeth out of Iosephus do call themselues Chusaeos and as he reporteth from the relation of the reuerend B. Arias Montanus Hispalensis they are euen to this day of
for thou seest how straite and narrow it is what heere is wanting may be supplied out of the Tables following two of Tileman Stella the third intituled the Peregrination of S. Paul and the fourth intituled the Peregrination of the Patriarch Abraham For if all these should haue been portraitured and ioined together in one and the same Mappe it would grow too much too great yea it would be so great and huge that it would exceed this which heere we giue an hundred times and so by reason of the greatnesse it would not only be troublesome in vse but also vnpleasant to the eie In the hart and middest of the plotte where thou seest Syria as it hath been sufficiently replenished and filled with places so in places round about vpon the coasts on all sides it is most empty and barren so that it would appeare like a small iland in the vast ocean and would soone haue growen into a great burdensome and chargeable bignesse to no purpose or profit at all We haue vpon the side in a void place set the Mappe of the whole World whereby the diligent student of Diuinity by conferring might easily see what and how great a portion of the same the holy history doth mention and comprehend and at once iointly with the same labour to find out the situation and position of two famous places mentioned in the holy Scriptures namely of the situation of the country Ophyr and the earthly Paradise Of the which although many men do write many and diuers things and the opinions of the learned be different yet we haue also set downe our iudgement willingly giuing leaue to the learned Reader in his discretion to take which him pleaseth and he may read if he thinke good that which in our Geographicall Treasurie we haue written more at large of Ophyr Of Paradise also there is the like controuersie and question amongst the Diuines The most men do place it in the East others in Syria Postellus vnder the pole Arcticke Some there are which do gesse it to haue been vnder the Equinoctiall line Goropius our countrieman is perswaded by many arguments that it was in Indoscythia a prouince of India in the East abutting vpon the riuer Indus Some of the old writers did imagine it to reach as high as the sphere of the moone others do place it in other places Caesarius the brother of Nazianzene in his Dialogues in what place he supposeth it to be I cannot deuise for he maketh Donaw one of those foure riuers namely that which sacred antiquity called Phison this Saint Hierome and Eusebius do vnderstand to haue been Nilus in Aegypt others Ganges in East India S. Augustine against the Manicheies hath this opinion Beatam vitam Paradisi nomine significatam existimo By Paradise I do thinke the blessed life to be vnderstood Others more later which purposedly haue written of the situation of Paradise are Moses Bar Cepha in the Syriacke tongue and translated by the learned Masius Pererius vpon Genesis Iohn Hopkinson an Englishman in a peculiar treatise where also thou maist see a Geographicall Mappe of the same Others also haue done the like as Beroaldus in his Chronicle Vadianus in the description of the three quarters of the World and Ludouicus Nugarola in his booke intituled Timotheus or Nilus c. Phison one of the riuers of Paradise which some do expound to be Ganges which runneth too farre toward the East this Mappe by reason of his narrownesse cannot by any meanes containe the situation of which thou maist see in another Mappe of ours in this our by-worke intituled Aeui veteris Geographiae tabula A Geographicall chart of the old World GEOGRAPHIA SACRA Ex Canatibus geographicus Abrahami Ortelii Cum privilagio Imp. Regis et Cancellariae Brabantiae ad decennium MDXCVIII Ophiram regionem quia haec tabula compraehendere non poterat hanc aream universalem hic seorsim delineavimus in qua illam ex dissentientium scriptorum iudicio notaevimus Nostram verò de eadem sententiam si quis intelligere aveat Thesaurum nostrum Georgraphicum adeat censuramque suam per me enim licebit addat REVERENDO ET ILLVSTRI DNO GVILIELMO GRIMBERGIO ANTVERPIENSI PRAESVLI DIGNISSIMO Abrah Ortelius obsequij deuotionisque ergò dedicab consecrabatque Haec notula locum Ophirae designat DOMINI EST TERRA ET PLENITVDO ORBIS TERRARVM ET VNIVERSI QVI HABITANT IN EO Psal 24. PALAESTINA OR The HOLY LAND CANAAN The most ancient name of this country was Canaan which it tooke of Chanaan the sonne of Cham whose posterity diuided it amongst themselues and first inhabited it Their names were these Sidon Heth Iebusy Emory Gergesy Heuy Arky Siny Aruady Semary and Hamathy Gen. 10.15.16.17.18 Euery one of these gaue his owne name to that part of the country of Canaan which he enioied for his portion and possessed and of them mention afterward is made Gen. 13.14.15.23.24.25.27.34.36.38.49.50 Exod. 3.13.23.34 Num. 13.22.32 Deut. 1.2.3.4.7.20 Iosu 2.3.5.7.9.10.11.12.13.15.16.17.19.24 Iudg. 1.3.10.11.18 1. King 7.1 Chron. 1. Iud. 5. Psalm 105.106.134.135 Esa 21. Ezech. 16.27 This country was called by the name of the Land of Canaan vntill the Israëlites hauing partly slaine and partly subdued all the posterity of Canaan possessed the same from which time it began to be called the Land of Israel which name was by the Angell giuen to the Patriarke Iacob for that he had wrestled with God and from thence the country grew to be called by that name Gen. 32.28 For the word Israël in the Hebrew tongue signifieth to preuaile with God or a mighty man preuailing against the mighty God Heere hence were the sonnes and ofspring of Iacob named Israëlites and the country wherein they dwelt the Land of Israël as is apparant out of the booke of Iud. and the 1. booke of the Kings Although the whole land of Chanaan were indeed generally called Israël yet neuerthelesse the portion or iurisdiction of euery Tribe which seuerally Iosua assigned to euery one of the twelue Patriarkes receiued a proper appellation of the chiefe of that family as is apparant by diuers places of Holy Scripture The names of the Tribes were these Ruben Simeon Iuda Zebulon Isaschar Dan Gad Aser Nephtali Beniamin Manasse Ephraim and so the name of euery one of the sonnes of Iacob remained in his posterity and place of abode in the same so that the whole land of Chanaan was diuided into twelue parts as the holy Scripture doth testifie Then vnder Roboam when as Israel and that kingdome was rent into two parts the Tribes of Iuda and Beniamin being vnited retained the name of Iuda and that for these reasons First for that of the two it was the mightiest Secondly by reason that out of it the Messias was to come it was the more famous and the name of the whole was taken from the most honourable But the other tenne Tribes which were commanded by the Kings of Samaria still retained the
ancient name and were called Israël Againe the later part after the captiuity of Babylon was diuided into two prouinces Samaria and Galilee Samaria the Metropolitane or chiefe city of which the country tooke the name was the seat of the Kings of Israel But Galilee was possessed and inhabited by forreners and strangers 3. King 9. and 4. King 17. and therefore grew to be much enuied and despised of the rest of the Iewes so that they did vse to speake all villany and reproachfull speaches of the people of this prouince The North part of this in scorne was called Galiley of the Gentiles and in respect of the situation the Higher Galiley the other part of it toward the South was called the Lower Galiley Therefore afterward euen vnto the time of Christ and his Apostles and so foorth the land of Chanaan or Israel was diuided into three parts and called by three distinct names The Higher country toward Sidon and Tyre they called Galiley the Middle Samaria the Lower toward the South and Arabia Petraea was properly called Iudaea Iewrie as is manifest out of the second chapter of Saint Matthew and the fourth of Saint Iohn This later did containe onely two Tribes Iuda and Beniamin Although also all the land of Canaan euen as high as the mountaines of Thracon neere Antioch and the country of Ammon was called Iudaea as is euident by the ninteenth chapter of Saint Matthew and the tenth of Saint Marke and therefore also Pliny mentioneth Iudaea citerior Iewry on this side Iordan Strabo in his sixteenth booke and Lucane in his second booke do also call the same Iudaea which name as we said before had the originall from the Tribe of Iuda Ptolemey and others call it Palaestina of the Palaestini which according to the propriety of the Hebrew pronunciation in the Holy Scriptures are named Philistiim Phelistines this Nation indeed both for their great command and warres made with their neighbours for certaine yeares together were very famous Herodotus in Polymnia and Dion in his seuen and twentieth booke calleth that part of Syria which is next to Aegypt Syriam Palaestinam Palaestina of Syria Ptolemey calleth it Palaestinam Iudaeam Palaestina of Iewrie or Palaestinam Syriae Palaestina of Syria Because that Palaestina is a part of Syria as Pomponius Mela thinketh who calleth it Syriam Iudaeae Syria of Iudaea Many places of this Palaestina are expressed in that his Mappe and therefore heere they are omitted OF AEGYPT The country situate between Syene or the Catarractae Nili the fall or mouthes of Nilus through the middest of which this riuer runneth and by his yearely inundation and ouerflowing watereth all the grounds of the same in old time was called CHAM of Cham the sonne of Noe to whose lot this country fell when the world was diuided presently after the confusion at Babel Psalm 78. v. 51. 105. v. 23. and 106. v. 22. Afterward it was called Misraim of Misraim the sonne of Cham Gen. 5. and 10. Iosephus in the twelfth chapter of his first booke calleth it Mersin which name doubtlesse is made of Misraim either by contraction or short kind of speaking depraued by custome or fault of the writer Herodotus in Euterpe affirmeth that Aegypt was sometime named Thebes Of some it was called Aëria or Aëtia as some copies write it Marmolius Theuer and Pinetus affirme that the Turkes and country people in and about Aegypt do now call this country Chibth Elchibet or Elchebitz And indeed the Arabs that turned Genesis the first booke of Moses into Arabicke in the 45. and 46. chapters for Aegypt hath Elchibth from whence no doubt the Greekes and Latines fetched their Aegyptus like as of Phrat the Hebrew name is made Euphrates Aegypt had three speciall prouinces or shires the Higher which was called Thebaica the Middle and the Lower Thebaica and the Middleshire of Aegypt which the mountaines of Aethiopia and the vtter section or parting of the riuer Nilus at Sebemytus do define are called the Higher Egypt through the middest of which the riuer Nilus doth iointly runne in one maine channell and is both vpon the East and West enclosed with high and steep mountaines The other Prouince from thence euen vnto the Aegyptian sea is called the Lower Egypt This alse they call Delta for that this country or part of Egypt which is conteined between the parting of the riuer at Sebemytus Canopus and Pelusium or the two mouthes of the same riuer where it falleth into the Mediterran sea neere these townes is in fashion three cornered or triangular representing the forme of the Greeke Capitall letter Δ. These countries by the discreet aduise of Alexander the Great were diuided into ÎΟΜΟΩΣ that is Shires for by Nomòs NomÄ— and NomarchÃa the Greekes do vnderstand a shire and ward ouer the which is set Nomárches a Lieutenant or Lord-warden Thebes comprehended tenne shires and the middle prouince sixteen shires so that in all the Higher Egypt conteined six and twenty shires But in the Lower Egypt or Delta there were onely tenne Egypt is very often mentioned in the holy Scripture and the places where it is spoken of are very famous and memorable Gehon that is as some do expound Nilus Gen. 2.13 Bethshemeth the Sunnes house Heliopolis the Greekes call it Gen. 41. and 46. Esa 19. This also is called On Ezech. 30. Gessen or Gosen a country or prouince of Egypt Gen. 45.47.50 Exod. 9. Phitom Exod. 1. a city of store situate vpon Nilus This the Israelites were forced to build Ramesse or Raemses Gen. 47. Exod. 1.12 which also was built by the Israelites in their bondage when they were slaues and serued the Aegyptians Sucoth Exod. 12.13 Etham Exod. 12. Piachiroth Magdalum Beelsephon The red sea Exod. 14. Migdal or Migdalum Ierem. 44.46 Taphnis Ierem. 2.43.44.46 Exod. 30. Phatures Paturos Pathros Ierem. 44. Ezech. 19.30 Tanis Num. 13. Esa 19. Ezech. 30. Psalm 77. This Iosephus calleth Protanis Alexandria Ierem. 46. Ezech. 20. Pelusium and Bubastus Ezech. 30. Memphis called of the Hebrews Noph and sometimes Moph and Migdol Esa 19. Ierem. 2.44.46 Ezech. 30. Ose 9. This was the seat of the Kings of Egypt where they ordinarily kept their court and was the Metropolitane city of all that whole kingdome PALAESTINAE SIVE TOTIVS TERRAE PROMISSIONIS NOVA DESCRIPTIO AVCTORE TILEMANNO STELLA SIGENENSI Dominus Deus tuus introducet te in terram bonam terram rivorum aquarumque et foncium in cuius campis montibus erumpunt fluviorum abyssi Terram frumenti ordei ac vinearum in qua ficus malogranata oliveta nascuntur terram olei ac mellis Vbi absque ulla penuria comedes panem tuum rerum omnium abundantia perfrueris OF ARABIA This country the Hebrews call Arab that is a misture hotchpotch or dwelling of diuers and sundrie Nations together in one and the same country as is probably to be gathered out of the six and twentith chapter of
as it is also in the 7. chapter of the Acts of the Apostles againe recorded The same is that Sichem which is mentioned in the 11. and 21. chapters of the booke of Iud. and in the 12. of the 3. booke of King Ieroboam built Sichem in mount Ephraim This same is it which in the 4. chapter of the Gospell by S. Iohn is named Sychar the last syllable being varied whether of purpose or chance God knoweth I cannot tell In the time of S. Hierome it was Neapolis Naples This is it which in the 33. of Gen. was called both Sichem and Salem Now there was another Salem in this country as we haue shewed before SICLAG In this place Dauid dwelt a yeare and 4. months whereupon it came to passe that euer after the kings of Iuda held this towne as their owne inheritance 1. Reg. 27. This city in the absence of Dauid was sacked and fired 1. Reg. 30. SODOMA GOMORRHA ADAMA SEBOIM and SEGOR were the 5. cities situate in the vale of Siddim that is the champion vale or the vale of Salt-pits Gen. 14.10 which by reason of the great fertility and pleasant situation of it was compared to the Paradise or garden of God or like Aegypt the garden of the world Gen. 13.10 In it were many slime pits bitumen the Latines call it Gen. 14.10 In that same place now is Mare salsum the salt sea otherwise called Mare mortuum the dead sea or Lacus asphaltites the lake of slime a kind of liquid matter like pitch that issueth out of the earth and therefore is called Pissaphaltus this they vse in those countries in the laying of stone or bricke in steed of lime or mortar Sodom as seemeth tooke the name of the champion plaine wherein it stood Gomorrha of an handfull or gauell of corne In the Arabicke tongue the theme doth signifie to abide liue or stay in a place Psalm 25.13 Hebr. 7.23 To prolong life to cause to liue long Mahomet in the 45. Azzoara his Alkoran and the interpretours of the Psalmes and New Testament do often vse the word thus And from hence Gomor or Homor for so they sometime expresse the orientall letter ain signifieth vitae prolixitatem the continuance and length of daies of a mans life Azzoara 31.32 and 36. Item Psal 31.11 and 90.9 Lastly Magburah is the same that Thebel is in Hebrew or Oecoumene in Greeke that is so much of the earth as is habitable Psa 33.81 Psa 107.7 and in Auicen very often as also in the Geography of Nazaradin where it is opposed to Chala that is desert forestie wast inhabitable And so I thinke the more probable deriuation is to be fetched from the Arabicke rather than from that of the Hebrew For such is the situation of this place whether you respect the wholesomnesse and kindnesse of the aire or fertility of the soile that before the fall it was so well inhabited as no place better in all this land Adama or Admah red earth the best kind of soile for carcable land Zeboim a pleasant and beautifull country Zeor or Sohar a little prouince THABOR a mountaine in the tribe of Nephtalim neere to Chedes Thabor signifieth purity cleannesse or by the changing of Thau into Teth a letter of like force and instrument of pronunciation a nauell bullion bosse or pommell For it ariseth vp in the middest of the plaine like the nauell vpon the belly For it is 30. furlongs high and the diameter of the flatte of the toppe is almost 20. furlongs ouer TYRVS was a colony drawne forth of Sidon The Hebrew name is Zor which signâ—fieth a rebell or traitour For it is probable that a part of the citizens of Sidon falling to mutiny departed out of the city and to haue sought where they might dwell in some other place to their better liking This great Alexander tooke after he had besiedged it 7 months putting 7000. citizens to the sword hang'd vp other 2000. ZIDON so named oâ— Zidon the sonne of Chanaan as it is left recorded in the 10. chap. of Gen. The word signifieth an hunting or taking of any pray This city being take by Ocho K. of Persia by the treachery of the soldiers was burnt by the straglers baser sort that followed the camp in which fire perished about 40000. men In the 5. chapter of S. Marks Gospell and the 8. of S. Lukes there is mention made of the country of the Gadarenes in that history where Christ casteth the diuels out of the mad man and the diuels rushing into the heard of swine do cary them headlong into the lake This country S. Matthew calleth the country of the Gergesenes which S. Hierome translateth Gerasers It is therefore to be vnderstood that the town Gerasa famoused also by Stephanus stood not vpon the South bank of Iordan where the most fertile and pleasant plaine of Galiley is seated but toward the desert and wast land beyond the riuer vpon the North banke So that the diuers names of one and the same towne are Gerasa Gadara and Gergasa Neither is the cleare lake of Genesareth of which we haue spoken before to be thought to be one and the same with the like of the Gadarens but another situate neere the town Gadara far distant and remote from thence of which Strabo thus speaketh The water also of the lake of Gadara is troubled and muddy of which if any beasts do drinke they will cast their haire their hoofes and their hornes THE PEREGRINATION of SAINT PAVL THere is no man of meane learning but doth know that the knowledge of Geography and skill of Mappes and Chartes is necessary for the vnderstanding of the historicall bookes of holy Scripture and if they will not confesse it yet the thing it selfe doth sufficiently approue it to be so And thereupon certaine learned men in these our daies haue freely bestowed their labour in this businesse for the furtherance of the studious Diuine Amongst the which the great Mathematician Orontius Fineus of Dolphine in France was to my remembrance the first in that his charte which he made for the vnderstanding of the Old and New Testaments Tabula ad vtriusque Testamenti intelligentiam concinnata for such is the title of that his Mappe After him followed Peter Appian in his Peregrination of Saint Paul The same was done by Marke Iordan of Holstein Lastly Christianus Schrot in that his Mappe which he intituled The Peregrination of the Children of God and B. Arias Montanus of Ciuill in Spaine in his Apparatus Biblicus a learned worke adioined to the King of Spains Bible This is that which I in this Mappe attempt to do according as the narrownesse of roome will permit For as this Mappe of mine may not compare with theirs for multitude of places which I do freely confesse so that this of ours shall aswell as theirs make for the vnderstanding of both the Testaments I dare boldly promise For as all these only excepting Montanus haue
length being released for a long time preacheth the Gospell in Rome and other places of Italy v. 31.32 Some there are that thinke that after his enlargement he went also into Spaine and France and planted the Gospell amongst those Nations Lastly he was againe apprehended by Nero and at Rome put to death by him in the last yeare of his raigne which was the 70. yeare after the birth of Christ The PEREGRINATION of ABRAHAM the Patriarke ABraham the first Patriarke whom Iesus the sonne of Syrach chapter 44. v. 19. calleth a Great man and Admirable for glory and honour the sonne of Thare was borne as Iosephus writeth in the 292. yeare after the vniuersall floud in V R a city of the Chaldees otherwise called Camarine as Eusebius witnesseth it may be it is the same that Ptolemey calleth Vrchoa He goeth forth of his country and natiue soile at the commandement of God when he was as Suidas teacheth but foureteen yeares old into CHARRAN which S. Stephen in that oration which he made to the Iewes Act. 7.2 3.4 as also Achior in the story of Iudith chapter 5. v. 7. in his speech to Holofernes and likewise the 72. interpretours do expound to be Mesopotamia Iosephus taketh it for a city That this place was Carrae famous for the great ouerthrow heere giuen to the Romane forces led by Crassus against the Parthians although there be some which are of that opinion yet I dare not wholly yeeld vnto them only I leaue it to the learned to determine Hauing staid a while in this country of Mesopotamia his father being dead there as the same Suidas reporteth from thence he goeth with Sarai his wife Lot his brothers sonne and all his family and the soules or liuing creatures that he had gotten in Charran toward the land of Chanaan Gen. 12.5 And if you will beleeue Nicolaus Damascenus in Iosephus he dwelt sometime neere Damasco where in his daies he saith there was to be seen a street which they vulgarly called Abrahams house When he came from thence into SICHEM at the plaine of MOREH a place which diuers interpreters diuersly interpret some the Oke Moreh others the Oke-groue of Moreh Zozomene writeth that in his time it was called Terebinthus the Terebinth or Turpentine tree Gen. 12.6 God appeared vnto him and promised to giue to him and to his seed that land for an inheritance for euer therefore in this place he built an altar to the Lord which heere appeared vnto him v. 7. From thence remouing vnto a mountaine Eastward from Bethel he pitched his tent hauing Bethel on the Westside and Haai on the East and there also he built an altar vnto the Lord and calleth vpon the name of the Lord v. 8. thence he remooueth and goeth on toward the South v. 9. But a great famine arising in that land and euerie day growing still more grieuous than other he goeth downe into EGYPT to soiourne there v. 10. And comming thither with his wife a very faire and beautifull woman v. 11. whom he called by the name of his sister v. 13. Pharao the king of Aegypt fell in loue with her and tooke her into his house v. 15. and for her sake intreated Abram extraordinarily well and bestowed great gifts vpon him v. 16. who also was there as Iosephus affirmeth for his eloquence wisedome and great experience in all things had in great estimation amongst the Aegyptians But when the Lord punished Pharao and all his family with many great and greeuous plagues for Sara Abrams wiues sake v. 17. he debated the matter with him and examined him what his reason was to giue out speech that she was his sister and that he had not told him that she was his wife v. 18. and so he restored her to her husband againe v. 19. and gaue commandement that he his wife and all that he had should be conueighed out of the land v. 20. Therefore Abram goeth vp backe againe to Bethel chapter 13.3 into that place where formerly he had built an altar and there he called vpon the name of the Lord v. 4. After this returne Abram and Loth who had alwaies accompanied him grew exceeding wealthy and rich in sheep cattell tents and familie v. 5. that the land could not conteine them both neither might they dwell together v. 6. Besides that their heard-men sheep-heards and seruants could not agree v. 7. Therefore they consent to diuide the land between them v. 9. Loth he chose the plaine of Iordane a champion country well watered euery where with that goodly riuer diuers smaller brookes lakes wels and poolles a tract of ground for pleasantnesse and fertility like vnto Paradise and Aegypt In this place then stood Sodome Gomorrha and those other cities which as yet the Lord had not destroied v. 10. In these cities Loth dwelt euen vp as high as Sodome but Abram he abode still in the land of Chanaan v. 12. Thus they being parted the Lord appeared vnto Abram and shewed him all the country round about Northward and Southward Eastward and Westward as farre as he could see v. 14. all which he promised to giue to him and to his seed for euer v. 15. From thence he remoued and came to dwell in the plaine of Mambre The Septuagint interpretours haue translated it The oke of Mambre quercum Mambre Iosephus hath the Oke Ogyn Euagrius writeth that in his time the place was called Terebinthus the Turpentine tree of the Turpentine tree as I suppose that stood six furlongs off as we read in Iosephus and which Eusebius Pamphilus saith stood still in that place euen in his time This place was not farre from HEBRON or as some write it Chebron v. 18. Heere Abram hearing of the newes of Lots captiuity with his whole familie and goods and substance whatsoeuer taken by the kings of the Nations when they sacked and spoiled Sodom for Lot dwelled at Sodome chapter 14.11.12 he armed 308. slaues or bond-seruants bred and borne in his owne house and with all possible speed maketh out after the enemy v. 14. following them euen as high as DAN and CHOBA Saint Hierome calleth it Hoba and Iosephus Soba v. 15. rescueth his nephew recouereth all his goods and booty that they had taken and bringeth them backe againe with the women and all the people v. 16. Being come home from the slaughter of Chodorlaomer and the rest of the kings which were with him at the VALLEY OF SAVE the Kings dale as Saint Hierome doth call it or the Kings field as Iosephus nameth it the King of Sodome meeteth him v. 17. together with Melchisedech King and Priest of Salem or Ierusalem who bringing forth bread and wine entertained him most kindly v. 18. blessing him and wishing all good fortunes vnto him v. 19. to whom Abram gaue tith of all that he had v. 20. These things being thus performed God appeareth vnto him againe chapter 15.1 and promiseth him an heire of his owne seed v. 4.
from whom should come an ofspring or issue as great in number as the starres of Heauen v. 5. or the sand of the sea Hebr. 11.12 And this he not considering now that his body was withered and dead as being almost an hundred yeares old neither the deadnesse of Saraes wombe but being not weake in faith nor doubting any whit of the promises of God knowing certainly that he which had promised was able to performe what he had promised against all hope beleeued in hope and therefore it was imputed vnto him for righteousnesse Rom. 4.18.19 and for a confirmation and further testimony of the truth of the same he diuided a calfe a goat a ramme a turtle and a doue in the middest only the birds he diuided not and that by the expresse commandement of God v. 9.10 The birds that lighted on the carkeises Abram draue away v. 11. Heere God foretelleth him that his seed should be in bondage to the Egyptians 400. yeares v. 13. and then to returne into this country againe v. 16. And after the sun was down there arose a great darkenes and behold a smoaking furnace burning fire brand passed between those pieces v. 17. and the Lord made a couenant with Abram and gaue to his seed and posterity all that whole country that lieth between Nilus the riuer of Aegypt and Euphrates that great riuer which seuereth Palaestina from the kingdome of the Chaldees or Persians v. 18. Sarai his wife hauing hitherto been barren and hauing an Egyptian maid named Hagar moueth Abram to company with her chap. 16.1.2 Abram consenting vnto his wife goeth in vnto Hagar v. 3. who conceiuing bare him a sonne whom by the commandement of the Angel she called Ismaël v. 4.11 After this Abram being 99. yeares old the Lord appeared to him chap. 17.1 maketh a couenant with him with promise greatly to multiply him and his seed and to make him a father of many Nations v. 2.4 Therefore he changeth his name from Abram that is High-father Altiparens vnto Abraham that is Many-father Multiparens v. 5. and his wiues name from Sarai that is My princesse vnto Sarah The princesse v. 15. and promiseth to giue him a son by her whom he was by the counsaile of the Lord to call by the name of Izahak and with him maketh the couenant of circumcision v. 16.19 Abraham therefore tooke Ismaël and all the males of his whole family and cut off the fore skinne of their flesh that selfe same day as the Lord had commanded him v. 23. And Abraham was 99. yeares old Ismaël was 13. yeares old when they were circumcised v. 24.25 Again the Lord appeared vnto him in the plaine of MAMBRF as he sate in the tent dore about the heat of the day chap. 18.1 and lifting vp his eies he saw 3 men in the 2. v. of the 12 chap. of the Ep. to the Hebr. they are called Angels which he entertained into his house chap. 18.1.2.3 and after they had dined refreshed themselues goeth along with them toward Sodom v. 16. In the way as they went the Lord fore-sheweth vnto him the destruction of Sodom Gomorrha v. 17.20.21 Wherefore Abraham earnestly intreateth the Lord to be mercifull vnto them and to pardon the multitude for a few righteous mens sakes amongst them but in vaine for that that great and infinite number which dwelt in these 5. cities and the territories round about them could not affoord 10. that truly feared God v. 32. And being returned home againe v. 33. early in the morning looking toward Sodome and Gomorrha he saw the smoke of the land ascending vp as it had been the smoke of a furnace chap. 19.28 For the Lord had caused it to raine downe from heauen vpon those cities fire and brimstone v. 24. Afterward Abraham went from thence Southward and dwelled between Cades and Sur in the land of GERAR chap. 20.1 Now Abimelek king of that country sent for Sarah whom Abraham as before chap. 12. 13. called by the name of his sister v. 2. but being warned by God in a dreame that she was his wife v. 3. before such time as he had come neere her v. 4. he restored her to Abraham her husband vntouched richly endowed and with great treasure v. 14.15.16 In this country Sarah trauelled and bare Abraham a son in his old age chap. 21.2 according as the Lord before had promised she should chap. 17.19 and Abraham called his name Izaac v. 3. and circumcised him when he was 8. daies old v. 4. Now when he was to be weaned Abraham made a great feast v. 8. At which feast Ismaël whom Abraham had begotten of Hagar the bondwoman mocked Isaac the sonne of the free woman v. 9. wherefore by the counsell of Sara his wife both Hagar and her bastard sonne are turned out of doores v. 14. After this Abraham and Abimelech contended about a well of water which Abimelechs seruants had by force taken from the seruants of Abraham v. 25. yet the truth being sifted out they agree and do make a couenant and league of perpetuall amity v. 27. at a place which of this euent was afterward called B'ER-SHEBAA that is the well of the league or oth v. 31. Heere Abraham planted a GROVE where he called vpon the name of the Lord the mighty God euerlasting v. 33. and he dwelt as a stranger and soiourner in these quarters namely in the land of the Philistines a long season v. 34. These things being thus performed God tempted Abraham chap. 22.1 commanding him to take Izaac his only sonne who was now as Iosephus writeth 25. yeares old by whom he had promised to giue him an innumerable issue and to offer him vp for a sacrifice vpon one of the mountaines in the land of MORIAH v. 2. this mountaine was since called Zion vpon which Dauid afterward appointed a temple to be built 2. Chr. 3.1 Heere therefore he nothing distrusting of the goodnesse and power of God but perswading himselfe certainly that God could without Izaac raise him a posterity out of the dead he buildeth an altar and hauing laid on wood bindeth his sonne v. 9. taketh the knife purposing to slay him as he was commanded v. 10. but behold an Angel sent from God with a countermand charged him not to lay hand vpon Izaac v. 11.12 He therefore looking about him and spying a ramme behind him entangled by the hornes in a bush he catcheth him and offereth him in steed of his sonne v. 13. Wherefore Abraham called the name of that place IEHOVAH-YIREH v. 14. After this Sarah his wife being 120. yeares old chap. 23. 1. dieth in KIRIATH-ARBAA a place that was otherwise called HEBRON v. 2. but Abraham buried her in the caue of the field MACHPELAH oueragainst Mambre the same is Hebron in the land of Canaan which he had bought of Ephron the Hittite v. 19. Then he maried a 2. wife named Keturah cap. 25.1 who bare him many children v. 2. Lastly Abraham being
of colour but also to marke them with diuers kinds of pictures and counterfeits of sundrie sorts of liuing creatures and to go naked least they should hide this their painting I read in Herodian Listen thou shalt heare Solinus speake the same wordes The countrie is partly possessed by a barbarous and wild people which euen from their childhood haue by certaine cutters men skilfull that way diuers images and pictures of liuing creatures drawen and raised vpon their skinne and so imprinted in their flesh that as they grow vnto mans estate these pictures together with the painters staines do wax bigger and bigger neither doth the wild people endure any thing more patiently and willingly than that their limbes by meanes of those deep cuts and slashes may so deepely drinke in these coloures that they may sticke long by them Amongst the Goddesses as I learne by Dion they worshipped Andates for so they call Victoriam victory who had a temple and sacred wood where they vsed to do sacrifice and performe their religious seruice and worship to her Beside her they had another which was called Adraste whether this were the same with Adrastia which some did take to be Nemesis the Goddesse of reuenge which the ancient Grecians Romans did worship I leaue to others to determin Caesar saith that in former times the Druides a kind of superstitious priests dwelt also amongst this people who affirmeth that their discipline and religion was first heere inuented and from hence caried beyond sea into France That they continued vntill the time of Vespasian the Emperour of Rome in Mona or Anglesey it is apparent out of the 14 booke of Cornelius Tacitus his Annals Frō them doubtlesse this nation had their knowledge of the state immortality of the soule after this life for this was the opinion of those Druides as Caesar and others haue written of them But of the Druides we will God willing speake more in our Old France or Gallia as it stood in Caesars time That the Britans did so greatly esteeme and wonderfully extoll the art Magicke and performe it with such strange ceremonies that it is to be thought that the Persians had it from hence I haue Pliny for my patron who mightily perswadeth me The forenamed Bunduica also doth seeme to iustifie the same who as soone as she had ended her oration vnto her army cast an hare out of her lappe by that meanes to gesse what the issue of that iourney would be which after that she was obserued to goe on forward all the company iointly gaue a ioifull shout and acclamation To sacrifice and offer the blood of their captiues vpon their altars and to seeke to know the will and pleasure of their Gods by the entrails of men as the Romans did by the bowels of beasts these people held it for a very lawfull thing Thus farre Tacitus and thus much of Albion now it remaineth that we in like manner say somewhat of Ireland HIBERNIA Or IRELAND VPon the West of Britaine in the vast ocean the Latines call it Oceanus Virginius that is as the Welch call it Norweridh or Farigi as the Irish pronounce the word lieth that goodly iland which all ancient writers generally haue called by one and the same name although euery one hath not written it alike an ordinary and vsuall thing in proper names translated into strange countries For Ptolemy and vulgarly all Geographers which follow him calleth it HIBERNIA Orpheus the most ancient Poet of the Greekes Aristotle the Prince of Philosophers and Claudian IERNA Iuuenall and Mela IVVERNA Diodorus Siculus IRIS Eustathius in his Commentaries vpon Dionysius Afer WERNIA 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and BERNIA the Welch-men or ancient Britans YVERDON the Irish themselues from whence all the rest were fetched ERIN whereof also the Saxons by adding the word Land signifying a countrey or prouince as their manner is haue framed IRELAND by which name it is not only knowen to the English but generally at this day it is so called of all Nations whatsoeuer Thus farre the learned Clarencieux who also thinketh it so to haue beene named by them of their Irish word Hiere which signifieth the West or Western coast or country Like as the Celtae whose language he proueth to be the same with this for the same reason and of the same word named Spaine Iberia which afterward the Greekes in their language interpreted Hesperia In Festus Auienus who wrote a booke intituled Orae maritimae the sea coast it is named INSVLA SACRA The Holy Iland who moreouer addeth that it is inhabited of the Hierni that is of the Irish-men Isacius in his Commentaries vpon Lycophron calleth it WEST BRITAINE Plutarch in his booke which he wrote Of the face in the sphere of the Moone calleth it OGVGIA but why we know not yet read him if you thinke it worth the while you shall heare many an old wiues tale The latter writers as S. Isidore and the reuerend Beda our countriman call it SCOTIA of the Scottes which seated themselues in the West part of this I le about the yeare of our Lord 310. from whence within a very few yeares after being called in by the Picts they came into Brittane and indeed Paulus Orosius Beda and Egeinhardus authors of good credit wrote that it was inhabited of the Scots It is in length from South to North 400. miles in breadth scarse 200. The soile and temperature of the aire as Tacitus affirmeth is not much vnlike that of England It breedeth no snake or serpent nor any venemous creature fowle and birds heere are not very plentifull and as for bees no man euer saw one in the whole country yea if so be that any man shall strew dust grauell or small stones brought from hence amongst the hiues the swarmes will presently forsake their combes as Solinus writeth Yet we know by experience that this is all false for such is the infinit number of bees in this country that they are not only to be found heere in hiues and bee-gardens but also abroad in the fields in hollow trees and holes of the ground The temperature of the aire saith Pomponius Mela is very vnkind and vnfit for the ripening of corne and graine but the soile is so good for grasse not only great and ranke but also sweet and wholesome that their heards and cattell do fill themselues in so short a time that if they be not driuen out of the pasture they will feed while they burst Solinus affirmeth the same but in fewer words Furthermore he calleth it an inhumane and vnciuill country by reason of the rude and harsh manners of the inhabitants And Pomponius Mela termeth the people a disordered and vnmannerly nation lesse acquainted with any sort of vertue then any other people whatsoeuer yet they may in some respect be said to be louers of vertue in regard that they are very religious and deuout Strabo saith that they are more rusticall and vnciuill then the
Caliabria Calucula Carabis Carbulo Careo Carruca Castax Castra gemina Castra vinaria Cedrippo Certima Cimbis Cinniana Cisembrium Colenda Colobona Coplanium Cotinas Crabalia Cusibi Danium Dia Dumium Eiscadia Erisane Fabreseense Gemella Gruâ—nus Helingas Hellenes Hippo Hippo Carausiarum Ibem Ilipa minor Ilipula Laus Illurco Ilucia Indica Ipasturgi Ituci Iulia cognomine Concordia Iul. Constantia Iul. Contributa Iul. Fidentia Iul. Restituta Lancia Transoudana Lenium Magala Malia Marcolica Massia Moron Merucra Nobilia Nuditanum Olitingi Olone Onoba Opsicella Osintigi Ossigi Ossigitania Oxthraca Sacvuna Saepona Saon Segeda Segestica Serippo Sicane Silpia Sitia Soricaria Soritia Tabeta Tarscium Transsucunus Tribola Turba Turobrica Tutia Velia Ventisponte Vergentum Vergium Vescelia Vesciveca Vesperies Victoria portuo Vrbicuà Vxena MONTES Sacer Ydrus FLVMINA Chalybs Silicense FONTES Tamarici et quaedam Antonini item Avieni Horum omnium situm quamvis ignorarem abesse tamen ab hac tabula iniquum putari In omni enim vetere historia veterem voco ad Caroli Magni usque tempora omnium huius regionis locorum vocabula exprimere valui ni fallor â—â—pressi Si quae autem doctori in en deesse videbuntur erunt fortassè horum querundam synonyma de quibus omnibus in nostro Thesaure geographico Without the limits of the maine land or continent of Spaine there is a part of this country called INSVLARIS or BALEARIVM that is The Spanish iles or the Baleares For this part of Spaine consisteth altogether of ilands The names of those which do lie in the Ocean or Maine sea are these GADES now Caliz IVNONIS insula GERYONIS monumentum S. Pedro a little ile betweene Caliz and the maine land LONDOBRIS ouer against Portugall now knowen by the name of Barlinguas CORTICATA AVNIOS DEORVM insulae peraduenture those which they now call Islas de Baiona and the faigned CASSITERIDES in this tract For these famous ilands are indeed those which our seamen call The Sorlings belonging to the crowne of England as we haue shewed before In the Midland sea are these following the two BALEARES the Greater and the Lesser MALLORCA and MENORCA the two PITYVSAE to wit EBVSVS now Yuica or as some terme it Ibissa and OPHIVSA SCOMBRARIA Cabo di Palos COLVBRARIA Moncolobrer CAPRARIA Cabrera TIQVADRA Coneiera PLVMBARIA PLANESIA and MAENARIA all of them except only the Baleares and Gades small ilands and of none account Gades was much renowmed and famous long since by meanes of the fables of Hercules and Geryon feigned by Poets to haue been acted heere as also for that the long liued king Arganthonius who was before his death 300. yeares old did sometime keepe his court heere The Baleares were much talked of by reason the Ilanders were counted good slingers best experienced and skilfull in that weapon called by the Romanes Funda But especially it was much spoken of by meanes of the great famine and dearth that there was caused by conies of which there was sometime in these Ilands such wonderfull store and abundance that old stories do testifie that the country people were forced to entreat of Augustus Caesar a military aid and band of men to helpe to destroy them keepe them from breeding and spreading any further Pliny compareth the winds of these Ilands with the best that are made of Italian grapes I do verily beleeue that Seruius vpon the 7. booke of Virgils Aeneids did mistake the matter when he writeth that Geryon did rule as king of the Baleares and the Pityusaes For all other writers do affirme that he reigned and kept his court about Gades Except in defence of Seruius one should alledge this saying of Trogus In parte Hispaniae quae ex insulis constat regnum penes Geryonem fuit that is In a part of Spaine which consisteth altogether of ilands Geryon swaied the scepter and ruled as soueraigne king But that he spake this of Gades and the iland not farre from it in the maine sea the wonderfull pastorage and rankenesse which he ascribeth to these is a sufficient argument and proofe which by no meanes may be verified of the Baleares Againe Solinus plainly testifieth for me that Bocchoris and not Geryon did reigne in the Baleares But his owne words may perhaps please thee better therefore listen thus he speaketh Bocchoris regnum Baleares fuerunt vsque ad euersionem Phrygum cuniculis animalibus quondam copiosae In capite Baeticae vbi extremus est NOTI ORBIS terminus insula à septingentis passibus separatur quam Tyrij à Rubro profecti mari ERYTHRAEAM Poeni sua lingua GADIR id est sepem nominarunt In hac Geryonem habitasse plurimis monumentis probatur tametsi quidam putent Herculem boues ex alia insula abduxisse quae Lusitaniam contuetur Thus rudely in English The Baleares where Bocchoris vntill the ouerthrow of the Phrygians raigned and held his court were sometime wonderfully full of Conies In the entrance and head of Baetica which is the outmost bound of the KNOVVEN WORLD there is an iland which is distant from the maine land threescore and tenne pases This the Tyrians come from the Redsea called ERYTHRAEA or The Red iland but the Poeni or Carthaginians in their language named it GADIR that is The hedge Heere Geryon did sometime dwell as monuments and antiquities do strongly prooue although some do thinke that Hercules did cary the Oxen from another iland which lieth ouer against Lusitania Thus farre Solinus Obserue heere that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Gader in the ancient language of the Iewes and Giadir in the moderne tongue of the farre-conquering Arabians doth signifie an hedge enclosure or fence Beside these forenamed ilands knowen to the ancient and best writers Sextus Rufus Auienus reciteth others by these names OESTRYMNIDES ARCHALE POETANION AGONIDA CARTARE STRONGILE and LVNAE These because no man else doth seeme to know or take notice of peraduenture may be some of those which Pliny termeth mari vadoso paruas Small ilands or shelues in the shallow sea and are in number well neere twenty What if to these I should adioine CROMYVSA and MELVSSA certaine ilands vpon the coast of Spaine as Stephanus citeth out of Hecataeus his Cosmography Of TRANSFRETANA or TINGITANA Hispania that other part I meane of Spaine beyond the streights called Tingitania because it did only in name and vsurpation not indeed and of right belong to Spaine as also for that it is thus Pomponius Melawriteth of it Regio ignobilis vix quidquam illustre sortita paruis opidis habitatur parua flumina emittit solo quam viris melior segnitiae gentis obscura Abase country and hath scarce any good thing in it worth the speaking of It hath no famous cities but small ragged townes and villages The riuers which runne through it are very small and not nauigable yet the soile is better than the men For the slouththfulnesse and cowardice of the people hath made the country the more obscure I will speake nothing
soile is very fertile when they plow their ground do dig vp any sort of earth so that it be at least 3 foot deep and spreading ouer it a sandy kind of earth a foot thick do battle and harten their lands as others do with dongue or marle Marcus Varro in the 9 c. of his 1. book of Husbandrie In Gallia beyond the Alpes vp higher into the country about the Rhein I came to certain countries where neither vines nor oliues nor apples did grow where they compassed their grounds with a kind of white chalke digged out of the earth Virgil in the 1. booke of his Georgickes Belgica vel molli meliùs feret esse da collo Lucan in his 1. booke Et docilis rector rostrati Belga couini Martial in his Xenia Cantarena mihi siâ—t vel massa licebit De Menapis lauti de petasone vorent BELGII VETERIS TYPVS Ex Conatibus Geographicis Abrahami Ortelij HAC LITTERARVM FORMA VETVSTIORA PINXIMVS Quae paulò erant recentiora his notauimus Nulla autem antiquitate illustria hoc charactere Accentissima verò Sis vernarulis ab alys distinximus Prisca vetustatis Belgoe monumenta recludit Ortelius priscas dum legit historias Collige prima soli natalis semina Belga Et de quo veteri sis novus ipse vide Fauolius caneb S.P.Q.A. PATRIAM ANTIQVITATI A SE RESTITVTAM DEDICABAT LVB MER. ABRAHAMVS ORTELIVS CIVIS 1594. Cum privilegio Imperiali et Belgico ad decennium GERMANIE I Thinke there is no man studious of ancient historie that is ignorant that this countrey was called of the most ancient writers especially the Graecians CELTICA and the people therof CELTI or CELTICA From whence the word Kelt doth remaine amongst them whereby they yet do vsually call one another in their familiar speech and communication Some there are which thinke them to be called by Iosephus ASCHANARI whenas notwithstanding he sayth that these are interpreted of the Graecians to be the Rhegini better perhaps and more truly Rheini as it were the borderers vpon the Rhene who also of Stephanus are called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Tacitus reporteth that the word GERMANIA had not beene long vsed and to be but lately heard of The same authour addeth that this name was inuented by themselues Wherefore I do more easily assent to them which deriue the originall of this word from the etymon of the countrey it selfe than from the Latines For it is much more likely that a nation should impose a name vpon it selfe deriued from that language which it vnderstood than from a forren and strange tongue whereof it was altogether ignorant I thinke therefore they erre which thinke this name to be made à germine that is of buds or yong sprouts by reason of the great fertilitie and plenty of all things here growing Of this opinion are Festus and Isidorus Those also which deriue the name from the Latine word germanus signifying a brother as Strabo doth as who would say brethren to the Gauls or French men from whom as he sayth they little differ in my conceit are as farre wide from the trueth Our countrey man as Rhenanus and others doe thinke it to be compounded of gar and man to wit garman that is all man or manlike Our Goropius of ger and man comming neerer to the writing or letter of geâ—en which signifieth to gather as scraping together a booty or pray And the same man in another place deriueth it of ger which saith he amongst our ancesters signifieth warre which I see also pleaseth Iustus Lipsius best I know that gerre or rather guerre in the latter French tongue signifieth warre but whether it signifieth so in our ancient Germane tongue I know not I doe easily beleeue that this nation first wrote and named it selfe werman of wer with e long a mere Germane word which signifieth any weapon whereby we smite or offend our enemie From hence weren signifieth to defend himselfe against the enemie and we call euery man fit to beare armes weerman or weerbaerman that is a warlikeman Insomuch that they all called themselues wermanos or wermannos that is warlike men And Cesar and Tacitus besides others are most sufficient witnesses that this name doth altogether agree with the nature and disposition of this nation As also Dionysius Afer who surnameth these Martialists or warlike men 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 But the cause is plaine why these do call and write themselues Germanes because they wanting the digamma or W in stead of it haue substituted the G. which also we see elswhere done of them in the like case as for Wilhelmus they write Gulielmus for Waltherus Galtherus for Walfridus Galfridus c. So also it is likely that for Walli they wrote and pronounced Galli For euen we Germanes on this side Rhene retaining the ancient language doe yet name these Galli by no other name than Walen The Galli also themselues romanizing the libertie and ancient tongue being lost doe vnto this very day imitate this change of letters These few words out of many are for an example for they vsually both write and pronounce vin for wijn Guesp for Wesp Gand for Wandt Guedde for Weedt by which they meane Wine a Wasp a Gloue and Woad So also I finde in a manuscript Guandali for Wandali If any man shall obiect that Strabo Dionysius Afer Ptolemaeus and some other Graecians who knew the digamma Aeolicum that is the W haue notwithstanding written it with a single V I answer that this nation was knowen to these men in times past only vnder the name of Celtae and that this word Germane was first vsed of Cesar or the other Latines in their writings from whom the Grecians imitating this writing haue translated this word into their language But if any man desireth to reade more of the etymology and reason of the word Germanie let him peruse H. Iunius his Batauia in the one and twentieth chapter There are some historians that doe verily beleeue that all the Germanes were in latter times called Alemanes Vopiscus so persuading them in the life of Proculus Yet it is manifest out of Aelius Spartianus who reporteth that Antoninus Caracalla the Romane Emperour both nations by him being subdued tooke him the surname of them both and was intituled both by the name of GERMANICVS and ALEMANNICVS that these were two diuers nations Moreouer this same thing is to be seene in the marble inscriptions of the Emperours Valens Valentinian and Gratian as also in the titles of Iustinian the Emperour Againe Ammianus in his 26 booke writeth that the Almanes brake thorow the borders of Germanie whereby it is as clere as the noone day that they were diuers But that was the name of one family or people this of the whole stocke or nation Notwithstanding although this Alemannie of Stephanus Ammianus and other writers of that age was accounted only a part of Germanie namely of that which lieth about the
people Paeones a common errour among the Grecian historians which Dion in his nine and fortieth booke did first discouer For of the Romans and of themselues they are called Pannonij The Paeones are a nation diuers from these lying betweene mount Rhodope and the marine coasts of Macedonia Ptolemey Strabo Dion Aurelius Victor and ancient inscriptions do diuide Pannony into the HIGHER and LOVVER Liber Notitiarum The booke of Remembrances into the FIRST and SECOND Optatus Afer maketh three Pannonies but vntruely seeing that those aboue named approoued authours doe describe but two and the coine of the Emperour Decius this countriman borne doth mention no more Solinus writeth that this country is very plaine and champion and as rich and fertile a soile as any other thereabout Appian saith that it is full of woods and that it hath no cities nor townes only the lands and fields are diuided vnto certaine farmes and families In Hygenus I reade that a price and custome was imposed vpon these lands according to the fertility and goodnesse of euery aker for there were fields of the first and second price woods yeelding yearely great plentie of maste woods of the meanest sort of feed and pastorage c. But Iornandes certaine ages after reporteth otherwise of this his natiue country and affirmeth it to be beautified with many goodly cities The people doe liue and fare as hardly as any people vnder heauen hauing neither good ground nor good aire nor hauing of their owne growing either oile or wine but very little and bad neither doe they regard to plant and set these commodities the greatest part of the yeare being there very colde and bitter nothing else almost but a continuall vnkinde Winter Dion writeth that they haue some Barley and Millet Strabo saith Spelt Zea and Millet of which they make their bread and drinke and withall affirmeth that he writeth not this by heare-say or relation from others but of his owne experience and knowledge as he learned and saw at such time as he was Lieutenant there Yet he saith they are a most stout and hardy people but hauing nothing woorthy the name of honesty and ciuility being generally very hasty and bloudy minded killing and slaying without any respect or feare of God or man and that vpon euery crosse word and light occasion Solinus auoucheth the same to be true saying that this country is very strong and well furnished with couragious and stout men Tibullus in his fourth booke saith that they are a wily and crafty people Statius and Paterculus called them Feroces fierce and cruell But the same author doth againe asmuch commend them not only for their great loue of military discipline but for their skill and knowledge of the Latine tongue and for that diuers of them are learned and studious of the liberall sciences Ausonius nameth them Armiferos a warlike people Eusebius in his tenth booke de Praeparat Euangelica giueth out that these people especially those that dwelt about Noricum Bauaria or Bayern did first finde out the vse of copper or brasse Herodian saith that they are bigge bodied very tall ready to fight and to kill and slay vpon euery occasion but of so dull a conceit and simple that they doe not easily perceiue whether one deale or speake ought craftily and subtilly or meane well and plainly The Panegyricke of Mamertinus nameth this Pannony the Empresse of all nations for valour and like as Italy renowmed for ancient honour Pliny saith that this countrey yeeldeth great plenty of mast or akornes The same authour also in his historie of Nature hath left recorded as if it were a matter of some moment that heere the herbe saliunca a kinde of lauender doth naturally grow of it owne accord Oppian commendeth the Pannonian dogges which Nemesianus in this verse affirmeth to be good hunters Nec tibi Pannonicae stirpis temnatur origo The hounds heere bred are not the woorst that ere I see The Pannonian cappes made of beasts skinnes or furres such as souldiours vse to weare Vegetius in his booke of warre doth highly commend This country afterward Probus the Emperour permitted to haue vines and by the helpe of the souldiers himselfe did plant them in mount Almus Arpatarro neere Sermium Sirmisch the place where he was borne as also vpon mount Aureus Meczek in Moesia superior Seruia as Sextus Aurelius Victor in his life doth testifie In Paeonia a prouince heere abbuttant vpon mount Rhodope toward Macedony in Greece the soile is rich and fertile of golde that many men haue found lumps of golde-ore of more then a pound weight And in the confines of this country Aristotle in his Admiranda doth write that oftentimes the earth or vpper soard being by continuall showers washed away that kinde of golde which they call apyrum quicke-golde if I may so call it such as haue not touched the fire is found without digging or any other labour But heere againe I doe also obserue an error very frequent amongst the Greeke writers mistaking Paeonia for Pannonia For Pannonia or Hungary euen to this day is so rich of golde that it is wonderfull and scarse to be beleeued of such as haue not seene it as Bonfinius Broderith and Ranzan doe iointly affirme who do all write that they haue seene very many golden twigges of vines some as long as ones finger others of halfe a foote long but of the richnesse of Paeonia for mines of golde I haue neuer heard nor read in any authour to my remembrance Diogenes Laertius in the life of Pyrrhus Eliensis hath noted that the Paeones doe vse to cast the bodies of dead men into pondes or deepe pooles Maximus Tyrius in his eight and thirtieth oration writeth that the Paeones did worship the Sunne and that the signe or idoll of the same which they adored was a little dish put vpon the end of along pole and set vpright But whether this be meant of them or of the Pannones for that this authour is a Grecian I know not I leaue it to the consideration of the learned The like is that place of Aelianus in the twelfth chapter of his seuenth booke de Animalibus where he writeth a discourse of the laborious painfulnesse of the women of this countrey well worth the reading and obseruation Tzetzes also in the three hundred and eighteenth chapter of his tenth Chiliade nameth the Paeones for the Pannones where he hath something perteining to this our purpose Antigonus in his booke de Mirabilibus writeth that in Illyria and Pannonia is that kinde of beast which they call Monychos Aelianus termeth it Monops Others Bonasus Diaconus in the eighth chapter of his second booke of the historie of Lombardie writeth that Pannonia breedeth great plenty of Buffes or Bugles Bisontes and that he heard of an honest old man that fifteene men haue beene knowen to lie together vpon one buffe hide noting thereby the huge greatnesse of this beast And thus much of both those
Pannonia's now it remaineth that in like maner we say something of Illyris This country is called of Ptolemey ILLYRIS of Stephanus ILLYRIA ILLYRIAE and ILLYRIVM of Historians and Geographers ILLYRICVM Valerius Maximus writeth that one Alexander wrot a whole booke of the description of this country It was so called if we may giue credit to Appianus Alexandrinus of Illyrius the sonne of Polyphemus or Cadmon as Apollodorus and Stephanus doe thinke The bounds of this prouince are by diuers diuersly assigned For Ptolemey confineth it with the Hadriaticke sea Istria the two Pannonies and mount Scardus Marinai they now call it Pliny endeth it at the city Lissus Alesio Pomponius maketh it to begin at Tergestum Trieste a city of Friuli and to end at the riuer Aea which is neere Apollonia Sissopoli a towne of Macedony in Greece Martianus extendeth it yet further namely euen vp as high as the Ceraunian mountaines as in like manner Strabo doth Suetonius in the life of Tiberius writeth thus of the bounds of this country ILLYRICVM which lieth betweene Italy and the kingdome of Noricum Bayern Thrace and Macedony the riuer Donawe and the gulfe of Venice And Appian he maketh it yet more large stretching it out in length from the head of the riuer Ister Donawe euen vnto the Ponticke sea Mar Maiore Sextus Rufus who liued in the time of Valentinian the Roman Emperour comprehendeth vnder the name of Illyricum these seuenteene prouinces Those two of the Norici the two Pannonies Valetia Sauia Dalmatia Moesia the two Dacia's Macedonia Thessalia Achaia the two Epiri Praeualis and Creta Thus much of the name and limits of this country out of diuers authours PANNONIAE ET ILLYRICI VETERIS TABVLA Ex conatibus geographicis Abrahami Ortelij Antverpiani Vis consili expers mole ruit sua Dn̄o Ludovico Hallero ab Hallerstein Stemmate eruditione animi candore verè nobili Ab. Ortelius hoc amicitiae mnemosynon dedicabat Loca incertae positionis In ILLYRIA populi Agravonitae Araxiae Cinambri Decum Deremistae Denari Dudini Glinditiones Grabaei Hemasini Hymani Lacinienses Mentores Melcomani Oxei Palarei Plerei Sassaei Scirtari Selepitani Separi Stulpini Syopij Tralles Vrbes Alcomenae Arduba Astraea Bolcha Bargulum Bolurus Cornutum Dimalum Eugenium Hyscana Iovium Megara Melibussa Nerata Ninia Nutria Oedantum Olympe Orgomenae Pelion Pherae Seretium Sesarethus Setovia Sinotium Sir Surium Tribulium Regio Ias. Fluvius Salancon Mons Monoechus Locus Serita In PANNONIA populi Arivates Belgites Corneatae Dasnones Decentij Desitiates Vrbes Albanum Arsaciana Burgena Quadriburgum Hae urbes quoque circa Iapygiam Istriamque Archimea Torgium et populi Eleutij Moentini Quaedam etiam ex Anton Itinerar hic omisimus We in this Mappe haue expressed only Ptolemey's Illyricum which hee diuideth into two parts namely into LIBVRNIA and DALMATIA Liuy in his sixe and fortieth booke according to the people and inhabitants of the same diuideth it into three parts of the nature of which prouince Strabo writeth in this maner All the sea coast of Illyricum is well furnished with fit and commodious hauens both the maine land I meane and the ilands neere adioyning to the same The soile is very fertile of all maner of fruits and rich commodities especially of oliues and strong wines The countrey that is situate about this is wholly mountainous colde and couered with snowe so that vines are heere very rare either in the high grounds or plaines and vallies Whereupon Propertius not altogether vnfitly called it Gelida Illyria Bleak and frozen Illyria Appian nameth the people Incolas bellicosisimos a most warlike and couragious people Liuy saith that they are a very hardy nation both by sea and land Florus and Strabo maketh them cruell and bloudy men and much giuen to robbe and steale Iulian the Emperor in his discourse de Caesaribus testifieth plainly that they are one of the stoutest and valiantest nations of all Europe Vegetius recordeth that there were alwaies resident in Illyria two legions called Martiobarbuli these Diocletian and Maximinian Emperours of Rome named afterward Iouiani and Herculei and they were preferred before all other legions whatsoeuer Illyricis sudant equitatibus alae as Claudian reporteth in the commendations of Serena Lampridius maketh them well seene and renowmed for their skill in soothsaying and diuining of euents to come when he writeth that Alexander Seuerus excelled this nation in that skill Isogonus in Pliny writeth that there be a kinde of men amongst these which doe bewitch with their eies and doe kill such as they doe beholde and looke vpon any long while together especially such of them as haue firie eies like those which are moued with anger and these kind of people haue two sights in ech eye Aelianus saith that they are great wine bibbers and as Athenaeus reporteth very much giuen to drunkennesse Of the maidens and wiues of this countrey see Varro in the sixteenth chapter of his second booke Claudian in his second panegyricke to Stilico signifieth that they were permitted about the raigne of the latter Emperours to haue vines where he thus writeth Exectis inculta dabant quas secula syluis Restituit terras opacum vitibus Istrum Conserit Which was done as seemeth about the time of the Emperour Probus In Ammianus Marcellinus I finde mention made of Sabaia the drinke of the poorer sort of people which they made of barley or wheat turned into a liquour or kinde of woort Clemens Alexandrinus in his first booke of his Stromaton hath recorded that these people first found out that weapon which the Romans called Pelta a kinde of shield or target The kine heere euery yeare doe bring two or three calues a piece and some foure yea some fiue or more at once and doe giue so much milke at a meale that euery day one cowe yeeldeth more then a large gallon Againe the hennes doe not lay only once a day but some two or three egges a peece euery day as Aristotle in his Admiranda plainly affirmeth Aelianus writeth that he had heard by report from others that their goats heere are whole footed not clouen as in other places Pliny recordeth that heere groweth the best Gentian a kinde of bitterwoort or hearbe whose root is of great vertue and request in physicall vses The same authour commendeth the cockles of Illyria for their extraordinarie greatnesse Athenaeus testifieth that heere in the high countrey far from the sea groweth the best and goodliest Lychnis or Rose campaine Ouid in his second booke de Arte Amandi doth much commend the Illyrian pitch Theophrastus Cornelius Celsus Ouid and Dionysius Vticensis doe mention the Illyrian flower-de-luce an hearbe beside his beauty of soueraigne vse in Physicke the best of which and that which is of greatest estimation as Pliny writeth groweth in the wildes and woods about the riuers Drilo Drino or Lodrino and Narona now called Narcuta In Illyria if one may beleeue Festus in the word Hippius euery ninth yeare they were
foure and twentieth section of his twelfth booke Bonauentura Castilloneus and Gaudentius Merula borne heere in this our age haue much graced and painted out this part in their learned writings and seuerall tracts written of the same They which are delighted with tales and fables let them repaire to Aristotle who in his booke intituled Admiranda hath certaine things of the Electrides a few small ilands supposed by the ancients to be in this Gulfe but falsly as we haue shewed before and of Dawes or Choughs which do stocke vp the seed new sowen Of these also Theopompus speaketh in the sixteenth chapter of the seuenteenth booke of Aelian de Animalibus Of LIGVRIA heere some thing might well be said if so be that this mappe did containe it all but because a piece of it only is heere expressed for in time past as good authours do record it extended his borders beyond Marseilles and the riuer Eridanus or Po therefore of it we will surcease to speake much in this place Only I will set downe an ancient inscription cut in a plate of brasse found in this prouince long since for that it conteineth many names of places of the precinct of Genua mentioned in this mappe and no where else read in any authour whatsoeuer And for that the antiquity of it although I suspect that also is the greatest matter to be admired I will only set it downe in the same maner as it was deliuered by Ortelius Thus it is expressed word for word by Stunica ITALIA GALLICA SIVE GALLIA CISALPINA Ex conatibus Geographicis Abrah Ortelij Cum priuilegio decennali Imp. Belgicae et Brabantiae Venerando Dn̄o D. Francisco Superantio Veneto pietate ac sanguine nobili auctor lubens merito donabat dedicabatue INCERTI SITVS LOCA Acara Ampelus Aprona Auginus Barderate Barra Caelina Carcantia Carrea quod Potentia Cottia Diacuista Epiterpium Forum Clodij Iramine Ordia Palsicium Pellaon Quadratae Rigomagum Templum Vcetia Electrides insulas ante Padum à priscis descriptas fabulosas facit Strabo INCOGNITAE POSITIONIS POPVLI Casmonates Celelates Cerdiceates Euburiates Flamonienses qui Vannienses et Culici Foretani Friniates Garuli Hercates Ilvates Lapicini Magelli Otesini Padinates Quarquerni Treienses Varvani Veliates cognomine Vecteri Veneni Vergunni Vibelli Thus farre out of Stunica for although I know that others haue described this inscription yet because I iudged his copy best presuming vpon his diligence and credit for he protesteth that he hath written it out without any alteration adding or detracting any one letter I haue followed him rather than others therefore he admonisheth the Reader not to be moued with the diuers writing of one and the same word as iouserunt and iuserunt dixserunt and dixerunt susum and sursum and others such like Neither let him thinke that these are faults ouerslipped by the negligence of the writers but to be so diuersly written in the copy Augustinus Iustinianus that I may adde this also for in Manicelo readeth Immanicelum for Vendupale Vindupale for Louentio Iouentio and for Berigiena Berigema Some other diuersities also there are to be obserued in certaine other words as you may find by Fuluius and Lipsius in Smetius Stunica thus vnderstandeth those abbreuiations VIC N. CCCC victoriatos nummos quadringentos foure hundred pieces of siluer money called Victoriatus whereof one was about the value of our groat HONO PVEL MOCO Oneribus publicis liberi lege Moconia This plate was found in the yeare of Christ 1506. by a labouring man as he was digging in the ground in the liberties of Genua at the bottome of the mount Apenninus in the vale Proceuera which they commonly call Sicca in a village called Izosecco from whence it was caried to S. Laurence Church in Genua where it is this day to be seen It seemeth to haue been written about one hundred yeare after the beginning of the Punicke warre TVSCIA OR ETRVRIA THe length of this country is bounded by two riuers with Tiber on the East and Macra Magra on the West on the South it hath the Tuscane sea Mare Tuscum or Tyrrhenum now mar Tosco For although as Liuy and Polybius do testifie before the Romane Empire it was more large and extended his bounds beyond the Appenine mountaines euen as farre as Atria Atri whereof the Atreaticke sea Hadriaticus sinus the bay of Hadria Golfo di Venetia tooke the name yet afterward being expelled and driuen from thence by the Gauls it was conteined within these bounds Of those eleuen prouinces into which all Italy was by Augustus diuided as Pliny testifieth this was the seuenth The Origines a booke which commonly goeth vnder Catoes name do diuide this countrie into the Maritima that part which coasteth along the sea and is of Vopiscus in the story of Aurelianus said to be fertile and full of woods the Transciminia beyond the mount Ciminus Monte viterbo and the Lartheniana so named of the city Larthenium Iornandes and Ammianus in his 26. booke doth make mention of Annonaria Etruria about the towne Pistorium Pistoia Moreouer Lib. de Limitib speaketh of Etruria Vrbicaria Was not this about the city of Rome Dionysius Halicarnassaeus in his sixth booke writeth that it was diuided into 12. Dukedomes Liuy in his first booke calleth them people populos hundreds tribes at which it seemeth Virgill did aime where he thus writeth Gens illi triplex populi subgente quaterni Three Nations great Etruria do possesse foure tribes ech nation it contein'd Out of the which chusing one king in common ech people sent their seuerall sergeants to attend vpon him Seruius nameth them Lucumones at the second booke of Virgils Georgickes and would haue the word to signifie kings yet Festus saith that they are men so called of their madnesse for that they make all places where they come vnluckie and vnfortunate In the forenamed Origines they are called twelue colonies and are thus recited in order Ianiculum Arinianum vpon Tiber Phesulae and another Arinianum vpon Arnus Phregenae Volce Volaterra Cariara otherwise named Luna vpon the shore Ogygianum Aretium Rosellae and Volsinium within the land Volaterranus reckoneth them vp by these names and in this order Luna Pisae Populonia Volaterra Agyllina Fesulae Russellana Aretium Perusia Clusium Faleria and Vulsinia An ancient monument of stone yet remaining at Vulsinium Bolsena as Onyphrius affirmeth maketh mention of fifteen Hundreds of Etruria The country hath been called by diuers names For out of Pliny we learne that it was first named VMBRIA who withall affirmeth that the Vmbri were throwen out of it by the Pelasgi and thereupon it was called PELASGIA These the Lydi did expell as the same Pliny with Trogus doth witnesse of whose king Tyrrhenus it was intituled TYRRHENIA as Paterculus Halicarnassaeus Strabo and Liuy haue left recorded Soone after that of the ceremony of sacrificing it was called in the Greeke tongue TVSCIA It was also named as the same Halicarnassaeus writeth RASENA of a certaine Duke
or Generall of that nation In Myrsilus if I be not deceiued it is corruptly written Rasenua Moreouer it was called COMARA and SALEVMBRONE if we will beleeue the feined Berosus Annius and such like fabulous writers The Phocenses as Herodotus in Clio writeth sometime possessed it The fragment of Antonius neere the lake Arnus maketh mention of the Phocenses and the lake Phocensis Halicarnassaeus also in his first booke saith that the Siculi did inhabite it before the entrance of the Pelasgi The nature of the soile is very fertile of all maner of things yea of vines especially as Halicarnassaeus hath giuen out The large champion plaines diuided into seuerall by-hils and mountaines are well manured and very fruitfull as Diodorus witnesseth It is very woody good pastorage and well watered with many pleasant streames as Plutarch iustifieth Martianus saith that for fertility of soile it was euer renowmed and of great estimation which fertility is no small meanes to draw the people to giue themselues ouermuch to pleasure and ease for they are as the same Halicarnassaeus writeth very fine in their apparell and dainty in their diet both at home and abroad who indeed beside things necessarie do carrie about with them euen when they go to warre diuers fine things most curiouslie wrought onlie for pleasure and delight Eustathius calleth it a robbing cruell and vnciuill nation Eusebius in his 2. booke de praeparati Euang. saith that they were much giuen to Necromancie Arnobius in his 7. booke contra Gentes maketh it the mother and nurce of superstition They were alwaies counted very religious and so were the first that found out sacrifices diuinations and soothsayings from whom also the Romanes receiued these vaine and superstitious arts as also the Sella curulis coach of estate paludamenta trabea the rich robe toga pretexta toga picta fasces secures hatchets litui apparitores curcules annuli annuli rings musick the ludiones whifflers Lastly all their ornamēts of triumph robes of the Consuls or rather that I may vse the words of Florus all the brauery badges wherewith the honorable estate of the Empire was graced set out Cassiodore in the 15. section of his 7. book doth attribute to them the inuentiō of the casting and working of statues of brasse Heere hence it arose that the Romans first committed their children to the Etrusci to be taught brought vp as afterward they vsed to do to the Grecians as you may read in Liuy Strabo and Diodorus Siculus That the flute tibia was the inuention of the Tyrrheni by which they did not only fight but also whip their seruants yea and to seeth Iulius Pollux doth cite out of Aristotle Of them Plutarch in the 8. booke of his Conuiual writeth that by an ancient statute they vsed to disperse their couerleds and blanckets when they rose out of their beds in the morning Item taking of their pots off the fire they left no print thereof in the ashes but did alwaies rake them abroad They neuer would suffer any swallowes to come within their house They might not go ouer a broome They would keep none in their house that had crooked nailes vpon his fingers Yet Thimon in the 12. booke of Athenaeus his deipnosophiston calleth them voluptuous and licentious liuers and none of the best report for their conuersation heereof you may see manie examples if you take anie delight in such stories The like you may read in his 4 booke But I cannot omit this one thing which Heraclides in his Politicks doth recite namely that if anie man be so farre in debt that he is not able to paie the boies do follow him holding vp vnto him in mockery an emptie purse The Etrusci were long since accounted verie wealthie They were very strong both by sea and by land and in warre equall in strength to the Romanes Liuy to whom Diodorus doth subscribe saith it is the richest prouince of Italy both for men munition and money Plutarch in the life of Camillus saith that this countrie did reach from the Alpes Northward as high as the Hadriaticke sea and Southward as low as the midland sea That there were 300. cities of the Vmbri battered and taken by the Tusci we find recorded saith Pliny Such was the wealth and command of Etruria that it did not onlie filll the land with an honourable report and fame of their name but also euen the sea all along from one end of Italy to the other Liuy and Pliny do affirme that Mantua and Atri were colonies of the Tusci Pomponius and Paterculus do say the like of Capua as also of Nola although that Solinus doth ascribe this to the Tyrians where I thinke the copie is corrupt and for Tyrijs I suppose it should be written Tyrrhenis Trogus and Silius Ital cus do affirme it to haue been built and first peopled by the Chaldicenses Yea Plutarch in his treatise of famous women and againe in his Gretian questions saith that these Etrusci in old time did possesse Lemnos Stalamine and Imbrus Lembro certaine ilands in the Archipelago or Aegean sea Tuscus vicus a street in Rome Tusculum and Tusculanum in Latium Campagna di Roma tooke their names from hence Againe mare Tuscum called otherwise mare Inferum Notium Tyrrhenum and Liburnum the Neather sea or South sea in respect of the Hadriaticke sea which is called mare Superum the vpper sea and is vpon the North from this countrie as we find in Pliny and Cicero About Puteoli Pozzole as Dion recordeth there is a creeke of the sea called Tyrrhenus sinus the bay of Tuscane But there are also other Tusci diuerse from these in Sarmatia as Ptolemey noteth as also other Tyrrheni in the ilands belonging to Attica if you will beleeue Marsylus Lesbius TVSCIAE ANTIQVAE TYPVS Ex conatibus geographicis Ab. Ortelij LOCA TVSCIAE QVORVM SITVM IGNORO Ad harnaba Amitinenses Anio Caprium Cora Corytus Cortenebra Cortnessa Crustuminum Etruria idem fortè cum Tyrrhenia Nacria quae et Nucria Neueia Olena Perrhaesium nisi sit Perusia Sabum Sora Tagina Troilium nisi sit Troitum Turrena Augustalis Tyrrhenia an idem cum Etruria Vera Vesentini Vexij nisi sint Veij Consule nostrum Thesaurum geographicum Cum privilegio Imperiali et Belgico ad decennium 1584. LATIVM LATIVM which the excellent Poet Virgil syrnameth The Great The Faire and The Western by the description of Augustus who as Pliny testifieth diuided Italy in eleuen shires the chiefe and principall of the rest was twofold to wit Latium The New and Latium The Old LATIVM VETVS Olde Latium beganne at the riuer Tiber and extended it selfe euen vp as high as the Circaeian mountaines or to Fundi as Seruius sayth LATIVM NOVVM New Latium from hence stretched it selfe vnto the riuer Liris as Pliny and Strabo do ioyntly testifie yea and farther as they both affirme For euen as low as Sinuessa which was otherwise also called Sinope being in that
Athos is from this iland at the least 86 miles This ile is consecrate and sacred to Vulcan for olde fables do tell that being by Iupiter throwen headlong out of heauen he light in this I le Tzetzes out of Hellanicus affirmeth that fire was first found in this iland as also that armour and warlike weapons were first deuised and made here Of those foure Labyrinths famous all the world ouer and reckoned vp by Pliny the third was in this countrey The surueyers and architects of this worke were Zmilus and Rholus together with Theodorus this countrey-man borne It was made of hewen and polished stones arched in the top and vpheld by 140 columnes of more curious and wonderfull worke and greatnesse than the rest whose bosses in the shop did hang so equally poiz'd that while they were wrought and turned one boy alone did strike the laue Cert ine pi ces and remnants of it did remaine euen vntill Plinies time This same authour also doth for certeine affirme that rubrica Lemnia or terra Lemnia a kinde of red earth here found was of greatest estimation of whose soueraigne vse in physicke see h m in his history of Nature as also Galen the Prince of Physicians in his book intituled De simplic Medicam In the first booke of Apollodorus his Bibliotheca you may reade a history of the women of this iland SAMOS THat this SAMOS was called by diuers names as PARTHENIA ANTHEMVS MELAMPHILVS CYPARISSIA IMERASIA and STEPHANE we haue found in reading of diuers authours as thou mayst see more at large in our Geographicall treasury It is an iland fertile and rich of all maner of commodities wine only except which here is none of the best nor in any great quantity whereupon they do vse to say in a common by-word That in this iland their hennes giue milke Athenaeus writeth that here Figs Grapes Peares Apples and Roses do ripen twise a yeere yet we finde recorded in Aelianus and Heraclides in his Politicks affirme that it was sometime a forest full of woods and wild beasts Pliny doth speake of Lapis-Samius Terra Samia a certaine stone and kind of earth only found in this iland and doth highly commend their souereigne vertue and physicall vse Item he saith that the Samian dishes were of great request at princes tables Moreouer he addeth that here also was a Labyrinth built by Theodorus But in Samos there is nothing more notable or maketh it more famous than that Pythagoras was this countreyman borne Eusebius also in his Chronicles testifieth that that Sibylla which was surnamed Hierophila was borne heere Aelianus writeth that the Samians vsed to worship a sheepe and with that stampe to coine their money Athenaeus commendeth the Peacocks bred here This fowle antiquitie did hold to be consecrated to Iuno and that this iland was greatly esteemed of Iuno these verses of Virgil doe plainly auouch Quam Iuno fertur terris magis omnibus vnam Posthabita coluisse Samo Thus Englished by M. Thomas Phaër Which towne aboue all townes to raise was Iuno's great'st delight Forsooke her seat at Samos I le c. You shall finde much of Samus in the 12 booke of Athenaeus his Deipnosophiston in Apuleius his second booke Florid. in Plutarch in the life of Pericles and Strabo in the 14 booke of his Geography out of whom it is not amisse to annex this one history of Polycrates a tyrant of this countrey This Polycrates they say grew so rich and mighty that beside his command vpon land he was lord also of the sea for proofe of which they report this historie that he throwing of set purpose a ring of great value both for the price of the stone and curious cutting of the same into the midst of the sea within a while after a certaine Fisherman tooke a great fish which had swallowed it downe and opening it found the ring in her belly so that by that meanes it came to the kings hands againe This selfe same story doth Herodotus in his Thalia tell but much more eloquently and with farre finer termes as his maner is DELOS and RHENIA DELOS is situate amongst the Cyclades Pliny writeth that this I le was farre and neere knowen and talked of by reason of the Temple of Apollo and the great market or faire ordinarily kept there Pausanias calleth it The Mart of all Greece Festus The greatest mart of all the world Thucydides termeth it The Exchequer of Greece another nameth it The natiue soile of the gods for the fabulous tales of Poets haue made the world beleeue that Diana and Apollo were borne here Of which conceit and opinion of men it rose as Tully against Verres writeth that this iland was held to be consecrated vnto them and such the authority of holinesse and religion of it both is and alwaies hath beene that the Persians making warre vpon Greece in defiance both of God man and landing at Delos with a thousand ships they neuer once offered to profane or once to touch any thing here Immediatly after the first deluge or floud in the time of Ogygius this iland as we find recorded by Solinus before all other lands countries whatsoeuer receiued the lusture of the sun-beames thereupon it obteined that name of DELOS that is Apparent or easily soone descried It had also other names giuen to it of other accidents and euents that fall out in the same as namely PELASGIA LAGIA ORTYGIA CYNETHVM CYNTHON CHLAMIDIA SCYTHIA ANAPHE ASTERIA c. But Asteria was the name of a citie in this I le which citie was afterward as Apollodorus and Seruius do testifie called also Delos Pliny nameth it ARTEMITA and CELADVSSA Athenaeus noteth three things here worthy of speciall obseruation A market wonderfully furnished with all maner of victuall and dainty dishes The great multitudes of all maner of people dwelling in it and The infinite number of parasites smell-feasts or trencher-chaplaines belonging to this god Pliny writeth of the fountaine or head of the riuer Inopus that altogether in the same maner and at the same time it doth ebbe and flowe with Nilus in Egypt so that the people doe verily beleeue that it commeth by secret passages vnder the sea from the Nilus vnto them The same authour maketh mention of certeine rocks of Delos petrae Deli where he saith the fishes by nature are so salt that one would deeme them to haue beene layd in pickle and may well be accounted for salt-fish and yet in the hauen of the same they are fresh In old time the copper of Delos was held for the best as we reade in the same authour In his time he affirmeth there was a palme-tree still to be seene that had stood there euer since Apollo was borne Pausanias who liued in the reigne of Hadrian the Emperour writeth that in his time this iland was so desert and dispeopled that the gard of the Temple which the Athenians sent thither being remoued if one should reckon only the
goddesse this Caelestis Venus in the eleuenth booke of the same treatise of Apuleius which he there calleth both by the name of Regina caeli The Queene of heauen and Syria dea the Syrian goddesse Of whose diuers and manifold forme or shape the great variety of distinct and different names of the same if any man be desirous to know more particularly let him haue recourse to this foresayd authour as also to Lucians treatise intituled De Dea Syria to which if he shall adioyne certeine coines of the Emperours Seuerus and Antoninus his sonne he shall vnderstand that in this one idoll almost all the diuinity of the ancient Gentiles is comprehended Philastrius who wrote of the heresies of former times sayth that this goddesse was of certeine hereticall Iewes named Fortuna caeli Heauenly fortune I might easily be drawen to beleeue that this very goddesse is that idoll which Ieremy in the foure and fortieth chapter of his Prophesie doth terme The Queene of heauen To whom the wicked Israelites did offer sacrifice and reuerence as to the immortall God For it was not hard for this nation so prone and inclined to idolatry out of their next neighbour Hierapolis in Syria where Lucian testifieth this goddesse was most religiously worshipped to transport this idoll into their countrey Palaestina as the Phoenicians did out of the same Syria conuey her beyond the sea to Carthage vnder the conduct and leading as is probable and which Herodotus iustifieth to be true of Queene Dido Agenors daughter Many other things of this goddesse out of diuers other authours might heere to these be adioyned but we at this time are content with Plato to demonstrate that there were two Venuses of which one whom the Carthaginians did worship was this which hitherto we haue spoken of that same I meane which was called Dea Syria or Venus Assyria as Oppian in his first booke of Hunting calleth her This I do vnderstand out of the sixt booke of Apuleius was the same that Iuno was where he termeth her Vecturam leonis The burden or cariage of the lion and whom they report Did loue olde Carthage more than all the world beside for here her charet alwayes stood her weapons here did lie as the Poet writeth of her whereupon I make no question the city Carthage was for the same reason also called Iunonia for so I finde it recorded by Plutarch and Solinus By her Charet I vnderstand the Lion vpon which she rode by her weapons the thunderbolt with the other ensignes of the gods and goddesses which in those forenamed coines are expressed Saluianus in his booke De Prouidentia maketh mention of an Heauenly god Deus caelestis an idoll also of the Africans Vlpianus in like maner in the Tit. qui haeredes institui possunt § deo haeredis speaketh of Caelestis deus Salinensis Carthaginensis But this is nothing to this our goddesse And peraduenture we purposedly speaking of Geography haue sayd too much of this goddesse AEGYPT AEgypt is the gift and fauour of Nilus For antiquity did verily thinke that all that whole tract which now this countrey doth possesse was sometime a creeke or bay of the Midland sea and by the oft ouerflowing and tides of the same was at length filled vp and so made firme land Whereupon perchance it was of Stephanus called POTAMITIS that is if I may so speake brook-Brook-land or creek-Creek-land Item the same Stephanus with Dionysius calleth it by diuers other names as AERIA AETIA OGYGIA HEPHAESTIA and MELAMBOLOS Apollodorus calleth it The countrey of the MELAMPODES for that it is farre more fertile than any other countrey whatsoeuer Item the fornamed Stephanus and Eustathius do call it AETHIOPIA by reason of the Aethiopians which do inhabit and dwell there It was also sometime long since called THEBAE as Herodotus and Aristotle do testifie In Holy writ of Misraim the second sonne of Ham Gen. 10.6 who first after the confusion at Babel seated himselfe here it is named MESRAIM as Iosephus writeth by which name it is still to this day knowen to the Arabians their next neighbours round about them Item as the learned Arias Montanus thinketh it is in some places called CVS or Chus of Chus father of the Aethiopians eldest sonne to the sayd Ham. Againe Plutarch in Osiris writeth that in the sacred writings of the Aegyptians it was named CHEMIA of Ham or Cham for thus diuersly forren writers expresse the Hebrue let er Hheth nay sometimes they wholly omit it as in Ammon their chiefe god which they worshipped deriued as I thinke from that cursed root sonne to Noë and father of the aboue-mentioned Chus and Misraim And indeed Isidorus saith that the inhabitants do to this day in their owne language call this countrey Kam Yet Pinetus and Marmolius do iointly affirme and that truely as we haue before in the other Mappe of Aegypt demonstrated that the Aegyptians themselues as also the Turks do commonly call it _____ Elquibet Elchibetz and Chibth Lastly Honorius writeth that it was sometime intituled EVXAEA but vpon what authority or ground I know not let him therefore iustifie the trueth of that his assertion The bounds of this prouince are these vpon the East it is confined with the Arabian gulfe Bahri'lkolzom the Red Sea Iudaea and Arabia Petraea on the West with the mountaines of Libya and Marmarica Barca another countrey of Africa in the South it is seuered from Aethiopia which they terme Aethiopia beneath Aegypt by the Greater Cataract or fall of Nilus Catadupa Tully in Scipio's dreame calleth it A place where the riuer is so penned vp betweene two mountaines that there it runneth not but rather falleth and powreth downe amaine with such an huge and terrible noise that some report that the people nere inhabitants thereabout naturally by that meanes are all deafe or very thicke of hearing The Mediterranean or Midland sea or if you like better of that the Egyptian sea so named of this countrey doth beat vpon the North coast of it It is diuided into The Higher Egypt Middle Egypt and Lower Egypt THE HIGHER EGYPT was also otherwise called Thebais Auicenna in the 47. chapter of the 2. tract of his 2. booke and in diuers other places often with Nubiensis my Arabian calleth it _____ Alsahid or Said of the theam Saada as I thinke which signifieth to ascend or rise vp in height MIDDLE EGYPT sometimes called Heptapolis and Heptanomia of the number of the Nomoi or shires of this part and of some Arcadia THE LOWER EGYPT which later authours haue named Augustamnica is diuided in the Nouella of Iustinian into The first and The second The booke of Remembrances liber Notitiarum diuideth Egypt into six prouinces namely Libya the vpper Libya the Neather Thebais Aegypt properly so called Archadia and Augustamnica That part of the Lower Egypt which is enclosed betweene the sea the two mouthes or floud-gates of the riuer Nilus Heracleoticum and Pelusiacum and from their parting a
foote for ought I know of Italy beyond the Alpes doth belong now to the crowne or kingdome of France The seuerall Shires or Prouinces of this kingdome are very many whereof the most principall are these Boulennois Ponthieu Caux Picardy Normandy Fraunce Beausse Bretaigne Aniow Le Maine Poitow Lymosin Santoine Guien Gascoigne Perigot Quercy Champaine Berrey Gastinois Sologne Auuergne Niuernois Lyomois Charrolois Bourbonois Maine Daulphein Prouince Languedocke Bloys or Blasois Forram Burgundy La Franche Conte Vermandois and some few others mentioned in this Mappe The whole land generally is very fertile and withall passing pleasant and healthfull and thereupon they vse to say that Lombardy is the garden of Italy and France is the garden of Europe Yet some places are more fertile for some one commodity then others are Picardy Normandy and Languedocke are as goodly countries for Corne as any in all Christendome beside Some places doe afforde great store of fruits some as great plenty of Wood In some places Flax and Hempe doe grow in great abundance in other places they make as great a commoditie of their Woad The whole countrey generally in all places affordeth much wine but the best is made in Beausse about Orleans They haue some mines of Iron but many of Salt Whereupon La Noüe saith that the Corne Wine Salt and Woad that is from hence transported into forraine Countries doth bring in yeerely to the subiects and crowne of France twelue hundred thousand pounds of currant mony And Iohn Bodine affirmeth that Such springs of Corne Salt and wine doe heere flow so copiously that it is almost impossible to empty them or drawe them quit dry Another a country man of ours a worthy gentleman and of as good iudgement as the best of them saith that in the prouince of Limosin are the best Beeues about Orleans the best Wines in Auuergne the best Swine and in Berry the choisest Mutton and greatest store of Sheepe In France there are twelue Archbishoprickes and one hundred and foure Suffraganes or Bishops Bodine saith that there are in France twentie seuen thousand and foure hundred Parish Churches counting onely euery city for a Parish The cities and walled townes in this country are very many but of them all PARIS is the chiefe which doth as much excell the rest as the lofty cedar doth the lowest shrubbes And I haue heard say if my memory faile me not that the King of France being demaunded by an Embassadour how many cities there were in all that his whole country and kingdome reckoned vp a great number and amongst them made no mention at all of Paris and being againe asked the reason why he did not account that for one amongst the rest answeared that Paris was another world This towne is seated in the I le of France vpon the riuer Sein in as pleasant and fertile a place as elsewhere may be found in this whole kingdome It is a very ancient city called by Caesar Lutetia by Ptolemey Lucotecia and by Iulianus in his Misopogonus Leucetia Zosimus nameth it Parisium and Marcellinus Castellum Parisiorum The castle of the Parisij For this prouince which now they call properly France or The I le of France was the ancient seat and habitation of the Parisij The riuer Sein Sequana parting it selfe into two streames diuideth this towne into three parts to wit The Burge vpon the North side The Vniuersity vpon the South and The Ville in the middest in the I le aforesaid which seemeth to be the old towne mentioned by Caesar For thus he writeth in the seuenth booke of his Commentaries of the warres of France Id oppidum Lutetia hee meaneth Parisiorum positum in insula fluminis Sequanae Lutetia that towne of the Parisij is situate in an iland in the riuer Sein It is as our learned countryman reporteth tenne English miles about by the wals The Vniuersity was founded by Charles the Great in the yeere of our Lord eight hundred For other particulars I wish thee to looke backe to that which we haue written before generally of France or particularly of diuers and sundry seuerall Prouinces of the same And beside those authours before named thou maiest adioine that our learned countriemam who not long since set out a discourse of this kingdome intituled The view of France GALLIA Geographica Galliae descriptio de integro plurimis in locis emendata ac Regionum limitibus distincta auctore Petro Plantio Quicquid terrarum Rhene Alpibus mari Mediterraneo Pyrenais montibus oceano Aquitanico Britannico et Germanico clauditur communi nomino Latinis Galliae appellatur quibus limitibus potentissimum Francorum regnum Sabaudia Burgundia comitatus Holvetia Alsatia Lotharingia inferior Germania et quaedam aliae regiones hodie continentur Ioannes Baptista Vriuts excudit The Duchie of LIMBORGH in the Low Countries GERMANIA INFERIOR or as we now call it The Low countries is at this day diuided into these seuenteene prouinces to wit foure Duchies Brabant Limbourgh Lukenburgh Guelderland seuen Counties or Earldomes Flanders Artois Heinault Holland Zeland Namur and Zurphen one Marquisate commonly called The Marquisate of the Sacred Empire fiue Grand Signeories Frizeland Mechlin Vtreckt Ouer-issel and Groninghen Of the most of these we haue in the former spoken seuerally and at large onely of Limborgh which although it be one of the least yet in honor and dignity not the least we haue hitherto spoken little or nothing The Dukedome of LIMBOVRGH therefore is a very little prouince situate in the middest betweene the Duchie of Gulich Gelderland the Bishopricke of Leege and Lutzenburge The citie Limburgh or as they vulgarly call it Lympurch the chiefe towne of this prouince and whereof it tooke the name standeth vpon the riuer Wesse or Wesdo as they name it and is distant from Aix three leagues but from Leige it is foure at the least or somewhat more It is a very strong towne both by nature and arte For being built vpon the rising of a stony hill it is enclosed round with a very defensible wall garded heere and there with diuers strong towers beside a goodly large Castle all of free stone vpon the toppe of the hill The situation and prospect of this citie is most pleasant and commendable For at the foote of the hill at the townes side runneth the riuer vnto which adioineth a goodly fertile plaine where daily great store of cattell are kept and mainteined to the great commodity and gaine of the inhabitants round about This city is not ancient nor once mentioned by any old writer as D. Remacle Fusch a learned Physician this countriman borne plainly confesseth and yet he saith that hee had diligently searched and turned ouer all authours who either of set purpose or by the way haue handled that kind of argument The soile is very good and fertile both for corne and pasture especially about Heruey a fine village not farre from Clermont Onely wine it yeeldeth none at all but in
is about fiue and twentie English miles long and sixteene miles ouer euery mile containing one thousand and two hundred Geographicall pases Therefore it conteineth in compasse well neere threescore and twelue Italian miles For in some places it is not full sixteene miles ouer That which he speaketh of the scarsitie of wood here it is very true For Tacitus reporteth that the woods were cut downe and destroyed by the Romans an infinite number of the bodies of which as I haue shewed before couered with earth and hid within the ground are at this day by the countrey people found in sundry places of the I le And that there haue beene woods here within these foure hundred yeeres or thereabouts it is very manifest by our histories Of the barrennesse of this Iland I know not well what to say seeing that he is not ashamed to write that which all men do know to be most false For such is the fertilitie of this iland that our people vse to say prouerbially that Anglesey is the mother of Wales Mon mam Gymry Moreouer the inhabitants for their proportion and state of our countrey are verie wealthie and withall stout and valiant as appeareth out of the English Historiographers For the English men haue oft times assaulted this iland by sea and laboured to get the possession thereof but all in vaine For they haue been alwaies there slaine or put to the worst This Hugh Earle of Shrewsburie and Arundell there slaine can testifie to be true This also Henrie the naturall sonne of Henrie the First with many noble men with him there slaine can well testifie How true this is I can not tell but this I finde that two Hughs of the Norman blood the one Earle of Chester the other Earle of Shrewsburie did enter this iland greatly vexe the inhabitants and that they might the better retaine them in due obedience did build the castle at Aber Lhienioc and of these two Hugh Earle of Chester was indeed there slaine but how not in the entrance or assault of the I le but in the defence of it after he had gotten quiet possession of the same yet not by the Welsh men but by the Norweighians who vnder the conduct of Magnus their Generall landed heere slew many of the people robbed the countrey and departed with great spoile Of that Henrie I finde not one word in others What should I say more Polydore Virgils Mona distant from the coast of Britaine twentie fiue miles no whit bigger than this but much more barren and such as breedeth a weaker kinde of men descended from the Irish euen by the iudgement of Polydore himselfe doth now renounce the title of Mona But what other men also do thinke of this matter let vs heare in few words Ptolemey the Prince of Geographers vpon the East side of Ireland placeth foure ilands MONARINA or as other copies do reade Monaida MONA ADROS and LYMNOS The two latter are very well knowen vnto vs at this day for that indeed they doe still reteine those auncient names Adros of our countrey men is called Ynys ador that is as the words doe signifie The iland of birds Lymnos they now call Enlli which the English men call Bardesey that is as he would faine interpret it Insula Bardorum The Bardes iland But I doubt whether our Saxons did euer vnderstand what the Britons Bardi meant yet of this I am sure that the learned M. Camden in his Britannia is of another opinion Of the other two then the one must of necessity be our Mona the other Polydores Mona Monaria is by Ptolemey placed much farther Northward than Mona and Mona hee maketh to lie somewhat more Easterly than Monaria For this Monaria I meane or Monaoeda as Ptolemeyes copies vulgarly haue it lieth as he writeth from the Canaries Eastward 17 degrees and 40 minutes but vp so high into the North that the pole there is eleuated aboue the horizont 61 degrees and 30 minutes when as the other to wit Mona lieth from the Canaries but 15 degrees and from the North but 57 degrees and 40 minutes Polydores Mona leaneth both more toward the North and East than ours doth Therefore it is Ptolemeys Monaria that he speaketh of not Ptolemeys Mona And this our Mona shall still reteine that ancient name of Mona which Ptolemey gaue vnto it in his time This we haue collected out of forreine histories Now let vs come to our owne Writers who I thinke in a matter of names of places in their owne country and language ought rather to be beleeued than an Italian a meere stranger borne and brought vp beyond the seas farre from this our countrey But that these things may the better be vnderstood some few lines are here by the way to be inserted All men do know and confesse this to be true that the Britons before the entrance of the English or Saxons did possesse this whole iland vntill such time as being by them conquered and subdued they were forced to abandon the better part of the same leauing it to the possession of their enemies and to content themselues with the Western parts only And they being thus seated were called by the names of the places were they dwelt as for example those which possessed Cambria were named Cambri those which inhabited Cornouia were knowen and called by the name of the Cornouij Yet the English men did after the maner of the Dutch who name the French and Italians VVelsh call them all generally VVelshmen Adding for difference sake the names of the countries as it is manifest by those histories which yet are extant written in the Saxon tongue For those our Brits are in them called VValae and the Cornouij Cornwalae not as the vnlearned do thinke Cornugalliae Neither can I with silence ouerpasse that shamelesse impudencie of Polydore who braggeth that he was the first that euer found this out and committed the same to writing when it is most certeine that he stole this etymologie and reason why this our countrie was called Wales out of Syluester Giraldus But that I may returne vnto that where I left the Welshmen being thus cooped vp into a corner did notwithstanding reteine the ancient British tongue so that the Countries Cities Riuers Ilands and people of Britaine are by the Welshmen called by those names whereby they were knowen and called at such time as they possessed the whole For our countrey people such I meane as are borne and brought vp farre within the land do not know what the name of an English man doth meane but all the English they do generally terme Saisson that is Saxons for they haue no x England they call by the ancient name Lhoëger Wales Cambri Cornwall Corniw Scotland Alban Ireland Yuerdhon and indeed some old Writers do write the name of this iland not Hibernia but Iuernia as M. Camden sheweth at large in his Britannia So also we doe still call all the Cities of England by those names
to wit the Irish of the which the Euboniae the West iles commonly of the Historians called Hebrides are The reuerend Beda and Henry Huntington in that they write it Menauia do seeme to allude to the Welsh name Manaw but this is it which we would haue thee diligently to obserue that none of them do call it Mona By these arguments and testimonies it is manifest that Mona is that iland which the inhabitants as I haue shewed before doe at this day name Mona or Mon acknowledging no other name and is that which of the English is called Anglisea but the other which Polydore Virgil and such as doe loue with him to wallow in the mire rather than to seeke for the cleere streames doe call Mona is of Gildas called Eubonia of Henry Huntington Menauia and of others Mania Here I will conclude this discourse with this one testimonie which may indeed woorthily stand for many to wit this of Syluester Girald a Welsh man borne a man no lesse famous for his learning than for his noble birth For he was descended from that noble house of the Giralds to whom the Kings of England are beholding for that footing which they haue in Ireland Moreouer he was greatly beloued of Henrie the second King of England and was afterward Secretarie to King Iohn his sonne whose name also is very famous and oft mentioned in the Popes Decretals For being but bishop of S. Dauids in Wales he did notwithstanding contend with the Archbishop of Canturburie about the prerogatiue primacy This man I say in that his booke which he intituled Itinerarium Balwini Archiepiscopi Cantuariensis crucem in infideles per Cambriam praedicantis The Iournall or trauels of Baldwin Archbishop of Canturbury when as he preached the Gospell and crosse of Christ against the Infidels thorowout all Wales whose company he neuer forsooke in all that peregrination writeth thus of the I le MONA On the morrow we passed by the castle of Caer-aruon and from thence thorow the valleys and steepe hilles and mountaines we came vnto Bangor where we were most kindly enterteined of the bishop whose name was Gwian who was almost constrained to take vp the crosse of Christ with a great lamentation and shout of all sorts of people both men and women From thence crossing a vety narrow arme of the sea we passed ouer to MONA an iland lying about two miles off from the maine land Here Rothericke the yonger sonne of Owen came very deuoutly with all the people of that I le and of the countreys round about him to meet vs. There they making as it were a theater of the craggie rocks by the preaching of the Archbishop and of Alexander the Archdeacon of that place many were wonne vnto the crosse and to beleeue in Iesus Christ but certeine yong men lustie-bloods of the seruants and followers of Rothericke which sate oueragainst vs would by no meanes be drawen to beare the crosse Of these some within a little while after following certeine theeues or free-booters being slaine outright others hurt and dangerously wounded did of their owne heads lay a worldly crosse one vpon anothers backe Rothericke was married to Prince Reese's daughter who was allied to him in the third degree her by no admonitions he could be made to put away from him hoping that by her meanes he should the better be able to defend himselfe against his brothers children whom he had disherited and put by their lands and possessions notwithstanding it fell out contrary to his expectation for within awhile after they recouered all againe out of his hands This Iland hath three hundred three and fortie villages or farmes yet it is esteemed but at three Cantreds Britaine hath three ilands lying not farre off from it all almost of like quantitie and bignesse VVight vpon the South Mon vpon the West and Man vpon the Northwest The two former are very neere to the continent the armes of the sea by which they are seuered from England being but very narrow and not farre ouer The third which is called Man lieth mid way betweene Vlster a prouince of Ireland and Gallawey of Scotland Mona or Mon of the inhabitants by reason of the great plenty of wheat which it yeeldeth ordinarily euery yeere is called The mother of Wales And a little beneath the same Authour writeth thus of this iland Hugh Earle of Shrewsbury and Arundell with Hugh Earle of Chester entring this iland by force did shut dogs all night in the church of Fefridanke which the next morning were found all starke madde and he himselfe afterward by the inhabitants of the Orkeney iles comming thither as pirats and sea-robbers vnder the leading of Magnus their captaine being shot in the eye which part of his body only was vnarmed and subiect to the enemies weapon fell stone dead from the decke of the shippe into the sea which Magnus beholding cried out in the Danish language Leit loope that is as much to say in English Let him leape Moreouer Henry the Second going into North-Wales with an armie of men ioyned battell with the aduersarie at Caleshull in a narrow straight betweene two woods and withall sent a saile of ships into Mona which spoiled the foresayd Church with other places there wherfore they were almost all slaine taken dangerously wounded or put to flight by the inhabitants of that I le There were in this company two noble men and his vncle which wrote this story with other mo sent hither by the King to wit Henry the sonne of Henry the First and the vncle of Henry the Second begotten of the honourable lady Nesta daughter of Reese Theodore's sonne borne in the confines of South-Wales I meane in the skirts of it next vnto Demetia or West-Wales and the brother of Steuen brother to Henry by the mothers side but not by the fathers a man that first in our dayes breaking the way for others not long after this attempted the entrance and conquest of Ireland whose worthy commendations the prophicall history doth at large set foorth Henry being too venturous and not being seconded in time was killed at the first encounter with a pike But Robert distrusting his owne strength and doubting whether he should be aided or not fled and being sore wounded very hardly recouered the shippes This iland outwardly appeareth as if it were barren rough and ouergrowen like as the countrey of Pebidion neere Menauia doth although indeed it be very fertile of many things in diuers places Thus farre Gyraldus What could euer be spoken or written more plainly and euidently of the name situation fertility and valourous inhabitants of Mona as also of the situation and name of that other iland The same authour in his description of Wales thus speaketh of this Iland In North-Wales betweene Mona and Snowdon hilles is Bangor the bishops sea As of all Wales the South part about Cardigan shire Cereticam regionem he calleth it but especially euery where in West-Wales Demetia