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-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
the moneths of May Iune and Iuly and reape within six weeks after Concerning this region reade the booke of Iaques Morguez le moine GVASTECAN THis also is a region of North America and part of New Spaine The inhabitants are poore Along the sea-coasts and the bancks of riuers they liue for the most part of fish but in the inland with Guinie-wheat which they call Maiz. Otherwise they are a people gentle enough The Spaniards haue planted two colonies here the one is called Panuco of the riuer that runneth by it and the other S. Iames of the vallies Not farre from Panuco neere the towne called Tamatao stands an hill with two fountaines vpon it one whereof disgorgeth blacke pitch and the other red which is scalding hot The BRITTISH Iles. THE EMPIRE OF GREAT BRITAIN included within the parallels 49. and 63. and the Meridians or longitudes 9. and 26. bounded vpon the South by France vpon the East by Germany vpon the North West by the Vast Ocean disioined from the rest of the maine land as High Admirall of the seas comprehendeth that Iland which at this day conteineth the kingdomes of England Scotland together with Ireland ouer against it Westward the circumiacent iles the Orchades Hebrides Man Anglesey Wight the Sorlings many others of lesse note and were generally of the old writers with one consent called BRITANNICAE INSVLAE The Brittish Ilands taking their denomination as seemeth from the greatest of them commander of the rest which indeed is properly called BRITANNIA Brittaine So named not of that fained Brutus the bloody parricide as the fabulous historian Geffrey of Monmouth against all reason authority truth of storie hath hitherto made the world beleeue nor of the Welch word Prydain or Prydcain as the learned Britaine Humfrey Lhoyd hath thought but of Brit a Celticke word which signifieth Painted For these people as Caesar and other old writers report vsed to paint their bodies and therefore were called of the Gaules their next neighbours BRITONES as those people of the same nation who to auoid the slauery and seruitude of the Romanes and withdrew themselues into the North parts from whom they continually molested their colonies heere were of them for the same reason in their language called PICTI The Greekes called it also ALBION not of Albion Neptunes sonne which sometime sweied the scepter heere as some haue most fabulously taught but of Alphiων the white cliffes vpon the sea coast which first offer themselues to the eie of those which to this our land saile hither from France and indeed the Welch poets call it Inis win that is as Orphaeus the most ancient poet of the Greeks doth interpret it Nesos leu caessa and Leucaios Chersos The white I le or The whiteland The first Inhabitants which seated themselues heere not long after the vniuersall Flood and Confusion of Babel came hither from France as by Neerenesse of place Likenesse of language Maners Gouernment Customes Name is by the learned Clarencieux Camden the onely light of our histories in that his thrise renowned Britannia euidently demonstrated For to this day the ancient Britans the Welchmen do call themselues CVMRI not Cambri as come from Gomer the sonne of Iapheth called of the Latines Cimber from whom are descended the Celtae or Gaules The Romanes a second nation vnder the conduct of Iulius Caesar about the yeare before the birth of CHRIST 54. entered Brittaine and planted their colonies in diuers and sundry places of this Iland The Scottes obseruing the Roman legions to grow weake and their Empire to decline thereupon tooke occasion first to seise vpon Ireland then about the yeare of CHRIST 446. great trouble arising in France the Emperours were constrained wholly to withdraw their forces from hence and to leaue the Brittaines naked and open to the furie of the Pictes their enemies From hence ensued a double mischiefe for first the vnquiet and turbulent Pictes thinking that now the onely opportunitie was offered them to accomplish their desires thought to make sure worke called in the Scottes out of Ireland combined themselues together against the poore disarmed Britans whereupon the Britans were constrained for safegard of their liues and liberties to call in about the yeare of CHRIST 440. the Angles Saxons and Iuites a warlike people inhabiting along the sea coast of Germany from the riuer of Rhein vnto Denmarke to aid them against their violent enemies The Normanes lead by William the Bastard their Duke tooke possession of Great Brittaine in the yeare 1066. The Vandalles Norweis and Danes who by their piracies and robberies a long time and oft greeuously vexed these Iles neuer seated their Colonies heere and therefore I passe them ouer with silence The forme of Brittaine is triangular like vnto that figure which the Geometers call Scalenum or as Nubiensis the Arabian saith to the head and necke of Alnaama the ostrich and therefore it may aswell as Sicilia be called TRINACRIA The three-cornered I le The ancient Geographers did hold it and that deseruedly to be the greatest Iland of the Maine Ocean wherefore Solinus saith it may well deserue the name of ANOTHER WORLD and Matthew Paris for the same cause calleth it THE QVEEN or Empresse of the Isles of the Ocean In respect of which large compasse it hath been in former ages diuided into many seuerall iurisdictions and kingdomes in the time of the Saxons England the South-east part into seuen and Wales into three Great Egbert in the yeare 800. reduced the Saxon heptarchy into a Monarchy The Irish Princes Nobles and Commons after the incarnation 1172. vnited their Pentarchy to the crowne of Egbert and swore alleageance to Henry the second King of England Edward the first to these did knit in the yeare after the birth of Christ 1282. the triple crowne of the Pety Kings of Wales In these our daies the eternall wisedome of the Great King of Heauen and Earth hath cast all these together with the crowne of Scotland into one massie Emperiall Diademe and placed it vpon the head of our dread soueraigne IAMES lineally descended from those mighty Monarches and shall we doubt not in time adde to these whatsoeuer from them vnto his Highnesse do belong BRITANNICAE INSVLAE or the Empire of Great Brittaine conteineth Ilands Greater and often mentioned in histories BRITANNIA diuided by the Romans into Superior the Higher conteining ANGLIA England CVMERIA Wales Inferior the Neather now called SCOTIA Scotland HIBERNIA Ireland vpon the West of Britaine Lesser yet famous belonging to England from it South Close to the shore of Brittaine VECTA Wight Vpon the coast of France CAESARIA Gersey SARNIA Gernsey And many other lesser West From the point of Cornwall SILLINAE Silly anno 145. In the middest betweene England Ireland and Scotland MONOEDA Man Wales MONA called of the English Anglesey of the Welch Tirmôn Scotland lying from it West HEBRIDES The West isles in number foure and fortie North ORCHADES Orkney-iles about
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-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.
euer die or could die of a naturall death In Vlster there is another Lake in which there is an Iland of two diuers qualities one part of it hauing a church consecrated to the seruice of Christianity is very beautifull goodly and pleasant The other very rough ouer growne and vnpleasant is said to be bequeathed to Diuels and euill spirits This part hath in it nine caues or trenches in any of which if a man do chance to sleepe all night he is presently assaulted by the euill spirits and all the night so greeuously tormented and vexed that by the morning hee shall scarce be able to breath and will be almost halfe dead This place is called of the country people The purgatory of S. Patricke There is also a spring or fountaine in Mounster with whose water if any man shall wash himselfe he will presently become hoary or gray-headed I my selfe saw a man who washed the one halfe of his beard with this water and the haire became white the other remaining blacke as it was before On the contrary there is in Vlster a fountaine in which if any man wash his haire he shall neuer be horay or gray-headed In Connagh there is a fountaine of fresh water vpon the toppe of a very high mountaine which ebbeth twise in 24. houres and floweth as oft in this imitating the vnconstant motion of the sea There is a fountaine in the farder and North part of Vlster which by reason of the great coldnesse of it in seuen yeares space turneth sticks and wood cast into it into stone In Connagh there is a fountaine only kind and wholesome for men but for cattell and other such kind of bruite beasts pestilent and dangerous There is a fountaine in Mounster which if any man shall touch by and by the whole country wil be ouerflowed by storms of raine The people of this countrie do weare course blacke mantles or rugges for the sheep of this Iland are blacke and they put them on as rudely and vnhandsomely They vse also little hoods which hang down to their shoulders In riding they vse no saddles boots nor spurres but with a rod sharpe and tapered at one end they pricke forward their horses and make them runne Their bridles are such as do serue both for bitte and reigne so made as their horses only vsed to grasse are neuer hindred from eating They go into the field to warre naked and altogether vnarmed They vse three kind of weapons long speares darts and battell-axes The people is wild and very vnciuill they delight in nothing more then to liue idly and libertie they preferre before great riches I only obserued the people to delight much in musicall instruments and in that to deserue some commendation These briefly we haue gleaned heere and there out of the historie of Gyraldus Cambrensis diligently retaining the tenor of his owne phrase which we haue thought good to translate word for word as they are deliuered by our Authour that succedent ages might see either the credulous simplicity of former times or how time doth alter countries people and maners of men And because we haue spoken before of S. Patricks purgatory it shall not be amisse to adde to those former this discourse of it taken out of the twelfth booke of Caesarius his historie of Things worth the remembring When as S. Patricke saith he conuerted this nation to Christianity and they made a doubt and beleeued not that men should be punished for their sinnes in the world to come hee by earnest praier obtained this place at the hand of God the maner of the place is thus There is a deepe pit or trench enclosed round with a wall there are also certaine Regular Canons No man is so great a sinner to whom they enioine any greater penance then to abide all one whole night in that purgatorie If any man be desirous to enter in first making his confession they administer the sacrament vnto him they anoint him perfume him and instruct him thus Thou shalt see this night say they the assaults of the Deuill and the horrible paines of hell but they shall not hurt thee if thou haue but the name of Iesus alwaies in thy mouth But if thou shalt yeeld to the flattering enticements or terrible threatnings of the Deuill and so shalt cease to call vpon the name of Iesus thou art surely but a dead man Then in the euening putting him into the pit they shut vp the dore and comming againe in the morning if they presentlie find him not they looke no farther for him Many haue died there and many haue gone home againe whose visions haue been written of the foresaied friers and are shewed to such as are desirous to see them IReland saith M. Camden according to maners of the people is diuided into The wild Irish and The English pale but according to the ancient iurisdictions and naturall situation of it it is more fitly diuided into fiue parts and indeed it once conteined fiue kingdomes Mounster in the South Leinster in the East Connagh in the West Vlster in the North and Methe almost in the middest and heart of the land MOVNSTER Memomia the Irish call it Mown sometime diuided into West Mounster which in Ptolemeys time the Gangani Luceni Velabri and Iterni did inhabit and East Mounster possessed then of the Vodiae comprehendeth now these seuen Shires Kerry Limiricke Corke Tiparary Holy crosse Waterford and Desmond Of which Kerry and Tipararie were sometimes county Palatines LEINSTER Lagenia they call it Leighnigls a fertile soile and holesome seat possessed sometime by the Brigantes Coriondi Menapij Cauci and part of the Eblani Now it is diuided into these counties Wexford Caterlogh Kilkenny Dublin Kildare The Kings county The Queenes county Longford Fernes Wicklo METHE Media the Irish call it Mijh in the mid'st almost of the country the other part of the ancient possessions of the Eblani for his great fertility either for corn or grasse fish or flesh pleasant situation healthful aire multitude of people strength of castels and towns commonly called as Bartholomeys English reporteth The chamber of Ireland was lately diuided into East Methe and West Methe CONNAGH Connacia they call it Connaughty where long since were seated the Auteri and Nagnatae now it containeth these shires Clare Letrimme Gallawey Rosecomin Maio Sligo The whole prouince although it be in many places fertile and pleasant yet it is euery where full of dangerous Bogges darke Woods Creeks and Baies conuenient Stations and Harborough for shippes VLSTER Vltonia the Irish call it Cui Gully the Welsh Wltw a large country euery where full of great Lakes thicke and huge woods in some place resonably fruitfull in others leane and hungry but in all places greene and pleasant to the eie and therefore it maintaineth great plenty of cattell Here in Ptolemeys time inhabited the Voluntij Darni Robogdij Vennicny and Erdini at this day it conteineth these shires Louth Down Anwimme Monalion
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
wals of this citie which are about three miles in compasse are not ancient although some doe write that at the entreatie of Queene Helena Constantine the Great caused them to be built Beside those many and large Suburbes without the wals there is ioined to it vpon the West the citie of WESTMINSTER and vpon the South by a faire stone bridge the BOROVGH OF SOVTHVVARKE equall for bignesse and multitude of people to many great and good cities So that London in this respect may iustly be called Tripolid ' Angliterra This Bridge was begunne first of timber and afterward in the time of King Iohn it was made all of Free-stone The foundation of that goodly Mynster or Cathedrall Church of Saint Paul was first laid by Ethelbert King of Kent z Yarmouth as we now call it a very goodly sea towne in the county of Norffolke situate at the mouth of the riuer Gerne Garienis whereof it tooke the name and was first called Giernemouth and then by corruption in processe of time Garmouth and Yarmoth It is inclosed almost on all sides with water vpon the West with the riuer aforesaid vpon the South and East with the maine sea only vpon the North it lieth open to the firme land vpon which side it is defended from the assault of the enemy by a very strong wall which together with the riuer doe make a kinde of Square figure longer one way then an other On the East side standeth a Block-house well furnished with great ordinance to defend the hauen and towne from pirates and sea robbers It hath but one Church but that is a marueillous faire great one with a very high Spire seene far off both by sea and land a What this towne should be and where it should stand I cannot say for certaine The letters in the Arabicke and the proportion of distance from Yarmouth and Grynsby doe directly point at Drayton in Northhampton-shire But because it is too far off from the sea and was neuer greater then now it is and for that I finde him so often faulty in those accounts I doe not beleeue that he meant that place The name commeth very neere to Torksey which is situate vpon the Trent and as Master Camden sath although now it be but a small towne yet in times past it hath beene much greater and more famous For in time of William the First as appeareth by Doomesday booke it had two hundred citizens and enioyed many great and large priuileges b Grimsby in Lincolnshire sometime a very great Marte towne much resorted vnto from all quarters both by Sea and Land so long as the hauen lay open ready to entertaine Ships of any reasonable burden But as the hauen did in continuance of time decay so the glory of the towne by little and little vanished and resigned vp her trade vnto Kingston vpon Hull her ouerthwarte neighbour which euer since the time of Richard the Second hath greatly flourished in whose daies of a small village and a very few poore Fisher-mens cottages it began to grow to that greatnesse that of a sudden it was not much inferiour to many prety cities c Yorke a very goodly citie situate vpon the riuer Ouse For beauty greatnesse strength riches and pleasure it is inferiour to none in all England but London only Old writers call it EBORACVM the Welchmen Ebrauc or Effroc the Saxons Eferwic And therefore I suspect that this my authour did write it _____ Efferwic not _____ Effradic but I alter nothing It is a very ancient citie oft mentioned in Roman Coines and histories whereby it is manifest that Legio sexta victrix the sixth conquering legion did ordinarily reside in this city The Emperours Seuerus and Constantius father to Constantine the Great so long as they abode in this I le did keepe their court heere and dying in these parts were buried in this city This Constantius being a very godly and religious Christian Prince made it first as our histories report a Bishops sea which Honorius Bishop of Rome afterward aduanced vnto the dignity of a Metropolitane or Archbishopricke which beside the large iurisdiction that it had heere in England had also vnder it all Scotland d Wiske it is called at this day It riseth in Richmond-shire not farre from Wharleton Castle as Christopher Saxto maketh me beleeue e I finde no mention at all of this place either in Master Camden or any other Onely in the same Saxton vpon the foresaid riuer some two or three miles aboue Northaluerton I finde Danby Wiske but whether our authour meant this or not I cannot tell But I would gladly learne of what place the Lord of Vescy tooke his name f Lincolne a large and faire city situate now vpon the North side of the riuer Witham called by Ptolemey and Antonine LINDVM by Beda Lindecollinum by the Normans as Master Camden testifieth Nichol. g This is very false For this riuer hauing hitherto from his fountaine bent his course Northward as if it meant indeed to vnload it selfe at Grimesby doth notwithstanding heere alter that determination and turning it selfe cleane another way at length falleth into the sea at Boston a place almost full South both from Lincolne and Grimesby h Durham situate vpon the top of an hill by the riuer Weare which runneth almost round about it and thereupon was called by the Saxons Dun-holme that is if we shall interpret it into English The hill-ile is no ancient city For the fiirst stone of it as our histories report was laid by the Monkes of Lindesferne in the yeere of our Lord 995. before that we find no mention of it William the First built the Castle vpon the top of the Hill which since that time was the Bishops palace i Ireland the greatest iland in these Seas Brittain only excepted for it runneth out in length from South to North about foure hundred miles and where it is narrowest it is well neere two hundred miles ouer But of this we haue spoken in another place k Denmarke we now cal it is for the most part inuironed and washed with the salt sea and therefore he doth not greatly erre in that he termeth it An Iland l Island if I be not deceiued which Solinus in the thirtie fiue chapter of his Polyhistor saith is two daies saile from Cathnesse the North cape of Scotland His words are these A Caledoniae promontorio Thulen petentibus bidui nauigatio est Those that doe trauell betweene the cape of Caledonia or Cathnesse and Thule doe make it two daies saile Item in the same chapter a little beneath he writeth that Ab Orcadibus Thulem vsque quinque dierum noctium nauigatio est From the Orkney iles to Thule are fiue daies and fiue nights saile Yet Island is not that ancient Thule as Master Camden in his Britania proueth at large The position and distances answer well to Thule but the quantity or bignesse argueth that he meant Island which is much farther off either from
25. and Plutarch in his naturall questions concerning the face in the orbe of the Moone All these are in some sort confirmed by Platoes fables or histories in his Timaeus concerning the isle Atlantis whose sea he affirmes to be vnnauigable by reason of the slime or oaze remaining of the same isles inundation But concerning the ship called La Victoria learne thus much it is not sayd amisse Bare names oft times things named doe resemble Manifest it is by this ship which vnder this happy name the first voyage that euer she made was the only ship that caried away the victory of sailing quite ouer the maine Ocean for so many ages before For departing from Spaine by the Streight of Magellan to the Moluccos thence hauing doubled the Cape of Buona Esperança and returned whence she first put forth she was the first of all ships and inall ages that euer circumpassed the whole earth The same ship made out of Spaine a second voyage as farre as S. Domingo and home againe Thither also she made a third voyage but in her returne she was quite lost neither was it euer knowen what became of her Antiquity would haue thought she had beene taken vp into the skies and placed among the Constellations like another Argo Nor had this propheticall verse of the peerelesse Poet beene vnfitly alleged in her commendation Then comes another Tiphys another gold-fleeced Argo Let Plinie now cease to maruell that out of a small hemp-seed should grow that which was of force to cary vp and downe the globe of his earth We in our age haue seene with the very same thing this world of ours much greater than his nauigated round about Ours I say which that you may more perfectly vnderstand do but compare the first Table of our Theatre with the first of our Parergon or By-worke and you shall see the difference And here I suppose I shall not bestow my labour altogether in vaine by adding certaine particulars not commonly knowen concerning the first discouery hereof Which by all our late Writers is not vnworthily ascribed to Christopher Columbus For in the yere 1492 he was the first man that laid it open made it knowen and communicated the vse and benefit thereof to the Christian world Howbeit I finde that the North part of America which lieth neerest vnto Europe and to some of our European isles namely Groenland Island and Frisland and is called Estotiland was long since discouered by certaine Frislandish fishers driuen by tempest vpon that coast and afterward about the yere 1390 that it was reuisited anew by Antonie Zeno a gentleman of Venice and that by the authority of Zichmi then King of the said isle of Frisland a Prince in those times very valiant and ouer all that sea for his warres and victories most renowmed Concerning this his expedition there are extant in Italian certaine Collections or briefe extracts drawen by Francis Marcolino out of the letters of Nicolas and Antonie Zeno gentlemen of Venice who liued in these parts Out of which Collections I adde this that followes touching the description of this region Estotiland he saith abounds with all things necessary for mankind In the mids therof stands an exceeding high mountaine That you many better vnderstand this relation peruse our Table of America and Scandia from whence issue foure riuers that water the whole country The inhabitants are witty and most expert in all kind of handicrafts A language and letters they haue peculiar to themselues Howbeit in this Kings Library there are certeine Latine books no whit vnderstood by them which might perhaps before that time be there left by some of their European neighbors that had traffique with them They haue all kinds of mettall but specially gold wherewith they mightily abound They exercise trade of merchandize with the people of Greenland from whence they fetch hides pitch brimstone The inhabitants say that towards the South there are countries rich of gold and replenisht with inhabitants There are also many great woods out of which they haue matter for the building of their ships and cities whereof and of fortresses there are great numbers Of the loadstones vse in nauigation they are vtterly ignorant They also make mention of Drogeo a region toward the South inhabited by Canibals and such as are delighted to eat mans flesh for want whereof they liue with fishing which they very much vse Beyond this there are large countries and another New world but the inhabitants are barbarous and go naked howbeit against the cold of Winter they arme themselues with beasts skinnes These haue no kind of mettall they liue by hunting For weapons they vse long and sharp-pointed staues and bowes They make warres one vpon another Gouernours they haue and lawes wherto they yeeld obedience Southward of this place they liue in a more temperate climate hauing cities and idol-temples wherin they sacrifice liuing men whose flesh they afterward deuoure These haue the vse of gold and siluer Thus much concerning this tract of land out of the foresaid collections or extracts wherein this also is worthy the obseruation that euen then our European Pilots by meanes of the loadstone sailed those seas For I am of opinion that there is not to be found in any history a more ancient testimony touching the foresayd vse of this stone And these things I was the willinger to adioyne to this Table because I see none of them that haue written the histories of the world so much as once mention this matter But concerning the loadstone or sea-compasse you are to vnderstand that the first inuentour therof was Iohn Goia a citizen of Melfi whom Alexander Sardus in his booke De inuentoribus rerum calleth Flauius Campanus For so write the Italians and so much is confirmed by Antonie Panormitanus in this one verse of his First Melfi Sailors taught the loadstone how to vse and that in the yere of our Sauior 1300. This Melfi called Amalphis in Latine is a towne situate vpon the sea-shore of Lucania Goropius ascribes the finding out of this secret to our Danes or Dutchmen being persuaded hereunto because the names of the 32. winds written vpon the compasse are by all Pilots and Mariners be they French Spaniards or of what nation soeuer expressed in the Dutch tongue which I confesse to be true if you except the Italians only for they both write and speake of these winds in their owne mother-language Howbeit seeing all our nauigatours of Europe be they Spaniards French English or Dutch do expresse them in our language I am verily of opinion that as it was first found and vsed by the Amalfitans or Italians especially within their owne Mediterran sea so was the knowledge therof from them deriued vnto our Netherlanders and most of all to those of Bruges whose city at that time before all traffâ—que was reduced to Antwerpe was a famous mart-towne and frequented by Italians especially of Venice as the foresaid Zeni report
and according to the testimony of Peter Quirini Christopher Fiorouanti and Nicolas Michele who in this our Ocean suffered that horrible shipwracke which we reade of in the Italian volumes witnesse also Lewis Cadamosta who in his Epistles written about the yeere 1454 affirmes this city of Bruges to be a Mart inferiour to none else in all the North parts of the world Wherefore that the citizens of Bruges receiued the vs◠of the sea-compasse from the Italians and out of Italian translated the names of the winds into their owne language and that from them the other nations before mentioned borrowed this knowledge I see not well how it may be denied Of the nature and admirable vertue of the loadstone you may reade many notable things in Liuius Sanutus his description of Africa printed in Italian at Venice The isles or Salomon which in this table you see described about Noua Guinea were not long since discouered by Oliuer Mendanio after he had conducted his fleet out of the part of Lima in Perú had sailed ouer this huge Ocean as I find recorded in Iosephus Acosta his 1. book 17. chapter De natura nouiorbis MARIS PACIFICI quod vulgò Mar del Zur cum regionibus circumiacentibus insusisue in eodem passim sparsis novissima descriptio SPE ET METV GENIO ET INGENIO NOBILI DN NICOLAO ROCCOXIO PATRICIO ANTVERPIENSI EIVSDEMQVE VRBIS SENATORI Abrahamus Ortelius Regiae M t s geographus lub merito dedicabat 1589. NEVV SPAINE THis Prouince was about the yeere 1518 forcibly subdued to the Spanish gouernment vnder the command and conduct of Fernando Corlez who with the great slaughter of his owne people but farre greater of the inhabitants fighting for their liberty conquered the same It is a region rich of siluer and golde for it hath very many riuers yeelding sands or graines of perfect gold Vpon the coast of this countrey are many commodious fishings for pearle Salt lakes here are diuers the water whereof through the heat of the Sunne is conuerted into excellent salt Here is great abundance of Cassia fistula and a kind of fruit in the Mexican language called Cacao somewhat resembling an Almond which is with them very highly esteemed for hereof they make a kinde of drinke to their owne taste most delicate The seas and riuers belonging to this countrey abound mightily with fish Their riuers also breed Crocodiles whose flesh is food to the inhabitants In these places this creature is for the most part aboue twenty foot long It is a countrey very mountainous and beset here and there with most lofty and cragged rocks So great is the diuersity of languages in these regions that one cannot vnderstand another without an Interpreter The principall Colonies to be seene in this Table which in New Spaine haue been planted by the Spaniards are first Compostella the seat of a Bishop and of one of the Kings counsels Colima by another name called the city of the Purification Guadalajara a towne most famous and head of the Kingdome of New Gallicia Mechoacan a Bishops sea also Sacatula the city of Angels a mother-towne and a Bishoprick Mexico a Kingly city or rather Queene of all the cities in the New world situate vpon the banke of a lake or rather of a fenne yea the very ground-plot of this city is so fenny that you cannot come thither nor depart thence but ouer bridges and cawseys The lake adioyning is salt being six leagues long and fiue broad Fishes it hath none but very small ones which more aptly may be called wormes than fishes of whose putrefaction which is there caused by the heat of Summer the aire is sometimes so infected that it is most vnholesome dwelling there yet is it as much frequented with inhabitants and merchants as any mart-towne in Europe It is a large city for in compasse it containeth about three leagues The other lake adioining to this is fresh water and very plentifull of fish wherein also stand many townes There are likewise a great number vpon the banks of either lake In this city as Ierome Giraua reporteth there was by Pope Paul the third established the seat of an Archbishop in the yeere 1547. This citie was taken by the Spaniards 140 yeeres after the first foundation thereof Montezuma at the same time being King the ninth in number A wonder how in so few yeeres it should grow to such largenesse and magnificence The nature situation and customes of this citie and of the territory adiacent who desires more perfectly to know may reade the relations of Fernando Cortez Extant they are in the volume intituled Nouus orbis and in the volume of Nauigations printed at Venice in Italian but especially John Gonsaluo who in his little booke of China hath a most large description of this region You haue also many notable discourses hereof in the third Volume of M. Hakluyts English voyages HISPANIAE NOVAE SIVAE MAGNAE RECENS ET VERA DESCRIPTIO 1579. Lectori Partium longitudinis huius tabulae inituum non fumitur Ptolemaico more ab infulis Canarijs versus Oriente sed à Toletano Hispaniensis meridiano Occidentem versus Notularum circa Mexico explanatio a. Escalpucoleo b. Tucuba c. Istapalapa d. Ximaloaca e. Teutitlan f. Gucytitlan g. Mexicalcingo h. Culiacan i. Catlavaca k. Nicsquique l. Cinarantepec m. Xiquicpico n. Ocellotepec o. Vcicilapa p. Mimiapa q. Tecaÿuca r. Chalcontengo s. Tapalcapan t. Tisquiquiac u. Xilocingo x. Chiconantla y. Techcistlan z. Caltoca The Prouince of CVLIACAN THis Prouince of CVLIACAN is part of the kingdome of New Galicia It was discouered vnder the gouernment of Charles the fifth in the yeere 1530. In this region is one only colonie of Spaniards called The towne of S. Michael Villages here are very many built by the inhabitants all which before the Spaniards arriuall were at their owne libertie yeelding obedience to no King or Gouernour The region is indifferently furnished with things necessary Out of the mountaines is digged great abundance of siluer The inhabitants are addicted to war and robbery They that dwell vpon the coast employ most of their time in fishing but the vplandish people liue by hunting They goe naked couering only their priuities with a piece of Cotton They haue many languages They lodge for the most part in the open aire They are a most beggerly nation CVBA and HISPANIOLA THis Island of Cuba is so called by the naturall inhabitants but by the Spaniards Fernandina and Joanna and as Peter Martyr reports Alpha and Omega In length it extendeth East and West 300 Spanish leagues containing in bredth fifteene and in some places twenty of the said leagues The land is very mountainous but rich of gold and excellent copper Madder which the Apothecaries because it is very apt to die wooll and leather call Diers-madder is heere found in great abundance It is in all places beautified with thicke woods with riuers and pooles of fresh water albeit there are lakes naturally
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-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
but two walled cities namely Eemden and Awricke Of which EEMDEN situate at the mouth of the riuer Eems is the common Mart-towne of the whole prouince for concourse of Merchants especially famous which indeed is caused by the commodiousnesse and opportunity of the hauen which doth thrust it selfe so farre vp into the heart of the city at such a great height and depth that it doth easily receiue and entertaine great shippes full laden with sailes stricken into the very middest of the same This city is much beautified with the sumptuous palace of the Prince a gorgeous Church the Yeeld hall and the goodly houses of the priuate citizens AVRICK by reason of the woods and groues which on all sides almost do inclose it is inhabitd for the most part of Gentlemen and Noblemen where they recreate and delight themselues with Hawking and Hunting In the territorie of this city there is as Kempius reporteth a place called Iyl enclosed round with a wall beset with bushes a commodious dwelling for Hares and Deere in which as in a Parke or warrein they maintaine a great number of these kind of beasts which none dare take vnder a great penalty but they are reserued for the Earles disport and pastime when he is disposed to recreate himselfe with hunting In the confines also of this city Awricke is a little hill rising somewhat high commonly they call it Obstalsboom or Vpstalsbom where the seat of Iustice or Court leet for the whole shire is ordinarily held Heere they were wont euery yeare out of all the Zelands to meet in the open and wild fields and there by the most skilfull and approued lawiers such as best knew their customs and lawes to end and determine all controuersies arising between man and man In this precinct also are diuen castles villages and farms Of hamlets and end-waies such is the number that oft times one doth touch another The greatest part of which both for beauty of their houses and streets as also for multitude of inhabitants and strangers do so excell that they may foe honour and greatnesse contend with diuers cities of Germany The people do giue themselues either to traffique as Merchants or to get their liuings by occupations and handy-crafts or by playing the husbandmen and tilling the ground With their neighbours and forreners they speake in the Dutch tongue amongst themselues they vse a peculiar language proper to that nation and not vnderstood of strangers They are comely apparelled yea euen the very country people so that a man would take them to be citizens The women weare a kind of attire and apparell much differing from that of other nations They bind vp all the haire of their had into one locke and that set out with diuers siluer and gilt spangles and buttons they let to hang behind their backe Their head they bind vp in Summer with a caull of red coloured silke behung with siluer spangles but in the Winter they weare an hood of green cloth wherewith they do so couer their whole head that skarsely one may see their eies this kind of attire they call an Hatte Their vpper garment huick of loose gowne which they weare abroad from the head to the foot is pleited with many small pleits and is so stiffe with siluer and gilt wire or plate wouen into it that when it is put off it will stand vpright This sometime is made of red sometime of green cloth In this country of East-Friesland there are also two other counties the one called Esens the other Ieueren bearing the names of their chiefe towns Of the situation of this prouince nature and maners of the people read Vbbo Emmius FRISIA ORIENTALIS RIDERIAE PORTIONIS facies ante inundationem qui postea sinus maris factus est DENMARKE SAxo Grammaticus hath thus described Denmarke DENMARKE saith he parted in the middest by the boisterous sea conteineth a few small parts of the maine continent seuered and disioined one from another by the breaking in of the ocean winding and turning it selfe diuers waies Of these IVTIA Iuitland is in respect of the greatnesse and beginning in the enterance of the kingdome of Denmarke Which as it is in situation first so running out further it is placed in the vtmost borders of Germany From whose company it being parted by the intercourse of the riuer Eydor it runneth with a larger breadth toward the North euen to the banke of the frith of Norwey he calleth it Fretum Noricum In this is the bay of Lemwicke Sinus Lymicus abounding with such store of fish that it alone yeeldeth as much prouision of victuall to the inhabitants as all the whole country beside To this is adioined FRESIA Strand Friesen a prouince much lesser which lying more low then Iuitland in plaine and champion fields receiueth from the sea ouerflowing it great strength and heart and is very settile for come Whose inundation or violent tide whether it do bring to the country people more profit or dammage it is hard to say For in tempestuous weather the Sea breaking in through the creeks wherein the water was wont to be contained such a world of waters oft times doth follow and come into the country that diuers times it runneth ouer not only the fallow fields but drowneth also whole families with their goods and cattell After Iuitland the ile FIONIA Fuinex doth follow vpon the East which a narrow arme of the ocean sea doth seuer from the maine land This iland as vpon the West it looketh toward Iuitland so vpon the East it hath the ile SEELAND Sialandia he calleth it an iland much commended for the great abundance of all maner of necessary things that it yeeldeth which for pleasant situation is thought to excell all the prouinces of this kingdome and is supposed to be in the middest of Denmarke indifferently situate between the one end of the same and the other Vpon the East side of this an arme of the ocean runneth between it and SCONE Scania Scandinauia Basilia and Baltia called by diuers authours a part of Norwey or Swedland This sea yearely affoordeth great gaine to the Fishermen For this whole bay or gulfe of the sea is so full of all sorts of fish that the fishermen oft times do catch such store and therewith they so fraight their boats that they haue no roome to stirre their oares neither do they heere vse any nets or other meanes to take the fish but many times they are taken only with the hand Moreouer HALLAND and BLIEKER Blekingia he nameth it two prouinces issuing forth from the maine land of Scone like two armes from one and the same body of a tree are by many spaces and by-corners adioined and knitte to Gotland and Norwey Thus farre Saxo Grammaticus See also Albert Crantzius Sebastian Munster and the Ecclesiasticall history of M. Adams The kingdome of NORVVAY is subiect to the crowne of Denmarke as also the ile GOTLAND Item if you will giue credit to Marke
beast which the Latines call Alces the Dutch Elandt The people speake the Slauonian tongue like as also the Polanders do Their chiefe city is Vilna a Bishop sea and is as bigge as Cracow but the houses in it do not stand close together or touch one another but like as in the country gardens and orchyeards are between house and house All that Oke-timber which we call Wagenschott of which almost all the buildings carpenters worke and ioiners worke as well publicke as priuate is made in the Low-countries as also the greatest part of their furniture and houshold-stuffe is feld in these parts and from thence is through the East sea the Latines call it Mare balticum the Dutch Oostsee the Russians Wareczkouie morie and Germane ocean transported into these countries In SAMOGITIA which in their language signifieth low-Low-land the people are tall and of a goodly stature but rude and barbarous in their maners and behauiour vsing a sparing and homely diet The Russians call this prouince Samotzkasemla Heere is no maner of faire buildings but their houses are like houels or poore cottages made of wood and couered with straw or reed From the bottome vpward by a little and little their buildings are made lesse and lesse like the keele of a ship or great helmet In the toppe it hath one window letting in the light from aboue vnderneath which is the hearth or chimney where they dresse their meat In that house they hide themselues their wiues children seruants maides sheep cattell corne and houshold-stuffe altogether Sichardus in his history of Germany writeth that the people of Samogitia are descended from the Saxons and therefore although they be subiect to the kingdome of Polonia yet the Saxons challenging it to be a part of their iurisdiction they do affirme it to pertaine to the precinct of Saxony MASOVIA is a shire held of the king of Poland in homage The chiefe or Metropolitane city of this prouince is Warsouia where they make the excellent mead a kind of drinke made of hony c. VOLHINIA a country abounding with all maner of things a very fertile soile full of townes and castles PODOLIA is of such a fruitfull soile that the grasse in three daies will couer a sticke being cast into it It is so ranke and groweth so fast that a plough being left in it vpon the head-lands or grassie places of the field in a very few daies wil be so couered ouer that you shall hardly find it againe Heere also is great store of hony The head city is Camyenetz RVSSIA yeeldeth great plenty of Horses Oxen and Sheep of very fine wooll Their drinke is mead which they make of hony Wine also is brought hither from Pannonia Moldauia and Walachria The chiefe city of this prouince is Leunpurg the Latines call it Leopolis Lion-city MOLDAVIA is a part of Walachia whose metropolitane city is Sossouia commonly called Sotschen The inhabitants of this country are a fierce and cruell people but very good souldiours and therefore they are at continuall enmity with the Transsiluanians As the custome of the Thracians was in old time to marke the Noblemens children with a hot iron so they report that the Lords of Moldauia to this day do vse to marke their children assoone as they be borne with some kind of marke least a question might arise whether they were the right and lawfull heires or not and that aliens and strangers might be excluded from inheritance amongst them as Reinerus Reineckius in his discourse of noble families hath written Many other things of thse countries thou maiest read of in Matthias of Michow in his discourse of the Sarmaties Albert Crantz in his description of Wandalia Bonfinius in his history of Hungary and Laonicus Chalcondylas in his first and third bookes But of all Martine Cromer in his Chronicle of Poland hath most excellently described these countries and Sigismund of Herberstain in his commentaries of Moschouia See also Sebastian Munster Pius Secundus Pope of Rome and Dauid Chytraeus in his Chronicle of Saxony Iohannes Duglossus a most copious historian of the Polonians is cited by Ioach mus Cureus but as yet not published as he affirmeth George of Reichersdorff hath most curiously described Moldauia Laonicus Chalcondylas also in his second booke hath diuers things worth the knowing of this country POLONIAE LITVANIAEQ DESCRIPTIO Auctore Wenceslao Godreccio et correctore Andrea Pograbio Pilsnensi Cum Priuilegio Imp. Regiae etc. decennali SPRVSE GRomer in his description of Poland describeth this country on this maner Amongst many other nations of Sarmatia in Europe the Borussi by Ptolemey are placed very farre North in that coast where now as I thinke the Liuonians and Moschouites do dwell beyond the riuer Chernish next neighbours to the Ryphaeans Those with Erasmus stella I iudge to haue passed further South and West and possessed a great part of Sarmatia which is vpon the East adioined to the Russians and Moschouites and is enclosed on the South with woods and the Hercynian forrest and all that coast along by Pautzkerwicke or Frish-haff as some thinke Ptolemey calleth it Sinus Venedicus Pliny Clylipenus the Balticke and East seas euen vnto the riuers Vistula Wixel or Weissel and Ossa and to be called Borussi or Prussi by names not much different In this compasse now do inhabit the Liuonians Lithuans Samagites and the Pruissen yet retaining the ancient appellation nations distinct in respect that they are subiect to diuers states and gouerned by different lawes and policies but vsing altogether the same language vulgarly wholly differing from the Slauonians yet hauing diuers Latine words intermedled and mixt among but for the most part corrupt and formed rather after the Italian and Spanish termination than after the Latine Notwithstanding the Dutch and Germanes of late yeares conquering that part which lieth vpon the sea and is called Spruisse and Liuonia haue planted their colonies there Heere hence it is that the Dutch tongue is more familiar and vsuall to these people than that ancient and vulgar language especially in the cities and townes Which also is vsuall amongst the Lithuans who by reason of their neighbourhood and entercourse with the Russians and colonies from thence enterteined do much what speake the Russian language For in that Duglossus deriueth the name and originall of this nation from Prusias the king of Bithynia it is altogether fabulous and not worth the confuting Some do thinke that the Borussi in the German tongue were so called for that they were neere the Russi but whether truly or fasly I list not heere to dispute When and how the Latine tongue did intermedle it selfe with the vulgar language of the Borussians Lithuanians and Liuonians we dare not constantly affirme Erasmus Stella saith that Borussia Prussia or Spruse was rather assaulted by the Romanes then conquered and alleadgeth Pliny for his authour whereupon that followeth that together with the Empire the Latine tongue could not there be spread
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.
fifth Section of the third Climate of his Geographicall garden imprinted in the Arabicke language at Rome in the yeare of our Lord 1592. The place saith he where Lot with his family dwelt the stinking sea and Zegor euen vp as high as Basan and Tiberias was called the Vale for that it was a plaine or bottome between two hils so low that all the other waters of this part of Soria do fall into it and are gathered thither And a little beneath in the same place he addeth All the brookes and springs do meet and stay in the lake of Zegor otherwise called the lake of Sodom and Gomorrha two cities where Lot and his family dwelt which God did cause to sinke and conuerted their place into a stinking lake otherwise named The Dead lake for that there is in it nothing that hath breath or life neither fish nor worme or any such thing as vsually is wont to liue or keepe in standing or running waters the water of this lake is hot and of a filthy stinking sauour yet vpon it are little boates in which they passe from place to place in these quarters and carry their prouision The length of this lake is 60. miles the breadth not aboue 12. miles Moreouer Aben Isaac who in like maner wrote in the Arabicke tongue a treatise of Geography certaine fragments of which I haue by me for which I am beholding as also for many other fauours to Master Edward Wright that learned Mathematician and singular louer of all maner literature thus speaketh of this place The sea Alzengie saith he is a very bad and dangerous sea for there is no liuing creature can liue in it by reason of the vnwholesomnesse and thicknesse of his waters which happeneth by reason that the sunne when it commeth ouer this sea draweth vp vnto it by the force of his heat the thinner and more subtill parts of the water which is in it and so doth leaue the thicke and more grosse parts behind which by that meanes also become very hot and salt so that no man may saile vpon this sea nor any beast or liuing creature liue neere it Item the sea Sauk as Aristotle speaketh of it which also is in these parts and doth reach vp as high as India and the parched Zone so I thinke the word Mantakah that is a girdle or belt which heere he vseth doth signifie that there is not in it any liuing creature at all of any sort whatsoeuer and therefore this sea is called The Dead sea because that whensoeuer any worme or such like falleth into it it mooueth no longer but swimmeth vpon the toppe of the water and when it is dead it putrifieth and then sinketh and falleth to the bottome yet when there falleth into it any stinking and corrupt thing it sinketh immediatly and swimmeth not vpon the water at all Thus farre out of Aben Isaac This sea is of Ptolemey called ASPHALTITES the lake Ashaltites of others Asphaltes of the bitumen which it doth yeeld in great plenty of the Iewes MARE PALAESTINORVM ORIENTALE SOLITVDINIS siue DESERTI the Sea of Palaestina the East Sea the Sea of the desert or wildernesse of the situation and position of it vnto the land of Iewry Item MARE SALIS the Salt-sea of the hot and fitish saltnesse of the same aboue other salt-waters which the Arabian iustifieth to be true Pausanias that ancient and famous historian of the Greekes and Iustine the abridger of the large volume of Trogus Pompeius call it MARE MORTVVM the Dead sea of the effect there is saith Iustine a lake in that country which by reason of his greatnesse and vnmoueablenesse of his waters is called the Dead sea for it is neither mooued with the wind the heauy and lumpish bitumen which swimmeth vpon the toppe of the water all the lake ouer resisting the violence of the greatest blasts neither is it saileable for that all things that are void of life do sinke to the bottome neither doth it sustaine any thing that is not besmered with bitumen to these both my Arabians do subscribe of Galen the Prince of Physitions it is called LACVS SODOMAEVS the Lake of Sodome for him Nubiensis doth stand who neuer nameth it Bahri a sea but Bahira a lake or standing poole yet contrariwise Isaac termeth it Bahri not Bahira and by this name it is generally knowen to all the Europeans Solinus calleth it TRISTEM SINVM the Sad-bay like as the gulfe of Milinde is of some named ASPERVM MARE the rough or boisterous sea like as Isaac my authour calleth this same lake Tzahhib the churlish and dangerous sea Iosephus in the tenth chapter of his first booke of the Antiquities of the Iewes saith that this place where now is the Dead-sea was before named the Vale of bitumen pits Strabo otherwise a most excellent Geographer and curious searcher out of the truth in these discourses falsly confoundeth this lake as I touched before with the Sirbon lake Why the Arabian should call it Zengie and Sawke I know not This we haue heere added partly out of the Geographicall treasury of Ortelius for the ease and benefite of the Reader least the diuersity of names might make him mistake the thing Hauing thus finished the Mappes of HOLY write It now remaineth that we do in like maner begin and go on forward with those of PROPHANE histories A draught and shadow of the ancient GEOGRAPHY THou hast gentle and curtuous Reader in this Mappe a draught a plot or patterne I might call it of the whole world but according to the description ruder Geography of the more ancient authours of those of middle age For this our globe of the earth was not then further knowen a wonderfull strange thing vntill in the daies of our fathers in the yeare 1492. Christofer Columbus a Genoway by the commandement of the king of Castile first discouered that part of the West which vnto this day had lien hid vnknowen After that the South part hitherto not heard of togther with the East part of Asia much spoken of but neuer before this time entered was descried by the Portugals That part which lieth toward the North we haue seen in this our age to haue been first found out by the English merchants and nauigatours a particular view and proofe of which thou maist see at large in that worthy worke of the English Nauigations composed with great industrie diligence and charge by my singular good friend Master Richard Hacluyt By him England still shall liue and the name of braue Englishmen shall neuer die The other countries which as yet do lie obscured within the frozen Zones and vnder both the Poles are left for succeding ages to find out Peraduenture ancient writers that liued many hundred yeares since haue named some country or some one place or other out of this our continent but they haue not written ought of the situation of the same as being indeed altogether vnknowen vnto them In
absolute height and greatnesse The people of this city from the first infancy euen vnto the last of childhood which was limited almost within the compasse of three hundred yeares abode the bitter assaults and warres of their neighbours round about them then hauing growen to a striplings age and past the rodde after many outragious furies of Mars it passed the Alpes and narrow sea Being come to mans estate and best yeares from all quarters of the wide world it brought away the laurell the signe of conquest and triumph but now being old and beginning to dote and sometime only bearing the name of conquerour rather than winning ought indeed it hath betaken it selfe to a more quiet kind of life Therefore this city reuerend for so many glorious conquests of stout and fierce nations and for so many good and wholesome lawes which it hath enacted hath now at last like a kind and thrifty father both wise and wealthy committed her patrimony and possessions to the Emperours as vnto her naturall sonnes to be ruled and gouerned And lately although the tribes and wardes be idle the hundreds and wapentakes still and quiet and there be no dissensions in the Senate house but that the more secure and calmer times such as Numa Pompilius liued in were come againe yet in all parts of the world wheresoeuer it is regarded as a Mistresse and Queen in all places the reuerend gray haires of the graue Senatours euery where the very name of the Roman Nation is greatly esteemed and honourable Thus farre Ammianus Moreouer this you shall find in Sulpiciaes Satyricke poeme Two things there are which raised great Rome to that height valour in warre and wisdome in peace As this Romane Empire in the iudgement of all men was esteemed very great and large so also indeed it was especially if you shall compare it with those which haue been in former ages as that of the Assyrians Persians and Grecians Item with those which since their fall haue sprong vp in their places as namely that of the Othomans amongst the Turkes the Sophies amongst the Persians of the great Cham ouer the Tartars in Asia and of Prester Iohn as we call him ouer the Aethiopians or Abyssines in Africa But if you shall compare it with that Monarchy which Charles the fifth Emperour of Rome within the memorie of our fathers established in diuers parts of the world and Philip his sonne in our age hath enlarged and shall by looking into an vniuersall mappe of the Earthly globe conferre and measure the greatnesse of this with those others by the eie you shall plainly and truly discerne that this for largenesse may not only be preferred farre before all those other forenamed but also euen before that of the Romanes The kingdome of the Portugals after that by diuers nauigations they had subdued vnder their obedience the marine tracts and sea coasts of East India together with the ilands there about if it did reach and were extended vp as farre within the land as it commandeth about the shore it might doubtlesse be accounted none of the least Empires Seeing now therefore that this also at this day is vnder the obedience of the said K. Philip who doth not see that this Empire is the greatest that euer was in the world Of the Empire of Rome as it stood in his daies Tertullian in his booke De Pallio speaketh thus honourably Reuera Orbis cultissimum huius Imperij rus est that is In very deed the whole world is nothing else but a farme well stocked and stored belonging to this Empire Lastly Ouid in his second booke De Fastis thus writeth of it Gentibus est aliis tellus data limite certo Romanae spacium est vrbis Orbis idem All other nations in the Earth their certaine bounds may name The compasse of the World and Rome they only are the same ROMANI IMPERII IMAGO Originis Incrementi et Culminis Imperij Romani breuis enumeratio Primo sub Regibus septem Romulo Seruio etc. per annos ducentos tres supra quadraginta non amplius quam vsque Portum atque Hostiam intra decimum octanum miliariū Romanum processit Imperium Sub Consulib verò inter quos interdum Dictatores et Decemuiri ac Tribuni militares fuerunt per annos quadringentos septem supra quadraginta vsque trās Padum Italia est capta Africa Hispaniaeque subactae Gallia et Britannia tributarie sunt factae Illyrici Histri Liburni Dalmatae sunt domiti ad Achaiam transitum est Macedones expugnati cum Dardanis Moesis et Thracibus est bellarum ad Danubium est peruentum ac in Asia pulso Antiocho primum pedem posuerunt Romani Mithridate victo regnum Ponti est captum cum Armenia minori quam idem tenuerat in Mesopotamiam progressum est cum Partbis foedus initum contra Carduenos Saracenoe ac Arabas pugnatum Judaea omnis victa Cilicia et Sÿria in potestatem redacta ac tandem in Aegÿptum peruentum Sub Imperatoribus autem a Diuo Augusto nempe ad Theodosij superioris et Honorij ac Arcadij eius filiorum tempora per annos quadringentos quadraginta Cantabri Astures totaque Hispania sub iugum missa est Alpes maritimae Cocciaeque et Rhetiae Noricum Pannoniae et Moesiae Imperio accesserunt Omnis ora Danubij in Prouincias est redacta Pontus omnis et Armenia maior Mesopotamia Assÿria Arabia Aegÿptus in Imperij Romani iuna concesserunt Atque hoc modo his Principibus viris populi Romani virtute ac immortali eorū gloria hoc Augustissimū Imperium ad summū fastigium perductum fuit Cuius limites fuere ad Occidentē Oceanus à Septentrione Rhenus et Danubius ab Oriente Tigris à Meridie Atlas mons quae omnia in hac tabula ob oculos historiae candidatis ponuntur Ex Liuio Dionÿsio Plutarcho hanc genealogiam septem Regum desumpsimus atque huic tabulae in historiae Romanae studiosorum gratiam adiecimus In qua maxima linea est Regum mediocres sunt coniugum mintinae verò filiorum filiarumque Circuli duplicibus circumferentijs descripti masculos denotant simplicibus autem foeminas Diuina mens ciuitatem populi Romani egregia temperataque regione collocauit uti Orbis terrarum imperio potiretur Vitruuius lib. 8. Cum Gratia et Priuilegio EVROPE IN the diuision of the world diuers haue placed Africa in the third part some few haue made no more but Asia and Europe only and Africa they make a part of Europe saith Salustius This is that which S. Paulinus in Antonius out o the opinion of the same Salust thus writeth of Europam Asiamquè duo vel maxima terrae Membra quibus Lybiam dubiè Sallustius addit Europae admixtam postit quum tertia dici Europe and Asia vast the Earthly globe between them share Yet whether Africke should a part of this our Europe be or make a
much the more neerely vnto him Pausanias saith that in Motya a city of Sicilia there was the statue or counterfet of this our Vlysses but by Nero the Emperour it was from thence transported to Rome in Italy And thus much of this braue Captaine Qui mores hominum multorum vidit vrbes who as the Poet writeth of him saw many mens maners and knew many cities Of whom also thus speaketh Ouid Si minùs errasset notus minùs esset Vlysses If great Vlysses had not strai'd he had beene more obscure But of him I will speake no more lest peraduenture with the Grammarians I bee hit in the teeth with that of Diogenes who said that while they did search diligently to know all the crosses and euils that befell Vlysses did forget their owne And moreouer that worthy admonition of wise Seneca where he saith Quid proderit inquirere vbi Vlysses errauerit quà m ne nos semper erremus What shall it auaile vs to seeke where and which way Vlysses wandred more then to restraine vs that we do not in like maner alwaies wander as he did And now it is high time to take penne from paper As for those coines which we haue spoken of before I wish thee to repaire to Goltzius and others which haue at large and peculiarly handled that argument A description of the RED SEA now vulgarly called The INDIAN SEA MARE ERYTHRAEVM or as the Latines call it MARE RVBRVM The Red Sea which heere we offer to thy view in this Mappe for as much as we can gather out of ancient writers stretcheth it selfe from the West as Liuy writeth along by the coast of Africa or Aethiopia euen vnto India in East yea and beyond that I know not how farre as Arrianus testifieth whereupon Ptolemey Pliny and Melado call it MARE INDICVM The Indian Sea But Herodotus calleth it MARE PERSICVM The Persian Sea Which Pliny doth seeme to iustifie to be true where he saith That the Persians do dwell along by the coast of the Red Sea between the coast of Africa and the iland Taprobana Strabo that worthy Geographer he calleth it MARE MAGNVM The Great sea who moreouer doth affirme it to be a part of the Atlanticke sea and that truly A part of this sea to wit where it toucheth the coast of that Aethiopia which lieth beneath Aegypt Pliny of the countrie Azania which at this day some do thinke to bee called Xoa nameth it MARE AZANIVM Where it ioineth with the Bay of Arabia it is of Ptolemey named HIPPADIS PELAGVS now called of some Archiplago di Maldiuar Item of the same Ptolemey it is otherwise called BARBARICVS SINVS The Barbarian bay I meane in that place where it beateth vpon Aethiopia and the iland Menuthesia now of the seamen generally called The iland of Saint Laurence but of that country people Madagascar and of Theuet Albagra There are two Baies or Gulfes as the Italians and Spaniards terme them of this sea much talked of in all ancient histories to wit SINVS PERSICVS The Persian Bay and SINVS ARABICVS The Arabian Bay which some not well read in old writers do for the most part call Mare Rubrum The Red Sea Very improperly being indeed but a part of that sea properly called the Red sea which we haue hitherto spoken of But why it was of the Greekes named Erythraeum and of the Latines Rubrum Red it is a great question amongst the learned not yet decided Some there are which do deeme it to haue beene called The Red Sea of the colour of the water but this of all late writers trauellers seamen and other eie-witnesses of good credit which haue in this our age euery day do saile through this Sea haue diligently viewed the same is improued and found to be altogether false Moreouer Qu. Curtius amongst the ancients doth plainly testifie that it differeth no whit in colour from other seas Some there are as Pliny writeth which do thinke that by reason of the reuerberation of the Sunne beames it seemeth to cast vp such a like colour to the sight of the beholders Others doe thinke that this is caused by reason of the colour of the sand or earth in the bottom of the same others do affirm it to be the very nature of the water Some do write that it was so named of king Erythrus Perseus sonne whose tombe as Quintus Curtius writeth did in his time remaine in a certaine iland of this sea not farre distant from the maine land Strabo calleth this iland Tyrina Pliny and Pomponius Mela Ogyris Arrianus Oaracta or else of a certaine Persian named Erythras as the forenamed Strabo giueth out Who as Pliny with him testifieth in a small barke or barge first sailed through this sea and discouered the same Which story also is at large handled by Agatarchides Yet our authour calleth him Hippalus who first found out the course to saile through the middest of this sea Pliny by that name calleth the wind by which they make their iourneis through this sea So called as is very probable of the inuentour Which wind the same authour in the thirteenth chapter of his 6. booke maketh the same that Fauonius is vnto the Latines Mela Agatarchides do call it a tempestuous stormy rough and deepe sea Pliny Philostratus Elianus Athenaeus do giue it the title of Margaritiferum the pearle-bearing sea And the same Pliny maketh it Arboriferum a tree-bearing sea For he writeth in the fiue and twentieth chapter of his thirteenth booke that it is full of groues and tall woods the toppes of whose high trees he affirmeth are seene much aboue the waters and therfore at high tide they vse to fasten their shippes vnto the toppes and at the ebbe vnto the roots of the same Item the same authour in the two and twentieth chapter of the sixth booke of his Naturall historie writeth that about Colaicum which also is called Colchi or as Solinus affirmeth about Tapobrana an iland not farre hence the sea is of a very greenish colour and so full of trees that their toppe boughes are barked and brushed with the rudders or sterne of those ships that saile this way Moreouer that trees do grow in this sea Megasthenes out of Antigonus de Mirabilibus doth affirme which Plutarch in his Naturall questions and againe in his booke de facie Lunae doth auouch to be true where he doth particularly nominate some of them to wit Oliue-trees Bay-trees and Plocamus which otherwise they call Isidis Capillus This also Strabo in the sixth booke of his Geography iustifieth to be true so doth the forenamed Pliny who teacheth vs that it is a plant much like to corall without leaues Agatarchides saith that it resembleth much the blacke rush Athenaeus out of Philonides the Physician writeth that the vine was first brought from the Redde-sea and planted in Greece In the eigth chapter of the fourth booke of Theophrastus his history of plants you may reade of diuerse
Britans Solinus calleth it a mercilesse and warlike nation Strabo writeth that they are great eaters Diodorus Siculus saith they did vse to eat mans flesh and Solinus he addeth that those which are conquerers in warre vse first to drinke the bloud of those which are slaine and then with the same to besmere their face Yea they do account it as Strabo writeth for a commendable thing to eat the bodies of their parents when they be dead and to lie men and women with one another openly not regarding who stand and looke on and that not only with other women but also euen with their mothers and owne sisters accounting this for an indifferent thing neither good nor bad as Iulius Solinus Polyhistor writeth Moreouer he affirmeth that if a great bellied woman shal be brought to bed of a sonne she causeth the first meat which he eateth to be laid vpon his fathers sword and so vpon the point of the sword she gently putteth it into the infants mouth and with certaine heathenish vowes and praiers she wisheth that he may neuer die but in the warres or vpon his enemies sword They which would be more finer and gallant than others do set out the handles and pommels of their swords with the teeth of certain sea-fish for they are as white as any iuory and the chief delight of the men is in the brauery of their weapons Eusebius in his Chronicle saith that in this Iland Galba caused himselfe to be proclaimed Emperour but it is a fault of the writer who for Hiberia wrote Hibernia for that this was done in Spaine Thus farre of these two greater Ilands which were properly called Britannicae now let vs go on with those which are lesser and do lie about the coast of these Of the ORKNEY ILES WEST ILES MAN c. THe ORKNEY ILES Orcades lying vpon the North of Scotland are as Ptolemey and Pomponius Mela doe account them in number 30. although Pliny and Martianus maketh them to be two Iornandes 33. S. Isidore very falsly 83. and Solinus as farre short reckoneth but 3 only peraduenture for tres three we should read triginta thirty M. Camden thinketh them to haue been so named of their situation ouer against Cath-nesse that is the promontory foreland or cape of the Cathini not Careni as the vulgar copies of Ptolemey haue a nation that possessed this part of Britaine in the time of the Romans for thus he found it written and interpreted in an ancient manuscript Argath against Cath the copy hath supra Getas aboue the Gothes falsly for they had not till many yeares after this seated themselues in any part of this I le but peraduenture by the Getae he vnderstood Cath or the Cathini of Ptolemey Of these as many men report diuers are desert and vnmanured others are habitable and fertile In Solinus time they were not inhabited no man dwelt in them for they had no wood nor grasse but were all ouergrowen with rushes segges and such like the rest he saith are nothing but bare rockes and heaps of sand yet now they are reasonably populous and doe yearely yeeld great store of Barly mary they are wholy void of wood and altogether vnprofitable for Wheat They lie all close together not farre one from another as Pliny and Solinus iointly affirme The same Solinus as some learned men thinke nameth POMONA for one of the Orkeny iles and calleth it Pomona diutina Long-daied Pomona by reason of the great length of the day in this climat In regard that it is farre greater than any of the rest it is now vulgarly called MAIN-LAND This is the principall and chiefe of them all and hath in it in the towne Kirkwale a Bishops sea and two castles for defence of the same It yeeldeth yeerely some quantity of Tinne and Lead Amongst these also Ptolemey nameth OCETIS and DVMNA that we take to be now called Hethy this Hey But that iland which Pliny nameth Dumna seemeth to be that which at this day they call Faire I le hauing but one towne and that called Dumo Eutropis and Orosius haue deliuered that Augustus the Emperour first annexed these ilands vnto the Empire yet Tacitus saith that they were first descried and subdued by Iulius Agricola Beyond the Orkney iles aboue Britaine fiue daies saile Northward whereabout the old expositour of Horace placeth the Fortunate Iles doth lie as Solinus writeth the iland THVLE so famous and much spoken of in all ancient writers but where it should now be or what the world hath long doubted Some take it to be Island but that cannot be for many weighty reasons as diuers learned men haue proued Synesius doubleth whether there were any such place or not and our Gyraldus plainly saith that if euer it were yet now it is no where in the world to be found Some doe thinke it to be Shetland or as some call it Hetland a greatter Iland beset with many other smaller subiect to the crowne of Scotland and this their opinion they confirme by many arguments First Gaspar Peucerus an authour of good credit affirmeth that the Seamen do commonly call this iland Thylensell Secondarily they are situate midway betweene Norway and Scotland where Saxo Grammaticus placeth Thule Thirdly these ilands are directly opposite to Bergen Bergae not Belgae as it is falsly and corruptly written and indeed heereabout Pliny his Bergos was seated and heere Mela saith Thule did stand Againe Solinus writeth that from Cath-nesse to Thule it is but two daies saile obserue the proportion of distances from the Orkney to the West iles he maketh it 7. daies saile from Orkney to Thule 5 and from Cath-nesse thither but 2. Lastly which were sufficient of it selfe alone Ptolemey placeth Thule vnder the 63. degree of latitude which is precisely the eleuation of the North pole at Shetland Thus farre of Thule or Shetland which was not indeed ordinarily of the ancients accounted amongst the British yet we now know it to be one of that number subiect to the crown of Brittain The WESTERN ILES called of Ptolemey Solinus Stephanus and Pliny Ebudae Aebudae or Hebudes of the latter writers Hebrides of Ethicus Beteoricae are as Solinus writeth 7 daies saile from the Orchades Pliny saith there be in number 30. yet vulgarly they are esteemed to be 44. and a Scottish gentleman who trauelled them al ouer as he affirmeth reckoneth vp by their seuerall names as far as I remember aboue 200. Solinus Stephanus and Ptolemey do name but these 5. neither do they mention any more RICINA or Ricnea as Pliny writeth it Antonius nameth Raduna now they call it Racline EPIDIVM now Ila a large iland a fertile champion soile MALEOS now Mula as also in Plinies time as it seemeth EAST EBVDA now Skie lying close to the coast of Scotland WEST EBVDA Lewes the greatest of them al but ful of stones craggie steep mountaines and little inhabited Moreouer in Iona which Beda nameth Hy lying between Ila and
the maine land was a monastery erected by S Columba where diuers of the kings of Scotland haue been buried beside the bishops sea in the village Sodore in whose diocesses all the rest were and therefore were of it called Insulae Sodorenses All the other beside Hirth are of small account as being nothing but rocks stones and craggie knols in which you shall scarce all the yere long finde a greene turffe The people in maners behauiour apparell and language do much resemble the Irish as those in the Orkney doe the Goths and Norweyans More of these see in Solinus and M. Camdens Britannia to whom we are beholding for this The I LE of MAN which Pliny calleth Monabia Orosius and Bede Menauia Gildas Eubonia the Welch Menaw they themselues Maning Caesar Mona and Ptolemey Monoëda that is as who say Mon-eitha Mon the father for a distinction from Anglesey which is also called Mon is midway between England and Ireland as Caesar in his fifth booke of the warres of France and Gyraldus Cambrensis report yet the people are more like in language and maners vnto the Irish men It is in length from South to North about 30. miles in breadth in some places it is 15. in other places where it is narrowest not aboue 7 or 8 miles ouer In Bedaes time it had but 300. families or housholds now it conteineth 17. parishes very populous and well inhabited It beareth great plenty of Hempe and Flax. The soile is reasonably fertile either for Corne or Grasse and therefore it yeerely yeeldeth both great plenty of Barly Wheat and Rie but especially of Oats whereof they for the most part make their bread maintaineth great store of cattel and many flocks of sheepe but that aswell the one as the other are lesse than they be in England They burne Seacole insteed of wood of which they haue none or very little Vpon the South coast lieth a small ile which they call The calfe of Man where there is such wonderfull plenty of sea fowles which they call Puffins and of those geese which we call Bernacles Clakes or Soland geese as none which haue not seene them will easily beleeue Thus farre of Mona described by Caesar the other Mona which Tacitus and Dion do speake of now followeth That which we now call ANGLESEY that is The English I le Tacitus and Dion as I said called Mona the Welchmen Mon Tir-mon Inis Dowyl that is The darke ile the Saxons Monege a very goodly and fruitfull iland the ancient seat of the Druides was brought in subiection vnder the Romane Empire by Paullinus Suetonius and Iulius Agricola about 46. yeeres after the birth of Christ It is very neere the coast of Britaine as Dion saith yea so neere that from the main by swimming ouer the flattes and shallow places Iulius Agricola as Tacitus witnesseth conueied in thither both horsemen and footmen to suppresse certaine rebels that held it against the Romans But of this iland there is in this our Theater a whole discourse written by Humfrey Lloyd a learned gentleman painfull student in the British stories Vpon the coast of Wales also lieth BERDSEY that is The birds Ile called of the Britans Enhly of Ptolemey Edry of Pliny Andros or Adros a plaine and champion country toward the West but in the East very hillie and mountainous Then GRESHOLME and STOCHOLME excellent pastorage passing pleasant by reason of the sweet smell of the wild Tyme which heere groweth euery where in great abundance Next to these is SCALMEY as fertile as any called of Pliny Silimnus of Ptolemey Limi and in the catalogue of Martyrs Lemeneia Insula In the mouth of Seuern lie the Holmes or as the Welchmen call them the Echni FLATHOLME and STEEPHOLME Reoric in Welch Item BARREY SILEY CALDEY and LONDEY small Ilands but very fertile Thirty or forty miles off West from the Cape of Cornewall which the seamen commonly call The lands end lie the SORLINGS or the SYLLY called by Sulpitius Seuerus Sillinae of Antonine Sigdeles of Solinus Silurae or Silurum Insulae the Grecians of their situation named them Hesperides the West iles and of their rich commoditie of Tinne Cassiteros which they yeeld Cassiterides the Stanneries but why Festus Auianus should name them Ostrimnides I know not They are in all 145. beside craggie rockes which are innumerable There are 10. of them which also Eustathius doth testifie S. Mary Annoth Agnes Sampson Silly Brefer Rusco or Triscraw S. Hellen S. Martine and Arthur with Minanwitham and Minuisisand greater and more famous then the rest for their rich veines of Tinne from whence as Pliny saith Medacritus first brought Lead or Tinne into Greece Many of them are good corne ground all of them infinite store of Conies Cranes Swannes Herons and other Sea-fowle These are those ilands as Solinus writeth which a tempestuous frith of two or three houres saile ouer doth part from the outmost end of Cornwall Danmoniorum ora whose inhabitants doe still obserue the ancient customes they keepe no faires or markets they care not for mony they giue and receiue such as one another haue neede of they rather regard more to get necessary things for exchange than those of high price and great valew they are very deuout in their religious seruices to their Gods and both women and men in like manner do hold themselues to be very skilfull in foretelling of things to come Vpon the coast of France ouer against Normandy are GERSEY Caesarea Antoninus calleth it a fertile soile good corne ground and reasonable pastorage it hath 12. parishes wel inhabited and very populous Item GARNSEY SERKE ALDERNEY ARME the QVASQVETS and others which although the ancients did neuer reckon amongst the number of the Brittish iles yet we know that they are now subiect to the crowne of England and euer haue beene since the yere of our Lord 1108. at what time they were by Henry the first annexed to this kingdome They are all in the diocesse and iurisdiction of the Bishop of Winchester Close to the shore of England is the I le of WIGHT Ptolemey calleth it Wictesis Pliny Suetonius Vectis the Panegyricus Eutropius Vecta Diodorus Icta all deriued from the Brittish word Guith which signifieth a deuision or separation for that it was once ioined as then they vulgarly held vnto the maine land like as Sicilia was to Italy It is 20. miles long 12. miles broad Vespasian first brought it vnder the obedience of the Romans in the raigne of the emperor Claudius as Suetonius writeth in the fourth chapter of his Vespasianus yet Eutropius affirmeth it to be done by Maximianus the emperor It is by the sea which entreth vp high within the land diuided into two prouinces Fresh-water ile and Binbridge I le In Bedaes time it conteined but 1200. families now it hath 36. parishes villages castles which do belong all to Hantshire and are of the diocesse Winchester The soile is