little more to be said 4. Terra Nova or New-found land the third part of this Northerly Province of America is a great Island lying on the South of Corterialis from which it is divided by a Frith or narrow Sea which the French call Golf de Chastieux This place is chiefly frequented for fishing of which there is such plenty all along the Coasts of this Island and likewise of Terra Corterialis adjoyning to it that the huge Shoales of Cod-fish doe sometimes stay their Ships under sail besides great store of other fish both of salt water and fresh as namely Herrings Salmons Thornback Smelts excellent Oysters and Muscles that are said to have a kinde of Pearl in them but of what quality or value doth not so well appear The Land within is likewise reported to be a very good Countrie plentifully stored with Deer and other sorts of Venison Phesants Partridges Swans with variety of other good Fowl lastly of a temperate Aire and Soile not barren only the people of it are said to be few and to inhabit chiefly the Western and North-west parts of it But this perhaps may be rather out of fear and to avoid the conversation of Strangers which at first they would not endure but fled at the sight of them being themselves altogether Savage and wilde But since 't is said they grow more tractable and will be hired in time of yeer by the Portugheses and other Nations that fish commonly for Whales in the Bay of St. Laurence and other places thereabouts to help them in the opening of their Whales boyling the fish and drawing out the Oyle wherein they that will be got to it are extremely diligent and ready to take pains They are commonly of but mean stature full eyed somewhat broad-faced and for the most part beardless Their houses are only certain long Poles set an end sloping upwards towards the top where they are fastened together and covered downwards with the skins of Beasts having in the mid'st their hearth or place to make fire upon But that which is most remarkable about this Island is the many and fair Havens which it affordeth on all sides for shipping in which respect it is though for the bigness scarsely to be paralleld by any other Island or Place in the World not indeed beautified with any great Towns or stately buildings as some are but affording commodious and secure station for the tallest ships that come before it the chief whereof are these 1. La Roigneuse or Rennosa as it is called six leagues Northward of the Cape Raye which lyeth at the South-East angle of the Island a place much resorted unto for fishing from all parts 2. Portus formosus or the fair Haven three miles Northward of the other capable of great ships and bearing at least four or five miles within Land or more 3. Thornbay called otherwise by the Portugheses Enseada grande or the great Bay for distinction sake 4. Trinity Bay on the North of the Cape St. Francis called by the Spaniards Baia de la conception This is likewise a very large and capacious Bay five miles over where it is narrowest having diverse great Rivers falling into it and some little Islands lying scatteringly up and down in it yet safe and affording very good Anchorage and riding for ships in most parts 5. Bay Blanche as the French call it or White-Bay on the North of the Cape or Promontory of St. John On the South side of the Island and Westward of Cape Raye there is 1. Port Trespasse an excellent and secure Harbour having alwaies a reasonable deep Sea without shallows or Rocks 2. Port St. Marie six leagues distant from it 3. Port Presenza by others called Placenza on the other side of Cape St. Marie towards the West 4. Port du Basques or the Biscayners Haven and lastly on the West side of the Island after you have doubled Cape Raye there is at Georges Bay all of them secure stations large and of great resort 5. Before this Island right over against Cape Ray at a distance of twenty four leagues or more there lyeth an huge Bank or ridge of Land extending it self in length out of the Sea some hundred of leagues if my Author mistake not but in bredth not above four or five and twenty when it is broadest and in other parts much less sharpning towards each end into a Conus or narrow point It is counted one of the Marveils of the Sea which round about it at some distance is very deep and hardly to be sounded especially betwixt the Bank for so they commonly call it and Cape Ray but drawing neerer it grows by degrees more and more shallow insomuch that nigh the Land there is not much more water than is necessary for the ships riding It runneth out in length as was said from North to South from fourty one degrees of latitude to fiftie two and round about it there lye scattered a multitude of lesser Islands which Sir Sebastian Cabot when he first discovered the place called by one common name Los Baccaleos or the Islands of Cod-fish from the great quantity of that sort of fish hee there found which was such that they hindred the passage of his ships and lay in such multitudes upon the Coasts that the very Bears would come and catch them in their claws and draw them to Land This place I say with the rest was first discovered by Sir Sebastian Cabot upon the English account howbeit the matter happened to be lay'd aside upon the aforesaid occasions till in King Henery the eight his time it was revived again by Thorn and Eliot two Merchants of Bristoll but without success after which the Portugheses French and other Nations resort to it and change the names which the first discoverers had given to the Bayes and Capes thereabouts But the English not relinquishing their pretensions of primier discovery and seisin about the yeer 1583 Sir Humfry Gilbert took possession of it again in the name of Queen Elizabeth and prohibited all Nations the liberty of fishing there without the Queen of Englands leave But he being unhappily wracked in his coming home the business was again discontinued for a time viz. till the year 1608 when it was undertaken a new by John Guy another Merchant of Bristoll and with so good success that the Colony in a short time were well furnished with Wheat Rye Barley and other grain of their own sowing with Turnips Coleworts and aboundance of other necessary things not without some probable hopes of Metals a certain and plentifull trade of Sables Musk and other rich Commodities and such excellent good fishing especially for Codfish and Ling that 't is said some English-men doe ordinarily take two or three hundred of them in the space of three or four houres which from thence they conveigh as a sure and ready Merchandise into most parts of Europe CHAP. III. Of Canada and the Countries belonging to it 1 CAnada or New
generally are covered with thick Woods and wild Forests the Hill-Country for a great part naked and open the Plains in many places sandy and dry and would be much more scorched with heat then they are but for the neighbourhood of the Sea which affords them many cooling gales from the South and South-west windes whose property although it be naturally in other parts to be tempestuous to bring rain and foul weather yet here there is nothing but Serenity and fair Sun-shine dayes all the year long although these windes blow almost without ceasing upon the Country and no other at any time whereas the Sierra or Hill countrys have winde from every coast and such as bringeth all sorts of weather with it Rain Hail Frost Snow great claps of Thunder c. The Countrie affordeth not so much Cattel of the breed of Europe as some other Provinces of America but instead of these both the Woods and Pastures are replenished with great multitudes of the Vicugnes and Pacos above mentioned which are of no less profit service The Pacos here are said to be as big as some young Heifer of two yeers old bearing a fleece like Sheep and their flesh no less pleasant than the Mutton of Europe But the great wealth of this Countrie lyes out of sight in the bowels of the Earth viz. in those rich and as they may seem inexhaustible Mines both of gold and silver which as 't is well known this Countrie of Peru affordeth more than any other Province of America beside The People are said to be at least exteriorly of greater simplicity than some other Americans both in point of behavior and judgement yet of good courage in the warrs and fearless of death They are noted also to be dissemblers and not alwaies to declare their mindes truly and plainly and which is worse than all to have bin given over to that foul sin of Sodomy in so much that their Women were generally found to be of small esteem with them to be used no better than slaves and most cruelly beaten by them upon every light occasion For both which their unnatural filthiness and inhumaninity if it pleased the Divine Justice to deliver them into the hands of those who used them likewise cruelly who can deny but that the Judgements of God were just and that they received such recompence for their works as the Apostle saith Rom. 1.13 was meet The Countrie is generally divided into three Juridicall Resorts as they call them or Courts of Appeal which are Quito Lima and Charcas but the particular Provinces as they are commonly observed by Geographers said to be six viz. 1. Quito 2. Los Quixos 3. Lima. 4. Cusco 5. Charcas And 6. Collao 3. Quito is the first Province of Peru towards the North or the new Kingdome of Granada with which on that side it is bounded having on the West Mare del Zur on the South Lima and on the East Los Quixos It lyeth in a manner right under the Line the Soil reasonably fertill and well stored with Cattel especially with the Pacos or Peruvian Sheep having plenty also of Fish and Fowl good store of Cotton-woll in which the People of the Countrie are especially industrious make a Cloath or Stuff thereof equall almost to silk for fineness Much Tobacco Guaiacum Sarzaparilla and other medicinall Plants The chief Towns are 1. Caranguez anciently a Royall Citie where stood a sumptuous and stately Palace of the Kings of Peru now almost deserted 2. Ottavallu another place of the same dignitie and the same condition at present with Carangues 3. Quito commonly called S. Francisco de Quito It is a Citie built by the Spaniards at the foot of a certain ridg of Mountains which it hath on the North and North-West side of it and are said by Laet to cross the whole Countrie of Peru quite over from the South to the North Sea It is inhabited by five hundred Families of Spaniards at least beside Natives and well fortified and might be thought a town very well seated in all respects but for the neighbourhood of a Vulcan which at times annoyeth it very much as namely in the year 1560 when it vomited out such aboundance of flaming cinders and other sulphurous matter as had it not been for a showre of rain unexpectedly falling would have much damnified if not destroyed the place 4. Tacunga fifteen leagues distant from Cusco 5. Rhiobamba fourty leagues distant from that 6. Thomebamba 7. Cuenza threescore and four leagues from Quito on another roade but environned on all sides with Mines both of gold and silver brass iron and likewise some veins of sulphur 8. Loxa sixteen leagues Southward of Cuenza and seated pleasantly betwixt two Rivers in the midst of the rich Valley or Plain called Guixibamba 9. Zamorra twently leagues Eastward of Loxa These are all Towns inhabited by Spaniards and lye more within land Towards the Sea and upon the Sea coasts there is first Puerto Vieio so called because it was the first Town the Spaniards possessed on this Continent a place of no very good Aire and therefore not much frequented 2. Mantu another Sea Town and of good resort by reason of the Trade which is here chiefly driven betwixt Panama and Peru. 3. Guaiaquil or St. Jago de Guaiaquil a famous and well frequented Empory seated upon an arme of the Sea not far from the mouth of the said River Guaiaquil 4. Castro a Colonie of Spaniards towards that part of this Province which some call Provincia de las Esmauldas or the Land of Emralds 5. St. Michaels the first Colonie which the Spaniards built in this Countrie called by the Natives Piura 6. Payta a small Town yet neighboured by a safe and well frequented Haven guarded against the windes by the point St. Helena on the North and on the South with Punta Piura yet burnt by Captain Cavendish in the year 1587 and the rich Island Puna neer adjoyning ransacked and pillaged 4. Los Quixos lyeth South and to the South-East of Quito being bordered more directly Eastward with a part of the Province of Guiana called by some El dorada or the golden Countrie on the South it hath Lima and Cusco Of the Countrie it self there is not my thing observed that may seem peculiar The chief Towns are 1. Baeza built in the year 1559 by Ramirez de Avila eighteen leagues from Cusco 2. Archidona twenty leagues to the South-East of Baeza 3. Avila 4. Sevilla del Oro. All of them Colonies of Spaniards Then is there in the Sierra or hilly part of the Countrie more towards the Andes 1. Valladolidt 2. Loyola 3. St. Jago de las Montannas all Colonies likewise that you may know the Countrie hath something in it worth the looking after 5. Lima called also Los Reyes hath on the East Collao and some part of Cusco on the North Los Quixos on the West Mare del Zur and on the South Charcas The Countrie extendeth it self in length upon
lost by which disaster being forced again to turn homeward how long he lived or what expeditions he made after this it doth not appear 7. I ought not altogether to forget Sir Sebastian Cabot a Venetian Gentleman yet born and living in England who likewise about this time viz. in the year 1496 at the charge of Henry the seventh King of England set out with two Carvels for the discovery of a North-west passage to Cathay and the East-Indies according to the design which Columbus had first suggested to him In pursuit whereof he is reported to have sailed to 67 degrees of Northern latitude upon the coast of America but finding the Land still to bear Eastward which was contrarie to his purpose he turned sail and coasted down Southward as farre as Florida where with the usual ceremonies he took possession of several places in the name of the King of England as we shall further see in the particular description of the Continent In the way he discovered the Islands Baccaleos or of Cod-fish so named from the great aboundance of that kinde of Fish which they met withall upon the coasts They lie 25 leagues into the Sea over against Cape Raye of New-found land where the English have an extraordinary good Trade for Fishing and also many other rich Commodities But being forced at length to return home again for want of Victuals his business by reason of Warres which we had then with Scotland was wholly laid aside to the great prejudice of the English Nation who in all probability might have made themselves quarter-Masters at least with the Spaniard in the wealthiest parts and Provinces of America if the business had been well followed Sir Sebastian himself went immediatly thereupon into Spain and though he returned again into England and was graced by the King with some titulary dignity viz. of Grand Pilot of England and a pension yet seeing his design was never revived to effect I shall forbear to speak further of him as likewise I shall doe concerning Ferdinand Magellan a Portughese whose name although it be deservedly famous in the History and affairs of the new World and that he had the happiness to discover what so many before him had sought but could not finde namely a passage to the East-Indies by the South Sea and the coast of America called therefore from him ever since Megellans Streits yet because his business chiefly was to discover and not to conquer and that his design upon the Continent failed which was to have planted a Colonie of Spaniards in the middle and narrowest part of the Streits thereby to have secured the Streits to himselfe and prohibited the passage to all Strangers it may suffice to remember him in some other place that is in the description of that part of the Continent which lyeth upon those Streits CHAP. III. Of the Voyage to America or the ordinary course of Navigation which the Spaniards commonly hold to and from the West-Indies 1. THe English Nation have long since bin acquainted with the waies to the West-Indies reasonably well as appears by the many brave exploits gallantly attempted and no less stoutly and successfully performed by them in those parts both at Sea and Land some of which I shall not altogether forget to mention in due place So that this Chapter may seem not so necessarie Nevertheless for the satisfaction of those who are never likely to see America otherwise then in a Map nor to understand the affairs of that rich part of the World but by such reports and relations as this I think it not altogether inconvenient to speak a few words of the particular voyage or course held by Sea to and from America called by the Spaniards commonly Carrera de las Indias 2. Their course is wholly Westward and they reckon commonly from Sevill in Andaluzia which is a Province of old Spain to St. John D' vllua a famous and much frequented Port of the Province of New-Spain in America about 1700 leagues after the Spanish measure which is thrice so much of Italian or common miles and with favorable windes they doe ordinarily dispatch it in two moneths and an half To Nombre be bios or Porto-bello in the Island of Hispaniola they reckon 1400 leagues and doe usually make their voyage in two moneths They set out commonly from St. Lucar which is the Port as it were to Sevill or else from Palos a Sea Town in the same Province with Sevill not many miles distant from St. Lucar Westward and hold their course directly for the Canaries which are certain Islands towards the coasts of Africk under the dominion of the King of Spain well known for the rich Wines yearly transported thence They lye about 200 leagues distant from Spain and the Ships arrive at them commonly in eight or ten daies if nothing hinder making their course through the Bay or Gulf De las yeguas as they call it from the aboundance of Mares which they were transporting into America and were forced thereabouts by a storm to cast over board It is counted the most difficult passage betwixt Spain and the West-Indies especially in the Winter-time being then for the most part dangerously infested with violent and contrary windes At these Islands the Spaniards ordinarily victuall and supply themselves with necessaries the Countrie being rich and affording all things requisite for their journey plentifully especially that called Palma where they use most commonly to touch and furnish themselves From hence they set sail for America by the Islands of Cape Verde which lye in the Atlantick Ocean a few degrees within the Tropiques toward the coast of Africk And hither for the most part they have an easie and certain course seldom wanting some favorable winde or other to bring them within the Tropiques or Torrid Zone as 't is commonly called and being there they have constant windes forward which they call The Brises or Levant-windes These are certain Easterly windes which continually blow within the Tropiques on both sides of the Equator never failing and in the space of fourteen or fifteen daies doe carry the Ships within sight of the Northern Islands as they at the West-Indies call them which are as it were the Suburbs of the New World lying thick scattered upon the coast of America in the Atlantick or North Sea 3. The first which they commonly discover are some of the Caribee Ilands lying toward the coast of Paria viz. Desseada Dominica Guadalupe at which last they alwaies come to Anchor and refresh themselves both going and coming and from hence disperse themselves to the several parts and Ports of America for which they are bound Those that goe for New-Spain take the right hand way towards the Island Hispaniola and having discovered the Cape St. Anthony which is a foreland or Promontorie in the furthest and most Westerly parts of Cuba they sail in sight of the Islands both of St. John de Portrico and also of
Temperature and Disposition of the Aire there the quality of the Soile and Nature of its several Climates 1. THe Spaniards and other Nations have not altogether the same sense concerning the situation or extent of the West-Indies Commonly they are taken to signifie that part of the World lately discovered which lyeth Westward of the Worlds general and fixed Meridian which according to the common opinion runneth through the Azores or Tercerae Islands from one Pole to another thereby dividing the Globe of the Earth into two equall parts or Hemispheres The Spaniards looking to the pretended Donation or Grant made by Pope Alexander the sixth to the Kings of Castile and Leon of whatsoever Lands or Islands discovered or that should be discovered by them sailing Westward of the Azores whether upon the coast of India or elsewhere doe not seldom comprehend under the notion of the West Indies and the New World the Moluccae and Philippine Islands with some other places in the Indian Sea though they lie cleerly in the Eastern Hemisphere which because it seems not so properly done and doth otherwise beget obscuritie in the Authors that treat of this subject I thought it not amiss to give this Item of it here According therefore to the most ordinarie and general acception of the word America or the West-Indies is that part of the World lately discovered which lyeth Westward of the Azores and the Worlds Meridian and possesseth either in Sea or Land the greatest part of that Hemisphere viz. the Western Hemisphere of the World the Land it self viz. of America being bounded Eastward and and South-East with the Atlantick Ocean and Westward and to the South-west with Mare del Zur the Northern borders of it being not yet known A Countrie of so vast an extent that some have equalled it to all the other three parts of the World Europe Asia and Africa together to whom I can hardly assent yet doe readily acknowledge it to be much larger than any one yea perhaps than any two of the other parts could they be exactly compared It lyeth for the most part North and South not directly but somewhat inclining in the Southern part of it Eastward and in the Northern part Westward being in length as 't is commonly supposed from Terra Magellanica in the South to Estetiland and the further parts of Quivira in the North above a thousand nine hundred and seaventy seaven Spanish leagues which according to English or common measure is more than six thousand miles reaching from 60. degrees of Northern latitude for so farr it hath been discovered already by Land unto 53 degrees of Southern The breadth of it viz. from St. Michael otherwise called Piura in the Province of Quito upon the South Sea to the Prefecture and Town of Parayba on the Coast of Brasil where it is thought to be broadest is reckoned to be 1300. leagues and in the whole compass to contain little less than ten thousand leagues or thirty thousand common English miles 2. The whole Countrie lyeth in the form of two Peninsula's or large demy-Islands joyned together by an Ihstmus or neck of Land called the Streit of Darien of about an hundred miles in length but in breadth viz. from one Sea to another in many places especially about Panama and Nombre de Dios not above seventeen and eighteen miles over They that resemble the Country to the form of a Pyramis reversed I suppose would be understood onely of the Southern or Peruvian part as 't is called neither is it so easie to conceive where they lay the Basis of it if from the Coast of Peru Westward to the uttermost point of Brasil towards the East as by the form of the Maps 't is most probable they doe the spire or top of their Pyramis will have somewhat an obtuse or blunt point in as much as the Countrie of Magellanica which lyeth upon the Streits and maketh the point of the Pyramis is by confession some hundred of leagues over from East to West or from the Atlantick to the South Sea the Streits themselves running a course of one hundred and ninety leagues all along the Coast of it and consequently must be of a far greater bredth than the Streit of Darien where 't is evident the Land of America or rather of Peru contracts it self into a much sharper point or Pyramis viz. betwixt Panama and Nombre de Dios as hath been said To me taking the whole Country or both Peninsulas together America seems rather to resemble some rich Usurers bagge tyed fast in the mid'st the one end whereof is rich and well stuff'd with Crowns the other empty and loose So seems America The Southern part thereof containing the golden Countries of Peru New-Granada Castella aurea Chile and the rest like the full bottome of the bagge swells and spreads it self with a large circumference and border both East and West the Northern part especially beyond New Spain and the Streit of Darien which is as it were the hand upon the Purse and that part by which the Catholike King both holds and commands all the rest as the Provinces thereof seem to lye more scattered one from another and not so compacted together as consisting much of Islands and the Continent it self frequently divided with Bays and Inlets of the Sea so in comparison of the Southern Provinces it affords but little of those precious Commodities for which America's acquaintance is so much desired by other Nations and with equall care policie and good success hitherto forbidden by the Spaniards 3. It is a question among Cosmographers too great for me to determine whether America be really Continent or Island that is whether the Northern Borders of it be joyned to any part of Asia or divided from it by some narrow Sea or Frith as it is to the Southward from those as yet undiscovered Southern Lands which lie on the other side of Magellan's Streits It seems to be the more common Opinion at least amongst Englishmen that it is an Island though a huge one wholly surrounded by the Sea and divided from Asia by a certain Frith or narrow Sea which they call the Streits of Anian from a Province of the Asiatique Tartarie which beareth that name and is supposed to border upon those Streits Nor doe there want some presumptions of probability for it as for example a report of Pliny out of Cornelius Nepos an ancient and credible Author of certain Indians that were driven by storm upon the Coasts of Suevia or Suaben in Germany in their Canoa's or little Boats in which it had been impossible for them to have come thither by any other passage than by the North parts of America Impossible I say to have come any other way and not to have touched first at some other Lands or Islands by the way viz. upon the Coasts of Barbary Spain Portugall the Azores or Canarie Islands by reason that a ship or any thing else floating at Sea when it is
same place good plenty of them again in a short time The End of the first Part. AMERICA ¶ The second Part. Containing The Topographicall description of the several Provinces both of the Northern and Southern part With some other Observations incident thereunto By N. N. Printed by R. Hodgkinsonne for E. Dod. CHAP. I. Of the generall division of the New World into Continent and Islands and of the two parts of the Continent viz. the Northern and the Southern 1. AMerica or the New World as we have said before is it self most generally thought to be but an Island though a very huge one and to be surrounded on all parts by the Sea not only on the East West and South as is already found by experience but also towards the North where it is likewise supposed to be divided from the Continent of Asia by the Sea running between Nevertheless for distinction sake and by reason it is of such a vast extent as that it equalleth and far exceedeth any other part of the World how great soever that is counted or called Continent it seems not amiss to express the whole under this division viz. of Continent and Islands understanding by the first viz. Continent only the main Land or more principall Provinces of America which lye united together and extend themselves in one continued tract from the Northern to the Southern borders and by the latter the Islands which lye about the main Land and though some of them at a good distance from it yet as well by reason of situation as for that they were discovered and conquered at the same time with the other are generally taken and reckoned for part of the New World That which we call the Continent of America is divided generally into two parts which are two great Peninsulas or â—emy-Islands environed on all parts by the Sea save onely in the midst where they are joyned together by a certain Isthmus or neck of Land which they call the Streit of Darien lying almost under the Equinoctial Line in some few degrees of Northern latitude which runneth in length from the district of Panama as they call it and Nombre de Dios to the Southward about an hundred miles or more but in bredth from East to West or from the North to the South Sea is nothing answerable being in some places not above seventeen or eighteen miles over These two Peninsulas are generally counted the Northern and Southern parts of America so called from their situation in respect of the Equator the one of them lying wholly Northward of the Equinoctiall Line and the other at least for the greatest part of it Southward They contained anciently beside many huge and vast Provinces governed for the most part by Royteletts or certain pettie Princes in each respective Province or Territorie whom they called Casiques two great and mightie Kingdoms the one of Cusco generally called the Kingdom of Peru in the Southern part and the other of Mexico now called new Spain in the Northern of both which and likewise of the manner of the first conquering and subduing of them by the Spaniards when time was something shall be said in due place 2. The Mexican or Northern part of America containeth these several Provinces viz. 1. Estotiland 2. Canada or New France 3. Virginia 4. Florida 5. Califormia 6. New Gallicia 7. New Spain or Mexicana properly so called and lastly 8. Guatimala together with some other lesser Islands so neerly adjoyning to the Continent that they are usually reckoned for part of it by those which describe the Countrie and therefore shall be mentioned in their several places accordingly viz. as parts of the respective Provinces upon which they lye The Peruvian or Southern part containeth these which follow viz. 1. Castella del oro as the Spaniards call it or golden Castile 2. Nova Granada 3. Peru 4. Chile 5. Paraguay 6. Brasil 7. Guiana and lastly Paria or new Andalusia as some call it The Islands which lye further off from the main Land but yet reckoned commonly for part of the New World by reason they were discovered as hath been said and for the greater part conquered and subdued with it are chiefly those called 1. Los Ladrones 2. the Islands of Salomon which lye in the South Sea and in the Northern 1. the Caribee Islands 2. St. John de Port-rico 3. Hispaniola 4 Jamaica and 5. Cuba of all which in their order according to the method of the latest and as I presume the exactest Cosmographers viz. of our learned Countriman Dr. Heylyn and his Author Laet upon whom I must profess to rest very much in this part of my report especially as to the site and position of Places CHAP. II. Of Estotiland and the several Provinces which it containeth 1. THe first Province of the Continent of America towards the North is called Estotiland for what reason I must plainly confess I cannot so cleerly discover unless perhaps our Neighbours the Duch happened to have the first naming of it and that it beareth any signification of its Easterly lying in respect of the other Provinces It containeth all those Regions of the Mexican or Northern part of America which lye furthest toward the North East on which side as likewise more directly Eastward it is washed all along with the main Ocean or North-Sea having on the South Canada or new France Westward and to the North-west it is not yet fully discovered but supposed either to be joyned to some parts of Tartary or which I think is the more common conjecture to be divided from it by the Sea which some presuming it to be but a narrow Sea call the Streits of Anian from a Province or part of the Asiatique Tartary which beareth that name and lyeth upon it On the North it hath a Bay or large Inlet of the Sea which the English call Hudsons Streites from Capt. Henry Hudson an Englishman who in the yeare 1610 is said to have sailed in this Sea no less then three hundred leagues Westward in search of a passage that way to the Kingdomes of Catha and China of which we have spoken already and which was so much endeavoured in those times both by our selves and our neighbours the Duch but without success hitherto The whole Province containeth these particular Countries if I may so call them or Prefectships as some others doe viz. First Estotiland more properly so called Secondly Terra Corterialis Thirdly New-found land and Fourthly certain Islands neer adjoyning to the Continent which they call Baccaleos 2. Estotiland specially so called is the most Northerly region of all America towards the East lying betwixt the abovesaid Hudsons Sreights which it hath on the North and Terra Corterialis on the South The soil of the country is said to be reasonably good and well stored with naturall Commodities I mean such as are of necessity and may be expected in such a cold northerly quarter as Flesh fowl and good store of
lesser Islands lying together in the great Gulf or Bay of Saint Lawrence on the South-side of Natiscotec being a place much resorted to by the French for the Morsefishing in time of the year of which we have spoken something already They are so numerous upon these Coasts that a small French Bark 't is said will catch one thousand or five hundred of them in a few houres and so large fat and unctious withall that of the bellies of five or six Morses they make an Hogs-head or more of Trane-oile as good as that which they have of the Whale beside the benefit of their flesh which they say especially if it be young is as tender and sweet as Veale The skins of them they dress as we doe our Oxe-hides and they say they are twice as thick and serviceable upon any occasion 3. Brion a small Island Southward of the Rameae not above two or three leagues in length and about so much likewise in breadth but of a rich Soil and excellent good pasturage though shaded in some places with many tall and lofty trees of severall kindes having another lesser Island neighbouring upon it which they call Isle Blanche or the white Island of like fertility with it self 4. Insula Britonum or Isle Breton called also sometimes the Isle of Saint Lawrence This lyeth to the South-East of the Isle Brion of a Triangular forme containing about eighty leagues in compass mountainous for a great part of it and rugged but in the Valleys more fruitfull and pleasant having no Rivers at least not any that are much known but instead thereof embraced much with armes of the Sea and thereby not unlikly to be well stored with fish upon the Coasts of it In the midst of the Country there is a great Lake which containes within it many lesser Islands The Woods well replenished with most sorts of Deere a kinde of black Foxes and aboundance of the American Birds which they call Pengwins The chief Port or Haven of it is New-port called by the French Port aux Anglois because much frequented by the English in regard of the fishing Lastly there is the Isle de Sable so called by the French as 't is supposed from the Sands which lye so much about it containing about fifteen leagues in compass and distant from Breton-Isle not much less than twenty or thirty leagues held to be of an unsafe landing by reason of the said sands lying about it and therefore though the planting of it hath been twice attempted by the French and once by the Portugheses yet the business never had success The Inland parts of this whole country of Canada are still in the hands of the Savages or Natives and not much discovered further than to know the names of the people the chief whereof that occurre are these viz. the Iroquois a stout and warlike people on the Northeast of Norimbegua often molesting the French The Souriquois and Etechemins in the Country of Accadie or New-Scotland who are more their friends and doe help them somtimes against the Iroquois Beside on the banks and about the River of Canada there are the Algoumequins the Algoiugequins Quenongebins Attagopautans and many other Montagnets of such harsh names that we should be enforced almost to pass them over in silence though they otherwise deserv'd to be named only this we may observe in the general of the Savages of these parts of America viz. That as ignorant and barbarous as they are yet they have made shift to discover the Factions Emulations and Enmities than are amongst the European People that come thither and are able to make such advantage of it by siding some of them with the one and some with the other that they all preserve their liberty by it So that as yet the footing which either the French English or any other Nation have among them seems rather to be for the security of their own abode and trading where they live than to give them any absolute right of possession much less any general command of the Countrie CHAP. IIII. Of Virginia and the Countries thereto belonging 1. VIrginia so named by Sir Walter Rawleigh about the year 1584 in honour of our Maiden Queen Elizabeth of famous Memorie is a fair Province of this Northern part of America bounded on the North with Canada on the East with the Sea called Mare del Nort on the South with Florida the Western confines of it being not yet known but supposed and perhaps not altogether improbably to extend themselves as far as the South Sea The more inland parts of the Countrie are mountainous and somewhat barren but otherwise thick set with Woods and those as well replenished with wild Beasts Venison and a sort of People not much less wilde and savage than Beasts the Maritime parts more plain and fruitfull The whole Countrie extends it self from North to South that is to say from the Southermost parts of Norimbega to Florida full ten degrees of latitude viz. from thirty four to fourty four containing thereby inclusively six hundred common or English miles being sub-divided into three inferiour Provinces or Parts which are these viz. 1. New-England 2. Novum-Belgium or Neiw-Nederlands as our Neighbours call it And 3. Virginia properly so called to which because it is an English Plantation and a part of this Western World it shall not be amiss to add the Bermudae Islands 2. New-England is that part of this Province of America which lyeth next to Canada or New France by which it is bordered towards the North Eastward with Norimbegua on the South and South-west with Niew-Nederlande the other borders that is directly Westward remaining yet unknown The Countrie lyeth about the middle of the Temperate Zone betwixt the degrees of fourty one and fourty four being naturally of the same degree of heat with France or Italy parallel to which it lyeth in the Western Hemisphere but yet these heats so moderated and allayed by the coldness of the adjoyning Seas that the Country generally is found very agreeable to English bodies The Soil abundantly fruitfull not only of the natural Commodities of the Place but likewise of all such as are transported thither out of England Great store of Woods and Trees both for Fruit and Building plenty of Deer and of Turkies Partridges Swans Geese Cranes Ducks and Pigeons so great aboundance as serve the Inhabitants almost to excess But the Commodities whereby they chiefly maintain their Trade are rich Furres many sorts of good Fish some quantity of Amber Flax Linnen Iron Pitch Masts Cables yea and timber for Shipping In a word it is supposed by those which seem to understand the Country well That there is little coms for England by the way of the Sound but might be had from hence at easier rates and less trouble if the busines were well considered The Natives of the Countrie are said to be much better disposed more tractable docil and apt to be perswaded to civility than
they met with as namely 1. Porto de St. Clara neer to the mouth of the River which they call Rio del Nordt 2. Las Playas 3. St. Michael 4. Lago del oro which bordereth on Quivira And lastly El Rey Coronado Eastward of that 5. Califormia specially so called is by many thought and described to be but a Peninsula or half Island by reason that the Bay which divides it from Quivira and New-Gallicia towards the North runneth much narrower than it doth Southerly which made them think that somwhere or other at the North it was joyned to the main-Land of America But later discoveries have found it to be a perfect Island and altogether separate from the Continent For about the yeer 1620 some Adventurers beating upon those coasts Northward accidentally and before they were aware fell upon a Streit the waters whereof ran with such a Torrent and violent course that they brought them into Mar Vermiglio whether they would or no and before they knew it and by that means discovered that Califormia was an Island and that the waters which were observed to fall so violently into that Sea towards the North were not the waters of any River emptying it self into the Bay from the main-main-Land as was formerly thought but the waters of the North-west Sea it self violently breaking into the Bay and dividing it wholly from the Continent It lyeth North and South extending it self in a vast length full twenty degrees of latitude viz. from twenty two to fourty two but the bredth nothing answerable The most Northern point of it is called Cape Blanche that to the South Cape St. Lucas memorable for that rich and gallant prize which Captain Cavendish in the year 1587 being then in his voyage about the World took from the Spaniards neer to this place As for the Island it self it is not at all inhabited by the Spaniards whether it be that they want men to furnish new Plantations or that they finde no matter of invitation and encouragement from the Countrie or perhaps that the access thither be not so easie For 't is reported to be wonderfully well peopled by the Natives and that there were found only upon the coasts and along the shore of Mar Vermiglio twenty or twenty three Nations all of different languages The Countrie aboundantly well stored both with Fish and Fowl as appears partly by the Natives who take an huge pride in making themselves gay with the bones of the one with which they load their eares and sometimes their noses also and with the feathers of the other which ordinary People weare only sticking about their waste but great persons and such as will be fine indeed beset their heads strangely with them and have coÌ„monly one bunch of them bigger than ordinary hanging down behinde them like a tayle Having no knowledge of the true God they worship what the Devill will have them that is the Sun attributing to it only the increase of their Fruits and Plants healthfull Seasons and most of the other good they enjoy or are sensible of Their government is said to be only Oeconomicall each Father ordering the affairs of his Familie apart without subjection to any other superiour yet so well managed that they live in good peace one with another not without many good Laws and Customes viz. That they allow but one wife to one Man That they punish Adultery with death That they suffer not Maids to talk or converse with Men till they be married That Widdows may not marry till they have mourned at least one half of a year for their Husbands deceased and divers others of like nature which perhaps if the truth were known doe more properly belong to the Natives of Vtopia or New-Atlantis then to these of Califormia 6. The places therein as yet most observed are only upon the Sea Coasts viz. the Capes St. Clara and St. Lucas the one at the South-East of the Island looking towards New-Gallicia the other at the South-west looking into the Sea and towards Asia 2. St. Cruce This is a large and convenient Haven not far from Cape St. Clara. 3. Cabo de las Playas more within the Bay 4. St. Andrews another convenient Haven upon an Island of the same name 5. St. Thome an Island at the mouth of the Gulf or Bay of about twenty five leagues in compass rising Southerly with an high mountainous point under which is a convenient road for shipping and twenty five fathoms of water On the other side of the Island towards the main Sea there is first St. Abad a good Haven and almost surrounded with a pleasant and fruitfull Countrie 2. Cape Trinidado 3. Cape de Cedras 4. Puebla de las Canoas from the aboundance of those little Boats which the Americans generally use and doe call Canoes whereof perhaps some store is made there 5. Cabo de Galera and some others 7. Nova-Albion is only the more Northerly part of this Island reaching from the thirty eighth degree of latitude up towards the North as far as Cape Blanco first discovered by Sir Francis Drake in his Circumnavigation of the World in the year 1577 and by him named Nova-Albion in honour of England his own Countrie which anciently bore that name They found the Countrie exceedingly well stored with Dear grazing up and down the Hills by thousands in a company The Men generally goe naked all over the Women using only a piece of a mat or some such thing instead of an Apron Their houses built only of Turf and Osier yet so wrought together that they served very well to keep out the cold in the midst of it is their hearth where they make their fire and lye al round about it together upon several Beds of Bulrushes What their Towns are or whither they have any is not yet discovered When the English first landed in those parts under Sir Francis Drake the Natives of the Countrie immediatly presented themselves to the General bringing him fine presents of Feathers and some Kâ—lls of Net-work made of Rushes and the news of their arrivall being spread up into the Countrie it was not long before the King himself came and gave them a visit He was a person of goodly stature cloathed all over with certain Conie skins of that Countrie the furre whereof is exceeding smooth and fine and the only Robe of Nobility there He had many other tall men attending on him and one that went before him bearing somewhat instead of a Mace at which there hung three Crowns by so many chains the Crowns were made of Feathers the Chains of Bone both of them very ingeniously wrought After these followed a great multitude of the common sort of People but none of them without his present of something or other even to the very Boys The King would needs have the Crowns put upon the Generals head and the Chains about his neck to which he consented and by that Ceremonie promised in the name and behalf of the
the Coasts of the South Sea two hundred and fifty some say full three hundred leagues in length viz. from the Cape del Aguia Northward on the borders of Quito as far as Arequipa towards the South the soil reasonably fertil in all things as being much more equally divided into Hill and Plain Countrie and much better Peopled than some other Provinces The places most observable and important in it are 1. Miraflores as the Spaniards call it a well seated and wealthy Town in the Valley of Zanu five leagues distant from the Sea where it hath likewise a good Haven or Port. 2. Truxillo two or three leagues distant from the Sea the Haven whereof is said to be large but not so safe The Town it self is seated upon the banks of a pleasant River in the Valley of Chicama consisting of five hundred Families or more the Aire very healthfull and the Countrie thereabouts as fruitfull and good as any of these parts of America especially abounding in Corn Sugar-Canes and Cattel 3. La Parilla twenty leagues Southward of Truxillo in the Valley called Santa and well neighboured with rich Mines of silver lately discovered 4. Arnedo seated among the Vineyards of the Valley of Changay ten leagues from Lima northward 5. Lima by the Spaniards commonly called la Ciudad de los Reyes or the City of Kings so named because Pizarro who built it layd the first stone on Twelfth day 1553 which they call The Feast of the Kings It is seated in the Valley of Lima one of the fruitfullest parts of all Peru and so neatly built that all the chief streets of the Citie open upon a fair Market-place or Piazza of such a large square that upon the sides thereof are built in a stately and convenient manner the Cathedral Church and Palace of the Archbishop the Vice-Roys Palace and Courts of Justice with the Exchequer or publique Treasury the Town-House or place where the Citie Magistrates meet and hold their Courts the publique Armory or Magazine and divers other fair buildings of the Nobility and better sort of Citizens The whole City is environed round about with most delicate fields and pleasant gardens and scarse a Citizens house within but by the oportunity of a River which runneth by it is well supplyed with water Briefly as it is the Metropolis of Peru that is the chief and principall Citie for Authority and Dignity so is it likewise the chiefest for delight and wealth 6. Cullao this is the Haven or Port Town to Lima and but two leagues distant from it A Town of six or seven hundred Families all or most of them Sea-men and not a house in it but is well provided of Cellar-room and Stowage for Merchandise which is there received from all parts both coming from and going to the Sea It was with Lima it self surprized by Sir Francis Drake in the year 1579 and their Cellars searched as well as could be done in so short a time whereupon since it is said to be fortified with two strong Bulwarks a wall of earth and about thirty piece of Ordinance planted on the Works 7 Pachacama four leagues Southward of Lima memorable chiefly for Pizarros good fortune here who is reported to have found in one only old Temple of the Natives the quantity of nine hundred thousand Duckets of gold and silver beside what his Souldiers are supposed to have seiz'd on and conveighed away before he came 8. Guarco a Colony of three hundred Spaniards sixteen leagues to the Southward of Pachacama rounded with the best fields for Wheat in all Peru. 9. Valverde a great Town inhabited by five hundred Spaniards and though at sixteen leagues distance from the Sea yet well traded and rich The Valley wherein it lyeth and from which it taketh its name affording the best Vines of America 10. Castro-Verreina threescore leagues distant from Lima to the South East It lyeth in the Valley of Chocolocha and is a rich place by reason of the good Mines of silver which are about it and the aboundance of the best sort of Tobacco 11. Arequipa a pleasant and delightsome town in the Valley of Quilca one hundred and twenty leagues distant from Lima Southward of a temperate and fresh Aire a flourishing Soile and the Town very rich and frequented by reason that through it much of the silver of Potozi and divers other Mines thereabouts that is designed for Spain passeth yearly to be shipped for Panama at a Haven belonging to this Town though at a distance as som say of 10. or 21. leagues 12 Caxamalca more within land towards the North a place chiefly memorable for the imprisonment murder of Atabalipa the last King of Peru whom the Spaniards overthrew and took prisoner neer to this place and afterwards used as hath been said Lastly 13. Leon de Guanuco so called from the Territory wherein it standeth a rich and pleasant place being anciently a Palace of the Kings of Peru very magnificent and stately now likewise much beautified with Houses both of the Spanish and Peruvian Nobility some Convents of Religious men and a Colledge of Jesuites 6. Cusco is the farre greater part of the Province of Peru containing generally all the Sierra or Hill Countries and those parts of the Andes likewise which lye Southward of the little Province or Cantred of Guanuco being coasted Westward and to the North-west with Lima Eastward with Los Quixos and some part of Guiana and on the South with Charcas enjoying for the most part a temperate and good Aire neither over-heated with the scorching Sun in the day nor damped with any cold mists or dews in the Evening as some parts of the Plains of Peru are but well watered with many fresh Rivers which make the Valleys and lower grounds of it good pasturage and to maintain great Heards of Cattel The Woods especially stored with the Coca whose leafe is counted so restorative as we said Chap. 7. and with much excellent Venison The principall Towns and places of Trade in it are first Bombon situate upon a Lake called Chinchacocha said to be ten leagues in compass begirt round about almost with hills and neighboured with many other lesser but pleasant Villages 2. Parcos once a Palace Royall of the Inca's seated on the top of a little hill encompassed with other Rocky and higher Mountains on all sides 3. Guamanga called by the Spaniards St. Juan de la Vittoria a fair and well built City and an Episcopall Sea threescore and ten leagues distant from Lima Eastward 4. Bilcas another Palace of the Inca's now a good Town of the Natives and situate as is supposed in the very midst of the Countrie of Peru. 5. Guancavelica a new Town raised from the condition of a very poor Village to a place of very great importance and traffique only by the Mines of Quick-silver of which we spake Chap. 11. and which were first discovered there in the year 1566. It is now inhabited by two thousand
and towards the Streits with Magellanica on the East with the Atlantick Ocean more Northward or to the North-East it hath Brasil and on the West those undiscovered Countries of the Province of Chile of which we spake The Countrie on both sides the River is reported to be a very lusty and fruitfull Soil bearing besides those which are proper and Native all sorts of European Fruits and Grain in great aboundance with Sugar-Canes as many great and good as any other Province of the New-World Nor is it excelled by any other Countrie for good pasturage and great heards of Cattel Sheep Swine In particular Horses are said to have so multiplyed here that of thirty Mares and about six or seven Stallions which the Spaniards left there in the space of fourty yeers the whole Countrie thereabouts towards the South was filled with the Breed of them running wilde in great companies together through all the Woods and Forrests of the Country and of excellent mettle and service if they could be tamed It affordeth likewise great store of wild Deer and Stags some Lions Tygers c. nor is it without good Mines some both of Gold and Silver but cheifly as to what is yet discovered of Brass and Iron and the People altogether Savage The River de la Plata which as we said divides the Country is one of the largest of the whole World rising as 't is supposed out of the Lake called de los Xarayes three hundred leagues or more within land and falling into the Atlantick or North Sea in thirty four degrees of Southern latitude with an Estuary or Mouth of thirty or two and thirty leagues over The whole Country is usually subdivided into three inferiour Provinces which are 1. Rio de la Plata properly so called 2. Tucuman 3. La Crux de Sierra 2. Rio de la Plata properly so called is that part of the Country which extendeth it self on both sides of the River in length many leagues together but not answerable in breadth and containeth these Towns of chiefest note and importance viz. 1. Buenos Ayres by some called La Trinidad on the Southern banks of the River de la Plata sixty four leagues they say from the Mouth of it It is seated commodiously at the foot of a little Mountain and fortified with a Mud-wall a little Castle and some pieces of Ordinance 2. Sta. Fe in English St Faiths fifty leagues above Buenos Ayres upon the same River and a richer place chiefly by reason of their cloath of which there is here one of the greatest Manufactures of all these parts of Peru. 3. Nuestra Sennora de la Assumption commonly called Assumption only lying yet higher up the River almost one hundred leagues a well built and well frequented Town said to be inhabited by two hundred Families at least of naturall Spaniards besides Mestizos as they call them which are the breed of Spaniards by the American People men or women and Mulattos which are likewise their Race but begotten upon Negroes of both which there are reckoned to be here some Thousands 4. La Ciudad Real or more commonly called Ontiveros fourscore leagues Northward from Assumption seated on the banks of the River Parana in a fruitfull Soil as the Country generally is about all these places but the Aire here not so healthfull 5. St. Anne upon the same River 6. St. Salvador 3. Westward of la Plata lyeth the Country of Tucuman extending it self as far as the borders of Chile a Country not yet well discovered either to the North or the South That part of it which lyeth toward Chile is well manured and husbanded and likewise very fruitfull But that towards Magellanicae neither the one nor the other remaining altogether untitled and barren The chief Towns and places of note are 1. St. Jago de Esteco the principall Town of the Province and a Bishops Sea seated upon the River Esteco one hundred and fourscore leagues distant from Buenos Ayres 2. St Michael de Tucuman seated at the foot of an huge rocky Mountain but otherwise in a Soil the fruitfullest and best both for Corn and Pasturage of all this Country twenty eight leagues distant from St. Jago 3. Talavera or Nuestra Sennora de Talavera as the Spaniards call it situate upon the banks of Salado in a good Soil and inhabited by an industrious People grown exceeding rich and wealthy cheifly by their Manufactures of Cotton-wooll whereof they have great plenty and by which they drive a Trade as farre as the Mines at Potozi and other parts of Peru. 3. Corduba another rich Town of this Province and of great trade as lying at an equall distance viz. of fifty leagues both from Sta. Fe as they call it or St. Faiths in the Province of La Plata abovesaid from St. Juan de la Frontera in the Country of Chile and almost in the road way from Potozi and those parts of Peru to Buenos Ayres and the North Sea There are likewise the Townes 5. Chocinoca 6. Sococha 7. Calebinda 8. Morata and others but belonging for the most part to the reduced Natives 4. Sta. Crux de Sierra is a little Territory at least in comparison to some others lying towards Peru and reckoned by some for part of the Province of Peru. It lyeth betwixt the two great Rivers of Paraguay and Guapay one hundred leagues distant as 't is said from Charcas to which yet in some causes it is subordinate The Soil of the Country abundantly fertill in all sorts of American Fruits besides good plenty both of Wheat and Maiz scarsity of nothing usefull for mans life unless it be fresh water in some places The chief Towns of it are 1. Sta. Crux situate at the foot of a great Mountain or Hill but opening upon a large Plain whose thirsty drieness is well refreshed by a certain Brook or Torrent which issueth out of a neighbouring Mountain a few leagues distant from the Town maketh a pretty Lake which supplyeth the Country thereabouts both with fresh water and fish good plenty 2. Barranea a Town supposed to be not above threesore leagues distant from Potozi 3. Nova-Rioia once a Colony of Spaniards but sacked and spoiled by the Savages of these parts about the yeare 1548 and the first Discoverer of the Country namely Nunno de Chaves treacherously murdered by a Native since which time 't is said to have been deserted CHAP. XVI Of Brasil 1. NOrthward of Paraguay or Rio de la Plata lyeth the Country of Brasil a large Province of this Easterly part of America and bounded to the East with Mare del Nort or the Atlantick Ocean on the West with the Andes On the North it hath the great River Maragnon which divides it from Guiana and on the South Paraguay It containes in length measuring by the Sea coast from North to South two hundred leagues and more but in breadth that is from the Andes to the Sea scarse half so much
of the passage by reason of some lesser Islands scattered up and down in the Channel and through which the Sea breaks with a great deal of force called Boca del Dragro or the Dragons mouth It lyeth betwixt the ninth and tenth degrees of Northern latitude accounted to be in length about 24. or tweny five leagues and about eighteen in breadth of a cloudy and less pleasant aire yet the Soil good and aboundantly well stored with all Commodities of the natural growth of America viz. Maiz sugar-Canes Cotton-wooll and the best sort of Tobacco good quantity of Fruits also and of Cattel some veins of gold and of a kinde of Pitch which they digge out of a Mine such plenty that as many ships as could come might lade themselves with it and is said to be good in all other respects except only that it will not endure the Sun The chief Town of this Island is called St. Josephs situate on the banks of a little River which they call Carone on the South side of the Island which was likewise taken by Sir Walter Raleigh in the year abovesaid and in it the Governour Antonio Berreo who to procure his liberty or fair treating at Sir Walters hands is thought to have furnished him with some relations concerning Guiana more liberally than otherwise he needed Tabago lyeth Eastward of Trinidado and divided from it by a little Sea of eight miles over said to have for the bigness of it as many safe Harbours belonging to it as any Island of America The Dutch of late years have named it Niew-Walacheren and are said to frequent it but for what special Commodities or reason doth not appear CHAP. XVIII Of Paria or New-Andalusia 1. THe last but not the least Province of the Southern America is the Country of Paria by som called Nova-Andalusia but for what reason or resemblance with Andalusia of Old-Spain they doe not tell us This Country lying as it doth brings us back again by the Eastern Coast to the Isthmus or Streit which as we have often said joyns the two parts of the Continent of America together at least to those Countries that lye next upon it to the South viz. the new Kingdome of Granada c. It hath on the East Guiana and those Islands which lye about the mouth of Orenoque on the West the Gulf or Bay of Venezuela with some part of the New Kingdome abovesaid on the North it is washed with the Atlantick Ocean and hath on the South some Countries not yet discovered toward the Andes The whole consisteth partly of Continent and partly of Islands neer adjoyning to it and is commonly divided into five several Precincts or parts which are 1. Cumana 2. Venezuela 3. Margarita 4. Cubagna And 5. some lesser Islands 2. Cumana is bounded Eastward with the Gulf of Paria and the River Orenoque on the West with Venezuela Northward it hath the Atlantick Ocean and on the South those undiscovered Countries above mentioned containing in length two hundred leagues or more as some say and not much less than one hundred in breadth but for ought appears little of it planted or used save only upon the Sea side where the Coast hath formerly been much famed for the rich Trade of Pearls and Pearl-Fishing which failing its principall esteem now is for an excellent vein of Salt which they digg here as out of a Mine and gather it naturally made ready to their hands not half a mile from the Sea side on the back-side of the Promontory or Cape called by some Punto de Araya and by others for this reason Cape de Salinas Places of chiefest consideration here are 1. Cumana it self a Colony of Spaniards seated on the banks of a little River two miles distant from the Sea where it hath a good Harbour 2. St. Jago a very strong fortress which the Spaniards of late yeares have built for the defence and security of the Salt-works against the Dutch who began to trade much that way and in the yeare 1622 had a design to have made themselves Masters of the Place 3. St. Michael de Neveri another Fortress of theirs upon a River so called 4. Guaniba a Town of the Natives 3. Venezuela the prineipall part of this Province is bordered on the East with Cumana on the West with a great Gulf or Bay commonly called the Bay of Venezuela with the Lâ—ke Maracabo and some part of New-Granada Nothward it hath the Ocean or Atlantick Sea southward some undiscovered Countries which as we said lye betwixt the Andes and it It stretches out in length from East to West one hundred and thirty leagues or thereabouts but in breadth little more than half so much being named Venezuela or Little Venice by Alonso de Oyeda a Spaniard who at his first discovery of the Country fell upon a Town of the Natives which stood like another Venice all upon the waters and having no passage to it but only by Boats It s a Country extraordinary rich in all sorts of Commodities affords good Pasture for Cattel and aboundance of fair heards of them Oxen Sheep Swine c. plenty of Corn and other Grain great store of Venison likewise in the Woods of Fish in the Rivers Gold in the Mines and therefore not likely but to be well peopled and inhabited especially by the Spaniards whose Towns and places of chief importance are these viz. 1. Venezuela at the most westerly Confines of the Country built upon the Sea with the advantage of a double Haven in a temperate and good Aire and Soil round about it the richest and best of the whole Province It is now a Bishops Sea who is Suffragan to the Arch-Bishop of St. Domingo in Hispaniola and the ordinary Residence of the Governour 2. Caravalleda called by the Spaniards Nuestra Sennora de Caravalleda fourscore leagues distant from Venezuela toward the East upon the Sea likewise 3. St. Jago de Leon in the Country of Caracas four or five leagues southward of Caravalleda and six or seven distant from the Sea 4. New-Valentia twenty five leagues distant from St. Jago 5. New-Xeres a Town but lately built fifteen leagues southward of New Valentia 6. New-Segovia but one league distant from Xeres 7. Tucuyo a place well known and frequented for the aboundance of Sugar which is made there and in the Country round about it 8. Truxillo or our Lady de la Paz eighteen leagues southward of the Lake Maracaybo a place of great resort and much frequented for trade both by Spaniards and Natives 9. Laguna a Town lying more towards the bottom of the Lake said to be much haunted with Tygres and more than this not much is said of it 4. Margarita is an Island lying right over against the Salinas or Cape de Araya afore mentioned seven or eight leagues distant from the main-Main-land and taking its name from the aboundance of Pearles found about it when time was It containes not above fifteen or sixteen leagues
concerns the belly 3. Dominica an Island of twelve leagues in length very fruitfull of a good sort of Tobacco which the Europeans have of the Natives chiefly in exchange of Knives some Hatchets and other Instruments of Iron which they value much It hath on the West side of it a convenient Harbour for ships but the People being said to continue Cannibals and exceedingly barbarous even to this present no Nations as yet have attempted to inhabit among them 4. La Desseada a small Island but of great use to the Spaniards who alwaies touch at it both coming and going 5. Guadalupe another small Island which they likewise take in their way continually to and from America it serves them chiefly for fresh water and lyeth eight or ten leagues Westward of Desseada 6. Antego as the English corruptly call it rather Antiqua is an Island of about seven leagues in length and almost as much in breadth lying to the North-East of Guadalupe where the English of late years are said to have planted a Colony but wherein their Trade lyeth doth not so well appear 7. St. Christophers This lyeth on the North-west of Guadalupe where the English and French both of them having planted their several Colonies were not many years since outed by the Spainyards yet permitted quietly to pass to their other Plantations The chief Commoditie which the Countrie yeeldeth is Tobacco and in the Easterly parts of it some Salt 8. Barbados This is an Island at the North-East of St. Vincent of an ovall form and of the same bigness or extent with that of St. Vincent that is containing in the compass of the whole a matter of eighteen or twenty miles It lyeth the most Easterly of all the rest of these Islands of a Soil very lusty and good especially for such Commodities as are proper for it On the East side it hath many Angles and Points shooting out into the Sea which consequently make many Bays upon the Coast of it but by reason of certain quick-sands which lye before them not much used or frequented by ships On the South side it hath a large and convenient Harbour capable of the tallest ships and well frequented It is counted now one of the best Colonies of the English but said to have been heretofore not a little at the mercy of the Spaniard Their chief Trade is Tobacco and a kinde of course Sugar which we call Barbados-Sugar and will not keep long not that the Countrie is unapt for better but as 't is rather supposed because the Planters want either skill or stock to improve things to the best The Countrie is somewhat hot and it behoves an English man to be very temperate and wary when he goes first thither 9. Sta. Crux called by the Natives anciently Ayay fifteen leagues distant from Port-rico to the South-East woody and Mountainous having on the West side of it a convenient Harbour for shiping They speak of a certain Fruit of this Countrie not unlike to a green Apple which if a Man eat it causeth such an inflammation and swelling of his tongue that for twenty four hours space at least he looseth the use of it quite but afterwards it asswageth of it self without further hurt And also of certain Fen-waters with which if a Man chance to wash his face before noon it likewise swells so much presently that his eyes will be closed up but in the afternoon no such matter which I mention because they say there is a Colony of English setled there of late years There be many other of these Caribee Islands beside as namely Anguilla Barbada St. Bartholmews Las Nieves St. Lucies St. Martins Montserrat c. but of so little consideration especially to our Nation that it would seem but tedious to mention them further Of Port-rico and Monico 1. POrt-rico is an Island fifteen leagues distant from Sta. Crux as hath been said to the North-west and about as many from Hispaniola to the South-East but from the Continent or main Land of Paria which seems to be the neerest one hundred and thirty or one hundred and thirty six as some reckon It lyeth almost in a Quadrangular form being supposed to contain about thirty leagues in length and not less than twenty in breadth in eighteen and nineteen degrees of Northern-latitude The Aire reasonably temperate and agreeable not scorched with any excessive heats in Summer nor beaten with those continuall rains to which some parts of America are subject in Winter its greatest annoyance being from those sudden and violent tempests which they call Hurricanoes which infest it very much especially in the moneths of August and September The Soil fruitfull enough affording aboundance of Sugar-Canes Ginger Cassia Hides and divers other rich Commodities As concerning the Mines both of gold and silver which were once certainly known to be there some say they are exhausted and spent long since others think that 's but a pretence of the Spaniards to keep strangers from looking into the Country while they themselves are more busied within Land It is divided almost in the midst from East to West with a ridge of Mountains which the Spaniards call Sierra del Loquillo and hath these Towns of chief note and importance viz. first Port-rico it self commonly called St. John de Port-rico a strong and neat Town well built in a little Island by it self but joyned to the other by certain huge piles of Timber-work of vast labour and expence done by command of Philip the second King of Spain It was attempted by Sir Francis Drake in the year 1595 without success but a few years after taken by the Earl of Cumberland as hath been said 2. St. Germans in the West parts of the Island three or four leagues distant from the Sea a place as 't is said to be neither fortified nor much frequented 3. Luysay on the East side a good and well frequented Port some leagues distant from Port-rico 2. Eastward of Port-rico and betwixt it and Hispaniola there lyeth a little but fruitfull Island called Mona and Westward of that another called Monico or Monetta which last the English when time was found so admirably stored with a sort of wilde Fowl that the huge flights of them seemed to darken the Aire over their heads and upon their landing found such plenty of their eggs upon the shore and ground thereabouts that they presently laded two of their boats with them But how Peopled or possessed not so well known Of Hispaniola 1. HIspaniola or little Spain as Columbus named it is if not the largest yet at least the fairest and goodliest of all the American Islands called by the Natives anciently Hayti It lyeth as we said fifteen leagues Westward of Port-rico and distant from the main Land of America about one hundred and twenty of a Triangular form the sharpest point whereof is that towards Port-rico which they call Cabo de Enganno That towards the West inclines to a semi-circle containing a good and
of the chiefest Rivers of the Island is still said to be much haunted with Crocodiles that are very dangerous to strangers unacquainted with the Country and to any that rest or sleep neer the banks of the River 2. The Towns and places of chief importance belonging to this Island are 1. St. Jago seated at the bottom of a large and capacious Bay on the South-side of the Island two or three leagues distant from the Sea and counted the chiefest Port on that side It is a Bishops sea and once a very populous and rich place of trade but at present not a little decayed only for want of Inhabitants who are advanced more up into the Continent having left the Islands behinde them more than half empty Neer unto this place viz. about three or four leagues distance are those famous Mountains which the Spaniards call Sierras de Cobre or the Brass Mountains from the aboundance of that Metal which the Mines in them doe still afford 2. Baracao thirty leagues Eastward of St. Jago toward the Sea 3. Bayamo or St. Salvador seated more within land in a rich and pleasant part of the Island but not so commodious for trade 4. Puerto del Principe on the North side of the Island fourty leagues distant from St. Jago neer to which saith Laet there is a Fountain which sendeth forth a liquor of a Bituminous substance and black as Pitch very good and much used in those parts for the calking of Ships and gathered in great abundance upon the Sea into which it falleth and is sometimes digged also as out of a Mine 6. La Trinidad nine or ten leagues Eastward of the Bay of Xagua Lastly 6. Havana the most known and best traded Port absolutely of all these parts and and perhaps of the whole Continent lying at the most northerly point of the Island towards Cape Florida a place naturally strong and so well fortified by Art that it is held impregnable The entrance whereof is defended on each side with a strong Castle and a stronger than either built right opposite to the Mouth of the Haven and all of them so commodiously and advantageously situated for the defence and assistance of each other as 't is said nothing can be devised better Close to one of them there is erected a watch-Tower of such height that from the top of it they easily descry whatsoever Ships move upon those Seas and give notice of them to the Guards being thereby a very great assurance not only to the Inhabitants of this place and Island but also to the whole Bay of Mexico And is therefore the ordinary Seat of the Governour and the generall Rendezvous of the Spanish Ships when they goe home for Spain meeting heer from all parts of the Gulf and tarrying one for another till all be come in and from thence setting sail for Spain through the Sreits of Bahama and by some of the Leucayae Islands above mentioned It is likewise a very strong Garrison it being said that the King of Spain allowes pay for no less number than 1000. Souldiers only for this place Jamaica is somewhat a lesser Island lying Southward of Cuba and to the West of Hispaniola almost at an equall distance viz twenty leagues from them both They reckon it to be in length about fifty leagues or more in breadth twenty and to contain in the whole about one hundred and fifty of a rich and fertil Soil and in nothing less provided for the necessities of mans life than either Hispaniola or Cuba well stock'd with Cattel and as plentifully stored with Fruits of all sorts yeelding abundance of Cotton-wooll more than either of the other Islands only it wanteth the conveniency of some good Havens and Ports which it hath but few and the Sea round about it so shelvy and full of Rocks and broken Islands that the coast of it is held to be not a little dangerous and therefore as little frequented by Merchants or others There being at present three only small Towns inhabited in the whole Island viz. 1. Sevilla or New-Sevill in the North parts of the Island 2. Melilla ten leagues distant from Sevill towards the East And lastly Oristan 14. leagues distant from it towards the South FINIS Errata PAg. 4. for their read there p. 26. for degrees r. leagues p. 37. for abstenious r. abstemious p. 43. for de bios r. de Dios p. 48. for Philirpine r. Philippine p. 106. for rending r. trending p. 154. for cleerer r. cleer p. 166. for times r. time p. 171. for dusty r. dusky p. 176. for Ovil r. Oval p. 192. for in line r. in a line p. 208. for unparalled r. unparalleld p. 217. for more r. no more p. 234. for Catha r. Cathay for Duch r. Dutch p. 235. for there and some r. there are some p. 239. for enquire of r. enquire p. 242. for though r. thought p. 243. for Georges bay r. St. Georges bay p. 344. for Role r. Rose p. 369. for these r. those p. 419. for thirty thousand r. three thousand p. 437. for Dragro r. Drago Books printed and to be sold by Edward Dod at the Gun in Ivie-Lane AN entire commentary on the old Testament in four Volumes wherein the divers translations and expositions literal and mystical of all the most famous Commentators both ancient and modern are propounded examined and Judged off for the more full satisfaction of the Studious in all things which compleateth the Authors Comment on the whole Bible the like never yet published in english by any written by John Mayer D. D. in folio Natures Paradox an excellent Romance in quarto translated by Major Wright Lucasta Epodes Odes Sonnets Songs by R. Lovelace Esquire in Octavo The Life and death of Mr. Carter with a funerall Sermon in Octavo The Joviall Crew of Merry Beggars by R. Brome in quarto The Deputation of Angels or the Angel Guardian proved by the dim sight of Nature by Robert Dingly in Octavo The Reign of King Charles faithfully impartially delivered and disposed into Annals by H. L. Esquire
ship called the St. Anna which was expected from the Philippine Islands and which upon his information they took within a few dayes after being the richest prize one of them that ever was taken and carried off those Seas by English-men But first they sail to Acapulco or Guatulco as some call it and having rifled the Town in the Haven they take a Bark of fiftie Tuns burthen laden with six hundred great bags of Anile which is a rich sort of dye every bag being estimated at fourty Crowns and four hundred baggs of Cacao which are a kinde of Fruit of America of the bigness of Almonds and so much esteemed there that they pass both for meat and money every one of which baggs being valued at ten Crowns the whole prize in the Barke beside what they got in the Town amounted to twenty eight thousand Crowns From hence they set sail for the Bay of St. Jago still Northward and being come up as farr as the Tropique of Capricorne they were in some distress for fresh water having none visibly neerer them than thirty or fourty leagues But by the advise of the above said Michael Sancius who was a man of long and great experience upon those Coasts they digged some four or five foot deep in the ground and found very good fresh water in a soyle outwardly dry and sandie which he also told them was an usual experiment in many other places upon those Coasts About the middle of October they fall with the Cape St. Lucar on the West-side of the point of Califormia and came to Anchor in the Bay called Aguada Segura where they resolved to stay a while and wait for the coming of the St. Anna abovesaid which about the fourth of November following appeared to their no little content She was a ship of seven hundred Tuns burthen and Admiral of those Seas and therefore not onely richly laden but well manned By noon the English ships got up with her and gave her a broad-side which she answered but soon after put her self to a close fight and expected boarding which the English attempting were twice beaten off and forced to betake themselves again to their Ordinance with which they so raked her from side to side and ply'd it so continually that after a dispute of some five or six hours she was made to yeeld the Captain hanging out a flag of Truce and begging mercy for their lives which the General readily granted and thereupon commanding him to strike sail and come on board the Captain Pilot and some of the principall Merchants did so They were in all an hundred and ninety persons in the ship men and women and professed that their lading was one hundred twenty two thousand Pezos of fine Gold beside Silver aboundance of Silks Sattins Damask Musk Conserve of Fruits Druggs and other of the richest Merchandise of India of which they could give no certain estimate Now every Pezo we are to know in silver is valued at eight shillings or not much less for I confess there is some difference in Authors about the estimate of it and consequently in gold according to the common proportion betwixt gold and silver used at the Indies which is twelve for one a Pezo must be worth ninety six shillings or 4 li. 16 s. so that the whole value of the prize could not be much less than a million of sterling money enough to make them all Gentlemen that shared in it The Spaniards and other people of the ship according to their desire were set on shore at the Port of Aguada Segura with necessary provisions given them both for their Subsistance and defence in their travell 8. From hence the English set sail for the Philippine Islands and in the space of fourty five dayes sailing they reach the Islands Ladrones as they are called which lie in the way thither about seventeen or eighteen hundred leagues from Califormia whence they came and in twelve or thirteen degrees of Northen latitude They are a very convenient place for the taking in of fresh water and for the supplying of ships at Sea with many necessaries in so long a voyage but the people wholly barbarous and savage and so extreamly given to pilfering and stealing that from thence Magellan gave them their name viz. Ladrones or the Island of Theeves From hence about the middle of January they arrive at Manilla the chief of the Philippine Islands and about three hundred seventy leagues distant from Ladrones This is counted to be the richest Countrie for gold in the World but scarse of silver so as the Sanguelos as they call them who are great and rich Merchants of the Country doe continually trade with the Americans of New-Spain for their silver giving weight for weight for it in pure gold From hence about the beginning of March they reach the Islands of Javia where by way of barter with the Inhabitants for such things as they had got upon the coasts of America they plentifully store their ships with all kinde of Flesh-meats Fowles and Fruits necessary for their subsistance homeward receiving at their going away a present of the same nature from the King of the Countrey viz. two large fat Oxen alive ten great and fat Hoggs aboundance of Hens Ducks Geese Eggs a great quantity of Sugar Canes Sugar in plate Cocos Plantans sweet Oranges and sowre Lymons great store of good Wines Aqua vitae Salt with almost all maner of Victuals beside And it was no more than they had need of in the place where they were For putting again to Sea and making for the Cape de buona Speranza or of good hope which is the utmost point of Africk Southward they sailed upon that vast Atlantick Ocean before they could reach the Cape little less than nine weeks running a course of eighteen hundred and fiftie leagues at least by Sea without touching land some reckoning it to be full two thousand leagues viz. from the Islands of Java to the Cape of good Hope There lyeth about fourty or fiftie leagues short of the Cape a certain Foreland called Cabo falso because it is usually at its first discovery at Sea mistaken by Mariners for the true Cape From hence by the eighteenth of June 1588. they fall in sight of the Island St. Helena which lyeth in the main Ocean and as it were in the middle way betwixt the Coast of Africk and Brasil in fifteen degrees and fourty eight minutes of Southern latitude being distant from the Cape of good Hope betwixt five and six hundred leagues It is a pleasant Island and especially well stored with Fruits as namely Oranges Lymons Pomegranats Pomecitrons Dates and so proper for Figgs that the trees bear all the year long and at any time of the year a man may gather both blossoms green Figgs and ripe It affordeth likewise good store of wilde Fowle as Partridges Pheasants a kinde of Turkies of colour black and white and as big as ours in England great
Queen of England from whom he said he came to take them into his protection So after many other civilities given and returned betwixt them the King at length departed and Sir Francis with his men returned to their ships having first erected a pillar upon the place on which he fastned the Arms of England with the Queens name and his own to remain as a monument of his being there and of the surrender which was made of that Country to the Queen of England CHAP. VI. Of New-Gallicia and the Provinces thereto belonging 1. NEw-Gallicia is the most Northerly Countrie of all America that is inhabited to any purpose by the Spaniards Here 't is true they are scattered up and down in all the parts of it but it is at a huge distance and for the most part only where the Mines are It is bounded on the East and to the South with the Kingdom of Mexico or New-Spain on the West with the Gulf or Bay of Califormia Northward for so much as is yet discovered with Quivira and Cibola lying between eighteen and twenty eight degrees of Northern latitude that is from La Natividad a Port so named by the Spaniards in the confines of New-Spain to the most Northerly borders of Cinoloa a part of this Province containing as is supposed not much less than three hundred leagues in length and in bredth much more and whereof not a tenth part is either used or frequented by the Spaniards The Aire is generally here very temperate inclining rather to heat than cold and subject now and then to sodain storms of rain and great claps of thunder which yet doe not hinder but that the Countrie is held to be reasonably healthfull and the people observed to live generally to a good old age The Soil by reason of the Climate would be a little inclining to drought but that beside the frequent rains which it hath it is constantly moistned with fresh morning dews which make it for the most part wonderfully fruitfull almost beyond beleef yeelding for every bushel of Wheat that is sown threescore and of Maiz two hundred for one beside great plenty of Sugar-Canes and Cochineel both which notwithstanding the Spaniards are said to neglect in some sort imploying themselves wholly about richer Commodities For the Countrie affords them good store of Mines viz. of Sylver and Brass but of Gold or Iron not many as yet have been found the Rivers plentifully abounding with Fish and the Woods with Venison and some other wilde Beasts The Countrie generally more mountainous than plain frequently shaded with Woods and whole Forrests of the statelyest Pine trees and Oaks of timber that are to be seen The People are said to be somewhat of a wavering and inconstant disposition apt to take offence and though civilized in some measure and made Christians by the Spaniards yet oftentimes upon some light distaste given they seem willing to return again to their Woods and Barbarism The reason whereof in part is conceived to be a natural slothfulness and unwillingness unto any kinde of labour in this People which they labour most of all to avoid and are so wise that they never will be brought to it but upon good wages but on the contrary given to sports very much viz. singing dancing and drinking out of measure in so much as 't is thought if it were not for their beloved liquor they would hardly be perswaded long to take either the care or the pains of Husbandry They are of stature reasonably tall dwelling both in Towns and Villages being distinguished into certain Clans or Tribes each whereof is governed by one Chief but all of them subject to the Judges and Officers of the King of Spain It contains in it these inferiour Provinces 1. Cinoloa 2. Couliacan 3. Xalisco 4. Guadalaiara all of them on the Western shore 5. Zacatecas 6. New-Biscay and 7. New-Mexico more within Land 2. Cinoloa is the most Northern part of New-Gallicia bounded on the West with some part of the Gulf or Bay of Califormia On the East with a long ridge of Mountains which they call Tepecsuan On the North with Cibola and with Couliacan on the South The Country beside the general fertility of the whole Province of New Gallicia yeelds great store of Cotton-wooll by reason whereof both Men and Women here are better appareld for the most part than elsewhere the Americans are Exceedingly well watered with Rivers which descend from those mountains Tepecsuan not above thirty or fourty leagues distant from the Sea and which with the varietie of their streams and Meandrous glidings doe divide the Country into many and good pastures which are likewise stored with aboundance of Kine Oxen and other Cattel The chief towns of the Spaniards are 1. St. Philip and Jacob seated towards the Sea side on the banks of a fair River some thirty or fourty leagues distant from the town of Couliacan 2. St. John de Cinoloa an ancient Colonie of Spaniards setled there by Francisco de Tharra in the year 1554 which is all they have in this Countrie except some few old Forts of the Natives which they found after their manner poorly furnished but have since repaired them for defense against the Natives of those parts which as yet remain unreduced 3. Couliacan lyeth Southward of Cinoloa coasting all along the Bay of Califormia which it hath on the West On the East it hath New-Biscay and on the South Xalisco The Countrie not defective in any kinde of necessary Provision more especially aboundeth with Fruits of all sorts But the Spaniards look only at the Mines of which they have some few in this Countrie The People were generally cloathed with Garments of Cotton-wooll when the Spaniards came first among them but yet never a whit the more modest being exceedingly given to Venery and that in a more shameless and beastly manner than many other Americans were that goe naked The Spanish Towns are these 1. Hiustula seated on the banks of a fair River distant about a dayes journie from the Sea 2. Quinola 3. Quatrabarrios an old Town of the Natives but new named by the Spaniards 4. El Leon an old burrough 5. Couliacan the chief town of the Province 6. St. Michael in the Valley of Arroba two leagues distant from the Sea in a rich and plentifull Countrie both for Corn and fruit and built by Nunnez de Gusman in the year 1531 after he had burnt the Towns and destroyed a great part of the Natives inhabitants of the Country 4. Xalisco or Galesco as some call it is bounded on the North with Couliacan On the South with some parts of New-Spain On the East with the Province of Guadalaiara and on the West with the Gulf or Bay of Califormia The Countrie chiefly fertil in Maiz and Mines of Silver not altogether so apt for herbage and pasture as some other Countries about it The People were Cannibals before the Spaniards came among them and did eate Mans-flesh were
part of whatsoever should be discovered to him and his Heirs for ever But denyed him the Government of Mexico out of reason of State though 't is said he much desired it 6. The bounds of this Kingdome at present are thus On the East it hath a large Arm of the Sea which they call the Bay of New-Spain or the Gulf of Mexico On the West it hath some parts of New-Gallicia and Mare del Zur On the North the rest of New-Gallicia and part of Florida and on the South Mare del Zur again and part of Guatimala It extendeth it self in length from the furthest point of Jucatan South-East to the borders of New-Gallicia Northward above one thousand Italian miles and in breadth from Panuco to the South-Sea about half so much It lyeth wholly under the Torrid Zone nor is it a Countrie generally so mountainous or high seated as some others of America are but for the most part level or low yet is it so fanned for three parts at least of four by the cooling blasts off the Sea and the heats otherwise so moderated with frequent rains which it hath constantly three moneths in the year viz. June July and August that the Aire is rendred thereby exceeding temperate and agreeable and the Climate not unhealthfull especially to temperate bodies and such as be never so little used to it A goodly Country it is of inexhaustible wealth and riches whether we regard the Mines of Gold Silver Brass Iron c. of all which it hath many and very good or the Fruits of the Earth aboundance of Cattel plenty of Corn and Grain or any other Commodities and endowments of Nature which serve for the enriching of the World Among other things it affords good store of Cassia the fruit whereof is a thing well known and much commended by the Apothecaries for its use in Physick especially for Purgations and removing of all obstructions of phlegm cholar c. Such store of Balm Amber all sorts of Gumms and precious Liquors as no Country in the World is better furnished with matter of excellent Perfumes and Physiâ—k than the Kingdom of New-Spain is aboundance of Coco-nuts and such plenty of that excellent Dye called Coccinele that 't is said no less than five or six thousand Arrobes of Spanish measure which make above five times so many English Bushels are yearly transported thence Good plenty likewise both of Wheat and Maiz with Barley and Pulse of all sorts All kinde of garden Hearbs Roots and Plants in so great aboundance and so admirably thriving that 't is scarcely to be beleeved Whole Woods and Forests as it were of Oranges Limmons Citrons and other such fruit as hath been said Some Cherries but of Apples Pears and Figgs c. beyond measure The Natives of the Country very ingenious in divers Mechanicall Arts especially in making of feather-Pictures a piece of curiosity wherein they are held to be incomparably or rather inimitably excellent and so industrious at it that although the Americans generally be not a People over much addicted to any kinde of labour or study yet at this they will sit a whole day together without either meat or drink only out of a natural affection they have to the work and a desire to be excellent in it The Country indeed affords them great variety of Birds and other Fowl of most rare and exquisite colours which is a great advantage to their skill and helps much to the accomplishment of their work They paint likewise very curiously upon their Cottons and are held to be generally the best Gold-smiths in the world of most perfect skil in the purging and refining of all sorts of Metals but especially of Gold and Silver And yet in other things so strangely stupid and ignorant that when the Spaniards first appeard among them on Horse-back 't is reported not a few of them took the Horse and Man both for one Cteature and when the Horse neighed they would enquire very seriously what he said There be likewise many fair Lakes in the Province of New-Spain but the principall are those of Chapala and Mexico the former of which is in the more Northern parts of the Kingdome towards the borders of New Gallicia and is chiefly famous for the aboundance of good Salt that is yeerly made and transported thence The other of Mexico is the largest and goodliest one of them in the World of circular form and containing as some say little less than nine hundred miles in compâ—â—s invironed with the main Land the Peninsula or Cape of Florida Jucatan and the Island Cuba having two only passages in and out and both of them well fortified the one betwixt the point of Jucatan and the Isle Cuba where the tide violently enters and the other betwixt the said Island and the Cape Florida where it goeth as violently out upon which Gulf the King of Spain hath alwaies some good ships in readiness for all occasions and by them 't is supposed he doth more assure his Estates in those parts of America than by all his Garrisons beside The whole Kingdome of New-Spain is subdivided into these inferior Provinces viz. 1. Panuco 2. Mexicana 3. Mechoacan 4. Tlascalla 5. Guaxata 6. Chiapa and 7. Jucatan 7. Panuco is the most Northerly Province of New-Spain by some called Guasteca bounded on the East with the Gulf of Mexico on the West with Vxitipa a Country of New-Gallicia on the North with some undiscovered Countries of Florida from which it is divided by the River of Palms on the South with Mechoacan and Mexicana It is called Panuco from a River of that name which running from the mountains Tepecsuan in New Gallicia and dividing New-Biscay from the Province of Zacatecas passeth through the midst of this Country also and at last emptieth it self into the Gulf. The Country is reckoned to be about fifty leagues in length and not much less in breadth of a fruitfull Soile having some Mines of gold in it and once very Populous till Hernando Cortez and the Spaniards about the year 1522 dispeopled it by their cruelty The chief towns now remaining and inhabited by the Spaniards are first St. Lewis de Tampice a Colony of Spaniards situate on the Northern bank of the River Panuco at the very mouth of it where it hath a very large Haven but so barred with sands that no ship of any great burden can enter or abide in it with safety and yet the River otherwise so deep that Vessels of five hundred tun might sail up threescore leagues at least within land and thereby visit the rich Mines of Zatatecas on the one side of it and of New-Biscay on the other at pleasure and without fear of much opposition 2. St. Stevan del Puerto on the South side of the same River eight leagues distant from the Sea or Gulf of Mexico at present the Metropolis or chief town of the Province built by Cortez in the place where stood old Panuco which was
and in the midst of a fair Plain or Champaign Country containing likewise as some say not less than sixty or seventy leagues in compass and environed with mountains of so great height that the tops of them are said to be continually covered with snow At present it is thought to be one of the richest Cities of the World abounding if reports be true in all kinde of voluptuous gallantry and bravery even to excess It is supposed to contain about six or seven miles in compass and to consist of above an hundred thousand Houses or Families whereof not the tenth part Spaniards but those that are be all Gentlemen I mean as to their garb and manner of living for they live most splendidly in all respects both for dyet and apparel For the first we have spoken so much already of the general plenty of all things in the Kingdom of New-Spain that pertain to this part of pleasure that it is not to be doubted and for the second this may be some instance viz. that it is no extraordinary matter to see an Hat-band and Role all of Diamonds in some ordinary Gentlemans Hat and of Pearl among the common Citizens and Tradesmen The Coaches which most Gentlemen keep almost covered with gold and silver richly beset with precious stones and within ordinarily lined with cloth of gold or the best China silk that can be gotten of which Coaches in time of year at the Alameda as they call it which is as it were the Hide Park of Mexico and a place made of purpose for recreation and delight a man shall observe not seldome above a thousand or two thousand Coaches full of Ladies and Gallants coming thither only to take the aire and their pleasure both the one and the other attended with a numerous train of servants and Mulattos of both sexes In la Plateria which is but one only street in Mexico nigh to the Vice-Roys Palace in less than half an hours space with the turn of an eye you may see millions of wealth in Gold Silver and precious Stones in the Gold-smiths and Jewellers shops thereabouts In a word there is nothing hinders Mexico from being the most absolute Citie in the World for delight and bravery but only two inconvinces to which it is subject The one is the danger of the Lake with the Infalls whereof it may seem to be almost continually threatned and in the year 1629 did actually suffer a very great calamity the waters breaking through the banks and drowning a great part of the City with the destruction of much People and the loss of all their goods intirely through the avarice as is supposed of the Vice-Roy that then was and some other of the Kings Officers who diverted the money that should have been imployed for the fortifying and repairing of the banks to their proper uses The other is from the Nature of the Soil and ground it self on which the City standeth which is found to have a tincture of of salt-Nitre in it somewhat strong and the windes partly from the Lake it self and partly from the Hills about it raising the dust of this earth constantly every evening for many moneths of the year together so violently that the Aire is even darkned therewith for some time the Inhabitants are much annoyed by it and made subject to divers Hypocondriacall pains and infirmities and sometimes killed with it especially such as either cannot or care not much to avoid it The Citie lyeth about 60 leagues or one hundred and fifty miles distant from the Atlantick or North Sea from whence by the Port of St. John D'Vllua or Vera Crux which are the usuall landing places there is a fair and easie march to Mexico by the Cities of Xalapa Perotta Puebla de los Angelos and Tlascalla all of them open and unfortified places as likewise Mexico it self is and the Country round about very rich and well accommodated with all things The second town of this Province is Tescuco an ancient and fair Citie seated upon the same Lake six or seven leagues distant from Mexico to which it yeeldeth not much either for beau-or bravery 3. Quitlavaca a Citie built wholly upon certain Islets within the Lake and therefore called sometimes by the Spaniards Venezuela or Little-Venice having one only passage by Land to it over a Causey of flint-stone half a league or more in length and about sixteen or twenty foot broad 4. Vztacpalapa a City of ten thousand Housholds or thereabnuts six leagues distant from Tescuco and about twenty from Mexico 5. Mexicaltzingo a Burrough of four thousand Housholds 6. Cuyacan of six thousand All these are seated upon the Lake Further from the Lake there is Chololla a great Citie and a rich place not much inferiour-to Mexico Anciently this City was as it were the Sanctuary of the Mexican Kings and the chief place of their barbarous and inhumane Superstitions where yearly not less than five or six thousand Indian Children of both sexes were sacrificed to Vitzilopuchtli that is to the Devil It was likewise the chief burying place of all the Mexican Nobility whose Tombs and Monuments there afforded the Spaniards at their first rifling of them an infinite mass of Treasure and yet not half so much as by report they both desired and expected 2. Mastitlan a Town pleasantly seated upon the top of an huge mountain in the midst of most delicate Groves and shady Woods round about it and reckoned to contain not less than thirty thousand Inhabitants in all dwelling either in the Citie or upon the sides of the Mountain 3. Autepecque this is a Town belonging to the Marquiss de Valle who is of the Posterity of Cortez and said to be seated in the most delicious place of all New-Spain 4. Acapulco a Town seated upon the South-Sea or Mare del Zur yet belonging to this Province It is a Haven Town and one of the most frequented upon the South Sea situate upon a large and capacious Bay of about a league broad at the entrance and affording many convenient stations and Docks for shipping At the bottome of the Bay Westward lyeth the Town with a strong Castle very opportunely built both for the command and security of the Port well walled and fortifyed with Bulwarks and having a constant Garrison of four hundred Souldiers in it or thereabouts The reason whereof I suppose may be chiefly this viz. that from this Port there is the greatest traffique and entercourse held betwixt the East and West-Indies together with the Philippine Islands The Country hath many rich Mines of silver in it and some of Gold the chief of which first are by Herera reported to be these viz. 1. those of Puchuca fourteen leagues distant from Mexico 2. Of Tasco twenty four leagues distant 3. Talpuiana 4. Cultepeque 5. Zacualpa 6. Zupanguo and divers others 10. Tlascalla is a Province of New-Spain which extendeth it self entirely from one Sea to another viz. from the Atlantick to Mare
del Zur with which it is bounded on the East and West parts lying otherwise and for the most part betwixt the Provinces of Mexicana last spoken of and that of Guaxata which followeth containing in length viz. from one Sea to the other not much less than an hundred leagues and in some places fourscore in bredth but towards the South-Sea growing much narrower It is a Country exceedingly plentifull both of Corn and Cattel full of rich pasturage and so plentifully stored with Maiz some Wheat and other Grain that it is counted as it were the Granary of America The People of this Country when the Spaniards first landed among them lived in the form of a Common-wealth or Free State refusing to be subject to the King of Mexico with whom they had almost continuall Warre and upon that account as hath been said assisted Cortez in the Conquest of the Kingdom and without whose help 't is most certain he had never been able to doe any thing They enjoy therefore many speciall Priviledges and Immunities more than other Americans doe They pay no tribute but only an handfull of Wheat yearly for every person in way of acknowledgement and otherwise living under the protection of the Spaniards wholly in the form of their ancient Government The whole Province is said to contain two hundred good Towns and Burroughs and more than one thousand Villages all of them exceedingly populous and supposed to contain in the whole above a million and half of Natives beside Spaniards who have some few Colonies in the Country for securing of it The chief Towns of the Province are 1. Tlascalla it self which denominates the whole Country as the Metropolis of it It is a fair town and commodiously seated in the midst of a large and fertil Campaign of threescore miles in compass It consisteth of four large and beautifull streets or quarters and in the midest of them where they all meet hath a Piazza or Market place equall to that of Mexico and able to receive twenty or thirty thousand persons conveniently to buy and sell in it 2. Puebla de los Angeles or the Citie of Angels a town built by Sebastian Ramirez a Church-man and he that was the first president or chief Governour of Mexico under the Crown of Castile It was built in the year 1531 almost in the road way from Vera Crux to Mexico and seated in a very delicate and fertil Country and of a good Aire It is a Bishops Sea and valued at twenty thousand Duckets of yearly Rent the Citie it self supposed to contain about fifteen hundred Families where there is aboundance of excellent cloath made and for fineness not yeelding to the best of Spain 3. Zempoallan seated upon a River of the same name 4. Napaluca 5. Guaxacingo all of them great and ancient towns of the Natives 6. Segura de la Frontera a Spanish town built by Cortez presently upon the Conquest of Mexico for the securing of the confines as the name importeth 7. Vera Crux a town built by Cortez and his Companions at their first landing and where afterward by a stratagem and out of a resolution either to Conquer or dye in the Country he caused all his ships to be burnt that his Souldiers might not so much as think of returning back from whence they came The town was at first built five or six leagues up within land but the place being found not to be so healthfull the Inhabitants in a short time deserted it and seated themselves upon a Bay of the Sea right over against St. John D'ullua 8. Medellin another Spanish town built likewise by Cortez in memory of his own birth place which was Medellin a small town of Estramedura a Province of Spain Lastly St. John D'ullua a noted and the most usuall Port to all this Province and likewise to the City of Mexico it self from the North Sea but of difficult entrance especially to such as are not well acquainted with the passage or want Guides by reason of certain Rocks and quick-sands wherewith the mouth of the Haven is said to be barred but within the station is more safe It hath likewise two strong Bullwarks or Forts raised on either side of the entrance one to defend the passage 11. Guaxata hath on the North the Bay of Mexico on the South Mare del Zur on the East Jucatan and Chiapa which is one of the Provinces of Guatimala on the West Tlascalla The Country extendeth it self upon the South Sea about an hundred leagues in length but from the Sea to the borders of Tlascalla one hundred and twenty Eastward not above half so much having a good Aire and a Soil no less fruitfull especially in Mulberry trees and a great aboundance of Silks which the Country affordeth more than any other Province of America beside Nor is it less rich in Mines of gold and silver there being scarse a River in the whole Country but the sands of it are said to be tinctured more or less with that yellow Metal It yeeldeth likewise great plenty of Cassia and Cocchinele two rich Commodities and the People generally if they would takes pains might be the wealthiest 't is thought of any other in America but whether it be through any voluntary contempt of Riches or through any naturall sloathfullness as yet they seem to pine in the midst of plenty living for the most part of them little better than from hand to mouth nevertheless exceeding liberall of what they have especially to such as bear the habit of Religion and attend the service of their Souls maintaining in a plentifull and good manner as 't is said no less than one hundred and twenty Convents of Religious Men of several Orders in this only Province besides Hospitals Schools for the training up of Youth and other places of publique Charity It is subdivided into many particular Provinces which because they are many and but small in comparison of some other we may call Wapentakes or Hundreds rather than Provinces the principall whereof are these that follow viz. 1. Misteca 2. Tutepecque 3. Zapoteca 4. Guazacoalco 5. Gueztaxatla and 6. the Vally of Guaxata from whence Cortez after the Conquest of Mexico had his title given him by the Emperor Marquess of the Valley It is the richest and most pleasant part of the whole Province extended in a continued tract together full sixteen leagues or more lying about fourscore Southward of Mexico and wanting neither Mines of gold and silver nor any other of the prime and best Commodities of the New-World The towns of principall note inhabited by the Spaniards in this Province are first Antequera in the Valley aforesaid a stately Citie and beautified with a fair Cathedrall Church built with pillars of the finest Marble of great height and bigness 2. St. Ildephonso 3. St. Jago commonly called St. Jago of the Valley Nexatapa yet is it self a City fairly seated upon a Hill 4. Del Spirito Santo a town built
of which likewise but a small portion is yet discovered and less possessed The Portugheses who are Masters of the Country holding only some few places towards the Sea with so much of the uplands as the Inhabitants thereabouts can use leaving all the rest to the Natives or such as will adventure further for it The Country is in some parts mountainous and well set with Forests and huge Woods yet generally of a Champaign and low ground commodiously distinguished and watered with good Rivers The Aire for the most part sound and healthfull being said to be very much cleered by certain fresh windes from the Southward which they have almost continually all along upon the coasts The Soil would be admirably fruitfull were it not for overmuch rain to which especially in some parts the Country is subject Nevertheless it is wonderfully plentious and aboundeth with sugar-Canes more than any other part of America beside the Portugheses here having their Ingenios as they call them or sugar-Mills up and down in all parts of the Country with many thousands of Slaves working in them which are brought them yearly out of Guiny Congo and other parts of Africk And 't is a merchandise doubtless of huge profit to them the Portugheses being supposed to transport one year with another only out of Brasil a hundred and fifty thousand Arrobes of fine sugar every Arrobe containing twenty five Bushels as some say of English measure There is likewise great quantity of that red wood which they commonly call Brasil-wood so much used both in England and other parts for dying of Cloath The Trees of this wood are said to be of such incredible bigness that whole Families of the Natives live upon or within an Arme of them and they are a principall Stowage and refuge for them when the Land is overflowed with waters as at some times of the year it happens to be and that unexpectedly on the sudden This Country is another Africk abounding with variety of many strange and prodigious creatures more than any other part of the New-World as may be seen in Authors especially Laet lib. 15. cap. 5. c. and the Natives generally no less savage and barbarous going for the most part naked eating Mans-flâ—sh the men cruel to extreamity and the women as wanton and immodest both of them especially more towards the Andes hairy all over like bruit beasts from whom they seem but little to differ save only in shape The Country is not as yet divided into Provinces or such nationall districts as the other parts of America generally are although there be found among them as many severall sorts of People and of different languages as in any other Country but into certain Prefectures or lesser Governments which the Portugheses have erected and setled only for the command and better securing of those parts which themselves hold in the Country They lie all of them towards the Sea coast and are reckoned to be about thirteen in number viz. 2. The Prefecture of St. Vincent bordering on Rio de la Plata and inhabited by the most civill People of Brasil where the Portugheses have these Towns of note viz. Los Santos at the bottom of a Bay or huge Arme of the Sea with an Haven belonging to it capable of ships of good burthen It lyeth two or three leagues distant from the main Ocean and was taken and held by the English under Sir Thomas Cavendish some two moneths together in the yeare 1521 but is now better fortified with a Wall two strong Castles and some pieces of Ordinance 2. St. Vincent not above four miles distant from Los Santos and better built only it hath not the benefit of such a good Haven 3. Itange 4. Cananea all of them southward of St. Vincent at some leagues distance 5. St. Paul situate upon the top of a Mountain or little Hill having a very curious prospect into the open fields both towards the East North and South westward it overlooketh a little Wood or Forest and is neighboured they say with very rich Mines of Gold in the Mountaines Pernapiacaba six or seven leagues distant 6. St. Philips on the banks of Iniambis a fair River of this Country The Prefecture of Rio de Janeiro a district of this Country once held by the French but taken from them by the Portugheses in the yeare 1558 and all the French put to the Sword It hath these Towns 1. Colignia so named from that famous Hugonot Gaspar Coligni Admiral of France by whose assistance and encouragement chiefly it had been peopled by the French being seated on a Bay of the River Janeiro 2. St. Sebastians a Town built by the Portugheses at the Mouth of the said Bay and fortified with four strong Bulworks 3. Angra de los Reyes twelve leagues distant from St. Sebastians westward beside some Burroughs of the Natives very populous but neither strong nor fortified The Prefecture del Spirito Santo one of the most fertil Prefectships of all Brasil plentifully stored with Cotton-wooll watered with excellent Rivers especially that which they call Parayba of a large stream and full of good fish The Prefecture it self is not very large as having one only Town of note in it inhabited by the Portugheses called likewise Spirito Santo but it hath two hundred Families at least in it and a very safe and commodious Haven belonging to it three or four leagues distant from the Sea The Prefecture of Puerto Seguro fifty leagues more to the North of Spirito Santo having these Towms viz. 1. Puerto Seguro it self seated as it were upon a Rock or Cliff towards the Sea side where it commands the Haven and contains in it about two hundred Families of Portugheses 2. Sta. Crux three leagues distant from Puerto Seguro 3. Amaro or St. Omars in America once a rich Town and well Traded by reason of the aboundance of sugar-Canes which the Countrie affordeth but since deserted as some say by the Portugheses not able to maintain the place and their trading against the Savages thereabouts who having kild likewise eaten most of the slaves at their sugar-Farms in the Countrie seemed to threaten no less to themselves The Prefecture Dos Ilheos as the Portugheses call it either from certain Islands which lye before it or from the principall Town called Ilheos seated upon a convenient Bay or Arme of the Sea about thirty leagues distant from Puerto Seguro to the North. There are said to be one hundred or one hundred and fifty Families of Portugheses in it and a few leagues from it more within land a Lake of ten or twelve leagues in compass well stored with good Fish especially those called Manati a dainty Fish for meat as hath been said and so big that as Laet reporteth some of them here are found of a thousand or eleven hundred pound weight and sometimes more The Portugheses hereabouts would quickly grow rich by the aboundance of sugar-Canes and good Cattel which the
have all imployment enough about the Cotton-wooll sugar-Canes and Tobacco which the Countrie is said to afford in good plenty CHAP. XVII Of the Country of Guiana 1. NExt to Brasil towards the North lyeth the pleasant and fruitfull Countrie of Guiana supposed not improbably to be so called from the River Wia one of the principall Rivers of the Province which yet is said to have more and fairer than any other part of America beside It is bounded on the East with the Atlantick Ocean or Mare del Nordt on the West with the Andes or rather some undiscovered Mountainous Countries which lye between the one and the other On the North it hath the great River Orenoque and on the South that of the Amazons of Orellana The Countrie lyeth on both sides of the Equator extended from the fourth degree of Southern latitude to the eighth degree of Northern yet enjoyeth a temperate and good Aire not oppressed with any excessive heat which is chiefly attributed to the Brises or Easterly windes almost perpetually every day about noon blowing upon it Towards the Sea side it is for the most part a flat and level Countrie in the more Inland parts Mountainous and swelled with Hills but in all generally of such a rich and fertil Soil that for Fâ—uits or any outward Commodities of the Earth it yeelds not to any other Province of the New-World but rather farre excelleth the most having as it were a continual Summer without Winter or Autumn the Trees never uncloathed or made bare Fruits alwaies ripe or growing to maturity the Meadows and Pastures alwaies Verdant and green and as we said so excellently well watered with Rivers that no Countrie in the World seems comparable to it in this respect And by the principall of them it is divided into four inferiour or lesser Provinces which are 1. Rio de las Amazones 2. Wiapoco or Guiana properly so called 3. Orenoque And 4. the Islands of Guiana 2. Rio de las Amazones or the Countrie of Amazons containeth all that part of Guiana which lyeth on both sides of the River Orellana of a rich and good Soil generally abounding with all sorts of Fruits and especially with those which the Americans call Totock and love extremely out of an opinion they say that it excites them to Venery whereunto they are of themselves but too much inclined and of another which they call Pita of a taste fâ—â—re more delicious and pleasing and not so hurtfull as the other The Countrie was first discovered by Francisco Orellana a Spaniard from Quito but it was only by the River Orellana and though he be credibly reported to have sailed no less than eighteen hundred leagues down the stream and to have discovered a rich and fair Countrie on both sides the River well peopled with Natives and giving in divers places no small arguments of greater wealth and riches more within Land yet such was the bad success of his second indeavors and likewise of those that followed him that as yet there seems no further report to be given at least not of any thing special concerning this part of the Countrie 3. Wiapoco or Guiana properly so called taketh up the middle part of this Province being divided as the other almost into two equall parts by the River Wiapoco which runs through the midst of it The Countrie on both sides of the River very rich and fertil and so naturally apt both for sugar-Canes Cotton-wooll and Tobacco that they are said to grow here all of them very good without planting or any Art of Husbandry In this Countrie is likewise the famous Dâ—rada as the Spaniards call it or Citie of Gold if it could be found with the reports and hopes whereof some of our own Nation seem to have been not a little possessed as well as the Spaniards Nor can I much blame them for if the stories of it had prov'd true it must have been one of the goodliest and fairest Cities of the World not to speak of the wealth Diego de Ordas the Spaniard who first brought news of it to his Countrimen being said to have travelled one whole day and half another in it before he could arrive at the Kings Palace which yet must be supposed to have stood but in the midst of the Citie But for ought appears if the indeavors of future times effect nothing more in the discovery of it than former have done it must pass for the Metropolis of Vtopia still as I think most men take it to be Places of less Magnificence but more Certainty are first Caripo This was once a Colony of English setled there by Captain Robert Harcourt in the year 1608 upon the banks of Wiapoco and not farre from the mouth of it being a place by advantage of a Rock which it hath on the one side of it of good strength and very difficult access the Aire about it sound and said to be very agreeable to English bodies 2. Gomaribo a Colony formerly of the Dutch on the North-west side of the Bay of Wiapoco but since deserted by them 3. Moyemon 4. Crewinay both of them Towns of the Natives not farre distant from the other 4. Orenoque or the third devision of this Province comprehendeth the most Northerly parts of Guiana lying upon or towards the banks of this famous River A Countrie likewise reported to be very rich and comparable to Peru it self for hidden Treasure which they say is not yet discovered only for want of diligent and industrious searching The places in it already known are only 1. Coniolaba as they call it which seems to be some Town of the Natives lying a few leagues distant from the Orenoque towards the South 2. Movequito a known Port or Haven Town upon a branch of the Orenoque much frequented and of great use to the English when they discovered those coasts 3. Wenicapora And lastly St. Thome the only Town which the Spaniards hold upon this part of the Continent situate upon the principall Channel of the Oâ—enoque and consisting of two hundred Families or thereabouts It is now a fortified place and was taken by Sir Walter Raleigh in that unfortunate Action of 1617 for which the year following though by vertue of an old attainder as some say he lost his head 5. The Islands that belong and are commonly reckoned as parts of Guiana are either such as lye scattered about the shore of the Province or such as are found at the mouth and sometimes farre within the Channel of those great Rivers which empty themselves at several parts out of this Countrie into the Sea viz. Orenoque Wiapoco Rio de las Amazones c. There are many of them but of any great name or esteem only two viz. Trinidado and Tabagâ— Trinidado lyeth at the mouth of the River Orenoque over against the Countrie of Paria from which it is separated by a Fryth or narrow Sea which Columbus at his first discovery of it and from the difficulty
not hindred or diverted by storms tide or some other accidentall cause naturally of it self and by the proper course and conduct of the waters onely beareth towards Land Beside that it is not very probable they could have subsisted alive and not been starved in so long journey as to have come by Magellans Streits or the Atlantick Ocean There be extant likewise some positive testimonies of certain persons that say they have really passed that way as of one Salvatierra a Portughese and F. Vrdanetta a Religious man mentioned by Mr. Carpenter in his Geographie and of one Juan de Fuca is he is called an ancient Greek Pilot mentioned by Mr. Purchas in his third part of Eng. Voyages pag. 849.850 who is said to have lived fourty years in America and in his own person to have discovered the passage in the year 1592. at the command of the Vice-Roy of Mexico But of what credit these testimonies shall be thought for ought I know the Reader must judge I onely report them as I finde them I could heartily wish for the honor and great advantage which the Nation might reap by it by having thereby a free passage into the South Sea and consequently a much shorter cut to the other Indies that the passage were discovered and the English well Masters of it especially if it could be made so easily as the said Pilot Juan de Fuca pretendeth and in so short a time as is the space of twenty daies or from the Coast and neer the latitude of Virginia as some others have argued and seem to hope that it may But for my part ingenuously to speak what I think I fear the Proverb may somwhat prevail upon the English in this point Quod volumus facilè credimus and that the desire we have to finde such an advantageous passage is not the least argument to make us think That it is to be found Not that I conclude there is none for that were to be too injurious against the positive depositions of those who are said to have made it and which I my self cannot disprove by any evident reason And the report of Sir Thomas Button mentioned in the same Mr. Purchas concerning a strong Tide coming from the West much about the same latitude seems to add something to the probability of the passage but that I think the discovery of it especially from the Land on this side or from any part of Europe immediatly is a business of so great difficulty that it is almost all one as if there were no passage For how many of our own Nation worthy men and of great experience and skil at Sea not to speak of our Neighbours the Dutch a People no less industrious and skilfull have with undaunted courage and resolution undertaken it at several times with great hazard of their lives and charge to the Adventurers yet alwaies forced to return without effect Those Northern Seas whither they sail Eastward or Westward being so barred and block'd up as it were with huge and perpetual mountains of Ice their nights so long their day-time so dark by reason of the continual foggs mists and flights of snow which are ever and anon falling and lastly the weather generally in those parts so extreamly cold and freezing even in the midest of summer that all things well considered it may seem an attempt of small hope and that Divine Providence by the order of Nature it self or by the natural frame and constitution of this sublunarie and terrestrial World hath set a non plus ultra to humane indeavors that way Nevertheless if the State think it expedient to make yet any further tryall in the business and to command the prosecution of it with more publique authority resolution and strength than as yet hath been used about it as from so great wisdome I cannot but expect much so for the ends abovesaid viz the honour and advantage of the Nation according to my dutie I shall wish all happie success to it But this perhaps will seem a digression I shall therefore return 4. The greatest part of America that is inhabited or commanded by the Spaniards to speak in the language of Astronomie lyeth between the Tropicks of Cancer and Capricorn or within the Torrid Zone as it is called but to speak more intelligibly to the general capacity of Readers it lyeth in the middle part of the World in respect of North and South so as it receives the raies of the Sun almost perpendicularly striking upon it all the year long and consequently should be much subject to heats and droughts as the Countries of Aethiopia Aegypt Lybia and other parts of the World that lye in the same parallel generally are But with America it is not so there is no Countrie in the World generally more temperate in respect of heat and cold than the West-Indies be The reason of the difference is partly the Brises as they call them or the Levant windes which perpetually blow upon it from the East on both sides of the Aequator together with other windes from all coasts of the Sea that doe much qualifie and abate the heats which otherwise 't is probable would be not a little troublesome especially in the plain Countrie and maritime parts of it and partly the very site and position of the Countrie it self which more within Land is generally mountainous and hilly so that from whatsoever Coast or part of the World you enter the West-Indies travelling forward you still mount upward and ascend as it were in some parts to a very great height which is true not onely of the Continent or main-Land but also of all or most of the Islands adjoyning by reason whereof not onely the Aire for the most part is found to be temperate coole and healthfull but the valleys and lower grounds also very fertil and pleasant Howbeit not in all parts of the Countrie alike either for the one or the other viz. either in respect of temperature of Aire or fertility of Soyle For we are to know the Countrie of America consisteth generally of three several sorts of Land The first whereof is flat and as it were level ground which lyeth for the most part upon the Sea Coasts and takes up no small part of the Countrie by reason that as we have said America is wholly or at least for more than three parts of four surrounded and environed by Sea The second is extream high Land as consisting of the Andes as they are called which are a certain ridge or row of mountains of such incredible altitude or height that they are not thought to be paralleld in the world again These run in a long and continued ridge through the whole Countrie of Peru or the Southern part of America from the Province of Popayan almost up to Magellans streits above a thousand leagues together the tops of them being in most parts about twenty leagues over and so perpetually covered with snow that they are not much
inhabited or known save onely upon the borders or lower skirts of them The third is a mean Land betwixt both consisting partly of mountains of lesser height yet for the most part running parallel with the Andes through the whole Countrie of Peru Southward and partly of vallies or low-land both which together they call the Sierra or Hill-Countrie And according to this diversity of site or position in the several parts or Provinces of America we are to expect a difference both in the temperature of the Aire and in the qualitie of the Soyle As for example the Plains of America for so they are commonly called that is the flat and lower parts of it which lie upon the Sea Coasts are generally hot and neither so much inhabited nor counted so healthfull yet neither are they scorched with any intolerable heats by reason of the Brises and those other frequent Sea gales which as we said are continually blowing upon them and as it were cooling them from all parts Nor yet are they parched with any immoderate droughts although it never rains upon those parts of the Countrie at any time of the year for instead thereof there falls continually every morning a certain dew which after a time condensates and turns into small pearly drops of water which doth not a little refresh the Countrie Beside that this part of America being a flat and level Countrie it is so farr from being rendred incommodious for want of water that in many places it may seem to partake somewhat too much of that Element as all along the Coast of Brasil and also on the other side of America Westward where the Country for a great part of it is rendred unhabitable by reason of the great aboundance of Waters which falling with such huge Torrents as they doe from the mountains more within Land and finding no convenient passage in those level and flat Countries doe many times drown the Lands on each side of them for a great space together or at least render the Countrie less profitable and usefull by opening so many great lakes or standing waters in all parts of the Countrie and many of them of such vast extent that they seem rather to be pettie Seas within Land and by turning so much of the other Land into marish or fenny ground as upon the Coasts of America is every where to be seen 5. Contrariwise upon the Andes and in many parts of the Province of Chile especially more towards the Streits the Aire is extream cold and not well to be indured and beside so strangely sharp and piercing of mens bodies that for strangers and such whose bodies are not used to it it is not a little dangerous to travell that way They report that in the midst of Land it makes men Sea-sick and causeth the same alterations vomitings and other distemperatures of the stomach and body but much more violent and extream which men commonly feel at their first going to Sea This happens chiefly upon the mountains Pariacaca Lucana and Sora which are part of the Andes In other places viz. about las Punas which are another ridge of mountains though lesser running parallel with the Andes in the Province of Chile the quality of the Aire is such that it takes away a mans life suddenly and before he feeleth any sensible alteration or griefe in himself either from within or without Men drop down dead as they travel in the way without finding any pain or sickness in themselves others lose their hands and feet as they travel or at least some of their fingers and toes which fall and separate themselves from the other parts of the body with no more sense or feeling than when a rotten apple falls from the tree that bare it And this how fabulous soever it may seem yet is it a certain truth Acosta and other Authors of approved credit doe avouch it from their own experience viz. of what they had found and felt in themselves and from what they had observed and seen with their eyes in others and it seems confirmed by Mr. Purchas himself who in the relation of Sir Thomas Cavendish his second voyage to the Streits which to his great misfortune happened to be in the deep of Winter and when the weather there is most intolerably cold and freezing as hath been formerly said reports a like accident namely of one Harris an English-man who going to blow his nose had the ill hap to pull it off and cast it into the fire before he was aware and of one Anthony Knivett of the same company whose toes came off with his stockings in like maner through the extremity of cold in those parts 6. But the Sierra or mean Land viz. betwixt the height of the Andes and the lowness of the Plaines as it takes up the farr greater part of the Countrie so is it generally more temperate healthfull and agreable to mens bodies It is also aboundantly well watered with fair and pleasant Rivers such as for the multitude of them and the largeness of their respective streams are not to be paralleld in any other part of the World It injoyeth constantly its proper seasons of rain and fair weather no less than Spain it self and many other Countries of Europe by reason whereof the Soile is likewise rendred so exceedingly fat and lusty that it is to be admired what they report concerning the goodness and fertility of it They have in many places two Harvests in a year as in the Island of Hispaniola reaping in and about October that which they sow in Aprill or May and in May that which they sow in October yea some say there is no kinde of Grain sown at the West-Indies but in some places or other it will ripen and be fit to reap within four moneths All kinde of hearbs roots or whatsoever fruits of the Garden as Melons Cucumbers c. in sixteen or twenty dayes at farthest In some places a bushel of Maiz sown which is their most ordinary bread-corn yeeldeth two hundred bushels of increase and a bushel of the best wheat threescore and 't is said to be an usual thing there of an acre of ground well husbanded to reap two hundred bushels or twenty five quarters of any Grain whatsoever As for Fruits I mean such as are natural and of the proper growth of the Countrie there is incredible plenty and variety of several kindes and those incomparably fairer larger bigger more luscious and pleasing to the taste than are to be found elsewhere in the World And as for such as have been transplanted thither out of Europe as most kindes of European fruits have been viz. Apples Pears Oranges Lymons Quinces Figgs c. they doe not onely thrive well but in a short time are exceedingly improved and bettered both in bigness beauty and taste onely through the richness and lustiness of the Soile It is said that an eare of wheat hath been seen there as big about as a mans arme in the
convenient Bay betwixt the two points viz. St. Nicholas to the North and Cabo de Donna Maria towards the South It 's not thought to be less than one hundred and fifty leagues in length in breadth from threescore to thirty and to contain in the compass of the whole four hundred leagues at least lying betwixt eighteen and twenty degrees of Northern latitude having an Aire somewhat infested with the morning heats but well cooled again in the afternoon by a constant winde from the Sea which they call there Virason It is for the fertility of the Soil the richest and most flourishing Countrie one of them in the World the Tâ—ees and all things else there continually clad as it were in their Summer livery the Meadows and Pastures alwaies green and of such an excellent Herbage that Cattel both breed and thrive there almost beyond beleef both great Cattel and small as Kine Sheep Hogs c. brought thither out of Spain having multiplyed to such numbers that they live wilde now in Heards as hath been said and are both hunted and killed like Stags or other Venison only for their Hides which they send yeerly into Spain and other parts of Europe as a great Merchandise and Commoditie of huge profit to them So plentifull of Sugar-Canes that 't is thought no less than one thousand Chests of refined Sugar are sent out of this only Island one year with another Nor was it formerly without good Mines both of gold and silver which whether they be now wasted and wholly exhaust or only neglected for want of Miners to work in them time may shew Of Brass and Iron they have many good Mines at present of no small profit and advantage to them The whole Island is said to be naturally divided as it were into four several quarters by four several Rivers arising out of one and the same Mountain almost in the midst of the Island that is to say 1. Jache which runneth Northward 2. Nubila towards the South 3. Yunna or Junna to the East And 4. Hatebonico to the West but others it must be confessed mention the same Rivers without any such speciall observation The chief Towns and places of this Island inhabited by Spaniards are first St. Domingo on the South side of the Island built first by Bartholmew Columbus in the year 1594 on the banks of Ozama one of the fairest Rivers of the Country towards the Sea side where it hath l kewise a good Haven or Port and on the West side of it a strong Castle It s a place of great honor and dignity at present being an Archbishops Sea and the ordinary Residence of the Governor and supream Courts for these parts of America but flourished more formerly with resort and multitudes of people than now it doth which is attributed to the later discoveries of Mexico and Peru by occasion whereof aboundance of the Inhabitants and not a little of the trade likewise hath been drawn from it 2. Salvaleon twenty eight leagues distant from St. Domingo towards the East 3. Juguana or Sta. Maria del Puerto in the more western parts of the Island a small Town not above a league distant from the Sea where it hath a good Haven but supposed not to be much fortified 4. Cotuy once a rich Town in the North parts of the Island and well frequented now said to be in a manner deserted 5. Conception de la Vega built by Columbus himself and from whence he had his Title Duke de la Vega it lyeth twenty or thirty leagues northward of St. Domingo 6. Puerto de la Plata or the Silver-Haven fourty leagues distant from St. Domingo likewise towards the North it is the second Town for wealth and trade in the whole Island commodiously seated on a Bay or Arme of the Sea and fortified with a Castle 7. Azua or New-Compostella twenty four miles or eight leagues westward of St. Domingo and a place much frequented by reason of the good sugar-Canes which the Country thereabouts yeeldeth There is likewise 8. St. Jago de los Cavalleros ten leagues northward of La Vega. 9. Monte Christo fourteen leagues westward of Plata and lastly 10. Zeybo on the South-side of the Island twenty leagues distant from St. Domingo all of them pleasant and handsome Towns and well seated but destitute of Inhabitants very much as likewise the whole Island generally is the Natives being all destroyed or Transplanted long since and the Spaniards themselves by the following discoveries and conquests upon the Continent invited to better quarters Of Cuba and Jamaica 1. VVEstward or rather to the North-weast of Hispaniola lyeth Cuba parted from the other by a Frith or narrow Channel which runneth betwixt the Capes of St. Nicholas belonging to Hispaniola and that called Mayzi belonging to Cuba On the North it hath a Frie of little Islands called as above said the Leucayae Islands so many and so thick scattered that they serve for no small security and defence of the Island on that side beside a part of the Peninsula of Florida which coasteth it likewise Northward on the west it hath the Country of Jucatan which is part of the Continent but at a distance of fourty or fifty leagues and on the South Jamaica It is reckoned to be in length from Cape Mayzi which looks towards Hispaniola to the Cape of St. Anthony which is upon the Bay of Mexico two hundred and thirty leagues but in breadth neither proportionable nor certain being in some places not above fifteen or sixteen leagues over in none above fourty But for fertility of soil contending with Hispaniola it self and for temperature healthiness of aire much exceeding it nor less rich formerly in good Mines both of gold and silver plentifully stored at present not only with Sugar-Canes of the best growth but likewise with aboundance of Ginger-roots Cassia Fistula Mastique Aloes Cynnamon Long-Pepper of America as they call it and divers sorts of spices The Pastures no less abounding with Cattell of all sorts especially of European breed the Rivers and coasts of the Sea with good Fish no scarsity of Fowl whether wild or tame good Mines of Brass and Iron still found with some Gold in the Rivers especially those which fall into the Bay Pagua or the south-side of the Island The Woods where the Country is mountainous and rocky as in some parts it is well replenished with Timber and many odoriferous trees beside from which they gather a certain Rosin or Gumme not less precious and usefull than the Storax or sweet Gumme so called of which the Herborists speak so much In a word the only inconvenience which the Spaniards found in it was from Serpents which the Natives out of an old superstition among them had preserved so long they came to bee grieviously annoyed by them at last and when they would have destroyed them could not what remedy the Spaniards have since provided against them appeares not The River Caute which is one