large Tomes De Rebus publ Anseaticis gives no positive account of the first original of this Confederacy but seems to bring it down from the time of Henry Duke of Brunswic surnamed the Lion Henry Suderman who was sometime Counsellor to the Hans-Towns fetches its Institution far further then the beginning of the thirteenth Century or later end of the twelfth which is the time usually pitcht upon by other Historians With how little probability these opinions are back'd is easie to observe tho perhaps after the most diligent enquiry we shall not be able to guess right our selves For Lubeck has been always look'd upon as the chief of all the Hans-Towns and for that reason their High Court of Judicature was kept there Therefore 't is very likely that this City was one of the first that enter'd into that solemn League and Covenant Now 't is certain that Lubeck was only built towards the later end of the twelfth Century and it is hard to imagine that this Town and Hamburg would enter into any such League as long as they were under the yoke of the then inconsiderable King of Denmark which they did not shake off before the year 1226. Besides if Lubeck were then one of the Hans-Towns we should meet with an account of some succour sent her when she was engaged in war against Waldemar and his two Sons Eric Abel and Christopher Kings of Denmark which was ended about the year 1259 and yet no Historian of those times mentions any such thing We may therefore probably enough conclude that the said Cities enter'd not into any Confederacy till after the sixtieth year of the thirteenth Century at which time Peace was first concluded with the Danes and Trade began to be improv'd in these parts of the German Empire What Angelius reports of his having seen some Charters and Priviledges granted to the united Hans-Towns which are dated in the year 1194 is as little to be credited as the stories which others of the German Historians relate of our King Henry the Third's granting of large Priviledges to the same Cities in the 1206 whereas 't is well known that this Prince was not advanced to his Fathers Throne before the year 1216 and was then only nine years of age Polydor Virgil to whom we know what credit to give in those particulars especially wherein he dissents from the rest of our English Historians witnesses indeed for these men that Henry the Third did grant some such kind of priviledges to the Hans-Towns as they mention but the same Author will tell them that this King reign'd till the year 1273. And Angelius when he comes to ransack old Norwegian papers for testimonies of the Antiquity of this Society can produce nothing of unquestionable authority as he phrases it written before the year 1278. Afterwards when he comes to give us a short Compendium of their Laws which he has transcribed out of Domannus the oldest amongst them does not bear date beyond the year 1312. So that possibly this Company was no proper Body Politic before that time But the German Historians differ as much in assigning the derivation of the word Hans â—â—ne and the reasons why these Confederate Cities should call themselves by that name as they do in pitching upon the time of the first Institution of their Confederacy We shall give the Reader a short catalogue of the most probable opinions and leave it to his judgment to embrace or reject any of them as he shall see cause First then some derive the word Hanse or Anse for in Latin Authors we meet with Vrbes Anseaticae and Ansaticae as well as Hansaticae from the Dutch am zee or am see signifying near unto or upon the Sea-shore because say they the Hans-Towns were at first only a company of Cities which lying upon the Sea-shore enter'd into a Confederacy meerly for the advancement of Trade by Navigation And that this was the sole end of their entring into a League and not the securing of their Territories which was the thing which some Cities upon the Rhine proposed to themselves upon their entring into the like Confederacy they prove from the testimonies of Chytraeus and Crantzius who are Authors of good credit and authority 2. Others bring the word from Hansa which in the old High Dutch tongue signifies a Common Council Thence the Greek word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Mat. xxvi 4. which our English Interpreters have render'd they consulted is in some ancient Dutch Versions translated sie haben ein Hansa gemacht 3. Wehner tells us that in old Charters of some of these Cities instead of Hanse-Stadte as the Germans now-a-days usually write the word he has met with Hayn-Stadte which signifies in the ancient Saxon Dialect a City situate in a Wood such as are a great many of the Hans-Towns in Saxony and not as some explain it a Town in a pleasant Valley or plain Field 4. The fourth opinion and last that looks like a probable conjecture is That they had the name of Hans-Towns from that preeminence and precedency which they justly challeng'd amongst the rest of the German Cities for the same reason as great Lords and Princes of the Empire are sometimes stiled Grosse Hansen Gewaltige Hansen c. And hence several old German proper names fetch their original as Anselmus Hanshelm a man famous for his Helmet Ansbrechtus Hanswert one that deserves to be made a Lord Ansfridus Hansfried a Prince of a peaceable temper and the like And the ordinary name of Hans used at this day all Germany over is not as many think a contraction of Johannes but a part of those others abovemention'd But at present Hans is not so honourable a Title as formerly for the Germans call an impertinent medling fellow such as the old Latins would have named Ardelio and the Greeks 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Hans in allen gassen and Hans unmuht Hans filtzmaul Hans sparmund Praal Hans Bauer-Hans and the like are lookt upon as Nick-names of the highest ignominy and disgrace It would be worth a critical Etymologist's while to enquire whether the word Hans amongst other of its significations did not denote something relating to trade and merchandise since to this day he that determines as Judg all controversies amongst the Merchants and Tradesmen of Ratisbon is call'd Hans-Graff The Hans-Towns of Germany are usually divided into four Circles Number distinguished by the names of the four principal Cities amongst them viz. Lubeck Colln Brunswic and Dantzig To the Circle of Lubeck belong the Cities of Hamburg Rostock Wismar Stralsund Lunenburg Stetin Anclam Golnau Gripswald Colberg Stargard Stolpe c. To that of Colln Wesel Duissburg Emmerick Warburg Vnna Hammen Munster Minden Osnabrug Dortmund Sost Herford Paderborn Limgow Billefeld Warberg Lippstadt Cossfeld Nimwegen Sutphen Rurnmund Arnheim Venloh Elburg Harderwic Thiela Bommel Deventer Campen Swol Groningen Bolsswerder Gorcum Hinlopen Staveren Embden Briel Wieringen Middelburg and some more of less note To
which they say happens frequently in the great and sandy Desarts But these are very few and I suppose as easily blown asunder as brought together However these deserve here no particular consideration This rising of the Earth in large Continents is doubtless very great tho none either have or will ever be at the trouble and charge to measure it yet some estimation may be made by the length and swiftness of Rivers It is commonly said that a Ship is not able to sail against that stream whose declivity is one pace in an hundred yet some declivity there must be and as they say seldom is it less then one in five hundred Suppose then the Nile which runs in the greatest Continent Africk which we know in the world it disembogues into the Mediterranean Sea in 31 deg of Northerly Latitude and ariseth out of the Lake Zaire which is in 10 deg or as some say 14 of Southerly Latitude in all 41 deg which comes to about 2460 miles English if running streight but because of its bendings it may be well estimated 3000 miles which allowing two foot to a mile comes to six thousand feet if it move with as slow a motion as can be but considering that it is a swift River the mud not setling till it come to the Sea and hath in it divers great Cataracts the Lake of Zaire must needs be much higher then the mouth of Nilus But the height of mountains is more certainly and easily known and divers of them have been measured as one of the highest hills betwixt Yorkshire and Lancashire Pendle-hill if I be not mis-informed was not found to exceed half a mile in perpendicular height Olympus somewhat above a mile and some others as El Pico in the Isle of Teneriffe yet higher But the certainty we know not The manner of measuring and calculating is thus which is much easier in such a mountain as Teneriff or Pendle-hill being one peak or top standing in a plain then in those Juga or ledges of mountains which run thro and divide most of the great Continents of the world whereof the highest may be still higher then the other Let b c d represent a mountain whose height a c is thus found Take two stations in a straight line from it the first at b not far from the foot the other at e a considerable distance from it from each of these stations take the angles at the top b c a e c a then out of 90 subduct b c a the remainder is the angle c b a which also being subducted from 90 the remainder is the angle c b e. Therefore in the triangle c b e we have one side e b viz. the distance of the two stations which must be exactly measured and all the angles for c e b is the complement of the other two to 180 then say As the sine of the angle e c b is to the side e b So is the sine of the angle c e b to b c. Having then in the rectangular triangle b c a one side b c and all the angles for a b c is the complement of b c a to 90 say then As the Radius is to the sine of b c a So is b c to c a the height By the Quadrat Divide 10000 by the number of parts cut at each station then say As the difference of the Quotients is to the distance betwixt the statitions So is 100 to the height This great Globe is not only divided into Land and Water Divisions of the Earth but many other ways in respect to them As some are Continents which are great parts of Land without any Sea Islands are small parts encompassed by water Peninsula or Chersonesus is a part of Land which would be called an Island were it not for an Isthmus or neck of land which joins it to the Continent A Mountain or Rock jutting out into the Sea is called a Promontory Cape or Headland Again the Ancients divided all they knew of the Earth into three parts Europe Asia and Africa of each of these in their several places but another Hemisphere having been lately discovered there is commonly added to these America as the fourth part Others also name two more the Lands under the North and South Poles which indeed were not comprehended in the former division yet because we know not whether there be Land or only Sea as under the North Pole seems to be it is not expedient to account them distinct parts till better discovered Our Mariners that went with design to pass under or near the North Pole in their search of a passage to China and arrived as far as 82 deg of Latitude found nothing but some few Islands the rest as they could see being in the midst of Summer nothing but Ice Some do imagine that the three parts of the habitable world received their division from the three Sons of Noah and C ham indeed obtained Africa but Japhet dwelt in the Tents or habitations of Shem tho in process of time his posterity seems to have peopled the greatest part of Europe The reason of the names we despair of knowing they having been forgotten even in Herodotus's time there is no hopes now of retrieving them See the discourse concerning the Map of Europe Lastly the parts of the Land before-mentioned The particular observations in the descriptions are very opportune for the separating and distinguishing Countries Nations and Governments The knowledge and consideration whereof is the chiefest and most useful design of this whole Work and all others of the like nature For it little conduceth to know places unless we be also informed of what is contained what actions performed and what concerns our selves may have in them In those therefore we shall consider the names situation bounds of each Country as also what Cities Havens Towns Forts likewise what Mountains Valleys Caves Fountains and other such remarkable and to us and our Country unusual things as nature it self hath formed To which shall be added the condition and quality of the soil and its productions in order to the discovering what in every place abounds and what therein may be communicated to other Countries or what may probably be carried to them in order to trade In every Nation also account shall be given of their original Language Manners Religion Employments c. that if any art or science useful to society be there eminent it may be transferred into our own Country Much more considerable are their Governments Civil and Military their Magistrates Laws Assemblies Courts Rewards and Punishments and such like Neither must we omit the manner of educating their youth in arts liberal and mechanick taught in their Schools Universities Monasteries Shops also and the like Their manner of providing for their poor of all sorts either in Hospitals or Workhouses Lastly it will be expected that we give an account of the History or actions and successes of each
Their Lodgings are open to all comers who are welcome to such entertainment as the House affords Tacitus and others give the same account of them Nor have the German Noblemen to this day degenerated from the good nature and hospitality of their forefathers The relation which a modern Italian writer gives of Sweden is as applicable to Germany Per le strade non sono assassini si che si va molto sicuramente Pochissimo si spendi da viandanti non usando di dimandar cosa alcuna per conto dell ' Albergo o del cibo i. e. There are here no murders nor robberies committed on the High-ways but you may travel with all imaginable security Besides you travel cheaper in this Country because you pay nothing or very little for your victuals and lodging The only inconvenience you meet with on the Road is the being condemn'd to ride night and day in a Post-Waggon so they call it which will carry you little faster then a foot-pace If you chance to have the priviledge of resting two or three hours in the middle of a winter-night the best bedding you are to expect is clean straw upon which all that meet together men and women Nobles and Peasants promiscuously tumble That the Germans were anciently men of courage â—alour and took that name from their prowess we have already shew'n Willichius gives this high character of the present Germans Vincuntur quidem Germani sed non nisi a Germanis i. e. 'T is indeed possible the Germans may be conquer'd but it must be done by Germans We have a good proof of this in their late wars wherein the King of Sweden Gustavus Adolphus vanquish'd the Emperor with his own Subjects That great Prince's Army had been quickly overthrown and swallow'd up by the Imperialists had not the Saxons and Brandenburgers helpt him out The only instance of want of courage in a German Army which we meet with in History is that which we find recorded of the Count of Mansfield's Army consisting of fifty thousand men who suffer'd a small body of ten thousand Turks to pass by their Trenches without disturbance and to relieve Gran a great Town in Hungary before their faces But we are not to argue from this one passage that the High Dutch Soldiers want valour We may be sufficiently convinc'd of the contrary when we consider that the Imperial Crown never yet fell from their heads notwithstanding the many vigorous assaults made by some of their potent neighbours Donatus Gianottus a late Italian Historian confesses that Non e dubio che se le forze dell ' Alemagna fusseno unite habberebbe l' Italia a temer di loro molto piu che di quelle del Turco i. e. 'T is no question but if the Princes of Germany would amicably compose differences among themselves and unite their forces Italy would have reason to fear them much more then the Turks And any man will find reason to believe him that shall consider what vast numbers of fighting men most of their Electors and some of their less potent Princes can raise upon occasion but of this more hereafter Besides the German Soldiers are generally tough hardy fellows who can scarce meet with harsher entertainment and worse lodging in any foreign Camp then they have been bred up to at home 'T is a known Adage Germani duros possunt sufferre labores They are a people used to hardship and therefore can easily undergo the inconveniences of war The Croats and Switzers the former for Horsemen and the later for Foot are famous all Europe over The only blot in the Scutcheon of a German Soldier is that he is too mercenary We have a remarkable instance of this in the Army commanded by Frideric Elector Palatine of the Rhine at the battel of Prague where the greatest part of that brave General 's Army threw down their weapons crying out Gelt Gelt i. e. Money Money intimating that without better pay they were resolved to fight no longer And the King of France has found the truth of this in his late victories many of which even in Germany were obtained by the assistance of German Forces which deserted their Country and fought under his Banner in hopes of better pay then they could expect from the Confederates The High Dutch Commanders have been branded with ignorance of Martial Discipline Martial Discipline and want of conduct But the many famous Generals which their Country has bred up within the compass of little more then this last Century have taken off that scandal Such were 1. Frideric the Second Count Palatine of the Rhine who bravely defended Vienna against the Turks and first introduced the Reformed Religion into the Palatinate 2. Albert Elector of Brandenburg who in some of the Dutch Histories is stiled the Achilles of Germany 3. Albert Wallenstein Duke of Frideland who equall'd Gustavus Adolphus in valour and prudent conduct and wanted nothing but success to make him as renown'd a General To these we may add the present Elector of Brandenburg of which excellent Prince we shall have occasion to give a character hereafter with many others The great recreation amongst the Nobility Recreations in Summer is hunting the Deer and wild Boars with both which kinds of Venison the Woods and Forests in Germany abound 'T is the fashion in many of the Princes Courts to hang up the pictures of such huge Boars as have been taken by them which is near a-kin to the custom practis'd by some of our English Gentry of hanging up the skins of Foxes and Badgers and Antlers of Stags in their Halls In the winter when the Snow lies thick on the ground they have a custom in Cities and great Towns to ride round the streets in Sledges which are shaped much like the Sella Curulis or Triumphal Chariot among the Romans if the writers of the Latin Antiquities have described it right and drawn by a Horse richly trapped with a great number of little Bells and Feathers of divers colours Tacitus reports of the ancient Germans Games that they were immoderate players at Dice insomuch that they would game away their Money Clothes Estates and last of all their Liberty the loser being bound to resign himself up into perpetual slavery to the Conqueror This unreasonable kind of gaming is long since laid aside but they still retain among them a great respect for the play at Chess at which they are generally expert Gamesters This game in their tongue is call'd Schachspiel which signifies exactly the same thing with the Latin Latrunculorum ludus For in the old German Laws collected by Lindenbrogius and others Schacher or Schachman signifies a Robber and Schach Latrocinium Theft The Learned Prince Augustus late Duke of Brunswic-Wulfenbuttel who published an accurate Explication of Trithemius's Cryptography under the feigned name of Gustavus Selenus wrote an incomparable Treatise concerning Chess-play in the German tongue wherein he gives a learned
account of the original progress and laws of that Royal Game Their women are of a tolerable complexion Women but commonly more corpulent then in any of their neighbouring Nations excepting the Netherlanders who glory in their fat They are much more obsequious to their Husbands and have far less of the House at Command then the English or French Ladies neither do they ever as it is the custom with us sit at the high end of the Table Which made Caracalla speaking of the Germans say That no Nation knew how to govern their wives but they that make the Sun of the Feminine gender and the Moon of the Masculine For the Germans say der Mond and die Sonn where der is the Masculine Article and die the Feminine Our English Saxons brought over the same rule into Britain and for a while observ'd it Whence in an Anglo-Saxonic Manuscript entituled De Aequinoctio vernali in Sir John Cotton's Library we find under ðh am ci cule yrnðh seo sunne sc mona ðh a tƿelf tacna i. e. Vnder this Circle speaking of the Zodiac move the Sun Moon and twelve Signs And again Hegelympðh geaegðh er ge to þaere unnan ge to þam monam i. e. 'T is ordinary both for the Sun and Moon Where as hath been noted by the Reverend Dr. Marshall in his learned Observations upon his own Edition of the Saxon Gospels Se and þam are Masculines but Seo and þaere are Feminines The like has been observ'd in the Arabic by our famous Dr. Pocock But to return 'T is an insolent rudeness among the High Dutch to salute any woman with a kiss except she have been bred in England France or some other foreign Nation where that fashion is observed The only formal greeting they have is by a mutual touch of the hand Their Marriages and Burials are for the most part wonderfully expensive Marriages and Burials and in some places so extravagantly costly that an ordinary man will scarce recover the charges of his Fathers Funeral or his own Marriage in seven years after They always keep a Marriage-Feast or Hochzeit according to their quality Some of these Entertainments last a month all which time the new married Couple keep open house for all comers They send the Bell-man or common Cryer round the Parish to invite in all their neighbours who send in Wine or some other part of the Entertainment before them They use no Chimneys Lodging unless it be to dress their meat in the Kitchin but live in Stoves which are heated to what degree they please by an Oven in the corner or other part of the Room They ly commonly betwixt two Feather-beds when they are at home tho Straw be the best bedding you meet with on the Road. Of the GERMAN Tongue MOst foreigners that do not understand the German tongue are strangely prejudic'd against the learning of it looking upon it as an ungentile barbarous and rough language All which aspersions have been first cast upon it by such as were too lazy to take the pains to study it or else too dull after all their labour to apprehend it The French use to say Qu'il faille parler par la langue Francoise seulement aux grands Seigneurs mais par la langue Alemande aux mechanicques et aux Rustiques i. e. That a man should speak French only to Noblemen and great persons but confer with Trades-men and Peasants in High Dutch When John Lang Ambassador from the Emperor Ferdinand the First resided in the Court of Poland an extraordinary intimacy hapned to be contracted betwixt him and Peter Roysy the King of Spain's Minister who hearing his own Servants muttering over some broken pieces of Dutch which some of Lang's Retinue had taught them told Lang The Germans did not speak but thunder and he fancied 't was in this language that God forbid our first Parents Paradise To which Lang is said to have reply'd But the Serpent had before that tempted Eve in Spanish It must be confessed Pronunciation that there is a vast difference betwixt the pronunciation of the High Dutch and that of other Languages deriv'd from the Latin This made Pomponius Mela say long since that the German proper names were not fitted to a Roman mouth And from hence it comes that in the Latin Historians which treat of the affairs of Germany we meet with such strange unintelligible monsters of words when they endeavour to put a Latin termination to a Dutch word learnt only by the ear A great number of consonants meeting together in one word are enough to choak an Italian or Frenchman insomuch that some of both those Nations after they have spent the greatest part of their lives in Germany are scarce able to speak one intelligible sentence in High Dutch The Germans tell a story of a French-man who had spent four and twenty years in the service of one of their Nobles who one day hearing him sputter his broken language ask'd him If he was not ashamed after so long time spent in Germany to speak Dutch no better To which Monsieur replied I look upon 't as a very unreasonable thing to expect that any man should in so small a time as twenty-four years understand so crabbed a tongue There are thousands of words in the High Dutch which can never possibly be pronounced by a man whose tongue has been accustomed to a soft and easie language How would an Italian Spaniard or French-man mangle and spoil these and the like compound words Herbstfruchte Marcktfreyheit Pfrundpflicht Sturmstreich Slupfloch Dachsjacht Kornschacherer c. which nevertheless a Dutch boy of four or five years old will run over without stammering Pronunciation does exceedingly vary in different Climates and the inhabitants of cold Countries have generally a much harsher tone then those who are bred up in a warmer air But however the German tongue is far from any grating harshness 'T is a noble and manly language which as one has well observed of it better becomes a General at the head of his Army then a Gallant courting his Mistress The excellency of a tongue cannot be better discern'd then by resolving it into its first principles and taking a strict survey of it in its Letters Monosyllables Compounds Derivatives and Syntax Tho Tacitus be positive in asserting Letters that neither men nor women understood the use of Letters amongst the ancient Germans yet we are since sufficiently convinced of the contrary The Inscriptions of those many Runic Monuments some of which were erected many years before Tacitus's days which have been of late discover'd in the King of Denmark's Dominions will evidently demonstrate that some part at least of this large Nation knew how to express their mind in characters The word Letter is of extremely ancient use in the Northern languages since we find it in several of the oldest Inscriptions collected by Wormius But whence it should fetch its original is not