wine which they heere call Maluasia and is from hence transported almost into all countries hath made this iland famous all the world ouer This kind of wine old writers called Pramnium as Bellonius recordeth Volaterran is of opinion that it is called Maluisia for Aruisia by the addition of one letter And he furthermore addeth that that kind of vine was first brought into Creta from the cape Aruisium in the ile Chios now Scio and therefore the wines were called vina aruisia Heere is great store of Cypresse trees whereof they make their ships which are of such great height as Dom. Niger reporteth that it is a most goodly fight to behold In this iland was the Maze or Labyrinth built by Daedalus after the patterne as Plinie saith of that in Aegypt A mention of which as George Alexander the Lieutenant of this iland for the Venetians affirmeth in Volaterran do remaine vnto this day There is a mountaine saith he cut through hollow euery way with many windings and turnings and hath one onely narrow and straite entrance The guide a man that well knoweth the place goeth before with a burning torch directing the way in and out and shewing the strange cranks in the darke corners But Peter Bellone a curious searcher of ancient monuments and antiquities and one that in our age diligently viewed this iland saith that this in old time was a quarry of stone not a Labyrinth Notwithstanding that the people of the country do so call it which indeed is more probable seeing that Pliny affirmeth that in his time there remained no signe of it But of this place take this description of P. Bellone There is a place between Gnosium and Cortina which hauing been obserued to be verie conuenient for the cutting and digging out of stone the country people made there a Stone-mine lapidicinam out of which when as many stones were digged there were many windings and turnings left so that he which by himselfe will venture to go vp and downe in this stone-pit he shall light vpon many crooks and by-waies and may easily loose himselfe Neere to the riuer Leth is this falsly-supposed-labyrinth the which if any be desirous to see he must needs vse the help of some one or other of the country people of the next village to go in before him with candle to guide and direct him But in it such a number of Battes do lodge that except a man do take great heed they will by their flying vp and downe put out the candle with their wings In the bottome of the pitte are found great heaps of Battes dong and their little yong ones yet hanging vpon the sides and wals The dammes when they can no longer flie do not cleaue and sticke to the wall nor stand vpon their feet but there they hang vpon the beams and rafters as our Battes do in the clifts of timber and holes of walles Thus farre Bellonius The like story vnto this altogether as Bellonius reporteth it in my mind I haue seen when as for recreation I trauelled from Rome to Hostia and in my iourney at the hauen of Traiane I went vnder the ground first hiring mine host to go before me with a light that I might view the ruines of the same It was anciently dedicated to Iupiter because that heere old folks did thinke he was bred and brought vp and at length buried Bordonius affirmeth that vpon the North side of this iland there is a great caue vnderneath the earth made by the labour and industrie of man forty cubites in length and foure in breadth which at this day they call Iupiters tombe and that vpon the head of it yet to this day his Epitaph remaineth written in great Capitall letters Strabo writeth that the people haue been long since accounted for the best Mariners as being wholly inuironed with the sea and from thence arose that by-word Cretensis mare nescit A Cretian hath no skill in sailing They haue of old been very infamous for their leuity deceit lying and other such like vices Heere hence sprong these prouerbs Cretiza cum Cretensi Cretensis Cretensem Cretensis cum Aeginate E Creta raptus c. of which thou maist read in Erasmus his Chiliades Wherefore they are also ill reported of by S. Paul for the same faults But I feare me least that which hath commonly been spoken of the Cretian may indeed be truly verified of many other Nations nay I would to God that all Nations wheresoeuer all the world ouer were not in this of kinne to the Cretians L. Caecilius Metellus Creticus first brought this iland vnder the command of the Romans about the yeare 685. after the building of Rome Afterward it was subiect to the Emperours of Constantinople Then it was giuen to Bonifacius of Monteferrato by whom it was sold to the Venetians in the yeare of Christ 1194. to whom at this day it doth belong Amongst the ancient Geographers Strabo hath curiously described this iland Amongst the latter writers Domi. Niger Volaterran Vadian Zieglerus and Bened. Bordonius haue done the like But most excellently of all others and exactly Iodocus Ghistelius in his iourney to Hierusalem and Bellonius in his obseruations Iodocus à Meggen also hath something of this Iland in his Peregrination to Ierusalem worth the obseruation and reading We are beholding to that braue nobleman The Honourable Sign Francisco Superantia a Gentleman of Venice not only a louer of the Mathematicks and earnest student of Geographie but a worthy esteemer of all maner of learning Certaine Ilands in the sea ARCHIPELAGO THe Aegaean sea now called Archipelago conteineth many ilands as the Cyclades Sporades and diuers others of which some of the chiefe we haue described in this plotte NEGROPONTE sometime called Eubooea his chiefe city then was called Chalcis now they call it Negroponte whereof the whole iland tooke the name It was not long since wholly subiect vnto the Venetians from whom it was taken by the Turks about the yeare of Christ 1471. It yeeldeth great plenty of oile corne and wine and is of all things that the earth bringeth forth very fertile especially it affoordeth very good wood for the making of shippes and gallies as Anonymus reporteth who wrote of the sacking and taking of it The inhabitants which is almost generally true in all the iles of this sea are partly Greeks and partly Turks but each vseth his owne language and religion NICSIA in old time Naxos is accounted one of the most fertile ilands of this sea It yeeldeth good store of Wine Some do thinke that heere is a veine of Gold but such is the slouth and negligence of the people that yet it is not knowne where about it is Heere is a kind of Waspe whose sting they report to be deadly Heere are very many Battes It was sometime belonging to Iohanni Quirino a nobleman of Venice afterward it came into the possession of a certaine captaine named Iacobo Crispo whom Solimus the
Tiroen Armagh Colrane Donergall Formanagh and Cauen On all sides round about Ireland in the sea as also in the baies riuers lakes and fresh water are heere and there many small ilands whereof some are fertile others wast and barren of which to speake seuerally would require a larger discourse then heere we are allowed Coelestinus Pope of Rome in the yeare of CHRIST 431. sent into Britaine Paladius a Bishop as Prosper Aquitanus writeth to purge it of the Pelagian he esie wherewith it was but lately distained and by this meanes also at the same time caused Christian religion to be planted in Ireland Palladius died in Britaine before he had brought to passe that which he came for whereupon Patricke a Brittaine and of kinne to Martinus Turonensis was by Celestine put in his place who with such wonderfull successe did preach the Gospell in Ireland that he conuerted the greatest part of that I le vnto Christianity that he well deserued the name of The Irish Apostle From hence after that at sundrie times diuers colonies if I may so vse the word of learned and religious men were sent into sundrie parts of Europe and were not only the great patrons and planters of the Gospell there but founders of Monasteries cities and towns as schooles of that profession In those bloudy warres of the barbarous Saxons all scholes of learning in Brittaine were shut vp and all religion almost wholly banished so that whosoeuer was desirous of instruction that way was constrained to seeke for it in Ireland and after these wars ended those which returned brought with them not only the Irish letters which yet the same charecters common to both nations do plainly shew but also liberall arts and sciences which together with Christianity they taught the Saxons To these the Reader may adioine such things as Henry of Huntington Polydore Virgill William Newbery Iohn Maior and others haue written of this in their seuerall histories Daniel Rogers hath set forth a description of this Iland in verse dedicated to Thomas Phediger And M. William Camden in prose hath most exactly described the same in his Britannia But Richard Stanihurst a worthy gentleman this countrie man borne hath this other day put forth a seueral treatise of the history and state of this iland Baptista Boazio hath described it in a mappe apart by it selfe dedicated to the late Queene Elizabeth and my good friend M. Speed with no lesse care and diligence hath done the same in his Imperium Brittannicum or Empire of Great Brittaine lately set forth and dedicated to his Highnesse The Isles of the AZORES SOme are of opinion that these Isles situate in the Atlantick or West Ocean are so named by the Spaniards from a kinde of Hauks which they call Azor. And in the plurall number Açores One writes but fondlie that they are so called from the French word Essorer which signifieth to drie or wither In Latin a man may call them Accipitrarias or the Isles of Hauks and in Greeke 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Our Netherlanders terme them De vlaemsche eilanden that is The flemish Islands because they are thought first to haue beene discouered by certaine Flemish Marchants of Bruges At that time they said they could find nothing vpon them but trees especiallie great store of Cedars and woods and foules of diuers sorts and thither they sent inhabitants to possesse and manure the said Isles Afterward they submitted themselues to the Portugales vnder whose gouernement they yet remaine Lewes Marmolius fol. 38. reports that they were discouered about the yeare 1455. Vndoubtedly auncient writers knew them not yet might they name them perhaps For whether they specified them vnder the name of Cassiterides I cannot be assured The Spanish fleets laden with Indian commodities doe vsually in their returne touch at these Isles before they ariue at Lisbone or Cales One strange thing haue I heard concerning the soile or the heauenly influence or if I may so say the Genius of these Isles For sailing from these parts of the world towards America so soone as you are past the said Isles you are freed from gnats fleas lice and all kinde of noisome vermin which beyond the Açores doe immediately die and come to nothing They are in number nine and thus called by the Portugales The Isle of S. Michael Terçera S. Georges Isle Pico Fayal Flores Cueruo and the Isle of S. Marie all which we will particularly entreat of TERÇERA THis Isle is called Terçera because it is the third in order as you saile from Spaine And from this one the common mariners confusedly call the whole nine by the name of Terçeras It abounds with corne and fruits neither is it destitute of wine The Inhabitants are greatly inriched by their Madder wherewith clothes are died red In this Isle growes plenty of this commodity especially about the places commonly called Los Altares and Falladores Angra the head city is most strongly fortified with an impregnable rocke or bulwarke called Brazil This Isle also from the name of our blessed Sauiour the Spaniards call Isola del buen Iesu PICO THis Isle was so named from a mountaine therein rising sharpe in forme of a round Pyramis or Sugar-loafe For whatsouer is naturally of that shape is by the Portugals called Pico This hill is three miles high within it is hollow and full of darcke caues At the foote of this mountaine Eastward there is a spring of fresh water which sometimes dischargeth fierie streames and stones burning hoat and that with so great force and violence that it sends them packing as it were with a current by steepe and lower places euen to the sea whereas of the multitude of these stones is made a promontory or headland commonly called Misterij It is distant from the said fountaine 12. miles At this present it stretcheth a mile and halfe further into the sea in regard of the continual increase of this heape of stones They are much deceiued which write that this Isle was so named from the bird called Picus Martius in English the woodpecker FAYAL THis Isle is so named of the Beech-tree For the Portugals call the Beech Faya and a place planted with Beeches Fayal That heere are yet in this Isle certaine families of the Flemish race which first inhabited the same namely such as are called Bruyn Vtrecht c. I haue learned from a Portugale of good creditte Linschott also an eye-witnesse in his Iournall published in Dutch writeth that in this very Isle there is a riuer called by the Portugales Ribera des Fiamengos or the riuer of Flemings and saith further that all the Inhabitants of this Isle came originally out of Flanders and that they doe as yet much fauour the Flemish nation Concerning the residue namely Flores so called of abundance of Flowers Cueruo of Crowes Gracioça of pleasantnesse or the Isles of S. George S. Marie and S. Michael so denominated of those saints for it is vsuall with the Spaniards
the Portugals still called Cussij of Cush I make no question The people are blacke or of a deep tawny or blackish colour and blacke we say in our common prouerbe will take none other hue Whereupon the Prophet Ieremy in the 23. verse of the 13. chapter of his prophecy saith thus Can ישוכ Cushi the Abyssine or Blacka-moore change his skinne or the leopard his spots For the same reason also the learned Diuines do iudge that Dauid in the title or superscription of the seuenth Psalme by Cush did meane Saul for that his deadly hate was such toward him that by no good meanes that he might vse he could make him change his mind more than an Indian doth his skinne as Kimchi the great Rabbine doth interpret this place The people are by profession Christians as appeareth by the letters of the said Dauid written vnto Pope Clement the seuenth Of whose manner of life customes and religion we haue gathered these few lines out of the trauels of Francis Aluares written and imprinted in the Italian tongue In these countries there are very many Monasteries and Religious houses both of men and women Into the Monasteries of the men there is neither woman nor any liuing creature of the female sex that may enter or once looke within the gates Their Monkes which heere do hold their Lent for fifty daies together do fast for the most part only with bread and water For in these countries there is small store of fish especially in the vpland places for although the riuers are well stored of fish yet they giue not their mind to fishing because they know not how to catch them there is none skilled in that art In time of Lent certaine of these Monkes do not eat any bread at all only they liue vpon rootes and herbs some of them for all that time do neuer go to bed nor sleepe but as they sit in the water vp to the chinne In their Churches they haue bels as we haue but for the most part made of stone Their Ministers and Priests are married They say Masse and do go in procession with crosses and censers like as they vse in some Churches in Europe The Friars do weare their haire long but their Priests do not so neither of them weare any shoes nor any man neither Churchman nor Layman may once enter within the Church dores with shoes on his feet They keep Sundaies and Holy-daies vpon which they do no manner of worke They are all circumcised both men and women but they are also baptised in the name of the Father and of the Sonne and of the Holy Ghost yet not vntill the fortith day after their birth they which liue not till this day are buried vnchristened to all those that are baptized the holy communion or Eucharist as they call it is at the same instant administred powring a great deale of water into the childes mouth that he may so much the more easily get it downe The proper names which then are giuen them are all of some signification They affirme that they were conuerted vnto Christian religion by Candaces a Queen of this country spoken of in the 27. verse of the 8. chapter of the Acts of the Apostles whose proper name they thinke was Iudith They haue a booke diuided into 8. parts this they call Manda and Abetilis which they do verily beleeue was written by all the Apostles being iointly for that purpose gathered together at Hierusalem all the contents of this booke they do most diligently and strictly obserue The baser sort of people do without any controwlement or feare of punishment marry 2. or 3. wiues according to their ability and as they can tell how to maintaine them but these are excommunicated and forbidden by the Cleargy to enter into the Church Their lawes do tolerate diuorcements The Noble-men do esteem raw beefe serued in with fresh or hot bloud in manner as we vse our boiled meats with pottage or stewed broth for a great and dainty dish In all the kingdome of Prester Iohn they haue no manner of brasen or copper money but in steed of it they vse pure gold vncoined of a certaine weight In like manner salt yet not only in these prouinces but also generall throughout all Africa is vsed in exchange and buying and selling in stead of money In some places small pieces of iron bright and burnished do serue that turne But pepper amongst these people is of such great price that whatsoeuer a man will buy he may easily obtaine it for that merchandice These countries haue almost all sorts of beasts and fowles as Elephants Lions Tygres Losses Lynces the Latines call them Badgers Apes and Stagges contrary to the opinion of the old writers which haue generally denied that Africa doth veeld this kind of beast but in all that six yeare which Aluares this our authour dwelt in these countries he writeth that he neuer saw any Beares Conies Linnets Magpies or Cuccoes Yet Iohn Leo an African borne in his 9. booke saith that in Barbary there is wonderfull store of Conies The Locusts do more vex and hurt this country than any place of the World beside so that this plague is almost proper and peculiar to them Such oftentimes is the number and abundance of them that as they flie they do seeme to darken the aire and shadow the earth they flie together in such great flockes and thicke troupes that they do vtterly spoile and consume the fruits sometime of one prouince sometime of another wholly almost deuouring all their corn vpon the ground eating vp the leaues and barkes of the trees leauing their meddowes and pastures bare of grasse so that the people do oftentimes leaue their natiue soile where they were bred and borne and are forced for want of victuals to go seeke some other place to dwell in There is in these quarters a city named Cassumo sometime the seat as their histories do record and place of the Queen of Saba Maquedam that is as I thinke Antistes a Prouost or President they say she was called By whom they affirme that Salomon King of Isra l had a sonne named Meilech that is The King In this city they are perswaded that the Queen Cand ces did afterward dwell But it is best that the Reader that is desirous of further satisfaction to haue recourse to the same Francis Aluares who hath very curiously described those thing which he did most diligently obserue in that his Ambassage into these countries Item Iohn Bermundes who set foorth his Ambassage vnto the Abyssines in the Portugall language Let him also read a little treatise of Damianus à Goes which he wrot out of Ethiopia and Sabellicus his 10. Enneas of his 8. booke Of the originall of Prester Iohn and by what meanes he came out of Asia where he was knowen to writers about 200. yeares since and seated himselfe in Africa read Iohn Nauarchus in his Epistol Asiatica and Gerard Mercator in his
them which would willingly cast themselues into the fires and graues of their friends verily perswading themselues that they should still liue together with them Item Diodorus Siculus reporteth that some of them would cast into the fire where their friends deceased were burnt to ashes their letters verily beleeuing that they would reade them there For that opinion of Pythagoras of the immortality of the soule had taken footing and deepe root amongst them being perswaded that afterward the bodies being dead in processe of time they should againe returne into other bodies Listen also what Valerius Maximus saith of this matter It was an ancient custome saith he amongst the Gauls as old records do verifie vsually to lend money in this world to be paid againe in the world to come Which the forenamed authour termeth Philosophiam foeneratoriam A couetous or miserly kind of Philosophie practised then by some vsurers But can you tell where now a man may borrow an hundred pounds vpon good security till that day I doubt whether there be any pale-faced cut-throat vsurer glorious smooth-tongued gold-smith crafty mocke-lawyer Scriuener or any rag-merchant broker in this our city that was euer Pythagoras scholler This Iewish sect are all I thinke by their practise of the opinion of the Sadduces who thought and taught that there was no resurrection of the soule to be expected after this life It is no wonder or strange matter to thinke that the Gauls were of this opinion if so bee that be true that one Alexander in Clemens Alexandrinus doth tell of namely that Pythagoras did trauell into France Tertullian out of Nicander doth write that they vsed to he abroad all night vpon the graues and tombes of valiant men and there to expect the answeare of some of oracle I care not an halfe penny for that opinion of the great Orateur Tully in that his oration which he made for Marcus Fonteius where he writeth that The Gauls are hardly addicted to follow any religion at all For Liuy although in other things he be partiall and dealeth hardly with this nation yet he plainly affirmeth that they be not very backeward in religion And Caesar in his seuenth booke of the warres of France who throughly well knew this people saith that they were much giuen to religion and seruice of some god or other Item he saith That they did especially worship god Mercury of whom there were amongst them many images and statues they affirming him to be the authour and inuentour of all arts and sciences him also they hold to be their guide and leader in all iourneies and waies through which they are to trauell him they supposed to haue a great power and stroke in all maner of trafficke and gainfull trade for money to him they offered mans flesh in sacrifice as Minutius Felix writeth Besides him they did also worship Apollo Mars Iupiter and Minerua Of these their gods they held the very same opinion that other nations of the world did viz. That Apollo being praied vnto did driue away all diseases Minerua first taught the grounds of all arts and occupations Iupiter did rule and moderate the motion of the heauens Mars was president and guardian of the warres That the Celtae did honour Iupiter whose image or statue was a most goodly tall oake Maximus Tyrius doth plainly testifie Of Mercury heare what Pliny in the seuenth chapter of his fowre and thirtieth doth write Zenodorus saith he in our time did in the city Clermont or Auvergne Aruerniae the ancients called it make the greatest and most gorgeous statue that euer was made in the world who there for tenne yeares together working vpon the statue of Mercury had for his hire H S. CCCC that is as some men reade it fowre hundred thousand sestertioes which do amount in our money to 3333. pounds sixe shillâ—ngs and eight pence Strabo doth testifie that Diana the Ephesian Goddesse had a temple at Marseils Item Polyaenus witnesseth that the French-greekes Gallo-graeci did worship Diana which Plutarch in his booke of the Fortitude of women doth auouch to be true But beside this Diana they worship another by them sirnamed Arduenna as is verified by an ancient inscription in marble of which we shall speake more anone This goddesse by all probability seemeth to haue beene worshipped in the forrest Arduenna For although it be there written DEANAE ARDVENNAE yet I thinke there is no man meanly seene and trauelled in ancient inscriptions that is ignorant that by it is meant Dianae Arduennae For the ancient Romanes did oft times vse I for E and contrariwise E for I as the learned can beare me witnesse And in honour of her was this forrest Arduenna consecrated and made holy or rather as I thinke heere was some temple erected and dedicated to her seruice built either by the ancient Gauls so deuout and religiously giuen as before is shewed or if you like that better by the Romanes themselues as in the greatest and most renowmed forest or wood within the compasse of their whole Empire a place most worthy and best beseeming this goddesse And what maruell I pray you being I say a place most fit and conuenient for this goddesse Diana to inhabite and make her abode in For she is called of all ancient heathen writers Venatrix Nemoralis Nemorum syluarum Dea virgo custos The goddesse of hunting the goddesse of the woods chases and forests and the maiden keeper of the same Lactantius Lucane and Minutius Felix do affirme that they had three gods which they in their language called Esus or Hesus Teutates and Taranus But the learned for the most part by them do vnderstand Mars Mercury and Iupiter See M. Camdens Britannia In Ausonius there is mention made of a god of theirs which they named Belenus whom Herodian by the iudgement of the learned Iulius Scaliger calleth Belis And whether this be the same with Tibilenus whereof Tertullian maketh mention Petrus Pithaeus in his Aduersaria doth most learnedly dispute and doth there interprete it to be the same that Apollo is to the Greekes Moreouer Abellio was one of their gods as the forenamed Scaliger at the same place out of an ancient inscription doth teach vs. The same authour also maketh mention of Onuana a goddesse of theirs Saint Austen in his bookes of the city of God doth affirme that they had certaine vncleane spirits or diuels called by them Dusij in the catalogue and number of their gods But whether they did worship the god Serapis the same peraduenture with Pluto the aboue-mentioned P. Pithaeus out of certaine words of the sixteenth booke of Ammianus Marcellinus his history doth in the third chapter of his Aduersaria at large and learnedly discourse to whom I referre thee for farther satisfaction Out of Florus also we learne that they worshipped Vulcane for a god who writeth that they did promise to giue him the armour and weapons of the Romanes their enemies Athenaeus saith that
Athos is from this iland at the least 86 miles This ile is consecrate and sacred to Vulcan for olde fables do tell that being by Iupiter throwen headlong out of heauen he light in this I le Tzetzes out of Hellanicus affirmeth that fire was first found in this iland as also that armour and warlike weapons were first deuised and made here Of those foure Labyrinths famous all the world ouer and reckoned vp by Pliny the third was in this countrey The surueyers and architects of this worke were Zmilus and Rholus together with Theodorus this countrey-man borne It was made of hewen and polished stones arched in the top and vpheld by 140 columnes of more curious and wonderfull worke and greatnesse than the rest whose bosses in the shop did hang so equally poiz'd that while they were wrought and turned one boy alone did strike the laue Cert ine pi ces and remnants of it did remaine euen vntill Plinies time This same authour also doth for certeine affirme that rubrica Lemnia or terra Lemnia a kinde of red earth here found was of greatest estimation of whose soueraigne vse in physicke see h m in his history of Nature as also Galen the Prince of Physicians in his book intituled De simplic Medicam In the first booke of Apollodorus his Bibliotheca you may reade a history of the women of this iland SAMOS THat this SAMOS was called by diuers names as PARTHENIA ANTHEMVS MELAMPHILVS CYPARISSIA IMERASIA and STEPHANE we haue found in reading of diuers authours as thou mayst see more at large in our Geographicall treasury It is an iland fertile and rich of all maner of commodities wine only except which here is none of the best nor in any great quantity whereupon they do vse to say in a common by-word That in this iland their hennes giue milke Athenaeus writeth that here Figs Grapes Peares Apples and Roses do ripen twise a yeere yet we finde recorded in Aelianus and Heraclides in his Politicks affirme that it was sometime a forest full of woods and wild beasts Pliny doth speake of Lapis-Samius Terra Samia a certaine stone and kind of earth only found in this iland and doth highly commend their souereigne vertue and physicall vse Item he saith that the Samian dishes were of great request at princes tables Moreouer he addeth that here also was a Labyrinth built by Theodorus But in Samos there is nothing more notable or maketh it more famous than that Pythagoras was this countreyman borne Eusebius also in his Chronicles testifieth that that Sibylla which was surnamed Hierophila was borne heere Aelianus writeth that the Samians vsed to worship a sheepe and with that stampe to coine their money Athenaeus commendeth the Peacocks bred here This fowle antiquitie did hold to be consecrated to Iuno and that this iland was greatly esteemed of Iuno these verses of Virgil doe plainly auouch Quam Iuno fertur terris magis omnibus vnam Posthabita coluisse Samo Thus Englished by M. Thomas Phaër Which towne aboue all townes to raise was Iuno's great'st delight Forsooke her seat at Samos I le c. You shall finde much of Samus in the 12 booke of Athenaeus his Deipnosophiston in Apuleius his second booke Florid. in Plutarch in the life of Pericles and Strabo in the 14 booke of his Geography out of whom it is not amisse to annex this one history of Polycrates a tyrant of this countrey This Polycrates they say grew so rich and mighty that beside his command vpon land he was lord also of the sea for proofe of which they report this historie that he throwing of set purpose a ring of great value both for the price of the stone and curious cutting of the same into the midst of the sea within a while after a certaine Fisherman tooke a great fish which had swallowed it downe and opening it found the ring in her belly so that by that meanes it came to the kings hands againe This selfe same story doth Herodotus in his Thalia tell but much more eloquently and with farre finer termes as his maner is DELOS and RHENIA DELOS is situate amongst the Cyclades Pliny writeth that this I le was farre and neere knowen and talked of by reason of the Temple of Apollo and the great market or faire ordinarily kept there Pausanias calleth it The Mart of all Greece Festus The greatest mart of all the world Thucydides termeth it The Exchequer of Greece another nameth it The natiue soile of the gods for the fabulous tales of Poets haue made the world beleeue that Diana and Apollo were borne here Of which conceit and opinion of men it rose as Tully against Verres writeth that this iland was held to be consecrated vnto them and such the authority of holinesse and religion of it both is and alwaies hath beene that the Persians making warre vpon Greece in defiance both of God man and landing at Delos with a thousand ships they neuer once offered to profane or once to touch any thing here Immediatly after the first deluge or floud in the time of Ogygius this iland as we find recorded by Solinus before all other lands countries whatsoeuer receiued the lusture of the sun-beames thereupon it obteined that name of DELOS that is Apparent or easily soone descried It had also other names giuen to it of other accidents and euents that fall out in the same as namely PELASGIA LAGIA ORTYGIA CYNETHVM CYNTHON CHLAMIDIA SCYTHIA ANAPHE ASTERIA c. But Asteria was the name of a citie in this I le which citie was afterward as Apollodorus and Seruius do testifie called also Delos Pliny nameth it ARTEMITA and CELADVSSA Athenaeus noteth three things here worthy of speciall obseruation A market wonderfully furnished with all maner of victuall and dainty dishes The great multitudes of all maner of people dwelling in it and The infinite number of parasites smell-feasts or trencher-chaplaines belonging to this god Pliny writeth of the fountaine or head of the riuer Inopus that altogether in the same maner and at the same time it doth ebbe and flowe with Nilus in Egypt so that the people doe verily beleeue that it commeth by secret passages vnder the sea from the Nilus vnto them The same authour maketh mention of certeine rocks of Delos petrae Deli where he saith the fishes by nature are so salt that one would deeme them to haue beene layd in pickle and may well be accounted for salt-fish and yet in the hauen of the same they are fresh In old time the copper of Delos was held for the best as we reade in the same authour In his time he affirmeth there was a palme-tree still to be seene that had stood there euer since Apollo was borne Pausanias who liued in the reigne of Hadrian the Emperour writeth that in his time this iland was so desert and dispeopled that the gard of the Temple which the Athenians sent thither being remoued if one should reckon only the
mount Eryx monte S. Iuliano Yet Pausanias in his Arcadia maketh another maner of relation of Anchises and of his buriall Heere putting to sea againe he commeth to the SIRENVM SCOPVLI certaine dangerous rockes vpon the coast of Italy in the bay of Cumae and first casting anchor at PALINVRVS Paliuro or Cabo Palemudo at LEVCASIA Licoso as Halicarnasseus sayth or INARIME Ischia and PROCHYTA Profida as Ouid affirmeth and then againe at CVMAE where putting to land he goeth to Sibylla's caue ANTRVM SIBYLLAE and to AVERNVS lake Lago di Tripergola thence to the airie mount MISENVS Miseno to CAIETA King Lamus citie at this day called Gaietta and lastly to the riuer TIBRIS where with seuen of his twentie ships remaining he entreth landeth his men and goods and so endeth his seuen yeeres long and dangerous voyage which we haue thus described as you see partly out of Virgill Ouid and Lycophron famous poets and partly out of Liuy Halicarnasseus Pausanias and Xenophon as worthy renowmed historians But heere I cannot omit that which I haue read in Pausanias his Phocica namely that certaine of Aeneas his consorts seuered and driuen from his company and the rest of the nauy by storme and tempest did seat themselues in the ile SARDINIA Item it is worth the obseruation that Halicarnasseus and Liuy do iointly testifie That Aeneas did not stay at Tibris but at LAVRENTVM S. Laurentij and landed not with aboue sixe hundred men as Solinus reporteth which indeed seemeth somewhat more probable and like to be true for that both by ancient histories and moderne experience we finde that Tibris the riuer which runneth by Rome is not capable of a fleet or nauy of any bignesse Therefore it is to be thought that the Poet fained this of his owne head or els spake it in loue and commendations of this riuer Neither was it a voyage of seuen yeeres but of two at the most as Halicarnasseus doth plainly affirme Solinus out of Cassius Hemina auoucheth the same There are some as Strabo in the thirteenth booke of his Geography witnesseth which do thinke all this voyage to be a fained tale and fiction of the Poets and that Aeneas stayed still in Troy and succeeded in the kingdome after his father as likewise his childrens children did after him for many generations Of this opinion Homer doth seeme to be Xenophon in his booke of hunting telleth this tale another way where he writeth That Aeneas manfully defending his father and carefully preseruing the gods of his father and mother gat himselfe a great reputation and credit amongst all sorts of men for that his piety and religion insomuch that euen the very enemies themselues granted to him only aboue all other which they had taken captiue in the surprizing of Troy that in the sacking of the same no man should spoile or lay hand of ought that was his Moreouer that that his voyage vnto Carthage is not mentioned by any approoued historian but fained by the poet Macrobius doth plainly teach Item Appian a writer of good credit doth much discredit that story of his meeting and communication with Queene Dido who writeth that CARTHAGE was built by the same Dido fiue hundred yeeres before the destruction of Troy Againe the graue historiographer Trogus in his eighteenth booke doth make a relation of the life and death of this Dido or Eliza farre different from this But the poet as it seemeth had a purpose to disgrace this citie and to strike a deepe impression of the fatall hatred which it alwayes bare towards the Romans like as long before Homer vnder the person of Helen had shewed how much the Greeks in heart did malice the Troians Whereupon not vnfitly I thinke this Epigram of Ausonius which he wrote vpon the counterfet or picture of Queene Dido may heere to those former be adioined Illa ego sum Dido vultu quam conspicis hospes Assimulata modis pulchraque mirificis Talis eram fed non Maro quam mihi finxit erat mens Vita nec incestis laeta cupidinibus Namque nec Aeneas vidit me Troius vnquam Nec Libyam aduenit classibus Iliacis Sed furias fugiens atque arma procacis Iarbae Seruaui fateor morte pudicitiam Pectore transfixo castos quod pertulit enses Non furor aut laeso crudus amore dolor Sic cecidisse iuuat vixi sine vulnere famae Vlta virum positis moenibus oppetij Inuida cur in me stimulasti Musa Maronem Fingeret vt nostrae damna pudicitiae Vos magis historicis lectores credite deme Quà m qui furta Deum concubitusque canunt Falsidici vates temerant qui carmine verum Humanisque Deos assimilant vitijs Which Priscian or whosoeuer els he were that was the authour of that ancient translation of Dionysius Afer doth to the same sense but in farre fewer words vtter in those two verses Atque pudicitiam non perdit carmine falso Quae regnans felix Dido per secula viuit This fained tale first forg'd in faithlesse poets braine It neuer may I trow the honest fame distaine Wherein thou Dido long didst liue amongst thine owne And still of wiser sort thorowout the world is knowne AENEAE TROIANI NAVIGATIO Ad Virgilij sex priores Aeneidos Ex conatibus Geographicis Abrahami Ortelij Antverp DOCTRINA ET HVMANITATE CELEBRI DNO BALTHASARO ROBIANO R. P.ANT THESAVRARIO VIRO ANIMI CORPORISQ DOTIBVS ORNATISS Ab. Ortelius veteris amicitiae memor dedicabat Sum pius Aeneas raptos qui ex hoste Penates Classe veho mecum fama super aethera notus Bis denis Phrygium conscendi nauibus aequor Vix septem conuulsae undis Euróque supersunt Europa atque Asia pulsus Aeneid i. The PEREGRINATION of VLYSSES THe manifold wandring voiages of Vlysses Errores Ausonius in diuers places calleth them were from all antiquity so famous and renowmed amongst all men that The Peregrination of Vlysses grew into a by-word and to be spoken prouerbially of any hard and difficult trauell that any man did vndergoe as Apuleius in the second booke of his Golden Asse doth testifie Therefore for the benefite of the Readers and Students of that history and at the earnest request of sundrie learned men my friends I haue thought good out of ancient Historians to describe the twenty voyages of this famous Captaine who as Tzetzes writeth with twelue shippes set forward from TROY or as the Greekes call it Ilium a city of Troia or Troas a prouince of Asia Minor continually wandring vp and downe vntill at last he came to ITHACA an iland in the Ionian sea where hee was borne now called as Sophianus and others do testifie Valle di Compare or Teachi as Porcacchius affirmeth but of the Turkes Phiachi as Leunclaw witnesseth Therefore after the tenne yeares siege taking and sacking of Troy by the Greekes Vlysses or Odysseus as they call him hauing a purpose to returne home to his owne country shipped himselfe and his company put foorth to sea and