the midst of the Low Countries has four Cities the Capitals of as many Quarters Bruxels Louvain Breda Boisleduc Bruxels is very populous the abode of a Prince or Governour whose Palace is very spacious Its Chanel which leads to Antwerp is one of the finest Works of the Country with prodigious Sluces which have cost immens Sums As well as at Avignon some of its Publick Edifices are to the number of seven The Church of St. Gudule is one of the finest of the Country The Neighbourhood of the Forest of Soignes furnishes its Inhabitants with Game for hunting Louvain which some make to pass for the Capital of Brabant is one of the greatest Cities of Europe with a famous University which gives occasion to the By-word That it is a City of Scholars as Bruxels is a City of Courtiers Antwerp a City of Merchants Mechelin a City of Advocates and Lawyers by reason of its Parliament Tillemont was taken by force in the Year 1655. by the French and Hollanders Breda belongs to the Prince of Orange and Hertoghen-Bosch or Bois-le-Duc to the States General of the Vnited Provinces as do also Berghen-op-Zoom and the Grave All these Places are well fortified Bois-le-Duc is so extraordinary strong by reason of its Marshes that it pass'd for Impregnable before it was taken upon which account they were us'd to say in Holland out of Raillery I will pay you when Bois-le-Duc is became a Beggar that is to say never The Brabanzon pretends the Priviledge of deliberating nothing out of the Limits of their Country The Marquisate of the Holy Empire has this Name from its Site upon the ancient bounds of France and the Empire whither the Emperour sent Governours who were call'd Marquesses There is only the City of Antwerp one of the best and most pleasant of the Netherlands the Emperour Charles the Fifth call'd it his Sunday or Holy-day Town the importance of its Situation has occasioned the making sumptuous Fortifications which consist of ten great Bastions and one of the strongest Cittadels of Europe flank'd with five regular Bastions fac'd with Brick and hewed Stones This Cittadel was built towards the higher part of the River rather than towards the lower that it might command the Town and receive Succours from the Country subject to its Prince the Duke of Alva who had made it plac'd his Statue therein which has since been taken away The Jesuits in Antwerp have a Church all of Marble look'd upon as one of the finest in the World Formerly above two hundred thousand persons were reckoned in this Town and about two thousand five hundred Ships upon the Scheld But the Inhabitants of this place do not now drive that great Trade they did since the Hollanders have seiz'd upon the Avenues of their River The City of Mechelin is the Residence of the States or Parliament of the Catholick Provinces of the King of Spain It s Barony is very small the Women of Mechlin being ready to lye in are said to cause themselves to be carried upon the Lands of Brabant that so their Children may enjoy the Priviledge of the Brabantins Namur is a Town of importance by reason of its passage over the Meuse at the place where it receives the Sambre from hence they transport Marble Ardoise Pit-Coal Charle-Roy upon the Sambre is one of the best Fortresses in the Netherlands Limbourg has only the Town of the same Name which is in any consideration with a strong Castle upon a Rock The French King made the Conquest of it in the Year 1675. but was bound to restore it to the King of Spain by the Peace of Nimmeghen The Bishoprick of Liege owes subjection to its Bishop as well in Spirituals as Temporals the Inhabitants gave it formerly the Name of Grace He is Elected by the Chapter his Residence was formerly at Tongres and Mastricht This Country is of a great Extent with several places lying within the Marches of the neighbouring Provinces Liege is a trading Town and as they say the Paradise of the Ecclesiasticks It was observ'd in the Year 1131. that there were amongst the Canons of its Cathedral Church nine Sons of Kings fourteen Sons of Dukes nine and twenty Sons of Counts and seven Sons of Barons 'T is very populous notwithstanding it was ruin'd by the last Duke of Burgundy When the ancient Priviledges subsisted there it had thirty two Trades and a Body of two and twenty Burgesses composed of Ecclesiasticks of Nobles and of the third Estate or Commonalty these twenty two were call'd most Honoured Lords and had the principal direction of Affairs The Elector of Cologn its Prince caus'd a Cittadel to be built here which was demolish'd by the French in the time of the late Wars The Town of Spa is known to us for its Medicinal Water Mastricht for its Fortifications and for the famous Sieges it has sustain'd It is made up of two Towns Mastricht reckoned to belong to the Duke of Brabant Wick of the Appurtenances to the Bishoprick of Liege The Peace of Nimmeghen has resetled the Hollanders in possession of Mastricht Cambresis is near France The City of Cambray has a good Cittadel the guard whereof was only confided to natural Spaniards when their King was Master thereof It has a Clock singularly wrought by the hand of a Shepherd and furnishes extraordinary fine Linnen or Cambrick Since the Year 1595. the Kings of Spain have attributed to themselves the Tempoporal Jurisdiction of Cambray the Emperours did not contradict them in this matter because they are of the same Family and the Arch-bishops had to no purpose solicited the re-establishment of their Right those Prelates style themselves Arch bishops and Dukes of Cambray Counts of Cambresis Princes of the Holy Empire tho' commonly they have neither Session nor Voice in the Diets In the Year 1677. the French King commanding his Army in person made himself Master of the Town and Cittadel of Cambray which were confirm'd to him by the Peace of Nimmeghen Lorrain LOrrain is a Country with the Title of Dutchy considerable for several advantages particularly for its situation between Champagne French-Luxembourg the Palatinate of the Rhine Franche-Comte all these Provinces are possess'd by the French except the Palatinate It brings forth plentifully all the Conveniencies of Life unless it be Oyl It has Jasper and stuff for the making of Drinking and Looking-glasses The Lorrainers are bigotted Catholicks There are reckoned three Bailiwicks that of Nancy Vaudrevange and Vauge where is Mirecourt Under the general Name of Lorrain may be comprehended the Dutchy of Bar which is of a double kind there is Barrois Royal on this side the Meuse and Barrois Ducal beyond the same River several Territories adjacent the Bishopricks of Metz Toul Verdun formerly Principalities of the Empire Imperial Towns of the same Name which since the Reign of French Henry the Second have own'd Subjection to the Crown of France It is to be noted that these Bishops are
the Grandees of Spain to sit in publick under the Royal Canopy of the King of Spain Beira is fertile in Rye Millet Apples and Chestnuts It s City of Coimbra formerly the abode of Alphonso the first King of Portugal is famous for its University for its Bishoprick which is said to be worth above a hundred and fifty thousand Livres yearly Rent Estremadura another than that of Castile produces Wine Oyl Salt Honey which the Bees make there of the Flowers of Lemmons and of Roses It s City of Lisbon is the Capital of all the Kingdom one of the richest greatest most beautiful and most populous Towns of all Europe It has above thirty thousand Houses and an admirable Port with the conveniency of the ebbing and flowing of the Sea It particularly drives the trade of Brasile and of the East-Indies The small City of Belem which is near it is the Mausoleum or the place of burial of several Kings of Portugal Santaren has so great a number of Olive-Trees in its Dependencies that the Inhabitants boast of being able to make of their Oyl a River as great as the Tagus Setuval which the Flemmings call St. Hubes is well situated well built and of great trade It has the best Harbour in all the Kingdom thirty Miles in length three in breadth Its Salt-Pits and Fishery according to what the Portuguese say raise a greater Revenue to their King than all Arragon does to the King of Spain Alen-Teyo by reason of its Corn is reckon'd for the Granary of Portugal Its City of Evora pretends to the first rank after Lisbon In the Year 1663. the Portuguese gain'd a famous Battel over the Spaniards in its neighbourhood Elvas is known for its excellent Oyls for the Sieges which it has happily sustain'd against the Castillians Ourques in the Year 1139. saw that famous Battel fought which gave occasion to the proclaiming the first King of Portugal Algarve tho' of small extent has the Title of a Kingdom It was reunited to the Crown by the Marriage of Alphonso the Third with Beatrix of Castile it affords Figs Olives Almonds and Wines very much esteemed the Name of Algerbia in the Moorish Tongue signifies a fertile field The Seventeen Provinces of the Low-Countries THese Provinces are made to pass under the number of Seventeen because that formerly tho' at divers times they have each had their peculiar Lord. The Name of the Low-Countries is given them as a Country situated in the lower part of the Rhine The situation of the Low Countries is so much the more considerable as that it lies between England France and Germany These Seventeen Provinces touch France and Germany and are separated from England by the Sea There are four Dutchies Brabant Limbourg Luxembourg Guelderland Seven Counties Holland Zealand Zutphen Flanders Artois Hainault Namur a Marquisate of the Holy Empire which has only the City of Antwerp five Lordships Malines Vtrecht Over-Issel or Trans-Isalane Friesland Groninghen This Region is small but one of the richest and most populous in the World Its Air is temperate its Winter is more long than cold its Summer resembles the Spring of the Southern Provinces of France It s Soyl is generally fertile full of good Pasturages which furnish Cattel Milk Butter Cheese and other Commodities abundantly It s principal Rivers are the Rhine Maes Scheld The Rhine has its Sources in Suisserland most of its Course in Germany after having divided it self upon its entrance into the low Countrys at Skinckensckons it communicates most of its Waters to other Rivers those it keeps lose their Name in the Sand a little below Leyden in Holland The Maes which comes from France and from Lorrain has this advantage over the Rhine that it carries its Name and Waters to the very Ocean wherein it forms several good Harbours The Scheld serv'd for bounds to France and to the Empire in the time of the Emperour Charles the Bold It receives at Gaunt the Lis or Ley a navigable River and before it entirely loses its Name it makes two principal Branches the left called Hont the right whose Chanel passes by Tolen falls into the Meuse Besides these Rivers and those which fall into them there are Canals great store of Lakes Pools and Marshes which fortifie the Country provide it with Fish and afford the convenience of passage and the more easie transport of their Commodities The Emperour Charles the Fifth saw himself Master of all these Provinces In the Year 1581. they reâ—us'd for the most part Obedience to King Philip his Son taking for a Pretext of their Revolt the cruel Treatments of their Governours the Infraction of their Priviledges the Introduction of the Council of Trent and the Imposition of the Tenth Penny upon all the Commodities that were sold in that Country We may say that the two Real Causes of this Revolution were the Change of Religion and the Ambition of some Lords joyn'd to the Aversion of the People to a foreign Government Two Years before these Revolted Provinces had made the Union at Vtrecht for which reason the Duke of Alva who made War in those Provinces for the King of Spain did maintain that he ought not to treat them as the Patrimony of his Master but as his own Conquest There are in the Low-Countries two States very different from one another the one is a Republick or rather several Republicks and is called for that reason the Vnited Provinces otherwise Holland the other belongs in part to the King of Spain and goes under the Name of the Catbolick Provinces or that of Flanders The Christian King has Conquered the best of these Provinces and the strongest Towns which have been confirm'd to him by the Treaties of the Pyrenees of Aix la Chapelle and of Niâ—â—meghen or else possess'd by him under colour of Dependencies The Hague is the Residence of the Council of the States-General of the Vnited Provinces Bruxels that of the Princes or of the Governours established by the King of Spain Lisle Tournay Doway Ypres Dunkirk Arras St. Omar Cambray Valenciennes Luxembourg are Cities the most considerable of the Acquisition of France The Roman Catholick Religion is only receiv'd in Flanders All sorts of Sects are tolerated in Holland Each person is allowed to follow his own Opinion tho' not Preach it in Publick The Sect of Calvin is there principally exercised The National Synod held at Dort in the Year 1619. has regulated the principal Points of that Religion The Humours of the People of Flanders and Holland are as different from one another as are their Governments and Religions The Flemmings do much affect those fine Titles of Honour which the Kings of Spain have not been sparing of to them The Emperour Charles the Fifth had a design of making a Kingdom of this State so as would have done before him Charles the Bold Duke of Burgundy who meant to have it called the Kingdom of the Lyon The Hollanders are more popular than
the Flemmings wedded to Commerce to Manufacture and Navigation Both People are industrious in making Handy-craft-Works They have two sorts of Tongues the Walloon which is a corrupted French and which becomes purer since the French King's Conquests and the Flemming or Low Dutch The first is particularly in Artois in French-Flanders and in Haynault The Vnited Provinces and the Provinces of the King of Spain were in War until the Year 1609. when they made a Truce of Twelve Years His Catholick Majesty did then treat with the States General of the Vnited Provinces in quality and as holding them for Free-Countrys Provinces and States to whom he had no Pretension In the Year 1648. the Peace was made there before that of the Empire which was concluded at Munster in the same Year And since the Spaniards of Flanders and the Hollanders have thought fit to live neighbourly and in good intelligence nay to confederate together for their mutual defence The War having been declared by the French King upon the Hollanders in the Year 1672. the Spaniards fail'd not to take part in it for the traversing the Conquests of his Christian Majesty which cost them very considerable Cities and Provinces whereas the Hollanders recover'd what they had lost The Princes of Orange of the House of Nassau have almost ever had the Military and Civil Government in the Vnited Provinces The Vnited Provinces of the Low-Countries THe Vnited Provinces are so call'd from their Union at Vtrecht in the Year 1579. They are commonly called Holland that being the richest most populous Province of 'em all Their situation is towards the end of the Rivers Rhine and Meuse in the Northern part of the Low Countries between the Dominions of the King of Spain in Flanders England which is separated from 'em by the Sea and several Principalities of the Empire The Princes of the Empire who are their Neighbours are the Duke of Newbourg in his Dutchy of Juliers and his Barony of Ravestein the Elector of Brandenbourg in his Dutchy of Cleves the Elector of Cologn the Bishop of Munster the Count de Bentheim the Prince of East-Friesland in the Territories of the same Name The Vnited Provinces which before owed subjection to the King of Spain have since been independent of one another or to say rather as many Republicks which altogether make now but one under the Name of the States General of the Vnited Provinces of the Low Countries The Dignity of this State residing in the States General the Absolute authority over things reserved by reason of the alliance has remained in the States of each Province The Seal of the Republick is a Lion holding a Bundle of Seven bound Arrows with allusion to as many confederated Provinces these Provinces as the Politicians say have not always been so well united but that they resembled a Body which has several Heads some of which would draw it on one side while the others endeavour to tug it on the other There is no State in the World of so small an Extent which has so great a number of Fortresses and which seems better defended by the Nature of the Places than this It has the See and several Rivers which defend it the Rhine the Meuse the Waal the Issel Notwithstanding all these Defences the French King made surprising Conquests in the Year 1672. by the reduction of three Provinces and sixty considerable Towns which proceeded from raw unexpert meer Citizens sons being imploid in the Soldiery Besides the Vnited Previnces and the Places that are in them the States General have in Flanders the Cities of Sluyce Middlebourg Ardembourg Sasvan Gaunt Axel Hulst in Brabant Lisle Bergen-ap-Zoom Breda Boisleduc Grave and they have Maestricht in the Bishoprick of Liege Dalem Fauquemont Bolduc in the Land of Outre Meuse These Places were taken by the French King but restor'd to them by his Majesty in consideration of the Peace of 1678. In Germany they had upon the Rhine Orsoy Wesel Reez Emerik Genep in the Dutchy of Cleves Rhineberg in the Electorate of Cologn these are return'd into the hands of its true Masters in consideration of the aforesaid Peace Towards Westphalia the States General have Garrisons in the City of Embden in the Forts of Eideler and Leer-ort which belong to the Prince of East-Friesland There are in Holland two Companies of Merchants the one for the East-Indies the other for the West The first of these Companies seems it self to be a Potent Republick It boasts of having subdued more Leagues of Country than there are Acres of Land in all Holland Of having fourteen or fifteen thousand Soldiers and a Number of Ships in its Service Of employing commonly above fourscore thousand Men. It had long since above twenty very considerable Fortresses as many Magazines upon the Coasts of the Indian-Sea where it has endeavour'd to constrain several Petty Kings not to receive into their States any other Nations of Europe than their own The West-India Company is weak and feeble in respect of the other whether that the Portugals have had more right and more strength than the Hollanders in Brazil Or the term of the Concession of Priviledg obtained by these from their Sovereign be expired Or in short that the Company of the East-Indies has us'd all its efforts to ruin the other The Hollanders have hitherto been Powerful at Sea have often beaten the French the Spanish Fleets nay made Head against the English who are Sovereigns of the Sea The Number of their Ships is so great that if we may believe their Partizans it equals that of the rest of Europe They have always in their own Country wherewith to Equip a great Number tho' their Land neither produces Wood nor other things necessary for that purpose They are able to Arm out above a hundred to Sea if they had but the Mariners and Soldiers they had formerly At their first Establishment they only pretended to Fishing and Trading from Port to Port since they have drove the richest Commerce that is carried on at Sea Amongst the Vnited-Provinces there are four towards the West Holland Zealand Vtrecht Guelderland Four towards the East Zutphen Over-Yssel or Trans-Isalane Friesland Groninghen Those who reckon but seven make but one of that of Guelderland and Zutphen In the Assemblies these Provinces have ever given their Votes in the following Order Guelderland with Zutphen first of all then Holland Zealand Vtrecht Friesland Over-Yssel finally Groninghen with the Ommelands Each of 'em sends its Deputies to the Hague where are form'd three Colledges or Assemblies of them the States-General the Council of State and the Chamber of Accounts In the Assembly of the States-General all the Provinces above-mention'd must consent in General and in Particular to the Resolutions that are taken therein and do not follow the plurality of Voices Each Province may send thither one two three four or five Deputies but all these Deputies have together but one Voice and have right to
keeps in its Metropolitan Church call'd the Dome the Relick of St. Suaire wherein the Face of our Lord is imprinted with most of his Body It boasts of having of all the Cities of Italy brought the Press into use Nice near the Sea has several Roman Antiquities and a Cittadel which seems inaccessible by reason of its situation upon a Rock Montferrat has most of its Towns upon Hills very fertile in Corn and Wine By the Peace of Quieras a part of that Country was yielded to the Duke of Savoy the other remaining the Duke of Mantua's who possesses Casal near the Po. This Town is fortified with several Bulwarks and Half-moons with a Castle and a strong Cittadel composed of six great Bastions The Land of Milan is the most beautiful Country of all Lombardy and the finest Dutchy of Christendom now possess'd by the King of Spain The Ways are pleasant almost all in a direct line with Chanels of Spring-Water on both sides and rows and plantations of Trees which make them resemble Alleys and Walks The Champain of Milan is so fertile that there is not an Inch of Land but brings forth twice a Year The Nobility as well as in the Kingdom of Naples does not meddle with Commerce as does that of the other neighbouring States The City of Milan is called Great because it is full ten Miles in compass wherein it contains above two hundred and thirty Churches ninety six Parishes as many Convents and above a hundred Fraternities It is a general Mart of the Merchandizes of France of Spain of Italy of Germany so great a number of Artizans it has of all sorts that the Italians have it for a Proverb That Milan must be ruin'd if they would accommodate Italy with them It has ever passed for a second Rome tho' it has been besieged forty times and taken two and twenty Its strength consists rather in its Men than in its Walls it being reckoned to contain above three hundred thousand persons It s Castle is one of the finest Fortresses of Europe of six great Bastions Royal invested with Brick with Grafts and Ditches full of running Water The Coast of Genoa formerly called Liguria produces Muscate-Wines Olives in abundance all manner of good Fruits the Western part particularly is full of Lemmon Orange Fig Palm and Cedar-trees the Inland of the Country is mountainous full of Woods which furnish Materials for the making of Ships and Galleys The Situation of Genoa is upon the Sea-shore part in Plains part in Hills The City is full five Miles round and has Fortifications which are yet much greater in circuit for which reason it is the greatest the most trading and the most important of all Italy towards the West The Buildings and Structures of this Town are so magnificent and so beautiful that it is called the Stately tho' very much endamag'd by the late Batteries of the French One of the principal Revenues of its Inhabitants consists in the transportation of Silk-stuffs Parma the Capital of Parmezan is the common abode of the Duke of that Name of the House of the Farnezes a Feudatory of the Church It has a Cittadel whereon Money has not been sparing for the rendring it good and a fair Palace for its Princes dwelling Modena is the Capital of the Dutchy of the same Name fortified with Bulwarks after the ancient manner inhabited by above thirty five thousand Souls In Modena it was that Brutus was in vain besieged by Mark Anthony after the Murder of Julius Caesar Octavius having happily defeated the Army of him who would by this Siege have renewed the Civil Wars Mantua is seated in the Waters of a Lake of twenty Miles in circuit which only affords entrance by Causeys into the Town Its Mills do raise a good Revenue to this Duke the Jews who are there very numerous pay him a great Tribute The Ducal Palace is one of the finest and best furnish'd in all Italy The Demesn of Venice has so many Rivers Canals and Navigable Lakes that Merchandizes are easily conveyed into all its places The Republick is independent above twelve hundred Years standing the Bulwark of Christendom against the Turks The City of Venice is one of the greatest of Europe so populous that there are reckoned above three hundred thousand persons Those who have seen it may boast of having seen one of the Wonders of the World It s Arcenal is the finest the greatest and the best furnished upon Earth The Isles whereof the City is composed are separated from one another by Chanels wherein there be above fifteen thousand Boats which they call Gondoles The Church and Palace of St. Mark are very fine Structures the Treasury of St. Mark contains immense Riches The Bishoprick of Trent which belongs to its Bishop is under the Protection of the House of Austria The City of Trent is ancient inhabited both by Italians and Germans renowned for-holding the last General Council The state of the Church is look'd upon as so much the more considerable in that the Pope who is the Temporal and Spiritual Prince of it pretends to be the Chief and Soveraign Pontife of all Christendom the Patriarch of Rome and of the West Primate and Exarch of Italy Metropolitan of the Suffragan Bishops of Rome Bishop of St. John de Lateran Rome formerly the Capital of the finest greatest and most considerable Empire of the Universe was once the Mistress of the better part of the World famous for excellent Men who have surpassed others in Valour in Piety in Justice and Temperance It has had in its beginning Kings Consuls and Emperours the Papists call it Rome the Holy by reason of the Residence of the Popes We may say it has few Equals if we consider its Antiquities Churches Palaces and Curiosities Tuscany has three principal Cities Florence Siena Pisa formerly as many Republicks Florence the Capital of this State renowned upon the account of its Beauty is large and very populous The Palace of the Great Duke has fine Pictures Jewels of great value several Rarities Lucca fortified with eleven regular Bastions is famous for its Silks and Olives The Head of this Republick is a Gonfalonier or Chief-Standard-Bearer whose Charge lasts but two Months The Kingdom of Naples is the greatest State of Italy it belongs to the King of Spain who pays for it every Year a white Hobbey to the Pope with seven thousand Ducats The Spring is there so long and so full of Flowers the Autumn so loaded with Fruits that it is esteemed a Paradise The City of Naples is the abode of several Gentlemen which makes it be called the Gentile It is situated so advantagiously that it seems an abridgment of all the Beauties of Italy There are few Cities in Europe who have so many Churches and so many Cittadels as has Naples Germany GErmany has very fertile Provinces and a great number of fine Cities The Corn Fruits Salt and other Commodities afford a very considerable
the not being burthened with any Impositions by Foreign Princes the consideration of this League is now of little use to several of those Towns each of them endeavouring to do its own business by it self They were reckoned to be sixty six Lubeck Cologne Brunswick Dantzick are the Capitals of them with as many Colledges Lubeck may Convene all the rest with the advice of five of those Towns which are nearest it The most renowned Rivers of Germany are the Rhine the Danube the Elbe the Oder the Weser The Rhine the greatest of Rivers which goes towards the Ocean has its Source in Suisserland and its end in Holland where it loses its Name in the Sand It is so broad below Strasbourg that Bridges cannot be made over it There is not one in the World that Waters so many Sovereign States The finest Cities by which it passes are on this side its Bed or Chanel most of 'em built by the Romans who made it the bound of their Empire It formerly separated Gaul from Germany during the first Race of the French Kings it passed through some part of their Territories The Danube which begins in Suevia has a Course of above seven hundred Leagues The most easie Division of Germany is that which has made it into two parts the one High and the other Low according to the Course of the Rhine of the Elbe and of the Oder Each of those parts has several Provinces The High has four towards the West Alsatia the Palatinate of the Rhine Franconia Suevia And four great States towards the East Tirol Bavaria which is of two sorts Dutchy and Palatinate Bohemia which also comprehends Silesia with Moravia and Austria which has other Herereditary Lands namely Carinthia Carniola and Stiria Low-Germany has as many parts as the High four towards the West the Electoral Arch-Bishopricks the Succession of Cleves and of Juliers Westphalia and Hesse Four towards the East known under the Name of Saxony Saxony Electoral which comprehends Turingia Misnia Lusacia High-Saxony upon the Elbe Saxony has other Princes wherein we reckon Brunswick Low-Saxony upon the Elbe Meckelbourg Brandenbourg and Pomerania which for the most part belongs to the Crown of Sueden with some other Seigniories Alsatia is indeed small but the most fertile of all Germany in Corn and in Wines Strasbourg there is rich strong and very populous by reason of its Commerce It s Arcenal the Tower and the Clock of the Church deserves to be seen by those who Travel Heidelberg is the Capital of the Palatinate of the Rhine It s fine Library was Transported to Rome after that the Town had been taken in the Year 1622. by Tilly the Emperors General Franconia was the abode of the ancient French who called it Eastern France after that they had carried their Name and setled their abode in Gaul Francfort upon the Mein is known for its Fairs and for the Elections of Emperors which have been made in that Town Nuremberg has fine Manufactures and furnishes Europe with abundance of Gew-gaws Suevia has so many Sovereignties that there 's not a Country that has so great a number it s two best Cities are Augsbourg and Vlm The first Celebrated by the Confession of the Faith of the Protestants in the Year 1530. by the Enemies it has raised against the King of Spain and by its Goldsmiths Work Its Town-House is one of the finest Fabricks of Germany The Catholicks and Lutherans are received Magistrates indifferently in this Place Vlm is one of the best fortified and the richest of the Empire in Land the Danube begins to carry Boats there The Dutchy of Bavaria is not to be dismembred as are some other States the youngest Brothers there do ever reverence the eldest Munich the Residence of the Elector is a fine Town accompanied with a stately Castle wherein there is a Library full of curious Manuscripts Ratisbon renowned for its Diets has five Principalities of the Empire the Bishoprick the City three Abbies with the finest Bridges in Germany Bohemia is esteemed one of the Highest Countries in Europe by reason there enters no Rivers therein and several go out from thence It has its particular States its Customs and its Tongue different from those of the Neighbourhood tho' its King be one of the Electors of the Empire The Inheritance of this Custom has been confirmed to the House of Austria by the Peace of Munster Prague the Capital is composed of three Cities and so populous that under the Emperor Charles the Fourth there are said to have gone from thence above forty thousand Foreign Scholars for that their Priviledges were retrenched The great Battel in the Year 1620. which was fought near its Walls decided in less than an Hours time the Quarrels of the Kingdom in favour of the Emperor Ferdinand the Second against Frederick Elector Palatine Austria the only Arch-Dutchy in the World is not subject to the Justice of the Empire and does not Contribute to its necessity The Piety of that Family and the Situation of its great Dominions near those of the Infidels have made the Germans continue the Empire in that Family for some time past Vienna the Residence of the Empire is the best Fortified of Germany In the Year 1529. it sustained generously twenty Assaults against the Great Turk Soliman the Second who Besieged it in vain with three hundred Thousand Men. Cologne an Imperial City one of the four Hans-Towns is called the Rome of Germany by reason of its bigness and the beauty of its Benefices The Papists call it Holy because it has in keeping several Bodies of their Saints has three hundred sixty five Churches and that amongst the free Cities it alone is exemped from Heresie Westphalia furnishes Gammons and Hams Munster is the place where the General-Peace of the Empire was concluded in the Year 1648. It was known in the Year 1535. for the Rebellion of the Anabaptists whose pretended King John of Leyden was there punished according to his merit In the Year 1661. its Bishop caused a Cittadel to be there made for the maintaining his Authority against the pretensions of the Citizens Hosse is the Province where hitherto most care has been taken to instruct the Inhabitants in the Trade of War The Name of Saxony was more famous when its People Conquered the better part of England The House of Saxony is one of the most ancient of Europe Erfort in Turingia is esteemed the greatest City of Germany Dresden the Residence of the Elector of Saxony has sine Fortifications and an Arcenal well provided Low-Saxony has several good Cities Brunswick Lubeck Hambourg Vismar Bremen Hambourg is spacious rich strong besides its being able to put fifteen thousand Citizens in Arms Its Situation facilitates to it the Commerce of the Ocean and of the Baltick-Sea Brandenbourg is the only Marquisate of all the Empire with that of Baden Berlin is there the Residence of the Elector Stetin is the most considerable of Pomerania
resolution of its Citizens to maintain the Authority of their King against the Suedes without being prevail'd with to accept the Neutrality was the cause of the preservation of the whole Realm under King Gasimir Lithuania is the greatest Province of those which compose the States of the Crown of Poland It has the title of the Great Dutchy wherein there is still at this day as many Chief Officers as in the Kingdom of Poland and of three General Dyets of the States one is to be held in Lithuania This Countrey is so full of Marshes and of Boggs that there is no travelling there but in Winter and that by means of the Ice Vilna its Capital City contains so many sorts of Religions that there is not a City in the World where God is praised in more several manners There be reckoned three Sabbaths that of ours that of the Turks which is Friday that of the Jews which is Saturday Samogitia is a Country where the Inhabitants live very poorly Polachia communicates its name to the Polanders who call themselves Polaques as being descended from Lechus their first Prince Lesser Russia has several other names It is called Black by reason of its Woods Red by reason of the Colour of its Earth Southern by reason of its scituation towards the South Leopold which put a stop to the progresses of the Turks is the principal City thereof Samoski the strongest Volhinia has for its Capital Kiou an ancient City upon the Boristhenes where the Cossaques have had often their Retreats It is now in the hands of the Muscovite who makes a scruple of restoring it to the Polanders Podolia has Gaminiec a Fortress which formerly resisted the Armies of the Turks of the lesser Tartars of the Transilvanians of the Walachians and which at length submitted to the Armies of the Grand Seignior in the year 1672. Ducal Prussia wherein stands Konigsberg belongs to the Elector of Brandenburg who now possesses its Soveraignty and independantly on Poland This City is so much the greater in that it contains two others in one and the same compass of Walls Pilau and Memel are two Maritime Fortresses the most important of this State There it was the Elector caused Frigats four years ago to be fitted out which have very much incommoded the Commerce of the Subjects of Spain Gourland is a Dutchy whose Duke of the House of Ketler does Homage to the Crown of Poland His Residence is at Mitaw Of Muscovy THis is the vastest Country of all Europe stiled formerly Sarmatia now Muscovy It is called Great and White Russia from the name of the ancient Roxolan People and upon the account of its great extent and of the Snow which so covers the Ground near two thirds of the year that to Travel there at that time one would have occasion to veil ones Eyes with black Crape so as formerly Xenophon made his Souldiers do in the retreat of the ten thousand Greeks The Soyl of Muscovy is cold humid full of Woods and Bogs which make it little inhabited What makes it believed that it is better populated than it really is is that the Country People by express order go to the avenues of the Citties through which the Embassadours of forreign Princes pass The cold there does often hinder the Corn from coming to its perfection It is there sometimes so violent that the Earth is wholly opened by it the Inhabitants find it no extraordinary matter to see their Nose Ears and Feet frozen they only sow in them parts in the Month of June the heats of July and of August do visibly forward the Harvest The Muscovites do not willingly afford the entrance of their Countrey to other Nations they care not to know any other Tongues than their own they only have their Children taught to write and read that is sufficient to be a Doctor They take for their Sirname the proper Name of their Father they write upon Roles of Paper cut into Welts and glued together to the length of twenty or five and twenty Yards they reckon the first day of the Month of September for the first of the Year they wear long Garments and put their Girdle below their Belly Their Collations are performed with the Bread of Spices of Brandy and of Honey The Peasants have recourse to somewhat an extraordinary means for the securing themselves from the quartering of Souldiers they provoke and set upon them their Bees The Office of Executioner is not dishonourable amongst the Muscovites od â—ir Armies are offten of a hundred and two hundred thousand Men. They are divided into five Bodies as ours are into three Boris Foederowits Great Duke of Muscovy towards the beginning of this age saw himself in the Head of an Army of three hundred thousand Men. Alexis Michaelowits after the defeat of Stepan Radzin had no less considerable Army when the Desiign was to hinder the Progress of the Turks The Infantry is there in more esteem than the Cavalry It sustains well a Siege and suffers patiently all imaginable hardship rather than yield which it did in our time in the Castle of Vilna and in the Fortress of Noteburg As for besieging of a Town the Muscovites understand nothing at all of that Art which they have made evident before Smolensko in 1633. before Riga in the year 1656. before Azac in the year 1673. Their Forts are commonly of Wood and of Earth upon the sinuosities of Rivers or else in Lakes The greatest strength of the State consists in forreign Troops and good pay and Pensions are given to the Officers when they have occasion for them The Prince has the Title of the Great Duke says he is discended from Augustus stiles himself Grand Tzaar or Gzar that is to say Gaesar and Emperour The Habiliments he is bound to wear make him appear like a Prelate When the Ministers of Forreign Princes are to treat with his Embassadours they have all the pain imaginable to agree upon his Titles by reason of his extraordinary Pretensions In the year 1654. for the making war in Poland and for supporting the Rebel Gosaques thener at Duke took for Pretext that some Polisheek â—ords had not given him his due Titles and that they had caused to be printed in Poland Books to his disadvantage One of the two present Zars Predecessours was so cruel as to cause an Italian Embassadours Hat to be nailed to his Head for that he had put it on in his Presence His Government is Despotick the Muscovites call themselves Slaves and he calls them out of conrempt by a diminutive Name little John little Peter his will alone is the Rule of his Subjects who hold themselves certain that the will of God and of the Grand Duke are immutable The Zarrs Treasures are said to be great he shuts up the most he can of Gold and Silver in his Fortresses of Bioliczero and Vologde and only makes his Presents and his Payments in Skins and Fish or in giving
true Touchstone turns what they Read into good and current Coin as Midas turn'd all he touch'd into Gold Another Reason for a Constant Infusion of Knowledge into the Mind arises by immediate Deduction from the former since the Soul ought no more to be in the same temper and frame than the Body if we intend either to live happily or in health As a continual renovation of the Blood conduces to the health of the Body so a constant Redintegration of thoughts makes up the welfare and good estate of the Mind Variety is the great Mistress of the World and what wou'd become of Love it self and all other Mistresses if she was not ador'd What Man in the World wou'd be always in the same Garb or be always chewing the same Meat Greatness it self is tyrannical and tiresom without Learning on a Day of Physick or Rain and Men ought to value ' emselves as much upon their Minds as their Bodies Now to apply Sir that which I have said to the present Case what can be more charmingly various and diversifi'd than the knowledge of the several Circumstances of this sublunary Globe What can be more serviceable and conducive toward our Attainment of a Vitae Modus as Terence calls it than our reading the greater World and so learning how to form our own Microcosm What better way Sir can there be taken to understand the Constitution of our own Government and be able to shake St. Stephen's Chappel by a Logical Eloquence than by weighing the Frames of all other Polities and Regiments on this side the Sun What other Considerations can better incite you to a braver Mettle and more sudden Skill and Experience in the Arts of Gallantry and the Sword than the Fancy of a Fame Equal to the extent of the whole World These sublime and lofty Meditations have precipitated me into the undoubted Foresight of future things And ev'n now I see a Life that will be the Labour and Embellishment of our Chronicles not only the Illustrious Greatness and Divine Wisdom of your now Grandfather with the Excellencies of that your other so celebrated Ancestor of your own Name but all the Personal Perfections of your glorious Mother center'd and conspicuous in you insomuch that as you will be the Ornament and Support of the Masculine so I must necessarily Infer you the triumphant Delight of the Fair Sex and in passionate Expectation of that time I lay the whole World and my Self at your feet Who am SIR Your most Obedient And most Humble Servant F. SPENCE THE Englisher's PREFACE TO THE READER THo' the Multitude of Books of this Nature is already very great in our own as well as other Languages yet I question not but what incited our Author the French King's Geographer in Ordinary to the first Writing this Tract will also sufficiently excuse if not justifie me in Copying from his Original For besides that commonly this subject among Us is expanded into vast Volumes gathered out of Antient Authors which some People very desirous of this kind of pleasant and necessary Knowledg have not the leisure to read you will find herein a short and yet I think no unpleasant view of the Great World Collected from the newest Relations that the latest Travellers have made of all parts of the Habitable Earth Insomuch that our Author is not afraid to call his Book The Present State of the Whole World Otherwise this is a Title I durst not have ventured upon in Down-right-honest-English with reference to Asia Africa and America in regard there have been some Mutations in those Parts since this Version of mine and 't is impossible to give a Perfect or so much as an Indirect Account of the present Circumstances under which all those parts of the World now lie And accordingly the Consideration of 'em is Brief tho' interlined with many Curious and Notable Observations which make up about half the Book The other half is wholly destin'd to Europe and gives a ready Prospect of Affairs and Things as they now stand and have stood since the last publick Treaty of Peace and since the Mighty Growth of the French Monarchy excepting some Abatements of very late Transactions Nevertheless our Author is not wholly to be Condemn'd for his wide Title since in some measure he may lay Claim to have given very Necessary and Present Notices of the farthest Parts of the Earth where he shews the settlements the Europeans have made in the West and East-Indies and the Passages Tracts and Courses they now take or of old took in Navigation with other particulars of the like stamp peculiar to our Times And here one thing I must not be silent in that since our Author was very short and Careless in the Description of our Colonies and Plantations abroad and who could expect any other from him I have presumed and I hope innocently enough to add several things to him in several places and would have added many more had not the Sheets been committed to the Press without my re-touching them and the greater part of them Printed off without my Privity And this true Excuse I have for the sparing and stingy Description of France and for the want of our own Routs to the East-Indies and other Places which I had design'd to have enlarg'd and added For though no one in strict Justice has such a Right over another Man's Work as may Authorize and Priviledg him to change and alter what he please yet having so much good Company I must confess in the Additional way among my Brother-Translators though we did not learn it from our Great Country-Master Philemon Holland I hope I may have the English Reader 's pardon especially since 't is for the Glory of our Common Mother whose Reputation and Honour we ought not only to defend with our Swords and Pens but to propagate to the utmost borders of the Universe And the Author I suppose will think no injury done him for if he had been an Englishman he wou'd have Writ so But if he thinks himself concern'd I must give him satisfaction from his own Countrymen who when they translate our Books are notoriously known to corrupt them in much more material Points witness some of my Lord Bacon's Works which while they are taught to speak French are instructed also by the highest Injustice to speak him a Roman-Catholick You must not expect here any Praecognita to this Geography nor the treating of that part of it which is called Spherical it being no part of his Design and the World being cloy'd with Books enough of such a Concern already Our Author does not dispute the roundness of this Body of Earth and Water from the Celestial and Terrestrial Phaenomena nor where this Globe is situated Here are no Lectures upon Zeniths or Nadirs Azimuths or Almicanters Neither does our Author divide the Winds into 64 Parts as some very nicely have done He has not determin'd whether the first Discoverer of America's
Java which Mark Paul saith lies South East of the Isle of Java The Hollanders set so great a value upon these New Lands that they have caused the Map of them to be cut in inlaid or Mosaick Works upon the Pavement of their Stadt-House in Amsterdam America IS a part of the World bearing the Name of Americus Vesputius a Florentine tho' Christopher Columbus a Genoese discover'd it before him It has been also call'd the New World because it was not well known until the last Age and its bigness has made it pass for the greatest Continent of the Earth Sometimes it is called the West Indies and the Little Indies to distinguish it from the East Indies which are great and part of Asia Some give it the Name of the Spanish Indies because the King of Spain has the greatest and better part of it in his possession Thus the Name of Indies is common to two great Regions the one in our Continent the other in the other Hemisphere whether they were discover'd at the same time or that in both the Inhabitants go commonly naked or that from the one and the other are brought rich and precious Merchandize and Commodities or lastly whether the Pilot Alonze Zanches d' Andalousia being the same that saw America before Columbus and left him his Memoirs did think that it was joyn'd to the Indies of Asia In all probability America is the Atlantick Island of the Ancients some say that it is the real Tarsis which Monarchs to take from their People the knowledge of its great Riches and the desire of trading thither had given it very strange Names calling it Hell the Elysian Fields and the Fortunate Islands and that for the confounding the Name of Tarsis they had called by the same Name several Places of our Continent where the Merchants had their Banks and their Correspondencies Several are persuaded that the City and Island of Cadiz are now what was formerly Tarsis Those Soveraigns pretended there were Dragons Infernal Rivers sometimes a Cherubim with a flaming Sword which were probably nothing else than those storms which are frequent in the Torrid Zone and the Insults of Corsairs and Pyrates who watcht the the coming of the Gallies and Fleet from Terra firma to get Booty Several do assure us that it was to the Atlantick Isle Hanno the Carthaginian went when he conducted towards the South West a Fleet of Sixty Sail with Thirty Thousand Men. They also say That five years afterwards the same Hanno being return'd into his own Countrey prohibited all such Voyages to his Citizens that their City might not be depopulated by their going to dwell there charmed with the great Riches that were to be found in those-Countries for fear the Rebels might make it an Asile to the ruin of their State Those Authors find but little credit who undertake to prove by a feigned Medal of Augustus which was pretended to be found in those parts or by a supposed Marble taken out of the ground in Portugal under King Emanuel with Latin Verses of a forged Sybile touching the discovery of this New World If it be then true that America was known by the Ancients we may say that the perils People must expose themselves to in traversing the Seas that are between the two great Continents before they arrive there and the little experience the Ancients had in Navigation did make 'em abandon the persuit of their Commerce into these Regions and that had it not been for the favourable reception that was made by Ferdinand King of Arragon and Castile to Columbus whose proposal had been rejected by the Government of Genoa the Kings of Portugal and England we should perhaps be still to learn if there was any other Continent than ours America is divided into two great parts or Peninsula's the one Northern called Mexicana the other Southern called Peruana This Division is according to the Isthmus or neck of Land which lyes near Panama and not according to the Equinoctial Line The Spaniards had once a design in their heads to cut through that Isthmus for the sparing the Charges which are far greater to them in that Tract of Land by the transportation of their Merchandizes when they go to Peru or return from thence than in all the way by Sea they make between Spain and America tho' this way be above two thousand Leagues But were not able to bring this Enterprize of theirs about The Countries of Northern America are as you go from the North to the South Canada or New France Virginia Florida New Mexico Mexico or New Spain and the Islands of the Antilles You find in Southern America all along the Seas the Terra firma where is Castella del Oro and Guyana Peru Chili Magellanica Paraguay where is Tucuman and la Plata and lastly Brasile America is environned with the Sea if it be true that towards the North West it is separated from the Land of Jesso by the Streights of Anien Those who make it as big as Asia and Africa together compare its Northern part to Asia and its Southern to Africa It has the advantage of being fertil and temperate by reason of its great and goodly Rivers and of the cool Winds that arise there even in the Torrid Zone where the Inhabitants have not the blackness which is natural in most of the Africans and in some Asiaticks of our Continent who inhabit under the same Zone This makes us see that the most or the least heat is not always caused by the proximity or remoteness of the Sun and that which contributes thereto often is the situation of Places the disposition of the Mountains and Valleys the quality of the Soil and the diversity of the Winds which blow in those respective Regions The Riches of America are so great that Spain has drawn out from thence and does still draw every year a prodigious quantity of Gold and Silver of which many private persons of Europe both in Peace and War under diverse borrowed Names receive a good share The Mines of Potosi have always furnished an immense number of Millions Never were any Riches comparable to those of Atabalipa and of Guainacapa Kings of Peru and to the precious Furnitures of the City of Cusco It was no extraordinary thing during the Reign of those Kings to see in some Cities of those Countreys Temples Wainscoted with Silver and Houses Cover'd with Sheets of Gold The Spaniards do affirm their King draws from thence every year above Twelve Millions of Livres by means of the Impositions he lays upon Commodities that are transported from those Parts As Gold Silver Pearls Emeraulds Skins Sugar Tobacco Cutchenelle Sarzepareilla Ginger and several other things Yet it is made out that the first Expence for the discovery of America came but to Fifteen Thousand Ducats which were advanced to Columbus by a Secretary of the King of Spain The Mexican and Peruvian were the only Nations amongst the Americans who had Cities
and the most populous by reason of the conveniency of trade Some Sea-men call Barbary the Coast of Africk from the Streight of Gibraltar as far as Cap-Blanc which is at twenty Degrees of Northern Latitude The Romans Sarazens Vandals Arabians Moors and Turks who have been consecutively the Lords of the Barbary we treat of have given very different Names to its Towns The Turkish Emperour sways over the greatest portion of it The Kings of Fez and Morocco possess what is most towards the West The Spaniards Portuguese and English have Towns upon the Coast which elsewhere shall be enumerated Susaon Couco Labes are little States which maintain themselves in the Mountains Salley Tituan Algier Tunis and Tripoli are Towns belonging to Corsairs the three last under the Protection of the Grand Seignior who sends Bashaws thither but they have not much authority The French have the Bastion of France and Genoveses the Isle of Tabarca which they keep for the bringing thence the Merchandize of the Countrey which consists in Barks Corn Hides Corral which is of three sorts red white and black The Portuguese were the first that made Conquests in Africa and had it not been for the design they entertain'd of carrying their Arms into the East-Indies from which they expected more advantage they would undoubtedly have made Progresses there much more considerable by reason of the Divisions which were at that time in the Kingdoms of Fez and Morocco There are chiefly seen in Barbary Africans or Bereberes who are called Barbaresques and most commonly Moors Also there are Arabians who came thither about the Year 999 of three Broods These last live in the open Field by Adarous which are Communities compos'd of several Families call'd Baraques where they have commonly a hundred or two hundred Tents disposed around they esteem themselves much more Noble than those who inhabit the Towns and cultivate the Earth nor do they take any care but of their Herds and Flocks or to make Incursions into the Mountains the Moors apply themselves particularly to Commerce Amongst some of their Customs 't is observ'd they are at excessive charges in their Nuptials as the Christians are in their Law-Suits and the Jews in their Passeovers They cause themselves to be buryed in those places where no Body was enterred before that when they rise again they may not be puzzled to know and distinguish their Members from those of others They were used to crucifie their Criminals but since they took notice that the Christians have a respect for Crosses and that a great Drought once happened during some Executions which nevertheless was followed with some Rains after that the Crosses were taken away they attributed this blessing to Mahomet and order'd that for the future Criminals should either be Hang'd or Beheaded They make five Quarters of their Sheep by reason of their extraordinary large Tails nevertheless they often cause them to be roasted whole nay and served so upon the Table too Barbary comprehends several Kiugdoms which have Cities of the same Name Marocco Fez Tremisen Algier Tunis Tripoli and Barcar The Kingdom of Morocco is upon the Ocean which goes under the Name of the Atlantick Sea 'T is full of Mountains excessive high and alwayes covered with Snow It s King styles himself Emperour of Barbary and Morocco King of Fez of Suz and Tafilet Lord of Dara of Gago c. He takes also the Title of Grand Cherif of Mahomet and Successour of his Family This Name of Cherif shows That his Predecessours made use of the pretence of Religion in their Establishment they were also called Amiiel-Momins and by corruption Miramomoulins that is to say Emperours of the Faithful The City of Morocco formerly longer and more populous than it is at present has upon its Royal Palace three or four Golden Apples esteemed at more than two hundred thousand Crowns which are said to be Enchanted because they cannot be taken from the place where they are The Land about it affords Grapes as big as Pullets Eggs and Goats hair which serves to make fine Chamlets Morocco and Safi have Consuls of Europeans for the maintaining the Priviledges there of their several Nations Mazagan is a Fortress of which the Portuguese have made use for the bringing the open Country under Contribution after the examples of the Arabians The little Island of Mogodor five miles from the Continent has a Castle with a Garrison for the security of some Mines of Gold and Silver which are in its Neighbourhood The Kingdom of Fez is fruitful by reason of its Rivers It has four sorts of Land Mountains Valleys Plains and Sea-Coasts the City of Fez which passes in Africa for the seat of the Western Court is the best the finest and and most populous of all Barbary with a Famous University and a Library in which there are above two thousand Manuscripts 'T is said to have above fourscore Gates a hundred thousand Houses two hundred Hospitals thirty two Suburbs and a great number of Temples and Mosques whereof one alone is half a Mile round There is the Old and New Fez this the abode of the Prince and the other accompanied with a Fortress It is near the River of Cebu which has towards its source a very extraordinary Bridge for it is raised a hundred and fifty Fathoms out of the Water and is only a kind of Pannier of Sea-Rushes capable of holding eight or ten Persons This same Pannier is hung up betwixt two Ropes which turn upon two Pulleys fasten'd to the two ends of two Wooden Posts which are upon the Rocks of each side the Valley Salley is a Nest of Corsairs who have alwayes several Pyrate Ships Rubat opposite to Salley was Built after the Model of Morocco and has an Aqueduct of above 12000 Paces Alcazar is known by the Battels of 1578 wherein dyed three Kings one of whom was Sebastian King of Portugal Anafi or Anfa a ruin'd Town with a Castle of the Arabians is thought by the Moors to be an Enchanted Place where are still as they say the Treasures of their first Emperour Tremisen or Telensin is a great City belonging to the Turk seven or eight Leagues distant from the Sea The Town of Argiers is one of the best Inhabited and the Richest of all Africk by means of the Pyracies which the Inhabitants Exercise upon the Ocean and Mediterranean Sea It has full fifteen thousand Houses twelve or fifteen thousand Gardens in its Neighbourhood the Christian Slaves are there to the number of thirty or forty thousand Cardinal Ximenes said That if Argiers could be taken Money enough might be found there to Conquer all Africa Amongst the Tents which are out of the Town there is that of the beautiful Cava the Daughter of Count Julian de la Betica who first caused the Moors to pass over into Spain to revenge himself by their means of King Roderic The Emperour Charles the Fifth had the disatisfaction of seeing the finest Fleet
he ever had lost before Argiers The Kingdom of Tunis can pride it self in the Birth of Hannibal Asdrubal Terence and other great Men and Christianity is obliged to it for the Birth of Tertullian St. Cyprian and St. Augustin The City of Tunis has encreased it self from the Ruins of Carthage the Great formerly the Rival of Rome and the Capital City of a very considerable State At present it obeys a Prince whom they call the Dey Bizerta and Souza are two places where those of Tunis do often keep their Pyrate Ships Souza is composed of the High and Low Town Mahometa is the ancient Adrumetum or Adrumyssus near which some have been pleased to say that formerly thirty Gaulish Cavaliers repulsed above two thousand Moors Caraan has been the Seat of a Calif that is to say of a Mahometan Pontiffe It is the Ancient Thisdrus where Massinissa gained over Asdrubal the Battel which Scipio was spectator of Beja is in a soyl so fertil in Corn that it 's a saying of that Countrey That if there were two Beja's there would be as much Corn as there are grains of sand in the Sea Guadibarbar makes so many turnings and windings that it is passed full five and twenty times in the way from Bone to Tunis Between the Kingdom of Tunis and the Isle of Maltha there are some small Islands Pantalaria belonging to the King of Spain with a Gulph where the vapour which clings to the Rock above distils as much Water as is necessary for the use of the Inhabitants Lampadosa and Linosa depends on the Order of Maltha There is in Lampadosa a Chapel famous for the Offerings both of Christians and Turks And it has been observ'd that the Sacrilegious have never been able to carry any thing away from thence with impunity The Kingdom of Tripoly is a barren Land considerable only for Pyracies and the Commerce of its City called Tripoly of Barbary that it may be distinguish'd from those others of Souria and Natolia which go under the same Name Upon the Coasts of that Kingdom is the Island Zerbi where in the Year 1560 the Spaniards were defeated by the Infidels In this Island was it also that the Corsair Dragut escaped from the famous Doria this last held him there so narrowly Besieg'd that he could not stir out the other bethought himself of making a Channel without the Christians perceiving it and so in a clear night he had the means of Transporting his Galleys into another part of the Island and of retiring to open Sea where he came and presented himself before his Enemy who was in no small surprize The Land of Barca begins at the place where stood formerly the Altars of the Philenians which had also served for Bounds to the States of Carthage and Cyrene and since to the Empires of the West and East 'T is only a meager and desart Plain where stands the City of Caruenna formerly Cirene the Capital of a small State which was given by Cirus for a retreat to King Croesus In this Country did the Psilloe inhabit who had the reputation of making Serpents die only by their presence Egypt FEw Countreys have had so many ancient Names as Egypt the Hebrews and Jews call'd it Mesraim and the Egyptians at present call it Chibet It s length that is to say its extent from the North to the South is two hundred Leagues and its breadth which is what it contains from the West to the East is confin'd by the Mountains which bound the Valley of the Nile It is the only Region of Africa which touches Asia and the Countrey the most populous in the World tho' the Air be somewhat bad Its Women do often bring forth two or three Children at a time which is attributed to the Water of the Nile Egypt was no less peopled formerly if it be true that under Amasis one of its ancient Kings it had full twenty thousand Cities The plenty of Corn it affords made the Ancients call it the Publick Granary of the World The abundance or famine of the Roman Empire depended on the good or ill Harvest in Egypt The Nile by the inundation of its Waters which are full of Nitre as we said before gives it this advantage not by wholly covering the Lands as several have imagin'd but being brought into several Channels after the Inhabitants have broke the Dikes That part which is on the East of the Nile is more fruitful than that which is on the East of the River Its Plants grow so abundantly that they would stifle one another if they did not prevent it by casting Sand in the field Thus it is somewhat surprizing that the Egyptians make their Lands lean with Sand whereas other Nations endeavour to fatten theirs with Dung Besides Corn they transport out of this Countrey Rice Sugar Dates Sena Cassia excellent Balm Skins Linnen and Cloth They are but ill inform'd who say that it never Rains there whereas there are frequent Showers during the Months of November December and January principally on the Mountains and in the lower parts Still are there at this day to be seen in Egypt Pyramids Obelisques Labyrinths and other Works which its ancient Kings caus'd to be made at an extraordinary charge to shew their Power and to give Employment to their People The Statue of Memnon was formerly very considerable there as well as the Pharos near Alexandria But among all these several Works it has been observ'd that the Pyramid is the most solid Monument Antiquity has left us There remains nothing more in the Lake Meris than the place of the Labyrinth which is said to have had above three thousand three hundred Chambers The Mummys which are very frequent in this Region and which Travellers take delight to bring into Europe are Humane Bodies pitch'd and embalm'd that have been preserv'd above two or three thousand years in Caverns whither the ancient Egyptians took care to carry them They passed for that purpose a Lake in a Bark and so first gave occasion to the Fable of Charon Fiction has made Gods Heroes and Men reign in Egypt History gives an account of several of its Kings before Alexander the Great It says that among those Kings Sesostris was the greatest Conquerour that Memnon having dedicated his Statue to the Sun it saluted that Star at its rising that Busiris pass'd there for a Tyrant by reason of the Cruelties he exercised over the Hebrews that Cencres is the Pharoah who was drowned in the Red Sea that Protcus had the repute of changing his Form because he had divers sorts of Head-array that Chemnis employed three hundred and sixty thousand Men for twenty years together in building the first and greatest Pyramid that Sesonchis with an Army of four hundred thousand Foot and sixty thousand Horse took Jerusalem and that Sennacherib King of the Assyrians being come against him wild Rats gnaw'd the Bow-strings in the Assyrian Army that Necaus began the Channel for the
the State with a Castle-Royal It is probably the City which several Authors call Cambalu what those Authors call Cathai is nothing else than Northern China In the Year 1644. This City was surpriz'd and pillag'd by a Rebel who dissipated in a few days all the Riches which sixteen Kings had heaped up during two hundred and fourscore Years Since that the Tartars of Niuche whom they call Kin have rendred themselves Masters of it and by the taking of Nakin and Canton have setled their Conquests in the great Kingdom of China India THe Name of India and that of Indostan is given to the Empire of the Mogul and has two great Peninsula's on this and on the other side the Ganges They call by the Name of Indies the Islands of the Oriental Sea the Coasts of Persia and Arabia and those of Africa towards the East The Coasts of Africa upon the Ocean on this side the Cape of Good Hope and of America are known under Name of the West-Indies by those who frequent the Sea The principal Tongues that have any vogue in the East-Indies are the Canarine in and about Goa the Malabar in the Countrey of the same Name the Guzerate in Cambaia Coromondel Bisnagar and Bengala the Malaize in Malucca Sumatra the Java's and the Moluccoes that of the Maldive Isles is wholly peculiar Arabick is employed only for Religion and the Sciences just as Latin is in Europe Portuguese is spoken in all the places which were first conquered by the Crown of Portugal tho' some of those places be at present possess'd by other Nations of Europe The Empire of the Mogul THis Empire comprehends the greatest part of the firm land of India between Persia Tartary and China The Mogul is the Sovereign thereof He has his Name and his Rise from a Tribe come from Giagathai a Countrey of Great Tartary He passes for the richest Prince in the World as to Jewels besides those of his Crown he has those of several Princes his Neighbours whose Predecessours had for a long while lived in and entertain'd the curiosity of having 'em Besides he inherits the Jewels of the Grandees of his Court He is Universal Heir to those he gives Pensions to all Houses before which he passes owe him a Present the Lands belong to him his Will serves for Law in the decision of Matters In this State People go under the Name of the Employment they possess and not of the Lands they enjoy Some Relations assert that this Monarch is every day shewn part of his Treasures sometimes his Elephants sometimes his Jewels another day somewhat else and that he commonly sees every thing but once a Year all the Treasure being divided into as many parts as there are days in the Year The day of his birth he is weighed and the feasting upon that occasion lasts five days then he receives sometimes the value of above thirty Millions and always something very rare The Civil War which arose between the four Sons of Scha-Jehan did not allow Aureng-zebe who rendred himself Master of 'em all to observe punctually these Diversions One of the Temples of this State is pav'd and imbowed with Plates of pure Gold In the Palace of Agra there are two Towers cover'd with sheets of massy Gold and a Throne enrich'd with Jewels with four Lyons of silver Vermilion guilt supporting a Canopy of massy Gold People talk at a much higher rate He is said to have two Bushels of Carbuncles five Bushels of Emeralds twelve Bushels of diverse sorts of Precious Stones twelve hundred Cutlasses whose Scabbards are of Gold and covered with Jewels They say moreover that the Treasure of Scha-Choram one of the late Moguls was of fifteen hundred Millions of Crowns What is certain is that Scha-Jehan who reign'd near forty Years left above five Millions of Crowns that the Throne which he caus'd to be made in his City of Jehan-Abad which is that of Delli came to above sixty Millions of Livers There are seven magnificent Thrones whereof the greatest was begun by Tamerlain The Money of this State is of good alloy great Justice is done the Europeans are in great consideration being by them call'd Francs They reckon the ways by Cosses each of which is a Mile and a half No Oats are allowed their Horses they give 'em Pease and a sort of Paste made of Sugar Flour and Butter They bathe themselves in Cysterns which they call Tanques in the Rivers there are Tuberons which eat Men. The Mogul upon occasion can arm two hundred thousand Horse He has but little Infantry and that too but bad He has a considerable number of Elephants of which Creatures he commonly keeps five or six hundred He draws great Services from these Creatures they are sure-footed rise and lye down easily tho' there be of 'em thirteen and fifteen foot high This Prince is of the Mahometan Religion of the Turkish Sect Most of his Vassals are Pagans The Gymnosophists and the Brachmans have formerly been esteem'd for Wisdom in India just as are the Bramins at this day The former were very cruel they caused old people and the diseased to be killed out of an opinion that they did them good service The Bramins exercise surprising Abstinences and Mortifications some amongst 'em will remain standing with their Arms up for ten or twelve Years They are as the Priests of the Countrey The Troopers and Soldiers are called Rezbutes There are several Mahometans in the Empire of the Mogul Above two thirds there are Gentiles or Banians or Persces The Banians are almost all Merchants sharp cunning and as sagacious as possible Hucksters by reason of their acquaintance in the Country where they live amongst the Mahometans as the Jews do among the Christians they make profession of doing no hurt to any Creature living of pardoning the injuries that are done them they believe the transmigration of Souls have Hospitals for Brutes more than for Men. One amongst 'em spent in one day above twelve thousand Ducats for the making the Nuptials of his Friend's Bull They have a Cow in great veneration They dare not eat of any thing that has had life not so much as Radishes for fear of eating the Soul of some of their Friends They do not willingly light Candles for the preventing the Gnats from burning themselves in 'em When the Portugueses who dwell there have no Money they endeavour to catch some Bird which they shew in the Streets saying they are going to have it roasted for their Supper and immediately the Banians do not fail to give them Money to redeem it out of their hands Marriage is with them in such consideration that when a young man is dead without having been married they cause some Maiden or other to lye with the Body to whom they give for that purpose a Dowry or Portion The Persees are descended from the ancient Persians who retired into those parts Never any of 'em are Farriers or Locksmiths for fear of
They have several peculiar Kings the Hollanders have some Fortresses In the last Age Charles the Fifth Emperour sent Magellan to discover 'em who to arrive there steer'd the Western Course quite contrary to that which the Kings of Portugal had caus'd to be taken since they were engaged to the Portugals who laid claim to 'em as having been there by the common way which was that of the East The Government of these Islands after that was join'd to the Manilhes and the Commerce of 'em was left to the Portugals From hence are transported Nutmegs Cloves and Ginger Ternate the greatest of the five small Islands is eight Leagues in circuit and has a Mountain which casts forth fire the others are Tider very considerable Motir Machian and Bachian The Moluccoes are good Soldiers commonly of the Mahometan Religion Besides the Kings of Ternate Tidor and Bachian there are several others in the Celebes Islands and in Gilolo The King of Macassar in the Celebes has lately caused his City to be fortified He has always given free entrance in his Ports to the Ships of strangers In the Year 1661 he treated with the Hollanders East-India Company and abandoned the Portugals In the Year 1668 the Hollanders oblig'd him to trade with none but them with exclusion to other Nations The state of this Prince would be pretty temperate if the heats were not insupportable in the day time Formerly the Inhabitants of Macassar are humane flesh for which reason the Kings of the Moluccoes and others of their neighbourhood sent their Criminals thither Celebes fertil in Rice and the Land of Papous affords Gold Ambergreese and the Birds of Paradise Banda the only Island in the World which produces Nutmegs and Mace is an Island towards the South of the Moluccoes on the East of that of Amboyna with five or six other smaller Islands It has a Volcan or Mountain which casts forth flames which in the Year 1615 spoil'd all the Artillery in the Island Amboyna fruitful in Cloves likewise on the South of the Moluccoes gives it Name to some other small neighbouring Islands It was taken in the Year 1603 from the Portugals by the Hollanders who have at this day several Fortresses there It 's their best Establishment next that of Batavia They have treated with the Inhabitants of the Island so as these last are oblig'd to receive no Commerce but with the Hollanders Europe EVROPE one of the four great Parts of the World is also one of the most considerable if we respect either the Potency of its States the great Number Beauty and excellent Polity of its Cities its great Commerce the goodness of its Air and its prodigious Fertility 'T was Europe that gave Alexanders and Caesars to the Universe that has had within its Boundaries the principal part of the Roman and Grecian Monarchies and which at this day does send Colonies into other parts of the World For this reason it seems to be represented with a Crown on its Head when it is shewn under the form of a Woman It lies in the North-West of our Continent all in the Northern temperate Zone This exempts it from the insupportable heats which reign in Africk and which the most Southern parts of Asia undergo It s Air is equally mild unless it be in its most Northern Countreys The Ground affords all manner of Grains and Fruits It s length to take it from the Cape St. Vincent towards the West of Spain unto the Parts of Muscovy bordering upon the Mouths of the River Obi exceeds twelve hundred Leagues or is about 3800 Miles It s Breadth that is to say its Extent from the South to the North from Cape Mapatan in Morea to the most Northern Promontory of Norway is full eight hundred Toward the North Europe has the Northern Ocean call'd Frozen by reason of its Ice the Western or Atlantick Ocean towards the West the Mediterranean Sea towards the South and beyond that Sea Africa Now the Bounds which towards the Levant separate it from Asia in remounting the Mediterranean-Sea towards the North are as follows 1. The Archipelago or the White otherwise Aegean Sea 2. The Streight of Gallipoli call'd the Dardanelloes and an Arm of St. George otherwise nam'd the Hellespont two Miles broad 3. The Sea of Marmora otherwise Propontis 4. The Streight of Constantinople or the Chanel of the greater Sea otherwise the Thracian-Bosphorus 5. The Black or Major Sea otherwise Euxinus 6. The Streight of Caffa or Vospero otherwise the Mouth of St. John formerly the Cimmerian Bosphorus 7. The Limen or the Sea of Zabaca and Tana formerly Palus Mcotides 8. The River of Dom or Tana formerly Tanais 9. A Line drawn from the most Eastern winding of the Dom unto the Northern Ocean near Obi. Some draw this Line more towards the West from the Sources of the Dom unto the White Sea which is in Muscovy and make Europe very small Others contain the Conquests of the Great Duke of Muscovy which he made in the Asiatick Tartary Not to confound the true Limits of Asia and Europe together we may say that both the Czar and the Grand Seignior have Territories in each of those Great Parts of the World Europe is to be considered both in Terra firma and in Islands if we make the Numeration of its Parts according to their situation 1. We find towards the West France Spain Portugal three Hereditary Kingdoms 2. Towards the South three Regions belonging to divers Sovereigns the first comprehends the Countreys bordering upon France which were almost all formerly part of Gaule and whereof the greatest part has been reunited in our time in France the Low-Countreys that is to say Holland and Flanders La Franche Compte Suisserland and Savoy The second of these Regions is Italy and the third Germany 3. Towards the North of Europe there is Denmark and Sueden Hereditary Kingdoms Norway is added to the Crown of Denmark as belonging to the same King 4. Towards the East are Poland Muscovy Turkey three the Greatest States of Europe Under the Name of European Turkey is comprehended Turkey properly so taken Greece Hungary Transylvania Walachia Moldavia lesser Tartary the Republick of Ragusa The Isles of Europe are in the Ocean in the Mediterranean in the Baltick-Sea The Isles of the Ocean are Great Britain which comprehends England and Scotland Ireland and other that are smaller all under the Name Britanick Sicily Sardaigna Corsica and Candia are the greatest of the Mediterranean-Sea The Isles of the Baltick are not considerable in respect of us The most renowned Mountains of Europe are the Pyrenees and the Alpes towards the Confines the Cevennes about the midst of France Sierra-Morena in Spain the Apennine in Italy Parnassus in Greece Crapax between Poland and Hungary the Riphees in Moscovy Mount-Gibel otherwise call'd Aetna in Sicily Amongst the most considerable Rivers there are the Tage the Guadiana the Guadalquivir the Eber in Spain The Po the Tyber in Italy
The Seine Loire Garone Rhosne in France The Danube Rhine Elbe Oder in Germany The Vistule and Nieper in Poland The Volga and Dom in Moscovy The Thames Trent Severn in England The Tay in Scotland The Shennon in Ireland We may consider the State of Europe according to their Titles without having regard to their Rank and say that there is the Patrimony of the Church Two Empires Germany and Turkey Seven Kingdoms each with its King who acknowledged yet no Superiors England France Spain Portugal Suedeland Denmark Poland this Elective Eight Electorates Mayence Treves Cologne Bohemia Bavaria Saxony Brandenbourg the Palatinate One Arch-Dutchy which is Austria Two Great Dutchies Moscovy Tuscany Six Dutchies besides those in the Empire Lorrain Savoy Mantua Modena Parma Courland Four Principalities which pay Homage to the Turks Transylvania Walachia Moldavia lesser Tartary Seven Republicks Holland Suisserland Venice Genoa Lucca St. Marin Ragusa A great number of Principalities and Imperial Cities in Germany enjoy Sovereignty in their States but owe Fealty to the Emperor The Christian Religion is the most received in Europe for which reason some give it the Name of Christendom By the Cares of the Europeans the Faith has been Preached and Established in America Africa and Asia Besides the Roman Catholicks the Protestants and the Reformed there are in Europe several Sectaries Mahometans and Idolaters in some Countries of the North. The Roman Catholick Religion is for the most part where is us'd the Latin Tongue The Schisms where they speak the Sclavonian Protestanism where the Teutonick is in use Judaism wandring in most parts of the World is tolerated in some Cities It has been particularly banish'd out of France Spain and Portugal Some who have undertaken to make the supputation of the Parts of the Earth Discover'd according to the Religions that are receiv'd up and down have said that if those Parts were divided into thirty Christianity would have five of them Mahometism six and Paganism nineteen In Europe are reckon'd four Principal Tongues the Teutonick the Latin the Greek and the Sclavonian The Teutonick is of three sorts German in Germany Saxon in England and Scotland Danish in Denmark in Sueden Norway and Ireland The Latin Tongue is receiv'd in Italy France and Spain The Greek was formerly of four sorts Attick Ionick Dorick Aeolick The Sclavonian is currant amongst the Sclavonians Bohemians Polanders Moscovites There are seven other less considerable Tongues the Albanese Cossack Hungarian Finlandish Irish British and Bask. The Cossack has affinity with that of the lesser Tartary the Finlandish is receiv'd in Finland and Lapland the Brittish in the Principality of Wales and in Brittany of France Amongst the Ancient People of Europe the Greeks have won the Prize for Sciences and the Roman for Arms In the last Ages its Western Nations have excell'd in Navigation The Present State of the Countries Fortresses and other Places which the Europeans stand Possess'd of in the East and West-Indies EVrope at first had but two Nations who in the last Age and towards the end of the Age before undertook with success Voyages of a long course and who afterwards sent Colonies into those Lands they had Discover'd the Spaniards towards the West the Portugals towards the East They obtained from Pope Alexander VI. a Donative of all the undiscover'd Lands The other Europeans were not satisfied with the over-Prodigal Liberality of this Sovereign Pontiff the English share therein the French and Hollanders were willing to have their share therein Since which there have been divers changes in several places of those Countries the rigour which the Spaniards and Portugals have used to exclude other Nations having only promoted their own Destruction The French have in Canada 1. Mont-real the three Rivers Quebec Tadousac upon the Great River of St. Laurence Accadia Port-Royal St. John Pemtagoet near the Sea the Isle of Cap-Breton in the Isle of Terra-Nova Plaisance the Bay of little Niort 2. In the Antilles Islands St. Christopher's in part the other part belonging to the English St. Bartholomew St. Croix St. Martin Guadaloupe la Desirce Mary-Galant the Saints Martinick St. Alousie Grenade the Grenadins The Tortuse and several Colonies in the Western Part of the Islands of Hispaniola called San-Domingo 3. In the Terra-firma of Southern America upon the Coast of Guayana the Isle of Cayene The Colony of Corou Coonama Comaribo 4. The Commerce of the Coast of Africa upon the Rivers of Senega of Gambia at Rufisque near Cap-Verd at Grand-Sestre at Ardre in several places of Guinea 5. The Fort Dauphin in the Isle of Madagascar The Isles of St. Mary of Bourbon of Diege-Rois Countoirs or Staples at Suratte at Souali and other Places of the Mogul Near Nazul-Patan at Rezapour at Siam in the Kingdom of Tunquim at Bantam in the Isle of Java and other Places The Spaniards possess the greatest and best part of America where they have a great number of Towns 1. In the Northern America New-Spain the Isles of Cuba Hispaniola the French have setled themselves in the Western part of Hispaniola Porto-rico St. Augustin St. Matthew in Florida a part of new Mexico 2. In Southern America la Castille d'or otherwise called Terra-firma Peru Chili Paraguay which comprehends the Countries of Tucuman and la Plata The Isles of Salomon in the South Sea 3. In the Coast of Africa upon the Ocean Larache the Canary Islands 4. Towards the East most of the Philippine Island called Manilhes They have a part of the Molucco Islands which they have abandoned and the Hollanders have not failed to make advantage of their so doing The Portuguese have 1. All the Coasts of Brasile in Southern America where are the Capitanias of Peru Maranhaon Ciara Riogrande Paraibe Tamaraca Pernambuco Seregippe Baia de Todos-os-Santos los-Isleos Porto-Seguro Spiritu-Santo Rio-Janeiro and San-Vincente Towards the Mouth of the Amazon the Places of Estero Corduba Cogemine 2. In Africa Mazagan upon the Coast of the Kingdom of Morocca Some Forts upon the River St. Dominick a Branch of the Niger upon the Coasts of Guinea of Congo of Angola Habitations in the Isle of St. Thomas The Isles Terceres Madera Porto-Santo Cap-Verd of the Prince of Fernando Pao of Annabon 3. Several Places in the East-Indies in Cafreria the Castle of Cofala the Village of Sena a Factory with a small Fort at the Cape of Corientes strong Houses of Cuama and on the Rivers of the Coast In Zanguchar the City and Castle of Mozambick with the Fort of St. Mark Factories and small Forts of Angoxa and Quilimane The Castle of Quiloa a Factory in the Isle Monfia The Town and Castle of Mombaze the Castle of Melinde with the Villages and Factories of Pata and Ampaze The Traffick in all the Coast of Africk from the Cape of Good-Hope to the Red-Sea in the Isle Zoeotora at Aden at Fartach at Bassora In Persia half of the Revenue of the Isle of Baharem of Congue the Traffick to Bender-Rich
thereof The City of the same Name is the greatest of Spain The abode in it is so pleasant by reason of the pureness of its Air and its admirable Fountains that the Moors placed Paradise in that part part of Heaven which is upon its Zenith Malgus is known for the excellent Wines which it furnishes the World withal Almeria for its Commerce and its Harbour Monde for the Victory of Julius Caesar over Pompey's Sons He killed upon the place thirty thousand of his Enemies and afterwards made the Circumvallation of the Town with the Arms and Bodies of the Dead Murcia is called the Garden of Spain by reason of its excellent Fruits It s Town of the same Name drives a great Trade in Silk Carthagena is a good Sea-Port Valentia is the most agreeable Country of all Spain The City of the same Name has also those of Beautiful Great of Valencia del-Cid since its being taken by Rodrigo from the Moors Alicant is known for the Transportation of its good Wines Upon the Coast are seen in a place called Morvedre the Ruins of the ancient Sagonte the destruction whereof by Hannibal gave occasion to the second Punick War The Principality of Catalonia the most important Province of Spain produces Wine Oyl Corn and Fruits in abundance The Neighbourhood of the Pyrenees furnish it with very fine Marble Jaspar and Azure Those who make Spain the Head of the Catholick King 's Dominions say Catalonia is one of its Ears and Portugal the other Ten Cities are reckoned in this Province seventeen Vigueries or great Baily-wicks with above a hundred Walled Towns whereof the most part were taken and re-taken in the late Wars Barcelona the Capital City has good Edifices by reason of the conveniency it has of being furnished with Stone from Mount-Juy Tarragona whereof the greatest part of Spain has born formerly the Name is more Ancient and Strong than it is Beautiful Tortosa upon the end of the Ebre The French gained near this Town a famous Victory over the Sarazens in the time of Charlemain Larida has susteined several Sieges and seen several Battels fought in our time Caesar formerly defeated near this place Aframius and Petreius of Pompey's Party Gironne is a Principality whereof the Eldest Sons of the Kings of Aragon bore the Title Cordene a famous Dutchy has a Mountain of Salt which seems of all sorts of Colours but becomes white when it is pounded Problet a rich Monastery was the Sepulchre of the King 's of Aragon That of our Lady at Montferrat is known for its great Solitude for its Pilgrimages and the Presents that are made there Roses the strongest and most important of the Sea-Towns The Isles of Majorca and Minorca are the ancient Baleares where the Inhabitants were heretofore as good Slingers and great Pyrats as it this day They obliged their Children to fight for their Break-fast with their Slings notwithstanding their activity they were constrain'd to demand help of Augustus against the Rabbets which harassed their Country The Books of Raymundus Lullius are read and studied in the University of Majorca as Aristotle's Des-Cartes's are in other places The Isle of Minorca has good Havens whereof the most considerable is that of Mahon with Avenues well Fortified The Territory of Yvica has this particularity of killing Serpents which are in great numbers in the Isle Formentera Aragon has no good Towns but Saragossa Ainsa and Benavari have been the Capitaâ—s of two small Kingdoms Sobrarbe and Ribagorce Monzon is a place where the States of Aragon did formerly assemble Navarre consists in six Merindades or Governments whereof the Capital is Pamplune There is on this side the Pyrenees one of those Governments which is call'd of Low-Navarre in the hands of the French King The French say That the Genealogy-Table shews the Rights which his most Christian Majesty has over the Kingdom of Navarre which was Usurp'd from his Predecessors about the Year 1512. without any other ground than that of Vis Arma. Old-Castile has receiv'd its Name from a Castle whose Figure is seen in the first Quarter of the Arms of the King of Spain Burgos is the Metropolitan City thereof with a strong Castle and a fine Church Valladolid has been the abode of the Kings the Ruins of the ancient Numantia are still seen towards the Sources of the Donere near Soria where is kept the Great Standard of the Kingdom The Inhabitants of Calahorre were formerly in such esteem for their Fidelity and Loyalty that the Emperor Augustus Caesar chose his Life-Guard out of those People Both Castiles as well as all the other Inland Provinces are extraordinary full of Mountains New-Castile has the Capital Cities of the Kingdom Madrid and Toledo Madrid is adorn'd with beautiful Fabricks as being the most usual Seat of the King Toledo is very ancient in the midst of Spain where some Gothick Kings had then their abode It s Clergy is reckoned the richest of Christendom the Sword-blades which are made in this Town are in very great esteem The Escurial standing seven or eight Leagues from Madrid passes amongst the Spaniards for an eighth Wonder of the World it costing King Philip the Second above twenty Millions of Gold but 't is true that this expence was not extraordinay for a Prince who is said to have spent above seven hundred Millions of Gold during his Reign In the Year 1671. this admirable House was very much endamaged by a Fire Badajox is upon the Frontier of Portugal in Estramadura The small Territory of la Manche is made the Native Country of Don Quixot The Kingdom of Leon was the first which the Christians did establish after the Invasion of the Moors It s Town of the same Name has a Cathedral Church renowned for its Beauty That of Toledo is esteemed for its Riches of Sevil for its Bigness of Salamanca for its Strength The City of Salamanca has a Celebrated University which has the Priviledg of Teaching the Hebrew Greek Arabick and Chaldean Tongues Mention is made of the Vallies of Vatuegas Inhabited by a kind of Patoacas or Savage People never heard of in Spain before the late discovery of 'em in the Mountains of the Kingdom of Leon. The occasion this An Hawk of the Duke of Alva's which he very much valued flew over those Mountains and his Man not being able to find her at first they were sent back by the Duke to seek her Clambring from one Hill to another they hapned at last upon a large and pleasant Valley where they spied a Company of Naked Savage People hemm'd about amongst many Craggy Rocks the Savages gazing a while upon them ran into their Caves made in the hollows of the Rocks the best Houses they had which being observed by the Falconers they return again to their Lord telling him that instead of a Falcon they had brought him news of a new World in the midst of Spain and of a Race of People which came in with
Neuchatel Wallangery Biel Geneva Mulhausen Rotweil The six first Protestants and Rotweil Catholick Geneva is the best Fortified of all the Burghers or Citizens keep a very exact Guard for the preservation of their Liberty and that of Religion which is Reformed In the Year 1663. the French King obtain'd freedom for the Catholicks to say Mass in that Town where it had not been Celebrated in this Age. The Lake of Geneva is crossed by the Rhosne which mixeth not with its Waters there sometimes arise Tempests even in clear fair Weather because it abutts at the foot of the Mountains In the Country it s said that Julius Caesar caused his Treasures to be cast into this Lake when he was pursued by the Switzers hitherto they have been sought for to no purpose Savoy THis Country formerly the abode of the Allobroges is said to have been called Savoy after one of its Princes had drove away the Robbers It is full of Mountains which we generally call the Alpes tho' several Branches there have their peculiar Names Mount Cenis and the lesser St. Bernard make the two principal Passages for Italy 'T is very cold in these parts the Inhabitants by reason of their drinking the Snow-water are subject to the Goitre which is a swelling of the Throat proceeding from the crudity of that Water Nevertheless there are several Places in this Country both very pleasant and very fertile The Mountains have Marmotes which are seldom seen elsewhere they are great Rats who have short Legs rugged Hair the Mouth and Ears of a Squirrel four Teeth long and cutting they sleep full six Months of the Year without taking in any Food or Nourishment Savoy is reckon'd for the Principal and most Noble Dutchy of Christendom It 's certain that its Dukes have had Alliances with all that 's Royal in Europe After the Houses of England and France that of Savoy is one of the most ancient Ame the eighth had reason to say that he had Princes to his Vassals Most of the Gentlemen of his Dominions come from the Emperours of the East and West from the Kings of Italy from the Princes of Morea from the Counts of Geneva The Power of the Dukes of Savoy is so much the more considerable in that they are Masters of several Passages from France into Italy by the possession of Piedmont of the County of Niece and other Seigneuries Under Savoy is comprehended Genevois Choblais Faussigni Tarentaise Maurienne part of Bugey Chambri is the Capital of the Dutchy and the Seat of a Parliament Montmelion is the strongest in it with a Cittadel which covers the head of almost an inaccessible Mountain where the Keys of Savoy are said to be kept Anneci is the Residence of the Bishop of Geneva Ripaille was the retreat of Felix the Fourth before and after his Pontificate This Prince liv'd there with his Friends in such a disapplication from Affairs that since People say Faire Ripaille when they are merry and without disquiet Italy AMong the Authors who have written concerning Italy few there are but represent it as the most beautiful best and most delicious Country in the World Its situation towards the midst of the temperate Zone affords it all these advantages It is commonly compared to a Boot the figure whereof it does really resemble lying between the Mediterranean-Sea and the Gulph of Venice The Alpes which Livy calls the Walls of Italy and Rome are at those places where it touches France Savoy Suisserland Germany the Appennine Mountain runs quite through it The Po Adige Tiber and Arne are the greatest Rivers of this Country There is not one in the World observ'd in so short a course to have so much encrease as the Po and which is so inconvenient by its over-flowings notwithstanding the Dikes that have been raised for prevention The People of Italy are polite dextrous subtile and prudent extream in their Manners they were formerly Masters of the most considerable Empire that has been seen since the Creation of the World And now stand possess'd of the chiefest Dignity of the Roman-Catholick Church They obey divers Princes who are all Papists but very different in Power and Interests We are oblig'd to the Italians for the Discovery of the New World Columbus was a Genouese Americus Vespucius a Florentine The Cities of Italy are so much the more beautiful and better built in that the Nobility have commonly their abode in ' em Their Churches and other Edifices are adorned with excellent Pictures for which reason the Men and Houses are said to be all painted The Italian Tongue is deriv'd from the Latin Tuscan is received in the Court of Rome and amongst the well-bred people Their way of reckoning the Hours is very different from ours they regulating it according to the Sun 's setting then they count four and twenty Hours and at the entrance of the Night they begin to reckon the Hours of a New Day Insomuch that the number of the Hours at Noon rises and falls according to the Seasons tho' there are always four and twenty Hours for the Civil Day that is for the Day and Night together For Example On the twelfth day of August at Noon which we reckon twelve a Clock the Italians reckon seventeen and so what remains to finish the Civil Day of four and twenty Hours comprehends seven Hours which make up just the time which the Sun employs that day the twelfth of August since the Hour of Noon unto its setting The Sovereign Princes of Italy are the Pope the King of Spain who possess almost half of it the Duke of Savoy the great Duke of Florence the Republick of Genoa the Duke of Mantua the Duke of Modena the Duke of Parma the Bishop of Trent the Republick of Lucca The other Princes are call'd Petty by reason of the small extent of their Dominions The Republick of Venice is independent most of the other States depend either on the Church or the Empire for some Fiefs The Quality of Duke is in Italy more considerable than of Prince bating in the Territories of the King of Spain There are so many Archbishopricks and Bishopricks that the Kingdom of Naples alone has more than all France hath the truth is most of 'em have not so good a Revenue as our Country Curates Italy is divided into three great parts the High which may be called Lombardy the Middle and the Low According to this division there is found in the High Piemont Montferrat Milantz the Coast of Genoa Parmezan Modenois Mantouan the Domain of Venice Trentin The State of the Church Tuscany Lucquois are in the Middle the Kingdom of Naples possesses the rest There is a fourth part if we may add the Isles thereto Piemont according to the saying of a Piemontin is a City of three hundred Miles in compass One and the same Land produces Corn Wine and Fruits Turin the abode of the Dukes of Savoy is a lovely Town accompanied with a strong Cittadel It
Revenue It is now an Elective Empire wherein is a vast number of Sovereign States of which the Emperour is the chief The Laws of this Empire do allow of three Religions the Roman Catholick the Lutheran and Evangelical and the Calvinist or Reformed Nevertheless there be several other Sects tho' the Germans do almost all follow the belief of their Princes Germany has this advantage that it is in the midst of Europe and serves for the Seat of the Empire the Emperor governs it by the means of Diets which are much like Parliaments The principal Articles of the Government are contained in the Golden Bull which treats of the Election of the King of the Romans of the Duty of Electors of their Priviledges of the Authority of the Emperor of the means of preserving the Repose and Peace in the Empire This Bull is a small Book whose Original written in Parchment contains four and twenty Leaves and thirty Chapters It has a great round Seal of pure Gold fasten'd to strings of yellow and red Silk It has on the one side the Portrait of Charles the Fourth on the other a Castle with two Towers with these Words Aurea Roma The Election of the Emperor ought to be made at Francfort upon the Mein but this was not observed in the late Elections Besides the Assemblies which concern the Affairs of the Empire in general there be three sorts of 'em those of the Electors for the chusing of the Emperor those of the Deputies whereto the Emperor sends his Commissioner those of the Circles like to the Assemblies of the States of our great Provinces There be ten Circles in the Empire those of Austria of Bavaria of Suabia of Alsatia or of the High Rhine the Electoral or of the Low Rhine of Westphalia of High Saxony of Low Saxony of Franconia of Burgundy this last is no longer Convened Each Circle has an Ecclesiastick and a Secular Director who preside together in the Assemblies two or three Circles may assemble when one of 'em is attacked from abroad or disturbed with intestine troubles The Empire is much the same with that of the Romans tho' it does not comprehend so great an extent of Land the Princes or States whereof it is composed are of five forts the Emperor now of the House of Austria the Electors the Ecclesiastick Princes the Secular Princes and the Free Towns In the General Dyets there be three Bodies that of the Electors that of the Princes that of the Imperial Cities There are reckoned to be above three hundred Sovereignties in Germany who acknowledge the Emperor no farther than homage and in Resort The Dominions of the House of Austria be of three sorts those of Austria which are Hereditary to it those of Bohemia where it has the same Right those of Hungary which it has by Election The Emperor does commonly obtain either his Son or his Brother or his nearest Relation to be chosen King of Hungary in his Life-time afterwards has him Crowned King of Bohemia and if he finds any disposition has him Elected King of the Romans that is to say his perpetual Vicar and presumptive Successor to the Empire Without the Revenue of his Hereditary Countries the Emperor would not have wherewith to maintain a very considerable Train he does not possess any Land under the Title of Imperial Majesty His Principal Rights are the Erection and Investiture of Fiefs the granting of Priviledges the Right of Legitimation He may make Laws give Safe-Guards establish Posts make Parliaments compose Universities erect Burroughs into Cities create Offices puts Towns into the Ban of the Empire In short he may make Kings Dukes Marquesses and has the Superiority over all the Princes of the Empire who upon this account pay him a great respect The Electors are to the number of eight the Arch-Bishop of Mayence the Arch-Bishop of Treves the Arch-Bishop of Cologne the King of Bohemia the Duke of Bavaria the Duke of Saxony the Marquess of Brandenbourg the Prince Palatine These Electors Chuse and Crown the Emperor the Pope confirms this Election and Coronation Four Voices are sufficient to raise any one to the Imperial Dignity and at present the King of Bohemia has only his Session in the Election The Secular Electors may nominate themselves The Lands or their Electorates cannot be dismembred In the House of Saxony the Electorate is for the eldest alone who shares the other Seigniories with his Brothers The Elector of Brandenboug is the most Potent and possesses the most Land of all those Princes his States are above two hundred German Leagues in length for the most part separated from one another yet a Courier may go from one end to another and always lye upon this Electors Land The Ecclesiastick Princes are of several sorts the Arch-Bishop of Salzbourg the Grand Master of the Teutonick Order several Bishops and other great Prelates Abbots Abbesses who have no Voice but in Body These Princes are almost all absolute over the Temporality of their Benefices and Christendom has no Prelates so Potent as they are The Election of most of their Dignities belongs to the Chapters without the Popes or Emperors being to concern themselves therein As Germany is divided for Religion there remain some Lutheran Bishops who have the Title of Bishops until that they have Contracted Marriage and when they are Married they are called Administrators Among the secular Princes are the Arch-Duke of Austria the Princes of the Electoral Houses some Dukes Marquesses and Land-Graves There be also Counts and Barons who differ little but in Name and who have immediate Dependency on the Empire They have Session in Body which has four Voices in the States of the Empire they have each their own in their particular Assemblies several amongst them Coin Monies Nobles there be in Suevia or Schwaben in Franconia in the Land of the Rhine who are absolute over their Lands as the greatest Lords of the Empire are over theirs Several Principalities of Germany are often possess'd by one sole Prince and sometimes one Principality alone belongs there to several The youngest Brothers have almost the same Titles with the eldest The Free Towns which are as many small Republicks be principally of two sorts Imperial and Anseatick The Imperial have the Eagle of the Empire in their Arms either whole or divided have Right to send to the Diet where their Body has two Voices they are considered upon the Bank of Suevia and upon the Bank of the Rhine Thus are they divided by reason of the Benches where the Deputies of those Cities have their Seats The Deputy of the City of Cologne holds the first Rank of the Bench of the Rhine that of Ratisbon has the first place of that of Suevia Some have Noble Families by which they are Governed others have a Popular Government The Hans-Towns are Confederated together for the mutually succouring one another upon occasion against their Enemies for maintaining the Liberty of the Commerce for
acquisitions of Sueden over the Empire by the Peace of Osnabrug are the Dutchy of Pomerania Citerior and in the Ulterior Stetin Gartz Dam Golnau The Isle and Principality of Rugen the Isles and the Mouths of the Oder the Dutchies of Bremen and of Verden the City the Seigniory and the Port of Wismar Wildhusen in Westphalia certain Customs in the Rest of Pomerania and in the new Marquisate of Brandenbourg The War declared in the year 1675 by the King of Denmark and several Princes of the Empire deprived Sueden of many of these acquisitions which it was restored to by the Peace of Nimeguen in the year 1679. The Treaty of Oliva in the year 1660. was so advantageous to Sueden that the King of Poland did there make renunciation of the Title of King of Sueden for the future reserving only to himself the Title during his life to other Princes and likewise consented that Lifeland should henceforward be Hereditary to the Crown of Sueden This is to be understood of Lifeland on the North of the Duna where the only place of Dunembourg was reserved to the Crown of Poland conformable to the Truce made at Stumsdorf for twenty six years in the year 1635. The Peace with the Muscovites procured restitution to Sueden of all the Grand Duke or Zar had taken in Lifeland The King of Sueden has lately very much augmented his Revenue by the re-union to his Demesne of several Lands which had been Alienated from it He pretends to the Succession of Gleves and of Juliers by the means of his great Grandfather John Duke of Deux-Ponts who married Magdelain the third Sister of the Duke of John William In the States of the Kingdom the Peasants make a Body as well as the other Orders Sueden possesses part of Scandinavia which is the best of it as being towards the East The Cold is somewhat long in this Country often very sharp to provide themselves against it the Inhabitants do not make use of Furres as they do in Germany they have only Night-Caps Gloves of Wool Waist-Coats and make great Fires of the Fewel they have plenty of They have so few sick People in their Countrey that the Physitians and Apothecaries have hardly practice among 'em whereas Barbers are there in great request The Ministers and Officers of Justice do there keep Inns. The Inhabitants of this Province are all equally rich their greatest Revenues consist in Mines of Copper from whence most of the Europeans are furnish'd wherewith to make money their Canons and their Bells The City of Stockholme alone has in its Castle above a hundred pieces of great Artillery and there are held to be above eight Thousand in the Kingdom In the review of the Militia which was made in the year 1661. there were reckoned above Fourscore Thousand Men in Arms. This Countrey being full of Woods and Mountains affords very little Corn in time of scarcity the Poor eat often very bad Bread It furnishes Butter Suet Hides Skins Pitch Rosin Masts Posts and Planks The Towns are subject to Fire the Houses being only built of Wood. The Lakes and Gulphs are there more considerable than the Rivers Trade being only drove upon the Coasts neither dare the Ships venture upon that without a Pylot by reason of the number of Rockswith which it is beset The Ice is here so strong and firm in Winter that when it is but two Inches thick it is said to be able to bear a Man on Foot Waggons go on it with safety when it is half a foot thick The Snow does there afford the means of travelling in Sledges The Horses in this Countrey are proper for War they are very easily reared and rarely sick they see as well almost by night as by day they carry their man swimming with ease they leap great Ditches they have so much courage and agility that they attack with their Feet and Teeth the Enemies of those who mount them Six great Regions are principally known under the name of Sueden Gotia Sueden Lapland Finland Ingria Lifeland the three former towards the West the three other towards the East the Gulph of Finland between both and besides these the modern acquisitions before specified Gotia is divided into Ostro-Gotia and Westro-Gotia this last towards the Ocean the former upon the Baltick Sea According to the like division the Goths who subdued Italy were called Ostro-Goths and those who rendred themselves Masters of Spain Visi-Goths Calmar is a strong Town and the place where the Suedes until now did embark for Germany It s Cittadel was esteemed in the Northern Countreys as much as that of Milan in Italy Norkoping has works and forges of Copper which afford the Europeans the conveniency of coming to load Cannon there Lindkoping the Countrey of the Historian Olaus-Magnus is remarkable for the Victory of Charles of Sudermania since King of Sueden There be several Cities in these parts whose names be thus terminated in Koping which signifies the places where the market is kept Gottembourg a new Town and has its Sea-Port upon the Ocean Sueden properly taken communicates its name to the other Provinces of this State Stockholme is the Capital City of all the Kingdom accompanied with a Royal Castle and a Sea-Port at the disgorging of the Lake of Meler whereof was formerly the conjunction proposed with that of Wener for the communicating the Ocean and Baltick Seas and thus be exempted from the passage of the Sound This Town is now better built and much richer than it was before the War of the Suedes in Germany In the year 1641. they began to make the Streets in Right Lines and to build their Houses of one and the same Structure It is a safe Harbour for Ships which may ride there in security without Anchor There be three Channels which lead thither between several Isles and Rocks The Kings Ships remain at Elsnappen The Country round about is beautify'd with several fine Houses which the Soveraigns and most of the Senators have caus'd to be built Upsal accompanied with a great Castle is the Metropolitan and formerly the place of the Coronation of their Kings whose abode it formerly was When in Sueden were several Kingdoms that of Upsal was ever the most considerable of 'em This City has an University and the most renowned Fairs of all those parts It s principall Church was a stately Building and is said to have been embelish'd and wainscoted with Gold now it is covered with Copper Lapland has no Towns only some Habitations divided into five Countries which bear the name of their Rivers The Laplanders are very low of Stature the tallest among them not exceeding four Foot in height They have no other Cloaths than of Skins and when they are young they are so hardned to the cold that they afterwards undergo it with ease when without habilliments They have neither Wool nor Flax nor Hemp they have blades of Copper which they call Cipons which they exchange for
Schismaticks in black Russia who first of all acknowledge him of Kiou and then the Greek Patriarch of Constantinople There is in this State several other Sects Here Gentlemen are equall the distinction and precedence proceeding only from the publick Offices they stand possess'd of they serve at their own costs in time of Wars but do not stay long in the Campagne Their infantry is commonly compos'd of Forreigners The Garments of the Polanders are long have their Beards shaved off their Chins only one Tuff of Hair upon their Heads upon the occasion of Casimir the first one of their Kings whom they took out of a Cloister he was in in France to place him upon their Throne They are almost all handsome well shaped well proportioned knowing for the most part the Latin Tongue The use of Spices is very common and with them in great request they misuse their Peasants in consequence of the absolute Power they have over them which certainly did occasion the revolt of the Cossaques and afterwards all the disorders of the Kingdom Their Cavalary is so considerable that if they were well united they might bring into the Field a hundred thousand Horse The confidence they have therein and the fear of rendring a King or Citizens too powerful have inclined them in all times to neglect their Fortresses Their usual Arms are their Cimiter the Sword the Battel Ax Carabine and Arrows The Cossaques have ever formed a Militia and not a particular Nation At the first they were Volunteers making incursions upon the Turks and the lesser Tartars these last call them by the Name of Roux because their Country makes a part of Russia King Battori reduced them into a Body and joyned thereto two thousand Horse to whom he appointed the fourth part of the Revenue of his Demesne for which reasons they were called Quartians They have power of choosing and of deposing their General who takes an Oath of Fidelity to their King Their number was first of all six thousand afterwards forty thoufull sand and now since twenty thousand Their abode is in the lower parts of Volhinia and of Podolia which is called Ukrain that is to say Frontier This Country is by much the most fertile and the best inhabited of all Poland so many fortified Buroughs have been there made since the beginning of this Age and so full is it of Inhabitants that in the late Wars there were reckoned at the same time two hundred thousand Cossaques besides a hundred and fourscore thousand Tartars and as many Polanders in Arms. There be Cossaques who have their retreats in some Isles of the Boristhenes which is not Navigable by reason of the Cataracts or falls which they call Porowis Their Custom was formerly to put to Sea with several light Ships and to go plunder the Coasts of the Grand Seignior upon the Black Sea Since they confederated with the lesser Tartars and have likewise courted the Protection of the Muscovite and that of the Grand Seignior who gave them in his name a Prince for the Ukrain insomuch that we may say that the Felony of the Cossaques the Irruption of the Suedes under Carolus Gustavus the Tumults and Irresoluon of the Muscovites the continual harassings of the lesser Tartars the Invasion of Ragotski Prince of Transilvania the defection of several Provinces the Insurrections of the whole Armies of Poland and Lithuania the different Factions of the Kingdom and the Caballs of the Neighbouring Nations to have a King Elected have given a rude shock to this Crown And this was what really moved the Grand Seignior to make war upon this Realm after the taking of Candia Poland has ten great parts four towards the West upon the Vistula Poland Mazovia Gujavia Royal Prussia six towards the East on the West of the Boristhenes Lithuania Samogitia Polachia Lesser Russia Volhinia Podolia These Provinces have been acquired for the most part either by Arms or Allyances They are divided into Palatinates the Palatinates into Chastellenies the Chastellenies into Capitanies The Government of the Places are called Starostyes Besides these Provinces there is a part of Muscovy which has been yielded to Poland in the year 1634. after that King Ladislaus the 4th being yet but Prince had the year foregoing gloriously relieved the City of Smolensko and reduced to extremity an Army of an hundred thousand Muscovites who were all constrained to ask his pardon as their Prince to save their Lives This Treaty which is called of Viasma acquired to Poland Smolensko Novogrodeck Sovierski Gzernihou and other places and by that same Treaty the King of Poland renounced his pretensions upon Muscovy The Truce of 13 years concluded on the 14th of February in the year 1667. left the Grand Duke of Muscovy in possession of Smolensko until a certain term as well as in part of the Ukrain on the East of the Boristhenes and procured the restoration of Dunembourg Polosk and Vitepski to the Crown of Poland Poland the most populous of all the Provinces is divided into High and Low In the former is Cracow where the Coronations of the Kings and Queens are performed and where is a great number of Germans Italians and Jews Of Cracow was the Popish Bishop St. Stanislaus who was killed by order of King Bogislaus Upon the Confines of Silesia stands the City of Czentochow with the Cloister of our Lady of Clermount a place extraordinary strong which the Suedes did twice besiege in vain in the year 1655 and 1656. Low Poland though much smaller than the Higher is called Great because it makes part of the Kingdom rather than the other It s City of Gnesne is ancient the abode of the first Princes It was so called upon the account of an Eagles Nest that was there found when it was built and which gave occasion to the Arms of Poland which art Gules an Eagle-Argent Crowned beaked and Armed Or bound under the Wings with a Ribbon of the same The Province of Mazovia alone has full thirty thousand Gentlemen Narsan is the Capital thereof and of all the Kingdom too with a Castle the Kings usual abode Gujavia has the City of Uladislau where the Houses are built of Brick which is somewhat extraordinary in Poland It has also the Lake of Goblo from whence issued the Rats that eat King Popiel Prussia which is of two sorts Regal and Ducal has a great number of Cities which were built by the Knights of the Teutonique Order Its Lakes and Sea Coast furnish abundance of Amber Nariembourg is strong Toren the Birthplace of the Copernicus drives a great Trade with a fine Bridge of Wood over the Vistule Dantzick one of the four Capital Hanse-Towns drives all the Trade of Poland and has not its like upon all the Baltick Sea It is free and has right of sending to the States of the Kingdom The King of Poland has there some Rights The City of Elbiens disputes with it the Precedence in the States of Prussia The generous
in lesser Tartary The Isle of Gandia Waradin in Transilvania The Scituations of these Countreys and places is to be seen in the Map to know the importance of them Transilvania Valachia Moldavia lesser Tartary the Republick of Ragusa the Corsairs of Barbary and others hold of the Turks Of Hungary Hungary seems to have been so called from the Huns a People noted for the Devastations they have made in several Regions of Europe principally under Attila one of their Kings Most of the Towns of this Country have Names that have very little affinity one with another because the Nations who gave them at their setling themselves there had very different Tongues Hungary is commonly divided into High and Low the last towards the South is almost wholly in possession of the Turks the former towards the North for the most part in the hands of the House of Austria unless it be such places as have been lately seized or revolted with Count Teckley Two parts of it have been sometimes made separated from one another by the Danube the one to the West known under the Name of Pannonia the other to the East making part of ancient Dacia There be several Countreys the enumeration whereof is not here very material The House of Austria has there four General Ships the Turks four Bachalics or great Governments When the Realm of Hungary was in its Splendour it extended to the very Adriatick Sea as far as Greece and comprehended Transilvania Walachia and Moldavia from whence it came that the Emperour as King of Hungary pretends that the Princes of those three States be allowed of by him The Grand Seignior has maintained his pretension better in that point The Soyl of Hungary is fertile the Plains are beautiful and afford plenty of Corn the Hills Wine which is transported into Poland and other places where it is accounted excellent that of Tokay is in most esteem It also affords Salt and other Conveniencies of Life Several Great Rivers contribute to this abundance the Danube Drave Save which have their Sources in Germany the Teyss which is entirely Hungarian The Danube leads its Waters from the West to the East through the midst of the Countrey with less swiftnes towards Noon than towards the Evening and the Morning after a course of above six hundred Leagues it falls into the Black Sea by several Mouths The Teyss can carry Boats four Leagues from its Source It abounds so in Fish that they are said to make the third part of its Bed for which reason it often casts abundance of them upon the Neighbouring Plains and that in the publick Markets of the Towns those who retire into the Countrey have order to take them away Formerly the Hungarians put the Figure of the above mentioned Rivers in their Ensigns or Colours and since they have carryed the Cross therein having embrac'd Christianity under their Prince Esthienne who for that consideration obtained of Pope Silvester the 2d the Title of King and was crowned in the year 1001. The highest Mountains of Hungary are towards Poland and Transilvania the Richest between Buda and Strigonia The Hungarians are Warlike neither their Garments nor their Manners be very different from those of the Turks Their Tongues is almost wholly peculiar to themselves and nevertheless the Latine Sclavonian German and Turkish are in use among them The Emperour Ferdinand the 2d allowed the liberty of Religion in this Realm in the year 1622. The Revocation of that Toleration has occasioned perpetual Revolts and is the source of that great War it is now the Scene of This Realm has two Archbishopricks Strigonia or Gran and â—oloâ—â—a with ten Bishopricks the half of which is in the Infidels hands Four orders of Persons have Sessions in the States the Prelates the Barons the Nobles and the Burgesses of Free and Royal Cities The Dignity of Palatine is there the most considerable after that of King who if he acts in any wise against their Priviledges may be opposed by force if the Palatine consent thereto The Hungarians will not suffer to have any Palatines but of their own Nation The Archbishop of Strigonia is Prince and perpetual Chancellour of the Kingdom he Crowns the King after his election These two Officers have almost all the Authority Hungary has had eight Kings of the House of Austria from Ferdinand the â— Brother of the Emperour Charles the 5th unto Leopold-Ignace Though the Hungarian Nobility do not love the Germans yet they have not opposed this Election for the sheltering themselves against the oppression of the Turks who respect a Peasant as much as they do a Gentleman The greatest strength of the Countrey consists in light Horse the Troopers be called Hussars the Foot Soldiers Heidukes Besides extraordinaries the Emperour draws from what he possesses in Hungary about a million of Livers every year He raises this Money from the Mines by an imposition on each Horse and by the exportation of Cattle The Grand Seignior has there his Caraz which is four Livers a Head of those under his Sway This is so small a matter for either of those Princes that for the preservation of what they hold there they are obliged to employ their other Revenues The Turk pretends to all Hungary and the States which depend thereon by virtue of a Cession which was made thereof to Soliman the 2d by John Sigismond Son of King John Count de Cepuse and by the Queen his Mother In Upper Hungary there be several Free Towns which form thirteen Communities The King of Poland holds half of Cepuse with a dozen of Cities Most of the Frontiers are untilled and overgrown with Shrubs and Weeds Tho there be a Truce between the Austrians and the Ottomans yet they fail not of making incursions upon one another In the year 1642. the Truce was made between the two Empires for twenty-years In the year 1664. after two years War it was renewed the Turk remaining Master of the Fortress of Waradin and Newheusel this last in the very middle of all Europe The most considerable Cities of Hungary are Presbourg Cassovia Esperies Buda Agria Temesvar Kanise Presbourg is the Capital of all the House of Austria possesses in this Realm Since the loss of Albe Royale it has been the place of Election and Coronation of their Kings Cassovia is towards the Mountains with the finest Arcenal of the Country Esperies has Fairs which render it very populous The strongest places of the House of Austria are Javarin and Komorra the Bulwarks of Christendom Javarin is in a vast Plain environed with the Danube and the Raab which sometimes gives it its Name defended with several Bastions faced with Brick with Ravelins between both Having formerly been taken by the Turks it was petarded and retaken with as much happiness as boldness by a French Gentleman called Vaubecour Komorra has the Danube for its Moat or Ditch and cannot be besieged but by three Bodies of Armies The Isle of the
these Tartars there be those who inhabit in Lithuania and the Ukrain This Region with Commania which is in Asia made up the Kingdom of the Bosphorus possessed by Mithridates Lesser Tartary is a plain Country very cold by reason of the Winds It s Peninsula is so advantagiously scituated that several States had formerly a design of sending Collonies thither Besides seven or eight good Cities it has full fourscore thousand Koys that is to say Wells or Villages It s Neck is half a League broad its Circumference seven hundred Miles There be some salt Marshes where any man takes as much salt as he has occasion for The Inhabitants boast of never having been subdued Tho' they be descended of the Great Tartars they do not hold of them they only assist the Turks in such expeditions they think to get booty in Their Tongue comes near the Turkish but they gabble it out faster It was their Predecessors known under the name of Scythians who sent formerly to Darius who would have subdued them a Rat a Frog a Bird and five Arrows for to declare to him that he would find it a hard matter to retire out of their Countrey wherein he had imprudently engaged himself Yet they could not then draw any great advantage from their Cavalry wherein now consists their principal strength by reason of the braying of the Asses which were in the Persian Army The Lesser Tartars have in all times made incursions upon their Neighbours for which reason all their Frontiers is a desart After they have made a great number of Slaves they go to sell them in the Sea-Ports from whence they are commonly transported to Constantinople Their Country is very populous several of the Inhabitants have often there each forty or fifty Children in a year they go almost all to the War principally the Nogays from the age of seven years that they go out of their Gantares which are Huts or Portative Houses they alwaies remain in the field These Huts are of Ozier of a round form two Fathoms in Diameter they put them upon Wheels and use them in Summer more than in Winter Few Houses in Lesser Tartary are built with Stone and Mortar most of them are only of Wood covered with Planks upheld with Posts fixed in the Earth and interlaced with Branches of Trees Robbery is there tolerated and there needs no more for any ones justification upon that account than to say they stood in need of what they stole The Inhabitants do not much care for the Sciences they learn what they know by common Sence it is said of them they have eaten their Books and carry them in their Stomacks They have several Horses very swift small lean who live commonly on Roots and Leaves of Trees the greatest Lords have of them very good they take so much care of their Horses that it is become a Proverb amongst them That to lose ones Horse is to lose ones Head They make sometimes up a hundred thousand Horse and go easily Marches of four Months without Baggage the Bow of their Saddle serves them for a Pillow the Horse-Cloth which is of Pressed Wool or of Felt serves them for a Coverlet their Cloak for a Tent each Trouper carries a Pickax their Servants sleep in the open air let it be never so cold The know no other Trade than that of War thâ— long experience they have had therein has taught them all the Secrets and Stratagems of that Art Some of them pass without any inconveniency for three or four Days together without eating after which they glut themselves like Hogs to sleep as long as they have fasted Their Provision is a little flower steeped in Water the use of Bread goes against their Stomacks When they regal and treat one another they roast a whole Colt They have so much of the Beast that they are born blind and do not see clear until five dayes end Their eyes are but little open very black with long lashes and so piercing that they always discover their Enemies sooneâ— than they are perceived by them they are much shorter than tall have large Members they have a high and big Breast a short Neck huge Head and Cheeks their Face almost round a flat and Saddle Nose a small Mouth white Teeth tawny Complexion very black and harsh Hair like the main of a Horse When they are Children their Mothers take care to bath them once a day in Water wherein Salt is dissolved to harden their Skin and render them less sensible of the cold when in Winter they are obliged to pass Rivers by swimming Each Tartar has a Whistle a Gamelle which is a Porrenger of Wood or of Copper a Whip a Knife an Awl Packthread Thread Points and little Cords of Leather a Marriners compass every ten have a Chaldron and a little Drum Their King is called Kan and his Successour Galga The Residence of the Kan is at Baccassaraium otherwise Boston-Seraglio sometimes at Crim. Mancup is his strongest Town and the place where his Treasures be kept He says himself allyed to the Grand Seignior who gives him a Pension and deposes him when he thinks fitting or rather when he has the Power so to do and who for that purpose seizes often on the Kans Relations for the having him elected of that Family who is most his Creature The Confederacy between the Turks and the Lesser Tartars bears among other things that the Race of the Ottomans coming to fail that of the Kans of the Lesser Tartars shall succed to the Turkish Empire The Grand Seignior did this to engage those Princes to the maintaining their Dominions as expecting to possess them one day themselves The Turk is master of the City of Caffa the best and most important of this State His Predecessours took it from the Janizaries in the year 1475. The Lesser Tartars assisted the Polanders in some of their late Wars but to the cost of their Guests besides some Money those gave them annually some Rouls or Sheep-skins to cloath themselves with Though their Shape makes them resemble Apes when they are on Horseback with very short Stirrups yet they fail not of having the advantage of their Enemies in the Campaign The Cossacks fight 'em when they can go in Tabort that is to say when they can march between two rows of their Waggons having eight or ten in the Front and as many in the Rear with Fuzils Half Pikes and long handed Scyths while that the best mounted go round about with Sentinels on all sides for a Quarter of a League distance The Lesser Tartars are so cruel that they give Axes and Knives to their little Children for the killing those Prisoners outright whom they mean not to carry away They have themselves sometimes filled great Sacks with the ears of Christians to show the greatness of their Victory Of the State of Ragusa THis is a small Republick which has its Territories in Dalmatia near those of the Turks and upon
the Gulph of Venice It pays eighteen thousand Sequins of annual Tribute to the Grand Seignior for liberty of Commerce in the Levant The City which seems to have succeeded to the ancient Epidaure is pretty well fortify'd and very populous It has the Title of an Archbishoprick its Inhabitants who addict themselves for the most part to trade are Roman Catholicks In the year 1667. it received a great loss by an Earthquake It s Principal Harbour is that of St. Croix which is three Leagues distant from it Its Ships are pretty numerous well known in the Seas of the Levant as its Caravans be in the Dominions of the Turks in Europe He who commands the Republick of Ragusa is called Doge or Rectour he is assisted with the Councel of a hundred Senators his Government lasts only a Month. The Governour of the Castle is changed every day wherein one of the Nobles enters to command in his turn Their Gentlemen must marry Gentlewomen if they mean their Children should be acknowledged to be of the Ragusian Nobility The Revenue of the Republick is five and twenty thousand Crowns The Country above the Town is not over fertile full of Rocks and Stones if it bring forth any thing it is by the means of the Forreign Earth which they cause to be brought thither which is done with such care and such success that the Coast makes a Beautiful Prospect of Vineyards Orange Trees Lemon Trees and Pomegranates The Neighbouring Islands which are of the dependance of Ragusa are also very pleasant The Turks have some sort of inclination for the Ragusians by reason they pay punctually their Tribute and that by their means they are provided with all the Commodities of Europe which they stand in need of They give them Priveledges which they seldom grant to other Christians Of the Brittish Islands THese Islands consist in two great and several small ones Great Brittain and Ireland are the two great the small are all in the Neighbourhood of Great Brittain the Hebrides Orcades Shetland which depends on the Crown of Denmark in the sea of Scotland Man Anglesey the Sorlingues in the Irish Sea Wight Guernsey Jersey in the Channel Formerly Great Brittain went under the Name of Albion by reason of its Rocks all along the Sea which seem white It now comprehends two Kingdoms that of England and that of Scotland the union whereof gave occasion to King James to stile himself King of Great Brittain and at the same time the design of stifling the partialities which were between the two Nations The English were not very well satisfyed with this change since thereby their Name became the less famous The Brittish Islands had to the number of Nineteen Kingdoms England had seven of them Wales three Scotland two Ireland five the Isle of Man made one the Isles near Scotland another All this now is under the Crown of England Several places and Islands in the East and West Indies are also subject to it whereof we have made mention in the Article of Europe Of England ENgland was so called by the English an ancient People who dwelt on the confines of Germany and of Denmark the Name of Saxony Trans-marine was given it by the Saxons Before it was called Lhoegria and then Scotland went under the Name of Albania and Wales that of Cambria During the decay of the Roman Empire the Saxons and English invaded Great Brittain with main force and near Bedford gained a signal Victory over the Insularies who were constrained to abandon their Countrey Several Brittons retired into Wales others passed into Brittany in France where they setled the British Tongues by the help of their Country Men whom the Romans had already lead thither to support their pretensions to the Empire King Arthur one of the last Brittish Kings who dyed in the year 542. is the same whom so many Fables be told of and to whom is attributed the institution of the Knights of the round Table The Victors that is to say the Saxons and the English raised a Wall towards the West of England to mark the Bounds of their Conquests and at the same time made a Law by which all the Brittons should have a hand cut off who were found with a Sword on this side the Wall In the year 450. and the following there were formed seven Kingdoms Kent Sussex Essex West-Sex East-Anglia Mercia North-Humbria A little after that Charlemagne was acknowledged Emperour of the West all these Monarchies were reduced into one by King Egbert who dyed in the year 837. The Successours of this Egbert having been troubled by the Danes the last of them declared his Heir William Duke of Normandy to whom the Conquest of England brought the Name of Conquerour Thus England has had Soveraigns of six several Nations of the Brittons Romans Saxons English Danes and Normans These last have established there the Principal Laws the King who now reigns is James the 2. England is a greater Kingdom more fertile and populous than is either Scotland or Ireland It is the most considerable of any State in the Ocean It produces Corn and Fruits in abundance the best Tin in the World is transported thence Wool Cloaths Hides and other Commodities both excellent and in great plenty neither is it wanting in excellent Liquors The English Horses Dogs and Cocks are in high esteem all over the World No Wolves have been seen there since the general hunting which destroyed them almost all by the means of permission Criminals had of redeeming their Lives with the Heads of those Animals Gunners and Dogs were for sometime kept upon Frontiers of Scotland to hinder the Wolves ' which were hunted out from returning into England The great respect that is paid to Ladys in this Realm has given occasion to the saying that England is the Paradise of Women the Purgatory of Servants and the Hell of Horses The English for the most part are well proportioned and of a generous Nature They have had so great an Antipathy to the Scots that Edward the 1. the same who was preferred before his Eldest Brother by reason of the Beauty of his Body recommended that after his Death they should boyl him until they parted his Flesh and his Bones that they should bury his Flesh and carry his Bones along to the War against the Scots The English are owned Soveraigns of the Ocean and have made those States and Potentates to repent who have dared to dispute their Right to that Title Their Countrey is compared to the Tortoise in the shell who has all his Defences collected The acquisition of some Places by the allyance with Portugal has obliged them to extraordinary expences The Spaniards have a Proverb with all War and Peace with England The general Religion of the English is the reformed the King of England is the Head of the Anglican Church where of the Principal Members are the Bishops who compose the House of Lords with the other Peers This
not willingly allow Strangers entrance into their Country The great Wall or rather the Intrenchment of above four hundred Leagues which they caused formerly to be made is a Work that has had more Renown than Effect the Tartars have often over-run China notwithstanding this Obstacle Those who have said that China is but one City by reason of the Numerousness of it's People have likewise said that a no less considerable Wall was requir'd to be proportionable to the Grandeur of such a Town 'T is hardly credible that in this Fortification the Stones be seven Fathom high and five broad as they are said to be by the Chineses If we may believe their History the Hostilities of the Tartars have been exercised for above four thousand years the Chinese Horses cannot endure the sight of those of Tartary The late years have caused strange Revolutions in this Kingdome After that the Rebels had acted as Soveraigns the Tartars under their Emperour Xunchi have conquer'd all their Country in less then seven years Time and that since the year 1643 the Militia was not very considerable Men of Learning domineer'd over Men of the Sword From whence it came that the State only subsisted by Policy by numerous Armys and not by the valour of it's People The principal Chiefs were called Mandarins at present the Tartar has Tartarian Officers and Chinese Officers below his Vice-Roys of whom some are for Arms and others for Learning This change has the Sword wrought over the Gown and the poor Mandarins are no longer in a state to do Justice with so much Pomp and Pride as they formerly did Paganisme is there generally received nevertheless Vertue amongst them is in an high esteem The Publick is more Rich proportionably as particular Persons are Writing is managed from the top to the bottom It has above sixty thousand Letters and has not three hundred thousand Words which are almost all Monosyllables whereas the Europeans have many Words few Letters the Chineses have many Letters and few VVords which they pronounce with divers Tones according to their signification So as we may say their Speech is only singing It 's Great Cities are called Fu the lesser Câ—u The Chineses love their Hair to that Degree that several amongst them choose rather to dye than to be shav'd conformably to the Tartars commands Swines Flesh is with them a most exquisite Dish Before the coming of the Tartars Yellow was the Kings and Black the Peoples usual wear All China is divided into sixteen Provinces each of which are worth more than large Kingdoms Ten of 'em lye towards the South Yunnan Quansi Canton Fuquiem Chequiam Nanxin Kiamsi Huquam Suscuem and Quicheu The six towards the North are Xensi Sciansi Honan Xantung Pekin and Leaorung which several have called Cathai whereas they give the name of Mangi to the Southern Provinces Canton has a Town of the greatest Trade and Riches of all the Kingdom from thence are transported Rice Sugar Varnish which is drawn from the Rinds of Trees and Pearls that are fish'd near the Isle of Ainaon Macao in an Island of the same Name surrounded with several other small Islands and Rocks is peopled with Portugals who have fortified it after an extraordinary manner since they were attack'd by the Hollanders in the Year 1622. This City entertains a great Commerce between China and Europe this Commerce is much diminish't they have no longer two hundred for a hundred profit as they had formerly and now the Hollanders have got footing in the Kingdom whereas they were formerly excluded from thence because the Chineses had a Prophesie that they should be subdued by people who have blue Eyes This has been verified by the coming of the Tartars The Right alone for the Trade of Salt is worth every Year above fifteen hundred thousand Livers to the King of China The small Isle of Sanchoan is known for the death of the Popish Saint Xavier Fuquiem produces pure Gold Pepper Sugar and Calamint The Gold and Silver of China is not so good as that we have they esteem the Pistols and Rials of Spain The Island Formosa has a Mine of Gold which the Hollanders had in possession for a long while In the Year 1661 they were drove thence by a Chinese called Coceinga a Taylor 's Son The Isle of Tayouan half a League from Formosa is an Island whither People resort in all Seasons of the Year without being oblig'd to wait for the Monzoon In the Year 1632 the Hollanders made a Fort there of four Bastions faced with hew'd stone which serv'd them to take the Isle of Formosa Chequiam has Temples wherein are rich Idols Nankin has a Town of the same Name formerly the abode of the Court the most esteemed of China upon the account of its Beauty the fertility of its Soyl its fine Edifices its great Commerce the River Kiang which we call the River Blew and the Chinese the Son of the Sea because that its common breadth exceeds two of our Leagues With the River Jaune and the Royal Channel it affords the means of going to Pekin by Boat and of trading to Pekin by Rivers disembarking only at the Mountain Muilin There is near Nankin a Tower of Porcelain nine Stories or Vaults above one another with a hundred and fourscore and four steps Schanchay is the most usual station of the King's Fleets Kiamzi passes for the most populous Province It alone has Water proper for the perfection of Porcelain when they apply to it the Tincture of Azure Vermilion or Yellow The late Voyages that have been made into the Inlands of China have inform'd us that Porcelain-Ware is not made of the shells of the Sea nor of Egg-shells pounded as several have believed it is made by the means of Sand or Earth peculiar to certain Cantons of the Countrey where it is found in Rocks for the making it 't is not necessary that this Earth remain buried an Age as some have thought fit to affirm The Chineses knead this Sand and make Cups of it which they set a baking in Ovens for the space of fifteen days and give them several Figures The application of Colours is one of the principal Secrets which the Chineses have thought fit to keep conceal'd from strangers Huquam yields so much Rice and Oyl that the Chineses have it in a Proverb That they draw but one Collation from each of the other Provinces of China but from Huquam they have wherewith to live on a whole Year Xensi does particularly furnish Musk Its City of Cancheu has a great confluence of Caravans Siganfu has very ancient Remnants of Christianity Sciansi hath Vineyards from whence the Jesuits had the Wine they stood in need of for the celebrating the Mass before they were driven thence in the Year 1665. Honan produces the best Fruits in the World and in great quantity Pekin otherwise Peguin has a City of the same Name the Capital of all