and Peel a poor Harbour facing Ireland It abounds with springs of water which make diverse usefull Rivolets the soil is indifferently fruitfull yet much of it is mountainous It yeilds Rie Wheat Barley but especially Oates of which they make their bread It s stored with Beasts Sheep of a course wooll Horses of a small size and Goates there is no want of Fish and plenty of Fowl The Aire is quick and healthful Frosts short and seldome Snow will soon dissolve because of the vicinity of the Sea and its subject to extraordinary high winds The Inhabitants are civil and laborious their drink water their meat Fish their bedding generally hay or straw they are much addicted to the musick of the Violine so that there is scarce a family but more or lesse can play upon it they are ingenious in learning manifactures and bear a great esteem and reverence to the publick service of God Naturally they are unchaste Anno Christi 1649. it was given by the Parliament to Thomas Lord Fairfax as a reward of the great services he had done for them The Azores Islands Described The Islands of Azores are nine in number Tercera St. Michael St. George St. Mary Pico Fayall Graciosa Flores and Corvo They are named Azores from the many Ayeries of Goshawks found there Of these Tercera is the greatest and fruitfullest It abounds with Oil Wine Corn Oade Fruits c. Her best Town is Angra her best Fort Brazeil her Haven bad to Anchor in Pico is the highest being as some say above fifteen miles to the top which is many times seen cleerly but about the middle of it hang the clouds It s about ten miles in circuit It s for the most part composed of Brimstone so that many times from the top issue forth flames of fire as out of Aetna Below are umbragious shades and cold Rivolets into which when the vomited fire is forced those opposite Elements eccho forth their discontents in an hideous noise In the Island of Tercera are some fountains the water whereof is so hot that it will boil an egg There is also another fountain that turns wood into stone and a Tree that grows by it hath that part of the root which grows in the water petrified the other that is out is Wood as of other trees A more particular description of the Kingdomes and Countries contained in the continent of Europe Spain Described Spain was seized upon by the Sweves Goths and Vandals Anno Christi 168. who remained in possession thereof more than four hundred years till their King Rodrigues with almost all his Nobility was defeated by the Saracens who were brought in by a certain Earl in revenge of the dishonour of his daughter whom the King had ravished These Saracens maintained themselves there above seven hundred years as well against the French as the Spaniards themselves who endeavoured to expell them It was formerly divided into twelve Kingdomes which were all reduced to one by Ferdinand and Isabel Anno Christi 1474 except that of Portugal which was subjugated by Philip the second and peaceably possessed by him and his heirs till the year 1640 as above It was in the reign of the aforesaid Ferdinand that the Indies and many other Islands were found out the riches whereof hath much augmented the potency of Spain and made her to aspire to the Monarchy of the world The chief Rivers in Spain are 1. Tagus formerly famous for his golden sands It riseth in the mountain of Seira Molina running by the City of Toledo and then smoothly gliding by the walls of Lisbon in Portugal it pays his tribute to the Western Ocean 2. Ana now Guadiana which rising about the same place afterwards runs under-ground for the space of fifteen miles as our Mole in Surrey doth 3. Baetis now Guadalquiver 4. Duerus that runneth from its head in the hills of Bâ—iscay Westward 5. Iberus which having his head in the same Mountains runs Eastward almost four hundred miles of which two hundred is navigable The chief hills are 1. Aurentius Saltus stretching from the Pyrenean Mountains towards Portugall 2. Siera Morena declining from the middest of Spain towards the straits of Gibraltar 3. Seira Nevada which crosses the Kingdome of Granata from East to West steep hills amongst which the people speak the Arabick tongue perfectly Whilst the Saracen Moors possessed Spain they divided it into twelve Principallities as 1. Leon and Oviedo having on the East Biscay on the South Castile on the North the Ocean on the West Gallicia It yeildeth little yet swift horses called Hobbies The chief Towns are 1. Aviles on the sea side 2. Palenza 3. Oviedo 4. Astorga 5. Leon. 2. Navarre having on the East the Pyrenean mountains on the West Iberus on the North Biscay and on the South Aragon The chief Cities are 1. Victoria 2. Viana 3. Sanguessa 4. Pampelune the Metrotropolis of the Country Anno Christi 1512. in the reign of Queen Katherine who was married to John of Albert the King of Spain raising an Army under pretence of rooting out the Moors suddenly surprized this Kingdome unprovided for resistance and keeps it till this day though the French have often attempted the recovery of it 3 Corduba comprehending Andaluzia Granada and Estremadura Andaluzia is the richest and fruitfullest Country in all Spain the chief Towns are 1. Corduba the Metropolitan whence comes our true Cordovan Leather made of the skins of a Sardinian Beast Neer this City is a wood thirty miles long consisting all of Olive trees 2. Marchena where are the best Jennets in all Spain 3. Medina Sidonia the Duke whereof was General of the Armado in eighty eight 4. Lucar di Barameda an haven Town 5. Xeres a haven Town also whence come our Xeres Sack commonly called Sherry-Sacks 6. Tariffa seated at the end of the Promontory towards Affrick 7. Sevil the fairest City in all Spain in compasse six miles environed with beautiful walls and adorned with many magnificent buildings of Palaces Churches and Monasteries and hath under its jurisdiction twenty thousand small Villages It s also divided into two parts by the River Baetis yet both are joyned together by a beautifull and stately Bridge Hence come our Sevil Oranges and from hence goeth the Indian Fleet. Analuzia in Spain as well for plenty of all blessings of the Earth as for the pleasures and delights of the fields is a meer terrestrial Paradise The horses which shee produceth are so swift in course that they seem according to the Proverb to be engendred by the Wind. Spain feeds an infinite number of Sheep especially in Castile where is made most excellent Cloath and the wooll for the superlative finenesse thereof is transported into other Countries In other parts it is barren through the lazinesse of the people as some think who love much better to put their hands to the Sword than to the plough The people are melancholy and cholerick sober and content with a little spending
though the Plague rage never so much as many times it doth yet upon that very day wherein Sol enters into Leo which is usually the twelfth or thirteenth day of July it immediately ceaseth and all that are then sick amend and such as are then come abroad need fear no further danger The Turks call Aleppo Halep which signifies milk because it yeilds great store of milk It s usuall here with many Christians to take a woman of the Country provided shee bee not a Turk for its death for a Christian to meddle with them and when they have bought them to enroll them in the Cadi's book and so to use them as wives at bed and board while they sojourn there and then at their departure to leave them to shift for themselves and children Tripolis is a City on the main land of Syria neer unto Mount Libanus which is a Mountain of three days journey in length reaching from Trypolis to Damascus The Christians which dwell upon this Mountain are called Maronites they are a very simple and ignorant People yet civil kind and curteous to strangers There are now few Cedars growing here only in one place there are four and twenty growing together they are tall and as big as the greatest Oaks with diverse rows of branches one over another stretching strait out as though they were kept by Art There is no place in all the VVorld wherein they speak the Syriack tongue naturally at this day but only in four villages on this mountain which are Eden Hatcheeth Shany and Boloza Neer unto Tripolis there is a gallant plain of about a mile in length full of Olive and Fig-trees Scandaroon by Christians called Alexandretta is in the very bottome of the Straights The Air is very unwholsome and infects those that stay any time there occasioned by two high mountains which keep away the Sunne from it for a great part of the day the water also neer the Town is very unwholsome Here our Merchants land their goods and send them by Caravan upon Camels to Aleppo distant about three days journey Here are many Jackalls which in the night make a great crying and comming to a grave where a Corse hath been buried the day before if the grave bee not well filled with many great stones upon it they will scrape up the Earth and devour the corps Mr. Bidulphs Travels The Empire of Persia Described Persia at this day hath many famous Provinces subjected to her Command as Persia Parthia Media Hyrcania Bactria Sogdiana Evergeta Arâ—a Drangiana Margiana Paropamisa Caramania Gedrosia Susiana Arabia Chaldea Mesopotamia Armenia Iberia and Mengrellia twenty Noble Kingdomes of old The whole Empire is bounded East West North and South with India Arabia the Caspian and Persian Seas In length from East to West is one thousand three hundred and twenty miles and in breadth from North to South it s One thousand four hundred fourscore and eight miles So that the whole Circuit is about Four thousand miles the Revenues of the Persian King amount yearly to the sum of one million and one hundred and ninty thousand pounds sterling The Persians are usually big-boned strong straight and proper Of an Olive colour the women paint the men love Arms and all love Poetry No part of their body is allowed hair the upper lip excepted where it grows long and thick they turn it downwards the meaner sort reserve a lock in the middest of their head by which they believe Mahomet will pluck them up into Paradise Their eyes are black their foreheads high and their Noses hooked upon their heads they wear Shashes of great rowls of Calico silk and gold the higher the more beautiful They wear no bands their outside garment is usually of Calico stitched with silk quilted with Cotton the better sort have them farre richer of silk silver and gold their sleeves are straight and long their garment reaches to the Calf of the leg their wasts are girt with Towels of silk and gold very long next their skin they wear smocks of Cotton very short their breeches and stockings are sowed together from the ankle to the shooes they are naked their shooes have no latchets sharp at the toes and turn upward Circumcision is so necessary that without it none can call himself a Mussulman Both men and women use it the women at any time from nine to fifteen the men at twelve which was Ishmaels age when Abraham circumcised him whom they make their progenitor Their ordinary houshold furniture is a Pan a Platter and a Carpet their diet is soon drest and as soon eaten their Table is the ground covered with a Carpet over which they spread a Pintado cloth before each man they lay four or six thin Cakes of Wheat for every one a wooden spoon their handles almost a yard long and huge big mouthes Their only meat is Pelo dressed after diverse manners It consists of Rice Mutton and Hens boiled together to which they adde various sauces c. Their drink is Sherbet made of fair water sugar Rosewater and juice of Lemmons mixt together The chief Cities in Persia described The City of Lar described Lar is the chief City in the Province of Larestan It s not walled about In that Art is needlesse the lofty Rock so naturally defending her shee hath a brave Castle on the North Quarter mounted upon an imperious Hill not only threatning an enemy but awing the Town with her frowninâ— posture the ascent is narrow and steep the Castle of good stone the walls are furnished with good battlements whereon are mounted twelve brasse Cannons and two Basilisks the spoils of Ormus within the walls are one hundred houses stored with souldiers who have there a gallant Armory able to furnish with Lance Bow and Gun three thousand men The Buzzar or Market-place is a gallant Fabrick the materials a good Chalkie-stone long strong and beautiful It s covered a top arched and containing in it a Burse or Exchange wherein the shops are stored with variety of wares the walk from North to South is a hundred and seventy paces from East to West one hundred and sixty the Oval in the Center is about one hundred and ninety The Mosques or Churches are not many One especially is round figuring eternity in some places engraven with Arabick letters and painted with knots and in other places with Mosaick fancies It s low and without glasse windows woodden trellizes excellently cut after their manner supplying that want Here are the fairest Dates Orenges Lemmons and Pomecitrons in all Persia at easy rates you may have Hens Goats Rice Rache and Aquavitae The Inhabitants are for the most part naked being a mixture of Jews and Mahumetans their habit is only a wreath of Calico tyed about their heads a cloth about their loins and sandals on their feet the rest naked Herb. Trav. Shyraz described Shyraz is at this day the second City for magnificence in the Persian Monarchy It 's watered by
are large and pleasant The Midan is uniform and beautifull The Kings Palace nigh the market low built painted with blew red and yellow colours commixt with Arabick letters and knots in gold and azure The windows are spacious trellized and neatly carved Neer the Kings gate is a great Tank The Hummums or sweating places are many resplendent in the azure pargetting and tileing The gardens are pleasant for view and smell The City of Tauris Described Tauris was the late Metropolis of Media taking its name from the prodigious Mountain Taurus under which it is built the ancient name was Ecbatane when shee was farre greater than now shee is Strabo saith that it was fifteen miles in compasse the walls were strong and stately seventy cubits high and fifty broad beautified with many lofty Turrets and battlements within were many great and excellent Palaces especially that which was built by Daniel the Mausoleum of the Median Kings was most magnificent which remained undemolished till the time of Josephus That built by Darius was no lesse memorable most whereof was built of Cedar the roof studded and plaited with burnished gold At this day its about five miles compasse well peopled traded to from farre and neer The houses are flat on the top made of brick the Buzzar large and the gardens lovely The City of Derbent Described Derbent is a strong and famous Port Town upon the Caspian Sea viewing from her lofty Turrets the Armenian and Hyrcanian Territories as also Ararat and the sea It s circled with a strong high and defensible stone-wall above three miles in compasse The houses Hummums and Churches are but meanly beautifull the strong Castle Kastow is most observeable in it pleasantly and very advantagiously seated Hyspaan Described The City of Hyspaan in Persia was formerly called Hecatompolis by reason of its hundred gates It 's compassed with a strong wall and is in circuit as much as a man may well ride on horseback in a day it s a very strong City and is excellently watered with deep channels of running springs conveyed into it from the Coronian Mountains which are as a wall inaccessible about it On the North side is a very strong Castle which is compassed about with a wall of a thousand and seven hundred yards in compasse On the West side of the City are two Seraglio's one for the King the other for his women Palaces of great state and Magnificence the Walls whereof glister with pollished Marble and pargetting of divers colours and all the Palaces are paved with curious checkered work and covered with curious Carpets wrought with Silk and Gold the windows are made of Marble Porphery and Alabaster the Posts and doors of Massie Ivory checkered with glistering black Ebonie so curiously wrought in winding knots as may easilier stay than satisfie the wondering eye of the spectator Near the Palace is a stately Garden spacious and large beautifully adorned with a thousand sundry kinds of Fruit-trees plants and flowers of all sorts to delight the beholders There are in it a thousand Fountains and a thousand Brooks and as the Father of them all a pretty River which with a mild stream and delightful murmure divides the Garden from the Kings Palace Casan described Casan is the chiefest City in Parthia It is seated in a goodly plain having no Mountains within a dayes journey of it It wanteth neither Fountains Springs nor curious pleasant Gardens It aboundeth with all necessaries for the life of man It 's greatly frequented with all sorts of Merchandize especially out of India The Citizens are very industrious and curious in all manner of Sciences especially in weaving girdles and shashes in making Velvets Satins Damasks excellent Persian Carpets of a wonderful finenesse Here you may buy all manner of Drugs and Spices as also Turkesses Diamonds Rubies and Pearles as also all sorts of Silk raw and wrought For there is more Silk brought into Casan in one year than there comes broad cloth into London This City is much to bee commended for Civil Government For an idle person is not suffered to live amongst them the child that is but six years old is set to labour no ill rule disorder or riot is suffered there They have a Law amongst them whereby every person is compelled to give his name to the Magistrate withal declaring by what course hee liveth and if any tell untruly hee is either well beaten on the feet or imployed in publick slavery Casan contains above four thousand families the houses are fairly built the streets bee large and comely the Mosques and Hummums are curiously painted and covered with blew Tiles like Turquoises The Buzzar is spacious and uniform The Gardens abound with fruit and the fields with Corn The Carravans-Raw is an admirable Fabrick able to receive all the retinue of the greatest Potentate in Asia It was built by Saw-Abbas for the entertainment of Travellers on free cost The whole building is founded on Marble six foot high the rest of Brick varnished and coloured with knots and Phansies of Arabick characters in Azure red and white laid in Oile It s a perfect quadrangle each side two hundred paces long In the midst of this spacious Court is a large fouresquare Tank or Pond with Christaline water This Royal Inne is seated in the midst of fragrant and spacious Gardens Armenia the greater described Armenia Major lyeth on the farther side of Euphrates is a very mountainous Country hath part of Cappadocia and Euphrates on the West Mesopotamia on the South Colchis Iberia and Albania on the North. And the Caspian Sea and Media on the East One part of it is called Turcomania the other Georgia On the Mountain of Ararat in this Countrey the Ark rested and from hence the World was repeopled The chiefest Rivers are Phasis and Lycus which runne into the Pontick Sea Cyrus and Araxes into the Caspian Euphrates and Tygris which run into the Red or Persian Sea Tygris so called from its swiftnesse passeth through the Lake Arethusa yet neither mingling water nor fishes saith Solinus afterward it diveth under Taurus and riseth on the other side bringing much filth with it and is again hidden and again riseth and at last carrieth Euphrates into the Sea Mr. Cartwright in his Preachers Travels saith that these present Armenians are a very industrious people in all kind of Labour that their women are very skilful and active in shooting and managing any sort of weapon like the Ancient Amazons That their Families are great the Father and all his posterity dwelling together under one roof having their substance in common and when the father dyeth the eldest son governs all submitting themselves under his regiment after his death not his son but his brother succeeds and when all the brethren are dead then the eldest Son In diet and clothing they are all alike Media Described Media hath on the North the Caspian Sea on the South Persia on the West Armenia and on the East Parthia
Ecbatane was once the Metropolis of it twenty miles distant from the Caspian Straits which are a narrow way made by hand through the Hills scarce wide enough for a Cart to pass eight miles in length the rocks with their obscure frowns hanging over them and in the summer time multitudes of Serpents guarding them The walls of Ecbatane were built of hewen stone seventy cubits high and fifty cubits broad and sixteen miles in compasse Herodotus saith that after the Assyrians had raigned in Asia five hundred and twenty years the Medes rebelled chose Deioces for their King at whose command they builded him this royall City and in it a Palace of Cedar wood joyned with plates of silver and gold being a stately thing the whole compasse of it was seven furlongs Diodorus Siculus reports that at one time multitudes of Sparrows that devoured their seed forced the inhabitants to leave this Countrey and to seek their living in other places as Mice caused them in some part of Italy and Frogs that rained out of the Clouds made the Attariotae and Fleas chased away the Inhabitants of Myus How great is that God who of the smallest of his Creatures can muster Armies to conquer them that swell in the conceit of their own greatnesse as against Pharoah c. And how many Nations in Africa have the Grashoppers exiled from their native habitations amongst the Medes none might bee King except hee was in stature and strength more eminent than others They used to nourish Dogs with great care to whom they cast men ready to dye whilest yet breathing to bee devoured of them In this Country is the Lake of Van three hundred miles long and a hundred and fifty broad of salt water the greatest next to Meotis Gyllicus affirms that eight great Rivers run into it without any apparent issue to the Sea Parthia described Parthia is seated at the roots of the mountains having the Arians on the East the Medes on the West Caramania on the South and Hyrcania on the North surrounded with Desarts they used not gold or silver but only to adorn their armour they had many wives of whom they were so jealous that they forbad them the sight of any other man They performed all businesses both publick and private on horseback this being the distinction of free men from servants they buried their dead in the bellies of birds or dogs they were exceeding superstitious in the service of their Gods they were a stout unquiet and unfaithful people their fight was more dangerous in their flight than in their onset whence Seneca saith Terga conversi metuenda Parthi The Parthians flight doth most affright It s now called Arach Hyrcania described Hyrcania now Strava hath on the West Media on the East Margiana on the South Parthia and on the North the Caspian Sea It s famous for store of woods and Tygers Strava the chief City abounds with trafick for Silk Their Religion agrees with that of the Persians Arabia described Arabia is a very large Country lying between the Persian Gulph on the East and the Arabian Gulph on the West On the South is the Ocean and on the North is Syria and Euphrates It s usually divided into Petraea Deserta and Foelix The name Faelix or Happie is given to the Southern part from the fertility of it Petraea to a second part of Petra the Seat Royal Deserta or the Desert from the nature of it being a very barren soil Arabia the Desert is bounded on the East with Babylonia and part of the Persian Gulph on the North with Mesopotamia neer to Euphrates On the West with Syria and Arabia Petraea and on the South with the Mountains of Arabia Faelix neer unto which and Euphrates it hath some Towns which are frequented by Merchants In other parts it is unpeopled only by some roving Arabians wandering in it seeking pasture for their Cattel Arabia Petraea hath Syria on the West and North Arabia the Desert on the East and Arabia Foelix on the South some call it Nabathaea that part of it which is next to Syria is fruitful the other barren wanting both wood and water and frequented by wandring theevish Arabians In this Country it was that the Israelites wandred forty years up and down in their passage to Canaan Here is Mount Sinai a mile and an half from Horeb and far higher Sinai is ascended by steps cut out of the Rock and from the top of it may bee seen both shores of the Red-Sea Arabia Foelix bounds upon the former and hath the Sea on all other parts against which it doth abut for the space of three thousand five hundred and four miles It s now called Ayaman or Giamen It s probable to bee the Country where Saba stood whose Queen came to visit Salomon though the Abassines challenge her to themselves It hath store of Rivers Lakes Towns Cities Cattel and fruits of many sorts The chief Cities are Medina Mecca Ziden Zebit Aden c. Here is store of gold silver and variety of precious stones As also wild beasts of diverse kinds The Inhabitants use circumcision at thirteen years old after the â—xample of Ismael Frankincense grows only in this Country and not in every part but in one part only guarded and almost unpassable by Rocks the place is one hundred miles long and about fifty in breadth there are three hundred families appointed to attend this Wood who are called Holy and when they cut the trees whence Incense sweats which is in the Spring and Autum they must abstain from Women funerals c. when it s gathered they carry it on Camels by Sabota where they pay the Tithe to a God called Sabis They have in Arabia sheep with great tailes some of which weigh forty pounds some much more they kill all the Mice they can as supposing them enemies to their Gods the women cover their faces being contented rather to see but with one eye than to prostitute their whole faces They have also Balsom trees The Arabick language is now the most common in all the Eastern Countries especially amongst those that imbrace the Mahometan Religion Tartary described The Tartars inhabit a vast space of ground in Asia and are divided into many Tribes different both in name and government one from another The greatest and mightiest of them is the Crim Tartar called by some the great Cham that lyeth South and South East from Russia Their Arms are Bows Arrows and Swords they are all Horse-men and use to shoot as readily backward as forward the common souldiers have no armour more than their ordinary apparel which is a black sheep skin with the wool side outward in the day time and inward in the night with a cap of the same the Nobles imitate the Turks both in apparrel and armour In their wars they chiefly seek to get store of Captives especially of Boyes and Girles whom they sell to the Turks or other neighbour Nations they are most
of them Mahometans They have certain Idol puppets made of Silk or other stuff in the likenesse of a man which they fasten to the door of their walking houses to keep them in safety besides they have the Image of their great Cham of an huge bignesse which they erect at every stage when they march and every one as he passeth by must bow down to it they are much given to witchcraft and sorcery They are divided into Hoords over each of which is a Duke who are bound when the Emperor sends for them to attend him with such a number of Souldiers every one having two horses one to ride on and the other to kill when his turn comes to have his horse eaten for their chief food is horseflesh which they eat without any bread They keep also great heards of Kine and black sheep rather for their skins and milk which they carry with them in great bottles then for their flesh which they say is not so strengthning as horse-flesh they drink milk and bloud mingled together Sometimes as they travel they let their horses blood and drink it warm They have no Towns but walking houses built upon wheeles like Shepheards Cottages these they draw with them and drive their cattel before them and when they stay they plant their Cart-houses very orderly in rank so making the form of streets and of a large Town the Emperor himself hath no other City but such as these In the spring they move with their Cattel Northward grazing up all before them and then return Southward again where they remain all the winter Towards the Caspian sea and on the frontiers of Russia they have a goodly Country but marred for want of Tillage They use no money and prefer brass and Steel before all other mettals They have broad and flat visages much tanned have fierce and cruel looks thin hair on their upper lips they are light and nimble they have short legs as if they were made for horsemen their speech is sudden and loud speaking out of a deep hollow throat their singing is very untunable The Circasses that border upon Lituania are more civil than the rest applying themselves to the fashions of the Polonians The Nagay Tartars lye Eastward and are far more savage and cruel The most rude and barbarous are the Morduit-Tartars that worship for god the first living thing they meet in the morning and swear by it all the day after when his friend dyes hee kills his best horse and carries his hide upon a long pole before the Corps to the place of buriall that so his friend may have a good horse to carry him to heaven they are void of learning and without written Laws only some rules they hold by tradition as to obey their Emperor and Governors none to possesse any land but the whole Countrey to bee common not to use daintiness in diet c. This great Country is bounded on the East with the Eastern Ocean On the West with Russia and Moldovia On the North with the Sythick or frozen Sea and on the South with Mare Caspium the Hill Taurus and the wall of China It s in length from East to West five thousand four hundred miles and in breadth from North to South three thousand and six hundred miles It was formerly called Scythia It hath been so fruitfull of people that it was called Vagina gentium et officina generis humani the mother of all inundations From hence indeed Huns Herules Franks Bulgarians Circassians Sueves Burgundians Turks Tartarians Dutch Cimbers Normans Almaines Ostrogothes Tigurines Lombards Vandals Visigothes Have swarm'd like Locusts round about this Ball. And spoil'd the fairest Provinces of all The Island of Cyprus Described In the Mediterranean Sea there are only two Islands belonging to Asia Cyprus and Rhodes The Island of Cyprus Described Cyprus is seated in the Sea of Syria and is in compasse five hundred and fifty miles It s in length from East to West two hundred miles In breadth but sixty five miles It s about sixty miles distant from Cilicia and one hundred from the main land of Syria In summer it s very hot the greatest supply of water is from the Clouds So that in Constantines time there being a great and long drought the Island was almost unpeopled for thirty six years together Ordinarily it s very fruitfull and so stored with Commodities that without the help of other Countrys its able to build a ship from the keel to the top-sail and to furnish it to Sea with all things necessary either for a voyage or Sea-fight It yeilds plenty of wine Oile Corn Sugar Honey Wool Cotton Turpentine Allum and Verdegreece As also all sorts of Mettals Salt Grograms and other Commodities whence it was called Macaria or the blessed Island There are abundance of Cyprus Trees growing in it The Inhabitants are warlike strong and nimble civil Hospitable and friendly to strangers The Jews in Trajans time slew in this Island two hundred and forty thousand living souls whereupon ever since they suffer no Jew to come amongst them The Island is divided into eleven Provinces the chief Rivers are Pedeus and Tenus The chief Cities are Paphos once famous for the Temple of Venus Famagusta on the South Sea Nicosia almost in the center of the Countrey Amathus Ceraunia now called Cerines And Arsione now Lescare It s now under the Turks who took it from the Venetians Anno Christi One thousand five hundred threescore and ten The Island of Rhodes Described Rhodes is situated in the Carpathian Sea over against Caria in the lesser Asia It s in circuit one hundred and twenty miles The chief City is of the same name where stood that huge Colossus of Brasse in the Image of a man fourscore cubits high whose little finger was as big as an ordinary man it was the work of twelve years made by Chares of Lindum The Inhabitants of this I le were always good Seamen Anno Christi 1308. the Knights of St. John in Hierusalem being driven out of Asia by the Saracens seized upon this Island and were always troublesome neighbours to the Turks till the year 1522. at which time Solyman the Magnificent wrested it from them The forenamed City of Rhodes stands on the East part of the Island at the bottome of a hill and on the shore of the Sea having a safe and fair Haven it hath also two walls for defence thirteen high towers five bulwarks besides sconces and outworks It s inhabited only by Turks and Jews for though the Christians are suffered to trade freely all day yet at night upon pain of death they must leave it The Rhodian Colossus more fully Described In the Isle of Rhodes stood one of the worlds seven wonders which was a huge Colossus made of Brasse in the form of a man standing with his two leggs striding over an haven under which ships with their Masts and Sails might passe It was fourscore cubits high with all the
parts proportionable and all gilt over When Muani the fifth Caliph of Babylon overcame Constance the Emperour in a Sea-fight and had taken the Isle of Rhodes this image being formerly thrown down by an Earthquake was sold by him to a Jew who loaded nine hundred Camels with the brasse of it Theoph. Pez Mel. Hist. The Islands and Countries in the East-Indies Described Malabar Described Malabar is neer to Cape Comeryn It s four hundred miles in length but not above a hundred in breadth yet so populous that one of the Samorines or Kings hath brought into the field two hundred thousand men The Countrey is green and full of all delights Cattel Corn Fruit Cotton silk-worms and other Merchandise it hath store of strong Towns and safe Harbours It s divided into many Toparchies but all obeying the Samorine a naked Negro yet as proud as Lucifer The Nayroes are his Lords a sort of Mammeluks that live by the sweat of other mens brows lust wholly Mastering them they always go armed with sword and Buckler The people generally are big-limmed strong cole-black wear their hair which is like wool long and curled about their heads they have a wreath of a curious sort of linnen wrought with gold and silk about their wast a peece of Calico all the rest naked the vulgar sort pink their skins in many places some are Mahometans others Gentiles the Mahometan women use vails like other Indians such as are Gentiles affect nakedness their greatest pride is in their noses and ears and they judge them most brave which are bigest and widest their ears they make big by weighty bables which they hang in them they wring their snouts with silver brass or Ivory their arms and legs are chained richly Their Braminies or Priests have the maiden heads of all that are married they are couragious and politick The City of Callecut in Malabar Described Callecut a City is not large nor of any beauty the houses are low thick and dark The Samorine or Emperor usually abides here many deformed Pagathoes are here worshipped The chappel where their grand Idol sits is covered and about three yards high the wooden entrance is ingraven with infernal shapes within their beloved Priapus is imperiously enthronized upon a brasen Mount his head hath a resplendent Diadem from whence issue four great Rams horns his eyes squint his mouth is wide from whence branch four Monstrous Tusks his nose is flat his beard like the Sun beams of an affrighting aspect his hands are like the claws of a Vulture his thighs and legs big and hairy his feet and tail resemble a Munkies Other Temples have other Pagods ugly all yet all differ in invention They commonly exchange their wives As men have many wives so one woman may have many husbands The Isle of Zeiloon Described Zeiloon or Ceilon is two hundred and fifty miles in length one hundred and forty in breadth It abounds with sundry sorts of aromatick spices but especially with Cinamon It hath plenty of Orenges Dates Cocoes Ananas Plantans and Mastick It hath Elephants Bufolos Cowes Sheep Hogs c. Smaragds Rubies Ambergreece c. The King hereof to shew his bravery to the Portugals invited them to see him walk upon a Tarras arraied in an imbroidered Coat powdered with Gold Smaragds Diamonds and Pearl altogether darting out rayes wonderfull delightfull and pleasant Hereupon Selveira the Portugese Governor builds a stately and strong Castle amongst them under pretence of defending them from the Mallabars but it was rather to bee his Jewel keeper for in a short time hee ravished the King of all his riches In this Island there is scarce any village or Mount without its Pagod amongst which that Apes tooth god was the principal resorted to by millions of Indians and when Columbo the Vice-Roy of Goa took it away they proâ—ered to redeem it with three hundred thousand Duckets Their Idols are horribly deformed and ugly yea the more ugly the more venerable The Manner of fishing for Pearls in the Isle of Zeilan They begin their fishing every year in March or April and it lasteth fifty dayes and when this time draweth neer they send very good Divers to discover where there is the greatest plenty of Oisters under water and right against that place they pitch their Tents on the shore making as it were a little Village and so when the time is come they go out in their Boats and Anchor in fifteen or eighteen fathom of water and then they cast a rope into the Sea with a great stone fastened at the end of it Then a man that hath his nose and ears well stopped and anointed with Oile with a basket under his left arm goes down by the rope to the bottome of the Sea and as fast as hee can fills the basket with Oisters and then shaking the rope his fellowes in the boat pull him up with his basket and thus they go on till they have filled their Boats with Oisters and so at evening when they come to their Tents each lay their heap of Oisters by themselves and none of them are opened till their fishing bee ended At which time they open every man his own which is easily done because then they are drie and brittle There are but few of these Oisters in comparison that have Pearles in them There are also certain that are expert in Pearles present that set the price upon them according to their carracts beauty and goodness the round ones are best Choromandel described Choromandel stretches from Cape Comoryn to the famous Gulph of Bengala and hath in it these famous Towns of Trade Negapatan Meliapore Polycat Armagun Narsinga Mesulipatan and Bipilipatan Negapatan is hot and unwholesome the wind and raines being for the greatest part of the year high and unseasonable The Town hath good water and fruits well relished cooling and nutritive yet the people are much vexed with feavers fluxes c. they are blackish blockish unapt for study or exercise by reason of the heat A small thin shuddery or lawn is drawn before their secret parts their head hath a small wreath the rest is all naked they have gold and precious stones which they esteem as wee do trifles The Bannians Wives have here more freedome to burn themselves when their Husbands dye than in other places so that in this place the custome is usual If any refuse to burn they must shave and are accounted as Monsters The City of Goa described Goa is the bravest and best defenced City in all the Orient where the Vice-Roy of Portugal keeps his residence and seats of Justice It s built three hours journey within land in an Island thirty miles compass surrounded by a River that flows from the mighty mountain Bellaguate It s compassed with a strong and beautiful wall proud in her aspiring Turrets dreadful in many tormenting Cannons The Market-place or Buzzar is in the Center of the City richly built pleasant and capacious the other streets
of it no considerable party opposing them in their peaceable possession as you may read more fully in a book called Bellum Tartaricum The City of Quinsay described Quinsay was formerly the Regal City of China situated abuut the heart of the Country and yet not far from the Sea In it were to bee found so many delights that it seemed an earthly Paradise It was one hundred miles in compasse for the streets and channels thereof were very wide and the Market-places very large It had on the one side a clear lake of fresh water and on the other a great River which entring into many places of the City carryed away all the filth and occasioned a good air There were store both of Carts and Barks to carry necessaries It had in it twelve thousand Bridges great and small those on the chiefest Channels being so high that ships might passe under them On the other side of the City was a great Trench forty miles long large and full of water from the River which served both to receive the overflowings of the River and as a fence to that side of the City the earth that was taken out being laid as a bank or hill on the inside There are ten chief Market-places besides infinite others along the streets all of them square the square being half a mile on each side and from the fore part of them runs a principal street forty paces wide reaching from one end of the City to the other with many Bridges traversing of it and at the end of every four miles is such a Market-place There is also a large channel running over against the street behinde the Market-places on the banks whereof are erected store-houses of stone where Merchants out of all Countries laid up their Commodities being commodious to the Markets In each of the Market-places three dayes in a week was a concourse of forty or fifty thousand persons which brought in whatsoever was requisite for the life of man besides beasts and fowls of game Then followed the Butchers rows of Beef Veal Kid and Lamb Besides there were all sorts of Herbs and fruits and amongst them huge Pears weighing ten pound a peece and very fragrant Peaches yellow and white very delicate Every day from the Ocean which is but five and twenty miles off is brought up abundance of fish besides what the Lake and River yeeld All the Market-places are encompassed with high and fair houses and underneath are shops of Artificers and all sorts of Merchandises Spices Jewels Pearls Rice-wine c. Many streets answer one another in those Market-places wherein are many Bathes both of cold and hot waters and people wash every day before they eat any thing At the end of each Market-place is a Palace where Magistrates determine all controversies which happen amongst Merchants and others There are twelve Principal trades each of which have one thousand shops and yee shall see in every shop ten twenty thirty or forty men at work under one Master The Masters themselves work not but stand richly apparreled and their wives with Jewels inestimable their houses are well ordered and richly adorned with Pictures and other stupendious costs About the Lake are many fair buildings and great Palaces of the Nobles and chief men and Temples of their Idols and Monasteries of many Monks In the middest of the Lake are two Islands upon each of which is a Palace with incredible numbers of rooms whither they resort upon occasions of marriages or other feasts where are provisions of Vessels Nappery and other things kept in common for such purposes In the Lake also are Boats and Barges for pleasure adorned with fair seats and Tables and other provision for banquets covered over head within they are neatly painted and have windows to open and shut at pleasure Nor can any thing in the World seem more pleasant than from the Lake to have such a prospect the City so fully presenting it self to the eye with so many Temples Monasterys Palaces Gardens with high trees Barges People c. For their manner is to work one part of the day and the other part to spend in solace with their friends or with women on the Lake or in riding in Chariots up and down the City All the streets are paved with stone as are all the high wayes in China The principal street of Quinsay is paved ten paces on each side and in the midst it 's well gravelled with passages for the water which keeps it alwayes clean There are also multitudes of Chariots accommodated with cloathes and cushions of Silk for six persons in each of them and in them the inhabitants solace themselves in the streets or go to Gardens provided on purpose for their pleasure This City contains about sixteen hundred thousand housholds and together with the Country adjoyning yeelded to the King sixteen millions and eight hundred thousand Ducats of gold yearly besides six millions and four hundred thousand Ducats for the customes of salt Pur. Pil. v. 3. p. 98. The Great Mogols Empire described The Great Mogols Country is called Indusâ—an which for spaciousness abundance of brave Towns numberlesse inhabitants infinit treasure mines food and all sort of Merchandise exceeds all Kings and Potentates in the Mahomitan World This vast Monarchy extends from East to West two thousand six hundred miles From North to South one thousand four hundred miles It s in circuit five thousand It is bounded with the Bengalan Gulph and Indian Ocean On the South with Decan and Mallaber North and North West with Tartary and Persia It contains thirty seven large Provinces thirty great Cities three thousand walled Towns His revenues are very great He hath in continual pay three hundred thousand Horse and keeps two thousand Elephants at a vast charge his Treasurer yearly issuing out above forty millions of Crowns The names of the Provinces are 1. Candahor The chief City is of the same name It lies Northward and confines upon Persia. 2. Cabul The chief City is of the same name It lyes in the North West part and confines upon Tartary 3. Multan The chief City is of the same name On the West it joyns with Persia. 4. Hajacan It hath no great City It s bounded Eastward with the famous River of Indus and Westward with Persia. 5. Buckor The chief City is Buckor-succor Indus runs through it and much inriches it 6. Tatta The chief City is of the same name The River Indus maketh many fruitful and pleasant Islands in it the chief arm of it falls into the Sea at Synde a place famous for curious handy crafts 7. Sorat The chief City is Janagar It s a little Province but rich bounded with the Ocean on the South 8. Jeselmeere The chief City is of the same name 9. Attack The chief City is of the same name It lyeth on the Eastside of Indus 10. Peniab It 's seated 〈◊〉 five Rivers which all fall into Indus It s a great and very fruitful Province
with pleasant houses At one end is the Mogols house and a Mohol most excellently framed the other side is glorious by a curious Mosque or Church ascended by thirty steps adorned with a brave gate the top is full of Pyramids the Court within is six times bigger than the Royal Exchange in London excellently paved with free stone the Iles are large and well paved the Pillars all of one stone and beautifull and affronting this Gate is a most sumptuous Monument covered with painting and Pearl-shell proud in the many Princes there buried Idem Candahor is seated in a reasonable fruitfull Countrey redundant in all good things yet by reason of so many Caravans passing and repassing from Lahore to Persia all sorts of provision is very dear and the passage much pestered with theeves the City is not very spatious but strong made defensive by many helps of Nature and Art In the South and East it s surrounded with an advantagious wall In the West and North with high and precipitious Mountains the Suburbs are large adding to the City both beauty and Wealth Idem Mandow is a City both antient and famous seated on the side of a lofty and steep hill and beautified with a strong and stately Castle encompassed with a defensive wall of five miles compass the City is very beautiful adorned with Temples in one of which are buried four Kings Palaces Fortresses especially with a Tower ascended by one hundred and seventy steps supported by Massy Pillars and adorned with gates and Windows very observable Idem Surat is at this day a City great famous rich and populous yet neither air nor soil agrees with strangers the one being extream hot the other sandy and sulphurious From June to September the clouds showre down continually unhealthful rains the wind and thunder so commixing that no place in the world seems more unhealthful It s counted the third best Town in the Guiarat Kingdome Amadavar and Cambaya excelling her It s watered with a sweet River called Tappee which arising out of the Decan mountains glides through Brampore and so to Surat It s circled with a mud-wall a strong stone Castle is built at the South-West side the River washing it the VVest opens into the Buzzar through a fair gate of stone The Medan is of no great beauty nor do the shops give any splendor The houses are indifferently beautiful some of carved wood others of Brick the English and Dutch houses at the North end excelling the other for bignesse and furniture adjoyning to one gate is a Tank of water made of good free-stone circling in above one hundred sides or angles in compasse near one thousand paces Agra is the navel of the Mogols territories and Empresse of India It s watered by the River Jeminey which from Delly glides hither and commixing with Ganges flows into the Bengalan Sea It s in shape like an half Moon the streets long and narrow and nasty of seven miles continuance part of it is walled about the rest ditcht Here the Great Mogol hath a Palace wherein are two large towers at least ten foot square which are covered with Plates of the purest gold Asmeer is seated upon an high impregnable mount the greater part of the City being below fairly built walled with good stone and moated about the Country about it is Champaigne and very fruitfull The Kingdome of Bengala Described Bengala is a very large Kingdome lying along the Sea-coast one hundred and twenty leagues and as much into the land It s watered by the River Cabaris called by some Guenga It abounds with Rice VVheat Sugar Ginger long Pepper Cotton and Silk and enjoyeth a very wholesome air Gouro is the Regal City spacious and beautiful and so is Bengala which hath given name to that part of the Sea called the Gulph of Bengala Chatigan is also another of their Cities The inhabitants are a most subtile and wicked people Men and VVomen given much to uncleannesse they never dress or seeth meat twice in one pot but every time have a new one Adultery is punished with the losse of their noses In this Country are many Rhinocroces It is now subject to the Great Mogol Cambaia described Cambaia is called also Gâ—sarat containing in length from the River Bate to Circam which is a Country belonging to Persia five hundred miles upon the Sea-coasts On all other parts it s invironed with the Kingdomes of Dulcinda and Sanga on the North Mandao on the East and with the Gredosians on the VVest the Sea and the confines of Decan being the Southerly bounds It hath in it sixty thousand Cities and villages It s watered with many Rivers whereof Indus is the chief which divides it in the middle arising from Caucasus and after a course of nine hundred miles at two mouths disembogues it self into the Ocean It s a fertile Country not inferiour to any other in India the earth and trees bring forth plenty and variety of fruits It hath store of Elephants precious stones Silk Cotton c. The people are of an Olive colour and go naked except about their privities They eat no flesh but Rice Barley milk and other liveless Creatures their chief Sea-Towns are Daman Bandora Curate Ravellum and Bazuinum and within land Cambaia Madabar Campanel Tanaa c. Cambaia being the chiefest situate three miles from Indus It s called the Indian Cairo having much trafick to it by Indians Portugals Persians Arabians Armenians c. The VVomen dye their teeth black thinking it a great part of their beauty and therefore alwayes go with open lips to shew it VVhen men die they burn their bodies and their wives dressed as for a wedding burn with them Six leagues from Decan is a Hill out of which Diamonds are taken it is walled about and kept with a Garrison Their Religion is partly Moorish partly Heathenish They have Hospitals for sick or lame Birds Beasts c. yea they redeem Beasts and Birds lives and if maimed or hurt carry them to their Hospitals In the high wayes and woods they set pots with water and scatter meat to feed them If they catch a Flea or a Louse they will not kill it but let it go and you can do them no greater injury than to kill either in their presence and if by intreaty they cannot perswade you to forbear they will redeem its life with mony They drink no Wine eat no Vinegar use water only they will eat no Eggs as supposing blood to bee in them they are very careful before they sit down that no living Creature bee under them Pur. Pilgrimage The Philippine Islands described The Philippine Islands were discovered by the Spaniards out of new Spain Anno Christi 1542. who in honour of their King Philip the second gave them that name They are many in number lying far into the Sea before Cauchin-China and Chambaia some of them are great and very rich in Rice Honey Fruits Birds Beasts Fishes Gold c.
revenues whereof amount to two hundred thousand peices of gold called Saraffi The Suburbs are very large wherein also are many stately buildings especially a Colledge being of a wonderful height and great strength Besides many other Palaces Colledges and Temples Here they have great store of poultry For in certain Ovens built upon sundry lofts they put abundance of Eggs which Ovens being kept in a moderate heat will in seven days hatch all those eggs into chickens P. Pil. There are in it eighteen thousand streets It is so populous that its reputed in very good health if there dye but a thousand a day or thirty hundred thousand in a year I mean when the Plague which comes once in seven years is amongst them Heil In one of the streets are about threescore Cooks shops then follow othâ—r shops wherein are to bee sold delicate waters and drinks made of all kinds of fruits which are kept charily in fine vessels next to these are shops where diverse confections of honey and Sugar like to ours in Europe are to bee sold Then follow the Fruiterers shops who have out-Landish fruits out of Syria as Quinces Pomgranats c. Next to them are shops wherein they sell Eggs Cheese and Pancakes fryed with Oyle Next is a street wherein all manner of Artificers dwell Then there are diverse ranks of Drapers shops In the first rank they sell excellent fine linnen fine cloth of Cotton and cloth called Mosal of a marvellous breadth and finenesse whereof the greatest persons make shirts and scarfs to wear upon their Tulipants Then are Mercers shops wherein they sell Silks Damask Cloth of Gold and Velvet brought out of Italy The next are woollen Drapers with all sorts of European cloth next of all are store of Chamblets to bee sold. At the gate of Zuaila dwell great store of Artificers Next to the forenamed Burse is a street of shops where are all kind of Perfumes as Civet Musk Ambergreece c. Next follows the street of Paper Merchants with most excellent smooth Paper There are also to bee sold pretious stones and Jewels of great value which the Brokers carry from shop to shop Then come you to the Gold-Smiths street inhabited mostly by Jews who deal in rich commodities Then are there Upholsters and Brokers who sell apparel and rich furniture at the second hand as Cloaks Coats Nappery c. It hath many large Suburbs as that of Bed Zuaila containing about twelve thousand Families being a mile and an half in length The Suburb called Gemâ—li Tailon adorned with a most admirable Palace and sumptuous Temple where also dwell great store of Merchants and Artificers The Suburb called Bell Elloch containing neer three thousand Families inhabited by Merchants and Artizans of diverse sorts there is also a great Palace and a stately Colledge Here are many stage-players and such as teach Camels Asses and Dogs to dance very delightful to behold The Suburb Bulach upon the Bank of Nilus containes four thousand Families here are many Artificers and Merchants especially such as sell Corn Oyle Sugar c. It s also full of stately Temples Colledges and Hospitalls under this Suburb you may sometimes see above a thousand Barks upon the River The Suburb of Caresa contains about two thousand Families Here are many Sepulchers built with high and stately vaults and Arches adorned within with diverse Emblems and colours the pavement spread with sumptuous and rich Carpets The Inhabitants of Cairo in the Winter time wear garments of cloth lined with Cotton In the summer they wear fine shirts over which some have linnen garments curiously wrought with silk others wear Chamblet and great Turbants on their heads covered with cloth of India The women go in costly attire having on their foreheads frontlets and about their necks chains of Pearl on their heads they wear a sharp and slender Bonnet about a span high very pretious and rich their Gowns are of woollen cloth with strait sleeves curiously imbroidered with needle work over which they cast veils of excellent fine cloth of India their faces are covered with a black scarff on their feet they wear fine shooes or Pantoffles c. The City of Alexandria described The great City of Alexandria was founded by Alexander the great not without the advise of most famous and skilful Architects upon a beautiful point of land stretching into the Mediterranean Sea being distant forty miles Westward from Nilus It was most sumptuously and strongly built four square with four Gates for entrance One on the East-side towards Nilus Another on the South towards the Lake of Buchaira the third Westward towards the Desert of Barca and the fourth towards the Haven Neer unto the City walls are two other gates which are divided asunder by a fair walk and a most impregnable Castle which stands upon the Wharf in which Port the best ships out of these parts of the World ride Here the Christians pay a tenth of all their wares whereas the Mahometans pay but a twentieth part At this time that part of the City that lyes towards Cairo is best inhabited and furnished with Merchandize and so is the other part that lies next to the Haven under each house in the City is a great vaulted Cistern built upon mighty Pillars and Arches whereinto at the overflowing of Nilus the water is conveyed under the City walls by a most artificiall Sluce that stands without them The City stands in a sandy Desert so that its destitute of Gardens Vines and Corn but what is brought from places at forty miles distance The City of Rosetto Described Rosetto was built by a Slave to one of the Mahometan Governours upon the Eastern bank of Nilus three miles from the Mediterranean Sea and not far from the place where Nilus emptieth it self into the sea In it is a stately Bath-stove having fountains both of cold and hot water belonging thereunto The City of Thebe Described Thebe at this present contains but about three hundred Families â— but the buildings are very stately and sumptuous It abounds with Corn Rice and Sugar with a certain fruit of a most excellent tast called Muse It hath in it great store of Merchants and Artificers The Countrey about it abounds with Date-trees which grow so thick that a man cannot see the City till hee comes neer the Walls Here grow also store of Grapes Figs and Peaches Over against the City the River of Nilus makes an Isle which standing high brings forth all sorts of fruits but Olives The City of Chanca described The great City of Chanca is about six miles from Cairo at the very entrance into the Desert through which is the way to Mount Sinai It s replenished with most stately houses Temples and Colledges All the fields between Cairo and it are full of Dates From Chanca to Mount Sinai are one hundred and forty miles in all which way there is no habitation Through this City lye the two main roads one leading to Syria
and the other to Arabia They have no water but what remains in certain channels after the inundation of Nilus In the other Cities there is nothing remarkable The Egyptian Pyramids Described In Egypt are diverse stupendious structures called Pyramids the greatest whereof is situated on the top of a rocky hill which riseth above the plain about an hundred feet with a gentle and easy ascent the height of the situation adding beauty to the work and the solidity of the rock giving the superstructure a permanent and stable support each side of this Pyramid is six hundred ninety three feet according to the English Standard so that the whole Basis contains four hundred eighty thousand two hundred and fourty nine square feet or eleven English acres of ground The height is the same with the breadth viz. six hundred ninety three feet The ascent to the top is contrived in this manner From all the sides without the ascent is by degrees the lowermost step or degree is about four foot in height and three in breadth which running about the Pyramid in a level makes on every side of it a long but narrow walk the second row is like the first retiring inward from the first three feet and so runs about the Pyramid In the same manner is the third row placed above the second and so in order the rest like so many stairs rising one above another to the top which contains about nine foot square The degrees by which men ascend are not all of an equal depth for some are about four foot others scarcely three and the higher they ascend the more they diminish both in breadth and thicknesse so that a right line extended from any part of the Basis to the top will equally touch the outward angle of every degree These are all made of Massie and polished stones hewn out of the Arabian Mountains which bound the upper part of Egypt being so vast that the breadth and depth of every step is one single and intire stone so that in most of them is contained thirty feet of stone The number of these steps is two hundred and seven On the North side ascending thirty eight feet upon an artificial bank of earth there is a square and narrow passage leading into the inside of this Pyramid containing in length ninety two feet and an half The structure of it hath been the labour of an exquisite hand as appears by the smoothnesse and evennesse of the work and by the close knitting of the joynts it is now an habitation for great ugly batts of about a foot long At the end of this entrance you must climb up a massy stone eight or nine foot in height where you enter into a Gallery the pavement consisting of smooth and polished white Marble the breadth is about five foot and the height the like the length of this Gallery is an hundred and ten feet At the end whereof begins a second Gallery a very stately peece of work and not inferiour either in respect of the curiousity of Art or richnesse of materials to the most sumptuous or magnificent buildings It s divided from the former by a wall at the end whereof is a Well about three feet in the diameter the sides whereof are lined with white Marble it s eighty six cubits in depth hewn through the Rock on which the Pyramid stands Beyond the Well about fifteen foot is a square passage the stones whereof are exceeding massie and exquisitely joyned which contains one hundred and ten feet at the end whereof is an arched Vault or little Chamber the length about twenty feet the breadth seventeen the height about fifteen The length of this second Gallery before mentioned is one hundred fifty and four feet of white and polished Marble both roof walls and bottome the joynts are so well knit that they are scarce discernable The height of this Gallery is twenty six feet the breadth six feet bounded on both sides with two banks like benches of polished Marble At the end of this Gallery you enter into a square hole which brings you into a little room lined with rich and speckled Thebaick Marble out of which through another passage being all of Thebaick Marble most exquisitely cut you land at the North end of a very sumptuous and well proportioned room wherein Art seems to contend with Nature the curious work not being inferiour to the rich materials It stands in the heart or center of the Pyramid equidistant from all the sides and in the midst between the Basis and the top The floor sides and roof are all made of vast and exquisite tables of Thebaick Marble from the top to the bottome are but six ranges of stone all of an equal height The stones which cover this room are of a strange and stupendious length like so many huge beams lying flat and traversing the room and bearing up that infinite weight and Masse of the Pyramid above Of these there are nine which cover the roof the length of this room is thirty four English feet the breadth somewhat above seventeen feet the height nineteen feet and a half In the midst of this glorious room stands the Tomb of Cheops of one peece of Marble hollow within and sounding like a bell but empty For saith Diodorus although the Egyptian Kings intended these for their Sepulchres yet it happened that they were not buried therein For the people being exasperated against them by reason of the toilsomenesse of these works and for their cruelty and oppression threatned to tear in peeces their dead bodies and with ignominy to throw them out of their Sepulchres wherefore theâ— commanded their friends when they were dead to bury them in some obscure place The Tomb is cut smooth and plain without any sculpture and ingraving The outsides contain in length seven foot three inches and a half In depth its three foot and almost four inches and the same in breadth The hollow part within is something more than six foot long the depth is somewhat above two feet whereby it appears that mens bodies are now as big as they were three thousand years ago For it is almost so long since this Tomb was made This Pyramid was twenty years in making and yet there were three hundred threescore and six thousand men continually working about it who only in Radishes Garlick and Onions are said to have consumed eighteen hundred Talents Collected out of Mr. Greaves a curious observer of it The Egyptian Mummi's described Not far from this Pyramid in Egypt are the Mummi's which were the graves of the ancient Egyptians into which are discents not unlike to the narrow mouthes of Wells some near ten fathomes deep leading into long vaults hewn out of the Rock with pillars of the same Between every Arch lie the Corpses ranked one by another of all sizes which are innumerable shrowded in a number of folds of Linnen and swathed with bands of the same the breasts of divers being
stained with Hierogliphical Characters The Linnen being pulled off the bodies appear solid uncorrupt and perfect in all their dimensions whereof the musculous parts are of a brown colour hard as stone-pitch and hath in Physick the like operation only more soveraign To keep these from putrefactions they drew the brains out at the nostrils with an Iron instrument replenishing the head with preservative spices then cutting up the belly with an Aethiopian stone they took forth the bowels cleansed the inside with Wine and so stuffing it with a composition of Myrrhe Cassia and other odours they closed it up again The like the poorer sort effected with Bitumen fetched from the Lake of Asphaltites in Jury whereby they have been preserved till this day having lyen there for about three thousand years The Lake of Maeris described Maeris one of the Egyptian Kings undertook and finished that most admirable Lake which for greatnesse and colour is like a Sea It s about six hundred furlongs from the City of Memphis the circumference of it contains M.M.M.DC. furlongs the depth of it is fifty fathom or three hundred feet many myriads of men were imployed for many years about it The benefit of it to the Egyptians and the wisdome of the King cannot bee sufficiently commended For seeing the rising of Nilus is not alwayes alike and the Country is more fruitful by the moderatenesse thereof Hee digged this Lake to receive the superfluity of the water that neither by the greatnesse of the inundation it should cause Marshes or by the scarcity of water the earth should not yeeld her strength hee therefore cut a ditch from the River to this Lake fourscore furlongs long and three hundred feet in breadth by which sometimes receiving in and sometimes diverting the River hee gave at his pleasure a sufficient quantity of water to the husbandmen After the Kings name it s called the Lake of Maeris In the midst of this Lake hee built a Sepulchre and two Pyramids each of them of an hundred fathoms high placing upon them two Marble statues sitting on a Throne one representing himself the other his wife seeking hereby to make his memory immortal The revenews which came by the fish of this Lake hee gave to his wife to buy her unguents and ornaments which was so great that it amounted to a Talent a day For it was mightily replenished with fish of twenty sorts so that very many were continually imployed in catching and salting of them Diod. Sion Herod Barbary described Barbary hath on the East Cyrenaica on the West the Atlantick Ocean On the North the Mediterranean Sea and on the South the Mountain Atlas It s now usually divided into the Kingdomes of Tunnis Algiers Fess and Morocco It produceth Figs Olives Dates Sugar and horses excellent for shape and service The men are comely of feature of a duskish colour stately of gate implacable in hatred laborious and treacherous The women are rich in Jewels beautiful in blacknesse and have delicate soft skins The Kingdome of Tunis described Tunis hath on the East Cyrenaica and on the VVest Algier It containeth all that which the Ancients called Numidia antiqua The soil is fertile especially the Western part The Inhabitants are healthful seldome vexed with any sicknesse it s divided commonly into five parts 1 Ezzab in the East having many Towns and Regions in it 2 Tripolis where the chief City is of the same name and where the Great Turk hath a Bassa or Vice-Roy It s at this day a receptacle of Pyrats that rove and rob in those Seas Anno Christi 1551. It was wonne from the Knights of Malta by Sinan Bassa 3 Tunis where the chief City of the same name standeth near to the ruines of Carthage It hath in it about ten thousand housholds and many Temples and especially one of singular beauty and greatnesse Cairoan also hath been a famous City six and thirty miles from the Sea and one hundred from Tunis where is an admirable Temple built upon Pillars of Marble 4 Constantina having the chief City of the same name wherein aâ— eight thousand families and many sumptuous buildings a great Temple and two Colledges 5 Bugia which for one hundred and fifty miles space extends it self by the Sea side to the River Major the Principal City is called Bugia sometimes adorned with Temples Hospitals Monasteries and Colledges of students in the Mahometan Law There is also in Bugia Necotus a very pleasant City and Chollo very rich In this Country also is seated Bona formerly called Hippo where St. Augustine was Bishop The Kingdome of Algier described Algier formerly called Mauritania Caesariensis is bounded on the East with Tunis on the VVest with Fess and Morocco It hath in it five Principal Cities 1 Hubeda 2 Tegdenit 3 Guagido 4 Telesine which sometimes contained sixteen thousand families and is adorned with many beautiful Temples and hath in it five dainty Colledges curiously wrought with Mosaick work And 5 Algier The City of Algier described Algier is seated on the Mediterranean Sea upon the side of an hill whereby one house hinders not the prospect of another It s in fashion like a Bow the old Town is in compasse three thousand four hundred paces the Island wherein it stands is walled about except that part which is open to the Port and City where lately they have erected a five cornered Tower to secure both It s well strengthened with Turrets Fortresses and Bulworks without the Wall is a ditch of sixteen paces broad without the Town there are three Castles the Streets are generally narrow and in the Winter Dirty The Houses toward the street are dark but being inwardly built with square Cloisters it makes them light the roofs being flat serve them for galleries and Prospect In the middest is a well but the water brackish they use no chimnies but make fires in Panns The Kings Palace and great mens houses have spacious Courts with specious Pillars about and many by-rooms spread with Mats and Carpets their Custome being to put off their shooes when they enter Their houshold furniture is generally mean their common lodging is upon a Mat or Carpet upon the ground Pelts are their Nappery water their drink Rice with pulse their meat c. five Cisterns without the City supply them with water fetched in upon the shoulders of their slaves There are seven fair Mosques five Colledges of Janizaries where six hundred of them live together in one house One Hospital four fair Baths whereof two for washing with hot and cold water paved with Marble Two Royall Porches one of thirty six foot square with columes for the Janizaries and the other is before the Palace within the Walls are neer thirteen thousand houses many of them containing thirty Families and some more There are in all above one hundred Mosques besides the Oratories of Hermites Sixty two Baths fourscore and six Schools wherein children learn to read and write and a few others for
amongst them which they suck out of long Canes called hubble-bubbles They have store of Buffols Goats Turtles Hens huge Bats Camelions Rice Pease Cuscus Honey Oisters Breames and much other fish They have also Toddy Cocos Plantanes Orenges Lemons Lymes Pome-citrons Tamarind Sugar-Canes c. The Isle is alwayes green each day a gentle breeze and shower bedewing the earth and mollifying the scorching Sun so that it is alwayes adorned in Floraes Livery yea roabed with Natures best Arras pleasantly refreshed with silver purling streams and shaded with dainty trees of all sorts Here you may have thirty Orenges or Lemons for a sheet of paper for two sheets ten Coco-Nuts An Oxe for a peece of eight and a Goat for six pence The Isle of St. Hellen described This Island is on this side the Cape of Good Hope and nearer to the African than to the American shore the Seas about it are very deep and the Land so high and precipitious that the Marriners use to say A man may chuse whether hee will break his heart going up or his neck comming down But when up no place yeelds a more delightful object It s even and plain cloathed with sweet grasse long and curious The springs above are sweet there are but two Rivolets in the Island there are abundance of Hogs and Goats there are also Phesants Powts Quails Hens Partridges and diverse sorts of useful herbs as Wood-sorrel Trifolie Basil Parsly Mint Spinage Fennil Annis Radish and Lemons The Island of St. Thomas described The Island of St. Thomas is of a round figure being one hundred and fourscore miles in compasse It lyeth directly under the Aequinoctial line it so aboundeth with Sugar that forty ships are laden from thence yearly The chief City is Pavoasan At the first discovery it was wholly overgrown with woods now it is inhabited by the Portugals and Negroes the latter often living till they bee an hundred years old the Portugals not exceeding fifty It will bear no fruit that hath a stone in it In the midst is a woody Mountain continually over-shadowed with a thick cloud which so moistens the Trees which are many that from thence droppeth water sufficient to water all their Sugar grounds Princes Island described Princes Island lyes between the Aequator and the Tropick of Capricorn near unto the Isle of St. Hellen It s called Princes Island because when it was first discovered the revenues of it were allowed to the Prince of Portugal The Isle of Cape Verde described Next to Cape Verde are seven Islands full of birds but empty of Inhabitants But the Isles of Cape Verde are nine they were first discovered Anno Christi 1440. None of them are inhabited but St. Jago and Del Fogo so called because it burns perpetually They were taken by Sir Anthony Sherly Anno Christi 1596. who had in one night such a showre of ashes as hee did lie by Del Fogo that in the morning you might have written with your finger upon the Deck of his ship St. Jago was taken by Sir Francis Drake Anno Christi 1585. Brava and Bona Vista have better names than natures they yeeld no matter for History As neither do the Isles of St. Matthew Sancta Cruz St. Paul and Conception The former of these are called the Gorgades and abound with Goats The latter the Hesperides distant from Africk ten thousand furlongs The Island of Maio described Maio hath in it a Lake two leagues long where the Sun congeals and turns the water into salt Here the Sea looketh like a green field being covered over with an herb called Sergasso like to our Sampher which lies so thick that a man cannot see the water hindring the ships passage except it hath a strong wind It is yellowish of colour and beareth an empty berry like Goosberries It s four hundred miles distant from the coast of Africk and the Sea is so deep that no ground can bee found and yet this herb is thought to come from the bottome These coasts are troubled with continual thunders and lightenings and unwholesome raines and if this rain-water stand but a little it turns into Worms and it fills the meat that is hung up in it with Worms Here swims also upon the face of the waters another herb like a Cocks-comb which is so venemous that it can hardly bee touched without peril In these Seas also they meet with great and tedious calmes The Canary Islands described The Canary Islands are twenty leagues from the continent of Lybia being six in number Canaria La-Palma Teneriffa Lancerota Hierro La-Gomara and Forteventura The ancient Inhabitants knew no God but Nature were ignorant of the use of fire shaved with flint-stones Nursed their Children by Goats tilled the Earth with Horns of Oxen abominated the slaughter of Beasts like beasts used women in common had no meum and tuum The Woods their dwelling was the Herbs their diet And on the leaves and boughs they slept in quiet They are now inhabited by the Spaniards who have the Inquisition amongst them The Grand Canary is the residence of the Inquisitor whither all the other Isles repair for Justice It s one hundred and twenty miles in compasse Hath store of Goats Bees Asses Hogs Barley Rye Rice variety of flowers Grapes and other excellent fruits Teneriff may compare with the Grand Canary in multitude of Inhabitants and exceeds it in Grapes yeelding yearly eight and twenty thousand Buts of Sack of the high Pike in this Island see afterwards Hyerro is famous for that Tree which like the Rock in the Desart affords sweet water to all the Inhabitants The description whereof see afterwards Madara stands in two and thirty degrees and is the greatest of all the Atlantick Isles It was so called of the wildernesses of trees there growing which when they were first fired they burned so furiously that the people for a time were forced to go some space into the Sea from the violent heat and the wood-ashes made the soil so fat that at first it yeelded threescore fold since but thirty The excellent Wines that wee have from thence are made of Vines that were brought from Candy and they bring forth more Grapes than leaves the clusters being two three and four spans long At first here were many Pigeons that would suffer themselves to bee taken not knowing and therefore not fearing a man Forty miles from Madara is the Isle of Porto Santo or All-Saints because discovered upon that day Anno Christi 1428. Here were such store of Conies bred of one shee Cony brought hither great with young that the Island was almost destroyed and made unhabitable by them The Isle of Malta described Within the Streights there are only some few Islands belonging to Affrica whereof the Isle of Melita or Malta is the chiefest In old time famous for the Temple of Juno spoiled by the Roman Verres It s distant from Sicilie threescore miles from Africa one hundred and ninety It was sometimes subject to
the wars or by other casualties were undone where their provision is so bountious that it can hardly bee matched in Europe the very house and appurtenances cost him thirteen thousand pound besides which hee endowed it with five manners in Essex two in Lincolnshire eight in VVilt-shire together with near four thousand acres of rich pasture ground in that County Two in Cambridge-shire beside his lands in Hackney-Marsh and Tottenham in the County of Middlesex and with all and singular the VVoods Reversions Presentations and Rights of him the said Thomas Sutton in any of the aforesaid Mannors over and above hee gave five thousand pound to make additions to his Hospital and for some other charitable uses And to the Treasury of the house to defend their right if need were one thousand pound besides some other gifts Wee may in the next place take notice how commodiously London is supplied with water conveyed by pipes under ground from excellent springs some of them at a remote distance besides the New-River water brought twenty miles from Chadwel and Amwel in Hartford-shire to the North side of the City near Islington where a large Cistern is made to receive it This work was undertaken by Mr. Hugh Middleton and begun February twenty Anno Christi 1608. and in five years space was fully accomplished by reason of the inequality of the ground the Trench in some places descended full thirty foot In others it was mounted over Vallies in a Trough born up with wooden Arches some fixed deep in the ground others rising in height above three and twenty foot Another convenience of water was devised by Peter Maurice a Dutchman who by means of a wheel brings water out of the Thames into a great part of the City Of the beauty and excelleny of this City one made these verses Along Thames banks outstretched far the City London lies Resembling much her Mother Troy aloft shee lifts her eyes VVhile on a gentle rising hill shee beareth towards East A City pleasant for her site in aire and soil much blest Religious and populous and hence shee looks on high And well deserves for to bee called the Britans Britany For learning new Lutetia Ormus for trade and wealth A second Rome for valiant men Chrysae for plate and health Salisbury described In VViltshire the City of Salisbury was built about the year 1218. at which time Richard Poor the Bishop purposing first to begin with the house of God in a most delectable place began to found a most stately and beautiful Minster which with an exceeding high spired steeple and double crosse Isles on both sides hee with great cost finished forty years after viz. one thousand two hundred fifty and eight concerning which Church Daniel Rogers made verses thus in English VVonders to tell how many dayes in one whole year there been So many windows in that Church ' men say are to bee seen So many Pillars made by Art of Marble there appear As houres do flit and flie away throughout the running year So many Gates do entrance give as months one year do make A thing well known for truth though most it for a wonder take A Cloister it hath besides on the South side for largenesse and fine workmanship inferiour to none whereunto adjoyned the Bishops Palace and on the other side an high bell-Tower passing strong standing by it self apart from the Minster Through the City there are Rills and sewers of water in every street It is passing well inhabited and frequented plentiful of all things especially of fish adorned with a very stately Market-place wherein standeth their common Hall of Timber-work a very beautiful building Camb. Brit. Bristow described The City of Bristow hath the River Avon passing through the midst of it It stands partly in Sommerset and partly in Gloucester-shire But is of it self a County incorporate It is situate somewhat high between Avon and the little River Frome sometimes it was invironed with a double wall it is so beautified with buildings publick and private that it fully answers the name of Bright-stow It hath common sewers or sinks so made to run under the ground for the conveyance and washing away of all filth that it is very cleanly and wholsome whereupon there is no use here of Carts it is excellently furnished with all things necessary for mans life so populous and well inhabited that next after London and York it may justly challenge the chiefest place of all the Cities in England It hath a very commodious Haven which admitteth Ships under sail into the very bosome of the City on the Southside Radcliffe by a stone Bridge with houses on each hand built upon it which makes it more like a street than a Bridge is joyned to the City It hath Hospitals in every quarter thereof for the benefit of the poor and fair Churches The most beautiful of all which is St. Maries of Radcliff without the walls into which there is a most stately ascent up many stairs large withal and finely and curiously wrought with an arched roof of stone over the head artificially embowed a steeple also of an exceeding height which was founded by one VVilliam Cannings an Alderman of the City Hard by there is another Church called the Temple the Tower whereof when the Bell rings shaketh to and fro whereby it hath cloven it self from the rest of the building There is also St. Stephens Church The Tower steeple whereof being of a mighty height was most sumptuously and artificially built by one Shipward alias Barstable a Citizen and Merchant On the East and North side it s fenced with the River Frome which gently falling into the Avon maketh a dainty harbour for ships with a convenient wharf called the Kay under which between Avon and Frome there is a plain set round about with trees yeelding a most pleasant walk On the South East there is a large and strong Castle for the defence of the City Beyond the River Frome which hath a Bridge over it there ariseth an high hill from which is a fair and goodly prospect of the City and haven upon the top of this Hill where it spreads into a plain shadowed with a double row of trees is an handsome School This City is further beautified with many stately buildings amongst the rest is the Cathedral Church c. Neer unto this City is an high Cliffe by the Avons side called St. Vincents Rock very full of Diamonds which are not much set by because of the plenty of them They are of a bright and transparent colour matching if not passing the Indian Diamonds in hardnesse only they are inferior to them Nature hath framed them four or six pointed with smooth sides as if cut by a Lapidary There is another Rock also on the West side full of Diamonds which by a wonderful work of nature are enclosed as young ones within the bowels of hollow and reddish flints There are within this City and suburbs
twenty fair Churches whereof eighteen are parish Churches there is no dunghill in all the City nor a sink that comes from any house into the street but all is conveyed under ground they carry all upon sleads and bring no Carts into the City The water at the Kay sometimes ebbs and flows forty foot in height Four miles below it the Avon falls into the Severn the Bridge is half as long as London bridge and yet hath but four Arches in it The City of Wells Described Neer unto Mendip hills which are rich in Lead-Mines stands the City of Wells so named from the springs or wells that boil up there which for the multitude of Inhabitants for fair and stately buildings is worthy to bee regarded A goodly Church it hath and a Colledge founded by King Ina. Neer unto the Church there is a spring called St. Andrews well from whence comes such a confluence of water as by and by makes a swift brook The Church is throughout very beautifull but the frontispice thereof in the West end is most excellent for it riseth up from the foot to the top all of Imagery in curious and antike wise wrought of stone carved and embowed very artificially The City of Bath Described This City is seated low in a plain environed round about with hills almost of one height out of which certain rills of fresh water flow continually to the great commodity of the Citizens within the City there bubble and boil up in three several places hot springs of water of a Sea colour sending up from them thin vapours and a kind of a strong sent withall by reason that the water is drilled and strained through veines of Brimstone and a clammy kind of earth called Bitumen These springs are very medicinal and of great vertue to cure bodies overcharged and benummed with corrupt humors by their heat causing much sweat Of all these the Cross-Bath is of the most mild and temperate nature having twelve seats of stone in the sides of it and is inclosed within a wall A second distant from this not fully two hundred foot is much hotter thence called the Hot-Bath adjoyning to which is a Spittle or Lazar-house built by Reginald Bishop of Bath for the relief of poor diseased persons The third and greatest is called the Kings-Bath walled also round about and fitted with thirty two seates of Arched work The City is fortified with walls wherein are set certain Antique Images and Roman inscriptions and hath in it a fair and large Cathedral Church The City of Excester in Devonshire Described The City of Excester stands upon the River Ex whence it receives its name It is pleasantly seated upon the gentle ascent of an hill The Walls of it which were first built by King Athelstone are in a manner round only towards the Ex it rangeth almost in a strait line having six gates for entrance and many watch-Towers interposed betwixt whose compass containeth above one thousand and five hundred paces or a mile and an half having Suburbs running out a great way on each side In it there are fifteen Parish Churches and in the highest part thereof neer the East Gate standeth a Castle called Rugemont commanding the whole City and territory about it and hath a very pleasant prospect into the Sea In the East quarter of the City stands the Cathedral Church having many fair houses round about it By reason of some Wears the River is so stopped up that no vessels can come neerer the City than Topsham which is three miles off The soil about it is but barren yet by reason of the statlinesse of the place the riches of the Inhabitants and the frequent concourse of strangers all kinds of commodities are there so plentiful that a man can ask for no necessary but he may have it The City of Winchester Described In the County of Hamtshire is the City of Winchester situated in a fruitful and pleasant place being a valley under hills having a River on the East and a Castle on the VVest the circuit of her Walls are well neer two English miles containing one thousand eight hundred and eighty paces through which open six gates for entrance In this City are seven Churches besides the Minster which is seated about the middest of it and built very sumptuously The City of Chichester in the County of Sussex Described The City of Chichester is walled about in a circular round form The Lavant a pretty riveret running hard by it on the VVest and South sides Four gates it hath opening to the four quarters of the world from whence the streets lead directly and crosse themselves in the middest where the market is kept and where Bishop Robert Read erected a fair market house of stone supported with pillars round about it Between the West and South Gates stands the Cathedral Church not very great but handsome and neat having a spire steeple of stone rising a very great height The City of Canterbury in Kent Described Canterbury is a very Ancient and famous City in Kent much renowned both for the situation and great fertility of the soil adjoyning as also for the walls enclosing it round about By reason likewise of the Rivers watering it and commodiousnesse of the woods there about besides the vicinity of the Sea yeilding store of Fish to serve it And though it was sore shaken in the Danish warres and consumed in a great part sundry times by fire yet rose it up always again more beautifull than it was before The Cathedral is raised aloft neer the heart of the City with great Majesty and stateliness The City of Rochester Described In the same County is the City of Rochester seated in a bottome fortified on the one side with a Marsh the river Medway and weak walls It is now stretched out with large Suburbs on the East West and South sides The Cathedral Church was built by Bishop Gundulph a Norman Anno Christi 1080. neer unto it stands an old ruinous Castle fortified formerly both by art and situation At the end of the City there is a very goodly Bridge of stone excellently Arched built by Sir Robert Knowls at the end whereof Sir John Cobham erected a Chappel and the bridge is daintily coped with Iron bars under which the River Medway swelling with a violent and swift stream makes a loud roaring noise The City of Glocester Described The City of Glocester is a very fine and beautiful City both for the number of Churches and buildings therein It lyeth stretched out in length over the Severn and on that side where it is not guarded by the River it hath in some places a strong wall for defence The Cathedral Church is a stately building with an exceeding high and fair steeple In an Arch of this Church there is a wall built in the form of a semicircle full of corners with such an Artificial devise that if a man speak with never so low a voice at the one
parts are yet joyned into one by two Bridges or causway's made over it having sluces to let out the water the South part is the greater consisting of divers streets having in it a School and an Hospital of St. John founded for the relief of the poor The farther part is the lesse but beautified with a very goodly Cathedral Church which is round about compassed with a very fair wall Castle-like This Church mounteth up on high with three Pyramids or spires of stone making an excellent shew and for elegant and proportionable building yeeldeth to few Cathedrals in England But by our late civil wars it is much defaced The City of Westchester described The City of Chester is built foursquare and is inclosed with a strong wall that is above two miles in compasse and hath in it eleven Parish Churches the fairest of which is that of St. Johns without Eastgate being a very stately building near unto the River Dee standeth the Castle upon a rockie-hill where the Courts Palatine and the Assises are kept twice a year The houses are built very fair and along the chief streets are galleries or walking-places they call them Rowes having shops on both sides in which a man may walk dry from one end to the other Here King Edgar in a magnificent manner triumphed over the Brittish Princes for himself sitting at the foredeck of his Barge Kennadie King of the Scots Malcolin King of Cumberland Mucon King of Man and of the Isles with all the Princes of VVales comming to do homage like watermen working at the Oare rowed him along the River Dee in a triumphant manner There is in it a very large and fair Cathedral Church wherein is the Tomb of Henry the fourth Emperor of Germany who as they say gave over his Empire and lived here an Eremites life This City wants not any thing required in a flourishing City but that the Sea being offended and angry as it were at certain Mills and a causway made crosse the channel of the River Dee hath by degrees drawn himself back and affordeth not unto the City the commodity of an haven which formerly it did injoy The wall hath in it four fair gates opening towards the four quarters of heaven besides three Posterns and seven watch-Towers Before the desolations made by our late civil wars without the East and North gate the City extended herself in her suburbs with very fair streets adorned with goodly buildings both of Gentlemens houses and fair Innes for the entertainment of strangers The Water-Gate leadeth to the River of Dee where it enters into the mouth of the Sea and by which is a fine spacious peece of ground called the Rood-eye yeelding pleasure and profit and upon which the Citizens walk for the air and use sundry recreations The Bridge-Gate hath lately been beautified by a seemly water-work of stone built steeple-wise by the invention and charge of Mr. John Tyrer and is of excellent use for conveying the River-water into the Citizens houses throâ—gh pipes of Lead and wood into almost all parts of the City The City of Hereford described The City of Hereford is seated amongst pleasant medows and plentiful Corn-fields compassed almost round about with Rivers on the North and West sides with one that hath no name on the South side with the River Wy that commeth out of Wales It is walled about having six Gates â—or entrance and fifteen Watch-Towers for defence extending in compasse to one thousand five hundred paces The Normans upon the side of Wy built in it a mighty great and strong Castle which time hath so defaced that now there remains nothing but the ruines of it The greatest glory that this City had was when King Athelstan brought the Lords of VVales into it and forced them yearly by way of tribute to pay him besides Hounds and Hawks twenty pounds of gold and there hundred pounds of silver by weight The City of York described The City of York is very ancient and of so great estimation formerly that the Roman Emperors kept their Courts there It is at this day the second City of England the fairest in all the Country and a singular both safeguard and ornament to all the Northern parts A pleasant place large and stately well fortified beautifully adorned as well with private as publick buildings rich populous and was lately an Archiepiscopal See The River Ouse flowing with a gentle stream from the North part Southward cutteth it in twain and divides it as it were into two Cities which are conjoyned with a stone Bridge having in it a mighty Arch of extraordinary bignesse The VVest part is compassed in with a very fair wall and the River together four-square wise and gives entrance only at one gate from which a long and broad Street reacheth unto the very bridge which is beautified with handsome houses having Gardens and Orchards planted on the backside on either hand and behind them fields even to the walls for exercise and disport On the East side the houses stand very thick and the Streets are narrower and it is fortified also with a strong wall and on the South-East it is defended with the deep channel of the muddy River Fosse which entring into the heart of the City by a blind way hath a Bridge over it with houses built upon it and so close ranged one by another that a man would judge it a Street rather than a Bridge and so a little lower it runneth into the Ouse where at there confluence a strong and stately Castle was built that commanded the City but is now gone to decay Towards the North stands the Cathedral Church an excellent fair and stately Fabrick King Henry the Eight appointed here a Council not unlike to the Parliaments in France to decide and determine the causes and controversies of these Northern parts according to equity and coâ—science consisting of a Lord President certain Counsellors a Secretary and under officers This City is governed by a Lord Maior twelve Aldermen many Chamberlains a Recorder a Town Clerk six Sergeants at Mace and two Squires which are the Sword-Bearer and common Sergeant who with a great Mace goeth on the left hand of the Sword The City of Durham Described The City of Durham is seated high and is passing strong withall yet taketh it up no great circuit of ground It is of an Oval form and environed on every side save on the North with the River Weer and fortified with a wall Towards the Southside stands the Cathedrall Church built high and stately with an high Tower in the middest and two Spires at the West end In the middest is a Castle placed as it were between two stone bridges over the River Northward from the Castle is a spacious Market place and St. Nicholas Church from whence there runneth out for a great length North-East a Suburb compassed on two sides with the River like as other on both sides beyond the River which lead unto the
hath very spatious Piazza's Shee hath six Hospitalls three for the poor and three for Pilgrims Shee hath a place called Monte de Pieta set up on purpose to root out the Jews usury who used to demand twenty per cent for Brocage Shee hath other two Hospitals for Orphans and poor children There are thirty eight thousand Crowns deposited in the hands of several persons of quality to whom the poorer sort may repair with their pawns and if it bee under thirty shillings they pay no use for their mony if it bee above they pay five per centum for relieving the poor The City of Millan described The City of Millan in Italy lies within a stately wall of ten miles compasse It s situated in a great Plain and hath about it green Hills delightful Meadows navigable Rivers enjoyes an wholesome air and the fertile Country about it furnisheth it with all store of necessary provision The City it self is thronged with Artisans of all sorts There bee many stately Churches in it and before that of St. Lorenzo there stand sixteen Marble Pillars being a remnant of the Temple of Hercules But of all the Churches the Cathedral is most costly 'T is all of white Marble and about it are five hundred Statues of the same There is a late building added to it which is very glorious especially for the huge Pillars of Granito an excellent sort of Marble Private mens houses also in Millan are not inferiour to those of other Cities in Italy The streets are of a more that common breadth and there are very many Gardens within the Walls The greatest Hospital in Italy is that in Millan which is a square of Columnes and Porches six hundred Roods about seeming fitter to bee a Court for some King than an Hospital for the poor The Castle in Millan is accounted by all Engineers the fairest and strongest Citadel in Europe Riamund's Mer. Ital. The City of Naples described Naples the Metropolis of that Kingdome stands upon the shore of the Mediterranean Sea It s reckoned the third City in Italy and so great are the delights that nature hath allotted to this place that it is still frequented by persons of great quality The streets of it are generally well paved of free stone large and even The houses are very uniform built flat on the top to walk on a notable convenience in those hot Countries Another like accommodation which this City hath against the heat is the Mole which is an Artificial street casting it self into the Sea whither all the Gentry at the evenings resort to take the Fresco. Amongst the Palaces that of the Vice-Kings is the fairest It hath three Castles and the Churches generally are very curious and costly filled with Marble Statues This City is exceeding populous and consequently vicious Hee that desires to live a chaste life must not set up there For as their Gardens are well filled with Oranges so their houses want not Lemmons there are usually thirty thousand Courtesans registred that pay taxes for their pleasure Near unto Naples is Virgil's Tomb upon an high Rock And the Crypta Neapolitana in the rocky Mountain Pausylippus cut thorow very high spacious and well paved so that for the space of a mile two Coaches may go on front under the earth In the midst is a Madonna with a Lamp perpetually burning Not far off is the Hill of Brimstone on which neither grass nor any herb grows but 't is all white with ashes and ever casts out of several holes a continual smoak with flames making the very earth to boil The ground is hollow underneath and makes an hideous noise if struck upon with an hammer On the other side Naples is the Mountain of Vesuvius brother to Aetna upon the top whereof is a terrifying spectacle viz. a Vorago or hole about three miles in compass and half as much in depth and in the midst is a new hill that still vomits thick smoak which the fire within hath raised within these few years and it still daily increaseth Pliny the Naturalist being too inquisitive after the cause of this fire changed life for death upon this Mountain Idem Virgil made a Talisman or Brazen Fly which hee set upon one of the Gates of the City of Naples which for the space of eight years kept all manner of Flies from comming into the City Gaffarels Unheard of Curiosities part 2. chap. 7. See more there The City of Florence described Florence is the Capitol City of Tuscany situated at the bottom of very high hills and environed on all sides with the same except on the West side before which lies a plain Country This City is divided into two by the River Arno over which are built four Bridges of stone upon one of the two chief is the Goldsmiths street upon the other which is a very stately structure stand the four quarters of the year in Marble Opposite unto which stands a vast Columne with a Statue of Justice in Porphyrie at the top Hard by is the Palace of Strossie admirable for the immensity of its Fabrick on the left hand whereof is the Merchants Vault supported with many fair Pillars and before it a brazen Boar jetting forth water Before that is the great place in the middest whereof is the great Duke Cosmus on horseback in brass near unto which is a Fountain the like to which Italy affords not Round about the Laver is the Family of Neptune in brasse with his Colosse of Marble in the middest born up by four horses In this same Piazza is a Porch arched and adorned with some Statues amongst which that of Judith in brass with the rape of the Sabines three persons in several postures cut all out of one stone Just against it is the Palazzo Vechio at the entrance whereof stand two Colossi the one of David the other of Hercules trampling on Caous excellent pieces Within is a Court set about with pillars of Corinthian work Above is a very spacious Hall with divers Statues Near to it is the richest of Treasures the great Dukes Gallery in the uppermost part whereof are contained as many wonders as things some to bee admired for the preciousness and Art others for their rarity and antiquity On each side of the Gallery stand above fourescore Statues One an Idoll brought from the Temple of Apollo in Delphos Another of Scipio Africanus holding up his gown under his Arm Then two curious triumphant Pillars Over the Statues hang rare pictures the most famous Scholars on the one side and Souldiers on the other At the right hand of this Gallery are several Stanza's full of curiosities wherewith the spectators are astonished both in regard of the richnesse and rarity thereof In the first Room is an Altar totally compacted of Jewels and precious stones The value inestimable In the next is a Table with Flowers and Birds in their natural colours of precious stones with a Cabinet worth two hundred thousand Crowns covered with
The Kingdome of Casan and Citraham 14. Muscovia whose chief City is Mosco The City of Mosco Described Mosco the Regal City in Russia is almost round and bigger it is than London environed with three strong walls circling the one within the other and having many streets lying betwixt them The inmost wall and the buildings within it being fenced and watered with the River Moschua that runneth close by it is all accounted the Emperors Castle The number of houses as they were formerly reckoned amounted to forty one thousand and five hundred The streets of this City instead of paving are planked with great Firr trees planed and laid even together and very close the one to the other The houses are of Timber without Lime and stone built very close and warm of Fir trees which are fastened together with notches at each corner and betwixt the Timber they thrust in Moss to keep out the air which makes them very warm The greatest danger is their aptnesse to take fire which being once kindled is hardly quenched and hereby much hurt hath been done and the City miserably defaced sundry times The whole Countrey of Russia in the Winter lyeth under snow a yard or two thick but greater in the Northern parts from the beginning of November to the end of March in which time the Air is oft so sharp that water thrown upward congeales into Ice before it comes to the ground If you hold a pewter dish in your hand it will freeze so fast to it as that it will pull off the skin at parting divers in the Markets are killed with the extremity of cold Travellers are brought into towns sitting dead and stiff in their sleds some loose their Noses some their Ears Fingers Toes c. which are frozen off and yet in the Summer you shall see a new face on the Countrey the woods which mostly are Firr and Birch so fresh and sweet the Pastures and Medows so green and well grown such variety of Flowers such melody of the Birds especially of Nightingales that you cannot travel in a more pleasant Country The Summer is hotter than with us in England For Fruits they have Apples Pears Plums Cherries red and black Deens like Muskmelons but more sweet and pleasant Cucumbers Gourds Straberries Hurtleberries c. Wheat Rie Barley Oats Pease c. Their cheif Commodities are Furrs of all sorts as black Foxes Sables Lufernes dun Foxes Martrons Gurnstales or Armines Minever Beaver Walverines a great water Rat whose skin smels like Musk Squirrels grey and red foxes white and red as also Wax Honey Tallow Hides of Beeves and Buffs Train Oile Caviare Hemp Flax Salt Tar Salt-Peter Brimstone Iron Muscovy slate Fallow Deer Roe-bucks and Goats great store For Fowl they have Eagles Hawks of all kinds swans tame and wild Storks Cranes Fesants white Partridges c. For fresh water fish they have Carp Pike Pearch Tench Roach as also Bellouga of four or five ells long Sturgion Severiga Sterledy which four sorts breed in Volga and of all their Roes they make Caviare c. The streets in their Cities and Towns instead of paving are planked with Firr trees planed and laid even together Their chief Cities are Mosco Novograd Rostove Volodomire Plesco Smolensco Jaruslave Perislave Nisnovograd Vologda Ustiuck Colmigroe Casan Astracan Cargapolia and Columna It s governed by an Emperour or great Duke with most absolute authority after the manner of the Eastern Countries though it lye very near the North. The Muscovites follow the Greek Religion under a Patriarch though yet it bee mingled with very many superstitions which are not like to bee amended because the Great Duke suffers none of his subjects to travel and see other Countries They are much tormented by the Turks and Tartars They have waged great wars with the Poles and Swedes but with many losses A Description of the state and magnificence of the Emperour of Russia Sir Thomas Smith being sent Ambassador from King James to Boris Emperour of Russia Anno Christi 1604. one of his company thus relates their entertainment When saith hee wee entrâ—d the presence wee beheld the excellent Majesty of a mighty Emperour seated in a chair of gold richly embroidered with Persian stuffe In his right hand hee held a golden Scepter had a Crown of pure gold upon his head a coller of rich stones and Pearles about his neck his outward garments of Crimson Velvet embroidered very fair with Pearles precious Stones and Gold On his rightâ—hand stood a very fair Globe of beaten Gold or a Pyramis with a Cross on it Nigh that stood a fair Bason and Ewre which the Emperour used daily Close by him on another Throne sate the Prince in an outward Garment like his Fathers but not so rich with an high black Fox cap on his head worth there five hundred pound having a golden staffe in his hand On the Emperours right hand stood two gallant Noble men in cloath of silver high black Fox Caps with great long gold chains hanging to their feet with Poleaxes of gold on their shoulders and on the left hand of the Prince stood two other such but their Poleaxes were of silver round about on benches sate the Council and Nobility in golden and Persian Coats and high black Fox Caps to the number of two hundred the ground being covered with cloath of Arras After dinner saith hee again wee were led to have audience through many Chambers to a very fair and rich room where was infinite store of massie plate of all sorts where wee again viewed the Emperour and Prince seated under two Chairs of state each having a scul of Pearl upon their heads In the midst of the room stood a great Pillar round about which for a great height stood wonderful great peeces of Plate very curiously wrought with Beasts Fishes and Fowles besides other ordinary peeces of serviceable Plate The Emperour at dinner was served in rare dishes of silver but most of Massie gold c. Sic transit gloria mundi Pur. Pil. v. 3. p. 748. The Permians and Samoeds described The Permians lie North from Russia and are now subject to the Emperor thereof they have broad and flat faces like the Tartars from whom probably they had their original they live by hunting and trading with their Furrs The Samoeds live more towards the North Sea they are very brutish eating all manner of raw flesh even to the very carrion that lyeth in the ditch they are also subject to the Russees they acknowledge one God but represent him by such creatures as they have most good by and therefore they worship the Sun the Ollen the Losh c. They are clad in Seals-skins with the hairy side outward that reaches as low as the knees with their breeches and stockings of the same both men and women they are all black-haired and beardlesse the women are known from the men by a lock of hair hanging down by their ears they are ever
which the tide entereth with a violent stream the other between the said Cuba and the farthest part of Florida at which the tide with the like violence goeth forth the Sea is very tempestuous and hath only two safe Havens viz. Havana on the North side and St. John de Luna on the South which are strongly fortified by the Spaniards The Country of Mexico is inferior to Peru in the plenty and purity of gold and silver but far exceeding it both in the Mechanical and ingenious arts here professed and in the abundance of fruits and cattel of which last there is such store that many a private man hath forty thousand Kine and Oxen to himself Fish also are very plentiful that only which is caught in the Lake whereon Mexico stands being reputed worth twenty thousand Crowns per annum Mexico was conquered by Ferdinando Cortez Anno Christi 1521. His Army consisting of one hundred thousand Americans nine hundred Spaniards eighty horsemen seventeen small peeces of Ordnance thirteen Brigandines and six thousand Wherrie-boats which from the Lake assaulted Mexico In Quivira another Province the riches of the people consists in cattel whose hides yeeld them coverings for their houses their bones bodkins their hair thred their sinewes ropes their horns mawes and bladders vessels their dung fire their Calf-skins budgets to draw and keep water in their blood drink and their flesh meat Nova Albion lyeth on the West towards Tartary It was discovered by Sir Francis Drake Anno Christi 1585. The King whereof did willingly resign himself and land to our Queen In it is a Hare resembling a Mole in his feet a Cat in his tail under whose chin nature hath fastened a little bag as a store-house for in it when hee hath filled his belly hee reserveth the rest of his provision It abounds in good fruits Jucutan is a Peninsula in circuit nine hundred miles a fruitful Country situated over against Cuba Florida hath on the East the Northern Sea on the West Mexico on the North New-France and on the South Virginia It abounds with goodly fruits and hath some quantity of gold and silver Emeralds are also found there and Turquesses and Pearls Women when their Husbands dye cut off their hair close to their heads strewing it upon their husbands graves and may not marry again till their hair bee grown to cover their shoulders Virginia described Virginia is seated between four and thirty and four and forty degrees of Northerly latitude It s bounded on the East with the great Ocean with Florida on the South New-France on the North and the Western limits are unknown The Summer is as hot as in Spain the VVinter is as cold as in France and England It was discovered by the English by the direction and at the charge of Sir VValter Rawleigh Anno Christi 1584. and in honour of our Virgin Queen called Virginia It yeelds store of Tobacco and now they get Silk-worms and plant store of Mulberry trees which is like to bee a good commodity There is but one entrance by Sea into this Country at the mouth of a goodly Bay The Capes on both sides are named Henry and Charles The water floweth in this Bay near two hundred miles and hath a Channel for one hundred and forty miles between seven and fifteen fathom deep and ten or fourteen miles broad At the head of the Bay the land is mountainous from which proceed great brooks which make five navigable rivers the mountains have in them Milstones Marble and some peices of Christal The earth is generally black and sandy The river neer to the mouth of the bay is called Powhatan the mouth whereof is neer three miles broad and it is Navigable one hundred miles Hence their Emperor is called Powhatan In a Peninsula on the North side thereof is placed James Town No place in Summer affords more Sturgeons whereof threescore and eight have been caught at one draught In Winter they have abundance of Fowl Fourteen miles from Powhatan is the River Pamaunk seventy miles navigable with big vessels Then Toppahanock which is Navigable one hundred and thirty miles Then Patawomeck one hundred and twenty miles navigable At the mouth of Powhatan are the Forts Henerico and Charles forty two miles upward is James Town seventy miles beyond that the Town of Henerico ten miles higher are the falls where the River falls down between Mineral rocks twelve miles beyond that there is the Crystall Rock wherewith the Indians head their Arrows The Commodities are silk-grass Hemp and Flax surpassing ours A certain Sedg which by boiling yeilds skeines of good strength and length some like silk some like flax and some like hemp There is also Allom Terra Sigillata Pitch Tar Rozen Turpentine Sassafras Cedar Grapes Oil Iron Copper c. Sweet Gums Dies Timber Trees of sweet wood of fourteen kinds Besides plenty of Fowl Fishes Beasts Fruits Plants Hearbs Berries Grains especâ—ally Maiz whereof one acre of ground will yeild two hundred Bushels of Corn Roots c. Their chief Beasts are Bears Deer a beast like a Badger but living in trees like a Squirrel Flying Squirrels another beast headed like a Swine tailed like a Rat as big as a Cat and hath under her belly a Bag wherein shee carrieth her young Their Dogs bark not their Wolves are little bigger than our Foxes their Foxes like our silver haired Conies and smell not as ours They have Eagles Hawks wild Turkies c. The People are cloathed in Deer skines about their middles else all naked Their houses are round of small poles fastened at the tops and covered with bark or mats they are good Archers so that they will kill birds flying fish swiming and beasts running Their chief God is the Devil which they call Oke whose Image is made ill-favouredly On the North of it lyes New-England planted with many English Towns especially New-Boston an haven Town and a place of good trading The other Countryes in this tract of ground have little that is remarkable in them Florida Described The length of Florida extends to twenty and five degrees It runs with a long point into the Sea and into land it stretches Westward unto the borders of New-Spain and to those Countries which are not yet fully discovered On other parts it s washed with a dangerous sea It is very rich with Silver Gold and stones of great value In it are great variety of Trees fruits fowls Beasts as Bears Leopards Ounces Wolves Wild Dogs Goats Hares Conies Deer Oxen c. Their Towns are paled about with Posts fastened in the ground having no more entrance than for two men to passe at a time where stand two watch Towers for defence their houses are round their apparrel nakedness except a skin about their secrets they paint and rase their skin curiously which they rub over with the juice of an herb that cannot bee gotten out they let their nailes on their fingers and toes grow long they are tall nimble
and comely When the King dieth they bury him with solemnity and upon his grave they set the cup wherein hee was wont to drink and about it they stick many Arrows for six months certain women are appointed to bewail his death His house and goods they burn together They sow or set their Corn as in Virginia and have two seeds times and two harnests their meat is Venisons Fish and Crocodiles dried in the smoak for preservation Peruana Described The other part of this new World is called Peruana being in compasse seventeen thousand miles comprehending in it Golden Castile Guiana Peru Brisile and Chili The first is so called from the abundance of gold in it lying in the Northern parts of Peruana and part of the Istmus which is but seventeen miles broad between sea and sea It s admirably stored with silver Spices Pearls and medicinal herbs and is divided into the Provinces of Castella del oro Nova Andaluzia Nova Granata and Carthagena Castella del Oro is in the very Istmus an unhealthful Countrey the chief Cities are Nombre de dios on the East and Panama on the West side Through which two places comes all the traffique between Spain and Peru. The commodities from Peru being unladen at Panama in the South sea and thence carried by land to Nombre de dios in the North sea and thence shiped to Spain In Guiana is the great River Orenoque which is Navigable with ships of burthen for one thousand miles and with Boats and Pinnasses almost two thousand more It was discovered by Sir Walter Rawleigh and the River Margnon called the River of the Amazons which is Navigable almost six thousand miles and towards the sea two hundred miles broad Peru lieth under the Aequinoctial line and stretcheth for the space of eight hundred leagues upon six hundred whereof viz. from Atacama to Tumbez it never rainethâ— and yet it is as fruitful a land for all sorts of necessaries for the life of man as is in the world On the West frontire is a mighty ridg of high Mountains that are always covered with Snow from whence issue great store of Rivers into the South sea with the water whereof being led by sluces and channels they moisten their vineyards and Corn fields which makes them exceeding fruitful Besides Mines of gold and silver there are mines of Copper and Tin there is also abundance of Salt-peter and Brimstone It is now well replenished with horses kine sheep goats and Wheat The Fortresse of Cusco Described One of the Incas of Peru built a fort that may rather seem the work of Devils than of men especially considering that these Indians had neither Iron nor steel to work and cut the stones with nor Cart nor Oxen to draw them yet was this Fort built with stones that seemed Rocks rather than stones drawn by strength of men with great Cables and that through uneven ways in rough mountains many of them being brought from places that were ten twelve and some fifteen Leagues off especially that stone which the Indians called VVearied which was brought fifteen Leagues and over a great river in the way The most of them came five Leagues off these stones they joined so close together in the building that the joynts could scarcely bee discerned which required often lifting up and setting down neither could they make Cranes or any kind of Engines to help them therein neither had they square or Rule to direct their work Instead of mortar they used a kinde of Clay that held faster This Fortresse was built on an hill on the North side of the City of Cusco the hill was so steep on one side that that way it could not bee assaulted and therefore one wall served on that side which was two hundred fathoms long On the other sides they made three walls one without another each being above two hundred fathoms and were made in the fashion of an half Moon in which there were stones admirably great each wall had in the middest one gate which was covered over with one entire stone each wall stood thirty foot distant from the other and at the top of them the battlements were above a yard high Within those walls there were three strong forts the middlemost was round which had in it a Conduit of very good water brought under ground from far The walls were all adorned with gold and silver and had Images of beasts birds and Plants enchased therein which served instead of Tapestry the other two Forts were square and they had passages under ground from one to another artificially made with Labarinthian windings and turnings inextricable but by a thread They drew their great stones with great Cables To draw the stone which they called Wearied they had twenty thousand Indians the one half before the other behind and yet in one uneven passage it crushed three or four thousand of them to death This proved so unweildy that they never laid it in the building Pur. Pil. v. 4. p. 1478. Another of the Incas to shew his magnificence caused a chain of gold to bee made which was seven hundred foot long and every link as big as a mans wrist two hundred Indians could but lift it Caxamalca another City in Peru is four miles in circuit entered by two gates on the one side stands a great Palace walled about having within it a great Court planted with trees this they call The house of the Sun whom they worship putting off their shooes when they enter into it in this City there are two thousand houses the streets are as strait as a line the walls are strong built of stone about three fathoms high within there are fair fountains of water In the middest is a very fair street walled about having before it a fortress of stone On one side of this street was the Palace of the â—nâ—as or Emperor with lodgings and Gardens the houses were all painted with diverse colours and in one room were two great Fountains adorned with plates of Gold one of them was so hot that a man cannot endure his hand in it the other was cold Atabalipa was Emperour when the Spaniards took it from whom they presently got fifty thousand Pezoes of gold each of them being worth one ducat and two Carolines and seven thousand Marks of silver besides many Emeralds The Spaniards asked Atabalipa what he would give them for his ransome Hee told them that hee would fill that room with Gold to a mark that was higher than a tall man could reach by a span the room being five and twenty foot long and fifteen foot broad Then they asked him how much silver hee would give besides Hee answered as much as ten thousand Indians could carry in vessels of silver of diverse sorts The Spaniards went to Cusco to receive part of it where they found a Temple of the Sun covered with plates of gold as also many pots and vessels of gold yea there was such store
apparrel the Country yeelding nothing but Cotton-wool They have fair and large Deer with large heads of several kinds As also Elks somewhat like a Mule that have no horns a snout that they shrink up and put forth and are excellent swimmers There are store of wild Boars that have their navel on their backs whence comes a sent like that of Foxes There are a sort of Acuti like Conies that live in their houses that having filled their bellies hide what they leave till they bee again hungry Their Pacas are like Pigs their flesh is pleasant but they never bring forth above one at a time There are Ounces some black some grey some speckled a cruel and dangerous beast The Curigue is grey as big as a Cat shaped like a Fox and smells worse they have a bag from the fore to the hinder feet wherein they carry their young ones till they can get their own food they usually have six or seven young ones The Armadillo is as big as a Pig of a whitish colour having a long snout and the body armed with things like Plates so hard that no arrow can peirce them except in the flank with their snouts they dig into the earth with incredible celerity their flesh tastes pleasantly and of their skins they make purses There are several sorts of Porcupines If one of their quills enter the flesh it works it self in strangely if it bee not pulled soon out There are many kindes of Apes with beards and Monkies and wild Cats with excellent Furrs There are huge Snakes some of twenty foot long that will swallow a whole Deer others there are that live of Birds Eggs black long and having a yellow breast they live on trees Another sort there is big and long all green and beautiful that live also of Birds and Eggs. Another sort with a long snout that feeds only upon Frogs there are rattle-snakes so swift that they call them the flying-snakes some of them twelve or thirteen spans long There are abundance of other sorts with Scorpions and Spiders and so many Lizards that they cover the walls of their houses There are abundance of Parots that flye in flocks and fill whole Islands they are fair and of sundry colours and are good meat There are other curious birds and amongst the rest the Awaken-Bird which sleeps six months and lives the other six months they have Partridges Turtle-Doves Blackbirds yea and Ostriches Eagles Faulcons c. They have many sort of fruit-trees and Cocoes and above twenty sorts of Palm-trees Pine-trees also and others that are medecinable some they have that never rot and others that yeeld an excellent smell Chilie hath on the East the Virginian Sea on the West the South Sea or Mare del Zur on the North Peru and on the South the Streights of Magellane It s very cold and in the Midland very mountainous and barren but towards the Sea level fruitful and watered with many Rivers that flow from the mountains It yeelds plenty of gold abundance of Hony store of Cattel and Wine fruits and plants brought from Spain prosper well here here are the Patagons some of them are said to bee eleven foot high Here is a River having in the day time a violent stream and in the night no water in it the water proceeding from the melting of the snow upon the Mountains The gold in Chily is gotten two wayes One by washing the earth in great trays of wood the earth by washing wasteth and the Gold remaineth in the bottome The other is by art to draw it out of the Mines every shower is a shower of gold for with the violence of the water falling from the Mountains it brings from them gold along with it There are also rich Copper Mines Horses Goats and Kine brought thither out of Spain are so encreased that there are found thousands in heards wild and without owners They have also other Cattel that are natural to America in some of which the Bezar stones are found Amongst the rest there is a little beast like unto a Squirel whose skin is the rarest delicatest and softest furr that is It is of a grey colour No Fruits that have stones will prosper here The Magellanick Streights Described Fourteen Leagues within the Cape of St. Mary lyeth the first Streight where it ebbs and flows violently the Streight being not full half a mile broad so that the first entrance is dangerous and doubtful three Leagues this Streight continues whence it opens into a sea eight miles long and as broad beyond which lyes the second Streight West South West from the first a dangerous passage also being three leagues long and a mile in breadth this opens into another Sea extending to the Cape of Victory a place of such a nature that which way soever a man steers his course hee shall be sure to have the wind against him the length of it is forty Leagues the breadth in some places two leagues in some others not half a mile the channel so deep that there can bee no anchorage the water full of turnings and the stream so violent that being once entred there is no returning On both sides are high Mountains continually covered with Snow from whence proceed also dangerous counter-winds that beat on all sides of it The Principal of the American Islands Described Many of the Islands in this part of the World have nothing remarkable in them and therefore I will speak but briefly of them The Islands neer unto the Gulph of Mexico Described At Paria begin two ranks of Islands the one extending East and West the other North and South Amongst the former is Margarita so called from the abundance of Pearls gotten there but being barren and wanting fresh water it is not inhabited Cubagâ—ua is her next neighbour yeildeth also store of Pearls but for the like barrennesse is unpeopled Here were so many Pearls gotten that the King of Spains fifth amounted ordinarily to fifteen thousand Duckats a year On the East part of this Island neer unto the Sea there is a fountain that casteth forth a bituminous substance like Oil in such abundance that it is seen floating upon the sea two or three leagues off Then follow Orchilia Oruba and some other Islands concerning which we have no more than their names upon record That other rank that trends Northward are Granata St. Vincent St. Lucia Dominica and North-west Desiderara St. Christophers Holy-Cross c. all which are called the Islands of the Caribes or Canibals the Inhabitants whereof eat mans flesh and passing over in their Canoes to other Islands hunt for men as others do for beasts At home they only cover their privities but in war they use many Ornaments they are nimble beardlesse shoot poisoned arrows bore holes in their ears and nostrils for bravery which the richer sort deck with gold the poorer with shels and make their teeth black which never ake nor rot their houses are round they have hanging
beds of Cotton called Hammackoeâ— and they worship only the Sun and Moon They have Parrats bigger than Pheasants with backs breasts and bellies of a purple colour In Guadabuza is a fountain so hot that it will quickly boil a peece of meat In Mevis also there is an hot bath like ours in England In Mona are wild Boars and great wild Bulls in Moneta are abundance of Fowl The Antiles Islands are seven St. Vincent Granado Lucia Matalina Dominica Guadalupa and Aysey where the Natives paint themselves to keep off the Muskitoes wear their hair long cut their skins in diverse works worship the Devil and poison their arrows Boriquen or St. Johns Island is three hundred miles long and seventy broad traversed with a rough Mountain out of which flow many rivers Here the Spaniards have some Towns the chiefest is Porto Rico taken by the Earl of Cumberland Anno Christi 1597. from whence hee brought about eighty cast peices and much other wealth Mevis hath in it great store of wood and in a valley betwixt two hills there is a bath like unto ours in England There are in it store of Conies sundry kinds of Fowl and plenty of Fish some of our English under Captain Middleton Anno Christi 1606 passing through the woods came to a most pleasant Garden being one hundred paces square on every side and had many Cotton trees growing in it and many Guiacum trees about it were such goodly tall trees growing as if they had been planted by Art In the Islands of Margarita and Cubagua which are situate nigh unto the Golden Castile there is neither Corn Grass Trees nor water so that sometimes the people will give a tun of Wine for a tun of Water But they have abundance of precious stones hence called Margarites and the gems called Unions because they alwayes grow in couples Jamica described Jamica or the Island of St. James which was once very populous but now is almost destitute of Inhabitants the Spaniards having slain in this and a neighbouring Island called Boriquen above sixty thousand living souls so that the women used to kill their Children before they had given them life that they might not serve so cruel a Nation It s in length two hundred and fourscore milâ—s and in breadth threescore and ten It s well watered and hath two Towns of note Oristana and Sevil Here the English have this last year planted themselves Jamica is very subject to Hurricanes which are such terrible Gusts of wind that nothing can resist them They â—urn up Trees overturn houses transport ships from Sea to Land and bring with them a most dreadful confusion they are most frequent in August September and October The natives are of quicker wits than in other Islands Cuba is three hundred miles long some say three hundred leagues and threescore and ten broad It s full of Forrests Rivers Lakes salt and fresh and mountains Here the people were prohibited the eating of Serpents as a dainty reserved for the higher powers The air is temperate the soil is fertil producing excellent brass but the gold is drossie it abounds with Ginger Mastick Cassia Aloes Cinamon Sugar Flesh Fish and Fowle The chief Cities being seated on the Northern shoar are St. Jâ—go and Havana a safe rode for ships where the King of Spains Navie rides till they carry home their rich lading In this Isle of Cuba two things are admirable one a Valley trending between two hills for three leagues which produceth abundance of stones of a perfect round form like bullets The other a Fountain whence Bitumen or a pitchie substance floweth abundantly and is excellent to pitch ships In these Islands the Inhabitans have been wasted by the Mines of Hispaniola and Cuba to the number of twelve hundred thousand Bermudae were discovered by Sir Thomas Summers and thence called Summers Islands they are four hundred in number In the biggest is a Colony of English who found it fruitful and agreeable to their constitutions The commodities in these Islands are variety of Fish plenty of Swine Mulberries Silk-worms Palmitos Cedars Pearls and Amber-greese They have great variety of Fowle as big as Pidgions which lay speckled Eggs as big as Hens Eggs on the Sand. Another Fowle there is that lives in holes like Conie-holes Tortoises they have and in the belly of one of them they finde a bushel of Eggs very sweet One of them will serve fifty men at a meal Their winter is in December January and February yet not so sharp but then you may meet with young birds It s so invironed with Rocks that without knowledge a Boat of ten Tuns cannot bee brought in and yet within is safe harbour for the greatest ship Hispaniola which lamenteth her loss of three millions of her inhabitants murthered by the bloody Spaniards It s in compass one thousand and four hundred miles having a temperate air fertil soil rich Mines Amber and Sugar It excels Cuba in three things 1. In the fineness of gold 2. In the increase of Sugar one Sugar-Cane will here fill twenty sometimes thirty measures 3. The great fruitfulness of the soil the Corn yeelding an hundred fold The chief City is St. Domingo ransaked by Sir Francis Drake Anno Christi 1585. And lately attempted by our English but through miscarriages they lost their opportunity of taking it which made them go to Jamica Hispaniola seemeth to enjoy a perpetual spring the trees always flourishing and the Medows all the year cloathed in green It s in a manner equally divided by four great Rivers descending from high mountains whereof Junna runneth East Attibunicus West Nabiba South and Jache Northward Diverse of their Rivers after they have run a course of ninety miles are swallowed up of the earth On the top of an high Mountain is a lake three miles in compasse into which some Rivolets run without any apparent issue In one part of this Island is a Lake whose water is salt though it receive into it four great fresh rivers and twenty smaller It is thought to have some intercourse with the sea because some Sharks are found in it it is subject to stormes and tempests Another Lake there is that is partly salt partly fresh being twenty five miles long and eight broad These are in a large plain which is one hundred and twenty miles in length and between twenty five and twenty eight miles in breadth Another valley there is that is two hundred miles long and broader than the former and another of the same breadth but one hundred and eighty miles long One of the Provinces in Hispaniola called Magua is a plain compassed about with hills wherein are many thousand Rivers and Brooks whereof twelve are very great some thousands of them are enriched with gold Another Province is most barren and yet most rich with Mines From this Island the Spaniards used to bring yearly four or five thousand Duckats of gold This Island is much infested with flyes whose stinging
Whale or as others the sperme or seed of the Whale consolidated by lying in the Sea P. Pil. v. 2. p. 772. The Herb Addad is bitter and the root of it so venemous that one drop of the juice will kill a man within the space of one hour P. Pil. v. 2. p. 850. Of Palm-trees which they keep with watering and cutting every year they make Velvets Satins Taffaties Damasks Sarcenets and such like all which are spun out of the leaves cleansed and drawn into long threads P. Pil. v. 2. p. 985. Frankincense grows in Arabia and is the gumme that issueth out of trees Idem p. 1781. In Mozambique Manna is procreated of the dew of heaven falling on a certain tree on which it hardens like Sugar sticking to the wood like Rozen whence it s gathered and put into jars and is used much for purging in India Idem p. 1554. Mastick-trees grow only in the Island of Sio the trees are low shrubs with little crooked boughs and leaves In the end of August they begin their Mastick-harvest men cutting the bark of the Tree with Iron instruments out of which the Gumme distills uncessantly for almost three months together Idem p. 1812. Spunges are gathered from the sides of Rocks fifteen fathom under water about the bottom of the Streights of Gibralter the people that get them being trained up in diving from their child-hood so that they can indure to stay very long under water as if it were their habitable Element In Manica is a tree called the Resurrection-tree which for the greatest part of the year is without leaf or greenness but if one cut off a bough and put it into the water in the space of ten hours it springs and flourisheth with green leaves but draw it out of the water as soon as it is dry it remaineth as it was before Pur. Pil. v. 2. p. 1537. There is in the Island of Teneriff which is one of the Canaries a Tree as big as an Oke of a middle size the bark white like Hornbeam six or seven yards high with ragged boughs the leaf like the Bay-leaf It beareth neither fruit nor flower it stands on the side of an hill in the day its withered and drops all night a cloud hanging thereon so that it yeelds water sufficient for the whole Island wherein are eight thousand souls and about an hundred thousand Cammels Mules Goats c. The water falls from it into a pond made of brick paved with stone from whence it s conveyed into several ponds thorough the whole Island They also water therewith their Corn-ground for they have no other water in the Island except Rain-water The Pond holds twenty thousand Tun of water and is filled in one night Many of our English that have been there have attested the truth hereof Idem p. 1369. Concerning which Tree Sylvester the Poet made these verses In th' I le of Iron one of those same seven Whereto our Elders happy name have given The Savage people never drink the streams Of Wells and Rivers as in other Realms Their drink is in the air their gushing spring A weeping tree out of it self doth wring A Tree whose tender bearded root being spread In dryest sand his sweating leaf doth shed A most sweet liquor and like as the Vine Untimely cut weeps at her wound the Wine In pearled tears incessantly distills A royal stream which all their Cisterns fills Throughout the Island for all hither hie And all their vessels cannot draw it drye Aloes grows in the Island of Socotera which is nothing but Semper vivum it is so full of a Rosin-like juice that the leaves are ready to break with it which leaves they cut in small peeces and cast them into a clean pit made in the ground and paved there it lies to ferment in the heat of the Sun whereby the juice floweth forth which they put in skins and hang them up in the wind to drye whereby it hardens P. Pil. v. 1. p. 419. Indico groweth in the Moguls Country having a small leaf like that of Sena the branches are of a wooddy substance like Broom It grows not above a yard high the stalk about the bignesse of a mans thumb The seed is included in a small round Cod of an inch long This once sowed lasteth three years that of the first year makes a weighty reddish Indico that sinks in water being not yet come to its perfection that of the second year is rich very light and of a perfect Violet colour swimming on the water that of the third year is weighty blackish and the worst of the three This herb when it s cut is put into a Cistern and pressed down with stones then covered over with water where it remains till the substance of the herb is gone into the water then it s drawn forth into another Cistern and laboured with staves till it bee like Batter then they let it seeth and so scum off the water two or three times till nothing but a thick substance remains which taking forth they spread on a cloath dry it in the Sun then make it into balls dry it on the sand which causes the sandy foot That is best which is of a pure grain Violet-colour is glossie dry and light Idem p. 430. Sir James Lancaster in his East-Indy Voyage in the Isle of Sombrero found on the Sea-sands a young twig growing up to a tree and offering to pluck up the same it shrank down into the ground and when it was by strength pulled up a great Worm was the root of it and as the Tree groweth in greatnesse the Worm diminisheth This Tree plucked up the leaves and pill stripped off by that time its dryed is turned into a hard stone so that this Worm was twice transformed into different natures after a wondrous manner Of these hee brought home many P. Pil. v. 1. p. 152. About Saffron Walden in Essex there grows great store of Saffron which was first brought into England in the reign of King Edward the third This in the month of July every third year being plucked up and after twenty dayes having the root split and set again in the earth about the endâ— of September it putteth forth a whitish blew flower out of the midst whereof there come three chives which are gathered in the morning before Sun-rising and being plucked out of the flower are dried by a soft fire and so great is the increase that commeth thereof that out of every acre of ground there are made fourscore or an hundred pound weight of Saffron whilst it is moist which being dryed yeeld some twenty pound weight And the ground which three years together hath brought Saffron is so enriched thereby that it will bear very good Barley many years together without dung or manuring Camb. Brit. p. 453. All along the shores of the Red-sea are abundance of Palm-Trees of a very strange nature They grow in couples Male and Female both thrust
noon and dye at night Fit Emblems of the vain and short life of man The famous River of Nilus in Egypt useth once in the year to overflow her banks whereby the whole Country is watered It usually beginneth to overflow upon the seventeenth of June and increaseth daily sometimes two sometimes three fingers and sometimes half a cubit high on a day The increase of it is known by a Pillar erected in a Cistern whereinto the water is conveyed by a Sluce which pillar is divided into eighteen parts each a cubit higher than the other If the water reach no higher than to the fifteenth cubit they expect a fruitful year if it stay between the twelfth and fifteenth cubit the increase of that year will bee but mean If it reach not to the twelfth it s a sign of scarcity If it rise to the eighteenth the scarcity will bee greater in regard of too much moisture This River continueth forty dayes increasing and forty dayes decreasing Pur. Pil. v. 2. p. 838. Another thing is wonderful which is this In the Grand Cairo which is the Metropolis of Egypt the Plague useth many times to bee very violent till the River begins to overflow its banks at which time it doth instantly cease So that whereas five hundred a day dyed the day before not one doth dye the day following Idem p. 897. In the County of Devon not far from the Town of Lidford at a Bridge the River Lid is gathered into a strait and pent in between Rocks whereon it runneth down a main and the ground daily waxing deeper and deeper under it his water is not seen only a roaring noise is heard to the great wonder of those that pass by Camb. Brit. p. 199. In VVarwickshire at Nevenham Regis three fountains arise out of the ground strained through an Allom Mine the water whereof carrieth the colour and taste of Milk which cureth ulcers in the bladder or kidneys caused by the stone and provoketh urine abundantly Green wounds it cleanseth closeth up and quickly healeth being drunk with salt it looseth and with Sugar it bindeth the belly About fifty years ago these wells were famous and in great request many resorting to them and the water by others was sent for far and near Idem p. 562. In Herefordshire a little beneath Richards Castle Nature who never disports her self more in shewing wonders than in waters hath brought forth a pretty well which is alwayes full of little fish bones although they bee drawn out from time to time whence it s commonly called Bone-VVell Idem p. 619. In Yorkshire upon the Sea-shore by Sken-grave when the winds are laid and the weather is most calm upon the Sea the water lying level and plain without any noise there is heard here many times on a sudden a great way off as it were an horrible and fearful groaning which affrights the Fishermen at those times so that they dare not launce forth into the Sea Idem p. 720. Pliny tells us of the fountain Chymaera that is set on fire with water and put out with earth or hey Plin. nat Hist. Lib. 2. c. 106.107 The same Author also tells us that in the hot deserts of India grows a certain kinde of Flax that lives in the fire and consumes notâ— wee have seen saith hee table-cloathes made of it burning in fires at feasts by which they have been cleansed from their stains and spots and made whiter by the fire than they could bee by water At Belgrad in Hungary where Danubius and Sava two great Rivers meet their waters mingle no more than water and Oil not that either flote above other but joyn unmixed so that near the middle of the River I have gone in a boat saith Sir Henry Blunt in his voyage into the Levant and tasted of the Danow as clear and pure as a well then putting mine hand an inch further I have taken of the Sava as troubled as a street-channel tasting the gravel in my teeth Thus they ran sixty miles together and for a dayes journy I have been an eye-witness of it CHAP. IIII. The wonderful works of God in the Creatures Of strange Fishes ANno Christi 1204. at Oreford in Suffolk a fish was taken by the Fishermen at Sea in shape resembling a wild man and by them was presented to Sir Bartholomew de Glanvil Keeper of Oreford Castle In all his limbs and members hee resembled a man had hair in all the usual parts of his body only his head was bald The Knight caused meat to bee set before him which hee greedily devoured and did eat fish raw or sod that which was raw hee pressed with his hand till hee had squeezed out all the moisture Hee uttered not any speech though to try him they hung him up by the heels and grievously tormented him Hee would get him to his Couch at the setting of the Sun and rise again at the Sun-rising One day they brought him to the haven and let him go into the Sea but to prevent his escape they set three rows of very strong nets before him to catch him again at their pleasure but hee streightwaies diving to the bottom crept under all their nets and shewed himself again to them and so often diving hee still came up and looked upon them that stood on the shoar as it were mocking of them At length after hee had sported himself a great while in the water and there was no hope of his return hee came back to them of his own accord and remained with them two months after But finally when hee was negligently looked to hee went to the Sea and was never after seen or heard of Fabians Chron. Anno Christi 1404. some women of Edam in the Low-Countries as they were going in their barks to their cattel in Purmer-Meer they often saw at the ebbing of the water a Sea-woman playing up and down whereat at the first they were afraid but after a while incouraging one another they made with their boats towards her and the water by this time being nor deep enough for her to dive in they took her by force and drew her into the boat and so carried her to Edam where in time shee grew familiar and fed of ordinary meats and being sent from thence to Harlem shee lived about fifteen years but never spake seeking often to geâ— away into the water Belg. Common VVealth p. 102. In the Seas near unto Sofala are many VVomen-Fishes which from the belly to the neck are very like a woman The Females have breasts like womens with which also they nourish their young From the belly downward they have thick and long tails with fins like a Dolphin the skin on the belly is white on the back rougher than a Dolphins They have arms which from the elbows end in fins and so have no hands the face is plain round and bigger than a mans deformed and without humane semblance They have wide mouths thick hanging lips like a
other are above four yards Its mouth and teeth resemble a Portcullis it hath a long small tail and it is rather to be wondred at than to be eaten In Le Maires voyage about the world a certain fish or Sea monster with an horn struck against the ship with such violence that shook it whereupon the Master looking overboard saw the sea all bloody but knew not what should be the cause till coming into Port Desire where they cleansed and trimmed their ship they found seven foot under water a Horn sticking in the ship for bignesse and fashion like an Elephants tooth yet not hollow but all solid of hard bone which had pierced through three double planks and was entred into a rib of the ship it stuck about half a foot deep in the ship and by great force was broken off which caused that great monster to bleed so much as discoloured the water Pur. Pil. v. 1. p. 90. The Mannaty is a strange fish resembling a Cow Her face is like a Buffalo's her eyes small and round having hard gums instead of teeth they feed much on the shore which makes them taste like flesh of veal their intrails differ little from a Cows their bodies are commonly three yards long and one broad they swim slowly wanting fins in the place wherof they have two things like paps which are their stilts when they creep on shore to graze where they sleep long sucking in the cool air they cannot keep under water above half an hour The stone generated in their head is most esteemed being soveraign against choller adust the stone collick and dissenteryes if beaten small infused in wine and drunk fasting Herb. Trav. p. 26. See more afterwards The Carvel comes of the foam of the sea every where floating upon the surface of the Ocean of a round form throwing abroad her strings like so many lines which shee can spread at pleasure therewith angling for small fishes which shee catches at leisure you may call her a sea Spider for when shee sees her webb too weak she can blow an infectious breath foming death or such a sting as if she had borrowed it from a Scorpion Idem In the East-Indies is a trade wind which they call a Briese or Monson which blows West all April May June July August and part of September and East the rest of the year Only on the East of Sumatra it blows five months East and five months West and the other two variable This is well known to our East-Indy Merchants The Torpedo is a Fish like a Bream but somewhat thicker some Marriners having one of them in a net went to take it forth but one of them presently cryed out that hee had lost the use of his hands and armes another that was bare legged putting his foot to it lost the sence of his leg but after a while their feeling returned again whereupon calling their Cook they bade him to take and dresse it who laying both his hands thereon made grievous moan that hee felt not his hands but when its dead it produceth no such effect but is good meat Pur. Pil. p. 1568. About Jamica in the West-Indies is a Fish called a Manati which is of a strange shape and nature It brings forth her young ones alive and nourisheth them with Milk from her teates feeding upon grass in the fields but lives for the most part in the water the hinder parts of it are like unto a Cow and it eats like veal Idem v. 3. p. 930. In Brasile are Oxe-fishes which are very good meat For head hair skin cheeks and tongue they are like Oxen their eyes small with lids to open and shut which no other fish hath It breatheth and therefore cannot bee long under water Instead of fore-feet it hath two arms of a cubit long with two round hands and on them five fingers close together with nails like a mans Under these arms the female hath paps wherewith she nourisheth her young she brings forth but one at once It hath no fins but the tail which is also round and close their bones are all massie and white like Ivory of this Fish they make great store of sweet Oil they feed most upon the land Idem v. 4. p. 1313. In Sir Francis Drakes voyage about the world when they came to the Island of Celebes which is wholly overgrown with wood amongst the Trees night by night they saw infinite swarms of fiery wormes flying in the air their bodies no bigger than of our English Flyes which made such a shew and gave such a light as if every twig or tree had been a burning candle In which place also were great store of Bats as big as large Hens Pur. Pil. v. 1. p. 56. In Captain Saris his voyage to Bantam about midnight they fell into the strangest and fearfullest water that ever any of them had seen the water giving such a glaring light about the ship that they could discern letters in a book thereby whereas a little before it was so dark that they could discern nothing This made them fear that it had been the breach of sunken ground But finding that they had failed half an hour in it and saw no alteration they perceived at length that it was a multitude of Cuttle-fish that made this fearful shew Pur. Pil. p. 352. CHAP. V. The wonderful works of God in the Creatures Of strange Fowls and Birds IN one of the Scottish Islands there is a rare kinde of Fowl unknown to other Countrys called Colca little lesse than a Goose They come thither every year in the spring hatch and nourish their young ones About which time they cast all their feathers and become stark naked all their bodies over and then they get themselves to the Sea and are no more seen till the next spring Their feathers have no quill as other feathers have but are all like unto Down wherein is no hardness Descr. of Scot. In the North Seas of Scotland are great loggs of Timber found in which are ingendred after a marvellous manner a sort of Geese called Claik-geese and they do hang by the beak till they are grown to perfection and then they receive life and fall off they are many times found and kept in admiration for their rare manner of Generation They are very fat and delicious to bee eaten Idem Some question the truth hereof Storks are so careful of their parents that when they grow old and so are unable to help themselves the young ones feed them and when in passing the Sea their wings fail them the young ones will take them on their backs and carry them over And this is remarkable about them The Town of Delph in the Low-Countries is so seated for the breeding and feeding of these Birds that it is hard to see an house wherein they do not build In this Town upon the third of May Anno Christi 1536. a great fire happened when the young Storks were grown pretty big
number of sticks and twigs wherewith to build their nests that thereby the inhabitants are also abundantly provided of fewel for the fire and such a mighty gain is made of their feathers and oile that no man would scarcely beleeve it but hee that hath seen it Camb. Brit. of Scotland p. 12 13. In Magallanes voyage about the world the King of the Island of Bacchian sent the King of Spain two dead birds of a strange shape they were as big as Turtle-Doves with little heads and long bills long small legs and no wings but in stead thereof certain long feathers of divers colours and tails like Turtle-Doves all their other feathers were of a tawny colour they flye not but when the wind blows and they call them Birds of God Pur. Pil. v. 1. p. 44. In Sofala in the East-Indies is a kinde of bird called Minga green and yellow very fair about the bigness of a Pigeon which never treads on the ground their feet being so short that they can scarce bee discerned they settle on trees of the fruit whereof they live when they drink they flye on the tops of the water and if they fall on the ground they cannot rise again their flesh is fat and savourie Idem p. 1546. CHAP. VI. The wonderful works of God in the Creatures Of strange Beasts and Serpents WHilst Sir Thomas Row our English Ambassador was at the great Moguls Court hee saw many stately Elephants brought before the Emperor some of which being Lord-Elephants as they called them had their chains bells and furniture of gold and silver each of them having eight or ten other Elephants waiting on him they were some twelve companies in all and as they passed by they all bowed down before the King very handsomely Pur. Pil. v. 1. p. 550. Though these Elephants be the largest of all beasts yet are they very tractable unless at such times when they are mad through lust some of them are thirteen and some fifteen foot high their colour is usually black their skins thick and smooth without hair they delight much to bathe themselves in water and are excellent swimmers their pace is about three miles an hour of all Beasts they are most sure of foot so that they never stumble or fall to indanger their rider they lye down and rise again at pleasure as other beasts do they are most docible creatures doing almost whatsoever their Keeper commands them If hee bid one of them afright a man hee will make towards him as if hee would tread him in peeces and yet when hee comes at him do him no hurt If hee bid him abuse or disgrace a man hee will take dirt or kennel-kennel-water in his trunk and dash it in his face c. Their trunks are long grissely snouts hanging down betwixt their teeth which as a hand they make use of upon all occasions Some Elephants the great Mogul keeps for execution of malefactors who being brought to suffer death by that mighty beast if the Keeper bid him dispatch the offender presently hee will immediatly with his foot pash him in peeces If hee bid him torture him slowly hee will break his joynts by degrees one after another as men are broken upon the wheel An English Merchant of good credit being at Adsmeer a City where the great Mogul then was saw a great Elephant daily brought through the Market-place where an Hearb-woman used to give him an handful of herbs as hee passed by This Elephant afterwards being mad brake his chains and took his way through the Market-place the people being affrighted hasted to secure themselves amongst whom was this Hearb-woman who through fear and haste forgat her little childe The Elephant comming to the place where shee usually sate stopt and seeing a childe lye about her hearbs took it up gently with his Trunk and without harm laid it upon a stall hard by and then proceeded in his furious course Idem p. 1472. The Males Testicles lye about his forehead the Females teates are betwixt her fore legs they carry their young two years in their wombs conceive but once in seven years they are thirty years before they come to their full growth and fulfil the accustomed age of a man before they dye As Pyrrus King of Epyrus was assaulting the City of Argos one of of his Elephants called Nicon i. e. Conquering being entred the City perceiving that his governour was stricken down to the ground from his back with terrible blows ran upon them that came back upon him overthrowing friends and foes one in anothers neck till at length having found the body of his slain Master hee lift him up from the ground with his trunk and carrying him upon his two tushes returned back with great fury treading all under feet whom hee found in his way Plut. In vita Pyrri The Lion hath the Jackall for his Usher which is a little black shag-haired beast of the bigness of a Spaniel which when the evening comes hunts for his prey and comming on the foot follows the scent with open crye to which the Lion as chief Hunt gives diligent ear following for his advantage If the Jackall set up his chase before the Lion comes in hee howles out mainly and then the Lion seizeth on it making a grumbling noise whilst his servant stands by barking and when the Lyon hath done the Jackall feeds on the relicks Idem p. 1575. See more afterwards Example seventeen The Panther hath a very sweet smell so that other Beasts are much taken therewith but they are terrified with the ugly deformity of his face and therefore as hee goes hee hides that part between his legs and will not look towards them till hee hath gotten them within his compasse which when hee hath done hee devours them without mercy so deals the Devil with wicked men strewing their way to Hell with variety of worldly delights and profits the thorns of afflictions must not touch their flesh nor hells terrors come within their thoughts till hee hath made them past feeling than hee devours them Plin. nat Hist. L. 8 C. 17. The Rhynoceros is so called because of the horn in his nose hee is a large beast as big as our fairest Oxe in England His skin lyeth plated and as it were in wrinkles upon his back Their Horn Teeth Claws yea flesh and blood are good against poyson which as is conceived proceeds from the Herbs which they feed on in Bengala where are most store of them The Camelopardalus is the highest of Beasts so that a man on horseback may ride upright under his belly his neck is long so that hee usually feedeth upon the leaves of trees his colour is white and speckled his hinder legs are shorter than his former so that he cannot graze but with difficulty P. Pil. p. 1381. He is also called a Jaraff In India is a certain beast called a Buffelo which is very large hath a thick and smooth skin but without hair She gives
part thereof and another lay his ear to the other which is a good way off he may easily hear every sillable The City of Oxford Described Where the River Cherwel meets with Isis and pleasant Ilets lye dispersed by the sundry disseverings of waters there this famous City and University of Oxford sheweth it self aloft in a champion plain from whence Religion and learning have been spread into all the parts of England A fair and goodly City it is whether wee respect the seemly beauty of private houses or the stately magnificence of publick buildings together with the wholsome situation and pleasant prospect thereof For the hills beset with woods do so environ the plain that as on the one side they exclude the pestilent Southwind and the tempestuous West-wind on the other so they let in the clearing East-wind only and the North-East-wind with all which frees it from all corruption whence sometimes it was called Bellositum The City of Eli Described The City of Eli is situate in the middest of great and large Fens and was formerly famous for the reputed holinesse of the Nuns there residing and for a stately Monastery so rich that the Abbot thereof not long after VVilliam the Conquerors time laid up every year in his own Coffers a thousand and four hundred pounds King Henry the first made it a Bishops Sea promoting thereto one Hervey who sought by all means to advance the dignity of his Church For which end hee obtained of the King that it might bee Toll-free hee made a way also from Exing to Eli through the Fens of six miles in length and the Monks growing rich the Cathedrall Church being much decayed through age they by little and little built it and brought it to the ample statelinesse which now it hath A Lanthorn it hath at the very top thereof just over the Quire supported by eight Pillars and raised upon them right Artificially built by John Hothum the Bishop and under the Church towards the North stands St. Maries chappel a singular fine peece of work built by Simon Montacutâ— Bishop The City it self is not much to bee accounted of either for beauty or resort of people to it as having an unwholsome air by reason of the Fens round about it The City of Lincoln Described The City of Lincoln is large and well inhabited and frequented It stands upon the side of an hill where the River VVitham bends his course Eastward and being divided with three small channels watereth the Lower part of the City In the highest part of the City the Cathedral is erected a stately structure being built through out not only most sumptuously but with rare and singular workmanship most beautiously especially the forefront at the West end which in a sort ravisheth and allureth the eyes of all that judiciously view it very ancient this City is and hath been farre larger and more populous It hath in it fifty Parish Churches whereof at this day there remain only fifteen besides the Minster The City of Norwich in Northfolk described Norwich is situated upon the River Yare the form of it is somewhat long being from South to North a mile and an half long and in breadth about half so much drawing it self in by little and little in the Southend making in a manner a sharp point compassed it is about with strong walls beautified with many Turrets orderly placed and twelve gates only it is not walled on the East side where the River after it hath with many windings in and out watered the North part of the City having four Bridges for passage over it is a sufficient defence with his deep channel and high steep banks It flourisheth with wealth plenty of inhabitants great resort of strangers fair buildings and hath in it about thirty Parish Churches on the East side of it stands a very fair Cathedral Church near unto the Castle built upon a very high hill which was compassed about with an exceeding deep ditch In the midst of the City near the Market-place is a very fair Town-house which on Market-dayes is plentifully furnished with all things necessary for mans life The Netherlanders being driven away by the Duke d' Alva's cruelty repairing hither in great numbers brought in the making of Sayes Bayes and other stuffe to the great gain of the Citizens Anno Christi 1583. the Citizens conveyed water out of the River in pipes by an artificial instrument into the highest parts of the City The City of Coventry in Warwickshire described Coventry is a City very commodiously seated large sweet and neat fortified with very strong walls which are about three miles in compasse through which are thirteen gates for enterance most of them very stately and strongly built besides eighteen other Towers in several parts of the wall for defence A little River called Shirburn runs through the City which is beautified with many fair and goodly houses amongst which there rise up on high two Churches of rare workmanship St. Michaels and Trinity standing one hard by another with stately spire steeples of a very great height In the midst of the City is the Market-place called the Cross-cheaping and therein a Crosse or Pillar of stone of most exquisite and admirable workmanship there is also a very fair Grammer-school and a neat Library at the end of it with convenient habitations for the Master and Usher near unto it is VVel-street and therein a very large fountain that continually sends forth great plenty of excellent water The City had very large suburbs belonging to it especially in the East and West ends most whereof were broken down in our late Civil wars and a large Trench made on the outside of the walls The City of Worcester described Under the City of Worcester runs the Severn with a slow pace as admiring and wondring at the City as it passeth by and truly worthy it is of admiration whether you respect the antiquity or the beauty thereof It stands in a place rising somewhat with a gentle ascent by the Rivers side that hath a fair Bridge with a Tower over it It is well and strongly walled and the inhabitants are much inriched by the trade of cloathing It is one thousand six hundred and fifty paces about the walls through which seven Gates give entrance with five other VVatch Towers for defence there are in it divers Churches besides the Cathedral which is seated on the South side of the City and is a passing fair and stately building adorned with the Tombs and Monuments of King John Prince Arthur diverse of the Beauchamps c. The City of Lichfield in Staffordshire described Lichfield is a very ancient City known unto Bede by the name of Lichidfield i. e. the field of dead bodies by reason of a number of Christians there martyred in the bloody persecution under the Emperor Dioclesian This City is low seated of a good largenesse and fair withal divided into two parts by a shallow pool of clear water which