that egge R. Papa answereth that he would neuer haue beleeued it but that hee saw it I hope they will pardon vs if wee be of the same minde But would you not faine heare of a man holding like proportion then let R. Saul tell you of his aduentures in the burying of a dead corps where hee encountred with a bone of a man into which there flew a Rauen and the Rabbi would needs follow after to see what became of her and so he went he went three leagues in the hollow of the same bone and could find no end therof and therfore returned so he perceiued it was one of the bones of Og the Giant whom Moses had slaine Perhaps you will maruell how Moses could atchieue such an exploit Forsooth you must vnderstand that Moses was ten cubits high and had an Axe ten cubits long and leaped other ten cubits in the ayre and so gaue the deadly blow to Og who it seemes was layde along in some deepe Trench or else you will thinke the Rabbine lyed Tush your incredulitie makes you vnworthy to heare their storie of R. Osua who beguiled the Angell of Death of whom when hee came to smite him hee would in kindnesse needs learne his future place in Paradise wherewith the deadly Angell was content and went with him yea for his securitie at his request resigned his deadly weapon into his hands Thus at last they came at Paradise where hee shewed him his place which he desirous to take better view of required his helpe to lift him higher and then with a quicke deliuerie leapt into Paradise Thus did the poore coozened Angell misse his prey and was glad with much a-doe to recouer his sword from the Rabbine And that you might see their skill no lesse in Cosmographie then Theologie Another was carryed to the place where Heauen and Earth meete and kisse each other where whiles hee might take the more diligent view in obseruing those parts which the Frier of Oxford neuer saw nor Faustus with his Mephostophilos hee hanged his Cloake on a window in Heauen and suddenly it was conueyed out of sight Hereat amazed that there should bee theeues in Heauen a voyce told him it was the heauens motion and at such an houre the next day he might attend and againe obtaine his Cloake which hee did accordingly But to take view of other strange creatures make roome I pray for another Rabbi with his Bird and a great deale of roome you will say is requisite Rabbi Kimchi on the 50. Psalme auerreth out of Rabbi Iehudah that Ziz is a bird so great that with spreading abroad his wings hee hideth the Sunne and darkneth all the world And to leape backe into the Talmud a certaine Rabbi sayling on the Sea saw a bird in the middle of the sea so high that the water reached but to her knees whereupon he wished his companions there to wash because it was shallow Doe it not saith a voyce from heauen for it is seuen yeeres space since a Hatchet by chance falling out of a mans hand in this place and alwaies descending is not yet come at the bottome I perceiue by your incredulous smiles you will scarce beleeue that a Lyon in the wood Ela roared suddenly that all the women in Rome foure hundred miles from thence for very horror proued abortiue and when he came an hundred miles neerer his terrible noyse shooke the teeth out of all the Romans heads and the Emperour himselfe that caused the Rabbi to obtaine of GOD by his prayer to make this triall of the Lion fell downe from his Throne halfe dead and with much importunity requested his helpe to cause him retire to his denne But this roaring hath al most marred our Feast §. III. Their Messias his Feast OVr Wine you haue heard of fetched out of Adams Celler Esay 27.2.3 and Psal. 75.9 Before the Feast Messias will cause these prety creatures Behemoth and Leuiathan to play together and make them sport but when they haue wearied themselues in the fight Messias with his sword shall kill them both Esa 27.1 Then followeth the Feast and afterwards his Marriage Kings Daughters shall bee among thine honourable women at thy right hand standeth the Queene in the golde of Ophir Amongst the Messias his excellent women Rabbi Kimchi expoundeth shall bee Kings Daughters for euery King shall repute it to his owne glory to bestow a daughter on the Messias But the true Queene shall bee one of the fairest Israelites daughters and shall continually conuerse with him whereas the others must come onely at call He shall thus beget children which shall raigne after him Esay 53.10 when he is dead Now the state of the Iewes in his time shall be such that the Christians shall freely build them houses and Cities and till their grounds and bestow on them their goods yea Princes shall serue them and they shall walke in faire garments Esa 60.10 11 12. and Esa 61.5 6. The ayre also shall be new and wholesome Esa 65.17 by the benefit whereof they shall abide sound and liue long and in their age bee as fresh as if they were yong Psal. 92.14.15 The Wheat once sowne shall alway grow vp of it selfe no otherwise then the Vines Hosea 14.8 And if any shall desire any raine for his field or garden or one hearb by it selfe he shall haue it Zach. 10.11 Then shall be peace among men and beasts Hos 2.19 Esa 11.7 If there arise any warre among the Gentiles the Messias shall accord them Esa 2.4 They shall liue in great felicitie full of the knowledge and praise of GOD The earth shall be full hereof c. The Talmud also speaketh of a thousand yeeres wherein the world shall be renewed somewhat like the opinion of some Ancients in the Primitiue Church in which time the iust shall haue wings giuen them like Eagles whereby they may flie ouer the face of the waters But the bodies of the iust which shall rise againe shall neuer returne to dust Ricius in this and many other of their absurdities seekes to giue an allegoricall interpretation but which of the Heathen haue not so patronized their superstitions and Idolatries as appeareth in the Poets Philosophers Chaldaean and Egyptian Priests whose mysticall learning cannot free their religions from being mysteries of iniquitie Sixe thousand yeeres the world endureth saith R. Katina and a thousand yeere shall be a desolation and GOD onely shall be exalted in that day for one thousand yeeres is one day of the Lord as it is written A thousand yeeres in thy sight are as yesterday and this is a Sabbath wherein shall be the feastings aboue mentioned And thus did Elias affirme as is said two thousand yeeres the world was emptie two thousand the Law and two thousand Messias but for the sins of men that is wanting which we see wanting This last clause Ricius saith is added by the Talmudists which
strict orders they may not nourish Hennes because of their female Sexe To drinke Wine is punished in their Priests with stoning They haue many Fasts in the yeare but one especially in which the people frequent the Temples and their Sermons They haue their Canonicall houres by day and night for their holy things They hold that the World shall last eight thousand yeares whereof sixe thousand are passed and then it shall be consumed with fire at which time shall bee opened in Heauen seuen eyes of the Sunne which shall drie vp the Waters and burne vp the Earth In the ashes shall remaine two Egges whence shall come foorth one Man and one Woman which shall renew the World But there shall be no more Salt but fresh Riuers and Lakes which shall cause the Earth without mans labour to abound in plenty of good things The Siamites are the sinke of the Easterne Superstitions which they deriue to many Nations Gasper de Cruz testifieth that the Bramenes in Siam are Witches and are the Kings principall seruants They worship one god called Probar Missur which say they made Heauen and Earth and another called Pralocussur who obtained of a third named Praissur that power vnto Probar Missur Another called Praput Prasur Metrie Hee thinketh the third part of the Land to be Priests or Religious persons These Religious are proud the inferiour worshipping their superiours as gods with prayer and prostrating They are reuerenced much of the people none daring to contradict them so that when our Frier Gasper preached if one of those Religious came and said This is good but ours is better all his Auditors would forsake him They number in their opinion seuen and twentie Heauens holding that some of them are like Mahomets Paradise fraught with faire women with meates also and drinkes and that all liuing things which haue soules goe thither euen Fleas and Lice And these lousie heauens are allotted to all secular persons which enter not into their rule and habit of Religion They haue higher heauens for their Priests which liue in wildernesses ascribing onely this felicitie to them there to sit and refresh themselues with winde And according to the higher merits they assigne other higher heauens among their gods which haue round bodies like bowles and so haue these that goe thither They hold also that there are thirteene Hells according to the differing demerits of mens sinnes Of their Religious men some are supreme and sit aboue the King called Massauchaches a second Order they entitle Nascendeches which sit with the King and are as Bishops a third and lower ranke sit beneath the King named Mitires which are as Priests and haue the Chapuzes and Sazes two inferior degrees vnder them all reuerenced according to their place Except the Priests and Religious all are slaues to the King and when they die their whole state deuolueth to him how hardly soeuer the wife and children shift which was caused through a rebellion against the brother of the King which then reigned when the Frier writ this In the yeere 1606. Balthasar Sequerius a Iesuite landing at Tanassary passed from thence partly by goodly Riuers partly ouer cragged and rough Hills and Forrests stored with Rhinocerots Elephants and Tigres one of which tare in pieces one of their company before his eyes vnto Odia Conferring with the Talipoies or Religious men he learned their conceits That there was now no God in the world to gouerne it Three had beene before now dead and a Fourth is expected which deferreth his comming In the meane while lest this huge Frame should want a Ruler it is ordered by a certaine Bubble or Brooch which some of the Former Gods had left The vulgar people heare these bubbles bables and fables with great reuerence and silence holding vp their ioyned hands They obserue their Festiualls according to the course of the Moone and then open their Temples whither the people resort to doe their deuotions These are built strong and stately with Art and Beautie hauing their Porches Cloisters Quires and lower Iles great Chappels being annexed on both sides and large Church-yards In one of these hee saw a Statue of eighteene Cubites length dedicated to the great God They are of marueilous abstinence and thinke it a great sinne to taste wine In their Quires they haue singing men which after the Europaean fashion sing there especially in the shutting in of the Euening and about midnight Very early in the morning warning is giuen for them to goe to beg from doore to doore They haue their funerall Holies and Obits for the dead The carkasses are burned being put into painted Coffins with great solemnitie if they be great men with Musicke and dances and great store of victuals to be bestowed on the Talipoys Thus farre Sequerius The Inhabitants of this Kingdome are much giuen to pleasure and ryot they refuse the vse of Manuall Arts but addict themselues to Husbandry They haue publike Schooles where they teach Lawes and Religion in the vulgar Language other Sciences they learne in a more learned Tongue They worship innumerable Idols but especially the foure Elements according to which his Sect each man maketh choise of his buriall They which worshipped the Earth are therein buried the Fire burneth the dead carkasses of them which obserued it in the Ayre are hanged to feast the airy-winged people with their flesh those which adored the Ayre being aliue The Water drowneth those which had aliue beene drowned in that Waterie Religion Euery King at his first entrance to the Crowne erecteth a Temple which hee adorneth with high Steeples and innumerable Idols In the Citie of Socotay is one of mettell fourescore spans high The Kingdome of Siam comprehendeth that Aurea Regio of Ptolemey by Arrianus in his Periplus the Map whereof Ortelius set forth 1597. called Aurea Continens nigh to which is placed that Aurea Chersonesus then it seemeth by a necke of land ioyned to the Continent since supposed to be by force of the Sea separated from the same and to bee the same which is now called Sumatra which Tremellius and Iunius iudge to bee Salomons Ophir The Land trendeth long and narrow and containeth fiue hundred leagues of Sea-coast compassing from Champa to Tauay But of this space the Arabians or Moores haue vsurped two hundred with the Townes of Patane Pahan Ior and Malacca now in possession of the Portugals and the Kingdomes of Aua Chencran Caipumo and Brema haue shared also therein Odia is the chiefe Citie thereof containing foure hundred thousand housholds and serueth the King with fiftie thousand Souldiers and to the Riuer Caipumo on which it standeth belong two hundred thousand vessels This King hath nine Kingdomes subiect to him and thirtie thousand Elephants whereof three thousand are trained to the warres His Nobles hold their Lands in a kinde of Knights-seruice like the Turkish Timars yet onely for terme of life without the Kings pay serue him whensoeuer
one they prouoke him to fight Whiles these are fastned in the encounter by the teeth or tuskes each striuing to ouerthrow the other some come behinde the wilde Elephant and fasten his hinder feet and so either kill him for his teeth or by famine tame him Anno 1612. Iune the two and twentieth Some of the English came to Patane with a Letter from His Maiestie to the Queene accompanied with a present from the Merchants of six hundred Rialls of Eight This Letter was deliuered in great pompe being laid in a bason of Gold carried on an Elephant furnished with many little Flags Launces and Minstrels The Queenes Court also being sumptuously prepared to this businesse They obtained grant of a Trade on like conditions to the Hollanders who had their Factory their ten yeeres before that time and their House in that space twice burned The Iaponites had twice destroyed Patane by fire in fiue or sixe yeeres space The Countrey adioyning was also full of warres the King of Ior ouer-runne and burned in September that yeere all the Suburbes of Paan those of Camboya Laniam and Iagoman ioyning their force against the King of Siam On the one and thirtieth of December the Queene of Pantanie went to sport Her selfe accompanied with sixe hundred Prawes where wee saith Floris saluted Her being a comely old woman about sixtie tall and full of Maiestie such as they had seene few in the Indies Shee had in company Her sister which is Heire apparant commonly called the young Queene vnmarried and about fortie sixe yeeres of age The Queene had not beene forth of her house in seuen yeeres before and now intended to hunt wild Bulls and Buffes of which there is great abundance The waters this yeere were extraordinarily high carrying away many houses The Queenes younger sister was married to the King of Pahan whom Shee had not seene in twentie eight yeeres notwithstanding Her often Embassies to that purpose At last prouoked with the Kings dallying and delaying to send Her Shee sent out a Fleet of seuentie Sayle with foure thousand men to Pahan to bring her Sister by force in April 1613. Hee being distressed by warres which the King of Ior had made on him burning his Houses Barnes and prouisions and the Queene of Patanie making stay of all Iunkes of Rice laden for Pahan arriued there Iuly the twelfth with the Queenes Sister and her two sonnes and all the Dogs were for his sake killed because he can indure none August the second hee was entertained with a feast at which the English were inuited guests where they saw a Comedie played all by women after the manner of Iaua with antique apparell very pleasant to behold Once before in the Queenes presence they had seene twelue women and children dance very well after them the Gentlemen and last of all the Hollanders and the English were requested to doe it This Queene is well monyed both the English and Dutch tooke vp money of Her at vse this and merchandise being in the Indies the practice of Kings On the first of October there happened a lamentable Fire on a strange occasion Two great men Datoe Besar and Datoe Laxmanna dwelling neere together both rich in Slaues it fell out that Besar hearing that his Iauan Slaues had treatned to kill him with Laxmanna and others caused two of his most suspected Slaues to be bound which the Ponyonla of the Slaues would not suffer and thereupon was stabbed by him with his Creese His Iauan Slaues seeing this would haue taken him but by rescue of his other Slaues hee escaped They neuerthelesse slew all that came in their way and presently set the houses on fire Laxmannas Iauan Slaues could not by any threats be detained from ioyning with them and set all on fire as they went so that the whole Town except the Queenes Court the Meskit and some few houses were burned The Iauans tooke such Bond-women as they best liked away with them and fled into the Countrey Few of them could be taken Iohor or Ior in this yeere 1613. was taken by the forces of the King of Achen after twentie nine dayes siege The Hope a Holland ship of sixe hundred Tun which set saile from Bantam in March with eightie men twentie foure Peeces and seuentie thousand Rials of Eight in Siluer and the worth of ten or twelue thousand in Cloth had the ill hap to come to this Riuer of Iohor and some went vp to the Towne but before they could returne the Achin Armada came to this Siege so that twenty three of their men were taken The rest came October the one and twentieth to Patanie Master Copland then at Achin with Generall Best writes that the Kings Armada returning arriued Iuly the third Gallies and Frigats a hundred and twenty or more with which Laxaman the Generall had subdued the Kingdomes of Ioar and Siak bringing with him both the Kings and two of their brethren which he saith were honourably sent backe and remained tributaries to Achin The Hollanders haue had much trading at Patane and the King of Iohar or Ior moued with their good successe against the Portugals ioyned his Nauie to theirs to chase them out of those parts Yea they haue braued the Portugals euen before Goa the Seat of their Vice-Roy and in Nouember 1604. at Calecut entred into solemne league with the Samaryn at least offered it Iarric denies the acceptation against them and the next yeere they wonne from the Portugals the Castles of Amboyne and Tidore not to mention many other Prizes taken from them by the Hollanders at Macao one ship worth a Million at Sincapura c. at sundry times In the yeere 1605. Cornelius Mateliuius was sent to the Indies with twelue Ships and the next yeare after Paulus à Caerden with twelue more And Mateliue besieged Malaca as before is said But in this attempt they had not successe answerable to their desire and yet not so ill as was likely For the Portugals vpon this newes returning from Achin vpon espiall of a Flemish Saile called a Counsell and made it the next day before they came vp in which space the Hollander had leisure to bring all his Ordnance then on shore for battery aboord his Ships and to prepare himselfe for fight which he held two dayes with the Portugall with two Ships losse on each side the Portugall giuing way So little counsell is sometimes in consultation and easily is opportunity lost in the very seeking Iarric writeth that the Hollanders hauing taken the Fortresses of Amboin and Tidor entred League with ten neighbour Kings enemies to the Portugals and with eleuen Ships seuen Barkes came before Malaca in the end of Aprill 1606. The Kings Confederate had of all sorts of Shipping three hundred twentie seauen with foure thousand men The Iapanders which were then in Malaca vpon affaires of Merchandize did performe good seruice for the distressed Portugal The Siege continued almost
Paroes the Countrey being full of Riuers in which they goe to and fro with their Families as strange is the dwelling here on the Land their houses being set on high posts and their going vp on Ladders for feare of Tygres From hence to Pegu is tenne as is said before or eleuen dayes iourney by the Riuers as before is expressed where their Markets are as their dwellings vpon the water in Boates with a great Sombrero like a Cart-wheele to keepe off the Sunne made of Coco-Leaues They vse in riding to carry bits in their mouthes which make them swell and puffing cheekes The husbands buy their wiues and if they mislike put them away And if the wiues Parents will take away their daughters they must restore that which was giuen in price for her If a man dies without children the King is his Heire And if hee hath children the King hath a third they the rest They vse to carrie men somewhat after the fashion of Congo in a kind of Couerlet of Cotton called Delingo of diuers colours made commodiously to keepe off the Sunne and Raine and easie to lie on as a bed carried by foure men which alway runne from morning to night resting onely once in the day The wife children and slaues of the Debtor are bound to the Creditor who may carry the Debtor to his house and shut him vp or else sell the wife children and slaues The Noble and Ignoble obserue one fashion of attire differing in the finenesse of the matter which commonly is bombast One piece for a shirt another large and painted tied vp betweene the legges On their heads a kind of Mitre of the same and some like a Hiue they goe bare-foot but the Nobles vsually are carried in Delingos or on Horse-backe The women weare a smocke to the girdle from thence a strait cloth of purpose to shew that they are Women in sort before related They goe bare-foote their armes laden with Hoopes of Gold and Iewels and their fingers full of precious Rings with their haire rolled vp about their heads Many weare a cloth about their shoulders in stead of a Cloake In Pegu they vse much Opium Aracan is mid-way betweene Bengala and Pegu on the Coast Hee is able saith Fredericke to arme many Austs by Sea and by Land hath certaine Sluces with the which if the King of Pegu his greatest enemy assaulted his Countrey hee could at pleasure couer a great part with waters In Pegu they haue a custome of buying and selling by Brokers which vndertake for the performance on both sides Also that others standing by may know what is bidden for commodities they haue their hands vnder a cloth and by touching the fingers and nipping the ioynts each finger and ioynt hauing his proper signification they make vp their bargaines CHAP. V. Of the Religion in Pegu and the Countreys sometime subiect thereto THeir Varellaes or Idol-Temples in the Kingdome of Pegu are many They are made round like a Sugar-Loafe or a Bell some are as high as a Church or a reasonable Steeple very broad beneath some a quarter of a mile in compasse in the making of them they consume many Sugar-Canes with which they couer them from the top to the bottome Within they bee all earth done about with stone They spend thereon much gold for they be all gilded aloft and many of them from the top to the bottome and euery ten or twelue yeeres they must bee new gilded because the Raine consumeth off the gold for they stand open abroad Were it not for this vaine custome gold would there be good cheape About two dayes iourney from Pegu there is a Varelle or Pagode which is the Pilgrimage of the Pegues It is called Dogonne and is of wonderfull bignesse and all gilded from the foot to the top This house is fifty fiue paces in length and hath in it three Iles or Walks and forty great Pillars gilded which stand betweene them It is gilded with gold within and without These are houses very faire round about for the Pilgrims to lie in and many goodly houses for the Tallipoys to preach in which are full of Images both of men and women all ouer gilded I suppose it the fairest place in the world It standeth very high and there are foure waies to it which all along are set with Trees of Fruits in such wise that a man may goe in the shade aboue two miles in length And when their Feast-day is a man can hardly passe by Water or by Land for the great prease of people which resort thither from all places of the Kingdome There are on the shoares of Dogon two Statues which from the head down-ward represent young men but haue the faces of Deuils and two wings on their backes In Pegu there is Varelle or Temple like to this which the King frequented to doe his Holies therein mounting vp staires at the foot whereof were two Tygers gaping wide seeming as if they had beene aliue Besides the many Magazins or Treasuries full of Treasure which the late Braman King had hee had neere vnto the Palace a Court walled with stone the gates whereof were open euery day Within this Court are foure gilded Houses couered with Lead and in euery of them certaine Idols of great value In the first house was a great Statue of Gold and on his head a Crowne of Gold beset with rare Rubies and Saphires and about him foure little children of Gold In the second House is another of Siluer as high as an House set as it were sitting on heapes of money crowned his foot is as long as a man In the third house there is the like Idoll of Brasse and in the fourth of Ganza which is their Mony-mettall tempered of Lead and Copper In another Court not farre from this stand foure other Colosses or huge Images of Copper in Houses gilded faire as they are themselues saue the head Balby tells of fiue made of Ganza so monstrous that the toes of their feeet were as big as a man and sitting crosse-legged were yet as high as one could hurle a stone and were all gilded Fernandes relateth of threescore and seuen Images of Gold richly adorned with Iewels and three hundred threescore and sixe Combalengas or Gourds of Gold molten by the Kings Father each weighing a hundred fourescore pound besides his other Treasures to conceale which he slew two hundred Eunuchs his attendants Their Tallipoys before they take Orders go to Schoole till they be twentie yeeres old or more then they come before a Tallipoy appointed for that purpose whom they call Rowli Hee as chiefe and most learned examineth them many times Whether they will leaue their Friends and the company of all Women and take vpon them the habite of a Tallipoy If hee be content then hee rideth vpon an Horse about the streets very richly apparrelled with Drums and Pipes to shew that hee leaueth the riches of the
was hell and that the soules of their wicked Ancestors went thither to be tormented and that those who were good and valiant men went downe into the pleasant Valley where the great City di Laguna now standeth then which the Towns adioyning to it there is not in any place of the World a more delicater temperature of Ayre nor a goodlier Obiect for the eye to make a Royall Landskip of as to stand in the Centre of this Plaine and to behold how nature hath delineated all earthly beauty in the great On the North side of the Iland are many fresh waters with falling downe from the top of exceeding high Mountaynes refresh the Plaines and City di Laguna and are afterwards by the greatnesse of their torrent carried into the Ocean The Iland is parted in the midst with a ridge of Mountaynes like the roofe of a Church hauing in the midst of it like a steeple the Pyke of Teyda if you diuide the Iland into twelue parts ten of them are taken vp in impassable Rocky Hils in Woods in Vineyards and yet in this small remaynder of arrable ground there was gathered as I saw vpon their account in the yeere of our Lord 1582. 200. and 5000. Hannacks of Wheat besides infinite store of Rie and Barley One of our English quarters make foure and a halfe of their Hannacks The soyle is delicately temperate and would produce all the most excellent things the earth beareth if the Spaniards would seeke and labour them The Vineyards of account are in Buena Vista in Dante in Oratana in Tigueste and in the Ramble which place yeeldeth the most excellent Wine of all other There are two sorts of Wines in this Iland Vidonia and Muluesia Vidonia is drawne out of a long Grape and yeeldeth a dull Wine The Maluesia out of a great round Grape and this is the only Wine which passeth all the Seas of the World ouer and both the Poles without sowring or decaying whereas all other wines turne to Vineger or freeze into Ice as they approch the Southerne or Northerne Pole There are no where to be found fairer or better Mellons Pomegranates Pomecitrons Figs Orenges Limons Almonds and Dates Honey and consequently Waxe and Silke though not in great quantity yet excellent good and if they would plant there store of Mulberry trees the ground would in goodnesse and for quantity equall if not exceed eyther Florence or Naples in that commodity The North side of this Iland aboundeth aswell with wood as with water There grow the Cedar Cypresse and Bay tree the wild Oliue Masticke and Sauine goodly procerous Palme and Pine-trees which shoot vp into a beautifull streight talnese In the passage betwixt Oratana and Garachiro you ride through a whole Forrest of them the strong sauour of which perfumeth all the Aire thereabouts of these there are such abundance all the Iland ouer that all their Wine Vessels and woodden Vtensils are made of them There are of these Pine-trees two sorts the strait Pine and the other growing after the manner of our spreading Okes in England which wood the Inhabitants call the Immortall tree for that it rotteth neyther aboue nor below the ground nor in the water It is neere as red as Brasill , and as hard but nothing so vnctuous as the other kind of Pine Of these they haue such great ones that the Spaniards doe faithfully report that the wood of one Pine-tree alone couered the Church of los Remedios in the City of Laguna which is 80. foote in length and 48. foote in breadth And that one other Pine-tree couered the Church of S. Benito in the same City which is 100. foot in length and 35. in breadth The noblest and strangest tree of all the Iland is the tree called Draco his body riseth into an exceeding height and greatnesse The barke is like the scales of a Dragon and from thence I suppose it had his name On the very top of the tree doe all his armes cling and interfold together by two and by two like the Mandragoras they they are fashioned euen like the arme of a man round and smooth and as out of their fingers ends groweth the leafe about two foote in length in fashion like to our greene wild water seggs This tree hath not wood within its barke but only a light spongious pith and they commonly make Bee-hiues of the bodies of them Towards the full of the Moone it sweateth forth a cleane Vermilion Gummme which they call Sangre de Draco more excellent and astringeth by farre then that Sanguis Draconis which wee haue from Goa and from other parts of the East Indies by reason the Iewes are the only Druggists of those parts and to make mony they falsifie and multiply it with other trash foure pound waight for one The first that were knowne to inhabit this Iland are called Guanches but how they came thither it is hard to know because they were and are people meerely barbarous voyd of Letters The language of the old Guanches which remayneth to this day among them in this Iland in their Towne of Candelaria alludeth much to that of the Moores in Barbary When Betanchor the first Christian Discouerer of these parts came thither he found them to be no other then meere Gentiles ignorant of God Notwithstanding I doe not find that they had any manner of commerce with the Deuill a thing not vsuall among the Indian Gentiles They held there was a power which they called by diuers names as Achuhurahan Achuhucanar Achguayaxerax signifying the greatest the highest and the mayntayner of all If they wanted raine or had too much or any thing went ill with them they brought their sheepe and their Goats into a certaine place and seuered the young ones from the Dams and with this bleating on both sides they thought the wrath of the Supreme Power was appeased and that he would prouide them of what they wanted They had some notion of the immortality and punishment of Soules for they thought there was a Hell and that it was in the Pike of Teyda and they call Hell Echeyde and the Deuill Guayotta In ciuill affaires they were somewhat Regular as in acknowledging a King and confessing vassalage in contracting Matrimony reiecting of Bastards succession of Kings making of Lawes and subiecting themselues to them When any childe was borne they called vnto them a certaine woman and shee did with certaine words powre water vpon the childes head and euer after this woman was assumed into the number of that kindred and with her it was not lawfull euer after for any of that race to marrie or vse copulation The exercises which the young men vsed were leaping or running shooting the Dart casting of the stone and dauncing in which to this houre they do both exceedingly glorie and delight And so full of naturall vertue and honest simplicitie were these Barbarians
vsed the like with all his seruants and ornaments they gaue him for the other world and lastly buried the ashes with great solemnitie The obsequies continued ten dayes with mournefull songs and the Priests carried away the dead with innumerable ceremonies To the Noble-men they gaue their honourable Ensignes Armes and particular Blazons which they carried before the body to the place of burning marching as in a Procession where the Priests and Officers of the Temple went with diuers furniture and ornaments some casting incense others singing and some making the Drums and Flutes to sound the mournfullest accents of sorrow The Priest who did the Office was decked with the markes of the Idoll which the Noble-men had represented for all Noble-men did represent Idols and carrie the name of some One The Mexicans honoured the best souldiers with a kinde of Knighthood of which were three Orders one ware a red ribband which was the chiefe the second was the Lyon or Tyger-knight the Grey-Knight was the meanest they had great priuiledges Their Knighthood had these funerall solemnities They brought the corps to the place appointed and enuironing it and all the baggage with Pine-trees set fire thereon maintaining the same with gummie wood till all were consumed Then came forth a Priest attired like a diuell hauing mouthes vpon euery ioynt of him and many eyes of Glasse holding a great staffe with which he mingled all the ashes with terrible and fearfull gestures When the King of Mexico sickened they vsed forthwith to put a Visor on the face of Tezcatlipuca or Vitzilivitzli or some other Idoll which was not taken away till hee mended or ended If he died word was presently sent into all his Dominions for publike lamentations and Noble-men were summoned to the funerals The body was laid on a Mat and watched foure nights then washed and a locke of haire out off for a relike for therein said they remained the remembrance of his soule After this an Emerald was put in his mouth and his body shrowded in 17. rich mantles costly and curiously wrought Vpon the vpper mantle was set the Deuice or Armes of some Idoll whereunto he had been most deuout in in his life time and in his Temple should the body be buried Vpon his face they put a Visor painted with foule and deuillish gestures beset with jewels then they killed the slaue whose office was to light the Lamps and make fire to the gods of his Palace This done they carried the body to the Temple some carrying Targets Arrows Maces and Ensignes so hurle into the funerall fire The High Priest and his crue receiue him at the Temple gate with a sorrowfull Song and after he hath said certaine words the body is cast into the fire there prepared for that purpose together with jewels also a Dog newly strangled to guide his way In the meane-while two hundred persons were sacrificed by the Priests or more to serue him as is said The fourth day after fifteene slaues were sacrificed for his soule and vpon the twentieth day fiue on the sixtieth three c. The ashes with the locke of haire was put in a Chest painted on the in-side with deuillish shapes together with another locke of haire which had been reserued since the time of his birth On this Chest was set the Image of the King the kinred offered great gifts before the same The King of Mechuacan obserued the like bloudy Rites many Gentlewomen were by the new King appointed their Offices in their seruice to the deceased and while his body was burning were malled with clubs and buried foure and foure in a graue Many Women slaues and free Maidens were slaine to attend on these Gentlewomen But I would not bury my Reader in these direfull graues of men cruell in like and death Let vs seeke some Festiuall argument if that may be more delightfull CHAP XIII Of the supputation of Times Festiuall Solemnities Colledges Schooles Letters Opinions and other remarkeable things in New Spaine §. I. Their Kalender and Conceits of Time and some of their Feasts THe Mexicans diuided the yeere into eighteene moneths ascribing to each twentie dayes so that the fiue odde dayes were excluded These fiue they reckoned apart and called them the dayes of nothing during the which the people did nothing neither went to their Temples but spent the time in visiting each other the Sacrificers likewise ceased their Sacrifices These fiue dayes being past the first moneth began about the twentie sixe of February Gomara sets downe their moneths names in order The Indians described them by peculiar Pictures commonly taken of the principall Feast therein They accounted their weeks by thirteene dayes they had also a weeke of yeeres which was likewise thirteene They reckoned by a certaine Wheele which contayned foure weekes that is two and fiftie yeeres In the midst of this Wheele was painted the Sunne from which went foure beames of lines in a Crosse of distinct colours Greene Blue Red and Yellow and so the lines betwixt these on which they noted by some Picture the accident that befell any yeere as the Spaniards comming marked by a man clad in Red The last night when this Wheele was run about they brake all their vessels and stuffe put out their fire and all the lights saying that the World should end at the finishing of one of these Wheeles and it might be at that time and then what should such things need Vpon this conceit they passed the night in great feare but when they saw the day begin to breake they presently beat many Drums with much other mirth and Musicke saying that God did prolong the time with another Age of two and fifty yeeres And then began another Wheele the first day whereof they tooke new fire for which they went to the Priest who fetched it out of a Mountaine and made a solemne Sacrifice and Thanksgiuing The twenty dayes of each moneth were called by seuerall names the first Cipactli which signifieth a Spade and so the rest a House a Dogge a Snake an Eagle a Temple and the like By this Kalendar they keepe things in memory aboue nine hundred yeeres since The Indians of Culhua did beleeue that the Gods had made the World they knew not how and that since the Creation foure Sunnes were past and that the fift and last is the Sunne which now giueth light vnto the World The first Sunne forsooth perished by water and all liuing creatures therewith the second fell from Heauen and with the fall slue all liuing creatures and then were many Giants in the Country the third Sunne was consumed by fire and the fourth by Tempest of ayre and wind and then Mankind perished not but was turned into Apes yet when that fourth Sunne perished all was turned into darknesse and so continued fiue and twenty yeeres and at the fifteenth yeere God did forme one man and woman who brought forth children and at the end of other ten yeeres
they are very iealous and if they take them in Adulterie cause their braines to be beaten out Their wiues especially the elder are as their seruants and he which hath most is the greatest man Their account of time is by Moones or dayes their numbring is to ten and then say ten and one c. They also keepe accounts by bundles of stickes contayning so many as dayes are agreed on of which they take away euery day one They haue a certaine obseruance of the Sunne and Moone supposing them to be aliue but as farre as he could perceiue vsed neither Sacrifice nor adoration to any thing At the death of any great man they make a solemne Feast their chiefest prouision being their strongest drinke called Parranow and as long as this drinke lasteth they continue their Feast with dancing singing and excessiue drinking accounting the greatest Drunkard the brauest man during which drunken solemnitie some woman being neerest of kinne to the dead partie stands by and cries extremely Their Priests or South-sayers he cals them Pecaios haue conference with the Deuill whom they terme Wattipa but feare him much and say hee is naught hee will often beate them blacke and blue They beleeue that the good Indians when they die goe to Caupo or Heauen the bad to Soy downwards When a chiefe man dies if hee haue a Captiue they slay him if not then one of his seruants to attend him the other world The qualitie of the Land is diues by the Sea-side low and would be violently hot if a fresh Easterly breeze did not coole it with a vehement breath in the heate of the day the Mountaines are colder the middle sort most temperate Profit may here take pleasure neither need pleasure abandon profit The particulars are by this and other our Authors related I hunt after Rarities to present you Such is the fish Cassoorwa which hath in each eye two sights and as it swimmeth it beares the lower sights within the water and the other aboue the ribs and backe resemble those parts in a man saue that it is little bigger but much daintier then a Smelt Besides the Pockiero or small Swine with the Nauill in the backe is another called Paingo as large as ours in England The Sea-cow or Manatin eates like Beefe and will take Salt and serue to victuall ships it yeelds also an excellent Oyle and the hide will make Buffe There are infinite store of them The Pina for delicacie exceedeth a fruit tasting like Strawberries Claret-wine and Sugar What commoditie Tobacco and Sugars in those parts may yeeld is incredible especially in this smokie humour of the one sexe and that daintier of the other Their Dies Gummes and other commodities I omit Of Gold and other Metals they haue good testimonie The Marashawaccas are a Nation of Charibes vp high within Land hauing great eares beyond credit they haue an Idoll of stone which they worship as their God in a house erected purposely to it which they keepe verie cleane It is fashioned like a man sitting vpon his heeles holding open his knees and resting his elbowes vpon them holding vp his hands with the palmes forwards and gaping with his mouth wide open Captaine Michael Harcourt was left Commander of the Countrie for his Brother who continued the possession three yeeres in all which space of thirtie persons died but sixe and some of them by casualtie Amongst the East Indian Plants is mentioned one called Sentida the like they found here much like vnto Rose trees about halfe a yard high which if they were touched or a leafe cut from them would presently shrinke and close vp themselues and hang as they were dead and withered within halfe a quarter of an houre by degrees againe opening Areminta the Cacique of Moreshegoro had a rough skin like to Buffe-leather of which kind there be many in those parts They returned by Cape Brea which is so called of the Pitch there gotten in the Earth whereof there is such abundance that all places of this our World may be stored thence it is excellent for trimming of shippes for those hote Countries not melting in the Sunne §. III. Relations of these and the adioyning Countries by the Spaniards IT were a hard taske to muster all that World of Riuers and names of Nations in the parts neere Guiana which they that will may finde in Sir Walter and Master Keymis and Master Harcourt their owne Relations As for Guiana this Sir Walter hath written It is directly East from Peru towards the Sea and lyeth vnder the Aequinoctiall it hath more abundance of Gold then any part of Peru and as many or moe great Cities It hath the same Lawes Gouernment and Religion and Manoa the Imperiall Citie of Guiana which some Spaniards haue seene and they call it El Dorado for the greatnesse riches and situation farre exceedeth any of the World at least so much of it as the Spaniards know It is founded vpon a Lake of salt-Salt-water two hundred leagues long like vnto the Caspian Sea The Emperour of Guiana is descended from the Ingas the magnificent Princes of Peru For when Francis Pizarro had conquered Peru and slaine Atabalipa the King one of his younger brethren fled from thence and took with him many thousands of those Souldiers of the Empire called Oreiones with whom and other his followers he vanquished all that tract which is between the great Riuers of Orenoque and Amazones Diego Ordas who was one of the Captaines of Cortes in the conquest of Mexico in the yeere 1531. thus saith Gomara and that he perished at Sea others with more probability say it was a few yeeres after the conquest of Peru made search for Guiana but lost himselfe being slaine in a mutinie Before this his prouision of Powder was fired and one Iuan Martinez which had the charge thereof was therefore condemned to bee executed But at the Souldiers request his punishment was altered and hee set in a Canoa alone without victuall and so turned loose into the Riuer Certaine Guianians met him and hauing neuer seene man of that colour they carried him into the Land to be wondred at and so from Towne to Towne till hee came to the great Citie of Manoa the seat and residence of Inga the Emperour He no sooner saw him but he knew him to be a Christian for the Spaniards not long before had conquered his brother and caused him to be well entertained in his Palace Hee liued seuen moneths in Manoa but was not suffered to wander any whither into the Countrie he was also brought thither all the way blind-fold led by the Indians vntill he came at Manoa He entred the Citie at noone and trauelled all that day till night and the next from the rising till the setting of the Sunne thorow the Citie ere hee came to the Palace of Inga After seuen moneths the Emperour put him to his choise whether to stay or goe and he with the Emperours
from other fishes being halfe a span straight vp erected from his mouth the greatest foure foot long a scole of these followed them neere one thousand leagues knowne to bee the same by some hurts wherewith they had marked them The Bonitos are like Mackrils but greater some as bigge as a man could lift The Sharkes haue their mouthes vnder their bellies that they cannot bite their prey without a halfe turne and the helpe of his tayle These are the most rauenous and some hold ominous they haue found in their bellies Hats Caps Shooes Ropes ends and whatsoeuer hanged by the Ships sides they haue thirteene rowes of teeth They spawne not but whelpe like the Dogge or Wolfe and at night or towards stormes receiue their young into their mouthes for safetie I haue seene them sayth Sir Richard go in and out being aboue a foot and halfe long Little fishes alway accompany them and feed on the scraps they are lesse then a Pilchard streaked blacke and white as in coloured Liueries keeping on the head fins and backe of the other Another obseruation of this our Author is the Scuruie or Scorbute whereunto they are much subiect in Nauigations neere the Line the cause he ascribeth the weaknesse of the stomacke in immoderate heate salt meates specially fish Calmes and the Sea-water which could not but infect the World if it were not otherwise affected and moued with Windes Tides and Currents an instance whereof he sheweth in the Queenes Nauie in the yeere of our Lord 1590. at the Asores many moneths becalmed the Sea thereby being replenished with seuerall sorts of Gellies and formes of Serpents Adders and Snakes Greene Yellow Blacke White and some partie-coloured whereof many had life being a yard and halfe or two yards long And they could hardly draw a Bucket of water cleere of some corruption withall In twentie yeeres wherein he vsed the Sea hee could giue account of two thousand consumed with this disease In this Voyage they were forced for want of fresh Water to distill Sea-water which they found wholsome and nourishing I might follow our Authour in his Obseruations of these Seas which he sayth vnder the Line is best to crosse in Ianuary February and March and of the Ilands of Cape Verde elsewhere by vs obserued being in the height of these Ilands where now we are discouering which he sayth are the most vnwholsome in the World and had halfe his people on this Coast sicke of shaking burning frenzie-feuers a man can scarcely goe on the Earth though well shod when the Sun shineth and the Breeze which in the afternoone cooles them from the North-east pierceth them also with sudden cold so that the Inhabitants goe thicke clothed with Caps and Kerchers besides their Hats their Suites of thicke cloth and Gownes well lined or furred to preuent danger Sleeping in the open Ayre or in the Moone-shine is there very vnwholsome The Moone shining on his shoulder on the Coast of Guinee left him with such paine that for twentie houres space he was like to run mad But what Moone-shine hath made mee lunatike to run from these American Ilands to those and the Coast of Africa Patience Reader and I will bring thee backe in a fresher pursuit In Dominica where we were last on shore it is related by one which wrote the Earle of Cumberland his Voyage to Port Rico that they haue their seuerall Houses to other vses priuate but haue a common Hall or Dyet for to eate in together as Lycurgus instituted to preuent Riot amongst his Spartans The Maydes in this Iland are said to weare no Garters and the first night of their Marriage they tye them so hard that the flesh hangs ouer In Tortuga they tolled certaine Spaniards ashoare vnder pretence of Traffique and then ate them §. III. Of Boriquen Iamaica Cuba and the Lucayae BOriquen or Saint Iohns is three hundred miles long and seuenty broad trauersed with a rough Mountayne which yeelds many Riuers The Spaniards haue there some Townes The Earle of Cumberland in the yeere 1597. hauing by his Sea forces stayed the going of fiue Carikes to the Indies whereby the King of Spaine lost three Millions and the Merchants foure times as much sayled to Saint Iohn Port Rico in this Iland and tooke it with diuers Forts here was a Bishops See and Cathedrall Church with a Fryery foure hundred Souldiers in pay besides three hundred others It was accounted the Mayden Towne and inuincible and is the Spanish Key and their first Towne in the Indies He brought from thence neere fourescore cast Peeces and much other wealth This Iland was first conquered by Iohn Ponce and by him inhabited the Naturals were altogether like in Religion and manners to the Inhabitants of Hispaniola and so were the Plants and Fruits also Ouiedo hath written hereof largely in his sixteenth Booke There growes the Tree called Legno Santo more excellent then Guaiacan for the Neapolitan and many other diseases there is also white Gumme good for Ships in stead of Pitch and there are Bats which the Inhabitants did eate These Ilands are not so well peopled as in former times and many of them are retyring places of Rebels and Fugitiues which take this shelter against the Spanish cruelties Hispaniola is the next Iland of name but shall haue a place by it selfe as a Map and Summarie of all the other Iamaica is almost as large as Boriquen It is extremely subiect to the Vracani which are such terrible gusts of Winde that nothing can resist them They turne vp Trees ouer-turne Houses transport the Ships from Sea to Land and bring with them a most dreadfull and horrible confusion They raigne or tyrannize rather in August September and October The Inhabitants are of quicker wits then the other Ilands Cuba is more Northerly and extendeth it selfe three hundred leagues in length and twentie in bredth full of Mountaynes Woods Fennes Riuers Lakes both salt and fresh This Iland hath had many names giuen by the Spaniards Fernandina Ioanna Alpha and Omega The Woods are replenished with Swine and Kine the Riuers yeeld Golden Sands It hath sixe Spanish Colonies Saint Iago a Bishops See is the chiefe Towne in the Iland and Hauana is the chiefe Port of the Indies Ouiedo reckons two things most admirable therein one a Valley trending betweene two Hils three leagues which produceth abundance of stones enough to lade many Ships of a perfect round forme like Bullets The other a Fountaine whence Bitumen or a certaine Pitchie substance floweth and floteth euen to the Sea excellent for pitching of Ships In this Iland the common people were prohibited the eating of Serpents as being reserued for Royall Dainties and the Prerogatiues of the Kings Table Columbus sayling by this Iland lighted into a Nauigable Riuer the water whereof was so hot that none might endure his hand long therein He espied also a Canoa of fishermen which after a strange fashion
continentur Non pro defectu potentiae sed quia non possunt habere rationem patibilis vel possibilis Conuenientius dicitur quod ea non possunt fieri quam quòd Deus non possit facere Ap. 1. q. 25. art 3. d. n 2. Tim 2.12 o â—al l. 2 c. 〈…〉 p 〈…〉 q â—â—â—câ—uid emnino de illo retularis vim al quaÌ„ ipsius magis virtutem quà m ipsum explicaâ—eris Quid enim dignum de en aut dicas aut sentias qui omn bus sermonibus sensibus maior est Tertul. de Trin p 598. Quatuor à Deo remouenda corporeitas mutabilitas priuatio assimilatio ad Creaturas R. Mos Moreh l. 1. 54. 57. tanquam de Rege diceretur habente millies mille talâ—nt auri quòd haberet centum talenta argenti r Deus vnus in Trinitate trinus in vnitate Arnob in Psal. 145. Å¿ Mat. 3. t Esay 6. Zanch. de 3. Elohim haec fusè u Morn de ver C.R. F. Patric P. Gal. l. 12 alijqueâ—lâ—râ—mi x Iustin 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 y 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Nazian z Bern. ad Eugeni a D. Abbot par 2 Defen pag. 9. Zanch. de N.D. lib. 5. cap. 1. b Treleat Zanch. de Na. D. l. 5. c. 1. 2. c 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 d 1. Ioh. 5.20 e Gal. 4.6 a Iam. 1.17 b 1. Joh. 1.5 Qui scrutatur Maiestatem opprimetur à gloria Ne si sorte suas repetitum venerit olim Grex auium plumas c. c Gen. 1.1 d Nothing but Nothing had the Lord Almighty Wherof wherewith whereby to build this Citie Du Bart. E nulla vel prima vel secunda materia quae omni factioni fabricationi generationi opificio artificio subijcitur Creatio fit etiam citra omne temporis momentum quippe à virtute infinita Iul. Scal Ex. 6. Hebraei statuunt discrimen inter Creare formare facere 1. ex nihilo facere 2. enti Cresto formam inducere 3. membra singula ordinare quae tamen indiscriminatim ponuntur Es 43.7 Oecolamp in G. e 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Basil hom 1. in principio temporis id est simul cum tempore Eadem Ioan. Philoponus in Hexam ap Photium 240. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Tempus non tam mensura metus quam 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 permanentia duratio corporum rerumque corporearam aliorum est â—on 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 quasi 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Hermes sic suum instituit ordinem Deus aeon mundus tempus generatio Deus aeona facit aeon mundum mundus Tempus tempus generationem Thomas ait simul cum tempore Quatuor enim ponuntur simul creata s coelum Empyreum materea corporalis quae nomine terrae intelligitur Tempus Naturae Angelica Sum. p. 1. q. 47. art 1. Fagius vertit Quum Deus principiò coelum terram creauit erat terra inanis vacua Nam simpliciter ait hoc voluit Moses non statim ab initio expolitum fuisse mundum vt hodiè cernitur sed inane coeli terrae chaos fuisse creatum f Merula Pererius interpretationem hanc Chrysostomo tribuunt g Caluin in Gen. Muester Luther Artopaeus Fag ap Marlorat R. Nathmanni intelligit per coelum terrae materiam tenuissimani impalpabilem diuerse tamen naturae ita vt coelum coelestis terra terrestris fuerit Iunius interpretatùr extimum illum huius vniuersitatis ambitum cum super coelestibus incolis illius spiritualibus formis atque intelligentijs tùm materiam illam primam ex qua terra ac res omnes coelestes ac terrestres factae sunt De triplici Coelo vid. Ar. Montan Nature obseruat h Theodoret Beda Strabus Alcuinus Lyra plerique scholastici i Zanch. de oper Dei pers 1. l. 1. c. 2. Burgens Polanus Bucanus c. Paul Merula Cosmogr part 1. l. 1. Perer. in Gen. interprets by Heauen the heauenly bodies then made and after perfected with light and motion by Earth the element of the Earth k Col. 1.16 l Gen. 2.1 Exod. 20.11 Iob 38.7 m Gen. 32.1 n Gen. 3.1 o Pet. Martyr in Gen p Zach. de operib part 1. lib. 1. cap. 4. q As Dionys those which Tritemius mentioneth de Intelligent coelest which number 7. Orifiel Anael Zachariel Raphael Samael Gabriel Michael all which in course and succession gouerne the world Each 354. years and 4. months c. r Ioh. 14.2 Å¿ Apoc. 21.3 t 1. Cor. 15.28 u Hebr. 11.3 x Arist Phys l 1. Iun. praef in Gen. y By darknesse and deep Philoponus vnderstâ—ndeth the Aire and Water ap Phot. 240 z Gibbins on Genes * Hier. l. trad Hebr. Trem. Iun. Basil hom 2. ex Ephrem Syro * Merc. de Fab. mundi ante eum Tertul. ad Hermog Theod. q. 8. in Gen. Caietan de Angelis interpretatur R. Mos ben Maim Mor. Neb. l. 1. c. 39. is of that mind but l. 2. c. 31. he findeth the foure elements in these foure words heere mentioned Earth Spirit Deepe and Darknesse a Patricius numbreth the linkes of this chaine in this order Calor qui in t rra aqua mistis est ab aereo pendet hic à coelesti is à sole astris hic vero ab Empyreo Empyreus à luminis calore hic ab animario hic ab intellectuali hic à vitali primario hic quoque à primario essentiali hic itidem ab ideali qui in Deo habitat à Deo patre est deriuà tus Pancos l. 5. The interpretation of this mysticall Phylosophie yee may borrow of himselfe in his Panaug Panarc Pamsyc Pancos more agreeing with Zoroaster Hermes and some Platonikes then the Scriptures which shew that all things were immediatly created in the beginning by God b Virg. Aeneid l. 6. on which words Seruius commenteth Deus est quidam diuinus spiritus qui per 4. infusus elementa gignit vniuersal c Vatab. Marlorat in Gen. d Bas hex. hom 6. Greg. Naz. orat 43. Nicetas in eum e Zanch. Hugo Lumbard Tostatus c. f Merul. p. 1. l. 1 c. 4. g Damas. de f. orth l. 2 c. 7. Hugo Annot. in Gen. Gr. Nyssen Iunius c. h Vid. Plutar. de Plac. Philos l. 2. Patrit Panang l. 7. Pancos. l. 15. 22. i 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 cuius partes condensatae stellae aether autem dictus ab 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to burne Stoicorum opinionem vid. Aug. de Ciu. Dei l. 8. c. 5. The Sunne saith Philo is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and Zanch. Sol. heb. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 q. d. ibi ignis and another Coelum ig is influens 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 quasi 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 id est ignis aqua k Cardan de sub l. 1. Merula Cos l. 3. c. 2. Io. Pic. Mirand de element c. 3. Tycho Brahe de Cometa 1577.
fit to answer that These Brethren holding much resemblance in name nature and feature yet differ both in the obiect and subiect This being mine own in matter though borrowed and in forme of words and method Whereas my Pilgrims are the Authors themselues acting their owne parts in their owne words onely furnished by me with such necessaries as that stage further required and ordered according to my rules here is a Pilgrimage to the Temples of the Worlds Citie religionis ergo with obuious and occasionall view of other things there is a full Voyage and in a method of Voyages the whole Citie of the World propounded together with the Temples here the soule and some accessories there the body and soule of the remoter World with 98 her rarer furniture this from the eare that from the eye this briefer notes that the Text it selfe How euer such was his Maiesties fauour as to adde for my further encouragement his promise to heare at large all those Pilgrims which was nightly also performed vntill his fatall sicknesse called him to enioy a nightlesse day in the heauenly Kingdome Euen the last day on which this Citie saw him it pleased him with gracious approbation of the former to impose another taske on me by an Honourable messenger with promise of reward which had almost in a dangerous sickenesse buried me and was buried with those hopes in his Maiesties graue whose Funerals this Citie hath beene forced euer since to solemnise with armies of Mourners pressed by Pestilence to attend follow His Corps with their owne And if some liuing remaines of him had not shined in his Sonne King CHARLES in that Sun-set what a Chaos of darkenesse had befalne vs which lost that day and yet saw no night And long may your Grace shine as a Starre of greatest magnitude attending neere our happy Charles-waine and euer may that Royall Race bee the Load-starre of our Church and State vnder the Sunne of righteousnesse euen so long as Bootes shall attend on that bright constellation May it please your Grace to pardon this talkatiue boldnesse and to permit mee also to mention your late fauour and seconding that Royall testimonie when notwithstanding the dreadfull infection your gracious affection admitted free communication with me intended a free and bountifull Collation on me and extended so large a collaudation to those my Pilgrimes neither by their voluminous prolixitie deterred from reading them nor then deterring my suspended scrupulous thoughts by your iudicious seueritie but with ingenuous sinceritie yeelding a testimonie so able and ample that though I blush to record it yet I now repent not of so vast vndertakings which such iudgement deemeth so profitable that the studious in this kind of literature neede goe no further which was the scope of those voluminous Collections to coniure as it were all Trauelling spirits into that one Pilgrime-centre and at once to make the World Eye-witnesse to it selfe Let me glorie further that my Volumes are admitted into your Graces Librarie and my selfe an appendix of your family and Your Graces vnworthy Chaplaine S. P. To the Reader AND now READER The PILGRIME comes vnto thee the fourth time with whom hee dares be somewhat bolder Being I know not by what naturall inclination addicted to the studie of Historie my heart would sometimes obiect a selfe-loue in following my priuate delights in that kinde At last I resolued to turne the pleasures of my studies into studious paines that others might againe by delightfull studie turne my paines into their pleasure I heere bring Religion from Paradise to the Ark and thence follow her round about the World and for her sake obserue the World it selfe with the seueral Countries and Peoples therin the chiefe Empires and States their priuate and publique Customes their manifold chances and changes also the wonderfull and most remarkeable effects of Nature Euents of Diuine and Humane Prouidence Rarities of Art and whatsoeuer I finde by Relations of Historians as I passe most worthie the writing Religion is my more proper aime and therefore I insist longer on the description of whatsoeuer I finde belonging thereto declaring the Religion of the first Men the corrupting of it before and after the Floud the Iewish obseruations the Idols Idolatries Temples Priests Feasts Fasts Opinions Sects Orders and sacred Customes of the Heathens with the Alterations and Successions that haue therein happened from the beginning of the World hitherto This Worke I diuide into foure parts This first exhibiteth the Relations and Theologicall discouerie of ASIA AFRICA and AMERICA The second when God will shall doe the same for EVROPE The third and fourth in a second visitation shall obserue such things in the same places as I holde most remarkeable in the Christian and Ecclesiasticall Historie and that according to the same Method which is squared in the Whole by order of Place going still out of one Countrie into the next in each particular part and seuerall Countrie by the order of Time deducing our Relations so farre as we haue Others foot-prints to guide vs though not exactly naming the day and yeere and determining questions in Chronologicall controuersies yet in some conuenient sort from the ancient times and by degrees descending to the present If thou demandest what profit may be hereof I answere that heere Students of all sorts may finde matter fitting their studies The naturall Philosophers may obserue the different constitution and commixtion of the Elements their diuers working in diuers places the varietie of heauenly influence of the yeerely seasons of the Creatures in the Aire Water Earth They which delight in State-affaires may obserue the varietie of States and Kingdomes with their differing Lawes Polities and Customes their Beginnings and Endings The Diuine besides the former may heere contemplate the workes of God not in Creation alone but in his Iustice and Prouidence pursuing sinne euery where with such dreadfull plagues both bodily in rooting vp and pulling downe the mightiest Empires and especially in spirituall Iudgements giuing vp so great a part of the World vnto the efficacie of Errour in strong delusions that hauing forsaken the Fountaine of liuing waters they should dig vnto themselues these broken Pits that can hold no water deuout in their superstitions and superstitious in their deuotions agreeing all in this that there should bee a Religion disagreeing from each other and the TRVTH in the practice thereof Likewise our Ministers may be incited vnto all godly labours in their function of preaching the Gospel seeing otherwise for outward and bodily ceremonies the Turkes and Iewes in their manifold deuotions in their Oratories euery day and other Heathen would conuince vs of idlenesse And let mee haue leaue to speake it for the glory of God and the good of our Church I cannot finde any Priests in all this my Pilgrimage of whom wee haue any exact History but take more bodily paines in their deuotions than is performed by not preaching Ministers especially in Countrie-villages
Kingdome Kings and City of Marocco ibid. § II. Of the Kings of the Seriffian Family p. 695 § III. Of the ciuill Wars in Barbary and of some other parts of that Kingdome pag. 697 CHAP. XII OF the Arabians populations and depopulations in Afrike and of the Naturall Africans and of the beginnings and proceedings of the Mahumetan Superstition in Africa of the Portugals Forces and Exploits therein pag. 701 CHAP. XIII OF Biledulgerid and Sarra otherwise called Numidia and Libya pag. 706 CHAP. XIIII OF the Land of Negros pag. 709 § I. Of the Riuer Niger Gualata Senaga and Guinea ibid. § II. Obseruations of those parts out of Cadamosta and other ancient Nauigators pag. 712 § III. Other obseruations of later Times by Engglishmen and others pag. 715 § IIII. Of the Marriages Manners Religion Funerals Gouernment and other Rites of the Guineans collected out of a late Dutch Authour pag. 717 § V. Obseruations of the Coast and Inland Countries out of Barrerius and Leo and of the cause of the Negroes blacknesse pag. 721 THE SEVENTH BOOKE Of Aethiopia and the African Ilands and of their RELIGIONS CHAP. I. OF Aethiopia Superior and the Antiquities thereof pag. 725 § I. Of the name and diuision of Aethiopia ibid. § II. Of the Nations neere the falls of Nilus and of Meroe pag. 727 CHAP. II. A Continuation of the Aethiopian Antiquities and of the Queene of Saba p. 730 CHAP. III. OF Presbyter Iohn and of the Priest-Iohns in Asia whether that descended of these pag. 734 CHAP. IIII. RElations of the Aethiopian Empire collected out of Aluares Bermudesius and other Authors pag 738 CHAP. V. RElations of Aethiopian rarities collected out of Frier Luys a Spanish Authour pag. 743 § I. Of the Hill Amara ibid. § II. His liberall reports of the Library and incredible Treasures therein pag. 744 § III. Of the Princes of the bloud there kept and of the Election of the Emperour pag. 745 § IIII. Of their Schooles and Cities pag. 747 CHAP. VI. RElations of Aethiopia by Godignus and other Authors lately published seeming more credible pag. 749 § I. The seuerall Countries of Abassia their Scituation Inhabitants Riuers and Lakes ibid. § II. Of the Soile Fruits Creatures Seasons and Climate pag. 750 § III. Of their Customes in Priuate Life and Publike Gouernment and their late Miseries pag. 751 § IIII. Of the Sabaeans and their Queene which visited Salomon pag. 753 CHAP. VII OF other Countries betweene the Red Sea and Benomotapa pag. 754 § I. Of Adel Adea Zanzibar Melinde ibid. § II. The Portugals Exploits in Mombaza and of the Imbij pag. 755 § III. Of Quiloa Sofala and Ophir pag. 756 § IIII. Of Monoemugi the Moores Baduines Caphars in these parts pag. 757 CHAP. VIII OF Benomotapa and the parts adioyning pag. 759 § I. Of the Empire of Monomotapa ibid. § II. Of Caphraria the Cape of Good Hope and Soldania pag. 761 CHAP. IX OF the Kingdome of Congo and the other Kingdoms and Nations adioyning p. 765 § I. Of Angola ibid. § II. Of Congo pag. 766 § III. Of their Heathenish Rites also of their strange Trees and of the I le Loanda pag. 768 CHAP. X. OF Loango the Anzichi Giachi and the great Lakes in those parts of the World pag. 770 § I. Of Loango ibid. § II. Of the Anzigues pag. 772 § III. Of the Giacchi or Iagges ibid. § IIII. Of the Lakes and Riuers in these parts of Africa pag. 773 CHAP. XI OF the Seas and Ilands about Africa the ancient and moderne obseruations Nauigations and Discoueries pag. 775 § I. Of the Red Sea and why it is so called ibid. § II. Of the chiefe Townes and Ilands in the Red Sea pag. 777 § III. Of Socotora Madagascar and other Ilands on the Easterne Coast of Africa pag. 778 CHAP. XII OF the Ilands of Africa from the Cape hitherwards pag. 781 § I. Of Saint Helena Thomee Cape de Verd and diuers others betwixt them and of the Weeds and Calmes of those Seas ibid. § II. Of the Canaries Madera and Porto Santo pag. 783 § III. Extracts taken out of the obseruations of the Right Worshipfull Sir Edmund Scory Knight of the Pike of Tenariffe and other Rarities which he obserued there pag. 784 § IIII. Of Malta and the Nauigations about Africa pag. 788 AMERICA THE EIGHTH BOOKE Of New France Virginia Florida New Spaine with other Regions of America Mexicana and of their Religions CHAP. I. OF the New World and why it is named America and the West Indies with certaine generall Discourses of the Heauens Ayre Water and Earth in those parts pag. 791 § I. Of the names giuen to this part of the World and diuers opinions of the Ancients concerning the Torrid Zone ibid. § II. Of the nature of Metals in generall of Gold Siluer Quicksiluer and the plentie and Mines thereof in America pag. 795 CHAP. II. OF the first Knowledge Habitation and Discoueries of the New World and the rare Creatures therein found Beasts Birds Trees Herbs and Seeds pag. 798 § I. Whether the Ancients had any knowledge of America and whence the Inhabitants first came ibid. § II. Of Christopher Colon or Columbus his first Discouerie and three other Voyages pag. 801 § III. Of the Beasts Fowles and Plants in America pag. 804 CHAP. III. OF the Discoueries of the North parts of the New World and toward the Pole and of Greene Land or New Land Groen-Land Estotiland Meta incognita and other places vnto New France pag. 807 § I. Of the Discoueries made long since by Nicolo and Antonio Zeni ibid. § II. Discoueries made by Sebastian Cabot Cortregalis Gomes with some notes of Groenland pag. 809 § III. Discoueries by Sir Martin Frobisher pag 811 § IIII. Discoueries by Iohn Dauis George Weymouth and Iames Hall to the North-west pag. 813 § V. Of King IAMES his New-land alias Greene-land and of the Whale and Whale-fishing pag. 814 § VI. Of Hudsons Discoueries and death pag. 817 § VII Of Buttons and Baffins late Discoueries pag. 819 CHAP. IIII. OF New-found-land Noua Francia Arambec and other Countries of America extending to Virginia pag. 821 § I. English Discoueries and Plantations in New-found-land ibid. § II. The Voyages and obseruations of Iaques Cartier in Noua Francia pag. 823 § III. Late Plantations of New France and Relations of the Natiues pag. 825 CHAP. V. OF Virginia pag. 828 § I. The Preface Sir Walter Raleighs Plantation and the Northerne Colonie ibid. § II. Of the Southerne Plantation and Colonies and many causes alleaged of the ill successe thereof at the first pag. 831 § III. Of the Soyle People Beasts Commodities and other obseruations of Virginia pag. 834 § IIII. Of the present estate of Virginia and the English there residing pag 836 CHAP. VI. OF the Religion and Rites of the Virginians pag. 838 § I. Of the Virginian Rites related by Master Hariot pag. ibid. § II. Obseruations of their Rites by Captaine Smith and others pag. 839 §
their transitiue and forren effects are stinted and limitted to the modell and state of the Creature wherein the same effects are wrought Such an immanent worke we conceiue and name that Decree of GOD touching the Creation of the World with his prouident disposing all and euery part thereof according to the Counsel of his own will and especially touching the reasonable creatures Angels and Men in respect of their eternall state in Saluation or Damnation The outward works of GOD are in regard of Nature Creation and Prouidence in regard of Grace Redemption and Saluation in the fulnesse of time performed by our Emanuel GOD manifested in the flesh true GOD and perfect Man in the Vnitie of one Person without confusion conuersion or separation This is verie GOD and life eternall IESVS CHRIST the Sonne of GOD our Lord which was conceiued by the HOLY GHOST borne of the Virgin MARY suffered vnder Pontius Pilate who was crucified dead and buried descended into Hell rose againe the third day he ascended into Heauen where he sitteth at the right hand of GOD the Father Almightie from whence he shall come to iudge the quicke and dead And to such as are sonnes GOD doth also send the Spirit of his Sonne to renue and sanctifie them as children of the Father members of the Sonne Temples of the Spirit that they euen all the Elect may be one holy Catholike Church enioying the vnspeakeable priuiledges and heauenly prerogatiues of the Communion of Saints the Forgiuenesse of Sinnes the Resurrection of the Body and Euerlasting Life Euen so come LORD IESVS CHAP. II. Of the creation of the World THey which would without danger behold the Eclipse of the Sunne vse not to fixe their eyes directly vpon that bright eye of the World although by this case darkned but in water behold the same with more case and lesse perill How much fitter is it likewise for our tender eyes in beholding the light of that Light The Father of lights in whom is no darknesse to diuert our eyes from that brightnesse of glory and behold him as wee can in his workes The first of which in execution was the creation of the World plainly described by Moses in the booke of Genesis both for the Author matter manner and other circumstances Reason it selfe thus farre subscribing as appeareth in her Schollers the most of the Heathens and Philosophers in all ages That this World was made by a greater then the World In prouing this or illustrating the other a large field of discourse might be ministred neither doe I know any thing wherein a man may more improue the reuenewes of his learning or make greater shew with a little decking and pruning himselfe like Aesops Iay or Horace his Chough with borrowed feathers than in this matter of the Creation written of after their manner by so many Iewes Ethnickes Heretikes and Orthodoxe Christians For my part it shall be sufficient to write a little setting downe so much of the substance of this subiect as may make more plaine way and easier introduction into our ensuing History leauing such as are more studious of this knowledge to those which haue purposely handled this argument with Commentaries vpon Moses Text of which besides many moderne Writers some of which haue almost oppressed the Presse with their huge Volumes there are diuers of the Primitiue middle and decayed times of the Church a cloud indeed of Authors both for their number and the varietie of their opinions the most of them couering rather then discouering that Truth which can bee but one and more to beleeued in their confuting others then prouing their owne assertions Their store through this disagreeing is become a sore and burthen whiles we must consult with many and dare promise to our selues no surer footing yet cleauing as fast as we can to the letter imploring the assistance of the Creators Spirit let vs draw as neere as we may to the sense of Moses words the beginning whereof is In the beginning GOD created the Heauen and the Earth Wherein to omit the endlesse and diuers interpretations of others obtruding allegoricall anagogicall mysticall senses on the letter is expressed the Author of this worke to be GOD Elohim which word as is said is of the plurall number insinuating the holy Trinitie the Father as the Fountaine of all goodnesse the Sonne as the Wisdome of the Father the holy Ghost as the power of the Father and the Sonne concurring in this worke The action is creating or making of nothing to which is required a power supernaturall and infinite The Time was the beginning of time when as before there had neither been Time nor any other Creature The worke is called Heauen and Earth which some interpret all this bodily world heere propounded in the summe and after distinguished in parcells according to the sixe dayes seuerall workes Some vnderstand thereby the First matter which others apply only to the word Earth expounding Heauen to be that which is called Empyreum including also the spirituall and super-celestiall inhabitants Againe others whom I willingly follow extend the word Heauen to a larger signification therein comprehending those three Heauens which the Seriptures mention one whereof is this lower where the birds of the Heauen doe flye reaching from the Earth to the Sphere of the Moone the second the visible Planets and fixed Starres with the first Moueable the third called the Heauen of Heauens the third Heauen and Paradise of GOD together with all the Host of them By Earth they vnderstand this Globe consisting of Sea and Land with all the creatures therein The first Verse they hold to be a generall proposition of the Creation of all Creatures visible and inuisible perfected in sixe dayes as many places of Scripture testifie which as concerning the visible Moses handleth after particularly largely and plainly contenting himselfe with briefe mention of those inuisible creatures both good and bad as occasion is offered in the following parts of his Historie In the present he omitteth the particular description of their Creation lest some as Iewes and Heretikes haue done should take occasion to attribute the Creation to Angels as assistants or should by the excellencie of that Nature depainted in due colours be carryed to worshipping of Angels a superstition which men haue embraced towards the visible creatures farre in feriour both to Angels and themselues Moses proceedeth therefore to the description of the first matter and the creatures thereof framed and formed For touching those inuisible creatures both the Angels and their heauenly habitation howsoeuer they are circumscribed and haue their proper and most perfect substance yet according to the interpretation of Diuine their nature differeth from that of other creatures celestiall or terrestriall as not being made of that first matter whereof these consist Let vs therefore labour rather to be like the
Angels in grace that we may be like vnto them in glory than prie too curiously into their Nature to our vnderstandings in manner supernaturall and endeauour more in heeding the way which leadeth to that Heauen of the Blessed than busie our wits too busily in describing or describing it Onely thus much wee may obserue thereof that it is beyond all reach of our obseruation in regard of substance not subiect to corruption alteration passion motion in quantitie many dwelling places most spacious and ample in quality a Paradise faire shining delightsome wherein no euill can be present or imminent no good thing absent a meere transcendent which eye hath not seene nor eare heard nor the heart of man can conceiue Where the Tabernacle of GOD shall be with men and he dwell with them and shall be all in all vnto them where the pure in heart shall see him and euen our bodily eyes shall behold that most glorious of creatures the Sunne of righteousnesse and Sonne of GOD Christ Iesus Embracing these things with Hope let vs returne to Moses his description of the sensible World who sheweth that that Heauen and Earth which now wee see were in the beginning or first degree of their being an Earth without forme and void a darkned depth and waters a matter of no matter and a forme without forme a rude and indigested Chaos or confusion of matters rather to be beleeued than comprehended of vs This is the second naturall beginning For after the expressing of the matter followeth that which Philosophers call a second natural Principle Priuation the want of that forme of which this matter was capable which is accidentally a naturall principle required in regard of generation not of constitution heere described by that part next vs Earth which was without forme as is said and void This was the internall constitution the externall was darknesse vpon the face of the deepe Which Deepe compriseth both the Earth before mentioned and the visible Heauens also called a Depth as to our capacitie infinite and pliant to the Almightie hand of the Creator called also Waters not because 〈◊〉 was perfect waters which was yet confused but because of a certaine resemblance 〈◊〉 only in the vniformity thereof but also of that want of stability whereby it could not abide together but as the Spirit of GOD moued vpon these waters to sustaine them and as the Hen sitteth on her egges to cherish and quicken as Hierome interpreteth the word so to maintaine and by his mightie power to bring the same into this naturall order Heere therefore is the third beginning or Principle in Nature That forme which the Spirit of God the third person in Trinitie not ayre or wind as some conceiue being things which yet were not themselues formed by that action framed it vnto and after more particularly effected This interpretation of the Spirit mouing vpon the Waters agreeth with that opinion which some attribute to the Stoikes That all things are procreated and gouerned by one Spirit Which Democritus called the soule of the world Hermes and Zoroaster and Apollo Delphicus call Fire the maker quickner and preseruer of all things and Virgill most elegantly and diuinely singeth seeming to paraphrase on Moses words Principio Coelum ac Terras camposque liquentes Lucentemque globum Lunae Titaniaque astra Spiritus intus alit totamque infusa per artus Meâ—s agitan molem magno se corpore miscet That is Heauen first and Earth and Watrie plaines Bright Moone of Starres those twinckling traines The Spirit inly cherisheth Loues moues great body nourisheth Through all infus'd this All containes The first creature which receiued naturall forme was the light of which GOD said Let there be light a lightsome and delightsome subiect of our Discourse especially hauing lately passed such a confused and darke Chaos But here I know not how that which then lightned the deformed matter of the vnformed World hath hidden it selfe some interpreting this of the Sunne which they will haue then created some of an immateriall qualitie after receiued into the Sunne and Starres some of a cloud formed of the waters circularly moued and successiuely lightning either Hemisphere of which afterwards the Sunne was compact from which they differ not much which thinke it the matter of the Sunne then more diffused and imperfect as the waters also were earthie and the Earth fluible till GOD by a second worke perfected and parted them And to let passe them which apply it to Angels or men others vnderstand it of the fiery Element the essentiall property of which is to enlighten Yet are we not here passed all difficulties whiles some perhaps not vniustly would perswade the world that Fire as it is ordinarily in schooles vnderstood of a sublunary element is with worse then Promethean theft stolne out of Heauen where it is visible imprisoned in this their Elementarie World whereas Anaxagoras Thales Anaximenes Empedocles Heraclitus Plato Parmenides Orpheus Hermes Zoroaster Philo and others the fathers of the Chaldean Aegyptian Iewish and Graecian Learning account the Heauens and heauenly bodies to be Ethereall fire to which our sense also will easily subscribe And Patricius affirmeth that Ocellus Lucanus one of Pythagoras his Schollers was first Author of that former opinion from whom Aristotle borrowed it if it bee not stealth rather whiles hee concealeth his name Diuers late Philosophers also seeme to haue conspired to burne vp that fiery Element or rather to aduance it aboue this sublunary Region into the Aethereal Throne Let the Philosophers determine this when they doe other doubts in meane while let vs if you please vnderstand this Light of the Fire whether Aethereall or Elementarie or both or neither as in diuers respects it may bee For neither was this Light then as it seemeth locally separated from that confused masse and by expansion which was the second dayes Worke eleuated into her naturall place and after that it possessed the Sunne Moone and Starres saith our sense which thence receiueth Light and there in the Aethereall Region seeth new Starres and superlunarie Comets compact of Aetherall substance as the most diligent Obseruers haue recorded both procreated and perishing so that that which before was neither Aethereall nor Elementarie whiles there was neither Aether nor Element perfected after became Aethereall-Elementarie as beeing happily the matter of the Sunne and Starres of old and of these later appearances and also filling the Aethereall World in the higher and lower Regions thereof both aboue and beneath the Moone with the Light here mentioned and that vigorous heat which as an affect or an effect thereof procreateth recreateth and conserueth the creatures of this inferiour World No maruell if the Philosophers are still dazeled and darkened in this light not yet agreeing whether it bee a substance or qualitie corporeall or incorporeall when the
Father of Lights himselfe thus conuinceth vs of darknesse Where is the way saith he where light dwelleth And By what way is the light parted And if we cannot conceiue that which is so euidently seene and without which nothing is seene and euident how inaccessible is that Light wherein the Light of this light dwelleth Euen this light is more then admirable life of the Earth ornament of the Heauens beautie and smile of the World eye to our Eyes ioy of our Hearts most common pure and perfect of visible creatures first borne of this World and endowed with a double portion of earthly and heauenly Inheritance shining in both which contayneth sustayneth gathereth seuereth purgeth perfecteth renueth and preserueth all things repelling dread expelling sorrow Shaking the wicked out of the Earth and lifting vp the hearts of the godly to looke for a greater and more glorious light greatest instrument of Nature resemblance of Grace Type of Glorie and bright Glasse of the Creators brightnesse This Light GOD made by his Word not vttered with sound of syllables nor that which in the beginning and therefore before the beginning was with GOD and was GOD but by his powerfull effecting calling things that were not as though they were and by his calling or willing causing them to be thereby signifying his will as plainly and effecting it as easily as a word is to a man That vncreated superessentiall light the eternall Trinitie commanded this light to bee and approued it as good both in it selfe and to the future Creatures and separated the same from darknesse which seemes a meere priuation and absence of light disposing them to succeed each other in the Hemisphere which by what motion or reuolution it was effected the three first dayes who can determine Fond it is to reason a facto ad fieri from the present order of constitution to the Principles of that institution of the Creatures whiles they were yet in making as Simplicius and other Philosophers may I terme them or Atheists haue absurdly done in this and other parts of the Creation And this was the first dayes Worke THE SECOND DAYES WORKE IN the second GOD said Let there bee a Firmament The word Rakiah translated Firmament signifieth expansum or expansionem a stretching out designing that vast and wide space wherein are the watery clouds here mentioned and those lights which follow in the fourteenth Verse by him placed in expanso howsoeuer some vnderstand it only of the Ayre The separating the waters vnder this Firmament from the waters aboue the Firmament some interprete of waters aboue the Heauens to refresh their exceeding heat or of I know not what Chrystaline Heauen some of spirituall substances whom Basil confuteth Origen after his wont Allegorically Most probable it seemeth that Moses intendeth the separation of those waters here below in their Elementarie Seat from those aboue vs in the clouds to which Dauid alluding saith Hee hath stretched out the Heauens like a Curten and laid the beames of his Chambers in the waters This separating of the waters is caused in the Ayrie Region by the Aethereall in which those forces are placed which thus exhale and captiuate these waters That matter before endued with lightning qualitie was now in this second day as it seemeth attenuated extended aboue and beyond that myrie heape of Earthywaters and both the Aether and Aire formed of the same first matter and not of a fift Essence which some haue deuised to establish the Heauens Eternitie both Twins of the Philosophers braines And wherein doe not these differ from each other touching the Celestiall Nature Roundnesse Motion Number Measure and other difficulties most of which are by some denyed Diuersitie of motions caused the Ancients to number eight Orbes Ptolemie on that ground numbred nine Alphonsus and Tebitius ten Copernicus finding another motion reuiued the opinion of Aristarchus Samius of the Earths mouing c. Others which therein dissent from him yet in respect of that fourth motion haue added an eleuenth Orbe which the Diuines make vp euen twelue by their Empyreall immoueable Heauen And many deny this assertion of Orbes supposing them to haue beene supposed rather for instructions sake then for any reall being And Moses here saith expansum as Dauid also calleth it a Curtaine which in such diuersitie of Orbes should rather haue beene spoken in the plurall number The Sidereus Nuncius of Galilaeus Galilaeus tels vs of foure new Planets Iupiters attendants obserued by the helpe of his Glasse which would multiply the number of Orbes further A better Glasse or neerer sight and site might perhaps find more Orbes and thus should we runne in Orbem in a Circular endlesse Maze of Opinions But I will not dispute this question or take it away by auerring the Starres animated or else moued by Intelligentiae A learned Ignorance shall better content me and for these varieties of motions I will with Lactantius ascribe them to GOD the Architect of Nature and Co-worker therewith by wayes Naturall but best knowne to himselfe Neither list I to dance after their Pipe which ascribe a Musicall harmonie to the Heauens THE THIRD DAYES WORKE ANd thus were the Aethereall and Ayrie parts of the World formed in the Third Day followeth the perfecting of the two lowest Elements Water and Earth which as yet were confused vntill that mightie Word of GOD did thus both diuorce and marry them compounding of them both this one Globe which he called Dry Land and Seas I call it a Globe with the Scriptures and the best Philosophers for which respect Numa built the Temple of Vesta round Neither yet is it absolutely round and a perfect Spheare but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 rather Strabo affirmeth hauing saith Scaliger 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 depressed Vallies extended Plaines swelling Hillockes high-mounting Mountaines long courses of Riuers and other varieties of Nature and Art which all in so huge a masse rather beautifie the roundnesse then take it away The Eclipse of the Moone later seene in the East then in the West the round shaddow of the Earth which darkeneth it the rising of the Sunne and Starres sooner in the East then West the vnequall eleuation of the Pole and the Northerne Constellations appearing to vs the Southerne continually depressed all these obseruing due proportions according to the difference of places and Countries yea the compassing of the Earth by many Mariners argue the round compasse thereof against Patritius his difformitie or that deformitie which other Philosophers haue ascribed thereto The equalitie or inequalitie of dayes according to the neerenesse or farrenesse from the Equinoctiall holding proportion as well by Sea as Land as doth also the eleuation of the Pole and not being longer wher 's a quarter of the World is Sea then if it were all Earth doe confute the
and Elementary bodies the Stoicall Fate the Chaldean Iewish and Arabian Fancies are now disclaymed euen by those Learned which maintayne in our dayes Iudiciall Astrologie or commend the same Neither can it agree with Christian Religion to subiect the will of Man to any externall naturall force nor with reason in matters contingent and casuall to make them naturall Arbiters nor will I easily beleeue that particular euents can be fore-told from generall causes especially in the affaires and fortunes of men Where the numbers substances faculties actions of these stars are weakly or not at al known vnto vs as hath beene shewed it is like as to say how many and what kind of Chickens a Hen will hatch when wee see not all nor scarce know any of the Egges vnder her The swiftnesse of the Heauens Wheele which euen in the moment of obseruing is past obseruing the vanitie of our Oracle-Almanacks which commonly speake doubtfully or falsely of the weather the infinitenesse almost of causes concurring which are diuersly qualified the weakenesse of those foundations on which this Art is grounded the force of hereditarie qualities descended from Parents of custome and education in forming mens manners the disagreements of the Astrologers among themselues the new from the old and all from the Truth as Experience in all ages hath shewed And lastly the prohibition of the same by Scripture Fathers Councels Lawes yea the learnedest of the Chaldeans and other Astronomers themselues as Eusebius reciteth of Bardanes and Rob. Moses ben Maimon hauing read all the Arabians workes hereof answereth the Iewish Astrologers are strong arguments against the Starre-gazers predictions But let Picus Mirandula his twelue Bookes against Astrologie and Ioseph Scaligers Preface before Manilius be well weighed of such as dote on or doubt of this Genethliacall ridiculous vanitie if not impious villany as those Authors and others prooue it not by the errors of some Chiefetaines and Champions onely but of the Arte it selfe and the whole Senate of Iewish Saracenical and Christian Astrologers together hatching a lye The signes and constellations which Astronomers obserue in and on each side the Zodiakes would be too prolixe in this discourse already tedious as likewise those alterations which some haue obserued in some starres But those two great Lights the two eyes of the Heauens the greater light to rule the day and the lesse to rule the night which is called great not so much for the quantitie wherein it is lesse then many starres as for the operation and seeming to the sense doe command mine eyes to take more speciall view of their beauties How willing could I be like Phaton to mount the Chariot of the Sunne which commeth forth as a Bridegroome out of his Chamber and reioyceth like a mightie man to runne his race King of Starres enthronized in the mids of the Planets heart of the World eye of the Heauens brightest gemme of this goodly Ring father of dayes yeeres seasons meteors Lord of light fountaine of heate which seeth all things and by whom all things see which lendeth light to the starres and life to the World high Steward of Natures Kingdome and liueliest visible Image of the liuing inuisible God And dazled with this greater light I would reflect mine eyes to that reflexion of this light in the sober siluer countenance of the silent Moone which whether it haue any natiue shining though weake as Zanchius and Bartholinus hold or whether it bee an aethereall earth with Mountaines and Vallies and other not elementary Elements compact of the dregs of the aethereal parts or whatsoeuer else reason fancie or phrensie haue imagined thereof is Queene of the Night attended with the continuall dances of twinckling starres Mother of Moneths Lady of Seas and moysture constant image of the Worlds inconstancie which it neuer seeth twice with the same face and truest modell of humane frailtie shining with a borrowed light and eclipsed with euery interposition of the earth But I am not Endymion nor so much in Lunaes fauour as to be lulled asleepe in her lap there to learne these mysteries of Nature and the secrets of that happy marriage between these celestial twinnes And it is high time for me to descend from these measures of time the lampes of the World and to behold the neerer works of GOD before our feet in the ayre and waters which GOD on the fift day created But the principall rarities to be obserued in these creatures we shall disperse in our scattered discourses through this Worke as occasion shall bee offered as likewise touching the beasts both Wilde and Tame and the creeping things created the sixth day Thus was the Ayre Water and Earth furnished with their proper inhabitants Sanctius his animal mentisque capacius altae Deerat adhuc quod dominari in caetera posset Natus homo est After he had thus prouided his cheere he sought him out a guest and hauing built and furnished his house his next care was for a fit Inhabitant Of this Moses addeth Furthermore God said Let Vs make Man But this will aske a longer discourse In the meane time wee haue this testimonie of Moses of the Creation of the World whose sense if I haue missed or misted in these many words I craue pardon And although this testimonie might suffice a Christian which must liue by faith and not by sight yet to preuent cauillers we haue other witnesses both of reason and authority That this World had a Beginning and that the Builder and Maker thereof was GOD. For doth not Nature both within and without vs in the admirable frame of this lesse or that greater World in the Notions of the one and the Motions of the other in the wise and mighty order and ordering of both lead men vnto a higher and more excellent Nature which of his goodnesse we call GOD When we behold the whole World or any part of it in the Elements such agreement in such disagreement in the Heauenly motions such constancie in such varietie in these compound bodies Being Liuing Sense Reason as diuers degrees diuersly communicated to so many formes and rankes of Creatures We can no more ascribe these things to chance than a Printers Case of Letters could by chance fall into the right Composition of the Bible which he Printeth or of Homers Iliads to vse Tullies similitude neither can any ascribe the Creation to the Creature with better reason then if by some shipwracke being cast on a desolate Iland and finding houses but seeing no people therein he could esteeme the Birds or Beasts all the Ilanders he seeth to be the framers of these buildings But thou mayest thinke it eternall Thou mayest as well thinke it to be GOD Infinite Vnchangeable in the whole and in all the parts Doth not the Land by seasons the Sea by ebbing and flowing the Aire by succeeding changes the Heauens by motions all
they his peculiar In Iewrie was GOD knowne his Name was great in Israel In Salem was his Tabernacle and his dwelling in Sion And Christ himselfe ratified it acknowledging himselfe sent to the lost sheepe of the house of Israel a Minister of the Circumcision and said to the Cananite woman which besought him for her daughter It is not good to take the childrens bread and to cast it to Dogs Such in spirituall reputation before GOD were all people excluded as vncleane Dogs out of his heauenly Ierusalem till this partition wall was taken downe and they which had beene farre off were made neere by the bloud of Christ who abrogated through his flesh that hatred and made of twaine Iewes and Gentiles one new man in himselfe So that the Gentiles the name of all the World excepting this people which had beene without Christ and aliants from the Common-wealth of Israel strangers from the Couenants of promise had no hope and were without GOD in the world were now no more strangers and forreiners but Citizens with the Saints and of the houshold of GOD built vpon the foundation of the Prophets and Apostles Iesus Christ himselfe being the chiefe corner stone Let it not bee tedious to heare of this which the Angels reioyced to learne a Mysterie which from the beginning of the world had beene hid in GOD and vnto Principalities and Powers in heauenly places was made knowne by the Church But the Word whereby we haue fellowship in this mysterie came out of Sion and the preaching began at Ierusalem This and not Rome by the confession of Espensaeus a learned Papist was Emporium fidei Christiana Ecclesiae Mater The Mart of Christian faith and Mother of the Church Yea it was necessarie that the Word of GOD should first be spoken vnto them which they by incredulitie put from themselues and gaue place to the Gentiles The fall of them became the riches of the World and the diminishing of them the riches of the Gentiles as a Glasse wherein we may behold the bountifulnesse and seueritie of GOD and in both the deepnesse of the riches of the wisedome and knowledge of GOD whose Iudgements are vnsearchable and his wayes past finding out I may fitly compare them to Gideons Fleece which receiued the dew when all the Earth besides was drie and after it was drie vpon the Fleece onely when the dew couered all the ground Sometimes they alone receiued all those Dewes Showers Riuers Seas of sauing Bountie and all the world besides was a parched wildernesse Now he turneth the fruitfull Land into barrennesse for the wickednesse of the Inhabitants but that Wildernesse he turneth into Pooles of water and the drie Land into water-springs Hee hath called them his people which were not his people and her beloued which was not beloued and where it was said Yee are not my people there they are now called the children of the liuing GOD. Thus hath hee shut vp all vnder vnbeliefe that he might haue mercy vpon all that his free election might appeare not of works lest any should boast themselues but of grace Behold therefore all Atheists and wonder The Iewes branded with iudgement wander ouer the World the contempt of Nations the skum of People the hissing derision and indignation of men for refusing Him whom they expect denying Him whom they challenge hating Him whose Name is in life and death vnto them the sweetest tune and most melodious harmonie still wayting for and glorying in that Messias whom vnknowne they crucified and slue and still pursue with the deadliest hatred in all his followers GOD they please not and are contrarie to all men Yet such is GODS manifold wisedome in his deepest Iudgements that his enemies shall fight for him euen against themselues the Midianites shall sheathe their swords which they haue drawne out against GOD in their owne bowels and Christian Truth shall preuaile and let our enemies themselues be iudges Out of their premisses which they maintayne as earnestly as thou O Atheist securely deridest which they will seale with that which thou makest thy heauen thy GOD we will and doe conclude against thee and them that in which with which for which we will liue and die Let the old Testament yeeld the Proposition in prophesie and the new Testament assume in Historie and euen be thou the Iudge if that Reason which thou hast as a man and peruertest as a Deuill will not by force of their scriptures which they preferre before their liues necessarily in the conclusion demonstrate the Christian Truth Neither I appeale vnto our common Reason canst thou more wonder at vs for beleeuing things in thy seeming incredible absurd and impossible then at them vpon such grounds which with vs they hold not beleeuing For what beleeue we but for the maine and chiefe points of our Faith are as plainly in their Euangelicall Prophets as in our Propheticall Euangelists All the Historie of Christ in a more diuine way seemeth rather told then foretold a Historie not a Prophesie as is easie by conference of both to shew and thou if thou beest not idle or wilfully malicious mayest finde That then which thou seest come vpon them a spirit of slumber eyes that they should not see and eares that they should not heare which yet haue the light of the first Scriptures had they not a veile ouer their hearts the same see in thy selfe that when greater light doth offer it selfe willingly shuttest thine eyes as though there could be no light because thou liuest in and louest thy darknesse It is the same hand that giueth vp both thee and them because yee will not beleeue the Truth to be saued to strong delusions that yee might beleeue lyes and be damned To me and all Christians let the Iewes bee both reall and verball teachers of the Truth which they let fall and we take vp the one in their Oracles of sacred Writ the other in their exemplarie iudgement And to them Let O thou Lord of all heare and grant it let all Christians be that which Moses prophesied a prouocation to emulation not of enuie and hatred which hitherto hath beene in these amongst all the Christian enemies the most implacable and despitefull but of imitation that as their casting away hath beene the reconciling of the World their receiuing may be life from the dead which Paul seemeth plainly to fore-signifie THus much being premised as a preparation to our Iewish Historie which as of more importance then any other deserueth more ample view let vs in the next place suruey that Countrey which their Progenitors had with those priuiledges and their Posteritie together with those priuiledges haue lost This Countrey was first called the Land of Canaan after that the Posteritie of Canaan the sonne of Cham had possessed it Moses and Ioshua conquered it to the Posteritie of Iacob of whom it
the very middle of the world That in the Messiahs dayes Wheate shall grow without renewing by Seed as the Vine But of these and the like more then enough in this booke following L. Carretus a Conuert from the Iewes setteth downe these size as the maine differences betwixt them and vs The Trinitie the Incarnation the manner of his comming whether in humilitie or royaltie the Law ceremoniall which the Iew holdeth eternall saluation by and for our owne workes which the Christian ascribeth to Faith in Christ crucified and lastly of the time of his comming whether past or present To these he thinketh all other may be referred But let vs examine the particulars CHAP. XIIII Of the Iewish opinions of the Creation their Ceremonies about the birth of a Child Of their Circumcision Purification and Redemption of the first-borne and Education of their Children §. I. Of their Exposition of Scripture a taste in Gen. 1.1 THeir Exposition of Scripture is so absurd that wee haue hence a manifest argument that as they denyed the Sonne that Eternall Word and Truth whose written word this is so that Spirit which indited the same the Spirit of Truth hath put a vayle on their heart and iustly suffered the spirit of errour to blind their eyes that seeing they should see and not vnderstand This will appeare generally in our ensuing Discourse but for a taste let vs begin with the beginning of Moses whereon R. Iacob Baal Hatturim hath left to the world these smoakie speculations The Bible beginneth with Beth the second letter in the Alphabet and not with Aleph the first because that it is the first letter of Beracha which signifieth blessing this of Arour that is a curse Secondly Beth signifieth two insinuating the two-fold Law written and vnwritten for Bereshith hath the letters of Barashetei first hee made secondly Lawes thirdly Bereshith the first word of Genesis hath as many letters as Aleph be Tishrei that is the first of Tishrei or Tisri on which the Iewes say the world began fourthly Bereshith hath the letters of Baijth roshe that is the first Temple which he knew the Iewes would build and therefore created the world fiftly it hath the letters of Iare shabbath that is to keepe the Sabbath for God created the world for the Israelites which keepe the Sabbath sixtly also of Berith esh which signifieth the Couenant of fire to wit Circumcision and the Law another cause of the creation seuenthly likewise it hath the letters of Bara iesh that is hee created as many worlds as are in the number Iesh that is three hundred and ten that the Saints might reioyce therein Now if I should follow them from these letters and spelling to their mysticall sententious exposition of greater parts of the sentence you should heare Moses tell you out of his first words that the world was created for the Talmudists for the sixe hundred and thirteene precepts because hee loued the Israelites more then the other people Againe that hee foresaw the Israelites would receiue the Law but hee is now an Asse saith he which beareth Wine and drinketh water There are in the first verse seuen words which signifie the seuen dayes of the weeke seuenth yeere of rest seuen times seuenth the Iubilee seuentimes seuen Iubilees seuen Heauens seuen lands of Promise and seuen Orbes or Planets which caused Dauid to say I will praise thee seuen times a day There are 28. letters in it which shew the 28. times of the World of which Salomon speaketh Eccles 3.1 There are in it sixe Alephs and therefore the world shall last sixe thousand yeeres So in the second verse The earth was without forme and voyde are two Alephs which shew the world should bee two thousand yeeres voyde now in the third verse are foure Alephs which shew other foure thousand yeeres two of which should bee vnder the Law and two vnder Messias §. II. Their Dreames of Adam NOw for the first man his body saith R. Osia in the Talmud was made of the earth of Babylon his head of the land of Israel his other members of other parts of the world So R. Meir thought hee was compact of the earth gathered out of the whole earth as it is written Thine eyes did see my substance now it is elsewhere written The eyes of the Lord are ouer all the earth There are twelue houres of the day saith R. Aha in the first whereof the earth of Adam or earthly matter was gathered in the second the trunke of his body fashioned in the third his members stretched forth in the fourth his soule infused in the fift hee stood vpon his feet in the sixt hee gaue names to the Creatures in the seuenth Eue was giuen him in marriage in the eighth they ascended the bed two and descended foure in the ninth hee receiued the Precept which in the tenth he brake and therefore was iudged in the eleuenth and in the twelfth was cast out of Paradise as it is written Man continued not one night in honour The stature of Adam was from one end of the world to the other and for his transgression the Creator by laying on his hand lessened him for before faith R. Eleazar with his head he reached a reacher indeed the verie firmament His language was Syriacke or Aramitish saith R. Iuda and as Reschlakis addeth the Creator shewed him all generations and the wise-men in them His sinne after R. Iehuda was heresie R. Isaac thinketh the nourishing his fore-skin He knew or vsed carnall filthinesse with all the beasts which GOD brought vnto him before Eue was made as some interpret R. Eleazar and R. Salomon but Reuchline laboureth to purge them of that sense who affirmeth that hee had an Angell for his Master or Instructor and when he was exceedingly deiected with remorse of his sinne GOD sent the Angell Raziel to tell him that there should be one of his progenie which should haue the foure letters of Iehouah in his name and should expiate originall sinne And heere was the beginning of their Cabala and also presently hereupon did hee and Eue build an Altar and offer sacrifice The like offices of other Angels they mention to other Patriarchs and tell that euery three moneths are set new watches of these watchmen yea euery three houres yea and euery houre is some change of them And therefore wee may haue more fauour of them in one houre then another for they follow the disposition of the starres so said the Angell Samael which wrestled with him vnto Iacob Let mee goe for the day breaketh for his power was in the night But let me returne to Adam of whom they further tell that he was an Hermaphrodite a man-woman hauing both Sexes and a double bodie the Female part ioyned at the shoulders and backe parts to the Male their countenances turned from each other This is proued by Moses his words So GOD created man
goe cheerfully before their Synagogue they haue an Yron fastned to make cleane their shooes according to Salomons counsell Keepe thy foote when thou goest into the house of God He that hath Pantofles must put them off as it is written For the place where thou standest is holy ground At the entrance in at the doore he pronounceth some things out of Dauids Psalmes they must enter with feare and trembling considering whose presence it is and for a while suspend their praying for the better attention And euerie Iew must cast in a halfe-penie at least into the Treasurie as it is written I will see thy face in righteousnesse that is in almes as they interpret it In this attention they bow themselues towards the Arke in which is the booke of the Law and say How faire are thy Tents O IACOB and thy dwellings O Israel And I will enter into thy house in the multitude of thy mercie I will bow downe in thy holy Temple in thy feare And O Lord I haue loued the habitation of thy house and the place of the Tabernacle of thy glorie and diuers other verses out of the Psalme After these things they begin to pray as is contained in their common Prayer-booke and because these prayers are verie many therefore they runne them ouer hee that cannot reade must attend and say Amen to all their prayers These prayers are in Hebrew rimes Their first prayer is The Lord of the World which raigned before any thing was created at that time when according to his will they were created was called King to whom shall bee giuen feare and honour He alway hath beene is and shall remaine in his beautie for euer Hee is One and besides him there is none other which may bee compared or associated to him without beginning and end with him is rule and strength He is my GOD and my deliuerer which liueth He is my Rocke in my need and time of my trouble my Banner my Refuge my Hereditarie portion in that day when I implore his helpe Into his hands I commend my Spirit Whether I wake or sleepe hee is with me therefore I will not be afraid This done they say then their hundreth benedictions one after another which are short and twice a day repeated First for the washing of their hands that if hee then forgot it he might now in the Congregation recite it Then for the creation of man and for that hee was made full of holes whereof if one should bee stopped he should dye then a confession of the Resurrection then for vnderstanding giuen to the Cocke as you haue heard to discerne day and night a sunder and with his crowing to awaken them and in order Blessed c. That he hath made me an Israelite or Iew Blessed c. That hee hath not made me a seruant Blessed c. That he hath not made me a woman The women heere say that he hath made me according to his will Blessed c. That exalteth the lowly Blessed c. That maketh the blind to see which they should say at their first wakening Blessed c. That rayseth the crooked at his rising Blessed c. That cloatheth the naked at his apparelling Blessed c. That raiseth them vp that fall Blessed c. That bringeth the prisoners out of prison Blessed c. That stretcheth the world vpon the waters when hee setteth his feet on the ground Blessed c. That prepareth and ordereth the goings of man when hee goeth out of his chamber Blessed c. That hath created all things necessarie to life when he puts on his shooes Blessed c. That girded Israel with strength his girdle Blessed c. That crowneth Israel with comelinesse when he puts on his hat Blessed c. That giueth strength to the wearie Blessed bee thou God our Lord King of the world who takest sleepe from mine eyes and slumber from mine eye-lids Then adde they two prayers to be preserued against sinnes euill spirits and men and all euill After this humbling themselues before GOD they confesse their sinnes and againe comfort themselues in the couenant made to Abraham Wee are thy people and the children of thy Couenant c. O happie wee how good is our portion how sweet is our lot how faire is our heritage Oh happie we who euery morning and euening may say Heare Israel The Lord our Lord is one God Gather vs that hope in thee from the foure ends of all the earth that all the inhabitants of the earth may know that thou art our God c. Our Father which art in Heauen be mercifull vnto vs for thy names sake which is called vpon vs and confirme in vs that which is written At that time will I bring you and gather you and make you for a name and praise among all the people of the earth when I shall turne your captiuities saith the Lord Then follow two short prayers for the Law giuen them And then they goe on to the Sacrifices which because they cannot execute in action out of the Temple they redeeme with words reading the precepts concerning sacrifices according to their times comforting themselues with the saying of HOSE We will sacrifice the calues of our lippes Then repeat they an Historie of Sacrifice and a Prayer of the vse of the Law and how many wayes it may bee expounded This done they with a still voyce that none can heare pray for the re-edifying of the Temple in these words Let thy will bee before thy face O GOD our Lord Lord of our Fathers that the holy house of thy Temple may bee restored in our dayes and grant vs thy will in thy Law After rising with great ioy and clamour they sing a prayer of prayse in hope hereof and sitting downe againe they reade a long prayer gathered heere and there out of the Psalmes and some whole Psalmes and part of 1. Chron. 30. And lastly the last words of Obadiah The Sauiours shall ascend into Mount Sion to iudge the Mount of Esau and the Kingdome shall bee the Lords Which they speake in hope of the destruction of the Christians whom they call Edomites and of their owne restitution In some of their close writings which they will not suffer to come into the hands of Christians they say that the soule of Edom entered into the bodie of Christ and that both hee and wee are no better then Esau They proceed singing And God shall bee King ouer all the earth In that day GOD shall bee one and his name one as it is written in thy Law O GOD Heare Israel GOD our GOD is one GOD And these words in their next Prayer they repeat resounding that last word One by the halfe or whole houre together looking vp to Heauen and when they come to the last letter thereof Daleth d. they all turne their heads to the foure corners and windes of the World signifying that GOD
entering into the houses of the richer beg prouision for the Feast And if any be exceeding poore the Rabbines make him a licence to beg therein testifying of his honestie and Iewish saith wherewith hee wandereth through the Countrey visiting all the Iewes he can finde And if hee come to a place where are many Iewes hee sheweth his licence to the chiefe Rabbi or to the Clarke which calls men to the Synagogue or to the Elders or Ruler of the Synagogue which is as their Consull or to the Ouer-seers of the poore and craueth their fauour which granted hee standeth with two others at the doore of the Synagogue and beggeth or else those two goe from house to house and beg for him The like is done when a poore Iew hath a daughter marriageable to beg for her dowrie When poore Iewes trauell they may turne into another Iewes house where their prouerbe is the first day hee is a ghest the second a burthen the third a fugitiue The falling sicknesse is vsuall among the Iewes and they vse to imprecate it to each other in their anger as they also doe the plague In a generall pestilence they write in their Chamber strange characters and wonderfull names which they say are the names of the Pest-Angels And I once saw sayth our Author Adiridon Bediridon and so on the word Diridon riding on quite through the Alphabet written with great letters in their houses as a present remedie for the Plague The Leprie they haue seldome which may bee attributed to their dyet Now the Sword and Scepter is taken from them in stead of other penalties they inflict sharpe penances according to the nature of the crime Thus the Adulterer satisfieth for his hot lust in cold water wherein hee is inioyned to sit some winter dayes and if the water be frozen the Ice is cut and hee set therein vp to his chinne as long as an Egge is roasting In Summer time hee is set naked in an Ant-hill his nose and eares stopped and after washeth himselfe in cold water If the season bee neither cold not hot hee is inioyned a certaine kinde of fasting in which he may not eate any thing till night and then onely a little bread and water is allowed him and yet hee must after endure the Ant or water-penance In Médrasch is written that Adam sate vp to the nose in water an hundred and thirtie yeeres till he begate Seth for eating the forbidden fruit If the penance seeme lighter they enioyne him further to runne thorow a swarme of Bees and when the swelling of his bodie through their stinging is abated he must doe it againe and againe according to the measure of his offence If hee hath often that way offended hee is bound to endure that penance many yeeres yea sometimes a three yeeres fast together eating bread and water at supper otherwise nothing except hee rather chuse to redeeme this with fasting three whole dayes together in each yeere without tasting any refection at all as Queene Esther did When any hath lyen with a woman in her vncleannesse hee incurreth the penance of fortie dayes fast and twice or thrice euery of those dayes to receiue on his bare backe with a leather thong or girdle nine blowes to eate no flesh or hot meate nor drinke any wine but on the Sabbath If a man kisse or embrace his menstruous wife the case is alike A Robber is adiudged three yeeres banishment to wander three yeeres thorow the Cities where Iewes dwell crying aloud I am a Robber and suffer himselfe to bee beaten in manner aforesaid He may not eate flesh nor drinke wine nor cut the hayre off his head or beard hee must put on his change of garments and shirts vnwashed He may not wash himselfe euery moneth once he must couer his head hee must weare his arme wherewith he committed murther fastened to his necke with a chayne Some are enioyned that where they sleepe one night they may not sleepe the next that they may wander ouer the world like Cain Some are constrained to weare an yron brest-plate next their skinne and some to throw themselues downe before the doore of the Synagogue that they which goe in may treade on him That Iew which accuseth another before a Christian Magistrate is accounted a Traytor and neuer made reckoning of after But why doe I tyre the Reader to whom I feare I haue beene ouer-tedious But in this matter of Religion of whom is it fitter to protract discourse then of them whom the old world yeelded the only example of Truth and the present age a principall example of falsehood and superstition Let it not grieue the Reader to performe the last office of humanitie to our Iew and as hee hath seene his birth his Synagogue-Rites and home superstitions so to visit him on his Death-bed and helpe lay him in his graue and examine his hope of the Resurrection and of their Messias and wee will end our Pilgrimage in this Holy Land §. VII Of their visitation of the sicke And funerall rites WHen a man lieth sicke the Rabbines visit him and if he be rich order is taken for his Will and then they exhort him to perseuere constantly in their Faith They aske him if hee beleeue that the Messias is yet to come Hee maketh his confession on his bed saying I confesse before thee my God and Lord God of my parents Lord of all Creatures that my health and death is in thy hand I pray thee grant me recouery of my former health and heare my praier as thou didest Hezekiah in his sicknes And if the time of my death be come then grant that death may bee a remission of all my sinne which of ignorance or knowledge I haue committed euer since I was a man grant that I may haue my part in Paradise and the world to come which is reserued for the iust grant that I may know the Way of euerlasting life fill mee with the ioy of thy excellent countenance by thy right hand for euer and euer Blessed bee thou O GOD which hearest my prayer Thus they which refuse the merits of Christs death ascribe remission of sinnes to their owne When he giueth vp the ghost all the standers by rend their garments but in a certaine place of the same where they doe no great harme about a hand-breadth They lament the dead seuen dayes They presently after his death powre out all the water in the house into the streete they couer his face that it may no more bee seene they bow his thumb in his hand framing a resemblance of the Hebrew name Schaddai his other fingers are stretched out to testifie a forsaking of the world they wash him with hot water and hauing anointed his head with wine and the yolke of an Egge mixed together they put on him a white vestment which he vsed to weare on the Feast of Reconciliation When they carry him out of the house they
how saith he can GOD haue a Sonne without a woman And how can they agree together How can GOD be made Man And why could he not haue saued man by a word but as if he had beene hindred through weaknesse did therefore become man And if he were GOD how could he suffer Yea the name of Mahomet saith hee was expressed both in the Old Testament and the Gospel Christ himselfe commending it which the Christians haue raced out yea from euerlasting it was written on the right side of the Throne of GOD. And the Musulmans deriue their faith from Abraham This I haue inserted to shew the vaine conceits they haue of our Religion and their blinde confidence in their owne with their carnall dreames of Diuine Mysteries and diuellish slanders of our Scriptures which they know not their scandall also from the worship of Images and Saints Frier Richard reciteth among Mahomets opinions That of threescore and thirteene parts of the Saracens one onely shall be saued and that the Deuils shall once bee saued by the Ascoran and that the Deuils call themselues Saracens fit companions with them in their holy things Some make it a Canon of Mahomet That they should looke toward the South when they pray that when they pray they should say GOD is one GOD without equall and Mahomet his Prophet which Lod. Barthema saith Are the Characters of the profession of a Mahumetan and that by the pronouncing of those words hee was tried whether he was an Infidell or no. These words saith the aboue-said Arabian as they affirme before the beginning of the world were written in the Throne of GOD. Bellonius in his Obseruations telleth out of their Bookes that there is a Tree in Paradise which shadoweth it all ouer and spreadeth her boughes ouer the walles whose leaues are of pure gold and siluer each of them after the Name of GOD hauing therein written the name of Mahomet And that if a Christian at vnawares should pronounce the said Prayer Laillah c. GOD is one GOD and Mahomet his Prophet hee must either die or turne Turke Such reputation haue they of this forme which they call a Prayer with as good reason as the Aue Marie among the Romists wherein yet they pray not for any thing Bellonius also saith That they hold the Heauen to be made of Smoke and the Firmament stablished on the horne of a Buffall by whose stirring Earthquakes are caused That there are seuen Paradises with Houses Gardens Fountaines and whatsoeuer sense accounteth delectable where they shall enioy all delights without any sorrow hauing Carpet Beds Boyes Horses Saddles Garments for cost and workmanship most curious and readie for attendance Those Boyes richly adorned when they haue satisfied their hunger and thirst shall present euery Saracen a huge Pome-citron in a golden Charger and as soone as they shall smell thereof there shall thence proceed a comely Virgin in gallant attire which shall embrace him and he her and so shall they continue fiftie yeeres After which space ended God shall shew them his face whereat they shall fall downe not able to endure the brightnesse but hee shall say Arise my seruants and enioy my glory for heereafter yee shall neuer die nor be grieued Then shall they see God and each lead his Virgin into his Chamber where all pleasures shall attend them If one of those Virgins should come forth at midnight shee would lighten the world no lesse then the Sunne and if shee should spet into the Sea all the water thereof would become sweet Gabriel keepeth the keyes of Paradise which are in number threescore and ten thousand each seuen thousand miles long But hee was not able to open Paradise without Inuocation of the Name of GOD and Mahomet his friend There is a Table of Adamant seuen hundred thousand dayes iourney long and broad with seates of gold and siluer about it where they shall be feasted There is extant a Constitution of Methodius Patriarke of Constantinople touching the diuersities of Penances according to the diuersitie of the offence to bee performed by such as haue reuolted from the Faith to Mahumetisme Likewise there is a fragment of Nicetas wherein are expressed the abiurations and renunciations of Mahomet and his Law by new conuerts both before Baptisme when they were admitted into the number of the Catechumeni and at Baptisme as was then vsed in the Church some of which I here mention as fitting to our purpose After the Anathema pronounced against Mahomet Ali his sonne-in-law Apompicertus Baeicer Amar Talcan Apupachren Sadicen and the rest of his consorts and successours also against Gadise Aise and others his wiues with Phatuma his daughter he Anathematiseth the Core that is Mahomets Scripture and all his learning lawes Apocryphall narrations traditions and blasphemies The fifth Article is against Mahomets Paradise there thus expressed That in it are foure Riuers one of cleare water a second of sweet milke a third of pleasant wine a fourth of honie and that the Saracens at the day of Iudgement which shall be fiue hundred thousand yeeres after his time shal liue carnally with their wiues vnder the shadowes of certaine trees called Sidra and Telech and shall eate what fruits and birds they will and shall drinke of the fountaines Caphura and Zinciber and wine out of the spring Theon Their age shall be the same with the heauens their members foure cubits they shall haue their fill of lust in the presence of God who is not ashamed Sixthly He Anathematiseth Mahumets Angels Aroth Maron Tzapha and Marona with his Prophets Chud Zalech Soaip Edres Duaciphel and Lechina Seuenthly His doctrine of the Sun Moone and his challenge to be the Key-bearer of Paradise also his house of Mecca in the middest wherof they say is a stone representing Venus on which Abraham lay with Hagar and tied thereto his Camell when he should haue sacrificed Isaac where the Pilgrimes holding their eare with one hand point to the stone with the other and so turne round till they fall downe with giddinesse He renounceth likewise their casting seuen stones against the Christians and the tale of Mahomets Camel and them which worship the Morning-starre or Lucifer and Venus which the Arabians call Chobar that is Great And thus hee proceedeth in two and twentie Articles abandoning his former sect after which he desireth Baptisme Of like subiect are the Catecheses Mystagogicae or instructions of Peter Guerra de Lorca concerning conuerting and keeping from Mahometisme in which are rehearsed and refuted a great part of their superstitions dedicated to King Philip the second But King Philip the third hath otherwise conuerted the Moores of Spaine for whom he writ his booke by an vtter subuersion turning them quite out of his dominions He therin telleth of the deuils appearing to Mahomet in forme of a Vulture with a beake and feathers of gold professing himselfe to be Gabriel sent of GOD to teach him his
shall be extremely scorched by the heat of the Sun according to the measure of their sinnes Thus shall both parts abide till God shall pronounce his eternall sentence When that doome is pronounced the Angels shall stand diuided into squadrons all like adorned the Seraphins on one side the Cherubins on the other of the which one part shal sound Instruments of diuers sorts other shall sing hymnes and many shall stand at the gates of Paradise singing and gratulating the blessed soules which haue obserued the diuine Precepts Christians Iewes Turkes and Moores being all of equall beautie and beatitude if they haue done well But sinners shall be knowne asunder They affirme also that God will giue those soules of Paradise a large space in heauen for their euerlasting habitation goodly and shining They shall also haue Barachi Sun-beames on which they may ride and take their view round about Paradise of the precious delights therein There shall they haue pleasant fruits and if they eate one apple two shall grow in the roome and to quench their thirst they shall haue riuers cleere as Crystall sweet as Sugar by drinking of which their sight and vnderstanding shall increase in such sort that they shall see from one Pole to the other The meates which they eate shall consume by a subtile kinde of sweat Further they say they shall haue their women called Vri that is shining which shall euerie day be Virgins with which they shall continue for euer Neither shall there be any danger of olde age the men alway being as of thirtie yeeres old the women of fifteen or twentie Those three Standard-bearers shall be the principall each of them hauing a peculiar part of Paradise assigned him for his dominion Those which for their bad deeds shall be condemned to hell shall be all knowne by proper names which they shall beare in their fore-heads and they shall beare the number and greatnesse of their sinnes on their shoulders Thus shall they bee led betweene two Mountaines where Hell is situate at the mouth whereof is a most venemous Serpent and from one Mountaine to another is a Bridge thirtie miles long which is so made that they ascend on the first part the other part is plaine the last descendeth This Bridge say they is made of thin yron and sharpe they call it Serat Cuplissi that is the Bridge of Iustice Vpon this shall passe the sinners with the heauie weight of their sinnes vpon their shouldiers and they which haue not beene altogether euill shall not fall into Hell but into Purgatorie but the other shall suddenly bee plunged into the bottome of Hell where they shall burne more or lesse according to the quantitie of the fire of their sins which they haue carried out of this world and after the burning they turne to bee refreshed and presently againe to the fire In the midst of Hell they say is a tree full of fruit euerie Apple being like to the head of a Deuill which groweth greene in the midst of all those flames called Zoaccum Agacci or the tree of Bitternesse and the soules that shall eate thereof thinking to refresh themselues shall so finde them and by them and their paines in Hell they shall grow madde And the Deuils shall binde them with chaines of fire and shall dragge them vp and downe through Hell Those soules which sometime shall name God in their aide they say after many yeeres shall goe into Paradise and none shall remaine in Hell but such as despaire of their saluation and Gods mercie Thus farre Menauino To this agreeth Bellonius and addeth that in the day of Iudgement they beleeue a resurrection of the Birds and Beasts and that the Rams which they kill at their Easter shall goe into Paradise and therefore though one would serue they kill many For the Booke of Zuna saith that those Rams shall pray for their Sacrificers in the day of Iudgement It telleth that the Starres are hanged in the ayre by golden chaines to watch lest the Deuils should learne the secrets of Paradise and reueale them to Sooth-sayers Also that the Ramme which Abraham offered in stead of his sonne was a blacke one which had been nourished fortie yeeres in Paradise that Mahomet shall be turned at the end of the world into a Ramme and the Turkes into Fleas whom hee shall carrie sticking to him out of Hell into Paradise and there shake them off where they shall againe receiue the formes of Turkes That hee shall wash them with the water of that Fountaine in Paradise to purge the blacknesse which they got by the scorching of Hell from whence hee will deliuer all good Turkes CHAP. XIII Of the Religious Votaries amongst the Turkes and of their Saints Sects Miracles and Hypocriticall holinesse TO proceed vnto the differences of opinions amongst the Turks Septemcastrensis who liued verie many yeeres amongst them saith that although they consent against Christ yet doe they much dissent among themselues wresting the Alcoran to their purposes and scarcely one of a hundreth agreeing with his fellow about Mahomet and their Law And besides their differences in Ceremonies there are saith he foure sects differing in maine grounds of Religion which would not be appeased without bloud if they feared not the higher power and were not thereby kept in awe One of these sects is that of the Priests holding that none can be saued but by the Law of Mahomet The second of their religious Dermschler reputed the Successors of the Saints the friends of GOD and Mahomet who are of opinion that the Law profiteth nothing but the grace of GOD and these ground their opinions on miraculous illusions of which he reporteth one in the time of Amurath the second who examining this contention betwixt these Seculars and Regulars and being purposed to giue sentence in the behalfe of the Priests and against the religious one of these Dermschler appearing to him in a Vision others also ground Faith on Visions and deliuering him out of a great danger altered his minde for going to stoole in the night the boords gaue way and he fell in staying on a crosse Timber where this religious man in their wonted habite appeared to him and bid him now vse the helpe of his Priests for his deliuerance This after so affected the King that himselfe became a religious man till the necessitie of State-affaires compelled him to resume his gouernment Hee that listeth may compare with this Dunstans deuices for his Regulars The third he calleth Czofilar speculatiue men which Sect is founded on Tradition holding that they are saued by Merit without Law or Grace These are verie earnest in praiers neuer ceasing and meeting in the night and sitting in a circle they begin to say Layla illalach with shaking their heads till they fall downe senselesse these three sorts are manifest to the people and as it were of equall esteeme with them The fourth are called Horife that is
world All the world is of fire and water and earth and ayre Hee fastned a great company of not-wandring Starres and seuen wandring creatures ioyning fire to fire the earth in the midst and the water in the receptacles of the earth and the ayre aboue them Let the immortall soule lift her eyes vpwards not downewards into this darke world which is vnstable mad heady crooked alway emcompassing a blind depth hating the light of which the vulgar is carried Seeke Paradise The soule of man will after some sort bring God into it selfe hauing nothing mortall it is wholly rauished of God It resoundeth the harmony vnder which is the mortall body extending the fiery minde to the worke of pietie I desire not sacrifices and inwards these are playes flee these things if thou wilt open the sacred Paradise of piety where vertue and wisdome and the good law are gathered together If these things are harsh what would these obscurities be in his Theologie wherein he first placeth One beginning then a paternall profunditie of three Trinities euery of which hath the Father the Power the Minde Next in order is the Intelligible Iynx and after it Synocheus Empyraeus and Aetherealis and Materialis and after these the Teletarchae after which the Fontani Patres Hecate and such a rabble of names follow that the recitall would seeme to coniure the Reader into some Magicall maze or circle They which are curious of those inextricable labyrinths may resort to Psellus Patricius and the Platonikes which ascribe these things to the Assyrians and Chaldeans as they doe to Zoroaster also Delrio and Patricius finde sixe of the Zoroasters mentioned in Authors Goropius after his wont paradoxicall none at all the first of which was inuentor of this Magike a Chaldaean supposed to liue in the time of Abraham Berosus first and after Iulianus a Magician both Chaldaeans communicated these mysteries to the Greeks and diuers of those Heretikes in the prime age of the Christian Church were not a little sowred with this Magicall leauen as appeareth by Iraeneus Epiphanius Augustine and others that write against them Basilides his Abraxas the mysticall Characters of which name make three hundred sixtie fiue the number of dayes in the yeere and of heauens after his opinion is supposed the same with Mitbra the Persian Deitie and hence to haue deriued his Magicall descent which wee may note of others if this belonged not to another labour The Magi had one chiefe among them in their Societie called by Sozomene Princeps Magorum Cicero affirmeth that none might be Kings of Persia before they had learned the discipline of the Magi neither was it any more lawfull for euery one to bee a Magus then to be a King Such was their estimation in Persia Strabo tels that they vsed carnall company with their mothers and when they are dead are cast forth vnburied to bee a prey to the Birds Heurnius maketh Zoroaster Author of incestuous copulations of all sorts and of the not-burying rite but either to burne or cast forth the carkasse yea Authors write that he himselfe desired and obtained to be consumed with fire from heauen Nothing seemed to them more vnlucky signe of former lewdnesse then that no bird or beast would prey on their dead And the souldiers which sickned in their Armies were laid forth yet breathing with bread water and a staffe to driue away the beasts and fowles which yet when their strength failed them easily deuoured both the meat and keepers If any recouered and returned home the people shunned him as a ghost nor would suffer him to follow his former trade of life till he were expiated by the Magi as it were restored again to life The Romans in pittie passing thorow some part of Persia where they found a carkasse in the field buried it but the night following in a vision a graue old man in habit of a Philosopher reproued that fact willing them to leaue the naked bodie to the dogs and birds and the mother Earth saith hee will not receiue those which haue polluted their mothers Which in the morning they found verified the earth hauing vomited vp that carkasse which there lay on the top of the graue The Magi hereby appeare to haue had intercourse with the deuill as by their predictions also of Sylla Ochus Sapores and others mentioned by Paterculus Aelianus Agathias and other Historians Thus were the Magi buried in the bowels of beasts and birds Tully saith that the other Persians were wrapped in waxe and so preserued The Ostanae and Astrampsychi are by Suidas reckoned successours of the Magi. Hierome citeth out of Eubulus three kindes of the Magi the most learned of them liued onely on meale and hearbes Pausonias reporteth that in Lydia in the Cities Hierocesarea and Hypaepo he saw Temples hauing Persian surnames and in euery of those Temples a Chappell and Altar whereon were Ashes not like in colour to the ordinary sort The Magus entring into the roome layeth drie wood on the Altar after that hee hath set his mitre on his head and then at the name of a certaine God singeth barbarous hymnes which the Greeks vnderstand not out of the booke which being done the heape is fired and the flame breakes forth Diogenes Laertius relateth that these Magi spent their time in the seruice of their Gods offering vnto them prayers and sacrifices as if none but they might bee heard they disputed of the substance and generation of the Gods whom they reckoned to bee the Fire Water and Earth They reprehended Images especially such as made a differing sexe of Male and Female among the Gods They discoursed of Iustice To burne their dead bodies they held it impious but to lye with their owne mothers or daughters they accounted lawfull They practised Diuinations and fore-tellings affirming that the Gods appeared to them that the ayre was full of formes or shapes which subtilly and as it were by euaporation infuse themselues into the eyes They forbad outward ornaments and the vse of gold Their garments were white the ground their bed Hearbs Cheese Bread their food Aristotle saith that they held two beginnings a good spirit and an euill calling the one Iupiter and Oromasdes the other Pluto and Arimanius Empedocles translated this plant into Philosophy and long after Manes a Persian heretike into Diuinitie Theopompus addeth these opinions of theirs That men should againe be restored to life and become immortall and that all things consisted by their praiers Hecataeus that the Gods were begotten Clearchus that the Gymnosophistae descended from the Magi. Thus farre Diogenes Plutarch in his Treatise de Osir Isid citeth approueth and applyeth the opinion of the Magi vnto many others which they conceiued touching their two beginnings Arimanius and Orimazes for whereas they saw such a mixture of euill in euery good which made Salomon to brand them all with the title of
to the youths men of riper age as masters of Manners The children come not in the Fathers sight till fiue yeeres of age or as Valerius Maximus hath till seuen and especially learne truth they were taught by these Prefects the rules of Iustice not by bare rules but by examples for which cause also Augustus would haue the Senators children present in the Court Yea a good part of the day was to this end spent by those Prefects in hearing and deciding such cases as fell out amongst these their schollers about thefts reproaches or other wrongs Next to Truth and Iustice they learned Sobrietie Abstinence Continence and Temperance wherein they were well furthered by the examples of their Masters neither might they eat but in their presence and with their leaue and that not of the choisest fare but bread and cresses whereto they added drinke from the next riuer They planted in them a hatred of vices especially of lying and in the next place of debt which cannot but bee attended with much disquiet and therefore wisely did Augustus command to buy him the pillow of a Roman Gentleman that died incredibly indebted as if there had therein rested some sleeping power whereon one so much indebted could take any rest Ingratitude was as little gratefull as the former and by the Persian lawes ingratefull persons were subiect to accusation and punishment as not Xenophon onely but Marcellinus also hath marked howsoeuer Seneca findes such a law onely amongst the Macedonians which perhaps was hence borrowed They hated such as forsooke their friends and country-men in need Their awfull respect to their parents was such that they might not sit in the mothers presence without her leaue the father had tyrannicall power ouer his children for life and death That which was vnto them vnlawfull in deed was not permitted in obscene and filthy words to bee spoken Thus were the Noble-mens children brought vp neere the Palace gates and in the Prouinces neere the gates of the Deputies or Gouernours For bodily exercise they learned to shoot to cast darts to ride and manage vnruly horses and to fight on horse-backe And this was their education till seuenteene yeeres of age at which time they were of the second ranke of Springals and youths and for ten yeeres after did not repaire home at nights but lay and abode in this Court or Colledge When the King went on hunting halfe of them attended him in armour Their dyet was the same but somewhat larger as is before related of the children and in hunting if it continued two dayes had but one dayes allowance They vsed to run long races of thirtie or fortie furlongs they exercised the sling leaping and wrestling the King propounding rewards to the Victor The helpe of these were vsed by the Magistrates against robbers murtherers and the like wicked persons as also of the Men which was the third order the Seminary of Magistrates and Souldierie of the Persians till they were fiftie yeeres old or somewhat more at which age they were freed from musters and forraine employments but at home were employed in publike and priuate iudgements None might attaine this honour in Age but by those degrees before expressed nor might any haue that education but the children of the rich which were able to beare the charge It was vnlawfull amongst the Persians to laugh in loud manner openly or openly or by the way to doe the easements of nature by siege vrine or vomit or to make water standing §. V. Of the Persian Luxurie and Marriages Funerals c. BVt this ancient Persian discipline and sobrietie with wealth and loosenesse were afterwards corrupted especially in drinking to represse which the Kings made an order Est. 1. that none should bee compelled to forget their health in remembring of healths or other Bacchanal deuices whereof would GOD wee had lesse cause to complaine The vse of Harlots were also added to their drinkings which when the Embassadors sent to Amyntas King of Macedon to demand Earth and Water which was the Persian custome when they exacted full subiection and possession extended to Matrons Alexander his sonne sent young men armed in womens habite amongst them which quenched their hot flames of lust with their bloud Hence haply it was that Assuerus would needes make shew of Vashti the Queene in his magnificent Feast which occasioned her depriuation and Esters succession Amidst their cups they consulted of warre and weightie affaires but some say they decreed not till afterwards The Persians vsed banquettings vnder Arras hangings before the time of Attalus from whom the Romans first borrowed the vse of them of his aula or hall hanged therewith calling them aulaea But the wals of the richer Persians were hanged with them the floures spread with costly carpets their cupboards furnished with rich plate their bodies shining with curious costly ointments their kitchin stored with garlick as a preseruatiue against serpents and venemous creatures their chambers swarmimg with Concubines yea mothers daughters and sisters wedded and bedded with them their second seruices celled in Scripture The banquet of wine when after the belly full farced with meats with which they dranke water they had other tables set with wine on which they gaue a new onset as a fresh enemy these and the like excesses would glut our Reader Loth were I to bring him to their mourning rites in which they shaued themselues their Horses and Mules they vsed sackcloth and entred not the Court they couered the face of such as incurred the Kings anger as we reade of Haman Their executions were flaying crucifying burning burying aliue stoning cutting asunder c. This pertaineth to their religion their diuination by lots as before Haman they perhaps the Magi cast Phur that is a lot from day to day and from month to month to see which would be the most lucky and fatall time for his mischieuous plot against the Iewes Their mariages they celebrated in the Spring and on their mariage day the husbands eate nothing but an Apple or the marrow of a Camel The Persians are accounted authors of making Eunuches which Petronius Arbiter and M. Seneca impute to the curiositie of their lust which might thus be longer serued of them They vsed in salutation to vncouer or put off the Tiara Here I might lade you with the Persian wardrobe the length and varietie of their garments and I might tell you of their earings and Iewels painting of their faces long haire of their kissing salutations if they were equall and of the knee of the superiour by the inferiour and adoration of the chiefe of their womans womanly detestation in the eagerest degree of hatred and indignation the fingering of wooll of their inhumane crueltie to the kindred of those which had committed some grieuous crime to punish all for the offence of one The Persians made banquets to their gods and gaue them the first fruits thereof
Instruments they haue many and manifold but they want Organs except some blown with the mouth and all such as goes with keyes their strings are wouen of raw-silke and know not our way of making them Nor doe they know the discord-concord in musicall harmonie of diuers voyces so that their musike to vs is harsh in their owne opinion glorious For measuring houres they vse houre-glasses of water and other deuices but in this and dyalling very rude They are much addicted to Comedies and therein excell vs many young men trauelling through the Kingdome in this profession and practice or abiding in chiefe places of resort But there as here the dregs of mankind They are hired vnto feasts whither they come prouided for what play shall be demanded offering to that end their booke of Comedies to the feast-Master to chuse which hee liketh which the guests behold in their feastingtime with such pleasure that they continue sometimes ten houres in feeding their eyes and tastes with one seruice after another in both kindes Their Comedies are ancient few of later writing which the Actors pronounce in a singing accent They haue also dancers on the rope tumblers and other feat-workers Mathan an Eunuch feasted the Iesuites where all these kindes were employed being of his owne familie One of them cast three kniues vp into the aire still catching them by the hafts Another lying on his backe tossed with his feet lifted vp an earthen vessell euery way so as hardly might be done with the hands the like tennisse-play with his feet he vsed with a bell and a great table They had also dumbe shewes acted and a boy dancing very artificially on a sudden start vp a boy of earth keeping the same measures and much admirable sport betwixt them Seales are in much vse not onely for their Letters but for other their writings Poems Pictures and other things they contayne onely their name surname degree and dignitie They vse not one but diuers not in waxe but coloured red the Grandes hauing at table a boxe full of Seales which contayne their diuers names engrauen for euery Chinois is called by many names and are of diuers matter Wood Marble Iuorie Brasse Crystall Corall and other stones more precious The makers of them are many and those learned the characters differing from the vulgar and sauoring antiquitie The arte of Inke-making also is not here illiberall which they make vp in balls of the smoake of oyle and grinde with water on a stone and then take it vp with pensils made of Hares haire and write therewith not with pennes their paper being like thinne transparent parchment They all of both sexes vse fannes without which none of them come abroad not so much for necessity especially in colder places and seasons as for a kind of grace Euen as gloues with vs are most for ornament and the most vsuall presents so are fannes in China of diuers matter and forme Reed Wood Iuorie with Paper Silke or a kind of odoriferous Straw round square ouall with sentences written therein In these things these differ from vs in other things are very like in the vse of tables stooles beds which other people neere and farre obserue not but sit feede and sleepe on carpets spred on the ground Things are there exceeding cheape a hundred pound of Sugar may be bought for nine or ten six-pences and other things proportionable so that though there are none rich as wee interpret the word in Europe for such and such reuenues yet this cheapnesse doth recompence that other defect They haue Artificers of all trades and in idlenesse none may liue The impotent are well prouided for in Hospitals They haue no Gentlemen but euery man is a Plebeian vntill his merits raise him Preferment is atchieued onely by learning This maketh them generally studious §. VI. Of their language writing Astrologie Philosophie and Phisike THe beginning of this discourse must bee with their words letters and writing wherein this is first to be admitted that they haue not one booke written in the vulgar idiome or common language But they haue one language called Quonhoa for their Courts and writings which is common through all China which alone the Iesuites learned and which the learned and strangers commonly vse women also and children attayning by this common vse to the vnderstanding thereof As for the differing languages of each Prouince it is not so necessary nor commendable being but of vulgar both vse and reckoning But in euery Tongue and Dialect the words are euery one Monosyllables howsoeuer sometimes two or three vowels fall into one diphthong As for them they mention not vowels or consonants or letters but in writing the letter syllable and word is all one being nothing else but hieroglyphicall characters of which there are no fewer then words or things which yet they so compound and connexe that they haue not aboue 70. or 80000. If we pronounce any of their words in two syllables it is when two of their characters are applyed to signifie one thing Some 10000. of these characters are necessary for vsuall writing for to know them all is that which few either can or need Their sound also is in great part the same and yet both figure and signification different so that there is no so equiuocall a language neither can a Hearer write out an Oration or Speech from the Speakers mouth nor a booke be vnderstood of them which heare it read but they must look and discerne with their eyes that equiuocation which their eares cannot And in speaking they are often hereby forced sometime to repeat that which hath before been elegantly deliuered sometimes to write it or if such meanes be wanting with water on the Table or Characters formed with the finger in the ayre to expresse their mindes to the conceit of others and this is most common amongst the most learned which speake in print and affect inke-horne Rhetorike They haue fine accents by which they also distinguish this equiuocation that one and the same word thus by accents diuersified shall signifie fiue seuerall things nothing alike This makes the language hard to be learned of strangers which yet the Iesuites haue learned to write and reade and I would all the Equiuocators amongst them that teach to illude oathes and delude the World by their two-fold two-forked serpentine Equiuocation in Mental reseruations Verbal double-significations were all there learning the China language to conuert Heathens rather then here practising the Romish equiuocating Dialect to peruert Christians to worse then Heathenisme Peruerse Masters louers of strange language in Prayers to GOD in Oathes and Assertions to Man in the one Parrats without reason in the other Deuils without Religion this being the strongest bond which Religion hath binding at once to GOD and Man and yet these Religious Mountebanks by iuggling querks dissoluing these bonds and at once deluding both GOD Man Foolish Romans that sent backe the
an Earth-quake changed his channell thereby a great part of the neighbour Region being turned into a desart For in this Indus is like vnto Nilus in that without it the Countrey would be a Wildernesse and therefore is also worshipped of the Inhabitants It receiueth fifteene other Riuers into it Hee mentioneth the Cathei not farre from thence which after happily gaue name vnto Cathay The Indians are of seuen sorts The first in estimation and sewest in number were their Philosophers These kept-publike Acts once a yeere before the King he which in his Obseruations was found three times false was condemned to perpetuall silence The second sort were Husband-men which payd the King the onely owner of all the Land a fourth part of the increase The third was of Shepheards and Huntsmen which wandred in Tents The fourth Artificers The fifth Souldiers The sixth Magistrates The seuenth Courtiers and those of his Priuie Councell If any woman killeth the King in his drunkennesse shee is rewarded with the marriage of his Sonne and Heire If any depriue another of a member besides like for like he loseth his hand and if hee bee an Artificer his life They strangle their sacrifice that it may be so offered whole to their Idols §. II. Of their Philosophicall or Religious Sects OF their Philosophers or men Learned and Religious the Brachmanes obtaine the first place as being neerest in Sects to the Greekes These are after their manner Nazarites from the wombe So soone as their Mother is conceiued of them there are learned men appointed which come to the Mother with Songs containing Precepts of Chastitie As they grow in yeeres they change their Masters They haue their places of Exercise in a Groue nigh to the Citie where they are busied in graue conferences They eare no liuing Creatures nor haue vse of women liue frugally and lye vpon skinnes They will instruct such as will heare them but their Hearers must neither Sneese nor Spit nor Speake When they haue in this strict course spent seuen and thirtie yeeres they may liue more at Pleasure and Libertie in Dyet Habit proper Habitation and the vse of Gold and Marriage They conceale their mysteries from their Wiues lest they should blab them abroad They esteeme this life as mans Conception but his Death day to bee his Birth-day vnto that true and happy life to him which hath beene rightly Religious They hold the World to bee Created Corruptible Round ruled by the high GOD. Water they imagine to haue beene the beginning of making the World and that besides the foure Elements there is a fifth Nature whereof the Heauen and Starres consist They intreate of the immortalitie of the Soule and of the torments in Hell and many such like matters The Germanes another Order of Religious or Learned men are honoured amongst them especially such of them as liue in the Woods and of the Woods both for their dyet of those wilde Fruits and their habit of the Barkes of Trees not acquainted with Bacchus or Venus any more then with Ceres They speake not to the Kings when they aske counsell of them but by messengers and doe pacifie the angrie gods as is supposed by their holinesse Next in honour to these are certaine Mendicants which liue of Rice and Barley which any man at the first asking giueth them together with entertainment into their houses These professe skill in Physicke and to remedie Diseases Wounds and Sterilitie very constant in labour and hardship Others there are Inchanters and Diuiners Masters of Ceremonies about the Dead which wander thorow Townes and Cities Some there are more Ciuil and Secular in their life professing like Pietie and Holinesse Women also are admitted vnto the fellowship of their studies in this Philosophie not to their beds Aristobulus writeth That hee saw two of these Brachmanes the one an old man shauen the other young with long haire which sometimes resorted to the Market-place and were honoured as Counsellors and freely tooke what they pleased of any thing there to be sold for their sustenance They were anointed with Sesumine oyle wherewith and with hony they tempered there bread They were admitted to Alexanders Table where they gaue lessons of patience and after going to a place not farre off the old Man lying downe with his face vpward sustained the Sun and showers terrible violence The yonger standing on one foot held in both his hands a piece of wood of three cubits lifted vp and shifted feet as the other was weary nd so they continued euery day The young man returned home afterward but the old man followed the King with whom he changed his Habit and Life for which when as he was by some reproued he answered That he had fulfilled the fortie yeeres exercise which he had vowed Onesicritus saith that Alexander hearing of some Religious Obseruants which went naked and exercised themselues to much hardship and would not come to others but would bid Men if they would haue any thing with them to come to them sent him vnto them who found fifteene of them twentie furlongs from the City each of them obseruing his own gesture of sitting standing or lying naked and not stirring til sun-setting in that vnsupportable heat at which time they returned into the Citie Calanus was one of them He afterward followed Alexander into Persia where beginning to be sicke hee caused a great Pile or Frame of wood to be made wherein he placed himselfe in a golden chayre and caused fire to be put to in which he was voluntarily consumed telling if they tell TRUE that he would meet Alexander at Babylon the place fatall to Alexanders death Aelianus saith That this was done in a suburbe of Babylon and that the fire was of Cedar Cypres Mirtle Laurell and other sweet woods and after he had performed his daily exercise of running hee placed himselfe in the middest crowned with the leaues of Reeds the Sunne shinning on him which he worshipped This adoration was the signe which hee gaue to the Macedonians to kindle the fire in which he abode without any stirring till hee was dead Alexander himselfe admiring and preferring this victorie of Calanus before all his owne This Calanus told Onesicritus of a golden World where Meale was as plentiful as dust and Fountaines streamed Milk Hony Wine and Oyle Which Country by men turned into wantonnesse Iupiter altered and detayned imposing a life of hardnesse and labour which while men followed they enioyed abundance but now that men begin to furfet and grow disobedient there is danger of vniuersall destruction When hee had thus spoken hee bad him if hee would heare further strip himselfe and lie naked vpon these stones But Mandanis another of them reproued Calanus for his harshnesse and commending Alexander for his loue to learning said that they inured their bodies to labour for the confirmation of their mindes against passions For his nakednesse he alledged that that was the
need not this ruder but iust and true Apologie As for other Obiections they are friuolous and either ridiculous or meerely accidentall and it is Puritanisme in Politie to conceit any great Good without some Euills attendant in any Enterprise whatsoeuer where the Heauens Great Lights are subiect to Eclipses the longest Day hath a Night the Summer yeelds vicissitude to Winter all Bodies are mixed and compounded and in the greatest Lustre make an apparant Shadow Apparant Shadowes are the obiected expence of Victuall as if these mouthes would not exceed farre more in quantitie and qualitie at home of Timber as if this be not the most honourable vse thereof though Ireland yeeldes supply in this kind of eclipsing or sinking other Trades sic inter Stellas argentea Luna minores will they be angrie that so few Starres appeare when Aurora is preparing the Sunnes Chariot They adde Oppressions and Dealing cruelly I know not whether this be a cruell lye and many other alledged against these Indian Nauigations bee but English Knauigations This I know that the Wisest hath forbidden to answere a foole according to his foolishnesse lest thou also bee like him Easie it is for fooles to moue Scruples in the Actions of the Wisest and not hard for euill mindes to make that which they find not euill But Christians are to imitate Him rather which commanded the Light to shine out of Darkenesse with a candide Mind the true Image of GOD alway construing doubtfull things to the best which the best will doe to whom and for whom this is intended As for Cauillers they haue their Dos here according to Salomons Prescipt Answere a foole according to his foolishnesse lest he be wise in his owne conceit §. IIII. The Conclusion with commendation of the Mariner c. NOw that I haue after my ability answered the obiections and produced so many Arguments the most of which are Store-houses and Heads of many Let this be the last argument which to me was not the least and here was placed first the Increase of learning and knowledge by these worthy Discoueries of Marine Worthies How little had we knowne of the World and the Wonders of God in the World had not the Sea opened vs a Passage into all Lands Pegasus the winged Horse which the Poets fained with the stroke of his foot first made Helicon the Muses Well to spring was the issue of Neptune and that snaky-headed Monster Medusa The Mariner seemes rough-hewen and rude according to the Ocean that breeds him but hee that can play with those dangers which would transforme others into stones and dares dwell within so few inches of death that calls the most tempestuous Elements his Parents Hee I say is the true Pegasus that with his wing-like Sailes flies ouer the World which hath helped to deliuer Andromeda Geography before chained to the Rockes and ready to bee deuoured of that Monster Ignorance and out of whose salt waters wisely distilled Clio Vrania and the best of the Muses drinke their sweetest and freshest liquors Howsoeuer Others My Selfe must confesse and this Booke will witnesse that My Helicon hath in great part flowne from the footing of this Pegasus And let it be the Honour of Our Honourable SMITH that His hand hath fitted this Foot of Pegasus to this Indian Iourney whither he is now carrying you at Whose Forge and Anuill haue beene hammer'd so many irons for Neptune not like Xerxes his Arrogance which proudly cast Fetters into the Hellespont but with true effects of Conquest Mee thinkes I here see the Sterne that with little locall stirring Stiereth so many Ships to so many Ports visited by your Pilgrim HONDIVS his Map of the EAST-INDIA INDIA Orientalis CHAP. III. Of the Indian Prouinces next adioyning to China §. I. Of Cauchin China Camboia and the Laos CAuchin-China is an Indian Kingdome situate betweene the Prouince of Canton on the North and Camboia on the South in the bottome of a great Bay diuided into three Prouinces and as many Kings but one of them is Paramount It aboundeth with Gold Siluer Aloes Porcelane and Silke They are Idolaters and Pagans and haue had some deuotion to the Popish Christianity moued thereto by certaine Pictures of our Lady of the last Iudgement and Hell a new kind of preaching and haue erected many Crosses amongst them of which the Friers report after their fashion some miracles Their Religion seemeth little to differ from that of the Chinois to whom they are also Tributaries and vse their Characters One Richard Cocke Englishman in a Letter dated December the tenth 1614. from Firando in Iapan where hee was left in Factory by Captaine Saris writes of an vnhappy accident which befell Master Tempest Peacocke who with Walter Caerwarden arriued not long before with our Kings Letter in Cauchin-China with a Present also and goods to the Value of seuen hundred and thirty pounds But whiles hee with some principall Hollanders who were there likewise entertained was passing by water they were set vpon and slaine with harping irons together with their interpreters and followers Iapanders neither had they heard further what became of the rest of the Company The cause was reported to bee a quarell against the Hollanders for fraud and violence deceiuing them with false money and burning a Towne Here is much of the wood called Palo Daguilla and of the most sweet wood Calamba with other merchandize of China Betweene this and the I le Aynao tenne miles from the land is a fishing for Pearles To the South of this Kingdome is Champa the name of a Kingdome and chiefe Citie thereof of great Traffique especially of Lignum Aloes which groweth there in the Mountaines prized at the weight in Siluer which they vse in Bathes and in the Funerals of great Princes In Religion they are as the former This Tract beares also the name of Camboia Camboia on the North abutteth on Cauchin China on the South the Kingdome of Siam on the East the Sea It is a great and populous Countrey full of Elephants and Abada's this Beast is the Rhinoceros Here also they begin to honour the Crosse as Frier Siluester a man as they say much reuerenced by the King and honoured of the people hath taught them When the King dieth his women are burned and his Nobles doe voluntarily sacrifice themselues in the same fire The women are generally burned with their husbands at their death The Camboyans dealt treacherously with the Hollanders Anno 1602. whom they inuited to the shore with promise of certaine Buffolos and then cruelly slew them They detained the Admirall on shore to be redeemed with some of their Ordnance When they intend a iourney they vse diuination with the feete of a Henne to know whether it will be luckie or no and as the Wizard shall answere they dispose of themselues either to goe or stay This Land hath much of the sweet Wood Calamba which being good
little themselues neuer returning without losse of halfe their Armie of his own Son in the last inuasion slain with a shot Relentlesse he inflamed rather with his losses determined another Expedition in his owne person and therefore laid vp store of prouision in Barnes at Martauan Murmulan Tauay and Tanassarin three yeeres together purposing then to employ all the Peguans in this enterprise But they weary of forreine calamities hid themselues in Woods and Wildernesses and some turned Talopoyes so they call their Religious persons Many sold themselues slaues The King persisting in his Person gaue order to his Vncle Ximibogus to take a muster of all the People and to entertaine halfe of them for the warres But he missing so many which had by those new courses preuented this seruice acquainted the King therewith who enioyneth the late professed Talopoyes to resigne their habit the young-men to be compelled to warfare the old men to be exiled to the Bramans where after he caused them to be exchanged for horses He caused all the Peguans also to bee branded in the right hand that they might be knowne This made them entertaine thoughts of Rebellion which was first practised by the Cosmians who set a new King ouer them The Peguan sent an Armie against them with charge to burne or bring away all they could find amongst them which they did together with many of the People of both sexes which he after his manner setting wood about them burned And when the rest not able to warre against their King and Famine at once submitted themselues with exquisite torments he ssue them all He then sent to his Son the King of Aua to transplant those People of euery Age and Sexe to people these forlorne desolations of Pegu They vnacquainted with this ayre brake forth in diseases wherwith they infected also the naturall Inhabitants which plague made such hauoke that many in impatience cast themselues into the Riuer The Murmulans with helpe of the Siamites seised on their Castle whom the King besieged a yeere together and then was forced from thence by the Siamites sudden irruption with losse of the most of his People the Horses Elephants and Country it selfe remaining their recompence And the Peguan Captaines also fearing their Masters tyrannie became subiects to the Siamite whose whole Families this tyrant with Fire and Water destroyed so that all the Tract from Pegu to Martaua and Murmulan was made a Wildernesse These things done hee sent for his younger Sonne the King of Prom and commanded him to the siege of Murmulan who vtterly misliking the attempt conueyed himselfe in the night homewards with purpose of rebellion The King of Siam not ignorant of this Peguan estate inuaded the country in Haruest-time and therefore that which they could they conueyed into Barnes the rest was fired Hee proceeded and laid siege to Pegu in which at that time was a hundred and fiftie thousand Men and three thousand Peeces of Ordnance a thousand whereof were Brasse but as is said for feare of the Portugalls which were reported to haue entred into Siam by the way of Camboia hee departed leauing Famine behind as Lieutenant of his Warres which caused the Forreigners then in Pegu for the defence thereof to get them to their owne homes Those few which remained liued with prouision from Tangu The King sent to his Deputie in Tangu to come to him with all the Inhabitants of the Countrey and their store leauing his Wife and some few to guard the Citie He answered That he would send halfe and to demand all were vnreasonable The King sends foure Noble-men with Souldiers to force him hereunto But he slayeth the Leaders and seizeth on their Followers Thus the Famine encreasing and the People eating one another the King numbreth the Citizens among whom hee findeth seuen thousand Siamites whom he commanded to bee slaine not leauing aboue thirtie thousand of all sorts in the Citie His sonne the King of Prom which had now stood out three yeeres began to relent and sue for pardon with promise to bring the Promans to the number of fiftie thousand to the Citie whereat his Father reioyced and sealed his pardon which hee sent him with many gifts But his chiefe Counsellor Author of this Rebellion fearing all the blame would be laid on him poysoned the Prince himselfe aspiring to the Kingdome was within one weeke destroyed and the Nobles euery man seeking to seize the State to himselfe caused that of those fiftie thousand within two moneths space whiles euery weeke they had a new Prince scarce remained fiftie men fit for Warre which departed to Pegu three or foure in a ship leauing their Countrey to the habitation of wild Beasts The Natiues of Pegu are not quite extinct but many of them are fled into other Kingdomes of whom and of the Bramans Iangoma numbreth a hundred and twentie thousand Oracan twentie thousand Siam a hundred thousand and the King of Iangoma is able they say to arme a million of Men. The Talapoyes perswaded the Iangoman to depose his brother of Pegu Hee alledged his Oath vnto his Father while he liued They reply That no Oath might prohibite if hee placed his brother in a Vahat or golden Throne to be adored for a god And partly with this I may not call it Reason and partly as Xerxes alledged for himselfe because that his elder Brother was borne before his Father was King and because his Mother was the former King of Pegu's Daughter hee perswaded himselfe that it was lawfull And thus was the State of this mightie Kingdome in the yeere 1598. brought to one Citie which also was now become a withered carkasse and well-neere the Sepulchre of it selfe and as mischiefe come not alone besieged by Mogus King of Orracan Andreas Boues in his Letters the eight and twentieth of March 1600. thus finisheth this Tragedie When the King of Pegu saw himselfe in such straits besieged by the King of Orracan or Arracan and Tangu in his Castle of Macao in Decemb. 1599. hee yeelded himselfe to the King of Tangu ; who dealt treacherously with him and cut off his head as he did to the Queene likewise and the Prince He then hasted to the Tower of Pegu where he found as much Gold and Iewels as laded six hundred Elephants and as many Horses besides Siluer and other Metalls of smaller price which he left behinde The King of Arracan then absent and angrie that the King of Tangu contrary to promise had seized all the treasure to himselfe purposed to inuade his Kingdome and to that intent had the ayde of many Portugalls amongst whom this Iesuite was one who saw the wayes and fields lately so fertile now full strewed with Dead mens bones and skulls and in the Riuers all passage of Ships hindered by the carkasses of Men. The King of Arracan found in the Towne aforesaid three millions of Siluer with two and thirtie hundred Peeces of Ordnance and
him Neither would he speake but was accompanied with eight or ten which spake for him When any man spake to him hee would lay his hand vpon his brest and bow himselfe but speake he would not to the King The King of Patanaw was Lord of the greatest part of Bengala vntill the Mogoll slue their last King After which twelue of them ioyned in a kinde of Aristocratie and vanquished the Mogolls it seemes this was in the time of Emmaupaxda and still notwithstanding the Mogolls Greatnesse are great Lords specially he of Siripur and of Ciandecan and aboue all Maafudalim Nine of them are Mahumetans Thus Fernandes These Pataneans seeme by the Iesuites report to come of the Tartars In those parts they had many strange Ceremonies Their Bramans or Priests come to the Water and haue a string about their necks made with great Ceremonies and lade vp Water with both their hands and turne the string first with their armes within and then one arme after the other out Here also about Iemena the Gentiles will eate no flesh nor kill any thing They pray in the Water naked and dresse their meate and eate it naked and for their penance they lye flat vpon the earth and rise vp and turne themselues about thirtie or fortie times and vse to heaue vp their hands to the Sunne and to kisse the earth with their armes and legs stretched out along their right leg being alwayes before the left Euery time they lye downe they score it with their fingers to know when their stint is ended The Bramans marke themselues in their foreheads eares and throats with a kinde of yellow geare which they grinde euery morning they doe it And they haue some old men which goe in the streets with a boxe of yellow powder and marke them which they meet on their heads and necks And their Wiues doe come ten twentie and thirtie together to the water-side singing and there doe wash themselues and vse their ceremonies and marke themselues on the fore-heads and faces and carry some with them and so depart singing Their Daughters bee marryed at or before the age of ten yeeres The men may haue seuen wiues They are a craftie People worse then the Iewes The way from Bannaras to Patanaw is a faire and fertile Countrey beautified with many faire Townes I went from Bengala into the Countrey of Couche which lieth fiue and twentie dayes iourney Northwards from Tanda The King was a Gentile named Suckel Counse his Countrey is great and lyeth not farre from Cauchin-China All the Countrey is set with Canes made sharpe at both ends and driuen into the Earth and they can let in the water and drowne the Countrey knee-deepe In time of Warre they poyson all the waters The people haue eares which be maruellous great of a span long which they draw out in length by deuices when they bee young They are all Gentiles and will kill nothing They haue Hospitalls for Sheepe Dogs Goats Cats Birds and all other liuing Creatures When they be old and lame they keepe them till they dye If a man catch or buy any quick thing in other places and bring it thither they will giue him mony for it or other victuals and keepe it in their Hospitals or let it go They will giue meat to the Ants Their small money is Almonds which oftentimes they eat We passed thorow the Country of Gouren where we found but few villages and almost all Wildernesse for wee chose this Desart way for feare of theeues and saw many Buffes Swine and Deere grasse longer then a man and very many Tygres Orixa is the next Countrey which hath beene a Kingdome but conquered by the King of Patanaw and both since by Echebar Orixa stands sixe dayes Southwest from Satagan There is much Rice cloth of Cotton and cloth made of grasse called Yerua like silke They speake of the like in Virginia Through this Kingdome Fredericke writes a man might haue gone with Gold in his hand without danger while the old King reigned who so befriended Merchants that he tooke no custome of them And there were laden in the Port of Orisa yeerely fiue and twentie or thirtie Ships with Rice Lacca long Pepper Ginger Mirabolins and the Yerua aforesaid made of an herbe growing in the Woods wild then gathered when the boll is growne round as bigge as an Orange In the Hauen of Angeli are yeerely many Ships laden with many kindes of commodities Satagam is a faire Citie for a Citie of Moores and very plentifull sometime subiect to Patanaw In Bengala such is the estimation of Ganges that they will fetch of it a great way off though they haue good water neere and if they haue not sufficient to drinke they will sprinkle a little on them and then they are well From Satagam I trauelled by the Countrey of the King of Tippara with whom the Mogor hath continuall warre The Mogores which be of the Kingdome of Recon and Rame be stronger then this King of Tippara Foure dayes iourney from Couche is Botanter and the Citie Bottia the King is called Dermaine the People are tall and strong the Countrey great three moneths iourney and hath in it high Mountaines one of which a man may see sixe dayes iourney off Vpon these Mountaines are people with eares of a span long otherwise they account them Apes Hither resort many Merchants out of China and Tartaria From Chatigan in Bengala I went to Bacola the King whereof is a Gentile thence to Senepare and after to Simergan where they will eate no flesh nor kill no beast and thence to Negrais in Pegu and Cosmin Thus farre hath our Countrey-man led vs in the view of so many superstitions of these Bengalans and their Northerly Neighbours In that part of Botanter which is next to Lahor and the Mogor the People are white and Gentiles Their garments are close girt to them that a wrinkle or pleit is not to be seene which they neuer put off no not when they sleepe as long as they are able to hang on their head attyre is like a Sugar-loafe sharpe at the top They neuer wash their hands lest say they so pure a Creature as the Water should be defiled They haue but one Wife and when they haue two or three children they liue as brother sister Widdowers and widdowes may not marry a second time They haue no Idols nor Townes nor King in those parts of Batanter They haue their Sooth-sayers which they aske counsell of When any is dead they resort vnto these Wisards to know what is to be done with their dead They search their Bookes and as they say the word they burne them or bury them or eate them although they vsually feed not on mans flesh They also vse dead mens skulls in stead of dishes as in Thebet wee haue obserued the like custome They are liberall Almes-giuers They liue on Weauing and making Clothes which they sell at Calamur and
grinning like a Foole when he returneth to himselfe knoweth nothing but that hee hath slept Another strange herbe is called Sentida or feeling for that if any passe by it and toucheth it or throweth sand or any thing else on it presently it becommeth as if it were withered and closeth the leaues so continuing as long as the man standeth by but so soone as he is gone openeth fresh and faire and touching it againe it withereth as before The Indians suppose it will procure loue and restore Virginitie A Physician amongst them became mad with studying to find out the nature of this herbe Pigafetta speakes of another sort as after shall follow But the strangest plant for so may we terme it is that at Goa the hornes of beasts slaughtered are throwne together in one place lest they should bee occasion of indignation and reproach to any the shewing or naming of a horne being there ominous These hornes thus cast forth after a certaine time take root and the roots grow two or three spannes in length Galuano telleth of a tree in Mindanao the one halfe whereof which standeth towards the East is a good remedy against poyson the Westerne halfe yeeldeth the strongest Poyson in the World There is a stone on which whosoeuer sitteth shall bee broken in his body The Tree of Iapan which thriues best with that which kils other Trees and in a Naturall antipathy to Nature is killed with that moysture which quickens others and that in Ciumbubon whose leaues are said to haue feete and to goe in their due places shall bee mentioned But of all the most wonderfull is that Plant of Sumbrero an Iland not farre from Nicubar and Sumatra growing on the Sands by the Sea side which some English then being there with Sir Iames Lancaster offering to pull vp shrunke it selfe into the ground as hauing sensitiue life and motion neyther without greater force would it bee brought forth The cause they found that the Roote is a great Worme which as the Plant growes into a greater tree dyes by degrees or exchangeth that sensitiue into a vegetatiue life The first growth is out of the mouth of the Worme being then but a small twigge full of greene leaues as bigge as a Bay leafe the Worme in processe of the growth turnes into this tall growing Tree The Reader may smile as at Virgils Polydorus or some of Ouids Metamorphosis thinking this incredible but yet behold another change They plucked vp some of these resisting Plants to bring them home for rarities as they did many stripping off the leaues and barke and thereby I know not with what naturall horrour they after found that as it dryed it died beneath the name of Death into a hard stone like white Corall Thus haue you a three-fold Retrograde in one thing From that degree of life which hath locall motion to a Stirpanimans or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a sensitiue Plant which mooueth it selfe but not out of the same place as Oysters and the like from thence in a second remooue to a meere Plant or Tree and in a third degree to a Tropiditie and stonie lifelessenesse Nor doe thou deride this as mostrous incredible impossible I leaue the certaintie thereof to the Relators but examine if in thy selfe thou findest not a greater and more manifâ—ld Retrograde in this Storie of Creatures what fitter to bee obserued then MAN for whom the rest were Created in thy selfe Homo is homulus degenerate from that Man which God created after his owne Image and become the Diminutiue of Himselfe Nay lesse then that not Homulus but Mulus as the Horse and Mule that hath no vnderstanding A Mule that is a profitable beast but of Men not the Cretans alone that of Epimenides and Paul is true 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 They are euill beasts yea euill wilde beasts yea euill wilde and venemous the word will beare it Nay Saint Paul proceeds in further degrading this proud Man 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 bellies the worst part of the worst beasts all bellies like Spiders Nay worse for their bellies worke nets to keepe them but these are slow bellies idle nay Idol-bellies slow except in deuouring and therein the Gluttons God quorum Deus venter Magister artis ingenijque largitor Venter Euen till like Oysters wee haue but sense for sensualitie for touch and taste this Pinguis aquiliculus propenso sesquipede extans not scarcely suffering vs to moue from the Table and that also a Great and bigge Prince in our dayes hath had cut with a great in-let for his great belly The Belly as well a shapen Deitie as the Vmbilicus of Iupiter Ammon But alas the Belly and what Nature hath placed beneath it hath placed vs beneath that sensitiue life which the Belly hath and with this Plant heere mentioned wee are Wormes not Men Plants not Wormes Pôpuius primá corruptà is Populus our corruption from our first state hath made the whole people of Mankinde as a Moorish ill planted Plant Yea in the Greeke it hath a more fit name 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 our retrograde is into a hard stone So vaine a thing is Man §. III. Of Spices and Drugges PEpper whereof there are diuers sorts groweth at the foot of Arecca or some other Tree on which it climbeth as a Betele or Iuie growing in bunches like grapes halfe a spanne long and as bigge as ones finger greene like Iuie when it is gathered and in fiue or sixe dayes drying in the Sunne becomes blacke Cinamon is the inner barke of a Tree as bigge as an Oliue with leaues like Bay-leaues and fruit like an Oliue The drying of the barke maketh it roll together Within three yeeres after the tree yeeldeth another barke as before In Seylon is the best They of Ormuz call it Darchina that is wood of China and selling it at Alexandria call it Cinnamomum Ginger groweth like young Reedes or Gladiolus with a roote like a Lilly it is plentifull in Malabar Cloues grow in the Moluccos on trees like Bay-trees yeelding blossomes first white then greene at which time they yeeld the pleasantest smell in the world and last of all red and hard which are the Cloues They are so hot of nature that if a payle or tubbe of water should stand in the Chamber when they clense them or any vessell of Wine or other moysture in two dayes the Cloues would sucke it out and drie it The same nature is of the vnspunne Silke of China The Nutmeg-tree is like a Peach or Peare-tree and groweth most in Banda and Iaua The fruit is like a Peach the inner part whereof is the Nutmegge which is couered and interlaced with the Maâ—e or flowre and ouer that is the fruit like a Peach as I haue seene them conserued When the fruit is ripe the first and outermost part openeth as it is with our Walnuts then the Mace flourisheth in a faire
so vnconstant watery Element That the Earth and Sea make one Globe we haue elsewhere shewed in the History of their Creation In which the Earth being as it seemeth at the first forming of it more perfectly Spherical and wholy couered with Waters by the power of that Almighty Decree Word Let the waters be gathered into one place that the dry Land may appeare both the Waters as some gather were more condensate which before were more subtle and therefore occupied more roome and the Earth was in some places lifted vp in others depressed with deepe Furrowes and Trenches to make roome and conuenient receptacles for the Sea and withall fit matter yeelded for the eleuation both of Mountaynes aboue the ordinary height of the Earth and of the Earth and Continent also in the higher places whence the greatest Riuers deriue their Originall in comparison of the Lowes and Maritime parts where they empty themselues into the Sea This is the proper seate of the Element or Water called Aqua quast aequa of the equall and plaine face and superficies thereof or as Lactantius with a further fetch obserueth à qua nata sunt omnia because hence all things are bred and nourished Now because Waters are eyther without Motion as in Lakes or of an vniforme Motion as in Riuers or diuers as in the Sea the Heathen ascribed a Trident or three-fold Scepter to Neptune their supposed Sea-god That the Earth and Sea haue one and the same Centre both of Grauity and Greatnesse appeareth by this that the parts of the Earth and Water falling from a high place without other impediment haue the same direct descent a piece of Earth also falleth perpendicularly into the Water with equall and right Angles And that the Water naturally inclineth to a roundnesse appeareth in the small drops thereof which gather themselues into that forme and by the easier discerning things on shore from the tops then from the hatches of the ship in theâ—r Sea likewise by the eleuation or depression of the Pole and Stars no lesse in sayling then land-trauels to the North or South also in preuenting or lengthning the Sunnes light by sayling East or West as before hath beene obserued in the Spaniards and Portugals meeting at the Philippina's and differing a whole day in their reckoning the Portugals losing by meeting the Sunne in their Easterne course that which the Spaniards get by following him in a Westerne Yea euen in one dayes sayling this may be manifest as Record instanceth in a ship sayling West from Island in one of their dayes of twenty houres getting halfe an houre and in the next day returning with like swiftnesse loseth as much of the Sunne Yea in Riuers of very long course besides that descent before mentioned from higher to lower passages some obserue a kind of roundnesse or circular rising in compassing the Globe which else must needs be exceedingly difformed in the Riuers of Nilus Amazones and others which runne neere an eighth part thereof The Sea is great and wide sayth the Psalmist and at first couered the whole earth like a garment till for mans vse the dry land appeared which for mans abuse was againe in the dayes of Noah couered And had not God set the Sea a bound which it cannot passe it would so some translate it returne to couer the earth for euer It is his perpetuall decree who commanded and it was made that though the waues thereof rage yet they cannot preuaile though they roare yet they cannot passe ouer And thus many of the ancient and later Interpreters of Genesis doe auerre that the Earth is indeed lower then the Waters as in the beginning of this Worke is obserued as if God did by a kinde of miracle in Nature bridle and restraine the tempestuous force of the Sea Rerum omnium inualidissima to vse Basils words debilissimaque arena with Sand the weakest of all creatures Thus held Aquinas Carthusianus Catharinus and others Which opinion being granted how easie were it for the Sea to enclose the Earth in her watrie mantle and againe to make a Conquest of the drie Land hauing such forces of her owne and such re-inforcements from the Ayre and the Earth it selfe Her owne powers euen by order of Nature and proportion of the Elements cannot but seeme dreadfull in which as the Ayre exceedeth the Water and is it selfe exceeded of the Fire so the Water to some seemes no lesse to surmount the Earth as the lowest and least of the Elements And what Armies of exhalations doth the Sunne daily muster in the great Ayrie plaine which would succour their Mother in such an attempt Besides that euen the Earth as it is euery where compassed of the Sea doth compasse in it selfe so many Seas Lakes Riuers in the vppermost face thereof as professed partakers and the inward bowels thereof haue daily intelligence and continuall conspiracie with the waters by those secret pores and priuie passages whereby it commeth to passe that albeit All Riuers runne to the Sea yet the Sea is not filled And were it possible that so many worlds of waters should daily and hourely flow into this watrie world and that such a world of time together and yet the Sea nothing increased but that as Salamon there saith The Riuers goe to the place from whence they returne and goe that is they runne into the Sea and thence partly by the Sunnes force eleuated and restored in Raines and other Meteors partly by filling the veynes of the Earth with Springs doe both wayes returne againe in Riuers to the Sea This appeareth by the Dead Sea and by the Caspian which receiue many Riuers without open payment thereof to the Ocean and at the Straits of Gibraltar the Ocean commonly hath a current in at one end and the Euxine Sea at the other besides abundance of other waters out of Europe Asia Africa and yet is no fuller Many indeed are the wonders of the Lord in the deepe and this concerning the height depth and profunditie thereof one of the highest deepest and requiring the profoundest skill to search That the waters are gathered on swelling heapes in round forme compassing the Earth is already proued which to a vulgar capacitie may seeme to enforce a height of the water aboue some parts of the Earth but seeing that the earth and waters haue one Center and height is properly to bee measured by distance from that Center it seemeth vnlikely that the water should be higher then the Earth or altogether equall to the height thereof in whose Channels and concauities it is contayned And though the Sea swelleth and lifteth vp it selfe into that forme which best agreeth to that Globe which is compact of it and the Earth yet is it not capable being a liquid fluible body in the greatest depth and widenesse of such eleuations as wee see in high and Mountaynous Regions whereby the Earth seemeth to
exceed the due and iust proportion of her owne Globositie and thereby no lesse to excell the highest eleuation as wee may tearme it of the Sea then the Cliffes and Shores doe those Waters which approach them And what needs a conceit of miracle in the very ordinary constitution and conseruation of Nature though all Nature if wee regard it as a Creation by supernall power bee nothing else but miracle Some indeed dreame of I know not what proportion of the Elements wherby they would haue the Water to exceed the Earth as before is said and it is true that the vpper face and vtter superficies of the Waters for ought that is knowne to the contrary is as great as that of the Earth But if wee compare the depth of the Waters with the Diameter of the Earth we shall find that in most places the one is not so many Fathoms as the other is Miles Yea whoeuer soundeth at such depth And whereas the Diameter of the Earth is by some reckoned 8 11. Miles and by some more who euer cast Line and Lead into the Sea to measure a thousand Fathom Yea in Scaligers opinion the Earth is so much greater then the Water that if the Mountaines were cast downe into these watry receptacles and the Earth brought into a perfect roundnesse there would no place in it be left for the Water Record recordeth not so much as he yet holds the Earth almost ten thousand times as great as the Sea and all other waters And if wee receiue the Iewish Tradition mentioned by our Apocrypha Esdras this may bee more probable for hee saith that euen in the vtter face of the Globe the Waters were gathered into a seuenth part and sixe parts of the Earth kept drie Some imagine a bottomlesse depth passing quite thorow the Earth through which the Moone being in the other Hemisphere causeth the heightning of the Tides no lesse then when she is present in ours Which gaue no small helpe also in their conceit in the generall Deluge which if it be true addes a greater proportion to the Sea then wee haue obserued But because little reason and no experience can be shewed for this Assertion I will not insist in refutation But that Deluge being caused by breaking vp the Fountaines below and violent Stormes from aboue confute that opinion that the Sea should be higher then the Earth which then might haue effected the Floud without either of those former causes But why doe I drowne my innocent Reader with my selfe in these Depths of the Sea which some measure by the height of Hills others resemble those extraordinarie Land-heights to extraordinarie Whirle-Pooles but seeing the Sea is Tenant to the Earth which hath as before we haue said remoued it selfe in some sort to make way and roome for it the more ordinarie height and eleuation of the one may seeme to answere the more ordinary depth and descending of the other These bottomes of the Sea haue also their diuersified shape and forme as it were of Hillockes Mountaynes Valleyes with the Accliuities and Decliuities of Places as in the Shelues Shallowes Rockes Ilands appeareth And as the Land is not onely higher then the Sea at the shore so is it apparant that in remote places from the Sea the Land doth besides the exorbitant swellings of Mountaynes in the ordinary leuell exceed the height of Maritine regions which thence receiue those Riuers which require descent all the way of their passage which in some is one thousand in some two thousand miles And therefore is it likely also that the Sea answers in like proportion it being obserued to grow shallower neere the shoare and differently deeper in the farther recesse of the Maine §. II. Of the Saltnesse and Motions of the Sea THe saltnesse of the Sea some ascribe to the first Creation some to the sweat of the Earth roasted with the Sunne some to the saltnesse of the Earth especially in Minerals of that nature some to adust vapours parly let fall on the Sea partly raysed from it to the brinks and face thereof some to the motion of the Sea some to vnder-earth or vnder-sea fires of bituminous nature causing both this saltnesse and the motion also of the Sea and some to the working of the Sunne which draweth out the purer and finer parts leauing the grosser and baser behind as in this little world of our bodies the purest parts of our nourishment being employed in and on the body the vrine and other excrements remaining doe detaine a saltnesse I will not determine this question as neither that of the Ebbing and Flowing of the Sea which some say is the breath of the world some the fires aforesaid boyling in and vnder the water some the waters in holes of the earth forced out by Spirits some the meeting of the East and West Ocean some ascribe it to the Moone naturally drawing water as the Load-stone Iron some to the variable light of the Moone a variable light they all giue vs They that send vs to God and his Decree in Nature haue said what is the true cause but not how it is by Naturall meanes effected Certaine it is that the Ocean and the Moone are companions in their motion vncertaine whether the Ocean hath a naturall power in it selfe or from the Moone so to moue which is made so much the more doubtfull by reason that they follow not the Moone in all places of the word alike Vertomanum writeth that in Cambaia the Tides are contrarie to the course they hold in these parts for they encrease not with the full but with the wane of the Moone and so the Sea-crabs doe likewise In the Iland of Socotora Don Iohn of Castro obserued many dayes and found contrary both to the Indian and our wont that when the Moone riseth it is high Sea and as the Moone ascends the Tide descends and ebbeth being dead-low water when the Moone is in the Meridian and this operation hee found continuall With vs also our highest Tides are two dayes after and not at the very Full and Change About Vaygats Stephen Borrough found it to flow by fits very vncertaine Scaliger saith that the full-Moones at Calicut cause the encrease of the water and at the mouth of Indus not farre thence in the same Sea the new-Moones But what exceeding difference of the Tides doe wee find in the Downes and other places on our owne Coasts both for time and quantitie that at once in the compasse of ones sight there should bee both floud ebbe and these differing in degrees and that on some places of our Coast it should rise one fathom in some two in the Thames three at or neere Bristoll ten and on some part of the French coast neere Saint Malos fifteene whereas our shoare ouer against it riseth but two The like differences may bee obserued betweene the Tyrrhene Sea and that on the opposite coast
inclosed Iewes THe Persian Gulfe hath left some remnants of Land extant the chiefe is Ormuz a famous Mart which the Moores there maintayned vnder the gouernment of a Moore after made tributarie to the Portugall which Nature hath made barren Industrie plentifull the more fertile Element yeelds barrennesse and sands the barrenner bringeth in a double wealth Pearles and Merchandise Iohn Newbury which sayled downe Euphrates to this Sea and so to Ormuz visiting Bagdet by the way which he saith is twentie or fiue and twentie miles Southward from old Babylon testifieth of the women in Ormuz that they slit the lower part of their eares more then two inches which hangeth downe to their chin This our Countrey-man dyed in this Trauels hauing trauelled to Constantinople into the blacke Sea and Danubius and through the Kingdomes of Poland and Persia the Indies and other parts of the World But for the description of the passage downe the Riuer Euphrates to the Persian Gulfe I know none which hath done it so exactly as Gasparo Balbi a Venetian which that way passed to Ormuz and India who relateth the same in the Diarie of his Trauels sometimes the Trunkes or Bodies of Trees vnder the water of this Riuer conspiring dangerous attempts sometimes Zelebe and other ouer-hanging Mountaynes threatning ruine and euen now seeming to swallow them in their darke-deuouring jawes sometimes the violence of some steeper Current as it were hurling them into a Whirle-poole alway the Arabians ready attending for prey and spoile One Citie or rather the carkasse of a Citie whereof onely the ruines are remayning stands on the left hand of this Riuer greater in his opinion then Cairo in Egypt the Mariners affirmed to him That by the report of the old men it had three hundred threescore and sixe gates from morning to noone with the helpe of the streame and foure Oares they could scarcely passe one side thereof This is called Elersi perhaps that which was anciently called Edessa Hee speakes of the Caraguoh inhabiting as they passed which agree neither with Turkes Moores nor Persians in their Sect but haue an Heresie by themselues Hee trauelled more then one whole day by one side of old Babylon from Felugia to Bagdad though the ground bee good yet saw hee neither Tree nor greene Herbe but all barren and seeming to retaine some markes of the Prophesies threatned by Esay against this place They which dwell heere and trauell from hence to Balsara carrie with them Pigeons whom they make their Letter-posts to Bagdad as they doe likewise betweene Ormuz and Balsara The coasts of Persia as they sayled in this Sea seemed as a parched Wildernesse without tree or grasse those few people which dwell there and in the Ilands of Lar and Cailon liue on flesh being in manner them selues transformed into the nature of Fishes so excellent swimmers are they that seeing a vessell in the Seas though stormie and tempestuous they will swimme to it fiue or sixe miles to begge almes They eate their fish with Rice hauing no Bread their Cats Hennes Dogges and other Creatures which they keepe haue no other dyet In the Iland of Bairen and those of Gonfiar they take the best Pearles in the world In Muscato threescore miles from Ormuz they dare not fish for them for Fishes which are as cruell to the Men as they to the innocent Oysters They hold that in Aprill the Oysters come to the top of the water and receiue the drops of Raine which then fall wherewith they returne to the bottome againe and therefore fish not till the end of Iuly because that substance is not before ripened and hard In sayling from Ormuz to Diu he saith they passed ouer a Bay of a hundred and thirtie leagues of water white like milke I haue seene an Extract of a Chronicle written by Pachaturunuras which raigned in Ormuz three hundred yeares agoe testifying that one Mahomet being King of Amen in Arabia Foelix pretending title to Persia built a Citie on the Continent of Hormuz which his posteritie held in succession of many generations It happened that King Cabadim flying from the King of Creman came to Iarum that is a Wood so they called this Iland which is almost all of Salt the Riuer being brackish from a salt Mountaine in the middest thereof and the sides of the Riuer white salt Yet there then grew thinne Woods Heere he built Ormuz which Albuquerk made tributarie to the Portugals being Lady of the Ilands thereabouts and principall Staple of Merchandize for those parts of the world Odoricus speaketh of the intollerable heate in those parts and Balby testifieth that neere Balsara many persons die of the extremitie of heat which happened to foure of their company which forced by heat and wearinesse sate downe and with a hot blast of winde were all smothered Ormuz is lately taken from the Portugals by the Persian In the Discourse of these Asian Seas and this Persian among the rest I thought it worthy relating which Luys de Vrreta in his Aetheopian Historie telleth of a certrine Iew though perhaps but a tale for a lyer such as hee hath beene euicted in his Aethiopian Storie loseth his credit where he speakes truth yet euen tales serue for mirth being intermixed with serious histories branded that they may be knowne for Rogues or Iesters Be it as it will he tels that this Iew trauelling alongst the shoare of this Persian Sea by some In-lets and Armes thereof which embay themselues within the Land saw the Sea loftie and swelling by force of the Windes and Tides seeming to threaten the higher Elements but euen now ready to swallow vp the Earth roaring out a loud defiance in such sort that the poore Iew was amazed and dreadfully feared therewith and this continued the space of some dayes whiles the Iew trauelled thereby But on the Saturday and Sabbath Superstition commanded the Iew and Nature the Hand-maid of Diuinitie enioyned the angrie Elements to rest a suddaine calme followed as if Waues and Windes would accompany the Iew in his deuotions and had forgotten their former furie and wonted nature to remember the sanctification of this Day The Iew hauing heard before that there was a Sabbaticall Riuer which some place in Aethiopia some in Phoenicia others they cannot tell where in a credulous fancie perswades himselfe that this Arme of the Sea was that Sabbaticall Streame and that he now saw the experiment of that relation with his eyes Fancie had no sooner affirmed but Superstition sware to the truth and Credulitie tickles him with gratulation of Diuine fauour to himselfe that had liued to see that blessed sight Rauished with this conceit hee fills his Budget full of the Sand which is of a more grosse and cleauing nature then in other places and carrieth it with him as a great treasure vnto the place of his habitation There hee tells his Countreymen that now the Messias would not be long before he came
for now he had found this signe thereof the Sabbaticall Riuer shewing this Sand in proofe thereof Credit Iudaeus Apella the Iewes beleeue quickly all but the truth especially in Portugall whither he came with this report Many thousand moued by his words remoued their dwellings and selling their substance would needs goe into these parts of Persia by the Sabbaticall Riuer to fixe their habitation there wayting for their promised Messias One and a chiefe of this superstitious Expedition was Amatus Lusitanus a Physician of great note accounted one of the most learned of his Profession and a Writer therein and Iohn Micas a Merchant of great wealth They passed through France Germany Hungary their company like a Snow-ball encreasing as they went with the addition of other Iewes of like credulity When they came to Constantinople there were of them in many Bands or Companies thirty thousand Cabasomi Bassa the Turkish Commander thought to gaine by this occasion and would not suffer them to passe ouer the water into Asia without many hundred thousands of Duckets except they would passe on horse-backe This example was soone both spred and followed of the other Bassaes and Commanders in Asia as they went their wealth and substance being euery where so fleeced that they came into Syria much lessened in numbers in estate miserable and beggerly new Officers euery where as new hungry Flyes lighting on these wretched carkasses so I may call them some they whipped some they empaled some they hanged and burned others Thus were these miserable Pilgrimes wasted and Don Iohn Baltasar was present when Amato aforesaid being dead with this affliction his Physicke bookes were in an Out-cry to be sold at Damasco and because they were in Latine no man would buy them till at last another Iew became Chapman Micas one of the wealthiest men which Europe held dyed poore in an Hospitall at Constantinople And this was the issue of their Pilgrimage to the Sabbaticall streame which they supposed to finde in this Persian Gulfe where wee haue too long holden you the Spectators of this Iewish Tragedie And yet let me intreate your patience a litle longer in considering the occasion of this error We haue elsewhere mentioned this Sabbaticall Riuer now you shall vnderstand that the Iewes generally haue drowned their wits therein Rambam cals it Gozan Genebrard alleageth many R. R. testimonies of it but of all and of all let Eldad Danius his tale which Genebrard hath translated find some fauourable entertainment the rather because one of our Apocryphall Authors seemes to weaue the same webbe which as the worthier person deserueth first examination Esdras therefore so wee suppose him and this is not all his Iewish Fables reporteth that the ten Tribes which Salmanasar led captiue tooke counsell among themselues to leaue the multitude of the Heathen and goe forth into a further Countrey where neuer Mankind dwelt that they might there keepe their statutes which they neuer kept in their owne Lord And they entred into Euphrates by the narrow passages of the Riuer For the most High then shewed signes for them and held still the floud till they were passed ouer For through that Countrey there was a great way to goe namely of a yeere and a halfe and the same Region is called Arsareth Then dwelt they there vntill the latter time And now when they shall begin to come the Highest shall stay the Springs of the streame againe c. Here you see no lesse Miracle then in Iordan or the Red Sea for their passage which seeing it was through Euphrates yee will pardon our Iew for searching it neere this Persian Gulfe especially seeing his good Masters the Rabbins had increased this Tale with the Inclosure of these Iewes from passing againe into our World not by the continuall course of Euphrates as Esdras insinuateth but by the Sabbatising of the Sabbaticall streame which by Eldads description is two hundred cubits ouer full of sands and stones without water making a noyse like thunder as it floweth which by night is heard halfe a dayes Iourney from it On the Sabbath it is continually quiet and still but all that while ariseth thence a flame that none dare enter or come neere by halfe a mile Thus the fire if not the Religion of the Sabbath then detaynes them no lesse then the stony streame on the weeke dayes and what stony heart can refuse them credit Yet doth not hee and Esdras agree of the Inhabitants both deriuing them from the tenne Tribes but Eldad challengeth no lesse antiquitie then from Ieroboam who contending with Rehoboam the godly Catholike Israelites refusing to fight against the house of Dauid chose rather to attempt this Pilgrimage and so passing the Riuer Physon for the Scriptures had forbidden them to meddle with Egypt Ammon or Amalck they went and they went til they came into Ethiopia There did the foure Tribes of Dan Nepthali Gad Aser settle themselues which continually war vpon the seuen Kingdoms of Tusiga Kamtua Koha Mathugia Tacul Bacma and Kacua fie on the simplicity of our Geographers which know not one of these no better then Esdras his Arsareth they haue a King whose name is Huziel Mathiel vnder whom they fight each Tribe three moneths by course The Tribe also of Moses for they imagine his children claue to their Mothers Religion which was a Madianite or Ethiopian is turned to their truth and they all obserue the Talmud the Hebrew Tongue the Ordinances of the Elders and suffer nothing vncleane amongst them Yea no Vtopian State comparable to theirs He tels the like tales of the other Tribes But how came he thence to tell this newes Truely I wonder no lesse then you yet he saith he goe to the Sea forgetting that before he had compassed his Countrey with the Sabbaticall streame and there was taken captiue and by his leanenesse escaping the Canibals else our fat Storie had beene deuoured was sold to a Iew of whom perhaps this forged Tale procured his redemption Howsoeuer the Tradition holds both for these inclosed Iewes and that Sabbaticall streame that it should be sought here-a-wayes or found no where The reciting is sufficient refuting to a reasonable vnderstanding and yet the Iewes are not onely besotted with these their inclosed brethren imagining their Messias may bee amongst them although they know not whether to ascribe this transportation to Salmanaser or to Alexander the Great or to the dayes of Ieroboam but Christians also tell of them about the Pole and they know not where And I haue seene a printed Pamphlet of their comming out of those their Inclosures in our times with the numbers of each Tribe Yea Postellus Boterus and many other deriue the Tartars from them which dreame they which please may reade at large confuted by Master Brerewood It was about the yeere 1238. when Eldad came from thence into Spaine If any lust to haue another Guide for the Sabbaticall streame Master Fullers
death at Passanan for Tecco is a healthfull place where and in the Country about the Pepper most groweth In Nicobar they are base people and till not the ground Sumbrero is ten or twelue leagues Northward from this Iland where that plant growes not a plant but a Worme but a stone before obserued The people are tawny and naked they paint their faces Their Priests in their Sacrifices weare apparell so close as if it were sowed to them and hornes on their heads turning backe with a taile also hanging downe behind for so the Deuill they say appeareth to them Their faces and haire are deformed with greene blacke and yellow colours HONDIVS his Map of Zeilan CEILAN insula §. II. Of Zeilan ZEilan which some call Seylon other Ceilan is by Barrius auerred to be Taprobana sometimes according to Marcus Paulus his reports thought to haue comprehended 3600. miles in circuit since much impayred by his ouer-mighty neighbour the Sea which hath now left not aboue 250. miles in length and an 140. miles of breadth vnto it b The Indians call it Tenarisim or the delicious land and some are of opinion that this was Paradise So iust are the iudgements of the Highest that when as man wandred from him caused him also to wander from himselfe and from his habitation yea the place it selfe hath also wandred in mens wandring conceits ouer the World yea and out of our habitable World altogether as before is shewed men now seeking it as vainly as before they lost it It is in fashion resembling an Egge by a shallow channell separated from the Cape Comori The Heauens with their dewes the Ayre with a pleasant holesomnesse and fragrant freshnesse the Waters in their many Riuers and Fountaynes the Earth diuersified in aspiring Hils lowly Vales equall and indifferent Plaines filled in her inward Chambers with Metals and Iewels in her outward Court and vpper face stored with whole Woods of the best Cinamon that the Sunne seeth besides Fruits Oranges Limons c. surmounting those of Spaine Fowles and Beasts both tame and wild among which is their Elephant honoured by a naturall acknowledgement of excellence of all other Elephants in the World These all haue conspired and ioyned in common league to present vnto Zeilan the chiefe of worldly treasures and pleasures with a long and healthfull life in the Inhabitants to enioy them No maruell then if Sense and Sensuality haue heere stumbled on a Paradise There wooddie Hils as a naturall Amphitheatre doe encompasse a large Plaine and one of them as not contenting his beetle-browes with that onely prospect disdayneth also the fellowship of the neighbouring Mountaynes lifting vp his steepe head seuen leagues in height and hath in the top a Plaine in the middest whereof is a stone of two Cubits erected in manner of a Table holding in it the print of a mans foot who they say came from Deli thither to teach them Religion The Iogues and other deuout Pilgrimes resort thither from places a thousand leagues distant with great difficulty of passage both hither and heere For they are forced to mount vp this Hill by the helpe of nayles and chaines fastened thereto Nature hauing prohibited other passage Maffaeus and Boterus could perswade themselues that this foot-step is a relike and memory of the Aethiopian Eunuch others will haue it further fetcht and father it vpon Adam the first Father of Mankinde of whom the Hill also is named Pico de Adam The Moores call it Adam Baba and say That from thence Adam ascended into Heauen The Pilgrimes are clad in their Palmers Weed with Iron chaines and skins of Lions and other wild beasts Vpon their armes and legs they weare buttons with sharpe points that cut the flesh and draw bloud which they say they doe in Gods seruice Before they come at the Mountayne they passe by a fenny Valley full of water wherein they wade vp to the waste with Kniues in their hands to scrape from their legs the bloud-leeches which else would end their Pilgrimage and life before the time For this dirty and watery passage continueth eighteen miles before they come at the Hil whose proud top would disdaine climbing if Art did not captiue Nature and binde the Hill with chaines of Iron as is said When they are mounted they wash them in a Lake or Poole of cleere springing water neere to that foot-stone and making their Prayers doe thus account themselues cleane from all their sinnes This holy iourney is generally performed by the Ilanders sayth Vertomannus once a yeere He addeth that a Moore told him that this foot-print was two spans long and that Adam heere a long time bewayled his sinne and found pardon But Odoricus affirmeth that they reported this mourning to haue beene for Abel and to haue lasted three hundred yeeres and of the teares of Abel and Eue this purifying water to haue proceeded which Odoricus proued to be a Tale because he saw the water springing continually and it runneth thence into the Sea He saith that this water had in it many precious stones and the King gaue leaue at certayne times of the yeere to poore men to take them that they might pray for his soule which they could not doe but first anointed with Limons because of the Horse-leeches in that water There are reckoned nine Kings in this Iland The first of Colmuchi to whom the rest pay tribute viz. the Kings of Ianasipatan Triquinamale Batecolon Villassem Tanamaca Laula Galle and Candy In Candy were Statues artificially wrought fiue or sixe fathomes high which these Symmetrians proportioned to the stature of Adam gathered by that print of his foot In Vintane is a Pagode or Idoll Temple the compasse whereof is an 130. paces it is very high and all white except on the top which hath the spires thereof gilded insomuch that men are not able when the Sun shineth to looke thereon It hath a Towre or square Steeple of excellent workmanship There are many other Temples and a Monastery also of Religious persons which are attired in yellow haue their crownes shauen with Beades in their hands and alwayes seeme to mumble ouer somewhat of their deuout Orisons being in high estimation of sanctity with the vulgar and freed from publike labours and burthens Their Monastery is built after the manner of the Popish being also gilded with Gold In their Chappels are many Images of both sexes which they say represent some of their Saints they are set on the Altars and are clothed with garments of gold and siluer Before them are the Images of Boyes which beare vp great Candlestickes with Wax-candles burning therein night and day Euery houre they resort to these Altars to their Mumpsimus They held a solemne Procession whiles the Hollanders were there in which their Abbot rode on an Elephant richly attired lifting vp his hands ouer his head with a golden Rod therein the Monkes went two
and in the dayes of Moses their Priests Wisemen and Southsayers confirming their deuotions with lying Miracles as the Scriptures testifie of Iannes and Iambres and Hermes Trismegistus of his Grandfather and himselfe The Grecians ascribe these deuotions to Osiris and Isis of whom the Historie and Mysterie is so confused that Typhon neuer hewed Osiris into so many pieces as these vaine Theologians and Mythologians haue done They are forsooth in the Egyptian throne King and Queene in the Heauens the Sunne and Moone beneath these the Elements after Herodotus they are Bacchus and Ceres Diodorus maketh Osiris the same with the Sunne Serapis Dionysius Pluto Ammon Iupiter Isis the Moone Ceres and Iuno Appollodorus makes her Ceres and Io. Antonius and Cleopatra stiled and figured themselues the one Osiris and the other Isis In Macrobius and Seruius she is the nature of things He Adonis and Atis Plutarch addeth to these Interpretations Oceanus and Sirius as to Isis Minerua Proserpina Thetis And if you haue not enough Apuleius will helpe you with Venus Diana Bellona Hecate Rhamnusia and Heliodorus neerer home maketh Osiris to be Nilus the Earth Isis So true it is that An Idoll is nothing in the world and Idolaters worship they know not what Stampellus interpreteth Osiris to be Abraham and Isis to bee Sazeb whom Moses calleth also Ischa Orus Apollo or Horapollo saith Isis is the Starre called of the Egyptians Sothis which is the Dog-starre therefore called Isis because at the first rising of that Starre they prognosticated what should happen the yeere following The like was in vse amongst the Cilicians who obserued the first rising of that starre from the top of Taurus and thence saith Manilius Euentus frugum varios tempora dicunt Quaque valitudo veniat concordia quanta c. Thence they foretell what store of fruits or want What times what health what concord they descant Tully in the first Booke of his Diuination reciteth the same out of Heraclides Ponticus of the Cei But the Egyptians had more cause to obserue that Starre because Nilus doth then begin to encrease And therefore from thence they began to reckon their Tekuphas or quarters of their yeere as the Iewes from Nisan But to search this Fountaine further you may read the Egyptian opinion in Diodorus how that the World being framed out of that Chaos or first matter the lighter things ascending the heauier descending the Earth yet imperfect was heated and hardened by the Sunne whose violent heat begate of her slimie softnesse certaine putride swellings couered with a thinne filme which being by the same heat ripened brought forth all manner of creatures This muddie generation was say they first in Egypt most fit in respect of the strong soyle temperate ayre Nilus ouerflowing and exposed to the Sunne to beget and nourish them and still retayning some such vertue at the new slaking of the Riuer the Sunne then more desirous as it were of this Egyptian Concubine whom the waters had so long detained from his sight ingendring in that lustfull fit many Creatures as Mice and others whose fore-parts are seene mouing before the hinder are formed These new-hatched people could not but ascribe Diuinitie to the Author of their Humanitie by the names of Osiris and Isis worshipping the Sunne and Moone accounting them to be gods and euerlasting adding in the same Catalogue vnder disguised names of Iupiter Vulcan Minerua Oceanus and Ceres the fiue Elements of the World Spirit Fire Ayre Water and Earth These Eternall Gods begot others whom not Nature but their owne proper Merit made immortall which reigned in Egypt and bare the names of those coelestiall Deities Their Legend of Osiris is that he hauing set Egypt in order leauing Isis his wife Gouernour appointing Mercurie her Counsellour the inuenter of Arithmeticke Musicke Physicke and of their superstition made an Expedition into farre Countries hauing Hercules for his Generall with Apollo his brother Anubis and Macedon his sonnes whose Ensignes were a Dog and a Wolfe creatures after for this cause honoured and their counterfeits worshipped Pan Maron and Triptolemus and the nine Muses attending with the Satyres Thus did hee inuade the world rather with Arts then Armes teaching men Husbandry in many parts of Asia and Europe and where Vines would not grow to make drinke of Barley At his returne his brother Typhon slew him rewarded with like death by the reuenging hand of Isis and her sonne Orus The dispersed pieces into which Typhon had cut him shee gathered and committed to the Priests with injunction to worship him with dedication vnto him of what beast they best liked which also should be obserued with much ceremonie both aliue and dead in memorie of Osiris In which respect also they obserued solemnely to make a lamentable search for Osiris with many teares making semblance of like ioy at his pretended finding whereof Lucan singeth Nunquamque satis quaesitus Osiris alway seeking saith Lanctantius and alway finding To establish this Osirian Religion she consecrated a third part of the Land in Egypt for maintenance of these superstitious rites and persons the other two parts appropriated to the King and his Souldiers This Isis after her death was also deified in a higher degree of adoration then Osiris selfe One thing is lacking to our tale which was also lacking a long time to Isis in her search For when shee had with the helpe of waxe made vp of sixe and twentie parts which she found so many Images of Osiris all buried in seuerall places his priuities which Typhon had drowned in Nilus were not without much labor found and with more solemnitie interred And that the Deuill might shew how farre hee can besot men the Image hereof was made and worshipped the light of this darkenesse shining as farre as Greece whose Phallus Phallogogia Ithiphalli Phallophoria and Phallaphori issued out of this sincke together with their Membrous monster Priapus Yea the Egyptians hauing lost their owne eyes in this filthy superstition bestowed them on the Image of Osiris his stones which they pourtrayed with an eye Athenaeus telleth of Ptol. Philadelphus in a solemnitie wherein hee listed to shew to the world his madnesse or as it was then esteemed his magnificence a place worth the reading to them who are not heere glutted with out tedious Egyptian Banquet He among many sumptuous spectacles presented a Phallus of gold painted with golden crownes of an hundred and twentie cubits length hauing a golden starre on the toppe whose circumference was sixe cubites This was carried in a Chariot as in others the Image of Priapus and other Idols Of Typhon the Poets fable that after the Gods by the helpe of mortall men had slaine the Giants the Earth in indignation for rhe losse of that her Giantly brood lying with Tartarus brought forth Typhon which exceeded all the former for his height surmounted the Mountaines his head reached to the Starres one
that one Boy with a burning firebrand will chase away thousands of them Some there are which hunt these beasts with Launces and Arrowes and liue on their flesh little differing from Beefe There is also found in their Riuers and Lakes the Torpedo or Crampfish of strange effect in Nature if holden in the hand and not stirring it makes no alteration but if it moues it selfe the arteries ioynts sinewes and all the members of the body suffer an exceeding torture and astonishment which presently ceaseth with letting goe the Fish The Aethiopians haue a superstitious conceit that it is good to driue away Deuils out of Men thinking it torments those Spirits no lesse then humane bodies They say I haue not made tryall thereof my selfe that if this fish bee laid amongst dead fishes and there stirre it selfe it makes them also to moue as if there were life in them There are many of them in Nilus in the end of the Prouince of Goyama where is a bottomlesse Lake so the Portugall thought that could not sound the bottom with his Pike whence continuallly springs abundance of water being the head of that Riuer little at the first and after a dayes iourney and a halfe running to the East and then entreth a Lake supposed the greatest in the World passing swiftly through the midst thereof without mixture of waters and casting it selfe ouer high Rockes takes freer scope but presently is swallowed of the Earth so that it in some places it may be stepped ouer After fiue dayes iourney towards the East it winds it selfe againe to the West and so passeth on in his way towards Egypt The Aethiopians affirme that it is easie to diuert the Riuers course and to famish Egypt but I thinke it farre easier to say then doe it Low places in Abassia are intemperately hote Their Winter continues from May to September and then begins in the Red Sea which I haue obserued Fernandes reports it to flow in all time of the Moones increase and to flow continually out all the time of the decrease In their Winter it raineth and thundreth commonly euery afternoone In the Kingdome of Zambea in which we now liue wee may see both the Poles the Antarctike higher with his Crosse-starres In this Tract of Heauen there is as it were a cloud or blot supposed more thinne then other parts about it are many Starres lesse then those which illustrate the other Pole They beginne their yeere with the Spring on the first of September numbring twelue moneths in each thirty dayes reckoning the odde dayes betweene August and September by themselues The Abassines expresse their ioy most by eating and drinking and therefore on Holidayes resort to their Churches which are shaded with trees where are set Vessels full of a liquor which they vse in stead of Wine which they make of Honey adding Opium and thereafter their holies they serue their bellies drinking to drunkennesse quarrels fighting They haue Grapes but except in the Vintage season they straine their dryed Raisons insomuch that Peter Paez a Iesuite writ from thence Anno 1604. that the Emperour desiring him to say Masse after the Romane rite they could find no Wine to doe it §. III. Of their Customes in priuate life and publike Gouernment and their late miseries THey sow little more then they must spend And for their apparell the richer buy it of the Moores attiring themselues after their fashion the rest both Men and Women vse a skinne or some course piece of linnen without adorning by Arte When they doe reuerence to any they cast off this cloth from their shoulders to the Nauell stripping themselues halfe naked They weare their haire long which serues them for a hat or head a-tire and for greater neatnesse gallantry they curle it in diuers manners and anoint it with Butter which in the Sunne shewes like dew on the grasse So curious are they herein that for feare of disordering their curles they haue a crotch fastned in the Earth whereon at night they lay their neckes and so sleepe with their heads hanging They brand themselues on the whole body specially on the face The nailes of their little fingers they suffer to grow to the greatest length imitating as much as may be the spurs of Cocks which also they sometimes fasten and fit to their fingers Their hands and feet which commonly are bare they dye reddish with the iuyce of a certaine barke They are a slothfull people scarsely prouiding necessaries for life not giuing themselues to hunting or fishing and although the materials of Woollen linnen Cottons are at hand yet doe the most of them couer their bodies like beasts with rude skins each man commonly wearing a Rammes skin the ends fastned at his hands and feet They lye on the hides of their Kine without other Beds In stead of Tables they haue great troughes rudely hollowed wherein they take their meat without cloth or Napkin Their vessels are of black Earth Few of them are Merchants besides the Mahumetans They haue no great Cities but many vnfortified Villages Their greatest Towne hath scarcely sixteene houses They vse little writing no not in their publike Iudgements they haue no Bookes but for their Holies and Officers for their accounts And because we haue mentioned their Iudgements it shall not be amisse to expresse their forme out of Fernandes The Emperour hath a House called Cala low without any vpper storie To the doore all such come as haue any suite euery one according to their differing Language crying Lord Lord some also imitating the voyces of Beasts whereby is knowne of what Prouince they are Then doth the Emperour commit their case to the Vmbari so are the Iudges called of the word Vmbare which signifies a three-footed stoole on which each of them sits some on the right others on the left hand In the Townes the Lords are Iudges where when any one sueth the Lord sends one of his Seruants to the Defendant assigning him a time to make his appearance and then the Plaintiffe and Defendant plead each his owne case this is the fashion in Barbary also and many other places and after they haue both said what they can all that are present giue sentence From this they may appeale to the Vmbares from them to the Azages or Supreme Iudges and from these to the Emperour Sometimes Iustices Itinerant or Visitors are sent into the Prouince to enquire of Crimes which places being bought cause Iustice to be sold and these to be Legall Theeues more dangerous then Out-lawes In the flourishing state of the Empire they say the Emperour was wont to hold a continuall Progresse in Tents esteeming it base to liue in any City But wheresoeuer he abode there was presently a City of Tents hauing due places assigned to all publike and priuate employments Churches Hospitals for sicke and for the poore Victualling-houses Shops of seuerall Trades and the like They say also that this mouing City was thirty miles
There are certaine creatures as bigge as Rammes and haue wings like Dragons with long tayles and chaps and diuers rowes of teeth and feede vpon raw flesh Their colour is blue and greene their skinne be-painted like scales and they haue but two feet These the Pagan Negros doe worship for gods and at this day many of them are kept for a miracle And because they are very rare the chiefe Lords doe curiously preserue them and suffer the people to worship them in regard of the profit which accrueth to them by the offerings which the people make vnto them Other creatures of these parts are mentioned in the first Chapter of the former Booke Peacocks are not common and are very deare their feathers being vsed for Royall Ensignes The King of Angola bringeth vp some in an inclosed wood and suffereth none to keepe them but himselfe To speake at large of the other fiue Prouinces would bee tedious to the Reader and Master Hartwell hath taught Lopez to speake English of whom such as are desirous may be further satisfied Ouer-against the I le Loanda where the shell-money is gathered is vpon the Continent the Towne of Saint Paul inhabited with Portugals and their wiues The Riuers of Congo are many Bengo Coanza Dande Lembe Ozone Loze Ambriz and the greatest of all Zaire all which haue some either affinitie in mutuall marriages of their streames or consanguinitie in the Fountaynes from whence they flow which are certayne Lakes one of which is Zembre the other Aquelunda In all these Riuers are common the rarities of Nilus the ouer-flowing of the waters Riuer-horses Crocodiles and such like Andrew Battell told mee of a huge Crocodile which was reported to haue eaten a whole Alibamba that is a companie of eight or nine slaues chayned together and at last payed for his greedinesse the chaine holding him slaue as before it had the Negroes and by his vndigestible nature deuouring the Deuourer remayning in the belly of him after he was found in testimonie of this victorie Hee hath seene them watch and take their prey haling a Gennet Man or other Creature into the waters A Souldier thus drawne in by a Crocodile in shallower waters with his knife wounded him in the belly and slue him In their Summer it rayneth not and then the places in their Winter the time of the Sunnes neerest presence attended with daily raynes couered with water doe grow thicke and matted with abundance of little trees herbes and plants which the fatned wombe of that moist soile conceiueth by the directer beames of the Sunne and the ouer-flowing waters in the Winter carry away as it were small Ilands lifting them vp together with the rootes and soile the young Trees and Deere standing and growing thereon carried captiue vnto Neptunes eternall prisons In Bengo and Coanza they are forced to set vp for a time houses vpon cratches their other houses being taken vp for the Riuers lodgings Zaire is of such force that no ship can get in against the Current but neere to the shore yea it preuailes against the Oceans saltnesse threescore and as some say fourescore miles within the Sea before his proud waues yeeld their full homage and receiue that salt temper in token of subiection Such is the haughtie spirit of that streame which ouer-running the low Countries as it passeth and swollen with conceit of daily Conquests and daily Supplies which in Armies of showres are by the clouds sent to his succour runnes now in a furious rage thinking euen to swallow the Ocean which before he neuer saw with his mouth wide gaping eight and twentie miles as Lopez affirmeth in the opening but meeting with a more Giant like enemie which lyes lurking vnder the cliffes to receiue his assault is presently swallowed in that wider wombe yet so as alwayes being conquered hee neuer giues ouer but in an eternall quarrell with deepe indented frownes in his angrie face foaming with disdayne and filling the ayre with noyse with fresh helpe supplies those forces which the Salt-Sea hath consumed In this Riuer is a fish called Ambize Angulo or Hog-fish that hath as it were two hands and a tayle like a target which eateth like a Porke and whereof they make Lard and hath not the sauour or taste of fish It feedeth on the grasse that groweth on the bankes of the Riuer and neuer goeth out it hath a mouth like the moozell of an Oxe there are of them that weigh fiue hundred pound a piece Obseruing where it feedes with weapons in their boats they hinder it from taking water and hauing taken it present it to the King it is vpon perill of life they smoke it as wee doe Bacon and reserue it for dainties About the yeere 1490. Iohn the second King of Portugall sent Consaluo di Sosa with three ships and Priests in them to bring the King and people of Congo to Christian Religion which was effected and although hence arose ciuill warres amongst them yet the matter was at last ended to the aduancement of the Christian Religion such as the Portugals taught and no doubt infinitely better then their Pagan superstition howsoeuer spotted with many Romish staines and from that time to this now an hundred and twentie yeeres hath Congo continued Christian vnder Iohn Alfonso Piedro and the rest of their Kings When the first Bishop of Saint Thomas went into Congo to take possession of his Pastorall charge there for the Kingdome of Congo was annexed to the Bishoprick of Saint Thomas from the Sea-side to the Citie which is an hundred and fiftie miles King Piedro caused the wayes to bee made smooth and trim and couered ouer with mats that the Bishop should not set his feet vpon any part of the ground not adorned all the wayes trees and higher places swarming with people offering Lambes Kids Chickins Partridges Venison Fish and other necessaries to testifie their zeale And at last arriuing at the Citie of Saint Sauiours before called Banza which signifieth a Court and is commonly attributed to all the chiefe Cities where the King of any of those Countries holdeth his residence hee was there receiued by the King and his Nobles and ordayned the Church there to bee the Cathedrall Church of his See which had belonging to it eight and twentie Canons with other Officers and Ornaments vsuall §. III. Of their Heathenish rites Also of their strange Trees and of the I le Loanda AFter Don Piedro succeeded Francisco and after him Diego who being dead his sonne and two other Competitors of the Kingdome were slaine and Henrico brother to Diego was made King and after his death Aluaro whom the Giacchi draue out of his Kingdome till King Sebastian sent Francisco di Geuea to expell them The greatest and most zealous Prince for Christian Religion was Alphonso who on paine of death forbade to all his subiects the hauing or worshipping of Idols which he commanded should be all brought and deliuered to the Lieutenants of
signifying Red and habitation not very farre distant make enough probable by others to the repercussion of the Sunne-beames by others to the colour of the Sand and Earth in the bottome and by others to the nature of the Water it selfe Solinus affirmeth it is called Erythraeum of King Erythrus the Sonne of Perseus and Andromade and not only of the colour alledging Varro that learned Romane for his Authour who also mentioneth a Fountayne on the shoare thereof which changeth the colour of the Sheepes fleeces which drinke thereof into a duskish and darker colour Strabo citeth the testimony of Nearchus and Orthagoras concerning the I le Tyrina two thousand furlongs from Carmania in which the Sepulchre of Erythras is shewed being a great Hill planted with trees and that he raigned in those parts and left his name thereunto which they learned of Mithropastes who flying from Darius had liued in that Iland Barrius writeth That Alfonso Dalboquerque that victorious Portugall who subdued so many Ilands Seas and Kingdomes to that Crowne in a Letter to King Emanuel affirmeth That it may be called the Red Sea of certayne red spots or staines which are seene therein and when he entred into the Streits he encountred a great veine of red water extending it selfe from Aden as farre as they could see from the ships tops These red veines of water the Moores ascribed to the ebbing and flowing of that Sea Iohn di Castro afterwards Viceroy of India sayled to the bottome of Streit as farre as Suez and much laboured to find the cause why it should be called the Red Sea there knowne only by the name of the Sea of Mecca and they maruelled much at our name Red. He or Gaspar Aloisius which writ the Booke of this Voyage which my friend Master Hakluyt communicated to mee sayth that the colour of this Sea is as of other Seas neyther is there red dust blowne in by the winds but the Land generally on both sides is browne and very darke as if it were scorched in some places blacke and in some white the Sands are of ordinary colour onely in three places were certaine Mountaynes with veines of red which were hard Rocke In many places the waues seeme very red by accident but taking vp the water in a Vessell out of the Sea it seemed cleerer and more Crystalline then that without the Straits Hee caused also some to diue which did bring him out of the sandy bottome a red matter branched like Corall In other places where were greene spots in the Sea were taken out greene branches and where the Sea was white the sand there vnder was very white and though the depth in some places amounted to twenty fathome yet the purity of the Chrystalline waters caused this transparent colour Neere to Suachen he found most of those spots and from thence to Alcocer the space of one hundred thirty sixe leagues The Sea in this space hath many shelues the ground whereof is Coral-stone of which one sort is red the other very white The white Sands in the bottome make it seeme white the Ooze greene that Corally substance red which in that space was the most of the three But neerer the bottome towards Suez in a great space hee saw none Further without the Strait he saw such red spots or veines of water at Cape Fartach as if Oxen had beene slaine there yet the water taken vp in a Vessell seemed cleere and hee supposed that this rednesse proceeded of the Whales bringing forth their young Barrius misliketh that coniecture and those other of Antiquity in searching the cause of this name of Red and is of opinion That the violent currents of the Tydes assisted with some tempestuous winds rayse vp from the bottome that red floore whereof we haue spoken and cause by the motion of the same vnder the water that rednesse in the vpper face thereof which is in more spacious quantity neere the Straits where there is greatest force of the Tydes and the threeds or straines of this rednesse are lesse in the greater and more spacious Sea-roome The Portugall Pilots first thought that the winds brought out red dust from the dry soyle of Arabia which no mans experience hath confirmed Andrea Corsali which sayled and warred vnder the Portugals in these Seas Anno 1516. sayth hee knowes not why it should be called red for the water is coloured as in other Seas which seemeth to crosse the former reports and may eyther bee construed of the water generally not discoloured or perhaps while hee was there the Tydes and Winds did not conspire so boysterously as at some other times they doe against the yeelding and weaker soyle in the bottome thereof Our English Pilots haue giuen later and better light in their Trade at Moha and other places as in the first and second parts of our Bookes of Voyages is euident But the most Learned Pilot for the Erythraean Antiquities is Master Fuller who in the last Chapiter of his fourth Booke examineth the Graecian Fables of Ayatharchides Ctesias Ourainus Pausanias of Boxus also Mela Plinie and the rest and at last concludeth that of Esaus name Edom the Countrey was called Edumaea farre larger then that of Ptolomey besides it contayning a great part of Petraea and all Nabathea and of that Countrey coasting so great a part of that Sea as appeares by Salomons and Iehoshaphats Ophyrian Nauies built at Ezion-Geber in Edumaea their owne Countrey the Sea adioyning was called Edumaean or in Greeke interpretation Erythraean that is Rubrum or Red as Cephas the name properly by Christ giuen to the first of the Apostles is commonly in a Greeke interpretation called Peter Howeuer it be for this rednesse many deceiue themselues in streitning this name to the Arabian Gulfe which the Ancients gaue vnto all the Seas from Aegypt to India and reckon the Persian and Arabian Gulfes armes of the Red Sea Yea Arrianus not hee that writ Alexanders life who yet in the report of Nearchus his voyage from Indus to the Riuer Tigris calls it the Red Sea but another of that name in his Periplus of the Erythrean Sea translated and illustrated with a large Commentarie by Stuckius and set forth by Ortelius in a peculiar Map thereof comprehendeth in the title of the Red Sea all from Arsinoe and Egypt to Malacca or the Chersonesus Aurea Hauing now troubled you with the name why and how farre the name extendeth wee may view the Ilands therein situate which if any would more fully know let him reade Arrianus and Barrius and the voyage of Solyman Bassa 1538. vnto Diu written by Damianus in Latine and by a Venetian in Ramusius who was present in the action I must but touch the principall §. II. Of the chiefe Townes and Ilands in the Red Sea SVes is neere the beginning of the Sea which some suppose to bee that which the Ancients call Arsinoe after others Heroum here is the
Their markets are on Sundayes The Knights come hither exceeding yong the sooner to attaine Commendams at home which goe by Senioritie There are resident about fiue hundred and as many abroad to repaire vpon summons Sixteene of them are Counsellors of State called Great Crosses There are seuen Albergs or Seminaries one of which was of England till in the generall Deluge vnder Henrie the eight Saint Iohns without Smithfield sometime the Mansion of the Grand Prior of England was hooked into that crooked streame though still that Title continue an Irish man now enioying it Euery Nation feed by themselues in their seuerall Alberges and sit at table like Friars But how doe I pre-occupate my Christian Relations and fall into a Lethargie hauing opportunitie of such an Hospitall and such Hospitulars Now a word of the ancient Nauigations about Africa Hanno his voyage set forth by the Carthaginians seemed fabulous but Ramusius sheweth euery place by him mentioned to agree with the later Discoueries of the Portugals and thinketh guided by a Portugall Pilot skilfull of those Seas which skanned this Nauigation of Hanno that hee went as farre as Saint Thome Long before this Homer reporteth of Menelaus compassing the Ethiopians from Egypt which some interprete of sayling by the Cape of Good Hope as the Portugals Of this minde Strabo citeth Aristonichus Of Salomon and Iehoshaphat is said before Herodotus affirmeth the Phoenicians sayling in the Red Sea in Cambyses time but this was vsuall and yeerly as Plinie sheweth lib. 6. cap. 23. The same Plinie alledgeth out of Cornelius Nepos the sayling of Eudoxus out of the Red Sea round about Africa to Cales which Strabo relateth otherwise and refuteth The like may be shewed in some other instances of which reade Master Hakluyt his Epistle Dedicatorie Tom. 1. Ramusius part 1. pag. 111. and Galuanus in his Discoueries of the World Which I mention not to disparage or weaken the Portugals praises but to giue Antiquitie their due which I thinke could not ordinarily if at all compasse so long a Nauigation for want of the Compasse yet we should iniurie our Authors if wee should not beleeue somewhat although not so much as they report And this agreeth with the Greeke prouerbe of Hanno's Discoueries and Iubas Historie that hee which findeth sweetnesse in the one may swallow the other and as well entertayne Bauius as Mauius the Periplus of the one and Libyke Histories of the other not obtayning full credit nor wholly meet to be reiected And thus much of this African part of the World the Regions and Religions thereof the one most subiect to the burning beames of the heauenly Sunne the other least enlightning by the comfortable warmth of the Sunne of Righteousnesse blacke in body but more darkned and deformed spiritually as hauing onely some parts of Habassia entirely possessed with Christians besides what in Congo hath of later yeeres beene effected by the Portugals and that little which is subiect to them and Spaine all the rest being Pagan or Mahumetan And would God this were the case of Africa alone seeing that if we diuide the knowne Regions of the world into thirtie equall parts it is Master Brerewoods Computation The Christians part vnderstand it in all Sects and Professions bearing that name is as fiue the Mahumetans as sixe and the Idolaters as nineteene besides that huge heathenous Tract of the vnknowne South Continent which by probable reasons is by him coniectured to bee no lesse then Europe Africa and Asia together So farre is it from truth which one of our Country-men hath lustily bragged on behalfe of his Romish Mother That the Catholike Roman Religion hath had and hath yet a farre greater sway in the world then any other Religion euer had or hath whereas this our Africa hath more Mahumetans in two or three Cities then Romish Catholikes perhaps in her whole compasse And for Asia how pitifully doth he tumble together some names of a few Townes or little Ilands it seemeth vnknowne to himselfe as monuments of Romish Conquests What their American Conuersions are is touched elsewhere Yea euen in our Europe where this mysticall Babylon is situate the mother of the whoredomes and abominations of the Earth the number of Protestants is not much inferiour vnto them But his reasons haue beene alreadie proued vnreasonable by him whose Pen then and Prelacie since wee with all dutie acknowledge a pillar to the Truth and Ornament to our Church and State For my part I am sorrie his assertion is no truer as one seeing 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 betweene Catholike and Roman a great gulfe not easily without many prouisoes passable but betweene Heathen and Heauen a bottomlesse depth the way impassable and life impossible Let vs pray to him which is the Way the Truth the Life to make and be the Way by reuelation of his Truth vnto euerlasting Life to these poore Africans that as they are almost wholly in all professions Christian Iewish Morish Ethnike circumcised in the flesh so they may receiue that Circumcision of the Spirit not made with hands which may cut away this superfluitie of superstitions wherein they seeme more deuout then any part of the World and make them with meeknesse to receiue that Word which being grafted in them is able to saue their soules Amen Lord Iesus RELATIONS OF THE DISCOVERIES REGIONS AND RELIGIONS OF THE NEW WORLD OF NEW FRANCE VIRGINIA FLORIDA NEW SPAINE WITH OTHER REGIONS OF AMERICA MEXICANA AND OF THEIR RELIGIONS THE EIGHTH BOOKE CHAP. I. Of the New World and why it is named AMERICA and the West Indies with certaine generall discourses of the Heauens Ayre Water and Earth in those parts §. I. Of the names giuen to this part of the World and diuers opinions of the Ancients concerning the Torrid Zone NOw are wee shipped for the New World and the New Discoueries But seeing this Inkie Sea through which I vnder-take a Pilots office to conduct my Readers is more peaceable then That which on the back-side of this American World was called the Peaceable by Magellane the first Discouerer it yeeldeth vs the fitter opportunitie to contemplation and discourse in such Philosophicall subiects as the best Authors haue thought worthy the first place in their Histories of these parts Yet before we prie into Natures mysteries the better to know our intended voyage let vs enquire somewhat of the Names if any notice may thence arise of the places thereby knowne The New World is the fittest name which can be giuen to this vast and huge Tract iustly called New for the late Discouerie by Columbus An. Dom. 1492. and World for the huge intention thereof as Master Hakluyt hath obserued A new World it may bee also called for that World of new and vnknowne Creatures which the old World neuer heard of and here onely are produced the conceit whereof moued Mercator to thinke which I dare not thinke with him that the great
of fourteene foot or more in lesse and lesse proportions hee hath no teeth his meat hee sucketh his tongue is monstrous great of deformed forme like a Wool-sacke about eight Tunne weight and one part thereof vsed to this purpose yeeldeth from sixe to eleuen Hogs-heads of Oyle His food that Nature might teach the Greatest to be content with little , and that Greatnesse may be maintained without Rapine as in the Elephant and Whale the Greatest of Land-Creatures and Sea-monsters is grasse and weeds of the Sea and a kinde of water-worme like a Beetle whereof the Fins in his mouth hang full and sometimes little birds all which striking the water with his Tayle and making an Eddie hee gapes and receiueth into his mouth neither is any thing else Master Sherwin hath seene them opened and opened this vnto me found in their bellies This Great head hath little eyes like Apples very little bigger then the Eyes of an Oxe and a little throat not greater thâ—n for a mans fift to enter and that with huge bones on each side not admitting it to stretch wider His body is round fourteene or sixteene foot thicke his Pisle hangs from him as a Beasts in Generation they draw to shallow waters neere the shore and in the Act ioyne belly to belly as is also said of the Elephant In their engendering season much of that matter floteth on the water They are Swallow-tailed the extremes being twenty foot distant They haue but one yong at a time which is brought forth as in beasts Master Sherwin hath seene them in the belly being ripped about the bignesse but longer of a Hogs-head The Female hath two brests and teats with white milke in them not bigger then a mans head wherewith she suckleth the yong whereof she as the Mors also is very tender They killed one and could not get the yong one from it There hath been made seuen and twenty Tunne and a pipe of Oyle out of one Whale ordinarily sixteene Tunnes but much is wasted for haste in that store The English are growne as expert in this businesse as the Biscainer They neuer lost man in this action but one onely this last yeere §. VI. Of HVDSONS discoueries and death HEnry Hudson 1607. discouered further North toward the Pole then perhaps any before him He found himselfe in 80. deg. 23. minutes where they felt it hot and dranke water to coole their thirst They saw land as they thought to 82. and further on the shore they had Snow Morses teeth Deeres hornes Whale-bones and footing of other Beasts with a streame of fresh-water The next yeere 1608. he set forth on a Discouery to the North-east at which time they met as both himselfe and Iuet haue testified a Mermaid in the Sea seene by Thomas Hils and Robert Rainer Another voyage he made 1609. and coasted New-found-land and thence along to Cape Cod. His last and fatall voyage was 1610. which I mentioned in my former edition relating the same as Hesselius Gerardus had guided me by his card and reports who affirmeth that he followed the way which Captaine Winwood had beforc searched by Lumleys inlet in 61. degrees so passing thorow the strait to 50. c But hauing since met with better instructions both by the helpe of my painfull friend Master Hakluit to whose-labours these of mine are so much indebted and specially from Him who was a speciall setter forth of the voyage that learned and industrious Gentleman Sir Dudley Digges how willingly could I heere lose my selfe in a parenthesis of due praises to whom these studies haue seemed to descend by inheritance in diuers Descents improued by proper industry employed to publike good both at home and in Discoueries and Plantations abroad and for my particular but why should I vse words vnequall pay to him vnequall stay to thee from Him I say so great a furtherer of the North-west Discouerie and of your Discouerer the poore Pilgrim and his Pilgrimage hauing receiued full relations I haue beene bold with the Reader to insert this Voyage more largely In the yeare 1610. Sir Tho. Smith Sir Dudley Digges and Master Iohn Wostenholme with other their friends furnished out the said Henry Hudson to try if through any of those Inlets which Dauis saw but durst not enter on the Westerne side of Fretum Dauis any passage might be found to the other Ocean called the South-Sea There Barke was named the Discouerie They passed by Island and saw Mount Heela cast out fire a noted signe of foule weather towards others conceiue themselues and deceiue others with I know not what Purgatorie fables hereof confuted by Arngrin Ionas an Islander who reproueth this and many other dreames related by Authors saying that from the yeere 1558. to 1592. it neuer cast forth any flames they left the name to one harbour in Island Lousy Bay they had there a Bath hot enough to scald a fowle They raised Gronland the fourth of Iune and Desolation after that whence they plyed North-west among Ilands of Ice whereon they might runne and play and filled sweet water out of Ponds therein some of them a ground in sixe or seuen score fadome water and on diuers of them Beares and Partriches They gaue names to certaine Ilands of Gods mercy Prince Henries forland K. Iames his Cape Q. Annes Gape One morning in a Fogge they were carried by a set of the Tide from the N. E. into one of the Inlets aboue mentioned the depth whereof and plying forward of the Ice made Hudson hope it would proue a through-fare After he had sailed herein by his computation 300. leagues West he came to a small strait of two leagues ouer and very deepe water through which he passed betweene two Headlands which he called that on the South Cape Wostenholme the other to the N.W. Digges Iland in deg. 62. 44. minutes into a spacious Sea wherein he sayled aboue a hundred leagues South confidently proud that he had won the passage But finding at length by shole water that he was embayed he was much distracted therewith and committed many errours especially in resoluing to winter in that desolate place in such want of necessarie prouision The third of Nouember he moored his Barke in a small Coue where they had all vndoubtedly perished but that it pleased God to send them seuerall kinds of kinds of Fowle they killed of white Partridges aboue a hundred and twentie doozen These left them at the Spring and other succeeded in their Place Swan Goose Teale Ducke all easie to take besides the blessing of a Tree which in December blossomed with leaues greene and yellow of an Aromaticall sauour and being boyled yeelded an Oyly substance which proued an excellent Salue and the decoction being drunke proued as wholsome a Potion whereby they were cured of the Scorbute Sciaticas Crampes Conuulsions and other diseases which the coldnesse of the Climate bred in them At the opening of the yeere also there
Riuer ninety and odde miles from the mouth thereof which somewhat differs from the number before mentioned and within fifteene or sixteene miles of the Fals being our furthest habitation within land are eight and thirtie men and boyes of which two and twenty Farmers Captaine Smaley Commander in the absence of Iames Dauies who now is returning Master William Wickham Minister At Bermuda Nether Hundred seated on the South side the Riuer which almost encompasseth it and with a pale on a short necke of land boundeth this peninsula are a hundred and nineteene These are incorporated to Bermuda Towne which is made a Corporation according to certaine Orders and Constitutions Captaine Yeardly Deputy gouernour liues most heere Master Alexander Whitaker is Minister West and Sherley Hundred is three or foure miles lower on the North side the Riuer here are twenty fiue men commanded by Captaine Maddeson employed onely in planting and curing Tobacco to the publike benefit Lower by thirty seuen miles is Iames Towne where are fifty men vnder Captaine Francis West Brother to the L. La Ware and in his absence commanded by Lieutenant Sharp Master Buck Minister At Kequoughton thirty seuen miles lower neere the mouth of the Riuer are twenty Capt. Webbe commander Master Mays Minister Dales-Gift is vpon the Sea neere Cape Charles where are seuenteene vnder Lieutenant Cradock their labour to make salt and catch fish The numbers of Officers and Labourers are two hundred and fiue The Farmers eighty one besides sixty fiue women and children in euery place some in all three hundred fifty one persons These I haue thus particularly related as a witnesse to after-Ages of their little but now hopefull proceedings after ten yeeres habitation which as Iacobs little family in Egypt and Gedeons small Armie lesse then that which the Father of the Faithfull mustered in his owne houshold I hope and pray may grow into Townes Cities and Christian-English Churches in numberlesse numbers to the glory of God and honour of our Nation Euen in all the greatest workes of God and exploits of Men the beginnings are ordinarily slow and small How many of the foure hundred and thirtie yeares were almost if not more then halfe spent when Iacob was but a little Family and those in a strange land there suddenly growing vnder the Crosse into a multitude and great people From her Village-foundation how did Rome peepe and creepe forth by degrees vnto the height of Maiestie So may wee say of the Spanish Plantations in this American continent from contemptible and troublesome beginnings to their present Splendor Nor are our hopes lesse if our hearts bee sincere and minde as wee professe the propagation of Christianitie As for their transported Cattell there were the last of May of Buls Steeres Cowes Heifers Calues a hundred forty and foure Horses three and as many Mares Goates and Kids two hundred and sixteene Hogges wilde and tame not to bee numbred and great plenty of Poultry CHAP. VI. Of the Religion and Rites of the Virginians §. I. Of the Virginian Rites related by Master HARIOT NOw for the manners and Rites of the people thus hath Master Hariot reported They beleeue that there are many gods which they call Mantoac but of different sorts and degrees one onely chiefe and great God which hath bin from all eternity Who as they affirme when he purposed to make the world made first other gods of a principall Order to bee as meanes and instruments to be vsed in the Creation and Gouernment to follow and after the Sunne Moone and Starres as petty gods and the instruments of the other Order more principall First they say were made Waters out of which by the gods was made all diuersitie of Creatures that are visible or inuisible For Mankinde they say a Woman was made first which by the working of one of the gods conceiued and brought forth children And in such sort they say they had their beginning But how many yeeres or ages haue passed since they say they can make no relation hauing no letters nor other meanes to keep records of times past but onely tradition from Father to Sonne They thinke that all the gods are of humane shape and therefore they present them by Images in the formes of men which they call Kewasowock one alone is called Kewas Them they place in Houses or Temples which they call Machicomuck where they worship pray sing and make many times offerings vnto them In some Machicomuck we haue seene but one Kewas in some two in other three They beleeue the immortalitie of the Soule that after this life as soone as the soule is departed from the body according to the workes it hath done it is either carried to heauen the habitacle of Gods there to enioy perpetuall blisse and happinesse or else to a great pit or hole which they think to be in the furthest parts of their part of the World toward the Sun-set there to burne continually This place they call Popogusso For the confirmation of this opinion they tell tales of men dead and reuiued againe much like to the Popish Legends Thus they tell of one whose graue the next day after his buriall was seene to moue and his body was therefore taken vp againe who reported that his soule had beene very neere the entring into Popogusso had not one of the gods saued him and giuen him leaue to returne againe and teach his friends how to auoid that terrible place They tell of another which being taken vp in that manner related that his soule was aliue while his body was in the graue and that it had trauelled farre in a long broad way on both sides whereof grew most delicate pleasant Trees bearing more rare and excellent fruits then euer he had seene before or was able to expresse and at length came to most braue and faire houses neere which he met his father that had been dead before who gaue him great charge to goe back againe and shew his friends what good they were to doe to enioy the pleasures of that place which when he had done he should after come againe What subtiltie so euer be in their Weroances and Priests the vulgar are hereby very respectiue to their Gouernours and carefull of their manners although they haue also in criminall cases punishments inflicted according to the qualitie of the offence This I learned by speciall familiaritie with some of their Priests wherein they were not so sure grounded but that they lent open eare to ours with doubting of their owne The Priests in Secota haue their haire on the crowne like a Combe the rest being cut from it onely a fore-top on the forehead is left and that Combe They haue a garment of skins peculiar to their function They are great Wisards Our artificiall Workes Fire-workes Gunnes Writing and such like they esteemed the workes of Gods rather then of Men or at least taught vs by the Gods They bare
Medowes Fish and other things all very white which were the signes their God had giuen them of their promised Land In the night following Vitzliputzli appeared in a dreame to an ancient Priest saying That they should goe seeke out a Tunall in the Lake which grew out of a stone vpon which they should see an Eagle feeding on small Birds which they should hold for the place where their City should be built to become famous through the world Hereupon the next day they all assembled and diuiding themselues into bands made that search with great diligence and deuotion In their search they met with the former Water-course not white as it was then but red like bloud diuiding it selfe into two streames one of which was an obscure Azure At last they espied the Eagle with wings displayed toward the Sunne compassed about with many rich feathers of diuers colours and holding in his Tallons a goodly Bird. At this sight they fell on their knees and worshipped the Eagle with great demonstrations of ioy and thankes to Vitzliputzli For this cause they called the Citie which there they founded Tenoxtiltan which signifies Tunal on a stone and till this day carry in their Armes an Eagle vpon a Tunal with a bird in his Tallon The next day following by common consent they made an Heremitage adioyning to the Tunal of the Eagle that the Arke of their God might rest there till they might haue meanes to build him a sumptuous Temple This they made of Flagges and Turfes couered with Straw Afterwards they consulted to buy of their neighbours Stone Timber Lime in exchange of Fish Fowles Frogges and other things which they hunted for in the Lake by which meanes they procuring necessaries built a Chappell of Lime and Stone and laboured to fill vp part of the Lake with rubbish The Idoll commanded that they should diuide themselues into foure principall quarters about this house and each part build therein to which he enioyned certaine Gods to his appointment called Calpultecco which is Quarter Gods This was the beginning of Mexico §. II. The Historie of eight of their first Kings THis diuision seemed not equall to some of the Ancients who valued their deserts farre aboue their allotted portion who therefore separated themselues and went to Tlatedulco whose practices against the Mexicans caused them to chuse a King to which Soueraigntie was chosed Acamapitzli Nephew to the King of Culhuacan and of the Mexican bloud by the Fathers side Him by Embassage they demanded and obtained in the name of their God with this answere from the King of Culhuacan Let my Grand-child goe to serue your God and be his Lieutenant to rule and gouerne his Creatures by whom we liue who is the Lord of Night Day and Windes Let him goe and bee Lord of the Water and Land and possesse the Mexican Nations c. Hee was solemnely welcommed by the Mexicans welcome thou art saith an Orator vnto him in their name to this poore House and City amongst the Weedes and Mud where thy poore Fathers Grand-fathers and Kinsfolkes endure what it pleaseth the Lord of things created Remember Lord thou commest to bee our defence and to bee the resemblance of Vitzliputzli not to rest thy selfe but to endure a new charge with many words to that effect expressed in the Mexican Histories reserued by tradition the children to that end learning them by heart and these being as Presidents to them which learned the Art Oratorie After this they were sworne and hee crowned The Crowne was like that of the Dukes of Venice His name Acamapitzly signifieth a handfull of Reedes and therefore they carrie in their Armories a hand holding many Arrowes of Reedes The Mexicans at this time were tributaries to the Tapanecans whose chiefe Citie was Azcapuzalco who iudging according to the nature of Enuie and Suspition that they were so much weaker how much the stronger they saw their neighbours thought to oppresse them by a strange policie in imposing an vncouth and in shew impossible tribute which was that they should bring the Tapunecan King a Garden planted and growing in the water In this their distresse Vitzliputzli taught them to doe it by casting earth vpon Reedes and Grasse laid in the Lake and planting in this mouing Garden Maiz Figs Gourds and other things which at the time appointed they carried growing and ripe a thing often since proued in that Lake emulous no lesse of that glorie to be accounted one of the Wonders in that New World then those pensill Gardens towred vp in the Ayre at Babylon both heere and there the reason of Man according to his naturall priuiledge subiecting to his vse the most rebellious Elements of Ayre and Water Acamapitzli the Mexican King after he had raigned fortie yeeres dyed leauing it to their choice to chuse his Successor They chose his Sonne Vitzilovitli which signifieth a rich Feather they anointed him with an Oyntment which they call Diuine being the same wherewith they anointed their Idoll Of their Coronation thus Lopez de Gomara saith that this was done by the High Priest attired in his Pontificalibus attended with many others in Surplices the Oyntment was as blacke as Inke They blessed him and sprinkled him foure times with Holy-Water made at the time of the Consecration of their God Then they put vpon his head a Cloth painted with the bones and skuls of dead men clothed him with a blacke garment and vpon that a blue both painted with figures of skuls and bones Then did they hang on him Laces and bottles of Powders whereby he was deliuered from diseases and Witchcrafts Then did he offer Incense to Vitzliputzli and the High Priest tooke his Oath for the maintenance of their Religion to maintayne Iustice and the Lawes to cause the Sunne to giue his light and the Clouds to raine and the earth to be fruitfull c Lastly followed the acclamations of the people crying God saue the King with dances c. He being crowned and hauing receiued homage of his Subiects obtained the King of Azcapuzalco his daughter to wife by whom he had a sonne called Chimalpopoca and procured a relaxation of Tribute from his father in Law Hee was deuout in his Superstitions hauing raigned thirteene yeeres he dyed His son then but ten yeeres old was chosen in his roome but was soone after slaine by the Inhabitants of Azcapuzalco The Mexicans inraged with this iniury assembled themselues and an Orator among many other words tels them That the Sunne is eclipsed and darkened for a time but will returne suddenly in the choice of another King They agreed vpon Izcoalt which signifieth a Snake of Rsors the sonne of Acamapixtli their first King The common people were earnest with this new King for peace with the Tapanecans for the obtaining whereof they would carry their God in his Litter for an intercessor This was hindered by Tlacaellec the Kings Nephew a resolute and valiant
To speake largely of New Gallicia Mechuacan Guastecan and other Regions would not be much to the Readers delight and lesse to to my purpose CHAP XI Of the Idols and Idolatrous Sacrifices of New Spaine §. I. Of their Gods THe Indians as Acosta obserueth had no name proper vnto God but vse the Spanish word Dios fitting it to the accent of the Cuscan or Mexican Tongues Yet did they acknowledge a supreme power called Vitziliputzli terming him the most puissant and Lord of all things to whom they erected at Mexico the most sumptuous Temple in the Indies After the Supreme God they worshipped the Sun and therefore called Cortes as he writ to the Emperour Sonne of the Sunne That Vitziliputzli was an Image of Wood like to a Man set vpon an Azure-coloured stoole in a Brankard or Litter at euery corner was a piece of wood like a Serpents head The stoole signified that he was set in Heauen He had the forehead Azure and a band of Azure vnder the nose from one eare to the other Vpon his head hee had a rich plume of feathers couered on the top with Gold hee had in his left hand a white Target with the figures of fiue Pine Apples made of white Feathers set in a crosse and from aboue issued forth a Crest of Gold At his sides he had foure Darts which the Mexicans say had beene sent from Heauen In his right hand hee had an Azured staffe cut in fashion of a wauing Snake All these ornaments had their mysticall sense The name of Vitziliputzli signifies the left hand of a shining feather Hee was set vpon an high Altar in a small boxe well couered with linnen Clothes Iewels Feathers and ornaments of Gold and for the greater veneration he had alwayes a Curtain before him Ioyning to the Chappel of this Idoll there was a Pillar of lesse work and not so wel beautified where there was another Idoll called Tlaloc These two were alwayes together for that they held them as companions of equal power There was another Idoll in Mexico much esteemed which was the God of Repentance and of Iubilees and Pardons for their sinnes Hee was called Tezcalipuca made of a blacke shining stone attired after their manner with some Ethnike deuices it had Earings of Gold and Siluer and through the nether lip a small Canon of Christall halfe a foot long in which they sometimes put an Azure Feather sometimes a greene so resembling a Turqueis or Emerald it had the haire bound vp with a haire-lace of Gold at the end whereof did hang an Eare of Gold with two Fire-brands of smoke painted therein signifying that he heard the Prayers of the afflicted and of sinners Betwixt the two eares hung a number of small Herons He had a Iewell hanging at his necke so great that it couered all his stomack vpon his armes Bracelets of Gold at his nauill a rich greene stone and in his left hand a Fan of precious Feathers of greene azure and yellow which came forth of a Looking Glasse of Gold signifying that he saw all things done in the World In his right hand he held foure Darts as the Ensignes of his Iustice for which cause they feared him most At his festiuall they had pardon of their sinnes They accounted him the God of Famine Drought Barrennesse and Pestilence They painted him in another forme sitting in great Maiestie on a stoole compassed in with a red Curtaine painted and wrought with the heads and bones of dead men In the left hand was a Target with fiue Pines like vnto Pine Apples of Cotton and in the right hand a little Dart with a threatning countenance and the arme stretched out as if he would cast it and from the Target came foure Darts The countenance expressed anger the body was all painted blacke and the head full of Quailes Feathers Quecalcauatl was their God of the Aire In Cholula they worshipped the God of Merchandize called Quetzaalcoalt which had the forme of a Man but the visage of a little Bird with a red bill and aboue a combe full of Warts hauing also rankes of teeth and the tongue hanging out It carried on the head a pointed Mitre of painted paper a Sithe in the hand and many toyes of Gold on the legs it had about it Gold Siluer Iewels Feathers and habits of diuers colours and was set aloft in a spacious place in the Temple All this his furniture was significant The name importeth Colour of a rich Feather No maruell if this God had many Suters seeing Gaine is both God and godlinesse to the most the whole World admiring and adoring this Mammon or Quetzaalcoalt Tlaloc was their God of Water to whom they sacrificed for Raine They had also their Goddesses the chiefe of which was Tozi which is to say Our Grand Mother of which is spoken before she was flayed by the command of Vitziliputzli and from hence they learned to flay men in Sacrifice and to clothe the liuing with the skins of the dead One of the Goddesses which they worshipped had a Sonne who was a great Hunter whom they of Tlascalla afterwards tooke for a God being themselues addicted much to that exercise They therefore made a great Feast vnto this Idoll as shal after follow They had another strange kind of Idoll which was not an Image but a true Man For they tooke a Captiue and before they sacrificed him they gaue him the name of the Idoll to whom he should be sacrificed apparelling him also with the same ornaments And during the time that this representation lasted which was for a yeere in some feasts sixe moneths in some in others lesse they worshipped him in the same manner as they did their God he in the meane time eating drinking and making merry When hee went through the streets the people came forth to worship him bringing their Almes with children and sicke folkes that hee might cure and blesse them suffering him to doe all things at his pleasure onely he was accompanied with ten or twelue men lest he should flee And hee to the end hee might bee reuerenced as hee passed sometimes sounded on a small Flute The Feast being come this fat Foole was killed opened and eaten The Massilians are said to haue vsed the like order nourishing One a whole yeere with the purest meats and after with many Ceremonies to leade him through the City and sacrifice him Lopes de Gomara writeth that the Mexicans had two thousand Gods but the chiefe were Vitziliputzli and Tezcatlipuca These two were accounted Brethren There was another God who had a great Image placed on the top of the Idols Chappell made of all that Countrey seeds grownd and made in paste tempered with childrens bloud and Virgins sacrificed whose hearts were plucked out of their opened brests and offered as first fruits to that Idoll It was consecrated by the Priests with great solemnitie all
like vnto Kine or Mules which diue and goe but swimme not vnder the water Bores of two sorts Conies Pigs Ounces Foxes with bags to carry their yong vnder the belly The Tatu or Armadilla which digs as much as many men with Mattocks the Conduacu or Porcupine of three sorts the Hirara like Ciuet Cats which eate honey the Aquiqui bearded Apes blacke and sometimes one yellow which they say is their King hauing an Instrument from his gullet as bigge as a Duck-egge wherewith he maketh a loud sound so actiue that they sometimes are said to catch an arrow with the hand and redart it at the shooter and so cunning that they seeke a leafe chew it and put the same into their wounds There are of them many kindes The Cuati are like Badgers they climbe trees no snake egge or bird escapes him There are others greater as great Dogs with Tusks which deuoure men and beasts There are wilde Cats which yeeld good Furre and are very fierce the lagoarucu are Dogs of Brasile the Tapati also barke like Dogs The Iaguacinia is a kind of Foxe which feedeth on Sea-crabs and Sugar-canes The Birataca a kinde of Ferret of such stinking sauour that some Indians haue died thereof yea Dogges which come neere escape not the sent endureth fifteene or twenty dayes in those things which he hath come neere to and causeth some towne sometimes to bee disinhabited This commeth of a ventositie which it voideth and couereth in the earth or casteth it out being in danger to be taken it feedeth on birds Eggs and Amber Ten or twelue kinds of Rats all good meat Other beasts are before mentioned Of Snakes without venome hee numbreth the Giboya some of which are twenty foot long and wil swallow a Deere whole crushing it with the winding of his taile and bruising it with licking to that purpose The Guiaranpiaquana eateth eggs goeth faster on the trees then any man can runne on the ground with a motion like swimming The Camoiama is all greene and liueth on like food The Boytiapua eate Frogs the Indians strike this Serpent on womens hips as remedy to barrennesse The Gaitiaepia smelleth so that none can abide it such is also the Boyuma the Bam so termed of his crie is great and harmelesse the Baicupeganga hath venemous prickles on his backe There are other venomous Snakes as the Iararaca of which are foure kinds of musky sent one ten spannes long with great tuskes which they hide and stretch out at pleasure The Curucucu fifteene spannes long which lyeth on a tree to hunt his prey The Boycimiaga which hath a bell in his tayle so swift that they call it the flying Snake there are two kinds thereof The Ibiracua causeth by his biting the bloud to issue thorow all parts of the body eyes mouth nose eares c. The Ibiboca is the fairest but of foulest venome amongst them all The fields woods houses beds bootes are subiect to the plenty of Snakes which without helpe kill in foure and twenty houres There are also many Scorpions which ordinarily kill not but cause extreme paine for foure and twenty houres space Lizards couer the wals of houses and holes are full of them Their fundament-worms are very dangerous which Sir Richard Hawkins saith he saw like a long Magot greene with a red head creeping in and glewing himselfe to the gut where it groweth so great that it stoppeth the passage and killeth with cruell Colicke torments Master Kniuet speakes of one Serpent which he killed thirteene spans long with foure and twenty teeth great shels about the necke blacke and russet like a collar lesse on her bodie and darke greene vnder her belly all speckled with blacke and white with foure sharpe feet no longer then a mans finger and a tongue like a harping iron Her tayle like a strait bull-horne blacke and white listed If they finde fire they beat themselues in it till either the fire or themselues be extinguished They vse from a tree to fall on their prey passing by thrusting their tayle into the fundament The Indians will not goe vnder fiue or sixe to set vpon one of them this yet he killed with the helue of an axe Of Birds there are Parrots innumerable more then Starlings or Sparrows in Spaine the Guaminbig like Bees which sleepe sixe moneths the Tangara which haue the falling-sicknesse the rest dancing about that which is fallen with a noise from which they will not bee skarred till they haue done c. Of Fruits hee reckons the Iacapucaya like a pot as bigge as a great bowle two fingers thicke with a couer in it within full of Chesnuts being much eaten greene it causeth all haire to fall off Balsam trees pricked excellent for cure and sent Oyle-trees many one as a Well or Riuer growing in dry places where no water is it hath holes in the branches as long as ones arme full of water Winter and Summer neuer running ouer but alwayes at like stay fiue hundred persons may come to the foot of it and drinke and wash their fill without want the water is sauoury and cleere There are hearbs which seeme to sleepe all night and others which make shew of sence as wee haue before obserued from Master Harcourt in Guiana Of strange fishes in Brasil he nameth the Oxe-fish with eyes and eye-lids two armes a cubit long with two hands fiue fingers and nayles as in a man and vnder the armes the female had two paps inwards like an Oxe it cannot bee long vnder water it hath no fins but the tayle which is round and close two stones neere the braine of great esteeme the inwards of an Oxe and taste like Porke The Cucurijuba is a fresh-water Snake fiue and twenty or thirty foot long the Mamma is a greater kinde toothed like a dogge with a chaine striped along the backe very faire It catcheth a Man Cow Stag or any other prey winding it with the tayle and so swalloweth it whole after which she lyes and rots the Rauens and Crowes eating her all but the bones to which after groweth new-flesh by life deriued from the head which is hidden all this while in the mire which therefore they that finde seeke and kill They will sleepe so being full that they may cut off pieces he tels an instance from the tayle and they not awaken They found one which was fifty spans or twelue yards and a halfe long hauing two wilde Bores in the belly Thus much of the creatures in Brasile Let vs now take better view of their Warres Religion and other their Rites CHAP. V. Of the Customes and Rites of the Brasilians §. I. Of their warres and man-eating and of the Diuel torturing them THe Brasilians for the most part as you haue seene exercise irreconciliable hostilitie not to enlarge their dominions but onely to be reuenged for the death of their friends and Ancestors slaine by their enemies The Elder men as they sit or
bee but a melancholy Maze if I should not come home to fill English eares with the newes The Reader also by this time wearied will be glad to heare of an end In this Sea we may see many Ilands which Nature hath seemed to set as Centinels along the Coast to hold their watch as Skowts to espie and as Garrisons to defend their Souereigne Earth lest the Ocean by secret vndermining or by violent and tempestuous force should be too busie an encrocher The Earth also on this side finding her selfe more strongly assayled then on the other hath summoned them all home to her borders and placed them for her better defence in stations neere her not suffering them to stay abroad as in other Seas is vsuall so that there are almost no Ilands in this widest of Seas the Peaceable but neere the mayne If there bee any they are obscure small and not worthy our Relation as for those of Salomon and New Guinea with their Neighbours they are reckoned to another Continent if they bee not continent themselues and for the Arcipelago of Saint Lazaro these Ilands may be reckoned vnruly Borderers which while it is vncertaine whether they should acknowledge the Souereigntie of Asia Terra Australis or America are loyall to none and therefore where they are best knowne are knowne by the name of Theeues a name fitting their nature and disposition Thus did Magellane find them from whom besides other things they stole his Boat which by force he was forced to recouer Such did our Countrimen in Master Candishes renowmed Voyage find them who saw also their Images of Wood in the head of their Boats like the Images of the Deuill Temple and Saint best fitting their deuotions and such did Oliuer Noort find them who came crying about him Iron Iron offering him Fruits in exchange for pieces of Iron and if any opportunitie offered it selfe stealing closely or openly any thing they could lay hold on They shot at them in vaine so actiue were they in diuing vnder the water and continuing there as if they had beene fitted alike to both Elements The women also no lesse then the men They are a beastly people polluting themselues in promiscuous lusts and branded many of them with the markes of their intemperance the Pockes hauing eaten their noses and lips They are browne fat long of stature the men goe naked the women weare a leafe before them so that they beare some resemblance to the Pictures of Adam and Eue Their Boats are twentie foot long and but a foot and halfe broad cunningly wrought They are extremely greedie of Iron of which metall the Hollanders cast fiue pieces into the Sea to try them and one of them fetcht them all out But lest these Theeues rob vs of our intended Deuotions and our Reader of patience in longer stay heere wee will looke backe towards the Straits and so compasse the other side of America Many Ilands wee may see heere neere the shore all along as wee passe But what should wee trouble the Reader with names I haue small deuotion to them vnlesse I had some intelligence of some Deuotion in them further then that wherein they agree with the Peruuian Rites wherewith you were last tired In the Straits are some Ilands of small quantitie of smaller dignitie and who would stay there where the Pengwins are your best Hosts the rest are Giants or Man-eating Sauages and in the next out of the Straits but Seales who all can yeeld but an inhospitall hospitalitie Neyther hath prouident Nature in all those Coasts of Chica or Brasill beene prodigall of her Iland store fore-seeing that they would eyther bee vsurped by Seales and Sea Monsters or other more vnnaturall and monstrous inhumane shape of Deuillish inhumanitie from the Land It seemes she hath beene the more sparing in the numbers noblenesse or quantitie of Ilands in all those Seas which wee haue most swiftly furrowed that shee might in the great Bay more bountifully impart her plentie and shew her excellence in that kind This is a great field as it were sowne with Ilands of all sorts the Earth seemes a louing Mother which holds open her spacious lap and holds out her stretched armes betweene Paria and Florida the Ocean also as iealous of the Earths more natural Inheritance and claime vnto them seemes to neglect his course to the Southward and heere sets in with a violent current alway forcing his watery forces to walke or rather to runne and flie these rounds to see that the Continent keepe her hand off and not once touch his conquered possessions that though like Tantalus she seemeth alwayes to bee closing her open hands and mouth vpon them yet are they kept by this officious watchfulnesse of the Sea that shee can neuer incorporate and vnite them to her selfe Easily can they vnfold this Mystery that are acquainted with the scite of the Earth and the swiftnesse of the current in this vast space of Earth and Sea setting in at Paria and after out againe at Florida with admirable and incredible violence To begin then at Paria for of Orenoque and his mouth full of Ilands and of Trinidad that hath escaped the Riuer and betaken her selfe wholly to Neptunes Loues we haue alreadie spoken Heere two rowes and rankes of Ilands make shew and muster of themselues the one extending East and West the other North and South Of the former is Margarita which like many a Gallant whose backe robbeth his belly whose bowels emptie of necessaries alway are croking and complayning of superfluitie in ornament and fashion so hath shee a World of Peaâ—les to adorne her but wanteth water to satisfie her thirst store of Pearles shee can communicate of her plentie water shee is faine to borrow of her Neighbours The like we may say of Cubagua her next Neighbour that by her store of Peaâ—les hath wonne Suiters from our and the American World whom she can neyther bid eate or drinke of her Land-hospitalitie where Grasse and Water are wanting But as it vsually comes to passe with these Fashion-mongers which neglecting necessaries must at last be neglected of their ornaments too So this Iland which sometimes was so rich notwithstanding all her Pearles she pawned for her dyet in so much that the Kings fift amounted ordinarily to fifteene thousand Duckets a yeere yet now seemes almost beggered her Pearle-fishes and Pearle-fishers most of them gone and now it is time for vs to be gone from her too Yet let vs heare this Relation of Herera before we goe of an Earth-quake which hapned there the first of September 1530. which raysed the Sea foure fathome ouerthrew the Fortresse opened the Earth in many places whence issued much Salt-water as blacke as Inke stinking of Brimstone The Mountayne of Cariaco remayned open Many died of feare and some were drowned Captaine William Parker Anno 1601. hauing taken Puerto Bello and Melendes the Gouernour
cast off the yoke of homage to the Crym conquered diuers Tartarian Princes the Empires of Casan and Astracan 2700. miles downe the Volga from Mosco and by a generall Councell of his Princes Prelates and Nobles was crowned and stiled the Emperour and Great Duke of Volladamiria Muscouia Cazan and Astracan c. His Conquests grew with his yeeres He tooke from the King of Poland the famous Citie of Pollozca the great Citie of Smolensca Doragabus Vasma and many other Townes with much riches and infinite numbers of captiues seuen hundred miles within their confines Lituania and Bela Russia goodly Townes of Trafficke and Countries yeelding Waxe Flaxe Hempe Tallow Hides Corne and Cattell in abundance He grew puissant and proud ouermightie for his next Neighbours and bloudie in all his Conquests When his good Queene Nastacia dyed she was canonized a Saint and to this day worshipped in their Churches By her he had two Sonnes Iuan and Theodore The Emperour after this married one of the Chircas by whom hee had no issue that hee would be knowne of The manner of this Marriage was strange and heathenish which I forbeare out of their owne History to relate By this Marriage hee was much strengthened by the Tartars better Souldiers then the Natiues of whom he made vse to curbe his Princes and Nobles which were discontent with his cruell robbing and incessant murthering of his Nobilitie He set forward with 100000. Horse and 50000. Foot with prouisions of Cannon and Munition towards Liuonia and Swethia kils men women and children in his way to Nouogrod and Plesco the two greatest Townes of Trafficke in all the East with the Narue which three stand triangle wise at the end of the Baltike Sea within the Sound In this last hee built a Castle called Iuan Gorod and caused the eyes of the Architect to bee bored out Thence he enters the Confines of Liuonia sends Knez Iuan Grinscoy to besiege Newhous which was taken with all the Townes in the way to Dorp This also yeelded and the Tartars carried away eight thousand Captiues the Merchandize and Treasure was sent to Nogrod for the Emperours vse He proceedeth deuideth his Army into foure parts ten thousand are appointed to draw the Ordnance ouer the frozen Lakes takes all in his way thirty walled Townes and Castles neere the Easterne Sea within two hundred miles compasse drowning burning rauishing Maydes and Wiues stripping them naked notwithstanding the cold tying them by two and three at their Horse tayles and dragging them some aliue some dead the wayes and streets lying full of carkasses of euery age and sexe These Liuonians are accounted the fairest people in the World Infinite numbers were sent into Russia with infinite treasure Sixe hundred Churches were robbed and destroyed He and his Tartars at last came to Reuell besiegeth and batters it with twentie Cannons The Inhabitants by night make vp the breaches by carrying and casting hote and cold water which froze so thicke that after sixe weekes siege and 20000. Cannon shot spent with losse of 7000. he hasted away the sudden thaw also making him to leaue much of his Artillery behind with former booties baggage and 30000. men in his retiring Enraged with fury for this repulse and losse hee comes backe to the Narue spoyles the Towne of all the Riches and Merchandise kils men women and children and giues the spoyle to his Tartars which bred no small emulation in his Russe Captaines Thence hee marcheth to Plescoue alias Vobsco where he intended to doe the like easily beleeuing those which reported that these two Townes and Nouogrod had practised against him that by their meanes hee had sustayned his losse at Reuel But there met him a Magician Mikula Sweat which that Towne held their Oracle who with bold Imprecations and Exorcismes calling him Bloud-sucker and Deuourer of Christian flesh swore by his Angell that hee should not escape death by a present Thunderbolt if he or any of his did touch the least childs haire in that Citie which God by his Angel did preserue for better purpose then his rapine that therefore he should get him thence before the fierie Cloud of Gods wrath were raysed which he might behold hanging ouer his head it being a very great and darke storme at that instant The Emperour trembling at these words desired Prayers for his deliuerance and forgiuenesse of his cruell thoughts I saw this Impostor a foule creature hee went naked Winter and Summer induring extreame frost and heat His Holinesse could not endure me He did many strange things by Magicall Illusions and was much followed and feared there of Prince and people The Emperour returning to Nouogrod where all his Captiues and Prisoners remayned in exceeding discontent he chargeth it with 30000. Tartars and 10000. Gunners of his Guard who without respect rauished the women and maides robbed and spoyled all that were within it murthered young and old burned the houshold stuffe and Merchandises with Ware-houses of Waxe Flaxe Cordage Tallow Hides Salt Wines Cloth of Gold Silkes Furres all set on fire The Waxe and Tallow melted ran downe the Kennels of the streets together with the bloud of 700000. men women and children as some affirmed besides beasts insomuch that with bloud and carkasses the Riuer Volca was as it were stopped He vanted that this Massacre should exceed those of Niniue and Ierusalem The Citie being thus destroyed and desolate he returned towards Musco and in the way employes his Captaynes to take the people in the Townes and Villages within a hundred miles compasse Gentlemen Peasants Merchants and Monkes old and young with their Families Goods and Cattle to goe and inhabit this ruined Nouogrod exposing them to a new slaughter For many of them dyed with Pestilence and poyson of that infected place which could not bee replenished to any purpose Not long after God empties the Emperours Kingdome and chiefe Cities of his people by Pestilence Famine Fire and Sword and this his crueltie bred such discontent that many practised to destroy him which were still discouered Hee countenanced the Rascalitie and the most desperate Souldiers against the chiefe Nobility Hee setled his Treasures in Mosco and the principall Monasteries Many of the Nobilitie he put to shamefull deaths and tortures and now suspecting his Chercas Tartars also he placed them in his new Conquests of Leefland and Sweathland The Crim Tartar his ancient Enemy inuaded him incited by his Nobilitie as he found out against whom he leuies out of remote Prouinces a huge Army of strangers with his owne hundred thousand horse and fifty thousand foot He discards his Chercas wife and puts her in a Monastery and among many of his owne Subiects chuseth Natalia Daughter to Kneaz Pheodor Bulgaloue a great Commander in his warres who soone after lost his head and his Daughter within a yeere was shorne a Nunne Newes came of his Enemies approch God suffered this wicked
pretended difformititie by Hils Dales Waters compared with the Diameter of this Globe is not so much as the inequalicie in an Apple or a carued Bowle or quilted Ball which yet we call round And this diuersitie serueth not onely for ornament but for more largenesse of Habitation varietie of Ayre and Earth and for pleasure and profit Thus doth this Globe swell out to our vse for which it enlargeth it selfe and seemeth large to vs being in respect of the Vniuerse lesse then little How much thereof is couered with waters How much not at all discouered How much desart desolate And now many millions are they which share the rest of this little among them And yet how many thousands glorie of the greatnesse of their possessions All this Globe is demonstrable to be but a point and in comparison nothing to that wide wide Canopie of Heauen a mans possession but a point and as nothing to the Earth a man of possessions but a point and in a manner nothing to his possessions and as Socrates said sometimes to Alcibiades few can shew their Lands in an vniuersall Map where a whole Region occupieth a small roome and yet how couetous how proud is dust and ashes of dust and earth not withstanding the little we haue while we liue and that lesse which shall haue and possesse vs in a Prison of three Cubits being dead Well did one compare this our grosser and drossier World to an Ant-hill and men the Inhabitants to so many Pismires in the varietie of their diuersified studies toyling and turmoyling themselues therein Scipio seemed ashamed of the Romane Empire as seeming but a point of the Earth which it selfe was but a point And yet how readie are many to sell Heauen for Earth That largenesse and continuance beyond all names of time and place for this momentany possession of almost nothing although they haue Hell and Deuill and all in the bargaine Let this morall obseruation entertaine our Reader perhaps tyred in these rigid Disputes and now let vs returne to the naturall disposition and constitution of this Globe in which the Earth was couered with varietie of Plants and Fruits which had beene before couered with slimy waters God commanded and the Waters which yet oppressed and by their effusion and confusion did tyrannize rather then orderly subdue and gouerne this inferiour myrie masse were partly receiued into competent channels and there also gathered on swelling heapes where though they menace a returne of the old Chaos both by their noyse and waues yet hath GOD stablished his Commandement vpon it and set barres and doores and said Hitherto shalt thou come and no further and here shall it stay thy proud waues Otherwise The Deepes which then couered it as a Garment would now stand aboue the Mountaines At his rebuke they flee who with fetters of sand to shew his power in weaknesse with a Miracle in Nature chaineth vp this inraged Tyrant that the Creatures might haue a meet place of Habitation Thus did not only the dry Land appeare but by the same hand was enriched with Herbes and Trees enabled in their mortall condition to remayne immortall in their kinde And here beginneth Moses to declare the Creation of compound bodies hitherto busied in the Elements THE FOVRTH DAYES WORKE NOw when ehe Lord had made both Plants Trees and Light without the influence yea before the being of the Sunne Moone or Starres he now framed those fiery Balls and glorious Lights whereby the Heauens are beautified the Ayre enlightned the Seas ruled and the Earth made fruitfull Thus he did the fourth day after those other things created lest some foolish Naturalist should binde his mightie hand in Natures bands seeing these Lights now become the chiefe Officers in Natures Court That shining before dispersed was vnited in these bodies whether by refraction of those former beames by these solid Globes or by gathering that fiery substance into them or by both or by other meanes I leaue to others coniectures Many are the Dreames of Philosophers some esteeming them Fire some Earth others Clouds and others Stones fired Heraclides and the Pythagoreans deemed each starre a World They are commonly holden Round simple lucide bodies the most compact and condensate parts of their Orbs or of that Aethereall Region of and in which they are bright flames not of this our fire which deuoureth and consumeth for the whole Ocean would not serue the Sunne alone for a Draught nor the Earth with all her store for a Breake-fast but quickning and nourishing Let vs a little consider of their Greatnesse Swiftnesse Number Influence For the first Ptolomey measured the Sunnes greatnesse 1663 8 times as much as the whole Terrestriall Globe Copernicus whom Scaliger calleth Alterum aeui nostri Ptolomeum 162. Tycho Brahe 140. The Moone is holden by Ptolomeus 39. times lesse then the Earth by Copernicus 43. by Tycho 42. Albategnius and Alfraganus haue added their opinions of the rest therefore diuiding them into sixe rankes or formes of differing magnitudes wherein as they somewhat differ from each other so much more from Tycho Brahe that Learned Dane whose costs and paines in this Science are admirable But Salomon wiser then they all had fore-told that the Heauens in height and the Earth in deepnesse and the Kings heart none can search out that is exactly and absolutely as appeareth in the differing opinions both of the Earths Circuit and Diameter and of the Altitude of the Heauens and consequently of the quantitie of the Starres which must presuppose the former They agree not in the order of the Planets nor how many Semi-diameters of the Earth the Heauen is eleuated which after Ptolomeys Hypotheses are 20000. after Tychos reckoning 14000. Hence it is that the quantitie and the swiftnesse is much more after the former then after this later opinion which doth better salue the incrediblenesse thereof then fayning a Giant-like labour as Ramus calleth it of the Earths continuall rolling The number of Starres some haue reckoned 1600. others 1022. and Tycho Brahe more The Iewes out of their Cabalists reckon 290160. Galileus his Glasse hath made them innumerable in descrying infinite numbers otherwise not visible to vs and especially the Galaxia full of them Yea God himselfe propounds it to Abraham whom Iosephus cals a great Astronomer as a thing impossible to number them It is his owne Royall Prerogatiue He counteth the number of the Starres and bringeth out their Armies by number and calleth them all by their names The end why GOD placed them in the Firmament Moses expresseth To separate the Day from the Night and to be for signes and for seasons and for dayes and for yeares and for lights in the Firmament of the Heauen to giue light vpon the Earth Their influence and effects are in Scripture mentioned neither can any iustly deny the same in the Elements