as being weaker and therefore had more occasion for the wind but the Negroes thought they had been gone to Bowre and dispatch a Canoe to give the King of Boulom the Alarum which was persued by the Enemy who fired into their Boat and at length took them they were two young Slaves belonging to the Portugals who lived with the English Factor but would confess nothing of their Message The English in the House observing what passed fired at them with their Cannon and three of their Bullets fell within ten paces of the Boat The Hollanders put themselves out of the reach of their Guns for the present and came to an Anchor to wait the Tyde About an hour after two Moores belonging to one of the Neighbour Islands made up directly to them in a Canoe and came within Pistol-shot but would not be persuaded aboard the Dutch firing on them they fled and stooping for fear of their fire seemed no higher than Catts the English in the interim played upon them though they saw they were out of their reach to shew the Natives they had undertaken their Defence and desired their Friendship The Tyde coming in the Dutch retreated to their Ship wherein they found several Moores and Portugals and among them the King of Bouloms Son called Bembo about 35 years old well proportioned and abating his Blackness a very handsom Man he was a very great Friend of Abrahams the English Factor and when he understood he was a Prisoner he instantly interceded for his Ransom and on Monday noon came on board again with an hundred Elephants Teeth weighing nine hundred pound weight and two Civet Catts alive upon the delivery whereof Abraham was dismist the Hollanders giving him a little Barrel of Strong-Waters a Roll of Tobacco a Cheese and a Salvo of three Guns In the River of Madre-Bomba the English have likewise a House or Factory not inferiour to that of Siorra-Leone The Kingdom of Boulom wherein it seated is principally inclined to the English and Portugals of which last there are several that inhabit there Let us now consider the Religion of the Negro's if we may so call it which is generally Paganism they greet the New Moon with horrible roarings and strange gestures of Adoration they offer their Sacrifices in the Woods before great hollow Trees wherein their Idols are placed yet this they do rather out of Custom than Zeal using neither Form nor Method in their Devotions every one making a God after his own fancy some seeming to incline to Mahumatism others to Judaism and many of them are Roman Catholicks yet divers affirm that God who giveth all things and can do what he pleaseth and causes Thunders Lightning Rain and Wind is Omnipotent and needs neither praying to nor to be set forth in so mysterious a way as that of the Trinity They believe that when People die they go into another World and will have occasion for many of the same things they use here and therefore put part of their Housholdstuff into the Grave with the dead Corps and if they lose any thing imagine their Friends in the other World had need of it and have taken it away They have no Letters nor Books yet keep Tuesday for a Sabbath forbearing then their Fishing and Husbandry and the Palm Wine which is gotten that day must not be sold but is offered to the King who bestows it on his Courtiers to drink at night On this Day in the midst of the Market-place they place a Table on four Pillars about three yards high whose flat cover is made of Straw and Reeds woven together upon which they place many Straw Rings called Fetisso's or Gods and within them set Wheat Water Oil for their God whom they imagine devours it Their Priest they call Fetissero who every Festival-day placeth a Seat upon that Table and sitting thereon preacheth to the People but what his Doctrine is the Europeans cannot understand After this the Women offer him their Infants whom he sprinkles with Water wherein a live Snake swims wherewith he likewise besprinkles the Table and then uttering certain words very loud and stroking the Children with some kind of Colours as if giving them his Blessing he himself drinks of that Water the People clapping their hands and crying I ou I ou and so he dismisseth this devout Assembly Many wear such Rings next their Bodies to preserve them from the mischiefs their angry God might inflict upon them in honour of whom they daub themselves with a kind of Chalky Earth which is their Morning Mattens At their eating the first bit and the first draught is consecrated to their Fetisso wherewith they besprinkle it If Fishermen have not a good Draught they present a piece of Gold to the Priest to reconcile them to their frowning Saint who with his Wives makes a kind of Procession through the Streets smiting his Breast and clapping his Hands with a mighty noise till he come to the Shore where they cut down boughs from certain Trees and hang them on their Necks playing on a Timbrel Then the Priest turns to his Wives and expostulates with them and throws Wheat and other things into the Sea as an Offering to appease the Fetisso's displeasure against the Fishermen When the King Sacrifices to his Fetisso he commands the Priest or Fitessero to inquire of a Tree whereunto he ascribeth Divinity what he will demand The Priest comes to the Tree and in a heap of Ashes there provided sticks the Branch of a Tree and drinking water out of a Bason spouts it upon the Branch and then daubeth his Face with the Ashes after which the Devil out of the Tree gives answer to the Kings questions The Nobility likewise adore certain Trees esteeming them Oracles and they report the Devil sometimes appears to them like a black Dog and otherwhile answers them without any visible apparition Some worship a Bird called Pittoie spotted and painted as it were with Stars and resembleth the voice of a Bull To hear this Bird low in their Journey is reckoned a good Omen they saying their Fetisso promises them good Fortune and therefore they set a Vessel of Water and Wheat in the place where they hear it And as the Earth and Air yield them Deities so the Sea is not illiberal to them but yields certain Fishes whom they Canonize upon this account they never take the Tunny Fish the Swordfish they take and eat but dry the Sword on his back which is held in great Veneration Yea the Mountains are not without honour and if they did not pacifie their Anger by setting daily Presents of Meat and Drink thereon they believe they would bend their sullen Brows and as their High Tops threaten to scale Heaven would overwhelm the Earth and destroy them all Monstrous Serpents in Africa In the mean time the dearest of his Wives fills all the House with Mourning the Neighbours and Friends assisting with Songs and Dances At length they
time in their absence from us in that World neither do they differ in any thing from ours but are the very same kind No sooner was I upon the ground but I found my self extream hungry stepping then to the next Tree I fastned my Engine and Gansa's thereto and in great hast fell to examining my Pockets for the Victuals I had reserved there but to my great surprize and vexation instead of Partridges and Capons which I thought I had hoarded there I found nothing but a medley of dry leaves Goats Hair Sheep or Goats Dung Moss and the like my Canary-wine was turned and stunk like Horse-piss Oh the villany and cheats of these cursed Spirits whose assistance if I had depended on in what a condition had I been while I stood musing and wondring at this strange Metamorphosis on a sudden I heard my Gansa's fluttering behind me and looking back I spied them falling greedily upon a Shrub within the reach of their lines whose leaves they fed earnestly upon whereas before I had never seen them eat any green thing whatever therefore stepping to the Shrub I put a leaf to my Mouth the tast whereof was so excellent that I cannot express it and certainly if I had not with great discretion moderated my Appetite I should have surfeited thereon yet it happened to be a good bait both for me and my Birds when we had most need of refreshment Scarce had we ended our Banquet when I suddenly saw my self surrounded with a strange kind of People both in feature manners and apparel their Stature was very different but they were generally twice as high as ours their shape and countenance pleasant and their habit hardly to be describ'd for I never saw either Cloth Silk nor other Stuff like that whereof their Cloths were made neither which is yet more strange can I possibly relate their colour they being in a manner all clothed alike it was neither Black White Yellow Red nor Blue nor any colour composed of these If you ask what was is then I must tell you it was a colour never seen in our Earthly World and therefore neither to be described nor conceived by us for as it is hard to make a man born blind understand the difference between Green and Blue so neither can I decipher this Moon colour as having no affinity with any I ever beheld I can only say it was the most glorious and delightful that can be imagined neither was any thing more pleasant to me during my stay there Being surprized at the appearance of these People so suddenly and in such accoutrements I crossed my self and cry'd out Jesus Maria No sooner was the word Jesus pronounced but young and old fell all on their knees whereat I not a little rejoiced holding up both their hands on high and repeating certain words which I understood not And presently rising again one much taller than the rest came and kindly imbraced me and ordering as I perceived some of the rest to attend my Birds he took me by the hand and led me to his dwelling down toward the foot of the Hill which was a building so great beautiful as nothing in our World is comparable thereto Yet afterward I saw such as this seem'd but a Cottage in respect of them There was no Door about the House less than thirty Foot high and twelve broad the Rooms were forty or fifty Foot in height and answerable in proportion neither could they be much less the Master thereof being full twenty eight high and I suppose his Body would weigh twenty five or thirty of ours After I had rested with him about one of our days he led me five Leagues off to the Palace of the Prince of the Countrey the stateliness whereof I have not now leisure to describe This Prince was much taller than the former and called as neer as I can by letters declare it for their sounds are not perfectly to be exprest by our Characters Pylonas which in their Language is First or Chief if it doth not rather denote his Authority and Dignity as being the principal man in all those parts Though yet there is one Supream Monarch amongst them much greater of stature than he commanding over all that whole World having under him twenty nine other Princes of very great Power and every one of these has twenty four Inferior Governours whereof this Pylonas was one The first Ancestor of this great Monarch came out of the Earth as they relate and by marrying the Heiress of that vast Monarchy obtaining the government left it to his Posterity who have enjoyed it ever since even forty thousand Moons which is 3077 years His name was Irdonozur whose Heirs to this day assume the same name he they say having continued there about four hundred Moons and begot divers Children return'd though by what means they know not to the Earth again I doubt they have their fables as well as we since our Historians never mention any Earthly Man to have been in that World before my self and much less to have return'd again I cannot therefore but condemn this tradition as false and Romantick though I found Learning was in great esteem among them and they seem to detest Lying and Falshood which is there severely punished and which may yield some credit to their Historical Narrations Many of them live wonderful long even beyond belief affirming to me that some survived thirty thousand Moons which is above a thousand years so that the Ages of three or four men might easily reach to the time of the first Irdonozur and this is generally noted that the taller people are of Stature the more excellent are their endowments of mind and the longer time they live for their stature is very different great numbers not much exceeding ours who seldom live above a thousand Moons which is fourscore of our years these they account very base unworthy creatures but one degree above brute Beasts and accordingly imploy in the most mean and Servile Offices calling them Bastards Counterfeits or Changlings Those whom they account true Natural Lunars or Moon Men exceed ours generally thirty times both in quantity of Body and length of life proportionable to the quality of the day in both Worlds theirs containing almost thirty of our days The manner of our travel to the Palace of Pylonas was more strange and incredible than any thing we have related for at our first setting forth there were delivered to each of us two Feather Fans like those our Ladies in Spain cool themselves with in Summer You must understand that the Globe or the Moon has likewise an attractive power yet so much weaker than the Earth that if a man do but spring upward with all his strength as Dancers do in shewing their Tricks he will be able to mount fifty or sixty foot high and being then above all attraction from the Moons Earth he falls down no more but by the help of these Fans as
before they bargained though the Captain was resolved not to leave him behind Several times the Negro's padled away with their Canoe resolving not to part with him but what with his intreaties and promises he perswaded them to the Ship again and at last they delivered him on board for forty five Copper and Iron Bars about the bigness of a mans Finger When he came on board his Hair was very long and his Skin tawny like a Mulatto having gone naked all the time he was there and usually anointed himself with Palm-Oyl the Seamen very charitably apparalel'd him and in short time after he arrived safely in England with a thickful Heart for so happy a deliverance And here I shall conclude the view of Guinea Sect. II. A View of the Island OF St. HELENA With the Product thereof BEfore I come to relate the Acquisitions of the English in the East-Indies I will make an halt at the Island of St. Helena This Isle is now by His Majesties Grace and Favour in the possession of the Honourable East India Company as a place for watering and refreshment in their long Voyages to the Indies It was formerly seized by the Dutch but retaken May 6. 1673. by Captain Munday with some other English Ships and three rich Dutch East-India Prizes taken in the Harbour since which the English have fortified and secured it against any future Invasion It was so called by the Portuguess because first discovered by them on St. Hellens day being April 21. It lies in sixteen degrees and fifteen minutes of South Latitude in the main Ocean about fifteen hundred Miles from the Cape of Good Hope three hundred and fifty from Angola and five hundred and ten from Brasile the circumference is about seven miles lying high out of the Water and surrounded on the Sea-coasts with steep Rocks having within many Cliffs Mountains and Valleys of which one is named Church-Valley where behind a small Church they climb up to the Mountains To the South is Apple-Dale so called from the abundance of Oranges Lemons and Pomegranats enough to furnish five or six Ships On the West side of the Church Ships have good Anchorage close under the Shore to prevent the Winds which blow fiercely from the adjacent high Mountains The Air seems very temperate and healthful insomuch that sick men brought ashore there in a short time recover Yet the heat in the Valleys is as intollerable as the eager cold upon the Mountains It commonly rains there five or six times a day so that the bareness of the Hills is not occasioned for want of Water of which it hath two or three good Springs beside for furnishing Ships with fresh Water The ground of its own accord brings forth wild Pease and Beans also whole Woods of Orange Lemon and Pomegranat Trees all the year long laden both with Blossoms and Fruit good Figs abundance of Ebony and Rose-trees Parsly Mustard-seed Purslain Sorrel and the like The Woods and Mountains are full of Goats very large Rams and wild Swine but difficult to be taken When the Portuguess first discovered it they found neither four-footed Beasts nor Fruit-trees but only fresh Water They afterward planted Fruit-trees which so increased since that at present all the Valleys stand full of them Partridges Pigeons Moor-hens and Peacocks breed here very numerously whereof a good Marksman may soon provide a Dinner for his Friends On the Cliff-Islands on the South are thousands of grey and black Mews or Sea-Pies and also white and coloured Birds some with long others with short Necks who lay their Eggs on the Rocks and are so unaccustomed to fear that they suffer themselves to be taken with the Hand and gaze at their surprizers till they are knocked on the Head with sticks From the Salt-Water beating against the Cliffs a Froth or Scum remains in some places which the heat of the Sun so purifies that it becomes white and good Salt some of the Mountains yield Bole Armoniack and a fat Earth like Terra Lemnia The Sea will answer the pains of a patient Fisherman who must use an Angle not a Net because of the foul ground and beating of the waves the chief are Mackrel Roach Carp but differing in colour from those among us Eels as big as a mans Arm and well tasted Crabs Lobsters Oysters and Mussels as good as English It is in this Island that the Scene of that notable fancy called The Man in the Moon or a discourse of a Voyage thither by Domingo Gonsales is lay'd written by a late Reverend and Learned Bishop saith the Excellent and ingenious Bishop Wilkins who calls it a pleasant and well contrived fancy in his own Book intituled A Discourse of the New World tending to prove that it is possible there may be another habitable World in the Moon Wherein among many other curious arguments he affirms that this hath been the direct opinion of divers ancient and some Modern Mathematicians and may probably be deduced from the Tenents of others neither does it contradict any principle of reason nor Faith And that as their World is our Moon so our World is theirs Now this small Tract having so worthy a Person to vouch for the credit of it and many of our English Historians having published for Truth what is altogether as improbable as this as Sr. John Mandevil in his Travels and others and this having what they are utterly destitute of that is Invention mixed with Judgment and was judged worthy to be Licensed 50 years ago and not since reprinted whereby it would be utterly lost I have not thought it amiss to republish the Substance thereof wherein the Author says he does not design to discourse his Readers into a belief of each particular circumstance but expects that his new discovery of a New World may find little better entertainment than Columbus had in his first discovery of America though yet that poor espial betrayed so much knowledge as hath since increast to vast Improvements and the then Unknown is now found to be of as large extent as all the other known World That there should be Antipodes was once thought as great a Paradox as now that the Moon should be habitable But the knowledge of this it may be is reserved for this our discovering Age wherein our Virtuosi can by their Telescopes gaze the Sun into Spots and descry Mountains in the Moon but this and much more must be left to the Criticks as well as the following faithful Relation of our little Eye witness and great Discoverer which you shall have in his own Spanish Style and delivered with that Grandeur and thirst of Glory which is generally imputed to that Nation It is sufficiently known to all the Countries of Audaluzia that I Domingo Gonsales was born of a Noble Family in the renowned City of Sevil in 1552. my Fathers name being Therando Gonsales near kinsman on the Mothers side to Don Pedro Sanches the worthy Count of Almenara My Mother
yet if they forced themselves never so little it is impossible to imagine with what swiftness they were carried either upward downward or side ways I must ingeniously confess my horrour and amazement in this place was such that had I not been arm'd with a true Spanish Courage and Resolution I should certainly have died for fear But the next thing that disturb'd me was the swiftness of the motion which was so extraordinary that it even almost stopt my breath if I should liken it to an Arrow out of a Bow or a Stone thrown down from the top of an high Tower it would come vastly short of it Another thing was exceeding troublesom to me that is the Illusions of Devils and Wicked Spirits who the first day of my arrival came about me in great numbers in the shapes and likeness of Men and Women wondring at me like so many Birds about an Owl and speaking several Languages which I understood not till at last I met with some that spoke very good Spanish some Dutch and others Italian all which I understood And here I had only a touch of the Suns absence once for a short time having him ever after in my sight Now though my Gansa's were entangled in my lines yet had they means easily to seize upon divers kinds of Flies and Birds especially Swallows and Cuckoes whereof there were multitudes even like Motes in the Sun though to say truth I never saw them eat any thing at all As for my self I was I 'le assure you very much obliged to those whether Men or Devils I know not who among divers discourses which I will forbear a while to repeat told me If I would follow their Directions I should not only be carried safe home but be assured to command at all times all the pleasures of that place To which motion not daring to give a flat denial I desired time to consider and withal intreated them though I felt no hunger at all which may seem strange to help me to some Victuals least I should starve in my Journey Whereupon they readily brought me very good Flesh and Fish of several sorts and well drest but that it was extream fresh without any relish of Salt Wine likewise I tasted of divers kinds as good as any in Spain and Beer no better in all Antwerp They advised me that while I had opportunity I should make my Provisions telling me that till the next Thursday they could help me to no more if happily then at which time they would find means to carry me back and set me safe in Spain in any place I would desire provided I would become one of their Fraternity and enter into such Covenants as they had made to their Captain and Master whom they would not name I answered civilly telling them I saw little reason to rejoice in such an offer desiring them to be mindful of me as occasion served So for that time I was rid of them having first furnished my Pockets with as much Victuals as I could thrust in among which I would be sure to find a place for a small Bottle of good Canary I shall now declare the quality of the place wherein I then was The Clouds I perceived to be all under between me and the Earth The Stars because it was always day I saw at all times alike not shining bright as we see in the night upon Earth but of a whitish colour like the Moon with us in the day time those that were seen which were not many shewed far greater than with us yea as I guest no less than ten times bigger As for the Moon being then within 2 days of the change she appeared of an huge and dreadful greatness It is not to be forgot that no Stars appeared but on that part of the Hemisphere next the Moon and the nearer to her the larger they appear'd Again whether I lay quiet and rested or were carried in the Air I perceived my self to be always directly between the Moon and the Earth whereby 't is plain that my Gansa's took their way directly toward the Moon and also that when we rested as we did at first for many hours either we were insensibly carried round about the Globe of the Earth though I perceived no such motion or else that according to the opinion of Copernicus the Earth is carried about and turneth round perpetually from West to East leaving to the Planets only that motion which the Astronomers call natural and is not upon the Poles of the Equinoctial commonly called the Poles of the World but upon those of the Zodiack The Air in that place I found quiet without any motion of wind and exceeding temperate neither hot nor cold as where neither the Sun beams had any Subject to reflect upon nor the Earth and Water so near to affect the Air with their natural Quality of coldness As for that imagination of the Philosophers attributing heat and moisture to the Air I alwaies esteem'd it a fancy Lastly I remember that after my departure from the Earth I never felt either hunger or thirst whether the purity of the Air freed from the Vapors of the Earth and Water might yeild nature sufficient nourishment or what else might be the cause I cannot determine but so I found it though I was perfectly in health both of body and mind even above my usual Vigor Let us now proceed which we shall do fast enough for the future Some hours after the departure of that Devilish Company my Gansa's began to bestir themselves still directing their course toward the Globe or body of the Moon making their way with such incredible swiftness that I conceive they advanced little less than fifty Leagues in an hour in which passage I observed three things very Remarkable one that the farther we went the less the Globe of the Earth appear'd to us and that of the Moon still larger and more monstrous Again the Earth which I had ever in mine eye seemed to mask it self with a kind of brightness like another Moon and as we discern certain Spots or Clouds as it were in the Moon so did I then see the like in the Earth but whereas the form of those Spots in the Moon are always the same these on the Earth seemed by degrees to change every hour the reason whereof seems to be that whereas the Earth according to his natural motion for such a motion I am now satisfied she hath according to the opinion of Copernicus turns round upon her own Axis every four and twenty hours from West to East I should at first see in the middle of the Body of this New Star the Earth a Spot like a Pear with a Morsel bit out on one side in some hours I should observe this Spot move away toward the East This no doubt was the main Land of Africa Then might I perceive a great shining brightness in that place which continued about the same time and was questionless
this Island with great Cole-Black Bodies and White Heads called Penguins The Chief Person left here was one Cross who call'd himself Captain He was before one of the Yeomen of the Guard to King James the first but having twice or thrice had his hand in the bloud of men slain in Duels and being now condemn'd to dye with the rest upon very great suit made for him he was banished hither with them whither yet Divine Justice seem'd to persue him for being a very stout resolute man and abusing the Natives he was soon after his arrival surprized by them who shot his Body so full of Arrows that he look't like the man in the Almanack and seemed to be all one wound The other seven recovered their Boat and got off the Continent rowing toward the Island without much damage but the Water running very high as soon as they were ashore their Boat was split in peices so that they were then forc't to continue in that miserable place where never a Tree grew either for Sustenance Shelter or Shade nor any thing else to sustain their lives having no fresh Water but what the Showers left in the holes of the Rocks And which added to their misery it abounded so with venemous Serpents that it was very dangerous treading in the long Grass for fear of them They had but a small quantity of dry Bisket their Bellies were hungry and their sleep unsafe so that nothing could render their condition more unhappy and yet these seven vile Wretches all lived to be made examples of Divine Justice for after they had continued in this desolate place five or six months and were all grown almost mad with Famine it pleased God that an English Ship came into that Road bound for England Four of these seven grew so impatient of an hours stay there that immediately after the Ship came in they made a float of the Ruins of their split Boat and other Wood and with ravell'd and untwisted Boat Ropes fastning as well as they could all together extremity instructing them they got thereon poizing it to the best advantage hoping by the benefit of their Oars and strength of the Tide which ran quick toward the Ship to recover her But their expectation failed them for it being toward Evening when they made this attempt and not being discovered by the Ship which then rid a good way up in their Bay before they could come near her the Tyde return'd and carried them back into the main Sea where they all were cast away The day following the Ship sent a Boat to the Island which took these three yet surviving into her as the other four might have been had their patience held out but one night longer who gave this account of their Fellows misfortune But notwithstanding all the sufferings of these miscreants yet they behaved themselves so lewdly in the Ship in their return homeward that they were very often put in the Bilbows At length the Ship arriving safely in the Downs she had not been at Anchor three hours when these Villains got ashore where they had not been above three hours but they committed a Robbery and a very few hours after were all apprehended for the Fact and suddenly after that their irreclaimable humor being related to the Lord Chief Justice they were by his special Warrant Executed as incorrigible Wretches upon their former Sentence near Sandwich in Kent where they committed their Crime The year following three other condemned Persons were carried to be left in this place but hearing of the ill success of their Predecessors and that they were unlike to be safe here when the Ships were ready to depart and leave them on shore they all came and presented themselves on their Knees with tears in their Eyes before our Captain Joseph humbly beseeching him to order them to be Hanged in that place before they went which they chose much rather than to be left there It was a very sad sight to behold three men in such a condition that they should esteem Hanging to be a mercy Our Commander told them he had no Commission to Execute them but to leave them there and so he must do and probably had done but our fifth Ship the Swan staying in this place a day or two after took these poor men in And so much for the Bay of Souldania Sect. IV. THE English Acquisitions in the EAST-INDIES HAving cleer'd our way let us now Sail merrily toward the Indies doubling first the Cape of Good Hope and then passing by Madagascar called also St. Lawrence one of the greatest Islands in the World stored with all manner of Provisions but inhabited by a barbarous and Heathenish People yet stout warlike and very numerous Over against which on the Continent of Africa are Zefala and Mozambique where the Portugals have got footing and may be strongly supposed to be the places whither Solomon sent his Navy of Ships built at Eziongebar which stood on the Banks of the Red Sea in Arabia the Happy the Countrey of that famous Queen of the South who hearing of his Wisdom and Renown took her Journey thence to visit the Court of King Solomon From that place Solomon sent his Ships for Gold and Silver and Ivory coasting all along the African shore the Art of Navigation being then unknown And the Marriners steering without Chart or Compass were necessitated to keep the Neighbouring Lands always in sight as doubtless they did these places being stored with those rich Commodities above other parts of Africa The Portugals Dutch and English discovered these Countries of India in the last Age and have since setled themselves by Forts and Castles there The Portugals first brake the Ice who in 1494. failing from Lisbon under Vasco de Gama doubled the Cape of Good Hope and succeeded so well afterward as to Conquer and Fortify several places in many Countreys of Asia and the Islands thereof In 1595. the Dutch set out our a Fleet from Amsterdam to India wherein they used such extraordinary dexterity with then Cannon Law and Steel Arguments that they made themselves Masters of 28 Forts and Castles and of forty four or forty five Factories in a short time for preserving their Trade In 1600. the English began their Discoveries under Sir James Lancaster with four Ships whose endeavours were so blest and the good Government of the Honourable East-India Company prospered so well that they setled their Residence and Factories in twenty four several places of note as at Ormus and Jasques in the entrance of the Persian Gulf under the Persian Monarch At Cambaja Surat Agria and other places in the Great Mogols Countrey At Maslapatan Armagon Petipoly Pattana Siam and other places on the Coast of Cormandel and the Continent of Asia At Achin Ticko Jambe Prianian on the Isle of Sumatra At Bantam Jacatra and Japarra on the Island of Java At Socodana and Beniermasa on the Island of Borneo At Macassar in the Isle of Celebs