Inhabitants are since removed to Porto Bello or St. Philip aforesaid as to a more fortified and securer place 3. Acla a Town upon the same Coast but lying South-East of Nombre de Dios. 4. Nata commonly called St. Jago de Nata situated on the West side of this Province upon Mare del Zur or the South Sea about thirty leagues distance from Panama towards the borders of Veragua 5. Panama the chief City of the Province being also a Bishops Sea who is Suffragan to the Archbishop of Lima and the ordinary residence of the Governour and Courts of Justice for these parts It is seated likewise upon the South Sea and so neer that at high water the ships are said to ride even under the walls Through this town the wealth both of Peru and Spain passeth once every yeer from Spain by Nombre de Dios and Porto Bello from whence whatsoever Merchandise or other Commodities come from Spain are transported to Panama by Land and from thence by Sea to all the parts of Peru and by Panama whatsoever comes from Peru to be sent into Spain It hath commonly a strong Garrison of Souldiers in it and is doubtless a place otherwise well fortified being of so great importance Lastly La Crux Real a few leagues distant from Panama and for the most part inhabited by Negros 3. Darien hath on the North the District or Circle of Panama on the South the new Kingdome of Granada Eastward it is bounded with the Gulf of Vrraba abovesaid and some part of the River Darien which giveth name to the Province and to the West with the South Sea of a more temperate Aire by farre than that of Panama and a Soil so admirably fruitfull and lusty that they say Melons Cucumers and generally all other Fruits of the Garden are ripe and fit to gather within twenty dayes or less after their first sowing The chief and indeed only Town of this tract is Darien called anciently by the first Founders of it St. Maria Antiqua and by others the Antique of Darien being one of the first Towns that were built by the Spaniards on the firm Land 4. Eastward of Darien and the Gulf of Vrraba lyeth the Countrie of New-Andaluzia as some call it though that name be likewise and perhaps more truly attributed to the Province of Paria hereafter to be spoken of on the East it hath the Countrie called St. Martha on the North the main Ocean and New-Granada towards the South It is for the most part a Mountainous Countrie and full of Woods which they say yeeld aboundance of Rosin Gumms and some very good Balsams But the Plains by reason of much rain to which the Countrie is subject especially for some times of the year of but a spewy and cold Soil The Spaniards at their first comming found it a rich Country not so much from the nature and profits of the Soil though it be said to have some Mines in it and those of Gold but by reason of a certain opinion and respect which the Americans of these parts are generally said to have born towards this Country insomuch that they would be brought and buryed therein from other places very remote and according to the custome of the Country not without good store of Gold and other Jewels according to the quality and condition of the Person that was buried of which the Spaniards soon gained intelligence and in ransacking the Graves and Monuments of the Dead are supposed to have found an infinite Mass of Treasure But those Mines are long since exhausted The places of chief impotance here are 1. Carthagena situate upon the North Sea in a sandy Peninsula or half Island well built and for the bigness of it of good wealth and riches as the English well found under Sir Francis Drake in the yeare 1585 when they took the place and having pillaged it carried away beside aboundance of Treasure no less than two hundred and fourty brass peices of Ordinance It is counted one of the best Havens belonging to the firme land of America 2. Tolu by the Spaniards now called St. Jago twelve leagues distant from Cartagena a place memorable for the excellent Balsam which is brought from thence commonly called the Balsam of Tolu 3. St. Crux de Mopox a neate Town seated a little above the confluence of the two Rivers St. Martha and Magdalene which water this Province 4. Baranca de Nolambo a place of great Traffique especially for all Commodities of the new Kingdome of Granada it standeth upon the banks of the Magdelene River and about six leagues distant from the Sea 5. Buena Vista otherwise called St. Sabastian de Buena Vista a Town commodiously seated upon a rising ground not far from the Gulf of Vrraba or the Sound of Darien about a league and half from the Sea and lastly Villa de St. Maria thirty leagues southward of Cartagena 5. St. Martha so called from the cheif City of the Province is bordered on the West with New-Andaluzia on the East with Rio de la Hacha on the North with the Ocean and on the South with New-Granada It is about threescore and ten leagues in length and not much less in breadth a mountainous Country likewise for the most part and the ground not much commended but only for some fruits of the Ordinary growth of Spain viz. Oranges Limons c. which thrive here very well The aire upon the Coasts very hot but more within land as extremely cold viz. upon the Mountaines The Country is well watered with Rivers the chief whereof is Rio Grande as they call it or the great River of Magdalene which rising in the Mountains of New-Granada falleth down into this province empties it self into the Sea betwixt the Cities of St. Martha and Cartegena though at a distance of ten or twenty leagues from either with a double stream and such a violent course that as Acosta testifies it is counted not a little dangerous to attempt the entrance of it sometimes viz. when the Tyde and the stream are contrary The chief Towns are 1. St. Martha seated upon the Sea coast having a safe and very convenient Haven belonging to it and well defended from the windes by the advantage of an high Mountain lying almost right over against it It is no great Town but rich for the bigness at least it was found so when Sir Francis Drake surprised it in the year 1595. What it was the year following when Sir Anthony Shirly called there and in the yeare 1630 when the Dutch took it I cannot say 2. Tenariffe on the banks of the Magdalene fourty leagues distant from St. Martha 3. Villa de las Palmas twenty leagues southward of Tenariff 4. Ciudad de los Reyes in the Valley of Vpar and upon the banks of a large River called Guataporta which a little below this Town falleth into the Magdalene It is a Frontire place and but ill neighboured by reason of certain
Spaniards at least and twice as many Natives 6. Cusco the chief City of the Province and anciently the seat of the Kings of Peru one hundred and twenty leagues or more distant from Lima to the South-East begirt round about with Mountains and the Citie it self seated upon a rugged and unequall Soile yet anciently very magnificent and beautifull it being the custome of the Incas or Puruvian Monarchs that every one of their Nobility should build themselves a Palace in that Citie where the Palace Royall was The Incas Palace here was justly counted one of the wonders of the World it was built on the top of a very high Mountain on the North side of the Citie walled round about and for the most part of it with three several walls all of massy stones and those of such huge stupendious bigness yet most exactly laid together and fitted one with another that the Spaniards considering the Indians had neither Instruments of Iron or any thing else to polish and fashion them nor Engins to draw them up to that height nor so much as Carts to fetch them from the Quarries and places where they were found which was eight or nine leagues distance and over no small Rivers said plainly 't was the work of the Devil and not of Man to lay them there which seeming a thing not so easily to be supposed I must for my part as plainly confess 't is a Problem somewhat above my capacity at present to resolve viz. how it should come to pass that not only here but in divers other parts of the Countrie where the Incas and their Nobility had their Palaces such evident Monuments of absolute Art and Skill should be found among a People so absolutely ignorant and unacquainted with Art as the Americans were reported to be It is now quite demolished and converted to private dwellings only the walls are permitted to stand as well to testifie the greatness of the ancient structure as because the stones thereof as mine Author Laet reporteth are so hugely ponderous big that the Spainards know not well how to remove them and perhaps dare not venture upon it Many other Monuments there were of the Incas Magnificence greatnes as beside their Temples which were very stately and rich Those publick Cawseys or high-wayes pav'd and laid with stone which the Incas with incredible cost and pains had caused to be made from Cusco to the utmost Confines of their Kingdome as large as it was onely for the ease and commoditie of the people they all meeting at Cusco from all quarters l ke so many lines from severall parts of the Circumference and Concentring in the midst of the City upon a Piazza or Market-place one of the fairest in all Peru. The wealth which the Spaniards found here is not to be estimated all the Vessels and Utensills of what sort soever belonging to the Incas Palace being said to be of perfect Silver or Gold all the Roomes and Chambers of the Palace wainscoted and ceiled with Gold beside an infinite number of Birds Beasts Fowles Serpents and other creatures carved and wrought all of Gold or Silver Nor was it otherwise in due proportion in the Palaces of the Nobility all were found inestimably wealthy and rich And yet 't is thought what they found above ground was nothing in comparison of that which they met with in the ransacking of Cellars Vaults and other subterraneous places where the poor conquered Peruvians had endeavoured to convey it out of sight which was such that to this day they say those treasures are not exhausted but that in digging upon occasion under ground they still chop upon some good quantities of concealed Metals The City at present is thought to contain some thirteen or fourteten thousand Inhabitants whereof the third part only Spaniards the rest Natives 7. St. Francisco de la vittoria a Colony of Spaniards situate at the foot of the Andes twenty leagues distant from Cusco 8. St. Juan del oro another Colony in the Valley of Caravaya neighboured with rich Mines of the purest Gold of Peru. Beyond which places more towards the Andes there are said to lie certain Countries as yet undiscovered much famed for gold Mines but of such unpassable difficulty that hitherto the Spaniards though divers times attempting it have not been able to effect any thing answerable to their desires 8. Collao lyeth Southward of those Countries which goe under the generall name of the Province of Cusco having on the West Lima on the South Charcas but Eastward and to the North-east it is shut up by a ridge of Mountaines running in one body or continued Tract from the confines of Collao as far as the City of Cusco where they divide The Country generally plain commodiously watered in all parts with fresh Rivers and consequently affording rich pasturage and good heards of Cattell It is thought to be the most populous Country of all Peru what through the soundness and good temperature of the aire what through the richness and fertility of the Soil The chief Towns and places of note in it being 1. Chuquinga a great Town and held to be naturally almost impregnable as being environed round about either with deep unfordable Waters or with Mountains unpassable and having one only Cawsey leading to it reported to be for two or three leagues together no broader than to permit one single person to march convenienly upon it 2. Ayavire by the Spaniards called Las Sepulturas being a place especially enobled by the stately Monuments of the Peruvian Nobility which were found there 3. Hatuncolla the Metropolis or chief Town of this Province seated upon the banks of the River Caravaya whose sands are very much fam'd for Gold 4. Chinquita a Colony of Spaniards upon the banks of Titicaca one of the greatest Lakes that belong to America said to be fourscore leagues in compass having many small Islands in it of a good and fruitfull soil abounding in fish and variety of Sea-fowl It is supposed to be fourscore leagues distant likewise from the South Sea having only one Estuary or Mouth which is something streit but of such a deep water and violent stream that as Acosta testifieth of it it is not possible to build a Bridge of stone or timber over it But the Natives instead thereof have laid a Bridge of straw upon it which serves as well viz. so many great bundles of straw sedge or such like matter well and surely made up and fastened together as will reach from one side or bank of the Estuary to another at which likewise having made them sure they cast some good quantity of more straw and sedge upon them and have a Bridge very convenient upon which they doe both securely pass themselves and also drive Cattell and doe other necessary business The Town is a place of extraordinary Wealth and Trading and so considerable that the Governour thereof is always named by the King of Spain himself
Queen of England from whom he said he came to take them into his protection So after many other civilities given and returned betwixt them the King at length departed and Sir Francis with his men returned to their ships having first erected a pillar upon the place on which he fastned the Arms of England with the Queens name and his own to remain as a monument of his being there and of the surrender which was made of that Country to the Queen of England CHAP. VI. Of New-Gallicia and the Provinces thereto belonging 1. NEw-Gallicia is the most Northerly Countrie of all America that is inhabited to any purpose by the Spaniards Here 't is true they are scattered up and down in all the parts of it but it is at a huge distance and for the most part only where the Mines are It is bounded on the East and to the South with the Kingdom of Mexico or New-Spain on the West with the Gulf or Bay of Califormia Northward for so much as is yet discovered with Quivira and Cibola lying between eighteen and twenty eight degrees of Northern latitude that is from La Natividad a Port so named by the Spaniards in the confines of New-Spain to the most Northerly borders of Cinoloa a part of this Province containing as is supposed not much less than three hundred leagues in length and in bredth much more and whereof not a tenth part is either used or frequented by the Spaniards The Aire is generally here very temperate inclining rather to heat than cold and subject now and then to sodain storms of rain and great claps of thunder which yet doe not hinder but that the Countrie is held to be reasonably healthfull and the people observed to live generally to a good old age The Soil by reason of the Climate would be a little inclining to drought but that beside the frequent rains which it hath it is constantly moistned with fresh morning dews which make it for the most part wonderfully fruitfull almost beyond beleef yeelding for every bushel of Wheat that is sown threescore and of Maiz two hundred for one beside great plenty of Sugar-Canes and Cochineel both which notwithstanding the Spaniards are said to neglect in some sort imploying themselves wholly about richer Commodities For the Countrie affords them good store of Mines viz. of Sylver and Brass but of Gold or Iron not many as yet have been found the Rivers plentifully abounding with Fish and the Woods with Venison and some other wilde Beasts The Countrie generally more mountainous than plain frequently shaded with Woods and whole Forrests of the statelyest Pine trees and Oaks of timber that are to be seen The People are said to be somewhat of a wavering and inconstant disposition apt to take offence and though civilized in some measure and made Christians by the Spaniards yet oftentimes upon some light distaste given they seem willing to return again to their Woods and Barbarism The reason whereof in part is conceived to be a natural slothfulness and unwillingness unto any kinde of labour in this People which they labour most of all to avoid and are so wise that they never will be brought to it but upon good wages but on the contrary given to sports very much viz. singing dancing and drinking out of measure in so much as 't is thought if it were not for their beloved liquor they would hardly be perswaded long to take either the care or the pains of Husbandry They are of stature reasonably tall dwelling both in Towns and Villages being distinguished into certain Clans or Tribes each whereof is governed by one Chief but all of them subject to the Judges and Officers of the King of Spain It contains in it these inferiour Provinces 1. Cinoloa 2. Couliacan 3. Xalisco 4. Guadalaiara all of them on the Western shore 5. Zacatecas 6. New-Biscay and 7. New-Mexico more within Land 2. Cinoloa is the most Northern part of New-Gallicia bounded on the West with some part of the Gulf or Bay of Califormia On the East with a long ridge of Mountains which they call Tepecsuan On the North with Cibola and with Couliacan on the South The Country beside the general fertility of the whole Province of New Gallicia yeelds great store of Cotton-wooll by reason whereof both Men and Women here are better appareld for the most part than elsewhere the Americans are Exceedingly well watered with Rivers which descend from those mountains Tepecsuan not above thirty or fourty leagues distant from the Sea and which with the varietie of their streams and Meandrous glidings doe divide the Country into many and good pastures which are likewise stored with aboundance of Kine Oxen and other Cattel The chief towns of the Spaniards are 1. St. Philip and Jacob seated towards the Sea side on the banks of a fair River some thirty or fourty leagues distant from the town of Couliacan 2. St. John de Cinoloa an ancient Colonie of Spaniards setled there by Francisco de Tharra in the year 1554 which is all they have in this Countrie except some few old Forts of the Natives which they found after their manner poorly furnished but have since repaired them for defense against the Natives of those parts which as yet remain unreduced 3. Couliacan lyeth Southward of Cinoloa coasting all along the Bay of Califormia which it hath on the West On the East it hath New-Biscay and on the South Xalisco The Countrie not defective in any kinde of necessary Provision more especially aboundeth with Fruits of all sorts But the Spaniards look only at the Mines of which they have some few in this Countrie The People were generally cloathed with Garments of Cotton-wooll when the Spaniards came first among them but yet never a whit the more modest being exceedingly given to Venery and that in a more shameless and beastly manner than many other Americans were that goe naked The Spanish Towns are these 1. Hiustula seated on the banks of a fair River distant about a dayes journie from the Sea 2. Quinola 3. Quatrabarrios an old Town of the Natives but new named by the Spaniards 4. El Leon an old burrough 5. Couliacan the chief town of the Province 6. St. Michael in the Valley of Arroba two leagues distant from the Sea in a rich and plentifull Countrie both for Corn and fruit and built by Nunnez de Gusman in the year 1531 after he had burnt the Towns and destroyed a great part of the Natives inhabitants of the Country 4. Xalisco or Galesco as some call it is bounded on the North with Couliacan On the South with some parts of New-Spain On the East with the Province of Guadalaiara and on the West with the Gulf or Bay of Califormia The Countrie chiefly fertil in Maiz and Mines of Silver not altogether so apt for herbage and pasture as some other Countries about it The People were Cannibals before the Spaniards came among them and did eate Mans-flesh were
Towns fairly and well built of Lime and Stone houses of four stories high and most of them provided with stoves for the winter season as well as any in Europe The streets fair and broad and the People as curious and expert in divers Arts and Manufactures as any of theirs More particularly they tell us of a town called Chia of the Province of Cuames so big that it is said to contain eight several Market-places Another called Acoma a great Town but seated on the top of an high Rock without any ordinary way of access to it but by a pair of staires hewn out of the hard stone or else by certain ladders which the Inhabitants let down and take up as they please And likewise of a third which they call Conibas containing as they say no less than seven leagues in length about half as much in breadth seated upon a Lake but scatteringly built and much of the space taken up with mountains and many fair Gardens in the midst of which the Town standeth This is certain that the Countrie to which they give the general name of New-Mexico is of a vast extent reaching from the Mines of St. Barbara in New-Biscay Eastward and to the North-East above two hundred leagues already discovered but doubtless taking up no small part of those Countries which are sometimes assigned to Florida if not of the confines of Virginia also The first discoverer of this Countrie was one Augustino Royaz a Franciscan Frier about the year 1580 by whose report and incouragement Antonio de Espeio a Native of Corduba but then dwelling at Mexico raised at his own charges a Band of an 150 Horsemen and with a competent number of Slaves Beasts of carriage and other necessaries undertook the business and discovered many Nations as the Conchi Tobosi Passaguates Tepoames Quires and divers others still marching on till he arrived at a great River which he named Rio del Nordt Here he made some stay and caused the Countrie on each side of the River to be called Nova-Mexicana and a City to be built which he likewise named New-Mexico It is seated in the 37 degree of Northern latitude and distant from Old-Mexico four hundred leagues The name whereof is since changed into that of St. Foy but the dignity of the place improved being at present the Metropolis of that Province a Bishops Sea the ordinary Residence of the Governour and hath a Garrison of about two hundred and fifty Souldiers in it which both commands the Countrie and secures their Mines of which they have some in the towns hereabouts the chief of which towns are 1. S. Antonio de Senecu the first Town which they have upon the Nordt River 2. Socorro so named by the Spaniards from the releefe which they found there both for themselves and Horses being almost starved with a long march 3. Pilabo 4. Siviletta all of them old towns but new named by the Spaniards 5. St. Johns built some yeers after the first discovery of the Countrie by John D' Ognate a Spaniard who in the year 1599 or thereabouts over-ran the Countrie a second time with a greater Army yet pursuing the tract of d' Espeio by which means having gathered together an infinite mass of treasure he found no better way to secure it than by building this town CHAP. VIII Of New-Spain and its Provinces 1. THe Kingdom of Mexico or New-Spain was formerly that is before the Spaniards conquer'd and dismembred it much larger than now it is for as much as it comprehended the whole Province of New-Gallicia and reached from the furthest point of the Peninsula of Jucatan Southward as far as New-Biscay and the confines of Califormia Northward containing in length seven hundred leagues or more and about half as much in breadth But since the conquest by Hernando Cortez and his followers the whole Countrie of New-Gallicia is taken from it and made a distinct Government or Audiencia as the Spaniards call it of it self The Natives of the Countrie are of the race of the Chichimecae a savage and wilde sort of People of the Province of New-Gallicia especially in the parts of New-Biscay living in Forests and in deep caves under ground whose posterity doe still at this day much trouble and annoy the Countrie thereabouts notwithstanding all the endeavours of the Spaniards and the Garrisons which they keep in those parts on purpose to destroy them About five hundred years agoe or more according to the account of the Mexican Annals divers Hoards or Swarms of these Chichimecae weary it seems of their Woods and subterraneous dwellings issued out into the more open Aire and fell down in huge multitudes into these Southerly parts of America which are now called Mexico and New-Spain not all at once but at several times and under several names viz. of the Suchimilci Chalcae Tepanecae Tlascaltecae and others who subduing or driving out the People they found in those parts seated themselves in their room And though at first every Nation or Company of them as they came seized upon some Province apart by themselves and held it as it were in Soveraignty to themselves without acknowledgement of any dependance or subjection to their Neighbours or those that were there before them yet in tract of time and by fortune of the Warrs which they made one upon another they all fell under the Government of one King viz. the King of Mexico which was the chief City of the Province This Kingdome at the time that the Spaniards first discovered the Countrie was governed by a Prince named Motezuma one who by his valour and good success in the warres had in a few years of his reign before the Spaniards came thither subdued the better part of a hundred Cities and great Towns to his Dominion and held in actual submission to his Government and tributary to him no less than thirty several Casiques or petty Princes every one of which pay'd him Tribute and were able upon occasion to bring into the field an hundred thousand men He is said to have been for his person a wise and good Prince just affable and tender of his Subjects good but by reason of some heavy exactions which his own power and the practise of his Ancestors before him gave him the confidence to impose upon the conquered People a great part of his Subjects lived but unwillingly under his obedience and rather by constraint than otherwise being also further exasperated against him by one barbarous custome which the Mexicans frequently used viz. the Sacrificing of men Their manner was whensoever they had any solemn occasion of doing honour to their Devil-god Vitzilopuchtli as they called him to send out an Army of men from Mexico into some of the subdued Provinces in case they had no enemies neerer hand and to fetch in as many men as they thought good to be sacrificed whose flesh likewise afterwards they did eate in a solemn Banquet This being a business of their
part of whatsoever should be discovered to him and his Heirs for ever But denyed him the Government of Mexico out of reason of State though 't is said he much desired it 6. The bounds of this Kingdome at present are thus On the East it hath a large Arm of the Sea which they call the Bay of New-Spain or the Gulf of Mexico On the West it hath some parts of New-Gallicia and Mare del Zur On the North the rest of New-Gallicia and part of Florida and on the South Mare del Zur again and part of Guatimala It extendeth it self in length from the furthest point of Jucatan South-East to the borders of New-Gallicia Northward above one thousand Italian miles and in breadth from Panuco to the South-Sea about half so much It lyeth wholly under the Torrid Zone nor is it a Countrie generally so mountainous or high seated as some others of America are but for the most part level or low yet is it so fanned for three parts at least of four by the cooling blasts off the Sea and the heats otherwise so moderated with frequent rains which it hath constantly three moneths in the year viz. June July and August that the Aire is rendred thereby exceeding temperate and agreeable and the Climate not unhealthfull especially to temperate bodies and such as be never so little used to it A goodly Country it is of inexhaustible wealth and riches whether we regard the Mines of Gold Silver Brass Iron c. of all which it hath many and very good or the Fruits of the Earth aboundance of Cattel plenty of Corn and Grain or any other Commodities and endowments of Nature which serve for the enriching of the World Among other things it affords good store of Cassia the fruit whereof is a thing well known and much commended by the Apothecaries for its use in Physick especially for Purgations and removing of all obstructions of phlegm cholar c. Such store of Balm Amber all sorts of Gumms and precious Liquors as no Country in the World is better furnished with matter of excellent Perfumes and Physiâ—k than the Kingdom of New-Spain is aboundance of Coco-nuts and such plenty of that excellent Dye called Coccinele that 't is said no less than five or six thousand Arrobes of Spanish measure which make above five times so many English Bushels are yearly transported thence Good plenty likewise both of Wheat and Maiz with Barley and Pulse of all sorts All kinde of garden Hearbs Roots and Plants in so great aboundance and so admirably thriving that 't is scarcely to be beleeved Whole Woods and Forests as it were of Oranges Limmons Citrons and other such fruit as hath been said Some Cherries but of Apples Pears and Figgs c. beyond measure The Natives of the Country very ingenious in divers Mechanicall Arts especially in making of feather-Pictures a piece of curiosity wherein they are held to be incomparably or rather inimitably excellent and so industrious at it that although the Americans generally be not a People over much addicted to any kinde of labour or study yet at this they will sit a whole day together without either meat or drink only out of a natural affection they have to the work and a desire to be excellent in it The Country indeed affords them great variety of Birds and other Fowl of most rare and exquisite colours which is a great advantage to their skill and helps much to the accomplishment of their work They paint likewise very curiously upon their Cottons and are held to be generally the best Gold-smiths in the world of most perfect skil in the purging and refining of all sorts of Metals but especially of Gold and Silver And yet in other things so strangely stupid and ignorant that when the Spaniards first appeard among them on Horse-back 't is reported not a few of them took the Horse and Man both for one Cteature and when the Horse neighed they would enquire very seriously what he said There be likewise many fair Lakes in the Province of New-Spain but the principall are those of Chapala and Mexico the former of which is in the more Northern parts of the Kingdome towards the borders of New Gallicia and is chiefly famous for the aboundance of good Salt that is yeerly made and transported thence The other of Mexico is the largest and goodliest one of them in the World of circular form and containing as some say little less than nine hundred miles in compâ—â—s invironed with the main Land the Peninsula or Cape of Florida Jucatan and the Island Cuba having two only passages in and out and both of them well fortified the one betwixt the point of Jucatan and the Isle Cuba where the tide violently enters and the other betwixt the said Island and the Cape Florida where it goeth as violently out upon which Gulf the King of Spain hath alwaies some good ships in readiness for all occasions and by them 't is supposed he doth more assure his Estates in those parts of America than by all his Garrisons beside The whole Kingdome of New-Spain is subdivided into these inferior Provinces viz. 1. Panuco 2. Mexicana 3. Mechoacan 4. Tlascalla 5. Guaxata 6. Chiapa and 7. Jucatan 7. Panuco is the most Northerly Province of New-Spain by some called Guasteca bounded on the East with the Gulf of Mexico on the West with Vxitipa a Country of New-Gallicia on the North with some undiscovered Countries of Florida from which it is divided by the River of Palms on the South with Mechoacan and Mexicana It is called Panuco from a River of that name which running from the mountains Tepecsuan in New Gallicia and dividing New-Biscay from the Province of Zacatecas passeth through the midst of this Country also and at last emptieth it self into the Gulf. The Country is reckoned to be about fifty leagues in length and not much less in breadth of a fruitfull Soile having some Mines of gold in it and once very Populous till Hernando Cortez and the Spaniards about the year 1522 dispeopled it by their cruelty The chief towns now remaining and inhabited by the Spaniards are first St. Lewis de Tampice a Colony of Spaniards situate on the Northern bank of the River Panuco at the very mouth of it where it hath a very large Haven but so barred with sands that no ship of any great burden can enter or abide in it with safety and yet the River otherwise so deep that Vessels of five hundred tun might sail up threescore leagues at least within land and thereby visit the rich Mines of Zatatecas on the one side of it and of New-Biscay on the other at pleasure and without fear of much opposition 2. St. Stevan del Puerto on the South side of the same River eight leagues distant from the Sea or Gulf of Mexico at present the Metropolis or chief town of the Province built by Cortez in the place where stood old Panuco which was
likewise the Metropolis or head town of the Natives before the Spaniards burnt and destroyed it 3. St. Jago de los Valles This is a Frontier place and enjoyeth certain speciar Immunities and some fair possessions also fo defense of the Country against the Savages It is twenty five leagues distant from St. Steven del Puerto lying in an open or Champain Country and is fenced about with a wall of Earth 8. Mechoacan hath on the North-East Panuco on the East Mexicana properly so called on the South part of Tlascalla on the West the main Ocean or Mare del Zur and last of all more directly Northward Xalisco which is a Province of New Gallicia The name signifieth in the American language as much as a Fish Country so it is having many fair Lakes and Rivers in it aboundantly well stored with good Fish The Country so exceedingly pleasant and healthfull that 't is usuall for sick persons of other Provinces to come hither to recover their health only by the benefit of a good Aire The Soil so aboundantly fertil of all sorts of grain that of four measures of seed it hath been often observed they have reaped the next harvest more than so many hundred measures of the same grain Very well wooded and by reason of its many Rivers and fresh springs equally rich in good pasture and beside great plenty of Medicinall Hearbs and Plants It affordeth good store of Amber nigh the Sea Coasts Mulberry-trees consequently Silks much Honey wax and divers other Commodities both for necessity and pleasure The People of the Country are generally tall of a strong active body and a good wit especially in comparison of other Natives not unskilfull in divers curious Manufactures and the most excellent Feather-Picturers aforementioned are said to be found in this Province They seem more generally inclined to the humors and customes of the Spaniards than many other Americans and received the preaching of Christian Religion when time was with much willingness so that the Country is now entirely Christian and divided into several Parishes There are said to be in it one hundred and fifty Towns or Burroughs beside many scattered Villages most of which have free Schools erected in them for the training up of youth in Christian Religion good literature and Arts and few of them without an Hospitall for the sick of which towns the principall are such as follow viz. Zinzoutza the seat of the ancient Kings of Mechoacan 2. Pascuar a City fourty seven leagues distant from Mexico once a Bishops Sea but now removed to Valladolit 3. Valladolit the Metropolis or chief City of the Province since the Episcopall chair was removed from Pascuar thither It lyeth upon a great Lake equall almost for bigness to that of Mexico and is about seven leagues distant from Pascuar towards the East 4 St. Michaels a good town fourty leagues Westward of Mexico and in the way to the Zacatecas but lying in a road that is somewhat dangerous being not a little infested with Savages on both sides of it 5. St. Philips 6. La Conception de Salaya 17 leagues distant from Valladolid and a convenient stage for Travellers being indeed with the two last mentioned built chiefly for the defence and securing of the Country against the Savages 7. Guaxanato a Town on the borders of Panuco where there are very rich Mines of silver 8. Leon another Town likewise of very rich Mines twenty four leagues distant from Valladolid and threescore from Mexico 9. Zamorra 10. Villa de los Lagos and others Towards the Sea there is 1. Acatlan but two miles distant from the Coast and a small town yet by reason of a safe and very good Harbour which it hath for shipping a place of no little trading 2. Natividad another well known and convenient Haven upon Mare del Zur pertaining to this Province and from whence they usually set sail for the Philippine Islands 3. St. Jago de buena Speranza so called by the Spaniards perhaps from the aboundance of good Pearls they found upon this Coast 4. Colyma 5. Zacatula and some others This Province as we said was at first a distinct Kingdome of it self yet subordinate and tributary to that of Mexico the King whereof named Tamgaivan Bimbicha as Laet reporteth at the first coming of the Spaniards thither after the conquest of Mexico voluntarily submitted himself to them and was baptized Nevertheless afterwards upon a pretence of I know not what Treason intended by him against them and which the Spanish Writers themselves professedly think to have been feigned by command of Nunnez de Gusman President of the Chancery of Mexico he was most inhumanely burnt alive and the Spaniards seized upon his Kingdome 9. Mexicana specially so called is bounded on the East with the Gulf of Mexico on the West with Mechoacan on the North with Panuco and some parts of New-Gallicia and on the South with Tlascalla so called from Mexico which is the chief City of the Province and of all America beside A large and rich Country containing not much less than one hundred and thirty leagues both in length and bredth and if it yeelds any thing to Peru in the plenty of gold and silver 't is certain it much excells it in many other commodities as namely in all sorts of Fruits aboundance of Cattel plenty of Corn and Grain in all which the advantage which this Country hath not only of Peru but of all the other Provinces of America beside is well known not to speak any thing of the great plenty and variety of good Fish which both the Rivers and Lakes of this Country afford which is very great insomuch that the very tribute of the one Lake of Mexico is said to yeeld an Income of above twenty thousand Crowns yearly one with another The People of the Country are generally industrious and active especially since the Spaniards came among them rich Merchants if they apply themselves to it and they say likewise good Souldiers when they are trained and imployed that way The chief towns and places of the Province are 1. Mexico both anciently and at present the Metropolis and Capitall City being the seat of an Archbishop and the ordinary Residence of the Vice-Roy and chief Governours of New-Spain Formerly it stood like another Venice upon the water being built upon certain Islands within the Lake and interlaced in all the quarters of it with divers pleasant Currents both of fresh and salt water But the old City being destroyed by Cortez as we said it was rebuilt by him more upon the firm Land almost upon the banks of the great Lake for there are two of them the one of salt-water the other of fresh which continually ebbe and flow into one another contain in the compass of the whole about thirty leagues or more upon which there are thought to be not less than fourty or fifty thousand Canoas or little Boats continually plying from one Town to another
endeavoured severall times to extract and draw it forth in certain Vessels of Iron and Brass which they have caused to be let down into the bottom of the Vulcan or pit by long Iron chaines made on purpose but as we said the extreme heat and force of the fire below alwayes melted them before they could be drawn up again and by that meanes hath hitherto rendred all such attempts frustrate 2. St. Salvador fourty leagues distant from Guatimala Eastward and seated upon the River Guacapa 3. Acaputla a Town of the Natives situated at the mouth of the said River and is as it were the port Town to St. Salvador 4. Trinidad a Town of great resort being the generall Empory and place of Traffique for all sorts of Commodities betwixt the people of New-Spain and Peru. 5. St. Michaels two or three leagues distant from the Bay Fonseca upon the South Sea 6. Xeres de la Frontera in the Confines of this Province towards the borders of Nicaragua 5. Honduras hath on the South Guatimala abovesaid on the West a certain Bay or Arme of the Sea which they call Goulfo dulce from the aboundace of fresh waters which run into it from all parts On the North and North-east the Atlantick Ocean and somewhat to the South-east Nicaragua It containes in length viz. from East to West coasting along upon the Sea about one hundred and fifty leagues and in breadth fourscore The Country rich both in Corn and Pasturage being said to be very much advantaged that way by the constant overflowings of the Rivers which it hath very many about Michael-mass time and which the people order so well that they water their very Gardens and exceedingly fertilize the whol Champaign or lower parts of the ground by them The Country is not thought to be without some good Mines both of Gold and Silver but the Natives so little covetous of wealth and the Spaniards it seemes so much busied elsewhere that as yet no great discoveries have been made save only about Gracias a Dios and some few other places where there are good Mines The cheif Towns of this Province are 1. New-Valladolidt anciently called Commayagua seated in a pleasant and fruitfull Valley upon the banks of the River Chamalucon fourty leagues distant from the Sea 2. Gracias a Dios thirty leagues distant from Valladolidt Westward made a Colony of Spaniards by Gabriel de Roias in the year 1530 for defence of the Mines thereabouts against some Savages that were not then reduced 3. San Pedro a place of great wealth and traffique and the usuall residence of the Farmours of the Kings customes for this Province 4. Puerto de Cavallos ten leagues distant from San Pedro so called from the aboundance of Horses which in a great tempest and storm at Sea the Spaniards were forced to cast over board at this place It is one of the most noted Havens of these parts and naturally strong yet so ill guarded formerly that the English twice pillaged it viz. in the year 1591 under Captain Newport and in the year 1596 under Captain Shirley What the state of it at present is I cannot say only that it is a good inlet into a rich Country 5. St. Thomas de Castile eighteen leagues distant from Cavallos another strong place and to which they say the Colony of Puerto Cavallas was lately transpoted 6. Truxillo a Town pleasantly seated betwixt two Rivers at the foot of a Mountain not far from the Cape de Honduras which at this Town first begins to shew it self running far out into the Sea from whence the shore still withdrawing it self as it were more inwards all along the Coast of this Province till it joyneth with Jucatan there is made a very spacious and goodly Bay called commonly the Bay of Honduras otherwise Golfo dulce as we said having many good and secure stations for shipping 7. St. George de Olancho so called from the Valley of Olancho in which it is seated a rich part of the Country both in Mines and otherwise insomuch that the Governors of this Province and these of Nicaragua more than once fought for the possession of it in the field and it was some time before the King of Spain could determine the Controversie betwixt them 6. Nicaragua is a Country of this Province bordered Northward with Honduras on the East with the Atlantick Ocean and part of Veragua on the South with Mare del zur and on the West with Guatimala being called by some the new Kingdome of Leon. It hath few Rivers in it the want whereof is supplyed by the benefit of a great Lake in the midst of the Country called by the Spaniards Laguna de Nicaragua containing as is supposed above one hundred in leagues compass It emptyes it self by the Port of St. Juan into the Atlantick or North Sea but reacheth as far as the South or Mare del Zur at least within a very few leagues and from whence some Spanish Captains are said to have made a passage though with much difficulty into the Lake and from thence to the North Sea It is aboundantly well stored with good fish but withall much haunted with Crocodiles and the Country about it so plentifull in all things especially Cattel Cotten-wooll Sugars and all kinde of Fruits that the Spaniards commonly call it Mahomets Paradise the People said to be the most Hispanioliz'd of all other Americans since the Conquest both in behaviour apparel manners c. The chief Towns are 1. Leon de Nicaragua a Bishops Sea 2. Granada both of them seated upon the Lake very commodiously yet distant one from the other fourteen or fifteen leagues at least 3. Segovia thirty leagues distant from Granada having some veins of silver about it 4. Jaen a town almost at the end or mouth of the Lake from whence by a long Channel of about three or four leagues it disembogues or emptieth it self into the Sea at the Port St. Juan 5. Realeio This is as it were the Chattam of America being a place on the South-Sea where the King of Spain hath all his ships built that are built of American timber and inhabited by few or none but Shipwrights Mariners and men of that profession 6. Nicoya a town that giveth name to a little Territorie which some reckon as a distinct part of this Province by it self 7. Avarines 8. Cartago fourty leagues distant from Nicoya and lying almost in the midst of the Isthmus or Streit of Darien equally distant both from the North and South Sea on both which it is said likewise to have a convenient Port or Haven for shipping 7. Veragua is bounded on the West with that part of Nicaragua which some call Casta ricca make a distinct Province of this Countrie being indeed a very wealthy part of it on the East it hath the district or Country of Panama being otherwise washed on all sides by the Sea It hath its name from a River of great note in
not much examine To obtain his liberty he offered the Spaniards to give them the room wherein they were filled up with gold and silver as high as a Souldier could reach with the point of his sword and as some say performed it at least the greater part of it Yet were the Spaniards so farre from granting him liberty according to his expectation and their promise that not long after they took away his life most basely strangling him in prison after they had received him as 't is credibly reported above ten millions of gold and silver together upon pretences indeed of Treason and some dangerous plottings against them by Atabalipa and his People a criminal piece of Treason doubtless for a poor Prince injuriously imprisoned to endeavour his liberty and his subjects to assist him the best they could Notwithstanding which the Spanish Writers themselves doe generally dislike the Fact and some of them with detestation enough God the righteous Judge saith mine Author Lopez Vaz seeing this villanous Act suffered none of those Spaniards to dye by the course of nature but brought them all to evil and shamefull ends Which was very true for although upon the death of Atabalipa the Spaniards held themselves for Masters of the Countrie and Pizarro quickly obtained of the Emperor to be made a Marquess yet long it was before the Indians could be wholly subdued Mango Inga the Brother of Atabalipa making a stout and sharp resistance for a good while together defeating the Spaniards in three or four several encounters in which Diego and John Pizarro brothers to the Marquess were slain and twice taking the Citie of Cusco from them by force And when at last he happened to be overcome and driven to fly to the Mountains the Conquerors viz. Almagro and Pizarro to whom the Emperor had given the command of the Countrie in several fall out among themselves chiefly about the bounds of their respective Dominions Civil Warres ensue betwixt them in which first of all Almagro is taken prisoner by Pizarro sentenced to death and executed without mercy and not long after Pizarro himself murdered in his own house by a Bastard sonne of Almagro named Diego who thereupon had the confidence to take upon him the government and to encounter the Licentiate Vacca de Castro the Emperors Commissioner in the open field where being worsted and taken he afterward lost his head at Cusco After this Blascus Nunnez Vela being made Vice-Roy of Peru and governing somewhat severely Gonzales Pizarro the fourth Brother rebelleth with many Spaniards with him against whom Vela Nunnez the Vice-Roy's Brother is sent but to little purpose being taken prisoner by the Pizarrists and put to death This so incenseth the Vice-Roy that himself in person marcheth against the Rebells but to his own ruine For a Battle being fought in the fields of Quito the hated Vice-Roy had the ill hap to be made prisoner and by Carvaial Lieutenant to Pizarro presently without further process caused to dye in revenge as 't is supposed for his brother whom the Vice-Roy among many others had lately sentenced to death Pizarro after this defeats Centenus another General of the Emperors but was at last by the Governor Gasca defeated himself taken prisoner and beheaded for his Rebellion together with Carvaial his Lieutenant and divers other of his Complices so that there remained now of all the five Brothers Pizarri only Ferdinand alive who as some report was sent prisoner into Spain by the Emperours Commissioner others say that his Brother the Marquess sent him thither with the process concerning Almagro's death However certain it is that in Spain he dyed a prisoner Martin de Alcantara half-brother to the Marquess was murdered with him in the Marquess's house Garcia Alvarado was stab'd to death by one of the Almagrists and what became of Pedro Baldivia with some others shall be shewed in the description of Chile Thus perished by the just hand of God and through their own mutual dissentions ambition and covetousness those first Coquerors of Peru viz. Pizarro and his Companions none of them all leaving so much as a good name behind him and of their issue little is spoken The Marquiss himself is said to have had a sonne by a sister of Atabalipa whom they call Donna Angelina but he dyed young and whether he were legitimate or no it may be doubted But the Factions of the Pizarrists and Almagrists being extinct by the diligence and moderation of succeeding Governours the affairs of Peru came by degrees to be better setled the People either willingly or by constraint were perswaded to acknowledge the Spanish Government and to live quietly in most parts of the Countrie 2. The Dominion of the Kings of Cusco which in some sense and by some writers upon occasion is called the Kingdome of Peru was extended by the last Inca or King Huayna Capac from North to South above one thousand leagues together comprehending not only a great part of the Province of Chile towards the South but also the New-Kingdome of Granada and divers other Provinces to the North but Peru properly so called containeth little more than half so much viz. six hundred leagues in length and about fifty or threescore in breadth except only in some places as in the Country of Chacâ—poyas where 't is thought it may be one hundred leagues over from the Andes to the South Sea It is bounded on the East and North-east with that vast ridge of Mountains which they call the Andes on the West it is washed with Marc del zur on the North it hath the Country of Popayan and on the South Chile It is commonly divided into three parts which they call the Plains the Hill-country and the Andes The Plains are that part of the Country which lie along upon the Sea Coast being for the most part a meer level without any Hills at all The Sierra as they call it or Hill-Country is that part of Peru which is partly mountainous and partly plain fertill and well inhabited in both The Andes are so high rocky and inaccessible that they are scarce inhabited at all but by Savages save only upon the skirts of them The Plaines from the Sea shore to the Hill-Counsry are for the most part about ten leagues over or broad upon which it never raineth all the year long The Hill-Country is commonly twenty leagues in breadth where narrowest and from September to Aprill hath rain the rest of the year generally being fair weather But on the Andes which take up all the rest of the Country of Peru it raineth almost continually all the yeare long In the Hill-Country Their Summer begins in Aprill as is said and ends in September but in the Plaines it begins in October and ends in May. So that in the space of one day a man may tast both Summer and Winter be scorchd with excessive heate in the morning and yet well nipt with cold before night The Andes
generally are covered with thick Woods and wild Forests the Hill-Country for a great part naked and open the Plains in many places sandy and dry and would be much more scorched with heat then they are but for the neighbourhood of the Sea which affords them many cooling gales from the South and South-west windes whose property although it be naturally in other parts to be tempestuous to bring rain and foul weather yet here there is nothing but Serenity and fair Sun-shine dayes all the year long although these windes blow almost without ceasing upon the Country and no other at any time whereas the Sierra or Hill countrys have winde from every coast and such as bringeth all sorts of weather with it Rain Hail Frost Snow great claps of Thunder c. The Countrie affordeth not so much Cattel of the breed of Europe as some other Provinces of America but instead of these both the Woods and Pastures are replenished with great multitudes of the Vicugnes and Pacos above mentioned which are of no less profit service The Pacos here are said to be as big as some young Heifer of two yeers old bearing a fleece like Sheep and their flesh no less pleasant than the Mutton of Europe But the great wealth of this Countrie lyes out of sight in the bowels of the Earth viz. in those rich and as they may seem inexhaustible Mines both of gold and silver which as 't is well known this Countrie of Peru affordeth more than any other Province of America beside The People are said to be at least exteriorly of greater simplicity than some other Americans both in point of behavior and judgement yet of good courage in the warrs and fearless of death They are noted also to be dissemblers and not alwaies to declare their mindes truly and plainly and which is worse than all to have bin given over to that foul sin of Sodomy in so much that their Women were generally found to be of small esteem with them to be used no better than slaves and most cruelly beaten by them upon every light occasion For both which their unnatural filthiness and inhumaninity if it pleased the Divine Justice to deliver them into the hands of those who used them likewise cruelly who can deny but that the Judgements of God were just and that they received such recompence for their works as the Apostle saith Rom. 1.13 was meet The Countrie is generally divided into three Juridicall Resorts as they call them or Courts of Appeal which are Quito Lima and Charcas but the particular Provinces as they are commonly observed by Geographers said to be six viz. 1. Quito 2. Los Quixos 3. Lima. 4. Cusco 5. Charcas And 6. Collao 3. Quito is the first Province of Peru towards the North or the new Kingdome of Granada with which on that side it is bounded having on the West Mare del Zur on the South Lima and on the East Los Quixos It lyeth in a manner right under the Line the Soil reasonably fertill and well stored with Cattel especially with the Pacos or Peruvian Sheep having plenty also of Fish and Fowl good store of Cotton-woll in which the People of the Countrie are especially industrious make a Cloath or Stuff thereof equall almost to silk for fineness Much Tobacco Guaiacum Sarzaparilla and other medicinall Plants The chief Towns are 1. Caranguez anciently a Royall Citie where stood a sumptuous and stately Palace of the Kings of Peru now almost deserted 2. Ottavallu another place of the same dignitie and the same condition at present with Carangues 3. Quito commonly called S. Francisco de Quito It is a Citie built by the Spaniards at the foot of a certain ridg of Mountains which it hath on the North and North-West side of it and are said by Laet to cross the whole Countrie of Peru quite over from the South to the North Sea It is inhabited by five hundred Families of Spaniards at least beside Natives and well fortified and might be thought a town very well seated in all respects but for the neighbourhood of a Vulcan which at times annoyeth it very much as namely in the year 1560 when it vomited out such aboundance of flaming cinders and other sulphurous matter as had it not been for a showre of rain unexpectedly falling would have much damnified if not destroyed the place 4. Tacunga fifteen leagues distant from Cusco 5. Rhiobamba fourty leagues distant from that 6. Thomebamba 7. Cuenza threescore and four leagues from Quito on another roade but environned on all sides with Mines both of gold and silver brass iron and likewise some veins of sulphur 8. Loxa sixteen leagues Southward of Cuenza and seated pleasantly betwixt two Rivers in the midst of the rich Valley or Plain called Guixibamba 9. Zamorra twently leagues Eastward of Loxa These are all Towns inhabited by Spaniards and lye more within land Towards the Sea and upon the Sea coasts there is first Puerto Vieio so called because it was the first Town the Spaniards possessed on this Continent a place of no very good Aire and therefore not much frequented 2. Mantu another Sea Town and of good resort by reason of the Trade which is here chiefly driven betwixt Panama and Peru. 3. Guaiaquil or St. Jago de Guaiaquil a famous and well frequented Empory seated upon an arme of the Sea not far from the mouth of the said River Guaiaquil 4. Castro a Colonie of Spaniards towards that part of this Province which some call Provincia de las Esmauldas or the Land of Emralds 5. St. Michaels the first Colonie which the Spaniards built in this Countrie called by the Natives Piura 6. Payta a small Town yet neighboured by a safe and well frequented Haven guarded against the windes by the point St. Helena on the North and on the South with Punta Piura yet burnt by Captain Cavendish in the year 1587 and the rich Island Puna neer adjoyning ransacked and pillaged 4. Los Quixos lyeth South and to the South-East of Quito being bordered more directly Eastward with a part of the Province of Guiana called by some El dorada or the golden Countrie on the South it hath Lima and Cusco Of the Countrie it self there is not my thing observed that may seem peculiar The chief Towns are 1. Baeza built in the year 1559 by Ramirez de Avila eighteen leagues from Cusco 2. Archidona twenty leagues to the South-East of Baeza 3. Avila 4. Sevilla del Oro. All of them Colonies of Spaniards Then is there in the Sierra or hilly part of the Countrie more towards the Andes 1. Valladolidt 2. Loyola 3. St. Jago de las Montannas all Colonies likewise that you may know the Countrie hath something in it worth the looking after 5. Lima called also Los Reyes hath on the East Collao and some part of Cusco on the North Los Quixos on the West Mare del Zur and on the South Charcas The Countrie extendeth it self in length upon
further together with some other accidents did also induce him For as it commonly happens in the affairs of this World unanimity and friendship lasteth not long among men especially where self-love and private interest once make a breach his Vice-Admiral Pincon perceiving the voyage likely to be profitable had by this time separated himself from Columbus upon pretence of some offence taken but really out of hopes to advance his Fortunes better by going apart by himself which though it were derogatorie to his Commission and the command which he had over him as Admirall yet Columbus was content to beare with it for the better carrying on of their common design so they were reconciled And having built the Fort of Natividad in Hispaniola for the guard of some Spaniards that were to be left there Columbus set sail for Spain on Friday the fourth of January having first charged his men to shew all due respect to the King of the Country and not to wrong the Natives But how they did observe his charge doth not so well appear For the men are said to be murder'd all of them by the Natives during the absence of Columbus and this is thought to have been some occasion not onely of the Warre which the Spaniards made afterwards upon the Natives but of that excessive severity and cruelty which for a long time together they used towards them In his return he discovered a great part more of the coasts of Hispaniola and gave names to diverse Capes and Harbors by which he passed But drawing neer home he suffered two such terrible storms upon the coasts of Spain as had well nigh buried him and all his hopes in the bottome of the Sea By reason whereof and for the performance of some vows which he had made in his distress he went on Land upon some part of the Kingdom of Portugall which he thought he might safely doe But it proved otherwise For the fame of his voyage being blown home before him there was in the Court of Portugall no little matter of offence conceived against him That he being a Subject of that Crown as we have said he was by the right of his Wife should doe such an eminent service without leave to a forraign Prince and one that perhaps was little better than an Enemy This was chiefly through the instigation of some malevolent persons about the King and although the suggestion were altogether injurious and groundless Columbus having first offered his service to that King and been refused yet it prevailed so farre that Columbus was apprehended and sent up to Lisbon But the King himself seeing him contrary to the expectation and endeavours of some about him used him with much respect and kindness and after some short time having had that discourse with him concerning his voyage and adventures that he desired he let him freely pass to the Court of Castile Where he was received with a welcome answerable to the success of his endeavours and to the advantage which they promised that Crown and quickly furnished out again with more and better Ships wherein he made several and successfull voyages still discovering more and more of this new World which he had found and asserting the several Provinces where he came to the Crown of Castile And although towards his latter end through the procurement of some enemies which he had at Court whose envy like a dark shadow perpetually attended the lustre of his brave actions he suffered some Eclypse for a time in his honour and reputation upon occasion of a Rebellion which one Roldanio Ximenez a seditious turbulent fellow and one that had been once his Servant and advanced by him had begun to raise in the West-Indies and that Bobadilla was sent to be Governor of Hispaniola in his stead yet being come to Court though in quality of a Prisoner and as some say in chains the remembrance and sense of his former merits together with his own approved honestie and vertue soon dissipated those clowds of jealousie and suspicion which were gathered against him and the Catholique Kings look'd favorably upon him renewed and confirmed his former Authority and priviledges viz. of Admirall of those Western Seas which Office his Sonne and Nephew after him a long time enjoyed created him Duke De la vega in the Island of Jamaica being a Town which himself had built So that he both lived and dyed with Honor being a man as 't is credibly reported of him by diverse Authors of exemplary Piety and Vertue very religious and devout towards God just affable and courteous towards Men temperate and abstenious in all things and in a word such a man as Mr. Purchas truly acknowledgeth of him as God had made a fit instrument for so great a work viz. as was the discovery of so many great rich fertil and fair Countries as were formerly unknown to the Christian World being no less celebrated by the Spanish Writers Oviedo Herrera and others for his magnanimity courage wisdome and admirable resolution in his undertakings 6. Second to Columbus in the glorie of this grand and successfull enterprise of discovering the new World was Americus Vespucius a Florentine who especially in the service at the charge of Emanuell King of Portugall undertook the business He had been one of Columbus his companions in the first expedition and consequently did now but trace the way which Columbus had before shewed him yet had he this happiness and honour above his Predecessor viz. to give name unto the Country discovered the whole Continent of the new World being ever since generally called America from him This man as was said having made several voyages to America partly with Columbus and partly by himself in the service of King Ferdinand and by them discovered much of the Continent of America on this side the Equator in the year 1502 Emanuell King of Portugall took him into his service Under whom seting out of Lisbon with his companions and a competent number of Ships they sailed up to the Equator and having crossed the line discovered the coasts of Guiana and Brasil beyond the Tropique of Capicorne to 32 degrees of Southern latitude where having stayed some time and taken possession of the Country after their usual formalities they held on their course beyond the River of Plate unto 52 degrees as Munster in his Cosmographie reporteth which is accounted to be full the height of the Streites But here being taken w th foul weather and their Ships much spent and impaired by the stormes they were forced to retun homeward by the coast of Afrique In the year following viz. 1503 he attempted another voyage directing his course for Melcha or Insula Real in the Country of Brasil but having passed Cape Verde and Sierra Liona upon the coast of Guinee by a great misfortune the Ship which carried their chief Provisions was sunk and 300 Barrels or Hogsheads of Victuals and other necessary Provisions for the company was utterly
And therefore notwithstanding his proceedings may seem to want some formalities of Law to justifie them and that the Spaniards counted and sentenced him for a Pyrate because he wanted Commission yet seeing his Actions were not altogether groundless and that his attempt was so memorably daring and hardy and also so well and happily managed so far as concerned himself I shall not fear to add his name and a brief report of his Action to the rest of these worthies 2. This man as was said had served Sir Francis Drake in his Voyages and Adventures at Sea a long time and had thereby gained himself no small skill in Maritime affairs and was particularly acquainted with the Coasts and Commodities of the West-Indies so that by the year 1575. he was got to be Captain of a ship of a hundred fourty Tuns burthen carrying seventy men in her with which in the year above-said he set sail for America and arriveth at the Sownd of Darien at that very place where a few years before Sir Francis Drake had fallen acquainted with the Symeroons that put him upon the designe for Panama by Land and of surprizing the Treasure Mules a Place and People which Captain Oxenham knew very well and intended to make use of them now Nor was it long before he lighted upon some of them stragling up and down in the wildes of the Country but they tell him that the Mules travel not now but with a strong guard of Souldiers which was somewhat contrary to his expectation and alterd his designe quite nevertheless being resolved to Act something worthy of a man before he returned it served not so much to disanimate him as to put him and his companions upon a more hopefull yet withall a more hard attempt which was that seeing there was now but little hopes of doing themselves any good by land as they hoped nor by Sea on that side they were they resolved to visit the other Coasts and to trie their fortunes upon the South Sea To this end the Captain brings his own ship on ground and as well as he could covers her with boughs and such other rubbish as the place afforded and burying his Ordinance in the ground he with his company and six Negros to conduct them march by Land towards the Coast of Panama and Peru. Having gone a matter of twelve or fourteen leagues they come to a River which as the Symeroons told him ran directly into the South Sea Here they cut down wood build themselves a Pinnace of about fourty five foot long by the keel and in her they put to Sea making towards the Island of Pearls which lyeth about twenty five leagues distant from Panama toward the South hoping it would not be long before some ships from Peru or other parts of the South would be sailing that way for Panama So that by the way however Sir Francis Drake hath deservedly the honour of first discovering the South Sea to English-men viz. by the onely open and known way of the Streits yet it must be acknowledged that Captain Oxenham was the first Englishman that ever sailed upon it with command 3. He had not waited long but there comes a Bark from Quito which is a Province of the Countrie of Peru laden with Commodities and having in her besides of fine gold sixtie thousand Pezos which he took and within six dayes after another from Lima wherein he had no less than two hundred thousand Pezos of silver in barrs What a Pezo is both in silver and gold hath been already said in the relation of Sir Thomas Cavendish his voyage There are that render these Pezos pounds of weight saying that he took two hundred thousand pound weight of silver and sixtie thousand pound weight of gold which perhaps is not so well done and may make the summe to seem less credible for as much as every pound weight of silver after the ordinary rate of five shillings the ounce is worth four pound of silver in Coyne and likewise every pound weight of gold according to the common proportion betwixt gold and silver which at the Indies is twelve for one is worth fourty eight pound in Coyn and consequently the whole value of the prize would amount to above three millions in gold and silver together viz. two millions eight hundred and fourscore thousand pound in gold and eight hundred thousand pound in silver which perharps every body will not beleeve I think it therefore better to express it by the usual term and value of a Pezo in Spanish which is commonly said to be eight shillings of English money and so the whole value of the prize taken amounted to nine hundred and sixtie thousand pound sterling in gold and to fourscore thousand pound in silver which being found a competent prize and enough to satisfie reasonable men they retire with their Pinnace up the River intending to make what haste they could to their ship But as it unhappily fell out through the covetousness and dissention of some of his company so much time was spent before they could agree about sharing of their bootie and how to transport it to their ship that the Spaniards at Panama had notice of them whereupon ships were presently sent out to pursue them at Sea and likewise some Souldiers to intercept their return by Land The Captain himself through the obstinacie and willfulness of some of his company was forced to leave the Treasure with them and to travel some leagues up into the Countrie to finde Negros that might help him to carry it his own men refusing to doe it but at their own demands and quarrelling with him for larger pay In the mean time the Spanish ships that sought him at Sea come to the mouth of the River where they were gone up and by the Feathers of certain Henns which the English had taken and as it seems plucked there ghessed presently that they might be gone up the River and thereupon putting in after them they soon took both them and their prize together The Captain as I said was absent but by reason that either the Negros or else some of the English themselves that were taken had discovered their ship in the Sownd neither he nor any of the rest escaped but were all first or last met with by the Spaniards and having no Commission to shew for what they did were executed every man of them onely two boyes saved Thus ended the stout and resolute Captain Oxenham the Justice of whose cause I will not undertake to dispute with his Adversaries I could wish it had been as perfectly just in all respects as it was gallant and bravely managed on the Captains part insomuch that his very enemies who made him dye for it doe yet admire and extoll it being spoyled onely through the passion covetousness and self-will of some of his company whose lives paid for their follie CHAP. V. Of the situation and most probable extent of the New World the
inhabited or known save onely upon the borders or lower skirts of them The third is a mean Land betwixt both consisting partly of mountains of lesser height yet for the most part running parallel with the Andes through the whole Countrie of Peru Southward and partly of vallies or low-land both which together they call the Sierra or Hill-Countrie And according to this diversity of site or position in the several parts or Provinces of America we are to expect a difference both in the temperature of the Aire and in the qualitie of the Soyle As for example the Plains of America for so they are commonly called that is the flat and lower parts of it which lie upon the Sea Coasts are generally hot and neither so much inhabited nor counted so healthfull yet neither are they scorched with any intolerable heats by reason of the Brises and those other frequent Sea gales which as we said are continually blowing upon them and as it were cooling them from all parts Nor yet are they parched with any immoderate droughts although it never rains upon those parts of the Countrie at any time of the year for instead thereof there falls continually every morning a certain dew which after a time condensates and turns into small pearly drops of water which doth not a little refresh the Countrie Beside that this part of America being a flat and level Countrie it is so farr from being rendred incommodious for want of water that in many places it may seem to partake somewhat too much of that Element as all along the Coast of Brasil and also on the other side of America Westward where the Country for a great part of it is rendred unhabitable by reason of the great aboundance of Waters which falling with such huge Torrents as they doe from the mountains more within Land and finding no convenient passage in those level and flat Countries doe many times drown the Lands on each side of them for a great space together or at least render the Countrie less profitable and usefull by opening so many great lakes or standing waters in all parts of the Countrie and many of them of such vast extent that they seem rather to be pettie Seas within Land and by turning so much of the other Land into marish or fenny ground as upon the Coasts of America is every where to be seen 5. Contrariwise upon the Andes and in many parts of the Province of Chile especially more towards the Streits the Aire is extream cold and not well to be indured and beside so strangely sharp and piercing of mens bodies that for strangers and such whose bodies are not used to it it is not a little dangerous to travell that way They report that in the midst of Land it makes men Sea-sick and causeth the same alterations vomitings and other distemperatures of the stomach and body but much more violent and extream which men commonly feel at their first going to Sea This happens chiefly upon the mountains Pariacaca Lucana and Sora which are part of the Andes In other places viz. about las Punas which are another ridge of mountains though lesser running parallel with the Andes in the Province of Chile the quality of the Aire is such that it takes away a mans life suddenly and before he feeleth any sensible alteration or griefe in himself either from within or without Men drop down dead as they travel in the way without finding any pain or sickness in themselves others lose their hands and feet as they travel or at least some of their fingers and toes which fall and separate themselves from the other parts of the body with no more sense or feeling than when a rotten apple falls from the tree that bare it And this how fabulous soever it may seem yet is it a certain truth Acosta and other Authors of approved credit doe avouch it from their own experience viz. of what they had found and felt in themselves and from what they had observed and seen with their eyes in others and it seems confirmed by Mr. Purchas himself who in the relation of Sir Thomas Cavendish his second voyage to the Streits which to his great misfortune happened to be in the deep of Winter and when the weather there is most intolerably cold and freezing as hath been formerly said reports a like accident namely of one Harris an English-man who going to blow his nose had the ill hap to pull it off and cast it into the fire before he was aware and of one Anthony Knivett of the same company whose toes came off with his stockings in like maner through the extremity of cold in those parts 6. But the Sierra or mean Land viz. betwixt the height of the Andes and the lowness of the Plaines as it takes up the farr greater part of the Countrie so is it generally more temperate healthfull and agreable to mens bodies It is also aboundantly well watered with fair and pleasant Rivers such as for the multitude of them and the largeness of their respective streams are not to be paralleld in any other part of the World It injoyeth constantly its proper seasons of rain and fair weather no less than Spain it self and many other Countries of Europe by reason whereof the Soile is likewise rendred so exceedingly fat and lusty that it is to be admired what they report concerning the goodness and fertility of it They have in many places two Harvests in a year as in the Island of Hispaniola reaping in and about October that which they sow in Aprill or May and in May that which they sow in October yea some say there is no kinde of Grain sown at the West-Indies but in some places or other it will ripen and be fit to reap within four moneths All kinde of hearbs roots or whatsoever fruits of the Garden as Melons Cucumbers c. in sixteen or twenty dayes at farthest In some places a bushel of Maiz sown which is their most ordinary bread-corn yeeldeth two hundred bushels of increase and a bushel of the best wheat threescore and 't is said to be an usual thing there of an acre of ground well husbanded to reap two hundred bushels or twenty five quarters of any Grain whatsoever As for Fruits I mean such as are natural and of the proper growth of the Countrie there is incredible plenty and variety of several kindes and those incomparably fairer larger bigger more luscious and pleasing to the taste than are to be found elsewhere in the World And as for such as have been transplanted thither out of Europe as most kindes of European fruits have been viz. Apples Pears Oranges Lymons Quinces Figgs c. they doe not onely thrive well but in a short time are exceedingly improved and bettered both in bigness beauty and taste onely through the richness and lustiness of the Soile It is said that an eare of wheat hath been seen there as big about as a mans arme in the
brawn and of above a span in length and to have had growing in it above a thousand grains A Raddish root hath been likewise seen there of the same bigness and length viz. of a mans arme very tender of substance and of a pleasant taste And 't is commonly observ'd that for Wheat and other grain of Europe they choose out a less lusty and colder soile because otherwise to sow it in the fattest and richer ground it would run all out into stalk of a huge height indeed but without earing or ever bearing of Corn. There be whole Woods and Forests as it were of Oranges Lymons Quinces and other such fruit both for bigness and beauty far exceeding the common ones of Spain of the same kinde At the Cittie of Cusco which is the Metropolis of Peru they have ripe Grapes all the year long and in diverse parts of the Countrie there be trees that bear fruit one half of the year on one side and the other half year on the other as Acosta reporteth of his own experience of a Fig-tree in Malla nigh the Citie of Kings and others speak as much of other fruits in other parts of the Countrie And so it is likewise for Cattel I mean such as have been brought thither out of Europe whether great or smal Cattel as Kine Sheep Hogs Goats c. the increase that hath been of them would seem to be beyond beliefe but that all Authors affirm it In the Island of Hispaniola and 't is likewise the same in many parts of the Continent and other Islands beside there are many thousands of Cattel that live wilde in Heards upon the mountains having no certain owner so as it is free for any man to kill them that will and thousands of them are every yeer killed onely for their Hides and the Tallow And yet 't is strange to consider what great multitudes of them are in privat mens possession The Bishop of Venezuela onely is said to have had at one time 16000. head of great Cattel feeding upon his own Pastures Another to have had of one Cow which he kept twenty six years for breed to have had an increase of eight hundred head of Cattel and 't is not counted any unusual thing for the Farmours of America especially such as are professed Grasiers and doe undertake as it is the custom there to serve such a Town Citie or Place with flesh meat at a certain rate by the year to have the like numbers viz. ten or twenty thousand head of Cattel of their own and feeding onely upon their own grounds being also men of great estates and reckoned commonly at one hundred two hundred and three hundred thousand Duckets a man and upwards living splendidly in their Estancias as they call them or Farme-houses in the Countrie and maintaining a Table both for dyet and ornament not inferiour to most Knights or the best Gentlemen in Europe which doubtless is an evidence beyond all dispute of the goodness and fertility of the 〈◊〉 where they live that such men as these can both live so gallantly and thrive so well CHAP. VI. Of the principal Commodities of America both Naturall and Mercantile and first of Maiz of Cassavi Jucca and other roots there of which they make bread 1. BUt to give some further assurance of the general richness and fertility of the Countrie at the West-Indies it is requisite that we speak somthing more in particular of the several Commodities and Fruits which America yeeldeth These I distinguish into two sorts viz. Commodities Natural and Mercantile I call those commodities Natural which are so proper to the Place and Countrie of America that as they grow there so are they at least for the most part there likewise consumed and spent as not being so fit or not so much used to be transported thence into any other parts by way of Merchandise of which kinde I suppose the most part of their Grain Fruit and Cattle may be reckoned to be I call those Commodities Mercantile which are generally brought from thence and in so great aboundance by the Merchants that trade in those parts of which sort are chiefly the Metals of America viz. Gold and Silver to which must be added the great quantity of Pearle precious stones and Jewels yearly brought from thence their Sugars diverse sorts of Spicery and Druggs aboundance of Cotton wooll and Cloath Hides many kindes of wood as well Medicinal as other of all which my purpose is to speak something before I come to the particular description of the several Provinces in which they are found but yet briefly according as I am oblieged and referring the Reader for more full satisfaction upon this subject in case he desire it to Acosta his Historie of the Indies and to Oviedo his general Historie whom I chiefly follow and who treat of these things more at large And first I shall begin with those Commodities which I call Naturall and amongst them with such as are of most general necessity and use for the sustenance of mans life viz. with that famous plant called Maiz and some other plants and roots of which at the West-Indies they commonly make their bread as we in Europe doe of Wheat and other grain 2. Maiz the common bread corn of America is a Plant which groweth plentifully at the West-Indies in most parts of the Continent upon a moist and hot ground as that generally is It groweth upon a certain cane or reed of good bigness and about two cubits high from the ground it groweth grape-wise that is the grain or fruit thereof not covered nor inclosed in any husk or cod as other grains of corn most commonly are but open and in clusters onely fenced on each side with a large and broad leafe growing upwards by it to the full height of the Maiz. The cluster or bunch of grains is commonly a span and half long sometimes more rending sharp up towards the top in the fashion of a Sugar-loaf and of the bigness ordinarily of a mans arme having upon the top of the cluster a certain tuft or bunch of long hairy fillets which as the grain comes to maturity doe likewise grow long and bend downwards on one side of the bunch not much unlike to the fore-top of Time and Opportunitie as they commonly picture it The grains of this Maiz are round like unto pease but bigger yet commonly six or seven hundred of them are contained in one cluster and for the most part two or three clusters upon every cane or reed They are white till they come to be ripe and then they turn outwardly black but the flower of them or substance within is still as white as snow and maketh a kinde of bread for strength or nourishment nothing inferiour to wheat It naturally ingendreth much blood so that strangers not used to it if they eate overmuch of it at first are subject to swel upon it to become scabbie and obnoxious to such other
or else are beaten off with rain-showers out of which leaves corrupted and putrified upon the ground there is soon after by the heat of the Sun and the exhalations or vapours that issue out of the earth a certain Insect ingendred of the bigness of a Butter flie naked and smooth at first like a Worm but in time coming to be over-grown with a kinde of hair and after that with a thicker and warmer coat which against winter the Insect works for it self out of the Cotton or downy fillets of those leaves among which it was bred or can otherwise come by Their other manner of breeding is by generation properly so called that is by coupling of Sexes for there is both Male and Female of them The manner thus The Silk-worm after he hath wrought up his bagge or ball of silk to the full soon after dyeth within it and though he leaves but a poor Skeleton or thin corps behinde him yet out of it laid in some close subterraneous room where no winde cometh in a few dayes after it is putrified there springs a pair of other Insects or worms of the same kinde though not altogether of the same figure or shape for they are both horned and winged These the Latins call Chrysalides and seem to be made only for generation or preserving the kinde for as much as they doe nothing else but gender for the space of three or four dayes together at the end whereof the Male dieth leaving the Female behinde him impregnated and big with a numerous issue of little egges to the number of one hundred sometimes or more of the bigness of Millet seeds or some other smaller sort of grain of which assoon as she is delivered she likewise followeth the Male and dyeth 6. Out of these eggs for so the Authors perpetually call them a new Breed or Stock of wormes is to be gotten which is the second manner of their breeding as hath been said neither is it the least part of the care and skill of those that keep Silke-wormes and trade in the making of Silk to hatch them well the best way whereof and most commonly used in Italy and other parts is said to be the naturall heat of a woman either in bed or otherwise carrying them about her in her bosome betwixt her breasts especially if she be a woman of good complexion or a Virgin and so they are hatched commonly in three or four dayes They keep the eggs all Winter long for the most part and without any great inconvenience not thinking of hatching them till the Mulberie-trees be well blosom'd the leaves whereof are their most naturall food and are seldome out before the latter end of May or beginning of June When the eggs are hatch't and the worm appeares the next care is to procure it sustenance whereby it may grow to a bigness and strength able to work Their best meat as I said is the Mulbury leaves for though they feed them sometimes with the leaves of Rubus or the great Bramble with Lettice and likwise with Nettle-leaves yet neither doe they thrive so well nor weave so bigge a web as they doe when they are fed with the Mulberry-leaf They feed with a great appetite assoone as ever they are bred eating constantly thrice a day viz. at Morning Noon and Night when they are young and when they are grown to some bigness five or six times every day After they have fed well for the space of nine or ten dayes together and their bellies are full they are taken with a kinde of dead sleep which holds them for the most part three or four dayes together and though it be a sicknesse and some weakning to them yet they awake of themselves and in time by good handling seem to be revived with it and fall to feeding afresh And this they doe constantly that is feed sleep and revive again three severall times at least before they come to their full strength or to be able to weave which is commonly about fourty or fifty dayes after their first birth When they have had their last and longest sleep for the space of eight or ten dayes together afterwards they feed the stoutliest of all and then quite give over which they that keep them perceiving know that now their belly is full and that they are ready to worke out all again that they have hitherto eaten with the advantage of a rare interest beside They know it also by this that the bagge of Silk that is to say the matter out of which the Worme afterward spins the Silk begins to appeare and to shine through the lawn coverture or thin sides of the worm Against which time they that look to their working have alwayes in readiness some boughs or branches of the Oke Chesnut or any other tree whose substance is very hard and dry for upon such they alwayes work best any degree of moistness how little soever whither of the aire or in their Loomes or otherwise being counted very prejudiciall both to the Worm and web Upon these boughs they lay the Wormes which presently fall to work and spinning of their thred from one twig to another backward forward and athwart as themselves please alwaies working inward that is from the circumference to the center or middle part till at last they have spun out a round bag of Silk for the most part of an Ovil or oblong figure in which last of all they close up themselves yet still continuing to work till they have either wholly or well nigh filled up the bag within and that the bottome within themselves viz. within their bowells and out of which they spin be quite spent and unravelled The bag or web which these Silk-wormes spin is many times as big as a mans head all of one thred so fine that it can hardly be discerned but by very good eyes and spun out so long without any rupture or once breaking off that as Aldrovandus affirmeth some one of them might be able to circle about the biggest City in Italy The colour of it is different white yellow green or otherwise according either to the nature of the Climate and Country where they work or to the quality of the food with which the wormes are fed This spinning holds them conmonly nine or ten dayes When all is done and they are come as it were to the last thred of the Clue and that the Worme by filling up the bottome of the bag hath quite emptied her self in a short time she dies as we said before in the midst of her self made prison and work and there spring out of her Skeleton after some few days two other lesser Wormes of the same kinde though differing somewhat in shape and figure whose business is onely to propagate as we likewise said and that being done they die and the Silk-masters unravelling again the whole web or bag of silk which the dead Artist hath wrought order it according to their own skill as
of Silver a substance or Metallick body wherein the Element of water seems to pravail in some undue proportion above that of fire rendring thereby the whole substance of the Metall of a constitution flegmatick as I may say and feminine that is weak and less able to resist contrarieties as appeares by the pale colour of it and by experience upon all occasions of tryall yet in comparison of all other Metals except Gold only it is with all reason preferred and questionless excells them all both in purity and perfection of mixture as much as it self is excelled by gold and perhaps much more For I observe the Metals of gold and silver doe both of them exceed all the other sorts of Metals whither Iron Brass Copper c. incomparably or beyond comparison as wee say I mean there never was any certain comparison or proportion of value fixed and setled betwixt the one and the other by estimation or the common consent of men as to say how much a pound of Gold is better worth than a pound of Iron or a pound of Silver than a pound of Brass or Lead not but that it may be easily calculated and known how much the one exceeds the other in value but because it is not commonly known nor ever was I suppose by any general and certain estimation or count among men whereas the proportion or difference in value betwixt gold and silver hath ever been generally and certainly known among men not indeed so fixed certain as to be alwaies in all places one and the same for it varieth according to times and places and especially according as either the one or the other metal is plentiful or scarse needfull or counted less necessary among men but yet a proportion or some certain difference in value hath been ever commonly estimated and assigned betwixt them Anciently the proportion betwixt these metals is said to have been of ten for one that is one talent of gold was held to be worth ten talents of silver so that if five talents of gold were due and a man would make payment in silver he should pay fifty talents and for fifty due in gold five hundred in silver Pliny reports that at the first coyning of these metals in Rome the proportion was fourteen and an half or fifteen for one others as Herodotus speak of thirteen But that which seems now to be most common at the Indies China and other places especially where silver is scarce is the proportion of twelve for one So that if an ounce of silver be worth five shillings as it is said to be an ounce of gold is worth three pound sterling a pound of gold in weight worth no less than fourty eight pound of silver in Coyn. 3. Of this Metal viz gold there is such plenty at the West-Indies that beside the infinite rich Mines thereof which they have in all the Provinces of the Southern part viz. Peru Castella del oro Chile c. and likewise in many of them in the Northern especially in the Countries of Nicaragua Veragua Guadalaiara there is scarse a River of note in all those parts but the sands of it are well powder'd with gold and afford good store of it to the washers yea the very earth or common soil which they dig or otherwise take up in most parts of Peru is so tinctured with it and yeelds ever and anon such grains and crumblings of it that Acosta an Author no way lavish of his reports nor of a light judgement professeth to think there is much more of the metal yet to be discovered than hath been found judging as he doth by the general qualitie or tincture of the Soile There be three sorts of gold at the Indies or rather the same gold or metal they finde in three several manners or waies viz. in grains as they call them in powder and in stone Gold in graines they call certain small pieces of gold which they finde in the earth of pure and perfect metal without mixture of any other sort of baser alloy or at least with so small a mixture as it scarse needeth melting or refining These the Spaniards in America call Pepones from some resemblance which the grains have to the seeds of Melons or Pompions though many times they are much bigger and contain a pound weight or more They finde silver likewise sometimes in the same manner viz in grains and pure but that is but seldome and a little in comparison of what they finde of the other Gold in stone is a vein or little Mine of gold which groweth and spreadeth it self into branches in some flint or other stone just as silver doth in the Mine Much of this sort is found in the Mines of Curuma and about the Salinas or Salt-wooks of Peru a place so called where they finde huge stones pierced many times quite through and interlaced every way with veins of gold in such quantity and so richly that the stone is found not seldom to be more than half gold Of this sort is that which they finde most commonly in the Mines and is very good gold but requireth excessive labour and pains to break it from the stone and to get it forth Gold in powder is that which they gather in Rivers Brooks and other places where any store of water passeth from the Mountains the streams or torrents whereof bring along with them from the said mountains aboundance of this metal in small pieces which as it comes setleth continually in the sands and breaches of the said Rivers where afterwards it is found I say the gold it self is most probably thought to be ingendred on the tops of the mountains or mountainous parts of the Earth and perhaps not far from the Source and Springs of those Rivers in which it is found and into whose streams it is easily conceived to be devolved in tract of time by showres of rain and by many other natural causes and is not bred or ingendred in the sand or stream it self And so likewise 't is observed they finde most plenty of it commonly after some great floods Of this sort of gold they gather greatest quantity there being as I said scarse a River of note in the whole Country of Peru or Southern part of America whose sands are not more or less tinctured and enamel'd with it And it is most plentifull so is it likewise for the most part very pure and needs not half that labour of refining it which gold in stone or of the Mine usually doth To gather it they first of all divert or turn the course of the stream some other way and then search the Ford especially in the breaches if there be any and in the cliffs or hollow places of the banks where it is likely it may settle in its passage with the waters and in such places they alwaies finde best store It is for the most part the womens work to gather this sort of gold which
strange kinde of efficacie so as a man seems not satisfied with looking upon it but desires to view it still more and more that it fortifieth the facultie visive and restoreth it when it is dim and decayed by overmuch attent looking upon any thing and therefore Lapidaries and men that cut or engrave fine stones have usually some of them lying by them only to refresh and revive their sight when they perceive it fail them or grow weak at any time To which end viz. the better to please and affect the sight they are shap'd or cut for the most part with some hollowness in them whereby the visual rayes as they are called being united and strengthened one with another doe give the greater lustre They are said to appear both fairer and bigger at a distance nor doe they change or abate their lustre either for Sun shade candle-light or otherwise as most of the other sorts of Jemmes usually doe more or less and as they are commonly of the bigness so are they not much under the value of a Diamond if they be of the best and perfect sort of Emralds For all are not such There are some of so exquisite and admirable lustre as nothing can be desired more in others the green is more dark and clowded and lastly some are spotted but those are commonly held to be counterfeit Those which the fortunate Cortez after the conquest of Mexico presented to his new Spouse the Lady Jane Zuniga were extraordinary and thought to be the rarest in the World They were five of them of most exquisite colour and perfection and of such bigness that they were wrought into several figures and shapes of things viz. one in the fashion of a Coronet or little Crown another of a Rose fair and great the third was like to a Fish with the eyes of gold counted an admirable piece of Indian work the fourth was wrought in the fashion of a Bell having for its clapper a great and rich pearl engraven round about with this Motto Sea Bendito qui te criava in English Blessed is he that created thee the fifth was like a Cup with the foot and brim of gold and four little chains of gold all joyning together at the top or cover of it in a great pearl 'T is said that the Merchants of Genoa offered no less summe than 40000. Duckets for one of them which they would have presented to the great Turk but were refused And though I confess there be some of much greater bigness mentioned in Pliny yet doubtless these were very rare stones both for bigness workmanship and perfection They grow usually in other stones like to Chrystal and the greatest plenty of them is in the new Kingdom of Granada and in the Province of Veragua and especially about the Citties of Manta and Port Vieil where there is a whole Country or little Province which they call de las Esmaldas or the Land of Emralds from the aboundance of them that are supposed to be there and which the Spaniards had not yet subdued when my Author wrote and they send usually three or four hundred weight of this kinde of Jemmes only into Spain one yeer with another 6. Of Pearls which anciently were counted the only Jemme both for price and excellency and such as Princes only and persons of very noble quality used there is such plenty of them at the new World that the very Negro Servants or She slaves are said to weare Chains and Bracelets of them These grow in Oysters or a certain shel-Fish much resembling Oysters and bearing that name and are fetcht up from the bottom of the Sea by the poor Indians that are forced to dive for them 'T is true the Indians through necessity and custome are become wonderfully apt and ready at this work even almost beyond beleefe They will descend commonly ten or twenty fathom deep into the water and stay there an houre or the better part of an houre plucking the shel-fishes from the hard Rocks or searching for them in the gravelly corners and chinks under water till they have filled the satchels or baggs which they carried down with them or that want of breath enforceth them to come up Howbeit if the Sea be very deep or not calm they finde much difficultie to abide under water and therefore tye commonly certain stones of good weight about them only to keep them down which are exceeding painfull to them all the time they are under water beside the danger they are in to be destroyed by the Tyburons and other preying fishes whiles they are there But when they have a minde to come up 't is but unloosing of the stones and they mount presentiy being counted the most expert Swimmers in the World To which likewise their own dry wither'd and lean complexions doe dispose them very much being for the most part of very thin and spare bodies and dyeted on purpose for this service with the dryest meat which their hard Masters can procure for them and that also in small quantity and with but scant allowance The Pearls differ much from one another both in fashion colour bigness and polishing and they seldom finde two of them altogether alike when they doe it much enhaunceth the price and estimation of them even where they are most common a pair of such Pearls having been valued at the Indies themselves at a thousand Duckets They are counted the most excellent which are of an Orient white colour bright and cleer like the finest Allom bigge weighty and especially if they be round which is counted such a singular raritie in this Gem that Oviedo tells us of himself he once bought a Pearl at the Indies not much bigger than the pellet of some Cross bow for which he gave 650. times the weight of it in good gold upon no other special account but only because it was round They fish for Pearls upon all the coasts of America and the Islands generally more or less but especially in the South-Sea about Panama and the Island Margarita so called from the aboundance of them which they have found there and in the North-Sea about the Islands of Cumana Cubagna Rio de la Hacha and other places which are commonly found bigger than those of the South Sea And although it be the opinion of some grounded upon the covetousness of the Spaniards when they first came into those parts who spared not the very feed or mother of the Pearl it self but swept took all that came to hand that the profit of Pearl-fishing is much decayed of what it was yet if it be true what the same Oviedo tells us I should think it may be otherwise and the trade good still For he saith These Pearl-Oysters come by shoals successively into the places where they are usually taken and that though a bank in the Sea be swept never so clean of them by the Pearl-fishers yet not far off they finde alwaies more and likewise in the
Fish in the Sea Among the Natives of the country there and some Savage that live wild up and down in the Woods and go naked not withstanding the extream cold but for the most part they are supposed at least to be more civill The first discoverers of the country reporting of them that they both sow corn brew Beer and Ale use Canoas or little Boats at Sea by which they trade with Greenland Freezland and other parts at one thousand or five hundred miles distance from them They are said likwise to have some use of letters but of a Character proper only to their own Nation and not understood by any other people beside themselves Yea they talk likewise as if they had some knowledge of the Latin tongue and of certain Latin books in a Library of one of the Kings of the Country wherein if there be any thing of truth as I hold it not altogether impossible 't is likely some people from the more Northerly parts of Europe that understood the Latin tongue might in times past be cast on shore or suffer Shipwrack upon those Coasts where being constrained to live and abide they might leave some books and other monuments of the Language behind them in the Country after their decease However it be this seems more certain by the report and experience of some English that the people are generally here found to be more ingenious to have better judgement in things and to be much more skilfull in divers Mechanicall arts then usually in these other parts of America they were at first Among other things they were observed to use a kinde of Dart or short Javelin pointed with bright steel and very sharp which being a kinde of Weapon used only by the people of Java and some other of the Islands of the East Indies it is conjectured that they have commerce one with another which seems not altogether improbable But as for the Towns Citties and great Castles among them which some speak of and of the Temples wherein they sacrificed men though that be an ancient and generall custome among the Americans and those of this Country barbarous enough to doe it yet the Reader perhaps will be willing to suspend his beleefe a while as likewise he will for the supposed Mines of gold and silver there of which at least as it may seem the Northerly scituation of the Country doth not well permit us to have such strong presumption Of Brass and Iron 't is likely enough there may be good store if the Country were scarched But as yet the knowledge thereof especially concerning the more Inland parts remains very imperfect Some English Adventurers passing that way have left names to certain Capes or Head-lands upon the Northern Coasts of it and that is all the chief of which are these viz. Cape Elizabeth at the entrance into Hudsons Streights Northward Prince Henries Foreland Cape Charles Kings Foreland with with divers others more to the South Cape Wostenholme and Digges his Island about the mouth of the Streight where it opens it self and disembogues into a large and capacious Bay called as abovesaid Hudsons Bay and dividing these uttermost Provinces of the Northern America into two parts which some call the Eastern and Western point as may be seen in the Maps The people of the Country that are any thing civilized cloath themselves commonly with Beasts skins and with the skins of the Sea-calves otherwise called Morses which are a kinde of Fish of an Amphibious nature much abounding in those Northern Seas of the bigness of a young Heifer or Bullock of two yeares old which they hunt and take in great numbers especiall where the Whale-fishing is not so good and draw a good quantity of oile from them which they call Train-oile as they doe from the Whale The flesh of them is counted reasonable good meat of a taste somewhat like Porke and on each side of their upper Jaw there groweth out a long tooth or Tusk crooked and bending downward not unlike to that of an Elephant each of them a Cubit long sometimes and more of a substance white and very hard like Ivory for which it commonly passeth And it were well if the deceit rested there and went no further For as it seems there are some that vend it for Unicorns horn and attribute I know not what strange and sovereign vertues to it An egregious imposture of which the learned Doctor Brown doth likewise as his manner is acutely and kindly admonish us lib. 3. chap. 23. of his Psudodox Epidemio above mentioned 3. Terra Corterialis is a Province or Country of this Northern part of America lying Southward of Estotiland and Northward of New-France or Canada being so named from Gaspar Corterialis a Portughese Gentleman who in the yeare 1500 or thereabouts first discovered these parts and gave name to the Country but did not much beside For returning the next yeare after with intention to make a further discovery 't is supposed he was shipwracke and drown'd at Sea together with his company of whom as Osorius in his history of Portugall witnesseth never any returned or were heard of and the like misfortune befell his Brother Michael Corterialis the next yeare after who setting out two Ships to search and enquire of concerning the fortunes of his Brother Gaspar perished likewise in his design being himself lost and all his men upon which disasters the Portugheses quite give over the Country and the French succeed them naming the Country New Bretain in reference to Bretain in France which it seemes was their native Country This was about the year 1504. The soil of this Country is very lusty and good for all sorts of grain generally and yeelds a great advantage to the Husbandman but not without good pains taking in the tillage and managing of it For which reason it is called by some Terra di labrador or the land that requires Labourers in allusion perhaps to Terra di lavora or the Country of Campania in Italy so called from a like property The people of the Country of themselves barbarous and savage enough are said to be civilized and bettered in their manners by the conversation of the French They live much upon Fish are excellent Archers jealous of their Wives and dwell for the most part in Caves under ground beeing also much given to Soothsaying Divining further than which they seem not to have much knowledge or sence of any thing that concerns religion The Country was first of all discovered by Sir Sebastion Cabot at the charges of Henery the seventh King of England as hath been said but it was only discovered and the design laid wholly aside by reason of some domestick troubles and a Warre which the King then had with the Scots whereupon the After-comers tooke leave to enter The Towns or places which the French have built since are cheifly 1. Brest 2. St. Marie and 3. Cabo Marzo as they call it of which there is
France is a large Province of this Northern part of America bounded Northward with Terra Corterialis abovesaid and on the South with that part of Virginia which is called New England on the East it is washed with the Ocean or North Sea the Western borders of it being not yet fully discovered or known It hath its name from the River Canada which watereth the whole Province running through the midest of it and is counted one of the fairest and greatest Rivers of America where yet it is suppposed there are the fairest and greatest of all the World beside It hath its head or spring in those undiscovered parts of this Northerly tract which remain yet unknown and runs generally with a large and violent stream having in it many Cataracts or falls of the Water as it were from some Rocks lying in the channels which renders the passage of it up the stream extremely difficult and downwards no less dangerous In some places it swells and spreads it self out into large and huge Lakes containing some of them one hundred miles in compass and having diverse small Islands scattered up and down in them after which it is presently again reduced into a narrower channel of a league or two leagues broad generally Thus it runneth turning and winding up and down the Country as 't is supposed some hundred of leagues from its head-spring till at last having received into its channel many lesser Rivers of the Countrie it empties it self into a great Bay which they call the Bay of St. Lawrence being at the mouth no less thin thirty or fourty leagues broad as it is said and one hundred and fifty fathom deep of water The French Authors report that it hath been actually searched for above one thousand two hundred miles and upward from the Bay and that the Savages living thereabouts doe speak confidently of certain Bayes of Salt-water more towards the South and of great vessels which they have seen that way which if true must necessarily be from the South Sea But I perceive not that any farther enquiry hath been made by them about it as doubtless a business of so great importance would deserve viz. to finde such a commodious and easie passage into the South Sea and thereby to the other Indies Therefore I suppose those relations are not much credited The Countrie on both sides the River is reasonably pleasant and fertil especially on the South or South-west of it where it seemeth to be a little mountainous the ground ascending for the most part upwards from the River and rising with many little hills clad most of them with Vines of which there is great aboundance in the Countrie and other trees and divided frequently with other lesser streams which at several places doe all of them fall into the great River In this Countrie the French hitherto I suppose have made the greatest discoveries of any other Nation yet not the first but following the tract of Corterialis and Sir Sebastian Cabot that went before them The whole Country containeth these particular Provinces or subdivisions viz. 1. New-France more especially so called 2. Nova-Scotia 3. Norimbegua and 4. some Islands adjoyning 2. New-France specially so called lyeth on the North-side of the River Canada somewhat what inclining towards the East and on the South of Terra Corterialis but in the Western or more inland parts the River divideth it in the midst the French having seated themselves on both sides of it The Countrie naturally aboundeth with Staggs and other sorts of wilde Deer Bears Marterns Foxes and Hares of which last there is such plenty that the French call one of the Islands Isle aux Lieures or the Island of Hares They have likewise good store of Conies Fish and Fowl in aboundance only they complain the Winter is long that the Snow lyeth upon the ground sometimes till a good part of May be past and that the North-west winde especially in Winter blows very cold there and brings aboundance of Snow with it The Countrie hath very much wood but otherwise of a Soile not unapt for Corne especially Pulse and such like grain of which it affordeth extraordinarie increase But the peculiar Commodity of the Countrie seems to be their Chains of Esurgnuy as they call it which some say is only a kinde of shel-fish of exceeding white colour yet found to be of soveraign vertue for the stanching of blood in which respect they make both Beads and Bracelets of them and not only use them but vend them also as a chief Commoditie though others as Laet out of the Commentaries of the French-men themselves seem to report otherwise and to describe the use and making of Esurgnuy only as a piece of superstition among the Savages about some dead men The People when the French came first among them were altogether rude and barbarous as the most part of them continue still living generally without houses or any certain places of abode goe naked save only that they have a little piece of some Beasts skin bound about their middle Those about the Sea coasts live most upon fishing which they practise in certain light boats which at night they are able to draw to draw to Land without much help and but turning the bottom upward they serve them for an house to sleep in The Countrie affords good plenty of Maiz in many places but it is said to be the Womens work both to digge the ground and sow it the Men giving themselves to no kinde of labour but only of hunting and fishing Among many other bad enough they are said to have one vile custome among them which is that the young Maidens when they are fourteen or fifteen yeers old have leave to prostitute themselves to all Comers and that they marrie not usually till they have thus satiated themselves with promiscuous lust for the space of 4 or 5 yeers together after which notwithstanding they take husbands and prove so extremely loving and constant if a man could beleeve it that they never marrie twice but after their rude manner mourn for their Husbands all their life long They have some few Towns the chief whereof are these viz. 1. Hochelaga said to be the seat and residence of a King of this Countrie which at least some of the Natives acknowledge and exceedingly reverence carrying him sometimes in great pomp upon their shoulders sitting upon a Carpet of Beasts skins This Town if there be any such for it must be confessed the reports concerning it are not so certain is situate far within Land at a distance of six or seaven leagues from the River Canada and is a kinde of fortified place encompassed about with a three-fold course of Timber-ramparts one within another of about two Rods high from the ground with cross planks or pieces of Timber laid out on purpose to hinder the scaling or getting up by an Enemie Towards the top there is as it were a Scaffold or Gallery framed from whence they
may throw down stones of which there is alwaies good store ready or what else they have to annoy the assaylants It hath one only Gate for entrance and that likewise well fortified after their manner There are said to be in it fifty or threescore great houses built as the manner of the Americans generally is that use houses in a square figure each side being about fiftie foot long or more and sixteen or twenty broad but not many stories high and in the midest of the Court or void space a place to make their fire and doe other necessary work about it The Countrie round about this Town pleasant and good 2. Stadac or as some call it Stadacone another Town of the Natives not far from the Isle d' Orleance Westward 3. Quebeque another old Town which the French having first expelled the Natives and made it a Colonie of their own have since named St. Croix 4. Tadousac a Town lying at the mouth of the River Saguenay having a small Haven but very safe and capable of ten or twenty good ships 5. France-Roy This is little more than a Castle and Fort built by Mounsieur Robeval a French man at his first landing there about the yeer 1540. And lastly St. Lewis a place which the French designed for a Colonie in the year 1611 under the command of Monsieur Champlain but it came not to effect by reason of the Iroquois a Savage and war-like People on the South-side of the River Canada who doe often trouble and alarme the French in their Quarters and particularly hindred this Plantation 3. Nova-Scotia or New-Scotland is a part of this Province of America so named by Sir William Alexander a Scottish Gentleman to whom King James gave it by Letters Patents in the year 1621 being made afterwards Secretary of State for Scotland and after that by King Charles Earl of Sterling It containeth all that part of the Province of Canada or New-France which the French call Accadie or sometimes Cadia which properly is only a Peninsula or half Island lying thereabouts together with so much of the main Land as lyeth between the River Canada and the Bay Francoise that is reaching from the River of St. Croix upon the West to the Isle of Assumption in the East This was done presently after that Sir Samuell Argall Governour of Virginia had outed the French of all their possessions on the South-side of Canada that is such as lay within the bounds of Virginia and New-England where they had not any thing to doe much less to molest and make-warre upon such people as lived quietly under the protection of the English But the Patentee after sometime finding that to plant and maintain Colonies was no business to be undertaken by a single person sold Port-royall which was the principall place he had there to the French and wholly discontinued his endeavours in the rest which the French therefore have since possessed The places of chief importance in this Country are 1. Port-royall above mentioned This was first a Colony of French planted there by Monsieur de Montz about the yeare 1604. but being destroyed by the English from Virginia about the yeare 1613. it was granted to Sir William Alexander who as we heard sold it back again to the French and they took possession of it the second time and upon another account Howbeit if report speak true as the affaires of the world are alwais uncertain it is now again very lately taken from them by some English commanded by Major Sedgwick It hath a reasonable good Haven belonging to it of a mile broad and more within and two miles in length the mouth or entrance being somewhat narrower but neere upon a mile over 2. St. Lukes Bay so named by the Colony which Sir William Alexander sent thither but by the French Port au Mouton or Sheeps Bay 3. Gaspe or Gachepe another fair Port right over against the Isle of Assumption 4. To the Southwest of Nova Scotia and Nothward of Virginia lieth the Country of Norim begua so generally called and as it hath been thought from a great City or Town in this Province or from a River bearing the same name But as for the first later discoveries finde none such and as for the River that should be called Norimbegua it is likewise swallowed up in that which is more truely called Pemtegovet which is indeed a fair River running many miles together in this Tract but not well navigable above twenty or thirty at the most by reason of the Cataracts or great falls of water which it hath and which are an inconvenience incident unto many other Rivers of the New World and doth make them at severall places unpassable The mouth of this River is said to be eight or nine miles broad having many little mountainous Islands lying before and about it one whereof the French call La Isle haute from the great height which it seemeth to beare to them at Sea Westward of this River Pemtegovet at a distance of twenty or thirty miles there emptyeth it self another great River into the Sea which they call Quinnebequi but the English as Laet reporteth Sagadahoc betwixt and about which two Rivers the cheif and most known parts of this Country of Norimbegua lyeth saving only a small Southerly Tract upon another River which they call Chovacovet The aire of this whole Country is found to be of a very good temperature and the soil if it were used supposed to be no less fruitfull especially towards the Rivers and where it is not mountainous or overgrown with Woods as it is in some parts where yet it affords much good Timber abundance of Walnut trees and of other Nuts Firre-trees Beech with much other necessary and usefull wood elsewhere there is as much good pasturage and very fair plains only the Sea Coasts are said to be shallow and full of sands so that the sailing neer is generally accounted but dangerous and which I suppose may be some reason why there occurres not upon these Coasts any particular Ports or havens which as yet Authors seem to have thought worthy of their report 5. There are adjoyning to these parts of Canada or New-France cerain Islands which although they come not under any one cōmon name yet it seemes most fit that we should take notice of them as Appurtenances to this Country The Principall of these are 1. Natiscotec or the Isle of Assumption situate in the very mouth of the great River of Canada It was discovered first in the yeare 1534. by Jaques Cartier a French man and contains in length thirty leagues or more but in breadth not much above seven or eight The Island is for the most part very plain and level and of a soil fruitfull enough if it had Inhabitants plentifully stored both with fowl and fish having convenient roades but no very good harbours for Ships to stand and abide in 2. Rameae These are as it were a Fry of Islets or
lesser Islands lying together in the great Gulf or Bay of Saint Lawrence on the South-side of Natiscotec being a place much resorted to by the French for the Morsefishing in time of the year of which we have spoken something already They are so numerous upon these Coasts that a small French Bark 't is said will catch one thousand or five hundred of them in a few houres and so large fat and unctious withall that of the bellies of five or six Morses they make an Hogs-head or more of Trane-oile as good as that which they have of the Whale beside the benefit of their flesh which they say especially if it be young is as tender and sweet as Veale The skins of them they dress as we doe our Oxe-hides and they say they are twice as thick and serviceable upon any occasion 3. Brion a small Island Southward of the Rameae not above two or three leagues in length and about so much likewise in breadth but of a rich Soil and excellent good pasturage though shaded in some places with many tall and lofty trees of severall kindes having another lesser Island neighbouring upon it which they call Isle Blanche or the white Island of like fertility with it self 4. Insula Britonum or Isle Breton called also sometimes the Isle of Saint Lawrence This lyeth to the South-East of the Isle Brion of a Triangular forme containing about eighty leagues in compass mountainous for a great part of it and rugged but in the Valleys more fruitfull and pleasant having no Rivers at least not any that are much known but instead thereof embraced much with armes of the Sea and thereby not unlikly to be well stored with fish upon the Coasts of it In the midst of the Country there is a great Lake which containes within it many lesser Islands The Woods well replenished with most sorts of Deere a kinde of black Foxes and aboundance of the American Birds which they call Pengwins The chief Port or Haven of it is New-port called by the French Port aux Anglois because much frequented by the English in regard of the fishing Lastly there is the Isle de Sable so called by the French as 't is supposed from the Sands which lye so much about it containing about fifteen leagues in compass and distant from Breton-Isle not much less than twenty or thirty leagues held to be of an unsafe landing by reason of the said sands lying about it and therefore though the planting of it hath been twice attempted by the French and once by the Portugheses yet the business never had success The Inland parts of this whole country of Canada are still in the hands of the Savages or Natives and not much discovered further than to know the names of the people the chief whereof that occurre are these viz. the Iroquois a stout and warlike people on the Northeast of Norimbegua often molesting the French The Souriquois and Etechemins in the Country of Accadie or New-Scotland who are more their friends and doe help them somtimes against the Iroquois Beside on the banks and about the River of Canada there are the Algoumequins the Algoiugequins Quenongebins Attagopautans and many other Montagnets of such harsh names that we should be enforced almost to pass them over in silence though they otherwise deserv'd to be named only this we may observe in the general of the Savages of these parts of America viz. That as ignorant and barbarous as they are yet they have made shift to discover the Factions Emulations and Enmities than are amongst the European People that come thither and are able to make such advantage of it by siding some of them with the one and some with the other that they all preserve their liberty by it So that as yet the footing which either the French English or any other Nation have among them seems rather to be for the security of their own abode and trading where they live than to give them any absolute right of possession much less any general command of the Countrie CHAP. IIII. Of Virginia and the Countries thereto belonging 1. VIrginia so named by Sir Walter Rawleigh about the year 1584 in honour of our Maiden Queen Elizabeth of famous Memorie is a fair Province of this Northern part of America bounded on the North with Canada on the East with the Sea called Mare del Nort on the South with Florida the Western confines of it being not yet known but supposed and perhaps not altogether improbably to extend themselves as far as the South Sea The more inland parts of the Countrie are mountainous and somewhat barren but otherwise thick set with Woods and those as well replenished with wild Beasts Venison and a sort of People not much less wilde and savage than Beasts the Maritime parts more plain and fruitfull The whole Countrie extends it self from North to South that is to say from the Southermost parts of Norimbega to Florida full ten degrees of latitude viz. from thirty four to fourty four containing thereby inclusively six hundred common or English miles being sub-divided into three inferiour Provinces or Parts which are these viz. 1. New-England 2. Novum-Belgium or Neiw-Nederlands as our Neighbours call it And 3. Virginia properly so called to which because it is an English Plantation and a part of this Western World it shall not be amiss to add the Bermudae Islands 2. New-England is that part of this Province of America which lyeth next to Canada or New France by which it is bordered towards the North Eastward with Norimbegua on the South and South-west with Niew-Nederlande the other borders that is directly Westward remaining yet unknown The Countrie lyeth about the middle of the Temperate Zone betwixt the degrees of fourty one and fourty four being naturally of the same degree of heat with France or Italy parallel to which it lyeth in the Western Hemisphere but yet these heats so moderated and allayed by the coldness of the adjoyning Seas that the Country generally is found very agreeable to English bodies The Soil abundantly fruitfull not only of the natural Commodities of the Place but likewise of all such as are transported thither out of England Great store of Woods and Trees both for Fruit and Building plenty of Deer and of Turkies Partridges Swans Geese Cranes Ducks and Pigeons so great aboundance as serve the Inhabitants almost to excess But the Commodities whereby they chiefly maintain their Trade are rich Furres many sorts of good Fish some quantity of Amber Flax Linnen Iron Pitch Masts Cables yea and timber for Shipping In a word it is supposed by those which seem to understand the Country well That there is little coms for England by the way of the Sound but might be had from hence at easier rates and less trouble if the busines were well considered The Natives of the Countrie are said to be much better disposed more tractable docil and apt to be perswaded to civility than
their Neighbours especially when they are fairly dealt withall and not provoked into distemper by rough handling The Countrie on the Sea side replenished with very good Havens They report that in the space of 70 miles there are no less than twenty or twenty five good and secure ports some of them capable of five hundred or a thousand sail of ships and fenced from the fury of windes and Sea by the interposition of certain Islets which to the number of two hundred at least are said to lye scattered up and down upon that Coast The places where the English have chiefly seated themselves are 1. St. Georges Fort where the first Plantation was setled at the mouth of the River Sagahadoc in a kinde of Peninsula or half-Island 2. New-Plimouth seated no less commodiously upon a large and spacious Bay called by the Natives Patouxet It consisted at the first building but of nineteen Families only but is now improved into a handsome Town 3. New-Bristoll upon the Sea side also but lying more Northerly than Plimouth 4. Barstable 5. Boston And lastly Quillipiack which by the name seems to have been some old Town of the Natives who upon a great mortality happening among them are said to have diserted these parts of the Countrie but a few years before the English came thither It lyeth upon a Bay called the Bay of the Massachousetts and is at present possessed by the English This part of Virginia was first discovered by Captain Gosnold in the year 1602. Four years after that King James granted it by Letters Patents unto a Corporation of certain Knights Gentlemen and Merchants to be planted by them and managed to the best advantage of the Publique In which Sir John Popham Lord chief Justice of the Common-Pleas being one of the principall by his encouragement and chiefly also at his charge a Colony was sent thither in the year 1607 under the Presidencie of Captain George Popham and Mr. Raleigh Gilbert but the President Popham dying the next year after and not long after him the Lord chief-Justice likewise who was the chief Patron of the work the Colonie returned home and though afterwards it was attempted several times yet never could they finde success in their endeavors nor be setled in any form till the year 1620 When by the building of New-Plimouth and some more particular care had of the business by several incouragements sent from thence to bring on others and by reason of some domestick motives which perswaded many people to leave their Countrie and goe that way it is grown at last to a very probable and hopefull condition of good subsistence for the future being for many temporal respects worthy of all favour and cherishing by the State 3. Novum-Belgium or Niew-Nederlandt hath on the North-East New-England on the South and South-West Virginia properly so called taking its name from the Netherlanders or Dutchmen who began their Plantation there about the year 1614 The Countrie as they said being then void and therefore free for any body that would take possession of it Notwithstanding which pretence they were scarse warm in their Quarters when Sir Sam. Argall Governour of Virginia having first spoyled the French in Accadie as we said disputed the possession with these also And although they pleaded Hudsons right who by Commission from King James and upon an English account had lately discovered those parts and pretended they had not only bought all his Cards and Maps of the Countrie but all his Interest and Right also and had fully contented him for all his pains and charges in the discovery yet the said Hudson being an English man and acting all that he did by Commission from the King of England upon debate it was concluded That the Land could not be alienated after discoverie without the King of Englands consent especially it being but a part of the Province of Virginia already possessed by the Subjects of England So that they were forced to wave that title and the Dutch Governor submitted his Plantation to his Majestie of England and to the Governor of Virginia for and under him Upon which Terms for a good while they held it Afterwards upon confidence it seems of a new Governour sent from Amsterdam they not only failed to pay the promised contribution and tribute but fell to fortifie themselves and to entitle the Merchants of Amsterdam to an absolute Propriety and Dominion of the Countrie independent of any other building Towns as New Amsterdam raising Forts as Orange Fort neer that branch of the Nordt River which they call Hell gates Complaint whereof being made to King Charles and by his Embassador represented to the States they disown the business and declare by publique instrument that they were not interessed in it but that it was only a private undertaking viz. of the West Indian Company of Amsterdam Whereupon a Commission was granted to Sir George Culvert made Lord Baltimore in Ireland to possess and plant the Southern parts thereof lying towards Virginia by the name of Maryland and to Sir Edmund Loyden to plant the Northern parts towards New-England by the name of Nova-Albion Which makes the Dutch the second time seem willing to compound and for the summe of two thousand and five hundred pounds they offer to be gone and leave all they had there But by advantage of the troubles in England which then began to appear and soon after followed they not only goe back from their first Propositions and make higher demands but also most mischievously and wickedly as some report they furnish the Natives with Arms and teach them the use of them as it may be thought expecting to use their help upon occasion against the English An Act questionless of very pernicious consequence not only to the English Adventurers who have since been much damnified and prejudiced by the said Natives in their Plantations but also to the Dutch themselves who as 't is reported were the first or with the first that smarted by it The Savages being thus arm'd and train'd first of all falling foule upon them destroying their Farm-houses and forcing them to betake themselves to their Forts and Fastnesses So that at present there is but little good account can be given further of the State of this Countrie As to the nature and quality of the soil it differeth not much from the parts about it the temperature of the aire and commodities of the Country being generally the same which New-England or Virginia yeeldeth And as for Towns and places of abode it doth not appeare that either the English or Dutch have as yet set themselves much to building in this Country What the English had done before our late troubles at home it may be feared is wholly ruined by the misfortunes which befell them there And for the Dutch although they make large reports of the Country and challenge a huge Circuit of land under the name of the New-Netherlands and title of the States yet I
suppose they have had their hands so full of other business of late that they have not added much to what they had when our troubles began which was only New-Amsterdam as they call it and Orange-Fort afore mentioned nor is it so certain whither they be Master of them at this day or no. In stead of Rivers which this Country seemeth a little to want there are many large and capacious Bayes all along the Coast the principall whereof are that which the Dutch call Nassovius-Bay sometimes the nordt-Nordt-river which falleth by it into the Sea at May-port 2. Hell-gate which is but a Channell of the great Nordt-river so called by reason of its difficult and dangerous entrance though within it affords a very safe road for shipping and fifteen or sixteen fathom of water at the mouth 3. Zuid-river so called because it lieth more Southerly than the rest 4. But Virginia properly so called is in a better condition This is an elder Daughter of England one of her first Plantations which having endured diversitie of fortunes and strugling for a long time at the beginning with ill successes is at last by the favour of Divine Providence arrived unto such a competent happiness as that the Colonie are said to live very comfortably and helpfully among themselves and to give good hopes of perpetuating and improving their condition to posterity The Country hath on the North-east of it Niew-Nederlandt aforesaid on the South-west Florida the name of Virginia which before was common to the whole Province being upon the Plantation of New-England and that other restrained to this part of the Country only which reacheth from the thirty fourth to the thirty eighth degree of Northern latitude The Country somewhat inclined to heats which yet are much moderated by those Constant Easterly windes which they call Brises and by some other cooling blasts from the Ocean ever and anon It is a Country generally well distinguished into Hills and Valleys the first whereof are well cloathed with Woods and the latter with Fruits The soile being so good that 't is said in many places an acre of land well husbanded will return two hundred bushels or twenty five quarter of good grain rich in veins of Allom as likewise in Pitch Turpentine Oile plenty of sweet Gummes and severall sorts of plants for Dyers use not wanting many good Mines of Iron Copper c. Timber and tall Cedar-trees in infinite abundance much Cattle Fish and Fowl of all sorts no scarsity of Maiz among the Natives on the mountains some Christall is found and on the Shore Pearls To be short excepting those metalls of Peru and Mexico of which I hear not that any discoveries as yet have been made in these parts it seems not deficient in any thing that may encourage or reward an industrious people The Country not half peopled with Natives and those that are there found as much differing one from another in size as in language and manners There are some whom they call Sasques-Hanoxi of such a vast bulk and stature that they seemed as it were Gyants to the English themselves others whom they call Wigcocomoci so little and low that in companie with the other they seem'd but so many Pigmies but the generality of them it must be confessed are taller and well limb'd though most commonly without beards Their cloathing is mantles of Deer-skins with something like an apron hanging before them They paint their bodies and faces all over with figures of Serpents and other horrid creatures ' as t is thought only that they may seem terrible to their enimies who are so wise as to fright them again as much with the same These of Virginia are held to be crafty and revengefull and not a little more industrious and active than other Natives especially towards the North. There is no Country in the world for the bigness better watered than this part of Virginia is with many pleasant and fair Rivers the cheife whereof are these viz. 1. Pawhatan so named from a principall Roytelet of these parts whose Territores are divided and wonderfully fertilized by this River which runs a course of an hundred miles navigable all the way at least by smaller Vessels and falls into the Sea with a mouth two or three miles broad 2. Nansamund 3. Pammanuke 4. Toppaphanock navigable one hundred and thirty miles 5. Pawtunxet of a deeper Channell than any of the rest and affording variety of choice fish with divers others The English first setled their Plantation upon the South-side of a large and goodly Bay called by the Natives Chese-peack which thrusting it self a good way up into the Countrie and receiving into its bosome many particular Rivers yeelds a very safe station for ships and is the only entrance into this part of the Countrie The Capes or Points whereof are therefore well fortified particularly Cape Henry Cape Charls c. The Towns which the English have built or doe frequent in way of Trade are chiefly 1. James-Town so named by the first Adventurers in honour of King James it lyeth on the South side of the Bay and was first built in the year 1606 but since fortified with a Trench drawn round about it and some pieces of Ordinance planted 2. Henricopolis or Henries Town so named from Prince Henrie then living built in a very convenient place more within Land about fourscore miles distant from James-Town 3. Dales-guift so named because built and planted at the charges of Sir Thomas Dale Deputy Governour of the Countrie about the year 1610. There is also Ketoughtan a Town of the Natives upon the Bay where the English are said to frequent and trade much And lastly Wicocomoco a Town of Powhatans one of the chief Roytelets of the Country as hath been said whom the English at their first comming thither courted much and procured a Crown of Copper with some other richer presents to be sent him from King James on purpose to oblige him which yet they were hardly able to doe For although he professed likewise on his part very much love and affection to the English yet partly by his procurement as 't is said and partly through their own overmuch security not with out some provocations given on the part of the English there were about the year 1621 no less than three hundred and fourty Englishmen murdred by the Savages unexpectedly falling in upon them and with such violence and resolution as that if a certain Native of the Countrie become Christian had not discovered the business a very little before to them at James-Town their principall Fort and place of strength had been surprized and the whole Colony almost at the mercy of the Savages But it pleased God to prevent their utter destruction by that means And since that time I suppose they stand better upon their guard 5. The Bermudas are a multitude of small Islands in the Atlantick or North-Sea as at the Indies they call it lying right over against
are somewhat of the largest size and stature in respect of other Americans generally yet well proportion'd withall going for the most part naked only with some skin of a Stag or other Beast tyed before them Their hair black and let to grow so that in many of them it hangs down as low as their thighs Cunning they are said to be and great dissemblers stomackfull and much given to revenge which is the cause that they are seldome but in warre one with another One thing they say there is peculiar to this Country of Florida viz. that it breeds aboundance of Hermaphrodites more than any other part of the world beside whom they likewise use most hardly making them carry their burthens and luggage like Beasts and putting them to all kinde of Drudgery 2. The Country is generally plain and level having few or no mountains at all in it save only the Apalatei supposed by the Natives to have rich Mines of gold in them and which the Spaniards saw but had not time nor other necessarie accommodation to stay and search them by reason they were so much wearied and wasted with a long March before they gat thither and found the People so stout and obstinate thereabouts that in stead of entertaining them with their Hens and Fowl as other places had done they were welcom'd with blows and made to return leaving not a few of their best Soldiers behinde Rivers there are many and those very large and commodious as namely Rio Secco or the dry River so called by the Spaniards as some think because they could finde no gold in it 2. Rio Grande or the great River 3. Ligeris 4. Garunna 5. Sequana c. These last so named by the French who after the Spaniards for some time had but never held any long possession of the Countrie There are also Rio de Flores Rio de Nieves Rio de Spirito Santo lesser streams yet all of them with the rest falling at several places into the great Lake of Mexico and some of them not a little haunted by the Caymans or West-Indian Crocodiles a Creature as hath been said before dangerous both at Sea and Land The Country hath not yet been so well discovered much less conquered or subdued by those who pretend themselves to be Masters of it as to be distinguished into any certain Provinces The Natives who as yet hold possession and command of it for the most part are themselves generally sorted into certain Tribes or great Families all which are governed severally by a chief of their own whom they call Paracoussi and by reason thereof are almost continally in feud and warre one with another The Provinces or parts of the Country that I finde any way mentioned by Authors with any account at all of their situation and bounds are only these viz. 1. Panuco 2. Colas And 3. Tegesta or Florida properly so called The first lyeth on the borders of New-Spain beyond the Bay called de Spirito Santo The second neer the Point or Cape called Cape Florida The third being that long Peninsula or half Island which pointeth upon the Isle Cuba and streatcheth it self out North and South an hundred leagues or more in length but is not in bredth above thirty where it is largest and in many parts much less well known by the Cape called Los Martyres which looketh as it were into the Isle Cuba and the River of the Holy Ghost with three other goodly Bays which open and empty themselves into that of New-Spain or the Gulf of Mexico 3. The Towns and places most known in this Province are Saint Helens seated on or neer unto a Promontorie of the same name where this Country bordereth on Virginia 2. Fort Charls or Arx Carolina built and so named by the French in the reign of Charls the ninth their King but afterwards ruin'd by the Spaniards 3. Port-royall a well frequented Haven at the mouth of a river which beareth the same name More within land there is 1. Apalche an old Town of the Natives formerly a place of great resort now a poor thing of about some fourty or fifty Cottages and yet as poor as it is Pamphilus Narvaez a Spaniard at the time when he searched the Country found the Natives not willing to part with it For though he took it from them it was not without some resistance and they quickly recovered it again and at 2. Aute another old Town of theirs nine dayes march from the other they overtook him and fell so resolutely upon him that he left not a few of his best Souldiers dead upon the place and was content himself to march quietly away with the rest 3. Ochalis a Town consisting of about 5 or 600 Sheds and Cottages likewise of the Natives 4. Vittacuche a Burrough of two hundred Houses There is also on the Eastern shore of this Peninsula St. Matthewes a place possessed and well fortified by the Spaniards and Saint Augustines on the same Shore but lying somewhat more Southerly than the other at the mouth of a River called likewise Saint Austins This latter was taken and sack'd by Sir Francis Drake in the yeare 1585. who took out of one only Fort called Saint Johns no less than eighteen pieces of Brass Ordinance and twenty thousand Florens in ready money which was intended for the pay of the Garrison 4. This Country is not much inhabited either by Spaniards or French though both successively have had it in possession For Ponce a Native of Leon as hath been said first discovered the Peninsula upon Palm-Sunday 1512. but did no more than only scowre along the Coasts and give some names to the Promontories Rivers and places of note which he met with After him Vasquez de Ayllon with some Ships from Hispaniola fell in with the more North-east parts of the Country towards Virginia but did no more than get some few of the Natives and that treacherously as some say having first invited them on shipboard to dinner and upon pretence of traffique with them with whom he presently returned for Spain If it were so his practises did not prosper with him for a few years after returning again with a stronger supply of men and provision to make a further descovery of the Country one of his Ships was cast away upon the rocks in the same place viz. before the Cape Saint Helena and two hundred of his men murdered by the Natives before his face upon their landing Nor had the voyage of Pamphilus Narvaes before mentioned any better success in the year 1528. For venturing too farre up into the Country viz. to Apalche as was said which was a full moneths march from the place of his first landing out of hopes of some great Treasures there to be found though at first he made shift to master some of their petty Towns yet finally he lost both himself and most of his men Lastly the expedition of Hernandes a Soto in the yeare 1543. though more famous
than any of these yet proved as fruitless as the rest He began his March in the yeare 1538. and continued it till 1543. over-running the country with a little Armie of three hundred and fifty horse and 90 foote subduing the Paracoussi or petty Princes where he came to the Crown of Spain and compelling them to send in their Turkies Hens and other Fowles for the victualling of his running Camp every day till at last finding his hopes of gold frustrate and a good part of his Army wasted and the rest much weakned with travell struck with greife and as some say also with a feaver he died in the midst of his journey and the remnant of his company under the command of Ludevico Muscoso his Lieutenant with much difficulty recovered Mexico at last Upon so many unsuccessfull attempts the Spaniards seem to leave the Country whereupon the French enter sent thither by Gaspar Coligni Admirall of France in the yeare 1562 but they were such as the Spaniards liked not to have so neer them wherefore immediatly upon the landing of a second supply in the year 1565 at Charls Fort upon the River Port-royall above said the Spaniards set upon them both by Sea and Land force their Ships violently upon the rocks sack the new Town and put the whole Colony to the sword scarce one man escaping together with Ribault himself who was Commander in chief for the expedition There were above six hundred French slain in this Action and all their hopes in Florida thereby utterly extinct Since that time the Spaniards have better fortified those places of the Peninsula viz. Saint Matthews and Saint Augustines abovesaid together with the Castles of Saint Philip and Saint Jage in the more northerly parts of it But it is like Aesops dog in the manger rather to keep out others than that they make any good improvement of the Country themselves and therefore if they were beaten out and sent to attend their Mines and Sugar-mills elswhere it may seem but just The Country is a large and goodly Province of America of a fertil and good soil generally yet neither peopled with Natives nor used in any sort as it ought to the honor of God and the advancement of publick good What reason or justice therefore can it be that the Spaniards only by the advantage of a Fort or two upon the Coasts should pretend to be Lords of the whole land and neither improve it themselves as it ought to be improved nor permit any other Nations that are willing so to doe 'T is supposed indeed they keep it as a reserve of Treasure to themselves that when they have leasure or that their Mines at Potozi or other places fail they may make a further search about the Apalatti of this Province of which there are confident reports that they have Mines and though success hitherto hath not answered their endeavours much yet they despaire not in due time to finde them upon an absolute conquest of the Country and a more thorough search And truly their policie and great providence seems not easily to be condemned but in the mean time if any other Nation upon just grounds shall happen to step between and prevent them they have but little reason to complain or to count themselves injured 5. There lie over against the Country of Florida westward or southwest certain small Islands which because they are but small ones and lye so neer the Continent Geographers sometimes describe as a part and appertaining to the Continent They are called by a generall name the Leucayae Islands and have not much to be spoken of them The cheife are first Las Tortugas or the Tortoises which are seven or eight little Islands lying together at the South-west point of the Peninsula called Cape Florida right over against the Port Havana of the Isle Cuba from which they are distant about five or six leagues and by their lying so scattered up and down in the Sea as they doe they make the passage from thence to Havana not a little dangerous Secondly Los Martire These are three great rocks rather than Islands lying to the South-east of Cape Florida and covered for the most part with a whitish sand and a few bushes growing on them They seem at a distance to beare a resemblance of men impald or bound to stakes as the Martyrs in Primitive times usually were which occasioned the Spaniards so to name them 'T is very dangerous to come too neer them but to have sight of them is of great use to men at Sea For by passing these rocks and leaving them to the South-east they certainly know that they are now entred the Streits not of Magellan which lye many thousands of leagues further Southward of which we shall speake in due place but of Bahama that is that they have left the Ocean and are fallen in among those many Islands which doe as it were Barricado and block up the Eastern Coasts of America towards Nombre de Dios and Terra firma as they call it through which the passage to the Continent is sometimes dangerous by reason of contrary windes and alwayes such as it requires the skill and care of an experienced Pilot to conduct the Ships well thither Thirdly Bahama lying westward of Cape Florida famous for nothing but only for giving name to the Streits so called which run betwixt the Peninsula of Florida and it with such a violent course and torrent that although it be above sixteen miles broad yet many times neither winde nor Oares can prevail against it Fourthly Guanahani the first piece of American ground that was discovered and named by Christopher Columbus Saint Saviours or Salvador as hath been said CHAP. VI. Of Califormia 1. CAliformia in the generall containeth all those Provinces of the Northern part of America whither discovered or undiscovered which lie westward of Florida Canada and Virginia and to the Northwest of New-Gallicia up to the Streits of Anian or that Sea which is supposed to divide the Continent of Tartary from America but more especially taken it comprehends only that large Peninsula or Demy-Island as it seemeth to be which stretcheth it self from North to South to a vast length on the West side of Mar Vermiglio as 't is commonly called and sometimes the Bay of Califormia They that take it in ihe first and largest sense describe under the name of Califormia these four particular Provinces viz. 1. Quivira 2. Cibola 3. Califormia properly so called and 4. Nova Albion 2. Quivira takes up the most Northern and unknown part of America towards the West reaching as far as the supposed Streit of Anian aforesaid if there be any such or else joyning to the Continent of Tartary It is likewise the barrenest and least fruitfull part of all the West-Indies especially for Corn. Cattle it hath great store and pasturage good the Countrie being for the most part plain and level and nothing else but pasturage The Natives few and
Savage living in Hoards or great Companies together after the manner of the Tartars to whom they are Neighbours and as it is not improbably thought of their race They cloath themselves viz. the Men most commonly in that kinde of Oxes hide which we described before chap. 9. under the name of Taurus Mexicanus The Women with little else but their hair notwithstanding the Countrie especially for one halfe of the year is evcessively cold Their Cattel though they be much less than the ordinary Kine of Europe are the chief sustenance and imployment of the Natives by pasturing of huge Heards whereof from place to place the People live and maintain a Traffique with other parts Yet some of them inhabit Towns the chief whereof as yet discovered seem to be these viz. Acus or Acuco as some call it a small Town but seated in a strong defensible place having some small quantity of Cotton growing about it 2. Tignez a Town seated upon the banks of a River bearing the same name and inhabited it seems by a stout and resolute People and whom the Spanish coming among them in the year 1540 had much adoe to Master They endured a siege for the space of six weeks together and at last finding themselves so strongly begirt by enemies that there was no means of escape but by death or yeelding up themselves rather than they would fall alive into their hands they first buried and spoiled all such Treasure as they had which were chiefly Saphirs and a few other Gemms that the Countrie afforded and after that setting fire on their houshold stuff they took their Wives and Children with them and made a desperate salley out upon the Spaniards wherein although they were most of them slain trod under the horse feet or drown'd in passing the River yet was it not without some loss to the Spaniards themselves Nor would those few that were left behinde deliver up the Town till it was fired about their ears and that they could no longer abide in it 3. Cicuic another small Town four dayes journey distant from Tignez The Countrie about this place although generally it be all good pasturage and maintains aboundance of Cattel yet is it so open and plain that for almost one hundred miles together the Spaniards in their march hither from New-Spain found neither stone nor tree nor any thing else that could serve them for a Land-mark so that they were forced as they marched along to raise up heaps of the Country Cow-dung to serve them for direction in their coming back which was not long after For not finding the Commodities they sought for and fearing to be surprized by Winter in those cold Countries where they had no kinde of accommodation they made somewhat a hasty retreat leaving only behinde them some few Religious men of the Order of St. Francis whose desires to doe the People good by converting them to the true knowledge and worship of Almighty God procured them not long after the Crown of Martyrdom being murdred all of them save one by the Natives and he not without much difficulty escaping their hands 3. Cibola lyeth more Southward of Quivira betwixt it and New-Gallicia to the North and North-East On the West it hath Mar Vermiglio or the Bay of Califormia The Aire of the Province indifferently temperate especially if compared to the sharp frosts and colds of Quivira The Countrie for the most part level and plain as Quivira is Few trees at all in it except here and there some woods of Cedars which yet doe aboundantly supply the Natives both with Timber and Fuel The ground affords plenty of Maiz and some small white Pease of both which they usually make bread There is great store of Venison and a kinde of Sheep as they say and as it should seem by their Fleece as big as some little Horse or Oxen some of their horns weighing fourty or fifty pound But perhaps by some mistake of Authors this Beast may be no other then the Taurus Mexicanus afore described whose hair is extreamly thick and shaggie and of which they make cloath as of wooll as hath been said There are also Lyons Bears and Tygres in this Province in such numbers than the People of the Countrie are not a little troubled with them and would gladly destroy them if they knew how The People are generally well limb'd tall of stature and seem to be a little more ingenious than their neighbours of Quivira yet they goe naked many of them only covered before with Mantles made of skins which are many times painted and that with such curiosity and Art as doe sufficiently argue that neither themselves nor their neighbours of Quivira from whom they have them in traffique doe make them but that they are the Merchandise and Commodities of some other Nations perhaps of Cathay or China who by the North-west Seas doe trade with the Maritime parts and People of Quivira 4. This part of the Countrie hath been reasonably well searched by the Spaniards but as yet nothing discovered so considerable as to perswade them to stay in it That which seems most observable is the great Lake Tonteac situate almost in the midst of the Province upon which or neer unto it they found seven or eight old Towns of the Natives some whereof contained four or five hundred of their Cottages or little houses and were fortified also with Ramparts and other works of defence so as the Spaniards could not become Masters of them but by force and storming them in the attempt whereof Vasquez Caronado himself their Commander in chief was twice beaten down with stones by the Natives yet at last carrying the place he found in it good plenty of Maiz indeed which was some refreshment to his Army but nothing else whereupon having named the place Granada in memory of the Vice-Roy of New-Spain who sent him upon that expedition he departed In his return homeward he fell upon a certain Countrie which he named Tucayan of which his companie report great matters as first of a certain River called Huex on the banks whereof in the space of twenty leagues or thereabouts there stand no less than fifteen good Burroughs well built and furnished likewise with stoves or hot-houses against the cold as in other Countries of Europe as also of a very fruitfull and pleasant Valley which therefore they called Aroya de Corazones of another gteat Town and Territorie thereto belonging called Chichilticala and lastly of the Valley of Nuestra Sennora or our Ladies dale in the South parts of the said Territorie all of them described for such rich and delicious places that some take them for the Campi Elisii of America especially seeing the Spaniards were never known to visit them the second time the discoveries which have been made since being only of the North-west parts of the Countrie along the coasts of Mar Vermiglio and this no further than only to give name to certain Capes or Promontories which
much given to quarrelling and contentions among themselves but by this time 't is supposed are reasonably well reclaimed both from the one and the other In this Countrie beside many other goodly streams is the great and famous River Barania on the banks whereof are seated most of their principall Towns viz. Xalisco which gives name to the whole Province and to a large Promontory or Foreland on the Western coasts which shoots it self out into the Bay of Califormia right over against certain Islands which the Spaniards call the Three Maries This was an ancient Cittie or Town of the Natives but sacked and taken from them by Nunnez de Gusman in the year 1530. 2. Compostella now the chief City of the Province and a Bishops Sea 3. La Purification a small Town on the Sea side towards the confines of New-Spain 4. St. Sebastians in Chiametla so called from the River upon which it is built having rich Mines of silver round about it and therefore made a Colony by Franciscus de Tharra above mentioned in the year 1554. 5. Guadalaiara is bounded on the West with Xalisco on the South and South-west with New-Spain on the North with Zacatecas A Countrie exceeding pleasant and rich in all kinde of Commodities but especially in its Mines of silver Well watered with the River Barania which runneth through the midst of it and with divers other streams Yeelding aboundantly both Wheat Maiz and some other grain In a word there is nothing said of the properties of New-Gallicia in generall either for Soile Climate or People but is peculiarly verified of this Province The chief Towns whereof are 1. Guadalaiara which gives name to the whole Province about it It is seated on the banks of the River Barania in a most delectable and sweet Aire and a rich Soil by advantage whereof it is become the Metropolis of New-Gallicia honoured with an Episcopall Sea which was translated thither from Compostella in the year 1570 with the Courts of Judicature and with the Residence of the Kings Treasurers for that Province 2. St. Maria de los lagos a town thirty leagues Eastward of Guadalaiara being a Frontier place and built on purpose to secure the Countrie against the Chichemecae which are a barbarous and unreduced People of the North-East parts of this Country who harbouring themselves in Caves under ground in the thickest of huge Woods and Forests doe oftentimes issue out and make foul spoil in the Countrie where they come and would doe much more harme if it were not for this Garrison 3. Del Spiritu Santo built by the Founder of the other two viz. Nunnez de Gusman aforesaid in a part of the Countrie which they call Tepeque 6. The Zacatecas as they call them are bounded on the South with Guadalaiara on the North with New-Biscay on the West with Couliacan and some part of Xalisco and on the East with New-Span The Countrie especially the more Western part of it very rich in silver Mines no Province of this part of America richer but not so apt either for Wheat or Maiz. 'T is a Countrie that would please some rich Miser well that could live only with the sight of his money But the Eastern parts of it aboundantly stored with all sorts of Fruits the Woods every where replenished with Deer the Fields no less with Corn and every tree almost giving entertainment to some Bird or other The towns are 1. Las Zacatecas fourty leagues distant from Guadalaiara and four-score from Mexico but neighboured with most rich Mines and therefore both Garrison'd and also well peopled by the Spaniards 'T is supposed there are no less then five hundred Families of them in the Town and about the Mines 2. St. Martins twenty seven leagues distant from Zacatecas and as rich a place having a Colony of four hundred Spaniards at least 3. St. Lucas de Avinno 4. Erena lesser towns but both of them rich and seated in the midst of excellent Mines 6. Nombre de Dios in the most Northerly part of all this Countrie sixty eight leagues distant from Guadalaiara and founded by the aforesaid Francisco de Tharra who having subdued and quieted the Natives and thereby gained to himself the Government of these Countries granted the propriety of some silver Mines both to the Spaniards and Natives and by that means drew so many of them thither that in a short time it became the chiefest and best Peopled town of the whole Province 7. Durango in the Valley of Guadiana eight leagues distant from Nombre de Dios. 8. Xeres de Frontera a place built on purpose for the repressing of the Chichemecae aforesaid and other Savages that infested the borders of Guadalaiara in the regencie of the Marquis of Villa Manrique And lastly St. Lewis built by Alonso Pacheco in that part of the Countrie which is called Vxitipa and Peopled by him with a Colonie of Spaniards being distant about twenty leagues from Panuco in New-Spain to which the whole Countrie of Vxitipa once belonged 7. New-Biscay hath on the South the Zacatecas on the West the Countrie of Cinoloa Northward it is bounded with New-Mexico the Eastern borders of it looking towards Florida not yet well discovered so called by the Spaniards only from its neighbourhood to New-Gallicia It is as the other Provinces exceedingly rich in silver Mines and hath some also of lead which serve principally as some say for the refining or purging of the other Metal The people generally of a stout and resolute disposition and with much difficulty submitting to the yoake yea the Spaniards â—hemselves confess there remain yet to this day four great Towns unreduced though they lye as it were in the middle way betwixt the Zacatecas aforesaid and the Mines and Town of St. Barbara of this Province The Spaniards call them Las quatro Ceinegas or the four Quagmires as lying perhaps in the Marishes or in some fenny and lower parts of the Countrie The towns which themselves hold are 1. St. Barbara famous for the rich Mines about it 2. St. Johns equall to the other and not above three or four leagues distant from it 3. Ende the most Northerly town which the Spaniards have in this Countrie distant about twenty leagues from the other These be all Colonies of the Spaniards and built on purpose for securing the Mines 7. New-Mexico as 't is called for distinction sake is bounded on the South-west with New-Biscay more directly Westward with some parts of Quivira the Countries Northward of it not yet discovered Eastward it extends it self as far as Florida This is without comparison the largest Province of all New-Gallicia having been searched and discovered by the Spaniards above one hundred some say above two hundred leagues directly Eastward and to the North-East and they report wonders of it if we may beleeve them at least in respect of what was generally found in these Northern parts of America at their first discovery as namely that they have
and in the midst of a fair Plain or Champaign Country containing likewise as some say not less than sixty or seventy leagues in compass and environed with mountains of so great height that the tops of them are said to be continually covered with snow At present it is thought to be one of the richest Cities of the World abounding if reports be true in all kinde of voluptuous gallantry and bravery even to excess It is supposed to contain about six or seven miles in compass and to consist of above an hundred thousand Houses or Families whereof not the tenth part Spaniards but those that are be all Gentlemen I mean as to their garb and manner of living for they live most splendidly in all respects both for dyet and apparel For the first we have spoken so much already of the general plenty of all things in the Kingdom of New-Spain that pertain to this part of pleasure that it is not to be doubted and for the second this may be some instance viz. that it is no extraordinary matter to see an Hat-band and Role all of Diamonds in some ordinary Gentlemans Hat and of Pearl among the common Citizens and Tradesmen The Coaches which most Gentlemen keep almost covered with gold and silver richly beset with precious stones and within ordinarily lined with cloth of gold or the best China silk that can be gotten of which Coaches in time of year at the Alameda as they call it which is as it were the Hide Park of Mexico and a place made of purpose for recreation and delight a man shall observe not seldome above a thousand or two thousand Coaches full of Ladies and Gallants coming thither only to take the aire and their pleasure both the one and the other attended with a numerous train of servants and Mulattos of both sexes In la Plateria which is but one only street in Mexico nigh to the Vice-Roys Palace in less than half an hours space with the turn of an eye you may see millions of wealth in Gold Silver and precious Stones in the Gold-smiths and Jewellers shops thereabouts In a word there is nothing hinders Mexico from being the most absolute Citie in the World for delight and bravery but only two inconvinces to which it is subject The one is the danger of the Lake with the Infalls whereof it may seem to be almost continually threatned and in the year 1629 did actually suffer a very great calamity the waters breaking through the banks and drowning a great part of the City with the destruction of much People and the loss of all their goods intirely through the avarice as is supposed of the Vice-Roy that then was and some other of the Kings Officers who diverted the money that should have been imployed for the fortifying and repairing of the banks to their proper uses The other is from the Nature of the Soil and ground it self on which the City standeth which is found to have a tincture of of salt-Nitre in it somewhat strong and the windes partly from the Lake it self and partly from the Hills about it raising the dust of this earth constantly every evening for many moneths of the year together so violently that the Aire is even darkned therewith for some time the Inhabitants are much annoyed by it and made subject to divers Hypocondriacall pains and infirmities and sometimes killed with it especially such as either cannot or care not much to avoid it The Citie lyeth about 60 leagues or one hundred and fifty miles distant from the Atlantick or North Sea from whence by the Port of St. John D'Vllua or Vera Crux which are the usuall landing places there is a fair and easie march to Mexico by the Cities of Xalapa Perotta Puebla de los Angelos and Tlascalla all of them open and unfortified places as likewise Mexico it self is and the Country round about very rich and well accommodated with all things The second town of this Province is Tescuco an ancient and fair Citie seated upon the same Lake six or seven leagues distant from Mexico to which it yeeldeth not much either for beau-or bravery 3. Quitlavaca a Citie built wholly upon certain Islets within the Lake and therefore called sometimes by the Spaniards Venezuela or Little-Venice having one only passage by Land to it over a Causey of flint-stone half a league or more in length and about sixteen or twenty foot broad 4. Vztacpalapa a City of ten thousand Housholds or thereabnuts six leagues distant from Tescuco and about twenty from Mexico 5. Mexicaltzingo a Burrough of four thousand Housholds 6. Cuyacan of six thousand All these are seated upon the Lake Further from the Lake there is Chololla a great Citie and a rich place not much inferiour-to Mexico Anciently this City was as it were the Sanctuary of the Mexican Kings and the chief place of their barbarous and inhumane Superstitions where yearly not less than five or six thousand Indian Children of both sexes were sacrificed to Vitzilopuchtli that is to the Devil It was likewise the chief burying place of all the Mexican Nobility whose Tombs and Monuments there afforded the Spaniards at their first rifling of them an infinite mass of Treasure and yet not half so much as by report they both desired and expected 2. Mastitlan a Town pleasantly seated upon the top of an huge mountain in the midst of most delicate Groves and shady Woods round about it and reckoned to contain not less than thirty thousand Inhabitants in all dwelling either in the Citie or upon the sides of the Mountain 3. Autepecque this is a Town belonging to the Marquiss de Valle who is of the Posterity of Cortez and said to be seated in the most delicious place of all New-Spain 4. Acapulco a Town seated upon the South-Sea or Mare del Zur yet belonging to this Province It is a Haven Town and one of the most frequented upon the South Sea situate upon a large and capacious Bay of about a league broad at the entrance and affording many convenient stations and Docks for shipping At the bottome of the Bay Westward lyeth the Town with a strong Castle very opportunely built both for the command and security of the Port well walled and fortifyed with Bulwarks and having a constant Garrison of four hundred Souldiers in it or thereabouts The reason whereof I suppose may be chiefly this viz. that from this Port there is the greatest traffique and entercourse held betwixt the East and West-Indies together with the Philippine Islands The Country hath many rich Mines of silver in it and some of Gold the chief of which first are by Herera reported to be these viz. 1. those of Puchuca fourteen leagues distant from Mexico 2. Of Tasco twenty four leagues distant 3. Talpuiana 4. Cultepeque 5. Zacualpa 6. Zupanguo and divers others 10. Tlascalla is a Province of New-Spain which extendeth it self entirely from one Sea to another viz. from the Atlantick to Mare
del Zur with which it is bounded on the East and West parts lying otherwise and for the most part betwixt the Provinces of Mexicana last spoken of and that of Guaxata which followeth containing in length viz. from one Sea to the other not much less than an hundred leagues and in some places fourscore in bredth but towards the South-Sea growing much narrower It is a Country exceedingly plentifull both of Corn and Cattel full of rich pasturage and so plentifully stored with Maiz some Wheat and other Grain that it is counted as it were the Granary of America The People of this Country when the Spaniards first landed among them lived in the form of a Common-wealth or Free State refusing to be subject to the King of Mexico with whom they had almost continuall Warre and upon that account as hath been said assisted Cortez in the Conquest of the Kingdom and without whose help 't is most certain he had never been able to doe any thing They enjoy therefore many speciall Priviledges and Immunities more than other Americans doe They pay no tribute but only an handfull of Wheat yearly for every person in way of acknowledgement and otherwise living under the protection of the Spaniards wholly in the form of their ancient Government The whole Province is said to contain two hundred good Towns and Burroughs and more than one thousand Villages all of them exceedingly populous and supposed to contain in the whole above a million and half of Natives beside Spaniards who have some few Colonies in the Country for securing of it The chief Towns of the Province are 1. Tlascalla it self which denominates the whole Country as the Metropolis of it It is a fair town and commodiously seated in the midst of a large and fertil Campaign of threescore miles in compass It consisteth of four large and beautifull streets or quarters and in the midest of them where they all meet hath a Piazza or Market place equall to that of Mexico and able to receive twenty or thirty thousand persons conveniently to buy and sell in it 2. Puebla de los Angeles or the Citie of Angels a town built by Sebastian Ramirez a Church-man and he that was the first president or chief Governour of Mexico under the Crown of Castile It was built in the year 1531 almost in the road way from Vera Crux to Mexico and seated in a very delicate and fertil Country and of a good Aire It is a Bishops Sea and valued at twenty thousand Duckets of yearly Rent the Citie it self supposed to contain about fifteen hundred Families where there is aboundance of excellent cloath made and for fineness not yeelding to the best of Spain 3. Zempoallan seated upon a River of the same name 4. Napaluca 5. Guaxacingo all of them great and ancient towns of the Natives 6. Segura de la Frontera a Spanish town built by Cortez presently upon the Conquest of Mexico for the securing of the confines as the name importeth 7. Vera Crux a town built by Cortez and his Companions at their first landing and where afterward by a stratagem and out of a resolution either to Conquer or dye in the Country he caused all his ships to be burnt that his Souldiers might not so much as think of returning back from whence they came The town was at first built five or six leagues up within land but the place being found not to be so healthfull the Inhabitants in a short time deserted it and seated themselves upon a Bay of the Sea right over against St. John D'ullua 8. Medellin another Spanish town built likewise by Cortez in memory of his own birth place which was Medellin a small town of Estramedura a Province of Spain Lastly St. John D'ullua a noted and the most usuall Port to all this Province and likewise to the City of Mexico it self from the North Sea but of difficult entrance especially to such as are not well acquainted with the passage or want Guides by reason of certain Rocks and quick-sands wherewith the mouth of the Haven is said to be barred but within the station is more safe It hath likewise two strong Bullwarks or Forts raised on either side of the entrance one to defend the passage 11. Guaxata hath on the North the Bay of Mexico on the South Mare del Zur on the East Jucatan and Chiapa which is one of the Provinces of Guatimala on the West Tlascalla The Country extendeth it self upon the South Sea about an hundred leagues in length but from the Sea to the borders of Tlascalla one hundred and twenty Eastward not above half so much having a good Aire and a Soil no less fruitfull especially in Mulberry trees and a great aboundance of Silks which the Country affordeth more than any other Province of America beside Nor is it less rich in Mines of gold and silver there being scarse a River in the whole Country but the sands of it are said to be tinctured more or less with that yellow Metal It yeeldeth likewise great plenty of Cassia and Cocchinele two rich Commodities and the People generally if they would takes pains might be the wealthiest 't is thought of any other in America but whether it be through any voluntary contempt of Riches or through any naturall sloathfullness as yet they seem to pine in the midst of plenty living for the most part of them little better than from hand to mouth nevertheless exceeding liberall of what they have especially to such as bear the habit of Religion and attend the service of their Souls maintaining in a plentifull and good manner as 't is said no less than one hundred and twenty Convents of Religious Men of several Orders in this only Province besides Hospitals Schools for the training up of Youth and other places of publique Charity It is subdivided into many particular Provinces which because they are many and but small in comparison of some other we may call Wapentakes or Hundreds rather than Provinces the principall whereof are these that follow viz. 1. Misteca 2. Tutepecque 3. Zapoteca 4. Guazacoalco 5. Gueztaxatla and 6. the Vally of Guaxata from whence Cortez after the Conquest of Mexico had his title given him by the Emperor Marquess of the Valley It is the richest and most pleasant part of the whole Province extended in a continued tract together full sixteen leagues or more lying about fourscore Southward of Mexico and wanting neither Mines of gold and silver nor any other of the prime and best Commodities of the New-World The towns of principall note inhabited by the Spaniards in this Province are first Antequera in the Valley aforesaid a stately Citie and beautified with a fair Cathedrall Church built with pillars of the finest Marble of great height and bigness 2. St. Ildephonso 3. St. Jago commonly called St. Jago of the Valley Nexatapa yet is it self a City fairly seated upon a Hill 4. Del Spirito Santo a town built
the Mines The only inconvenience which the Countrie seemeth to lye under is the aboundance of Serpents or Snakes which it breedeth there are some of them said to be twenty foot long or more and doe not a little infest the Natives who yet are not without a general Antidote or Remedy which the Countrie likewise naturally affordeth which is nothing else but the leaves of some of their trees dryed to powder of which they make a plaister of soveraign efficacie as 't is said against their venome and otherwise generally good for any old and inveterate sores The places of more principall note in this Countrie inhabited by the Spaniards are 1. Ciudad Real pleasantly seated in the midst of a round Vale or Plain and almost encompassed with Hills round about it in form of an Amphitheatre at the foot of one of which standing in the midst of the rest the City is built It is a Citie specially priviledged by the Kings of Spain of a pure and temperate Aire and the Country about plentifully abounding both in Corn and Fruit. 2. Chiapa which giveth name to the Valley aforesaid it is a Bishops Sea and famous if but for one of its Prelates viz. Bartholomaeus de las Casas of the Order of Preachers who was Bishop of this Citie and his memory justly precious among the poor Americans at this day for his Charity towards them and for the stout and zealous opposition which he made against the Spaniards cruel and inhumane dealings with the Natives at the beginning of their Conquests by which at last notwithstanding much difficulty and resistance made by interessed persons of the other side he procured them liberty and an Edict from the Emperor in favour of them whereby they were declared to be Free People and not Slaves and the Spaniards forbidden to use them any longer as such or to force them to any kinde of labour against their wills or otherwise than by agreement with them which liberty they enjoy to this day and though the Spaniaiards are said to give them very small wages in some places and for their work in their Sugar Mills which is no small labor not above five Royalls or two Shillings six Pence a week for the maintenance of themselves their Wives and Children yet by reason it is with their consent and in a Country where all things are plentifull and cheap their condition is much better than it was and the favour which that good Bishop did them never to be forgotten It is at present a great City and populous and lyeth almost in the middle way betwixt the Cities of Mexico and Guatimala 3. St. Bartholomews 4. Tecpatlan and some others belonging to the Natives 3. Vera paz or the Country of True peace was so named by the Spaniards as they say because it was never conquered by the Sword but reduced to obedience only by the preaching of the Dominican Friers It is bounded on the West and South-west with Chiapa on the East with some part of Guatimala and Honduras and on the North with Jucatan It Containes about thirty leagues length and almost as much in breadth being a woody and mountainous Country for the most part yet well distingushed with Valleys and lower grownd It is thought to be a little too much subject to rain which 't is said to have for nine moneths of the year almost continually by reason whereof the Country being otherwise hot is much anoyed with a kind of Mosquit or great sort of Gnatts which spoyle the fruit very much and are otherwise not a little troublsome to the people The chief Commodities of this Country are first a kinde of Amber which some call liquid Amber which drops from divers of their trees and is said to be a Commodity very precious and of much use Mastick Sazaparilla China wood and divers other Medicinall woods which it affordeth in great plenty But as for any Towns or places of much Traffique or note inhabited by the Spaniards I finde not any named save only St. Augustines neer unto which there is said to be a Cave and Fountain within ground which converts the water that falleth into it out of several lesser Springs into a kinde of Alablaster or stone perfectly white and fashions it likewise into pillars statues and other artificiall formes very curiously as Laet reporteth 4. Guatimala specially so called hath on the West the river Xicalapa which divides it from Vera paz On the East it is bounded with the Country of Nicaragua on the North with Honduras and on the South with Mare del Zur The Country by reason of its Neighbourhood with Vera paz not altogether clear of Mountains but otherwise well watered with Rivers and enriched with fair and fruitfull Valleyes which afford not only good pasturage and many great heards of Cattel but likewise good store of Wheate Maiz and other fruits of the Earth Great plenty of Cotton-Wooll generally both here and in the other Provinces viz. of Vera paz Chiapa c. some medicinall woods likewise and liquors and absolutely the best Sulfur of America The people generally tractable and well dispoed both in poynt of Religion and Civill Government The Towns of cheif note are 1. Guatimala otherwise called St. Jago de Guatimala the cheif City of the Province situate upon the banks of a pleasant River and in all respects convenient but for the Neighbourhood of two Vulcans as they call them at the West-Indies that is of certain Mountains which cast fire and smoak out of them more or less continually and with which about the year 1586. it was almost buried with ashes and burnt Earth which the one of them for the space of six moneths together continualled belched out in such fearfull quantity that many people were slain and the City received much damage by it There are many of these Vulcans in severall parts of America as namely at Arequipa in the Kingdome of Peru at Puebla de los Angeles in the Province of Tlascalla abovesaid a Mountain of so great height that they are said to goe little less than thirty leagues turning and winding before they can reach the top of it and others in severall other places They are generally Mountains of great height and running sharp upwards but at the top containing some quantity of plain and level grownd in the midst whereof is the pit or hole out of which aboundance of smoak and fiery ashes are vomited almost continually and so deep that they are supposed for the most part to reach to the very bottom of the Mountain Some of these Vulcans cast forth neither fire nor smoak yet are clearly seen to burn at the bottom with a quick fire and which is so extremely hot that it instantly melteth Iron or any other Metall that is cast into it as by experience hath been found For some conceiving that the matter which maintains these fires within the bowells of the Earth so long together can be nothing els but melted Gold have
this tract by which it was first discovered The Countrie is for the most part Mountainous and the Soil outwardly but barren but recompencing all defects with the aboundance of its more inward wealth I mean in the richness of its Mines of which it is said to afford many and so inexhaustibly rich and good that the Spaniards here know no end of their wealth although by reason of the stoutness and untamableness of the Natives it were a long time and they met with no small difficulties before they could make themselves masters of the Treasure The chief Towns they have here are 1. La Conception lying at the mouth of a River so named and the seat of the Governor 2. La Trinidad upon the banks of the same River likewise but more down towards Port Beleno and about six leagues Eastward of Conception 3. St. Foy twelve leagues more to the South where the Spaniards melt their gold and cast it into Bars or Ingots 4. Carlos a town they have upon the Coast of Mare del Zur 5. Philippina another on the West of Carlos both of these well seated upon a large and capacious Bay before which there lyeth a fry of certain little Islands to the number of thirty or more which the Spaniards are said to have wholly dispeopled long since by forcing the Natives over into the Continent to work in the Mines as usually they did before the Emperors prohibition but now they use Slaves or Negros which they buy for that purpose from Guiny and other parts CHAP. X. Of Peruana or the Southern part of America 1. THe Country of Peru understanding by it all that part of America which lyeth on the South of Darien is generally resembled to the form of a Pyramis reversed the Basis whereof that is as I conconceive the more Southerly parts of it towards Magellanica and the Streits extend themselves largely both East and West becoming more sharp and streit towards the North and those parts by which it is joyned to Mexicana in the whole it is supposed to contain a circuit of seventeen thousand miles at least and is watered with four of the greatest Rivers of the World beside aboundance of lessers streams which issuing from the Andes and other Mountains of the Countrie doe run from all parts both into the North and South Sea much fertilizing the Countries through which they pass The four principall are these 1. Orellana otherwise called the River of Amazons This riseth in the Province of Peru and runneth a course of little less than five thousand miles discharging it self at last into the North Sea through a channel as some say of threescore leagues broad and yet with such a violent current or stream that it is said to keep its natural colour and taste almost thirty miles in the Sea 2. Orenoque a River of the Province of Guiana whose head or spring is not yet discovered it is said to be Navigable a thousand miles together by the tallest ships and no less than two thousand by Pinnaces and smaller Vessels and dischargeth it self likewise into the North Sea by sixteen several channels or mouths making thereby several Islands some whereof are said to be of good bigness and to lye at a distance of one hundred miles or more one from the other 3. Maragnon a River of a yet larger course than any of the former being as 't is said no less than six thousand miles from its head which is out of the Andes in Peru to its fall which is likewise into the North Sea about Cape Blanco by a channel of seventy leagues in breadth 4. Rio de la Plata otherwise called Paraguay a River of two thousand miles course and falling as the rest into the North Sea by a channel of threescore miles over and about thirty four degrees Southward of the Line towards Magellans Streits This Southern part of America containeth these particular Provinces following all of them wealthy and large viz. Castella aurea or Golden Castile 2. Nova-Granada or the new Kingdome as they call it 3. Peru specially so called 4. Chile 5. Paraguay 6. Brasil 7. Guiana And 8. Paria with some lesser Islands adjoyning to all or most of these Provinces and commonly reckoned as part of them CHAP. XI Of Castella Aurea 1. CAstella del oro as the Spaniards call it or golden Castile taketh up all the rest of the Isthmus or streit of Darien which hath not been yet spoken of being bounded Eastward and to the North-East with the Atlantick Ocean and on the West with Mare del Zur and some part of Veragua Southward it hath the new Kingdom or Granada It is called sometimes Terra firma because it was one of the first parts of firm Land which the Spaniards touched upon after they had passed so many Islands as seemed for some time to block up and barre them from the Continent of America It is subdivided into these inferiour Provinces or Countries viz. 1. Panama 2. Darien 3. Nova-Andaluzia 4. St. Martha And 5. the little Province De la Hacha 2. Panama commonly called the District or Circle of Panama is bounded Eastward with the Gulf or Bay of Vrraba by which it is separate from the rest of the Continent of this Southern part of America on the West it hath Veragua one of the Provinces of Guatimala being on both the other sides washed with the Sea It is supposed to contain in length from Cartagena and Popayan to the confines of Veragua about fourscore or ninety leagues in breadth not above threescore in any part and where it is narrowest viz. betwixt the City of Panama and Nombre de Dios if measured by a right line not above six or seven over from Sea to Sea It lyeth almost under the Equinoctial line but a few degrees Northward of it and therefore somewhat hot and by the neighbourhood of both Seas subject to a foggy and gross Aire in comparison of some other parts so that it is not counted generally so healthfull a Countrie especially for strangers and in the Summer time The chief towns and places which the Spaniards inhabit here are 1. St. Philip otherwise called Porto Bello from the good Haven adjoyning to it A strong town and at present the staple of Trade betwixt Panama and Spain the Haven fortified likewise with two strong Castles notwithstanding which it was both surprized and well pillaged by the English under the Command of Captain Parker about the year 1601 and the Governour himself Pedro Melendez taken prisoner 2. Nombre de Dios so named by Didaco Niquesa a Spanish Adventurer who being driven by distress of weather and ready to be wracked bad his Men here get on shore en Nombre de Dios that is in Gods name The town was very well seated for Commerce and Trade at the beginning and enjoyed it for a good while but the place being found something less healthfull and otherwise obnoxious to Enemies at Sea the Trade and chief
unreduced Savages inhabiting the Mountain Tayrone and those other Mountains of this Province which the Spaniards call las Sierras Nievadas because their tops are perpetually covered with Snow 5. New-Salamanca in the same Valley of Vpar famous for its Brass Mines 6. Ocanna and others 6. Rio de la Hacha is the name of a little Province lyinging on the North-East of St. Martha washed on all other parts with the waters of the main Ocean or with the Gulf or Bay of Venezuela It taketh its name from a small Town called de la Hacha about a mile distant from the Sea having no convenient Haven but otherwise seated in a soile very rich and fertill not only of all sorts of Fruits and and Plants especially such as are brought from Spain but likewise in many Mines of Gold Gemmes of great size and value and many excellent Salt Wiches as they call them It is eight leagues distant from Salamanca aforesaid and eighteen from Cape Vela the most westerly Point or Foreland of the Bay of Venuezuela and with the rest had the hard hap to be surprised and pillaged by the English with Sir Francis Drake in the year 1595. 2. Rancheria six leagues Eastward of la Hacha inhabited cheifly by Pearl-fishers or such as get their living for the most part by fishing for Pearle which was wont to be good on these Coasts 3. Tapia and some others CHAP. XII Of New-Granada 1. THe new Kingdome of Granada as 't is commonly called was for the most part both discovered and conquered by Gonsalvo Ximenes about the yeare 1536 and with so good success that in less than a years space the whole Country was quietly setled under the Spaniards government and the Captain with his Small Company had made shift to gather together such a mass of Treasure as may seem almost incredible viz. from the Reguli or petty Princes of those Countries whom he had either destroyed or made Tributary Laet casteth up the summe thus one hundred ninty one thousand two hundred ninty four Pezos of absolute fine Gold thirty seven thousand of Gold less fine and eighteen thousand of the coursest sort of all Of Emralds great and small eighteeen hundred besides aboundance of other rich booty The Country is bounded on the North with Castella aurea aforesaid on the West with Mare del Zur on the East with Venezuela the Southern parts of it being not yet well discovered by reason of certain huge and unpassable Mountains which block it up wholly on that side save only where a passage is kept open into the Province of Peru specially so called It containeth in length about one hundred and thirty leagues and not much less in breadth being for the most part a very healthfull Country and abounding in Mines of the best sort of Metal beside others of Brass and Iron It is subdivided into these two Provinces viz. Granada specially so caland 2. Popayana 2. Granada specially so called is a Country of a very temperate and good aire neither subject to much heat nor to extremity of cold the reason of this may seem to be its neerness to the Line from which it is distant Northward but a very few degrees The Country exceeding fruitfull both of Corn and Cattel affording rich pasturage and many great heards of Cattel many good Mines as well of Gold as other Metals and in that part of it which is called Tunia as great plenty of the fairest sort of Emralds Some parts of it are woody and among other sorts very good both for Timber and Feuel there is one which the Natives call Guaiacum a medicinable wood and of soveraign use they say for those that are subject to the Lues Venerea and such like Maladies The People of the Country generally tall of stature and of a strong constitution but much more given to sport and pastime than to any kinde of labor or industry The Towns and places of cheif importance are 1. St. Foy commonly called St. Foy de Bagota which was the old name of this Province and to distinguish it from another St. Foy in the Country of New-Mexico as was said It is the Metropolis and Capitall City of this Province an Arcbishops sea and the ordinary residence of the Governor built by Gonsalvo Ximenes a Spaniard Native of Granada in Old-Spain upon the Lake called Guatavita and is inhabited at this present by above six hundred Families of Spaniards 2. St. Michael twelve leagues Northward of St. Foy and a well traded Town 3. Tocayma situate in the territory of the Panches which are a certain barbarous People of this Country not yet perfectly reduced and possessing not the worst part of it It is fifteen leagues distant from St. Foy towards the North-East being situate on the banks of Pati a small River a little above its confluence into the Magdalene 4 Trinidad seated on the banks of another River called Zarbi in a convenient place and good Soil and the Country about it richly abounding in Veins of Christall Emralds Adamants Chalcedonies and other Gemmes of good account 5. Tunia a strong Town built very advantagiously for defence on the top of an hill is both a Garrison and place of retreat against the Savages which somtimes infest this Tract and also well traded Empory 6. Pampelona 60 leagues from St. Foy to the North-east a rich place both for Mines of gold which it affordeth and also for great heards of Cattel which the Country breeds and maintains 7. La Palma 8. Merida the furthest Town of this Province North-eastward towards Venezuela On the South-east there is only St. Juan de los Lanos or St. John of the Plaines fitfy leagues distant from St. Foy but seated in a rich Angle of the Country and where there are good Veins of gold 3. Popayana the other part of this New-Kingdome is bordered on the West with part of Granada last spoken of from which the River St. Martha divides it for the most part On the North it hath Nova-Andalusia or Cartagena on the West Mare del Zur and on the South Quito or rather some unreduced Countries lying betwixt them both It extends in length above one hundred leagues from North to South but in breadth viz betwixt the River St. Martha and the South Sea not much above fourty or fifty The Country is said to be a little too much subject to rain yet not so but that the fertility of the soil answers the industry of the Inhabitants in most parts very well The places of chief note in it are 1. Popayan situate on the banks of a fair River but not named and in the midst of a Plain in a place of great wealth and enjoying a good aire It is a Bishops Sea and the ordinary Residence of the Governour of the Province 2. Antiochia otherwise called St. Fide s de Antiochia on the borders of New-Andaluzia and about one hundred leagues from Popayan 3. Caramanta seated likewise on the banks of the
the Coasts of the South Sea two hundred and fifty some say full three hundred leagues in length viz. from the Cape del Aguia Northward on the borders of Quito as far as Arequipa towards the South the soil reasonably fertil in all things as being much more equally divided into Hill and Plain Countrie and much better Peopled than some other Provinces The places most observable and important in it are 1. Miraflores as the Spaniards call it a well seated and wealthy Town in the Valley of Zanu five leagues distant from the Sea where it hath likewise a good Haven or Port. 2. Truxillo two or three leagues distant from the Sea the Haven whereof is said to be large but not so safe The Town it self is seated upon the banks of a pleasant River in the Valley of Chicama consisting of five hundred Families or more the Aire very healthfull and the Countrie thereabouts as fruitfull and good as any of these parts of America especially abounding in Corn Sugar-Canes and Cattel 3. La Parilla twenty leagues Southward of Truxillo in the Valley called Santa and well neighboured with rich Mines of silver lately discovered 4. Arnedo seated among the Vineyards of the Valley of Changay ten leagues from Lima northward 5. Lima by the Spaniards commonly called la Ciudad de los Reyes or the City of Kings so named because Pizarro who built it layd the first stone on Twelfth day 1553 which they call The Feast of the Kings It is seated in the Valley of Lima one of the fruitfullest parts of all Peru and so neatly built that all the chief streets of the Citie open upon a fair Market-place or Piazza of such a large square that upon the sides thereof are built in a stately and convenient manner the Cathedral Church and Palace of the Archbishop the Vice-Roys Palace and Courts of Justice with the Exchequer or publique Treasury the Town-House or place where the Citie Magistrates meet and hold their Courts the publique Armory or Magazine and divers other fair buildings of the Nobility and better sort of Citizens The whole City is environed round about with most delicate fields and pleasant gardens and scarse a Citizens house within but by the oportunity of a River which runneth by it is well supplyed with water Briefly as it is the Metropolis of Peru that is the chief and principall Citie for Authority and Dignity so is it likewise the chiefest for delight and wealth 6. Cullao this is the Haven or Port Town to Lima and but two leagues distant from it A Town of six or seven hundred Families all or most of them Sea-men and not a house in it but is well provided of Cellar-room and Stowage for Merchandise which is there received from all parts both coming from and going to the Sea It was with Lima it self surprized by Sir Francis Drake in the year 1579 and their Cellars searched as well as could be done in so short a time whereupon since it is said to be fortified with two strong Bulwarks a wall of earth and about thirty piece of Ordinance planted on the Works 7 Pachacama four leagues Southward of Lima memorable chiefly for Pizarros good fortune here who is reported to have found in one only old Temple of the Natives the quantity of nine hundred thousand Duckets of gold and silver beside what his Souldiers are supposed to have seiz'd on and conveighed away before he came 8. Guarco a Colony of three hundred Spaniards sixteen leagues to the Southward of Pachacama rounded with the best fields for Wheat in all Peru. 9. Valverde a great Town inhabited by five hundred Spaniards and though at sixteen leagues distance from the Sea yet well traded and rich The Valley wherein it lyeth and from which it taketh its name affording the best Vines of America 10. Castro-Verreina threescore leagues distant from Lima to the South East It lyeth in the Valley of Chocolocha and is a rich place by reason of the good Mines of silver which are about it and the aboundance of the best sort of Tobacco 11. Arequipa a pleasant and delightsome town in the Valley of Quilca one hundred and twenty leagues distant from Lima Southward of a temperate and fresh Aire a flourishing Soile and the Town very rich and frequented by reason that through it much of the silver of Potozi and divers other Mines thereabouts that is designed for Spain passeth yearly to be shipped for Panama at a Haven belonging to this Town though at a distance as som say of 10. or 21. leagues 12 Caxamalca more within land towards the North a place chiefly memorable for the imprisonment murder of Atabalipa the last King of Peru whom the Spaniards overthrew and took prisoner neer to this place and afterwards used as hath been said Lastly 13. Leon de Guanuco so called from the Territory wherein it standeth a rich and pleasant place being anciently a Palace of the Kings of Peru very magnificent and stately now likewise much beautified with Houses both of the Spanish and Peruvian Nobility some Convents of Religious men and a Colledge of Jesuites 6. Cusco is the farre greater part of the Province of Peru containing generally all the Sierra or Hill Countries and those parts of the Andes likewise which lye Southward of the little Province or Cantred of Guanuco being coasted Westward and to the North-west with Lima Eastward with Los Quixos and some part of Guiana and on the South with Charcas enjoying for the most part a temperate and good Aire neither over-heated with the scorching Sun in the day nor damped with any cold mists or dews in the Evening as some parts of the Plains of Peru are but well watered with many fresh Rivers which make the Valleys and lower grounds of it good pasturage and to maintain great Heards of Cattel The Woods especially stored with the Coca whose leafe is counted so restorative as we said Chap. 7. and with much excellent Venison The principall Towns and places of Trade in it are first Bombon situate upon a Lake called Chinchacocha said to be ten leagues in compass begirt round about almost with hills and neighboured with many other lesser but pleasant Villages 2. Parcos once a Palace Royall of the Inca's seated on the top of a little hill encompassed with other Rocky and higher Mountains on all sides 3. Guamanga called by the Spaniards St. Juan de la Vittoria a fair and well built City and an Episcopall Sea threescore and ten leagues distant from Lima Eastward 4. Bilcas another Palace of the Inca's now a good Town of the Natives and situate as is supposed in the very midst of the Countrie of Peru. 5. Guancavelica a new Town raised from the condition of a very poor Village to a place of very great importance and traffique only by the Mines of Quick-silver of which we spake Chap. 11. and which were first discovered there in the year 1566. It is now inhabited by two thousand
the most Southerly Town of the whole Province built in a certain Island within the Bay of Chilve and lastly towards Paraguay and Rio de la Plata there are the Towns Mendoza and St. Juan de la Frontera but they lye on the other side of the Andes fourty leagues distant from any of these we speak of and perhaps more and not above one hundred from Buenos Ayres and the Atlantick Ocean 3. Magellanica the other part of this Province is bounded Northward with Chile abovesaid and some parts of the Countries de la Plata on the South with the narrow-Sea called Magellans Streits having Mare del Zur on the West and on the East the Atlantick Ocean It contains in length from the borders of Chile to the mouth of the Streits about one hundred leagues and in breadth viz. from the North to the South Sea somewhat more viz. towards Chile and the North-west parts of it for towards the South and South-west it streightens still more and more insomuch that they which resemble the Southern part of America to the form of a Pyramis reversed makes this part of the Countrie to be the spire or top of the Pyramis It beareth the name of Ferdinand Magellan a Portughese who first discovered that narrow Sea so famously known by the name of Magellans Streits upon which it lyeth It is a large Countrie and supposed not to be altogether barren of Metals but as yet no great discoverie hath been made of it partly by reason of the excessive cold to which 't is thought to be subject and partly perhaps by reason of the difficulty of the enterprize it being so far remote and very hardly passable in many places by reason of the huge mountains the Andes which barre it as it were against all adventurers but chiefly by reason of the stoutness and untameableness of the Araucanes and other Natives of Chile through whose Countrie the march lyeth and who must first be conquered So that very little can be said more of this Countrie than only to name the Ports and places upon the Sea coasts at which the Spaniards and likewise some other Nations at several times have touched the chief whereof upon the South-Sea are first Cabo de las Islas a Promontorie or Foreland twenty six leagues distant from that of St. Felix on the confines of Chile 2. Puerto de San. Stephano fiftie leagues from that towards the South 3. La Valle de Nuestra Sennora or our Ladies Dale a large and secure Bay eighteen leagues Southward of St. Stephens 4. La Punta Delgada 5. Puerto de los Reyes 6. Ancona Sin Salida All of them Southward towards the Streits Then is there almost at the opening of the Streits Cabo de la Vittoria Cabo Desseado and some others Upon the North-Sea and up towards Rio de la Plata the chief places observed are first Rio de la Crux and the Cape which they call de las Rameras about thirty leagues distant from the Streits mouth 2. The Bay of St. Julian fourty leagues Northward of that 3. El Puerto Desseado 4. Puerto de los Leones 5. The Bay of Anegada All of them good and capacious Havens for the security of shipping upon these coasts and lying at a distance of thirty or fourty leagues one from another up towards Rio de la Plata and the Countrie of Paraguay of which we are next to speak As for the Streits themselves so much spoken of and likewise so necessary to be known by those who frequent these parts of the World they are a narrow Sea or Frith by which the Atlantick Ocean or rather some parts of it doth fall into Mare del Zur or the South Sea The passage is long running as 't is commonly supposed will nigh one hundred leagues together almost in a parallel line or in the same degree of latitude from one end to the other and likewise extremely difficult by reason of the many windings and turnings of the Sea which force them to be ever and anon altering of their course and a Mountainous high Countrie on both sides of it from whence it is almost continually beaten with storms both dangerous and terrible They were first discovered by Ferdinand Magellan by Nation a Portughese but in the service of the King of Spain and by him named Magellanes Streits who although himself lived not to return into Spain being slain in the conquest of the Moluccae Islands yet his companions did in the ship called Vittoria from whence the Cape de la Vittoria abovesaid took its name They lye at the mouth or entrance of them by the Atlantick Ocean in the fifty two degrees of Southern latitude and have not above fifty three and some minutes at their Exit or opening into the South-Sea There is likewise since this and of but late times viz. about the year 1615 another Streit discovered by the Dutch and called from the Discoverer Fretum or the Streits of le Maire four or five degrees more to the Southward than those of Magellan and supposed to be a much easier and safer passage The intention was by the discovery of these Streights to have found a shorter way to the East-Indies and the Kingdoms of Cathay and China than that which was then only used viz. by the Cape de Buena Speranza and the Coast of Africk and so they doe but by reason of the great difficultie and uncertaintie of the passage I suppose neither the one nor the other is much frequented the Spaniards for the most part serving themselves of their American Ports upon the South-Sea from whence they make their voyages and returns to and from the other Indies and from thence home to Spain and the English with other Nations of Europe trading still by the Coast of Africk and Cape of Good Hope or else by the way of Alexandria and the Persian Gulf as heretofore CHAP. XV. Of Paraguay or Rio de la Plata 1. WEe have seen in Magellanica the furthest that is the most Southerly part of the New-World and before it in order all the Western Coasts of America that lye either upon or towards Mare del Zur viz. from Panama the first Province of this Southern part down as far as the Streits We are now to return and take a view of the Eastern Coasts and those Countries which lye upon the Atlantick Ocean steering our course henceforth Northward not directly but as the Coast leads us for a while Eastward and by North for as much as the Land of America from the Streits of Magellan up as far as Brasil and almost to the Equator runneth out with a long Easterly point little less than three thousand leagues together The first Province we meet with on this side next to Magellanica is the Countrie of Paraguay oftentimes called Rio de la Plata from the name of an huge River which runneth for the most part through the midst of it It is bordered as we said to the South
and towards the Streits with Magellanica on the East with the Atlantick Ocean more Northward or to the North-East it hath Brasil and on the West those undiscovered Countries of the Province of Chile of which we spake The Countrie on both sides the River is reported to be a very lusty and fruitfull Soil bearing besides those which are proper and Native all sorts of European Fruits and Grain in great aboundance with Sugar-Canes as many great and good as any other Province of the New-World Nor is it excelled by any other Countrie for good pasturage and great heards of Cattel Sheep Swine In particular Horses are said to have so multiplyed here that of thirty Mares and about six or seven Stallions which the Spaniards left there in the space of fourty yeers the whole Countrie thereabouts towards the South was filled with the Breed of them running wilde in great companies together through all the Woods and Forrests of the Country and of excellent mettle and service if they could be tamed It affordeth likewise great store of wild Deer and Stags some Lions Tygers c. nor is it without good Mines some both of Gold and Silver but cheifly as to what is yet discovered of Brass and Iron and the People altogether Savage The River de la Plata which as we said divides the Country is one of the largest of the whole World rising as 't is supposed out of the Lake called de los Xarayes three hundred leagues or more within land and falling into the Atlantick or North Sea in thirty four degrees of Southern latitude with an Estuary or Mouth of thirty or two and thirty leagues over The whole Country is usually subdivided into three inferiour Provinces which are 1. Rio de la Plata properly so called 2. Tucuman 3. La Crux de Sierra 2. Rio de la Plata properly so called is that part of the Country which extendeth it self on both sides of the River in length many leagues together but not answerable in breadth and containeth these Towns of chiefest note and importance viz. 1. Buenos Ayres by some called La Trinidad on the Southern banks of the River de la Plata sixty four leagues they say from the Mouth of it It is seated commodiously at the foot of a little Mountain and fortified with a Mud-wall a little Castle and some pieces of Ordinance 2. Sta. Fe in English St Faiths fifty leagues above Buenos Ayres upon the same River and a richer place chiefly by reason of their cloath of which there is here one of the greatest Manufactures of all these parts of Peru. 3. Nuestra Sennora de la Assumption commonly called Assumption only lying yet higher up the River almost one hundred leagues a well built and well frequented Town said to be inhabited by two hundred Families at least of naturall Spaniards besides Mestizos as they call them which are the breed of Spaniards by the American People men or women and Mulattos which are likewise their Race but begotten upon Negroes of both which there are reckoned to be here some Thousands 4. La Ciudad Real or more commonly called Ontiveros fourscore leagues Northward from Assumption seated on the banks of the River Parana in a fruitfull Soil as the Country generally is about all these places but the Aire here not so healthfull 5. St. Anne upon the same River 6. St. Salvador 3. Westward of la Plata lyeth the Country of Tucuman extending it self as far as the borders of Chile a Country not yet well discovered either to the North or the South That part of it which lyeth toward Chile is well manured and husbanded and likewise very fruitfull But that towards Magellanicae neither the one nor the other remaining altogether untitled and barren The chief Towns and places of note are 1. St. Jago de Esteco the principall Town of the Province and a Bishops Sea seated upon the River Esteco one hundred and fourscore leagues distant from Buenos Ayres 2. St Michael de Tucuman seated at the foot of an huge rocky Mountain but otherwise in a Soil the fruitfullest and best both for Corn and Pasturage of all this Country twenty eight leagues distant from St. Jago 3. Talavera or Nuestra Sennora de Talavera as the Spaniards call it situate upon the banks of Salado in a good Soil and inhabited by an industrious People grown exceeding rich and wealthy cheifly by their Manufactures of Cotton-wooll whereof they have great plenty and by which they drive a Trade as farre as the Mines at Potozi and other parts of Peru. 3. Corduba another rich Town of this Province and of great trade as lying at an equall distance viz. of fifty leagues both from Sta. Fe as they call it or St. Faiths in the Province of La Plata abovesaid from St. Juan de la Frontera in the Country of Chile and almost in the road way from Potozi and those parts of Peru to Buenos Ayres and the North Sea There are likewise the Townes 5. Chocinoca 6. Sococha 7. Calebinda 8. Morata and others but belonging for the most part to the reduced Natives 4. Sta. Crux de Sierra is a little Territory at least in comparison to some others lying towards Peru and reckoned by some for part of the Province of Peru. It lyeth betwixt the two great Rivers of Paraguay and Guapay one hundred leagues distant as 't is said from Charcas to which yet in some causes it is subordinate The Soil of the Country abundantly fertill in all sorts of American Fruits besides good plenty both of Wheat and Maiz scarsity of nothing usefull for mans life unless it be fresh water in some places The chief Towns of it are 1. Sta. Crux situate at the foot of a great Mountain or Hill but opening upon a large Plain whose thirsty drieness is well refreshed by a certain Brook or Torrent which issueth out of a neighbouring Mountain a few leagues distant from the Town maketh a pretty Lake which supplyeth the Country thereabouts both with fresh water and fish good plenty 2. Barranea a Town supposed to be not above threesore leagues distant from Potozi 3. Nova-Rioia once a Colony of Spaniards but sacked and spoiled by the Savages of these parts about the yeare 1548 and the first Discoverer of the Country namely Nunno de Chaves treacherously murdered by a Native since which time 't is said to have been deserted CHAP. XVI Of Brasil 1. NOrthward of Paraguay or Rio de la Plata lyeth the Country of Brasil a large Province of this Easterly part of America and bounded to the East with Mare del Nort or the Atlantick Ocean on the West with the Andes On the North it hath the great River Maragnon which divides it from Guiana and on the South Paraguay It containes in length measuring by the Sea coast from North to South two hundred leagues and more but in breadth that is from the Andes to the Sea scarse half so much
of which likewise but a small portion is yet discovered and less possessed The Portugheses who are Masters of the Country holding only some few places towards the Sea with so much of the uplands as the Inhabitants thereabouts can use leaving all the rest to the Natives or such as will adventure further for it The Country is in some parts mountainous and well set with Forests and huge Woods yet generally of a Champaign and low ground commodiously distinguished and watered with good Rivers The Aire for the most part sound and healthfull being said to be very much cleered by certain fresh windes from the Southward which they have almost continually all along upon the coasts The Soil would be admirably fruitfull were it not for overmuch rain to which especially in some parts the Country is subject Nevertheless it is wonderfully plentious and aboundeth with sugar-Canes more than any other part of America beside the Portugheses here having their Ingenios as they call them or sugar-Mills up and down in all parts of the Country with many thousands of Slaves working in them which are brought them yearly out of Guiny Congo and other parts of Africk And 't is a merchandise doubtless of huge profit to them the Portugheses being supposed to transport one year with another only out of Brasil a hundred and fifty thousand Arrobes of fine sugar every Arrobe containing twenty five Bushels as some say of English measure There is likewise great quantity of that red wood which they commonly call Brasil-wood so much used both in England and other parts for dying of Cloath The Trees of this wood are said to be of such incredible bigness that whole Families of the Natives live upon or within an Arme of them and they are a principall Stowage and refuge for them when the Land is overflowed with waters as at some times of the year it happens to be and that unexpectedly on the sudden This Country is another Africk abounding with variety of many strange and prodigious creatures more than any other part of the New-World as may be seen in Authors especially Laet lib. 15. cap. 5. c. and the Natives generally no less savage and barbarous going for the most part naked eating Mans-flâ—sh the men cruel to extreamity and the women as wanton and immodest both of them especially more towards the Andes hairy all over like bruit beasts from whom they seem but little to differ save only in shape The Country is not as yet divided into Provinces or such nationall districts as the other parts of America generally are although there be found among them as many severall sorts of People and of different languages as in any other Country but into certain Prefectures or lesser Governments which the Portugheses have erected and setled only for the command and better securing of those parts which themselves hold in the Country They lie all of them towards the Sea coast and are reckoned to be about thirteen in number viz. 2. The Prefecture of St. Vincent bordering on Rio de la Plata and inhabited by the most civill People of Brasil where the Portugheses have these Towns of note viz. Los Santos at the bottom of a Bay or huge Arme of the Sea with an Haven belonging to it capable of ships of good burthen It lyeth two or three leagues distant from the main Ocean and was taken and held by the English under Sir Thomas Cavendish some two moneths together in the yeare 1521 but is now better fortified with a Wall two strong Castles and some pieces of Ordinance 2. St. Vincent not above four miles distant from Los Santos and better built only it hath not the benefit of such a good Haven 3. Itange 4. Cananea all of them southward of St. Vincent at some leagues distance 5. St. Paul situate upon the top of a Mountain or little Hill having a very curious prospect into the open fields both towards the East North and South westward it overlooketh a little Wood or Forest and is neighboured they say with very rich Mines of Gold in the Mountaines Pernapiacaba six or seven leagues distant 6. St. Philips on the banks of Iniambis a fair River of this Country The Prefecture of Rio de Janeiro a district of this Country once held by the French but taken from them by the Portugheses in the yeare 1558 and all the French put to the Sword It hath these Towns 1. Colignia so named from that famous Hugonot Gaspar Coligni Admiral of France by whose assistance and encouragement chiefly it had been peopled by the French being seated on a Bay of the River Janeiro 2. St. Sebastians a Town built by the Portugheses at the Mouth of the said Bay and fortified with four strong Bulworks 3. Angra de los Reyes twelve leagues distant from St. Sebastians westward beside some Burroughs of the Natives very populous but neither strong nor fortified The Prefecture del Spirito Santo one of the most fertil Prefectships of all Brasil plentifully stored with Cotton-wooll watered with excellent Rivers especially that which they call Parayba of a large stream and full of good fish The Prefecture it self is not very large as having one only Town of note in it inhabited by the Portugheses called likewise Spirito Santo but it hath two hundred Families at least in it and a very safe and commodious Haven belonging to it three or four leagues distant from the Sea The Prefecture of Puerto Seguro fifty leagues more to the North of Spirito Santo having these Towms viz. 1. Puerto Seguro it self seated as it were upon a Rock or Cliff towards the Sea side where it commands the Haven and contains in it about two hundred Families of Portugheses 2. Sta. Crux three leagues distant from Puerto Seguro 3. Amaro or St. Omars in America once a rich Town and well Traded by reason of the aboundance of sugar-Canes which the Countrie affordeth but since deserted as some say by the Portugheses not able to maintain the place and their trading against the Savages thereabouts who having kild likewise eaten most of the slaves at their sugar-Farms in the Countrie seemed to threaten no less to themselves The Prefecture Dos Ilheos as the Portugheses call it either from certain Islands which lye before it or from the principall Town called Ilheos seated upon a convenient Bay or Arme of the Sea about thirty leagues distant from Puerto Seguro to the North. There are said to be one hundred or one hundred and fifty Families of Portugheses in it and a few leagues from it more within land a Lake of ten or twelve leagues in compass well stored with good Fish especially those called Manati a dainty Fish for meat as hath been said and so big that as Laet reporteth some of them here are found of a thousand or eleven hundred pound weight and sometimes more The Portugheses hereabouts would quickly grow rich by the aboundance of sugar-Canes and good Cattel which the
Countrie breeds but for the Guaymuri as they call them which are a sort of Savages of Gigantine size and stature as they say much more fierce and cruel than others and which doe very much infest their quarters The Prefecture of Todos los Santos in english All Saints lying upon a goodly and spacious Bay called likewise the Bay of All Saints thirty leagues distant from Dos Ilheos abovesaid and is a very convenient and safe Harbour for shipping in those Seas which are sometimes not a little stormy and tempestuous It s a place very well fortified and especially memorable for a brave exploit performed there by Peter Heynes a Dutch man and Admiral of a squadron of States ships in the year 1627 who as 't is said only with his own ship the rest of his company not being able to follow him thrust into a Fleet of Spaniards of no less than twenty six sail that lay at Anchor in the Bay and having sunk their Admiral took all the rest at Mercy and carried them out with him in spite of some other ships that lay there and the Castle and above fourty pieces of Ordinance planted on the shore Their chief Towns are St. Salvador built on a little hill on the North side of the Bay It is a walled Town and fortified with no less than three strong Castles yet surprized by the Dutch in the year 1624 but lost again the next year following as they would make us believe by the treachery of some of their own companie The Prefecture of Fernambuck held to be one of the richest and best of the Countrie both for Tobacco Sugar and great quantity of Brasil wood which is yeerly brought from thence Their chief Towns are first Olinda the biggest Town and best Peopled of all Brasil containing by estimation above two thousand persons Portugheses not reckoning Ecclesiasticks and Religious men into the number of which yet there are many It lyeth toward the Sea side but upon such an uneven ground that it is not apt to be fortified otherwise then it is by Nature neither is the Haven so great as a Town of such Trading would require yet is it fortified with a Castle and some pieces of Ordinance The Castle and a great part of the suburbs along the Coast were surprized by the English under Captain Lancaster in the year 1595 and a rich prize of the chief Commodities of Brasil and India brought from thence and in the year 1630 the Town it self Castle and all taken by the Dutch who thereupon became Masters of this whole Prefecture which they held for many years together against the Spaniards but have since lost it wholly again to the Portughese 2. Garasa five leagues distant from Olinda a small Town but holding likewise some little Commerce with the Sea by the benefit of a River upon which it standeth 3. Amatta de Brasil 4. San. Lorenzo and some other Villages The Prefecture of Tamaraca so called from a little Island lying before it and part of its Precinct It is counted the first that is the most ancient Prefectship of Brasil having otherwise nothing in it that is very considerable save only a good Haven or Port with a Castle for the security and command of it held to be impregnable The Prefecture of Parayba so called from the chief Town of the Province upon the banks of the River S. Domingo and at the bottome of a Bay or Arm of the Sea by which ships of good burthen come up even close to the Town It s inhabited by above five hundred Portugheses a walled Town and likewise fortified with a Castle upon Cape Delo neer adjoyning to it The Prefecture of Rio Grande or the great River a small Precinct on the South-side of Rio Grande where it falls into the Sea It was once possessed by the French about the year 1597 who were outed by the Portugheses and the place fortified both against them and the Savages with a Castle which the Dutch in the yeare 1631 found an impregnable piece and too hard for them and besides this there is not much in the whole Prefectship that seems memorable The Prefecture of Siara in which they seem to have as little that is no Towns of note only a Castle and some few houses for those that attend the gathering of Cotton-wooll some Chrystal and other precious stones which the Countrie is said to afford The Prefecture of Maragnon This is an Island lying at the mouth of the great River Maragnon in the furthest parts of Brasil Northward The soil exceedingly fruitfull if there were any body to manure and husband it affording plenty of Maiz naturally and a certain other root which the Savages call Mariot and use likewise for Bread great store of Cotton-wooll sugar-Canes Saffron with the best sort of Tobacco not without some Balme and Amber watered with many fresh Rivers and springs well wooded both for Timber and Fuel and the Aire so exceedingly temperate and agreeable that no People in the World are generally longer liv'd than those of this Island being otherwise very strong and able of body healthfull of constitution never bald and the Women so fruitfull and lusty that they are said to beare Children many of them at seventy or eighty years of age The Men very curious in the Feather works of America and not a little industrious in the Manufactures of Cotton-wooll It lyeth some few degrees Southward of the Equator and containeth not in the compass of the whole Island above fifty or threescore leagues at most The French were once Masters of it viz. about the year 1612 when they built the strong Fort called St. Lewis upon the principall Bay or Port belonging to the Island and planted twenty two good pieces of Ordinance upon it and by the pains of some Religious men among them began to doe much good upon the Natives by reducing them to Civility and good Manners and instructing them in the true knowledge of God and of Christian Religion But were soon after viz. in the year 1614 driven out by the Portughese under the command of Hierom de Albuquerque who for the security of the Island against them and the Natives that took their part built those other two Forts which are called St. Maries and St. Francis and likewise two Towns more within the Island which he founded and Peopled naming the one of them St. Andrew which lyes towards the North and the other St. James towards the South And lastly the Prefecture of Para. This is the most Northerly part of Brasil bordering upon Guiana so called from the River Para which runneth through the midst of it upon which in a convenient place and upon raised ground the Portugheses have built a very strong Castle well walled on all sides save only towards the River where it is planted with Ordinance It is built in a Quadrangular form and hath at least 300 persons of the Portughese Nation beside the Garrison Souldiers belonging to it who
have all imployment enough about the Cotton-wooll sugar-Canes and Tobacco which the Countrie is said to afford in good plenty CHAP. XVII Of the Country of Guiana 1. NExt to Brasil towards the North lyeth the pleasant and fruitfull Countrie of Guiana supposed not improbably to be so called from the River Wia one of the principall Rivers of the Province which yet is said to have more and fairer than any other part of America beside It is bounded on the East with the Atlantick Ocean or Mare del Nordt on the West with the Andes or rather some undiscovered Mountainous Countries which lye between the one and the other On the North it hath the great River Orenoque and on the South that of the Amazons of Orellana The Countrie lyeth on both sides of the Equator extended from the fourth degree of Southern latitude to the eighth degree of Northern yet enjoyeth a temperate and good Aire not oppressed with any excessive heat which is chiefly attributed to the Brises or Easterly windes almost perpetually every day about noon blowing upon it Towards the Sea side it is for the most part a flat and level Countrie in the more Inland parts Mountainous and swelled with Hills but in all generally of such a rich and fertil Soil that for Fâ—uits or any outward Commodities of the Earth it yeelds not to any other Province of the New-World but rather farre excelleth the most having as it were a continual Summer without Winter or Autumn the Trees never uncloathed or made bare Fruits alwaies ripe or growing to maturity the Meadows and Pastures alwaies Verdant and green and as we said so excellently well watered with Rivers that no Countrie in the World seems comparable to it in this respect And by the principall of them it is divided into four inferiour or lesser Provinces which are 1. Rio de las Amazones 2. Wiapoco or Guiana properly so called 3. Orenoque And 4. the Islands of Guiana 2. Rio de las Amazones or the Countrie of Amazons containeth all that part of Guiana which lyeth on both sides of the River Orellana of a rich and good Soil generally abounding with all sorts of Fruits and especially with those which the Americans call Totock and love extremely out of an opinion they say that it excites them to Venery whereunto they are of themselves but too much inclined and of another which they call Pita of a taste fâ—â—re more delicious and pleasing and not so hurtfull as the other The Countrie was first discovered by Francisco Orellana a Spaniard from Quito but it was only by the River Orellana and though he be credibly reported to have sailed no less than eighteen hundred leagues down the stream and to have discovered a rich and fair Countrie on both sides the River well peopled with Natives and giving in divers places no small arguments of greater wealth and riches more within Land yet such was the bad success of his second indeavors and likewise of those that followed him that as yet there seems no further report to be given at least not of any thing special concerning this part of the Countrie 3. Wiapoco or Guiana properly so called taketh up the middle part of this Province being divided as the other almost into two equall parts by the River Wiapoco which runs through the midst of it The Countrie on both sides of the River very rich and fertil and so naturally apt both for sugar-Canes Cotton-wooll and Tobacco that they are said to grow here all of them very good without planting or any Art of Husbandry In this Countrie is likewise the famous Dâ—rada as the Spaniards call it or Citie of Gold if it could be found with the reports and hopes whereof some of our own Nation seem to have been not a little possessed as well as the Spaniards Nor can I much blame them for if the stories of it had prov'd true it must have been one of the goodliest and fairest Cities of the World not to speak of the wealth Diego de Ordas the Spaniard who first brought news of it to his Countrimen being said to have travelled one whole day and half another in it before he could arrive at the Kings Palace which yet must be supposed to have stood but in the midst of the Citie But for ought appears if the indeavors of future times effect nothing more in the discovery of it than former have done it must pass for the Metropolis of Vtopia still as I think most men take it to be Places of less Magnificence but more Certainty are first Caripo This was once a Colony of English setled there by Captain Robert Harcourt in the year 1608 upon the banks of Wiapoco and not farre from the mouth of it being a place by advantage of a Rock which it hath on the one side of it of good strength and very difficult access the Aire about it sound and said to be very agreeable to English bodies 2. Gomaribo a Colony formerly of the Dutch on the North-west side of the Bay of Wiapoco but since deserted by them 3. Moyemon 4. Crewinay both of them Towns of the Natives not farre distant from the other 4. Orenoque or the third devision of this Province comprehendeth the most Northerly parts of Guiana lying upon or towards the banks of this famous River A Countrie likewise reported to be very rich and comparable to Peru it self for hidden Treasure which they say is not yet discovered only for want of diligent and industrious searching The places in it already known are only 1. Coniolaba as they call it which seems to be some Town of the Natives lying a few leagues distant from the Orenoque towards the South 2. Movequito a known Port or Haven Town upon a branch of the Orenoque much frequented and of great use to the English when they discovered those coasts 3. Wenicapora And lastly St. Thome the only Town which the Spaniards hold upon this part of the Continent situate upon the principall Channel of the Oâ—enoque and consisting of two hundred Families or thereabouts It is now a fortified place and was taken by Sir Walter Raleigh in that unfortunate Action of 1617 for which the year following though by vertue of an old attainder as some say he lost his head 5. The Islands that belong and are commonly reckoned as parts of Guiana are either such as lye scattered about the shore of the Province or such as are found at the mouth and sometimes farre within the Channel of those great Rivers which empty themselves at several parts out of this Countrie into the Sea viz. Orenoque Wiapoco Rio de las Amazones c. There are many of them but of any great name or esteem only two viz. Trinidado and Tabagâ— Trinidado lyeth at the mouth of the River Orenoque over against the Countrie of Paria from which it is separated by a Fryth or narrow Sea which Columbus at his first discovery of it and from the difficulty
of the passage by reason of some lesser Islands scattered up and down in the Channel and through which the Sea breaks with a great deal of force called Boca del Dragro or the Dragons mouth It lyeth betwixt the ninth and tenth degrees of Northern latitude accounted to be in length about 24. or tweny five leagues and about eighteen in breadth of a cloudy and less pleasant aire yet the Soil good and aboundantly well stored with all Commodities of the natural growth of America viz. Maiz sugar-Canes Cotton-wooll and the best sort of Tobacco good quantity of Fruits also and of Cattel some veins of gold and of a kinde of Pitch which they digge out of a Mine such plenty that as many ships as could come might lade themselves with it and is said to be good in all other respects except only that it will not endure the Sun The chief Town of this Island is called St. Josephs situate on the banks of a little River which they call Carone on the South side of the Island which was likewise taken by Sir Walter Raleigh in the year abovesaid and in it the Governour Antonio Berreo who to procure his liberty or fair treating at Sir Walters hands is thought to have furnished him with some relations concerning Guiana more liberally than otherwise he needed Tabago lyeth Eastward of Trinidado and divided from it by a little Sea of eight miles over said to have for the bigness of it as many safe Harbours belonging to it as any Island of America The Dutch of late years have named it Niew-Walacheren and are said to frequent it but for what special Commodities or reason doth not appear CHAP. XVIII Of Paria or New-Andalusia 1. THe last but not the least Province of the Southern America is the Country of Paria by som called Nova-Andalusia but for what reason or resemblance with Andalusia of Old-Spain they doe not tell us This Country lying as it doth brings us back again by the Eastern Coast to the Isthmus or Streit which as we have often said joyns the two parts of the Continent of America together at least to those Countries that lye next upon it to the South viz. the new Kingdome of Granada c. It hath on the East Guiana and those Islands which lye about the mouth of Orenoque on the West the Gulf or Bay of Venezuela with some part of the New Kingdome abovesaid on the North it is washed with the Atlantick Ocean and hath on the South some Countries not yet discovered toward the Andes The whole consisteth partly of Continent and partly of Islands neer adjoyning to it and is commonly divided into five several Precincts or parts which are 1. Cumana 2. Venezuela 3. Margarita 4. Cubagna And 5. some lesser Islands 2. Cumana is bounded Eastward with the Gulf of Paria and the River Orenoque on the West with Venezuela Northward it hath the Atlantick Ocean and on the South those undiscovered Countries above mentioned containing in length two hundred leagues or more as some say and not much less than one hundred in breadth but for ought appears little of it planted or used save only upon the Sea side where the Coast hath formerly been much famed for the rich Trade of Pearls and Pearl-Fishing which failing its principall esteem now is for an excellent vein of Salt which they digg here as out of a Mine and gather it naturally made ready to their hands not half a mile from the Sea side on the back-side of the Promontory or Cape called by some Punto de Araya and by others for this reason Cape de Salinas Places of chiefest consideration here are 1. Cumana it self a Colony of Spaniards seated on the banks of a little River two miles distant from the Sea where it hath a good Harbour 2. St. Jago a very strong fortress which the Spaniards of late yeares have built for the defence and security of the Salt-works against the Dutch who began to trade much that way and in the yeare 1622 had a design to have made themselves Masters of the Place 3. St. Michael de Neveri another Fortress of theirs upon a River so called 4. Guaniba a Town of the Natives 3. Venezuela the prineipall part of this Province is bordered on the East with Cumana on the West with a great Gulf or Bay commonly called the Bay of Venezuela with the Lâ—ke Maracabo and some part of New-Granada Nothward it hath the Ocean or Atlantick Sea southward some undiscovered Countries which as we said lye betwixt the Andes and it It stretches out in length from East to West one hundred and thirty leagues or thereabouts but in breadth little more than half so much being named Venezuela or Little Venice by Alonso de Oyeda a Spaniard who at his first discovery of the Country fell upon a Town of the Natives which stood like another Venice all upon the waters and having no passage to it but only by Boats It s a Country extraordinary rich in all sorts of Commodities affords good Pasture for Cattel and aboundance of fair heards of them Oxen Sheep Swine c. plenty of Corn and other Grain great store of Venison likewise in the Woods of Fish in the Rivers Gold in the Mines and therefore not likely but to be well peopled and inhabited especially by the Spaniards whose Towns and places of chief importance are these viz. 1. Venezuela at the most westerly Confines of the Country built upon the Sea with the advantage of a double Haven in a temperate and good Aire and Soil round about it the richest and best of the whole Province It is now a Bishops Sea who is Suffragan to the Arch-Bishop of St. Domingo in Hispaniola and the ordinary Residence of the Governour 2. Caravalleda called by the Spaniards Nuestra Sennora de Caravalleda fourscore leagues distant from Venezuela toward the East upon the Sea likewise 3. St. Jago de Leon in the Country of Caracas four or five leagues southward of Caravalleda and six or seven distant from the Sea 4. New-Valentia twenty five leagues distant from St. Jago 5. New-Xeres a Town but lately built fifteen leagues southward of New Valentia 6. New-Segovia but one league distant from Xeres 7. Tucuyo a place well known and frequented for the aboundance of Sugar which is made there and in the Country round about it 8. Truxillo or our Lady de la Paz eighteen leagues southward of the Lake Maracaybo a place of great resort and much frequented for trade both by Spaniards and Natives 9. Laguna a Town lying more towards the bottom of the Lake said to be much haunted with Tygres and more than this not much is said of it 4. Margarita is an Island lying right over against the Salinas or Cape de Araya afore mentioned seven or eight leagues distant from the Main-land and taking its name from the aboundance of Pearles found about it when time was It containes not above fifteen or sixteen leagues
of the chiefest Rivers of the Island is still said to be much haunted with Crocodiles that are very dangerous to strangers unacquainted with the Country and to any that rest or sleep neer the banks of the River 2. The Towns and places of chief importance belonging to this Island are 1. St. Jago seated at the bottom of a large and capacious Bay on the South-side of the Island two or three leagues distant from the Sea and counted the chiefest Port on that side It is a Bishops sea and once a very populous and rich place of trade but at present not a little decayed only for want of Inhabitants who are advanced more up into the Continent having left the Islands behinde them more than half empty Neer unto this place viz. about three or four leagues distance are those famous Mountains which the Spaniards call Sierras de Cobre or the Brass Mountains from the aboundance of that Metal which the Mines in them doe still afford 2. Baracao thirty leagues Eastward of St. Jago toward the Sea 3. Bayamo or St. Salvador seated more within land in a rich and pleasant part of the Island but not so commodious for trade 4. Puerto del Principe on the North side of the Island fourty leagues distant from St. Jago neer to which saith Laet there is a Fountain which sendeth forth a liquor of a Bituminous substance and black as Pitch very good and much used in those parts for the calking of Ships and gathered in great abundance upon the Sea into which it falleth and is sometimes digged also as out of a Mine 6. La Trinidad nine or ten leagues Eastward of the Bay of Xagua Lastly 6. Havana the most known and best traded Port absolutely of all these parts and and perhaps of the whole Continent lying at the most northerly point of the Island towards Cape Florida a place naturally strong and so well fortified by Art that it is held impregnable The entrance whereof is defended on each side with a strong Castle and a stronger than either built right opposite to the Mouth of the Haven and all of them so commodiously and advantageously situated for the defence and assistance of each other as 't is said nothing can be devised better Close to one of them there is erected a watch-Tower of such height that from the top of it they easily descry whatsoever Ships move upon those Seas and give notice of them to the Guards being thereby a very great assurance not only to the Inhabitants of this place and Island but also to the whole Bay of Mexico And is therefore the ordinary Seat of the Governour and the generall Rendezvous of the Spanish Ships when they goe home for Spain meeting heer from all parts of the Gulf and tarrying one for another till all be come in and from thence setting sail for Spain through the Sreits of Bahama and by some of the Leucayae Islands above mentioned It is likewise a very strong Garrison it being said that the King of Spain allowes pay for no less number than 1000. Souldiers only for this place Jamaica is somewhat a lesser Island lying Southward of Cuba and to the West of Hispaniola almost at an equall distance viz twenty leagues from them both They reckon it to be in length about fifty leagues or more in breadth twenty and to contain in the whole about one hundred and fifty of a rich and fertil Soil and in nothing less provided for the necessities of mans life than either Hispaniola or Cuba well stock'd with Cattel and as plentifully stored with Fruits of all sorts yeelding abundance of Cotton-wooll more than either of the other Islands only it wanteth the conveniency of some good Havens and Ports which it hath but few and the Sea round about it so shelvy and full of Rocks and broken Islands that the coast of it is held to be not a little dangerous and therefore as little frequented by Merchants or others There being at present three only small Towns inhabited in the whole Island viz. 1. Sevilla or New-Sevill in the North parts of the Island 2. Melilla ten leagues distant from Sevill towards the East And lastly Oristan 14. leagues distant from it towards the South FINIS Errata PAg. 4. for their read there p. 26. for degrees r. leagues p. 37. for abstenious r. abstemious p. 43. for de bios r. de Dios p. 48. for Philirpine r. Philippine p. 106. for rending r. trending p. 154. for cleerer r. cleer p. 166. for times r. time p. 171. for dusty r. dusky p. 176. for Ovil r. Oval p. 192. for in line r. in a line p. 208. for unparalled r. unparalleld p. 217. for more r. no more p. 234. for Catha r. Cathay for Duch r. Dutch p. 235. for there and some r. there are some p. 239. for enquire of r. enquire p. 242. for though r. thought p. 243. for Georges bay r. St. Georges bay p. 344. for Role r. Rose p. 369. for these r. those p. 419. for thirty thousand r. three thousand p. 437. for Dragro r. Drago Books printed and to be sold by Edward Dod at the Gun in Ivie-Lane AN entire commentary on the old Testament in four Volumes wherein the divers translations and expositions literal and mystical of all the most famous Commentators both ancient and modern are propounded examined and Judged off for the more full satisfaction of the Studious in all things which compleateth the Authors Comment on the whole Bible the like never yet published in english by any written by John Mayer D. D. in folio Natures Paradox an excellent Romance in quarto translated by Major Wright Lucasta Epodes Odes Sonnets Songs by R. Lovelace Esquire in Octavo The Life and death of Mr. Carter with a funerall Sermon in Octavo The Joviall Crew of Merry Beggars by R. Brome in quarto The Deputation of Angels or the Angel Guardian proved by the dim sight of Nature by Robert Dingly in Octavo The Reign of King Charles faithfully impartially delivered and disposed into Annals by H. L. Esquire
they met with as namely 1. Porto de St. Clara neer to the mouth of the River which they call Rio del Nordt 2. Las Playas 3. St. Michael 4. Lago del oro which bordereth on Quivira And lastly El Rey Coronado Eastward of that 5. Califormia specially so called is by many thought and described to be but a Peninsula or half Island by reason that the Bay which divides it from Quivira and New-Gallicia towards the North runneth much narrower than it doth Southerly which made them think that somwhere or other at the North it was joyned to the main-Land of America But later discoveries have found it to be a perfect Island and altogether separate from the Continent For about the yeer 1620 some Adventurers beating upon those coasts Northward accidentally and before they were aware fell upon a Streit the waters whereof ran with such a Torrent and violent course that they brought them into Mar Vermiglio whether they would or no and before they knew it and by that means discovered that Califormia was an Island and that the waters which were observed to fall so violently into that Sea towards the North were not the waters of any River emptying it self into the Bay from the main-Land as was formerly thought but the waters of the North-west Sea it self violently breaking into the Bay and dividing it wholly from the Continent It lyeth North and South extending it self in a vast length full twenty degrees of latitude viz. from twenty two to fourty two but the bredth nothing answerable The most Northern point of it is called Cape Blanche that to the South Cape St. Lucas memorable for that rich and gallant prize which Captain Cavendish in the year 1587 being then in his voyage about the World took from the Spaniards neer to this place As for the Island it self it is not at all inhabited by the Spaniards whether it be that they want men to furnish new Plantations or that they finde no matter of invitation and encouragement from the Countrie or perhaps that the access thither be not so easie For 't is reported to be wonderfully well peopled by the Natives and that there were found only upon the coasts and along the shore of Mar Vermiglio twenty or twenty three Nations all of different languages The Countrie aboundantly well stored both with Fish and Fowl as appears partly by the Natives who take an huge pride in making themselves gay with the bones of the one with which they load their eares and sometimes their noses also and with the feathers of the other which ordinary People weare only sticking about their waste but great persons and such as will be fine indeed beset their heads strangely with them and have coÌ„monly one bunch of them bigger than ordinary hanging down behinde them like a tayle Having no knowledge of the true God they worship what the Devill will have them that is the Sun attributing to it only the increase of their Fruits and Plants healthfull Seasons and most of the other good they enjoy or are sensible of Their government is said to be only Oeconomicall each Father ordering the affairs of his Familie apart without subjection to any other superiour yet so well managed that they live in good peace one with another not without many good Laws and Customes viz. That they allow but one wife to one Man That they punish Adultery with death That they suffer not Maids to talk or converse with Men till they be married That Widdows may not marry till they have mourned at least one half of a year for their Husbands deceased and divers others of like nature which perhaps if the truth were known doe more properly belong to the Natives of Vtopia or New-Atlantis then to these of Califormia 6. The places therein as yet most observed are only upon the Sea Coasts viz. the Capes St. Clara and St. Lucas the one at the South-East of the Island looking towards New-Gallicia the other at the South-west looking into the Sea and towards Asia 2. St. Cruce This is a large and convenient Haven not far from Cape St. Clara. 3. Cabo de las Playas more within the Bay 4. St. Andrews another convenient Haven upon an Island of the same name 5. St. Thome an Island at the mouth of the Gulf or Bay of about twenty five leagues in compass rising Southerly with an high mountainous point under which is a convenient road for shipping and twenty five fathoms of water On the other side of the Island towards the main Sea there is first St. Abad a good Haven and almost surrounded with a pleasant and fruitfull Countrie 2. Cape Trinidado 3. Cape de Cedras 4. Puebla de las Canoas from the aboundance of those little Boats which the Americans generally use and doe call Canoes whereof perhaps some store is made there 5. Cabo de Galera and some others 7. Nova-Albion is only the more Northerly part of this Island reaching from the thirty eighth degree of latitude up towards the North as far as Cape Blanco first discovered by Sir Francis Drake in his Circumnavigation of the World in the year 1577 and by him named Nova-Albion in honour of England his own Countrie which anciently bore that name They found the Countrie exceedingly well stored with Dear grazing up and down the Hills by thousands in a company The Men generally goe naked all over the Women using only a piece of a mat or some such thing instead of an Apron Their houses built only of Turf and Osier yet so wrought together that they served very well to keep out the cold in the midst of it is their hearth where they make their fire and lye al round about it together upon several Beds of Bulrushes What their Towns are or whither they have any is not yet discovered When the English first landed in those parts under Sir Francis Drake the Natives of the Countrie immediatly presented themselves to the General bringing him fine presents of Feathers and some Kâ—lls of Net-work made of Rushes and the news of their arrivall being spread up into the Countrie it was not long before the King himself came and gave them a visit He was a person of goodly stature cloathed all over with certain Conie skins of that Countrie the furre whereof is exceeding smooth and fine and the only Robe of Nobility there He had many other tall men attending on him and one that went before him bearing somewhat instead of a Mace at which there hung three Crowns by so many chains the Crowns were made of Feathers the Chains of Bone both of them very ingeniously wrought After these followed a great multitude of the common sort of People but none of them without his present of something or other even to the very Boys The King would needs have the Crowns put upon the Generals head and the Chains about his neck to which he consented and by that Ceremonie promised in the name and behalf of the