all things were renewed and repaired againe as if there had never beene any such desolation Revenue of the Crowne of France exceeding great The Revenue of the Crowne of France is exceeding great by reason of the Taxes and Impositions which through the whole Kingdome are layd upon the subjects for their Sizes and Toules doe exceed all Imposts and tributes of all the Princes of Christendome in as much as there are few things there used but the King hath a commodity issuing out of them and not onely from matters of Luxury as in other States but from such things as be of necessity as Flesh Wood Salt c. It is supposed at this day that there be in the Kingdome thirty thousand men who are Vnder-officers and make a good part of their living by gathering of the Kings tribute This is much increased no doubt in these latter times but yet of old it was in so great measure which caused that speech of Maximilian the Emperour as Iohannes Aventinus witnesseth de Bello Turcico who said that the Emperour of Germany was Rex Regum meaning that his Princes were so great men The King of Spaine was Rex hominum because his people would obey their Prince in any reasonable moderation The King of England was Rex Diabolorum because the subjects had there divers times deprived their Kings of their Crownes and dignitie But the King of France was Rex asinorum in as much as his people did beare very heavy burthens of taxes and impositions In France the offices of Iustice bought and sold In this Kingdome of France is one great miserie to the subjects that the places and offices of Iustice are ordinarily bought and sold the beginning whereof was this Lewis the 12. who was called a Father of the Country began to pay the debts of his predecessour Charles the 7. which were very great and intending to recover unto France the Dukedome of Millaine and minding not to burden his people further than was need thought it a good course to set at sale all the Offices of the Crowne but with the places of Iustice he did not meddle But his successors after him tooke occasion also to make great profit of them witnesse the Author contra Machiavel lib. 1. cap. 1. By the customes of that Countrey The Custome of France for mustering and pressing Souldiers the King of France hath not that absolute power to muster and presse out Souldiers as in England and some other places of Christendome the Princes have But the manner is when the King will set forward any Military Service he sendeth abroad his Edicts or causeth in Cities and good Townes the Drum to be strucken up and whosoever will voluntarily follow he is enrolled Notwithstanding he wanteth few Souldiers because the Noble and Gentlemen of France doe hold it their dutie and highest honour both to attend the King unto the warres and to beare their own charges yearely for many moneths The person of the King of France hath in former time beene reputed so sacred that Guicciardine saith of them that their people have regarded them in that respect of devotion as if they had beene de mi-gods And Machiavel in his Questions upon Livie saith that they doted so upon their Kings that they thought every thing did become them which they did and that nothing could be more disgracefull than to give any intimation that such or such a thing was not well done by their King But this opinion is now much decayed the Princes of the bloud are in the next ranke under the King himselfe Paris the chiefe City of France There be many and very rich goodly Cities in France but the chiefest of all is Paris called Lutetia quasi Luto sita as some have merrily spoken which place is especially honoured first by the presence of the King most commonly keeping Court and residence there secondly by the great store of goodly houses whereof part belong to Noble men and part are houses of Religion thirdly by the Vniversity which is incomparably the greatest most ancient and best filled of all France fourthly in that it is the chiefe Parliament City of that Kingdome without the ratification of which Parliament at Paris Edicts and Proclamations comming from the King are not held authenticall fiftly by the great traffique of all kinde of Merchandize which is used in that place The Parliament Cities in France are places where their Termes are kept and in severall provinces are 7. unto which the causes of inferiour Courts within their distinct Provinces may be brought by appeale but the Parliament of Paris hath that prerogative that appeales from all Courts of the Kingdome doe lie there That which we call our Parliament in England is amongst them tearmed Conventus Ordinum or the States The kingdome of France divided into three parts France in ancient time as Casar reporteth in the first of his Commentaries was divided into three parts Aquitania which was towards the West Celtica towards the North and West and Belgica which is towards the North. Belgium is sometime called Gallia inferior and sometimes Germania inferior but wee commonly call it the Low-Countries the governement whereof at this day is not at all under France but Gallia Celtica and Aquitania are under the French King Gaules the ancient inhabitants of France The ancient inhabitants of this Countrey were the Gaules who possessed not onely all that we now call France being the greatest part of that the Romans called Gallia Transalpina but also a good part of Italy which they call Gallia Cisalpina a people whose beginnings are unknowne this of them is certaine that they were a Nation of valour for they not onely sackt Rome but also carried their conquering armes into Greece where they sate down and were called by the name of Gallogrecians or Galathians Some report also that they entred into Spaine and subdued and inhabited that part which was called Lusitania now Portugallia but howsoever their former victories and greatnesse they were by Julius Caesar subdued and made a province of the people of Rome and so continued under the Roman Empire till about foure hundred yeares after Christ when in the ruine and dismembring of the Roman Empire the French invaded Gaule and erected a Monarchie which hath continued to this day in the succession of sixty foure Kings of three severall races that is to say the Merovingians Carolovingians and Capevingians about twelve hundred yeares and now flourisheth under Lewis the 13. the now raigning King of France Although the French have done many things worthily out of their owne Countrey in the East against the Saracens although they have for a while held Sicily the Kingdome of Naples and the Dutchy of Millaine yet it hath been observed of them that they could never make good their footing beyōd the Alps France one of the strongest kingdomes in all Europe or in other forraigne Regions howbeit in it selfe France is one of the
strongest kingdomes in all Europe at this day That which wee commonly call the Low-Countries Of the Low Countries containing 17 severall Provinces containeth seventeene severall Provinces wherof the most part have severall Titles and Governours as the Dukedome of Brabant the Earledome of Flanders c. Of which the inheritance at severall times did fall on Daughters who being married unto the Heyre of some of the other Provinces did in the end bring the whole Country into one entire governement which was commonly called by the name of the Dukedome of Burgundy and yet so that in the uniting of them together it was by composition agreed that the severall Provinces should retaine their severall ancient lawes and liberties which is the reason yeelded why some of those Provinces in our age thinke themselves freed from obedience unto the King of Spaine Note unto whom by inheritance they did descend because he hath violated their liberties to the keeping wherof at the first composition he was bound When this whole Country did belong unto the Crowne of France the Dukedome of Burgundy was bestowed by Philip de Valois King of France unto Iohn de Valois a yonger sonne of his from whom by descent it came at last to Charles the Bold otherwise Proud Duke of Burgundy who left one onely daughter and she was married to Maximilian the Emperour of the house of Austria from whom the inheritance descended unto Charles the fifth Emperour who yeelding it over to his sonne Philip the second did charge him to intreat that people well which he forgetting to doe under pretence of rooting out the profession of Religion did intangle himselfe and all that Country with a very long bloudy and wearisome warre The riches of the States in Generall There is no part of Europe which for the quantity of the ground doth yeeld so much riches and commodity as the Low-Countries doe besides their infinite store of shipping wherein they exceede any Prince of Christendome They were in time past accounted a very heavy dull people and unfit for the wars but their continuall combating with the Spaniards hath made them now very ingenuous full of action and managers of great causes appertaining to fights The names of the 17. Provinces either by Sea or Land The 17. Provinces are these Brabant Gelderland Artois Valencois Luxenburg Flaunders Henault Lile Namurce Holland Zeland Tornabum Tornacetium Mechlin Vtrecht and the East and West Freezeland France hath many petty governments that doe border upon it as the Dukedome of Savoy the State of the Switzers the Dukedome of Loraine the Burgundians or Walloons against all which the King is forced to keep his frontier Towns The Salike Law There is nothing more famous in this kingdome than the Salique Law whereby it is provided that no woman nor the heire of her as in her right shall injoy the Crown of France but it goeth alwayes to the heire male The author of the Commentaries against Machiavel reputeth it a great blessing of God that they have the Salique law in France and that not so much saith he because women by the infirmity of their sex are unfit to governe for therein many men who have enjoyed kingdomes have been and are very defective but because by that meanes the Crowne of France is never indangered by marriage of a forraigner to come under the subjection of a stranger And this is the opinion of Philip de Comines in the 8. Booke of his Commentaries This Law is very ancient among them so that it cannot certainly be defined when it was enacted but by vertue therof By this law Eâ—w the 3. King of England was put by the Crowne of France Edward the third King of England and his Heyres were cut off from inheriting the Crowne of France whereunto by marriage of a daughter hee was heire in generall And by reason of this Law Henry the fourth late King of France rather injoyed that Dominion than the Sonne of the Duke of Loraine who was neerer of bloud by descending from the Elder daughter of King Henry the second The Switzers government The Switzers are a people called in old time Helvetij who have no Noblemen or Gentlemen among them but onely the Citizens of their Townes the yearely Officers whereof and their Councell do governe their State 23 Cities or Cantons in Switzerland There are in Switzerland 23 Cities or Townes which they call their Canton although some rather thinke that name properly doth signifie the Rulers of those townes and of them some doe retaine to this day the Romish Religion but some others have embraced the Gospell The Countrey where they live is not very fertile and being far from any Seas they have no vent for their people but by sending them forth as hired Souldiers which for their pay doe fight oftentimes in Italy and France and sometimes in Germany Geneva Neare unto one part of them standeth Geneva which is challenged by the Duke of Savoy to have heretofore belonged to his Dominion but they pretend themselves to be a free City and by the helpe of Protestant Princes but especially by some of the Helvetians doe so maintaine it In this place there is a rare Law that if any malefactor A rare and excellent Law who hath fled out of his owne Country be convinced of any grievous crime he suffereth there as if he were in his owne Countrey which they are forced to doe because their Cities would be full of all sorts of Runnagates in as much as they stand on the Confines of divers Princes and States Of Germany THe next Countrey unto France on the East side is Germany Germany how bounded which is bounded on the West with France and the Low-Countries on the North with Denmarke and the Danish Seas on the East with Prussia Polonia and Hungary on the South East with Istria and Jllyricum on the South with the Alpe-hils and with Italy The Governour generall of this Country The Emprour governour of Germany Who be the 7. Electors is called the Emperour of Germany who is chosen by three spirituall Princes the Archbishop of Colen called Coloniensis the Archbishop of Ments called Moguntinus and the Archbishop of Trevers called Treverensis and three temporall Princes the Duke of Saxony the Marquesse of Brandenburge and the Count Palatine of Rhene which if they cannot agree as to make a Major part in their Election then thè King of Bohemia hath also a voyce whereof it commeth to be sayd that there be seven Princes Electors of the Empire His manner of Election The manner of the choise of the Emperour was established by a decree which is commonly called Bulla aurea which was made by Charles the 4. Emperour of Germany and King of Bohemia wherin he doth set downe all the circumstances of the Election of the Emperour and appointeth the King of Bohemia to be Sacri Imperij Archipincerna which is the Cup-bearer The 3.
in the World which lyeth in the East part of the same Indies This is that Countrey so famous in ancient time for the great riches thereof for the multitude of people for the conquest of Bacchus over it for the passage thither of Alexander the Great throughout all the length of Asia for his adventuring to goe into the South Ocean with so mighty a Navy which few or none had ever attempted before him And certainly thither it was that Salomon did send once in three yeeres for his Gold and other rich Merchandise for the Scripture saith that hee sent his Fleet from Ezion-geber which stood upon the mouth of the Red Sea and it was the directest passage which hee had unto the Easterne Indies whereas if his purpose had been to send to Peru as some lately have imagined his course had been thorow the Mediterranean Sea and the Straits of Gibraltar This Countrey had in ancient time In Jndia are many Kingdomes many absolute Kingdomes and Provinces as in the time of Alexander Porus Taxiles and divers others In it were many Philosophers and men of great Learning whom they called Gymnosophistae of whom was Calanus who burnt himselfe before Alexander The men of the South part of India are blacke Their Cattle very big and therefore are called men of Jnde The Cattell of all sorts that are bred there are of incredible bignesse in respect of other Countries as their Elephants Apes Monkies Emêts and other Their riches The riches hereof have beene very great with abundance of Gold insomuch that the Promontory which is now called Malacha was in times past named Aurea Chersonesus The commoditie of Spice is exceeding great that comes from thence The Partugals first discovered the Indies The Portugals were the first which by their long Navigations beyond the Equinoctiall and the farthermost part of Africk have of late yeeres discovered these Countries to Christendome as heretofore to the use of the King of Portugall so now of the King of Spaine who is reputed owner of them Four Kingdoms by the Portugals discovered The Portugals did finde divers Kingdomes at their first arrivall in those parts as the Kingdome of Calecut the Kingdome of Cambaia the Kingdome of Cananor the Kingdome of Cochin and very many other with the Kings whereof they first entring League and Trafficke and having leave given to build Castles for their defence they have since by policie encroched into their hands a great part of the Countrey which lyeth neere unto the Sea-coast and are mighty now for the space of many thousand miles together The K. of Spain hath there a Vice-roy whose residence is commonly in the Imperiall Citie called God Chief City God They doe every yeare send home great store of rich commodities into Spain The Indians Religion The people of the Country when the Portugals came first thither were for the most part Gentiles beleeving in no one God yea at this day there are divers of them who doe adore the Sunne as their God and every morning at the rising thereof doe use very superstitious Ceremonies which our Merchants who doe trade to Aleppo doe oftentimes see for divers of these Jndians do come thither with Merchandize But the Saracens who reverence the Prophet Mahomet from the Bayes or Gulphes of Persia and Arabia doe trafficke much thither so that Mahomet was knowne among them but in one Town called Granganor they found certain Christians dissenting in many things from the Church of Rome and rather agreeing with the Protestants which Christians had received by succession their Religion from the time of Thomas the Apostle by whom as it is recorded in the ancient Ecclesiasticall History part of India was converted In this Countrey of Jndia are many great and potent Kings and Kingdomes which had beene altother unknown and unheard of in our part of the World but that we were beholding to the Portugals for their Discovery and before their Navigation thither by the backside of Africk to some relations that wee had from the Venetians who traded and travelled thither by Land out of Turkie The names of these Kings and Kingdomes are these The King of Biarme the great Mogol Sâ—â— Kingdomes the King of Narsing Pegu Siam the forenamed King of Calecut and others Of Persia Situation of Persia THere be divers Countries betweene India and Persia but they are not Famous Persia is a large Country which lyeth farre West from India it hath on the North Assyria and Media on the West Syria and the Holy land but next unto it Mesopotamia on the South the mayn Ocean which entreth in notwithstanding by a Bay called Sinus Persicus This is that Countrey which in ancient time was so renowned for the great riches and Empire thereof These were they who tooke from the Assyrians the Monarchie and did set up in their Country the second great Empire which began under Cyrus continued unto that Darius who was overthrowne by Alexander the Great In this countrey raigned the great Kings Cyrus The g eat and famous Kings of Persia Cambises Darius the Son of Histaspes the great Xerxes Artaxerxes and many others which in prophane writings are famous for their wars against the Scythians Aegyptians and Graecians in the Scripture for the delivery of the Iewes from Babylon by Cyrus for the building of the second Temple at Jerusalem and for many things which are mentioned of them in the Prophecie of Daniel The people of this Nation although they were in former times very riotous by reason of their great wealth yet after they had lost their Monarchy by the Macedonians Persians great Souldiers they have growne great Souldiers and therefore as they did ever strongly defend themselves against the old Romanes so in the time of Constantine and the other Emperours they were fearefull neighbours to the Romane government and of late time they have strongly opposed themselves against the Turkes ever making their party good with them And yet notwithstanding in the dayes of Amurath the third father to Mahomet the Turke now raigning the Turke had a great hand upon the Persian going so farre with his Army as that hee tooke the strong Citie Tauris standing within the Persian dominions neere unto the Caspian Sea but this losse was to bee attributed partly to the great dissentions which were among the Persians themselves and partly to the multitude of the Turke his Souldiers who by fresh supply did over-beare the Persian although hee slew downe many thousands of them They fight commonly on horseback are govern'd as in time past by a King so now by an absolute ruler Sophy of Persia and a mighty Prince whom they tear me the Shaw or Sophy of Persia Hee hath many Countries small Kings in Assyria Media and the countries adjoyning which are tributaries Among other the Sophies of Persia about a hundred years since there was one of great power called Ismael the
England One of the honourable commendations which are reputed to bee in this Realme is the * Fair and large Churches fairenesse of our greater and larger Churches which as it doth yet appeare in those which wee call Cathedrall Churches many of them being of very goodly and sumptuous buildings so in times past it was more to be seene when the Abbeyes and those which were called Religious Houses did flourish whereof there were a very great number in this Kingdome which did eate up much of the wealth of the Land but especially those which lived there giving themselves to much filthinesse and divers sorts of uncleannesse did so draw downe the vengeance of God upon those places that they were not only dissolved but almost utterly defaced by King Henry the eight 1. Archbishopricks and 24. other Bishopricks There are here two Archbishoprickes and twenty foure other Bishoprickes within England and Wales It was a tradition among old Writers that Britaine did breed no Wolves in it neither would they live here but the report was fabulous in as much as our Chronicles do write that there were here such store of them that the Kings were enforced to lay it as an imposition upon the Kings of Wales who were not able to pay much money for tribute that they should bring in yearely certaine hundreds of Wolves by which meanes they were at the length quite rid from Wolves * The Countrey of Wales had in times past a King of it selfe yea Of Wales and sometimes two the one of North Wales and the other of South-wales betweene which people at this day there is no great good affection But the Kings of England did by little and little so gaine upon them that they subdued the whole Countrey unto themselves and in the end King Henry the eight intending thereby to benefit this Realme and them did divide the Countrey into Shires appointed there his Iudices itinerantes or Iudges of the circuite to ride and by Act of Parliament made them capable of any preferment in England as well as other Subjects When the first news was brought to Rome that Iulius Caesar had attempted upon Britaine Tully in the elegance of his wit as appeareth in one of his Epistles did make a flowt at it saying that there was no gaine to bee gotten by it For gold here was none nor any other commodity to bee had unlesse it were by slaves whom he thought that his friend to whom he wrote would not looke to be brought up in learning or Musicke Note But if Tully were alive at this day hee would say that the case is much altered in as much as in our Nation is sweetnesse of behaviour abundance of Learning Musicke and all the liberall Artes goodly Buildings sumptuous Apparell rich Fare and whatsoever else may bee truely boasted to bee in any Countrey neere adjoyning * Of Scotland The Northerne part of Brittaine is Scotland which is a Kingdome of it selfe and hath beene so from very ancient time without any such Conquest or mayne transmutation of State as hath beene in other Countries It is compassed about with the Sea on all sides saving where it joyneth upon England and it is generally divided into two parts the one whereof is called the Hye-land and the other the Low-land The Low-land is the most ' civill part of the Realme wherin religion is more orderly established and yeeldeth reasonable subjection unto the King but the other part called the Hye-land which lyeth further to the North or else bendeth towards Ireland is more rude and savage and whether the King hath not so good accesse by reason of Rockes and Mountaynes as to bring the Noblemen which inhabite there to such due Conformity of Religion or otherwise as hee would This Countrey generally is more * Scotland very pooâ—e in former times poore than England or the most part of the Kingdomes of Europe but yet of late yeares the wealth thereof is much increased by reason of their great trafficke to all the parts of Christendome yea unto Spaine it selfe which hath of late yeares beene denied to the English and some other Nations and yet unto this day they have not any Shippes but for Merchandize neither hath the King in his whole Dominion any vessell called A man of Warre Some that have travelled into the Northerne parts of Scotland doe report that in the Solstitium aestivale they have scant any night and that which is is not above two houres being rather a dimnesse than a darknesse The language of the Countrey is in the Lowland a kind of barbarous English But towards Ireland side they speake Irish * Thereason why it is said that in Brittain are soure languages which is the true reason whereof it is reported that in Brittaine there are foure Languages spoken that is Irish in part of Scotland English for the greatest part Welsh in Wales and Cornish in Cornwall In the Confines between the two Kingdomes of England and Scotland which are commonly called the * Borderers great Robbâ—s and Stealers Borders there lie divers Outlawes and unruly people which as being subject to neither Prince by their good wils but so farre as they list do exercise great robberies and stealing of Cattell from them that dwell thereabout and yet the Princes of both Realmes for the better preservation of Peace and Iustice doe appoint certaine Warders on each side who have power euen by Martiall Law to represse all enormities The Queene of England had on her side three whereof one is called the * Lord Warden of the Marches Lord Warden of the East Marches the other of the West Marches the third the Warden of the middle Marches who with all their power cannot so order things but that by reason of the out-rages thereabouts committed the borders are much unpeopled whiles such as desire to be civill do not like to live in so dangerous a place It hath beene wondred at by many that are wise how it could bee that whereas so many Countries having in them divers Kingdomes and Regiments did all in the end come to the Dominion of one as appeareth at this day in Spaine where were wont to bee divers Kings and so in times past in England where the seven Kingdomes of the Saxons did grow all into one yet that England and Scotland Note being continuate within one Iland could never till now bee reduced to one Monarchy whereof in reason the French may bee thought to have beene the greatest hinderance For they having felt so much smart by the Armes of England alone in so much that sometime all that whole Countrey almost hath beene over-runne and possessed by the English have thought that it would bee impossible that they should resist the force of them if both their Kingdomes were united and joyned into one The Custome therefore of the Kings of France in former times was that by their Gold they did binde unto them the Kings and
till that in the yeare one thousand five hundred twenty and one Solyman the Great Turke did winne it from the Christians by force From thence South-ward is the I le * The Ile Carphathus Carphathus but in the farthest end of the East part of the Mediterranean is * The I le of Cyprus Cyprus which about three hundred yeares since was a Kingdome and did afford great ayde unto the Christians that went to conquer the Holy-Land but it is now under the Turke The chiefe City thereof is * The Citie of Famogusta Famogusta which is an Archbishops Sea for Christians for their Tribute doe yet live there In this Countrey in old time was Venus much honored and therfore she was called Cypria as also Paphia because shee had a Temple in a Citie there called * The Citie Paphos Paphos * The Iland Tyrus Neere unto Syria stood the Iland Tyrus against the pride whereof the Prophets doe much speake this was a rich Citie for Merchandize and Navigation in old time and is the place from whence Dido and the builders of Carthage did come The destruction of it is most famous by Alexander the Great Of the rest of the small Ilands wee doe say nothing Of the Ilands in the Jndian Sea THe Ilands are very many that doe lie in the Seas adjoyning to the East Indies but the most famous among them shall only be touched Among old Writers as especially appeareth by Solinus was well knowne that which was then called Taprobana which lieth neere the Aequinoctiall Line It was in that time a Monarchy where the Kings raigned not by succession but by election and if any of them did grow intolerable hee was deposed and enforced to die by withdrawing from him all things necessary This is now called * The Iland of Sumatra Sumatra and hath in it divers Kings Not farre from thence lie Eastward the two Ilands called * Two Jlands Iava major and Iava minor Java-major * Java-minor which were all knowne to the old Writers as in generall may bee noted that all the east-East-part either in the Continent or in the Ilands have very many small Kings and Kingdomes From whence yet more East lieth a great number of Iles which are now called the * The Ilands of Moluccoes the great Riches which the King of Spaine receives from hence yearly Moluccoes which are places as rich for their quantity as any in the World from these it is that the Spaniards have yearely so great quantity of all kindes of Spice neither is there any place of all the East Indies that doth more richly furnish home their Carrects then doe these Moluccoes The Ilands which are called by that name are by some of our Writers accounted to bee at least foure and twentie or five and twentie and some of them which are the bigger have in them two or three Kings a peece and some of them which are lesse are either the severall Dominion of severall Kings or else two or three of them doe belong to some one Prince * Note When Sir Francis Drake did compasse the whole World hee came neere unto these but did not touch at any of them but Master Candish taking at large a journey was in one or more of them where hee found the people to bee intelligent and subtill and the Kings of the Countrey to take upon them as great state as might be convenient for such petty Princes Some of these Islands the Spaniards in right of the Portugals have got into their owne possession with the Kings of some other they have leagued and a third sort utterly detest them More North-ward over against China lyeth a Countrey consisting of a great many Islands called Iapona of * The Iland of Iapan Iapan the people whereof are much of the same nature with the men of China this Countrey was first discovered by the Jesuites who in a blinde zeale have travelled into the farthest parts of the World to winne men to their Religion This Iland is thought to be very rich About the parts of Iapan there are divers people whose most ordinary habitation is at the Sea and doe never come into the Land but onely for their necessities or to furnish themselves with new vessels wherein they may abide but lying not farre from the Land they have Ducks and other Fowles swimming about them which sometimes they take into their Boats and Ships and in such sort doe breed them to the maintenance of them and their Children Into this Iapan of late dayes have our English also sayled as into other parts of the East Indies and there erected a Factory The rest that be either neere unto Asia or Africa because there is little written of them wee passe over Divâ—rs smal Iionds onely named onely naming them as the Philippina Borreo Bandara as also on the side of Africke the Island of Saint Laurence called by the Inhabitants Madagascar Sumatra and other of lesse note And yet we doe finde in Solinus and Plinie but especially in Pomponius Mela that it was knowne in old time that there were many Ilands neere unto the East Indies which as it might bee first discovered by the trafficking of the Ilanders into the Continent so no doubt that Navie which Alexander sent out to Jndia to descry and coast thorow the Easterne Seas did give much light thereunto partly by that which themselves did see and partly by those things which they heard in such places or of such persons as they met with in their travell Of the Ilands in the Atlanticke Sea THere bee many Ilands which be westward from Africa and from Europe as those which are called the * Iland of Gorgades Gorgades that lie in the same climate with Guinea which are foure in number not inhabited by men but they are full of Goates Peter Martyr in his first Decade the sixt Booke saith that the Admirall Colonus in the yeare of Christ 1498 sailing to Hispaniola with eight Ships came to the I le * The Ile Madera Madera from whence sending directly the rest of his Ships to the East Indies hee in one Ship with deckes and two Carayels sayled to the Equinoctiall betweene which and the I le Madera in the middest way lie thirteene Ilands of the Portugals in old time called * Hesperides Hesperides now Cabonerde two dayes sayling distant from the inner parts of Ethiâ—pe one whereof is called * Bonavista Bonavista North-ward from thence in the same climate with the South part of Morocco lie those which are called * Canariae Ilands Canariae or the fortunate Ilands which are seven in number being most fruitfull and very pleasant and therefore called by that name Fortunatae insulae This is famous in them that it hath pleased all Cosmographers to make their Meridian to bee their first point where they doe beginne to reckon the computation of their Longitude and unto them after three hundred and
A BRIEFE DESCRIPTION OF THE WHOLE WORLD Wherein is particularly described all the Monarchies Empires and Kingdomes of the same with their ACADEMIES As also their severall Titles and Situations thereunto adjoyning Written by the Most Reverend Father in God GEORGE late Arch-bishop of Canterbury LONDON Printed by T. H. and are to sold by Wil. Sheares at the signe of the Harrow in Brittains Burse 1636. A BRIEFE DISCRIPTION of the whole WORLD Written by the Right Reverend Father in GOD. George Abbott Late Archbishop of Canterbury COSMOGRAPHIA 〈…〉 Will Marshall Sculpsit Printed for Will Sheares at the Harrow in Britaines by 1636. A BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE whole World THE Globe of the Earth doth either shew the Sea or Land Of the Seas The Sea generall is called by the name of Ocean which coasteth all the World and taketh his name in speciall either of the place neer which it commeth as Oceanus Britannicus The diver â—â—s names giuen to the Seas and the reason why Mare Germanicum Sinus Persicus Mare Atlanticum of the hill Atlas in the West part of Africk or of the finder out as Fretum Magellanicum or of some other accident as the Red Sea because the sand is red Mare Mediterraneum because it runneth betweene the lands of Europe and Africk Mare Jcarium because Icarus was drowned there or the like There be some few Seas which have no intercourse with the Ocean as Mare mortuum neer Palestina Mare Caspium sive Hircanum not farre from Armenia and such a one is said to be in the North part of America Of the Straits or Narrow Seas The Straits or narrow Seas are noted in the Latine by the name of Fretum as Fretum Britannicum the English narrow Seas Fretum Herculeum the Straits between Barbarie and Spain Fretum Magellanicum c. Of the Earth The Earth is either Ilands which are those which are wholly compassed by the Sea as Britanâ—ia Sicilia Corsica or the Continent which is called in the English The firme Land in the Latin Continens The old known firme Land was contained onely in Asia Europe and Africa Europe is divided from Africa by the Mediterranean Sea from Asia by the River Tanais whereby appeareth that the North parts of Asia Europe in old time were but little known and discovered Africa is divided from Europe by â—he Mediterrean Sea from Asia by â—he River Nilus and so Asia by â—anais and Nilus is severed from Europe and Africk Of Spain TO say nothing of England and Ireland the most Western Country of Europe is Spain How Spain is bounded which is bounded on the South with the Mediterranean on the West with the Atlantick on the North with Oceanus Cantabricus or the Spanish Seas on the East with France from which it is severed with certain Mountains called Montes Pyrenei or the Pyrenay hils If wee should enquire into the times that were before the comming of the Carthaginians and Romanes into Spaine wee shall finde nothing but that which is either fabulous or neere to fables The Originall names of the CouÌ„tâ—ey of Spain here it was first called Iberia ab Ibero slumine afterwards Hispania ab Hispano wee may take as a tradition but their Gargoris their Habis their Geryon exceed beliefe of any but those that will take all reports on trust It is certaine that the Syrians planted a Colony there in the Isle of Gades corruptly now called Cadiz or Cales These troubled by their Neighbours desired aid of the Carthaginians a flourishing neighbour commonwealth descended of the Syrians as well as themselves who sent first to defend the Gaditanes against their neighbours afterwards heartned on by their successe in their first Expedition these Cathaginians Carthaginians sent to defend the Gaditanes successively sent thither three Captains Hamilcar Hasdrubal and Hannibal who for the most part subdued the Province and held it till by Scipio's and the Romane Forces they were dispossessed of it Yet for many years after the fortunes of the Romanes stucke as it were in the subduing of that Province so that from the time of the second Punick War untill the time of Augustus they had businesse made them in that Countrey continually neither could they till then bring it peaceably into the forme of a Province Spain once a Province of the Roman Empire It continued a Province of the Romane Empire untill the time of Honorius the Emperour in whose dayes the Vandalls came inâ—o it conquering and making it theirs then the Gothes the Vandalls either driven out or called over into Africke entring erected there a Kingdome which flourished for many yeeres Saracens Mâ—â—â—es erâ—cted it a Kingdome till by the comming of the Saracens and Moores their Kingdome was broken who setling themselves in Spaine erected a Kingdome changed the names of many places and Rivers and gave them new names such as they retaine to this day and continued for the space of some hundred of years mighty in that Countrey till they were first subdued by Ferdinand They were utterâ—y expelled by Philip the Third afterwards and that now lately utterly expelled by Philip the Third After the comming in of these Africans in this Countrey there were many Kingdomes as the Kingdome of Portugall toward the West the Kingdom of Granado toward the South the Kingdome of Navarre and Arragon toward the East and the Kingdome of Castile in the middle of the Land but the whole Dominion is now under the King of Spain Spain in former 〈◊〉 12 sevâ—â—all Kingdomes As Damianus a Goes doth write in that Treatise intituled Hispaniâ— there were in times past twelve several Kingdomes in Spain which hee nameth thus Castellae antiquae novae Leonis Aragoniae Portugalliae Navarâ—ae Granatae Valentiae Toleti Galitiae Algarbiorum Murtiae Cordubae which is not to be wondred at since in England a farre lesse Country there were in the time of the Saxons seven severall Kingdomes and Monarchies In the best Mappes of Spaine the Armes of these severall Kingdomes do yet distinctly appeare where for the Armes of Leons is given a Lion which manifestly argueth that whereas by some it is called Regnum Legionis that name is false for it is Leonis sutable thereunto for the Armes of Castile is given a Castle which was the cause that Iohn of Gaunt sonne to Edward the Third King of England did quarter with the Armes of England the Castle and the Lion as having maried Constance daughter to Peter King of Castile and at this day the first and chiefe Coat of the King of Spain is a Castle quartered with a Lion in remembrance of the two Kingdomes of Castile and Leons In Corduba as in times past it was called standeth Andoluzia neere unto which is the Island called properly Gades but since by deprivation of the word Cadiz and commonly Cales which was lately surprized by the English The Kingdome of Granada Granada â—oo yeeres possessed by the Moores Saracens which
lyeth neerest to the Mediterranean was by the space of seven hundred yeers possessed by the Moores and Saracens who do confesse the Religion of Mahumet the reason whereof Rodericus Toletanus in the third Book of his Story doth shew to be this Rodericus Toletanus that whereas the Saracens after Mahumets time had spred themselves all along Africk even unto the Western part of Barbary a King of Spaine called Rodericus employed in an Embassage to them one Iulian a Nobleman of his who by his wise demeanour procured much reputation amongst the Moores but in the time of his service the King Rodericus destoured the Daughter of the said Iulian which the Father tooke in such indignation that hee procured those Saracens to come over into Spaine that so he might be revenged on his King but when those barbarous people had once set foot in there they could never be remooved untill the time of Ferdinando and Elizabeth King and Queen of Spain about a hundred yeeres since The Authour before named writeth that before the comming of those Moores into Spaine the King Rodericus would needs open a part of a Palace which had been shut long before and had by discent from hand to hand beene forbidden to be entred by any yet the King supposing there had beene great treasure therein broke into it but found nothing there saving in a great Chest the pictures of men who resembled the proportion Attire and Armour of the Moores and a Prophecie joyned therewithall A strange and unexpected prophecie that at that time when the Pallace should be entred such a people as was there resembled should invade and spoile Spaine which fell out accordingly The Spaniards that now are be a very mixt people descended of the Gothes which in former times possessed that Land and of those Saracens and Iews which are the basest people of the World Portugall added to the Kingdome of Spain The Kingdome of Portugall did contain under it Regnum Algarbiorum but both of them are now annexed unto Castile by the cunning of the King of Spaine Philip the Second who tooke the advantage after the death of Sebastian who was slaine in Barbary in the Yeere 1578. Then after him raigned Henry who sometimes was Cardinall and Vncle to Sebastian in whose time although shew was made that it should be lawfully debated unto whom the Crowne of Portugall did belong yet Philip meaning to make sure work did not so much respect the right as by main force invaded and since to the great griefe of the Portugals hath kept it The chiefe City of Portugall is Lisbone Lisbone the chief City of Portugall called in Latine Olysippo from whence those Navigations were advanced by which the Portugals discovered so much of their South part of Africk of the East Indies possessed by them to this day The City from whence the Castilians do set forth their ships to the West Indies is Sevill Sevill called in Latine Hispalis Another great City in Spain is Toledo Toledo where the Archbishopricke is the richest spirituall dignity of Christendome the Papacy onely excepted The magnificent greatnes of Spain and Portugall In the time of Damianus à Goes there were reckoned to be in Spain foure Archbishoprickes of great worth three other inferiour and forty Bishopricks as also in Portugall three Archbishoprickes and eight Bishopricks Hee reckoneth up also in Spaine besides the great Officers of the Crown 17 Dukes 41 Marquesses 87 Earles or CouÌ„ts 9 Viscounts as also in Portugall besides the Officers of the Crown six Dukes 4 Marquesses nineteen Earles and one Vicount In Spaine he saith are seven Vniversities The Country is but dry and so consequently barren in comparison of some other places What commodities it doth yeeld it may be seen in the Treatise of Damianus a Goes which hee calleth his Hispania Not onely this great and large Countrey heretofore divided into so many Kingdomes is now under one absolute King but that King also is Lord of many other Territories as namely of the Kingdome of Naples in Italy and the Dutchy of Millaine of the Isles of Sicily Sardinia Majorque Minorque Evisa In the mid-land Sea of the Ilands of the Canaries in the Atlantique besides divers strong Towns and goodly Havens in Barbary within without the Straits On the back side of Africk he commands much on the Frontiery besides the Islands adjoyning to the mayn Land In the Western Indies he hath Mexico Peru Brasil large Territories with the Islands of the South the North Sea And Philip the Second getting Portugall as a Dowry to that forc't Marriage got also all the dependances of that Crown in Africke the East Indies and the Atlantique Sea the Towns of Barbary and the East Indies willingly submitting themselves unto him but the Terceras hee wonne by force at the first and second Expedition so if we consider the huge tract of ground that is under this Kings Dominion The Empery of the Kingdome of Spain the greatâ—st in the Christian World wee will say that the Empery of the King of Spain is in that respect the largest that now is or ever was in the World Of France France how bounded THE next Countrey is France which is bounded on the West with the Pyrenie hils on the North with the English Seas on the East with Germany on the South-east with the Alpe-hils on the Southwest with the Mediterranean Sea The Kingdome of France is for one entire thing France oâ—â— of the most absolute kingdomes of the World one of the most rich and absolute Monarchies of the World having both on the North and South side the Sea standing very convenient for profit of Navigation and the land it selfe being ordinarily very fruitfull The consideration wherof caused Francis the first King of France to compare this Kingdome alone to all the Dominions and Seigniories of Charles the fifth Emperour for when the Herauld of the sayd Charles bidding Defiance to King Francis did give his Majestie the title of Emperour of Germany King of Castile Arragon Naples Sicilie c. Francis commanded his Herauld to call him so often King of France as the other had Titles by all his Countryes implying that France alone was of as much strength and worth as all the Countries which the other had Concerning this Argument see the warlike and politike Discourses of Monsieur de la Nove. He who writeth the Commentaries of Religion and state of France doth shew that when there had beene of late in France in the dayes of Francis the second and Charles the ninth three Civill warres which had much ruinated the glory and beauty of that Kingdome Civil wars in France when a little before the great Massacre in the yeare one thousand five hundred seventy two there had beene peace in that Country scant full two yeares yet so great is the riches and happinesse of that Kingdome that in that short time
of a Duke which raigneth as an absosute Prince and by little and little hath so incroched on his own Citizens and Neighbours round about him that hee hath gotten to be called and that not unworthily Magnus Dux Hetruriae or the great Duke of Tuscany The great Duke of Tuscany A great part of the rising of the Family of the Medices which are now Dukes of Florence may be ascribed to the cunning carriage of themselves but it hath been much advanced forward by their felicitie in having two Popes together of that house which were Leo the Tenth and Clement the Seventh who by all means laboured to stablish the government of their Country upon their kindred and it made not the least accesse thereunto that affinity was contracted by them with the Kings of France when Katherine de Medices Neece to Pope Clement the Seventh was married to the younger sonne of Francis the first whose elder brother dying that younger came to be King of France by the name of Henry the Second for as in the time of her Husband she layd the foundation of her aspiring so after the death of the sayd husband when she bare the name of the Queene Mother This Queen Mother swayed all at her pleasure in France during the successive raigne of her three sonnes Francis the Second Charles the ninth and Henry the third in all which time no doubt she promoted Florence and the Florentines to her uttermost A great part of Italy under the Bishop of Rome A good part of Italy is under the Bishop of Rome which is commonly called The land of the Church where the Pope is a Prince absolute not only spirituall as elsewhere hee claymeth but also temporall making Lawes requiring Tribute raising Souldiers executing Iustice as a Monarch The Bishops of Rome do pretend that Constantine the Great did bestow upon them the City of Rome together with divers other Cities and Towns neere adjoyning and the Demeans of them all to be as the Patrimony of Saint Peter as many times they do tearme it But Laurentius Valla in his set Treatise of this argument hath displayed the falshood of that pretence and in truth the greatnesse of the Popes hath risen first by Phocas who killing his Master the Emperour of Rome The manner of the rising of the Popes greatnesse and being favoured by the Bishop of that Sea and so aspiring himself to the Empire did in recompence thereof suffer the Bishop of Rome to be proclaimed Vniversall Bishop and of likelihood gave unto him somewhat to maintain his estate And afterward King Pipin of France and Charles the Great his sonne getting by means of the said Bishop the Kingdome of France and the one of them to the Empire did bestow good possessions upon the Papacy and since that time the Popes have had so much wit as by destruction of the Princes of Italy by encroaching on the favour of others the great Monarchs of Europe and by their warres and other devices to keepe and increase that Land of the Church which in our time is well inlarged by the policy of Clement the Eighth late Pope who hath procured that the Dukedome of Ferrara is or shal be shortly added to his Dominion Rome the chief residency of the Pope The chief residence of the Bishop of Rome is Rome it selfe which was first founded by Romulus and afterwards so increased by others who succeeded him that it was built upon seven hils hath had only raigning in it seven Kings and hath been ruled by seven severall sorts of chief government that is Kings Consuls Decem-viri Tribunes of the people Dictators Emperours and Popes They first incroached on the neighbours about them in Italy afterwards on all Italy Sicily some of the Ilands till at length it proved to be the Lady and chief Mistresse of the world whose incredible wealth and greatnes in men treasure shipping and armour was so huge that it did even sink under the wealth of it self Wherupon after divers civill wars as between Marius and Sylla Pompey and Caesar with others it was at length revoked unto one absolute and Imperiall government The Majesty wherof notwithstanding was afterward somewhat impayred by the building of Constantinople which was erected or rather inlarged by Constantine the Great and called Nova Roma But when the division was made of the East and West Empire it received a greater blow yet the main overthrow of it was when the Gothes and Vandals entred Italy sacked it and possessed it at their own pleasure so that it was for a time almost quite forsaken and had no inhabitants till the Bishops of Rome did make means to gather together some to people it againe and since those times a good part of the old building upon the Hils hath beene quite decayed ruinated and that Rome which now may be called in comparison of the old new Romes is built on a lower ground where the place was which in times past was termed Campus Martius very neer unto Tyber the River which too well appeareth by the sudden inundation of that Tyber destroying and spoyling men cattell and houses as very lately to their great losse was experimented The Bishops of Rome as sometimes for their pleasure or profit they do withdraw themselves unto Bologna or some other Townes of Italy so the time was when they removed their court unto Avignon a City in France standing neer the Mediterranean soa and not far from Marsiles in Province where continuing for the space of seventy yeers they so afflicted the Citie of Rome for lack of resort which is very great when the Pope is there that the Italians to this day do remember that time by the name of the Captivity of Babylon which continued as appeareth by the Scripture for seventy yeeres Who so looketh on the description laid down by the Holy Ghost in the Revelation shall see that the Whore of Babylon there mentioned can be understood of no place but the Citie of Rome In the South part of Italy lyeth the Kingdome of Naples which is a Country very rich Nap'es lyeth in the South part of Italy and full of all kind of pleasure abundant in Nobility whereof commeth to be said that Proverb Naples for Nobilitie Rome for Religion Millain for Beauty Florence for Policie and Venice for Riches This was heretofore ruled by a King of their own till the time of Ioane Queene of Naples who by deed of gift did first grant that Kingdom to the Kings of Arragon in Spain and afterward by will with a revocation of the former Grant did bequeath it to the house of Anjoy in France Since which time the Kingdome of Naples hath sometimes been in the hands of the Spaniard somtimes possessed by the French and is now under the King of Spain The Dukedome of Calabria unto this is annexed also the Dukedome of Calabria This Kingdome of Naples lyeth so neere to some part of Graecia which is
now in possession of the Turke that it may justly be feared lest at some time or other the said Turke should make an invasion thereunto as indeed hee hath offered divers times and sometimes hath landed men to the great terrour of all Italy but for the preventing of that mischiefe the King of Spain is inforced to keep a good Fleet of Gallies continually at Otranto where is the neerest passage from Italie into Greece I his part of Italie was it which in times past was named Magna Graecia but in later ages it hath been unproperly called one of the Sicilies which was reprooved long since by Aeneas Sylvius in his twelfth Epistle and yet till of late time the Kings of Spain have been tearmed Kings of both the Sicilies Divers Princedomes and States of Italy There be moreover in Jtaly many other Princedomes and States as the Dukedom of Ferrara the Dukedome of Mantua the Dukedome of Vrbine the Dukedome of Parma and Placentia the State of Luca the State of Genua commonly called the Genowayes which are governed by their Senate but have a Duke as they have at Venice There be also some other by which means the glory and strength of Italy is decayed Of Denmarke Sweden and Norway AS Italy lyeth on the South side of Germany Denmars situation so Denmark lieth on the North into the middle of which Land the Sea breaketh in by a place called the Sound The Impost of which passage bringeth great riches as an ordinary tribute unto the King of Denmark This is a Kingdome and ruled by an absolute Governour On the North and East side of Denmarke Sweden lyeth Suezia commonly called Sweden or Swethen which is also a Kingdome of it self Where the King professeth himselfe to be Rex Suecorum Gothorum Vandalorum Wherby we may know that the Gothes and Vandals which in times past did waste Jtaly and other Nations of Christendom did come out of this Country This whole Country which containeth in it Norvegia Suezia and some part of Denmarke is Peninsula being very much compassed about with the Sea and this is it which in Olaus Magnus Joannes Magnus is termed Archiepiscopus Vpsalensis as also in some of the more ancient Writers is called Scādinavia on the North and West side of Sweden lyeth Norvegia Norvegia or Norway or Norway which is at this day under the government of the King of Denmarke although heretofore it hath been a free Kingdome of it self Beyond Norway toward Russia on the Northern Sea lyeth Scrichivia beyond that Biarmia then Hapia or Hapland Hapland a poore and cold Countrey neere Sinus Boddicus whereof there is little to be spoken but that it is said to be subject to the great Knez or Duke of Muscovie But of these afterwards Within the Sound on the East part of the Sea Dantzike lyeth Dantzike about which are the Townes of the Haustmen Confederates and Allies unto the King of Denmarke These are very rich towns by reason of Merchandize which downe the rivers they receive out of Polonia and transport into other parts of Christendome through the Sound of the King of Denmarke They live as free people keeping amity entercourse with the Kings of Sweden and Denmark and with the Emperour of Germany but within these late yeers Steven Bacour the King of Polon doth challenge them to be members of his Crown and Dignity and by warre forced them to capitulate with him There is no great thing to be noted in these Countries but that from Denmarke commeth much corne to the supply of other parts of Christendome and that from all these Countries is brought great furniture for warre or for shipping Riches of Denmarke as Masts Cables Steele Saddles Armour Gunpowder and the like And that in the seas adjoyning to these parts there are fishes of much more monstrous shape than elsewhere are to be found The people of those Countries are by their profession Lutherans for Religion Their Religion Of Russia or Moscovia Russia situate ON the East side of Sweden beginneth the Dominion of the Emperor of Russia although Russia or Moscovia it selfe doe lie somewhat more into the East which is a great and mighty Monarchy extending it selfe even from Lapland and Finmarke many thousand miles in length unto the Caspian sea so that it containeth in it a great part of Europe and much of Asia also Emperour of Russia The governour there calleth himselfe Emperour of Russia Great Duke of Moscovia with many other titles of princedomes and Cities whose Dominion was very much inlarged by the Emperour not long since dead whom in Russia they call Iuan Vasiliwich in the Latine Iohannes Basilides who raigning long and being fortunate in warre did very much inlarge this mighty Dominion This man as in his younger daies he was very fortunate and added very much unto the glory of his ancestors winning something from the Tartars and something from the Christians in Livonia Lituania and other confines of his countrey so in his latter age growing more unweldy and lesse beloved of his subjects hee proved as unfortunate whereby it came to passe that Stephen Bacour King of Polone had a very great hand of him winning from him large Provinces which he before had conquered Gregory the thirteenth Bishop of Rome thinking by his intreaty for peace betweene those two Princes to have woon the whole Russian Monarchy to the subjection and acknowledgment of the Papacy Possevinus a Iesuite sent by the Pope to the Emperour sent Robertus Possevinus a Iesuite but yet a great States-man as his agent to take up controversies betweene the Muscovite and the King of Polone who prevailed so farre as that he drew them to tolerable conditions for both parties but when he began to exhort him to the accepting of the Romish faith the Emperour being therefore informed by the English Ambassadors who he very much favoured for his Lady and Mistresse Queene Elizabeths sake that the Bishop of Rome was a proud Prelate and would exercise his pretended authority so far as to make Kings and Princes hold his stirrop yea to kisse his very feet he utterly and with much scorne rejected all obedience to him Whereunto when Possevinus did reply A fine excuse for the Popes pride that the Princes of Europe indeed in acknowledgement of their subjection to him as the Vicar of Christ and successour of S. Peter did offer him that service as to kisse his feet but that the Pope remembring himselfe to be a mortall man did not take that honour as due unto himselfe but did use to have on his Pantophle the Crucifixe or Picture of Christ hanging upon the Crosse and that in truth he would have the reverence done thereunto the Emperour did grow into an exceeding rage reputing his pride to bee so much the greater when he would put the Crucifixe upon his shooe The Emperours rage against the Pope in as much as the
noble citie which is now the principall Bulwarke of Christendome against the Turke from whence Solyman was repelled by Ferdinandus King of Hungary in the time of the Emperour Charles the fift It was in this countrey that Richard the first King of England in his returne from the Holy land was taken prisoner by the Archduke of Austria and so put to a grievous ransome There were lately divers brothers of the Emperour Rodolphus the second which were al called by the name of Archdukes of Austria Archdukes of Austria according to the maner of the Germans who give the titles of the Fathers nobility to all the children The names of them were Mathias Ernestus the youngest Albertus who for a good space held by dispensation from the Pope the Archbishopricke of Toledo in Spaine although he were no Priest and had then also the title of Cardinall of Austria was imploied for Viceroy of Portugall by Philip the 2 King of Spaine but after the death of the Duke of Parma hee was sent as Lievtenant generall governor of the Low-Countries for the K. of Spaine where since he hath attained to the marriage of the Infanta Isabella Eugenia Clara eldest daughter to K. Philip the second and last King of Spaine and by her hath hee the stile of Duke of Burgundy although peaceably he cannot enjoy a great part of that Country Thorow both Austria and Hungary doth runne the mighty river Danubius as thorow Germany doth run the Rheine The River of Rhine whereon groweth Vinum Rhenanum commonly called Rhenish wine Of Greece Thracia and the Countries neer adjoyning Situation of Dacia ON the South side of Hungary and South-east lieth a Countrey of Europe called in old time Dacia which is large and wide comprehending in it Transylvania Walachia Transylvania Walachia Moldavia Servia Moldavia Servia Of which little is famous save that the men are warlike and can hardly be brought to obedience They have lately bin under the K. of Hungary These Countries of Transylvania Walachia and Moldavia have certaine Monarchs of their owne whom they call by the name of Vognode which do rule their countries with indifferent mediocrity while they have the sway in their own hands but confining upon the Turk they are many times oppressed overcome by him so that often they are his tributaries yet by the wildnesse of the country uncertaine disposition of the Rulers and their people he never hath any hand long over them but sometimes they maintaine warre against him have slaine downe some of his Bassaes comming with a great Army against them by which occasion it falleth out that hee is glad now and then to enter confederacy with them so doubtfull a kinde of regiment is that which now adaies is in those Countries The river Danubius doth divide this Dacia from Mysia commonly called Bulgaria and Russia which lyeth on the South from Danubius and is severed from Graecia by the mountaine Haemus The mountaine Haemus This mountaine is that whereof they reported in times past though but falsly that who so stood on the top thereof might see the sea foure severall wayes to wit East West North and South under pretence of trying which conclusion not Philip Alexanders Father but a latter Philip King of Macedonia did goe up to that hill when in truth his meaning was secretly to meet with others there with whom hee might joyne himselfe against the Romans which was shortly the overthrow of that kingdome It should seeme that about this mountaine it is very cold by reason of that jest which Athenaeus reporteth Stratonicus to have uttered concerning that hill when he said that for eight moneths in the yeare it was very cold and for other four it was Winter Graecia bounded From Haemus toward the South lyeth Graecia bounded on the West by the Adriatike sea on the East by the Thracian sea and Mare Aegeum on the South by the maine Mediterranean sea This contained in old time foure speciall parts Peloponnesus Achaia Macedonia and Epirus Adjoyning whereunto was Illiricum Peloponnesus Moreah which is now called Moreah in the South part of Graecia being Peninsula or almost an Iland for that it is joyned by a little strait called Istmos unto the rest of Graecia Herein stood Sparta Sâ—â—â—ssus and Helicon and the ancient state of Lacedemon the lawes thereof were made by Licurgus by the due observation of which Tullie could say in his time that the title of Sparta in Lacedemon had continued in the same meanes and behaviour for the space of 700. yeares This Sparta was it which so often made warre against the Athenians and this and Athens were called the two edges of Graecia Neere the Jsthmos or Straits stood the famous City of Corinth Corinth which was in old time called the Key of Greece and whither S. Paul wrote two of his Epistles Aeneas Sylvius in his Cosmographicall Treatise De Europa cap. 22. saith that the Straits which divide Moreah from the rest of Graecia are in bredth but five miles and that divers Kings Princes did go about to digge away the earth that they might make it to be an Iland He nameth King Demetrius Julius Caesar Caius Caligula Domitius Nero of all whom hee doth note that they not onely failed of their purpose but that they came to violent and unnaturall deaths From the Isthmos which is the end of Peloponnesus or Moreah beginneth Achaia Achaia and spreadeth it selfe North-wards but a little way unto the Hill Othris which is the bounds betweene Achaia and Macedonia but East and West much more largely as Eastward even unto the Island Euboea Euboea with a great Promontory and Westward bounding unto Epirus The Inhabitants of this place were they which properly are called Achivi which word is so oft used by Virgil Here toward the East part stood Boetia upon the Sea-coast Boetia looking South-ward toward Moreah was Athens Athens which was famous for the Lawes of Solon for the warres against Sparta and many other Cities of Graecia and for an Vniversity of learned men which long continued there Pernassus and Helicon In this part of Greece stood Pernassus and Helicon so much talked of by Poets and Phocis and Thebes and briefly all the Cities wherof Livie speaking doth terme by the name of Achai or Vrbes Achaeorum The third Province of Graecia called Epirus Epyrus lyeth Westward from Achaia and extends it selfe for a good space that way but toward the North and South it is but narrow lying along the Sea-coast and looking South-ward on the Islands of Conegra and Cephalonia This was the Country wherein Olympias wife unto Philip of Macedonia and Mother unto Alexander the Great was born This was also the Kingdome of that noble Pyrrhus which made such great warres against the Romanes and in our later age it was made renowned by the valiant Scanderbeg who was so great a scourge
lyeth Chaldea having on the East side Assyria on the West Syria or Palestiâ—a on the North Armenia on the South the desart of Arabia This Countrey is often called by the name of Mesopotamia which name it hath because it lyeth in the middle of two great Rivers Tygris and Euphrates It is called also by the name of Babylonia which word of it selfe properly taken doth signifie onely that part of the Countrey which standeth about Babylon Babylon the chiefe City of Chaldea The chiefe City whereof was Babylon whose ruines doe remaine unto this day It was a rich and most pleasant City for all kinde of delight and was in the later time of that Monarchy the Imperiall City of the Assyrians where Nebuchadnezzar and other their great Kings did lye It was to this city that the children of Israel were carried captives which thereof was called the Captivity of Babylon The Kings of Persia also did keep their residence here it was builâ— upon the River Euphrates some part of it standing on the one side and some part on the other having for it's foundresse Semiramis the wife of Ninus Ammianus Marsellinus reporteth one thing of this Countrey wherein the admirable power oâ— God doth appeare The admirable power of God in preserving the people for he writeth that in these parts are a huge number of Lyons which were like enough to devoure up both men and beasts throughout the Countrey but withall hee saith that by reason of the store of water and mudde thereof there doe breeâ— yearely an innumerable company oâ— Gnats whose property is to fly unto the eye of the Lyon as being a bright and orient thing wherâ— byting and stinging the Lyon he teareth so fiercely with his clawes that he putteth out his owne eyes and by that meanes many are drowned in the Rivers others starve for want of prey and many the more easily killed by the Inhabitants It is supposed by Divines that in this Mesopotamia betweene the River Tygris and Euphrates Paradise did stand Note This was the Countrey wherein Abraham the Patriarch was borne unto which the Romanes could very hardly extend their dominion For they had much to doe to get the governement of any thing beyond the River Euphrates From this people it is thought the wise-men came which brought presents to Christ by the guiding of the Starre For as in India and all the Easterne parts so especially in this Countrey their Noblemen and Priests and very many people doe give themselves to all Arts of Divination Here were the great Southsayers Enchanters and Wise men as they call them Here were the first Astrologians Here were the first Astrologians which are so described and derided in the Scripture and against the Inhabitants of Babylon and Chaldea were the Lawes of the Romanes made which are against divining Mathematicians who in Tullie 〈◊〉 Divinatione Cornelius Tacitus as also in the Lawes of the Emperours are ordinarily collected by the name of Chaldeans and indeed from these and from the Aegyptians is supposed to have sprung the first knowledge of Astronomy It is thought that a great reason whereof these Chaldeans were expert in the laudable knowledge oâ— Astronomy was partly because thâ— Countrey is so plaine that being without hils they might more fully and easily discover the whole facâ— of the Heaven and partly because the old Fathers which lived so long not onely before but in some good part also after the Floud of Noah did dwell in or neere to these parts and they by observation of their owne did finde out and discover many things of the heavenly Bodies which they delivered as from hand to hand to their posteritie But as corruption doth staine the best things so in processe of time the true Astronomie was defiled with superstitious Rules of Astrologie which caused the Prophets Isaiah and Ieremiah so bitterly to inveigh against them And then in their fabulositie they would report that they had in their Records Observations for five and twenty thousand yeares which must needs be a very great untruth unlesse wee will qualifie it as some have done expounding their yeares not of the Revolution of the sunne but of the Moone whose course is ended in the space of a moneth Of Asia the lesse ON the North-West side of Mesopotamia lyeth that Countrey which is now called Natolia but in times past Asia minor having on the North side Pontus Euxinus Situation of Asia the lesse on the West the Hellespont and on the South the maine Mare Mediterraneum In the ancient writings both of the Graecians and of the Romanes this is oftentimes called by the single name of Asia because it was best knowne unto them and they were not so much acquainted with the farther places of Asia the Great Richnesse of the Countrey This Countrey in generall for the fruitfulnesse of the Land standing in so temperate a Climate and for the conveniencie of the Sea every way and so many good Havens hath beene reputed alwaies a very commodious and pleasurefull Countrey It is wholly at this day under the Turke The Mountaine Taurus goeth along from the West unto the East part of it The greatnesse of this Countrey is such that it hath comprehended many Kingdomes and large Provinces besides Cities of great fame On the South-east part thereof neere to Palestina lyeth Cilicia Cilicia The city Tarsus the chiefe Citie whereof is Tarsus the Countrey of Saint Paul the place whither Salomon sent for great store of his Gold and provision for the Temple whither Ionas also fled when he should have gone to Niniveh In the straits of this Cilicia neere to the Mountaine Taurus Alexander his overthrow of Darius did Alexander give a great overthrow in person to Darius in the joyning of their first battaile This place seemes to have beene very fortunate for great fights in as much as there also neere unto the straits was the battaile fought out betweene Severus the Emperour and Niger who being Governour of the Romanes of Syria would needs have aspired to the Empire but in a battaile which was very hardly fought out he was overthrowne in the straits of Cilicia In the very corner where Cilicia is joyned unto the upper part of Syria is a little Bay which in times past was named Sinus J sicus neere unto which Alexander built one of his Cities which he called by his owne name The City of Alexandria But howsoever in times past it was named Alexandria it is now by the Venetians and other Christians called Alexandretta as who should say little Alexandria in comparison of the other In Aegypt the Turkes doe call it Scandarâ—nd and it is a petty Haven where our Merchants do land most of their goods which are afterwards by Camels carried up to Aleppo At this day the Citie is so decayed that there bee onely a few houses there Westward from Cilicia lieth the Province called Pamphilia Pamphilia The
that Gordius who knit the knot called for the intricatenesse thereof Nodus Gordianus Gordius knot and when it could not bee untied was cut in sunder by Alexander the Great supposing that it should bee his fortune for the loosing of it so to bee the Conquerour and King of Asia as by a prophecie of the same Gordius had beene before spoken Yet North-ward from Phrygia lyeth the Countrey of Bythinia Bythinia which was sometimes a Kingdome where Prusias raigned that had so much to doe with the Romanes In this Countrey standeth the Citie Nicea Citie of Nice where the first Generall Councell was held against Arius the Heretike by Constantine the Great thereof called the Nicene Councell Here standeth also Chalcedon where the fourth Generall Councell was held by the Emperour Martianus Chalcedon against the Heretike Nestorius From Bythinia Eastward on the Northside of Asia the lesse standeth the Countrey of Paphlagonia Paphlagonia where was the Citie built by Pompey the Great called by his name Pompeiopolis On the South of Paphlagonia toward the Iland of Asia Minor Pompeiopolis did stand the Countrey of Galatia whereunto Saint Paul wrote his Epistle to the Galathians Galatia And this also was one of those Countries where the Iewes were dispersed unto which Saint Peter wrote his first Epistle as also unto them which were in Pontus Cappadocia and Bythinia from whence Southward lyeth the Province termed Lycaonia Lycaonia And from thence yet more South bordering upon Pamphilia which touches the Mediterranean Sea lyeth Pisidia Pisidia concerning which countries we finde oftentimes mention made in such Stories as doe touch Asia the lesse From these Southerne parts if we returne backe againe unto the North and East of Asia Major The kingdome of Pontus lyeth the Kingdome of Pontus confining upon that which is named Pontus Euxinus In this Pontus did raigne Mithridates Mithridates who in his younger dayes had travelled over the greatest part of Asia and is reported to have beene so skilfull that hee could well speake more than twentie Languages His hatred was ever great towards the Romanes against whom when hee meant first to put his malice in practise he so combined with the Naturals of those parts that in one night they slew more than threescore and tenne thousand of the Romanes carrying their intendment so close that it was revealed by none till the execution was done Pompey brought Mithridates to distresse Pompey the Great was the man who distressed this Mithridates and brought him to that extremity that hee would gladly have poysoned himselfe but could not in as much as his stomack had beene used so before unto that kinde of Triacle which by reason of his inventing of unto this day is called Alithridate which is made of a kinde of poyson allayed that no venome would easily work upon him Southward from this Pontus standeth the old Kingdome of Cappadocia Cappadocia which in times past was observed to have many men in it but little money Whence Horace saith Mancipiis locuples eget aris Cappadocum Rex Armenia Minor Eastward from this Cappadocia as also from Pontus is Armenia Minor whereof the things memorable are described in the other Armenia And thus much touching Asia the lesse Of Syria and Palestina or the Holy Land SOuthward from Silicia and Asia the lesse Syria bounded lyeth Syria a part whereof was called Palaestina having on the East Mesopotamia on the South Arabia on the West Tyre and Sydon and the end of the Mediterranean Sea The people of this Syria were in times past called the Aramites Their ancient names In their language is the translation of the new Testament called Syriacke Citie of Antioch In this Countrey standeth Antioch which was sometimes one of the ancient Patriarchs Seas and is a Citie of reckoning unto this day Here also standeth now the Citie of Aleppo Aleppo which is a famous Mart Towne for the Merchandizing of the Persians and others of the East and for the Turks and such Countries as be adjoyning Here standeth also Tripolis Tripolis The South part of Syria lying downe toward Aegypt and Arabia was the place where the Children of Israel died well being a Country of small quantity not 200 Jtalian miles in length it was so fruitfull flowing with Milke and Honey as the Scripture calleth it that it did mayntayne above thirty Kings and their people Thirty Kings before the comming of the Children of Israel out of Aegypt and was sufficient afterwards to relieve the incredible number of the twelve Tribes of Israel It is noted of this Countrey Note that whereas by the goodnesse of the Climate wherein it stood and the fertilitie of the Soyle but especially by the blessing of God it was the most fruitfull Land that was in the World Now our Travellers by experience doe finde the Countrey in respect of the fruitfulnesse to be changed God cursing the Land together with the Iewes the Inhabitants of it It is observed also for all the Easterne parts that they are not so fertile as they have beene in former Ages the Earth as it were growing olde which is an Argument of the dissolution to come by the day of Iudgement The River Iordan Through this Countrey doth runne the River Iordan which hath heretofore beene famous for the fruitfulnesse of the trees standing thereupon and for the mildnesse of the Ayre so that as Iosephus writeth when Snow hath been in other places of the Land about the River it hath beene so calme that men did goe in single thinne linnen garments In this Countrey standeth the Lake The Lake Asphaltites called Lacus Asphaltites because of a kinde of slime called Bitumen or Asphaltum which daily it doth cast up being of force to joyne stones exceeding fast in building And into this Lake doth the River Iordan run Mare Mortuum This Lake is it which is called Mare Mortuum a Sea because it is salt and Mortuum or Dead for that no living thing is therein The water thereof is so thicke that few things will sinke therein in so much that Iosephus saith that an Oxe having all his legges bound will not sinke into that water The nature of this Lake as it was supposed was turned into this quality when God did destroy Sodome and Gomorrah and the Cities adjoyning with fire and Brimstone from Heaven for Sodome and the other Cities did stand neere unto Iordan and to this Mare Mortuum for the destruction of whom all that Coast to this day is a witnesse the Earth smelling of Brimstone being desolate and yeelding no Fruit saving Apples which grow with a faire shew to the eye like other Fruit but as soone as they are touched doe turne presently to soot or ashes as besides Josephus Solinus doth witnesse in his 48 Chapter Twelve Tribet of Israel The Land of Palestina had for its Inhabitants all the Twelve Tribes of
Marcellinus doth observe that there was never any or almost hath ever beene but that once in the day the Sunne hath beene ever seene to shine over Alexandria This Citie was one of the foure Patriarchall Seas which were appointed in the first Nicene Councell Good Lawes made by the Kings of Egypt This Countrey was governed by a King as long agoe as almost any Countrey in the World Here raigned Amasis who made those good Lawes spoken of by Herodotus and Diodorus Siculus in whose writings the ancient customes of the Aegyptians are worthy to be read After Alexanders time Ptolomeus one of his Captaines had this Kingdome of whom all his successors were called Ptolemies as before time all their Kings were called Pharaohs they continued long friends and in league with the people of Rome till the time of Iulius Caesar but afterward they were as subjects to the Romanes tilâ— the Empire did decay When they had withdrawne themselves from the Romanes governement they set up a Prince of their owne whom they termed the Sultan or Souldan of Aegypt of whom about 400. yeares since Saladine was one But when the race of these were out the Mamalukes who were the guard of the Sultane as the Ianisaries be to the Turk appointed a Prince at their pleasure till that now about an 100. yeares agoe or lesse the Turke Selimus possessed himselfe with the sole government of the Countrey so that at this day Aegypt is wholly under the Turke There bee Christians that now live in Aegypt paying their tribute unto the Turke as others doe now also in Gracia Aeneas Silvius doth report in his History De mundo universo cap. 60. that divers did goe about to digge through that little Istmos or Strait which at the top of the Red Sea doth joyne Aegypt to some part either of Arabia or of the Holy Land imagining the labour not to bee great in as much as they conceived the space of ground to be no more than 1500 furlongs Sesostris the King of Aegypt as he saith did first attempt this Secondly Darius the great Monarch of the Persians Thirdly Ptolomy one of the Kings of Aegypt who drew a ditch a hundred foot broad thirty foot deepe and thirty seven Miles and a halfe long but when hee intended to goe forward hee was forced to cease for feare of inundation and over-flowing the whole land of Aegypt the Red Sea being found to bee higher by three Cubites than the ordinary plaine of Aegypt was But Plinie affirmeth that the digging was given over lest the Sea being let in should marre the water of Nilus which alone doth yeeld drinke to the Aegyptians Pet. Maffaeus in his Indian story doth tell that there was a Portugall also that of late yeares had a conceit to have had this worke finished that so hee might have made the third part of the old knowne world Africa to have beene an Iland compassed round with the Sea Men commonly in the description of Aegypt doe report that whole Country to stand in Africke but if wee will speake exactly and repute Nilus to bee the bound betweene Asia and Africke we must then acknowledge that the Eastern part of Aegypt from Nilus and so forward to the Red Sea doth lye in Asia which is observed by Peter Martyr in that pretty Treatise of his De legatione Babylonica Although this Countrey of Aegypt doth stand in the selfe same Climate that Mauritania doth yet the inhabitants there are not black but rather dunne or tawny Of which colour Cleopatra was observed to be who by inticement so wonne the love of Julius Caesar and Antony And of that colour doe those runnagates by devices make themselves to be who goe up and downe the world under the name of Aegyptians being indeed but counterfeits and the refuse or rascality of many Nations Of Cyrene and Africke the lesse ON the West side of Aegypt lying along the Mediterranean The Countrey of Cyrene is a Country which was called in old time Cyrene wherein did stand that Oracle which was so famous in the time of Alexander the Great called by the name of the Temple or Oracle of Jupiter Hammon whither when Alexander did repaire as to take counsell of himselfe and his successe the Priests being before taught what they should say did flatteringly professe him to bee the Sonne of God and that he was to be adored So that as the Oracle of Delphos and some other were plaine delusions of Sathan who did raigne in that darke time of ignorance so this of Iupiter Hammon may be well supposed to be nothing else but a cousenage of the Priests In this Countrey and all neere about where the Oracle stood are very great Wildernesses where did appear to Alexander for foure daies journey neither Grasse Tree Water Man Bird nor Beast but onely a deepe kinde of sand so that hee was enforced to carry water with him for himselfe and his company and all other provision on Cammels backs At this day this Countrey hath lost his old name and is reckoned as a part of Aegypt and lyeth under the Turke In dry Countries as in Africa and the Wildernesse of Arabia they have much use of Cammels First because they can carry a huge burthen of water and other provision Secondly because that themselves will goe a long time without drinke travelling as Solinus writeth foure dayes together without it but then drinking excessively and that especially of muddy and puddle water And thirdly because that in an extremity those that travell with them doe let them bloud in a veine and sucke out the bloud whereby as the owner is much relieved so the Camell is little the worse Westward from this Countrey along the Mediterranean lieth that which in ancient time was called Africa minor for as in Asia one part above another was by an excellency called Asia or Asia the lesse so this part of Africke was termed by the Romanes sometimes Africa simply sometime Africa the lesse In this Countrey did stand that place so famous mentioned by Salust under the name of Phillenorum arae which was the bound in that time betweene Africke and Cyrene On the North and East part hereof in the Sea neere unto the shore was that Quick-sand which in times past did destroy so many ships and was called Syrtis magna as also on the North and West part was the other sand called Syrtis parva Some part of this Countrey was heretofore under the Sultan of Egypt whose dominion did extend it self so farre to the West and there was diuided from the Kingdome of Tunis but it is now wholly under the Turk and is commonly reputed as a part of Barbary For now by a generall name from the confines of Cyrene unto the West as farre as Hercules Piller is called Barbary though it containe in it divers Kingdomes as Tunis Fessa and Morocco Of Mauritania Caesariensi A Part of that country which by a generall name is called at this day
Barbarie hath in old time beene called Mauritania which was divided into two parts the East part whereof next to Africa minor was called by the Romanes Mauritania Caesariensis as the other was called Mauritania Tingitana In Mauritania Caesariensi was the Countrey of Numidia the people whereof were used in the Warres of the Carthaginians as Light-horsmen and for all nimble services were very active In the East part of this Countrey standing in the Sea was that famous Citie of Carthage Carthage a famous City supposed to be built by Dido who came from Tyrus This City was it which for the space of some hundred yeares contended with Rome for the Empire of the World In the Romane Histories are recorded the great Warres which the people of Rome had with the City of Carthage In the first warre of the three the contention was for the Iles of Cicilia Corsica and Sardinia when the victory fell to the Romans and the Carthaginians were glad to redeeme their peace with the leaving of those Ilands The second warre was begun by Hannibal who brake the League and after he had taken some part of Spain from the Romanes and sacked Saguntum a Citie of their Friends came first over the Pyrenay hils to France then over the Alpes to Italy where hee overthrew the Romanes in three great Battels and much endangered their estate hee continued in Italy with his Army sixteene yeares till Scipio attempting on Carthage forced Hannibal to returne to rescue his owne Countrey There was Hannibal overthrowne and his City put to a great pension by Scipio who for his victory there was named Africanus In the third Warre because the people of Carthage still brake the League their City was razed to the very ground by the earnest and continuall counsell of Cato the Elder fearing evermore so dangerous a Neighbour though Scipio Nasica counselled to the contrary fearing lest if the dread of that enemy were taken away the Romans would grow either to idlenesse or civill dissention which after they did It is reported of Cato that hee never spake his judgement of any thing in the Senate but his conclusion was thus Thus I think for this matter and withall that Carthage is to be razed down And Scipio Nasica would reply in his conclusion Thus I thinke for this matter and withall that Carthage is not to bee razed down Livie reporteth that the way whereby Cato prevayled that Carthage should be razed downe was this while the question was very hot hee bringeth into the Senâ—te house greene Figges and let the Senatours understand that the same day three weeks those Figges were growing in Carthage Town wherby hee made manifest unto them that it was possible that an Army might be conveyed from Carthage to Rome in so short a time as that they would not be able on a suddaine to resist and so Rome might be surprized whereby they all concluded that it was no safety for their City to have a bad Neighbour so neer unto them In this Countrey toward the West not farre from Carthage stood Vtica whereof the younger Cato was tearmed Cato Vticensis because hee killed himselfe there in the civill warres betwixt Caesar and Pompey because he would not come within the hands of his enemy Caesar Not farre from thence westward standeth Hippo which was the City where S. Augustine was Bishop This whole Countrey at this day is called the Kingdome of Tunis the King whereof is a kinde of stipendary unto the Turke the people that inhabit there are generally Saracens and doe professe Mahumet Some doe write that Tunis standeth in the very place where olde Carthage was which is not so but is situated very neere unto the old ruines of the other Against the king of Tunis Charles the fift had some of his warres by Sea Of Mauritania Tingitana THe other part of Barbary that lyeth along the Mediterranean farthest into the West was called in old time Mauritania Tingitana The people of which Countrey were those which almost in al the old Histories were called by the name of Mauri Those of the other Mauritania being rather termed Numidae Into the North-west part therof did Hercules come and there did set up one of his pillars which answereth to the other in Spain they both being at the straits of Gilbralter in times past called Fretum HerculeuÌ„ On the South part thereof lay the * The kingdome of Bocchus kingdom of Bocchus which in the time of Marius had so much to doe with the Romans In the west part of this Mauritania standeth the Hill called Atlas minor Atlas minor Atlas major on the South part is the great Hill called Atlas major whereof the maine Ocean which lyeth betweene Mauritania and America is called Mare Atlanticum This hill is so high that unto those who stood on the bottome of it it seemed to touch heaven with his shoulders This Countrey hath beene long inhabited by the Saracens who from thence finding it to be but a short passage into Spaine did goe over now seven hundred yeares agoe and possessed there the Kingdome of Granado on the South side of Spaine till they were thence expelled by Ferdinandus and Elizabeth or Isabel King and Queene of Castile In this Countrey since that time have the Spaniards taken some Cities and Holds and so also have the Portugals which by the divers event of victory have often beene lost and won by them Here it was that the Emperour Charles the Fift had divers of his great Warres against the Moores as well as in the Kingdome of Tunis For the assistance of one who claymed to bee King of a part of this Countrey did Sebastian the King of Portugale goe with all his power into Africa in the Yeare 1578. where unadvisedly bearing himselfe hee was slaine together with two other the same day who claymed to be Kings so that there it was that the Battell was fought whereof it was said that * Three Kings slaine in one day at the battle of Aleazar three Kings died in one day which battell is called the battell of Aleazar and was the ruine of the Kingdome of Portugale and the cause of the uniting it to the Crowne of Spaine Astrologers did suppose that the blazing Starre which appeared the Yeare before did signifie that ill event This whole Countrey doth maintaine in it besides some Imperiall Government two absolute Kingdomes * The kingdome of Fezâ— the one of Fezza or Fez which lyeth on the North part toward the Mediterranean and Spain the other is the Kingdome of * The kingdome of Morocco Morroco which lyeth from above the Hill Atlas minor to the South and West part of Mauritania These are both Saracens as be also their people holding true League with the Turke and with some other Christian Princes a League onely for Traffick and Merchandize It may be doubted whether it was in this Mauritania Tingitana or rather but neere unto it in Mauritania Caesariensi
and admirable Note It is true of this Countrey which Solinus writeth of some other that Serpents and Adders doe not breed there and in the Irish Timber of certaine experience no Spiders webbe is ever found * Of Britaine The most renowned Iland in the world is Albion or Britannia which hath heretofore contained in it many severall Kingdomes but especially in the time of the Saxon. It hath now in it two Kingdomes England and Scotland wherein are * Foure languagâ—s there spoken foure severall Languages that is the English which the civill Scots doe barbarously speake the Welsh tongue which is the Language of the old Britaines the Cornish which is the proper speech of Cornewall and the Irish which is spoken by those Scots which live on the west part of Scotland neere unto Jreland The commodities and pleasures of England are well knowne unto us and many of them are expressed in this Verse Anglia Mons Pons Fons Ecclesia Foemina Lana England is stor'd with Bridges Hils and Wooll With Churches Wels and Women beautifull * Their originall The ancient inhabitants of this Land were the Britaines which were afterward driven into a corner of the Countrey now called Wales and it is not to be doubted but at the first this Countrey was peopled from the continent of France or thereabout when the sonnes of Noah had spread themselves from the East to the West part of the World It is not strange to see why the people of that Nation doe labour to fetch their pedigree from one Brutus whom they report to come from Troy because the originall of that Truth began by Galfriaus Monumetensis above five hundred yeares agone and his Booke contayneth great shew of Truth but was noted by Nubringensis or some Authour of his time to be meerely fabulous Besides that many of our English Nation have taxed the saying of them who would attribute the name of Britannia unto Brutus and Cornubia to Corynaeus Aenaeas Sylvius Epist 1.3 hath thought good to confirme it saying The English people saith hee doe report that after Troy was overthrowne one Brutus came unto them from whom their Kings doe fetch their Pedegrees which matter there are no more Historians that deliver besides a certain English man which had some learning in him who willing to equall the bloud of those Islanders unto the Romane stocke and generositie did affirme and say that concerning Brutus which Livie and Salust being both deceived did report of Aeneas Wee doe finde in ancient Records and Stories of this Island that since the first possessions which the Brittaines had heere it was over-runne and * The Brittains five times conquered conquered five severall times * First by the Romans The Romanes were the first that did attempt upon it under the conduct of Julius Caesar who did onely discover it and frighted the Inhabitants with the name of the Romanes but was not able so farre to prevaile upon it as any way to possesse it yet his Successours afterwards did by little and little so gaine on the Countrey that they had almost all of it which is now called England and did make a great Ditch or Trench from the East to the West Sea betweene their Dominion here and Scotland Divers of the Emperours were here in person as Alexander Severus who is reputed to be buried at Yorke Here also was Constantius Father unto Constantine the Great who from hence married Helena a woman of this Land who was afterwards Mother to the renowned Constantine But when the Romanes had their Empire much weakned partly by their owne discords and partly by that decay which the irruptions of the Gothes and Vandales and such like invaders did bring upon them they were forced to retire their Legions from thence and so leaving the Countrey naked the Scots and certaine people called the Tictes did breake in who most miserably ' wasted and spoyled the Countrey Then were the Inhabitants as some of our Authours write put to that choice that either they must stand it out and be slaine or give ground till they came to the Sea and so be drowned Of these * Secondly the Pâ—cts who used to print or pâ—unâ—e their 〈◊〉 Pictes who were the second over-runners of this Iland some doe write that they did use to cut and pounse their flesh and lay on colours which did make them the more terrible to be seene with the cuts of their flesh But certaine it is that they had their name for painting theÌ„selves which was a common thing in Brittaine in Caesars time as he reporteth in his Commentaries the men colouring their faces with Glastone or Ode that they might seeme the more dreadfull when they were to joyne battaile To meete with the cruelty and oppression of these Barbars the * Thirdly the Saxon. Saxons were in the third place by some of the Land called in who finding the sweetnesse of the soyle and commodiousnesse of the Countrey every way did repaire hither by great troupes and so seated themselves here that there were at once of them seven severall Kingdomes and Kings within the compasse of England These Saxons did beare themselves with much more temperance and placability towards those few of the Countrey that remayned than the Picts had done but yet growing to contention one of their Kings with another partly about the bounds of their territories and partly about other quarrels they had many great battels each with other In the time of these * Their Religion and devotion Religion and Devotion was much embraced and divers Monasteries and rich Religious houses were founded by them partly for penance which they would doe and partly otherwise because they thought it to be meritorious in so much that King Edgar alone is recorded to have built above foure severall Monasteries And some other of their Kings were in their ignorance so devoted that they gave over their Crownes and in superstition did goe to Rome there to leade the lives of private men These seven Kingdomes in the end did grow all into one and then the fourth and most grievous scourge and conquest of this kingdome came in the * Fourthly the Danes Danes who Lording here divers yeares were at last expelled and then William Duke of Normandy pretending that hee had right thereunto by the promise of adoption or some other conveyance from Herald did with his Normans passe over into this Land and obtained a great victory in Sussex at a place which he caused in remeÌ„brance therof to be called Battell and built an Abby there by the name of Battell Abby Hee tooke on him to winne the whole by Conquest and did beare himselfe indeed like a Conquerour For hee seised all into his hands gave out Barons Lordships and Mannours from himselfe reversed the former Lawes and Customes and instituted here the manners and orders of his owne Countrey which have proceeded on and beene by little and little bettered so that the
honourable government is established which wee now see at this day It is supposed that the Faith of * The religion ve y ancient which they nâ—w professe Christ was first brought into this Land in the dayes of the Apostles by Ioseph of Arimathaea Simon Zelotes and some other of that time but without doubt not long after it was found here which appeareth by the Testimony of Tertullian who lived within lesse then two hundred yeares after Christ And there are Records to shew that in the dayes of Eleutherius one of the ancient Bishops of Rome * K. Lucius he first that here received Baptisme and the Gospel King Lucius received here both Baptisme and the Gospel in so much that it is fabulous vanity to say that Augustine the Monk was the first that here planted the Christian Faith For hee lived six hundred yeares after Christ in the time of Gregory the Great Bishop of Rome before which time Gildas is upon great reason thought to have lived here of whom there is no doubt but that hee was a learned Christian Yea and that may bee perceived by that which Beda hath in his Ecclesiasticall Story concerning the comming in of Augustine the Monke that the Christian Religion had beene planted here before but that the puritie of it in many places was much decayed and also that many people in the Iland were yet Infidels For the conversion of whom as also for the reforming of the other Austine was sent hither where hee behaved himselfe so proudly that the best of the Christians which were here did mislike him In him was erected the Arch-bishopricke of Canterbury which amongst old Writers is still termed Dorebernia the Archbishops doe reckon their succession by number from this Augustine * Note The reason wherefore Gregory the great is reported to have such care for the conversion of the Ethnicks in Brittaine was because certaine young Boyes were brought him out of this Countrey which being very goodly of countenance as our Countrey Children are therein inferiour to no Nation in the World hee asked them what Countrey-men they were and it was replyed that they were Angli he said they were not unfitly so called for they were Angli tanquam Angeâ—i Nam vultum habent Angelorum And demanding further of what Province they were in this Iland it was returned that they were called Deires which caused him againe to repeate that word and to say that it was great pitty but that by being taught the Gospell they should be saved de ira Dei England hath since the time of the Conquest growne more and more in riches insomuch that now more then 300 yeares since No countrey like England in the time of King Henry the third it was an ordinary speech that for wealth this Countrey was Puteus inexhaustus a Well that could not be drawne dry Which conceit the King himselfe as Mathew Paris writeth did often suggest unto the Pope who thereupon tooke advantage abusing the simplicity of the King to sucke out inestimable summes of money to the intolerable grievance of both the Clergie and Temporality And among other things to bring about his purpose the Pope did perswade the King that he would invest his young Sonne in the Kingdome of Apulia which did containe a great part of all Naples and for that purpose had from thence many thousands besides infinite summes which the King was forced to pay for interest to the Popes Italian Vsurers Since that time it hath pleased God more and more to blesse this Land but never more plentifully than in the dayes of our late and now raigning Soveraigne whose raigne continuing long in peace hath peopled the Land with abundance of inhabitants * The Riches of the Countrey hath stored it with Shipping Armour and Munition hath fortified it many wayes hath increased the trafficke with the Turke and Muscovite and many parts of the earth farre distant from us hath much bettered it with building and enriched it with Gold and Silver that it is now by wise men supposed that there is more Plate within the Kingdome then there was Silver when her Majesty came to the Crown Some Writers of former times yea and those of our owne Country too have reported that in England have been Mynes of Gold or at the least some Gold taken out of other Mynes which report hath in it no credit in as much as the Countrey standeth too cold neither hath it sufficient force of the Sunne to concoct and digest that Mettall But truth it is that our Chronicles doe witnesse that some Silver hath beene taken up in the Southerne parts as in the Tinne-Mynes of Devonshire and Cornewall and such is sometimes found now but the vertue thereof is so thinne that by that time it is tryed and perfectly fined it doth hardly quit the cost notwithstanding ' Lead Iron and such baser mettals be here in good plenty The same reason which hindreth gold ore from being in these parts that is to say the cold of the climate doth also hinder that there is no wine whose Grapes grow here For although wee have Grapes which in the hotter and warme Summers doe prove good but yet many times are nipped with the frost before they be ripe yet notwithstanding they never come to that concocted maturity as to make sweet and pleasant wine yet some have laboured to bring this about therefore have planted vineyards to their great cost and trouble helping and ayding the soyle by the uttermost diligence they could but in the end it hath proved to very little purpose The most rich commodity which our Land hath naturally growing is * The rich commodity of Wooll Wooll for the which it is renowned over a great part of the Earth For our Clothes are sent into Turkie Venice Italy Barbary yea as far as China of late besides Muscovy Denmark and other Northern Nations for the which we have exchange of much other Merchandize necessary for us here besides that the use of this wooll doth in severall labours set many thousands of our people in worke at home which might otherwise be idle * Bridges Amongst the Commendations of England as appeareth in the place before named is the store of good Bridges whereof the most famous are London Bridge and that at Rochester In divers places here there bee also Rivers of good Name but the greatest glory doth rest in three * Rivers the Thames called in Latine of Tame and Isis Tamesis Severne called Sabrina and Trent which is commonly reputed to have his name of trente the French word signifying thirty which some have expounded to be so given because thirty severall Rivers doe run into the same And some other doe take it to bee so called because there bee thirty severall sorts of Fishes in that water to bee found the names whereof doe appeare in certain old Verses recited by Master Camden in his Booke of the Description of
Nobility of Scotland and by that meanes the Kings of England were no sooner attempting any thing upon France but the Scots by and by would invade England Whereupon the * A Proverbe Proverbe amongst our people grew That hee who will France winne must with Scotland first begin * The policie of the French And these Frenchmen continuing their policie did with infinite rewards breake off the Marriage which was intended and agreed upon betweene King Edward the sixt and Mary the late unfortunate Queene of Scotland drawing her rather to bee married with the Dolphine of France who was Sonne to King Henry the second and afterward himselfe raigned by the name of King Francis the second But this was so ill taken by the English that they sought revenge upon Scotland and gave them a great overthrow in that battell which was called * Musselborough field Musselborough-field The people of this Countrey were in times past so * The barbarousnesse of these Scots in former times barbarous that they did not refuse to eate mans flesh which as Saint Hierome doth witnesse of them hee himselfe saw some of them to doe in France and the fame thereof went so farre that Chrysostome in one place doth allude to such a matter There bee many little Ilands adjoyning unto the great Iland Britaine as at the very North point of Scotland the * The Orcades the people barbarous Orcades which are in number above thirty The chiefe whereof is named Orkney whereof the people are barbarous On the West-side of Scotland towards Ireland lye the Ilands called Hebrides in number forty foure where inhabite the people ordinarily called the * The Red-shankes Red-shankes Not farre from thence is the I le Mona commonly called the * The I le of Man I le of Man the peculiar jurisdiction of the Earles of Darby with homage notwithstanding reserved to the Crowne of England On the North part of Wales is the Iland of * The I le of Anglesey Anglesey which is reputed a distinct Shire Towards France side on the South part of England is the I le of * The I le of Wight Wight in Latine called Vectis which is a good hold in the narrow Seas against the French More neere France are the Iles of * The Iles of Gernesey and Iernesey Gernesey and Iernesey where they speake French and are under the Crowne of England There are also many other but of small account As the Iles of Teanet and Sheppy on the side of Kent the Sorlings or Sully at the end of Cornewall in number as it is said 145. Caldey Lunday and the Flatholnes with * Divers other Ilands others in the mouth of Severne Holy-farne Cocket Ilands on the side of Northumberland And thus much of Great Britaine and the Ilands thereunto adjoyning Of the Ilands in the Mediterranean Sea THere be many Ilāds in the Mediterranean renowned in all the old Writers◠but the chiefe of them onely shall bee touched From the Pillars of Hercules going Eastward are two Ilands not far from Spaine which in times past were called * Iusulae Baleares Insulae Baleares for that the people of them did use both for their delight and Armour Slings which they continually almost carried about with them and whereunto as Pliny writeth they did traine up their Children from their youngest yeares not giving them any meat till they had from some post or beame cast it downe with a Sling Of these were those Fonditors or Sling-casters which the Carthaginians and Spaniards did use in their Warres against the Romanes The lesser of these which lyeth most West was called in old time Minorica The bigger which lyeth more East was called Majorica and now Minorica and Majorica they are both under the Dominion of the King of Spaine More Eastward in the Sea called Mare Inferum or Tyrrhenum lyeth the Island of * The Iland of Corsica Corsica over against Genua and direct Southward from thence lyeth the great * The Iland of Sardinia Island Sardinia For the quiet possession of which two the warres were often revived betweene the old Carthaginians and the Romanes for these two Islands lye in the middle very fitly The Iland of Corsica is subject to the State of Genua whither the Genoes doe transport things out of the Mayne and are ruled by their Governours as the Venetians doe Candie This Iland is but barren either in respect of some other that lye neere unto it or of the Countrey of Italy but yet yeeldeth profit ease and honour unto the States of Genua which have little land beside it The Island of Sardinia also is no way so fruitfull as Sicily but it is under the Government of the King of Spain and was the same which was promised to Anthony the King of Navarre Note Father to Henry the Fourth King of France in recompence of Pamplona and the rest of the Kingdome of Navarre then and now detained from him and his heires by the Spaniard But this was the device onely of the Cardinall of Lorraine who intending to draw him to Papistry and to order his politicke purposes did make shew of this which was no way meant by the Spaniard Further to the East at the very point of the South part of Jtaly lyeth the great * The Iland of Sicilia Iland Sicilia which some have supposed to have beene heretofore a part of the Continent but by an Earth-quake and inundation of water to have beene rent off and so made an Iland The figure of this Countrey is Triquetra triangled or three square Iustin in his fourth Booke doth seeme to suspect that Sicily was in times past fastned unto Italy But Seneca in Consolatione ad Martian Cap. 97. doth say plainly that it was sometimes a peece of the Continent There was also a great contention for this Countrey betweene the Carthaginians and the Romanes but the Romanes obtained it and had from thence exceeding store of Corne yearely whereupon Sicily was called Horreum Pop. Rom. Here stood the goodly * The Citie Syracusa Note City called Syracusa which was destroyed and sacked by Marcellus the Romane When as Livie writeth of him hee being resolved to set on fire that Citie which was then one of the goodliest places of the World could not chuse but break forth into teares to see how vaine and transitory the glory of worldly things is here At that time lived * Archimedes the famous Engine-maker Archimedes who was a most admirable ingenious Engine-maker for all kinde of Fortifications of whom it is said that by burning Glasses which hee made he did set on fire divers ships which the Romanes had lying in the Haven When the Citie was taken hee was making plots and drawing figures on the ground for to prevent the assaults of the Romanes and being unknowne he was slaine by some of the Souldiers which did breake in upon him Some thinke that it was
hee and not Architas which made the Dove of which it is written that it was so equally poysed that being throwne up into the ayre it would hover or flutter there and in a good space not fall downe This was in times past * Sicily once a kingdome 2 Famous Tyrants in it a Kingdome where the two Tyrants the elder and the younger Dionysius did raigne where Gelo also that great friend to the Romanes did remaine It was afterward made a Province and governed by the Praetor or Deputy of the Romanes whereof Verres was one who was so inveighed against by Tully It grew afterward to be a Kingdome againe in so much that Tancredus was King of Sicily which entertained our Richard the first when with Philip the King of France he went to the Conquest of the Holy Land Here was likewise * The tyrant Phalaris The tyrannies of Sicily were very famous Phalaris the Tyrant so famous King of Agrigentum The tyrannies which were used in Sicilie were in times past so famous that they grew into a Proverbe as Invidia Siculs non invenere Tyranni tormentum majus but they who were the causes of all did oftentimes speed very ill themselves as appeareth by the elder Dionysius who being driven out of his Dominion did flee into Italy and was glad there to teach Children that so hee might supply his necessity His sonne grew more tyrannous than the father and stood so farre in feare of his owne people that many times hee caused himselfe to bee shut up in a Tower and his Guard to keepe the doore that no body might come at him hee durst not trust his Barbour to shave or clip him * Note that cruelty is alwayes attended with feare for feare of cutting of his throat but that which was done hee caused his Daughter to doe who with the thinne inner skinne of Walnuts being set on fire is said to have taken off the haire of his face This was hee whose felicity when Damocles a Flatterer did seeme marveilously to admire Damocles the flatterer hee caused him to bee set one day at Dinner in his Royall Seate with dainty Fare before him Plate rich Hangings Musique and all other matters of delight but withall a naked Sword which was onely tyed with a single haire of a Horses Mane to be hanged directly over him the feare whereof did so feare the Flatterer lest it should fall upon him that hee continually looked upwards and about him and tooke no joy of that which was before him whereby Dionysius did evidently teach him that the State of some Princes howsoever it seeme glorious yet it doth bring little contentment unto themselves by reason of the continuall dangers which hang over them It is reported of this man that when all the people of his Countrey did for his cruelty continually curse him there was one Woman which daily did goe to the Churches and prayed the Gods to lengthen his life wherewithall when Dionysius was acquainted marvelling himselfe at the reason of it he sent for her and asked what good thing hee had done unto her that shee was so carefull evermore to pray for him Note â—ow the poore woman prayed soy this Tyrant But the woman answered that it was not for love but for feare that shee begged these things of the Gods For said shee I am an old woman I doe remember when your Grandfather lived who being very hard unto his people was much maligned by them and they prayed that they might be rid of him which falling out afterward your Father came in place and hee was worse than the former which when the Subjects could not endure they prayed also that hee might die hoping that the next would bee better Then came your selfe in place who have much exceeded the cruelty of your father And whereas others wish that you were gone also trusting for amendment in the next I that have lived so long see that things grow worse and worse doe pray that you may continue because that if we should have one that should succeed you if he walke in the steps of his Predecessors he must needs bee as bad as the Divell himselfe for none else in tyranny can goe beyond you * A good note for all inventers of â—ortures and cruelty and likewise for time flatterers Phalaris of Agrigentum was hee who proposed rewards unto him who invented new torments which caused Perillus to make a Bull of Brasse into the which if offenders should bee put and fire should bee set under then it would make them roare like a Bull But when upon the terrour thereof none would so offend as to deserve that torment Phalaris tooke Perillus the Author thereof and to try the experience put him into it whereby Perillus lost his life This Countrey is now also under the King of Spaine who among other titles was wont to call himselfe King of both Sicilies reckoning this Iland for one and that part of Italy for another which is now called Calabria and was in the Romane Histories named Magna Graecia There is nothing more renowned in all Cicilia either with new or old Writers than the * The Mountaine Aetna Mountaine Aetna which being on the out side oft covered with snow yet by a sulphurous or brimstony matter doth continually burne within yea so that whereas it was supposed in the ages last before us that the matter being consumed the sire had ceased twice in our age it hath broke forth againe to the incredible losse of all the Countrey adjoyning the ashes thereof destroying vines and fruits which were within the compasse of many miles about Agatheas in his History doth tel that in his owne time there was an incredible deale of ashes which did fall about Constantinople and the places neere adjoyning in so much that the ground was covered with the same which he reputeth to have been brought from the Hill in Sicily But Bodin in his Method Hist doth reprove this as a fable which can have no shew of truth by reason of the great distance of the place notwithstanding it is certaine that sometimes when it doth strongly breake out the Fields and Vineyards and all the fruits within the compasse of some miles are much hurt therewithall * The reason of the fire in the mountaine of Aetna The reason of this Fire was laid downe by Iustine in his fourth Booke and is since approved both by Historians and Philosophers which is that within the ground there is great store of Sulphure and brimstony matter which having once fire in it is apt to keepe it And whereas all the whole Countrey is full of chinks and chaps and hollownesse within the ground the matter which entreth there doth minister substance to the continuance of that flame as wee see that water cast on coales in the Smiths Forge doth make them burne more fervently and then into the Chinkes and Chaps the Winde doth also enter which