there was any wind to driue and enrage the Waters is very vnlikely because it is said that God caused a wind to passe vpon the Earth and the Waters ceased so that there was no wind till the Waters sanke Lastly wee may argue from a finall cause that this inequality in the superficies of the Earth was before the flood because it is certaine that all things were in as good or better estate then now with vs and that the Earth was adorned with all varieties of creatures as well for profit as delectation Now it is found by experience that all commodities agree not to all places but some are found in the mountaines at all sorts of mettalls mineralls Plants Vegetalls for the most part prosper best in the vallies and plaines Also that the mountaines serue for a shelter to guard the vallies from the rigor of cold and wind both for the better conueniencie of mans life and encrease of fruits for the vse of man Whence we may conclude that it is farre more probable that the great Mountaines were so created in the beginning and not made by the flood yet can wee not deny but that some small Hillockes might be made by the flood and afterward by the industrie of man which haue raised great fortresses and bulworks which afterward decaied were made great heaps of Earth as we see many in this land but this is of small note not worthy consideration in comparison of the great mountaines of the Earth whereof we especially treat 2 The perpendicular height of the highest mountaines seldome exceeds 10 furlong This proposition depends on the authority of Eratosthenes a famous Mathematician who being employed by his King found out by Dioptrick Instruments the height of the highest mountaines not to exceed the quantity aboue specified Cleomedes extends this a little farther and would haue some mountaines to attaine the height of 15 furlongs of which height he would haue an high rock in Bactriana called by Strabo 11 libro Sisimitrae Petra But yet if we credit Pliny on Dicaearchâ—â— who measured the Mountain Pelion accoÌ„pted the highest he found it not to exceed 1250 paces which make 10 furlongs and Solinus relates the mountaines of Thessaly to be higher then else-where are to bee found But this opinion howsoeuer supported by the authority of the ancient and famous Mathematicians hath been called in question as well by moderne as ancient writers Many matters are miraculously or rather fabulously spoken of the Mountaine Athos in Macedonia of Cassius in Syria and another of the same name in Arabia of the mountaine Caucasus and others which Histories notwithstanding are related by no meaner Authors then Aristotle Mela Pliny and Solinus yet it is not hard to imagine that these Authors might bee deceiued in those times either trusting to other mens relations or wanting Mathematicall instruments to search these matters Of the Mountaine Athos it is much wondred at that it should cast a shadow from Macedonia into the market-place of Myrhina a towne of the Iland Lemnos distant from Athos 86 miles But this as our learned Countriman Mr Hues well obserues can bee no great argument of such a miraculous height because the mountaine Athos situate East from Lemnos as may be gathered from Ptolomies Table may without any great wonder cast a very long shadow the Sunne either rising or setting Other matters are related of this mountaine Athos more strange then the former to wit that it should in hight transcend the Region of the raine and wind which they would striue to confirme out of an old tradition that the ashes heaped together on certaine Altars built on the top thereof were nener blowne away but remained in the same manner as they were left to which may be added out of Strabo that they who inhabit the top of this mountaine can see the Sunne 3 houres before those who inhabit neere the sea The like is reported by Aristotle of the Mountaine Caucasus that for the extreame height the top of it enioyes the Sun-beames a third part of the night Litle lesse is spoken by Pliny and Solinus of the mountaine Cassius in Syria and by Pomponius Mela of the mountaine Cassius in Arabia But how fabulous and incredulous these things are Petrus Nonius and other Mathematicians haue sufficiently demonstrated out of the grounds of Geometry more absurd by farre seemes that which Eustathius reports of Hercules pillars celebrated by Dionysius Perieges for their admirable height whereas they are found not to exceed 100 ells making one furlong a height according to Strabo not exceeding the Aegyptian Pyramides and comming short of certaine Indian trees neare the Riuer Hyarotes whose Meridian shadowes reach 5 furlongs These errours in the ancient might seeme veniall had they not bin seconded by latter writers Of the Mountaine Tenariffe in the Canaries Scaliger is bold to report out of other mens relations that it riseth in height aboue 15 leagues which make 60 miles but Petricius more bold then he would haue it 70 miles Litle lesse is spoken of Pico amongst the Azoris Inâ—ulâ— and the Mountaine Andi in Peru But to confute these relatioÌ„s we will vse this argument It is reported by the Spanish writers which haue spoken of this place that the topps of these Mountaines scarce any one or two moneths in the yeare are free from snow Now that snow should bee ingendred aboue 60 or 70 miles aboue the ordinary plaine of the Winter or Earth is against the iudgmeÌ„t of our best Astronomers because as they haue obserued out of Eratosthenes measure the highest vapors seldome reach so farre as 48 miles in height euery way from the Earth This argument may as well serue to confute these ancient opinions before mentioned had they not been so fabulous as scarce to deserue any solide confutation 3 The ordinary height of the Land aboue the Sea in diuerse places is more then the hight of the highest Mountaines aboue the ordinary face of the Earth We haue probably shewed out of former grounds that as the ordinary height of the Earth is answerable to the ordinary depth of the Sea so the hilles and mountaines in proportion answere to the whirle-pooles and extraordinary Gulphes of the Sea but it is to be imagined that the depth of the Sea in the maine Ocean is farre more below the superficies of the Earth then those other whirle-pooles and Holes extend themselues below that depth But to proue this by a more sensible argument we will compare the one with the other so farre forth as Mathematicians by experience haue guessed for it is found by Mathematick Instruments as wee haue proued in the precedent Theoreme that the highest Mountaines seldome or neuer mount vpward aboue ten furlongs which is an English mile and a quarter but the hight of the Land in some places where appeare no such hills is obserued to be much more to proue which assertion we can haue no fitter argument then the fresh Springs
meaning is not in this Treatise to handle the nature and propieties of these two Elements Water Earth farther then may seeme necessary for the Geographicall constitution of the Terrestriall Spheare leauing the rest to the Naturall Philosopher because it is supposed that few men vndertake the study of this Science without some insight in the other And to speake truth this begins where the Naturall Philosopher ends Yet because some light in each learning is necessarily required â—nd all men are not willing to seeke farther into the grounds of Naturall Philosophie it will not seeme altogether impertinent to lay the foundation farther off that the building thereon erected may stand surer and stronger Wherefore taking some beginning from the matter of the Earthly Globe wee haue distinguished it into Earth and Water as those parts whereof the whole Globe is not essentially compounded as one intire body in it selfe but rather coâ—ceruated and compacted together each part retaining its owne nature and proprieties without any proper mixture To expresse more fully the constitution of this Spheare we are here to distinguish betwixt the first and second matter The first matter was that vniuersall chaos or masse out of which all bodies both Celestiall and Elementary were made and formed as wee read in the first of Genesis Which whether it be the same with Aristotle's Materia prima as some haue imagined I leaue to others to dispute The second matter of the Globe is either Proper or Accidentall The proper we call that whereof the Globe of the Earth most properly consists such as are the two Elements of Earth and Water The Accidentall matter is vnderstood of all other bodies contained in the superficies of the said Spheare as Stones Mettals Minerals and such like materials made of a Terrestriall substance and engendred in the wombe of the Earth Concerning the Earth and Water which we make the most proper and essentiall parts of the Spheare we will set downe these two Theoremes 1 In the Terrestriall Spheare is more Earth then Water The Theoreme may bee proued by sundry reasons drawne from Nature and Experience Whereof the first may bee taken from the depth of the waters compared with the whole thicknes of the Earth For the ordinary depth of the Sea is seldome found to be aboue 2 or 3 miles and in few places 10 furlongs which make a mile and a quarter And albeit some late Writers haue imagined the obseruation to be vnderstood only of straight and narrow Seas and not of the maine Ocean yet granting it to amount 〈◊〉 10 20 or 30 miles it cannot reach to so great a quantity as to come neere the greatnes of the Earth For the whole circle of the Terrestriall Spheare being 21600 English miles allowing 60 English miles to a degree of a greater circle wee shall find the Diameter to bee about 7200 miles Whose semi-diameter measuring the distance betweene the center and the superficies of the Earth will be 3600 miles And if any man suppose some of the quantity to be abated because of the Sphericall swelling of the Water aboue the Earth whose Circle must be greater than that of the Earth We answer first that this may challenge some abatement but not come neere any equality of the Water with the Earth Secondly it is to bee imagined that the surface of the Sea howsoeuer as it is painted in Globes and Charts it seeme for a great part empty and vnfurnished of Ilands yet this for the greatest part seeme rather to bee ascribed to mans ignorance and want of true discouery because many quillets and parcels of land lye yet vnknowne to our Christian World and therefore omitted and not figured in ouâ— ordinary Mappes So wee find a great quantity of Earth which lay hid and vnknowne without discouery in the dayeâ— of Ptolomy which caused him to contract curtaile the Earth in his Geographicall descriptions Which defect hath been since that time supplyed by the industrious trauailes and Nauigations of later time such as were of Portugals English and Hollanders especially of Columbus the Italian who as one wittily alluding to his name like Noah's Doue plucking an oliue branch from this Land gaue testimony of a portion of Land as yet vnknowne and left naked vnto discouery And no question can be made but a great quantity of land not yet detected by our European Nauigators awaites the industry of this age To which alludes the Poët in these Verses Venient annis secula seris Quibus Oceanus vincula rerum Laxet ingens pateat tellus Typhiâ—que nouos detegat orbes Nec sit terris vltima Thule In after-yeeres shall Ages come When th'Oecean shall vnloose the bands Of things and shew vast ample lands New Worlds by Sea-men shall be found Nor Thule be the vtmost bound Another reason to proue the Earth to be greater in quantity may bee drawne from the mixture of Earth and Water for if these two Elements should meet in the same quantity challenge an equality questionlesse the whole Earth would proue ouer-moist â—lymie and vnapt for habitation Which any man may easily obserue by his owne experience For let a portion of Earth another of Water be mixt together in the same quantity the whole masse will seeme no other than a heap of mire or slime without any solid or consisting substance Moreouer the Water being no other than a thin and fluid body hardly containing it selfe within its own bounds or limits as Aristotle teacheth vs must needs require a hard and solid body whereon to support it selfe which body must of necessity bee greater in quantity 2 The Earth and Water together make one Spheare It may bee probably collected from sundry places of holy Scripture that in the first Creation the surface of the Earth being round and vniforme was ouerwhelmed and compassed round with Waters as yet vnfurnished of liuing Creatures Secondly it appeares that Almighty GOD afterwards made a separation betwixt the Waters and Dry-Land This separation aâ— farre as reason may bee admitted as Iudge seemes to bee effected one of these two wayes Either by giuing super-naturall bounds and limits vnto the Waters not suffering them to inuade the Dry-land or els by altering the superficies of the Earth casting it into inequall parts so that some-where some parts of it being taken away empty channels or concauities might be left to receiue the Waters other-where by heaping vp the parts so taken away whence were caused Mountaines and eminent places on the earth The former of these wayes seemes altogether improbable forasmuch as it is very vnlikely to imagine that God in the first institution of Nature should impose a perpetuall violence vpon Nature as hereafter in place more conuenient shall bee demonstrated Wherefore taking the later as more consonant to reason we shall find that the Water the Earth separated and diuided make not two separate and distinct 〈◊〉 Globes but one and the same Spheare forasmuch as
South-part be diminished The reason is because the Magnet hauing eminently in it the circles which are in the Earth is separated or diuided by a middle line or Aequator from which middle space the vertues are conueyed toward either Pole as we haue before shewed Now any part being taken away from the North or South part this Aequator or middle line is remoued from his former place into the midst of the portion which is left and so consequently both parts are lesse then before For although these two ends seeme opposite yet is one comforted and increased by the other 9 Of the motions of Coition and Direction wee haue handled It followes that we speake of the motions of the second order to wit Variation and Declination 10 Variation is the deuiation or turning aside of the directory Magneticall needle from the true point of North or the true Meridian towards East or West In the discourse immediatly going before hauing treated of the magneticall body wee haue imagined it to bee true and pointing out the true North and South points of the Terrestriall Globe which certainely would bee so if the substance of the Earthly Globe were in all parts and places alike equally partaking the Magneticall vertue as some round Load-stone neither should wee find any variation or deuiation at all from the true Meridian of the Earth But because the Terrestriall Globe is found by Nauigatours to bee vnequally mixed with many materialls which differ from the magneticall substance as furnished with rockie hills or large valleyes continents Ilands some places adorned with store of iron Mimes rocks of Load-stone some altogether naked and destitute of these implements it must needs fall out that the magneticall needle and compasse directed and conformed by the Magneticall nature of the Eâ—rth cannot alwayes set themselues vpon the true Meridian that passeth right along to the Poles of the Terrestriall Globe but is forced and diuerted toward some eminent and vigorous magneticall part whereby the Meridian pointed out by the magnet must needes varie and decline from the true Meridian of the Earth certaine parts or degrees in the Horizontall circle which diuersion wee call the Variation of the compasse so thaâ— variation so far as it is obserued by the compasse is defined to bee an Arch of the Horizon intercepted betwixt the common intersection with the true Meridian and his deuiation This effect proceeding from the Inequality of magneticall vertue scattered in the Earth some haue ascribed to certaine Rockes or mountaines of Loadstone distant some degrees from the true Pole of the World which rockes they haue termed the Pole of the Loadstone as that whereunto the magnet should dispose and conforme it selfe which conceite long agoe inuented was afterward inlarged and trimmed ouer by Fracastorius But this opinion is a meere coniecture without ground for what Nauigatours could hee euer produce that were eye-witnesses of this mysterie or how can he induce any iudicious man to beleeue that which himselfe nor any to his knowledge euer saw The relation that the Frier of Noruegia makes of the Frier of Oxfords discouery recorded by Iames Cnoien in the booke of his Trauels where he speaks of these matters is commonly reiected as fabulous and ridiculous for had there beene any such matter it is likely he would haue left some monuments of it in the records of his owne Vniuersity rather then to haue communicated it to a friend as farre off as Noruegia Moreouer the disproportion in the degrees of variation in places of equall distance will easily correct this errour as we shall shew in due place More vaine and friuolous are all the opinions of others concerning this magneticall variation as that of Cortesius of a certaine motiue vertue or power without the Heauen that of Marsilius Ficiâ—us of a starre in the Beare that of Petrus Peregrinus of the Pole of the world that of Cardan of the rising of a starre in the taile of the Beare that of Bestardus Gallus of the Pole of the Zodiacke that of Liuius Sanutus of a certaine magneticall Meridian of Francis Maurolycus of a magneticall Iland of Scaliger of the heâ—uen and mountaines of Robert Norman of a respectiue point or place All which Writers seeking the cause of this variation haue found it no further off then their owne fancies More probable by farre and consonant to experience shall wee finde their opinion which would haue the cause of this variation be in the Inequality of the magneticall Eminencies scattered in the Earth This Inequality may bee perceiued to bee twofold 1 in that some parts of the Earth haue the magneticall minerals more then other parts for as much as the Superficies of some parts is solid Earth as in great Continents 2 Because although the whole Globe of the Earth is supposed to be magneticall especially in the Internall and profound parts yet the magneticall vertue belonging to those parts is not alwayes so vigorous and eminent as in some other parts as wee see one Load-stone to be stronger or weaker then another in vertue and power but of those two the former is more remarkable which may bee shewed by experience of such as haue sailed along many seacoa-stes for if a sea-iourney bee made from the shore of Guinea by Cape Verde by the Canarie Ilands the bounds of the Kingdome of Morocco from thence by the confines of Spaine France England Belgia Germany Denmarke Noruegia we shall find toward the East great and ample Continents but contrarywise in the West a huge vast Ocean which is a reason that the magneticall needle will vary from the true point of the North and inclines rather to the East because it is more probable that these Continents and Lands should partake more of this magneticall minerall then the parts couered with the Sea in which these magneticall bodies may bee scarcer or at the least deeper buried and not so forceable On the contrary part if wee saile by the American coasts we shall rather find the variation to be Westward as for example if a voyage be made from the confines of Terra Florida by Virginia Norumbega and so Northward because the land butteth on the West but in the middle spaces neere the Canary Ilands the directory needle respects the true Poles of the Terrestriall Globe or at least shewes very little variation Not for the agreement of the Magneticall Meridian of that place with the true by reason of the Rocke of Load-stone as some haue imagined because in the same Meridian passing by Brasile it fals out farre otherwise but rather because of the Terrestriall Continents on both sides which almost diuide the Magneticall vigour so that the Magneticall needle is not forced one way more then another the manner whereof wee shall finde in D. Gilbert expressed in an apt figure to whom for further satisfaction I referre the Reader 1 The Magneticall variation hath no certaine Poles in the Terrestriall Globe It is but a common
receiued errour as we haue mentioned that there is a certaine Rocke or Pole of Load-stone some degrees distant from the true Pole of the world which the Magneticall needle in it's variation should respect This Pole they haue imagined to be in the same Meridian with that which passeth by the Azores whence they haue laboured to shew the reason why the Compasse should not vary in that place which they explaine by this Figure Let there be a circle describing the Spheare E AF the Horizon EF the Articke Pole A the Antarticke â— The Pole or Rocke of Loadstone placed out of the Pole of the Earth B. Let there bee placed a magneticall directory needle in H it will according to their assertion tend to the point B by the magneticall Meridian H B which because it concurres with the true Meridian B A or H A there will be no variation at all but a true direction to the North Pole of the Earth But let this magneticall needle be placed in the point D it is certaine according to this opinion that it will tend to the Pole of the Loadstone B by the magneticall Meridian D B. Wherefore it will not point out the Pole of the Earth A but rather the point C because these two Meridians come not into one and the selfe-same Hence they haue laboured with more hope then successe â—o find out the longitude of any part of the Earth without any obseruation of the Heauens which I confesse might easily be effected if this coniecture might stand with true obseruation But how farre this conceit swarues from the experience of Nauigatours one or two instances will serue to demonstrate For if the variation had any such certaine poles as they imagine then would the Arch of variation bee increased or diminished proportionally according to the distance of the places As for example If in the compasse of an hundred miles the Compasse were varied one degree then in the next hundred miles it would vary another degree which would make two degrees But this hath often been proued otherwise by diuerse experiments of Nauigations mentioned by Gilbert and F. Wright I will only produce one or two If a ship saile from the Sorlinges to New-found-land they haue obserued that when they come so farre as to finde the Compasse to point directly North without any variation at all then passing onward there will bee a variation toward the North-East but obscure and little then afterward will the Arch of this variation increase with like space in a greater proportion vntill they approach neere the â—ontinent where they shall find a very great variation Yet before they come a shoare this variation will decrease againe From which one instance if there were no other we might conclude That the Arch of variation is not alwaies proportionable to the distance which granted quite ouerthrowes that conceit of the Poles of variation Beside this if there were two such magneticall Poles there can be but one common Meridian passing by them and the Poles of the Earthly Globe But by many obseruations collected and obserued by Ed. Wright and others there should be many magneticall Meridians passing by the Poles of the world as in the Meridian about Trinidado and Barmudas the Meridian about the Westermost of the Azores lastly the Meridian running amongst the East Indian Ilands a little beyond Iaua Maior the magneticall and true Meridian must needs agree in one Now for as much as all these magneticall Meridians passe by the Poles of the earth there can no cause be assigned why the magneticall Poles should bee said to bee in one rather then another and if in any then in all Whence it must needes follow that as many magneticall Meridians as you haue to passe by the true Poles of the world so many paire of magneticall Poles must you haue which will be opposite to all reason and experience 1 The point of Variation as of Direction is only Respectiue not Attractiue It was supposed by the Ancients that the Direction and Variation of the Loadstone was caused by an Attractiue point which drew and enforced the lilly of the Compasse that way which errour tooke place from another common-receiued opinion that all the other motions of the magnet were reduced to the Attractiue operation but the errour was corrected by one Robert Norman an English-man who found this point to bee Respectiue and no way Attractiue Whose reason or demonstration is not disapproued by Dr Gilbert although in other matters hee sharply taxeth him His experiment is thus Let there be a round vessell as we haue described ful of water in the midle of this water-place an iron-wier in a conuenient round corke or boat that it may swimme vpon the water euen poyzed let this iron-wire be first touched with the load-stone that it may more strongly shew the point of variation let this point of variation be D let this iron-wire rest vpon the water in the corke for a certaine time It is certainly true that this iron-wire in the cork will not moue it selfe to the margent or brinke of the vessell D which certainly it would doe if the point D were an attractiue point 3 The variation of euery place is constant and not variable This hath beene ratified by the experience of Nauigatours which in the selfe-same Regions haue neuer missed the true variation which they haue assigned them before If any difference bee assigned in variation to the same Region wee may impute it to their errour which obserued it arising either from want of skill or conuenient instruments Neither can this euer be changed except some great deluge or dissolution happen of a great part of land as Plato records of his Atlanticke Ilands 4 The variation is greater in places neere the poles of the Earth This proportion is not to be taken vniuersally but commonly for the most part yet would it haue truth in all places if all other things were correspondent It is obserued that the variation is greater on the coasts of Norway and the Low-countries then at Morocco or Guinea For at Guinea the magneticall needle inclines to the East a third part of one Rumbe of the Compasse In the Ilands of Cape-Verde halfe in the coasts of Morocco two third parts In England at the mouth of Thames according to the obseruation of D. Gilbert and Ed. Wright though some deny it one whole Rumbe in London the chiefe city of it eleuen degrees and more which we also find or thereabout in Oxford The reason is because the magneticall motiue vertue is stronger in the greater latitude increasing towards the pole and the large Regions of land lying toward the Pole preuaile more then those which are situate farther off 12 Thus much for the Variation The Declination is a magneticall motion whereby the magneticall needle conuerts it selfe vnder the Horizontall plaine toward the Axis of the Earth What wee haue hitherto spoken of Direction and Variation magneticall was such as might be
caused commonly two wayes either by contagion naturally incident to diuerse places or by hostile Inuasion and deuastation of this latter arise two maine effects The first is the want and scarcity of Inhabitants which should dresse and manure the ground to make it more fruitfull and accommodate to mans vse The second is their pouerty and captiuity whereof the one makes them vnable the second vnwilling to effect any great matter for the benefit of the Land A good instance whereof wee may finde in the land of Palestine which in times past by God himselfe was called A land flowing with milke and hony for the admirable pleasantnesse and fertility of the Soile yet at this day if wee will credit trauellers report a most barren Region deuoid almost of all good commodity fit for the vse of man in the ruines of which sometimes famous kingdome euery bleere-eyed iudgement may easily read Gods curse long since denounced Which strange alteration next vnto Gods anger wee can ascribe to no other cause then the hostile inuasion of forraine enemies which hath almost lâ—ft the land waste without the natiue Inhabitants whence it could not chuse in a short time but degenerate from the ancient fruitfulnesse The like may we finde in all those miserable Regions which groane at this day vnder the tyranny of the vsurping Turke whence a prouerbe runnes currant amongst them That where the Turkes horse hath once grazed no grasse will euer aftâ—r grow which signifies no other then the barbarous manner of the Turkes hauing once conquered a land to lay it open euer after to deuastation for being for the most part warlike men trained vp in martiall discipline they little or nothing at all regard the vse of husbandry whence in short time a Countrey must needs â—urne wild and vnfruitfull To these causes we may adde the influence of heauenly constellations which being varied according to the times produce no small effects in the changes and alterations of the earth The diuerse alteration in the disposition of the Inhabitants which was our second point we haue referâ—â—ed to another place neere the end of this tract to which is properly appertaines 3 Plâ—ces hauing long continued without habitation are seldome so healthy and fit for dwelling as those which haue beene inhabited This Proposition I haue knowne to bee warranted by the Testimonie of many experienced Nauigators in so much as I presume few men can doubt of the truth of it who hath either beene a Traualler himselfe into farre Countreyes or at least hath read other mens discoueries The onely matter therefore wee here intend is to produce certaine causes of this effect to giue satisfaction to such as make a distinction betwixt the knowledge of the effect and inquiry of the cause The first cause which I can alleage is the industrie of mankinde inhabiting any Countrey mentioned in the former Theoreme out of which ariseth a twofold effect 1 The improuing of the Soyle by remouing all such impediments as otherwise would proue noysome to mankinde for whereas all things growing of their owne accord are suffered to rot into the ground in like manner what other can wee expect but Fennes Fogges and noisome vapours altogether hurtfull to the welfare and life of man 2 The profit of mans industrie is no lesse apparent in manuring the ground and opening the vpper face of the Earth which being composed of diuerse substances sendeth forth many times certaine hot fumes and vapours which in many cold Countreyes mollify the vsuall rigour of the Aire which most offends the Inhabitants This reason is giuen by my Countrey-man Captaine Whitborne for the extreame cold which some men professe themselues to haue tried in New-found-land which neuerthelesse according to many mens description is knowne to lye farre more South then England for the natiues of the Countrey being for the most part driuen into the North part by the Europeans who vsually trade there for fish and they themselues liuing altogether on Fish from the Sea or some wild beasts on the land as Beares Deare and such like without any manuring of the ground for herbage The Soyle by them is in a manner left altogether vnmanured so that neither the soyle can bee well cleansed from noisome vapours arising from the putrefaction of herbage rotting as I said into the ground or left free to send out such wholsome fumes and vapours from its interiour parts which may warme the Ayre and preserue mankind 3 A third reason drawne from mens Industries that those Countreyes which haue inioyed Inhabitants by the continuall vse of Fires haue their Aire more purged and refined from drossie and noisome vapours which vsually arise out of a contagious soyle daily infected by putrefaction for scarce any nation hath beene knowne so barbarous and ignorant which hath not the inuention and vse of Fire neither is any infection of the aire so pestilent and opposite to humane constitution which the breath of fire will not in some sort dispell If any man obiect the distance of houses and villages wherein fire is vsed which seeme to claime a small interest in the change of the ayre hanging ouer a whole Countrey let him well consider the quicknesse of motion and fluidity of the Ayre passing as it were in a moment from one place to the other and hee may soone answer his owne obiection All those reasons hitherto mentioned an inhabited Region owes to mans industrie which wee generally touched in the precedent Theoreme The second cause which is as a consequent of habitation is the necessity of breathing of people liuing in any Region of the earth whereby may follow two effects 1 A certaine measure of heat impressed into the aire as wee see in any roome in a great throng of people by reason of their breathing together in one place 2 The assimilation of the Aire to humane bodies by a continuall respiration These alterations of the aire might perhaps to common apprehensions seeme small and insensible But hee that considers how great a quantity of aire is requisite for a mans respiration and the space and extent of motion together with the multitude of Inhabitants in a populous Countrey would hold it no strange matter that the breathing of men should breed such an alteration of the aire wee finde by experience that strong built houses being left tenantlesse will soone fall into decay not so much for want of reparation as the foggy vapours and moisture caused by want of Respiration The like whereof in some proportion may we imagine to be in a region wanting Inhabitants and depriued of this benefit of nature CHAP. II. Of the Generall Adiuncts of Places 1 IN a place Topographically taken two things are to bee considered 1. The Adiuncts 2 The Description The Adiuncts are such proprieties as agree to speciall places 2 Such Adiuncts agree to a place either in respect of the Earth it selfe or in respect of the Heauens Those which agree to a place in respect of
our Easterne winde is found to bee driest of all others whereof no other cause can bee giuen then that it comes ouer a great Continent of land lying towards the East out of which many drie and earthly exhalations are drawn so the Westerne winde is obserued to be very moist because it passeth ouer the hugie Atlanticke Ocean which must needs cast forth many watrie and moist vapours which beget raine and showres from the moisture of which Westerne winde some haue sought out an answer to that Probleme why hunting hounds should not sent nor hunt so well the winde being in the West as at other times For say they it is caused by the moisture of it either in making hinderance to their legges in running or at least to their smell being very thicke and foggy In this Westerne winde we may also perceiue much cold which is caused by the quality of those watrie vapours through which it passeth which being drawne from the water are naturally cold In our South wind wee shall finde both heat and moisture whereof the former ariseth from the Sunne which in those Southerne Regions neere the Equatour is most predominant The latter from the naturall disposition of the places because before it approacheth our coasts it passes ouer the Mediterranean Sea out of which the Sunne begets abundance of watry vapours which mixt themselues with the windes Finally the North-winde is obserued to bee cold and drye It must of necessity bee cold because it is carried ouer diuerse cold and snowy places most remote from the heat of the Sunne It is drie because it passeth ouer many Ilands and dry places sending out store of dry exhalations as also because the Sunne being very remote from those Regions fewer exhalations are drawne vp which might infect it by impressions of their watrie quality These instances may serue to proue our assertion That Meteors wherewith the Aire is vsually charged and by consequence their qualitâ—es imprest into the Aire are depending from the Earth out of which they are drawne either Directly from the same Region which they affect or Obliquely from some other Region remote from it Howsoeuer wee obserue that the disposition of the Ayre depends from the Soile wee cannot altogether exclude the Heauens as shall bee taught hereafter in place conuenient CHAP. III. Of the Adiuncts of a place in respect of Heauens 1 WE haue in the former Chapter spoken of the Adiuncts of a place in respect of it Selfe We are now to proceed to such Accidents as agree to a place in respect of the Heauens 2 The Adiuncts of the Earth in respect of the Heauens are of two sorts either Generall or Speciall Generall I call such as are abstracted from any speciall quality or condition of the Earth or any place in the Earth These accidents concerne either the Situation of the Inhabitants or the Diuision of the places both which we haue handled in our Sphericall part of Geographie The Speciall are such as concerne the nature of the place in respect of the Heauens not Absolutely but Respecting some speciall qualities or properties depending on such situation which more properly belongs to this part For the vnfolding of which before we descend to particularities we will premise this one generall Theoreme 1 Places according to their diuerse situation in regard of the Heauens are diuersly affected in quality and constitution This Proposition needs no proofe as being grounded on ordinary experience for who findes not betwixt the North and the South a manifest difference of heat and cold moisture and drouth with other qualities thereon depending as well in the temper of the soyle it selfe as the naturall disposition of the inhabitants Only three points will here require an exposition First by what Meanes and instruments the Heauens may bee said to worke on the Earth Secondly how farre this operation of the Heauen on the Earth may extend and what limits it may suffer Thirdly how these operations are distinguished one from the other Concerning the first wee are taught by our ordinary Philosophers that the Heauens worke on inferiour bodies by three instruments to wit Light Motion and Influence By Light as by an instrumentall agent it ingendreth heat in the Aire and Earth not that the light being in a sort an Immateriall quality can immediatly of it selfe produce heat being materiall and elementary But by attrition and rarefaction whereby the parts of the aire being made thinner approach neerer to the nature of fire and so conceaue heat This is againe performed two wayes either by a simple or compo unded beame The simple Ray is weaker The compounded inferring a doubling of the Ray by Reflection is stronger and of more validity in the operation and by consequence so much the more copious in the production of heat by how much more the reflection is greater if wee meerely consider it in regard of the Heauens without any consideration of the quality of the Earth By motion the heauens may exercise their operation on the Earth two wayes First by attenuating and rarefying the vpper part of the Aire next adioyning turning it into Fire as some Philosophers would haue it whence the inferiour parts of the ayre communicating in this affection must needs partake some degrees of heat But this I hold to bee a conceit grounded onely vpon Aristotles authority who supposed the heauens to bee a solide compact body which will not so soone bee granted of many more moderne Mathematicians Secondly the heauenly bodyes may bee said to worke on inferiour things by motion in that by motion they are diuersly disposed and ordered to diuerse Aspects and configurations of the Starres and Planets whereby they may produce diuerse effects so that in this sense the heauens are imagined as a disponent cause which doth not so much produce the effects themselues as vary the operation Hereon is grounded all Astrologie as that which out of diuerse aspects and combinations of the Planets and Signes foresheweth diuerse euents The third Instrument by which the Heauens are said to worke is the heauenly influence which is a hidden and secret quality not subiect to sense but only knowne and found out by the effects This third agent being by some questioned would hardly bee beleeued but that a necessity in nature constraines it For many effects are found in inferiour bodies caused by the heauens which can no way bee ascribed to the Light or Motion As for example the production of Mettals in the bowels of the earth the Ebbing and Flowing of the Sea whereof neither the one or the other can challenge any great interest in the Light For as much as the former is farre remote from the Sunne-beames the other ceaseth not to moue in his channell when the Sunne and Moone are both vnder the Earth Besides who can giue a reason of the excesse of heat in the Canicular or Dog-dayes if hee exclude this influence For if wee consider the Light of the Sunne wee shall finde
euery Region or Countrey a speciall quality or temper although lying or situate vnder the same Latitude But here excluding all concurrent causes which may vary the temper of the Soile wee consider the disposition of a place so farre forth as it depends on the Heauenly Influence oâ— operation In which sense we cannot deny to a place of like 〈◊〉 a like nature for as Philosophers vse to speake Simile qua simile semper aptum natum est simile producere Like causes alwayes produce like effects so the Heauens in like distance being disposed alike as well in regard of Light as Influence cannot but affect â—hose parts of the Earth in the selfe-same manner For the Instruments by which the heauens worke on inferiour bodies as we haue shewed are Light and Influenceâ— For both the Light and Influâ—nce it is certaine that in places of equall Latitude and respect to the Equatour it is cast equally both the one and â—he other being imagined to bee carried in direct lâ—â—es of 〈◊〉 which with the Horizon makes like Angles Now that the validity or weaknesse of the operatiue Rayes is to bee iudged according to the Right or Oblique incidency making right or oblique Angles no Mathematician will gaine say But here we must note by the way that wee only consider the Heauen aâ—â—ording to his generall Infâ—â—ence or operation depending chiefly on the Sunne not of the speciall operation of speciall Starres for it may be some particular constellations in the Northerne Hemispheare may bee indowed with some speciall influence which is not found in the Southerne or the South in this kinde goe beyond the North. But this kinde of Influence is rare and hard to fâ—nde by reason of the various mixture of diuerse constellations in their operation in the same subiect and howsoeuer it were well knowne yet it is not so notable to take place before this comâ—on Rule which wee shall finde to take place if not exactly yet commonly throughout the whole Terrestriall Spheare Thus Bodin shewes a great likenesse betwixt the higher Germany and the kingdome of the Pantagones in the South part of America out of the great Stature of the Inhabitants which must needs proceed out of the nature of the places which are found to be situate very neere vnder the same Parallell The like correspondency haue wee noted betwixt Guinea in Africke and that part as it is thought of the South Continent which they haue for this cause tearmed Noua Guinea many more Parallells in this kinde might be found out but these may suffice in so euident a matter 2 The Northerne Hemispheare is the Masculine the Southerne the Feminine part of the Earth It hath beene a vsuall kinde of speech amongst men to tearme such things as are stronger worthier or greater Masculine on the contrary side such things Feminine as are found deficient and wanting in these perfections by which kinde of Metaphor taken from the Sexes in liuing creatures they haue ascribed to the Northerne Hemispheare a Masculine Temper in respect of the Southerne which comes faâ—re short of it for howsoeuer no cause can bee shewed in regard of the Heauens as is taught in our former propositions except by some speciall constellations of the South which is full of vncertainty and as soone denied as affirmed yet comes it to passe by some hidden propertie of the places themselues or at least some casuall Acâ—ident or other thaâ— these two Hemispheares suffer a great and notable disparity For against the large and fertill Territories of the Northerne Hemispheâ—re containing in it wholy Europe and Asia with the greatest part of America and Africa wee shall finde besides some few scattered Ilands only three continents to oppose to wit a small part of Africke the greatest part of America Perâ—ana containing in it Peru Brasile and the Region of the Pâ—ntagâ—nâ—s aâ—d the South contâ—nent called Tâ—rra Australiâ— Incâ—gnita and by some others the South Indies For the former lying neere the Cape of good hope if we will credit the relations of our owne Merchants we shall finde the aire by reason of 〈◊〉 very diâ—â—â—mpâ—rated situat betwixt the Equatour and the Tropicke of Capricâ—râ—â— The land very barren the Inhabitants of a brâ—tish dâ—â—â—osition wanting aâ— it were all sense of science or religion bearing heauy as yet the curse of Noah the first Father of that African Nation For America Peruana wee shall finde it perhaps more happy in respect of the Soyle although little better in respect of the Inhabitants Yet for the plentie of Gold-mines whâ—reof they can chiefly vaunt wee shall finde it farre surmounted by the East Indies or at least paralelled by America Mexicana lying on this side the Equiâ—oâ—tiall â—â—rclâ— For other commodities as Cattle Fruitâ— Herbagâ— Spiâ—eâ— Gummâ—â— and other medicinable roots and minerâ—lls lesse question can be made as being farre inferiour to Europe Asia Mexicana and other Regions included within ouâ— Northerne partition Of the third and greatest which is the South continent no coniecture can be well grounded being in â— manner all vndiscouered except some small quillets on the borders of it by which if wee may iudge of all the rest wee shall almost giue the same iudgement as of the other The want of discouery in this age of ours wherein Nauigation â—â—th beene perfected and cherished is no small arguâ—ent 〈…〉 inferiour in commodities to other places Neithâ—â— had â—he â—lacknesse of the Spaniard giueâ— that occasâ—on of complaint to Ferdinand de Quiâ— the late discouerer of some of these parts had not the Spanish King thought such an expedition eitheâ— altogether fruiâ—lesse or to little purpose For who kâ—owes not the Spâ—niard to bee â— Nâ—tion â—s couetous of richesse as ambitious to pursue 〈◊〉 â—oueraignty as such who will more wâ—llingly expoâ—â— the liues of their owne subâ—ects then loose the least title ouer other Countreyes This may bee a probable argument that thâ—s Continent hath not as yet so well smiled on the ambition of this prowd Nation as some other conqâ—â—sts For Politicall and Martiall affaires how farre short iâ— conâ—â—s of our Northerne Hemiâ—pheare I shall speake in due place where I shall handle the 〈◊〉 disposition of diuerse inhabitants according to their situation To finde out the true causes of this diuersity is very diffâ—cult To seekâ— a reason in some particular consteâ—â—ation and 〈◊〉 in the Heauens or some spâ—ciall disposition of the soyâ—â— is too generall to giue satisfaction and too vncâ—rtaine to iâ—â—orce crâ—dulity Yet putting these aside I can only guesse at two reasons which are accidentall yet strengthned with good probability The first and greatest is that bitter curse casâ— on Chaâ— and his postâ—rity by his father Noah which no doubt was seconded by Gods dipleasure taking place in his habitation Thâ—â— all these Nations sprung from Cham â— dare not confidently auouch Yet for the most part it is probable they were of this Race For the Africans it is out of questionâ— as warranted by the
blacke Lions which we can ascribe to no other cause then the excesse of heat and not to any quality of the Seed or any curse inflicted on the place Moreouer it is reported by Ferdinando de Quir in his late discouery of the South Continent that hee there also found some blacke people yet can wee not imagine this Land though stretching very farre in quantity toward the Equinoctiall to come so farre or much farther then the Tropicke of Capricorne These arguments make it the more probable that the Regions situate vnder the Tropicks generally exceed more in heat then those placed in the middle of the Earth vnder the Line 2 In the other extreame Section from 60 Degrees towards the Pole the first 15 Degrees towards the Equatour are more moderately cold the other towards the Pole most immoderately cold and vnapt for conuenient Habitation That this Section of 30 Degrees comprehended betwixt the 60 Degree and the Pole is in a sort habitable is confirmed by the testimony of many Nauigatours especially the English and Hollanders who haue aduentured very farre Northward and haue there found the Earth though not so fruitfull yet furnished with some commodities and peopled with Inhabitants The first 15 Degrees towards the Equatour admit of no great exception containing in their extent Finmarke Bodia in Scandia Noua Zembla Auian Groenland with many other places indifferently discouered where they haue indeed found the aire very cold in regard of this of ours Yet not so Immoderate but that it can at all times agree with the naturall temper of the natiue Inhabitants and at least at some times of the yeere admit a passage for forraigne Nations But the other Region stretching Northward from 75 Degrees to the Pole it selfe howsoeuer it may bee probably thought habitable yet affords it no conuenient meanes and sustenance for mans life in respect of other places neither can the people of this climate inioy any good complection or Temperament of the foure qualities for as much as the cold with them is so predominant that it choaketh and almost extinguisheth the naturall hâ—at whence Hypocrates saith that they are dryed vp which is a cause of their swarty colour and dwarfish stature which assertion of his can obtaine no credit but of such Northerne people as liue neere the Pole Neuerthelesse wee shall not finde these poore Northerne Nations so destitute altogether of vitall aides but that their wants are in some sort recompensed by the benefit of nature The chiefest comforts in this kinde which wee inioy and they seeme to want are Heat and Light The defect of heat is somewhat mollified 1 By the Sunne staying so long aboue their Horizon as 6 months and by consequence impressing into the Aire a greater degree of heat 2 By the naturall custome of the Inhabitants neuer acquainted with any other temperature both which reasons wee haue formerly alleaged 3 By the industrie of the Inhabitants being taught by necessity to preserue themselues during the Winter-time in Caues Stoues and such like places heated with continuall fires the defect of which prouidence was thought to bee the ruine of Sr Hugh Willoughby intending a search of the North-east passage on the North of Lapland and Russia To recompense the defect of Light Nature hath prouided two wayes 1 In that the Sunne in his Parallell comming neerer and neerer to the Horizon giues them a long time of glimmering light both before his rising and after his setting which may serue them insteed of day 2 For that the Sunne and Starres by reason of a refraâ—tion in a vaporouâ— and foggy Horizon appeâ—reâ—â—o theâ— sometime before hee is truly risen which caused the Hollanders Noua Zombla to wonder why they should see the Sunne diuerse dayes before according to their account hee was to rise aboue their Horizon according to Astronomicall grounds which probleme had staggered all the Mathematicians of the world had not the Perspectiue science stept in to giue an answer 3 In the middle Section betwixt 30 and 60 Degrees of Latitude the first 15 are Temperately Hot the other 15 more inclined to Cold. The middle Region partakes a mixture of both extreames towit of the cold Region towards the Pole and the hot towards the Equatour whence it must needs follow that the more any parts of this Tract approach the hot Region vnder the Tropicke and Equatour the more it must partake of Heat yet this heat being mittigated by some cold by reason of the fite of the Sunne it must of necessity bee Temperate and very apt for humane habitation Also this mixture of the cold quality being more extended and increased on the other moity towards the Pole through the vicinity of the cold Region must loose much of the former heat which shall hereafter bee more confirmed out of the naturall constitution and complection of the Inhabitants bearing the true markes of externall cold and internall Heat whereof the one is strengthened by the other For the externall cold if it be not ouer predominant and too much for the internall Heat will by an Antiperistasis keepe in and condensate this heat making it more feruent and vigorous 6 The East and West Hemispheares are bounded and diuided by the Meridian passing by the Canaries and the Molucco Ilands 7 The East Hemispheare reacheth from the Canaries the Moluccoes on this side as the other on the opposite part of the Spheare Wee may here note a great difference betwixt this diuision and the former Foâ— the North and South Hemispheares being diuided by the Equatour are parted as it were by Nature it selfe and the Sunnes motion But the diuision of the Globe into East and West wee can ascribe to no other cause then mans Institution yet are the Easterne and the Westerne found to differ many wayes the discouery of which may giue great light to obseruation 1 The Easterne Hemispheare wherein we liue is euery way happier and worthier then the other Westward How farre short the Westerne Hemispheare comes of this of ours many circumstances may declare For first if we compare the Quantity of Land wee shall finde a great disparity For the Westerne Hemispheare containes in it besides the Southerne Continent wherein ourâ— also claimes a moity onely America with the Ilands thereunto adioyning whereas the other within this large circuit containes all the other parts of the Earth knowne vnto the Ancients as Europe Asia and Africke with many Ilands to them annexed Moreouer it is probably conjectured by some that America is vsually on our Mappes and Globes especially the more ancient painted and delineated out greater then indeed it is which hath beene ascribed to the fraudulent deceit of the Portugalls heretofore who to the end they might reduce the Molucco Ilands to the East Indies then their owne possession sought as well in their Mapps as relations to curtaile Asia and inlarge America in such sort as the Molucâ—o Ilands might seeme to fall within the 180 Degrees Eastward wherein they
stands with experience that in any Water or Sea where the flood is stopped and hindred by quicke-sands it returnes with greater force as it were enraged and swelâ— so much the higher which is the cause why in the coasts of Cambaia it is liâ—ted vp so high because the shores are so shallow and so short and exposed to impediments that in the ebbâ— the Sea â—â—ns backe many miles leaues the sandâ— vncouered Whence it must needs returne with greater violence This also is found in the Indian Sea and neere Panama in the Southerne Sea where the Sea ruÌ„ning back for two leagues certaine Ilands and Lands are left naked so that in these three Seas here named the Sea seemes to enlarge its limits in bredth more then in other places to which we may ascribe this effect For the Seas about Europe wee may pronounce also that for the most part they haue short shallow shores as may easily appeare in the confines of Belgia But it may be obiected of the English shores that they swell very high albeit the depth of the Water in the middle is found to be 144 foot Here must we haue recourse to the other cause the flowing of a large wide sea into a narrow channell for the large torrents of water running swiftly into a narrow channell being hindred on both sides by the shores from spreading it selfe in bredth is enforced to swell in hight so that the effect is rather to be ascribed to the violence of a greâ—t current enbosoming it selfe into a streite channell which may more euidently shew it selfe in 3 instances For in the streite chanels of Zeland and Holland it is lifted vp about three foote At Bristoll in England by reason of a greater force of Waters running from the Sea into a more narrow channell and seconded by the maine Ocean at the backe it swels to the hight of 60 foote In the Armorean seas where larger seas are emptied into more narrow streites then the former it increaseth to 90 foote Out of which experiments may wee plainely collect that to the increase of the motiâ—n of the sea besides the saltnesse of the Water two other causes are concurring to wit the shallownesse of the shore and the streitnesse of the channell wherein a great and large sea is to bee exâ—â—erated This may lastly bee farther illustrated from the disparity of these seas with others for in the Adriaticke Egaan Ionian and almost all the African seaâ— the sea seldome swels to so great a measure whereof the cause is as well the depth of the seas as the equality of thâ— shores for as the depth is a cause that sometimes it flowes not at all and the inequality and shortnesse of the shore that it flowes high so a meane hight of the Waters from the bottome and a more equall figuration of the coasts may bee a cause of an indifferent working of the Water Hitherto wee haue shewed the variety of motion in the sea in regard of the diuersity of places wee are next to speake something concerning the variation of it in regard of the times which though it properly appertaine not to Geography yet am I loath to leaue it out because the discourse is pleasant Concerning which point the Marriners make six degrees of change in the tides according to the times First diurnall whereof wee speake in this discourse The second Hebdomedary or weekely which Possidonius called monethly or weekely because it is distinguished by seuerall weekes of a moneth but tarries not till the end of the moneth For it is found by experience of Nauigatours that a day before the coniunction of the Moone with the Sunne and the day of coniunction and a day afterwards the seas in the maine Ocean haue their greatest flowes and ebbes being lifted higher and laid lower downe and then the tides are most swift The fourth day from the coniunction the tide is lesse and lesse swift The fift yet lesse then then the former and the sixt day lesse then the fift But in the seuenth day which is a day before the quarter and in the eight following wherein it is halfe-faced and in the ninth which is a day after the quarter the sea is as it were dead not much stirring neither much ebbing or much flowing which was as it seemes only obserued by Pliny in the Euboian Euripus but whether it so happen else-where I leaue to men experienced in these matters This motion as it doth encrease according to the age of the Moone So it is said proportionally to decrease againe The third motion is monethly which seemes in the time of the coÌ„iunction wherein the sea-tides are highest and swiftest The fourth is called motus semestris or six-monthly happening at the times of the Equinoctiall differing one from the other like monethes The fift is called Trimestris because it happeneth onely in three moneths distance The last is Annuall which Patricius witnesseth that himselfe saw in Liburnia in the moneth of Ianuary These motions I carelesly passe ouer because the distinction seemes to me full of vncertainty and sâ—arce warranted and such experiments as are brought for the proofe of it concerne rather particular places then the generall nature of the sea 3 Hitherto of the generall motion of the sea The Speciall is that which is obserued in some speciall places 1 It is probable that the sea is carried somewhere from East to West and somewhere from North to South and contrariwise It hath beene a receiued opinion amongst Philosophers of this later age that the sea by the rapture of the heauens should be moued round as it were in a diurnall course which they haue lâ—boured to proue by diuers experiments First because it is obserued by Marriners that a ship can well saile from Spaine into America with an indifferent winde in 30 dayes when she can hardly returne vnder three moneths which they ascribe to the circular motion of the sea For a ship going from East to West sailes with the Water but from West to East against the streame so that the one must needes bee swifter and the other slower Their second experiment to confirme this point is of a ship sayling from Spaine to Holland which may as they say swifter returne backe then goe thither To this motion of the Water from East to West Iulius Scaliger hath added another which he would haue to be from North to South from Terra Laboratoris Southward But Patricius not denying these motions would haue many more in diuerse seas not admitting any vniuersall circular motion enforced by the heauens but various motions diuersly disposed in diuers seas for which hee giues many instances some whereof wee will here relate First going about to disproue Scaligers opinion and experience hee brings the experiment of the Portugall Nauigatours who testifie that they came from Mosambicke of the side on Madagascar into Malebar in 28 sometimes in 30 other times in 35 dayes which is farre from the accompt of
of the red sea were by the perpeÌ„dicular found higher then in the Mediterranean Moreouer it is obserued that the sea on the west part of America commonly called Mare Del Zur is much higher then the Atlantick Sea which bordereth on the Easterne part of it which gaue way to the coniecture of some that the Isthmus betwixt Panama and Nombre Dâ— Dios had been long since cut through to haue made a passage into the Pacifick Sea without sailing so â—arre about by the straits of Magellane had not many inconueniences been feared out of the inequality in the hight of the water The like inequality is obserued by Verstegan in the sea betwixt England and France For according to his coniecture France and England being one Continent heretofore and ioyned by a narrow neck of land betwixt Douer and Callais the water on one side was higher then on the other which he probably collects out of the sundry flats and shallowes at this day appearing on the East side as well on the coasts of England as of Flanders especially between Douer and Callis called by some our Ladies Sands about three English miles in length Out of which and sundry other probabilities he labours to proue that all the Low-countries were heretofore enueloped with the sea till such time as the narrow land being either by Nature or Art cut through and the Water allowed a free passage it became dry land but this point wee shall discusse hereafter in place conuenient 4 In the next place we are to consider the termination of the sea The termination is the bounding of the sea within certain limitâ— 5 The Limit is the margent or border of land wherein any sea is circumscribed The sea is bounded by the land as the land by the sea In respect of which termination some seas are called Maine seas others narrow The maine seas are foure to wiâ— the Atlantick which taketh it's name from the mountaine Atlas by which on the west side it passeth and diuides Europe and Africk from America 2 The Aethiopian sea running on the west side of Aethiopia 3 The Indian Sea hauing the East Indies on the North 4 Mare Del Zur or the South sea situate on the South side of America Which foure in respect of other may be called Maine Oceans The lesser seaâ— are either called Creekes or streits A Creeke is a place where the water as it were embosomes it selfe into the land hauing an â—ntrance large from the Ocean and most commonly streytned inwardly but no passage through A Creeke againe may bee diuided into the greater or lesser Vnder the former in a large sense may we comprehend the whole Mediterranâ—an sea for as much as the â—ea from the Mainâ— Atlantick Ocean by an inlet is ingulfed into it but findes no passage out any other way howsoeuer it invades a large territorie The lesser Creekes are againe distinguished into the Easterne and Westerne The chiefe Creekes found out towards the East are sixe in number 1. Sinus magnus which lies betwixt Mangus and India extra Gangem teaching as farre as the region of Chalâ—iâ— 2. Sinus Gangâ—ticus which is comprehended betwixt Aurea Chersonesus and India intra Gangem 3 Sinus Canthi commonly called Canthi-colpus 4. Sinus Persicus bordering on Persia and called by Plutarch the Babilonian Sea 5. Sinus Arabicus which is commonly called the Red Sâ—a 6. Sinus Barbaricus which by Pliny is termed Sinus Trâ—gloditicus at this day Golpho de Melinde The Creekes lying Westwardly are chiefly these First Sinus Sarmaticus lying towards the North betweene Denmarke and Normay which is diuided into Sinus Sinnicus and Bodiâ—us which is called commonly the Baltick Sea 2 Sinus Granuicus diuiding the Muscouites from the Câ—relij Northward it is commonly called the White Sea 3 Sinus Mexicanus bordering on the city of Mexico in America amongst these some would number Mare Pacificum or Mare Dâ—l Zur but this we thought fitter to call a maine Sea then a creeke being extraordinarily large in quantity A Strait is a narrow Sea between two LaÌ„ds of such Straits these were ancieÌ„tly knowne to wit 1 Fretum Graditanum or the Straits of Gibraltar of 7 Miles distance diuiding Spaine from Barbary 2 Fretum Magellanniâ—uÌ„ found out by Magellane which diuides Aâ—erica Pâ—ruana from the Southerne land 3 Fretum Anian situate betwixt the westerne shores of America the Easterne borders of Tartary Besides these there haue bin discouered 3 more to wit 1 Pretum Dauis found out by captaine Dauis in the yeare 1586 which lyes toward Groenland â— Fretum Nâ—souicum or Way gate neare Noua Zembla discouered by the HollaÌ„ders in the yeare 1614. 3 Fretum de Mayre found out by William Schouteâ— a Bauarian taking his name from Isaaâ— le Mâ—yre by whose aduice and perswasion he vndertook hiâ— voyage But some of these lattâ—â— streits here mentioned for ought I knowe may bâ—tter bee reckoned amongst Creekes forasmuch as they haue not as yet found any passage through though with great losse and danger they haue often attempted the Discouery Concerning the bounding of the Sea with the land we will insert thâ—se Theoremes 1 The Water is so diuided from the dry land that the quantity of Water is greater in the South Hemispheare of Land in the Northerne That most part of the dry land is situate towards the North will easily appeare by instance For toward the North are placed the great Continents of Europe Asia almost all Africa and the greatest part of America But in the South Hemispheare we find only a little part of Africa America besides the South Continent which we cannot imagine to be so great in quantity as it is painted in our ordinary Mappes forasmuch as all placeâ— at the first discouery are commonly described greater then they are The reason I take to bee this that the first draught is alwaies confused and vnperfect wherin a region discouers it selfe vnto vs vnder a more simple figure neglecting curiosities but after a longer and more exact search of any Region will be found in many places ingulfed with diuers Bayes and variously indented in such sort as the bound Line compassing it round making an inordinate figure and lesse regular cannot contain so much land as first it might seeme to promise Moreouer we may further obserue that those places which in the first discouery haue been taken for the maine Continent or at least for some greater part of Land haue afterward vpon more curious examination been found clouen into many lesser Ilands As in America Cuba in the time of Columbus and California of late thought to be a part of the Continent and so described almost in all our Mapps yet since by a Spanish Chart taken by the Hollanders discouered to be an Iland The like instance we haue in Terra del Fuogâ— which since the time Magellan was held a part of the South Continent till Schouten by sayling round about it fouÌ„d it diuided froÌ„ the main lâ—nd by Frâ—â—um de Mayre
carrying the name of the Master of the ship in his discouerie Neither is it much to be doubted but that in that large tract delineated out in the Globe for the South-Indies are coÌ„tained many Ilands diâ—ided one from the other by streites and narrow Seas which must subtract much from the quantity of the dry land so that of necessity it must be granted that the Northerne Hemispheare takes vp the greatest part of the dry land as the other of the Water Wherefore that place of Esdras where he saith That Almighty God allotted 〈◊〉 paris to the Eâ—â—th and the 〈…〉 Water must râ—ther seeme improbable or suffer anotâ—er interpretation then that of the anciâ—nts For out of credible coniecture drawne â—rom the view of the 〈◊〉 of the Terrestriâ—â—l Globe we shall hardly collect sucâ— a propâ—rtâ—on In this compâ—rison of the Nâ—rthâ—rne Hâ—mispheâ—â—â— with the Southerne we shall find â— kind of Harmony betwixt the Heauens and the Earth For as Trauailers report thâ— Northerne parts abound with more starres and of greater magnitude then the other toward the South so the Terrestriall Spheare discoâ—ers vnto vs more conâ—inent greater Ilâ—nds and of more noâ—â— in the North then â—n the South 2 The whole Globe of the Earth is inviâ—oned round from the East and the west with sea dividing â—he North from the South To proue this Theoreme we need goe no farther then the famous voyages of Magellane Drake Candish and Schoâ—ten Whereof the first attempted the first passage through Fretum Magelâ—anicum and gaue it the name though he could not out-â—iue his intended iourny The two next followed the same way and the last found out a new passage through Fretum de Mayre as we haue formerly mentioned Whence we may eaâ—â—ly deduce this Corollary that the Southerne continent not yet perfectly discouered is either One or which is most probable â—any Ilands forasmuch as by sailing round about â—t they haue found it euery where compassed round with Sea The like may be coniectured of the other parts of the world on the Northern side whereof we shal speak in this next TheoreÌ„ 3 It is probable that the Earth is compassed round with the water from North to South I know nothing which hath exercised the witts and induâ—trie of the Nauigatours of our age more then the finding out of a passage Northward to Cathay and so to the East-Indies which controuersie as yet remaines altogether vnanswered and awaites the happinesse of some new discouery In which difficult passage wherein many haue spent both their liues and hopes it may seeme enough for me to goe with their Relations suffering my coniecture to flye no farther then their sailes The reasons which I meet with in my sleÌ„der reading I will examine as I can without partiality and so leaue euery man to bee his owne Iudge First then wee must coÌ„sider that the voyage to the Indies must be effected by either of these two waies to wit Northward or Southward To beginne with the South it must be performed two waies either by some vnknowne passage through the South-Continent neare the Antartick Pole or neare the Magellane-straits The former is most vncertaine for want of discoueries in those vnknowne and remote parts and if any such passage were found out it were litle aduantage to our Countreymen who haue already a shorter and nearer way yet no instance can bee giuen to the contrary but that this part being clouen as it seemes most probable into many lesser lands may admit of such a passage But in such vncertainties it is as easy to deny as to affirme The second South-passage is found out by Nauigatours which is either by the strait of Magellane it selfe or else through the Straights of Mayre before-mentioned which this Age of ours hath put out of doubt The third passage is South-east by the â—ape of good hope knowne vnto our East-Indian Merchants and therefore as a matter vnquestioned needs no further examination The onely matter which troubles men in this Agâ— is the finding out of a passage Northward to Cathay either by the North-east or North-west wherein we will consider two things 1 Whether it be likely that any such passage should be at all 2 whether this passage should be performed by the North-East or North-West For the former many arguments are vrged which seeme to crosse this opinion of a way to the Indies toward the North-parts For The manifold attempts of the English and Hollanders both towards the North-East and North-West either altogether spent in paine or failing of their ends seemes to giue large testimonie if not of absolute impossibility yet at least of the vnlikely-hoâ—d of any such discouery as is hoped For what cost or dangers would not almost all the Marriners of our Northerne world vndergoe to find so neare a cut to their golden Indies and if by chance many of them mistooke the right way yet would it seeme improbable that latter Nauigatours corrected by the former errours should not after so many trialls and attempts at length hit the marke This reason sauours of some probability yet comparing this with diuerse matters of the same kinde would seeme to be of no great force For the truth and right being onely one and the same is oppoâ—ed by infinite errours so that it may seeme easier to commit a thousand errours then once to hit the truth Time and long triall beget many Inuentions which afterward seeme most easy insomuch that many men haue afterward laught at their owne mistakes Moreouer for ought I can find in the Relations of most mens discoueries the passage which they sought was too farre Northward towards the Pole where being infesâ—ed with cold Ice and other inconueniences they were enforced to returne thence againe hauing seldome had any oportunity to winter in those parts for want of victualls or extremity of cold A second reason against this North-passage may bee drawne from the innumerable sorts of beasts wherewith America is stored for admitting this passage we must needs grant America to bee an Iland Now it is â—ertaine that Noah's Arke was the store-house and Seminary not only of mankinde but of all other perfect liuing Creatures Againe it is euident out of the Holy Scriptures that the first Region whereon the Arke was deliuered of her burthen was Asia These grounds layed I would demaund how such a multitude of beasts of all sorts should be transported from Asia to America being supposed to bee an Iland and euery where diuided by the Sea from other parts of the Earth could these silly creatures of their owne accord swimme from one shore to another but alasse the Sea was too large and these beasts too fearefull to aduenture on such a voyage And admit some by Nature had bin fitted to such an action yet were it very strange to imagine the same effect of all being of many kinds What then were they transported in ships But Nauigation in those daies being an infant vnfurnished of the Chart
others but as yet not found out Neither hath it more troubled the industry of Marriners then the wit of Schollers which we shall find by discourses written of that subiect The absolute decision of this controuersie we must leaue to time onely such probabilities as I chance to meet with I will faithfully set down to giue encouragement to their deseruing labors who shall farther attempt the search and full discouery of this North-west passage The Reasons I find vrged I may well reduce to three Heads The first is drawne from the testimonies and opinions of ancient Writers The second from the Relations and discoueries of later Nauigators from the time of Henry the seuenth till our age The third and last from the last and newest aduentures of men of our time either lately dead or liuing To begin with the first we shall from the testimony of Plato in Timaeo as also in his Dialogue callâ—â— Critias draw a probable argument for there he makâ—s relation of an incomparable great Iland named Atlantis of larger extent then Europe and Asia which was situate Westward from the streights of Gibraltar and nauigâ—ble round abouâ— The Princes of this Iland according to Plato's report heretofore extended their government ouer a great part of Europe and Africa To second which opinion of Plato we shall reade in Marinus Siouâ—us his History of Spaine that in the American golden mines discouered by Columbus there haue bin found certain pieces of Coine ingrauen with the Name and Image of Augustus Caesâ—r which were afterward sent to the Pope by Iohn Rufus Archbishop of Consentium whence a probable coniecture seemes to be grounded that America in those dayes was both peopled and discouered Now it appeares againe noâ— only by Plato but also by the opinion of Mansilius â—icinus Crantor Proclus and Philo Iudaeus is witnessed in their learned Commentaries on Plato that this Iland called Atlantis some 600 yeares before Plato's time suffered an extraordinary inundation was swallowed vp by water other like exaÌ„ples whereof we shâ—l produce many hereafter in place coÌ„uenient admitting these testimonies of antiquity whereof we ought to cherish a reuerend esteem these consectaries will seeme to offer themselues by way of necessary consequence 1 That this Iland Atlantis was the same which afterward from Americus Vesputius got the name America because wee find no Iland in the Atlanticke Ocean which comes neare that greatnesse and quantity assigned by Plato 2 that this Atlantis or America in those dayes at least was an Iland because they reported it to bee Nauigable round about 3 It must stand with great reason probability that this land being an Iland before Plato's time should be so still if at least it come not nearer to the nature of an Iland at this day then before For either this Relation of the ouerflowing of this land is true or false If at all deserues credit more reason is that it should be Nauigable round about then before insomuch that the Water in this manner swelling high would sooner fret through and cause a passage then make a stoppage 4 This passage must of necessity be toward the North-west where America is diuided from Asia by the streites of Aâ—ian which opinion seemes better warranted forasmuch as we find it seconded by the descriptions of many Geographers of great name and authority as Gemma Frisâ—us Munster Appian Hunâ—erus Guicciardine Michael Tramasiâ—us Franciscus Demongenitus Bernardus Puteanus Andreas Vanasor Tramontanus Peter Martyr and Ortelius in his generall Mappe Who all haue described America as an exact Iland setting downe all the coasts and countryes on the North-west sea of America from Hoche-laga as farre as Gape Haremantia all these learned men hauing with one voice described or reported America for an Iland He should shew but a slender esteem of Antiquity or fauour of too much selfe-conceite who should offer to contradict This first Argument I confesse spunne out into so many circumstances seemes at first sight to carry a great shew of truth but vpon sound examination will be found very defectiue and vncertaine carrying more probability in the conclusion then the premises daâ—e to iustify How many Paralogismes and vncertaine grounds are involved in this reason let my ingenious reader iudge 1 whether Plato's report of this Atlantis were a true Relation grounded on experience and obseruation or a pleasant Fiction derived from the Poets of that time wherewith the Grecia Learning was much infected 2 How comes it to be thought probable that Plato in those dayes should be so exact in delineating out the boundes of this New-world who was so ignorant in the old as to thinke Europe and Asia to be inferiour in greatnesse to America which notwithstanding he thought to be an Iland 3 How should so famous a King as Atlas stretching his Monarchie as the Authors of this reason report from America to a great part of Europe and Africk in that vast gulfe of time slippe away with so slight a mention That there was such a Prince as Atlas I make no question vpon whose fame and greatnesse the Poets grounded that fiction of raising vp the vault of heauen with his shoulders But whether this Atlas euer saw America my reader must giue me leaue to make a doubt The Ignorance of Nauigation in those times wherein occasion had not brought to light the chart compasse together with the huge vastnesse of the Atlantick Ocean will speake my Apologie 4 The finding of coine graued with the Image and inscription of Augustus Caesar in the American mines seemes to me more ridiculous then all the rest We find the acts and conquests of Caesar and Pompey in Europe and Asia and some parts of Africk particularly set downe by the graue writers of that time We find Augustus Caesar for some petty coÌ„quests against barbarous people emblasoned by the Poets of that time to the highest pitch of their inuention we may obserue the age wherein Augustus liued to be the florish and pride of all the Romane learning and himselfe the Idoll and subiect of most of their Poeticall flatteries hauing the happinesse to be inuested in the empire in such a time wherein the Romane Monarchie hauing been too much wounded with a ciuill dissention was willing to admire her worst Physician And can any man be so senselesse to imagine that the discouery of the goldeÌ„ world should passe away clouded in such a flattering age without any mention could not so much as the name be registred to teach posterity the way to so rich an Empire For my owne part I can ascribe this if the Historie deserue credit to nothing else but the pride and imposture of the Spaniards whom we obserue in all relations to be a most ingratefull Nation who admiring nothing but their owne greatnesse haue requited their best deseruing benefactors with disgrace and obloquie striuing to raze out their names and memory to whom they owe the greatest glory Columbus was a Florentine and no
the Magnet is not so exact as the Astronomicall for as much as few or no places are found wherein the Magneticall Needle admits not a Variation from the true points of North and South Neuerthelesse this way is very necessary to bee knowne for as much as the Sunne and Starres are not alwayes to bee seene at least in such place and manner as may fauour exactnesse of obseruation Hence may bee demonstrated in particulars what wee obserued before in generall in our Magneticall Treatise that the Circles of the Globe are not meere Imaginary Fictions or bare Respects growing out of the Application of Celestiall bodies as some haue thought them but grounded on the Magneticall Disposition of the Terrestriall Globe 8 Beside the Astronomicall and Magneticall Inuention of the Meridian there is another way more popular but lesse exact which is without any obseruation of the Heauens or the Magnets operation Of the Inuention of the Meridian circle the true and exact knowledge as wee haue shewed is endebted to heauenly obseruation or Magneticall experiment Neuerthelesse Nature is not so barren but she hath pointed out to an industrious obseruation some markes and foote-steps in other inferiour bodies for the finding out of this profitable circle Which wayes howsoeuer of lesse Account then the other and therefore of lesse vse are notwithstanding pleasant to vnderstand because nothing delights more an ingenious minde then the contemplation of Gods working in and by his creatures which men vsually terme Nature To make a particular search into all Planets Stones Mettals and other such Bodies were to goe too far out of my way without a Guide I will giue one only Instance of Trees whereof I will insert this Probleme 1 By the Incision of a Tree to find out the Meridian To performe this Probleme let there bee chosen out some Tree in an open free field farre from walles or other obstacles in such a place as it hath beene on either side freely enlightned and heated by the Sunne-beames let the Trunke of this Tree bee very right and sound let this Trunke bee cut off by the middest in such sort that the section be Parallell to the Horizon and the vnder-part of the Trunke bee left to stand in his former Naturall situation Now the Section on the top of it being well plained will as in a plaine discouer diuers circles which are Excentricke and not drawne from the same Center but on the one side neerer together on the other further off That part then which shewes the circles thicker and neerer together points out the North The other wherein the circles are wider and further off the one from the other designes out the South-point betwixt both which if a right line bee drawne it will bee the Meridian for that place Which experiment Blanâ—anus as hee writes tryed in a Plume-Tree but giues no reason for it The cause I take to be no other then the extension and diffusion of the sappe or moisture by the heate of the Sunne which is more on the South-side then the North-side for as much as the Sunne in our clime respects vs on the South neuer on the North. Hence is it that the circles which are nothing else but the excrescences of the moisture being more rarified on the South-side and therefore requiring a greater place are found to bee greater 9 Hauing shewed the Inuention wee are in the next place to treat of the Distinction of these Meridian circles A Meridian therefore is termed either First or Common The distinction of Meridians into First and Common hath no foot-steps in Nature but is a meere arbitrary Imposition of antient Cosmographers For no reason besides Conueniency can be shewne why one Meridian should be called First rather then another yet cannot this Distinction bee wanting to a Geographer for as much as some setled bound must be set from which to begin our accompt of Longitudes 10 The first Meridian is that from which wee begin to number the Longitude of the Earth from West to the East In respect of which all the rest may bee called common or lesse notable The ancient Cosmographers amongst whom Ptolomy was the chiefe haue set the first Meridian in the Fortunate Ilands from whence they began their accompt passing Eastward through Europe and Africa and so through Asia to the vttermost parts of India vntill they returned againe to the first Meridian passing through the Fortunate Ilands Some haue doubted whether these Ilands called by Ptolomy the Fortunate Ilands be the same with the Canaries because as our Countrey-man Mr Hues hath obserued the Latitude giuen by Ptolomy to the Fortunate Ilands agrees not exactly to the Canaries but rather to the Ilands of Cape-Verde Notwithstanding this obseruation I rather sticke to the common opinion thinking it no vnlike matter that Ptolomy dwelling far Eastward and trusting to other mens obseruations should erre in this as well as other matters The reason why the first Meridian should bee placed here rather then elsewhere is thought by some to bee because the Ancients supposed two Magneticall Poles in the Earth which should bee the cause of the Variation of the Compasse Now because in the Canary Ilands was found no Variation at all they thought it to bee the place where the Magneticall and the true Meridian should concurre as wherein were both the Poles of the World and of the Load-stone which made them to make it the first Meridian But this reason I take to bee vnlikely because as I finde it obserued by latter Writers in the Canary Ilands themselues there is found a Variation of the Compasse although very little the reason whereof wee haue shewed to bee because it is the middest betwixt two great Continents to wit the one of Europe and Africa the other of America Whose magneticall temper being almost equall will not suffer the magneticall Needle to moue more one way then another Moreouer I am certainely perswaded as far as I can gather that this placing of the First Meridian was appointed here before any certainty was knowne of the Variation of the Compasse The more probable coniecture therefore is that Ptolomy here placed the First Meridian because it was the vttermost verge of land toward the West then discouered neuer dreaming of a Westerne world afterward detected and brought to light by Christopher Calumbus and Americus Vesputius Some of the latter Geographers striuing to bee more exact haue placed the First Meridian in their Mappes out of the Canaries in the Ilands of the Azores called S. Michaels Iland So that the first Meridian of Ptolomy differs from the place of these latter Cosmographers about 9 degrees which is diligently to bee noted of such as beginne the Science because this variety not perceiued will breed great errour and confusion yet is not the first of Ptolomy out of vse but retained of many good Geographers Euery other Meridian in respect of this may be called Common or lesse notable because this is most remarkable
place whereunto the Arabians came being a part of Thessaly where such dwell who only cast their shaddowes one way to wit Northward but Arabia their naturall Countrey being supposed to be included in the Torrid Zone where the shaddowes were said to be cast both wayes they are said to wonder The reason why our shaddowes at noone are cast alwayes toward the North and the others toward the South is related before to be because the shaddow doth alwayes occupie or possesse the place opposite to the Sunne or light body 12 The Periscij are such in habitants whose shaddowes are mooued round about them in a circular forme In some places of the earth the Noone-shaddowes take not their beginning from our heads but of one side and are extended forward to the plaine of the terrestriall Horizon and so mooued round about the Opacous body as about a Gnomon whence they are called Periscij which is as much to say as men hauing shaddowes mooued round about such is their habitation which are included in the Frigid Zone circumscribed within the Polar circles and the Poles Here the Sunne neuer directly passeth by the crowne of their heads but at one side so that they haue the Pole for their verticall point but the Equatour as it were for their Horizon These Periscij are of two sorts for some are contained in the Arcticke circle the other in the Antarcticke whereof both are as yet vndiscouered especially the Antarcticke being farthest off from our climate 1 The habitation of the Amphiscij comprehends 7. Parallels of the Heteroscij 41. of the Periscij 6. Moneths Of the nature and accidents of these three sorts of people there needs no more to be spoken then wee haue deliuered before in this Chapter Neuerthelesse for a recapitulation of our former doctrine in this the precedent Chapter it will not be amisse to insert this table of Climates set out by our exactest Geographers wherein is expressed as it were to our view the respect and seuerall accidents which belong to these seuerall inhabitants 13 Thus much for the Inhabitants absolutely considered The inhabitants compared one with the other according to their position are the Perioeci Antoeci and Antipodes 14 The Perioeei are those inhabitants which dwell in the two opposite points of the Parallell circle 15 The Antoeci are such as dwell vnder the same Meridian but in diuers Parallels equally distant from the Equatour 16 The Antipodes are such as inhabite vnder one Meridian but vnder two Parallels equidistant from the Equatour and two opposite points of those Parallels A Table of the Climates belonging to the three sorts of Inhabitants Pag 229. Inhabitants belonging to severall Climats Climes Parallels The longest summer day Hou Scr. Latitude elevation of Pole Scr. Degr. The breadth of the Climats Deg. Scr The places by which the Climates passe  0 0 1 12 0 12 15 0 0 4 18 4 18 The beginning from the Aequatour  1 2 3 122 30 1 45 8 34 12 43 8 25 Sinus Arabicus or the Red Sea Amphiscij 2 4 5 13 0 13 15 16 43 20 33 7 50 Meroe an Iland of Nilus in Aegypt  3 6 7 13 40 13 45 23 10 27 36 7 3 Siene a Ciâ—ty in Africa  4 8 9 14 0 14 15 30 47 33 45 6 9 Alexandria in Aegypt  5 10 11 14 30 14 45 36 30 39 2 5 17 Rhodes and Babylon  6 12 13 15 0 15 15 41 22 4â— 3â— 4 30 Rome and Hellespont  7 14 15 15 30 15 45 45 29 47 20 3 48 Venice and Millaine  8 16 17 16 0 16 15 49 21 50 33 3 13 Podalia and â—he lesser Tartary  9 18 19 16 30 16 45 51 58 53 17 2 44 Batavia and Witâ—enberge   20 17 0 17 â—â— 54 â—9 55 â—4 2 17 Râ—stoch 11 22 23 17 30 17 45 â—â—â—7 57 34 2 0 Ireland and Moscovy Ieteroscij 12 24 25 18 0 18 15 58 26 59 14 1 40 Bohus a Castle in Norwey  13 26 27 18 30 18 45 59 59 60 40 1 26 Gothland  14 28 29 19 0 19 15 61 18 61 53 1 13 Bergis in Norwey  15 30 31 19 30 19 45 62 25 62 54 1 0 VViburge in Finland  16 32 33 20 0 20 15 63 22 63 46 0 52 Arotia in Sweden  17 34 35â— 20 30 20 45 64 6 64 30 0 44 The mouth of Darecally a riuer of SwedeÌ„  18 36 37 21 0 21 15 64 49 65 6 0 36 Diverse places of Norwey  19 38 39 21 30 21 45 65 21 65 35 0 29 Suecia Alba Russia  20 40 41 22 0 22 15 65 47 65 57 0 22 With many Ilands  21 42 43 22 â—0 22 45 66 6 66 14 0 17 Therevnto adioyning  22 44 45 23 0 23 15 66 20 66 25 0 11 Wanting speciall names  23 46 47 23 30 23 45 66 28 66 â—0 0 5 And Landmarkes  24 48 24 0 66 31 0 0 Island vnder the Aâ—tick circle  Here the Climats are accouÌ„ted by the moÌ„ths from 66 Degr. Menses 1 67 15 These Climates are supposed to passe by Diverse Ilands within the Artick circle as These names being originally Greeke are taken from the diuerse manner of dwelling of one nation in respect of another The Perioeci are called such as dwell as it were about the Hemispheare in the same Parallell in two opposite points the one in regard of the other being Easterne the other Westerne so that they are supposed to differ the one from the other 180 degrees which is the semicircle where we are to note that these degrees are to be numbred not in a greater but a lesser Parallell which is lesse then the Equatour For they which are vnder the Equator it selfe in 2 opposite points are to bee accounted rather Antipodes although for ought I see the name might agree The Antoeci as the name imports are such as dwell one against another hauing one selfe-same Meridian and equall distance from the Equatour the one in the Northerne the other in the Southerne Hemispheare The Antipodes otherwise called Antichthones may popularly bee described to bee such as dwell feet to feet one against the other so that a right line being drawne from one side to the other will passe by the Center of the world whence they precisely are distant the one from the other 1800 in a greater circle wherein they are distinguished from the Perioeci which are diuided by the degrees of a lesser circle such compared one to the other are the Americans and the Easterne Indians about the riuer Ganges the Inhabitants of Peru and Calecute those of Peria Summatra to England I finde no other Antipodes but the Sea or at least some parcell of land in the South continent neere Psittacorum Regio Here is to be noted that the former definition of Antipodes giuen by the ancients was only to bee vnderstood of the knowne habitable
minute in the length of the day must 21600. miles which is the whole compasse of the earth according to the same proportion either subtract or adde 1440 minutes which make 24. houres the length of the naturall day To confirme the demonstration by popular experience I remember I haue read in the Hollanders discouery of Fretum de Mayre that comming home into their owne Countrey they found by comparing their accounts with their countreymens at home they had lost one day hauing gone Westward and so compassed the earth round Hence will arise diuers consectaries not vnpleasing to be scann'd One I will touch not much dissonant from our purpose That three men residing in the same place at one time shall notwithstanding all vary one from the other in the dayes of the weeke keeping yet an exact account which to explaine the better wee will suppose a Iew a Sarazen and a Christian residing in the same towne together It may so happen according to our former grounds that the Sarazen according to the Law of Mahomet shall obserue his Friday the Iew his Saturday being his Sabboth and the Christian the Lords day being the Sunday yet so as all shall happen on the same day all of them excluding any errour in their calculation For supposition sake wee will place them all at one time all together in Palestine on a Saturday at which time let vs imagine the Sarazen to take his iourney Westward the Christian Eastward so as both of them in their coasts compasse the world to meet againe in the same place The Iew all the while we suppose resident in the same place it will follow by necessary consequence that the Sarazen going about the earth Eastward will loose one day the Christian iourneying Westward will gaine one day the Iew remaining in the same place will neither gaine nor loose These three men then meeting together againe after a yeere two or three at the same place must needs make a diuers account for one and the selfe-same day will bee to the Sarazen Friday to the Iew Saturday and to the Christian Sunday if they exactly calculate the time from their first meeting to their returne vnto the same place Mee thinkes this if there wanted other Arguments were a reason sufficient to conuince some strait-laced men who rigidly contend our Lords day which they erroneously tearme the Sabboth to bee meerely morall as grounded on the Law of nature If it were so according to our premises before demonstrated this absurditie would ensue necessarily That the Morall Law which they call also in a sort the Law of nature is subiect to manifold mutation which by our best Diuines is vtterly denied The consequeâ—ce will easily follow because it cannot be denied by any Christian but that all nations of the world issued from Noahs Arke the Seminary of mankinde and spread themselues from thence ouer the face of the whole earth some farther some at a shorter distance whereby changing the longitude with their habitation they must of necessity alter the differences of times wheron they seeke to ground their Sabboth Neither at this day can any man exactly and precisely obserue any one day either as it was first appointed by Moses in the Leuiticall Law as it was instituted by Christs Apostles afterwards by reason of the manifold transportation of colonies and transmigration of Nations from one Region into another whereby the times must necessarily bee supposed to vary And if any more moderate should vrge that not the exact seuenth day from the first institution bound vs to obseruation so one day in seuen bee obserued it can hardly passe without exception for as much as if any man as Magellane Drake or Candish should trauaile the world about a day must needs be varied as we haue shewed Here I would willingly demand whether such trauailers returning home into their owne countreyes should celebrate the same Lords day according to the institution of their owne Church or else as they finde according to their owne account If they obserue the latter they must schismatically diuide themselues from the Church and keepe a Sabboth of their owne which in euery mans iudgement would be thought absurd as the mother of many inconueniences If the former take place then must the dâ—y be changeable in his nature and so one day of seuen of them should not be obserued I speake not this to cherish any neglect of the duty we owe that day but rather to proue it not meerely to be grounded on the Law of Nature as some would perswade but rather an Ecclesiasticall constitution deriued as it seemes most probable from the Apostles though not in practice in Christs time wherein the Iewish Sabboth was not yet abolished But I haue dwelt too long on this may perhaps incurre sharpe ceÌ„sure for wading too farre into the depth of Diuinity But my Apology shall be this that albeit I haue gone beyond my present subiect I â—â—ue not yet transcended the limits of my profession I serue no faction and therefore dare aduenture my language as free as my opinion 5 Concerning the longitude two things are to be knowne 1. The Inuention 2. The Expression The Inuention proposeth vs the way and manner of the first finding out of the longitude of places There are few things in nature which haue more perplexed the wits of ingenious Mathematicians then the exactest way of finding out the longitude of places Not that the matter was ouer difficult in it selfe but that they sought out a way to performe this conclusion not depending from the obseruation of the celestiall bodies and motions a matter as yet neuer found out and I feare mee vnpossible Because they proposed to themselues one of these two wayes to finde it out either by some magneticall instrument or else by industry of nauigation neither of which can much profit Not the former because there haue neuer beene any fixed points found in the Equatour betwixt East and West as betwixt North and South haue beene obserued so that nothing can proceed out of the meere nature of the earthly Globe whereon wee may ground any difference of longitude Neither is the second very beneficiall for that all voyages both by Sea and land are very irregular and vncertaine either by reason of sundry impediments as rockes mountaines woods contrary winds and other dangers turning aside the direct course of passengers from any direct way or obseruation or else by the Ignorance of Mariners which seldome passe so farre on discouery and if they doe know not perfectly to delineate out their iourney as a Cosmographer would expect to any tolerable satisfaction Neuerthelesse by Astronomicall obseruation wee haue many wayes left vs for the performance of this conclusion as shall bee taught in these following propositions 1 By an Eclypse of the Moone the longitude may be found This conclusion is in this sort to bee performed First it behooueth you to know as you may by an Ephemerides at what houre
the other at the endes the former was thought not habitable by reason of the extremity of heat because the Sunne-beames there fall perpendicularly and so make a greater reflection The other for extremity of cold by reason of the obliquity of the Sunne-beames causing little or no reflection whence a second cause seemes to be drawne from the extreame drought of those places which seemes most opposite to mans temper requiring a reasonable degree of moisture But notwithstanding these reasons of the ancients it must needes bee confessed as an vndoubted truth confirmed by experience of many Nâ—uigatours that those Regions by them imagined vnfit for habitation are not onely habitable but in many places very populous Neither want there many reasons found out by latter writers to mitigate the rigour of this opinion some whereof wee haue already touched in our former treatise First whereas they vrge the places vnder the Equinoctiall to bee vnhabitable by reason of intemperate heat wee may easily answer that the dayes and nights are then alwayes equall containing not aboue 12 houres so that the space of either being shorter the cold of the night may well asswage the extreame heat of the day Another reason is ordinarily taken from the extraordinarily high mountaines commonly placed vnder the Equinoctiall which approaching neerer the middle Region of the aire must of necessity partake some what more of cold which dayly experience can witnesse in that their top â— are couered with snow euen in the depth of Summer Thirdly the neerenesse of the maine Ocean to a great part of this Region is a great cause of this cold temper because water is found to bee by nature cold Fourthly the set and certaine windes by nature ordained to blow in the hottest times of the yeere may adde much to temperature Fiftly the extraordinary Raines and showers which those places suffer which are vnder the Line especially when the Sunne is verticall are a great cause of the asswaging of the heat of the Sunne Lastly the custome of the Inhabitants being from their cradles inured to no other quality or disposition of the ayre will take away much from our admiration On the other side no small reasons may bee shewed why the Regions lying neere or vnder the Pole should not bee so extreamely cold but that they may admit of habitation First because the Sunne being for six moneths together aboue their Horizon must needs impresse into the Ayre more heat then otherwise it would doe Besides the thicknesse incorporated as it were with heat must needs receaue into it more degrees of it then a thinner and more refined ayre because the intention of the quality most commonly supposeth the condensation or thickning of the subiect wherein it is But no greater reason can bee shewed in this point then the custome of the Northerne inhabitants exposed from their infancy to no other temperament If wee should aske a reason why wee vnmaske our faces against the encounter of the greatest cold being a soft and tender part not daring to vncouer our other parts what reason can a man inuent but custome If any should aske why barbarous people liuing in farre colder climates then this of ours goe altogether naked whereas the cold is mother of many diseases amongst vs who goe alwayes clothed onely vse and custome can yeeld an answer These reasons make it probable enough that no place of the whole world is by nature made not habitable Now that it is not only inhabitable by nature but also for the most part truly inhabited will appeare as easily if wee trust the testimony of Nauigatours which haue discouered few or no Regions wanting some â—nhabitants But that this proposition may bee more distinctly vnderstood wee must know that the whole world is diuided into Sea and Land for the Sea we may call it habitable in that large sense before mentioned to wit that on it euery where men in ships may breath and liue which is plaine out of experience of Nauigatours who haue sailed round about the Earth from East to West and haue entred farre towards the North and South where at least some times of the yeere or other they might finde the way passable For the land which is here principally vnderstood wee must note that it may bee considered two wayes either for euery little quillet or parcell of land contaned in the superficies of the Earth or else for a certaine Region of some indifferent greatnesse In the former sense it were too much to affirme euery part of the Earth to bee habitable for as much as many places as the toppes of the Alpes or the sands of Africa properly admit of no habitation yet in an improper and large sense they may be called habitable because on them a man may liue and breath for a certaine space of time But if by the parts of the land wee vnderstand some reasonable greatnesse no great doubt can bee made but that it is either already inhabited by mankinde or can at least admit of habitation as that which not only for a time affords a man life and breath but also some conuenient meanes of sustenance for no countrey hath euer beene found so indigent and barren of all vitall aides which is neither capeable of liuing creatures in the land fit for mans nourishment or that cannot draw Fishes from the Sea or if this should faile cannot afford Fruits or Herbage from the ground or in case all the rest were deficient cannot haue passage by Water to other Countries whence to relieue their necessities And no question but nature hath stored euery Countrey with some commodity or other which by trafficke may draw riches from other Regions as by instances may more particularly appeare hereafter when wee shall speake of particular Regions and their seuerall accidents 2 All places of the Earth haue suffered manifold alteration and change as well in Name as Nature I need not spend time to demonstrate this Assertion for that euery place of the Earth hath beene subiect to much mutation in the processe of time as well in Nature of the Soyle as of the Inhabitants a few obuious instances in each Countrey will easily certifie yet will it not seeme amisse I hope to shew the progresse manner and causes of this alteration which would giue no small satisfaction To discourse of all changes according to all times were a matter infinite Wee may referre all to two heads to wit the change of Names and the change of Nature Concerning the former that most Countreyes haue changed their first and originall names is most euident to such as consult the Maps and writings of our common Geographers for few or none will discouer vnto vs any Region by that name by which it was knowne in former times in so much as great controuersie and dispute hath growne about diuerse countreyes mentioned by ancient writers whereof the name should take its first originall but of this change we shall speake hereafter But if we
the foure first qualities of Heate Cold Drouth and Moisture whereon depends a great part of the disposition not only of the soyle but also of mans body for as much as the one ordinarily borrowes his fruitfulnesse or barrennesse of these first qualities and the other hath his vitall Organes which are the ministers of the Soule much affected with them in so much as some Philosophers haue vndertaken to define all the differences of mens wits and intellectuall faculties out of the Temperament of the braine according to these foure accidents And what Physitian will not acknowledge all these Qualities and their mixture to challenge an extraordinary preheminence in the disposition and constitution of mans body whose mixture is the first ground of health or sicknesse The second meanes whereby the Heauens may cause a diuersity of temper in diuerse places is from the speciall Influences of some particular Starres and constellations incident to particular places for it were blockish to imagine that so many various Starres of diuerse colours and magnitudes should bee set in the Firmament to no other vse then to giue light to the world and distinguish the times sith the ordinary Physitian can easily discouer the Moones influence by the increase of humours in mans body and the experience of Astrologers will warrant much more by their obseruation as assigning to each particular aspect of the Heauens a particular and speciall influence and operation Now it is euident that all aspects of the Heauens cannot point out and designe all places alike for as much as the beames wherein it is conueyed are somewhere perpendicularly other where obliquely darted and that more or lesse according to the place whence it commeth to passe that neither all places can enioy the same Temperament nor the same measure and proportion Yet wee say not that the heauenly bodyes haue any power to impose a Necessitie vpon the wills and dispositions of men but onely an inclination For the Starres worke not Immediatly on the intellectuall part or minde of man but Mediatly so farre forth as it depends on the Temperament and materiall organes of the body But of this wee shall especially speake hereafter Where God willing shall bee opened the manner of this celestiall operation By this wee may vnderstand how farre the Heauens haue power to cause a diuersity in Places and Nations The second reason may bee the Imbred Quality Figure and Site of the Places themselues For that there is another cause of diuersity besides the situation of places in respect of the Heauens may easily bee proued out of experience for wee finde that places situate vnder the same Latitude partake of a diuerse and opposite Temper and disposition as the middle of Spayne about Toledo which is very hot and the Southermost bound of Virginia which is found to bee Temperate betwixt both All which notwithstanding are vnder the selfe-same Latitude or very neere without any sensible degree of difference also we sometimes finde places more Southward toward the Equatour to partake more of cold then such as are more Notherne as the Toppes of the Alps being perpetually couered with Snow are without question colder then England although they lye neerer to the equinoctiall Likewise Aluares reporteth that hee saw Ice vpon the water in the Abyssines Countrey in the month of Iuly which notwithstanding is neere or vnder the Line And Martin Frobisher relates that he found the ayre about Friezland more cold stormy about 61 degrees then in other places neere 70 degrees Wherefore we must needs ascribe some effect and operation to the soyle it selfe first in respect of the Superficies which is diuersly varied with Woods Riuers Marishes Rockes Mountaines Valleyes Plaines whence a double variety ariseth first of the foure first Qualities which is caused by the Sunne-beames being diuersly proiected according to the conformity of the place Secondly of Meteors and Exhalations drawne vp from the Earth into the Aire both which concurring must needs cause a great variety in mans disposition according to that prouerbe Athenis tenâ—e coelum Thebis crassum or that bitter taunt of the Poet on Boeotians Boeotum in crasso iurares aëre natum For ordinary experience will often shew that a thinne and sharp ayre vsually produceth the best witts as contrariwise grosse and thicke vapours drawne from muddie and marish grounds thicken and stupifie the spirits and produce men commonly of blockish and hoggish dispositions and natures vnapt for learning and vnfit for ciuill conuersation Secondly there must needs be granted to speciall Countreyes certaine Specificall qualities which produce a certaine Sympathie or Antipathie in respect of some things or others whence it commeth to passe that some plants and hearbs which of their owne accord spring out of the Earth in some Countreyes are found to pine wither in others some Beasts and Serpents are in some places seldome knowne to breed or liue wherewith notwithstanding other Regions swarme in abundance as for example Ireland wherein no Serpent or venomous worme hath beene knowne to liue whereby Africa and many other Countreyes finde no small molestation Neither is this variety onely shewne in the diuersity of the kindes but also in the variation of things in the same kinde whereof we might produce infinite examples For who knowes not which is a Physition that many simples apt for medicine growing in our land come farre short in vertue of those which are gathered in other countreyes I need amongst many ordinary instances giue no other then in our Rubarb and Tobacco whereof the former growing in our Countrey except in case of extremity is of no vse with our Physitians the other as much scorned of our ordinary Tobacconists yet both generally deriued from the true mother the Indies in great vse and request But of this last Instances are most common and yet for their ignorance of the true cause most admirable The causes of the former might in some sort bee found out either in the Heauens or in the Elementary nâ—ture of the Earth But some speciall proprieties haue discouered themselues which cannot be imagined to owe their cause to either but to some third originall which the Physicians in their Simples more properly tearme virtus specifica If any man should demand why countreyes farther from the course of the Sunne should be found hotter then some which are neerer Why the Rhenish wine Grape transported from Germany into Spaine should yeeld vs the Sherry Sacke Euery ordinary Phylosopher which hath trauelled little beyond Aristotles Materia Prima will bee ready to hammer out a cause as ascribing the former to the Heigth or Depression of the soyle the latter to the excesse of heat in Spaine aboue that of Germany But should wee farther demand 1 why Ireland with some other Regions indure no venemous thing 2 Why Wheat in S. Thomas Iland should shut vp all into the Blade and neuer beare graine 3 Why in the same Iland no fruit which hath any stone in
it will euer prosper 4 Why our Mastiffes a seruiceable kinde of creature against the molestation of Wolues and such hurtfull beasts transported into France should after a litter or two degenerate into Curres and proue altogether vnseruiceable 5 Why with vs in England some places produce Sheep of great stature but course wooll other places small Sheep but of very fine wooll which being naturally transplanted will in a generation or two so degenerate the one into the others nature that the greater sheep loose somewhat of their greatnesse yet improue their fleeces as the other increase their stature but loose much in the finenesse of their wooll 6 Why many places at the ridge of the mountaines Andi in America cannot bee passed ouer without extreame vomitting and griping euen vnto death 7 Why a Riuer in the Indies should haue such a nature to breed a great long worme in a mans leg which oftentimes proues mortall vnto the patient with infinite the like examples found in Geographers concerning the nature and accidents of Fountaines Hearbs Trees Beasts and Men themselues as wee shall shew hereafter so much varied according to the disposition of the soyle what wiser answer can an ingenious man expect then silence or admiration for to make recourse to Sympathies Antipathies and such hidden qualities with the current of our Philosophers is no other then in such sort to confesse our owne ignorance as if notwithstanding wee desired to bee accounted learned for beside the difference of the termes wherein euery Mountebanke may talke downe a iudicious Scholler I see no aduantage betwixt a Clowne which sayes he is ignorant of the cause of such an effect or of a iuggling Scholler which assignes the cause to bee a sympathie antipathie or some occult quality I speake not this to countenance supine blockishnesse or to cast a blocke in the way of curious industrie The former disposition I haue alwayes hated and the latter still wished in my selfe and admitted in others All which I can in this matter propose to a curious wit to bee sought must bee reduced to one of these two heads for either such admirable effects as we haue mentioned must arise from some Formall and Specificall vertue in the soyle or from some extraordinary Temperament made of a rare combination of the Elements and their secondary mixtures as of Hearbs Stones Mineralls and vapours arising from such and affecting the Aire of both which wee shall haue some occasion to treat in the particular Adiuncts of places yet so as I feare I shall neither giue my selfe content or my Reader any sufficient satisfaction But In magnis voluisse sat est 11 Hitherto of the common imbred Adiuncts of the Earth Topographically taken Next we will speake somewhat of the Magneticall Affections of a place These are in number two viz Variation and Declination We haue in our former Treatise of the Magneticall nature of the Earth handled diuerse other affections growing from the Magneticall Temper and disposition of the terrestriall Globe whence some man might here collect this repetition to bee altogether needlesse or at the least imperfect omitting many other of the Magneticall Affections To this I answer that it is one thing to speake of these Affections as they agree to the whole Spheare of the Earth Another thing to consider them as they are particular proprieties and markes of particular places and Regions In the former sort haue we besides the Variation and Declination handled many other affections of the Earth magnetically considered Wee here onely speake of these two as they are speciall markes and proprieties of sqeciall places which it behooues a Topographer to obserue as a matter worthy of obseruation in the description of any place The vse shall be commended vnto vs in these two Theoremes 1. The Magneticall Variation is of no vse for the first finding out of the Longitude yet may it serue to good purpose for the Recognition of a place heretofore discouered The reason of this wee haue shewne in our former booke because the variation seldome or neuer answeres proportionally to the Longitude as some of the ancients on false grounds haue surmised whence no true consequence can bee drawne from the variation of a place to the finding out of the Longitude yet may it bee of speciall vse for the new finding out of such places as haue formerly by others beene first discouered so the variation were first by them diligently and faithfully noted and obserued first because few places in the Earth can exactly and precisely agree in the selfe-same variation but in some Degree or minute will bee found to varie Secondly if any two places should bee found to accord in the same Degree of Variation yet comparing the variation with the degree of Declination wee shall commonly finde a difference for as much as places agreeing in variation may notwithstanding varie in the Declination Thirdly if two places should be equalized in both as wee cannot deny it to bee possible yet the comparing of these two Magneticall motions with other affections as well in respect of the Earth it selfe as of the Heauens will giue at least a probable distinction of which cases it is not hard out of the obseruations of our new writers and Nauigatours to giue particular instances Concerning the first we finde the variation of the compasse at Cape Verde to bee iust 7 Degrees about the Ilands neere to Cape Verde to amount only to 4 Degrees whence a Sea-man if other helpes failed may hereafter as he passeth distinguish the one from the other and if occasion serue correct this errour In the like sort might a man otherwise altogether ignorant of the place out of former obseruations in the same Iland of Cuba distinguish betwixt Cape Corientes and Cape S. Anthony In that the one hath only 3 degrees of variatiō wheras the other hath 13 for an instance of the second case we will take the coasts of Brasill 100 leagues distant from the shoare Cape Corientes beyond Cape bonae spei which agree in the same variation to wit amounting to 7 Degrees 30 minutes which notwithstanding are distinguisht by their seuerall declination for howsoeuer the magneticall motion of variation being of late inuented hath not so particularly beene traced out in all or most places yet must the declination of each place needs be different for as much as the former hath 23 degrees of South Latitude the other none at all lying iust vnder the Equinoctiall since the Latitude as wee haue formerly taught is in some measure proportionall to the Declination For the third if any two places bee found agreeing both in Variation and Declination as may bee probably guessed of Cape Rosse in S. Iohns Iland and the west end of S. Iohn de Porto Rico the Latitude being all one as of 17 degrees 44 minutes and the variation admitting perhaps insensible difference to wit of a little more then one degree yet might this helpe conioyned with former
instruments or Tables and reducing them accordingly to your chart which wee suppose before marked out according to seuerall degrees As for example if wee would set downe in our chart the Metropolis of France which is Paris hauing recourse to my Table I finde it to haue in Longitude 23 degrees in Latitude 48 degrees Here to finde out the said longitude you must extend a threed from the 23 degrees of the Parallell AB to the like degree in the Parallell CD then holding it fast you must crosse that threed with another extended from the Meridian AC to the Meridian AD in the points of 28 degrees The point wherin these two threeds shall cut and crosse one the other you may take for the true place of Paris and marke it out in your chart In like sort you may proceede with all other places But if you were to describe a riuer in your chart it will not bee sufficient to take the Longitude and Latitude of the beginning or fountaine but of the end middle turnings and angles Townes or Cities by which it passeth Bridges and other occurrent circumstances In like sort may you set downe Woods Forrests Mountaines Lakes and other places whatsoeuer 4 Thus much for the Essentiall part of the particular Chart The Accidentall part wee call the Scales of Miles which teacheth how many miles are contained betwixt any two places in the Chart wherein we are to know two things 1 The Fabricke 2 The Vse 1 The Fabricke of the Scale depeâ—ds from the certaine knowledge of the Distance of any two places in the Chart. The practise is very easie and taught in these three Rules 1 You must search out the distance betwixt any two places whatsoeuer which are contained in the Region described in your Chart which you may doe either experimentally by your owne knowledge or some certaine relation of Trauailers 2 Then must you draw three Parallell lines containing two spaces one larger the other lesser in some voide space of your Chart. 3 You must diuide the said Scale into so many Miles as the said voide space will giue you leaue according to the known distance first found out As for example the distance betwixt Paris and Roane is knowne to be 30 French leagues which containes 60 of our Miles allowing for euery such league 2 Miles Wherefore your Parallell lines being first drawne as you see in the former Chart diuide your Scale into 30 parts accordingly and in the larger space place your Numbers as 10.20.30 and so forth so farre as your space will conueniently extend 2 The Distance of any two places set downe in the Chart being taken and applyed to the scale will shew how many miles it containes As for example I would willingly know how many English Miles are contained betwixt Paris and Orleans in my Chart of France Here I take with my compasse the distance betwixt the said Cities in the Chart and applying that to the Scale I find it to containe 50 miles which is the true measure CHAP. V. Of Hydrography 1 HItherto haue we treated of the Generall Adiuncts and Proprieties of places in the Terrestriall Spheare we are in the next place to handle the Distinction 2 A place is generally distinguished into Water and Land The Description of the former is termed Hydrographie The other for distinction we call Pedography 3 Hydrographie is a Description of the Water with the Accidents thereunto belonging The Water wee consider not here meerely Physically as it is an Element whereof mixt bodies are compounded but Topographically as it beares a part in the Terrestriall Globe yet are wee not so curious to exclude such Physicall problemes and considerations as are most subiect to sense which a Topographer cannot well neglect being the markes and characters designing out speciall places To finde out the originall of the Water wee must first take as granted that Almighty God as wee reade in the first of Genesis in the beginning made a separation betwixt the waters aboue the Firmament and the waters vnder the Firmament whereof the former is termed in the Scriptures 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is as much to say as expansum a thing stretched out or extended By these waters aboue the Firmament whether wee ought to vnderstand the cloudie vapours in the middle Region of the Aire or the pure fluid and liquid body whereof the Firmament consists I leaue it to learned diuines and criticke expositours to dispute although the propriety of the phrase if it bee well rendred will seeme to fauour this opinion rather then the other for as much as the Aire can no way bee said to bee aboue the Firmament except the Hebrew terme miscarry in the Translation For the solidity of the Celestiall Orbs which Aristotle labours to confirme is found long since to thwart the obseruations of Astronomers although it may thus bee retained as vsefull suppositions to settle Imagination But to let this passe and come to the waters vnder the Firmament vnderstood by the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which signifies as much as a collection of waters wee shall find them to haue taken their originall from the separation of the waters substance from the dry-Dry-land caused by God in the first Creation testified by Moses in 1 Gen which once granted as no Christian can deny easily rebates the edge of the opinion of some auncient Philosophers who contended out of the nature of Drouth and Moisture to deriue the beginning of this separation The drynesse of the Earth say they working by little and little diminisheth or at least resisteth the waters so that they should not altogether ouerwhelme the Land But this reason is altogether deficient in Nature Because Drouth and Moisture are no such qualities to haue such an operation and if any such there were betwixt Drouth and Moisture the Drouth as wee see by experience would rather draw moisture vnto it then any way expell it or driue it away whence it is most euident that it was effected by no other meanes then the immediate worke and prouidence of God for the preseruation of liuing creatures for before God said Let the waters bee gathered into one place the Water was said to couer the whole face of the Earth but afterwards at Gods appointment the water went backe and shewed the dry-land But by what meanes God separated the one from the other it is much controuersed amongst Diuines and Philosophers Many were of opinion that the Earth was suffered to stand intire without alteration and that the waters were eleuated aboue it so that if they were suffered to flow abroad they might againe couer the face of the Earth as in the beginning But why the Waters should bee thus restrained is not agreed among them for some thought that this was done by the miraculous power of God which restraines the flowing abroad of the Water beyond ordinary bounds of which opinion is St Ierome who grounded his opinion as it seemes on the authority of
the Sea were dâ—uided into many parts it would more easily dissolue and putrify The grounds of this opinion being ouerthrowne there want not reasons to contradict First sayes one if the Sea were not created salt then was there some time wherein it was fresh To this I answer two wayes First that it might bee created fresh yet being apt from the heat of the Sunne to receiue saltnesse it might almost at the first receiue it Secondly if I should grant that it was a long time before it embraced this quality I know neither History to confute mee or reason to conuince mee Secondly it is vrged from the Nature of liuing creatures in the Sea that they cannot well liue in fresh waters and therefore it seemes originally salt and not by Accident But this is of no great force First because experience shewes that many kind of fishes liue in both and many rather couet and desire the fresh Water then the Sea Secondly it is not improbable that as the Sea by little and little and by degrees turned from freshnesse to saltnesse the temper and disposition of the fishes was in like manner changed and altered Whence it may come to passe that fishes since bred and nourished in fresh Waters cannot so well endure the salt Moreouer who knowes whether all these seuerall kinds of fishes now found in the Sea were from the beginning since wee see by experience that sundry kinds of liuing creatures dayly arise out of putrefaction on the land which may with like probability or more bee admitted in the Sea There are yet behind other reasons of one Patricius a Platonist who would oppose Aristotle in good earnest Aristotle saith hee speaking of the saltnesse of the Sea Water shewed not the cause For I would aske why that parcell of water from whence the thinner parts are extracted should remaine salt was it so from the beginning or afterwards imprest was it Inbred or Accidentall If hee would haue it an inbred quality from the beginning hee vainly goes about to seeke out the cause If the saltnesse bee aduentitious the cause is to bee giuen but the cause giuen by him is not true for as much as it rather takes away the saltnesse But to these obiections of Patricius spunne out in many words wee may answer two wayes either that the saltnesse is meerely aduentitious bred by an exhalation drawne vp by the Sunne and so distilling downe againe or else because this answere seemes not wholely to satisfy For as much as rainy Water is seldome salt and if it were could hardly flow in so great quantity to feed the saltnesse of the Sea I will answer secondly that the saltnesse is radically or originally in the matter of the Water yet so as it cannot bee drawne out and sensibly bee perceiued in the mixture of many sweet humours ioyned with it without a separation first made by the heat of the Sunne of the thinner parts from the thicker So that the Sunne is a disponent though not a productiue cause of this saltnesse in the Sea 2 Seas absolutely salt are neuer frozen This may seeme a Paradoxe to some men in regard that amongst our Geographers wee haue so often mention made of Mare Congelatum taking it's name from the Ice wherewith it is shut vp from passage as also for that in the voyages of Frobisher Dauis Hudson and other later Nauigatours which haue beene imployed in the search of the Northwest passage wee find such strange relations not onely of Seas closed vp with Ice and hindring their passage towards the North but also of Rocks and Ilands of Ice of an incredible greatnesse The truth of these Relations I no way disapproue but rather out of these testimonies approue our former assertion that Seas which are wholly Salt are neuer found to freeze For first whereas it is called Mare Congelatum it may beare the nâ—me well enough from the multitude of Ice floating on the water or collected into a Rocke or Iland This Ice as it will easily appeare is not produced out of the substance of the Salt water of the maine Ocean but rather carryed into the Sea by great riuers of fresh water running into the Ocean For the riuers are not alwayes frozen but sometimes by a remission of the cold are thawed and the peeces broken a sunder and floating into the Sea in it oft times meet in great heapes which may bee proued 1 In that these great râ—cks of Ice melting with the heate of the Sunne haue dissolued into fountaines of fresh water gushing downe in great abundance wherewith sometimes in case of necessity they haue fraughted their shippes as wee haue testified by the fore-named Nauigatours 2 Because some part of the maine Sea situate perhaps more Northerne and in a colder Climate suffers not this accident whereas places neere the shore farther South are almost alwayes frozen The reason whereof is because the Sea neere the shore is commonly mixed with fresh waters conueyed in either by great Riuers or infinite secret passages vnder ground which wee see not The reason why that salt waters exclude this propriety incident or the fresh I take to bee the Hot-spirits hid in the salt humor which are more feruent and operatiue then those of the fresh water 9 So much for the saltnesse The next is the Thicknesse whereof we will set downe this short Theoreme 1 The Water of the Sea is thicker then other Water This Proposition hath it's light from the former because thicknesse of Water is a companion of the saltnesse as depending from the same cause to wit the exhalation and extraction of the thinner parts of the Water There are many small causes giuen by Patricius of this thicknesse of the Sea-Water Fâ—â—st because the parts of it should more strongly hold together and not couer and ouerflow the firme land But this seemes to bee grounded on an errour that the Water should be aboue the Land and that it should containe it selfe within it's owne bounds and limits which opinion we haue elsewhere reiected The second cause of the thicknesse of the Sea is that it might bee more apt to beare and carry ships and other great weights for the vse of man Thirdly the Water being thicke may more easily bee conuerted into salt out of which many saltish minerals in the Earth are ingendred Other causes are giuen by this Author but lesse forceable which we will omit as referring them to the Philosopher whose proper taske it is to seek them out CHAP. VI. Of the Motions of the Sea 1 THe Motion of the Sea whereof we are in this Chapter to treate is either Naturall or Violent The Naturall I call that which is partly incident to the Naturall Disposition of the Sea 2 This againe is two-fold either Generall or Speciall Generall is that which agrees generally to all or at least to most parts of the Sea such as is the Ebbing and Flowing of the Sea Wee must here obserue that the Water
sort as they imagine For the only withdrawing of that hand and letting goe of that bridle which gaue the water that restraint would haue beene â—ufficient to haue ouerwhelmed the whole Earth The second reason is taken from Ilands in the sea which are nothing else but parts of the land raised vp aboue the water Thirdly we find by experience that a ship carried with the like wind is driuen so swiftly from the port into the open sea as from the sea into the port which could not be done if the sea were higher then the land for it must needs be that a ship if it were to be carried to a higher place should be moued slower then if it came from an higher to a lower Fourthly all Riuers runne into the sea from the inner parts of the land which is a most euident signe that the land is higher then the sea for it is agreeable to the nature of the water to flow alwaies to the lower place whence we gather that the sea shore to which the Water is brought froÌ„ the land must needs be lower otherwise the water in ruÌ„ning thither should not descend but ascend This opinion I hold farr more probable as being backt by reason and the Authority of our best Philosophers yet not altogether exactly true as we shall shew hereafter But Bartholomew KeckermaÌ„ in a late German writer holding these 2 former opposite opinioÌ„s as it were in one equall Ballance labours a reconciliation In a diuerse respect saith he it is true that the sea is higher and that it is lower then the Earth It is higher in respect of the shores and borders to which it so comes that sensibly it swells to a Globe or a circumference and so at length in the middle raiseth vp it selfe and obtaines a greater hight then in those parts where in the middle of the sea it declines towards the shore Of which parts the hight sufferâ— such a decrease that by how much neerer the shore they shall approach by so much the lower they are in respect of the shore in somuch that touching the shore it selfe it is much lower then the Earth For this opinion our Author pretends a demonstration which hee grounds on the 4 chapter of Aristotle de Caelo in his second booke where hee puts downe these two positions which he calls Hypotheses or suppositions First that the Water no lesse concurrs to the making of a Globe or circle then the Earth for it so descends naturally that it doth sensibly gather it selfe together and makes a swelling as wee see in small dropps cast on the ground Secondly the Water makes a circle which hath the same center with the center of the Earth Out of these grounds would our Keckerman conclude the water in some places to bee higher in other places to bee lower then the Earth And hence proceeds he to giue an answer to their reasons who haue affirmed the Earth to bee higher then the sea What to thinke of the proposition or conclusion we will shew hereafter but in the meane space I hold this conclusion not rightly inferred out of these premises For first whereas he sayth that the water by nature is apt to gaher it selfe round into an orbe or spheare I would demaund whether such a roud body hath the same center with the world or a diuerse center he cannot say that it hath a diuerse center from the center of the Earth First because as we haue demonstrated in our first part the Earth and the Water haue but one center and that the Water is concentricall with the Earth Secondly from the second proposition or ground of his out of Aristotle if he meanes such a sphaericity as hath the same center with the center of the Earth I answer first that he contradicts himselfe because he giues an instance in small dropps cast on the ground whose quantity being so small and conuexity sensible can in no mans iudgment be concentrick to the Earth Secondly out of this ground that the Spheare of the water is concentrick to the Earth hee confutes himselfe for according to the principles of Geometry in a Spheare or circle all the lines drawne from the center to the circumference must be equall Then must all places in the circumference or superficies of a sphericall body be of equall hight from the center and by consequence the sea being such a Sphericall body cannot haue that inequality which Keckerman imagines it to haue wherefore some other demonstation must be sought for this conclusion I will goe no further then that I haue spoken in the former chapter concerning the figure of the Water Where I haue probably shewed it to be conicall and out of this may be easily gathered how it may be higher then the land in some places as of the middle of greater seas where the head of the Cone is lifted higher in other lower as in the narrow streits where the increase of the eminencie is also lesse The grounds and principles of which we haue laied before 1 The sea in respect of the Earth is higher in one place then another Besides the naturall conformity of the Water to a conicall figure as we haue fore-shewed whence one part of the superficies must be graunted to be higher then another wee must needs in the sea acknowledge other accidentall causes which produce an inequality in the parts of the sea The chiefest whereoâ— are the Equality of inclination in all parts of the water to motion And the inequality of the channells and shores whence it commeth to passe that the Water of the sea being euery whereof it selfe equally inclined to motion is notwithstanding vnequally receiued into channels so that in some place hauing as it were a large dominion to inuade as in the maine Ocean it falls lower and euener In some other places as streites or narrow seas the water hauing a large entrance from the Ocean but litle or no passage through it must needes swell higher and so one place by accident becomes higher or lower then another Which farther to confirme diuerse instances may be alleaged out of moderne and ancient obseruations For diuerse histories giue testimony that sundry Kings of Aegipt by cutting the Isthmus or narrow neck of land lying betwixt the red sea the Mediterranean laboured to make Africk an Iland open passage from one sea to the other but afterwards they were perswaded to desisâ— from their enterprise Some say because they saw the red sea to bee higher then many parts of Aegipt and hereupon feared a generall inundation of all Aegipt if the pâ—ssage were broken open Others haue deliuered that they feared that if the passage from one vnto another were broke open and the red sea hauing a vent that way the red sea would become so shallow that men might wade ouer it and so insteed of making Africk an Iland it would haue been more ioyned to the Continent then before Both opinions consent in this that the waters
and Compasse durst not aduenture into the Ocean so farre out of sight of land But to giue the opposite part all reasonable aduantage admit the Straites diuiding Asia and America were very narrow and within kenne was it likely that from hence thâ—y could by shipps transport so many kndes of creatures Could we beleeue any man to be so mad as to carry ouer with him Lions Beares Tigers Foxes and other innumerable sorts of rauenous and vnprofitable beasts as pernicious to mankind as other creatures seruing for his vse If any were found so foolish or malicious yet were it very vnlikely hee should transporte so many kinds This argument seemes no more to concerne America then most Ilands of the World wherein we find diuers creatures not only seruing for the vse of man but many vnprofitable hatefull to the Inhabitants The meanes of this transportation is very difficult to finde St Augustine with some other Diuines haue bin driuen to a supernaturall cause as if Almighty God should performe this matter by the ministry of Angels which answer we dare not vtterly reiect being supported by the authority of so great a Pillar of the church yet I cannot so easily imagine that God who vsed naturall meanes for the preseruation of all liuing creatures in the Arke should haue recourse to a supernaturall power in the propagation of these creatures on the face of the Earth wherefore to me the reason would seeme better answered out of our ground which we shall proue hereafter That Ilands were not from the first Creation but afterward broken from the maine Continent by the violence of the Water Hence it might come to passe that such beasts as were in the parts of the Earth so broken off haue since there continued by continuall propagation vntill this day I meane of ravenous and hurtfull beasts because of the others lesse doubt can be made but that they might be convayed from one Country into another by shipping to serue the necessity of mankind Here we see that no argument as yet hath bin vrged so strong against the North-passage but may with reasonable probability be answered It remaines in the second place that we descend somewhat to particulars to inquire whether this be to be effected either towards the North-east or the North-west The North-east passage hath heretofore bin attempted by many of our English Nauigatours but with vnhappy successe yet were not these voyages altogether fruitlesse forasmuch as by this meanes a way was found out to Russia whence began the first trade betweene ours and the Russian Merchants But that litle hope can hence arise sundry reasons may be alleaged the chiefe whereof are these 1 The dangerous rending of the Scythick Cape set by Ortelius vnder 80 degrees Northward together with the perillous sailing in those Northerne Seas alwayes pestred with Ice and Snow seconded by diuerse Bayes or shelues mists fogges long and darksome nights most aduerse to any happy Nauigation 2 The obseruation of the Water which is more shallow towards the East which giues small hope of a through passage because all Seas are fed with waters and for the most part are obserued to be more shallow towards the shore then in the middle But where in sailing forward any Sea is found to decrease in depth it is a likely argument that it is rather a Creeke Bay or Riuer then a Straite Notwithstanding these reasons some haue heretofore gone about to proue a passage by the North-east to Cathay of which opinion was Antony Ienkinson whose reasons be well answered by Sr Humphrey Gilbert which I briefly touch adding some things of mine own as I find occasion The first reason was drawne from a Relation of Tartarian who reported that in hunting the Morse he sailed very far towards the South-east wherein he found no end which might giue a likely coniecture that it was a passage throughout But to this we may easily answere that the Tartarians are a barbarous Nation altogether ignorant of Nauigation which neither know the vse of the Charte Compasse or Celestiall Obseruations therefore in a wide Sea know not how to distinguish the North-east from the South-east Besides the curious search of this long passage must depend on better Discoueries then a poore Fisher-man who seldome dares aduenture himselfe out of sight of land besides the Fisher-man iudging by sight could not see about a kenne at sea which will proue nothing in regard of so long a distance The second Reason vrged by Mr Ienkinson was this that there was an Vnicorne's horne found vpon the coasts of Tartaria which could not come saith he by any other meanes then with the tide in some streight in the North-east in the frozen Sea there being no Vnicorne in all Asia sauing in Iâ—dia and Cataia To this reason I may answer with Sr Humphrey Gilbert many waies 1 We may well doubt whether Tartarians knowe a true Vnicornes horne or no 2 It is credible that it could bee driuen so farre by the Tide being of such a Nature that it cannot swimme 3 The Tides running to and fro would haue driuen it as farre backe with the Ebbe as it brought it forward with the Floud 4 the Horne which was cast on this coast might be the Horne of an Asinus Indicuâ— which hath but one Horne like an Vnicorne in his fore-head whereof there is great plenty in all the North parts as in Lappia Norvegia Finmarke as Zeigler testifies in his History of Scandia 5 Lastly there is a fish which hath a Horne in his â—ore-head câ—lled the Sea Vnicorne whereof Martin Frobisher foâ—nd one on the coast of Newfound-land and gaue it to Queene Elizabeth which was said to be put into her wardrope But whether it be the same which is at this day to be seene at Winsor Castle I cannot tell The third and strongest reason which was vrged for the North-east passage was this That there was a continuall current through the Frozen Sea of such swiftnesse that if any thing were throwne into the water it would presently be caried out of sight To this we may easily answer that this strong current is not maintained by any Tide coÌ„ming from another Sea but by diuerse great Riuers falling into this streight In like sort we find a strong current from Maeotis Palus by Pontus Euxinus Sinus Bosphorus and along all the coast of Greci as Contarenus and diuerse other affirme out of their own experience and yet the Sea lyeth not open to any other Sea but is maintained by Tanais and diuerse other riuers so in this North-east part may this current of water be maintained by the Riuers Duâ—â—a Ob and many others which continually fall into it Hitherto haue we treated of other passages either effected or attempted to Cathay and the East Indies The last and most desired and sought in our time is that by the North West This way hath bin often attempted as by Cabot Dauis Frobisher Hudson Sr Thomas Button and
could speake of this reason but that I hold it better to cherish a hope of such a passage then by excepting against these ancient arguments to discourage moderne industrie Other probabilities may seeme to be drawne from the discoueries of later Nauigatours since the raigne of Henry the seuenth vnder whose protection Sebastian Cabot vndertook the discouery of the North-West costs In which he preuailed as much as the Alchimists who in seeking out the Philosophers stone haue often mist of their aime yet by this meanes inuented many rare and excellent secrets of vse and admiration That Cabot the same yeere discouered as much of the Northerne parts of America as Columbus of the Southerne out of my small reading seemes to mee no great question whence I cannot imagine that King Philip of Spaine can in this New-found-world challenge a greater interest then King Charles of great Brittaine a Prince of those incomparable vertues which may be thought worthier to owne then the others to pretend to so great a Soueraignty For the latter voyages discoueries of Dauis Frobisher for ought I see they promise scarce so much as Hope which oftentimes flatters and deceiues men with her best countenance But if wee take vp wares vpon trust some will tell vs of a Portugall who made a voyage through this Streitâ— Northward calling a Promontory within the same after his name Promontorium Corterialis of Scolmus a Dane who passed a great part thereof but the most probable in my coniecture is that which Sr Humfrey Gilbert reports of one Saluaterra a Gentleman of Victoria in Spaine who was said to haue passed by chance out of the West Indies into Ireland in the yeere of our Lord 1568 who constantly auerred the North-west passage from vs to Cathay to bee thought nauigable and farther related in the presence of Sr Henry Sidney then Lord Deputy of Ireland Sr Humfrey Gilbert being then present that a Frier of Mexico called Andrew Vrdanetta more then eight yeeres before his arriuall told him that they came from Mare Del Zur through this Northwest straite into Germany and shewed Saluaterra being with him at that time in Mexico a Sea-Chart made out of his owne obseruation in that voyage wherein such a passage was expressed agreeing with Ortelius his Mappe moreouer this Frier told the King of Portugall in his returne by that country home-ward that hauing found such a North-west passage hee meant shortly to make the same publicke but the King earnestly intreated him not to discouer this secret to any Nation for that said he if England had knowledge and experience of it it would greatly hinder the King of Spaine and me This relation I could willingly credit from the mouth of any other man then a Frier of whose palpable lyes and fabulous inuentions in their flattering letters to the Pope from both the Indies we haue sufficient experience Neuerthelesse that future ages might not despaire of so worthy an attempt as the discouery of this passage it hath pleased God to stirre vp the Spirits and industry of two later Nauigatours Hudson and Sr Thomas Button who haue reuiued the forlorne hopes of the former For the particulars of whose discoueries I know not better where to referre my Reader then to a curious Mappe not long since set out by our worthy and learned Professour Mr Brigges the arguments I collect from thence are these expressed in his own words 1 In the bottome of Hudson Bay where he wintred the hight of the Tide was but two foot whereas by the neerenesse of the South sea in Port Nelson it was constantly 15 foot or more 2 Moreouer in Port Nelson where Sr Thomas Button did winter in 57 degrees he found the Tide constantly euery twelue houres to rise 15 foot or more and that a West wind made the Nepe Tides equall with the Spring Tides and the Summer following about the latitude of 60 degrees hee found a strong race a Tide running sometimes Eastward sometimes Westward 3 To shew the land towards the South-sea through which we seeke to open this passage not to bee so far off as our ordinary Charts seene to pretend may be probably auerred in that California heretofore supposed to be a part of the Westerne Continent is since by a Spanish Chart taken by the Hollandors found to bee a great Iland the length of the West shore being about 500 leagues from Cape Mendocin to the South Cape thereof called Cape S. Lucas which may appeare both by the Spanish Charts and by the report of Francis Gaule whereas in the ordinary Charts it is expressed to be 1700 leagues These Arguments I confesse haue swayde my opinion but not as yet absolutely freed me from doubt Three Quaeries I must leaue for the learned to consider and for the time to decide 1 whether this relation of Mariners concerning the Bay of Sr Thomas Button and Hudson be true or no no man will I suppose censure me as vnmannerly for asking such a question considering how much many Nauigatours either by their mistakes or their industrious falsities haue deceiued mens credulities the one is incident to mankind which out of vncertaine obseruations or vnnecessary deductions from thence often drawes an ill consequence The other the ordinary policy of discouerers who lest their Trauailes might bee thought fruitlesse would at least promise hope in the reuersion How many relations haue been corrected by experience of later Nauigatours euery one may iudge 2 Whether this strong Tide in Hudsons Bay comming from the West were from the South-Sea or from the North betwixt the Continent and diuerse Ilands by an Inlet is not a matter as yet cleerely out of doubt Terra Del Fuogo was heretofore supposed to bee a Continent till Schouten in his discouery found it to bee an Iland and a large Sea beyond it toward the South Likewise New-found-land in all our former Mappes and Globes expressed as a part of the Maine of America is by later experience found to be an Iland and why may not this happen in the other that at the entrance into Hudsons Bay the land on the right hand should be clouen into many Ilands betwixt which the waters issuing should be turned in such sort as it might seeme to proceede from the West sith the Tides taking their beginning from the Maine Sea and continued through some Straite commonly follow the crooked windings of the Channell 3 That California is an Iland it may for ought I know be well warranted But the euidence drawne from the Spanish Chart seemes rather to cherish hope then perswade consent In this which I haue spoken of these worthy mens coniectures I haue rather expressed my doubts then my opinion esteeming notwithstanding that doubt almost Heresy which should discourage any generous and deseruing spirit from a farther attempt of this North-west-Passage CHAP. VIII Of Sea-Trafficke and Merchandize 1 OF the Internall Affections of the Sea wee haue spoken It remaines now that we treate of the
it seemes the same leuell This may for ought wee know be the originall of all Lakes and this also may bee a way or meanes whereby they empty and disburthen themselues being ouercharged with too much Water CHAP. X. Of Mountaines Valleyes Plaine Regions Woods and Champian Countryes 1 THe second variation in the figurature of the Earth is expressed in Mountaines Valleyes and Plaine Countreyes A Mountaine is a quantity of Earth heaped aboue the ordinary height of the land A Valley is the depth of the Earth between two Mountaines A plain is a space of Earth where there is found no notable rising or falling of the ground The distinction of the Earth according to it's externall figurature into Mountaines Valleyes and Plaines is very naturall because euery space or parcell of land in respect of the places neere or about it must either rise higher or fall lower or at least must beare an equality where the former is admitted there must needs be Mountaines swelling higher then the ordinary leuell of the Earth where the second is found the ground is indented with Valleyes and concauities where the third is to be seene there must be Plaines Here is to be noted that howsoeuer Plaines absolutely considered haue a sphericall surface for the most part especially if the Plaines be large because they concurre as circular segments to make vp the Spheare of the Earth yet they may be called Plaines because they so appeare to our sense which in so short a distance cannot perceiue the Sphericall figurature of the Earth Some Gramarians here curiously distinguish betweene mons or a Mountaine and Collis or a Hillock which is a little hill also betwixt Vallis which they would haue to be a low parcell of ground betwixt two mountaines and Conuallis which is a lower space only bounded on one part by a mountaine which Varro would haue to bee deriued from Cauata vallis but these Grammatical scruples are of small vse to such as spend themselues on greater matters because the ordinary vsual manner of speech euen amongst the vulgar will shut out all mistakes in this kind what deserues the study of â— Topographer concerning this shall be expressed in these Theoremes 1 Mountaines Valleyes and Plaines were created in the Earth from the beginning and few made by the violence of the Deluge It hath bin the opinion of some aswell Diuines as Philosophers that the violence of the Deluge hath extraordinarily altered defaced the Earth being the chiefe cause of Mountaines Valleyes therein but this opinion is contradicted by many reasons first out of the Text it selfe of Genesis where it is said that the water of the flood ouer-flowed by 15 Cubits the highest Mountaines to which may be added the Testimony of Damascenus who reports that in the time of the Deluge many resorted to a high mountaine of Armenia called Baris where they saued themselues which last clause although it expresly contradicts the holy Scriptures which speake but of Eight Persons that were saued yet it is a sufficient testimony to proue that such Mountaines were before the Flood and therefore not made by it Secondly had there followed so great an alteration of the Earth to cause mountaines as some imagine then should not the same places after the flood retain their names bounds and descriptions which they did before the flood the contrary whereof we find in that Moses writing of Paradice other places about 850 yeares after the flood was most exact in setting down the Names Limits and whole description of them as though they had remained to be seene in his dayes Thirdly had the violence of the waters beene so great as to raise vp mountaines in the Earth it would without doubt haue bin forceable enough to haue turned Riuers and haue changed them from one place to another cast downe and demolished the greatest Cities and buildings throwne downe and ouer-whelmed all plants and vegetalls on the Earth and as it were haue buried from all succeeding time the memories of the former ages so that little or nothing should appeare but this may bee proued otherwiâ—e by sundry Instances First that the Riuers haue still remained the same may appeare out of the place alleaged of Genesis where Moses speaking of the site of Paradice sets downe all the riuers of it exactly especially Tigris Euphrates out of the which we may easily gather in what longitude and latitude it stood had any thing bin altered in the course of the riuers it is likely Moses would haue specified it in this Historie that after ages looking for these places might not mistake or suspect the truth of his Relations Secondly that it hath not extinguished all Buildings and ancient monuments of the fathers before the flood may probably be coniectured by the testimony of Iosephus a writer of good credit who affirmeth that he saw one of the pillars erected by Seth the second from Adam which pillars were set vp aboue 1426 yeares before the flood accompting Seth to bee a hundred yeares old at the erection of them and Iosephus himselfe to haue liued some 40 or 50 yeares after Christ Now although we are not bound to credit all thar he relates yet may we trust him concerning such matters as happened in his time and that this pillar was set vp by Seth was neuer yet called in question but warranted by antiquity the like is recorded by Berosus of the Citty of Enoch that it was not demolished by the flood but remained many yeares after the ruines whereof as Annius in his commentary reports were to be seene in his time who liued in the time of Ferdinand and Isabella of Castile It is also reported by Pomponius Mela that the Citty of Ioppa was built before the flood of which Cepha was King whose name with his brother Phineus together with the grounds and principles of their religion were found grauen vpon Altars of stone All which are sufficient to proue the violence of the Waters not to haue bin so great to demolish all mountaines and monuments Moreouer it may be plainly proued out of the text that the Waters suffered the plants and trees of the Earth to grow and remaine as they did before because it is said that when Noah the second time sent out the Doue she returned with an oliue branch in her mouth which no doubt she had plucked from the trees after the trees were vncouered for otherwise she might the first time haue found it floating on the Waters a manifest proof that the trees were not torne vp by the roots or turned topsy turuy but remained fixed in the Earth as they did before Fourthly had the water suffered this extreame violent motion as whereby it might make many mountaines I aske whence this motion should come it could not bee from the naturall motion of the water which is to moue downward for what descent of waters can bee in a Sphericall round body where no part is higher or lower That
grounds yet these few instances drawne from the particular disposition of the Earth it selfe cannot much impeach our proposition which takes notice only of the situation of the Earth in respect of the cardinall points of North and South compared with the Heauens CHAP. XI 1 HItherto haue we treated of the Absolute adiuncts of the land we are now to speak of the Relatiue which imply a respect of the Land to the Sea 2 From this Termination of the land with the sea there ariseth a twofold distinction The first is of the land into Continent and Ilands 3 A Continent is a great quantity of land consisting of many Kingdomes and Regions not diuided by Water the one from the other An Iland is a parcell of land compassed round with the sea An Iland is called in Latin Insula quasi in salo because it stands in the Sea some would haue it in English termed an Iland as it were Eye of the land But this deriuation seemes affected and not naturall it might seeme more naturally to be deriued from the French L'Isle But wee will not dispute of the name It is enough to vnderstand that an Iland is a portion of the habitable Earth euery where enuironed with the sea orat least with some great Riuer but this last sense seemes more improper then the other yet oftentimes vsed as Meroe in Africa an Iland of Nilus and the Iland of Eely in England To this is opposed the Continent as that land which being not diuided and separated by the sea containes in it many Empires and Kingdomes as Europe Asia Africke America all which as farre as wee can yet gather are vnited and ioyned together in one continuate land Strabo affirmes out of this in his 1 Boooke and first Chapter of Geographie that the whole Earth is one Iland sith all these knowne parts of the Earth are compassed about with the sea on euery side But this opinion cannot stand with reason or moderne obseruation First because this acception is too large for as much as an Iland is properly taken for a smaller part diuided from the rest of the land and opposed to the Continent whereas if this sense were admitted the distinction of land into Continent and Iland would haue no place or at least the same in a diuerse respect might bee called a Continent and an Iland But it is plaine that Ilands were alwayes opposed to the continent to which although separate by Water they were supposed to belong as to Europe Asia Africke America or Magellanica or some other as Geographers haue reduced them Secondly because it was a bold coniecture to thinke the whole world to consist only of those parts found out in Strabos time For besides the two parts of America since that time discouered by Columbus another great portion is since that time found out in the South by the coniecture of Ferdinando de Quir comming neere the quantity of Europe Asia and Africa Which howsoeuer it be round enuironed with sea and thâ—refore might seeme an Iland yet in respect of the greatnes of it and the many regions and kingdomes it containes it may well bee reputed a continent To which many lesser Ilands belong 1 It is probable that Ilands were not from the first creation but were made afterwards either by the vniuersall deluge or some other violence of the Water It hath been the opinion of diuerse learned men that Ilands werâ— not onely before the Flood but from the first creation of the world because they seeme no lesse to make for the ornament of the Earth then diuers Lakes and Riuers dispersed on the Land But this argument seemes very weake first because a greater ornament seemes to consist in vniformity then confusion besides the ornament must not bee measured by our phantasie but Gods Almighty pleasure and will expressed in his owne workmanship and that hee created Ilands in the beginning is the thing in question That Ilands were not from the Creation many probable reasons are alleaged First â—rom the words in the 1 of Genesis Dixit verò Deus congregentur aequae quae sub coelo sunt in locum vnum appareat arida factum est ita vocauit Deus aridam terram congregationesque Aquarum appellauit maria By which may be collected that the waters were gathered together in their own place by themselues and therefore had no such intercourse betwixt Land and Land as now they haue admitting Ilands wherefore it is more probable that such Ilands as now appeare were either caused by that Vniuersall Deluge of Noah or by some other Accidents for it is most certaine that the Sea on the Land some-where gaines and other-where in recompence of it it looseth againe as may appeare by the 14 of Genesis where it is said of the comming together of certaine Kings Hi omnes conuenâ—runt in vallem Syluestrem quae nunc est mare salis out of which it is euident that that parcell of ground which was a woody place in the time of Abraham was before the time of Moses become the Salt Sea Many examples of the like are giuen vs by Pliny in his Naturall History which we shall haue occasion to vrge hereafter And therefore it is no hard thing to belieue that since the first beginning of the world all Ilands might bee produced in this sort Another argument by which they would â—stablish this opinion is that wee see almost all Ilands of the Earth not onely inhabited of mankind but also furnished with diuerse kindes of Beasts some tame some wilde some wholesome some venomous some vsefull some altogether vnprofitable Now it seemes very vnlikely that men bâ—ing in elder times and now also in most places of the Earth altogether vnskilfull in the Art of Nauigation should venture so farre on the maine Ocean to people Countreyes so far distant sith at this day wherein Nauigation is arriued at a great perfection hauing the helps both of the Chart and Compasse altogether vnknowne vnto the ancients wee see most Nations very scrupulous in searching out farre remote Countreyes But admit this were ouercome by mans Industrie which no doubt is much increased by Necessity yet cannot it bee very probable that so many sundry kindes of beasts should in this sort bee transported for howsoeuer wee coniecture concerning such beasts as necessarily serue for mans sustenance yet seemes it hard to thinke that man should bee so improuident and enuious to the place of his own Habitation as to transport rauenous venomous vnwholesome and vnprofitable creatures for by no other meâ—nes but by transportation can such beasts bee imagined to bee brought into Ilands For the first originall of all creatures in the Creation was in or neere Paradice which wee shall proue to haue been â—n the Continent of Asia the second Seminary was in the Arke which by the testimony of the Scriptures was first disburthened in the same Continent How from hence they should spread themselues into Ilands is the
doubt Impossible it seemes they should swimme so far for what Creature will venture it selfe on the maine Ocean being by a naturall instinct fearefull of death and carefull of his owne preseruation Whence it is more likely to imagine that these parcels of land being first furnished with such creatures were afterwards by the violence of the flood or some other like Accident torne off from the maine Continent retaining still such Creatures as it had before But here S. Augustine seeme to auoid this Argument two wayes It is not saith he incredible that wild and sauage beasts might bee transported from one Countrey to another by Sea either by Men for the delight of Hunting or else by the helpe of Angels by Gods Commandement or at least permission This answer seemes very probable as well for it selfe supposing nothing impossible to Almighty God as also for the authority of the Author But with all reuerence to the Authour whom all the Christian Churches are bound to honour this assertion is not so strongly fortified to enforce assent And first it is not very likely that pleasure with men should so farre ouersway the generall weale and profit as to transport so many rauenous and hurtfull beasts for meere hunting sports and recreation Secondly the chase of some as Lions Leopards and such like hath more danger in it then sport or delight and if so be these were conueyed ouer Sea for such ends yet it is very probable they would keepe them rather close and imprisoned to serue occasion then to let them loose and free for farther propagation Finally whereas hee ascribes the transportation of them to the ministery of Angels no man can deny but this may bee possible because by their permission of Almighty God they might effect greater matters Yet seemes this not so likely as the other because wee finde that in the generall preseruation of all creatures in the Arke hee vsed the ordinary helpe of Naturall meanes although directed and assisted by a Diuine power And of God effected greater matters in this sort why may wee not belieue it of things of lesser moment and necessity But of this wee haue spoken before Another reason for our opinion that Ilands were not before the flood or at least from the Creation is vrged by Verstegan a late Writer in this manner There is nothing broken saith he that hath not bin whole which he sets downe as an infallible principle for howbeit Nature doth sometimes against her own intent commit some errours in so much as the things formed haue either too much or too little yet bringeth she forth nothing broken or disseuered but such as it is it is alwayes whole and not broken except afterwards by some accident And if Nature the hand-maide of God neuer misseth this perfection much more ought wee to belieue that God the Father of Nature in the first Creation left no part thereof broken and vnperfect But euery man may see by ordinary obseruation that the Clifts and bounds of the Sea as not being by God in the creation so formed seeme not onely seuered and broken but as it were cut streight and steep downe from the top to the bottome not stooping or declining by degrees as wee see in Inland Hills in their descent vnto the valleyes The forceable breach of the land as wee pretend by the Sea fretting through some narrow place seemes the more to be confirmed in that we find it not steep towards the Land where the Land declines by a sloping descent as in other places but rather towards the Sea in such sort as both the sides of a narrow and streite Sea oftentimes in the nature of the soile and conformity of figure seeme to answer one other onely shewing the want of substance betwixt them which is lost It may hence be obiected that many other hills and rocky places of Iland Countreyes seeme in like manner as broken and steep downe at these clifts bounding the Ocean as also that the clifts towards the Sea are broken higher vp then any waies the Sea could be imagined to ascend To this wee answer first that rocks on the dry land many times seeme broken when indeed they are not being by Nature fashioned craggie and vneuen Secondly whereas Hills in Inland countries seeme broken this might proceede heretofore by Earthquakes which haue oftentimes beene obserued to produce such effects as it hath lately beene knowne to doe in a Towne called Pleurs in the Grisons Countrey neere the Alpes and for the appearance of such breaches in the tops of clifts aboue the ascent of the waters it might bee caused by the violence of the Sea-waues fretting and eating out the sides of them beneath the bottome whence it happens that the higher part for want of vnder-propping must needes fall and breake off from the other This Argument of our said Authour is by him back't with another drawne from the name of a cliffe which in our ancient language is drawne from cleauing or breaking off which appellation is neuer giuen to our Inland Hils but only to such as terminate and compasse in the Sea These reasons make the matter seeme probable yet condemne I not the other as absurd because it may probâ—bly be defended and backt with the authority of many graue Authors 4 A second Distinction ariseth out of the termination of the Land with the Sea For either it is vniforme or various 5 An vniforme termination I call that which without any notable difference inclines more to euennesse and Regularity It is manifest that the Sea-wawes working on the Land violently and not naturally seldome or neuer so bound and compasse the Land as to reduce it to a regular and perfect figure But yet because in some places it comes somewhat neere to such a figure somewhere it is very farre off wee thought it fit to insert this distinction This inclination to a Regular figure is some-where square consisting of Right-lines some-where circular an example of the former we haue in Spaine which on the North-side and the West is bounded more streitly comming neere a right-line of the other in Africkâ— whose North-West side from the Mediterranean streits to Guinea seemes in some sort circular 6 A various Termination is that wherein the bounds are crooked and as it were indented with crekes and turnings Here three things are remarkeable 1. Peninsula Istmus and Promontorium 7 A Peninsula is a part of land euery where enuironed with the sea excepting in one part where it is knit vnto the maine land An Istmus is a narrow land betwixt two seas A Promontorie is a high mountaine bending it selfe into the sea the head whereof is called a Cape These three are remarkeable accidents growing out of the Termination of the land with the sea and belonging as well to continents as Ilands The first we call Peninsula quasi penè Insula termed of the Graecians Chersonesus although I find this name oftner giuen to the Istmus then the Peninsula Amongst the
Albertus Magnus who in his Commentaries vpon the great Coniunctions of Albumazar obserued that before Noahs flood chanced a coniunction of Iupiter and Saturne in the last degree of Cancer against the constellation since termed Argo's ship out of which he would needs collect that the floud of Noah might haue beene fore-showne because Cancer is a watry signe and the house of the Moone being mistrisse of the Sea and all moist bodyes according to Astrologie which opinion was afterwards confirmed by Petrus de Alliaco who affirmes in his Comment vpon Genesis that although Noah did well know this flood by diuine Reuelation yet this coniunction being so notable hee could not bee ignorant of the causes thereof for those were not only signes but also apparant causes by vertue receiued from the first cause which is God himselfe Further to confirme this assertion hee would haue Moses by the cataracts of Heauen to haue meant the the great watry coniunction of the Planets A reason wherof hee seemes to alleage because it is likely that God would shew some signe in the Heauens by which all men might be warned to forsake their wicked courses But notwithstanding this curious opinion I rather cleaue to those which thinke this Deluge to be meerely Supernaturall which I am induced to belieue for diuers causes vrged by worthy writers First because this is set downe in Holy Scripture for a chiefe token or marke of Noahs extraordinary faith dependance vpon Gods promises which had been much diminished and of small moment had it any way been grounded on the fore-sight of second causes For this was no more then might haue beene discouered to the rest of the wicked worldlings who no doubt would in some sort haue prouided for their safety had they receiued any firme perswasion of this dreadfull Deluge To which others adde a second reason that second causes of themselues without any change or alteration are not able to produce such an admirable effect as the drowning of the whole World for it is not conuenient say they that God the Author of Nature should so dispose and direct the second causes that they might of themselues bee able to inuert the order of the Vniuerse and ouer-whelme the whole Earth which hee gaue man for his habitation But this reason is thought very weake for as much as it seemeth to imply a new creation The conceit of a new Creation is pronounced by a learned Countreyman of ours both vnlearned and foolish for whereas it is written saith hee that the fountaines of the deepe were broken open it cannot otherwise be vnderstood then that the waters forsooke the very bowels of the Earth and all whatsoeuer therein was dispersed made an eruption through the face of the Earth Now if wee compare the height of the waters in this deluge aboue the highest mountaines being onely 15 cubits with the depth of the semi-diameter of the Earth to the Center we shall not find it impossible answering reason with reason that all these waters dispersed vnder the Earth should so far extend as to drowne the whole Earth for the semi-diameter of the Earth as Astronomers teach is not aboue 35 â— miles wherein the waters contained and dispersed may bee sufficient for the hight of the greatest mountaines which neuer attaine 30 miles vpright whereas this distance of 30 miles is found in the depth of the Earth 116 times Secondly the extension of the Ayre being exceeding great it might please God to condensate and thicken a great part thereof which might concurre to this Inundation We willingly assent to the worthy Authour that this Inundation might bee performed without any new creation Notwithstanding we cannot hence collect that it was Naturall But to compose the difference the better and to shew how far Nature had a hand in this admirable effect we will thus distinguish that an effect may be called Naturall two manner of wayes First in regard of the causes themselues Secondly in respect of the Direction and Application of the causes If we consider the meere secondary and instrumentall causes wee might call this effect Naturall because it was partly performed by their helpe and concurrence But if we consider the mutuall application and coniunction of these second causes together with the first cause which extraordinarily set them a worke we must needs acknowledge it to be supernaturall For other particular Inundations in particular Regions we may more safely terme them Naturall as directed and stirred vp by second causes working no otherwise then according to their owne naturall disposition Two causes concurring together are here most notable whereof the first is the great coniunction of watry Planets working on the water their proper subiect the other the weaknes of the bounds and banks restraining the water which by processe of time weare out and suffer breaches both these causes sometimes concurring together cause an Inundation which assertion wee may lawfully accept but with this caution that Almighty God working by second causes neuerthelesse directs them oftentimes to supernaturall and extraordinary ends 2 Particular alterations haue happened to Bounds of Regions by Particular Inundations Howsoeuer some inundation haue not continued long but after a small time leâ—t the Earth to her owne possession yet others haue been of such violence as they haue beene found to haue fretted away or added and so altered the bounds and limits of places which besides diuerse examples produced by vs in our former chapter Aristotle seemes to acknowledge in the 1 booke ofhis Meteors the 14 Chapter where he saith that by such Accidents sometimes the Continent and firme land is turned into the Sea and other-where the Sea hath resigned places to the Land for sith the agitation or mouing of the water depends ordinarily vpon the vertue of Heauenly bodyes if it should happen that those Starres should meet in coniunction which are most forceable and effectuall for stirring vp of Tempests and Flouds the Sea is knowne to rage beyond measure either leauing her ancient bounds or else vsurping new By this meanes as we haue shewed in the former Chapter some Ilands haue been ioyned to the Land and some Peninsula's separated from the Land and made Ilands somewhere the Sea hath beene obserued for a great space to leaue the Land naked as Verstegan coniectures of the most part of Belgia which hee sayes was in ancient time couered with water which besides many other arguments hee labours to proue out of the multitude of fish-shells and fish-bones found euery-where farre vnder ground about Holland and the coasts thereabouts which being digged vp in such abundance and from such depthes could not saith hee proceed from any other cause then the Sea which couered the whole Countrey and strewed it with fishes Lastly that the Sea might seeme as well to get as lose shee hath shewed her power in taking away and swallowing vp some Regions and Cities which before were extant Such fortune had Pyrrha and Antisâ—a about Meotis
bee performed by many stronger and abler men as it hath beene tried sometimes that a Franticke man hath broken very strong chaines wherwith he hath been bound which many other men could not doe Neither on the other side can it seeme strange that many and great exhalations vapours and spirits should be ingendred vnder the Earth For as much as the Earth is heaâ—ed many wayes Many wayes may bee specified whence such fumes should arise as first from the Sunne and Starres Secondly from the subterranean fires hid in the bowels of the Earth Thirdly in the winter-time by an Antiperistasis the heat collecting it selfe downeward to the inner parts of the Earth which was before in the outward parts of it The argument by which Aristotle would confirme this opinion is drawne as well from the time as from the places wherein Earthquakes vsually happen from the time because then most Earthquakes are obserued to bee when most exhalations are inclosed in the bowels of the Earth to wit in the Spring-time and the Autumne From the places because for the most part spongie and hollow Regions which may drinke in a greater quantity of exhalations are commonly most subiect vnto it for although many exhalations are dayly inclosed in the wombe of the Earth yet Earthquakes fall but seldome because the matter is seldome so strong and violent as to shake the Earth Wherefore some Philosophers haue expressed three principall wayes which make this Earth-quake first when a great quantity of exhalations is suddenly ingendred which for the greatnesse of it cannot be contained in so little a space for then being almost choked it seekes a way to fly forth Secondly when the Earth is condensated by cold and driues the exhalation from one place to another which flying hither and thither shakes and strikes the Earth Thirdly when the exhalation the cold compassing it round by an Antiperistasis begets heat within it and so is rarified for so being vnable any longer to confine it selfe to its former place it breakes forth and so shakes the Earth We must here note by the way that not onely exhalations are cause of the distemperature in the Earth but also subterranean fires and windes all which by some are iudged to bee of equall force in this action for the diuision of Earthquakes so farre forth as it concernes the difference of places we must vnderstand that it may be either Vniuersall or particular An Vniuersall Earth-quake is that which shakes all the whole Earth in euery part at least in the vpper face whereof I suppose no naturall cause can be giuen but the immediate and miraculous power of God such an Earth-quake happened at the time of our Sauiours Passion whereof Dydimus a graue and ancient Writer left record But that which is said to haue happened in the time of Valentinian mentioned by Orosius in his 7 booke of Histories 32 Chapter is thought by graue Authours to be no vniuersall Earth-quake howsoeuer for the large extent of it it was thought to be generall A particular Earth-quake is that which is bounded in some one or more particular places which for the causes before-alleaged cannot be so far extended because the cauernes and conuexities of the Earth where such vapours and exhalations are contained cannot bee ordinarily so great as to extend to many Kingdomes and Regions 1 Regions extreame cold or extreame hot are not so subiect to Earth-quakes as places of a Middle temper The reason is because in places extreame cold exhalations are not so soone ingendred and in so great a quantity as in other parts on the other side in places which are extreame hot the exhalations which are bred are soone consumed with excesse of heat both which may be confirmed by Instances It is obserued that in the cold Northerne parts as Olaus Magnus writes in his 10 booke and 13 Chapter Earthquakes are very seldome or neuer so it is obserued by Pliny in his 2 booke and 18 Chapter and Albertus Magnus in his 3 booke of Mâ—teours tract 2 That places which are very hot as Egypt are seldome troubled with this shaking of the Earth whereas places betwixt both which are seated in a more temperat climate find it not so strange 1 Hollow and spongie places are more subiect to Earth-quakes then solide and compacted soyles We must here vnderstand that hollow places are either such as lye open to the Aire or are hollow onely vnder and close vpward The former sort are not at all subiect to the molestation of Earth-quakes because the exhalations fly out without impediment but the latter being more apt to ingender and retaine such matter must of necessity bee more troubled This is most plainely obserued in Phrygia Italia Caria Lydia wherein such motions are more frequent To confirme this a little farther wee obserue that hilly and mountainous places suffer this violence oftner then other parts because there most commonly cauernes and concaâ—ities are more frequent then in plaine countreyes But here by the way may bee obiected that sandy and slimy countryes are many times more free from Earth-quakes then other places an instance whereof was giuen before in Aegypt wherein neuer any Earth-quake as most Authours affirme or at least but one as Seneca hath beene obserued The reason may bee giuen that sandy places without any strife suffer the exhalatioÌ„s to disperse themselues that slimy places want sufficient receptacles to entertayne them 3 Ilands are more often troubled with Earth-quakes then the Continent This haue they found to be true in many Ilands of the Mediterranean Sea and others also chiefly in Cyprus Sicylia Euboea Tyrus Angria Lippora and the Molucco Ilands betwixt the East and West-Indies The cause some would haue to bee the Antiperistasis or circumstancy of the waters which is apt to engender greater store of exhalations in the Earth But neuerthelesse that Ilands are more subiect to Earth-quakes then Continents I dare affirme no otherwise then probable because some places in the Continent seeme very much affected especially in Europe aboue other places Constantinople and Basilaea if we credite authors which haue written of this matter in Asia China and other Regions adioyning thereunto CHAP. XIII 1 THe Naturall affections of the Land haue hitherto beene declared Wee are in the next place to treate of the Ciuill Those wee terme Ciuill which concerne the Inhabitants 2 An Inhabitant is a man dwelling in a certaine place The name of an Inhabitant as we haue before noted may be taken either generally for any liuing creature residing in a certaine place in which sense Brute beasts may be called Inhabitants which signification is only metaphoricall or else for a Reasonable liuing creature whose abode is setled in any place or Region in which sense we here take it The consideration of the Inhabitants we haue reserued for this last Treatise following as well the methode of the first creation as of Moses in the narration For God proceeding in the first Creation according to the
Peninsula's the most famous are Africa Scandia Taurica Chersonesus Peloponnesus and America Peruana That little parcell of land which ioynes this Peninsula with the maine land we call an Istmus which is a narrow necke of land betwixt two seas ioyning two Continents such as are Istmus Corinthiacus and Istmus Cimbricus more famous are those two narrow lands whereof the one lyeth betwixt Peruana and Mexico in America the other diuiding Africke from Asia A Promontorie is a great mountaine stretching it selfe far into the sea whose extremity is called a Cape or Head of which the most remarkeable are the Cape of good hope in Africke 2. The Cape of S. Vincent in Portugall 3. The Cape of Comary in Asia 4. The Cape de la Victoria in America Our obseruation concerning this distinction shall bee comprised in this Theoreme 1 Peninsula's by the violence of the sea fretting through the Istmus haue oftentimes beene turned into Ilands and contrariwise sometimes Peninsula's by diminution of the sea made of Ilands This proposition is not hard to proue if any credit ought to bee gâ—uen to ancient writers for it is commonly related that Sicily was heretofore ioyned to Italy Cyprus to Syria Euboea with Boeotia Besbicum with Bythinia all which at this day are Ilands separated and diuided from the continent The like hath beene coniectured of our Brittany which some imagined heretofore to haue beene ioyned with the continent of France about Douer and Calais as may seeme probably to be gathered out of the correspondency of the Cliffs whereof we haue spoken in this chapter before the agreement of the soyle the smalnesse of the distance and many more arguments remembred by vs else-where Also it hath beene obserued on the other side that the sea in some places leauing his ancient bounds hath ioyned some Ilands to the land making Peninsulas of Ilands In this sort if wee belieue antiquity was Antissa ioyned to Lesbos Zephirium to Halicarnassus Ethusa to Mindus Promiscon to Miletum Narthucusa to the Promontory of Parthenius In these antiquities it behooues euery man to iudge without partiality according to reason not ascribing too much to fabulous narrations wherein those ages did abound neither yet shewing himselfe too incredulous For as much as we cannot charge these Authors with any manifest absurdity The speciall and particular arguments by which wee should establish our assertion wee must according to the rules of method reserue to the speciall part where we shall treat ofspeciall Countreyes CHAP. XII 1 OF the perpetuall Accidents of the land we haue spoken somewhat it remaines in this place wee treat of the Casuall 2 The casuall I call such as happen not ordinarily at all times such as are Inundations and Earth-quakes 3 An Inundation is an ouerwhelming of the land by Water Howsoeuer it bee certaine out of holy Scriptures that God hath set the sea his certaine bounds and limits which it cannot passe yet the same God sometimes to shew his speciall iudgement on some place or age hath extraordinarily permitted the sea sometimes to breake his appointed limits and inuade the Iurisdiction of the land This wee call a Deluge or Inundation The inundations which euer haue been obserued on the Earth are of two sorts either Vniuersall or particular An vniuersall is that whereby the whole face of the Earth is couered with water whereof we haue onely two examples The first was in the first creation of the world when as wee read in the Scriptures the whole face of the Earth was round inueloped with Water which couered the tops of the highest mountaines till such time as God by a supernaturall hand made a separation of the Waters from the dry land But this is improperly called an Inundation because the same properly taken implies as much as an ouer-flowing of that which was dry land before The second as we read in Genesis happened in the time of Noah when God for the sinne of man drowned the whole world breaking open the cataracts of Heauen and loosing the springs of the deepe Particular inundations are such as are not ouer the whole Earth but in some particular places or regions Such a deluge according to Genebrardus happened in the time of Enos wherein a third part of the Earth was drowned The like iâ— spoken of Ogygeâ— King of Athens that in his time happened a very great Inundation which drowned all the confines and coasts of Attica and Achaia euen to the Aegean sea In which time it was thought that Buras and Helice Cities of Achaia were swallowed vp whereof Ouid in his Metamorphosis speakes thus Si quaeras Helicen Buran Achaidos vrbes Inuenies sub aquis Buras and Helice on Achaiâ—n ground Are sought in vaine but vnder seas are found As famous was the Inundation of Thessaly in Deucalions time mentioned not onely by profane writers and Poets but also by S. Augustin Ierom and Eusebius which would haue it to happen in the time of Cranaus who next after Cecrops gouerned Athens This inundation was exceeding great extending it selfe not onely ouer all Thessaly and the regions adioyning westward but ouerwhelmed the greatest part of Italy The same or other happening neere the same time oppressed Aegypt if Eusebius may obtaine credit Hence some would haue the people of Italy to haue been called Vmbrij as Pliny and Solinus report quia ab imbribus diluuij superfuissent But this Etymologie seemes too farre fetcht There are also two other notable Inundations meÌ„tioned by ancient writers which fell out in Aegypt from the Riuer of Nilus whereof the first couered all the neither Aegypt which was subiect to Prometheus and hence as Natalis Comes obserues was the fable drawne of the vulture lighting on Prometheus liuer afterwards slaine by Hercules For as Diodorus Siculus obserues the Riuer Nilus for the swiftnes of his course was in ancient time called an Eagle This Riuer afterwards did Hercules by his great â—kill and iudgement streiten and bound reducing it into narrow channels whence some Greeke Poets turning Hercules labours into fables faigned that Hercules slew the Eagle which sed on Prometheus brest meaning that hee deliuered Prometheus out of that sorrow and losse which hee and his people sustained by that Inundation The second of these Egyptian flouds happened about Pharus in Egypt where Alexander the great built Alexandria To these may bee added many more of lesser moment as well in ancient times as in our dayes As that of Belgia in some parts mentioned before on another occasion and not many yeeres since in some parts of Somerset-shire with vs in Britanny 1 No vniuersall Inundation of the Earth can be Naturall The other may depend on some Naturall causes Of the causes of Inundations many disputes haue beene amongst Naturall Philosophers some haue trusted so farre to Nature that they haue ascribed not only particular Inundations but that vniuersall Deluge in the time of Noah to second causes of this opinion was Henricus Mecliensis a Schollar of