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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A28496	Irelands naturall history being a true and ample description of its situation, greatness, shape, and nature, of its hills, woods, heaths, bogs, of its fruitfull parts, and profitable grounds : with the severall ways of manuring and improving the same : with its heads or promontories, harbours, roads, and bays, of its springs, and fountains, brooks, rivers, loghs, of its metalls, mineralls, free-stone, marble, sea-coal, turf, and other things that are taken out of the ground : and lastly of the nature and temperature of its air and season, and what diseases it is free from or subject unto : conducing to the advancement of navigation, husbandry, and other profitable arts and professions / written by Gerald Boate ; and now published by Samuell Hartlib for the common good of Ireland and more especially for the benefit of the adventurers and planters therein.	Boate, Gerard, 1604-1650.; Hartlib, Samuel, d. 1662.	1657 (1657)	Wing B3373; ESTC R27215	105,129	208

our Saviour a eleven hundred seventy and one But the English having setled themselves in the land did by degrees greatly diminish the Woods in all the places where they were masters partly to deprive the Theeves and Rogues who used to lurk in the Woods in great numbers of their refuge and starting-holes and partly to gain the greater scope of profitable lands For the trees being cut down the roots stubbed up and the land used and tilled according to exigency the Woods in most part of Ireland may be reduced not only to very good Pastures but also to excellent Arable and Meddow Through these two causes it is come to pass in the space of many years yea of some Ages that a great part of the Woods which the English found in Ireland at their first arrival there are quite destroyed so as nothing at all remaineth of them at this time Sect. 3. Diminishing of the Woods during the last Peace And even since the subduing of the last great Rebellion of the Irish before this under the conduct of the Earl of Tirone overthrown in the last yeares of Queen Elizabeth by her Viceroy Sir Charles Blunt Lord Mountjoy and afterwards Earl of Devonshire and during this last Peace of about forty years the longest that Ireland ever enjoyed both before and since the comming in of the English the remaining Woods have very much been diminished and in sundry places quite destroyed partly for the reason last mentioned and partly for the wood and timber it self not for the ordinary uses of building and firing the which ever having been afoot are not very considerable in regard of what now we speak of but to make merchandise of and for the making of Charcoal for the Iron-works As for the first I have not heard that great timber hath ever been used to be sent out of Ireland in any great quantity nor in any ordinary way of Traffick but onely Pipe-staves and the like of which good store hath been used to be made and sent out of the Land even in former times but never in that vast quantity nor so constantly as of late years and during the last Peace wherein it was grown one of the ordinary merchandable commodities of the country so as a mighty Trade was driven in them and whole ship-loads sent into forrein countries yearly which as it brought great profit to the proprietaries so the felling of so many thousands of trees every year as were employed that way did make a great destruction of the Woods in tract of time As for the Charcoal it is incredible what quantity thereof is consumed by one Iron-work in a year and whereas there was never an Iron-work in Ireland before there hath been a very great number of them erected since the last Peace in sundry parts of every Province the which to furnish constantly with Charcoales it was necessary from time to time to fell an infinite number of trees all the lopings and windfals being not sufficient for it in the least manner Sect. 4. Great part of Ireland very bare of Woods at this time Through the aforesayd causes Ireland hath been made so bare of Woods in many parts that the inhabitants do not onely want wood for firing being therefore constrained to make shift with turf or sea-coal where they are not too far from the sea but even timber for building so as they are necessitated to fetch it a good way off to their great charges especially in places where it must be brought by land And in some parts you many travell whole dayes long without seeing any woods or trees except a few about Gentlemens houses as namely from Dublin and from places that are some miles further to the South of it to Tredagh Dundalk the Nurie and as far as Dremore in which whole extent of land being above threescore miles one doth not come near any woods worth the speaking of and in some parts thereof you shall not see so much as one tree in many miles For the great Woods which the Maps doe represent unto us upon the Mountains between Dundalk and the Nury are quite vanished there being nothing left of them these many years since but one only tree standing close by the highway at the very top of one of the Mountains so as it may be seen a great way off and therefore serveth travellers for a mark Section 5. Many great Woods still left in Ireland Yet notwithstanding the great destruction of the Woods in Ireland occasioned by the aforesayd causes there are still sundry great Woods remaining and that not onely in the other Provinces but even in Leinster it self For the County of Wickloe Kings-county and Queens-county all three in that Province are throughout full of Woods some whereof are many miles long and broad And part of the Counties of Wexford and Carloe are likewise greatly furnished with them In Ulster there be great Forrests in the County of Donegall and in the North-part of Tirone in the Country called Glankankin Also in the County of Fermanagh along Lough-Earne in the County of Antrim and in the North-part of the County of Down in the two Countries called Killulta and Kilwarlin besides severall other lesser Woods in sundry parts of that Province But the County of Louth and far the greatest part of the Countys of Down Armagh Monaghan and Cavan all in the same Province of Ulster are almost every where bare not onely of Woods but of all sorts of Trees even in places which in the beginning of this present Age in the War with Tirone were encumbred with great and thick Forrests In Munster where the English especially the Earl of Cork have made great havock of the Woods during the last Peace there be still sundry great Forests remaining in the Counties of Kerry and of Tipperary and even in the County of Cork where the greatest destruction therof hath bin made some great Woods are yet remaining there being also store of scattered Woods both in that County and all the Province over Connaught is well stored with trees in most parts but hath very few Forests or great Woods except in the Counties of Maio and Sligo CHAP. XVI Of the Mines in Ireland and in particular of the Iron-mines Sect. 1. All the Mines in Ireland discovered by the New-English THe Old-English in Ireland that is those who are come in from the time of the first Conquest untill the beginning of Queen Elizabeths Reign have been so plagued with Wars from time to time one while intestine among themselves and another while with the Irish that they could scarce ever find the opportunity of seeking for Mines and searching out the Metals hidden in the bowels of the Earth And the Irish themselves as being one of the most barbarous Nations of the whole earth have at all times been so far from seeking out any that even in these last years and since the English have begun to discover some none of them all great nor small

my Brother and others being this The Lagon a little River or Brook which passeth by the Town of Dremore upon a certain time being greatly risen through a great and lasting rain and having carryed away the woodden-bridge whereby the same used to be passed at that Town a country fellow who was travelling that way having stayed three dayes in hope that the water would fall and seeing that the rain continued grew impatient of staying longer and resolved to pass the Brook whatever the danger was but to doe it with the less perill and the more steadiness he took a great heavy stone upon his shoulders whose weight giving him some firmness against the violence of the water he passed the same without harm and came safe to the other side to the wonderment of many people who had been looking on and given him all for a lost person Sect. 7. Of the Brooks of Dromconran and Rafernam by Dublin Of these dangerous Brooks there are two hard by Dublin both running into the Haven somewhat more than a mile from the Citie the one at the North-side thereof a little below the Village Dromconran which is seated upon the High-way from Dublin to Drogheda and the other at the South-side close by the Rings-end This called Rafernam-water of the village by which it passeth two miles from the sea and the same distance from Dublin is far the worst of the two as taking its beginning out of those great Mountains South-wards from Dublin from whence after any great rain such abundance of water is descending to it that the same which at other times is of very little depth groweth thereby so deep and exceeding violent that many persons have lost their lives therein amongst others Mr. Iohn Vsher Father to Sir William Vsher that now is who was carryed by the current no body being able to succour him although many persons and of his nearest friends both afoot and horsback were by on both the sides Since that time a stone bridge hath been built over that brook as over Dromconran-water there hath been one from antient times upon the way betwixt Dublin and Rings-end which was hardly well accomplished when the Brook in one of those furious risings quite altered its chanel for a good way so as it did not pass under the Bridge as before but just before the foot of it letting the same stand upon the dry land and consequently making it altogether useless in which perverse course it continued untill perforce it was constrained to return to its old chanel and to keep within the same To go from Dublin to Rafernam one passeth this River upon a woodden-bridge the which although it be high and strong nevertheless hath severall times been quite broke and carryed away through the violence of sudden floods although at other times and when that Brook doth onely carry its ordinary water a child of five yeares may easily and without danger wade through it and a tall man on horsback riding underneath it not being able to reach it in the great floods the water many times riseth so high as that it doth not onely touch but floweth quite over the bridge CHAP. VIII Of the Rivers of Ireland Sect. 1. Of the Shanon BEsides the excessive number of Brooks wherwith Ireland is watered it hath a good many Rivers the which being broader and deeper than the Brooks are consequently navigable although the major part are not portable of any great ships nor barks but only of small vessels and boats The principallest of all is the Shanon who taking his originall out of Lough-Allen and in his course dividing the Province of Connaught from Leinster and afterwards also from Munster passeth through two other great Loughs to wit Lough-Ree whereout she cometh just above Atlone a mean Market-town but adorned with a stately and strong Castle the ordinary residence of the Presidents of Connaught and Lough-Dergh about half way betwixt Atlone and Limmerick and a little below the said Town shee dischargeth her self again into another Lough by far the biggest of all the which extending it self from Limmerick unto the sea and above fifty miles long it is held by the Irish as well as the English not for a Lough but for the Shanon it self and consequently called with that name whereof hath been spoken in the second Chapter This River is wide and deep every where so as she would be navigable in her whole length not only with Boats of all sorts but with reasonable big Ships to the great commodity of them that inhabit near it were it not for the impediment of a certain Rock some six miles above Limmerick the which standing across in the chanel and the River with great violence falling downwards over it all communication of Navigation betwixt the upper and the lower parts of it is thereby absolutely hindred Sir Thomas Wentworth Lord Wentworth and afterwards Earl of Strafford he that in in the beginning of this present Parliament was beheaded having been Governour of Ireland many yeares first in the quality of Lord Deputy and afterwards of Lord Lieutenant had a design to take away that let in causing of a new channel to be digged for a little way whereby the River being made to alter her course should have avoyded that Rock and to that purpose sent certain skilfull men thither to view those parts and carefully to examine whether it were feasible who made report that it might be done and would not cost above seven or eight thousand pounds sterling a sum not very considerable in comparison of the great profit which afterwards would have been reaped from that work Nevertheless it was never taken in hand the intents of publick utility having been diverted and smothered by those of private profit as commonly it falleth out Sect. 2. The Rivers Suck Sure Oure Broad-water Barrow and Slane There are several other Rivers in the Province of Connaught but none of them is any waye comparable with the Shanon for length bredth or depth and little to be said of them but that the Suck the which falleth into the Shanon a little way below Atlone is the principallest of all The two chief Rivers of Munster are Sure and Broad-water the City of Waterford being situated upon the first of those two the which close by it dischargeth her self into that arm of the sea which is known by the name of Waterford-haven The other passeth by Lismore and falleth into the sea by Youghall where it maketh a Tide-haven Next to those two is the River of Cork and then that of Kinsale the which is but of small moment as also are the rest of the Rivers of this Province In Leinster is the Nure or Oure the Barrow the Slane the Liffie and the Boine besides some others of less moment The Oure and Barrow do mingle their waters at the Town of Ross from whence having past a little way together they discharge themselves into the right arm of the Haven of Waterford and

their own accord so as one may see the veins thereof at the very outside in the sides of the mohntains beeing not very broad but of great length and commonly divers in one place five or six ridges the one above the other with ridges of earth between them These Veins or Ridges are vulgarly called Pins from whence the Mine hath the name of Pin-mine being also called White-mine because of its whitish colour and Shel-mine for the following reason for this stuff or Oar being neither loose or soft as earth or clay neither firm and hard as stone is of a middle substance between both somewhat like unto Slate composed of shels or scales the which do lye one upon another and may be separated and taken asunder very easily without any great force or trouble This stuff is digged out of the ground in lumps of the bigness of a mans head bigger or less according as the Vein assordeth opportunitie Within every one of these lumps when the Mine is very rich and of the best sort for all the Oar of this kind is not of equall goodness some yeelding more and better Iron than other lyeth a small Kernell which hath the name of Hony-comb given to it because it is full of little holes in the same manner as that substance whereof it borroweth its appellation The Iron comming of this Oar is not brittle as that of the Rock-mine but tough and in many places as good as any Spanish Iron Sect. 6. Iron-works erected by the English The English having discovered these Mines endeavoured to improve the same to make profit of them and consequently severall Iron-works were erected by them in sundry pats of the Land ●s namely by the Earl of Cork in divers places in Munster by Sr Coarles Coot in the Counties of Roscomen and Letrim in Connaught and in Leinster by Mountrath in Queens-county by the Earl of London-derry at Ballonakill in the sayd County by the Lord Chancelour Sir Adam Loftus Vicount of Ely at Mount-melik in Kings-county by Sir Iohn Dunbar in Fermanagh in Ulster and another in the same County by the side of Lough-Earne by Sir Leonard Bleverhasset in the County of Tomond in Connaught by some London-Merchants besides some other Works in other places whose first Erectors have not come to my knowledge In imitation of these have also been erected divers Iron-works in sundry parts of the sea-coast of Ulster and Munster by persons who having no Mines upon or near their own Lands had the Oare brought unto them by sea out of England the which they found better cheap than if they had caused it to be fetched by land from some of the Mines within the land And all this by English whose industry herein the Irish have been so far from imitating as since the beginning of this Rebellion they have broke down and quite demolished almost all the fore-mentioned Iron-works as well those of the one as of the other sort CHAP. XVII Of the Iron-works their fashion charges of erecting and maintaining th●m and profit comming of them With an exact description of the manner of melting the Iron in them Sect. 1. The fashion of the Iron-works THe fashion of the Iron-works of whose erection we have spoke in the end of the foregoing Chapter is such as followeth At the end of a great Barn standeth a huge Furnace being of the height of a pike and a half or more and four-square in figure but after the manner of a Mault-kiln that is narrow below and by degrees growing wider towards the top so as the compass of the mouth or the top is of many fathoms This mouth is not covered but open all over so that the flame when the furnace is kindled rising through the same without any hindrance may be seen a great way off in the night and in the midst of the darkness maketh a terrible shew to travellers who do not know what it is These Ovens are not kindled with wood nor with sea-coal but meerly vvith char-coal whereof therefore they consume a huge quantity For the Furnace being once kindled is never suffered to go out but is continually kept a burning from the one end of the year to the other And the proportion of the coals to the Oare is very great For the Mine would not melt without an exceeding hot fire the which that it may be the more quick and violent it is continually blown day and night without ceasing by two vast pair of bellow● the which resting upon main peeces of timber and with their pipes placed into one of the sides of the Furnace are perpetually kept in action by the meanes of a great wheel which being driven about by a little brook or water-course maketh them rise and fall by turns so that whilst the one pair of bellows doth swell and fill it self with wind the other doth blow the same forth into the Furnace Sect. 2. Of the lesser Iron-works called Bloomeries Of the Hammer-works And of the Casting works There is another and lesser sort of Iron-works much different from the former For instead of a Furnace they use a Hearth therein altogether of the fashion of a Smiths Hearth whereon the Oare being layd in a great heap it is covered over with abundance of Charcoal the which being kindled is continually blown by Bellows that are moved by Wheeles and Water-courses in the same manner as in the other Works These Works commonly called Bloomeries are in use or were so before this Rebellion in sundry places of the North-parts of Ulster Besides these two sorts of Works where the Iron-mine is melted there is a third sort where the Iron after the first melting is hammered out into Bars of which we shall have occasion to speak more in the latter end of this present Chapter There were also in some parts of Ireland yet another kind of Iron-works differing from all the former where the Iron was cast into Ordnance Pots small round Furnaces and other things of which Works Mr Christopher Wandsworth Master of the Rolls of Ireland and in his latter dayes Lord Deputy of the same Kingdom under the Earl of Strafford then Lord Lieutenant thereof had one upon his lands by Idough in the County of Carloe whereof we cannot give the Reader any particulars because we have not yet been informed thereof Sect. 3. Conveniencies requisite to the erecting of an Iron-work In the erecting of these Works men seek to make them as near to the Mine as may be to get the more profit by them for the greater the distance is the greater are the charges in having the Oare brought from the Mine to the Furnace especially where all must be carried by land the which doth fall out so in far the most places But many times one is necessitated to make the Works a good way further from the Mine than otherwise one would because of the Water-courses the which being of very great consequence in the well-settling of a Work and absolutely

finding an open entrance and twice a day with the Tide fully flowing into them maketh the water so salt And it would be no great error to take all those Loughs wherein that happeneth viz. Lough Cone in the County of Down Lough-Foile in the County of Colrain Lough-suille in Tirconnell and the Lough of Cork rather for Inlets of the Sea than for Lakes although the Inhabitants hold them all to be Loughs and give them the name of Loughs And in this number is also to be put that great Lough betwixt Limmerick and the sea through which the Shanon dischargeth it self into the sea of the which we have already spoke once or twice heretofore Sect. 4. Of Lough-Earne Lough-Neaugh and the rest of the great Loughs Amongst the great Loughs of Sweet-water are far the principallest Lough-Earne Lough-Neaugh the first of which is situated in the confines of Ulster and Connaught being in effect two different Loughs joyned together onely by a short and narrow chanel of which two that which lyeth farthest within the land doth extend it self in a manner directly North and South but the second which is next to the sea doth lye East and West so that both together they have the fashion of a bended elbow being both very broad in the midst growing by degrees narrower towards both the ends Lough-Neaugh lyeth in the North-Easterly part of Ulster bordering upon the Counties of Tirone Armagh Down Antrim and Colrain being of a round or rather somwhat ovall figure Next in bigness to these two is Lough-Corbes the same on whose neather-end the City Galloway is seated The two Loughs thorough which the Shanon passeth Lough-Ree and Lough-Dirg item Lough-Fingarrow in Connaught betwixt the Counties of Maio and Roscomen In the last place as the least of this sort are Lough-Allen out of which the Shanon taketh his originall being nine miles long and three miles broad Lough-Me●ke situated betwixt Lough-Fingarrow and the Lough of Galloway And Lough-Larne in the County of Kerry in Munster not far from the upper-end of those two famous Bayes Dingle and Maire The least of these is some miles long and broad and many miles in circuit but the biggest are of so vast a compass that they are more like a Sea than a Lough Sect. 5. Of the Ilands in the Loughs Most of these great Loughs are very full of little Ilands and above all Lough-Earne in which the same are numberless In Lough-Cone also there is so great a number that those who inhabit about it affirm them to bee two hundred and threescore Lough-Ree and Lough-Dirg are likewise very full of them And there is also a good many in Lough-Fingarrow Lough-Larne and Suille But Lough-Foile is very free from them and in the Lough of Cork there is not above one or two as likewise in Lough-Neaugh in which they lye near to the ●ides leaving the midst altogether free Very few of these Ilands are inhabited or planted but the most part being plentifully cloathed with very sweet Grass serve for pastures to sheep and other cattle the which doe thrive wonderfully well in them and the same befalleth also in the middle sort of Loughs amongst which likewise there be very few that have not some of these little Ilands in them In some few of these Ilands especially of Lough-Earne and Lough-Ree are some dwellings whereunto persons who love solitariness were wont to retire themselves and might live there with much contentment as finding there not only privacy and quietness with opportunity for studies and contemplations but there besides great delightfulness in the place it self with variety of very sweet pastimes in fowling fishing planting and gardening In one of the greatest Ilands of Lough-Earne Sir Henry Spotteswood had a fine seat with goodly Buildings Gardens Orchards and a pretty little Village with a Church and Steeple belonging to it which whither it is in being yet or destroyed by the Barbarians and bloody Rebels I am not informed In Lough Sillon in the County of Cavan in a Iland not far from the bank where the River Nanne● runneth into it is a Castle built of form four square which covereth the whole I le much after the manner of the Fort Eneskellin in Lough-Earne and so many more to long to be rehearsed Sect. 6. Of St Patriks Purgatory One of these little Ilands situated in Lough-Dirg one of the middle-sort of Loughs hath been very famous for the space of some ages over almost all Christendome because the world was made to beleeve that there was the suburbs of Purgatorie into which whoso had the courage to goe and remaine there the appointed time did see and suffer very strange and terrible things which perswasion having lasted untill our times the matter hath been discovered with in these few yeares and found to be a meer illusion This discoverie was made during the goverment of Richard Boile Earle of Cork and Adam Lostus Vicount of Elie and Lord Chancellour of Ireland which two being Lords Iustices of that Kingdome in the last yeares of King Iames desirous to know the truth of the business sent some persons of qualitie to the place to inquire exactly into the truth of the whole matter These did find that that miraculous and fearfull cave descending down to the very Purgatorie and Hell was nothing els but a little cell digged or hewen out of the Rockie ground without any windowes or holes so as the doore beeing shut one could not see a jot within it beeing of so little depth that a tall man could but just stand upright in it and of no greater capacity than to contain six or seven persons Now when that any person desirous to goe that Pilgrimage to Purgatory was come into the Iland the Friars some small number whereof made their constant aboad there for that purpose made him watch and fast excessively whereby and through the recounting of strange and horrible apparitions and ●antasmes which he would meet withall in that subterranean pilgrimage being well preepared they did shut him up in that little dark hole and beeing drawn out again from thence after some houres altogether astonished and in a maze he would be a good while before he came again to himself and afterwards the poor man would tell wonderfull stories as if in very deed he had gone a great way under the ground and seen and suffered all those things which his weak imagination altogether corrupted by the concurrence and sequel of so many causes to weaken the braine did figure unto him To prevent this delusion in future times the said Lords Iustices caused the Friars to depart from thence their dwelling quite to be demolished and the hole or cell to be broke open and altogether exposed to the open aire in which state it hath lyen ever since whereby that Pilgrimage to Purgatory is quite come to nothing and never hath bin undertaken since by any To beget the greater reputation to this sictitious Purgatory the people

whereby the melting of the Iron is greatly furthered and the furnace made to work more mildly Within the barn at the bottome of the furnace stand constantly two men one of each side the which with long iron hooks through holes left for the purpose doe every quarter of an hour draw out the unburnt coales ashes and cinders which cinders are great lumps of a firm substance but brittle of a blackish colour shining but not transparent being nothing else but the remainder of the Iron-oar after that the Iron which was contained in it is melted out on 't The Iron it self descendeth to the lowest part of the furnace called the Hearth the which being filled so that if one stayed longer the Iron would begin to swim over through the aforesaid holes they unstop the Hearth and open the mouth thereof or the Timpas the Arts-men call it taking away a little door of fashion like unto that of a bakers oven wherewith the same was shut up very close The floor of the barn hath a mold of sand upon it where-in before they open the furnace a furrow is made of sufficient breadth and depth through the whole length of the barn from the bottom of the furnace until the barns door into which furrow as soon as the furnace is opened the molten Iron runneth very suddenly and forcibly being to look on like unto a stream or current of fire It remaineth a long time hot but doth presently loose its liquidness and redness turning into a hard and stiff mass which mas●es are called Sowes by the workmen Sect. 8. Of the different Bigness of the Iron Sowes These Masses or Sowes of Iron are not alwaies of one and the same weight and bigness but there is them of all sizes from one hundred weight untill thirtie hundred which difference doth chiefly depend on the different bigness of the furnace and hearth and partly on the will and discretion of the workmaster or founder and according as he either stayeth untill the hearth be full or letteth out the Iron sooner but ordinarily they doe not use to cast or to open the hearth under less than twelve houres nor to stay much longer than four-and-twenty And here is to be observed that even in furnaces of the same biguess yea in the self-same furnaces the same quantity of Iron is not alwaies cast in the same space of time but that varieth both according to the nature of the Oar and according to the different seasons of the year For within the same compasse of time you shall cast a greater quantitie of Iron out of a rich Mine or Oar than out of a lean one and in the summer time when the Coales come in dry and fresh than in the winter Sect. 9. Of the refining of the Sow-Iron and the hammering it into Barres The Sowe● are with teams of Oxen drawn to the Hammer-works where being put into the fire again they melt them into the finerie the Finer turning the melted stuff to and fro till it come to be a solid body then he carrieth it under the hammer where it is hammered out into such flat narrow and thin bars as are to be seen every where the hammers being huge big ones and never ceasing from knocking day nor night as being kept at work by the means of certain wheels turned about by Water-courses in the same manner as the wheels of the Bellows By means of this second melting and of that mighty hammering the Iron is freed from a mighty deal of dross and dregs which it kept sticking to it thorough its whole substance in the first melting and so of impure called Sow-Iron becometh to be usefull such as is accustomed to be delivered unto Merchants being therefore called Merchants-Iron one Tun whereof is usually had out of a Tun and a half of Sow-Iron but if that be of the best sort and cast of the best Oare two hundred pounds less of it will yeeld the aforesayd quantity of a Tun of Merchants-Iron CHAP. XVIII Of the Mines of Silver and Lead in Ireland and occasionally of the pestiferous Damps and Vapours within the Earth Sect. 1. Of the severall Mines of Silver and Lead and in particular that of Tipperary MInes of Lead and S●lver in Ireland have to this day been found out three in number one in Ulster in the County of Antrim very rich forasmuch as with every thirty pounds of Lead it yeeldeth a pound of pure Silver another in Connaught upon the very Harbour-mouth of Sligo in a little Demy-Iland commonly called Conny-Iland and a third in Munster The first two having been discovered but a few years before this present Rebellion were through several impediments never taken in hand yet wherefore we shall speak only of the third This Mine standeth in the County of Tipperary in the Barony of Upper-Ormond in the Parish of Kilmore upon the Lands of one Iohn Mac-Dermot O-kennedy not far from the Castle of Downallie twelve miles from Limmerick and threescore from Dublin The land where the Mine is is mountainous and barren but the bottoms and the lands adjoyning are very good for Pasture and partly Arable of each whereof the Miners had part to the value of twenty pounds sterling per annum every one It was found out not above forty years agoe but understood at the first onely as a Lead-mine and accordingly given notice of to Donogh Earl of Thomond then Lord President of Munster who made use of some of the Lead for to cover the house which he then was building at Bunrattie But afterwards it hath been found that with the Lead of this Mine there was mixed some Silver Sect. 2. The manner of digging this Mine the nature of the Oare and what proportions of Silver and Lead it yeelds The Veins of this Mine did commonly rise within three or four spits of the superficies and they digged deeper as those Veines went digging open pits very far into the ground many fathoms deep yea Castle-deep the pits not being steep but of that fashion as people might go in and out with Wheel-barrows being the onely way used by them for to carry out the Mine or Oare The water did seldom much offend them for when either by the falling of much rain or by the discovering of some Spring or Water-source they found themselves annoyed by it they did by Conduits carry it away to a brook adjoyning the Mountain being so situate as that might be done easily This Mine yeelds two different sorts of Oare of which the one and that the most in quantitie is of a reddish colour hard and glistering the other is like a Marle somthing bl●wish and more soft than the red and this was counted the best producing most Silver whereas the other or glistering sort was very barren and went most away into litteridge or dross The Oar yeelded one with another three pound weight of Silver out of each Tun but a great quantity of Lead so as that was counted the best

as in other countri●s and that not only in the coldest months and during the frost but even in the Spring so as commonly during all the fair weather of that season of some weeks togethet whereof wee have spoke heretofore every morning all the green herbs of the gardens and fields are quite covered over with it Sect. 5. Of the Thunder Lightning and Earthquakes Ireland is as litle subject to Thunder and lightning as any other countrie in the world for it is a common thing to see whole yeares pass wi●hout them and in those yeares where-in any are one shall seldome have them above once or twice in a Summer and that with so weak noise of the thunder and so feeble a shining of the Lightning that even the most fearfull persons are hardly frightned at all there-by much less any harm done to men or beasts From Earthquakes this Iland is not altogether exempt but withall they are so seldom that they hardly come once in an age and it is so long agoe since the last of all was that it is as much as the most aged persons now alive can even remember Sect. 6. Of the Winds With Winds it is in this countrie almost as with Rain Ireland not only having its share in them as other countries but being very much subject to them more than most other parts of the world For the Winds blow very much at all times of the year especially in the Winter months when also there are many stormes which sometimes doe continue severall dayes together And it is worth the observation that not only storm-winds but others also do in Ireland much seldomer blow out of the East than out of the West especiall in the winter so that commonly there is no need of a wind to be wafted over into England where to the contrary those who out of England will come over into Ireland very ordinarily are constrained to wait two or three weeks and sometimes five or six weeks yea it hath faln out so more than once that in two whole months and longer there hath not been somuch East-wind as to carry ships out of England into Ireland notable instances whereof the History of the first conquest of Ireland and that of the Lord Mountjoy subbuer of Tirone's rebellion doth afford But in the Summer-time and chiefly in the Spring and in the months of March Aprill and May one is not so much subject to that incommodity as in the other times of the year And as the West-winds are much more common in Ireland especially upon this coast lying over against Great-Britain than the East so likewise the South winds are much more ordinary there than the North which two winds there doe seldome blow alone but for the most part doe accompany one of the two other especially the North-wind the which also doth oftner join it self with the East than with the West-wind CHAP. XXIII Of the Healthfullness of Ireland and what Sicknesses it is free from and subject unto Sect. 1. Many old and Healthfull people in Ireland ALthough Ireland is obnoxious to excessive wetness nevertheless it is very wholsome for the habitation of Men as clearly doth appear by that there are as few sickly persons and as many people live to a great age as in any of the neighbouring Countries For both men and women setting those aside who through idleness and intemperance do shorten their dayes attain here for the most part to a fair age very many living to be very old and to pass not only the age of fourscore but of fourscore and ten and severall there are found at all times who doe very near reach an hundred yea●es some out-living and passing them And the most part of those aged persons are in very good disposition injoying not only their health but also the use of their limbs senses and understanding even to their utmost yeares Among the women there are severall found who do retain not only their customary purgations but even their fruitfullness above the age of fifty yeares and some untill that of sixty my Brother hath known some who being above three-score yeares old have not only conceived and brought forth children but nursed them and brought them up with their own milk being wonderfull rare and almost unheard-of in other Countries Sect. 2. Ireland free from severall Diseases Irelands Healthfullness doth further appear by this particular that severall diseases very common in other countries are here very rare and partly altogether unknown For the Scurvy an evill so generall in all other Northerly countries consining upon the Sea is untill this day utterly unknown in Ireland So is the Quartan Ague the which is ordinary in England and in severall parts of it doth very much reign at all times As for the Tertian Ague it was heretofore as litle known in Ireland as the Quartan but some yeares since I know not through what secret change it hath found access into this Iland so that at this time some are taken with it but nothing neer so ordinarily as in other Countries The Plague which so often and so cruelly infecteth England to say nothing of remotes countries is wonderfull rare in Ireland and hardly seen once in an age Sect. 3. The immunity from certain Diseases consisteth in the Air not in the bodies of the people It is observable concerning the fore-mentioned particular that this privilege of being free from severall Diseases doth not consist in any peculiar quality of the bodies of men but proceedeth from some hidden property of the Land and the Air it self This is made manifest two manner of wayes first in that strangers comming into Ireland doe partake of this same exemption and as long as they continue there are as free of those evills from which that climat is exempt as the Irish themselves Secondly in that the natives born and brought up in Ireland comming into other countries are found to be subject unto those diseases as well as other people and I have known severall of them who being come hither into England have fallen into the Quartan Ague and have as long and as badly been troubled with it as ordinarily any Englishman useth to be And credible persons have affirmed unto me the same of Scotland namely that the Quartan Ague never having been seen there the Scotchmen nevertheless in other countries are as obnoxious to it as people of any other Nation Sect. 4. The most part of all kind of Diseases are found in Ireland as in other Countries True it is notwithstanding that privilege of being exempt from certain evills that the most part of diseases and infirmities whereunto mans body is subject in othe● Countries are also found in Ireland as wel outward as inward and in the number of the inward not only the suddain ones and those that in a few dayes or weeks come to an end beeing called Morbi Acuti by the Physicians as namely Feavers Casting of blood Apoplexies and others of that nature but also

IRELANDS NATURALL HISTORY Being a true and ample Description of its Situation Greatness Shape and Nature Of its Hills Woods Heaths Bogs Of its Fruitfull Parts and profitable Grounds with the severall ways of Manuring and Improving the same With its Heads or Promontories Harbours Roads and Bays Of its Springs and Fountains Brooks Rivers Loghs Of its Metalls Mineralls Free-stone Marble Sea-coal Turf and other things that are taken out of the ground And lastly of the Nature and temperature of its Air and Season and what diseases it is free from or subject unto Conducing to the Advancement of Navigation Husbandry and other profitable Arts and Professions Written by Gerard Boate late Doctor of Physick to the State in Ireland And now Published by SAMUELL HARTLIB Esq For the Common Good of Ireland and more especially for the benefit of the Adventurers and Planters therein Imprinted at London for Iohn Wright at the Kings Head in the Old Baily 1657. To His Excellency OLIVER CROMWEL Captain Generall of the Common-wealths Army in England Scotland and Ireland and Chancellor of the University of OXFORD AND To the Right Honorable CHARLES FLEETWOOD Commander in Chief under the Lord Generall Cromwell of all the Forces in IRELAND Right Honorable IT is a very great and signal Truth that all the works of God are both wonderfull and precious much sought out by all those that love him and it is the guilt of the wicked that as they regard not the Lord so they consider not the Operation of his hands for the Lord hath revealed his Truth even his Godhead and his Eternall Power by his Workes that such as respect him not in the Creation of the World and in the wayes of his Providence may be without excuse Now it se●ms to mee that the end for which God hath not left himself without a Testimony in Nature is not onely that we should in our spirit glorifie him as God and be thankfull but that also our Outward Man should bee made sensible of his goodness and partake of that supply of life which by his appointment the Creature can yeeld unto us if happily wee may feel after him and find him therein So that such as respect him not in his wayes of Nature being careless to seek them out do make themselves also incapable of the blessings of Nature through their ignorance and neglect of the good things which God hath provided for them thereby for all things are Ours things present and things to come and Godliness hath the promise of the life that now is aswell as of that which is to come for as by the act of Faith we are made capable of the good things of the life to come because by the truth of God as it is the Object of our Faith they have a spirituall being and Subsistence in us so by the act of Reason rightly ordered we are made partakers of the benefit of this life because by the effect of Gods Wisedom and Power in Nature as they are the Objects of our Reasonable facultie they have a bodily being and subsistence in us and as the Wisdom of God doth many wayes manifest it self not only in Spirituall but also in Outward and Bodily things so there are many parts of Humane Learning some wherof are subservient to the Private life of a single man some to the comforts and Publick Use of a Societie and amongst all these parts of Learning which relate to a Society I can conceive none more profitable in Nature than that of Husbandry For whether we reflect upon the first settlement of a Plantation to prosper it or upon the wealth of a Natiō that is planted to increase it this is the Head spring of al the native Commerce Trading which may bee set afoot therein by any way whatsoever Now to advance Husbandry either in the production and perfectiō of earthly benefits or in the management thereof by way of Trading I know nothing more usefull than to have the knowledg of the Natural History of each Nation advanced perfected For as it is evident that except the benefits which God by Nature hath bestowed upon each Country bee known there can be no Industrie used towards the improvement and Husbandry thereof so except Husbandry be improved the industrie of Trading whereof a Nation is capable can neither be advanced or profitably upheld There is a twofold body and a twofold life in man which God hath created the one is Naturall the other Spiritual the Apostle tells us that the Spirituall is not first but the Naturall and afterward that which is Spirituall as the Bodies and lives of men are ordered by God so we must conceive of the frames of their Societies that the Naturall is before that which is Spirituall that in Gods aime it is a preparatory thereunto although in the use which men make thereof this aime is not obtained for seeing in the wisdom of God the world by wisdome hath not known God therefore God is pleased by another way which to the World doth seem foolishness to manifest his Power and his Wisdome unto salvation namely by the Preaching of the Gospel in the name of Iesus Christ and him crucified and although hitherto since the death of Christ the dispensation of wisdome hath not yet opened the conduit pipes of Natural Knowledge to cause the souls of men flow forth partake of the life of God therein by reason of the prevalencie of Sensuall inclinations of the want of due reflection upon Christ in whom alone the perfect use of Nature is brought home to the glory of the Father by the Spirit yet when the time of the Restauration of all things shall come from the presence of him who will come shortly and will not tarry then the works of the Devill whereby he hath brought us the whole Creation under the bondage of Corruption shall be destroied when the Nature right use of the Creature by his meanes obscured shall be revealed then also the properties and application of the Creature in the glorious liberty of the sonnes of God shall be subjected unto Grace These great and mighty Changes which God is making in the Earth do tend to break the yokes of Vanity and to weaken the Power which hath wreathed the same upon the necks of the Nations these Changes seem to me to presage the neer approaches of this Liberty and the advancement of the ways of Learning whereby the Intellectuall Cabinets of Nature are opened and the effects therof discovered more fully to us than to former Ages seem in like manner to prepare a plainer Address unto the right use thereof for us than our forefathers have had which will be effectuall to the manifestation of Gods Wisdome Power and Goodness when the great promises shall be accomplished that the Earth shall be filled with the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea that we shall be taught

of God from the least to the greatest and although the Father hath reserved in his own hand the times and seasons wherin these promises are to be fulfilled yet as by the dawning of the day we can know that the Sun is neer rising so by the breaking of yoakes the breaking forth of the meanes of more perfect knowledge both in Natural and Spiritual things wee may see the drawing neer of the promises which will in their own times Constitute the day of Salvation unto all the Earth wherein all flesh shall see the glory of the Lord together The expectation of this day is the hope of Israel and those that wait for the Lord and his appearance therein shall find a plentious redemption namely such as having this hope purifie themselves that they may be found in peace at his appearing and such as being solicitous to bestow their Talents in their way and generation to the advancement of his approaching Kingdom shall approve themselves as faithfull servants to him in that day Of this Number I am perswaded your Honours are in these Nations as Leading Men therefore I have made bold thus to address my self unto you and to inscribe this Work unto your Names that it may see the light under your joint patronage God hath made You very eminent Instruments to set forward one part of the preparatives of his great Work the Breaking of our yokes the other part which is the Advancement of Spirituall and Natural sanctified Knowledge your Zeal I am sure will carry you to countenance by the wayes which Providence shall open unto You. Therefore I hope it wil not be without acceptance what in this kind though but a mean beginning I have here offered Your influence upon it to set forward Learned Endeavours of this Nature for a Publick Good may be a blessing unto Posteritie and your Relations of Eminent note unto Ireland to watch for the good therof and to the Universities of Oxford and Dublin to countenance all the Meanes of profitable Learning have encouraged me to make this Dedication besides the expressions of your Honours willingness to favour me in my undertakings which I knew no way so well to resent as by offering to your Generous Inclinations the Objects which are worthy of being considered and set forward in order to a common good I lookt also somewhat upon the hopefull appearance of Replanting Ireland shortly not only by the Adventurers but happily by the calling in of exiled Bohemians and other Protestants also and happily by the invitation of some well affected out of the Low Countries which to advance are thoughts suitable to your noble genius and to further the setlement thereof the Naturall History of that Countrie will not bee unfit but very subservient Thus beseeching the Lord to prosper all your undertakings to the glory of the Kingdom of Christ I take my leave and rest unfeignedly Your Honours most humble servant SAMUEL HARTLIB To the Reader Gentle Reader SOme particulars there are concerning this following Work of which I think it sit you should be advertised and for as much as I can tell you no more of them than what was written to me by the Authors most Loving and Learned Brother give me leave in stead of mine own Words to present you with his said Letter on that subject being such as doth follow Sir I Am very glad to understand by you that my Brothers work of the Naturall History of Ireland is not only not lost as I greatly feared i● was and that you have found it in perusing those books and papers of his which he had left behind him at London but that you are a going to print it and have already contracted about it by the doing whereof I am fully perswaded that you will gain both credit and contentment and that those shall no wayes be losers who will bee at the charges of doing the same For though I say it the work is excellent in it's kind as not only full of truth and certainty but written with much judgment order exactness so as it is to be preferred before most Naturall Histories of particular Countries and may well be equalled to the very best for as much as there is done of it For to make it a compleat Naturall History there should be joyned to that which my Brother hath gone through two Books more the one of all kind of Plants and the other of all sorts of living Creatures which also might have been expected of him if God had given him longer life For he intended assoon as he had published this part to have fallen also to the rest if he had found that he had not lost his labour on what was done already that it had met with a gratefull acceptance abroad such as might have incouraged him to take further paines ●bout the perfecting of it in which case he was resolved to have also joined a Fourth book to those other Three concerning the Natives of Ireland and their old Fashions Lawes and Customes as likewise the great paines taken by the English ever since the Conquest for to civilize them and to improve the Countrie You say you wonder others may justly concurre with you in that your wonderment how a Countrie could bee so accurately described by one who never was in it For although my Brother hath been in Ireland and that he hath ended his dayes there yet he had both begun and finished this First Book of his Naturall History of Ireland some yeares before he went thither or had any thoughts of doing so seeing that he begun to write that work in the beginning of the year of our Lord 1645. and made an end of it long before the end of the same year wheras he went not to Ireland untill the latter end of the year 1649. dyed at Dublin within a very short while after he was arrived there viz. on the 19th of Ianuary 16 ●0 49. Now to answer that difficulty moved by you be pleased to know that I being come from Dublin to London in the beginning of May 1644. and having stayed there untill the latter end of October great part of that conversation which he and I had together during those six months was spent in reasoning about Ireland and about all manner of particulars concerning the Morall and Civill but chiesly the Naturall History of the same my Brother beeing very carefull to inform himself of me about all things appertaining thereunto For besides that his curiositie which was very great for to enrich his mind with all manner of laudable knowledge was of it self alone capable enough for to make him inquisitive in that kind he was there-besides led thereto by his own interest having ventured great part of his estate upon the escheated lands there according to the severall Acts made by the King and Parliament in that behalf And having set down in writing what he had so heard of me he conferred afterwards about the same