Legates to Hannibal that by equiuocation had before fulfilled their Oath of returning foolish Regulus that returnedst to thy Tormentors chusing thy selfe rather then thy Oath to be tortured and most most foolish Martyrs that so sleightly for want of this sleight ran vpon Fire Swords Lyons And might not we begin a contention with that assertion That an Oath for confirmation is to men an end of contention which in this equiuocating Hydra is rather multiplied That neither Rome Ethnike nor primitiue Christian Rome could at least by imitation of diabolicall ambiguous Oracles deuise in those dayes so transcendent a suttlety but Moderne Rome by Iesuiticall midwiferie must be the Mother of so super-fine a babe But what doth this Brat in our way I will rather follow the Iesuits in China then in Rome except when Rome followes them thither too and herein with thankfulnesse accept their report The reason of this equiuocall sound of words is ascribed to the Chinois account of eloquence in writing rather then speaking and therefore to furnish that neglecting this insomuch as familiar messages are sent by writing and not by word of mouth Musicall skill was a good helpe to the Iesuites in learning the language by reason of their varietie of accents And although this multitude of Characters be to the Memory burthensome yet it helpes it as much another way in sauing the labour of learning diuers languages whiles euery Prouince of China speaking diuersly agree in writing the Iaponians also Corayans Cauchin-Chinois Leuhiees all conceiuing the same Characters although the Iaponians haue an Alphabet of letters to write after our manner which the Chinois haue not They write their lines from the top of the Page to the bottome downewards which they multiply from the right hand to the left whereas our custome is quite contrary from the left hand side-wayes We haue three consonants B.D.R. which the Chinois neither vse nor can by any Character expresse and in our words which haue them they borrow some sound neerest the same Likewise they neuer haue two consonants without a vowell betweene and all their words end in vowells except M. or N. of consonants onely This and the diuers pronuntiation of their Characters in diuers places made the Latin forme of Baptisme hard to be expressed by the Iesuites Now for the subiect of their studies their chiefe is Morall Philosophie in Naturall they are rude and their Ethikes are confusedly deliuered not digested into formall method for of Logicke they are ignorant but in confused sentences and discourses The greatest of the Chinian Philosophers was Confutius who was borne fiue hundred and fiftie one yeeres before the Incarnation of our Lord and liued aboue seuentie yeres in great shew of learning holinesse And few of our Ethnike Philosophers haue equalled him many he hath exceeded The Chinois haue him in such reputation that they thinke there neuer liued man more holy and all his sayings are of authoritie beyond gaine-saying amongst the learned And the Kings themselues haue euer since had him in veneration not as a god but as a most excellent man and Author of their learning honouring his posteritie the chiefe of which enioyeth by inheritance ample titles immunities and reuenues They are also indifferently skilled in Astrologie and diuers Mathematicall Sciences in Geometry and Arithmetike they haue beene more expert The Constellations they doe not distinguish as we do and number foure hundred Stars more then our Astrologers reckoning some smaller which doe not alway appeare They tell the Quantities and foretell Eclipses but not exactly and referre all their Astrologie to that which is called Iudiciall esteeming a fatall dependance of all things from the Stars and haue borrowed in these Arts many things from the Saracens The Author of this Royall Family forbad the studie of Iudiciall Astrologie to all but one Family in which it continueth by inheritance But he which now reigneth maintaines many at great cost both Eunuchs in his Palace and Magistrates without which haue two Courts in Paquin one obseruing China Kalenders the other the Saracenicall and compare both together Both of them haue an open place on the top of a small Hill to contemplate the Starres in which they haue Mathematicall Instruments of exceeding greatnesse of molten brasse which seeme to bee ancient On this Hill alwayes one of their Colledge doth watch by night to obserue if any new Comet or other raritie appeare in the Heauens which if it happen the next day they by libell admonish the King thereof together with their opinion of good or euill ensuing This place of contemplation at Nanquin is within the Citie and in massinesse of Instruments excells that at Pequin or Paquin The Pequin-Astrologers haue priuiledge of foretelling the Eclipses of Sunne or Moone and the Magistrates and Priests are commanded to meet in a certaine place in their Robes and Vestments to helpe the labouring Planet which they thinke they doe with musicall sound of Cymballs often bowing their knees all the time of the Eclipse fearing as I haue heard lest some I know not what Serpent should then deuoure the same In Naturall Philosophie they were too Naturall and haue very little Art They knew not the cause of the Moones Eclipse by the interposition of the earth but thought that being opposite to the Sunne it lost the light by some amazement others thought that the Sunne had a hole in the midst against which when the Moone came shee lost her light That the Sunne was greater then the earth seemed to them a strange paradoxe much more that this might be spoken of the Starres the like was it that the Earth was round for they thought it square and the middle and best part thereof to be their Kingdome or that there could be Antipodes without falling or that heauy things were attracted by the Center or that there were Orbes and for the ayre they thought it a vacuum or emptinesse not reckoning it amongst the Elements of which yet they numbred fiue Metall Wood Fire Water Earth Their Arithmetike was with beades on wyre-strings fastned to a linnen cloth In these things Ricius declaring their ignorance and the Europaean Science wan great admiration they which before thought all besides themselues Barbarians saying that they were to vs as the rude Tartars to them and that they left where we began namely at Rhetorike and Grammar which with Ethikes and Politikes are the chiefe Some of the Idolatrous sects had more monstrous and ridiculous fancies that the Sunne hid himselfe euery night in a certaine Hill called Siunni which they said was fixed in the Sea 24000. miles vnder the water and for Eclipses they held that a certaine god named Holochan eclipsed the Sunne couering it with his right hand and so the Moone with his left Their Astrologers rather obserued their old rules little knowing or seeking the Naturall causes The Instruments which they had in their two Colledges at Nanquin and
them after that by helpe of Fresh-men sent in the Pinace they were got cleere of them certaine it is that all three driuing away vpon the ebbe the English had entered before and killed all they found fell on fire and running on the Sands there offered vp themselues at once to all the Elements the Sayles still standing embracing the Ayre the Keele kissing her Mother Earth till their more churlish brethren the Fire and Water put them out of possession and shared all betwixt them One of the Gallies lost her Nose with a shot and was content after that with their Other to looke on The Gallions rode beyond the Sands The Frigates could not but participate in their fellowes disaduentures many of them saith Leman were sunke and torne in pieces Masham another of the Hopes Company numbreth fiue and twentie thus perishing The Hope lost three men and had fourteene wounded the Hector lost two One shot of stone which the Hope receiued was measured seuen and twentie Inches about but the hurt was by fire in her tops by one of her owne men there slain whiles he sought to fire the Enemy The Portugals losse is vncertaine three hundred and fiftie men were said to be carried to Daman to be buried besides all that the Sea and Fire had shared betwixt them which were thought to make vp fiue hundred some report of eight hundred and yet themselues gaue out not aboue fortie or fiftie whereas the tide cast vp at one place eighteene drowned carkasses After this they tried experiments First by poyson and this was the Iesuites Iesuitisme I cannot call it Christianitie who sent to the Muccadan of Swally to entice him to poyson the Water of the Well whence the English fetched for their vse but the Ethnike had more honestie and put in quicke Tortoises that it might appeare by their death if any venemous hand had beene there But when Virtus virus wanted vires Dolus is added and the Vice-Roy hauing two ships sent him for supply two Iunkes eight or ten Boates these or the most of them were employed with great secrecie and subtiltie to fire our ships by night two full of fiery entrailes on the ninth of February the next night two others chained together and towed with Frigates and after that in the same night foure other chained together one of which being fired with an English shot burnt her selfe and her fellowes they put fire to all the rest which deuoured them all without harme to the English They tooke some of these Fire-workers one of which being examined confessed after M. Prings Relation thus The Admirall called Todos los Santos a ship of eight hundred tuns had sixe hundred men eight and twentie Peeces most brasse The Saint Benito Vice-Admirall of seuen hundred Tuns three hundred and threescore men twentie Peeces Saint Lorenzo a Ship of sixe hundred Tuns three hundred men twentie Peeces The Saint Christopher likewise The Saint Ieronimo of fiue hundred Tuns three hundred men and twentie three Peeces Saint Antonio foure hundred two hundred men and fifteene Peeces Saint Pedro two hundred a hundred and twentie men and eight Peeces Saint Paulo as many A Fly-boat of a hundred and fiftie Tuns fourescore men and foure Peeces The two Gallies had fiue and twentie Oares on a side and in both a hundred Souldiers Threescore Frigates with eighteene and twentie Oares on a side in each fifteene Souldiers So great their forces and blessed be God so little their force The Vice-Royes name was Don Ieronimo de Sanecko sometimes Captaine of Mosambike after that of Zeilan eighteene yeeres and now Vice-Roy by the Kings strait command and others importunitie drawne into this action Euery day was hee braued with the English Ordnance but neuer aduentured any other triall by fight the English riding neere his great Fleet and dispatching all their other affaires of Merchandise and mending the Hope which they sent home with this Newes when they departed from thence they seemed to stay for them in the way yet let them passe without any blowes This won them much glory among the countrey people Mocrob Chan giuing stately entertainment to the Generall in his Tents on shoare which one saith were a quarter of a mile about in the midst his owne of Crimson Sattin richly embroidered with Gold and Pearle and couered with Cloth of Gold he had many Elephants he gaue the Generall his Sword made said hee in his owne house the Hilts of massie Gold this is their custome to deseruing Captaines and He gaue him his Girdle Sword and Dagger and Hangers of as faire show but lesse worth Because I haue mentioned the Iesuites Arts in these parts let this also be added that Master Canning chiefe Merchant and Agent for the Company writ to Surat for some others to assist him being in great feare of poysoning by the Iesuites at the Court and before any could bee sent hee was dead May the nine and twentieth 1613. One English-man dying a little before was buried in their Church-yard whom they tooke vp and buried in the high-way but were compelled by the King to lay him in his former place threatning to turne them out of his countrey and their buried bodies out of that Church-yard But this later warres brought them into further miseries being denied their stipend and therefore forsaken of their new Conuerts who bringing them their Beades did vpbraid them the want of their pay one of the best Arguments though no great miracle wherewith they had perswaded them to their Religion A French Iesuit at Amadabar begged reliefe of the English wanting necessary sustenance Before the King allowed the Superior seuen Rupias a day and the rest three But now this and their faire Church also is denied them and they say their holies in their chamber Iohn Mildnall an English Papist had learned it is reported the Art of poysoning by which he made away three other English-men in Persia to make himselfe Master of the whole stock but I know not by what meanes himselfe tasted of the same cup and was exceedingly swelled but continued his life many moneths with Antidotes which yet here left him at Agra where hee left the value of twentie thousand Dolars after through the Kings Iustice recouered by the English Many other Sea-fights haue since happened in diuers parts of the Indies betwixt Our men and the Portugals as that by Captaine Ben. Ioseph in which he was slaine and Captaine Pepwel succeeded in the place and quarrell with Manuel de Meneses whose Carrack was consumed with fire by themselues as was thought rather then so great Treasures should be made English spoyles also in the Persian Gulfe by Captaine Shilling slaine therein Captaine Blithe and others which chaced the assayling Portugals Ruy Frere de Andrada their Commander called the Pride of Portugall getting a fall and since that Ormus it selfe taken by the Persians diuers other Portugall prizes and that especially of the
so vnconstant watery Element That the Earth and Sea make one Globe we haue elsewhere shewed in the History of their Creation In which the Earth being as it seemeth at the first forming of it more perfectly Spherical and wholy couered with Waters by the power of that Almighty Decree Word Let the waters be gathered into one place that the dry Land may appeare both the Waters as some gather were more condensate which before were more subtle and therefore occupied more roome and the Earth was in some places lifted vp in others depressed with deepe Furrowes and Trenches to make roome and conuenient receptacles for the Sea and withall fit matter yeelded for the eleuation both of Mountaynes aboue the ordinary height of the Earth and of the Earth and Continent also in the higher places whence the greatest Riuers deriue their Originall in comparison of the Lowes and Maritime parts where they empty themselues into the Sea This is the proper seate of the Element or Water called Aqua quast aequa of the equall and plaine face and superficies thereof or as Lactantius with a further fetch obserueth à qua nata sunt omnia because hence all things are bred and nourished Now because Waters are eyther without Motion as in Lakes or of an vniforme Motion as in Riuers or diuers as in the Sea the Heathen ascribed a Trident or three-fold Scepter to Neptune their supposed Sea-god That the Earth and Sea haue one and the same Centre both of Grauity and Greatnesse appeareth by this that the parts of the Earth and Water falling from a high place without other impediment haue the same direct descent a piece of Earth also falleth perpendicularly into the Water with equall and right Angles And that the Water naturally inclineth to a roundnesse appeareth in the small drops thereof which gather themselues into that forme and by the easier discerning things on shore from the tops then from the hatches of the ship in theâ—r Sea likewise by the eleuation or depression of the Pole and Stars no lesse in sayling then land-trauels to the North or South also in preuenting or lengthning the Sunnes light by sayling East or West as before hath beene obserued in the Spaniards and Portugals meeting at the Philippina's and differing a whole day in their reckoning the Portugals losing by meeting the Sunne in their Easterne course that which the Spaniards get by following him in a Westerne Yea euen in one dayes sayling this may be manifest as Record instanceth in a ship sayling West from Island in one of their dayes of twenty houres getting halfe an houre and in the next day returning with like swiftnesse loseth as much of the Sunne Yea in Riuers of very long course besides that descent before mentioned from higher to lower passages some obserue a kind of roundnesse or circular rising in compassing the Globe which else must needs be exceedingly difformed in the Riuers of Nilus Amazones and others which runne neere an eighth part thereof The Sea is great and wide sayth the Psalmist and at first couered the whole earth like a garment till for mans vse the dry land appeared which for mans abuse was againe in the dayes of Noah couered And had not God set the Sea a bound which it cannot passe it would so some translate it returne to couer the earth for euer It is his perpetuall decree who commanded and it was made that though the waues thereof rage yet they cannot preuaile though they roare yet they cannot passe ouer And thus many of the ancient and later Interpreters of Genesis doe auerre that the Earth is indeed lower then the Waters as in the beginning of this Worke is obserued as if God did by a kinde of miracle in Nature bridle and restraine the tempestuous force of the Sea Rerum omnium inualidissima to vse Basils words debilissimaque arena with Sand the weakest of all creatures Thus held Aquinas Carthusianus Catharinus and others Which opinion being granted how easie were it for the Sea to enclose the Earth in her watrie mantle and againe to make a Conquest of the drie Land hauing such forces of her owne and such re-inforcements from the Ayre and the Earth it selfe Her owne powers euen by order of Nature and proportion of the Elements cannot but seeme dreadfull in which as the Ayre exceedeth the Water and is it selfe exceeded of the Fire so the Water to some seemes no lesse to surmount the Earth as the lowest and least of the Elements And what Armies of exhalations doth the Sunne daily muster in the great Ayrie plaine which would succour their Mother in such an attempt Besides that euen the Earth as it is euery where compassed of the Sea doth compasse in it selfe so many Seas Lakes Riuers in the vppermost face thereof as professed partakers and the inward bowels thereof haue daily intelligence and continuall conspiracie with the waters by those secret pores and priuie passages whereby it commeth to passe that albeit All Riuers runne to the Sea yet the Sea is not filled And were it possible that so many worlds of waters should daily and hourely flow into this watrie world and that such a world of time together and yet the Sea nothing increased but that as Salamon there saith The Riuers goe to the place from whence they returne and goe that is they runne into the Sea and thence partly by the Sunnes force eleuated and restored in Raines and other Meteors partly by filling the veynes of the Earth with Springs doe both wayes returne againe in Riuers to the Sea This appeareth by the Dead Sea and by the Caspian which receiue many Riuers without open payment thereof to the Ocean and at the Straits of Gibraltar the Ocean commonly hath a current in at one end and the Euxine Sea at the other besides abundance of other waters out of Europe Asia Africa and yet is no fuller Many indeed are the wonders of the Lord in the deepe and this concerning the height depth and profunditie thereof one of the highest deepest and requiring the profoundest skill to search That the waters are gathered on swelling heapes in round forme compassing the Earth is already proued which to a vulgar capacitie may seeme to enforce a height of the water aboue some parts of the Earth but seeing that the earth and waters haue one Center and height is properly to bee measured by distance from that Center it seemeth vnlikely that the water should be higher then the Earth or altogether equall to the height thereof in whose Channels and concauities it is contayned And though the Sea swelleth and lifteth vp it selfe into that forme which best agreeth to that Globe which is compact of it and the Earth yet is it not capable being a liquid fluible body in the greatest depth and widenesse of such eleuations as wee see in high and Mountaynous Regions whereby the Earth seemeth to
fit to answer that These Brethren holding much resemblance in name nature and feature yet differ both in the obiect and subiect This being mine own in matter though borrowed and in forme of words and method Whereas my Pilgrims are the Authors themselues acting their owne parts in their owne words onely furnished by me with such necessaries as that stage further required and ordered according to my rules here is a Pilgrimage to the Temples of the Worlds Citie religionis ergo with obuious and occasionall view of other things there is a full Voyage and in a method of Voyages the whole Citie of the World propounded together with the Temples here the soule and some accessories there the body and soule of the remoter World with 98 her rarer furniture this from the eare that from the eye this briefer notes that the Text it selfe How euer such was his Maiesties fauour as to adde for my further encouragement his promise to heare at large all those Pilgrims which was nightly also performed vntill his fatall sicknesse called him to enioy a nightlesse day in the heauenly Kingdome Euen the last day on which this Citie saw him it pleased him with gracious approbation of the former to impose another taske on me by an Honourable messenger with promise of reward which had almost in a dangerous sickenesse buried me and was buried with those hopes in his Maiesties graue whose Funerals this Citie hath beene forced euer since to solemnise with armies of Mourners pressed by Pestilence to attend follow His Corps with their owne And if some liuing remaines of him had not shined in his Sonne King CHARLES in that Sun-set what a Chaos of darkenesse had befalne vs which lost that day and yet saw no night And long may your Grace shine as a Starre of greatest magnitude attending neere our happy Charles-waine and euer may that Royall Race bee the Load-starre of our Church and State vnder the Sunne of righteousnesse euen so long as Bootes shall attend on that bright constellation May it please your Grace to pardon this talkatiue boldnesse and to permit mee also to mention your late fauour and seconding that Royall testimonie when notwithstanding the dreadfull infection your gracious affection admitted free communication with me intended a free and bountifull Collation on me and extended so large a collaudation to those my Pilgrimes neither by their voluminous prolixitie deterred from reading them nor then deterring my suspended scrupulous thoughts by your iudicious seueritie but with ingenuous sinceritie yeelding a testimonie so able and ample that though I blush to record it yet I now repent not of so vast vndertakings which such iudgement deemeth so profitable that the studious in this kind of literature neede goe no further which was the scope of those voluminous Collections to coniure as it were all Trauelling spirits into that one Pilgrime-centre and at once to make the World Eye-witnesse to it selfe Let me glorie further that my Volumes are admitted into your Graces Librarie and my selfe an appendix of your family and Your Graces vnworthy Chaplaine S. P. To the Reader AND now READER The PILGRIME comes vnto thee the fourth time with whom hee dares be somewhat bolder Being I know not by what naturall inclination addicted to the studie of Historie my heart would sometimes obiect a selfe-loue in following my priuate delights in that kinde At last I resolued to turne the pleasures of my studies into studious paines that others might againe by delightfull studie turne my paines into their pleasure I heere bring Religion from Paradise to the Ark and thence follow her round about the World and for her sake obserue the World it selfe with the seueral Countries and Peoples therin the chiefe Empires and States their priuate and publique Customes their manifold chances and changes also the wonderfull and most remarkeable effects of Nature Euents of Diuine and Humane Prouidence Rarities of Art and whatsoeuer I finde by Relations of Historians as I passe most worthie the writing Religion is my more proper aime and therefore I insist longer on the description of whatsoeuer I finde belonging thereto declaring the Religion of the first Men the corrupting of it before and after the Floud the Iewish obseruations the Idols Idolatries Temples Priests Feasts Fasts Opinions Sects Orders and sacred Customes of the Heathens with the Alterations and Successions that haue therein happened from the beginning of the World hitherto This Worke I diuide into foure parts This first exhibiteth the Relations and Theologicall discouerie of ASIA AFRICA and AMERICA The second when God will shall doe the same for EVROPE The third and fourth in a second visitation shall obserue such things in the same places as I holde most remarkeable in the Christian and Ecclesiasticall Historie and that according to the same Method which is squared in the Whole by order of Place going still out of one Countrie into the next in each particular part and seuerall Countrie by the order of Time deducing our Relations so farre as we haue Others foot-prints to guide vs though not exactly naming the day and yeere and determining questions in Chronologicall controuersies yet in some conuenient sort from the ancient times and by degrees descending to the present If thou demandest what profit may be hereof I answere that heere Students of all sorts may finde matter fitting their studies The naturall Philosophers may obserue the different constitution and commixtion of the Elements their diuers working in diuers places the varietie of heauenly influence of the yeerely seasons of the Creatures in the Aire Water Earth They which delight in State-affaires may obserue the varietie of States and Kingdomes with their differing Lawes Polities and Customes their Beginnings and Endings The Diuine besides the former may heere contemplate the workes of God not in Creation alone but in his Iustice and Prouidence pursuing sinne euery where with such dreadfull plagues both bodily in rooting vp and pulling downe the mightiest Empires and especially in spirituall Iudgements giuing vp so great a part of the World vnto the efficacie of Errour in strong delusions that hauing forsaken the Fountaine of liuing waters they should dig vnto themselues these broken Pits that can hold no water deuout in their superstitions and superstitious in their deuotions agreeing all in this that there should bee a Religion disagreeing from each other and the TRVTH in the practice thereof Likewise our Ministers may be incited vnto all godly labours in their function of preaching the Gospel seeing otherwise for outward and bodily ceremonies the Turkes and Iewes in their manifold deuotions in their Oratories euery day and other Heathen would conuince vs of idlenesse And let mee haue leaue to speake it for the glory of God and the good of our Church I cannot finde any Priests in all this my Pilgrimage of whom wee haue any exact History but take more bodily paines in their deuotions than is performed by not preaching Ministers especially in Countrie-villages
Angels in grace that we may be like vnto them in glory than prie too curiously into their Nature to our vnderstandings in manner supernaturall and endeauour more in heeding the way which leadeth to that Heauen of the Blessed than busie our wits too busily in describing or describing it Onely thus much wee may obserue thereof that it is beyond all reach of our obseruation in regard of substance not subiect to corruption alteration passion motion in quantitie many dwelling places most spacious and ample in quality a Paradise faire shining delightsome wherein no euill can be present or imminent no good thing absent a meere transcendent which eye hath not seene nor eare heard nor the heart of man can conceiue Where the Tabernacle of GOD shall be with men and he dwell with them and shall be all in all vnto them where the pure in heart shall see him and euen our bodily eyes shall behold that most glorious of creatures the Sunne of righteousnesse and Sonne of GOD Christ Iesus Embracing these things with Hope let vs returne to Moses his description of the sensible World who sheweth that that Heauen and Earth which now wee see were in the beginning or first degree of their being an Earth without forme and void a darkned depth and waters a matter of no matter and a forme without forme a rude and indigested Chaos or confusion of matters rather to be beleeued than comprehended of vs This is the second naturall beginning For after the expressing of the matter followeth that which Philosophers call a second natural Principle Priuation the want of that forme of which this matter was capable which is accidentally a naturall principle required in regard of generation not of constitution heere described by that part next vs Earth which was without forme as is said and void This was the internall constitution the externall was darknesse vpon the face of the deepe Which Deepe compriseth both the Earth before mentioned and the visible Heauens also called a Depth as to our capacitie infinite and pliant to the Almightie hand of the Creator called also Waters not because 〈◊〉 was perfect waters which was yet confused but because of a certaine resemblance 〈◊〉 only in the vniformity thereof but also of that want of stability whereby it could not abide together but as the Spirit of GOD moued vpon these waters to sustaine them and as the Hen sitteth on her egges to cherish and quicken as Hierome interpreteth the word so to maintaine and by his mightie power to bring the same into this naturall order Heere therefore is the third beginning or Principle in Nature That forme which the Spirit of God the third person in Trinitie not ayre or wind as some conceiue being things which yet were not themselues formed by that action framed it vnto and after more particularly effected This interpretation of the Spirit mouing vpon the Waters agreeth with that opinion which some attribute to the Stoikes That all things are procreated and gouerned by one Spirit Which Democritus called the soule of the world Hermes and Zoroaster and Apollo Delphicus call Fire the maker quickner and preseruer of all things and Virgill most elegantly and diuinely singeth seeming to paraphrase on Moses words Principio Coelum ac Terras camposque liquentes Lucentemque globum Lunae Titaniaque astra Spiritus intus alit totamque infusa per artus Meâ—s agitan molem magno se corpore miscet That is Heauen first and Earth and Watrie plaines Bright Moone of Starres those twinckling traines The Spirit inly cherisheth Loues moues great body nourisheth Through all infus'd this All containes The first creature which receiued naturall forme was the light of which GOD said Let there be light a lightsome and delightsome subiect of our Discourse especially hauing lately passed such a confused and darke Chaos But here I know not how that which then lightned the deformed matter of the vnformed World hath hidden it selfe some interpreting this of the Sunne which they will haue then created some of an immateriall qualitie after receiued into the Sunne and Starres some of a cloud formed of the waters circularly moued and successiuely lightning either Hemisphere of which afterwards the Sunne was compact from which they differ not much which thinke it the matter of the Sunne then more diffused and imperfect as the waters also were earthie and the Earth fluible till GOD by a second worke perfected and parted them And to let passe them which apply it to Angels or men others vnderstand it of the fiery Element the essentiall property of which is to enlighten Yet are we not here passed all difficulties whiles some perhaps not vniustly would perswade the world that Fire as it is ordinarily in schooles vnderstood of a sublunary element is with worse then Promethean theft stolne out of Heauen where it is visible imprisoned in this their Elementarie World whereas Anaxagoras Thales Anaximenes Empedocles Heraclitus Plato Parmenides Orpheus Hermes Zoroaster Philo and others the fathers of the Chaldean Aegyptian Iewish and Graecian Learning account the Heauens and heauenly bodies to be Ethereall fire to which our sense also will easily subscribe And Patricius affirmeth that Ocellus Lucanus one of Pythagoras his Schollers was first Author of that former opinion from whom Aristotle borrowed it if it bee not stealth rather whiles hee concealeth his name Diuers late Philosophers also seeme to haue conspired to burne vp that fiery Element or rather to aduance it aboue this sublunary Region into the Aethereal Throne Let the Philosophers determine this when they doe other doubts in meane while let vs if you please vnderstand this Light of the Fire whether Aethereall or Elementarie or both or neither as in diuers respects it may bee For neither was this Light then as it seemeth locally separated from that confused masse and by expansion which was the second dayes Worke eleuated into her naturall place and after that it possessed the Sunne Moone and Starres saith our sense which thence receiueth Light and there in the Aethereall Region seeth new Starres and superlunarie Comets compact of Aetherall substance as the most diligent Obseruers haue recorded both procreated and perishing so that that which before was neither Aethereall nor Elementarie whiles there was neither Aether nor Element perfected after became Aethereall-Elementarie as beeing happily the matter of the Sunne and Starres of old and of these later appearances and also filling the Aethereall World in the higher and lower Regions thereof both aboue and beneath the Moone with the Light here mentioned and that vigorous heat which as an affect or an effect thereof procreateth recreateth and conserueth the creatures of this inferiour World No maruell if the Philosophers are still dazeled and darkened in this light not yet agreeing whether it bee a substance or qualitie corporeall or incorporeall when the
world All the world is of fire and water and earth and ayre Hee fastned a great company of not-wandring Starres and seuen wandring creatures ioyning fire to fire the earth in the midst and the water in the receptacles of the earth and the ayre aboue them Let the immortall soule lift her eyes vpwards not downewards into this darke world which is vnstable mad heady crooked alway emcompassing a blind depth hating the light of which the vulgar is carried Seeke Paradise The soule of man will after some sort bring God into it selfe hauing nothing mortall it is wholly rauished of God It resoundeth the harmony vnder which is the mortall body extending the fiery minde to the worke of pietie I desire not sacrifices and inwards these are playes flee these things if thou wilt open the sacred Paradise of piety where vertue and wisdome and the good law are gathered together If these things are harsh what would these obscurities be in his Theologie wherein he first placeth One beginning then a paternall profunditie of three Trinities euery of which hath the Father the Power the Minde Next in order is the Intelligible Iynx and after it Synocheus Empyraeus and Aetherealis and Materialis and after these the Teletarchae after which the Fontani Patres Hecate and such a rabble of names follow that the recitall would seeme to coniure the Reader into some Magicall maze or circle They which are curious of those inextricable labyrinths may resort to Psellus Patricius and the Platonikes which ascribe these things to the Assyrians and Chaldeans as they doe to Zoroaster also Delrio and Patricius finde sixe of the Zoroasters mentioned in Authors Goropius after his wont paradoxicall none at all the first of which was inuentor of this Magike a Chaldaean supposed to liue in the time of Abraham Berosus first and after Iulianus a Magician both Chaldaeans communicated these mysteries to the Greeks and diuers of those Heretikes in the prime age of the Christian Church were not a little sowred with this Magicall leauen as appeareth by Iraeneus Epiphanius Augustine and others that write against them Basilides his Abraxas the mysticall Characters of which name make three hundred sixtie fiue the number of dayes in the yeere and of heauens after his opinion is supposed the same with Mitbra the Persian Deitie and hence to haue deriued his Magicall descent which wee may note of others if this belonged not to another labour The Magi had one chiefe among them in their Societie called by Sozomene Princeps Magorum Cicero affirmeth that none might be Kings of Persia before they had learned the discipline of the Magi neither was it any more lawfull for euery one to bee a Magus then to be a King Such was their estimation in Persia Strabo tels that they vsed carnall company with their mothers and when they are dead are cast forth vnburied to bee a prey to the Birds Heurnius maketh Zoroaster Author of incestuous copulations of all sorts and of the not-burying rite but either to burne or cast forth the carkasse yea Authors write that he himselfe desired and obtained to be consumed with fire from heauen Nothing seemed to them more vnlucky signe of former lewdnesse then that no bird or beast would prey on their dead And the souldiers which sickned in their Armies were laid forth yet breathing with bread water and a staffe to driue away the beasts and fowles which yet when their strength failed them easily deuoured both the meat and keepers If any recouered and returned home the people shunned him as a ghost nor would suffer him to follow his former trade of life till he were expiated by the Magi as it were restored again to life The Romans in pittie passing thorow some part of Persia where they found a carkasse in the field buried it but the night following in a vision a graue old man in habit of a Philosopher reproued that fact willing them to leaue the naked bodie to the dogs and birds and the mother Earth saith hee will not receiue those which haue polluted their mothers Which in the morning they found verified the earth hauing vomited vp that carkasse which there lay on the top of the graue The Magi hereby appeare to haue had intercourse with the deuill as by their predictions also of Sylla Ochus Sapores and others mentioned by Paterculus Aelianus Agathias and other Historians Thus were the Magi buried in the bowels of beasts and birds Tully saith that the other Persians were wrapped in waxe and so preserued The Ostanae and Astrampsychi are by Suidas reckoned successours of the Magi. Hierome citeth out of Eubulus three kindes of the Magi the most learned of them liued onely on meale and hearbes Pausonias reporteth that in Lydia in the Cities Hierocesarea and Hypaepo he saw Temples hauing Persian surnames and in euery of those Temples a Chappell and Altar whereon were Ashes not like in colour to the ordinary sort The Magus entring into the roome layeth drie wood on the Altar after that hee hath set his mitre on his head and then at the name of a certaine God singeth barbarous hymnes which the Greeks vnderstand not out of the booke which being done the heape is fired and the flame breakes forth Diogenes Laertius relateth that these Magi spent their time in the seruice of their Gods offering vnto them prayers and sacrifices as if none but they might bee heard they disputed of the substance and generation of the Gods whom they reckoned to bee the Fire Water and Earth They reprehended Images especially such as made a differing sexe of Male and Female among the Gods They discoursed of Iustice To burne their dead bodies they held it impious but to lye with their owne mothers or daughters they accounted lawfull They practised Diuinations and fore-tellings affirming that the Gods appeared to them that the ayre was full of formes or shapes which subtilly and as it were by euaporation infuse themselues into the eyes They forbad outward ornaments and the vse of gold Their garments were white the ground their bed Hearbs Cheese Bread their food Aristotle saith that they held two beginnings a good spirit and an euill calling the one Iupiter and Oromasdes the other Pluto and Arimanius Empedocles translated this plant into Philosophy and long after Manes a Persian heretike into Diuinitie Theopompus addeth these opinions of theirs That men should againe be restored to life and become immortall and that all things consisted by their praiers Hecataeus that the Gods were begotten Clearchus that the Gymnosophistae descended from the Magi. Thus farre Diogenes Plutarch in his Treatise de Osir Isid citeth approueth and applyeth the opinion of the Magi vnto many others which they conceiued touching their two beginnings Arimanius and Orimazes for whereas they saw such a mixture of euill in euery good which made Salomon to brand them all with the title of
and Peloponnesus for feare of a second returne of Techellis The remainder of Techellis his power as they fled into Persia robbed a Carauan of Merchants for which outrage comming to Tauris their Captaines were by Ismaels command executed and Techellis himselfe burnt aliue but yet is this Sect closely fauoured in Asia §. III. Of their Rites Persons Places and Opinions Religious WE haue now seene the Proceedings of this Sophian Sect both in Persia and Turkie both here kept downe and there established by force To weare red on the lower parts of their body were to these Red-heads scarsely piacular Touching Hali they haue diuers dreames as that when they doubted of Mahomets successor a little Lizard came into a Councell assembled to decide the controuersie and declared that it was Mahomets pleasure that Mortus Ali or Morts Ali should be the man He had a sword wherewith hee killed as many as he stroke At his death he told them that a white Camell would come for his body which accordingly came and carried his dead body and the sword and was therewith taken vp into heauen for whose returne they haue long looked in Persia For this cause the King kept a horse ready sadled and kept for him also a daughter of his to be his wife but she died in the yeere 1573. And they say further that if he come not shortly they shall be of our beleefe They haue few bookes and lesse learning There is often great contention and mutinie in great Townes which of Mortus Ali his sonnes was greatest sometime two or three thousand people being together by the eares about the same as I haue seene sayth Master Ducket in Shamaky and Ardouill and Tauris where I haue seene a man comming from fighting and in a brauery bringing in his hand foure or fiue mens heads carrying them by the hayre of the crowne For although they shaue their heads commonly twice a weeke yet leaue they a tuft of hayre vpon their heads about two foot long whereof when I enquired the cause They answered that thereby they may bee the easier carried vp into heauen when they are dead In praying they turne to the South because Mecca lyeth that way from them When they be on trauell in the way many of them will as soone as the Sunne riseth light from their horses turning themselues to the South and will lay their gownes before them with their swords and beads and so standing vpright doe their holy things many times in their prayers kneeling downe and kissing their beades or somewhat else that lieth before them When they earnestly affirme a matter they sweare by God Mahomet and Mortus Ali and sometime by all at once saying Olla Mahumet Ali and sometime Shaugham bosshe that is by the Shaughes head Abas the young Prince of Persia charged with imputation of treason after other Purgatorie speeches sware by the Creator that spread out the ayre that founded the earth vpon the deepes that adorned the heauen with Starres that powred abroad the water that made the fire and briefly of nothing brought forth all things by the head of Ali and by the Religion of their Prophet Mahomet that hee was cleare If any Christian will become a Bosarman or one of their superstition they giue him many gifts the Gouernor of the Towne appointeth him a horse and one to ride before him on another horse bearing a sword in his hand and the Bosarman bearing an arrow in his hand rideth in the City cursing his father and mother The sword signifieth death if hee reuolt againe Before the Shaugh seemed to fauour our Nation the people abused them very much and so hated them that they would not touch them reuiling them by the names of Cafars and Gawars that is Infidels or Mis-beleeuers Afterwards they would kisse their hands and vse them gently and reuerently Drunkards and riotous persons they hate for which cause Richard Iohnson caused the English by his vicious liuing to be worse accounted of then the Russes Their opinions and rites most-what agree with the Turkish and Saracenicall Their Priests are apparelled like other men they vse euery morning and afternoone to goe vp to the toppes of their Churches and tell there a great tale of Mahomet and Mortus Ali. They haue also among them certaine holy-men called Setes accounted therefore holy because they or some of their ancestors haue beene on pilgrimage at Mecca these must be beleeued for this Saint-ship although they lie neuer so shamefully These Setes vse to shaue their heâ—ds all ouer sauing on the sides a little aboue the Temples which they leaue vnshauen and vse to braide the same as women doe their hayre and weare it as long as it will grow Iosafa Barbaro at Sammachi lodged in an Hospitall wherein was a graue vnder a vault of stone and neere vnto that a man with his beard and hayre long naked sauing that a little before and behind he was couered with a skinne sitting on a peece of a matte on the ground I sayth hee saluted him and demanded what hee did he told mee hee watched his father I asked who was his father He quoth he that doth good to his neighbour with this man in this Sepulchre I haue liued thirty yeeres and will now accompany him after death and being dead be buried with him I haue seene of the world sufficient and now haue determined to abide thus till death Another I found at Tauris on all-Soules day in the which they also vsed a commemoration of Soules departed neere to the Sepulchre in a Church-yard hauing about him many birds especially Rauens and Crowes I thought it had beene a dead corpse but was told it was a liuing Saint at whose call the birds resorted to him and he gaue them meat Another I saw when Assambei was in Armenia marching into Persia against Signior Iausa Lord of Persia and Zagatai vnto the City of Herem who drew his staffe in the dishes wherein they are and sayd certaine words and brake them all the Sultan demanded what he had sayd they which heard him answered that he said hee should be victorious and breake his enemies forces as hee had done those dishes whereupon he commanded him to be kept till his returne and finding the euent according he vsed him honourably When the Sultan rode thorow the fields he was set on a Mule and his hands bound before him because he was sometime accustomed to doe some dangerous folly at his feet there attended on him many of their religious persons called Daruise These mad trickes he vsed according to the course of the Moone sometimes in two or three dayes not eating any thing busied in such fooleries that they were faine to bind him Hee had great allowance for his expences One of those holy men there was which went naked like to the beasts preaching their faith and hauing obtained great reputation hee caused himselfe to bee immured in a wall forty
more vnhappy tense when they were there was a Citie great strong and very faire with walls of Stone and great Ditches round about it with many Crocodiles in them There are two Townes the old in which the Merchants abide and the houses are made of Canes called Bambos and the new for the King and his Nobilitie the Citie is so subiect to fire that euery day Proclamation is made to take heed to their fire The Citie is square with faire walls hauing in each Square fiue Gates besides many Turrets for Centinels to watch made of wood and gilded very faire The Streets are strait as a line from one Gate to another and so broad that ten or twelue men may ride a-front through them On both sides at euery mans doore is set a Coco-tree yeelding a faire shew and comfortable shaddow that a man might walke in the shade all day The houses are made of Wood and couered with Tiles The Kings house is in the midst walled and ditched about and the houses within of Wood sumptuously wrought and guilded And the house wherein his Pagode or Idoll standeth is couered with Tiles of Siluer and all the walls are guilded with Gold Within the first gate of the Kings house was a large roome on both sides whereof were houses made for the Kings Elephants Among the rest hee had foure white Elephants a thing rare in Nature but more precious in his estimation For this is part of his Royall Title The King of the white Elephants And if any other hath any he will seeke by fauour or force to haue the same which some say was the cause of the quarrell betwixt him and the King of Siam Great seruice was done vnto them Euery one of these white Elephants stood in an house guilded with Gold and were fed in vessels of Siluer gilt One of them as hee went euery day to the Riuer to bee washed passed vnder a Canopie of Cloth of Gold or Silke carried by sixe or eight men as many going before playing on Drums or other Instruments At his comming out of the Riuer a Gentleman washed his feet in a Siluer Bason There were of blacke Elephants nine Cubits high The King was said to haue aboue fiue thousand Elephants of Warre There was about a mile from Pegu a place builded with a faire Court in it to take wilde Elephants in a Groue which they doe by the female Elephants trained to this purpose and anointed with a certaine Oyle which causeth the wilde Elephant to follow her When the Hunts-men haue brought the Elephant neere to the Citie they send word thereof and many Horse-men and Foot-men come out and cause the female to take a streight way which leadeth to the place where shee entereth and hee after her for it is like a Wood. When they are in the gate is shut and they get out the female The wilde one seeing himselfe alone weepeth and runneth against the walles which are made of strong trees some of them breake their teeth therewith Then they pricke him with sharpe Canes and cause him to goe into a strait house and there fasten him with a rope and let him fast three or foure dayes and then bring a femall to him with meat and drinke within few dayes taming him When they goe into the Warres they set a frame of wood vpon their backes bound with great Cordes wherein sit foure or six men which fight with Guns Darts Arrowes and other weapons All Authors agree that no beast commeth so neere the reason of a man as the Elephant yea they seeme to goe before some men in conceit haughtinesse desire of glory thankefulnesse c. The Peguans are beardlesse and carrie pinsers about them to plucke out the hayres if any grow They blacke their teeth for they say a Dogge hath white teeth The men of Pegu Aua Iangoma and Brama weare balls in their yards which they put in the skinne being cut and weare for euery childe one till they haue three and may take them out at pleasure the least as bigge as any Wall-nut the biggest as bigge as a little Hennes Egge They were inuented to preuent Sodomie which they vse more then any people in the world Abusing the Male-Sexe causeth the women also to weare scant clothes that as they goe their thigh is seene bare to prouoke men to lust Both these were ordained by a certaine Queene for those causes and are still obserued If the King giue any one of his Balles it is a great Iewell accounted they heale the place in sixe or eight dayes The Bramans that are of the Kings bloud pricke some part of their skinne and put therein a blacke colour which lasteth alway If any Merchant resort thither hee shall haue many maydes saith Linschoten offered him by their parents to take his choyse and hauing agreed with their parents hee may for the time of his abode vse her as his slaue or his Concubine without any discredit to her Yea if hee come againe after shee is marryed hee may for the time hee stayeth there demaund her in like sort to his vse And when a man marrieth hee will request some of his friends to lye the first night with his Bride There are also among them that sow vp the priuie part of their Daughters leauing onely passage for Vrine which when they marry passe vnder the Surgeons hand for remedie Gasper Balby and Got. Arthus tell of another custome of their Virgins if that name may bee giuen them For saith hee Virgines in hoc regno omnino nullas reperire licet Puellae enim omnes statim à pueritia sua medicamentum quoddam vsurpant quo muliebria distenduntur aperta continentur idque propter globulos quos in virgis viri gestant illis enim admittendis virgines arctiores nullo modo sufficerunt Their money is called Ganza and is made of Copper and Leade which euery man may stampe that will Gold and Siluer is merchandise and not money The tides of the Sea betweene Martauan and Pegu by Caesor Fredricke are reputed the greatest wonder which hee saw in his trauels being so violent that the ayre is filled with noyse and the earth quaketh at the approach of this watery element shooting the Boats that passe therewith as arrowes which at a high water they suffer not to anchor in the Channell which would betray them to the deuouring iawes of the returning tide but draw them toward some Banke where they rest in the ebbe on dry land as high vpon the Channels bottome as any house top And if they arriue not at their certaine stations they must backe againe whence they came no place else being able to secure them And when it encreaseth againe it giueth them their calls or salutations the first waue washeth ouer the Barke from stemme to sterne the second is not so furious the third raiseth the Anchor In Negrais in Pegu diuers people dwell in Boates which they call
it selfe to the Portugall yoke And because we haue in this Chapter mentioned so many Wonders let this also haue place among if not aboue the rest which presently happened Whiles the Portugalls were busie in their Buildings a certaine Bengalan came to the Gouernour which had liued as hee affirmed three hundred thirtie fiue yeeres The old men of the Countrey testified That they had heard their Ancestors speake of his great age and himselfe had a sonne fourescore and tende yeeres old and not at all Booke-learned yet was a speaking Chronicle of those passed times His teeth had sometimes fallen out others growing in their places and his beard after it had beene very hoarie by degrees returned into his former blacknesse About an hundred yeeres before this time he had altered his Pagan Religion into the Arabian or Moorish For this his miraculous age the Sultans of Cambaya had allowed him a stipend to liue on the continuance of which he now sought and did obtaine of the Portugals Friar Ioano dos Santos cells a long story of one yet aliue Ann. 1605. of whom the Bishop of Cochin had sent men to inquire who by diligent search found that hee was then three hundred eightie yeeres old and had married eight times the father of many generations They say his teeth had thrice fallen out and thrice renewed his haire thrice hoary and as oft black againe Hee could tell of nineteene successiue Kings which reigned in Horan his Countrey in Bengala He was also borne a Gentile and after turned Moore and hoped he said to dye a Christian reioycing to see a picture of Saint Francis saying Such a man when he was twentie fiue yeeres old had foretold him this long life But to returne Mamudius successor to Badurius sought with all his forces to driue these new Lords out of Diu as Solyman had done before by a Nauie and Armie sent thither but both in vaine of which Wars Damianus à Goes hath written diuers Commentaries But this whole Countrey is now subiect to the Mogor It was in Alexanders time peopled by the Massani Sodrae or Sabracae Praestae and Sangadae as Ortelius hath placed them where Alexander as in diuers other places he had done erected a Citie of his owne name called Alexandria Daman another Key of this Bay and entrance of the Riuer Indus into the Sea fell to the Portugals share The Land of Cambaya is the fruitfullest in all India which causeth great traffique of Indians Portugals Persians Arabians Armenians c. The Guzarates or Cambayans are the subtillest Merchants in all those parts They haue amongst them many Histories of Darius and Alexander which sometime were Lords of this Indian Prouince The Portugals haue at diuers times conquered diuers of the chiefe Townes in this Kingdome some whereof they keepe still The women in Diu by Art dye their teeth black esteeming themselues so much the more beautifull and therefore go with their lips open to shew the blacknesse of their teeth drawing away the couer of their lips as if they were lip-lesse giuing the prize of Beautie to a double deformitie Blacknesse and a Mouth O Hellish wide When a Cambayan dyeth they burne his body and distribute the ashes vnto the foure Elements of which man consisteth part to the Fire part to the Ayre to the Water also and Earth their due portions as Balby hath obserued M. Patrike Copland Minister in the Dragon with Captaine Best writes that hee rode in this Countrey from Medhaphrabadh to Surat in a Coach drawne with Oxen which is the most ordinary though they haue goodly Horses He saw at once the goodliest Spring and Haruest that euer he had seene Fields joyning together whereof one was greene as a medow the other yellow as gold ready to be cut of Wheat and Rice All along goodly Villages full of trees yeelding Taddy the Palme of which after a new sweet Wine strengthning and fattening A Smith which loued his liquor said hee could wish no other wages but a pot of this Taddy alway at his girdle §. II. Of the Kingdomes of Decan OF the Decans we haue spoken before in the Mogol conquests Decan is the name of a Citie sixe leagues from which is a Hill out of which the Diamond is taken This Hill is kept with a Garrison and walled about Of the Decan Kingdomes Barros hath reported That about the yeere 1300. Sa Nosaradin reigned in Delly or Delin and inuaded the Kingdome of Canara which reacheth from the Riuer Bate North of Chaul vnto the Cape Comori and wonne much from the Ancestors of the King now termed of Bisnaga At his returne he left Habedsa his Lieutenant who added to the former Conquests gathering a Band of all mixtures Gentiles Moores Christians His sonne was confirmed in the Gouernment therefore called Decan and the people Decanins because of this confusion of so many Nations of which his Fathers and His forces consisted for Decanins signifies Bastards He shooke off alleageance to his Lord and acknowledged none Superiour Hee also much encreased his Dominions His name was Mamudsa Hee appointed eighteene Captaines or Commanders allotting to each seuerall Prouinces These Captaines hee made were but slaues that so hee might the easier hold them in subjection He commanded that each of them should build a Palace at Bedir his chiefe Citie and there reside certaine moneths in the yeere his sonne remayning there in perpetuall hostage These in processe of time grew fewer and therefore greater the King holding nothing but his Royall Citie all the Empire being in the hands of these slaues which when the Portugals came thither were no more but Sabay Niza-Malucco Madre Malucco Melic Verida Coge Mecadam the Abessine Eunuch and Cota Malucco The mightiest of them was Sabay Lord of Goa His sonne was Hidalcam Thus Barrius Garcias ab Horto writes That the Mogors had possessed the Kingdome of Delly but a certaine Bengalan rebelling against his Master slue him vsurped his State and by force of warre added this of Canara also to his Dominion he was called Xaholam This King made his sisters sonne his Successor who was much addicted to Forreiners He diuided his Kingdome into twelue parts or Prouinces ouer which he set so many Captaines Idalcam from Angidaua to Cifarda from thence to Negatona Nizamaluco Ouer Balaguate or the vp-hill Countrey for Bala in the Persian language signifieth The toppe and Guate a Hill Imadmaluco and Catalmaluco and Verido c. These all rebelled and captiued Daquem their King at Beder the chiefe Citie of Decan and shared his Kingdome amongst themselues and some Gentiles partners in the conspiracie They were all forreiners but Nizamaluco This and the other names before mentioned were Titles of Honour giuen them with their Offices by the King corrupted by the vulgar in pronouncing Idalcam is Adel-ham Adel in the Persian language signifieth Iustice Ham is the Tartarian appellation signifying a Prince or King which name might well
of Barbary the one swelling the other not at all heightned in the East and West Indies I could instance the like not mentioning those currents which hinder all courses of Tides Further the Floud continueth in some places seuen houres in some foure in most sixe In the Straits of Sunda some haue obserued that it flowes twelue houres and ebbes twelue In Negropont it is said to ebbe and flow seuen times a day and Patritius affirmeth that himselfe obserued at Ausser in Liburnia in a hand-made Strait of Sea-water the same to happen twentie times in a day Againe wee see these Tide-motions differ according to their daily weekely monethly and as some adde halfe yearely and yearely alterations All which varieties cannot be attributed to one simple cause neither to any vniuersall whether Sunne Moone or Natiue heat of the Sea or any the like although wee must needs acknowledge which we cannot know one principall cause hindred or altred by manifold accidents and therefore producing effects thus diuersified Other motions also may be obserued in the Sea as that namely which is continuall and if wee call the Tides the breathing this may be tearmed the pulse of the Sea whereby the waters alway wash the shore falling on and off couering and presently vncouering the feet of such as stand by which hath force to expell all Heterogenean or differing natures as drowned carkasses wrackes and the like This as that of the Tides Patritius Peucorus Lydiate and others attribute to a kinde of boyling which as in a vessell of seething water causeth it thus to rise and fall and to expell the drosse and things contrary But the heate which causeth this boyling one ascribes to the Sunne another to fires in the Sea another to the naturall heate of the Sea engendring spirits and causing rarefaction and motion Patritius doth not onely auerre this but that the Sea is as a sublunarie Planet mouing it selfe and moued by the superiour bodies to effect the generation of things for which cause Orpheus calls the Ocean Father of Gods Men and other things The saltnesse thereof is in his opinion the instrument of this motion and the neerest inward and most proper cause of marine mouings as in the two Mexican Lakes appeareth the one whereof is salt and ebbes and flowes which the other being fresh doth not This saltnes saith he with greater heat ingendreth more spirits in moysture the cause of greater Tides he thinketh to be the shallownesse and narrower shores the force of the Ocean thrusting the same most forwards where it findes interruptions and indraughts the certaintie of the motions hee ascribes according to his Philosophie to the soule of the world mouing this as other Planets For my censure it shall bee rather on my selfe then these opinions where silence rather then boldnesse becommeth Euen a foole whiles hee holdeth his peace is accounted wise And to borrow the words of a subtill Disputer Quod vbique clamare soleo nos nihil scire maximè conuenit huic disquisitions quae maris tracta motum Let this also bee arranged amongst the wonders of the Lord in the deepe rather to be admired then comprehended I might heere speake of other Sea-motions either particular or accidentall as that in the open Seas betweene the Tropikes vncertaine whether it may bee termed an Easterly winde or some impetuous violence caused by the superiour motions which draw together with them the inferiour Elements likewise those currents in diuers coasts as at Madagascar on the African and in the great Bay on the American shores From other accidents arise other motions caused by the windes in the ayre which somewhere haue their set seasons by whirle-pooles or rather contrarie currents meeting in the Sea by Capes Indraughts Riuers Ilands of the land by the conceptions and trauelling throwes in the waters in bringing forth some imminent tempest and the like I might speake of strange Currents in many Seas vpon the coast of Africke neere to Saint Laurence and Iohn de Noua and Mayella Captaine Saris hath related that the currents detayned him a long time euen almost to desperation of getting out and one of them so dreadfull that it made a noise like that at London Bridge with a fearefull rippling of the water the more the further from land and there where they founded an hundred fathom depth as it were proclaiming open defiance to winde and sayle notwithstanding their puffing threats and most swelling lookes in foure and twentie houres carrying them a whole Degree and nine Minutes from the course which vnder full sayle with the windes assistance they intended §. III. Of the Originall of Fountaines and other Commodities of the Sea I Might adde touching the Originall of Fountaines which both Scripture and reason finding no other store sufficient deriue from the Sea how they are from thence conueyed by secret Channels and concauities vnder the earth and by what workmen of Nature thus wrought into new fresh waters Scaligers experiment to proue the Sea-water at the bottome fresh by bottles filled there by cunning Diuers or otherwise is by Patritius his experience as hee saith found false And this freshnesse of the springs not withstanding their salt originall from the Sea may rather be ascribed to percolation and straining thorough the narrow spungie passage of the earth which makes them leaue behind as an exacted toll their colour thicknesse and saltnesse Now how it should come to passe that they should spring out of the earth being higher then the Sea yea out of the highest Mountaynes hath exercised the wits of Phylosophers some ascribing it to a sucking qualitie of the thirstie or spungie earth some to the weight of the earth pressing and forcing the waters vpwards some to the motion of the Sea continually as in a Pumpe thrusting forwards the water which expelleth the weaker ayre and followeth it till it finde an out-let whereof both by the continuall protrusion of the Sea and for auoyding a vacuum or emptinesse which Nature abhorreth it holdeth continuall possession some finde out other causes And Master Ladyate in a Treatise of the Originall of Springs attributeth the same to vnder-earth fires which no lesse by a naturall distillation worketh these waters vnder the earth into this freshnesse and other qualities then the Sunne and heauenly fires doe by exhalations aboue Yea such are his speculations of these hidden fires that hee maketh them the causes of Windes Earth-quakes Minerals Gemmes fertilitie and sterilitie of the earth and of the saltnesse and motion as is before said of the Sea But loath were I to burne or drowne my Readers in these fierie and watrie Disputes let vs from these speculations retire our selues to the experimentall profits and commodities which this Element yeeldeth Concerning the commodities of the Sea as the world generally so the little models of the world the Ilands whereof this of Great Britaine is iustly acknowledged the most excellent of
and in the dayes of Moses their Priests Wisemen and Southsayers confirming their deuotions with lying Miracles as the Scriptures testifie of Iannes and Iambres and Hermes Trismegistus of his Grandfather and himselfe The Grecians ascribe these deuotions to Osiris and Isis of whom the Historie and Mysterie is so confused that Typhon neuer hewed Osiris into so many pieces as these vaine Theologians and Mythologians haue done They are forsooth in the Egyptian throne King and Queene in the Heauens the Sunne and Moone beneath these the Elements after Herodotus they are Bacchus and Ceres Diodorus maketh Osiris the same with the Sunne Serapis Dionysius Pluto Ammon Iupiter Isis the Moone Ceres and Iuno Appollodorus makes her Ceres and Io. Antonius and Cleopatra stiled and figured themselues the one Osiris and the other Isis In Macrobius and Seruius she is the nature of things He Adonis and Atis Plutarch addeth to these Interpretations Oceanus and Sirius as to Isis Minerua Proserpina Thetis And if you haue not enough Apuleius will helpe you with Venus Diana Bellona Hecate Rhamnusia and Heliodorus neerer home maketh Osiris to be Nilus the Earth Isis So true it is that An Idoll is nothing in the world and Idolaters worship they know not what Stampellus interpreteth Osiris to be Abraham and Isis to bee Sazeb whom Moses calleth also Ischa Orus Apollo or Horapollo saith Isis is the Starre called of the Egyptians Sothis which is the Dog-starre therefore called Isis because at the first rising of that Starre they prognosticated what should happen the yeere following The like was in vse amongst the Cilicians who obserued the first rising of that starre from the top of Taurus and thence saith Manilius Euentus frugum varios tempora dicunt Quaque valitudo veniat concordia quanta c. Thence they foretell what store of fruits or want What times what health what concord they descant Tully in the first Booke of his Diuination reciteth the same out of Heraclides Ponticus of the Cei But the Egyptians had more cause to obserue that Starre because Nilus doth then begin to encrease And therefore from thence they began to reckon their Tekuphas or quarters of their yeere as the Iewes from Nisan But to search this Fountaine further you may read the Egyptian opinion in Diodorus how that the World being framed out of that Chaos or first matter the lighter things ascending the heauier descending the Earth yet imperfect was heated and hardened by the Sunne whose violent heat begate of her slimie softnesse certaine putride swellings couered with a thinne filme which being by the same heat ripened brought forth all manner of creatures This muddie generation was say they first in Egypt most fit in respect of the strong soyle temperate ayre Nilus ouerflowing and exposed to the Sunne to beget and nourish them and still retayning some such vertue at the new slaking of the Riuer the Sunne then more desirous as it were of this Egyptian Concubine whom the waters had so long detained from his sight ingendring in that lustfull fit many Creatures as Mice and others whose fore-parts are seene mouing before the hinder are formed These new-hatched people could not but ascribe Diuinitie to the Author of their Humanitie by the names of Osiris and Isis worshipping the Sunne and Moone accounting them to be gods and euerlasting adding in the same Catalogue vnder disguised names of Iupiter Vulcan Minerua Oceanus and Ceres the fiue Elements of the World Spirit Fire Ayre Water and Earth These Eternall Gods begot others whom not Nature but their owne proper Merit made immortall which reigned in Egypt and bare the names of those coelestiall Deities Their Legend of Osiris is that he hauing set Egypt in order leauing Isis his wife Gouernour appointing Mercurie her Counsellour the inuenter of Arithmeticke Musicke Physicke and of their superstition made an Expedition into farre Countries hauing Hercules for his Generall with Apollo his brother Anubis and Macedon his sonnes whose Ensignes were a Dog and a Wolfe creatures after for this cause honoured and their counterfeits worshipped Pan Maron and Triptolemus and the nine Muses attending with the Satyres Thus did hee inuade the world rather with Arts then Armes teaching men Husbandry in many parts of Asia and Europe and where Vines would not grow to make drinke of Barley At his returne his brother Typhon slew him rewarded with like death by the reuenging hand of Isis and her sonne Orus The dispersed pieces into which Typhon had cut him shee gathered and committed to the Priests with injunction to worship him with dedication vnto him of what beast they best liked which also should be obserued with much ceremonie both aliue and dead in memorie of Osiris In which respect also they obserued solemnely to make a lamentable search for Osiris with many teares making semblance of like ioy at his pretended finding whereof Lucan singeth Nunquamque satis quaesitus Osiris alway seeking saith Lanctantius and alway finding To establish this Osirian Religion she consecrated a third part of the Land in Egypt for maintenance of these superstitious rites and persons the other two parts appropriated to the King and his Souldiers This Isis after her death was also deified in a higher degree of adoration then Osiris selfe One thing is lacking to our tale which was also lacking a long time to Isis in her search For when shee had with the helpe of waxe made vp of sixe and twentie parts which she found so many Images of Osiris all buried in seuerall places his priuities which Typhon had drowned in Nilus were not without much labor found and with more solemnitie interred And that the Deuill might shew how farre hee can besot men the Image hereof was made and worshipped the light of this darkenesse shining as farre as Greece whose Phallus Phallogogia Ithiphalli Phallophoria and Phallaphori issued out of this sincke together with their Membrous monster Priapus Yea the Egyptians hauing lost their owne eyes in this filthy superstition bestowed them on the Image of Osiris his stones which they pourtrayed with an eye Athenaeus telleth of Ptol. Philadelphus in a solemnitie wherein hee listed to shew to the world his madnesse or as it was then esteemed his magnificence a place worth the reading to them who are not heere glutted with out tedious Egyptian Banquet He among many sumptuous spectacles presented a Phallus of gold painted with golden crownes of an hundred and twentie cubits length hauing a golden starre on the toppe whose circumference was sixe cubites This was carried in a Chariot as in others the Image of Priapus and other Idols Of Typhon the Poets fable that after the Gods by the helpe of mortall men had slaine the Giants the Earth in indignation for rhe losse of that her Giantly brood lying with Tartarus brought forth Typhon which exceeded all the former for his height surmounted the Mountaines his head reached to the Starres one
of his hands to the West the other to the East from which proceeded an hundred heads to Dragons his legges were entwined with rolles of Vipers which reached to his head filling the world with terrible hissings his body couered with feathers his eyes flaming with fire a flame streaming also out of his mouth Thus was hee armed and fought against Heauen and made the Gods runne away into Egypt and turne themselues into many formes with many tales more which I surcease to rehearse Of the Isiacall rites that brazen Table supposed to haue beene some Altar-couer after possessed by Card. Bembus full of mysticall Characters explained by Laurentius Pignorius in a Treatise of this Argument may further acquaint the desirous Reader Diodorus thinketh this the cause why they consecrated Goats and erected Images of Satyres in their Temples ; affirming that their Priests are first initiated in these bawdie Rites §. II. The causes of Consecrating their Beasts and the mysticall sences of their Superstitions THeir canonized Beasts of which the Aegyptians and Syrians saith Tully conceiued stronger opinions of Deuotion then the Romans of their most sacred Temples were Dogges Cats Wolues Crocodiles Ichnumods Rammes Goates Bulls and Lions in honour of Isis their sacred Birds were the Hawke Ibis Phoenicopterus besides Dragons Aspes Beetles amongst things creeping and of Fishes whatsoeuer had scales and the Eele Yea their reason did not onely to sensible things ascribe Diuinitie but Garlike and Onions were free of their Temples devided therefore by Iaâ—end Porrum coepe nofas violare frangere morsu O sanctas gentes quibus haec nascuntur in hortis Numina For this cause some thinke the Hebrewes were in such abhomination to the Aegyptians that they would not eate with them as eating and sacrificing those things which the other worshipped Example whereof Deodorus an eye-witnesse telleth That when Ptolemey gaue entertainment to the Romans whose friend hee was declared ; a Roman at vnawares hauing killed a Cat could not by the Kings authoritie sending Officers for his rescue nor for feare of the Romans bee detayined from their butcherly furie For such was their custome for the murther of those sacred Creatures to put to death by exquisite torments him that had done it wittingly and for the Bird Ibis and a Cat although vnwittingly slaine And therefore if any espie any of them lying dead hee standeth aloofe lamenting and protesting his owne innocencie The cause of this blinde zeale was the metamorphosis of their distressed Gods into these shapes Secondly their ancient Ensignes Thirdly the profit of them in common life Origen addeth a fourth because they were vsed to diuination and therefore saith hee forbidden to the Israelites as vncleane Eusebius out of the Poet citeth a fifth cause namely the Diuine Nature diffused into all Creatures after that of the Poet Deum namque ire per omnes Terrasque tractusque maris coelumque profundum God goes thorow Sea and Land and loftie Skies I might adde a sixth that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or transanimation which Pythagoras it seemeth borrowed hence and from India Yea Aeneas Gazeus a Platonike in his Theophrastus or Dialogue of the Soules immortalitie affirmeth That Plato learned this opinion of the Egyptians and dispersed it through all his Bookes as did Plotinus and other his followers after him numbring amongst the rest Prophyrius and Iamblichus If I might with the Readers patience I would adde somewhat of their Mysterie of iniquitie and this mysticall sense of this iniquitie For as many haue sweat in vnfolding the mysteries of that Church which spiritually is called Sodome and Aegypt as Ambrosius de Amariolo Amalarius Durandus Durantus and others so heere haue not wanted mysticall Interpreters Porphirius Iambliochus Plutarch and the rest Such is the deepenesse of Sathan in the shallownesse of humane both reason and truth Water and Fire they vsed in all their Sacrifices and doe them deuoutest worship saith Porphiry because those Elements are so profitable to mans vse and for this vse sake they adored so many Creatures at Anubis they worshipped a Man But especially they held in veneration those creatures which seemed to hold some affinitie with the Sunne Euen that stinking Beetele or Scarabee did these more blinde then Beetles in their stinking superstitions obserue as a liuing Image of the Sunne because forsooth all Scarabees are of Male sexe and therefore also saith Aelian Souldiers wore the figure of the Scarabee in their Rings as thereby insinuating their masculine spirits and hauing shed their seed in the dung doe make a ball thereof which they rowle too and fro with their feete imitating the Sunne in his circular journey Iulius Firmicus inueigheth against them for their worship and supplications and superstitious vowes made to the Water and for that their fabulous Legend of Osiris Isis and Typhon vnfolding the Historie and Mysterie Eusebius followeth this Argument in the seuerall Beasts which they worship but to auoyd tediousnesse I leaue him to looke on Plutarchs paines in this Argument Hee maketh Isis to bee deriued of the Verbe 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to know as being the Goddesse of Wisedome and Knowledge to whom Typhon for his ignorance is an enemie For without Knowledge Immortalitie it selfe could not deserue the name of Life but of Time Their Priests shaued their owne haire and wore not woollen but linnen garments because of their professed puritie to which the haire of Man or Beast being but an excrement disagreed and for this cause they reiected Beeues Mutton and Porke as meates which cause much excrements Yea their Apis might not drinke of Nilus for this Riuers fatning qualitie but of a Fountaine peculiar to his holinesse At Heliopolis they might not bring wine into the Temple holding it vnseemely to drinke in the presence of their Lord They had many purifications wherein Wine was forbidden Their Kings which were also Priests had their sacred stints of wine and did not drinke it at all before Psammoticus time esteeming Wine to be the Bloud of them which sometime warred against the gods out of whose slaine carkasses Vines proceeded and hence proceedeth drunkennesse and madnesse by wine Their Priests abstaine from all fish they eate not Onions because they grow most in the wane of the Moone they procure also teares and thirst Their Kings were chosen either of the Priests or of the Souldiers and these also after their election were presently chosen into the Colledge of Priests Osiris signifieth many eyes in the Egyptian language Os is much and Eri an eye The Image of Minerua at Sai had this inscription I am all which is which hath beene which shall be whose shining light no mortall man hath opened Ammon they call Am the same as is before said with Ham or Cham the sonne of Noah in the vocatiue case as inuocating him whom they hold the chiefe God of the World to manifest himselfe They esteemed children
flesh neither of their owne young nor of men as on the contrarie they worship the Storke for her pietie in nourishing her aged parents that I speake not of their wed-locke chastitie for breach whereof Crollius tells from the relation of an eye-witnesse That in a wood neere to Spire in Germanie the Male complayning to a congregation of Storkes caused them to teare his Mate in pieces The Egyptians also had a conceit That Swines milke would breede the leprosie and that Swine were beasts odious to the Sunne and Moone He citeth out of Endoxus That they spared them for treading their Seede into the ground which was their Harrowing and Tillage when Nilus had newly left the softned Earth to send these Labourers their Kine and Swine to tread in the myrie Earth the Corne which they sowed therein The Egyptians sware by the head of their King which oath whosoeuer violated lost his life for the same without any redemption The Priests in old time renowmed for their learning in Straboes time were ignorant and vnlearned No woman might beare Priestly function These Priests might not eate Egs Milke or Oile except with Sallads they might not salute Mariners nor looke vpon their children or kinsfolks They washed themselues in the day-time thrice and in the night twice they were shauen wore linnen garments alwayes new washed were daily allowed sacred meates Of their ancient Priests thus Du Bartas singeth in Syluesters tune The Memphian Priests were deepe Philosophers And curious gazers on the sacred Starres Searchers of Nature and great Mathematickes Ere any letter knew the ancient'st Attickes Tertullian speakes of the continence of Apis his Priests and addes That certayne women consecrated to the African Ceres voluntarily relinquished marriage and from thenceforth might not touch a Male no not so much as k sse their owne sonnes Their magicke skill appeared in Iannes and Iambres which withstood Moses and in Hermes testimonie of himselfe R. Salomon on Exod. 8. writeth That Pharao said to Moses and Aaron Doe you bring straw into Ophraim a Citie full of straw And doe yee bring inchantments into Egypt which aboundeth therewith Postellus deriueth the Egyptian and Orientall sciences from Abraham to whom he dareth to attribute their diuinations by the Aire Water Fire Earth Birds and alleageth Rambams authoritie That the greatest part of the Alcoran is taken out of the Egyptian learning and saith That Moses and Salomon studied the same and expounded in Scripture what Abraham had taught them to which also hee ascribeth the Iewish Exorcismes in casting out Deuils But some Deuill I thinke hath taught him so to commend these deuillish Arts as he doth no lesse the Alcoran and the Iewes Cabala calling them an excellent Appendix to Moses and both of I know not what magicall facultie first infused into Adam in the puritie of his creation and taught by the Angell Raziel by him deliuered in verball tradition written first by the Henoch the bookes whereof Nimrod stole from Noah which Abraham might learne either in that Chaldean Nation or from Melchisedech But let vs obserue these Priests further When they sacrificed they made choice of their beasts by certaine religious markes a Cow they might not sacrifice as consecrated vnto Isis They kindled a fire and sprinkling water ouer the Sacrifice with inuocation of their God killed it cut off the head which either they sold to the Grecians if they would buy it or cast it into the Riuer with imprecation That whatsoeuer euill was imminent to them or their Countrey might be turned vpon that head This ceremonie seemes to haue come to them from the Iewes And they haue beene as liberall of their Rites since to the Catholikes for so they will be called as appeareth both by this Relation and by the testimonie not onely of Moresinus a Protestant but Maginus Polidorus Boemus and Beroaldus Popish writers although dawbed ouer with new mysticall significations as in Bellarmine and other the purest Catholikes is seene Their Priests were their Iudges the eldest of which was chiefe in pronouncing sentence He wore about his necke a Saphire Iewell with the Image of Truth therein engrauen The Priests of Isis besides their shauings and linnen garments had paper-shooes on their heads Anubis in their hands a Timbrell or a branch of Sea-wormewood or a Pine-apple They had one chiefe Priest or Primate of Egypt as appeareth by Iosephus and Heliodorus who maketh Thyamis to succeede his father Calasyris in this high Priesthood at Memphis Manetho also enioyed this Pontificall Hierarchie as appeareth by his Epistle to Ptolemeus which after shall follow Philostratus speaketh of Gymnosophists which some ascribe to India Heliodorus to Ethiopia he to Ethiopia and Egypt These saith hee dwelt abroad without house on a Hill a little off the bankes of Nilus where grew a Groue in which they held their generall Assemblies to consult of publike affaires hauing otherwise their studies and sacrifices apart each by himselfe Thespesion was the chiefe of this Monkish Colledge when Apollonius after his visitation of the Babylonian Magi and Indian Brachmanes came thither These held the immortalitie of the soule and accounted Nilus for a god If a man at Memphis had by chance-medley killed a man hee was exiled till those Gymnosophists absolued him Hercules Temple at Canopus was priuiledged with Sanctuarie to giue immunitie to Fugitiues and Malefactors Thus elsewhere Osiris Apollo in Syria Diana at Ephesus euery Cardinals house saith a Pope in Rome Saint Peter at Westminster and other Popish Oratories priuiledged Dennes of Theeues §. III. Of their Feasts and Oracles THeir Feasts were many of which Herodotus reckoneth one at Bubastis in honour of Diana To this place the Men and Women at this festiuall solemnitie sayled in great multitudes with minstrelsie and showtings and as they came to any Citie on the waters side they went on shore and the women some danced some played some made a brawle with the women of the place and thus resorting to Bubastis they there offered great Sacrifices spending in this feast more Wine then in all the yeere besides Hither resorted of Men and Women besides Children seuen hundred thousand In Busiris was solemnized the feast of Isis in which after the sacrifice many thousands beat themselues but with what they did beate themselues was not lawfull to relate The Carians that inhabited Egypt did also cut their foreheads with swords signifying thereby that they were forreiners This Citie was in the midst of the Egyptian Delta and in it a very great Temple of Isis A third feast was at Sai in honour of Minerua where assembling by night they lighted candles full of Salt and Oile and therewith went about the walls of the Citie This solemnitie was called Light-burning or if you will Candle-masse This night they which came not hither yet obserued the setting vp of Lights throughout Egypt A fourth
witnesses in her wel-pâ—opled Regions can auerre that the parts betwixt the Tropikes are both habitable and inhabited and for the Perioeci Antoeci Anticthones and Antipodes the worlds roundnesse and other things of like nature this America yeelds and is sufficient proofe and the yeerely compassing the world which the Spaniards and Portugals diuide betwixt them makes more then euident And let those two English Ships the onely two of one Nation which euer haue sailed and that with admirable successe and fortune about the Globe of the earth tell Lactantius ghost whether they dropped into the clouds as hee feared there to become new constellations which Antiquitie would easily haue attributed to them The Golden Hinde which trauersed the world round and returned a Golden Hind indeed with her belly full of Gold and Siluer is yet at Debtford there resting after her long iourney offering vp her selfe to Time her deeds to eternitie The causes of the Temperature and habitablenesse of those parts That which beguiled the Ancients was the neerenesse of the Sunne his direct beames and the swift motion of the heauens which they coniectured did chase away cold and moisture out of all those parts And hardly could reason otherwise ghesse till experience shewed the contrary For neuer is it moister in those parts betweene the Tropikes then when the Sunne is neerest causing terrible stormes and showers euery day as if hauing drunken too much in his long and hote iourney ouer the Ocean hee did there vomit it vp againe Once the people of those parts reckon it Winter when the Astronomer would call it Summer because of this tedious weather which euery day happening cannot but coole the Ayre and Earth with a maruellous temper and on the other side they call the time of the Sunnes absence Summer because of the perpetuall clearenesse which continueth those sixe moneths the Sunne then exhaling no more vapours then his hote stomacke can digest which with his directer beames being drawne vp surcharge him with abundance and in the middle Region of the Aire by the then stronger Antiperistasis are thickened into raines and attended with Thunder and Lightnings proclaime dayly defiance to the earth threatning harme but doing good cooling the same after the morning Sun hath heated it the showres then falling when the Sunne threatens his hottest fury and violence These Raines make the like inundations and ouerflowings of Riuers in America as before wee haue obserued in Nilus Niger and Zaire in Africa which breaking their bounds and driuing the Inhabitants sometimes to dwell on trees growing sometimes in their carkasses framed into Boats or Canoes therein to retire themselues till the waters are retired cause a cooling and refreshing to the Earth which they couer and shield by their inundations from the Sunnes angry arrowes As in a Limbeck a strong fire causeth abundance of vapours to be extracted out of herbes or other matter which being pressed and finding no issue turn into water and if the fire be smal it exhausteth the vapors as fast as it raiseth them So the Sun in his greatest strength exhaleth these plentifull vapours and distilleth them in showers which in lesse heat are of lesse quantitie and more easily consumed Without the Tropikes it is contrary for the Summer is dry the Winter moist the cause being the Suns weaknesse not able to concoct and disperse the vapours by the moist earth then easily yeelded which in his greater force in the Summer season wee see effected the like wee see in greene wood and dry on the fire It is no lesse worthy note that no part of the World hath so many so great Lakes and Riuers the vapours and exhalations whereof cannot but coole and moisten the neighbouring Elements of the Ayre and the Earth Againe the equall length of the Dayes and Nights perpetually sharing the time in equall portions causeth that the heat is not so vnequall as the Ancients dreamed The great Dewes also in the night which are greater them wee would thinke and comparable for wetting to pretty showers encrease the freshnesse and coolenesse Wee may adde hereunto the neighbour-hood of so huge an Ocean the proprietie of the Windes which in most places betweene the Tropikes are set and certaine no lesse then the Sunne and Tides and bring with them much refreshing Further the situation of the Land doth further the cold not a little in those hot Regions Contrariwise neere the Poles the continuance of the Sunne and long dayes make it hotter then in parts neerer the Sunne as in Russia then in England Yea the high ridges and tops of some Mountaines in the burning Zone are vnsufferable for cold alwayes hauing on them snow hayle and frozen waters the grasse withered and the men and beasts which do passe along that way for heere is no conuenient dwelling benummed with the extremity of cold Paries cùm proximus alget When the Mountaines are subiect to this degree of cold it cannot but temper the Neighbour Regions with some coolenesse at least Now to all these Reasons of the Temperature vnder the Line and betweene the Tropikes some adde the influence of some vnknowne Constellations Onely let this be remembred that the former hold not equally in all parts of the Torride Zone seeing that Nature hath diuersified her selfe in diuers places and by naturall exceptions hath bounded and limited those generall Rules In some places vnder the Line it raineth not at all in other some those cooling Windes are wanting neither hath euery Region Lakes Riuers or Mountaines to refresh them But of these particulars we shall take better view in their peculiar places In the same space the Windes are most-what Easterly and without the Tropikes Westerly so that the Mariners vse not to goe and returne the same way but obseruing the generall Windes seeke to make vse thereof accordingly The reason of this Easterly Winde vnder the Zodiake is ascribed to the motion of the Heauens the first Moueable drawing saith Acosta with his owne motion the inferiour Orbes yea euen those Elementarie of the Fire Ayre and where it findes no other obstacle of the Water also as some suppose But for the Ayre whereof wee now speciall speake the motion of the Comets circularly carried in the Ayre where also their motion is diuers as is obserued in the Planets doth sufficiently prooue Without the Tropikes from seuen and twentie to seuen and thirtie Degrees the Windes are said to be for the most part Westerly mooued as some thinke by the repercussion of the Ayre heere preuailing against that force of the Heauens which mastereth it within the Tropikes euen as wee see Waters being encountered with more force returne with an Eddie in a manner backe This of the Easterly Winds is to be vnderstood of the Sea for at Land though winds bee as before is said certaine and set yet that which is the generall Winde of one Country is not generall to all yea in the same Countrey
besides great store of Gold Cochinile Sugars Hides c. And at this day saith Acosta the Mines of Potozi yeeld the King a million of Siluer for his fift yeerely besides the wealth that groweth by Quicke-siluer and other Prerogatiues In the yeere 1574. were entred threescore and sixteene millions That which is wrought in the Countrey is not entred besides priuy conueyances How much differeth Potozi from the Mine Bebello in Spain one thousand and fiue hundred paces deepe admired and that iustly by Antiquitie for yeelding three hundred pounds weight of Siluer a day to Hannibal but with much more charges by reason of the intolerable paines in drawing out the waters which therein flowed and in Potozi are wanting But what will not this vnlouely loue of money doe Hereby Man encountreth the vast Ocean passeth the farthest and most contrarie climates drowneth Bootes and all his Teame buryeth himselfe in the bowels of the Earth raiseth new Heauens and seeketh his heauen where he cannot see heauen or light neere the bottomlesse bottomes of Hell remoueth Fountaines and Mountaines reduceth a new Chaos in the confusion of Elements the Earths intrals being towred in the Ayre and sacrificed to his hotter brother in Fiery purgations the Aire filing the darke hollowes and hels which it cannot see the Waters forced out of those possessions wherein they challenged succession and inheritance after the decease and remouing of the Earth all filled with Darknesse to bring to light those metals which possessing the possessors depriue them of the highest Light and brand them for the lowest Darknesse Precious perils where so many bodies are pined so many soules endangered so much Good lost for goods and Man for price setteth himselfe at the worst and basest price of all that hee hath How happy and golden was the outward state of these Indians before they accounted gold any part of their happinesse and found it the cause of their ruine Of meals Gold is esteemed most precious as most enduring both Age and Fire and least subiect to rust according to those Verses vni quoniam nil deperit Auro Igne velut solum consumit nulla vetustas Ac neque rubigo aut arugo conficit vlla Their Gold is found either in Graines which they call Pippins because they are like the Pippins or Seeds of Melons which is pure and hath no need of melting or in powder which is found in Riuers mixed with the soyle and sands for which Tagus Pactolus and Ganges haue been famous or else in stone being a veine that groweth and ingendereth intermixing it selfe with the stones Those Pippins or pieces of pure Gold found among the Rocks or Hils are sometimes very great Peter Martyr tels of one that weighed three thousand three hundred and ten Pezos and was with much people and treasure drowned in the ship called Boadilla being therewith surcharged in the returne homewards A fit Embleme for Christians which when they will lade themselues with this thicke clay drowne the soule in perdition and destruction Ouiedo who a long time held the Office of Proueditor for the Mines saith that hee saw two Graines of Gold one of which weighed seuen pounds and was in value 700. Castilians or Pezos the other fiue pounds was worth fiue hundred and many other of one two or three hundred Yet are not these Graines so welcome to the Miners as that in powder because this continueth and therfore in fine containeth more then the former He obserueth that Gold hath a farre brighter lustre in the naturall virginitie then when it hath passed the fire mans industry and that coles are often found very fresh where they find Gold which place he thinkes was sometimes the face of the Earth and by Time which conserueth coles as well as gold vnder the earth without corruption couered through showres bringing the earth from the higher places whereby hee supposeth it came to passe that in a virgin-Mine fifteene foot vnder the earth he once found two rings of the Indian fashion he addeth that the gold in stone will runne as small as a pin or threed and meeting with a hollow place filleth it and so guideth the Miner by thick and thin but alway pliant flexible like liquid waxe till the first sight of our aire breathes as from the couetous hard hearts of men this naturall hardnesse which it presenteth to vs The wild Indians had the Art of gilding their works with such dexterity that they seemed pure gold which mystery they performed with certayne herbs but would neuer teach it any Europaean The Indians in Hispaniola obserued a kinde of Religion in gathering their Gold as the Arabians in their Frankincense fasted and for twenty dayes space came not at their wiues otherwise thinking they should find none Columbus imitating the like superstition would suffer none to seeke this golden Idoll without those gilded Ceremonies of Confession and their Sacrament before receiued The greatest quantity is drawne at the Indies in the powder-gold The gold in stone is drawne out of the Mynes or Pits with great difficulty They refine powdred Gold in Basons washing it in many waters vntill the sand fall from it and the Gold as more heauy remayneth in the bottome They haue other meanes of refining it with Quick-siluer and strong Waters In the fleet 1585. the declaration of the firme land was twelue Cassons or Chests which was so many hundreth weights of Gold besides one thousand fifty and sixe Mares from New Spaine which was for the King only not mentioning that which came for Merchants and priuate men For the Siluer the second place is giuen to it among metals because next to Gold it is the most durable and least endammaged by the fire and in the sound and colour passeth the Gold The Mynes thereof are commonly in Mountaynes and Rocks seldome in plaines and Champaines Sometimes they find find it straggling in pieces not holding any continuing Veine sometimes it is fixed and spreadeth it selfe in depth and length like to great branches and armes of trees Strange it is that in some places the fire kindled with blowing of bellowes will not serue to refine the Siluer but they vse Furnaces called Guayras set in such places where the wind continually bloweth Thus in Peru the Mynes of Porco stoupe to artificiall fires which those Potozi scorne and contemne Potozi is a dry cold barren and vnpleasant soyle if the rich Mynes did not more then supply all those defects and make it a plentifull both habitation and Mart not fearing the Heauens disasters the cold Ayre the frowning Earth the fell Showres so long as the Siluer hooke can be sufficient attractiue for forreine store Hence it is that they feele no want of store and yet haue no store but of want the Mynes excepted which I know not how are both store and want according as mens minds in a second refining can digest and dispose them
grow long they are tall nimble comely §. II. Of their Customes Manners and Superstitions THey warre alway one Country vpon another and kill all the men they can take the women and children they bring vp they cut off the haire of the head together with the skin and dry it to reserue the same as a monument of their valour After their returne from the warres if they be victorious they make a solemne Feast which lasteth three dayes with Dances and Songs to the honour of the Sunne For the Sunne and Moone are their Deities Their Priests are Magicians also and Physicians with them They haue many Hermaphrodites which are put to great drudgerie and made to beare all their carriages In necessitie they will eate coales and put sand in their Pottage Three moneths in the yeere they forsake their houses and liue in the Woods against this time they haue made their prouision of victuall drying the same in the smoke They meete in consultation euery morning in a great common house whither the King resorteth and his Senators which after salutation sit downe in a round They consult with the Iawas or Priest And after this they drinke Cassine which is very hote made of the leaues of a certaine Tree which none may taste that hath not before made his valour euident in the Warres It sets them in a sweat and taketh away hunger and thirst foure and twentie houres after When a King dyeth they bury him very solemnely and vpon his graue they set the Cup wherein he was wont to drinke and round about the graue they sticke many Arrowes weeping and fasting three dayes together without ceasing All the Kings which were his friends make the like mourning and in token of their loue cut off halfe their haire which they otherwise weare long knit vp behind both men and women During the space of sixe Moones so they reckon their moneths there are certaine women appointed which bewayle his death crying with a loud voyce thrice a day at morning noone and euening All the goods of this King are put into his house which afterwards they set on fire The like is done with the Goods of the Priests who are buried in their Houses and then both House and Goods burned The women that haue lost their Husbands in the Warres present themselues before the King sitting on their heeles with great lamentations suing for reuenge and they with other Widowes spend some dayes in mourning at their husbands graues and carry thither the Cup wherein he had wont to drinke they cut also their haire neere the eares strewing the same in the Sepulchre There they cast also their weapons They may not marry againe till their haire be growne that it may couer their shoulders When any is sicke they lay him flat on a forme and with a sharpe shell rasing off the skin of his forehead sucke out the bloud with their mouthes spitting it out into some Vessell The women that giue sucke or are great with child come to drinke the same especially if it be of a lusty young man that their milke may be bettered and the child thereby nourished may be stronger Ribault at his first being there had fixed a certaine Pillar of stone engrauen with the Armes of France on a Hill in an Iland which Laudonniere at his comming found the Floridians worshipping as their Idoll with kisses kneeling and other Deuotions Before the same lay diuers Offerings of fruits of the Country Roots which they vsed eyther for food or Physicke vessels full of sweet Oyles with Bowes and Arrowes It was girt about with Garlands of Flowres and boughes of the best trees from the top to the bottome King Athore himselfe performed the same honour to this Pillar that hee receiued of his Subiects The King Athore was a goodly personage higher by a foot and halfe then any of the French representing a kind of Maiestie and grauitie in his demeanure He had married his owne Mother and had by her diuers Children of both sexes but after she was espoused to him his Father Satourioua did not touch her This Satourioua when he went to warre in the presence of the French vsed these Ceremonies The Kings his coadiutors sitting around hee placed himselfe in the midst at his right hand had a fire and at his left two vessels full of water Then did hee expresse indignation and anger in his lookes gesture hollow murmurings and loud cryes answered with the like from his Souldiers and taking a woodden dish turned himselfe to the Sunne as thence desiring victorie and that as he now shed the water in the dish so he might shed the bloud of his Enemies Hurling therefore the water with great violence into the Ayre and therewith besprinkling his Souldiers he said Doe you thus with the bloud of our Enemies and powring the water which was in the other vessell on the fire So saith hee may you extinguish your foes and bring backe the skins of their heads Outina or Vtina another King was an Enemie to this Satourioua he in his expedition which hee made against his Enemies wherein he was assisted by the French consulted with this Magician about his successe He espying a Frenchmans Target demandeth the same and in the mids of the Armie placeth it on the ground drawing a circle fiue foote ouer about it adding also certaine notes and characters then did he set himselfe vpon the Target sitting vpon his heeles mumbling I know not what with variety of gestures about the space of a quarter of an houre after which he appeared so transformed into deformed shapes that he looked not like a man wreathed his limbes his bones cracking with other actions seeming supernaturall At last he returnes himselfe as it were weary and astonished and comming out of the Circle saluted the King and told him the number of their Enemies and place of their encamping which they found very true This King was called Helata Outina which signifieth a King of Kings and yet had but a few hundreths of men in his Armie which he conducted in their rankes himselfe going alone in the mids They dry the armes and legges and crownes of their Enemies which they haue slaine to make solemne triumph at their returne which they doe fastning them on Poles pitched in the ground the men and women sitting round about and the Magician with an Image in his hand mumbling curses against the Enemie ouer-against him are three men kneeling one of which beateth a stone with a club and answereth the Magician at euery of his imprecations the other two sing and make a noyse with certaine Rattles They sow or set their Corne rather as in Virginia and haue two Seed-times and two Haruests which they bring into a publike Barne or common Store-house as they doe the rest of their victuals none fearing to be beguiled of his Neighbour Thus doe these Barbarians enioy that content attended with sobrietie and simplicitie which
Medowes Fish and other things all very white which were the signes their God had giuen them of their promised Land In the night following Vitzliputzli appeared in a dreame to an ancient Priest saying That they should goe seeke out a Tunall in the Lake which grew out of a stone vpon which they should see an Eagle feeding on small Birds which they should hold for the place where their City should be built to become famous through the world Hereupon the next day they all assembled and diuiding themselues into bands made that search with great diligence and deuotion In their search they met with the former Water-course not white as it was then but red like bloud diuiding it selfe into two streames one of which was an obscure Azure At last they espied the Eagle with wings displayed toward the Sunne compassed about with many rich feathers of diuers colours and holding in his Tallons a goodly Bird. At this sight they fell on their knees and worshipped the Eagle with great demonstrations of ioy and thankes to Vitzliputzli For this cause they called the Citie which there they founded Tenoxtiltan which signifies Tunal on a stone and till this day carry in their Armes an Eagle vpon a Tunal with a bird in his Tallon The next day following by common consent they made an Heremitage adioyning to the Tunal of the Eagle that the Arke of their God might rest there till they might haue meanes to build him a sumptuous Temple This they made of Flagges and Turfes couered with Straw Afterwards they consulted to buy of their neighbours Stone Timber Lime in exchange of Fish Fowles Frogges and other things which they hunted for in the Lake by which meanes they procuring necessaries built a Chappell of Lime and Stone and laboured to fill vp part of the Lake with rubbish The Idoll commanded that they should diuide themselues into foure principall quarters about this house and each part build therein to which he enioyned certaine Gods to his appointment called Calpultecco which is Quarter Gods This was the beginning of Mexico §. II. The Historie of eight of their first Kings THis diuision seemed not equall to some of the Ancients who valued their deserts farre aboue their allotted portion who therefore separated themselues and went to Tlatedulco whose practices against the Mexicans caused them to chuse a King to which Soueraigntie was chosed Acamapitzli Nephew to the King of Culhuacan and of the Mexican bloud by the Fathers side Him by Embassage they demanded and obtained in the name of their God with this answere from the King of Culhuacan Let my Grand-child goe to serue your God and be his Lieutenant to rule and gouerne his Creatures by whom we liue who is the Lord of Night Day and Windes Let him goe and bee Lord of the Water and Land and possesse the Mexican Nations c. Hee was solemnely welcommed by the Mexicans welcome thou art saith an Orator vnto him in their name to this poore House and City amongst the Weedes and Mud where thy poore Fathers Grand-fathers and Kinsfolkes endure what it pleaseth the Lord of things created Remember Lord thou commest to bee our defence and to bee the resemblance of Vitzliputzli not to rest thy selfe but to endure a new charge with many words to that effect expressed in the Mexican Histories reserued by tradition the children to that end learning them by heart and these being as Presidents to them which learned the Art Oratorie After this they were sworne and hee crowned The Crowne was like that of the Dukes of Venice His name Acamapitzly signifieth a handfull of Reedes and therefore they carrie in their Armories a hand holding many Arrowes of Reedes The Mexicans at this time were tributaries to the Tapanecans whose chiefe Citie was Azcapuzalco who iudging according to the nature of Enuie and Suspition that they were so much weaker how much the stronger they saw their neighbours thought to oppresse them by a strange policie in imposing an vncouth and in shew impossible tribute which was that they should bring the Tapunecan King a Garden planted and growing in the water In this their distresse Vitzliputzli taught them to doe it by casting earth vpon Reedes and Grasse laid in the Lake and planting in this mouing Garden Maiz Figs Gourds and other things which at the time appointed they carried growing and ripe a thing often since proued in that Lake emulous no lesse of that glorie to be accounted one of the Wonders in that New World then those pensill Gardens towred vp in the Ayre at Babylon both heere and there the reason of Man according to his naturall priuiledge subiecting to his vse the most rebellious Elements of Ayre and Water Acamapitzli the Mexican King after he had raigned fortie yeeres dyed leauing it to their choice to chuse his Successor They chose his Sonne Vitzilovitli which signifieth a rich Feather they anointed him with an Oyntment which they call Diuine being the same wherewith they anointed their Idoll Of their Coronation thus Lopez de Gomara saith that this was done by the High Priest attired in his Pontificalibus attended with many others in Surplices the Oyntment was as blacke as Inke They blessed him and sprinkled him foure times with Holy-Water made at the time of the Consecration of their God Then they put vpon his head a Cloth painted with the bones and skuls of dead men clothed him with a blacke garment and vpon that a blue both painted with figures of skuls and bones Then did they hang on him Laces and bottles of Powders whereby he was deliuered from diseases and Witchcrafts Then did he offer Incense to Vitzliputzli and the High Priest tooke his Oath for the maintenance of their Religion to maintayne Iustice and the Lawes to cause the Sunne to giue his light and the Clouds to raine and the earth to be fruitfull c Lastly followed the acclamations of the people crying God saue the King with dances c. He being crowned and hauing receiued homage of his Subiects obtained the King of Azcapuzalco his daughter to wife by whom he had a sonne called Chimalpopoca and procured a relaxation of Tribute from his father in Law Hee was deuout in his Superstitions hauing raigned thirteene yeeres he dyed His son then but ten yeeres old was chosen in his roome but was soone after slaine by the Inhabitants of Azcapuzalco The Mexicans inraged with this iniury assembled themselues and an Orator among many other words tels them That the Sunne is eclipsed and darkened for a time but will returne suddenly in the choice of another King They agreed vpon Izcoalt which signifieth a Snake of Rsors the sonne of Acamapixtli their first King The common people were earnest with this new King for peace with the Tapanecans for the obtaining whereof they would carry their God in his Litter for an intercessor This was hindered by Tlacaellec the Kings Nephew a resolute and valiant
of Iucatan Their Houses Temples apparell and trade of Marchandize all one their houses somewhere couered with Reeds and where Quarries were with Slate many houses had Marble pillars They found Ancient Towres there and the ruines of such as had been broken downe and destroyed there was one whereto they ascended by eighteene steps or staires The Gouernour whom they supposed to be a Priest conducted them to the Towre in the top whereof they erected a Spanish Banner and called also the Island Santa Cruce In the Towre they found chambers wherein were marble Images and some of Earth in the similitude of Beares These they inuoked with loude singing all in one tune and sacrificed vnto them with fumes and sweet Odours worshipping them as their Houshold Gods There they performed their diuine ceremonies and adoration they were also circumcised Gomara saith That heere and at Xiculanco the Diuell vsed to appeare visibly and that these two were great in estimation for holinesse euery Citie had their Temple or Altar where they worshipped their Idols amongst which were many Crosses of Wood and Brasse whereby some conceiue that some Spaniards had recourse hither when Roderigo was defeated and Spaine ouer-runne by the Saracens In both these places they sacrificed men which Cortes perswaded them to cease The Temple in Cosumil or Acusamil was built like a square Towre broad at the foot with steps round about and from the middest vpward were strait the top was hollow and couered with straw it had foure windowes and Porches In the hollow place was their Chappell where stood their Idols In a Temple by the Sea-side was an vncouth Idoll great and hollow fastened in the wall with lime it was made of Earth Behinde this Idols back was the Vestry where the ornaments of the Temple were kept The Priests had a litle secret doore hard adioyning to the Image by which they crept into his hollow panch and thence answered the people that came thither with Prayers and Petitions making the simple people beleeue it was the voyce of the god which therefore they honoured more then any other with many perfumes and sweet smels They offered Bread Fruit Quailes bloud and of other Birds Dogs and sometimes Men. The fame of this Idoll and Oracle brought many Pilgrimes to Acusamil from many places At the foot of this Temple was a plot like a Church-yard well walled and garnished with Pinnacles in the middest whereof stood a Crosse of tenne foot long which they adored for the god of raine At all times when they wanted raine they would goe thither on Procession deuoutly and offered to the Crosse Quailes sacrificed no Sacrifice being so acceptable They burnt sweet Gumme to perfume him with besprinkling the same with water and by this meanes they thought to obtaine raine They could neuer know saith Gomara how that the God of the Crosse came amongst them for in all those parts of India there is no memory of any preaching of the Gospell that had beene at any time What others thinke and what some Indians answered concerning it is said before Benzo writeth That they did not eat the flesh of those men which they sacrificed and that they wre first subdued by Francis Montegius whose cruelties were such that Alquinotep a Cacique or Indian Lord aboue an hundred and ten yeeres old and a Christian told him That when he was a yong man there was a sicknesse of wormes that they thought all would haue dyed they were not onely eiected by vomite but did eate out themselues a passage thorow mens bodies and not long before the Spaniards arriuall they had two battels with the Mexicans in which an hundred and fiftie thousand men perished But all this was light in respect of that Spanish burthen Guatimala commeth next to our consideration a Prouince of pleasant Ayre and fertile soyle where groweth abundance of their Cacao which is a fruit that serueth the Indians for meat drinke and money The Citie which beareth the same name was first at the foot of a Vulcano or Hill which casteth fire but because in the yeere 1542. on the sixe and twentieth day of December a Lake hidden in the bowels of that Hill brake forth in many places and with a terrible violence ruined the most part of the Citie it was remoued two miles thence together with the Episcopall Sea and the Kings Councell But in the yeere 1581. there issued from another Vulcan two miles off or somewhat more such an eruption of fire as threatned to consume euery thing The day following followed such a showre of Ashes that is filled the Valley and almost buried the Citie And yet were not all the throwes passed of this Hils monstrous trauels but the yeere after for the space of foure twenty houres thence issued a streame of fire that dranke vp fiue streames of water burned the stones and Rockes rent the Ayre with thunders and made it a wauing and mouing Sea of fire Before that first eruption of waters some Indians came and told the Bishop that they had heard an vncredible noyse and murmuring at the foot of the Hill but he reproued them saying they should not trouble themselues with vaine and superstitious feares about two of the clocke in the night following happened that deluge which carried away many houses and whatsoeuer stood in the way in which 520. Spaniards perished and scarce any mention of the houses remained It is worthy recitall which Benzo and Gomara haue recorded that Peter Aluarado the Gouernour who by licence of the Pope had married two sisters the Ladie Frances and the Ladie Beatrice della Culna hauing perished by a mischance his wife not onely painted her house with Sorrowes blacke Liuerie and abstained from meat and sleeps but in a mad impietie said God could now doe her no greater euill Yet for all this her sorrow shee caused the Citizens to be sworne vnto her Gouernment a new thing in the Indies Soone after this inundation hapned which first of all assailed the Gouernours house and caused this impotent and impatient Ladie now to bethinke her of a deuotion and betake her to her Chappell with eleuen of her Maids where leaping on the Altar and clasping about an Image the force of the water ruined the Chappell whereas if she had stayed in her bed-chamber she had escaped death They tell of vncouth noysts and hideous apparition which then were seene Benzo obserued by his owne experience that this Country is much subiect to Earth-quakes The Guatimalans in manner of life resemble the Mexicans and Nicaraguans Fondura or Hondura is next to Guatimala wherein were saith Benzo at the Spaniards first comming thither foure hundred thousand Indians but when I was there scarcely eight thousand were left the rest being slaine or sold or consumed by the Mines and those which are left both heere and in other places place their habitation as farre as they can where the Spaniard shall be no eye-sore
Kingdome Kings and City of Marocco ibid. § II. Of the Kings of the Seriffian Family p. 695 § III. Of the ciuill Wars in Barbary and of some other parts of that Kingdome pag. 697 CHAP. XII OF the Arabians populations and depopulations in Afrike and of the Naturall Africans and of the beginnings and proceedings of the Mahumetan Superstition in Africa of the Portugals Forces and Exploits therein pag. 701 CHAP. XIII OF Biledulgerid and Sarra otherwise called Numidia and Libya pag. 706 CHAP. XIIII OF the Land of Negros pag. 709 § I. Of the Riuer Niger Gualata Senaga and Guinea ibid. § II. Obseruations of those parts out of Cadamosta and other ancient Nauigators pag. 712 § III. Other obseruations of later Times by Engglishmen and others pag. 715 § IIII. Of the Marriages Manners Religion Funerals Gouernment and other Rites of the Guineans collected out of a late Dutch Authour pag. 717 § V. Obseruations of the Coast and Inland Countries out of Barrerius and Leo and of the cause of the Negroes blacknesse pag. 721 THE SEVENTH BOOKE Of Aethiopia and the African Ilands and of their RELIGIONS CHAP. I. OF Aethiopia Superior and the Antiquities thereof pag. 725 § I. Of the name and diuision of Aethiopia ibid. § II. Of the Nations neere the falls of Nilus and of Meroe pag. 727 CHAP. II. A Continuation of the Aethiopian Antiquities and of the Queene of Saba p. 730 CHAP. III. OF Presbyter Iohn and of the Priest-Iohns in Asia whether that descended of these pag. 734 CHAP. IIII. RElations of the Aethiopian Empire collected out of Aluares Bermudesius and other Authors pag 738 CHAP. V. RElations of Aethiopian rarities collected out of Frier Luys a Spanish Authour pag. 743 § I. Of the Hill Amara ibid. § II. His liberall reports of the Library and incredible Treasures therein pag. 744 § III. Of the Princes of the bloud there kept and of the Election of the Emperour pag. 745 § IIII. Of their Schooles and Cities pag. 747 CHAP. VI. RElations of Aethiopia by Godignus and other Authors lately published seeming more credible pag. 749 § I. The seuerall Countries of Abassia their Scituation Inhabitants Riuers and Lakes ibid. § II. Of the Soile Fruits Creatures Seasons and Climate pag. 750 § III. Of their Customes in Priuate Life and Publike Gouernment and their late Miseries pag. 751 § IIII. Of the Sabaeans and their Queene which visited Salomon pag. 753 CHAP. VII OF other Countries betweene the Red Sea and Benomotapa pag. 754 § I. Of Adel Adea Zanzibar Melinde ibid. § II. The Portugals Exploits in Mombaza and of the Imbij pag. 755 § III. Of Quiloa Sofala and Ophir pag. 756 § IIII. Of Monoemugi the Moores Baduines Caphars in these parts pag. 757 CHAP. VIII OF Benomotapa and the parts adioyning pag. 759 § I. Of the Empire of Monomotapa ibid. § II. Of Caphraria the Cape of Good Hope and Soldania pag. 761 CHAP. IX OF the Kingdome of Congo and the other Kingdoms and Nations adioyning p. 765 § I. Of Angola ibid. § II. Of Congo pag. 766 § III. Of their Heathenish Rites also of their strange Trees and of the I le Loanda pag. 768 CHAP. X. OF Loango the Anzichi Giachi and the great Lakes in those parts of the World pag. 770 § I. Of Loango ibid. § II. Of the Anzigues pag. 772 § III. Of the Giacchi or Iagges ibid. § IIII. Of the Lakes and Riuers in these parts of Africa pag. 773 CHAP. XI OF the Seas and Ilands about Africa the ancient and moderne obseruations Nauigations and Discoueries pag. 775 § I. Of the Red Sea and why it is so called ibid. § II. Of the chiefe Townes and Ilands in the Red Sea pag. 777 § III. Of Socotora Madagascar and other Ilands on the Easterne Coast of Africa pag. 778 CHAP. XII OF the Ilands of Africa from the Cape hitherwards pag. 781 § I. Of Saint Helena Thomee Cape de Verd and diuers others betwixt them and of the Weeds and Calmes of those Seas ibid. § II. Of the Canaries Madera and Porto Santo pag. 783 § III. Extracts taken out of the obseruations of the Right Worshipfull Sir Edmund Scory Knight of the Pike of Tenariffe and other Rarities which he obserued there pag. 784 § IIII. Of Malta and the Nauigations about Africa pag. 788 AMERICA THE EIGHTH BOOKE Of New France Virginia Florida New Spaine with other Regions of America Mexicana and of their Religions CHAP. I. OF the New World and why it is named America and the West Indies with certaine generall Discourses of the Heauens Ayre Water and Earth in those parts pag. 791 § I. Of the names giuen to this part of the World and diuers opinions of the Ancients concerning the Torrid Zone ibid. § II. Of the nature of Metals in generall of Gold Siluer Quicksiluer and the plentie and Mines thereof in America pag. 795 CHAP. II. OF the first Knowledge Habitation and Discoueries of the New World and the rare Creatures therein found Beasts Birds Trees Herbs and Seeds pag. 798 § I. Whether the Ancients had any knowledge of America and whence the Inhabitants first came ibid. § II. Of Christopher Colon or Columbus his first Discouerie and three other Voyages pag. 801 § III. Of the Beasts Fowles and Plants in America pag. 804 CHAP. III. OF the Discoueries of the North parts of the New World and toward the Pole and of Greene Land or New Land Groen-Land Estotiland Meta incognita and other places vnto New France pag. 807 § I. Of the Discoueries made long since by Nicolo and Antonio Zeni ibid. § II. Discoueries made by Sebastian Cabot Cortregalis Gomes with some notes of Groenland pag. 809 § III. Discoueries by Sir Martin Frobisher pag 811 § IIII. Discoueries by Iohn Dauis George Weymouth and Iames Hall to the North-west pag. 813 § V. Of King IAMES his New-land alias Greene-land and of the Whale and Whale-fishing pag. 814 § VI. Of Hudsons Discoueries and death pag. 817 § VII Of Buttons and Baffins late Discoueries pag. 819 CHAP. IIII. OF New-found-land Noua Francia Arambec and other Countries of America extending to Virginia pag. 821 § I. English Discoueries and Plantations in New-found-land ibid. § II. The Voyages and obseruations of Iaques Cartier in Noua Francia pag. 823 § III. Late Plantations of New France and Relations of the Natiues pag. 825 CHAP. V. OF Virginia pag. 828 § I. The Preface Sir Walter Raleighs Plantation and the Northerne Colonie ibid. § II. Of the Southerne Plantation and Colonies and many causes alleaged of the ill successe thereof at the first pag. 831 § III. Of the Soyle People Beasts Commodities and other obseruations of Virginia pag. 834 § IIII. Of the present estate of Virginia and the English there residing pag 836 CHAP. VI. OF the Religion and Rites of the Virginians pag. 838 § I. Of the Virginian Rites related by Master Hariot pag. ibid. § II. Obseruations of their Rites by Captaine Smith and others pag. 839 §
Father of Lights himselfe thus conuinceth vs of darknesse Where is the way saith he where light dwelleth And By what way is the light parted And if we cannot conceiue that which is so euidently seene and without which nothing is seene and euident how inaccessible is that Light wherein the Light of this light dwelleth Euen this light is more then admirable life of the Earth ornament of the Heauens beautie and smile of the World eye to our Eyes ioy of our Hearts most common pure and perfect of visible creatures first borne of this World and endowed with a double portion of earthly and heauenly Inheritance shining in both which contayneth sustayneth gathereth seuereth purgeth perfecteth renueth and preserueth all things repelling dread expelling sorrow Shaking the wicked out of the Earth and lifting vp the hearts of the godly to looke for a greater and more glorious light greatest instrument of Nature resemblance of Grace Type of Glorie and bright Glasse of the Creators brightnesse This Light GOD made by his Word not vttered with sound of syllables nor that which in the beginning and therefore before the beginning was with GOD and was GOD but by his powerfull effecting calling things that were not as though they were and by his calling or willing causing them to be thereby signifying his will as plainly and effecting it as easily as a word is to a man That vncreated superessentiall light the eternall Trinitie commanded this light to bee and approued it as good both in it selfe and to the future Creatures and separated the same from darknesse which seemes a meere priuation and absence of light disposing them to succeed each other in the Hemisphere which by what motion or reuolution it was effected the three first dayes who can determine Fond it is to reason a facto ad fieri from the present order of constitution to the Principles of that institution of the Creatures whiles they were yet in making as Simplicius and other Philosophers may I terme them or Atheists haue absurdly done in this and other parts of the Creation And this was the first dayes Worke THE SECOND DAYES WORKE IN the second GOD said Let there bee a Firmament The word Rakiah translated Firmament signifieth expansum or expansionem a stretching out designing that vast and wide space wherein are the watery clouds here mentioned and those lights which follow in the fourteenth Verse by him placed in expanso howsoeuer some vnderstand it only of the Ayre The separating the waters vnder this Firmament from the waters aboue the Firmament some interprete of waters aboue the Heauens to refresh their exceeding heat or of I know not what Chrystaline Heauen some of spirituall substances whom Basil confuteth Origen after his wont Allegorically Most probable it seemeth that Moses intendeth the separation of those waters here below in their Elementarie Seat from those aboue vs in the clouds to which Dauid alluding saith Hee hath stretched out the Heauens like a Curten and laid the beames of his Chambers in the waters This separating of the waters is caused in the Ayrie Region by the Aethereall in which those forces are placed which thus exhale and captiuate these waters That matter before endued with lightning qualitie was now in this second day as it seemeth attenuated extended aboue and beyond that myrie heape of Earthywaters and both the Aether and Aire formed of the same first matter and not of a fift Essence which some haue deuised to establish the Heauens Eternitie both Twins of the Philosophers braines And wherein doe not these differ from each other touching the Celestiall Nature Roundnesse Motion Number Measure and other difficulties most of which are by some denyed Diuersitie of motions caused the Ancients to number eight Orbes Ptolemie on that ground numbred nine Alphonsus and Tebitius ten Copernicus finding another motion reuiued the opinion of Aristarchus Samius of the Earths mouing c. Others which therein dissent from him yet in respect of that fourth motion haue added an eleuenth Orbe which the Diuines make vp euen twelue by their Empyreall immoueable Heauen And many deny this assertion of Orbes supposing them to haue beene supposed rather for instructions sake then for any reall being And Moses here saith expansum as Dauid also calleth it a Curtaine which in such diuersitie of Orbes should rather haue beene spoken in the plurall number The Sidereus Nuncius of Galilaeus Galilaeus tels vs of foure new Planets Iupiters attendants obserued by the helpe of his Glasse which would multiply the number of Orbes further A better Glasse or neerer sight and site might perhaps find more Orbes and thus should we runne in Orbem in a Circular endlesse Maze of Opinions But I will not dispute this question or take it away by auerring the Starres animated or else moued by Intelligentiae A learned Ignorance shall better content me and for these varieties of motions I will with Lactantius ascribe them to GOD the Architect of Nature and Co-worker therewith by wayes Naturall but best knowne to himselfe Neither list I to dance after their Pipe which ascribe a Musicall harmonie to the Heauens THE THIRD DAYES WORKE ANd thus were the Aethereall and Ayrie parts of the World formed in the Third Day followeth the perfecting of the two lowest Elements Water and Earth which as yet were confused vntill that mightie Word of GOD did thus both diuorce and marry them compounding of them both this one Globe which he called Dry Land and Seas I call it a Globe with the Scriptures and the best Philosophers for which respect Numa built the Temple of Vesta round Neither yet is it absolutely round and a perfect Spheare but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 rather Strabo affirmeth hauing saith Scaliger 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 depressed Vallies extended Plaines swelling Hillockes high-mounting Mountaines long courses of Riuers and other varieties of Nature and Art which all in so huge a masse rather beautifie the roundnesse then take it away The Eclipse of the Moone later seene in the East then in the West the round shaddow of the Earth which darkeneth it the rising of the Sunne and Starres sooner in the East then West the vnequall eleuation of the Pole and the Northerne Constellations appearing to vs the Southerne continually depressed all these obseruing due proportions according to the difference of places and Countries yea the compassing of the Earth by many Mariners argue the round compasse thereof against Patritius his difformitie or that deformitie which other Philosophers haue ascribed thereto The equalitie or inequalitie of dayes according to the neerenesse or farrenesse from the Equinoctiall holding proportion as well by Sea as Land as doth also the eleuation of the Pole and not being longer wher 's a quarter of the World is Sea then if it were all Earth doe confute the
pretended difformititie by Hils Dales Waters compared with the Diameter of this Globe is not so much as the inequalicie in an Apple or a carued Bowle or quilted Ball which yet we call round And this diuersitie serueth not onely for ornament but for more largenesse of Habitation varietie of Ayre and Earth and for pleasure and profit Thus doth this Globe swell out to our vse for which it enlargeth it selfe and seemeth large to vs being in respect of the Vniuerse lesse then little How much thereof is couered with waters How much not at all discouered How much desart desolate And now many millions are they which share the rest of this little among them And yet how many thousands glorie of the greatnesse of their possessions All this Globe is demonstrable to be but a point and in comparison nothing to that wide wide Canopie of Heauen a mans possession but a point and as nothing to the Earth a man of possessions but a point and in a manner nothing to his possessions and as Socrates said sometimes to Alcibiades few can shew their Lands in an vniuersall Map where a whole Region occupieth a small roome and yet how couetous how proud is dust and ashes of dust and earth not withstanding the little we haue while we liue and that lesse which shall haue and possesse vs in a Prison of three Cubits being dead Well did one compare this our grosser and drossier World to an Ant-hill and men the Inhabitants to so many Pismires in the varietie of their diuersified studies toyling and turmoyling themselues therein Scipio seemed ashamed of the Romane Empire as seeming but a point of the Earth which it selfe was but a point And yet how readie are many to sell Heauen for Earth That largenesse and continuance beyond all names of time and place for this momentany possession of almost nothing although they haue Hell and Deuill and all in the bargaine Let this morall obseruation entertaine our Reader perhaps tyred in these rigid Disputes and now let vs returne to the naturall disposition and constitution of this Globe in which the Earth was couered with varietie of Plants and Fruits which had beene before couered with slimy waters God commanded and the Waters which yet oppressed and by their effusion and confusion did tyrannize rather then orderly subdue and gouerne this inferiour myrie masse were partly receiued into competent channels and there also gathered on swelling heapes where though they menace a returne of the old Chaos both by their noyse and waues yet hath GOD stablished his Commandement vpon it and set barres and doores and said Hitherto shalt thou come and no further and here shall it stay thy proud waues Otherwise The Deepes which then couered it as a Garment would now stand aboue the Mountaines At his rebuke they flee who with fetters of sand to shew his power in weaknesse with a Miracle in Nature chaineth vp this inraged Tyrant that the Creatures might haue a meet place of Habitation Thus did not only the dry Land appeare but by the same hand was enriched with Herbes and Trees enabled in their mortall condition to remayne immortall in their kinde And here beginneth Moses to declare the Creation of compound bodies hitherto busied in the Elements THE FOVRTH DAYES WORKE NOw when ehe Lord had made both Plants Trees and Light without the influence yea before the being of the Sunne Moone or Starres he now framed those fiery Balls and glorious Lights whereby the Heauens are beautified the Ayre enlightned the Seas ruled and the Earth made fruitfull Thus he did the fourth day after those other things created lest some foolish Naturalist should binde his mightie hand in Natures bands seeing these Lights now become the chiefe Officers in Natures Court That shining before dispersed was vnited in these bodies whether by refraction of those former beames by these solid Globes or by gathering that fiery substance into them or by both or by other meanes I leaue to others coniectures Many are the Dreames of Philosophers some esteeming them Fire some Earth others Clouds and others Stones fired Heraclides and the Pythagoreans deemed each starre a World They are commonly holden Round simple lucide bodies the most compact and condensate parts of their Orbs or of that Aethereall Region of and in which they are bright flames not of this our fire which deuoureth and consumeth for the whole Ocean would not serue the Sunne alone for a Draught nor the Earth with all her store for a Breake-fast but quickning and nourishing Let vs a little consider of their Greatnesse Swiftnesse Number Influence For the first Ptolomey measured the Sunnes greatnesse 1663 8 times as much as the whole Terrestriall Globe Copernicus whom Scaliger calleth Alterum aeui nostri Ptolomeum 162. Tycho Brahe 140. The Moone is holden by Ptolomeus 39. times lesse then the Earth by Copernicus 43. by Tycho 42. Albategnius and Alfraganus haue added their opinions of the rest therefore diuiding them into sixe rankes or formes of differing magnitudes wherein as they somewhat differ from each other so much more from Tycho Brahe that Learned Dane whose costs and paines in this Science are admirable But Salomon wiser then they all had fore-told that the Heauens in height and the Earth in deepnesse and the Kings heart none can search out that is exactly and absolutely as appeareth in the differing opinions both of the Earths Circuit and Diameter and of the Altitude of the Heauens and consequently of the quantitie of the Starres which must presuppose the former They agree not in the order of the Planets nor how many Semi-diameters of the Earth the Heauen is eleuated which after Ptolomeys Hypotheses are 20000. after Tychos reckoning 14000. Hence it is that the quantitie and the swiftnesse is much more after the former then after this later opinion which doth better salue the incrediblenesse thereof then fayning a Giant-like labour as Ramus calleth it of the Earths continuall rolling The number of Starres some haue reckoned 1600. others 1022. and Tycho Brahe more The Iewes out of their Cabalists reckon 290160. Galileus his Glasse hath made them innumerable in descrying infinite numbers otherwise not visible to vs and especially the Galaxia full of them Yea God himselfe propounds it to Abraham whom Iosephus cals a great Astronomer as a thing impossible to number them It is his owne Royall Prerogatiue He counteth the number of the Starres and bringeth out their Armies by number and calleth them all by their names The end why GOD placed them in the Firmament Moses expresseth To separate the Day from the Night and to be for signes and for seasons and for dayes and for yeares and for lights in the Firmament of the Heauen to giue light vpon the Earth Their influence and effects are in Scripture mentioned neither can any iustly deny the same in the Elements
and Elementary bodies the Stoicall Fate the Chaldean Iewish and Arabian Fancies are now disclaymed euen by those Learned which maintayne in our dayes Iudiciall Astrologie or commend the same Neither can it agree with Christian Religion to subiect the will of Man to any externall naturall force nor with reason in matters contingent and casuall to make them naturall Arbiters nor will I easily beleeue that particular euents can be fore-told from generall causes especially in the affaires and fortunes of men Where the numbers substances faculties actions of these stars are weakly or not at al known vnto vs as hath beene shewed it is like as to say how many and what kind of Chickens a Hen will hatch when wee see not all nor scarce know any of the Egges vnder her The swiftnesse of the Heauens Wheele which euen in the moment of obseruing is past obseruing the vanitie of our Oracle-Almanacks which commonly speake doubtfully or falsely of the weather the infinitenesse almost of causes concurring which are diuersly qualified the weakenesse of those foundations on which this Art is grounded the force of hereditarie qualities descended from Parents of custome and education in forming mens manners the disagreements of the Astrologers among themselues the new from the old and all from the Truth as Experience in all ages hath shewed And lastly the prohibition of the same by Scripture Fathers Councels Lawes yea the learnedest of the Chaldeans and other Astronomers themselues as Eusebius reciteth of Bardanes and Rob. Moses ben Maimon hauing read all the Arabians workes hereof answereth the Iewish Astrologers are strong arguments against the Starre-gazers predictions But let Picus Mirandula his twelue Bookes against Astrologie and Ioseph Scaligers Preface before Manilius be well weighed of such as dote on or doubt of this Genethliacall ridiculous vanitie if not impious villany as those Authors and others prooue it not by the errors of some Chiefetaines and Champions onely but of the Arte it selfe and the whole Senate of Iewish Saracenical and Christian Astrologers together hatching a lye The signes and constellations which Astronomers obserue in and on each side the Zodiakes would be too prolixe in this discourse already tedious as likewise those alterations which some haue obserued in some starres But those two great Lights the two eyes of the Heauens the greater light to rule the day and the lesse to rule the night which is called great not so much for the quantitie wherein it is lesse then many starres as for the operation and seeming to the sense doe command mine eyes to take more speciall view of their beauties How willing could I be like Phaton to mount the Chariot of the Sunne which commeth forth as a Bridegroome out of his Chamber and reioyceth like a mightie man to runne his race King of Starres enthronized in the mids of the Planets heart of the World eye of the Heauens brightest gemme of this goodly Ring father of dayes yeeres seasons meteors Lord of light fountaine of heate which seeth all things and by whom all things see which lendeth light to the starres and life to the World high Steward of Natures Kingdome and liueliest visible Image of the liuing inuisible God And dazled with this greater light I would reflect mine eyes to that reflexion of this light in the sober siluer countenance of the silent Moone which whether it haue any natiue shining though weake as Zanchius and Bartholinus hold or whether it bee an aethereall earth with Mountaines and Vallies and other not elementary Elements compact of the dregs of the aethereal parts or whatsoeuer else reason fancie or phrensie haue imagined thereof is Queene of the Night attended with the continuall dances of twinckling starres Mother of Moneths Lady of Seas and moysture constant image of the Worlds inconstancie which it neuer seeth twice with the same face and truest modell of humane frailtie shining with a borrowed light and eclipsed with euery interposition of the earth But I am not Endymion nor so much in Lunaes fauour as to be lulled asleepe in her lap there to learne these mysteries of Nature and the secrets of that happy marriage between these celestial twinnes And it is high time for me to descend from these measures of time the lampes of the World and to behold the neerer works of GOD before our feet in the ayre and waters which GOD on the fift day created But the principall rarities to be obserued in these creatures we shall disperse in our scattered discourses through this Worke as occasion shall bee offered as likewise touching the beasts both Wilde and Tame and the creeping things created the sixth day Thus was the Ayre Water and Earth furnished with their proper inhabitants Sanctius his animal mentisque capacius altae Deerat adhuc quod dominari in caetera posset Natus homo est After he had thus prouided his cheere he sought him out a guest and hauing built and furnished his house his next care was for a fit Inhabitant Of this Moses addeth Furthermore God said Let Vs make Man But this will aske a longer discourse In the meane time wee haue this testimonie of Moses of the Creation of the World whose sense if I haue missed or misted in these many words I craue pardon And although this testimonie might suffice a Christian which must liue by faith and not by sight yet to preuent cauillers we haue other witnesses both of reason and authority That this World had a Beginning and that the Builder and Maker thereof was GOD. For doth not Nature both within and without vs in the admirable frame of this lesse or that greater World in the Notions of the one and the Motions of the other in the wise and mighty order and ordering of both lead men vnto a higher and more excellent Nature which of his goodnesse we call GOD When we behold the whole World or any part of it in the Elements such agreement in such disagreement in the Heauenly motions such constancie in such varietie in these compound bodies Being Liuing Sense Reason as diuers degrees diuersly communicated to so many formes and rankes of Creatures We can no more ascribe these things to chance than a Printers Case of Letters could by chance fall into the right Composition of the Bible which he Printeth or of Homers Iliads to vse Tullies similitude neither can any ascribe the Creation to the Creature with better reason then if by some shipwracke being cast on a desolate Iland and finding houses but seeing no people therein he could esteeme the Birds or Beasts all the Ilanders he seeth to be the framers of these buildings But thou mayest thinke it eternall Thou mayest as well thinke it to be GOD Infinite Vnchangeable in the whole and in all the parts Doth not the Land by seasons the Sea by ebbing and flowing the Aire by succeeding changes the Heauens by motions all
very learned and somewhat was added as wee may well coniecture to their learning by him who by Nabuchodonosor was set ouer them For besides the gifts wherewith hee was enriched and the ciuill authoritie wherewith he was dignified he was exalted also to this Ecclesiasticall iurisdiction ouer the Schooles of the Wise-men as after Iunius and Osiander D. Willet hath obserued as it were their Superintendent which though Caluin thinketh hee refused yet it appeareth by the title which the King after gaue him that hee accepted it In which his Superintendentship sayth our Author such laudable sciences as might safely be learned he promoted and furthered such corruption and superstitions as were practised among them he corrected and reformed but such abuses as could not be taken away hee forbare and kept himselfe free from them And here haue we a testimonie of their Hierarchie which Nature taught these and all people contrarie to the Noueltie of Paritie In the dayes of Hezechiah when the Sunne went backwards it appeareth how studious the Chaldaean Nation was in that their Princes sent their Ambassadours into Iudaea to enquire thereof Yea the Delphian Oracle as Theodoret citeth it out of Porphyrie ascribing the finding out of that learning which leadeth to the gods not to the Greekes but to the Aegyptians Phoenicians Chaldaeans and Hebrewes in which the Chaldaeans as that Father out of Daniel obserueth were furthered by the Hebrewes Some doe call the Babylonian Priests Magi but because they were by this name best knowne and most esteemed among the Persians which in that vicinitie of Regions had as neere Neighbourhood in Religions wee will speake of these Magi in our Persian Relations And it is thought that the Persian Magi came from these Chaldaeans Mornaeus reckoneth among the Chaldaean opinions that of Oromases Mitris and Ariminis that is to say GOD Mind and Soule which hee applieth to the Christian doctrine of the holy Trinitie The Oracle of Apollo pronounced the Chaldaeans and Hebrewes to bee onely wise The Chaldaean opinion concerning iudiciall Astrologie was not receiued of all the Chaldaeans as Strabo reporteth And Bardesanes Syrus the best learned of the Chaldaeans it is Eusebius testimonie doth at large confute that opinion which yet many Wisards carkasses of Christians still follow He affirmeth that in those things which a man hath common with a beast eating sleepe nourishment age c. a man is ordered by Nature as the beasts are But man hauing also a reasonable soule and freedome of will is not subiect to that naturall seruitude which at large hee prooueth by the diuers customes of men both in diuers and in the same countries in diet gouernment and Religion as the Reader willing to reade so worthie a discourse may find related at large in Eusebius Alexander Polyhist out of Eupolemus telleth that in the tenth generation after the floud in Camyrine a Citie of Babylonia which other call Vr Abram was borne which excelled all in knowledge and was the inuentor of Astrologie among the Chaldaeans Hee by diuine precept went into Phoenicia and taught the Phoenicians the course of the Sunne and Moone and when the Armenians warring vpon the Phoenicians had taken his brothers sonne prisoner hee by a band of his seruants recouered him and freely dismissed the captiues which he had taken Hee after liued with the Priests at Heliopolis in Egypt and taught them Astrologie confessing that he had receiued that Art by succession from Enoch Hee added that Belus raigned the second in Babylon and was called Saturne the father of a second Belus and Canaan which Canaan was the father of the Phoenicians and the Aethiopians brother of Mizraim the Author of the Egyptians with many other things not much differing from the Diuine Historie Astronomie in all likelihood was knowne to Abraham to whom the heauenly starres might be Remembrancers of that promise so shall thy seed bee his countrie also where it was practised might therein further him and the excellencie of the science in it selfe But this star-gazing destinie Iudiciall Coniecturall Genethliacall Astrologie Reason and experience GOD and Man haue condemned Vr signifieth light which agreeth to the Fire the Chaldaeans deitie which the Persians and Chaldaeans fained to haue receiued from heauen and kept euer burning as the Vestals in Rome They held Water and Fire to be the beginning of all things They made a chalenge of their fiery god to contend with any other gods of the godlesse Heathen an Egyptian encountred and ouercame them thus he caused his Canopus to be made full of holes stopped with waxe and hollow in the middle which hee filled with water and the Chaldaeans putting their fire vnder the waxe melting opened a quiuer of watrie arrowes that cooled the heat of their deuouring god and deuoured him They had yet a more foolish god euen an Onyon which they worshipped They obserued diuers wicked Sciences of diuining by Fire Aire Water Earth consulting with the dead and with wicked spirits Chaldaea vocatis Imperat arte dijs sayth Claudian Euery day the King offered a Horse furnished vnto the Sunne as did also the Persians Philostrat. sayth that it was a white Horse of the Nisaean race sumptuously trapped lib. 1. cap. 20. They obserued a feast in Babylon Athenaeus citeth it out of Berosus on the sixteenth Calends of September which continued fiue dayes in which the Masters were subiect to their seruants and one of them royally attired was caried out of the house whom they called Zoganes Baruch cap. 6. in the Epistle of Ieremie Apocrypha rippeth vp their idolatrous Rites Idols Processions bearing Idols on mens shoulders the people before and behind worshipping their Priests collusions to make gaines of the Idoll-offerings together with their Priests shauen heads and beards their rent cloaths their roaring before the Idoll their Temples wherein they stood with scepters axes or other weapons in their hands hauing candles lighted before them with other such rites that in the reading one would thinke hee were telling the discourse of the mysteries of mysticall Babylon in the West so euenly they accord The Chaldaeans inuocate their Belus to doe miracles also sayth hee inuocating a dumbe Idoll to giue speech vnto another which himselfe wanteth But aboue all one Beastly rite was in vse among them The women sayth hee sit in the wayes girded with k cords of rushes and burne straw and if one of them be drawne away and lie with any such as come by shee casteth her neighbour in the teeth because shee was not so worthily reputed nor her cord broken Thus was their glorie their shame Herodotus will yeeld vs a Commentarie on this place The Babylonians haue an abominable law sayth he that all their women once in their life doe sit at the Temple of Venus to haue familiaritie with strangers the richer sort comming in chariots richly furnished and attended to this vngodly purpose Their
But of Beasts Birds Trees and Flowers those prominent Images which are made standing out are lawfull Otherwise of the Sunne Moone and Starres 45. No commoditie is to bee raised from Idols If a tree be planted neere an Image one may not sit vnder the shadow thereof nor passe vnder it if there bee any other way and if he must passe it must be running Things imployed to Idolatry may be vsed of vs if the Gentiles haue first prophaned them It is not lawfull to sell them Waxe or Frankincense especially at their Candlemasse Feast nor bookes to vse in their seruice Our women may not performe a Mid-wiues office to them nor nurse their children 65. Thou shalt doe no worke on the Seuenth day Nothing that belongeth to the getting of Food or Rayment It is vnlawfull to walke on the grasse lest thou pull it vp with thy feet or to hang any thing on the bough of a tree lest it breake or to eate an Apple plucked on the Sabbath especially if the tayle or woodden substance whereby it groweth be on it or to mount on a horse lest he bee galled or to goe into water lest thou wipe thy clothes which holdeth also if they be moystened with Wine or Oyle but not in a woman that giueth suck who may wipe her cloathes for the more puritie of her prayers The stopple of a Vessell if it be of Hempe or Flax may not be thrust in though it runne especially if any other Vessell be vnder To mixe Mustard-seed with wine or water to lay an Apple to the fire to roast to wash the bodie chiefely with hot water to sweate to wash the hands to doe any thing in priuate which may not bee publikely done but some say it is lawfull priuately to rubbe off the durt with his nayles from his cloathes which publikely hee may not To reade by a Light except two reade together To set sayle but if thou enter three dayes before it is not necessarie to goe forth on the Sabbath to be carryed in a Waggon though a Gentile driue it If fire happen on the Sabbath to carrie any thing out but thy food rayment and necessaries for that day and that wherein the holy Booke lyeth to put to pasture Horses or Asses coupled together to receiue any good by the Light or Fire which a Gentile hath made for the Iew otherwise if he did it for himselfe To play on any Instrument to make a bed to Number Measure Iudge or Marry lest they should write any thing To reade at home when others are at the Synagogue To speake of buying and selling which it seemeth they obserue not To visite Field or Garden To Runne Leape or tell Tales c. All these on the Sabbath day are vnlawfull For dangerous diseases it is lawfull to violate the Sabbath Such are the three first dayes after a womans trauell c. But of this see also the obseruation of their Sabbath It is not lawfull to walke out of the Citie but their limited space but within the Citie as farre as they will though it bee as big as Niniuie 120. It is forbidden to hurt the Seed-members of Man or Beast Neither Males nor Females may be gelded or spayed and yet wee may vse such Beasts 126. It is punishable to know kisse or embrace one which is forbidden by the Law Leuit. 18. Therefore our Masters haue forbidden to smile on such or vse any meanes or tokens of Lust Likewise they haue forbidden men to know their Wiues in the day-time vnlesse it bee in the darke or vnder some Couering The same is forbidden to a drunken man and to him which hateth his wife lest they get wicked Children betweene them Also to follow a woman in the streets but either to goe before or besides her And hee which is not married may not put his hand beneath his Nauell nor touch his flesh when he maketh water And because a man may not weare Womans attire neither may hee looke in a glasse because that is womanish 138. The fat may not bee eaten The fat of the Heart may but not that which is on the Inwards and Reines and Stomake and Guts and Bladder the rest may be eaten 176. If thy Brother bee poore thou mayest not abuse him to wit to base Offices as to vntie the shooe or to carrie Vessels to the Bath Concerning liberalitie to the poore they limit it at the fift part of a mans goods lest men should become poore by releeuing the poore 191. Thou mayest not lend to an Israelite on Vsurie nor borrow on Vsurie Nor be a witnesse or suretie in cases of Vsurie nor receiue any thing besides the principall especially on any Couenant going before 201. Hee that by constraint doth any thing worthy of Death although hee violate the Name of God ought not be slaine 213. Wicked men are not competent witnesses Hee is accounted wicked which transgresseth any Precept for which hee is worthy to be beaten A Theefe and a Robber is not sufficient to bee a witnesse after he hath made restitution Nor a Vsurer nor a Publicane nor he which is enriched by play nor Children till they haue beards except hee be twentie yeeres olde 222. The King ought not to multiply Wiues Our Masters say that the King may haue eighteene Wiues 225. If any of the seuen Canaanitish Nations shall come in the hands of a Iew hee ought to slay him 242. The Father or the Husband may disannull the vowes of their Children or Wiues And the Wise-men may release the vowes of those which repent of their vow A Sonne of thirteene yeeres and a day and a Daughter of twelue and a day if they be out of their Parents tuition haue power to vow A bastard may not marry an Israelites daughter to the tenth generation 308. Their are fiftie defects which make a Man or Beast vncapeable of Sacred Functions to bee either Sacrificer or Sacrifice fiue in the Eares three in the eye-lids eight in the eyes three in the nose sixe in the mouth twelue in the seed-vessels sixe in the hands and feete and in the bodie foure c. Besides there are foure-score and tenne defects in Man which are not in a Beast No defect vnlesse it bee outward maketh a man vnfit §. III. Of their affirmatiue Precepts 12. EVery one ought to teach his Sonne the Law Likewise his nephew and Wisemen their Disciples and he which is not taught it of his Father must learne it as he can He which teacheth another the written Law may receiue a reward but not for teaching the Traditionall 13. Rise before thine Elder That is saith R. Iosi a Wiseman although young in yeeres To him thou must rise when hee is foure cubites distant and when he is passed by thou mayest sit downe againe 16. The sinner must turne from his sinne vnto God And being returned he must say I beseech thee O
him a liue They saw there certaine white thornes and in the same two Turtles which seemed to them as a miracle for in fifteene daies and nights they had neither seeene Birds nor Beasts They giue their Camells by the way not aboue fiue Barly loaues at a meale as bigge as a Pomegranate and drinke once in three dayes At the end of eight dayes they stayed a day or two to rest them Their Pilot directed their iourney by the Compasse in Diodorus times they obserued the North-starre no lesse then if it had beene at Sea They trauelled fiue dayes and nights through the sandie Sea which is a great plaine Champaine full of a small white sand-like meale where if by some disaster the winde blow from the South they are all dead men And although they had the winde at North yet could they not see one another aboue ten paces off And such as ride on Camels are inclosed with wood with holes to receiue the aire the Pilots going before with their Compasse for direction Many dyed there for thirst and many with fulnesse drinking too much when once they came at water When the North windes blow those sands are driuen to a heape He supposed that Mummia was made of such as the sands had surprised and buried quicke but the truer Mummia is made of embalmed bodies of men as they vse to doe in Egypt and other places For I haue read not onely of Women but Infants also which were not likely to take such dangerous iourneys whose bodies haue beene thus vsed to Mummia As for the other parts of Arabia they which list may by this our Author by Plinie Niger and others be informed further The like iourney to this of Barthemas is related by diuers latter Trauellers Monsieur de Monface Anno 1608. went with a Carauan of 10000. from Alleppo to Bagdat Their trauell he sayth was all by night aswell to auoide the vehement heate of the day as to be guided by the starre Their guides call themselues Pilots They trauelled thirty dayes till they came to Nane where they take water vpon Euphrates They saw no beasts but Asses Roes and Gazels a kinde of wilde Goates and Stagges innumerable so wilde that they often ranne through the Carauan No fowles but Pigeons which nestle in the ruines of olde Townes sometimes inhabited where also they made vse of olde welles otherwise hauing no water but what they carryed in Borachoes made of whole Goates skinnes There can bee no path by reason of the continuall motion of the sand by the wind Their King hath 100000. horsemen subiect to him gallant horse men almost naked himselfe subiect to the Turke To come to the disposition of the people they are small naked beggerly What they haue done in Asia Afrike and Europe by force of Armes vnder the name of Saracens and pretence of Religion shall follow in the next Chapter What they still doe if they meete with purchase Trauellers know to their cost Vsually Arabians are reckoned eyther Marchants or Theeues the one hauing certaine habitations or else trading abroad Strabo Plinie and Solinus admire their wealth as selling much to others and buying nothing thus treasuring vp the wealth of the East and West the Parthians and Romanes Their Marchandize was golde siluer frankincense with other spices Their golde by Diodorus testimony was often found in whole pieces pure and shining so that it gaue splendor and lustre to the gemmes inclosed therein whence happily that of the Psalme To him shall bee giuen of the gold of Arabia The ancient practice of Marchandise among some of the Arabian people and namely the Ismaelites the Scripture recordeth For their ancient Religion it is not like it could be good when as they had so bad an Author of their stocke accursed Cham the sonnes of Abraham were better instructed but as they were borne after the Flesh and not according to promise so if they and some of their posteritie did a while hold the Truth as the History of Iob and his friends euinceth yet this lasted not long but soone after in Iewrie was God knowne and hee dealt not so with any other Nation Herodotus Father of the Greeke History affirmeth in his Thalia that the Arabians worshipped Dyonisius whom they named Vrotalt and Vrania whom they called Alilat these alone they esteemed gods They shaue their Maidens like to Dionysius in a round forme about the temples Suidas telleth that they were excellent Archers their Arrowes were as long as themselues their Bowes they bent not with hands but with feet Curio in his Saracenicall History testifieth of them that as they descended in great part of Abrahams race by Ishmael the sonnes of Keturah and by Esau so they of old had and still retaine many rites obserued by the Hebrewes as numbring by Tribes and marrying onely within their owne Tribe euery Tribe also had their owne King which it seemeth the Tent-wandring or Scenite-Arabians obserue still That sonne succeedeth not which is eldest but hee which is borne first after hee is proclaimed King or Ruler being of Noble race on both sides They vsed also Circumcision For their Religion in old times some were Christians of which about the times of Mahomet there were many Sects some were Iewes others worshipped the Sunne and Moone others certaine Serpents others some kindes of Trees and some a Tower called Alcaba which they supposed Ismael had built and some others some other Deities Clemens Alexandrinus obiecteth to the ancient Scythians the worship of a Sword to the Persians the like deuotion to a Riuer adding that the Arabians worshipped a Stone Arnobius hath also the same Testimony explaining that stone to be rude and vnformed a fit Deitie for rude stony senselesse worshippers Eusebius tells that they vsed humane sacrifices which not onely Sardus confirmeth saying that they sacrificed euery yeere a child whom they buried vnder the Altar but Nicephorus also reported of one Naaman a Schenite-Arabian a Chiefetaine amongst them who in zeale of that superstition killed men with his owne hands and sacrificed them on the Altars to his gods In the time of Mauricius warned by a vision became a Christian and with him an innumerable company of his whom hee offered a liuing vnbloudie sacrifice in Baptisme vnto Christ When they entred league with any their manner was that one standing in the midst betweene both parties did wound the hand with a sharpe stone in the palme neere to the thumbes of them both and taking flockes of the garments of them both anointed with that bloud seuen stones set in the midst of them Meane while inuoking Dionysius and Vrania and then this Mediator be commeth suretie for the partie who thereby esteemeth himselfe bound to obserue it And this did they make league with Cambyses To these two Arabian gods Great Alexander would haue added himselfe a third saith Arrianus in his life He made great prouision to inuade
long as they could hold their breath without harme but not without signes of working passions whether of diuine inspiration or reluctation of the naturall forces No lesse maruellous then the dampe of the ayre is the hardning qualitie of the waters which being hot doe harden themselues into a kinde of stone Warner mentioneth the like in Hungarie and Acosta in Peru Those Galli heere mentioned with Priests of Cybele so called of Gallus a Riuer in Phrygia the waters whereof temperately drunken did exceedingly temper the braine and take away madnesse but being sucked in largely caused madnesse These Priests drinking heereof vnto madnesse in that fury gelded themselues and as their beginning so was their proceeding also in madnesse in the execution of their rites shaking and wheeling their heads like mad-men Volateran out of Polyhistur reporteth that one Gallus the companion of Attys both gelded imposed this name on the Riuer before called Teria Of Cybele and Attys we haue spoken before I adde that after some this Attys was a Phrygian youth which when hee would not listen to Rhea in her amorous suites gelded himselfe so consecrating his Priesthood vnto Rhea or Cybele others affirme that shee preferred him to that Office first hauing vowed perpetuall chastitie and breaking his Vow was punished with madnesse in which hee dismembred himselfe and would also haue killed himselfe but that by the compassionate Goddesse hee was turned into a Pine-tree That the Fable this the History that these gelded Priests wore also long womannish attire played on Tymbrels and Cornets sacrificed to their Goddesse the ninth day of the Moone at which time they set the Image of the Goddesse on an Asse and went about the Villages and Streets begging with the sound of their sacred Tymbrell corne bread drinke and all necessaries in honour of their Goddesse as they did also in the Temples begging money in her name with some musicall Instruments and were therefore called Matragyrtae Thus did the Priests of Corona also begge for the maintenance of their Goddesse with promises of good fortune to their liberall contributors Lucian in his Asinus relateth the like knaueries of the Priests of Dea Syria Concerning his Image Albricus thus purtrayeth it A Virgin sitting in a Chariot adorned with varietie of gemmes and metals Shee is called Mother of the Gods and Giants these Giants had Serpentine feet one of which number was Titan who is also the Sunne who retayned his Deitie for not ioyning in conspiracie against the Gods with his brethren This Chariot was drawne with Lions Shee wore on her head a Crowne fashioned like a Tower Neere her is painted Attys a naked boy whom in iealousie shee gelded Macrobius applies this to the Sunne Boccace to the Earth Mother indeed of the Ethnike Deities which were earthly sensuall deuilish who addeth to that former description of Albricus a Scepter in her hand her garment embroydered with branches and herbs and the Galli her gelded attendants with Trumpets The interpretation whereof they which will may reade in him as also in Phornutus Fulgentius and others with many other particulars of her Legend Claudian calls her both Cybele and Cybelle which name Stephanus thinketh she receiued of a Hil of that name in Phrygia as doth Hesychius likewise so was shee called Dyndimena of the Hill Dindymus I could weary the Reader with long narrations out of Pausanias Arnobius Lilius Gyraldus and others touching these things but in part wee haue before shewed them in our narrations of Adonis in Phoenicia of the Syrian goddesse to which Phornutus referreth this and when we come to a larger handling of the Grecian Idolatries we shall finde more fit occasion It is now high time to leaue this properly called Asia and to visit LYCIA washed by the Sea two hundred miles wherein the mount Taurus ariseth hence stretching it selfe Eastward vnder diuers appellations vnto the Indian Sea They were gouerned by common Councell of three and twentie Cities till the Romans subdued them Here was Cragus a Hill with eight Promontories and a Citie of the same name from whence arose the Fables of Chymaera At the foot of the Hill stood Pinara wherein was worshipped Pandarus and a little thence the Temple of Latona and not farre off Patara the worke of Patarus beautified with a Hauen and many Temples and the Oracles of Apollo no lesse famous if Mela bee beleeued for wealth and credit then that at Delphos The Hill Telmessus was here famous for Southsayings and the Inhabitants are accounted the first Interpreters of Dreames Here was Chymaera a Hill said to burne in the night PAMPHYLIA beareth Eastwards from Lycia and now together with CILICIA of the Turkes is called CARAMANIA Herein was Perga neere whereunto on a high place stood the Temple of Diana Pergaea where were obserued yeerely Festiuals Sida had also in it the Temple of Pallas There remaine of this Chersonessus ARMENIA minor and Cilicia Armenia minor called also Prima is diuided from the Greater or Turcomania by Euphrates on the East it hath on the West Cappadocia on the South Cilicia and part of Syria on the North the Pontike Nations It was sometimes reckoned a part of Cappadocia till the Armenians by their inuasions and Colonies altered the name As for their rites I finde little difference but they either resemble the Cappadocians or their Armenian Ancestors CILICIA abutteth on the Eastern borders of Pamphylia and was diuided into Trachea and Campestris now hath in it few people many great Mesquitaes and well furnished the chiefe Citie is Hamsa sometime called Tarsus famous for the studies of learning herein saith Strabo surmounting both Athens and Alexandria but most most famous for yeelding him to the world then whom the whole world hath not happily yeelded any more excellent that was meerely a man that great Doctor of Nations who filled these Countries and all Regions from Ierusalem euen to Illyricum now full of barbarisme by preaching and still filleth the world by his writings with that truth which hee learned not of man nor at Tarsus the greatest Schoole of humanitie nor at Ierusalem the most frequented for Diuinitie but of the Spirit of Truth himselfe who both was at first from Heauen conuerted and after in the third Heauen confirmed in the same Strabo mentioneth the Temple and Oracle of Diana Sarpedonia in Cilicia where being inspired they gaue answeres The Temple of Iupiter also at Olbus the worke of Aiax From Anchiale a Cilician Citie Alexander passed to Solos where hee sacrificed with prayses to Aesculapius for recouery from a strong Feuer gotten before in the waters of Cidnus and celebrated Gymnicall and Musicall Games The Corycian and Triphonian Dennes or Caues were held in much veneration among the Cilicians where they sacrificed with certaine Rites They had their Diuination by Birds and Oracles Of the Corycian Denne or Caue so called of the Towne Corycos almost compassed with the
of pleasure therein whence shee might behold all her Armie and there gaue her selfe a long space to rest and voluptuousnesse making choice of the likeliest Gallants in her Campe for her bed-fellowes all whom she after did to death Thence to Ecbatana she made the way shorter and more passeable casting downe Hills and exalting the Valleyes into a plaine still bearing her name At Ecbatana she built a Palace and brought water thither from the Hill Orontes by a laborious and costly channell And thus did shee not onely subdue the rebellious Medes but made a conquest of Nature in ostentation of her puissance The same Author telleth that multitudes of Sparrowes which eate vp their seeds forced the Inhabitants to leaue their soile as did Mice cause some parts of Italy and Frogs rayned out of the clouds the Attariotae and as wee haue obserued the Fleas chased away the Inhabitants of Myus How great is the Creator that of the smallest of his creatures can muster Armies to the conquest of them which swell in conceit of their owne greatnesse Wee like Gyants by our wickednesse defie the Heauens and defile the Earth saying by our workes Who is the Almightie that wee should serue him When as yet the Lord of Hosts need not tame vs with Legions of Angels one could destroy Senacheribs Host nor set the Heauens in their courses to fight his battells as against the Canaanites nor arrange the Elements with an ouer-whelming Chaos to confound vs by a Sodomiticall fire or ayrie pestilence or deluge of waters or deuouring of the earth nor needes hee Lyons to challenge a part of his glorie to their strength and prowesse Frogs and Lice and Flies shall bee Pharaohs Challengers Conquerors Iaylers And how many Nations in Africa haue the insulting triumphing Grasse-hoppers exiled from their natiue dwellings Proud MAN well may the basest of thy basest seruants thus make thee to see thy basenesse and by rebelling against thee argue thy rebellions against their and thy Creator But that wee bee not too farre transported with this not vniust passion let vs returne to our Prouince of Media which Arbaces deliuered from Assyrian seruitude and subiected it together with the Easterne Empire to himselfe vnder whose posteritie it continued three hundred and two and twentie yeeres Astyages the last was by Cyrus his Nephew conquered according to two dreames which had fore-signified this vnto him In the first hee dreamed that he saw so much vrine streaming from his daughter Mandane his onely child that all Asia was drowned therewith in the other a Vine grew from her which shadowed all Asia His Magi told him that hereby was fore-told his Nephewes greatnesse with the losse of his Kingdome To preuent this hee wedded his daughter to Cambyses a Persian and when shee was deliuered of a child hee committed it to Harpagus one of his trustie Councellers to be made away He fearing reuenge from the daughter if shee should after succeed her father deliuereth the Infant to Mitradates the Kings Heard-man commanding him in Astyages name to expose it on the Mountaine Hee returning home found his wife newly deliuered of a dead child which by her entreatie was laid forth in stead thereof Her name was Spaco which in the Median language signifieth a Birch whence the fable grew that Cyrus being so exposed was nourished by a Bitch This Infant growing vp and called by the Heard-mans name after ten yeeres was knowne by this occasion A company of boyes playing together chose this strippling for their King who vsed his childish Royaltie with more then childish discipline For he ordained diuers Officers some of them to be his Guard some Builders Messengers c. as hee thought fit Amongst whom was a sonne of one Artembares a man of great estimation who for neglecting his office was by this young Kingling seuerely chastised He complained thereof to his father and the father brought the child to the King accusing the indignitie of the fact that his Heard-mans sonne should deale so malapertly and cruelly shewing his beaten shoulders to Astyages The Heard-man and his supposed sonne was sent for that Artembares might bee satisfied where the young King gaue so good account of that his fact that Astyages much amazed tooke the Heard-man aside and with busie inquirie learned of him all the truth of this matter wherewith enraged against Harpagus who ought himselfe to haue done that dismall execution but dissembling the same he told him that hee would doe sacrifice for the childes safetie and bade him send his child to beare Cyrus company inuiting him also to sup with him where hee feasted him with the flesh of his owne sonne whose head fingers and toes were set before him at the last seruice Harpagus bare it as patiently as hee could till fitter occasion of reuenge offered it selfe which thus fell out The Magi told Astyages that in this childish Kingdome of Cyrus the danger of his dreame was alreadie passed and that hee needed not to feare any further danger Wherefore hee was sent into Persia to his Parents After he was now a man Harpagus hauing secretly sollicited the Medes to rebellion against their cruell Soueraigne acquainted Cyrus with his proiect to that end enclosing a letter in a Hares belly which hee sent to Cyrus by one of his Hunts-men which was with such industrie and successe prosecuted that Astyages lust his Scepter and Cyrus translated the Empire to the Persians For Harpagus being made Generall of the Armie of the Medes reuolted to Cyrus with all such as he had made acquainted with his treason And when the Medes after rebelled in the time of Darius they were forced againe to subiection The Magi were by Astyages command crucified and he himselfe re-enforcing his power and bidding battell to Cyrus the second time was taken aliue and by his Nephew set ouer the Hyrcans The Magi had large and fertill possessions thus reporteth Ammianus assigned them in Media Their Science called Magia is by Plato termed Machagistia which mysticall word signifieth the purest worship of the gods to which Science Zoroastres of Bactria in olde times added many things out of the mysteries of the Chaldees But because the Persians had from hence their Empire and this Religion by whose Armes they were made knowne to the World there shall bee fitter place to speake of these Magi when wee treat of the Persian Rites In this Region was made the oyle Medicum wherein their Arrowes were steeped which being shot out of a looser Bow for a swifter shot extinguished it did burne the flesh in which it did sticke and if water were applyed to it the fire thereof encreased Nor could any remedie cure the same but hurling dust thereon It was composed of Naphta The Medes made league with this ceremonie They wounded the Souldiers of each partie either licked others bloud The North parts of Media were barren and therefore they liued on Apples dryed and stamped
but liueth with the women that if hee die before his father should thence conceiue no griefe From that time till hee bee twentie hee learneth three things to ride to shoot to speake truth For to lie is with them the most shamefull thing the second to be in debt For one fault onely no man ought to bee punished Whatsoeuer is not meet to be done ought not to be spoken A Leprous person if hee bee a Citizen may not enter into the Citie nor haue any societie with men for this disease is sent say they for some offence against the Sunne if hee bee a forrenner they banish him out of their Region and for the same cause carry into that Region white Pigeons In a Riuer they neither spit nor make water nor wash but haue them in very religious veneration They might not cast any carkasse or pollution therein These things saith Herodotus I affirme of the Persians out of mine owne knowledge that which followeth I doe not so well know that they burie not their dead bodies before they bee torne of some Fowle or Dogge but I well know that their Magi doe wrap them vp in Waxe and then bury them These Magi differ both from other men and from the Egyptian Priests in this that these pollute themselues with the death of nothing but their sacrifices but the Magi with their owne hands kill any thing except a man and a dogge yea they esteeme it some great exploit if they haue killed very many Ants or Serpents or other things which creepe or flye Thus farre Herodotus §. II. Of the same and other Rites out of STRABO STRABO nameth Anaitis Amanus and Anandatus Gods of the Persians When the Persian Emperors had ouerthrowne the Sacae they encompassed with a wall a certaine rocke situate in a field and erecting a Temple of the aforesaid Gods there instituted yeerely solemnities named Sacae which of the inhabitants of Zela are yet celebrated so they call the place That Towne in great part belongs to them which are called Sacred Seruants to which Pompey added a great Country Some report that Cyrus hauing ouercome the Sacae attributing this victory to diuine power consecrated that day to his Country-Goddesse naming it Sacaa and wheresoeuer the Temple of that Goddesse is there also are celebrated those Sacaean feasts in manner of the Bacchanals day and night the men and women drinking themselues drunken Strabo in the end of the same eleuenth Booke mentioneth their Temples and amongst others the Temples of Tanais which before in Herodotus is denied to be the vse of the Persians Cicero blameth the Magi for procuring Xerxes to burne all the Temples of Greece because they included their Gods in walls and to whom the whole world was a Temple and house Their deuotion to the Sun and Moon made them spare Delus sacred to Apollo or the Sun and the Temple of Diana or the Moone at Ephesus as an Interpreter of Aristophanes hath glossed Some hold that Xerxes burnt the Graecian Temples for reuenge of the burning of Sardis and the Temple of Cybele by the Athenians and not for hatred of all Temples The Greekes would not permit the Temples so burned to bee re-edified that those ruinous places might be places of argument for reuenge to all posteritie The Ionians as Isocrates testifieth cursed them which should repaire them Strabo thus also reporteth of the Persians They haue neither Images nor Altars they sacrifice in an high place they thinke heauen to be Iupiter they worship the Sunne whom they call Mithra the Moone also and Venus and the Fire and the Earth and the Windes and the water they sacrifice in a cleane place and present their sacrifice crowned and when as the Magas ruler of this businesse hath diuided the flesh in pieces to euery one they goe their wayes leauing no part thereof to the Gods who say they are satisfied with the soule of their sacrifice Some as it is reported lay a part of the Numbles on the fire They sacrifice especially to the Fire and to the Water laying on the fire drie stickes the barkes pulled off and laying thereon fat Tallow and powring on the same Oyle they kindle the same not blowing with their breath but fanning or otherwise enforcing the winde thereto If any bloweth the fire or cast any dead thing or durt therein he is punished with death They performe their Water-ceremonies in this sort Comming to a Lake Riuer or Fountaine they make a Ditch and there slay a sacrifice with great heed that none of the next water be touched with the bloud after laying the flesh on Myrtle and Lawrell the Magi burne the same with small twigs and making certaine prayers sprinkle oyle mixed with milke and honey not in the fire or water but on the earth They are a long while muttering their prayers holding a bundle of small Tameriske-twigs That which in one place Strabo saith they worshipped Mars onely is a fault of the negligent Writers as Casaubon hath obserued in his Notes In Cappadocia where is very great store of the Magi which of the Fire are called Pyrethi and many Temples of the Persian gods they slay not the sacrifice with a knife but a club or mallet wherewith they beat it The Pyreitheia are great inclosed places in the midst whereof there is an Altar thereon the Magi keepe much ashes and a fire continually burning whither they euery day resort and make their prayers about an houres space holding a bundle of twigges before the fire hauing their heads couered with a kind of labelled Mitre hanging downe on both sides that the strings couer their lips These things are done in the Temples of Anaitis and Amanus For there are their Temples and their Image of Amanus is carried in procession These things we haue seene It seemeth that whereas Herodotus reporteth they had no Temples Altars nor Images and Strabo so often mentioneth their Temples and here the Altar and Image of Amanus that in Herodotus dayes they had none which grew afterwards in vse as a forraine rite brought in among the Persians after the Macedonians had conquered them or else that there were differing Sects among their Magi some as these in Cappadocia embracing Altars Images and Temples some refusing some or all these For otherwise Strabo disagreth not onely from Herodotus but from himselfe before denying them the vse of Altars and Images and here affirming it of the Cappadocian Magi in other things of the Persian Religion Perhaps the burning of the Graecian Temples purchased to them that conceit with the vulgar we know they honoured the Temple and Altar at Ierusalem And lesse matters set on the Friers lasts make seely Papists beleeue now that Protestants haue no Churches not Religion nor scarcely the shape of men Iulius Firmicus in his Treatise of the mysteries and errors of prophane Religions to Constantine and Constans Emperours speaketh of the Assyrians and Persians that the Assyrians ascribed the
according to which they reckon these things following to bee sinnes To thrust a knife into the fire or any way touch the fire with a knife or with their knife to take flesh out of the Cauldron or to hew with an hatchet neere to the fire For they thinke that they should so cut away the head of the fire They account it sinne also to leane on the whip wherewith they beate their horses for they ride not with spurres Also to touch arrowes with a whip to take or kill young Birds to strike an horse with the raine of their bridle and to breake one bone against another Likewise to powre out meat milke or any kinde of drinke vpon the ground or to make water within their Tabernacle which whosoeuer doth willingly is slaine but otherwise he must pay a great summe of money to the Inchanter to bee purified who causeth the Tabernacle with all things therein to passe betweene two fires Besides if any hath a morsell giuen him which hee is not able to swallow and for that cause casteth it out of his mouth there is an hole made vnder his Tabernacle by which hee is drawne forth and slaine without all compassion Likewise whosoeuer treades vpon the threshold of any of the Dukes Tabernacles hee is put to death Thus are these Gnats strained when as hostile inuasions murther and such other Camels are easily amongst them swallowed They thinke that after death they shall liue in another world and there multiply their cattell eate drinke and doe other actions of life At a new Moone or a full Moone they begin all new enterprises They call her the great Emperour and bow their knees and pray thereto The Sunne they say is the Moones mother because shee hath thence her light They are giuen to Diuinations Auguries Sooth-sayings Witchcrafts Inchantments and when they receiue answere from the Deuill they attribute the same vnto God whom they call Itoga and the Comanians call him Chan that is Emperor whom they maruellously feare and reuerence offering to him many Oblations and the first fruits of their meate and drinke According to his answere they dispose all things They beleeue that all things are purged by fire therefore when any Embassadours Princes or other personages whatsoeuer come vnto them they and their gifts must passe betweene two fires to bee purified lest peraduenture they haue practised some Witchcraft or haue brought some poyson or other mischiefe with them And if fire fall from heauen vpon men or beasts which there often hapneth or if they thinke themselues any way defiled or vncleane they thus are purified by their Inchanters If any be sicke a speare is set vp in his Tent with blacke felt welted about it and from thenceforth no stranger entereth therein For none of them which are present at his death may enter the hord of any Duke or Emperour till a New-Moone When hee is dead if hee bee a chiefe man hee is buried in the field where pleaseth him And hee is buried with his Tent sitting in the midst thereof with a Table set before him and a platter full of meate and a Cup of Mares-milke There is also buried with him a Mare and Colt a Horse with bridle and saddle and they eate another Horse whose bones the women burne for the soule of the dead stuffing his hide with straw setting it aloft on two or foure poles that hee may haue in the other world a Tabernacle and other things fitting for his vse They burie his gold and siluer with him the Chariot or Cart in which hee is carried forth is broken his Tent is destroyed neither is it lawfull to name his name till the third generation They obserue also other Funerall Rites too long to rehearse They lament their dead thirtie dayes more or lesse Their Parents and those of their family are thus cleansed They make two fires and pitch neere thereunto two Speares with a line from the top of the one to the other fastening on the same line some pieces of Buckram vnder which and betwixt the fires passe the Men Beasts and Tents There stand also two women one on this side the other on that casting water and repeating certaine charmes if any thing fall or be broken the Inchanters haue it And if any be slaine of Thunder the men in the Tent must thus be cleansed and all things in the Tent being otherwise reputed vncleane and not to be touched No men are more obedient to their Lords then the Tartars They seldome contend in words neuer in deeds They are reasonably courteous one to another their women are chaste adulterie is seldome heard of and theft is rare both punished by death Drunkennesse common but without brawles among themselues or discredit among others They are proud greedie deceitfull They eate Dogs Wolues Foxes Horses and in necessitie mans flesh Mice and other filth and that in as filthy a manner without Clothes and Napkins their Bootes and the Grasse can serue to wipe their greasie hands they haue no beard Hearbs Wine Meate or Beere nor doe they wash their dishes It is a great sinne amongst them to suffer any of their food to be lost and therefore they will not bestow a bone on a Dogge till they haue eaten the marrow Yvo Narbonensis in an Epistle recited by Mat. Paris Anno 1243. reporteth the confession of an Englishman which was taken with other Tartars by the Christians Hee saith that they called by the Name of Gods the auncient founders and fathers of their Tribes and at set times did solemnize feasts vnto them many of them being particular and but foure onely generall They thinke that all things are created for themselues alone They be hardy and strong in the brest leane and pale-faced rough and huf-shouldred hauing flat and short noses long and sharpe chinnes their vpper jawes low and declining their teeth long and thin their eye-browes extending from their foreheads downe to their noses their eyes inconstant and blacke their thighs thicke and legges short yet equall to vs in stature They are excellent Archers Vanquished they aske no fauour and vanquishing they shew no compassion They all persist as one man in their purpose of subduing the whole world Their proud swelling titles appeare in the Copies of those Letters of Duke Baiothnoy and Cuin Can expressed by Vincentius One of them beginneth thus By the precept of the liuing GOD CINGIS CHAM sonne of the sweet and worshipfull GOD saith that GOD is high aboue all the immortall GOD and vpon Earth CINGIS C HAM onely Lord c. These Letters of the Emperour the Tartars called the Letters of GOD so beginneth Duke Baiothnoy to the Pope who had sent Frier Ascelline with Alexander Albericus Simon thither in Embassage The word of BAIOTHNOY sent by the diuine disposition of CHAM Know this O Pope c. Frier Iohn saith he stiles himselfe The power of God and Emperour of all men and hath
in his Seale ingrauen words of like effect as is alreadie shewed Mandeuill hath the same report Will. de Rubruquis saith that they haue diuided Scythia amongst them from Danubius to the Sunne rising euery Captaine knowing the bounds of his pastures which they feede in the Winter descending Southwards ascending in the Summer Northwards Their houses are moueable remoued on great Carts which containe twentie foot betweene the wheeles their houses on each side ouer-reaching fiue foot drawne by aboue twenty Oxen. When they take them downe they turne the doore alwaies to the South Ouer the Masters head is an Image of Felt called the Masters brother and another ouer the head of the good wife or Mistres called her brother fastened to the wall and betwixt both of them is a little leane one which is the keeper of the whole house Shee hath also at her beds feet a Kids skin filled with wooll and a little Image looking towards the Maidens and Women Next to the doore on the Womens side which is the East as the mans side is on the West there is an Image with a Cowes Vdder for the Women whose office it is to milke the Kine on the other side another with a Mares Vdder for the Men. When they make merrie they sprinkle their drinke vpon these Images in order beginning at the Masters Then goeth a seruant out of the house with a cup full of drinke sprinkling thrice toward the South and bowing the knee at euery time and this is done for the honour of the Fire Then performeth he the like superstition toward the East for the honour of the Ayre next to the West for the honour of Water and lastly to the North in the behalfe of the Dead When the Master holdeth a cup in his hand to drinke before he tasteth thereof hee poureth his part vpon the ground if he drinketh sitting on horse-backe hee first poureth part thereof on the Mane of the Horse After the seruant aforesaid hath discharged his cups to the foure quarters of the world hee returneth to the house and two other seruants stand readie with two cups and two Basons to carry drinke vnto their Maister and that Wife which lay with him the last night sitting together on a bedde Their Sooth-sayers or Inchanters are their Priests To this may bee added out of the Manuscript aboue mentioned their Diuination by three bones thorough which being first burned blacke the Diuinor lookes and if the sight passeth straight and right it is a good token but if it be inwardly crooked or broken hee then vpon this euill presage ceaseth from his enterprise Master Ienkinson trauelled with certaine Tartars which diuined by the blade-bones of sheepe sod and then burnt to powder which being mingled with the bloud of the sheep they writ therewith certaine Characters with diuers words and Ceremonies and thence diuined of their successe which they found true to their cost They vsed Diuination also by foure swords Mangu Can desired a conference betwixt the Christians Saracens and Idolaters to see which of them could make best proofe of his Religion The Moal Tartars professed to beleeue one onely GOD the Author of life and death but as the hand which is one hath diuers fingers so thought he and they that this one GOD was pleased with diuers waies of deuotion Their Priests were diuiners they were many but had one Captaine or chiefe Bishop who alwaies placed his house or tent before that of the great Can about a stones cast distant Hee had charge of the Waine which carried the Idols the other Priests had their places appointed them Some of them were Astrologers specially that High-Priest which foretold the Ecclipses of the Moone All the people prouided them their meat that they might not go out of their Tents When an Ecclipse happens they sound their Organs and Timbrels and make a great noyse and when it is past they make great feasting drinking and mirth They foretell Holy-daies and those which are vnluckie for enterprises No warres are begun or made without their word They cause all presents which are sent to the Can to passe through the fire they purifie the houshold of the dead by the like rite which before may not bee touched On the ninth day of May they assemble all the white Mares and hallow them at which the Christians must be present with their Censors They then cast on the ground new Cosmos and make a great feast They foretell the destinies of Infants newly borne and when one is sicke they diuine by charmes whether the disease bee naturall or proceed of Sorcerie They are themselues Witches Sorcerers Inuokers of the Deuill this they doe in the night setting flesh in the midst of the house readie boiled vsing charmes Timbrells and falling into mad fits are bound Then comes the Deuill and giues them answeres Thus much Rubruquis M. Paulus thus reporteth of their Religion They say that there is a GOD on high in heauen of whom lifting vp their hands smiting their teeth three times together euery day with Censer and Incense they desire health and vnderstanding They place a Table aloft in the wall of their house in the which is written a name that representeth this god They haue another which they call Natigay or Itogay of Felt or other stuffe in euerie house They make him a wife and children and set his wife on the left hand and his children before him which seeme to doe him reuerence This they call the God of earthly things which keepeth their children beasts and corne and when they eat they annoint his mouth with the fat and the mouthes of his wife children and then cast out the broth out of the doore vnto other spirits And when their God hath had his part they take theirs Of this Natigay they with like Ceremonies of lifting vp their hands and smiting of their teeth desire temperature of the ayre fruits of the earth children and such like Their wiues are exceeding chaste and obseruant and though they bee many yet can Rachel and Leah yea ten or twentie of them agree with a maruellous vnion intent vnto their houshold and other businesse whereby they are gainefull and not chargeable to their Husbands When they marry the Husband couenanteth with the Father of the Maide who hauing giuen him power to take her wheresoeuer hee shall finde her hee seeketh her among some of her friends where shee hath then of purpose hidden her selfe and by a kinde of force carrieth her away They marry with any except their owne Mother and Sister Their Widdowe 's seldome marry because of their seruice to their former Husbands in another world except the sonne marrie his fathers wiues or the brother his brothers because they can there in the next world bee content to resigne them to their former Husbands againe The women buy sell and prouide all necessaries into the house the men intending nothing but their Armes
Hunting and Hawking If one hath buried a Male-child and another a Female the Parents contract a marriage betwixt those two and painting in papers Seruants Horses Clothes and Houshold and making writings for the confirmation of the Dower burne these things in the fire by the smoake whereof they in their smokie conceits imagine all these things to be carried and confirmed to their children in the other world and the Parents of the two dead parties claime kindred each of other as if they indeed had married their children while they liued In Xamdu did Cublai Can build a stately Palace encompassing sixteene miles of plaine ground with a wall wherein are fertile Meddowes pleasant Springs delightfull Streames and all sorts of beasts of chase and game and in the middest thereof a sumptuous house of pleasure which may be remoued from place to place Here hee doth abide in the moneths of Iune Iuly and August on the eight and twentieth day whereof hee departeth thence to another place to doe sacrifice on this manner He hath a Heard or Droue of Horses and Mares about ten thousand as white as snow of the milke whereof none may taste except hee bee of the bloud of Cingis Can. Yea the Tartars doe these beasts great reuerence nor dare any crosse their way or goe before them According to the direction of his Astrologers or Magicians he on the eight and twentieth of August aforesaid spendeth and poureth forth with his owne hands the milke of these Mares in the ayre and on the earth to giue drinke to the Spirits and Idols which they worship that they may preserue the men women beasts birds corne and other things growing on the earth These Astrologers or Necromancers are in their Art maruellous When the skie is cloudy and threatneth raine they will ascend the roofe of the Palace of the Grand Can and cause the raine and tempests to fall round about without touching the said Palace These which thus doe are called Tebeth and Chesmir two sorts of Idolaters which delude the people with opinion of their sanctitie imputing these workes to their dissembled holinesse and for this cause they goe in filthy and beastly manner not caring who seeth them with dirt on their faces neuer washing nor combing themselues And if any bee condemned to death they take dresse and eate him which they doe not if any die naturally They are also called Bachsi that is of such a Religion or Order as if one should say a Frier-Preacher or Minor and are exceedingly expert in their diuellish Art They cause that the Bottles in the Hall of the Great Can doe fill the Bowles of their owne accord which also without mans helpe passe ten paces through the ayre into the hands of the said Can and when hee hath drunke in like sort returne to their place These Bachsi sometimes resort vnto the Officers and threaten plagues or other misfortune from their Idols which to preuent they desire so many Muttons with black heads and so many pounds of Incense and Lignum Aloei to performe their due sacrifices Which they accordingly receiue and offer on their Feast-day sprinkling Broth before their Idols There be of these great Monasteries which seeme like a small Citie in some whereof are two thousand Monkes which shaue their heads and beards and weare a religious habite and hallow their Idols Feasts with great solemnitie of Hymnes and Lights Some of these may bee married Other there are called Sensim an Order which obserueth great abstinence and strictnesse of life in all their life eating nothing but Bran which they put in hot water and let it stand till all the white of the meale bee taken away and then eate it being thus washed These worship the Fire and are condemned of the other for Heretikes because they worship not their Idols and will not marry in any case They are shauen and weare hempen-garments of black or bright yellow and although they were Silke yet would they not alter the colour They sleepe on great Mats and liue the austerest life in the world Of their Astrologers in Cambalu were not fewer then fiue thousand Christians Catayans and Saracens maintained with food and rayment at the Great Cans charge These by their Astrolabe foretell of the change of weather mortalitie warres diseases c. And if any enterprise any great worke he resorteth vnto them and telling the houre of his Natiuitie by their Art is informed of the successe They hold the soule to be immortall and according to euery mans merits in his life to passe into a more noble creature till it be deified or ignoble as to a Pesant and then to a Dogge and so by degrees to the vilest They shew much reuerence to their Parents to whom if any bee vngratefull in their necessitie there is an Office and Officers appointed to trie and punish the offence In the Emperours hall none dare spit but for that purpose carrieth a little vessell to spit in nor dare any there make any noyse or loud talking The Tartars were at first very vncharitable to the poore and would curse them saying That if God had loued them he would haue prouided for them but after the Idolatrous Bachsi had commended Almes for a good worke there was great prouision made for them and euery day at least twentie thousand dishes of Rice Mill and Panike by certaine Officers distributed amongst them And for this liberalitie they adore him as a God Cingis amongst his first Lawes enacted as saith Vincentius the punishment of death to bee inflicted vpon offenders in those three vices which before time had beene most rife amongst them namely lying adulterie and theft of which yet towards other men that were not Tartars they made no conscience They are great Vsurers taking ten in the hundreth for a moneth besides vse vpon vse insomuch that a Souldier in Georgia which had borrowed fiue hundred pieces of coyne called Yperpera retaining the same fiue yeeres was constrained to repay seuen thousand And a Tartarian Lady for seuen yeeres vse of fiftie sheepe demanded seuen thousand Yperpera They are so couetous that though they abound in cattell they will scarce allow any to their owne expence while it is sound and good but if it die or be sicke They are addicted to Sodomie or Buggerie They eate sometimes for necessitie mans flesh sometimes to delight themselues and sometimes to terrifie others reckoning it a great glorie to haue slaine many and that by varietie of crueltie Their heads they shaue from eare to eare in manner of a Horse-shooe wearing long lockes at their eares and neckes There bee some of the Tartars which when they see their fathers grow old and diseased they giue them fat meates which may choake them And when they are thus dead they burne their bodies reseruing the ashes as a precious jewell sprinkling their meates with that powder But if any thinke not this enough which I am
and by their weight leaue so deepe impression in the sand that hereby men knowing their haunt doe vnder set this their Tract with sharpe stakes headed with yron couering the same againe with sand by this meanes preying on the spoyler and deuouring the deuourer esteeming nothing more sauorie then the flesh nor more medicinable then the gall of this Serpent More Serpentine then this diet was that custome which they vsed when any proper and personable Gentleman of valourous Spirit and goodly presence lodged in any house amongst them in the night they killed him not for the spoyle but that his soule furnished with such parts of body and mind might remaine in that house Much hope of future happinesse to that house did they repose in so vnhappy attempts But the great Can killed this Serpent also ouerthrowing this custome in the conquest of that Prouince CARDANDAN confineth on the Westerne limits of Carazan They make blacke lists in their flesh razing the skinne and put therein some blacke tincture which euer remayneth accounting it a great ornament When a woman is deliuered of a child the man lyeth in and keepeth his bed with visitation of Gossips the space of fortie dayes They worship the ancientest person of the house ascribing to him all their good In this prouince and in Caindu Vocian and Iaci they haue no Phisicians but when any be sicke they send for their Witches or Sorcerers and acquaint them with their maladie They cause Minstrels to play while they dance and sing in honour of their Idols not ceasing till the Diuell entereth into one of them of whom those Sorcerers demand the cause of the parties sickenesse and meanes of recouerie The Demoniake answereth for some offence to such or such a god They pray that God of pardon vowing that when he is whole he shall offer him a sacrifice of his owne bloud If the Diuell see him vnlikely to recouer he answereth that his offences are so grieuous that no sacrifice can expiate but if there be likelihood of recouery he enioyneth them a sacrifice of so many Rams with blacke heads to be offered by these Sorcerers assembled together with their wiues then will that god be reconciled This is presently done by the kinsemen of the sicke the sheepe killed their bloud hurled vp towards Heauen The Sorcerers and Sorceresses make great lights and incense all this visited house making a smoke of Lignum Aloes and casting into the ayre the water wherein the sacrificed flesh was sodden with some spiced drinkes laughing singing dancing in honour of that God After all this reuel-rout they demand againe of the Demoniake if the God be appeased : if so they fall to those spiced drinkes and sacrificed flesh with great mirth and being well apayed returne home if not they at his bidding renue their superstition ascribing the recouerie if it happen to that Idoll and if he dyeth notwithstanding they shift it off to the want of their full due fleecing or tasting the same before to the Idols defrauding Thus doe they in all Cathay and Mangi Thus much out of the large reports of Paulus that renowmed Venetian to whom our Relations are so much indebted Rubruquius telleth the like of CAILAR and CARACORAM where hee had beene in these Catayan Prouinces concerning their Christopher or Giant-like Idols and Idol Temples in one of which he saw a man with a crosse drawne with inke on his hand who seemed by his answers to bee a Christian with Images like to that of Saint Michael and other Saints They haue a Sect called Iugures whose Priests are shauen and clad in Saffron-coloured garments vnmarried an hundred or two hundred in a Cloyster On their holy-dayes they place in their Temples two long formes one ouer against another whereon they sit with bookes in their hands reading softly to themselues Nor could our Author entring amongst them by any meanes breake this their silence They haue wheresoeuer they goe a string about them full of nut-shels like the Popish beadrols alway they are vttering these words Ou â—am hactani God thou knowest expecting so many rewards as they make such memorials of God They haue a Church-yard and a Church-porch with a long pole on it as it were a steeple adioyning to their Temples In those porches they vse to sit and conferre They weare certaine ornaments of paper on their heads Their writing is downewards and so from the left hand to the right which the Tartars receiued from them They vse Magicall Characters hanging their Temples full of them They burne their dead and lay vp the ashes in the top of a Pyramis They beleeue there is one God that he is a Spirit and their Images they make not to represent God but in memoriall of the rich after their death as they professed to Rubruquius The Priests besides their Saffron-iackets buttoned close before weare on their left shoulder a cloake descending before and behind vnder their right arme like to a Deacon carrying the Housel-boxe in Lent They worship towards the North clapping their hands together and prostrating themselues on their knees vpon the Earth holding also their foreheads in their hands They extend their Temples East and West in length vpon the North side they build as it were a Vestrie on the South a Porch The doores of their Temples are alwayes opened to the South A certaine Nestorian Priest told him of so huge an Idoll that it might be seene two dayes before a man came at it Within the Quier which is on the North side of the Temple they place a chest long and broad like a Table and behind that chest stands their principall Idoll towards the South round about which they place the other lesse Idols and vpon that chest they set candles and oblations They haue great Bels like vnto ours The Nestorians of those parts pray with hands displayed before their breasts so to differ from that Iugurian Rite of ioyning hands in prayer Thus farre William de Rubruquius who was there Anno 1253. In Thebet sayth Odoricus resideth the Abassi or Pope of the Idolaters distributing Religious preferments to those Easterne Idolaters as the Roman Pope doth in the West CHAP. XVII Of other Northerne people adioyning to the Tartars and their Religions THE Permians and Samoits that lye from Russia North and North-east are thought to haue taken their beginning from the Tartar-kind whom they somewhat resemble in countenance The Permians are subiect to the Russe they liue by hunting and trading with their furres as doe the Samoits which dwell more toward the North-Sea The Samoit or Samoed hath his name as the Russe sayth of eating himselfe as if they had sometime beene Canibals and at this time they will eate raw flesh whatsoeuer it be euen the very carrion that lyeth in the ditch They say themselues that they were called Samoie that is of themselues as if they were Indigenae there â—â—ad and not transplanted from
as he did before with the like answere Igha Igha Igha Then he commanded them to kill fiue Ollens or great Deere continued singing still both he and they as before Then he tooke a sword of a Cubite and a span long I did mete it my selfe and put it into his belly halfe way and sometime lesse but no wound was to be seene they continuing their sweete song still Then he put the sword into the fire till it was warme and so thrust it into the slit of his shirt and thrust it thorow his body as I thought in at his Nauell and out at his fundament the point being out of his shirt behind I layd my finger vpon it Then he pulled out the sword and sate downe This being done they set a Kettle of water ouer the fire to heate and when the water doth seethe the Priest beginneth to sing againe they answering him For so long as the water was in seething they sate and sang not Then they made a thing being foure square and in height and squarenesse of a chaire and couered with a gowne very close the fore-part thereof for the hinder part stood to the Tents side Their Tents are round and are called Chome in their language The water still seething on the fire and this square seat being ready the Priest put off his shirt and the thing like a garland which was on his head with those things which couered his face and hee had on yet all this while a payre of hosen of Deere-skinnes with the hayre on which came vp to his buttockes So he went into the square seat and sate downe like a Taylor and sang with a strong voyce or hollowing Then they tooke a small line made of Deere-skinnes of foure fathomes long and with a small knot the Priest made it fast about his necke and vnder his left arme and gaue it to two men standing on each side of him which held the ends together Then the kettle of hot water was set before him in the square seat which seat they now couered with a gowne of broad cloth-without lining such as the Russes vse to weare Then the two men which did hold the end of the line still standing there began to draw and drew till they had drawne the ends of the line stiffe and together and then I heard a thing fall into the kettle of water which was before him in the Tent. I asked what it was and they answered his head shoulder and left arme which the line had cut off I meane the knot which I saw afterward drawne hard together Then I rose vp and would haue looked whether it were so or not but they layd hold on me and sayd that if they should see him with their bodily eyes they should liue no longer And the most part of them can speake the Russian tongue to be vnderstood and they took me to be a Russian Then they beganne to hollow with these words Oghaoo Oghaoo Oghaoo many times together in the meane while I saw a thing like a finger of a man two times together thrust thorow the gowne from the Priest I asked them that sate neere to me what it was that I saw and they sayd not his finger for he was yet dead and that which I saw appeare thorow the gowne was a beast but what beast they knew not nor would not tell And I looked vpon the gowne and there was no hole to be seene At last the Priest lifted vp his head with his shoulder and arme and all his body and came out to the fire Thus farre of their seruice which I saw during the space of certaine houres But how they doe worship their Idols that I saw not for they put vp their stuffe to remoue from that place where they lay And I went to him that serued their Priest and asked him what their God sayd to him when hee lay as dead Hee answered that his owne people doth not know neither is it for them to know for they must doe as he commanded William Pursgloue tolde mee of the like eyther iuggling or Magicall prankes practised by Samoyed-Coniurours or Priests whom they haue in great veneration They haue as hee reporteth certaine Images some in likenesse of a Man others of a Beare Wolfe c. which they be hang with the richest Furres they can get hiding them in Caues in the Woods for feare of the Russes who trauell those Countries to hunt after wild beasts as Sable Fox and Beuer who if they light vpon those furred Deities take away the Furres and bestow on them greater heat in fires Pustozera is in 68. degrees 50. minutes The inhabitants hold trade with other Samoieds which haue traffique with the Ougorians and Molgomsey for Sables blacke and white Foxes Beauers Downe Whales-Finnes The Russes malegning others that gaine which themselues find in the Samoied-trade traduced the English amongst them as Spies The Ozera or lake before the Towne was frozen ouer the thirteenth of October and so continued till the twentieth of May. Iosias Logan there obserued and the eleuenth of December hee could see but the way of the Sunne-beames on the thirteenth the beames but not the Sunne which on Christmas day he saw rising at South and by West and setting at South West and by South not wholy eleuated from the Horizon but all the way the nether part of the Sunne seeming iust and euen with it They found the harbor of Pechora full of Ice in Iuly the tide strong and dangerous The Towne of Pechora is small it hath three Churches the poore in the Spring and Summer time liue by catching Partridges Geese Duckes Swans salt the flesh and liue on them most of the Winter Sayling from Pustozera in August towards Nona Zimla they fastened themselues to a piece of Ice which caused their returne homewards The Samoieds know these vnknowne Desarts and can tell where the Mosse groweth wherewith they refresh their wearied Deere pitching their tents of Deere-skins neere the same Their wiues and daughters fetch wood sometimes tenne versts off they hang kettles on the fire with snow of which melted euery one drinkes a carouse When they haue supped they spread a Deeres skinne on the snow within the Tent. Whereon he resteth couered with his day-apparell Tenne or twelue of the boyes or maides watch the Deere to keepe them from Wolues or Beares making a great shout if they see any For two hundred and fifty sleds they pitch euery night three Tents The light of the Moone and snow helpe them in their trauels The Hollanders in the yeere 1494 sent to discouer a way to Cathay and China by the North-East which by Master Burrough Pet and Iacman Englishmen had beene long before in vaine attempted William Barents was the chiefe Pilot for this discouerie This yeere they sayled thorow the straits of Vaygats and thought themselues not farre short of the Riuer Ob The next yeere they returned for the
commendation whereby they cannot but lamely walke abroad And if any widdow refuse a second marriage shee obtaineth hereby much praise and many priuiledges Their Bonzij are so little accounted of that the Iesuites wearing their habit were litle set by and therefore taking the Mandarine-habit were exceedingly honoured of all sorts as professors of learning §. VI. Of their superstitious Diuinations and curious Arts OF their Mechanicall and Liberall Arts wee haue alreadie spoken the same in this Suruey of their Religion you may expect of those Arts which are curious and superstitious None of which is so generall as their vaine obseruations of luckie and vnluckie dayes and houres by which they measure the oportunities of all their actions To this end they haue Almanacks or Kalenders yeerely set forth by the Kings Astrologers with publike authoritie in such numbers that no house wants them Somewhat of these hath beene spoken alreadie Trigautius writeth at large of their mysteries in this kind comparing the differences thereof with ours in Europe They follow certaine rules the first Authors whereof liued 3970. yeeres since in the reigne of Yao whom they still obserue as a Saint who set two brethren on worke to finde out the celestiall motions Their names were Hi and Ho these wrote certaine rules which two thousand yeeres after were burned by Xi Hoam and not a booke left that was knowne till some Copies were againe discouered in the time of King Vu ti aboue an hundred yeeres after These rules haue beene fiue and fiftie times examined and as it were new reuised and allowed the last of which was three hundred yeeres since by Co xeu kim while the Tartars reigned As for the Theoricall Astrologie they know it not and in the practicall they are not so practised but their rules deceiue them So it hapned about fiue yeeres since they foretelling an Eclipse falsly for which One libelled against them to the King and they confessed the errour but blamed their grounds whereupon consultation was had and the Iesuites employed by publike Commission to ioyne with their Mathematicians in reforming their Kalender which they intended to doe by bringing in the Europaean This and the Kings grant of an Idoll-Temple to them a little before 1610. for the buriall of Ricius wanne the Iesuites great respect in this Kingdome Their yeere they reckon by the Moone like the Hebrewes Their day they account from mid-night to mid-night diuiding it into twelue equall spaces But that which I intend is not to shew their want of Art so much as their wanton Art and artlesse trifling in superstitions without ground As such a Day is fit for sacrifice for bankets for a iourney a suite to the King building of a house or the like what is to be done or not wherein they are not more ridiculous prescribers then the people superstitious obseruers There are others also that get their liuing by this profession appointing daies and houres many deferring their necessary affaires till the Wizard findes out a luckie houre for the beginning and then wil he begin although the blustering windes lowring skie and all the elements forbid him and force him to a present retrait This hath beene a generall folly in the East and thence hath infected the West also but China runs mad thereof The like care they vse in calculating Natiuities an Art professed by many as is that also by the course of Stars or certaine superstitious numbers to foretell things Physiognomie and Palmistrie and Diuination by Dreames by words in communication by casuall gestures auguries sunne-beames and innumerable other fancies haue conspired to this phrensie wherein it is hard to iudge whether is more absurd the fraudulent Impostor impudently promising without feare or wit what the impotent Consultor with a witlesse feare makes credible by his credulitie Many of them sickning and sometimes almost dying vpon meere conceit of sicknesse on such a day foretold Many also consult with Deuills and familiar Spirits of which before is mentioned and diuers wayes receiue his Oracles by the voyces of Infants of Beasts of Men distracted or otherwise Besides these fooleries they haue one more peculiar namely in choosing a plot of ground for priuate or publike buildings which plot they compare with the head tayle feet of certaine imagined Dragons which they thinke liue vnder the earth from whence all aduerse or prosperous fortunes befall Families Cities Prouinces and the whole Kingdome And therefore many chiefe men spend their wits in this so profound a science and are employed especially in publike structures As Astrologers view the Heauens so these the Earth and by the Mountaines Riuers Site foretell the Fates and make good or bad fortune to depend on the placing of the doore window or other part of the house on this or that side or site It is a world to see what a world of these Impostors their are in this their world so they call the Kingdome of China which gull the learned the Magistrates and the King himselfe Strange is their Diuination by Idolatrous Lots which some tell on this manner They haue their Idols in their houses with which they consult sometimes praying and sometimes beating them and then setting them vp againe with renewed incense and flatteries and with as they see occasion redoubled stripes being cruell or propitious as Tertullian obiected to the Romanes to their Gods And in a word the Mandarines are the Gods or Deuils rather whom the people must feare as dreading blowes from them which they themselues at pleasure can and doe inflict on the other This God-beating they vse with Lots For when any is to vndertake a iourney or any matter of weight as buying lending marrying c. They haue two stickes flat on the one side otherwise round as bigge as a Walnut tyed together with a small thread which after many sweet Oraisons they hurle before the Idoll If one or both of them fall with the flat side vpwards they reuile the Image with the most opprobrious termes and then hauing thus disgorged their choller they againe craue pardon with many fawning promises But if at the second cast they find no better fortune they passe from words to blowes the deafe God is hurled on the earth into the water or fire till at last with his vicissitude of sweet and sowre handling and their importunate reiterations of their casts he must needs at last relent and is therefore feasted with Hens Musicke and if it be of very great moment which they consult about with a Hogs-head boyled dressed with Hearbes and Flowers and a pot of their Wine They obserue another kind of Lots with stickes put together in a pot and drawing out the same consult with a certaine booke they haue of their destinie Mongst other their curious Arts there are two in chiefe request Alchimie to bring siluer out of other metalls and the other to procure a long or endlesse life They fable that some of
strict orders they may not nourish Hennes because of their female Sexe To drinke Wine is punished in their Priests with stoning They haue many Fasts in the yeare but one especially in which the people frequent the Temples and their Sermons They haue their Canonicall houres by day and night for their holy things They hold that the World shall last eight thousand yeares whereof sixe thousand are passed and then it shall be consumed with fire at which time shall bee opened in Heauen seuen eyes of the Sunne which shall drie vp the Waters and burne vp the Earth In the ashes shall remaine two Egges whence shall come foorth one Man and one Woman which shall renew the World But there shall be no more Salt but fresh Riuers and Lakes which shall cause the Earth without mans labour to abound in plenty of good things The Siamites are the sinke of the Easterne Superstitions which they deriue to many Nations Gasper de Cruz testifieth that the Bramenes in Siam are Witches and are the Kings principall seruants They worship one god called Probar Missur which say they made Heauen and Earth and another called Pralocussur who obtained of a third named Praissur that power vnto Probar Missur Another called Praput Prasur Metrie Hee thinketh the third part of the Land to be Priests or Religious persons These Religious are proud the inferiour worshipping their superiours as gods with prayer and prostrating They are reuerenced much of the people none daring to contradict them so that when our Frier Gasper preached if one of those Religious came and said This is good but ours is better all his Auditors would forsake him They number in their opinion seuen and twentie Heauens holding that some of them are like Mahomets Paradise fraught with faire women with meates also and drinkes and that all liuing things which haue soules goe thither euen Fleas and Lice And these lousie heauens are allotted to all secular persons which enter not into their rule and habit of Religion They haue higher heauens for their Priests which liue in wildernesses ascribing onely this felicitie to them there to sit and refresh themselues with winde And according to the higher merits they assigne other higher heauens among their gods which haue round bodies like bowles and so haue these that goe thither They hold also that there are thirteene Hells according to the differing demerits of mens sinnes Of their Religious men some are supreme and sit aboue the King called Massauchaches a second Order they entitle Nascendeches which sit with the King and are as Bishops a third and lower ranke sit beneath the King named Mitires which are as Priests and haue the Chapuzes and Sazes two inferior degrees vnder them all reuerenced according to their place Except the Priests and Religious all are slaues to the King and when they die their whole state deuolueth to him how hardly soeuer the wife and children shift which was caused through a rebellion against the brother of the King which then reigned when the Frier writ this In the yeere 1606. Balthasar Sequerius a Iesuite landing at Tanassary passed from thence partly by goodly Riuers partly ouer cragged and rough Hills and Forrests stored with Rhinocerots Elephants and Tigres one of which tare in pieces one of their company before his eyes vnto Odia Conferring with the Talipoies or Religious men he learned their conceits That there was now no God in the world to gouerne it Three had beene before now dead and a Fourth is expected which deferreth his comming In the meane while lest this huge Frame should want a Ruler it is ordered by a certaine Bubble or Brooch which some of the Former Gods had left The vulgar people heare these bubbles bables and fables with great reuerence and silence holding vp their ioyned hands They obserue their Festiualls according to the course of the Moone and then open their Temples whither the people resort to doe their deuotions These are built strong and stately with Art and Beautie hauing their Porches Cloisters Quires and lower Iles great Chappels being annexed on both sides and large Church-yards In one of these hee saw a Statue of eighteene Cubites length dedicated to the great God They are of marueilous abstinence and thinke it a great sinne to taste wine In their Quires they haue singing men which after the Europaean fashion sing there especially in the shutting in of the Euening and about midnight Very early in the morning warning is giuen for them to goe to beg from doore to doore They haue their funerall Holies and Obits for the dead The carkasses are burned being put into painted Coffins with great solemnitie if they be great men with Musicke and dances and great store of victuals to be bestowed on the Talipoys Thus farre Sequerius The Inhabitants of this Kingdome are much giuen to pleasure and ryot they refuse the vse of Manuall Arts but addict themselues to Husbandry They haue publike Schooles where they teach Lawes and Religion in the vulgar Language other Sciences they learne in a more learned Tongue They worship innumerable Idols but especially the foure Elements according to which his Sect each man maketh choise of his buriall They which worshipped the Earth are therein buried the Fire burneth the dead carkasses of them which obserued it in the Ayre are hanged to feast the airy-winged people with their flesh those which adored the Ayre being aliue The Water drowneth those which had aliue beene drowned in that Waterie Religion Euery King at his first entrance to the Crowne erecteth a Temple which hee adorneth with high Steeples and innumerable Idols In the Citie of Socotay is one of mettell fourescore spans high The Kingdome of Siam comprehendeth that Aurea Regio of Ptolemey by Arrianus in his Periplus the Map whereof Ortelius set forth 1597. called Aurea Continens nigh to which is placed that Aurea Chersonesus then it seemeth by a necke of land ioyned to the Continent since supposed to be by force of the Sea separated from the same and to bee the same which is now called Sumatra which Tremellius and Iunius iudge to bee Salomons Ophir The Land trendeth long and narrow and containeth fiue hundred leagues of Sea-coast compassing from Champa to Tauay But of this space the Arabians or Moores haue vsurped two hundred with the Townes of Patane Pahan Ior and Malacca now in possession of the Portugals and the Kingdomes of Aua Chencran Caipumo and Brema haue shared also therein Odia is the chiefe Citie thereof containing foure hundred thousand housholds and serueth the King with fiftie thousand Souldiers and to the Riuer Caipumo on which it standeth belong two hundred thousand vessels This King hath nine Kingdomes subiect to him and thirtie thousand Elephants whereof three thousand are trained to the warres His Nobles hold their Lands in a kinde of Knights-seruice like the Turkish Timars yet onely for terme of life without the Kings pay serue him whensoeuer
Negariot in Summer for in their Winter they cannot passe for Snowes They are like in colour and haire to men of these parts The Bengalans haue a Tradition or Fable amongst them That this Riuer commeth out of Paradise which was proued by one of their Kings who sent men vp the streame till they came to a pleasant Ayre still Water and fragrant Earth and could row no further Hence happily grew this conceit That this Water should wash away sinne and that without it they cannot be saued This Riuer hath in it Crocodiles which by water are no lesse dangerous then the Tygres by land and both will assault men in their Ships There is also a little small Beast which by his barking maketh the Tyger to run away The King of Candecan which lyeth at the mouth of Ganges caused a Iesuite to rehearse the Decalogue who when he reproued the Indians for their polytheisme worshipping so many Pagodes Hee said That they obserued them but as among them their Saints were worshipped to whom how sauoury the Iesuites distinction of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 was for his satisfaction I leaue to the Readers iudgement This King and the others of Bacala and Arracan haue admitted the Iesuites into their Countries and most of these Indian Nations §. IIII. Of Arracan and the Warres betwixt them and the Portugals BEtwixt the King of Arracan and the Portugals haue beene late warres not vnworthy Relation because they serue for better knowledge of all the Countries adiacent The King of Arracan or Rachim so Fredericke cals it had giuen to Philip de Britto the keeping of Syrian as before is expressed which he fortifying became suspicious to the King this was one cause of war and another the Portugals surprisall of the I le Sundiua sixe leagues distant from the Continent of Bengala ouer-against Siripur This Iland Fredericke admires for the cheapnesse and plentie of necessaries where he bought two salted Kine for a Larine which is twelue shillings and sixe pence very good and fat foure wilde Hogs readie dressed at the same price a fat Hen for a peny and yet the People said they paid twice the worth other commodities at like price It belonged to the Kingdome of Bengala distant a hundred and twentie miles from Chatigan the people Moores It is thirtie leagues in compasse so strong by Nature that they may hinder any from landing Two hundreth Ships are yeerely laden from hence with salt The Mogols with the Conquest of Bengala had possessed Sundiua Cada-ragi still continuing his Title vnder colour whereof Carualius and Matus two Portugals conquered it An. 1602. Heereat the King of Arachan was angry that without his leaue they had made themselues Lords of that which hee challenged to belong to his protection fearing that by this meanes and the fortification of Sirian he should finde the Portugals vn-neighbourly Neighbours Hee sent therefore a Fleet of a hundred and fiftie Frigats or little Galleys with fifteene Oares on a side and other greater furnished with Ordnance and Cadaray which they say was true Lord of it sent a hundred Cossi from Siripur to helpe Him The Portugals preuailed and became Masters of a hundred and nine and fortie of the Enemies Vessels In this time Britto had built his Fort at Sirian and founded a Towne for the dispersed Peguans which had here assembled to the number of 15000. The Saracens enuying herear proferred the King of Arracan a great reuenue to commit this Hauen to them Britto obiected That so the Mogol would swallow all Manasingua the Gouernour of Bengala hauing promised to King Achebar to bring Him the White Elephant in Arracan adding great gifts to the King and his Councellors At the same time a Peguan Bagna that is a Great Man or Ruler by the Kings Command and Letters commendatorie to Britto kept in Pegu But Britto fearing the Peguans would cleaue to their Countrey-man An. 1603. besiegeth and taketh his Fortresse slayeth three hundred of his Companie Captiuing nine hundred Whereupon the Peguans which had followed him reuolted to Britto viz. two hundred Ships twentie Horses and great store of prouision with the Haruest which the Bagua had sowne then on the ground Hee with fifteene of his Company escaped perhaps the same which before out of Floris wee haue mentioned Britto now grew great and in the Portugall name made League with the Kings of Tangu Iangoma Siam and Prom for their ioynt ayde against Arracan if he should be besieged He went also to Goa to acknowledge fealtie to the Crowne of Portugall for the Kingdome of Pegu whence he brought with him sixteen Gallies and three hundred Portugals to the defence of Sirian with which and a hundred others of the Portugals threescore at Sundiua thirtie at Arracan and ten at Chatigan he easily thought to become Master of those Seas A matter of great consequence where they might haue all matter for shipping which caused the Great Turke once to prouide here at an easier charge carried from hence to Sues then from Alexandria and here they might both build their Fleets and be furnished of sustenance might send at any time to all places in the South which from Goa cannot be done but with the Monsons and might cause that no Ship of Moores should lade Pepper Cinamon or other commodities at Martauan Reitau Iuncalao Tanassarin and Queda for Surat or Mecca but with custome to them and passe from them The King of Arracan foreseeing such astorme prouided a Nauie of a thousand saile the most Frigats some Greater Catures and Cosses and assailed the Portugal Fleet at Sundiua vnder Carualius who had but sixteene of diuers sorts of shipping which staid by him and yet got the victorie neere two thousand of the Enemies being slaine a hundred and thirtie of their Vessels burnt with the losse but of six Portugals Which so vexed the King of Arracan that he put many of the Captaines in Womens habit vpbraiding their effeminate courages which had not brought one Portugall with them aliue or dead Yet were the Portugall Ships so torne that they were forced for feare of another tempest to forsake the Iland and to transport that which there they had to Siripur Bacala and Chandecan in the Continent and thus Sundiua became subiect to Arracan Carualius staid at Suripur where he had thirtie Fusts or Frigates with Cadary Lord of the place where he was suddenly assaulted with one hundred Cosses sent by Manasinga Gouernor vnder the Mogol who hauing subiected that Tract to his Master sent forth this Nauie against Cadaray Mandaray a man famous in those parts being Admiral where after a bloudie fight Mandaray was slain Carualius carried away the honor From thence recouering of a wound in the late fight He went to Golin or Gullum a Portugall Colony vp the streame from Porto Pequino where hee won a Castle of the Mogors kept by
foure hundred men one of that company onely escaping These exploits made Carualius his Name terrible to the Bengalans insomuch that one of the Arracans Commander of fiftie Arracan Ships dreaming in the night that hee was assaulted by Carualius terrified his fellowes and made them flie into the Riuer which when the King heard cost him his head But this Day had an end and this Sun was set in a Cloud For whiles the King of Arracan hauing lately atchieued so great matters in Pegu and added Sundiua and the Kingdome of Baccala intended to annexe Chandecan to the rest of his Conquests the King of Chandecan thought to purchase his peace with Carualius his head which hee treacherously accomplished sending for Him that they might ioyne together against Arracan and watching his oportunitie tooke Him in his Palace with others of his companie after that inuading and spoyling his ship Britto remayned in his Fort at Sirian against whom in the yeere 1604. the King of Arracan sent a fleete of fiue hundred Frigats and fortie Caturs vnder the conduct of his eldest sonne with fifteene thousand men The Portugals had eight ships well prouided and one hundred and eightie Souldiers in the Fort. Neere to Negrais the Armadas met the Portugall obtayning the victorie slaying and drowning almost one thousand of the enemies This at Sea and waiting a better oportunitie in the Riuer they left not one Vessell to carrie newes thereof to Arracan The Prince with his Souldiers sought to returne by land but Penurie pursued him separated his companie and betrayed Him to two hundred and fiftie Portugals and Peguans which to these straights had added the locall straights of a certaine passage where the Prince with some of the chiefe yeelded redeemed at a great summe as before is mentioned and couenants of Peace on both sides ratified by Oath One of the Articles was the deliuerie of Sundiua for the performance of which Britto sent his sonne Marke with two Captaines to take possession which all were treacherously dispossessed of their liues and three thousand Portugals captiued Hee prepares for a new siege but in the midst of these designes that part of his Palace where the white Elephant stood and his chiefe Oratorie were fired with lightning which some Talipois interpreting of Diuine vengeance for breach of Oath went to the King and told him these things presaged further disasters It so presaged indeed to Them who for this presage were presently to the number of thirtie of the chiefe of them slaine Twelue hundred ships so wee call them all by a generall name though not comparable for the most part to our Europaean the King of Arracan set forth in this new expedition of which seuentie fiue were of greater burthen each hauing twelue Peeces of Ordnance and well furnished the rest Fusts or Frigats In this Fleete were thirtie thousand Souldiers and Sea-men Pataneans Persians and Malabars of them eight thousand with Hand-gunnes and three thousand fiue hundred greater Peeces of diuers sorts The King himselfe his sonne and best Souldiers were therein accompanied with the King of Chocor Britto sent forth that Nauie which hee had but twelue ships in all vnder the command of Paulus Regius a famous Sea-Captaine which meeting them at the Cape of Negrais the Admirall of Arracan Marucha was with his Fust taken and slaine and the Night parted the Fight or rather renewed the Fight many of the Arracan ships mistaking and warring vpon their fellowes to the losse of diuers ships and in the whole fight of almost two thousand men Foure dayes after the fourth of Aprill they encountred the second time and the Portugall Admirall runne her selfe vpon pyles vnder the water whence shee could not bee freed and when another Portugall ship came to relieue them Rhogius would not bee perswaded to stirre till fire entring the Gunners roome blew vp him and his companie and the other Captaine which moued him to remoue The Portugall ships betooke them to their Fort whither the King of Tangu had sent his sonne with sixe hundred Horse eighteene Elephants and sixteene thousand Men to besiege it But both these and the Arracan forces doing their vtmost in May following were forced to depart without effect leauing the Towne and Fort in a deformed case and most of the people wounded Yet greater was Arracans losse onely twelue greater and two hundred and fiftie lesser of those twelue hundred ships remayning the rest drowned forsaken or burnt partly by the Portugals partly by themselues wanting men to guide them Most of the Ordnance they buried in the Sands Ten thousand men they lost in the siege The Portugals lost of their Nation besides helpes eightie sixe ten Captaines and the Admirall The next yeere their Fort was fired and their dwelling Houses Temple Household and Prouision Britto himselfe escaped hardly with his wife His courage yet remayned and resolued to build it in an higher and stronger place Easily had Arracan with this aduantage effected his designes had not the Portugals elsewhere molested him and taken Dianga And thus farre haue wee followed the Iesuite Iarric in these Arracan affaires If with iarring from truth in any place I haue named my Author nor can accuse or excuse him Further he cannot guide vs But where his Intelligence failes Floris helpes The last Act of this Tragedie was reserued to the King of Aua who tooke Sirian as before Master Floris hath told vs slue all the Portugals and was reported to spit this Philip de Britto He settled the affaires of Pegu and sought what hee could to reduce them from their dispersions to their natiue Habitations But you are wearie of warre and bloud in which you see all these Kings embrued it is time to entertaine you elsewhere and though as tragically yet with differing Obiects pleasing at the least with varietie CHAP. VII Of the Great Mogor or Mogoll §. I. Of the Mogors Countries and MELABDIM ECHEBAR THe Great Mogor according to Boterus hath vnder his subiection seuen and fortie Kingdomes which lie betweene Indus and Ganges on the East and West and betwixt Imaus and the Ocean contayning all that which the Ancients called India intra Gangem or India Citenor Hee is called of the people the Great Mogor for the same cause that the Ottoman-Turkes are called Great The style of him that was King when the Iesuites imparted to vs these Relations was Mahumeth Zelabdim Echebar King Mogor or Mogoll for so they call him in the Countrey and not Mogor as the Iesuites This Mogoll seemes to argue their Tartarian Originall from the Moai Tartars of which see our Tartarian Relations The true Mogors or Mogols liue on the hither side of Indus in the Kingdome of Quabul or Cabul which is vnder the brother of Echebar against whom Anno 1582. hee led a strong Armie in which the Iesuites say were fiue thousand Elephants armed These weare plates of Iron on their foreheads carrie foure Archers or else
Sanga on the North Mandao on the East on the West Nautacos or the Gedrosians The Sea and the Confines of Decan are the Southerly bounds It hath in it by estimation threescore thousand Populations or inhabited Places watred with many Streames the chiefe whereof is Indus which diuideth it in the middle running from Caucasus or Naugrocot and after nine hundred miles iourney with two nauigable mouths disemboquing it selfe into the Ocean This Countrey is very fertile not yeelding to any other in India in the fruits which the Earth and Trees bring forth besides their store of Elephants Gems Silke Cotton and such like The people are of an Oliue-colour and goe naked except about their priuie parts They eate no Flesh but Rice Milke Barley and other life-lesse Creatures The Inhabitants are for the most part Gentiles and so were their Kings vntill the Mahumetan Superstitions preuailed There are vp within the Land People called Reisbuti which are the natural Nobles of this Kingdome chaced by the Moores to the Mountaines whence they make often excursions and spoyles in the Country and the Cambayans pay them tribute that they might liue in peace of these is spoken alreadie Their chiefe Sea-Townes are Daman Bandora Surate Rauellum Bazuinum and within Land Cambaya Madabar Campanel Tanaa c. Surat now an English Factory hath a Castle of Stone with good Ordnance The Houses are faire of Stone and Brick square with flat roofes they haue goodly Gardens with Pomegranats Pome-Citrons Melons Limons Figs all the yeere long curious Springs of fresh Water The people neat tall louing graue iudicious clothed in long white Calico or Silke Cambaya hath bestowed the name on the whole Kingdome which they call the Indian Cairo for the excellencie thereof it standeth three miles from Indus The Tides here encrease not as with vs at the full but in the decrease of the Moone they are at the highest Of this Riuer Indus Ptolomey and Arrianus in his Periplus of the Erythrean Sea reckon seuen Mouthes or Entrances into the Sea and Theuet I know not with what Friar-like and Lyar-like boldnesse nameth seuen at this day but Arrianus saith in those times six of the seuen were ouer-growne and but one nauigable But Dionysius Pomponius Strabo and the other Arrianus which writ the life of Alexander ascribe but two vnto it which is confirmed by the Portugals Arrianus hath in his eight Booke largely described the Voyage of Nearchus and Onesicritus from this Riuer about the Coast into the Persian Gulfe employed by Alexander the Great It is not 160. yeeres since Machamut a Moore expelled the Guzarat King This Machamut deserueth mention for one thing wherein the Sunne hath scarce beheld his like Hee so accustomed himselfe to poysons that no day passed wherein hee tooke not some for else hee himselfe had dyed saith Barbosa as it fareth with Amfian or Opium the vse whereof killeth such as neuer tooke it and the disuse such as haue And beyond that which we reade of Mithridates in the like practice his Nature was transformed into so venemous a habit that if hee did meane to put any of his Nobles to death hee would cause them to be set naked before him and chewing certaine fruits in his mouth which they call Chofolos and Tambolos with lime made of shells by spitting vpon him in one halfe houre depriued him of life if a Fly sate vpon his hand it would presently fall off dead Neither was his loue to be preferred to his hatred or with women was his dealing lesse deadly For he had three or foure thousand Concubines of whom none liued to see a second Sunne after hee had carnally knowne them His Mustaches or haire of his vpper lip was so long that hee bound it vpon his head as women doe with an haire-lace and his beard was white reaching to his Waste Euery day when he arose and when hee dined fiftie Elephants were brought into the Palace to doe him reuerence on their knees accompanied with Trumpets and other Musicke Coelius Rhodiginus mentions the like of a Maid thus nourished with Poysons her Spettle and other Humours comming from her being deadly such also as lay with her carnally presently dying Auicenna hath also a like example of a Man whose Nature infected with a stronger Venome poysoned other venomous Creatures if any did bite him And when a greater Serpent was brought for triall he had by the biting thereof a two-dayes Feuer but the Serpent dyed The other did not harme him Mamudius the Successor of King Machamut was a great enemy to the Portugals Badurius succeeded in state and affection and exceeded in greatnesse and ambition Hee inuaded Mandao and Sanga where hee besieged Citor then gouerned by a warlike woman which not able to hold out longer against him fled and left the people in forlorne plight who in a desparate resolution like Sardanapalus heaping vp their Treasures set fire thereto and then cast themselues therein This fire continued three dayes and consumed threescore and ten thousand persons Hence Badurius triumphantly marched against the Mogor whom Maffaeus calleth Miramudius with an Army of an hundred and fiftie thousand Horse whereof thirtie thousand were barded and fiue hundred thousand Foot-men of great brazen Ordnance a thousand whereof foure Basiliskes were drawne such was their weight by so many hundred yokes of Oxen with Shot and Powder hee laded fiue hundred Waynes and as many with Gold and Siluer to pay his Souldiers These Forces with this prouision might rend the Ayre with Thunders might make the Earth to shake with Terror might dry and drinke vp Riuers of Water might frame another fiery Element of Arts inuention but could not either terrifie the Mogor or saue Badurius from a double ouerthrow first at Doceri next at Mandoa where hee loseth his Tents and Treasures and shauing his beard flyeth disguised to Diu in which that the Portugalls might be engaged in the same warre hee gaue them leaue to erect a Fortresse A thing of such moment vnto them that Iohn Botelius confined before vnto India for crimes obiected thought by being the first Messenger thereof in Portugall to purchase his libertie whereof he might well bee reputed worthy who in a little Vessell scarce eighteene foot long and sixe wide with vndaunted courage contemning that wide long and tempestuous Ocean arriued with his small companie great newes and greater admiration at Lisbone Badurius after altering his minde and therein entertaining a treacherous Proiect against the Portugalls coloured the same with kindnesse and he which feared all men no lesse then hee was feared as guiltie to his owne Tyranny which sometime made Dionysius of a King a Barbar and now this a King of others and his own Cooke trusting no man to dresse his meat aduentured to visit the Portugall Vice-Roy in his ships professing great friendship with great dissimulation and by a meane Mariner at his returne was slaine whereupon the whole Iland submitted
Hermites reputed very holy Many Iuglers also and Witches which shew deuilish tricks They neuer goe forth without praying Euery Hill Cliffe Hole or Den hath his Pagodes in it with their Furnaces hard by them and their Cisternes alwayes full of water with which euery one that passeth by washeth his feet and then worshippeth and offereth Rice Egges or what else their deuotion will affoord which the Bramene eateth When they are to goe to Sea they will feast their Pagode with Trumpets Fires and hangings fourteene dayes before they set forth to obtaine a good voyage and as long after their returne which they vse to doe in all their Feasts Marriages Child-births and their Haruest and Seed-seasons The Indian women in Goa when they goe forth haue but one cloth about their bodies which couereth their heads and hangeth downe to the knees otherwise naked They haue rings thorow their noses about their legs toes neckes and armes and seuen or eight bracelets vpon their hands according to their abilitie of glasse or other metall When the woman is seuen yeeres old and the man nine they marry but come not together till the woman is able to beare children Mr. Fitch mentioneth the solemnitie of these marriages and the cause to be the burning of the mother when the father is dead that they might haue a father-in-law to bring them vp To leaue Goa with this Iland The Canaras and Decanijns weare their beards and haire long without cutting as the Bramenes They except from food Kine Hogs and Buffles They account the Oxe Cow or Buffle to be holy which they haue commonly in the house with them and they belmeere stroke and handle them with all friendship in the world feed them with the same meat they eate themselues and when the beasts ease themselues they hold vnder their hands and throw the dung away they sleepe with them in their houses hereby thinking to doe God seruice In other things they are as the Bramenes For those are the Laitie these are the Spiritualtie When they take their oathes they are set within a circle of ashes on the pauement and laying a few ashes on their heads the other on their breasts sweare by their Pagodes to tell the truth The Canarijns and the Corumbijns are the rustickes and Countrey-husbandmen the most miserable people of all India their Religion is much as the other They couer onely their Priuities and eate all things except Kine Oxen Buffles Hogs and Hens flesh Their women binde a cloth about their Nauell which reacheth halfe way the thigh they are deliuered alone by themselues without other helpe their children are brought vp naked till they be seuen or eight yeeres old without any trouble about them except washing them in a little cold water and liue to be an hundred yeeres old without head-ache or losse of teeth They nourish a cuffe of haire on their crownes cutting the rest When the man is dead the wife breaketh her glasse-jewels and cutteth off her haire his bodie is burnt They eate so little as if they liued by the ayre and for a penny would endure whipping In Salsette are two Temples or holes rather of Pagodes renowned in all India one of which is cut from vnder a hill of hard stone and is of compasse within about the bignesse of Village of foure hundred Houses with many Galleries or Chambers of these deformed shapes one higher then another cut out of the hard Rock There are in all three hundred of these Galleries The other is in another place of like matter and forme It would make a mans haire stand vpright to enter amongst them In a little Iland called Pory there standeth a high Hill on the top whereof is a hole that goeth downe on the Hill digged and carued out of the hard Rocke within as large as a great Cloyster round beset with shapes of Elephants Tygres Amazons and other like worke workemanly cut supposed to be the Chinois handy-worke But the Portugals haue now ouerthrowne these Idol-Temples Would God they had not set new Idols in the roome with like practice of offerings and Pilgrimages as did these to their Pagode I once went into a Temple of stone in a Village and found nothing in it but a great Table that hung in the middle of the Church with the Image of a Pagode thereon painted hellishly disfigured with many hornes long teeth out of the mouth downe to the knees and and beneath his nauell with such another tusked 〈◊〉 horned face Vpon the head stood a triple crowne not much vnlike the Popes It hung before a wall which made a partition from another Chamber like a Quire close without any light in the middle whereof was a little doore and on each side of it a furnace within the wall with certaine holes thereby to let the smoake or sauour of the fire to enter into that place when any offering should bee made Whereof wee found there some Rice Corne Fruits Hens and such like There issued thence such a filthy smoake and stinke that it made the place black and almost choaked such as entred We desired the Bramene to open the doore which with much entreatie he did offering first to throw ashes on our fore-heads which wee refused so that before hee would open vs the doore we were forced to promise him not to enter beyond the doore It shewed within like a lime-kill being close vaulted without hole or window neither had the Church it selfe any light but the doore Within the the said Cell hung an hundred burning Lampes and in the middle stood a little Altar couered with Cotton Cloth and ouer that with Gold vnder which as the Bramene told vs sate the Pagode all of Gold of the bignesse of a Puppet Hard by the Church without the great doore stood within the earth a great fouresquare Cisterne hewed out of freestone with staires on each side to goe downe into it full of greene filthy and stinking water wherein they wash themselues when they meane to enter into the Church to pray In the euening they carried their Pagode on Procession first Ringing a Bell wherewith the people assembled and tooke the Pagode out of his Cell with great reuerence and set it in a Palamkin which was borne by the chiefe men of the Towne the rest following with great deuotion with their vsuall noise and sound of Trumpets and other Instruments and hauing carried him a prettie circuit brought him to the stone Cisterne washed him and placed him againe in his Cell making a foule smoake and stinke and euery man leauing his offering behind him intended to the Pagode but consumed by the Bramene and his family As we went along by the wayes we found many such shapes vnder certaine couertures with a small Cisterne of water hard by and halfe an Indian Nut hanging thereby to take vp water withall for the Trauellers to wash and pray By the said Pagodes doe stand commonly a Calfe of stone and two little
Men departed doe most of all enter into these beasts They haue many bookes of their superstition neere the Augurall discipline of the Hetrurians and fond fables of the Graecians and diligently conceale the same from vulgar knowledge except some Bramene Proselyte doe detect those mysteries They beleeue one God maker of Heauen and Earth but adde that he could haue no pleasure in so weighty a charge of gouerning the world and therefore hath delegated the same to the Deuill to reward euery man according to his workes Him they call Deumo they name GOD Tamerani The King hath in his Palace the Chappell of Deumo carued full of Deuils and in the middest sitteth this Image of metall in a Throne of the same matter with a triple Crowne like the Popes and foure hornes with teeth eyes and mouth wide and terrible hooked hands and feet like a Cocke In each corner of this square Chappell is a Deuill set in a fiery Throne wherein are many Soules the Deuill putting one with his right hand into his mouth and taking another from vnder him with his left hand This Idoll is washed by the Bramenes with sweet water incensed and worshipped euery morning Somtime in the weeke they sacrifice on this manner They haue an Altar strewed with flowers on which they put the bloud of a Cocke and coales of fire in a siluer Chafing-dish with much perfumes incensing about the Altar and often ringing with a little Bell of siluer They hold in their hands a siluer Knife with which the Cocke was killed which they dip in the bloud and put into the fire with many Apish gestures All the bloud is thus burned many Waxe-candles burning meane-while The Priest hath on his wrists and legs as it were Morrice-bels which make a great noise a certaine Table hanging at his necke and when he hath ended his Sacrifice he taketh his hands full of Wheat goeth backward from the Altar on which hee alwaies fixeth his eies to a certaine Tree and then hurleth the Corne vp ouer his head as high as he can after which he returneth and vnfurnisheth the Altar The King of Calicut eateth no meate before foure principall Bramenes haue first offered thereof to the Deuill which they do lifting both their hands ouer their heads and shutting their fists draw back the same with their thumbe presenting of that meate to the Idoll and then carrie it to the King on a great Leafe in a Treene Platter The King sitteth on the ground at his meate without any thing vnder him attended with Bramenes standing foure paces off with their hands before their mouthes in great reuerence And after the King hath eaten those Priests carry the Relikes into the Court where they clap thrice with their hands whereat presently certaine Crowes resort thither to eate the Kings leauings which Crowes are hereunto accustomed and may not bee hurt of any When the King marrieth a wife one of the principall Bramenes hath the first nights lodging with hee for which he hath assigned him by the King foure hundred or fiue hundred Ducats The King and his Gentlemen or Nayros eate not flesh without license of the Bramenes The King committeth the custodie of his Wife to the Bramenes when he trauelleth any whither and taketh in too honest part their dishonest familiaritie But for this cause the Kings Sonne succeedeth not in the Crowne but his sisters Sonne as being certainly of his blood These sisters of the King choose what Gentleman they please on whom to bestow their Virginitie and if they proue not in a certaine time to be with child they betake them go these Bramene-stallions The Gentlemen and Merchants haue a custome to exchange Wiues in token of great friendship Some women amongst them haue sixe or seuen Husbands fathering her children on which of them shee best pleaseth The Men when they marry get others to vse them if they bee Virgins fifteene or twentie dayes before they themselues will bed them This Author affirmeth that there were a thousand Families of Christians in Calicut at the time of his being there a hundred and twentie yeeres since If a Debtor breake day with his Creditor and often disapoint him hee goeth to the principall of the Bramenes and receiueth of him a Rod with which he approcheth to the Debter and making a Circle about him chargeth him in the name of the King and the said Bramene not to depart thence till he hath satisfied the Debt which if he do not he must starue in the place for if he depart the King will cause him to be executed The new King for one yeeres space eateth neither Fish nor Flesh nor cutteth his Haire or Nailes vseth certaine Prayers daily eateth but one meale and that after he hath washed neither may hee looke on any man till he hath ended his repast At the yeeres end hee maketh a great Feast to which resort aboue ten thousand persons to confirme the Prince and his Officers and then much Almes is giuen Hee entertaineth tenne thousand Women in diuers Offices in his Palace These make to the King after his fasting yeere is out a Candlemasse Feast each of them carrying diuers lights from the Temple where they first obserue many Idoll idle Ceremonies vnto the Palace with great Musicke and other iollitie §. II. Of the King of Calicut OF the election and erection of the Zamoryn we haue spoken in the beginning of the Chapter let vs here adde out of Castaneda concerning his deuotion Hee saith that this King of Calicut is a Bramene as his Predecessors also And for that it is a custome that all the Kings die in one Pagode or Idoll Temple hee is elected for that cause For alwaies there is and must be in that House a King to serue those Idols and when hee that serueth there dieth then must the King that then raigneth leaue his Empire and goe serue in that place as the other did another being elected to succeed him in the Kingdome And if any refuseth to forsake his Court for the Pagode they enforce him thereunto The Kings of Malabar be browne men and goe naked from the girdle vpward and from thence downward they are couered with cloth of Silke and of Cotton adorned with Iewels For their Children the Sonnes inherit not but the Brother or if there bee none the Sisters Sonne When their Daughers are ten yeeres old they send out of the Kingdome for a Nayro and presenting him with gifts request him to take her Virginitie which hauing done hee tieth a Iewell about her necke which she weareth during her life as a token that from thenceforth she hath free power of her bodie to doe what she will which before she might not After their death these Kings are carried forth into a plaine Field and their burned with sweet wood very costly their kindred and all the Nobilitie of the Countrey being present which done and the ashes buried they shaue themselues without leauing
for now he had found this signe thereof the Sabbaticall Riuer shewing this Sand in proofe thereof Credit Iudaeus Apella the Iewes beleeue quickly all but the truth especially in Portugall whither he came with this report Many thousand moued by his words remoued their dwellings and selling their substance would needs goe into these parts of Persia by the Sabbaticall Riuer to fixe their habitation there wayting for their promised Messias One and a chiefe of this superstitious Expedition was Amatus Lusitanus a Physician of great note accounted one of the most learned of his Profession and a Writer therein and Iohn Micas a Merchant of great wealth They passed through France Germany Hungary their company like a Snow-ball encreasing as they went with the addition of other Iewes of like credulity When they came to Constantinople there were of them in many Bands or Companies thirty thousand Cabasomi Bassa the Turkish Commander thought to gaine by this occasion and would not suffer them to passe ouer the water into Asia without many hundred thousands of Duckets except they would passe on horse-backe This example was soone both spred and followed of the other Bassaes and Commanders in Asia as they went their wealth and substance being euery where so fleeced that they came into Syria much lessened in numbers in estate miserable and beggerly new Officers euery where as new hungry Flyes lighting on these wretched carkasses so I may call them some they whipped some they empaled some they hanged and burned others Thus were these miserable Pilgrimes wasted and Don Iohn Baltasar was present when Amato aforesaid being dead with this affliction his Physicke bookes were in an Out-cry to be sold at Damasco and because they were in Latine no man would buy them till at last another Iew became Chapman Micas one of the wealthiest men which Europe held dyed poore in an Hospitall at Constantinople And this was the issue of their Pilgrimage to the Sabbaticall streame which they supposed to finde in this Persian Gulfe where wee haue too long holden you the Spectators of this Iewish Tragedie And yet let me intreate your patience a litle longer in considering the occasion of this error We haue elsewhere mentioned this Sabbaticall Riuer now you shall vnderstand that the Iewes generally haue drowned their wits therein Rambam cals it Gozan Genebrard alleageth many R. R. testimonies of it but of all and of all let Eldad Danius his tale which Genebrard hath translated find some fauourable entertainment the rather because one of our Apocryphall Authors seemes to weaue the same webbe which as the worthier person deserueth first examination Esdras therefore so wee suppose him and this is not all his Iewish Fables reporteth that the ten Tribes which Salmanasar led captiue tooke counsell among themselues to leaue the multitude of the Heathen and goe forth into a further Countrey where neuer Mankind dwelt that they might there keepe their statutes which they neuer kept in their owne Lord And they entred into Euphrates by the narrow passages of the Riuer For the most High then shewed signes for them and held still the floud till they were passed ouer For through that Countrey there was a great way to goe namely of a yeere and a halfe and the same Region is called Arsareth Then dwelt they there vntill the latter time And now when they shall begin to come the Highest shall stay the Springs of the streame againe c. Here you see no lesse Miracle then in Iordan or the Red Sea for their passage which seeing it was through Euphrates yee will pardon our Iew for searching it neere this Persian Gulfe especially seeing his good Masters the Rabbins had increased this Tale with the Inclosure of these Iewes from passing againe into our World not by the continuall course of Euphrates as Esdras insinuateth but by the Sabbatising of the Sabbaticall streame which by Eldads description is two hundred cubits ouer full of sands and stones without water making a noyse like thunder as it floweth which by night is heard halfe a dayes Iourney from it On the Sabbath it is continually quiet and still but all that while ariseth thence a flame that none dare enter or come neere by halfe a mile Thus the fire if not the Religion of the Sabbath then detaynes them no lesse then the stony streame on the weeke dayes and what stony heart can refuse them credit Yet doth not hee and Esdras agree of the Inhabitants both deriuing them from the tenne Tribes but Eldad challengeth no lesse antiquitie then from Ieroboam who contending with Rehoboam the godly Catholike Israelites refusing to fight against the house of Dauid chose rather to attempt this Pilgrimage and so passing the Riuer Physon for the Scriptures had forbidden them to meddle with Egypt Ammon or Amalck they went and they went til they came into Ethiopia There did the foure Tribes of Dan Nepthali Gad Aser settle themselues which continually war vpon the seuen Kingdoms of Tusiga Kamtua Koha Mathugia Tacul Bacma and Kacua fie on the simplicity of our Geographers which know not one of these no better then Esdras his Arsareth they haue a King whose name is Huziel Mathiel vnder whom they fight each Tribe three moneths by course The Tribe also of Moses for they imagine his children claue to their Mothers Religion which was a Madianite or Ethiopian is turned to their truth and they all obserue the Talmud the Hebrew Tongue the Ordinances of the Elders and suffer nothing vncleane amongst them Yea no Vtopian State comparable to theirs He tels the like tales of the other Tribes But how came he thence to tell this newes Truely I wonder no lesse then you yet he saith he goe to the Sea forgetting that before he had compassed his Countrey with the Sabbaticall streame and there was taken captiue and by his leanenesse escaping the Canibals else our fat Storie had beene deuoured was sold to a Iew of whom perhaps this forged Tale procured his redemption Howsoeuer the Tradition holds both for these inclosed Iewes and that Sabbaticall streame that it should be sought here-a-wayes or found no where The reciting is sufficient refuting to a reasonable vnderstanding and yet the Iewes are not onely besotted with these their inclosed brethren imagining their Messias may bee amongst them although they know not whether to ascribe this transportation to Salmanaser or to Alexander the Great or to the dayes of Ieroboam but Christians also tell of them about the Pole and they know not where And I haue seene a printed Pamphlet of their comming out of those their Inclosures in our times with the numbers of each Tribe Yea Postellus Boterus and many other deriue the Tartars from them which dreame they which please may reade at large confuted by Master Brerewood It was about the yeere 1238. when Eldad came from thence into Spaine If any lust to haue another Guide for the Sabbaticall streame Master Fullers
learned labours will giue him good directions He saith it is the same which Brocard in his Description of the Holy Land calleth Valania hee also correcteth the vsuall Translations of Ptolemey and Iosephus learned Casaubon is of his minde and addes other things ridiculous enough out of the Rabbines out of whose muddie Lakes this Riuer floweth to enclose the fabulous Iewes aforesaid If any maruell why in a Discourse of the Sea wee adde this I answere that wee cannot finde the Land whereto it is due and therefore one absurditie must follow another But let vs proceed §. III. Of the Red Sea Sir H. MIDDLETONS taking and of Rhodes and Cyprus THe Red Sea or Arabian Gulfe seemes vnwilling to be the Oceans subiect so many small Ilands doth she continually muster in resistance besides her vndermining the the Sea with her shallow Channell conspiring the destruction of many heedlesse Mariners that here will aduenture as tenants to the Sea in their mouing houses Once by a mightier hand was it helped to preuaile against the Seas force to discouer a dry Land in the middest thereof and with her watery erected wals to guard those new passengers till the same hand reuersed it or rather rewarded the then empty belly thereof with the prey of so many thousand Egyptians Babelmandel Camaran and Mazua are accounted amongst the chiefe of these Isolets Suachen hath most souereigntie being the Seat of the Turkish Bassa for Abassia Arianus in his Periplus of the Red Sea and Agatharchides in a Treatise of like Argument mention not many Ilands therein Orine Alalaeae Catacumene and that of Diodorus in the mouth of the Strait Don Iohn of Castro hath written an exact Treatise from his owne experience of these Seas and Ilands which Master Hakluit hath in a written Copy out of which we shall obserue more in our coasting about Afrike Thomas Iones who was in the Ascension in this Sea speaketh of twelue or thirteene desolate Ilands where they found refreshing with Cokos Fish and Turtle-doues whereof one may with his hands take twenty douzen in a day The Straits are a mile and an halfe ouer but now not chained Mokha is the chiefe Staple of Indian Commodities which passe that way to Cairo and Alexandria This Moha or Mokha is eighteene leagues within the Bab and hath beene often visited by English ships but in the yeere 1610. they dealt treacherously and barbarously with Sir H. Middleton and his Fleete both here and at Aden Aden hath beene of great trading a great Citie now ruinated neither shops of any account within it nor shippes of Merchandize without adorning the same as in times past Neither doe the Turkes deserue better who tooke it by treachery at first hanging vp the King comming to visit them and keeping or rather losing and lessening it still by like treachery Thus dealt they with Captaine Downton his Company in colour of Trade surprising twenty and making them prisoners and yet worse was the Generall dealt with at Moha The Aga after much protestation of loue and vesting him publikely to testifie the Grand Signiors Grace in cloth of Gold giuing leaue to set vp their Pinnasse with many offices and offers of kindnesse on the eight and twentieth of Nouember suddenly assaulted the English killed eight knocked downe the Generall and tooke him with eight and fortie of his company and Master Pemberton also with nine of his Men. They attempted presently to surprise the Darling with three great Boates full of Souldiers where they found the Trumpeter asleepe and slue him with another The decke vpon occasion of romeaging that day for Quick-siluer was couered with victuals none of the companie fearing or prepared for offence or defence Happily one threw forth a barrell of poulder and disturbed them with fire which when their Captaine Emer Bahare cryed to cut the ships cables made them mistake and cut the Boat-ropes so driuing away leauing their Captaine and sixe and twentie more behinde to the slaughter And with a Peece they gaue present warning to the Trades Increase Sir Henries ship so that their villanie succeeded not by Sea their intent being to become Masters of all The next day Sir Henrie Middleton with seuen more all chained by the necks were brought before the Aga who sternely demanded how he durst come into their Port of Moha so neere their holy Citie of Mecca being the Port and Doore thereof adding that the Bassa had order from the Great Turke to captiuate all Christians in those Seas although they had His Owne Passe He pressed the Generall to write to the Ships that they should come on shore out of the water into this fire and not preuayling caused Him to be taken out of his chaine and coller and clapping a great paire of fetters on his legs and manacles on his hands separated from the rest of his companie laid him in a dirtie dog-kennell vnder a paire of staires At night the Consull of the Banians intreated some mitigation so that he was remoued to a better roome but lodged on the bare ground continuing in this miserie They hoped meanewhile for want of water and victuall to obtayne the ships till December 20. Order then came from Ieffar Bassa to bring them to Zenan or Sinan chiefe Citie of Yeoman or Ayaman Then being re-examined as before His Irons were knocked off and with foure and thirtie more English hee was sent thither the Turkes themselues pitying their manacles and some of them doing them fauours Master Pemberton made a strange escape Zenan is ninescore miles from Moha North North-west in 16. 15. There they arriued januarie 5. being their Diuano or Councell day conueyed as in great pompe and triumph one by one The Generall was carried vp into the Castle to a roome twelue steps high where two great Men tooke him by the wrists and led him to the Bassa sitting at the vpper end of a long Gallerie couered on the floore with Turky carpets and when hee came within two yards of Him he was staid the Bassa with frownes demanding his countrey and other questions like those of the Aga. Then was he with foure or fiue more committed to the Keepers house ; the rest to the common prison clapped in Irons where they had with their small allowance starued if the Generall had not releiued them by the meanes of some of the Turkes themselues by promises and other meanes become their friends On Ianuarie 17. arriued nineteene more of those which had beene betrayed at Aden On the 11. of Februarie they were all freed of their Irons whereas they heard their intent had beene to cut off the heads of the chiefe and make slaues of the rest and at last with faire promises returned to Moha in the beginning of March And on the 11. of May the Generall made his escape by this deuice He sent to the ship for prouisions as for longer stay and especially for Wine and aquavite which hee gaue bountifully amongst his
had his skinne painted with a hot Iron Pensill he and his people at Magellan's peswasion were baptized and burned their Idols which were made of hollow wood with great faces and foure teeth like Bores tuskes in their mouthes painted they were all ouer but had only a forepart and nothing behind They weare in their yard a nayle of Gold They had many wiues but one principall They obserued many Ceremonies in killing a Hogge in Sacrifice as it seemed to the Sunne After the sounding of their Cymbals and certaine Cates set downe in platters two old women came forth with Trumpets or Pipes of Reed and did reuerence to the Sunne and then clothing themselues with sacred Vestments one of them put about her fore-head a haire-lace with two hornes holding another heire-lace or skarfe in her hand and so beganne to sound dance and call vpon the Sunne wherein she is followed by the other both of them in this manner dancing about the Hogge which is there fast tyed The horned Beldame still muttereth certaine words to the Sunne and the other answereth her then doth shee take a cup of wine and after some Ceremonies powreth it on the Hogge and after that with a Launce after dances and flourishes she killeth the Hogge All this while a little Torch is burning which at last she taketh into her mouth and byteth it and the other woman washeth the Pipes with the Swines bloud and with her finger embrewed with bloud marketh the fore-head of her husband first and then of the rest Then doe they vntire themselues and onely with women associates eate the cheare in the platters and after sindge the Hogge and eat him Without these Ceremonies they eat no Swines flesh From hence Magellan went to Mathan where in a battle with the Ilanders he was shine In Pulaoan they keepe Cockes for the game but eate not of their flesh forbidden by their Superstitions In Ciumbubon they found a tree which had leaues like those of the Mulbery hauing besides on each side of the leafe as it were two feete with which as if it had beene mouing and sensible it would stirre and goe vp and downe Pigafetta kept one eight dayes in a platter and when he touched it presently it would flee from him and moue vp and downe he thought it liued of the ayre In Burneo the people are partly Moores and partly Gentiles and according to their Religions haue two Kings and two Royall Cities situated in salt-Salt-water The Moores when they kill a Hen or a Goat vse first certayne words to the Sunne The Gentiles worship the Sunne and Moone esteeming the one Male and the other Female him the Father this the Mother of the Stars whom also they reckon in the catalogue of their Demi-gods They salute the Sun in his morning-approach with certaine Verses and adoration which they also performe to the Moone and demand of them children riches and other their necessaries After death they expect no future state The Spaniards heard of great Pearles as bigge as Egges which the King of Burneo had and if you beleeue them they tooke an Oyster themselues whose fishie substance weighed seuen and fortie pounds The Moore King in Burneo was serued in his Palace and attended only by women and Maydens In Gilolo they are likewise some of the Arabian Sect the others Gentiles The Moores had two Kings of their Law each of which had sixe hundred children The Gentiles vsed to worship the first thing they encounter in the morning all the day following They were sometime man-eaters some of the Ilanders were by the Portugals conuerted but the King being poysoned by a Mahumetan they declined Yet one Nobleman named Iohn first killed his wife and children with his owne hands lest they should apostatize and then offered himselfe to endure any torment §. II. Of the Moluccos Banda Amboyna and Selebes THe Moluccos are vsually reckoned fiue as before is said but many other Ilands are subiect to them and by some Authours called also by that name The King of Ternate is said to haue seuenty Ilands vnder his subiection and in his Port representeth great Maiesty Both heere and in Banda the Mahumetan Superstition hath set footing and preuayled as in the other adioyning Ilands the Moores being as zealous to winne Proselites as to enrich themselues None of these Ilands is aboue sixe leagues in compasse enriched with Cloues but of other fruits barren and poore One tree they haue which out of the cut branches yeeldeth a white wholsome and sauourie liquor for drinke they call it Tuaca and the pith thereof affoordeth them meate called Sagu tasting in the mouth like sowre Curds melting like Sugar whereof they make certayne Cakes which will endure good for food ten yeeres HONDIVS his Map of the Indian Ilands INSULAE INDIAE orientalis The Cloue-trees not onely sucke vp all the moysture of the Earth where they grow disdayning any other plant should grow neere them like our Inclosers suddenly drinking vp all the Heauens liberality in showres but with their thirsty appetite intercept the running waters that descend from the Mountaines before they can betake them to their Mothers lap the Oceans refuge In this Iland are said to bee men hauing anckles with spurres like to Cockes heere are Hogges with hornes a Riuer stored with fish and yet so hot that it flayeth off the skin of any creature which entereth it Oysters so large that they Christen in the shels Crabs so strong that with their clawes they will breake the Iron of a Pick-axe stones which grow like fish whereof they make Lime In Ternate is a Mountayne which as it were angry with Nature for being fastned to the earth doth not only lift vp his high head aboue the Ayrie Regions of cloudes but endeuoureth also to conioyne it selfe with the fiery Element wherewith it seemeth to hold some entercourse with dreadfull thunders belching out light flames mixed with a darke smoke like proud Greatnesse wasting it selfe with it owne flames and filling the neighbouring-valley with ashes It is not much aboue a hundred yeeres since first the Sect of Mahumet entred the Moluccas But now both heere and in Amboino the Iesuits haue their Residences and haue perswaded many to their Catholike Faith and whipping Processions Stephan ab Hagan in the yeere 1605. wanne this Iland of Amboino and the Fort of the Portugals to the States it is a Cloue-Iland The King of Ternate is Mahumetan In Ternate theft is neuer suffered vnpunished the Hollanders saw a Boy of eleuen or twelue yeeres for stealing a leafe of Tobacco led vp and downe with his hands bound behind him for a publike spectacle and derision to other Boyes They mayntaine deadly wars with the Portugals and spare none of them that they can get If an Eclipse of the Sunne or Moone happen they howle and make piteous lamentation perswading themselues that their King or some great man amongst them will
death at Passanan for Tecco is a healthfull place where and in the Country about the Pepper most groweth In Nicobar they are base people and till not the ground Sumbrero is ten or twelue leagues Northward from this Iland where that plant growes not a plant but a Worme but a stone before obserued The people are tawny and naked they paint their faces Their Priests in their Sacrifices weare apparell so close as if it were sowed to them and hornes on their heads turning backe with a taile also hanging downe behind for so the Deuill they say appeareth to them Their faces and haire are deformed with greene blacke and yellow colours HONDIVS his Map of Zeilan CEILAN insula §. II. Of Zeilan ZEilan which some call Seylon other Ceilan is by Barrius auerred to be Taprobana sometimes according to Marcus Paulus his reports thought to haue comprehended 3600. miles in circuit since much impayred by his ouer-mighty neighbour the Sea which hath now left not aboue 250. miles in length and an 140. miles of breadth vnto it b The Indians call it Tenarisim or the delicious land and some are of opinion that this was Paradise So iust are the iudgements of the Highest that when as man wandred from him caused him also to wander from himselfe and from his habitation yea the place it selfe hath also wandred in mens wandring conceits ouer the World yea and out of our habitable World altogether as before is shewed men now seeking it as vainly as before they lost it It is in fashion resembling an Egge by a shallow channell separated from the Cape Comori The Heauens with their dewes the Ayre with a pleasant holesomnesse and fragrant freshnesse the Waters in their many Riuers and Fountaynes the Earth diuersified in aspiring Hils lowly Vales equall and indifferent Plaines filled in her inward Chambers with Metals and Iewels in her outward Court and vpper face stored with whole Woods of the best Cinamon that the Sunne seeth besides Fruits Oranges Limons c. surmounting those of Spaine Fowles and Beasts both tame and wild among which is their Elephant honoured by a naturall acknowledgement of excellence of all other Elephants in the World These all haue conspired and ioyned in common league to present vnto Zeilan the chiefe of worldly treasures and pleasures with a long and healthfull life in the Inhabitants to enioy them No maruell then if Sense and Sensuality haue heere stumbled on a Paradise There wooddie Hils as a naturall Amphitheatre doe encompasse a large Plaine and one of them as not contenting his beetle-browes with that onely prospect disdayneth also the fellowship of the neighbouring Mountaynes lifting vp his steepe head seuen leagues in height and hath in the top a Plaine in the middest whereof is a stone of two Cubits erected in manner of a Table holding in it the print of a mans foot who they say came from Deli thither to teach them Religion The Iogues and other deuout Pilgrimes resort thither from places a thousand leagues distant with great difficulty of passage both hither and heere For they are forced to mount vp this Hill by the helpe of nayles and chaines fastened thereto Nature hauing prohibited other passage Maffaeus and Boterus could perswade themselues that this foot-step is a relike and memory of the Aethiopian Eunuch others will haue it further fetcht and father it vpon Adam the first Father of Mankinde of whom the Hill also is named Pico de Adam The Moores call it Adam Baba and say That from thence Adam ascended into Heauen The Pilgrimes are clad in their Palmers Weed with Iron chaines and skins of Lions and other wild beasts Vpon their armes and legs they weare buttons with sharpe points that cut the flesh and draw bloud which they say they doe in Gods seruice Before they come at the Mountayne they passe by a fenny Valley full of water wherein they wade vp to the waste with Kniues in their hands to scrape from their legs the bloud-leeches which else would end their Pilgrimage and life before the time For this dirty and watery passage continueth eighteen miles before they come at the Hil whose proud top would disdaine climbing if Art did not captiue Nature and binde the Hill with chaines of Iron as is said When they are mounted they wash them in a Lake or Poole of cleere springing water neere to that foot-stone and making their Prayers doe thus account themselues cleane from all their sinnes This holy iourney is generally performed by the Ilanders sayth Vertomannus once a yeere He addeth that a Moore told him that this foot-print was two spans long and that Adam heere a long time bewayled his sinne and found pardon But Odoricus affirmeth that they reported this mourning to haue beene for Abel and to haue lasted three hundred yeeres and of the teares of Abel and Eue this purifying water to haue proceeded which Odoricus proued to be a Tale because he saw the water springing continually and it runneth thence into the Sea He saith that this water had in it many precious stones and the King gaue leaue at certayne times of the yeere to poore men to take them that they might pray for his soule which they could not doe but first anointed with Limons because of the Horse-leeches in that water There are reckoned nine Kings in this Iland The first of Colmuchi to whom the rest pay tribute viz. the Kings of Ianasipatan Triquinamale Batecolon Villassem Tanamaca Laula Galle and Candy In Candy were Statues artificially wrought fiue or sixe fathomes high which these Symmetrians proportioned to the stature of Adam gathered by that print of his foot In Vintane is a Pagode or Idoll Temple the compasse whereof is an 130. paces it is very high and all white except on the top which hath the spires thereof gilded insomuch that men are not able when the Sun shineth to looke thereon It hath a Towre or square Steeple of excellent workmanship There are many other Temples and a Monastery also of Religious persons which are attired in yellow haue their crownes shauen with Beades in their hands and alwayes seeme to mumble ouer somewhat of their deuout Orisons being in high estimation of sanctity with the vulgar and freed from publike labours and burthens Their Monastery is built after the manner of the Popish being also gilded with Gold In their Chappels are many Images of both sexes which they say represent some of their Saints they are set on the Altars and are clothed with garments of gold and siluer Before them are the Images of Boyes which beare vp great Candlestickes with Wax-candles burning therein night and day Euery houre they resort to these Altars to their Mumpsimus They held a solemne Procession whiles the Hollanders were there in which their Abbot rode on an Elephant richly attired lifting vp his hands ouer his head with a golden Rod therein the Monkes went two
Warre at the Riuer Bagrada encountred with a huge Serpent and planted his Engines and Artillerie against the same whose skinne sent to Rome for a Monument was in length a hundred and twentie foot as Gellius out of Tubero reporteth The Scales armed it from all hurt by Darts or Arrowes and with the breath it killed many and had eaten many of the Souldiers before they could with a stone out of an Engine destroy this destroyer The Riuers of Niger Nilus Zaire and others haue store of Crocodiles whereof some are of an incredible bignesse and greedie deuourers thirtie foot long from an Egge lesse then a Goose-egge Aristotle saith that Crocodiles haue no tongues but I my selfe haue seene both great and little saith our Author dead and dryed in all which I found a tongue but very short flat and large Strange it is that they tell of the number of sixtie in this beast the age sixtie yeres the teeth joynts egges and dayes of laying and hatching being all numbred by sixtie The Crocodiles taile is as long as his body his feet with clawes his backe armed with scales almost impenitrable hee moueth onely his vpper jaw and that so wide that some of them are able to swallow an entire Heifer as some report They say also that the Female layes her Egges where Nilus will make an end of his flowing that yeere as if by secret Prouidence she diuined how farre the Riuer would rise In ingendring she lyes on her backe and through the shortnesse of her legs cannot turne her selfe on her belly but by the Males helpe from which being scarred by the clamours of some watching this opportunitie she is easily taken which they doe also by Pit-fals and other meanes Foure moneths together in the Winter they eate nothing they are thicke-sighted by Land and easier take their prey by water which is done by their tayle They are bold vpon the fearefull and fearefull vpon the bold yet a fearefull beast to encounter rising on his tayle with such Hellish iawes and Deuillish clawes ouer the assaylant as require an vndaunted spirit For which the Tentyrites were famous easily conquering them Authors tell of a little Bird which as he lyes gaping goes into his mouth and picks his indented teeth which he cannot deuoure by reason of her sharp feathers raysed like bristles when he offereth to shut his mouth on her the Ichneumon or Rat of Nilus is said to gape for this occasion of his gaping and then to runne into his belly and gnaw himselfe a passage out therefore worshipped of the Egyptians The Ichneumon is as big and as cleanly as a Cat snowted like a Ferret but without haire and blacke sharpe tooth'd round ear'd short legg'd long tayl'd supposed of both genders bought at Markets in Egypt to kill Mice and Rats They prey vpon all lesser Serpents destroy Crocodiles Egs and strangle all the Cats they meet with loue Poultrey cannot endure the wind their mouthes are so little they cannot bite any thing that is thicke Mount Atlas hath plenty of Dragons grosse of body slow of motion and in byting or touching incurably venemous The Desarts of Lybia haue in them many Hydra's Dubb is the name of a kind of great Lizard not venemous which neuer drinketh and if water bee put in his mouth he presently dyeth He is counted dainty meat and three dayes after hee is killed at the heat of the fire he moueth as if he had life In Congo is a kind of Dragons like in bighnesse to Rammes with wings hauing long tayles and chaps and diuers iawes of teeth of blue and greene colour painted like scales with two feet and feed on raw flesh The Pagan Negros pray to them as Gods for which cause the great Lords keepe them to make a gaine of the peoples deuotion which offer their gifts and Oblations The Chameleons are knowne among vs admirable for their Aerie sustinance although they also hunt and eat Flies and for the changeablenesse of their colours p into all as Theophrastus sayth but redde and white The Tarandus is a Beast some what resembling an Oxe in quantitie a Hart in shape the skin hard a finger thicke fit for shields haired like a Beare liuing as Theophrastus affirmeth in Sarmatia Solinus sayth in Aethiopia seldome seene of incredible changeablenesse to the colour of that which is next it The Polypus seemeth by his breath to change his colour his lungs extending almost through all his body which Aristotle testifieth he doth both for feare and hunting his prey adding the same qualitie of another fish called a Cuttell Another Serpent hath a rundle on his Taile like a Bell which also ringeth as it goeth But if any desire to know the varietie of these Serpents Solinus in his thirteenth Chapter will more fully satisfie him and Bellonius in his obseruations Manifold are these kindes of Serpents in Africa as the Cerastes which hath a little Coronet of foure hornes whereby he allureth the Birds vnto him lying hidden in the sands all but the head and so deuoureth them The Iaculi dart themselues from Trees on such Creatures as passe by The Amphisbena hath two heads the Taile also onerated I cannot say honored with a Head which causeth it to moue circularly with crooked windings a fit Embleme of popular sedition where the people will rule their Prince needs must their motion bee crooked when there are two heads and therefore none The Scythale is admirable in her varied Iacket The Dipsas kils those whom she stingeth with thirst The Hypanale with sleepe as befell to Cleopatra The Hemerois with vnstanchable bleeding The Prester with swelling And not to poison you with names of many other of these poysonfull Creatures the Basilisk is said to kill with her sight or hissing Galen describes it and so doe Solinus and others It is not halfe a foot long and hath three pointels Galen saith on the head or after Solinus strakes like a Mitre It blasteth the ground it toucheth the Herbes also and Trees and infecteth the Ayre so that Birds flying ouer fall dead It frayeth away other Serpents with the hissing It goeth vpright from the belly vpwards If any thing be slaine by it the same also proueth venemous to such as touch it Onely a Weasill kils it The Bergameni bought the carkasse of one of them at an incredible summe which they hung in their Temple which Apelles hand had made famous in a Net of Gold to preserue the same from Birds and Spiders The Catoblepas is said to be of like venemous nature alwayes going with her head into the ground her sight otherwise being deadly As for the Monsters that by mixt generations of vnlike kindnesse Nature vnnaturally produceth I leaue to others discourse Leuinus Lemnius tels that of the marrow in a Mans back-bone is ingendred a Serpent yea of an Egge which an old Cocke will lay after he is vnable to tread Hennes any longer is saith hee by the
Palace a Schoole hauing conuenient places for sitting and walking they are the words of Strabo and a great House or Colledge in which the Learned conuerse and dyet together This Colledge hath rents in common and a Priest also Rector of the Schoole appointed first by the Kings and after by Caesar So carefull were these Kings of learned Neighbourhood that they assigned part of the Palace to this employment that all the choise learned in the Kingdome as Philostratus speaking of Dionysius admitted one of them by Adrian affirmeth were chosen Fellowes into this Colledge not young Students but rewarded publikely for their former proficience as the best deseruing Citizens of Athens had their dyet in the Pritaneum therein differing from the Seminaries of Diuine and Humane Learning amongst vs Claudius enlarged the Schoole and Hadrian vsed much to dispute and question with the learned therein herein blamed that he bestowed this preferment on Pancrates a Poet which had flattered him in the Canonization of Antinous §. III. Of their Deuotions in those Times AS for the deuotion there practised wee may reade in Ruffinus of the Temple and Image of Serapis in his time destroyed by Theophilus successor to Athanasius Bishop of Alexandria This Temple was borne vp with Vault-worke with great lights and secret passages the space of an hundred steps on the top whereof round about were lofty roomes in which the Keepers of the Temple and they which made themselues chast 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 remayned Within these were Galleries or Cloysters in squared rankes and in the middest of all was the Temple lifted vp on costly Pillars and built of Marble Post Capitolium nihil orbis terrarum cernit ambitiosius saith another Except the Capitoll the World hath not a statelier Piece Here was the Image of Serapis reaching with his right hand to the wall on one side with his left hand vnto the other being framed of all kinds of Wood and Metals It had on the East a little window so fitted that when on a solemne day the Image of the Sunne was admitted to salute this Serapis the iuggling Priests so obserued the time that euen then the Sun-beames through this window should seeme to kisse Serapis They had also another tricke by a Load-stone placed in the Roofe to draw vp the Iron Image of the Sunne as if it did then bid Serapis farewell The superstitious Ethnikes had a Tradition among them That if euer mans hand did offer violence to that Image the Earth should presently returne and resolue it selfe into the first Chaos and the Heauens would suddenly fall All this notwithstanding a Christian Souldier dismembred the same and burned Serapis openly the Mice running out of his diuided trunke Rome sayth Ruffinus esteemed this Serapis to bee Iupiter and that hee ware a Measure Modius on his head as hee which gouerned all things in measure or else did liberally feed men with the fruits of the Earth Others coniectured him to be Nilus others Ioseph that fed Egypt in the seuen deere yeeres Others thought him to bee one Apis a King in Memphis who in the time of famine with his owne store supplied the peoples want for which benefit they built a Temple to him after his death wherein they nourished an Oxe in remembrance of him whose husbandry and tillage had nourished them This Beast they called also Apis. He mentioneth the Temple of Saturne whose Priest called Tyrannus vnder pretence of Saturnes commandement would demand the company of what Lady he liked to beare the God company at night which the Husband did not much sticke at esteeming it an honour to haue a God his Corriuall But Tyrannus shutting the woman into the Temple by secret passages conueyed himselfe thither into the hollow Image of Saturne in which hee held conference a while with the woman and after by a deuice putting out the lights satisfied his lust in committing in the darke those workes of darknesse which after being brought to light caused the Temples destruction They had Brest-plates of Serapis in euery House in the Walles Entries Posts Windowes in stead whereof they after fastened Crosses The Crosse in the Egyptian Mysteries signified life to come They had a Tradition That their Religion should continue till there came a Signe in which was Life And by this occasion many of their Priests were conuerted Sozomen reporteth the same That in purging of Serapis Temple at Alexandria the Crosse beeing found among other their Hieroglyphickes was occasion of the conuersion of many vnto the Christian Faith This Temple and the Temple of Bacchus were turned into Christian Churches Olympius a Philosopher with a company of seditious Ethnikes fortified themselues in Serapis Temple and caused many by force to sacrifice and when the Christians burned their Images he answered that the Images were but corruptible matter but the Vertues or Diuine Powers which inhabited them were fled to Heauen This I thought to mention for their sakes who to their Image-worship haue borrowed the like Heathenish plaister Ruffinus addeth That in destroying the Temples they found Reliques of their bloudie Superstition the heads of Infants cut off with the lips gilded The deuotion of Canopus was not inferiour to that of Alexandria Here through the subtiltie of the Priest the Chaldeans were vanquished For whereas they challenged their God Fire to be the strongest as deuouring other Woodden and Mettal-gods hee conueyed an Earthen pot full of holes which he had stopped with Waxe and filled with water into the Image and when the Chaldaeans made their fiery tryall hereof the Waxe melting the Water issued and quenched the fire Hence it is that they made the Image of Canopus with feet and necke short and a belly like a barrell or water-vessell Tacitus reporteth certaine Miracles wrought at Alexandria by the instigation of Serapis the curing of a lame and blind man whom that God had mooued to seeke this helpe at Vespasians hand which he also performed He consulting with this Oracle saw suddenly behind him in the Temple one Basilides whom by present enquiry hee found to lye sicke fourescore miles thence in his bed The name yet was an ominous signe to him of the whole Empire as deriued of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The originall of this God is by some imputed to Ptolomaeus Lagi who hauing in Alexandria erected Temples and instituted Religious Rites seemed in his sleepe to see a tall young man warning him to send into Pontus to fetch thence his Image suddenly after vanishing in a flame of fire When the Egyptian Priests could not satisfie him in the interpretation of these things Timotheus an Athenian whom hee had sent for to bee chiefe Master of Ceremonies willed him to send to Sinope wherein was an ancient Temple of Pluto hauing in it the Image of Proserpina Ptolomey neglecting this and with a second Vision terrified sent to Scydrothemis King of Sinope for the same being in
daily betweene seuen and ten thousand nor is any place more plagued with the French Disease Besides that Hospitall and Nafissas Sepulchre are three other famous Zauia della Inachari Imamsciafij Giamalazar This is the generall Vniuersitie of all Egypt In this place Anno one thousand fiue hundred threescore and sixe in the moneth of Ianuary by misfortune of fire were burned nine thousand written Bookes of great value wrought with Gold worth three or foure hundred Ducats a piece one with another This was interpreted as an ominous token of their ruine They thinke also that Mecca will in short time be conquered by the Christians and her deuotions shall bee remooued to Rosetto Neander his conceit is ridiculous that Cairo should hold as much people as all Italy and that there are two and twentie thousand Temples Iohn Euesham out of their owne Registers numbreth but two thousand foure hundred and though Cairo considered together with these Suburbs is great yet it is not all the way continued with houses and buildings but hath Gardens also and Orchards betweene Iodocus à Meggen reporteth that a man can hardly walke the streets by reason of the multitudes of people and beasts They bring their water from Nilus into the Citie on Camels on Mules and Horses the chiefe men ride and on Asses the poorer Neither will they permit a Christian to ride on a Horse They sell all by waight euen wood for the fire of which is great scarsitie And although the Temples and some Houses are faire yet the greater part of the Towne is ill built Because they may not by their Law drinke wine they compound a drinke of drie Raisons steeped in water and other mixtures yea and secretly will make bold with the former He saith that besides other calls from their steeples to deuotion they ascend at mid-night to call that the people may encrease and multiply and therewith their Religion Beniamin Tudelensis numbred in Cairo 2000. Iewes in his time 440. yeeres since in two Synagogues and Sects of the Hellenists and Babylonians He saith that there then raigned in Misraim or Cairo Amir Almumanin Eli sonne of Abitalib all whose subiects were called Moredim or Rebels for their difference from the Bagdad Caliph His Palace was called Soan And he came forth but twice a yeere on their Easter solemnitie and then when Nilus ouerfloweth which extendeth fifteene dayes iourneyes when it ascendeth twelue cubits on their measuring pillar and but halfe that way is watered if it ascendeth but sixe cubits An Officer euery day signified the increase with proclamation of praise to God therefore The water of Nilus serueth for drinke and medicine against repletions Old Misraim he saith is two leagues from new Misraim but altogether waste Baumgarten thinks there are in Cairo 8000. which liue onely by carrying water And there are diuers which either of their owne vow or by some Testators charitie offer freely to all that will drinke in siluer vessels and sprinkle the streets twice a day because of the heate and dust There are more in Cairo hee reporteth such a rumour which want houses to dwell in then Venice hath Citizens There are esteemed to be 15000. Iewes 10000. Cookes which carry their cookerie and boile it as they goe on their heads In nine or ten houres one can scarcely compasse it But you must know that this was in the time of the Soldan before the Turke had conquered it Now though I haue beene alreadie tedious yet for the Readers fuller notice of this Countrey and Citie I haue here added some of the later and exacter Obseruations of that learned Gentleman Master George Sandys to whom wee haue elsewhere beene indebted Hee relateth that trauelling from Alexandria to Cairo they paid at the gate a Madeyne a head indifferently for themselues and their Asses they passed through a Desart producing here and there a few vnhusbanded Palmes Capers and a weede called Kall which they vse for fuell selling the ashes to the Venetians who mixing them equally with the stones brought from Pauia by the Riuer Ticinum make thereof their Christalline glasses On the left hand they left the ruines of Cleopatras Palace and beyond that of Bucharis an ancient Citie and passing a guard of Souldiers and after that ferried ouer a Creeke of the Sea they came to a quadrangle arched and built by a Moore for the reliefe of Trauellers and there reposed themselues on the stones till mid-night and then passed alongst the shore before day entering Rosetta where they repayred to a Caue belonging to the Frankes in an vnder darke mustie roome where they were entertayned on the hard floore This Citie stands vpon the principall branch of Nile called heretofore Canopus which about three miles thence entereth the Sea hauing the entrance crossed with a barre of sand as at Damiata changeable with the windes and surges the Ierbies or Boates being therefore made without keeles flat and round in the bottom a Pilot sounding all the day to direct for the Channell The houses are of bricke flat-roofed a thing generall in these hotter countries jetting ouer to shaddow the narrow streets exceedingly furnished with prouisions built by a slaue of an Egyptian Chalife Neere to this stood Canopus that Citie famous in the worst sense if we beleeue Iuuenal where to eschue vice saith Seneca was to incurre infamie Here had Serapis a Temple visited in his Often festiuals by a world of luxurious people from Alexandria in painted boats downe the artificiall Channels Here hyring a Ierby the next day but one they came to Cairo This arme of Nilus is as broad as the Thames at Tilburie slow often troublesomely shallow and euer thicke hauing on each side many meane Townes seated on Hills of mud throwne vp to preserue them in the ouerflow Ten miles from Rosetto is that Cut which runneth to Alexandria Vpon the bankes along as they passed were infinite numbers of deepe and spacious Vaults into which they let the Riuer from whence they conuey it by trenches into their seuerall grounds being drawne vp into higher Cisternes with wheeles set round with Pitchers turned about by Buffoloes The Moores had much labour in drawing vp the Boate wading often aboue the middle at euery stronger hale crying Elough thinking by this name of God to finde his assistance and to chase away Deuils and impediments Many of these Moores are broken by reason of their hard labour and weake foode They are descended of the Arabians and vnderstand their language a deuout ignorant laborious people tawnie meane statured nimble-footed shrill tongued spare of dyet reputed base by the Turkes not suffered to weare weapons in Townes not admitted to Souldierie or Magistracie In Cities they practise merchandise little differing in habite from Turkes There dwell also in Egypt Arabians Iewes Christians both Greekes Armenians and the truest Egyptians the Copties The Countrey people follow husbandrie are wrapt in a ruffet Mantle both
was sometime sacred famous for the Garden of the Hesperides neere to which is that Riuer of Lethe so much chaunted by the Poets Nigh to this place also are the Psylli a people terrible to Serpents and medicinable against their poysons both by touching the wounded partie and by sucking out the poyson and by enchanting the Serpent The Oracle of Iupiter Ammon is famous among the Ancient The place where this Temple was hath on euery side vast and sandie Desarts in which they which trauelled as wee finde in Arrianus and Curtius seemed to warre with Nature for the Earth was couered with sand which yeelded an vnstable footing and sometime was blowne about with the windie motions of the Aire Water was hence banished neither Cloudes nor Springs ordinarily affoording it A fierie heate did possesse and tyrannize ouer the place which the Sands and Sunne much encreased Neither was here Tree or Hill or other marke for Trauellers to discerne their way but the Starres In the middle of this Desart was that sacred Groue which Silius Italicus calleth Lucus fatidicus not aboue fiftie furlongs in circuit full of fruit-bearing Trees watred with wholsome Springs seasoned with temperate Aire and a continuall Spring The Inhabitants called Ammonians are dispersed in cottages and haue the middest of the Groue fortified with a triple wall The first Munition contayneth the Kings Palace the second the Serail or lodgings for his women where is also the Oracle the third the Courtiers inhabite Before the Oracle is a Fountayne in which the Offerings were washed before they were offered The forme of this God was deformed with Rams-hornes crooked as some paint him according to Curtius without forme of any creature but like a round Bosse beset with jewels This when they consult with the Oracles is carried by the Priests in a gilded ship with many siluer Bells on both sides of the ship The Matrons follow and the Virgins singing their dis-tuned Procession by which they prouoke their god to manifest what they seeke These Priests were about fourscore in number Alexanders ambitious pilgrimage to this Oracle is sufficiently knowne by the Relations of Curtius and Arrianus This we may adde out of Scaliger That after that the Cyrenaeans to sooth this prowd King which would needes bee taken for the sonne of Ammon stamped his shape in their coynes with two hornes of a Ramme and without a beard whereas before they had vsed the forme of Iupiter with a beard and hornes wherein the other Easterne people followed them The Syrians vsed the like stampe with the name of King Lysimachus which Scaliger who hath giuen vs the pictures of these Coynes thinketh to be Alexander Rammes-hornes are said to bee ascribed to him because Bacchus wandering in these Desarts with his Armie was guided to this place by a silly Ramme Likewise Pausanias in his Messenica saith that one Ammon which built the Temple a Shepheard was authour of this name to their God Plutarchs reason of Amus we haue before shewed Others deriue this name from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Sand which may well agree with all Idoll deuotion as being a sandie foundation although it is here intended to the situation But that which I haue before noted of Ham the sonne of Noah soundeth more probable as being Progenitor of all these Nations and of this minde also is Peucerus This Strabo in his time saith was not in request as no other Oracle besides For the Romanes contented themselues with their Sybils and other diuinations This Oracle was not giuen by word but by signes This defect of Oracles in generall and especially of this occasioned that Treatise of Plutarch of this subiect enquiring the cause of the Oracles fayling Neuer had he read that the Gods which had not made heauen and earth should perish out of the earth nor had he eyes to see that Sunne of Righteousnesse the Light of the world whose pure beames chased and dispersed these mists of darknesse And therefore are his coniectures so farre from the marke as not able with a naturall eye to see the things of God The antiquitie of this Oracle appeareth in that Semiramis came to it and inquired of her death after which the Oracle promised to her diuine honours Perseus also and Hercules are reported to haue consulted the same in their aduentures against Gorgon and Busiris Besides this Groue there is another of Ammon which hath in the middest a Well they call it the Fountayne of the Sunne whose water at Sunne-rising is luke-warme and cooleth more and more till noone at which time it is very cold and from thence till mid-night by degrees exchangeth that coldnesse with heate holding a kinde of naturall Antipathy with the Sonne hottest in his furthest absence coldest in his neerest presence Plinie and Solinus place this Fountayne in Debris a Towne not very farre from those parts amongst the Garamants Lucretius mentions it and Philosophically disputeth the cause thereof nimirum terra magis quod Raratenet circum hunc fontem quà m caetera tellus Multaque sunt ignis prope semina corpus aquai c. The substance whereof is that the fire vnder that subtile earth by cold vapours of the night is pressed and forced to that waterie refuge but by the Sunne beames receiuing new encouragement forsaketh those holds and holes and for a little while takes repossession of his challenged lands The Ammonian women haue such great brests that they suckle their children ouer their shoulder their brest not lesse if Iunenal be beleeued then the childe In Meroe crasso maiorem infante mamillam In Meroe the monstrous Pappe Is bigger then the childe in lappe Pausanias reckoneth an Ammonian Iuno among the Libyan Cities as well as this Iupiter He addeth the Lacedemonians had this Ammon in much request and built to him diuers Temples as at Gytheum one which had no roofe and the Aphytaeans did him 40 lesse worship then the Libyans Ortelius who hath bestowed a Description of this Temple supposeth that his Image was painted with hornes but that Vmbilicus was accounted the Deitie it selfe or the signe of his presence which shapelesse shape he sampleth by many like in other Nations The ship he coniectureth to signifie that the Religion was brought from some other place But if Ammon be that sonne of Noah it might rather bee a memoriall of the Arke wherein Noah and his sonnes were preserued as that also of Ianus who is imagined to be Noah may more fitly be interpreted then according to the Poets glosse Sic bona posteritas puppim formauit in aere Hospitis aduentum testificata Dei So well-dispos'd Posteritie did frame A ship to shew which way their strange God came The ancient frugalitie of the Cyrenians is commended in Authors Sulpitius bringeth in Postumianus in his Dialogues telling That landing there by force of weather hee went with the
They haue no Fleas a small priuiledge for they haue infinite store of Scorpions Fighig hath industrious and wittie people whereof some become Merchants others Students and goe to Fez where hauing obtayned the degree of Doctors they returne into Numidia and are made Priests and Preachers and so become rich Tegorarin hath Traffique with the Negros They water their Corne-fields with Well-water and therefore are forced to lay on much soyle In which respect they will let Strangers haue their houses Rent-free onely the Dung of Themselues and their Beasts excepted They will expostulate with that stranger which shall in some nicer humour goe out or doores to that businesse and aske him if hee know not the place appointed thereunto Heere were many rich Iewes which by meanes of a Preacher of Telensin were spoyled and most of them slaine at the same time that Ferdinand chased them out of Spaine Techort is a Numidian Towne exceeding courteous to Strangers whom they entertaine at free-cost and marrie their Daughters to them rather then to the Natiues Pescara is exceedingly infested with Scorpions whose sting is present death wherefore the Inhabitants in Summer time forsake their Citie and stay in their Countrey-possessions till Nouember Libya extendeth it selfe from the Confines of Eloachat vnto the Atlantike betwixt the Numidians and Negros It is one other of the Seuen parts into which wee haue diuided Africa the Arabians call it Sarra that is a Desart Plinie in the beginning of his fift Booke sayth That all Africa by the Graecians was called Libya Taken in a more proper sence it is diuersly bounded by the Ancients and therefore wee will heere hold vs to Leo's description The name Libya is deriued from Libs a Mauritanian King as some affirme Herodotus saith of a woman named Libya Among the Libyans are reckoned the Libyarcha Libiophaenices Libyaegyptij and diuers other Nations euen of the Ancients accused for want of inward and outward good things cunning onely in Spoyle and Robberie The Libyans worshipped one Psaphon for their God induced thereunto by his subtiltie For he had taught Birds to sing PSAPHON is a great God which being set at libertie chaunted this note in the Woods and easily perswaded the wilde people to this deuotion which Aelian saith Annon had endeuoured in vaine It was the custome of Women to howle in their Temples whence some of the Bacchanall Rites were borrowed by the Graecians Vnto the Libyans are reckoned those Nations whose barbarous Rites are before related in the seuenth Chapter of this Booke Wee will now come to later Obseruations Men may trauell eight dayes or more in the Libyan Desarts ordinarily without finding any water The Desarts are of diuers shapes some couered with grauell others with sand both without water heere and there is a lake sometime a shrub or a little grasse Their water is drawne out of deepe pits and is brackish and sometimes the sands couer those pits and then the Trauellers perish for thirst The Merchants that trauell to Tombuto or other places this way carrie water with them on Camels and if water faile them they kill their Camels and drinke water which they wring out of their guts Their Camels are of great abilitie to sustaine thirst sometimes trauelling without drinke twelue dayes or more Otherwise they were neuer able to trauell thorow those Desarts In the Desart of Azaoad there are two Sepulchres of Stone wherein certaine letters engrauen testifie that Two Men were there buried one a very rich Merchant who tormented with thirst bought of the other which was a Carrier or transporter of wares a cup of Water for ten thousand Duckats and dyed neuerthelesse both buyer and seller with thirst Their liues for lewdnesse resemble the Numidians before mentioned but for length come much short of them few attayning to threescore yeeres They are as little need as they haue thereof often plagued with those clouds of Grashoppers which couer the ayre and destroy the earth The Libyan Desart of Zanhaga beginning at the Westerne Ocean extendeth it selfe farre and wide betweene the Negros and the Numidians to the Salt-pits of Tegaza From the Well of Azaoad to the Well of Araoan an hundred and fiftie miles space is no water for lacke whereof many both men and beasts there perish Likewise in the Desart Gogdem for nine dayes iourney no drop of water is found In the Desart of Targa is Manna found which the Inhabitants gather in little vessels and carrie to Agadez to sell They mingle it with their drinke and with their pottage It is very wholsome Tegaza is an inhabited place where are many veynes of Salt which resemble Marble they digge it out of pits and sell it to Merchants of Tombuto who bring them victuals For they are twenty dayes iourney from any habitation the cause that sometimes they all die of famine They are much molested with the South-east winde which maketh many of them to lose their sight Bardeoa was found out lately by one Hamar a guide vnto a Carauan of Merchants who lost his way by reason of a maladie that fell into his eyes yet blind as hee was hee rode on a Camell none else being able to guide them and at euery miles end caused some sand to bee giuen vnto him whereon hee smelled and thereby at last told them of an inhabited place forty miles before he came at it where when they came they were denied water and were forced by force to obtaine it The Riuers that arise out of Atlas and by the vnkindnesse of their Kinde fall this way finding these thirsty Wildernesses to yeeld them the readiest channels are trained alongst by the allurements of the sands stouping and crouching to them till being further from witnesses they are either swallowed vp on great Lakes or else whiles they hold on their pursuit for the Ocean lose themselues in the search and whiles they are liberall to the thirstie sands in the way at last dye themselues I cannot say diue themselues as else where in the World for thirst in the Desarts And yet through these waylesse wayes doth couetousnesse carry both the Arabians in their rouings and Merchants with their Carauans to the Negros for wealth whither I thinke at last you expect the comming of this our Carauan also CHAP. XIIII Of the Land of Negros §. I. Of the Riuer NIGER Gualata Senaga and Guinea NIgratarum terra or the Land of Negros either is so called of the Riuer Niger or of the blacke colour of the Inhabitants some thinke the Riuer is named Niger of the people it hath on the North those Desarts which we last left on the South the Aethiopike Ocean and the Kingdome of Congo on the East Nilus on the West the Atlantike Leo makes Gaogo in the East and Gualata in the West the limits thereof On the side of the Riuer Canaga it is sandie and desart beyond it is plentifull being watered with Niger
it was harder for a Christian to bee saued then a Negro because God was a iust God and Lord who had giuen to vs many good things in this World to them nothing in comparison who should therefore in the other World haue their Paradise which heere they wanted Easily might he haue beene turned to Christianity but for feare of losing his State His Wiues prouide him his dyet as it is vsuall among the Negros and none but his Priests and some principall men eate with him which is after a beastly sort lying on the ground the dish set in the middest and all taking out the meate with their hands They eate little at once but eate often foure or fiue times a day From October to Iune it raines not there They haue great Serpents and many which they vse to charme and the Prince when hee would poyson his Weapons did as was reported make a great Circle and enchanted by his Charmes all the Serpents thereabouts thereinto and then killed that which seemed to him most venemous letting the rest goe with the bloud thereof and the Seed of a certaine Tree he tempered a poyson for that purpose with which a Weapon infected drawing neuer so little bloud did kill in a quarter of an houre They haue great store of Parrats which are instructed by a maruellous naturall cunning to preuent the Serpents which would else destroy their nests They build therefore on high trees and on the end of some tender bough thereof they fasten a Bul-rush which hangs downe two spannes thereunto weauing and working their nest in such sort that the Serpents for feare of falling dare not aduenture to deale therewith The Negros came about Cadamosto with wonder to see his apparell and the whitenesse of his colour neuer before had they seene any Christian and some of them with spittle rubbed his skinne to see whether his whitenesse were naturall or no which perceiuing it to bee no tincture they were out of measure astonished They would then giue nine or sometimes fourteene slaues for a Horse furnished And when they buy a Horse they wil bring some of their Enchanters which make a fire of herbes and set the Horse ouer the smoke vttering certaine words and after that anoint him with a thin oyntment and shut him vp twenty dayes that none may see him hanging certaine trumpery about his necke thinking that hereby they are more secure in battle Gunnes seemed to them for their hideous noyse to be of the Deuill Lag-pipes they thought to be a liuing creature that thus sang in variable accents But when they were suffered to handle them they thought them to bee some heauenly thing that God had made with his owne hands to sound so sweetly They beheld the Shippe with great curiositie and eyes that were carued in the Prow of the Shippe they tooke to bee eyes indeed by which it saw how to direct the course at Sea They said the Christians that could thus make Voyages by Sea were great Enchanters and comparable to the Deuill themselues had enough to doe to trauell by Land Seeing a Candle burne in the night they which knew not to make any light but their fires esteemed it wonderfull Honey they haue which they sucke out of the Combes but the Waxe they hurled away till they were instructed how to make Candles thereof Senega Boterus saith comes from the Lakes Chelonidi Sanutus affirmeth that Senega is the same which Ptolemey cals Darandus Gambea or Gambra that which hee cals Stachie and Rio Grande is Niger Cadamosto doubled the Promontorie called Cape Verde or the greene Cape because of the greene trees which the Portugals which had first discouered it in the yeere before found there growing in abundance as Cape Blanco or the White Cape was so called of the White Sands there The Inhabitants they found were of two sorts Barbacini and Sereri They haue no Prince They are great Idolaters and haue no Law but are very cruell They poyson their Arrowes with which and the situation of their Countrey they haue preserued themselues from the Kings of Senega In Gambra they were some Idolaters of diuers sorts some Mahumetans They were also great Enchanters Their liuing as at Senega saue that they eate Dogges flesh Heere the Prince hunted an Elephant and gaue them to eate the flesh is strong and vnsauoury The Elephants delight in mire like Swine They hunt them in the Woodes for in the Plaines an Elephant would without running soone take and kill the swiftest man whom yet they hurt not except they be first prouoked if with comming and often turning hee bee not disappointed Here was a kind of fish Cadomosto calleth it Cauallo and his Latine Interpreter Piscis Caballinus I take it for the Hippopotamus or Riuer-horse which is sayth he as bigge as a Cow his legges short with tuskes like to a Bores but so great that I haue seene one of two spannes and longer clouen-footed and headed like a Horse hee liueth on both Elements sometimes in the Water other-whiles on the Land The women vpon their brests neckes and armes had certaine workes done with a Needles point heated in the fire in manner as with vs they worke hand-kerchiefes This being done in their youth would neuer out The like flesh-branded workes they vse at Cape Sagres as Pietro de Sintra a Portugall obserued vpon their bodies and faces The Inhabitants there are Idolaters and worship Images of Wood to whom they offer some of their Meate and Drinke when they goe to their meales The goe naked couering their priuie parts with the barkes of trees This is in Guinea A little from thence they found men who vsed as great brauery in their eares which they bored full of holes and weare therein Rings of Golde in rowes or rankes They weare one great Ring in another hole bored thorow their Nose like to Buffles in Italy which when they eate their meate they tooke away The men and women of sort weare such Rings also in their lips in like sort as in their eares an Ensigne of their Nobility and greatnesse which they put in and out at pleasure Beyond the Riuer of Palmes they found others thus beringed and for greater gallantry weare about their neckes certaine Chaines of teeth seeming to bee the teeth of men They tooke a Negro whom they carried into Portugall who affirmed if a woman which onely could vnderstand him did interpret him rightly that in his Countrey were Vnicornes HONDIVS his Map of Guinea GVINEA §. III. Other Obseruations of later times by Englishmen and others ANd these Countreyes haue since beene sought to by French Flemish and many of our English Merchants In the yeere 1553. Thomas Windham and Anthony Pindeado a Portugall in two English ships traded alongst those Coasts as farre as Benin where they presented themselues to the King who sate in a great Hall the wals whereof were made of Earth without windowes the roofe of thinne boards open in
or Abassenes they call themselues Chaldaeans for their ancient and elegant Language in which their Books are written is neere to the Chaldaean and Assyrian Moreouer the Ecclesiasticall History testifieth and out of the same Nicephorus lib. 9. c. 18. that many Colonies were sent out of Assyria into Ethiopia They are there called Axumitae of their chiefe Citie but by themselues as Aluares affirmeth Chaschumo More may we see hereafter of their Rites and other things worthy of knowledge in the Institutions of that tongue which we haue diligently and Methodically written These words of Scaliger haue made me take some paines in the search of the premisses for hee differeth from the opinion of others which haue written any thing of Presbiter or Priest Iohn as they terme him in Asia whom the Tartars subdued Ortelius maketh a Presbyter Iohn in Asia and another in Africa if I vnderstand him As for that Vncam William de Rubruquis which trauelled those parts in the morning of the Tartar-greatnesse Anno 1253. reporteth that one Con Can raigned in Kata-Catay or blacke Catay after whose death a certaine Nestorian Shepheard a mightie Gouernour of the people called Yayman which were Nestorian Christians exalted himselfe to the Kingdome and they called him King Iohn reporting of him tenne times more then was true as is the Nestorians wont For notwithstanding all their great boasts of this man when I trauelled along by his Territories there was none that knew any thing of him but onely a few Nestorians This Iohn had a brother a mightie shepheard called Vut which inhabited three weekes journey beyond him hee was Lord of a Village called Cara Carum his subiects called Critor Merkits were also Nestorians But their Lord abandoning Christianitie embraced Idols and retained with him Priests of the said Idols Tenne or fifteene dayes journey beyond his Pastures were the Pastures of Moal a beggerly Nation and neere them the Tartars Iohn dying this Vut became his Heire and was called Vut Can whom others call Vnc Can and his droues and flockes ranged vnto the Pastures of Moal About the same time one Cyngis a Blacke-smiâ—h in Moal stole many of Vut Cans Cattell who in reuenge with his forces spoyled the Moals and Tartars They agrieued made Cyngis their Captaine who suddenly brake in vpon Vut and chased him into Cataya tooke his Daughter and married her and had by her Mangu that was then the Great Can when our Author wrote this These Relations sauour not of any such Monarchie as should extend from Aethiopia to those parts of Asia Marcus h Paulus telleth that the Tartars were Tributaries to this Vncam so he calleth him which saith hee after some mens opinion signifieth in our language Priest Iohn but through his tyrannie prouoked to rebellion they vnder the conduct of Cyngis slue Vncam And afterwards hee saith that Tenduc was vnder the subjection of Priest Iohn but all the Priests Iohns that there raigned after Vncam were tributarie to the Great Can and in his time raigned one George who was a Priest and a Christian as were the Inhabitants But hee held not so much as the Priests Iohns had done and the Great Cans did still joyne in affinitie with this Familie marrying their Daughters vnto these Kings This George was the fourth after Priest Iohn and was holden a great Seignior Hee ruled ouer two Nations called by some Gog and Magog by the Inhabitans Vng and Mongul where some were Mahumetanes some Heathens other Christians It appeareth by their Histories that Scaliger was deceiued to thinke that this Priest Iohn had so large an Empire seeing Rubruquis in the same Age or soone after could in his owne Countrey heare so little of him and his posteritie in Marcus Paulus his time continued tributarie Kings vnder the Tartar The name Priest was giuen them of that function which hee testifieth George receiued and Iohn perhaps of that first Shepheard that vsurped Con Cans estate To let passe therefore that Presbyter Iohn in the North-east we stumble on another mid-way betwixt that and Ethiopia For so Ioannes de Plano Carpini sent Embassadour to the Great Can from Pope Innocent Anno 1246. and Vincentius in his Speculum tell of the King of India Major called Presbiter Iohn being inuaded by the Tartars vnder the leading of Tossus Can sonne of Cyngis who before had subdued India Minor Hee by a Stratageme acquitted his Realme of them For making mens Images of Copper he set each of them vpon a saddle on Horse-backe and put fire within them placing a man with a paire of bellowes on the horse-back behind euery Image And so with many Images and Horses in such sort furnished they marched against the Tartars and when they were ready to joyne by kindling a fire in each Image they made such a smoke that the Indians wounded and slue many Tartars who could not see to require them thorow the smoke but were forced to leaue that Countrey and neuer after returned Heere now wee meet with a new Presbyter Iohn in India Major which whether he were the same with the Ethiopian let vs a little examine India is by Marcus Paulus diuided into three parts the Lesser Greater and Middle the first of them hee boundeth from Ciamba to Murfili and saith it had in it eight Kingdoms the Middle called Abascia had in it seuen Kingdomes three whereof were Saracens the rest Christians Sixe of them were subject to the seuenth It was told me saith hee that after their Baptisme with water they vsed another Baptisme with fire branding three markes on their forehead and both their cheekes The Saracens vsed one brand from the forehead to the middle of their nose They warre with the Solden of Aden and with the Inhabitants of Nubia and are reputed the best warriours in India The greater India extendeth from Malabar to the Kingdome of Chesmacoran and had in it thirteene Kingdomes This Abascia by the bordering enemies of Nubia and Aden is apparant to bee this Ethiopia where wee now are euen by their Brands wee may know them And this the Ancients called India For Sidonius calleth the Ethiopian Memnones Indians and Aelianus placeth Indians at Astaboras one of the Riuers of Meroe Virgil also bringeth Nilus out of India Vsque coloratis amnis deuexus ab Indis which must needes be meant of Ethiopia Nicephorus reckoneth the Sabeans and Homerites people of Arabia vnto India Sabellicus complaineth of the confounding of these names India and Ethiopia saying that most men did thinke Ethiopia next to Egypt to bee that India where Alexander ouerthrew Porus This confusion of names I thinke did first grow from confusion of Nations For as is before obserued out of Eusebius the Ethiopians arose from the Riuer Indus and setled their habitation neere to Egypt Perhaps they brought the Indian name also to these parts Or else the ignorance of these remote Countries might
Pilgrimage CHAP. VI. Relations of Aethiopia by GODIGNVS and other Authours lately published seeming more credible §. I. The seuerall Countreyes of Abassia Their Situation Inhabitants Riuers and Lakes IF I should haue left out the former Chapter for the vncertaine truth or certayne falshoods therein contayned some perhaps would eyther for the Pilgrims words or the Friers inuention haue desired it were it but as a Comedie to delight our tyred Reader For my selfe had my Intelligence so well serued me at first it had been easier then not to haue admitted then here now to haue omitted it I haue therefore suffered it still to enioy a place rather for your delight then credit and here would giue you those things that are more likely I hope I cannot warrant more true such as Nicolaus Godignus and others haue written some things being the same which before out of Aluares others are mentioned besides other things exacter or later And first of the Countrey it selfe Ioannes Gabriel Captayne of the Portugall Souldiers in these parts hath written that the Abassine Empire contayneth sixe and twentie Kingdomes in ancient right diuided in foureteene Regions eight of these Kingdome lye in successiue order from Swachen towards to West the first of which is Tigrai contayning seuenteene great Tracts vnder so many Lieutenants or Gouernours which rule all affaires of Peace and War The Turkes possesse the Sea parts the Saracens the Coast adioyning the Inland is inhabited promiscuously by Christians and Ethnicks They are blacke of hue deformed in shape in condition miserable of conditions wicked They haue goodly Riuers dryed vp in Summer where yet with little digging both water is found and fishes called Sagasi The next Kingdome to Tigrai is Daneali hauing the Red Sea on the East thence extending Westwards not farre nor fertile inhabited by Moores tributaries to the Abassine Angote Amara Boa Leca are foure Kingdomes inhabited by Christians only The seuenth Kingdome is very large of seuenteene Tracts partly inhabited by Ethnickes partly Christians it is called Abagamedri Dambea hath also Ethnickes mixed with Christians being but two Tracts On the other side of Dancali towards the Red Sea Aucaguerle trends alongst the Coast possessed by the Moores not subiect to the Abassine Adel followeth in twelue degrees Northerly in which is Zeila sometimes called Aualites a famous Mart the whole Kingdome is inhabited by Moores vnneighbourly Neighbours to the Abassines whence came Gradagna or Gradamar the Mahumetan King which had wel-nigh subdued all Aethiopia when the Portugals opposed themselues who after diuers ouerthrowes tooke him and cut off his head After this is Dahali which trendeth towardes Membaxas the Inhabitants some Christians some Ethnikes pay tribute to the Prete Oecie followeth more within land the Inhabitants Moores and Ethnikes subiect to the Abassine Arium and Fatigaer the next Kingdomes are Christian Zinger Ethnicke Rozanagum the sixteenth Kingdome is Christian but not subiect to the Abassine Empire From hence extend other Kingdomes towards the North Roxa of Ethnickes Goma of Christians and Ethnickes Such is Nerea a large Kingdome towards Monomotapa Zethe is inhabited by Ethnickes subiect to the Emperour The next are Conche and Mahaola small and altogether Ethnicke Goroma a great Kingdomoe of twenty Tracts Christians and Heathens almost wholly compassed by Nilus able for plenty to feed many Armies with which it is vsually infestect The Seedman followes the haruest man presently after the reaping sowes new Seed without other tillage The three last Kingdomes lye towards Egypt Damote Sua Iasculum through this euery Lent passe great troupes of Pilgrimes to Ierusalem The foureteene Regions or Prouinces I forbeare to mention Of all these Kingdomes at this day onely Tigrai Abagamedri Dambea and Goroma are obedient to the Abassine There are foure principall Riuers in this Aethiopia Taucea running from the South to the North the sandy Earth in the way continually stealing and vnderearth passages robbing him of the watery Tribute which he intendeth to the Sea neere it are high vnpassable Mountaynes inhabited by Abassine Iewes which still obserue the Mosaicall Law fierce and terrible to their Neighbours and could neuer be conquered by the Abassines The second Riuer is Oara exceeding Nilus in watery store which he bestoweth in like manner on the Countrey by which he passeth into the Zeilan Sea The waters are pleasant but the Abassine Christians will not drinke thereof because passing through the Countries of Mahumetans it yeelds them nourishment The third Riuer is Gabea which neere to Mombaza visits the Ocean The fourth is Nilus There are as many Lakes The first Aicha in Angote The second Dambeabahar that is the Sea of Dambea not farre from Gubbai where the Emperours in these times reside if they betake themselues out of their Tents into the City This Lake is sixty miles long and fiue and twenty broad receiues on one side the waters of Nilus is full of fishes and Riuer-horses which sometimes are dangerous to passengers two Iesuits in one of their Boates made of Rushes hardly escaping their assaults Many small Ilands are in this Lake in one of which is a Towre their Treasury and to which Malefactors are confined The third Lake is Zella in Oecie the fouth Xacala not farre from it §. II. Of the Soyle Fruits Creatures Seasons and Climate ANtonie Fernandes in an Epistle dated here in Iune 1610. numbreth aboue fortie Prouinces in Abassia but in substance agrees in the former The Soyle hee sayth is hollow and full of deepe Clifts in the midst of the plaine fields you shall often see steepe and high Rockes of solid stone which in time of warre serue them in stead of Forts The whole Region is full of Metals but neglected partly by the sloth of the Inhabitants partly for feare to bring Turkish Inuasions vpon them if such baits were discouered They take so much Iron only as they finde without digging on the face of the Earth Corne Herbes Trees are there in variety but these not excellent in their fruits except one the fruit whereof saues their liues by the vertue it hath against Wormes whereto this people is much subiect by their eating of raw flesh and therefore euery moneth purge themselues with this fruit they haue Peaches Pomegranates Citrons Indian Figges but not in great plenty They haue Hares Harts Goats Swine Elephants Camels Buffles Lions Panthers Tigres Rhinocerots and other like Beasts One so huge that a man on horsebacke may passe vpright vnder his belly feeding on leaues from the tops of trees and formed like a Camell Their Riuer-horses doe much harme to the fruits of the Earth being of Vast bodies and their mouth three quarters of a yard in the opening In the night they come forth and if the Husbandmen did not keepe diligent watch would doe extreme harme to the Corne they feed also on grasse In the water they are very fierce and like Dogges assault men and teare them They are so afraid of fire
friendship or subiection this Alebech with Turkish Gallies infested these Seas and made diuers of the Portugall vassals to wauer in their fidelitie being of the Saracenicall faith or religion wherevpon the Vice-roy sent forth a Nauie vnder the command of Thomas aforesaid his brother which arriued first at Braua and thence passed alongst the shore to Ampaza still continuing almost desolate thence to Lamus by the helpe of the tyde passing vp the Riuer full of dangerous sholds thence they came to Melinde and after that to Mombaza This is a small Iland of a league circuit the Citie then compassed with a wall The Mahumetans bad built a Castle on the Riuer which entreth the Citie which was taken by the Portugals and soone after fiue Gallies which Alibech the Turke had there at that time not without rich spoile Here the Turkes and the Mombazan Inhabitants were now in a double distresse by the Portugall forces from the Sea and a more terrible enemie from the Land These were the Imbij impious and barbarous monsters bred not farre from the Cape of Good Hope tall square and strong men addicted alwayes to warre and rapine and feeding on the flesh both of their captiued enemies and of their owne people in time of sicknesse hastening their death for the shambles The skulls of men serue them for drinking pots Their weapons are poysoned arrowes and poles burned at the ends their shields are little of wood couered with a skin They are supposed destitute of Religion giuen to Incantations and Sorceries and adoring their King with diuine honor thinking him to be Lord of the whole Land and the Portugals of the Sea Such is his arrogance that hee threatneth the destruction of all men yea shootes his arrowes against the heauens if wet or heate offend him Some 80000. followed him in his warres destroying Townes Cities and Beasts together with the Men in his march driuing many troopes of beasts before him so to breake the assault of the enemie and hauing fire carried before him as menacing to boyle or rost and eate all such as he shall take It seemes that they are either the same or of like condition to the Gallae which intest the Abassines and the Iagges in other parts of Africk which also by a neere name call themselues Imbangolas compounded of Imbij and Gallae a terrible rod of Gods anger whereby he plagues and whips the barbarous Africans with the worst of African barbarians These Imbians had at this time approched to Mombaza and the Turks with their Gallies did their best to hinder their entrance the water encompassing quenching the violence of that fire which the Imbian beares before him wherewith he had now burned a great wood In this warre were the Mombazans and Turkes entangled when the Portugals fleet came vpon them those that escaped by flight the Portugals furie falling into the bellies of the Imbians which caused many to yeeld themselues voluntarily to the Portugall as seeming the lesse of two euils Many Turkes were slaine others captiued Christian Gally-slaues freed three and twentie greater and as many smaller peeces of Ordnance taken the Citie narrow built that scarcely two could goe together in the streets the houses of bricke built high but with small lights both to defend them against the Sunne fired the walls and Moschees razed and the Nauie being readie to depart they were haled by some Turkes on shore and earnestly desired to admit them into their ships as slaues and captiues Alebech himselfe being one with thirtie others besides two hundred Mombazans hauing scarcely escaped the deuouring mawes of the Imbians which had euen then buried the King and the chiefe Magistrate of Mombaza in their bowels and taken innumerable captiues destined to the like Caniball disaster The King of Lamus called Panebaxira the Portugals imprisoned and executed for betraying some of theirs to the Turkes and conuented the neighbouring kings of Sian Patus Ampaza before them they razed Mondra and after other things set in order returned to Goa They which haue desire to acquaint themselues with what Antiquitie hath deliuered of these parts may resort to Arrianus his Periplus of the Erythraean Sea and the labours of Stuckius and Ortelius For vs to name you the Townes of ancient Trading as Aualites Malao Mundi Mosyllum Apocopon Opone Rhapta which hee reckons on the African shore with other Riuers and Promontories would not much further vs in this our Pilgrimage-Mart of Religions §. III. Of Quiloa Sofala and Ophir QViloa stands nine degrees to the South of the Line the name of a City and Iland which is a Kingdome of the Moores and extendeth her Dominion farre in the Coast It was built as Marmolius affirmeth about the foure hundreth yeere of the Hirara so he nameth it by one Ali Sonne of Sultan Hoscen who not agreeing with his other brethren by reason their Mothers were Persian and his an Abissine sought new Aduentures in these parts and bought this Iland the History of whom and of his Successours you may find in that Author The King grew mighty by the Trade of Sofala but it was made tributary to Portugall by Vascui Gamma Anno 1500. In the yeere 1505. the Portugals for denyall of that Tribute depriued Abraham the Arabian King of his Scepter and built a Fort there which the Moores soone after destroyed together with the new King made by the Portugals The people are whitish their women comely rich in attire their houses faire built and richly furnished Betweene Coaua and Cuama two Riuers which spring out of the same Lake with Nilus are the Kingdomes of Mombaza Mozimba Macuas Embeoe and against them the Promontory Prassum Heere is Mosambique by which name is signified a Kingdome in the Continent and an Iland also with a safe Harbour which with two other Ilands are in the mouth of the Riuer Moghincats in fifteene degrees South Mosambique is inhabited by Portugals which haue there a strong Castle here the Portugals Shippes winter In this Iland are Sheepe with tayles of fiue and twenty pound weight a beast common in Africa Hens blacke both in feathers flesh and bone and sodden looke like Inke yet sweeter then other in taste Porke very good but for the deare sawce There are some Mahumetans as they were all before the Portugals arriuall there They haue trade in the Continent in Sena Macurua Sofala Cuama a people for the most part differing in speech and behauiour each Village fighting with her Neighbour captiuing them and some as at Macurua eate them Their chiefest liuing is by hunting and by flesh of Elephants In euery Village is a new King The Captaine of Mosambique in his three yeeres gouernment maketh three hundred thousand Duckets gaine especially by Gold from Sofala Vp further within Land the people goe almost naked and were so simple when first the Portugals traded thither that Ludouico Barthema or Vertomannus for his Shirt and another for a Razor and
the Countrie together with their Characters and Witcheries For before euery man adored that which best liked him some those Dragons before spoken of others Serpents which they nourished with their daintiest prouisions Some worshipped the greatest Goats they could get some Tigres and the more vncouth and deformed any beasts were the more in their beastly and deformed superstition were they obserued Bats Owles and Scritch-owles birds of darknesse were the obiects of their darkned deuotions Snakes and Adders enuenomed their soules with a more deadly poyson then they could doe their bodies Beasts Birds Herbes Trees Characters and the formes of those things painted and grauen yea the skinnes of them being dead stuffed with straw had their shares in this diffused varietie and confused masse of irreligious religion The ceremonies they vsed to them were kneeling on their knees casting themselues grouelling on the earth defiling their faces with dust verball prayers reall offerings They had their Witches which made the people beleeue that their Idols could speake and if any man had recouered of any sicknesse after hee had recommended himselfe to them they would affirme that the angrie Idoll was now appeased All these Idols King Alphonso caused to be burned in one heape in stead whereof the Portugals gaue them Images of Saints and Crucifixes to worship This may seeme an exchange rather then a ceasing from superstition were not some fundamentall substance of Truth communicated besides those blinde shadowes wherewith no doubt God draweth some out of darknesse this darknesse notwithstanding in a true and sauing though a dim and shadowed light wherewith as farre going before vs in affection as we before them in knowledge I dare not but in the hope of saluation of some thanke God for this glimpse of heauenly light rather then rashly to censure and sentence them to a totall and hellish darknesse Emanuel since sent supplies of religious persons to confirme them in their Christianitie and his sonne Iohn the third sent also Iesuites to that purpose who erected Schooles among them and they also send their sonnes into Portugall to learne the Sciences and knowledge of Europe God Almighty grant that those Fountaines may be clensed of all Popish mire that thence more wholesome waters may flow to the watering of this Ethiopian Vineyard They vse in Congo to make cloathes of the Enzanda tree of which some write the same things that are reported of the Indian Fig-tree that it sends forth a hairy substance from the branches which no sooner touch the ground but they take root and grow vp in such sort that one tree would multiply it selfe into a wood if Nature set not some obstacle The innermost barke of the Inzanda by beating is made excellent cloth Other trees there are which the Tides couer and are discouered by the Ebs laden at the root with Oisters But more admirable is that huge tree called Alicande of which my friend Andrew Battell supposeth some are as bigge besides their wonderfull tallnesse as twelue men can fathome It spreds like an Oake Some of them are hollow and the liberall clouds into those naturall Caskes disperse such plenty of wa er that one time three or foure thousand of them in that hote Region continued foure and twenty houres at one of those trees which yeelded them all drinke of her watery store and was not emptied Their Negros climed vp with pegs for the tree is smooth and therefore not otherwise to be climbed and so soft that it easily receiued pegs of a harder wood driuen into her yeelding substance with a stone and dipped the water as it had been out of a Well He supposed that there is forty tunne of water in some one of them It yeeldeth them good opportunitie for honey to which end the Countrey-people make a kinde of Chest with one hole into the same and hang it vpon one of these trees which they take downe once a yeere and with fire or smoke chasing or killing the Bees take thence a large quantitie of honey Neither is it liberall alone to the hungry and thirstie appetite but very bountifully it cloathes their backs with the barke thereof which being taken from the yonger Alicundes and beaten one fathome which they cut out of the tree will by this meanes extend it selfe into twenty and presently is cloth fit for wearing though not so fine as that which the Inzanda tree yeeldeth It serues them also for boats one of which cut out in proportion of a State will hold hundreths of men Of their Palme-trees which they keepe with watering and cutting euery yeere they make Veluets Sattens Taffatas Damasks Sarcenets and such like out of the clensed and and purged leaues hereof drawing long and euen threds for that purpose And for their Palme-wines which they draw out of the top of a kind of Palme which at first is strong and inebriating wine and in time declineth to a sowre and holesome vineger of the stone of the fruit which is like an Almond they also make bread of the shale of the fruit Oyle which also serueth them for Butter Lopez distinguisheth this tree from the Coco tree which is there also growing and another Palme that beareth Dates others that beare Cola like a Pine-apple excellent for the stomacke and for the Liuer most admirable it being supposed that the Liuer of a Hen or other Bird putrified sprinkled with this matter recouereth the former freshnesse and soundnesse Other sorts of Palmes yeeld other fruits and of their leaues they make Mats wherewith they couer their houses Lopez saw a Pomecitron the kernell whereof left within the rinde yeelded a pretty tall sprigge in foure dayes Of stones they haue such store to build with that in some places they may cut out a Church of one piece There are whole Mountaines of Porphorie of Iaspar of white Marble and other Marbles one especiall that yeeldeth faire Iacinths that are good Iewels straked like as it were with naturall veines The Port and I le of Loanda lying ouer against the Portugall Towne of Saint Paul about twenty miles in circuit famous for many things deserueth especiall mention for this that it yeeldeth in lesse then halfe a yard digging Waters very sweet but of so contrarie a Nature to the Sea her mighty neighbour that when the Sea ebbeth the water is Salt and when it floweth the same is sweet and fresh as if the Sea imparted that which it selfe hath not or rather enuied that which he hath and therefore alway at his comming re-demandeth that saltnesse from those springs to attend vpon their Ocean-mother So doe wee see the Siluer Lampes of Heauen in the Sunnes absence to lighten the World which yet want light when it is most plentifull to shew themselues Euen Nature sealeth and confirmeth Monopolies to her principall Courtiers alway as prouided that it thereby better serueth for the Common good and therefore no precedent to such Dropsie and spleen-like Monopolies Mony-pollings with
was hell and that the soules of their wicked Ancestors went thither to be tormented and that those who were good and valiant men went downe into the pleasant Valley where the great City di Laguna now standeth then which the Towns adioyning to it there is not in any place of the World a more delicater temperature of Ayre nor a goodlier Obiect for the eye to make a Royall Landskip of as to stand in the Centre of this Plaine and to behold how nature hath delineated all earthly beauty in the great On the North side of the Iland are many fresh waters with falling downe from the top of exceeding high Mountaynes refresh the Plaines and City di Laguna and are afterwards by the greatnesse of their torrent carried into the Ocean The Iland is parted in the midst with a ridge of Mountaynes like the roofe of a Church hauing in the midst of it like a steeple the Pyke of Teyda if you diuide the Iland into twelue parts ten of them are taken vp in impassable Rocky Hils in Woods in Vineyards and yet in this small remaynder of arrable ground there was gathered as I saw vpon their account in the yeere of our Lord 1582. 200. and 5000. Hannacks of Wheat besides infinite store of Rie and Barley One of our English quarters make foure and a halfe of their Hannacks The soyle is delicately temperate and would produce all the most excellent things the earth beareth if the Spaniards would seeke and labour them The Vineyards of account are in Buena Vista in Dante in Oratana in Tigueste and in the Ramble which place yeeldeth the most excellent Wine of all other There are two sorts of Wines in this Iland Vidonia and Muluesia Vidonia is drawne out of a long Grape and yeeldeth a dull Wine The Maluesia out of a great round Grape and this is the only Wine which passeth all the Seas of the World ouer and both the Poles without sowring or decaying whereas all other wines turne to Vineger or freeze into Ice as they approch the Southerne or Northerne Pole There are no where to be found fairer or better Mellons Pomegranates Pomecitrons Figs Orenges Limons Almonds and Dates Honey and consequently Waxe and Silke though not in great quantity yet excellent good and if they would plant there store of Mulberry trees the ground would in goodnesse and for quantity equall if not exceed eyther Florence or Naples in that commodity The North side of this Iland aboundeth aswell with wood as with water There grow the Cedar Cypresse and Bay tree the wild Oliue Masticke and Sauine goodly procerous Palme and Pine-trees which shoot vp into a beautifull streight talnese In the passage betwixt Oratana and Garachiro you ride through a whole Forrest of them the strong sauour of which perfumeth all the Aire thereabouts of these there are such abundance all the Iland ouer that all their Wine Vessels and woodden Vtensils are made of them There are of these Pine-trees two sorts the strait Pine and the other growing after the manner of our spreading Okes in England which wood the Inhabitants call the Immortall tree for that it rotteth neyther aboue nor below the ground nor in the water It is neere as red as Brasill , and as hard but nothing so vnctuous as the other kind of Pine Of these they haue such great ones that the Spaniards doe faithfully report that the wood of one Pine-tree alone couered the Church of los Remedios in the City of Laguna which is 80. foote in length and 48. foote in breadth And that one other Pine-tree couered the Church of S. Benito in the same City which is 100. foot in length and 35. in breadth The noblest and strangest tree of all the Iland is the tree called Draco his body riseth into an exceeding height and greatnesse The barke is like the scales of a Dragon and from thence I suppose it had his name On the very top of the tree doe all his armes cling and interfold together by two and by two like the Mandragoras they they are fashioned euen like the arme of a man round and smooth and as out of their fingers ends groweth the leafe about two foote in length in fashion like to our greene wild water seggs This tree hath not wood within its barke but only a light spongious pith and they commonly make Bee-hiues of the bodies of them Towards the full of the Moone it sweateth forth a cleane Vermilion Gummme which they call Sangre de Draco more excellent and astringeth by farre then that Sanguis Draconis which wee haue from Goa and from other parts of the East Indies by reason the Iewes are the only Druggists of those parts and to make mony they falsifie and multiply it with other trash foure pound waight for one The first that were knowne to inhabit this Iland are called Guanches but how they came thither it is hard to know because they were and are people meerely barbarous voyd of Letters The language of the old Guanches which remayneth to this day among them in this Iland in their Towne of Candelaria alludeth much to that of the Moores in Barbary When Betanchor the first Christian Discouerer of these parts came thither he found them to be no other then meere Gentiles ignorant of God Notwithstanding I doe not find that they had any manner of commerce with the Deuill a thing not vsuall among the Indian Gentiles They held there was a power which they called by diuers names as Achuhurahan Achuhucanar Achguayaxerax signifying the greatest the highest and the mayntayner of all If they wanted raine or had too much or any thing went ill with them they brought their sheepe and their Goats into a certaine place and seuered the young ones from the Dams and with this bleating on both sides they thought the wrath of the Supreme Power was appeased and that he would prouide them of what they wanted They had some notion of the immortality and punishment of Soules for they thought there was a Hell and that it was in the Pike of Teyda and they call Hell Echeyde and the Deuill Guayotta In ciuill affaires they were somewhat Regular as in acknowledging a King and confessing vassalage in contracting Matrimony reiecting of Bastards succession of Kings making of Lawes and subiecting themselues to them When any childe was borne they called vnto them a certaine woman and shee did with certaine words powre water vpon the childes head and euer after this woman was assumed into the number of that kindred and with her it was not lawfull euer after for any of that race to marrie or vse copulation The exercises which the young men vsed were leaping or running shooting the Dart casting of the stone and dauncing in which to this houre they do both exceedingly glorie and delight And so full of naturall vertue and honest simplicitie were these Barbarians
Their markets are on Sundayes The Knights come hither exceeding yong the sooner to attaine Commendams at home which goe by Senioritie There are resident about fiue hundred and as many abroad to repaire vpon summons Sixteene of them are Counsellors of State called Great Crosses There are seuen Albergs or Seminaries one of which was of England till in the generall Deluge vnder Henrie the eight Saint Iohns without Smithfield sometime the Mansion of the Grand Prior of England was hooked into that crooked streame though still that Title continue an Irish man now enioying it Euery Nation feed by themselues in their seuerall Alberges and sit at table like Friars But how doe I pre-occupate my Christian Relations and fall into a Lethargie hauing opportunitie of such an Hospitall and such Hospitulars Now a word of the ancient Nauigations about Africa Hanno his voyage set forth by the Carthaginians seemed fabulous but Ramusius sheweth euery place by him mentioned to agree with the later Discoueries of the Portugals and thinketh guided by a Portugall Pilot skilfull of those Seas which skanned this Nauigation of Hanno that hee went as farre as Saint Thome Long before this Homer reporteth of Menelaus compassing the Ethiopians from Egypt which some interprete of sayling by the Cape of Good Hope as the Portugals Of this minde Strabo citeth Aristonichus Of Salomon and Iehoshaphat is said before Herodotus affirmeth the Phoenicians sayling in the Red Sea in Cambyses time but this was vsuall and yeerly as Plinie sheweth lib. 6. cap. 23. The same Plinie alledgeth out of Cornelius Nepos the sayling of Eudoxus out of the Red Sea round about Africa to Cales which Strabo relateth otherwise and refuteth The like may be shewed in some other instances of which reade Master Hakluyt his Epistle Dedicatorie Tom. 1. Ramusius part 1. pag. 111. and Galuanus in his Discoueries of the World Which I mention not to disparage or weaken the Portugals praises but to giue Antiquitie their due which I thinke could not ordinarily if at all compasse so long a Nauigation for want of the Compasse yet we should iniurie our Authors if wee should not beleeue somewhat although not so much as they report And this agreeth with the Greeke prouerbe of Hanno's Discoueries and Iubas Historie that hee which findeth sweetnesse in the one may swallow the other and as well entertayne Bauius as Mauius the Periplus of the one and Libyke Histories of the other not obtayning full credit nor wholly meet to be reiected And thus much of this African part of the World the Regions and Religions thereof the one most subiect to the burning beames of the heauenly Sunne the other least enlightning by the comfortable warmth of the Sunne of Righteousnesse blacke in body but more darkned and deformed spiritually as hauing onely some parts of Habassia entirely possessed with Christians besides what in Congo hath of later yeeres beene effected by the Portugals and that little which is subiect to them and Spaine all the rest being Pagan or Mahumetan And would God this were the case of Africa alone seeing that if we diuide the knowne Regions of the world into thirtie equall parts it is Master Brerewoods Computation The Christians part vnderstand it in all Sects and Professions bearing that name is as fiue the Mahumetans as sixe and the Idolaters as nineteene besides that huge heathenous Tract of the vnknowne South Continent which by probable reasons is by him coniectured to bee no lesse then Europe Africa and Asia together So farre is it from truth which one of our Country-men hath lustily bragged on behalfe of his Romish Mother That the Catholike Roman Religion hath had and hath yet a farre greater sway in the world then any other Religion euer had or hath whereas this our Africa hath more Mahumetans in two or three Cities then Romish Catholikes perhaps in her whole compasse And for Asia how pitifully doth he tumble together some names of a few Townes or little Ilands it seemeth vnknowne to himselfe as monuments of Romish Conquests What their American Conuersions are is touched elsewhere Yea euen in our Europe where this mysticall Babylon is situate the mother of the whoredomes and abominations of the Earth the number of Protestants is not much inferiour vnto them But his reasons haue beene alreadie proued vnreasonable by him whose Pen then and Prelacie since wee with all dutie acknowledge a pillar to the Truth and Ornament to our Church and State For my part I am sorrie his assertion is no truer as one seeing 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 betweene Catholike and Roman a great gulfe not easily without many prouisoes passable but betweene Heathen and Heauen a bottomlesse depth the way impassable and life impossible Let vs pray to him which is the Way the Truth the Life to make and be the Way by reuelation of his Truth vnto euerlasting Life to these poore Africans that as they are almost wholly in all professions Christian Iewish Morish Ethnike circumcised in the flesh so they may receiue that Circumcision of the Spirit not made with hands which may cut away this superfluitie of superstitions wherein they seeme more deuout then any part of the World and make them with meeknesse to receiue that Word which being grafted in them is able to saue their soules Amen Lord Iesus RELATIONS OF THE DISCOVERIES REGIONS AND RELIGIONS OF THE NEW WORLD OF NEW FRANCE VIRGINIA FLORIDA NEW SPAINE WITH OTHER REGIONS OF AMERICA MEXICANA AND OF THEIR RELIGIONS THE EIGHTH BOOKE CHAP. I. Of the New World and why it is named AMERICA and the West Indies with certaine generall discourses of the Heauens Ayre Water and Earth in those parts §. I. Of the names giuen to this part of the World and diuers opinions of the Ancients concerning the Torrid Zone NOw are wee shipped for the New World and the New Discoueries But seeing this Inkie Sea through which I vnder-take a Pilots office to conduct my Readers is more peaceable then That which on the back-side of this American World was called the Peaceable by Magellane the first Discouerer it yeeldeth vs the fitter opportunitie to contemplation and discourse in such Philosophicall subiects as the best Authors haue thought worthy the first place in their Histories of these parts Yet before we prie into Natures mysteries the better to know our intended voyage let vs enquire somewhat of the Names if any notice may thence arise of the places thereby knowne The New World is the fittest name which can be giuen to this vast and huge Tract iustly called New for the late Discouerie by Columbus An. Dom. 1492. and World for the huge intention thereof as Master Hakluyt hath obserued A new World it may bee also called for that World of new and vnknowne Creatures which the old World neuer heard of and here onely are produced the conceit whereof moued Mercator to thinke which I dare not thinke with him that the great
Kine c. Neither were the naturall fruits of America comparable to those of our World Whence are their Spices and the best Fruits but from hence by transportation or transplantation As for Arts States Literature Diuine and Humane multitudes of Cities Lawes and other Excellencies our World enioyeth still the priuiledge of the First-borne America is as a yonger brother or sister and hath in these things almost no inheritance at all till it bought somewhat hereof of the Spaniards with the price of her Freedome On the other side for temperature of Ayre generally America is farre before Africa in the same height For greatnesse of Riuers Canada Plata and Maragnon exceed our World Whether Africa or America exceed in Gold it is a question In Siluer Potozi seemes to haue surmounted any one Mine of the World besides those of New-Spaine and other parts howsoeuer Boterus doubts Yet Exitus acta probat And now America excels because besides her owne store shee is so plentifully furnished with all sorts of liuing and growing creatures from hence as euen now was shewed CHAP. III. Of the Discoueries of the North parts of the New-World and toward the Pole and of Greene-Land or New-Land Groen-Land Estoti-Land Meta Incognita and other places vnto New-France §. I. Of the Discoueries made long since by Nicolo and Antonio Zeni AMerica is commonly diuided by that Isthmus or necke and narrow passage of Land at Darien into two parts the one called Northerne America or Mexicana the other Southerne or Peruana This trendeth betwixt the Darien and Magellan Straights that from thence Northwards where the Confines are yet vnknowne For it is not yet fully discouered whether it ioyneth somewhere to the Continent of Asia or whether Groen-land and some other parts accounted Islands ioyne with it These were discouered before the dayes of Columbus and yet remaine almost couered still in obscuritie and were therefore iustly termed Meta Incognita by Great ELIZABETH the best knowne and most renowned Lady of the World The first knowledge that hath come to vs of those parts was by Nicholas and Antony Zeni two Brethren Venetians Happy Italy that first in this last Age of the World hath discouered the great Discouerers of the World to whom we owe our M. Paulus Odoricus Vertomannus for the East Columbus Vespacius Cabot for the West these noble Zeni for the North and the first encompassing the Worlds wide Compasse vnto Pigafetta's Discourse companion of Magellan in his journey that I speake not of the paines of Russelli Ramusius Boterus and a world of Italian Authors that I thinke more then any other Language haue by their historicall labours discouered the World to it selfe Vnhappie Italy that still hath beaten the bush for others to catch the Bird and hast inherited nothing in their Easterne and Westerne Worlds excepting thy Catholike claime whereby the Catholike and Spanish Sword makes way for the Catholike-Roman Crowne and Keyes Neither the Sword of Paul nor the Keyes of Peter for both these were spirituall But to returne to our Venetians In the yeere a thousand three hundred and fourescore Mr Nicolo Zeno being wealthy of a haughty spirit desiring to see the fashions of the world built and furnished a Ship at his owne charges and passing the Straits of Gibralter held on his course Northwards with intent to see England and Flanders But a violent Tempest assailing him at Sea he was carried hee knew not whither till at last his Ship was carried away vpon the I le of Frisland where the men and most part of the goode were saued In vaine seemes that deliuerie that deliuers vp presently to another Executioner The Ilanders like Neptunes hungry groomes or his base and blacke gard set vpon the men whom the Seas had spared but here also they found a second estape by meanes of a Prince named Zichmui Prince of that and many Ilands thereabouts who being neere hand with his Armie came at the out-cry and chasing away the people tooke them into protection This Zichmui had the yeere before giuen the ouerthrow to the King of Norway and was a great aduenturer in feates of Armes Hee spake to them in Latine and placed them in his Nauie wherewith he wonne diuers Ilands Nicolo behaued himselfe so well both in sauing the Fleet by his Sea-skill and in conquest of the Ilands by his Valour that Zichmui made him Knight and Captaine of his Nauie After diuers notable Exploits Nicolo armed three Barkes with which he ariued in Engroneland where hee found a Monasterie of Friers of the Preachers Order and a Church dedicated to St Thomas hard by a Hill that casteth out fire like Vesuuins and Aetna There is a Fountaine of hote water with which they heat the Church of the Monasterie and the Friers chambers It commeth also into the Kitchin so boyling hote that they vse no other fire to dresse their meat and putting their Bread into Brasse Pots without any water it doth bake as it were in an hot Ouen They haue also small Gardens which are couered ouer in the Winter time and being watered with this water are defended from the violence of the Frost and Cold and bring forth Flowers in their due seasons The common people astonished with these strange effects conceiue highly of those Friers and bring them presents of flesh and other things They with this Water in the extremitie of the Cold heat their Chambers which also as the other buildings of the Monasterie arc framed of those burning stones which the mouth of the Hill casts forth They cast Water on some of them whereby they are dissolued and become excellent white Lime and so tough that being contriued in building it lasteth for euer The rest after the fire is out serue in stead of stones to make Walls and Vaults and will not dissolue or breake except with some iron toole Their Winter lasteth nine moneths and yet there is a faire Hauen where this water falleth into the Sea not frozen by meanes whereof there is great resort of wilde fowle and fish which they take in infinite multitudes The Fishers Boats are made like to a Weauers Shuttle of the skins of fishes fashioned with the bones of the same fishes and being sowed together with many doubles they are so strong that in foule weather they will shut themselues within the same not fearing the force either of Sea or Winde Neither can the hard-hearted Rocks breake these yeelding vessels They haue also as it were a Sleeue in the bottome thereof by which with a subtill deuice they conuey the water forth that soaketh into them The most of these Friers spake the Latine Tongue A little after this Nicolo returned and died in Frisland whither his brother Antonio had before resorted to him and now succeeded both in his goods and honour whom Zichmui employed in the Expedition for Estotiland which happened vpon this occasion Sixe and twenty yeeres before foure Fisher-Boats were
making a noyse downward that they worship the Deuill vnder them There is no flesh or fish which they find dead smel it neuer so filthily but they wil eat it without any other dressing Their Deere haue skins like Asses and feet large like Oxen which were measured 7. or 8. inches in breadth There are no Riuers or running Springs but such as the Sun causeth to come of snow Sometimes they will perboyle their meate a little in kettles made of beasts skins with the bloud water which they drinke lick the bloudy knife with their tongues This licking is the medicine also for their wounds They seeme to haue traffike with other Nations from whom they a small quantity of Iron Their fire they make of heath mosse In their leather Boats they row with one oare faster then we can in our Boats with all our oares §. IIII. Discoueries by IOHN DAVIS GEORGE WEYMOVTH and IAMES HALL to the North-West MAster Iohn Dauis in the yeere 1585. made his first voyage for the North-west discouery and in 64. degrees and 15. minutes they came on shore on an Iland where they had sight of the Sauages which seemed to worship the Sunne For pointing vp to the Sunne with their hands they would strike their breasts hard with their hands which being answered with like action of the English was taken for a confirmed league and they became very familiar They first leaped and danced with a kind of Timbrel which they strucke with a sticke Their apparell was of beasts and birds skins buskins hose gloues c. Some leather they had which was dressed like the Glouers leather The 6. of August they discouered land in 66. deg. 40. min.. They killed white Beares one of whose fore-feet was fourteene inches broad so fat that they were forced to cast it away It seemed they fed on the grasse by their dung which was like to Horse-dung they heard Dogs howle on the shore which were tame They killed one with a Collar about his necke hee had a bone in his pisle these it seemed were vsed to the Sled for they found two Sleds The next yeere he made his second voyage wherein hee found the Sauage people tractable They are great Idolaters and Witches They haue many Images which they weare about them and in their Boats They found a graue wherein were many buried couered with Seales skinnes and a Crosse laid ouer them One of them made a fire of Turfs kindled with the motion of a sticke in a piece of a boord which had a hole halfe thorow into which hee put many things with diuers words and strange gestures our men supposed it to be a sacrifice They would haue had one of the English to stand in the smoke which themselues were bidden to doe and would not by any meanes whereupon one of them was thrust in and the fire put out by our men They are very theeuish They eate raw Fish grasse and Ice and drinke salt-water Heere they saw a whirlewinde take vp the water in great quantitie furiously mounting it vp into the ayre three houres together with little intermission They found in 63. degrees 8. minutes a strange quantitie of Ice in one entire masse so bigge that they knew not the limits thereof very high in forme of land with Bayes and Capes like high-cliffe-land they sent their Pinnasse to discouer it which returned with information that it was onely Ice This was the 17. of Iuly 1586. and they coasted it till the thirtieth of Iuly In the 66. deg. 33. min.. they found it very hot and were much troubled with a stinging Fly called Muskito All the Lands they saw seemed to bee broken and Ilands which they coasted Southwards till they were in foure and fifty and a halfe and there found hope of a passage In the same voyage he had sent the Sun-shine from him in 60. degrees which went to Iseland and on the seuenth of Iuly had sight of the Gronland and were hindered from harbour by the Ice They coasted it till the last of Iuly Their houses neere the Sea-side were made with pieces of wood crossed ouer with poles and couered with earth Our men played at foot-ball with them of the Iland The third voyage was performed the next yeere 1587. wherein Mr Dauis discouered to the 73. degree finding the Sea all open and forty leagues betweene land and land hauing Groenland which hath an Iland neere it to the West for the loathsome view of the shore couered with snow without wood earth or grasse to be seene and the irkesome noise of the Ice called Desolation in 59. on the East and America on the West The Spanish Fleet and the vntimely death of Master Secretarie Walsingham the Epitome and summary of Humane worthinesse hindered the prosecution of these intended Discoueries In the yeere 1602. Captain George Weymouth made a voyage of Discouery to the Northwest with two Fly-boats set forth by the Muscouy Company saw the South part of Gronland and had water in 120. fadome blacke as thick as puddle and in a little space cleere with many such enterchanges The breach of the Ice made a noise as a thunder-clap and ouerturning had sunke both their Vessels if they had not with great diligence preuented it They had store of Fogges some freezing as they fell In 68 deg. 53. min.. they encountred an Inlet forty leagues broad and sailed West and by South in the same 100. leagues Iames Hall An. 1605. sailed to Groenland from Denmarke and had like encounters of Ice yeelding in the breach no lesse noise then if fiue Canons had beene discharged with people also like those which in Frobishers Voyage are mentioned they make sailes of guts sowed together for their fishing Boats and deceiued the Seales with Seales-skin garments Groenland is high Mountainous full of broken Ilands alongst the Coasts Riuers nauigable and good Bayes full of fish Betweene the Mountaines are pleasant Plaines and Vallies such as a man would scarce beleeue He saw store of Fowle no beasts but blacke Foxes and Deere The people seemed a kind of Samoydes wandering in Summer by companies for Hunting and Fishing and remouing from place to place with their Tents and Baggage they are of reasonable stature browne actiue warlike eate raw meat or a little perboyled with bloud Oyle or a little water which they drinke their apparell beasts of fowles skinnes the hairy or feathered side outward in Summer in the Winter inward their arrowes and darts with two feathers and a bone-head they haue no wood but drift they worship the Sunne Anno 1606. He made a second Voyage thither found their Winter houses built with Whales bones couered with Earth and Vaults two yards deepe vnder the Earth square They call Groenland in their language Secanunga Vp within the Land they haue a King carried on mens shoulders The next yeere he sailed thither the third time and in a fourth Voyage 1612. was slaine
there by a Sauage in reuenge as was thought for some of the people before shipped from thence They haue Hares white as snow with long furre Dogs which liue on Fish whose pisles as also of their Foxes are bone Their Summer worke is to dry their Fish on the Rocks Euery one both man and woman haue each of them a Boat made with long pieces of Firre couered with Seales skins sowed with sinewes or guts about twenty foot long and two and a halfe broad like a shittle so light that one may carry many of them at once so swift that no ship is able with any winde to hold way with them and yet vse but one oare which they hold by the middle in the middest of their Boat broad at both ends wherewith they row forwards and backwards at pleasure Generally they worship the Sunne to which they pointed at our approach saith Baffin striking on their brests and crying Ilyout not comming neere till you doe same They bury in out-lands on the tops of hils in the heapes of stones to preserue from the Foxes making another graue hard by wherein they place his Bow and Arrowes Darts and other his vtensils They bury them in their apparell and the cold keepes them from putrefaction Anno 1606. Mr Iohn Knights made a North-west voyage lost his Ship sunke with Ice and was with three more of his company surprised by the Sauages of whose language hee wrot a pretty Dictionary which I haue seene with M. Hakluyt §. V. Of King IAMES his Newland alias Greeneland and of the Whale and Whale-Fishing I Will not heere beginne with records of Discoueries in these parts written two thousand yeeres since out of which Mr Doctor Dee is reported to haue gathered diuers Antiquities antiquated by Antiquitie and rotten with age nor to shew that King Arthur possessed as farre as Greeneland nor that Sir Hugh Willoughby discouered hitherto as some coniecture but content my selfe with later Discoueries and Obseruations Much hath been spent both of Cost Industrie and Argument about finding a more compendious way to the Indies by the Northwest and by the North-East and by the North. Of the first somewhat hath been spoken Of the second were the Voyages of Master Stephen Burrough Pet and Iacman our Countrey-men and of the Hollanders in the yeere 1594. and the three following before by vs mentioned in a duer place as appertaining to Asia for they found themselues by Astronomicall obseruation in a hundred and twelue Degrees fiue and twenty minutes of Longitude and threescore and sixteene of Latitude in the place where they wintered They had touched more Northerly in some parts as is thought of Greene-land sailing along by the Land from fourescore Degrees eleuen minutes vnto Noua Zemla I omit their red Geese in one place of this Voyage their azure-couloured Ice in another place and the losse of their Ship in the Ice which constrained them to set vp a house to Winter in that Land of Desolation This building they beganne about the 27. of September Stilo Nouo the cold euen then kissing his New-come Tenants so eagerly that when the Carpenters did but put a naile in their mouths after their wont the Ice would hang thereon and the bloud follow at the pulling out In December their fire could not heat them their Sack was frozen and each man forced to melt his share thereof before he could drinke it their melted Beere drinking like water They sought to remedie it with Sea-cole fire as being hotter then the fire of Wood which they had store of though none there growing by drifts and stopped the chimney and doores to keep in the heat but were suddenly taken with a swounding which had soone consumed them if they had not presently admitted the aire to their succor Their shooes did freeze as hard as horns on their feet and as they sate within doores before a great fire seeming to burne on the fore-side behinde at their backs they were frozon white the Snow meane-whiles lying higher then the house which sometimes in clearer weather they endeuoring to remoue cut out steps so ascended out of their house as out of a Vault or Seller They were forced to vse besides store of cloathes and great fires stones heated at the fire and applyed to their feet and bodies and yet were frozen as they lay in their Cabins yea the cold not onely staid their Clocke but insulted ouer the fire in some extremities that it almost cast no heat so that putting their feet to the fire they burnt their hose and discerned that also by the smell before they could feele the heat They supposed that a barrell of water would haue been wholly frozen in the space of one night which you must interpret of their twelue houres glasse for otherwise they saw no Sunne after the third of Nouember to the 24. of Ianuary reckoning by the new Calendar a thing strange to be without the Sunne fifttie dayes before the Solstice which happened after their account on December 23. and yet within forty one dayes after might see the vpper circle of the Sun-rising aboue the Horizon which made great question whether their Eyes had deceiued them or the Computation of time in that long Night which both being found otherwise by their obseruation and experience caused no lesse wonder whether this timely approach should be attributed to the reflexion by the water or the not absolute roundnesse of the Earth in those parts or the false accounting of the Solstice or which some affirme the falshood of their calculations But I leaue this to Philosophers Our Author affirmes that when the Sunne had left them they saw the Moone continually both Day and Night neuer going downe when it was in the highest Degree the twi-light also remaining many dayes and againe they might see some day-light sixteene dayes before they saw the returne of the Sunne The Beares which had held them besieged and often endangered them forsooke them and returned with the Sunne the white Foxes all that while visited them of which they tooke many whose flesh was good Venison to them and their skins in the linings of their Caps good remedies against that extremitie of Cold. As for their feet they vsed Pattents of wood with sheepe-skinnes aboue and many socks or soles vnderneath they vsed also shooes of Rugge and Felt. These Beares were very large and cruell some of them yeelding skins thirteene foot long and a hundred pounds of fat which serued them for Oyle in their Lampes the flesh they durst not eate some of them forfeiting their whole skinnes after they had eaten of the Liuer of one of these eaters which deuoure any thing not sparing their owne kinde For the Hollanders hauing killed one Beare another carried it a great way ouer the rugged Ice in his mouth in their sight and fell to eating it they made to him with their weapons and chased him from his purchase but found
it halfe eaten and then foure of them could scarcely carry the other halfe when as the whole body had been very lightly carried in his fellowes mouth As for the thin Diet which these Hollanders endured and other discommodities together with their returne in two open Scutes wherein they sailed aboue a thousand miles after ten moneths continuance in this desolate habitation their dangers in the Ice which somewhat besieged them like whole Tents Townes and Fortifications and other the particulars of this Voyage I referre to the Author himselfe Here I remember thus much for Greene-lands sake on which in this Nauigation they are said to haue touched How euer that be they continued no trade nor Discouerie thither till the English diuers yeeres after had made a new Discouerie and found there a profitable Whale-fishing In the yeere 1607. Hen. Hudson discouered these parts to the Latitude of fourescore there naming a point of Land Hackluyts Head-land which name is still beareth And Ionas Poole in the yeere 1610. was set forth by the Muscouy Company in the Amitie and discouered diuers Sounds and Harbours here with the Sea-Horses he killed and other things found on shore giuing such good Content to the Aduenturers that He was by them employed the next yeere in the Elizabeth with Master Steuen Bennet in the Mary Margaret both which Ships were vnfortunately cast away the Men and part of the goods were brought home by Master Marmaduke then there in a Ship of Hull In the yeere 1612. were set forth three Ships from Holland and one from Biscay all hauing English Pilots besides two sent thither by the Company called the Sea-Horse and the Whole vnder the Masters before mentioned In the yeere 1613 many Ships were thither sent from France Biskay Holland so that the Company addressed thither seuen warlike ships vnder the Command of Master Beniamin Ioseph who without bloudshed disappointed those Strangers ready to reape that which others had sowne and either had not at all discouered or wholly giuen ouer the businesse The next yeere 1614. eleuen good Ships and two Pinasses were employed to Greeneland and three more not then ready appointed to follow vnder the same Generall which Voyage is in my hands communicated to mee by my industrious Friend a skilfull Mariner and Discouerer both in these and other parts William Baffin entertained in this Fleet. But the particulars would be howsoeuer profitable to our Mariner tedious to our ordinarie Reader They then discouered wel-neere to 81. For beyond that degree our Author beleeues not that any hath beene The names of diuers places as Saddle Iland Barren Iland Beare Iland Red Goose Iland all betwixt 80. and 81. and Sir Tho Smiths Inlet Maudlin Sound Faire Hauen Sir Thomas Smiths Bay Ice Sound Bell Sound with other places on or neere the Greater Ile or supposed Continent I forbeare to recite as not intending to instruct the Mariner so much as the Scholler This yeere 1616. were sent thither ten ships which killed aboue a hundred Whales as Master Thomas Sherwin imployed therein related to me Greeneland is now almost altogether discouered to bee an Iland or rather many Ilands and broken grounds In the Greeneland voyage 1611. from Cherry Iland toward Greeneland they met with a banke of Ice fortie leagues long and ranne almost alongst another a hundred and twenty Leagues At their first comming all was couered with Snow at their departure the tops of the Hils and Plaines had receiued a new liuerie of greene Mosse and a little grasse The Aire was mistie like night They found many fat Deere many white Beares with white gray and dunne Foxes There was a bird called an Allen which beats the other birds till they vomit their prey for him to deuoure and then dismisseth them with little meat in their bellies or feathers on their backs They finde Morses Sea-Vnicornes hornes white Partriches Wilde-geese but not a bush or tree I might heere adde diuers Voyages to Cherry Iland where they haue thousands of Morses the Teeth and Oyle whereof yeeld them no small commoditie There also are many Beares I might here recreate your wearied eyes with a hunting spectacle of the greatest chase which Nature yeeldeth I meane the killing of the Whale When they espy him on the top of the water which he is forced to for to take breath they row toward him in a Shallop in which the Harponier stands ready with both his hands to dart his Harping-iron to which is fastened a line of such length that the Whale which suddenly feeling himselfe hurt sinketh to the bottome may carry it down with him being before fitted that the Shallop be not therewith indangered comming vp againe they againe strike him with Launces made for that purpose about twelue foot long the iron eight therof and the blade eighteene inches the Harping-iron principally seruing to fasten him to the Shallop and thus they hold him in such pursuit till after streames of water and next that of blood cast vp into the Aire and Water as angry with both Elements which haue brought thither such weak hands to his destruction he at last yeeldeth his slaine carkasse as meed to the conquerors They tow him to the Ship with two or three Shallops made fast to one another and then floating at the sterne of the Ship they cut the blubber or fat from the flesh in pieces three or foure foot long which after at shore are cut smaller and boiled in coppers which done they take them out put them into wicker baskets which are set in Shallops halfe ful of water into which the Oyle runneth and is thence put into buts This Whale-fishing is yeerely now vsed by our men in Greeneland with great profit The ordinarie length of a Whale is sixty foot and not so huge as Olaus hath written who maketh the Mors also as bigge as an Elephant The proportion of this huge Leuiathan deserues description as one of the greatest Wonders of the Lord in the deepe whereon Himselfe so much insisteth Iob 41.12 that he will not conceale his parts nor his power nor his comely proportion The Whale that here we speake of is the Great Bay-Whale for there are many other kinds the Trompe which hath two Trunkes or breathing holes on his head whereas the Bay-Whale hath but one whose braines are said to be the Sperma Cete the Inbarte which hath a Fin on his backe dangerous to boats exceeding swift and little profitable besides other kinds This is the most simple and vsefull the greater and fatter the more easily taken His head is the third part of him his mouth O hellish wide sixteene foot in the opening and yet out of that belly of Hell yeelding much to the ornaments of our womens backs the Whale-bones or Finnes being no other then the rough and inner part of the mouth closing in the shutting thereof as the fingers of both hands within each other Of these Finnes are fiue hundred from the length
together may no way compare with this Countrey either for commodities or goodnesses of soyle This sparke kindled in their hearts such constancie of zeale and forwardnesse that they furnished out Sir Thomas Gates who had happily returned with the rest from Bermudas with six ships 300. men and a hundred Kine with other Cattle Munition and prouision of all sorts Sir Thomas Dale hauing newes that it was a Fleet of enemies prepared himselfe and the rest to an encounter but it ended with a common ioy in the shaking of hands and not of Pikes Lawes are now made for lawlesnesse had marred so much before for the honour of God frequenting the Church obseruation of the Sabbath reuerence to Ministers obedience to superiours mutuall loue honest labours and against Adultery Sacriledge wrong and other vices Harbengers of Gods wrath and mans destruction The Colony consisted of seuen hundred men of sundry Arts and Professions few of them sicke which hauing left the Fort at Cape Henry fortified and kept by Captaine Dauies and the keeping of Iames Towne to that Noble and wel-deseruing Gentleman Master George Perole is remoued vp the Riuer fourescore miles further beyond Iames Towne to a place of higher ground strong and defencible by nature with good Ayre plenty of Springs much faire and open grounds freed from Woods and wood enough at hand Here they burnt brickes cut downe wood and euery man fals to somewhat they haue built they say competent houses the first story all of bricke that euery man may haue his lodging and dwelling by himselfe with a sufficient quantity of ground allotted thereto Here also they were building an Hospitall with fourescore lodgings and beds already sent for the sicke and lame as the Booke called the New life of Virginia relateth Master Whitaker in his Letter and Booke from Henrico 1612. testifieth the health and welfare of the Colonie Samuel Argal in the yeere 1613. affirmed likewise that hee found the state of Virginia farre better then was reported In one Voyage they had gotten 1100. bushels of Corne they found a slow kind of Cattle as bigge as Kine which were good meate and a medicinable sort of earth They tooke Pokohuntis Powhatans dearest daughter prisoner a matter of good consequence to them of best to her by this meanes being become a Christian and married to Master Rolph an English Gentleman Thus I haue beene bold somewhat largely to relate the proceedings of this Plantation to supplant such slanders and imputations as some haue conceiued or receiued against it and to excite the diligence and industry of all men of ability to put to their helping hand in this Action so Honourable in it selfe Glorious to God in the furtherance of his Truth and beneficiall to the Common-wealth and to the priuate purses of the Aduenturers if the blooming of our hopes be not blasted with our negligence As for the want of successe hitherto Careat successibus opto Quisquis ab euentu facta notanda putet Reason should preuaile with Men leaue sense and euent of things as an argument for Beasts That reason which sheweth Virginia's more then possibilities probabilities doth also point out the causes of those ill Successes Discontents at Sea Ignorance of the Country and of their Language Diuision in the Councell Commanders some of them not skilfull Souldiers nor forward Aduenturers Care to relade the Ships before they could prouide Houses of Victuals Ambition Cruelty Neglect of the Seasons for Fish and Land-commodities Brackish slimy Water at Iames Fort Riot Sloth False information in England Sending ill People that consumed the rest with idlenesse Want of Authority to punish them That kind of Aristocraticall Authority first established occasion of their Quarrels Iniuries to and from the Saluages and yet a necessity of their vse and helpe Sicknesse caused by the grosse and vaporous Aire and soyle about Iames Towne and drinking water The theeuish trucke and exchange which some secretly held with them The treachery of Fugitiues Falshood of the Sauages and the Many many faults as they report of Mariners in priuate truckings and night marts both with our Men and Sauages Their long stay and spending the Colonies reliefe besides Extraordinary casualties of fire cold shipwracke and if wee beleeue Ouiedo and obserue the like amongst the Spaniards the very Aire of the Indies seemes to be of inclination and disposition to contentions which easily ruine and dissolue the greatest and best enterprises that I speake not of the Deuils malice to Christian hopes Experience hath now made men wiser both to preuent and remedie these euils and to order their proceedings accordingly And although Fame fils not our eares with so often and many Virginian rumors as aforetimes yet we know that still waters are deepest and wee cannot but hope that those worthy Virginian-Consuls cunctando restituunt rem rather with carefull prouidence and watchfull diligence working sure then with humerous hastinesse laying foundations to a leisurely repentance seeking more the common good there then to be the common talke heere Once they there maintayne themselues now a long time without the wonted charge to the Company and diuers of our Nobility and Gentry doe now as after a long slumber while we are writing these things againe bethinke them of this Virginian Plantation whereunto the profitable Neighbour-hood of the Summer Iles or Bermudas may be good furtherance God Almighty prosper both that the Word may goe out of Bermuda and the Law of the Lord from Virginia to a truer conuersion of the American World then hitherto Our Humorists or Spanish insolencies haue intended §. III. Of the Soyle People Beasts Commodities and other Obseruations of Virginia FOr the description of the Countrey Master Hakluyt from Others Relations in his third Volume of Voyages hath written largely of those parts discouered for Sir Walter Raleigh Concerning the later Captaine Iohn Smith partly by word of mouth partly by his Map thereof in print and more fully by a Manuscript which hee courteously communicated to mee hath acquainted mee with that whereof himselfe with great perill and paine had beene the Discouerer being in his discoueries taken Prisoner as is before said and escaping their fury yea receiuing much honour and admiration amongst them by reason of his Discourses to them of the motion of the Sunne of the parts of the World of the Sea c. which was occasioned by a Diall then found about him They carried him Prisoner to Powhatan and there beganne the English acquaintance with that sauage Emperour The summe of his obseruation in that and other Discoueries since concerning the Countrey is this Virginia is situate betweene 34. and 44. degrees of Northerly latitude the bounds whereof on the East side are the great Ocean Florida on the South on the North Noua Francia the Westerne limits are vnknowne But that part which began to bee planted by the English Southerne Colony in the yeere 1606. is vnder the degrees 37.
whiles others attended and at last led him with a firebrand in stead of a Torch to his lodging When they intend any wars the Weroances or Kings consult first with the Priests and Coniurers And no people haue there beene found so sauage which haue not their Priests Gods and Religion All things that are able to hurt them beyond their preuention they after their sort adore as the Fire Water Lightning Thunder our Ordnance Peeces Horses Yea I haue heard Captaine Smith say that they seeing one of the English Bores in the way were striken with awfull feare because he brisled vp himselfe and gnashed his teeth and took him for the god of the Swine which was offended with them The chiefe god they worship is the Diuell which they call Okee They haue conference with him and fashion themselues vnto his shape In their Temples they haue his Image ill-fauouredly made painted adorned with Chaines Copper and Beads and couered with a skinne By him is commonly the Sepulchre of their Kings whose bodies are first bowelled then dryed on a hurdle and haue about the ioynts chaines of Copper Beads and other like trash then lapped in white skinnes and rowled in mats and orderly entombed in arches made of mats the remnant of their wealth being set at their feet These Temples and Bodies are kept by their Priests For their ordinarie burials they digge a deepe hole in the earth with sharpe stakes and the corps being wrapped in skins and mats with their iewels they lay them vpon sticks in the ground and couer them with earth The buriall ended the women hauing their faces painted with blacke coale and oyle sit foure and twenty houres in the houses mourning and lamenting by turnes with yellings and howlings Euery Territory of a Weroance hath their Temples and Priests Their principall Temple is at Vttamussack in Pamaunk where Powhatan hath a house vpon the top of certaine sandie hils in the woods There are three great houses filled with Images of their Kings and Diuels and Tombes of their Predecessors Those houses are neere threescore foot long built after their fashion Arbour-wise This place is in such estimation of holinesse that none but the Priests and Kings dare enter yea the Sauages dare not passe by in Boats without casting Copper Beads or somewhat into the Riuer Heere are commonly resident seuen Priests the chiefe differed from the rest in his ornaments the other can hardly be knowne from the common people but that they haue not so many holes at their eares to hang their Iewels at The High-Priests head-tire is thus made They take a great many Snakes skinnes stuffed with Mosse as also of Weasils and other vermines skins which they tye by their tayles so that all the tayles meet on the top of their head like a great tassell The faces of their Priests are painted as vgly as they can deuise in their hands they haue Rattles some Base some Treble Their deuotion is most in songs which the chiefe Priest beginneth the rest following sometime he maketh inuocations with broken sentences by starts and strange passions and at euery pause the other giue a short grone It cannot be perceiued that they haue any set Holy-dayes onely in some great distresse of want feare of enemies times of triumph and of gathering their fruits the whole Countrey Men Women and Children assemble to their solemnities The manner of their deuotion is somtimes to make a great fire all singing and dancing about the same with Rattles and shouts foure or fiue houres sometime they set a man in the middest and dance and sing about him he all the while clapping his hands as if he would keepe time after this they goe to their Feasts They haue certaine Altar-stones which they call Powcorances standing from their Temples some by their houses others in the woods and wildernesses vpon which they offer bloud Deere-suet and Tobacco This they doe when they returne from the warres from their huntings and on other occasions When the waters are rough in stormes their coniurers runne to the waters sides or passe in their boats and after many hellish out-cries and inuocations cast Tobacco Copper Pocones or such trash into the water to pacifie that god whom they thinke to be very angry in those stormes Before their dinners and suppers the better sort will take the first bit and cast it into the fire which is all the grane they are knowne to vse In some part of the Countrey they are said which since is found false to haue yeerely a sacrifice of children such a one was performed at Quiyoughcohanock some ten miles from Iames Towne in this manner Rapahannock Werowance made a Feast in the woods the people were so painted that a Painter with his pensill could not haue done better Some of them were blacke like Diuels with hornes and loose haire some of diuers colours They continued two dayes dancing in a circle of a quarter of a mile in two companies with antick tricks foure in a ranke the Werowance leading the dance they had Rattles in their hands all in the middest had black hornes on their heâ—ds and greene boughes in their hands next them were foure or fiue principall men diuersly painted which with bastinadoes beat forward such as tired in the dance Thus they made themselues scarce able to goe or stand When they met together they made a hellish noise and euery one flinging away his bough ranne clapping their hands vp into a tree and tare it to the ground and fell into their order againe thus they did twice Fourteene well-fauoured children or if you had rather heare Captaine Smith fifteene of the properest yong Boyes betweene ten and fifteene yeeres of age they painted white H uing brought them forth the people saith he spent the forenoone in dancing and singing about them with Rattles in the afternoone they put these children to the root of a tree all the men standing to guard them each with a Bastinado of Reeds bound together in his hand Then doe they make a lane betweene them all along thorow which there were appointed fiue yong men White cals them Priests to fetch these children Each of these fetched a child the guard laying on with their Bastinadoes while they with their naked bodies defend the children to their great smart All this time the women weepe and cry out very passionately prouiding mosse skinnes mats and dry wood vnknowne to what purpose When the children are in this manner fetched away the guard teares downe trees branches and boughes making wreathes for their heads or bedecking their haire with the leaues What else was done with the children was not seene but they were all cast on a heape in a Valley as dead where was made a great feast for all the company William White relating this Rite saith That they remoued them from tree to tree three times and at last carried them into a Valley where the King sate where
they would not suffer our men to see but feasted there two houres On a sudden all arose with cudgels in their hand and made a lane as is before said and the children being laid downe vnder a tree to their seeming without life they all fell into a ring againe and danced about the children a good space and then sate downe in a circle about the tree Raphanna in the mids caused burdens of wood to be brought to the Altar made of poles set like a steeple where they made a great fire which our men thought but were deceiued was to sacrifice their children to the Diuell whom they call Kewase who as they report suckes their bloud They were vnwilling to let them stay any longer They found a woman mourning for yong Paspiha sacrificed at the Towne of Rapahanna but this Paspaiha is now aliue as Mr Rolph hath since related to me and the mourning of the women is not for their childrens death but because they are for diuers moneths detained from them as we shall after see Yea the Virginians themselues by false reports might delude our Men and say they were sacrificed when they were not For euen still they are very inconstant it is Mr Rolphs report in all that they speake of their Religion one denying that which another affirmeth and either not knowing or nor willing that others should know their diuellish mysteries And hence perhaps it was that as Captaine Smith addeth a Werowance being demanded the meaning of this sacrifice answered that the children were not all dead but that the Oke or Diuell did sucke the bloud from their left brest who chanced to be his by lot till they were dead but the rest were kept in the wildernesse by the yong men till nine Moones were expired during which time they must not conuerse with any and of these were made their Priests and coniurers This Sacrifice they held to be so necessarie that if they should omit it their Oke or Diuell and their other Quiyoughcosughes or gods would let them haue no Deere Turkies Corne or Fish and who would besides make a great slaughter amongst them They thinke that their Werowances and Priests which they also esteeme Quiyoughcosughes when they are dead doe goe beyond the Mountaines towards the setting of the Sunne and euer remaine there in forme of their Oke hauing their heads painted with Oyle and Pocones finely trimmed with feathers and shall haue Beades Hatchets Copper and Tobacco neuer ceasing to dance and sing with their Predecessors The common-people they suppose shall not liue after death Some sought to conuert them from these Superstitions the Werowance of Quiyoughcohanock was so farre perswaded as that he professed to beleeue that our God exceeded theirs as much as our Guns did their Bowes and Arrowes and many times did send to the President many presents entreating him to pray to his God for raine for his God would not send him any William White reporteth these their ceremonies of honouring the Sunne By breake of day before they eate or drinke the men women and children aboue ten yeeres old runne into the water and there wash a good space till the Sunne arise and then they offer sacrifice to it strewing Tobacco on the land or water the like they doe at Sun-set Hee also relateth that one George Casson before mentioned was sacrificed as they thought to the Diuell being stripped naked and bound to two stakes with his backe against a great fire then did they rip him and burne his bowels and dryed his flesh to the bones which they kept aboue-ground in a by-roome Many other of our men were cruelly and treacherously executed by them though perhaps not sacrificed and none had been left if their ambushes and treasons had taken effect Powhatan thus inuited Captaine Ratliffe and thirty others to trade for corne and hauing brought them within his ambush murthered them Alexander Whitaker saith That their Priests whom they call Quiokosoughs are Witches of whom the people stand in great awe The manner of their life is Heremite-fashion in woods in houses sequestred from the common course of men where none may come or speake with them vncalled They take no care for victuals for all such necessaries are set in a place neere his Cottage for his vse If they would haue raine or haue lost any thing he at their request coniureth and often preuaileth He is their Physician if they bee sicke and sucketh their wounds At his word they make warre and peace and doe nothing of moment without him Master Rolph affirmes that these Priests liue not solitarily and in other things is of another opinion which perhaps our former Author at his first comming might haue by relation of others The Wirowance of Acawmacke told our men of a strange accident two children being dead and buried being reuiewed by the parents seemed to haue liuely and cheerefull countenances which caused many to behold them and none of the beholders escaped death §. III. Of the Sasquesahanockes with other and later obseruations of the Virginian Rites THe Sasquesahanockes are a Gyantly people strange in proportion behauiour and attire their voice sounding from them as out of a Caue their attire of Beares skins hanged with Beares pawes the head of a Wolfe and such like iewels and if any would haue a spoone to eate with the Diuell their Tobacco pipes were three quarters of a yard long carued at the great end with a Bird Beare or other deuice sufficient to beat out the braines of a Horse and how many Asses braines are beaten out or rather mens braines smoaked out and Asses haled in by our lesse Pipes at home the rest of their furniture was sutable The calfe of one of their legges was measured three quarters of a yard about the rest of his limbes proportionable With much adoe restrained they this people from worshipping our men And when our men prayed according to their dayly custome and sung a Psalme they much wondered and after began in most passionate manner to hold vp their hands to the Sunne with a Song then embracing the Captaine they began to adore him in like manner and so proceeded notwithstanding his rebuking them till their song was ended which done one with a most strange action and vncomely voice began an Oration of their loues That ended with a great painted Beares skinne they couered the Captaine another hung about his necke a chaine of white Beades Others laid eighteene Mantles at his feet with many other ceremonies to create him their Gouernour that hee might defend them against the Massa-womekes their enemies As these are very great so the Weighcocomocoes are very little I may also heere insert the ridiculous conceits which some Virginians hold concerning their first originall as I haue heard from the relation of an English Youth which liued long amongst the Sauages that a Hare came into their Countrey and made the first men and after preserued them
weapons and sometimes separate themselues and their families till time waste away their indignation and then returne yet are the fierce and politike in warre These Nations and the Susolas Comos Camoles Quitones and other Names of Barbarisme vse Tobacco and a drinke made of the leaues of certaine trees boiled with water and put vp into certaine vessels which they drinke as hot as they can endure crying meane-while Who will drinke And when the women heare this cry they suddenly stand still without stirring any way although they be laden they beleeuing that if any woman should then moue her selfe some euill thing would enter into the drinke whereof they must die soone after and therefore if any such accident happen they cast all away and likewise if a woman passe by whiles they are brewing it if the vessell be vncouered When the women haue their naturall fluxe they must be their owne Cookes but for no body else They haue some Men married to other Men being attired in habit of Women and performing onely womanly offices In some places as they passed their Physicians which commonly are in sauage Nations Magicians and Priests had rattles of Gourds which they suppose to come from heauen and to haue great vertue none other daring to touch them Some vsed for boiling wild Gourds not by putting fire vnder but by heating stones continually in the fire and putting them into the liquor till it seethe Some people on the Mountaines for a third part of the yeere eate nothing but a powder made of straw In some places were trees of such venemous qualitie that the leaues thereof in standing waters would poison whatsoeuer dranke thereof Some acknowledged a certaine man in heauen called Aguar who gaue them raine and all good things All these people as he passed with a Negro and two others after he had escaped some of his first Masters which held him in hard slauerie held them for children of the Sunne and therefore receiued them with great reuerence and festiuall pompe and conueyed them still to the next nation Westward towards the South Sea till they came to Spaniards alwayes vsing to rob those people to whom they deliuered them of their little wealth which departed from the same with the greater content because they serued the next people and so successiuely with like sawce They found some rich Sables of muskie sent and Emeralds They were out in this Expedition and captiuity ten yeeres before they could recouer Spaine from 1527. to 1537. §. IIII. Other Obseruations of Florida THese things following Ortelius saith he had from his Nephew Caelius Ortelius by the relation of an eye-witnesse The King giueth or selleth rather to euery man his wife If a woman commit adulterie she is bound to a tree her armes and legges stretched out all day and sometimes whipped A woman three houres after she is deliuered of a child carries the Infant to the Riuer to wash it They obserue no discipline in their families with their children They haue fleas which bite so eagerly that they leaue a great deformitie like a leprie after They haue winged Serpents one of which I saw saith Nicolaus Challusius the wings whereof seemed to enable it to fly a little height from the ground The Inhabitants were very carefull to get the head thereof as was thought for some superstition Botero saith that they haue three sorts of Harts and of one of them make the same commodities which we doe of our Kine keeping them tame and milking them The Spaniard hath three Garrisons on the coast of Florida S. Iacomo S. Agostino and S. Philippo They are much addicted to venery and yet abstaine from their wiues after conception knowne When Ferdinando Soto entred Florida he there found amongst the Indians one Iohn Ortiz a Spaniard which by the subtiltie of the people vnder colour of deliuering a Letter which they had fastened to a cleft Cane was taken and liued twelue yeeres with them Vcita the Lord of the place made him his Temple-keeper because that by night the wolues came and carried away the dead corps Hee reported that these people are worshippers of the Deuill and vse to offer vnto him the life and bloud of their Indians or of any people that they can come by and when he will haue them doe that sacrifice vnto him hee speaketh vnto them and tels them that he is a thirst and enioynes them this sacrifice They haue a Prophecie That a white people should subdue them wherein the French and Spanish haue hitherto failed in their attempts Soto hauing in his greedy hopes neglected the many commodities he might haue enioyed to finde greater was brought to such dumps that hee thereon sickened and after died But before he tooke his bed he sent to the Cacique of Quigalta to tell him that he was the Child of the Sunne and therefore would haue him repaire to him he answered That if he would dry vp the Riuer he would beleeue him And when he was dead because he made the Indians beleeue that the Christians were immortall the Spaniards sought to conceale his death But the Cacique of Guachoya busily enquiring for him they answered that he was gone to heauen as many times he did and had left another in his place The Cacique thinking he was dead commanded two yong and well proportioned Indians to be brought thither saying it was their custome to kill men when any Lord died to wait on him by the way which their cruell courtesie the Spaniards refused denying that their Lord was dead One Cacique asked Soto what he was and why hee came thither He answered that he was the sonne of God and came to teach them knowledge of the Law Not so saith the Cacique if God bids thee thus to kill steale and worke all kind of mischiefe For their credulitie in like case Laudonniere telleth that a strange and vnheard-of lightening hapned within a league of their Fort which consumed in an instant 500. acres of meadow being then greene and halfe couered with water together with the foules that were therein It continued burning three dayes together and made the Frenchmen thinke that for their sakes the Indians had set fire on their dwellings and were gone to some other place But a certaine Paracoussy which is one of their petty Kings or Caciques sent to him a Present beseeching him to command his men that they should shoot no more towards his dwelling thinking that the Ordinance had caused all this which occasion he vsed to his owne good by arrogating that to himselfe which he saw their simplicitie conceiued of him Within two dayes after this accident fell such an heat that the Riuer I thinke was ready to seethe and in the mouth of the Riuer were found dead therewith fishes enow to haue laden fifty Carts whereof issued by putrifacton much sicknesse Calos is neere the Cape of Florida The King thereof made his subiects beleeue that his Sorceries and
would ouertake and kill a horse for the horses fled from them either for their deformitie or because they had neuer seene the like The people haue no other riches they are vnto them meat drinke apparell their Hides also yeeld them houses and ropes their bones bodkins their sinewes and haire threat their horns mawes and bladders vessels their dung fire the Calues-skins budgets wherewith they draw and keepe water Gomara also mentioneth their sheepe which they so call because they haue fine wool and hornes they are as bigge as horses their hornes weigh fifty pound weight a piece There are also Dogs which will fight with a Bull and will carry fifty pound weight in Sacks when they goe on hunting or when they remoue from place to place with their heards The winter is long and sharpe with much snow in Cibola and therefore they then keepe in their Cellers which are in place of Stoues vnto them In the height of thirty seuen degrees at Tiguez the cold was so extreme that the horses and men passed ouer the Riuer vpon the Ice They there tooke a towne after fiue and forty dayes siege but with much losse and little gaine For the Indians killed thirty horses in a night and in another slue certaine Spaniards sent Ouando vp into the countrey they could not tell whether for sacrifice or for the shew and wounded fifty horses they drunke snow in stead of water and seeing no hope to hold out made a great fire and cast therein all they had of worth and then went all out to make way by force where they were all in manner slaine but not vnreuenged forcing some Spaniards to accompany them into the Regions of Death and wounding many more both men and horses The Snow continueth in these parts halfe the yeere Quiuira is more Northerly and yet more temperate The Spaniards returned to Mexico in the end of the yeare 1542. to no small griefe of Mendoza who had spent in this expedition six thousand Duokats Some Friers stayed but were slaine by the people of Quiuira onely one man escaped to bring newes to Mexico Sir Francis Drake sailed on the other side of America to forty degrees of Northerly Latitude and with cold was forced to retire although the Sunne followed him all the way from Guatulco hither which he sailed from the 6. day of April to the 5. day of Iune as if that most excellent and heauenly Light had delighted himselfe in his societie and acknowledged him for his Son more truely then the Spaniards whereof anon we shall heare or that Phaeton of the Poets not able to compasse this compassing iourney once hee was so good a Scholler and learned the Suns instruction so well that he followed him in a watery field all that his fiery circle round about this earthly Globe carried with the mouing winde as it were airie wings new stars Ilands Seas attending and admiring the English colours and first of any Generall loosed the girdle of the world and encompassing her in his fortunate armes enioyed her loue But I lose my selfe while I find him and yet excellent names I know not how compell men to stand awhile and gaze with admiration if not with adoration This our English Knight landed on this coast in thirty eight degrees where the inhabitants presented themselues vnto him with presents of feathers and kalls of Net-worke which hee required with great humanitie The men went naked the women knit loose garments of bull-rushes about their middles They came a second time and brought feathers and bags of Tobacco and after a long Oration of one that was Speaker for the rest they left their bowes on a hil and came downe to our men the women meane-while remaining on the hill tormented themselues tearing the flesh from the cheekes whereby it appeared that they were about some sacrifice The newes being further spred brought the King thither which was a man of goodly stature many tall men attended him two Embassadours with a long Speech of halfe an houre signified his comming before One went before the King with a Scepter or Mace wherein hanged two Crownes with three chaines the Crownes were of knit-worke wrought artificially with diuers coloured feathers the chaines of a bony substance The King followed cloathed in Cony-skinnes the people came after all hauing their faces painted with white blacke and other colours euery one bringing his present euen the very children also The Scepter-bearer made a lowd speech of halfe an houre taking his words from another which whispered the same vnto him which with a solemne applause being ended they came all downe the hill in order without their weapons the Scepter-bearer beginning a Song and dancing wherein all the rest followed him The King and diuers others made seuerall Orations or Supplications to the Generall to become their King and the King with a Song did set the Crowne on the Generals head and put the chaines about his necke honouring him by the name of Hioh The common sort leauing the King and his guard scattered themselues with their Sacrifices among our people taking view of all and to such as best pleased their fancy which were the youngest offered their Sacrifices with weeping scratching and tearing their flesh with much effusion of bloud The English misliked their deuotions and directed them to the liuing God they shewed againe their wounds whereunto the other applyed paysters and lotions Euery third day they brought their Sacrifices till they perceiued that they were displeasing And at the departure of the English they by stealth prouided a Sacrifice taking their departing very grieuously They found heards of Deere feeding by thousands and the Country full of strange Conies headed like ours with the feet of a Want and taile of a Cat hauing vnder their chins a bagge into which they gather their meate when they haue filled their body abroad There is no part of this Earth wherein there is not some speciall likelihood of Gold or Siluer The Generall named the Country Noua Albion §. II. Of New Mexico and Cinaloa IN the yeere 1581. Augustine Ruiz a Frier learned by the report of certaine Indians called Conchos that toward the North there were certaine great Towns not hitherto to discouered by the Spaniards whereupon he with two other companions of his owne Order and eight Souldiers went to seeke these parts and to preach vnto them They came vnto the Prouince de los Tiguas two hundred and fiftie leagues Northwards from the Mynes of Saint Barbara where one of the Friers was slaine by the Inhabitants This caused the Souldiers to returne backe but the Friers stayed still behind The Franciscans fearing the losse of these their Brethren procured Antonio de Espeio to vndertake this Iourney with a company of Souldiers Hee passing the Conchos the Passaquates the Toboses came to the Patatabueyes which is a great Prouince and hath many Townes their Houses flat roofed and built of lime and
a farre Countrey and their King returned againe and said he would send such as should rule them And he hath now sent these Spaniards saith he Hereupon he counselled them to yeeld themselues Vassals to the Emperour which they did at his command though with many teares on his part and theirs at this farewell of their libertie Mutezuma presently gaue to Cortes in the name of tribute a great quantitie of Gold and other Iewels which amounted to sixteene hundred thousand Castlins of Gold besides Siluer §. III. The conquest of Mexico CORTES had hitherto a continuall victory in Mexico without any fight but newes was brought him of Pamphilo de Naruaes who was sent yywith eighty horse and some hundreths of Spaniards by Velasques to interrupt the proceedings of Cortes who leauing two hundred men in Mexico with 250. other came suddenly in the night and took Neruaes prisoner and returned to Mexico with Naruaes his company now his followers also where he found his men exceedingly distressed by the Citizens for a murther committed in the great Temple at a solemn Feast where in a religious dance they were slaine for the rich garments and Iewels they ware by the Spaniards Cortes came in good time for the reliefe of his men and Mutezuma caused the Mexicans to bridle their rage which presently was renued and when Mutezuma was againe by his Guardians the Spaniards caused to speake to the people a blow of a stone on his temple wounded him whereof three dayes after he died Cortes had some thousands of the Tlaxoltecas to help him but was driuen to fly from Mexico with all his Spaniards and Indians which he did closely in the night but yet an all-arme was raised and the bridges being broken much slaughter of his people was made by the Mexicans and all his treasure in manner lost They pursued after him also and had two hundred thousand in the field when it was Cortes his good hap to slay the Standard-bearer whereupon the Indians forsooke the field This battell was fought at Otumpan At Tlazcallan he and his were kindly entertained they had prepared before 50000. men to goe to Mexico for his helpe and now they promised him all offices of loyaltie and seruice With their helpe he subdued Tepeacac and built certaine Brigandines and Frigats which were carried many leagues on the backs of those Indians and there fastned and finished without which he could neuer haue wonne Mexico In Tezcuco certaine Spaniards had been taken sacrificed and eaten which Cortes now reuenged on them Eight thousand men had carried the loose pieces and Timber of this Nauie guarded with twenty thousand Tlaxcalans and a thousand Tamemez or Porters which carried victuals attending They calked them with Towe and for want of Tallow and Oyle they vsed Mans Grease of such as had been slaine in the Warres For so the Indians vsed to take out the Grease of their Sacrifices Cortes had here nine hundred Spaniards of which fourescore and sixe were horsemen three cast Pieces of iron fifteene small Peeces of Brasse and a thousand weight of Powder and 100000 Indian Souldiers on his side Hee made a fluce or trench aboue twelue foot broad and two fathome deepe halfe a league long in which forty thousand men wrought fifty dayes He lanched his Vessels and soone ouercame all the Canoas of the Lake or which were reckoned in all fiue thousand The Spaniards brake the Conduits of sweet water wherewith the Citie was wont to be serued Quabutimoc now the new King of Mexico receiuing incouragement from the diuellish Oracle caused to breake downe the Bridges and to exercise whatsoeuer wit or strength could doe in defence of his City somtimes conquering sometimes as is the doubtfull chance of warre conquered Cortes had in Tezcuco ordained a new King a Christian Indian of the royall bloud who much assisted him in this siege The Spaniards being Lords of the Lake and of the Causeys by helpe of their Galliots and Ordnance they fiered a great part of the Citie One day the Mexicans had gotten some aduantage and thereupon celebrated a Feast of Victory The Priests went vp into the Towers of Tlalelulco their chiefe Temple and made there perfumes of sweet Gummes in token of victory and sacrificed forty Spaniards which they had taken captiues opening their breasts and plucking out their hearts sprinkling their bloud in the Aire their fellowes looking on and not able to reuenge it They slew likewise many Indians and foure Spaniards of Aluarado's company whom they are in the open sight of the Armie The Mexicans danced dranke themselues drunke made bonefires strucke vp their Drummes and made all solemne expressings of ioy Dread Disdaine and all the Furies that Passion or Compassion could coniure vp had now filled the Spaniards hearts and their Indian partakers and Cortes that hitherto had hoped to reserue some part of the Citie now did the vtmost that Rage and Reuenge could effect helped no lesse within with Famine and Pestilence then with Sword and Fire without At last Mexico is razed the Earth and Water sharing betwixt them what Fire had left and all which had sometime challenged a lofty inheritance in the Ayre Their King also was taken all that mighty State subuerted And as the Mexicans before had prophecied That the Tlaxantleca's should againe build the Citie if conquered for them if conquerors for the Spaniards It was re-builded with a hundred thousand houses fairer and stronger then before The siege lasted three moneths and had therein two hundred thousand Indians nine hundred Spaniards fourescore Horses seuenteene Peeces of Ordinance thirteene Galliots and sixe thousand Canoas Fifty Spaniards were slaine and sixe Horses Of the Mexicans a hundred thousand besides those which died of hunger and Pestilence This was effected Anno 1521. on the thirteenth day of August which for that cause is kept festiuall euery yeere For the Description of the Country wherein Mexico is situate Cortes in his second Narration to the Emperour saith it is enuironed with hils He telleth of some hils also in his iourney wherein diuers of his people died with cold in the middest is a plaine of 70. leagues compasse and therein two lakes which extend the circuit of fifty leagues the one salt which ebbeth and floweth an argument for Patritius his opinion that saltnesse is a chiefe cause of that vicissitude of ebbing and flowing in the Ocean the other fresh When the Water of the salt Lake increaseth it runneth like a violent streame into the fresh Lake which when it increaseth is repaired againe by the like issue of this into the former Nunno di Gusman hath written his expedition into Mechoacan and other Countries of New-Spaine 1530. subduing and taking possession for the Emperour Hee found some of them Sodomites others Sacrificers of mens flesh and some closely practising this butcherie after they had professed themselues Christians none of them which durst looke a Horse in the face but were afraid that that Beast
vsed the like with all his seruants and ornaments they gaue him for the other world and lastly buried the ashes with great solemnitie The obsequies continued ten dayes with mournefull songs and the Priests carried away the dead with innumerable ceremonies To the Noble-men they gaue their honourable Ensignes Armes and particular Blazons which they carried before the body to the place of burning marching as in a Procession where the Priests and Officers of the Temple went with diuers furniture and ornaments some casting incense others singing and some making the Drums and Flutes to sound the mournfullest accents of sorrow The Priest who did the Office was decked with the markes of the Idoll which the Noble-men had represented for all Noble-men did represent Idols and carrie the name of some One The Mexicans honoured the best souldiers with a kinde of Knighthood of which were three Orders one ware a red ribband which was the chiefe the second was the Lyon or Tyger-knight the Grey-Knight was the meanest they had great priuiledges Their Knighthood had these funerall solemnities They brought the corps to the place appointed and enuironing it and all the baggage with Pine-trees set fire thereon maintaining the same with gummie wood till all were consumed Then came forth a Priest attired like a diuell hauing mouthes vpon euery ioynt of him and many eyes of Glasse holding a great staffe with which he mingled all the ashes with terrible and fearfull gestures When the King of Mexico sickened they vsed forthwith to put a Visor on the face of Tezcatlipuca or Vitzilivitzli or some other Idoll which was not taken away till hee mended or ended If he died word was presently sent into all his Dominions for publike lamentations and Noble-men were summoned to the funerals The body was laid on a Mat and watched foure nights then washed and a locke of haire out off for a relike for therein said they remained the remembrance of his soule After this an Emerald was put in his mouth and his body shrowded in 17. rich mantles costly and curiously wrought Vpon the vpper mantle was set the Deuice or Armes of some Idoll whereunto he had been most deuout in in his life time and in his Temple should the body be buried Vpon his face they put a Visor painted with foule and deuillish gestures beset with jewels then they killed the slaue whose office was to light the Lamps and make fire to the gods of his Palace This done they carried the body to the Temple some carrying Targets Arrows Maces and Ensignes so hurle into the funerall fire The High Priest and his crue receiue him at the Temple gate with a sorrowfull Song and after he hath said certaine words the body is cast into the fire there prepared for that purpose together with jewels also a Dog newly strangled to guide his way In the meane-while two hundred persons were sacrificed by the Priests or more to serue him as is said The fourth day after fifteene slaues were sacrificed for his soule and vpon the twentieth day fiue on the sixtieth three c. The ashes with the locke of haire was put in a Chest painted on the in-side with deuillish shapes together with another locke of haire which had been reserued since the time of his birth On this Chest was set the Image of the King the kinred offered great gifts before the same The King of Mechuacan obserued the like bloudy Rites many Gentlewomen were by the new King appointed their Offices in their seruice to the deceased and while his body was burning were malled with clubs and buried foure and foure in a graue Many Women slaues and free Maidens were slaine to attend on these Gentlewomen But I would not bury my Reader in these direfull graues of men cruell in like and death Let vs seeke some Festiuall argument if that may be more delightfull CHAP XIII Of the supputation of Times Festiuall Solemnities Colledges Schooles Letters Opinions and other remarkeable things in New Spaine §. I. Their Kalender and Conceits of Time and some of their Feasts THe Mexicans diuided the yeere into eighteene moneths ascribing to each twentie dayes so that the fiue odde dayes were excluded These fiue they reckoned apart and called them the dayes of nothing during the which the people did nothing neither went to their Temples but spent the time in visiting each other the Sacrificers likewise ceased their Sacrifices These fiue dayes being past the first moneth began about the twentie sixe of February Gomara sets downe their moneths names in order The Indians described them by peculiar Pictures commonly taken of the principall Feast therein They accounted their weeks by thirteene dayes they had also a weeke of yeeres which was likewise thirteene They reckoned by a certaine Wheele which contayned foure weekes that is two and fiftie yeeres In the midst of this Wheele was painted the Sunne from which went foure beames of lines in a Crosse of distinct colours Greene Blue Red and Yellow and so the lines betwixt these on which they noted by some Picture the accident that befell any yeere as the Spaniards comming marked by a man clad in Red The last night when this Wheele was run about they brake all their vessels and stuffe put out their fire and all the lights saying that the World should end at the finishing of one of these Wheeles and it might be at that time and then what should such things need Vpon this conceit they passed the night in great feare but when they saw the day begin to breake they presently beat many Drums with much other mirth and Musicke saying that God did prolong the time with another Age of two and fifty yeeres And then began another Wheele the first day whereof they tooke new fire for which they went to the Priest who fetched it out of a Mountaine and made a solemne Sacrifice and Thanksgiuing The twenty dayes of each moneth were called by seuerall names the first Cipactli which signifieth a Spade and so the rest a House a Dogge a Snake an Eagle a Temple and the like By this Kalendar they keepe things in memory aboue nine hundred yeeres since The Indians of Culhua did beleeue that the Gods had made the World they knew not how and that since the Creation foure Sunnes were past and that the fift and last is the Sunne which now giueth light vnto the World The first Sunne forsooth perished by water and all liuing creatures therewith the second fell from Heauen and with the fall slue all liuing creatures and then were many Giants in the Country the third Sunne was consumed by fire and the fourth by Tempest of ayre and wind and then Mankind perished not but was turned into Apes yet when that fourth Sunne perished all was turned into darknesse and so continued fiue and twenty yeeres and at the fifteenth yeere God did forme one man and woman who brought forth children and at the end of other ten yeeres
Voyages relateth It is time for vs to passe beyond the Darien Straits vnto that other great Chersonesus or Peruvian AMERICA RELATIONS OF THE DISCOVERIES REGIONS AND RELIGIONS OF THE NEW WORLD OF CVMANA GVIANA BRASILL CHICA CHILI PERV AND OTHER REGIONS OF AMERICA PERWIANA AND OF their Religions THE NINTH BOOKE CHAP. I. Of the Southerne America and of the Countries on the Sea-coast betwixt Dariene and Cumana §. I. Of the great Riuers in these parts and of Dariene THis Peninsula of the New World extending it selfe into the South is in forme somewhat like to Africa and both to some huge Pyramis In this the Basis or ground is the Northerly part called Terra Fuma from whence it lesseneth it selfe by degrees as it draweth neerer the Magellan Straits where the top of this Spire may fitly bee placed On the East side it is washed with the North Ocean as it is termed On the West with that of the South called also the Peaceable It is supposed to haue sixteene thousand miles in compasse foure thousand in length the breadth is vnequall The Easterne part thereof betweene the Riuers Maragnon and Plata is challenged by the Portugals the rest by the Spaniard From the North to the South are ledges of Mountaines the tops whereof are said to be higher then that Birds will visit the bottomes yeeld the greatest Riuers in the World and which most enrich the Oceans store-house Orenoque Maragnon and Plata seeme to be the Indian Triumuiri Generals of those Riuer-Armies and Neptunes great Collectors of his watery tributes Orenoque for ships is nauigable a thousand miles for lesse Vessels two thousand in some places twentie miles broad in some thirtie Berreo affirmed to Sir Walter Raleigh That a hundred Riuers fell into it marching vnder his name and colours the least as bigge as Rio Grande one of the greatest Riuers or America It extendeth two thousand miles East and West and commandeth eight hundred miles North and South Plata taking vp all the streames in his way is so full swolne with his increased store that he seemeth rather with bigge lookes to bid defiance to the Ocean then to acknowledge homage opening his mouth fortie leagues wide as if he would deuoure the same and with his vomited abundance maketh the salt waters to recoyle following fresh in this pursuit till in salt sweates at last he melteth himselfe in the Combate Maragnon is farre greater whose water hauing furrowed a Channell of sixe thousand miles in the length of his winding passage couereth threescore and ten leagues in breadth and hideth his Bankes on both sides from him which sayleth in the middest of his proud Current making simple eyes beleeue that the Heauens alway descend to kisse and embrace his waues And sure our more-straitned world would so far be accessary to his aspiring as to style him with the royall title of Sea and not debase his greatnesse with the meaner name of a Riuer Giraua some what otherwise writeth of these Riuers that Plata called by the Indians Paranaguaeu as one should say a Riuer like a Sea is twenty fiue leagues in the mouth placed by him in thirty three degrees of Southerly latitude encreasing in the same time and manner as Nilus Maragnon hee saith is in the entrance fiue leagues and is not the same with Orellana so called of Francis Orella the the first Spaniard that sayled in it and Amazones of the fabulous reports as Giraua termeth them of such women there seene which hee sayth hath aboue fifty leagues of breadth in the mouth and is the greatest Riuer of the World called by some the fresh Sea running aboue fifteene hundred leagues vnder the Aequinoctiall Thus much Hee though lesse then others yet more then can bee paraleld in any other streames This Southerne halfe of America hath also at the Magellane Straits contracted and as it were shrunke in it selfe refusing to be extended further in so cold a Climate The manifold riches of Metals Beasts and other things in the beginning of the former Booke haue been declared and in this as occasion moueth shall bee further manifested The Men are the worst part as being in the greatest parts thereof inhumane and brutish The Spanish Townes in this great tract and their Founders are set downe by Pedro de Cieza Herera and others I rather intend Indian Superstitions then Spanish plantations in this part of my Pilgrimage Of the Townes of Nombre de Dios seuenteene leagues from Panama the one on the North Sea the other on the South and of Dariene wee last tooke our leaues as vncertaine whether to make them Mexican or Peruvian being borderers and set in the Confines betwixt both The moorish soyle muddie water and grosse Ayre conspire with the heauenly Bodies to make Dariene vnwholesome the myrie streame runneth or creepeth rather very slowly the water but sprinkled on the house-floore engendreth Toades and Wormes They haue in this Prouince of Dariene store of Crocodiles one of which kinde Cieza saith was found fine and twentie foot long Swine without tailes Cats with great tailes Beasts clouen-footed like Kine otherwise resembling Mules sauing their spacious eares and a trunke or snowt like an Elephant there are Leopards Lyons Tygres On the right and left hand of Dariene are found twenty Riuers which yeeld Gold The Men are of good stature thinne haired the Women weare Rings on their eares and noses with quaint ornaments on their lips The Lords marry as many Wiues as them listeth other men one or two They forsake change and sell their Wiues at pleasure They haue publike Stewes of women and of men also in many places without any discredit yea this priuiledgeth them from following the warres The yong Girles hauing conceiued eate certain herbs to cause abortion Their Lords and Priests consult of warres after they haue drunke the smoke of a certaine herbe The Women follow their husbands to the warres and know how to vse a Bow They all paint themselues in the warres They neede no Head-pieces for their heads are so hard that they will breake a Sword being smitten thereon Wounds receiued in warre are the badges of honour whereof they glory much and thereby enioy some Franchises They brand their prisoners and pull out one of their teeth before They will sell their children are excellent Swimmers both Men and Women accustoming themselues twice or thrice a day thereunto Their Priests are their Physicians and Masters of Ceremonies for which cause and because they haue conference with the Deuill they are much esteemed They haue no Temples nor Houses of deuotion The Deuill they honour much which in terrible shapes doth sometimes appeare vnto them as I saith Cieza haue heard some of them say They beleeue that there is one God in heauen to wit the Sunne and that the Moone is his wife and therefore worship these two Planets They worship the Deuill also and paint him in such
and the Piaces their Masters goe to them by night to teach them When this time of their solitary discipline is past they obtaine a testimoniall thereof and begin to professe in practice of Physick and Diuination Let vs bury the Cumanois and then we haue done Being dead they sing their praises and bury them in their houses or dry them at the fire and hang them vp At the yeeres end if he were a great man they renue the lamentation and after many other ceremonies burne the bones and giue to his best beloued wife his skull to keepe for a Relique They beleeue that the Soule is immortall but that it eateth and drinketh about in the fields where it goeth and that it is the Eccho which answereth when one calleth §. III. Of Trinidado and Paria IN the yeere 1497. some adde a yeere more Christopher Columbus seeking new Discoueries after the suffering of vnsufferable heats and calmes at Sea whereby the hoopes of his vessels brake and the fresh-water not able further to endure the hot indignation of that now-beleeued Burning-Zone fled out of those close prisons into the lap of that Father of waters the Ocean for refuge he came at last to Trinidado The first Land he incountred he called by that name either for deuotion now that his other hopes were dried vp with the heat or washed into the Sea by the violent showres aboue-boord and the lesse but not lesse dangerous which flowed from his Caske within or else for the three Mountaines which he there descried Once this discouery of Land so rauished his spirit by the inexpected deliuery from danger as easily carried his impotent thoughts into a double errour the one in placing earthly Paradise in this Iland to which opinion for the excellency of the Tobacco there found hee should happily haue the smokie subscriptions of many Humorists to whom that fume becomes a fooles Paradise which with their braines and all passeth away in smoke the other was that the Earth was not round like a Ball but like a Peare the vpper swelling whereof he esteemed these parts Hence Columbus sailed to Paria and found out the Pearle-fishing of which Petrus Alphonsus a little after made great commoditie by trade with the Sauages He was assailed with eighteene Canoas of Canibals one of which he tooke with one Caniball and a bound Captiue who with teares shewed them that they had eaten sixe of his fellowes and the next day he must haue gone to pot too to him they gaue power ouer his Iaylor who with his owne club killed him still laying on when his braines and guts came forth and testified that hee needed not further feare him In Haraia or Paria they found plenty of salt which the Fore-man in Natures shop and her chiefe worke-man the Sunne turned and kerned from water into salt his worke-house for this businesse was a large plaine by the waters-side Here the Sepulchres of their Kings and great men seemed not lesse remarkable they laid the body on a kinde of hurdle or grediron of wood vnder which they kindled a gentle fire whereby keeping the skinne whole they by little and little consumed the flesh These dried carkasses they held in great reuerence and honoured for their houshold Gods In the yeere 1499. Vincent Pinzon discouered Cape Saint Augustine and sailed along the coast from thence to Paria But why stand we here pedling on the coast for Pearles Salt and Tobacco Let vs rouze vp higher spirits and follow our English guides for Guiana Onely let me first haue leaue to mention concerning the Superstitions of these parts Northward from Guiana what it pleased Sir Walter Raleigh to impart vnto mee from the Relation of a very vnderstanding man of that Countrey whom he vsed for an interpreter These people worship the Sunne whom they imagine as the fabulous Grecians tell of his Charet and horses wherewith yong Phacton sometime set the World on fire to be drawne into a Chariot by Tigres which are the most fierie and fierce beasts amongst them In honour therefore of the Sunne and for sustenance of his Chariot-beasts they carefully wash the carkasses of their dead and lay them forth in the night for repast vnto the Tigres wearied with their long and late iourney in the day For so they beleeue that after Sun-set these beasts are to this end dismissed from their labour and that vicissitude wherein Dauid obserueth the wisedome of diuine prouidence that when it is night the wild beasts goe forth to seeke their prey which when the Sunne ariseth and calleth men forth of their houses to labour returne to their Dens is blindly by them applyed to this their superstition They likewise haue a Tradition amongst them that their Ancestors in times past neglecting thus to prepare the corpses of such as died for the Tigres diet or not washing them so neatly as behoued the Tigres made hereof a complaint to the Sunne as not able to doe his worke if not allowed their wonted cates whereupon the Sun sent one amongst them brandishing a terrible fierie sword and so dreadfully assaulting the places of their habitations and the soyle couered with long grasse that all fell on fire and an hundred thousand of the Inhabitants were destroyed a terrible warning hereafter to bee more diligent in these Tigre-deuotions which accordingly they performe to this day CHAP III. Of Guiana and the Neighbouring Nations on the Coast and within the Land §. I. Discouerie of Guiana by Sir WALTER RALEIGH IN the yeere 1595. Sir Walter Raleigh hauing before receiued Intelligence of this rich and mighty Empire set forth for the Discouery and on the two and twentieth of March anchored at Point Curiapan in Trinidado and searched that Iland which he found plentifull Hee tooke the Citie of Saint Ioseph and therein Antonie Berreo the Spanish Gouernour Leauing his ships hee went with an hundred men in Boats and a little Galley and with some Indian Pylots passed along that admirable confluence of Riuers as by the Corps du Guard vnto Orenoque as great a Commander of Riuers as the Emperour of Guiana of Souldiers And although wee haue before mentioned somewhat thereof yet this his peculiar place requireth some further consideration This Riuer Orenoque or Baraquan since of this Discouerie called Raleana runneth from Quito in Peru on the West it hath nine branches which fall out on the North side of his owne maine mouth on the South side seuen Thus many Armes hath this Giant-like streame to be his Purueyers which are alway filling his neuer-filled mouth seeming by this their naturall officiousnesse incorporate thereunto and to bee but wider gapings of the same spacious iawes with many Ilands and broken grounds as it were so many morsels and crummes in his greedy Chaps still opening for more though he cannot euen in Winter when his throat is glibbest altogether swallow these yea these force him for feare of choking to yawne his
all Aduersities were the effects of sinne for remedie whereof they vsed Sacrifices Moreouer they confessed themselues verbally almost in all Prouinces and had Confessors appointed by their Superiours to that end with some reseruation of Cases for the Superiours They receiued Penance and that sometimes very sharply when they had nothing to giue the Confessor This office of Confessor was likewise exercised by women The manner of the Ychuyri was most generall in the Prouinces of Collasuio They discouered by lots or by the view of some beasts if any thing were concealed and punished them with many blowes of a stone vpon the shoulders vntill they had reuealed all after that they enioyned them Penance and did sacrifice They likwise vsed Confession when their Children Wiues Husbands or Caciques were sicke or in any great exploit When the Ingua was sicke all the Prouinces confessed themselues chiefly those of Collao The Confessors were bound to hold their Confessions secret but in certaine cases limited The sinnes which they chiefly confessed were killing one another out of warre stealing to take another mans Wife to giue poyson or Sorcery to doe any harme to be forgetfull in the reuerence of their Guacas not to obserue Feasts to speake ill of or to disobey the Ingua They accused not themselues of secret sinnes The Ingua confessed himselfe to no man but to the Sunne that hee might tell them to Viracocha of him to obtayne forgiuenesse which done hee made a certaine Bath to clense himselfe in a running Riuer saying I haue told my sinnes to the Sunne receiue them then Riuer and carrie them to the Sea where they may neuer appeare more Other that confessed vsed likewise those Baths When any mans children dyed hee was holden for a grieuous Sinner saying that it was for their sinnes that the Sonne dyed before the Father Such therefore after they were confessed were bathed in the said Bath and then came a deformed person to whip them with certaine Nettles If the Sorcerers or Inchanters by their lots or diuinations affirmed that any sick bodie should dye the sicke man makes no difficultie to kill his owne Sonne though he had no other hoping by that meanes to escape death saying that in his place he offered his Sonne in Sacrifice The Penances enioyned them in Confessions were to fast to giue apparell Gold or Siluer to remayne in the Mountaynes and to receiue many stripes vpon the shoulders §. III. Of their Sacrifices THe Sacrifices of the Indians may be reduced into three kinds of insensible things of Beasts of Men. Of the first sort were their Sacrifices of Coca an Herbe of much esteeme of Mayz Feathers Gold and Siluer in figures of little Beasts or in the forme of that which hee sought for also of sweet Wood and diuers other things whereby their Temples became so rich They made these Offrings to obtayne a good winde health faire weather and the like Of the second sort of Sacrifices were their Cuyes which are like Rabbets and for rich men in matters of importance Pacos the great Camel-fashioned sheepe with curious obseruation of the numbers colours and times The manner of killing their Sacrifices is the same which the Moores now vse hanging the beast by the right fore-legge turning his eyes toward the Sunne speaking certayne words according to the qualitie of the Sacrifice For if it were coloured they directed their words to the Thunder that they might want no water if white to the Sunne that he might shine on them if gray to Viracocha In Cusco they did euery yeere kill and sacrifice with this solemnitie a shorne sheepe to the Sunne and did burne it clad in a red Wastecoate casting small baskets of Coca into the fire They sacrificed also small Birds on this manner they kindled a fire of Thornes and cast the small Birds in certaine Officers going about with round stones wherein were carued or painted Snakes Lions Toads Tigres and saying Vsachum that is Let the victory bee giuen vs with other words They drew forth certaine blacke sheepe called Vrca which had beene kept certaine dayes without meate and therefore vsed these words So let the hearts of our Enemies bee weakened as these Beasts And if they found that a certaine piece of flesh behind the heart were not consumed by fasting they tooke it for a bad signe They sacrificed also blacke Dogges which they slue and cast into a Plaine with certayne Ceremonies causing some kind of men to eate the flesh which they did lest the Ingua should bee hurt with Poyson And for this cause they fasted from morning till the Starres were vp and then glutted themselues This was fitting to withstand their Enemies Gods They offered shels of the Sea to the Fountaines saying that the shels were the Daughters of the Sea the Mother of all waters These shels they vsed in manner in all Sacrifices They offered Sacrifice of whatsoeuer they did sowe or rayse vp There were Indians appointed to doe these Sacrifices to the Fountaynes Springs and Riuers which passed through their Townes or by their Farmes that they might not cease running but alwayes water their grounds Gomara saith that their Priests married not went little abroad fasted much although no fast lasted aboue eight dayes and that was in their Seed-time and in Haruest and in gathering of Gold and making Warre and talking with the Deuill yea some of them I thinke for feare because they are blind-folded when they speake with him put out their eyes they enter into the Temples weeping and lamenting which the word Guaca signifieth They touch not their Idols with their hands without cleane and white Linnen they bury in the Temples the Offerings of Gold and Siluer in their Sacrifices they cry aloud and were neuer quiet all that day nor night they anointed with bloud the faces of their Idols and doores of their Temples they sprinkle also their Sepulchres The Sorcerers did coniure to know what time the Sacrifices should be made which being ended they did gather of the contribution of the people what should be sacrificed and deliuered them to such as had charge of the Sacrifices In the beginning of Winter at such time as the waters increased by the moysture of the weather they were diligent in sacrificing to the Fountaynes and Riuers which ranne by their Cities and Farmes They did not sacrifice to the Fountaines and Springs of the Desarts And euen to this day continueth this their respect to these Springs and Riuers They haue a speciall care to the meeting of two Riuers and there they wash themselues for their health first anointing themselues with the flowre of Mayz or some other things adding thereto diuers Ceremonies which they doe likewise in their Baths Their third kind of Sacrifices was the most vnkind and vnnaturall namely of Men. Wee haue shewed before of their Butcheries at the Burials of their great Lord Besides this they vsed in Peru to sacrifice yong Children from
Bird Condore or Cuntur as Angels are painted from which they suppose themselues descended Others with other deuises painted with Riuers Fountaynes Lakes Hils Mountaynes Caues because their first Progenitors came forth of such Others with strange deuises of apparell plated with Gold and Siluer others with Garlands thereof others in monstrous shapes with vizors with skinnes of diuers beasts with strange gestures and fayning themselues Fooles c. One counterfeiting Riches another Pouertie and euery Prouince with that which seemed to them the best inuention with greatest varietie they could imagine to giue content Thus had they vsed to solemnize the Feasts of their Kings and thus in my time sayth Vega they solemnized the Feast of the most holy Sacrament the true God our Redeemer and Lord euery diuision of the Indians singing in their owne Languages and not the generall of the Court with Flutes and Musical Instruments some hauing their wiues also to helpe them sing prayses to God and the Spanish Priests and Seculars for their Conuersion after they ascend seuen or eight steps to worship the Sacrament each squadron diuision or company seuered from the rest ten or twelue pases descending another way each Nation according to their antiquitie as they had beene conquered by the Ingas the last first and the Ingas themselues last of all These went before the Priests in the least and poorest company as hauing lost their Empire and Inheritance These squadrons being gone the Canaries succeeded in a squadron with their Herses c. The Ingas and they being ready to quarrell and the Spanish Officers forced to quiet them by reason the Canarie carried a head of an Indian which he had slaine in a Duell in a battle betwixt the Spaniards and the Indians which the Inga said was not by his owne force but by the power of our Lord Pachacamac here present and the Spaniards blessing c. The Iustice was faine to take away the head from the Canaries the other crying Auca Auca against them The Couent of Saint Domingo in Cuzco was sometimes the Temple of the Sunne of a Procession from thence on Saint Markes day with a tame Bull. See cap. 2. seq which tooke vp an excommunicate person and cast him forth of the Church c. 1556. The Indians called the Sacrament Pachacamac But to returne to our Capacrayme it is strange that the Deuill had not only brought in an Apish imitation of Christian Sacrments but of the Trinitie also in their Pagan Rites For the Father Sonne and Brother called Apompti Churunti and Intiquacqui that is Father Sunne Sonne Sunne Brother Sunne had some shew of that great Mystery In like manner they named the three Images of the Chuquilla or God of the Aire whence are thunders raines and Snowes They had one Guacs where they worshipped an Idol called Tangatanga which they said was One in Three and Three in One. Thus doth the Deuill despite the truth which he would seeme to imitate In the second moneth called Camey besides the Sacrifices which they made they cast the ashes into the Riuer following fiue or six leagues after praying it carrie them into the Sea for that the Viracocha should there receiue this present In the third fourth and fifth moneth they offered a hundred Sheepe black speckled and gray with many other things In the sixt moneth they offered a hundred Sheepe more of all colours and then made a Feast bringing Mayz from the fields into the house which they yet vse This Feast is made comming from the Farme to the House saying certaine Songs and praying that the Mayz may long continue They put a quantitie of the Mayz the best that groweth in their Farmes in a thing which they call Pirua with certaine Ceremonies watching three nights Then doe they put it in the richest garment they haue and being thus wrapped and dressed they worship this Pirua holding it in great veneration and saying It is the Mother of the Mayz of their Inheritances and that by this meanes the Mayz augments and is preserued In this moneth they make a particular Sacrifice and the Witches demand of this Pirua if it hath strength enough to continue vntill the next yeere And if it answeres no then they carrie this Maiz to the Farme whence it was taken to burne and make anothe Pirua as before and this foolish vanitie still continueth In the seuenth moneth they made the Feast Intiraymi and sacrificed an hundred Guanacos in honour of the Sunne they made many Images of Quinua-wood carued all attired with rich garments they danced and cast flowres in the high-wayes and thither came the Indians painted and singing In the eighth moneth they burned an hundred Sheepe all gray of the colour of Viscacha with the former Solemnities In Yapaguis their ninth month they burnt a hundred Sheepe of Chesnut colour and likewise a thousand Cuyes a kind of Rabbet to the end the Frost Ayre Water and Sunne should not hurt their Farmes In the tenth moneth called Coyarami they burnt a hundred white Sheepe that had fleeces and then they made the Feast Situa in this manner They assembled together the first day of the Moone before the rising thereof carrying Torches in their hands and when they saw it they cryed aloud saying Let all harme goe away striking one another with their Torches which being done they went to the common Bath to the Riuers and Fountaynes and euery one to his owne Bath setting themselues to drinke foure dayes together In this moneth also the Mamacomas made their Loaues as is said of communicating with the Sunne and the Ingua The Bathes Drunkennesse and some reliques of this Feast Situa remayne still with the Ceremonies a little different but very secretly In the eleuenth moneth they offered also three hundred Sheepe And if they wanted water to procure raine they set a black Sheepe tyed in the midst of a Plaine powring much Chica about it and giuing it nothing to eat till it rayned This Chica is a drinke or wine made of Mayz steeped and boyled and will sooner make one drunke then Wine of Grapes they haue another way to make it by champing the Maiz which they hold then best when it is done after the beastliest manner by olde withered women This drunken people will spend whole dayes and nights in drinking it and it is therefore forbidden by the Law But what Law can preuaile against the Deuill and the Drunkard We need not goe to Peru to proue this The twelfth and last moneth they sacrificed a hundred Sheepe and solemnized the Feast called Raymacantar Rayquis In this moneth they prepared what was necessary for the children that should be made Nouices the moneth following the old men made a certaine shew together with the children in rounds and turnings which they commonly doe when it raineth too much or too little and in the time of Plague Among the extraordinary Feasts which were many the most famous was that which they call
vsed to hunt fish and take them by the helpe of another fish which they kept tyed in a cord by the Boats side and when they espied a fish loosed the cord this hunting fish presently layes hold on the prey and with a skinne like a Purse growing behind her head graspeth it so fast that by no meanes it can be taken from her till they draw her vp aboue the water and then not able to abide the Aire she resigneth her prey to the fishers which leape out into the water and take it in recompence whereof they giue her part of her purchase He found also in this Coast Waters for the space of fortie miles white and thicke like Milke and as though Meale had beene strewed through that Sea other waters he found spotted with white and blacke and others all blacke An old man of fourescore yeeres being a Gouernour in Iland came to Columbus and with great grauitie saluted him and counselled him to vse his victories well remembring that the soules of men haue two Iournies after they are departed from their bodies The one foule and darke prepared for iniurious and cruell persons the other pleasant and delectable for the peaceable and louers of quiet Many other Ilands might be heere mentioned and but mentioned little to our purpose I finde in them Of Acusamil neere Iucatan is alreadie spoken Of the Lucatae or Iucatae the greatest thing is their great number which some esteeme aboue foure hundred Lucaio is a generall or collectiue name as Zeland Lequio Malucco The Spaniards haue carried the Inhabitants as Martyr signifieth into seruitude to satisfie their insatiable desire of Gold The women of these Ilands were so faire that many of the bordering Countries forsooke their owne Countrie and chose this for their loue These women ware nothing till the time of their menstruous purgation at which time the Parents made a Feast as if shee were to be married and after that she weareth before those parts Nets of Cotton filled with leaues of Hearbs They obey their King so strictly that if he command them to leape downe from an high Rocke alledging no other reason then his will they performe the same But they are now and were long since desolate being wasted in the Mines of Hispaniola and Cuba or by Diseases and Famine to the number of twelue hundred thousand But I am loth to wilder my selfe further in this Wildernesse of Ilands for so haue the Spaniards made them Columbus in one Voyage gaue names to seuen hundred Ilands of which I can report little fitting this our Pilgrimage Hispaniola is the Lady and Queene of them all and as it were the common Store-house of all their excellencies and therefore we will there make some longer stay CHAP XIIII Of Hispaniola and a touch homewards at Bermuda §. I. The Names naturall Rarities and Creatures thereof HIspaniola or Spagniola is Eastward from Cuba it was of the first Inhabitants called Quisqueia afterwards Haiti and by Columbus Cipanga and Ophir The Spaniards call it as we first mentioned and also Saint Dominike or Domingo of the chiefe Citie an Archiepiscopall See It contayneth in compasse fiue hundred and fiftie leagues They called the Iland Quisqueia which signifieth Great and All thinking that the Sunne gaue light to no other World then this and the other Ilands adioyning Haiti signifieth Craggie and such is the Iland in many places with high Craggie Hils ouerlooking the deepe and darke Valleyes But in many places it is most beautifull and flourishing It seemeth to enioy a perpetuall Spring the trees alway flourishing and the Medowes clothed in greene The Ayre and the Waters are wholesome It is in manner equally diuided with foure great Riuers descending from high Mountaynes whereof Iunna runneth East Attibunicus West Nabiba to the South and Iache Northward Some diuide it into fiue Prouinces Caizcimu Hubaba Caibabo Bainoa Guaccaiarima In the first of these there is a great Caue in a hollow Rocke vnder the root of a high Mountayne about two furlongs from the Sea the entrie is like the doores of a great Temple Many Riuers stole their waters from the sight of the Sun the vse of men and the ordinary Officers of Neptunes Custome-house and by secret passages came and hid themselues in this Caue So the Ilanders imagined seeing diuers riuers swallowed vp of the earth after they had runne fourescore and ten miles and such a sinke or channell of waters in the Caue The Ilanders beleeued that the Iland had a vitall spirit and that there it doth breathe and a hole therein is the female nature thereof for of that sexe they deeme it euen as Antiquitie conceited the ebbing and flowing of the Sea to be the breath of Demogorgon Andreas Moralis entred in with his ship which was almost swallowed with the Whirle-pooles and boyling of the water Clouds engendred of those watery conflicts and darknesse layed hold on his eyes terrible noyse as of the fals of Nilus made deare his eares that when with labour he had gotten out he seemed to haue escaped the barkings of Cerberus the obscure Vaults of Hel. Vpon the tops of high Mountaynes the same Moralis saw a Lake three miles in compasse into which many little Riuers ran without any other apparant issue In Bainoa is a Lake of Salt water notwithstanding it receiueth foure great fresh Riuers from the East West North and South and twenty smaller and within a furlong of the Lake on the Northside are two hundred fresh-springs It is thought to haue a large entercourse with the Ocean because they are Sharkes great Sea-fishes which deuoure men in the same Here are stormes and tempests which seeme to bee the Caters and Purueyors for those fishes in drowning many Diuers other Lakes are mentioned in this Iland one whereof partly Salt partly fresh is fiue and twenty miles long and eight broad They are all in a large Plaine 120. miles in length bredth betweene 18. and 25. There is another Vale 200. miles long and broader then the former another as broad as that which is 180. miles long Bart. de las Casas telleth of a Kingdome in Hispaniola called Magua which signifieth a Plaine compassed about with Hils which watered the same with 30000. Riuers and Brookes twelue of them were very great and all which come from the West twenty thousand in number are enriched with Gold Cotobris a Plaine on the tops of Hils so high that it is subiect to the foure seasons of the yeere There is also another Region of the same name most barren and yet most rich full of Mynes otherwise vnfruitfull a thing common in Nature that great Mynes vndermine fertilitie and not strange amongst men that the greatest hoorders of Treasures are the most vnfruitfull and barren in good workes The Gold they say is as a liuing tree which rooting in the centre of the Earth sendeth forth branches vnto the vppermost face of the earth and there
to the Ilands for slaues at times in seuenteene yeers a Million of people But why doe I longer trace them in their bloudy steps seeing our Authour that relates much more then I yet protesteth that it was a thousand times worse Or what should I tell their sparing 〈◊〉 persons plucking the child from the brest to quarter it to his Dogs Torturing Kings with new deuices borrowed eyther from the Inquisition or from Hell Cutting off the nose and hands of men and women that liued in peace with them Selling the Father Mother Child to diuers places and persons Lying with the women as one of them bragged that being with childe they might yeeld more money in the sale How was Nature become degenerate in these prodigious monsters Euen the nature of things might bee abashed with the sense of this vnnaturall senselesnesse The Tygre would but deuoure his prey and not curiously torment it the Lion sometimes spares it nay their Dogges haue sometime beene lesse dogged then their doggish Deuillish Masters How may wee admire that long suffering of God that rained not a floud of waters as in Noahs time or of fire as in Lots or of stones as in Iosuas or some vengeance from Heauen vpon these models of Hell And how could Hell forbeare swallowing such prepared morsels exceeding the beastlinesse of beasts inhmanitie of wonted Tyrants and Deuillishnesse if it were possible of the Deuils But these you will say were Souldiers let vs leaue the Campe and looke to their Temples There perhaps you shall see their Priests reading praying and this they most glory of preaching to conuert the Indians by their word and workes Aske Colmenero a Priest of Saint Martha who being asked what hee taught the Indians said that hee deuoted them with curses to the Deuill and this sufficed if he said to them Per signin Santin Cruces You haue heard what good Diuinitie the Dominican preached to Atabaliba King of Peru which wanted not her wants of Millions by their cruelties as well as the former They teach them saith Acosta a few Prayers in the Spanish Tongue which they vnderstand not and they which are more painfull a Catechisme without explanation Their teaching is but a iest and shadow to get mony they follow dicing hunting whooring in so much that Baptisme is scorned and the Indians are forced to it against their wil◠and a sincere and vpright Iudge was wont to say that if hee came into Spaine hee would perswade the King to send no more Priests into America such is their dissolutenesse They had then indeed three Archbishopricks that of Dominico which had sixe Suffragane Bishops the second of Mexico which had 7. the third of Los Reyes to which were subiect three Bishops yet these teach the people vices by their practice and ill example insomuch that the Indians sayth Casas are of opinion that the King of Spaine which hath such subiects as the Spaniards shew themselues is himselfe most cruell and liues on mans flesh and that of all Gods the God of the Christians is the worst which hath so bad seruants longing for their owne Gods of whom they neuer receiued such ill as now by this of the Christians The Spaniards cannot endure the Indians to heare a Sermon thinking it makes them idle as Pharaoh said of the Israelites and captious they learne them Vsury lying swearing blasphemie and things repugnant to their nature Thus did a Cacique describe a Christian to Benzo by the vnchristian course of the Spaniards Christians sayth he looking Benzo on the face what are Christians They imperiously demand Maiz Hony Silke Rayment an Indian woman to lye with them they call for Gold and Siluer they will not worke are Gamesters Dicers Wicked Blasphemers Backbiters Quarrellers and concluded that Christians could not be good Benzo said that euill Christians did such things not the good ones hee replyed Where are those good for I neuer saw any but bad Hee was seuenty yeeres old and spake Spanish perfectly Benzo sayth that they would not looke on the Christians but curse them and as before is said called them Sea-froth Hee being very inquisitiue to see what they thought of our Faith reporteth that some of them taking a piece of Gold will say Loe heere the Christians God for this they kill vs and one another for this they play blaspheme curse steale and doe all manner of villanies A Franciscan publikely said that there was neyther Priest Monke nor Bishop good in all India and the Priests themselues will say they came thither for gaine A Caciques Sonne which was towardly in his youth and proued after dissolute being asked the reason thereof said Since I was a Christian I haue learned to sweare in varietie to dice to lye to swagger and now I want nothing but a Concubine which I meane to haue shortly to make me a compleate Christian These indeed are the Miracles that the Spaniards worke in the Indies sayth our Author I asked an Indian once if he were a Christian he againe asked me if hee should be the Bishops Groome a doozen yeeres to keepe his Mule Others of the Indians saue a little washing and some cold Ceremonies know nothing of our Religion You haue heard what Commerce and conference many of them were wont to haue with the Deuill and how the Spaniards haue taught them now to scarre him away with the signe of the Crosse And this is the report of a certaine Spanish Treatise of Prelates that the Deuill is now frayed away with the presence of the holy Sacrament of the Eucharist and of the holy Crosse weapons spirituall in pretence carnall in the inuention but neither preuayling like the spirituall which Paul mentions nor effecting so much as some say of those which are indeed carnall and wholly materiall Yea these thus vsed with deniall of the power of the Crosse and godlinesse are the Scepters of his Empire amongst them And for those carnall weapons which Paul disclaymed the Spaniards doe not onely acknowledge but glory off Nunno di Gusman auerreth in a writing to the Emperor that howsoeuer some find fault with their wars vpon the Indians so to bring them to the faith yet he accounts it a most worthy holy work of so great merit that in the seruice of God none can be greter The Indians haue liued at more quiet with the Spaniards since the King proclamed them free yet still hate them and for their Christianitie Franciscus à Victoria protesteth that it doth not appeare to him that Christian Religion had beene propounded in meete sort to the Indians Miracles he heard not of but on the contrarie scandals villanies and many impieties This is the Preaching and Conuersion the Romists boast of and gull our European World with musters of their Miracles and thousands of their Proselytes which we rather pittie then enuie How the case is altered since that new generation of the Ignatian
people who liued and wallowed in the height of their wickednesse and lust of crying Sodomiticall sinnes to be thus punished both by so bloudy a King and this Scythian Enemy who came with two hundred thousand Horsemen within fifty miles compasse on the Riuer Occa neere Circapoe and vpon secret intelligence as was thought he passed the Riuer without repulse of the Emperours Army who durst not on paine of death stirre beyond their bounds vpon whatsoeuer aduantage The Enemy approching the great City of Musco the Russe Emperour flies with his two Sonnes Treasure Seruants and his Guard of twenty thousand Gunners towards a strong Monastery Troiets or the Trinity sixty miles off Vpon Ascention day the Enemy fires the high steeple of Saint Iohns Church at which instant happened a tempestuous wind whereby all the Churches Houses Monasteries and Palaces within the City and Suburbs thirty miles compasse built most of Firre and Oke were set on fire and consumed in sixe houres space with infinite thousands of Men Women and Children burnt and smothered to death by the fierie aire few escaping without and within the three walled Castles The Riuer and Ditches about Musco were stopped and filled with multitudes of people laden with Gold Siluer Iewels Earings Chaines Bracelets Rings and other Treasure which went for succour to saue their heads aboue water All which notwithstanding so many thousands were there burnt and drowned that the Riuer could not with all meanes and industry that could bee vsed bee in two yeeres after cleansed those which were left aliue and many from other places being daily occupied within great circuits to search and dragge for Iewels Plate bags of Gold and Siluer I my selfe was somewhat the better for that fishing The streets of the City Churches Sellers and Vaults lay so thicke and full of dead carkasses as no man could passe for the noysome smels long after The Câ—im and his Army beheld this fire solacing himselfe in a faire Monastery foure miles off and tooke the spoyle of such as fled from the fire besetting all the wayes about the Citie and returned with much Treasure and store of Captiues passing ouer the Riuer the same way they came The Russe Emperour fled further to Vologda fiue hundred miles from Mosco accompanied with his Clergy in whom he had most confidence He summons a Councell Royall dissolues his Army which fought not a stroke for him examined racked and tortured many of his chiefe Captaines executes confiscates destroyes their Race and Families takes order for clensing repayring and replenishing Musco In the midst of this Parliament Chigaly Mursoy sends an Embassadour attended with many Mursoys in their account Noblemen all well horsed clothed in sheepes skinne Coats girt to them with blacke Caps of the same hauing Bowes and Arrowes with curious Cymitars by their sides They had a Guard to keepe them in darke Roomes stinking Horse flesh and water was their best dyet without Bread Beere Bed or Candle At the time of their audience bad vsage was offered them which they puffed at and scorned The Emperour sate with his three Crownes before him in great Royalty his Princes and Nobles attending richly adorned with Iewels and Pearle He commanded the Embassadors sheepe skinne Coate and Cap to be taken off and a Golden Robe and rich Cap to be put on who laughed aloud thereat enters the Emperours presence his followers being kept backe in a space grated with Iron The Embassadour chases with a hollow hellish voyce looking fierce and grimly on the Emperour beeing otherwise a most vgly Creature Foure Captaines of the Guard bring him neere His seate and then without reuerence he thunders out that his Master and Lord Chigaley great Emperour of all the Kingdomes and Chams that the Sunne doth spread his beames ouer hath sent to him Iuan Vassilliwich his Vassall and great Duke ouer all Russia by his permission to know how he liked the scourge of his displeasure by sword fire and famine and withall had sent him for remedie a present of his indignation pulling out a foule rustie Knife to cut his throat with all This done hee hasted out of the Roome without answere They would haue taken off his golden Gowne and Cap but he and his company stroue with them and would not permit it The Emperour fell into an agony tore his haire and beard sent for his Ghostly Father The chiefe Captaine desired leaue to cut them all in pieces but he gaue no answere After he had detayned him some time his fury being alayed he sent him away with better vsage and this Message Tell the Merchant and vnbeleeuer thy Master it is not he it is my sinnes and the sinnes of my people against my God and Christ he it is that hath giuen him a limme of the Deuill this power and oportunitie to to be the instrument of my rebuke by whose pleasure and helpe I doubt not of reuenge and to make him my Vassall though he be now but a Runnegate and hath no place of abode to be found out in Hee answered he would not doe him so much seruice to speake so arrogant a message from him Wherevpon not long after hee did addresse a Noble Gentleman Alfonasy Phedorowicz Nagoy in that Embassie who was there detayned and indured much misery for seuen yeeres space The Emperour was loth to come to Musco but sent for the chiefe Merchants Handicrafts and Tradesmen from all other Cities and Townes within his Kingdome to build and inhabit there and further to draw Trafficke thither tooke away all Impositions and granted freedome of Customes set seuen thousand Masons and Workmen to build a faire stone Wall round about the Musco which was finished in fiue yeeres space strong and beautifull and furnished with faire brasse Ordenance he also setled his Offices and Officers of Iustice therein as before Himselfe kept much at Vologda on the Riuer Dwina the Centre and safest place of his Kingdome He conferred much with one Elesius Bomelius a Mathematician comne out of England He also sent for skilfull Architects Carpenters Ioyners Masons Goldsmiths Physicians Apothecaries and such like out of England He builds a Treasure-house of stone great Barkes and Barges to conuey and transport Treasure vpon any sudden occasion to Sollauetzcoy Monastery standing on the North Sea the direct way to England Hee fleeced his Merchants by taking their Commodities to exchange with Merchant Strangers for Gold Dollers Iewels and Pearles which he tooke into his Treasury paying little or nothing hee borrowed great summes of Cities Townes and Monasteries exhausting all their wealth by great Impositions and Customes to augment his owne Treasure which he neuer would diminish vpon any occasion whatsoeuer whereby hee became so odious that in a desperate resolution he deuised to preuent and alter his estate to annull and frustrate all these ingagements of his Crowne He made a diuision of his Subiects calling the one Oproswy and the other Soniscoy
August September and October the raines are predominant which with their frequent violent and long cnntinuing showres cooles the Earth and reuiues the partcht Roots of the Sun burnt Plants of the Earth sometimes rayning so long together and with such fiercenesse that Houses loose their foundations in their currants and fall to the ground from whence also followes great Land-flouds to this Countrey no lesse commodious then the inundation of Nilus to the Egyptians by receiuing the Flouds into their Rice grounds and there retayning it vntill the Earth drinking it in becomes the better enabled to endure an eighth moneths abstinence for in eight moneths it neuer rayneth Nouember December Ianuary and February they account their cooler times and are so indeed compared to the former yet as hote as it is here in England in May. From which constant heate all Trees are heere continually greene and their Fruites ripe in their seuerall Seasons The Earth in some places affoords two Croppes of Rice in a yeere rarely three Croppes and in most places but one yet there with very great increase they so we other sorts of Pulse different from ours and farre vp into the Country they haue good Wheate but not much for it is little eaten of the Gentiles Rootes they haue of most sorts which we haue heere and good store of Potatoes yet but few Hearbs or Flowres which defect they supply in their Betele whose frequent vse amongst them many haue already discoursed In briefe it is a very fruitfull Countrey and occasioned by many of the Inhabitants abstinence from any thing that hath life all kind of victuall are very cheape and plentifull as eight Hens for twelue pence a Goate or Sheepe for ten pence and for eighteene pence or two shillings a very good Hogge the like of fish and all other prouisions in the Towne but in the Countrey much better cheape This Kingdome as most others in India receiueth its denomination from the chiefe City or Residence of the King called by the Natiues Golchonda by the Moores and Persians Hidraband distant from Musulipatnam eight and twentie Gentiue leagues euery such league contayning nine English miles and in the common course of trauel ten dayes iourney A Citie that for sweetnesse of ayre conueniencie of water and fertility of soyle is accounted the best situated in India not to speake of the Kings Palace which for bignesse and sumptuousnesse in the iudgement of such as haue trauelled India exceedeth all belonging to the Mogull or any other Prince it being twelue miles in circumference built all of stone and within the most eminent places garnished with massie Gold in such things as we commonly vse Iron as in barres of Windowes bolts and such like and in all other points fitted to the Maiesty of so great a King who in Elephants and Iewels is accounted one of the richest Princes of India He is by Religion a Mahumetan discended from Persian Ancestors and retayneth their opinions which differing in many points from the Turkes are distinguished in their Sects by tearmes of Seaw and Sunnes and hath beene at large and truly to my knowledge particularized in your Pilgrimage whereunto I onely adde in confirmation of their mutuall hatred what in conference I receiued from a Meene one of Mahomets owne Tribe if wee may beleeue his owne Heraldry who openly professed hee could not finde in his heart to pray for a Sunnee for in his Opinion a Christian might as easily bee saued a Charitie well befitting his Religion that would not pray for those hee might not pray with This King as all other his Predecessors retaines the title of Cotubsha the original whereof I remember to haue read in Linschoten He maried during my being in his Country the daugter of Adelsha King of Viziapore and hath besides her three other Wiues and at least 1000. Concubines a singular honour and state amongst them to haue many women and one of the strangest things to them I could relate and in their opinions lamentable that his excellent Maiesty our Gracious Souereigne should haue three Kingdomes and but one Wife The Cotubsha Adelsha and Negaim Sha oppose the Mogull in a perpetuall league of mutuall defence yet so as their yeerely Presents proue their best weapons chusing rather to buy peace then to hazard the euent of war against so mighty an Enemy His Reuenewes are reported to bee fiue and twenty Lackes of Pagodes a Lacke beeing an 100000. and a Pagoda equall in weight and alloy to a French Crowne and worth there seuen shillinge six pence sterling which huge Treasure ariseth from the large extent of his Dominions 〈◊〉 Subiects being all his Tenants and at a rackt Rent for this King as all others in India is the onely Free-holder of the whole Countrey which being deuided into great gouernments as our Shires those againe into lesser ones as our Hundreds and those into Villages the Gouernment is farmed immediately from the King by some eminent man who to other inferiours farmeth out the lesser ones and they againe to the Countrey people at such excessiue rates that it is most lamentable to consider what toyle and miserie the wretched soules endure For if they fall short of any part of their Rent what their Estates cannot satisfie their bodies must so it somtimes happens they are beaten to death or absenting themselues their Wiues Children Fathers Brothers and all their Kindred are engaged in the debt and must satisfie or suffer And sometimes it happeneth that the Principall fayling with the King receiues from him the like punishment as it befell to one Bashell Raw Gouernour at Musulipatnam since the English Traded thither who for defect of full payment was beaten with Canes vpon the backe feet and belly vntill hee dyed Yet hold they not these their Gouernments by Lease for yeerely in Iuly all are exposed in sale vnto him that bids most◠from whence it happeneth that euery Gouernour during his time exacts by Tolles taken in the way and other Oppressions whatsoeuer they can possibly extort from the poorer Inhabitants vsing what violence within their gouernments they shall thinke fit for in them during their time they reigne as petty Kings not much vnlike the Bashawes and ◠the Turkish Monarchy There are in the Confines and heart of this Kingdome sixtie six seuerall Forts or Castles all of them commanded by Naicks and guarded by Gentiles Souldiers of the Countrey vnto which Souldiery these is allowed but foure shillings the moneth and that also ill payd they are for the most part situated vpon very high Rockes or Hils vnaccessible but by one onely way three of which I haue seene viz. Cundapoly Cundauera and Bellum Cunda Cunda in that Language signifying a Hill and in the Towne of Cundapoley hauing occasion to visit the Gouernour it was so curious as to require the sight of the Castle who replyed that euen himselfe although the Gouernour of
father and brethren when they were Prisoners fiue yeeres in the hand of the Xarife Muley Buhason was King of Velos de la Gomera and after that Fez was lost by Ahmat hee by the ayde of Salharaes Gouernour of Argiers recouered it againe hee was slaine by treason by one of his Guard in a battell against the Xarife He left three Sonnes Muley Naçar a Bastard and Muley Mahamet which was his eldest Sonne legitimate and Muley Yahia which yet liueth Muley Mahamet succeeded his father but was presently forced to flye leauing the Xarife in possession of all his estates and dying within few yeeres left one Sonne a child called Muley Halal which is this present pretender Muley Halal being a child was carried to the Mountaines of Tarudante beeing named for King but being not able to recouer his estate nor able to resist the power of the Xarife he fled into Christendome where he yet remayneth together with his Vncle Muley Yahia who being Sonne vnto a Christian woman fled presently into Christendome with his mother when his father King Bahason was slaine as aforesaid FINIS AN ALPHABETICALL TABLE OF THE PRINCIPALL THINGS CONTAYNED IN THIS WORKE A AArons Priesthood 121. 122. Abares a Scythian Nation 363 Their descent Habitation ibid. Abas the Persian King 386. 387. An appendix touching him out of Sir Anthoney Sherley 388 389. seq His dealing with the Turke and Christians and Iesuits lyes of him 394. 395 Abasian Line of Chaliphas 235 Abassia vide Aethiopia Abasens 225 Abasian Chaliphaes 236 Abassine or Abissine why so called 734. and Elhabaschi ibidem Their Language and Arabian Ofspring ibid. They know not the ancient Letters in the Aethiopian Monuments 237 The seuerall Countries of Abassia 749. Riuers Lakes ibid. Soyle Fruits Creatures 750. Customes priuate and publike 751. Their estimation of blacke 721. Their present miseries 752 Abdalla Father of Mahumet 241 245 Abdalmutalif Mahumets Master or as some say his Grandfather 241 Abdimelec 234. His acts ibid. Abdul Mumen 692. He intituled himselfe the Prince of Beleeuers ibid. Abed Ramon his Acts 234. 705 Abels Sacrifice respected how 28 Abbies built in Turkie 282. 308 in Iapon 597. 598. vide Monasteries Abis a strange accident there 225 226 Abraham his supposed Martyrdome 45. Cast into Prison and banished 52. Inuenter of Astrologie 55. His Temple and Well 64. His Letters 82. An Idolater 95. His History and others testimonies of him 95. 96. His yeeres reckoned 153 His supposed Booke 162. Posteritie by Keturah 224. 270. Saracens dreames of him 264 254. 269. Postellus his like conceit 642 Abram King of Acem 612. 613 Abydus a place in Mysia where was a famous Temple of Venus in remembrance of their libertie recouered by an Harlot 334 Abydenus his testimony of the Floud 34. Of the Arke 35. Of Nabuchodonosor 49 Accaron and the worship there 81 136 Acen Achin Achi or Acem in Samatra the History of their Kings 612. 613. The Kings Letter 614. His cruelties 615 Achilles worshipped in Leuce and tales of his Temple 399 Achmat or Achmet the Great Turke 228. 229. 288. 289 Sultan Achmets Person Family Gouernment and greatnesse of State 288. sequitur 291. 292. 293. Hee reigned about fifteene yeeres 293. 294 Acra Aelia 94 Acusamil 885 Adam greatest Philosopher 14. 18 Adams Hill in Seylan 17 Adam his generall and particular calling 20. His happinesse before his fall 18. 19. His many sinnes in the fall 21. 22. Nakednesse Punishment 22. 23. First and second Adam compared 24. His sinne how ours 25 Adam taught by God taught his children to sacrifice 27. 28. Supposed to liue and dye at Hebron 29. Mourning for Abel ibid. The conceits of Zabij touching him 52. His buriall 53. Iewish Dreames of Adam 160. 178. 205. Taught by Raziel 161. His Cellar Mahometicall Dreames of him 252. 253. seq Adam acknwledged by the Bramenes 547. 548 Adam Baba in Zeilan 277. Their fancies of him ibid. Adams viz. William Adams his trauels and voyage to Iapon 588. 589. seq Adad Assyrian God 66. The Sun ibid. Adadezer K. of Aram Zoba 73 Adega Mahomets Wife 241 Adel and Adea their situation and description 754 Adiabena a Kingdome in Assyria 35. 63 Adona a name of God what it signifieth 4 Adonis Fable Feasts Rites and Riuer 78. 79 Adrian Emperour 72. Founder of Aelia 142. His testimonie of the Aegyptians 626. His destroying of Antinous 646 Adriaticke Sea which so called 575 Adrimachidae their habitation Rites 667 Adultery how punished by the Iewes 99. 205. By the Arabians 238. Alcoran 251. Tartars 416. Pataneans 495. 496 In Bengala 509. Of the Bramenes 547. Turkes 299. In Guinea 717. In Aethiopia 739. Madagascar 799. Florida 851. Mexico 877. Nicaragua 888. In Brasill 918. In Iapan 560. 591. In Iaua 611. 612 Adultery how esteemed by the Arabians 228. How tryed at Guinea 716. 717 Aelia Capitolina 93 Aegyptians first Authors of Idolatry 631. Worshipped men vnder other names ibid. Conuinced by Abraham 95. Conquered by the Saracens 657. By the Christians and by Saladine 657. By Selim 283. 284 Aegypt why so called Aegypt and Mesre and other names 626 How bounded and a discourse of Nilus 627. The number of Aegyptian Cities and workes of their Kings Cham and Chemmis 630. 631. Their Temples and exceeding summes whereto they amounted 631. Sesostris and other Kings 632. Pyramides the Labyrinth Sphynx Lake Meris and their Sepulchres 633. 634. Their Osiris Isis Orus and other Legends 635. 636. The Land diuided to their King Priests and Souldiers ibid. Their baudy orders and beastly Deities 636. Reasons of Religion to Beasts 637 Mysticall exposition ibid. Their worship water fire a man the Beetle 635. 637. Manifold mysteries ibid. Hermes Trismegistus 637 Hierogliphicks ibid. their Idols how deified ibid. their Apis and other Beasts deified or sacred how nourished and respected 638. Cost bestowed on the Funerals of them 639. Description and consecration of Apis ibid. His History and Mystery 639. Other Oxen worshipped ibid. How they respect Beasts in these dayes 640. What beasts fishes fowles generally What in seuerall places worshipped ibid. Meats prohibited amongst them 641. Serpents Farts c. Worshipped ibid. Their Sacrifices Circumcision and Swine 642. 643. Their manner of tillage or sowing the ground ibid. Their Oaths Priests Magicke and Sacrifices 643. Gymnosophists Sanctuary Feasts ibid. The Oracles and Knauerie of Isis Priests 643. Their inuentions and conditions 644. 645 Rogues why called Aegyptians or Gypsies 646. Acts of the Persians in Aegypt 647. Their Greeke Schooles and Librarie 648. 649. Deuotions and Temples of Serapis 650. Knauery of Tyrannus 651. The acts of Romans Iewes Saracens in Aegypt 652. The building of Cairo 654. The state of it and Alexandria 655. Present Aegyptians 656. Diuers successions and alterations in Aegypt ibid. Her Sects 657. Mamalukes maruellous actiuitie ibid. Christians there 658. Their Chronologie 660. 661. Ancient Kings 662. Who reigned when Moses passed the Red Sea 663. Chalifas 664. Mamalukes
continentur Non pro defectu potentiae sed quia non possunt habere rationem patibilis vel possibilis Conuenientius dicitur quod ea non possunt fieri quam quòd Deus non possit facere Ap. 1. q. 25. art 3. d. n 2. Tim 2.12 o â—al l. 2 c. 〈…〉 p 〈…〉 q â—â—â—câ—uid emnino de illo retularis vim al quaÌ„ ipsius magis virtutem quà m ipsum explicaâ—eris Quid enim dignum de en aut dicas aut sentias qui omn bus sermonibus sensibus maior est Tertul. de Trin p 598. Quatuor à Deo remouenda corporeitas mutabilitas priuatio assimilatio ad Creaturas R. Mos Moreh l. 1. 54. 57. tanquam de Rege diceretur habente millies mille talâ—nt auri quòd haberet centum talenta argenti r Deus vnus in Trinitate trinus in vnitate Arnob in Psal. 145. Å¿ Mat. 3. t Esay 6. Zanch. de 3. Elohim haec fusè u Morn de ver C.R. F. Patric P. Gal. l. 12 alijqueâ—lâ—râ—mi x Iustin 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 y 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Nazian z Bern. ad Eugeni a D. Abbot par 2 Defen pag. 9. Zanch. de N.D. lib. 5. cap. 1. b Treleat Zanch. de Na. D. l. 5. c. 1. 2. c 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 d 1. Ioh. 5.20 e Gal. 4.6 a Iam. 1.17 b 1. Joh. 1.5 Qui scrutatur Maiestatem opprimetur à gloria Ne si sorte suas repetitum venerit olim Grex auium plumas c. c Gen. 1.1 d Nothing but Nothing had the Lord Almighty Wherof wherewith whereby to build this Citie Du Bart. E nulla vel prima vel secunda materia quae omni factioni fabricationi generationi opificio artificio subijcitur Creatio fit etiam citra omne temporis momentum quippe à virtute infinita Iul. Scal Ex. 6. Hebraei statuunt discrimen inter Creare formare facere 1. ex nihilo facere 2. enti Cresto formam inducere 3. membra singula ordinare quae tamen indiscriminatim ponuntur Es 43.7 Oecolamp in G. e 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Basil hom 1. in principio temporis id est simul cum tempore Eadem Ioan. Philoponus in Hexam ap Photium 240. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Tempus non tam mensura metus quam 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 permanentia duratio corporum rerumque corporearam aliorum est â—on 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 quasi 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Hermes sic suum instituit ordinem Deus aeon mundus tempus generatio Deus aeona facit aeon mundum mundus Tempus tempus generationem Thomas ait simul cum tempore Quatuor enim ponuntur simul creata s coelum Empyreum materea corporalis quae nomine terrae intelligitur Tempus Naturae Angelica Sum. p. 1. q. 47. art 1. Fagius vertit Quum Deus principiò coelum terram creauit erat terra inanis vacua Nam simpliciter ait hoc voluit Moses non statim ab initio expolitum fuisse mundum vt hodiè cernitur sed inane coeli terrae chaos fuisse creatum f Merula Pererius interpretationem hanc Chrysostomo tribuunt g Caluin in Gen. Muester Luther Artopaeus Fag ap Marlorat R. Nathmanni intelligit per coelum terrae materiam tenuissimani impalpabilem diuerse tamen naturae ita vt coelum coelestis terra terrestris fuerit Iunius interpretatùr extimum illum huius vniuersitatis ambitum cum super coelestibus incolis illius spiritualibus formis atque intelligentijs tùm materiam illam primam ex qua terra ac res omnes coelestes ac terrestres factae sunt De triplici Coelo vid. Ar. Montan Nature obseruat h Theodoret Beda Strabus Alcuinus Lyra plerique scholastici i Zanch. de oper Dei pers 1. l. 1. c. 2. Burgens Polanus Bucanus c. Paul Merula Cosmogr part 1. l. 1. Perer. in Gen. interprets by Heauen the heauenly bodies then made and after perfected with light and motion by Earth the element of the Earth k Col. 1.16 l Gen. 2.1 Exod. 20.11 Iob 38.7 m Gen. 32.1 n Gen. 3.1 o Pet. Martyr in Gen p Zach. de operib part 1. lib. 1. cap. 4. q As Dionys those which Tritemius mentioneth de Intelligent coelest which number 7. Orifiel Anael Zachariel Raphael Samael Gabriel Michael all which in course and succession gouerne the world Each 354. years and 4. months c. r Ioh. 14.2 Å¿ Apoc. 21.3 t 1. Cor. 15.28 u Hebr. 11.3 x Arist Phys l 1. Iun. praef in Gen. y By darknesse and deep Philoponus vnderstâ—ndeth the Aire and Water ap Phot. 240 z Gibbins on Genes * Hier. l. trad Hebr. Trem. Iun. Basil hom 2. ex Ephrem Syro * Merc. de Fab. mundi ante eum Tertul. ad Hermog Theod. q. 8. in Gen. Caietan de Angelis interpretatur R. Mos ben Maim Mor. Neb. l. 1. c. 39. is of that mind but l. 2. c. 31. he findeth the foure elements in these foure words heere mentioned Earth Spirit Deepe and Darknesse a Patricius numbreth the linkes of this chaine in this order Calor qui in t rra aqua mistis est ab aereo pendet hic à coelesti is à sole astris hic vero ab Empyreo Empyreus à luminis calore hic ab animario hic ab intellectuali hic à vitali primario hic quoque à primario essentiali hic itidem ab ideali qui in Deo habitat à Deo patre est deriuà tus Pancos l. 5. The interpretation of this mysticall Phylosophie yee may borrow of himselfe in his Panaug Panarc Pamsyc Pancos more agreeing with Zoroaster Hermes and some Platonikes then the Scriptures which shew that all things were immediatly created in the beginning by God b Virg. Aeneid l. 6. on which words Seruius commenteth Deus est quidam diuinus spiritus qui per 4. infusus elementa gignit vniuersal c Vatab. Marlorat in Gen. d Bas hex. hom 6. Greg. Naz. orat 43. Nicetas in eum e Zanch. Hugo Lumbard Tostatus c. f Merul. p. 1. l. 1 c. 4. g Damas. de f. orth l. 2 c. 7. Hugo Annot. in Gen. Gr. Nyssen Iunius c. h Vid. Plutar. de Plac. Philos l. 2. Patrit Panang l. 7. Pancos. l. 15. 22. i 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 cuius partes condensatae stellae aether autem dictus ab 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to burne Stoicorum opinionem vid. Aug. de Ciu. Dei l. 8. c. 5. The Sunne saith Philo is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and Zanch. Sol. heb. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 q. d. ibi ignis and another Coelum ig is influens 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 quasi 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 id est ignis aqua k Cardan de sub l. 1. Merula Cos l. 3. c. 2. Io. Pic. Mirand de element c. 3. Tycho Brahe de Cometa 1577.