last place to the particular Relations of our Author wee will premise a more exact and large description of the Countrey and the chiefe Cities of note in it Leaving all to your favourable construction Of the diuision of Temperature FIrst therefore according to best Authoritie let us firmely beleeve That the Creator of all things hath not bestowed upon any particular Region like and semblable blessings to another but that as experience may warrant to some one Countrey he hath given this good favour to another that partly in regard of situation partly by operation of his ministers as starres winds heat cold water aire diet c. Athenis tenue coelum Thebis crassum Athens enjoyes a cleare skie and Thebes a foggie And therefore without offence by the testimonie of good Authors wee may bee bold to conjecture that the people Nations inhabiting divers climates of this vast Vniverse are endowed with divers strange and opposite dispositions It is naturall to the Inhabitants bounding upon the North to be biggest boned strongest set and aptest for labour and to the nations of the South to bee weake yet more subtill Acuriores Attici valentes Thebani The Athenians are the sharper witted but the Thebans are the abler bodied Now how farre these Influences of North and South stretch in operation or whâ—re the East and West put periods to their owne potencies or what in generall truth is to be affirmed of their divers manners and qualities is hard to say and the harder for that no man hitherto hath presumed to undertake the taske amidst so many obscurities For if all credit should be given to Hippocrates whose authoritie was ever held oraculous he will tell you That the people of the North are slender dwarfish lean and swarthie And Averrois will be bold to affirme That the mountaine people are most pious and wittie whereas universall experience doth condemne them of rudenesse and barbarisme The ignorance of the Ancients saith Bodin was once so grosse that not a few of them deemed the Ocean a River all Iberia but a Citie And because all the Ancients in like error except Possidonius and Avicen limited the possibilitie of habitation to consist wholly betweene the Tropikes and the polar Circles affirming that beyond there was no health no place peopled c. let this erroneous imagination for evermore be silenced by the authoritie of all moderne Navigators who have found the wholsomest and best peopled Countries of all those parts to lie under the Aequator and the regions situated under the Tropikes to bee tormented with more rigorous heat Alvarez reporteth that the Abassine Embassador arriving at Lisbon in Portugall was that day almost choaked with heat and yet is Abassia or Prester Iohns country from whence he came neere upon 30. degrees more Southerly than Lisbon is yea and betweene the Tropike of Cancer and the Aequator also part of it lying even beyond the Line And Purquer the Germane reported that he had felt the weather hotter about Dantzike and the Baltike Sea than at Tholouza in a fervent Summer notwithstanding that Dantzike be farre more Northerly than Tholouza And this is no paradox The cause with good iudgement being to bee ascribed to the grossnesse and thicknesse of the aire considering that Europe and the North are full of waters which bursting out from hidden and unknowne concavities doe produce infinite bogs fens lakes and marishes in the Summer seasons causing thicke vapours to ascend Which without doubt being incorporated with heat scorch more fervently than the purer aire of Affrike being stored with no such super-abundance of watry elements Even so fire being invested in the body of liquors or metals scaldeth more furiously than in wood and in wood more fervently than in flame And if the keepers of stoves and hot houses doe not sprinkle the ground with water that the vapour being contracted and the aire thickned they may thereby the longer and better maintaine heat and spare fuell you must for me wander into the schooles of more profound Philosophers for further satisfaction Of the Situation of Nations NOw to the South-wards wee will limit the hithermost Spaniards the Siculi the Peloponnesians the Cretensians the Syrians the Arabians the Persians the Susians the Gedrosii the Indians the Aegyptians the Cirenians the Africans the Numidians the Libians the Moores and the people of Florida in America to be situated but with this caveat that those wholly to the West-wards in the same latitude live in a more cold temperature The people of the North I meane to be those which live under the fortieth degree to the sixtieth and those of more temperature who extend to the seventieth Vnder the first are situated Brittaine Ireland Denmarke part of Gotland Netherland and those Countries which from the River of Mase stretch to the outmost borders of Scythia and Tartaria containing a good portion of Europe and the greater Asia The inhabitants of the Middle Region as being subject neither to extreme heat not to extreme cold I place betweene both Extremes and yet able to endure both with indifferent content I also terme that the Middle Region which lieth betweene the Tropike and the Pole and not that which lieth betweene the Tropike and the Line because the extremitie of heat is not so forcibly felt under the Line as aforesaid as under the Tropikes So that that cannot be accounted the temperate climate which extendeth from the thirtieth degree to the fortieth but that which beginneth at the fortieth and endeth at the fiftieth and the neerer East the more temperate Vnder which tract lie the further Spaine France Italie the higher Germanie as farre as the Mase both Hungaries Illyria both Mysiaes Dacia Moldavia Macedon Thrace and the better part of Asia the lesse Armenia Parthia Sogdiana and a great part of Asia the great And the neerer the East the more temperate although they somewhat incline to the South-ward as Lydia Cilicia Asia Media c. The ancient Greekes and Romanes both to set forth their owne skill in Geographie and Philosophie and withall to make shew of the largenesse of their conquests with ignorance and idlenesse enough did like the Chinois at this day represent their owne kingdome in the map as bigge as all the rest of the world besides They therefore dividing the heavens into five Zones made three of them utterly inhabitable In those two next the Poles their philosophy judged not much amisse for though no man of Europe hath beene neere to either of them yet at that distance were the discoverers yea the Seas themselves frozen up with most insufferable cold and these the Ancients rightly called The frozen Zones But in that which is called the Torride Zone their philosophy was much mistaken This Zone takes up all that space which is betwixt the two Tropicks and is equally divided by the Aequinoctiall line the whole breadth of the Zone being 47. degrees that is 2820. Italian miles of ground Now in this vast tract
discipline they only of all Christendome have made best use thereof As the people to whose glory industry patience and fortitude and that in a good cause too much honour and commendation can never be attributed The States of the Low-Countries ALL the seventeene Provinces of Netherland were sometimes under one Lord but privileges being broken and warres arising the King of Spaine the naturall Lord of all these Low-Countries was in the treaty of peace Anno 1606. inforced to renounce all pretence of his owne right to these confederate Provinces Since when we may well handle them by themselves as an absolute and a free State of Government as the Spaniard himselfe acknowledged them The Provinces united are these Zeland Holland Vtrich Over-Isell Zutphen Groningen three quarters of Gelderland with some peeces of Brabant and Flanders This union was made Anno 1581. The Fleets and Forces of which Confederation are from the chiefe Province altogether called Hollanders The first of these is Zeland whose name given it by the Danes of Zeland in Scandia notifies its nature A land overflowed with the Sea Broken it is into seven Ilands whereof those three to the East beyond the River Scheld and next to Holland are Schowen Duvelant and Tolen the other foure be Walcheren Zuyd-beverlant Nort-beverlant and Wolferdijck 1. T'land van Schowen is seven of their miles about parted with a narrow fret from Nort-beverlant The chiefe towne is Zierickzee the ancientest of all Zeland built 849. The Port sometimes traded unto is now choaked with sand which they labour to cleare againe 2. Duveland so named of the Doves foure miles about hath some townes but no City 3. Tolen called so of the chiefe towne as that was of the Tolle there payed by the boats comming downe the Scheld 4. The chiefe of the seven is Walcheren ten miles compasse so named of the Walsh or Galles In the middle of it is Middleburgh the prime Citie of Zeland and a goodly Towne other Cities it hath as Vere Armuyden and Flushing all fortified 5. Zuyd-beverlant Nort-beverlant so named of the Bavarians The first is now ten miles about The Cities are Romerswael much endangered by the Sea and divided from the Island and Goesse or Tergoose a pretty and a rich towne 6. Nort-beverlant quite drowned in the yeare 1532. but one towne 7. Wolferdijck that is Wolfers-banke hath now but two Villages upon it Zeland hath ten Cities in all The land is good and excellently husbanded the water brackish Their gaines comes in by that which brought their losses the Sea Their wheat is very good some store they have the Cowes but more of Sheepe great store of Salt-houses they have for the refining of Salt of which they make great merchandize The Zelanders were converted to the faith by our Country-man Willebrord before Charles the greats time HOlland so named either quasi Holt-land that is the Wood-land which woods they say were destroyed by a mighty tempest Anno 860. the roots and truncks of which being often here found or quasi Hol-land Hollow and light land as it is indeed But most likely it is that the Danes also comming from Olandt in their owne Countrie gave name to this Province as they did to Zeland also The whole compasse is not above sixtie of their miles the breadth in most places is not above six houres travelling with a Wagon and in some places scarce a mile over The whole is divided into South-Holland Kinheymar West-Freesland Waterlandt and Goytland The chiefe Towne is Dort but the goodliest and richest is Amsterdam one of the greatest Townes of merchandize in the whole world they have almost twenty other Cities strong and elegant At Leyden there being a College and Vniversity Their banks mils and other workes for keeping out the Sea be most admirable vast and expensive Three of the foure Elements are there and in Zeland starke naught then Water brackish their Aire foggie their Fire smokish made of their Turses for which they are said to burne up their owne land before the day of Iudgement The men are rather bigge than strong some accuse them to love their penny better than they doe a stranger Their women are the incomparable huswives of the world and if you looke off their faces upon their linnen and houshold stuffe are very neat and cleanly At their Innes they have a kinde of open-heartednesse and you shall be sure to finde it in your reckoning Their land is passing good for Cowes they live much upon their butter and they bragge mightily of their cheeses As for flesh-meat I thinke that a Hawke in England eats more in a moneth than a rich Boore nay than a sufficient corporall Burger does in six weekes The industry of the people is wonderfull so many ditches have they made thorow the Country that there is not the most Iâ—land Boore but he can row from his owne doore to all the Cities of Holland and Zealand The Dutchman will drinke indeed but yet he still does his businesse he lookes still to the maine chance both in the City and Country by Sea and Land they thrive like the Iewes every where and wee have few such drunkards in England too many wee have apt enough to imitate their vice but too too few that will follow them in their vertue THis Duchie lies on the East of Holland and Brabanâ— touching also upon Cleve and Iuliers It hath two and twenty Cities and good Townes whereof Nimwegen Zutphon Ruremond and Arhneim are the chiefe Some peeâ—es the Spaniard here hath â— and the whole Country having heretofore beene infeâ—ted with the warres makes â— a little to come behinde his fellowes The land and people differ not much from those of Holland saving that towards Cleveland it is more mountainous the Champian is very rich pasturage for grazing THis touches Gelderland upon the South West-Freesland upon the North Westphalia upon the East and the Zuydersee on the West The chiefe Citie is Deventer others of the better sort be Campen Zwol Steinwick Oetmarse Oldenzeel Hesselâ—â— Vollenhoven c. This Countrey was of old inhabited by the Franks or Frenchmen of which there were two tribes the Ansuarii which gave name to the Hanse-townes whereof Deventer was first and the Salii which tooke name from the River Isala upon which Deventer stands and these gave name to the Salique Law which you see did rather concerne these Countries than France it selfe and was made by a barbarous people in an age as barbarous though this onely was pretended to barre women from the crowne of France and to hinder our Kings and occasion those warres and bloudsheds THe Bishopricke of Vtrecht hath Holland on the North and Gelderland on the West The circuit is but small yet hath it five pretty Cities whereof Vtrecht it selfe is large delicate and rich inhabited by most of the Gentry of Holland Much harassed hath it beene but now well recovered since it came into the union GRoningen
garrison to keepe the Towne in obedience To it resort divers Merchants for traffique and many Gentlemen to leaâ—â—â— the â—â—â—â—uage There are besides divers other pretty and reasonable stâ—oâ—g Townes but above all Dresden the ancient seat of the Dukes of Saxonie It standeth in the Countie of Misâ—â—a round and containing in compasse about the walls the circuit of two English miles These Walls are of faire and large squared stones wel countermined with earth on the inside and wonderfully fortified with seven strong Bulwarks and as many great Mounts on the outside On the which as also on the walls are one hundred and fifty goodly peeces of Brasse artillerie with a garrison of five hundred well appointed Souldiers in continuall pay This City within the walls hath eight hundred houses foure Churches three Gates two faire Market places and a great Bridge of stone over the Elve The Mote which incompasseth the wall is deepe and cleere without any filth or weeds and is on all sides walled with faire stones to the bottome The streets are not many but very faire the houses not very great but of one uniformitie and pleasing to behold In most of the streets runneth from the River a small streame of water and in many of these streets are tubs placed upon sleds full of water alwaies ready to be drawne by horses or men whither occasion of fire should crave imployment For prevention whereof they maintaine men of purpose to walke every night in the streets and some to watch carefully on the highest Towers The Palace of the Duke is of great beauty and majesty the Chambers are flowerd with coloured Marbles and garnished round with Stags heads of extraordinary greatnesse many bed-steds and tables also are of divers coloured Marbles most curiously carved and polished Within the Palace is an Armory for horsemen of unspeakable magnificence with a great number of horses curiously framed in wood and painted to the life with as many woodden men on their backes furnished most richly with all furniture fit for a horseman to use in the warres Amongst these are the lively portraictures of many of the Dukes of Saxonie carved and painted to life covered with such robes armour and furniture for their horses made of gold and silver and set with precious stones as they used to weare when they were living There are also thirty six sleds for pleasure of great beauty and rare invention with two carved and painted horses to every of them richly furnished with silver bits and the bridles and capar sons imbrodered with silver and gold hanging full of silver bels according to the German custome Here are also many Chambers full of Masking garments and other abiliments for triumphs and pastimes both for Land and Water In this Armory also are many costly weapons both offensive and defensive such so good and so rich as mony can procure or the wit of man invent Vnder this Armory standeth a most princely Stable arched with stone and supported with goodly pillars of Marble Out of every of which pillars runneth sweet and fresh water for the daily use of the Stable The rackes are of iron the mangers plated over with copper the stalles for the Horses of strong carved timber every Stall having a faire glazed window and every window a greene curtaine The ground betweene the stalles is paved with faire broad stones In this Stable are an hundred eight and twenty horses and yet no wet nor filth to be perceived nor dung to be seene or smelt Neere unto the Palace standeth the Arsenall wherein is seene such plenty of great Artillerie yellow as gold such strange Engins and such wonderfull qualities of all kind of Armour and Munition whatsoever necessary for the Wars or a long siege that for Land-service it farre excelleth the Arsnall of Venice or any other Storehouse in Europe able to arme 300000. Horse and Foot at a dayes warning And as the Armory and Arsenall excell all others so the City for its quantity in my judgement is to be accounted the fairest and strongest of Europe and that far surpassing Noremberg Anwerp or Lubech at this day reckoned to bee the prime Cities of Christendome Besides this Armory all the Cities and Townes have their Armories very well kept and provided neither are the Noblemen Gentlemen and Country people unfurnished There are in Saxonie three Vniversities Wittenberg Liepâ—que and Iene The first is supposed to be the prime-Vniversity of all Germany It is about two miles compasse within the walls being neither strong nor faire In it are only two Churches and foure Colleges being neither rich nor beautifull and in them about a thousand Students of all sorts It hath a strong Bridge of Timber over the Elve and a faire Castle or Palace appertaining to the Duke In the Church of this Castle are interred the bodies of M. Luther and P. Melancthon under two faire Marble stones with superscriptions of copper upon them and their pictures from head to foot in great tables set up by them The other two have some six or seven hundred Schollers a peece but in Colleges Lectures Order Proceeding and all things else infinitely inferiour either to Cambridge or Oxford There are all professions in each of them but Wittenberg is esteemed the chiefe Seminary of Divines Iene of Civilians and Liepsiege of Philosophie All the Dukedome but especially Misen is one of the pleasantest and fruitfullest parts of all Germany and in truth much exceeding any that I saw but onely the Dukedome of Wittenberg It hath great store of very good Corne of all sorts reasonable good and convenient store of most sort of Cattell of Horses they have plenty and those strong and tall of stature but fitter to draw than to serve yet very well fitting their manner of service being heavily armed viz. with a Petronell a case of Pistols a Courtle-axe and divers times with a Battle-axe over and above all which his Horse must be able to carry two or foure bottles of Wine or Beere in his great heavy Saddle left in any case his Master should faint for want of liquor in his journey But their best races they have out of the nether Saxonie where there be exceeding store The Bullocks are but small and nothing good Of sheepe they have in some places indifferent store especially within these few yeeres of body little and but reasonable good yet so as bearing indifferent good wooll either the sheepe themselves or their fleeces are bought up by the Netherlands and imployed in the making of cloth to some prejudice of ours in England They have great store of Mines of most sorts as Silver Copper Tin Lead Iron and as they say some Gold The chiefe places of the Silver Mines are Tiberg Aviberg Mariaberg and other Townes at the foot of the Bohemian Mountaines In Voitland there are also some Hills very rich in Minerals especially one called which being much celebrated for having some Rivers running out
well maintained there is the house of Piety called Il monte della pieta which by ordinary Revenues and gifts may dispend yeerely 60000. Crownes wherewith amongst other charitable workes it maintaineth thorow the Kingdome two thousand Infants It is one of the regions belonging to the Kingdome of Naples It is bounded with the River Iano and the Terrhene and Ionian Seas it is in compasse above five hundred miles and is divided into two Provinces the one lieth on the Terrhene Sea where in ancient times the Brutians did inhabit and that part is properly called Calabria the other lieth on the Ionian and called Magna Graecia It is divided into the higher and lower Of the higher the chiefe seat is Cosenza of the lower Catanzara Cosenza is a large Citie Catanzara a strong Betweene the Cape of the Pillars and the Cape Alice is Corone a place of very wholesome aire Vpon this territorie Anno 1551. the Navie of the Great Turke landed and made some stay which was the cause that moved Charles the fifth to fortifie this Citie It is a thing worthy to be noted how much the Inhabitants of this country in former ages exceeded the numbers of this present for in those dayes this Citie sent more men against the Locrians than the whole Kingdome of Naples is now able to afford being numbred to an hundred and thirty thousand A little above that doe inhabit the Sabarits who were alwayes able to arme thirty thousand At Tarent beginneth the Country of Otranto in ancient times called Iapigia It containeth all that corner of land almost invironed with the Sea which lieth betweene Tarent and Brundusium In it as Strabo writeth were once thirteene great Cities but in his time onely two Tarent and Brunduse The aire is very healthfull and though the superficies of the soile seeme rough and barren being broken with the plough it is found to bee excellent good mold It is scarce of water neverthelesse it yeeldeth good Pasture and is apt for Wheat Barley Oats Olives Cedars excellent Melons Oxen Asses and Mules of great estimation The people are in their manners dangerous superstitious and for the most part beastly The Gentlemen lovers of liberty and pleasure scoffers at Religion especially at that which we terme the reformed and yet themselves of their owne great blasphemers For outward shew they live in great pompe and make the City more stately because they are not permitted to live in the Countrey yet as they dare they bitterly grone under the Viceroyes controll who exerciseth the Spanish pride amongst them so that in these dayes they come nothing neere their native glory nor customary wantonnesse In this Country is bred the Tarantola whose venome is expelled with Fire and Musicke as Gellius reporteth out of Theophrash his History of living creatures There are likewise bred the Chersidi serpents living both on the land and in the Sea yea there is no part of Italy more cumbred with Grashoppers which leave nothing where they come but would utterly consume in one night whole fields full of ripe corne if Nature by sending the birds called the Gaive into those quarters had not provided a remedie against this misery The place at all times of the yeare endureth much dammage by Haile Thunder is as usuall in Winter as in Summer This Province is situated betweene two Seas The Citie is seated in an Island like unto a ship and joyned to the Continent with bridges where the tide setteth violently on the other side the two Seas joyne together by meanes of a trench cut out by mans hand and is of largenesse sufficient to receive a Gally Where the Citie now standeth was before a rocke and is holden to be the strongest fortresse of the Kingdome From thence along the shore lieth Caesaria now ruined by them of Gallipoli Gallipolis is seated on a ridge of land running into the Sea like a tongue On the furthest point whereof standeth the Citie and is of great strength by reason of the situation being fenced with unaccessible rocks well walled and secured by a Castle with which motives of encouragement in the warres betweene the French and the Arragons the citizens thereof to their great honour continued ever faithfull to the fortunes of the Arragons It hath beene counted one of the chiefest Cities of Italy it is now by their civill dissentions almost desolated the cause as I take it wherefore the aire thereabouts is become so unhealthfull an influence incident to all great Cities For as nothing doth better temper the aire than the frequencie of Inhabitants because by husbandry and industry they drie up Fennie and unwholesome places prune such woods as grow too thicke and obscure with their fires purge noysome exhalations and with their high buildings extenuate grosse vapours So on the contrary there is nothing apter to breed infection than desolation for so the places are not onely deprived of the aforesaid helps but even the houses and their ruines are receptacles of infection and matter of corruption Which appeareth to be true by the ruines of Aquilea Rome Ravenna and Alexandria in Aegypt For which inconvenience the Grecians never built huge Cities Plato would not that his should exceed 500. families and Aristotle wished that all his people might at once heare the voice of one Crier This Province extendeth from the confines of Brunduse to the River Fortore It is divided into two territories the one at this day called Bari and by the Latines Peucetia the other Puglia and by them Dawnia divided each from other by the River Lofanto In the second part it comprehendeth Capitanato containing in it many great Cities places of trade and Fortresses of good account Amongst the number whereof is Mansredonia built by K. Manfredi in a high place healthfull with a convenient and safe harbour It lieth under the hill Gargano at this day called S. Angelo because of the appearing of S. Michael who is honoured there with great devotion It should seeme that in this hill all the riches of Puglia are heaped together it hath plenty of water an element rare in this Province The Sarazens finding the opportunitie of the situation thereof did there fortifie therein maintained themselves a long time for in truth there is no place better to molest the Kingdome and to command the Adriatike Sea Puglia is another Province of this Kingdome it is bounded with the River Fortorie and the River Tronto in which circuit are contained many people Towards the Sea it is a fruitfull Country in the middest rough and mountainous and the coldest Region in the Kingdome The wealth thereof consisteth in Cattell and Saffron The Country of Malsi is divided with the River Pescara the Governour thereof resideth in San-Severino This Province hath no famous place upon the Sea-coast but in the Inland Benevento was given to the Church by Henry the fourth in recompence of
hand or any other metall except in some chamber where their warme Stoves be your fingers will freeze fast to it and draw off the skin at parting when you passe out of a warme roome into a cold you shall sensibly feele your breath to wax thick and stifling with the cold as you draw it in and out Divers not onely that travell abroad but in the very markets and streets of their Townes are monstrously pinched yea killed withall so that you shall see many drop downe in the streets many travellers brought into the Townes sitting dead and stiffe in their sleds And yet in Summer-time you shall see such a new hue and face of a Countrey the Woods so fresh and so sweet the Pastures and Meddowes so greene and well growne and that upon the sudden with such variety of flowers and such melody of Birds especially of Nightingales that a man shall not lightly travell in a more pleasanter Countrey Which fresh and speedy growth of the Spring seemeth to proceed from the benefit of the Snow which all the Winter time being spread over the whole Countrey as a white robe keepeth it warme from the rigour of the frost and in the Spring-time when the weather waxeth warme and the Sunne dissolveth it into water it doth so throughly drench and soke the ground being of a sleight and sandy mould and then shineth so hotly upon it againe that it even forceth the Herbs and Plants to shoot forth in great plenty and variety and that in short time As the Winter season in these Regions exceedeth in cold so likewise I may say that the Summer inclineth to overmuch heat especially in the moneths of Iune Iuly and August being accounted the three chiefest moneths of burning heat in those places much warmer than the Summer in England To returne to our relation of the soyle and climate for the most part it is covered with Woods and Lakes these Woods are the branches of Hircinia spreading it selfe through all the North and perhaps more in this Province than in any other Here grow the goodliest and tallest trees of the world thorow which for their thicknesse the brightnesse of the Sun-beames can hardly pierce An unspeakable quantity of Rozin and Pitch distilleth out of these trees and here is the never-wasting Fountaine of Wax and Hony For without any industry of man the Bees themselves build their Hives in the Barks and hollownesse of trees Here is all plenty of Cattell and wilde Beasts Beares Martins Beasts called Zibellini Wolves and blacke Foxes whose skins doe beare highprices Of the timber of these trees āre squared all necessaries aswell for buildings as all other uses the Wals of the Cities are framed of beames cut foure-square fastned together filling all the chinks vacant places with earth And of these beames likewise they build platformes of such height and thicknesse that they beare the weight of great Ordnance how massie soever They are subject to fire but not easily shaken with the fury of battery For Waters Moscovie may well be called the mother of Rivers and Lakes witnesse Duyna Boristhenes Volga Duyna Onega Moscua Volisca and the famous Tanais the Lakes of Ina upon which standeth the great Novograde Voluppo and many others The abundance of these Waters doe make the ayre colder than is requisite for the increase of Cattell or growth of Plants and although cold is thought more wholsome than heat yet are their Cattell of small growth thereby and many times their fruits come not to ripening and the earth being drowned with the waters for the most part becommeth light and sandie and then either with too great drought or too much moisture it destroyeth the fruit Winter in some sort lasteth nine moneths little more or lesse in seasonable times the soyle bringeth forth plenty of graine and feeding for Cattell It also bringeth forth Apples Nuts and Filberds other kinds of fruits they scarcely know Of Fish they raise their greatest gaine as having greatest abundance of that commodity they dry them in the frost and wind as in Norway and other Northerly Nations and they lay it up for store as well in their Townes of Warre as for their private Families The Kingdome is not full of Merchants because by nature the Inhabitants are idle And that Province cannot abound with Merchants where Arts and Artificers are not favoured And againe the government is absolute mixed with a kind of tyranny enforcing slavish prostitution So that in the chiefest and best ordered Townes of Novograde and Mosco many strange and fearefull concussions have beene practised Concerning which you have whole Commentaries from whence you may take notice how he once nailed an Ambassadours Hat to his head because he abated him of that reverence appropriate to so great a Majesty How Sir Tho. Smith was entertained with a contrary satisfaction and welcome How Mosco is compared to the grand Caire for spaciousnesse of ground multitude of houses and uncomlinesse of streets so that as the one is patible of stinke corruption and infectious aire so this other is not free from beastlinesse smoke and unwholesome smels They have not the use of the Sea because it is not lawfull for a Moscovite to travell out of his Princes Dominions such and such store of wares as they have as Skinnes Rosin and Wax they barter for Cloth and divers other commodities which the Armenians bring to Astrachan by the Caspian Sea and the English to Saint Nicholas by the Bay of Graduicum This Government is more tyrannicall than of any other Prince in the World for he is absolute Lord and disposer of the bodies and goods of his subjects Therefore Mahumet the Visier was wont to say That the Moscovite and the great Turke amongst all the Princes of the earth were only Lords of their owne Dominions and in that regard thought the journey of King Stephen of Poland would prove full of danger and difficulty The Kingdome is divided into foure parts by them termed Chetferds those governed by foure Lieutenants not resident upon their charges but attending on the Emperours person wheresoever he goeth and there holding their Courts but especially at Mosco the prime seat of the Empire where from their under-Deputies they receive the complaints of the Provinces and informe the Kings Councell of the businesse and from them againe receive instructions for amendment or reformation For you must note that the great Duke doth not trust any particular Nobleman with any eminent place of honour or dignitie but placeth therein a certaine Duke of meanest ranke and no great capacitie adjoyning with him in commission a Secretary to assist him or to speake more properly to direct him for in execution the Secretary doth all And being thus united they have authority over all persons in criminall and civill causes in levying of Taxes and Subsidies in mustring of Souldiers and commanding them to all services imposed by the Emperour or his Councell And to prevent all
Virgins to be deflowred of Idols abominable their exorcismes damnable and the varietie of senselesse profanations most contemptible It is not so spacious but it is as fertill for it yeeldeth not only what is fitting for humane life but whatsoever the delicate and esseminate appetite of man may lust after Many Plants yeeld fruit twice or thrice a yeare and that not only by the temperature of the ayre but by the number of the rivers and plentie of waters which doe both cause trafficke thorow every corner of the Region and so water it on all sides that it resembleth a most pleasant and delectable garden-plot Of this plentie there are three causes one the prodigall expences of the King in digging of trenches thorowout the whole Land sometime cutting thorow rockie Mountaines sometime damming up deepe valleyes to make them levell with high mountaines and to draine the waters of Lakes and Marishes the other for that the whole Region is situated under the temperate Zone and in no place either by nature or mans industrie wanteth moisture so that all creatures taking nourishment of heat and moisture must needs here wonderously prosper In no place Plants may take larger scope to spread their branches nor Cattell larger walkes to wander in than in this Country The last reason is for that the idle are neither severely punished nor altogether tolerated but every one is forced to doe somewhat no foot of land is left unhusbanded nor dramme of stuffe cast away unwrought Among other things note-worthy this one is of great consideration that in Cantan they maintaine foure thousand blind people to grinde corne and Rice every childe is set about somewhat according to his yeares and strength those only who are truly impotent in their limbs and have no friends living to succour them are provided for in Hospitals That none may excuse themselves in saying hee can doe nothing every one is bound to learne his fathers occupation which is the reason that the children borne as it were tradesmen learne their fathers occupations before they perceive it by continuall practice becomming in time most artificiall mechanickes He that cannot live at Land seeketh his maintenance at Sea for that is no lesse inhabited than the Land yea infinite housholds live on the Rivers in Boats without comming to Land for a long season Some whereof live by ferrying over people some by transporting passengers and their merchandize others keepe shops others vessels of lodging for their Merchants and Travellers Whatsoever is needfull for cloathing for food or nourishment delight or ease of a civill life is to be found in the middest of great Rivers Many likewise nourish all sorts of Poultrie especially Duckes in their vessels To hatch the egges and to nourish the young ones they use not the dams as we doe but an artificiall heat in a manner as they doe in Aegypt especially at Cair All night he keepeth them in his Boat and at morning sendeth them to feed in the fields sowed with Rice where all day long having fed on the weeds to the great good of the husbandman they returne toward evening to their Cages at the sound of a little Bell or Cimball Many live by carrying Fish both salt and fresh into the high Countries for in the Spring when the Rivers rise through thawes and landstouds so incomparable quantities of sea-fish doe abound in the havens and creekes that the fishermen depart rather wearied than wanting This fish the Skippers buy for a small matter of the fishermen and keeping them alive in certaine vessels made for the purpose they transport them into Provinces farre remote from the Sea There they are sold and preserved in Pooles and Stewes neere Cities and great Townes to serve the Markets and Tables of the richer Chinois all the yeare long Because it is forbidden any inhabitant to passe out of the Land without leave and therewith neither but for a certaine time limited it must needs be that by the daily increase of people the Country is even pestered with inhabitation It hath beene observed among themselves that for every five that have died seven have beene borne The Climate is so temperate and the aire so wholsome that in mans memory any universall pestilence hath not beene knowne to infest the Country Notwithstanding left any man should thinke this people to enjoy all sweets without some mixture of sowre you must note that their earth-quakes are more dreadfull unto them than any pestilence to us for whole Cities have beene swallowed and Provinces made desart by this punishment These casualties choke up the course of ancient Chanels and make new where were never any before they lay Mountaines levell with the ground and make havocke of the people In the yeare 1555. a deluge breaking out of the bowels of the earth devoured an hundred and fourescore miles of firme land with the Townes and Villages standing thereupon those which escaped the floud lightning and fire from Heaven destroyed There are said to be in China one hundred and fifty Cities two hundred thirty five great Townes one thousand one hundred fifty foure Castles and foure thousand two hundred Boroughs without walls wherein souldiers are quartered of Villages and Hamlets some of them containing a thousand housholds the number is infinite for the Country is so covered with habitation that all China seemeth but as one Towne They have two Metropolitan Cities Nanquin and Panquin In Nanquin toward the North the King keepeth his Court under the jurisdiction of the one are seven Provinces under the other eight Both of them are so spacious that it is a daies journey for a horseman to ride from one end to the other Of the number of the Inhabitants no certainty can bee produced but according to manuscript relations and the report of travellers it is said that the Kingdome containeth threescore and ten millions of living soules This is an admirable report and not to bee beleeved if it be compared with the Provinces of Christendome but surely something above conceit is to be credited to those spacious populous and barbarous Nations Let us set the largenesse of their Provinces the circuit of their Cities their plenty and abundance of all things and in all places either in prospering by nature or mans industry with their number and inhabitation and we shall finde a Country like enough to afford such a reckoning with places cities and dwellings able to containe them and nourishment sufficient to maintaine them Italy exceedeth not nine millions Germany excluding the Swizzers and Netherlands not ten and with the foresaid Provinces not above fifteene which number peradventure France may reach unto Spaine is farre inferiour to Italie Sicilie hath but one million and three hundred thousand England three millions and Belgia as many if by the continuance of the warre in those Countries that number be not much decayed The Italians conceit marvellous highly of themselves thinking no Province upon the face of the earth for wealth and
and Arrow which in stead of Iron they head with the teeth of Fishes and the bones of Beasts Gold Silver and Stone they little regard their chiefest delight is in Feathers and Plumes Insomuch that if these Countries had beene travelled into with unarmed search and peregrination for what occasion of warre could justly bee applied unto those who neither held wealth in estimation neither coveted Honour with ambitious emulation No doubt but all Authors in discoursing of these Nations could have informed you of nothing but Gold-yeelding-Rivers miraculous temperature of Atre strange shapes in Beasts and Birds The Sea abounding with Pearle and Land with Gems And above all Man here living and conversing in his rude and anticke simplicity under the shield of genuine innocency with irkesome hatred of our vile custome and wrangling conditions But alas Avarice under the marke of Religion and Vain glory had no sooner set foot in these terrestriall places as I may say of Paradise but depravation turned all things topsi-turvie Since when happinesse hath taken its flight into some ether Climate and as now nothing is thereof recorded save undermining of Mountaines disembowelling the Earth exiling the Natives unpeopling of Villages and that by tyranny and slavery For in one or two petty battels whole Empires have beene subdued by an handfull of men and a Kingdome conquered in a manner before it hath beene entred And no wonder for this simple and naked people had never seene Horse nor ever heard the report of the Harquebush Without the which peradventure the Spanish Nation had not galloped in so short a time to such miraculous victories no though every petty Commander imployed in that action in these daies stand comparatively paraleld with the worthy Scipio and the Great Alexander To whom in truth the ancient exprobration of the Brittons against the Romans mentioned in Tacitus cannot more feelingly be applied than unto these Indian Spaniards They are the Robbers and Ravishers of the World After the spoile of all Nations through defect of strange Lands and new Conquests they scowre the wide Ocean The riches of the enemy breeds covetousnesse in them the poverty ambition which neither the East nor West can terminate or containe They onely alone covet the wealth and penury of all Nations with equall greedinesse and affectation On Robbery Murther and Villany they colourably impose the glorious title of Empery Solitude and desolation they terme Peace and Tranquillitie So that had not Charles the Emperour cast strict reines upon these licentious and injurious proceedings Spaine had swarmed with slaves and India had quite beene bereaved of almost all her Natives Of foure hundred thousand Inhabitants living in New Spaine at the arrivall of these Spaniards the Country at this day can scant shew you eight thousand About the like number you shall finde in the Fonduras remaining of foure hundred and ten thousand when the Spaniards therein set first footing If you reade their owne Histories you shall meet with no better accounts concerning the present Inhabitation of Hispaniola Guatimala Nicuragua and the Ilands adjacent The greatest number whereof were either slaine led captives or consumed in the Mines Doubtlesse in divulging of the aforesaid Proclamation the good Emperour could not chuse but remember that God whose judgements are profound did once by the cruelties of the Goths the Huns and Saracens waste Italy persecute France and consume Spaine and the consumers were againe consumed in fulnesse of time So may it fall out with those who following the steps of their Predecessors take a glory to amaze the Sea with Ships and the Land with Armies Time may come that Pride shall burne and be consumed with warre and he that buildeth his house wrongfully upon the ruine of another shall himselfe become a booty to Aliens and Strangers The linage of the Moores is not quite extinguished The race of the Indians is not utterly extirpated That progeny as yet surviveth in Italy which in times past and in one day at one watchword slue all the loose French Vsurpers of other mens fortunes And albeit that the fatall cowardize of these Nations dare not presume to arme themselves against their Oppressors yet there raigneth a just God in Heaven who can raise footmen and horsemen from the utmost bounds of the North to asswage and correct the intemperate insolency of bloud-thirsty Tyrants New Spaine or Mexico NEw Spaine is a very large Province better manured pleasanter and more populous than any part of this New world It was possessed by the Spaniard in the yeare 1518. under the leading of Ferdinando Cortez to the great slaughter of the Inhabitants and of his owne people In reward of whose service Charles the fifth bestowed on him the Countrey of Tecoantepec Although it lye under the Torrid Zone yet it is temperate mountainous and full of woods It aboundeth with all good things necessary for life and profitable either for thrift or pleasure as fish flesh gold and stones Of all part of the Indies none is like unto it for habitation For therein the Spaniards have erected many Colonies as Compostella Colima Purificatio Guadaâ—lara Mechoochan c. Whereof the best and fairest is Mexico thorow the whole Indies It should seeme the Shire tooke its name from the Citie In ancient time it was built in the middest of the Lake like Venice but Cortez removed it to the banke therof It is at this day a Citie excellent well built containing six miles in compasse one part whereof the Spaniards inhabit the residue is left to the Natives In this Citie the Vice-Roy and Archbishop keepe their Seats having the privileges of supreme Justice Printing and Coyning The Lake whereon the Citie is built is salt and ebbeth and floweth as the Ocean At ebbe it sendeth its waters into another Lake adjoyning but fresh it yeeldeth no fish but wormes which in Summer putrifie and corrupt the aire and yet of the waters thereof they boile great store of salt The circuit of both these Lakes is about fiftie leagues and about the bankes and in the Islands doe lye above fiftie Townes every one consisting of ten thousand housholds Upon these waters doe ferry fiftie thousand Boats which they terme Canoas to serve the use of the Citie This Countrey was an Indian Empire full of order and State as having seene a succession of ten Kings and enjoying a Soveraigntie over the neighbour Provinces But all this was about an hundred yeares since utterly overthrowne by Ferdinando Cortez who with nine hundred Spaniards assisted with an hundred thousand Indians of Tlascalan neighbours and enemies to the Mexicans with the helpe also of eightie Spanish horse the terrour of seventeene field-peeces and a fleet of twelve or thirteene Pinnaces and six thousand Indian Canoas to trouble the Towne on the Lake side performed this great but easie worke made an absolute Conquest of the Empire of Mexico and imposed the name of New Spaine upon it The Citie hath at this day six
taketh up all that streight wherewith these two spacious parts of the New world are linked as it were with a defensible chaine It is badly inhabited and lesse manured for the contagiousnesse of the aire and standing waters Yet are there therein two famous Cities Theonima or Nombre de dios situated on the North Sea and Panama on the Peruvian or Pacificke sea And whatsoever Merchandise is brought by the Peruvian Sea towards Spaine is unloden in the City of Panama and thence transported by land to Nombre de dios where it is finally againe shipped for Spaine The like course is observed from Spaine to those places Of their forces little can be spoken by reason of their subjection to the Spaniard and ignorance in matter of armes and policy But as for their private commodities as Gold Silver and Stones who knoweth not but that they are the chiefest trafficke of all these Provinces The name it hath from the abundance of Gold and Silver and is divided into foure Provinces first Castella del Oro it selfe secondly Nova Andaluzia thirdly Nova Granata and fourthly Carthagena taken by Sir Francis Drake and this yeare skated by the Hollander Chile VPon the South of Peru toward the Pacificke Sea lieth Chile whose name hath beene derived some say from incredible cold raging therein Yet feeleth it raine lightnings and the alteration of seasons as we doe in Europe It partly lieth upon the Sea-coast and is partly mountainous but somewhat warme toward the Sea-side It beareth all sorts of fruit brought out of Spaine and transporteth many Cattell and store of Ostriches The Rivers runne their course in the day time but in the night by reason of their congelation if they move it is very slowly and weake The Inhabitants are tall well set and warlike and their armes are the bow and arrow their garments the skins of wilde beasts and Sea-wolves It is divided into two Provinces first Chica and secondly Paragones whose people are eleven foot high Here besides Gold is Hony and Wine good store and other Fruits of Spaine five or six townes of Spaniards it also boasteth of Guiana GViana is situated beyond the Mountaines of Peru and betweene the two mighty Rivers Amazone and Orenoquae directly under the Aequinoctiall The Aire is delicate and the soile fruitfull but by reason of the Raines and Rivers so subject to inundations that the people are â—aine to dwell in Arbors made like Birds-nests in the tops of Trees It is so firmely beleeved to bee rich in gold Mines that not onely Sir Walter Raleigh went thither once or twice but there is a new Colony and plantation of English this last yeare sent to live there at the charges of many wise and valiant Gentlemen of our Nation The Planters sustaine themselves by what God and Nature affords them for their labour upon the place Though Gold be the chiefe of their errand yet they purpose to fortifie and secure the place against the Spaniards before they will discover or open any Mine Our Nation hath hitherto lived quietly and beloved of the Caribes which be the ancient native people the way to winne and keepe in with whom being to make much of their little children This Plantation if it pleases God to prosper we may in time heare more of the commendations of Guiana Brasile BRasile lyeth betweene the two mighty Rivers of Maragnon upon the North and Rio de la plata upon the South It was discovered by Americus Vespuccius in the daies of King Emanuel The Country in a manner is all pleasant faire weathered and exceeding healthfull by reason that the gentle winds from Sea doe cleare and evaporate all the morning dewes and clouds making the aire fresh and cleare It is well watered and divided into Plaines and easie Mountaines fertile alwaies flourishing full of Sugar-canes and all other blessings of Nature For hither the Portugals have brought all sorts of Europe Plants with good successe and have therein erected many Ingenors to try their Sugars Hence comes our Brasile-wood the trees whereof are by the Natives hollowed as they stand to make houses and dwelling places Terra Australis THis Land was lately found out and by our latest Cosmographers for the great and spacious circuit thereof as comprehending many large Regions viz. Psitacorum regio Terra del feu go Beac Lucach and Maletur described for the sixth part of the world But what people inhabit them what fashions they use or what profitable commodity fit for the life of man they afford it hath not yet beene by any man discovered Borealis Orbis pars THis division is situated neere unto the North Pole the least of the residue almost all unknowne consisting of Ilands and those situated about the Pole For Authors affirme that under the very Pole lyeth a blacke and high Rocke and three and thirty leagues in compasse and there these Ilands Among which the Ocean disgorging it selfe by 19. Chanels maketh foure whirle-pooles or currents by which the waters are finally caâ—ried towards the North and there swallowed into the bowels of earth That Euripus or whirl-poole which the Scythicke Ocean maketh hath five inlets and by reason of his streit passage and violent course is never frozen The other Euripus on the backside of Groneland hath three inlets and remaines frozen three moneths yearely its length is thirty seven leagues Betweene these two raging Euripi lyeth an Iland about Lappia and Biarmia the habitation they say of the Pigmies A certaine Scholler of Oxford reporteth that thâ—se foure Euripi are ingulphed with such furious violence into some inward receptacle that no ship is able with never so strong or opposite a gale to stem the current And that at no time there bloweth so much wind as will move a wind-mill This is likewise the report of Giraldus Cambrensis in his marvels of Ireland But Blundevile our Countryman is of a contrary opinion neither beleeving that either Pliny or any other Roman came ever thither to describe this promontory or that the Frier of Oxford without the assistance of some cold Deuill out of the middle region of the Aire could approach so neere as to measure those cold parts with this Astrolabe So that as we said in the beginning this is but a meere folly and a fable which some mens boldnesse made other mens ignorance to beleeve And thus conclude wee our Relations THE TABLE A AeGypt 455 Aethiopia Superior 444 Inferior 460 Africa 422 America 625 Armenia the greater 545 Asia 460 Austria 274 B BArbarie 427 Bavaria 301 Bethlen Gabor his Estate in Transylvania 394. in Hungaria 399. a briefe Chronicle of his life and fortunes ibid. Bohemia 277 Borealis orbis pars 643 Boriquen 635 Brandenburg 300 Brasil 642 Brittaine 74 C CAlecute 617 Castella Aurea 640 Cathay 498 Chile 641 China 589 Cuba 633 D DEnmarke 207 Desarts their descriptions and use 45 Dominion the meanes to inlarge it 19 E EVrope 62 F FEz 434 Fonduras 632 France 122 G