Esq Benjamin Woodroff D. D. Canon of Ch. Ch. Oxon Sr. Peter VVyche Lady VVymondesold of Putney Tho. VVyndham Esq Grome of the Bed-chamber John VVyvell Minister by Rochester RICHARD Ld. Arch Bp. of York ROBERT Earl of Yarmouth Robert Yard Esq John Yardley M. D. Col. Med. Lond. S. Hon. Tho. Yate D. D. Principal of Brazen-Nose Coll. Oxon James Young Esq Robert Young Canon of VVindsor ORBIS TERRARUM NOVA ET ACCURATISSIMA TABULA Auctore IOANNE à LOON HONI SOIT QUI MAL Y PENSE Serenissimo Potentissimoque Domino Domino CAROLO SECUNDO Magnae Britanniae Franciae et Hiberniae Reg Defensor Fidei Hanc tabulam totius Orbis D. D. D. 〈…〉 NOVA TOTIUS TERRARUM ORBIS GEOGRAPHICA AC HYDROGRAPHICA TABULA To the Right Reverend Father in God JOHN by divine permission LD. BISHOP of OXON this Mapp is humbly Dedicated Johannes Jansonius à waesberge and Moses Pitt and Steven Swart SEPTEM PLANETA LUNA ♋ ☽ MERCURIUS ♊ ☿ VENUS ♎ ♉ SOL ♌ ☉ MARS ♈ ♂ IUPITER ♠♃ SATURNUS ♑ ♄ QUATUOR ELEMENTAE IGNIS AER AQUA TERRA QUATUOR ANNI TEMPESTATES VER ♈ ♉ ♊ AESTAS ♋ ♌ ♠AUTUMNUS ♎ ♠♠HYEMS ♑ ♒ ♓ SEPTEM MIRABILIA MUNDI MURUS BABYLONIAE COLOSSUS PYRAMIDES MAUSOLEUM DIANAE TEMPLUM IUPITER OLYMPICUS PHAROS AMERICA SEPTENTRIONALISM TERRA AUSTRALIS INCOGNITA THE INTRODUCTION COSMOGRAPHY is a general description of the whole World The Intention of the whole Work consisting of Heaven and Earth of both which an account is intended to be given in this Atlas that of the Heavens is reserv'd to a peculiar Volume It being as we conceive of greater necessity that we begin with that of the Earth And first of this great Globe in general the description whereof belongs to Geography as that of particular Regions and Countries is called Chorography which is contained in their peculiar Maps Nor shall we omit such Topographical descriptions or the knowledg of lesser places as Cities Rivers Mountains c. where advantage may be to the Reader Now this Globe which we call of the Earth consisteth of Land and Water or Seas the description of those is properly nam'd Hydrography which sets forth the superficies of the Seas and mouths of greater Rivers the Havens Rocks Shallows Creeks and such other considerations as concern Navigation to this also an entire Volume in this Edition of an Atlas is designed And because that of ancient times the divisions and boundaries of Kingdoms and Countries were very much divers from those at present to avoid confusion which must needs happen by treating in the same place of things so different it is thought necessary to reserve the ancient Geography to a particular Tome to be put forth with the rest in its due time Thus you have an account of what is intended in the Edition of this Great Work But it is first necessary to explain such terms and lay such general grounds as are of use thro all the Volumes which is the subject of this Preface or Introduction First then it is to be noted Of the Globe of the Earth that the Earth and Water make but one body the figure whereof is round and therefore is best and most naturally represented by those we call Globes tho Maps also or plain Figures if carefully drawn are sufficiently exact This proposition tho it might be supposed rationally enough as now granted by all learned men yet may it be evidently proved both from Celestial and Terrestrial appearances whereof an account and reason may easily be given by this figure and not by any other The Sun and the Stars rise sooner to them who live Eastwardly then they do to us which could not be if the whole face of the Earth were plain 2. To those who live more or less Northward the Pole is more or less elevated for those inhabitants of Iseland Lapland c. who live about a thousand miles more Northward then we do see the Pole-star fifteen degrees higher then we can And those who travel hence towards those Countries do find that this variation is made gradually altering about a degree and a half at the end of every hundred miles which could not be except the body on which they moved were Spherical 3. The Shadow which the Earth casteth upon the Moon when she is partially eclipsed is seen to be circular and therefore the body which causes it must be so too To these we may add that many Propositions in Astronomy Geography and Navigation are founded on this supposition and when they are applyed to use they prove true and succeed according to expectation which certainly they would not always do if the very foundation upon which they are built were unsound The same also is proved by plain sense and experiment as well as by reason and consequence for we perceive that Ships which loose from their Harbours in calm weather disappear gradually first their Hulks then their Sails and after a few miles their highest Masts the natural convexity of the water interposing betwixt them and our sight Several also of our Country-men and Neighbours have sailed round about this Globe loosing hence Westwardly and returning again fromwards the East From which and other Navigations we may conclude not only that naturally no part of the Ocean is higher then another but also that we may sail from any part to any part of the superficies of the Ocean and that every Continent hath Sea about it and is indeed but a greater Island The controversie about the situation of this Globe whether it stand still in the midst Of the situation of the Earth and as it were center of the world as the ancients generally opined or whether it move upon its own axis and about the Sun as the center besides that it is not so much to our purpose in this as in the Volume of the Heavens the Maps and Descriptions being the same in both ways and that the learned are not come to any issue in it nor have we any thing to add to the common and vulgar probable arguments only we shall omit The parts of this Globe are naturally separated one from another by Seas ledges of Mountains Rivers Desarts and the like Which are very opportune for the distinction of Nations Kingdoms and Governments In the beginning of the Creation Of the Waters in this Globe the Waters being lighter then the Earth accordingly overspread and compassed it to some considerable height but whether there was in the beginning a greater quantity of Earth or Water created is an undeterminable curiosity On the third day the Almighty Creator separated them by causing the Waters to sink into the deep and open cavities of the Earth where by the height and strength of the shores they are restrained as in a Vessel from returning to overflow and drown the dry land But if the shores be weak as many times it happeneth the water breaketh thro and overwhelmeth so much of the
I shall not determine but it seems to me that such a quantity of water issueth by these Springs that perhaps all these causes and many more will hardly be sufficient considering that some particular Rivers v. g. Volga vents saith Varenius as much water in one year as the magnitude of the whole Earth amounts to Or if not one as some think they demonstrate yet three or four or as many as flow into the Caspian Sea discharge so much water as cannot well be imagined except we acknowledge a circulation of water not only by being rarified into vapours and condensed again but also in the bowels of the earth To the conceiving whereof perhaps it may somewhat conduce to be informed of the contents of this great Globe at least so much of it as is already discovered by the Miners and Well-diggers tho not to any considerable depth i. e. of a very few fathoms As the Air is the place of the generation of those we call Meteors and the Water of Fowls especially Fishes so is this Earthly Globe of Stones Minerals Salts Bitumens Petroleums and divers sorts of earths And they say that as far as they have digged they find it to consist of several sorts or measures of earth stones c. many times thinly spread one over another yet none of them perfectly circular but from the superficies of the Earth whither in some place or other they reach they dip or slope the further they go still descending deeper as if a line drawn down upon their superfices were part of a Spiral line And this for the great benefit of mankind that the same place may be supplied with variety of soils Thro which measures descend from the superficies of the Earth seams like veins in an animal body which convey the Rain-water that falls upon the Earth and therefore in our Quarries of stone these seams are fill'd with a very thin fine earth for the easier descent of the water neither is this descent in a streight line but one line begins at some small distance from the ending of the upper that more parts of the Earth may be water'd and fertilized by it not only to the production of Plants c. but also of Minerals Stones Coals c. in the very Earth it self And why may not also in great Rains part of this water descend lower to the gravel as well as into the Coal-pits Lead-Mines c. Methinks therefore we may probably say 1. That all those Springs which arise near the bottoms of hills and all such as diminish much in dry weather come from Rain-water or melted Snow 2. Such as arise in plains of which there are not many are furnished with the water in the gravel which is supplied either out of the great Abysse if it be not the Abysse it self not unknown as it seems to Seneca Nimis saith he ille oculis permittit qui non credit esse in abscondito terrae sinus maris vasti or out of the Sea discharging it self by this means into the bowels of the Earth 3. From this water also are supplied the Wells and Pits which in some Countries afford all the water they use many of which also approach nearer the surface of the Earth in summer then winter the greater heat of the Sun forcing them higher 4. That it is not necessary that Salt-springs should bring that tincture from the Sea in wider channels or pipes because that there are great Mines of Salts of divers kinds generated in the Earth the solution of which may very well impregnate the water But these are not so much to our purpose but must be left to their particular Countries where they arise It is most certain that the most wise Creator made all things in number weight and measure which proportions tho we do not understand yet we must needs admire him who in the beginning established such a never-failing harmony Whether this Globe of Earth grow or not Of the growing of the Earth is not much material to our purpose for neither the growth or diminishing of it can be so great as to alter the usual measures or distances Yet it may be rationally said that in low soft and boggy places it doth grow not only by the winds and rain carrying down somewhat still into those parts but also by the grass weeds and fog which by the rain being flatted and beaten down in winter do the next Spring send forth new shoots from the old roots which in tract of time do raise the ground And this seems to be the reason why in such earths we oftentimes find trees which being cut down in those places where they formerly grew and not carried away in good time are at length grown over and cover'd with those weeds and herbs In the bottom of a turff-pit for this matter is not earth but turff they found not long ago a small parcel of Coins upon an heap perhaps they had been tied up in some matter that was putrified of Edward IV. as I judg by the face and this was about eighteen foot deep Which gives us some conjecture how long at most that turff was a growing i. e. eighteen foot in two hundred years by the way also there were a few years ago in the Forest of Dean after the Miners had wrought over a great cinder-heap found divers Coins of Brass fresh as when first minted of Tetricus and some other of those Tyrants about the year 260 which gives some hint by whom and at what time those Iron-mines were wrought Neither doth the dust or small parts of Earth washed or blown from higher places considerably diminish them or fill up the Valleys for then would they also thicken and in time fill up also the Sea which seems to have been the opinion of Polybius who conceived that because he saw the Black or Euxin-Sea in his time to be so muddy and thick it would in time by still thickning become firm land But the Lord of Busbeque in his Ambassy to the Grand Seignior about eighteen hundred years after Polybius found it exactly in the same condition as Polybius had described it The superficies of the Earth is not equally nor perfectly round The figure of the Earth yet are not the extuberances so great or considerable as to hinder the whole Globe to be accounted round the greatest height of the highest mountain making an insensible difference in the computation of the Diameter of the whole Earth Now there is a rising or swelling of the Earth which commonly begins by the Sea-shore and encreaseth the further it reacheth in the Continent besides that of the particular mountains which seems to have been so order'd to make room for the Sea and waters Yet were not all mountains made at or near the birth of the world Some have been even in our memory cast up by Earthquakes as Monte Novo in the Kingdom of Naples near Pozzuolo Others by the winds heaping up the Sands together
which they say happens frequently in the great and sandy Desarts But these are very few and I suppose as easily blown asunder as brought together However these deserve here no particular consideration This rising of the Earth in large Continents is doubtless very great tho none either have or will ever be at the trouble and charge to measure it yet some estimation may be made by the length and swiftness of Rivers It is commonly said that a Ship is not able to sail against that stream whose declivity is one pace in an hundred yet some declivity there must be and as they say seldom is it less then one in five hundred Suppose then the Nile which runs in the greatest Continent Africk which we know in the world it disembogues into the Mediterranean Sea in 31 deg of Northerly Latitude and ariseth out of the Lake Zaire which is in 10 deg or as some say 14 of Southerly Latitude in all 41 deg which comes to about 2460 miles English if running streight but because of its bendings it may be well estimated 3000 miles which allowing two foot to a mile comes to six thousand feet if it move with as slow a motion as can be but considering that it is a swift River the mud not setling till it come to the Sea and hath in it divers great Cataracts the Lake of Zaire must needs be much higher then the mouth of Nilus But the height of mountains is more certainly and easily known and divers of them have been measured as one of the highest hills betwixt Yorkshire and Lancashire Pendle-hill if I be not mis-informed was not found to exceed half a mile in perpendicular height Olympus somewhat above a mile and some others as El Pico in the Isle of Teneriffe yet higher But the certainty we know not The manner of measuring and calculating is thus which is much easier in such a mountain as Teneriff or Pendle-hill being one peak or top standing in a plain then in those Juga or ledges of mountains which run thro and divide most of the great Continents of the world whereof the highest may be still higher then the other Let b c d represent a mountain whose height a c is thus found Take two stations in a straight line from it the first at b not far from the foot the other at e a considerable distance from it from each of these stations take the angles at the top b c a e c a then out of 90 subduct b c a the remainder is the angle c b a which also being subducted from 90 the remainder is the angle c b e. Therefore in the triangle c b e we have one side e b viz. the distance of the two stations which must be exactly measured and all the angles for c e b is the complement of the other two to 180 then say As the sine of the angle e c b is to the side e b So is the sine of the angle c e b to b c. Having then in the rectangular triangle b c a one side b c and all the angles for a b c is the complement of b c a to 90 say then As the Radius is to the sine of b c a So is b c to c a the height By the Quadrat Divide 10000 by the number of parts cut at each station then say As the difference of the Quotients is to the distance betwixt the statitions So is 100 to the height This great Globe is not only divided into Land and Water Divisions of the Earth but many other ways in respect to them As some are Continents which are great parts of Land without any Sea Islands are small parts encompassed by water Peninsula or Chersonesus is a part of Land which would be called an Island were it not for an Isthmus or neck of land which joins it to the Continent A Mountain or Rock jutting out into the Sea is called a Promontory Cape or Headland Again the Ancients divided all they knew of the Earth into three parts Europe Asia and Africa of each of these in their several places but another Hemisphere having been lately discovered there is commonly added to these America as the fourth part Others also name two more the Lands under the North and South Poles which indeed were not comprehended in the former division yet because we know not whether there be Land or only Sea as under the North Pole seems to be it is not expedient to account them distinct parts till better discovered Our Mariners that went with design to pass under or near the North Pole in their search of a passage to China and arrived as far as 82 deg of Latitude found nothing but some few Islands the rest as they could see being in the midst of Summer nothing but Ice Some do imagine that the three parts of the habitable world received their division from the three Sons of Noah and C ham indeed obtained Africa but Japhet dwelt in the Tents or habitations of Shem tho in process of time his posterity seems to have peopled the greatest part of Europe The reason of the names we despair of knowing they having been forgotten even in Herodotus's time there is no hopes now of retrieving them See the discourse concerning the Map of Europe Lastly the parts of the Land before-mentioned The particular observations in the descriptions are very opportune for the separating and distinguishing Countries Nations and Governments The knowledge and consideration whereof is the chiefest and most useful design of this whole Work and all others of the like nature For it little conduceth to know places unless we be also informed of what is contained what actions performed and what concerns our selves may have in them In those therefore we shall consider the names situation bounds of each Country as also what Cities Havens Towns Forts likewise what Mountains Valleys Caves Fountains and other such remarkable and to us and our Country unusual things as nature it self hath formed To which shall be added the condition and quality of the soil and its productions in order to the discovering what in every place abounds and what therein may be communicated to other Countries or what may probably be carried to them in order to trade In every Nation also account shall be given of their original Language Manners Religion Employments c. that if any art or science useful to society be there eminent it may be transferred into our own Country Much more considerable are their Governments Civil and Military their Magistrates Laws Assemblies Courts Rewards and Punishments and such like Neither must we omit the manner of educating their youth in arts liberal and mechanick taught in their Schools Universities Monasteries Shops also and the like Their manner of providing for their poor of all sorts either in Hospitals or Workhouses Lastly it will be expected that we give an account of the History or actions and successes of each
dry land till it meet with an obstacle strong enough to coerce it From hence some do imagine that the Mountains and Valleys were then also formed the Earth being before equal and smooth which is very probable in as much as the Scripture saith that the dry land then first appeared Others also imagine that the height of the highest Mountains equals the depth of the deepest Seas Which indeed may be so but is not evidently deduced from what hath been hitherto observed It is more considerable what Olearius mentions that examining with an instrument the height of the waters of the Caspian Sea he found them level with the top of the bordering Mountains p. 142 of his Travels where he makes no doubt but that the Sea is higher then the Land His experiment supposing it truly made if not to be solved by the greatness of the refraction I know not what to say to it as neither can I resolve Whether the Earth be in the center or middle of the whole world The place of the Earth and that all heavy bodies descend to it as their proper place which is the reason of its stability and unmoveableness tho it seem to hang in the air Or as others think that heavy things descend to the Earth as by a magnetical virtue drawn to it from such a distance But this opinion declares not how the Earth keeps its place in the Air. Or as others say that the Earth is but a shell of no great thickness perhaps of three or four miles and within it is quite hollow by which means the weight is so inconsiderable that it is susteined in the Air as lighter bodies are in the Water and that this cavity is the place of punishment for wicked Angels and men The parts of the Ocean receive different names The parts of the Ocean according to their greatness or their shoes Fretum a Strait is a narrow Sea contain'd between two opposite but not much distant shores and giving opportunity of passing from one Sea to another as the Straits of Gibralter of Magellan Davis the Sound in Denmark c. Sinus a Bay is a part of the Sea running up into the Land and almost encompassed by the shore If but a little one 't is called a Creek if large a Gulf. And in these are Havens or stations for Ships as Roads are in the open Sea but defended from some winds The vast body of the Sea is called the Ocean and the Sea is ordinarily called some lesser part of it let into the Land by a Strait as the Mediterranean Baltick Sea c. A Lake is a large collection of waters enclosed within land some of which have no known or visible communication with any Sea as the Mare Caspium Lacus Asphaltites or Dead Sea Others have Rivers running from them or thro them as the Lacus Lemanus Benacus c. Rivers are made up by Brooks these by Springs Of Springs and Fountains So that their originals are from these Springs but whence that water comes which supplies so many Springs is somewhat dubious 1. Some imagine great caverns in the Earth which being very cold condense the air into drops of water and those being collected make a Spring It is true indeed that all or most of the famous Caves as Ooky-hole c. in this Country have Rivers in them of considerable bigness but those seem not to be there generated but to cross only the passage And in others such as that famous Cave sometimes serving for the quartering of an Army call'd Cavola de Custoza near Vicenza there are in many places continual droppings but whether from coagulated air or vapours or from water draining thro the Earth I know not There are also little Pools made by such droppings and some also that have fish in them but very many such must go to the making up one small Spring 2. Others attribute it to the great abysse mentioned in the Holy Scriptures and doubtless he that made the world best knows the frame and constitution of it if that be his meaning as that very learned man Mr. Lydyat thinks he hath proved There seems indeed to be water in all or most places within the Earth but not in every place at an equal depth Which water runs along in that bed or vein of gravel which lies sometimes higher and sometimes lower Below this I never heard that any one hath digged nor do I think it hardly possible to dig under it Whence this water proceeds i. e. whether from the Sea or Rain or concreated in it is hard to affirm only the Well-diggers do observe that in this gravel also there is a current or stream of the water Why this gravel lies unequally high and how the water ascends in it is a difficult question which some solve by saying that 't is contained in the gravel as the blood in the veins of an humane body and moves with the like vital motion others imagine that because the gravel is an opener mass of bodies not closely contiguous together the water runs in them and is forced into higher places by some other causes as by the motion of the Sea violently impelling it in those narrow and crooked passages but these being only conjectures we must not enlarge too much upon them 3. Most men think that all Springs proceed from the Sea-water dulcified by percolation thro the gravel or other convenient passages of the Earth The difficulty that oppresseth this is that it is not easie to imagine how the Sea-water should rise to the tops of mountains yet even there are often found Sea-plants naturally growing which perswade many men of the truth of that opinion tho they cannot justifie the manner And there are also divers Lakes upon the highest hills amongst the Alps as particularly upon Splugen which notwithstanding the top of the water be frozen in winter yet do Trouts and other fish live very well in them which perswade the inhabitants that there is communication betwixt those Lakes and other fresh waters 4. Others are of opinion that the water that furnishes Springs is that of Rain or Snow which comes from the clouds and consists either of drops of Rains or of smaller Dew-drops whereof many together make Rain And these Clouds hanging commonly upon the hills furnish them chiefly with moisture which being reserved in Cisterns or sometimes in mosses break or spring forth where they find the easiest passage Sometimes the summity of the hill is either a Lake or a Bog and keeps the water as in a Pond lined with Clay till it come to such a height as it overflows And this is the reason both of the continuance of Springs and why there are so few in Plains because the Rain-water that falleth there goes down by the seams of the Earth so deep that it cannot spring up again nor are there mountains so near as to supply them from their Caverns Whether any or all of these opinions are false
nearest distance betwixt the two places measured by the arc of a great Circle is the other side But this case hath so many varieties and intricacies that it will be too tedious to set down the whole operation especially because it is in effect the same problem with that in Navigation Having the difference of Longitude and Latitude betwixt two places to find out the degrees of the Rumb leading to them which may be more properly demonstrated in another Volume to be set forth concerning such matters An easie method and sufficiently accurate for ordinary use is to extend your Compasses from one place to the other and then to apply them to the Equator and mark how many degrees they set off there which being multiplied by 60 gives their distance in miles But indeed the most accurate observers find that about 66 miles and a quarter answer to a degree in the Equator so that 60 is used only for the roundness of the number and readiness of computation every mile according to this rate answering to a minute which would be a very strange and happy chance if it were exactly so This may be discovered by several ways but the most practicable and certain is by taking the height of the Pole at two places distant Northward one from the other about an hundred miles or as much more as may be and then taking the true distance and situation of one place from the other by a large surveying Instrument and Scale made by an accurate workman not going always along the High-ways but from bystations observing Churches and such remarkable places The miles and other measures are so much different in one Nation from what they are in another yea in one part of the same Nation from what they are in another that they cannot without a great deal of difficulty and uncertainty be reduced to one common standard hence it is that often in the same Map we have a triple scale of miles the longest shortest and mean ones The Italian mile is commonly reckon'd equal to the English Two of these make a French League somewhat more then three of them a Spanish League four of them a German mile five and somewhat more a Swedish or Danish mile What hath been farther attempted for the reduction of shorter foreign measures to our English foot may be seen in the following table  English Feet Inch. 10th part English Foot 00 12 00 Rynland or Lynden which was the old Roman Foot 01 00 04 Leyden Ell 02 03 01 Paris Foot 01 00 08 Lyon Ell 03 11 07 Bologna Ell 02 00 08 Amsterdam Foot 00 11 03 Ell 02 03 02 Brill Foot 01 01 02 Dort Foot 01 02 02 Antwerp Foot 00 11 03 Ell 02 03 03 Lorain Foot 00 11 04 Mechlin Foot 00 11 00 Middleburg Foot 00 11 09 Strasburg Foot 00 11 00 Bremen Foot 00 11 06 Cologn Foot 00 11 04 Frankford and Menain Foot 00 11 04 Ell 01 09 09 Hamburg Ell 01 10 08 Leipsig Ell 02 03 01 Lubic Ell 01 09 08 Noremburgh Foot 01 00 01 Ell 02 03 03 Bavaria Foot 00 11 04 Vienna Foot 01 00 06 Spanish or Castile Palm 00 09 00 Spanish Vare or Rod 03 00 00 Foot 01 00 00 Lisbon Vare 02 09 00 Gibralter Vare 02 09 01 Toledo Foot 00 10 07 Vare 02 08 02 Roman Larger Foot 00 11 01 Roman Lesser Foot 00 11 06 Roman Palm ten making a Canna 00 08 08 Bononia Foot 01 02 04 Ell 02 01 07 Perch 12 00 05 Florence Ell or Brace 01 11 00 Naples Palm 00 09 06 Brace 02 01 02 Canna 06 10 05 Genoa Palm 00 09 06 Mantoua Foot 01 06 08 Milan Calamus 06 06 05 Parma Cubit 01 10 04 Venice Foot 01 01 09 Dantzick Foot 00 11 03 Ell 01 10 08 Copenhagen Foot 00 11 06 Prague in Bohemia Foot 01 00 03 Riga Foot 01 09 09 China Cubit 01 00 02 Turin Foot 01 00 07 Cairo Cubit 01 09 09 Persian Arash 03 02 03 Constantinople greater Pike 02 02 04 Greek Foot 01 00 01 PAge 7. col 2. l. 29. in the Transactions of the Royal Society ann 1674 n. 101 it is mentioned that the Grand Tzaar sent to discover Nova Zembla and found it a Peninsula join'd to Tartary as in the Map which if true we cannot well imagine how Barents should winter upon it nor how divers other relations agree to it as concerning Waygatz and the like tho the French Surgeon seems to make it also continued to the main land In sum it is most probable that very little of those parts is discovered they who sail thither not tracing from Port to Port but because of the ill weather harbouring where they first approach and departing as soon as they can In the year 1676 the industrious and ingenious Seaman Capt. Wood was again sent out by his Majesty King Charles II. to make a more perfect discovery of that North-East passage perswaded unto it by divers relations of our own and Dutch Mariners who reported many things concerning it which Capt. Wood upon his own experience conceives to be false as that they were either under or near the Pole that it was there all thaw'd water and the weather as warm as at Amsterdam c. He saith further that himself could pass no further then 76 deg where he found the Sea as far as he could discern entirely frozen without intermission That it is most likely that Nova Zembla and Greenland are the same Continent at least that there is no passage between them for that he found scarce any current and that little which was ran E. S. E. along the ice and seemed only to be a small tide rising not above eight foot That whilst he was in that degree there was nothing but Fogs Frost Snow and all imaginable ill weather tho at the same time the heat seemed to be as great as at any time in England That the land where not cover'd with Snow was so boggy that they could not walk upon it being grown over with a deep moss under which they dug in less then two foot to a firm body of ice so that it was impossible to make any Cave for their winter-lodging had they been forced to it There were great store of rills of very good waters and some veins of black Marble The point he landed at he call'd Speedill point in 76 deg 30 min. the sea-Sea-water was extraordinary salt and so clear that he could see the shells at 80 fathoms deep The like opinion also Capt. James hath deliver'd concerning the North-West passage which is That there is no passing that way to China Japan c. because there is a constant tide ebb and flood setting into Hudsons Straits the flood still coming from the Eastward which as it procedes correspondent to the distance it alters its time of full Sea which also entring into Bays and broken ground becomes distracted and reverseth with half tides 2. Because he found
surface of the water in the Islands but rather that the high-water is caused by the winds The whole land is so encompassed with Ice The Ice and cold that it is difficult to be approach'd and 1613 about the middle of June the Ice was so much and so strong that the Ships which went from Holland to the Whale-fishing were not able to come to the shore nor was the Snow thawed from the Land The Rain-Deer also and other Beasts were many of them starv'd for want of food Though ordinarily the Ice breaks in May yet if the Northerly or Easterly winds continue long for those are the coldest the Frost endures the longer For though the Sun stay half the year yet never arising above 33 deg 40 min. above the Horizon its beams are so few and scatter'd that they are most-times insufficient to dissolve the Ice much less to dispel the cold From the weakness of the heat also it proceeds that the vapours from the earth are neither hot enough to warm the air nor thin enough to rise to any considerable height but they hang continually in thick dark mists upon the mountains and sometimes upon the earth it self insomuch that he which is at one end of his Ship cannot discern his companion at the other Concerning the Cold and Ice it is further remarkable that the Ice is oftentimes raised above the water many 16 fathoms and this is much fresher than the other many-times also it is thirty-five fathoms underwater which is more salt and easilier melted It is frozen sometimes to the bottom of the Sea Freezing makes a great and to them who have not heard it before a terrible sound as the Ice doth also at the breaking Sometimes it breaks only into great pieces which is very dangerous to the Ships for then many times the Sea beaten from one Ice to another is turn'd into a whirlpool which overturns the Ships Sometimes it shatters at once into small pieces with more noise but less danger The Seamen defended their vessels at first with Ropes Mats and such like soft and loose materials hung down by the sides of the Ships whereby they thought to break the force of the Ice but they quickly found this too weak a defence Now they use Poles Hooks and the like to keep it at a distance and that the Ship may drive along before it which serves well in a calm but an high wind often dashing the Ice against the Ship breaks it to pieces Sometimes it is crushed between two pieces of Ice sometimes thrust up upon other pieces William Barents found upon a great Ice 10 fathoms above water much earth and Fowls-Eggs lying upon it The Beasts of this Country are only these The beasts 1. Foxes white gray tawny and black 2. Rain-Deer which by feeding upon the yellow Moss in three months grow to a prodigious fatness above four inches upon the ribs which seems to be the reason why they are able to endure so long a winter though sometimes also they dye for want of food At the first discovery they did not fear or avoid our people but when one of them found himself wounded with a bullet he assaulted the shooter threw him down and had not his companions rescued him the poor man was in danger to have lost his life they are now as wild as other Deer 3 Bears chiefly white ones which are of a wonderful largeness 6 foot high their skins 14 foot long above an 100 weight of fat has been taken out of one of them and they have strength proportionable When our men had killed so large a Bear that they were not able to bring him off and went to call for more help another Bear coming by accident took him up in his mouth and run away with him and at a distance began to eat him Our men coming when he had eaten near half of him found the other half as much as four of them could tug to their tent The Hollanders in Nova Zembla observed that when the Sun disappeared the Bears left them till the Sun returned and in their stead the Foxes grew more bold The largest sort of Bears are those they call Water-Bears that live by what they catch in the Sea where they have been seen swimming twelve miles from any shore The Dutch Relation saith that skins have been seen fourteen ells long but they meant feet Our men say that the story of their bringing forth their young deformed and that they reduce them into shape by licking is a fable for that they have seen very young ones and some also taken out of their Dams bellies perfectly formed In this Country there doth not breed any great quantity of Land-fowls 〈◊〉 there is one of the bigness of a Lark with a square bill that feeds upon worms and tasts not fishy Another they call Snow-Fowl of the bigness and colour of a Sparrow with a white belly being almost starved they flew into a Ship in great abundance and were so tame that the Mariners took as many of them as they pleased but as soon as they were fed with Hasty-pudding flew away and would no more come near them Of Water-fowl there is great variety as Cuthbert-Ducks Willocks Stints Sea-Pigeons Sea-Parrets Guls Noddies and in so great abundance that with their flights they darken the Sun and at their rising make such a noise that persons talking together cannot hear one another speak Particularly there is one called by the Dutch Raadtsheer all white as Snow except his Bill which is thin small and sharp his feet and eyes he lives upon what he can get in the water 2. A Diver or Didapper called by the Mariners a Pigeon because of the noise he makes almost as big as a Duck with a thin crooked sharp-pointed bill two inches long feathers black legs and feet red these swim very swift endure long under water and are tolerable good meat 3. Like to this but somewhat bigger is the Lumb only his belly is white and his noise like the croaking of a frog these build in the Mountains and carry their young ones in their beaks to the Sea to teach them to swim and dive their flesh is not good 4. The Mew called Kutle-gehf from the noise he makes hath a crooked bill with a bunch under it his belly is all white his wings and back gray with black pinions legs and feet and a red ring about his eyes the Fishermen baiting their hooks with Whales-flesh catch store of these Mews as if they were Fish He is pursued by another fowl for his dung which as soon as he hath dropt the other eats and leaves him 5. The Allen pursues and beats the other Birds till they vomit their prey for him to devour which when done he goes his way from them There are also great quantities of Fishes in these Seas as Seals Dog-fishes Lobsters Gernels Fishes or Shrimp-gurnets Star-fish Mackrel Dragon-fish Dolphins Buts-head Unicorns and the like But
the chiefest profit and that which draws men to those desolate and comfortless places is the Whale-fishing Of Whales there are several sorts some unprofitable to the Fishers Whales as the Jubarta of a black colour sixty foot long with a fin upon his back his fins are nothing worth his back yeilds some not much Oyl his belly none at all Sedeva is of a white colour bigger then the rest his fins not above a foot long scarce any Oyl Sedeva Negra is of a black colour with a great tumor upon his back yields neither Oyl Fins nor Teeth Sewria white as Snow of the bigness of a Wherry yeilds little Oyl no fins but is good to eat Those which are more sought after and profitable are the Bearded or Grand-Bay because first killed in Grand-bay in Newfoundland black with a smooth skin and a thin shining membrane over it white under the chaps this is the best for Oyl and Fins yielding an hundred Hogsheads of Oyl and five hundred Fins he is commonly about eighty foot long Sarda is like the other but lesser so yeilds lesser Oyl and Fins hath growing things like Barnacles upon his back Trumpa as long but thicker then the former of a grey colour with one spout in his head the others have two and teeth about a span long but no Fins in his mouth In his head he hath a hole like a Well wherein lies that they call Spermaceti they also sometimes find Amber-grise in his guts like Cow-dung his Oyl coagulates and will be solid and white as Tallow he will yeild forty Hogsheads of Oyl Otta-Sotta gray having white fins in his mouth not above a yard long he yeilds the best Oil but not above thirty Hogsheads These Fins are that we call the Whale-bone and groweth in the upper jaw on either side of his mouth about three hundred of a side but the short ones are not regarded The Ancients thought that he lived upon the froth of the Sea which he raised and as it were churned by violent beating upon the water with these Fins and afterwards sucked it up and that because many times they found his stomach quite empty Others say that he feeds upon such plants and weeds as he finds in the Sea for they have found great quantity of such in his stomack but it is most likely that his chiefest meat are a certain sort of small Crabs some call them Sea-Beetles and Sea-Spiders whereof the Bays of that Sea are so cover'd that they seem black with them of which sometimes his Fins hang full which afterwards he sucks in These he pursues continually for they have both found the Crabs themselves and also sometimes great quantities in some a Bushel of those little Stones called Oculi-Cancrorum in his stomach That they devour not great Fishes it is manifest because their throat is so very strait not above half a foot wide The Female hath her natural part seven or eight foot wide the young one being bigger than an Hogshead when first brought forth and the Male's is equal to a little Pillar seven or eight foot long she brings forth her Foetus alive and nourisheth it with Milk which is white and sweet but tasting somewhat fishy her Teats two in number are as it were sheath'd in her breasts that they appear not till the young one comes to suck Their skins the ancients used instead of Ropes as also for covering their Houses and defence against the cold under the skin is that they call the Blubber or Adeps out of which being cut into thin slices and put into hot Coppers the Oyl is melted the flesh is thrown away the ribs are employ'd to make the houses of the Laps Fins Samoieds and the like the other bones they burn The Tail serves for a chopping block whereupon to cut their blubber For the manner of catching and ordering the Whale Whale-fishing it is this When they have discovered him which is by his spouting water which they can discern at a great distance though where they see plenty of those small Crabs they have good hopes of finding the Whales seldom fewer then two Shallops well man'd make towards him and row to him so near that the Harponer hath opportunity to lance out his Harping-iron which he doth with all his force but strikes not at adventure for some parts of him his head particularly are not vulnerable but either upon a soft piece of flesh which he hath near his spout or under a Fin. The Beast as soon as wounded hasts down to the bottom of the Sea they still giving him more Rope whereof one end is fastened to the Harping-iron then they diligently watch his rising again when with their lances they wound him in the belly and such places as are softest and deep as they can taking heed always that he strike not them or their boat with his tail When they see him spout up blood they know he draws towards his death and that shortly after he turns up his white belly which as soon as they spy they hale him close to the Ship and with great Knives slice his sides raising the blubber from the flesh which they do by fixing in it strong Iron Hooks made fast to a Ship rope which by a pully they lift up still as they cut and loosen the blubber many of these great flakes they put upon a rope and so drag them to the Shore where they are heaved up by a Crane and laid upon the Tail of the Fish chopt into small pieces afterwards sliced thin like Trenchers so put into the Cauldrons or Coppers which becoming brown with the fire are called Frittures are taken out and cast away as having yeilded their Oyl The Liquor then is laded out into a Boat half full of water both to cool and cleanse it by suffering all the filth to sink to the bottom and thence by long Troughs that it may be more cooled conveyed into the Hogsheads or other like vessels The Whale-bone The head which is at least one third of the whole Fish is cut off and tug'd as near the Shore as they can bring it then hoised up by a crane and the Fins Bronchiae Pinnae or whatever you please to call them their substance is like horn but we call them Whale-bone are cut out dressed and bound up by fifties and the rest of the head which yeilds Oyl cut as the rest of the body The tongue particularly which being very great of the figure of a Wool-sack is also fastened at both ends and lifted up only in the midst with which he spouteth up the water and about eight tuns weight veildeth from six to eleven Hogsheads One Housson a Diep-man in 1634 got twenty six Hogsheads Cados out of one tongue and a hundred and twenty out of the body of one Whale The Whale hath many enemies The Whales enemies 1. A kind of lowse or insect that eats through his skin to devour the fat he hath on
of his subjects and have persons sent to instruct and govern them according to those excellent rules which themselves there saw Which things were accordingly granted and Governors sent and Castles and Towns order'd to be built and the people to be instructed as they still continue to do MOSCOVIAE PARS AVSTRALIS Isaaco Massa The several Provinces of Russia THE first Province of Russia toward the North-East is Obdoria situate betwixt Ob and Pechora or Petzora Rivers 〈…〉 A large country but thinly inhabited which may be the reason that it is in our Maps call'd Samoiedia more frequently than Obdoria as if it were only the country of the Samoieds Concerning the great River Ob or Oby we have but little of certainty for I cannot find that any of our Merchants have been there An English Factor before ann 1600 employ'd one Englishman with others his servants to discover the way unto and the trade of it by land but they were imprison'd by order of the Russ-Governors who seem unwilling that any one should understand that profit but themselves Some conceive that these people are mention'd in Curtius and other ancient Authors by the name of Scythae Abii from the River Aby or Oby but it is uncertain The River it self is said to arise from a Lake call'd Cataisko as if the Catayans whom most men conceive to be the Chineses lived upon or near it It is said also that it receives many great Rivers whereof we know little besides the names that it is navigable two hundred leagues from the Sea that it disembogues into the Sea beyond the Straits of Waygats that the mouth is eighty Versts or Italian miles broad yet many shallows and flats in it and that it is plentifully stored with Fish The Samoieds seem to say that an English Ship did many years ago arrive there but being there wracked the men were all killed by the Samoieds Betwixt Oby and Petzora 〈◊〉 is a very large Country like a Promontory running very far into the North or Frozen Ocean in which as I said are the Provinces of Obdora and Condora how separated we know not nor any thing else of them more then that they receiv'd the faith of Christ in 1618 and they were not in the titles of the Grand Tzar before Ivan Vasilowich From Medemskoy Zavorot in the mouth of Pechora to Ob are sixteen days sailing with a good wind Six days to Breit-Vinnose in the Straits of Waygats leaving the Rock Sacolia Lowdia on the Starboard-side Waygats was at first mention'd by Steph. Burroughs but not known whether to be a distinct Island or part of Nova Zembla and in some of our late Maps it is quite omitted and instead of it is put Fretum Nassauvianum according to the fancy of our neighbours The inhabitants they say are Samoieds very barbarous men-eaters c. Over against these Straits a new Map printed at Nurenburgh this year 1679 in the Continent where we conceive Obdora and Condora hath plac'd by what authority and whether with the good liking of the Grand Tzar let them consider who are concern'd New Walckeren New Holland and New West-Frieseland besides divers other names of the Low Countries I suppose it proceeds only from an itch they have of attributing all discoveries to and giving names by themselves The Bay of Petzora is called Yongorsky-shar and there fall in divers great Rivers as Cara-reca or the black River Moetnaia-reca the muddy River Zolena-reca the green River betwixt it and Ob. Petzora also is named both in the Grand Tzars title and by Authors also as a Province Petzora which they say is bounded by the River of that name and the great mountains called Ziemni-poias or Cingulum mundi In 1611 a Ship was sent to settle a Factory at Pechora they found the Bar very shallow nine or ten foot water afterwards they came into the Suchoi-more or dry Sea because of the shallowness of the water The inhabitants say that Pechora flows into the Sea with seventy-two mouths others say six only the Channel that trendeth South-West is the deepest and best The Town is called Pustozera because on a Lake which the Russes call'd Osera and it lies in 68 deg 30 min. of Latitude In the Town are three Churches and the people poor speak a language of their own and are Christians ever since 1518 they live chiefly upon the Geese and other fowl which they catch in the Spring and Summer whose feathers they sell to Merchants and the flesh they powder and dry for Winter The River is plentifully stored with fish especially Salmons whereof in one year they took above fifteen thousand which they salt sell and convey to Mezen by land They live commonly upon fresh fish boil'd and dry'd Hither use to come every year two thousand Samoieds with their commodities The Pechora runs thro great Permia and the head of it is five weeks journey above Pustozera Divers great Rivers fall into it as Shapkina Nougorotka Habeaga and Ouse of which besides the names we know nothing East of the Pechora lies the Promontory of Borandey scarce mention'd in any Author the chief Town whereof is Vetzora the inhabitants are originally Samoieds but somewhat civiliz'd by the Muscovites Three days journey above Pustozera lies upon the same River Oust-zilma a Town of about threescore houses in 66 deg and 30 min. where they have Ry and Barley growing very good and where is a very good trade for Furs Siberia call'd by the Russes Sibior Siberia is much of the same nature tho more South then Obdoria and Petzora from which it is divided by those high and terrible mountains called Ziemni-poias which by reason of the cold winds to which they are exposed and continual snow are very barren and hardly passable in many places Here and there are trees some say Cedars and about them the blackest Sables and the best white Falcons Herberstein reports that there were some persons that after seventeen days travel to go over them return'd back as thinking them unpassable They were heretofore all Samoieds and in Bar. Herbersteins time had neither Castle nor City situated upon the River Cama out out of it ariseth the Jaycks a large River that passing thro the plains of Tartary enters into the Caspian Sea The Country was then also full of Woods and Lakes and almost desart till they submitted to the Muscovite together with the other Samoieds The Country is so call'd from Sibier or Sibior the first built City amongst them tho Tobolsca be the chiefest which is a City of great trade to which the Teseeks Boughars and Tartars bring very rich commodities from Persia of all sorts Papinougorod also is a good trading Town so call'd from the Nation of the Papini amongst whom it is built who were a sort of Samoieds and had a peculiar language But Siberia is now for nothing more famous then that it is the place of banishment for such either offenders as
Black Sea for fear of the guard which is always kept by the Turks in the ancient ruines which they call Aslan-Korodick Tawan is the greatest and easiest passage of the Tartars the river not being above five hundred paces broad being all in one channel The last pass and at the mouth of the Nieper is Oczacow where the river is three miles broad yet both the Tartars and others pass it frequently in this manner they furnish themselves with flat-bottom'd boats at the stern whereof they fasten across poles of a good length upon which they tye the heads of their horses as many on the one side as the other to balance them they put their baggage in the boat and row it over and with it the horses The Turks pass'd over in this manner forty thousand horse when the Grand Seignior sent to besiege Azak or Azow at the mouth of Don in the year 1643 which the Donski Cosacks had taken from him the year before Oucze Sauram or Nowe Koniecpolsky is the lowest habitation the Polacks have towards Oczacow which was begun to be built in the year 1634. Oczacow call'd by the Turks Dziancrimenda is the place where the Turkish galleys lye to keep the entrance into the Black Sea there is no port but good anchorage the Castle is well fortified the Town not so well there are in it about two thousand inhabitants Below that is a platform with good ordnance to guard the mouth of the river About three miles below Oczacow is an haven called Berezan upon a river called Anczakrick it is sufficiently deep for galleys Southward of that are two Lakes Jesero Teligol and Kuialik both of them so abundant in fish that the water having no exit stinks of them yet they come above an hundred and fifty miles to fish there Bielogrod is about three miles from the Sea upon the river Niester anciently called Tyras by the Turks Kierman This Town is under the Turk as is also Killa well fortified with a counterscarp the Castle is above the Town upon the Danow opposite to it on the other bank of the Danow is Kiha where are seen divers ancient ruines Betwixt Bielogrod and Killa are the plains of Budziack where the rebel or banditi Tartars refuge themselves who acknowledg no superior either Turk or Cham they are always watching upon the confines of Poland to catch what Christians they can and sell them to the Turks of these we have spoken before There are also many Turkish villages along the south-bank of the Niester but all the country betwixt that and the Danow as also betwixt that and the Nieper are desarts and are inhabitated by those Tartars who there pasture their flocks of whom we have spoken already Such also was the Vkrain till of late that the industry of the late Kings of Poland and the valour of the Cosacks has render'd it as fruitful as it was before desart We may judg of it by what Monsieur Beauplan saith that in seventeen years that he lived in that country himself laid the foundations of above fifty colonies which in a few year sprouted into above a thousand villages But being so lately planted the Reader cannot expect we should have much to inform him Yet it is not amiss to give some account of animals which are almost proper to this country They have a beast which they call Bobac Anim. not much unlike a Guiny-pig they make holes in the earth whereinto they enter in October and come not abroad till April within they have many little apartments disposing severally their provision their dead their lodging c. eight or nine families live together as in a City each having his particular habitation They are easily tamed and are very gamesome in an house When they go to make their provision they set a sentinel who as soon as he spies any one gives a signal by making a noise and they all haste to their caves many more things are spoken of these little creatures as that they have slaves and punishments c. Sounaky a kind of goat is desired for his beautiful sattin-like fur and white shining smooth delicate horns He hath no bone in his nose and cannot feed except he go backward Thy have many wild horses but of no value only for their flesh which they sell in the markets and think it better then Beef or Veal When these horses come to be old their hoofs so straiten their feet being never pared that they can hardly go as if that beast was so made for mans use that without his care he was unprofitable NOVISSIMA POLONIAE REGNI Descriptio Nobiliss tam dignitate â—…ueris quan Meritis ac Patriam Honoratiis Viro D. no NICOLAO PAHL in celeberrimo Maris Balthici emporio Vrbe GEDANENSI Praeconsuli vicepraesidi bonarum artium Patrono ac fautori observantiae ergò D. D. D. IOANNES IANSSONIVS POLAND POLONIA or Poland call'd by the Natives Polska takes its name as some conjecture from Pole which in the Slavonian language here commonly spoken signifies a plain and champain Country such as this Kingdom for the most part consists of Others suppose that the inhabitants from their first Captain Lechus or Lachus being called Po-lachi that is the posterity of Lachus and by corruption Polani and Poloni imparted their name to their country And in favour of this opinion it may be urged that they call themselves Polacci the Italians Polacchi the Russians Greeks and Tartars call them Lachi and Lechitae the Hungarians Lengel probably for Lechel the same with Po-lachi But Hartknoch finding the Bulanes placed by Ptolomy among the ancient inhabitants of Sarmatia and observing the Poloni to be call'd Bolani and Bolanii by the German writers thinks he hath made the fairest discovery of the original of the word Nevertheless Cromerus affirms that the present name either of the country or people hath not been in use above nine hundred years Certainly in the time of Alfred King of England about the year 880 this Country was called Weonodland and before that by the Romans generally Sarmatia as being the best known part of that great Country Only that branch of Poland which lies on the west-side of the Weissel belonged to old Germany and as Ptolomy acquaints us was inhabited by the Aelvaeones the Luti Omanni Longi Diduni and Luti Buri with other German Colonies By some writers the same is assigned to Vandalia and the Vistula called Vandalus having been for a time in the possession of the Vandals The people of Poland are the undoubted off-spring of the Slavi Slavini or Slavonians seated in Justinians time as Jornandes relates on the north-side of the Carpathian mountains from the fountain of the Weisel to the Niester and thence extending themselves westward to the Danube and eastward to the Euxin Sea from which parts they then made innundations into the Roman Empire In their first expeditions they were joined with the Antae and Vinidae or Venedi or rather in
and set up a Government for himself in this Province and Helsingia which lyes Northward in Suecia properly so call'd having on the East part of the Province of Medelpadia on the West the Dofrine Mountains on the North Angermannia and on the South part of Helsingia and Medelpadia This Province did anciently belong to the Kings of Norway though in the reign of Olaus Scotkonung it is said to have revolted from Olaus Crassus then King of Norway and become Tributary to the Crowns of Sweden In the year 1613 by a peace concluded between the Northern Crown it was by Gustavus Adolphus yielded up to the King of Denmark but A. 1642 repossess'd by the Swedes Pontanus in his Map of Scandia reckons up some places of note in it viz. Alsne Ron Aus Lidh Hamer-dal Vndersaker Oviken c. In the time of Olaus Magnus this Province was under the jurisdiction of the Arch-Bishop of Vpsal Near a small Village in this Country there are says Messenius several large stones with Gothick Inscriptions which are a prophesy of what for the future would befall the Scandians 5. Herrndalia Herrndalia call'd by Pontanus Herdalia and by most Authors reckon'd as a part of Helsingia contains the Territories of Nomedal Hellegeland Frostena Indera Heroa with some others all which belong to the Dioeceses of the Bishop of Nidrosia and are in the possession of the King of Sweden Of the Baltic Sea the Finnic and Bothnic Bays and the Swedish Islands contain'd in them THe Baltic Sea The Baltic Sea so called says Pontanus from the Saxon and English word Belt because it encompasseth the Kingdom of Sweden after the manner of a belt or girdle or as Jornandes would have it from Baltia or Basilia i. e. Queen of Islands the ancient Greek name of Scandia or Scandinavia or as Adam Bremensis is of opinion from the Wiso-Goths who inhabited upon the Coasts of it usually call'd Balts i. e. a stout and valiant people is the largest of any Sea in Europe except the Mediterranean containing in it five and thirty Islands of considerable bigness besides an infinite number of lesser note The whole Bay as some are of opinion is call'd by Mela Sinus Codanus q. Gothanus or Gothicus from Gothia that borders upon it or Caudanus from Cauda because it comes from the main Ocean after the manner of a tail of a beast by Strabo the Venedic Bay from the Venedae a people of Germany who liv'd upon the Coast of it and by the Danes and Swedes the Oost-Zee because as may be gather'd out of the History of Eric Eigod King of Denmark the Danes who went pilgrimage to the Holy Land used to pass into Russia and the Eastern parts by this Sea It beginneth at the narrow place call'd the Sund and interlacing the Countries of Denmark Sweden Germany and some part of Poland extendeth it self to Livonia and Lithvania It either by reason of the narrowness of the passage by which the Ocean flows into it or because of its Northerly situation whereby the Celestial influences have less power over it never ebbs nor flows From the several Countries and places that it washes it has diverse names given it and is distinguished into different Bays the most remarkable are 1. The Bothnic Bay The Bothnic Bay counted from the Island Alandia Northward to the River Kimi which falls into it at the very furthest Cape It has its name from Both signifying in the Swedish Language a Fenny Country or a Land overflown with water 2. The Finnic Bay The Finnic Bay so call'd from the Principality of Finland which it waters Some will have the Sinus Venedicus of Strabo and the Mare Amalchium of Pliny particularly to denote this Bay The Swedish Islands in this Sea concerning those that are under the Danish Power see Denmark to begin with the most Southerly first are 1. Rugen upon the Coasts of Pomeren given to the Swedes by the great Treaty of peace at Munster and Osnaburg A. D. 1649. Of which consult the Volume of Germany 2. Bornholm is situate more Northward then Rugen and lyes opposite to Blekingia it has one City in it nam'd Santwyk and thirty-two small Villages This Island was by a Ratification of Peace held at Copenhagen A. D. 1660 given up to the Danes under certain conditions of which mention is made in Denmark 3. Huena or Hueen a very small Island in the Oresundic Bay famous for the City Vraniburg built by that excellent Mathematician Tycho Brahe where the Pole is elevated 55 deg 54 min. This Isle was yielded up to the Swedes by vertue of the foremention'd Peace concluded betwixt the two Northern Crowns A. D. 1660. 4. Vtklippa 5. Vtlengia both lying over against Blekingia 6. Oelandia a fruitful and pleasant Island in which are said to be the best breed of Horses that are in all the Swedish Dominions This Island A. D. 1526 was taken by Christiern King of Denmark and shortly after regain'd by Gustavus I. King of Sweden A. D. 1613 it was put into the hands of Gustavus Adolphus and ever since retain'd by the Swedes See more concerning it amongst the Provinces of Gothia 7. Gotland lying over against Ostro-Gothia in length seventy-two miles and in breadth twenty For a long time almost torn in pieces by the continual Arms of Denmark and Sweden till 1648 by a Treaty of Peace betwixt Christina Queen of Swedeland and Christiern IV. of Denmark it with the City Wisbuy of which see amongst the Gothic Provinces was wholly yielded up into the hands of the Swedes to be held by them as a perpetual possession 8. Oselia call'd by Pliny Oserica opposite to Liefland and reckon'd by some as a District of Esthonia fifty-six miles in length and twenty-eight in breadth In it is the City Arnsburg fortifyed with a strong Castle 9. Daghoe Dachden or Dagheroort parted from Oselia by a very narrow Bay 10. Alandia lying in the middle Sea betwixt it and Vpland reckon'd by some as a part of Finland in it is the Fort Castleholm 11. Hogland in the Finnic Bay with severalothers of less note and importance REGNI DANIAE Accuratissima delineato Nobilissimo Amplissimo Consultissimoque Viro D. GERARDO SCHAEP I. V. D. Inclyti et Celeberrimi Ansterodamensium Emporii Consuli ac Senatori et ad Serenissimos SVECIAE DANIAque Reges Legato Dignissimo Fidelissimo D. D. D. Ioannes Ianssonius DENMARK SAxo Grammaticus deduces the name of Denmark Danmark or Dania from Dan 〈◊〉 the son of Humblus a Prince of these parts many years before the coming of our Saviour This opinion seems to have been an ancient tradition amongst the Danes and is confirmed by one of the old Chronicles of their Kings published by Wormius out of a manuscript copy of the Scanian Laws writ in Runick characters in the beginning of which we read Dan heet den forste cunung i Danmurk der var fore Christus borth Af hannom call is Danmurk i. e. The first
same persons went again arriving there July 2 they went on Shore and July 6 slew abundance of Morsses and not only with Shot as they did the year before but with Lances dextrously used directing them to certain places of their bodies they began also to boil their Blubber and made 11 Tuns of Oyl 5 of their bellies will yeild one Hogshead and abundance of Teeth Here also they found a Lead-mine under Mount-misery and brought away about 30 Tun of the Oar. In 1606 the same Ship with the same persons was sent again and landed July 3 in 74 deg 55 min. where they stayed till the Ice was all cleared for the Morsses will not come to Shore till the Ice be all vanished where at one time in six hours they slew betwixt 7 and 800 Morsses and 2 great Bears they made 22 Tuns of Oyl and 3 Hogsheads of Teeth In 1608 June 21 was so hot that the melted Pitch run down the sides of their Ship in 7 hours time they slew above 900 Morsses making 31 Tuns of Oyl and above 2 Hogsheads of Teeth besides 40 more They took alive into their Ship 2 young Morsses a Male and Female the Female died the Male lived 10 weeks in England where they taught it many things In 1610 at another voyage with two Ships they killed many Bears and saw divers young ones no bigger than young Lambs very gamesome and lusty they brought two of them into England Much Fowl also they slew and many Seals and June 15 set up an Ensign in token of possession of the Island for the Muscovia Company in Gull-Island they found three Lead-mines and a Coal-mine on the North side of the Island Three Ships more also came to fish at Cherry-Island they killed 500 Morsses at one time at other times near 300 more one man killing forty with his lance at one days hunting The Morss Walrush Horse-whale Rosmarus Morsses or Sea-horse for so he is by the Ancients often called though of late they have discovered another Fish not unlike him with straight teeth which they call the Sea-horse hath a Skin like a Sea-calf with short and sad yellow fur a mouth like a Lion if any hardly discernable ears yet they hear well and are frighted with noise which also is said of the Whale that he is driven away with the sound of a Trumpet large breast short thighs four feet and upon each foot 5 Toes with short sharp Nails with which they climb the Ice and as large as a great Ox having a great semicircular Tusk growing on each side of their upper jaw which are very much valued especially by the Northern people partly for their uses in medicines as to make cramp-rings which they make also of the bristles upon his cheeks to resist poison and other malignant diseases wherein they are at least equal to that called the Unicorns-horn but more for their beauty which is equal to if not surpassing Ivory The heaviness of it makes it much sought after for handles of Swords Their skins being dressed are thicker then two Ox-hides yet light and excellent to make Targets against Darts and Arrows of the Savages They feed upon Fish and Herbs and sleep if there be Ice upon that where if surprised the female casts her young ones of which she hath commonly two at a time into the Sea and her self after them swimming away with them in her arms and if provoked after she hath secured them returning many times to set upon the Boat into which if she can fasten her teeth she will easily sink it But if they be farther from the Water they all rise up together and with their weight and force falling upon the Ice endeavour to break it as they did when surprised by Jonas Pool in 1610 where himself and divers of his men escaped drowning very narrowly one of them being in the Sea the Morsses set upon him with their teeth but with very great labour and hazzard of his company he escaped death though sore wounded Frequently also they sleep on the Shore and if they have convenience upon an high and steep place they always go in great companies and set one to keep watch which if surprised a sleep 't is an easy matter to kill all the rest but if he give warning by grunting they clap their hinder feet under their two tusks and so roll into the Sea But if they be caught on plain ground yet are they hardly slain being both strong and fierce and all hasting one way to the water The Dutch at first were very much troubled to kill them their Shot the beast valued not much their Hatchets and Half-pikes would not pierce them nor did they think they could be killed except struck with great force in the midst of the forehead The first time they set upon them of 200 they could not kill one but went for their Ordinance to shoot them Our men after a little experience found the way to dispatch them with Javelins as is before rehearsed Some imagine this to be John-Mayens-Island but it seems rather that it is not for the northmost point of that is in 71 d. 23 m. whereas this is 74 d. 55 m. except the Dutch be not so accurate in their observations and calculations as were to be wisht which I much suspect v. Nova-Zembla Besides Cherry-Island is round not frequented with Whales but Morsses Our men also have travelled it on foot from North to South which on Mayens-Island cannot be done and though they tell many particulars of the place yet they never mention the great Beeren-berg Hope-Island indeed is a long Island lies much what as they say of Mayens and hath been visited by the Whale-fishers but it is more North then they place their Island The itch of ascribing discoveries to themselves hath brought as I fear confusion both in this and many other matters of this nature JOHN MAYENS-ISLAND JOhn Mayens-Island so called from the name of the first Discoverer as the Dutch pretend seems by the English to be called Hope-Island or if not I know not whether the English have been upon it It seems not to be of any great consequence all that is spoken of it being that it extends in length from South-west to North-east The farther it shoots out in length the more contracted and narrower it grows in breadth so that in the middle the distance is very small between both Shores Before the Whale-fishing was removed to Greenland in the Summer time this Island was much frequented by the Sea-men whom trade invited thither and the Island was well known to most of the Northern adventurers of Europe but since the Whales have deserted those Shores and have removed their Sea-quarters farther to the North the Sea-men and Fisher-men have been forced to follow their Prey to Greenland For it seems the Whales either weary of the place or sensible of their own danger do often change their Harbours In the Spring time the western side of the
Island is not so much enclosed with Ice as that which lies in the North where it runs out into the Sea with a sharp point behind the Mountain of Bears for on this side all the year long the Ice never removes from the Shore above ten miles and in the Spring time so besieges it that there is no passage through it For which reason the Mariners who are bound for this Island use all the care they can to avoid the Eastern and to make directly to the Western Shore there to lie while the fishing season continues if by miscarriage they come upon the East-side they are then forced to fetch a compass about the North part of the Island whereby they are not only exposed to the terrible winds that blow off from Bears-Mountain but also to the dangers of the Floating Ice for here the Sea flows from South to North and ebbs from North to South At the Northern end of the Island appears the Bears-Mountain of a prodigious height and so perpendicularly steep that it is impossible to climb to the top of it This Mountain from the Bears there frequently seen called Beerenberg or the Bears-Mountain at the bottom takes up the whole space between the Eastern and the Western Shore on the North-side it leaves a little room for leveller ground to the Ocean and being of prodigious height may be descryed 30 miles off at Sea The Sea-coast lies thus 1 Noords-hoeck or the Northern Angle is the extream point shooting out to the North. 2 Oosthoeck is the most Eastern point Ysbergh mark'd 1. 2. 3. are three Mountains of Ice or rather vast heaps of congealed Snow which dissolved by the heat of the Sun falls from the top of Bears-Mountain but upon the Sun 's retiring freezes again 3 Zuydoost-hoeck is the Southeast Angle From this point the Shore extends it self from East to West to a little Island and then winds again to the West and South in some places not passable by reason of its steepness in others smooth enough 4 Cleyn Sand-bay or Little Sand-bay Eyerland or Eggland being certain Rocks full of Birds here about a Musket shot from the Shore the Sea is 60 fathom deep and a little farther the sounding line will not reach to the bottom 5 Groote Hoot-bay or great wood-bay by reason of the great pieces of rotten timber that are there found In this which is the narrowest part of the Island are certain Mountains not very steep from the top whereof any person calling them that stand upon either Shore may be heard by both 6 Cleyn Hoot-bay or Little Wood-bay 7 English Bay and several others to which the Dutch have given such names as they thought fit GRONELAND CAlled also Groenland Groinland The name and situation and more anciently Engroenland lies as the Islanders say like an Half-moon about the North of their Countrey at the distance of four days sailing But it seems not to lye so much East but rather on the North of America From Cape Farewell in 60 deg 30 min. on the South it is unknown to how many degrees in the North. The East and West are encompass'd by two great Oceans but at what degrees of Longitude is not yet discovered Only Mr. Fotherby found it near the Coast of Groneland in 71 deg and the South of Greenland to be above two hundred leagues It is said to have been discover'd first by a Norwegian Gentleman Ancient discoveries whose name was Eric Rotcop or Red Head who having committed a murther in Iseland to save his life resolved to adventure to another Country whereof he had heard some obscure flying reports He succeeded so well that he arrived in a safe Harbour called Sandstasm lying between two Mountainous Promontories the one upon an Island over against Groneland which he called Huidserken or White Shirt because of the Snow upon it the other on the Continent called Huarf Eric He winter'd in the Island but when the season suffer'd pass'd into the Continent which because of its greenness and flourishing he called Groneland Thence he sent his Son to Olaus Trugger King of Norway to get his pardon which was easily granted when he was inform'd by him of this new discovery Whereupon divers Gentlemen adventured to plant there who multiplying not long after divided the whole Country into the Eastern and Western and built two Cities Garde and Albe In Albe was a Bishops See and a Cathedral Church dedicated to St. Anthony The Seat also of the Vice-Roy sent thither from time to time by the Norwegian They write also of a great Monastery called of St. Thomas wherein was a Spring whose water was so hot that it dressed all their meat and being conveyed into the Cells and other Rooms in pipes heated all the Monastery as if it had been so many Stoves They say also that this Monastery is built all of Pumice-stones and that this hot water falling upon them mixeth with the outer parts and produces a sort of clammy matter which serves instead of Lime But what the Norwegians conquered By the Norwegians or possessed in this Country was an inconsiderable corner of that large Continent Themselves mention a Nation whom they call Skrelingers to have inhabited in the middle of the Land but what they were we know not But whether their paucity exposed them to the mercilesness of the Natives or whether it were an Epidemical disease which they called the black Plague which swept away not only most of that Nation in Groneland but also the Merchants and Mariners in Norway that maintained that traffique or whether it were some other reason which is now forgotten so it is that since 1349 little intelligence hath descended to us concerning Groneland till seeking the North-west passage to China occasioned more knowledg of it In 1389 they say that the King of Denmark sent a Fleet thither with intention to re-establish his dominion in those parts but that being cast away discouraged him from any further enterprise till now of late Christian IV renewed somewhat again of that navigation of which by and by In 1406 the Bishop of Drontheim sent a Priest called Andreas to succeed Henry Bishop of Garda if dead if alive to return and bring notice of the state of the Church there But Andreas never came back nor hath there been since any further care taken to supply Bishops or maintain Christianity there There is a relation in Purchas's Pilgrim part 3 of one Ivor Boty a Gronelander translated 1560 out of the Norweighish Language which gives a sufficiently particular account of all the places in that Country inhabited by Christians but nothing besides Afterwards another part of it is said to be discovered by Antonio Zani A. Zani the relation of whose adventures is at large in Hackluits third Volume I shall not insert them because not useful to our present purpose And tho there be grounds sufficient to make us doubt of some of these relations yet not to reject
their boats and strip themselves of their clothes but never like some other Barbarians sell their wives and children Their clothing is either of birds skins Their Clothing with the feathers and down upon them or Seals Dog-fish or the like Seals they use most in their fishing because that fish there abounds and are easily deceived by seeing one clad in their own Livery besides that these kind of furs are not so apt to be wet tho dip'd in water They wear the hair sides outward in summer inward in winter and in great colds carry two or more suits one upon another They dress their skins very well making them dry soft and durable and sow them also very strong with sinews of beasts and needles made of fish-bones But in nothing do they shew so much art Their Boats as in their Boats or Canoes They are made of that we call Whalebone about an inch thick and broad and these not set like ribs but all along from prow to poop fast sowed to one another with strong sinews and cover'd over with Seals-skin They are from ten to twenty foot long and about two foot broad made like a Weavers shuttle sharp at both ends so that he can row either way and in making this pointedness they are of all things most curious for therein consists the strength of their Vessel In the middle of it are the ribs both to keep the sides asunder and to make the hole in the covering wherein the rower sits They have a deck made of the same materials which is closely fasten'd to the sides in the midst whereof is a round hole as big as the middle of a man so that when he goes to Sea he sets himself in that hole stretching out his feet forward into the hollow of the Boat he stops up the hole so close with his frock or loose upper garment that no water can enter tho it were in the bottom of the Sea His frock is strait tyed at the hand-wrists and to his neck and his capouch sowed also close to it so that if the Boat be overturned or overwhelmed in the Sea he rises up again without any wet either upon his skin or in his Boat They have but one oar which is about six foot long with a paddle six inches broad at either end this serves him both to ballance his Boat and move it which he doth with that incredible celerity that one of our Boats with ten oars is not able to keep company with them the Danish relation saith that they rowed so swift that they even dazled the eyes of the spectators and tho they crossed frequently yet never interfered or hit one another Their fishing ordinarily is darting Their Fishing their darts are long strongly barbed and at the other end have bladders fastned to them that when they have struck the fish he may spend himself with strugling to get under water which yet he cannot do and so is easily taken Besides these they have greater Boats for the removing their tents and other utensils as also to carry their fish they have caught to their houses these are thirty and forty foot long and have sometimes ten and sometimes more seats for rowers Cardinal Bembus in his Venetian History saith that in his time one of these with seven persons in it was by storm cast upon the coast of Britany I know not whether it be worth mentioning that they have Kettles and Pans made of stone some say of Loadstone that endures the fire wonderfully but not having tools fit to hollow them sufficiently they make up the edges of Whalebone FREESLAND or FRISELAND LIeth in 60 deg more westerly than any part of Europe distant from Iseland â—… leagues It is reported in bigness not to be much lesser than England a ragged and high land the mountains cover'd with snow and the coast so full of drift Ice that it is almost inaccessible It was first discovered to us by Nicolao and Antonio Zani It s Discovery two Venetian Gentlemen that were here shipwrack'd They describe the inhabitants to be good Christians very civil and to be govern'd by a great Lord whose name was Zichmay whose mighty conquests and strange accidents may be read in Hackluit It is not our business to write or repeat romances Those men whom our Seamen touching there accidently saw were like in all things to the Gronelanders both in features of body and manner of living as much as they could judge so like that many of them thought it continued to Groneland in which opinion also they were confirm'd by the multitudes of the Islands of ice which coming from the north argued land to be that way for many of our Mariners hold that salt water doth not freeze but that all the ice they find in the Sea comes from the Bays and mouths of fresh water Rivers for the ice it self is sweet and fresh being dissolved and serves to all purposes as well as spring or river water Besides the salt Sea they say is always in motion and so cannot freeze But the Dutch who wintred in Nova Zembla took notice that the salt water freez'd and that two inches thick in one night There seems to be good fishing every where upon the coast In their soundings they brought up a sort of pale Coral and little stones clear as Chrystal They call'd it West England and one of the highest mountains they called Charing-Cross EUROPA delineata et recens edita per NICOLAUM VISSCHER Nobilissimo Prudent Domino D. SIMONI VAN HOORN Consulo et Senatori Vrbis Amstelodamensis 〈◊〉 Ordinum Belgicae Feoderatae nomine ad Magnae Britanniae Regem nuper Legato extraordinario Tabulam hanc D. D. Nicolaus Visscher EUROPE THE Holy Scripture a Monument ancienter The peopling of the world after the Flood and of greater authority then any among the Heathens declares the whole earth after the Flood to have been overspread by the sons of Noah Cham's posterity seems to have peopled Africa and some parts of the adjoining Continent yet not so universally but that divers Colonies were there planted both of the sons of Sem and Japhet The posterities of Sem and Japhet were so intermingled that even anciently much less in these later times there could not be any exact distinguishing of their limits Tho the common opinion is that Japhet's sons inhabited the greatest part of Europe We must therefore omit this division for want of evidence and content our selves with that of the Ancients dividing the then known world into Europe Asia and Africa the modern discoverers have added America The ancient division of the world Now when this division of the Earth into Europe Asia and Africa was first instituted as also the reasons of it and of the impositions of the names is to us utterly unknown That it is very ancient appears by Herodotus the first credible Historian that we have of the Heathens and from what he says in his fourth Book
Suedes At the Treaty 1616 of Stolbow the Grand Tzar quitted the title of this Country to the King of Sweden Vodska or Votska thirty leagues North of Novogorod Vodska upon its left hand is the strong Castle of Ivanogorod surrender'd to the Swedes by the same Treaty as well as the Towns Jamagrod and Augdow and the Castles Coporia Noteburg and Kexholm They say that all the beasts that are brought into this Province turn white The inhabitants have a language proper to themselves Woskopitin is by some Authors placed between Kexholm and Noteburg Woskopitin a large and fruitful Province both for Corn and Cattle but so pester'd with Lakes and Marshes that it is very little frequented and the name scarce known Bieleiezioro Bieleiozioro situated upon a Lake of the same name and signification i.e. the White Lake which Lake is thirteen Leagues long and as many broad and furnishes only one River call'd Sosna which falls into the Wolga In this Lake is a Castle both for natural and artisicial strength accounted impregnable whither in times of danger the Princes have sent their treasure and themselves also retired The whole Province is full of Woods and Lakes that except when they are hard frozen it is not easily passable Near this Lake is another small Lake that produceth Sulphur I rather suppose Naphtha or Petroleum swimming like froth or oyl upon the water This is said to be first possessed by Sinaus Varegus whose brother Truvor setled in Pskouvia and Runiz in Novogardia These three are by the Russes look'd upon as the Founders of their Nation Vologda is the only City in all the Grand Tzars dominions that is fortified with a stone-wall Vologda and for its strength the Emperor is wont in times of danger to secure here part of his treasure It is as the rest of those Westerly and Northerly Provinces much encumbred with Woods and Marshes many of which are except in Winter utterly unpassable It is situated upon the River Waga which falls into the Dwina and it together with all the Provinces mention'd since Dwina belonged to the Dutchy of Novogorod Novogorod call'd Weliki or the Great Novogorod to distinguish it from others of that name The Dutch call it Nieugarten in 58 deg 23 min. situated upon the River Volgda not Volga or Volchou famous for its Bremes a little below the Lake Ilmin Whilst it was governed by its own Prince it was in so great power fame and wealth by reason of the vast commerce of several Nations there established that it was proverbially spoken Who can do any thing against God and Great Novogorod The reason of this trading was the convenience of the River which being navigable from the very Spring and the Country abounding in Wheat Flax Hemp Honey Wax and Leather which is better dressed here than in any other place invited hither so many Merchants from all the Northern Countries and those upon the Baltick Sea that it was the greatest City of all the North for trade and wealth The first diminution of it was from Vitold Duke of Lithvania who 1427 obliged the City to compound for their peace at a great rate But Ivan Vasili Grotsdin 1477 forced them to receive a Governour from him but that not satisfying of him he went thither in person pretending I know not what devotion and by the help of the Bishop being admitted into the City with his Army he pillag'd it carrying away three hundred Carts loaden with Jewels Gold and Silver besides many more filled with rich stuffs and sumptuous moveables all which he sent to Moscow and transported many of the inhabitants into other places and sent Muscovites to inhabit in their steads But their greatest calamity was from Ivan Vasilowich in 1569 who upon a suspition of their endeavouring to revolt came hither with his army slew drowned and trampled to death a vast number of people presently after this follow'd a great plague which brought so great a famine that they eat one another the Tzar on this occasion pretending to punish their inhumanity cut to pieces the greatest part of the remaining inhabitants His barbarous cruelties here acted are not sitting to be repeated It was in 1611 taken by the Swedes by storm but at the great Treaty between the two Crowns of Russia and Sweden it was agreed to be redeliver'd to the Russes and in their hands it hath continued ever since On the other side the water is a strong Castle built of stone join'd to the City by a large Bridge wherein lives the Weywod or Governor and the Metropolitan by which two all the affairs Ecclesiastical Civil and Military in all that Province are governed The Town is encompass'd with a Rampart of timber and earth and hath a Castle in the midst reasonably well fortified There are about an hundred Monasteries whereof that of St. Antony is the chiefest Churches and Chappels which have their Steeples and Towers cover'd with Copper gilded the Cathedral Church is that of St. Sophia In the territory belonging to this City Brunitza Sedrowa and Stara-Russa are Brunitza Sedrowa and Stara-Russa which the Baron of Herberstein calls Russ and saith it gave name to all the Russes Near that Town is a salt River which the inhabitants have formed into a Lake and with Conduits draw the salt-salt-water to their houses where they boil the Salt with which and other commodities they drive a great trade into Polotskow a Province of Poland The Russes say that near to Novogorod was the famous battel of Whips mention'd by Justin l. 2. and many other Authors wherewith the Masters returning victorious after some years wars conquer'd their Slaves who in the long time of their absence had seized upon their estates and wives which is the reason why the Novogorod-money had formerly on one side an Horse-man shaking his whip Bielski is a Province between Novogorod and Smolensko Bielski having its principal City and Castle called Biela Bielha or Bielow situated on the River Osca This had heretofore a Prince of its own subject to the descendents of Jagellan Duke of Litvania till Basilius Prince of Bielski fell off to the Grand Tzar and agreed to pay him tribute it now augments the number of his Titles As doth also that of Rischow Rischow which hath also a Castle and City of that name it had also formerly a Prince of its own but now is a member of the Russ-Empire The Country is full of Forrests and Lakes particularly here is that great Forrest of Wolchonisky wherein arise the Volga the Dnieper the Dwina and the Lowat all great Rivers Near to this are Woloizk famous for its white Hares and the Princes frequent hunting there Wyelikyeluki a large City with a good Castle And Toropyecz a large Town also and a Castle all which came to the Crown of Russia by surrender of their proper Lords T wer is near to the foresaid 〈…〉 North-West from Moskow The capital Town
commonly retires thither to hunt In the Town are reckon'd near thirty thousand inhabitants East of this is the City and Principality of Wolodomir Wolodomir which was anciently the Metropolis of all the Russes till Ivan or Danislow built Moskow and translated the seat of the Empire thither more out of danger of the invasion of the Tartars The soil so fruitful that it renders frequently thirty for one The City is the second in the Empire for greatness and was built by Wolodomir one of the chief Founders of the Empire in 928. Some say that he married Helena the daughter of Niceph. Phocas but the Chronology will hardly permit it East of Wolodomir is the City and Province of Nisi-Novogrod in Dutch Nisen Nieugarten or little Novogrod Nisi-Novogrod some call it Novogrod the lower or in the low Countries a Country very fruitful and pleasant This Province also is the utmost limits of Christianity for tho the Grand Tzar have some dominions East of it even as far as the River and Castle Sura yet are most of the inhabitants there Czremiss and Mordwitz Tartars and follow Mahomet The City is in 56 deg 28 min. it is situated at the confluence of the Rivers Occa and Volga which being join'd make a River of four hundred Geometrical feet broad It is inhabited by Russes and Germans who had here the exercise of the Reformed Religion There is also a famous Church built above six hundred years ago in imitation of that of St. Sophia in Constantinople All provisions are exceedingly cheap Here is a very strong Castle cut out of the main Rock with very great charge and trouble by the Grand Tzar Vasilie Ivanowich Near to this is Vasiligrod Vasiligrod at 55 deg 51 min. where the Sura falls into the Volga between Novogrod and Cazan Bezvodna Kadniza Rubotka Tzetschina Targinits Jurkin Masa Kremonki Parmino besides others are large Villages in this Province Spessabelka Stoba Welikopat Tsimonskoy and Dioploy are considerable Islands in the Rivers The Principality of Casinow is also near to this Casinow The inhabitants speak the Tartar language All their women go with their heads uncover'd and dy the nails of their fingers black Wiatka or Viathka a Province City Wiatka and River of the same name lies North of Nisi-Novogrod it is a barren marish Country Vasilie took it from the Tartars and annexed it to his Crown and Titles yet the Tartars still lurk and steal what they can about and amongst the Russes In this Province are the Towns of Chilinova Orlo Cotenicz and Sloboda Amongst those Countries live the Czremisses and Mordwa-Tartars Czremisses and Mordwa-Tartars Their Customs are not much different save that the Mordwitz have some few more houses Those on the right hand of the Wolga they call Nagorni Mountainiers those on the other Lugowi or inhabitants of the plain and grassy Countries There are amongst them some Mahumetans but the greatest part are Heathen who believe that there is one eternal God and evil Angels also which they endeavour to pacifie lest they should do them harm and this is a great part of their Religion Not far from Casan is a River called Nemda to which they go in pilgrimage where as also in a Brook hard by the Nemda called Schokshem they think the Devil dwells This Brook hath not above four foot water but never freezeth whence they conceive such fancies that they dare not approach at too near a distance and then also with presents lest the Devil should be angry with and kill them tho they see the Russes have not the least apprehensions of any such danger When they sacrifice they kill an Horse Cow or Sheep and hang the skin upon a pole between two trees they rost or boil the flesh part of which they take in one hand and Mead or some other beverage in the other and throw it into the fire before the skin praying the skin to take care of presenting their prayers and requests to God which are only for conveniencies of this life They worship also the Sun and Moon and what they dream of in the night but have neither Temple Priest nor Service Their language is peculiar to themselves tho being under the Grand Tzar many of them now speak the Russ If a rich man dy they kill his best Horse to serve him in the next world but his nearest friends eat him Polygamy is frequent amongst them but if a wife be without children three years they dismiss her and take another and often the sister of a former wife Their women are wrapp'd rather then habited in white Cloth which leaves nothing of them seen but their faces those who are betrothed have on their heads a Coif with a point half an ell long whereat hangs a bell The men shave their heads All of them men and women are very swift and excellent Archers The Mordwitz have a kind of a Governor or Captain of their own but they are all subject to the Grand Tzar whom they are obliged to assist in all his wars but pay him no tribute except what presents they voluntarily send him Resan is situated betwixt Occa and Don Resan or Tanais which riseth in this Country near to it is the City of Colunna Columna or Colon but the chiefest City of Resan is also called Resan upon the Occa near the Isle of Strub which heretofore was a Government of it self This Province is the most fruitful in all Russia if not in the world if they romance not too much who say that one grain produceth many stalks each stalk many ears that it grows so thick and strong that an Horse can very difficultly pass thro it or a Quail fly out of it they till every year but never manure their land The fruits also here are very good the people also very couragious civil and liberal towards strangers The Province is able to send fifteen thousand Cavaliers to the wars and forty thousand foot In this Province are great Towns Corsira or Cassier formerly head of a Province of its own name Tulla on the edge of the great Desart it hath a strong stone Castle built by the Grand Tzar Basilius who took it by force from the Prince that had the right and dominion of it Odoiow where Tulla and Vppa flow into the Occa. Near to this was Msczeneck a strong Fort but now ruined Thereabouts live a few poor people in their Huts who refuge themselves in the great Marshes which take up all that Country upon the invasion of the Tartars Colluga famous for its wooden Ware Czirpac near to which are Iron-Mines the only sort of Mines in all Muscovy And Worotin a small Province all upon the Occa as also the Towns of Cazigorod and Murina This River breeds the best fish and watereth the richest meadows in all Russia We have not yet spoken of Leucomoria Loppia and some other Countries upon the Ob and the North Sea because part of
about three English miles containing not above six thousand inhabitants and encompassed with a silly trench of twenty-five foot broad The Roman Communion hath four Churches the Greek ten which they call Cerkuils and a kind of University called Bracha Cerkuils It hath a reasonable trading for corn furs wax honey tallow and salt-fish They have four jurisdictions that of the Bishop of the Palatine or Starost of the Wovit and of the Consuls of the City Half a league below Kiow 〈…〉 is a large Village called Piecharre where is a noble Monastery the habitation of the Metropolitan or Patriarch And under the mountain close by it are divers grots dug like mines wherein are conserved many bodies buried very many years ago amongst others there are saith Beauplan three heads in dishes which every day distill an oyl soveraign for several diseases the bodies are neither so black nor hard as Mummies the place is a sandy-stone but very dry it seems to be of the same nature of that called Roma subterranea Below Piecharre is Stayky Stayky an ancient Town on the top of a mountain as all those ancient Towns are even in Italy built so for strength and security There is also a Ferry to pass men over the river After that is Richow where is an easie passage over the river Lower is Tretemirof a Monastery amongst inaccessible rocks Here the Cosacks conserved the choicest of their wealth A league below that is Pereaslaw a strong Town of six thousand families Here the Cosacks have a Regiment as they have another and a Ferry at Kaniow a little lower but on the east bank of the Nieper On the same side is Cirkacse the center of all their retreats burnt by the Polanders ann 1637. On the same side is Krilow and below that Kremierczow the lowest Town upon the river all below it being desart A league from thence the river Pseczoll and a little lower on Russia side Omelnik fall into the Nieper as also on the Poland bank Worsko and Orel two rivers very full of fish Here are divers dwarf-Cherry and Almond-trees which one of our country-men I doubt mistakeingly hath placed far on the north of Volga Continuing down the river are many Isles most of them uninhabited because overflowed in the spring but much frequented by fishers Divers rivers also encrease the Niester at Romanow but chiefly Samar which supplies not only much fish but other commodities as honey wax venison and especially timber The Cosacks call it the holy river and in the spring here are said to be caught sturgeons and herrings A little below that the Polonians built a fort in the year 1635 at Kudac which is the first of the Porohi Poroui or Porohi called anciently Catadupae Porouhi in the Russ-language signifies a rock of stone and of these there are thirteen chains or as it were causeys that cross the Boristhenes and render the navigation from the Vkrain to the Black Sea impossible so that tho the Vkrain be a very fruitful country in corn and all other commodity yet the inhabitants not being able to vend them suffer much of it to lye unhusbanded or at least not so well as it might be Of these rocks some are under some above water ten foot as big as houses and very near to one another so that stopping the course of the river they make very great falls some to fifteen foot when the water is low for in the spring when the river is swelled with the melted snow they are all except the seventh called Nienashtes which only there hindreth navigation covered with water Betwixt Budelou and Tawolzany which are the tenth and eleventh the Tartars do often swim the river the banks being shallow A little below the lowest Porouhi is an Island they call Kaczawanicze or boil-millet because here they make good cheer when they have passed the Porouhi Below that is a river a Promontory and the best passage for the Tartars the river not being above an hundred and fifty paces broad called Kuczkosow Below that is the Isle Tomahowka whither the Cosacks often resort and rendezvous But their chiefest retreat is below the river Czertomelik upon an Island where are some old ruines but which is compassed about with a vast number of small Islands some dry some overflowed in the spring some marshes but all cover'd with canes as big as pikes which hide the passages between the Islands and render it all a great labyrinth known only to the Cosacks who call it Scarbniza Woyskowa or the treasure of the army Here they lay up all their ordnance their money and whatever will not spoil by the water The Turks have lost many gallies so engaged amongst these Isles that they could neither go backward nor forward and were seized by the Cosacks Here also they make their Cholna of which more by and by From these Porouhi the Cosacks take their name of Zaporouski which are the great body in imitation whereof the Donski are lately set up None can be a Zaporouski Cosack who hath not passed in his little boat all the Porouhi's i.e. who hath not made a course or voyage upon the Black Sea no more then he can be a Knight of Malta that hath not made a Caravane We shall first shew the original and actions of the Cosacks and afterwards finish what concerns the Boristhenes and the countries adjacent The Cosacks Of the Cosacks so called saith a late author from Cosa which in the Slavonian language signifies a sythe their ordinary weapon began in the time of Sigismund I. King of Poland and were certain volontiers upon the frontiers of Russia Volhinia and Podolia that troop'd togegether partly to defend themselves from the Tartars which they did by fighting them at the passages over the Nieper as they returned with their prey partly to rob upon the Black Sea where they getting very rich booty drew more into their association At first they were about six thousand under Eustachius Daskovicius their General But their numbers quickly encreased their neighbours seeing the rich booties got by their pyracies part whereof they laid in their Skarbniza Woskowa the rest they brought home to their own houses agreeing upon a time of rendezvousing the next spring upon the Isles and Rocks of Nieper whence they again return to their pyracy Stephen Batory King of Poland considering the service which might be made of these thieves in defending the frontiers of his country from the inrodes of the Tartars Their Establishment to which they were too much exposed owned them and formed them into an orderly Militia giving them the Town and territory of Trethimirow about eighty miles in length in the Palatinate of Kiow upon the Boristhenes appointing them a General to whom he gave power to chuse his under-officers giving them many priviledges besides some pay he joined to them also two thousand horse to the maintainance of whom he assigned the fourth part of his demesne whence they
and many other superstitions they seem to have borrowed from the Romans who came into this country under the conduct of Palaemon Hence they used to burn their dead expecting saith Cajalowicz part I. Hist Lithv lib. 5. p. 140. a resurrection out of the ashes at the coming of a strange God to judge the whole earth from the top of one of their mountains From these Idolatrous practises they were first converted to Christianity by Vladislaus Jagello their Great Duke who A. D. 1386 upon his marriage with Hedvig Queen of Poland turned Christian and was baptized at Cracow by John Bishop of that See He is said to have been a very pious and zealous Prince and exceeding diligent in bringing over the whole Dukedom of Lithvania to the Christian religion At the first he met with no small opposition but when the King had cut down their tall trees the Temples of their Heathenish Gods and no mischief befell him the people begun to think their Idols would never take this affront if able to revenge themselves and therefore they were resolved to listen to their Princes advice Whereupon the King immediately built a Cathedral and founded a Bishoprick at Vilna and the Queen furnished seven parish Churches in the neighbourhood with Chalices vestments and all other necessaries for divine service The Russians at that time as most of them are still were members of the Greek Church so that the King thought good to forbid marriage with a Russ that would not conform to the Church of Rome At this day many Lithvanians are of the Greek Church tho more of the Roman In Vilna and several other great Towns vast numbers of the Inhabitants are Lutherans The whole Dukedom is divided into ten Palatinates the Metropolis and chief of which is Vilna The next is the Palatinate of Troki 3. Minsko 4. Novogrod 5. Breste 6. Volhinia 7. Kiow 8. Miecislaw 9. Vitebsk 10. Poloxko Vilna called by the Inhabitants Vilensski by the Germans die Wilde has its name from the river upon which 't is seated The houses are generally low and mean all of wood excepting only in some streets where Merchants of other nations that resort hither for trade have built themselves more then ordinary gentile ones of stone Most of the Churches are of stone some of wood The suburbs are not built here as at other Cities in Europe but round the walls in a confused and disorderly manner every man placing his house which is nothing else but a wooden booth where he pleases The citizens are exceeding poor and idle slaves to their Nobles and their belly They are taken notice of for great lovers of onions and garlick which kind of diet help'd by their smoaky houses blinds half of them before they arrive at any considerable age Their excessive intemperance in drinking breeds continual quarrels among them If a stranger be kill'd in any such broil the murderer pays only sixteen dollars as a mulct If a Lithvanian be slain and the murderer fly 't is usual to preserve the dead corps embalmed till they can apprehend the fugitive whom they cannot condemn without shewing him the carcase of him he slew There is not one public hospital in the whole City though it stands in more need of such a provision then any place in Europe if we might judge by the swarms of beggars every street affords The only peice of neat building is the Monastery of Bernardine Monks all of hewn stone The Moscovian company of Merchants have also a considerably handsome structure built for a repository of Furrs Ermines and other rich merchandise brought from Mosco The great Dukes Palace has nothing of note in it but the armory which is admirably furnished with all sorts of arms and armour considering that Lithvania it self affords no mines of brass or iron About two English miles from Vilna the great Duke has another Palace called from its situation Wersupa that is near the water built by Sigismund King of Poland all of wood and beautifyed with a Park and pleasant orchards and gardens The rest of the Cities of Lithvania have little in them observable save that they give titles to Palatines and Dukes What numbers there are of these last may be easily guess'd by what is reported of Vitoldus once Great Duke That he had no less then fifty Dukes at once in his army Samogitia THis country has its name from its situation which is low and wet Samogitz in the language of the inhabitants signifying a marshy ground Whence the Moscovite calls it Samotzkasemla It is bounded on the North with Liefland on the East and South with the great Dukedom of Lithvania on the West with the Baltic sea and some parts of Prussia A great part of the country is continually overflown with rivers and Lakes unpassable but in a frost The rest of it is full of woods which afford good store of hony purer and better then any in Lithvania or Liefland The inhabitants differ little from the Lithvanians either in manners habit or language They are sottishly ignorant grosly superstitious and easy to be imposed upon They use no plough in tilling their ground but dig it up with spades or sticks as it is usual in some parts of Moscovy When one of their governours having observed how far his countrymen were outdone in their husbandry by other nations endeavoured to teach them the art of plowing it chanced that for two years after their crop was not so rich as formerly it had been whereupon the people attributing the miscarriage to the new device grew so enraged that the governour was glad to decry the experiment for fear of an insurrection When Vladislaus Jagello had converted the greatest part of Lithvania he endeavoured to bring the Samogitians to the Christian faith In pursuance of this resolution he goes himself into this country and burning up their hallowed groves and destroying the serpents and other creatures they worshipped with threats and promises made them vow to abandon their former Idolatry and worship the true God And for fear that when his back was turn'd they might relapse into their former heathenism he founded a Bishoprick at Mzdniki endowing it with a revenue sufficient for the maintenance of a Bishop and twelve Prebends who were to officiate at so many parish Churches in and about the City Howbeit the good King was not so successful in his undertaking nor his successours so vigilant in the prosecution of his designs but that to this day many poor ignorant Idolaters may be found in the desart parts of this country These like the Lithvanians spoken of before worship a four footed serpent about three hands long called in their tongue Givosit Without one of these houshold gods you shall scarce find a family If any mischief befalls them they think 't is because the little deity has not been well attended Another piece of heathenish superstition is still retain'd by the Rusticks in the following manner About the latter end of
c. so that in those parts only they make Gardens and till their ground Through the whole Countrey the air though very cold and piercing yet is not inferiour to any of other Regions in healthfulness and pureness either because the vapours coagulated and so made heavier by the cold fall down or from the frequent winds which sometimes are so strong that they hinder all passengers from travelling and likewise root up all trees and Bushes that stand in their way so that on several of the Laplandish as well as Dofrine mountains there are no trees or shrubs to be met with therefore the Inhabitants make use of fish-bones for fuel but most terrible are those Tempests and Whirlewinds says J. Magn. which arise from the North sometimes taking away the waters of the Sea from under the Ships and carrying the Ships up into the air let them fall down again at far distant places sometimes also sweeping away with them both Stones and living Creatures and now and then meeting with great quantities of fish which the Inhabitants use to dry in the cold they hoise them up into the air and let them fall which the poor people gather as a gift sent from God In those parts nearest the Pole the Sun for some months never sets and on the contrary for so long time never rises and although in Summer it never sets and goes below the Earth yet neither does it rise more above it but as it were glides along the edg of the Horison for the most part and likewise in winter when lowest it is not much beneath it which is the reason that though they have one continued night for some months yet the Sun comes so near that it makes a kind of twilight Snows are frequent which last all the year long upon the mountains and many months upon the plains by the brightness whereof they travel with greater security and speed then otherwise they could do Springs and Rivers are so numerous in this Country 〈…〉 that together with the melted Snows and Frosts they make the ground all summer time generally loose and boggy The most noted Rivers are those whence the particular Marches and Regions have their names as Vmeao Pitheao Luhleao Torneao and Kimeao these all spring from the Dofrine mountains and being increas'd by several lesser rivers do at last unburthen themselves into the Bothnick sea In their course they run through many hilly and uneven parts of the Countrey and are stopt by several dams and weares and so violently forceing their way over precipices are not navigable Such are the sluces Muscaumokke Sao and Niometsaski i. e. Hares-leap so called because the River Lughla runs between two mountains so near that a Hare may leap over Besides these Lakes and other less remarkable rivers there are abundance of Pools or Lakes as Lulafraesk Lugga Sabbaig c. well stored with Salmons and such like Fish one there is named Stoorafvan in which there are as many little Islands as there are days in the year but the most remarkable is Enaresraesk near Kimus wherein the hills and islands are by some said to be innumerable and Torneus affirms that never any Inhabitant lived long enough to survey them all Some of these are small but fishy they call them Suino i. e. Holy and account it a sin to foul them Some of them have two Channels and when the Fish forsake the upper they account it an ill omen and use ridiculous sacrifices to the Demon of that March Here are Mountains most of them small and inconsiderable Mountains some also very high and almost unpassable especially towards Norway which the Swedes call Fiael or as the Northern English Fells and the Laplanders Tudderi they arise about Zemptland whence with continued ascent toward the North they reach a 100 miles in length till they come to Titus-fiord which is a bay of the frozen Sea Till of late no Mines of any Mettal were known to be in the Country Mines but in the reign of Queen Christina in the year 1643 there were veines found both of Silver and Lead by the Inhabitants of Pithalappia amongst Rocks so hard that they were forced to tear them in pieces with Gunpowder but in the wars 'twixt Sweden and Denmark in the year 1656 one Van Anen a Danish Governour so spoiled them that it is not thought worth the charge to open them again and since that also in the year 1668 another Silver mine but mingled with Iron was discover'd by a Native There are also known to be some Iron and Copper mines in Torne and Lulalapmark but not digged Scheffer mentions a report of the discovery of a Golden Mine in the year 1671 but nothing of certainty concerning it comes to our hands what further concerns them will fall more properly under the discourse of Sweden The Stones of this Country generally are extreamly hard of an ash colour and unworkable Stones some there are found on the shores which represent the shape of some animals which the Inhabitants esteem much and adore for Gods under the name of Storjunkare Some Authors speak of considerable quantities of Diamonds Amethysts and Topaz the Diamonds which are reported to be of an incredible bigness seem to be nothing but either Chrystals or Fluores and Scheffer gives the same sentence of the other Here are found in some few Rivers a sort of Pearl but neither so oriental nor so well shap'd as those that come out of the Indies In the whole Country there are none of those we call either Fruit or Timber-Trees Trees but store of Pine Firr Birch Willows and Alder. Plants most frequent among them are divers sorts of Berries Angelica highly valued by them for diet and medicine Sorrel c. Proper to the Country are Calceolus Lapponicus so call'd from the shape of its flower a beautiful plant but of no use great varieties also of Mosses the food of their Rain-deer This Country by reason of the many Lakes Fish and Fowl Rivers and Woods abounds much with Fish and Fowl of all sorts there is one sort of Bird called Loom or Lame because their feet are so short and plac'd so far behind that they cannot go upon land but always either swim or flie very numerous in and peculiar to this Country but no Bird abounds more than the White Partridge not only in the Woods but on the high Mountains even when cover'd with the deepest Snows they have a kind of hair instead of feathers which in the winter is white but when the spring comes they turn to their proper color which seems to be usual in all cold Countries they have hares feet whence they are call'd by some Lagopodes Fish are here in great abundance not only sufficient to supply the Inhabitants but frequently transported into other Nations although their constant victuals be nothing but dryed Fish such as abound most are Salmon and Pikes whereof some are found eight foot long Of
South parts of Westro-gothia the ground is so rich and fertil that thirty-six days after they have sown they reap their Barley Beasts of all sorts are here in great plenty Beasts as Horses Elks Bears wild Bulls Castors or Beavers Sables Ermins Martrons c. Sheep also and Oxen not only sufficient to supply the whole Country but also to have great numbers transported out of Finland Schonen c. into other Nations Trees also are here in great abundance Trees as Fir Pine Birch Juniper c. Apple also and Pear Plumb and other Fruit-trees and of late Hops have been planted here The Pines and Firs which grow upon the Sea-coasts are said to have in the summer-time a kind of Rosinous Gum distilling from them which falling into the Baltick and Bothnick Seas and by the waves carryed to the Prussian shore has given occasion to some to ascribe to this the original of their Amber which seems to be rather a coagulation of Petroleum Honey abounds very much in this Country not only preserved in Hives in their Gardens but ordinarily to be met with in the Woods Wines have been sometimes in such scarcity here that they could not be furnished for the Communion to remedy which divers Authors report that P. Innocent VIII ann ' 1486 gave leave to the Priests of Norway and places under the same parallel to celebrate in some other Liquors The Air is of different temperature Aâ—â— according to the diversity of Climes for the most part it is cold pure free from vapours and consequently healthful In those parts near the Bethnic and Baltic coasts it is frequently mudded with sea and marish vapours Serpents and venemous beasts whatever some Authors say are not at all or very rarely in these Countries but fowl and fish of all sorts in so great abundance that even the Peasants contrary to the custom of other Countries are permitted to catch and to make profit of them Lakes here are many and very large Lâ—â—â—â— the greatest and most considerable are 1. Meller in Vpland well stored with Salmon Pike and such like fish and in winter so hard froze that 't is ordinary to have Markets and Fairs kept upon it 2. Hielmer in Nericia 3. Sitian in Dalecarlia 4. Vener in Westro-gothia an hundred and thirty English miles in length and forty in bredth having many Islands in it and twenty-four considerable rivers which fall from the Norwegian mountains unburthening themselves into it all which have but one passage out call'd Tralhetta i. e the Devils Cap lying towards the South 5. Veter in the same Province whose waters are so clear and calm that one may discern the bottom at a great depth Upon the banks of this Lake were anciently founded the Monasteries of St. Bridget the chief Saint of this Kingdom and of St. Catherine her daughter with several other noble buildings 6. Vlatraesch in Cajania 7. Pejenda in Tavastia to which may be added 8. Ladoga upon the confines of Muscovy the greatest part of which was by a treaty of Peace ceded by the Muscovite to this Crown All of them abound with fish the revenues of which make no small addition to the Kings Exchequer From these Lakes arise many Rivers Râ—â—â—â—â— running so orderly from one to another that they may seem like those in Holland to have their channels cut and directed by art The first is Dalecarle whose head is in the Dofrine mountains whence it falls into Dalecarlia takes in several lesser Currents at Torsang and so parts the Provinces of Vpland and Gestricia and at last falls into the Bothnick Bay 2. Saga or Sawe which divides Vpland from Westmannia 3. Angermannie which waters Angermannia and is noted for its abundance of Salmon with several others of lesser note Mines in this Country are very frequent Mâ—â—â—â— as of Silver Copper Iron Lead Allum Vitriol Sulphur c. every Province almost affording some more or less where we shall make mention of them The greatest part belong to the subject yet some few are wholly in the Kings possession workmen being maintain'd and the whole revenues receiv'd by the Crown In the year 1264 Magnus Laduslaus then King instituted or rather re-establisht a society of Miners to take care of all affairs relating to the Mines and to determine all controversies arising concerning them These men in the year 1649 in the reign of Queen Christina had many priviledges granted to them and several new Laws made amongst them of which we find extant these viz. If any subject discover a Mine in his own ground of what metal soever the whole profit of it is to belong to him for six years after which time he is to pay tenths to the King and If he maintains a Forge to fit out for every Hammer he keeps one man and Waggon in time of war for the Kings service From these Mines comes the most considerable part of the Kings Revenues In the year 1578 two or three Copper Mines are said to have yeilded to the Kings Exchequer above 500 Squipons every Squipon being valued at 30000 Dollars and other Mines proportionably every year since Of the Government and Manners of the Swedes THe Kings of Sweden are said at first to have been elected by the Governours of the Provinces who never assembled but upon this occasion He whom they commonly made the subject of their choice was of the Royal Line or some one of the Nobility of their own Country and as some say amongst these caeteris paribus the tallest and most personable The place where the election was perform'd was Vpsal where they assembling and having agreed who should be their Prince they went forth of the City to a place called Moresten a small distance from it here were set in order thirteen large Stones one in the middle whereon was plac'd their new elected King the other twelve round it for the twelve Senators where after some few Ceremonies a Declaration of the duty of the King c. they proposed to him an Oath that he would protect and administer justice to his people and the Electors for themselves the absent Nobility all the Body of the people and all their posterity mutually engag'd that they would obey his Laws and bear faithful allegiance to him These rites perform'd the new King used to invite all his Electors and Nobles to banquet where he himself waited on them and afforded them great and splendid entertainment all which ended with a solemn Grace-Cup called by them Berga-beger These customs since under Gustavus the first the Kingdom was made hereditary are quite left off and when the Coronation is to be solemniz'd the Nobles and chief Officers of the Kingdome meet at the Kings Pallace at Vpsal whence they go to the Metropolitan Church in order The Senators of the Kingdom carry the Royal Ornaments the Drotset or Viceroy the Crown the Marshal the Sword the Admiral the Scepter the Chancellor the golden Globe the Grand
and its people too stiff-necked to be kept in subjection In the days of our Saxon Kings a continual and uninterrupted war between this Nation and the Northern Kingdoms put a stop to all trade in the British and Norwegian Seas But as soon as the Danes had made themselves Masters of this Island commerce was again renewed which lasted till the English took their opportunity to-shew the world by rejecting the power of Denmark and all manner of communication with that people how highly they resented the tyrannical usurpation of foreign Princes Since the Conquest England has seldom or never wanted a considerable Fleet of Norway Merchant-men William of Malmesbury who dyed in the year 1142 tells us That in his time Bristow was a place much frequented by the Irish and Norwegians Hackluit gives an account of certain Treaties concerning the Northern trade between our King Henry the third and Haquin King of Norway He that will take the pains to read over the agreement between Henry IV. King of England and the Company of Merchants from the Hans Towns set down at large by Mr. Hackluit in the first Volume of his English Voyages p. 146. will find a considerable Register of our Merchant-men taken on the Coasts and out of the Havens of Norway and may thence be enabled to give a tolerable guess at the number of our Norway Merchants in those days In the twenty-fifth year of the reign of our present Soveraign Charles II. an Act pass'd for the encouragement of the Greenland and Eastland trades c. In which 't was order'd That it should be lawful to and for every person and persons Native or Foreigner from and after the first day of May 1673 at all times to have free liberty to trade into and from Sweden Denmark and Norway This and several other clauses of the same Act which take off a great part of the custom formerly paid upon the importation of any East-land commodity have encouraged great numbers of Merchants and others to traffick in these Northern Seas and improv'd the trade of Greenland and Norway far beyond the example of former ages For tho the advantages that can be hoped for from these kind of Voyages be not answerable to what may be expected out of the Levant and American plantations yet the small danger and charges these men are exposed to are strong inducements to venture a voyage wherein the hazard is not great nor any way proportionable to the prospect of gain Besides in the Act before mention'd 't is provided That whatsoever person or persons subjects of this Realm shall desire to be admitted into the fellowship of Merchants of Eastland shall be admitted into the said fellowship paying for his admission the sum of forty shillings and no more Which is a sum exceedingly inconsiderable if compared with the fees paid upon admission into some other companies The Islands of FERO THE Fero Islands are only so many high and rocky mountains in the Northern Seas divided from one another by narrow Friths and rapid Currents and inclosing a larger or lesser circuit of stony valley cover'd over with a turf of about two foot thick They are so called from Fare which in the language of the Natives signifies a Ferry from the many Ferries or Crossings of the water from one Island to another They are sixteen in number 1. Fugloe or Fowl-Island about three English miles long and two broad 2. Swino in which is a pleasant valley of a mile in length 3. Videroe six miles long and three broad 4. Bordoe six miles in length and a mile broad famous for a good harbour call'd by the Natives Vaag 5. Cunoe of the same bigness 6. Kalsoe something longer and broader then either of the former 7. Osteroe twenty miles long and in some places two in others four miles broad 8. Stromoe twenty-four miles long and eight broad In this Island stands Thors-Haven the Metropolis and Town of greatest Traffick in all the Fero Islands 9. Wagoe a round piece of ground of about eight miles in Diameter 10. Migness 11. Rolter a mile long and half a mile broad 12. Sandoe eight miles long and four miles broad 13. Sknoe three miles long and one in breadth 14. Storetdiemen 15. Lille-Diemen 16. Sideroe twenty miles long and eight broad The air in these Islands is in summer temperately warm not very hot at any time In the coldest winter the frost is never so violent as to cause ice in any of the Bays so that Horses and Sheep lye in the fields the whole winter long They have never any Thunder in the Summer but frequently in the Spring Autumn and Winter which is then generally accompanied with a storm and followed by showers of rain The air of it self is wholesome free from the Plague Small-Pox or any contagious disease except brought in by foreigners so that the inhabitants are commonly long-liv'd However in some of the Islands the Natives are exceedingly subject to rheums which cause violent coughs and head-achs both which diseases they cure by drinking soure Whey as hot as they can endure it Besides these the Scurvy Leprosie and a kind of feaverish distemper called by the Natives Landfarsoet are Epidemical illnesses which reign in several of the Isles but seldom or never turn to mortal diseases The Southern Islands produce great store of Barley tho hardly any other grain comes to maturity insomuch that a Tun of seed will ordinarily yeild twenty or thirty Tun of grain The pasture grounds afford great plenty of good and sweet grass These the inhabitants call Fiedelands and take care commonly that they lye open to the North and North-East winds In some of these fields they have stocks of as large and fat Oxen as any other part of Europe affords The Islands are all of them plentifully stor'd with all manner of medicinal plants requisite for the cure of those distempers to which the inhabitants are most inclined Amongst the rest you may every where meet with great quantities of Scurvy-grass Water-cresses Sorrel c. They have great store of Angelica which grows as well on the tops of high hills as in the open fields This commonly makes one of their most delicate dishes at all entertainments Besides the Radix Rhodia call'd in their language Hielpe-Rod is no where met with in so great plenty as in these Islands upon the banks of running streams and Lakes The distilled water of this plant is here made use of upon all occasions as Rose-water with us in England Here are several sorts of Fowl as Doves Stares Owls Sparrow-Hawks Crows and Ravens many of which are white Grellings c. Their chief Sea-fowl is a kind of Teal about the bigness of a Crow with a yellow long and round bill a great enemy to and persecutor of the Raven The Eyder a sort of Duck which yeilds the Eyder-down is a Fowl peculiar to these Islands This Bird usually pulls the down from her own breast to build her nest
the Ocean in some of whose Isles several considerable Kingdoms have of late years been discover'd However notwithstanding this assertion of Tacitus making the Rhine the utmost bounds of Germany on the borders of Gallia 't is certain That long before his time in the days of the Emperors Julius and Augustus several Colonies of the Germans had seated themselves in the Gallic Territories and inhabited a large plat of ground on the South side of the Rhine And 't is well known that both Germania Prima and Secunda so often mentioned by ancient and modern Geographers lay on the same side of that River Wympheling in his little Tract De Rebus Germanicis demonstrates that all those Cities which stand on the Southern bank of the Rhine did always belong to the Germans notwithstanding the pretensions of several French Kings to the contrary 'T is true Lewis XI King of France before he came to the Crown made several incursions into Alsatia upon pretence of recovering the ancient Rights which his Ancestors had challenged upon the Rhine But this pretended jurisdiction never spred it self so wide as to reach beyond the banks of that River on either side For as Freherus shews the ancient Gauls always claim'd a right to the River Rhine altho the Germans were Lords of the Soil on both sides Besides the Hermunduri Marcomanni and Quadi who were all of them Germans extended the bounds of their Nation beyond the Danow and seated themselves on the South side of that River Whence in process of time the name of Illyricum which formerly was a word used to signifie a fifth part of the Celtish Nation containing the Territories of Liburnia Dalmatia Noricum Vindelicia and Pannonia was by the Roman writers limited to Liburnia and Dalmatia only and the other three Provinces reckon'd parts of Germany as being almost quite overrun with the people of that Nation Aeneas Sylvius and his followers fancy that Germany is at this day a Country much larger then it was ever thought to be by the Ancients But he that shall consider that the three Northern Kingdoms of Denmark Norway and Sweden with their several Dependences and all Belgium as is still evident from the Languages of these people which are only so many distinct Dialects of the High-Dutch were formerly branches of the German Nation will be apt to conclude with Cluverius that New Germany is scarce a third part so big as the Old At present Germany is bounded on the South with the Mountains of Italy beyond the Danow Modern Bounds on the East with Poland and Hungary on the West with the French Provinces of Picardy and Champagne on the North with the Baltic Sea and British Ocean Monsieur de Pibrac is of opinion that La Germanie est presque trois fois aussi grande que la France i. e. Germany is near three times as big as France And most Geographers make that Kingdom thrice as large as Italy So that if we should tho there is little reason for so doing deny the Netherlands to be any part of Germany at this day yet this Nation will still continue to be incomparably the largest in Europe The length of it from East to West amounts to 840 Italian miles and the breadth from North to South to about 745 according to the computation of Sansovine in his Treatise Del governo di diversi Regni Which account if we reckon as is usual five Italian for one German mile comes near Winthers relation which tells us Germany is 686 English or about 171 Dutch miles long measuring from the mountains of Italy to the British Ocean All this tract of Land or so much of it at least as lies from the Rhine Northwards was by the Ancients look'd upon as a barren Nature of the Soil uninhabited and solitary Wilderness destitute of Cities Villages Houses Fruit and all other things either requisite or convenient for the sustenance of any other kind of inhabitants then such as they fancied the Germans to be a sort of savage wood-men little different from the beasts of the field either in education or diet But the improvements or discoveries rather of later Ages have exceedingly alter'd the case and our modern Historians and Geographers in spight of Tacitus's cavils and envious Epithets have been forc'd to confess that the Germans are a numerous and industrious people and their Country both wonderfully pleasant and fruitful A more signal instance of the plenty of Corn in this Country cannot be given then we meet with in the stories which the German writers tell us of the Emperor Charles the Fifth who maintain'd an Army for a considerable while against the Turks consisting of 90000 Footmen and 35000 Horse Besides the same Emperor for some years together waged a continual war with most of the Northern German Princes during which the Armies on both sides are said to have consisted of above 150000 men Now altho Germany alone provided all necessaries of food and provender for these vast multitudes of men and horses yet we do not read that any the least famine or scarcity of bread ensued hereupon in any part of the Dutch Territories The chief Rivers in GERMANY THere is hardly any Nation in the World comparable to this for the multitude of its noble Rivers several of which carry Vessels of a vast burthen for some hundreds of English miles The most principal of these are I. Danubius Danow or the Danow Brietius says that this River was anciently call'd Matoas which in the old Scythian language signifies harmless because they fancied it was pretty secure sailing upon its waters Afterwards when a great company of strangers unacquainted with this Torrent had here unluckily suffer'd shipwrack and lost their lives its name was changed into 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which word some Critics derive from the Macedonian 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifying as Plutarch tells us as much as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Death Cato thinks 't was first call'd Danubius from the Danes whom he confounds with the Dacians Our modern Geographers embrace Pliny's opinion and derive the word by a Metathesis a jugis Adnobiis whence it has its first source The Hungarians call it Duna the Polanders Donay and the Germans die Thonaw The head of this great River is in Swaben near a small Village named from the Danow Tone-Eschingen which is situated in a part of the Hercynian Wood call'd by the inhabitants Schwartz-wald or Black-forrest Within a few furlongs of this Fountain it receives into it two more small Rivolets soon after which dividing it self into two branches it encircles the City Vlm with two fair streams both admirably large considering the short course of the River Afterwards it passes by several brave Cities in Germany and Hungary as Regensburg Passaw Vienna Presburg c. being largely augmented in its passage by the accession of many Navigable Rivers Insomuch that it seems to challenge the character which Ovid
long since gave of it Cedere Danubius se tibi Nile negat As soon as it comes into Illyricum near the City Belgradum which the Germans call Stuhlweissenburg it looses it name and is called Isther At last Qui centum populos magnas alluit urbes Euxinum irrumpit bis terno flumine Pontum One of these six Currents runs with that violence into the Euxine Sea that it is said to pass thro the midst of the salt waters fresh and sweet for near forty English miles together 'T is an admirable singularity in the Danow that it alone of all the great Rivers in Europe runs with a strangely rapid current Eastward whereas most others run either to the West or South some few Northwards but not one so directly East Salomon Schweigger a German traveller reports that sweet water is brought from the Danow by Aquaeducts to Constantinople which is two days journey from any part of this River Before the Danow leaves Germany tho Strabo asserts the contrary it meets with these three notorious Cataracts 1. Der Saw-russel or The Swines-snout so called from a sharp pointed Rock hanging into the River near Lintz in Austria under which is a most dangerous and almost unavoidable whirlpool which certainly sucks in all the Vessels which sail near it except managed by more than ordinary care and discretion Ath. Kircher in his Mund. Subterr says that whatever is swallow'd by this Whirlpool is thrown up again in a Lake near Canische in Hungary 2. Der Strudel so called from the noise which the water makes in its fall This is a perilous Cataract near Greinon in Austria where the water falling with a great violence amongst the Rocks distracts the watermen with its noise and smoke and too often either overturns or splits their Vessels So that few or none were formerly so fool-hardy as to pass this precipice without the assistance and conduct of some expert Boor in the Vicenage who for many years had made it their business to understand all the little creeks and windings in this dangerous passage But of late years it has not been reckon'd a matter of so great difficulty to shoot this Gulf. On the top of one of the highest Rocks stands the ruins of an old Castle where formerly as the report goes some notorious Pyrats who lived upon the pillage of such Boats as they could now and then hook into some of the neighbouring Cliffs kept their residence 3. Der Wurbel or Whirlpool not much more then a furlong distant from the Strudel The Watermen that use this passage are of late grown so expert in shunning this Gulf that except your Pilot be drunk which is here no strange mishap there is little danger of miscarriage As soon as you have past the Whirlpool you are sure to be waited on by a fellow bearing St. Nicolas's picture to whom an adjoining Chappel is dedicated and an Alms-box into which every man casts what he pleases as an offering of thansgiving to that Saint for the late deliverance On the top of the great Rock which causes a great motion in the water stand the reliques of an ancient Fort which the Germans call Der Tuffels Thurn or The Devils Tower The original of which name according to Aventinus's relation was this On a time Bruno Bishop of Wurtzburg accompanied the Emperor in his passage down the Danow When they came to this Tower they were suddenly scar'd by a strange Apparition in the shape of a Blackamore saying I am Bruno thine evil Genius I shall do thee no mischief at present but thou shalt be sure to meet with me again e're long When they were come to Bosenburg a Village within ten English miles of this Wurbel where passengers usually refresh themselves it happen'd that the Chamber where the Emperor and the Bishop were a resting themselves suddenly falling down killed Bruno II. The next great River in Germany 〈◊〉 is the Rhine Some Etymologists derive this word from the Greek word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to flow because of its rapid Current Others fetch it from an old Celtish word Rijen which signified to divide or separate alluding to the old story before mentioned of the separation of France from Germany by this River But the generality of modern Dutch writers are pleas'd to fancy that it comes from the ordinary German word Rein which signifies pure or clean Because forsooth 't was a fashion amongst the ancient inhabitants of this Country to try whether their children were legitimate or spurious by casting them into the Rhine which would never suffer those to sink who were lawfully begot but usually drown'd the bastards This story Cesar tells us in his Commentaries And hence says Schottelius the Germans to this day retain this proverbial saying of any notorious and scandalous crime Das weschet ihm der Rhein nicht ab i. e. The Rhine can ne're wash this of Tacitus reports that the old Germans worshipp'd the Rhine as a God Martial alludes to some such thing when he says Nympharum Pater amniumque Rhenus c. And the modern Germans seem to be little less jealous of the repute of this noble River when they give out that Die Thonau ist aller wasser ein Frau aber der Rhein mag mit ehren wol ihr Mann Seyn i. e. The Danow is indeed the Lady Paramount of Rivers but the Rhine may well seem to be her Husband Where note that the Danow is as most other names of Rivers in the High Dutch tongue are of the Feminine Gender but the Rhine of the Masculine There are two Springs in the Rhaetian or Celtic Alps as some Authors call them from which the Rhine has its rise The first not far from a small Village call'd by the inhabitants Tavetsch out of a considerably high Mountain which the Germans call St. Gottardes Geburg The other Fountain is not far from Reinwald in Rhaetia These two Fountains are about forty English miles distant from each other but their Currents meet in one about eight of the same miles from the City Cur. Within three quarters of one of our miles from this confluence of the two streams the River dilates it self into that vast Lake which is ordinarily by a corruption of the name of Poomen a Town on the banks of this water call'd Der Boden-See The broadest part of this swift River is betwixt the City Emeric and the strong Castle of Schenckenschantz where the breadth of it is judged but I am afraid the story has out-stretch'd the measuring-chain some furlongs to exceed two English miles Immediately after the union of the forementioned Currents the depth of the Rhine is so considerable that Vessels of large bulk and burthen might easily if not letted by several Cataracts and Rocks which block up their way sail from Stein to Francsurt on the Meyn Collen Mentz and all other places of consequence upon this River The Cataracts of the Rhine are reckon'd to be nine in all whereof seven
are but small ones and come far short of those mentioned in the Danow The most terrible and dangerous one among the nine is a little below the City of Schafhuysen in Switzerland where the whole River falls from the top of a Rock seventy-five foot high Surius Carthusianus says fifty cubits The other great Cataract is near Lauffenburg in Switzerland which Town has its name from Lauffen in the language of the inhabitants signifying a Cataract or water-fall and Burg a Castle This is not so dangerous as that at Schafhuysen for sometimes the Watermen venture their Vessels to slide down this precipice by ropes which is utterly impossible at the former There is no small dispute among ancient and modern Geographers about the several mouths of the Rhine Formerly there were two known Channels of the Rhine and every body could tell where each of them emptied it self into the Sea For this great River being divided into two streams at Schenckenschantz that part of it which still retain'd the name of the Rhine passing by Arnhem Rhine Vtrecht and Leyden ran into the Sea at Catwic whilst the other branch passing by Nimeghen under the borrowed name of the Wahle joining it self with the Maes was in the same Channel convey'd into the Ocean But in the year 860 or as some reckon 1170 amongst many other damages done to the Hollanders by an extraordinary Spring-tide the commodious Haven at Catwic was quite stop'd up with Sand and the current of the Rhine obstructed This River still runs but with a very slow pace towards Catwic but never reaches the ruins of that famous Town What becomes of the water is not certainly known but most probable it is that it may be swallowed up by some undiscernable Abyss and by a subterraneous channel convey'd at a considerable distance into the Sea Another mouth of the Rhine we owe to Drusus who cutting the neck of land between this River and the Issel brought a great Arm of the Rhine along the Sluce which to this day bears the name of Drusus's Ditch into one Channel with the Issel along with which it still continues its course into the Zuyder-See III. The third great River of Germany Elb. is the Elb Albis which Bertius and others derive from the Saxon word Elve which in upper Saxony is used both for the name of this River and the number of Eleven Now all Geographers agree that the Elb springs from Eleven currents But when I consider that the Bohemians name this River Labe I am apt to question the truth of this Etymology tho I cannot assign a better for to fetch the word ab albis rupibus as some do is vain and impertinent Tacitus tells us that the Elb springs in the Country of the Hermunduri a Schwabish people but the learned Historian mistook his mark and should have writ Aegra instead of Albis Ptolemy's blunder was as great as this when he named Moldau which runs thro Prague and is called by the inhabitants Wltawa the Elb. Dubraw gives the truest account of the source of this River when he tells us that it springs out of the mountains near Hirschberg in Silesia upon the confines of Bohemia These mountains are by Latin writers called Riphaei Gygantarii and Niviferi montes and by the Bohemians and Germans Die Risengeburge from the multitude of strange and monstrous apparitions which are seen here by the Rusticks as themselves report The names of the eleven Fountains out of which it springs or rather small streams of which it is composed are 1. Krumb-seyffen 2. Gross-seyffen 3. Nose 4. Granitz 5. Sperber-seyffen 6. Haubritz 7. Hinnerlein 8. Ganss 9. New-wasser 10. Heydelbach 11. Kalch-wasser The first course it steers is Southwards in which it passes by the Cities of Dwur Jaromitz and Kralowy-Hradetz or the Queen 's Hradetz at which last place it is augmented by the admission of Warlitz and Orlitz two large streams flowing from the confines of Bohemia and Moravia into its Channel At Melnick it meets with the Moldau and soon after with the Aegra Afterwards it passes by the Cities of Dresden Misen Torgow Wittenburg Magdeburg and Lawenburg and at Hamburg bears Merchant-ships of almost as large a bulk as any traffick on the Ocean and that at the vastest distance from the Sea of any navigable River in Europe The City of Hamburg is eighteen German or seventy-two English miles distant from the Sea and yet you shall ordinarily meet with Vessels of three hundred Tun riding in this Harbour On the South side of this City it divides it self into a great many branches which encircle an infinite number of small Islands Lastly a little below Gluckstadt it branches into two Arms whereof one bears the name of Die Zuyder Elb the other Die Noorder Elb which empty into the British Ocean German Rivers of less note are 1. The Oder which springs in Moravia and after a current of about 300 English miles through some parts of Brandenburgh and Pomeren falls into the Baltic Sea 2. Visurgis or the Weser which issuing out of the mountains of Thuringia runs through Hessen and Westphalia down to Bremen not far from which it empties it self into the British Ocean But these and some few more of the like bigness are not so considerable as to merit a description in this place but may well be reserv'd till we come to the description of particular Provinces Whither also we refer the Reader for an account of the Forrests Mountains Mines Baths Mineral-waters Cities Universities Money and all sorts of Commodities peculiar to any of the Principalities For Germany ought to be look'd upon as a vast Collection of several different Nations and not as one petit Kingdom which may easily admit of one and the same General Description Of the Ancient Inhabitants of Germany together with an account of the different names of Celts Dutch Germans and Almans ALBIS Fluvius Germaniae celebris A FONTIBUS AD OSTIA Cum fluminibus ab utroque latere in illum fluentibus descriptus Jo Vanden Avele inventor et feecit NOBILIS FLUVIUS ALBIS maximà curà ex variis famosisque Auctoribus collectus et in lucem editus Apud Janssonio-Waesbergios Mosem Pitt et Stephanum Swart EMPORIUM HAMBURGUM 1. S. Gertraut 2. S. Iacob 3. Der Blauen toren 4. Det Tochthuys 5. Wenser Toren 6. S. Peter 7. Dome 8. S. Iohannis 9. S. Catharina 10. De Borse 11. 't Rathus 12. Maria Magdalena 13. S. Nicolai 14. H. Geist 15. Melder Dor 16. Den Bollen stal 17. S. Michel 18. Anschar Kirche unt Weisen haus That Celta was a general name for any Northern or Western European among the aricient Greek and Latin writers Celts is well known but whence the word sprung is not easily determin'd Cluverius as was even now said reports that Ascenas call'd his followers first Celts from one of his own Surnames but what that was neither he nor any other Historian I have yet met with can inform me
of Ocean near Damgarten and emptying it self into the Baltic at Dars 2. The Barte which springs near Stralsund spreads into the sea at Bardt a City borrowing its name from this River and soon after is lost in the Baltic 3. The famous Oder which as soon as it hath pass'd Gartz and Grieffenhagen and is come into Pomeren divides it self into several branches or Arms embracing therein many large and fair Meadows whereof some are above two English miles in breadth After it has pass'd by Stetin it dilates it self first into the Dammish Sea or Lake then into the Damantzke and Pfaffenwasser as the Natives call it and at last having passed betwixt Zegenorth and Schwantevitz spreads it self into a vast fresh-water Ocean known to the Neighbourhood by the name of Das grosse Frische Haff extending it self above sixteen English miles in breadth and as many in length This huge Lake afterwards disembogues it self into the Baltic Sea in three Currents which make as many safe harbours the Divenow Swyne and Penemunde for Ships that pass this way to Stetin Betwixt the Peene and Swyne ly the Island of Vsedom and the Liberties of the City of Wollin lye enclosed by the Swyne and Divenow Besides these and an innumerable Company of other Rivers which are lost in the Baltic Sea on the Coasts of Pomeren this Dukedom affords a vast number of standing Lakes as at New Stetin Lukow Sukow Verschem Dersenten Penckun with many others From what has been said the Reader will easily conclude Fish that the Dukedom of Pomeren is in all probability a Countrey as rich in all sorts of fish as any Principality of an equal extent in Europe but yet the strange Stories which some of their Historians relate of the extravagant plenty in this kind will a little stagger his faith They tell us That within the compass of one year above five thousand Rixdollars which allowing four Shillings and six Pence English for each Rixdollar will I am afraid amount to a greater sum then the whole yearly revenue which the Elector of Brandenburg has out of Pomeren was brought into the Duke of Pomeren's Treasury out of a six penny Custom demanded upon all fish caught in the Great Haff below Stetin and a three penny one upon those taken in the Lake at Lassan They add That although yearly out of the Lakes last mentioned above thirty thousand Rixdollars worth of fish be taken and vended yet there is never found any sensible decay of their stock The most usual sorts of Fish taken in the Haff are Salmon and Lampreys of both which kinds are sometimes caught Fishes of an incredible bulk and weight In the spring the Inhabitants of Gripswald Bardt Rugen and Wollin drive a good Herring-Trade but in other parts of Pomeren this sort of fish is never or rarely caught In the Lake Madduje near Colbatz the fishermen catch a large and broad Fish call'd in their language Musenen which like Charrs in some Lakes in the North of England is peculiar to this water and not to be met with in any other Province of the German Empire The Soil of the Country is in most places exceeding sandy and barren Nature of the Soil insomuch that sometimes the little crops which the inhabitants have sown in the fields near Damme Golnow Vckermund and several other parts of the Dukedom are suddenly overwhelm'd and stifled by huge drifts of Sand from the shore Howbeit you may here and there meet with a fruitful field especially near the City Pyritz which is seated in a rich Valley which supplies the wants of the neighbourhood so plentifully that seldom any Corn is brought into Pomeren out of foreign Nations but on the contrary great quantities in some fruitful years are exported thence They have very few Mountains of any considerable height but a vast number of large Woods and Forests well stock'd with all manner of Game as Deer wild Boars Hares Foxes Wolves wild Horses Bulls and Bevers Besides the Lakes and Forests furnish the inhabitants with all sorts of Water and Land-Fowl the former of which are so numerous that they pretend to reckon up no less then twenty-two different kinds of wild Ducks Besides the conveniencies and pleasures already mention'd Commodities the inhabitants are provided for almost with all other necessaries within the compass of their own Territories that Nature requires and the Ships of Stetin Stralsund and other Towns of Trade bring in the delicacies of foreign Nations to satisfie the demands of Luxury No Province in Germany affords greater quanties nor more different sorts of Fruit then Pomeren The inhabitants of Pomeren do not at all apply themselves to the planting of Vineyards Beer and if they should their Wine would prove but very mean and contemptible such as the Marquisate of Brandenburg affords of which hereafter However this want is sufficiently supplied by those vast numbers of Merchant-Ships which come hither laden with the Wines of other Countries Besides should the inhabitants which can now hardly be hoped for grow so temperate as to put a stop to the importing the luxurious Liquors of foreign Countries and content themselves with the drinks of their own Land they would quickly experience as many of their neighbours have done the delicacies of the many sorts of Beer in Pomeren Such are the bitter Beer of Stetin the Mum of Gripswald the Buckhenger as they term it we may English it Knock-down of Wollin with many others which are by the Mariners transported into other Nations and therefore look'd upon as questionless they are preferable to most Wines They have no kind of Mettals in any of their Mountains Minerals except only some few Mines of Iron in the Upper Pomeren In some places the Sea casts up Amber but not in such quantities as in Prussia So that here any man has the privilege of picking up and selling as much Amber as he can find which the Nobility and Magistracy in Preussen will by no means permit NOVA ILLVSTRISSIMI DVCATVS POMERANIAE TABVLA antea à Viro Cl. D. D. Eilhardo Lubino edita nunc iterum correcta per Frid. Palbitzke Pomer L. L. Studiosum Sumptibus Janssonio-Waesbergiorum Mosis Pitt et Stephani Swart BVGISLAVS IVNIOR XIV POMERANIAE DVX Notarum explicatio Urbes Urbes cum arcibus Ducalibus Pagi◠Tho the ancient inhabitants of Pomeren the Rugii 〈◊〉 Reudigni Longididuni c. were for many Centuries govern'd by Princes of their own yet the ignorance of the times wherein they liv'd has left us in the dark as to any satisfactory register of their names and actions The first Prince of Pomeren whom we meet with upon good record is Barnimus one of the ancient and noble Family of the Gryphones often mention'd in their Annals and so call'd probably from the Gryphin their Arms to this day who is said to have govern'd in the year 933. His Grandson Suantiberus divided his principality betwixt his two Sons Bugislaus and
Tract in Latin containing its description and vertues The Oder is the chief of all the Rivers in Silesia Rivers It springs near the Town Oder not far from Teschen on the borders of Moravia and passes by Ratibor Cossel Oppelen Brieg Brieslaw Glogaw Beuthen and Crossen with some more Cities of less note before it leaves this Dukedom Other remarkable Rivers are the Bober Neisse Ohla and Queiss Besides these 't is the honour of Silesia that the Vistula the best River in Poland and the Elb spring out of its mountains There are also in this Country good store of Ponds and Lakes which yeild plenty of all manner of fresh water fish especially Lampreys which are caught in prodigious quantities in the Neisslish Sea and some other waters Other Commodities of the Land are Madder â—â—moâ—â—ies Flax sweet Cane or Galengal Wine especially in the Dukedoms of Sagan and Crossen Silver Copper Lead Iron and Chalk They have plenty of Salt-peter and some good Salt tho not so much as to be sufficient for their own use so that daily great quantities of this Commodity are brought in from Poland and other neighbouring Countries They have all the sorts of wild and tame Beasts that any other part of the German Empire affords Butter Cheese particularly a kind of pitiful stuff made of Ewe's milk Bacon Honey c. But the greatest trading Commodities they have are Wool and Flax. Silesia has bred several good Scholars and brisk Wits â—â—abiâ—â—ts tho the ordinary Rustics are look'd upon as a people of a shallow understanding and small sence They are commonly in way of derision stil'd by their neighbour Nations Eselsfresser or Ass-Eaters The occasion of which nick-name some say was this A blunt Country Rustic travelling from near Breslaw into the Dukedom of Crossen ' spy'd in a field an Ass feeding which the poor fellow having never before seen the like Creature mistook unhappily for an overgrown Hare Whereupon discharging his Blunderbuss he shot the strange beast and brought it home to his friends and acquaintance who being a pack of Bumpkins of no longer heads then himself roasted and eat up the outlandish Puss This is the relation which the common people of Silesia give of their Title Another story is that the Miners at Reichenstein not far from Glatz having discover'd a vein of Gold-Ore which they nam'd der guldener Esel lay at it continually being resolv'd that no strangers or foreigners should share with them in the Treasure And hence they got the name of Ass-eaters from stuffing their purses and not their carcases But this later narrative may possibly have been contriv'd by some of the Silesian Wits who by this means were in hopes to wear off the disgrace and ignominy of the former Some of them like the Bores of Italy and Bohemia have a custom of reckoning the hours of the day from the Snnsetting but few of the Nobility observe that method The Lieutenantship of Silesia was for some time committed to Matthias Corvinus King of Hungary but afterwards was conferr'd upon the Bishops of Breslaw until the Emperor Rudolf II. decreed that this charge should be committed to some of the Temporal Princes of that Nation who were to be nominated as well as the subordinate Lieutenants of the several petty Dukedoms or Counties by the Council Chamber at Prague to whom was also committed at the the same time the supreme inspection into all Law-Cases and the different administration of Justice in all Courts of Judicature in each particular Province Christianity was first planted in Poland and at the same time in Silesia Religion which was then a part of that great Dukedom about the later end of the ninth and beginning of the tenth Century In the infancy of Religion in these parts the Polanders and Silesians were wont to assemble themselves in Woods and other desert places of the Land for fear of laying themselves too open to the cruelty of their Magistrates who were men of another perswasion But at last Christianity was admitted to Court for Mieceslaus Duke of Poland having married Drambronica Daughter of Boleslaus Duke of Bohemia a Christian was himself baptized at Gnesna in the year 965. Whereupon he caused nine Bishopricks to be erected in his Dominions amongst which one was founded at Schmogra in Silesia which was afterwards removed to Bitschen and at length fix'd at Breslaw Soon after the Reformation begun by Luther the Augsburg Confession was brought hither and at last confirm'd by the Emperor Rudolph II. in the year 1609. But Ferdinand II. a bloody persecutor of the Protestants repeal'd that Charter allowing the public profession of the Lutheran Religion to the Citizens of Breslaw and some few Towns more and that too with several limitations and restrictions However that Emperor was sensible before his death how vain 't was to endeavour the extirpation of Protestants and the whole Empire some years after groaned under the dismal effects of his misguided zeal for the Church of Rome The Silesians are at this day generally Lutherans only some few of the Nobility with their Dependants adhere still to the Superstitions and Fopperies of the Romanists We have hitherto given the Reader a general account of the vast Dukedom of Silesia and proceed in the next place to a more particular survey of the several petty Provinces which make up this large Territory beginning with I. The Dukedom of CROSSEN IN the time that the Silesian Princes were Dukedom by the subtilty of John King of Bohemia set at variance and enmity amongst themselves of which stratagem we have already taken notice this Dukedom was first separated from the other parts of the Great Duke of Silesia's Dominions For in the year 1272 the City of Crossen was pawn'd to the Archbishop of Magdeburg but redeem'd within two years after by Henry Duke of Breslaw Four years after this the Citizens of Breslaw pawn'd it a second time to John Marquise of Brandenburg for four thousand Crowns towards the ransom of their Duke but with this proviso that the Marquise should not give assistance to Boleslaus Duke of Lignitz in his wars against their City Not long after Crossen was again redeem'd out of the Marquise's hands But John the Great commonly known by the name of Cicero Germanicus got possession of it a second time in lieu of fifty thousand ducats owing him for his wife's portion Again John Duke of Sagan deliver'd up this Dukedom into the hands of John the third Elector of Brandenburg with the consent of Vladislaus King of Hungary and Bohemia in the year 1391. Lastly Joachim II. and his Brother John Marquises of Brandenburg had the sole and entire possession of this Dukedom granted them by the Emperor Ferdinand the first King of Bohemia Since which time the Electors have always enjoy'd it and stiled themselves Dukes of Crossen in Silesia Crossen City in the language of some of the Natives of this Country signifies the outmost seam or selvidge
Brunsberg which drawing together some considerable numbers of people obliged him soon after to wall the place round and turn it into a City 6. EWANCZITZ 〈◊〉 seated at the confluence of the two Rivers Iglaw and Oslaw both which here lose their names and are afterwards call'd Schwartza This City was once notorious for harbouring more different Sects in Religion then almost any other Town in Europe The Parish Church was divided by the two prevailing parties of Hussites and Lutherans both of which had here the exercise of their inconsistent forms of Divine Worship at the same time One of their streets was wholly inhabited by Jews who had erected in it a Synagogue and School for themselves and children Without the Gates of the City the Calvinists had two Churches the one for the Bohemians the other for the Germans and these shar'd with the Hussites and Lutherans in the Magistracy and Government of the City Another part of the Suburbs was taken up by the Holy Brethren of Switzerland a pack of nominal Christians who never were baptized thought it a damnable sin to wear a Sword and celebrated the Lord's Supper only at Whitsuntide The Photinians Atheists and Quakers for such kind of creatures I take the Schwenckfelder to have been who denied the resurrection of the dead met at their devotions on the banks of a Fountain in the field At a small Village nam'd Olekowitz about half an English mile out of the Town dwelt the Anabaptists who were about four hundred in number But this ridiculous toleration and distraction in Religion came to this issue at last that now all those various parties of people who all of them pretended to be true Protestants are cashier'd and none permitted the free exercise of their Religion but Jews and Papists To these we might add a great many more Cities if what Caspar Laudisman in his Directions for the speedy understanding of foreign Languages affirms it be true that there are in this Marquisate 100 Cities 410 Towns 500 Castles and 30360 Villages Which prodigious number of buildings would go near to cover almost all the habitable part of this Country But I think there are few more then we have already mention'd which deserve to be taken notice of any further then to give them room for their names in the Map BOHEMIA Notarum Explicatio Caritas Regia libera Oppidum Regis Bohemia Oppida â—â—â—inum et Nobil … Pagus Arx Castellum Monasterium Oppidum cum Arce Fodine Auri Fodine argenti Fodine Stanni Fodine ferri Therme Officina Vitriaria Nomina quae habent tri … in … nt Bohemica THE KINGDOME OF BOHEMIA BOHEMIA is bounded on the East with Moravia and Silesia on the West with Voitland the Upper Palatinate and the Dukedom of Bavaria on the South with the Arch-Dukedom of Austria and on the North with the Marquisates of Misnia and Lusatia Whence the learned Godalstus in that excellent Treatise of his entituled Commentarii de Bohemiae Regni incorporatarumque Provinciarum Juribus ac Privilegiis c. well argues that this Kingdom must needs have been anciently a branch of the German Nation and ought still to be so accounted since all the people that encompass it speak the High Dutch language The whole Kingdom is encompass'd round with Mountains the chief of which are the Montes Riphaei or Hills of Giants which part this Land from Silesia Out of these spring the great River Elb issuing out of two of them famous heretofore for the enchantments and apparitions of evil Spirits that used to haunt them One of these two is now adays named by the Silesian Germans that live near it Schneekippe from the continual Snow on the top of it and the other Knieholtz from the short shrubs or brush wood that grows there The other Rivers of note are the Eger Muldau Satzawa Orliecze Lusinitz Gyzera and Mise all which spring within the Kingdom and are at last emptied into the Elb at Dietzin Most of these run in a clear Channel and afford great plenty of fish In some of them the Natives find a sort of shell-fish much like a Horse-Muscle with a Pearl in it of good value such as those are which Mr. Cambden tells us ly gaping at the mouth of the River Irt in Cumberland In several parts of Bohemia especially at Teplitz and Wary both which have their names from the hot Baths there found spring Mineral and Medicinal waters which exceedingly refresh the body and cure many distempers The acid waters at Oegran and Comorzan are accounted mighty soveraign against many diseases and there was not many years ago a Fountain of as great credit at Stechowicz near Prague The like is still to be met with at Benessow near Caplicze which for the cures it has perform'd has got the name of Dobra Woda or good water There are no Lakes in the Kingdom Ponds excepting only one or two near the Towns of Mosta and Tepla of little or no moment But the Fish-ponds in many places seem to equal the Lakes in foreign Countries Witness those petty fresh water Seas at Pardubicz Clumecz Trzebon Rozdialowicz and Copydlan where the Ponds abounding with Perch Jack Carp and other fish bring their Masters in as large Revenues as so many good Lordships The Soil of the Country is generally fat and arable in few places barren or sandy Commodities You have here also fine Woods and Forests intermix'd but none so large as to render any considerable part of the Kingdom uninhabitable The Orchards and Gardens are so well stock'd with fruit that yearly great quantities of Apples Pears c. are hence exported into Misnia and other neighbouring Countries The inhabitants have Wine enough if the luxury of the present age did not want greater supplies then nature in their own Vineyards which is reckon'd a better bodied liquor then Moravian Wine and equals the Austrian in taste but is not capable of being kept to so good an age The Fields and Meadows are richly stock'd with all manner of Cattel especially Horses of more then ordinary courage and bulk Their Hop-gardens afford them a better and more plentiful crop then is usual in other Countries For which reason their Beer whereof they have two sorts white and brown is highly valued and exported into the neighbouring parts of Germany There have been some Salt-pits discover'd in Bohemia but so inconsiderable that they found the profit would not answer the cost of digging And therefore the Bohemians have their Salt out of Misnia and other Provinces of Germany But this want is sufficiently recompens'd by their rich Mines of Silver Copper Tin Iron Lead Sulphur Niter c. as also by their Glass and Allum made here in great quantities They pretend to have Carbuncles Ametheists and other precious stones in their Land which they say are often found in the Mines and amongst the Rocks of the Hill Countries Anselm Boetius Boodt whom we had occasion to mention in the description of
the Eastern banks of the Rhine is a Province of no large extent but exceedingly fruitful in Corn Wine and Hemp. The Country is every-where very populous and the Villages so thick that the whole Marquisate has been by some compared to one continued City with fair Gardens interlac'd among the buildings Entz 〈◊〉 Wirmb Phintz and the other Rivers afford plenty of Fish And the Chases and Parks are so well stock'd with Venison and Fowl that what the Nobility in other parts of the German Empire covet as a delicacy the Rustics of Baden have for their ordinary food The Merchants of Amsterdam Antwerp and other great trading Towns in the Netherlands furnish themselves hence with those vast quantities of Flax and Hemp which they transport into foreign Nations so that what passes for Holland Flax here in England grows for the most part in the Marquisate of Baden and is brought thence down the Rhine There are in this Country whole Woods of Chesnut Trees which feed their great Herds of Swine at a cheaper rate then the Hog-Merchants of Whestphalia who buy their Chesnuts at Bremen can afford to do The Quarries give the inhabitants an advantage of building fair Houses with a small cost 〈◊〉 providing them with a good Free-stone and Marble of all colours Amongst these especially in the County of Sponheim they sometimes find Agat which is here rarely polish'd and sent into foreign Countries 〈◊〉 But this Marquisate is most peculiarly happy in the multitude and goodness of its hot Baths and Mineral-waters especially at Baden of which more anon 〈◊〉 From the vast conflux of the Nobility from all parts of the Empire to these Baths we may reasonably imagine that the complaisant carriage towards strangers which we find every-where practis'd by the inhabitants of this Country has in a great measure proceeded from their conversation with strangers who flock hither upon the strong conceit they have of the more then ordinary virtues of these waters They are generally a stout and hardy people inur'd to labour and toil or the severities of a Camp from their their Cradle Hence they come to be reckon'd as good Soldiers as any in the Emperor's Dominions And 't is not a little Honour the Country has got this last year 1681 in having their Marquise Herman made choice of to succeed the late famous Commander Montecuculi in the place of General of all the Imperial Forces No question the Marquises of this Country are descended of an ancient stock of Princes Marquises but of what old Family they are to be reputed a branch the German Heraulds can scarce determine Some fetch them from the Vrsins and others from the House of Della Scala or the Scaligers Some again labour to prove that Baden and Hochberg are different Families and others that they are but one Other Genealogists tell us that the Emperor Frideric Barbaressa brought Herman Marquise of Verona out of Italy and made him the first Marquise of Hochberg and Baden A. D. 1155. Which will very ill agree with what the best High Dutch Historians report of a Monastery being founded by Herman Marquise of Baden in his Village of Backenau A. D. 1116 which was confirm'd by Bruno Bishop of Spire in the year 1122. The most probable opinion is that they are descended from the ancient Counts of Vindonissa and Altemburg in Switzerland from whom also the Dukes of Zeringuen and Tek the Counts of Habspurg and the Arch-Dukes of Austria derive their original At present there are two Families of the Marquises of Baden whereof one is a profess'd Lutheran and the other a zealous Papist For this reason their interests seem different the Marquise of Durlach associating himself with the Count Palatine the Marquise of Brandenburg the Duke of Wirtenberg and the Count of Solms and the Marquise of Baden with the Dukes of Bavaria Savoy and Lorrain and the Princes of Hohernzollern Each of these Princes stiles himself Marquise of Baden and Hochberg Landgrave of Sausenberg Earl of Sponheim and Eberstein Lord of Rotel Badenweiler Lohr and Mahlberg The Chief Cities in the Marquisate of BADEN BADEN is the Metropolis of this Marquisate Baden and has its name from the vast number of Hot Baths in this place which are said to be above three hundred The Town stands amongst Hills on a craggy and uneven spot of ground so that there 's hardly a strait and plain street in it Some of the Baths are scalding hot and all of them running out of Rocks of Brimstone Salt and Allum have the same tast One of them is call'd the Kettle out of which the water boils at a wonderful rate reeking as if set over a Furnace These waters are reckon'd soveraign medicines for several diseases especially the Cramp and Gout both which distempers have been admirably cur'd by them For this reason there is a continual resort of the German Nobility and Gentry who flock hither in as great companies during the whole Summer as our English Gentry are wont to do to Bath in Somersetshire See Joh. Keiffer's description of the Baths of this Country 2. Durlach DURLACH is seated on the bank of the River Psintz at the bottom of a high hill on the top whereof stands a Tower wherein contintial watch is kept for the security of the City The streets in this Town are generally fair and strait and the buildings stately and uniform The Marquise's Palace far excells that at Baden and is large enough to receive the Court and Attendants of the greatest Monarch in Europe There is a Gymnasium kept up by some few Professors who read public Lectures in the several Faculties But that which is most worthy a Scholar's sight is the rare Collection of ancient Coins and Meddals in the Marquise's Cabinet and the Library adjoining wherein are some pieces of good note 3. PFORTZHEIM says Rhenanus Pfortzheim was anciently call'd Orcynheim and by Latin Authors Porta Hercyniae because 't is seated at the entrance into the Schwartzwald a part of the Hercynian Forest as you travel from Spire On one side of the Town you have fair Meadows Pasture-grounds and Corn-fields but the other side is nothing but Mountains and Woods This Town was formerly subject to the Dukes of Schwaben but fell afterwards upon the death of Conradine the last Duke of that Country into the hands of the Marquises of Baden who are now Lords of it 4. GERSBACH is a Town of no great extent Gersbach having in it only two Churches whereof one is frequented by Lutherans and the other by Papists The Marquises of Baden as Counts of Eberstein a Castle not far from this Town have here a Palace and Court of Judicature for the determining all Controversies and Law-suits arising within the bounds of this small County 5. BADENWEILER a City betwixt Freyburg and Basil Badenweiler is a part of the Marquisate of Baden tho seated in the Territories of Brisach The hot Baths of this
the opinion of the foresaid Author were but the same Nation differently called The Venedi we find mentioned by Ptolomy as a great people long before seated in Sarmatia upon the coast of the Sinus Venedicus now Baltick Sea which from them probably took its name as did likewise the Venedic mountains scituate in their territories And Hartknoch supposes the Bulanes Gythones Phinni c. placed also by Ptolomy over against these Venedi in the inland countries of Poland to be of their colonies Perhaps this people after they had made themselves considerable by their conquests took the name of Slavi from Slava in their language signifying fame or glory which their descendents saith Cromerus still retain in their compounded names as Stani-slauus Wenceslauus c. tho now writ commonly Stanislaus Wenceslaus Some writers would have the Venedi to be originally a German Nation yet they are by Cromerus and others sufficiently proved to be of the old Sarmatae or Sauromatae which were of Scythian extraction and probably brought forth in the neighbourhood of the Lake Maeotis the fruitful womb of so many puissant Nations The name of Poland belongs properly to two Provinces alone Situation the Greater and the Lesser Poland from which as the principal parts the whole Kingdom hath taken its denomination It lies saith Starovolscius between the 38th and 54th degrees of Longitude counting from the Marquisate of Brandenburgh to the Nieper or Boristhenes which amounts to 250 Polish leagues every league containing about four English miles but the Podolian and Russian are somewhat longer The highest elevation of the Pole in the most northern parts of Livonia subject to this Crown is about 58 deg The lowest in the Palatinate of Poccuce in Red Russia 48 deg So that the whole Country being situated between the seventh and thirteenth Climats hath to its longest day from 16 to near 18 hours This Kingdom is bounded on the North by the Baltick Sea and the Swedish Livonia Bounds On the East by the Muscovian Russia and the Desarts of Tartary On the South by Moldavia Transilvania and Hungary from which the Niester and the high and woody Carpathian mountains divide it On the West by Silesia the Marquisate of Brandenburgh and the further Pomerane Poland is an even champain country Tho the Lesser Poland the nearer it approaches to the confines of Hungary the more hilly and woody it is but the farther it lies from thence the more open and level In the very middle also of the Kingdom the Palatinate of Sandomir is mountainous and rocky Formerly the country was all overgrown with woods but by the care of Sigismund the elder and Sigismund Augustus his son and the advantage of the long peace they both enjoyed husbandry was cherished and the Provinces improved in tillage and pasturage so that it is now accounted the Egypt of Europe as having supplied the wants of most parts thereof with corn whilst the Vistula being navigable serves to conveigh all the commodities of the country to Dantzick Yet this good husbandry doth not hinder but that it is well stored with Trees as Oaks Beech Fir c. not only profitable for the common advantages of Woods but also for the vast quantities of Honey and Wax which they yearly afford the hollow trees supplying hives and the leaves and wild flowers nourishment to innumerable swarms of Bees The air is cold even to that extremity Air. that trees are oftentimes parch'd to the very roots and water pour'd down freezes ere it fall to the ground The Lakes and Rivers are often frozen five or six months together and are passable by Coaches and Carts laden at the end of March This vehement sharpness of the air we may rationally impute to the largeness of the continent and the opacousness of the over-spreading woods Yet notwithstanding Orchards and Gardens are very frequent and plentifully stored with Fruits and Flowers as excellent in their kinds as in any other part of Europe This country being for the most part plain Mines abounds not in Minerals yet some Mines there are as of Lead and Iron in divers places of Quicksilver at Tustan in red Russia of Vitriol near Biecz in Cracovia But the most considerable of all are the Salt-Mines at Bochnia and Velisca in the Lesser Poland which are the great enrichment not only of the country but of the Kings Exchequer also They descend into the Mine with long Ropes as we into our Coal-pits and there dig out great masses of Salt in streets leaving so much interstitium as is sufficient to sustain the earth 'T is generally of a blewish colour yet some is white and transparent like crystal when it is newly got it hath a bitterish taste but being exposed to the air becomes sweeter as also more heavy and brittle In these Mines are small fountains of salt water which boil'd with pieces of the Rock yeild great quantities of excellent Salt They have also some veins of Sal Gemmae and of another mineral resembling hard Pitch call'd by them Carbunculus as Cromerus saith which taken in powder purgeth In the deep caverns of the Mines the workmen are said sometimes to hear voices like those of Cocks Dogs and other animals which they esteem a bad omen The chief rivers of Poland are 1. Rivers The Weissel mentioned in authors under the different names of Vistula Visula Visla Justilla Istula and Vandalus it rises in the Dutchie of Teschen in Silesia out of the mountain Carpathus now Crapack in the confines of Hungary whence running to Cracow the chief City of the Lesser Poland and there becoming navigable by the accession of other streams it continues its course Eastward to Sandomiria and thence Northward to Warzaw in Masovia afterwards winding for some leagues westward to Thorn in Prussia it turns again to the North and at the Island Grosswerder is divided into two streams emptying it self by the one into the Bay Frisch-Haff and by the other into the Baltick Sea The head of this river lies in 49 deg 20 min. of Latitude and its mouth in 54 but both in 41 deg of Longitude its course is above 100 Polish miles It divided antiently the European Sarmatia from Germany 2. The Warta rising near Cromolow in the Palatinate of Cracovia under 40 deg 50 min. of Longitude and 50 deg 30 min. of Latitude and from thence taking a winding course to the North-west washes the Towns of Olstin Warta Posna c. in the Greater Poland and near Costrin falls into the Oder 3. Notez which flows out of the Lake Goblo in the Greater Poland and after a long course to the Southwestward near Dresen discharges it self into the Warta 4. The Niester or Tyras of the ancients which takes its rise out of the Sarmatian mountains near the head of San running at first to the North then winding Eastward and enlarged with many lesser Rivers waters the Province of Pocutia separates both the upper and lower
Podolia from Moldavia and in the Province of Bessarabia empties it self into the Euxine Sea 5. Bug or Bugus rising in Red Russia near the Town Olesco at Stroczacz enters the Narva nor is it long after that ere the Narva it self rowls into the Weissel This Narva is said to have this peculiar quality that no venemous creature will live in its streams insomuch that Serpents sticking to the sides of the Boats that come out of the Bug as soon as they enter Narva will give a hiss and scud away with all the speed they can 6. San rising out of the Sarmatian mountains and falling into the Weissel near Sandomiria 7. Niemen call'd by the Germans Memel by the ancients Chronos it rises in the Dutchy of Sluczko in Black Russia runs also thro Litvania and Prussia at length flows into the lake Kurisch-Haff and so into the Baltick call'd perhaps from hence the Chronian Sea 8. The Dzwina or Dwina named of old Rubon and since by the Latins Duna which springs in the Muscovian Russia and after a course of an hundred and thirty leagues thro Russia Litvania and Livonia throws it self into the same Sea two leagues from Riga the Metropolis of Livonia Besides these we may reckon the river Bog or Boh the Hypanis of the Greeks which takes its origine from a Lake in the confines of Podolia and falls into the Nieper The bigger Poland Cujavia Laker and the territory of Lublin have several great and remarkable Lakes abounding with fresh fish of all sorts The chief of them are Goplo five miles in length and half a mile in breadth and Briale or the white Lake so call'd by an Antiphrasis because that in the months of April and May it dyes the skins of those that wash in it of a swarthy colour The Woods in Poland are well stored in most places with Hares Conies Squirrels Beast Dear and Foxes and in many parts with Bears Wolves and Bores Of amphibious beasts they have Castors Otters and as some of that countrey affirm a sort of white Bears which live very frequently in the water The Masovian Forests are stored with Elks Wild Asses Vri which Dr. Charleton interprets Owres and the Bisontes Jubati by some rendred Buffs These Bisontes according to Aldrovandus in their shape and horns resemble an Ox but have mains like a horse beards on their lower jaws tongues rough like a File and very hard a bunch upon their backs and their hair smells like musk They are of incredible strength some affirm that they will toss a man and horse into the air The Polish Nobility hunt them and esteem their flesh powdred a great dainty The Vrus or Owre called by the Polanders Thur is a kind of wild Ox much bigger swifter and stronger then the tame hath a short black beard a bush of hair upon his forehead and horns excessive large and wide of which Pliny saith the Romans made Lanthorns Girdles of his skin are said to be helpful to women in travail The Elk called by the Poles Loss by the Germans Ellend that is miserable because of the falling-sickness with which it is troubled is about the bigness of a large Horse bodied like a Stag but broader its legs longer feet large and cloven the hoofs whereof are accounted a great medicine against the falling-sickness In the deserts near Boristhenes Sig. Herberstein saith there is a wild Sheep called by the Polanders Solhac shaped like a Goat but with shorter legs and horns growing streight up It is exceeding swift and leaps very high They have also a sort of wild Horses in the Vkrain called by them Dzikie-Konie which the Nobles eat for a great rarity In Lithvania and Muscovy is a voracious unserviceable beast not seen in any other Countrey as Mat. a Michovia tells us called Rossomaka which hath the body and tail of a Wolf the face of a Cat and feeds on dead carcasses When it hath found one it never leaves eating till its belly is swelled to the utmost stretch then seeks out some narrow passage between two trees and by squeezing its body thro forces out the load of its stomach afterwards returns to its prey devouring and disgorging successively till all is consumed The Hart-like-Wolf or European Lynx call'd by the Latins Lupus Cervarius and by the Natives Ris with spots on its belly and legs affords the best Furs in Poland tho the country be well stock'd with Martrons They have neither Camels tame Asses nor Mules which beasts thrive not in cold countries but are compensated with great plenty of excellent Horses which are very fair and large pace almost naturally and surpass the German Horses in swiftness tho they come short of the Turkish Those of Lithvania are inferior to the Polish in bigness strength and beauty Fowl both tame and wild is no-where more plentiful then in this Kingdom 'T were needless to reckon up their several kinds since I find none peculiar to this Nation save only the Quails of Podolia which have green legs whose flesh is very unwholsome and if immoderately eaten breeds the cramp The Polanders are generally of a good complexion flaxen-hair'd 〈◊〉 and tall of stature The men for the most part corpulent and personable The women slender and beautiful disdaining the help of art and fucus's to set them off They are naturally open-hearted and candid more apt to be deceived then to deceive not so easily provoked as appeas'd neither arrogant nor obstinate but very tractable if they be gently and prudently managed They are chiefly led by example are dutiful to their Princes and Magistrates and very much inclined to civility and hospitality especially to strangers whose customs and manners they are forward to imitate The Gentlemen who are all noble take delight in keeping great sore of Horses and Arms. They entertain a multitude of servants many of which are only obliged to follow them but disdain any mean office and sit with their Masters at Table The principal Senators march whether on foot or horseback in the middle of their retinue putting the best clad before them The Daughters always walk before their Mothers as in Italy and the unmarried Sisters before the married The education of their youth is more loose and negligent then in other their neighbouring countries but for the most part good nature and vertuous inclination supplies that defect Tho they hate the Greek tongue and will not suffer their children to learn it lest they should imbibe also the Religion of the Greeks yet they covet nothing more then to have them well instructed in the Latine so that in no part of Italy not in Rome it self shall a man meet with so many that are able to converse in Latin as here Even the Daughters of the Nobility and wealthy Citizens at home or in Monasteries are taught to write and read as well the Latine as their Native Language When they grow to years of maturity and not before they are put to learn