of Wheaten Ears Scatter'd about Teeth brayded on her Crown And broken Ivory hung The Wood-Elephants in the Kingdom of Senega especially near the River Gamba feed together in a Heard like wilde Swine in some parts of Europe Of which thus Petronius Quaeritur in silvis Mauri fera ultimus Ammon Afrorum excutitur ne desit bellua dente Ad mortes pretiosa suas The Lybian Sands we seek and th' utmost South To finde a Monster out whose precious Tooth Proves its own bane The Lybian or Mauritanian are lesser than the Indian and as Polybius writes can not endure the Voice or Cry of the Indian Elephant The Indian though the largest of all differ in size much amongst themselves They shew'd one at Constantinople that was eleven Foot betwixt his Eyes and the utmost of his Trunk from his Eye eight Foot in length many are nine Foot high some above eleven Aloysius Camustus saw one whose flesh weighed more than five of our Stall-fed Oxen They are all black except the Ethiopian yet the Relaters of the East-Indian Voyages say that the King of Narsinga had a white Elephant Their Skin is rough and hard but more on the back than the belly they have four teeth that are Chawers besides their Tusks which stick out of their Mandible and are crooked but the Females are streight some of these Tusks are of an incredible bigness Vertomanus saw two at the Isle of Sumatra that weigh'd three hundred thirty six pound Polybius says that in the borders of Ethiopia they are us'd for Jaums of Gates and Door-posts and in Beasts-stalls for stakes For a Nose or a Snout they have a long small hanging part call'd a Trunk reaching the ground and open being sinewy and bending every way it serves him for a Hand with which he gathers both his Food and Potation conveying so to his Mouth through this he also breathes and smells Aristotle says they have Joynts in their hinder Feet below but others write variously concerning the flexure of their Knees some say they have Joynts in their Legs others the contrary and that if fallen they cannot rise Plinie says which experience allows that they have short Joynts in their hinder Legs bending inwards like a Mans their Feet are round like Horses Hooffs but larger Vertomanus compares them to a round Table their broad soal being eighteen inches over their Toes being five look as if all one piece being black and squadded an unlick'd piece so little cloven that they scarce make any separation This creature hath two Teats not on her Breasts but backwards and more concealed His Pizzle little comparing his huge Bulk and like a Stallions his Stones appear not but abscond about his Reins which apts him more for Generation Their sustenance is Water-Herbs browsing on Trees * This grows upon a small Tree with great leaves and is of the bigness of a Cucumer and by the Mahumetan Doctors is affirmed to be the forbidden Fruit because so exceedingly pleasant Musae fruit and Indian Fig-Tree Roots sometimes they swallow Earth and Stones but such food proves obnoxious to them as Pliny judges unless well chaw'd when tam'd they feed most on Barley and drink untroubled Water delighting in Liquors made of Rice other Fruits and European Wine One at Antwerp guzzel'd down seven of our Wine Gallons at once and took such large potations often yet are they not impatient of thirst but will suffer eight days well and not languish under Drowth Their ingenuity is wonderful as appears by that Elephant which Emanuel King of Portugall presented Pope Leo who seeing him at a Window made formal Congees to his Holiness with bended knees Metellus says that in the Isle of Zeilan they understand the Language of the Natives Pliny reports that an Elephant he knew could write Greek and often set down in that Character this signification 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. I my self writ this and offer'd up to the Celtick spoil Elian tells us that they us'd to eat handsomly and sit mannerly like men not tearing or devouring their Victuals when they drank they took their Cup delivering it to the next draining the Goblet moderately sprinkling the remainder as in a Joke upon the beholders when they would pass any water that is scarce fordable the tallest of them enters first the rest passing by him as it were a Bridge to whom they cast Branches of Trees to help out at last Some affirm that they are Religious adoring the most Eminent Lights the Sun and Moon and also hospitable directing wandring Passengers when out of their way observe Murtherers and other Criminals and will detect such Guilty Offenders how they will toss a Pike and Fence one with another playing out their several Weapons and Dance after a Warlike manner Augerius Busbeek writes in his Turkish Letters how he saw a young Elephant that Danc'd to a Song and play'd at Stool-Ball striking and retorting with his Trunk as we with our hands one at Rome would tye and untye hard knots by Moon-light so cunningly complicated that none else could unloose them and patiently receive correction from his Master when he fail'd and was out The female excels the Male in strength and hardiness yet Aristotle makes the Female more timerous Oppianus tells that they will beat down with their Teeth Beech Olive and Palm-trees and whole Houses as Aristotle relates Vertomannus Stories that an Elephant threw down a Tree whose body four men could not Fathom and that three Elephans drew a great Vessel on shore Aristotle saith they fight desperately charging with their Teeth and worsted flye the menacing voyce of the Conquerour an innate abhorring they have to Lyons Serpents Tygers Rams Swine and the Rhinoceros and also to some Colours and Fire Authors vary concerning their Copulation Pliny will have the Male fit at Five years the Female at Ten but Aristotle allows Twenty years to both of Twelve to the Female if forwards if slow fifteen they conjoyn usually in the water which is easier for both for the water supports the Male and lightens so great a burthen and fetches him after the Encounter more nimbly off they deal in love-affairs very private and but once in three years choosing every Triennial a new Mistress which work concluded they grow wild and almost stark mad throwing down their Stalls and Stables their time of production is also uncertain some say they go Eighteen Months others Three Years a few stretch it to Ten and these reduce it to Eight years in Travel their pangs are great squatting down on their hinder Legs bringing but one at a birth though others say four their young see and go as soon as born Sucking with his Mouth not his Trunk Eight years They are taken several ways both in Africk and India The Ethiopians knowing the Elephants Night-reposes where he alwayes withdraws to sleep catch him in a strong Palisado made of Timber in a close Covert a Trap-Door left open lying on the
fifty Mills which every one had their Moneths to grind and could make every Year twelve or fourteen Tun of Sugar In the Year Sixteen hundred and ten there were sixty one Mills which the Hollanders ruin'd so that ever since they have for the most part been able to do nothing for want of Coppers and Slaves to work The Corn never attains to its full growth because the over-fatness of the Soil and the exceeding Moisture hinders the due Ripeness There are many Vineyards which have all the Year Grapes both white and red ripe and unripe also sweet and soure Oranges Lemmons Citrons Pomegranates Coco-Nuts Figs Water-Melons Peaches Olives Almonds and such like but the Fruits never grow to a full perfection because these Plants have need of a closing and drying Coolness which here they want The want of Corn Nature hath supply'd to the Inhabitants by Roots as Potatoes or Ignames their usual and chiefest Food of which they have four sorts one call'd Benyn the second Achorere the third Maniconge and the fourth Saffranee according to the Places from whence brought to this Island The two first are the best the one for its sweetness and the other for its longest keeping good The next is Mandihoka but they eat little of it rather sending it to Angola In Brasile they plant much of it onely the Root grows nothing near so thick there as in these places And here you must observe That the Juyce must be prest out of the Brasilian Mandihoka being so hurtful and poysonous that if any one should chance to eat of it unpress'd he would run the hazard of his Life But on this Island they immediately dry it as it is Grownd without pressing of which none get any hurt or damage by eating Banano's also Bakovens Kussu-Apples two or three sorts of Jojoos or small Beews and Turky-Wheat or Maiz may be had there and Pesigos a Fruit growing on a Tree of the same name somewhat hairy on the out-side which must be cut off and then you have a little Meat over a soft Stone yet pleasant to the taste and of a cooling quality Another Fruit call'd Kola of the bigness of a Walnut grows on very high Trees in a light green Shell or Cod It consists chiefly in four or five sharp red Kernels lying close together they taste like a raw Chessnut but somewhat bitterish yet a draught of Water after it makes it seem sweet They drive a good Trade herewith to Lovando St. Paulo whither they carry it by Shipping Neither do they want Palmito-Trees out of which the Inhabitants make Wine and out of the Kernel of the Fruit extract by Decoction Palm-Oyl which they send over to Angola Of the Cotton growing there the Inhabitants make sad and light blue colour'd Clothes like those of Benyn but nothing neer so good however transported to Lovando St. Paulo they yield sufficient profit Lastly Cabbith-Trees call'd Musen and by the Egyptians Mauz and by the Islanders Abellance which in a Years time grows very high Besides Pot-herbs Cabbages Turneps Sallads Lettuce Parsley They cannot complain of want of Cattel having Swine Cows Sheep Goats Rams and some small Horses Nor of Fowl Turkeys Geese Turtle-Doves Hens Moor-Hens Sparrows Linnets Paraquetoes and several other sorts of Birds breeding there in abundance Neither are the Sea or Rivers less kind yielding several sorts of Fish In short This Island might with reason enough be term'd a happy Habitation if the Air was but of a good temper The offensive Vermin are of three sorts Wasps much bigger than ours in Europe grievously tormenting all that go into the Woods upon any occasion Pismires which eat up all they find even to the grown Sugar-Canes but they die upon the change of Weather And Rats great Enemies also to the Sugar-Plants The Inhabitants are of two sorts Portuguese which first found this Island desolate and inhabited the same and Blacks sent thither from Angola to work Those which are born on this Island of a Portuguese Father and Mother though they have liv'd there a long time are white like the Portuguese but the Children of a Portuguese-Man and a Black-Woman are Brown or Yellow and therefore call'd Mulatos There us'd every Year to be sent from Lovando St. Paulo thither about five thousand young Blacks for Slaves The Native Portuguese go clothed like their Countreymen Apparel and the Negro-Merchants with their Families follow the same Mode but the Slaves as well Men as Women go naked onely with a Clout or palmito-Palmito-Leaf before their Privacies They make Bread of Potatoes Food and drink palm-Palm-Wine or Water or Goats Milk In the time of great Heat five or six Families come together to eat their Meals in company in Caves under Ground where every one brings his own Food and his own Houshold-stuff The Commodities carried from thence to other Places consist chiefly in Muscovado-Sugar yearly made to the quantity of a hundred thousand Arabe every Arabe being thirty two Pounds being pack'd in Leaves and brought over to Europe the afore-mention'd Cotton Clothes the Fruit Kolas and such like The Merchandise transported thither by the Portuguese and others were Linnen of several kinds all sorts of colour'd Yarn Says Silk Stockings French Serges mix'd Hair-Says Axes Chopping or Hewing-Knives Iron Salt Linseed Oyl Red Copper in Plates Copper Kettles Rosin Pitch Tar Ropes Earthen Sugar-pots of bigness to contain twenty or thirty Pound weight Brandy and all sorts of strong-Strong-waters canary-Canary-Wine Olives Capers fine Flow'r Butter Cheese and such like The Revenues which the Portuguese have yearly from this Island Revenues amount to a considerable Sum For all Exported Goods must pay the Tenth of every thing for Custom to the King either in Ready Money Sugar Palm-Oyl or Clothes Of Slaves brought from one place to another they give one out of ten Those which fish with a Net at the Shore answer every fifth Fish And for the Fishing with a Canoo in the Sea for every eight days they must pay the Value of three Pence Nay every Plant which the Countrey produceth must pay somewhat to the King All the Inhabitants are Christians Religion except some Slaves or Merchants which have not constant Habitations there The Archbishop of Lisbon sends thither a Suffragan-Bishop to supervise Church-Affairs who holds his Episcopal See in the Principal City The Civil Government is manag'd by a Commander in Chief sent thither by the Crown of Portugal He keeps his Residence in the Chief City Pavoason attended with a Judge to administer Justice to the People The Inhabitants Government as well in the City as the Countrey bring all their Differences before the Governor and Judge to be decided but may appeal from thence to Lovando St. Paulo They are also bound to furnish the Governor the Castle and other Places of Guard with Fire-wood and to Build or Repair his House at their own Charges and also all Bridges and to keep all Roads and Ways clean and
from Putrifaction of the Air Seldom does the Pestilence in Egypt arise from the Putrifaction of the Air. unless the Nile overflowing the Countrey too high leaves his Water a long while upon the Ground whereby the whole Land becomes as a corrupt and standing Lake that by the Southerly Winds and Summer Heat are ripened and made fit to send up infectious Vapours There being then no Natural Cause to breed this Contagion within Egypt The Pestilence is always brought over from other Places into Egypt it follows that it is brought thither from other Neighbouring and Bordering Places and especially out of Greece Syria and Barbary That which is brought thither out of Greece and Syria and falls upon Caire is very milde kills few and holds but a short time But when it comes from Barbary thither it is most pernicious and of longest continuance Such was that in the Year Fifteen hundred and eighty that raged so furiously that in a short time it clearly swept away above five hundred thousand men By the continual rising of the Dust Why the Baths are in great use among the Egyptians and extraordinary Sweating the Bodies of the People become foul nasty and verminious and therefore Baths are of very great use to cleanse and keep them sweet and free from breeding Cattel But the Women with most frequency and care use Bathing as intending or at least imagining that such Lotions make them more pleasing to their Husbands and to have a gracious and pleasant Scent in their Nostrils when they come together to recreate themselves They take little care of their Hair Alpin de mâ—de Egypt ordering it slightly according to the manner of the Countrey in a Silken Caul but are very curious elsewhere using the Razor where necessary Afterwards they anoint themselves with several rich Perfumes such as Musk Amber Civet and the like which there are bought in great abundance for a small matter as aforesaid This frequent Bathing and Anointing they use not onely for Ornament Fat Women are pleasing to the Egyptians Cleanliness and Coolness but especially to make them if lean to become plump and fat because such Women be highly esteemed of in those Parts by which means some grow Bona-Roba's and others out of all measure with fathomless Wastes like foul Sows chiefly the Jews whose Women are more liable to that undecent Extream All in general when they are Bathing the sooner to facilitate their Design What they do to be fat take nourishing cool Broaths and Cordial Jellies on purpose made of Pinguefying Ingredients to wit Bammia Melochia and Colocasia The poorer sort in the Bannias drink the Settling of the Oyl of Sesamus Seed which they call Thaine or the decoction of China Roots or the Oyl pressed out of the Indian Nuts or the Fruit of the Turpentine-Tree Sweet Almonds Hasle-nuts and Pistaches eating besides much food and Flesh of fatted Fowls with the Broath boiled to a Jelly and mixed therewith Nor do these Lotions and Unctions suffice The chasing of the Body unless attended with a threefold Frication The first is done with the naked palm of the hand anointed with the Oyl of Sesamus the second with a rough linnen cloth and the third with a course cloth of Goats-hair After which they are rubbed all over with Sope which they wash off in a Bath of warm sweet-Water And lastly they lay upon their Feet a mixture of the Powder of Archanda mixed with ordinary water and is very serviceable for moist and stinking Feet drying them speedily by its great astringency At Cairo and Alexandria great multitudes of Houses are appointed for the use of Baths which have many Caves Cellars or Chambers The Superfluity of Baths at Cairo wherein people sweat are chafed and washed containing at all times hot warm and cold Baths but usually moderately warm because principally in use among them The Egyptians keep a slender and sparing Table eating little but often The Egyptians feed sparingly but often They are not pleased with Variety but content themselves with one Dish of Meat at a meal And if Flesh eat sparingly of it as having no great appetite thereto but when they do they chuse Mutton simply cook'd without either addition or Sauce to it But of late some Merchants have begun to learn to eat Chickens They chiefly delight in moist Food Their Food and therefore commonly use Rice boiled in preserved Juices of Linse Erwetes white Cives Melochia Beets Melda Coale Bammia Cucumers or Chate the Roots of Colocasia Melons Dates Musae Fruit Figs Apricocks Peaches Oranges Lemons Citrons Granates The poor people eat Beef and Camels flesh and some Fish as Pikes or Pickerels and many other and among the rest the flesh of the Crocodile In places near the Sea Fish may be had in great abundance which they eat without distinction for the most part salted and sometime half rotten Milk and all that come of it or are made with it is with them in very great use And as they are best pleased in simple Diet of one kinde of Food They eat not many sorts of Food so a little of it contents them For many make their Dinner and Supper onely of Melons or Wheaten Bread some of such simple Broth as we mentioned before and others chew upon a green Sugar-Cane or onely with Figs or Grapes or Cucumers or some such trifling Diet. All their Pot-herbs and Fruits are moister than the European and therefore more unsavoury The Fishes are unwholesom In like manner the Fishes taken in the Nile are fat enough and pleasant in Taste but accounted unwholesom because that River hath no stony or gravelly but a sedimented bottom and the Water unsetled with a flying Lee which must of necessity make the Fishes that breed in it unwholesom The common Drink of the Countrey is the Nile Their Drink which is very sweet but the Christians and Jews drink Wine also as also some Turks and especially the Soldiers that often at Cairo take the Creature in such abundance that they return home laid athwart on Asses Backs in those mad and inebriating Frolicks no more minding their Prophets Wine-forbidding Laws The best Wine for in Egypt there grows none is brought from the Island of Candy Rhodes and Cyprus the Wine of Italy Corcyre and Zacynthe turning sowre presently This Water of Nilus The Water of Nilus very wholesom to drink which by the length of his Current and the Heat of the Sun must needs be sufficiently concocted and made thin is very wholesom for as to the dregs or muddy part thereof the Egyptians have a way to make it clear which they do in this manner As soon as the Water is brought home in Leathern Flasks or Bottles they put it in long-neck'd great earthen Jugs or Jarres with broad round Bellies anointing the edge a little with stamp'd sweet Almonds then taking a handful of the same they thrust their Arm into
a Religious Order of their Sect do for the most part make Profession of it under a goodly Pretext of certain Revelations which they say they have had from their Prophet Mahomet And hereupon those of Algier But the Algeriant will not own it to palliate the shame and the reproaches that are thrown upon them for making use of a Witch in the danger of this Siege do say that the loss of the Forces of Charles V. was caused by a Prayer of one of their Marabou's named Cidy Utica which was at that time in great Credit not under the notion of a Magitian but for a person of a holy life Afterwards in remembrance of their success they have erected unto him a small Mosque without the Babason Gate where he is buried and in which they keep sundry Lamps burning in honour of him nay they sometimes repair thither to make their Sala for a testimony of greater Veneration Here one thing very well merits our observation Note that in the Year One thousand six hundred thirty seven in the end of November as those of Algier took an exact survey of the Mole of their Port in the time of a great Calm fearing the strong Preparations of the French wherewith they had been menaced by the Sieur de Manly they to their great astonishment perceived without and somewhat above the Mole a Galley at the bottom of the Water where it lay covered with Sand from Poop to Prow with all its Banks of Oars Now in regard none living had seen or heard speak of such a Galley it did much astonish every one and invited most people to go to see it To raise it entire there was no way but all they could do was to get up three very fair and perfect Canon and by the Arms of Charles the Fifth upon them it was imagined to be a part of the Wreck of his Fleet an hundred years before as we but now mentioned About twelve Miles from Algier Teddelez Teddelez the most Easterly Sea-Town of this Countrey by Ptolomy call'd Addime seven Miles from Alzier fortifi'd with strong Walls that inclose above a thousand Houses together with a Castle the Residence of the Governor Sasa Sasa formerly call'd Tipassus and by some Old Algier because the other as they say was built out of its Ruines Heretofore it contained above three thousand Houses but now lies desolate Kol der Mudejar Kol der Mudejar a Town new built by Asan Bassa about the Year Fifteen hundred and fifty three Miles Eastward from the River Safran to the Inland The Inhabitants are either Tagarins Morisks or Granadins driven out of Castile and Andaluzia and Targatans expell'd Valentia ¶ THe Soil is so fruitful The Soil of the Countrey that sometimes there are two or three Harvests in a year of Wheat Barley and Oats besides other Plants which it affords the whole year in great abundance They have in some places Melons very delicious in Taste some of which are ripe while others are green so that all Seasons produce successively ripe Melons Besides Vines whereon hang bunches of Grapes a Cubit long ¶ THe Desarts feed Lions The Beasts Leopards Tygers Panthers Porcupines and Hedge-Hogs whose flesh the Moors eat though Swines Flesh be forbidden Harts Apes Foxes Camelions and many sorts of Fowls viz. Ostriches Eagles Hens Partridges and the like Oxen also with straight Horns an Ell long and Sheep with three four five or six Horns and Tails thirty forty or fifty pound weight besides Horses and Camels Here are also two strange Beasts the one call'd a Gapard the other a Ciculis the former frequently made tame as Gramay says and us'd to hunt with by reason of its swiftness it hath a Head like a Cat but much bigger a spotted Tail like a Panther the Feet behind longer and higher than those before one main cause of his great speed in running The other neither a Dog nor a Fox but partaking of both having one peculiar and rare property to cure Lameness with his Breath if the same be taken in the morning upon the hand and that apply'd to the part affected chafing the same ¶ THe Native Inhabitants of Algier The Constitution of the Inhabitants are whiter than the rest of the Countrey strong-limbed and well set but there are not many for people of all colours reside there some for the Wars as the Janizaries some for Profit as the Turks some for Trade as Merchants some upon force as the Granadines and Andaluzians driven out of Spain besides the Slaves of all Countreys Jews also and Moors that serve the Turks in the Wars and come out of the Mountains of Kouko and Labez Without the City live none but Moors and Alarbes not in Houses but seatter'd up and down in Huts and Tents in the open Fields The King and the Grandees of the Court wear their Beards long but others shave close cutting off withal the Hair of their Heads excepting one Lock on the Crown by which they believe they shall be drawn up to Paradise They Bathe often and Wash every Morning before they do any thing then again before their Sala or Prayer also before Dinner at each Lotion the Water is pour'd into the Palms of their Hand which they suffer or rather cause to run up to their Elbows ¶ MOst of the Houses are built Four-square two three four Their Houses and five or six Stories high Flat-rooft for conveniency of Walking receiving both Air and Light from the Doors and small Windows In stead of Chimneys great Vessels fill'd with Earth stand at the Doors whereon with Wood and Coals they Dress their Meat The Palaces of the Kings and other Grandees have great Quadrangles beautifi'd with curious Columns the Floors of the Rooms Boarded spread over with Tapestry into which whoever goes leaves his Shoes standing before the Door ¶ THeir Houshold-stuff is little being for the most part one Matt Their Houshold-stuff a Tapestry Quilt and two Cloths spread at one side of the Room some Earthen or Wooden Pots and Dishes long Spoons and Wooden Cup-boards and Chests In stead of a Bedstead Ledikani they lay two or three Sticks from one Wall to another two or three Foot from the Floor over which they lay Planks whereon they lay a Quilt upon which they lie covered onely with a Blanket Their usual Food is Rice Couscou's and boyl'd Meat with some Fruit. They drink Water yet some of them notwithstanding the Prohibition of their Alcoran drink Wine also ¶ THe Moors of this Province live some by Husbandry Their Employment some by Handicrafts others by Merchandising but most by Robbing of Christian Ships The Janizaries employ themselves in Souldiery but the Arabians live Slovenly and Poorly getting all they have by Cheating and Treachery The Granadins use all manner of Trades wherein they are very skilful and Arts-Masters The Women do nothing but sit all day on Matts or
who had served the Malteses were put to the Sword and most of the Knights of Malta sent to the Galleys and the rest the Bashaw took and made Slaves After this Victory Sinan appointed Morat Aga to be Vice-Roy and ever since the Grand Seignior sends from Constantinople every three years a Beglerbeg or Bashaw thither to support his Conquests About the Year Fifteen hundred ninety eight Sidi Haga a Marabout or Priest designing to make himself a Master of the City and Kingdom with the assistance of the meaner sort began a notable Rebellion upon the first intelligence whereof Asan Bassa Admiral at Sea Sailed thither with sixty Galleys and some Souldiers from Tunis and Algier on a sudden fell into the Marabout's Quarters whose own Men finding their error in some measure to mitigate the fury against themselves set an end to their Mutiny by presenting their Captains Head to Sinan who sent it to the Grand Seignior De Stadt TRIPOLIS THE TERRITORY OF TRIPOLI NEar the Lesser Africa and Asfatus over against the Island Querquene The Borders of the Territory of Tripoli call'd by Ananie Ceraunia the River Capez takes its Course antiently call'd Triton Westerly of which this Province takes its beginning and ends at that of Mezellata in the East so that it hath for Borders on the West Tunis and on the North the Mediterrane on the South Numidia or Biledulgerid and Lybia with the Wilderness of Zara and in the East Mezellata a large Tract of Ground but altogether waste and unfruitful The chiefest Places thereof are Old and New Tripoli Kapes Machres Elhamma and Zoara Old Tripoli by some taken for the Antient City Naples in Barbary Old Tripoli and the Great Leptis of Ptolomy This was the Birth-place of the Emperor Severus first built by the Romans afterwards possessed by the Goths and at length destroy'd by the Mahumetans in the time of Hamor their second Kalif and ever since as Sanutus saith little inhabited New Tripoli or Tripoli in Barbary New Tripoli to distinguish it from a City of the same name in Syria call'd by the Turks Terabulus and by the Moors Trebeliz or Tarabilis seated on the Sea-side is not great but full Peopled with Turks Moors The Scituation and Jews surrounded with high and defensible Stone-Walls strengthened in several places with Sconces and Bullwarks yet having but two Gates one on the South-side going out to the main Land and one on the North by the Haven adjoyning to which Gates are two Forts that on the North securing the Haven which is very pleasant and beneficial and of capacity enough to contain many Ships The Houses like those of Tunis and the Streets very well pav'd with one large Prison or Masmora for Christian Slaves whereof there are always some here though much fewer than at Tunis or Algier besides divers Mosques and some Hospitals but for the greatest part sorely decay'd through the Cruelty of the Wars Kaps Kaps or Kapis or Kapis or Kafis by Marmol call'd Kasce and by the Moors according to Mercator Kabez being the Takape of the Antients stands near the Midland-Sea environ'd with lofty Walls and strengthened with a Castle Machres Machres or Mahara a Village about thirteen miles from the Isle of Zerby with a Castle for the defence of Kaps Bay Elhamma Elhamma a Roman Platform three miles from Kapes having Walls of Hewen Stone and Gates whereon in Marble Tablets may yet be read Latin Inscriptions Zoara Zoara or Zoarat taken by the Antients for the Haven Pisidon is an antient Town by the Mediterrane thirteen miles to the East of the Island Zerby There is one more little inhabited Rasalmabes and of as little fame onely for the Name controverted by Authors some making it Gichtis others Rasalmabes and Simlerus the Gita of Antoninus The Syrtes are two a greater and a lesser the lesser is an ill Neighbour to the Gulf of Kaps near Tripoli being very dangerous by reason of the Shelves Banks and Quick-sands lying round about But the great Syrtes in the Maps are call'd The Shoals of Barbary and in Spanish Baxos de Carthage which is the same over against Ezzab Syrtes is properly a Greek word The Syrtes signifying Shifting Sands sometimes having much and then little Water and sometimes almost none at all The greater of these Syrtes is in Nine and twenty Degrees North Latitude and Forty eight Degrees of Longitude but the smaller in Two and thirty Degrees Latitude and in Three and forty Degrees Longitude The Lake Tritonis The Lake Tritinis famous in Antiquity and often mention'd by Historians and Geographers lies in the very heart of Little Africa Volateranus says there are there of the said Name viz. this of Lybia thought to be the Birth-place of Minerva another of Boetia and a third in Thessalia Ptolomy places here two that is Tritonis by Marmol call'd Kapis and the other the Lake of Pallas Diodorus after all makes mention of another near the Atlantick Ocean ¶ THe Rivers of this Kingdom The Rivers are Karsarnaker Rasalmabes and Magro otherwise Cenifes all which take their originals from Mount Atlas and discharge their Waters into the Midland-Sea near the places from which they take their Names ¶ THe Countrey is all Sandy The Soyl. and so Barren that no kind of Corn by the best Husbandman be produced there so that the Inhabitants would almost perish with Hunger if Corn were not Transported thither from other places to supply their defective Harvests ¶ THere is in this City no fresh Water Their Scarcity of Water but that which runs from the tops of the Houses through Gutters Not far from Elhamma rises a great Spring to the Southward whose Waters being exceeding hot are conveyed by Pipes into the Bathes there which notwithstanding it s so distant Current yet retains the Heat so powerfully that few will adventure to go into it yet sometimes for pure necessity the Inhabitants are compell'd to drink thereof though in regard of its Sulphurous Quality it operates little towards the quenching of their thirst Lastly not far from the City is a standing-Standing-Water call'd The Lake of the Melatson by reason of having a strange power to Cure the Leprosie Sanutus places here the Lotus-Tree which by some are call'd Mikakoliers or rather Alsiers of which Fruit being sweeter than Dates the Inhabitants make very pleasant Wine Lemmons Oranges and Dates grow here in great abundance but no other Fruits except Halbhazis which groweth under Ground to the bigness of a Bean it tastes like an Almond but is never chew'd onely sucked ¶ THe Inhabitants of Tripolis live chiefly upon Weaving and Merchandising Those of Kapes being poor Their Employment are generally Husbandmen and Fishers paying Tribute of all their Labors to the Bashaw Those of Elhamma are lazy poor and very Thieves The Zoarers burn Lime which they carry to Tripolis But all live hardly their Food being so scarce that he is
where some few Houses are erected From hence all Ships that arrive there plentifully furnish themselves both with fresh Water and Wood. Next in order comes the high Point Cabo das Palmas or Cape Palm Cape de Palm in four Degrees and fifteen Minutes North Latitude on whose Westerly Corner are three round Hills and a little farther within Land a round Grove of Palm-Trees which may be seen far at Sea from whence this Point took the Name of Cabo das Palmas Near to this in Sandy-Bay arriving Ships finde a convenient Harbour A mile Easterly of which up into the Countrey appears a long Mountain looking like double Land From the first Point of Palm Cape a ledge of Rocks shoot South South-East a mile into the Sea and before them a great Shelf two miles long between them the Tide runs very strong to the East having ten or eleven fathom Water Two miles more Eastward Gruway the Village Gruway stands seated at the end of the Grain-Coast This whole Shore is very full of Rocks for which reason the Ships which Ride there are in no little danger In February March and April here is fair and clear Weather with cooling Breezes and gentle Westerly Winds In the middle of May there begin South and South-East Winds The Air. which bring with them not onely stormy Gusts as Hericanes but also Thunder Lightning and great Rains that continue June July August September October November December and to the latter end of January During part of this time the Sun being in the Zenith or Vertical Point of the Heavens sends down its Beams perpendicular The Land here yields great plenty of Mille Cotton Rice Grain of Paradise or Melegette good Palmeto-Wine besides divers sorts of Grain especially that call'd of Paradise or Melegette The Plant that bears Melegette hath thick Leaves better than three inches long and three broad with a thick rib in the middle out of which shoot many Veins which have a Spicie-taste like those of the Seed The Fruit is but little of size cover'd with a poisonous tough Russet-colour'd or rather Pale-brown Shell and under that a Film fill'd with many smooth and pointed small Seeds white within biting as Pepper and Ginger The unripe Grains are red and pleasant in taste The greatest smoothest and Chess-nut-colour'd are the best and the blackest the worst No kind of Beasts are here wanting by which means there is all necessary Provision to be had for Seamen The Blacks in these Parts are very envious to all Strangers The kind of the Inhabitants and steal from them what ever they can lay their hands on so that it behoves all Dealers to have a circumspect eye over their Goods And in some places they must be careful of themselves for being Cannibals they eat whomsoever they can get into their power 'T FORT TACARAY ofte WITSEN and about half flood a fathom and a half deep but within very dry and narrow that it gives little advantage either to the Natives or Seamen At the West-side of it rises a Rocky and steep Hill full of Brambles and Trees but on the East-side a Sandy Bank by which as it were split it runs in two small Vills one to the North-west into the Countrey and the other North-east but as we said both dry and not Navigable Near St. Andrew's River the Sea-Coast bellies out to the South-east as far as the Red-Land Between the fourth and fifth Cliff some high Trees grow in a Valley whose edge is remarked with two little Vills the one named Tabattera the other Domera Having left behind you the Red Cliffs you come to Cape La-Hou Cape de Labou the utmost limit of this and the beginning of Quaqua-Coast which spreads it self to Assine the whole Land hereabouts low and poor over-grown with Brambles and Trees yet a mile and a half Eastwards lyeth a Village call'd Koutrou Koutrou or Katrou Five miles from this Cape stands the Village Jakke La-Hou in a very barren spot five miles farther Jak in Jakko and six miles beyond that the Bottomless-pit so call'd from its unfathomable deepness for the Seamen having Sounded with their longest Lines and Plummet could never reach the bottom This Hole is in the Sea not above a Musquet-shot from the Shore so that the Ships which come about this Pit must come to an Anchor betimes to prevent danger Three miles from this Pit on the Shore runs a small River Eastward into the Countrey From Cape de La-Hou to the aforesaid Pit the Coast spreads Eastwardly with double Land Sixteen miles Eastward bi La-Hou takes place Corbi Labou before which the Sea runs very deep for a stones cast from the Shore it has forty and fifty Fathom water Eight and twenty or thirty miles from the Cape La-Hou Assine is seated the Village Assine where the Guinny-Gold-Coast begins full of high Woods but the Land low the houses such as they are stand on the Sea-shore so that they may easily be seen in the passing by Two miles from Assine stands a Hamlet call'd Abbener or Albine Albine a little to the West of a four-square Wood. Then follows in order Taboe and two miles farther Cape Apolony Taboe being a rising ground and seeming to Sailers like three great Hills In Jernon a little Village scituate on the side of this Promontory the Netherlanders have a Storehouse All along this whole Coast grow many Palm-Trees nor is it destitute of other Conveniences yielding extraordinary variety both of Fruits and Plants The Inhabitants as we mention'd before are call'd Quaqua's because when they see any Trading-Ships approach they declare their welcome by crying aloud Quaqua These People by their Aspect seem the unseemliest of all the upper Coast but are indeed the modestest and honestest and most courteous for they esteem it a great shame either at meeting to Salute or at parting to take leave with a Kiss When they come to the Ships to Trade they put their Hands in the Water and let some drop into their Eyes by which they testifie as by an Oath their uprightness and hatred to all Cheatings or Knavish actions Drunkenness they not onely abstain from They shun Drunkenness but abominate for the avoiding which they will drink no palmito-Palmito-Wine but a smaller sort call'd De Bordon or Tombe and that also mixt with Water alledging that from Drunkenness proceed many Quarrels the two frequent occasions of Murders and other inconveniencies which are all prevented by Sobriety and Temperance The chief Merchandise to be had here Merchandise are Elephants-Teeth of a larger size than usually elsewhere but withall dearer Some Cloathes also sold here which the Europeans and other Traders from the Name of the Coast call Quaqua-Cloathes being of two sorts the one bound with five Bands or Strings the other with six from the number of the bindings giving denominations to the Places they are sold in Cape Lahou yields many of
Things that to lighter Judgments may seem fabulous yet credited by Antiquity and as we may suppose not without reason Pliny for they making Pluto the God of Riches 't is no marvel if he defend his Possession thus violently and without his leave invaded and ransacked But whether those related Fancies of the Blacks be true or not signifies little however this we may be infallibly assur'd of that this Gold is gotten with great labor and trouble for if any can find two or three * An English is one Peny-weight in Gold that is four Shillings in Money Englishes in Gold in a whole Day he hath labor'd very hard and hath gotten a good days Wages for his pains The Air to all but its Natives proves very unwholsom The Air unhealthy in the Gold-Coast to Strangers as experience teacheth for all Strangers which lie on Shore whether in Forts or Store-houses are afflicted with grievous and mortal Sicknesses whereas on the contrary the Indigenae look fresh live healthy and attain to a great Age. Some of the most Ingenious Blacks attribute the cause thereof to the multiplicity of Lightning and Thunder whose frequency diffuseth the Infection as the two sorts of Winds from Sea and Land dissipate unhealthy Fogs and Vapors Foreigners which come to Guinee Worms especially this Gold-Coast are very much tormented with Worms breeding in their Bodies so also are the Blacks about Myna whereas those that live four and twenty miles lower Easterly are always free from that trouble These Worms call'd Ikkon do not affect every one equally that hath been there but some sooner others later some get them while they are yet upon the Coast others in their Voyages a third after the ending of their Voyage nay four five six yea twelve Moneths after their coming home and others have been two or three times there and never had any touch of them From whence they have their original and breed Their Original hath been much disputed some lay the cause upon their excessive use of Venus some upon their eating of Fish which have Worms in their Bodies or upon much Swimming and running into the cold Water others that they proceed from the over-much Drinking of palmito-Palmito-Wine eating of Kankaiens that is their Bread made of Mille but all these seem meer Fancies without a shew of reason for divers in all those particulars most temperate have nevertheless this Distemper whereas on the contrary others the most loose and debauched have never had any of them But those speak with most probability who say that these Vermine proceed either from a peculiar Malignity in the Air or from drinking of the Water which the Negro's draw out of Wells in some places and sell to the Whites for most true it is that several have drank much Water and yet not been afflicted with Worms but then they resided at Akara and other adjacent places but those which lie before Moure and drink of that Water shall be tormented with that Elminthick Evil. These Worms breed in several manners By what accident they come in some they bring Fevers or shaking Agues in others fainting Fits with great pain in some they cause Frensie some can neither go nor stand or lie or sit while others scarce feel a Distemper They shew themselves with a little Pimple or red Spot hard in the Flesh wherein sometimes may be seen the Worms between that and the Skin at last they cause Ulcers upon the Ball of the Foot on the Arms Knees Thighes or Hips and indeed in all fleshy places continuing with some near three Moneths whereas others have scarce any pain three Weeks yet perhaps have ten Worms hanging out of the Flesh and Skin at once The Worms are of several lengths and bigness Their Form some a Yard others a Yard and a half long and some shorter but generally as thick or big as the Bass-String of a Theorboe The Cure cannot be perfected till the Worm breaks through the Skin The Curing and thrusts out his Head then they tie it that it may not creep in again and at length draw it quite out which they do by winding the end hanging out about a Spoon if in the extracting it happens to break there commonly ensueth a renewing of the Wound The Blacks never use any means but onely wash the affected part with salt Water But the best Cure is to cleanse the Body of putrifi'd humors and to anoint the place with fresh Butter In the performing which Cure the Place where the Worm appears must be defended against Cold to prevent swelling and exulceration The Negro's The Venerial Pox. among other Sicknesses are very subject to the Venerial Pox which they cure by drinking Sarsaparilla Wounds by them call'd Mapira growing from Blows they cleanse little without using any Medicine because they have none nor any Chirurgions to apply them Swellings which will not ripen or come to Suppuration Swellings they cut with three or four long slashes then let it heal of it self whence it comes that they have so many Cuts and Scars in their Bodies They use no artificial Pbloebotomy How they let Bloud but onely cut the Flesh till the Blood comes out All the help they give the Sick is to Shave them if Parents or Children otherwise they will not offer them one drop of Water or Oyl but let them perish with hunger and perplexity The Sick are call'd Myarri and mortal Diseases Jarbakkasi and a dead Body Ou. The Men are of a middle Stature free and airy of disposition well made The Constitution of the Inhabitants strong Limm'd and swift of Foot with round Faces midling Lips but flat or Camosi'd Noses with them a beauty little Ears white Eyes with great Eye-brows and great Teeth that shine and are as white as Ivory caused by rubbing them with hard Wood wherewith they keep them always very neat and clean Their Visages seem to shine with Sweat or else foul'd with Dirt Scurf and Nastiness continuing Beardless till thirty years old their Shoulders broad Arms brawny with great Hands and long Fingers whereupon they let their Nails grow like Claws sometimes to the length of a Joynt and as a great ornament is especially used among the Nobility Lastly they have little Bellies broad Feet long Toes and furnish'd as most of the Blacks upon the Guinee Coast with large Propagators They have quick and ready Wits to help in any sudden emergency Their Kind and shew themselves withall very considerate whereunto they adde great craft and subtlety Covetousness they learn from their Cradles which makes them always craving and with such petulancy as not to receive a denial Courteous enough in outward appearance to Strangers but envious and given to revenge amongst one another and where they can play the Masters fear not to manifest their Ambition Treachery domineering and supercilious Tyranny The People neighboring the Shore both Men and Women Expert in Swimming
Priviledges for now he may buy Slaves and Trade for other things which before he had no permission to do They take great care therefore about it although perhaps the acquiring cost them all they are worth and thereby are much poorer than before but he soon gets it up again by Presents brought him from others each according to his ability And now as soon as he hath gain'd an Estate again he bestows it upon Slaves wherein their Riches and Reputation consists These keep one among another a yearly time of Feasting where they make good Cheer new Paint the Cows Head and hang it about with Ears of Mille. Besides this the Nobility in general keep one Feast upon the sixth day of July where they Paint their Bodies with Stripes of red Earth and wear on their Necks a Garland of green Boughs and Straw as a Badge of their Nobility In the Evening they all come as Guests to the House of the Braffo where they are entertain'd with exceeding Mirth and Feasting even to Excess and Drunkenness These People are so conceited of their old Idolatrous Customs Religion or Worship that they deride as it were the Religion of the Whites under what Name or Notion soever Several times have the Portuguese and French by Jesuits sent thither endeavour'd to convert them to the Christian Faith yet never have been able hitherto to effect any thing worth relating And thus have we travell'd through the Gold-Coast The Coast from Rio Volta to Arder SEven Miles Eastward from Akara The River Rio da Volta on the Shore lieth a Town call'd Sinko twelve Miles from that the River Rio da Volta falls into the Sea Coming with Ships before this River the Entrance seems very little because of a Shelf which lies before it and closeth it up yet more within Land it may be discern'd to run with an open and wide Channel Between Sinko and Rio Volta standeth a Town call'd Ley whose Inhabitants maintain themselves by selling Cows wherewith though at a dear Rate they furnish themselves with Meat Three Miles from Rio Volta lieth a Point call'd in Portuguese Cabo Montego a low Countrey having little Wood and the Shore spreading East South-East From Cabo Montego Eastwards the Coast shoots out with a great Belly so that from one Corner to the other Observe Spanish Miles or Leagues as we said before such as twenty five make a Degree it is ten Miles Sailing The Countrey seems Craggy yet water'd with a small River whose Mouth is stopp'd with Sand and hath Trees on the East Quarter Beyond all the Land lies flat as far as Popo or Popou and shadow'd with good Boscage THE KINGDOM OF ARDER THis Kingdom of Arder contains about twelve Miles in length The Kingdom of Arder beginning four Miles Eastward of Popou and ending at Aqua Three Miles Eastward of Popou on the Shore appears a Town named Foulaen The Town Foulaen five Miles Eastward of which on the same Coast you come to Little Arder Little Arder three hundred Rods in length beyond which about fifty Rods from the Shore runs a River of brackish Water From Popou the Coast reacheth East and by South to Arda and for eight Miles low Land spotted here and there with Trees Two Miles Westward of Arder stand four Woods A Mile to the North North-East of Arder Jakkeins you may see Jakkein a Town so call'd from the Governor thereof The City is encompass'd fifteen hundred Rod about with an Earthen Wall and includes a stately Palace the Residence of the Governor and water'd with a small Rivulet Three days Journey from Jakkein lieth the Jojo Jojo and a quarter of a Mile farther a Town call'd Ba surrounded with a Mud Wall Ba. over which a Fidalgo Commands in the King's Name On the Sea-Coast stand two Gates and on the Land-side runs a fresh River which reacheth to Benyn About twelve Miles to the North North-East up in the Countrey lieth Great Arder an open Village and straglingly built but containing in circuit as the Natives report above three Miles They may conveniently Ride to Arder on Horseback or be carri'd in a Litter or Waggon there runneth so straight a Way thither from the Shore In the mid-way stands a Retiring place for Travellers where they brew Beer of Mille. The King hath his Residence in this Village and two Palaces but he dwells onely in one the other being reserv'd as a Retirement upon casualty of Fire Both these Palaces are environ'd with an Earthen Wall of four or five Foot thick with Coverings of Reeds and have several Chambers and Apartments within Here are no Wall'd Cities but open Villages in abundance fitly scituate for Merchandise and defensible for the Inhabitants The Air proves unhealthy to the Whites The air unhealthy for the greatest number of them that go to Land are quickly seiz'd by a Sickness which for the most part kill 's whereas the Natives are very fresh and sound and attain a great Age. This Tract of Land is every where plain and fruitful thin of Woods The conditions of the Land but full of fine Villages the Ways very convenient to Travel in and several full-stream'd Rivers that irrigate and with their Waters fertilize the Ground The Valleys are enricht with divers Fruits throughout the whole year Their Fruits as Injames Potato's Oranges Lemons Coco-Nuts palm-Palm-Wine and such like The Injames are eaten either boyl'd broil'd or roasted with Butter for Sawce In the Marshes of Arder they make much Salt which those of Kuramo buy and carry away with great Canoos Here breed many Horses The Houses are meer Mud-walls two or three Foot thick Houses and cover'd with Straw Their Houshold-stuff no other than that before described on the Gold-Coast Houshold-stuff and as there also for Ornament hang on the Walls their Arms viz. Shields Assagays or Lances Bowes and Arrows In Places of retirement or as we may call them Inns Beer of Mille. between the Shore and Great Arder and in the Town Offer they brew Beer of Mille in this manner First they steep the Mille in Water till it shoots afterwards dry it in the Sun then stamp it to Meal in great Mortars and poure upon it boyling hot Water They know also to make this Mash Work with Yeast and to make it thick or thin as they please But this Beer by the heat of the Mille will soon sowre and drinking of it causeth the Scurvey but mixed with Water makes a good wholsom Drink Their Bread made of Mille they call Kanties and their other Victuals Kade Food being green Herbs Rice Beef Pork Cabrietes or Mutton Dogs and Hens The Men have three Habit. sometimes four Garments hanging about their Middles one shorter than another so that part of them all may be seen but the upper part of the Body and Feet up to the Knees remain naked The better sort have very sumptuous Cloathing of
lie three small Islanâ—â— the Sea call'd also Amboises of which the Eastermost is the biggest almost as Towring as the High Land of Amboises being very populouâ— Within these great abundance of Provision good Palm-Wine and 〈◊〉 may be had but little Trade and for that reason as little frequented 〈◊〉 before it the Ships Ride at Anchor to buy Slaves and Elephants Teeth brought thither from Kamerones The Inhabitants Inhabitants which for the most part speak Portuguese live on the middlemost Island of the three from whence they go often to the main Land 〈◊〉 get Provision and Fruit. About five miles from Amboises River of Kamarones the River Jamoce glides in a narrow Current In the middle of which Buffels Island towards the South Wall a small Island call'd Buffels Island discovers it self from which spreads a Bank of Rocks South Easterly so steep that one side of a Ship touching it on the other side may find six Fathom water Two miles within the third Point Yeeth Hole or Monoka you arrive at a place by the Whites call'd The Teeth Hole but by the Natives Monoka and opposite to that another nam'd The Monombas Hole whereto adjoyns a Village the usual Trading place At the North live the Kalbangas whose Governor nam'd Moneba hath the repute of one of the powerfullest of the adjacent Princes The Town where he keeps his Seat Royal stands scituate on a Hill very neatly Hedg'd about with Trees so that they account it the pleasantest place in all that Tract and not onely so but exceedingly stor'd with abundance of Provision as Injames Bananassen Palm Wine and Bordon Wine both of the same species but the latter the worst as growing in Fenny places The Houses are built in Quadrangular form Little Ivory can be gotten here and less Akori but many Slaves Trade which makes them cheap The Commodities desir'd there and carry'd thither by the Netherlanders are Thin beaten Bosses which they use in stead of Money Bars of Iron Copper Bars Copper Pots Hammer'd Kettles Violet Beads Paste of Oranges and Lemmons Cows Horns And such like The People which live by the River Kamerones are strong fat and lively smooth Skin'd from the top to Toe and generally of as large a stature as the lustiest Englishman Next Kamerones on the Sea Coast follow the Rivers Monoka Borba or Bourn Rio de Campo Rio Sante Benito and Rio Danger Rio Sante Benito lieth in two degrees Northern Latitude Rio Santo Benito and the Coast spreads South and North. Seven miles Southward in one degree and five and thirty minutes you come to another River and four miles farther a third abounding in Water Five miles from the last opens a Bay bearing eight Fatnom Water Six miles below which a prominant Point stil'd Cape St. John Cape of St. John fronted with a ridge of Rocks None of these Rivers are much frequented for Trade except that of Danger in one degree North Latitude The People prove ill Neighbours to each other being never free from Animosities Feuds and Quarrels upon every trifle The Island KORISKO THree or four miles Southward of Cape St. John appears an Island The Island Korisko to which the Portuguese have given the name of Ilhas des Korisko that is The Island of Lightning from the more than usually frequent Lightnings happening there when they first discover'd the place The Land towards the Sea Coast is generally Sandy Nature of the Countrey except on the North West where Stony But more within overgrown with high Trees whose Wood is Redder if Sanutus say true than that of Brasile perhaps it may be the Red Wood which the Inhabitants call Takoel The Road for Ships lieth in five and forty minutes Northward of the Line The Road or Harber and convenient for Shipping According to Sanute the Island not inhabited being indeed not above half a mile in compass but the propriety of the Benyan King The Countries lying about the River Gabon and the Cape of Lope Gonzalvez THe River Gabon The River Gabon by Linschot call'd Gaba and in some Maps Gabam lyeth under the Line The North Point of which the Seamen call the Cape of St. The Cape St. Clare Clare much resembling that of St. John and in a manner differenc'd onely in this that coming out of the Sea and approaching near the Shore they see a white Spot against it as if it were a Sayl which is not to be seen at the Cape of St. John In the Mouth this River is four miles wide but grows afterwards smaller and narrower The Island Pongo so that it is not above two miles over at the Island Pongo It s South Point is low and overgrown with Trees but the North Point almost choak'd up with Flats and Sands At the South Shore about three or four miles inwards another Point discovers it self known by the name of the Sandy Point many Crocodiles and Sea-Horses breed herein to the great damage and hazard both of the Natives and Strangers Five miles more inward you come to two little Islands the one the Inhabitants call Pongo and the Whites Parret Island The King's Isle because he keeps his Court there and the other Parrets Isle from the great abundance of Parrets breeding within it which last yields also great plenty of Bananasses Injames Oranges and other Fruits The King of Pongo hath the report of a powerful Prince they entitle him Manipongo that is Lord of Pongo as the King of Kongo Mani-Kongo 'T is true two other Princes claim a great Jurisdiction near him viz. one at Majombo and another at Gabon yet neither dare resist he Pongian and his Palaces nam'd Goliparta exceed in magnificence and extent all the rest of the Buildings which pretend to Beauty or State The Men naturally incline to Cheating and Thieving The nature of the Inhabitants but not so much among themselves as towards strangers to whom also bloudy barbarous and unnatural but the Women shew great courtesie and affability accounting it an honor to make acquaintance with them In Marriage they have no respect to neerness of Relation Marriages for the Mother may Marry her Son and the Father his Daughter The Houses have no other Walls or Partitions than Reeds Houses very neatly order'd and fastned together and cover'd with Leaves of the Bannana-Tree They lie all along on the ground when they eat Food the common People using Earthen Vessels but more eminent persons Dishes of Tin Their Food chiefly Potatoes and Injames Roasted or Boil'd and many other Roots Also Fish and Flesh mixt together but first either smoak'd or dry'd in the Sun During the Meal they never Drink but having done Eating swallow great Cups full of Water or palm-Palm-Wine or a sort of Mead which they call Melaffo For Apparel they wear Cloth made of Mats Habit. and the Shell of the Matombe-Tree over which some hang the Skins of Apes or Sea-Cats
of Steel in the Territories of Mahafalle Anachimoussi Inourhon Icondrean Manamboulle and in Amboulle Anossi Matatane and Manghabei good Iron Silver is very common in these Countreys yet hath none ever found there any Mynes either of Silver Copper Lead or Tin They find Gold also among the Inhabitants Minerals or Mynes not brought thither to them but found every where in great plenty and such as the Europeans have none of they call it in their Countrey Language Voulamene Voutruroa yet distinguish it into three sorts the first their In-land Gold or Gold of Malacasse pale-colour'd and is pliable as Lead an Ounce whereof is not worth ten Crowns The second Gold of Mecha or Voulameneraca which the Rohandrians brought with them out of their Countrey it being very fine and good Duckat-Gold The third that which the Christians have brought thither being hardest to be melted and by them is nam'd Voulamene Voutrouwa as they say The Gold of Malacasse was first found in the Countrey of which there are Mynes in the Territory of Anossi and elsewhere by the relation of the Blacks The In-land Gold they divide into three sorts one very fine call'd Litteharonghe the second less fine styl'd Voulamene Sautehy and a third ordinary nam'd Ahets-Lovau Precious Stones they find in the Rivers and Brooks of many kinds Precious Stones as Crystal Topazes Granats Amethysts Eagles-stones Smaragdines or Emerauds Saphyres Jacinths Jaspers Agats Blood-stones by the Inhabitants call'd Rahamanghe and by the Physitians in Greek Haematifes Cornelion Toad-stones and such like They find in several quarters of this Island divers sorts of Waters Waters some running above and some under Ground receiving a taste and quality according to the Mineral they participate of In the Valley of Amboulle ariseth a Spring with very hot Water a powerful Medicine against Sicknesses growing from Cold in the Sinews the same being drunk is a great Pectoral and cures all Diseases of the Stomach openeth obstructions in the Reins and Spleen and expells the Stone and Gravel They have in many places Springs that taste like Iron as near Fort Dauphin in Anossi which the French and the Blacks therefore call the iron-Iron-water In a high Mountain in Amboulle are Fountains of salt Water although thirty Miles distant from the Sea whereof the Natives make Salt Manghasia shews a Fountain upon a Hill out of which issues Jews-Gumme In the Precinct of Fanghaterre Westward of Mount Hiela are Brooks with white Water that taste and smell like Brimstone Houlouve Four setts of Honey and Vourouhehock afford rich Salt-Petre Caves which they name in general Tentele and make-four sorts of it Bee-Honey call'd Voatentele green Mesquite-Honey by name Sih and two sorts of Honey of Pismires one of Flying Pismires Swarming together in hollow Trees and of other Pismires a little bigger which make their Honey in Vontantames that is great Mole-hills sharp and copped above every where boared through with Ant-holes All these Honeys have a very sweet taste But besides these they tell of two other sorts of Honey one hard and sweet more resembling Sugar than Honey yet call'd Teutele Sacondre made of the Leaves of a little Tree or Shrub which at maturity turn into yellow green and red Husks some hold this to be the Tabaxir of the Arabians or Sugar of the Bomboes Cane which yields rather an unpleasant than sweet taste There is yet another sort of Honey said to be Venomous or Poysonous yet made by Bees which suck it out of the Flowers of a Tree bearing strong Poyson and found in Carakarak a member of Anossi The Inhabitants make three sorts of Wine the first and commonest of Honey the second of Sugar which they call Tovach or Tovapare being somewhat bitter of taste like new Beer or as the Kernel of an Apricock made in the Countreys of Manamboule Matatane and Hanghabei by boyling the Sugar Canes in Water to the consumption of a third part then putting it into great Callabashes it becomes Wine on the third day This Wine hath such a corrosive quality that put it into an Egg-shell it will eat the same throrow in the space of one hour The third some make of the great Bananoes Fruits putting the same into a Vessel and boyling it four or five hours of which cometh a tartish Wine like Sider They have several sorts of Oil Oile with which both Men and Women anoint their Heads and Bodies for want thereof they take Ox Suet mixt with Wax The best known and ordinariest Oils are Menachtanhe Menaen signifieth Oil Menachil Menachovivat Monachmafoutra Menach Voarave Menach Apokopouk Menach Vintag and Menach Arame Menach Tanhetanhe made of a Plant in the Countrey Language call'd Tanhetanha and by us Tree of Wonder and in Latin Ricinus Minalchis Oil they make in the Valley of Amboulle of a Fruit or Seed call'd Voankare and in Europe Sesamus Menachouvivou they extract of a Fruit as big as an Almond and hath a good taste both in Eating and Drinking Menachmafoutra made of the Kernels of the Fruits of the Dragon-Tree bears the same thickness as Oil of Nutmegs but without smell it cures Scabs and dry Tetters Voarave is drawn from the Fruit Fontsi Menachfowaha of the Fruit Apokapouk being very Poysonous Menach Vintag of a great Acron Menach Arame of the Kernel of the Fruit of the Tree from whence the Gum call'd Tacamahacha proceeds From hence Merchants bring divers sorts of Physical Earth one red Tamene in their Speech as good if not the same with that by the Apothecaries call'd Bole Armoniack another call'd Terra Sigillata Sealed Earth that properly so named brought from the Island of Lemnos and therefore also call'd Terra Lemnia yet according to Flakourt that of Madagascar no less esteem'd than the other and among the Natives call'd Tavelisse A third like Chalk excellent to wash Linen in stead of Sope being a fat Clay like the Earth of Malta which they say carry'd about one hath power to kill or drive away Snakes or Serpents or at least to resist their Poyson the Vulgar name there is Tanefoutchi They have great variety of Gums known by the general name Lite some well scented and others without any smell Of these we will reckon first Litementa or Benjoin Literame or Taccamahacca Lite Fimpi a pleasant scented Gum. Lite-Enfouraha a kind of green Rosin with a Balsom-like smell Quizominthi a black Gum which serves to Glue the Handles to their Assagays Hingue a black well scented Gum Litimithsi black like Jah very drawing but quickly grows dry and hard yet the Women use it to Gum their Faces to prevent Wrinkles it heals also Wounds and Sores Litin Bitsik Gum made by the Pismires in the Territory of Ampatre is white and hangs on a small Branch of a Tree inclosing within it small Pismires Falanoue that is Musk cometh from a Creature as big as a Cat Litineha is our Dragons Bloods Litin Barenkoko another sort of Dragons Blood Latinpane well scented
Bontzius having a very rough Tongue insomuch that Bontzius writes that having cast down a Man and Horse to the ground as if nothing which he never does unless greatly provok'd he kills him afterwards with licking for the roughness of his Tongue will immediately denude the Bones of their Fleshy coverings He is at great enmity with the Elephant against whom preparing to Fight he whets his Horn upon a Stone ayming to strike him in the Belly his tendrest part that so rending it open he may bleed to Death but if he miss that opportunity the Elephant assuredly kills him with his Trunk and Teeth ¶ THe Musk-Goat is not onely found in China and Persia Musk-Goat but as most Eminent Writers affirm in Africa and Egypt There is difference among Authors about its Description yet all agree that it is a kind of Goat We find in Martinus his Chinese Atlas that in the Country of Xensi Musk grows in the Navel of a certain Beast not much unlike a Hart without Horns whose Flesh the Chineses eat When this Beast is high in lust his Navil swells like a Tumor or Bile full of Matter and taken thence resembles a thin hairy Purse stuffed with this costly Odour The Civet-Cat Civet-Cat called in Spanish Genetta by the modern Greeks Zapetia and perhaps unknown to the Ancients hath rough Hair and is from the Head to the Tayl a Cubit long about the size of and colour'd like a Wolf near the Cods it hath a Purse from whence they gather Civet She eats eagerly raw Flesh and Mice as also sweet things Rice and Eggs. The Excrement which flows out of the Purse-net near the Fundament being full of small holes hath at first a strong Scent but put together and set in the Air becomes most odoriferous some suppose this to be the Sperm which they take daily out of the Purse with a Silver Copper or Horn Spoon about the quantity of one Dram of which he will yield the more being anger'd or irritated with a limber Twig or Wand when you are to gather it The Leopard hath a long Fore-head round Ears Leopard very long and small Neck little Ribs a long Back Thighs and Buttocks fleshy and flat about the Belly and Hips which are speckled his whole Body wants shape and symmetry On the Belly are four Teats its Fore-feet have five the hinder Feet four Clawes his Eyes are more fiery than other Creatures in the dark but dimmer in the open light his Skin according to Oppianus is of a dark Yellow dappled with Black upon White 'T is said he is marked in his Fore-head with a Half Moon his Tongue is very Red Teeth and Clawes sharp and his Heart great considering his bigness he hath strong Legs yet by reason of his great heat is but lean many of them are bred in Asia and Africa in the Countrey of Comeri and Bengale He Courts often the Lionnesse her self sometimes driving a lower Trade with homely Bitches and the She-Wolf Isidore fabulously relates that the young ones anticipate their Birth tearing their Mothers Wombs So much he hates man that he assassinates his picture though a meer Paper Sketch yet flyes from a Dead Mans head though some say he fears onely a humane Visage which Gesner confirms He bears a great enmity to the Cock Serpent and Leeks Pliny saith that a Panther will not venture on any that is annointed with Cocks-blood and who wears a Panthers Skin need fear no Serpents such his Antipathy to the Hyena that their Skins hang'd opposite his will shed the hair if you dare believe Pliny ¶ THe Camelopardelis so call'd as springing from the Camel and Pard Camelopard in size resembles the Camel in his Marks or Spots the Leopard and is call'd Nabuna by the Moors says Pliny by the Moderns now Saffarat the Greeks and Latines call it Gyraffa Bellonius in his Observations describes this Beast very exactly thus I saw a couple of them in Grand Cayro each having two little horns in the Forehead about six inches long between which appear'd a bunch like a third horn about two inches high from the Dock to the crown of the Head was 18 foot his Legs were much of a length before and behinde but the upper Joynt or Shoulder-Bone much longer than the Thigh his Back slop'd like the ridge of a house his whole Body is of a Deer-colour trick't up with many great and square spots Cloven-footed like an Ox with his upper Lip over-hanging the under his Tail little thin and tufted at the end his Mane like a Horses and seeming to limp in his going first on the right then on the left Leg When he eats Grass drinks Water or takes other Food off from the earth he stretches out his Fore-feet otherwise he can take up nothing his Tongue as Josephat Barbarus writes is two foot in length of a sad Azure long and round like an Eel wherewith he gathers branches leaves and herbs up into his mouth with an admirable celerity Purchas adds that a horse and man may pass under his Belly Strabo says he is found among the Troglodites and Ethiopes Caesar first shewed him at Rome though 't is probable they formerly abounded in Judea being a food prohibited to the Jews Here also are a kind of Wild Bulls called by the Natives Gualiox Wild Bulls but by the Spaniards Vacas bravas that is Mad or Hectoring Bulls They are swift as a Hart but lesser than our Beeves arm'd with horns black and sharp but his Flesh is sweet and his Hide fit for Tanning making good Leather In Barbary they run together in herds more than 100. sometimes 200. especially in the Countreys of Duquele and Tremisen the Desarts of Numidia and elsewhere ¶ WIld Asses also are found in the Wildernesses of Numidia and Lybia Wild Asses of a light grey and for swiftness equalling the Barb. In the high Eastern part of Prester John's Countrey Goats on the Banks of Nile are Male-Goats as big as a wean'd Calf their thick hair trailing on the ground They have excellent Skins call'd Xarequies which are drest hair and all with the Root of a Tree Cows stiled Alhanne There also are great naked Cows which the Egyptians call Demnie with Tails trailing on the ground and raising the dust like our Madams Gowns and their Necks strip'd with divers colours In these parts are two sorts of Sheep Sheep Woolly and Hairy The first differ from ours only in their Horns and Tails the last so round and thick that the Sheep themselves are but subservient to their own Train some thereof weigh 15 others 20 l. which happens chiefly in their fatting Leo Africanus says Of their wondrous Tails he saw one weighing 80 l. Others report to have seen some of 150 l. weight however true it is that the people are constrained to bind them upon little Carriages that they may go with less impediment All the fat that covers the Kidneys
void Court The Men wear about their heads a kinde of Shash The Men. hanging down part before and part behinde They use no Linnen nor other Clothing for their Bodies save only a remnant of four or five yards of Cloth wherein they wrap themselves casting it over the Shoulder and under the Arms bare-footed and bare-leg'd The Women wear a piece of Cloth hanging from the Breasts down to the Knees The Women the rest naked They tye up their Hair adorning it with Fishesteeth and some small pieces of Coral or Glass over which they lightly cast a fine Hair-cloth or Lawn to appear the fairer They pounce their Foreheads Cheeks Thumbs and Calves of their Legs making various marks with the point of a needle wherein they strow a black Powder to make them the more visible and continuing and in stead of more costly Jewels Wear wooden Rings Their Kitchen-Furniture consists in one or two earthen Pots their daily food is Rice Their Houshold-stuff Cakes and Cuscous with a little Drink and Milk they drink fair water wash their right hands but never any part else using neither Cups or Napkins but squat crosse-leg'd on the ground on a Mat made of Date-leaves Each Houshold carries with it a * Like a Mustard-Mill Mill to Grind Corn made of two stones lay'd one upon another which they turn about with a stick Every day they bake Bread in great flat Loaves under the Embers and eat it hot They are strangers to riot and luxurious feeding never tasting of two several Dishes at one Meal which admirable temperance may be the cause of their so constant health Salust They dye of no Disease but the Plague Scrpents Sword or Age. and freedom from the Gout Stone and all other like Distempers usually living eighty years and upwards They greatly delight when they come into Cities to be presented with Oyl and Vinegar in a Dish and warm Bread which broken in small pieces they dip therein and eat Each wandring Company chooses a Captain Their Habitations his Barraque or Tent stands in the midst of the Dovar where he takes care of all things conducing to their preservation Their Arms are a Half-pike or Javelin they call it Agay or Azagay and use it with such dexterity and strength that they can certainly hit a man and wound him dangerously at a very great distance They use besides a broad Dagger which they wear in a sheath on their right Arm near the Elbow for the more ready service They are so skilful and active Horsemen Their Horsemanship that whatever they let fall they can take up again their Horses running in careere at full speed Upon any Visit Their Visits if they be equals they salute one another upon the Cheek at first meeting but if a Commander or Marabou visit them they kiss their hands with great respect and reverence After salutes they civily enquire of the health and welfare not onely of their Wives Children and Relations but also Horses Cattel and Hens nay more strangely inquisitive how their Dogs and Cats do as a more concern'd Domestick for their Dogs are highly esteemed not as their Play-fellows nor Ladies Foisting-hounds but as faithful Warders and a Watch against the incursions of the subtile Fox preventing all Assaults and Plots upon his Masters Poultry and also giving notice of a more dreadful Enemy the Lyon by their loud and continual barking But the great estimation they set on their Cats is not onely that they preserve Victuals from the plundering Rat and Mouse where ever seizing of them but their persons from the deadly tooth of the Viper which there abounds ¶ THeir Marriages are thus celebrated Their Marriages The Wooer furnish'd by his father with a certain number of Oxen and Cows wherein their wealth consists drives them to his intended Father-in-laws residence who immediatly acquaints his Daughter that such a man must be her Husband Whereupon putting on a White Garment she waits till he comes to visit her in the Tent where the onely Complement is to tell her how much he lov'd her by declaring how dear she cost him whereto a customary reply is made that a discreet and vertuous Wife cannot truly be valu'd at any price After this first interview she remains for a while * It is a custom in Spain as formerly in Greece that both Wives and Virgins should have their faces covered whence Libanius mentioning the Destruction of Troy 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The head of the Woman was without a veil for the destruction of her Countrey had taken away the consideration of modesly for it was the fashion for Curtizans to walk open-fac'd as may be seen in Callimachus Hymn on Venus and in the Comedy of Xenarchus whence the Athenians made this Caveat That whoever was taken with any Woman Wife or Virgin unveyl'd should not be counted an Adulterer veyl'd in her Fathers Tent and there visited by all the Maids of the Dovar which done she mounts on Horseback attended by the same Visitants with great shouting and joy till arriv'd at her Bridegrooms Tent where expected by many Women with his Mother and Friends At the Bridegrooms approach they offer him drink wherein is sopt a piece of the Tent wood with loud acclamation wishing happiness to the new Married Couple and that the great God would so bless their Marriage that their Cattel might encrease and Milk flow to the top of the Pavilion When they alight they give the Bride a sharpned Wand which she sticks into the ground to intimate that as that cannot come out of the earth unless forc'd so a woman must not forsake her Husband unless by Divorce or driven away These Ceremonies perform'd they set her to keep the Herds and Flocks signifying that from thenceforth she must lay her hands to work and take care about Houshold-affairs After her Marriage she wears a Mask for a Moneth not stirring abroad When one dyes the Wife or next Neighbour goes out of the Tent After the Irish maâ—ner and wont with a loud cry or ou-la-loo howling in a strange manner with a loud cry or Ou-la-loo by which Summons the Women start out from their Tents and joyning their sad notes make a hideous and doleful harmony others mean while repeating as it were in a Song his Eulogies chanting forth his Praises and Vertues till at last they bring him to the Grave according to the custom of the Mahumetans They are so much addicted to Robbery and Theft that their very name Arab signifies a Theif for where the Prophet Jeremy saith Like a Thief in the Wilderness St. Jerome saith like an Arab in the Wilderness ¶ THe Xilohes and Bereberes as Marmol says Marmol Their Languages and manner of Writing at this day write and speak all one Tongue which is called Quellem Abimalick that is the speech of Abimalick who was accounted the Inventer of the Arabick letters But besides this they use also
allow when Mahomet received the Alcoran his Soul was carried by the Angel Gabriel into Gods presence But the Turks that his Soul and Body were both so carried The Persians pray but thrice a day The Arabians five times besides many other differences about the interpretation of the Alcoran as may be read in Camerarius Bovius and others which for brevity we omit What Mahomet contrived designing his Foundation for this as they call it his Law appears in the Alcoran wherein speaking of Christ the Virgin Mary the Gospel and himself he says That God Jesus and Mary wrought Miracles before men And in another place The Word of God Christ Jesus the Son of Mary was sent by the Creator of the World to be the face of all people in this and the Ages to come Elsewhere he confesses That Christ is the power of God the Word Wisdom Soul Breath and Heart of God born by a Divine inspiration of the Virgin Mary that he raised the Dead to life made the Blind to see the Lame to go and wrought many other miracles That he was more excellent than all the Prophets and that the Jews had no more Prophets after him He prefers Jesus before all men and Prophets and Mary above all Women but averreth withall that the * The Heresie of the Anthropomorphites Traitor Judas was Crucified in stead of Christ being changed into his likeness and apprehended in his likeness in the Garden Speaking of himself in the Alcoran he useth these words That he did no miracle nor should that he was ignorant of most things that he was a meer man though sent and inspired by God and could not forgive sins He forbad people to worship him confessing that the truth of some things extant in his Books may be doubted He acknowledges the power of the Gospel in that he calls in a Light a Guide and Perfection And much diminished the Authority of his Alcoran in saying Every one that worshippeth the true God and liveth honestly and uprightly be he Jew Christian or Saracen shall obtain mercy and salvation His Disciples believe the Creation of the World that Adam was made of earth all the Hebrew Histories and Christs Doctrine in part They acknowledge a Resurrection of the Dead the last Judgment Rewards and eternal Punishment in Hell and that Christ shall sit next to God in judgment which are points so seemingly consonant to the truth that weak Christians mistaking those general notions think it no great error to submit to it but all those fair shews and formal species are quickly overthrown and dash't to pieces by Mahomet's assuming too much to himself where he saith that Christ had profit by him in these words I declare unto you from the Messenger of God who shall come after me whose name is Mahomet that is written from eternity in the sight of Gods Throne on his right hand 'T is true he commends Moses highly and owns Christ greater than Moses but himself the greatest of all He further adds that the Christians have corrupted the Gospel and the Jews the Law of Moses But yet both together makes up the same and as much truth as is in his Alcoran That he was sent and directed by God to settle his Law by force of Arms but Christ in the power of Miracles At eight years of age Circumcision the time of their Circumcision the Children ride to the Mosque with a Turbant on their heads and a Torch carried on a Spear before them After the Circumcision the Child by the Priests direction saith aloud La Illah Illella Muhemet re sul Allah that is God is one God and Mahomet his Prophet and so after some Prayers and Offerings returns The Mahumetan Law contains eight Commandments The first commands to acknowledge one onely God and but one Prophet The second contains the Duty of Children to their Parents The third the love of Neighbors one towards another The fourth the times of their Sala or Prayer in the Mosque The fifth their annual Fasts by all to be observed thirty days The sixth the love and alms to the Poor The seventh of Matrimony And the eighth against Murther A Paradise of all pleasures is promi'sd to the observers of these commands but for the Offenders a Hell with seven gates is prepared wherein they shall eat and drink liquid Fire be laden with Chains and punish'd with hot seething Water The grounds or rise of Mahomet's promised sensual Paradice first appears in Homer which he makes no more but a shady place of quiet retirement concerning which Ulysses congratulating Achilles seeming to him as great a Prince there as when alive and the primest Heroe in the Grecian Camp he much contrary to his expectation thus answers Thou of the Dead a weak discourse dost make Hom. Od. 11. Trather would a Rustick be and serve A Swain for hire ready almost to sterve And living be ' mongst all misfortunes hurl'd Than Dead be Emperor of this shady world 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 But Virgil raises his Elizium to a higher pitch giving them pleasant slowry walks and shadows of Fruit Trees for delight passing their time in Singing Dancing Wrastling and such like Entertainments For which take a part of himself thus described His demum exactis Virg. Aen. lib. 6. perfecto munere divae Devenere locos laetos sedesque beatas Largior hic campos aether lumine vestit Purpureo solemque suum sua sidera norunt Pars in Gramineis exercent membra palaestris Contendunt ludo fulva luctantur arena Pars pedibus plaudunt choreis carmina dicunt Necnon Treicius longa cum veste sacerdos Obloquitur numeris septem discrimina vocum Jamque eadem digitis jam pectine pulsat eburno This done they came to Seats of Joy and Rest Groves happy Mansions of the ever blest Which larger Skyes cloth with a Purple gray New Stars attending their own God of Day Some in green Meads their time in wrestling spend And gallantly on Golden Sands contend Some graceful footing with a Song present In a long Robe the Thracian Poet went On seven sweet strings descanting sacred Lays His hand now strikes his Ivory quill now plays c. But Tibullus drove it up almost to this our Mahomet's height Tibul. El. lib. 2.3 of which he thus says Sed me quod facilis tenero sum semper amori Ipsa Venus campos ducet in Elysios Hîc choreae cantusque vigent passimque vagantes Dulce sonant tenui gutture carmen aves Fert casiam non culta seges totosque per agros Floret odoratis terra benigna rosis Ad juvenum series teneris immista puellis Ludit assiduè praelia miscet amor Venus her self shall by the hand convey Me her Gall-ant to seats of lasting joy Where Revels never cease where Birds their throats Extending ravish with delicious Notes Cassia
the City from the Serpent Python This proof of Delta's lying under water heretofore makes us rightly to interpret Herodotus Strabo and others who maintained all Egypt to have been in the same condition whereas they must be understood by a Synechdoche to have taken a part for the whole for that Egypt in general was not drown'd with the Sea will appear from hence that it was very Mountainous and upon a continual ascent upwards to the Nile even as far as the Cataracts thereof and Ethiopia And now the Series of our Discourse having brought us to the Nile we will with as much brevity and exactness as possible describe the same by discovering his first rise and heads with his several branches and sources and setting down the Genuine causes of his annual Fluxes from the crediblest of our Modern Authors This River famous for his greatness and faecundity According to some the name of Nilus is derived from Nâ—â—â— Owâ— id est drawing new slime which may make the Earth fertile See Virg. Georg. 2. hath by antiquity many several names attributed to him The Hebrews call him Nahar-Mitzraim that is the River of Egypt the Inhabitants Nuchal which agrees with Pomponius Mela who give the same to the Head-spring of Nile and is but little different from the Hebrew Nahal or Nachal 'T is also by the Jews named Shickor or Sihor signifying black from the colour of the sediment for the same reason call'd by the Greeks Melas black And the Antients represented his Figure in black stone though all other Rivers were denoted by white Statues Some would fancy this to be Gihon mentioned in Holy Writ but with how little probability may easily be conjectured if we consider that Gihon was one of the four great Rivers that watered the Terrestrial Paradise and consequently in Asia whereas this is in Africk Homer Diodorus Xenophon and others give him the common appellation of the Countrey that is Egyptus and Plutarch names him Osyris and Syris Apollonius Triton Pliny Astraton Diodorus Aquila because of his swiftness it seems Cedrenus Chrysorrhoe Golden stream and Dyonisius Syene In the Reign of King Orus there eight hundred years before the building of Rome the same was by his Subjects known by the title of Noym or Num. Upon the Coasts of Lybia towards Syene from the name of a Princes Child there drown'd it was first call'd Nilus which also the Africans do The Abyssines stile it Abanha Father of Rivers The Negroes or Moors Takkui and from them the Abyssines Nil Takui and the two branches thereof Tagazi and Abanhi Lastly by the report of Sanutius the people of the Kingdom of Goyame call it Gihon This famous River thus severally known by variety of Names by yearly inundations doth so fertllize and fatten the earth that it provides for and furnishes the Inhabitants even with an exuberance of Plenty which proceeds from three remarkable Prerogatives wherewith Nature hath endowed him beyond all other Rivers The first is that he sends forth no foggy vapors which makes the Air very healthful and serene being continually free either from Rain Clouds Mists or Fogs Secondly he runs with so even and undisturbed a stream that there never accrews any danger from his Waves or Billows to any Boats Barks or Passengers sailing thereon but a satisfactory pleasure from his continual calm Lastly his faecundating vertue which is so great that it causeth not onely an infinite encrease in all sorts of Cattel that water there and breeds a prolifick faculty in Men and Women but produces of all things growing from the earth a Harvest plentiful even to admiration And this fertility without dispute was the cause why Egypt of old exceeded all other Nations almost for multitude of people and yet to this day after so many direful depopulations may compare with those that boast the greatest number of Inhabitants As a testimony whereof Diodorus records that there were once in it eighteen thousand strong Cities many of which as it seems were either by Time or War lay'd waste and desolate because we find in the Reign of Ptolomy Lagus onely three thousand Registred no more then remaining which by Suidas his account was in the Empire of Caesar Augustus when Diodorus lived The same Author reports that in Elder times the number of its Inhabitants were seventeen hundred thousand and that in his own time they were no less in general esteem than thirteen hundred thousand which wonderful encrease might be effected by the constant drinking the water of this River whose vertue had the power as some believed to make the Egyptian Women bring forth so often not onely two or three but sometimes six or seven nay eight Children at a Birth And this may a little abate the wonder how the Children of Israel in so short a time as two hundred years * Broughton which was all the space they sojourned in Egypt multiplyed from but seventy souls to above six hundred thousand men on foot besides Women and Children nor may those stupendious Monuments of Grandeur which even to this day bear the name of Wonders seem so strange to have been erected by the Antient Kings of this Countrey as a Remonstrance of their glorious Greatness and Magnificence if we lay into the other Scale the infinite number of people that were under their Commands all whose hands at the Princes Fiat being employed made things otherwise seeming impossible to become facile according to that of the Poet Multorum manibus grande levatur opus From these unusual Excellencies and rare Qualifications of this River the Gymnosophists of Egypt made it one of their chief Numens which they worshipped with particular Solemnities under the name of the Goddess Isis to whose care and kindness they ascrib'd their continual freedom from the terror and danger of Earthquakes and that they were never infested with any Pestilential Contagion but alwayes enjoyed a Serene wholesomeness of Air not subject to any impetuous storms or alterations of weather either from the Clouds or Windes This was the cause of those many honorable Epithetes bestowed on it by Antiquity among which one was the flowing of Osiris or rather as Abenefius an Arabick Writer hath it Osiris Arm because it did as it were reach forth to Mankind so great a Plenty of Provisions For observing that Egypt enclosed with Mountains did resemble an Arm and that the several partitions at the end seemed Fingers he appointed to the Nile the place of the Mediana or Liver-vein This like that in the body sending forth its quickning moisture by whose motion and circulation it fertilitates the whole even to such an height of abundance as makes Wonder stand amaz'd to see Nature turn Prodigal This agrees well with the Antient Poets who gave to this River many notable attributes Homer the Prince of them says it fell from Heaven out of Jupiter's Bosome from whence happily sprung the belief not onely of the old Egyptians but the later Greeks that
Bocchir by others Bicchieri Bocchir or Canopus and formerly call'd * This City was so call'd from Canobus Menelaus his Pilot there buried by his Master who on these Coasts had suffered Shipwrack Zacit Annal. 2. Canopus perhaps from the Egyptian Idol Canopus which in this Precinct of Land was call'd Phtenuti and there antiently worship'd Of this place thus speaketh that Prince of Latine Poets Virgil Georg. Lib. 4. Nam quia Pellaei gens fortunata Canopi Accolit effuso stagnantem flumine Nilum Et circum pictis vehitur sua rura Phaselis Where happy people plant Canopus Soyl And dwell near spreading Streams of flowing Nile And through their Countrey painted Vessels glide c. Through the World noted for luxurious Practices and varied forms of Effeminacy whereof the Satyrist thus Luxuria quantum ipse notavi Barbara famoso non cedit turba Canopo Canopean Banquets now seem poor and small Juven Sat. 25. Rome beggars boasts at Feasts more prodigal For within Canopus stood the Temple of Serapis to whose Festivals resorted all sorts of people from Alexandria men and women mixt in painted Barges chanting down the Nile Love-Songs behaving themselves with all sorts of looseness beyond the bounds of Modesty concerning which Statius brings in Pampinius thus excusing himself Non ego mercatus Pharia de puppe loquaces Delicias doctumve sui convitia Nili Infantem linguaque simul salibusque protervum Dilexi I bought no Songs nor pleas'd with boys so vile Lib 5. That imitate all Vices of the Nile Chanting with shameless gestures on the Decks Amongst whom saith Seneca who so avoided vice yet could not escape infamy the very place administring suspicion and therefore worthily buried in its own Desolations After that is to be seen the Tower and Cape of Bocchir lying in a dangerous place where many Ships sayling from Syria are bilg'd in the night falling short of the Haven of Alexandria adjoyning as it were hereto two Castles appear call'd The Castles of Bocchir here also is the Sea Bocchir and below it the Towns Casar and Athacon About this City but chiefly towards Cario there groweth in the Ditches a Plant call'd The Egyptian Plomp or Lotus Lotus a Plant. in such an abundance that the Leaves resembling those of the Water-lillies cover the whole Channel The Egyptians call the Flower with its Stalk Arais el Nil the Leaf with the Stalk Bush-nyl and the Root Biarum This Plant hath the property of growing exactly as high as the Water in the Ditches and opens his Flowers not underneath the Water but above it 't is certainly true that it turns about with the Sun though the Antients disputed it This Plant for its near resemblance to a Water-lilly Prosper Alpinus was deceiv'd in taking it for the very same though afterwards in his Book of Forrain Plants he retracted his opinion Every Leaf hath a single Stalk growing out of the Root which is thick long and round in shape resembling a small Pear the biggest sometimes as large as a Hens Egg On the outside black and full of Fibres within yellowish and very pelpy and hard and sharp in taste on the tongue The Flowers are large like white Water-lillies as we said whereof every one grows on the top of a green and round Stalk smelling like a Pink After the Flowers follow round green Cods containing in distinct bags a sort of Seed not unlike that of a Cabbage After the Earth hath drunk up the Water of Nile and is dried up immediately the Leaves Flowers and Fruit wither and dye The Flowers of this Lotus were in former times The use of the Lotus as well heretofore as now as Heliodorus writes wreathed in the Triumphant Garlands of Conquerors Now adays the Juice of the Flowers and knobby Cods mixed with Sugar by the Arabians call'd Sharbet Nufar is used against all inward heats Thus made they mingle Sugar and Water which hang'd over the fire they suffer to boyl till it come to the consistence of a Syrup then taken off and cooled the pure Juyce of the Lotus is put into it The Egyptians in the Summer eat the raw Stalks with the Heads being very sweet moistening and cooling very much A little further up in the Countrey there is the small City Natumbes Natumbes half a days journey from Rosetta and lying on the opposite shore Next is the old City Fuoa or Foa formerly call'd Nicy seated on the Banks of Nile Fuoa five and forty Miles Westward of Rosetta very populous but the Streets within are narrow having great Suburbs famous for Beautiful Women Ladies of Pleasure residing there assuming to themselves so much more than the usual freedom allow'd to modest Women they Entertain and are Entertain'd publickly by their Gal-lants at Night returning home to their always indulgent and kind Husbands without the least rebuke or once questioning Where hast thou been About a Mile from Fuoa lyes the Island now nam'd Gezirat Eddeheb The Golden Island but formerly Nathos or The Golden Island Here are many Villages Mechella and stately Palaces but not to be seen at a distance by reason of the shadow of surrounding Trees Here also is the rich but ill fenced City Mechella or Maquella A little forward on the River stands the un-walled City Derota Derota and Michellat Cays as also Michellat Cays on a high Hill In Derota was heretofore a stately Church and the Citizens flourish'd in wealth and abundance The Countrey so abounding with Sugar that they pay yearly to the Sultan for the freedom of making and refining it a hundred thousand Gold Saraffies or Turkish Crowns But within the last Century of years this place is much decayed and the Citizens impoverish'd ¶ ELbeahrye or Beheyra the second part of Egypt The second part of Egypt and its extent extends from the Mid-land Sea to the Easterly Arm of Nilus running to Damiata and beginning from the Borders of Rosetta and ending at Faramide wherefore the Egyptians call it Sealand and the Italians Maremma In this Quarter of Egypt is first on the East of Beheyra the Cape or Point of Brule in former times known by the name of Pineptimi and by Ptolomy taken for one of the Nilian Mouths it is enclosed in the form of a Haven and receives the water shooting out of the Eastern Arm of the Nile Not far from thence lyeth Damiata or Damiette by Nicetas in his Journals of Emanuel taken for Tamiathim but by the Antients for Pelusium and by Stephanus for Tamiates Guilandinus will have it be Tanis spoken of in the Holy Scripture but Auchard distinguishes Tanis and Damiata making Tanis the same with Tenex or Tenez which hath given the name to the Tanitian Mouth Others will not onely have Pelusium as we said but also the antient Heliopolis to be the now Damiata which error and mistake is very great since Pelusium according to general consent is seated near the Mid-land
the heat of the Stomach Liver and Kidneys and also to abate the Tertian Ague The more noble Turks Arabians and Egyptians who live delicately drink this water onely with Sugar and mixt with Rose-water Musk and Amber in Summer time for their daily Drink yet not without damage to the Stomach and Liver because of the over-great Cooling if it be too much us'd The Egyptians keep this Fruit the whole year good in Cellars which as a rarity they set upon the Table for Strangers to eat Here also groweth a kind of limber Grass Nejem El Jalib creeping in the Earth with white tartish and sweet Roots as our Couch-grass On the ends of the Stalks stand four Ears with small Seeds in them over against one another from whence the Egyptians took occasion to name it Nejem El Jalib that is Cross-grass The Seed is held for a special Remedy to dissolve the Stone in the Kidneys and Bladder The decoction of the Root is with good success given inwardly against the Measles and Small Pox and doth bring down the stopped Terms There groweth also a Tree call'd Atle Tamaris-Tree or Atle very like the Tamaris-Tree which Dioscorides names Mirica and Tamerix and is found in several places of Italy and Germany though no where in Egypt The Egyptian Atle shoots up to the bigness of a great Olive-Tree and in the Countrey of Sahid grows as big as a great Oak The Leaves are like those of the Tamaris but longer smaller and full of green Hairs The Fruit is hard woody or sticky without Kernels and seems to be the same with Nut-Galls The Wood of it they use for Fuel for want of other The use of it and also make thereof a kind of Charcoals which all Egypt and Arabia burn The Leaves open Obstructions of the Milt or Spleen so do Cups Cans and Pots made of the Wood. In several places of Egypt and especially about Alexandria The Dadel-Tree unknown to us are great Woods of Dadel-Trees which the Arabians from the name of the Fruit call Dachel The Dadel-Tree of which there are Male and Female hath every other year abundance of Fruit but the Female affords no Fruit unless her Branches be plash'd with those of her Mate Many to make the Female fruitful Alpinut strow the Matter that lyes in the Bag or Receptacle out of which the Blossom and Fruit comes upon her Branches And probably if the Egyptians did not so they would bring bring forth no Fruit or if they did they would never come to any perfection But Veslingus seems to reject this Observat in Alpin ascribing the great fruitfulness of it to the Soil being Sandy and Nitrous For he affirms that he hath seen the Earth in the Dadel-Tree Wood oftentimes thick cover'd with a white Down or Callow like Cellar Walls where we finde our Saltpetre which by the sultry South windes from Negro-land and the Barren Arabia is in great abundance driven up hither and falling on the tops of the Dadel-Trees not onely makes them flourish but also pregnant The Roots are so small thin and short that it is a wonder how it supports it self being so great especially when so often charged by strong assiduous gusts for contrary to other Trees this tapers downwards and the slenderest part of the Stock is nearest the Foot which hath made some suppose that the Plant though large receives no nourishment from the Earth by the Root but from the Air. There is no Tree more profitable or turns to a greater account than this for of the Stock or Body they make Beams and Rafters for Floorings of Houses and of the Boughs and Branches they make divers sorts of Wooden Ware which they call Cuffaz Of the Leaves Sayls and Mantles and of the Bark they make Tow and Cordage for Ships The Fruit affords not onely a most delicious Food but good Physick The Arabians as we said call this Tree Dachel a Bough of it with Dadels on they call Samarrhich the Bag or Cod Dux a young unripe Dadel Tella a greater Nin one half ripe Ramich perfectly through ripe Bellan a dryed one Tamar a rotten one Rotob and the Leaves Zaaf In the Stock where the Branches shoot out lyes a white Bag full of Pelp or Juice which many when a Tree either falls or is cut down pull out and eat raw as a provocative to Venus it not differing much in taste from our Artichoaks There also you may see in some Orchards a Tree Cotton-Tree by the Arabians in Egypt call'd Gottne'l Ssegiar whereon the Cotton groweth It rises ten Cubits high the Wood hard the Leaves have five deep indentings the Fruit is a Nut as big as an Apple cover'd with a green Skin full of Milk white Wool or Cotton which by the opening of the Fruit as it ripens endeavors to thrust it self out within which is one onely dark brown hidden Seed There is * Lasting but a year an Anniversary Plant that also bears Cotton and differs from the afore-mention'd in slenderness of Stock and form of Branches and Leaves this grows not in Egypt but plentifully in Candy Cyprus Apulia and Syria which from thence the Egyptians transport for they use not their own Cotton being but scarce but the other in all cases and particularly in stead of Lint for Wounds as also to stench Bleeding The Juice or Extract of the Seed is very Sovereign in all Agues and Burning Feavers and good to expel what ever corrodes and gripes the Stomach and Bowels There is also another Tree Carneb or St. Johus Bread bearing Fruit Semi-circled like a Hunters Horn call'd here Saint Johns Bread by the Arabians Carob or Carneb that is The Mother Horn with whom the Fruit onely is in use out of which they draw an exceeding sweet Honey wherewith in stead of Sugar they preserve the Cassia Fistula Tamarine Ginger and other Fruits green Moreover that Honey is very much us'd by them in Clisters by reason of its solubility The Sant Sants or Acatia the true Acatia of the Antients groweth in Egypt in a Tract of Land far from Sea by Mount Sinai The Body of the Tree hath a Bark black rough and prickly The Leaves are small and slender closing at the setting and opening again with the rising Sun The Fruit lyes in a flattish Cod or Husk like those of a Lilly of a Thumb breadth and sometimes a span long From the green Cods stamped in a Stone-Mortar Juice of Acatia they extract a Juice by decocting made thick and hard The use of it of which the Tanners in Cairo use a great quantity to make a gloss upon their wrought Hides It hath also an astringent quality to stop the sharp Defluxions causing sore Eyes and to dissipate the like hot Goutish Distillations falling in the Joynts This Egyptian Plant sends forth also from the Body a Gum Gum-Arabick by the Apothecaries call'd Gum-Arabick though others think
the ground with one and sideling with the other but which is yet stranger it will draw one Eye to its Back and make a survey behind while the other takes a prospect forwards They make at their Meals also Merriment It Eats devouring or swallowing whole neither pecking as Fowl nor chawing like Cattel nor sucking like Lampreys and leeches but with an odd and sudden flutter of the Tongue shot out near a hands breadth ingurges the caught prey in a trice This member being nothing else but a hollow Pipe The fashion of the Tongue fleshy and spongy wherein are some Sinews easier to shut together than a Gin or Trap because those Nerves proceeding from the Os Hyoides and running through the Cavity draws the same after expansion back again with its prey sticking to a glutinous stuff wherewith it is covered This refutes the opinions of the Antients who believed the Camelion liv'd by the Air whereas in truth it lives by such receiv'd nourishment as we have declared It appropriates to it self another peculiar quality in the Opinion of some old Writers who deliver that the Camelion changes colour according to the several objects presented First in the Eyes then in the Tail after that in the whole Body Cameleons vary not colour with their objects And this alteration of colours many Authors conjecture and among others the Roman Panarolus affirms to proceed from the Systole and Diastole of the Heart which according to sensibility of heat or cold beats quicker or slower the quicker striking a redness whereas the slow reduces him to his own natural Ash-colour for it retains that hew even after Death though a little paler The Ichneumon of old call'd by the Greeks 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ichneumon a Hog from rooting in the Earth but now by Bellonius nam'd The Egyptian and by Elianus The Indian Rat though some will have it The Egyptian Otter it much resembles a Cat but longer and of a rougher hair colour'd between bay and dun round Ears black Legs and a long stern taporing from the Hanch to the end Near the Fundament appears another wide passage hairy all over which hath given Writers occasion to suppose that this Beast was a Hermaphroditick At the approach of any Beast it bunches the Back and bristles up the Hair as in defiance daring to set upon Mastiff Dogs nay upon Horses or Camels and will leave a Cat breathless at three strokes he seizeth his prey couching like a Bull-Dog upon the ground and at length rising upon the hinder legs falls upon it with a leap When he draws to Battel against the Asps he rolls first in the Mud then dryes himself in the Sun or else dips over head in water and then tumbles to gather up the dust which she uses as defensive Arms against the Enemy The Scincos which Dioscorides suppos'd to be the Land-Crocodile Scincos and Bellonius the small Crocodile in outward appearance one and the same having four feet and as big sayes Bellonius as the Salamander with a round knotty Tail Renodeus appropriates to it many small and yellow knobs a long Head and a round Tail somewhat crooked at the end with a blew list or streak from the point of the stern to the crown of his Head They feed upon sweet smelling Flowers and bury their Eggs whose flesh they use Physically as Cantharides to heighten Venus The Bird Ibis hath long Legs and a crooked Beak being of two sorts viz. The Bird Ibis the white found all over Egypt and the black onely to be had at Damiata and no where else The white ones have a head like a Sea-pie and a pointed and hooked red Beak about a Thumbs breadth It represents the form of a mans Heart when hiding the Head and Neck in the Feathers under its Breast Plutarch says it weighs but half an Ounce when first hatched Gaudentius Merula gives it a Heart too big if compar'd with the Body Elianus avers that his Guts are ninety and six Cubits long which are shrunk together so long as the Moon is near the Change unseen This Bird with which all the ways to Alexandria are filled is so peculiar to Egypt that it will starve it self to death if transported thence Yet some say the like is found about Licha in the utmost parts of Africa They eat Serpents Grashoppers and such like A West-winde drives them out of the Lybian Desarts into these parts where they are very numerous and much nourished because of their enmity to Serpents And for this reason they say Josephus that when Moses drew into the Field against the Moors through places beset with Serpents he took these Birds along with him shut up in Paper Cages For fear of the Cats they make their Nests upon high Palm-trees Some hold but with what reason is yet controverted that a Basilisk or Cockatrice is bred out of the Eye of this Bird Ibis But most certain says Elian that the Feathers and Eggs stupifying take away all motion from the Crocodile it makes it self clean when preparing to sleep This Creature first taught the use of Clisters and Syringes for with the crooked Bill as with a Syringe it injects Salt-water into his own Bowels to open its vent when obstructed and from thence says the same Elian Plutarch and Pliny the Egyptians took that Chyrurgical Practice Another observable thing and peculiar to this Bird is that it will drink no foul or unwholesom water wherefore the Egyptian Priests made Holy-water of such as the Ibis had drunk Bellonius says A Sacred Hawk here is a Sacred Hawk because formerly worshipp'd by all the people large as a great Raven headed like a Kite but of the usual colour of Hawks 'T is a Bird of Prey abounding not onely here but in Syria though very seldom and sometimes also in Caramia It had so much repute as to give the name Baieth to one of the Provinces of the Countrey as the Crocodile did to Crocodilopites the Dog to Cynopolites and the like The Priests comprehended great Mysteries under this Bird It signifies great Mysteries among the Egyptians and their Figure was carv'd upon almost all their Spires or Obelisks where always uppermost was the Deity of the Sun acknowledged to be full of Spirit Light and Life For this saith Horus the Egyptians call'd them Baieth and Thaustus Bai signifying the Life and Eth an Heart because as the Heart is the Fountain of Life so the Sun is the Heart or Soul of the World for this reason the Egyptian Priests did conceit that the Hawk The Egyptian Hawk or rather the Eagle drinks no water because of the similitude of Nature which it hath with the Soul drinketh no water but blood whereby they imagine the Soul to be nourish'd In their Hieroglyphical Writings a Hawk represented God partly because above all other Fowl it seems to be the Image of the Sun being observ'd out of a peculiar and hidden
the Souls of the wicked they supposed to go into more vile and despicable Creatures as the dull Hippotames Horses Asses and the like And that both Gods and Kings walked up and down under such disguises to punish Vices and encourage Vertue where-ever found ¶ EGypt also hid within its Bowels great Quarries of all sorts of Marble as appears by the sumptuous Burying-places under Ground Spiers Needles and other stately Works erected in antient Times with such variety of Stone as we have already mention'd ¶ THe Air especially about Cairo and further towards the South The Air in Egypt Hot. because so near the Line is when the Sun casts his Beams perpendicularly from Cancer very Hot during which time of violent Heat all the people dwell in places under ground and in Cairo in the midst of every House are Wells containing water which not only cools their Mansions but refreshes themselves They contrive also in their Houses very great Pipes or Funnels which stand right up into the Air from the midst of the House with a broad Mouth like a Bell standing open to the North wherein the cool Air entring is sent down to the lowermost retiring Rooms under Ground For shade also in the Streets every Dwelling hath a broad Penthouse And for refreshment of their scorched Bodies they use bathing for the commodiousness whereof they have curious Bannia's of sweet and clear Water from the River Nile without mixing any Herbs or Medicinal Ingredients The Hot Air is cooled by Nilus and the Anniversary Winds The Heat also is somewhat moderated by the overflowing of Nilus at that Time and the continual blowing of cool Northerly Winds otherwise the Heat there is so vehement that neither Man nor Beast could be able to live In Winter the Air is Hot and Dry sometimes a little cool but generally very Hot and most obnoxious to the Head of all parts of the Body The Air of the Nights is cold which after Sun-rising becomes a little Warm at Noon very Hot but at Night again Cold so that its inequality breeds many Diseases ¶ THe Year may also very well though in a different way from us The Seasons of the Year are with the Egyptians fourfold be divided into four Seasons The first is Spring March or April in which the Weather is temperate They have also every Year two Summers but contingent divided into an unhealthy and intemperate and a healthy and temperate The first Summer The first being the unhealthful continues to the middle of June and the rising of the Nile The second Summer begins from the Nile's rising The second Summer and continues till September and the Decrease The Harvest consists of two other Moneths Harvest but the Brumall Season beginneth on December and continueth to March or April Winter Thus is the Year divided the Reason whereof we will a little search after First Then they placed the Spring as before is said because at that Time the Air is of a moderate and milde Temper and the Trees begin to bud and grow The first Summer causeth many Diseases and the Ground to bring forth The Spring ended the first Summer begins very hurtful both to Man and Beast during the whole time of whose continuance very hot and tedious Winds blow call'd by them Campsien from Campsi a Commander who was overwhelm'd under a great heap of Sand by these Winds and smother'd with his whole Army in the Desarts of Africa Such is the violence of these impetuous Gusts sometimes that it so raises the Sand that for three five seven or nine Days the Air is darkn'd and the Sun cannot be seen for those Atomy Clouds At this time rage many mortal Sicknesses but chiefly Soreness of the Eyes for the hot South-winds as we said How this comes to pass so drive up the scortching Sand that they seem to bring with them shining Flames the which driven through the Air hurts and prejudiceth the Body and in the Eyes breeds prickings and inflamations And that time many mortal Feavers and Phrensies rage which dispatch men in few Hours In fine all Bodies are thereby so Distempered that they abhor Food continually burning with unquenchable Thirst against which the Water of Nile is the only Remedy Strangers all this Season retire to places under Ground where they remain till other cool North-winds arise from the Midland-Sea which afford a present Comfort to their inflamed and afflicted Bodies wonderfully cooling the Air. After this followeth the second Summer not so Hot because the Northerly Winds daily renew fresh and cooling Breezes and the Nile overflows his Banks What Alterations of Air happen are not sudden but come leisurely and therefore it is a healthful and wholesome Time Now the Husbandmen live at Ease because the Ground while covered with the Nile cannot be either Plowed or Tilled passing the Time in Shows Sports and other signs of Joy with Feastings and Mirth Then comes Seed-time and Harvest at the Decrease of the Nile in which are Wheat and other Fruits sown which becomes soon Ripe and are suddenly Reaped This Season is temperate and free from Sicknesses The following Winter-Moneths the Air is colder and consequently more wholesom It Rains seldom in the In-land Parts It Rains seldom in Egypt and about Cairo and what is is rather a Dew or misling than a Shower At Alexandria and Damiata and upon all Places lying near the Sea are many times great Rains but seldom or never is there any Ice Snow or Hail seen because the Air is not cold enough for it This as to the Temperature of the Air. ¶ NOw concerning the Temper and Constitution of the People Several kinds of Egyptians you may observe three sorts of Inhabitants in Egypt viz. Citizens dwelling in Cairo and other Cities wandring Arabians that live in Tents and lastly Ploughmen or Husbandmen which dwell up the Countrey Most of the Citizens are Sanguine but the Bodies of the Ploughmen and Arabians are hot and dry so are many Townsmen but the continual drinking the Nile Water often use of cooling Food or Diet and the immoderate use of Venus mightily lessen and alter the Heat and Drought Besides their continual use of Baths of sweet Water so cools them that many of those dry tan'd Complexions become Sanguine especially Women and Eunuchs They have cold Stomachs and full of Flegm proceeding from the constant using of cooling Diet as also by the over-great Heat of the Air whereby the natural Heat extracted or exhaled the Stomach is left Raw and Cold. The Egyptians are general very Gross and Corpulent The form of their Bodies especially the People of Cairo most of the Men there being so Fat that they have much Greater Thicker and Larger Breasts than Women but the Arabians are Meagre and Slender so are the Husbandmen and not only so but also hairy sweaty and almost scorched and burnt by the Sun They do all follow Venus
immoderately they are by Nature very Wakeful and little inclining to Sleep of a chearful Spirit yet delighting in an Idle and Lazy Life only the Arabians and Farmers take Pains or else they must Starve ¶ THis Countrey is very subject to several and dangerous Diseases Egypt is much subject to Land-Sicknesses partly because of the intemperate Air partly by the immoderate use of Women and partly because the Poor there which are numerous are necessitated to use foul unwholesom Food and muddy and corrupt Water The chief Diseases afflicting them are Blear Eyes Scabs Leprosie and Mortal Phrensies Small Pox pain in the Limbs and Joints Ruptures Stone in the Kidneys and Bladder Consumption Obstructions or Stoppings Weaknesses of the Liver Spleen and Stomach Tertian Agues Consuming Quartanes and all manner of Maladies of the Head It is true other people are subject to the like but not so continually nor grievously and therefore properly may be call'd The Plagues of Egypt In Alexandria in Harvest-time many malignant and mortal Agues reign by drinking the tainted and foul Water which the Townsmen from year to year keep in their Wells under their houses In Winter they are troubled with sore Eyes but the Inhabitants of Cairo much more among whom it reigns so Epidemically that scarce half of them escape the Distemper There also rages that most terrible Egyptian Disease by the Arabians call'd Dem El Muia which in few hours suddenly possesses the Brain like an Apoplexy and bereaving them of sense and understanding in few minutes irremediably kills them Every year once are the Egyptians surprized with this Sickness of which multitudes dye At the same time Children are much afflicted with a malignant kind of Pox bred by the venomous Damps raised from the corrupt Water of Caleg Malignant Childrens Fox in Alexandria which is a Branch or rather a Trench cut from the Nile into Alexandria Every year Whence they arise when the Nile is risen eight or ten Cubits it falls into this Trench and runs from thence through the whole City and at the recess of Nile this Water then in the Caleg remaining without current or motion at length corrupts and first becomes green then black and in the end sends forth a very noisome Stench which corrupting sends forth venomous Vapours whereby the Air is polluted and that Infection bred and therefore all the Children which dwell thereabout for that cause are carried thence to other places Many other Diseases are in Egypt which are bred by the eating Ox and Camels Flesh and rotten Salt Fish taken in Pools and Lakes and mouldy stinking Cheese by them call'd Gibnehalon whereby is ingendered much thick Blood Choler adust Grossness and soft and crude Humours The Cause of the Dropsie The Dropsie here is very frequent and such as have it have Legs which by the abundance of hardness and gross Swelling are blown and puffed up like the Legs of Elephants though indeed they feel no Pain but are only unwieldy to walk One main Cause of these Distempers proceeds from the too frequent Use of Colocasie Beets Bammia and Melochia Herbs breeding thick and tough Flegm Many of the better Sort also have a Weakness in their Joynts and Limbs Why the Egyptians have weak Joynts and feeble Limbs like Childrens Rickets relaxed either by immoderate Venery or the too frequent Use of Sweat-Baths Alpin Medicin Egypt But the meaner Sort get it by wearing the same Clothes in Winter and Summer and going bare-foot and bare-legg'd And are troubled with the Stone The Stone is no stranger among them being bred from the Sediment of the Water of Nilus which as all Water causing Urine comes to the Kidneys but the more Earthy Part remaining like Dregs behind by the extraordinary Heat of the Body becomes dry and in a little Series of time is turned into Stones There are also many of a Melancholy Temper Sad spirited People in Egypt which are generally accounted Holy Men For the vulgar perswade themselves that they live without Sin leading their Lives in great Sanctity the better to mind Sacred Mysteries retiring from the World into desart and barren Places The Mahumetans look upon them as Santons because they seem to contemn Riches and slight the vain Pleasures of the World They live single giving Hospitable Entertainment to all Strangers of what Religion soever They reprove Vice very sharply affirming the World to be nothing but a Vale of Misery and Trouble In a sad and morose Reservation they denounce great Punishments to Man for Sin and so macerate and mortifie their Bodies by a vowed Abstemiousness and Labour that they are little better than the dried Mummies The Pestilence is very frequent in these Parts Egypt is much afflicted with the Pestilence and prevails against them the more because they seek no Remedy for it falsly conceiting that God hath certainly appointed and ordained every ones Death aforehand and the manner of his Dying so that he that must die in the Wars cannot die of the Pestilence and those onely can die of the Pestilence that are aforehand destined of God for it For this cause as we said no Egyptian will go about to avoid the Place nor shun converse with the Infected and the Clothes and other Houshold-stuff of such as dye of that Distemper are instantly sold in the open Market by Out-cry which none are afraid to buy by which mad obstinacy in this their foolish Perswasion the Plague in Cairo in the space of six or seven Moneths sometimes sweeps away above five hundred thousand People This dreadful Malady commonly begins in their first Summer When it commonly begins in Egypt continuing till the cool Northern Winds arise and then it begins to abate That which begins in the first Moneths is the worst of all especially if it come over out of Barbary for then it sometimes almost depopulates whole Cities leaving them destitute of Inhabitants But if it comes later it is so much the milder and ceaseth the sooner But although it rage never so fiercely At the Suns entrance into Cancer the Pestilence ceases in Egypt yet at the Suns entrance into Cancer it wholly ceaseth which by them is accounted no small Blessing for from thence forward as if never any such infectious Disease had been the City and all things in it are from a depth of miserable despair reduced into a secure safe and healthful condition Neither while the Contagion lasted did any other Diseases appear among the People Now the reason of this so sudden Cessation seems to be caused by the even and constant temper of the Air How this comes to pass by the blowing of the Anniversary Northwinds which then begin to rise and oppose the moist Nature of the South-winds call'd as we said Campsien which cooling as well the Air as Mens Bodies taking away the Cause the infectious Heat the Effect ceaseth Very seldom or never doth the Plague begin here
the Water up to their Elbow with all their strength stirring the Water about then leaving the Almonds in it the Water will be clear in the space of three Hours Lastly pouring out the clear Water into other small Vessels they use it either for their Drink or Food Others let this Water stand only and setle till it become clear of it self The Vertues of this Water are very many and great The Vertue of the Water of Nilus for in some it fetches out an inward Infirmity by insensible transpiration others it causes to Urine freely some to go to Seige to none is it hurtful though drunk Day and Night even to excess Moreover it is to hot Bodies as a cooling Julep to allay the heat and burning of the Bowels There also our New Drink call'd Coffee hath no small Estimation Coffee-Drink gotten by long Experience of the Benefits which they suppose they receive by it using upon the matter little or no other Physick or Doctors they eating much Fruits and drinking only the Nile which is it self their grand Physitian The infusion of the Powder of this Berry in that so excellent Water decocted and taken Hot composeth not only the Crudities arising from bad Digestion but suppressing all Fumes so setleth in quiet both Head and Stomach which may be well asserted by those that use it moderately here who after they have taken their Dose two or three Cups in the Morning find themselves more apt to Business or Study It certain and suddenly cures Inebriation and in many allays the fits of the Gout * Namral History Sir Francis Bacon who took it long before in use with us says It comforts the Heart and Brain by Condensation of the Spirits The Arabians call it Caova and the Tree whereon it grows Bon where it grows in such abundance that from thence the whole Eastern and now part of our Western World is furnished yet with them so valued as not to be purchased by any Barter as they say but Gold and Silver The Turks and Moors have also a very wholesom Drink call'd Sorbet A Turkish Drink call'd Sorbet made of Sugar and Lemmon and drank by them with great Delight They use also another kind of Drink made of Plumbs Corants and Water set together in the Sun ¶ MEn in Egypt live longer than in other Places for they say The Egyptians live long 't is usual to find People above an hundred Years old the Reason of which Longevity Physitians much differ about yet in General they assign'd as one chief Cause their spare Life in Eating and Drinking whereas on the contrary Alpinus de Medicina Aegypt all Europeans which drink abundance of Wine and eat much Flesh By what means this is so are for the most part short Liv'd for as the moderate use of Flesh generates good Blood and quickens the natural Heat so the immoderate use incrassates the natural moisture making it become tough and viscous so stopping the activity of Circulation with the Load of gross repletions just as the Flame in a Lamp by the exuberancy of the Oyl extinguisheth therefore the Egyptians living Sparingly and not Distempering themselves with high Fare their Blood being thus attenuated spins out a longer thread of Life to them than our guzling and debaucht Nations ¶ THe Habits of the Men are neat but not gorgeous Mens Habits for in the Summer time they wear Vests of the finest and lightest Cotton but in the Winter of their own Countrey Cloth quilted with Cotton Their Vests are shaped narrow above and wide below with small Sleeves close at the Hand over which Princes Officers of State and other Great Men wear a rich Tunick of Sattin Damask and other costly European-stuff every one according to his State and Dignity They wear great Turbans made of long striped Camelet Tulhandes or Turbants wound or folded up round together The Colour of which denotes of what Religion they are The Colour of the Turbant denote the Religion for the Jews wear one Yellow the Christians Red or Blew and the Mahumetans only a White one but those that boast themselves lineally descended from their Great Prophet wear Green Turbans Their Hose or Stockings are short like the Buskins of the Antients but in a manner all strangers to Shoes for what they use on their Feet are rather Slippers or Sandals having no Upper-leather behind and the Soals according to the Turkish Fashion shod with Iron Ladies and Persons of Honor The Habit of Women are there for the most part cloathed in White with Masks of the same Colour The Countrey-Women have in stead of a Mask a Cotton Cloth before their Face Black or some other Colour at the Chin pointed with two holes only that they may see their Way and where they tread But in many Places their Vizors follow the Turkish Mode being a very thin Cloth made of Horse-Hair before their Faces or else among the better Sort a fine Linnen or Tiffany They go mounted on Choppines which have no Upper-leather but only to fasten them over to the foot Their Head-attires are various according to the divers Customs of the Countrey the Turkish keeping their own Fashion of being close covered but the Egyptians wear a costly Silk Cap half a Foot high and running to a Point like one of our Womens high-crown'd Hats without a Brim on the fore-part of which they fix a Branch or Sprig neatly compos'd of several Gems with various Lustres and a Frontlet of Oriental Pearls with Chains of Gold about their Neck The Egyptian Women wear Smocks and Peticoats lac'd at the bottom like the Gallants of our Time and Golden Bracelets on their Wrists and Garters all of Gold Next their Skin they wear a fine Silk Smock bordered with curious Needle-work and over this a Coat or Gown of a different Length made of changeable colour'd Silk trim'd with Gold Silver and Silk Knots and the Skirt richly embroider'd No People are more dextrous in Swimming as compelled thereto by necescesity for at the overflowing of Nilus they swim from place to place to dispatch their Affairs and to that end are very lightly Clad only with a Coat and Shirt intending to Travel which they tye upon their Heads in form of a Turbant when they swim cross any deep Rivers but if their Transnatation extend to a farther Distance they have bundles of Flaggs or Bull-rushes which as either necessity or conveniency requires they use to Buoy themselves upon both for their Ease and Safety When they ride in Cavalcade through Cities in State or through the Countrey for private Business their Horses are unshod cover'd after the Moorish Fashion with Foot-clothes or Caparisons usually made of Tapistry wrought after the manner of the Moors but the Women mask'd upon Mules Mean People and Strangers use Asses which always stand upon the parting of cross Ways ready to Hire ¶ THe Houses of the plain Countrey
other parts of the Body sometimes only by the Skin and hanging many days they so languishing in great torture die or else ty'd with a Rope about the Middle and with four Nails fasten'd to a Cross against the City Wall they are flead alive or bray'd to pieces in a Mortar Those that have committed any crime at Sea Sea-Justice are ty'd to the Mast or Steerage and shot to death with Arrows or else his hands and Feet cut off and set before the Mouth of a Cannon Usual Punishments and so shot all to pieces To drag them in pieces with four Ships to which they are ty'd and then cast the Quarters into the Sea is a usual Punishment so it is to cut off limb by limb or joint by joint but to tye them up in a Sack Light Punishments and draw them is held a gentle and milde Sentence 'T is capital to lift up the Hand against a Janizary or to commit Adultery with a Mahumetan Woman But this later is connived at because they believe that all sins by washing in the Bath or by once plunging into the Sea are washed away Their Lodging is very mean Their Houshold-stuff being only a Mattress in stead of a Bed which they lay upon a floor of Boards They sleep in their Drawers or Calsoons they have neither Chairs Stools or Tables but hang their Cloaths upon Pins in the Wall Those of Quality sit at Meals and all other times upon pieces of Tapistry cross-legg'd on the Ground but poor People have a great Matt made of the leaves of a Date or Palm-tree The Men wear next their Skin a large Linnen Frock and Drawers The Habit of the Men. and over that a loose Coat of Cloth or Silk buttoned before with great Gold or Silver Buttons and hangs down almost to the knee Their Sleeves reach but to their Elbows so that turning up their Shirt upon them their Arms are for the most part half way bare or naked and instead of Stockins the great men of the Court and other People of quality sometime wear small Turky-Leather Buskins They wear Turbants made of red Wooll wound up in a piece of Cotton five or six Ells long Their Slippers are piked at the Toe of yellow or red Leather shod under the Heel with Iron having no Lappets which they slip off at the door of any house whereto they enter as a great point of Civility They wear at their Girdles three very fine Knives that is two great and one small in a silver Scabbard a foot long adorned with Turkoyses and Smarag'd or Emeral'd Stones so rich sometime that they stand them in above a hundred Escues When they make water they stoop down to the ground How they make water for it is held a shameless thing to urine standing as the Christians do And the reason may be because if the least drop of their water fall upon them they are polluted and must forthwith wash themselves The Women are Habited almost like the Men The Habit of the Women onely having a fine Linnen Cloth on their Heads in stead of a Turbant Their Semaires come but to half their Thighs the rest naked Rich Women wear commonly five or six Pendants in each Ear with Bracelets of Jewels on their Arms and Silk Garments They paint the ends of their Fingers blue with an Herb call'd by them Gueva perhaps our common Woad When they go along the City in the Streets they cast over all a Cotton Cloak which hangs down to their Feet and tie a string of Pearls upon their Foreheads and a fine Kerchiff before their Eyes so that they cannot be known as they go up and down the Streets All their occasions lie within the house where they have a several apartment by themselves wherein none but Women may visit each other the Master of the House himself being at such times excluded to prevent all occasions of jealousie They are curious in the beautifying themselves according to the Fashion of their Countrey painting their Eye-brows and Eye-lids and colouring their Hair black with burned Antimony The usual Food of the Countrey is commonly Rice Their Food Cuscous Mutton Veal some Beef and Fowl When ever they slaughter any Beast they say over each I kill thee in the Name of God then turning themselves to the South they cut the Throat quite through like the Jews that it may bleed the more else they count it unclean and dare not eat of it Their Drink at Meals is either clear Water or Sorbet for Wine is forbidden them by the Alcoran And in the mornings when Tradesmen and Merchants meet about business they go to the Publick Coffee-Houses which Liquor they drink having a great opinion of it smoaking abundance of Tobacco spending much of their time there In stead of Table-Cloths they use red Turky-Leather Carpets and wipe their fingers on their Handkerchiffs in stead of Napkins Onely at Solemn Festivals the great ones wipe upon a blue Cloth fixed to the Carpet Their Cups and Dishes are of Tin or Earth Their Cups or Vessels for none may use Silver onely the Sultans they are all of Massy-Gold Liquid things they eat with wooden Spoons a Foot long Gaming is unlawful among them so that they neither play at Dice Cards Balls Bowls nor any other Sport usual with us Sometime they will play a Game at Chess but not for money Bathes are much used Great use of Baths besides their frequent Washings enjoyned before Devotion so that every place almost is filled with Bannia's Every City hath also many Free-Schools or Mesquites for the instructing of Youth to Read Write and cast Accompts but no further The principal Book they learn is the Alcoran which when a Scholar can read well his School-fellows lead him in his best Habit along the Streets and set forth his Commendation through the City for beyond this none learn Thus having shewed you the Manners and Customs of the People we shall now in short give an account of the nature of the Soyl and what Beasts and Plants it produces ¶ THere are in Barbary very many Springs and Rivers The Rivers the chiefest of which take their Rise in and Fall down from the greater Atlas though some others claim distinct Originals all which disembogue either into the Great Atlantick or Midland-Sea The Waters springing from Atlas relish of that Earth whence they arise and are for the most part thick and sedimenty especially on the Borders of Mauritania The whole Coast of Barbary lying on the Ocean The Scituation of it Atlas and the utmost Southerly Parts of the Territory of Sus as far as the Streights of Gibraltar is very fruitful in the Production of Wheat and Barley full of Meadow-Ground and luxurious in Herbage to feed up Cattel The other on the Midland-Sea How the Soil of Barbary is at the Mediterranean Sea from the Streights to the Eastern Borders of Tripolis is
on the Kingdom of Fez then gliding through the Plain of Adaksuni and afterward shut up as it were in a narrow Valley where a fair Bridge was erected over it by Abul Hascen the Fourth King of the Marin Family From thence Southward overspreads the Levels between Dukala and Temesne till at length by Azamor after it hath received the Waters of the River Hued la Abid and Derna it pours it self into the Ocean This River neither Spring nor Winter can be forded therefore the neighbouring Inhabitants ferry over both Passengers and Merchandise upon a Float made of Goat-skins blown up like a Bladder with Hurdles fasten'd to them upon which they take in their Fare and other Lading This River abounds so much with Shads that not only the Inhabitants of Azamor and Marocko are serv'd but also Andalusia and Portugal are suppli'd with them as a forreign Dainty Darna runs out of Mount Magran by the Cities Efza and Tefza from Tedle Darna between the Mountains full North till it meets with Ommirabilis streams The Brook Sicsiva call'd by some Sessua and Sefsava Sicsiva runs betwixt the Mountains of Nefise and Semede and through the City Elgumuha then mingling with the Asifnaal Tefethne takes its beginning out of the Mountain Gabelelhadi Tefethne passing through the Plains of Hea watering Heusugaghen Tesedgest and Kuleihata then branching into several Arms glides into the Ocean over against Cape Magador The River of Sanut call'd in Spanish Rio dos Savens and in Portugues Rio dos Savens De los Savalos in English Shad-Brook it shoots out of the Mountain Gabelelhadi so descending through the Campaign of Hea to Amama then delivering up his fresh Water to the briny Ocean Tekuleth Tekuleth supposed to be the River by Ptolomy call'd Diur whose Margents are crown'd with the Famous City Tekuleth and not far thence looseth it self and name between Goz and Amama in the Atlantick Lastly And the Fifteenth River which waters this Kingdom of Morocco is Imiffen Imiffen proceeding out of the Mountain Sicsiva then gliding Southward dispatches a short Progress falling into the Ocean at Cape Non. The Air of this Countrey The Air of it is commonly much warmer than that of Europe but the Air on the Mountains is commonly cold especially on the highest which are covered with Snow and so probably are more unfruitful The Plains of Morocco and Fez The fruitfulness of Morocco thus water'd with abundance of Rivers and Brooks are exceeding fruitful This Kingdom abounds with all things necessary for humane sustenance particularly good Oyl d'Olive and other useful Oyls The variety of their Vines are numerous of whose grapes they eat many fresh gathered many they dry and some they press which yield both pleasant brisk and full-bodied Wines Here also is exceeding plenty of Dates Figs Peaches Nuts Pine-Apples Sugar Flax Hemp Woad and Honey Mines of Gold Gold Mines Silver and Copper are frequent so also are great Stone-Quarries but none of them all are at any time open'd or sunk without special Order of the Xerif Upon the Plains and Mountains feed large Oxen Beasts Horses Mules wilde Goats Roe-Deer Asses Sheep also frequented by Lions wilde Swine Wolves and many other Beasts of prey as shall appear in the Description of the particular Territories There is no place in Barbary so well stored with Camels as Morocco Camels of which the Inhabitants make great use in carrying Burdens and Merchandise out of the in most places to the Sea-coast Leo Afric A sign of Apprehension in Camels to their no small advantage These Creatures seem to have a notable apprehension for when between Ethiopia and Barbary they are forced to go a days Journy more than the common Stages Leo Afric their Masters cannot drive them forward with blows but are necessitated to sing and whistle before them which supererogated Reward seems to them a sufficient bounty to draw and entice them to the performance of their over-service Experience confirms that the African Camels far exceed the Asian in strength being able to travel fifty days with their Burdens on Camels travelling fifty days together never unloaden without any Fodder or Meat Nature in them supporting it self by a Consumption as it were of the parts for first the flesh of their Bunches fall away and consume afterwards their Bellies and lastly of their Hipps and Buttocks whereby they become so feeble that they can scarce bear a hundred weight Concerning their Form Nature and other Properties we have mentioned at large in our general Description of Africa Here likewise also in Ducala and Tremisen Guabox or Wilde Oxen. breed a kind of wilde Oxen by the Inhabitants call'd Guahox and by the Spaniards Vacas Bravas that is Mad Bulls they run as swift as a Hart and are smaller than an Ox with a dark brown Tail black and sharp Horns the Flesh sweet with a Skin fit to tan for Shoo-leather They generally range through the Woods in great Herds In the Rivers are found great pieces of Amber abounding also with Shads Pikes Eels and other variety of Fish ¶ THe People of Morocco are well set and strong of Body The Constitution of the Moroccaians as most of the Inhabitants of Barbary are of a subtil and piercing spirit abounding with Choler Adust which commonly denotes acuteness of wit Some of them follow Merchandizing others Husbandry a third sort Wars Diego Torres c. 88. a fourth Arts and Sciences but all in general have a peculiar Inclination to Judiciary Astrology as may be supposed from the opportunities of their Serene and long Nights Their Women constantly keep within doors using Spinning working Tapistry or doing other things and have black and white Slaves of both Sexes to serve them on all occasions For want of Knives they break their Bread in pieces with their Hands and eat their Meat on Matts spread on the Ground as we said before They have variety of Dishes as Beef Mutton Fowl and Venison Their Food but their most usual is Couscous made of Meal Rice and other Ingredients mixt with water and made up in Balls then put into an Earthen Vessel full of little holes set upon the Hearth the heat whereof Bakes it enough This they eat in great pieces being very pleasant in Taste and of a wonderful pinguefying Nature Feasting is here very frequent especially in the Houses of Great Persons where for one Entertainment sometimes twenty or five and twenty Sheep all of a large size than ours are drest Their Drink commonly is a Liquor made of Raisins Their Drink steep'd in Sugar and Water or else * Like our Metheglin compounded of Water and Honey But the Inhabitants in and about Mount Atlas drink commonly boyl'd Wine whereas others will drink nothing but Goats and Camels Milk The Citizens of Morocco and other great Towns wear Shirts The Habit of the Men. long Breeches and Coats reaching to the Knees
The chief Places thereof lying on the Coast of the Mediterranean-Sea Comere are Comere lying close by three little Islands the first of which some hold to be Penon and the two other the Cliffs Tarfonelle and Nettegalle The City Terga by Marmol call'd Targa and built as Sanutus says by the Goths about twenty miles from the Straits of Gibraltar contains near five hundred Buildings Yelles Yelles a little Sea-Town two miles from Bedis hath a safe though small Haven Bedis Bedis by many call'd Bellis as cohering with the Spanish Name Velez is by the Inhabitants nam'd Deirath Bedis and by the Learned thought to be the Akrath of Ptolomy It stands between two high Mountains containing six hundred Houses an ill fortifi'd Castle and a small Dock on the Shore where commonly Galleys and other small Vessels or Boats are built About a thousand Paces from thence Penon de Velez upon a Rock in the heighth of twenty four Degrees and twenty Minutes Northern Latitude stands Penon de la Velez that is The Rock of Velez sever'd from the firm Land by a small Channel that affords a safe Harbour for ten or twelve Gallies It is a very strong place guarded with several Forts the chiefest of which is built upon the heighth of the Rock accessible by one onely cut way some stand in the middle and others at the foot so that it seems almost impregnable Gebba Gebba a small decay'd Town eight French Miles from Velez Near Point Oleaster Mezemme mention'd by Ptolomy Marmol places Mezemme or Megeime by some held to be the Teniolonga of Ptolomy seated on the side of a Hill on a great Plain nine French Miles long and three broad through which the River Nakor passing divides Errif and Garet But now so waste that the wilde Arabs desert it Towns more to the Inland are Tegasse a little Place two miles from the Mediterranean-Sea call'd by Marmol Tagaza and thought to be the Thalude of Ptolomy Seusaon Guazaval Then Seusaon and Guazaval remarkable for nothing but their inconsiderable meanness ¶ THe Mountains here have few Habitations The Mountains of Errif but poor Huts cover'd with Straw or Barks of Trees Such as they be take as followeth First Bentgarir or Beni Oriegan close by Targa three miles long and two broad Beni Mansor three miles long Bucchuia or Botoia in Length four and in Breadth three miles Benichelid or Beni Quilib in the Road between Bedis and Fez. Beni Jus four miles long and three broad Benizarval and Benirazin fronting the Mediterrane Seusacen or Xexuen reported to be the fairest Mountain of Africa The Beni Gebara high and craggy Beni Yerso and Hagustan well inhabited Benigualed and Beni Iedes high and almost unpassable Alkas twelve miles from Fez. Beniguazeual ten miles long and five broad shewing one City and an hundred and twenty Villages Guarga Beni Achmed or Beni Hamet four miles long and the like in Breadth Beni Egenefen or Beni Zanten Beni Mesgilda Beni Guamud all bordering on Fez from which divided by a River ¶ THis Province bears good The Condition and Quality of the Territory tall and streight Timber but little Grain of any sort Of Grapes Figs Olives Quinces and Almonds there is pretty plenty but no Cattel besides Goats Asses and Apes with a sort of Beeves no bigger than yearling Calves The Water abounds every where but in many places so muddy that it is scarce potable by reason whereof the People fetch their water to drink from Pits and Ponds without the City ¶ MOst of the Inhabitants of these Places have great Swellings under their Chins like the People in the Mountains of Savoy and Dauphine The Customs of the Inhabitants but the reason unknown except it proceed from the drinking that Water however it much deforms them They are blockish stupid and given to Jealousie and all other kinds of Beastiality These are not so curious of their Wives but in other parts of the same Jurisdiction they are as careless it being customary That when a Woman dislikes her Husband she will go presently to a Neighboring Mountain leave her Children and take another And this is the cause of continual Wars between them And if by chance at any time they make peace the Man who hath the others Wife is bound to give all the Expences to the first Husband during the time of their Cohabitation They fare very hardly living of Barley or Oat-Bread salt Sprats and Eggs accounting Goats Milk Bean-Broth and boil'd Mosch a great Dainty GARET GAret the sixth Province of Fez butting East on the River Mulaye West The Borders of Garet on the River Nakor on the North on the Midland-Sea and South on the River Mullulo and the Mountains close by Numidia is divided into three Parts The first compriseth the Cities and Plains the second It s Partition the Mountains and the third the Wildernesses The first containing the Cities is accompted sixteen miles in Length and forty in Breadth On the Mediterrane stand the Cities Tarforagello Fetis and Tarfoquirato with the Mountain Alkudie so call'd by the Arabians but Marmol takes it to be Abyle Alkudie one of Hercules Pillars at whose foot lies Cape Trident or The Point of three Forkes by Castaldus call'd Cabo de tres Forcas and by Oliverius Cabo de tres Orcas supposed to be the Metagonitis of Ptolomy the Metagonium of Strabo and Sestiana of the Antients It shoots far into the Sea with a Point from which Eastward lie three small Islands in form of a Triangle besides one great one nam'd Abusam in the heighth of thirty Degrees and twenty Minutes Melille formerly Ryssadirum or Ruisar Melille by the Inhabitants call'd Deirath Milila having a convenient Haven in the Midland-Sea was heretofore the Head-City of this Territory In the time of the Goths strongly wall'd and so flourishing under the Mahumetans that it contained above two thousand Houses But in the Year Fourteen hundred and ninety seven the Duke of Medina Sidonia won it and at this day it is one of the Spaniards Principal Strengths in Africa excellently Fortifi'd and commanded by a Castle well provided of all Habiliments necessary either for Offence or Defence About six miles from Melilla near Cape Trident or Metagonites lieth Casasa Casasa by the Portuguese call'd Cabo de Casasa where formerly because of the Conveniency and Safety of the Haven the Venetians drove a great Trade of Merchandise with the Inhabitants of Fez But by the Diligence of Ferdinand King of Aragon and Castile the Moors driven out he annexed it to the Kingdom of Spain Places further from the Sea Tezzote are Tezzote mounted on a Rock ascendible onely by Winding-Stairs Meggeo And Meggeo a small Town two miles Southward of the Midland-Sea and about four to the West from Tezzote ¶ BEsides Alkudie The Mountains of Garet and the Point of three Forks here are several
call'd The Ornament of the World But soon after the Vandals under their King Genserick in the Year after Christ's Nativity Four hundred forty two reduced it to great misery which yet once more it recovered and remained a City of good estimation till suffering under the Gothish Devastations but at length finally destroy'd by the Arabians and made a heap of Ruines as it still continues The chief and greatest remaining Antiquity of this once so famous Place is a Water-course Vaulted over with high Arches through which it runs into the City although many remainders of the old Fortifications may yet be seen and some ruined Structures The Village Marsa which we mention'd before is the onely place that keeps up the memory of Carthage being built in part of its Ruines and a poor piece of the Skeleton of that once so glorious Body so true is that of the antient Poet Sic patet exemplis Oppida posse mori ¶ THe Valleys lying round about have a very sweet Air The Condition of the Countrey because continually cleared by fresh Breezes that come from the Sea and are full of Orchards Planted with great variety of Fruit of a pleasant taste and very large especially Peaches Pomegranates Olives Figs Citrons Lemmons and Oranges wherewith the Markets of Tunis are plentifully furnisht the rest of the Ground also being exceeding Fertile though circumscribed in narrow Limits for on the North lieth the Mountain Thesea and the Lake of Goletta and on the East and South the Plain of Byserta the rest between Carthage and Tunis for almost three miles dry and barren Land ¶ THe Ground about Arriane produceth some Wheat and St. Johns Bread Plants or Vegetables but about Naples nothing but Flax and about Kammart many Sugar-Canes ¶ SOme wild Beasts are found hereabouts as also a sort of Gray Partridges Beasts and others with black Feathers on their Breasts and Wings the remaining part Ash-coloured with the Bill and Feet much shorter than the Partridges here with us In the Lake of Goletta are Birds by the Moors call'd Louze and by the Turks Kalckavensi having Legs two Foot and a half long and all their Feathers Milk white THE DOMINION and CITY OF BYSERTA or BESERTA SOme take Byserta now a small Village for that Ituqua of Ptolomy or Utica of Caesar and Titus Livius famous by the Death of Cato who having in behalf of the Pompeyan Faction undertaken the Defence of this City when he could no longer hold it chose rather to lay violent hands on himself than fall into the Power of Caesar Marmol takes it for Porto Farnia which he says the people of Barbary call Garelmetha although some stick not to say that it hath been and is known by the Name of Mazacharus or Kallefort as being a Member of the French Garrisons in Africa However it is the Moors give it the Name of Bensart or Benserth that is Son of the Lake for Ben signifies Son and Serte A Lake from whence it is easily corrupted to Byserta It stands on the Mediterranean-Sea between Razamuza by the Antients call'd The Point of Apollo and The Mouth of the River Bagrada ten French miles from Tunis where there is a great Lake much frequented by Fishermen formerly containing within the Walls six thousand Families but now Garrison'd by the Turks who keep there two great Prisons for Slaves besides Store-Houses for Merchandise and two strong Fortifications or Sconces for the Security of the Haven Westward of the Lake lies a great Plain call'd Mater Plains of Water belonging to Byserta but bordering on Goletta Not far distant is Choros formerly call'd Clypea or rather according to Davity Kurobis because Clypea is the true Quippia and the modern Kalibbie seated on the River Magride about two miles from Tunis formerly in the Civil Wars of the Countrey laid waste but re-built and peopled by a sort of Alarbes call'd Benicheli intermixt with others so that at present it shews the face of a well-inhabited Town The Haven of Farine is famous onely by the fatal Wreck of St. The Haven of Farine Lewis King of France in his return back from the Holy Land and two great Rocks lying at its Mouth ¶ THis Countrey hath abundance of fresh Water in all Quarters The Constitution of the Countrey which afford great variety of Fish in the Lake are usually taken Dorads or Dolphins of five or six pound weight and from the end of October to the beginning of May great quantities of a Fish call'd by the Natives Elft by the Spaniards Jachas and by the Moors of Barbary Giarrafas The great Plain of Mater is a fat and marly Soyl which would yield a good Return to the painful Husbandman if he might reap the Profits free from the Incursions and Thieveries of the Arabs Choros also is not backward in a Fertile Return according to the quality of its Soyl which yields vast and lofty Groves of Olive-Trees for the great benefit of the Inhabitants ¶ THe People go almost naked Their Cloathing wearing onely a Barrakan or short Apron a half Turban a Cloth about their Necks but bare-footed and bare-legg'd ¶ THeir Food is a kind of Couscous made of Meal Their Food Eggs Salt and Water which they dry and can keep a whole year Their Bread is a sort of Cakes call'd Obs Baked on the Hearth and their Drink made of Raisins and Wine Lees boyl'd together The poorer sort have no Beds but sleep upon Mattresses of Sedge laid on the Ground The more noble have in their Chambers long and narrow Divisions higher than a Man made fast to the Walls with very fine Wicker-work which they climb up to by a Ladder when they go to sleep ¶ THe Houses and Churches are whited once a year on the out-sides Their Houses but the in-sides are slovenly enough In their Kitchins if so we may call them Fire is a stranger all their Victuals being drest and boyl'd in a sort of moveable Ovens They are much inclined to Sorcery wearing Papers Written with small Characters Sticht in Leather on their Necks and on the Heads of their Horses when they draw into the Field to Fight believing that they will free them from all Diseases and Mishap URBS and BEGGIE URbs and Beggie two several Territories comprehend these Cities Urbs Beggie Hain-Sammin and Kasba with some great Plains The City Urbs formerly Turridis The City Vrbs founded by the Romans on a delightful Plain eight and thirty miles on the South of Tunis shews yet many Remainders of Antiquity as Marble Images Borders upon the Gates with Latine Inscriptions and Walls of thick Square-hew'd Stone together with a Castle betwixt which and two adjacent Villages runs a River of fresh Water convey'd in a Trench of pure white Stone to the City Beggie also built by the Romans about six miles from the Mediterrane Beggie and twenty to the Westward of Tunis by a High-way leading from
Libidinous The Disposition of the Inhabitants delighting much in dalliance and wanton Amours having no Laws or Customs prohibiting such Venerian courses nor ought elss following the dictates of their own Nature and what they are most inclinable to Betwixt those that follow Cattel roving up and down and those that live settled in Hamlets and Villages the disparity is great the last being naturally Affable affectionate in Friendship never failing those whom they profess kindness to extreamly hospitable to all Strangers still striving to endear them also valiant and faithful to their trust whereas those shifting Drovers relish altogether of their own beastial Employment worse than the Cattel which they feed for what Nature hath deni'd them viz. Science they though not incapable despise abominating Knowledge or Literature They are so far from Honesty or Honor that they will Hoot at and scorn to keep Company with such pitiful Fellows that will scruple in the least at Cheating Robbing nay Murdering if need be and for a small Gratuity nay sometimes gratis any of their Kindred Brother or Father such is their sordid baseness that they care not on the other side whoever vitiates or prostitutes their Sisters Daughters Mothers or their own Wives the word Cuckold or Wittal signifying nothing All their study whole endeavour and business besides a little Hunting is onely mischief either to Rob or Cheat their Companions and driving their Cattel into the Wilderness where they may never be found which done they makeit their May-game to laugh and jeer at one another Thus they spend the whole course of their lives not staying above three days in a place ¶ THese Their Food otherwise so vitious Churls are sober drinking little and that Camels Milk which in the Mornings they take warm in the Evening light Suppers onely a little dri'd Flesh Stewed in Milk and Butter of which every one eats a morsel then for their better digestion they sup in the Palm of their Hand some of the Broth closing all with a second Dish of Camels Milk which whilst they may have it abounding most in the Spring they regard not Water And also the Camels themselves whilst they find Grass drink no Water ¶ NEither are they proud Their Cloathing most of them going stark naked some accounting themselves very fine with a Lappet before them covering what modesty requires Some strut about thinking themselves very gay with pieces of black Cloth Sasge-wise foulded about their Heads But their Captains or Grandees look on themselves as Princes in a blew Cotton Jump or Jacket with wide Sleeves which they account good Truck from the Negro Merchants The People of this Countrey when they Travel are mounted on Camels sitting on a Saddle betwixt the Bunch and Neck and in stead of Spurs use a sharp Stick like a Goad with which when they grow slow they prick in the shoulders so making them mend their pace The Camels in stead of a Bit or Snaffle in their Mouths they manage with a Head-stall and Reins thrust through two holes which are made in their Nostrils Their Beds are hard being Matted-Bull-rush and Sea-sedges Their Lodgings Their Tents are made of course Camel-hair-cloth and some of course Wooll which they gather amongst the Dates Betwixt these Lybians and the Numidians dwell a sort of poor Arabs but stouter than the Lybick Arabs who follow Hunting their Game being onely Porcupines and Ostriches yet have a good Breed of Horses The Language they speak is that of Barbary rough like their Countrey Their Language Though these have no prescrib'd Laws or ruling Customs Their Government and all good manners banished from thence yet they are all subject to the Obedience of one Lord sole Monarch who by Arbitrary Power reigns and rules them as if one body at his pleasure That small Religion which they have is Mahumetane Their Religion The Desart Zanhaga or Zenega ZEnega also call'd by Marmol and others Zanhaga or Zenega The Desart of Zenega Leo Afric 6. Decl. is a Desart bordering the Atlantick Ocean from the Countrey of Nun one part belonging to Lybia the other to Numidia some places being inhabited to the River of Zenega which separates the Whites and Blacks The Limits between the Whites and the Blacks ¶ THe Borders are in the North the Countreys of Nun and Dara The Borders in the East the Wilderness of Tegaza in the South the people Benays and Jaloes and the Kingdoms of Gualata Geneva Melley and Tombut and lastly in the West the Ocean On the Sea Coast about three and thirty miles from Cape Nun The Cape of Bojador lieth Cape Bojador formerly call'd The Mountain of the Sun since The Point of the Canaries but as Mercator sets forth The Arsinarium Point of Ptolomy but others know it by the name of Cabo Verde or Green-Head What Bojador fignifieth But this Name Bojador signifies no more in Portugal than a winding or doubling Cape for the crooking Shore bended like a Bow in Sayling makes the Prospect of the adjacent Coast suddenly vary by opening and shutting in the Points one with another The Portugals at first durst not adventure beyond this Cape for the Stream hurrying swiftly over the Shoals being full of Whirlingeddies the Waves boyling like Liquor in a Cauldron being very terrible to behold stopped there their Voyage till one Gill Yanes also a Portugal sent out by King Henry in the Year Fourteen hundred thirty three went stoutly by it undaunted at such Chymera's and then gave it the Name which it bears at this day About seventeen miles Southward of Cape Bojador lieth a Space of Land on that Coast which the Portugals call'd Angra de los Ruvos so nam'd from the great abundance of Fowls that haunt there Eight miles farther is a Tract of Ground nam'd Angra des Cavelleros that is The Countrey of Horses Augres dos Cavelleros or Steed-Land Yet eight miles more Southward they find a River whose Current sets to the In-land but soon returning ends its short progress in the Sea it is by the Portugals call'd Rio do Oro The River of Gold that is The Golden Stream because the Inhabitants oftentimes redeem'd some of their Natives taken Prisoners by the Portugals The first Gold brought to Portugal paying there their Ransoms in Gold which was the first Africk Gold the Portugals were masters of Eight miles more Southward Angra de Gouzalo de Sintra is a piece of Land call'd Angra de Gonzalo de Sintra next that the Haven Kavallero and about seventeen miles farther Cabo Blanko or White-Head discover'd first by Nunno Tristan and Antonis Gonzales Anno 1441 Sanutus lying in twenty Degrees and a half North Latitude At this Cape beginneth the Coast of Anterote so call'd from a little Town there reaching to the River Zenega Cabo Blanko makes a Bay by some call'd The Gulf of Arguin named from a neighbouring Isle it is a wild and
stand two large Portugal Houses each having an exceeding great and tall Tree call'd Talbassero before the Door whose interwoven Boughs that afford a pleasant shade make a delightful Arbor whereinto they frequently go and eat and sleep there North-East from thence appears Magar Magar where the King of Cayor many times keeps his Residence Emboul and seven miles farther Eastwards Emboul where the Kings Palace is divided from the City with Pallisado's interweaved with Bands and Palmito-Boughs and on the in-side Planted with many Vines Before the Court lieth a great Plain The Court of Rayer where they use to break and exercise Horses set round with Trees Into this none may enter but such as are appointed because the King 's chiefest Wives therein have their particular Apartments yet about it at the distance of a Musquet-shot many persons dwell in small Huts or Tents making a reasonable Livelihood by petty dealing with the Servants and Attendants of the Court. Ten miles from the Palace they have Embar Embar a Town set apart onely for the Reception and Entertainment of all such as come of the Blood-Royal and may have any hopes to the Succession of the Crown Three or four miles farther Bey-hourte upon the Shore of the River Zenega is a large Hamlet termed Bey-hourte where the King's Customers and Receivers reside for the Collection of all his Revenues of all sorts thither brought to them About three miles from hence Westwards The Fort of the French the French have a Fort which they maintain to support the Trade they drive there but they pay to the King Sixteen in the Hundred for Hides whereas the Portugals pay but Ten and but a little for other Wares In this Tract we arrive at Baool Lambay whose Metropolis is Lambay where the King usually resides about two miles from whence towards the North-West lieth Sangay Sangay where sometimes the King takes his Divertisements Four miles removed Eastward stands Jamesil Jamesil and about five and fifty miles to the In-land the City Borsalo Borsalo But the Royal City of the whole Kingdom of Zenega is Tubakatum Turbakatum the Court and Chamber of the Great Jalof ¶ THese Countreys are usually infested with sultery heats The Air or temper of the Climate so that the depth of their Winter is warmer than May with us yet have they stormy and wet Weather Travaden or Stormy weather or Rains which they call Travaden that is Tempestuous accompanied with much Thunder and Lightning these begin on the Sea-Coast for the most part in June and continue till September though sometimes accidental Storms happen in October and May but without Rain These sudden Gusts arise commonly out of the South-East but the stiffest and strongest out of the East-South-East which too often prove dangerous to the Sea-men The most unhealthy time here is in October for then the Air parches with Heat but when the Winds begin to blow those Breezes temper and cool the Air and so continues till towards May. ¶ SEveral Rivers water this Countrey the Chief of which are those of Zenega and Gambea both after many meandring Courses discharg'd their full Streams into the Atlantick Ocean Ortelius believes that Zenega is the same which Ptolomy nam'd Daras or Darade but Lewis Cadamost maintains it to be the Niger of the Antients and makes it a bordering Limit to Negro-Land But that Opinion seems altogether impossible because like the Nyle Niger overflows and fertilitates the Countreys it passes through whereas Zenega leaves all lying about it very lean and barren Zenega hath as many Names as it runs through Countreys Several Names Marmol l. 8. c. 3. for the Jaloffs call it Dengueh the Turkornols Maso the Caragols name it Colle the people of Bagano Zimbala those of Tombut Iza but the Portugals not knowing its proper Name stil'd it Zenega from the Name of a Prince with whom upon their first coming into these Parts they contracted a League of Amity Johannes Barros derives this Stream from certain Lakes lying in the East The Head-Fountains by Ptolomy nam'd Chelonides the greatest whereof at present is call'd Goaga and the other Nuba The Course of it is very long and straight almost in a right line till about seventeen miles above Cape de Verde disemboguing into the Ocean In Zenega though not so full of Water as Gambea many Islands appear Islands of Zenega the greatest part whereof are full of Serpents and Wilde Beasts Nor is it much profitable otherwise to such as inhabit near being not passable in many places by reason of huge Rocks causing great and unusual Cataracts like those of the Nyle which some of the Inhabitants call Huaba others Burto that is a Bowe because sometime the Water is carried up into the Air by the force of the Wind in the manner of a Bowe Many other great Rivers run into this A strange Vertue of two Rivers especially one coming out of the South and seeming to have Red-Water between these two they say is such a strange Antipathy that whoever drinks the Water of one and presently that of the other findes himself necessitated to vomit yet neither of them produce this effect single nor both together after they have mingled their Streams and run in one Channel Several kinds of Fishes and other Creatures breed herein as the Hippopotamus or Sea-Horse Crocodiles and Serpents with little Horns yet notwithstanding all these inconveniencies the Water hath a Prolifick Quality foecundating Cattel that drink of it ¶ SIx miles Southward flows Borsalo full of great dry Sholes or Sands The River Borsalo on both sides several Villages shew themselves Fountain-Springs supply'd with fresh Water from a clear Spring that rises on the Easterly Shore A Tree four fatsiom thick by a Tree above four Fathom thick For the River Water by the flowing of the Sea is brackish near forty miles ¶ NOt far from Punto Sereno floweth a small River call'd Rio de la Grace being a Border to the Kingdom of Ale before whose Mouth lieth a Shelf many times overflow'd by the Sea from which as soon as dry fresh and sweet Water continually springs Somewhat more Southerly runs Bassangamar full of great Rocks The River Bassangamar The next is Rio des Ostro's or Oyster-River The River of Oysters deep enough for the coming in of Ships Between Borsalo and Gambea the Countrey all along is plain but full of high Trees yet wholly void of Inhabitants About three miles from Jandos Northwards The Lake Eutan is the Lake Eutan six miles long and half a mile broad In time of Rain it abounds both with Water and Fish but in a dry Season so empty that they can go over dryshod The bottom for the most part covered with Simbos or pieces of Horn and Glass which in Angola they use for Money Not far distant from hence is a Well of ten Fathom deep
and by the receiving of many other Streams becomes full of water and gliding also easier by reason of the breadth to the great ease of all Vessels that go up against the Stream By the Village Tinga the River is fordable but none dare venture to wade through it but the Blacks for fear of the Crocodiles however on both its Shores are many Villages and within its bosome divers small Islands Twelve miles upwards of Tondebu half a mile above the Creek Jayre on the left hand lies a little Island betwixt the which and the main Land the Stream is no broader than a Musquet-shot shallow and runs in many Meanders but higher on the left side is four or five fathom deep About two miles about Mansibaer lies another Island that so straightens the passage that without great trouble they cannot go through it Not far from Nabare half way between the Mouth of the River and the Gold place of Cantor or Reskate lieth Elephant-Island so call'd for the great number of Elephants which breed there ¶ THe Air in this Countrey is continually hot The Air. though with some little variation from the beginning of June till the end of September in which time it rains every day at Noon and at Night from the East and South-East continual Lightnings and Thunder But the greatest Rains falls from May till the beginning of August which causes the Rivers to swell and overflow their Banks and that proves a very unhealthful time for the first Rains falling upon the naked people cause blotches and spots and on the Clothes of the Whites it breeds Worms but after a little time that inconvenience vanishes ¶ ALl along the Banks of Gambea and about Cassan Vegetables or Plants Tobacco grows plentifully which the Portugals fetch with Sloops both green and dried without making up in Rolls Cotton also with Mille Rice Lemons Oranges Apples and Ananasses but not in such abundance as some have written On the Sea-Coast are Trees above seventeen Paces in compass and not twenty in height whereas further into the Countrey they are tall and slender ¶ BEasts fit for labour and service breeding here are Camels The Beasts small Horses and Asses But they have besides many Cows and Oxen as appears by their Hides yearly brought into Europe as also Goats Sheep Deer red and fallow with divers others besides the Wilde Beasts found in the Wildernesses viz. Lyons Tygers Baboons Otters Elephants and the like This plenty of Cattel makes Provision in those places so cheap that about Gambea you may buy a Beast of three or four hundred weight for a Bar of Iron although at Cape de Verde they pay four or five Bars for the like ¶ THe people heretofore were savage and cruel but since they have in some sort by the Converse of Christian Merchants received some notions of Religion they are become tractable and courteous The Kings as we said keep a Majestick Port according to their manner of State seldom appearing in publick to their Subjects They are all great lovers of Brandy and will drink thereof even to excess Their propensity to Brandy And if any Forreigner Merchant or other desires Audience of the King he can by no means sooner effect it than by presenting him with a Bottel of Brandy The King of Great Cassan call'd Magro who spoke the Portugal Tongue The King of Cassan a great Sorcerer yet could not be won to Christianity was well skill'd in Necromantick Arts whereof one Block in a Journal of his Travels gives a particular account We will onely instance in one or two of his prestigious actions He commonly wore as many inchanted Chains without trouble as would have over-loaden a strong Man One time to shew his Art he caused a strong Wind to blow but confined it onely to designed limits so that the next adjoyning places were not sensible of any violent motion Another time desiring to be resolved of some questioned particular after his Charms a smoke and flame arose out of the Earth by which he gathered the answer to his demand ¶ MOst of the Wealth of the Inhabitants consists in Slaves Their Riches though some have Gold for among them are few Artificers and those that are onely Weavers and Smiths Artificers who are ill provided of Tools for their Work yet make shift therewith The Smiths make short Swords and knowing how to harden the Iron form the Heads of their Assagay's or Lances Darts or Arrows and all sorts of Instruments with which they Dig the Earth Their Bellows are a thick Reed or hollow piece of Wood in which is put a Stick wound about with Feathers which by the moving of the Stick makes the Wind. The Iron which they Forge is brought over out of Europe thither in Bars in Pieces of eight or ten Inches long and are exchanged with great gain in barter for their In-land Commodities The Weavers make Cloathes of Cotton which by the Merchants are carried to Serre-Lions Serbore and the Gold-Coast and there barter'd for Ivory red Wood and Gold These Cloathes because made also about Cape Verde are call'd Cape de Verde Cloathes being of three sorts the best and chiefest call'd Panossakes are two Ells and a half long and an Ell and a half broad whitened upon the Ground and with Lists commonly of eight Bands sew'd together the second Bontans two Ells long and an Ell and a half broad very neatly Strip'd having six Lifts sew'd together but the third sort named Berfoel are great Cloathes made with blue Stripes all which are commonly bought for Iron that is one Panossakes for one Bar of Iron three Bontans for two Bars and two great Barfoel Cloathes for one Bar. ¶ EVery one Their Tillage be he Spiritual or Temporal old or young must Till his own Ground if he intends to eat the King onely and some chief Nobles and antient decrepid people excepted for the doing whereof they use no Ploughs but dig the Earth with a kind of Mattocks in the time of their Rain because then the Ground is softened ¶ THeir Food is Mille Their Food Shell-Fruit Milk and some Flesh They Bake no Bread but boyl it as we in these Countreys do Puddings which they eat hot Their Drink is Palmito-Wine and for want of that Water but the Priests with their whole Families drink no sort of strong Drink but only Water ¶ THe Houses Their Houses like those in Zenega are onely round Huts with Walls of Reed Lime and Earth covered with Canes and environ'd with a Pallisado or Hedge of Canes ¶ THe Habit of this People Cloathes Sanutu◠as well Men as Women is onely a Shirt that reaches down to their Knees with long wide Sleeves a pair of Cotton Breeches and little white Hats with a Plume of Feathers in the middle The Maidens cut and prick their Breasts Thumbs Arms and Necks with Needles in fashion of Embroidery and burn in these marks that they
belonging to the people Vey and Puy whereupon the Heir of the Crown when the King dies requires Earth from the Ambassadors of Folgia in token of Acknowledgement and Installs the Lord of Bolmberre with the Title of Dondagh by a particular Ceremony of which we shall give this brief Account The Heir is laid flat upon the ground with his Face downward and some Earth thrown upon him Lying thus they ask what Name he desireth to have and what he chuses they impose together with the Title of Dondagh Then they cause him to rise and put a Bowe into his hand and a Quiver of Arrows to defend the Countrey with which performed he distributes Slaves Clothes Kettles Basons and such like Presents to the King of Quoia The Power of the present Quoian-Prince is absolute and unlimited so that he is the onely and sole Judge of all Causes For although he admit his Counsellors sometimes to give their Opinions yet they signifie nothing for he follows his own single resolved Determinations This absolute Power makes him jealous of his Honor For he will not endure it should be diminished by any His highest Pomp consists in sitting upon a Shield whereby he gives to understand that he is the Protection and Defence of the Countrey and the manager of all Wars pacifying Civil Insurrections and other Weighty Matters belonging to him alone His Title as we said is Dondagh which is as much as Monarch When any Nobleman proves disobedient and will not appear before him on Summons then he sends his Koredo that is his Shield In what manner the King deals with any man who keeps away from his duty as if he would say upbraidingly if you be not obedient be Lord your self and bear the burden of the Countrey This peremptory Command by the Shield is sent by two Drummers who as soon as they come near the Offenders Habitation begin to beat their Drums and so continue without ceasing till they have delivered the Shield upon receipt whereof without delay he must speed away to the Court carrying the Shield with him which he presents to the King begging forgiveness of his miscarriages and so taking up Earth before the King humbles himself ¶ THose that make an Address to the King to obtain his Favor An address to the King to obtain his favor now it is made make their way with Presents of Ribbons Elephants-Teeth or such things which he must deliver at the house of the Kings chiefest Wife who receiving the same bears it to the King with request that the person may be admitted to his Presence If the King accept it the person hath leave to enter otherwise if any complaints be brought against him he sends it back yet so as the Presenter dares not receive and carry it away but continues his Suit by Friends without intermission by whose frequent and renewed mediations the King at last seeming a little pacified remits his severity takes the Present and calls for the Suppliant who entring the Royal Presence goes bowing all along towards the King who sits on the ground upon a Matt leaning upon a Stoole when he approaches within two steps he bows himself to the Earth kneeling down upon one Knee with his right Elbow to the Earth and names the Kings Title Dondagh whereupon the King if pleas'd answers Namady that is I thank you if not sits silent If it be a person of Quality and his Subject the King perhaps causes a Matt to be spread on the ground upon which sitting at the distance of a Pace he declares what he hath to request But if he be a Foraigner that comes onely to Salute the King without any further Ceremony he is conducted to him receiving an immediate dispatch If the person have any Proposition Petition or Complaint to make upon notice thereof a Jilly or Interpreter is call'd who coming with his Bow in his hand opens to the King the whole matter sentence by sentence whereto according to the quality of the Affair he receives answer with promise if upon a Complaint that as soon as he hath heard what the other party can say in his defence he will forthwith give Judgment according to Right If any man come to thank the King for doing Exemplary Justice in a difficult Cause How the King is thank'd for doing good Justice after his Presents receiv'd he devests himself of all his Clothes and Ornaments saving onely a little Cloth to cover his Pudenda so casts himself backwards upon the ground and instantly turning again rises upon one knee takes up earth with his hand and lays it upon his head then leaning with one elbow upon the earth he says three times Dondagh whereupon the King answers some times Namady that is to say I thank you and sometimes otherwise as he thinks fit The first Address usually is perform'd in his own House in the presence of his chiefest Wife But such as concern Justice or the State of the Countrey he hears in the Council-House in the presence of the Lords of the Council This Assembly they call Simannoe When some Eminent Person sent from a Neighbor King desires Audience one of the Kings Wives goes with a Present and tells him who sent it whereupon the Person appears before the King and takes earth This Address the King receives in his Simannoe or Council-House being open on all sides with great attendance round about After this Gratulatory Salutation the Ambassador desires leave to relate his Embassie but is put off till the next day so retiring he diverts himself till the appointed time in Feasts and Sportive Recreations The Ambassador receives Answer by the Kings Direction from a Jilly or Interpreter after which they shew the Ambassador and his Retinue the place where they are to remain where the Kings Slaves bring them Water to wash and the Kings Women bring very neatly drest in Dishes set on their heads Rice and Flesh much or little according to the number of his Attendants The Entertainment ended the King sends him for his Welcome Wine and other Presents either a Kettle Bason or such like If any European Merchant bring the King a Present he is invited to eat with him but with no Black how great of State soever will he eat out of the same Dish but lets their Meat be carried by his Women to the place where they are When the King dies the eldest Brother succeeds in his Throne The Inâ—eritance of the Kingdom and enjoys his Rice-Fields Slaves and Women except those which in his life were given to the Children The Folgia's are under the Emperor of Manou or Manoe a mighty Prince The Folgia's are under the Manou's who receives of them yearly Tributes in Slaves Salt red Cloth Kettles Basons and such like for which he bestows on them as a Gratuity certain Cloathes call'd Quaqua-Cloathes which the Folgian send to the Quoians as they again to the Bolmian or Hondoian Lords The People of Gala-Monou
Garrison were refus'd Articles of Agreement but those accepted that the Beleaguerers propos'd being to this effect They shall all with their Wives and Children without reproach or abuse go forth safe with Life and Limb. Every one shall take their Apparel but no Money either Gold or Silver The Victor shall retain all the Merchandise and Slaves except twelve which the owners may keep All the Church-Ornaments and Utensils except of Gold and Silver they shall take away with them The Portugals Mulattoes and all their Housholds provided with necessary Sustenance shall be carried to the Island St. Thome The Governor of the Fort and Souldiers shall forthwith depart out of the Fort and leave all the Ammunition for War and the rest of the Merchandise to the Victor The Souldiers shall depart without Colours or Sword and neither have lighted Match nor Bullets Thus was this renowned Castle won and lost in four days The Booty The Booty of Ammunition and Arms found therein were thirty Iron Pieces of Ordnance nine thousand weight of Spice eight hundred great Iron Balls ten Fat 's of small Bullets and three hundred Stone Bullets six and thirty Spanish Swords besides Bowes Arrows and other Utensils of War As soon as the Garrison was drawn out and come over to the Island St. Thomas the Dutch took possession with an hundred and forty Men. A former attempt had been made against this Castle but succeeded unluckily the manner this The Dutch Admiral with his Fleet on the six and twentieth of August The fruitless attempt upon the Castle of Myne One thousand six hundred twenty five came into Serre-Lions to refresh his Men being most of them sick of the Bloody-Flux where he found three other Ships who had lay'n there two Moneths undergoing great Misery Sickness and other Calamities The People of both the Parties being refreshed and cured determined to win the Castle of Myne being about fifteen Ships and Ketches with which they set forth the five and twentieth of September from Serre-Lions and were the ninth of October upon the Grain-Coast between Rio St. Paulo and Rio Junk in five Degrees and an half North Latitude where they sent a Ketch to the General for the Netherlands West-India Company at Moure to acquaint him with their coming and that they intended to come with their Fleet before Kommony and to Land there Being come on the twentieth of the same Moneth before Kommony The coming to Kommany they understood that the General was gone to Akra the uttermost place of the Gold-Coast and not expected back again for three or four days This delay the Admiral and his Council of War thought would give too fair opportunity to the Enemy and therefore resolved to Land the Soldiers but this resolution was deferr'd by advice of those of the Fort of Nassau till the coming of the General because of his great Interest with the Kings of Fetu Sabou and Kommony in whose Favour much did consist But immediately after his arrival which was on the four and twentieth it was concluded the next day to go on with the Design Four Ships therefore were order'd to lie close before the Castle of the Myne to amuse the Enemy by continual Shooting for three days They Land at Terra Pekine till the other Soldiers might in the mean time draw up without interruption The five and twentieth they Land in Terra Pekine about twelve hundred Soldiers and Mariners with an hundred and fifteen Blacks brought from Maure with the General who about Noon came within a mile of the Castle of Myne and from thence after two hours rest drew within shot of it where they were saluted presently with some great Guns but without hurt and so sate down before the Castle behind a Hill with resolution that night to Entrench and make their Approaches In the mean time while the General went to the pitch of the Hill to view the Castle the Soldiers being tir'd with heat and thirst ran from their Arms and gat themselves to rest without suspicion of any Enemy Were fallen upon by the Enemy but as soon as the Commanders were come upon the top of the Mountain they were unawares fall'n upon by about two hundred Blacks who like mad furious Men fell in and made great slaughter and destruction amongst them which bred such a terrour and consternation amongst them that they threw away their Arms and leaping into the Water were drown'd There remained slain The number of the slain together with those that were drown'd three hundred seventy three Soldiers sixty six Mariners and most of the superior and inferior Officers The General wounded the General himself wounded came to extream distress and carried out of the Fight the rest fled to Kommany whither also the Ships steered their course and by this means was that Design utterly overthrown But now we return to the remainder of the precedent success Presently after the taking of this Castle the Victors sent a Canoo with Letters to the Portugal Governor of Atzin thereby requiring him to surrender that Place But he well knowing they could not come up to him in that season of the year answer'd That he would keep the Fort for the King and expect our Forces Then by advice of the whole Council of War the Redoubt upon St. Jago was repair'd as also a Battery that was fall'n adjoining to the Works of the Castle from whence they may scowre the Shore of the River and relieve the Sea-Battery On the West-side of the Castle stands a pretty large Town The Town Myna at the Myne close built by the Portugals call'd Del Myn but by the Blacks Dana or Dang extending far in length but lieth so low that at a Spring-Tide the Sea in some places runs through the Streets And on the other side runs the Salt-River Benja which not onely hinders the passage out of the Town but makes the adjacent Countrey very Moorish This River formerly was ten or eleven Foot deep at low Water but now so shallow that it is not passable for Ketches which draw four Foot Water This Town is naturally very strong being as we said shut up between the River and the Sea so that the Enemy hath no other approach than at the end of Kommany where the Portugals as a Security from the Blacks had rais'd a Stone-wall from the Sea to the River and made a Battery About half a mile from St. The River Vtri Jago floweth the River Utri but full of Cliffs and altogether unpassable yet affords this Commodity that not onely the Blacks from the Town daily fetch thence their Water but also the Ships there being within two miles no Springs to be found The Countrey hereabout yields little Fruit The constitution of the Countrey therefore most of their Food is Mille to make Bread of Safoe or Wine of Palms Sugar Ananae's Injame's Potatoe's Wine of Bordean are brought to them from Fetu Abrembe Commendo Akane
have great skill in Swimming but the Men within Land use it so little that they seem afraid at the sight of any great River They can keep long under Water and Dive exceeding deep wherefore the Portugals bring of the expertest from hence to the West-Indies to use them in the Pearl-fishing in the Island Margaretta Children not exceeding two years of Age betake themselves instantly to the Water and learn to Swim because unskilfulness therein is counted a great shame The Women are slender-Body'd and cheerful of disposition but have such great Breasts that they can fling them over their Shoulders and give their Children Suck that hang at their backs They have great inclinations to Dancing The Women are inclin'd to Dancing so that when they hear a Drum or other Instrument they cannot stand quiet but must shew their Skill They meet usually in the Evenings to Revel while some Dance others Play upon Instruments as Copper Panns struck with Buttons or Drums made of a hollow Tree and cover'd over with a Goats Skin or such like barbarous Musick They Dance commonly two and two together The use of Castinetto's came from Africa Leaping and Stamping with their Feet Snapping with their Fingers and Bowing their Heads one to another some have Horses Tails in their Hands which they cast one while upon one Shoulder and one while upon the other others with Wisps of Straw in their hands which they let fall then again suddenly reaching it they cast it up aloft and catch it in their hands This Dancing having continu'd an hour or an hour and a half every one returns home Besides these Evening-Pastimes they have a sort of Dancing-Schools wherein the younger Breed are taught These People are seldom free from Lice The Blacks are Lowsie though Clean. and Fleas although they keep themselves clean in their Bodies for they Wash every Morning and Evening from Head to Foot and anoint themselves with Oyl of Palm or Suet to make them look Smooth and that the Flies may not bite their Naked Body The Women moreover anoint themselves with Civet and fine smelling Herbs to be the more acceptable to their Husbands They count it a great shame to Break Wind in the presence of any they never do their Easement upon the ground but make a Hut whereinto they retire and when full burn them to Ashes They cannot Evacuate their Water in a continu'd Current as usual in humane Creatures but rather like Hoggs by intermissive girdings When they meet any of their Friends or Acquaintance in the Morning Their Salutation they Salute them with great Courtesie Imbracing one the other in their Arms and closing the two first Fingers of the Right Hand snap two or three times together each time bowing their Heads and saying Auzy Auzy that is Good Morrow Good Morrow Another as it were innate quality they have to Steal any thing they lay hands of Exquisite in Stealing especially from Foreigners and among themselves make boast thereof as an ingenious piece of Subtilty and so generally runs this vicious humor through the whole Race of Blacks that great and rich Merchants do sometimes practise small Filching for being come to the Trading Ships they are not at rest till they have taken away something though but Nails or Lead that is Nail'd to the outside of the Ships to prevent Worm-eating which no sooner done then with a singular sleight of hand they convey from one to another but if they chance to be trapp'd they all leap instantly over-Board for fear of Beating but if caught and soundly Bastinado'd then as past doubt of other punishment they never avoid the Ship but come again the next day to Trade They little esteem any Promises made to Foreigners They keep little of their Promises but break them if they can see any advantage in it in brief they are a treacherous perjur'd subtle and false People onely shewing Friendship to those they have most need of When they make a Promise or Oath to the Whites they cast their Face to the Ground then bowing speak these words thrice Jau Jau Jau every time striking their hands together and stamping upon the ground with their feet and lastly kiss their Fetisy or Sants which they wear upon their Legs and Arms. Most of their Food is Bread Most of their Food is Bread by them call'd Kankaiens Bak'd or Boil'd of Mille How it is made ready mix'd with Oyl of Palm and sometimes with green Herbs the Mille they prepare by Pounding in a Stone-Mortar afterwards cleanse it in a Woodden Shovel then the Women Grinde it every day twice upon a flat Stone which stands a mans height from the Earth with another Stone a Foot long just as the Painters usually Grind their Colours which is no small labour though little regarded by the men Thus made into Meal they mingle it with water and make Cakes or Balls as big as both ones Fists which they Boyl or Bake upon a hot Hearth bound up in Cloth Others add thereto Maizr They seldom eat Flesh Other Food but all sorts of Fish Potatoes also and Injames which they Boyl as also Bananasses Bakovens Rice and several other sorts of Fruit which the Countrey affords Their daily Drink is Water and palm-Palm-Wine Drink yet they make another Liquor of Mace which they call Poitou The Men Drink stoutly especially hot Liquors such as Palm-Wine The Men are inclin'd to Drinking Brandy and other Wine so that the Evening seldom sees them Sober In Drinking they use strange Customs for the first Drinker must lay his Hands upon his Head and with a loud voyce cry out Tautosi Tautosi After Drinking they poure a little as an Oblation to their Fetisi upon the Earth crying aloud I. O. U. which if they omit they are perswaded it will do them no good but vomit it up presently Nor have they a less Voracity in Eating being scarcely satisfi'd with Food Gluttony in Eating their Caninus Appetitus being so insatiate that when they have as it were but newly swallow'd the last they will fall to afresh as if pin'd for hunger nor do they chew it like us but take it in broken Gobbets with the three middle-Fingers Unmannerly and throw them into their Mouthes down their Throat without ever casting it beside ¶ WAlled Cities they have none nor good Towns near the Sea Towns or Villages what they are onely upon the Shore some Villages appear of no great consequence being ill-favoredly built and worse order'd for they so stink of Dirt and Filthiness that sometimes when the Land-Wind blows the Stench may be smell'd a mile and a half in the Sea The Towns more within the Land are much bigger and fuller of Trade and People who live more at ease for such as live at the Sea are Interpreters Brokers Rowers Skippers or Seamen Servants Fishers and Slaves of the other But although as we said the Towns lie open
sixty young men in stead of Husbands each of which may have as many Wives as they please with this proviso that if any of them be with Child themselves must kill the Infant as soon as born In the year Sixteen hundred forty eight the four and twentieth of June the third day after the New-Moon according to the relation of one Fuller a Commander in the Service of the Netherlanders who was appointed with sixty men to assist this Queen against the Portuguese and in that regard stay'd so long time with her that one of these her Gallants had a hundred and thirteen Wives without any offspring for that after the manner of their Devillish Superstition and Idolatry he cursedly made away or kill'd their Children The Queen us'd this very Custom at that time neither dare any of those selected young men own their Sex or mention hers And for the more orderly concealing thereof she clothes them in Womens Apparel according to her manner and goeth her self in Mans Habit giving out that they are Women and she a Man All these have Womens names but the Queen her self a Mans especially in the Army and will acknowledge no otherwise nay her Favorites dare not say the contrary upon the peril of their Heads and as a testimony herein of their obedience and constancy to her permits them to go freely among her women and if they fail in their obligations they seldom escape to tell further news In the year Sixteen hundred forty six she over-ran with her Army Ruin'd Oando and spoyl'd all the Villages of Oanda and made the Inhabitants Slaves But the Quisamens residing on the South-side of the River Quansa send every year Tribute to her for an acknowledgment both of their Friendship and Subjection After her death the Portuguese set another of her Family as King of Dongo Angola Sodesie is chosen King by name Angola Sodesie who always privately sent Presents to them in token of submission The King holds his residence a little above the City Massingan Dwelling placâ— of the Kings in a Stony Mountain above seven Leagues in compass inclosing within it many rich Pastures Fields and Meadows yielding a plentiful Provision for all his Retinue into which there is but one single passage and that according to their method well Fortifi'd so that he needs neither to fear any Enemies from the Queens side nor from the Jages The King here The King onely may keep Peacocks as he of Congo keeps a great many Peacocks a peculiar onely to the Royal Family and of so high esteem that if any one should adventure to come to take but one Feather from a Peacock with intention to detain it he should immediately be put to death or else be made a Slave with all his Generations This Kingdom stands divided into several Provinces The Dominions of Angola are govern'd by Senasea and every Province subdivided into inferior Lordships Commanded by a particular Sovas Every Sovas hath a certain number of Makottes or Councellors Their Command who in all addresses fall down on their Knees clapping their hands with whom he consults of all weighty Concerns These Sovasens live privately in Villages Their dwelling places inclos'd with thick Hedges and have onely some narrow ways for entrance and the Habitations cannot properly be term'd Houses but sleight Huts made of Rushes and Straw after the Countrey manner The Governors of all the Territories which the Portuguese hold in Angola by force of Arms The coâ—quer'd Sovasen must pay tribute to the Portuguese are bound to pay a Tribute of Slaves to them yearly and to do them other services under the Title of Vassals The Portuguese Governor of Lovando use to Farm this Tribute of the Sovasens to some of their own Nation who were not content with what was the setled Revenue of Slaves but oftentimes take as many more which made the Natives bear a mortal hatred to them The Sovasens moreover are bound to appoint Carriers for the Portuguese when they travel through the Countrey to bear them in Seats from one place to another For if a Portuguese be minded to travel from Lovando Saint Paulo to Massingan when he comes at Evening into a Village where he intends to Lodge he sends to the Sova to let him know he hath an occasion for so many of those Carriers who must not fail to provide them And this they do every Evening to have fresh Men for the next days Journey In the year Sixteen hundred forty one The City Lovando Sante Paulo overcome the Netherlanders under the Command of Cornelius Cornelisen Jol otherwise call'd Houtebeen took from the Portuguese the City of Lovando Saint Paulo upon this account and in this manner Grave Maurice of Nassaw For what reason it was undertaken by the Netherlanders or General of the Netherlanders in Brasil taking into consideration that the State of Brasil could not consist without many Blacks from the Coast of Africa not onely to work in the Sugar-Mills and to Plant the Cane-Fields and cleanse them of Weeds but also to Manure more Ground for the Planting of Mandihoka and all manner of Fruits and that this Work could not be done better by any than these African-Slaves And besides that there were not Slaves enough brought from the Coast of Arder Kalbarine Rio del Rey and other places thereabouts concluded on to set out a Fleet under the Conduct of the foremention'd Houtebeen and some Land-Forces under the Command of one James Hinderson to take Angola from the Portuguese The Fleet consisted of twenty Ships great and small Man'd with two thousand Souldiers nine hundred Seamen and two hundred Brasilians which set Sayl from Fernabuck the thirtieth day of May The Fleet set Sail from Fernabuck in the year Sixteen hundred forty one and after many oppositions to come about to the South the nineteenth of July in eight and twenty degrees South-Latitude the Fleet began to want fresh water The fifth of August the Fleet came to Cabo Negro in sixteen degrees They come to Cabo Negro from thence to Flies-Bay in fifteen degrees and on the one and twentieth day they overcame and took a Portuguese Carvill sailing along the Coast laden with Wines from the Maderas call'd the Jesu-Maria-Joseph the people of which serv'd them for Pilots to bring them into the Haven of St. Paulo The four and twentieth the Fleet came within sight of Land and Hinderson went the same day with his Souldiers set in order against the City ordering the Snap-hances to March in the Van. The Portuguese Governor Caesar de Meneses stood not far from thence on the Shore with nine hundred Whites and Arm'd Inhabitants and a great many of Blacks besides two Pieces of Ordnance in a Fighting Posture But so soon as the Netherlanders came near and began to fall on The enemy leaves the City the Blacks first betook themselves to flight afterwards the Portuguese and at last
and hath fifteen and sixteen Foot Water so that the great Ships may come before it About the North Point of Katon-belle lieth the Good Bay Good Bay so call'd by reason of its ground of Anchoring The Countreys upon the Sea-Coast are fruitful and low but the In-lands high and overgrown with Woods A mile and a half from Katon-belle you discover a fresh River that falls into the Sea but in the times of Rain The Bay of Benguella having good Ground for Ships to ride at an Anchor reaches from one Point to the other a mile and a half in breadth On the North-side stands the Foot of Benguelle built four-square with Pallizado's and Trenches and surrounded with Houses which stand in the shadow of Bananos Orange Lemon Granate-Trees and Bakovens Behind this Fort is a Pit with fresh Water Here lie seven Villages that pay to those of Bengala the tenth part of all they have for Tribute The first Melonde the second Peringe both about a League from the Fort Under Benguelle are seven Villages and a mile one from another the other five are Maniken Somba Maninomma Manikimsomba Pikem and Manikilonde of all which Manikisomba is the biggest and can bring three thousand Men into the Field Here formerly lived some Portuguese which afterwards out of fear of the Blacks fled to Massingan but were most of them kill'd in the way On the West Point of the Bay of Benguelle is a flat Mountain call'd in Portuguese Sombriero from its shape representing afar off a three-corner'd Cap and by it an excellent Bay having at the South-east-side a sandy Shore with a pleasant Valley and a few Trees but no Water fit to drink Four miles from thence they have a Salt-Pan which produces of gray Salt like French Salt as much as the adjacent Countreys can spend In Bengala is a great Beast The Beast Abada call'd Abada as big as a lusty Horse having two Horns one sticking out in his Forehead and another behind in his Neck that in the Forehead is crooked but smooth rises sloaping before and very sharp but at the Root as thick as an ordinary Man's Leg being many times one two three or four Foot long but that in the Neck shorter and flatter of colour black or a sad gray but being fil'd appears white the Head not so long as the Head of a well-shaped Horse but shorter and flatter with a Skin Hair'd like a Cow and a Tail like an Ox but short a Mayn like a Horse but not so long and cloven Feet like a Deers but bigger Before this Beast hath attained the full growth the Horn stands right forward in the midst of the Forehead but afterwards grows crooked like the Elephant's-Teeth When he drinks he puts his Horn first in the Water for prevention as they say against Poyson The Horn they report to be an excellent Medicine against Poyson The Horn is good against Poyson as hath oftentimes been proved but they find more efficacy in one than another occasioned by the timely and untimely killing of the Creature The trial of their goodness the Portuguese make in this manner They set up the Horn with the sharp end downwards on a Floor and hang over it a Sword with the Point downwards so as the Point of the one may touch the end of the other If the Horn be good and in its due season or age then the Sword turns round of it self but moves not over untimely and bad Horns The Bones of this Beast ground small and with Water made into Pap they prescribe as a Cure against inward Pains and Distempers being applied outwardly Plaister-wise The Kingdom of MATAMAN or rather CLIMBEBE THe Kingdom of Mataman Name commonly so call'd took that Denomination from its King the proper and right Name according to Pigafet being Climbebe or Zembebas Its Borders Borders as the same Author Linschot Peter Davitius and other Geographers hold in the North upon Angola Eastwards on the Westerly Shore of the River Bagamadiri to the South it touches upon the River Bravagul by the Foot of the Mountains of the Moon near the Tropick of Capricorn which the chiefest Geographers make a Boundary between this Kingdom and those Mountains and the Countrey of the Kaffers to the West along the Ethiopick-Sea that is from Angola or Cabo Negro in sixteen Degrees South Latitude to the River Bravagul a Tract of five Degrees and fifteen Minutes every Degree being reckon'd fifteen great Dutch Leagues or threescore English Miles Two Rivers chiefly water this Kingdom Rivers viz. Bravagul and Magnice the first takes its original out of the Mountains of the Moon Linschot or the River Zair and unites its Waters with those of Magnice springing out of a Lake by the Portuguese call'd Dambea Zocche and falling in the South-east into the Indian-Sea The Places of this Kingdom coasting the Sea are these Next the Black Cape right Eastward you may see the beginning of the Cold Mountains Mountains of the Moon on some Places for the abundance of Snow with which they lie cover'd are call'd The Snowy Mountains Then you come to the Crystal Mountains Crystal Mountains that shoot Northerly to the Silver Mountains and to Molembo by which the River Coari hath its course and makes a Border to the Kingdom of Angola At the Southerly Coast of Cymbebas near the Sea Calo Negro in sixteen Degrees and sixty Minutes South Latitude appeareth Cabo Negro or The Black Point so denominated because of its blackness whereas no other black Land can be seen from the one and twentieth Degree South Latitude On the top of this Point stands an Alabaster Pillar with an Inscription but so defaced by the injuries of Time and Weather that it is hardly legible and formerly upon the Head of it a Cross raised but at present fall'n off and lying upon the Ground The Coast from hence spreads a little North-east and East-North-east The spreading of the Coast The Countrey round about shews nothing but barren and sandy Hills without green and high sandy Mountains without any Trees More Southerly in the heighth of eighteen Degrees you come to a Point by the Portuguese call'd Cabo de Ruy piz das Nivez or Cabo de Ruy Pirez having to the Northward a great Inlet with sandy Hills and the Shore to the Black Point but Southward a High-land altogether sandy and reacheth to nineteen Degrees Farther to the South in nineteen Degrees and thirty Minutes lies a Bay call'd Golfo Prio and Prias das Nevas with double Land and full of Trees afterwards you come to the open Haven of Ambros in the one and twentieth Degree then going lower to the Southward the Sea-Coast resembles what we mention'd in the North shewing high white sandy Hills barren Land and a bad Shore A good way to the Westward of Cabo Negro lies a great Sand in the Sea in Portuguese call'd Baixo de Antonia de Viava or The
of Copper which stick so close that it makes their Arms sore and sometimes come to ulcerate before they will lay them off Many of them wear as an Ornament the Guts of Beasts fresh and stinking drawn two or three times one through another about their Necks and the like about their Legs Some wear a sort of Roots gather'd from the bottoms of Rivers which in their Journeys through Woods where Lyons Leopards and Wolves frequent by the Fire side which they kindle at the Place where they stay all night for the driving away wild Beasts they chew into little bits and spit out of their Mouthes round about with firm perswasion that there is such vertue in them as no Beast can endure the smell of it When they go abroad they have usually an Ostrich Feather or a Staff with a wild Cats Tail ty'd to it in one Hand in stead of a Handkerchief to wipe their Eyes and Noses and beat away the Dust Sand and Flies and in the other Hand a sleight Javelin The Women never go abroad without a Leather Sack at their backs having at each end a Tuft or Tassel and fill'd with one trifle or another Their Weapons or Arms are Bowes and Arrows and small Darts three four or five Foot long having at one end a broad sharp Iron fixed which they handle and throw very dexterously They take great delight in our Bread for which they are willing to barter Cattel The Honey found in the Woods they eat up Wax an all and in stead of Physick administer to the Sick Cabbages Coleworts and Mustard-Leaves with a little beaten Lard boyl'd with it Their common Drink is Water Drink or Mille but they are very greedy of Brandy or Spanish Wine as also of Tobacco but quickly become Drunk with it They use no Trades Handicrafts or Arts with Bulrushes make Mats wherewith they cover their Houses they Forge the sharp Heads of their Lances being Iron in the doing whereof they use onely a Stone and Hammer making it malleable with Wood-Coals The Goringhaica's dwelling by the Cape Employment employ themselves in Fishing which they sell to the Netherlanders for Bread and Tobacco Most of the other have no skill therein nor any Vessels to go out to Sea so that in all Journeys they go by Land and on Foot In stead of Horses they have great Oxen who carry their Goods and Commodities from one place to another which they lead and guide with a Stick thrust through their Noses as with a Bridle The Cochoqua's or Saldanhars are a kind of Herdsmen and live by keeping of Cattel whereof they have above an hundred thousand Head all very fair besides as many Sheep The like do the Cariguriqua's and Hosaa's None amongst them all Sowe or Plant but onely the Heusaqua's When they perceive any wild Beasts in the Night whether Elephants Elans Rhinocerots Lyons Tygers Bucks or Horses then all the stoutest Men run forth and make a great noise to fright them away But if by day any devouring wild Beast appear then all that can carry Arms go forth every one provided with two or three Assagays or Lances and encompassing the same with extraordinary outcries and shoutings they let fly their Darts and Shoot as at a Mark to wound and kill him When a person falls in Love with a Maid he desires of his Father Marriage that he may Marry her who consenting he goes to the Father and Mother of the Maid entreating the same and when the Parents grant his Suit the Daughter receives and as a sign of her acceptance and in confirmation of the Marriage she puts about his Neck not a Gold Chain but a fat Cows Chitterling which he must wear till it drop off Then two of the fattest Sheep are sought out of the whole Flock and kill'd part of whose Flesh being boyl'd and part of it roasted none may eat but the Marry'd couple and their Parents and without this Ceremony the Marriage would not be accounted lawful The Skins cut in small pieces and the Hair taken off then beaten upon a Stone and so laid on hot Coals they eat with a very great appetite This pitiful Feast ended the solemnity of the Wedding is over As to their constancy in Love they are as in other places some quickly nauseating the ties of Marriage while others observe it with a most affectionate strictness For the manifesting of the constancy and true Love amongst some of these Salvages we will give you two remarkable Stories the one of a Widow which through excess of grief and sorrow for the death of her Husband leapt into a Pit full of Wood set it on fire and burnt her self to death the other of a young Maid which for grief threw her self down from a Rock because her Parents had caus'd her Lover to be severely whipt with Thorns for Lying with her against their consents Whether by the goodness of the Air or the natural strength of their Constitutions these People attain so great an age as generally they do remains a doubt but this is certain that most of them live to eighty ninety or a hundred and some to a hundred and ten twenty or more years They bury their Dead sitting in a deep Pit stark naked Funerals throwing the Earth upon their Heads with a great heap of Stones over all to preserve the Corps from being raked out of the Grave by wild Beasts When a Man or Woman dies Inheritance all the Friends to the third degree of Consanguinity must by an antient custom cut off the little Finger of their left Hand to be bury'd with the Dead in the Grave but if the Deceased had in his Life any Cattel and leaves some Relations to whom they might come by Inheritance they must cut off a Joynt from each little Finger before they can take the Cattel for the Sick cannot giveaway the least thing on his Death-bed from those to whom it falls by Inheritance As soon as any one falls sick those about him fetch one skill'd in Herbs who with a sharp two-edged Knife lets them blood on their Back then burns them on their Arms with a red hot Iron and drops thereon some Juyce of Herbs with new boyl'd sweet Milk And if this work not a Cure they give them over for Dead Those which rob in the Day if they be catcht in it are beaten by the King or Choeque himself with a Stick without other punishment but those which Rob in the Night receive upon discovery a more severe punishment in this manner inflicted The Offender is first for a whole day tied Hand and Foot being neither allowed Meat or Drink On the second day some of the Eldest go to the Coehque to ask if they shall proceed in the Execution which is done without any Condemnation or Tryal but not without sufficient Testimony whereupon the King with a great Train of People following him comes to a Tree where he commands the Offender to
be brought before him whom they bind to the Tree and very severely whip all over his Body that the Blood runs down to his Feet After this being turned with his Face towards the King a sort of Gum or Rozin melted in a Pot is poured over his naked Body from his Neck running down upon his Breast so that the Skin immediately peels off then they let him loose and give him some Meat wherewith a little refresh'd they tie him again Neck and Heels and so leave him three days And lastly after the enduring all this pain he is sometimes banish'd and thrust from their Society When any are found in Fornication Incest the Parents force them to Marry immediately if they have a competency of Estate But if that cannot be effected then they wait to know if the Woman be with Child and then they enforce a Conjunction though the Person be so mean that he cannot maintain a Wife When any Person Rich or Poor is discover'd to have committed Incest they believe such People cannot be punished enough because they say it is an unpardonable offence and this from the meer Light of Nature And therefore they punish the Transgressors with death the manner this First of all the Man hath his Hands and his Feet drawn together with a Cord How they are punish'd and so put into a Tub till the next day and the Woman set by it The second day they take him out and so Manacled set him under a Tree fastning his Head to a strong Bough which one pulls and holds down then they cut off one Member after another Afterwards they let the Bough spring up again with the mangled Body upon it for a Spectacle to other Evil-doers The Man thus dead they bring forth the Woman whom bound round about with many dry Shrub-Bavins her Hands and Feet tied fast together they set Fire to the Bushes and so burn her to Ashes A little above five years ago it hapned that a certain Person a great Friend and Acquaintance of the Coehques or King of the Saldanhars committed Incest yet for all that without respect to his Person he did Justice upon him If any Man of Wealth and Quality Punishment for killing and wounding or reputed Wise through fury or rage stab or wound another to death they take him and beat his Brains out against a Tree and put him into the Grave with the murdered Person for they say Such a Person being endued with more Understanding ought to know better and to give a good Example to others Whereas on the other side poor simple People are permitted to ransom their Lives by a Payment of Cattel Some for Offences which deserve Death have their Knees nail'd through and an Iron Pin fast driven into each Shoulder so dying a lingring death They live like the Arabians Their Houses in the Fields in Huts made of slender crooked Poles set round and cover'd with Bulrush-Mats Some of these are so large that conveniently ten or twenty Men with Women and Children may dwell in one of them though others are much less and some so small that they can take them up and run away with them The Fire-place lieth in the midst of the House but they make no Funnels to carry up the Smoke They kindle Fire with an excellent dexterity by rubbing one little hollowed Stick upon another very hard for a great space All these Hottentots speak one and the same Language Language which for the difficulty of the pronunciation cannot be learn'd to the great retarding and hinderance of further Discoveries In all Discourse they cluck like a Broody Hen seeming to cackle at every other Word So that their Mouths are almost like a Rattle or Clapper smacking and making a great noise with their Tongues Some words they know not how to utter but with very much ado and they seem as if they fetch'd it out behind at the bottom of their Throats and as the People in Savoy that live near the Alps who by drinking snow-Snow-water have great Crops or Swellings under their Chins Brokwa in their Language signifies Bread Kahou denotes to sit down Bou is an Ox Ba a Sheep and Kori Iron But now many of them which dwell close to the Fort of Good Hope by daily Converse with the Netherlanders speak Dutch as some who have been with the English in Bantam stammer some broken English They have no inclination to Trading Trade neither hold they any Correspondence with Foreign People iron and Copper were the onely Commodities desired by them the former for Arms the other for Ornament both which they so esteemed that in a Voyage to the Indies in the year Fifteen hundred ninety five the Dutch had in Barter with these People for a Cutting-knife a fair Ox for a Bar of Iron of seventy pounds broken into five pieces two Oxen and three Sheep for one Hook-knife one Bill one Ax one short Iron Bolt and some pieces of Iron three Oxen and five Sheep and for a Knife one Sheep But at this day grown wiser by Converse and the abundance of Commodities carried thither they prize their Cattel at a much higher rate and their former fair dealing is not now found amongst them Tobacco Brandy and Copper they chiefly desire at present but the yellower the better So that for four pieces of Copper as big as the Palm of ones Hand and a piece of Tobacco they usually buy two Cows Some of these People have Elective others Successive Kings or Governors Government but all their Powers not able to make above four or five thousand Men and those living dispersedly in several Plantations far distant from each other Religion is an absolute stranger among all these Salvages Religion insomuch that they never worshipped either God or Devil yet they say and believe there is a Divine Power which they call Humma which causeth Rain Winds Heat and Cold but will not worship him because he sends sometimes too much Heat and Drowth and another time an overflux of Rain contrary to their desires Secondly They imagine that they can stop the Rain and allay the Wind at their pleasure First To cause Rain to cease they lay a small Cole of Fire on a Chip in a little Hole digged in the Ground and upon that Hole they lay a Lock of Hair pull'd from their Heads and cover up the Hole with Sand when the Hair begins to stink then they make Water upon it and so run away shrieking To lay the Winds they hold one of the greasiest Skins upon a long Stick aloft in the Air till the Wind has blown down the Skin and then vainly think the power of the Wind smothered thereby When the New Moon begins first to be discerned they commonly in great Companies turn themselves towards it and spend the whole night in great joy with Dancing Singing and Clapping of Hands They have a Musical Instrument made with a String like a Bowe and a
Island of that name exceeding those her two neighbors of St. James and St. George living all three near at the Mouth of the River Meginkate Over against St. Georges Island but at the distance of an English mile you may see a Point call'd Cabo Ceira being a hanging Islet joyn'd to the Main-Land of Africa by a small Istbmus overflow'd at High-Water but at other times passable on Foot The Countrey of Mozambike is very fertile in producing many sorts of Fruits Plants as Rice Citrons Oranges and Mille which the Blacks are compell'd to guard and defend against Elephants by the kindling of Fires whereof these Beasts are very much afraid There groweth also a certain Plant call'd Pao or Wood of Antak which creeps along the ground and is very like the Herb Aristolachia or Heart-Wort The Fruit is long small with green Seeds or Grains The Roots have a strange vertue in curing a Disease call'd Antak which seizes on the Foreigners by conversing with the Blacks and can be expell'd by no other Medicine The Inhabitants make Wine of Mille which they call Huyembe or Pembe Here is no want either of tame or wild Fowl Animals nor of Stags or Harts wild Hogs Cows Oxen and Elephants which last are so numerous that the Inhabitants dare not travel without fire to defend them from their assaults Wild Hens breed in the Woods being speckled with many small white and gray spots their Heads are much less than our common Hens with a short Comb but thick and of a high colour and not onely the upper part of the Head but also part of the Neck cover'd with a blue Skin like a Turky Many Silver Gold and other Mynes are found in the Countrey The People have short Curl'd Hair The Constitution of the Inhabitants great Lips long Visages and very large Teeth They go stark naked onely a blue little Clout before their Privacies They Paint ther Bodies with divers Colours but account it the greatest Ornament to have streaks of a certain red Earth They make in each Lip three holes in which they hang Bones Jewels and other things But this Fashion and Trimming eminent People onely use They feed in general upon all sorts of Fruit Food and Flesh of Beasts yet they eat also the Flesh of Men taken Prisoners in the Wars but they esteem the Flesh of Elephants as the choycest Dainty They are revengeful and treacherous dull of understanding and inured to labour like Beasts not grutching to be Slaves Every Lordship or Province produces a several Language Language yet it proves no hindrance to their converse one with another Their Riches consist in Gold Riches found in the Rivers Ivory Ebony and Slaves yet are so fearless of any attempts to be made upon them that they debar no Foreigners to come into their Havens the Portuguese onely excepted Their Weapons of War are Arrows Battel-Axes but can neither boast any number of People nor extent of Land The Inhabitants are according to Linschot some Heathens and some Mahumetans but Pyrard averrs they have neither Religion nor Laws but that they are onely Kaffers The Island MOSAMBIKE THe Island Mosambike half a Mile from the Main Land contains about three quarters of a League in length a quarter in breadth the whole compass not exceeding a League and a half with a white Shore It extendeth South and North along the Main Land between which and this Isle and Fort appears the Bay serving for a convenient Haven Land-lockt from all Winds being very large and carrying eight or ten Fathom Water Within a Stones-throw of which the Ships ride at Anchor This Island hath the Main Land on the North and two other uninhabited small Islets on the South the one nam'd St. James or Jago and the other St George but neither affording any conveniency not being inhabited being wholly overgrown with Shrubs and Bushes Some place two Cities upon Mosambike-Isle affirming the one to be plentifully peopled by Portuguese and the other with Blacks but Pyrard makes the whole so fully inhabited that it seems but one Town comprehending within its Circuit a very large and strong Fort together with five or six Churches Chappels and Cloysters From the Description of the Navigation to the East-Indies made by Verhoeven in the Year Sixteen hundred and seven it appears that the City of Mosambike is very large having good Walls fine Houses and some Churches and Cloysters wherewith agrees Paul van Caerden in the Journal of his Voyage to the East-Indies Moquet allots to the City not above two hundred Houses but Linschot leaves all the places open and unwall'd except the Castle where the Portuguese Governor with his Soldiers have their Residence Garias de Silva Figueora in his Persian Embassy comprises in the City an hundred and fifty Houses but most of them built of Wood Straw and Palm-Tree Leaves For the deciding these different Relations we may suppose that the first Writer who placeth two Cities here mistook two Villages for Cities and Linschot himself mentions the Dwellings severally making one part of the old Fort commonly call'd Fortarez a Velha and another of some Houses close by it Others may have taken a great number of Houses standing close together to be a City however it is we may modestly guess that at the time of these Writers things were found thus There is a Cloyster of St. Domingo with a rich Hospital said to have been a Castle in former time built by the Kings of Portugal into which those of that Nation are put coming sick from Sea Besides St. Anthony St. Dominick and St. Gabriel's Church all lying without the Fort they have another Nossa Seniora do Balvarte built close under the Fort. The Air being generally more than warm proves very unwholsom Air. insomuch that few live there any while free from dangerous Distempers which no doubt are much augmented by the want of fresh Water there being onely one small Spring of little consequence in a Thicket of Palm-Trees so that most of them drink salt Water mingled with a little of that fresh This great Drought sufficiently declares that the Land proves barren Unfruitfulness of the Soyl. and unfit to produce any thing Yet provident Nature hath recompenced the want of all other Provision with Coco-Nuts Oranges Citrons Ananassed-Figs and other Indian-Fruits but these onely in manured and well cultivated Gardens They have neither Wheat nor Rice growing but all brought from the Main Land or from Goa and the East-Indies so also Raisins or Grapes and Spanish-Wines with several other Necessaries both for benefit and sustenance so that it is much dearer living here than in any other Place possessed by the Portuguese in this Coast Here breed great Herds of Oxen Cows Sheep Beasts with Tails as big as a fifth part of their Bodies Bucks Goats and Swine whose Flesh hath gain'd such an esteem that the Doctors oftentimes order the Sick to eat it and forbid them
all other sort of Meat it being a delicate Food pleasant and delightful of taste There are also many excellent Birds with black Feathers and black Flesh either boyl'd or raw yet accounted no unwholsom Food The Haven swarms with Fishes which the Inhabitants call Marraxos and the Portuguese Tintoreas they are very ravenous after Man's-flesh for so soon as they see a Man fall into the Water by chance or go to swim they will immediately catch and devour him The Inhabitants are a mixture of Mestiffs Mahumetans and absolute Heathens yet all subject to the Portuguese The Natives of this Island are black of Complexion The Nature of the Inhatants and low of Stature with short Curl'd Hair like Wool they smell very ranck when grown warm they are by nature barbarous cruel and revengeful but withall timorous Both Sexes go naked Apparel onely the Men have a small Clout before their Privacies and the Women cover their Bodies from their Breasts half way to their Knees with course Cotton-Clothes Their Ornaments consist in three or four Strings of white Omaments green blue and red Beads about their Necks and ten or twelve Copper or Tin Armlets about their Arms. They make holes in their Ears wherein in stead of Pendants they hang pieces of Copper or Lattin cutting and carving the rest of their Skin for an Ornament Their common Food is Fish Food and Rice boyl'd in Water with Honey Their Drink is palm-Palm-Wine and Water and a sort of Liquor call'd Arak made of Rice Their Skiffs Boats or Canoos consists all in one Piece as we often mention'd They speak generaly a kind of broken Arabick Language There are a certain sort of handsom Mats Trade made by the Inhabitants which are sent to Goa The Portuguese drive a smart Trade here with Spanish-Wine Oyl Cotton Skiffs red Beads and such like notwithstanding they have a quick Market at Sena Makuno Sofala Quamma and other places Their Arms are Bowes Armâ— Arrows or Lances but of late they have begun to learn the use of Fire-Arms The Portuguese have many years ago built a Fort supposed the strongest they possess in those Parts consisting of four Bulwarks from whence with their mounted Artillery they can defend and make good the Haven against any ordinary attempts It hath strong and well designed Flankers fortifi'd and surrounded with three double Walls and a broad Trench made about it in the Year Sixteen hundred and thirteen Several vain Onsets have the Dutch made upon this Fort but chiefly in the Year Sixteen hundred and six when after a formal Siege of thirty two days they were compell'd to withdraw first as an effect of their malice having burn'd many Ships Canoos Houses and Churches those two especially of St. Gabriel and St. Domingo beforemention'd Some of the Inhabitants by reason of the Converse and Trade of the Arabians on this Coast are drawn to Mahumetanism others are Christians but the most part of them are Idolaters The Kingdom of QUILOA THe Kingdom of Quiloa derives the Name from an Island Situation Plgaf 2. b. 8. H. lying in eight Degrees and fifty Minutes South-Latitude at the Mouth of the River Kuavo said to spring out of the Lake Zambre and according to Peter Alvarez posited so near the Main Land as if joyn'd to it and hath a stately City by some taken for the Rapta of Ptolomy with lofty Houses after the Spanish fashion all adorn'd with stately Halls Chambers and other Apartments furnished with costly Housholdstuff and accommodated both for Pleasure and Profit with sweet and fertile Gardens There lies on the Main Land of Quiloa another City call'd Old Quiloa Sanut lib. 12. built about six hundred years since by one Haly Son of Hacem King of Cyrus in Persia but yields nothing so delightful a Prospect as that mention'd before This Kingdom before the coming of the Portuguese thither spread it self along the Sea-Coast above a hundred and fifty Dutch miles for he Reigned formerly over Sofalo Quamma Angos and Mozambike but when Francois Dulmanda in the Year One thousand five hundred and five put in for this Coast with the Portuguese Fleet the King though invited to Friendship prepared for a Warlike Defence whereupon seven hundred Portuguese went on Shore who quickly took the City and put him to flight Sanutus saith this Countrey hath such an antipathy to the nature of the Europeans that the Portuguese found themselves necessitated to forsake the same notwithstanding they had built a Fort there and made no doubt but to have been the Masters thereof But later Opinions hold the Air since that to have grown more temperate for that some good and wholsom Fruits have been found growing there Osorius praises it as being water'd with many Fountains so enriching the Soyl that it produces all sorts of Grain and Fruits with little labor especially Maiz Rice Oranges Citrons and Lemons They have great store of Oxen and sheep many Hens Pigeons Beasts Turtle-Doves and several other sorts of unknown Birds divers sorts of wild Beasts in the Woods and on the Sea-shore variety of Fish Some of the Inhabitants draw their Original from Arabia such are brown some black others white Pigafet affirms them to be all white whereas on the contrary Pedro Alvarez maintains them all black Their usual Food is Maiz Rice and other Grains Carrots Food and variety of wild Fruits a fit Diet for such poor People The Merchants and better sort of Men go Habited in Cloth of Gold Apparel Silk or Cotton with Turbants on their Heads The Women wear also stately Apparel with Gold and Silver Chains on the Arms and Legs and costly Pendants in their Ears In brief they go Clothed after the Arabian or rather Turkish Mode They commonly speak Arabick but understand other Languages Language by reason of their Trading with Outlandish Merchants The Riches of the Quiloan Merchants consists in Gold and Silver Riches Ambergreece Pearls and Musk. The Inhabitants are under a peculiar King whom Linschot makes a Vassal or Tributary to the King of Mommugi They are partly Mahumetans Religion and the rest Pagans The Kingdom of Mombaza TO the Northward of Quiloa Borders on the Sea-Coast you come to the Kingdom of Mombaza so call'd from an Island in four Degrees and five Minutes South-Latitude which Sanutus makes in its Circumference to be twelve Italian miles but Jarrik onely a League or thereabouts The City being of the same Name The City Membaza built after the Italian manner bears a considerable bulk being situate on a high Rock The extent of the whole Dominion not very big bordering on one side at the City of Orgaba seated on the Banks of the River Onchit which poures her Waters into the Nyle by the Mountain Amara where the Kingdom of Melinde begins The Turks had formerly thrown up a Fortification at the Shore of this River so that none could come into the City
their Ancestors brought with them Madagaxo or Magodoxo AS you Travel more Northerly towards the Red-Sea you come to the Kingdom of Magadaxo which hath been formerly so powerful that all the Mahumetans on this Coast were subject to it The Countrey spreads it self according to Urette betwixt ninety and a hundred Leagues in breadth but he seems to include therein the Kingdom of Adea This Territory produces great abundance of Barley with variety of Fruits and feeds huge Droves of Horses and other Cattel Some of the Inhabitants are brown some black and some white yet notwithstanding this difference of complexion they agree in Language all speaking Arabick The Head City Madagaxo hath gain'd the repute of great Wealth by the Trade of the Kambayan and Aden Merchants bringing thither all sorts of Clothes Drugs and Spices and receiving from thence in Barter Gold Ivory and Wax They use in their Wars no other Arms but poyson'd Arrows The Kingdom of Adea THe Kingdom of Adea begins in the middle of Adel on the Main Land Borders bordering in the South at Madagaxo in the West at Oyja belonging to Abyssinie in the North at Adel and Eastward border'd with the Indian-Sea The most famous Place of this Realm hath the Name Barraboa that is The good Shore though it be somewhat distant from the Sea and in passing to it you go up against the Stream in a Skiff by an Arm of the River Oby or Quilmanzi The Dominion of Granze comes next having for Limits the Kingdom of Oyja Xoa and Gorage then Barra Maa which is Bad Shore because no Ships can come near it At last upon the Skirts of this Realm you find a Place call'd Ogabra Ograbra This Countrey hath many great Woods insomuch that the Inhabitants are forced to cut down the Trees to make the Ways Nature hath served them with a plentiful hand so that they want no Provision having extraordinary Herds of Cattel They have a peculiar Mahumetan Prince Government but dependent upon the Abyssine Emperor to whom he pays Tribute The Inhabitants in general are zealous of Mahomet's Superstition Religion but those of Granze are partly Idolaters and partly Christians Adel or Zeila THe Kingdom of Adel Borders so call'd by the Portuguese but by the Natives Zeila lying at the Sea-shore borders in the North at the Beglierbeyat or Provinces of the Bassa of Suaquen near the Straits of Meche in the South at Adea in the West upon Fatigar in Abyssinie and in the East at the Indian Sea Pigafet makes the Southermost Places of this Kingdom to be Meth and Barbosa together with a part of the Arabian Gulf and the Cape of Guardafu It extends in length from Zeila to the Cape of Guardafu Bigness along the Sea-coast seventy two Miles and from Guardafu along the Eastern Coast about eight and forty but in breadth fifty six The Chief City of this Kingdom is Ara situate in nine Degrees North Latitude by some call'd Arika Gurrele but by Marmol Arat who places the same eighteen Miles from Zeila he settles also here the Royal City Adel and the Towns Orgabra Migiate Sequeta Bali Mautra Doara Komizara Novecara and Soceli On the Sea-coast Pigafet tells of a small Place nam'd Asuin or Affion well stored with Provision but wanting a Haven and so consequently little frequented by Merchants Then follows the Cape of Guardafu or Guardafuy by many taken for the Aromata of Ptolomy lying in twelve Degrees and a half North Latitude and very famous because the Easterly Coast of Africa ends there It lies almost at the entrance of the Arabian Gulf so that the Ships which come out of India and will go to Aden and Ziden or to Zeila and Barbara Sail close by it On the Coast of Adel appears a Place call'd Salie which Sanutus takes for that which Ptolomy denominates Mosilon Next to Salir follows Barbara and Meth the first lieth to the North on the Shore of the Red Sea eleven Miles from the City Zeila the latter according to Sanutus a small City Afterwards cometh Zeila one of the best Places on this Coast being in eleven Degrees and twenty Minutes North Latitude six and twenty Miles saith Marmol from the Straits of Meche This City though built on a low and Sandy Ground boasts not onely a large Extent but a very convenient Haven for Ships It stands within the Kingdom of Adel in the Province Baragian which includes the two other small Jurisdictions of Dalacha and Malacha all under the Obedience of the Turks The Houses in Zeila are built of Stone and the Streets curiously Pav'd and daily frequented with Swarms of People The In-land Countreys of Adel lie even and plain The nature of the Soil onely here and there some easie and pleasant Ascents The Plains yield plentiful Returns to the Labouring and Industrious Husbandman answering his Expectation in the abundant Product both of Plants and Beasts having withal the River Haoax which takes its original out of that vast Range of Mountains on the Borders of Xaoa and Ogge and feeds the lesser Stream of Mach with Water Some have not stuck to aver it to be little inferior to the Nile but nothing near so long because it overflows not above six thousand Paces Neither doth it reach how full of Water so ever it be to the Sea but is quite drank up by the dry and thirsty Earth before it cometh so far The City Zeila hath no fresh Water within two days Journey nor other Ground than Sand but the Fields at further distance afford such Plenty of all things that out of this Haven and that of Barbara on the same Coast Ships Transport Provisions to feed Adom and Ziden especially Corn Beans Barley and Oyl not press'd out of Olives but extracted from the Seed of a Plant call'd Zerzelin or Gerzeluin or Grugioline but indeed no other than Sesamos Beasts breeding here are Sheep of two sorts Beasts one with Tails of twenty five pound weight black Necks and Heads and the remainder of their Bodies white the other quite white with Tails as long as a Mans Arm and crooked as a Vine-Branch Some of their Cows have Horns like a Stag black Hair and wilde others are red but with one Horn on their Foreheads of a Span and a half long but turning backwards The Inhabitants as far as Barbara are Olivaster-colour'd Nature of the Inhabitants but from thence more to the North about Zeila and Barrazan they grow much blacker naturally quarrelsom and apt to make Wars upon any trivial occasion They go cover'd from their Navel to their Knees with Cotton but the upper part of their Bodies remain naked onely Persons of Quality wear Coats which in Arabick they call Bernuz This Dominion possesses much Gold and Ivory besides such a liberal Provision of Victuals that they feed their Neighbors of several other Countreys They vend also Clothes Myrrhe Pepper and Slaves The Merchants of Cambaya and
Colour by adding to which a little Juyce of Lemon it turns into a beautiful Yellow The Plant Anghive is of two sorts a greater and a smaller The small produces a Fruit in bigness like a Goosberry but the biggest grow as large as a Hen-Egg being of a Scarlet colour and a good taste The Scum of the Root is good against the Gravel Andian Bouloha grows along the Sea-side with Leaves like those of Dog-grass Varaukoko a Plant winding it self about great Trees bears a Violet-colour'd Fruit as big as a Peach sweet and good of taste but mealy with four great Kernels within Of the Wood they make Hoops for Pails and Tubs but they rot in a Years time Out of the Bark drops a red Gum like Blood The middlemost Bark being indifferent thick smells if held in the Candle like Gum-Lac and hath almost one and the same smatch Rhaa in this Countrey call'd the Dragon-Tree from the shape of that Creature which the Fruit doth represent under the Shell which Flaccourt doth positively deny having as he saith open'd several grows to the height of a Nut-Tree and yields Blood out of the Bark Boughs and Body when cut from whence this Tree hath gotten its Name for Rhaa signifies Blood and the Blood is as red as that of a Man or Beast being the same which commonly the Apothecaries call Dragons Blood The Wood looks white but subject to decay in a short time The Leaves are like those of the Pear-Tree but a little longer shap'd The Elowers as red as Fire and long The Fruit call'd here Mafoutra or Voafoutra and by Dodoneus and others Dragonall hath the bigness of a small Pear and the same shape onely thicker at the Stalk Within lies a Stone cover'd with a single Skin containing a Kernel of the same colour and almost in smell like a Nutmeg There are three sorts of this Tree each of which produceth a several Fruit. From the Kernel of the Fruit they extract a thick and fat Oyl a powerful Medicine against Burnings Itches and Tetters and effectually operates upon all Pains The Scum of the Bark cures the Bloody-Flux Lalanda is a kind of Jesamin and grows to the height of a small Tree with Leaves like our European Jesamin and a very sweet smelling Flower which the Women lay to steep in the Oyl of Sesamos and Menachil Honnits Ankazon a small Tree bearing a Flower of smell like the Jesamin but much larger and whiter with a white Stalk of above six Inches long Voale a small Plant bearing an ordinary Blossom Langhare grows commonly amongst Thorns with long carv'd Leaves like those of the Chessnut but much harder and somewhat sharper at the ends The Body of it rises very straight The Blossom hath a red colour and grows without a Stalk on the Bark of the Body of the Tree from the top to the bottom and no where else which chew'd in the mouth by its tartness raiseth a little Phlegm or Spittle and moves to Salubility The Wood rubb'd small and drank with Water or hung about the Neck is said to drive away the Hiccup Mimbouhe a pretty Plant yielding well-scented and wholesom Leaves being wonderfully cordial Horame a great Tree distilling a Gum to the Apothecaries known by the American Name of Taccamahacca but it is properly a Rosin The Tree attains the bigness of a Poplar with long and small Leaves whose Fruit is as big as an ordinary Plum or a Walnut thick and hard The Wood hath been prov'd very serviceable to make Planks for great Ships and Barks Here grows also the Indian Fig-tree by the Inhabitants call'd Nounouk and by Linschot in Portuguese Avor de Rais that is The Tree of Roots because of its great increase by rooting with its hanging Boughs in the Ground continually growing into others which likewise send out more pendent Branches to take new root by that means increasing to a little Wood or rather a Collection of shady Bowers as we have already before more fully describ'd Flaccourt reports to have seen several by the Fort of Dauphin which have put forth four thick Bodies every one above two Fathom in compass The Leaves carry the similitude of those of a Pear-Tree and the Fruits call'd Voanounouk that is Fruit of the Nounouk or Indian Fig-tree in taste resemble the Marzilian Figs. The Tree cut through yields Milk and of the Bark they make Ropes Vera a small Tree with Leaves like the Almond-Tree of a dark green colour on the top and underneath white and woolly which apply'd to a Wound draw and cleanse it Himavale a little Plant with six Leaves on each Stalk which Physically used strengthens the Heart as Cordials and are of a good smell Endrachendrach a great Tree with black Wood hard as Iron and durable under Ground as Marble which also agrees with its name Endrachendrach signifying Sempervive Tsimandan hath but few Leaves but they good against the Pain of the Heart Plague and other dangerous Sicknesses Feaokosse a Shrub bearing a round Fruit like a Cabbage and good to eat Manoavavatte a Tree with a hard green thorny Bark and Fruit like a Hasle-Nut of the Wood they make Handles for Lances Sira Manghits signifying A sweet Perfume is a little Plant whose Wood strengthens the Heart The Leaves smell like those of Juniper but the Bark like a Clove and yields a good-scented Rosin Aboulaza brings forth a Cordial Wood. Laherik grows with a straight and hollow Body whereon the Leaves stand circularly like a pair of round Stairs Fooraha yields a green and well-scented Balsom a powerful Medicine for all Stabs Cuts and Bruises The Women mix it amongst their Oyls wherewith they anoint themselves Mihahots whose Wood used Physically proves very corroborative Arindranto good for nothing but to burn nor that till rotten then it sends forth a pleasing scent Ouviwassa a creeping Plant whose Root resembles that of Jalap and yields a Gum like that of Scamoni which eaten causes a violent Loosness and without speedy help the Bloody-Flux Saldits a very curious Plant with red Flowers standing one by another like a Plume of Feathers The Seed makes a strong Vomit but the danger easily abated by taking some of the Root Pendre bears ten or twelve white Flowers so odoriferous that the Women lay them to steep in the Sun in their Menachil or Oyl of Sesamos Apokapouk hath Leaves like Lawrel and such a Blossom with Fruit as big as an Almond but strong Poyson Nevertheless of the Kernel they make an Oyl to anoint Hair with Oniau bears a sort of Almonds from which they extract an excellent Oyl both to anoint Hair and to eat Voulo is an Indian Cane by Linschot and Acosta from the example of the Indians call'd Mambu and Bambu full of a milky moisture which the Arabian Druggists call Tabaxir and the Indians Sacar Mambu or Bambu that is Sugar of Mambu very highly esteem'd by the Arabians Persians Indians and other Eastern People These are the Canes they cut
up and burn to make a Compost of their Ashes to inrich the Grounds intended for Planting of Rice The Fruit which it bears not till the third year is of the thickness of a small Bean whereof perhaps good Meal might be made This Plant yields no less profit to the Islanders then the Coco-Nuts do to the Indians for they make thereof Pots to boyl Rice in Pails or Vessels to fetch Water in Wine and Beer Flasks Knives Violins and Harps Rice-Measures Tobacco-pipes Tinder-boxes small Skiffs for two Men to sit in and row up and down in the Rivers Roofs of Houses Planks and Stairs and likewise Palanquins or Sedans wherein the Grandees of the Countrey are carried for which purpose it is bended in its growth to make these Chairs the easier Ampoufoutchy is a Wood extraordinary light white and easie to be wrought Of the Bark they make Ropes Amaze is a Tree thick in Body but shoots up aloft tapering like a Pyramide The Fruit contains a white Marrow with many hard Kernels within like the Seeds of a Pine-apple Tanevoule is a Tree whose Leaves grow round about the Branches without Stalks very long and narrow as if they were glew'd to them Onuvane a sort of knotty Cane like the Indian The Root they account good Meat and the Wood being Violet-colour Dyes Red. Besides these are many others found which are much like the European and seem to be one and the same The Countrey of Alfissack produces many Wild Grapes but the Inhabitants do not eat them being ignorant of their goodness Good Tobacco grows all over the Countrey and Hemp there call'd Ahetsmanga Ahetsboule which Flaccourt affirms both in Stalk Leaf and Seed not to differ from that of Europe This Hemp saith the same Flaccourt the Inhabitants plant with great diligence and the dry'd Leaf they take in stead of Tobacco which hath a stupifying quality causing Drowsiness Sleep and pleasant Dreams Those that are not us'd to take it like two or three days together as if they were distracted and therefore none but old Women and the Ombiassen that is the Soothsayers or Priests and Learned Men take of it In the East-Indies they have a like sort of Plant call'd Bangue and producing the same Effects but the Stalk is thrown away and useless Lastly There grows also Taikombelahe or Purslain Cabbage Radish Dill Turky-Wheat Toughes or Mustard-seed and Datura or Thorn-apple As this Island boasts so wonderful a fertility of Plants Beasts so it is also stor'd with great numbers of several kinds of Beasts Vermin Fowl and Fishes There are three sorts of Oxen some with Horns others without Horns and round Heads call'd Bouri and the third with hanging or loose Horns only fastned to the Skin All these have great Lumps of Fat behind in their Necks of which the Inhabitants make Suet and use it in stead of Butter In the Territory of Machicore many of those Beasts are found which in former times the Inhabitants say have been tame and indeed they resemble ours in Europe onely longer Legg'd and run through the Woods in great Herds There are many Kabrito's or Rams whose Females have Young commonly three times a year and four at each time Some of the Sheep have great long Tails of five and twenty Pound weight and nothing but clear Fat which they boyl and eat being excellent Food The Woods swarm with wild Hogs which do great hurt to the Rice-Fields The Flesh of these but chiefly of the Sows and young ones is esteemed a choyce Dainty The common Hogs makes very good and wholsom Pork for though one eats never so much of it he will not surfet perhaps by reason of their good feeding which consists most in Land-Turtles and their Eggs. There are another sort call'd Tendrak whose Flesh though not very pleasing to the Pallat yet the Inhabitants hold for a great Dainty They sleep six moneths under ground without eating and in that time shed their Bristles and other new ones appear in their places sharp like those of Hedghogs Fosse is a Creature preying upon Poultry they eat the Flesh thereof as wholsom Diet. Farassa a devouring Beast as big as a Fox with a great long Tail and Hair like a Woolf. The Dogs are very small with a long Snout short Ears like a Fox and such like Hair but of several colours Monkies or Baboons are of several sorts and amongst others great ones being white with Spots on their Ribs and Heads and a long Snout like a Fox fierce of nature like Tygers and make a great noyse in the Woods Another sort have gray Hairs are much smaller with flat Noses and easily made tame A third and the most common call'd Varii are gray and long Nos'd with great shaggy Tails These may be tam'd without difficulty if taken young or else they will starve themselves to death There are white Apes call'd Sifak with yellowish Heads white Tails and two Spots on their Sides are much bigger than the Varii and usually walk on their hindmost Legs and keep in the Woods in great companies There is yet another sort of gray Apes with Eyes shining like Fire and short Hair but not possible to be tam'd Fitsihi or gray Squirrels which commonly keep the Holes of hollow Trees and not easily caught Vondsira a small Vermine like a Weazle of a darkish colour greedily covets Honey and smells like Musk. There are many Civet-Cats which the People of Manahengha and others eat Tre-tre-tre or Tra-tra-tra a Beast as large as a Cow hath a round Head and a Man's Face and Feet like an Ape Flaccourt taketh it for the Tanacht described by Ambrose Paree It keeps for the most part alone by the Pool Lepomami The Inhabitants stand so much in fear of it that they flye the sight of it as that also runs away upon the appearance of a Man Antamba a great Beast with a round Head The Negro's report it as fierce and ravenous as a Leopard and that it devours both Men and Beasts yet seldom appears but keeps in the Mountains Mangerzahok a very great Beast with round Feet like a Horse and very long Ears Brays like an Ass why may we not suppose it to be a wild one Brehis a Beast with one single Horn in the Forehead as big as a Goats is very wild But there are neither Tygers Horses nor Lyons as some have Written Famokantratra Vermin a small Beast having Legs at the Tail above the Neck and on the outmost part of the Chin small Claws with which it hangs fast on the Barks of the Trees It holds the Mouth always open to receive Spiders Muggs and other Vermin whereon it feeds It gain'd the Name Flamokantratra that is Breast-hopper because it leaps upon the Breast of any that approach near the Tree where it sits and sticks so close and fast that the skin must be cut away with a Rasor to remove it for which reason the Inhabitants much fear it Camelions Valaau Rats
are govern'd by an evil Vitang or Planet so that these People account almost half the Year unlucky Nevertheless some among them have a little more pity and compassion towards their Children and after they have so barbarously expos'd them let their Slaves their Maid-Servants go instantly and take it thenceand Suckle it however they account it no more theirs but appropriate to the Person that takes it up or the Nurse Others are satisfi'd by performing Falis for their Children that is they sacrifice Beasts and Hens and shut them half a day as they say to prevent the malign influence of the Constellation that reigns over them for if they should let them live and not perform this Ceremony they would another day be Robbers and Murtherers of their Fathers and adicted to all Mischief If a poor unmarried Woman-Slave have a Child and her Master hath put her away she will not stick to drown the Child in the River or bury it alive in the Ground or otherwise kill it to rid her of the burthen trouble and care of bringing up If a Woman when she is great with Child and is very sick or has hard Labor they impute the fault to the Child and the Woman orders them to kill or to bury it alive If the Daughter of a Rohandrian hath had to do with a Negro before she be Married as they all do none excepted she either causes an Abortion or if she be deliver'd makes away the Child Nevertheless there are some though few that do it not but cause the Child to be carried afar off and nursed by her own Negresses Lastly If a Woman die in Labor they bury the Child alive with the Mother saying That it is better it should die than live having no Mother left to bring it up The Inhabitants both Whites and Blacks Their manner of Eating observe a peculiar and evil Custom in Eating though their Victuals is dress'd very neatly and handsomly The People of the Rohandrians eat with Rohandrians the Lohavohits with Lohavohits the Ontsoa's with their own Tribe and never intermixedly insomuch that no Rohandrian Woman married to an Anakandrian will endure that her Husband should eat with her But in Manghabei the Slaves eat with their Masters They have their Meal-times commonly in the Morning and in the Evening but the Zafferamimi make five or six Meals in a day Their usual Food is Rice Beans Voanzonrouk or little Wheat Food call'd also Voenzou or Mimes and Voamitsa-Ofekque Ignames of several sorts Coleworts which they call Sanzes and Varuattes Oxen Sheep Goats Hens Capons Turkeys by them styl'd Alcanga Ducks Pigs but never any grown Hogs except they Hunt them and then they and their whole Family eat them Many sorts of Sea and River Fish Menachil or Oyl of Sesamos and Oyl of Ovinaa Several Fruits as Vontaka Lamontes Voarats Voanattes Lotfes Sakol the Fruit Sakre Co Sugar-Canes and Bananoes They live also in time of Scarcity or Famine upon certain Roots which grow in the Water and in the Woods as Roots of Ouirandre Oumenpasso and Ouuirouzes For Sauce to their Meat they usually have Ginger Garlick-Leaves and White Pepper though at the beginning they look'd upon it as Poyson Their usual Drink is warm Water or the Broath wherein they boyl their Meat They make Wine of Honey yet they drink it not but in their Missavatsi and chief Solemnities They speak but one Language through the whole Island Language but very different in the Tone and Pronunciation some giving them a short and some a long Accent This Language hath much affinity with the Eastern especially the Arabick and great agreement with the Greek as well in the manner of Expression as in the connexing of Names and Compound-words Every thing is call'd according to the Action or manner of Operation by which it is effected as a broken Tree or Stick they call Hazonfaulac a torn Cloth Sichinrota a broken Pot Vilanghavakqui broken Thred Foulomaitou and so many other things which expresseth the copiousness of the Tongue In the manner of their speaking there happens a change of some Consonant Letters The V is chang'd into a B when the anticedent Word ends in a Consonant as for Exampie Vohits signifies A Mountain but to say Ambohits which signifies In the Mountain the V must be chang'd into B The Letter F they turn into P thus Fasso signifies Sand or the Shore but when the Word An comes before it they must say Anpasso that is In or on the Sand or Shore as also in many others The Lords Prayer is thus Amproy Antsica izau hanoutang andanghitsi angharanau hofissahots Vahouachanau hoavi aminay fiteiannau boefaizangh an tane toua andanghitsi Mahoumehanau anrou aniou abinaihane antsica aman hanau Mangbafaca hanay ota antsica Tona-Zahai Manghafaca hota anreo Mououany amanhanau aca Mahatet Seanay abin fiuet seuetse ratsi fehe hanau Metezaha hanay tabin haratsian abi Amin. The Letters which the Ombiasses or Priests make use of are the same with the Arabick and eight and twenty in number written from the right hand to the left though the Pronunciation of some of them differ from those of the Arabick These Letters about two hundred years ago were brought in among them by certain Arabians who were sent into this Island by the Caliph of Mecha and Landed in Matatane where they Married the Native Women and Instructed every one that would in the Arabick Tongue and Alchoran as they do at this day The Paper they write upon is yellow and made of the middlemost Bark of the Tree Avo almost in the same manner like that of Europe but with trouble and preparation Paper made that is They boyl the Bark two days in a great Kettle with very strong Lye of the Ashes of the Tree afterwards being tender and supple they wash it in clear Water and then in a Wooden Mortar beat it to Pap which they lay together upon a Sieve or Canvas made of small thin Reeds put together to drain and afterwards upon a Leaf of Balisier anointed with Oyl of Menachil and laid to dry in the Sun As soon as it is dry they draw it through a thick Decoction of Rice to prevent sinking of the Ink and then again lay it to dry pressing it flat and even Their Ink is made of the Decoction of the Wood Arandrantes of which the Grandees build their Houses and the Gum Carabe comes from it Ink made which they let stand till the thinner and more subtle parts exhaled it becomes thick again This Ink proves very good and durable though not so black as ours in Europe but the addition of a little Copperas makes it a pure Black It hath no need of Gum the Wood of which being boyl'd hath enough of it self and if it chance to be dry'd they boyl it up with a little Water and it becomes as good as at first Their Writing-Pens are made of Bamboes Reeds Writing-Pens which they
Fruit-Trees together with a handsom Palace having many Rooms of Entertainment besides private Recesses and particular Apartments This in regard of its distance is not so much frequented as that of San Gioseppo being nearer whither the Grand Masters and the whole Court often retire for Recreation On the South-Coast and that side towards Tripolis this Island hath nothing but great Cliffs and Rocks but on the other side several Capes convenient for small Boats First passing to the East you come to the Haven of Marza Scola Marza signifies A Haven and a small Mile from thence to the South-West of Sirok to Marza Sirokko that is The South-West Port being very large and capacious From thence turning to the South you may see Golpho de Pietra Santa or Holy Stone Gulph opposite to the small Island Fursula or Forrola But to the Westward appear two great Roads one call'd Antfega but according to the Maltesian Orthography Hayntoffeka and the other Porto del Mugaro Passing thence Westwards you arrive at Meleca a good Landing-place over against which the Island Goze shews it self sever'd from Malta by a narrow Channel intituled Feo The Eastern Coast brings you to Porto delle Saline Vecchie The Haven of the Old Salt-Pit Right out from thence over against Sicily you come to Cala di Sante Paulo The Cape of St. Paul and by that a Bay so call'd because the Inhabitants believe That the Ship wherein the Apostle Paul was brought over Captive by Storm was cast away and Shipwrack'd against this Place though some with what Reason we will not determine imagine that Shipwrack to have been suffer'd not here but upon the Island Melite by Ragousa This Bay sends an Arm well near two Italian Miles up into the Countrey but neither broad nor deep The adjacent Shore being full of Rocks scarcely appearing above the Surface of the Water confirms the Arguments of St. Paul's Shipwrack here In the place where the Viper leap'd out of the Fire to the hand of the Apostle the first converted Christians erected a small Chappel being since decay'd by Wind and Weather but of late renew'd again So that now there stands a handsom little Church rebuilt in the Year Sixteen hundred and sixteen by the Grand Master Alophi Tignacourt Above the Altar in the Church are to be seen divers Images decyphering the Miracle done by the Apostle in flinging off the Viper from his Hand himself kneeling with many Figures of Men and Women bigger than the Life round about in Old Maltesia Garments cut out with excellent Postures to admiration Above this Altar-piece stands this Inscription in Latin Vipera Ignis acta Calore frustra Pauli manum invadit is Insulae benedicens Anguibus Herbis adimit omne virus M. DC V. That is The Viper constrain'd by the Heat of the Fire leap'd in vain upon the Hand of Paul He blessing the Island took away all Poyson from the Serpents and Plants 1605. Close by the Sea is a Rock with a small Pit out of which very sweet and rellishing Water issues which they say came miraculously by the Apostles striking the Rock for want of Water to quench his thirst A little more Southerly lies a Salt-pit call'd Saline Nova and close by it under the Shore the Island Gallis Towards the South you have Cala di Marco and Cala di St. George And lastly Punta di Dragut over against Valetta and the Castle of St. Elmo There are moreover two Havens one stil'd Marza di Musseto and the other call'd Marza or Il Porto Grande The Great Haven between Valetta and Fort St. Angelo whose Entrance call'd Bocca el Porto is defended on the one side by a Redoubt rais'd upon the Point and on the other side by the Great Guns of the Bulwark of Valetta South-Westwards from Old Malta The Garden Boschetto the Grand Master hath his fairest Garden of Pleasure call'd Boschetto seated on the top of a high Rock not without great Charge all the Earth being carried up to it and planted with Orange Lemon Citron Pomegranate Olive and other Trees together with several rare and unusual Plants Near which he hath a Park of Deer a Warren of Hares Coneys and a Wood of Olive-Trees wherein breed Stags and Hinds besides several excellent natural Springs and rare artificial Water-works and a Palace beautified with spacious Halls and Chambers with a flat Roof upon which some Pieces of Ordnance are planted From this Place you will easily believe the Prospect cannot be unpleasant Between this Court Boschetto and Old Malta lies Gardino del Vescone The Garden of the Bishop Not far from Citta Vecchia may be seen a Grot of white but soft Stone wherein the Apostle Paul after his Shipwrack Preach'd And three Italian Miles further The Court Balda the Court Balda or Vassalo extraordinarily frequented for it hath an Orchard so fruitful that the like is not in the whole Island planted with many sorts of very large Grapes white and brown Figs and delicious Peaches with a most delightful Fountain A Mile without Valette lieth a Cloyster call'd St. Mattheo della Makkluba where upon St. Matthias day a great Fair is holden Fifty or sixty Paces from that Cloyster formerly stood the Town Makkluba but now quite swallow'd up in Earth nothing remaining but a Hole forty or fifty Fathom deep and in the opening at the top five hundred Paces in compass Three Miles from thence right over against the Island Forfala you arrive at Gibel Ciantor containing a Garden and small Church under which is a Cave with a very fair Spring furnish'd with a Stone Table and Seat for those that come thither to recreate and take their pleasure From this place runneth a steep winding Way from below to the top of the Mountain and from thence another as rugged and rocky to Boschetto before-mention'd The Ground The strange power of the Stony Rocks or rather the Rocks which are most of them black yellow and soft and therefore easie to be wrought they say that since the Apostle Saint Paul did that Miracle there have been blessed with producing certain great and small Serpents Tongues of several colours and forms as also of round Orange colour'd and black Serpents eyes and Teeth and certain Scaly Stones in the form of a Serpents Skin besides several other rarities so shap'd that they seem to represent the Life These Eyes and Serpents Tongues they say have a wonderful vertue in them against all sorts of Poyson and Bitings of Venomous Beasts not onely to preserve from the hurt but afford a powerfull Remedy to such as have taken Poyson or been bitten by any Venomous Creature yea some have no less commended them than the Bezoar-Stone in Europe The manner of using these Stones is thus The Eyes are commonly worn upon the Ring-finger as a pretious Stone so that it may touch the bare Skin and the Tongues upon the Neck and Arms Water or Wine or some other moysture mingled
of the Reins and Bladder For it quenches or allays the inordinate heat of the Kidneys and an excellent Vehicle for carrying off the slimy dregs out of those Vessels through the Bladder so that the Egyptians by the frequent use thereof are absolutely freed from the Stone It is also useful against pains in the Limbs arising from heat especially against the Gout applyed by way of Plaister The Blossoms Candied with Sugar are a powerful Remedy against the Heat of the Kidneys and cleanse and free the Uretories from vicious and slimy foulness The green Pipes first decocted in water and then dryed in the shade and lay'd in Sugar or Honey are used commonly by Women and Children against the same Distempers taking the weight of half an Ounce at a time The Plant by the Arabians in Egypt call'd Elhanne Elhanna and by the Physicians Alcanna grows with many Branches like a little Shrub The Leaves resemble those of the Olive being shortish but something broad of a fresh and flourishing green The Blossoms grow as those of the Elder-tree and used by the Women as a comfortable refreshment in their Baths A decoction of the Leaves prevents the falling off of Hair and drives away Vermin the Egyptian Women with the Juyce of the Leaves and Branches paint their Nails in the manner of a Semi-circle which remains long without wearing off Of the stamped powder of the Leaves which they call Archenda mixt with water is made a Gold colour wherewith they stain their Hands and Feet which yellow tincture they hold for a great Beauty Lablab a Tree with many Branches climbing and spreading like a Vine Lablab but in Leaves Blossoms and Form resembling the Roman Bean. Twice a year that is in Lent and Harvest it bears long and broad Cods or Shells which contain in them Black and Brown reddish Beans streaked as the Roman This continues many times without sensible decay a hundred years carrying both Winter and Summer green Leaves The Egyptians use the Beans for food which are no less pleasant than the European The Women drink the Decoction of it for their Moneths and it is good against the stopping of the Urine and the Cough Melochia is an Herb growing a Cubit high with thin and limber Twigs Melochia The Leaves are like those of a Beet but smaller long and sharp-pointed The Blossoms are little and colour'd like Saffron the Seeds little and black in a Husk like a Horn. The Seed is us'd to prevent Swooning-fits and ripens all hard Swellings though this be common yet is nothing more acceptable to the Palate for they boyl it either alone in water or in Pottage as we dress Beets at Feasts they both garnish and season their Dishes with it which is very pleasing yet notwithstanding this repute it agrees not over-well with many for it yields but slender nutriment and a flimy juice breeding in such as eat much of it great stoppings and Costiveness in their Bowels The taste also is something flashy and flat unless quicken'd with Juice of Lemons The Decoction of the Leaves is very good against the Cough and half an ounce of the Seed makes a sufficient Purge Sesban is a Sprout with a prickly Stock Sesban shooting up to the height of a Myrtle Tree the Blossoms are yellow the Husks or Cods long and like those of Fenugreek so also is the Seed and hath an attractive power like the Fenugreek Seed The Egyptians commonly make Hedges or Fences between their Grounds with this Bush Sophera is a Plant two Cubits high and leaved like the Myrtle Sophera it bears scentless yellow Blossoms with few Seeds which are said to be poisonous Absus is an Hearb with Leaves like the common Clover or Three-leav'd Grass Absus the Blossom white or straw-colour'd the Seed black and the Stalk prickly The Plant known to the Egyptians by the Name Sempsen Sempsen but by the Greeks and Latines call'd Sesamus grows upright a foot and half high the lower Leaves are more indented or nicked than the higher and are very like those of Nightshade The Blossoms are small and white followed by small Cods holding a Seed like Line-seed out of which Oyl is pressed which the Arabians call Zeid Taib that is Good Oyl because it is so wholesom a Food that it is sold dearer than the Oyl-Olive The Leaves The use of it Seed and Oyl moderately hot and moist in the second degree of an extenuating quality are by the Egyptians us'd against many Diseases The Countrey people heretofore fed thereon and grew fat with it but now the Oyl is chiefly us'd to take away Freckles and Spots in the Skin and to anoint Sores The Plant Berd or Papyrus Berd or Papyrus groweth upon the Nile having a reedy or stringy Root with many streight Stalks six seven or more Cubits high above water at the end of which is a multitude of long and very small Threeds seeming as a Blossom The Leaves are Triangular soft below at the Stalk broad and at the end sharp in form of a Cross-barr'd Dagger Surgeons there use the Juyce of the Leaves to cleanse and enlarge the Orifices of Sores and with the Ashes of the tops of the Stalks close and heal up the Wounds The Roots in former times serv'd in stead of Writing-Tablets The use of them the Juyce of the Stalks wrought into thin Leaves the Antients wrote upon as we now adayes do upon our Paper made of old Linnen and probably from this Plant took the name Papyrus There is a signature of a Sprig or Stalk of this Plant Carv'd upon several Obelisks whereby they signifyed the great abundance of all things because this Plant served them formerly in stead of all necessary Commodities for before the Planting of Corn was known in Egypt the people lived on this Plant making thereof Cloaths Boats all manner of Houshold-stuffe Garlands for the Gods and Shooes for the Priests But at this day by the carelessness of the Inhabitants and the importing of our European Paper thither it is by them esteemed of no worth at all There grows also a kinde of Cucumers in several places in Egypt Chate nam'd Chate differing onely from ours in Europe in greatness clearness and softness of the Leaves which are smaller whiter softer and rounder they have a very pleasant taste and are light and easie of digestion The Inhabitants account them very wholsom either eaten boyled or raw and Physicians use them against burning Feavers and several other like Distempers There grow also several kinds of Melons Abdellavi one call'd Abdellavi much differing from ours another kinde Chajar of an unpleasant and watery taste but the Seed is held to be more cooling Batechia El Mavi than of the rest A third sort call'd Batechia El Mavi bigger than ours yellow of Skin and hath within nothing but Seeds and sweet water which they drink in great abundance against Thirst and to allay
its equal in the World for heighth because it spires with its top so high into the Clouds that in clear Weather it may be seen sixty Dutch Miles off at Sea nor can it be ascended but in July and August lying in all the other Moneths cover'd with Snow though upon this and the near adjacent Islands none is to be seen To come to the top requires three days Journey from whence may be seen all the Islands lying about thirty Dutch Miles off in the Sea Here they find great quantities of Sulphur with abundance of Fruits Wine and Sugar The Inhabitants are reckon'd to be about the number of five thousand In the History of the Royal Society of London lately set forth by Dr. Thomas Sprat we have a Relation from some considerable Merchants and Persons worthy of Credit who went to the top of this Pico Teneriff set down in these following words The pike Mountaine upon The Island Tenerieto De PIEK-BERGH op het EILANT TENERIETO Of the Island Teneriff it self this account was given by a judicious and ingenious Man who lived twenty years in it as a Physitian and Merchant his opinion is That the whole Island being a Soil mightily impregnated with Brimstone did in former times take Fire and blow up all or near all at the same time and that many Mountains of huge Stones calcin'd and burnt which appears all over this Island especially in the South-west part of it were cast up and raised out of the bowels of the Earth at the time of that general Conflagration and that the greatest quantity of this Sulphur lying about the Center of the Island raised up the Pico to that heighth at which it is now seen And he saith That any one upon the Place that shall carefully note the situation and manner of those calcined Rocks how they lie will easily be of that mind for they lie says he three or four Miles almost round the bottom of the Pico and in such order one above another almost to the Sugar-Loaf as 't is call'd as if the whole Ground swelling and rising up together by the ascension of the Brimstone the Torrents and Rivers of it did with a sudden eruption rowl and rumble them down from the rest of the Rocks especially as is said before to the South-west for on that side from the very top of the Pico almost to the Sea-coast lie huge heaps of these burnt Rocks one under another and there still remain the very tracks of the Brimstone-Rivers as they ran over this quarter of the Island which hath so wasted the Ground beyond recovery that nothing can be made to grow there but Broom But on the North-side of the Pico few or none of these Stones appear and hence he concludes That the Vulcanio discharged it self chiefly on the South-west-side He adds farther That at the same time Mynes of several Metals were blown up some of those calcined Rocks resembling Iron Oar some Silver and others Copper particularly on the South-west part call'd Azuleios being very high Mountains where never any English-man but himself that ever he heard of was There are vast quantities of a loose blewish Earth mixed with blew Stones which have a yellow rust upon them like that of Copper or Vitriol as also many small Springs of Vitriol-water where he supposes a Copper Myne And he was told by a Bell-Founder of Oratava That he got out of two Horse-loads of this Earth as much Gold as made two large Rings And a Portuguese who had been in the West-Indies told him That his opinion was there were as good Mynes of Gold and Silver there as the best in the West-Indies Thereabouts also are Nitrous-waters and Stones cover'd over with a deep Saffron-colour'd rust tasting of Iron And farther he mentions one of his Friends which of two Lumps of Earth or Oar brought from the top of this side of the Mountain made two Silver Spoons All this he confirmed by the last Instance of the Palm-Island eighteen Leagues from Teneriff where about twelve years since so Vulcanio was fixed the violence whereof made an Earthquake in this Island so great that he and others ran out of their Houses fearing they would have fall'n upon their Heads They heard the noise of the Torrent of flaming Brimstone like Thunder and saw the Fire as plain by night for six weeks together as a burning Torch and so much Sand and Ashes brought from thence by the Wind and Clouds fell upon his Hat as would fill the Sand-box of his Inkhorn In some places of this Island groweth a crooked Shrub call'd Legnan which they bring for England as a sweet Wood. There are likewise Apricock Peach-Trees and others which bear twice a year also Pear-Trees as pregnant Almonds with a tender Shell Palms Plantains Oranges and Lemons especially the Paeguada's which have small ones within them from whence they are so denominated Also they have Sugar-Canes and a little Cotton Coloquintida c. The Roses blow at Christmas There are good Carnations and very large but no Tulips will grow or thrive there Samphire clothes the Rocks in abundance and a kind of Clover the Ground Another Grass grows near the Sea which is of a broader Leaf so luscious and rank that it will kill a Horse that eats of it but no other Beast Eighty Ears of Wheat have been found to spring from one Root but grows not very high The Corn of this is transparent like the purest yellow Amber and one Bushel hath brought forth a hundred in a seasonable Year The Canary-Birds which they bring to us in England breed in the Baranco's or Gills which the Water hath fretted away in the Mountains being places very cold There are also Quails Partridges larger than ours and exceeding beautiful great Wood-Pigeons Turtles at Spring Crows and sometimes the Falcons come flying over from the Coast of Barbary Bees are carry'd into the Mountains where they prosper exceedingly And there they have wild Goats which climb to the very top of the Pico sometimes also Hogs and multitudes of Coneys Of Fish they have the Cherna a very large and excellent Fish better tasted than any we have in England the Mero Dolphins Lobsters without great Claws Mussles Periwincles and the Clacas which is absolutely the very best Shell-fish in the world they grow in the Rocks five or six under one great Shell through the top-holes whereof they peep out with their Nebs from whence the Shells being broken open a little more with a Stone they draw them There is also another sort of Fish like an Eel which hath six or seven Tails of a Span long united to one Head and Body which is also as short Besides there they have Turtles and Cabrido's which are better than our Trouts The Island is full of Springs of fresh Water tasting like Milk which in Lalagima where the Water is not so clear and lympid they cleanse by percolating it through a kind of spungy Stone cut in form
of a Bason The Vines which afford those excellent Wines grow all about the Island within a Mile of the Sea such as are planted farther up are not esteem'd nor will they thrive in any of the other Islands Concerning the Guanchio's or antient Inhabitants he gave this full account The third of September about twelve years since he took his Journey from Guimar a Town for the most part inhabited by such as derive themselves from the antient Guanchio's in the Company of some of them to view their Caves and the Corps buried in them a favour they seldom or never permit to any having the Corps of their Ancestors in great veneration and likewise being extremely against any molestation of the Dead but he had done several Eleemosinary Cures among them for they are very poor yet the poorest think themselves too good to Marry with the best Spaniard which endeared him to them exceedingly otherwise it is death for any Stranger to visit these Caves and Bodies The Corps are sew'd up in Goat-skins with Thongs of the same with very great curiosity particularly in the incomparable exactness and evenness of the Seams and the Skins are made very close and fit to the Corps which for the most part are entire the Eyes clos'd Hair on their Heads Ears Nose Teeth Lips and Beard all perfect onely discolour'd and a little shrivell'd likewise the Pudenda of both Sexes He saw about three or four hundred in several Caves some of them standing others lying upon Beds of Wood so hardned by an Art they had which the Spaniards call Curay to cure a piece of Wood that no Iron can pierce or hurt it These Bodies are very light as if made of Straw and in some broken Bodies be observ'd the Nerves and Tendons and also the String of the Veins and Arteries very distinctly By the relation of the most antient of this Island they had a particular Tribe that had this Art onely among themselves and kept it as a thing sacred and not to be communicated to the Vulgar These mixt not themselves with the rest of the Inhabitants nor Marry'd out of their own Tribe and were also their Priests and Ministers of Religion But when the Spaniards conquer'd the Place most of them were destroy'd and the Art perisht with them onely they held some Traditions yet of a few Ingredients that were us'd in this business they took Butter some say they mixed Bears-grease with it which they kept for that purpose in the Skins wherein they boyl'd certain Herbs first a kind of wild Lavender which grows there in great quantities upon the Rocks secondly an Herb call'd Lara of a very gummy and glutinous consistence which now grows there under the tops of the Mountains thirdly a kind of Cyclamen or Sow-bread fourthly wild Sage which grows plentifully upon this Island These with others bruised and boyl'd up with Butter rendred it a perfect Balsom This prepar'd they first unbowel the Corps and in the poorer sort to save Charges took out the Brain behind after the Body was thus order'd they had in readiness a Lixivium made of the Bark of Pine-Trees wherewith they washt the Body drying it in the Sun in Summer and in the Winter in a Stove this repeating very often Afterward they began their Unction both without and within drying it as before this they continu'd till the Balsom had penetrated into the whole Habit and the Muscle in all parts appear'd through the contracted Skin and the Body became exceeding light then they sew'd them up in the Goat-skins as was mention'd before The Antients say that they have above twenty Caves of their Kings and great Personages with their whole Families yet unknown to any but themselves and which they will never discover Lastly he says That Bodies are found in the Caves of the Grand Canaries in Sacks quite consumed and not as these in Teneriff Antiently when they had no knowledge of Iron they made their Lances of Wood hardned as before mention'd They have Earthen Pots so hard that they cannot be broken Of these some are found in the Caves and old Bavances and us'd by the poorer People that find them to boyl Meat in Their Food is Barley Parched and then Ground with little Stone-Mills and mingled with Milk and Honey which they always carry with them in Goat-skins at their Backs To this day they drink no Wine nor care for Flesh they are very ingenious lean tall active and full of courage for they will leap from Rock to Rock from a very prodigious heighth till they come to the bottom sometimes making ten Fathom deep at one Leap in this manner First they Tertiate their Lances which are about the bigness of a Half-Pike and aim with the Point at any piece of a Rock upon which they intend to light sometimes not half a Foot broad in leaping off they clap their Feet close to the Lance and so carry their Bodies in the Air the Point of the Lance comes first to the place which breaks the force of their fall then they slide gently down by the Staff and pitch with their Feet on the very place they first design'd and so from Rock to Rock till they come to the bottom But their Novices sometimes break their Necks in the learning He told also and the same was seriously confirm'd by a Spaniard and another Canary Merchant there in the Company That they Whistle so loud as to be heard five Miles off and that to be in the same Room with them when they Whistle were enough to endanger the breaking of the Tympanum of the Ear and added That he being in Company of one that Whistled his loudest could not hear perfectly in fifteen days after He affirms also that they throw Stones with a force almost as great as that of a Bullet and now use Stones in all their Fights as they did antiently Thus far Mr. Sprat Gomere IN the West of Teneriff lieth Gomere in six and twenty Degrees and a half North-Latitude a barren Island yet producing Wine and Sugar Palma THe Island of Palma the most Westerly of all the Canaries lieth twelve Miles Northward of Ferro and four from Gomere in eight and twenty Degrees North-Latitude It is small but exceeding fruitful hath plenty of Pasture affords many Grapes and Coleworts Sugar and other Fruits and abounds with Cheese and Milk but the chiefest Trade consists in Wine Ferro or Iron-Isle THe Island call'd by the Spaniâ—rds Hierro by the Portuguese Fierro and by the Italians Ferro which all signifie Iron lieth four Miles from Gomere in six and twenty Degrees and forty Minutes North-Latitude and held by some undoubtedly to be the Pluitalia of Ptolomy or Ombron or Pluvialia of Pliny and Solinus It comprehends some Towns of which the chief possesseth a Cloyster and a Church of St. Francis it hath little Water and that which they have is brackish and unsavory but this inconvenience and want receives a strong supply from a