thirtie THVLE Schetland Of these Brittish isles beside the ancient writers Tacitus and Caesar reade Henry Huntington Polydore Virgill Iohn Mayor Paulus Iouius Gregory Cenall in the 2. summa of his 3. booke de re Gallica Antony Sabellicus Enne 10. lib. 5. William Paradine Ieffrey of Monmouth Ponticus Verumius and Beda but especially M. William Camden Clarenceux his Britannia whom when thou hast discreetly read I doubt not but thou wilt thinke thou hadst particularly surueyed the whole ile ANGLIAE SCOTIAE ET HIBERNIAE SIVE BRITANNICAR INSVLARVM DESCRIPTIO Britannia oim insularum Occidentis Septentrionis maxima potentiss est cuius potiorem hodie partem Angliam vocamus ab Anglis videlicet Saxonum gente quae sub Valentiniano eam ingressa tenuit Haec veteribus Albion dicebatur ad differentiam quum reliquae oēs eò tractu Britannicae dicebantur Ab Occasu vicinam habet Hiberniam hodie Irlandiam appellatam regibus Angliae subditam Of SCOTLAND SCOTLAND the North part of Brittaine anciently called Albanie and is of the first inhabitants which they call the wilde Scots and dwell more in within the land retaining yet the old language at this day called Albaine was formerly called of the Romanes Britannia minor and secunda as Lhoyd doth gather out of Sextus Rufus This country is diuided into 2. parts by the rough craggy mount Grampius now Grantzbeen whereof Tacitus maketh mention For it begining at the German ocean neere the mouth of the riuer Dee coasting along by Aberden through the middest of the country toward the Irish-sea staieth at the lake Loumond This Mountaine was sometime the bound of the kingdome of the Pictes and Scottes Scotland is fuller of mountaines and more barren then England Yet euery where it hath many commodious ports and hauens For so is this country embraced of the armes of the sea that there is no house in it as Iohn Maior affirmeth which is aboue twentie leagues distant from the salt water In the vallies are Lakes meeres pooles riuers and fountaines well stored with sundrie sorts of fish In the mountaines are champion plaines yeelding great store of pasture for cattell and woods abounding with plenty of Deere By the meanes of which commodities it hath been so maintained that hitherto it might neuer be wholly conquered For in any eminent danger they presentlie flie to the woods and bogges for succour and refuge where they haue of venison and fish sufficient store for prouision of victuall Scotland hath many wonders whereof some we haue heere set downe out of Hector Boëthus In Galloway saith he is a lake called Myrtoun part of whose water in the winter freezeth as other waters do the other part was neuer knowne to haue beene frozen in the greatest frosts that euer were In the country of Carict there are very great and large Oxen whose flesh is verie tender and of a pleasant and delicat tast Besides that the fatte neuer waxeth hard but is alway thinne in the manner of liquid oile The Sea that washeth the coast of this prouince is very rich of oisters herrings congers cockels and other such like fishes In the prouince of Coyl about ten miles from the towne Aër is a Stone hardly twelue foot high of 33. cubites thicke called of the inhabitants The deafe stone For although you shall make neuer so great a noise nay if one shall shoote off a peece of ordinance on the one side it shall hardly be heard on the other side except one bee a good way off from it for then the sound may easily be perceiued In Lennox which Ptolemey calleth Lelgouia Lelannonia as I conceiue out of Ptolemey but I thinke our authour meant Selgouiae which is farre from this place there is a very great lake which they call Loumond aboue twenty foure miles long and eight miles broad It conteineth thirtie Ilands whereof diuers haue villages well inhabited with Churches and Chappels dedicated to the seruice of Almighty God In this three things are especially worth the obseruation For the fishes there most wholesome and good haue no sinnes The water oft times when the winds are most calme and still is so boisterous and rough that it affraieth the best experienced watermen from putting forth to crosse the same For the wind being alaied the boates are taken in their midde-course and are tossed with such danger that except some commodious hauen shall fortune to be neere hand many times they are ouerturned and cast away Lastly there is an iland in it very good pasture for the feeding of cattell which swimmeth and moueth euery way as the winds driue It is credibly reported that there is a stone which groweth in Argadia Argathelia or Argile which if it be couered but a while with straw or flax it will set it on fire At Slanis a castle in Buquhan there is a caue of a strange nature For the water that droppeth into it in continuance of time is turned into a very white stone and if within a certaine number of yeares they should not be taken out it would haue been long since filled vp with them In this prouince there is no ratte euer seene and if so be that any should be brought in thither it will not by any meanes liue there In the countrie of Fife great store of a kind of blacke stone is digged out of the earth we call it sea-coale a most excellent kind of fuell At the mouth of the riuer Forth in the maine sea there is a very high rocke out of whose toppe a spring of fresh water a great miracle of nature doth runne abundantlie About two miles distant from Edenburgh is a spring vpon the toppe of whose water dropps of oile do continually swimme in such sort that if you take none from off it there will be neuer the more and if you take ought from thence there will be neuer the lesse This oile is good against the roughnesse of the skinne Thus farre of the strange thinges of this Realme Scotland in the countrie of Drisdaile hath a mine of Gold in the which also is found that which they commonly call Lazure It hath also mines both of Iron and Lead The inhabitants which possesse the South part on this side the mount Grampius are more ciuill and humane and do speake the English tongue Those which dwell in the North parts are a rough and more hard kind of people they call them The wild-Scottes and do weare mantles and skirts died with Saffron after the Irish fashion and go barelegged They speake the Irish tongue And as the Language of Scotland is of two sorts so are their maners as diuers These Marianus Scotus calleth High-land-men the other I meane the wild-Scottes they call Low-land-men The chiefe city of Scotland is Edenburgh there is the kings seat and the castle of Maidens often mentioned in histories Saint Andrew and Aberdon are two Vniuersities The city Glasow is the Archbishops sea The towne of Perth commonly
of them called SCOTLAND Syluester Gyraldus Cambrensis about 400. yeares since described this Iland in a seuerall treatise But because that this booke as yet is not set forth and therefore not common and euery where to be gotten we will out of it gather so much as this narrow roome may conteine not doubting but we shall worthily deserue great thankes at the readers hand for the same Listen therefore to his words Ireland next after England the greatest Iland of the knowne world hath the greater Britaine vpon his East side vpon the West only lieth the vast and wide Ocean on the North three daies saile from the coast of Ireland lieth Island of all the Northren iles by far the greatest Britaine is almost twice as great as Ireland for seeing that the length of both runneth the same way from South to North that is about 800. miles long and about 200. miles broad this from Brendam hilles to the iles Columbine otherwise called Thorach is about eight daies iourney that is 400. miles long at the least Ireland conteineth in all 176. Canweds The word Canwed is a compound word vsed aswell of the Welch as Irish and signifieth a circuite of ground conteining within it 100. villages The soile of Ireland is vneuen full of hilles and dales soft and squally full of woods bogges and fennes Vpon the toppes of the highest and steepest hilles you shall oft find great ponds and bogges yet it hath in some places most goodly plaines and champion but in respect of the woods they are very little The ground is very fatte and fertile for Corne. The mountaines abound with sheepe the woods are full of Deere and the whole I le generally is better for pasture then for eareable ground much better I meane for grasse then corne For the kernelles of wheat are heere so dwined and small that they may hardly be dressed with any manner of fanne That which the Spring-time doth bring forth and flourisheth for a while in Summer the dripping and watery Autumne will hardly suffer kindly to ripen or tidily to be inn'd For this Iland is more subiect to blustering winds outragious stormes of raine and floods then any other country vnder the cope of heauen It is very rich of honie and milke Solinus and Isidore affirme that it hath no Bees but by their leaue if they had more diligently examined the matter they might haue on the contrarie written that it wanteth vines but is not altogether void of Bees For this Iland neither now hath nor euer had any vines But of Bees it hath as any other country great plenty which notwithstanding would heere as I thinke swarme in farre greater number if it were not for the venemous and sowre ewgh-trees which in all places of the Iland do grow in great abundance The Iland is euery where crossed and watered with many goodly riuers of which the principall are these Auenliss runneth by Dublin Boand or Boine through Methe Banna through Vlster Linne by Connagh Moad by Kenelcunill Slechey and Samayr Modarn and Furne by Keneleon There are also very many other riuers whereof some issuing forth of the bowels of the earth and from their cleare fountaines other immediatly rushing forth of lakes and fennes wandring heere and there diuide and part the Iland into many goodly prouinces and shires For vnder the foot of Bladina hill now called Bliew Blemy three famous riuers do arise commonly called The three Sisters for they beare the names of three sisters Berne Birgus now Barrow which runneth by Lechlin Eoyr Neorus they call it Nore by Ossire and Swyre by Archfine and Trebagh neere Waterford they kindly salute one another and so falling into one channell they quietlie toward the sea Slane runneth by Wexford Boand by Meath Auenmore by Lismore and Simen by Limiricke And indeed amongst all the riuers of Ireland Sinnen bear'th the bell not only for his goodly greatnesse long and diuers wandrings through the country but also his great plenty of dainty fish For it ariseth out of a very large and goodly lake which diuideth Connagh from Munster and spreadeth it selfe into two branches running two contrary waies one of them tending toward the South passeth by the city Kelleloe and then enclosinge round the citie Limiricke with a direct course and large streame for an hundred miles and vpward running between the two mountaines emptieth it selfe into the Brendan sea The other not much lesse then the former diuiding Meath and the farther parts of Vlster from Connagh running with a crooked course turning this way and that way at last hideth it selfe in the Northren ocean So that this riuer doth separate the fourth and West part of the Iland from the other three like a midland streame running from sea to sea For this Iland in former ages was diuided almost into fiue equall parts namely into North Mounster South Mounster Leinster and Connagh This country hath diuers goodly Lakes The sea coast aboundeth plentifully with all maner of sea-fish on all sides the Riuers and Lakes are stored with great variety of fresh-fresh-fishes especially with these three sorts Salmons Trouts and Eeles The riuer Shynen swarmeth with Lampreyes But there are wanting many other sorts of good fresh-fresh-fish of other countries as Pikes Perches Gogeons and almost such fish as come not from the sea or salt waters On the contrary the Lakes of this Iland haue three kinds of fish which are no where els to be found For they are somewhat longer and rounder then Trouts very white fleshed passing sauery and pleasant very like vnto the Hallibut Vmbra our authour calleth it but that they are much bigger headed There is another kind very like to herrings aswell for proportion and bignesse as also for colour and tast There are a third sort in all points like trouts but that they are not spotted Yet these sorts of fish are only seen in the Summer in the Winter they neuer appeare In Meath neere Foner are three Lakes not farre distant one from another ech of which hath certaine fish proper to it selfe not found in any of the other two neither do they I meane euer come one at another although there be most conuenient passages by reason of the riuer which runneth from one to another nay if it shall chance that the fish of one lake be caried to another either it dieth within a while after or returneth vnto his own lake againe Eryn HIBERNIAE BRITANNICAE INSVLAE NOVA DESCRIPTIO Irlandt Cum Priuilegio From these naturall things let vs passe vnto those strange wonders which nature worketh in these out-countries of the world In North Mounster there is a lake wherein are two Ilands a greater and a lesse the greater hath a Church the lesser a Chappell Into the Greater neuer any woman or liuing creature of the female kind might euer come but it would die by and by This was often proued by bitches cattes and other creatures of that sex In the lesser no man did
the inhabitants The valleies are pleasant and fruitfull The shady groues and woods do affoord many pleasures and delights The goodly meddowes and pastures are richly decked with herbs and sweet-smelling flowres and euer-running streames And amongst other heere is great plenty of Medicke fodder wherewith they feed and fatte their cattell Heere also grow many excellent physicke hearbs of soueraigne vertues against diuers and sundrie diseases It bringeth forth diuers plants as the Plane tree Vitex or Agnus castus the Turpentine tree the Oliue tree Siliqua Siluestris Arbute or Strawberry tree wild Saffron Madder Liquirise Tubera or Sowbread It hath also some hoate baths continually distilling from their fountaines which do cure aches and many other like maladies In diuers places there are springs of salt water whereof they make a kind of brine or pickle It is well watered with many fine riuers and those stored with sundrie sorts of fresh fish The sea also on ech side yeeldeth great plenty of fish both tunies sword-fishes and lampreies There in many places is found the best Corall both white and redde Heere is most pleasant hunting and hawking for in these quarters diuers and sundrie sorts of wild beasts do lodge and as many birds and fowles do breed and build wild boares harts hindes goates hares foxes lynces otters squerrells martens badgers ferrets porkupines tortuses both of the waters and of the mountaines Of fowles phesants partridges quailes wood-cocks ring-doues crowes c. as also of many kinds of hawks it is euery where full It maintaineth some herds of cattell and flocks of sheep and goats It breedeth excellent horses very swift and of great stomacke Mettals heere were found in old time and now also it aboundeth at this day with diuers kinds of mineralls hauing indeed euery where mines of gold siluer iron salt marble alablaster crystall marchasite red-lead or vermillion copperas alume brimstone c. many kinds of corne wheat siligo beerbarly rie trimino we call it I thinke Turky wheat barly rise and of sesamum infinite store It aboundeth also with all kind of pulse legumina the Latines call them oile wine and hony and those in their kinds the best There are heere euery where orchards thicke set with oranges limons and pome cittron trees Heere also is made great plenty of excellent silke farre better then any kind of silke made in other places of Italie The Cotton tree Gossipium groweth heere plentifully But what shall I speake of the kind temperature of the aire For heere the fields both winter and summer are continuallie green But aboue all things there is nothing that doth argue the same more soundly then that airy dew or heauenly hony which they call Manna that euery where distilleth from aboue and is heere gathered in great abundance So that that which the Israelites in the wildernes did admire and hold for a strange wonder heere kind nature doth affoord of her own accord It is adorned also with many goodly market towns where marts and faires are kept at certaine times of the yeare Heere in some places still is obserued the ancient custome of the Romanes vsed at funerals and buriall of the dead where a chiefe mourner Praefica they called her is hired to go before the rest of the mourners and she to guide their mournefull ditties and to keepe time in their howling lamentations The funerall being done and all ceremonies performed the dead mans friends and kindred bringing their meat and iunkets do banquet altogether at the dead mans house The women of this country naturally for modesty and for that the waters of these places are good and wholesome drinke naught but water It is a shame for any women to drinke wine except she be very old or be in child-bed c. See more in the same authour Cassiodore also in his Variar hath in diuers places many things of this country APVLIAE QVAE OLIM LAPYGIA NOVA COROGRAPHIA CALABRIAE DESCRIP Per Prosperum Parisium Consent Cum Priuilegio decennali SICILIA THere is not one either of the ancient Historians or Cosmographers that hath not made mention of this Iland or curiously described the same especially Strabo Plinie Solimus and others Diodorus Siculus calleth it The soueraigne of all other Ilands Solinus in like maner writeth of it That whatsoeuer this country breedeth either of the nature of the soile or inuention of man it is little inferiour to those things which are esteemed of greatest worth Of the later writers Vadianus hath thus set it out in his true colours SICILIA not only for richnesse of the soile for which cause it was of the ancients dedicated to Ceres and Bacchus and was accounted the Garner of Rome but also for the multitude and antiquity of his townes famous actes victories and quarrels betweene the Romans and Carthagians both contending for the mastery is more famous then any other Iland whatsoeuer In Plinies time there were 72. cities at this day they report it to containe twelue Bishopricks of great iurisdiction and large diocesses The Dukes of Swevland possessed it a long time It was assaulted and taken by the English Lorreiners especially at that time when they made their voiage into the Holy land against the impious Saracens Lastly it fell vnto the Kings of Arragon and so at this day it remaineth vnder the obedience of Spaine Neither is there any other Iland that I know in the whole world that both Greeks and Latines haue indifferently partly in respect of the goodnesse of the soile and situation partly for the great accidents that heere haue happened by their writings made more famous He that would be further satisfied of the particulars let him read Benedictus Bordonius who hath in one booke comprised a discourse of all the Ilands of the World Leander Albertus Dominicus Niger Franciscus Maurolycius Marius Aretius all which haue most learnedly described the same Lastly Thomas Fazellus that countrie-man borne who hath most curiously and liuelily described the true countenance of this his natiue soile where you shall find the particular story of the mount Aetna now called by an Arabicke name Monte Gibello of which also Petrus Bembus hath put forth a seuerall Treatise Tully hath written something of this Iland in his orations against Verres Thucydides in his sixth booke hath very well laid downe the history of the originall and first inhabitants of the same as Diodorus Siculus hath done in like maner in his fifth booke Hubertus Goltzius hath out of ancient coines added great light vnto the histories of this country SARDINIA SEbastian Munster in his Cosmography hath an excellent description of this Iland done by Sigismundus Arquerus Calaritanus a Sicilian The same is described by Leander Albertus Benedictus Bordonius Nicolas Leonicus besides that which you may reade of it in old writers amongst whom Pausanias hath written some things that are not common This Iland the state of the Roman Empire decaying came into the hands of the Saracens from whom it was
fifth Section of the third Climate of his Geographicall garden imprinted in the Arabicke language at Rome in the yeare of our Lord 1592. The place saith he where Lot with his family dwelt the stinking sea and Zegor euen vp as high as Basan and Tiberias was called the Vale for that it was a plaine or bottome between two hils so low that all the other waters of this part of Soria do fall into it and are gathered thither And a little beneath in the same place he addeth All the brookes and springs do meet and stay in the lake of Zegor otherwise called the lake of Sodom and Gomorrha two cities where Lot and his family dwelt which God did cause to sinke and conuerted their place into a stinking lake otherwise named The Dead lake for that there is in it nothing that hath breath or life neither fish nor worme or any such thing as vsually is wont to liue or keepe in standing or running waters the water of this lake is hot and of a filthy stinking sauour yet vpon it are little boates in which they passe from place to place in these quarters and carry their prouision The length of this lake is 60. miles the breadth not aboue 12. miles Moreouer Aben Isaac who in like maner wrote in the Arabicke tongue a treatise of Geography certaine fragments of which I haue by me for which I am beholding as also for many other fauours to Master Edward Wright that learned Mathematician and singular louer of all maner literature thus speaketh of this place The sea Alzengie saith he is a very bad and dangerous sea for there is no liuing creature can liue in it by reason of the vnwholesomnesse and thicknesse of his waters which happeneth by reason that the sunne when it commeth ouer this sea draweth vp vnto it by the force of his heat the thinner and more subtill parts of the water which is in it and so doth leaue the thicke and more grosse parts behind which by that meanes also become very hot and salt so that no man may saile vpon this sea nor any beast or liuing creature liue neere it Item the sea Sauk as Aristotle speaketh of it which also is in these parts and doth reach vp as high as India and the parched Zone so I thinke the word Mantakah that is a girdle or belt which heere he vseth doth signifie that there is not in it any liuing creature at all of any sort whatsoeuer and therefore this sea is called The Dead sea because that whensoeuer any worme or such like falleth into it it mooueth no longer but swimmeth vpon the toppe of the water and when it is dead it putrifieth and then sinketh and falleth to the bottome yet when there falleth into it any stinking and corrupt thing it sinketh immediatly and swimmeth not vpon the water at all Thus farre out of Aben Isaac This sea is of Ptolemey called ASPHALTITES the lake Ashaltites of others Asphaltes of the bitumen which it doth yeeld in great plenty of the Iewes MARE PALAESTINORVM ORIENTALE SOLITVDINIS siue DESERTI the Sea of Palaestina the East Sea the Sea of the desert or wildernesse of the situation and position of it vnto the land of Iewry Item MARE SALIS the Salt-sea of the hot and fitish saltnesse of the same aboue other salt-salt-waters which the Arabian iustifieth to be true Pausanias that ancient and famous historian of the Greekes and Iustine the abridger of the large volume of Trogus Pompeius call it MARE MORTVVM the Dead sea of the effect there is saith Iustine a lake in that country which by reason of his greatnesse and vnmoueablenesse of his waters is called the Dead sea for it is neither mooued with the wind the heauy and lumpish bitumen which swimmeth vpon the toppe of the water all the lake ouer resisting the violence of the greatest blasts neither is it saileable for that all things that are void of life do sinke to the bottome neither doth it sustaine any thing that is not besmered with bitumen to these both my Arabians do subscribe of Galen the Prince of Physitions it is called LACVS SODOMAEVS the Lake of Sodome for him Nubiensis doth stand who neuer nameth it Bahri a sea but Bahira a lake or standing poole yet contrariwise Isaac termeth it Bahri not Bahira and by this name it is generally knowen to all the Europeans Solinus calleth it TRISTEM SINVM the Sad-bay like as the gulfe of Milinde is of some named ASPERVM MARE the rough or boisterous sea like as Isaac my authour calleth this same lake Tzahhib the churlish and dangerous sea Iosephus in the tenth chapter of his first booke of the Antiquities of the Iewes saith that this place where now is the Dead-sea was before named the Vale of bitumen pits Strabo otherwise a most excellent Geographer and curious searcher out of the truth in these discourses falsly confoundeth this lake as I touched before with the Sirbon lake Why the Arabian should call it Zengie and Sawke I know not This we haue heere added partly out of the Geographicall treasury of Ortelius for the ease and benefite of the Reader least the diuersity of names might make him mistake the thing Hauing thus finished the Mappes of HOLY write It now remaineth that we do in like maner begin and go on forward with those of PROPHANE histories A draught and shadow of the ancient GEOGRAPHY THou hast gentle and curtuous Reader in this Mappe a draught a plot or patterne I might call it of the whole world but according to the description ruder Geography of the more ancient authours of those of middle age For this our globe of the earth was not then further knowen a wonderfull strange thing vntill in the daies of our fathers in the yeare 1492. Christofer Columbus a Genoway by the commandement of the king of Castile first discouered that part of the West which vnto this day had lien hid vnknowen After that the South part hitherto not heard of togther with the East part of Asia much spoken of but neuer before this time entered was descried by the Portugals That part which lieth toward the North we haue seen in this our age to haue been first found out by the English merchants and nauigatours a particular view and proofe of which thou maist see at large in that worthy worke of the English Nauigations composed with great industrie diligence and charge by my singular good friend Master Richard Hacluyt By him England still shall liue and the name of braue Englishmen shall neuer die The other countries which as yet do lie obscured within the frozen Zones and vnder both the Poles are left for succeding ages to find out Peraduenture ancient writers that liued many hundred yeares since haue named some country or some one place or other out of this our continent but they haue not written ought of the situation of the same as being indeed altogether vnknowen vnto them In
the coast of Norway or borders of Scotland as we shall by and by shew more plainly m So it is written apparently But obserue heere That of the Arabicke letters diuerse in forme and shape of body are the very same and are onely distinguished one from another by pricks or points placed either ouer their heads or vnderneath them Heereupon it is that that Arabicke word which heere I call _____ Zanbaga supposing only one letter to be misplaced which might be the fault of the printer may indifferently be either _____ Norbaga or Norwega as the Danes call it or _____ Neriga or Nerigon whereof Pliny speaketh which is all one in effect For Pomponius Mela saith that Thule Bergarum thus the learned Clarencieux readeth not Belgarum litori apposita est that is Thule is vpon the coast of Norway oueragainst the citie Bergen And it is out of all question saith the same authour that by Nerigon Pliny did vnderstand that same country which at this day we call Norway n That our authour did meane Island if there were no other argument this one were alone sufficient to prooue it For I doe not remember that any one of the ancient writers euer tooke vpon him to define Thule according to his length and breadth only Ptolemey and those other authours haue pointed at it as we haue shewed before and haue told vs whereabout it lieth in the Sea by the longitude and latitude of it as also by the situation of it from Scotland The Orkeney iles and Bergen in Norway Whereas he saith that the length of Rosland is 400 miles it is I say apparant that he meant Island For Ortelius in his Island thus writeth of it Patet haec insula in longitudiue centum milliarium Germanicorum vt vulgus scriptorum habet The length of this Iland as the common sort of writers doe testifie is one hundred Germane miles Now that a common or ordinary Dutch mile doth containe foure English or Italian miles it is a thing so commonly knowen that it needeth no proofe But hauing handled Gentle Reader the particulars for the most part before in their seuerall places least I be too tedious in a thing not greatly needfull I cease to trouble thee any longer GALIZIA a kingdome of Spaine THe kingdome of GALIZIA is bounded vpon the West and North with the Ocean sea vpon the East with the Asturias and the kingdome of Leon vpon the South with the riuer Min̄o and the Kingdome of Portingall It was sometime as Ferdinand Oiea the authour of this Mappe writeth much greater then now it is at this daie and was then held to be one of the largest kingdomes of all Spaine For it extended it selfe Eastward vp as farre as the mountaines of Biscaya and the head of the great riuer Duero Durius Pliny calleth it and so from thence it ranne all along by the banke of this riuer euen till where it falleth into the maine sea as our said authour prooueth by the testimony of Marius Aretius in his description of Spaine of Annius Viterbius and Floriano de Campo in the 40. chapter of his fourth booke and likewise in the third chapter of his fourth booke It is very vneuen and mounteinous or euery where full of dry barrein hils and dales and therfore much of it by reason it wanteth water is waste and not inhabited Their Villages and townes especially the greater and better sort of them are situate vpon the Sea or vpon some great riuer not farre from thence except Santiago Lugo and Mondon̄edo with one or two more Yet which is very strange heere are bred such woonderfull store of horses that that fable which reporteth that hereabouts in Spaine the mares conceiue with foale by vertue of the winde may seeme to be something probable Yea and this our authour Fernandez Oiea saith that it hath great store of cattell and of all manner of Deere aswell for necessary prouision and mainteinance of the house as for game and disporte for the nobility and gentry of the land But of Fish heere taken not only in the Sea but also in the fresh riuers there is such variety and woonderfull store that it is from hence conueighed to most places throughout all Spaine It hath many hot bathes and other springs and waters of rare and soueraigne vertues It yeeldeth great plenty of wine and that so good especially that which is made about Orense and Riuadauia that it is transported from hence farre and neere into all countries Christian It offordeth much good fruite of all sorts but especially of Limons and Orenges Silke and Flax are verie great and gainefull commodities vnto the inhabitants Heere were sometime as Pliny testifieth very rich Mines of gold And Niger writeth that amongst the Artabri who inhabited not farre from Cape finister the riuers and brooks did bring downe after any great store of raine Earth mingled with Siluer Tynne and Gold-ore yea and that the soile heere was so fertile of Gold Copper and Lead that ofttimes the husbandmen with their ploughes did turne vp great cloddes of good gold Yet we know now saith Maginus that the Mines of this country at this day are of no great account It hath also some quarreis of fine marble Pedro de Medina reckoneth vp threescore Cities and townes of note in Galizia of which these following are the most famous and renowmed and therefore the more worthy the speaking of in this place COMPOSTELLA a goodly city situate betweene the two riuers Sar and Sarela is now commonly called and knowen by the name of SANTIAGO Saint Ieameses for that the body of the glorious Apostle Saint Iames elder brother to Iohn the Euangelist who first preached the gospel heere and planted Christianity amongst the Spaniards lieth heere interred and in honour of this blessed Apostle by the consent generally of all Prince Nobles and Prelates it was long since adorned with the title and dignity of Metropolitan This by-word is common amongst the Spaniards That there be three Apostolicall Churches in the world most renowmed and famous Saint Peters in Rome Saint Ieamses in Spaine and Saint Iohns in Ephesus They commonly hold that the first Church that euer was built in Spaine was that of our Lady in Saragosa the second was this of Saint Iames. Heere also is a goodly Vniuersity and schoole of good learning where all the Liberall Sciences are professed and taught and many students are brought vp and maintained vntill they come to be of age and abilitie for publike seruice either in the Church or Commonwealth The GROINE is a very goodly towne situate in an isthmos or demy-ile betweene two baies or creeks of the sea whereof the one is held to be one of the best hauens of the world And therefore heere for the most parte of the Kings ships in time of peace doe lie at anchor LVGO one of the principall cities of all Galizia standeth vpon the Min̄o not farre from Castro de Rey where this riuer ariseth It
euer die or could die of a naturall death In Vlster there is another Lake in which there is an Iland of two diuers qualities one part of it hauing a church consecrated to the seruice of Christianity is very beautifull goodly and pleasant The other very rough ouer growne and vnpleasant is said to be bequeathed to Diuels and euill spirits This part hath in it nine caues or trenches in any of which if a man do chance to sleepe all night he is presently assaulted by the euill spirits and all the night so greeuously tormented and vexed that by the morning hee shall scarce be able to breath and will be almost halfe dead This place is called of the country people The purgatory of S. Patricke There is also a spring or fountaine in Mounster with whose water if any man shall wash himselfe he will presently become hoary or gray-headed I my selfe saw a man who washed the one halfe of his beard with this water and the haire became white the other remaining blacke as it was before On the contrary there is in Vlster a fountaine in which if any man wash his haire he shall neuer be horay or gray-headed In Connagh there is a fountaine of fresh water vpon the toppe of a very high mountaine which ebbeth twise in 24. houres and floweth as oft in this imitating the vnconstant motion of the sea There is a fountaine in the farder and North part of Vlster which by reason of the great coldnesse of it in seuen yeares space turneth sticks and wood cast into it into stone In Connagh there is a fountaine only kind and wholesome for men but for cattell and other such kind of bruite beasts pestilent and dangerous There is a fountaine in Mounster which if any man shall touch by and by the whole country wil be ouerflowed by storms of raine The people of this countrie do weare course blacke mantles or rugges for the sheep of this Iland are blacke and they put them on as rudely and vnhandsomely They vse also little hoods which hang down to their shoulders In riding they vse no saddles boots nor spurres but with a rod sharpe and tapered at one end they pricke forward their horses and make them runne Their bridles are such as do serue both for bitte and reigne so made as their horses only vsed to grasse are neuer hindred from eating They go into the field to warre naked and altogether vnarmed They vse three kind of weapons long speares darts and battell-axes The people is wild and very vnciuill they delight in nothing more then to liue idly and libertie they preferre before great riches I only obserued the people to delight much in musicall instruments and in that to deserue some commendation These briefly we haue gleaned heere and there out of the historie of Gyraldus Cambrensis diligently retaining the tenor of his owne phrase which we haue thought good to translate word for word as they are deliuered by our Authour that succedent ages might see either the credulous simplicity of former times or how time doth alter countries people and maners of men And because we haue spoken before of S. Patricks purgatory it shall not be amisse to adde to those former this discourse of it taken out of the twelfth booke of Caesarius his historie of Things worth the remembring When as S. Patricke saith he conuerted this nation to Christianity and they made a doubt and beleeued not that men should be punished for their sinnes in the world to come hee by earnest praier obtained this place at the hand of God the maner of the place is thus There is a deepe pit or trench enclosed round with a wall there are also certaine Regular Canons No man is so great a sinner to whom they enioine any greater penance then to abide all one whole night in that purgatorie If any man be desirous to enter in first making his confession they administer the sacrament vnto him they anoint him perfume him and instruct him thus Thou shalt see this night say they the assaults of the Deuill and the horrible paines of hell but they shall not hurt thee if thou haue but the name of Iesus alwaies in thy mouth But if thou shalt yeeld to the flattering enticements or terrible threatnings of the Deuill and so shalt cease to call vpon the name of Iesus thou art surely but a dead man Then in the euening putting him into the pit they shut vp the dore and comming againe in the morning if they presentlie find him not they looke no farther for him Many haue died there and many haue gone home againe whose visions haue been written of the foresaied friers and are shewed to such as are desirous to see them IReland saith M. Camden according to maners of the people is diuided into The wild Irish and The English pale but according to the ancient iurisdictions and naturall situation of it it is more fitly diuided into fiue parts and indeed it once conteined fiue kingdomes Mounster in the South Leinster in the East Connagh in the West Vlster in the North and Methe almost in the middest and heart of the land MOVNSTER Memomia the Irish call it Mown sometime diuided into West Mounster which in Ptolemeys time the Gangani Luceni Velabri and Iterni did inhabit and East Mounster possessed then of the Vodiae comprehendeth now these seuen Shires Kerry Limiricke Corke Tiparary Holy crosse Waterford and Desmond Of which Kerry and Tipararie were sometimes county Palatines LEINSTER Lagenia they call it Leighnigls a fertile soile and holesome seat possessed sometime by the Brigantes Coriondi Menapij Cauci and part of the Eblani Now it is diuided into these counties Wexford Caterlogh Kilkenny Dublin Kildare The Kings county The Queenes county Longford Fernes Wicklo METHE Media the Irish call it Mijh in the mid'st almost of the country the other part of the ancient possessions of the Eblani for his great fertility either for corn or grasse fish or flesh pleasant situation healthful aire multitude of people strength of castels and towns commonly called as Bartholomeys English reporteth The chamber of Ireland was lately diuided into East Methe and West Methe CONNAGH Connacia they call it Connaughty where long since were seated the Auteri and Nagnatae now it containeth these shires Clare Letrimme Gallawey Rosecomin Maio Sligo The whole prouince although it be in many places fertile and pleasant yet it is euery where full of dangerous Bogges darke Woods Creeks and Baies conuenient Stations and Harborough for shippes VLSTER Vltonia the Irish call it Cui Gully the Welsh Wltw a large country euery where full of great Lakes thicke and huge woods in some place resonably fruitfull in others leane and hungry but in all places greene and pleasant to the eie and therefore it maintaineth great plenty of cattell Here in Ptolemeys time inhabited the Voluntij Darni Robogdij Vennicny and Erdini at this day it conteineth these shires Louth Down Anwimme Monalion
Tiroen Armagh Colrane Donergall Formanagh and Cauen On all sides round about Ireland in the sea as also in the baies riuers lakes and fresh water are heere and there many small ilands whereof some are fertile others wast and barren of which to speake seuerally would require a larger discourse then heere we are allowed Coelestinus Pope of Rome in the yeare of CHRIST 431. sent into Britaine Paladius a Bishop as Prosper Aquitanus writeth to purge it of the Pelagian he esie wherewith it was but lately distained and by this meanes also at the same time caused Christian religion to be planted in Ireland Palladius died in Britaine before he had brought to passe that which he came for whereupon Patricke a Brittaine and of kinne to Martinus Turonensis was by Celestine put in his place who with such wonderfull successe did preach the Gospell in Ireland that he conuerted the greatest part of that I le vnto Christianity that he well deserued the name of The Irish Apostle From hence after that at sundrie times diuers colonies if I may so vse the word of learned and religious men were sent into sundrie parts of Europe and were not only the great patrons and planters of the Gospell there but founders of Monasteries cities and towns as schooles of that profession In those bloudy warres of the barbarous Saxons all scholes of learning in Brittaine were shut vp and all religion almost wholly banished so that whosoeuer was desirous of instruction that way was constrained to seeke for it in Ireland and after these wars ended those which returned brought with them not only the Irish letters which yet the same charecters common to both nations do plainly shew but also liberall arts and sciences which together with Christianity they taught the Saxons To these the Reader may adioine such things as Henry of Huntington Polydore Virgill William Newbery Iohn Maior and others haue written of this in their seuerall histories Daniel Rogers hath set forth a description of this Iland in verse dedicated to Thomas Phediger And M. William Camden in prose hath most exactly described the same in his Britannia But Richard Stanihurst a worthy gentleman this countrie man borne hath this other day put forth a seueral treatise of the history and state of this iland Baptista Boazio hath described it in a mappe apart by it selfe dedicated to the late Queene Elizabeth and my good friend M. Speed with no lesse care and diligence hath done the same in his Imperium Brittannicum or Empire of Great Brittaine lately set forth and dedicated to his Highnesse The Isles of the AZORES SOme are of opinion that these Isles situate in the Atlantick or West Ocean are so named by the Spaniards from a kinde of Hauks which they call Azor. And in the plurall number Açores One writes but fondlie that they are so called from the French word Essorer which signifieth to drie or wither In Latin a man may call them Accipitrarias or the Isles of Hauks and in Greeke 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Our Netherlanders terme them De vlaemsche eilanden that is The flemish Islands because they are thought first to haue beene discouered by certaine Flemish Marchants of Bruges At that time they said they could find nothing vpon them but trees especiallie great store of Cedars and woods and foules of diuers sorts and thither they sent inhabitants to possesse and manure the said Isles Afterward they submitted themselues to the Portugales vnder whose gouernement they yet remaine Lewes Marmolius fol. 38. reports that they were discouered about the yeare 1455. Vndoubtedly auncient writers knew them not yet might they name them perhaps For whether they specified them vnder the name of Cassiterides I cannot be assured The Spanish fleets laden with Indian commodities doe vsually in their returne touch at these Isles before they ariue at Lisbone or Cales One strange thing haue I heard concerning the soile or the heauenly influence or if I may so say the Genius of these Isles For sailing from these parts of the world towards America so soone as you are past the said Isles you are freed from gnats fleas lice and all kinde of noisome vermin which beyond the Açores doe immediately die and come to nothing They are in number nine and thus called by the Portugales The Isle of S. Michael Terçera S. Georges Isle Pico Fayal Flores Cueruo and the Isle of S. Marie all which we will particularly entreat of TERÇERA THis Isle is called Terçera because it is the third in order as you saile from Spaine And from this one the common mariners confusedly call the whole nine by the name of Terçeras It abounds with corne and fruits neither is it destitute of wine The Inhabitants are greatly inriched by their Madder wherewith clothes are died red In this Isle growes plenty of this commodity especially about the places commonly called Los Altares and Falladores Angra the head city is most strongly fortified with an impregnable rocke or bulwarke called Brazil This Isle also from the name of our blessed Sauiour the Spaniards call Isola del buen Iesu PICO THis Isle was so named from a mountaine therein rising sharpe in forme of a round Pyramis or Sugar-loafe For whatsouer is naturally of that shape is by the Portugals called Pico This hill is three miles high within it is hollow and full of darcke caues At the foote of this mountaine Eastward there is a spring of fresh water which sometimes dischargeth fierie streames and stones burning hoat and that with so great force and violence that it sends them packing as it were with a current by steepe and lower places euen to the sea whereas of the multitude of these stones is made a promontory or headland commonly called Misterij It is distant from the said fountaine 12. miles At this present it stretcheth a mile and halfe further into the sea in regard of the continual increase of this heape of stones They are much deceiued which write that this Isle was so named from the bird called Picus Martius in English the woodpecker FAYAL THis Isle is so named of the Beech-tree For the Portugals call the Beech Faya and a place planted with Beeches Fayal That heere are yet in this Isle certaine families of the Flemish race which first inhabited the same namely such as are called Bruyn Vtrecht c. I haue learned from a Portugale of good creditte Linschott also an eye-witnesse in his Iournall published in Dutch writeth that in this very Isle there is a riuer called by the Portugales Ribera des Fiamengos or the riuer of Flemings and saith further that all the Inhabitants of this Isle came originally out of Flanders and that they doe as yet much fauour the Flemish nation Concerning the residue namely Flores so called of abundance of Flowers Cueruo of Crowes Gracioça of pleasantnesse or the Isles of S. George S. Marie and S. Michael so denominated of those saints for it is vsuall with the Spaniards
CREMA CRema a towne in the confines of Millane is a Castle place of garrison of the Venetians This as Leander affirmeth vnder the gouernment of the same Venetians hath so incresed in multitude of citizens and goodly buildings that it may well be accounted amongst the most famous places of all Italie Wherefore they vse to say in a common prouerb in their vulgar tongue Barleta in Puglia Pratum in Toscana Crema in Lombardia signifying the excellency statelinesse and richesse of these three places The Venetians haue often assaied to adorne the towne with the title of a city but the citizens fearing that whereas now it is accounted amongst the best townes it shall then be reckoned amongst the meanest cities haue hitherto withstood that their purpose It is seated in a pleasāt plaine in compasse large wide fortified with a strong wall famous for wealth very populous and abounding with all things necessary for the soile of the territorie and liberties of this towne is very fertile and yet by the great diligence and industrie of the husbandmen it is dailie bettered and amended Many brookes well stored with diuers sorts of fish do euery where water this prouince Blondus writeth that after that Fredericke Barbarossa had spoiled Cremona hee built Crema in scorne to hinder and disgrace it There are others as Leander witnesseth which do thinke it to haue beene built by the citizens of the city Parasium which was ouerthrowne rased to the ground by the Bishop of Millane for heresie which it maintained and therefore they called it Crema in memoriam Crematae patriae in memoriall of their natiue city burned and spoiled But this I leaue to the iudgement of the discreet Reader AGRI CREMONENSIS TYPVS Antonius Campus pictor Cremonensis descripsit 1579. Cum Priuilegio CREMAE DITIONIS DESCRIPTIO Lectori Ne tabula hoc loco omnino vacua extaret hoc Cremae territorium à quodam patriae studioso descriptum hic studiosis exhibere placuit The liberties of BRESCIA THe liberties of Brescia now possesseth part of that coast where in time passed the Cenomanes dwelt and extendeth it selfe in length 800. furlongs or 100. miles in bredth 400. furlongs or 50. miles as Elias Capriolus affirmeth it is situate betweene the lakes Garda and Iseo the Alpes and the riuer Oglio These fields as Iohn Planer writeth are worthily accounted amongst the most delightsome champions of Lombardie For it hath as Baptist Nazario saith Gold Siluer Brasse Lead Iron Alume Marble both Porphyrie and Serpentine as they call it barly coloured with blacke and greene Plinie calleth it Ophites and other stones of great price as also the Marchasite which aunciently hath beene called Pyrites or The fire stone The citie Brixia whereof this territorie tooke his name as yet reteineth the same his auncient name for the inhabitants do call it Brescia the which for his riches and beautie they terme in that common prouerbe of theirs The Bride of the city of Venice There is not any of the old writers either Historians or Geographers which do not make mention of this city Trogus Pompeius writeth that it was built by the Galli Senones Liuy saith that it is the chiefe city of the Cenomanes Pliny in his Epistles of this writeth thus vnto Iunius Mauricus Brixia is that city which constantly retaineth as yet much of that graue modesty and old frugalitie of our auncient Italians It hath beene graced with the title of a Duchie for so I find written in Diaconus his 5. booke of Lombardie in the 36. Chapter But because that none of the late writers that I may say nought of the more ancient haue described this citie more learnedly and eloquently than Pighius in his Hercules Prodicius thou shalt heare him speake in his owne termes Brescia which is seated at the foot of the mountaines may contend with most of the cities of Italie for antiquitie and statelinesse of buildings Iulius Caesar Scaliger a famous Poet of our age hath thus described it in this Epigramme Thou Brixia great which proudly ouerlook'st the boornes and lowlie plaine by due desert now iustlie mayst the soueraigne Empire claime Thy healthfull seat thy pleasant fertile soile thy people wise and nation stout If ciuill discord had not crosst long since had brought about That where long time thou hast beene thrall and stoop'st to others lore Thou mightest haue lorded ouer those to whom thou serud'st before For this Citie by reason of ciuill discord and dissention being subdued vnder the yoke of the French and their next neighbours the Insubres or the Millaners hath endured much miserie yet now at length vnder the peaceable gouernment of the Venetians it is growen very wealthy a great market well furnished with all things necessary very populous and inhabited of a wise and discreet nation The shire is very fertile of oile wine corne and most excellent fruites of all sorts It hath also some rich veines of Mettalls but especially of Iron and Copper whereof ariseth to this citie great gaine and commodity Liuie and other good authors report That Brescia was built by the Galli Cenomanes about the time of the Romane kings which afterward the Romanes hauing subdued all that part of the countrey of the Gaules which lieth beyond the riuer Po reduced vnder their iurisdiction It is apparant out of Liuie how firme it sometimes stood with the Romans especially in those most dangerous warres between them and Hanniball Some would haue it to haue beene made a Colonie present after the end of the League-warre when as Cneius Pompeius Strabo the father of Pompey the great planted colonies in Verona and other cities beyond the riuer Po. Not long after by the fauour of C. Caesar it together with other cities there about obtained the freedome of the city of Rome and after that it is woonderfull how it flourished vnder the Roman Emperours so long as the greatnesse of that Empire stood vnshaken This diuers monuments of Antiquitie which as yet remaine in this city and in the liberties of the same as namely many goodly inscriptions of marble statues pillars and Epitaphes of famous men do constantly auerre by which the former greatnesse of this city may easily be gathered Thus farre Pighius Baptista Nazario wrote a seuerall Treatise of this city in the which he setteth downe all the inscriptions of the auncient monuments of this country Helias Capriolus hath comprized the whole historie of this citie in 12. bookes Gaudentius Merula in his tract of the originall and antiquitie of the Cisalpines speaketh somewhat of it as also Chrysostomus Zanchus writing of the originall of the Orobij and Cenomanes likewise Leander Albertus and lately Andrete Paccius in his sixth booke of the Wines of Italie There is in this prouince a towne called Quintianum 20. miles south-eastward from Brescia neere to the riuer Ollio of the which Iohn Planer a citizen of the same wrote a small Treatise who in an Epistle of his to Paullus
map hath shewed abundantly who in it doth reckon vp beside the 18. naturall bathes which others haue written of 35. other first discouered by himselfe The same author also beside these baths doth make mention of 19. stoues or hot houses fumarolas they call them and 5. medicinall sands soueraigne in Physick for the drying vp of raw humours Of this fire heere in the bowels of the earth Aristotle in his booke of the Miracles of Nature affirmeth that heere are certaine stoues which do burne with fierie kind of force and exceeding feruent heate and yet neuer do burst out into flames But Elysius Pandulphus and Pontanus do report the contrary There is a place in this Iland Ischia about a mile from the city of the same name which of the raging fire that happened heere in the time of Charles II in the yeare 1301. is at this day called Cremate For heere the bowels of the earth cleauing in sunder by the flashing fire that flamed out a great part of it was so consumed that a small village being first burnt down was at the last vtterly swallowed vp And casting vp into the aire huge stones intermedled with smoke fire and dust which falling againe by their own force and violence scattered heere and there vpon the ground made a most fertile and pleasant iland wast and desolate This fire continued the space of two moneths so that many both men and beasts were by it destroied and many shipping themselues their goods forced to flie either to the ilands neere adioining or to the maine continent Yet this iland for many things is very fruitfull for in it there are excellent good wines and those of diuerse kinds as that which they call Greeks wine Latine Sorbinio and Cauda caballi It beareth good corn about S. Nicolas mount In it the Cedar the pomecitron and the Quince tree do grow euery where most plentifully Alume and Brimstone are found deep within the earth it hath had long since some veines of gold as Strabo and Elysius haue written and now hath as Iasolinus affirmeth About the hill commonly called Monte Ligoro there is great store of phesants hares conies and other wild beasts neere the cape of S. Nicolas they take much fish and withall find much Corall Not farre from thence is the hauen Ficus or Fichera where the water boileth so hot that in it flesh or fish are sodden in a short time and yet notwithstanding it is of a pleasant tast and very sauory There is a fountaine which they call Nitroli in which this is admirable that besides his great vertues for the cure of certaine diseases if you shall lay flax in it within three daies at the most it will make it as white as snow Whereupon the authour of this Table saith that this I le for bignesse good aire fertility of soile mines of mettall strong wines doth far surpasse the other 25. ilands which are in the bay of Naples Betweene the foreland called Acus the needle and that other named Cephalino there is a great caue or safe harborough for ships especially for pinnaces those lesser sorts of ships Heere it is like that Aeneas landed of which Ouid speaketh as also Pompey when as he sailed from Sicilia to Puteoli whereof Appian writeth in his 5. booke of Ciuill wars In this same Iland ouer against Cumae there is a lake in which there is continually great plenty of Sea-mews or Fenducks Larus or Fulica these are very gainfull and profitable to the inhabitants The words of Pliny speaking of this iland are worth the noting In the same saith he a whole town did sinke and at another time by an earthquake the firme land became a standing poole stagnum he calleth it although that the ancient printed copies for stagnum haue statinas in which place the learned Scaliger had rather read statiuas meaning standing waters The same Pliny hath left in record that if one heere shall cut down a Cedar tree yet it will shoot forth and bud againe Liuy saith that the Chalcidenses of Euboea did first inhabit this iland yet Strabo saith they were the Eretrienses But these also came from the I le Euboea I am of opinion that Athenaeus in his 9 booke although he nameth it not yet he meaneth this iland which he affirmeth he saw as he sailed from Dicaearchia vnto Naples inhabited by a few men but full of copies There is also neere vnto this Prochyta an iland so named not of Aeneas his nurse but because it was profusa ab Aenaria seuered from Aenaria or as Strabo in his 5. booke affirmeth from Pithecusae Notwithstanding in his I. booke he writeth that it was sundered from Miseno yet both may be true for aswell this as that by inundations and tempestuous storms were rent off from the maine land The poets same that Minas the giant lieth vnder this Iland as Typhon doth vnder Ischia Of which Horace in his 3. booke of Poems writeth to Calliope Andreas Baccius writeth thus of this ile It is a little ile saith he but very pleasant rich of mettals and hot bathes notwithstanding for the continuall fires which the continuall tides of the sea do kindle in it as Strabo writeth it neuer was much inhabited It retaineth still the ancient name for they now call it Procida Of this iland you may read more in Scipio Mazella in his additions vnto the tract of Elysius of the Bathes of Puteoli ISCHIA quae olim AENARIA Ab Aeneae classe hic appulsa sic nominata Nè mireris lector si Septentrionalem plagam non superiorem ut moris est sed contra inferiorem regionem spectare videas Id namque data opera fecimus Quo utilior magis necessaria atque amoenior Insulae pars verusque eius Situs in conspectu Caietae Cumarum Prochytae Baiarum Puteolorum et Neapolis obviam iret Omnia autem haec constant ratione Circini semper indubitata exceptis Mediterraneis locis circumvicinis Insulis Montium aliquot atque crematorum lapidum quantitatibus Quae tum situs tum ornatus perspectivae gratia ponuntur IVLIVS IASOLINVS DESCRIB CANDIA sometime called CRETA CReta which now they call Candia is bigger then Cyprus but lesser then Sicilia or Sardinia vnto which ilands only in the Mediterran sea it is inferiour Yet for worth and fertility it is equall to the best Ancient Historiographers do affirme that once it was famous for one hundred cities and therefore was called Hecatompolis In the time of Pliny it had not aboue forty At this day as P. Bellonius testifieth it hath not aboue three of any account that is Candy a colonie of the Venetians whereof the whole iland is now named Canea and Rhetimo The compasse of the iland is about 520. miles It is euery where full of mountaines and hils and therefore the inhabitants are much giuen to hunting There is in it neuer a riuer that is nauigable nor any venemous or hurtfull beast The excellent
little beneath Memphis in the South is of all ancient Geographers Historians and Poets in respect of the forme and proportion of it called DELTA for it is as you see of forme triangular like vnto Δ the fourth capitall letter of the Greeke alphabet And this also of Ptolemey who was borne here and therefore knew the state of it best diuided into Great Delta Little Delta and Middle Delta or the Third Delta This Delta as Pliny testifieth of all the chiefe parts of the world was somtime accounted the Fourth and reckened vp amongst the ilands and was not esteemed as any portion of the continent Vnder Egypt also the three OSITAE beyond the Libyan mountaines are vulgarly comprehended yea and LIBYA it selfe to if a man may giue credit to Ammianus This countrey is watered with no other riuer than NILVS of all the riuers in the world the most famous and renowmed and therefore called knowen by the greatest variety of names for the ancients haue giuen this riuer many titles Some haue called it AEGYPTVS from whence the whole country tooke the name others OCEANVS the sea in respect of the greatnesse of it AETOS an eagle for the swiftnesse of the streame NIGIR MELAS or Melo SIRIS TRITON CHRYSORRHOAS Gilden-flood of the goodnesse and beauty of his waters and others DYRIS Orus Apollo writeth that the Egyptians in their language called it NOYVM that is as I thinke _____ sweet pleasant delightfull for so the impostor Mahomet vseth this word in the xxxij Azoara of his wicked Alcoran as also the Arabian paraphrast 2. Pet. 2.13 And R. Saadias Hagaon Gen 2.15 calleth Paradise Phardusi'nnaym which the forenamed beast at the 66. Azoara nameth Ginnati'nnaym The pleasant garden Iosephus calleth it GEON or Ginon for that as R. Salomon Yarhi the great Rabbine thinketh it runneth from his fountaine or rather rusheth on with great violence and hideous noise Arias Montanus affirmeth that in the Holy Scripture it is named PHISON because as the forenamed Iew sayth his waters do spread themselues swell and wax so high that they flow ouer the banks and water the whole land And SIHOR that is blacke or troubled for that the waters of the same issuing from a durty fenne with great violence oft breaking ouer into the medowes and marsh grounds by which it coasteth along for many hundred miles together are thicke and muddy The Georgians call it MAHARA that is swift or violent item BAHARI'NNIL the sea of Nilus The Africanes as Marmolius writeth commonly call it NIL that is in my iudgement _____ Nehil or Neil of the theame Nahal which in the Arabian dialect signifieth to be liquid thinne dissolued and apt to runne from whence in the Hebrew tongue is deriued Náhal a streame or swift water course And this opinion of mine Pomponius Mela the worthy Geographer doth seeme to patronage where he writeth that In horum finibus fons est quem Nili esse aliquibus credibile est Nuchul ab incolis dicitur videri potest non alio nomine appellari sed à barbaro ore corruptius c. In the confines of Ethiopia there is a spring which some do verily thinke to be the head of Nilus Nuchyl the inhabitants and countrey people do call it and it may seeme probable that they name it by no other name only the barbarous word is corrupted and otherwise pronounced of forreners c. The Abassines Ethiopians and other nations inhabiting neere vnto it do call it by diuers and sundry other names as thou mayest see more at large in our Geographicall treasury It vnladeth it selfe as most men thinke and all antiquity hath constantly affirmed into the Midland sea by seuen mouthes or very great floudgates Ptolemey in his time made mention of nine but of them two were false gates pseudostomata he termeth them then almost quite stopped vp Pliny speaketh of eleuen of which foure were false gates the other seuen were great and more renowmed Herodotus also mentioneth two false gates but in all he speaketh not of more than seuen with him Eustathius word for word agreeth And that which of these mouthes or falles are of this man held for a trueth in others are held for false and contrariwise The like difference there is about the names and proper appellations of these mouthes euen in the best approoued authours Pliny maketh Heracleoticum to be a diuers and distinct mouth from Canopicum in which notwithstanding it seemeth he is much deceiued yea and Diodorus Siculus doth flatly deny it affirming that Canopicum is otherwise named Herculeum or Heracleoticum All this difference about the names number and nature of these mouthes if I mistake not the matter arose in continuance of time from the change and alteration of places For euery man describeth them according to the situation of the sea coast as it then was in that time wherein he liued which by violence of tide and inundatious drifts of sand and shifting of the same backe againe in processe of time haue sometime one forme somtime another as is very likely and they do very well know which dwell neere to the sea who do neuer wonder to see riuers change their channels and leaue their ancient course to see their mouthes sometime to be quite dette vp with sand and to seeke new issues and channels where neuer none were before or to see them which in former times were not nauigable but full of flats and shelfs afterward to become deepe and able to entertaine ships of good burden Galen sayth that this riuer for goodnesse of water hath but few peeres Arethaeus the Cappadotian sayth that the water is thicke Plutarch in the eighth booke of his Conuiual calleth it turbidam troubled and muddy Statius in his fourth booke Amor. sayth that it is sweet and coole without any vnpleasantnesse in taste and therefore he addeth in the same place that the Egyptians do neuer feare any want or dearth of wine Diodorus Siculus sayth that for sweetnesse it doth surpasse all other riuers in the whole world beside which opinion of his Pescennius Niger an Emperor did long since auouch to be true when he thus answered his garrison souldiers demanding wine of him Haue ye Nilus and yet do ye demand wine A description of this riuer thou maist see in Claudian Of his inundation and ouerflowing euery yere beside others reade Strabo and the Panegyricke oration pronounced before Traian Emperour of Rome Item Achilles Statius and Heliodorus He that listeth and hath more vacant time to these may adde Plutarch in his treatise of mountaines Mountaines of Egypt beside those which Ptolemey mentioneth namely Montes Libyci Troicus Alabastrinus Porphyritis Smaragdus Aiaces Acabes Niger Basanites and Pentadactylus are diuers as Nitria Pherme Sinopius Climax Eos Lacmon Crophi and Mophi They haue many Fennes yet these two only Moeris and Maria are of name AEGYPTVS ANTIQVA Terra suis contenta bonis non indiga mercis Aut Iouis in solo tanta est fiducia Nilo
thee to M. Camdens Britannia where this argument is handled at large and most learnedly Only in defence of Gaulfridus lest any man should thinke that I haue all this while spoken against his person I conclude with this sayng of a learned man of our time Cardanus ait sayth he illius aetatis scriptores tantopere mendacio fabulis fuisse delectatos vt in contentionem venerint quis plura confingeret Cardane sayth That the Historians and Writers of those times betweene foure hundred and fiue hundred yeeres since were so much delighted with fables and lies that they stroue who should lie fastest and win the whetstone It was you see the fault of the time and age wherein he liued not of the man The learned Oratour Tully in the second booke of his Offices as I remember thus describeth the vertues of a true Historiographer Ne quid falsi scribere audeat Ne quid veri non audeat Ne quam in scribendo suspitionem gratiae Ne quam simultatis ostendat A good Historian may not dare to write any thing that is false He may not be afrayd to write any thing that is true He must not shew any partiality or fauour in writing He ought to be void of all affection and malice Learned Antiquaries follow this good counsell of the graue Philosopher Sell vs no more drosse for pure mettall Refine what you reade and write Euery tale is not true that is tolde Some authours want iudgement others honesty Let no man be beleeued for his antiquity For you know what Menander sayd 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Grayhaires are not alwayes a signe of wisdome and deepe vnderstanding olde men do sometime dote and will lie as well as others One sayth Nesc to quo casu illud euenit vt falsa potius quà m vera animum nostrum captant I cannot tell sayth he how it commeth to passe but surely true it is that we are more easily caried away with lies and fables than with truth And how hard a matter it is to remoue one from a setled opinion though neuer so false and absurd any man meanly experienced doth very well know f Yet Caesar saith that Britanniae Loca sunt temperatiora qùam in Gallia remissioribus frigoribus The temperature of the aire in England is better then in France the cold is nothing so bitter That is as the authour of the Panegyricke oration made to Constantius the Emperour doth interpret it In ea nec rigor est nimius hyemis nec ardor aestatis In it neither the cold of winter nor the heat of summer is very excessiue And Minutius Felix hee writeth that Britannia sole deficitur sed circumfluentis maris tepore recreatur In England the Sunne shineth not very hotte but that defect is repaied by a certaine steame or hot vapour which ascendeth vp out of the sea that inuironeth this iland on all sides round g What place this should be I dare not for truth constantly affirme Perhaps he meaneth Vitsam or as we call it Whitsan a little towne in the country of Bolloine some fiue or six miles from Calais situate vpon the sea coast built at the mouth of a small riuer which peraduenture he calleth Shant For in the Arabicke tongue Wadi-shant importeth so much h This is false and by himselfe contradicted for in another place if I be not deceiued he maketh it twenty fiue miles ouer wherefore I doubt not but for a mile the authour did put a parasange which conteineth three English miles And this is somewhat neere the mark i I take it that he meaneth Cercester in Glocestershire which vulgarly they now call Ciceter It is an ancient city called of Ptolemey Corinium of Antonine Durocornouium of the Saxons Cyrenceaster taking the denomination from the riuer Corinus or Churne vpon which it is situate The tract of the decaied wals of it which are two miles about doe testifie that it was sometime a very great citie Many antiquities and auncient monuments doe plainly shew that in the time of the Romans it was a place of good rekoning Now it is nothing so populous and well inhabited k From the Seuerne I vnderstand it which at euery floude enterteineth the salt water a great way vp into the countrey l Warham is a sea towne in Dorsetshire strongly fortified by nature vpon the South and North with two riuers Ware and Trent this now they call Piddle and with the maine sea vpon the East only vpon the Wew it lieth open to the assailaunt Yet it was in times past defended with a faire wall and a strong Castle It was very populous well inhabited and graced with the Kings mint for the refining and coining of his mony vntill the time of Henry the Second since whose daies by reason of ciuill warres casualty by fire and stopping of the hauen it is much decaied and hath lost much of that former beauty m This distance is much too great whether he meaneth the lands end in Cornwall or the farther part of Wales Westward which I rather incline to But obserue this once for all that there is no great heed to be taken to those his accounts of miles and distances n Dartmouth an hauen towne in Deuonshire situate vpon a little hill running out into the sea at the mouth of the riuer Dart or Dert as some write it The hauen is defended with two strong Castels or Block-houses It is very populous well frequented with Merchants and hath many goodly tall shippes belonging to it King Iohn granted them certaine priuiledges and euery yeere to chuse a Maior for their supreme magistrrate and gouernour in ciuill causes vnder the King o Thus our seamen cal it at this day The Arabian termeth it _____ Tarfi'lgarbi mina'lgiezira The Westerne bound of the iland Master Camden in his Scotland that I may note this by the way affirmeth that Taurus in Welch doth signifie the end or limbe of any thing Heere in Arabicke thou seest it signifieth the same And in English wee call if I be not deceiued the brimmes of an hatte The tarfe p SALISBVRY or rather SARISBVRY a sweet and pleasant city within the County of Wilt situate in a plaine at the meeting of the riuers Auone and Nadder It is not that ancient city Sorbiodunum mentioned by Antoninus in his Iournall but built of the ruines of it as seemeth very probable For this old towne being often distressed for want of water and at length spoiled and rased to the ground by Swein the Dane in the yeare of our Lord 1003. although it reuiued againe a little after about the time of William the First was forsaken and abandoned by the citizens who laid the foundation of this new citie about 400. yeares since at what time Richard the First was King of England That most stately Cathedrall Church which they report hath as many doores as there be months in the yeare as many windowes as the yeare hath daies and as many pillars as there are
as appeares out of the Map by an Ocean so huge and to the Indians so vnnauigable Also what else may we coniecture to be signified by this word Norumbega the name of a North region of America but that from Norway signifying a North land some Colonie in times past hath hither beene transplanted But why in mine opinion the maine Ocean was neuer sailed by ancient Nauigatours I haue declared in my Thesaurus Geographicus speaking of OPHIR All this part of the World except the North tract thereof whose Coasts are not yet discouered hath in these last times beene sailed round about From North to South it stretcheth in forme of two Peninsulae or Demi-isles which are seuered by a very narrow Isthmos or neck-land The Northermost of the two conteineth New Spaine the prouince of Mexico the countrey of Florida and New-found-land But the Southermost which the Spaniards call Terra firma containes Perú and Brasil A description of all which regions the studious in Geography may reade in Leuinus Apolonius in the Decads of Peter Martyr and in Maximilianus Transsiluanus who writ all in Latine Also to this purpose you haue many things worthy the obseruation in the Iesuites Epistles and in Maffeius his story of the Indies Postellus also promiseth Discourses of West-Indie-matters and so doth Fredericus Furius Caeriolanus These that follow haue purposely written of America but all in their mother-languages and for the most part in Spanish but the better halfe of them are translated into Italian PEDRO CIEçA DE LEON GONSALVO FERNANDO DE OVIEDO FERNANDO CORTEZ PETER ALVARADO DIEGO GODOYA ALVAREZ NVNNEZ NVNNEZ DE GVSMAN FRANCIS VLLOA FRANCIS VASQVEZ DE CORONADO ANTONIE MENDOçA FRIER MARCO DE NIZZA FERNANDO ALARCHON FRANCIS XERES IOHN VERARZANO AMERICO VESPVTIO FRANCIS LOPEZ DE GOMARA IEROME BENZO in Italian IAQVES CARTHIER and ANDREVV THEVET wrote in French IOHN STADEN in Dutch Diuerse of which Authours and many that haue written since are translated into English in the third volume of M. Hakluyts English Voyages AMERICAE SIVE NOVI ORBIS NOVA DESCRIPTIO Vlterius Septentrionem versus hae regiones incognitae adhuc sunt The peaceable or the south sea called by the Spaniards MAR DEL SVR. THis sea albeit vnknowen yet was it not vnnamed by ancient writers for Plinie calles it Ecum and Orosius Orientale that is The East sea Ptolemey falsly termes it SINVM MAGNVM A great bay whereas he should haue nam'd it MARE MAGNVM A great sea For of all the seas in the world it is the greatest and the widest In Paulus Venetus it is described vnder the name of Mare Cin that is as I interpret it out of Nubiensis Arabs Bahci'ltzni vel alkini Mare Sinarum The sea of China and in Haithon Armenus whom elswhere we more truly call Antonie Curchino by the name of Mare Cathay Well therefore might it be named by the ancient and middle-age writers but neuer was it fully knowen and discouered till Fernando Magellan a Portugale sailed thereupon Seene it was indeed and as it were saluted in the yeere 1513 by Vasco Nunnez from the coast of Perú But Magellan in the yeere of our saluation 1520. hauing passed the streight by him found and called after his owne name which it hitherto retaineth for euery common Mariner calles it The Streight of Magellan with an heroick and Herculean courage entred this sea which vncertaine it is whether any shippe before his had euer stemmed For meditating a voyage to the isles of the Moluccos whereunto the Portugals vsually sailed from West to East and intending to make thither a shorter cut from East to West he came at length vnto them by this sea in one of which isles called Machian he was slaine in a skirmish The course of his voyage was this Departing from Siuil with fiue ships whereof one being his owne was called by a name of good presage Victoria he came to the fortunate or Canary-isles then to the Gorgones or Hesperides now termed The isles of Cape verde and thence to the Streight abouenamed which when he had found and past thorow he enters into this sea where with a fresh and prosperous gale hauing sailed vpon the maine 40. dayes together and beholding nothing but sea on all sides and still the sea when he had crossed the South tropick he descried two small barren and vnhabited isles where notwithstanding because they found good fishing they staied two dayes then departed calling them the Vnfortunate isles Now they are knowen by the name of Tuberones and the isles of S. Peter Then he proceeds on his nauigation in the space of 3. moneths and 20. dayes hauing sailed ouer this vast Ocean 2400. leagues he attained at length to the Aequinoctiall and thence to the desired Molucces And because as we haue said he had for the most part a prosperous no tempestuous wind he named this Pacificum or The peaceable sea now called by the common Mariner The South sea or Mar del Sur. Those that haue written of the New world say that this sea about those vnfortunate isles is most exceeding deepe and that neere vnto the coast of Perú it yeeldeth pearles and that there are in it 7449. isles so that some in our times not vnfitly haue called the Western part thereof Archipelagus or A sea thicke set with isles seeing this like the Aegean sea which is planted all ouer with the Cyclades the Sporades and many other islands and is called in the Italian tongue Archipelago is also with isles most notably replenished In the bottome of this sea Francis Vlloa and Antonie Digafetta do report that there growes a weed of 14. or 15. fathoms high within the water and that it riseth out of the water to the height of some 4. or 5. fathom so that sometimes you shall seeme not to saile thorow a sea but rather thorow a greene medow The place of Aristotle in his booke De Admirandis c. doth not much disagree from this where he writes of the Phoenicians which inhabited Gadyra that when they had sailed a while without the pillars of Hercules they arriued at certeine regions abounding with weeds and slime which were ouerflowed with the tides of the sea The very same affirmeth Iornandes in the beginning of his Getish history where he writes that none could saile thorow the Ocean being impassable in regard of weeds or turfs and for that cause vnknowen Yea Plinie and Antigonus out of Megasthenes haue left recorded that all the East Ocean growes full of woods And that the sea neere Portugale should beare Okes laden with mast Polybius reporteth in Athenaeus Also that the Bay-tree growes in the Red sea the same authour affirmes vpon the credit of Pythagoras Hereunto you may adde that of Theophrastus in his 4. booke of the history of Plants cap. 7.8.9 and the testimony of Aelianus lib 13. de Animal cap. 3. and Strabo lib. 16. and Plinie lib. 2. cap. 103. lib. 6. cap. 22. and lib. 13. cap.
therefore they are of the English Nobility for seruice preferred before the English Yet of late heere they haue vsed themselues to dwell in cities to learn occupations to trade as merchants to go to plough and to do any maner of businesse good for the common-wealth as well as the English nay in this thing they excell them that there is no man so poore amongst them but for a while will set his sonnes to schole to learne to write and read and those whom they find to be apt they send to the Vniuersities cause them for the most part to giue their minds to the study of the ciuill law Heere hence it is that the greater part of those which in this kingdome doe professe the Ciuill or Canon law are Welshmen borne You shall find also very few of the common and meaner sort of people but can read and write his owne language and after their fashion play vpon the Welsh harpe Now also they haue the Bible and common praier booke printed in their owne tongue a language as we said vsed of their ancestors and wholly different from the English And as in old time long since being a people as Tacitus reporteth impatient of the least wrongs that might be offered they were alwaies together by the eares and cutting one anothers throates so now for feare of law to which they are more obedient then any other nation they will wrangle and contend one with another as long as they are worth a groate These few obseruations we haue gleaned out of Lhoyd to whom we send the Reader that desireth more of the particulars of this country Syluester Gerrard a Welshman hath described VVales in a seuerall treatise Read also the Iournall of VVales Moreouer VVilliam of Newbery in the 5. chap. of his 2. booke hath many things of the nature of this country maners of the people To these you may adioine Polyd. Virg. those things which Robert Caenalis hath written in the summe of his 2. booke de re Gallica This Cymri or as the English call it VVales belongeth that we may heere by the way say something of this by an ancient decree to the King of Englands eldest sonne or daughter if he faile to the Kings heire I meane who is to succeed next after him and he is called assoone as he is born The Prince of VVales and that in the same sense as in Spaine and Portugall they call the Kings heire The Prince and in France The Dolphin Ieffrey of Monmouth writeth that in these parts of VVales neere the riuer of Seuern there is a poole which the country people call Linligune This saith he when the sea floweth into it enterteineth the waters like a bottomlesse gulfe and so drinketh vp the waues that it is neuer full nor euer runneth ouer But when the sea ebbeth the waters which before it had swallowed do swell like a mountaine which then do dash and run ouer the banks At which time if all the people of that shire should stand any thing neere the poole with their faces toward it so that the water shall but dash into their clothes and apparell they shall hard be able to auoid the danger but that they shal be drawne into the poole But if ones backe shal be toward it there is no danger at all although he should stand vpon the very edge of the same This is the story I haue nam'd the authour let him approue the truth of the same Of Mona the iland vpon the shore of this country thou hast the opinion of Humfrey Lhoyd in his epistle which we haue adioined to the end of this booke Of this also Iohn Leland in his Genethliacon of Edward Prince of VVales thus writeth This Iland saith hee being conquered by the English changed the name and was called Anglesey that is the iland of Englishmen Polydore Virgill a man of great reading and good iudgement in many matters is of another opinion Hee laboureth with all his forces to proue Menauia to be Mona If the name which yet it retaineth If the citie Caernaruon which is ouer against it vpon the maine do take his denomination from hence and is called Aruon for Ar-mon If that same very short cut ouer of which the Roman writers do speake If the nesse or promontorie Pen-mon that is as the word signifieth The head of Mon If the huge bodies of trees and rootes couered ouer with sand which daily are digged out of the shore of Tir-mon If the firre-trees of maruailous length which in squally grounds are heere and there found within the earth in this Iland do not sufficiently proue that that was anciently called Mona which now we call Anglesey I know not what to say more then that I haue read this in the 14. booke of Cornelius Tacitus his Annales Excisique luci saeuis superstitionibus sacri c. Felling the woods consecrated to superstitious seruices c. The same Leland in another place hath these verses of this Iland Insula Romanis Mona non incognita bellis Quondam terra ferax nemorum nunc indiga siluae Sed Venetis tantum cereali munere praestans Mater vt à vulgo Cambrorum iure vocetur c. Tyr-môn in former times thus witnesse writers old was full of stately woods but now li'th bleake and cold The soile is passing good of corne it yeeld'th such store That Welsh-mens nurse it 's call'd as we haue shew'd before c. CAMBRIAE TYPVS Auctore HVMFRE DO LHVYDO Denbigiense Cambrobritano Aliquod Regionum huius tractus synonyma prout Latinè Britannicè Anglicè etiemnum appellanture Cambria L. Cambrÿ B. Wales A. Venedotia L. Gwÿnedhia B. Northwales A. Demetia L. Dÿfet B. Westwales A. Ceretica L. Ceredigion B. Cardigan A. Pouisia L. Powijs B. Dehenbart B. Sutwales A. IRELAND IRELAND which the Greekes and Latines call HIBERNIA others IVERMA and IERNA the Irish themselues call Eryn From hence strangers taking it from the mouth of the English which pronounce e the second vowell with the same sound that other nations do sound i the third vowell haue made as it seemeth Irynlandt compounded as is apparent of the Irish Erin and the Saxon or Dutch Landt which afterward was contracted for more commodity of speach and roundnesse of pronunciation into Irland from whence the Latines framed IRLANDIA The first inhabitants which seated themselues in this Iland came hither as may be easily demonstrated from Brittaine or England not from Spaine as some most absurdly haue written For the abridgement of Strabo doth flatly call these ilanders Britaine 's and Diodorus Siculus saith that Irin is a part of Britaine wherefore it was iustly of all old writers called INSVLA BRITANNIA One of the Brittish iles About the yeare of CHRIST 400. in the daies of Honorius and Arcadius the Emperours at what time the Roman Empire began to decline the Scottes a second nation entered Ireland and planted themselues as Orosius writeth in the North parts whereupon it was
rich and a place of great trafficke Also toward the North you haue Semur a faire towne built vpon an high ground As like Castillon Flauigni Soloigne Noiers with others the description whereof because this page cannot well containe I referre the Reader to Belleforest a diligent Surueyer of these parts Only one thing I will adde out of the foresaid Sanjulian He against the opinion of all other Writers deriueth this word Burgundie not à burgis that is from the boroughs or incorporate townes built in this region but from one particular place called Burg Ogne In the territorie of Langren about the riuer Tille betweene Luz and Tille-castle he saith there is a plaine which the inhabitants call by no other name but Val d'Ogne where in times past stood a famous borough or city Hence without all question he affirmes that the Burgundians or as they are commonly called Burgognons do borow their name and holds those Writers much deceiued that report them as vagabond people to haue come out of Sarmatia Scandia or the fennes of Maeotis to inhabit this region indeuouring to persuade all men that they were the first and most ancient inhabiters of this countrey The limits of Burgundie were larger in times past as appeareth out of sundrie authours For some there are that bound it South by the Mediterran sea East by the Alpes and the riuer Rhene North by mount Vogesus and West by the riuer of Loire and Seine Then classicke Writers record that it was gouerned by Kings whose royall seat was Arles It was diuided into the Duchie and Countie of Burgundie about the yeere 1034. as the Chronicle of Aemilius testifieth Of the Burgundians Paradine and Nicolas Vignier haue professedly written in Latine and Peter Sanjulian in French Of the ancient Aedui reade Nazarius his Panegyricke pronounced before Constantine the Emperour BVRGVNDIAE INFERIORIS QVAE DVCATVS NOMINE CENSETVR DES 1584. CVM PRIVILEGIO IMPERIALI ET BELGICO AD DECENNIVM GERMANIE GERMANIE the greatest and largest countrey of Europe is distinguished by many names the limits whereof by authours according to euery ones seuerall time are so diuersly described as they seeme applying themselues to the peculiar ages wherein they liued to giue notice of a threefold Germanie namely the ancient that of middle ages and Germanie as it is now taken The ancient is that of Berosus which he circumscribeth by the Rhene the Ocean the riuer Tanais the Euxine sea and the riuer Danubius That of middle ages is the same which Tacitus Ptolemey and Plinie all of one time acknowledged whereof because it is sufficiently knowen out of the authours themselues I hold it needlesse in this place to make any description But Germanie as it is now taken we do confine by the German or Dutch tongue which learned Goropius Becanus in his volume of the antiquities of nations most wittily and learnedly sheweth to be the ancientest language in the world Wherfore all those countries which at this day vse the same language we comprehend vnder the name of Germany And so the greatest length thereof stretcheth from Calais on the West to the riuer Vistula or VVixel Eastward and the largest bredth from the German and Baltick seas to the Alpes The names of the seuerall regions are these Flanders the most Westerly Brabant Zeland Holland Frisland Denmarke Meckleburgh Pomerland Prussia which extendeth beyond the riuer Vistula towards the Baltick sea as likewise the ancient and new Marquesates Saxonie VVestphalia Gelders Cleueland Iuliers the Bishopricke of Colen Hessen Turingen Misnia Lusatia Silesia Morauia Bohemia Franconia the Bishopricke of Mentz Lutzenburg the Bishopricke of Triers the Countie Palatine Elsas VVertenberg Sueuia Bauaria Austria Stiria Carinthia Tirolis and Switzerland next vnto France There be also more names of pettie regions but such as are either of no great moment or comprehended vnder the former And albeit Bohemia speaketh not the German but the Sclauonian tongue yet because it is situate in the midst of Germanie and the King thereof is one of the Prince-electours it is also numbred amongst the German prouinces This countrey of Germanie which for the present is adorned with the title of the Roman Empire is so replenished with beautifull and strong cities castles villages and inhabitants as it is no whit inferiour to Italie France or Spaine for corne wine and riuers abounding with fish it may compare with the most fruitfull regions Here are fountaines of water hot bathes and salt-mines in abundance and for plentie of mettals namely gold siluer lead tinne brasse and iron no countrey shall euer go beyond it Moreouer you shall no where finde more courteous and ciuill behauiour more honest and comly attire more skill and furniture for the warres nor greater store of nobilitie This is the place that whilome as Cornelius Tacitus affirmeth was either darkened with woods or drowned with fennes Such changes can succeeding times affourd as saith the Poet. Of late Writers it hath beene diligently described by Beatus Rhenanus Munster in his Cosmography Franciscus Irenicus Iohannes Auentinus in his Chronicle of Lyonnois Briefly by Bilibaldus Pirkeimerus Iohannes Bohemus Aubames Gerardus Nouiomagus Conradus Peutingerus Conradus Celtes a Poet Iacobus VVimfelingius of Sletstade Aimon in the beginning of his French storie and Henry Pantalion at the entrance of his first booke of Prosopographia Sebastian Brand hath set downe many iourneys distances of places and courses of riuers in this countrey The riuer Rhene is described by Bernard Mollerus in verse and by Magnus Gruberus in prose Iohn Herold hath written two short Treatises of this region one of the Romans most ancient stations in olde Germanie and another of certeine colonies of theirs on the shore of Rhaetia Gaspar Bruschius published a volume of the monasteries of Germanie Of ancient writers Cornelius Tacitus most exactly described it in a peculiar Treatise whereon Andraeas Althamerus Iodocus VVillichius and lately Iustus Lipsius haue written most learned Commentaries Diuers other Writers of Germanie which we haue not as yet seene are reckened vp by Francis Irenicus in the first booke and second chapter of his Exposition of Germanie But here I thinke it not amisse to alledge the testimonie of Laonicus Chalcocondylas a stranger namely of Athens concerning this countrey and the inhabitants Thus therefore he writeth in his second booke This nation is gouerned with better lawes than any other of those regions or peoples that inhabit towards the North or West It hath many noble and flourishing cities which vse their owne lawes most agreeable to equitie It is diuided into sundry principalities and is subiect to Priests and Bishops adhering to the Bishop of Rome The most famous and wel-gouerned cities in the vpper and lower Germanie are Norinberg a rich city Strasburg Hamburg c. The nation is very populous and mighty ruleth farre and wide all the world ouer and in greatnesse is second to the Scythians or Tartars Wherefore if they were at concord and vnder one Prince then might they
The greater part of Flanders was from the beginning vnder protection of the French Kings but now it is at libertie and absolute of it selfe being released by Emperour Charles the fift Earle of Flanders who in the treatie of Madrid quite shooke off the French yoke This region Guicciardine hath most diligently described and Iacobus Marchantius most learnedly You may reade also Iacobus Meierus his ten tomes of Flanders affaires Ad autographum Gerardi Mercatoris in hanc formulam contrahebat parergaque addebat Ab Ortelius ZELAND LEuinus Lemnius of Zirichzee in his booke De occultis naturae miraculis Of the bidden secrets of Nature amongst other things writeth thus of Zeland his natiue country That this Marine tract saith he was notvnknowne vnto the ancients it may out of Cornelius Tacitus easily be gathered although not by the same name that at this day it is knowne by but of a custome and common kind of salutation and speaking one to another which acquaintance and friends of this prouince do vse at their meetings therefore he calleth them by the name of MATTIACI when he thus writeth In the same iurisdiction are the Mattiaci a nation very like the Bataui but that those in regard of the situation of their countrie are more desperate and couragious Whereby he giueth to vnderstand that although they are next neighbours and do border vpon the Bataui or Hollanders so called of the hollownesse and lownesse of the ground so that they might iustly be accounted one and the same people yet are only distinguished by the name of their customary saluation and being neerer the Sea are more hardie and audacious as indeed they are and for manhood witte policy craft deceits cunning in buying and selling and diligence in getting and waies to enrich themselues they do farre excell them And in that hee calleth them Mattiaci I conceiue it that they were not so named either of any place or captaine but of that fellowlike salutation as I said and vsuall maner of speaking one to another vsuall amongst them to witte of Maet which in common speach and friendly meetings signifieth a fellow and companion in all our actions bargaines contracts and dangers of all our purposes counsailes labours and trauailles a copartner and consort in any thing whatsoeuer we take in hand or go about c. For the name of Zeland is not ancient but is lately inuented and made of Sea and Land as who would say Sea-land a country or land bordering vpon the sea for it is enclosed round with the ocean consisting of fifteene Ilands although it be not long since the raging Sea did great hurt in this country by whose violence and ouerflowing a good part of Zeland his dammes walles and banks being rent and broken downe was ouercome of the salt-salt-water and laid leuell with the sea notwithstanding certaine of them do remaine of which especially three do continually wrestle with the boisterous billowes of the sea and do very hardly defend themselues with infinite costs and charges against this rude and vnruly element Of these first Walcheren Walachria doth offer it selfe to the eie of such as do saile to these coasts so named either of him that first entered and inhabited in it or as I gesse of the Gaulls Galli which much frequented this country who of the Low-countrie-men are yet called Walen or of that part of Brittaine which lieth vpon the West side of it and is called Wales the most gentleman-like and brauest nation you may beleeue him amongst the English and descended also from the Gaulles which their language as yet doth manifest c. From hence Northward or somewhat declining toward the East is Scouwen Scaldia the Latines call it of the riuer Sceldt which runneth by it and heere falleth into the sea c. Suytheuelandt so named of the situation of it toward the South to distinguish it from another distant from it Northward and therefore called Noortheuelandt a large and most goodly tract of ground coasting along the shore of Flanders and Brabant although of late yeares hauing suffered great dammage and losse it is now much lesse and narrower Thus farre Lemnius Tritthemius in the Annalles of the Franks nameth Middleborough the chiefe city of these Ilands Mesoburgus Meyer calleth it Mattiacum more like a Latinist then a true Geographer More of these thou maist read in the forenamed Lemnius who hath most excellently well described all the Ilands of Zeland and the cities of the same To these if thou wilt thou maist adioine Lewis Guicciardine and I know not what els thou canst seeke for further satisfaction There are also certaine Annalles of these Ilands written in the mother tongue by Iohn Reygersberg But for an incomme thou maist also to these former adde the descriptions of the cities of the Low-countries done by Adrian Barland Of the people of this prouince these verses are commonly spoken Crescit nequitia simul crescente senectâ In Zelandinis non fallit regula talis The worse they wax as they grow old In Zelanders this rule doth hold These Ilands are situate between the mouthes of the riuers Maese and Sceldt bordering on the North vpon Holland on the East vpon Brabant on the South vpon Flanders on the West vpon the Germane sea Iames Meyer thinketh that Procopius calleth these Arboricas Yet Petrus Diuaeus is of opinion that this place of Procopius is corrupt and for Arborichas it ought to be read and written Abroditos That these are those Ilands I do verily beleeue vnto which Caesar in his sixth booke De bello Gallico affirmeth that he forced a part of the army of Ambiorix Prince of the Eburones which as his owne words do giue to vnderstand did hide themselues in Ilands which the continuall motion or ebbing and flowing of the sea had made It is also very probable that Lucane in his first booke aimed at these Isles in these his verses Quaque iacet littus dubium quod terra fretumque Vendicat alternis vicibus cùm funditus ingens Oceanus vel cùm refugis se fluctibus aufert Ventus ab extremo pelagus sic axe volutat c. They come in troopes amaine From where th' vncertaine shore doth lie that is nor sea nor land But both by course as raging Tethys flow'th and ebb'th againe Or as the wind with rowling waues all calm'd doth stand From North to South thus carrying to and fro c. And that which the same Authour in his ninth booke sometime did speake of the Syrtes or Quicksands one may now not altogether vnfitly applie to these Ilands where he thus speaketh Primam mundo Natura figuram Cum daret in dubio terrae pelagique reliquit Nam neque subsedit penitus quo stagna profundi Acciperet necse defendit ab aequore tellus Ambigua sed lege loci iacet inuia sedes When as this massie world by Nature first was fram'd A doubtfull case it seem'd how God would haue it nam'd For neither could
two hundred or three hundred faile of Merchants shippes hulks they call them to ride heereat anchor Therefore this city for traffique is commonly held to yeeld to none but Antwerp ENCKHVISEN vpon that sea which they vulgarly call in their language Suyderzee Famous euen in forren countries for the building of great shippes HOORN situate also vpon the same bay Heere in May is kept a faire where there is sold such infinite store of butter and cheese as is wonderfull ALKMAER this place for plenty of butter and cheese doth excell all other cities of this prouince PVRMERENDE famous for the castle or palace of the Count Egmond EDAM for building of shippes and good cheese deserueth also to be remembred amongst the rest Moreouer MVNNEKENDAM WEESP NAERDEN and WEERT may not be forgotten OVDEVVATER heere groweth great store of hemp so that heere they make almost all the nets ropes and cables which the Hollanders and Zelanders do vse in fishing SCOONHOVEN as who would say At the faire Orchards Here is continuall fishing for Salmons where also is held a Staple of this commodity as we said there was of wine at Dordrecht Next after these do follow ISELSTEIN VIANEN Item LEERDAM ASPEREN and HVEKELEN three little cities round in a circle vpon the riuer Lingen not about 500. pases one from another GORICVM and WORICHVM situate vpon the banke of the riuer Wael one ouer against another Gorichum hath a very goodly and beautifull castle A man may iustly call this town a city of store of all maner prouision such a market is heere daily kept of such things as are necessary for the sustenance of mans life which are from thence transported by shippe vnto other countries but especially to Antwerp Lastly there are HVESDEN ROTERODAM SCHIEDAM and both the MOVNTS the one known by the name of S. Gertrude the other of the number of Seuen Seuenbergen I meane and Geertruydenberge for so they call them Other towns there are which sometime were walled which although at this day we do now see them to want either by the rage of violent warre or by reason of other misfortunes yet they still enioy their old liberties and fredoms Of this sort Medenblick Beuerwijck Muiden Neuport Vlaerdingen and Grauesande Moreouer in this prouince there are aboue foure hundred villages amongst the which the Haghe which they call Earls Haghe doth farre excell the rest This town Guicciardine thinketh for bignesse wealth beauty and pleasant situation to surpasse all other in Europe whatsoeuer for it conteineth two thowsand houses of which the Princes pallace built like a castell fortified with a wall and dich where the Priuy courts of Iustice are held is one Neere vnto is a darke or thicke grone which by reason of the singing of birds and sight of Deere is both to the eares and eies most pleasant and delightfull I might more iustly call it Comopolis a citie like town and may boldly compare it with Ctesiphon a borough in Assyria situate vpon the riuer Tigris much magnified of all ancient writers of which Strabo writeth that that town is equall to a city for command and bignesse and was the place where the Parthian kings did vse to winter when they were desirous to spare the city of Seleucia Vnder the Iurisdiction also of Holland are certaine Ilands as Voorn with the towns Geervliet and Briele Goereden or Goere with a town of the same name Somersdijcke Tenel diuers others The diocesse of Vtrecht gouerned not long since by a Bishop in which were 5. cities yeelded it selfe to be subiect to the iurisdiction of Holland in the time of Charles the fifth Emperour of Rome This country is so enclosed with the sea seuered by riuers lakes creeks and ditches whereby it is diuided as it were into certaine plots and quarters that there is no city nor village heere to which one may not go aswell by water as by waggon Neither is there any place in the whole prouince from whence one may not easily in three houres space go to the sea Chrysostomus Neapolitanus hath described this Olland for so he writeth it in an eloquent letter of his directed to Counte Nugarolo Of this read the history of Holland compiled by Gerardus Geldenhaurius and Cornelius Aurelius as also Peter Diuey but especially Hadrianus Iunius his Batauia Of the wonderfull store and abundance of this country read Lud. Guicciardine Of the ruines of the Roman armory or storehouse of munition which the country people call The Brittish castle which is vpon the shore of the Germane ocean at a village called Catwijcke opzee not far from the city Leijden and of the inscriptions in marble there found we haue not long since set forth a peculiar treatise dedicated only to that argument Of the prouince of Vtrecht which now is vnder the command of Holland and is likewise described in this Mappe see the history of Lambertus Hortensius Monfortius HOLLANDIAE ANTIQVORVM CATTHORVM SEDIS NOVA DESCRIPTIO AVCTORE IACOBO A DAVENTRIA FRIESLAND THat the Frisij a most ancient nation did long since inhabit along the sea coast neere the mouth of the riuer of Rhein where also at this day they dwell it is very apparant out of the records of ancient writers For Ptolemey placeth them aboue the Busactores or Busacteri the people of that prouince which now is called Westfalia as some thinke between the riuers Vidrus they call it Regge and Amasius now called Eems Tacitus who reporteth that they were of good account amongst the Germanes and along by the sea coast to dwell on ech side the Rhein diuideth them according to their power and greatnes of command into Maiores and Minores the Greater and the Lesser hee moreouer affirmeth that they dwell round about certaine huge Lakes such as were capable of the Roman fleet The same authour nameth certaine Frisios Transrhenanos Frieslandmen dwelling beyond the Rhein which he saith did rather mislike the auarice of the Romanes then their command Iulius Capitolinus in the life of Clodius Albinus the Emperour saith that these Transrhenane Frieslanders were by the same Clodius Albinus discomfited and ouerthrowne Pliny mentioneth certaine Ilands of the Frieslanders insulas Frisiorum in the riuer of Rhein and the Erisciabones a kind of people between Helium and Fleuum two mouthes of the Rhein where it emptieth it selfe into the maine sea It is manifest therefore that the Frisij anciently did not passe the riuer Eems but at this day they are further spred Eastward almost as farre as the riuer Weser the old Geographers called it Visurgis Who also otherwise of them sometime were designed by the name of the Chauci or Cauchi for diuers authours write it diuersly it is out of all doubt And beside these vp higher euen in Denmarke in the confines of the little prouince Dietmarsh there dwell a people vulgarly knowne by the name of Strandt Vriesen that is Frieslandmen inhabiting vpon the sea coast These it may be were those which Ptolemey calleth Sigulones
but two walled cities namely Eemden and Awricke Of which EEMDEN situate at the mouth of the riuer Eems is the common Mart-towne of the whole prouince for concourse of Merchants especially famous which indeed is caused by the commodiousnesse and opportunity of the hauen which doth thrust it selfe so farre vp into the heart of the city at such a great height and depth that it doth easily receiue and entertaine great shippes full laden with sailes stricken into the very middest of the same This city is much beautified with the sumptuous palace of the Prince a gorgeous Church the Yeeld hall and the goodly houses of the priuate citizens AVRICK by reason of the woods and groues which on all sides almost do inclose it is inhabitd for the most part of Gentlemen and Noblemen where they recreate and delight themselues with Hawking and Hunting In the territorie of this city there is as Kempius reporteth a place called Iyl enclosed round with a wall beset with bushes a commodious dwelling for Hares and Deere in which as in a Parke or warrein they maintaine a great number of these kind of beasts which none dare take vnder a great penalty but they are reserued for the Earles disport and pastime when he is disposed to recreate himselfe with hunting In the confines also of this city Awricke is a little hill rising somewhat high commonly they call it Obstalsboom or Vpstalsbom where the seat of Iustice or Court leet for the whole shire is ordinarily held Heere they were wont euery yeare out of all the Zelands to meet in the open and wild fields and there by the most skilfull and approued lawiers such as best knew their customs and lawes to end and determine all controuersies arising between man and man In this precinct also are diuen castles villages and farms Of hamlets and end-waies such is the number that oft times one doth touch another The greatest part of which both for beauty of their houses and streets as also for multitude of inhabitants and strangers do so excell that they may foe honour and greatnesse contend with diuers cities of Germany The people do giue themselues either to traffique as Merchants or to get their liuings by occupations and handy-crafts or by playing the husbandmen and tilling the ground With their neighbours and forreners they speake in the Dutch tongue amongst themselues they vse a peculiar language proper to that nation and not vnderstood of strangers They are comely apparelled yea euen the very country people so that a man would take them to be citizens The women weare a kind of attire and apparell much differing from that of other nations They bind vp all the haire of their had into one locke and that set out with diuers siluer and gilt spangles and buttons they let to hang behind their backe Their head they bind vp in Summer with a caull of red coloured silke behung with siluer spangles but in the Winter they weare an hood of green cloth wherewith they do so couer their whole head that skarsely one may see their eies this kind of attire they call an Hatte Their vpper garment huick of loose gowne which they weare abroad from the head to the foot is pleited with many small pleits and is so stiffe with siluer and gilt wire or plate wouen into it that when it is put off it will stand vpright This sometime is made of red sometime of green cloth In this country of East-Friesland there are also two other counties the one called Esens the other Ieueren bearing the names of their chiefe towns Of the situation of this prouince nature and maners of the people read Vbbo Emmius FRISIA ORIENTALIS RIDERIAE PORTIONIS facies ante inundationem qui postea sinus maris factus est DENMARKE SAxo Grammaticus hath thus described Denmarke DENMARKE saith he parted in the middest by the boisterous sea conteineth a few small parts of the maine continent seuered and disioined one from another by the breaking in of the ocean winding and turning it selfe diuers waies Of these IVTIA Iuitland is in respect of the greatnesse and beginning in the enterance of the kingdome of Denmarke Which as it is in situation first so running out further it is placed in the vtmost borders of Germany From whose company it being parted by the intercourse of the riuer Eydor it runneth with a larger breadth toward the North euen to the banke of the frith of Norwey he calleth it Fretum Noricum In this is the bay of Lemwicke Sinus Lymicus abounding with such store of fish that it alone yeeldeth as much prouision of victuall to the inhabitants as all the whole country beside To this is adioined FRESIA Strand Friesen a prouince much lesser which lying more low then Iuitland in plaine and champion fields receiueth from the sea ouerflowing it great strength and heart and is very settile for come Whose inundation or violent tide whether it do bring to the country people more profit or dammage it is hard to say For in tempestuous weather the Sea breaking in through the creeks wherein the water was wont to be contained such a world of waters oft times doth follow and come into the country that diuers times it runneth ouer not only the fallow fields but drowneth also whole families with their goods and cattell After Iuitland the ile FIONIA Fuinex doth follow vpon the East which a narrow arme of the ocean sea doth seuer from the maine land This iland as vpon the West it looketh toward Iuitland so vpon the East it hath the ile SEELAND Sialandia he calleth it an iland much commended for the great abundance of all maner of necessary things that it yeeldeth which for pleasant situation is thought to excell all the prouinces of this kingdome and is supposed to be in the middest of Denmarke indifferently situate between the one end of the same and the other Vpon the East side of this an arme of the ocean runneth between it and SCONE Scania Scandinauia Basilia and Baltia called by diuers authours a part of Norwey or Swedland This sea yearely affoordeth great gaine to the Fishermen For this whole bay or gulfe of the sea is so full of all sorts of fish that the fishermen oft times do catch such store and therewith they so fraight their boats that they haue no roome to stirre their oares neither do they heere vse any nets or other meanes to take the fish but many times they are taken only with the hand Moreouer HALLAND and BLIEKER Blekingia he nameth it two prouinces issuing forth from the maine land of Scone like two armes from one and the same body of a tree are by many spaces and by-corners adioined and knitte to Gotland and Norwey Thus farre Saxo Grammaticus See also Albert Crantzius Sebastian Munster and the Ecclesiasticall history of M. Adams The kingdome of NORVVAY is subiect to the crowne of Denmarke as also the ile GOTLAND Item if you will giue credit to Marke
this is one That once in a moneth they obserue one day in the which all meeting in a Church after a collation made by their filthie and wicked Superintendent at night the Candles being put out without any choice or regard they fall like bruite beastes vnto their beastly Venerie This we haue taken out of Leander where thou maist read if thou pleasest many other such like things Dominicus Niger also hath written of this Country Paradine in his description of Sauoy writeth That the Dukedome of Piemont doth conteine in it beside goodly Cities great and populous which are in number fiue more then fiftie Townes well fortified and beautifull and also two hundred Borrowes walled and fenced with Fortresses and Castles And that it hath Earles Marquesses Barones and other sorts of Nobilitie all subiect to the Duke of Sauoy Thou seest also in this Chart the description of Montferrate which at this day is vnder the dominion of the Dukes of Mantua of the which Blondus thus writeth At the riuer Taner the famous Countie of Montferrate beginneth whose boundes are the riuer Po on this side and the Mount Appennine on that side the riuer Taner from his fountaine vnto his mouth where it falleth into Po and on his vpper side the hilles next to Moncalerio where Piemont beginneth The prouince of Montferrate is almost wholly subiect vnto the Marchions the most noble house of Italie descended from the Constantinopolitane Emperours which haue held that tract these 150. yeares Thus farre Blondus Merula also in his sixt booke of his historie of Vicounts hath written something of this Country PEDEMONTANAE VICINORVMQVE REGIONVM AVCTORE IACOBO CASTALDO DESCRIP Cum priuilegio The Liberties of PADVA THe territories of Padua which is a part of the Marquesate of Treuiso in old time was more large now it is conteined within these bounds On his South side runneth the riuer Athesis now called Ladessa on the North coasteth the little riuer Muson vpon the East lieth the gulfe of Venice vpon the West are Montes Euganei and the prouince of Vincenza Whereupon this verse was engrauen in the ancient seale of the City Muso mons Athesis mare certos dant mihi fines The Mose the Hilles Ladessa and the sea enclose me round It is in compasse 180. miles In it are 347. villages and hamlets Vnto the court-leet of Padua now do belong these seuen goodly townes Montiniano Castro Baldo Atheste Monselesse Pieue di Sacho Campo S. Piero and Citadella As also these six villages Miran Oriaco Titulo and Liuiano Arquado famous for great Petrarchaes tombe Consyluio and Anguillaria There are also in this territorie the mountaines called Euganei famoused by the poets neere vnto which is Abano a village seated vpon the Spring Abano oft mentioned by Claudian and Martiall Also Cassiodorus in his Epistles writeth that Theodoricus K. of the Gothes gaue order for the repairing of them The fertilitie of the soile of this prouince of the liberties of Padua is such that of those things which necessarily are required to the sustenance of mans life it yearely transporteth vnto the neighbour cities and countries round about great abundance without any dearth or want to the inhabitants Their Wines are very rich hunting fowling and fishing heere are very common It is so well watered with brookes and riuers that to the great gaine and profit of the inhabitants there is no country village aboue fiue miles distant from a riuer This great plenty and abundance of all things they bragge of in this their common prouerbe saying Bononia lagrassa Padua la passa that is Padua for fertilitie doth surpasse rich Bononia Thus farre of the shire now something of the city whereof that tooke his name It is seated in a flatte euery way crossed with pleasant riuers The city is very strong enclosed with a broad deepe water ditch with high and thicke walles and is very populous It hath a goodly large common without the citie wherein the enemie that will besiege it shall not find a place to shrowd himselfe A Session-house the Yeeld hall we call it most stately and sumptuous all couered ouer with lead An vniuersitie most famous of all Europe begunne as they report by Charles the Great finished by Fredericke the eleuenth in the yeare of our Lord 1222. and fortie yeares after that confirmed by Vrbane the fourth Bishop of Rome There is in this citie an Orchard which they call the Physicians Garden in forme round and verie large planted with all maner of strange herbs vsuall in Physicke for the instruction of yong students in the knowledge of Herbs and Plants a singular and worthy worke Clothing is the chiefe trade of the Citizens a matter of 600000. pounds returne yearely and more This we haue taken out of Bernardino Scardeonio who hath written a whole volume of the situation liberties antiquities famous men and things worthy of note of this city he that is desirous to see more of this let him read him and if he please to him he may adioine Leander his description of Italie Of the fennie places described vpon the sea-coast thou maist read Cassiodore his twelfth booke Variar Dedicated vnto the Admirall and Masters of the Nauie Of the Liberties of TREVISO BLONDVS in his description of Italie making The Marquesate of Treuiso the tenth prouince of Italie in it placeth these famous cities Feltre Belluno Ceneda Padua Vicenza and Verona the head of which he maketh Treuiso whereof the whole prouince tooke his name The goodly riuer Sile which for clearenesse and swiftnesse of his waters is inferiour vnto none passeth by this citie running Eastward about ten miles from the same is nauigable and falleth into the Adriaticke sea Many little brookes runne through the towne which is compassed with a strong wall and is very populous it is beautified with many stately buildings both Churches and priuate houses The country adioining to Treuiso is most pleasant and rich yeelding all maner of things necessarie to the vse of man and beast For in it is a very large plaine yeelding not onely great store of all sorts of graine and excellent wines but also it hath many goodly pastures feeding abundance of cattell Neither are his mountaines altogether craggie and barren But his lower hilles are set with vines oliues and other fruit-trees and affoord plenty of Deere pastime for the hunter In this country are many faire Townes For on the East and North sides of the same are Opitergium now Oderzo as I thinke Coreglanum or Conegliano both vpon the riuer Mottegan Serraualle Motta Porto Buffole and Sacile these three last are situate vpon the riuer Liuenza To these are to be added the Countie of S. Saluador Colalto S. Paulo Cordignan Roca di val di Marino Cesarea Cesana I take it and Mel. On the West and South are Bassianum Bassan Asolo Castrum fratrum Castelfranco Nouale and Mestre Moreouer in it are diuers End-waies villages and hamlets But hee that desireth to vnderstand more of the
but especially the Neck-land or Peninsula knowen vnto the old writers by these names Scandia Scandinauia Baltia and Basilia but to them neuer throughly discried which in regard of his greatnesse they haue called Another World and the Shoppe of men and as it were the scabberd from whence so many Nations haue been drawen But of the diuers names of this country read that which we haue written at the mappe of Island as also in our Treasury of Geography in the word BASILIA This Neckeland in this our age conteineth three kingdomes Norwey Swedland and Gotland with a part of the kingdome of Denmarke and many other prouinces as Bothny Finmarke Finland Lappland c. whose seuerall descriptions we will heere set downe out of Iames Ziegler NORVEGIA Norway if you would interpret it is as much to say as the Northren tract or Northren way This was sometime a most flourishing kingdome and comprehended Denmarke and Friesland with the circumiacent Ilands vntill such time as the kingdome was gouerned by an hereditary succession of kings Afterward the line failing in the time of vacancie by the consent of the Nobility it was decreed that the kings should be chosen by election At this day it is vnder the iurisdiction of the kings of Denmarke who do not only take the lawfull reuenews iustly due to the crowne but imposing intolerable exactions and by scraping and raking all commodities into their hands they conuey all the wealth of this country into Denmarke Neither is this aggreeuance alone but with all the disaduantage and condition of the place doth much hurt the subiects for all the hauens roads shipping are at the command of the king of Denmarke so that neither they may without his leaue vse the sea or transport their merchandise into forren countries This kingdome either for the temperature of the aire goodnesse of the soile or benefit of the sea is not of meane estimation and account This doth transport into other parts of Europe a fish which is a kind of codde slitte and spread vpon a post and so dried and hardened with the frost and cold and thereupon the Germanes call it Stockfish The best time of the yeare to catch them is in Ianuary when as the weather is coldest to drie them those which are taken when the weather is more mild they shrinke or rotte away and are not fit to be transported any whither All the sea coast of Norway is very calme and temperate the sea freeseth not the snow continueth not long SVECIA Sweden or Swedland is a kingdome rich of siluer copper lead iron corne and cattell Wonderfull plenty of fish is heere taken both in riuers lakes and creekes aswell as in the maine ocean Heere are many Deere and wild beasts Stockholme is the kings seat and chiefe mart towne a city fortified both by nature by art and industrie of the ingenious Architect It standeth in a fenne like Venice and thereof it took the name for that being situate in the waters it is built vpon piles which they call Stockes GOTHIA Gotland that is the Good land is subiect to the king of Sweden In it is the port and mart towne Calmar a great city Heere is a goodly Castle which for ingenious Architecture or Fortification as also for large compasse and content is not much inferiour to that of Millane in Italie Neere Tinguallen are mines of excellent iron Thus farre Ziegler Of DENMARKE and the BRITISH ILES we will speake nothing in this place seeing that we entreated of them at their proper and seuerall mappes In this chart there is described also ISLAND an Iland as famous as any other for strange miracles and secret works of nature Item GROENLAND another Iland knowen to very few Heere also is FRIESLAND a third iland altogether vnknowen to ancient writers neither is it once named of the latter Geographers or Hydrographers only Nicolao Zeno a Venetian who in the yeare of Christ 1380. tossed with many continuall bitter stormes in this sea at last rent and weather-beaten arriued in this I le This authour affirmeth that this iland is subiect to the king of Norway and to be greater then Ireland and that the chiefe towne is of the same name with the I le it selfe lastly that the country people do for the most part liue by fishing For in the hauen of this towne they catch such abundance of all sorts of fish that from thence they lade whole shippes and transport them into other ilands neere adioining The sea next to this iland vpon the West full of shelues and rocks as he writeth is of the inhabitants called Mare Icarium Icarus sea and an iland in it he saith is named ICARIA Of GROENLAND he writeth that the winter heere is 9. moneths long and all that time it neuer raineth nor the snow which falleth in the beginning of winter euer dissolueth vntill the latter end of the same But that is most wonderfull which he telleth of the Monastery of the order of Frier Predicants dedicated to the honour of S. Thomas in this Iland namely that there is not farre from it a mountaine which like vnto Aetna in Sicilia doth at certaine seasons burne and cast out huge flakes of fire and that there is in the same place a fountaine of hot or skalding waters wherewith not only all the chambers of this monastery are warmed in the maner of Stones and hot-houses but also all kind of meat and bread is sodden and dressed and with no other fire All the monastery is built of a kind of hollow light stone which the flames of that burning mountaine do cast forth For these burning stones being by nature somewhat fat and oily are solid and firme but being quenched with this water they become drie full of holes and light and the water wherewith they were quenched is turned into a clammy kind of stuffe like bitumen wherewith these stones are laied in steed of mortar when they are to vse them in building and thus they make a sure worke against the iniury of all weathers Their orchyeards also and gardens watered with this water are alwaies green and do flourish almost all the yeare long with all maner of flowres kinds of corne and fruits This Priory standeth vpon the sea shore and hath a reasonable capacious and large hauen into which the forenamed fountaine emptying his waters doth make it so warme that it neuer freeseth in the hardest and egerest froast that euer was knowen Whereupon heere is such abundance of fish which do flocke hither from more colde places that not only these Monkes but also the neighbours round about are furnished from hence with prouision of victuall These thinges amongst many others Zenus hath written of these Ilands who being made by Zichimnus king of certaine Ilands heere about high Admirall of his nauy discouered all these Northren coasts The ile FRIESLAND now againe in these our daies was descried by the Englishmen and was by them called by a new name WEST
whom they are now gouerned as in times past they were by certaine Bishops of their owne by whom they were as we said before conuerted vnto Christianity in the time of Adelbert Bishop of Breme In the raigne of Harald with the faire lockes Pulchricomus Harfagro they vulgarly called him as Ionas writeth who was the first Monarch of Norway it was first begun to be inhabited as some would faine perswade namely when he had ouercome the pety kings and had banished them out of Norway they being driuen to seeke their dwelling in some other place they forsooke their owne natiue country shipped themselues together with their wiues children and whole families landed at the length in this iland and heere seated themselues This seemeth to me to haue happened about the yeare of Christs incarnation 1000. but the forenamed authour Arngrimus Ionas saith that it was in the yeare 874. who also there setteth downe a Catalogue and names of all their Bishops The first Bishop as Crantzius writeth was Isleff That it was subiect to the command of the same Norweies about 200. yeares I find in the abridgement of Zenies Eclogs where I find that Zichmi king of Friesland attempted warre against this iland but in vaine and was repelled by a garrison of souldiers placed there by the king of Norway to defend the same from the assault of enemies It is diuided into foure parts or prouinces according to the foure quarters of the World namely into Westfiordung Austlendingafiordung Nordlingafiordung and Sundlendingafiordung as to say as the West quarter East quarter North quarter and South quarter It hath but two Bishops seas Schalholdt and Hola with certaine scholes adioined vnto them In the diocesse of Hola are the Monasteries Pingora Remested Modur and Munketuere In the diocesse of Schalholdt are Videy Pyrnebar Kirkebar and Skirda Yet by the letters of Velleius the authour of this chart which he wrote vnto me I do vnderstand that there are heere nine monasteries and besides them 329. churches They haue no coine of their owne nor cities for the mountaines are to them in steed of cities and fountaines for pleasure and delights as Crantzius testifieth who affirmeth that for the most part they dwell in caues making their lodgings and roomes by cutting and digging them out in the sides of hilles The which also Olaus doth testifie especially in the winter time They build their houses of fish bones for want of wood Contrariwise Ionas he saith that heere are many churches and houses built reasonably faire and sumptuously of wood stone and turffe Wares they exchange with Merchants for other wares Forrein dainties and pleasures they are not acquainted withall They speake the Cimbrian language or the ancient Germane tongue into which we saw this other day the holy Scriptures translated and imprinted at Hola a place in the North part of this iland in a most goodly and faire letter in the yeare of our Lord 1584. I say in the old Germane tongue for I do obserue it to be the same with that in which a little booke that is imprinted vnder the name of Otfrides Gospels is written in Ionas himselfe confesseth that they haue no maner of cattell beside Horses and Kine Velleius witnesseth that they haue no trees but Berch and Iuniper The soile is fatte for pastorage and the grasse so ranke that all men that haue written of this iland do iontly and with one consent affirme that except they do sometime fetch their cattell from the pasture and moderate their feeding they wil be in danger of being stopped vp with their owne fatte Yet all in vaine oft times as the same Arngrime affirmeth The soile is not good for corne or for eareable ground and so it beareth not any maner of graine therefore for the most part they liue altogether on fish Which also being dried and beaten and as it were ground to meale they make into loaues and cakes and do vse it at their tables in stead of bread Their drinke in former time was faire water but now of corne brought vnto them from forren places they haue learned to brew a kind of beere so that after they began to trade with strangers resorting to them they began also to loue better liquours and haue left their drinking of water For as Georgius Bruno maketh me beleeue the Lubekers Hamburgers and Bremers do yearely resort to this iland which thither do cary Meale Bread Beere Wine Aqua vitae course English clothes and other such of low prices both Wollen and Linnen Iron Steele Tinne Copper Siluer Mony both Siluer and Gold Kniues Shoes Coifes and Kercheifes for women and Wood whereof they build their houses and make their boats For these they exchange the Island cloth they commonly call it Watman huge lumps of Brimstone and great store of dried fish Stockefish we call it All this out of the West and South parts of the same Out of the East and North part of the iland where there is great plenty of grasse they transport into other countries Mutton and Beefe butter and ISLANDIA ILLVSTRISS AC POTENTISS REGI FREDERICO II DANIAE NORVEGIAE SLAVORVM GOTHORVMQVE REGI ETC. PRINCIPI SVO CLEMENTISSIMO ANDREAS VELLEIVS DESCRIBEB ET DEDICABAT Priuilegio Imp. et Belgico decennali A. Ortel exud 1585. sometime the fleeces of sheep and skinnes and pelts of other beasts foxes and white falcons horses for the most part such as amble by nature without the teaching and breaking of any horse courser Their oxen and kine are all heere polled and without hornes their sheepe are not so Saxo Grammaticus and Olaus Magnus do tell of many wonders and strange works of God in this iland whereof some it will not be amisse to receit in this place But especially the mount Hekla which continually burneth like vnto Aetna in Sicilia although alwaies those flames do not appeare but at certaine times as Arngrimus Ionas writeth and affirmeth to be recorded in their histories as namely in the yeare 1104. 1157. 1222. 1300. 1340. 1362. 1389. and 1558. which was the last time that the fire brake out of this hill Of the like nature is another hill which they call Helgasâ—ll that is the Holy mount Of the which mountaine the forenamed Bruno a laborious student and for that his worthy worke which he hath set out of all the cities of the World famous and knowen farre and neere all the World ouer hath written in his priuate letters vnto me that in the yeare 1580. Ionas saith it fell out in the yeare 1581. not in Hecla but in another mount namely in Helgesel fire and stones were cast out with such crackes thundering and hideous noise that fourescore miles off one would haue thought great ordenance and double canons had been discharged heere At this hill there is an huge gulfe where spirits of men lately departed do offer themselues so plainely to be seene and discerned of those that sometime knew them in their life time that they are often taken for
Heere is also great trafficke for slaues so that the Portugals do yearely buy and carry from hence aboue 5000. Negroes This country doth breed great store of Elephants which they in their language call Manzao There is also found in these quarters a kind of wild beast which they call Zebra of the bignesse and fashion of a mule But that it is not a mule it is apparent in that this beast is not barren as the mule is for this doth breed and bring forth yong as other beasts do The pelt or hide of it is different from those of other liuing creatures of like sort for it is straked with strakes of three diuers colours namely blacke white and yeallow or lion tawny as they call it It is so wonderfull swift of foote and so wild that by no meanes it may be tamed or be made seruiceable for any vse of man whereupon they commonly vse this for a prouerbe As swift as the Zebra There are also as in other places Lions Tigers Woolues Hartes Hares Conies Apes Chamaeleons with diuers and sundry kindes of Serpents beside hogges sheep goats hennes and parrattes Crocodiles which they terme Cariman are heere very plentifull But horses oxen and other beasts fit for such kind of seruices and vses for mankind they haue none at all Heere doth grow great store of Palme-trees Of the leaues of this tree they make and weaue almost all kind of silke garments and apparell For the vse of the silke-wormes which in other places is well knowen is heere altogether vnknowen The maner of their posts or maner of trauell from one place to another for as we haue shewed before they haue no horses I thinke it well worth the while to set downe in this place out of the 15. booke of Maphey his Indian histories who affirmeth that they haue no other but wooden horses which story he thus laith downe Vpon a rafter or beame saith he about nine inches thicke and eight foot long they spread a piece of a buffe hide of the breadth and compasse of a saddle vpon this the traueller sitteth stradling two men beare the bayard vpon their shoulders and if the iourney be long then other two do shift and ease them of their burden The forenamed authour Pigafetta describeth another kind of carying of passengers from place to place yet it is not very much different from this Vpon the North part of this kingdome do abutte the Anzicanes a mankind nation a people I meane that eateth mans flesh so that heere mans flesh is openly sold in their shambles and flesh markets as beefe and mutton and other meat is amongst vs. That also which they report of Loanda an iland vpon the coast of this country I thinke it worth the noting in this place namely that they say it lieth so exceeding flatte and low that it is scarcely seene aboue the water and that it is a made ground compounded of the mudde and sand which the riuer against which it lieth casteth out into the sea Lastly that if any man shall digge but two or three handfuls deepe within the ground he shall find fresh water very wholesome and good to drinke and that which is most wonderfull this same water when the sea ebbeth will he salt but at full sea only it is fresh How this nation was by the meanes of King Iohn King of Portugal in the yeare of Grace 1491. conuerted vnto Christ anity and with what successe they haue continued and gone forward and yet still constantly do persist in the same any man that list may read of in the forenamed authours Pigafetta in his second booke Maphey in his first booke of the history of India and Iohn Barros in the third chapter of the third booke of his first decade of Asia Before the entrance of the Portugals into this country the people had no proper names but were called by common names such as also stones trees herbs birdes and other creatures amongst them were called by ΜΩΡΙΑ ΠΑΡΑ ΤΩ ΘΕΩ PARERGON SIVE VETERIS GEOGRAPIAE ALIQVOT TABVLAE LECTOR S. Ad nostram Orbis terrarum descriptionem habe sequentes tabulas quas in gratiam priscae tam sacrae quà m profanae historiae studiosorum à me delineatas seorsum publicare decreueram nihil enim ad nostrum in hoc Theatro quo hodiernum tantùm locorum situm exhibere proposueram institutum facere videbantur victus tamen amicorum precibus eas in huius nostri Operis calcem tamquam Parergon reieci Vale nostros conatus boni consule HISTORIAE OCVLVS GEOGRAPHIA THE GEOGRAPHY OF HOLY WRITERS THat which we haue promised behold now ye students of Diuinity and Holy writte at length we offer to your view namely a Map of Sacred Geography or of such places as are named by holy writers in the bookes of the Old and New Testaments whether so exactly as the matter requireth and thou doest looke for I know not but that it is done with my best ability skill to which in any matter and therefore in this especially I dare not much rely I know and can truly protest Yet notwithstanding that I haue not bereaued the learned of their due commendation in doing the like I do acknowledge and do willinly confesse we haue done what we could seeing that we might not performe what we would Therefore what heere we offer it is rather our will than our wish Two things most kind Reader we desire thee to obserue and marke before thou iudge and censure this our labour First that in the Geographicall names of places we haue followed the translation of Septuagints because that is but one and vniforme The Latine translations as they are many so also they are different and in naming of places they vary much and dissent one from another so that that word which one doth interpret properly another otherwise doth translate it according to the sense and meaning Which is that I may vse Varroes phrase to make a noune appellatiue of a proper name and contrariwise of proper names to make appellatiues Examples of which thou maist see in the annotations of Emauel Sà as also in our Geographicall Treasure Therefore where we sticke as doubtfull which of these different readings and writings of proper names we may take we runne vnto the 72. interpretours as vnto a sure ground It any man be desirous to know how otherwise the Latine interpretors do call these proper names let him haue recourse to our Treasurie and he shall without any great difficulty easily satisfie his desire For in this he shall find all the Synonymes of places digested according to the order of the Alphabet The other thing gentle Reader which I would haue thee to obserue and necessarily ought to be done least preiudice do go before sound iudgement is this the seats of all places of Palestina are not set downe in this our Mapp but a few of those that are more famous according to the capacity of the table
of the grace of God where our Sauiour Christ manifested his infinite power by a sufficient testimony raising Lazarus who had lien three daies by the wals from death to life againe This place is spoken of in Matth. 21. Marc. 11.14 Iohn 11.12 BETHABARA the house of Passing ouer or the Ferry-house For there the waters of Iordan were diuided into two channels and therefore there they yeelded a safe passage to Iosua and all the children of Israel through the middest of this riuer Iosu 3.4 Heere Iohn baptized Christ and many others Matth. 3. Moreouer Saint Iohn speaketh of this place in the first and tenne chapters of his Gospell BETHEL Gen. 12. Thither Abraham remoued his houshold after his departure from Sichem For there is no doubt but that they are two diuers places First it was called Luza that is an Almond tree or place where Almond trees did plentifully grow There Iacob saw the Lord standing vpon a ladder as it is related in the 28. chapter of Genesis Therefore vpon that accident the place was called by a new name Bethel that is the house of God In the same Ieroboam erected the Golden calfe that he might seeme in that to imitate the example of the Patriarkes and holy men before him who worshipped God in that place Heereupon the Prophets changed the goodname Bethel and called it Bethauen that is the house of wickednesse or villany BETHSAIDA the house of fruites or the house of corne prouision or hunting Heere Philip Andrew and Peter the Apostles of Christ were borne Iohn 1. The Euangelists also Matthew and Marke haue made mention of this place Matth. 2. Marc. 6. CANA the Greater the country of Syrophoenissa whose daughter Christ cured being possessed with a Diuell Matth. 15. Marc. 8. of this see more beneath in Sarepta CANA the Lesser a towne of Galiley in which Christ with his presence and miracle of turning water into wine honourably graced matrimony Cana signifieth a reed or cane CANANAEA it is the name of a country so called of Chanaan the sonne of Cham. Chanaan signifieth a Merchant and indeed the posterity of Chanaan dwelling vpon the sea coast did trade as Merchants For Sidon the sonne of Canaan built the city Sidon And in the tenth chapter of Genesis the land of Canaan is so described as it is certaine that it contained all that whole tract of ground which afterward the Israelites did possesse from Iordan euen vnto the sea and so along as farre as Aegypt There as yet was no distinction between the Philistiim and Canaan For Canaan also was ancienter than Philistiim which was not borne of Canaan but of Misraim Yet afterward when the power and iurisdiction of the Nation of the Philistines grew to some heigth and greatnesse they caused the country especially all along the sea coast beneath Tyre Southward to be called after their name PALESTINA And in the 13. chapter of the booke of Iosua there are reckoned vp 5. cities of the Philistines Azotus Accaron Ascalon Geth and Gaza When therefore the Canaanites for that they possessed the places neere Iordan were almost vtterly destroied their name by a little and little began to perish and to fade away And although also the Philistines which greatly enlarged their bounds and territories in that countrie which afterward was giuen to the tribes of Iuda Beniamin Simeon Manasses and Isaschar were driuen from thence and were for the most part consumed yet they retained as I said certaine strong cities vpon the sea coast beneath Tyre and so somewhile they greatly flourish and were lords ouer others within a while after they grew weaker and were commanded of others In the time of Abraham the seat and court of Abimelech was at Gerar who in the 26. chapter of Gen. is named King of the Philistines The city Gerara was situate in that country which afterward the tribe of Iuda did possesse not farre from Hebron and was indeed placed between Hebron and Gaza It is therefore to be conceiued that the name of Cananaea Canaan is somewhat more ancient and comprehending more Nations than the name of the Philistines which neuer possessed all that tract and compasse of ground which afterward the Israelites enioyed But notwithstanding because the Philistines had certaine great cities vpon the sea coast the name of Palaestina was by reason of their traffique more famous and better knowen to the Greeke writers than Canaan or Cananaea Herodotus in Polymnia saith that the Phoenicians and Syrians possessing Palaestina sent 300. saile of ships to Xerxes and afterward he addeth that the whole country euen from the skirtes of Aegypt vnto Phoenicia was called Palestina And therefore also afterward the Greekes as Ptolemey vnder the name of Palaestina haue comprehended Iudaea Samaria and Galiley when as notwithstanding the Philistines did not possesse all that large space and compasse of ground But often times names are giuen to countries of some principall prouince of the same that doth in power and command surpasse the rest The Grammaticall interpretation and reason of the Etymology of the word Philistim is thought to be for that this nation inhabiting along the sea coast where earthquakes are very frequent and so whole townes and cities are couered with sand besprinkled and soiled with dust and dirt For the word in the Hebrew tongue signifieth Sprinklers or besprinklings as when any thing is besprinkled and foiled with dust or it signifieth otherwise Batteries and shakings as when a building is violently shaken and mooued by an externall force whereby it is in danger and ready to fall Like as Ascalon and Azotus hauing their names giuen them of Esh fire CAPERNAVM that is a pleasant and delightfull village Heere Christ first began to publish his Gospel Matth. 4. Luc. 4. and 7. For he was a citizen of that corporation betaking himselfe to that place when as he fled for feare of Herod when he put Iohn Baptist to death Therefore of Christ and his Disciples they demanded there a didrachma for poll mony as of the rest of the citizens and dwellers in this city Of this city mention is made Matth. 8.11.17 Marc. 1.2.5.9 Luc. 4.7 Io. 2.6 DALMANVTHA that is the poore mens habitation Christ with his Disciples came also into this country Matth. 16. Marc. 8. DAMASCVS It is distant from Ierusalem 42. Germane miles Breitenbach writeth that Damascus is 6. daies iourney from Ierusalem The map sheweth the situation of it to be in the mount Antilibanas It is a very ancient city which also at this day is very populous and much frequented by merchants Diuers etymologies and reasons of the imposition of this name diuers men do curiously seeke I do hold this for the likeliest The sacke of blood because the old opinion is that in this place Abel was slaine by his brother Cain Surely it is very probable and generally agreed vpon that our first parents Adam and Eue did first dwell not farre from this place DECAPOLIS the name of a prouince
eight score and fifteen yeares old died v. 7. and Izaac and Ismael hâ—s sonnes buried him by Sarah in the caue of Machpelah v. 9.10 ABRAHAMI PATRIARCHAE PEREGRINATIO ET VITA Abrahamo Ortelio Antverpiano auctore ABRAHAM EGREDERE DE TERRA TVA ET DE COGNATIONE TVA ET VENI IN TERRAM QVAM MONSTRAVERO TIBI ET DABO TIBI ET SEMINI TVO POST TE TERRAM PEREGRINATIONIS TVAE OMNEM TERRAM CHANAAN IN POSSESSIONEM AETERNAM DnÌ„o Ioanni Moflinio Montis S. Winoxij abbati reverendo viro humanitate candore eximio multiplicique rerum cognitione nobili Ab. Ortelius in perpetuoe amicitioe pignus DD. Of the DEAD SEA OF the Dead sea or the lake Asphaltites because we haue described it in another forme than heeretofore it hath been vsually set forth in I haue thought it not amisle in this place to say something for the further satisfying of the Reader For I heere do giue it this forme which I conceiue and perswade my selfe it had in the time of Abraham before such time I meane as it was burnt with fire and brimstone from heauen by the curse and punishment of God caused by the wickednesse of the inhabitants of the same For we haue made it to be a valley lying between the mountaines watered all along from one end to the other by the riuer Iordan in which then stood these fiue citities Sodom Gomorrhe Admah Zeboim and Segor Which place why and how afterward it was conuerted into a lake the holy Scriptures do at large and copiously describe Iosephus in the 5. chapter of his 5. booke of the warres of the Iewes thus discourseth of it It is saith he a salt and barren lake in which by reason of the great lightnesse euen the heauiest things that are being cast into it do swimme vpon the toppe of the water to sinke or go downe to the bottome a man shall hardly do although he would Lastly Vespasian the Emperour who came thither of purpose to see it commanded certaine fellowes that could not swimme to haue their hands bound behind them and to be cast into the middest and deepest place of it and it came to passe that all of them did flote vpon the toppe of the water as if they had been forced vpward by the aire or spirits arising from the bottome Moreouer the diuersity of the colours of this lake which changeth and turneth the toppe of the water thrise in a day and by diuers positions and falling of the sunne beames vpon it giueth a lusture round about is most wonderfull In many places it speweth foorth blacke lumpes of bitumen which do swimme aloft vpon the toppe of the lake in forme and bignesse of blacke oxen without heads But when those that farme the lake do come finding a lumpe so clotted together they draw it to their shippes and because it is tough being full they cannot breake them off but as it were binding to the boate it hangeth to the knoll vntill it be dissolued by the menstrues of women or with vrine this Pliny in the fifteenth chapter of the seuenth booke of his Naturall history attributeth to a threed stained with a womans menstrues It is good not only for the stopping of the ioints of shippes but is also mingled with many medicines vsuall in the cure of diseased bodies The length of this lake is 580. furlongs extending it selfe euen vp to Zoara in Arabia The breadth of it is 150. furlongs ouer Diodorus Siculus maketh it but 500. furlongs in length and three score in breadth The land of Sodome sometime a most blessed and happy prouince for all kind of wealth and commodities but now all burnt vp being indeed as ancient records make mention for the wickednesse of the inhabitants consumed by fire from heauen was not farre from this place Lastly as yet some remnants of that wrathfull fire both in the foundations and plots of those fiue cities and the ashes growing vp together with the fruites of the earth which to see to are like vnto good wholesome fruites but being touched they presently vanish into smoake and ashes are to this day to be seene Thus farre out of Iosephus Tacitus in the fifth booke of his histories reporteth almost the same of it Verbatim but that he affirmeth that the heaps and lumps of bitumen after that they are drawen to the shore and are dried partly by the heat of the sunne and partly by the vapours of the earth are cleft and hewed out with axes Moreouer he addeth that this lake in shew like the sea but much more corrupt and stinking both in tast and smell is pestilent and vnwholesome vnto the neighbours round about againe that it is neuer moued or driuen to and fro with the wind nor suffereth any fish or water foules to liue in it as in other waters yea it entertaineth no manner of liuing creatures as Pausanias and Hegesippus in the fourth chapter of his eighteenth booke do write so that as Pliny witnesseth buls and camels do swimme and flote aloft vpon the toppe of the water of this lake The same things Strabo writeth but vnder the name of the lake Sirbon very falsly for it is another lake in this country different from this Diodorus testifieth that the water of it is bitter and stinking Item that it beareth vp all things that haue breath except those things that are massy and solide as gold siluer and such like although euen those also do heere sinke more slowly than in other lakes See more of this in the same authour in his 2. and 19. bookes That all vegetable things that liue not do sinke to the bottome and that it will beare vp no such thing except it be besmered ouer with bitumen alumen some copies haue Trogus Pompeius doth testifie in the 36. booke of his history That a lamp or candle light will swimme aloft but being out will sinke Isidorus hath set down as a truth by the relation of others Aristotle in the second booke of his Meteorologicks doth write that the water of this lake doth white cloths if one shall but shake them well being only wette in the same Of the fruites like vnto those which are wholesome and good to be eaten yet indeed do vanish into ashes beside the forenamed authours Solinus Iosephus S. Augustine and Tertullian do witnesse Notwithstanding they do all affirme it of apples not generally of all fruites Hegesippus to these addeth clusters of grapes in shape and fashion not in substance Tacitus writeth that this falleth out not only to all naturall things arising out of the earth of their owne accord but also to artificiall things made by hand and ingenious inuention of man This then is the nature and resemblance of this place now which was sometime as Moses testifieth Gen. 13.10 to see to as glorious as the garden or Paradise of God To these we thinke it not amisse to adioine the opinion of Nubiensis the Arabian as he hath set it downe in the
country yeelding all maner of fruites and fruitfull trees and those in their kindes the best and to be such that it were pity that any king in the World should haue ought to do in but he Varro in his bookes De re Rustica of Husbandrie writeth That it is a more temperate and healthfull soile than Asia Statius in his Achilleidos more than once or twice calleth it The Mighty prouince of the World Maxima terra viris foecundissima doctis Vrbibus Europe for multitude of warlike men and scholers deeply learned doth farre excell thus Mamilius writeth of it Aristotle the prince of Philosophers maketh the inhabiters of this part of the world to be A very stout and couragious people The same authour affirmeth that All kind of beasts and cattell heere are in their kind greater and stronger than in Asia and Africke But of the nature of this country the maners and customes of the people let vs heare what Strabo that excellent Geographer saith in his second booke This part is most fertile of valiant and prudent men It is all generally habitable excepting only a very small portion toward the North and abutting vpon the Hamaxici which dwell vpon Tanais Don Maeotis palus Mar delle Zabacche and Borysthenes Nieper or Dnester which place by reason of the extream cold is not habitable Yet certaine bleake and mountainous places inhabited although in respect of the nature of the soile they are tilled and manured with greater difficulty yet hauing gotten good skilfull and industrious husbands those also are tamed and much bettered which heeretofore were badly vsed and kept only by theeues and out-lawes And indeed the Greekes when they dwelt vpon the rocks and mountaines dwelt well and conueniently by reason of their wise cariage in ciuill matters arts sciences and knowledge of those things which necessarily are required to the maintenance of mans life In like maner the Romanes hauing brought many sauage and fierce Nations vnder their seruile yoke seated I meane in places not very conuenient to dwell in in respect of the nature of the country either for that it was rough and craggy or wanted hauens or was too bleake and cold or for other causes taught them to vse merchandise before vnknowen and haue brought them from a sauage and brutish life to liue ciuilly and more humanely But those parts which are situate in an equall and temperat climate there nature administreth all things necessary for the maintenance of man and beast Now when as those Nations which do inhabite and dwell in fertile and rich countries are maintainers of peace and quietnesse and those which are seated in barren and vnfruitfull countries are most hardy and stout it commeth to passe that both are helpfull one to another while these do vse their weapons for their countries defence those againe do help and maintaine them by the profits that they raise out of the earth by their arts and mysteries as also by their learning wisedome and policy euen as in like maner also the dammage is mutuall and either side feeleth a sensible hurt when the one part doth not helpe the other yet the estate of the souldier and warlike man is somewhat better if they be not one come with multitude And the nature of Europe serueth very fitly for this purpose for it is all diuersly distinguished by lofty mountaines and lowly plaines so that euery where the husbandmen and souldiers the politicians and the martiall warriers do dwell together yet so as the greatest number are peaceable men which kind of life they enioy especially by the meanes and labour of their captaines first of the Greekes then of the Macedonians and lastly of the Romanes Therefore both in peace and warre it is sufficient of it selfe to maintaine and defend it selfe for it hath great plenty both of stout souldiers painfull husbandmen and politique statesmen In this also it doth excell that it bringeth foorth passing good fruits such I meane as are necessary for the maintenance of mans life with all sorts of mettall for what vse soeuer Spices or sweet smelling things and pretious stones are brought hither from forren countries WHICH THINGS VVHOSOEVER HAVE NOT THEY LIVE NEVER A VVHIT WORSE THAN THOSE DO THAT HAVE THEM Moreouer this is especially worth the noting that hauing wonderfull store of cattell sheep and oxen it breedeth very few dangerous wild beasts Thus farre the learned Strabo Many other things thou maist read of this Europe together with the nature and condition of the people of the same in that treatise which Hippocrates the prince of Phisitions wrote of the care and waters This Europe also and not any other place of the world beside doth yeeld Succinum or Electrum Amber we call it the Germanes Gleslum yet it is not found in Eridianas a riuer falling into some Northren sea as Herodotus doth fabulously report or in Padus a riuer of Italy Po as the poets iestingly affirme nor in the Electrides certaine fained ilands in the Hadriaticke sea as some men of better credit and more diligent searchers out of the truth as Pliny EVROPAM SIVE CELTICAM VETEREM sic describere conabar Abrah Ortelius CLARISS D. NICOLAO ROCCOXIO I.V.L. PATRICIO ANTVERP EIVSDEMQ VRBIS SENATORI HANC ANTIQVAE EVROPAE NOVAM TABVLAM ABRAH ORTELIVS DEVOTISSIME DEDICAB CVM PRIVILEGIO DECEN NALI IMP. REGIS ET BRABANTIAE CANCELLARIAE 1595. saith haue seriously thought nor in Spaine as Aeschylus beleeued nor in certaine rockes at the further end of the gulfe of Venice mare Hadriaticum as some more sober men haue giuen out nor in Liguria as Sudinus Metrodorus and Theophrastus would haue men thinke nor in Ethiopia neere Iupiter Ammons temple or in Scythia as Philemon imagined nor in Britaine as Socatus nor in the Glessariae ilands in the Germane occan as Pliny hath taught nor in Bannonia or Baltia a certain iland as Timaeus ha h broached nor in a certain riuer as Dion Prusaeus hath taught but neere vnto the neckland or peninsula Haestarum in the bay Pautzkerwicke and Frisch-hast Sinus Clilipenus in the Balticke or East sea not farre from Dantzk in Pomerell or Sprese where hitherto it hath been taken a thing wholly hidden from the ancients to the great gaine and enriching of the Nations neere inhabiting and not many other place of the world beside In the same Europe are there many goodly and stately cities amongst the which the most famous in all ages are Rome and Constantinople which afterward was called New-Rome and now are London Venice and Paris The riuers of greater note are Rhein Isther or Donaw and the Thames the woods more notable are Ardene in Gallia 500. miles of length reaching from the riuer of Rhein vnto Tourney in France and Hercynia in Germany 40. daies iourney long as Pomponius writeth and 9. daies iourney broad as Caesar in his Commentaries reporteth a greater wood than which or more vast there is no history maketh mention of Thus much of Europe But whereof it
read that euery one of his mouthes whereby it emptieth it selfe into the sea are so wide and great that it is affirmed to ouercome the sea for forty miles in length together and that so farre the waters may be perceiued to be sweet amid the brackish surges of the salt sea Polybius in his fourth booke to these adioineth that by the violent and swift fall of the waters of this riuer into Pontus Mar maiore there are certaine knols hils or shelfs which the sea-men call Stethe that is breast bones made of the gathering together of such things as the riuer bringeth downe with it and are more than a day saile off from land vpon which oft times the seamen falling by negligence are in great danger of shipwracke Strabo also maketh mention of the same They which desire to know more of this riuer his name nature quality fountaine mouthes and streames which do runne into it let him read the commentaries of William Stuckius written vpon Arrianus Periplus of the Euxine sea for there he hath most plentifully and learnedly descr bed all these things Of the Thracians Moesians Getes Dakes and other countries nations and people of this mappe read the seuenth booke of Straboes Geography and the Epitome of the same PONTVS EVXINVS now called MAR MAIORE THe sea which heere we purpose to describe famoused of ancient writers by meanes of the Argonantes and fabulous story of the golden fleece was called as we find recorded by diuers and sundrie names first it was called PONTVS by the figure Synecdoche then PONTVS AXENVS that is inhospitale the harbourlesse sea but afterward it was named PONTVS EVXINVS hospitale mare the good harborough as Pliny Ouid and others do witnesse Strabo Tacitus Plutarch Ptolemey and Iornandes do call it PONTICVM mare the Ponticke sea without any addition at all Lucretius nameth it PONTI mare the sea of Pontus of the country Pontus abuttant vpon it For the same reason it is of Valerius Flaccus Ouid and Martianus named SARMATICVM and SCYTHICVM mare the Sarmatian and Scythian sea of Claudian AMAZONIVM of Herodotus and Orosius CIMMERIVM of Festus Auienus TAVRICVM of the Sarmatians Scythians Amazones Cimmerians and Tauri certaine Nations dwelling vpon the coast of this sea Of the prouince Colchis neighbour vnto it vpon the East Strabo nameth it COLCHICVM mare of the mountaine Caucasus which heere beginneth Apollonius intituleth it CAVCASEVM of the riuer Phasis which vnloadeth it selfe into this sea or towne of that name situate vpon that riuer Aristides calleth it PHASIANVM mare Procopius saith that it was sometime named Tanais vnfitly and falsly as I thinke Almost all ancient writers haue likened this sea or more truly this bay or gulfe vnto a Scythian bow when it is bent so that the string doth represent the South part of it namely from the streights of Constantinople vnto the further end of it Eastward toward the riuer Phasis for excepting only the promontory Carambis Cabo Pisello all the rest of this shore hath such small capes and creekes that it is not much vnlike to a right line The other side or North part doth resemble an horne that hath two crooked ends the vpper end more round the lower more straight which proportion this our mappe doth very precisely expresse This sea also hath two promontories one in the South then called Promontorium Carambis now Cabo Pisello the other in the North Ptolemey nameth it Criou metopon Arietis frons the rammes head Paulus Diaconus calleth it Acroma and now it is knowen by the name Famar These two capes are opposite one against the other and are distant one from another about 2500. furlongs as Ammianus and Eustathius do testifie which although they do make 312. Italian miles yet they are distant only 170. miles as Pliny saith or as Strabo reporteth so much as a ship will saile in three daies notwithstanding to those which do saile either from the East to West or from West to East they seeme to be so neere one to the other that one would thinke that there were the end of the sea and that Pontus Euxinus were two seas but when you shall come in the middest between these two capes then the other part appeareth as it were a second or another sea The compasse of it round about by the shore Strabo maketh to be 25000. furlongs Polybius but 22000. and yet from this Ammianus taketh 2000. and that by the authority of Eratosthenes Hecataeus and Ptolemey as there he affirmeth Herodotus an eie-witnesse of the same writeth that he measured the length of it and found it to be 11100. furlongs and likewise he found the breadth of it where it was furthest ouer to be 320. furlongs This measure Strabo and Pliny in the twelfth chapter of his fourth booke do more distinctly partly out of their owne and partly out of other mens opinions set downe Strabo writeth that about 40. riuers do vnloade themselues into it Yet this our mappe doth shew many more Antiquity doth hold that this sea of all our seas was by farre the greatest heere hence I suppose that the Italians haue giuen it that name of Mar maiore the Great sea and that heere as there at Caliz without the straits of Gibraltar was the end of the World and that it was innauigable both for the huge greatnesse of it as also by reason of the barbarous nations which daily did annoy the shore and vse all maner of cruelty and inhumanity toward strangers and aliens From hence arose those epithites and adiuncts giuen by the ancient poets to this sea of Pontus vast and rough Virgil and Catullus call it Ouid infinite and terrible Lucane a deuouring and dangerous sea Silius raging Statius an vncertaine and swelling sea Valerius Flaccus perilous Manilius horrible spitefull and furious Seneca mad and churlish Festus Auienus raucisonum making a hoarse ill fauoured noise Thus farre of the Names Forme and bignesse of this sea of the Situation and Nature of the same although Herodotus Pomponius Strabo Pliny Ouid and Macrobius that I may say nothing of others haue spoken much yet in mine opinion no man hath done it more exactly and diligently than Ammianus in his 22. booke whom he that listeth may adioine to this our discourse and if he be not satisfied with these he may to them adde a whole booke written by Arrianus of this sea together with the large commentaries of Struckius vpon the same As for vs we will content our selues in this place with a few peculiar obseruations of this sea gleaned heere and there out of the ancient monuments of learned writers of former ages It is sweet or at leastwise more sweet than other seas moreouer the waters of it are more light than others and do neuer ebbe and flow but alwaies keep one and the same stint of running one way as Lucrece Macrobius Pliny and Ouid do witnesse Which I take to be the cause that sometime it hath all been frozen
Entribae Erasinij Gondrae quae et Cyndrae et Rondaei Hypselitae Ligyrij Maduateni Mypsaei Podargi Priantoe Pyrogeri Sabi Satro centae Scaeboae Sindonaei Trisplae MONTES Cissene Dunax Edonus Ganos Gigemorus Libethrius Melamphyllon Meritus Mimas Nerisum Pindus Zilmissus FLVVII Aristibus Cebrinus Cius Cyndon Edon Zorta VICI Aliphera Asae SINVS Bennicus NEMVS Abroleua FONS Inna CAMPVS Areos pagos Plura erant his addenda uti quoque in ipsa tabula referenda ex Zonara Cedreno Nicephoro ceterisque Byzantinae historiae graecis scriptorib at quia hos inter veteres non numero consulto omisi Cum Imp. et Belgico privilegio decennali 1585. round vntill they die In this countrie is the riuer Cochryna of whose water if any sheepe do drinke they bring foorth none but blacke lambes Between Byzantium Constantinople and the Chersonesus there is an hill which they call The holy mount neere to which the sea oftentimes carieth vpon the top of his waters a kinde of slimy substance called of the Latines Bitumen In Agria a shire of this country the riuer Pontus carieth downe in his channell certaine stones much like vnto coales which being kindled and water cast vpon them they burne the better but being blowne with bellowes they go quite out There is no manner of vermine or venemous creatures that can abide the smell of this kinde of siring Amongst the Cinchropsoses there is a fountaine of whose water whosoeuer shall drinke they die immediately In Botiaea there groweth a stone which by the heat or reuerberation of the Sunne beames kindleth and casteth foorth sparks and flames of fire Plutarch writeth that there is a spring not farre from the hill Pangaeus of whose waters if one fill one and the same vessell and then weight it he shall finde it to be twise so heauy in the winter as it was in the summer Plutarch whom Tzetzes calleth The yonger another nameth him Parthenicus reporteth certaine things of the herbe Cythara the stones Pansilypus and Philadelphi found in the riuers Ebrus and Strymon which because they are more like to fables than true stories I do in this place willingly omit To reckon vp heere the seuerall Nations Mountaines Riuers or Cities of this country I thinke it nothing necessary because they are at one view better to be seene in the Mappe it selfe Yet of the city Byzantium now Constantinople for that it is sooft mentioned in ancient histories to say nothing at all for that we do in some sort hold it an iniury I thinke it not amisse to write these few lines following of the description of it The first founder of BYZANTIVM which was also in times past called LYGOS was as Trogus and Eustathius do thinke one Pausanias a Captaine of the Spartanes and that as Cassiodorus writeth at such time as Numa Pompilius was king of the Romanes It was so called of Byzantes the sonne of Ceroessas a captaine of the Megareans whom Eustathius affirmeth to haue beene the vprightest and most iust man that euer the earth did beare This city is situate vpon an high cliffe at the narrowest place of Bosphorus Thracius the frith or streights of Constantinople in a very fertile soile and vpon a fruitfull and commodious sea fertili solo foecundo salo as Tacitus writeth In respect of which situation being strongly fortified by nature it is thought to be almost inuincible Whereupon Trebellius Pollio calleth it claustrum Ponticum The blocke-house of Pontus Orosius termeth it Principem gentium the soueraigne of all Nations Sextus Rufus Arcem secundam Romani orbis The second bulwarke or fortresse of the Romane Empire Procopius Arcem Europae Asiae obicem ponentem The Castle of Europe and barre against Asia Themistocles Euphrada Magnificentiae officinam The shop of all manner of brauery and courtlike fashions and Ouid he calleth it Vastam gemini maris ianuam The huge gate of the two seas to wit Propontis Mar di marmora and Pontus Euxinus Mar maiore For the rampart and wals of it which Pausanias and both the Dions so highly commend were so strong that the Athenians vsed in former times as the same Eustathius writeth to cary all their goods and treasure thither and there to bestow it holding it to be a place impregnable and not to be surprized by any enemy whatsoeuer Of the great felicity of this city you may read many things worth the obseruation in diuerse ancient writers especially in Polybius Herodian Xiphiline Dion Prusens and Themistocles Euphrada in his sixth oration who deemeth the citizens thereof to be most happie men both for the goodly riuer which passeth by it temperature of the aire fertility of the soile wherein it standeth capacious hauen and creeke of the sea gorgeous church and stately wals of the same Heerupon grew that daintinesse luxury drunkennesse and wantonnesse of these people which vices of theirs are noted by Athenaeus in the tenth booke of his Deipnosophiston and Aelianus in the foureteenth chapter of the third booke of his varia historia This city fortune often frowning vpon it was sometimes possessed of the Spartans or Lacedemonians after that it was vnder the command of the Athenians Then shaking off their yoke it began by a little and a little to chalenge vnto it selfe a kinde of soueraignty and freedome from any forren iurisdiction which it held for a while vntill Vespasian the Romane Emperour subdued it and reduced it vnto the forme of a prouince While it thus stoode vnder the command of the Romanes it was by Septimius Seuerus who held on Nigers side assaulted battered raced to the ground and of a goodly flourishing city made a poore and beggerly village and withall was adiudged to belong vnto the Perinthij But Antonius Caracalla Seuerus his sonne restored them to their ancient liberties and was called by the name of ANTONIA as Eustathius testifieth Yet for Antonia that I may note this by the way an ancient brasse coine of the Emperour Seuerus which I haue doth teach vs that it ought to be read Antoninia For vpon this peece of money was stamped ΑÎΤΟÎΕΙÎΙΑ ΒΥΖΑÎΤΙΩΠΣΕΒΑΣΤΑ that is Antoninia the Emperiall city of the Bizantini But after this it was againe wasted by Gallienus the Emperour and all the citizens and garrison souldiers thereof slaine and put to the sword Yet for feare least the Scythians Getes and other barbarous nations might breake in to the Romane territories on that side it was againe reedified repaired and fortified by the same Emperour But Constantine worthily in deed and name surnamed the Great did yet farre more strongly fortifie it and adorne it with the most goodly temple of Santa Sophia and moreouer gracing it with many stately ornaments and curious workes of Architecture which he caused to be brought out of Asia Africa Europe yea and from Rome it selfe and after his owne name by proclamation caused it to be intituled and called by the name of CONSTANTINOPOLIS that is Constantines city Item he tooke it from the
it Florus writeth That the riches of this iland when it was once wholly subdued did fill the Exchequer of the city of Rome more full than any other conquest that euer they got wheresoeuer Carystius lapis Caristium I thinke a kinde of greene marble a stone of great estimation is found here as Antigonus writeth and as Pliny testifieth the Diamond Smaragd Opalus Crystall Alume and a kinde of whetstone which they call Naxium The same authour affirmeth that the Rosen of this iland doth far surpasse that of any other places of the whole world He also highly commendeth the oiles and vnguents of the same for pleasure and delight as also their wax and reeds as much for medicines and necessary vse in physicke Athenaeus extolleth their passing faire doues Fabulous antiquity did verily beleeue that the goddesse Venus here first came vp out of the sea for whose honour and memory peraduenture the women of Cyprus as the same authour affirmeth do offer their bodies to be abused of euery man that list Why it was not lawfull for any Iew to come within the I le of Cyprus reade Dion in the history of Hadrian The diuers names of this iland as we haue noted out of sundry authours are these ACAMANTIS AEROSA AMATHVSA ASPELIA CERASTIS CITIDA COLINIA CRYPTVS MACARIA MEIONIS and SPHECIA of which see more particularly in our Geographicall treasury Of the Cyprians or people of this iland thou maist reade many things in Herodotus There are also other three Cyprianiles called by this name about this iland as Pliny teacheth EVBOEA THis iland is seuered by so small a frith thus Solinus describeth it from the maine land of Boeotia that it is hard to say whether it be to be accounted amongst the number of the ilands or not Thus some haue thought of the I le of Wight For on that side which they call Euripus it is ioined to the continent by a faire bridge and by the meanes of a very short scaffold one may passe from the firme lana thither on foot and as Procopius in his iiij Aedifi testifieth by the laying ouer or taking away of one rafter or planke one may go from one to another on foot or by boat as one please Pliny writeth that it was sometime ioined to Boeotia but was afterward seuered from it by an earth-quake and indeed the whole iland is much subiect to earth-quakes but especially that frith or Euripus which we mentioned a little aboue as Strabo telleth vs who moreouer addeth that by that meanes a faire citie of the same name with the I le was vtterly sunke and swallowed vp of the sea Of all the ilands of the Midland sea this in bignesse is held to possesse the fifth place In diuers authours it is called by diuers and sundry names as MACRA and MACRIS ABANTIAS ASOPIS OCHE ELLOPIA ARCHIBIVM c. Item CHALCIS of the chiefe and metropolitan city of the same situate vpon the forenamed frith This I say was the greatest city and metropolitan of all the whole ile and was of that power and command that it sent forth colonies into Macedony Italy and Sicilia In Lalantus that goodly champion there are as Strabo writeth certaine hot baths which Pliny calleth Thermas Ellopias The baths of Hellopia They are very soueraigne against diuers diseases Here are as Strabo reporteth the riuers Cireus and Nileus of which the one causeth such sheepe as drinke of it to be white the other blacke Pliny doth also highly commend a kinde of greene marble here which they call Carystium for that it is digged out of a rocke nere the towne Carystus in the East corner of this I le where also the marble temple of Apollo is described by Strabo Copper was first found in this iland here do growe the woorst firre trees as Pliny affirmeth item here bloweth olympias a winde proper to this countrey againe that the fishes taken in the sea here abouts are so salt that you would iudge them taken out of pickle Of the Euripus where they say Aristotle abode and died very strange things are tolde by diuers writers namely that it doth ordinarily ebbe and flowe seuen times in a day and as many times in the night and that so violently and high that no windes can preuaile against it nay and the tallest ships that are though vnder saile it driueth to and fro as it listeth Of all men Strabo in his tenth booke hath most curiously described this iland See also what Procopius in his fourth booke de Aedificijs Iustiniani saith of it Item Wolfgangus Lazius in that his Historie of Greece hath set out a very large Commentarie of the same Libanius Sophista in the life of Demosthenes writeth that it had sometime two and twentie cities Yet we in this our Mappe out of sundry writers aswell Latines as Greeks haue gathered together and noted downe the names of many more RHODVS THe braue and franke RHODVS was also of the ancient called OPHIVSA STADIA TEICHINE AETHRAEA CORYMBA POEESSA ATABYRIA and TRINACRIA yea and by diuers other names also as thou mayest see in our Geographicall treasurie Pliny giueth out that this I le did rise vp out of the bottome of the sea hauing beene before all drowned and couered ouer with water and Ammianus he writeth that it was sometime bedrenched and sowsed with a golden showre of raine for the fabulous writers do tell that heere it rained gold when Pallas was borne Therefore this soile aboue all other was beloued of Iupiter the mighty king of gods and men as the poet saith In Diodorus Siculus we read that it was beloued of the Sun and made an iland by the remouing of the water which before had couered it all ouer for before this it lay hid in the bowels of the sea or else was so full of bogs and fennes that it was altogether inhabitable In memory of which kindnesse of louely Phoebus that huge Colossus of the Sun one of the seuen wonders of the world was vulgarly said to haue beene erected This we read was made by Chares Lindius Lysippus his scholler and was at least seuenty cubites high Festus saith that it was one hundred and fiue foot high This image saith Pliny within six and fifty yeeres after was by an earth-quake ouerthrowen and laid along notwithstanding as it lay it was a woonderment to the beholders Few men were able to fathom the thombe of it and the fingers of it were greater than many large statues Those parts of it that were by any casualty broken did gape so wide that they were like vnto the mouths of hideous caues within it were huge massie stones of great weight wherewith he ballaced it when it was first set vp It was finished in the space of twelue yeeres and the brasse thereof waighed three hundred talents There are beside in sundrie other places of this city an hundred less r colosses yet wheresoeuer any of them were they did much grace the place In another
was a waggon consecrated and sanctified couered ouer with a cloth and adored as a saint But peraduenture we haue beene too tedious in this argument As we haue out of old and ancient histories laid downe two diuers and sundry formes of this god Ammon so out of the same it is very probable that hee had two diuers temples For Diodorus in his seuenteenth booke in the description of this temple doth say that it was built by Danaus the Egyptian And the same authour againe in his first booke saith that Ofiris also erected a temple for Iupiter Ammon in Thebes a city in Egypt which was all of beaten gold cleane contrary to that which we haue described before as appeareth out of these verses of Lucane in his 9. booke Non illic libyeae posuerunt ditia gentes Templa nec Eois splendent donariagemmis In Egypt it was not in Libya as is manifest out of the second booke of Herodotus Where you shall find this description of it Iupiter being not willing that Hercules who came to visit him should see him yet at length by importunity being ouercome vsed this deuice to deceiue him He tooke a ram flead him and cut off his head this fell with the head wool and all he put vpon him and thus sheweth himselfe to Hercules Wherupon the Egyptians haue decreed to make the image of Iupiter and to picture him with a rammes head For him euery yeare vpon a certaine day they kill a ramme in like manner as before is shewed and the skinne they put ouer the image of the said c. And because the temple of this god Ammon was in the city Thebes which thereupon is of good writers called Diospolis that is Ioues towne I was of opinion that the Holy scripture did also in some place or other speake of it And indeed in the thirtieth chapter of Ezechiel the septuagints for the Hebrew No haue Dâ—â—spolu and againe in the third chapter of Naum for No Amon they haue 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 It is very probable therefore that Amon 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Hamon which in the Hebrew tongue signifieth a multitude was the proper name of this place THE VOYAGE OR Nauigation of AENEAS especially gathered out of the renowmed Poet VIRGILL with some other matters perteining to that historie collected out of others TRoy being surprized sacked and burnt Aeneas betooke himselfe for a refuge to the mount IDA a hill in the prouince of Troas in Asia Minor a place verie well wooded and serued with water from thence forsaking his natiue soile he went to ANTANDRVS a towne in Mysia abutting vpon the Aegean sea taking with him as Xenophon sayth all his kindred both by fathers side and mothers side with a nauy of twenty saile putteth forth to sea and at length landeth in THRACE or as Dionysius Halicarnasseus writeth at PALLENE a promontory and city of the same name in Macedony neere vnto which he built the citie Aenos Oeno or Inos they still call it Lycophron sayth that he came to CISSVS Cis a hill of Almopia a shire of the kingdome of Macedony Liuy writeth that he stayed about OLYMPVS But our authour reporteth that from Thrace he came to DELOS Sdiles an iland in the Aegean sea of the number of those which the ancient Geographers called Cyclades Here he maried Lauinia the daughter of Anius a Priest belonging to the temple of Apollo as you may see in a Treatise written of the originall of the Romane nation but let them beleeue him that list for Halicarnasseus condemneth him for a very lying and fabulous authour And from Delos he setting saile saluted NAXOS Nicsia PAROS Pario DIONYSA OLEARVS Quiniminio and other ilands of the Aegean sea and the third day after arriued at CRETA Candy where he built the cities RHOETEVM and PERGAMEA From hence putting off to sea againe and as Dionysius Halicarnasseus writeth saluting CYTHERA Cerigo an iland in the Midland sea where he built a Temple dedicated to the honour and seruice of the goddesse Venus then CYNETHIVM a foreland or promontory of Peloponnesus and there layed the foundation as Pausanias and Halicarnasseus haue left recorded of the cities APHRODISIADES and OETIA and the fourth day after landed at the STROPHADES Striuali two ilands in the Ionian sea From these he passed to ZACYNTHVS Zante where he dedicated as Halicarnasseus writeth a chapell to Venus then passing by DVLICHIVM SAMOS NERITVS and ITHACA came to LEVCATE Thence to ACTIVM neere the Temple of Apollo and so leauing CORCYRA Corfu coasting along by CHAONIA a prouince of Epyrus in Greece and AMBRACIA as the same authour affirmeth he came at length to BVTHROTVM Golfo de Butronto From hence on foot ouer land he went and visited DODONA a citie of Epyrus and the CERAVNIAN mountaines and vpon the third day came to Anchises Hauen ANCHISAE PORTVS where his ships meeting him he crossed ouer the Hadriaticke sea into ITALY his consorts landed on this side the forland IAPYGIVM Cabo de S. Maria himselfe with some few others as the same Halicarnasseus witnesseth at the forland or promontorie ATHENAEVM Rossia or Cabo de Campanella so named of the Temple of Minerua called of the Greekes Athene which stood in this place From thence he passed by sea to TARENTVM Taranto LACINIVM Cabo delle Colonne CAVLON Castro veto or vetore and SCYLACEVM Squilacci Afterward sailing by SCYLLA Scyllo and CHARYDIS Galofaco by the CYCLOPES giants or a certaine kinde of people neere mount Ethna in Sicilia of an extraordinary stature and strength feined by the Poets to haue but one eie and that in the middest of their fore-heads the mouth of the riuer PANTAGIAS Porcari by the bay of MEGARA a sea towne sometime called Hybla by THAPSVS a neckland or peninsula now knowen by the name of Manghisi by the forland PLEMMYRIVM Cabo Massa Vliuien by ORTYGIA by the riuer ELORVS Abyso or Atellari by the forland or promontory PACHYNVS Cabo Passaro by the citie CAMARINA by the CAMPI GELOI by the riuers GELA Cherza or Salsi by AGRAGAS Draco by the citie SELINVS Salemo or Terra de Pulici then by the promontorie LILYBAEVM Cabo Boëi or Cabo Coco and so at length to the forland DREPANVM Trapani From hence leauing the strait course he fetcheth a compasse about by those dangerous rocks which our authour calleth SAXA or ARAE directing his course toward CARTHAGE in Africa where hauing stayed a while with Queene Dido who enterteined him and his most kindly and in the best maner at length hoiseth saile and returneth backe into SICILIA againe heere landing his men at the riuer CRIMISVS as Halicarnasseus writeth after diuers games iusts or triumphs he ordeined that those dayes yeerely for euer after should be solemnly kept as holy in honour of Anchises his father and moreouer also he built the citie ACESTA or Egesta and ELIMA Alymite or Palymite if we may beleeue Halicarnasseus Item he founded the TEMPLE of Venus Idalia vpon the top of
much the more neerely vnto him Pausanias saith that in Motya a city of Sicilia there was the statue or counterfet of this our Vlysses but by Nero the Emperour it was from thence transported to Rome in Italy And thus much of this braue Captaine Qui mores hominum multorum vidit vrbes who as the Poet writeth of him saw many mens maners and knew many cities Of whom also thus speaketh Ouid Si minùs errasset notus minùs esset Vlysses If great Vlysses had not strai'd he had beene more obscure But of him I will speake no more lest peraduenture with the Grammarians I bee hit in the teeth with that of Diogenes who said that while they did search diligently to know all the crosses and euils that befell Vlysses did forget their owne And moreouer that worthy admonition of wise Seneca where he saith Quid proderit inquirere vbi Vlysses errauerit quà m ne nos semper erremus What shall it auaile vs to seeke where and which way Vlysses wandred more then to restraine vs that we do not in like maner alwaies wander as he did And now it is high time to take penne from paper As for those coines which we haue spoken of before I wish thee to repaire to Goltzius and others which haue at large and peculiarly handled that argument A description of the RED SEA now vulgarly called The INDIAN SEA MARE ERYTHRAEVM or as the Latines call it MARE RVBRVM The Red Sea which heere we offer to thy view in this Mappe for as much as we can gather out of ancient writers stretcheth it selfe from the West as Liuy writeth along by the coast of Africa or Aethiopia euen vnto India in East yea and beyond that I know not how farre as Arrianus testifieth whereupon Ptolemey Pliny and Melado call it MARE INDICVM The Indian Sea But Herodotus calleth it MARE PERSICVM The Persian Sea Which Pliny doth seeme to iustifie to be true where he saith That the Persians do dwell along by the coast of the Red Sea between the coast of Africa and the iland Taprobana Strabo that worthy Geographer he calleth it MARE MAGNVM The Great sea who moreouer doth affirme it to be a part of the Atlanticke sea and that truly A part of this sea to wit where it toucheth the coast of that Aethiopia which lieth beneath Aegypt Pliny of the countrie Azania which at this day some do thinke to bee called Xoa nameth it MARE AZANIVM Where it ioineth with the Bay of Arabia it is of Ptolemey named HIPPADIS PELAGVS now called of some Archiplago di Maldiuar Item of the same Ptolemey it is otherwise called BARBARICVS SINVS The Barbarian bay I meane in that place where it beateth vpon Aethiopia and the iland Menuthesia now of the seamen generally called The iland of Saint Laurence but of that country people Madagascar and of Theuet Albagra There are two Baies or Gulfes as the Italians and Spaniards terme them of this sea much talked of in all ancient histories to wit SINVS PERSICVS The Persian Bay and SINVS ARABICVS The Arabian Bay which some not well read in old writers do for the most part call Mare Rubrum The Red Sea Very improperly being indeed but a part of that sea properly called the Red sea which we haue hitherto spoken of But why it was of the Greekes named Erythraeum and of the Latines Rubrum Red it is a great question amongst the learned not yet decided Some there are which do deeme it to haue beene called The Red Sea of the colour of the water but this of all late writers trauellers seamen and other eie-witnesses of good credit which haue in this our age euery day do saile through this Sea haue diligently viewed the same is improued and found to be altogether false Moreouer Qu. Curtius amongst the ancients doth plainly testifie that it differeth no whit in colour from other seas Some there are as Pliny writeth which do thinke that by reason of the reuerberation of the Sunne beames it seemeth to cast vp such a like colour to the sight of the beholders Others doe thinke that this is caused by reason of the colour of the sand or earth in the bottom of the same others do affirm it to be the very nature of the water Some do write that it was so named of king Erythrus Perseus sonne whose tombe as Quintus Curtius writeth did in his time remaine in a certaine iland of this sea not farre distant from the maine land Strabo calleth this iland Tyrina Pliny and Pomponius Mela Ogyris Arrianus Oaracta or else of a certaine Persian named Erythras as the forenamed Strabo giueth out Who as Pliny with him testifieth in a small barke or barge first sailed through this sea and discouered the same Which story also is at large handled by Agatarchides Yet our authour calleth him Hippalus who first found out the course to saile through the middest of this sea Pliny by that name calleth the wind by which they make their iourneis through this sea So called as is very probable of the inuentour Which wind the same authour in the thirteenth chapter of his 6. booke maketh the same that Fauonius is vnto the Latines Mela Agatarchides do call it a tempestuous stormy rough and deepe sea Pliny Philostratus Elianus Athenaeus do giue it the title of Margaritiferum the pearle-bearing sea And the same Pliny maketh it Arboriferum a tree-bearing sea For he writeth in the fiue and twentieth chapter of his thirteenth booke that it is full of groues and tall woods the toppes of whose high trees he affirmeth are seene much aboue the waters and therfore at high tide they vse to fasten their shippes vnto the toppes and at the ebbe vnto the roots of the same Item the same authour in the two and twentieth chapter of the sixth booke of his Naturall historie writeth that about Colaicum which also is called Colchi or as Solinus affirmeth about Tapobrana an iland not farre hence the sea is of a very greenish colour and so full of trees that their toppe boughes are barked and brushed with the rudders or sterne of those ships that saile this way Moreouer that trees do grow in this sea Megasthenes out of Antigonus de Mirabilibus doth affirme which Plutarch in his Naturall questions and againe in his booke de facie Lunae doth auouch to be true where he doth particularly nominate some of them to wit Oliue-trees Bay-trees and Plocamus which otherwise they call Isidis Capillus This also Strabo in the sixth booke of his Geography iustifieth to be true so doth the forenamed Pliny who teacheth vs that it is a plant much like to corall without leaues Agatarchides saith that it resembleth much the blacke rush Athenaeus out of Philonides the Physician writeth that the vine was first brought from the Redde-sea and planted in Greece In the eigth chapter of the fourth booke of Theophrastus his history of plants you may reade of diuerse
wals of this citie which are about three miles in compasse are not ancient although some doe write that at the entreatie of Queene Helena Constantine the Great caused them to be built Beside those many and large Suburbes without the wals there is ioined to it vpon the West the citie of WESTMINSTER and vpon the South by a faire stone bridge the BOROVGH OF SOVTHVVARKE equall for bignesse and multitude of people to many great and good cities So that London in this respect may iustly be called Tripolid ' Angliterra This Bridge was begunne first of timber and afterward in the time of King Iohn it was made all of Free-stone The foundation of that goodly Mynster or Cathedrall Church of Saint Paul was first laid by Ethelbert King of Kent z Yarmouth as we now call it a very goodly sea towne in the county of Norffolke situate at the mouth of the riuer Gerne Garienis whereof it tooke the name and was first called Giernemouth and then by corruption in processe of time Garmouth and Yarmoth It is inclosed almost on all sides with water vpon the West with the riuer aforesaid vpon the South and East with the maine sea only vpon the North it lieth open to the firme land vpon which side it is defended from the assault of the enemy by a very strong wall which together with the riuer doe make a kinde of Square figure longer one way then an other On the East side standeth a Block-house well furnished with great ordinance to defend the hauen and towne from pirates and sea robbers It hath but one Church but that is a marueillous faire great one with a very high Spire seene far off both by sea and land a What this towne should be and where it should stand I cannot say for certaine The letters in the Arabicke and the proportion of distance from Yarmouth and Grynsby doe directly point at Drayton in Northhampton-shire But because it is too far off from the sea and was neuer greater then now it is and for that I finde him so often faulty in those accounts I doe not beleeue that he meant that place The name commeth very neere to Torksey which is situate vpon the Trent and as Master Camden sath although now it be but a small towne yet in times past it hath beene much greater and more famous For in time of William the First as appeareth by Doomesday booke it had two hundred citizens and enioyed many great and large priuileges b Grimsby in Lincolnshire sometime a very great Marte towne much resorted vnto from all quarters both by Sea and Land so long as the hauen lay open ready to entertaine Ships of any reasonable burden But as the hauen did in continuance of time decay so the glory of the towne by little and little vanished and resigned vp her trade vnto Kingston vpon Hull her ouerthwarte neighbour which euer since the time of Richard the Second hath greatly flourished in whose daies of a small village and a very few poore Fisher-mens cottages it began to grow to that greatnesse that of a sudden it was not much inferiour to many prety cities c Yorke a very goodly citie situate vpon the riuer Ouse For beauty greatnesse strength riches and pleasure it is inferiour to none in all England but London only Old writers call it EBORACVM the Welchmen Ebrauc or Effroc the Saxons Eferwic And therefore I suspect that this my authour did write it _____ Efferwic not _____ Effradic but I alter nothing It is a very ancient citie oft mentioned in Roman Coines and histories whereby it is manifest that Legio sexta victrix the sixth conquering legion did ordinarily reside in this city The Emperours Seuerus and Constantius father to Constantine the Great so long as they abode in this I le did keepe their court heere and dying in these parts were buried in this city This Constantius being a very godly and religious Christian Prince made it first as our histories report a Bishops sea which Honorius Bishop of Rome afterward aduanced vnto the dignity of a Metropolitane or Archbishopricke which beside the large iurisdiction that it had heere in England had also vnder it all Scotland d Wiske it is called at this day It riseth in Richmond-shire not farre from Wharleton Castle as Christopher Saxto maketh me beleeue e I finde no mention at all of this place either in Master Camden or any other Onely in the same Saxton vpon the foresaid riuer some two or three miles aboue Northaluerton I finde Danby Wiske but whether our authour meant this or not I cannot tell But I would gladly learne of what place the Lord of Vescy tooke his name f Lincolne a large and faire city situate now vpon the North side of the riuer Witham called by Ptolemey and Antonine LINDVM by Beda Lindecollinum by the Normans as Master Camden testifieth Nichol. g This is very false For this riuer hauing hitherto from his fountaine bent his course Northward as if it meant indeed to vnload it selfe at Grimesby doth notwithstanding heere alter that determination and turning it selfe cleane another way at length falleth into the sea at Boston a place almost full South both from Lincolne and Grimesby h Durham situate vpon the top of an hill by the riuer Weare which runneth almost round about it and thereupon was called by the Saxons Dun-holme that is if we shall interpret it into English The hill-ile is no ancient city For the fiirst stone of it as our histories report was laid by the Monkes of Lindesferne in the yeere of our Lord 995. before that we find no mention of it William the First built the Castle vpon the top of the Hill which since that time was the Bishops palace i Ireland the greatest iland in these Seas Brittain only excepted for it runneth out in length from South to North about foure hundred miles and where it is narrowest it is well neere two hundred miles ouer But of this we haue spoken in another place k Denmarke we now cal it is for the most part inuironed and washed with the salt sea and therefore he doth not greatly erre in that he termeth it An Iland l Island if I be not deceiued which Solinus in the thirtie fiue chapter of his Polyhistor saith is two daies saile from Cathnesse the North cape of Scotland His words are these A Caledoniae promontorio Thulen petentibus bidui nauigatio est Those that doe trauell betweene the cape of Caledonia or Cathnesse and Thule doe make it two daies saile Item in the same chapter a little beneath he writeth that Ab Orcadibus Thulem vsque quinque dierum noctium nauigatio est From the Orkney iles to Thule are fiue daies and fiue nights saile Yet Island is not that ancient Thule as Master Camden in his Britania proueth at large The position and distances answer well to Thule but the quantity or bignesse argueth that he meant Island which is much farther off either from