All the ground of this fancy as I conceive is because this fish hath a bunch of cirri somewhat resembling a tuft of Feathers or the tail a Bird which it sometimes puts out into the water and draws back again We were much surprised to find of this shell-fish in these Seas so southernly and far from the scene of the Bernaclefable I shall now set down what plants we found about Catania and Syracusa About Catania Scammonea Monspeliacoe affinis Park Plumbago Plinii Aganus castus which two we observed also in many other places Cruciata marina Anonis marina procumbens flore luteo jam descripta Sedum minimum non acre totum rubrum flore hexaphyllo purpureo Upon Mount Aetua we found Tragacantha C. B. Towards the top of the Mountain we observed Barberry-trees growing plentifully which is a rare shrub in hot Countreys and which we found no where else in Italy or Sicily At Messina they shewed us for a rare plant the common Goose-berry bush About Syracusa Thymum Creticum Ger. Origanum flore albo capitulis squammatis rotundis Verbascum 4 Matthioli The same kind of Melissa we found about Messina and have already described Teucrium Baeticum Jacea lutea capitulis spinosis Lagopus quaedam procumbens spicâ longiore Anonis purpurea minima supina non spinosa Many others we might doubtless have found had it been safe for us to have searched the Rocks near this City OF MALTA THE Island of Malta is 20 miles long 12 miles broad and 60 miles in circuit distant from the primo terreno or nearest part of Sicily 60 miles from the Cape of Calipia anciently called Promontorium Mercurii the nearest point of the Continent of Africa 200 miles as divers of the most skilful and experienced Pilots did affirm to Abela for an undoubted truth from the Cape of Spartivento in Italy but 190. So that upon account of vicinity it is rather to be attributed to Europe than Africa especially if we allow Sicily to have been of old time united to and so part of the Continent The reason why others make it a member of Africa is because the present Inhabitants of the Countrey speak a kind of Moresco or Arabic The old City called Città notabile situate about the middle of the Island hath 35 degrees 15 minutes of Northern latitude and the longest day there is of 14 hours 52 minutes I am not ignorant that Heylin and others who reckon this among the Isles of Africa place it nearer the Coast of Barbary assign it less latitude and allow the longest day no more then 14 hours but I do in these and other particulars follow the more accurate observations of Johannes Franciscus Abela a learned man and native of this Island in his Malta illustrata written in Italian and published in Malta Anno 1646. in folio The whole Island from the shallowness of its soil there being in few places above two foot depth of of earth before you come to firm stone and from the lowness of its situation not much elevated above the level of the water and having no considerable hill in it seems to have been in the most ancient times nothing else but a great Rock wholly overwhelmed and covered with the Sea especially if we consider the multitude of Sea shells of all sorts Sharks teeth vertebres of Thornbacks and other fish bones petrified found all over the Island even in the highest parts of it and most remote from the shore For that these were formed by some plastick power in the stone-quarries being nothing else but the effects or productions of nature sporting her self in imitation of the parts and shells of these animals I can hardly be induced to believe nature which indeed is nothing else but the ordinary power of God not being so wanton and toyish as to form such elegant figures without further end of design than her own pastime and diversion But a very likely thing it is that the Sea being shallow above this Rock for some ages before it came to be uncovered there should great beds of Shell-fish harbour and breed in so convenient a place and the water leaving them their shells remain and petrifie I confess its hard to imagine how the carcasses of so many Sharks should come to be lodged heer as by the multitude of teeth that have been for so many years past and are still daily digg'd up we must needs grant unless perchance they remain of the heads of such Sharks as were caught and eaten by the Fisher-men who it is likely after the discovery of this Rock frequented heer and made it a station for fishing before it came to be inhabited To this difficulty Mr. Steno returns answer in these particulars 1. That such Sharks or Sea dogs have each of them 60 teeth and more and that all the time they live they breed new teeth 2. That the Sea agitated by the winds is wont of protrude thosebobodies it meets with towards some one place and there heap them together 3. That Sharks swim in great troops or sholes and consequently that the teeth of many of them may have been left in one place 4. That in the Malta earth besides these Sharks teeth are found also sundry Cochle-shells so that if the number of teeth should encline a man to ascribe their production to the earth on the other hand the make of the same teeth and the abundance of them in every animal and the earth like the bottom of the Sea and other marine bodies found in the same place do favour the contrary opinion The soil notwithstanding the rockiness and shallowness of it hath been by the Ancients celebrated for fertility Fertilis est Melite sterili vicina Cosyroe Insula Ovid. Fast But undeservedly if we understand it of Corn for there is not much Wheat sown heer and that we saw upon the grounds was but thin and slight And though Barley be their chief crop and of which the Countrey people make their bread yet have they not near enough of that to serve the ordinary uses of the Inhabitants so that they are forc'd to fetch most of their Bread-corn out of Sicily The main commodities which the Island yields wherewith the Inhabitants drive a good trade and inrich themselves are 1. Cumin-seed which they call Cumino agro or sharp Cumin of which are gathered about 3000 Cantares yearly one Cantare being equal to 116 pound weight English 2. Annise-seed which they call Sweet-cumin of which are gathered and transmitted into Foreign parts 1000 Cantares yearly These seeds are sold at 7 8 or 9 crowns the Cantare and we were told that the year before our being there Ann. 1663. were vended 7000 Cantares of both sorts 3. Cotton-wool called in Latine Xylon or Gossipium of which they send abroad yearly 14000 Cantares in the husk They have of late begun to plant Indigo which my Author saith agrees with the soil and likes and thrives there very
numbers of these under-ground Trees found and digged up in Mosses and fenny Grounds where they dig for Turves In Eâ—gland also there are found of them plentifully in many places the Wood whereof they usually call Moss-Wood because it is for the most part digged up in the Mosses or moorish boggy Fens and Levels where they get Turves though sometimes it be found in firmer Grounds and sometimes in the sides of Mountains The Question is How these Trees came to be buried so deep under ground To which we may probably answer that many Ages ago before all Records of Antiquity yea before primitive Fame or Tradition itself these places were part of the firm Land and covered with Wood afterwards being undermined and overwhelmed by the violence of the Sea they continued so long under water till the Rivers brought down Earth and Mud enough to cover the Trees fill up these Shallows and restore them to the firm Land again In like manner upon the Coast of Suffolk about Dunwich the Sea doth now and hath for many years past very much encroached upon the Land undermining and overwhelming by degrees a great deal of high ground insomuch that antient Writings make mention of a Wood a mile and half to the East of Dunwich which is at present so far within the Sea Now if in succeeding Ages as likely enough it is the Sea shall by degrees be filled up either by its own working or by Earth brought down by Land-Floods still subsiding to the bottom and growing up over the tops of these Trees and so this space again added to the firm Land the men that shall then live in those parts if the World so long last will it 's likely dig up these Trees and as much wonder how they came there as we do at the present Moss-Wood And now that I am speaking of filling up and atterrating to borrow that word of the Italians the Skirts and Borders of the Sea I shall take leave to add by the by that to me it seems very probable that all the Low-Countries have been in this manner gained from the Sea For Varenius in his Geography tells us That sinking Well in Amsterdam at near an hundred foot depth they met with a Bed or Floor of Sand and Cockle-shells whence it is evident that of old time the bottom of the Sea lay so deep and that that hundred foot thickness of Faith above the Sand arose from the Sediments of the Waters of those great Rivers which there emptied themselves into the Sea and in times of Floods brought down with them abundance of Earth from the upper Grounds Which yet is a strange thing considering the novity of the World the Age whereof according to the usual Account is not yet 5600 years That the Rain doth continually wash down Earth from the Mountains and atterrate or add part of the Sea to the firm Land is manifest from the Lagune or Flats about Venice the Câ—amdrg or Isle of the River Rhosue about Aix in Provence in which we were told that the Watch-Tower had in the memory of some men been removed forward three times so much had been there gained from the Sea and many places in our own Land only it is a received Tradition and may perhaps be true that what the Sea loses in one place it gets in another That the height of the Mountains at least those which consist not of firm rocks doth continually diminish is I think very likely not to say certain I have been credibly informed that whereas the Steeple of Craich in the Peak of Derbyshire in the memory of some old men yet living could not have been seen from a certain Hill lying between Hopton and Wirksworth now not only the Steeple but a great part of the Body of the Church may from thence be seen Which without doubt comes to pass by the sinking of a Hill between the Church and place of View Hence it would follow that in process of time but it would be many thousands of years first all the Hills and Mountains except the rocky would by Floods and Shots of Rain be quite washed away and the whole Earth levelled But to return to the Trees One material Exception against our Solution still remains and that is that a great many of these subterraneous Trees dig'd up in England are thought to be Firs whereas that kind of Tree doth not at present and consequently we have reason to believe never did grow wild in this Kingdom To which I answer that this Exception would indeed much puzzle me were it certain and manifest that this is Fir-Wood which is so generally reputed from its Grain Inflammability and other Qualities But since it doth not clearly appear to me so to be I shall respite my Answer till I be fully satisfied concerning it From Bruges April 27. We went be Boat to Gauâ—t the greatest City of Flanders whence the Emperour Charles V. who was born here was wont to boast that he could put Paris into his Gane in which word there is an Equivoque Gane in French signifying a Glove Yet is the Wall too great for the Buildings enclosing much void ground In this City as in Bruges are 7 Parish Churches and according to Goluâ—â—x about 55 Religious Houses We ascended the Tower called Bellefort about four hundred Steps high and saw the famous Bell callâ—d Roland not so great as we imagined This City is well built well wall'd and trench'd about and the Inhabitants to us seemed very busâ—e and industrious From Gaunt April 30. we travelled to Brussels about thirty English Miles distant passing through Aolst a fortified Town of some note Brussels is the capital City of Brabant where the Spanish Governour of these Provinces who was then the Marquess of Caracene usually resides It is well built large and populous The Streets are broad the Stadt-house a fair and uniform Building The Common People here and also at Antwerp Lovain Mechlin and other Cities of Brabant as hath been noted by others make use of Dogs to draw little Carts and Wheel-Barrows laden with Commodities about the Streets But for the Advantage they make of them setting aside the maintaining of an old Custom I think they might as well employ their own Arms and Shoulders In the Gallery by the Riding place is an Echo which reflects the Voice fifteen times as we were assured We observed about ten distinct Reflections the Wind hindering us as to the rest At this time it happened Ludovicus de Bills to be in Town whom we visited and saw five Bodies which he had with him embalmed and preserved after his newly invented manner entire with all their Entrails and Bowels He was then going to the University of Lovain with whom he had made an agreement for Discovery of his Art and reading publick Anatomy Lectures Our next remove May 2. was to Lovain a large City but neither well built nor well kept only the Stadt-house is a
Ligorn Livorno called anciently Portus Liburnus some 10 or 12 miles distant This Town is not large and but low built yet very pleasant and uniform having streight streets and a spacious Piazza in the middle It stands in an open level without mountain or hillock within 5 miles of it on any side It is well-fortified with walls and bastions and a deep trench round except on the Sea-side and secured with a good Garrison being one of the most considerable and important places in all Tuscany Since the Great Duke made it a free port it hath encreased mightily in trading and riches great numbers of Merchants from all Nations resorting hither and most of the bargains for the commodities of the whole Levant being heer driven The greatest part of the Inhabitants are Strangers and Jews which last are esteemed one third of the whole number of people and thought to amount to 5000 persons and upward Before these privileges granted to Ligorn when it was thin of Inhabitants it was accounted a very bad air and an unhealthful place by reason of the fens and marshes adjoyning but now since it is become populous the multitude of fires as is supposed hath so corrected the air that people enjoy their health as well and live as long heer as in any other Town or City of Italy Near the Haven is a very magnificent statue of Ferdinand I. Great Duke about the pedestal whereof are 4 brass Statues of slaves chained of a gigantick bulk and stature The haven within the mole is but small but heer is good riding for Ships without The Great Duke in Lent time uses to make his residence in this Town heer being great variety of good fish taken in the Sea near hand and to be sold at reasonable rates all other provisions being dear enough In Ligorn we saw workmen filing of marking-stones called in Latine Lapis galactites morochthus in Italian Pictra lattaria which they told us were found at Monte negro and thereabout some 5 miles distant from Ligorn and from hence transported into France Spain England the Low Countreys c. Of the dust and filings of this stone they make the body of power for hair as the workmen informed us Of Plants we observed about Ligorn Kali geniculatum majus in the marshes by the Sea-side Absinthium Seriphium Gallicum Polium montanum album C. B. Medica doliata spinosa Medica cochleata Spinosa Med. marina on the Sands Caltha arvensis C. B. Hyacinthus palustris vernus flosculis fimbriatis albis Hyacinthus comosus Ger. Lathyrus flore coccineo Vicia luteo flore sylvestris Ochrus sive ervilia Dod. these three last among the Corn as also Gla. diolus Narbonensis Lob. Telephium scorpioides Anguill in arenosts Phyteuma Monspeliensium Cichorium pratense vesicarium Col. Medica Scutellata J. B. Iris humilis violacea latifolia eadem flore albo in rupibus ad mare Herniaria hirsuta Allii species an Ampeloprassum Ferrum equinum Lob. Orchis macrophyllâ—s Columnae Trifolium fragiferum sive vesicarium floribus nitidis rubellis flosculis velut in umbella parva dispositis Chrysanthemum Bellidis folio Hort. Pat. inter segetes Buphthalmum Cotulae folio C. B. an Chrysanthem Valentinum Clusii Anthyllis leguminosa flo purpureo Cruciata minima muralis Col. Peplus minor J. B Ageratum sive Balsamita mas A sort of Draba with a white flower Hieracium perfoliatum besides many which we had found in other places as that sort of Dorycnium which J. Bauhinus calls Trifolium album rectum hirsutum valdè Carduus Chrysanthemus Narbonensis which Lobel calls Eryngium luteum Monspeliensium Heliotropium majus Carduus solstitialis Ger. Cichoreum pratense verrucarium in arvis passim Blattaria flore luteo Convolvulus minimus spicifolius Lob. Melissa sylvest hirsutior minùs odorata Dorycnio congener planta Rapistrum monospermon Ammi vulgare Passerina Tragi Sideritis vulgaris Aster luteus foliis ad florem rigidis Stoebe major caliculis non splendentibus Between Pisa and Ligorn we noted Leucoium bulbosum majus polyanthemum Ger. in the marshes near Pisa plentifully Aristolochia clematitis Aster conyzoides nobis dictus Asparagus altilis Gramen supinum aculeatum J. B. Besides these we observed some which grow wild in England but more rarely as Leucoium marinum majus folio sinuato Orchis fuciflora galeâ alis herbidis Hyacinthus stellaris vernus minor Eranthemum sive flos Adonis Trifolium pumilum supinum flosculis longis albis P. B. Ferrum equinum Germanicum siliquis in summitate C. B. At Ligorn finding a good Dutch Vessel ready to set sail for Naples we put our selves aboard her The wind not favouring us we spent five days in this passage before we reached our Port. The Captain of the Ship told us that heerabouts usually in the forenoon the wind blows from the Land and in the afternoon from the Sea so that it is Easterly in the forenoon and Westerly in the afternoon We also observed in this Voyage that about Sun-set the wind fell so that soon after Sun-set there was little or no wind stirring and likewise several days about Sun-rising we had but little wind In our return backwards from Messina to Naples and from Naples to Ligorn we observed that the wind for the most part sate contrary to us And the Sea men told us that this was general in Summer time So that you have a much quicker passage from Ligorn to Naples and thence to Messina than backwards We observed also that the wind follows the Sun so that every morning we could make some use of the wind to sail with but in the afternoon none at all which agrees exactly with our Captains observation the land lying Eastward and the Sea West Our Captain also told us that when they made a Voyage from Holland to the West-Indies they sailed down the Coast of Africa as far Southward as the place in the West-Indies whither they intended to go lay and then steer'd directly Westward both the wind blowing constantly from the East and the Sea also running the same way Which relation of his concurring with the general vogue of Mariners if true doth much confirm the opinion of the diurnal motion of the earth When they return backwards from thence into Holland they go round about the Bay of Mexico and up a good way northward and then strike over to Europe the water being reflected as he said that way and the wind also often blowing that way Naples lies by the Sea side under hills in form of a Theater for its figure and situation much like to Genua but somewhat bigger and much more populous so that before the last great Plague which swept away as we were credibly informed at least 120000 souls one might well reckon the number of Inhabitants to have been about three hundred thousand The circuit of the walls is not above seven Italian miles but it hath large Suburbs The Town is well built of stone the
in the publick Schools but all the Students are covered both at Lectures and Disputations not only in the University but in all the Universities we have been at beyond the Seas If an desire to be admitted of the University they go to the Rector magnificus who gives them each a Seal and then they are freed from paying Exeise The Students usually list themselves under some Professor who reads to them in private running through a whole Faculty which they call Collegium instituere and for this they give a Gratuity to the Professor In conferring Degrees here is no Respect had to Standing When any one intends to commence in any Faculty he makes Theses upon the Subject he intends to answer which Theses are printed and these he is obliged to defend against all Opponents The Respondent hath his Seat under the Prosessors as in our Schools for the Opponents there is no particular Seat but in any part of the Schools where they happen to be they arise and there stand and oppose first asking leave of the Professor that presides at the Act. Any one that pleases may oppose with the Professors leave Liberalium Artium Magister and Doctor are the only Degrees conferred here Each of the Professors have 200 or 300 l. per an stipend allowed them by the States The chief Trade of this City is Clothing The Roofs of the Houses are more steep than ordinary made so on purpose to cast the Rain-Water into a Chanel or Trough which conveys it into a large Cistern where it is kept for the uses of the House Great Chanels of Water pass through many of the Streets On the Tower of the Stadthouse stands a Watchman who blows a Trumpet every hour and if any Fire happens he sounds an Alarm Below stands a Guard of thirty armed Soldiers and at each Port ten Every hour of the night a man goes about the Streets and making a noise with a Rapper tells with a loud voice what of the Clock it is In the Anatomical Theater are preserved many Sceletons of Men and Beasts Skins of Beasts parts of exotic Animals and other Rarities We noted a horned Beetle from the East-Indies an Armadillo petrified Mushromes Lapis ceraunias Caput porci fluviatilis è Brasiliâ Ala Hirundinis marinae ex Oceano Orientali Gammari Aethiopici Thus fossile Moravicum Capsula Chinensis cum capite animalis partim cervinam partim porcinam naturam repraesentante ex insulâ Celebes Indiae Orientalis Niduli crustacei ex cautibus regni Jehovae quae à Chinensibus in deliciis habentur these we saw afterwards in Kircher's Musaeum at Rome and elsewhere Folium Betle sive Siri it resembles the great Satyrion Leaf Of these Leaves and the Fruit of the Tree Arek mingled with a little Chalk is made the Indian Betle which is very stomachical and a great Regale at visits Faba Aegyptia sive Bonamicia Elephants Skulls Guandur formicas vorans or the Ant-Bear Myrenceter bigger than an Otter having a very long Snout long crooked Claws coarse bristly Hair and a long brush Tail Grallae sive Calopodia Norvegica a Fish with two Feet Capriscus Rondeletii Tigris capta in Jacatra regno In the publick Library are preserved the Manuscripts of Joseph Scaliger and Libri Orientales quos Vir Cl. Jacobus Golius impensis publicis ex Oriente huc advexit This Town is well walled and trencht about encompassed with pleasant Walks of Lime-Trees He that desires more particular Information concerning the University and publick Buildings of the City c. may consult Meursius his Athenae Batavae and Hegenitius his Itinerarium Hollandiae Before we left Leyden we made a by-Journey to Sevenhuys a Village about four leagues distant to see a remarkable Grove where in time of year several sorts of Wild-Fowl build and breed We observed there in great numbers 1. Scholfers i. e. Gracculi palmipedes in England we call them Shags they are very like to Cormorants only less We were much surprised to see them being a whole-footed Bird alight and build upon Trees 2. Lepelaers called by Gesner Plateoe sive Pelecani by Aldrovandus Albardeolae we may term them in English Spoon-Bills 3. Quacks or Ardeae cinereae minores the Germans call this Bird the Night-raven because it makes a noise in the Night Nocte clamat voce absonâ tanquam vomiturientis Gesner 4. Reyers or Herons Each sort of Fowl hath its several Quarter When the young are ripe they who farm the Grove with an Iron Hook fastned to the end of a long Pole lay hold on the Bough on which the Nest is built aud shake the young ones out and sometimes Nest and all down to the ground Besides the fore-mentioned Birds there build also in this Wood Ravens Wood-Pigeons and Turtle-Doves This place is rented for 3000 Gilders per Annum of the Baron of Pelemberg who lives at Lovain only for the Birds and Grass By the way to this Place we observed in the Ditches Lysimachia lutea flore globoso and Arum sive Dracunculus aquaticus All the Countrey about Sevenhuys towards Leyden is a flat or fenny Level full of shallow Pools of Water there we observed their manner of making Turf They rake or fish up Mud from the bottom of the Water with a Net like a Hoop-Net fastned to the end of a Pole and fill therewith a flat-bottomed Boat Out of the Boat they throw this Mud with a long Shovel or Scoop on an even piece of ground making of it a Bed of an equal thickness so near as they can there it lies to drain and dry After a while they tread it with broad Boards fastned under their feet to make it close and smooth When it is moderately dry they cut the whole Bed with a kind of Spade into pieces of the bigness of a Brick These they pile up in small conical Stacks or long Ranks laying the Turves so that a man may see through the Stacks and the Wind blow through them to be further dried At last they house them in Barns that are thatcht the sides not walled up close but made of wooden Bars set at a little distance one from another June 6. we took Boat for Haerlem where we arrived at four hours end This is a large populous and pleasant City strongly wall'd and entrenched Water is brought through many of the Streets Without the Walls towards Leyden are pleasant Groves In the Summer-House in the Garden of the Princes Court here is a Picture of Laurentius Costerus in a furr'd Gown holding the Letter A in his Hand and this Inscription over it M. S. Viro Consulari Laurentio Costero Harlemensi alteri Cadmo Artis Typographicae circa Annum Domini MCCCCXXXX Inventori primo His Statue and the Inscription on his House in the Market-place mentioned by Hegenitius we could not find being as we were told lately bought and removed thence The Butchery of this Town is a handsome Building and covered with Lead which we
remote from Commerce The Inhabitants reap no small benefit from the frequency of Strangers which in the Summer-time repair thither in great numbers to drink the Medicinal Waters There is one Well called Pouhont within the Town in the Market-place which tasts strong of Vitriol the Virtues whereof are contained in this Distich written over it Obstructum reserat durum terit humida siccat Debile fortificat si tamen arte bibis The other Wells are at a good dâ—â—â—nce from the Town 1. Sauvenir to the Eastward about an hours walk remote 2. Geronster as far to the Southward and 3. Tonnelet about the mid-way between Pouhont and Sauvenir These Waters seemed to me more brisk and sprightly and better sated with Mineral Juices than any I have tasted in England and doubtless are more nimble and vigorous in their Operations But of their several Natures and Virtues Henricus ab Heer 's hath written a particular Treatise entitled Spadacrene to which I refer the Reader that is desirous to know more of them In the Woods and upon the Rocks near this Town we found many rare Plants which we had not before met with I mean spontaneously growing in their natural places viz. Asclepias flore albo Polygonatum minus Cyanus major Rapunculus spicatus Campanula persicifolia Sideritis flore pallido similis Ladano segetum c. June 28. From the Spaw we travelled to Aken passing through Limbourg three hours distant a Town considerable for its Strength being situate on the side of a Hill and encompassed with a strong Wall and Trench not for its Bigness it consisting only of one short broad Street nor for its Beauty the Buildings being all of Wood. The Garrison at our being there was about 300 Soldiers Before we entred the Town we were met upon the way by some of these Soldiers who very insolently stopt our Horses demanding Money of us which we were forced to give according to their discretion before they would let us pass which though it were no considerable Sum yet was more than we were willing should be violently extorted from us When we were past the Town we met also with many of these Straglers by whom it was told us many Robberies are committed hereabout Aken called by the French Aix la Chappelle to distinguish it I suppose from Aix in Provence is a free City of the Empire very considerable for its Strength and Greatness being encompassed with a double Wall and having in it 30 Churches About now some 15 years ago here happened a lamentable Fire which almost ruined the Town burning down to the ground 4500 Houses from which Calamity it was not half recovered at the time of our being there In the great Piazza or Market-place is a handsom Fountain with this Inscription about the edges of the Basin Hîc aquis per Granum Principem quendam Romanum Neronis Agrippae fratrem inventis calidorum fontium thermae à principio constructae postea verò per D. Carolum Magnum Imp. constituto ut locus hic sit caput regni sedes trans Alpes renovatae sunt quibus thermis hîc gelidus fons influxit olint quem nunc demum hoc aeneo vase illustravit S. P. Q. Aquisgranensis Anno Domini 1620. The Iron Crown wherewith the Emperor is crown'd and the Sword of Charlemaigne which he holds when he is crown'd and is obliged to wear by his side three days together and wherewith he creates Noblemen as also the Gospels said to be written by the Evangelists own hands are here kept and every Coronation sent to Frankfurt The Chair wherein the Emperor sits when he is crown'd here hath its Sides of Ivory and its Bottom as they fondly imagine of the Wood of Noah's Ark. This City according to the best information we could get there is governed by a Maior two Consuls or Burgomasters fourteen Scabins and about 120 Senators or Counsellors The Maior is President of the Scabins and executes their Sentences he is put in by the Duke of Gulick and continues during Life modò bene se gesserit The Consuls are chosen by the Suffrage of the several Companies of the City and continue two years modò bene se gesserint every year there is one chosen One that is no Senator may be chosen Consul or Burgomaster and yet these have the chief power The Scabins are Judges and continue during Life when one of them dies the rest chuse another in his place The Senators are chosen by the several Companies of which there are about fourteen or fifteen in this City Every Company chuses eight Half the Senate are yearly chosen The Territory of this City is large containing about 200 Villages and is for the most part encompassed with Mountains We saw here the manner of making Brass of Copper by mingling and melting therewith Lapis Calaminaris which changes the colour thereof from red to yellow and increaseth the weight by thirty in the Hundred But that for which this Place is most remarkable and from which it took its Name are the Hot Baths of which there are several within the Walls and others without at Borcet a great Village less than an English mile distant The Waters of Borcet at the Sources where they issue out of the Earth are much hotter than those of the Bath in England and the Springs more plentiful The People there told us and I can easily believe them that they will serve to boil Eggs in Their Tast seemed to us saltish They are used outwardly for Bathing and taken inwardly for many Diseases As we walked to Borcet we could not but take notice of a Pool whose Waters were almost tepid by reason of a little Stream from the Hot Baths running through it wherein we were assured were bred and fed good store of Fish which are put into cold Water for a moneth or two before they eat them But of the Nature Kinds Ingredients and Uses of the several hot Waters as well those of the City as of Borcet the following abstract of an Epistolary Discourse concerning them written in French and published by Francis Bloudel M. D. will give the Reader more particular Information Observations concerning the Baths of Aken collected out of an Epistolary Discourse Published in French by Francis Blondel M. D. NOt to trouble the Reader with the various Opinions of Antient and Modern Philosophers concerning the Cause of the actual Heat of natural Baths our Authors accompt thereof in reference to these of Aken is in brief as follows These Waters saith he passing through a certain argillaceous Earth pregnant with a kind of nitrous Salt almost of the same tast with the Waters of the Baths which is to be found in good quantity in the lands about this City charge themselves therewith and so become a menstruum capable of dissolving such Minerals and Metals as are conteined in the Veins of the Earth through which they run This Solution he conceives is made by piercing
the Antiquities of Augusta Rauracorum formerly a great City now a Village called Augst not far distant from Basil The great Church or Cathedral at Basil was built by the Emperor Henry II. who married Cunigunda the Daughter of an English King S. Pantalus an English man was the first Bishop here The graver sort of Citizens and Magistrates wear Ruffs and Steeple-Caps The Professors and Ministers wear the same Caps and Ruffs and besides short Gowns which reach little lower than their Knees Many of the Countrey-Boors wear Straw-Hats The Women wear their Coats very short and some of them little round Caps on their Heads very like the young Scholars Caps in Cambridge but less and a Tin-Girdle about their Wasts We saw in this City Dr. Fel. Platerus his Musaeum or Cabinet wherein there is a good Collection of Minerals Stones Metals dried Fishes and other natural and artificial Rarities gathered by Tho. Platerus the Father and Fel. Platerus the Son and disposed in a good Method the Names being set to each one Here and at Zurich are Sermons every day in the week at several Churches David George that monstrous Fanatic died in this City at whose Death there happened a great Tempest of Thunder and Lightning and a Thunder-bolt brake into his House About Basil we found growing wild beside what we had before met withal Scrophularia Ruta canina dicta Passerina Tragi among the Corn. Phalangium parvo flore ramosius Blitum minus album J. B. in fimetis Cymbalaria Italica hederacea in muris urbis ad portam quae Argentinam ducit Stoebe major calyculis non splendentibus in marginibus agrorum muris passim toto itinere à Frankendaliâ ad Basileam usque Polium montanum Lavendulae folio Consolida media Genevensis J. B. Cneorum Matthioli seu Thymelaea minor Cordi But if any one desires a more particular account of what Plants grow wild about Basil C. Baâ—thinus his Catalogus Plantarum circa Basileam nascentium will give him full satisfaction August 10. from Basil we set forward for Zurich At the end of one Dutch mile we passed Augst supposed to have been Augusta Rauracorum There we view'd the Ruines of an antient Building judged by Amberbachius to have been an Amphitheater Next we rode fast by a wall'd Town on the Rhene subject to the Archduke of Inspruck On the Hills hereabout we first saw Fir-trees growing wild Then we passed through Bruck a pretty little walled Town having one handsom Street well built with tall Houses of Stone and Fountains in the middle and lodged at the Baths of Baden six miles distant from Basil This day we first took notice of the little green Tree-Frogs The Baths here are said to be sixty in number but small the Water is very hot Baden is a walled Town seated on the side of a Hill by the River Limagus about half an English mile distant from the Baths Here the Delegates of the thirteen Cantons meet and sit The poor People put a Cheat upon Strangers bringing them to sell as they pretend fossile Dice which they say they dig out of the Earth naturally so figured and marked But I am well assured such as they brought us were artificial Dice and if they dig'd them out of the Earth they first buried them there themselves From Baden Aug. 11. we rode along by the Limagus on one hand and fair Vineyards on the other to Zurich Zurich is pleasantly situate at the end of a Lake call'd Zurich-Sea scarce so big as Basil but I think more populous The River Limagus which runs out of the Lake divides it into two almost equal parts which are joined together by two Bridges one very broad for Carts and Horses to pass over The Houses are built of Timber with Clay-Walls handsomly painted many of them four or five Stories high The Streets are narrow but well paved with Flints and great Pebbles This City is as well fortified as the Situation of it will permit besides the Wall being encompassed round with good Earthworks and Trenches after the modern fashion The River Sele runs by and gives defence to it on the South side and a little lower empties itself into the Limagus The Citizens are given to Merchandise all very busie and industrious They either are rich or at least so esteemed and therefore envied by their Neighbours of the Romish Religion Here are no Guards of Soldiers at the City-Gates no Strangers examined or searcht either at coming in or going out We observed the colour of the Water of the zurich-Zurich-Sea to be greenish and well approaching to that of Sea-water Afterwards we found the Water of all the Lakes and Rivers near the Alpes to be of the same colour at which we were not a little surprised For we were wont to attribute that colour in the Sea-water to the mixture of Salt that is in it whereas the Water of these Lakes and Rivers discovers to the Tast nothing of Salt or brackish But afterwards considering that these Waters did consist for the most part of Snow dissolved and that Snow is supposed to contein good store of nitrous Salt we thought it not altogether improbable that this Colour may be owing to the nitrous Particles remaining in the Water though they be not copious enough to affect our Tast and it would be worth the while to distil good quantities of this Water to see whether it would leave any Salt behind That these Lakes and Rivers do consist for the most part of Snow-water it is manifest for that upon the Mountains excepting the lower parts of them no Rain falls in Winter-time but only Snow with which the higher parts of them are covered to a great thickness for at least six moneths in the year and for that the Rivers that flow from the Alpes run lowest in Winter and abound most with Water in the Summer-time so that sometimes they overflow their Banks in the hottest moneths of the year and when no Rain falls as my self can testifie concerning the River Rhodanus because the Sun at the season melts the Snow upon the Mountains Hence it appears that their Opinion was not so absurd who attributed the yearly Increase and Overflowing of the River Nilus to the dissolution of the Snow upon those Mountains where it hath its first Rise Though I do not think this to be the true Cause partly because that part of the Earth where those Mountains lie is so hot by reason of its Situation under the direct and sometimes perpendicular Beams of the Sun that it 's not likely any Snow should fall much less lie there chiefly because Travellers generally agree that in most parts of that Climate where those Mountains lie there are at that time of the year great falls of Rain to which therefore the Overflowing of Nilus is more probably attributed The Government of this City is by a greater and a lesser Council The lesser Council consists of 50 viz. 24 Tribunes or
which seemed to divide the Cavity of the Shell into a multitude of very proportionate and regular Cells or Caverns these Diaphragms in many of them I found very perfect and complete of a very distinct Substance from that which filled the Cavities and exactly of the same kind with that which covered the outside being for the most part whitish or mother of-Pearl coloured As for the Cavities between those Diaphragms I found some of them fill'd with Marl and others with several kinds of Stones others for the most part hollow only the whole Cavity was usually covered over with a kind of Tartareous petrified Substance which stuck about the Sides and was there shot into very curious regular Figures just as Tartar or other dissolved Salts are observed to stick and crystallize about the sides of the conteining Vessels or like those little Diamants which I before observed to have covered the vaulted Cavity of a Flint others had these Cavities all lined with a metalline or Marcasite-like substance which I could with a Microscope as plainly see most curiously and regularly figured as I had done those in a Flint From all which and several other particulars which I observed I cannot but think that all these and most other kinds of stony bodies which are found thus strangely figured do ow their Formation and Figuration not to any kind of Plastic Virtue inherent in the Earth but to the Shells of certain shell-Shell-fishes which either by some Deluge Inundation Earthquake or some such other means came to be thrown to that place and there to be filled with some kind of Mud or Clay or petrifying Water or some other Substance which in tract of time hath been setled together and hardned in those shelly Moulds into those shaped Substances we now find them That the great and thin end of these Shells by that Earthquake or whatever other extraordinary cause it was that brought them thither was broken off and that many others were otherwise broken bruised and disfigured that these Shells which are thus spirallied and separated with Diaphragms were some kind of Nautili or Porcelane-Shells and that others were Shells of Muscles Cochles Periwinkles Scallops c. of various sorts that these Shells in many from the particular nature of the conteining or inclosed earth or some other cause have in tract of time rotted and mouldred away and only left their Impressions both on the conteining and conteined Substances and so left them pretty loose one within another so that they may easily be separated by a knock or two of a hammer That others of these Shell-fishes according to the nature of the Substances have by a long continuance in that posture been petrified and turned into the nature of Stone That oftentimes the Shell may be found with one kind of Substance within and quite another without having perhaps been filled in one place and afterwards translated to another which I have very frequently observed in Cochle Muscle Periwincle and other Shells which I have found by the Sea-side Nay further that some parts of the same Shell may be filled in one place and some other Caverns in another and others in a third or a fourth or a fifth place for so many differing Substances have I found in one of the petrified Shells and perhaps all these differing from the encompassing Earth or Stone The means how all which varieties may be caus'd I think will not be difficult to conceive to any one that has taken notice of those Shells which are commonly found on the Sea-shore And he that shall throughly examin several kinds of such curiously form'd Stones will I am very apt to think find reason to suppose their generation or formation to be ascribable to some such Accidents as I have mentioned and not to any Plastic Virtue For it seems to me quite contrary to the infinite prudence of Nature which is observable in all its works and productions to design every thing to a determinate end and for the atteining that end makes use of such ways as are as far as the knowledge of man has yet been able to reach altogether consonant and most agreeable to mans reason and of no way or means that doth contradict or is contrary to human ratiocination whence it has a long time been a general Observation and Maxim that Nature doth nothing in vain it seems I say contrary to that great wisdom of Nature that these prettily shaped Bodies should have all those curious figures and contrivances which many of them are adorn'd and contriv'd with generated or wrought by a Plastic Virtue for no higher end than only to exhibit such a form which he that shall throughly consider all the circumstances of such kind of figured Bodies will I think have great reason to believe though I confess one cannot be able presently to find out what Natures designs are Thus far Mr. Hook And Steno agrees exactly with him and is far more positive and confident For saith he that these Shells were once the parts of Animals living in a fluid though there never had been any testaceous marine Creatures the very view of the Shell itself evinceth as may be evident by the instance of bivalve Cochle-shells Concerning these Shells his Observations and Discourses are very consonant with Mr. Hook's One or two particulars not yet mentioned which may further confirm this Opinion I find in him viz. 1. That there was found a Pearl-bearing Shell in Tuscany a Pearl yet sticking to the Shell 2. A piece of the greater Sea-nacre Piuna marina in which the silk-like substance within the Shell being consumed the colour of that substance did remain in that earthy matter which had filled the Shell 3. That about the City of Volterra there are many beds of earth not stony which do abound with true Cochle-shells that have suffered no change at all and yet they must needs have lain there above 3000 years whence it is evident that part of Tuscany was of old time covered with the Sea and why then might not as well all those other places where these petrified Shells are found Against this Opinion lie two very considerable and material Objections which I shall heer propound First it will hence follow that all the Earth was once covered by the Sea and that for a considerable time for there being found of these Shells in the middle of Germany at least 200 miles distant from any Sea as my self can witness nay upon the highest Mountains of Europe even the Alps themselves as may be proved by sufficient Authority the Sea must needs have covered them and consequently the water keeping its level all Europe and the World besides Now that ever the Water should have covered the Earth to that highth as to exceed the tops of the highest Mountains and for a considerable time abode there is hard to believe nor can such an Opinion be easily reconciled with the Scripture If it be said that these Shells were brought in by
river falling into the Dravus and had very rocky way among high mountains till we came to Orlesteina a village where we lodged We travelled among high mountains very bad way to a village called Klein Tarvis two miles and proceeding on still among the mountains we came to the river Timent which runs into the Adriatic Sea and lodged this night at Pontieba the last town we passed in the Emperors countrey part of it is subject to the Emperor called Pontieba Imperiale and part to the Venetians called Pontieba Veneta where we took a bill of health for Venice Between Klein Tarvis and Pontieba we saw a herd of Goats following the Goat-herd like so many dogs in other places we have seen sheep in that manner following their shepherd which no doubt was usual in Judaea for our Saviour John 10. 4. comparing himself to a shepherd and his disciples and servants to sheep saith And he goeth before his sheep and they follow him for Which would have seemed strange to the hearers had the shepherds been wont only to drive their sheep as with us they do We past over the river Timent by a bridge that parts Carinthia from Friuli About a German mile off we came to a little fort in a village called Clausen where are two draw-bridges which we were not permitted to pass till we had delivered our bill of health Hence we travelled along by the river and observed timber-trees floted down the stream and when the rocks stopped them men with hooks put them off and directed them into the force of the current This is the manner all over the Alps and other high mountains they fell trees and get them to any little current of water and expect a good shot of rain and then flote them down to the greater rivers This day we passed Vensonga a pretty little wall'd town and lodged at Hospitaletto a large village where we got quit of the mountains and came into the plain Countrey of Friuli We passed by Limonia a wall'd town situate on the rising of a hill at the foot of the mountains Some miles further we passed S. Danicle then we forded the river Timent in several places The river heerabouts in a time of rain or when the snow melts on the mountains spreads itself to a very great breadth as appears by the empty chanel Soon after we had passed the river we ascended a cliff and entred the walls of a little town called Spilimberg where were rows or cloisters on each side the street under the houses which we after found in many of the towns of Lombardy ten Italian miles further riding brought us to S. Avogio a village where we rested this night We rode along the plains and at ten miles end came to Saribe a walled town where the river Livenza divides itself and encompasseth the wall From hence we drove on about two Dutoh miles and lodged at Conegliano a wall'd Town seated on the ridge of a hill a place of good account as is also Saribe All the way we travelled in Italy hitherto we had little other bread than what was made of Sorghum a grain the blade whereof arises to seven or eight foot highth and is as great as ones finger bearing a large panicle on the top the berry or seed being bigger than that of wheat and of a dusky colour We rode a Dutch mile and then ferried over the river Anaxus or Piave and at ten Italiam miles further come to Treaviso a large Town the head of a Province called Marea Trevisana an important place for strength but too near and too obnoxious to Venice to be rich From Treviso we rode through a very fertil and well cultivated countrey to Mestre a little Town by the Lagnne so they call the Flats about Venice which are all covered with water when the Tide is in where we took boat for Venice Upon the mountains we passed over this voyage we found a great number of plants we had not before met with as Quinquifolium albâ—m majus caulescâ—â—â— C. B. Quinquefolium album majus alterum C. B. Teucrium Alpinum Cisti flore Epimcdium vilgae Linaria purpurea parva J. B. And not far from Pontieba on Italy side upon the rocks Ledum Alpinum hirsutum C. B. Ledum Alpinum hirsutum minus An Cistus Austriacus myrtifolius Auricula ursiâ— Sedum serra tum alterum foliis longis angustis Sedum Alpinum minimum foliis cinereis flore candido J. B. Siler montanum and many others Helleborus niger verus plentifully all over the highest mountains Scabiosa argentea angustifolia in the chanels of the torrents in Friuli and Galega by the rivers and ditches every where in Italy In Marea Trevisana some part of Friuli and the greatest part of Lombardy we observed the Corn-fields to be so thick set with rows of trees that if a man from an hill or high tower should look down upon the Countrey at a distance he would take it to be a Wood. Against every Tree is planted a Vine which runs up the tree and the branches of the neighbour-vines they draw from tree to tree and tie together So that their Corn-fields are also Woods and Vine-yards the same land sufficing for all these productions and not being exhausted with so much spending as one would be apt to imagine by reason of the depth and richness of its soil Neither in this hot Countrey doth the Corn receive any prejudice from the shade or dropping of the Trees which in our colder Climate would quite marr it but rather advantage there falling little rain in Summer-time and the Trees keeping off the scorching Sun-beams which else might dry up and wither it the heat notwithstanding sufficing to bring the Grain to perfect maturity Whereas with us all the Sun we can give it is little enough and the very grass which grows under the trees is sowr and crude for that usually we have too little heat for our moisture and they too much This part of Italy hath been deservedly celebrated for fertility and may justly in my opinion be stiled the Garden of Europe OF VENICE VEnice is built upon certain little Islands in the middle of the Sea or rather in the middle of certain Flats or Shallows covered all over with water at full Sea but about the City when the Tide is out in many places bare called by the Italians Lagune These Lagune are enclosed and separated from the main Gulf or Adriatic Sea by a bank of earth il Lito or Lido they call it extending according to Contarini about 60 miles according to Leander Albertus and others who come nearer the truth but 35 and resemble the space conteined in a bent Bow the bow being the shore of the firm land and the Lido the string The City stands at an equal distance from the firm land of Italy and from the Lito viz. five miles from each This Lido serves as
Heer also lies the famous Vessel called the Bucentoro in which upon Ascension day yearly the Duke accompanied with the Senators and attended by some thousands of Gondalo's bravely set out and adorned goes forth as it were in solemn procession some two or three miles to Sea and casting thereinto a ring saith I espouse thee in token of perpetual dominion Heer are said to be kept 20000 pieces of Ordnance great and small and arms for above 250000 men A great number 1550 of Artificers as Shipwrights Carpenters Smiths Founders c. are constantly kept at work at the public charge Of the other public places and buildings of the City as the Piazza of S. Mark the Church of S. Mark with the Treasury the Tower of S. Mark the Palace of the Duke the Chamber of the great Council the private Armory the Theatres for acting the Opera with the contrivances for moving the Scenes the Ponte di Rialto the Schools or Halls for the Fraternities the Mint-house Pillars Statues and other Ornaments of this City I shall forbear to say any thing but refer the Reader to Sansovinus Lassels and others who have minutely described those things Venice according to the old Epithet Venetia laricca hath been esteemed the richest City not of Italy only but of all Europe and doubtless was so before the passage to the East-Indies by the Cape of good hope was discovered when besides a large share of Lombardy the best Countrey of Italy Friuli Istria and Dalmatia the Islands of Cyprus and Candia Zant Cephalonia and Corfu with others in the Archipelago subject to them they were chief if not sole masters of the East-India Trade furnishing the greatest part of Europe with the commodities coming from thence which were then brought by Merchants to Alexandria in Egypt and there by them bought up So that then it was a Proverb in Italy Il bianco e'l negro han fatto ricca la Venetia White and black i. e. Cotton and Pepper have made Venice rich Since the loss of that trade and by the vast expences of long wars with the Tures wherein they came off losers at last having parted with first Cyprus and lately Candia to them their treasures I believe are well exhausted Yet the riches of private persons must needs be great the City having never been sackt nor having ever undergone any such change of Government as that one considerable party of the people hath been oppressed and their goods confiscate And though the public be not so rich as it hath been yet will it soon recover itself and grow wealthy again upon the enjoyment of Peace and free Commerce Though the wings of this Common-wealth have been a little clipt yet hath it enough still remaining under its dominion to denominate it a potent State viz. In Italy 1. The Dogado of which the City of Venice itself is the head 2. The City and Territory of Padua called Padoano 3. Of Vicenza called Vicentino 4. Of Verona called Veronese 5. Of Brescia called Bresciano 6. Of Bergamo called Bergamasco 7. Of Crema called Cremasco 8. Marca Trevisana under which are compehended Feltrino and Bellunese the territories of the Cities Feltre and Belluno Leander Albertus reckons the territories of Verona Vicenza and Padua in Marca Trevisana and of Brescia Berganio and Crema in Lombardy p. Friuli 10. Istria 11. The territory of Rouigo called Il Polesine de Rouigo formerly belonging to the Dukedom of Ferrara the whole in length being extended 250 miles and above half so much in breadth Out of Italy they have a good part of Dalmatia the Islands of Zant Cephalonia and Corfu besides others of less account The ordinary annual revenues of this Republic according to our information amount to about five millions and three hundred and twenty thousand Venetian Ducates yearly A Ducat is somewhat less than a French Crown Of which Venice it self yields 1400000 Brescia 1000000 Padoa 140000 Vicenza 200000 Verona 230000 Bergamo 140000 Crema 100000 Il Polesine 70000 Istria 150000 Il Friuli 100000 La Marca Trevisana 190000 Gli stati di mare 450000 La Zecca 150000 This City is well served with all provisions of Victuals especially fish and wild-fowl Fresh water they have none but what is brought from land and rain water which they preserve in cisterns and which serves well enough for the ordinary uses of the house The Air is very sharp in Winter-time by reason of its vicinity to the Alps. Venice is noted for the best Treacle the best both drinking and looking-Glasses made at Muran a large Burgo or Town about three miles in circuit and divided in the middle by a broad chanel like Venice in an Island about a mile distant from the City so that it may pass for a Suburb of it for Paper for Turpentine for Needle-work Laces called Points and if that be worth the mentioning for Courtezans Heer is also made Sope not inferiour for goodness to that of Castile The Gentlemens and Citizens Wives are kept close seldom walking abroad unless it be to Church and then with an old woman at their heels to guard them Most of the Gentlemen and Citizens of quality put their daughters so soon as they come to seven or eight years of age into some Cloister of Nuns to be there educated whence they are not taken out till they be married The Suiter seldom sees his Mistress before they go to be married or if he doth see her it is only at the grate of the Cloister without speaking to her all things being transacted by the Parents on each side or by the mediation of an old Woman The Government is Aristocratical but among the Gentlemen themselves were there no Citizens or Subjects it would be purely Democratical As for the Doge or Duke though they call him Prince yet they do but mock him for he hath only the Title and shew nothing of the power or Authority of a Prince The form of Government as it is exactly and particularly described by Contarini Gianotti and Sansovinus out of him because it is much talked of I shall heer briefly set down The Government then of the Common-wealth is chiefly in the Great Council the Senate or Council of Pregadi the College the Council of ten and the Siguoria Of the GREAT COVNCIL The Great Council is as it were the basis of the Commonwealth in which the supreme power resides and from which as well the Senate as all the Magistrates derive their Authority It is made up of all the Gentlemen of the City who have passed the 25. year of their age the number of which is about 2500 in all But yet before they can be admitted to give their suffrages in Council they must before the Auvogadori di Commune by the oath of their fathers or mothers or if they be dead of their nearest kinsmen prove that they have atteined that age and by the testimony of two witnesses that they are the legitimate sons of such Gentlemen as they
Servita Secundâ Horâ Ad Practicam Medicinae ordin Legant de Febribus D. Jo. Baptista Capponius D. Rubertus Muratorius D. Marcellus Malpighius abs cum reser D. Carolus Fracassatus D. Raymundus M. Pistorinus Ad Philosophiam extraord Legant de Anima D. Caesar Zoppius P. M. Vitalis Ferra-rubeus Mon. Cassinus D. Petrus Maria Cianus P. M. Marc. Ant. Fabiaus de Caritate Tertiâ Horâ Ad Lecturam Metaophysicae Legant duodecimum librum P. Abb. Fabianus de Landis Can. Lat. abs cum reserv D. Flavius Zinus Ad Philosophiam ordin Legant de Caelo mundo D. Franciscus Natalis D. Alexander Magnus D. Franciscus Gherardus D. Carolus Saxius Quartâ Horâ Ad Practicam Medicinae extraord Legant ad beneplacit P. Pompeius Bolognettus emeritus D. Carolus Riarius D. Franciscus Sacentus Ad Lecturam S. Theologiae Scholasticae Leg. primum lib. Sentent P. M. Ant. Mar. Gherardus Francisc D. Gregorius Fallonus Hibernus P. M. Sac. Philip. Pollinus Dominicanus Ad Lecturam Casuum Conscientiae P. Car. Anton. Jeachimus Ad Mathematicam Legant Astronomiam Ptolemaei P. M Joannes Riccius Carmelita D. Jo. Dominicus Cassinus Januens Ad Artem Scribendi D. Franciscus Guidicellus D. Jo. Andreas de Abantis Lecturae Vniversitatis Ad Lecturam Medicinae D. Ad Lecturam Philosophioe D. Ad Lecturam Astronomiae D. Ad Lecturam Rhetoricae D. At Bononia we saw the formerly famous exercise of Justing or Tilting which is there stil used in Carneval time The combatants being mounted on horseback armed cap-a-pee and adorned with huge Plumes of Feathers and Scarfs with Launces in their hands run one at another a full gallop one on one side and another on the other side of a low rail They aim at one particular part I think it is the eye and he that comes nearest is the best Juster We saw several Launces broken but no person dismounted nor any hurt done Heer by the favour of Dr. Ovidio Montalbano one of the Professors we had a sight of the Museum of aldrovandus which by his last Will he left as a Legacy to the City It is kept in the Cardinal Legates Palace commonly called Palazzo del Confaloniero Among many natural and artificial Rarities therein preserved we took more especial notice of 10 Volumes of the pictures of Plants and 6 of Birds Beasts and Fishes drawn exactly in colours by the hand The same Dr. Montalbanus very civilly brought us to the house of Jcaobus Zenoni an Apothecary a skilful herbarist and a collector of Rarities who among other things shewed us three pieces of rock-Crystal with drops of water enclosed in the middle of them which we could plainly perceive when the crystal was moved to and fro He hath a Garden well stored with Simples wherein we noted Arundo nastos sive farcta in rivis Rheni Boniensis Solanum Americanum fructu molli Eyst Geranium triste Cornuti Scammonea Syriaca Polytrichum Alpinum inciso folio costâ viridi Convolvulus Althaeae folio non inciso Pentaphyllum lucidum folio hirsuto ab ipso inventum prope Rhenum Bononiensem Malva Alpina folio laciniato Jacobaea folio Betonicae n. d. Abrotanum foemina inodorum Bardana de Congo Helleborus niger trifolius spinosus Cyclamen Baldense folio rotundo flore odorato Thlaspi folio Sampsuchi item folio sedi Dau us Creticus verus Stachys Cretica salviae folio Clematis Smilaci Asperae similis verum non aspera Clematis tetraphylla Americana Malva folio Betonicae ab ipso inventa Labrum Veneris Indicum altissimum Eruce Tanaceti folio Genista Alpine sive Spartium Col. Adianthum nigrum ramosum Canadense Cornut Chamaedryos spuriae species ab ipso inventa propriè Rheum fl Bononiensem besides many others which had not yet put forth it being early in the Spring The same day we visited Seignior Gioseppi Bucemi a Chymist who prepares the Bononian stone or Lapis Phosphorus which id exposed a while to the illuminated air will imbibe the light so that withdrawn into a dark room and there look't upon it will appear like a burning coal but in a short time gradually loses its shining till again exposed to the light The crude stone is like a kind of sparre or fluor it acquires this quality by being calcined ad he told us in any small furnace laying the pieces of stone upon an iron grate over a fire of wood But we believe there is somewhat more of mystery in it for some of us calcining part of the stone we purchased of him according to his direction it sorted not to make it shine The prepared stone in time loses its vertue and ceases to shine as we found by experience in those pieces we bought and brought along with us Heerabout and all along as we rode in Lombardy we saw now in flower Aconitum hyemale call'd by same Anemone Bononiensium We left Bologna and travelled to Modena by the way about 15 miles from Bol pssing by Castel-Franco a strong Fort near a Village called Villa Franca built by Pope Vrban the VIII on the Frontier of Modena Modena is 20 miles distant from Bononia no great City but for the bigness populous being the place of the Dukes usual residence which must needs draw company and business It is encompassed about with a thick wall and broad ditch and tolerably well fortified with bastions and outworks Heer as at Bononia Padua and several other Cities in Lombardy and Friuli are Portico's or Cloysters Rows they call them at Chester on each side the streets to walk in The houses are most built of brick and but of mean height as we observed them to be in all those Cities where the streets cloystered on both sides which we conjecture was the manner of building of the Goths or Lombards that invaded Italy and setled themselves in these parts Heer we saw the Dukes Palace which though it be not vast nor makes any great shew outwardly yet are the rooms within very elegant and richly adorned with gilding hangings and Pictures of the best Masters What we most minded was the Cabinet or museum furnished with choice of natural Rarities Jewels ancient ad modern Coins and Medals ancient and modern Entaglia's curious turn'd Works dried Plants pasted upon smooth boards whitened with ceruss which may be put in frames and hung about a room like pictures and a great collection of designs of the best Painters Among other things we took notice of a humane head petrified a hens egg having on one side the signature of the Sun which I the rather noted because some years before Sir Thomas Brown of Norwich sent me the picture of one having the perfect signature of a Duck swimming upon it which he assured me was natural Moss included in a piece of Crystal silver in another A fly plainly discernable in a piece of Amber A Chinese Calendar written on wooden leaves Almericus Father to the present Duke who at our being there was a child of about 3 years
very strong hold 4. Bitonto 5. Terra di Mola 6. Molfetta 7. Monopoli 8. Trani 9. Giovenazzo 10. Biseglia 11. Bitetto 12. Conversano 13. Gravina 14. Monoruino 15. Polignano or Putignano 16. Ruvo 9. ABRUZZO CITRA 5. viz. 1. Chieti 2. Sulmona 2. Benevento 4. Borrelle 5. Ortona 10. ABRUZZO ULTRA 5. 1. Aquila 2. Atri 3. Campli 4. Civita di Penna 5. Teramo 11. CONTADO DI MOLISI 4. 1. Boiano guardia 2. Alferes 3. Isernia 4. Trivento 12. CAPITANATA 13. viz. 1. Monte S. Angelo 2. Ascoli 3. Bovino 4. Ferensuola 5. Larino 6. Lucera 7. Lesina 8. Salpe 9. Vieste 10. Volturara 11. Termole 12. Sancto Severo 13. Manfredonia in all about 151. But many of these are pitiful poor desolate places inferiour to the better sort of our English Villages Every hearth fires they call them in this Kingdom of Naples pays 15 Carolines the year to the King which is about six and six pence or seven shillings English The number of fires in the whole Kingdom is 475727 besides 5804 which are exempt from payment In which number are not comprehended the fires of the Albanese and Illyrians commonly called Sclavonians who pay no more then 11 Carolines the year are numbred every year and are permitted to remove from place to place in the Kingdom The number of these extraordinary fires is 4451. So then the whole sum of the Hearth-mony is 719095 Ducats 4 Carolines from which deducting what is to be abated for places privileged and exempt from payment that which comes clear into the Kings treasury will be 654873 Ducats and six Carolines The Adogo or tax which feudatories pay to the King in lieu of personal service amounts in the whole Kingdom to 120568 Ducats They also pay Reliefs after Deaths one half of a years Revenue Besides these there are abundance more taxes and gabels paid by the Subject an account of all which in particular may be seen in Scipio Mazzella his Description of the Kingdom of Naples written in Italian and printed 1601. So that one would think it were impossible for poor Pesants to pick up so much money as they pay to the King only and yet I believe the gabels and payments are since that time much encreased The wholesum of all the Kings Entrata or Revenue yearly accruing from this Kingdom then was 2996937 Ducats 3 Carolines and 14 grains While we staid in this City we were present at the meeting of the Virtuosi or Philosophic Academy which is held weekly on Wednesdays in the Palace of that most civil and obliging noble and vertuous person the Marquess D' Arena There were of the Academy but 15 or 16 admitted but at the meeting were present at least threescore First there was shewed the experiment of the waters ascending above its level in slender tubes upon which when they had discoursed a while three of the Society recited discourses they had studied and composed about particular subjects which were appointed them to consider the week before and after some objections against what was delivered and reasonings to and fro about it the company was dismist A man could scarce hope to find such a knot of ingenious persons and of that latitude and freedom of judgment in so remote a part of Europe and in the communion of such a Church They are well acquainted with writings of all the learned and ingenious men of the immediately preceding age as Galileo Cartes Gassendus Harvey Verulam and of the present yet surviving as Mr. Boyle Sir George Ent Dr. Glisson Dr. Willis Dr. Wharton Mr. Hobbs Mr. Hook Monsieur Pecquet c. We were very much pleased and satisfied with the conversation and discourse of some of them Amongst the rest Dr. Thomas Cornelius hath made himself known to the world by his Writings We went by water to Pozzuolo anciently Puteoli there so soon as we were come into our Inn many Sea-men and Countrey people came about us some bringing Shells others Hippocampi dried others ancient medals and Entaglie others pieces of coloured glass raked out of the Sea as they told us about Argenteria Near this Town are several arches of stone 13 peers reaching a great way into the Sea Some are of opinion that this was the beginning of Caligula's Bridge over this Bay and that from the end of this pile as far as Baiae the rest of the Bridge was made of vessels locked together and fastened with Anchors on each side But more probable it is that this was intended for a mole or peer to secure the Harbour and for Ships to lie behind because upon every peer a great stone perforated stands jetting out of tie vessels unto That it was an ancient Roman work the manner of the Arches the figure of the bricks and the stateliness of it do sufficiently argue From Pozzuolo we passed over the Gulf to Baiae where are so many Antiquities that to discourse fully of them would require a volume alone And others having written at large of them both in English and Latine I shall not so much as mention any thing save only the sweating vault being one of the grots called the Bagne de Tritoli It is a long and narrow passage like the entry into some room the upper part whereof is so hot that a man cannot endure to walk upright being then in danger to be stifled by the hot and suffocating vapour with which the upper part of the Vault is filled the lower part though not cold is yet tolerable Indeed one would not think there could be so great a difference in so small a distance He therefore that goes in there is necessitated to stoop low for if you do but hold up your hand it sweats suddenly We observed that of the lower part of this vault where it was cool the sides were a firm stone but of the upper part where it was hot a soft friable yet unctuous yellow clay It seemed to us to have a mixture of sulphur and fixt salt deliquated in it but we made no trial of it by fire or otherwise Where this stratum or region of clay begins there precisely doth the heat begin so that where the region of clay goes lower there you must stoop lower to avoid the heat In this hot steam there is a watery vapour conteined as appears by the drops notwithstanding all the heat condensed on the sides of the vault as on an Alembic head As we returned we viewed the new Mountain called by some Monte di cenere raised by an Earth-quake Septemb. 29. 1538 of about an hundred foot perpendicular altitude though others make it much higher according to Stephanus Pighius it is a mile ascent to the top and 4 miles round at the foot We judg'd it nothing near so great The people say it bears nothing nothing of any use of profit I suppose they mean else I am sure there grows Heath Myrtle Mastich-tree and other shrubs upon it It is a spungy kind of earth
well He also mentions a sort of excrescence or moss or scurf which the Rocks about S. Maria el Aalia and other places on the North side of the Island naturally put forth called by the Countrey people Vercella which they scrape off with an iron instrument and having washed it with a certain liquor and mingled it with other Ingredients He tells us not what that liquor or those ingredients are they expose it to the Sun and use it to dye wool of a carnation colour This kind of moss called in Wales Kenkerig and in England Cork or Arcel is gathered and used for the same purpose in Wales and the North of England Malta hath been famous of old for a breed of little Dogs called Catuli Melitaei the race whereof is quite extinct and now their Cats are as much esteemed The Roses of Malta contend for sweetness with those of Paestum and the Honey with that of Hybla or Hymettus So that some suppose this Island had its name Melita from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifying honey The air is clear and healthful and the people long lived Not much rain falls heer yet sufficient to supply water to feed their springs of which there are several in the high grounds or small hills about the middle of the Island That these Springs proceed from rain-water only my Author doth very well prove because they are found only at the foot of little hills consisting of a certain porous stone which the Maltese call Giorgiolena or a chalky earth which easily imbibes the rain And to speak in general that all springs and running waters owe their rise and continuance to rain seems to me more than probable 1. Because I never yet saw any springing or running waters breaking out either on the top of a hill or so near the top but that there was earth enough above them to feed such Springs considering the condition of high mountains which are almost constantly moistned with clouds and on which the Sun-beams have but little force and yet I have made it part of my business in viewing the highest hills in England and Wales to examine this particular Nor have I yet ever observed such springing and running waters in any plain unless there were hills so near that one might reasonably conclude they were fed by them 2. Many springs quite fail in dry Summers and generally all abate considerably of their waters I am not ignorant that some make a distinction between failing springs and enduring springs and would have the former to proceed from rain and the latter from the Sea but I see no sufficient foundation for such a distinction and do think that both the one and the other are to be attributed to rain the failing and enduring being to be referred either to the different quantity and thickness of earth that feeds them or to the different quality the one more quickly the other more slowly transmitting the water or some such like accident 3. In clay grounds into which the water sinks with difficulty one shall seldom find any springs but in sandy gravelly rocky stony or other grounds into which the rain can easily make its way one seldom fails of them 4. They who would have fountains to arise from and to be fed by the Sea have not as yet given a satisfactory account of the ascent of water to the tops of mountains and its efflux there For though water will creep up a filtre above its level yet I question whether to so great an excess above its aequilibrium with the air whereas in pumps we see it will not rise above two or three and thirty foot or if it should whether it would there run out at the top of the filtre we not having as yet heard of any experiment that will countenance such a thing For the ascent and efflux of sap in trees I suspect may be owing to a higher principle then purely mechanical As for the Sabulum Quellem or Arena bulliens of Helmont I look upon it as an extravagant conceit of his and yet some ground there is to believe that there is a kind of earth lying up and down in veins which doth like a filtre retain the water and carry or derive it along as it lies from place to place till it brings it to the supersicies of the earth where it runs out In other places there are subterraneous channels like the veins in animals whereinto the water soaking into the earth is gathered and wherein it runs as above ground out of smaller rivulets into greater streams and where one of these veins opens in the superficies of the earth there is a spring greater or lesser according to the magnitude of the vein Nor need we wonder that springs should endure the length of a dry Summer for in many sorts of earth the water makes its way but slowly since we see that in those troughs or leches wherein Landresses put ashes and thereupon water to make a lixivium the water will be often many hours before it gets all through the ash and the Lech ceases to drop and in many Chymical preparations which are filtred its long before the liquor can free it self and wholly drain away from the earthy and feculent part Some attribute the original of fountains to watery vapours elevated by subterraneous fires or at least by that generally diffused heat which Miners find in the earth when they come to 50 or 60 fathoms under ground and condensed by the tops and sides of the mountains as by an Alembick head and so distilling down and breaking out where they find issue And in reason one would think that generally the deeper one digs in the earth the colder one should find it sith the Urinators affirm that the deeper they dive in the Sea the colder still they find the water And yet were there such subterraneous heats they are not so great as that it is likely they should elevate vapours so high through so thick a coat of earth which it must be an intense heat indeed will carry them through which heat none say is found near the superficies of the earth Mr. Hook's account viz. that salt water being heavier than fresh by reason of its preponderancy it may drive up the fresh as high above the surface of the Sea as are the tops of mountains before it comes to an aequilibrium with it is very ingenious and would be most likely were there continued close channels from the bottom of the Sea to the tops of mountains not admitting the air which I believe will not be found in many places What is said about ebbing and flowing wells in confirmation of it adds no strength for none of those ebbing and flowing wells that I have yet seen do at all observe the motion of the Sea but reciprocate two or three times or oftner every hour excepting one on the Coast of South-Wales in a sandy ground by the Sea-side not ¼ of a mile from the water which
observes the Tides but it is no running water nor doth it I believe arise above the level of the Sea I do therefore shrewdly suspect for fabulous whatever hath been written of Wells remote from the Sea which in their ebbing and flowing observe its motions But for a reason of the ebbing and flowing of these Wells I must confess I am hitherto at a great loss Whereas some say that rain sinks not above a foot or two deep into the earth if they understand it of all earths it is manifestly false for that we see in Coal delfs and other mines in wet weather the Miners are many times drown'd out as they phrase it though no water run down into the mouths of their pits and shafts and in sandy and heathy grounds in the greatest rains little water runs off the land as on Newmarket-heath Gogmagogâ—hills Salisbury-plain c. and therefore it must needs sink in and out of the mouth of Pool-hole near Buxton in the Peak of Derby and other Caves in the sides of mountains in rainy seasons streams of water many times run out where in dry weather and Summer time there are none Neither is this opinion we defend any more repugnant to the Scripture then the other For whereas it is said Eccles 1. 7. All the rivers run into the sea yet the sea is not full unto the place from whence the rivers come thither they return again we grant it to be most true nay we think such a circulation absolutely necessary to the being of springs only we assert it to be performed not under ground but above that is the clouds take up water out of the Sea and pour it down again upon the earth and from part thereof falling upon and soaking into the higher grounds arise the springs But to return to Malta the Haven is very commodious and secure divided into two by a little promontory or neck of land some 1500 canes long and 380 broad upon which the new City is built Of these two that on the West side the City is called simply and per Antonomasian Marsa that is the Haven and is in length 1800 canes or poles of ten palms the cane Roman measure and is sub-divided into other crecks or sinus's That on the East-side called Marsa moscetto is as large as the other in a little Island within which is the Lazaretto near it Ships that come from infected places keep their Quarentain The new City called Valetta is divided into 20 streets 8 in length and 12 in breadth all streight Though they be not paved yet they need it not the Town being built upon a solid rock They want no uniformity but being level which the place being uneven uphill and down-hill will not admit The houses are all of stone flat-rooft and covered with plaister which is sufficient heer there falling but little rain though they be not tall yet are they neat and pleasant Upon the roofs of their houses in Summer time the people set their beds as at Aleppo and sleep in the open air The number of the Inhabitants of all ages according to a survey taken in the year 1632 was 10744 the number of houses 1891 which sum is I believe since that time much encreased Over the gate of this City leading to the land called Porta reale you have this Inscription giving an account of the first founding and building of it Fr. Jo. de Valetta sacrae Domûs Hospitalis Hierosol M. Magister periculorum annosuperiore à suis militibus populóque Melitoeo in obsidione Turcica perpessorum memor de condenda nova urbe eâque moeniis arcibus propugnaculis ad sustinendam vim omnem propulsandósque inimici Turcae impetus aut saltem reprimendos munienda inito cum Proceribus consilio Die Jovis 28 Martii 1566 Deum omnipotentem Deiparâ—mque virginem numen tutelare D. Joannem Baptistam Divósque caeteros multa precatus ut faustum felixque Religioni Christianae fieret ac Ordini suo quod inceptabat bene cederet prima urbis fundamenta in monte ab incolis Sceberras vocato jecit eámque de suo nomine Valettam dato pro insignibus in Parma miniata aureo leone appellari voluit Fr. Antonius de Paula M. Mag. invictiss Conditoris tantaeque rei monimentum P. C. Anno ab Vrbe Fundata 68. It is fortified with impregnable Walls and Bulwarks especially toward the land where one would think there are too many and yet they are still adding more Within the outmost wall or between the two walls and outworks they have enclosed a great space of void ground whether with design to enlarge the City filling that space with houses or to receive the Country-people in case the enemy should land upon the Island I know not All the walls and bulwarks are mined or vaulted underneath that so in case the besiegers should get upon them they might be blown up and rendred useless The charge of all these Walls Castles and Fortifications would be intolerable had they not stone at hand and slaves to work This City is well served with all provisions there being every morning a Market plentifully furnished with bread flesh fish poultry fruits herbs c. of the best in their several kinds and to be bought at easie rates The most considerable buildings in this City are 1. The Church of St. John Baptist patron of the Order wherein are many Chappels and Altar-pieces richly gilded and adorned Heer lie buried the Grand Masters that have been since the Order was translated hither in a vault under ground several of them having in the Church Monuments with inscriptions This Church is not yet quite finished The Castle of S. Elmo which stood heer before this City was built on the utmost point of the Promontory A strong place but of no great capacity Heer we observed the like winding ascent to the top without any steps or stairs as in the tower of S. Mark at Venice Upon the top of this Castle is constant watch and ward kept When they descry any Vessel coming toward the Island be it great or small they set up a Flag suitable to the bigness of the Vessel if two Vessels two if three three and so on according to their number signifying also by the place where they set these Flags from what quarter East West North or South such Vessel or Vessels come So that the City is presently advised what Vessels and how many are near the Port. In this Castle are imprisoned such Knights as have committed any misdemeanour and held in restraint longer or less time or further proceeded against according to the merit of their fault Before this Castle are the Granaries where the provisions of Corn for the City are kept These are nothing but Caves hewn out of the rock in the form of a Cupola or ordinary Bee-hive having each a narrow mouth above They are constantly stored with Corn enough beforehand to serve the whole City for
as in England no man touches viz. Kites Buzzards Spar-hawks Kestrels Jayes Magpies and Wood-peckers Nothing more commonly sold and eaten heer and in all Italy than Coots and Stares They spare not the least and most innocent birds which we account scarce worth the dressing much less powder and shot v. g. Robin-red-breasts Finches of all kinds Titmise Wagtails Wrens c. No want of fish either of fresh or salt water though it be sold commonly dearer than flesh as being brought a great way Scarce any fish to be found any where on the coast of Italy but some time or other it may be met withal heer Those that are the most frequent in the markets are of River or Fresh-water fish Pike Carp Tench Trout Eel Barble Chevin Dace I do not remember that I ever saw a Perch to be sold in Rome Of Sea-fish Mullus antiquorum which they call Triglia of which they have a Proverb La Triglia non mangia chi la piglia He that takes the Triglia eats it not This fish the French call Rouge from its colour and we in Cornwal where I have seen of them taken Surmullet Spiegole in Latine Lupus marinus of which kind I have not seen any in England Orate Giltheads Cephali which we in English call Mullet the ancients called it Mugil Sarde a kind of Sprat Conger Lamprey Sole Plaise and others of the flat kind Merluzzos which we call Hake sometimes small sturgeons Dog-fish of several sorts Tuny and Sword-fish is also to be sold heer Wild Boar and venison of wild Deer you shall seldom faâ—l of to be sold in the Poulterers shops Their wild Deer they call Capreole it is for the most part very lean Porcupine also is sometimes to be sold in the markets Oranges and Lemons are cheap in Rome Pears and Apples if they be good and large fruit dear they sell them by weight heer as they do generally all over Italy Their bread is very good and light notwithstanding they use no yeast to raise it and cheaper than ours in England And heer by the way it may not be amiss to take notice that the use of yeast for the raising and fermenting of bread in these Northern Countries hath been very ancient I find mention of it in Pliny lib. 18. cap. 6. who thereupon gives their bread the preeminence for lightness Galliae saith he Hispaniae frumento in potum resoluto quibus diximus generibus spumâ itâ concretâ pro fermento utuntur Quâ de causâ levior illis quà m caeteris panis est Heer is great variety of Wines more sorts commonly sold than in any other City of Italy as Greco Lagrime or Naples Languedoc wine wine of Syragusa and Augusta in Sicily Orvietano Jensano Monte Pulciano di Monte fiascone Castelii Romano and which is most commonly drunk Albano Most of the wines are sweet and full-bodied and will bear half water Sweet wines they call abboccati and rough wines asciuti They have little wine so harsh and rough upon the palate as our French Claret and Florence red wine though those also are to be had heer Their Olives are small but good and sweet They have plenty of Wall-nuts and Hazel-nuts and other fruits the same that we have For Apples and Pears no Countrey hath better I had almost said so good as we in England For Apricocks I tasted none beyond the Seas comparable to ours Rome is noted for several commodities and manufactures as Viol and Lute-strings the best in Europe perfumed gloves combs made of Buffles horns womens fans Vitriol Essences Commonly all strangers that travel thither buy of those things not for their use only but to make presents of to their friends Heer is doubtless the best music in the world especially voices there being many Eunuchs and Nuns a great part of whose employment it is to sing in the Quire For pictures of the best masters Rome excells all places there being more heer than I think in all Italy besides so that Rome is become the school of Painters who come from all parts of Europe hither to study and practise At present Cavalier Bernini is the most noted and indeed only excellent Sculptor and Pietro de â—ortona the most eminent painter The ville as they now call them of the Princes and prime Nobility of Rome for gardens of flowers groves and thickets of trees cut hedges of Cypress Alaternus Laurel Bay Phillyrea Laurus tinus and other semper-virent plants close and open walks of great length orchards of fruit-trees Labyrinths fountains and ingenious water-works Bird-cages statues and other ornaments especially their greatness some being in compass 3 or 4 miles excel the orchards gardens and walks of any Prince in Christendom that I have seen Of these there are a great number but the chief of all are 1. The Villa Borghese of which family was Pope Paul V. This is esteemed the best of all the villae and gardens about Rome though it be not so vast as 2. the villa Pamphylia of which family was Pope innocent X. This is on the Janiculum without S. Pancras's gate and is said to be 4 miles in compass 3. The Villa Ludovisia belonging to the Prince Ludovisio of which family was Gregory XV. 4. The Popes garden at the Vatican called Belvedere 5. The Popes garden at monte cavallo 6. The garden of the Grand Duke or the villa de Medici 7. The garden of MontaltoÌ„ 8. The garden of the Mattei In all which there are little palaces furnished and adorned with excellent statues bassi rilievi pictures and other curiosities which I forbear to enumerate and describe at large that I may not spend time and waste paper in writing what few will think worth their while or pains to read and which hath already been published by Mr. Lassels in his voyage of Italy to which I refer the curious for further satisfaction Of the palaces and public buildings I shall say nothing only I cannot forbear a word or two of S. Peter's Church which is in my opinion the most stately sumptuous and magnificent structure that now doth or perhaps ever did stand upon the face of the earth This was the only building that surprised me and exceeded my expectation being for a work of man the most pleasant and goodly not to say ravishing object that ever I beheld The whole pile of that majestic bulk and greatness that it exceeds in all dimensions the most famous Temples mentioned by the ancients being in length 520 foot as Mr. Lassels tells us and 385 in breadth and in some the greatest Christian Churches for though it be not so long as S. Pauls London yet is it much broader and in that respect much handsomer the breadth being more proportionate to the length The cupola of that marvellous highth and compass the diameter thereof beâ—ng equal to that of the Pantheon and sustaining on the top a huge stonelanthorn with great pillars of stone about it that it may
the Diameter of the Church is 14 of my ordinary paces which are near so many yards In the midst of this stone is a round hole to let in the light Upon the top of it formerly stood a porphyry monument of Theodoricus a Gotthick King who is supposed to have built it This monument is now taken down and set in the wall of the Covent of the Succolanti by the way-side with this inscription Vas hoc Porphyriacum ol Theodorici Gottor imp cineres in Rotundae apice recondens huc Petro Donato Caesio Narnien praesule favente translatum ad perennem memoriam Sapientes Reip. Rav. PP C. MDLXIII The Monastery of the Succolanti is one of the fairest we have seen belonging to that order and the Church dedicated to S. Apollinaris deserves notice taking as well for the double row of marble pillars brought from Constantinople by Theodoricus as for the ancient figures of Mosaic work in the walls In the Domo we noted the figures of the Archbishops of Ravenna in Mosaic work Eleven of them had a Dove standing upon their heads which they say were chosen by a Dove alighting and sitting upon their heads the legend whereof may be seen more at large in Schottus Near the Franciscans Cloyster is the monument of Dante the famous Poet which is an arch erected to his memory by Bernardus Bembus the Venetian Podestà in Ravenna under which is his effigies and two inscriptions in Latine verse I. Exiguâ tumuli Dante 's hîc sorte jacebas Squallenti nulli cognite penè situ At nunc marmoreo subnixus conderis arcu Omnibus cultu splendidiore nites Nimirum Bembus musis incensus Etruscis Hoc tibi quem inprimis hae coluere dedit II. Jura monarchiae superos Phlegetonta lacúsque Lustrando cecini voluerunt fata quousque Sed quia pars câ—ssit melioribus hospita castris Auctorémque suum petiit felicior astris Hîc claudor Dante 's patriis extorris ab oris Quem genuit parvi Florentia mater amoris These verses are said to have been made by Dante himself sed Musis parùm faventibus and if he had not composed better in Italian he had not deserved the reputation of so great a Poet. This City may boast of its antiquity and what it hath been not what it is and yet the Cardinal Legate Governour of Romandiola usually resides heer It is very ill served with fish notwithstanding it is so near the Sea there 's scarce a good Inn in Town it lying out of the way of travellers and strangers and being no through-fare What was true of old is true still heer It s harder to get good water than good wine Sit cisternae mihi quam vinea malo Ravennae the water being all brackish Neither yet was the wine we met withal any of the best I wonder this City should not be more populous and rich the Countrey on the Northside all along to Faenza seeming to be fat and fertile land and being planted after the manner of Lombardy It lies indeed very low yet I believe now adays is never overflown We observed in this journey from Rome to Venice a great difference between the temperature of the air on this side and on the other side the Appennine mountains on the other side it being very temperate and warm but on this side as cold and raw as it is at any time in winter with us or indeed can well be in open weather and that this cold did not proceed from a general change of weather since our coming on this side we are well assured for we heard of no such change and we found snow lying heer in the low grounds in many places which on the other side was all melted and gone even upon the hills before our coming over The reason of this is obvious because this ridge of hills being higher than the lower region of the air or place where the Sun-beams are reflected hinders the commixture of the warm Southerly and Western air with the cold Northerly and Eastern but especially stopping on one hand the South and West winds which else would drive the temperate air and tepid vapours into these parts and on the other hand the cold Northern and Eastern blasts which else would temper and much abate the warmth of those beyond the mountains Hence I do not think incredible nor much wonder at what is related by some Travellers of a mountain in the East-Indies on the one side whereof it is Summer when on the other it is Winter We left Ravenna and rode along the bank of the River Montone till we came within 4 or 5 miles of Faenza The Countrey on each side this river was much like to Lombardy The river ran very swiftly notwithstanding to the eye the Countrey seemed to be an exact level From Ravenna to Faenza we had 20 long miles Faenza is a pretty little City encompassed with a strong brick wall at present neglected and out of repair famous for earthen ware made heer esteemed the best in Italy Before we entred the Town we passed a little Suburb and then the bridge in the midst of which stands a tower Upon S. Thomas his day yearly all the Gentlemen of Faenza meet and chuse Magistrates for all the year viz. 8 Antiani or Senators and a Chief who is called Prior for every month so that for every year there are 12 several Senates From Faenza we travelled on to Imola 10 miles The way was very streight I suppose part of the Via Aemilia About the midway between Faenza and Imola we passed through a little walled Town called Castel Bolognese Half a mile short of Imola we ferried over the river Senio Imola anciently Forum Cornelii is a lesser Town then Faenza hath a fair square piazza with a cloyster or Portico on one side it We travelled to Bologna upon the Via Aemilia In this side of Italy they have a custom to boil their wines to make them keep better The boil'd wine which they call Vin Cotto seemed to us much stronger than the wine unboil'd which they call Vin Crudo We took the Florentine Procaccios boat to Venice Passing through 9 Sostegni we came to Mal Albergo where we shifted our boat going down from a higher to a lower channel which brought us to Ferrara which they reckon to be 45 miles distant from Bologna From Ferrara we were towed by a horse up a streight artificial channel to a place called Ponte where we changed our boat again coming into the river Po In the Po we were rowed down stream about 27 miles to Corbola where we shifted our boat the fourth time not for any necessity of the place as before but because we then came into the Venetian territory and so must take a Venetian boat We went but 2 or 3 miles further down the Po and then struck into a channel on our left hand passing a sluce to a little Town called Loreo
Communities he is obliged during his Office to reside in the City The lake of Zugh hath great variety of fish more then any other lake of Switzerland if the people there may be believed They named to us Eels Carps Perches Trouts Salmons which is very strange there being no way for them to get thither but up the Rhene and so they must have a course of above 500 miles and besides there being at Wasserfal a huge Catarract of the whole river which one would think it were impossible to pass Esch called by the Italians Temelo and in English Grayling Trisea or Trasine in English Eelpout Pikes of which we saw one taken that weighed 30 pound weiss-Weiss-fish or Alberlin called at Geneva Farra This fish is taken in the lake of Bala in Merionethshire in Wales and there called Guiniad from the whiteness of it and in huls-Huls-water near Pereth in Cumberland and there called Schelley Hassler which I take to be the Charre of Winandermere in Westmerland and the Torgoch of Northwales Balla Nase called by Naturalists Nasus Breams Crevises and a great many sorts more to the number of at least 50. In many of the shadowy lanes we passed through about Stantz Zug and elsewhere we observed growing plentifully Aublatum Cordi or Dentaria aphyllos We travelled from Zug to Zurich which is 5 good hours riding But of that City we have already written From Zurich we rode to Mellingen a free Town not far from Baden 4 good leagues and then through a little walled Town belonging to the Bernese called Lensburgh and lodged at Arauw a considerable Town upon the river Aar subject also to the Bernese 4 short leagues We travelled a streight rode passing no considerable Town till we arrived at Soloturn 9 leagues distant from Arauw This though it be the head of a Canton is no large Town nor very considerable for its strength We diverted out of the common rode to Geneva to see Bern 6 hours distant from Soloturn This is a handsome City built all of stone though the houses be not tall It hath one fair long street with narrow portico's or Cloysters on each side It lies stretched out in length upon a hill which I may call a Peninsula it is so almost begirt about with the river On that side where it is not compassed with the river it is strongly fortified with good bastions and outworks The Founder of this City as also of Friburg in Switzerland and Friburg in Brisgoia was Berchtoldus Duke of Zerin as appears by the inscription upon their moneys To him they have erected a monument in the great Church This Church is one of the handsomest stone-fabrics in all Switzerland The territory of this City is more then on third part of the Countrey of the Suisses and is divided into 60 Praefecturae or Bailyages besides 4 which are common to them with Friburg For this reason there must needs be many rich men in the City though they have but little trade The Landtvogts or Bayliffs continue in office 6 years during which time they enrich themselves well yet do not their subjects complain but acknowledge themselves well used by their Governours Heer they keep 5 or 6 Bears in a pit These Bears I observed to climb the firr-trees growing in the pit and delighting to sit on the tops of them like birds on a perch The Arms of the Town is also a Bear which they took I suppose alluding to their name Bern And they first coyned the mony called Batzes from the figure of a bear stamped upon it which afterward all the Cantons imitated calling it also by the same name From Bern we rode to Friburg a handsome Town and the head of a Canton built upon a hill almost begirt with a river after the manner of Bern and by the same Founder on all sides environed with hills save where it is continuous to the land Their territory is surrounded with and enclosed in the territory of Bern. From Friburg we travelled through Maulton to Lausanna a great Town and an University and from Lausanna April 19. through Morges a large Town Rolle and Nion considerable Towns by the lake of Geneva's side and Verfoy a little Town on the lake near Geneva belonging to the French and came to our lodging at Geneva where we rested and sojourned near 3 months The Governments of Soloturn Bern and Friburg are much like that of Lucern In Soloturn the number of the lesser Council is 35 and of the greater 115. When one of the 35 dies the 34 remaining chuse one into his place out of the 115. When one of the 115 dies or is advanced the rest chuse one into his place out of the number of the Citizens In Bern the greater Council consists of 200 and the lesser as we were told there of 42 though Simler makes them but 26. These Councils are chosen by 20 Electors and the Sculthess viz. the four Signiferi of the City and 16 whom they pick out of the whole body of the Citizens and joyn with themselves In Friburg the lesser Council is of 24 and the greater of 200. When one of the lesser Council dies they chuse one into his place out of the greater and when one of the greater dies or is removed the lesser as I understood them chuse one into his place out of the number of the Citizens All these Cities have 2 Sculteti or Consuls who rule alternis annis He that desires a more full and particular account of the government of these Cities may consult Simler de Repub Helvetiorum Each of the Cantons have some Saint or other to be their Patron and protector whose image the popish Cantons set on the reverse of their monies v. g. S. Oswald a King of England Protector of Zug In their Church they have his reliques and have set up his image on horseback The Protestant Cantons are Zurich Bern Basel Sehafhausse part of Glaris and part of Appenzel That which most frequently breeds differences a quarrels among the Suitzers is the business of the common vogties or Bailywicks For most of these I mean the Dutch ones being of the reformed religion are oppressed and injured by the Popish Lantvogts the Protestant Cantons not knowing how either to help and relieve them or retaliate For the Popish Cantons being more in number than the Protestants they send Lantvogts to these places twice to the Protestants once This one of the Ministers of Zurich told me wad fundi sui calamitas and occasioned the two late breaches among them The Switzers on each side are very stiff in their Religion the Papists not permitting or tolerating one Protestant nor the Protestants one Papist in their proper territories Though the Cantons adhering to the Church of Rome are more in number yet the reformed are much the greater besides that their land is better very like to ours in England The Romanists are accounted the better Souldiers and
fruits doth not inhere in the oil at least which is made by expression and it deserves examination whether the chymical oil may not also be devested of the taste of the vegetable from which it is extracted Olives when they come to maturity change colour and become black as some other plums do but it is very late in the year first They are then notwithstanding of a horrid and ungrateful taste firing the throat and palate of one that eats them They afford most oil when fully ripe but best as they told us when gathered and pressed green Sometimes they pickle ripe olives but they will not last therefore those which they pickle to send abroad are gathered green The pickle they use is nothing else but a brine of salt and water Near Peroul about a league from Montpellier we saw a boiling fountain as they call it that is the water did heave up and bubble as if it boiled This phaenomenon in the water was caused by a vapour ascending out of the earth through the water as was manifest for that if one did but dig any where near the place and pour water upon the place new digged one should observe in it the like bubbling the vapour arising not only in that place where the fountain was but all thereabout The like vapor ascending out of the earth and causing such ebullition in water it passes through hath been observed in Mr. Hawkley's ground about a mile from the Town of Wigan in Lancashire which vapour by the application of a lighted candle paper or the like catches fire and flames vigorously Whether or no this vapour at Peroul would in like manner catch fire and burn I cannot say it coming not in our minds to make the experiment From Montpellier we took a journey of pleasure to see the adjacent Countrey and first we rode to Frontignan a little wall'd Town by the Estang side 3 miles distant which gives name to the so famous muscate wine The Countrey about this Town toward the Sea southward lies open to the Sun but toward the land northward it is encompassed with a ridge of hills in form of a bow touching the Sea at each end so that the whole is like a Theatre in the Arena and on the sides of the hills grows the muscate grape of which this wine is made In this space are contained two other little Towns the one called Miraval the other Vich This last gives name to a mineral water springing near it much used heerabout It hath an acide Vitriolic taste but nothing so strong as our Spaw-waters and therefore I guess the operation of it is much weaker At Frontignan and other places we saw the manner of making raisins uvae passae They take the fairest bunches and with a pair of scissers ship off all the faulty grapes and tie two bunches together with a string Then they dip them in a boiling lye lixivium into which they put a little oil till they are very plump and ready to crack Jo. Bauhinus saith that they let them continue so long in the boiling lixivium quoad flaccescant tantùm corrugentur But we observed no such thing for they did not continue the bunches half a minute but presently took them out again and washed them in a vessel of fair cold water then they put them upon wooden poles for two or three days in the shade to dry and after that exposed them to the Sun taking them in in the night-time or rainy weather Cyprianus Eichovâ—ns describes the manner of making raiâ—ins in Spain thus There are saith he two sorts of Vvae passoe or raisins the one of those they call Raisins of the Sun of a blew colour the other of the Vvae passae Lixae which they call Frail or basket-Raisins In preparing the first sort they thus proceed When the bunch they design for that purpose begins to grow tipe they cut the foot-stalk of it half asunder that so the radical juyce or moisture may be at least in a great measure deteined and not pass to the grapes and so they leave it hanging on the vine Then by the heat of the Sun the grapes are by degrees dried When they are sufficiently dry they gather them and put them up in vessels The second sort they make on this fashion When they prune their vines they bind up the cuttings in faggots and reserve them till the vintage time Then they burn them and of their ashes make a lye or lixiviâ—m which they boil in great vessels and there in â—immerse the bunches of grapes one by one Afterwards to dry them they spread them upon a paved floor clean swept made for that purpose in the vineyard that so they may be the more speedily dried by the Sun-bâ—ams When they are sufficiently concocted and dried they put them up in frails or baskets After the same manner they prepare figs for to dry by dipping them in a lixivium made of the ashes of the dried branches of the figtreâ— cut off in pruning But however they superstitiously observe to make their lixivium for raisins of the ashes of branches pruned off of the vine c. I doubt not but the ashes of any wood indifferently taken would serve as well for that purpose From Frontignan we rode to Balleruch to see the hot waters which are used as well inwardly as outwardly At our being there which was in the beginning of September the water was scarce luke-warm they told us that in the Winter it was very hot The Bath is not above two flight-shots distant from the Estang and the water thereof tastes very salt and brackish whether by reason of the Seas being so near it or because the water comes from some salt mine I know not yet the latter seemeth the more probable because should it come from the Sea the water straining through so much sand would probably lose its salt by the way as we have found by experiment in England At Gabian about a days journey from Montpellier in the way to Beziers is a fountain of Petroleum It burns like oil is of a strong pungent scent and a blackish colour It distils out of several places of the rock all the year long but most in Summer time They gather it up with ladies and put it in a barrel set on one end which hath a spiggot just at the bottom when they have put in a good quantity they open the spiggot to let out the water and when the oil begins to come presently stop it They pay for the farm of this fountain about 50 crowns per. ann We were told by one Monsieur Beaushoste a Chymist in Montpellier that Petroleum was the very same with the oil of Jet and not to be distinguished from it by colour taste smell consistency virtues or any other accident as he had by experience found Upon the coast of the Mediterranean Sea in several places as at Berre near Martegue in Provence at Messina
with a carneous the other with a blew flower From Lansa we went on the same day as far as Cau de Creux 5 leagues or 20 English miles from Bagnols Among these mountains we met with no brooks and scarce any water September 1. We intended to have seen the Coral-fishing heer but the windy weather hindred us The Sea must be very calm and smooth else it is impossible for them to fish for it It grows downward as the urinators told us under the hollow rocks and not upwards as trees I believe rather that it grows indifferently either upwards or downwards according to the situation of the rocks Near C. de Creux upon the mountains they find a kind of Selenitis which may be cut or flit into very thin plates like the common Muscovy-glass Upon the shore are thrown up conchae venerea of several sorts and magnitudes and other smal shells of affinity to them which they call Porcellane These they put in the juyce of lemons or citrons and set them out in an open bottle all night Thâ— dew mingling with the acid juyce dissolves the Porcellane This liquor they use for a Cosmetic They catch fish about C. de Creux as at Naples bâ— hanging a fire-brand or other light at the end of thâ— boat which entices the fish into the nets This day we passed by Rosas a strong Garrison Castillon Villa sacra and lay at Figera Sept. 2. We passed Crispia Basalon Argelagueâ— S. Jaâ—â— and lay at Castel-foulet 5 leagueâ— All the way we observed abundance of Pomegranaâ— trees C. Foulet is a small Garrison 3. We passed by Aulot where we saw a Bufalore of which there are divers in that Town It is a hole or cave out of which continually issues a cool air They keep bottles of wine fruit c. in a little house built over the cave The wine heer kept drinks as cool as if it were kept in ice or snow They say that it is the water running and falling down under the ground that makes these Spiracula which is not unlikely They are all on the left side of the river as you go to Vict and none on the right This day also we passed Rhoda and lay at Vict 7 leagues 4. We went to the hill where the Amethysts or Violet stones are found distant two leagues from Vict called S. Sigminont On the top of the hill is an hermitage and place of devotion where S. Sigminont a Burgundian King did penance The Amethysts are found lower in the side of the hill Viscount Jacque is lord of the Soil and whoever opens a mine pays him a pistol and an half per mensem They find the stones by following a vein of reddish or black earth or a vein in the rock so coloured They are all hexangular and pointed like crystal There are of three sorts the best are the blackest or deepest violet 2. Others are almost quite white 3. Some but very rarely are found tinctured with yellow They sometimes stick a great many together to the rock like the Bristow-diamonds but those are never good the best are found loose in the chinks of the rock in a fat yellowish or reddish earth They scrape out this earth with long narrow knives that enter into the chinks and then crumble it in pieces with their fingers to feel for the stones They are afterwards ground and polished upon leaden moulds after the same manner as crystal is First they use the dust of Smiril or Emery and at last of Tripoli All along the way to this hill we saw abundance of Arbutus and Rbus coriariorum called Rhondo In this Countrey they use not bark of Oak to tan their leather as we do but the leaves and branches of this shrub which they first bruise with a perpendicular stone and then mingle with water and heating the water luke-warm steep the skins in it 3 or 4 days In these mountains are also found Emeralds Gold and other sorts of minerals and stones but it doth not turn to account to search for them Topazes are found in a lake called the lake of Silles not far from S. Colonna near Girona They find them upon the shore of the lake At Vict there is a great Market-place and a Church at a Covent said to have been built by Charlemagne when he had discomfited the Saracens driven them out of Catalonia This night we lodged at Moia having travelled only 3 leagues We rode within sight of Montserret broken at the top into rocks standing like the teeth of a Saw from whence it took its name There is a Chappel of our Lady a place of great devotion This night we lodged at Casa della pobla a single Inn 5 leagues We came to Cardona 2 leagues All the way as we rode the rocks and stones were full of round holes just like those in the stones at Ancona in which the Pholades harbour and there is no question but these holes have been made by some animal before the stones were hardned We viewed the mountain of salt where were three Officers one to weigh the salt another to receive money and the third to keep accounts The Revenue of this Salt amounts yearly to about 30000 pieces of eight For every Quintal that is 104 pounds they pay ten reals of two sous to a real The salt is hard and transparent like crystal and when powdred fine as white as snow They hew it out with axes and mattocks and make chaplets boxes c. of it They say there is no end of it but that it reaches to the center of the earth Near the place where they work there are two caves within the rock of salt to the end of one of which they never durst venture to go Not far from this there is another mountain of salt where the salt sticks to the rocks and is most of it tinctured with red Of this red salt they make broad plates like tiles which they call Ruggiolas these they heat before the fire but never put them into it and use them to take away aches strengthen the stomach keep the feet warm c. Well heated on both sides they will keep warm for 24 hours Amongst this red salt there is a kind of Selenitis which some call Ising-glass and the Italians Gesso from the Latin woâ—â— Gypsum signifying chalk because when burnt it is turned into a white calx which naturally roches into Parallelipipedums of the figure of a Lozenge Of which sorts of stones are found in several places of our nation About these mountains of salt grows great plenty of Halimus and Limonium Cardona is a Dukedom containing 3 or 4 villages besides the town The Duke thereof is one of the richest Grandees of Spain having 3 Dukedoms 4 Marquisates 2 Earldoms c. The name of his family is Folke He lives for the most part at Madrid but sends every three years a Governour The King of Spain hath nothing at all to do with this
clay helps the separation and precipitation of it These conical pots are put into other pots into which by the hole at the vertex the juice dreins down through the course sugar at the bottom It dreins so for 5 or 6 moneths in which time the sugar in the conical pots grows hard and white all the juice being either drunk up by the lute or run out by the hole at the vertex This juice is boiled again so long as it is good for any thing but at last it makes only a foul red sugar that will never be better The conical loaves of sugar after they are taken out are set to drein over the same pots for 14 or 15 days To make the sugar more white they must boil it again but about one sixth is lost every time A pound of sugar of 12 ounces is sold at Olives for three sous and a half refined for 5 or 6 sous The sugar-juice is strained through strainers of linnen as it is put out of one Cauldron into another They take it out of the first and second Cauldrons so soon as it begins to boil but in the third Cauldron they let it boil till the scum rises and then take off only the scum with a scummer and put it into a long trough to cool and when it is cool put it into the conical pots One scum rises after another in the third Cauldron The scum when it is taken off is white but turns to a black liquor in the trough They never refine the sugar more than 3 or four times They use for the refining of it whites of eggs putting in 2 or 3 dozen into a Cauldron They use but one Cauldron for refining When it is refined it grows white and hard in 9 or 10 days The juice boiled up is eaten with bread tosted as honey The juice of the refined sugar is much better than the first juice The Duke of Gandia sends presents of this refined juice to the Queen of Spain When they refine it they put in a little water into the cauldrons to dissolve it the better But for a more exact description of the whole process of the Sugar-works I refer to Piso in his natural history of Brasil and Ligon in his Description of the Barbados The Sugar of Olives is better than the Sugar of Gandia At Meuttria in Granada they also make a great deal of Sugar About Valence Gandia c. the earth is alwayes wrought and never lies fallow or idle They reckon 5 Raccolta's or crops in one year 1. Of Mulberry leaves for silk 2. Wheat and other European grain 3. Darsi i. e. Maiz or Indian Wheat 4. Grapes 5. Olives and 6. at Gandia Sugar-canes After the wheat is cut they presently sow the Indian Wheat They complained that lately for a great many years together they had very vad Raccolta's for want of rain which had almost ruin'd Spain We passed Benegana and lay at Chativer six leagues and a half Chativer is an antient Town of the Moors and was once head of one of their little Kingdoms About a league from the Town began a very remarkable Aquaeduct made by the Moors It was just over a river along the side of a hill in most places not above a yard or two under ground and had a great many funnels just like the tops of chimneys to give vent and let out the water when there should be too much The tops of these funnels were made of a red clay and pebble stones The water came almost to the top in all of them but run over but in one We passed in sight of Montesa a castle belonging to the Knights of Montesa that wear a red cross Ortenente and lodged at Beobert 6 leagues Near Alicant among the mountains there is a very good breed of Falcons In the plains near Alicant grows abundance of Gramen spartum Plinii sive sportularum Officinarum J. B. i. e. Matweed of which the frails wherein they put raisins and other fruit are made This is Spain they call Spar at Marseilles Auffe The women heerabout gather abundance of this and steep it in sea-sea-water till it be well softned Then they dry it and carry it by sea to Marseilles where they sell it at 8 escus the Milliere Every Milliere consists of 10 Packieres every Packiere of 100 Manados or handfuls Of this they make cables for ships baskets c. In this day journey we saw a great many fountains covered with long arches to hinder them from being dried up We passed Elda Novelda Aspe Clavillente Albitella and lay at Orivola 11 leagues We came to Murcia 4 leagues Near Orivola which City is an Episcopal Sea we observed many Turpentine-trees some in flower and some with ripe berries Near Elda they dig up a sort of Selenite which they burn and put into wine to clarifie it About a league from Orivola began the Kingdom of Murcia two leagues from Orivola we were fain to give money to avoid searching Murcia which gives denomination to this Kingdom is a pitiful desolate Town The Fish-market heer is shut up in cage or grate as at Genoa the people crowding about it and thrusting in their baskets as there We travelled through a miserable desolate Countrey to Mula 7 leagues We passed through Caravacca where they drive a great trade of making little crosses of silver brass wood c. After that Pilgrims Travellers c. have bought them they carry them to the Castle to touch them by a famous Cross which according to their fabulous Legend descended miraculously from heaven which forsooth infuses a wonderful virtue into them We lay this night at an odd house four leagues off Caravacca having travelled in all ten leagues We passed by Venta nova and came to Huesca 8 leagues At Huesca we first saw a yellowish white wine like sack The Kingdom of Granada began about 4 leagues before we came to Huesca The town of Huesca belongs to the Duke of Alva We passed by Basa and rested at Venta 8 leagues We travelled to Guadix an Episcopal Sea and ancient Roman Colony Upon the gates we took notice of this inscription Recepit Colonia Accitana Gemeliensis provinciae caput prima omnium Hispanicarum fidem Christi Jesu rejectis idolis evangelizantibus sanctis Torcato sociis Anno salutis 70 Pontificatùs S. Petri 37 imperii Neronis 13. Vrbs Accis patrono suo sanctissimo D. D. 1593. Honorati sunt Amici tui Deus Colonia Accitana We travelled to Granada 6 leagues distant from Desinos where we lodged the night before Heer we saw the Castle called La Lhambra the seat of the Kings of Granada Within the walls of the Castle live abundance of people which dare not live in the City for debt or other causes There is a fair Palace begun by Charles V and yet unfinished the outside of it is square but it is round within having two rows of Cloysters one above