foot or two foot and an half broad in form of a Weaver's Shuttle and so light that a man may carry many of them at once for the weight In these Boats they will row so swiftly that it is almost incredible for no Ship in the World is able to keep way with them although she have never so good a Gale of Wind and yet they use but one Oar who sitting in the middle of their Boat and holding their Oar in the middle being broad at each end like our Oars will at an Instant go backward and forward as they please We could not particularly learn their Rites or Ceremonies but generally they worship the Sun as chief Author of their Felicity At their first Approach unto us they used with their hands to point up to the Sun and to strike upon their Breasts crying Ilyont as who would say I mean no harm which they will do very often and will not come near you until you do the like and then they will come without any fear at all They bury their Dead in the out-Islands near the Sea-side Their manner of Burial is this Upon the tops of the Hills they gather a Company of Stones together and make thereof a hollow Cave or Grave of the length and breadth of the Body which they intend to bury laying the Stones somewhat close like a Wall that neither Foxes nor other such Beasts may devout the Bodies covering them with broad Stones shewing afar off like a Pile of Stones And near to this Grave where the Body lieth is another wherein they bury his Bow and Arrows with his Darts and all his other Provision which he used while he was living He is buried in all his Apparel and the coldness of the Climate doth keep the Body from smelling and stinking although it lye above the Ground They eat all their Food raw and use no Fire to dress their Victuals as far as we could perceive Also we have seen them drink the Salt water at our Ships side but whether it be usual or no I cannot tell Although they dress not their Meat with Fire yet they use Fire for other things as to warm them and the like Divers of our Men were of Opinion that they were Man-eaters and would have devoured us if they could have caught us but I do not think they would for if they had been so minded they might at one time have caught our Cook and two other with him as they were filling of Water at an Island a great way from our Ship These three I say were in the Ships Boat without either Musket or any other Weapon whenas a great Company of the Savages came rowing unto them with their Darts and other Furniture which they never go without and stood looking into the Boat for Nails or any old Iron which they greedily desire while our men were in such a fear that they knew not what to do At length our Cook remembred that he had some old Iron in his Pocket and gave each of them some as far as it would go with his Key of his Chest and presently they all departed without offering any harm at all But this I speak not that I would have men to trust them or to go among them unprovided of Weapons for by so doing they may chance to forfeit their Life for their fool-hardiness Several Varieties of the West-Indies OVideos in his fifteenth Book and first Chapter saith That in the Year 1520. the City of St. Domingo in Hispaniola was almost dishabited by a great Army of Ants as in Spain a City was dispeopled by Conies in Thessaly another City was destroyed by Rats amongst the Atariotaes one by Frogs and the Minutines by Fleas Amitle in Italy by Serpents and another part thereof by Sparrows as were divers places of Africa often by Locusts so can the great God arm the least Creatures to the destruction of proud vain-glorious Man And this Misery so perplexed the Spaniards that they sought as strange a Remedy as was the Disease which was to chuse some Saint for their Patron against the Ants. Alexander Geraldine the Bishop having sung a solemn and Pontificial Mass after the Consecration and Elevation of the Sacrament and devout Prayers made by him and the People opened a Book in which was a Catalogue of the Saints by lot to chuse some he or she Saint whom God should please to appoint their Advocate against that Calamity and the Lot fell upon St. Saturnine whose Feast is on the 29th of November after which the Ant-damage saith Ovideos became more tolerable and by little and little diminished by God's Mercy and Intercession of that Saint The same Author reporteth That going from the Gulf of Ovotigua to Panama two hundred Leagues Eastward near the Mouth of the Gulf he saw a Fish or great Water-monster which at times lifted it self right up above the Water so far that the Head and both the Arms might be seen which seemed higher than their Carvel and all her Masts Thus did she rise and fall divers times beating the Water strongly and not casting any Water out of her Mouth a younger or lesser of the same kind did likewise swim a little distance from the greater To Ovideos Judgment each Arm seemed five and twenty foot long and as big as a Butt or Pipe the Head fourteen or fifteen foot high and much more in breadth and the rest of the Body larger That of her which appeared above Water was above five times the height of a mean man which makes five and twenty Paces She seemed to disport her self at a Tempest which suddenly arose to their purpose and brought them in few days to Panama The Indians of Brasil are of a marvellous quick Sight for at a League off they see any thing and in the same manner hear they guess very right ruling themselves by the Sun they go to all parts they list 200 or 300 Leagues thorough thick Woods and miss not one Jot they travel much and always running a Gallop especially with some Charges no Horse is able to hold out with them they are great Archers and so certain that no Bird can scape them be it never so little or any Vermin of the Woods and there is no more but if they will shoot an Arrow thorough the Eye of a Bird or Man or hit any other thing be it never so small they do it with great Facility and with their own Safety They are great Fishers and Swimmer they fear no Sea nor Waves continue a day and a night swiming and the fame they do rowing and sometimes without Meat They use also for Weapons Swords of Wood and enterlay the ends of them with Palm-tree of sundry Colours and set Plumes on them of divers colours chiefly in their Feasts and Slaughters and these Swords are very cruel for they make no Wound but bruise and break a Man's Head without having any Remedy of Cure Near to the River of the Amazons is
lying asleep having by him a naked knife I the better to hide my offence did put my knife into the wound of the dead man and so all bloody laid it again by this Stranger This was my mischievious device to escape your Judgment whereunto now I remit me wholly rather than this Noble man Titus or this innocent Stranger should unworthily die The truth coming thus unexpectedly to light caused a general acclamation of the People and the Friendship betwixt Gisippus and Titus being declared was published extolled and magnified throughout the whole City The Senate consulting of this matter at the instance of Titus and the People discharged the Felon Titus acknowledged his negligence in forgetting Gisippus and having him home to his House where he was vvith incredible joy received of the Lady vvhom he should have vvedded honorably apparelled him offering him to use all his Goods and Possessions as his ovvn But Gisippus desiring to be again at Athens Titus by the consent of the Senate and People vvith a great Army vvent vvith him thither vvhere he had delivered to him all those vvhich vvere causers of banishing and despoyling Gisiptus on vvhom he did sharp execution and restoring to Gisippus his Lands and Substance established him in perpetual quietness and so returned unto Rome Of mount Aetna and of the fiery irruption there in the year 1669. Aetna called by Pindarus the Celestial column is the highest mountain of Sicilia for a great space leisurely rising insomuch as the top is ten miles distant from the uttermost Basis It appeareth tovvards the East vvith tvvo shoulders having an eminent head in the middle The lovver parts are luxuriously fruitful the middle vvooddy the upper rocky steep and almost covered vvith snovv yet smoaking in the midst like many conjoyning Chimneys and vomiting intermitted flames though not but by night to be discerned as if Heat and Cold had left their contentions and embraced one another This burning Beacon doth shevv her fire by night and her smoke by day a vvonderful vvay off some adjudging the matter to be diminished by so long an expence though our late times can evince the contrary This is that place which the Poets did report to be the Shop of Vulcan where Cyclops framed the Thunder-bolts for Jupiter whereof Virgil doth make his Tract called Aetna Under this Hill the Poets feign the Gyant Enceladus to be buried whose hot breath fireth the Mountain lying on his face whereof thus the Poet Virgil. Enceladus with lightning struck fame goes This mass o'revvhelmes vvho under Aetna laid Expireth flames by broken vents convey'd As often as he turns his vveary fides All Sicil quakes and Smoke Days beauty hides Into this Fiery Furnace it was that the Philosopher Empedocles affecting Divine honour withdrew himself privately from his Companions and leapt in at the mouth thereof but vvas revealed by his Brazen Shoos vvhich the fire had throvvn up again Deus immortalis haberi Dum cupit Empedocles ardentem fervidus Aetnam Insiluit Empedocles to be a God desires And casts himself into the Aetnean Fires The extraordinary eruption of this Mountain hath been accounted very ominous for so it did after the death of Caesar when not onely the Cities thereabout were damnified thereby but divers in Calabria And in the Year of the World 3982. hard before the Civil Wars of Sicilia wherein threescore and ten thousand Slaves were slain by the Praetors it raged so violently that Africa was thereof an astonisht witness In the Year 1614. it ran down like a combustible Flood which falling in a bituminous Soyl where Wine and Olives grew there seized spoiling the Lands of two Barons in Rindatza But the most prodigious was that Earthquake and Eruption in the Year 1669. which being so lately we shall give you a full relation of it as it was sent to His Majesty from Naples by the right Honourable the Earl of Winchelsea his Majesties late Ambassador at Constantinople who in his return from thence visited Catania and was an eye-witness of that dreadful spectacle May it please Your Majesty IN my Voyage from Malta to this place wherein I have used all the diligence the Season hath given me leave I touched at the City of Catania in Sicily and was there most kindly invited by the Bishop to lodge in his Palace which I accepted that so I might be the better able to inform your Majesty of that extraordinary fire which comes from Mount Gibel 15 miles distant from that City which for its horridness in the aspect for the vast quantity thereof for it is fifteen miles in length and seven in breadth for its monstrous devastation and quick progress may be termed an Inundation of Fire a Floud of Fire Cinders and burning Stones burning with that rage as to advance into the Sea 600 Yards and that to a mile in breadth which I saw and that which did augment my admiration was to see in the Sea this matter like ragged Rocks burning in four fathom water two fathom higher than the Sea it self some parts liquid and moving and throwing off not without great violence the stones about it which like a crust of a vast bigness and red hot fell into the Sea every moment in some place or other causing a great and horrible noise smoke and hissing in the Sea and thus more and more coming after it making a firm foundation in the Sea it self I stayed there from nine a Clock on Saturday morning to seven next morning and this Mountain of fire and stones with Cinders had advanced into the Sea twenty Yards at least in several places in the middle of this fire which burned in the Sea it hath form'd a passage like to a River with its Banks on each side very steep and craggy and in this Chanel moves the greatest quantity of this fire which is the most liquid with stones of the same composition and Cinders all red hot swimming upon the fire of a great magnitude From this River of fire doth proceed under the great mass of the stones which are generally three fathom high all over the Country where it burns and in other places much more there are secret Conduits or Rivolets of this liquid matter which communicates fire and heat into all parts more or less and melts the stones and cinders by fits in those places where it toucheth them over and over again where it meets with Rocks or Houses of the same matter as many are they melt and go away with the fire where they find other compositions they turn them to lime or ashes as I am informed The composition of this fire stones and cinders are Sulphur Nitre Quicksilver Sal-Armoniac Lead Iron Brass and all other Metals It moves not regularly nor constantly down-hill in some places it hath made the Valleys Hills and the Hills that are not high are now Valleys When it was night I went upon two Towers in divers places and could plainly see at ten Miles distance as we
possible to Bell-sound to their Captain and lest delay should prove dangerous they lightened their Shallop by heaving their Venizon over-board into the Sea and so they hasted all they might and that night got half way but the dark Fog increasing they were forced to come in a point of Land till the next day at noon At which time the weather being clearer they hasted forward but having no Compass to direct their Course by they wandred up and down so long till the Ships were departed This filled them with fear and astonishment knowing that neither Christian nor Heathen had ever inhabited those desolate Climates yea they had heard that the Merchants had endeavoured with profers of great Rewards and of sufficient Furniture and provision of all things necessary to hire some to undertake to winter in those Parts but could never meet with any that would adventure their Lives to so hazardous an undertaking They had heard also that the Company of Muscovy Merchants had once procured the Reprieve of some Malefactors condemned to death here in England unto whom they promised Pardon together with Rewards and provision of Cloaths Victuals and all other necessaries if they would stay one Winter there but when they came thither and took a view of the desolateness of the place they conceived such horror and fear in their hearts chose rather to return for England and there to satisfie the Law with the loss of their Lives than to stay in so desolate and darksome a Countrey They remembred also a more terrible Example of nine good and able men left there formerly by the same Master that had now left them who all died miserably upon the place and whose Bodies were fearfully disfigured by the savage Bears and hungry Foxes which are the only Inhabitants of that comfortless Countrey All which made them like amazed men to stand one looking upon another every one fore-seeing the future calamities both of himself and of his Fellows and that which much increased their horrour was their want of all necessary Provision for the Life of man having neither Cloaths to keep them warm nothing for shift not Food to prevent the miseries of cruel Famine nor a House wherein to shrowd themselves from the extremity of Cold. But after a space knowing that Delay in Extremities is the Mother of all Danger they began to conceive Hope out of the depth of Despair and therefore they consulted together of the likeliest course for their preservation in that place and resolved upon the opportunity of the next fair Weather to go to Green-Harbor to kill some Venison for part of their Winter Provision which accordingly they did but found not so many Deer as they expected yet the first day they killed seven and four Bears to boot which they also intended to eat The next day they killed six Deer more and as they returned they killed six more and then the Weather proving foul and cold they laded their Shallop with the Deer and Bears and finding another Shallop left there as usually they do from Year to Year they laded it with Graves of Whales that had been boyled there that Year and so dividing themselves into those two Shallops they took the first opportunity of returning to Bell-sound to their Tent where they intended to take up their Rest for the Winter But in their Passage the Night coming on and the Wind blowing hard they were forced to stay in the midst way at Bottel Cove for that Night there they fastened their Shallops one to another and casting out their Anchor they left them riding in the Cove But here again for the Tryal of their Patience and to teach them to relye more upon God's Providence than upon any outward means of their own this Mischance befell them The Wind blowing hard into the Cove and their Anchor coming home their Shallop sunk into the Sea and so wet all their Provision and some of it they found swimming up and down by the Shore The Sight hereof wonderfully troubled them to see the best part of their Provision the only hope of their Lives under God in danger either utterly to be lost or to be spoiled by the sea-Sea-Water for which they had taken such Pains and run so many Adventures in the getting of it and in this their Misery they saw but one Remedy and that was a desperate one viz. to run into the Highwrote Sea to their Shallops to save the remainder of their Provisions now ready to be washed away by the Billows this they did and by main force drew the Shallops to the Shore then they went along by the Sea side to gather up such of their Provisions as was swimming up and down and when the Weather proved fair they went on to Bell-sound where being arrived they took out their Provision and viewed the great Tent which was built of Timber and Boards and covered with Flemmish Tyles the use of it was for the Coopers to work and lodge in whilst they made Casks for the putting up of the Train Oyl and they resolved to build another smaller Tent within that for their Habitation and accordingly taking down a lesser Tent that stood near to it wherein the Land-men lay whilst they made their Oyl they fetched their Materials from thence both Boards Posts and Rafters and from the Chimneys of the Furnaces they took a thousand Bricks they found also four Hogsheads of Lime which mingled with Sand from the Shore made good Mortar but the Weather was grown so extream cold that they were fain to make two Fires on both sides to keep their Mortar from freezing then they raised a Wall of one Brick thickness against the inner Planks of the side of the Tent but by that they had walled two sides of their House their Bricks failed so that they were forced to build the other two sides of Boards which being nailed on both sides the Posts they were hollow between which they filled up with Sand that made it so tight that the least breath of Air could not possibly annoy them The length of their Tent was 20 foot and the breadth 16 their Chimney was the breadth of a Deal-board and four foot high they seiled it with boards five or six times double that no Wind could possibly get thorough the Door they made as close as they could and lined it with a Bed that they found there which came over both the opening and shutting of it they made no Windows having no Light but what came thorough the Chimney then set they up four Cabins quartering themselves two and two in a Cabin their Beds were the Deer Skins dryed which was a warm and comfortable Lodging for them in their Distress Their next Care was for firing and finding seven old Shallops which were unserviceable they brake them up and stowed them over the Beams in the great Tent to make it the warmer and to keep the Snow from driving thorough the Tyles into the Tent and by this
time the cold encreasing and scarce having any day at all they staved some empty Cask and brake two old Coolers wherein they cooled their Oyl providing whatsoever firing they could without prejudice to the next Years Voyage yet considering the small quantity of Fuel the Extremity of Cold and the long time of their Abode they husbanded it as thriftily as possibly they could Having thus fitted every thing in the best manner they were able on the twelfth of September looking out into the Sound they espyed two Sea Horses lying asleep on a piece of Ice whereupon taking up an old Harping-iron they hasted to them and first slew the old one and then the young one and so bringing them ashore they flayed them rosted and eat them Not long after they killed another but the Nights and cold Weather increasing on them and they viewing their Provision found it too small by half whereupon they stinted themselves to one reasonable meal a day and agreed to fast Wednesdays and Fridays excepting from the Graves or Fritters of the Whale which was a very loathsom meat of which they allowed themselves sufficient for their present hunger at which Diet they continued about three Months Having finished whatever they could invent for their Preservation they found that all their Cloaths and Shoes were torn to repair which they had this new device of Rope-yarn they made thread and of Whale-bones Needles to sew their cloaths withal But October the tenth the Nights being grown very long and the Cold so violent that all the Sea was frozen over and they having nothing now to exercise their minds upon were troubled with a thousand imaginations sometimes they bewailed their absence from their Wives and Children thinking what grief it would be to them to hear of their miscarriage then thought they of their Parents and what a cutting corrosive it would be to them to hear of their untimely deaths c. and being thus tormented in their minds with fear and grief and pinched in their Bodies with hunger and cold the hideous monster of Desperation presented his ugliest shape unto them But thinking it not best to give way to grief and fear they doubled their Prayers to Almighty God for strength and Patience in their miseries by whose Assistance they shook off their former Thoughts and cheared up themselves to use the best means for their Preservation Then for the better husbanding of their Venison and lengthning of their fiering they thought best to roast every day half a Deer and to stow it in Hogsheads which accordingly they did leaving so much raw as would serve to roast every Sabbath-day a Quarter c. And when this was over they began again to think of their ensuing Misery which they found much aggravated by reason their Whale-Fritters after they had been drenched in the Sea Water lying close together were grown mouldy and spoiled and again surveying their Bear and Venison they found that it would not afford them five Meals a Week whereupon they were fain to cut off one Meal more so that for three months after four days in the Week they fed upon the unsavoury mouldy Whale-Fritters and the other three they feasted with Bear and Venison But besides the want of Meat they now began to want Light so that all their Meals were Suppers for from the fourteenth of October to the third of February they never saw the Sun so much as peep above the Horizon but the Moon when not obscured with Clouds they always saw shining as bright as in England all which darksome time they could not certainly tell when it should be day and when night In the beginning of this Darkness they sought some means to preserve Light and finding a piece of Sheet-lead and some Oyl in the Coopers Tents and Rope-yarn they made a Lamp which they kept continually burning and was a great Comfort to them in their extremity and indeed Comfort was much wanting to them for in the beginning of January the Weather was so vehement cold that it raised Blisters on their Flesh as if they had been burnt with Fire and if at any time they touched Iron it would stick to their Fingers like Bird-lime if they went out a doors to fetch in a little Water it would so pinch them that they were sore as if they had been beaten In the beginning of Winter with Pick-axes breaking the Ice daily they got some Water on the Sea Shore but after the tenth of January they had none but Snow-Water which they melted with hot Irons which was their only Drink till the twentieth of May following By the last of January the Days were seven or eight Hours long and then viewing their Victuals again they found that it would not last above six Weeks longer which made them fear further Famine but they had recourse to God who they knew could supply them beyond their Hopes Looking out on a bright day they saw a great she Bear with her Cub coming towards their Tent whereupon arming themselves with their Lances they went forth and staid her coming she soon cast her greedy Eyes upon them and hoping to devour them hasted towards them but with their Lances they gave her such an hearty Welcome that she tumbled upon the ground biting the Snow for Anger the Cub seeing this escaped by Flight The Weather was so extream cold that they were fain presently to retire into the Tent and having warmed themselves they drew in the dead Bear wherewith they dined merrily and this Bear served them twenty days only this mischance they had eating her Liver it made their Skin peel off When she was spent they yet feared that their Venison would not hold out till the Fleet came from England but God sent many Bears to their Tents by times at least forty whereof they killed seven one of which was exceeding great at least six foot high so that their Food encreasing they kept not themselves to such short Commons but oft eat two or three meals a day which much encreased their Strength By this the chearful days lengthened so fast that several sorts of Fowl resorted thither March the sixteenth one of their Mastiffs went abroad which they never saw after Upon the coming of the Fowls the Foxes which all Winter had kept their Burroughs under the Rocks came abroad to seek for their Livings whereupon they set up Traps which they baited with the Skin of these Fowls by which means they caught at times fifty Foxes all which they rosted and found to be good Meat then taking the Bear-skins laying the fleshy side upwards and making Springs of Whale-bone they caught about sixty Fowls as big as Pidgeons May the first the Weather began to be pretty warm so that they went abroad to seek for Provision but nothing they could find for many days till at length they met with abundance of Willocks Eggs of which they carried home thirty intending the next day to stock themselves with Abundance more but
or Bear which they say would devour them if they did not remove Their Tent or Choom is made in this manner first they set up long Firr-poles then they have six Quarters double of Deer-skins which being set up they throw Snow round about the Edges a Yard thickness leaving the top open for to vent Smoak making a Fire in the middle spreading Deer-skins upon which they lie in which manner it is altogether as warm as the Stones in Russia they have no Towns neither any certain place of abode but with their Deer they travel from place to place where they find the best Moss on which their Deer feed Their Wives they buy for Deer and will have if he have ability four or five Wives with whom he lyeth by turn every Night several he is the richest man that hath most Deer or Daughters selling them to any that will give most for them In their Marriage having agreed of Price they use not great Ceremonies only they make a Feast to their Friends after which the Woman is brought to the Man that hath bought her she being hung with many Iron Rings and Brazen Bells all departing out of the Tent save they two till the next morning and then he departeth but if he be one of Wealth they will continue their Feast seven days It falleth out many times that after they have had their Wives half a Year or a Year they will turn them back to their Friends taking their Deers again paying for the charge of the Feast which is always to be made at her Fathers charge and losing the encrease of his Deer They have no knowledge of the true God but worship Blocks and Images of the Devil unto which they will strangle tame Deer rubbing the Blood on the Idols and eating the Meat themselves When a rich man dies because he shall not travel on foot his Friends will kill three Deer to draw him in the new World and they will strangle a Slave to tend on him The Deer they kill in this manner to serve the dead man they make a Stake sharp which they thrust into the Beasts Fundament with many Howlings and Cryings till they be dead the Master with the Slave they bury the Deer they eat as well raw as boiled or roast although they use all three If a young Child dye under fourteen of their Years which is seven of ours they do hang it by the Neck on some Tree saying it must fly to Heaven If any Controversie be which cannot be decided or the Truth known then one of the two betwixt whom the Controversie is must be sworn which is in this manner they will make an Image of a Man in Snow bringing a Wolf's Nose and delivering a Sword to him that must swear he rehearsing by name all his Friends desiring that they might all be cut in Pieces in that manner as he doth cut that Image of Snow Then he himself doth cut the Image of Snow all to pieces with the Sword then after the Wolves Nose being laid before him he desires that the Wolf may destroy all his tame Deer and that he may never more take or kill any wild Deer after that if he speak not the Truth so cutting the Wolf's Nose in pieces there is no more to be said of that Controversie When they would know any thing to come they send for their Priest or Witch to converse with the Devil sitting in one side of the Tent having before his Face a piece of an old Shirt of Mayl hung with Bells and pieces of Brass in his right hand a great Tabor made with a Wolves skin beating upon the same with a Hares foot making a very doleful sound with singing and calling for the Devil to answer his Demand which being ended they strangle a Deer for a Sacrifice making merry with the Flesh The Women be very hard of Nature for at their Child-bearing the Husband must play the Mid-wife and being delivered the Child is washed with cold Water or Snow and the next day the Woman is able to conduct her Argish or Sled A Description of Groen-land and the Inhabitants thereof by an Eye-witness Anno 1612. THE North-west part of Groen-land is an exceeding high Land to the Sea-ward and almost nothing but Mountains which are wonderful high all within the Land as far as we could perceive they are all of Stone some of one colour and some of another and all glistering as though they were of rich Value but indeed they are not worth any thing There are some Rocks in those Mountains which are exceeding pure Stone finer and whiter than Alabaster The sides of these Mountains are covered with Snow for the most part especially the North-sides and the North-sides of the Valleys having a kind of Moss and in some places Grass with a little Branch running all along the Ground bearing a little black Berry There are few or no Trees growing as far as we could perceive but in one place some forty miles within the Land in a River which we called Ball 's River there I saw on the South-side of an high Mountain which we went up and found as it were a young Grove of small Wood some of it six or seven Foot high like a Coppice in England that had been some two or three Years cut and this was the most Wood that we saw growing in this Country being some of it a kind of Willow Juniper and such like We found in many places much Angelica we suppose the People eat the Roots thereof for some Causes for we have seen them have many of them in their Boats There are great Store of Foxes in the Islands and in the Main of sundry colours and there are a kind of Hares as white as Snow with their Hair or Fur very long Also there be Deer but they are most commonly up within the Main very far because the People do so much hunt them that come near the Sea I saw at one time seven of them together which were all that we did see in the Country but our men have bought divers Coats of the People made of Deers skins and have bought of their Horns also besides we have divers times seen the Foot-steps of some Beasts whose Foot was bigger than the Foot of a great Oxe Furthermore the Inhabitants have a kind of Dogs which they keep at their Houses and Tents which Dogs are almost like unto Wolves living by Fish as the Foxes do but one thing is very strange as I thought for the Pizzles of both Dogs and Foxes are Bone The People all the Summer time use nothing but fishing drying their Fish and Seals-flesh upon the Rocks for their Winter Provision Every one both Man and Woman have each of them a Boat made with long small pieces of Firr-wood covered with Seals-skins very well dressed and sewed so well with Sinews or Guts that no Water can pierce them thorough being some of them above twenty foot long and not past two
have hanged themselves also The cruelty of the Spaniards to the Indians of Peru was so extraordinary great that those silly People would not believe that the Spaniards were born into the World like other men supposing that so fierce and cruel a Creature could not be procreated of Man and Woman They called them therefore Viracochie that is Sea-froth as if they thence had received their Original Nor can any alter this their Opinion so deeply rooted saying The Winds overthrow Trees and Houses Fire burns them but these Viracochie devour all things insatiably seeking Gold and Silver which as soon as they have gotten they play away at Dice War kill one another rob blaspheme wickedly forswear and deny God never speak truth and us they have spoiled of our Countrey and Fortunes and therefore they cursed the Sea which brought to the Land so fierce and dreadful an Issue Before the Spaniards conquered Peru the Tribute which the poor People were tied to pay to their Juca's or Kings was on certain dayes to give him so many Pipes of Lice so to acknowledge subjection and keep themselves clean Of the Tortoises in the West-Indies The Tortoise is reasonable toothsom and wholsom Meat of such largeness that one of them will make a dozen Messes appointing six to every Mess It is such a kind of Meat as a man can neither absolutely call Fish nor Flesh keeping most in the Water and feeding upon Sea-grass like an Heifer in the bottom of the Coves and Bayes and laying their Eggs of which we should find five hundred at a time in the opening of a she-one in the Sand by the Shoar-side and so covering them close leave them to the hatching of the Sun like the Monati at St. Dominick which made the Spanish Friars at their first arrival make some scruple to eat them on a Friday because in colour and taste the Flesh is like to Morsels of Veal Concerning the laying of their Eggs and the hatching of their Young Peter Martyr writeth thus in his Decads of the Ocean At such time as the heat of Nature moveth them to generation they come forth of the Sea and making a deep Pit in the Sand they lay three or four hundred Eggs therein when they have thus emptied their Bag of Conception they put as much of the same again into the Pit as may satisfie to cover the Eggs and so resort again to the Sea nothing careful of their succession At the day appointed of Nature to the procreation of these Creatures there creepeth out a multitude of Tortoises as it were Pismires out of an Ant-hill and this onely by the heat of the Sun without any help of their Parents Their Eggs are as big Goose-Eggs and themselves grown to Perfection bigger than great round Targets The Indians of Virginia at the first coming of the English thither were so simple and ignorant that having surprized some Gun-powder from the English their King caused it to be sown thinking it would grow up and increase as did Corn and other Seeds Throughout all the Mountains either of the Islands or firm Land of Nova Hispania Carthagena c. there are infinite numbers of Monkeys which are a kind of Apes but very different in that they have a Tayl a very long one And amongst them there are some kinds which are thrice yea four times bigger than the ordinary some are all black some bay some gray and some spotted Their agility and manner of leaping is admirable for that they seem to have Reason and Discourse to go upon Trees wherein they seem to imitate Birds My Author going from Nombre de Dios to Panama saw in Capira one of these Monkeys leap from one Tree to another which was on the other side of a River making him much to wonder They leap where they list winding their Tails about a Branch to shake it and when they will leap farther than they can at once they use a pretty device tying themselves by the Tails one of another and by this means make as it were a Chain of many then do they lanch themselves forth and the first holpen by the force of the rest takes hold where he list and so hangs to a Bough and helps all the rest till they be gotten up It were long to report the Fooleries Tricks Traverses and pleasant Sports they make when they are taught which seem not to come from brute Beasts but from a man-like understanding The same Author saw one in Carthagena in the Governours House so taught as the things he did seemed incredible They sent him to the Tavern for Wine putting the Pot in one hand and the Money in the other and they could not possibly get the Money out of his hand before he had his Pot full of Wine If any Children met him in the street and threw any stones at him he would set his Pot down on the one side and cast stones against the Children till he had assured his way then would he return to carry home his Pot and which is more although he were a good Bibber of Wine yet would he never touch it until leave was given him They told him moreover that if he saw any Women painted he would fall upon them pull off their Attire and would seek to bite them Several Rarities of divers Countreys THe Coco-tree is one of the most admirable Rarities in the whole World which Mr. Herbert in his Travels thus describes The Tree that bears the Coco is strait and lofty without any Branches save at the very top where it spreads its beautiful plumes and Nuts like Pearls or Pendants adorning them It is good Timber for Canoes Masts Anchors the leaves for Tents or Thatching the Rind for Sails Matteresses Cables and Linnen the Shells for Furniture the Meat for Victualling The Nut is covered with a thick rind equal in bigness to a Cabbage The Shell is like the Skull of a man or rather a Deaths-head the Eyes Nose and Mouth being easily discerned within it is contained a quart of sweet and excellent Liquor like new White-wine but far more aromatick tasted The Meat or Kernel is better relished than our Filberds and is enough to satisfie the Appetite of two reasonable men the Indian Nut alone Is Cloathing Meat and Trencher Drink and Can Boat Cable Sail Mast Needle all in one The Divine Du Bartas hath celebrated its praises unto the Life in these Verses translated by Joshua Sylvester The Indian Isles most admirable be In those rare Fruits call'd Coco's commonly The which alone far richer wonder yields Than all our Groves Meads Gardens Orchards Fields What would'st thou drink the wounded leaves drop Wine Lack'st thou fine Linnen dress the tender Rine Dress it like Flax spin it then weave it well It shall thy Cambrick and thy Lawn excell Long'st thou for Butter bite the pulpous part For never better came to any Mart. Do'st need good Oyl then bolt it to and fro And passing Oyl it soon becometh