Province of the Kingdom of Golconda toward the North-East It is found among the Ordure in the Paunch of a Wild-Goat that browzes upon a certain Tree the Name whereof Tavernier had forgot This Shrub bears little Buds round about which and the Tops of the Boughs the BEZOAR Engenders in the Maw of the Goat It is shap'd according to the form of the Buds or Tops of the Branches or which the Goats eat Which is the reason there are so many shapes of BEZOAR Stones The Natives as Tavernier informs us know by feeling the Belly of the Goat how many Stones she has within and sell the Goat according to the quantity This they will find out by slideing their hands under their Bellies and then shaking both sides of the Paunch for the Stones will fall into the middle where they may easily count them all by their feeling The rarity of BEZOAR is in the bigness though the small BEZOAR has the same Virtue as that which is larger But there is more deceit in the large BEZOAR for the Natives have got a trick to add to the bigness of the Stone with a certain Paste compos'd of Gum and something else of the Colour of BEZOAR And they are so cunning too to shape it just like Natural BEZOAR The cheat is found out two ways the first is by weighing the BEZOAR and then sleeping it in warm Water If neither the Water change Colour nor the BEZOAR lose any thing of its Weight the Stone is right The other way is to thrust a red hot Bodkin of Iron into the Stone If the Bodkin enters and causes it to fry there is a mixture TAVERN Trav. in India Pag. 153 154. As well in the East as West there are a great quantity of BEZOARS that breed in the same mâ—nner in Cows of which there have been some that have weighed Seventeen or Eighteen Ounces for there was such a one that was given to the Great Duke of Tuscany But those BEZOARS are little esteem'd Six Grains of the other BEZOAR working more powerfully than Thirty of this As for the BEZOAR which breeds in Apes as some believe it it is so strong that two Grains work as effectually as Six of Goat's-BEZOAR Bâ—t it is very scarce as being only found in those Apes that breed in the Islâ—nd of Macassar This sort of BEZOAR is round whereas the other is of several Fashions And as the Apes-BEZOAR is stronger and scarcer than the Goat's so it is dearer and mâ—re 〈…〉 a pâ—â—ce as big as 〈…〉 worth a 〈…〉 The Portugals 〈…〉 â—f this BEZOA◠〈…〉 upon their 〈…〉 Peâ—son'd TAVERâ—◠〈◊〉 154. There hath always 〈…〉 Dispuâ—e amâ—ngst the 〈◊〉 concerning the part whâ—re the Stone grows Tavâ—â—nier dâ—clares he could not find it out though he labour'd all he could The Arabians write That the Goat-â—eer and all other sorts of Deer fiâ—ding â—â—emselves Old and Sick â—y their breath draw Serpâ—nts out of their Holes and devour them that â—o thereby they â—ecome younâ— and well again after which â—inding themselves heated by this â—ood thâ—◠〈◊〉 into the Water and 〈◊〉 there thout drinking till their 〈…〉 during which stay 〈…〉 this Stâ—ne is bred in the Corneâ—â— of their Eyes whence 〈…〉 But Monardes more probably learnt from the Inhaâ—itants of the Mountains of China that in the Indies near the River â—anges these Goat-Deer after their â—â—â—ing of Serpenâ—s go about the Tops of the Mountains seeding on such Herbs as Nature hath taught them resist Poysons of the Quintessence whereof mixed with that of the Poysons the BEZOAR is by some particular Virtue produc'd in some cavity of their Bodies Garsias â—b Horto and Acosta say in their Stomach Others as Fragosus in the Kidneys because some Stones have the Figure of that pâ—rt which also is the most Lapidiâ—ick of the whole Body and others too as Râ—bbi Moses the Aegypâ—ian in the Gall which Opinion Monardes himself is oâ— though he admits too that it is found in the Ventricle Intestines and other 〈◊〉 of the Body As indeed there is no place in the Bodies of Animals but Stones may be generated in them PHILOS CONFER of the Virtuosi of France Vol. 2. Pag. 365. This word BEZOAR some think is deriv'd from the Hebrew Bel which signifies King and Zaars Poysons as if it were the King or Master of Poysons which are subdu'd more powerfully by this than any other Remedy According to Scaliger BEZOHARD is taken by the Arabians for that which preserves Life and so the Stone will have borrow'd its Name from its Effect Cardan says There is a Poisonous Root of this Name which bears a Fruit called Nirabri which is an Antidote to it Plants and every thing good against Poysons is commonly term'd BEZOARDICAL Ibidem Tavernier says That he once sold a BEZOAR of four Ounces and a half for two Thousand French Livers He affirms That it is Death without Mercy to transport any of these Goats out of the Country The BEZOAR Stones are adulterated with Pitch dried Blood Stones powder'd fine Ashes of Shells Antimony Cinnabar Mercury mixt with small BEZOAR-Stones exquisitely pulveriz'd and made up with a proper Mucilage The Persian BEZOAR is best then that of Peru then that from New-Spain The Oriental BEZOAR is the most Sudorifick the Occidental most purging Observations concerning CINNAMON CINNAMON comes at present from the Island of Ceylan The Tree that bears it is very much like the Willow and has three Barks They never take off but the first and second which is accounted the best They never meddle with the third for should the 〈◊〉 enter that the Tree would dye So that it is an Art to take o 〈◊〉 the CINNAMON which they lâ—arn from their Youth The CINNAMON Spice is much dearer to the Hâ—llanders than People think for the King of Ceylan being a sworn Enemy to the Hoâ—landers sends his Forces with an Intention to surprize them when they gather their CINNAMON so that they are forc'd to bring Seven or Eight Hundred Men tâ—â—â—ther to â—â—â—end as many more that are at Work Which great Expence of theiâ—s very much enhances the Price of the CINNAMON There grows upon the CINNAMON Tree a â—ruit like an Olive though not to be eaten This the Portugals were wont to put into a Caldron of Water together with the Tops of the Branches and boil'd it till the Water was all consum'd When it was cold the upper part became a Paste like white Wax oâ— which they made Tapers to 〈◊〉 up in their Churches 〈◊〉 no sooner were the 〈…〉 but all the Chuâ—ch 〈…〉 â—um'd Formerly the Poâ—â—â—gals brought CINNAMON out of â—ther Countries belonging to the Raja's about Câ—â—hin 〈…〉 Hollanders have destroy'd all those places so that the CINNâ—MON is now in their hands TAVERN of the Commodities belonging to the G. Mogâ—l CINNAMON formerly grew in such great plenty in Aethiopâ—â— that we find the Southern part of it was call'd by Ptolomy the Geographer REGIO CINNAMO MI FERA from
but a Cross-Grain Our European Jewellers when they split one they take a very small Iron Wyre and having daubed it with Oil and Powder of DIAMONDS draw it upon the DIAMOND by a Tool to and fro like a Saw so long as is needful for that purpose GREW ibidem As foâ— the Water of DIAMONDS it is remarkable that whereas in Europe we make use of Day-light to examine the rough Stones and to judge of their Water and the Specks that are found therein the Indians do all that in the Night-time setting up a Lamp with a large Wiek in a hole which they make in the Wall about a Foot square by the Light whereof they judge of the Water and clearness of the Stone which they hold between their Fingers The Water which they call Celestial is the worst of all and it is impossible to discern it so long as the Stone is rough The most infallible way to find out that Water is to carry the Stone under a Tree thick of â—oughs for by the verdure of that shade you may easily discern whether the Water be blewish or no. TAVERN TRAV in India Part II. Book II. Chap. xii To know the value of DIAMONDS if they be every way perfect Tavernier gives this Rule That if a good DIAMOND weigh one Carat viz. four Grains 't is worth 150 French Livres and then to know how much a good Stone weighing 12 Carats is worth you are to multiply 12 by 12 which makes 144 which Product is to be multiplyed by 150 the price of a Stone of one Carat which will make 21600 Livres the price of a DIAMOND of 12 Carats But if the DIAMOND be not perfect then you are to allow but 80 Livers for a Carat and if such a kind of DIAMOND should weight 15 Câ—rats then multiply 15 by 15 which is 225 and this into 80 makes 18000 Livres the value of that DIAMOND According to which Rule the DIAMOND of the Great Mogol wâ—ighiâ—g 279 and 9 16 th Carats being oâ— a perâ—ect gâ—â—d Water and of a good shape wâ—tâ— only a little flaw in the â—dg of the cutting below which gâ—es â—ound aâ—â—ut the Stone will an â—unt to 11723278 Livres Were it not for that little flaw which is mention'd the first Carat of this DIAMOND wâ—re worth 160 Livres but Tavâ—rnier allowing for that flaw he values the first Carat but at 150 Livres and so he has made his Computation He says that the Great Duke of Tuscany's DIAMOND weighs 139 Carats clean and well-shap'd cut in Facets every way but that in regard the Water inclines somewhat toward the Colour of Citron He does not value the first Carat above 135 Livres so that by the Rule the DIAMOND ought to be worth 2608335 Livres TAVERN ibid. Chap. 15. Observations concerning PEARL IN the first place there is a Fishery for PEARLS in the Persian Gulf round about the Island of Bakren Every one that fishes pays to the King of Persia five Abassi's every Abassi is worth about 18 Sols French Money whether he get any thing or no. The Merchant also pays the King some small matter for every thousand Oysters The second Fishery for PEARLS is right against Bakren upon the Coast of Arabia Felix near the City of Catifa which together with all the Country about it is under the Jurisdiction of an Arabian Prince The PEARLS that are fish'd in these Places are sold to the Indians who as Tavernier informs us are not so nice as we for they give a good price for all as well the uneven as the round ones There is another Fishery for PEARLS in the Sea that beats against the Walls of a great Town call'd Manar in the Island of Ceylan For their roundness and their Water they are the fairest that are found in any other Fishery but they rarely weigh above three or four Carats There are excellent PEARLS and of a very good Water and large which are found upon the Coast of Iapan but there are few fish'd for in regard Iewels are of no esteem among the Natives There are other Fisheries in the West-Indies in the first place all along the Island of Cubagna three Leagues in compass lying ten Degrees and a half of Northern Latitude a hundred and sixty Leagues from Santo Domingo The PEARLS are small seldom weighing above five Carats The second Fishery is in the Island of Margarita or the Island of PEARLS a League from Cubagna but much bigger This Fishery is not the most plentiful but it is the most esteem'd of all those in the West-Indies by reason the PEARLS are of a most excellent Water and very large Tavernier says He sold one Pear-fashion'd to Sha-est-Kan the Great Mogul's Uncle that weighed fifty five Carats The third Fishery is at Camogete near the Continent The fourth at Rio de la Hâ—cha all along the same Coast. The fifth and last at St. Martha's sixty Leagues from Rio de la Hacha All these three Fisheries produce very weighty PEARLS but they are generally ill shap'd and of a Water enclining to the Colour of Lead As for Scotch PEARL and those that are found in the Rivers of Bavaria though a Neck-lace of them may be worth a thousand Crowns yet they are not to be câ—mpar'd with the Eâ—stern and West-Indian PEARLS Some Years since there was a Fâ—shâ—ry discover'd in a certain place upon the Coast of Iapan Tavernier says He has seen some which the Hollanders have brought thence They are of a very good Water and large but very uneven TAVERN Trav. in India Part II. Book II. Chap. xvii Over all Asia they chuse the yellow Water inclining to white for they say those PEARLS that incline somewhat to a Gold Colour are more brisk and never change Colour but that the white ones will change in Thirty Years time through the very heat of the Weather and the Sweat of the Person that wears them turning them scandalously yellow Take this Observation along with you touching the difference of their Waters some being very White others inclining to Yellow others to Black others to a Leaden Colour As for the last there are no such but only in America which proceeds from the Nature of the Earth at the bottom of the Water which is generally more Ouzy than in the East I once met with Six PEARLS in the return of a Cargo from the West-Indies that were perfectly round but black like Iet which weigh'd one with another Twelve Carats I carried them into the East-Indies to put them off but could meet with no Chapman to buy them As for those that incline to Yellow it proceeds from hence that the Fishermen selling the Oysters to the Merchants in heaps while they stay Fourteen or Fifteen Days till the Oysters lose their Water the Oysters wast and begin to smell for which reason the PEARL grows Yellow by Infection which appears to be a Truth in regard that where the Oysters preserve their Liquor the PEARLS are White Now the Reason
are striving in the Womb of Nature when her Throes are coming upon her And that these Caverns where the Vapours lie are very large and capocious we are taught sometimes by sad Experience for whole Cities and Countries have been swallow'd up into them as Sodom and Gomorrah and the Region of Pentapolis and several Cities in Greece and in Asia and other parts Whole Islands also have been thus absorpt in an EARTHQUAKE the pillars and props they stood upon being broken they have sunk and saln in as an House blown up I am also of Opinion that those Islands that are made by divulsion from a Continent as Sicily was broken off from Italy and great Britain as some think from France have been made the same way that is the Isthmus or Necks of Land that joyn'd these Islands with their Continents before have been hollow and being either worn by the Water or shak'd by an EARTHQUAKE have sunk down and so made way for the Sea to overflow them and of a Promontory to make an Island For it is not at all likely that the Neck of Land continu'd standing and the Sea overflow'd it and so made an Island for then all those Passages between such Islands and their respective Continents would be extreamly shallow and unnavigable which we do not find them to be Nor is it any more wonder if such a Neck of Land should fall than that a Mountain should sink or any other Tract of Land and a Lake rise in its place which hath often happen'd Plato supposeth his Atlantis to have been greater than Asia and Africa together and yet to have sunk all into the Sea whether that be true or no I do not think it impossible that some Arms of the Sea or Sinus's might have had such an Original as that and I am very apt to think that for some Years after the Deluge till the Fragments were well settled and adjusted great alterations wou'd happen as to the Face of the Sea and the Land many of the Fragments would change their posture and many would sink into the Water that stood out before the props failing that bore them up or the Joynts and Corners whereby they lean'd upon one another and thereupon a new Face of Things would arise and a new Deluge for that part of the Earth Such removes and interchanges I believe would often happen in the first Ages after the Flood as we see in all other Ruines there happen lesser and Secondary Ruines after the first till the parts be so well pois'd and settled that without some violence they scarce change their posture any more But to return to our EARTHQUAKES and to give an instance or two of their Extent and Violence Pliny mentions one in the Reign of Tiberius Caesar that struck down Twelve Cities of Asia in one Night And Fournier gives us an Account of one in Peru that reach'd Three Hundred Leagues along the Sea-Shore and Seventy Leagues Inland and levell'd the Mountains all along as it went threw down the Cities turn'd the Rivers out of their Channels and made an Universal havock and Confusion And all this â—e saith was done within the space of Seven or Eight Minutes There must be dreadful Vaults and Mines under that Continent that gave passage to the Vapours and liberty to play for Nine Hundred Miles in length and above Two Hundred in breadth Asia also hath been very subject to these Desolations by EARTH-QUAKES and many parts in Europe as Greece Italy and others The Truth is our Cities are built upon Ruines and our Fields and Countries stand upon broken Arches and Vaults and so does the greatest part of the outward Frame of the Earth and therefore it is no wonder if it be often shaken there being quantities of Exhalations within these Mines or Cavernous passages that are capable of rarifaction and inflâ—mation and upon such Occasions requiring more room they shake or break the Ground that covers them THO. BVRNET's Theory of the Earth Pag. 119 120 121. Many have written of the Causes of these dreadful Effects of Nature of these Tremblings and Shiverings of the Earth or rather Aguish shaking Fits whereunto we find her Body is as subject as the Body of Men or Lions who are observ'd to have their Montâ— Paroxisines The Babilonian Philosophers think the Cause of these impetuous Motions happeneth by the force of some Planet meeting with the Sun in the Region of the Earth Others hold it to be a Vapour a long time engendring in some Concavities of the Earth and restrain'd from Sallying forth into the Air Others affirm that it is a Wind penn'd up in the Entrails of the Earth Pliny says that the Earth never quaketh but when the Sea is very Calm and the Air so still and clear as the Birds can hardly bear themselves up and that the Winds are then shut up in the Bowels of the Earth their improper Sâ—ation He addeth further that an EARTHQUAKE is nothing else but as Thunder in the Air or an overture and Crevice in the Earth or as Lightning breaking forth violently and making irruptions from the midst of the Clouds the Wind inclos'd therein and struggling to come forth by force The Stoicks speak of divers Sorts of EARTHQUAKES that cause the gapings of the Earth the swellings of the Water and bolling of the same a horrid confus'd Sound commonly proceedeth and accompanieth this Quaking sometimes like to the roaring of a Bull sometimes to the lamentable Cry of some Humane Creature or like the Clattering of Armour according to the quality of the Matter which is inclos'd or according to the Form of the Cave and Hole or SPELUNCA through which it passeth which resounds in Vaulty and hollow places It waxeth hot in sharp and dry places and causeth defluxions in those that are moist and humid Now amongst all EARTHQUAKES the Agitation of the Waters is most dangerous for Lightning is not so hurtful nor the shaking of Buildings or when the Earth is pusâ—'d up or falleth down by an interchangeable Motion because the one keepeth back the other The safest Buildings are those upon Vaults the Corners of Walls and on Bridges leaning one against another beside Brick Buildings are less dangerous in such Accidents Your skilful Navigators can foretel these EARTHQUAKES at such time as they pâ—rceive the Waves to swell on a sudden without a Wind and likewise those on Land may also foretel them when they behold Birds in a maze to stay their flight or when Waters in Wells are troubled more than ordinary having a bad unsavoury smell All these are Presages of such hidious Motions Pherecydes the Syrian drawing Water out of a Well â—oretold an EARTHQUAKE and so did Anaximander Milesius And the truest Signs are either when the Wind blows not Or when the Sea and Region of the Air are Calm for an EARTHQUAKE never happeneth when the Wind blows or the Sea swells IAMES HOWELL's Hist. of Venice Pag. 75 76. If we may Credit
Banks in the Sea but the greatest of them when they fell either one upon another or in such a posture as to prop up one another their Heads and higher parts would stand out of the Water and make ISLANDS Thus I conceive the ISLANDS of the Sea were at first produc'd we cannot wonder therefore that they should be so numerous or faâ— more numerous than the Continents These are the Parents and those are the Children Nor can we wonder to see along the sides of the Continents several ISLANDS or Sets of ISLANDS sown as it were by handfuls or laid in Trains for the manner of their Generation would lead us to think they would be so plac'd So the American ISLANDS lie scatter'd upon the Coast of that Continent the Maldivian and Philippine upon the East-Indian Shoar and the Hesperides upon the Aâ—rick and there seldom happen to be any towards the middle of the Ocean though by an Accident that also might come to pass BVRNET's Theory of the Earth pag. 137 138 139. Athanasius Kircher amongst many considerable Remarks in his China Illustrata tells us that in China there were several Isles to the Number of 99. all turned into one under the same Extent of space they had when they were divided by Water As concerning the Situation of ISLANDS whether Comodious or not this saith Peter Heâ—lin is my judgement I find in Machiavel that for a City whose People covet no Empire but their own Towns a Barren place is better than a Fruitful because in such Seats they are compell'd to Work and Labour whereby they are freed from Idleness and by Consequence from Luxury But for a City whose Inhabitants desire to enlarge their Confines a fertile place was rather to be chosen than a Barren as being more able to nourish Multitudes of People The like Pet. Heylin says of ISLANDS If a Prince desire rather to keep than augment his Dominions no place fitter for his Abode than an ISLAND as being by it self and Nature sufficiently desensible But if a King be minded to add continually to his Empire an ISLAND is no fit Seat for him because partly by the uncertainty of Winds and Seas partly by the length and tediousness of the ways he is not so well able to supply and keep such Forces as he hath on the Continent An Example hereof is England which hath even to admiration repelled the most puissant Monarch of Europe but for the Causes above mentioned cannot shew any of her Conquests on the firm Land though she hath attempted and atchieved as many glorious Exploits as any Countrey in the World PET. HEYL. Cosmogr The Ingenious Dr. Sprat now Bishop of Rochester observes that the chief Design of the Antient English was the glory of spreading their Victories on the Continent But this says he was a Magnanimous mistake For by their very Conquests if they had maintain'd them this ISLAND had been ruin'd and had only become a Province to a greater Empire But now it is rightly understood that the English Greatness will never be supported or increas'd in this Age by any other Wars but those at Sea SPRAT's Hist. of the R. S. Pag. 404. ISLANDERS are for the most part longer liv'd than those that dwell in Continents For they live not so long in Russia as in the Orcades nor so long in Africa though under the same Parallel as in the Canaries and Tercera's And the Iaponians are longer liv'd than the Chineses though the Chineses are mad upon long life And this is no wonder seeing the Air of the Sea doth heat and cherish in cooler Regions and cool in hotter BACON's Hist. of Life and Death Of the Origine of Fâ—VNTAINS THat there is a Mass of Waters in the Body of the Earth is evident from the Origine of Fountains for the Opinion of Aristotle imputing them to the Condensation of Air in the Caverns of the Earth and that of other Philosophers ascribing them to the fall of Rain-Water received into such Cisterns in the Earth which are capable of receiving it are both equally unsatisfactory unless we suppose a Mass of Waters in the Bowels of the Earth which may be as the Common-Stock to supply those Fountains with For it is very hard conceiving how meer Air should be so far Condensed as to cause not only such a Number of Fountains but so great a quantity of Water as runs into the Sea by those Rivers which come from them as the River Volga is supposed to empty so much Water in a Years time into the Caspian Sea as might suffice to cover the whole Earth by which likewise it is most evident that there must be some Subterranean Passages in the Sea or else of necessity by that abundance of Water which continually runs into it from the Rivers it would overflow and drown the World And from this Multitude of Waters which comes from Fountains it is likewise evident that the Origine of â—ountains cannot be meerly 〈…〉 Water which 〈…〉 which would 〈…〉 maintaiâ— so full 〈…〉 many 〈…〉 that 〈…〉 that rain-Rain-Water doth never moisten the Earth above Ten Foot deep for of far greater profundity many Fountains are And besides the rain-Rain-Water runs most upon the Surface of the Earth and so doth rather swell the Rivers which thereby run with greater force in their Passage to the Ocean and doth not lodge it self presently in the Earth especially if it descends in a greater Quantity which alone is able to fill such Cisterns supposed to be in the Earth especially in Mountains which may keep a Stream continually running Although therefore we may acknowledge that the fall of Rain may much conduce to the Overflowing and Continuance of Fountains as is evident by the greater force of Springs afâ—er continued Rains and by the dâ—câ—y of many of them in hot and dry Weather which yet I had rather impute to the Suns exhaling by his continued heat those moist Legs because it is equally dispers'd into all the parts from the Center of it so in the Body of the Earth it is as natural for the Water to ascend into the Tops of Mountains as it is to fall down into the Center of the Earth And that it is no more wonder to see Springs issue out of Mountains than it is to see a Man Bleed in the Veins of his Forehead when he is let Blood there So in all places of the Earth the parts of it are not dispos'd for Apertion for some of them are so hard and compact that there seems to be no passage through them which is the most probable Reason why there is no Rain neither in those places because there is no such Exsâ—dation of those moist Vapours through the Surface of the Earth which may yield matter for Rain as it is in many of the Sandy places of Africa but usually Mountainous Countries have more large and as it were Temple-Veins through whiâ—h the moist Vapours have a free and open passage and thence there are
not only more frequent Springs there but Clouds and Rains too Now if this Account of the Origine of Springs in the Earth be as rational as it is ingenious and handsome and there is not much can be said against it but only that then all Fountains should be Salt as the Water is from whence they come then we easily understand how the Earth might be overflow'd in the Vniversal Deluge for then the Fountains of the Deep were broken up or there was an Vniversal opening of the Veins of the Earth whereby all the Water contained in them would presently run upon the Surface of the Earth and must needs according to its proportion advance it self to a considerable height But because the salving the difference of the Water in Springs from what it is in the Sea is so considerable a Phaenomenon in our present case I therefore rather take this following as the most rational Account of the Origine of Fountains viz. That there are great Cavities in the Earth which are capable of receiving a considerable Quantity of Water which continually runs into them from the Sea which as it continually receives fresh Supplies from the Rivers which empty themselves into it so it dispatcheth away a like quantity thorow those Spongy parts of the Eâ—rth under the Ocean which are most apt to suck in and convey away the Surplusage of Water so that by this means the Sea never swells by the Water conveyed into it by the Rivers there being as continual a Circulation in the Body of the Earth of the Water which passeth out of the Ocean into the Subterraneous Caverns and from thence to the Mountains and thence into the Sea again as there is a Circulation of Blood in Man's Body from the Heart by the Arteries into the Exteriour Parts and returning back again by the Veins into the Heart According to which we may imagine such a place in the Heart of the Earth like Plato's Barathrum 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 As Plato in his Phaedrus describes it out of Homer a long and deep Subterraneous Cavity 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Into which Cavity all the Rivers at last flow and from which they again disperse themselves abroad Now this Cavity of the Earth thus fill'd with Water supplies the place of the Heart in the Body oâ— the Earth from which all those several Aquaeducts which are in the Earth have their continual supply But that which makes those passages of Water which we call Springs and Fountains properly I suppose is thus generated from those Cavities fill'd with Water in the Earth by Reason of the hot Steams which are in the Body of the Earth there are continually rising some Vapours or little Particles of Water which are dis-joyned from each other by the Heat by Reason of which they attain a greater Celerity of Motion and so pass through the inner Pores of the Earth till they come near the Superficies of it Which when they have approach'd to they are beat back again by the Cold which environs the Surface of the Earth or at least are so arrested by the Cold and condens'd by it that they lose the form of Vapours and become perfect Water again Which Water being now more gross than while it was a meer Vapour cannot descend again through the same Pores through which it ascended before because these are not now capable of receiving it And therefore it seeks out some wider passages near the Surface of the Earth by which means it moves in an Oblique manner and is ready to embrace any other Vapours which are arrested in the same manner now when these are grown to a Considerable Body in the Surface of a Mountain or a Plain and find a Vent fit for them there appears a proper FOUNTAIN whose Streams are still maintained by the same Condensation of Vapours which when they are once come abroad are in continual Motion whereby Rivers are made which are still finding a passage through the declivity of the Surface of the Earth whereby they may return to the Ocean again Now according to this Account that grand Phâ—â—nomenâ—n of the freshness of Fountain-Water when the Water of the Sea is Salt whence it Originally comes is sufficiently resolved For meer Transcolation may by degrees take away that which the Chymists call the Fixed Salt and for the Volatile Salt of it which being a more Spirituous thing is not removable by Distillation and so neither can it be by Transcolation yet such an Evaporation as that mentioned may serve to do it because it is evident that Fresh Water will fall from the Clouds which hath risen from those Vapours which have come out of the Sea and besides these Vapours or small Particles of Water in their passage throw the Earth especially when they come near the Surface of it do Incorporate with other Sweet Vapours as those which come from Rain and others by which means they insensibly lose their former Acidity and Sharpness But those FOUNTAINS which do retain their former Saltness as there are many such in the World may very probably be supposed not to have come from these Vapours condensed but to be a kind of a breaking of a Vein in which the Salt-Water was convey'd up and down the Body of the Earth STILLINGFLEET's Orig. Sacr. lib. 3. Cap. 4. Sect. 6. The Opinion of Mr. Edmund Halley in the Philos. Transact Numb 192. That Springs and Riveâ—s owe their Original to Vapours condensed on the sides of Mountains rather than unto Rains I acknowledg to be very Ingenious grounded upon good Observations and worthy of its Author and I will not deny it to be in part true in those hot Countrys in the Torid Zone and near it where by reason of the great heats the Vapours are more copiously exhaled out of the Earth and its likely carryed up high in the form of Vapours But in Europe and the more Temperate Countries I believe the Vapours condensed in the manner as Mr. Halley describes have but little Interest in the producing of their Springs IOHN RAY's Miscell Disc. of the Dissolut of the World Pag. 82. and 85. Dr. Tankred Robinson's Letter to Mr. John Ray. YOV may peradventure meet with some opposition against your Hypothesis of FOUNTAINS tho' indeed I am more and more confirm'd in your Opinion of them and the use of the Mountains Father TECHART in his second Voyage to Siam says when he went up to the top of the Table Mountain at the Cape of Good Hope the Rocks and Shrubs were perpetually dropping and feeding the Springs and Rills below there being generally Clouds hanging on the sides near the top The same Observation hath been frequently made by our English Merchants in the Madera and Canary Islands especially in their journeys up to the Pike of Teneriff in which at such and such heights they were always wet to the Skin by the droppings of the great Stones yet no Rain over head The same I have felt in passing over
moisture like Oyl The Black or White AMBER-GRISE is adulterated with a little mixture of Musk and Civet with Storax Laudanum and Lignum-Aloes but may easily be known by the scent Observations concerning CORAL THere are several sorts of CORAL but the two Principal are the White and the Red but the Red is the best It grows like a Tree in the bottom of the Sea green when under the Water and bearing a White Berry and when out it turns Red. There is also a Black and Yellow kind of CORAL Nay Linschot in his Description of the East-Indies says That at the Cape of Bon-Esperance there are Rocks on which CORAL grows of all Colours CORAL but little valued in Europe is highly esteem'd in all the three other parts of the World There are three places where they Fish for it upon the Coast of Sardigna That of Arguerrel is the fairest of all The second place is called Boza and the third is near the Island of St. Peter There are two other places upon the Coast of France the one near the Bastion of France the other at Tabarque There is also another Fishery upon the Coast of Sicily near Trepano but the CORAL is small and ill-colour'd There is another upon the Coast of Catalogna near Cape de Quiers where the CORAL is large and of an excellent Colour but the Branches are short There is a Ninth Fishery in the Island of Majorque much like that near the Island of Corsica And these are all the places in the Mediterranean Sea where they Fish for CORAL for there is none at all in the Ocean TAVERN Trav. in India They Fish for CORAL from the beginning of April to the End of Iuly to which purpose there are employ'd above two Hundred Vessels some Years more and some Years less They are built all along the River of Genoa being very swift Their Sails are very large for more swiftness so that there are no Gallies can reach them There are seven Men and a Boy to every Barque They never Fish above forty Miles from the Land where they think there are Rocks for fear of the Pyrats whom they easily escape through the nimbleness of their Vessels Ibidem Monsieur Chapuzeau in his History of the Riches of the East and West-Indies says That the manner of Fishing for CORAL is with two big Beams of Wood laid cross-wise with a good piece of Lead on the middle to make it sink casting about it course Hemp carelessly twisted and tying this Wood to two Ropes whereof one hangs at the Stern and the other at the fore-part of the Boat and so letting this contrivance fall into the Current along the Rocks where the Hemp being turned about and engaged in the CORAL there is occasion sometimes for a great many Boats to draw away the Instrument The common Opinion That CORAL is soft under Water but waxeth hard in the Air hath been sufficiently reâ—uted by several Iohannes Begvinus in his Chapt. of the Tincture of CORAL undertakes to clear the World of this Error from the very Experiment of Iohn Baptista de Nicole who was Over-seer of the Gathering of CORAL in the Kingdom of Thunis This Gentleman saith he desirous to find out the Nature of CORAL and to be resolved how it grows at the bottom of the Sea caused a Man to go down no less than a Hundred Fathom on purpose to take notice whether it were hard or soft in the place where it grows Who returning brought in each Hand a Branch of CORAL affirming it was as hard at the bottom as in the Air where he deliver'd it The same was also confirm'd by a Tryal of his own handling it a Fathom under Water before it felt the Air. Boetius in his accurate Tract de Gemmis is of the same Opinion not ascribing its Concretion unto the Air but to the coagulating Spirits of Salt and the petrifying Juice of the Sea which entring the Parts of that Plant overcomes its Vegetability and converts it into a Stony substance And this says he doth happen when the Plant is ready to decay for all CORAL is not hard and in many Concreted parts some parts remain unpetrified that is the livelier parts remain as Wood and were never yet converted BROWN's Vulg. Errors The Lord Bacon in his Natural History tells us there are very few Creatures that participate of the Nature of Plants and Metals both but that CORAL is one of the nearest of both Kinds But the Ingenious Monsieur Guisony seems to be of another Opinion for he utterly denies CORAL to be a Plant affirming that it is a meer Mineral composed of much Salt and a little Earth and that it is formed into that substance by a precipitation of divers Salts thaâ— ensues upon the Encounter of the Earth with those Salts PHILOSOPH TRANSACT Numb 99. pag. 6159. Of the Nature and Generation of CORAL it is affirmed by the Honourable Mr. Boyle That whilst it grows it is often found Soft and Succulent and propagates its Species And by Georg. de Sepibus That of those who had been us'd for many Years to dive for CORAL in the Red-Sea Kircher learned thus much That it would sometimes let fall a Spermatick Juice which lighting upon any Steady body would thereupon produce another CORAL And further by Wormius and Tavernier from the Relations of others That this Juice is White or Milky Which may seem the more Credible when we consider that the like Milky substance is found in divers Mines Sometimes inclosed as is observed in the Philos Transact Numb 100. by Mr. George Planton in great Hollows of the Metallick Rock And that Mr. Beamont Philos. Transact Numb 129. Pag. 730. hath found in the Hollows of some Stones call'd Entrochi and Rock-Plants or a-kin to them an evident Concretion of such Milky Juice GREW's Mus. Regal Societ Paracelsus makes an Amulet of CORAL against Fears Fright Melancholly Epilepsie Inchantment and Witch-Craft The Learned Dr. Brown in his Vulgar Errors seems to suspect That the Custome of Childrens wearing CORAL was at first superstitiously founded and that possibly in former times it might be lookt upon as an Amulet or Defensative against Witch-Craft Observations concerning BEZOAR THe Deer-Goat is a Creature bred both in the East and West-Indies That from Persia and the East-Indies yields the Oriental BEZOAR being partly like a Deer partly like a Goat That of Peru is like the former but without Horns yielding the Occidental BEZOAR The BEZOAR Stone is of an Oval Form or round hollow within the Oriental having Chaff Hair Sticks Grains Filth or the like in its Capacity the Occidental Not shining and smooth without having a Coat â—olded like an Onion of a various Colour but generally of a Blackishâ— Green Pale Ashâ—Colour or Hony-Colour without scent and much about the bigness of a Walnut The Occidental is rough without Whitish Ash-Colour'd Black or Blackish Green and generally bigger than the former BEZOAR says Tavernier comes from a
within the Land That they have no great Root so that a Man would think it impossible for them to have any fast hold within the Earth and yet they stand so fast and grow so high that it makes one afraid to see a Man climb up to the top of them The Question â—eing put to Sir Philiberto Vernatti late Resident in Iava Major whether there be a Tree in Mexico that yields Water Wine Vinegar Oyl Milk Honey Wax Thread and Needles His Answer was The COCO-Tree yields all this and more The Nut while it is Green hath very good Water in it the Flower being cut drops out great Quantity of Liquor called Sury or Taywack which drank fresh hath the force and almost the taste of Wine grown four is very good Vinegar and distill'd makes very good Brandy or Areck The Nut grated and mingled with Water tasteth like Milk pressed yields very good Oyl Bees swarm in these Trees as well as in others Thread and Needles are made of the Leaves and tough Twigs SPRAT's Hist. of the ROYAL SOCIETY Pag. 170. The COCO is one of the most useful Trees in the World Of the Husk or outmost fibrous cover of the Nut all manner of Ropes and Cables are made throughout India Of the Shells the Indians make Ladles Wine-Bottles and many forts of Vessels The inmost Cover next the Kernel while it contains only Liquor they eat with Salt as a very pleasant Food The said Liquor is commonly us'd as a clear sweet and cool Drink Sometimes they cut away the Blossom of the young Nut and binding a convenient Vessel to the place thereby obtain a sweet and pleasant Liquor which they call Sura This standing an hour in the Sun becomes good Vinegar used throughout India The same Distill'd I suppose after Fermentation yieldeth a pretty strong Brandy called Fulo and is the first running The second is called Vraca the only Wine of India Of the same Sura being boil'd and set in the Sun they also make a fort of Brown Sugar which they call Iagra From the Kernel it self when fresh and well stamped they press out a Milk which they always mix and eat with their Rice-Meats Of the Kernel dried called Copra and stamped they make Oyl both to eat and to burn Of the Leaves of the Tree called Olas they make the Sails of their Ships As also Covers for their Houses and Tents and Summer-Hats Of the Wood they make Ships without Nails sewing the several parts together with the Cords made of the Huk of the Nut. GREW's Musaeum REG. SOCIET Pag. 199 200. Observations concerning the CACAO-Tree and its NVT of which CHOCOLATE is made OF these Trees there are several sorts which grow to a reasonable height The Bodies of the largest do usually arrive in bulk although not in tallness to the largeness of our English Plum-Trees They are in every part smooth and the Boughs and Branches thereof extend themselves on every side to the proportion of a well-spread Tree much resembling our HeartCherry-Tree but at its full growth 't is dilated to a greater breadth in compass and is something loftier there is little difference in the Leaves these being pointed but smoother on the Eâ—â—â—s and of a white kind of Pulp that 's agreeable to the Palate By the turning and Sweating their little Strings are broken and the Pulp is imbibed and mingled with the substance of the Nut. After this they are put to dry 3 or 4 Weeks in the Sun and then they become of a Reddish dark Colour as you see and so are Cured What is remarkable in this Fruit is that the Codds grow only out of the Body or great Limbs and Boughs and that at the same time and in the same place there are Blossoms Young and Ripe Fruit. This Tree requires to be shelter'd from the Sun while 't is Young and always from the North-East Winds and to have a fat moist low Soil which makes them to be Planted commonly by Rivers and between Mountains So that 't is ill living where there are good CACAO-Walks In a Years time the Plant comes to be 4 Foot high and hath a Leaf six times as big as an Old Tree which as the Plant grows bigger falls off and lesser come in their place which is another extraordinary Quality of this Tree The Trees are commonly Planted at 12 Foot distance and at 3 years old where the Ground is good and the Plant prosperous it begins to bear a little and then they cut down all or some of the Shade and so the Fruit increases till the 10 th or 12 th Year and then the Tree is supposed to be in its prime How long it may continue so none with us in Iamaica can guess but it 's certain the Root generally shoots out Suckers that supply the place of the old Stock when dead or cut down unless when any ill Quality of the Ground or Air kill both See this Accurate Account of the CACAO Tree given by a very Intelligent Person residing in Jamaica which you may find in the PHILOS TRANS ACT. Numb 93. These Kernels being well pounded as Almonds in a Mortar and mixed with a certain proportion of Sugar and Spices according as the Trader thinks or finds it best for Sale are commonly made up in Cakes or Rowles which are brought over hither from Spain and other parts But those that would have a good Quantity for their own private use had much better procure the NUTS themselves as fresh and new as may be and so prepare and Compound them to their own Constitution and Taste And for those that drink it without any Medicinal respect at Coffee-Houses there is no doubt but that of Almonds finely beaten and mixed with a due proportion of Sugar and Spices may be made as pleasant a Drink as the best CHAWCALATE GREW's Mus. REG. SOC Pag. 205. Dr. Stubbes in the last part of his Observations relating to Iamaica see the Philos. Transact Numb 37. takes notice of the Censure of Simon Paula in his Herbal Pag. 383. against CHOCOLATA and says He cannot forgive him for it being of Opinion that that Liquor if it were well made and taken in a right way is the best Diet for Hypochondriacs and Chronical Distempers for the Scurvy Gout and Stone and Women Lying-in and Children New-Born to prevent Convulsions and purge the Meconium out and many other Distempers that infest Europe but that 't is now rather used for Luxury than Physick and so compounded as to destroy the Stomach and to increase Hypochondriacal Diseases and that we now so Cook it as if it were to be transform'd into a Caudle or Custard The Native Indians seldom or never use any Compounds desiring rather to preserve their Healths than to gratifie and please their Palars until the Spaniards coming amongst them made several Mixtures and Compounds which instead of making CHOCOLATE better as they supposed have made it much worse And many of the English especially those that
know not the Nature of the CACAO do now imitate them For in Iamaica as well as other places when they make it into Lumps Balls Cakes c. they add to the CACAO Paste Chille or Red Pepper Achiote sweet Pepper commonly known by the Name of IamaicaPepper or some or one of them as also such other Ingredients as the place affordeth or as most pleases them that make it or else as the more skillful Persons may think it to agree with this or that Individual Person adding thereto as much Sugar only as will sweeten it First of all drying and beating every Ingredient apart and then at the last mixing them together as it is wrought up into a Mass. HUGHES's American Phisician Iosephus Acosta says that in several places in the West-Indies The CACAW-NUT is so much esteem'd that the Kernels are us'd instead of Money and commonly given to the Poor as Alms And that the Indians are wont to Treat Noble Men with CHACAWLATE as they pass through their Country IOS ACOST Hist. Lib. 4. Cap. 22. Observations concerning THEE or TEA THEE is a Shrub growing in most parts of China and Iapan it arises generally to the height and bigness of our Garden-Rose and Currant-Trees the Roots are Fibrous and spread into many little Filaments near the surface of the Earth the Flowers are like those of Rosa Sylvestris the Seeds round and black which being sow'd come to perfection in three Years time and then yield yearly a Crop but these are little valued the great and only Virtue of this Plant being supposed to consist only in the Leaves of which there are five sorts both as to bigness and valued for the largest at bottom are sold for about one Penny half Penny the Pound but the smallest at the top for Fifty nay sometimes one Hâ—ndred and Fifty Crowâ—s the Pound IOH. NIC. PECâ—LIN De potu THEâ—E This Plant saith the Learned Pechlin abounds with a brisk volatile Salt which he adjudges very agreeable to our Northern Constitutions whose Blood is naturally very heavy and sluggish it carries also with it a sine thinner sort of Oyl but so admirably well tempar'd that as this hinders the Spirit from Evaporating so that corrects the Inflammability of this from whence results the very agreeable latter Aâ—tringent All which together as they rectifie the Ferment of the Blood and at the same time strengthen and confirm the tone of the Parts contribute so much to the assisting of Nature in her Operations as to prevent if not to Cure most Chronical Distempers Because the discreet Choice of a proper Vehicle for this great Panacea may be very material the Learned Author therefore thinks good to shew his dislike of Milk in that it very much obstructs its more lively and quicker parts as always leaving behind it much acidity which how prejudicial to Hypochondriacal Persons is sufficiently obvious He dislikes the Custom they use in Iapan of drinking the Leaves powder'd supposing that it may dry the Body too much In short He concludes warm-Water to be the most Natural and Effectuâ—l Vehicle as being pure and voâ—d of all Saline or other ways pernicious Particles and being more ready to be impregnated with the Virtue hereof which when Armed with this powerful Vegetable Nature easily admits into its obscure Channels and dark Recesses He approves well enough of the use of Sugar as it serves not only to qualifie the bitter taste by its sweetness which at the same time is corrected by the Heat but as being good also for the Kindnies and Lungs He thinks the difference of Constitutions too great to be insisted on and therefore only says this viz. That those of a dryer Habit may take it more diluted because their Salts may more easily be carried off And for the Moister and Hydropical Temper He supposes this Water if more strongly impregnated may make way for the Evacuation of the other As to the Times of taking it He says the more empty the Stomach the passage will be the more easy and therefore in such the more effectual He condemns the use of it after Meals because the Volatiâ—e part flies off before the Meat is any ways digested after which the Concoction is difficulty perform'd because the Ferment as well as the Volatility of the Chyle is suppressed by the Astringent Quality which in those Circumstances oft proves a thing of very pernicious Consequence To conclude our Author notwithstanding all his Encomium's of this Exotick can be content to think we might receive as much benefit from some Plants of our own Growth were People industrious to search after them such as Veronica Lingua Cervina Marrhubium Hepatica Cichoreum and some others which he names PECâ—LIN Ibidem The Physicians of Tunquin in India do mightily admire the Herb TEA which comes from China and Iapan which latter Country produces the best It is brought to them in Tin Pots close stopp'd to keep out the Air. When they would use it they boil a Quantity of Water according to the proportion they intend to use and when the Water seeths they throw a small Quantity into it allowing as much as they can nip between their Thumb and Fore-Finger to a Glass This they prescribe to be drank as hot as they can endure it as being an excellent Remedy against the Head-ach for the Gravel and for those that are subject to the Griping of the Guts but then they order a little Ginger to be put into the Water when it boyls At Goa Batavia and in all the Indian Factories there are none of the Euiâ—â—â—â—â—ns who do not spend above four or five Leaves a day and they are careful to preserve the boil'd Leaf for an Evening Sallad with Sugar Vinegar and Oyl That is accounted the best TEA which colours the Water greenest but that which makes the Water look red is little valued In Iapan the King and great Lords who drink TEA drink only the Flower which is much more wholsome and of a taste much more pleasing But the Price is much different for one of our ordinary â—eâ—â—-Giasses is there worth a French Crown TAVERN of the Kingdom of Tunqin Chap. X. In Iapan there is a Plant called TSIA it is a kind of THE or TEA but the Plant is much more delicate and more highly esteem'd than that of THE' Persons of Quality keep it very carefully in Earthen Pots well stopp'd that it may not take Windâ— but the Iapponneses prepare it quite otherwise than is done in Europe For instead of infusing it into warm Water they beat it as small as Powder and take of it as much as will lye on the point of a Knife and put it into a Dish of Porcelane or Earth full of seething Water in which they slir it till the Water be all green and then drink it as hot as they can endure it It is excellent good after a Debauch it being certain there is not any thing that allays the Vapours and settles the
have wrought the same effect and thâ—t â—f thâ—y would keep the Stone-Horse with that Drink he would in a short time be as tame and quiet as the King her Husband OLEARIVS in the Ambassadors Travels pag. 240. There goes a Story how true I know not that the Vertue of COFFEE was at first discover'd by a Prior of a Convent who observing that the Goats which fed in that part of Arabiâ— where these Trees grow us'd to live with little or no Sleep and that 〈◊〉 the day time they â—eâ—e mighty bâ—isk and frisking â—he said â—rior did from thence conclâ—â—e that this must necessarily proceed from the Goats licking up the Berries that fell from these Trees Whereupon to satisfy his Curiosity He try'd the Experiment upon another sort of Beast viz. a Sleepy Heavy-Headed Monk whom the Prior did often ply with this sort of Drink on whom as the Story goes it had in a short time such a wonderful effect that it quite alter'd his Constitution and that he afterwards became more quick brisk and airy than generally that sort of Cattle are The Goodness of COFFEE chiefly consists in an exact way of Parching and managing the Berries for if these are parch'd to a higher or lower degree than they ought the COFFEE is stark naught and good for nothing Dr. Bernier affirms that there were but two Men in the whole City of Cairo that rightly understood the Art and Mystery of Parching and ordering these Berries IOH. RAII Hist. Plant. Vol. 2. pag. 1692. That Learned Boâ—anist Mr. Ray in the place last quoted tells us that the Arabians are very industrious in destroying the Vegetative Force of the Seed that so thereby they might prevent its growing in any other Countrey Nor indeed are they to be blam'd for so doing since from this one Commodity of COFFEE there accrues to their Country such an immense Treasure from almost all the other parts of the World in which respect as the Learned Ray wittily observes Arabia may bâ— said to be not only Felix but â—â—licissimâ— Observations concerning OPIVM OPIUM is a Tear which flows from the wounded Heads of the Poppy being ripe Some do promiscâ—â—usly use it with MECONIUM but very improperly for OPIUM is a Drop or Tear MECONIUM the gross expressed Juice from the whole Plant however they are both of one Quality OPIUM is the finer Gum and the stronger MECONIUM is the courser and weaker yet the more malign OPIUM is of three sorts 1. Black and hard from Syria and Aden 2. Yellower and softer from Cambaia 3. Whiter from Cairo or Thebes which last commonly called Thebian-OPIUM is the best being heavy thick strong scented like Poppy bitter and sharp inflamable almost of the Colour of Aloes and easy to dissolve in Water The Counterâ—eit when washed colours the Water like Saffron The OPIUM which is spent in Europe comes from Aden or Cairo but that which is sold in the Indies comes out of the Province of Gualor in Indostan and is nothing but the Juice which is got out of POPPY by an Incision made therein when it begins to grow ripe All the Eastern Nations are great Lovers of it insomuch that the young People who are not permitted the use of it and the meauer sort who are not able to buy it will boil the POPPY it self and eat of the Broth which is made thereof And whereas the POPPY among them is called Pust they thence call those Pusty who make use of that Broath instead of OPIUM The Persians affirm that they were the first who made use of it and that all other Nations did it in Imitation of their Grandees who took it at first to provoke Sleep They take every Day a small Pill of it about the bigness of a Pea not so much in order to Sleeping as that it should work the same effect as Wine does which infuses Courage and great Hopes into those who otherwise would not discover much of either The Caffees or Messengers who travel into the Country take of it to hearten themselves but the Indians make use of it for the most part that they may be the better fitted for the Enjoyments of Wâ—men No doubt but it is a Poyson which kills if a Man do not accustom himself thereto by little and little and when he hath so accâ—â—â—omâ—d â—imself he must continue the frequent use of it or he dies on the other side It so weakens their Bâ—ains who take it continually that they run â—he hazard of losing the use of their Reason anâ—â—he principal Functions of their Understanding and become in a manner stupid if they recover not themselves by the same Remedy MANDELSLO's Trav. into the Indies pag. 67. OPIUM is commonly used among the Persians they make Pills of it of the bigness of a Pea and take two or three of them at a time Those who are accustomed thereto will take about an Ounce at a time There are some who take of it only once in two or three Days which makes them Sleepy and a little disturbs their Brains so as that they are as if they were a little entred in Drink There is abundance of it made in Persia especially at Ispahan and it is thus ordered The POPPY being yet green they cleave the Head of it out of which there comes a white Liquor which being expos'd to the Air grows blâ—ck and their Apothecaries and Dâ—uggiâ—â—s trade very much in it All 〈…〉 East they use this Dâ—ug the 〈◊〉 and Indians as wâ—ll as the 〈◊〉 insomuch that Bellen sâ—y◠〈…〉 Observations that if a Turk 〈◊〉 but a Pâ—nny he will spend a Farthing oâ— it in OPIUM that he saw above â—itty Camels loaden with it going from Natolia into Turky Persia and the Indies and that a Ianizary who had taken a whole Ounce of OPIUM one Day took the next Day two and was never the worse for it save that it wrought the same effect in him as Wine does in such as take too much of it and that he stagger'd a little It hath also this Quality common with Wine that it does infuse Courage into those who have not much And therefore the Turks never fail to take of it before they enter upon any great Design The Women do not ordinarily take any but those who are not able to bâ—ar with their untoward and imperious Husbands and prefer Death bâ—fore the Slavery they live in do sometimes make use of OPIUM whereof they take a good Qâ—antity and drinking cold Water upon it they by a gentle and insensiâ—lâ— Dâ—ath depart this World OLEAâ—â—â—S's Trav. of the Ambassâ—dors c. pâ—â— 2â—9 Dr. Bernier in his History of the late Revolution of the Empire of Mogol says that the Ragipous or the Souldiers of that Kingdom are great takers of OPIUM that he has oftentimes wonder'd to see them take such great Quaâ—tity that they accustom themselâ—es to it from their Youth that on the Day of Bâ—ttel they double the Dose this Drug animating or rather inebriating them
have any Stone in them But so abundant in SUGAR-Canes and well stored with SUGARS that forty Ships are thence loaded Yearly with that one Commodity For the making of which they have there Seventy Ingenios or SUGAR-Houses and in each of them Two Hundred Slaveâ— in some Three Hundred which belong to the Works Six says He that Concrete consists of a very sharp and Corrosive Salt though mitigated with a Sulphur as it plainly appears from its Chymical Analysis For SUGAR distill'd by it self yields a Liquor scarce inferior to Aqua Stygia And if you distil it in a Vesica with a great deal of fountain-Fountain-Water pour'd to it though the fixt-Salt will not so ascend nevertheless a Liquor will come from it like the hottest Aqua Vitae burning and very pungent when therefore says the Dr. SUGAR mixt almost with any sorts of Food is taken by us in so great a plenty how probable is it that the Blood and Humours are rendred Salt and sharp and consequently Scorbutical by its daily use A certain Famous Author viz. Simon Pauli has laid the cause of the English Consumption on the immoderate use of SUGAR amongst our Country-Men I know not says the Dr. whether the cause of the increase of the Scurvy may not also be rather hence deriv'd WILLIS's London-Practice Pag. 372. 'T is observ'd of Those who work much in the SUGAR-Houses that they are very subject to the Scurvy and that in Portugal where there is a mighty Quantity of SUGAR Yearly spent their chief Distemper is a Consumption The manner of Ordering the CANES and How the SUGAR is made WHen the CANES come to Maturity which the Planters know by several Signs as well as we know when our Harvest is ready they cut them down at or above the first Joynt from the Ground for there is little moisture in them close to the Ground with a strong Instrument for the same purpose laying them even in â—eaps as we usually lay our Corn here in Harvest-time Then they shread off all the Branches and â—ind the Stalks in Bundles ready â—or their Servants to carry away or else they lay them together here and there till they can carry them away with their Horses to the Mill Machine or Ingenio where they squeeze them Which must be as fast as they can after they are cut for if they lye long after they are cut before they use them then they come by much damage so that whilst they are cutting in the Plantations the Mill is usually going and the Coppers are boyling They carry them on their Horses being loose or bound up in bundles after this wise They have a kind of Pad made as some of our Horses have that carry Burthens and on each side of that are two Crooks standing up even or higher than the Horse's back into which Crooks the CANES are laid on each side of the Horse and then they carry them up to the SUGAR-Mill which is made after this manner following They have an open House built on some pretty high Ground oâ— Hill whereby they may have as much Air as they can square or at least pretty wide in the middle of which they set up two great Posts of very hard and solid Timber made exactly round and straight with Irons at each end â—itted for them to turn the lower end of which turneth in Brasses fast fixt in a great and solid piece of Wood Now in one of these Cylinders or Rowlers which are to turn upright is a set of Coggs set round about which taketh always hold of the other Rowler and causeth it to turn so that both of them turn together There being fastned to one of the Cylinders a piece of Wood or rather a Frame of Wood whereunto is fastned a Horse or two to go round and draw it about in such a manner as most Brewers in England Grind their Mault Now the Mill being prepared and the CANES laid by it and all things ready to set them to work there is one that doth always put the CANES between these Rowlers as they turn which draw them through by turning very nigh one against another so that it squeezes all the Juice or Moisture out of them And then there is another always to take the Crusht CANES away unless one sometimes make shift to do both which commonly is too hard a Task Now under these Rowlers is set a Receiver as a Trough Cistern or the like convenient thing to receive the Juice or Liquor that is squeez'd out of the CANES And from this Trough or Cistern is a Spout to convey this Juice into the Furnaces or Coppers where it is to be boyl'd to SUGAR whereas in some SUGAR-Houses there are five or six Coppers for that purpose which are commonly set in a House built only for the same use at a distance from the Mill and also somewhat lower than the Mill because the Liquor is always running down into the Coppers All which Passages and Vessels must be kept very clean for otherwise they are by reason of the great heat apt to Sower and so spoil the Juice Neither must the Juice be long kept after it is pressed out for if it once grow Sower it is not then sit to make SUGAR These Coppers are set all one by another a-thwart the end of the SUGAR-House or Caring-House as they term it so that the upper edges of each Copper do almost touch one another being fast fixed in Brick-work and cemented round the Edges that no Fire can get up or be seen in the SUGAR-House But the mouth of the Furnaces where the Fire is put is so contriv'd â—hat they are made and appear on â—he outside the House where before â—hem is always ready cut great store â—f Wood to cast in to maintain â—he Fire so long as they boil Now if there be six Câ—ppers the â—â—st two are thinnest anâ— biggest 〈◊〉 which the Juice is first 〈◊〉 but not by a very strong Fire for that will make the Scum to rise by casting in Temper as they call it the first of which that ariseth is little worth but afterwards what is scumm'd off they make a very good drink of called Locus-Ale much used by the Servants in Iamaica or else they convey it into a Copper-Still as they do all their other Setlings and Dregs of SUGAR to be distill'd and make a sort of strâ—ng-Water which they call Rum or Rumbullion stronger than Spirit of Wine and not very pleasant until a Man be us'd to it This strong Liquor is ordinarily drank amongst the Planters as well alone as made into Punch Furthermore when this Juice hath so boil'd into the two first Coppers then is it strained into the third and fourth Furnaces which are less and thicker and there it is boil'd by somewhat greater Fire and as it begins to grow pretty thick theâ— is it put into the fifth and sixth Coppers and there boil'd by a greater and very strong Firâ— to a just consistence These
Coppers are lesser and thicker than the other which the Master-Workman doth always tend with a great deal of care till it be boil'd enough and then they put it into Wooden-Boxes made broad at the top and narrow at the bottom with a hole almost like a Mill-Hopper then they set it in the Curing-House in which there is a place made to set them all in Rows under the bottom of which Gutters or Troughs are placed to receive the Mallassus and convey it into a Vessel They cover the tops of these Boxes or Earthen Vessels with a temper'd white Earth and indeed there is great Art in whitening and making of good SUGAR See HVGHES's American Physician pag. 30 31 32 33 34. The principal Knack without which all their Labour were in vain is in making the Iuice when sufficiently boil'd to Kerne or Granulate Which is done by adding to it a small proportion of Lye made with Vegetable Ashes without which it would never come to any thing by boiling but a Syrup or an Extract But a little of that Fixed Salt serves it seems to Shackle or Chrystallize which is a degree of Fixation a very great quantity of the Essential Salt of this Plant. In reâ—ining the SUGAR the first degree of pureness is effected only by permitting the Molosses to drain a way through a Hole at the bottom of the SUGAR Pots the Pots being all the time open at the top The Second Degree is procur'd by covering the Pots at the top with Clay The reason whereof is for that the Air is hereby kept out from the SUGAR which in the open Pots it hardens before it hath full time to refine by Separation And therefore whereas the first way requires but one Month this requires four The finest SUGAR of all is made with Lime-Waâ—er and sometimes Vrine and Whites of Eggs. That which Dioscorides calls 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Galen Sacchar and Archigenes Sal Indium is the same thing for substance faith Matthiolus with that we call SUGAR saving that whereas this is made of the Juice expressed and boil'd that of the Ancients as is likely was only the Tears which bursting out of the CANE as the Gums or Milks of Plants are used to do were thereupon harden'd into a pure White SUGAR That the SUGAR of the Ancients was the simple concreted Juice of a CANE he well conjectures But that it was the Juice or Tears of the SUGAR-CANE he proves not Nor I think could be if as is supposed it was like Salt friable and hard And in affirming our SUGAR to be the same for Substance with that of the Anâ—ients he much mistakes that being the simple Juice of the CANE â—his a compounded Thing always mixed either with the Salt of Lime or of Ashes sometimes of Animals too GREW's Mâ—s. Reg. Societ pag. 224 225. In Iamaica the SUGAR cures faster in ten days than in six Months in Barbadoes and this happens in such places as it rains for many Months at the same time but you must know that Rains there are sudden and make no previous Alteration in the Air before they fall nor do they leave it moist afterwards Dr. STVBBES in the PHILOS TRANSACT Numb 36. pag. 705. Observations concerning DIAMONDS THE principal DIAMOND Mines now known are four That of Raolconda in the Kingdom of Visapour discover'd two hundred Years since In this Mine the DIAMONDS lie in sandy Vâ—ins in the Rocks Of all the clearest and of the whitest Water They pound and wash the Vein for the DIAMONDS just as we do some of our Ores for the Metal A second call'd the Gany about seven Days Journey from Golconda found out a hundred Years since They dig here not above fourteen foot deep Sometimes above sixty thousand Men Women and Children are at work It affords the largest DIAMONDS but not clear A Third that of Govel a River in the Kingdom of Bengala The DIAMONDS are found in the Sand of the River for the space of fifty Leagues From hence come those fair pointed Stones called Natural Points but not great The Fourth that of Succadan a River in Borneo But there are none come from thence but by stealth GREW's Mus. Reg. Societ pag. 281 282. There are in the DIAMOND-Rocks of Raolconda several Veins some half a finger some a whole finger-wide And the Miners make make use of Irons with Hooks at the end with which they pick out the Earth or Sand which they put into Tubs and among that Earth they find the DIAMONDS But because these Veins do not run always strâ—ight but sometimes down sometimes upward the Minâ—rs followâ—ng always the trace of the Veins are often constrain'd to break the Rock with great Iron-Leavers and sâ—â—iking with a violent force which often 〈◊〉 the DIAMOND and makeâ— it look like Chrystal Which is the reason there are found so many sofâ— Stones in this DIAMOND-Mine though they make a great shew When they have open'd all the Veins and taken out all the Sand then they wash it two or three times over to look for the DIAMONDS TAVERN Trav. in Inâ—ia Part II. Book II. Chap. xi The Water of those DIAMONDS which are drawn not from the Rock but thâ— Ground commonly partakes of the Colour of the Soil wherein they are found So that if the Earth be clean and somewhat sandy the DIAMONDS will be of a good Water but if it be fat or black or of any other Colour they will have some tincture of it BOYLE of Gems pag. 51. Whereas it is commonly said that as Gold is the heaviest of Metals so Diamonds are the hardest and heaviest of Stones The Honourable Mr. Boyle can by no means agree to this Assertion since as he tells us in his Discourse of GEMS pag. 52. He by his own Experience knows it to be false Boethius in his Treatise De Gemmis Lapidibus affirms that DIAMONDS receive no hurt but are rather mended by the Firâ— Garciâ—s lib. 1. cap. 43. tells us that some DIAMONDS being rubâ—'d will take up Straws just like Amber and other Electrical Bodies And Mr. Boyle in his forementioned Tract of GEMS pag. 109. mentions a DIAMOND of his which with a little friction attracts vigorously And that he had another DIAMOND in his keeping which by Water made a little more than luke-warm He could bring to shine in the Dark Ibidem pag. 112. 'T is the property of all true DIAMONDS to unite the Foyle closely and equally to it self and thereby better augment its Lustre than any other Gem. That which is called the Foyle is a mixture of Mastick and burnt Ivory The latter being one of the blackest of Colours used by Painters for Velvet the Pupil of the Eye c. GREWS's Mus. Reg. Societ pag. 282. Between the Grain and the Vein of a DIAMOND there is this difference that the former furthers the latter being so insuperably hard hinders the splitting of it Altho it seems that a Vein sometimes is nothing else
why they stay till the Oysters open of themselves is because that if they should force them open they might perhaps injure and cut the PEARL In short the Eastern People are much of our Humour in matter of Whiteness for they love the whitest PEARLS and the blackest Diamonds the whitest Bread and the fairest Women TAVERN Ibid. Some Ancient Writers have commonly Reported that PEARLS are produc'd by the Dew of Heaven and that there is but one in an Oyster but Experience teaches the contrary For the Oyster never stirs from the bottom of the Sea where the Dew can never come which is many times Twelve Fathoms deep besides that it is as often observ'd that there are Six or Seven PEARLS in one Oyster and I have had in my hands an Oyster wherein there were above Ten beginning to breed 'T is very true that they are not always of the same bigness for they grow in an Oyster after the same manner as Eggs in the Belly of a Pâ—llet But I cannot say there are PEARLS in all for you may open many Oysters and find none TAVERN Ibid. Chapt. XVIII They Fish in the Eastern Seas twice a Year the First time in March and April the Second time in August and September and they keep their Fairs in Iune and November However they do not Fish every Year For they that Fish will know beforehand whether it will turn to account or no. Now to the end they may noâ— be deceiv'd they send to the places where they are wont to Fish seven or eight Barks who bring back each of them about a Thousand Oysters which they open and if they find not in every Thousand Oysters to the value of Five Fano's of PEARLS which amounts to half a Crown French Money 't is a sign that the Fishing will not turn to account in regard the poor People would not be able to deâ—ray their Charge For partly for a Stock to set out and partly for Victuals while they are abroad they are forc'd to borrow Money at three or four in the Hundred a Month. So that unless a Thousand Oysters yield them five Fano's of PEARLS they do not Fish that Year As for the Merchants they must buy their Oysters at hap-hazard and be content with what they find in them If they meet with great PEARLS they account themselves happy which they seldom do at the Fishery of Manar those Pearls being sit for little else but to be sold by the Ounce to Powder Sometimes a Thousand Oysters amounts to seven Fano's and the whole Fishery to a Hundred Thousand Piasters every Piaster being worth four Shillings Sterling The Hollanders take of every Diver 8 Piasters in regard they always attend the Fishery with two or three small Men of War to defend them from the Malavares Pyrats The more Rain falls in the Year the more profitable the Fishery happens to be They Fish in Twelve Fathom Water Five or Six Leagues off at Sea sometimes Two Hundred and Fifty Barks together among which there is not above one or two Divers at most Ibidem Monsieur Thevenot says that the Two Fisheries at Manar and Tutucorim which is over against the Isle of Manar have sometimes been spoilt by throwing into the bottom of the Sea a certain Drug that chas'd away the Fish that breed them and hinder'd them for many Years from coming back again and that they who did it knowing whither they went fish'd them there and grew rich before it was known that there was good Fishing in that Place THEV. Trav. into the Indies Pag. 109. There goes a Common Tradition that PEARL which hath lost its Colour may be recover'd by being buried in the Earth which if true would as the Lord Bacon Observes be a thing of great advantage But that Noble Lord tells us that upon a Six Weeks Trial he could find no such Effect But for a further Satisfaction he says it were good to try it in a Deep Well or in a Conservatory of Snow where the Cold may be more Constringent and so make the Body more United and thereby more Resplendent BAC Nat. Hist. Experim 380. Of the Way and Manner of DIVING for PEARL THere is a Cord ty'd under the Arms of them that DIVE one end whereof is held by them that are in the Bark There is also a great Stone of 18 or 20 Pound ty'd to the great Toe of him that DIVES the end of the Rope that fastens it being also held by them in the Vessel The DIVER has beside a Sack made like a Net the Mouth whereof is kept open with a Hoop Thus provided he plunges into the Sea the Weight of the Stone presently sinking him When he is at the bottom he slips off the Stone and the Bark puts off Then the DIVER goes to filling his Sack as long as he can keep his breath which when he can do no longer he gives the Rope a twitch and is presently hal'd up again After the DIVER is drawn up he stays half a quarter of an hour to take breath and then dives again at this rate for ten or twelve hours together Those â—â— Manar are better Fishers and sâ—ay longer in the Water than those of Bakren and Catifa for they neither put Pincers upon their Noses nor Cotton in their Ears as they do in the Persian Gulf. The PEARL-DIVERS are fed with dry and roasted Meat on purpose to enable them to hold their Breath the longer Sir Philiberto Vernatti late President in Iava Major says that the longest the PEARL-DIVERS in those Parts can continue under Water is about a quarter of an hour and this they can do by no other means but Custome For PEARL-DIVING as he observes lasteth not above six Weeks and the DIVERS stay a great while longer under Water at the end of the Season than at the beginning PHILOSOPH TRANSACT Numb 43. Pag. 863. The same Person also affirms that the PEARL Fishing is accounted so very dangerous that the DIVERS do commonly make their Will and take leave of their Friends before they tread the Stone to go down SPRAT's Hist. of the ROYAL-SOCIETY Pag 169. The PEARL-Oysters are so very hard and tough and of such an Unpleasant Tast that they always throw them away To Conclude the Discourse of PEARLS you are to take notice that in Europe they sell them by the Carat Weight which is four Grains In Persia they sell them by the Abas and one Abas is an Eighteenth less than our Carat In the Domions of the Mogul the Kings of Visapour and Golconda Weigh them by the Ratis and one Ratis is also an Eighteenth less than our Carat Observations concerning several PRECIOUS STONES THE AGATE is so called from the River ACHATES in Sicily near which it was first found Almost of the Colour of Clear-Horn The hardest of Semi-perspicuous Gems They grow in India Germany and Bohemia Naturally Adorn'd with much Variety of waved and other figur'd Veins Spots the representation of Vegetable and
of Ceylâ—n which descends from certain high Mountains in the middle of the Island which swells very high when the Rains fall but when the Waters are low the People make it their business to search among the Sands for RUBIES Saphirs and Topazes All the Stones that are found in this River are generally fairer and clearer than those of Pegu. There are also some RUBIES but more Balleis-Rubies and an abundance of Bastard Rubies Saphirs and Topazes found in the Mountains that run along from Pegu to the Kingdom of Camboya In Hungary there is a Mine where they find certain Flints of different bigness some as big as Eggs some as big as a Mans Fist which being broken contain a RUBY within as hard and as clean as those of Pegu. TAVERN Trav. in India Part. II. Book II. Chap. XVI The SAPHIRE is either Oriental or Occidental and of each there are Male and Female The Oriental are found in Zeilan Calecut Bisnagar and Pegu in which last place are the best The Occidental are found in Silesia and Bohemia It is a glorious clear transparent Blue or Skye-colour'd Stone these are the Males The Females are white and unripe so they want colour The most transparent and deep colour'd are easily divested of that Beauty by a little heat of the Fire The SAPHIRE is cut or fashion'd with Emery and Tripoly and engraven with Diamond-Dust as other harder Gems Vlysses Aldrovandus in his Musaeum Metallicum affirms that AEs ustum and Glass melted together imitate a SAPHIRE The TURCOIS or TURKEY STONE is of a dark Sky-colour and sometimes greenish withal or greenish Blue This Stone is no where to be found but in Persia Where there are two Mines The one is called the Old Rock three days Journey from Meched toward the North-west near a greâ—â— Town which goes by the Name of Michabourg The other which is call'd the New-Rock is five days Journey off Those of the New-Rock are of a Paler Blue inclining to White and less esteem'd so that you may have a great many for a little Money Some Years since the King of Persia Commanded that no Turquoises should be digg'd out of the Old Rock but only for himself making use of those Turquoises instead of Enamelling to adorn Hilts of Swords Knives and Daggers of which the Persians are altogether ignorant See TAVERN TRAV in India Part II. Book II. Chap XVI The best TURQUOIS according to Pliny is that which comes nearest to the Grass Green of an Emrald though after all he says whatsoever Beauty is in this Stone seems to come from outward helps Foâ— being set in Gold it looks most Beâ—utiful nor is there any Precicious Stone that becomes Gold better The fairer a TURQUOIS is the sooner it loses the Colour by Oil Ointment or Wine whereas one of a baser sort will much better hold its own and maintain the Luster In Conclusion He tells us that of all Gems the Turquois is the easâ—est to be falsified and counterseited with Glass PLIN. Lib. 37. Chap. 8. Observations concerning the LOADSTONE and the Sea COMPASS THe LOADSTONE Magnes from Magnesia a Country between Thessaly and Macedonia where it 's said it was first found For the most part of an Iron-Colour tending to Blue by some called The Male if Black The Female It is of a Metallic or Iron Matter usually found in Germany Norway Italy c. about 〈◊〉 of Mines The admirable and known Properties of this Stone are in general these That it attracteth Iron or any Body if small which hath Iron in it That it hath no perception of any other Body though never so light That it maketh the Attraction according to its Poles And that it communicateth to Iron both the same Attractive Power and a Verticity to the North-Pole In which last lieth its great Use as applied to Navigation Although by Observations made from the Variation of the Needle Time may produce further Discoveries in Astronomy Those that Travel through the vast Desarts of Aâ—â—bia have also a Needle and Compass whereby they direct themselves in their way as Marine's at Sea The Power of the MAGNET dependeth not on its Bulk the smaller being usually the stronger Tergazi mentions one that would â—â—â—pend Sixty times and Mr. Boyle another Eighty times it s own Weight But the Best in time lose very much of their strength as those now kept in GRESHAM COLLEDGE have done Some Means have been proposed for preserving the strength of a LOADSTONE But there is none mentioned by any Author that I know of comparable to That Experimented by Mr. Theodore Haac Fellow of the ROYAL SOCIETY not only for Preserving but also Recovering and Encreasing the strength of the LOADSTONE For he having one that weigh'd about four Ounces and a half arm'd which would take up Sixteen times its own Weight And having laid it by for the space of some Years unus'd found it to have lost one Fourth part of its strength so that it would now take up but about three Pound and upon search meeting with no Means Effectual to recover it consider'd with himself That as in Morals the Exercise of Virtue makes it more generous and that Animal Motions by use become more Vigorous So it might possibly prove also as to some Properties of Inanimate Bodies Whereupon he hung as much at his Stone as it would bear and so left it for the space of some Weeks Then returning to it and applying more Weight to the former it very easily held the same And repeating the Addition of more Weight at several Periods in the space of about Two Years He at last found That his Stone had not only recover'd its former strength but encreas'd it for whereas before he had never known it to take up more than Sixteen it would now take up Twenty times its own Weight And he is now continuing the Experiment to see how far it will go further GREW's Mus. Reg. Societ pag. 317 318. Dr. Highmore tells us That the Magnetical Exspirations of the LOADSTONE may be discover'd by the help of Glasses and be seen in the form of a Mist to flow from the LOADSTONE This indeed would be a most incomparable Eviction of the Corporeity of Magnetical Efflurviums and sensibly decide the Controversie But I am sure he had either better Eyes or else better Glasses than ever I saw tho' I have looked through as good as England affords and the best of them all was so far from presenting these subtile Emanations that they would never exhibit to me those grosser and far more Material Effluviums from Electrical and Aromatical Bodies Nay not the Evaporations of Camphire which spends it self by continually effluviating its own Particles Nay I could never see the grosser Steams that continually transpire out of our own Bodies and are the fuliginous Eructâ—tions of that Internal Fire which constantly burns within us Indeed if our Dioptricks could attain to that Curiosity as to grind us such Glasses as would present the
Metals Transl. by the Earl of SANDWICH Chap. 8. Iohannes Alphonsus Borellus in his Historia Meteorologia Incendii Aetnoei Ann. 1669. takes particular notice of the great abundance of SAL ARMONIAC that was found in all the holes and vents of the Ground and in the Clefts of Stones And of this SALT He affirms that there had been sublimed for he makes it factitious so great Store that many thousands of Pounds might be gather'd adding that even a whole Year after the Extinction of the Fire in the Mouths of AETNA there were found remaining dâ—vers vents about Catania exhaling store of Smoak which had the like SAL ARMONIAC flicking to the sides and edges of the Stones At this day we have little knowledge of the true NITRE which was anciently made of the Water of the River Nilus although Albertus Magnus saith that in Goselaria there was a Mountain that contained a very rich Mine of Copper and that the Water which issued out at the bottom of it being dried became NITRE We know little also of Aphronitrum which is but as it were the froth of NITRE NITRE is bitterer than Salt but less Salt SALT PETER is the Mean between them two and consists of very dry and subtile parts it grows on the Walls of old Houses and in Stables Cow-Houses Hog-Sties and Dove-Coats it will grow again in the same Earth it was taken out of if that Earth be thrown in heaps and not stirr'd and taken care of or if ordinary Earth be cast up into heaps and water'd with Brackish Water after some Years it will give a great encrease as profitable as Crops of Corn. The use of it in making GunPowder and Aqua Fortis is very well known It is us'd also in the melting of Metals Ibidem Whether the NITRE of the Ancients be of the same Species with the SALT which is commonly known by the name of SALT PETER is variously disputed by very learned Authors amongst the Modern Physicians On the Negative side are Mathiolus and Bellonius the latter of which had the advantage by the opportunity of his Travels in Egypt to have often seen and handled them both and is so positive as to pronounce that in all Christendom there is not one Grain of NITRE to be found unless it be brought from other parts although at the time of his being in Grand Caire which was about the Year 1550 it was so common there as he says that ten Pounds of it would not cost a Moidin Among those that hold the Affirmative the most eminent are Cardan and Longius and it seems the general Vote of Learned Men hath been most favourable to that Opinion by reason that in all Latin Relations and Prescriptions the word NITRUM or HALINITRUM is most commonly used for SALT PETER I have often enquired amongst our London Drugsters for Egyptian NITRE and if I had been so fortunate as to have â—ound any I doubt not but I should have been able to have put an end to that Question by a Demonstration that is by turning the greatest part of it into SALT PETER However the Observations I have made in my own private Experiments and in the Practice of SALT PETER-Men and Refiners of SALT PETER seem to give me sufficient ground to suspect that the confidence of those who hold them to be several SALTS proceedeth chiefly from their being unacquainted with the various 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of SALT PETER in the making and refining of it And also their comparing double refin'd SALT PETER oâ— which Gunpowder is made with the NITRUM and APHRONITRUM describ'd by Pliny in the one and thirtieth Book of his Natural History which indeed is the only tolerable account of that SALT that hath been handed to us from Antiquitâ— where he tells us that APHRONITRUM was Colore penè purpureo and Egyptian NITRE Fuscum Lapidosum HENSHAW of the making of SALT PETER See SPRAT's Hist. of the R. S. pag. 260 261. NITRE is often adulterated by being mixed with common SALT but you may try it by burning for being fir'd upon a red hot Tile or Stone if all fly away it is pure but if any thing remain it is common SALT The Lord Bacon saith that NITRE is a kind of cool Spice in that it bites the Tongue and Palat with Cold just as Spices do with Heat and that NITRE is the only Vegetable which aboundeth with Spirit and yet is Cold. He further tells us that Cattle which drink of NITROUS Water do manifestly grow fat which saith he is a sign of its cold Quality BAC Hist. of LIFE and DEATH It is affirm'd by several that Gunpowder which consisteth principally of NITRE being taken in Drink doth conduce to Valour and therefore 't is often us'd by Mariners and Soldiers just before they are to fight even as the Turks do Opium The greater Part of Africa hath no other SALT but such as is digged out of Quarries and Mines after the manner of Marble or Free Stone being of a White Red and Gray Colour Barbary aboundeth with SALT and Nâ—midia is indifferently furnish'd therewith But the Land of Negros and especially the inner part of Ethiopia is so destitute thereof that a Pound of SALT is there sold for half a Ducat And the People of that Country use not to set SALT upon their Tables but holding a crumb of SALT in their hands they â—ick the same at every morsel of Meat which they put in their Mouths In certain Lakes of Barbary all the Summer time there is fair and white SALT congeal'd or kern'd as namely in divers places near the City of Fez PVRCH. Pilgr Vol. II. pag. 849. The Learned and Ingenious Dr. Brown in his Travels pag. 112. saith That near the City of Eperies in upper Hungary there is a SALT-Mine of great note being an hundred and fourscore Fathoms deep in which are pieces of Salt found of ten thousand Pounds weight The Principal SALT-Mines are in Poland and Calabria In the lesser Poland says Comer in his Description of that Country are some pieces of SALT as big as huge Stones so hard that Houses and even whole Towns are built with them In the Philosophical Transactions we have a Relation concerning the SAL-GEMME Mines in Poland lying within a Mile of Cracovia which Relation was communicâ—ted to Mr. Oldenburg by a curious Gentleman in Germany who some Years since descended himself into those Mines to the depth of 200 Fathoms and was led about in them for the space of three Hours He saith that out of these Mines they dig and cut out three sorts of SALT One is common course and black the Second somewhat siner and whiter the Third very white and clear like Crystal He says the course and black SALT is cut out in great pieces roundish and three Polonian Ells long and one Ell thick which câ—sts from fifty to seventy Polonian Florins In the mean time the Inhabitants of Cracow have a Priviledge whereby a certain
Fringe at each end being three Inches more so that the whole was just a Foot in length and the breadth was just half a Foot There were two Proofs of its resisting Fire given at London One before some of the Members of the R. Society privately Aug. 20.1684 when Oyl was permitted to be poured upon it whilst red hot to enforce the Violence of the Fire Before it was put into the Fire this First Tryal it weighed one Ounce Six Drams Sixteen Grains and lost in the burning Two Drams Five Grains The Second Experiment of it was publick before the SOCIETY Nov. 12. following when it weighed as appears by the Iournal of the SOCIETY before it was put into the Fire One Ounce Three Drams 18 Grains Being put into a clear Charcoal Fire it was permitted to continue Red hot in it for several Minutes When taken out though red hot it did not consume a piece of White Paper on which it was laid It was presently Cool and upon weighing it again was found to have lost one Dram Six Grains PHILOS TRANSACT Numb 172. That this LINNEN was very well known to the Ancients beside that of Pliny we have the further Testimony of Caelius Rhodiginus who agrees with the aforesaid Account in Mr. Waites Letter to Dr. Plot placing both the Materials and Manufacture of it in India and Paulus Venetus more particularly in Tartary the Emperour whereof He says sent a piece of it to Pope Alexander It is also mentioned by Varro and Turnebus in his Commentary upon him De lingua Latina And by all of them as a thing inconsumable by Fire In these latter Ages Georg. Agricola tells us that there was a Mantle of this LINNEN at Vereburg in Saxony and Simon Majolus says He saw another of it at Lovain exposed to the Fire Salmuth also acquaints us that one â—odocattarus a Cyprian Knight shew'd it publickly at Venice throwing it into the Fire without scruple or hurt and Mr. Lassells saw a piece of it in the Curious Cabinet of Manfred Septalla Canon of Milan Mr. Ray was shew'd a Purse of it by the Prince Palatin at Heidleberg which he saw put into a Pan of burning Charcoal till it was red hot which when taken out and cool he could not perceive had receiv'd any harm and we are told in the Burgundian Philosophy of a long Rope of it sent from Signior Bocconi to the French King and kept by Monsieur Marchand in the King's Gardens at Paris which tho' steeped in Oyle and put in the Fire is not consumed To which add that we have now seen a piece of this LINNEN pass the fiery Trial both at London and Oxford So that it seems to have been known in all Ages all describing it after the same manner as a thing so insuperable by Fire that it only Cleanses and makes it better Dr. ROB. PLOT in the PHILOS TRANSACT Numb 172. The said Dr. saith that this INCOMBUSTIBLE CLOTH is now of no Mean value even in the Country where made a China Covet that is a piece 23 Inches and three Quarters long being worth 80 Tale that is Thirty Six Pounds Thirteen Shillings and four pence PVRCHAS saith that in Fanfur a Kingdom of Iava in the East-Indies there is a Tree of a great bigness and length the Pitâ— whereof is Meal which they put in water and stir well the lightest dross swimming and the purest settling to the bottom and then the water being cast away they makethere of Paste which tasts just like Barly Bread The Wood of this Tree thrown into water sinks like Tron hereof they make Lances but short for if they were long they would be too heavy for use These they sharpen and burn at the tops which so prepar'd will pierce Armour sooner than if they were made of Iron PVRCH. Pilg. Vol. 3. Pag. â—04 In great Iava they say there is a Tree 〈◊〉 Pith is Iron It is very small â—et runs from the top to the bottom of the Plant. The Fruit that grows on it is not to be pierc'd with Iron IVL. SCALIG Exercit. 181. Sect. 27. In the Island Câ—mbubon there grows a Tree whose Leaves fallen upon the ground do move and creep It hath Leaves like the Mulberry Tree They have on both sides that which looks like two little feet pressed they yield no Liquor If you touch them they flye from you One of them kept eight days in a Dish liv'd and moved as oft as one touch'd it IVL. SCALIG Exercit. 112. The SENSITIVE PLANT is somewhat of this Nature which contracts it self if any one puts his hand to it and if you pull back your hand it recovers it self again Observations concerning MOVNTAINS SOme have thought that MOUNTAINS and all other Irregularities in the Earth have rise from Earthquakes and such like Causes Others have thought that they came from the Vniversal Deluge yeâ— not from any Dissolution of the Earth that was then but only from the great agitation of the Waters which broke the ground into this rude and unequal Form Both these Causes seem to me very incompetent and insufficient Earthquakes seldom make MOUNTAINS they often take them away and sink them down into the Caverns that lie under them Besides Earthquakes are not in all Countries and Climats as MOUNTAINS are for as we have observ'd more than once there is neither Island that is Original nor Continent any where in the Earth in what Latitude soever but hath MOUNTAINS and Rocks in it And lastly what probability is there or how is it credible that those vast Tracts of Land which we see fill'd with MOUNTAINS both in Europe Asia and Africa were rais'd by Earthquakes or any Eruptions from below In what Age of the World was this done and why not continued As for the Deluge I douâ—t not but MOUNTAINS were made in the time of the General Deluge that great Change and Transformation of the Earth happen'd then but not from such Causes as are pretended that is the bare rowling and agitation of the Waters For if the Earth was smooth and plain before the Flood as they seem to suppose as well as we do the Waters could have little or no power over a smooth Surface to tear it any way in pieces no more than they do a Meadow or low Ground when they lie upon it for that which makes Torrents and Land Floods violent is their fall from the MOUNTAINS and high Lands which our Earth is now full of but if the Rain fell upon even and Level Ground it would only sadden and compress it there is no possibility how it should raise MOUNTAINS in it And if we could imagine an Vniversal Deluge as the Earth is now constituted it would rather throw down the Hills and MOUNTAINS than raise new ones or by beating down their Tops and loose parts help to fill the Valleys and bring the Earth nearer to evenness and plainness Seeing then there are no hopes of Explaining the Origin of MOUNTAINS
either from particular Earthquakes or from the General Deluge according to the common notion and Explication of it these not being Causes answerable to such vast Effects let us try our Hypothesis again which hath made us a Channel large enough for the Sea and room for all Subterraneous Cavities and I think will find us Materials enough to raise all the MOUNTAINS of the Earth We suppose the great Arch or Circumference of the first Earth to have fallen into the Abyss at the Deluge and seeing that was larger than the Surface it fell upon 't is absolutely certain that it could not all fall flat or lie under the Water Now as all those parts that stood above the Water made dry Land or the present Habitable Earth so such parts of the dry Land as stood higher than the rest made Hills and MOUNTAINS and this is the first and General Account of them and of all the Inequalities of the Earth THO. BVRNET's Theory of the Earth Lib. 1. Cap. XI The Height of MOUNTAINS compar'd with the Diameter of the Earth is not considerable but the Extent of them and the Ground they stand upon bears a considerable proportion to the Surface of the Earth And if from Europe we may take our Measures for the rest I easily believe that the MOUNTAINS do at least take up the Tenth part of the Dry Land Ibidem The Height of the highest MOUNTAINS doth bear no greater a proportion to the Diameter of the Earth than of the Sixteen Hundred and Seventieth part to the whole supposing the Diameter of the Earth to be Eight Thousand Three Hundred Fifty Five Miles as Pet. Gassendus computes both And it is more than probable that Men have been exceedingly mistaken as to the height of MOUNTAINS which comes so far short of Sir Walter Raleigh's Computation of Thirty Miles that the Highest MOUNTAIN in the World will not be found to be Five direct Miles in height taking the Altitude of them from the plain they stand upon Olympus whose Height is so extoll'd by the Poets and Ancient Greeks that it is said to exceed the Clouds yet Plutarch tells us that Xenagoras measur'd it and found it not to exceed a Mile and a half perpendicular and about 70 paces Much about the same height Pliny saith that Dicaearchus found the Mountain Pâ—lion to be The Mount Athos is suppos'd of extraordinary height because it casts its shadow into the Isle of Lemnos which according to Pliny was 87 Miles yet Gassâ—ndus allows it but Two Miles in height but Isaac Vossius in a Learned Discourse concerning the height of MOUNTAINS in his Notes on Pomponius Mela does not allow above 10 or 11 Furlongs at most to the Height of Mount Athos Cancasus by Ricciolus is said to be 51. Miles in height Gassendus allowing it to be higher than Athos or Olympus yet conceives it not above three or four Miles at most but Vossius will not yield it above Two Miles perpendicular for which he gives this very good Reason Polibius affirms there is no MOUNTAIN in Greece which may not be ascended in a Days time and makes the highest MOUNTAIN there not to exceed Ten Furlongs Which saith Vossius it is scarce possible for any one to reach unless he be a Mountainer born any other will scarce be able to ascend above Six Furlongs perpendicular for in the Ascent of a MOUNTAIN every pace doth reach but to an hands breadth perpendicular but if we do allow Eight Furlongs to a Days Ascent yet thereby it will appear that the Highest MOUNTAINS in the World are not above Twenty four Furlongs in height since they may be ascended in Three Days time And it is affirmed of the top of Mount Caucasus that it may be ascended in less than the compass of three Days and therefore cannot be much above two Miles in height Which may be the easier believ'd of any other Mountain when that which is reputed the highest of the World viz. the Pike of Teneriffe which the Inhabitants call Pica de Terraria may be ascended in that compass of time viz. Three Days For in the Months of Iuly and August which are the only Months in which Men can ascend it because all other times of the Year Snow lies upon it although neither in the Isle of Teneriffe nor any other of the Canary Islands there be Snow ever seen the Inhabitants then ascend to the top of it in Three Days time which top of it is not Pyramidal but plain from whence they gather some Sulphureous Stones which are carried in great quantities into Spain So that according to the proportion of Eight Furlongs to a Days journey this Pike of Teneriffe will not exceed the Height of a German Mile perpendicular as Varenius confesseth than which he thinks likewise that no Mountain in the World is higher For what Pliny speaks of the Alpes being Fifty Miles in height must be understood not perpendicular but in regard of the Obliquity of the Ascent of it so that he might account so much from the Foot of the Alpes to the top of them and yet the Alpes in a perpendicular Line not come near the Height of a German Mile STILLING FLEET 's Orig. Sacr. Lib. 3. Cap. 4. pag. 544 c. Mr. Muraltus of Zurich in a Letter to Mr. Haak a Fellow of the R. S. concerning the Icy MOUNTAINS of Helvetia call'd the GLETSCHER gives him this Account The Highest ICY MOUNTAINS of Helvetia about Valesia and Augusta in the Canton of Bern about Paminium and Tavetsch of the Rhaetians are always seen cover'd with Snow The Snow melted by the heat of the Summer other Snow being faln within in a little while after is hardned into ICE which by little and little in a long tract of time depurating it self turns into a Stone not yielding in hardness and clearness to Crystal Such Stones closely joyned and compacted together compose a whole MOUNTAIN and that a very firm one though in Summer time the Country People have observ'd it to burst asunder with great cracking Thunder-like Which is also well known to Hunters to their great cost for as much as such Cracks and Openings being by the Winds cover'd with Snow are the Death of those that pass over them PHILOS TRANSACT Numb 49. Monsieur Iustel in an Enlargement upon this very Subject says that the ICY-MOUNTAIN call'd the GLETSCHER is very high and extends it self every year more and more over the Neighbouring Meadows by increments that make a great noise and cracking There are great Holes and Caverns which are made when the ICE bursts which happens at all times but especially in the Dog-days Hunters do there hang up their Game they take during the great heat to make it keep sweet by that means Very little of the Surface melts in Summer and all freezes again in the Night When the Sun shineth there is seen such a variety of Colours as in a Prism There is such another MOUNTAIN near
degree of N. Latitude there happen'd no less than three HURRICANES in one Year The Manner of them is as foâ—lâ—â—â—th Ordinarily the Sea becomes Calm on a sudden and smooth as Glass Then presently aâ—ter the Air is Darkned and fill'd with thick and gloomy Clouds after which it 's all as it were on Fire and opens on every side with dreadful Lightnings that last a considerable time After which follow wonderful Claps of Thunder that seem as iâ— the Heaven was reâ—t asunder The Earth trembles in many places and the Wind blows with so great Imperuosity that it Rooâ—s up the tallest and greatest Trees which grow in the Woods beats down almost all the Houses and tears up the Vegetables destroying every thing that grows upon the Earth and very often compels Men whilst this dreadful Tempest lasts to catch hold of the Trunks of Trees to secure themselves from being carried away by the Winds some lye in the Caves of the Rocks or retire into the Huts of the Negroes and Caribbians which are built exceeding low on purpose to elude the Shocks of these Tempests But that which is most dangerous of all and which causes the greatest Mischief is that in Four and Twenty Hours and sometimes in less space it makes the whole Circle of the Compass leaving neither Road nor Haven secure from its raging force so that all the Ships that are at that time on the Coast do perish most Miserably At the Island of St. Christophers several Ships in the Harbour being laden with Tobacco were all cast away by an HURRICAN and afterwards the Tobacco poyson'd most of the Fish on their Coasts When these Storms are over a Man may behold the saddest Spectacles that can be imagin'd There may be seen Pieces of Mountains shaken by the Earthquakes and Forrests overturn'd Houses beaten down by the Violence of the Winds abundance of poor Families undone by the loss of their Goods and the Merchandize in their Cottages of which they can save but very little There one may see the poor Sea-Men drown'd and rowling in the Waves with many brave Ships broken in pieces and batter'd against the Rocks 'T is a thing so Woful and Deplerable that should this Disorder happen often I know not who could have the Heart or Confidence to go to the Indies A Letter from a Sea-Captain to Mr. R. BOHVN SIR IN Answer to your Request concerning the HURRICANE I can say little of its Effects more than what concerns our particular dammage and terrour It happen'd upon the 18 th of August last 1670 Sixteen Hours after the New-Moon in the 14 th Degree of North Latitude about Ninety Leagues from Barbadoes It succeeded a Storm of 48 Hours continuance at North-East an unusual way of its appearing for it commonly follows a Calm Its presage being a shifting of the Wind about the Compass with the Appearance of a troubled Sky the only advantage we have to prepare for its reception The Fury of it begâ—n about 10 at Night and continu'd till 12 the next Day I'ts observ'd that the HURRICANES of the New-Moon begin at Night and those at the Full in the Day as was noted two Fears since when the Lord Willoughby perisht with Eight Ships and near a Thousand Persons During its 14 Hours Fury with us it shifted 14 Points from the N. E. to the S. S. West keeping a Method of Changing One Pâ—int an Hour and then shifted backward and in its retreat still abated until it returned to the Original Point where it wholly ceas'd In the height of it we had some Hâ—â—l the Stones whereof were very great which seem'd to be thrown upon us for the space of the twentieth part of a Minute and then an intermission of Five or Six Minutes before any more came The Sea in the Night seem'd as a real Fire and I believe we might have distinctly perceiv'd any Object at a great distance In the day time we seem'd rather to Sâ—il in the Air than Water the Wind forcing the Sea so high that we could scarce make a distinction of either Element The Terrour of it was such that I thought it the Emblem of Hell and the last Dâ—ssolution of all things especially the first two Hours which were attended with so much Thunder and Lightning so asâ—onishing as if we had been wrapt up into the Clouds or the whole Air set on Fire The strength of the Wind was so great that it blew a Boat of 18 Foot long fastned to four Ring-â—olts and each bolt through a Ring of the Ship clear off the Deck Iâ— blew away a piece of Timber of great Substance and Weight called the Cross-Piece of the Bits to which we fasten our Cables It tore off the Sails from the Yards though fast furled the Yards from the Masts and the upper Masts from the lower It blew away four Men of Fâ—ve who were upon the Fore-Yard three of which by a Strange Providence were thrown in again upon the Deck by the Sea and saved The last remain of its Fury was a Weighty Grinding Stone which it left fastned between two Timber Heads but it blew away the Trough from under it I had several Accounts from Particular Friends how terrible it was in other places but to me it seem'd beyond all Expression These HURRICANES are most frequent between the AeQUINOCTIAL and the Tropique of CANCER They more rarely happen between the LINE and the Tropique of CAPRICORN But that which to me is the greatest Wonder is that they should be so terrible among the Caribbe-Islands that in some of them they have neither lâ—ft House Tree nor Plant in the Ground beginning at St. JOHN De Porto Rico and so running Eastward but the ISLANDS of HISPANIOLA CUBA and JAMAICA are never troubled with them though within few Leagues of the Rest. There are some Old INDIANS that have given notice of them three or four Days before their Coming By what Râ—les I was never curious to understand It being enough for us to study how to defend our selves and Ships from them rather than by any nice Enquiries to sâ—arch into their Causes Only thus much I observ'd that they have an influence upon the SEA as well as the MOON both upon them and it for I found by Observation of the SUN and STARS that there was a Current tending so violently Northward that in 24 Hours it would force us as many Leagues from our Easterly Course which did so confound us having neither Card nor Compass left to Steer by which with several other Goods were swept away in a Breach which the SEA made into our Ship that I think it was as great a difficulty for me to find out BARBADOS this place being nearest for our relief as COLUMBUS who first discover'd those Countries Sir I have been as modest as I could in giving you this Relation because I know many who are acquainted with the violence of these Tempests will be incredulous But I should be sorry that all who
but between the 4 and 8 Degree it is most inclin'd to Calms and thick Foggs and the Rains come not in such dangerous Showers I have not only consulted the most Experienc'd of our Sea-Men from whom I had information in these Particulars but I find that many others both English and Forreigners have in their Travels given uâ— Descriptions of the TORNADOS which would be Superfluous to recite I shall only add a Relation out of Sir Thomas Roe in his East-India Voâ—age to confirm the precedent Discourses These TORNADO Blasts were so variable that sometimes within the space of an hour all the several Winds of the Compass will blow so that â—f there be many Ships in Company you shall have them Sail so many several ways and every one of them seem to go directly before the Wind. These strange Gusts came with much Thunder and Lightning and extreme Rain so noisome that it made their Cloaths who stirr'd much in it to stink upon their Backs and the Water of these Hot and Unwholsome Showers would presently bring forth Worms and other offensive Animals The TORNADOS met with us when we were about Twelve Degrees of N. Latitude and kept us Company till Two Degrees Southward of the Aequinoctial This ECNEPHIAS not only visits the Coasts of Malaguta and Guiny producing vehement Gusts of Wind and Rain but reaches as far as Terra de Natal lying to the East-North-East towards St. Lawrence and at Cape Gardafui near the entrance of the Arabian Gulf it infests those parts in May as was collected by Varenius from the Dutch Iournals In the Sea towards the Kingdom of Loango and that part of the Aethiopique Ocean the TORNADOS are most frequent in Ianuary February and March On the Shores of Guiny when no other Winds blow in those Climats and within Five Six or Seven Degrees of the Aequinoctial they reign in April May and Iune which is the time of their Rains and in other parts of Africk they observe other Months For they have not only Etesian Winds but Anniversary Tempests in some Seas Yet to be fuller satisfied in the History of this Ecnephias I address'd my self to Mr. George Cock of Greenwich a Gentleman of a Generous and Communicative Temper who being interested in the Royal Company is well vers'd in all Occurrences of the African Trade and at my request procur'd me this following Account of the TORNADOS on the Coast of Guiny from a Person long employ'd in their Service The place of the TORNADOS rising is E. N.E to the N.N.E. they frequently give 2 or 3 hours notice of then coming by a thick black Cloud gather'd in the Horison with much Thunder and Lightning Sometimes the Wind comes first very â—orceable and then a great quantity of Rain otherwhile the Rain begins and is follow'd by a Tempestuous Wind. At this Season the Blacks count it good Planting Corn or Roots They make the Air very clear â—o that a Man may see 5 times further than before I my self lying at Anchor in the River have seen the Isle of Princes at least Six Leagues up when before I could not see the Isle of Fernando do Poâ— During the TORNADOS it's exceeding Cold insomuch that the Natives and other Inhabiâ—â—nts are very sensible of it for the time Their Continuance is about an Hour or two Hours at most I lately made enquiries of several Ships that during the Winter Months never met with any TORNADOS all the way from Brasile They being most violent when the Sun is near their Zenith and in the time of their Rains when the Air is Moist and affords greater Quantities of Flatulent Vapours R. BOHVN of the Origine and Properties of Wind Pag. 235. c. Observations concerning ISLANDS WE must in the first place distinguish between Original Islands and Factitious Islands Those I call Factitious that are not of the same Date and Antiquity with the Sea but have been made some at one time some at another by accidental Causes as the Aggestion of Sands and Sandbeds or the Sea leaving the tops of some shallow places that lie high and yet flowing about the lower Skirts of them These make sandy and plain ISLANDS that have no high Land in them and are but mock-ISLANDS in Effect Others are made by divulsion from some Continent when an Isthmus or the Neck of a Promontory running into the Sea sinks or falls in by an Earthquake or otherwise and the Sea entring in at the gap passeth through and makes that Promontory or Country become an ISLAND Thus the ISLAND Sicily is suppos'd to have been made and all Africa might be an ISLAND if the Isthmus between the Mediterranean and the Red Sea should sink down And these ISLANDS may have Rocks and Mountains in them if the Land had so before Lastly there are ISLANDS that have been said to rise from the bottom of the Sea History mentions such in both the Archipelago's Aegean and Indian and this seems to argue that there are great Fragments or Tracts of Earth that he loose at the bottom of the Sea or that are not incorporated with the Ground But besides these ISLANDS and the several Sorts of them there are others which I call Original because they could not be produc'd in any of the forementioned ways but are of the same Origin and Antiquity with the Channel of the Sea and such are the generality of our ISLANDS They were not made of heaps of Sands nor torn from any Continent but are as Ancient as the Continents themselves Namely ever since the Deluge the common Parent of them both Nor is there any difficulty to understand how ISLANDS were made at the Dissolution of the Earth any more than how CONTINENTS were made for ISLANDS are but lesser CONTINENTS or CONTINENTS greater ISLANDS and according as CONTINENTS were made of greater Masses of Earth or greater Fragments standing above the Water so ISLANDS were made of less but so big always and in such a posture as to bear their tops above the Water Yet though they agree thus far there is a particular difference to be taken notice of as to their Origin â—or the CONTINENTS were made of those three or four primary Masses into which the falling Orb of the Earth was divided but the ISLANDS were made of the Fractures of these and broken off by the fall from the Skirts and Extremities of the CONTINENTS we noted before that when those great Masses and primary Fragments came to dash upon the Abysse in their fall the sudden stop of the Motion and the weighty Bulk of the descending Fragment broke off all the Edges and Extremities of it which Edges and Extremities broken off made the ISLANDS And accordingly we see that they generally lie scatter'd along the sides of the Continents and are but Splinters as it were of those greater Bodies 'T is true besides these there were an infinite Number of other pieces brake off that do not appear some making Rocks under Water some shalâ—ows and
some of the Alps. The Trees which in the Islands of Ferro and St. Thomas are said to furnish the Inhabitants with most of their Water stand on the sides of Vast Mountains Vossius in his Notes on Pomponius Mela affirms them to be Arborescent Fâ—rula's I believe there is something in the many Relations of Traveller's and Voyagers concerning these Trees but then I fancy they are all mistaken when they say the Water issues out of the Trees The Vapours sâ—â—pt by the Mountains condense and Distil down by the Boughs There being no Mountains in Egypt may be one reason why there is little or no Rain in thâ—t Countrey and Consequently no fresh Springs therefore in their Caravans they carry all their Water with them in great Borracio's This may be the cause that the Vast Ridge and Chain of Mountains in Peru are continually watered when the great Plains in that Countrey are all dry'd up and parcht This Hypothesis concerning the ORIGINAL of SPRINGS from Vapours may hold better in those Hot Regions within and near the TROPICKS where the Exhalations from the Sea are most plentiful most rarify'd and Rain scarce than in the Temperate and Frigid ones where it Rains and Snows generally on the Tops of the Mountains yet even in our EUROPEAN Climates I have often observ'd the Firs Pines and other Vegetables near the Summets of the ALPS and APPENNINES to drop and run with Water when it did not Rain above some Trees more than others according to the density and smoothness of their Leaves and Superficies whereby they stop and condense the Vapours more or less The Beams of the Sun having little force on the high Parts of Mountains the interrupted Vapours must continually moisten them and as in the Head of an Alembick condense and trickle down so that we owe part of our Rain Springs Rivers and Conveniencies of Life to the Operation of Distillation and Circulation by the Sun the Sea and the Hills without even the last of which the Earth would scarce be Habitable Novemb. 12. 1691. TANCRED ROBINSON Since the Receipt of this Letter an Experiment occur'd to Me which hath much confirm'd me in the belief and persuasion of the Truth of those Histories and Relations which Writers and Travellers have delivered to us concerning Dropping Trees in FERRO St. THOME GUINY c. of which before I was somewhat disâ—ident And likewise in the approbation of the Hipothesis of my Learned Friend Dr. Tancred Robinson for the solving of that Phoenomenon The same also induces me to believe that Vapours may have a greater Interest in the production of SPRRINGS even in temperate and cold Regions than I had before thought Therefore whenever in this Work I have assigned RAIN to be a sufficient oâ— only Cause of SPRINGS and RIVERS I would not be understood to exclude but to comprehend therein MISTS an VAPOURS which I grant to have some interest in the production of them even in Temperate and Cold Regions and a very considerable one in Hot. Though I cannot be perswaded that even there they are the Sole Cause of SPRINGS for that there fall such plentiful and long continuing RAINS both in the East and West-Indies in the Summer Months Which must needs contribute something to their ORIGINAL IOH. RAY's Miscell Disc. of the Dissolution of the World Pag. 249. FINIS A Catalogue of some Plays Printed for R. Bentley BEaumont and Fletcher's Plays in all 51. in large Fol. Mr. Shakespear's Plays In one large Fol. Volume containg 43 Plays Mr. Nathaniel Lee's Plays In one Volume Mr. Otway's Plays In one Volume Mr. Shadwel's Plays In one Volume Mr. Dryden's Plays In two Volumes His other Poems One Volume more 1 All mistaken or the mad Couple 2 Alexander the Great 3 Andromache 4 Ambitious Statesman or the Loyal Favourite 5 Virtue Betray'd or Anna Bullen 6 Abdellazor or the Moor's Revenge 7 Amoroâ—â— Prince 8 Amends for Ladies 9 Albumazor 10 Amboyna a Tragedy 11 Brutus of Alba. 12 Byron's Conspiracy 1. Part. 13 Byron's Conspiracy 2 d. Part. 14 Banditti or the Lady in distress 15 Busey d' Ambois 16 Caesar Borgia 17 Country Wit 18 Calisto or the Chast Nymph 19 Country Wife 20 City Politicks 21 Constantine 22 Common-wealth of Women 23 Counterfeits 24 Caius Marius 25 Destruction of Ierusalem in two Parts 26 Duke of Guise 27 Dutch Lovers 28 Duke of Millan 29 Disappointment 30 English Monsieur 31 Esquire Old-Sap or the Night Adventures 32 Essex and Elizabeth or the Unhappy Favourite 33 Empress of Morocco 34 Evening Love or the mock Astrologer 35 Forc'd Marriage or the Jealous Bridegroom 36 The Fond Husband or the Plotting Sisters 37 Fool turn'd Critick 38 The Fatal Wager 39 Fatal Jealousie 40 False Count. 41 Generous Enemies or the Ridiculous Lovers 42 Gloriana or the Court of Augustus Caesar. 43 Grateful Servant 44 Henry the Sixth or the Misery of Civil-War 45 Henry the Sixth or the Murther of the Duke of Glocester the 2 d. Part. 46 Hamlet Pr. of Denmark a Tragedy 47 Humerous Courtier 48 The Hollander 49 Iulius Caesar. 50 Island Queen or Mary of Scotland 51 King Lear. 52 King and no King 53 Knave in Grain 54 Little Thief 55 Love Tricks 56 Lucius Iunius Brutus 57 Loyal Brother 58 Mythridates King of Pontus 59 Madam Fickle or the Witty False One. 60 Mr. Limberham or the Kind Keeper 61 Mistaken Husband 62 Moor of Venice