cureth ulcers in the bladder or kidneys caused by the stone and provoketh urine abundantly Green wounds it cleanseth closeth up and quickly healeth being drunk with salt it looseth and with Sugar it bindeth the belly About fifty years ago these Wells were famous and in great request many resorting to them and the water by others was sent for far and near Idem p. 562. 45. In Herefordshire a little beneath Richards Castle Nature who never disports her self more in shewing wonders than in waters hath brought forth a pretty well which is alwayes full of little fish bones although they be drawn out from time to time whence it s commonly called Bone-Well Idem p. 619. 46. In Yorkshire upon the Sea-shore by Sken-grave when the winds are laid and the weather is most calm upon the Sea the water lying level and plain without any noise there is heard here many times on a sudden a great way off as it were an horrible and fearful groaning which affrights the Fishermen at those times so that they dare not launce forth into the Sea Idem p. 720. 47. Pliny tells us of the Fountain Chymaera that is set on fire with water and put out with earth or hey Plin. nat Hist. Lib. 2. c. 106 107. 48. The same Author also tells us that in the hot deserts of India grows a certain kind of Flax that lives in the fire and consumes not we have seen saith he table-cloathes made of it burning in fires at feasts by which they have been cleansed from their stains and spots and made whiter by the fire than they could be by water 49. At Belgrad in Hungary where Danubius and Sava two great Rivers meet their waters mingle no more than water and Oil not that either flote above other but joyn unmixed so that near the middle of the River I have gone in a boat saith Sir Henry Blunt in his voyage into the Levant and tasted of the Danow as clear and pure as a well then putting mine hand an inch further I have taken of the Sava as troubled as a street-channel tasting the gravel in my teeth Thus they ran sixty miles together and for a dayes journey I have been an eye-witness of it CHAP. IV. The wonderful works of God in the Creatures Of strange Fishes 1 ANno Christi 1204. at Oreford in Suffolk a fish was taken by the Fishermen at Sea in shape resembling a wild man and by them was presented to Sir Bartholomew de Glanvil Keeper of Oreford Castle In all his limbs and members he resembled a man had hair in all the usual parts of his body only his head was bald The Knight caused meat to be set before him which he greedily devoured and did eat fish raw or sod that which was raw he pressed with his hand till he had squeezed out all the moisture He uttered not any speech though to try him they hung him up by the heels and grievously tormented him He would get him to his Couch at the setting of the Sun and rise again at the Sun-rising One day they brought him to the haven and let him go into the Sea but to prevent his escape they set three rows of very strong nets before him to catch him again at their pleasure but he straitwayes diving to the bottom crept under all their nets and shewed himself again to them and so often diving he still came up and looked upon them that stood on the shore as it were mocking of them At length after he had sported himself a great while in the water and there was no hope of his return he came back to them of his own accord and remained with them two months after But finally when he was negligently looked to he went to the Sea and was never after seen or heard of Fabians Chron. 2. Anno Christi 1404. some women of Edam in the Low-Countries as they were going in their barks to their cattel in Purmer-Meer they often saw at the ebbing of the water a Sea-women playing up and down whereat at the first they were afraid but after a while incouraging one another they made with their boats towards her and the water by this time being not deep enough for her to dive in they took her by force and drew her into the boat and so carried her to Edam where in time she grew familiar and fed of ordinary meats and being sent from thence to Herlem she lived about fifteen years but never spake seeking often to get away into the water Belg. Common-Wealth p. 102. 3. In the Seas near unto Sofala are many Women-Fishes which from the belly to the neck are very like a woman The Females have breasts like womens with which also they nourish their young From the belly downward they have thick and long tails with fins like a Dolphin the skin on the belly is white on the back rougher than a Dolphins They have arms which from the elbows end in fins and so have no hands the face is plain round and bigger than a mans deformed and without humane semblance They have wide mouths thick hanging lips like a Hound four teeth hanging out almost a span long like the tusk of a Boar and their nostrils are like a Calves Pur. Pil. v. 2. p. 1546. 4. Upon the coasts of Brasile are often found Meer-Men which are like unto men of a good stature but that their eyes are very hollow 5. Captain Richard Whitburn in his description of Newfound-land writes that Anno Christi 1610. early in a morning as he was standing by the water side in the harbour of St Johns he espied a strong Creature swimming very swiftly towards him like a women looking chearfully upon him Her Face Eyes Nose Mouth Chin Ears Neck and Forehead were like a womans It was very beautiful and in those parts well proportioned having hair hanging down round about the head He seeing it come within a pikes length of him stepped back whereupon it dived under water swimming to another place whereby he beheld the shoulders and back down to the middle which was as square white and smooth as the back of a man from the middle to the hinder part it pointed in proportion like a broad-hooked Arrow Afterwards it came to a Boat wherein some of his men were attempting to come in to them till one of them struck it a full blow upon the head Others of them saw it afterwards also 6. About Brasile are many Meer-Men and Meer-Women that have long hair and are very beautiful They often catch the Indians as they are swimming imbracing them and kissing them and clasp them so hard that they crush them to death and when they perceive that they are dead they give some sighs as if they were sorry Pur. Pil. v. 4. p. 1315. 7. There are also another sort of them that resemble Children and are no bigger that are no ways hurtful Idem 8. The Torpedo is a strange kind of fish which a man holding in
bit they are oft taken and serve for nothing but to manure the Ground There are many Sturgious but the most are caught at Cape Cod and in the River of Meramack whence they are brought to England they are twelve fourteen and some eighteen foot long The Salmon is as good as ours and in great plenty in some places The Hollibut is like our Plaice or Turbut some being two yards long and one broad and a food thick Thornback and Scate is given to the Doggs being so common in many places The Bass is one of the best Fishes being a Delicate and fat Fish He hath a bone in his head that contain a Saucerful of Marrow sweet and good pleasant and wholesome they are three or four foot long they take them with a Hook and Line and in three hours a man may catch a dozen or twenty of them The Herrings are much like ours Alewives are much like Herrings which in the end of April come into the fresh Rivers to spawn in such multitudes as is incredible pressing up in such shallow waters where they can scarce swim and they are so eager that no beating with poles can keep them back till they have spawned Their Shads are far bigger than ours The Makarels be of two sorts In the beginning of the year the great ones are upon the Coast some 18. inches long In Sommer come the smaller kind they are taken with Hooks and Lines baited with a piece of Red Cloth There be many Eels in the salt water especially where grass grows they are caught in Weels baited with pieces of Lobsters Sometimes a man thus takes a busnel in a night they are wholesome and pleasant meat Lamprons and Lampries are little esteemed Lobsters are in plenty in most places very large and some being twenty pound weight they are taken at low water amongst the Rocks the smaller are the better but because of their plenty they are little esteemed The Oysters be great in form of a shoo-horn some of a foot long they breed in certain banks which are bare after every Spring-tide each makes two good mouthfuls The Periwig lies in the Oase like a head of hair which being touched draws back it self leaving nothing to be seen but a small round hole Muscles are in such plenty that they give them their Hoggs Clams are not much unlike to Cockles lying under the Sand every six or seven of them having a round hole at which they take in Air and Water they are in great plenty and help much to feed their Swine both Winter and Sommer for the Swine being used to them will constantly repair every ebb to the places where they root them up and eat them Some are as big as a Penny Loaf which the Indians count great dainties A Description of the Plantations in New-England as they were Anno Christi 1633. The outmost Plantation to the Southward which by the Indians is called Wichaguscusset is but a small Village yet pleasant and healthful having good ground store of good Timber and of Meddow ground there is a spacious Harbor for shipping before the Town they have store of Fish of all sorts and of Swine which they feed with Acrons and Clams and an Alewife River Three miles to the North is Mount Wolleston a fertile soil very convenient for Farmers houses there being great store of plain ground without Trees Near this place are Maschusets Fields where the greatest Sagamore in the Country lived before the Plague cleared all Their greatest inconvenience is that there are not so many Springs as in other places nor can Boats come in at low water nor Ships ride near the Shore Six miles further to the North lieth Dorchester the greatest Town in New-England well Wooded and Watered with good Arrable and Hay ground fair comfortable Fields and pleasant Gardens Here are many Cattel as Kine Goats and Swine It hath a good Harbor for ships there is begun the fishing in the Bay which proved so profitable that many since have followed them there A mile from thence lies Roxberry a fair and handsome Country Town the Inhabitants are rich It lies in the Mains and yet is well Wooded and watered having a clear Brook running through the Town where are great store of Smelts whence it s called Smelt-River A quarter of a mile on the North of it is another River called Stony River upon which is built a water Mill. Here is good store of Corn and Meddow Ground Westward from the Town it s somewhat Rocky whence it s called Roxberry the Inhabitants have fair houses store of Cattel Come-fields paled in and fruitful Gardens Their goods are brought in Boats from Boston which is the nearest Harbor Boston is two miles North-East from Roxberry It s Situation is very pleasant being a Peninsula hemmed on the South with the Bay of Roxberry On the North with Charles River the Marshes on the back side being not half a quarter of a mile over so that a little fencing secures their cattel from the Wolves Their greatest want is of Wood and Meddow ground which they supply from the adjacent Islands both for Timber Fire-wood and Hay they are not troubled with Wolves Rattlesnakes nor Musketoes being bare of Wood to shelter them It s the chief place for shipping and Merchandize This neck of Land is about four miles in compass almost square Having on the South at one corner a great broad Hill whereon is built a Fort which commands all Ships in any Harbour in the Hill Bay On the North side is another Hill of the same bigness whereon stands a Windmil To the North-West is an high Mountain with three little Hills on the top whence it is called Tremount From hence you may see all the Islands that lie before the Bay and such Ships as are upon the Sea Coast. Here are rich Corn Fields and fruitful Gardens The Inhabitants grow rich they have sweet and pleasant Springs and for their enlargement they have taken to themselves Farm-Houses in a place called Muddy River two miles off where is good Timber Ground Marsh-Land and Meddows and there they keep their Swine or other Cattel in the Summer and bring them to Boston in the Winter On the North side of Charles River is Charles Town which is another neck of Land on whose Northern side runs Mistick River This Town may well be paralled with Boston being upon a bare neck and therefore forced to borrow conveniencies from the Main and to get Farmes in the Country Here is a Ferry-boat to carry Passengers over Charles River which is a deep Channel and a quarter of a mile over Here may ride fourty ships at a time Up higher is a broad Bay that is two miles over into which run Stony River and Muddy River In the middle of this Bay is an Oyster bank Medfod Village is scituated towards the North-West of this Bay in a Creek A very fertile and pleasant place It s a mile and a half from
tree and low having leaves like to our Bay-tree In the month of March or April when the sap goeth up to the top of the tree they cut the bark off the tree round about in length from knot to knot or from joynt to joynt above and below and then easily with their hands they take it away laying it in the Sun to dry and yet for all this the tree dyes not but against the next year it will have a new bark and that which is gathered every year is the best Cynamon that which grows longer is great and not so good P. Pil. v. 2. p. 1709. 6. In India is a tree called Arbore de Ray's or the Tree of roots it groweth first up like other trees and spreadeth the branches out of which there come strings which seem a far off to be cords of hemp which growing longer till they reach the ground there take root again so that in the end one tree will cover a great peece of ground one root crossing within another like a Maze each of these young trees will in time grow so big that it cannot be discerned which is the principal trunk or body of the tree 6. There is also a tree called Arbore-triste or the sorrowful-tree so called because it never beareth blossoms but in the night-time and so it doth and continueth all the year long So soon as the Sun sets there is not one blossom seen upon the tree but presently within half an hour after there are as many blossoms as the tree can bear pleasant to behold and smelling very sweet and as soon as the day comes and the Sun is rising they all presently fall off and not one is to be seen on the tree which seems as though it were dead till evening comes again and then it begins to blossom as it did before it s as big as a Plumb-tree it groweth up quickly and if you break but a branch of the tree and set it into the earth it presently takes root and grows and within a few days after it beareth blossoms which are like Orange-tree-blossoms the flower white and in the bottom somewhat yellow and redish P. Pil. v. 2. p. 1780. 8. There is also an herb in India called by the Portugals Herba sentida or feeling Herb which if a man touch or throw Sand or any other thing upon it presently it becomes as though it were withered closing the leaves together and it comes not to it self a gain as long as the man standeth by it but presently after he is gone it openeth the leaves again which become stiffe and fair as though they were newly grown and touching it again it shuts and becomes withered as before so that its a pleasure to behold the strange nature of it P. Pil. v. 2. p. 1781. 9. Pepper is planted at the root of some other tree and runs up it like Ivie the leaves are like the Orange-leaves but somewhat smaller green and sharpe at ends the Pepper groweth in bunches like Grapes but lesse and thinner they are always green till they begin to drye and ripen which is in December and January at which time it turns black and is gathered Pur. Pil. v. 2. p. 1782. 10. The best Ginger grows in Malabar it groweth like thin and young Netherland Reeds two or three spans high the root whereof is the Ginger which is gathered in December and January P. Pil. v. 2. p. 1782. 11. The Clove-trees are like Bay-trees the blossoms at the first white then green and at last red and hard which are the Cloves these Cloves grow very thick together and in great numbers In the place where these trees grow there is neither grass nor green herbs but is wholly drye for that those trees draw all the moisture unto them P. Pil. v. 2. p. 1783. 12. The Nutmeg-tree is like a Pear-tree but that its lesse and with round leaves the fruit is like great round Peaches the inward part whereof is the Nutmeg this hath about it an hard shell like wood and the shell is covered over with Nutmeg-flowers which is the Mace and over it is the fruit which without is like the fruit of a Peach P. Pil. v. 2. p. 1783. 13. Gumme-Lac comes most from Pegu where are certain very great Pismires with wings which fly up the trees like Plumb-trees out of which trees comes a certain Gumme which the Pismires suck up and then they make the Lac round about the branches of the trees as Bees make Wax and when it is full the owners come and breaking off the branches lay them to dry and being dry the branches shrink out and the Lac remains P. Pil. v. 2. p. 1783. 14. Amber-greese is usually cast upon the Sea-shore which as some suppose is the dung of the Whale or as others the sperme or seed of the Whale consolidated by lying in the Sea P. Pil. v. 2. p. 772. 15 The Herb Addad is bitter and the root of it so venemous that one drop of the juice will kill a man within the space of one hour P. Pil. v. 2. p. 850. 16 Of Palm-trees which they keep with watering and cutting every year they make Velvets Satins Taffaties Damasks Sarcenets and such like all which are spun out of the leaves cleansed and drawn into long threads P. Pil. v. 2. p. 985. 17. Frankincense grows in Arabia and is the gumme that issueth out of trees Idem p. 1781. 18. In Mozambique Manna is procreated of the dew of Heaven falling on a certain tree on which it hardens like Sugar sticking to the wood like Rozen whence it s gathered and put into jars and is used much for purging in India Idem p. 1554. 19. Mastick-trees grow only in the Island of Sio the trees are low shrubs with little crooked boughs and leaves In the end of August they begin their Mastick-harvest men cutting the bark of the Tree with Iron instruments out of which the Gum distills uncessantly for almost three months together Idem p. 1812. 20. Spunges are gathered from the sides of Rocks fifteen fathom under water about the bottom of the Streights of Gibralter the people that get them being trained up in diving from their child-hood so that they can indure to stay very long under water as if it were their habitable Element 21. In Manica is a tree called the Resurrection-tree which for the greatest part of the year is without leaf or greenness but if one cut off a bough and put it into the water in the space of ten houres it springs and flourisheth with green leaves but draw it out of the water as soon as it is dry it remaineth as it was before Pur. Pil. v. 2. p. 1537. 22. There is in the Island of Teneriff which is one of the Canaries a Tree as big as an Oke of a middle size the bark white like Hornbeam six or seven yards high with ragged boughs the leaf like the Bay-leaf It beareth neither fruit nor flower it stands on
well with the constitutions of the English They sound the Summer as hot as in Spain the Winter as cold as in France or England The heat of Summer is in June July and August but commonly a cool Briefs asswages the vehemency of the heat The chiefest Winter is in half December January February and half March The Winds are variable which yet purifie the air as doth the Thunder and Lightning which sometimes is very terrible Sometimes there are great droughts and othersometimes great raines yet the European Fruits planted there prospered well There is but one entrance by Sea into the Country and that is at the mouth of a very goodly Bay which is about eighteen or twenty miles wide The Cape of the South side is called Cape Henry the Land there is white sand and along the shore are great plenty of Pines and Firrs The North Cape is called Cape-Charles The Isles before it are called Smiths Isles The Country is full of large and pleasant navigable Rivers In it are Mountains Hills Plains Valleys Rivers and Brooks this Bay lieth North and South in which the water flowes near two hundred miles and hath a Channel for One hundred and forty miles of depth between seven and fifteen fathom the breadth makes ten or fourteen miles Northward from the Bay the Land is Mountanous from which fall some Brooks which after make five Navigable Rivers the entrance of these Rivers into the Bay being within twenty or fifteen miles one of another The Mountains are of divers natures some of Stone for Millstones some of Marble c. and many pieces of Chrystal are brought down from them by the raines The Soil generally is lusty and rich being generally of a black sandy mould In some places a fat slimy clay In other places gravel The Countrey generally hath such pleasant plain Hills and fertile Valleys one prettily crossing another and watered so conveniently with sweet Brooks and chrystal Streams as if Artists had devised them By the Rivers are many Marshes some of 20 30 100. yea 200 Acres some more some less On the West side of the Bay and neerest to its mouth is the River called Powhatan according to the name of a principal Countrey that lies upon it the mouth of it is near three miles in breadth It s Navigable One hundred and fifty miles as the Channel goes In the farthest place which the English discovered are Falls Rocks and Shoales which hinder any farther Navigation In a Peninsula on the North side of this River the English first planted in a place which they called James Town As our men passed up one of their Rivers there came to them some called Sasquesahanocks with Skins Bows Arrows Targets Beads Swords and Tobacco-pipes for Presents They were great and well proportioned men so to the English they seemed like Giants with much ado they were restrained from adoring their discoverers Their Language well seeming their proportion sounding from them as it were a great voice in a Vault their attire was the skins of Bears and Wolves One had a Wolves-head hanging in a Chain for a Jewel his Tobacco-pipe was three quarters of a yard long prettily carved with a Bird a Bear a Dear being at the great end sufficient to beat out a mans brains their Bows Arrows and Clubs are suitable to their proportions One of the biggest of them had the calf of his Legg measured which was three quarters of a yard about and all the rest of his limbs answerable thereto His Arrows were five quarters long headed with Flints formed like a heart an inch broad and an inch and an half long which he wore in a Wolves Skin at his back In one hand a Bow and in the other a Club. The Natives of Virgina have generally black hair but few of them have Beards The men have half their heads shaven the hair of the other half long The Women are their Barbers who with two Shells grate away the hair of what fashion they please The Womens hair is cut in many fashions according to their eyes but ever some part of it is long They are very strong of able bodies and nimble they can lie in the Woods under a Tree by the fire in the coldest Weather and amongst the Grass and Weeds in Summer They are inconstant crafty timerous quick of apprehension and very ingenious They are very covetous of Copper Beads and such trash They are soon angry and so malicious that they seldom forget an injury They seldom steal one from another lest their Connivers should reveal it Their Women are careful to avoid suspition of dishonesty without the leave of their Husbands Each House-keeper knows his own Lands and Gardens and most live of their own labour They are sometimes covered with the Skins of wild Beasts which in Winter are dressed with the Hair inward but in Summer without The better sort use large Mantles of Dear-skins some Embroidered with white Beads some with Copper and others are painted But the common sort have scarce wherewith to cover their nakedness but with Grass or Leaves Some have Mantles made of Turkey Feathers so handsomly wrought and Woven with Thred that nothing could be discerned but Feathers These were exceeding neat and warm The Women are covered about their middles with a Skin and much ashamed to be seen bare They adorn themselves with Copper and Painting They Have their Leggs Hands Breasts and Faces cunningly wrought with divers Works as Beasts Serpents c. artificially wrought in their flesh with spots In each Ear commonly they have three holes whereat they hang Chains Bracelets or Copper Some of their men wear in those holes a small green and yellow coloured Snake near half a yard long which crawling and wrapping her self about his neck oftentimes familiarly kisses his lips Others wear a dead Rat tied by the tail Some on their heads wear the wing of a Bird or some large Feathers with the tail of a Rattle-Snake Many have the skin of a Hawk or some strange Fowl stuffed with the Wings stretched abroad Others a piece of Copper And some the hand of an enemy dried Their heads and shoulders are painted red with a certain Powder mixed with Oyl which they hold in Summer to preserve them from heat and in Winter from cold He is most gallant that is most monstrous to behold Their habitations are mostly by the Rivers or not far from some fresh Spring Their houses are built like our Arbours of small Sprigs bowed and tied together and so close covered with Mats or the bark of Trees that notwithstanding Wind Rain or Weather they are as warm as Stoves but smoky though they leave a hole on the top right over the Fire Their Lodging is by the Fire side on little Hurdles made of Reeds and covered with a Mat. On these round about the house they lie heads and points one by another covered with Mats or Skins and some stark naked Of these
Virginia there are two kinds most strange One of them is the Female Possowne which hath a bag under her belly out of which she will let forth her young ones and take them in again at her pleasure The other is the flying Squerril which by the help of certain broad flaps of Skin growing on each side of her fore-legs will fly from one Tree to another at twenty or thirty paces distance and more if she have the benefit of a little puff of Wind. The English Kine Goats Hoggs c. prosper very well They have Hawkes of several sorts and amongst them Auspreis Fishing Hawkes and Cormorants In the Winter they have great store of Cranes Herons Pidgeons Patridges and Black-birds The Rivers and Creeks are over-spread with Swans Geese Brants Divers and those other named before The Woods have many kinds of Rare and delightful Birds The Rivers abound with Fish both small and great as Pike Carp Eele Perches of six several sorts c. The Sea-fish come into their Rivers in March and continue till the end of September Frst come in great Skuls of Herrings Then big Shads and Rock-fish follow them Then Trouts Base Flounders and other dainty Fishes come in before the other be gone Then come in multitudes of great Sturgeons and divers others Some five miles about Henerico by land but by water fourteen miles Sr. Tho. Dale Anno Christi 1611. began to build a City called the New Bermoodas situated very commodiously whereunto he laid out and annexed to be belonging to that Corporation for ever many miles of Wood-lands and Champion which he divided into several Hundreds As the Upper and the Nether Hundreds Roch-Dale Hundreds Wests-Sherley Hundred and Diggs his Hundred Anno Christi 1614. Pacahuntas the beloved Daughter of the great King Powhatan having been carefully instructed in the Christian Religion by the care of Sr. Tho. Dale and having made some good progress therein renounced publickly her Countrey Idolatry and openly confessed her Christian Faith and desiring it was baptized by the name of Rebecca and was afterwards married to one Mr. Rolph an English Gentleman of good repute her Father and friends giving their approbation to it and her Vncle gave her to him in the Church Anno Christi 1616. Sr. Tho. Dale returning into England there came over with him Mr. Rolfe with Rebecca his Convert and Consort and Tomocomo one of Powhatans Counsellors Mr. Rolfs Wife Rebecca though she carried her self very civilly and lovingly to her Husband yet did she behave her self as the Daughter of a King and was accordingly respected by divers persons of Honour here in England in their hopeful zeal by her means to advance Christianity in these Countries As she was with her Husband returning into Virginia at Gravesend she fell sick and came to her end and Grave having given great demonstration of her Christian Faith and Hope The English in Virginia Anno Christi 1620. were divided into several Burroughs each man having his share of Land duly set out for him to hold and enjoy to him and his Heirs for ever The publick Lands also for the Company were set out by themselves the Governours share by it self the Colledges by it self and for each particular Burrough the Ministers Gleab also was set out and bounded their being 200. l. per annum allowed to each Minister for each Town They are all Governed according to the laudable Form of Justice used in England The Governour is so restrained by a Counsel joyned with him that he cannot wrong any man who may not have any speedy remedy In the years 1619. and 1620. there were 9. or ten ships sent to Virginia wherein were 1261. persons most of them being for publick uses As to plant the Governours Land 80. persons Tenants for the Companies Land 130. Tenants for the Colledge Land 100. Tenants for the Ministers Gleab-Lands 50. Young Maids to make Wives for so many of the Planters 90. Boyes for Apprentices 100. Servants for the publick 50. Some were imployed to bring up thirty of the Infidels children in true Religion and Civility The Commodities which the Planters were directed to apply themselves to were Iron for the making whereof 130 men were sent over to set up Iron work Proof having been made of the excellency of that Iron Cordage For which beside Hemp order was given for the planting of Silk-grass naturally growing in those Parts in great abundance which makes the best Cordage and Linnen in the World Of this every Housholder was bound to set 100. Plants and the Governour himself set five thousand Pot-ashes and Soap-ashes Pitch and Tar. for the making whereof divers Polanders were sent over Timber of all sorts with Masts Planks and Boords for provision of Shipping c. there being not so good Timber for all uses in any Countrey whatsoever and for the help in these works provision was sent of Men and Materials for the setting up of sundry Saw-mills Silk For which the Countrey is exceeding proper having an innumerable of the best Mulberry-trees and some Silk-worms naturally found upon them producing excellent Silk and to further this work many seeds of the best Silk-worms were sent over Vines Whereof the Countrey naturally yields great store and of sundry sorts which by good culture might be brought to excellent perfection for effecting whereof divers Skilful Vegneroons were sent with store also from hence of Vine Plants of the best sort Salt Which work were ordered to be set up in great plenty not only to serve the Colony but to promote the great Fishings upon those Coasts Divers persons of publick spirits gave much to the furtherance of this Plantation Two unknown persons gave Plate and other necessaries for the furnishing of two Communion Tables Mis. Mary Robinson gave 200. l. towards the building of a Church in Virginia An unknown person sent the Treasurer 550. l. in gold for the bringing up of some of the Infidels children in the knowledge of God and true Religion and in fit Trades whereby they might live honestly in the World Mr. Nicholas Ferrar by Will gave 300. l. to the Colledge in Virginia to be paid when there should be ten of the Infidels children placed in it And in the mean time 24. l. per annum to be distributed unto three discreet and godly men in the Colony which should bring up three of the Infidels children in the Christian Religion and in some good course to live by An other unknown person gave 10. l. to advance the plantation Anno Christi 1620. the Right honourable Henry E. of Southampton was made Treasurer from which time to the year 1624. there were 24. Ships sent to Virginia And there were divers persons set for the making of Beads wherewith to trade with the Natives and for making of Glass of all sorts And 55. young Maids were sent to make Wives for the Planters Also a Magazine
of all necessaries was sent for the Colony to the value of 2000. l. besides Goods sent by private persons great store Twenty five persons were sent to build Boats Pinnaces and ships for the use of the Colony in the Fishing Trade and for further discovery The Plants of Cotten Wool Trees prosper well and so did Indigo Seeds Oranges Lemons Sugar Canes Cassary Pines Plantanes Potatoes and sundry other Indian Fruits Some of the English East-India Company gave seventy pound eight shillings sixpence towards the building of a Free Schoole in Virginia to be called the East-India School Another unknown person added to it the sum of thirty pound And another sent in Gold twenty five pound Another unknown person gave thirty pound for which there was to be allowed fourty shillings a year for ever for a Sermon Preached before the Virginia Company Another gave a rich Bible and a great Church Bible and other Books to be sent to Virginia and an exact Map of America The Books were valued at ten pound Mr. Tho. Bargrave a Minister in Virginia when he died left for the use of the Colledge his Library worth one hundred Marks 〈◊〉 Anno Christi 1621. The treacherous Natives notwithstanding all the Courtesies and kind Usage by the English to them most Perfidiously and Treacherously murthered above three hundred of them and would have done the like to all the rest but that God through his infinite Goodness and Mercy moved the heart of one of them who was Converted to Christianity to Discover the same a few hours before it was put in Execution the like Massacres have been since A DESCRIPTION OF THE BERMUDAS OR Sommers Islands THE FIRST DISCOVERY AND PLANTATION of it by the ENGLISH The Temperature of the Aier The Nature of the Soil Trees Plants Fruits Hearbs Fishes Fowls and other Commodities thereof THese Islands were first Discovered by one Bermudas from whence they received that name and afterwards from Sr. George Sommers an English-man they were called Sommers Islands They lie in the Western Ocean and in that part of the World commonly called America and vulgarly the West-Indies Their Latitude or Elevation is 32. Degrees 25. Minutes which is almost the same with the Madaeraes They are environed round about with Rocks which North-ward and Westward and Southward extend far by reason whereof they are very strong there being only three places whereby Ships can come into them which places also are well fortified But within there is room to entertain a great Fleet In most places the Rocks appear at a low water and are not much covered at an high water for it Ebbs and Flows there not above five Foot The Shoar for the most part is a Rock so hardned by the Sun Wind and Sea that it s not apt to be worn by the Waves whose violence also is broken by the Rocks before they come at the Shoar The mould is of diverse colours neither Clay nor Sand but betwixt both The red which resembleth Clay is worst The white resembing Sand and blackish is good the brown betwixt them both is best Under the Mould two or three foot deep is a kind of white substance which they call Rock the Trees usually fasten their roots in it and draw their nourishment from it neither indeed is it Rock or Stone nor so hard though for the most part harder than Chalk not so white but like a Pumice and Spongy easily receiving and retaining much water and in some places Clay is found under it The hardest kind of it which is commonly under the red ground is not so spongy nor retains much water but lies in the ground like Quarries as it were thick slates one upon another Most of their fresh water whereof they have good store comes out of the Sea drayning through the sand or thorow the aforesaid substance which they call the Rock and leaving its saltness behind it in the passage becometh fresh Somtimes they dig Wells of fresh water within four or five paces of the Sea-side and usually they Ebb and Flow as the Sea doth The Air is most commonly clear very temperate moist with a moderate heat very healthful and apt for the Generation and nourishing of all things so that there is scarce any thing that is transported from England thither but it yields a far greater encrease and if it be any living thing it becomes fatter and better liking then in England By which means the Countrey was so replenished with Hens and Turkeys within the space of three or four years not being looked after many of them forsook the Houses and became wild and so encreased abundantly the like encrease there was of Hogs and other Cattle according to their kinds There seems to be a continual Spring which is the cause that some few things come not to that maturity and perfection as were requisite And though the Trees do shed their leaves yet are they always full of green Their Corn is the same which is used in most parts of the West-Indies to wit Maiz which to such as are used to it is more hearty and nourishing than our English Wheat and yields a far greater encrease as sometimes a pound of one or two graines Of this Corn and divers other things without either plowing or diging the ground they have two Harvests every year For they set about March which they gather in July and again in August which is ripe in December And little slips of Fig-Trees and Vines do usually bear fruit within a year after they are planted sometimes in half a year the like fertility they have in other things There is scarce at any time to be perceived either Frost or Snow nor any extream heat for there is alwayes some wind stirring which clears and cools the Air Their Summers and Winters observe the same times with ours but their longest dayes and nights are shorter than ours in England by almost two hours and an half as also their shortest dayes and nights are as much longer then ours For their longest dayes are about fourteen hours and their shortest ten When its noon with us its morning with them and when it s about five a Clock in the evening with us its noon with them so that while the Sun declines with us it rises with them as also it doth in Virginia its apt to Thunder and Lighten all the year long and oft times more terrible than in England yet never any are hurt by it There is no Venemous Creature in this Country the yellow Spider which is there making her Webb as it were of Silk and bringing forth her young of Eggs like little drops of quick-silver neither is it perceived to be Venemous yet there is a plant that climbs Trees like our Ivy the leafe like that of a Vine that is somewhat venomous but of no great force There is great store and variety of Fish and so good as these parts of the World afford not the
and industry that they used to destroy them But suddenly it pleased God by what means was not known so to take them away that the wild Catts and Dogs that lived upon them were famished and many of them leaving the Woods came down to the Houses and to such places where they used to garbish their Fish and so became tame Here are many wild Palm-Trees growing in fashion leaves and branches resembling the true Palme The Tree is high and strait sappy and spungious having no branches but in the uppermost part of it and in the top grow leaves about the head of it the most inmost part whereof they call the Palmeto and it is the heart and pith of the Tree so white and thin as that it will pill off pleats as smooth and delicate as white Sattin into twenty folds in which a man may write as in Paper where they spread and fall downwards about the Tree like an over-blown Rose The leaves are as broad as an Italian Vmbrello under one of which a man may well shelter his whole Body from rain for being stiff and smooth the rain easily slides off The Palmito or soft top roasted tastes like a fried Melon and being sod it eates like a Cabbage but is far less offensive to the Stomach From under the broken Rocks they take forth Cray-Fishes oft times greater than any of our English Lobsters They have also aboundance of Crabs Oisters and Wilks at one draught they have taken small and great about a Thousand Fishes as Pilchards Breams Mullets Rock-Fish c. Every Cave and Creek being furnished with aboundance of them which lie there sucking in the water which falls from the high Hills mingled with the juyce of the Palms and Cedars and such other sweet woods whereby they become both fat and wholsome There are Sparrows fat and plenty Robbins of diverse colours green and yellow c. Many of the Turtles before mentioned be of a mighty bigness insomuch as one of them will suffice Seventy or eighty men at a meal especially if she be a she Turtle which will have five hundred Eggs in her being as many as fifty or sixty men can eat at a meal they are very good and wholesome meat There are Mulberry Trees Olive Trees Cedars of colour red and very sweet which bear a kind of berry that is very pleasant to eat The top of the Palmito Tree is in season and good all the year if you take but an Hatchet and cut it or an Augur and bore it it yields a very pleasant Liquor much like to our sweet wines it bears likewise a berry in the bigness of a Prune and in taste much like it Anno Christi 1609. Sr. Thomas Gates and Sr. George Sommers as they were going to Virginia suffered Shipwrack at these Islands where they continued till May 1610. in which time they built there a Ship and a Pinace of Cedar in which they departed to Virginia leaving only two men behind them and shortly after some of them came back to the Sommer Islands where Sr. George Sommers dying his men contrary to his last charge given unto them went for England leaving behind them three men who stayed voluntarily who shortly after found in Sommerset Island a very great Treasure of Ambergreece valued at nine or ten thousand pounds Sterling The discovery of these Islands being made known in England to the Virginia Company by these men that returned they sold it to One hundred and twenty Persons of the same Company who obtained a Charter from His Majesty and in April 1612. sent thither a Ship called the Plough with about Eighty men and women in it who arrived there in safety in July where they found the three men that had voluntarily stayed there before as you heard These men had Planted Corn great store of Wheat Beans Tobacco and Melons with many other good things for the use of man Besides they had wrought upon Timber in squaring and sawing Cedar Trees c. They were no sooner come within a League of the Land but a company of Fish met them and never left them till they came to an Anchor within the Haven of which with Hooks and Lines they took more than their whole Company was able to eat Two dayes after they went out with their Net and Boat and if they would have loaded two Boates they might have done it which also they might have daily there was such plenty of them The day after they went to the Bird Islands where with their hands they took up as many Birds as they pleased they were so tame They took up three for every Boy and Girl and four for every Man Then sent they out some for wild Hogs who brought home some that did eat as well as our English Mutton Anno Christi 1612. Mr. R. Moor was sent over thither Governour for three years who spent the greatest part of his time in fortifying the Country and training the people to Martial Exercises He built nine or ten Forts and planted Ordnances upon them To him succeeded Captain Tucker Anno Christi 1616. who spent his three years in Husbanding the Country Planting and nourishing all such things as were fit either for Trade or for the sustentation and use of the Inhabitants He also added to the Fortifications and made some inclosures The The Country also was then divided wherein every Adventurer had his share allotted to him whereupon the Planters built them substantial Houses cleared their ground and Planted all things necessary so that in a short time the Country began to approach near unto that happiness wherein it now floweth Nevv-England Described AND THE PLANTATION THEREOF BY THE ENGLISH Of the Beasts Fowles Birds Fishes Trees Plants Fruits c. Of the Natives of their Religion Customs Fishings Huntings c. THE place whereon the English have setled their Colonies is judged either to be an Island surrounded on the North with the great River Canada and on the South with Hudsons River or a Peninsula these two Rivers over lapping one another having their rise from two great Lakes which are not far distant each from other Massechusets Bay lyeth under the Degree of 42. and 43. bearing South-West from the Lands-end of Old England at the bottom of which Bay are scituated most of the English Plantations The Bay is both safe spacious and deep free from such cockling Seas as run upon the Coasts of Ireland and in the Channels of England without stiff running Currents Rocks Shelves Bars or Quicksands When you have sailed two or three Leagues towards the bottom you may see the two Capes bidding you welcome These Capes thrust themselves out into the Sea in form of a Crescent or half Moon the surrounding Shoar being high and shewing many white Cliffs with diverse intermixtures of low-sand out of which diverse Rivers empty themselves into the Sea with many openings wherein is good Harbouring for Ships of any burthen The
Harbours are New-Plimouth Cape Anu Salem and Marvil-Head all which afford good ground for Anchorage being Land-lockt from Wind and Seas The chief and usual Harbour is the still Bay of Massechusets which is also aboard the Plantations it s a safe and pleasant Harbour within having but one secure entrance and that no broader than for three Ships to enter abreast but within there is Anchorage for five hundred Ships This Harbour is made by many Islands whose high Clifts shoulder out the boisterous Seas yet may easily deceive the unskilful Pilot presenting many fair openings and broad sownds whose Waters are too shallow for ships though Navigable for Boats and small Pinnases The entrance into the great Haven is called Nantâ—scot which is two Leagues from Boston From hence they may sail to the River of Wessaguscus Naponset Charles River and Mistick River on all which are seated many towns Here also they may have fresh supplies of Wood and water from the adjacent Islands with good Timber to repair their Weather-beaten Ships As also Masts or Yards there being store of such Trees as are useful for the purpose The places which are inhabited by the English are the best ground and sweetest Climate in all those parts bearing the name of New England the Air agreeing well with our English bodies being High Land and a sharp Air and though they border upon the Sea-Coast yet are they seldom obscured with Mists or unwholesome Foggs or cold Weather from the Sea which lies East and South from the Land And in the extremity of Winter the North-East and South-winds comming from the Sea produce warm weather and bringing in the Seas loosen the frozen Bayes carrying away the Ice with their Tides Melting the Snow and thawing the ground Only the North-west Winds coming over the Land cause extream cold weather accompanied with deep Snows and bitter Frosts so that in two or three dayes the Rivers will bear Man or Horse But these Winds seldom blow above three dayes together after which the Weather is more tollerable And though the cold be sometimes great yet is there good store of wood for housing and fires which makes the Winter less tedious And this very cold Weather lasts but eight or ten weeks beginning with December and ending about the tenth of February Neither doth the piercing colds of Winter produce so many ill effects as the raw Winters here with us in England But these hard Winters are commonly the forerunners of a pleasant Spring and fertile Summer being judged also to make much for the health of our English bodies The Summers are hotter than here with us because of their more Southerly Latitude yet are they tollerable being oft cooled with fresh Winds The Summers are commonly hot and dry there being seldom any Rain yet are the Harvests good the Indian Corn requiring more heat than wet to ripen it And for the English corn the nightly Dews refresh it till it grows up to shade its Roots with its own substance from the parching Sun The times of most Rain are in April and about Michaelmas The early Spring and long Summers make the Autumns and Winters to be but short In the Springs when the Grass begins to put forth it grows apace so that whereas it was black by reason of Winters blasts in a fortnights space there will be grass a foot high New England being nearer the Aequinoctial than Old England the days and nights be more equally divided In Summer the dayes be two hours shorter and in Winter two hours longer than with us Virginia having no Winter to speak of but extream hot Summers hath dried up much English blood and by the pestiferous Diseases hath swept away many lusty persons changing their complexions not into swarthiness but into Paleness which comes not from any want of food the Soil being fertile and pleasant and they having plenty of Corn and Cattel but rather from the Climate which indeed is found to be too Hot for our English Constitutions which New England is not In New England Men and Women keep their natural Complexions in so much as Seamen wonder when they arive in those parts to see their Countrey men look so Fresh and Ruddy neither are they much troubled with Inflammations or such Diseases as are increased by too much heat The two chief Messengers of Death are Feavours and Callentures but they are easily cured if taken in time and as easily prevented if men take care of their bodies As for our common Diseases they be Strangers in New England Few ever have the small Pox Measels Green-sickness Headach Stone Consumption c. yea many that have carried Coughs and Consumptions thither have been perfectly cured of them There are as sweet lusty Children born there as in any other Nation and more double births than with us here The Women likewise recover more speedily and gather strength after child-birth sooner than in Old England The Soil for the general is a warm kind of Earth there being little cold spewing Land no Moorish Fens nor Quagmires The lowest Grounds be the Marshes which are ovrflown by the Spring-Tides They are Rich Ground and yield plenty of Hay which feeds their Cattel as well as the best Upland Hay with us And yet they have plenty of Upland Hay also which grows commonly between the Marshes and the Woods And in many places where the Trees grow thin they get good Hay also And near the Plantations there are many Meddows never overflowed and free from all Wood where they have as much Grass as can be turned over with a Sithe and as high as a mans middle and some higher so that a good Workman will Mow three Loads in a day Indeed this Grass is courser than with us yet is it not sower but the Cattel eat and thrive very well with it and are generally larger and give more Milk than with us and bring forth young as well and are freer from diseases than the Cattel here There is so much Hay Ground in the Country that none need fear want though their Cattel should encrease to thousands there being some thousands of Acres that were yet never medled with and the more their Grass is Mowed the thicker it grows and where Cattel use to graze in the Woods the Ground is much improved growing more grassy and less full of Weeds and there is such plenty of Grass in the Woods that the Beasts need not Fodder till December at which time men begin to house their milch beasts and Calves In the Upland Grounds the Soil varies in some places Clay in others Gravel and some are of a Red Sand all which are covered with a black Mould usually a foot or little less deep The English Manure their ground with Fish whereof they have such plenty that they know not how otherwise to dispose of them yet the Indians being too lazy to catch Fish plant Corn eight or ten years in one place without any such help where they have yet a
their unknown wayes ther 's none can chawk The Hum-Bird for some Queens rich Cage more fit Than in the vacant wilderness to sit The swift-wing'd Swallow sweeping to and fro As swift as arrow from Tartarian bow When as Aurora's infant day new Springs There th' morning mounting Lark her sweet layes sings The harmonious Thrush swift Pigeon Turtle Dove Who to her Mate doth ever constant prove The Turkey Pheasant Heathcock Partridge rare The Carrion-tearing Crow and hurtful Stare The long-liv'd Raven th' ominous Screach-Owl Who tell as old wives say disasters foul The drowsie Madge that leaves her day-lov'd nest To fly abroad when day-birds are at rest The Eele murthering Hern and greedy Cormorant That neer the Creeks in Moorish Marshes haunt The bellowing Bittern with the long legg'd Crane Presaging Winters hard and dearth of Graine The Silver-Swan that tunes her mournful breath To sing the Dirg of her approaching death The tatling Oldwives and the cackling Geese The fearful Gull that shuns the murdering piece The strong wing'd Mallard with the nimble Teal And ill-shap't Loon who his harsh notes doth sweal There Widgins Shildrakes and Humilitee Snites Dropps Sea-Larks in whole millions flee The Eagles be of two sorts one like ours in England the other somewhat bigger with a great white head and white tail commonly called Gripes they prey upon Ducks and Geese and such Fish as are cast upon the Sea-shore yet is there a certain black Hawk that will beat this Eagle so that he is constrained to soar so high that his enemy cannot reach him The Hawk is much prized by the Indians who account him a Sagamores ransom There are diverse kinds of Hens Partridges Heathcocks and Ducks The Hum-bird is no bigger than an Hornet having Spider-like legs small claws a very small Bill in colour she represents the glorious Rainbow As she flies she makes a noise like a Humble-Bee The Pidgeons are more like Turtles than ours and of the same colour and have long tailes like a Mag Pie their Feathers are fewer but their Bodies as big as our House-Doves they come into the Country to go home-ward in the beginning of their Spring at which time saith my Author I have seen innumerable so that I could neither discern beginning nor ending the length nor breadth of these Millions of Millions neither could the shouting of People the report of Guns nor the pelting of Hail-shot turn them out of their course but thus they have continued for four or five hours together and at Michaelmas they return Southward yet some there are all the year long which are often killed They build some thirty miles Northward from the English Plantation in Pine-Trees joyning nest to nest and Tree to Tree by their nests so that the Sun never sees the ground in that place from whence the Indians fetch whole Loads of them The Turkey is a long Fowl of a black colour yet is his flesh white he is much bigger than our English Turkey He hath long Leggs wherewith he can run as fast as a Dog and can fly as fast as a Goose Of these are forty fifty sixty and sometimes an hundred in a flock They feed on Acorns Haws and Berries and some will frequent the English Corn. When the ground is covered with Snow they go to the Sea-side and feed on Shrimps and Fishes If you watch them where they Pearch at night about ten or eleven a clock at night you may shoot as oft as you will for they stir not except they be wounded they continue all the year long and weigh forty pounds and more apeice Pheasants are rare but Heath-Cocks and Partridges are common whereof our English kill many Ravens and Crows are much like those in other Countries There are no Magpies Jayes Cockcooes Jackdaws Sparrows c. The Stares are bigger than ours and are as black as Crows which do much hurt among the young Corn and they are so bold that they fear not Guns Owles are of two sorts the one is small speckled like a Partridg with eares The other is almost as big as an Eagle and is very good meat Cormorants are as common as other Fowles they devour much Fish A tame Cormorant and two or three good Dogs in the water make excellent sport Cranes are as tall as a man their bodies not much unlike the Turkies they are rarely fat Also many Swans frequent the Rivers and Ponds which are very good meat There be three sorts of Geese The Brant Goose like one of our wild Geese A white Goose about the bigness of ours Of these there will be sometimes two or three thousand in a flock The third is a grey Goose with a black neck and a black and white head much bigger than our English They are killed both flying and sitting The Ducks are very large and in great abundance and so is their Teale Their Old-wives never leave tatling day nor night they are somewhat bigger than a Duck. The Loon is ill-shaped like a Cormorant but he can neither go nor fly He makes a noise somestime like a Sowgelders Horn. The Humilites or Simplicites rather be of two sorts The one as big as green Plover the other is less they are so simple that one may drive them on heaps and then shoot at them and the living will settle themselves on the same place again where the dead are while you shoot again so that sometimes above twelve score have been killed at two shoots OF FISH There are great store and much variety of Fishes thus enumerated The King of the Waters the Sea-shouldering Whale The snuffing Grampus with the oylie Seal The storm-presaging Porpus Herring-Hogg Line-shearing Shark the Cat-fish and the Sea-dogg The scale-fenc'd Sturgeon wry-mouth'd Hollibut The flouncing Salmon Codfish Greedigut Cole Haddock Haike the Thornback and Scate Whose slimy outside makes him seld in date The stately Bass old Neptunes fleeting Post That tides it out and in from Sea to Coast Consorting Herrings and the bony Shad. Big-bellied Alewives Macrils richly clad With Rain-bow colours the Frost-fish and the Smelt As good as ever Lady Gustus felt The spotted Lamprons Eeles the Lamperies That seek fresh water-Brooks with Argu's-eyes These watry Villages with thousands more Do pass and repass neer the Verdant shore Shell-fish of all sorts The luscious Lobster with the Crabfish raw The Brittish Oyster Muscle Periwig And the Tortoise sought by the Indian Squaw Which to the flats dance many a Winters Jigg To dive for Cockles and to dig for clams Whereby her lazy husbands guts she crams The Seal called also the Sea-Calf whose Skin is good for divers uses and his body between Fish and Flesh neither delectable to the Pallat nor well agreeing with the Stomack His Oyl is used in Lamps The Shark is as big as a man some as big as a Horse with three rows of teeth in his mouth with which he Snaps in two the Fishers Lines he will bite off a mans Armor Legg at a
Charles Town At the bottom of this Bay the River is very narrow By the side of this River stands New-Town three miles from Charles Town It s a neat and well compacted Town having many fair buildings and at first was intended for a City The Inhabitants are mostly rich and have many Cattel of all sorts and many hundred Acres of Ground paled in On the other side of the River lies their Meddow and Marsh Ground for Hay Half a mile thence is Water Town nothing inferiour for Land Wood Meddows and Water Within half a mile of it is a great Pond which is divided between those two Towns And a mile and a half from this Town is a fall of fresh waters which through Charles River fall into the Ocean A little below this fall they have made weires where they catch great store of Shads and Alewives an hundred thousand of them in two Tides Mastick is three miles from Charles Town seated pleasantly by the waters side At the head of this River are very spacious Ponds to which the Alewives press to cast their Spawn where multitudes are taken On the West side of this River the Governour hath a Farm where he keeps most of his Cattel On the East side is Mr. Craddocks Plantation who impailed in a Park for Deer and some ships have been built there Winnisimet is a very pleasant place for situation and stands commodiously It s but a mile from Charles Town the River only parting them It s the lasts Town in the Bay The chief Islands that secure the Harbor from Winds and Waves are first Deere Island within a flight shot from Bullin Point It s so called because the Deer often swim thither to escape the Woolves where sixteen of them have been killed in a day The next is Long Island so called from its length Other Islands are Nodless Isle Round Isle the Governours Garden having in it an Orchard Garden and other conveniencies Also Slate Island Glass Island Bird Island c. they all abound with Wood Water and Meddows In these they put their Cattel for safety whil'st their Corn is on the Ground The Towns without the Bay are nearer the Main and reap a greater benefit from the Sea in regard of the plenty of Fish and Fowl and so live more plentifully than those that are more remoat from the Sea in the Island Plantations Six miles North-East from Winnisimet is Sagus is pleasant for situation seated at the bottom of a Bay which is made on the one side with a surrounding Shore and on the other side with a long Sandy Beach It s in the circumference six miles well Woodded with Oakes Pines and Cedars It s also well watered with fresh Springs and a great Pond in the middle before which is a spacious Marsh. One Black William an Indian Duke out of his generosity gave this place to the Plantation of Sagus so that none else can claim it when a storm hath been or is like to be there will be a roaring like thunder which may be heard six miles off On the North side of this Bay are two great Marshes divided by a pleasant River that runs between them The Marsh is crossed with divers Creeks where are store of Geese and Ducks and convenient Ponds wherein to make Decoys There are also fruitful Meddows and four great Ponds like little Lakes wherein is store of fresh Fish out of which within a mile of the Town runs a curious fresh Brook which is rarely frozen by reason of its warmness and upon it is built a Water Mill. For Wood there is store as Oake Walnut Cedar Elme and Aspe Here was sown much English Corn. Here the Bass continues from the midst of April till Michaelmas and not above half that time in the Bay There is also much Rock-Cod and Macharil so that shoals of Bass have driven shoals of Macharil to the end of the sandy bank which the Inhabitants have gathered up in Wheel barrows Here are many Muscle banks and Clam-banks and Lobsters amongst the Rocks and grassy holes Four miles from Saugus stands Salem on the middle of a neck of Land very pleasantly between two Rivers on the North and South The place is but barren sandy Land yet for seven years together it brought forth excellent Corn being manured with Fish every third year Yet there is good ground and good Timber by the Sea side and divers fresh Springs Beyond the River is a very good soil where they have Farms Here also they have store of Fish as Basses Eels Lobsters Clams c. They cross the River in Canows made of whole Pine Trees two foot and an half wide and twenty foot long in which also they go a Fowling sometimes two Leagues into the Sea It hath two good Harbours which lie within Derbins Fort. Marvil Head lies four miles South from Salem a very good place for a Plantation especially for such as will set up a Trade of Fishing There are good Harbours for Boats and good riding for ships Agowomen is nine miles to the North from Salem near the Sea and another good place for a Plantation It abounds with Fish and Flesh of Fowls and Beasts hath great Meddows and Marshes and Arable grounds many good Rivers and Harbours and no Rattle Snakes Merrimack lies eight miles beyond that where is a River Navigable for twenty miles and all along the side of it fresh Marshes in some places three miles broad In the River is Sturgion Salmon Bass and divers other kinds of Fish Three miles beyond this River is the out side of Massecusets Patent wherein these are the Towns that were begun in the year 1633. Of the Evils and Hurtful things in the Plantation Those that bring the greatest prejudice to the Planters are the ravenous Woolves which destroy the weaker Cattel of which we heard before Then the Rattle Snake which is usually a yard and a half long as thick in the middle as the small of a mans Legg with a yellow belly Her back is spotted with black russet and green placed like scales At her taile is a rattle with which she makes a noise when she is molested or when any come near to her Her neck seems no bigger than a mans thumb yet can she swallow a Squirrel having a wide mouth with teeth as sharp as needles wherein her poyson lies for she hath no sting when a man is bitten by her the poyson spreads so suddenly through the veins to the heart that in an hour it causes death unless he hath the Antidote to expel the poyson which is a Root called Snake-weed which must be champed the spittle swallowed and the Root applyed to the sore this is a certain cure This Weed is rank poyson if it be taken by any man that is not bitten unless it be Phisically compounded with other things He that is bitten by these Snakes his fresh becomes as spotted as a Lepers till he be perfectly cured She is naturally the most
either side there is little change in the length of the dayes for at six and six the Sun rises and sets But when it s nearer the Tropick of Capricorn and in thirty seven degrees from them then the dayes are something shorter and this shortning begins about the end of October Eight Moneths in the year the Weather is very hot yet not scalding but that Servants both Christians and Slaves labour and travel ten hours in a day For as the Sun rises there rises with it a cool Brees of Wind and the higher and hotter the Sun rises the stronger and cooler the Breeses are and blow alwaeis from the North-East and by East except in the time of the Turnado For then it sometimes chops about into the South for an hour or two and so returns about again to the Point where it was The other four Moneths it is not so hot but is near the temper of the Air in England in the midst of May. And though in the hot season the Planters sweat much yet do they not find that faintness which we find in England in the end of July or in the beginning of August But with this heat there is such a moisture as must of necessity cause the Air to be unwholsome The Planters there are sâ—eldom thirsty unless they over heat their bodies with extraordinary labour or with drinking strong drink as our English Spririts or French Brandy or the drink of the Island which is made of the scummings of the Coppers that boil the Sugar which they call Kill-devil For though some of these be needful in such hot Countries when they are used temperately yet the immoderate use of them over-heats the bodie which causeth Costiveness and Gripings in the Bowels which is a Disease that is very frequent there and hardly cured and of which many die Their blood also is thinner and paler than ours in England Nor is their Meat so well relished as it is with us but flat and insipid the Hogs-flesh only excepted which is as good as any in the World Their Horses and Cattel seldom drink and when they do it s but in a little quantity except they be over heated with working The moisture of the Air causes all their Knives Tweeses Keys Needles Swords c. to rust and that in an instant For if you grind your rusty Knife upon a Grind-stone wipe it dry and put it into your sheath and pocket in a little time after draw it again and you shall find it beginning to rust all over which in longer time will eat into the Steel and spoil the Blade Locks also which are not often used will rust in the Wards and become useless And Clocks and Watches will seldom or never go true and all this is occasioned by the moistness of the Air. This great heat and moisture together is certainly the cause that Trees and Plants grow to such a vast height and largeness as they do there There is nothing so much wanting in this Island as Springs and Rivers of Waters there being but very few and those small and inconsiderable There is but one River which may yet be termed rather a Lake than a River The Springs that run into it are never able to fill it And out-let to the Sea it hath none but at Spring-Tides the Sea comes in and fills it and at Neep-Tide it cannot run out again the Sea-banks being higher than it Yet some of it issues out through the Sand and leaves a mixture of fresh and salt water behind it Sometimes these Spring-tides bring some Fishes into it which will remain there being more willing to live in this mixt water then in the salt Sometimes there have been taken in it Fishes as big as Salmons which have been over-grown with fat and very sweet and firm But Fish is not often taken in this place by reason that the whole Lake is filled with Trees and Roots so that no Net can be drawn nor Hook laid without danger of breaking and losing The River or Lake reaches not within Land above twelve score yards and there is no part of it so broad but that you may cast a Coit over it The Spring-tides about this Island seldom rise above four or five foot upright Into these Rivolets there come from the Sea little Lobsters but wanting the great Claws before they are the sweetest and fullest of Fish that can be eaten But the water which the people in this Island most relie upon is rain-water which they keep in Ponds and have descents to them so that what falls upon other grounds about may run into them the bottom of these Ponds are Clay For if the water find any leak to the Rocky part it gets into the clifts and sinks in an instant About the end of December these Ponds are filled and with the help they have by weekly showers they mostly continue so yet sometimes they find a want This water they use upon all occasions and to all purposes as to boil their Meat to make their Drink to wash their Linnen c. In these Ponds are neither Fish nor Fry nor any living or moving things except some Flies that fall into them but the water is clear and well tasted here their Cattel drink also They also save rain water from the houses by Gutters at the Eves which carries it down into Cisterns If any tumult or disturbance be in the Island the next neighbour to it discharges a Musquet which gives an Allarum to the whole Island For upon the report of that the next shoots and so the next and the next ill it go through all and upon hearing of this all make ready Of their Bread Bread which is the staff and stay of mans life is not so good here as in England Yet do they account it both nourishing and strengthening It 's made of the root of a small Tree or Shrub which is called Cussary This Root is large and round like the body of a small Still and as they gather it they cut sticks or blanches that grow neerest to it of the same Tree which they put into the ground and they grow So that as they gather one they plant another This Root when its first gathered is an absolute poison and yet by good ordering it becomes wholesome and nourishing First they wash it clean and lean it against a wheel whose sole is about a foot broad covered with Latine made rough like a greater This Wheel is turned about with the foot as Cutlers use to turn theirs and as it grates the Root it falls down into a large Trough which is appointed to receive it This they put into a strong piece of double Canvas or Sack-cloth and press it so hard that all the juice is squeezed out and then drying it in the Sun its fit to make Bread which they do after this manner They have a Plate of Iron round about twenty inches in the Diameter
Camb. Brit. p. 236. 3. In Gloucestershire upon the Hills near Alderly are found certain stones resembling Cockles Periwinckles and Oisters which seem to be the gaimsome works of nature or such shells turned into stone Camb. Brit. p. 363. 4. In Yorkshire about Whitby are found certain stones fashioned like Serpents foulded and wraped round as in a wreath so that a man would verily think that they had been somtimes Serpents turned into stone Camb. Brit. p. 718. 5. Also in the same Country at Huntly Nabb there lye scattering here and there amongst the Rocks stones of divers bigness so Artificially by nature shaped round in manner of a Globe that one would take them to be big bullets made by the Turners hand for shot to be discharged out of great Ordnance in which if you break them are found stony Serpents enwrapped round like a wreath but most of them are headlesse Camb. Brit. p. 721. 6. In the County of Cornwal near unto St. Neots there are a number of good great Rocks heaped up together and under them one stone of lesser size fashioned naturally in the form of a Cheese lying in presse whereupon it s named Wring-cheese Camb. Brit. p. 192. 7. In Richmondshire amongst the ragged Rocks are found stones like unto Periwinckles Cockles and other shell fish Camb. Brit. p. 727. 8. In the County of Hereford a hill which they call Marcley-hill in the year 1571. as though it had wakened on a sudden out of a deep sleep roused it self up and for the space of three dayes together moving and shewing it self as mighty and huge an heape as it was with roaring noise in a fearful sort and overturning all things that stood in the way advanced it self forward to the wondrous astonishment of the beholders Camb. Brit. p. 630. 9. In Glamorganshire in a Rock or Cliffe by the Sea side there appeareth a very little Chink unto which if you lay your ear you shall hear a noise as if it were of Smiths at Work one while the blowing of the bellows another while the striking of the sledge and Hammer sometimes the sound of the grindstone and Iron tools rubbing against it the hissing Sparks also of Steel-Gads within holes as they are beaten and the puffing noise of the Fire burning in the Furnace Camb. Brit. page 643. This is called Merlins Cave 10. At Aspley Gowick in Bedfordshire near unto Woburn there is a kind of earth that turns Wood into Stone For proof whereof there was a Wooden Ladder in the Monastry of Woburn that having lien a good while covered in that earth was digged forth again all Stone Camb. Brit. p. 401. I have a peece of Wood turned into Stone by that earth 11. In Kile in Scotland there is a Rock about twelve foot high and as much in breadth called the Deaf-Craig For though a man call never so loud or shoot off a Gun on the one side yet his fellow on the other side cannot hear the noise Description of Scotland 12. In Argile there is a stone found in diverse places which being laid under straw or stubble doth set it on fire by reason of the great heat that it gathereth there Idem 13. It is most strange yet true that the Armes of the Duke of Rohan in France which are Fusils or Lozenges are to be seen in the wood and stones through all his Country so that if you break a stone in the middest or lopp a bough of a Tree you shall behold the the grain thereof by some secret cause in nature Diamonded or streaked in the fashion of a Lozeng Camb. Brit. 14. In Warwick-shire the Armes of the Shugburies which are starres are found in the stones in their own Manner of Shugbury so that break the stone where you will and there is the exact fashion of a star in the end of it Idem I have some of these stones 15. In the Kingdom of Fesse in Affrica there is a Mountain called Beniguazeval in the top whereof there is a Cave that casteth out fire perpetually Pur. Pil. v. 2. p. 807. 16. In Prussia there is great store of Amber which groweth like Coral in a mountain of the North-Sea which is clean covered with water by the violence of the waves beating against this Rock the Amber is oft broken off and cast up by the Sea into their Havens 17. About Bever Castle in Lincoln-shire are found the stones called Astroites which resemble little stars joyned one with another wherein are to be seen at every Corner five beams or rayes in the middest of every ray is to be seen a small hollownesse Camb. Brit. 18. We have Corral Amber Emralds Calcedony Pearl Onix Sardonix Sardis Bezar Hemathist and the Turquoise from Arabia Indostan and Persia. Pearls Berils Saphires and Adamants from Zeilan Jasper Cornelion Agate Heliotrope Jacinth and Chrysolite from Malabar Narsinga and Cochin-china Diamonds from Borneo and Gulkunda Gold Silver Rubies Saphires Granats Topaz Emeralds Smaradg Espinels Cats-eyes and Porcellane from Pegu Siam Bengala Sumatra Japan and China CHAP. II. Examples of the rare Works of God in the Creatures Of Trees Hearbs Plants and Gums 1. OF Date-Trees some are Males and other Females the Male brings forth Flowers onely the Female Fruit but the Flowers of the Female will not open unlesse the boughs and Flowers of the male be joyned unto them and if they be not thus coupled the Dates will prove stark naught and have great stones in them Pur. Pil. v. 2. p. 823. 2. Neer unto the Grand-Cairo in Egypt is a Garden environed with a strong Wall in the Garden is a large fountain and in the middest of it groweth the only Balm-tree bearing true balm that is in the world it hath a short stock or body and beareth leaves like unto Vine-leaves but not altogether so long Pur. Pil. v. 2. p. 838. 3. In the Country of Indostan they have a pleasant clear liquor which they call Taddy issuing from a spongy Tree that grows straight and tall without boughs to the top and there spreads out into branches somwhat like to an English Colewort where they make incisions under which they hang earthen pots to preserve the influence that which distils forth in the night is as pleasing to the taste as any white Wine if drunk betimes in the morning and of a peircing and medicinable quallity excellent against the stone But in the heat of the day the Sun alters it so that it becomes heady Ill-relished and unwholesome P. Pil. v. 2. p. 1469. 4. For Cotton Wooll they plant seeds which grow up into shrubs like unto our Rose-bushes It blows first into a yellow blossome which falling off there remains a Cod about the bignesse of a mans thumb in which the substance is moist and yellow but as it ripens it swells bigger till it break the Cod and in short time becomes as White as Snow and then they gather it P. Pil. v. 2. p. 1470. 5. The Cynamon tree is a small
wherein the fruit hangs in clusters it s in shape and bigness like a Wallnut white and hard within hath neither taste nor smell they never eat it alone but wrap it in a leaf of Bettle and are frequently chawing of it some adde to it a kinde of Lime made of Oister-shels it cures the Chollick removes Melancholly kills Worms provokes lust purges the maw and prevents hunger It s much used in the East-Indies 41. The Palmeto-tree is long strait round and soft without leaf bough or branch save at the top and those are few green and sedgie under which branches there appear certain codded seeds Both the Male and Female bear blossoms but the Female only beares fruit and yet not that unlesse a flowring branch of the Male tree be yearly inoculated The leaves serve for many uses At the top of this tree there is a soft pith in which consists the life of it for that being cut out the Tree dyes This pith is in bignesse like small Cabbage in taste like a nut kernel and being boiled it eats like a Colly-flower But of more value is the Palmeta Wine which is sweet pleasant and nourishing in colour and taste not unlike Muskadine It purges cures obstructions and kills the Worms If it stand two dayes in the Sun it makes good Vinegar The Wine is thus gotten They cut a small hole in two or three Trees that grow together which in a short time are filled with the sap that issues in them which with a Cane or Quill they draw forth Pur. Pil. 42. In Summersetshire near unto Glastenbury in Wiral Park was that famous Hawthorn tree which used upon Christmas day to sprout forth as fresh as in May but now it s cut down Camb. Brit. p. 227. 43. In the Marishes of Egypt grow those sedgie reeds called Papyri whereof formerly they made Paper and from whence ours that is made of rags assumed that name They divide it into thin flakes whereinto it naturally parteth then laying them on a Table and moistening them with the glutinous water of Nilus they press them together dry them in the Sun and then they are fitted for use Pur. Pil. v. 2 p. 898. CHAP. III. The wonderful works of God in the Creatures Of strange Fountains Rivers and Waters 1. IN the Bishoprick of Durham in Derlington field there are 3 pits of a wonderful depth called by the Vulgar Hell-Kettles in which the water by an Antiperistasis or reverberation of the cold air striking thereupon waxeth hot which pits have passage under ground into the River Teese as Archbishop Guthbert Tonstal observed by finding that Goose in the River which he had marked and let down into these pits Camb. Brit. p. 737. 2. In Yorkshire neer unto Knasburow Castle is a Well in which the waters spring not up out of the veins of the earth but distil and trickle down dropping from the Rocks hanging over it whence it s called Dropping-Well into which what wood soever is put it will in a short space be turned into stone Camb. Brit. p. 700. 3. In Caermardenshire neer unto Careg Castle there is a fountain that twice in four and twenty hours ebbeth and twice floweth resembling the unstable motions of the main Sea Camb. Brit. p. 650. 4. In Westmerland hard by Shape there is a Well or Fountain which after the manner of Euripus ebbeth and floweth many times in a day Camb. Brit. p. 762. 5. In Ireland is a Fountain whose water killeth all those Beasts that drink thereof but hurteth not the people though they usually drink of it Ortelius 6. Near unto Lutterworth in Leicester-shire there is a spring of water so cold that in a short time it turneth straws and sticks into stone Camb. Brit. p. 518. 7. In Derbyshire in the Peak-Forrest not far from Buxtone is a Well which in a wonderful manner doth ordinarily ebb and flow four times in the space of one hour or thereabouts keeping his just tides Camb. Brit. p. 558. 8. Also in the same Country at the spring head of Wie there rise and walm up nine Fountains of hot waters commonly called Buxton Wells very sovereign for the stomach sinews and whole body Camb. Brit. p. 557. 9. In Scotland on the bank of Ratra neer unto Stang's Castle there is a Cave wherein the water distilling naturally by drops from the head of the Vault is presently turned into Pyramidal stones and were not the said hole or Cave otherwiles rid and cleansed the whole space as far as up to the vault would in a short time be filled therewith Camb. Brit. Scotl. p. 48. 10 In Scotland in the Countrey of Murray there is a River called Naes the water whereof is almost always warm and at no time so cold that it freezeth yea in the most cold time of winter broken ice falling into it is dissolved with the heat thereof Defcrip of Scotl. 11. Also in Galloway the Loch called Loch-Merton is of such a strang nature that the one half of it doth never freeze in the coldest winter Descrip. of Scotl. 12. In Lenox is a great Loch or Meer called Loch-Lowmond in length twenty four miles and eight in breadth wherein are three strang things First Excellent good Fish without any sins Secondly a floating Island whereon many Kine feed And thirdly Tempestuous waves rageing without winds yea in the greatest calms Desc. of Scotl. 13. There is a certain Island called Lounda in the Kingdom of Congo wherein is no fresh water being a very sandy ground but if you dig but the depth of two or three hand breadths you shall find sweet water the best in all those Countryes and which is most strang when the Ocean ebbeth this water grows brackish but when it flows to the top it is most sweet P. Pil. v. 2. p. 989. 14. Not far from Casbine the Regal City in Persia is a fountain of a strang and wonderful nature out of which there continually springeth and issueth a marvellous quantity of black Oil which serveth in all parts of Persia to burn in their houses and is usually carried all over the Countrey upon Kine and Asses whereof you may often meet three or four hundred in company P. Pil. v. 2. p. 1431. 15. About three days journey from old Balylon is a Town called Ait and neer unto that is a valley of pitch very marvellous to behold wherein are many Springs throwing out abundantly a kind of black substance like unto Tar and Pitch which serveth all the Country thereabout to staunch their barques and boats with every one of which springs makes a noise like to a Smith's Forge in puffing and blowing out the matter which never ceaseth day nor night and the noise is hard a mile off the Moors call it Hell-mouth P. Pil. v. p. 1437. 16. Clitumnus is a River in Italy which makes all the Oxen that drink of it white Fulk Meteor Lib. 4. 17. The River Melas in Boeotia makes all the Sheep that drink of it black
Plin. 18. The Fountain of Jupiter Hammon is cold in the day time and hot at midnight 19. The Fountain of the Sun hath its water extream cold and sweet at noon and boiling hot and bitter at midnight Plin. lib. 2. c. 103. Augustine 20. There is a River in Palestine called the Sabbatical River which runs with a violent and swift stream all the week but every Sabbath it remains dry Joseph de Bel. Jud. l. 7. c. 24. Some question the truth of this 21. In Idumaeâ— is a Fountain called the Fountain of Job which for one quarter of the year is troubled and muddy the next quarter bloody the third green and the fourth clear Isiod 22. The River Astaces in the Isle of Pontus uses sometimes to overflow the fields after which whatsoever sheep or milch-Cattle feed thereon give black milk Plin. l. 2. c. 103. 23. Furius Camillus being Censor in Rome the Lake Albanus being environed with Mountains on every side in the time of Autumn when other Lakes and Rivers were almost dry the waters of this Lake after a wondrous manner began to swell and rise upwards till at last they were equall with the tops of the Mountains and after a while they brake thorow one of those Mountains overflowing and bearing all down before them till they emptied themselves into the Sea Plut. 24. The River d ee in Merionneth-shire in Wales though it run through Pimble-Meer yet it remaineth intire and mingles not its streams with the waters of the Lake Cam. Brit. 25. Ana a River in Spain burieth it self in the earth and runneth under ground fifteen miles together whereupon the Spaniards brag that they have a bridg whereon ten thousand Catle feed dayly 26. Pliny tells us of a Fountain called Dodon which always decreaseth from midnight till noon and encreaseth from noon till midnight 27. He also tells us of certain Fountains in an Island neer Italy which always increase and decrease according to the ebbing and flowing of the Sea 28. Aristotle writeth of a Well in Sicilie whose water is so sharp that the Inhabitants use it instead of Vinegar 29. In Bohemia neer to the City of Bilen is a Well of such excellent water that the Inhabitants use to drink of it in a morning instead of burnt wine Dr. Fulk 30. In Paphlagonia is a Well which hath the taste of wine and it makes men drunk which drink of it whence Du-Bartas Salonian Fountain and thou Andrian Spring Out of what Cellars do you daily bring The oyl and wine that you abound with so O Earth do these within thine entrals grow c. 31. Aelian mentioneth a Fountain in Boeotia neer to Thebes which makes Horses run mad if they drink of it 32. Pliny mentioneth a water in Sclavonia which is extream cold and yet if a man throw his cloath cloak upon it it is presently set on fire 33. Other waters there are which discolour the fleeces of the sheep which drink of them whence Du-Bartas Cerona Xanth and Cephisus do make The thirsty flocks that of their waters take Black red and white And neer the crimson deep Th' Arabian Fountain maketh crimson sheep 34. And again What should I of th' Illyrian Fountain tell What shall I say of the Dodonean Well Whereof the first sets any cloathes on fire Th' other doth quench who but will this admire A burning Torch and when the same is quenched Lights it again if it again be drenched 35. In the Province of Dara in Lybia there is a certain River which sometimes so overfloweth the banks that it is like a sea yet in the Summer it is so shallow that any one may passe over it on foot If it overflow about the beginning of Aprill it brings great plenty to the whole region if not there follows great scarcity of Corn. Pur. Pil. v. 2. p. 823. 36. In the Kingdom of Tunis neer unto the City El-Hamma is a hot River which by diverse Channels is carried through the City the water of it being so hot that few can endure to go into it yet having set it to cool a whole day the people drink of it Idem p. 821. 37. In Africa there is a River called Margania and by it a salt spring which turns all the wood is thrown into it into hard stone Idem p. 1547. 38. The River Meander is famous for its six hundred windings and turnings in and out whence that of the Poet Quique recurvatis ludit Maeander in undis Maeander plays his watry pranks Within his crooked winding banks 39. Groenland in the Hyperborean Sea was discovered Anno Christi 1380. it hath in it the Monastery of St. Thomas situate in the North-East part thereof at the foot of a Mountain where there is a River so hot that they use to boil their meat in it and it serves for other such purposes as fire doth with us Isac Chron. p 275. 40 The river Hypanis in Scythia every day brings forth little bladders out of which come certain flies which are thus bred in the morning are fledge at noon and dye at night Fit Emblems of the vain and short life of Man 41 The famous River of Nilus in Egypt useth once in the year to overflow her banks whereby the whole Country is watered It usually beginneth to overflow upon the seventeenth of June and increaseth daily sometimes two sometimes three fingers and sometimes half a cubit high on a day The increase of it is known by a Pillar erected in a Cistern whereinto the water is conveyed by a Sluce which Pillar is divided into eighteen parts each a cubit higher than the other If the water reach no higher than to the fifteenth cubit they expect a fruitful year if it stay between the twelfth and fifteenth cubit the increase of that year will be but mean If it reach not to the twelfth it s a sign of scarcity If it rise to the eighteenth the scarcity will be greater in regard of too much moisture This River continueth forty dayes increasing and forty dayes decreasing Pur. Pil. v. 2. p. 838. 42. Another thing is wonderful which is this In the Grand Cairo which is the Metropolis of Egypt the Plague useth many times to be very violent till the River begins to overflow its banks at which time it doth instantly cease So that whereas five hundred a day dyed the day before not one doth die the day following Idem p. 897. 43. In the County of Devon not far from the Town of Lidford at a Bridg the River Lid is gathered into a strait and pent in between Rocks whereon it runneth down a main and the ground daily waxing deeper and deeper under it his water is not seen only a roaring noise is heard to the great wonder of those that pass by Camb. Brit. p. 199. 44. In Warwickshire at Nevenham Regis three fountains arise out of the ground strained through an Allom Mine the water whereof carrieth the colour and tast of Milk which
his hand if it stir not it produceth no effect but if it move it self never so little it so torments the body of him that holds it that his arteries joints sinews all his members feel exceeding great pain with a certain numness and as soon as he layeth it out of his hand all that pain and numness is gone also P. Pil. v. 2. p. 1183. See more of it afterwards 9. In Sofala are many River-horses as big as two of our horses with thick and short hinder legs having five clawes on each fore-foot and four on the hinder the mouth is wide and full of teeth four of which are above two spans long a peece the two lower stand upright the two upper are turned like a Boars tush they live in the water but feed on the land upon grass they have teats wherewith they nourish their young ones Their Hides are thicker than an Oxes they are all of an ash-colour Gray with white strakes on their faces or white Stars in their foreheads Idem p. 1544. 10. In the mouth of the River of Goa there was taken a fish of the bigness of a Cur-Dog with a snout like an Hog small eyes no ears but two holes in-stead thereof It had four feet like an Elephant the tail was flat but at the end round and somewhat sharp It snorted like a Hog the Body Head Tail and Legs were covered with broad Scals as hard as Iron so that no weapon could peirce them when he was beaten he would rowle himself round like an Urchin and could by no strength be opened till he opened of his own accord Idem p. 1774. 11. There are also Toad-Fishes of about a span long painted having fair Eyes when they are taken out of the water they snort and swell much their poison lies only in the skin and that being flaid off the Indians eat them Idem p. 1314. 12. The Cuttle-Fish hath a hood alwayes full of black water like Ink which when she is pursued by other fishes that would devour her she casts it forth which so darkens and foileth the water that she thereby escapeth Idem 13. There are a sort of fishes whose wonderful making magnifieth their Creator who for their safety hath given them fins which serve in-stead of wings they are of such a delicate skin interlaced with fine bones as may cause admiration in the beholder These fishes are like to Pilcherds only a little rounder and bigger they flye best with a side wind but longer than their wings are wet they cannot flye so that their longest flight is about a quarter of a mile The Dolphins and Bonitos do continually hunt after them to prey upon them whereupon for safety they take the air but then there is a Fowle called an Alcatrace much like a Hern which hovers in the air to seize upon them Incidit in Scyllam qui vult vitare Caribdim Out of the frying Pan into the fire as our Proverb hath it 14. There is often a strang fight in the Sea between the Whale and his enemies viz. The Swordfish and the Thresher The Swordfish is not great but strongly made and between his neck and shoulders he hath a bone like a Sword of about five inches broad and above three foot long full of prickles on either side The Thresher is a bigger fish whose tail is broad and thick and very weighty The fight is in this manner the Swordfish placeth himself under the belly of the Whale and the Thresher above with his tail thresheth upon the head of the Whale till he forceth him to give way which the Swordfish perceiving wounds him in the belly with the Sword and so forceth him to rise up again In this manner they torment him that the fight is sometimes heard above three leagues off the Whales roaring being heard much further his onely remedy in this case is to get to the shore which he laboureth to do as soon as he sees his enemies for then there can fight but one with him and for either of them hand to hand he is too good Pur. Pil. v. 4. p. 1377. 15. Mr. Herbert in his East-Indy voyage relates of a Shark taken by one of their men that was nine foot and an half in length and they found in her paunch fifty and five young ones each of them a foot in length all which go out and in at their pleasures She is armed with a double row of venemous teeth and is guided to her prey by a little Musculus or Pilot-fish that scuds to and fro to bring intelligence the Shark for his kindnesse suffering it to suck when it pleaseth 16. The Sea Tortoise is not much differing from those at land only her shell is flatter by overturning them they are easily taken being hereby dis-enabled either to sink or help themselves they taste waterish and cause Fluxes they superabound in eggs one of them having in her neer two thousand which eggs are pale and round and will never be made hard with boiling Herberts Travels p. 26. 17. In the Indian Sea is an Eagle-fish whose eyes are five quarters asunder from the end of one fin to the end of the other are above four yards Its mouth and teeth resemble a Portcullis it hath a long small tail and it is rather to be wondered at then to be eaten 18. In Le-Maires voyage about the world a certain fish or Sea monster with an horn struck against the ship with such violence that shook it whereupon the Master looking overboard saw the Sea all bloody but knew not what should be the cause till coming into Port-Desire where they cleansed and trimmed their ship they found seven foot under water a Horn sticking in the ship for bignesse and fashion like an Elephants tooth yet not hollow but all solid of hard bone which had pierced through three double planks and was entred into a rib of the ship it stuck about half a foot deep in the ship and by great force was broken off which caused that great monster to bleed so much as discoloured the water Pur. Pil. v. 1. p. 90. 19. The Mannaty is a strange fish resembling a Cow Her face is like a Buffalo's her eyes small and round having hard gums instead of teeth they feed much on the shore which makes them taste like flesh of veal their intrails differ little from a Cows their bodies are commonly three yards long and one broad they swim slowly wanting fins in the place whereof they have two things like paps which are their stilts when they creep on the shore to graze where they sleep long sucking in the cool aire they cannot keep under water above half an hour The stone generated in their head is most esteemed being soveraign against choller adust the stone collick and dissenteryes if beaten small infused in wine and drunk fasting Herb. Trav. p. 26. See more afterwards 20. The Carvel comes of the foam of the sea every where floating upon the surface of the
Ocean of a round form throwing abroad her strings like so many lines which she can spread at pleasure therewith angling for small fishes which she catches at leasure you may call her a Sea-Spider for when she sees her web too weak she can blow an infectious breath foaming death or such a sting as if she had borrowed it from a Scorpion Idem 21. In the East-Indies is a trade wind which they call a Briese or Monson which blows West all April May June July August and part of September and East the rest of the year Only on the East of Sumatra it blows five months East and five months West and the other two variable This is well known to our East-Indy Merchants 22. The Torpedo is a Fish like a Bream but somwhat thicker some Marriners having one of them in a net went to take it forth but one of them presently cryed out that he had lost the use of his hands and armes another that was bare-legged putting his foot to it lost the sence of his leg but after a while their feeling returned again whereupon calling their Cook they bade him to take and dresse it who laying both his hands thereon made grievous moan that he felt not his hands but when its dead it produceth no such effect but is good meat Pur. Pil. p. 1568. 23. About Jamica in the West-Indies is a Fish called a Manati which is of a strange shape and nature It brings forth her young ones alive and nourisheth them with Milk from her teats feeding upon grass in the fields but lives for the most part in the water the hinder-parts of it are like unto a Cow and it eats like veal Idem v. 3. p. 930. 24. In Brasile are Oxe-fishes which are very good meat For head hair skin cheeks and tongue they are like Oxen their eyes small with lids to open and shut which no other fish hath It breatheth and therefore cannot be long under water Instead of fore-feet it hath two arms of a cubit long with two round hands and on them five fingers close together with nails like a mans under these arms the female hath paps wherewith she nourisheth her young she brings forth but one at once It hath no fins but the tail which is also round and close their bones are all maffie and white like Ivory of this Fish they make great store of sweet Oil they feed most upon the land Idem v. 4. p. 1313. 25. In Sir Fran. Drakes voyage about the world when they came to the Island of Celebes which is wholly overgrown with wood amongst the Trees night by night they saw infinite swarms of fiery worms flying in the air their bodies no bigger than of our English Flyes which made such a shew and gave such a light as if every twig or tree had been a burning candle In which place also were great store of Bats as big as large Hens Pur. Pil. v. 1. p. 56. 26. In Captain Saris his voyage to Bantam about mid-night they fell into the strangest and fearfullest water that ever any of them had seen the water giving such a glaring light about the ship that they they could discern letters in a book thereby whereas a little before it was so dark that they could discern nothing This made them fear that it had been the breach of sunken ground But finding that they had failed half an hour in it and saw no alteration they perceived at length that it was a multitude of Cuttle-fish that made this fearful shew Pur. Pil. p. 352. CHAP. V. The wonderful works of God in the Creatures Of strange Fowls and Birds 1. IN one of the Scottish Islands there is a rare kind of Fowl unknown to other Countrys called Colca little lesse than a Goose They come thither every year in the spring hatch and nourish their young ones About which time they cast all their feathers and become stark naked all their bodies over and then they get themselves to the Sea and are no more seen till the next spring Their feathers have no quill as other feathers have but are all like unto Down wherein is no hardnesse Descr. of Scot. 2. In the North Seas of Scotland are great loggs of Timber found in which are ingendred after a marvellous manner a sort of Geese called Claik-geese and they do hang by the beak till they are grown to perfection and then they receive life and fall off they are many times found kept in admiration for their rare manner of Generation They are very fat and delicious to be eaten Idem Some question the truth hereof 3. Storks are so careful of their parents that when they grow old and so are unable to help themselves the young ones feed them and when in passing the Sea their wings fail them the young ones will take them on their backs and carry them over And this is remarkable about them 4. The Town of Delph in the Low-Countries is so seated for the breeding and feeding of those Birds that it is hard to see an house wherein they do not build In this Town upon the third of May Anno Christi 1536. a great fire happened when the young Storks were grown pretty big the old ones perceiving the fire to approach to their Nests attempted to carry away their young ones but could not they were so weighty which they perceiving never ceased with their spread wings to cover them till they all perished in the flames together Belg. Common Wealth p. 63. 5. In America there are certain small Birds called Viemalim with small and long bills that live upon the dew and of the juice of Flowers and roses like Bees their feathers are of very curious colours they dye or sleep every year in October sitting upon the bough of a Tree in a warm place and in Aprill following when the Flowers are sprung they awake again I have one of them 6. In the Arabian Deserts there are great store of Ostriches that go in flocks and often affright passengers that are strangers with their fearful schrâ—eches appearing a farr off like a Troop of horsmen Their bodies are too heavy to be born up by their wings which though uselesse for flight yet serve them to run with greater speed so that a swift Horse can scarce overtake them whatsoever they finde be it stones or iron they greedily swallow it down and concoct it when they have laid their eggs which are as big as a Culverin Bullet they forget where they left them and so return no more to them but they are hatched by the heat of the Sun in the warm sands hence those expressions Lam. 4. 3. The Daughter of my people is become cruel like the Ostriches in the wildernesse whereupon she is made the Embleme of folly Job 39. 14. c. She leaveth her eggs in the earth and warmeth them in the dust and forgets that the foot may crush them c. 7. In Brasile there is a little bird